Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A comparison of neural network feature transforms for speaker diarization

Speaker diarization finds contiguous speaker segments in an audio stream and clusters them by speaker identity, without using a-priori knowledge about the number of speakers or enrollment data. Diarization typically clusters speech segments based on short-term spectral features. In prior work, we showed that neural networks can serve as discriminative feature transformers for diarization by training them to perform same/different speaker comparisons on speech segments, yielding improved diarization accuracy when combined with standard MFCC-based models. In this work, we explore a wider range of neural network architectures for feature transformation, by adding additional layers and nonlinearities, and by varying the objective function during training. We find that the original speaker comparison netwo rk can be improved by adding a nonlinear transform layer, and that further gains are possible by training the network to perform speaker classification rather than comparison. Overal l we achieve relative reductions in speaker error between 18% and 34% on a variety of test data from the AMI, ICSI, and NIST-RT corpora.
Work-family balance and cultural dimensions: from a developing nation perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between cultural dimensions and the roots of work-family balance issues in a developing non-Western cultural context. Drawing upon Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, the study suggests national cultural dimensions can shape the roots of work-family balance. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was distributed among employees of 12 companies operating in the health industry. The survey collected both quantitative and qualitative data through two separate approaches: seven-point Likert scales and open-ended questions. The data were analyzed via thematic exploratory analysis and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. Findings – The quantitative data confirms the extant literature in relation to the negative effects of moonlighting, economic hardship and the absence of a comprehensive work-family balance strategy on employee work-family balance. The qualitative data proposes a new variable, weak social interaction, which becomes the most important roots of work-family imbalance at both work and family domain. Practical implications – The present study suggests certain cultural dimensions such as high power distance hinders social interactions in the work and family domains, thereby increasing levels of work conflict, family conflict, and stress. Findings suggest organizations, especially multinationals, need to be cognizant of the role of cultural dimensions on human resource management practices related to work-family balance. Originality/value – Very little literature addresses the impact of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions on work-family balance issues. The present study has contributed to the existing body of literature by introducing a new variable (weak social interaction) as an antecedent of work-family imbalance. Further, the study is the first in Iran that has collected qualitative data to investigate work-family balance issues.
Experimentally Switching from Factory Made to Self-Made Cigarettes: A Preliminary Study of Perceptions, Toxicant Exposure and Smoking Behavior.

INTRODUCTION There is currently the potential for a great deal of transition and product switching among cigarette smokers. Studies on the transition when cigarette smokers switch from one type of nicotine delivery product to another are needed to understand subsequent toxicant exposure. METHODS A preliminary study was performed to determine the feasibility of experimentally replicating the transition from factory made (FM) to personal machine made (PMM) cigarette smoking. The adaptability and perceptions of the consumer and the consequent exposure to cigarette-delivered toxins were assessed. Six adults (4 men) were recruited for four laboratory visits (V1-V4) on study days 1, 5, 10 and 15, respectively. All of the participants agreed to switch from exclusive FM smoking to exclusive PMM cigarette smoking for the duration of the study. RESULTS Compliance was very high among these participants. Participants progressively accepted the PMM cigarettes and became efficient producers of PMMs as evidenced in the reduced time to make 5 PMMs in the laboratory. Participants reported a preference for FM at visit 2 (V2), but had stated no preference by the fourth visit. Compared to the FMs, the PMMs at V3 (p<0.05) and V4 (p<0.10) had lower CO boost (7.3 vs. 4.1 ppm; p<0.05). Over all conditions, nicotine plasma levels averaged 18.0±2.4 ng/ml before smoking (for both FM and PMM) and 34.0±5.3 ng/mL after smoking; there were no significant differences in the plasma nicotine boost (average 17.7 and 15.4ng/ml after FM and PMM smoking, respectively). Although there were differences between individual subjects' filter butt levels of deposited solanesol the within-subject levels were remarkably similar. Puff topography measures did not vary across visits or cigarette type. CONCLUSIONS Although interpretation of study results must be conservative because of the small sample size, this study demonstrates that experimentally-induced transition from FM to PMM smoking is feasible for laboratory study and the subsequent toxicant exposure is comparable for FM and PMM cigarettes.
Bearing-Only Vision SLAM with Distinguishable Image Features

One of the key competences for autonomous mobile robots is the ability to build a map of the environment using natural landmarks and to use it for localization (Thrun et al., 1998, Castellanos et al, 1999, Dissanayake et al, 2001, Tardos et al. 2002, Thrun et al., 2004). Most successful systems presented so far in the literature have relied on range sensors such as laser scanners and sonar sensors. For large scale, complex environments with natural landmarks the problem of SLAM is still an open research problem. Recently, the use of vision as the only exteroceptive sensor has become one of the most active areas of research in SLAM (Davison, 2003, Folkesson et al., 2005, Goncavles et al., 2005, Sim et al., 2005, Newman & Ho., 2005). In this chapter, we present a SLAM system that builds maps with point landmarks using a single camera. We deal with a set of open research issues such as how to identify and extract stable and well-localized landmarks and how to match them robustly to perform accurate reconstruction and loop closing. All of these issues are central to success, especially when an estimator such as the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is used. Robust matching is required for most recursive formulations of SLAM where decisions are final. Even for methods that allow the data associations to change over time, e.g. (Folkesson & Christensen, 2004, Frese & Schroder 2006), reliable matching is very important. One of the big disadvantages with the laser scanner is that it is a very expensive sensor. Cameras, on the other hand, are relatively cheap. Another aspect of using cameras for SLAM is the much greater richness of the sensor information as compared to that from, for example, a range sensor. Using a camera it is possible to recognize features based on their appearance. This provides the means for dealing with one of the most difficult problems in SLAM, namely data association. The main contributions of this work are i) a method for the initialisation of visual landmarks for SLAM, ii) a robust and precise feature detector, iii) the management of the measurement to make on-line estimation possible, and iv) the demonstration of how this framework can facilitate real-time SLAM even with an EKF based implementation.
Extinction of Aversive Memories Associated with Morphine Withdrawal Requires ERK-Mediated Epigenetic Regulation of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Transcription in the Rat Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex

Recent evidence suggests that histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors facilitate extinction of rewarding memory of drug taking. However, little is known about the role of chromatin modification in the extinction of aversive memory of drug withdrawal. In this study, we used conditioned place aversion (CPA), a highly sensitive model for measuring aversive memory of drug withdrawal, to investigate the role of epigenetic regulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene expression in extinction of aversive memory. We found that CPA extinction training induced an increase in recruiting cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) to and acetylation of histone H3 at the promoters of BDNF exon I transcript and increased BDNF mRNA and protein expression in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) of acute morphine-dependent rats and that such epigenetic regulation of BDNF gene transcription could be facilitated or diminished by intra-vmPFC infusion of HDAC inhibitor trichostatin A or extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) inhibitor U0126 (1,4-diamino-2,3-dicyano-1,4-bis(methylthio)butadiene) before extinction training. Correspondingly, disruption of the epigenetic regulation of BDNF gene transcription with U0126 or suppression of BDNF signaling with Trk receptor antagonist K252a or BDNF scavenger tyrosine kinase receptor B (TrkB)-Fc blocked extinction of CPA behavior. We also found that extinction training-induced activation of ERK and CREB and extinction of CPA behavior could be potentiated or suppressed by intra-vmPFC infusion of d-cycloserine, a NMDA receptor partial agonist or aminophosphonopentanoic acid, a NMDA receptor antagonist. We conclude that extinction of aversive memory of morphine withdrawal requires epigenetic regulation of BDNF gene transcription in the vmPFC through activation of the ERK-CREB signaling pathway perhaps in a NMDA receptor-dependent manner.
Genetic Algorithms for Tracking Changing Environments

Abstract : In this paper, we explore the use of alternative mutation strategies as a means of increasing diversity so that the GA can track the optimum of a changing environment. This paper contrasts three different strategies: the Standard GA using a constant level of mutation, a mechanism called Random Immigrants, that replaces part of the population each generation with randomly generated values, and an adaptive mechanism called Triggered Hypermutation, that increases the mutation rate whenever there is a degradation in the performance of the time-averaged best performance. The study examines each of these strategies in the context of several kinds of environmental change, including linear translation of the optimum, random movement of the optimum, and oscillation between two significantly different landscapes. These first results should lead to the development of a single mechanism that can work well in both stationary and nonstationary environments. (AN)
Packing vertices and edges in random regular graphs

In this paper we consider the problem of finding large collections of vertices and edges satisfying particular separation properties in random regular graphs of degree r, for each fixed r ≥ 3. We prove both constructive lower bounds and combinatorial upper bounds on the maximal sizes of these sets. The lower bounds are proved by analyzing a class of algorithms that return feasible solutions for the given problems. The analysis uses the differential equation method proposed by Wormald [Lectures on Approximation and Randomized Algorithms, PWN, Wassaw, 1999, pp. 239–298]. The upper bounds are proved by direct combinatorial means. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg. , 2008
XMEANT: Better semantic MT evaluation without reference translations

We introduce XMEANT—a new cross-lingual version of the semantic frame based MT evaluation metric MEANT—which can correlate even more closely with human adequacy judgments than monolingual MEANT and eliminates the need for expensive human references. Previous work established that MEANT reflects translation adequacy with state-of-the-art accuracy, and optimizing MT systems against MEANT robustly improves translation quality. However, to go beyond tuning weights in the loglinear SMT model, a cross-lingual objective function that can deeply integrate semantic frame criteria into the MT training pipeline is needed. We show that cross-lingual XMEANT outperforms monolingual MEANT by (1) replacing the monolingual context vector model in MEANT with simple translation probabilities, and (2) incorporating bracketing ITG constraints.
A Survey of Approaches for Curve Based Facial Surface Representations For Three-Dimensional Face Recognition

The majority of face recognition methods using threedimensional data, either alone or in combination with two-dimensional intensity images are covered in existing survey papers. General 3D face representation has been extensively studied and various approaches have been proposed in the literature. This overview focuses on the class of researches exploiting curve concept to represent facial surface for three-dimensional face recognition using profile or contour curves. Challenges involved in estimating the surface by curves are also identified.
Decreased expression of the Id3 gene at 1p36.1 in ovarian adenocarcinomas

The molecular events that drive the initiation and progression of ovarian adenocarcinoma are not well defined. We have investigated changes in gene expression in ovarian cancer cell lines compared to an immortalized human ovarian surface epithelial cell line (HOSE) using a cDNA array. We identified 17 genes that were under-expressed and 10 genes that were over-expressed in the cell lines compared to the HOSE cells. One of the genes under-expressed in the ovarian cancer cell lines, Id3, a transcriptional inactivator, was selected for further investigation. Id3 mRNA was expressed at reduced levels in 6 out of 9 ovarian cancer cell lines compared to the HOSE cells while at the protein level, all 7 ovarian cancer cell lines examined expressed the Id3 protein at greatly reduced levels. Expression of Id3 mRNA was also examined in primary ovarian tumours and was found in only 12/38 (32%) cases. A search was conducted for mutations of Id3 in primary ovarian cancers using single stranded conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis. Only one nucleotide substitution, present also in the corresponding constitutional DNA, was found in 94 ovarian tumours. Furthermore no association was found between LOH at 1p36 and lack of expression of Id3. These data suggest that Id3 is not the target of LOH at 1p36. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer. com
Papers Thermal Behavior of Visible AlGaInP-GaInP Ridge Laser Diodes

The thermal behavior of visible AIGaInP-GaInP ridge laser diodes is investigated numerically and experimen- tally. It is shown that various parameters critically influence the thermal resistance R of such devices. R is inversely propor- tional to the thermal conductivity of the heatsink. A substantial improvement in R-quite larger than in the AlGaAs system-is achieved for junction-side-down mounting compared to junc- tion-side-up. R depends strongly on the width w of the ridge and this effect is different for junction-side-up or down mount- ing. In the first case, R - log (w) and in the second, R - l/w. The thickness of the soldering material is a sensitive parameter which may increase the value of R by up to 15 K/W. On the other hand, for junction-side-up mounted devices, the top me- tallization layer has a very favorable effect: a 1 pm thick gold layer reduces R by 30%. The dynamics of thermal phenomena is also studied. It is shown that when a laser is switched on the steady state is reached in the ms time range. Finally, our ex- perimental results show a very good agreement with our nu- merical data.
A Corpus of Literal and Idiomatic Uses of German Infinitive-Verb Compounds

We present an annotation study on a representative dataset of literal and idiomatic uses of German infinitive-verb compounds in newspaper and journal texts. Infinitive-verb compounds form a challenge for writers of German, because spelling regulations are different for literal and idiomatic uses. Through the participation of expert lexicographers we were able to obtain a high-quality corpus resource which offers itself as a testbed for automatic idiomaticity detection and coarse-grained word-sense disambiguation. We trained a classifier on the corpus which was able to distinguish literal and idiomatic uses with an accuracy of 85 %.
The (In)dependence of Alternative Splicing and Gene Duplication

Alternative splicing (AS) and gene duplication (GD) both are processes that diversify the protein repertoire. Recent examples have shown that sequence changes introduced by AS may be comparable to those introduced by GD. In addition, the two processes are inversely correlated at the genomic scale: large gene families are depleted in splice variants and vice versa. All together, these data strongly suggest that both phenomena result in interchangeability between their effects. Here, we tested the extent to which this applies with respect to various protein characteristics. The amounts of AS and GD per gene are anticorrelated even when accounting for different gene functions or degrees of sequence divergence. In contrast, the two processes appear to be independent in their influence on variation in mRNA expression. Further, we conducted a detailed comparison of the effect of sequence changes in both alternative splice variants and gene duplicates on protein structure, in particular the size, location, and types of sequence substitutions and insertions/deletions. We find that, in general, alternative splicing affects protein sequence and structure in a more drastic way than gene duplication and subsequent divergence. Our results reveal an interesting paradox between the anticorrelation of AS and GD at the genomic level, and their impact at the protein level, which shows little or no equivalence in terms of effects on protein sequence, structure, and function. We discuss possible explanations that relate to the order of appearance of AS and GD in a gene family, and to the selection pressure imposed by the environment.
How accurately should we estimate the anatomical source of exhaled nitric oxide?

for more than a decade it has been recognized that nitric oxide (NO) appears in the exhaled breath and the level is altered in numerous pulmonary diseases in which inflammation plays an integral role (e.g., asthma) ([1][1], [8][2]). Thus the exhaled NO signal has the potential to uniquely delineate
Nestin-GFP Transgene Reveals Neural Precursor Cells in Adult Skeletal Muscle

Background Therapy for neural lesions or degenerative diseases relies mainly on finding transplantable active precursor cells. Identifying them in peripheral tissues accessible for biopsy, outside the central nervous system, would circumvent the serious immunological and ethical concerns impeding cell therapy. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, we isolated neural progenitor cells in cultured adult skeletal muscle from transgenic mice in which nestin regulatory elements control GFP expression. These cells also expressed the early neural marker Tuj1 and light and heavy neurofilament but not S100β, indicating that they express typical neural but not Schwann cell markers. GFP+/Tuj1+ cells were also negative for the endothelial and pericyte markers CD31 and α-smooth muscle actin, respectively. We established their a) functional response to glutamate in patch-clamp recordings; b) interstitial mesenchymal origin; c) replicative capacity; and d) the environment necessary for their survival after fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Conclusions/Significance We propose that the decline in nestin-GFP expression in muscle progenitor cells and its persistence in neural precursor cells in muscle cultures provide an invaluable tool for isolating a population of predifferentiated neural cells with therapeutic potential.
Supervisory Control of an Adaptive-Droop Regulated DC Microgrid With Battery Management Capability

DC power systems are gaining an increasing interest in renewable energy applications because of the good matching with dc output type sources such as photovoltaic (PV) systems and secondary batteries. In this paper, several distributed generators (DGs) have been merged together with a pair of batteries and loads to form an autonomous dc microgrid (MG). To overcome the control challenge associated with coordination of multiple batteries within one stand-alone MG, a double-layer hierarchical control strategy was proposed. 1) The unit-level primary control layer was established by an adaptive voltage-droop method aimed to regulate the common bus voltage and to sustain the states of charge (SOCs) of batteries close to each other during moderate replenishment. The control of every unit was expanded with unit-specific algorithm, i.e., finish-of-charging for batteries and maximum power-point tracking (MPPT) for renewable energy sources, with which a smooth online overlap was designed and 2) the supervisory control layer was designed to use the low-bandwidth communication interface between the central controller and sources in order to collect data needed for adaptive calculation of virtual resistances (VRs) as well as transit criteria for changing unit-level operating modes. A small-signal stability for the whole range of VRs. The performance of developed control was assessed through experimental results.
Household air pollution and personal exposure risk of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons among rural residents in Shanxi, China.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of pollutants of widespread concerns. Gaseous and size-segregated particulate-phase PAHs were collected in indoor and outdoor air in rural households. Personal exposure was measured and compared to the ingestion exposure. The average concentrations of 28 parent PAHs and benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) were 9000 ± 8390 and 131 ± 236 ng/m(3) for kitchen, 2590 ± 2270 and 43 ± 95 ng/m(3) for living room, and 2800 ± 3890 and 1.6 ± 0.7 ng/m(3) for outdoor air, respectively. The mass percent of high molecular weight (HMW) compounds with 5-6 rings contributed 1.3% to total 28 parent PAHs. Relatively higher fractions of HMW PAHs were found in indoor air compared to outdoor air. Majorities of particle-bound PAHs were found in the finest PM0.25 , and the highest levels of fine PM0.25 -bound PAHs were in the kitchen using peat and wood as energy sources. The 24-h personal PAH exposure concentration was 2100 ± 1300 ng/m(3) . Considering energies, exposures to those using wood were the highest. The PAH inhalation exposure comprised up to about 30% in total PAH exposure through food ingestion and inhalation, and the population attributable fraction (PAF) for lung cancer in the region was 0.85%. The risks for inhaled and ingested intakes of PAHs were 1.0 × 10(-5) and 1.1 × 10(-5) , respectively.
Chapter 1 Octree Textures on the GPU

Texture mapping is a very efficient technique to enrich the appearance of polygonal models with details. Textures do not only store color information, but also normals for bump mapping and various shading attributes to create appealing surface effects. However, texture mapping requires parameterizing a mesh, by associating a 2D texture coordinate with every mesh vertex. Distortions and seams are often introduced by this difficult process, especially on complex meshes.