Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New word-level and sentence-level confidence scoring using graph theory calculus and its evaluation on speech understanding

A lot of work has been devoted to the estimation of confidence measures for speech recognizers. In the quite extended case where a word-graph speech recognizer is in use, we will present new confidence measures employing the graph theory that shows us how to estimate some interesting characteristics about the different paths through the graph that constitute the recognition solutions, without the need of expanding them all. We will take advantage of some of these features to generate confidence scores both at the word and sentence level. We will also compare this new confidence scoring to more traditional ones and will find similar behavior with less computational load and with an increase in the simplicity of the approach that will lead to more generalization power of the confidence estimation to different applications of the recognizer.
Cell death induced by taxanes in breast cancer cells: cytochrome C is released in resistant but not in sensitive cells.

BACKGROUND The aim of the study was to contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the resistance of breast cancer cells to taxanes. MATERIALS AND METHODS Cell cycle characteristics, DNA fragmentation, p53 and p21(WAF1/CIP1) expression, caspase-3 and caspase-9 activity, cytochrome c release from mitochondria during cell death induction by the taxanes paclitaxel and docetaxel in highly-sensitive MDA-MB-435 and highly-resistant NCI-ADR-RES human breast cancer cells were compared. RESULTS Approximately 300-fold higher concentrations of the taxanes were required to induce death in resistant NCI-ADR-RES cells than in sensitive MDA-MB-435 cells. Cell death induced by the taxanes in both sensitive and resistant cells was preceded by the accumulation of cells in the G2/M-phase. Neither cell type produced any DNA fragmentation (DNA ladder) typical of regular apoptosis. The p53 and the p21(WAF1/CIP1) levels did not change in sensitive or in resistant cells during cell death induction by the taxanes. The activity of the executioner caspase-3 increased significantly (2 to 2.5-fold) and, similarly, the activity of caspase-9 increased significantly (2 to 3.5-fold) in both cell types. However, cytochrome c was found to be released from mitochondria into the cytosol only in the resistant NCI-ADR-RES cells, but not in the sensitive MDA-MB-435 cells. CONCLUSION The death induced by the taxanes in the studied breast cancer cells can be characterized as an apoptosis-like death, including caspase-3 and caspase-9 activation but not oligonucleosomal DNA fragmentation. However, the mechanisms of death induction by the taxanes in sensitive MDA-MB-435 cells and resistant NCI-ADR-RES cells differ. Cytochrome c is released from the mitochondria in resistant but not in sensitive cells.
A 0.79 pJ/K-Gate, 83% Efficient Unified Core and Voltage Regulator Architecture for Sub/Near-Threshold Operation in 130 nm CMOS

This paper presents the compute voltage regulator module (C-VRM), an architecture that embeds the information processing subsystem into the energy delivery subsystem for ultra-low power (ULP) platforms. The C-VRM employs multiple voltage domain stacking and core swapping to achieve high total system energy efficiency in near/sub-threshold region. Energy models for the C-VRM are derived, and employed in system simulations to compare the energy efficiency benefits of the C-VRM over a switched capacitor VRM (SC-VRM). A prototype IC incorporating a C-VRM and a SC-VRM supplying energy to an 8-tap fully folded FIR filter core is implemented in a 1.2 V, 130 nm CMOS process. Measured results indicate that the C-VRM has up to 44.8% savings in system-level energy per operation (Eop) compared to the SC-VRM system, and an efficiency η ranging from 79% to 83% over an output voltage range of 0.52 V to 0.6 V. Measured values of the Eop and η match those predicted by system simulations thereby validating the energy models.
Shear-aligned Graphene Oxide Laminate/Pebax Ultrathin Composite Hollow Fiber Membranes Using a Facile Dip-coating Approach

Graphene oxide (GO) has been considered as a promising candidate for molecular separation because of its capability to form highly efficient gas flow intergalleries. However, a major challenge is the lack of a facile, scalable, low-cost membrane fabrication approach, especially for the hollow fiber composite membrane with a thin selective layer. By using a facile dip-coating technique, we prepared a shear-aligned GO/Pebax composite hollow fiber membrane on a porous polymeric support. The incorporation of the aligned GO laminates significantly improved the original Pebax (polyethylene oxide–polyamide block copolymer) membrane permeance without compromising the CO2/N2 selectivity, and the composite membrane had good operational stability and enhanced mechanical strength. We further investigated the formation mechanism of the shear-aligned GO structure and discovered that the control of the withdrawal speed and liquid film thickness was a key factor. This dip-coating technique offers significant opportunities to exploit the GO-based membrane for industrial CO2 capture.
P1 plasmid replication: initiator sequestration is inadequate to explain control by initiator-binding sites

The unit-copy plasmid replicon mini-P1 consists of an origin, a gene for an initiator protein, RepA, and a control locus, incA. Both the origin and the incA locus contain repeat sequences that bind RepA. It has been proposed that the incA repeats control replication by sequestering the rate-limiting RepA initiator protein. Here we show that when the concentration of RepA was increased about fourfold beyond its normal physiological level from an inducible source in trans, the copy number of a plasmid carrying the P1 origin increased about eightfold. However, when the origin and a single copy of incA were present in the same plasmid, the copy number did not even double. The failure of an increased supply of RepA to overcome the inhibitory activity of incA is inconsistent with the hypothesis that incA inhibits replications solely by sequestering RepA. We propose that incA, in addition to sequestration, can also restrain replication by causing steric hindrance to the origin function. Our proposal is based on the observation that incA can bind to a RepA-origin complex in vitro.
Mitochondrial function in neuronal cells depends on p97/VCP/Cdc48-mediated quality control

Maintaining mitochondrial function is essential for neuronal survival and offers protection against neurodegeneration. Ubiquitin-mediated, proteasome-dependent protein degradation in the form of outer mitochondrial membrane associated degradation (OMMAD) was shown to play roles in maintenance of mitochondria on the level of proteostasis, but also mitophagy and cell death. Recently, the AAA-ATPase p97/VCP/Cdc48 was recognized as part of OMMAD acting as retrotranslocase of ubiquitinated mitochondrial proteins for proteasomal degradation. Thus, p97 likely plays a major role in mitochondrial maintenance. Support for this notion comes from mitochondrial dysfunction associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and hereditary inclusion body myopathy associated with Paget disease of bone and frontotemporal dementia (IBMPFD) caused by p97 mutation. Using SH-SY5Y cells stably expressing p97 or dominant-negative p97QQ treated with mitochondrial toxins rotenone, 6-OHDA, or Aβ-peptide as model for neuronal cells suffering from mitochondrial dysfunction, we found mitochondrial fragmentation under normal and stress conditions was significantly increased upon inactivation of p97. Furthermore, inactivation of p97 resulted in loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Under additional stress conditions, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and increased ROS production was even more pronounced. Loss of mitochondrial fidelity upon inactivation of p97 was likely due to disturbed maintenance of mitochondrial proteostasis as the employed treatments neither induced mitophagy nor cell death. This was supported by the accumulation of oxidatively-damaged proteins on mitochondria in response to p97 inactivation. Dysfunction of p97 under normal and stress conditions in neuron-like cells severely impacts mitochondrial function, thus supporting for the first time a role for p97 as a major component of mitochondrial proteostasis.
X-Conference: Reinventing a Teleconferencing System

In looking forward to more natural telecollaboration, we can anticipate that the teleconferencing system of the future will enable participants at distant locations to share the same virtual space. The visual object of each participant can be transmitted to the other sites and be rendered from an individual perspective. This thesis presents an effort, X-Conference, to reinvent a teleconferencing system toward the concept of "3-D Virtual Teleconferencing. " Several aspects are explored. A multiple-camera calibration approach is implemented and is employed to effectively blend the real view and the virtual view. An individualized 3-D head object is built semi-automatically by mapping the real texture to the globally modified generic model. Head motion parameters are extracted from tracking artificial and/or facial features. Without using the articulation model, facial animation is partially achieved by using texture displacement. UDP/IP multicast and TCP/IP unicast are both utilized to implement the networking scheme. Thesis Supervisor: Dr. V. Michael Bove, Jr. Title: Principal Research Scientist, MIT Media Laboratory
Congenitally caused fused labia in the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus)

Abstract: In this paper, the occurrence of an external genital abnormality in female marmoset monkeys (fused labia) is discussed. This malformation was detected, for the first time, in a group of animals at the German Primate Center (GPC), Goettingen. The malformed vulva was completely sealed except for an opening of 1.5–2.5 mm around the urethra sufficient for urination. Because of this defect the animals were not able to copulate. As a consequence, the affected females were functionally infertile although they had a normal genital tract and a regular cycle. This vulvar abnormality was found in 12 females, offspring of 10 pairs in which either one or both came to the German Primate Center from two genetically related colonies in Munich, Germany, and one colony in Basel, Switzerland. The abnormality appeared to be recessive and inheritable from either parent. In pairs in which both animals were from one of the mentioned colonies, 45% of the female offspring were affected. In pairs where only one partner came from these colonies, 26% of female offspring had the malformation. These results indicate that avoidance of inbreeding, which is frequently performed in primate colonies, may reduce, but not eliminate the expression of abnormalities of genetic origin. Therefore selective breeding is required, and, in colonies where these recessive mutations are widespread, the development of genetic screening tests would be advantageous.
Neural and perceptual signatures of efficient sensory coding

The mammalian brain is a metabolically expensive device, and evolutionary pressures have presumably driven it to make productive use of its resources. For sensory areas, this concept has been expressed more formally as an optimality principle: the brain maximizes the information that is encoded about relevant sensory variables, given available resources. Here, we develop this efficiency principle for encoding a sensory variable with a heterogeneous population of noisy neurons, each responding to a particular range of values. The accuracy with which the population represents any particular value depends on the number of cells that respond to that value, their selectivity, and their response levels. We derive the optimal solution for these parameters in closed form, as a function of the probability of stimulus values encountered in the environment. This optimal neural population also imposes limitations on the ability of the organism to discriminate different values of the encoded variable. As a result, we predict an explicit relationship between the statistical properties of the environment, the allocation and selectivity of neurons within populations, and perceptual discriminability. We test this relationship for three visual and two auditory attributes, and find that it is remarkably consistent with existing data.
Characterization of the c-Jun N-Terminal Kinase-BimEL Signaling Pathway in Neuronal Apoptosis

The c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling pathway plays a critical role in mediating apoptosis in the nervous system; however, the mechanisms by which JNK triggers neuronal apoptosis remain incompletely understood. Recent studies suggest that in addition to inducing transcription of pro-apoptotic genes, JNK also directly activates the cell death machinery. Here, we report that JNK catalyzed the phosphorylation of the BH3-only protein Bcl-2 interacting mediator of cell death (BimEL) at serine 65, both in vitro and in vivo. The JNK-induced phosphorylation of BimEL at serine 65 promoted the apoptotic effect of BimEL in primary cerebellar granule neurons. We also characterized the role of the JNK-BimEL signaling pathway in apoptosis that was triggered by overexpression of the p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR). We found that activation of p75NTR induced the JNK-dependent phosphorylation of endogenous BimEL at serine 65 in cells. The genetic knockdown of BimEL by RNA interference or the expression of a dominant interfering form of BimEL significantly impaired the ability of activated p75NTR to induce apoptosis. Together, these results suggest that JNK-induced phosphorylation of BimEL at serine 65 mediates p75NTR-induced apoptosis. Our findings define a novel mechanism by which a death-receptor pathway directly activates the mitochondrial apoptotic machinery.
A morphological analyser for machine translation based on finite-state transducers

A finite-state, rule-based morphological analyser is presented here, within the framework of machine translation system TAVAL. This morphological analyser introduces specific features which are particularly useful for translation, such as the detection and morphological tagging of word groups that act as a single lexical unit for translation purposes. The case where words in one such group are not strictly contiguous is also covered. A brief description of the Spanish-to-Catalan and Catalan-to-Spanish translation system TAVAL is given in the paper.
Low-pass cascade filters with high attenuation rate in the stopband

In this paper, we present two biquadratic structures for cascade filter design, which are intended to provide high attenuation rate in the stopband area of frequency transfer characteristic. The filters optimized in this way can reach better electrical performances, such as higher maximal cut-off frequency or dynamic range, even with conventional (low power consumption) active devices. We present a modification of the well-known Sallen-Key filter and a biquadratic filter based on the second generation current conveyor CCII-. Presented approach relies on the elimination of parasitic transfer zeros in the real transfer function, which are caused by the non-ideal parameters of real active elements. Their impact is eliminated by unconventional definition of the filter output.
Sydney OWL Syntax - towards a Controlled Natural Language Syntax for OWL 1.1

This paper describes a proposed new syntax that can be used to write and read OWL ontologies in Controlled Natural Language (CNL): a well-defined subset of the English language. Following the lead of Manchester OWL Syntax in making OWL more accessible for non-logicians, and building on the previous success of Schwitter’s PENG (Processable English), the proposed Sydney OWL Syntax enables two-way translation and generation of grammatically correct full English sentences to and from OWL 1.1 functional syntax. Used in conjunction with OWL tools, it is designed to facilitate ontology construction and editing by enabling authors to write an OWL ontology in a defined subset of English. It also improves readability and understanding of OWL statements or whole ontologies, by enabling them to be read as English sentences. It is hoped that by providing the option of an intuitive, easy to use English syntax which requires no specialized knowledge, the broader community will be far more likely to develop and benefit from Semantic Web applications. This paper is a discussion paper covering the scope, design, and examples of Sydney OWL Syntax in use, and the authors invite feedback on all aspects of the proposal via email to krr.sydneysyntax@cse.unsw. edu.au. Working drafts of the full specification are available at http://www.ics. mq.edu.au/~rolfs/sos.
Theoretical Modeling and Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Atomic Scale Wear: A Combined Study

In this dissertation work, I have developed an analytical theory and performed molecular dynamics simulations of atom-by-atom wear that arises during sliding contact between a nanoscale asperity and a surface. The “multi-bond” theoretical wear model treats interfacial bond formation, wear-less rupture and transfer of atoms as three competing thermally activated processes. It is numerically implemented and asymptotic analysis is performed on its predictions. Numerical and asymptotic theoretical calculations are compared to experimental atomic force microscope measurements in the literature and those performed by research collaborators. I have also simulated wear in passivated diamond-like carbon using molecular dynamics techniques and have analyzed these data in light of the “multi-bond” wear theory. First Reader: Michael L. Falk Second Reader: Mark O. Robbins
Architectures of millimeter wave RF subsystems for 5G applications and their characteristics

This paper presents the architectures of millimeter waves (mmW) RF subsystems under development by NTU and NCSIST joint team for the 5G applications. Based on the application scenario and link budget estimation, the specification of RF subsystem is defined, which has eight I/O ports to excite the antenna arrays. The concepts of beam switching links and multi-beam sector coverage are separately implemented to investigate their characteristics in the radio propagation. The target of system design aims to achieve 1GHz frequency bandwidth for 3~5 Gbps data rate in a coverage area of 50m. Characteristics of RF components will be presented with a taped system demonstration in the conference presentation.
Numerical analysis of temperature distribution of cold cylindrical metal subjected to machining

The paper presents a model based on the fact that some materials (alloys and metal precisely) have some temperature ranges at which the nature and microstructure of the material changes affect the mechanical properties of the materials. The model provides a mathematical relation between the temperature of the material at a specific time and the speed of rotation of the material if it was to be turned in a turning operation. The work is based on the theories of complex applied potential, heat conduction equation, the kinetic energy equation, and heat energy equation. The results obtained show that damages and de-struction can be caused to the microstructure of the mate-rial if the speed of cut is not controlled due to lack of knowledge of the specific heat capacity of the material. The model can be used to check the extent of damage done on the material. The model is limited to a steady heat con-duction process, a material that is homogeneous, and a turning operation where there is no wobbling occurring. The model may not apply to engineering materials with heterogeneous microstructure, and a machining process that does not involve the rotation of the work piece. How-ever, the model would assist metallurgists, machine opera-tors, and design/manufacturing engineers in producing products with unaltered mechanical properties. The work is a new mathematical relation that provides an additional information for manufacturing industries on how to avert alteration or changes in the mechanical properties of mate-rials that are being turned down and in similar operations.
Iterative data detection and pilot symbol assisted-channel estimation for single-parity check-product coded multiple antennas system

Maximum a posteriori (MAP) based iterative data detection and pilot symbol assisted channel estimation of the single parity check product coded multiple antenna wireless communication system is discussed. In iterative data-detection and channel-estimation algorithms, the channel estimator and the data detector recursively exchange the information order to improve the system performance. The work in this paper uses the single-parity-check code (SPC) as component code, parallel concatenated, of product code (PC). The SPC-PC codes are high-rate codes when reasonable block lengths are used. They are simple in both encoding and decoding, and are shown to produce good performance while decoded iteratively. By taking the output of the SPC-PC encoder into two defined-interleavers and transmitting through multiple transmit antennas, will provide space and time diversity in the system. This scheme would be BLAST-like system. Pilot-symbol aided channel estimation is used to measure the channel impulse response. Following the iteration of the decoding process, the channel impulse response will be updated by employing the extrinsic information output of the decoder. The convergence of this channel impulse response update will investigate.
Anandamide inhibits breast tumor-induced angiogenesis

Breast cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed malignancies and a leading cause of cancer death in women. Great advances in the treatment of primary tumors have led to a significant increment in the overall survival rates, however recurrence and metastatic disease, the underlying cause of death, are still a medical challenge. Breast cancer is highly dependent on neovascularization to progress. In the last years several anti-angiogenic drugs have been developed and administered to patients in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs. Collected preclinical evidence has proposed the endocannabinoid system as a potential target in cancer. The endocannabinoid anandamide has been reported to affect breast cancer growth at multiple levels, by inhibiting proliferation, migration and invasiveness in vitro and in vivo and by directly inhibiting angiogenesis. Aim of the present work is to investigate if anandamide is able to affect the proangiogenic phenotype of the highly invasive and metastatic breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231. We found that following anandamide treatment, MDAMB-231 cells lose their ability to stimulate endothelial cells proliferation in vitro, due to a significant inhibition of all the pro-angiogenic factors produced by these cells. This finding adds another piece of evidence to the anti-tumor efficacy of anandamide in breast cancer.
Evaluation of GW approximation for the self-energy of a Hubbard cluster.

We evaluate several approximations for the self-energy operator and dielectric function of systems of interacting electrons using a two-dimensional Hubbard cluster for which the self-energy, dielectric function, and one-particle Green's function may be calculated exactly. The results show the GW approximation (in the form in which it is commonly used in ab initio calculations for real materials) to be relatively successful in establishing the main features of the spectrum, even when the electron-electron interaction is not weak. It is also clear that improving the G andW used in this approximation without including vertex corrections in the self-energy does not lead to major improvements.