Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An endpoint relaxation method for dynamic time warping algorithms

Inaccurate detection of the endpoints of the test and reference patterns is a major source of errors in discrete utterance recognition by dynamic time warping. If the vocabulary contains similar sounding words whose differences are at their beginnings or ends as in the alphadigit vocabulary, the error rate may greatly increase due to endpoint detection errors. Several methods to improve the recognition accuracy by relaxing or adjusting the endpoints have been suggested. They, however, do not work well in all cases and actually the error rate may increase. We propose a new method to compensate for endpoint detection errors and compare our improved method with two existing methods on the alphadigit vocabulary.
Field effect transistors and photodetectors based on nanocrystalline graphene derived from electron beam induced carbonaceous patterns

We describe a transfer-free method for the fabrication of nanocrystalline graphene (nc-graphene) on SiO2 substrates directly from patterned carbonaceous deposits. The deposits were produced from the residual hydrocarbons present in the vacuum chamber without any external source by using an electron beam induced carbonaceous deposition (EBICD) process. Thermal treatment under vacuum conditions in the presence of Ni catalyst transformed the EBIC deposit into nc-graphene patterns, confirmed using Raman and TEM analysis. The nc-graphene patterns have been employed as an active p-type channel material in a field effect transistor (FET) which showed a hole mobility of ∼90 cm2 V−1 s−1. The nc-graphene also proved to be suitable material for IR detection.
Three-dimensional/four-dimensional transperineal ultrasound: clinical utility and future prospects

During the last decade, there has been a huge advancement in the use of transperineal ultrasound (TPU) in the field of obstetrics and gynecology. Its main applications in obstetrics include the monitoring of fetal progression in labor and recently the assessment of maternal pelvic dimensions, whereas in gynecology, TPU is at present widely used for the evaluation of the female pelvic floor, opening new boundaries for the assessment of pelvic floor disorders. The association of volumetric three-dimensional techniques has largely contributed to the remarkable progress that has occurred in the use of TPU. The aim of this paper is to offer an overview of the advantages, challenges and future perspectives of the use of TPU for women’s imaging.
Transforming Creative Potential in Project Networks: How TV Movies Are Produced under Network-Based Control

Project networks have been identified as dynamic, yet relatively stable organizational forms in project-based creative industries. They materialize in longer-term actor relationships which are actualized by and institutionalized through particular projects. This article examines how project networks transform creative potential for and beyond particular projects. The transformation process is enabled and constrained by the dialectic of network-based control which refers to the capacity of actors to reproduce relational power and autonomy within actor constellations in project networks. This study is empirically based on a qualitative analysis of two projects launched from project networks of two major German TV production companies. Theoretically, the study draws on concepts from structuration theory.
A cooperative driving control protocol for cooperation intelligent autonomous vehicle using VANET technology

A protocol, called cooperative driving control protocol (CDCP), is proposed for intelligent autonomous vehicles, and it defines a standard with common messages and format for autonomous vehicles. The common standard format and definitions of CDCP packet make the autonomous vehicles have a common language to achieve cooperated intelligent driving with other vehicles, increase the reaction time before other vehicles perform some driving action, and decrease the average travel time at the same speed when in a hurry. The simulation tools, including NS3 and SUMO, are used to simulate the wireless transmission and the intelligent autonomous vehicle mobility, and the experiment results present that the CDCP can increase reaction time with maximum 250 seconds and decrease the average travel time 15 seconds/km, compared with the situation without CDCP. Prospectively, the CDCP is under the negotiation to be implemented as a protocol stack in the Linux kernel to provide the basic protocol capability for the future development of autonomous vehicles in intelligent transportation system.
Distilling the essence of proprietary workloads into miniature benchmarks

Benchmarks set standards for innovation in computer architecture research and industry product development. Consequently, it is of paramount importance that these workloads are representative of real-world applications. However, composing such representative workloads poses practical challenges to application analysis teams and benchmark developers (1) real-world workloads are intellectual property and vendors hesitate to share these proprietary applications; and (2) porting and reducing these applications to benchmarks that can be simulated in a tractable amount of time is a nontrivial task. In this paper, we address this problem by proposing a technique that automatically distills key inherent behavioral attributes of a proprietary workload and captures them into a miniature synthetic benchmark clone. The advantage of the benchmark clone is that it hides the functional meaning of the code but exhibits similar performance characteristics as the target application. Moreover, the dynamic instruction count of the synthetic benchmark clone is substantially shorter than the proprietary application, greatly reducing overall simulation time for SPEC CPU, the simulation time reduction is over five orders of magnitude compared to entire benchmark execution. Using a set of benchmarks representative of general-purpose, scientific, and embedded applications, we demonstrate that the power and performance characteristics of the synthetic benchmark clone correlate well with those of the original application across a wide range of microarchitecture configurations.
Improving Word Sense Disambiguation with Automatically Retrieved Semantic Knowledge

Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) is an important problem in Natural Language Processing. Supervised WSD involves assigning a sense from some sense inventory to each occurrence of an ambiguous word. Verb sense distinctions often depend on the distinctions in the semantics of the target verb's arguments. Therefore, some method of capturing their semantics is crucial to the success of a VSD system. In this paper we propose a novel approach to encoding the semantics of the noun arguments of a verb. This approach involves extracting various semantic properties of that verb from a large text corpus. We contrast our approach with the traditional methods and show that it performs better while the only resources it requires are a large corpus and a dependency parser.
Olfactory marker protein modulates the cAMP kinetics of the odour‐induced response in cilia of mouse olfactory receptor neurons

Olfactory marker protein (OMP), a phylogenetically conserved protein, is highly, and almost exclusively, expressed in vertebrate olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs). Although OMP is widely used as a marker for ORNs, its function has remained largely elusive. Here we used suction‐pipette recordings from isolated ORNs of OMP−/− mice to investigate its role in olfactory transduction. Vertebrate olfactory transduction is initiated when odourants bind to receptor proteins to activate an adenylyl cyclase via a G protein‐coupled signalling pathway. This leads to an increase in cAMP and the opening of a cyclic nucleotide‐gated (CNG), non‐selective cation channel which depolarizes the cells. Ca2+ influx through the CNG channel in turn activates a Ca2+‐activated Cl− channel, causing a Cl− efflux and further depolarization. In the absence of OMP, the time‐to‐transient‐peak of the response, the latency to first spike, and the response termination were slowed 2‐ to 8‐fold, indicating its role in regulating olfactory response kinetics and termination. This phenotype persisted in OMP−/− ORNs even in low external Ca2+ solution chosen to prevent Cl− channel activation, suggesting OMP acts upstream of Cl− channel activation. Furthermore, the response kinetics in cilia are virtually indistinguishable between OMP−/− and wild‐type ORNs when intracellular cAMP level was elevated by the phospho‐diesterase inhibitor, IBMX, suggesting OMP acts upstream of cAMP production. Together, our results suggest a role for OMP in regulating the kinetics and termination of olfactory responses, implicating a novel mechanism for fast and robust response termination to ensure the temporal resolution of the odour stimulus. These observations also help explain the deficits in odour detection threshold and odour quality discrimination seen in the OMP−/− mice.
Jensen-Bregman LogDet Divergence with Application to Efficient Similarity Search for Covariance Matrices

Covariance matrices have found success in several computer vision applications, including activity recognition, visual surveillance, and diffusion tensor imaging. This is because they provide an easy platform for fusing multiple features compactly. An important task in all of these applications is to compare two covariance matrices using a (dis)similarity function, for which the common choice is the Riemannian metric on the manifold inhabited by these matrices. As this Riemannian manifold is not flat, the dissimilarities should take into account the curvature of the manifold. As a result, such distance computations tend to slow down, especially when the matrix dimensions are large or gradients are required. Further, suitability of the metric to enable efficient nearest neighbor retrieval is an important requirement in the contemporary times of big data analytics. To alleviate these difficulties, this paper proposes a novel dissimilarity measure for covariances, the Jensen-Bregman LogDet Divergence (JBLD). This divergence enjoys several desirable theoretical properties and at the same time is computationally less demanding (compared to standard measures). Utilizing the fact that the square root of JBLD is a metric, we address the problem of efficient nearest neighbor retrieval on large covariance datasets via a metric tree data structure. To this end, we propose a K-Means clustering algorithm on JBLD. We demonstrate the superior performance of JBLD on covariance datasets from several computer vision applications.
Simulated and projected summer rainfall in tropical Australia: links to atmospheric circulation using the CSIRO-Mk3.6 climate model

Simulations of mean climate characteristics and atmospheric circulation patterns in the tropical region of Australia during the austral summer (December to February) are assessed by comparing against observations. An examination of the observed climatologies of mean sea level pressure, winds at lower and upper levels and rainfall with simulated climatologies show that the model captures the spatial structures of observed patterns fairly well. However, there are some discrepancies in the magnitudes between observed and modelled parameters. The model can reasonably reproduce the observed link between tropical Australian rainfall variability and the atmospheric circulation patterns. Changes in circulation patterns and rainfall are investigated for Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5. Spatial patterns of changes in circulation parameters and rainfall are very similar for both RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5, but the magnitudes are larger for the RCP 8.5. Under anthropogenic climate change conditions, the CSIRO-Mk3.6 climate model simulates an atmospheric circulation pattern reflecting weaker monsoon conditions in the Australian region, and hence, reduced rainfall over tropical Australia. A slightly increased pressure over northwest Australia and slightly decreased pressure over north Asia is simulated. Winds at lower and upper tropospheric levels indicate opposing anomalies and reduced rainfall over a broader region that encompasses northern Australia, parts of Indonesia and around the Philippines. However, an increase in rainfall is simulated for the region east of Papua New Guinea.
Inclusion of Children with Disabilities: Teachers' Attitudes and Requirements for Environmental Accommodations.

Teachers in general education are expected to cope with students with diverse needs. They might not always be ready or sufficiently supported to meet these challenges. The current study aims at identifying child, teacher and environmental barriers to inclusion. Specifically it addresses the importance of preschool teachers' attitudes as the human environment factor that may facilitate inclusion of children with disability, and teachers' major concerns about environmental accommodations that inclusion implies. The study assessed how teachers' attitudes towards inclusion of children with disability are affected by the teachers' personal characteristics and are related to the accommodations they deem necessary for admission of such children to their kindergartens. It also examined whether the teachers’ attitudes and requirements for accommodations differ in respect of four groups of children's disabilities: learning disabilities, sensory/motor disabilities, ADHD, and emotional disabilities. Fifty-three preschool teachers completed the Attitudes toward Disabled Persons Scale (ATDP-A) and the Environmental Accommodations of School (EAS), which was designed especially for this study (Appendix 1). The teachers’ requirements proved to correlate with various teachers’ characteristics such as age, experience, education and personal contact with disability. Teacher’s requirements for accommodations also highly correlated with environmental working conditions (e.g., working hours, number of children). Teachers were most concerned about accommodations for children with potential behavior problems. Implications for practice and education are discussed.
Men's Vocal Behaviour and the Construction of Self

The following paper considers the role of vocal behaviour in the construction of Self. It examines evidence from an ongoing research project investigating the nature and function of singing in men's everyday lives. The present article looks at how men create and regulate identity through singing and through the construction of personal narratives about their vocal behaviour. Extensive, informal, vocal-history interviews were carried out with eight men who all sing in a male-voice choir in north-east Iceland. Additionally these men and sixteen others who sing in the same choir, kept one-week vocal diaries, making regular descriptive and reflective entries about their own vocal activity. Using the methodology of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), the study explores personal perceptions of vocal behaviour. Emerging themes suggest that singing is seen by these men as a central concept of Self. Furthermore, these themes appear to correspond closely to the psychological theory proposed by Robert Weber in his recent revision of William James's seminal, triadic model of Self. Data are discussed here in relation to this particular theoretical framework. Men's vocal behaviour appears to be an important technology of Self; that is, a forming agent and defining concept in tripartite elements of body, persona and spirit. Findings illustrate singing's agency in the changing Self and in the maintaining of core and unitary Selfs, and they exemplify ways in which personal identities can be vocally-constructed, performed and celebrated.
Searching for Ethics and Responsibility in Everyday Life Mobilities: The example of cycling in Copenhagen

Living an everyday life among other people entails evaluating their behavior according to our own ideas about what is right and wrong – good or bad. And living according to our own ethics in a mobile risk society entails ambivalences and opens up the issue of responsibility. This article discusses how moral and ethical considerations are always part of individual’s interaction with others, exemplified through the experiences of being a cyclist in Copenhagen. The article finalizes by touching upon the role of social sciences whom for a long time has learned to ignore or reject ethical and thus normative considerations.
Education for Worksite Monitors of Impaired Nurses

Boards of nursing sponsor programs, including those for alternatives to discipline, for recovering nurses. These programs rely on worksite monitors who are oftentimes other nurses or supervisors of nurses, to work with recovering nurses when they return to practice. The skills of these monitors vary with respect to understanding the monitor role and recognizing traits in chemical dependency and relapse. To determine the degree of content value and the best teaching method for monitors to learn program content, 17 currently active worksite monitors participated in a study to evaluate content value to 2 groups, new and experienced monitors, and to select the best method to teach 4 content topics. Results showed that current content was valued without necessary additions and that group instruction in urban areas was preferred over one-to-one instruction. Implementation of study outcomes yielded that issues of confidentiality made group instruction unsatisfactory.
Simulation-based ! nite-sample tests for heteroskedasticity and ARCH e * ects

Tests for heteroskedasticity in linear regressions are typically based on asymptotic approximations. We show that the size of such tests can be perfectly controlled in ! nite samples through Monte Carlo test techniques, with both Gaussian and non-Gaussian (heavy-tailed) disturbance distributions. The procedures studied include standard heteroskedasticity tests [e.g., Glejser, Bartlett, Cochran, Hartley, Breusch–Pagan–Godfrey, White, Szroeter] as well as tests for ARCH-type heteroskedasticity. Sup-type and combined tests are also proposed to allow for unknown breakpoints in the variance. The fact that the proposed procedures achieve size control and have good power is demonstrated in a Monte Carlo simulation. c © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classi.cation: C12; C15; C2; C52; C22
Public Accounts: Defending Contested Practices

Little attention has been paid to how actors account for controversial institutional conduct or contested practices. Relying on a content analysis of letters to the editor, I explore how actors operating in the Habermasian “public sphere” justify the contested practice of linking Native American symbols with sports teams, and suggest that in their rejection of challengers to their definitions of the situation, authors create public accounts. Consisting primarily of justifications rather than excuses, these accounts are of four types: “denial of injury,” “assertion of benefit,” “claim of authority,” and “rejection of challenge. ” For those who wish to conduct comparative analyses of contested practices, these concepts may prove useful. Although there is a rich literature that describes how actors account for problematic individual conduct, few scholars have paid attention to how actors justify or excuse controversial institutional conduct, which I refer to as contested practices . 1 Contested practices involve the publicly challenged conduct of a number of actors engaging in patterned joint action. Embryonic stem cell research, providing abortions on demand, invading and occupying Iraq, or using Native American imagery to symbolize an athletic team are all examples of contested practices. In these situations, challengers —those who criticize the institutional conduct and call for its elimination or reform, contend with retention ad v ocates (RAs)—those who declare that the practice should be maintained. Public debate over a contested practice is a window into the relationship between processes of individual interpretation and the reproduction and maintenance of social structure. RAs’ accounts aim at preserving and reproducing social structure by protecting a contested practice from criticism. But how do RAs create public accounts? And in what ways are RAs’ accounts similar to and different from individuals’ accounts? In this article, I focus on the controversy over Native American mascots and rely on the content analysis of letters to the editor to investigate how RAs justify their
Posttranslational regulation of nitrogenase in Rhodobacter capsulatus: existence of two independent regulatory effects of ammonium

In the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus, nitrogenase activity is regulated by ADP-ribosylation of component II in response to the addition of ammonium to cultures or to the removal of light. The ammonium stimulus results in a fast and almost complete inhibition of the in vivo acetylene reduction activity, termed switch-off, which is reversed after the ammonium is exhausted. In the present study of the response of cells to ammonium, ADP-ribosylation of component II occurred but could not account for the extent and timing of the inhibition of activity. The presence of an additional response was confirmed with strains expressing mutant component II proteins; although these proteins are not a substrate for ADP-ribosylation, the strains continued to exhibit a switch-off response to ammonium. This second regulatory response of nitrogenase to ammonium was found to be synchronous with ADP-ribosylation and was responsible for the bulk of the observed effects on nitrogenase activity. In comparison, ADP-ribosylation in R. capsulatus was found to be relatively slow and incomplete but responded independently to both known stimuli, darkness and ammonium. Based on the in vitro nitrogenase activity of both the wild type and strains whose component II proteins cannot be ADP-ribosylated, it seems likely that the second response blocks either the ATP or the electron supply to nitrogenase.
Presence of Hemolysin in Cultures of Pathogenic Leptospires

Summary A chance observation of the hemolysis of sheep red blood cells by a culture of leptospires was investigated. Studies were conducted on a newly disclosed serotype strain, isolated in Malaya and designated as Leptospira hemolyticus. The presence of a soluble non-dialysable, thermolabile, oxygen-stable hemolysin in the supernatant fluid of cultures was demonstrated. The optimum temperature for hemolytic activity was 37°C. At lower temperatures the activity of hemolysin progressively decreased. The hemolytic activity against sheep RBC occurred after a prolonged induction period. This phenomenon as well as the atypical kinetic activity of varying concentrations of hemolysin preparations were attributed to the inhibitory activity of the rabbit serum present in culture supernatants. The production of hemolysin was not a generic characteristic but was restricted to specific serotype strains. Hemolytic activity of L. hemolyticus was manifested against sheep, cow, goat RBC, but not against RBC of eleven other species screened. The antigenicity of this hemolysin could not be demonstrated. In actively growing cultures, maximum amounts of hemolysin were produced 1 to 3 days following optimum growth. The presence of a soluble hemolysin in specific serotype strains may figure significantly in explaining the pathogenicity of leptospiral infections.