Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SPEECH WATERMARKING BY PARA

Parameter-embedded watermarking of speech signals is effected through slight perturbations of parametric models of some deeplyintegrated dynamics of the signal. One of the objectives of the present research is to develop, within the parameter-embedding framework, quantifiable measures of fidelity of the stegosignal and of robustness of the watermark to attack. This paper advances previous developments on parameter-embedded watermarking by introducing a specific technique for watermark selection subject to a fidelity constraint. New results in set-theoretic filtering are used to obtain sets of allowable parameter perturbations (i.e., watermarks) subject to an ∞ constraint on the error between the watermarked and original material. With respect to previous trial-and-error perturbation methods, the set-based parameter perturbation is not only quantified and systematic, it is found to be more robust, and to have a higher threshold of perceptibility with perturbation energy. After a brief review of the general parameter-embedding strategy, the new algorithm for set-theoretic watermark selection is presented. Experiments with real speech data are used to assess robustness and other performance properties. This work is being undertaken in support of the development of the National Gallery of the Spoken Word, a project of the Digital Libraries II Initiative. 1. MOTIVATING PROBLEM The results reported in this paper represent significant enhancements to a speech watermarking technique first presented at the 2002 International Conference on Spoken Language Processing (ICSLP02) [1]. The motivating application for this work is the creation of the National Gallery of the Spoken Word (NGSW), a Digital Libraries Initiative II project whose goal is the development of a carefully organized on-line repository of spoken word collections, based largely upon the renowned Vincent Voice Library at Michigan State University (MSU). Speech engineering aspects of the NGSW are being researched by the authors in collaboration with the Center for Spoken Language Research (CSLR) at the University of Colorado. A brief introduction to the NGSW project by CSLR researchers is found in [2], and further information is available at www.ngsw. org. 2. PARAMETER-EMBEDDED WATERMARKS The general method presented at ICSLP 2002 is referred to as parameter-embedded watermarking. The method involves informed This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of the U.S. under Cooperative Agreement IIS-9817485. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. embed rial – to reco the ste markin into pa of the s but in Let {y ersigna Each i that the in whic random alterati ing the “overb assume diction but thi using s fore, i mated where set {ai ues in be rem ping, a “water necess few au bility o and pe sents a METRIC EMBEDDING RITERION
Simurg: An Extendable Multilingual Corpus for Abstractive Single Document Summarization

Abstractive single document summarization is considered as a challenging problem in the field of artificial intelligence and natural language processing. Meanwhile and specifically in the last two years, several deep learning summarization approaches were proposed that once again attracted the attention of researchers to this field. It is a well-known issue that deep learning approaches do not work well with small amounts of data. With some exceptions, this is, unfortunately, the case for most of the datasets available for the summarization task. Besides this problem, it should be considered that phonetic, morphological, semantic and syntactic features of the language are constantly changing over the time and unfortunately most of the summarization corpora are constructed from old resources. Another problem is the language of the corpora. Not only in the summarization field, but also in other fields of natural language processing, most of the corpora are only available in English. In addition to the above problems, license terms, and fees of the corpora are obstacles that prevent many academics and specifically non-academics from accessing these data. This work describes an open source framework to create an extendable multilingual corpus for abstractive single document summarization that addresses the above-mentioned problems. We describe a tool consisted of a scalable crawler and a centralized key-value store database to construct a corpus of an arbitrary size using a news aggregator service.
Cell adhesion molecules: detection with univalent second antibody

Identification of cell surface molecules that play a role in cell-cell adhesion (here called cell adhesion molecules) has been achieved by demonstrating the inhibitory effect of univalent antibodies that bind these molecules in an in vitro assay of cell-cell adhesion. A more convenient reagent, intact (divalent) antibody, has been avoided because it might agglutinate the cells rather than blocking cell-cell adhesion. In this report, we show that intact rabbit immunoglobulin directed against certain cell surface molecules of Dictyostelium discoideum blocks cell-cell adhesion when the in vitro assay is performed in the presence of univalent goat anti-rabbit antibody. Under appropriate experimental conditions, the univalent second antibody blocks agglutination induced by the rabbit antibody without significantly interfering with its effect on cell-cell adhesion. This method promises to be useful for screening monoclonal antibodies raised against potential cell adhesion molecules because: (a) it allows for the screening of large numbers of antibody samples without preparation of univalent fragments; and (b) it requires much less antibody because of the greater affinity of divalent antibodies for antigens.
Examining Digital Interviews for Personnel Selection: Applicant Reactions and Interviewer Ratings

Digital interviews are a potentially efficient new form of selection interviews, in which interviewees digitally record their answers. Using Potosky's framework of media attributes, we compared them to videoconference interviews. Participants (N = 113) were randomly assigned to a videoconference or a digital interview and subsequently answered applicant reaction questionnaires. Raters evaluated participants’ interview performance. Participants considered digital interviews to be creepier and less personal, and reported that they induced more privacy concerns. No difference was found regarding organizational attractiveness. Compared to videoconference interviews, participants in digital interviews received better interview ratings. These results warn organizations that using digital interviews might cause applicants to self‐select out. Furthermore, organizations should stick to either videoconference or digital interviews within a selection stage.
Domain adaptation for text dependent speaker verification

Recently we have investigated the use of state-of-the-art textdependent speaker verification algorithms for user authentication and obtained satisfactory results mainly by using a fair amount of text-dependent development data from the target domain. In this work we investigate the ability to build high accuracy text-dependent systems using no data at all from the target domain. Instead of using target domain data, we use resources such as TIMIT, Switchboard, and NIST data. We introduce several techniques addressing both lexical mismatch and channel mismatch. These techniques include synthesizing a universal background model according to lexical content, automatic filtering of irrelevant phonetic content, exploiting information in residual supervectors (usually discarded in the i-vector framework), and inter dataset variability modeling. These techniques reduce verification error significantly, and also improve accuracy when target domain data is available.
ISO observations and models of galaxies with hidden broad line regions

We present ISO mid-infrared spectrophotometry and far-infrared photometry of galaxies with Hidden Broad Line Regions (HBLR). We also present radiative transfer models of their spectral energy distributions which enable us to separate the contributions from the dusty disc of the AGN and the dusty starbursts. We find that the combination of tapered discs (discs whose thickness increases with distance from the central source in the inner part but stays constant in the outer part) and starbursts provide good fits to the data. The tapered discs dominate in the mid-infrared part of the spectrum and the starbursts in the far-infrared. After correcting the AGN luminosity for anisotropic emission we find that the ratio of the AGN luminosity to the starburst luminosity, LAGN/Lsb, ranges from about unity for IRAS 14454-4343 to about 13 for IRAS 01475-0740. Our results suggest that the warm IRAS colours of HBLR are due to the relatively high LAGN/Lsb. Our fits are consistent with the unified model and the idea that the infrared emission of AGN is dominated by a dusty disc in the mid-infrared and starbursts in the far-infrared.
Dictionnaire de la prononciation française dans son usage réel, par A. Martinet et H. Walter. Paris: France-Expansion, 1973. Pp. 932.

HAUDRICOURT, A. G. & A. G. JUILLAND 1949 Essai pour une histoire structurale du phonltisme jrancais. Paris: Klincksieck. HOUAISS, A. 1959 Tentativa de desert(3o do sistema vocdlico do portuguh culto rta drea dita carioca. Rio de Janeiro. HUBER, JOSEPH 1933 Altportugiesisches Eletnentarbuch. Heidelberg: Winter. JUCA (FILHO), C. 1959 O factor psicologico na mutacao vocalica portuguesa. Adas do IX Congresso International de Linguistica Romanica, v. 1 ( = Boletim de Filologia, 18), pp. 143-62. JUNGEMANN, FREDERICK H. 1955 La teoria del sustrato y los dialectos hispano-romances y gascones. Translated by Emilio Alarcos Llorach. Madrid: Credos. LIMA COUTINHO, I. DE 1968 Pontos de gramatica historica. Rio de Janeiro, 1968. LLOYD, P. M. 1964 An analytical survey of studies in Romance word formation. Romance Philology 17.736-70. LOURO, J. I. 1959 Metafonia do e tonico em portugues. Adas do IX Congresso International de Linguistica Romanica, v. 1 ( = Boletim de Filologia, 18), pp. 105-13. MACHADO, J . P . 1967 Diciondrio etimoldgico da lingua portuguesa, 2nd ed., Lisbon: Editorial Confluencia, 1967-73. MARTINET, ANDRE 1955 Economic des changements phonitiques. Berne: Francke. NONES, J. J. 1945 Compendia de gram&tica histdrica portuguesa. Lisbon, 1945. PIEL, J. M. 1944 A flexao verbal do portugues. Estudo de morfologia historica. Biblos 20.359-404. WILLIAMS, E. B. 1962 From Latin to Portuguese. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1938; 1962.
Kv Channels Contribute to Nitric Oxide- and Atrial Natriuretic Peptide-Induced Relaxation of a Rat Conduit Artery

The role of K+ channels in nitric oxide (NO)-induced vasorelaxation has been largely investigated in resistance vessels where iberiotoxin-sensitive MaxiK channels play a predominant role. However, the nature of the K+ channel(s) involved in the relaxation triggered by NO-releasing compounds [nitroglycerin, NTG; NOR 3 [(±)-(E)-4-ethyl-2-[(E)-hydroxyimino]-5-nitro-3-hexenamide]] or atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) in the conduit vessel aorta has remained elusive. We now demonstrate that, in rat aorta, the relaxation due to these vasorelaxants is not affected by the MaxiK channel blocker iberiotoxin (10–7–10–6 M) as was the control vascular bed used (mesenteric artery). The inability of iberiotoxin to prevent NO/ANP-induced aortic relaxations was not due to lower expression of MaxiK in aorta or due to the predominance of iberiotoxin-resistant channels in this conduit vessel. Aortic relaxations were strongly diminished by 4-aminopyridine (4-AP) (≥5 × 10–3 M) or by tetraethylammonium (>2 × 10–3 M) at concentrations known to inhibit voltage-dependent K+ (Kv) 2-type channels but not by other K+ channel inhibitors, glibenclamide, apamin, charybdotoxin, tertiapin, or E-4031 N-[4-[[1-[2-(6-methyl-2-pyridinyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinyl-]carbonyl]phenyl]methanesulfonamide dihydrochloride). Consistent with a role of Kv2-type channels, Kv currents in A7r5 aortic myocytes were stimulated by NTG and inhibited by ≥5 × 10–3 M 4-AP. Furthermore, immunocytochemistry, immunoblot, and real-time polymerase chain reaction analyses confirmed the presence of Kv2.1 channels in aorta. Kv2.1 transcripts were ∼100-fold more abundant than Kv2.2. Our results support low-affinity 4-AP-sensitive Kv channels, assembled at least partially by Kv2.1 subunit, as downstream effectors of NO/ANP-signaling cascade regulating aortic vasorelaxation and further demonstrate vessel-specific K+ channel involvement in NO/ANP-induced relaxation.
Web Genre Benchmark Under Construction

The project presented in this article focuses on the creation of web genre benchmarks (a.k.a. web genre reference corpora or web genre test collections), i.e. newly conceived test collections against which it will be possible to judge the performance of future genre-enabled web applications. The creation of web genre benchmarks is of key importance for the next generation of web applications because, at present, it is impossible to evaluate existing and in-progress genre-enabled prototypes. We suggest focusing on the following key points: ) propose a characterisation of genre suitable for digital environments and empirical approaches shared by a number of genre experts working in automatic genre identification; ) define the criteria for the construction of web genre benchmarks and draw up annotation guidelines; ) create web genre benchmarks in several languages; ) validate the methodology and evaluate the results. We describe work in progress and our plans for future development. Since it is sometimes difficult to anticipate the difficulties that will arise when developing a large resource, we present our ideas, our current views on genre issues and our first results with the aim of stimulating a proactive discussion, so that the stakeholders, i.e. researchers who will ultimately benefit from the resource, can contribute to its design.
Neural Network Associative Memories and Input Space With Non-Orthonormal Basis

One of the main problems with using Neural Network Associative Memories appears when the signals to be learned determine a non-orthogonal basis. In dealing with this type of basis, an error is introduced in the association and, because of this, a perfect matching is not obtained. Based in theoretical considerations only, this paper addresses the problem of getting rid cross-talk terms in the final recalling of an autoassociative neural network when input patterns belong to a subspace embedded into the whole input pattern space. One of the methods obtained also considers optimization in matrix weight size, at the expense of redefining the weight matrix, the activation function and the output space. Particularly interesting results the fact that we get rid of the cross-talk term by just considering one-single layer heteroassociative-competitive neural network defined on the subspace generated by the set of linearly independent input patterns. The results are very important in practical questions such as image and pattern recognition, as well.
Alternative multiple spanning tree protocol (AMSTP) for optical Ethernet backbones

The availability and affordable cost of Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches has impacted the deployment of metropolitan area networks (MAN) and campus networks. This paper presents a new protocol, the alternative multiple spanning tree protocol (AMSTP), that uses multiple source based spanning trees for backbones using Ethernet switches. It provides minimum paths and more efficient usage of optical backbone infrastructure than currently proposed protocols such as resilient packet ring and rapid spanning tree. The protocol exhibits features similar to MAC routing protocols like Link State Over MAC (LSOM) such as optimum path and effective infrastructure usage, without requiring MAC routing due to the use of the spanning tree protocol paradigm. AMSTP is not restricted to specific topologies such as ring or tree, but performs efficiently in arbitrary topologies. Among the application areas are optical backbones of campus and MANs.
Window into the Wandering Mind: Investigating the Neural and Pupillometric Correlates of Mind Wandering with a Dual Task Paradigm

Mind wandering (MW) is a heterogeneous and private phenomenon, which is nonetheless omnipresent in people’s lives. Research on this phenomenon has grown considerably during the past decade, thanks also to the development of neuroimaging techniques which have given us a window into the brain’s activity while we are lost in our thoughts. However, there are still two important issues for researchers in this field. The first, is the need to evoke in an experimental setting what is, by definition, a spontaneous phenomenon. This can be solved by developing an experimental task that creates certain conditions in which MW is more or less likely to arise. The second issue is the reliance on individuals’ self-reports, which are inherently subjective, to understand the emergence, and content, of MW. This issue is harder to tackle, but one possibility is to develop a physiological, objective marker of MW. Recently, two candidates have emerged as potential markers of MW: one is the default mode network (DMN), a set of brain areas that show coordinated activity when people drift off to their inner thoughts; the second candidate is baseline pupil size, which has showed sensitivity to changes in external and internal attention, such as during episodes of MW. This thesis describes the development of a novel paradigm for the study of mind wandering, and its use to understand the potential that the DMN and baseline pupil size have as markers of this phenomenon. In three empirical studies, this paradigm successfully modulates individuals’ performance, MW, and on-task focus. Further, evidence from these studies indicates that DMN activity and baseline pupil size don’t provide sufficient precision to be used in isolation as markers of MW: in particular, it is suggested that their predictive power strongly depends on taking into account the content of the MW experience, and the context in which it occurs.
Covariance of weak lensing observables

Analytical expressions for covariances of weak lensing statistics related to the aperture mass, M ap , are derived for realistic survey geometries such as the Supernova Acceleration Probe (SNAP) 1 for a range of smoothing angles and redshift bins. We incorporate the contributions to the noise due to the intrinsic ellipticity distribution and the effects of the finite catalogue size. Extending previous results to the most general case where the overlap of source populations is included in a complete analysis of error estimates, we study how various angular scales in various redshifts are correlated and how the estimation scatter changes with the survey parameters. Dependences on cosmological parameters and source redshift distributions are studied in detail. Numerical simulations are used to test the validity of various ingredients to our calculations. Correlation coefficients are defined in a way that makes them practically independent of cosmology. They can provide important tools to cross-correlate one or more different surveys, as well as various redshift bins within the same survey or various angular scales from the same or different surveys. The dependence of these coefficients on various models of underlying mass correlation hierarchy is also studied. Generalizations of these coefficients at the level of three-point statistics have the potential of probing the complete shape dependence of the underlying bi-spectrum of the matter distribution. A complete error analysis incorporating all sources of errors suggests encouraging results for studies using future space-based weak lensing surveys such as SNAP.
What affects net interest margins of Latin American banks ?

High interest rate spreads and low credit availability to the private sector have been persistent problems in Latin American banking in spite of the recent financial sector reforms. This paper considers the determinants of interest rate margins focusing on their relationship with (structural and non-structural) measures of competition and non-parametric estimates of efficiency. The empirical analysis provides an extension of the traditional Structure-Conduct-Performance framework and we estimate panel regressions using a Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) framework, for a sample of over 2,300 bank observations covering the period 1999-2006. The results show that the concentration index and the market share have little or no influence on interest rate margins. In contrast, we produce evidence suggesting that greater X-efficiency and competitive markets result to lower spreads. Moreover, while well capitalized banks seem to be associated with high spreads, economic growth appears to reduce them.
Teaching Algorithms with the Use of a Web-Based Scripted Collaboration Environment and Algorithm Visualization Tool: Results from a Case Study

In this paper we present data from a case study examining the influence of employing a reciprocal peer tutoring script in an algorithm visualization environment for educational purposes. We discuss the results as occurred in the context of a web-based collaboration activity in the “algorithms analysis”, computer science course. For this purpose we have designed and implemented AlCoLab, a web based environment, which provided the platform for our project. In the course of the activity, students interacted with the AV tool and followed the steps of a collaboration script, which led them to play roles as tutors and tutees, setting key questions and urge them to discuss critical issues on the subject of the merge sort algorithm. Based on our literature research on AV systems and CSCL, we claim, as the outcome of our case study illustrates, that an embedded instructional component, which enables student collaboration, is adequate to direct the students’ interactions and dialogues on task related subjects and advance the process of algorithms’ teaching. Additionally it provided useful information to improve the effectiveness of the AlCoLab tool.
Next Steps Toward Eradication of Hepatitis C in the Era of Direct Acting Antivirals

Context After the introduction of safe and highly effective hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatments, eradication of HCV in the next 20 years is the ultimate goal. Since 2011, the advent of first generation direct acting antivirals (DAAs) were started and followed by the introduction of a new wave of DAAs in 2013 which exhibit outstanding efficacy. It is obvious that the eradication of hepatitis C is not restricted to development of DAAs. Evidence Acquisition An electronic search of available literature published was conducted in all peer-reviewed journal indexed in PubMed, Scopus and Google scholar. The literature search was done among articles related treatment of hepatitis C with DAAs in different patient groups with mass screening of the patients and cost benefit of new treatments as main key words. Results There are major steps that should be taken to eradicate HCV, including (1) the development of screening strategies, particularly for groups such as intravenous drug users and recipients of blood or blood products before the introduction of HCV screening in donors; (2) the development of strategies to overcome issues with the high cost of recently introduced treatments; (3) special attention to special patient groups, such as HIV/HCV co-infection, hemophilia, thalassemia, hemodialysis, and liver-transplant patients; and (4) development of preventive strategies, such as the development of an efficient HCV vaccine, special attention to harm reduction in high-risk groups, and promotion of mass awareness of HCV. Conclusions The eradication of HCV will require significant governmental financial investment for screening, prevention, and treatment of infected patients. Although, we have a long way to eradication of HCV, the next steps could be including proper planning to patient finding, availability of new treatments to all patients and development of HCV prevention strategies such as vaccines.