Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Corpus of Spontaneous Speech in Lectures: The KIT Lecture Corpus for Spoken Language Processing and Translation

With the increasing number of applications handling spontaneous speech, the needs to process spoken languages become stronger. Speech disfluency is one of the most challenging tasks to deal with in automatic speech processing. As most applications are trained with well-formed, written texts, many issues arise when processing spontaneous speech due to its distinctive characteristics. Therefore, more data with annotated speech disfluencies will help the adaptation of natural language processing applications, such as machine translation systems. In order to support this, we have annotated speech disfluencies in German lectures at KIT. In this paper we describe how we annotated the disfluencies in the data and provide detailed statistics on the size of the corpus and the speakers. Moreover, machine translation performance on a source text including disfluencies is compared to the results of the translation of a source text without different sorts of disfluencies or no disfluencies at all.
Boosted Classifier for Car Detection

Recently, Viola and Jones [1] have proposed a detector using Adaboost to select and combine weak classifiers from a very large pool of weak classifiers, and it has been proven to be very successful for detecting faces. We have followed their approach and applied it to detect rear views of cars. The detector was carefully examined and was expanded in a number of ways, such as varying the type and complexity of weak learners, using Real Adaboost, fitting parametric functions to the probability distributions, aligning training images at different positions, and exploiting a tendency in the classifier to speed up the running time.
Design, Synthesis and Evaluation of Novel Phthalimide Derivatives as in Vitro Anti-Microbial, Anti-Oxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Agents

Sixteen new phthalimide derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro anti-microbial, anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. The cytotoxicity for all synthesized compounds was also determined in cancer cell lines and in normal human cells. None of the target derivatives had any cytotoxic activity. (ZE)-2-[4-(1-Hydrazono-ethyl)phenyl]isoindoline-1,3-dione (12) showed remarkable anti-microbial activity. Its activity against Bacillus subtilis was 133%, 106% and 88.8% when compared with the standard antibiotics ampicillin, cefotaxime and gentamicin, respectively. Compound 12 also showed its highest activities in Gram negative bacteria against Pseudomonas aeruginosa where the percentage activities were 75% and 57.6% when compared sequentially with the standard antibiotics cefotaxime and gentamicin. It was also found that the compounds 2-[4-(4-ethyl-3-methyl-5-thioxo-1,2,4-triazolidin-3-yl)phenyl]isoindoline-1,3-dione (13b) and 2-[4-(3-methyl-5-thioxo-4-phenyl-1,2,4-triazolidin-3-yl)phenyl]isoindoline-1,3-dione (13c) had anti-oxidant activity. 4-(N'-{1-[4-(1,3-Dioxo-1,3-dihydro-isoindol-2-yl)-phenyl]-ethylidene}-hydrazino)-benzenesulfonamide (17c) showed the highest in vitro anti-inflammatory activity of the tested compounds (a decrease of 32%). To determine the mechanism of the anti-inflammatory activity of 17c, a docking study was carried out on the COX-2 enzyme. The results confirmed that 17c had a higher binding energy score (−17.89 kcal/mol) than that of the ligand celecoxib (−17.27 kcal/mol).
The Standard Model Prediction for ε′/ε

We present a detailed analysis of ε/ε within the Standard Model, taking into account the strong enhancement through final–state interactions identified in refs. [1] and [2]. The relevant hadronic matrix elements are fixed at leading order in the 1/NC expansion, through a matching procedure between the effective short–distance Lagrangian and its corresponding low–energy description in Chiral Perturbation Theory. All large logarithms are summed up, both at short and long distances. Two different numerical analyses are performed, using either the experimental or the theoretical value for ε, with compatible results. We obtain Re (ε/ε) = (1.7±0.9) ·10−3 . The error is dominated by the uncertainty in the value of the strange quark mass and the estimated corrections from unknown 1/NC–suppressed local contributions. A better estimate of the strange quark mass would reduce the uncertainty to about 30%. The Standard Model prediction agrees with the present experimental world average Re (ε/ε) = (1.93 ± 0.24) · 10−3 .
Molecular heterogeneity of the g - aminobutyric acid (GABA) transport system

A novel amusement apparatus or target game includes a target for receiving projectiles aimed and fired from a mobile firing device. The target includes a plurality of separate, projectile retaining compartments which are open at the front and each compartment has a selected scoring value for projectiles that are accurately fired and retained therein. The mobile firing device is manually aimed and fired to forcefully propel the projectiles towards selected compartments of the target. The firing device includes a body, preferably in the form of an animal which is supported in upstanding position on a suitable playing surface and a firing head is pivotally mounted on the body and is biased for moving an outer end portion or nose to strike and fire a projectile toward the target. A trigger is provided for releasing the biasing means to fire the projectile, and preferably, the firing head is in the shape of an animal head, such as a bull, with a pair of horns and the bull's nose is formed with a recess adapted to accommodate and fire the projectiles which are positioned on a support system aimed generally towards the target.
Correlation between decomposed modes from carotid and wrist arteries and its application for coronary heart disease

The HHT (Hilbert-Huang Transform) method is adopted to decompose the pulse signals synchronously from the carotid and wrist arteries both in healthy people and those patients suffering from coronary heart disease into the different mode orders. Based on the cross-correlation analysis, it is statistically found that quasi-cycles of 2nd-modes from healthy objects correspond respectively to 1/3 of their physiological pulse cycles, whereas quasi-cycles of their 3rd-modes to 1/2 of these cycles and 4th-mode ones to the cycles themselves. The 1st modes of pulse signals from the healthy group are all of a regular X wave train, and, on the contrary, the counterpart modes from patients with coronary heart disease appear quite different from the regular ones. After a heart surgery, however, the discrepancy in mode pattern obviously diminishes.
3D plane-based egomotion for SLAM on semi-structured environment

Several works deal with 3D data in SLAM problem. Data come from a 3D laser sweeping unit or a stereo camera, both providing a huge amount of data. In this paper, we detail an efficient method to extract planar patches from 3D raw data. Then, we use these patches in an ICP-like method in order to address the SLAM problem. Using ICP with planes is not a trivial task. It needs some adaptation from the original ICP. Some promising results are shown for outdoor environment.
An Off-Line Scan of the BATSE Daily Records and a Large Uniform Sample of Gamma-Ray Bursts

During a scan of the archival BATSE daily records covering the entire 9.1 yr (TJD 8369-11690) of the BATSE operation, 3906 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been detected. 2068 of these GRBs are previously known BATSE triggers, while 1838 of them are new nontriggered bursts. It is important that all events were detected in the same type of data and were processed with the same procedure. Therefore these 3906 GRBs constitute a uniform sample. We have created a publicly available electronic data base containing this sample. We describe the procedures of the data reduction, the selection of the GRB candidates, and the statistical tests for possible non-GRB contaminations. We also describe a novel test burst method used to measure the scan efficiency and the information obtained using the test bursts. Our scan decreases the BATSE detection threshold to ~0.1 photon s-1 cm-2. As a first result, we show that the differential log N- log P distribution corrected for the detection efficiency extends to low brightnesses without any indication of a turnover. Any reasonable extrapolation of the new log N- log P to lower brightnesses imply a rate of several thousands of GRBs in the universe per year.
Effects of community integration on quality of life among Asian Americans

This study examined the level of community integration and its effect on quality of life among three groups of Asian Americans (Chinese, Koreans, and Vietnamese; N = 247). The results of path analysis indicated that social integration was associated with an increased level of quality of life. We also found a significant indirect effect of length of stay in the United States through social integration on quality of life. The findings of the study suggest ways in which community practitioners can promote community integration of Asian Americans, which in turn enhances their quality of life.
An Integrated Quality Assurance Approach for Use Case Based Requirements

Since their introduction, use cases (UCs) have become increasingly important for the specification of software requirements. Model driven development approaches like the Rational Unified Process base the whole software life cycle on UCs. Therefore, high quality UCs are a prerequisite for project success. Despite the high importance of their quality, UC driven approaches often lack systematic and integrated quality assurance techniques. Only ad-hoc recommendations, creation guidelines, and a few checklists for inspection are available in the literature. If at all, these techniques are developed and used seperately, so that one class of defects is addressed by several techniques and other classes are not addressed at all. In this paper, we present an integrated approach that combines UC creation guidelines, UC inspections, and simulation in a systematic way. The techniques are combined based on a classification of defects in UC development. Each technique is focused on a different set of defect classes. The integrated approach is systematically developed and thus more efficient in its application.
Queuing analysis of the energy-delay trade-off in wireless networks

QUEUING ANALYSIS OF THE ENERGY-DELAY TRADE-OFF IN WIRELESS NETWORKS Ege Orkun Gamgam M.S. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering Advisor: Nail Akar September 2018 Energy-efficiency of wireless communication systems has been an important research topic in recent years. For such a system, a transmission profile is described by the transmission power and the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) to be used for packet transmission. For a given channel condition, higher order MCSs offer higher throughput at the expense of requiring more transmission power. Average power consumption of the system can be reduced by using lower order MCSs at the expense of increased queuing delays. Using this observation, the goal of this study is the development of transmission profile selection policies so as to minimize the average power consumption while meeting a statistical delay constraint for a wireless link. For the purpose of assessing the proposed policies, the system is modeled as an M/M/1 queue where transmission speeds of packets are dynamically selected based on the queuing delay already experienced by them. This setting is shown to give rise to a multi-regime Markov fluid queue model which is used to obtain the waiting time distributions of packets as well as the average power consumption. In the numerical examples, proposed profile selection policies are evaluated for different system parameters using realistic transmission profiles obtained from LTE simulations. A proposed energy-aware profile selection policy is shown to consistently outperform all other proposed policies in terms of energy-efficiency whereas a reasonable performance is also obtained with a simpler-to-implement policy.
Location estimation improvement by signal adaptive RSSI filtering

Location estimating in indoor environments is an important research topic. RSSI can be expressed as a function of distance. RSSI based location estimating techniques are widely popular since no additional hardware is required. However, RSSI measurements collected in indoor environments are too noisy due to reflecting and scattering signals, and packet loss. Methods utilizing noisy signals, the RSSI measurements have large positioning errors that are unacceptable for indoor environments. In this paper, location estimation is aimed to be improved by adaptively filtering the RSSI measurements collected at indoor environment with Zigbee modules.
Obstructive sleep apnea classification based on spectrogram patterns in the electrocardiogram

Describes the findings of an exploratory study of the effect of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal. Episodes of sleep apnea are characterized by periodic cycles of breathing cessation find restoration. The authors' analysis was guided by the hypothesis that these cycles synchronously alter the ECG. They discovered several characteristic indicators of apnea in the ECG signal. Their study focused on data sets provided for the Computers in Cardiology (CINC) 2000 apnea classification competition. After careful QRS detection, artifact removal, and preprocessing, the authors found that they could recognize sleep apnea by visually inspecting spectrograms of various features of the ECG such as the heart rate (HR), S-pulse amplitude, and pulse energy. As part of this study the authors entered both CINC competitions. They were able to correctly classify 28 out of 30 subjects in their initial competition entry and 30 out of 30 in their third entry. Once each signal was classified as a whole, the authors were able to correctly classify each minute in 13,626 out of 17,268 cases in their initial entry and 15,994 cases in their fourth entry.
A Survey on Service Composition Middleware in Pervasive Environments

The development of pervasive computing has put the light on a challenging problem: how to dynamically compose services in heterogeneous and highly changing environments? We propose a survey that defines the service composition as a sequence of four steps: the translation, the generation, the evaluation, and finally the execution. With this powerful and simple model we describe the major service composition middleware. Then, a classification of these service composition middleware according to pervasive requirements - interoperability, discoverability, adaptability, context awareness, QoS management, security, spontaneous management, and autonomous management - is given. The classification highlights what has been done and what remains to do to develop the service composition in pervasive environments.
Active probing using packet quartets

A significant proportion of link bandwidth measurement methods are based on IP's ability to control the number of hops a packet can traverse along a route via the time-to-live (TTL) field of the IP header. A new delay variation based path model is introduced and used to analyse the fundamental networking effects underlying these methods. Insight from the model allows new link estimation methods to be derived and analysed. A new method family based on packet quartets: a combination of two packet pairs each comprising a probe following a pacesetter packet, where the TTL of the pacesetter is limited and the end-to-end delay variation of the probes is measured, is introduced. The methods provide 'pathchar-like' rate estimates over multiple links without relying on the delivery of ICMP messages, with reduced invasiveness and other advantages. The methods are demonstrated using simulations, and measurements on two different network routes are used for illustration and comparison against available tools (pathchar and clink). A comprehensive analysis of practical issues affecting the accuracy of the methods, such as link layer headers, is provided. Particular attention is paid to the consequences of 'invisible' hops: nodes where the TTL is not decreased.
Cultivation and Complete Genome Sequencing of Gloeobacter kilaueensis sp. nov., from a Lava Cave in Kīlauea Caldera, Hawai'i

The ancestor of Gloeobacter violaceus PCC 7421T is believed to have diverged from that of all known cyanobacteria before the evolution of thylakoid membranes and plant plastids. The long and largely independent evolutionary history of G. violaceus presents an organism retaining ancestral features of early oxygenic photoautotrophs, and in whom cyanobacteria evolution can be investigated. No other Gloeobacter species has been described since the genus was established in 1974 (Rippka et al., Arch Microbiol 100:435). Gloeobacter affiliated ribosomal gene sequences have been reported in environmental DNA libraries, but only the type strain's genome has been sequenced. However, we report here the cultivation of a new Gloeobacter species, G. kilaueensis JS1T, from an epilithic biofilm in a lava cave in Kīlauea Caldera, Hawai'i. The strain's genome was sequenced from an enriched culture resembling a low-complexity metagenomic sample, using 9 kb paired-end 454 pyrosequences and 400 bp paired-end Illumina reads. The JS1T and G. violaceus PCC 7421T genomes have little gene synteny despite sharing 2842 orthologous genes; comparing the genomes shows they do not belong to the same species. Our results support establishing a new species to accommodate JS1T, for which we propose the name Gloeobacter kilaueensis sp. nov. Strain JS1T has been deposited in the American Type Culture Collection (BAA-2537), the Scottish Marine Institute's Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa (CCAP 1431/1), and the Belgian Coordinated Collections of Microorganisms (ULC0316). The G. kilaueensis holotype has been deposited in the Algal Collection of the US National Herbarium (US# 217948). The JS1T genome sequence has been deposited in GenBank under accession number CP003587. The G+C content of the genome is 60.54 mol%. The complete genome sequence of G. kilaueensis JS1T may further understanding of cyanobacteria evolution, and the shift from anoxygenic to oxygenic photosynthesis.
STUDENT’S LEARNING INTEREST AND LEARNING OUTCOMES IN HISTORY LESSON

The research is experimental study of senior high school students in Bogor focuses on the use of e-learning in teaching history and aimed at investigating whether there is any improvement in the student’s interest and learning outcomes in history lesson on the students who learn by e-learning, compared to those who learn by traditional method. Nonequivalent (pretest and posttest) control group design is used in conducting the research. The population is the senior high school students in Bogor. The result shows that the students who learn history by e-learning achieved higher degree than those who do not learn using e-learning method, statistically significant at p<0.05. Furthermore, the score of the students learning outcomes for those who learned through e-learning is significantly improved, compared to those who do not learn using e-learning, statistically significant at p<0.05. The social economy status is not significantly correlated to the students’ interest and the students’ history learning outcomes. In fact, the students’ skill in using computer showed a significant correlation to the students’ interest and out come at p<0.05. It was concluded that the use of e-learning in teaching history is significantly affecting the students’ interest in learning history and the student learning outcomes.
Therapeutic taskscapes and craft geography: cultivating well-being and atmospheres of recovery in the workshop

ABSTRACT This paper presents empirical material drawn from a participatory ‘apprentice ethnographic’ research project examining the everyday geographies of a recovery-oriented wood workshop in Edinburgh, Scotland. It addresses two key literature gaps in human geography: firstly, empirically developing the concept of atmosphere within therapeutic landscapes research, and, secondly, exploring the notion of well-being in spaces of craft. The paper develops a more enlivened understanding of well-being as a dynamic and emplaced process, with the study’s methodological approach allowing the researcher to focus less on the individual psychological attributes of participants and more on the spatial aspects of journeys towards recovery and well-being. The paper highlights how ‘atmospheres of care’ are tentatively co-constructed and maintained in the taskscape of the workshop, creating a liminal space of recovery and transition. It concludes with implications for the wider study of social and ethical economic enterprises and institutions of care.
Large-scale features of Pliocene climate: results from the Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project

Climate and environments of the mid-Pliocene warm period (3.264 to 3.025 Ma) have been extensively studied. Whilst numerical models have shed light on the nature of climate at the time, uncertainties in their predictions have not been systematically examined. The Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project quantifies uncertainties in model outputs through a coordinated multi-model and multi-model/data intercomparison. Whilst commonalities in model outputs for the Pliocene are clearly evident, we show substantial variation in the sensitivity of models to the implementation of Pliocene boundary conditions. Models appear able to reproduce many regional changes in temperature reconstructed from geological proxies. However, data/model comparison highlights that models potentially underestimate polar amplification. To assert this conclusion with greater confidence, limitations in the time-averaged proxy data currently available must be addressed. Furthermore, sensitivity tests exploring the known unknowns in modelling Pliocene climate specifically relevant to the high latitudes are essential (e.g. palaeogeography, gateways, orbital forcing and trace gasses). Estimates of longer-term sensitivity to CO2 (also known as Earth System Sensitivity; ESS), support previous work suggesting that ESS is greater than Climate Sensitivity (CS), and suggest that the ratio of ESS to CS is between 1 and 2, with a "best" estimate of 1.5.
Linked open data alignment & querying

Prateek Jain is a Research Staff Member at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center at Yorktown, NY. Prateek earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science in July 2012 under the supervision of Prof. Amit Sheth and Prof. Pascal Hitzler at the Ohio Center of Excellence in Knowledge-enabled Computing of Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. He has been involved in the SIGWEB and Semantic Web community by contributing with publications and participating in several conferences including ISWC, Hypertext and ESWC. Prateek’s research interests are in the area of data management, integration and querying. He is currently exploring use of background knowledge for social network data analytics.
Scoring Spoken Responses Based on Content Accuracy

Accuracy of content have not been fully utilized in the previous studies on automated speaking assessment. Compared to writing tests, responses in speaking tests are noisy (due to recognition errors), full of incomplete sentences, and short. To handle these challenges for doing content-scoring in speaking tests, we propose two new methods based on information extraction (IE) and machine learning. Compared to using an ordinary content-scoring method based on vector analysis, which is widely used for scoring written essays, our proposed methods provided content features with higher correlations to human holistic scores.