Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improved Regularization Techniques for End-to-End Speech Recognition

Regularization is important for end-to-end speech models, since the models are highly flexible and easy to overfit. Data augmentation and dropout has been important for improving end-to-end models in other domains. However, they are relatively under explored for end-to-end speech models. Therefore, we investigate the effectiveness of both methods for end-to-end trainable, deep speech recognition models. We augment audio data through random perturbations of tempo, pitch, volume, temporal alignment, and adding random noise.We further investigate the effect of dropout when applied to the inputs of all layers of the network. We show that the combination of data augmentation and dropout give a relative performance improvement on both Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and LibriSpeech dataset of over 20%. Our model performance is also competitive with other end-to-end speech models on both datasets.
Screening Coriander Gene Pool for Special Uses

Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) is an aromatic member of the Apiaceae with a wide diversity of uses (Diederichsen 1996). Its rapid life cycle allows it to fit into different growing seasons, making it possible to grow the crop under a wide range of conditions. Three subspecies and 10 botanical varieties of coriander have been proposed at the infraspecific level (Diederichsen and Hammer 2003) based on phenotypic characteristics; however, molecular evidence does not support classifications based on phenotypic and/or biochemical characteristics (Lopez 2006). The objectives of our study were to assess the phenotypic and biochemical characteristics of coriander germplasm collections that would make them suitable for different uses and to use amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) (Vos et al. 1995) to clarify patterns of genetic diversity and its partitioning among these populations, by means of an analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) (Excoffier et al. 1992).
K Operation of a Multi-Resonant Power Converter

Abstrac#: The liquid-nitrogen temperature (77 K) operation of a 55 W, 200 kHz, 48/28 V zero-voltage switching muiti-resonant dc/dc converter designed with commercially available components is reported. Upon dipping the complete converter (power and control circuits) into liquid-nitrogen, the converter performance improved as compared to the room-temperature operation. The switching frequency, resonant frequency, and the characteristic impedance did not change significantly. Accordingly, the zero-voltage switching was maintained from no-load to fulMoad for the specified line variations. Cryo-electronics can provide high density power conveners, especially for high power applications. The liquid-nitrogen temperature (77 K) operation of a 55 W, 200 kHz, 48/28 V zero-voltage switching multi-resonant de/ dc converter designed with commercially available components is reported. Upon dipping the complete converter (power and control circuits) into liquid-nitrogen, the converter performance improved as compared to the room-temperature operation. The switching frequency, resonant frequency, and the characteristic impedance did not change significantly. Accordingly, the zero-voltage switching was maintained from no-load to full-load for the specified line variations. Cryo-electronics can provide high density power converters, especially for high power applications.
Virus-driven nitrogen cycling enhances phytoplankton growth

Viruses have been implicated as major players in aquatic nutrient cycling, yet few data exist to quantify their significance. To determine the effect of viruses on ammonium regener- ation by bacteria, experiments were carried out in the oligotrophic Indian Ocean and productive False Creek, Vancouver, Canada. Bacteria were concentrated and then diluted with virus-free water to reduce virus abundance, or with virus-replete water to restore natural virus abundances. Virus-replete treatments showed increased ammonium concentrations compared to treatments with viruses removed (differences of 0.287 ± 0.14 and 1.44 ± 0.73 µmol l �1 , mean ± SD, in the Indian Ocean and False Creek, respectively). Bacterial abundances were lower, while phyto- plankton abundances and chlorophyll a (chl a) concentrations were greater in the virus-replete treatments, consistent with the increased availability of ammonium in the presence of viruses. These data demonstrate that viral lysis leads to ammonium production, likely through the libera- tion of dissolved organic N that is remineralised by uninfected bacteria. In turn, the released ammonium fuels primary production. These results show that viruses play a critical role in the marine N cycle, and suggest that viral lysis likely supplies a significant portion of the global N requirements of phytoplankton.
Molecular adaptations to phosphorus deprivation and comparison with nitrogen deprivation responses in the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum

Phosphorus, an essential element for all living organisms, is a limiting nutrient in many regions of the ocean due to its fast recycling. Changes in phosphate (Pi) availability in aquatic systems affect diatom growth and productivity. We investigated the early adaptive mechanisms in the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum to P deprivation using a combination of transcriptomics, metabolomics, physiological and biochemical experiments. Our analysis revealed strong induction of gene expression for proteins involved in phosphate acquisition and scavenging, and down-regulation of processes such as photosynthesis, nitrogen assimilation and nucleic acid and ribosome biosynthesis. P deprivation resulted in alterations of carbon allocation through the induction of the pentose phosphate pathway and cytosolic gluconeogenesis, along with repression of the Calvin cycle. Reorganization of cellular lipids was indicated by coordinated induced expression of phospholipases, sulfolipid biosynthesis enzymes and a putative betaine lipid biosynthesis enzyme. A comparative analysis of nitrogen- and phosphorus-deprived P. tricornutum revealed both common and distinct regulation patterns in response to phosphate and nitrate stress. Regulation of central carbon metabolism and amino acid metabolism was similar, whereas unique responses were found in nitrogen assimilation and phosphorus scavenging in nitrogen-deprived and phosphorus-deprived cells, respectively.
Does change in positive affect mediate and/or moderate the impact of symptom distress on psychological adjustment after cancer diagnosis? A prospective analysis

Physical symptom distress is one of the commonest correlates of psychological adjustment in cancer patients. Positive affect (PA) can be a dynamic resource for patients to cope with the cancer-related physical demands. The present study examined whether differential patterns of change in PA were associated with anxiety and depressed mood, and whether PA modified the association between change in symptom distress and psychological distress in 215 Chinese people newly diagnosed with colorectal cancer (CRC). Participants completed measures of physical symptoms, PA, and anxiety and depression at diagnosis and again at 3-month follow-up. Multivariate analyses of covariance revealed that at follow-up, people reporting higher anxiety and depressed mood demonstrated loss in PA, whereas those reporting lower depressed mood demonstrated a gain in PA. Structural equation modelling revealed that change in PA significantly mediated and moderated the associations between increased symptom distress and anxiety and depressed mood. We conclude that in line with Hobfoll's conservation of resources theory, continuous physical symptom distress depletes PA of newly diagnosed cancer patients, resulting in higher levels of anxiety and depressed mood. Effectiveness of symptom management intervention could be enhanced by preserving or enhancing PA in patients.
Multi-glimpse LSTM with color-depth feature fusion for human detection

With the development of depth cameras such as Kinect and Intel Realsense, RGB-D based human detection receives continuous research attention due to its usage in a variety of applications. In this paper, we propose a new Multi-Glimpse LSTM (MG-LSTM) network, in which multi-scale contextual information is sequentially integrated to promote the human detection performance. Furthermore, we propose a feature fusion strategy based on our MG-LSTM network to better incorporate the RGB and depth information. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to utilize LSTM structure for RGB-D based human detection. Our method achieves superior performance on two publicly available datasets.
Deep multi-resolution color constancy

In this paper, a computational color constancy method is proposed via estimating the illuminant chromaticity in a scene by pooling from many local estimates. To this end, first, for each image in a dataset, we form an image pyramid consisting of several scales of the original image. Next, local patches of certain size are extracted from each scale in this image pyramid. Then, a convolutional neural network is trained to estimate the illuminant chromaticity per-patch. Finally, two more consecutive trainings are conducted, where the estimation is made per-image via taking the mean (1st training) and median (2nd training) of local estimates. The proposed method is shown to outperform the state-of-the-art in a widely used color constancy dataset.
Vi Capsular Polysaccharide Produced by Recombinant Salmonella enterica Serovar Paratyphi A Confers Immunoprotection against Infection by Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhi

Enteric fever is predominantly caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi and Salmonella enterica serovar Paratyphi A, and accounts for an annual global incidence of 26.9 millions. In recent years, the rate of S. Paratyphi A infection has progressively increased. Currently licensed vaccines for typhoid fever, live Ty21a vaccine, Vi subunit vaccine, and Vi-conjugate vaccine, confer inadequate cross immunoprotection against enteric fever caused by S. Paratyphi A. Therefore, development of bivalent vaccines against enteric fever is urgently required. The immunogenic Vi capsular polysaccharide is characteristically produced in S. Typhi, but it is absent in S. Paratyphi A. We propose that engineering synthesis of Vi in S. Paratyphi A live-attenuated vaccine may expand its protection range to cover S. Typhi. In this study, we cloned the viaB locus, which contains 10 genes responsible for Vi biosynthesis, and integrated into the chromosome of S. Paratyphi A CMCC 50093. Two virulence loci, htrA and phoPQ, were subsequently deleted to achieve a Vi-producing attenuated vaccine candidate. Our data showed that, despite more than 200 passages, the viaB locus was stably maintained in the chromosome of S. Paratyphi A and produced the Vi polysaccharide. Nasal immunization of the vaccine candidate stimulated high levels of Vi-specific and S. Paratyphi A-specific antibodies in mice sera as well as total sIgA in intestinal contents, and showed significant protection against wild-type challenge of S. Paratyphi A or S. Typhi. Our study show that the Vi-producing attenuated S. Paratyphi A is a promising bivalent vaccine candidate for the prevention of enteric fever.
Admittance‐based pressure–volume loop measurements in a porcine model of chronic myocardial infarction

• What is the central question of this study? Are admittance‐based pressure–volume measurements useful for the assessment of cardiac function in a chronic myocardial infarction model compared with three‐dimensional echocardiography and with classical conductance measurements? • What is the main finding and its importance? Baseline admittance‐based measurements show good agreement with echocardiography and classical conductance in human‐sized porcine hearts. Myocardial infarction significantly alters ventricular dimensions and pressure–volume loop measurements compared with three‐dimensional echocardiography. The novel admittance system reliably monitors changes in cardiac function after myocardial infarction.
New Zealanders working non-standard hours also have greater exposure to other workplace hazards

ABSTRACT Exposure to workplace hazards, such as dust, solvents, and fumes, has the potential to adversely affect the health of people. However, the effects of workplace hazards on health may differ when exposure occurs at different times in the circadian cycle, and among people who work longer hours or who do not obtain adequate sleep. The aim of the present study was to document exposures to workplace hazards across a national sample of New Zealanders, comparing people who work a standard 08:00 −17:00 h Monday-to-Friday working week (Std hours) and those who do not (N-Std hours). New Zealanders (n = 10 000) aged 20–64 yrs were randomly selected from the Electoral Roll to take part in a nationwide survey of workplace exposures. Telephone interviews were conducted between 2004 and 2006, using a six-part questionnaire addressing demographics, detailed information on the current or most recent job (including exposures to a range of workplace hazards), sleep, sleepiness, and health status. N-Std hours were categorised on the basis of: being required to start work prior to 07:00 h or finish work after 21:00 h and/or; having a regular on-call commitment (at least once per week) and/or; working rotating shifts and/or; working night shift(s) in the last month. The response rate was 37% (n = 3003), with 22.2% of participants (n = 656) categorised as working N-Std hours. Industry sectors with the highest numbers of participants working N-Std hours were manufacturing, health and community services, and agriculture, fishing, and forestry. Response rate was 37% (n = 3003) with 22.2% (n = 656) categorised as working N-Std hours. Participants working N-Std hours were more likely to be exposed to all identified hazards, including multiple hazards (OR = 2.45, 95% CI = 2.01–3.0) compared to those working Std hours. Participants working N-Std hours were also more likely to report ‘never/rarely’ getting enough sleep (OR = 1.38, 95% CI = 1.15–1.65), ‘never/rarely’ waking refreshed (OR = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.04–1.47), and excessive sleepiness (OR = 1.77, 95% CI = 1.29–2.42). New Zealanders working N-Std hours are more likely to be exposed to hazards in the workplace, to be exposed to multiple hazards, and to report inadequate sleep and excessive sleepiness than their colleagues working a standard 08:00−17:00 h Monday-to-Friday working week. More research is needed on the effects of exposure to hazardous substances outside the usual waking day, on the effects of exposure to multiple hazards, and on the combination of hazard exposure and sleep restriction as a result of shift work.
Brittle fracture in V-notches with end holes

In the present research, two brittle fracture criteria were developed in terms of the notch stress intensity factors to predict mode I fracture in engineering components weakened by V-notches with end holes (VO-notches). The criteria were based on the point stress and the mean stress failure concepts. To evaluate the validity of the criteria, first, 36 new fracture tests were conducted on a new notched specimen, namely the Brazilian disk containing central V-notch with end hole (VO-BD specimen) made of polymethyl-metacrylate. Three notch angles and four notch radii were considered in the experiments. Then, the experimentally obtained fracture loads were converted to the corresponding mode I notch fracture toughness values by mean of the finite element method in order to compare the test results with the theories. It was found that very good agreement exists generally between the experimental and theoretical results. Also, found in this research was that by increasing the VO-notch angle, the accuracy of the mean stress criterion decreases, particularly for larger notch radii. Although the accuracy of the criteria depends significantly on the notch geometry, except for the angle 90°, the average discrepancies of the mean stress criterion were less than 8.5% as well as those of the point stress criterion for the entire angles showing acceptable accuracy of the predictions.
Minimum Cost Homomorphisms to Semicomplete Bipartite Digraphs

For digraphs $D$ and $H$, a mapping $f:V(D)\rightarrow V(H)$ is a homomorphism of $D$ to $H$ if $uv\in A(D)$ implies $f(u)f(v)\in A(H)$. If, moreover, each vertex $u\in V(D)$ is associated with costs $c_i(u)$, $i\in V(H)$, then the cost of the homomorphism $f$ is $\sum_{u\in V(D)}c_{f(u)}(u)$. For each fixed digraph $H$, we have the minimum cost homomorphism problem for $H$. The problem is to decide, for an input graph $D$ with costs $c_i(u)$, $u\in V(D)$, $i\in V(H)$, whether there exists a homomorphism of $D$ to $H$ and, if one exists, to find one of minimum cost. Minimum cost homomorphism problems encompass (or are related to) many well-studied optimization problems. We describe a dichotomy of the minimum cost homomorphism problem for semicomplete bipartite digraphs $H$. This solves an open problem from an earlier paper. To obtain the dichotomy of this paper, we introduce and study a new notion, a $k$-Min-Max ordering of digraphs.
Multi-modal MRI investigation of volumetric and microstructural changes in the hippocampus and its subfields in mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease, and dementia with Lewy bodies

ABSTRACT Background: Volumetric atrophy and microstructural alterations in diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures of the hippocampus have been reported in people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, no study to date has jointly investigated concomitant microstructural and volumetric changes of the hippocampus in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Methods: A total of 84 subjects (23 MCI, 17 DLB, 14 AD, and 30 healthy controls) were recruited for a multi-modal imaging (3T MRI and DTI) study that included neuropsychological evaluation. Freesurfer was used to segment the total hippocampus and delineate its subfields. The hippocampal segmentations were co-registered to the mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) maps obtained from the DTI images. Results: Both AD and MCI groups showed significantly smaller hippocampal volumes compared to DLB and controls, predominantly in the CA1 and subiculum subfields. Compared to controls, hippocampal MD was elevated in AD, but not in MCI. DLB was characterized by both volumetric and microstructural preservation of the hippocampus. In MCI, higher hippocampal MD was associated with greater atrophy of the hippocampus and CA1 region. Hippocampal volume was a stronger predictor of memory scores compared to MD within the MCI group. Conclusions: Through a multi-modal integration, we report novel evidence that the hippocampus in DLB is characterized by both macrostructural and microstructural preservation. Contrary to recent suggestions, our findings do not support the view that DTI measurements of the hippocampus are superior to volumetric changes in characterizing group differences, particularly between MCI and controls.
Secretory Leukocyte Protease Inhibitor Expression and High-Risk HPV Infection in Anal Lesions of HIV-Positive Patients

Objective:The aim of this study was to evaluate secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI) expression in anal biopsies from HIV-positive (HIV+) individuals, and compare that to anal intraepithelial neoplasia (AIN) diagnoses and human papillomavirus (HPV) status. Design:This is a cross-sectional study of a cohort of 54 HIV+ (31 males and 23 females) from an AIDS clinic in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Methods:The study material consisted of anorectal tissue biopsies obtained from HIV+ subjects, which were used to construct tissue microarray paraffin blocks for immunohistochemical analysis of SLPI expression. Biopsies were evaluated by an expert pathologist and classified as low-grade AIN1, high-grade AIN2/3, or normal squamous epithelium. In addition, DNA from the biopsies was extracted and analyzed for the presence of low- or high-risk HPV DNA. Results:Histologically, normal squamous epithelium from the anorectal region showed strong positive SLPI staining in 17/20 (85%) samples. In comparison, 9/17 (53%) dysplastic squamous epithelial samples from AIN1 patients showed strong SLPI staining, and only 5/17 (29%) samples from AIN2/3 patients exhibited strong SPLI staining, which both were significantly fewer than those from normal tissue (P = 0.005). Furthermore, there was a significantly higher proportion of samples in which oncogenic high-risk HPV genotypes were detected in low SLPI-expressing tissues than that in tissues with high SLPI expression (P = 0.040). Conclusions:Taken together these results suggest that low SLPI expression is associated with high-risk HPV infections in the development of AIN.
Faces and speech: Intermodal processing of biologically relevant signals in infants and adults.

The human face stands out as the single most important stimulus that we must recognize in the visual domain. In the auditory domain the human voice is the most important hiological signal. Our faces and voices specify us as uniquely human, and a challenge in neuroand cognitive science has been to understand how we recognize and process these two hiologically relevant signals. In hoth domains the conventional view is that the signals are at first recognized through unimodal mechanisms. Faces are thought to he visual objects and voices to be the province of audition. We intend to show that these stimuli are aru~lyzed and represented through more than a single modality in hoth infancy and adulthOod. Speech information can he perceived through the visual modality, and faces through proprioception. Indeed, visual information ahout speech is such a fundamental part of the speech code that it cannot he ignored hy a listener. What listeners report "hearing" is not solely auditory, hut a unified percept that is derived from auditory and visual sources. Faces and voices are thoroughly intermodal ohjects of perception. Recent experiments have discovered that infants code faces and speech as intermodal ohjects of perception very early in life. We focus on these intermodal mappings, and explore the mechanism hy which intermodal information is linked. Faces and speech can he used to examine central issues in theories of intermodal perception. How does information from two different sensory modalities mix? Is the input from separate modalities translated into a "common code? " If so, what is the nature of the code? One phenomenon we discuss is infants' imitation of facial gestures. Infants can see the other person's facial movements hut they cannot see their own
EFFECT OF ALKALI SILICA REACTION EXPANSION AND CRACKING ON STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOR OF REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS

A laboratory study was carried out to investigate the effect of deleterious alkali-silica reaction (ASR) expansion on the structural behavior of reinforced concrete beams and on mechanical properties of cylinders made with the same concrete. The specimens were conditioned by immersion in a cyclically heated alkali solution for one year to accelerate ASR. To simulate in-service conditions, two beams were held under load that caused flexural cracking while being conditioned. Cracks were first observed in the cylinders at an age of 125 days. Before ASR cracking occurred, changes in the mechanical properties of the reactive cylinders were minor. After cracking, the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and dynamic modulus of the cylinders were significantly reduced. Cracks were first observed on top of the beams after 6 months of conditioning and were oriented in the direction parallel to the reinforcement. However, after conditioning for one year, the flexural strength of the reactive beams that experienced ASR cracking was nearly the same as that of the nonreactive concrete beams. Effect of ASR on flexural strength of the preloaded and cracked beams was also insignificant.