Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wavelet-Based Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients for Speaker Identification using Hidden Markov Models

To improve the performance of speaker identification systems, an effective and robust method is proposed to extract speech features, capable of operating in noisy environment. Based on the time-frequency multi-resolution property of wavelet transform, the input speech signal is decomposed into various frequency channels. For capturing the characteristic of the signal, the Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) of the wavelet channels are calculated. Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) were used for the recognition stage as they give better recognition for the speaker's features than Dynamic Time Warping (DTW). Comparison of the proposed approach with the MFCCs conventional feature extraction method shows that the proposed method not only effectively reduces the influence of noise, but also improves recognition. A recognition rate of 99.3% was obtained using the proposed feature extraction technique compared to 98.7% using the MFCCs. When the test patterns were corrupted by additive white Gaussian noise with 20 dB S/N ratio, the recognition rate was 97.3% using the proposed method compared to 93.3% using the MFCCs.
Structural and AC Conductivity Studies of CuFe2 O4 Prepared by Hydrothermal Method

Nanoparticles of CuFe2 O4 are prepared by hydrothermal method with trisodium citrate as capping agent. The existence of single phase cubic spinel structure of ferrites was confirmed from XRD measurement. Surface morphology and compositional features are studied by SEM, EDX and FTIR measurements.The absorption bands in FTIR spectra are found in the expected range of ferrites and this corroborates the spinel structure of the sample.The dielectric measurement of the samples at room temperature studied in the frequency range 100 Hz to 5 MHz shows dispersion in the low frequency region and remains constant at high frequency region.Frequency dependence of dielectric constants shows normal behavior and agrees with Koops phenomenological theory of dielectric dispersion. Thermally enhanced drift mobility of charge carriers are attributed to the increase in dielectric constant with temperature. AC conductivity is derived from dielectric constant and loss tangent data. The conduction in this system is interpreted as due to small polaron hopping. The low value of dielectric loss at high frequencies makes copper ferrite desirable for high frequency applications.
Bounds on series-parallel slowdown

We use activity networks (task graphs) to model parallel programs and consider series-parallel extensions of these networks. Our motivation is two-fold: the benefits of series-parallel activity networks and the modelling of programming constructs, such as those imposed by current parallel computing environments. Series-parallelisation adds precedence constraints to an activity network, usually increasing its makespan (execution time). The slowdown ratio describes how additional constraints affect the makespan. We disprove an existing conjecture positing a bound of two on the slowdown when workload is not considered. Where workload is known, we conjecture that 4/3 slowdown is always achievable, and prove our conjecture for small networks using max-plus algebra. We analyse a polynomial-time algorithm showing that achieving 4/3 slowdown is in exp-APX. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results.
Robust Multi-Colour-Based Skin Detection

Automatic skin detection is a component of various imaging applications, such as face detection and tracking, content categorization, image enhancement, adaptive compression, etc. Colour-based methods have proven to be well suited for this task, but generally suffer from a type of false detection which adversely influences the aforementioned tasks, namely the confident detection of hair regions as skin. This paper presents a new fast and robust skin detection method which addresses this problem by relying on a multiple classifier configuration of skin and hair colour models in multiple colour spaces.
Hand in Motion Reveals Mind in Motion

Recently, researchers have measured hand movements en route to choices on a screen to understand the dynamics of a broad range of psychological processes. We review this growing body of research and explain how manual action exposes the real-time unfolding of underlying cognitive processing. We describe how simple hand motions may be used to continuously index participants’ tentative commitments to different choice alternatives during the evolution of a behavioral response. As such, hand-tracking can provide unusually high-fidelity, real-time motor traces of the mind. These motor traces cast novel theoretical and empirical light onto a wide range of phenomena and serve as a potential bridge between far-reaching areas of psychological science – from language, to high-level cognition and learning, to social cognitive processes.
Genetic uxtraction of text category descriptions

This paper deals with a supervised learning method devoted to producing categorization models of text documents. The goal of the method is to use a suitable numerical measurement of example similarity to find centroids describing different categories of examples. The centroids are neither abstract nor statistical models, but rather consist of bits of examples. The centroid-learning method is based on a genetic algorithm, the GAT. The categorization system infers a model by applying the GAT to the set of preclassified documents. The models thus obtained arc the category centroids that are used to predict the category of a new document.
link accelerated aging to a systemic inflammatory response B activation and κ Nuclear lamina defects cause ATM-dependent NF-Material Supplemental

Material Supplemental http://genesdev.cshlp. org/content/suppl/2012/09/25/gad.197954. 112.DC1. html References http://genesdev.cshlp. org/content/26/20/2311.full. html#ref-list-1 This article cites 72 articles, 18 of which can be accessed free at: service Email alerting click here top right corner of the article or Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article sign up in the box at the
View-dependent refinement of progressive meshes

Level-of-detail (LOD) representations are an important tool for realtime rendering of complex geometric environments. The previously introduced progressive mesh representation defines for an arbitrary triangle mesh a sequence of approximating meshes optimized for view-independent LOD. In this paper, we introduce a framework for selectively refining an arbitrary progressive mesh according to changing view parameters. We define efficient refinement criteria based on the view frustum, surface orientation, and screen-space geometric error, and develop a real-time algorithm for incrementally refining and coarsening the mesh according to these criteria. The algorithm exploits view coherence, supports frame rate regulation, and is found to require less than 15% of total frame time on a graphics workstation. Moreover, for continuous motions this work can be amortized over consecutive frames. In addition, smooth visual transitions (geomorphs) can be constructed between any two selectively refined meshes. A number of previous schemes create view-dependent LOD meshes for height fields (e.g. terrains) and parametric surfaces (e.g. NURBS). Our framework also performs well for these special cases. Notably, the absence of a rigid subdivision structure allows more accurate approximations than with existing schemes. We include results for these cases as well as for general meshes. CR Categories: I.3. 3 [Computer Graphics]: Picture/Image Generation Display algorithms; I.3. 5 [Computer Graphics]: Computational Geometry and Object Modeling surfaces and object representations. Additional
ANFIS based Spam filtering model for Social Networking Websites

Spam is flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it. There are various types of spam such as email spam, forum spam, online classified ads spam, attachment spam, social networking spam etc. For the purpose of this paper, we would like to concentrate more on social networking spam (SNS). SNS is when unwanted messages or posts are sent to people in bulk, or when a single click of a seemingly harmless link reposts the link on other profiles, thus spreading the spam like a virus. We plan to use an adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) that incorporates the advantages of both the neural networking concepts and fuzzy logic to identify the spam messages on such websites. General Terms Design, algorithm, documentation, experimentation, performance
White Cell Telomere Length and Risk of Premature Myocardial Infarction

Objective—Biological age may be distinct from chronological age and contribute to the pathogenesis of age-related diseases. Mean telomeres lengths provide an assessment of biological age with shorter telomeres, indicating increased biological age. We investigated whether subjects with premature myocardial infarction (MI) had shorter leukocyte telomeres. Methods and Results—Mean terminal restriction fragment (TRF) length, a measure of average telomere size, was compared in leukocyte DNA of 203 cases with a premature MI (<50 years) and 180 controls. Age- and sex-adjusted mean TRF length of cases was significantly shorter than that of controls (difference 299.7±69.3 base pairs, P <0.0001) and on average equivalent to controls 11.3 years older. The difference in mean TRF length between cases and controls was not accounted for by other coronary risk factors. Compared with subjects in the highest quartile for telomere length, the risk of myocardial infarction was increased between 2.8- and 3.2-fold (P <0.0001) in subjects with shorter than average telomeres. Conclusions—The findings support the concept that biological age may play a role in the etiology of coronary heart disease and have potentially important implications for our understanding of its genetic etiology, pathogenesis, and variable age of onset.
A tracker-based P2P system for live multimedia streaming services

In this paper, we propose a tracker-based Peer to Peer (P2P) system for live multimedia streaming services. Our system is based on the Proactive network Provider Participation for P2P (P4P) framework which induces the cooperation between P2P systems and network service providers to achieve the best possible P2P application performance and efficient and fair usage of network resources. In the proposed scheme, the P2P application server obtains the network status information from servers of network providers. Also, the P2P application server receives the upload/download link capacity and the stream availability information from each peer. With the above information, the P2P application server suggests a peering list for the newly joining peer. The peering considers the routing cost, the congestion level of the links, the end-to-end delay, the matching of the upload/download link capacity, and the provision of the stable streaming service. We also propose a playback synchronization mechanism that enables each peer to start the playback within the limited variation from the playback positions of source peer. Through the simulation results, it is shown that the proposed peering mechanism enhances the playback continuity and system stability, and reduces the control overhead. Also, the playback synchronization mechanism shows the better performance with respect to the variation in playback positions of peers in the entire system.
Interactions Among Behavioral Responses of Baleen Whales to Acoustic Stimuli, Oceanographic Features, and Prey Availability

Abstract : The overall objectives of this multi-year study are to obtain empirical synoptic measurements of fine-scale prey distribution and whale diving and foraging behavior to better understand baleen whale foraging ecology and better interpret responses to experimental sound exposure. The current project has already enabled us to obtain basic distribution and density information for prey concurrent with foraging mysticete cetaceans during tagging with fine-scale movement sensors in the context of behavioral response studies (specifically, the Southern California Behavioral Response Study, or SOCAL-BRS). The new results presented here clearly and quite powerfully demonstrate that data on the distribution and abundance of prey are essential in fully understanding how changes in whale behavior related to the presence of human sounds are mediated by these factors and associated environmental variables. Subsequent CEEs involving potential behavioral changes in foraging marine mammals should build on these novel techniques and measurements to fully describe potential responses (or lack thereof) to sound exposure.
Criteria for confounders in epidemiological studies

The paper addresses a formal definition of a confounder based on the qualitative definition that is commonly used in standard epidemiology text‐books. To derive the criterion for a factor to be a confounder given by Miettinen and Cook and to clarify inconsistency between various criteria for a confounder, we introduce the concepts of an irrelevant factor, an occasional confounder and a uniformly irrelevant factor. We discuss criteria for checking these and show that Miettinen and Cook's criterion can also be applied to occasional confounders. Moreover, we consider situations with multiple potential confounders, and we obtain two necessary conditions that are satisfied by each confounder set. None of the definitions and results presented in this paper require the ignorability and sufficient control confounding assumptions which are commonly employed in observational and epidemiological studies.
Gaussian Mixture-based Mean Shift for Tracking under Abrupt Illumination Changes

Mean shift is a fundamental algorithm for visual object tracking which is based on the minimization of the distance between the discrete histogram of the target and the discrete histogram of the neighborhood of a candidate image location. While the algorithm performs well when the target's appearance and the lighting conditions are constant, it may fail when these conditions are not met because the ideal histogram is generally shifted with respect to the reference histogram. In this work, we propose to compute the initial histogram of the target using a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) rather than impulses generated by simple counting. This mixture plays the role of a weighting function, in the histograms computed in subsequent frames, in order to make them smoother and increase the overlapping area with the initial histogram. By these means, sudden illumination changes between consecutive frames may exhibit smoother transitions between the two histograms and the involved distance is not trapped into local minima.
Understanding computers and cognition

Winograd and Flores' `Understanding Computers and Cognition' proposes that the rationalist tradition in AI must be replaced by a hermeneutic approach. Associating the rationalist tradition with the goal of building a human mind, the authors propose that a hermeneutic approach must adopt the goal of constructing prostheses which magnify the human mind. This paper argues that what AI needs is not so much a hermeneutic approach as a better appreciation of biology and psychology. Understanding Computers and Cognition is a groundbreaking book that presents an important new approach to understanding what computers do and how their functioning is related to human language, thought and action.
Reproductive factors and risk of papillary thyroid cancer in women.

The authors conducted a population-based case-control study of 410 women residing in three counties in western Washington State who were aged 18-64 years when diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer in 1988-1994 and 574 controls to assess the effects of pregnancy history and other aspects of reproductive life on risk of this disease. Among women aged 45-64, the authors observed no associations with number of live births, age at first live birth, or age at last live birth. Risk was somewhat increased in women <45 years who had given birth within the previous 5 years; this association was most evident among women who reported that cancer symptoms had led to diagnosis. Among women who had given birth within the last 5 years, risk was greatest among those with two or more births during that time period (relative risk (RR) = 4.2, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.0, 8.9, relative to parous women whose last birth was >5 years before the reference date). Risk of thyroid cancer was also associated with lactation during the previous 5 years (e.g., RR = 2.9, 95% CI: 1.5, 5.5, among parous women who had breastfed > or =12 months, vs. 0-1 months, during that interval). Our results suggest that thyroid stimulation during both pregnancy and lactation may result in a transient increase in risk of papillary thyroid cancer.
Development of a New Method for Assessing Asphalt Binder Durability with Field Validation

This project was a comprehensive study directed at developing an improved method of screening asphalt binders for long-term pavement performance. A new dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) function, G'/(eta'/G'), and a new aging procedure should warn of premature asphalt hardening and resulting fatigue cracking. For unmodified asphalts the new DSR function correlated well with ductility (at 15 deg C, 1 cm/min) below 10 cm. The correlation was originally developed for DSR measurements at 15 deg C and 0.005 rad/s. These conditions were time-temperature superposition shifted to 44.7 deg C and 10 rad/s to produce a method that is easily accessible to standard laboratory rheological equipment and methods. The recommended aging procedure uses the pressure aging vessel (PAV) apparatus but takes advantage of the higher average aging rate when the asphalt is aged in thinner films. This change, combined with somewhat longer aging, results in a more rigorous test of durability than the standard PAV method. At the same time, the resulting rankings of aged materials are more representative of rankings that are obtained from aging at atmospheric air pressure and 60 deg C. For modified asphalts, the results were complex. Generally for a given value of the DSR function, the ductility was better than indicated by the unmodified asphalt DSR-ductility correlation. Larger amounts of modifier produced increasing values of ductility for a given function value. This result was very asphalt dependent, however, so no general correlation could be found. As modified binders oxidize, the asphalt hardens and the improvement to ductility imparted by modifiers decreases. After enough aging, the improvement is gone and modified binders perform no better than their aged unmodified counterpart. A critical issue is whether the life extension produced by modifiers is life-cycle cost effective. Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) and SH 21 binders indicate: sealcoats may provide an opportunity for significant and very cost-effective in-place binder rejuvenation; G'/(eta'/G') is an excellent function for tracking pavement aging; pavements can oxidize rather uniformly with depth; brittle binders can be tolerated in stiff pavements; aggregates appear to have little effect on asphalt oxidation reactions; rolling thin-film oven tests plus PAV aging is not severe aging, in the context of pavement life.
Study of Fe-C-based alloys by dynamic methods of thermal analysis

Purpose: of this paper is to determine the temperatures of liquidus/solidus temperatures for multicomponent Fe-Cbased alloys (industrially produced steel grades). The obtained results could be used in settings of conditions of steel casting and/or in the numerical simulations of processes occurring during casting and solidification of steel. Design/methodology/approach: Two modern apparatus for dynamic thermal analysis were used. Measurements of liquidus/solidus temperatures were realized by two thermal analysis methods. Experiments by the differential scanning calorimetry were done using the new one Setaram Multi High Temperature Calorimeter with 3D sensor (smaller samples about 2.6 g). The direct thermal analysis was used for large samples (23 g) at the STA 449 F3 Jupiter equipment. Findings: The differences between calculated and experimentally obtained values of liquidus/solidus temperatures were found. Also temperatures of solidification process are different than for “equilibrium” conditions. Practical implications: Presented results will be implemented into steel production practice – lowering of superheating of steel during ingot casting. The obtained temperatures will be implemented also into numerical simulations of ingot solidification. Originality/value: Two thermal analysis methods with different sample mass of steel was used under conditions of one research team. The direct cooperation between steel plant experts and university research team was applied. The utilization of results is the next phases of cooperated research of the authors.
Detection and identification of network anomalies using sketch subspaces

Network anomaly detection using dimensionality reduction techniques has received much recent attention in the literature. For example, previous work has aggregated netflow records into origin-destination (OD) flows, yielding a much smaller set of dimensions which can then be mined to uncover anomalies. However, this approach can only identify which OD flow is anomalous, not the particular IP flow(s) responsible for the anomaly. In this paper we show how one can use random aggregations of IP flows (i.e., sketches) to enable more precise identification of the underlying causes of anomalies. We show how to combine traffic sketches with a subspace method to (1) detect anomalies with high accuracy and (2) identify the IP flows(s) that are responsible for the anomaly. Our method has detection rates comparable to previous methods and detects many more anomalies than prior work, taking us a step closer towards a robust on-line system for anomaly detection and identification.
TCP offload through connection handoff

This paper presents a connection handoff interface between the operating system and the network interface. Using this interface, the operating system can offload a subset of TCP connections in the system to the network interface, while the remaining connections are processed on the host CPU. Offloading can reduce computation and memory bandwidth requirements for packet processing on the host CPU. However, full TCP offloading may degrade system performance because finite processing and memory resources on the network interface limit the amount of packet processing and the number of connections. Using handoff, the operating system controls the number of offloaded connections in order to fully utilize the network interface without overloading it. Handoff is transparent to the application, and the operating system may choose to offload connections to the network interface or reclaim them from the interface at any time. A prototype system based on the modified FreeBSD operating system shows that handoff reduces the number of instructions and cache misses on the host CPU. As a result, the number of CPU cycles spent processing each packet decreases by 16--84%. Simulation results show handoff can improve web server throughput (SEPCweb99) by 15%, despite short-lived connections.