Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of phoneme-based features for language identification

This paper presents an analysis of the phonemic language identification system introduced previously (see Eurospeech, vol.2, p.1307, 1993), now extended to recognize German in addition to English and Japanese. In this system language identification is based on features derived from a superset of phonemes of all three languages. As we increase the number of languages, the need to reduce the feature space becomes apparent. Practical analysis of single-feature statistics in conjunction with linguistic knowledge leads to 90% reduction of the feature space with only a 5% loss in performance. Thus, the system discriminates between Japanese and English with 84.1% accuracy based on only 15 features compared to 84.6% based on the complete set of 318 phonemic features (or 83.6% using 333 broad-category features). Results indicate that a language identification system may be designed based on linguistic knowledge and then implemented with a neural network of appropriate complexity. <<ETX>>
Seroprevalence and Risk Factors of Chlamydia abortus Infection in Tibetan Sheep in Gansu Province, Northwest China

Chlamydia abortus, an important pathogen in a variety of animals, is associated with abortion in sheep. In the present study, 1732 blood samples, collected from Tibetan sheep between June 2013 and April 2014, were examined by the indirect hemagglutination (IHA) test, aiming to evaluate the seroprevalence and risk factors of C. abortus infection in Tibetan sheep. 323 of 1732 (18.65%) samples were seropositive for C. abortus antibodies at the cut-off of 1 : 16. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the risk factors associated with seroprevalence, which could provide foundation to prevent and control C. abortus infection in Tibetan sheep. Gender of Tibetan sheep was left out of the final model because it is not significant in the logistic regression analysis (P > 0.05). Region, season, and age were considered as major risk factors associated with C. abortus infection in Tibetan sheep. Our study revealed a widespread and high prevalence of C. abortus infection in Tibetan sheep in Gansu province, northwest China, with higher exposure risk in different seasons and ages and distinct geographical distribution.
Detection of respiratory viruses and the associated chemokine responses in serious acute respiratory illness

Background A specific diagnosis of a lower respiratory viral infection is often difficult despite frequent clinical suspicion. This low diagnostic yield may be improved by use of sensitive detection methods and biomarkers. Methods The prevalence, clinical predictors and inflammatory mediator profile of respiratory viral infection in serious acute respiratory illness were investigated. Sequential bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids from all patients hospitalised with acute respiratory illness over 12 months (n=283) were tested for the presence of 17 respiratory viruses by multiplex PCR assay and for newly discovered respiratory viruses (bocavirus, WU and KI polyomaviruses) by single-target PCR. BAL samples also underwent conventional testing (direct immunoflorescence and viral culture) for respiratory virus at the clinician's discretion. 27 inflammatory mediators were measured in a subset of the patients (n=64) using a multiplex immunoassay. Results 39 respiratory viruses were detected in 37 (13.1% of total) patients by molecular testing, including rhinovirus (n=13), influenza virus (n=8), respiratory syncytial virus (n=6), human metapneumovirus (n=3), coronavirus NL63 (n=2), parainfluenza virus (n=2), adenovirus (n=1) and newly discovered viruses (n=4). Molecular methods were 3.8-fold more sensitive than conventional methods. Clinical characteristics alone were insufficient to separate patients with and without respiratory virus. The presence of respiratory virus was associated with increased levels of interferon γ-inducible protein 10 (IP-10) (p<0.001) and eotaxin-1 (p=0.017) in BAL. Conclusions Respiratory viruses can be found in patients with serious acute respiratory illness by use of PCR assays more frequently than previously appreciated. IP-10 may be a useful biomarker for respiratory viral infection.
The Impact of Legal Challenges to Affirmative Action on Educational Choice.

THE IMPACT OF LEGAL CHALLENGES TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION ON EDUCATIONAL CHOICE by Rodney J. Andrews Co-Chairs: Kerwin K. Charles and Sheldon H. Danziger The first chapter of the dissertation explores the impact of the United State’s Supreme Court’s 2003 decisions in Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger on applications and admissions at an elite public university. The decisions proscribed the use of point systems; however, they permitted the use of race in a holistic review. I find that the size of the applicant pool declined and that the academic quality of applicants and admits increased. I find no evidence that the conditional probability of admissions declined for black applicants or that the advantage that white applicants with relatively low selection index scores held over Asian applicants with similar scores declined. The second chapter examines the impacts of both Texas’s Top Ten Percent Rule (TTTPR) and targeted recruitment programs on the score report sending behavior of SAT test-takers in Texas. Texas’s Top Ten Percent Rule guarantees admission to any public college in Texas to high school graduates who finish in the top decile. Using SAT data and Texas High School data, I examine the score report sending behavior of SAT takers by self-reported class rank. I find that TTTPR affects score report sending behavior and that the effects vary with self-reported rank. I find that the targeted financial aid program instituted by the University of Texas was successful in attracting score reports, a proxy for applications, from targeted high schools; the program instituted by Texas A&M-College Station was not as successful. The third chapter examines the effects of the implementation of Texas’s Top Ten Percent Rule on the rate at which graduates from Texas’s high school attempt an admissions examination, a proxy for applying to a more selective college. Using high school level data from the Academic Excellence Indicator System, I find a decrease in the percentage of graduates who attempt an admissions examination and that the decrease is larger at schools that had student bodies with socioeconomically disadvantaged students or high schools with student bodies that had a high percentage of Hispanic Students.
IRIS: Implementing an Open Environment supporting Inclusive Design of Internet Applications

The paper presents the architecture and implementation of the IRIS Design Support Environment (DSE). This environment supports designers to create inclusive Internet content and applications. It is based upon the results from a wide range of work from accessibility, usability, user modelling, and content design and adaptation. It is also in itself highly accessible and usable, capable of being used by designers with special needs. The IRIS DSE is Internet-based, builds on open source frameworks and its modular components are integrated with Web services technology. The implementation has been done using emergent technologies, while adhering to relevant specifications for Web accessibility.
Models for Estimating Depreciation in Plants, Machinery, and Equipment: Analysis and Proposals

This article presents a novel application of the discounted cash flow (DCF) method for assessing percent good factors for secondhand items of machinery and equipment. The process is grounded in the principle of highest and best use and accounts for such factors as the salvage value of equipment and associated property as well as income taxes without requiring cash flow forecasts of the income obtainable from using the equipment.Application of the suggested DCF method to machinery and equipment valuation offers solutions to the following issues, which are elaborated in the article:1. Formalizing general patterns of change in the value of aging equipment;2. Recognizing inconsistencies in tabular and analytical methods for determining percent good factors for property tax assessment;3. Developing new analytical models which consistently describe the dependency of percent good factors on the age of equipment and are practical for the development of property tax assessment depreciation schedules;4. Determining percent good factors for equipment aged beyond its useful economic life.The most pertinent results may be achieved from this proposed method when the equipment depreciation process is treated in a continuous time formulation.
A NEW KIND OF SOLUTION , AND AN APPLICATION TO RECURRENCE RELATIONS

In this essay, I philosophize about the meaning of “solution” in mathematics, and apply this philosophy to generalize recurrence relations. A complexity theoretic result is proved about recurrence relations. 1. The evolution of solution Throughout the history of mathematics, a central goal of its practioners has been to find simple expressions for solutions to equations. Although there is no rigorous definition of “simple expression”, mathematicians have nonetheless spent enormous amounts of effort seeking solutions to their analytical problems that satisfy their aesthetic of simplicity. This aesthetic has evolved over time. In antiquity, “simple” meant rational : the ancient Greeks conducted a (misguided) search for two integers a and b such (a/b) = 2. Later, “simple” meant having an algebraic expression, which involve only addition, multiplication, and nth-roots. For centuries, mathematicians sought the elusive quintic formula, an algebraic expression for the roots of a degree 5 polynomial. One of the greatest triumphs of mathematics was Galois’s discovery that there is no such expression, that in general polynomials are too complex to be subject to easy solution. More recently, “simple” has been equated with closed form expressions, which has a rather nebulous definition. Generally, closed form expressions are composed of so-called “elementary” operations: the usual arithmetic operations, radicals, exponentiation and logarithms (and thus trigonometric functions are included). The three-body problem is an iconic example of a system of equations resisting all attempts to find a closed form solution. The problem statement is simple: given the initial state (positions and velocities) of 3 point masses experiencing mutual gravitational attraction, determine their state at a later time. The three-body problem has notoriously consumed mathematicians of the likes of Newton, Lagrange, Euler, Hilbert, Poincaré. Their efforts have led to a bountiful harvest in terms of a deeper understanding of analysis and dynamical systems, but the holy grail the closed form solution to the three-body problem remains out of reach. Indeed, a closed form solution is probably too much to hope for. As our mathematical understanding advances, so does the reach of “simple”. Each form of simplicity, whether it meant rational, or algebraic, or closed-form, is a reflection of what mathematicians considered amenable to computation at the time. The Greeks abhorred the irrationality of √ 2, because it meant that geometrical computations would fail to be exact. Before calculus, non-algebraic expressions for roots of polynomials was anathema to mathematicians. Without the use of high speed computers, calculating the precise trajectory of three heavenly objects seemed intractable.
TACHIR: A Tool for Automatic Construction of Hypertexts for Information Retrieval

The paper describes the design and implementation of TACHIR, a prototype tool for the automatic construction of hypertexts for Information Retrieval. TACHIR builds up automatically an IR hypertext, a hypertext to be used for information retrieval, from a document collection, using a methodology that makes use of a set of well known Information Retrieval techniques. The structure of the IR hypertext reflects a three levels conceptual model, where it is possible to navigate among documents, index terms, and concepts using dynamically determined links. The prototype tool is implemented on top of the Mosaic interface for World Wide Web, and the structure of the hypertext is specified using the hypertext markup language (HTML).
Identification and Characterization of MicroRNAs in Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) by Using Solexa Sequencing Technology

Channel catfish (Ictalurus spp.) is an economically important species in freshwater aquaculture around the world and occupies a prominent position in the aquaculture industry of the United States. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in the regulation of almost every biological process in eukaryotes; however, there is little information available concerning miRNAs in channel catfish. In this study, a small-RNA cDNA library was constructed from 10 tissues of channel catfish, and Solexa sequencing technology was used to perform high-throughput sequencing of the library. A total of 14,919,026 raw reads, representing 161,288 unique sequences, were obtained from the small-cDNA library. After comparing the small RNA sequences with the RFam database, 4,542,396 reads that represent 25,538 unique sequences were mapped to the genome sequence of zebrafish to perform distribution analysis and to screen for candidate miRNA genes. Subsequent bioinformatic analysis identified 237 conserved miRNAs and 45 novel miRNAs in the channel catfish. Stem-loop RT-PCR was applied to validate and profile the expression of the novel miRNAs in 10 tissues. Some novel miRNAs, such as ipu-miR-129b, ipu-miR-7562 and ipu-miR-7553, were expressed in all tissues examined. However, some novel miRNAs appear to be tissue specific. Ipu-miR-7575 is predominantly expressed in stomach. Ipu-miR-7147 and ipu-miR-203c are highly expressed in heart, but are relatively weakly expressed in other tissues. Based on sequence complementarity between miRNAs and mRNA targets, potential target sequences for the 45 novel miRNAs were identified by searching for antisense hits in the reference RNA sequences of the channel catfish. These potential target sequences are involved in immune regulation, transcriptional regulation, metabolism and many other biological functions. The discovery of miRNAs in the channel catfish genome by this study contributes to a better understanding of the role miRNAs play in regulating diverse biological processes in fish and vertebrates.
End-to-end delay analysis of Wireless Mesh Backbone Network in a smart grid

In smart grids, the critical packets generated by an Electrical Device (ED) at the customer site must be communicated to a control station with minimal delay so that corrective measures, if required, can be initiated quickly at the site. This paper presents the modelling of Wireless Mesh Backbone Network (WMBN) to which customer sites are connected in a smart grid. The WMBN is comprised of Mesh Routers (MRs) that are connected wirelessly to provide an end-to-end path within the network. An analytical model is presented that takes into account Voronoi tessellation for selecting the shortest path for transmissions in this network. Each MR is equipped with a Straight-Line Path Routing (SLPR) algorithm that provides MR traversing packets with a sequence of cells to reach the identified gateway within WMBN. The long link distances between routers are subject to attenuation and communication challenges. An optimum solution to transmit critical packets with minimal delay to the identified gateway is also given. Upper and lower bounds on achievable minimal delay are derived for a Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) mode in terms of: i) signal-to-noise ratio, ii) number of channels, iii) number of hops, iv) distance, v) channel interference, and vi) interference range. Results show that in the worst-case critical packets can be delivered to their destinations in less than 4 ms, which meets the standard requirement of a smart grid.
The Output Tracking Control of a Nonlinear Non-Minimum Phase System

In this paper, we study the tracking control problem for a nonlinear system in which the zero dynamics may be unstable. The objective here is to approximate the nonlinear system by another singularly perturbed system by using a small singular perturbation parameter  . The proposed approach is based on the methodology of exact input output linearization control, the integrator backstepping approach and the theory of singularly perturbed systems. The performance of the suggested approach is evaluated in an illustrative inverted cart-pendulum example. Keywords—Non minimum phase system, integrator backstepping approach, input output linearization, singular perturbed system, tracking control.
Pattern recognition of business failure by autoassociative neural networks in considering the missing values

The traditional prediction models of business failure are usually constructed upon the research sample without missing values, that is, the training and testing procedure of the prediction model are not able to be completed if some observations of the relevant variables are missing. This study solves this problem by applying for the data imputation technique of which the autoassociative neural networks and genetic algorithm are consolidated in estimating the missing values. The sample in this study includes 884 Chinese companies listed in Shanghai or Shenzhen stock exchange market during 1996 to 2005, in which sample contains 268 financial distress companies and 616 health companies. There are 38 financial variables and 4 macroeconomics variables used in the model to predict the failure. Sixty percentages of the observations are randomly selected as the training sample, and then the testing sample after randomly deleting 1 to 20 independent variables is further tested. The empirical results show that the average accuracy rate will reach around 78% if number of variables with missing value is controlled by 10 variables. Thus, the proposed AANNGA model is feasible for predicting the business failure in considering the missing values.
A Course on Programming and Problem Solving

At its core, Computer Science is the study of algorithmic problem solving. Although it is necessary to teach programming, data structures, computer organization, etc., students should ultimately learn to use these things to solve problems, understand what is good and bad about their solutions, and share their solutions with others. This paper describes a course that focuses on the four steps of the problem solving process: algorithmic thinking, implementation, analysis, and communication. This course, based on Knuth's popular seminar at Stanford, has been extremely successful at the authors' three institutions. In addition to discussing the course's objectives and methodology, we present sample problems, summarize the outcomes and feedback from students, and give advice to other educators looking to create a similar course.
Essays on Monetary Policy, Monetary Transmission and Inflation of Indonesia using General Equilibrium Model

Essays on Monetary Policy, Monetary Transmission and Inflation of Indonesia using General Equilibrium Model Akhis Reynold Hutabarat The first essay attempts to explain how the economy responds to transient exogenous exchange rate and cost-push shocks using a small open economy New Keynesian dynamic general equilibrium model that incorporates prices and wage stickiness and cost channel of interest rate to inflation. The model shows that a low degree of prices and wage rigidity, high reliance on imports and inflation-biased monetary policy, increases exchange rate pass-through to domestic and consumer prices. The model demonstrates that the transient nature of cost-push shock, combined with rational expectation behaviour of price setter and full policy credibility, does not require the monetary authority in developing economy to respond to the shock by tightening monetary policy. The second essay investigates the relative importance of monetary transmission channel to inflation of passing persistent shock to the risk premium. The findings show that nominal exchange rate depreciation, triggered by a more persistent shock to interest risk premium, worsens the state of the economy in the shortand long-run. Such distinctive shocks effect is transmitted through the economy that typifies lack of response of consumer price disinflation to interest rate tightening caused by high real rigidity, strong cost channel of interest rate, strong cost channel of exchange rate pass-through and weak demand-side channel of exchange rate pass-through. The final essay analyses Indonesia‘s inflation determinant using a model that links banking to real sector, central bank and government. It explores interest rate cost-push channel in terms of cost of equity and cost of borrowing, enhances the previous findings about the lack of response of disinflation to interest rate policy tightening and discusses the nexus between monetary and banking policy. The strong interest rate cost channel has some implications for the behaviour of and policy for banking related to the achievement of the inflation target.
Effortless Data Exploration with zenvisage: An Expressive and Interactive Visual Analytics System

Data visualization is by far the most commonly used mechanism to explore data, especially by novice data analysts and data scientists. And yet, current visual analytics tools are rather limited in their ability to guide data scientists to interesting or desired visualizations: the process of visual data exploration remains cumbersome and time-consuming. We propose zenvisage, a platform for effortlessly visualizing interesting patterns, trends, or insights from large datasets. We describe zenvisage's general purpose visual query language, ZQL ("zee-quel") for specifying the desired visual trend, pattern, or insight - ZQL draws from use-cases in a variety of domains, including biology, mechanical engineering, climate science, and commerce. We formalize the expressiveness of ZQL via a visual exploration algebra, and demonstrate that ZQL is at least as expressive as that algebra. While analysts are free to use ZQL directly, we also expose ZQL via a visual specification interface that we describe in this paper. We then describe our architecture and optimizations, preliminary experiments in supporting and optimizing for ZQL queries in our initial zenvisage prototype, and a user study to evaluate whether data scientists are able to effectively use zenvisage for real applications.
NRFL-1, the C. elegans NHERF Orthologue, Interacts with Amino Acid Transporter 6 (AAT-6) for Age-Dependent Maintenance of AAT-6 on the Membrane

The NHERF (Na+/H+ exchanger regulatory factor) family has been proposed to play a key role in regulating transmembrane protein localization and retention at the plasma membrane. Due to the high homology between the family members, potential functional compensations have been a concern in sorting out the function of individual NHERF numbers. Here, we studied C. elegans NRFL-1 (C01F6.6) (nherf-like protein 1), the sole C. elegans orthologue of the NHERF family, which makes worm a model with low genetic redundancy of NHERF homologues. Integrating bioinformatic knowledge of C. elegans proteins into yeast two-hybrid scheme, we identified NRFL-1 as an interactor of AAT-6, a member of the C. elegans AAT (amino acid transporter) family. A combination of GST pull-down assay, localization study, and co-immunoprecipitation confirmed the binding and characterized the PDZ interaction. AAT-6 localizes to the luminal membrane even in the absence of NRFL-1 when the worm is up to four-day old. A fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) analysis suggested that NRFL-1 immobilizes AAT-6 at the luminal membrane. When the nrfl-1 deficient worm is six-day or older, in contrast, the membranous localization of AAT-6 is not observed, whereas AAT-6 tightly localizes to the membrane in worms with NRFL-1. Sorting out the in vivo functions of the C. elegans NHERF protein, we found that NRFL-1, a PDZ-interactor of AAT-6, is responsible for the immobilization and the age-dependent maintenance of AAT-6 on the intestinal luminal membrane.