Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implicit Transfer of Privileged Acoustic Information in a Generalized Knowledge Distillation Framework

This paper proposes a novel generalized knowledge distillation framework, with an implicit transfer of privileged information. In our proposed framework, teacher networks are trained with two input branches on pairs of time-synchronous lossless and lossy acoustic features. While one branch of the teacher network processes a privileged view of the data using lossless features, the second branch models a student view, by processing lossy features corresponding to the same data. During the training step, weights of this teacher network are updated using a composite two-part cross entropy loss. The ﬁrst part of this loss is computed between the predicted output labels of the lossless data and the actual ground truth. The second part of the loss is computed between the predicted output labels of the lossy data and lossless data. In the next step of generating soft labels, only the student view branch of the teacher is used with lossy data. The beneﬁt of this proposed technique is shown on speech signals with long-term time-frequency bandwidth loss due to recording devices and network conditions. Compared to conventional generalized knowledge distillation with privileged information, the proposed method has a relative improvement of 9.5% on both lossless and lossy test sets.
High‐Performance Unidirectional Manipulation of Microdroplets by Horizontal Vibration on Femtosecond Laser‐Induced Slant Microwall Arrays

The high‐performance unidirectional manipulation of microdroplets is crucial for many vital applications including water collection and bioanalysis. Among several actuation methods (e.g., electric, magnetic, light, and thermal actuation), mechanical vibration is pollution‐free and biocompatible. However, it suffers from limited droplet movement mode, small volume range (VMax/VMin < 3), and low transport velocity (≤11.5 mm s−1) because the droplet motion is a sliding state caused by the vertical vibration on the asymmetric hydrophobic microstructures. Here, an alternative strategy is proposed—horizontal vibration for multimode (rolling, bouncing/reverse bouncing, converging/diffusing, climbing, 90o turning, and sequential transport), large‐volume‐range (VMax/VMin ≈ 100), and high‐speed (≈22.86 mm s−1) unidirectional microdroplet manipulation, which is ascribed to the rolling state on superhydrophobic slant microwall arrays (SMWAs) fabricated by the one‐step femtosecond laser oblique ablation. The unidirectional transport mechanism relies on the variance of viscous resistance induced by the difference of contact area between the microdroplet and the slant microwalls. Furthermore, a circular, curved, and “L”‐shaped SMWA is designed and fabricated for droplet motion with particular paths. Finally, sequential transport of large‐volume‐range droplets and chemical mixing microreaction of water‐based droplets are demonstrated on the SMWA, which demonstrates the great potential in the field of microdroplet manipulation.
Air-Tissue Boundary Segmentation in Real Time Magnetic Resonance Imaging Video Using 3-D Convolutional Neural Network

The real-time Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rtMRI) is often used for speech production research as it captures the complete view of the vocal tract during speech. Air-tissue boundaries (ATBs) are the contours that trace the transition between high-intensity tissue region and low-intensity airway cavity region in an rtMRI video. The ATBs are used in several speech related applications. However, the ATB segmentation is a challenging task as the rtMRI frames have low resolution and low signal-to-noise ratio. Several works have been proposed in the past for ATB segmentation. Among these, the supervised algorithms have been shown to perform well compared to the unsupervised algorithms. However, the supervised algorithms have limited generalizability towards subjects not involved in training. In this work, we propose a 3-dimensional convolutional neural network (3D-CNN) which utilizes both spatial and temporal information from the rtMRI video for accurate ATB segmentation. The 3D-CNN model captures the vocal tract dynamics in an rtMRI video independent of the morphology of the subject leading to an accurate ATB segmentation for unseen subjects. In a leave-one-subject-out experimental setup, it is observed that the proposed approach provides ∼ 32% relative improvement in the performance compared to the best (SegNet based) baseline approach.
Eye-movements as a signature of age-related differences in global planning strategies for spatial navigation

The ability to efficiently find alternatives routes when faced with unexpected obstacles along our path is among the most compelling evidence of the flexibility of human behaviour. Although a plethora of plausible computations have been put forward to elucidate how the brain accomplishes efficient goal-oriented navigation, the mechanisms that guide an effective re-planning when facing obstructions are still largely undetermined. There is a fair consensus in postulating that possible alternatives routes are internally replayed sampling from past experiences, however, there is currently no account of the criterion according to which those memories are replayed. Here, we posit that paths, which are expected to be more rewarding are replayed more often and that eye movements are the explicit manifestation of this re-planning strategy. In other words, the visual sampling statistics reflects the retrieval of available routes on a mental representation of the environment. To test our hypothesis, we measured the ability of both young and old human subjects to solve a virtual version of the Tolman maze, while we recorded their eye movements. We used reinforcement learning (RL) to corroborate that eye movements statistics was crucially subtending the decision making process involved in re-planning and that the incorporation of this additional information to the algorithm was necessary to reproduce the behavioral performance of both screened populations.
Nasally Administered Lactococcus lactis Secreting Heme Oxygenase-1 Attenuates Murine Emphysema

Emphysema, a type of lung-destroying condition associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), is an inflammatory lung disease mainly due to cigarette smoke exposure. As there is no curative therapy, prevention should be considered first by cessation of smoking to avoid exposure to oxidative stresses and inflammatory mediators. In addition, therapies involving antioxidative and/or anti-inflammatory agents such as heme oxygenase (HO)-1 are candidate treatments. We developed a new tool using genetically modified Lactococcus lactis to deliver recombinant HO-1 to the lungs. Using an elastase-induced emphysema model mimicking COPD, we evaluated the effect of nasally administered L. lactis secreting HO-1 (HO-1 lactis) on cellular and molecular responses in the lungs and further disease progression. Nasally administered HO-1 lactis resulted in (1) overexpression of HO-1 in the lungs and serum and (2) attenuation of emphysema progression evaluated both physiologically and morphologically. There was a transient 5–10% weight loss compared to baseline through trafficking to the lungs when administering 1.0 × 109 cells/mouse; however, this did not impact either survival or final body weight. These results suggest that delivering HO-1 using genetically modified L. lactis through the airways could be a safe and potentially effective therapeutic approach for COPD.
Linking Challenge–Hindrance Stressors to Safety Outcomes and Performance: A Dual Mediation Model for Construction Workers

Occupational stressors have long been recognized as an important risk factor for injury accidents. The mechanisms underlying the relationships among challenge stressors, hindrance stressors, safety outcomes (occupational injuries), emotional experiences (attentiveness), and job performance (task performance) were investigated from the perspectives of the challenge–hindrance stress model and the conservation of resources theory. This study collected multi-source data over two timepoints for 105 safety supervisors and 379 construction workers in China. Results revealed that both challenge and hindrance stressors were positively related to occupational injuries, but only challenge stressors were positively associated with attentiveness. In addition, occupational injuries mediated the relationship between both challenge and hindrance stressors and task performance, while attentiveness mediated only the relationship between challenge stressors and task performance. These findings contribute to our knowledge of stress management in the construction project context and provide recommendations for stress management for front-line workers at construction sites.
Molecular phylogenetic inference of White-Spotted Guitarfish (Rhynchobatus australiae) collected from local Malaysian fish markets

Md-Zain BM, Abdul-Mutalib SA, Aifat NR, Masstor NH, Mohd-Yusof NS, Mohd-Hashim A, Abdul-Latiff MAB, Yaakop S, Samat A. 2018. Molecular phylogenetic inference of White-Spotted Guitarfish (Rhynchobatus australiae) collected from local Malaysian fish markets. Biodiversitas 19: 1382-1386. The white-spotted guitarfish (Rhynchobatus australiae) is in high demand at local Malaysian fish markets because its fins are a valuable food source. To date, few molecular studies have characterized their genetic identity. We have conducted a molecular study to infer the phylogenetic relationships of white-spotted guitarfish, which portray a similar morphology to sharks and rays. The main objective of this study was to determine the phylogenetic position of R. australiae using cytochrome oxidase I (COI) sequences of mitochondrial DNA based on fish samples collected from local Malaysian fish markets. This study included nine genetic samples of R. australiae and fourteen samples from other members of the shark and ray families, including Sphyrna lewini (Sphyrnidae), Rhizoprionodon oligolinx and Carcharhinus sorrah (Carcharhinidae), Dasyatis zugei, Himantura walga, Himantura gerradi, Himantura jenkinsii and Neotrygon kuhlii (Dasyatidae). Chimaera fulva, a member of the Chimaera family, was used as the outgroup. Sequences in size of ~701 base pairs were successfully obtained from all fish samples. The phylogenetic tree topology was reconstructed using distance-based (neighbor-joining) and character-based (maximum parsimony) methods using MEGA and PAUP software. Results indicated that R. australiae formed monophyletic clade and is closely related to sharks (Sphyrnidae and Carcharhinidae). This conclusion was also supported by genetic distance analysis which indicated that Rhynchobatidae and sharks (Carcharhinidae and Sphyrnidae) were closer to each other than to rays (Dasyatidae). This study has proven the efficiency of the COI mitochondrial locus in revealing the phylogenetic position of R. australiae. Research findings from this study have increased our understanding of the phylogenetic relationships among guitarfish, sharks, and rays, and their respective taxonomic positions are given their shared morphological characters. This will benefit us in identifying these fish species before consumption from local fish markets.
Colony Stimulating Factors in Early Feline Infectious Peritonitis Virus Infection of Monocytes and in End Stage Feline Infectious Peritonitis; A Combined In Vivo and In Vitro Approach

Feline coronavirus (FCoV) infection initiates monocyte-associated viremia and viral persistence. Virus-infected, -activated monocytes also trigger feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a fatal systemic disease of felids typified by granulomatous (peri)phlebitis. Currently, the exact mechanisms inducing monocyte activation and FIP are unknown. This study attempted to identify the potential immediate effect of virulent FCoV on colony-stimulating factor (CSF) (granulocyte (G)-CSF, monocyte (M)-CSF and granulocyte-monocyte (GM)-CSF levels through in vitro assessment, alongside prototypical pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators (interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, IL-12p40, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and IL-10); this was assessed alongside the in vivo situation in the hemolymphatic tissues of cats euthanized with natural end-stage FIP. For the in vitro work, isolated monocytes from SPF cats were cultured short-term and infected with the FIP virus (FIPV) strain DF2. Mediator transcription was assessed by quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-qPCR) at 3, 6 and 9 h post infection (hpi), and in the post-mortem samples of bone marrow, spleen, and mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) of cats with FIP. We observed limited and transient changes in cytokine transcription in monocytes after infection, i.e., a significant increase of IL-6 at 3 hpi and of GM-CSF over the 3 and 6 hpi period, whereas M-CSF was significantly decreased at 9 hpi, with a limited effect of age. The findings indicate that the infection induces expansion of the monocyte/macrophage population, which would ensure the sufficient supply of cells for consistent viral replication. In natural disease, the only upregulation was of G-CSF in the MLN, suggesting either immune exhaustion or an active downregulation by the host as part of its viral response.
Double Adversarial Network Based Monaural Speech Enhancement for Robust Speech Recognition

To improve the noise robustness of automatic speech recognition (ASR), the generative adversarial network (GAN) based enhancement methods are employed as the front-end processing, which comprise a single adversarial process of an enhancement model and a discriminator. In this single adversarial process, the discriminator is encouraged to ﬁnd differences be-tween the enhanced and clean speeches, but the distribution of clean speeches is ignored. In this paper, we propose a double adversarial network (DAN) by adding another adversarial generation process (AGP), which forces the discriminator not only to ﬁnd the differences but also to model the distribution. Furthermore, a functional mean square error ( f -MSE) is proposed to utilize the representations learned by the discriminator. Experimental results reveal that AGP and f -MSE are crucial for the enhancement performance on ASR task, which are missed in previous GAN-based methods. Speciﬁcally, our DAN achieves 13.00% relative word error rate improvements over the noisy speeches on the test set of CHiME-2, which outperforms several recent GAN-based enhancement methods signiﬁcantly.
Reproducibility of volume and asymmetry measurements of hippocampus, amygdala, and entorhinal cortex on traveling volunteers: a multisite MP2RAGE prospective study

Background Multisite studies can considerably increase the pool of normally aging individuals with neurodegenerative disorders and thereby expedite the associated research. Understanding the reproducibility of the parameters of related brain structures—including the hippocampus, amygdala, and entorhinal cortex—in multisite studies is crucial in determining the impact of healthy aging or neurodegenerative diseases. Purpose To estimate the reproducibility of the fascinating structures by automatic (FreeSurfer) and manual segmentation methods in a well-controlled multisite dataset. Material and Methods Three traveling individuals were scanned at 10 sites, which were equipped with the same equipment (3T Prisma Siemens). They used the same scan protocol (two inversion-contrast magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo sequences) and operators. Validity coefficients (intraclass correlations coefficient [ICC]) and spatial overlap measures (Dice Similarity Coefficient [DSC]) were used to estimate the reproducibility of multisite data. Results ICC and DSC values varied substantially among structures and segmentation methods, and values of manual tracing were relatively higher than the automated method. ICC and DSC values of structural parameters were greater than 0.80 and 0.60 across sites, as determined by manual tracing. Low reproducibility was observed in the amygdala parameters by automatic segmentation method (ICC = 0.349–0.529, DSC = 0.380–0.873). However, ICC and DSC scores of the hippocampus were higher than 0.60 and 0.65 by two segmentation methods. Conclusion This study suggests that a well-controlled multisite study could provide a reliable MRI dataset. Manual tracing of volume assessments is recommended for low reproducibility structures that require high levels of precision in multisite studies.
Recapitulation of erythropoiesis in congenital dyserythropoietic anemia type I (CDA-I) identifies defects in differentiation and nucleolar abnormalities

The investigation of inherited disorders of erythropoiesis has elucidated many of the principles underlying the production of normal red blood cells and how this is perturbed in human disease. Congenital dyserythropoietic anemia type 1 (CDA-I) is a rare form of anemia caused by mutations in two genes of unknown function: CDAN1 and CDIN1 (previously called C15orf41), whilst in some cases, the underlying genetic abnormality is completely unknown. Consequently, the pathways affected in CDA-I remain to be discovered. In order to enable detailed analysis of this rare disorder we have validated a culture system which recapitulates all of the cardinal hematological features of CDA-I, including the formation of the pathognomonic ‘spongy’ heterochromatin seen by electron microscopy. Using a variety of cell and molecular biological approaches we discovered that erythroid cells in this condition show a delay during terminal erythroid differentiation, associated with increased proliferation and widespread changes in chromatin accessibility. We also show that the proteins encoded by CDAN1 and CDIN1 are enriched in nucleoli which are structurally and functionally abnormal in CDA-I. Together these findings provide important pointers to the pathways affected in CDA-I which for the first time can now be pursued in the tractable culture system utilized here.
[4Fe-4S] cluster trafficking mediated by Arabidopsis mitochondrial ISCA and NFU proteins

Numerous iron-sulfur (Fe-S) proteins with diverse functions are present in the matrix and respiratory chain complexes of mitochondria. Although [4Fe-4S] clusters are the most common type of Fe-S cluster in mitochondria, the molecular mechanism of [4Fe-4S] cluster assembly and insertion into target proteins by the mitochondrial iron-sulfur cluster (ISC) maturation system is not well-understood. Here we report a detailed characterization of two late-acting Fe-S cluster-carrier proteins from Arabidopsis thaliana, NFU4 and NFU5. Yeast two-hybrid and bimolecular fluorescence complementation studies demonstrated interaction of both the NFU4 and NFU5 proteins with the ISCA class of Fe-S carrier proteins. Recombinant NFU4 and NFU5 were purified as apo-proteins after expression in Escherichia coli. In vitro Fe-S cluster reconstitution led to the insertion of one [4Fe-4S]2+ cluster per homodimer as determined by UV-visible absorption/CD, resonance Raman and EPR spectroscopy, and analytical studies. Cluster transfer reactions, monitored by UV-visible absorption and CD spectroscopy, showed that a [4Fe-4S]2+ cluster-bound ISCA1a/2 heterodimer is effective in transferring [4Fe-4S]2+ clusters to both NFU4 and NFU5 with negligible back reaction. In addition, [4Fe-4S]2+ cluster-bound ISCA1a/2, NFU4, and NFU5 were all found to be effective [4Fe-4S]2+ cluster donors for maturation of the mitochondrial apo-aconitase 2 as assessed by enzyme activity measurements. The results demonstrate rapid, unidirectional, and quantitative [4Fe-4S]2+ cluster transfer from ISCA1a/2 to NFU4 or NFU5 that further delineates their respective positions in the plant ISC machinery and their contributions to the maturation of client [4Fe-4S] cluster-containing proteins.
Anterior prefrontal cortex mediates implicit inferences

Frequent experience with regularities in our environment allows us to use predictive information to guide our decision process. However, contingencies in our environment are not always explicitly present and sometimes need to be inferred. Heretofore, it remained unknown how predictive information guides decision-making when explicit knowledge is absent and how the brain shapes such implicit inferences. In the present experiment, participants performed a discrimination task in which a target stimulus was preceded by a predictive cue. Critically, participants had no explicit knowledge that some of the cues signaled an upcoming target, allowing us to investigate how implicit inferences emerge and guide decision-making. Despite unawareness of the cue-target contingencies, participants were able to use implicit information to improve performance. Concurrent EEG recordings demonstrate that implicit inferences rely upon interactions between internally and externally oriented networks, whereby anterior prefrontal regions inhibit right parietal cortex under internal implicit control. Significance Regularities in our environment can guide our behavior providing information about upcoming events. Interestingly, such predictive information does not need to be explicitly represented in order to effectively guide our decision process. Here, we show how the brain engages in such real-world ‘data mining’ and how implicit inferences emerge. We employed a contingency cueing task and demonstrate that implicit inferences influenced responses to subsequent targets despite a lack of awareness of cue-target contingencies. Further, we show that these implicit inferences emerge through interactions between internally- and externally-oriented neural networks. The current results highlight the importance of the anterior prefrontal cortex in transforming external events into predictive internalized models of the world.
Evaluating Lumbar Shape Deformation With Fabric Strain Sensors

Objective To better study human motion inside the space suit and suit-related contact, a multifactor statistical model was developed to predict torso body shape changes and lumbar motion during suited movement by using fabric strain sensors that are placed on the body. Background Physical interactions within pressurized space suits can pose an injury risk for astronauts during extravehicular activity (EVA). In particular, poor suit fit can result in an injury due to reduced performance capabilities and excessive body contact within the suit during movement. A wearable solution is needed to measure body motion inside the space suit. Methods An array of flexible strain sensors was attached to the body of 12 male study participants. The participants performed specific static lumbar postures while 3D body scans and sensor measurements were collected. A model was created to predict the body shape as a function of sensor signal and the accuracy was evaluated using holdout cross-validation. Results Predictions from the torso shape model had an average root mean square error (RMSE) of 2.02 cm. Subtle soft tissue deformations such as skin folding and bulges were accurately replicated in the shape prediction. Differences in posture type did not affect the prediction error. Conclusion This method provides a useful tool for suited testing and the information gained will drive the development of injury countermeasures and improve suit fit assessments. Application In addition to space suit design applications, this technique can provide a lightweight and wearable system to perform ergonomic evaluations in field assessments.