Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictor–Corrector Adaptation by Using Time Evolution System With Macroscopic Time Scale

Incremental adaptation techniques for speech recognition are aimed at adjusting acoustic models to time-variant acoustic characteristics related to such factors as changes of speaker, speaking style, and noise source over time. In this paper, we propose a novel incremental adaptation framework, which models such time-variant characteristics by successively updating posterior distributions of acoustic model parameters based on a macroscopic time scale (e.g., every set of more than a dozen utterances). The proposed incremental update involves a predictor-corrector algorithm based on a macroscopic time evolution system in accordance with the Kalman filter theory. We also provide a unified interpretation of the proposal and the two major conventional approaches of indirect adaptation via transformation parameters [e.g., maximum-likelihood linear regression (MLLR)] and direct adaptation of classifier parameters [e.g., maximum a posteriori (MAP)]. We reveal analytically and experimentally that the proposed incremental adaptation realizes the predictor-corrector algorithm and involves both the conventional and their combinatorial adaptation approaches. Consequently, the proposal achieves robust recognition performance based on a balanced incremental adaptation between quickness and stability.
An approach for an optimized web service selection based on skyline

Nowadays, considering Web Services has become one of the hot issues in the area of computer science that makes an ability to collect capabilities and components in a unique interface to fulfil the user’s requirements. Sometimes two or more services are discovered in available list of services; therefore, there should be a possibility for selecting the best services from discovered list which can satisfy the user’s goal. The selected services should optimize the overall QoS of the composed application, while satisfying all the constraints specified by the client on individual QoS parameters. In this paper, we propose an approach based on the notion of skyline to effectively and efficiently select services for composition and reducing the number of candidate services. At the end of the paper we evaluate our approach experimentally.
The ISOPHOT-MAMBO survey of 3CR radio sources: Further evidence for the unified schemes ,

We present the complete set of ISOPHOT observations of 3CR radio galaxies and quasars, which are contained in the ISO Data Archive, providing 75 mid- and far-infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs) between 5 and 200 μ m. For 28 sources they are supplemented with MAMBO 1.2 mm observations and for 15 sources with new submillimetre data from the SCUBA archive. The sample includes flat and steep spectrum quasars, broad and narrow line radio galaxies, as well as Fanaroff-Riley FR 1 and FR 2 types. The SED shapes exhibit a diversity in the infrared (IR), ranging from a smooth dominating synchrotron component in flat spectrum sources to a thermal dust bump around 60-100 μ m in steep spectrum sources. The detection rate of a thermal bump in more than 50% of the cases suggests that dust emission may be a general phenomenon in these sources. We check the orientation-dependent unified scheme, in which the powerful FR 2 narrow line galaxies are quasars viewed at high inclination, so that their nuclei are hidden behind a dust torus intercepting the optical-ultraviolet AGN radiation and reemitting it in the infrared. We find that (1) both the quasars and the galaxies show a high mid- to far-infrared luminosity ratio typical for powerful AGNs and (2) – when matched in 178 MHz luminosity – both show the same ratio of isotropic far-infrared to isotropic 178 MHz lobe power. Therefore, from our large sample investigated here we find strong evidence for the orientation-dependent unification of the powerful FR 2 galaxies with the quasars. The distribution of the dust-to-lobe luminosity ratio shows a dispersion which we suggest to be most likely due to the additional influence of evolution and environment superposed on the orientation-dependent unification. We discuss our data also in the frame of the receding torus model. At the high 178 MHz luminosities of our sources above 10$^{\rm 26.5}$ W/Hz we do not find any support for this model in its original formulation and therefore we propose a refinement: The scale height of the torus might not be independent of luminosity, rather it may increase at high luminosities due to the impact of supernovae from starbursts accompanying the AGN phenomena.
Effects of Sex and Reproductive State on Interactions between Free-Roaming Domestic Dogs

Free-roaming dogs (Canis familiaris) are common worldwide, often maintaining diseases of domestic pets and wildlife. Management of these dogs is difficult and often involves capture, treatment, neutering and release. Information on the effects of sex and reproductive state on intraspecific contacts and disease transmission is currently lacking, but is vital to improving strategic management of their populations. We assessed the effects of sex and reproductive state on short-term activity patterns and contact rates of free-roaming dogs living in an Australian Indigenous community. Population, social group sizes and rates of contact were estimated from structured observations along walked transects. Simultaneously, GPS telemetry collars were used to track dogs' movements and to quantify the frequency of contacts between individual animals. We estimated that the community's dog population was 326±52, with only 9.8±2.5% confined to a house yard. Short-term activity ranges of dogs varied from 9.2 to 133.7 ha, with males ranging over significantly larger areas than females. Contacts between two or more dogs occurred frequently, with entire females and neutered males accumulating significantly more contacts than spayed females or entire males. This indicates that sex and reproductive status are potentially important to epidemiology, but the effect of these differential contact rates on disease transmission requires further investigation. The observed combination of unrestrained dogs and high contact rates suggest that contagious disease would likely spread rapidly through the population. Pro-active management of dog populations and targeted education programs could help reduce the risks associated with disease spread.
Variations of the selective extinction across the galactic bulge - implications for the galactic bar

We propose a new method to investigate the coefficient of the selective extinction, based on two band photometry. This method uses red clump stars as a means to construct the reddening curve. We apply this method to the OGLE color-magnitude diagrams to investigate the variations of the selective extinction towards various parts of the Galactic bulge. We find that $A_{_V}/E_{_{V-I}}$ coefficient is within the errors the same for $l=\pm 5\deg$ OGLE fields. Therefore, the difference of $\sim 0.37\;mag$ in the extinction adjusted apparent magnitude of the red clump stars in these fields (Stanek et al.~1994, 1995) cannot be assigned to a large-scale gradient of the selective extinction coefficient. This strengthens the implication of this difference as indicator of the presence of the bar in our Galaxy. However using present data we cannot entirely exclude the possibility of $\sim 0.2\;mag/mag$ variations of the selective extinction coefficient on the large scales across the bulge.
Characterization of Vibrio damsela strains isolated from turbot Scophthalmus maximus in Spain

During a 3 yr penod several epizootics of vibnos~s In turbot Scophthalmus maximus occurred in different marine farms located in northwestern Spain. Affected fish showed extensive haemorragic areas around the anus, eyes and mouth, as well as a characteristic accumulation of mucus and reddish fluid in the peritonea1 cavity. Strains of Vibrio damsela were isolated from diseased fish, representing, to our knowledge, the first report of this bacterium causing problems in cultured turbot. Isolates were biochemically identical to collection strains isolated from both fish and humans, and exhibited the same pattern of drug-sensitivity. However, antigenic differences occurred among the strains, 4 distinct groups of V. damsela being recognized. These serological results were supported by lipopolysaccharide profiles and the outer-membrane protein patterns exhibited by the bacter~al isolates. In addition, a high molecular weight plasmid band (approx. 90 to 100 MDa) was detected in all the turbot isolates and in some of the reference strains. Virulence tests showed that the V. damsela isolates were pathogenic for turbot and rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss, the LDS0 ranging from 1 x 103 to 5 X lo5 V. darnsela cells per fish.
Forms of care among native Swiss and older migrants from Southern Europe: a comparison

ABSTRACT This paper explores the following question: Which forms of care are used by older migrants compared to older natives in Switzerland? Access to care is an important issue for older people. Health problems and the reduction of the functional abilities can lead older people to become more vulnerable and dependent on social support. Many forms of care are available to support older people. In this paper, we explore help and home-care services, together with other ambulatory care activities provided mainly by the public sector and not-for-profit organisations or by private services, and the informal care provided by family and friends. Many studies show that older migrants are underusing formal services while others arrive to opposite conclusions. Using data from a 2012 representative survey in Switzerland, where older migrants from Italy, Spain and Portugal are over-represented (300 individuals aged 65–79 from both an oversample and the main sample in the regions of Geneva and Basel), we test these contradictory observations by comparing the forms of care received by older migrants with those received by older Swiss of the same age cohort (65–79). The results are presented and discussed in regard to various hypotheses about services use.
Higher Prevalence of Metformin-Induced Vitamin B12 Deficiency in Sulfonylurea Combination Compared with Insulin Combination in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Cross-Sectional Study

Long-term and high-dose treatment with metformin is known to be associated with vitamin B12 deficiency in patients with type 2 diabetes. We investigated whether the prevalence of B12 deficiency was different in patients treated with different combination of hypoglycemic agents with metformin during the same time period. A total of 394 patients with type 2 diabetes treated with metformin and sulfonylurea (S+M group, n = 299) or metformin and insulin (I+M group, n = 95) were consecutively recruited. The vitamin B12 and folate levels were quantified using the chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay. Vitamin B12 deficiency was defined as vitamin B12≤300 pg/mL without folate deficiency (folate>4 ng/mL). The mean age of and duration of diabetes in the subjects were 59.4±10.5 years and 12.2±6.7 years, respectively. The mean vitamin B12 level of the total population was 638.0±279.6 pg/mL. The mean serum B12 levels were significantly lower in the S+M group compared with the I+M group (600.0±266.5 vs. 757.7±287.6 pg/mL, P<0.001). The prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency in the metformin-treated patients was significantly higher in the S+M group compared with the I+M group (17.4% vs. 4.2%, P = 0.001). After adjustment for various factors, such as age, sex, diabetic duration, duration or daily dose of metformin, diabetic complications, and presence of anemia, sulfonylurea use was a significant independent risk factor for B12 deficiency (OR = 4.74, 95% CI 1.41–15.99, P = 0.012). In conclusion, our study demonstrated that patients with type 2 diabetes who were treated with metformin combined with sulfonylurea require clinical attention for vitamin B12 deficiency and regular monitoring of their vitamin B12 levels.
Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Ganoderma neo-japonicum Imazeki: a potential cytotoxic agent against breast cancer cells

Background Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are an important class of nanomaterial for a wide range of industrial and biomedical applications. AgNPs have been used as antimicrobial and disinfectant agents due their detrimental effect on target cells. The aim of our study was to determine the cytotoxic effects of biologically synthesized AgNPs using hot aqueous extracts of the mycelia of Ganoderma neo-japonicum Imazeki on MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells. Methods We developed a green method for the synthesis of water-soluble AgNPs by treating silver ions with hot aqueous extract of the mycelia of G. neo-japonicum. The formation of AgNPs was characterized by ultraviolet-visible absorption spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, dynamic light scattering, and transmission electron microscopy. Furthermore, the toxicity of synthesized AgNPs was evaluated using a series of assays: such as cell viability, lactate dehydrogenase leakage, reactive oxygen species generation, caspase 3, DNA laddering, and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase deoxyuridine triphosphate nick-end labeling in human breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231). Results The ultraviolet-visible absorption spectroscopy results showed a strong resonance centered on the surface of AgNPs at 420 nm. The X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed that the synthesized AgNPs were single-crystalline, corresponding with the result of transmission electron microscopy. Treatment of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells with various concentrations of AgNPs (1–10 μg/mL) for 24 hours revealed that AgNPs could inhibit cell viability and induce membrane leakage in a dose-dependent manner. Cells exposed to AgNPs showed increased reactive oxygen species and hydroxyl radical production. Furthermore, the apoptotic effects of AgNPs were confirmed by activation of caspase 3 and DNA nuclear fragmentation. Conclusion The results indicate that AgNPs possess cytotoxic effects with apoptotic features and suggest that the reactive oxygen species generated by AgNPs have a significant role in apoptosis. The present findings suggest that AgNPs could contribute to the development of a suitable anticancer drug, which may lead to the development of a novel nanomedicine for the treatment of cancers.
Collapsing Threads Safely with Soft Invariants

Canonical abstraction is a static analysis technique that represents states as 3-valued logical structures, and produces finite abstract systems. Despite providing a finite bound, these abstractions may still suffer from the state explosion problem. Notably, for concurrent programs with arbitrary interleaving, if threads in a state are abstracted based on their location, then the number of locations will be a combinatorial factor in the size of the statespace. We present an approach using canonical abstraction that avoids this state explosion by "collapsing" all of the threads in a state into a single abstract representative. Properties of threads that would be lost by the abstraction, but are needed for verification, are retained by defining conditional "soft invariant" instrumentation predicates. This technique is used to adapt previous models for verifying linearizability of nonblocking concurrent data structure algorithms, resulting in exponentially smaller statespaces.
Forecasting cosmic parameter errors from microwave background anisotropy experiments

Accurate measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies with an angular resolution of a few arcminutes can be used to determine fundamental cosmological parameters such as the densities of baryons, cold and hot dark matter, and certain combinations of the cosmological constant and the curvature of the Universe to percent-level precision. Assuming the true theory is a variant of inflationary cold dark matter cosmologies, we calculate the accuracy with which cosmological parameters can be determined by the next generation of CMB satellites, MAP and Planck. We pay special attention to: (a) the accuracy of the computed derivatives of the CMB power spectrum C_L; (b) the number and choices of parameters; (c) the inclusion of prior knowledge of the values of various parameters.
Identifying Aspects of the Post-Transcriptional Program Governing the Proteome of the Green Alga Micromonas pusilla

Micromonas is a unicellular motile alga within the Prasinophyceae, a green algal group that is related to land plants. This picoeukaryote (<2 μm diameter) is widespread in the marine environment but is not well understood at the cellular level. Here, we examine shifts in mRNA and protein expression over the course of the day-night cycle using triplicated mid-exponential, nutrient replete cultures of Micromonas pusilla CCMP1545. Samples were collected at key transition points during the diel cycle for evaluation using high-throughput LC-MS proteomics. In conjunction, matched mRNA samples from the same time points were sequenced using pair-ended directional Illumina RNA-Seq to investigate the dynamics and relationship between the mRNA and protein expression programs of M. pusilla. Similar to a prior study of the marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus, we found significant divergence in the mRNA and proteomics expression dynamics in response to the light:dark cycle. Additionally, expressional responses of genes and the proteins they encoded could also be variable within the same metabolic pathway, such as we observed in the oxygenic photosynthesis pathway. A regression framework was used to predict protein levels from both mRNA expression and gene-specific sequence-based features. Several features in the genome sequence were found to influence protein abundance including codon usage as well as 3’ UTR length and structure. Collectively, our studies provide insights into the regulation of the proteome over a diel cycle as well as the relationships between transcriptional and translational programs in the widespread marine green alga Micromonas.
Using virtual ethnography to research vulnerable participants online: A case study of mental health online community support forums

Researching vulnerable groups has long been a subject of academic work and has been subject to rigorous ethical approvals for conducting face-to-face interviews. With new technologies come new challenges. Groups of people come together on online forums and have anonymous discussions about anything and everything; this often includes the source of their vulnerabilities. In the discussed research, the focus of these community support forums is mental health. It is difficult to shift the focus of researching vulnerable adults away from face-toface to online, particularly as there are no physical cues to give meaning to the language used. The value therefore must be contained in the written word, and there are “unique characteristics” in the data due to this. There is something quite refreshing about focusing on the text rather than body language, and there are many suggestions on how to conduct this type of research. My research focuses on using virtual ethnography of online focus groups, which has been fraught with issues, but has proved a useful learning experience.
Rethinking congestion control in virtualized datacenters

Cloud datacenters are increasingly adopting virtual machines (VMs) to provide elastic cloud services, with TCP being prevalently used for congestion control. In virtualized datacenters, the delays from the hypervisor scheduler can heavily contaminate RTTs sensed by VM senders, preventing TCP from correctly learning the physical network condition. In this dissertation, my direction is to paravirtualize the transport-layer protocol in the guest OS, making it automatically tolerate the virtualized running environment. I then present a preliminary solution, PVTCP, to overcome the distorted congestion information caused by VM scheduling delays.
Periodic Spectrum Transmission for Single-Carrier Frequency-Domain Equalization Employing Space-Time Transmit Diversity

This paper presents the periodic spectrum transmission for single-carrier frequency-domain equalization (SC-FDE) employing space-time transmit diversity (STTD). The proposed scheme utilizes only even-numbered samples within a time domain data block to createa periodical spectrum which provides frequency redundancy. Frequency redundancy is used for sub-channel combining before FDE, which alleviates the loss of orthogonality caused by FDE under frequency selective fading channels. Therefore, the proposed scheme has an advantage of enhancing the overall frequency diversity benefit while keeping the space diversity benefit achieved by STTD. Computer simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the typical SC-FDE using full samples over relatively severe frequency selective fading channels when applying 1-bit/sample transmission.
0. a Gasketed Mao-bell Type Dac Was Used with Anvils Having 200-␮m Culets [ Direct Measurement of Distances and Angles in Biomolecules by Nmr in a Dilute Liquid Crystalline Medium

The gasket was spring steel, and the sample diameter under pressure was ϳ80 ␮m. The sample was heated by means of a continuous (cw) Nd:YAG (Nd:yttrium-aluminum-gar-net) laser operating in multi-mode (wavelength of 1064 nm), as described by A. Kavner and R. The laser beam was focused to a diameter of ϳ15 ␮m and scanned to heat the entire sample. X-ray diffrac-tion patterns were collected in angular-dispersive mode at beamline 10-2 of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL), using a monochroma-tized x-ray beam of 17.038 keV with an imaging-plate detector. Because the diameter of the incident x-ray beam was slightly larger than that of the sample , diffraction line or lines from the gasket were present in the patterns we collected. The imaging-plate data were converted to a 2␪-intensity profile, using the program developed by J. All x-ray diffraction measurements were carried out at room temperature. Because the equation of state of Pt is well known, pressure can be calculated from the unit-cell volume of Pt measured by x-ray diffraction [N.cause we did not heat the gasket, it may have retained a large uniaxial stress. 17. Transformations from ␣-Al 2 O 3 to phases of unknown structure at 16 to 21 GPa and 1600 to 1900 K have been proposed, based on optical observations on quenched samples [ T. Gasparik, J. Geo-phys. Res. 95, 15751 (1990)]. Experimental details have not been reported, but the high-pressure phase documented here is likely to be different , because it cannot be quenched to ambient pressure. In a separate experiment, we have tentative evidence for the appearance of the Rh 2 O 3 (II) phase when ruby is heated at a pressure as low as ϳ85 GPa. 18. To avoid such problems in ultra-high pressure experiments with the laser-heated DAC, attempts are usually made to obtain ruby-fluorescence determina-tions of pressure from portions of the sample that have been heated as little as possible. 141–143] shock-wave equation of state (Hugoniot) measurements on single-crystal Al 2 O 3 are described by U S ϭ 8.74 ϩ 0.96 u p between 80 and 340 GPa, where U S and u p are shock-wave velocity and particle velocity, respectively, and all values are in km/s. data of (21) are found to be compatible with this for u p between about 1.6 and 2.5 km/s (strength effects probably explain higher shock-wave velocities for u p Ͻ 1.6 km/s). The intersection …
Jelatine: a virtual machine for small embedded systems

The growth and diffusion of embedded systems raises the need for portable and reusable embedded software. To this end, the J2ME specification defines a Java Virtual Machine targeted to embedded systems. In this paper, we present Jelatine, a virtual machine based on the J2ME CLDC specification. We identify several design choices that are crucial for the efficience (both from the performance and memory occupation) of the virtual machine, and show through experimental evaluation the impact of these choices. Jelatine proves twice as fast as the reference implementation of J2ME CLDC, KVM, and almost as fast as open source Java VMs such as SableVM and JamVM while being able to use memory much more efficiently than its competitors.