Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Streaming On-Device End-to-End ASR System for Privacy-Sensitive Voice-Typing

In this paper, we present our streaming on-device end-to-end speech recognition solution for a privacy sensitive voice-typing application which primarily involves typing user private details and passwords. We highlight challenges speciﬁc to voice-typing scenario in the Korean language and propose solutions to these problems within the framework of a streaming attention-based speech recognition system. Some important challenges in voice-typing are the choice of output units, coupling of multiple characters into longer byte-pair encoded units, lack of sufﬁcient training data. Apart from customizing a high accuracy open domain streaming speech recognition model for voice-typing applications, we retain the performance of the model for open domain tasks without signiﬁcant degradation. We also explore domain biasing using a shallow fusion with a weighted ﬁnite state transducer (WFST). We obtain approximately 13 % relative word error rate (WER) improvement on our internal Korean voice-typing dataset without a WFST and about 30% additional WER improvement with a WFST fusion.
Speech Clarity Improvement by Vocal Self-Training Using a Hearing Impairment Simulator and its Correlation with an Auditory Modulation Index

We performed two experiments to ascertain whether vocal selftraining improves speech clarity, particularly when the feedback speech is degraded by a hearing impairment simulator. Speech sounds before and after the training were recorded under noisy and quiet conditions and their speech clarity was evaluated by subjective listening tests using Scheffe’s paired comparison. We also analyzed the auditory modulation features to derive an index to explain the subjective clarity scores. The auditory modulation index highly correlated with subjective scores and seems a good candidate for predicting speech clarity.
Removing Bias with Residual Mixture of Multi-View Attention for Speech Emotion Recognition

Speech emotion recognition is essential for obtaining emotional intelligence which affects the understanding of context and meaning of speech. The fundamental challenges of speech emotion recognition from a machine learning standpoint is to extract patterns which carry maximum correlation with the emotion information encoded in this signal, and to be as insensitive as possible to other types of information carried by speech. In this paper, a novel recurrent residual temporal context modelling framework is proposed. The framework includes mixture of multi-view attention smoothing and high dimensional feature projection for context expansion and learning feature representations. The framework is designed to be robust to changes in speaker and other distortions, and it provides state-of-the-art re-sults for speech emotion recognition. Performance of the proposed approach is compared with a wide range of current architectures in a standard 4-class classiﬁcation task on the widely used IEMOCAP corpus. A signiﬁcant improvement of 4% un-weighted accuracy over state-of-the-art systems is observed. Additionally, the attention vectors have been aligned with the input segments and plotted at two different attention levels to demonstrate the effectiveness.
Bi-Encoder Transformer Network for Mandarin-English Code-Switching Speech Recognition Using Mixture of Experts

Code-switching speech recognition is a challenging task which has been studied in many previous work, and one main challenge for this task is the lack of code-switching data. In this paper, we study end-to-end models for Mandarin-English code-switching automatic speech recognition. External monolingual data are utilized to alleviate the data sparsity problem. More importantly, we propose a bi-encoder transformer network based Mixture of Experts (MoE) architecture to better leverage these data. We decouple Mandarin and English modeling with two separate encoders to better capture language-speciﬁc information, and a gating network is employed to explicitly handle the language identiﬁcation task. For the gating network, different models and training modes are explored to learn the better MoE interpolation coefﬁcients. Experimental results show that compared with the baseline transformer model, the proposed new MoE architecture can obtain up to 10.4% relative error reduction on the code-switching test set.
Social media use and human papillomavirus awareness and knowledge among adults with children in the household: examining the role of race, ethnicity, and gender

ABSTRACT Background Though human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is a safe and effective method of protecting against associated cancers, uptake rates remain low among adolescents. Few studies have examined how social media use contributes to HPV-related knowledge gaps among parents and caregivers. Objective To investigate the association between social media use and HPV-related awareness and knowledge with a focus on differences by gender and race/ethnicity among a nationally representative sample of adults with children in the household. Methods We used data from the Health Information National Trends (HINTS) Survey (2017–2019) (N = 2,720). Multivariate logistic regressions were used to examine the association of social media use on HPV awareness and knowledge outcomes. Results Compared to non-users, engaging in one, two, three, or four social media behaviors were associated with greater HPV awareness (aOR: 2.09; 95%CI: 1.18–3.70, aOR: 2.49; 95%CI: 1.40–4.42, aOR: 2.64; 95%CI: 1.15–6.05, and aOR: 2.44; 95%CI: 1.11–5.36, respectively). Increased social media use was associated with increased HPV vaccine awareness. Men, African American, Hispanic, and Asian American respondents were less likely to be aware of HPV or HPV vaccine. Social media use was not associated with cancer knowledge. Conclusions Increased social media use is associated with an increased awareness of HPV and HPV vaccine for adults with children in the household. Social media-based efforts can be utilized to increase knowledge of the benefits of HPV vaccination as cancer prevention, which may be a precursor to reducing HPV vaccine hesitancy and encouraging uptake to decrease cancer incidence rates among vulnerable populations.
The effect of tumor location on overall survival for pT2-4 bladder and upper tract urothelial carcinoma following radical surgery.

INTRODUCTION Historically, staging and treatment for upper tract urothelial carcinoma were extrapolated from bladder urothelial carcinoma literature. However, embryological, genetic, and anatomical differences exist between them. We sought to explore the relationship between location of urothelial cancer and overall survival (OS). METHODS Data was culled from the National Cancer Database from 2004-2015. Patients with pT2-pT4 treated with definitive surgery were included; those with metastatic disease or who received neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment were excluded. Patients were stratified by tumor location and pathological stage. The primary outcome was OS. Secondary outcomes were predictors of mortality in each pT stage stratum. RESULTS A total of 11 330 patients with bladder, 954 patients with ureteral, and 1943 patients with renal pelvis urothelial carcinoma were analyzed. Mean followup was 43.3, 39.4, and 41.4 months for bladder, ureteral, and renal pelvis, respectively. On univariable analysis, ureteral pT2 was associated with worse OS compared to both bladder (61.3 vs. 80.4 months, p=0.007) and renal pelvis (61.3 vs. 80.5 months, p=0.014). Renal pelvis pT3 was associated with improved OS compared to both bladder (42.5 vs. 28.6 months, p=0.003) and ureteral (42.5 vs. 25.7 months, p<0.001). Renal pelvis pT4 had decreased survival compared to bladder (11.4 vs. 17.7 months, p<0.001). On multivariable Cox regression, only renal pelvis pT3 was associated with a 20% decreased risk of mortality compared to bladder pT3 (hazard ratio 0.80, 95% confidence interval 0.72-0.88, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS Renal pelvis pT3 is associated with lower mortality. Mutational and embryological differences may play a role in this disparity.
LDOC1 Suppresses Microbe-Induced Production of IL-1β in Human Normal and Cancerous Oral Cells through the PI3K/Akt/GSK-3β Axis

Simple Summary Oral microbes often proliferate due to poor oral hygiene (POH). POH is associated with OSCC (oral squamous cell carcinoma). We investigated the role of LDOC1 in the production of IL-1β, an oncogenic proinflammatory cytokine in OSCC, induced by microorganisms in human oral cells. Candida albicans (CA) was detected in OSCC tissues. CA and the oral bacterium Fusobacterium nucleatum stimulate higher levels of IL-1β production in LDOC1-deficient OSCC cells than in LDOC1-expressing oral cells. CA SC5314 increased OSCC incidence in carcinogen-treated mice. Loss and gain of LDOC1 function resulted in increased and decreased, respectively, CA SC5314-induced IL-1β production. LDOC1 deficiency increased active pAktS473 upon SC5314 stimulation and inactive pGSK-3βS9 phosphorylated by pAktS473. PI3K and Akt inhibitors and expression of constitutively active mutant GSK-3βS9A reduced the SC5314-stimulated IL-1β production in LDOC1-deficient cells. These results indicate that the PI3K/Akt/pGSK-3β signaling contributes to LDOC1-mediated inhibition of microbe-induced IL-1β production, suggesting LDOC1 may determine the role of oral microbes in POH-associated OSCC. Abstract Poor oral hygiene (POH) is associated with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Oral microbes often proliferate due to POH. Array data show that LDOC1 plays a role in immunity against pathogens. We investigated whether LDOC1 regulates the production of oral microbe-induced IL-1β, an oncogenic proinflammatory cytokine in OSCC. We demonstrated the presence of Candida albicans (CA) in 11.3% of OSCC tissues (n = 80). CA and the oral bacterium Fusobacterium nucleatum stimulate higher levels of IL-1β secretion by LDOC1-deficient OSCC cells than by LDOC1-expressing oral cells. CA SC5314 increased OSCC incidence in 4-NQO (a synthetic tobacco carcinogen) and arecoline-cotreated mice. Loss and gain of LDOC1 function significantly increased and decreased, respectively, CA SC5314-induced IL-1β production in oral and OSCC cell lines. Mechanistic studies showed that LDOC1 deficiency increased active phosphorylated Akt upon CA SC5314 stimulation and subsequent inhibitory phosphorylation of GSK-3βS9 by activated Akt. PI3K and Akt inhibitors and expression of the constitutively active mutant GSK-3βS9A significantly reduced the CA SC5314-stimulated IL-1β production in LDOC1-deficient cells. These results indicate that the PI3K/Akt/pGSK-3β signaling pathway contributes to LDOC1-mediated inhibition of oral microbe-induced IL-1β production, suggesting that LDOC1 may determine the pathogenic role of oral microbes in POH-associated OSCC.
The Healthy Eating and Living Against Noncommunicable Diseases Study: An Innovative Family-Based Intervention

Objective Inadequate nutrition literacy within families is a barrier for healthy dietary choices and influences chronic disease risk. This pilot study examined the feasibility of providing an in-person nutrition intervention for families at high risk of developing prediabetes or type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular risk-factors. Methods Eligible families had at least one member with a non-communicable disease (NCD) or metabolic risk factor, fluency in English, willingness to attend all three educational sessions and complete questionnaires as a family unit. Sessions included didactic and experiential activities on food label reading, portion sizing, physical activity and modifiable lifestyle factors to reduce NCD risk. Demographics and fruit and vegetable screeners were collected from all participants at baseline and after completion of sessions. Families participated in focus groups to evaluate the program. Results Twelve families (n=35;17 adults;18 children) were recruited from New York City. Participants self-identified as Asian, Hispanic or Black. Adults had a mean age of 40y, BMI of 32.29kg/m2, household income of $35,000-$49,000y, and 13 of 17 adult participants had college degrees. Children ranged from 1-17y. Based on focus group feedback, three sessions were acceptable, families reported enjoying interactive activities and group learning and requested child-friendly activities. They reported improved knowledge of food labels, strategies for grocery shopping, portion-sizing, and increased awareness of the links between diet quality and NCDs. Conclusions and Implications The study met recruitment goals within 4 months. The educational intervention was acceptable and may be scaled-up for future studies on NCD prevention, particularly prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.
Cohort profile: a collaborative multicentre study of retinal optical coherence tomography in 539 patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (CROCTINO)

Purpose Optical coherence tomography (OCT) captures retinal damage in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD). Previous studies investigating OCT in NMOSD have been limited by the rareness and heterogeneity of the disease. The goal of this study was to establish an image repository platform, which will facilitate neuroimaging studies in NMOSD. Here we summarise the profile of the Collaborative OCT in NMOSD repository as the initial effort in establishing this platform. This repository should prove invaluable for studies using OCT to investigate NMOSD. Participants The current cohort includes data from 539 patients with NMOSD and 114 healthy controls. These were collected at 22 participating centres from North and South America, Asia and Europe. The dataset consists of demographic details, diagnosis, antibody status, clinical disability, visual function, history of optic neuritis and other NMOSD defining attacks, and OCT source data from three different OCT devices. Findings to date The cohort informs similar demographic and clinical characteristics as those of previously published NMOSD cohorts. The image repository platform and centre network continue to be available for future prospective neuroimaging studies in NMOSD. For the conduct of the study, we have refined OCT image quality criteria and developed a cross-device intraretinal segmentation pipeline. Future plans We are pursuing several scientific projects based on the repository, such as analysing retinal layer thickness measurements, in this cohort in an attempt to identify differences between distinct disease phenotypes, demographics and ethnicities. The dataset will be available for further projects to interested, qualified parties, such as those using specialised image analysis or artificial intelligence applications.
Gene Sequences of Potential Targets of Insecticidal PF2 Lectin Identified from the Larval De Novo Transcriptome of the Mexican Bean Weevil (Zabrotes Subfasciatus; Boheman 1833)

Simple Summary The Mexican bean weevil Zabrotes subfasciatus is a major insect pest of stored beans. We have previously reported that the PF2 lectin, which is a protein found in the desert wild legume Olneya tesota (Palo Fierro), is toxic to Z. subfasciatus by inhibiting its early larval development. The use of proteomic means allowed us to identify PF2 targets in the midgut of Z. subfasciatus larvae. However, efforts to completely elucidate the insecticidal mechanism of PF2, as well as novel potential targets for insecticidal compounds, have been hindered by the lack of available genomic and proteomic information of non-model insects. Therefore, in this work we massively sequenced and analyzed the transcripts expressed in the larval stage of Z. subfasciatus, which is the first transcriptome reported for this insect. A total of 29,029 transcript sequences were identified, of which 30 sequences encode putative targets of PF2. The functional characteristics and biochemical, biological, or molecular roles for 15,124 sequences were established by means of bioinformatics tools. This study significantly increased the available genetic resources for Zabrotes and related insect species and will be helpful for any kind of future study that requires information on genes or protein sequences. Abstract The available genomic and proteomic information of non-model organisms is often underrepresented in public databases hindering their study at molecular, cellular, and physiological levels. Information on Zabrotes subfasciatus (Mexican bean weevil) is poorly represented in databases, yet it is a major pest of common beans. We report the transcriptome of Z. subfasciatus larvae; transcripts were sequenced using an Illumina RNA-Seq technology and assembled de novo identifying 29,029 unigenes with an average size of 1168 bp and an N50 value of 2196 bp. About 15,124 unigenes (52%) were functionally annotated and categorized. Further analysis revealed 30 unigene sequences encoding putative targets of the insecticidal PF2 lectin. The complete deduced amino acid sequences of eight selected proteins potentially related to insecticidal mechanism of Palo Fierro 2 (PF2) were used for predicting probable N-glycosylation sites and analyzing phylogenetic relationships with insect sequences. This work provides a dramatic increase in the genetic resources available for Coleopterans and set the basis for developing future studies on biological aspects and potential control strategies for Z. subfasciatus.
Manuka Honey Induces Apoptosis of Epithelial Cancer Cells through Aquaporin-3 and Calcium Signaling

Honey is a natural product with a long use in traditional medicine and is well recognized to regulate different biological events. It is an important source of various biological or pharmacological molecules and, therefore, there is a strong interest to explore their properties. Evidence is growing that honey may have the potential to be an anticancer agent acting through several mechanisms. Here we observed for the first time in a cancer cell line a possible mechanism through which honey could induce an alteration in the intracellular reactive oxygen species and homeostatic balance of intracellular calcium concentration leading to cell death by apoptosis. This mechanism seems to be enhanced by manuka honey’s ability to maintain high H2O2 permeability through aquaporin-3.
NanoArmoring of Enzymes in Ordinary Paper

NanoArmoring of Enzymes in Ordinary Paper Caterina M. Riccardi University of Connecticut, 2018 This dissertation focuses on the development of a simple, efficient, and versatile method for enzyme stabilization and extends it into a universal approach for stabilization of enzymes on solid porous supports such as cellulose so that they can be used to produce novel enzyme biomaterials for advanced biocatalysis and biosensing applications. The novelty of this work is in the development of a universal and simple method for the stabilization of any enzyme, which is currently not available. Many enzyme conjugation methods are either enzyme-specific, or they require complex chemistries that significantly inactivate the enzyme. Enzymes were first conjugated to the polymer poly(acrylic acid) (PAA). Carbodiimide chemistry was used for all crosslinking purposes, where the primary amines from enzymes were conjugated to carboxylic acids on PAA. The PAA “armors” the enzyme and restricts the conformational entropy of the enzyme’s structure, thus making it difficult for the enzyme to denature or become inactivated by proteases and inhibitors. The studies provide a powerful tool for the development of novel enzymePAA based conjugates with enhanced stability. We also developed a simple and inexpensive method for the immobilization of enzymes in filter paper. We crosslinked enzyme with PAA in filter paper, and found that the enzyme-polymer conjugate forms around the fibers of the paper. The resulting enzyme-PAA conjugate remained ‘locked-in’ place, and the enzymes were not washed
The occurrence of the red‐handed howler monkey (Alouatta belzebul) in amazonian savannas is related to forest patch area and density of flooded area palms

All Neotropical primates are arboreal and thus depend on forests for their survival. Arboreality puts many Neotropical primates at risk of extinction due to the high rates of deforestation in the tropics. We assessed the influence of vegetation structure and forest patch attributes on the occurrence of the threatened red‐handed howler monkey (Alouatta belzebul) in an Amazonian savanna. Using a sample of 38 forest patches in a region of approximately 2000 km2 in the state of Amapá, northern Brazil, we used logistic regression to find the best predictors of the occurrence of A. belzebul. We assessed patch area, patch isolation, the proportion of seasonally flooded forest in the patch, the density of flooded area palms, forest height, canopy cover, and diameter at breast height of trees. Patch area and palm density were the best predictors of the occurrence of A. belzebul in forest patches, both having a positive effect on the probability of occurrence. Our results indicate that areas of flooded forest in forest patches may be keystone habitats for A. belzebul living in Amazonian savannas. The observed effect of palm density on A. belzebul suggests that this variable is useful for planning conservation actions, including the selection of areas for protection and management strategies for areas inhabited by this primate.
Effect of disease duration in a randomized Phase III trial of rintatolimod, an immune modulator for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Background Rintatolimod is a selective TLR3 agonist, which has demonstrated clinical activity for ME/CFS in Phase II and Phase III double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, multi-site clinical trials. Methods and findings A hypothesis-based post-hoc analysis of the Intent to Treat (ITT) population diagnosed with ME/CFS from 12 independent clinical sites of a Phase III trial was performed to evaluate the effect of rintatolimod therapy based on disease duration. The clinical activity of rintatolimod was evaluated by exercise treadmill tolerance (ETT) using a modified Bruce protocol. The ITT population (n = 208) was divided into two subsets of symptom duration. Patients with symptom duration of 2–8 years were identified as the Target Subset (n = 75); the remainder (<2 year plus >8 year) were identified as the Non-Target Subset (n = 133). Placebo-adjusted percentage improvements in exercise duration and the vertical rise for the Target Subset (n = 75) were more than twice that of the ITT population. The Non-Target Subset (n = 133) failed to show any clinically significant ETT response to rintatolimod when compared to placebo. Within the Target Subset, 51.2% of rintatolimod-treated patients improved their exercise duration by ≥25% (p = 0.003) despite reduced statistical power from division of the original ITT population into two subsets. Conclusion/significance Analysis of ETT from a Phase III trial has identified within the ITT population, a subset of ME/CFS patients with ≥2 fold increased exercise response to rintatolimod. Substantial improvement in physical performance was seen for the majority (51.2%) of these severely debilitated patients who improved exercise duration by ≥25%. This magnitude of exercise improvement was associated with clinically significant enhancements in quality of life. The data indicate that ME/CFS patients have a relatively short disease duration window (<8 years) to expect a significant response to rintatolimod under the dosing conditions utilized in this Phase III clinical trial. These results may have direct relevance to the cognitive impairment and fatigue being experienced by patients clinically recovered from COVID-19 and free of detectable SARS-CoV-2. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00215800.