Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Robust Spectral Parameter Coding in Speech Processing

Linear predictive coding (LPC) is employed in many low bit rate speech coders. LPC models the short-term spectral information for a block of speech using an allpole response. Line spectral frequencies (LSF) have been found to be an effective parametric representation for the all-pole response. Vector quantization (VQ) is often used to code the coefficients of the response. VQ performs poorly whenever it is coding coefficient vectors which are not well matched to the distribution of its codebooks. A shift in the distribution can be caused by filtering (microphones, filters in communication equipment, etc.), speaker or environmental variability (male, female, background noise, etc.). In this thesis, we explore a method for matching the distribution of the vectors representing the incoming speech signal to the distribution of the codebooks. A novel mapping model based on the transformation of codebooks using the mean and the standard deviation of the distributions is used to increase the robustness of vector quantization. The mapping model is optimized in two ways — choosing the most suitable spectral parameter representation and seeking the best way to obtain the form of the mapping model. The effectiveness and limitations of this method are investigated through simulation of a split vector quantizer (SVQ) of the LPC coefficients.
How to detect a compromised SDN switch

SDN is a concept of programmable networking. A network manager can process each network flow through software programs. There is a hypothesis that all switches are trusted and follow programmed commands to handle packets. That is, once a switch is compromised by an attacker and does not follow the order of the network manager, this will bring a huge network disaster. In this paper, we define some attack models through compromised switches and design a detection mechanism to find these compromised devices. We evaluate our mechanism and discuss some future works.
Illusions and Perceptions of Transparency in Software Engineering

We proposed a definition of transparency in software development to improve communication among stakeholders. The notion of transparency is important, because it enables stakeholders to identify and understand the information exchanged during communication. We designed a survey to gather evidence to support or refute our beliefs about transparency in software development. We discovered a superiority bias in our respondents when answering questions regarding communication problems. In this paper, we present our survey design and preliminary results of our survey.
Integral observation of the high-mass X-ray transient V 0332+53 during the 2005 outburst decline

The decline of the high mass X-ray transient V 0332+53 during the Dec. 2004 to Feb. 2005 outburst is analysed from the data recorded by INTEGRAL. The flux is shown to decrease exponentially until 2005 Feb. 10, with a decay time scale of ∼30 days above 20 keV and ∼20 days at lower energies, and to decrease linearly thereafter. The energy spectrum is well modelled throughout the decay by a power law with a folding energy of ∼7.5 keV, and with two cyclotron absorption features. The folding energy does not vary significantly over the decay, but the spectrum becomes harder with time. Most importantly, we show that the parameters describing the fundamental cyclotron line around 27 keV do vary with time: its energy and depth increase (by about 17% for the energy in ∼6 weeks), while its width decreases. These changes of the cyclotron line parameters are interpreted as resulting from a change in the extent of the cyclotron scattering region. Two quasi-periodic oscillations are also observed at various times during the observations, one at 0.05 Hz and another one near the pulsation frequency around 0.23 Hz.
Automated Verification of Quantum Protocols by Equivalence Checking

In this paper we introduce a technique and a tool for formal verification of various quantum information processing protocols. The tool uses stabilizer formalism and is capable of representing concurrent quantum protocol, thus is more expressive than quantum circuits. We also report on experimental results of using our Quantum Equivalence Checker (QEC) to analyse a range of quantum information processing protocols.
The Increased Endogenous Sulfur Dioxide Acts as a Compensatory Mechanism for the Downregulated Endogenous Hydrogen Sulfide Pathway in the Endothelial Cell Inflammation

Endogenous hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) are regarded as important regulators to control endothelial cell function and protect endothelial cell against various injuries. In our present study, we aimed to investigate the effect of endogenous H2S on the SO2 generation in the endothelial cells and explore its significance in the endothelial inflammation in vitro and in vivo. The human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) line (EA.hy926), primary HUVECs, primary rat pulmonary artery endothelial cells (RPAECs), and purified aspartate aminotransferase (AAT) protein from pig heart were used for in vitro experiments. A rat model of monocrotaline (MCT)-induced pulmonary vascular inflammation was used for in vivo experiments. We found that endogenous H2S deficiency caused by cystathionine-γ-lyase (CSE) knockdown increased endogenous SO2 level in endothelial cells and enhanced the enzymatic activity of AAT, a major SO2 synthesis enzyme, without affecting the expressions of AAT1 and AAT2. While H2S donor could reverse the CSE knockdown-induced increase in the endogenous SO2 level and AAT activity. Moreover, H2S donor directly inhibited the activity of purified AAT protein, which was reversed by a thiol reductant DTT. Mechanistically, H2S donor sulfhydrated the purified AAT1/2 protein and rescued the decrease in the sulfhydration of AAT1/2 protein in the CSE knockdown endothelial cells. Furthermore, an AAT inhibitor l-aspartate-β-hydroxamate (HDX), which blocked the upregulation of endogenous SO2/AAT generation induced by CSE knockdown, aggravated CSE knockdown-activated nuclear factor-κB pathway in the endothelial cells and its downstream inflammatory factors including ICAM-1, TNF-α, and IL-6. In in vivo experiment, H2S donor restored the deficiency of endogenous H2S production induced by MCT, and reversed the upregulation of endogenous SO2/AAT pathway via sulfhydrating AAT1 and AAT2. In accordance with the results of the in vitro experiment, HDX exacerbated the pulmonary vascular inflammation induced by the broken endogenous H2S production in MCT-treated rat. In conclusion, for the first time, the present study showed that H2S inhibited endogenous SO2 generation by inactivating AAT via the sulfhydration of AAT1/2; and the increased endogenous SO2 generation might play a compensatory role when H2S/CSE pathway was downregulated, thereby exerting protective effects in endothelial inflammatory responses in vitro and in vivo.
A Novel Face Feature Extraction Method Based on Two-dimensional Principal Component Analysis and Kernel Discriminant Analysis

A novel face feature extraction method based on Bilateral Two-dimensional Principal Component Analysis (B2DPCA) and Kernel Discriminant Analysis (KDA) was presented in this paper. In this method, B2DPCA method directly extracts the proper features from image matrices at first, then the KDA was performed on the features to enhance discriminant power. As opposed to PCA, B2DPCA is based on 2D image matrices rather than 1D vector so the image matrix does not need to be transformed into a vector prior to feature extraction. Experiments on ORL and Yale face database are performed to test and evaluate the proposed algorithm. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed algorithm
Decreased Lempel-Ziv complexity in Alzheimer's disease patients' magnetoencephalograms

The aim of the present research is to study the magnetoencephalogram (MEG) background activity in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) using the Lempel-Ziv (LZ) complexity. We recorded the MEG with a 148-channel whole-head magnetometer (MAGNES 2500 WH, 4D Neuroimaging) in 10 patients with probable AD and 10 age-matched control subjects, during five minutes. Artefact-free epochs were selected for the non-linear analysis. In all MEG channels, the AD patients had lower complexity than control subjects. In 77 of them the differences were statistically significant (p < 0.01). These preliminary results suggest that cognitive dysfunction in AD is associated with a decreased complexity in certain regions of the brain
To Compare and Determine the Diagnostic Accuracy of [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography Scan in Predicting Pathological Response in Operated Carcinoma Esophagus Patients after Initial Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation and Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

The objective of this study was to determine whether [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) scan could predict the pathological response in esoph neoadjuvant concurrent chemoradiation (NACCRT) and neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). A randomized prospective study was carried out from March 2014 to October 2016; thirty patients of histopathologically proven, locally advanced, potentially operable carcinoma esophagus comprising both squamous carcinoma and adenocarcinoma were randomized into NACCRT and NACT arms equally. Both groups had pretreatment FDG-PET-computed tomography (CT) scan and repeat scan after 5–6 weeks of neoadjuvant therapy (NAT). The change in mean %Δmaximum standardized uptake value (%ΔSUVmax) was compared with tumor regression grade (TRG) in the postoperative histology. Patients with TRG 1–2 were deemed responders and 3–5 were nonresponders. Pathologic response was correlated with percentage change in [18F]-FDG uptake (%ΔSUVmax); receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analyses were done to assess sensitivity and specificity of FDG-PET to determine its diagnostic accuracy. The mean SUV in NACCRT group decreased from 15.47 ± 2.92 to 7.31 ± 4.07 (P < 0.001), while in NACT group, mean SUV decreased from 14.74 ± 3.95 to 8.60 ± 3.89 (P < 0.001). Comparison between NACCRT and NACT leads to mean SUV of 57.80 ± 22.40 and 45.92 ± 19.23, respectively (P = 0.13). In NACCRT and NACT, TRG had mean %ΔSUVmax values of 2.53 ± 1.25 and 2.93 ± 1.28 (P = 0.393). However, we found a statistically significant correlation between SUV% reduction and TRG (P = 0.002). ROC curve analysis for FDG-PET-CT suggested an area under the curve of 0.693 and sensitivity and specificity of 80% and 46.7%, respectively. NACCRT and NACT lead to a statistically significant reduction in mean %ΔSUVmax and with statistical significance correlation when compared with pathological response assessment. Hence, PET-CT can be used for differentiating responders and nonresponders to NAT.
A Perceptual Visualization Assistant for Multi-Dimensional Data Visualization

This thesis describes a perceptual visualization assistant (ViA) designed to help users construct perceptually salient visualizations to display high dimensional data stored in a multi-dimensional dataset. ViA focuses on (1) how to construct visualizations in an application independent manner, (2) how to produce visualizations that support effective exploration, discovery, and analysis, and (3) how to allow users to participate in this process to guarantee the resulting visualizations respect context and user preferences. To solve these issues we propose guidelines based on studies of human vision and human perception. Evaluation engines built from these guidelines will be used to evaluate the data attribute to visual feature mappings in a given visualization. The results (evaluation weights and hints for improvement) will be used by a mixed-initiative search algorithm to identify new visualizations with high potential for improvement. This allows ViA to selectively search for the best possible visualizations for a user's dataset and analysis tasks. ViA allows user interaction during the search process by asking whether certain simplifying assumptions can be made, and by allowing users to specify requirements and constraints for the visualizations ViA suggests. We tested ViA's abilities in two practical application environments: weather data and e-commerce auction traces. Results from a subjective user questionnaire suggest that ViA's visualizations are as good or better than existing standards used to represent this type of data.
Rorschach Assessment of Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Practice

Part I. Basic Considerations. - Chapter 1. Historical Foundations of the Rorschach Inkblot Method. - Chapter 2. Developmental Considerations in Rorschach Assessment. - Chapter 3. Assessing Personality Functioning of Adolescents with Performance-Based Measures. - Part II The Rorschach Inkblot Method: Theory, Research, and Practice. - Chapter 4. The Rorschach Inkblot Method: Theory. - Chapter 5. The Rorschach Inkblot Method: Research. - Chapter 6. The Rorschach Inkblot Method: Practice. - PART III. Applications of Rorschach Assessment of Adolescents. - Chapter 7. Diagnostic Applications: Delineating Psychotic and Affective Disorders. - Chapter 8. Diagnostic Applications: Delineating Internalized Symptoms Patterns. - Chapter 9. Diagnostic Applications: Delineating Externalized Symptom Patterns. - Chapter 10. Forensic Applications. - Chapter 11. Therapeutic Applications. - Part IV. Conclusion. - Chapter 12. Toward Empirically-Based Psychodynamic Assessment: The Rorschach Psychoanalytic Science and Practice (RPSP) Model.
Tetrahymena contain two distinct and unusual high mobility group (HMG)- like proteins

Previous studies have described the existence of high mobility group (HMG)-like proteins in macronuclei of the ciliated protozoan, Tetrahymena thermophila (Hamana, K., and K. Iwai, 1979, J. Biochem. [Tokyo], 69:1097-1111; Levy-Wilson, B., M. S. Denker, and E. Ito, 1983, Biochemistry, 22:1715-1721). In this report, two of these proteins, LG- 1 and LG-2, have been further characterized. Polyclonal antibodies raised against LG-1 and LG-2 fail to cross react with each other or any other macronuclear polypeptide in immunoblotting analyses. As well, LG- 1 and LG-2 antibodies do not react with calf thymus, chicken, or yeast HMG proteins. Consistent with these results, a 47 amino-terminal sequence of LG-1 has been determined that shows limited homology to both calf thymus HMGs 1 and 2 and HMGs 14 and 17. Two internal sequences of V8 protease-generated peptides from LG-2 have been determined, and these do not share any homology to the LG-1 sequence or any other sequenced HMG proteins. Comparison of the partial sequences of LG-1 and LG-2 with the complete amino acid sequence of the Tetrahymena histone H1 (Wu, M., C. D. Allis, R. Richman, R. G. Cook, and M. A. Gorovsky, 1986, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 83:8674-8678) rules out the possibility that LG-1 and LG-2 are proteolytically derived from H1, the other major macronuclear perchloric acid-soluble protein. Interestingly, however, both LG-1 and LG-2 are efficiently extracted from macronuclei by elutive intercalation (Schroter, H., G. Maier, H. Ponsting, and A. Nordheim, 1985, Embo (Eur. Mol. Biol. Organ.) J., 4:3867-3872), suggesting that both may share yet undetermined properties with HMGs 14 and 17 of higher eukaryotes. Examination of the pattern of LG-1 and LG-2 synthesis during the sexual phase of the life cycle, conjugation, demonstrates that the synthesis of LG-1 and LG-2 is coordinately increased from basal levels during the differentiation of new macronuclei (7-13 h), suggesting that both of these proteins play a role in determining a macronuclear phenotype. However, a specific induction of LG-2 synthesis is detected in early stages of conjugation (meiotic prophase, 1-4 h), leading to maximal synthesis of LG-2 at 3 h. Interestingly, the early induction of LG-2 synthesis closely parallels the hyperphosphorylation of histone H1. Taken together, these data suggest that LG-1 and LG-2 are not strongly related to each other or to higher eukaryotic HMG proteins. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
The Crystal Structure of the Liver Fatty Acid-binding Protein

The crystal structure of the recombinant form of rat liver fatty acid-binding protein was completed to 2.3 Å and refined to an R factor of 19.0%. The structural solution was obtained by molecular replacement using superimposed polyalanine coordinates of six intracellular lipid-binding proteins as a search probe. The entire amino acid sequence of rat liver fatty acid-binding protein along with an amino-terminal formyl-methionine was modeled in the crystal structure. In addition, the crystal was obtained in the presence of oleic acid, and the initial electron density clearly showed two fatty acid molecules bound within a central cavity. The carboxylate of one fatty acid molecule interacts with arginine 122 and is shielded from free solvent. It has an overall bent conformation. The more solvent-exposed carboxylate of the other oleate is located near the helix-turn-helix that caps one end of the β-barrel, while the acyl chain lies in the interior. The cavity contains both polar and nonpolar residues but also shows extensive hydrophobic character around the nonpolar atoms of the ligands. The primary and secondary oleate binding sites appear to be totally interdependent, mainly because favorable hydrophobic interactions form between both aliphatic chains.
Seesaw Scale in the Minimal Renormalizable SO(10) Grand Unification

Simple SO(10) Higgs models with the adjoint representation triggering the grand-unified symmetry breaking, discarded a long ago due to inherent tree-level tachyonic instabilities in the physically interesting scenarios, have been recently brought back to life by quantum effects. In this work we focus on the variant with 45_H+126_H in the Higgs sector and show that there are several regions in the parameter space of this model that can support stable unifying configurations with the B-L breaking scale as high as 10^14 GeV, well above the previous generic estimates based on the minimal survival hypothesis. This admits for a renormalizable implementation of the canonical seesaw and makes the simplest potentially realistic scenario of this kind a good candidate for a minimal SO(10) grand unification. Last, but not least, this setting is likely to be extensively testable at future large-volume facilities such as Hyper-Kamiokande.
On the optimal detection of curves in noisy pictures

Abstract : A technique for recognizing systems of lines is presented, in which the heuristic of the problem is not embedded in the recognition algorithm but is expressed in a figure of merit. A multistage decision process is then able to recognize in the input picture the optimal system of lines according to the given figure of merit. Due to the global approach, greater flexibility and adequacy in the particular problem is achieved. The relation between the structure of the figure of merit and the complexity of the optimization process is then discussed. (Modified author abstract)
Metamodel-based model conformance and multiview consistency checking

Model-driven development, using languages such as UML and BON, often makes use of multiple diagrams (e.g., class and sequence diagrams) when modeling systems. These diagrams, presenting different views of a system of interest, may be inconsistent. A metamodel provides a unifying framework in which to ensure and check consistency, while at the same time providing the means to distinguish between valid and invalid models, that is, conformance. Two formal specifications of the metamodel for an object-oriented modeling language are presented, and it is shown how to use these specifications for model conformance and multiview consistency checking. Comparisons are made in terms of completeness and the level of automation each provide for checking multiview consistency and model conformance. The lessons learned from applying formal techniques to the problems of metamodeling, model conformance, and multiview consistency checking are summarized.
FTWeb: a fault tolerant infrastructure for Web services

The Web services architecture came as answers to the search for interoperability among applications. There has been a growing interest in deploying on the Internet applications with high availability and reliability requirements. However, the technologies associated with this architecture still do not deliver adequate support to this requirement. The model proposed in this article is located in this context and provides a new layer of software that acts as a proxy between client requests and service delivery by providers. The main objective is to ensure client transparent fault tolerance by means of the active replication technique. This model supports the following faults: value, omission and stops. This paper describes the features and outcomes obtained through the implementation of this model.
Kernel methods for Multi-labelled classification and Categ orical regression problems

This report presents a SVM like learning system to handle multi-label problems. Such problems arise naturally in bio-informatics. Consider for instance the MIPS Yeast genome database in [12], it is formed by around 3,300 genes associated to their functional classes. One gene can have many classes, and different genes do not belong to the same number of functional categories. Such a problem can not be solved directly with classical approaches and it is generally decomposed into many two-class problems. The binary decomposition has been done partially by different researchers [12] on the Yeast dataset but it does not provide a satisfactory answer. We explore in this report a new direct approach. It is based on a large margin ranking system that shares a lot of common properties with Support Vector Machines. We tested it on a toy problem and on real datasets with positive results. We also present a new method to do feature selection with multi-labelled datasets. Our method is based on the multiplicative update rule deﬁned in [17].
A comparative phylogeographic study reveals discordant evolutionary histories of alpine ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae)

Abstract Taiwan, an island with three major mountain ranges, provides an ideal topography to study mountain–island effect on organisms that would be diversified in the isolation areas. Glaciations, however, might drive these organisms to lower elevations, causing gene flow among previously isolated populations. Two hypotheses have been proposed to depict the possible refugia for alpine organisms during glaciations. Nunatak hypothesis suggests that alpine species might have stayed in situ in high mountain areas during glaciations. Massif de refuge, on the other hand, proposes that alpine species might have migrated to lower ice‐free areas. By sampling five sympatric carabid species of Nebria and Leistus, and using two mitochondrial genes and two nuclear genes, we evaluated the mountain–island effect on alpine carabids and tested the two proposed hypotheses with comparative phylogeographic method. Results from the phylogenetic relationships, network analysis, lineage calibration, and genetic structure indicate that the deep divergence among populations in all L. smetanai, N. formosana, and N. niitakana was subjected to long‐term isolation, a phenomenon in agreement with the nunatak hypothesis. However, genetic admixture among populations of N. uenoiana and some populations of L. nokoensis complex suggests that gene flow occurred during glaciations, as a massif de refuge depicts. The speciation event in N. niitakana is estimated to have occurred before 1.89 million years ago (Mya), while differentiation among isolated populations in N. niitakana, N. formosana, L. smetanai, and L. nokoensis complex might have taken place during 0.65–1.65 Mya. While each of the alpine carabids arriving in Taiwan during different glaciation events acquired its evolutionary history, all of them had confronted the existing mountain ranges.