Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Temporal confusion network for speech-based soccer event retrieval

This paper introduces temporal confusion network and its application for speech-based soccer event retrieval, where an event is remarked by the announcer's spoken words. A temporal confusion network is a confusion network in which each cluster is marked with temporal information. Since the purpose of soccer event retrieval is to retrieve only the interesting highlights - not the whole video clip, temporal information is crucial in tracking them. By expanding the indexing model from 1-best transcriptions to temporal confusion networks, recall rates for event retrieval can be improved. Experiments are conducted on the first round of World Cup 2010 and the Vietnamese AFF Suzuki-cup 2008 databases. In the best case, an average improvement of 7.1% recall rate is achieved.
Interacting with reflections in virtual environments

Immersive virtual environments require input devices that complement and bolster natural interaction with the virtual content. Such an input device, in addition to it needing to be wireless, should be able to affect multiple degrees of freedom. Computer vision presents a means of creating such a device. However conventional computer vision solutions to 3D tend to be complicated and expensive or inaccurate. We present a single camera approach, "Reflections", which presents a simple and inexpensive way of implementing a three, and more, degree of freedom wireless interaction and tracking device having suitable accuracy. We consider advantages and limitations of this method. We also discuss it's implementation in two applications; firstly a virtual drums application and secondly a virtual reality application, Ndebele painting.
Processing range-monitoring queries on heterogeneous mobile objects

We consider in this paper how to leverage heterogeneous mobile computing capability for efficient processing of real-time range-monitoring queries. In our environment, each mobile object is associated with a resident domain and when an object moves, it monitors its spatial relationship with its resident domain and the monitoring areas inside it. An object reports its location to server whenever its movement affects any query results (i.e., crossing any query boundaries) or it moves out of its resident domain. In the first case, the server updates the affected query results accordingly while in the second case, the server determines a new resident domain for the object. This distributive approach is able to provide accurate query results and real-time monitoring updates with minimal location update and server processing costs. In addition, the new scheme allows a mobile object to negotiate a resident domain based on its computing capability. Thus, a more capable object can have a larger resident domain reducing its chance of having to request a new resident domain because of moving out of it. This feature makes the new approach highly adaptive to the heterogeneity of mobile objects. In our performance study, we compare it with an existing approach using simulation. The study shows that the new technique is many times better in reducing mobile communication and server processing costs.
On-Demand Recovery in Middleware Storage Systems

This paper presents a recovery architecture for in-memory data management systems. Recovery in such systems boils down to solving two problems: retrieving and installing the last committed image of the crashed database on a new server and replaying the updates missing from the image. We improve recovery time with a novel technique called On-Demand Recovery, which removes the need to replay all missing updates before new transactions can be accepted. We have implemented and thoroughly evaluated the technique. We show in the paper that in some cases On-Demand Recovery can reduce recovery time by more than 50%.
Detection of hypertension in the emergency department

Objectives: To assess whether an emergency department (ED) is a suitable location for the targeted screening of hypertension. Methods: This was a prospective targeted screening study based at the ED of an inner city teaching hospital. Non-acute subjects over 18 years were recruited consecutively from the “minors” section of the ED and invited to participate. All subjects had their blood pressure measured twice. A verbal numerical pain score (PS) out of 10 using a visual analogue scale was obtained. Those with a mean systolic blood pressure >140 mmHg or a mean diastolic blood pressure >90 mmHg (WHO JNC stage 1 hypertension) were invited for a subsequent follow up measurement. The primary outcome measure was the proportion of subjects with hypertension at follow up. The secondary outcome measure was the correlation between a subject’s mid blood pressure (MBP) and their PS. Results: In total, 765 subjects were tested, of whom 213 subjects were hypertensive at presentation (28.7%). After excluding those on anti-hypertensive medication (n = 43; 5.6%) and those who were non-UK residents (n = 44; 5.8%), 126 subjects were invited for follow up, of whom 51 subjects actually attended (40% attendance, 6.6% of study population). The MBP of those who re-attended was significantly lower than at presentation (p<0.001); 39 subjects (5% of the study population, 76.4% of those attending follow up) remained hypertensive. There was no correlation between a subject’s PS and their MBP (Pearson correlation coefficient = −0.02). A 10/10 PS was associated with an 8.4 mmHg rise in MBP compared to the mean MBP of subjects with PS 0–9 (p<0.1). Of those originally presenting with PS>5/10, 62% still had hypertension at follow up when the painful stimulus was significantly reduced (mean PS = 0.6). Conclusion: The ED provides an opportunity for identifying those individuals with hypertension who may otherwise remain undiagnosed. Caution is advised when diagnosing hypertension in those individuals suffering from anxiety and/or acute severe pain on presentation.
Perceptual Information Loss due to Impaired Speech Production

Phonological classes define articulatory-free and articulatory-bound phone attributes. Deep neural network is used to estimate the probability of phonological classes from the speech signal. In theory, a unique combination of phone attributes form a phoneme identity. Probabilistic inference of phonological classes thus enables estimation of their compositional phoneme probabilities. A novel information theoretic framework is devised to quantify the information conveyed by each phone attribute, and assess the speech production quality for perception of phonemes. As a use case, we hypothesize that disruption in speech production leads to information loss in phone attributes, and thus confusion in phoneme identification. We quantify the amount of information loss due to dysarthric articulation recorded in the TORGO database. A novel information measure is formulated to evaluate the deviation from an ideal phone attribute production leading us to distinguish healthy production from pathological speech.
On the Optimality of the Greedy Heuristic in Wavelet Synopses for Range Queries

In recent years wavelet based synopses were shown to be efiective for approximate queries in database systems. The simplest wavelet synopses are constructed by computing the Haar transform over a vector consisting of either the raw-data or the preflx-sums of the data, and using a greedy-heuristic to select the wavelet coe‐cients that are kept in the synopsis. The greedy-heuristic is known to be optimal for point queries w.r. t. the mean-squared-error, but no similar optimality result was known for range-sum queries, for which the efiectiveness of such synopses was only shown experimentally. The optimality of the greedy-heuristic for the case of point queries is due to the Haar basis being orthonormal for this case, which allows using the Parseval-based thresholding. Thus, the main technical question we are concerned with in this paper is whether the Haar basis is orthonormal for the case of range-sum queries. We show that it is not orthogonal for the case of range-sum queries over the raw data, and that it is orthonormal for the case of preflx-sums. Consequently, we show that a slight variation of the greedy-heuristic over the preflx-sums of the data is an optimal thresholding w.r. t. the mean-squared-error. As a result, we obtain the flrst linear time construction of a provably optimal wavelet synopsis for range-sum queries. The crux of our proof is based on a novel construction of inner products, that deflne the error measured over range-sum queries.
Modeling and performance evaluation of an OpenFlow architecture

The OpenFlow concept of flow-based forwarding and separation of the control plane from the data plane provides a new flexibility in network innovation. While initially used solely in the research domain, OpenFlow is now finding its way into commercial applications. However, this creates new challenges, as questions of OpenFlow scalability and performance have not yet been answered. This paper is a first step towards that goal. Based on measurements of switching times of current OpenFlow hardware, we derive a basic model for the forwarding speed and blocking probability of an OpenFlow switch combined with an OpenFlow controller and validate it using a simulation. This model can be used to estimate the packet sojourn time and the probability of lost packets in such a system and can give hints to developers and researchers on questions how an OpenFlow architecture will perform given certain parameters.
Poetry in motion: protest songwriting as strategic resource (Portugal, circa 1974)

In this article, we use protest songs written in Portugal in the periods surrounding the Carnations Revolution to suggest that artists have the capacity to use their artistic discourses as strategic resources, attempting to shape socio‐political reality. We identify three periods in the Portuguese revolution wherein this instrumental use of art becomes patent. We further suggest that organisational managers should take into account the subjective artistic reality, especially in periods when it can affect the organisational context.
I ntrabody‐based strategies for inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor‐2: effects on apoptosis, cell growth, and angiogenesis

VEGF, an endothelial‐specific mitogen, is an important tumor angiogenesis growth factor. The major receptor for VEGF on endothelial cells is KDR. We hypothesized that an intrabody could bind newly synthesized KDR and block receptor transport to the cell surface, thereby inhibiting important VEGF effects. We expressed a single chain antibody (p3S5) to KDR with or without the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention signal (KDEL), using either a plasmid (p3S5‐HAK) or a tet‐off adenoviral system (Ad‐HAK). Plasmid‐mediated expression of the tethered intrabody significantly reduced KDR expression (from 82.5±12.5% to 27.9±13.6% of cells; P<0.01) and thymidine incorporation in successfully transfected cells. Ad‐HAK infection resulted in intrabody expression in >90% of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), producing marked (80%) apoptosis at 48 h postinfection. The intrabody was essential for these effects, as confirmed by inhibiting its expression with doxycycline or by expressing irrelevant genes (lacZ, GFP). Cell death was dependent on KDR, because Ad‐HAK infection of cell lines with minimal or no KDR had little effect on cell viability. Infected HUVECs were unable to form tubes on Engelbreth Holm‐Swarm (EHS) tumor gel matrix. These results demonstrate the potential for development of an intrabody‐based strategy to block angiogenesis and prevent tumor growth.
Techniques to reduce the soft error rate of a high-performance microprocessor

Transient faults due to neutron and alpha particle strikes pose a significant obstacle to increasing processor transistor counts in future technologies. Although fault rates of individual transistors may not rise significantly, incorporating more transistors into a device makes that device more likely to encounter a fault. Hence, maintaining processor error rates at acceptable levels will require increasing design effort. This paper proposes two simple approaches to reduce error rates and evaluates their application to a microprocessor instruction queue. The first technique reduces the time instructions sit in vulnerable storage structures by selectively squashing instructions when long delays are encountered. A fault is less likely to cause an error if the structure it affects does not contain valid instructions. We introduce a new metric, MITF (Mean Instructions To Failure), to capture the trade-off between performance and reliability introduced by this approach. The second technique addresses false detected errors. In the absence of a fault detection mechanism, such errors would not have affected the final outcome of a program. For example, a fault affecting the result of a dynamically dead instruction would not change the final program output, but could still be flagged by the hardware as an error. To avoid signalling such false errors, we modify a pipeline's error detection logic to mark affected instructions and data as possibly incorrect rather than immediately signaling an error. Then, we signal an error only if we determine later that the possibly incorrect value could have affected the program's output.
Pollen Tube Tip Growth Depends on Plasma Membrane Polarization Mediated by Tobacco PLC3 Activity and Endocytic Membrane Recycling[W]

Phosphatidyl inositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PI 4,5-P2) accumulates in a Rac/Rop-dependent manner in the pollen tube tip plasma membrane, where it may control actin organization and membrane traffic. PI 4,5-P2 is hydrolyzed by phospholipase C (PLC) activity to the signaling molecules inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate and diacyl glycerol (DAG). To investigate PLC activity during tip growth, we cloned Nt PLC3, specifically expressed in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) pollen tubes. Recombinant Nt PLC3 displayed Ca2+-dependent PI 4,5-P2–hydrolyzing activity sensitive to U-73122 and to mutations in the active site. Nt PLC3 overexpression, but not that of inactive mutants, inhibited pollen tube growth. Yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) fused to Nt PLC3, or to its EF and C2 domains, accumulated laterally at the pollen tube tip plasma membrane in a pattern complementary to the distribution of PI 4,5-P2. The DAG marker Cys1:YFP displayed a similar intracellular localization as PI 4,5-P2. Blocking endocytic membrane recycling affected the intracellular distribution of DAG but not of PI 4,5-P2. U-73122 at low micromolar concentrations inhibited and partially depolarized pollen tube growth, caused PI 4,5-P2 spreading at the apex, and abolished DAG membrane accumulation. We show that Nt PLC3 is targeted by its EF and C2 domains to the plasma membrane laterally at the pollen tube tip and that it maintains, together with endocytic membrane recycling, an apical domain enriched in PI 4,5-P2 and DAG required for polar cell growth.
Sex Differentials in the Effect of Remarriage of Global Happiness.

Data from a large state-wide survey are used to examine the effect of divorce and remarriage on global happiness. A comparison of the remarried and the once-married shows that remarried men report themselves significantly more happy than men in intact first marriages, whereas remarried women are less happy than women in first marriages. These observed differences in global happiness are shown to be systematically related to diff'erences in levels of social integration, socioeconomic status, and general and marital satisfaction. It is suggested that differential recruitment into remarriage is an important contributor to the observed interaction.
RSCS: Minimum measurement MMV deterministic compressed sensing based on complex reed solomon coding

Compressed Sensing (CS) is an emerging field in communications and mathematics that is used to measure few measurements of long sparse vectors with the ability of lossless reconstruction. In this paper we use methods from channel coding to create the CS recovery algorithm RSCS in the Multiple Measurement Vector case (MMV) that uses a specifically constructed measurement matrix. In particular, we use a modified Reed Solomon encoding-decoding structure to measure sparsely representable vector systems down to the theoretical minimum number of measurements. We prove that the reconstruction is guaranteed, even in the low dimensional case.
Treatment of Children and Adolescents with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A Review of Current Evidence

Conclusion and Summary Multiple treatments exist for the treatment of alcohol use disorders in adolescents. Current literature and evidence focuses mainly on adult populations. Clinical trials investigating pharmacologic treatment of alcohol use disorders in children and adolescents are limited. When discussing treatment with an adolescent who suffers from a substance use disorder, it is important to discuss risks and benefits of pharmacotherapy and also explain to the patient and family that these medications have been primarily studied in adult populations. Family therapy may be particularly important when treating adolescents with substance use disorders and addressing comorbid psychiatric conditions also yields better outcomes. Sarah B. Johnson, M.D., M.Sc., University of Louisville Department of Psychiatry, 401 E. Chestnut St., Ste. 610, Louisville, KY 40202. E-mail: sarah. johnson@louisville.edu.
Sensor networks as video game input devices

In this work we are motivated by creating a network of sensors that can be used as input devices for video games. Our goal is to create an inexpensive network of off-the-shelf sensors that are used to force proper movement and engagement of the player. Our experience shows that a distributed set of sensors around the body prevents the player from cheating the system by using motion of the device alone to trick the system. In this work we show that a relatively simple sensor network configuration can enforce proper form and ensure that the player is actively participating in the game context.
The language profile of posterior cortical atrophy

Background Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is typically considered to be a visual syndrome, primarily characterised by progressive impairment of visuoperceptual and visuospatial skills. However, patients commonly describe early difficulties with word retrieval. This paper details the first systematic analysis of linguistic function in PCA. Characterising and quantifying the aphasia associated with PCA is important for clarifying diagnostic and selection criteria for clinical and research studies. Methods 15 patients with PCA, seven patients with logopenic/phonological aphasia (LPA) and 18 age matched healthy participants completed a detailed battery of linguistic tests evaluating auditory input processing, repetition and working memory, lexical and grammatical comprehension, single word retrieval and fluency, and spontaneous speech. Results Relative to healthy controls, PCA patients exhibited language impairments across all of the domains examined, but with anomia, reduced phonemic fluency and slowed speech rate the most prominent deficits. PCA performance most closely resembled that of LPA patients on tests of auditory input processing, repetition and digit span, but was relatively stronger on tasks of comprehension and spontaneous speech. Conclusions The study demonstrates that in addition to the well reported degradation of vision, literacy and numeracy, PCA is characterised by progressive oral language dysfunction with prominent word retrieval difficulties. Overlap in the linguistic profiles of PCA and LPA, which are both most commonly caused by Alzheimer's disease, further emphasises the notion of a phenotypic continuum between typical and atypical manifestations of the disease. Clarifying the boundaries between Alzheimer's disease phenotypes has important implications for diagnosis, clinical trial recruitment and investigations into biological factors driving phenotypic heterogeneity in Alzheimer's disease. Rehabilitation strategies to ameliorate the phonological deficit in PCA are required.
Characterization of wild‐type and mutant forms of human tryptophan hydroxylase 2

Tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) catalyses the rate‐limiting step in the biosynthesis of serotonin. In vertebrates, the homologous genes tph1 and tph2 encode two different enzymes with distinct patterns of expression, enzyme kinetics and regulation. Variants of TPH2 have recently reported to be associated with reduced serotonin production and behavioural alterations in man and mice. We have produced the human forms of these enzymes in Esherichia coli and in human embryonic kidney cell lines (HEK293) and examined the effects of mutations on their heterologous expression levels, solubility, thermal stability, secondary structure, and catalytic properties. Pure human TPH2 P449R (corresponds to mouse P447R) had comparable catalytic activity (Vmax) and solubility relative to the wild type, but had decreased thermal stability; whereas human TPH2 R441H had decreased activity, solubility and stability. Thus, we consider the variations in kinetic values between wild‐type and TPH2 mutants to be of secondary importance to their effects on protein stability and solubility. These findings provide potential molecular explanations for disorders related to the central serotonergic system, such as depression or suicidal behaviour.
Writing for Depression in Health Care

Introduction: The study concentrates on two models of writing used in community facilities and inpatient settings in mental health: a six-session course of Using Writing as Therapy (UWaT) with a therapist, and Creative Writing (CW) with a non-therapist facilitator. UWaT is a structured, new, brief writing therapy; CW is unstructured use of writing as a creative arts activity. Method: This qualitative study utilised a post-positivist, subtle-realist paradigm, using qualitative methodologies (action research and participant observation) by an occupational therapist to understand and clarify how writing, as a form of emotional disclosure, worked with clients with depression, with flawed identity and low self-esteem. Findings: The findings indicated that UWaT clients reported cognitive changes, an increase in self-knowledge through gaining distance from their stories through writing and benefit from using the page to reorganise or play with memories and experiences. CW clients distanced themselves from painful emotions by writing and expressing their feelings but not discussing emotive content. They experienced a less safe environment, deprivation of positive feedback and problems with ‘writer’ identity. Conclusion: Both writing models have potential benefit for clients with depression and more research is needed to establish fidelity of delivery and results.