Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stochastic Gradient Variational Bayes for deep learning-based ASR

Many successful methods for training deep neural networks (DNN) rely on an unsupervised pretraining algorithm. It is particularly effective when the number of labeled training samples is not large enough, because pretraining method helps to initialize the parameter values in the appropriate range near a local good minimum, for further discriminative finetuning. However, while the improvement is impressive, training DNN is difficult because the objective function of DNN is highly non-convex function of the parameters. To avoid placing the parameter that generalizes poorly, a robust generative modelling is necessary. This paper explore an alternative of generative modelling for pretraining DNN-based acoustic modelling using Stochastic Gradient Variational Bayes (SGVB) within autoencoder framework called Variational Bayes Autoencoder (VBAE). It performs an efficient approximate inference and learning with directed probabilistic graphical models. During fine-tuning, probabilistic encoder parameters with latent variable components are then used in discriminative training for acoustic model. Here, we investigate the performances of DNN-based acoustic model using the proposed pretrained VBAE in comparison with widely used pretraining algorithms like Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM) and Stacked Denoising Autoencoder (SDAE). The results reveal that VBAE pretraining with Gaussian latent variables gave the best performance.
Activated by Different Signals, the PhoP/PhoQ Two-Component System Differentially Regulates Metal Uptake

ABSTRACT The PhoP/PhoQ two-component system controls several physiological and virulence functions in Salmonella enterica. This system is activated by low Mg2+, acidic pH, and antimicrobial peptides, but the biological consequences resulting from sensing multiple signals are presently unclear. Here, we report that the PhoP/PhoQ system regulates different Salmonella genes depending on whether the inducing signal is acidic pH or low Mg2+. When Salmonella experiences acidic pH, the PhoP/PhoQ system promotes Fe2+ uptake in a process that requires the response regulator RstA, activating transcription of the Fe2+ transporter gene feoB. In contrast, the PhoP-induced RstA protein did not promote feoB expression at neutral pH with low Mg2+. The PhoP/PhoQ system promotes the expression of the Mg2+ transporter mgtA gene only when activated in bacteria starved for Mg2+. This is because mgtA transcription promoted at high Mg2+ concentrations by the acidic-pH-activated PhoP protein failed to reach the mgtA coding region due to the mgtA leader region functioning as a Mg2+ sensor. Our results show that a single two-component regulatory system can regulate distinct sets of genes in response to different input signals.
Influence of body placement on low profile UWB antenna off-body ranging performance

A study of human body influence on off-body ranging performance of a low profile UWB antenna is presented. Antenna ranging performance is reported for 10 volunteer wearers and for two different placements. Antenna was especially designed for WBAN applications and is immune to body influence even when in direct skin contact. Average ranging error value below 5 cm is observed for the majority of angles in the front antenna plane with standard deviation of the same order. The study shows that the antenna ranging precision depends more on the body placement than on the distance from the body.
Enhancing the Performance of a Safe Controller Via Supervised Learning for Truck Lateral Control

Correct-by-construction techniques, such as control barrier functions (CBFs), can be used to guarantee closed-loop safety by acting as a supervisor of an existing legacy controller. However, supervisory-control intervention typically compromises the performance of the closed-loop system. On the other hand, machine learning has been used to synthesize controllers that inherit good properties from a training dataset, though safety is typically not guaranteed due to the difficulty of analyzing the associated learning structure. In this paper, supervised learning is combined with CBFs to synthesize controllers that enjoy good performance with provable safety. A training set is generated by trajectory optimization that incorporates the CBF constraint for an interesting range of initial conditions of the truck model. A control policy is obtained via supervised learning that maps a feature representing the initial conditions to a parameterized desired trajectory. The learning-based controller is used as the performance controller and a CBF-based supervisory controller guarantees safety. A case study of lane keeping (LK) for articulated trucks shows that the controller trained by supervised learning inherits the good performance of the training set and rarely requires intervention by the CBF supervisor.
Trends in thin body stature among Japanese female adolescents, 2003–2012

Abstract Background: The past decades have witnessed a steady increase in thin body stature associated with unhealthy dieting among Japanese female adolescents. The most recent trends in thinness, however, have not been reported. Aim: To describe changes in the distribution of body mass index (BMI) of Japanese female adolescents, from 2003–2012. Subjects and methods: This study examined BMI distribution changes in 2541 relatively affluent Japanese girls, aged 12.5–17.5 years, during 2003–2012. The 2003 and 2004 data were combined and compared to the combined 2011 and 2012 data. Tukey mean-difference plots were used to study the direction and magnitude of shifts in BMI distributions. Results: Prevalence of thinness (BMI <5th percentile of the 1978–1981 references) has progressively increased from 2.0–5.7% in 2003–2004 to 3.5–7.8% in 2011–2012 in Japanese girls. The downward shift in BMI was larger in 12.5–14.5 year olds than in 15.5–17.5 year olds and more prominent in the lower BMI spectrum. Conclusion: The trend towards thinness has continued in Japanese girls during the past decade. The distribution of BMI suggests thinner and younger sub-groups of girls are more susceptible to this trend.
Regulation of Protein Kinase C by the Cytoskeletal Protein Calponin*

Previous studies from this laboratory have shown that, upon agonist activation, calponin co-immunoprecipitates and co-localizes with protein kinase Cε (PKCε) in vascular smooth muscle cells. In the present study we demonstrate that calponin binds directly to the regulatory domain of PKC both in overlay assays and, under native conditions, by sedimentation with lipid vesicles. Calponin was found to bind to the C2 region of both PKCε and PKCα with possible involvement of C1B. The C2 region of PKCε binds to the calponin repeats with a requirement for the region between amino acids 160 and 182. We have also found that calponin can directly activate PKC autophosphorylation. By using anti-phosphoantibodies to residue Ser-660 of PKCβII, we found that calponin, in a lipid-independent manner, increased auto-phosphorylation of PKCα, -ε, and -βII severalfold compared with control conditions. Similarly, calponin was found to increase the amount of 32P-labeled phosphate incorporated into PKC from [γ-32P]ATP. We also observed that calponin addition strongly increased the incorporation of radiolabeled phosphate into an exogenous PKC peptide substrate, suggesting an activation of enzyme activity. Thus, these results raise the possibility that calponin may function in smooth muscle to regulate PKC activity by facilitating the phosphorylation of PKC.
The Impact of Partial Vascular Occlusion on Oxidative Stress Markers during Resistance Exercise

Abstract This study sought to examine the effects of partial vascular occlusion (PVO) on oxidative stress markers in response to resistance exercise and at rest in young resistance-trained males. 12 resistance-trained males performed 6 conditions in random counterbalanced order: rest (R), low-intensity (LIRE: 30% 1RM) and moderate-intensity (MIRE: 70% 1RM) resistance exercise with or without PVO. Blood samples were obtained before and immediately after each condition and plasma protein carbonyls (PC), glutathione ratio, oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), and xanthine oxidase (XO) were evaluated. The addition of PVO resulted in significantly greater plasma PC and glutathione ratio in the rest condition. During LIRE the addition of PVO significantly attenuated plasma PC. The MIRE condition, independent of PVO, resulted in significantly higher PC concentration and glutathione ratio compared to the rest and LIRE conditions. The addition of PVO during MIRE resulted in a significant increase in PC. Thus, this study revealed that PVO increased oxidative stress at rest and enhanced the oxidative stress response to MIRE, but when combined with LIRE oxidative stress was attenuated. These findings suggest that the utilization of PVO during LIRE may alter ROS-induced accumulation in the blood which may influence cellular signaling.
Validation of a 3-D near-field ISAR imaging technique with far-field RCS extraction by means of a hybrid GO-PO/PTD ray tracing algorithm

This paper deals with a 3-D inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging technique using a cylindrical scanning plane in the near-field of the radar target, where the resulting 3-D images are displayed on sheets perpendicular to the scanning cylinder axis. Besides of a very detailed scattering center analysis of targets with arbitrary shapes, the method allows in a second step the extraction of the far-field radar cross section (RCS) of the targets without the need of long range measurement set-ups or costly compact-range arrangements.
Efalizumab binding to the LFA-1 αL I domain blocks ICAM-1 binding via steric hindrance

Lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1 (LFA-1) plays important roles in immune cell adhesion, trafficking, and activation and is a therapeutic target for the treatment of multiple autoimmune diseases. Efalizumab is one of the most efficacious antibody drugs for treating psoriasis, a very common skin disease, through inhibition of the binding of LFA-1 to the ligand intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1). We report here the crystal structures of the Efalizumab Fab alone and in complex with the LFA-1 αL I domain, which reveal the molecular mechanism of inhibition of LFA-1 by Efalizumab. The Fab binds with an epitope on the inserted (I) domain that is distinct from the ligand-binding site. Efalizumab binding blocks the binding of LFA-1 to ICAM-1 via steric hindrance between its light chain and ICAM-1 domain 2 and thus inhibits the activities of LFA-1. These results have important implications for the development of improved antibodies and new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.
Research on Filtration Performance of Filter Media Used in Bag Filter for Industrial Furnaces

Based on the fine particles as the main control object, the influence of dust load, filtration velocity and structure of filter material on the performance of the bag filter is studied. The results show that in certain dust load, the filtration resistance and filtration velocity has good linear relation and the resistance increases with the increase of dust load. High dust load and velocity is more advantageous to form initial dust layer on the surface of clean filter material, so it can improve the classification filtration; the classification filtration efficiency of membrane filter material is significantly better than conventional filter material. This advantage is obvious for small dust particle size.
Effects of Modeling the Heterogeneity on Inferences Drawn from Multilevel Designs

This article uses Monte Carlo techniques to examine the effect of heterogeneity of variance in multilevel analyses in terms of relative bias, coverage probability, and root mean square error (RMSE). For all simulated data sets, the parameters were estimated using the restricted maximum-likelihood (REML) method both assuming homogeneity and incorporating heterogeneity into multilevel models. We find that (a) the estimates for the fixed parameters are unbiased, but the associated standard errors are frequently biased when heterogeneity is ignored; by contrast, the standard errors of the fixed effects are almost always accurate when heterogeneity is considered; (b) the estimates for the random parameters are slightly overestimated; (c) both the homogeneous and heterogeneous models produce standard errors of the variance component estimates that are underestimated; however, taking heterogeneity into account, the REML-estimations give correct estimates of the standard errors at the lowest level and lead to less underestimated standard errors at the highest level; and (d) from the RMSE point of view, REML accounting for heterogeneity outperforms REML assuming homogeneity; a considerable improvement has been particularly detected for the fixed parameters. Based on this, we conclude that the solution presented can be uniformly adopted. We illustrate the process using a real dataset.
Consequences of co-occurring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder on children's language impairments.

PURPOSE Co-occurring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and communication disorders represent a frequently encountered challenge for school-based practitioners. The purpose of the present study was to examine in more detail the clinical phenomenology of co-occurring ADHD and language impairments (LIs). METHOD Measures of nonword repetition, sentence recall, and tense marking were collected from 57 seven- to nine-year-old children. The performances of children with ADHD+LI status were compared with those of children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with typical development (TD). RESULTS ADHD status had no independent detrimental impact on the affected children's LIs (SLI = ADHD+LI < TD). A modest positive correlation was found between the severity of children's ADHD symptoms and their sentence recall performance, suggesting a tendency for affected children who had higher levels of ADHD symptoms to perform better than those children with lower levels. CONCLUSION These outcomes are difficult to reconcile with attention-deficit/information-processing accounts of the core deficits associated with SLI. Potential protective mechanisms associated with ADHD status are discussed.
Preparation and characterization of electrospun in-situ cross-linked gelatin-graphite oxide nanofibers

Abstract Electrospun gelatin(Gel) nanofibers scaffold has such defects as poor mechanical property and quick degradation due to high solubility. In this study, the in situ cross-linked electrospinning technique was used for the production of gelatin nanofibers. Deionized water was chosen as the spinning solvent and graphite oxide (GO) was chosen as the enhancer. The morphological structure, porosity, thermal property, moisture absorption, and moisture retention performance, hydrolysis resistance, mechanical property, and biocompatibility of the produced nanofibers were investigated. Compared with in situ cross-linked gelatin nanofibers scaffold, in situ cross-linked Gel-GO nanofibers scaffold has the following features: (1) the hydrophilicity, moisture absorption, and moisture retention performance slightly reduce, while the hydrolysis resistance is improved; (2) the breaking strength, breaking elongation, and Young’s modulus are significantly improved; (3) the porosity slightly reduces while the biocompatibility considerably increases. The in situ cross-linked Gel-GO nanofibers scaffold is likely to be applied in such fields as drug delivery and scaffold for skin tissue engineering.
Temporal Kinetics of Marek's Disease Herpesvirus: Integration Occurs Early after Infection in Both B and T Cells

Marek's disease virus (MDV) is an oncogenic α-herpesvirus that induces Marek's disease characterized by fatal lymphomas in chickens. Here, we explored the timing during pathogenesis when the virus integrates into the host genome, the cell type involved, the role of viral integration on cellular transformation, and tumor clonality. Three immune organs of chicken (thymus, bursa, and spleen) were extracted following infection with either an oncogenic or a non-oncogenic strain of MDV. Using molecular cytogenetics, cells were investigated for viral integration at key time points throughout pathogenesis. Integration profiling of tumors (early to late stage) was conducted. Virus integration was widespread in B and T lymphocytes based on their abundance in bursa and thymus, respectively. Viral replication was detected early after infection as was viral integration into the host genome. Integration is a natural part of the MDV herpesvirus life cycle. In addition, our data using a non-oncogenic virus establish that although integration is a hallmark of tumor cell populations, integration alone is not sufficient for cellular transformation. Our results provide evidence for progression of lineage clonality within tumors. Understanding the features of integration provides insight into the mechanisms of herpesvirus pathology which could lead to disease mitigation strategies.
Shape Complementarity Analysis for Objects of Arbitrary Shape

The basic problem of shape complementarity analysis appears fundamental to applications as diverse as mechanical design, assembly automation, robot motion planning, micro- and nano-fabrication, protein-ligand binding, and rational drug design. However, the current challenge lies in the lack of a general mathematical formulation that applies to objects of arbitrary shape. We propose that a measure of shape complementarity can be obtained from the extent of approximate overlap between shape skeletons. A space-continuous implicit generalization of the skeleton, called the skeletal density function (SDF) is defined over the Euclidean space that contains the individual assembly partners. The SDF shape descriptors capture the essential features that are relevant to proper contact alignment, and are considerably more robust than the conventional explicit skeletal representations. We express the shape complementarity score as a convolution of the individual SDFs. The problem then breaks down to a global optimization of the score over the configuration space of spatial relations, which can be efficiently implemented using fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) on nonequispaced samples. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the scoring approach for several examples from 2D peg-in-hole alignment to more complex 3D examples in mechanical assembly and protein docking. We show that the proposed method is reliable, inherently robust against small perturbations, and effective in steering gradient-based optimization.
Pharmacokinetic model of R-roscovitine and its metabolite in healthy male subjects.

OBJECTIVE To characterize the pharmacokinetics of R-roscovitine, a novel cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, and its carboxylate metabolite in man. METHOD Twelve healthy male subjects received single oral doses of 50, 100, 200, 400 or 800 mg in a hierarchical 3-period, 6-sequence crossover design. One dose was given after breakfast, the others under fasting conditions. R-roscovitine and the carboxylate metabolite were measured in plasma and urine. A 2-compartment model for R-roscovitine with 1 compartment for the metabolite and a component for first-pass extraction was adequate. Protein binding was calculated from plasma and urine data. RESULTS R-roscovitine undergoes nonsaturatable first-pass extraction, rapid metabolism, exhibits high nonsaturated protein binding, is slowly absorbed from the GI tract and is rapidly and extensively distributed into tissues. The slow release of the molecule from tissue determines the apparent terminal half-life. Food delays the absorption and slows down the absorption rate but does not influence bioavailability. The formation rate of the carboxylate is a determinant of the plasma concentrations of this metabolite. It has low protein binding, limited tissue distribution and a renal clearance reflecting with good water solubility. CONCLUSION The compartmental analysis clarified important pharmacokinetic aspects relevant for the clinical development of the compound.
Hyperosmoregulation in the red freshwater crab Dilocarcinus pagei (Brachyura, Trichodactylidae): structural and functional asymmetries of the posterior gills.

The osmotic and ionic status of the haemolymph and the structural and ion-transport characteristics of the posterior gills of Dilocarcinus pagei, a hololimnetic crab, were investigated. Haemolymph osmolality was 386 +/- 18 mosmol kg(-1), while [Na(+)] and [Cl(-)] were 190 +/- 13 and 206 +/- 12 mmol l(-1), respectively; [K(+)], [Ca(2+)] and [Mg(2+)] were 9.7 +/- 0.7, 10.2 +/- 0.5 and 2.8 +/- 0.4 mmol l(-1), respectively (means +/- S.E.M., N=12-17). The gill lamellae possess a central, osmiophilic area, which exhibits a marked structural asymmetry. The thick (18-20 microm) proximal epithelium is characterised by basal invaginations and a few apical vesicles, while the thin (3-10 microm) distal epithelium consists of apical pillar cell flanges populated by vesicles and membrane invaginations. Isolated gills, bathed and perfused with NaCl saline, spontaneously generate a negative transbranchial potential difference (V(te)), which stabilises at positive or negative values. Ouabain shifts V(te) to more positive values. When mounted in an Ussing chamber, distal split lamellae generate a negative, Cl(-)-dependent short-circuit current (I(sc)). Na(+) substitution leads to more negative values of I(sc). Internal ouabain is without effect, while diphenylamine-2-carboxylate and acetazolamide abolish I(sc). Proximal split lamellae show a positive, Na(+)-dependent I(sc), which decreases after internal application of ouabain. These data suggest that the thin epithelium actively absorbs Cl(-), while the thick epithelium actively absorbs Na(+).
Subtype‐Specific Enhancement of NMDA Receptor Currents by Mutant Huntingtin

Abstract: Evidence suggests that NMDA receptor‐mediated neurotoxicity plays a role in the selective neurodegeneration underlying Huntington's disease (HD). The gene mutation that causes HD encodes an expanded polyglutamine tract of >35 in huntingtin, a protein of unknown function. Both huntingtin and NMDA receptors interact with cytoskeletal proteins, and, for NMDA receptors, such interactions regulate surface expression and channel activity. To determine whether mutant huntingtin alters NMDA receptor expression or function, we coexpressed mutant or normal huntingtin, containing 138 or 15 glutamine repeats, respectively, with NMDA receptors in a cell line and then assessed receptor channel function by patch‐clamp recording and surface expression by western blot analysis. It is interesting that receptors composed of NR1 and NR2B subunits exhibited significantly larger currents when coexpressed with mutant compared with normal huntingtin. Moreover, this effect was selective for NR1/NR2B, as NR1/NR2A showed similar currents when coexpressed with mutant versus normal huntingtin. However, ion channel properties and total surface expression of the NR1 subunit were unchanged in cells cotransfected with NR1/NR2B and mutant huntingtin. Our results suggest that mutant huntingtin may increase numbers of functional NR1/NR2B‐type receptors at the cell surface. Because NR1/NR2B is the predominant NMDA receptor subtype expressed in medium spiny neostriatal neurons, our findings may help explain the selective vulnerability of these neurons in HD.