Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SiDi KWS: A Large-Scale Multilingual Dataset for Keyword Spotting

Keyword spotting (KWS) has become a hot topic in speech processing due to the rise of commercial applications based on voice command detection, such as voice assistants. Like tasks in computer vision, natural language processing, and even speech processing, most current successful approaches for KWS rely on deep learning. However, differently from all those tasks, there is a lack of large-scale datasets designed for training and evaluating deep learning models for KWS. The current work presents SiDi KWS, a public large-scale multilingual dataset currently composed of 24 . 3 million audio recordings of labeled single-spoken keywords. It intends to boost the development of new KWS systems, especially those based on deep learning. That dataset has been created by applying automatic forced alignment on public datasets of transcribed speech. This work introduces SiDi KWS and KeywordMiner, an open-source framework used to generate that dataset, to beneﬁt the speech processing research community.
Efficient Speech Enhancement with Neural Homomorphic Synthesis

Most of the existing deep neural network based speech enhancement methods usually operate on short-time Fourier transform domain or alternatively learned features without employing the speech production model. In this work, we present an efﬁcient speech enhancement algorithm using the speech source-ﬁlter model. Concretely, we separate the framed speech into excitation and vocal tract components by homomorphic ﬁltering, adopt two convolutional recurrent networks for estimating the reference magnitude of the separated components, and synthesize the minimum phase signal with the estimated components. Lastly, the enhanced speech is obtained by a post-processing procedure, including using the noisy phase and overlap-addition. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method yields a comparable performance with the state-of-the-art complex-valued neural network based method. In addition, we conducted extensive experiments and found that the proposed method is more efﬁcient with a compact model.
Impact of Density Gradients on the Secondary Flow Structure of a River Confluence

A small gradient in the densities (Δρ) of two rivers in Canada was recently shown to develop coherent streamwise orientated vortices (SOVs) in their confluence. Here we use eddy‐resolved numerical modeling to examine how the magnitude and direction of Δρ affect these secondary flow structures. At equal density, lone anticlockwise SOVs are predicted near the surface, a possibility supported herein by recent aerial observations of such SOVs at the confluence. When a Δρ is considered, a front from the denser channel always slides underneath the lighter channel independent of whether the dense front pushes into the fast (Coaticook) or slow (Massawippi) tributary. When the fast Coaticook is denser, coherent clockwise rotating SOVs tend to form. However, when the slow Massawippi is denser, interfacial instabilities are generated as the fast flow of the Coaticook shears overtop the dense front. Thus, the tributary's velocity opposing the dense front's propagation modifies secondary flow characteristics. Importantly, both these cases would have the same densimetric Froude number (FD) if defined using an average velocity of the confluence (e.g., that of the downstream channel), yet this single FD value cannot account for the differences observed between both. This ambiguity inherent to current conventions for calculating FD places into question its use as an adequate predictor of density‐driven secondary flow at confluences.
A Cylindrical Equivalent Source-Based Physical Optics Method for Rapid Analysis of Airborne Radomes

The physical optics (PO) method treats the outer surface of airborne radomes in front of antennas as a secondary source region when analyzing the electromagnetic performance. The effective reduction of the secondary source region can significantly improve the computational efficiency, which is helpful for the rapid analysis and design of airborne radomes. In this paper, we present a cylindrical equivalent source-based PO method by introducing an antenna radiation cylinder that can cover the main near-field radiation characteristics of the antenna. The cubic-spline interpolation technique is used to standardize the solution method for the boundary of the cylindrical equivalent source of different antenna-radome systems. The results of a tangent-ogival radome verify the validity of the proposed method. Compared with the conical equivalent source-based PO method, the proposed method improves the efficiency by 71.83%. It can be applied to airborne antenna-radome systems with antenna diameters of 12.14 times of wavelength and above, using 10% as the error threshold.
Validation of a ride comfort simulation strategy on an electric Stewart Platform for real road driving applications

In this paper, the validation of the comfort simulation strategy on an electric Stewart Platform under road driving scenarios is explained. First, an introduction to the vibroacoustic comfort theory in passenger cars is presented. Second, the Stewart Platform used for the validation process is explained. Third, the methodology conducted for the validation of a hexapod for ride comfort applications is detailed. Finally, the Stewart Platform has been validated under real world road driving scenarios for the 6 degrees-of-freedom by means of the Vibration Dose Value. The final goal of the validation strategy of the electric Stewart Platform is to perform ride and comfort studies in a driving simulator for the 1–10 Hz frequency range.
Back to School: Italian Teachers’ Perceptions of the Impact of COVID-19 on Personal and Social Well-Being and Teaching Methods

During the COVID-19 pandemic, continuous closing and reopening of schools may have had an impact on teachers’ perception of the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 and of the effectiveness of health measures introduced to limit the spread of the virus, with consequences on teaching methods and relational bonds within schools. By means of an online survey, we measured: teachers’ stress, job-satisfaction, self-efficacy and emotions at work, risk-perception of contracting SARS-CoV-2, perception of effectiveness of health measures, teaching methods and social relationships. Participants were 2446 teachers (2142 women and 304 men) all engaged in the four educational stages. Most of the respondents were aged 50 or older (45%), followed by a group aged 41–50 (31%) and by a group aged <40 (24%). We used path analysis to test the impact that COVID-19 had, according to teachers, on teaching methods (Model 1) and social relationships (Model 2). In both models, teachers’ stress was positively directly associated with risk-perception of contracting SARS-CoV-2 (Model 1: β = 0.10; p < 0.001; Model 2: β = 0.09; p < 0.001). Additionally, we found an indirect path between teachers’ stress and risk-perception of contracting SARS-CoV-2 on the one hand, and perception of effectiveness of health measures on the other hand (Model 1: β = 0.02; p < 0.001; Model 2: β = 0.02; p < 0.001). These results suggest that, in emergencies, risk perception level, emotional regulation, and teachers’ stress levels were all key factors affecting teaching methods and relationship quality in schools.
Spectral representations in temporally dispersive media

Microscopic Electromagnetics. - Microscopic Potentials and Radiation. - Macroscopic Electromagnetics. - Fundamental Field Equations in a Temporally Dispersive Medium. - The Angular Spectrum Representation of the Pulsed Radiation Field in a Temporally Dispersive Medium. - The Angular Spectrum Representation of Pulsed Electromagnetic and Optical Beam Fields in Temporally Dispersive Media. - Free Fields in Temporally Dispersive Media.
Development of allophonic realization until adolescence: A production study of the affricate-fricative variation of /z/ among Japanese children

The development of allophonic variants of phonemes is poorly understood. Thus, this study aimed to examine when children typically begin to articulate a phoneme with the same allophonic variant typically used by adults. Japanese children aged 5 – 13 years and adults aged 18 – 24 years participated in an elicited production task. We analyzed developmental changes in allophonic variation of the phoneme /z/, which is realized variably either as an affricate or a fricative. The results revealed that children aged nine years or younger realized /z/ as affricate significantly more than 13- year-old and adult speakers. Once the children reached 11 years of age, the difference compared to adults was not statistically significant, which denotes a similar developmental pattern as that of speech motor control (e.g., lip and jaw) and cognitive-linguistic skill. Moreover, we examined whether the developmental changes of allophonic realization of /z/ are due to speech rate and the time to articulate /z/. The results showed that the allophonic realization of /z/ is not affected by these factors, which is not the case in adults. We also found that the effects of speech rate and the time to articulate /z/ on the allophonic realization become adult-like at around 11 years of age.
Leveraging Prosody for Punctuation Prediction of Spontaneous Speech

This paper introduces a new neural model for punctuation prediction that incorporates prosodic features to improve automatic punctuation prediction in transcriptions of spontaneous speech. We explore the benefit of intonation and energy features over simply using pauses. In addition, the work poses the question of how to represent interruption points associated with disfluen-cies in spontaneous speech. In experiments on the Switchboard corpus, we find that prosodic information improved punctuation prediction fidelity for both hand transcripts and ASR output. Explicit modeling of interruption points can benefit prediction of standard punctuation, particularly if the convention associates interruptions with commas.
Spectra of algebras of analytic functions on a Banach spaces.

Fix a complex Banach space X, with open unit ball B. We are interested in studying the uniform algebra HTM (B) of bounded analytic functions on B, and its spectrum M = M (B} consisting of the nonzero complex-valued homomorphisms of H °° (B). The restriction of any φ e M to the dual space X * of X yields a linear functional π (φ) on X *, and the projection φ -> π (φ) maps Jl onto the closed unit ball 5** of the bidual ^** of X. If X is one-dimensional, B is the open unit disk in the complex plane, and π is the fibering discussed by K. Hoffman in [Ho]. In this case the projection π is one-to-one over B, and π ~ maps B homeomorphically onto an open subset of Ji. This probably holds whenever X is finite dimensional, and it can be proved at least whenever B is a finite dimensional ball or polydisk. However, when X is infinite dimensional the picture changes completely. It turns out in this case (Theorem 11.1) that the fibers π(ζ) over points of J? ** are all quite large.
An Efficient Multi-Dimensional Searching Technique and itsApplications

This paper describes an improved algorithm for the multi-dimensional searching problem introduced by Megiddo. As a result, we obtain a $d^{O(d)} n$ time deterministic algorithms for linear programming in $\reals^d$ with $n$ constraints, for computing the Euclidean $1$-center of a set of $n$ points in $\Re^d$, for computing the minimum enclosing ellipsoid of a set of $n$ points in $\Re^d$, etc. Our techniques also improve the running time of known algorithms for a number of parametric graph searching problems, including that of finding zero cycles in dynamic graphs.
Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Solar Wind Implantation in the Permanently Shadowed Regions on the Lunar Surface

Reactive molecular dynamics simulations are carried out to investigate solar wind implantation on lunar surface. This study resolves both the chemical reactions and physical interactions of implantation, analyzes the effects from hydroxyl saturation, solar wind reflection, and water molecule sputtering, and quantifies the contribution of solar wind proton implantation on lunar water formation. The results show that, while solar wind implantation can lead to the formation of some hydroxyl groups and water molecules, the contribution by the implantation process itself is not significant enough to account for the observed lunar water content.
Phonon Superradiance in Dilute GasBose-Einstein Condensates

The analogy between the propagation of a massless scalar field in curved spacetime and the propagation of sound waves in a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) gives rise to the possibility of observing the analogues of black hole radiance effects, such as Hawking Radiation and superradiance, in the laboratory. In order to provide a solid foundation for realising such analogue gravity models in an experimental setting, we have conducted a numerical investigation of phonon scattering from a BEC vortex by solving the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation, describing the dynamics of dilute gas BECs. The consideration of phonon superradiance in BECs in advance of Hawking Radiation is motivated by the fact superradiance may be easier to detect. We first present the results of one-dimensional simulations of sound waves propagating in a BEC and reflecting from a vortex-like density profile. Using these results as a guide, two-dimensional simulations of sound propagation in a BEC, and reflection from a BEC vortex, are performed. The technique of propagating the wavefunction in imaginary time was employed to find the vortex ground state. The accuracy of the simulations and the convergence of the solution to the vortex ground state was verified using a range of numerical diagnostics. Finally, preliminary simulations were performed within the superradiant frequency regime for the purposes of determining whether the amplification of incoming waves occurs given an appropriate choice of parameters. Overall, the two-dimensional modelling of reflection of cylindrical waves from a BEC vortex provides a basis for a systematic study of phonon superradiance in BECs.
Unsupervised Training of Sequential Neural Beamformer Using Coarsely-separated and Non-separated Signals

We present an unsupervised training method of the sequential neural beamformer (Seq-BF) using coarsely-separated and non-separated supervisory signals. The signal coarsely separated by blind source separation (BSS) has been used for training neural separators in an unsupervised manner. However, the performance is limited due to distortions in the supervision. In contrast, remix-cycle-consistent learning (RCCL) enables a separator to be trained on distortion-free observed mixtures by making the remixed mixtures obtained by repeatedly separating and remixing the two different mixtures closer to the original mixtures. Still, training with RCCL from scratch often falls into a trivial solution, i.e., not separating signals. The present study provides a novel unsupervised learning algorithm for the Seq-BF with two stacked neural separators, in which the separators are pre-trained using the BSS outputs and then fine-tuned with RCCL. Such configuration compensates for the shortcomings of both approaches: the guiding mechanism in Seq-BF accelerates separation to exceed BSS performance, thereby stabilizing RCCL. Experimental comparisons demonstrated that the proposed unsupervised learning achieved performance comparable to supervised learning (0.4 point difference in word error rate).
Aspects of the Calibration and Processing of the CRRES Fluxgate Magnetometer Data

Abstract : The report describes algorithms for on-orbit calibration and processing of the Fluxgate Magnetometer data from the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite. The calibration problem is parameterized in a completely general treatment in terms of instrument alignment and magnetometer offsets and gains. Fits to the data from the spinning satellite are used to derive all but two of the parameters needed for despinning. Data taken during precession maneuvers and attitude data is used to derive these remaining two. The report includes a discussion of anomalies in the instrument and includes a description of the data products.
Viral Metagenomics Reveals Diverse Viruses in Tissue Samples of Diseased Pigs

The swine industry plays an essential role in agricultural production in China. Diseases, especially viral diseases, affect the development of the pig industry and threaten human health. However, at present, the tissue virome of diseased pigs has rarely been studied. Using the unbiased viral metagenomic approach, we investigated the tissue virome in sick pigs (respiratory symptoms, reproductive disorders, high fever, diarrhea, weight loss, acute death and neurological symptoms) collected from farms of Anhui, Jiangsu and Sichuan Province, China. The eukaryotic viruses identified belonged to the families Anelloviridae, Arteriviridae, Astroviridae, Flaviviridae, Circoviridae and Parvoviridae; prokaryotic virus families including Siphoviridae, Myoviridae and Podoviridae occupied a large proportion in some samples. This study provides valuable information for understanding the tissue virome in sick pigs and for the monitoring, preventing, and treating of viral diseases in pigs.
The Prosody of Cheering in Sport Events

Motivational speaking usually conveys a highly emotional message and its purpose is to invite action. The goal of this paper is to investigate the prosodic realization of one particular type of cheering, namely inciting cheering for single addressees in sport events (here, long-distance running), using the name of that person. 31 native speakers of German took part in the experiment. They were asked to cheer up an individual marathon runner in a sporting event represented by video by producing his or her name (1-5 syllables long). For reasons of comparison, the participants also produced the same names in isolation and carrier sentences. Our results reveal that speakers use different strategies to meet their motivational communicative goals: while some speakers produced the runners’ names by dividing them into syllables, others pronounced the names as quickly as possible putting more emphasis on the first syllable. A few speakers followed a mixed strategy. Contrary to our expectations, it was not the intensity that mostly contributes to the differences between the different speaking styles (cheering vs. neutral), at least in the methods we were using. Rather, participants employed higher fundamental frequency and longer duration when cheering for marathon runners.
Age, Sex, Hypertension and HDL-C Alter Serum BACE1 Activity in Cognitively Normal Subjects: Implications for Alzheimer’s Disease

Increasing evidence indicates that β-secretase 1 (BACE1) activity and concentration in blood are candidate biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Investigating potential demographic, biological, and clinical determinants of BACE1 in the blood matrix is the critical step to validate and qualify BACE1 bio-indicators for different contexts-of-use (CoU), such as risk assessment, early detection, diagnosis, prognosis, management of AD, and outcome of amyloid pathway targeted drugs. To evaluate the influence of age, sex, HDL-cholesterol and comorbidities (cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes) on circulating BACE-1 activity. prospective analysis of serum samples, clinical, biological, and demographic variables. Three cohorts: 1) Memory Clinic of the Department of Internal Medicine, S. Anna University Hospital, Ferrara (Italy); 2) outpatients attending the Menopause and Osteoporosis Centre (MOC) of the University of Ferrara (Ferrara, Italy); 3) Prevention Center of the University of Ferrara. Participants: 504 cognitively healthy individuals (median age: 62 years, interquartile range: 51–73) and 175 patients with AD (78 years, 74–82). serum BACE1 (sBACE1), age, sex, HDL-cholesterol, major comorbidities. Age was the strongest independent predictor of sBACE1 variance (β=0.425, p<0.0001), followed by sex (β=0.180, p<0.0001), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) (β=−0.168, p<0.0001) and hypertension (β=0.111, p<0.05) (overall model, R2: 0.232). The probability of having elevated sBACE1 activity increased after 70 years of age, with women being more susceptible to higher sBACE1 activity than men. We provide evidence about potential clinical and biological determinants of sBACE1 activity with a strong association among biomarker, female sex, and older age.
Spectroscopic Analysis of an Antimalarial Drug’s (Quinine) Influence on Human Serum Albumin Reduction and Antioxidant Potential

Quinine (Qi) is a well-known drug used in malaria therapy; it is also a potential anti-arrhythmic drug used in the treatment of calf cramps, rheumatoid arthritis, colds, and photodermatitis. Moreover, it is used in the food industry for the production of tonics. This study aimed to analyze the interaction between quinine and a transporting protein—human serum albumin (HSA)—as well as the influence of Qi on both protein reduction and antioxidant potential. It was found that Qi (via spectrofluorometric measurements and circular dichroism spectroscopy) binds to HSA with a low affinity and slightly affects the secondary structure of albumin. As demonstrated by the use of ABTS and FRAP assays, HSA has a higher antioxidant and reduction potential than Qi, while their mutual interaction results in a synergistic effect in antioxidant activity and reduction potential.
Therapeutic Applications of the CRISPR-Cas System

The clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-Cas system has revolutionized genetic engineering due to its simplicity, stability, and precision since its discovery. This technology is utilized in a variety of fields, from basic research in medicine and biology to medical diagnosis and treatment, and its potential is unbounded as new methods are developed. The review focused on medical applications and discussed the most recent treatment trends and limitations, with an emphasis on CRISPR-based therapeutics for infectious disease, oncology, and genetic disease, as well as CRISPR-based diagnostics, screening, immunotherapy, and cell therapy. Given its promising results, the successful implementation of the CRISPR-Cas system in clinical practice will require further investigation into its therapeutic applications.
Trajectories predicted by optimal speech motor control using LSTM networks

The question of optimality and its role in trajectory formation is at the core of important debates in motor control research. We present the first speech control model that associates Optimal Feedback Control (OFC) for planning and execution of movements with a biomechanical model of the vocal tract. Simulated trajectories in the VCV sequences are compared with trajectories generated using the GEPPETO model that drives the same 2D biomechanical model; in GEPPETO, the scope of optimality is limited to movement planning and to phoneme-related target motor commands. In our OFC model commands are estimated via the min-imisation of a cost that combines neuromuscular effort, and a penalty on accuracy of the auditory patterns reached for the phonemes. The biomechanics of the plant are implemented by an LSTM trained on simulations of a finite element model of the tongue. The comparison of the OFC model with GEPPETO relies on the time variation of the motor commands, the shape of the articulatory trajectories, and on auditory trajectories in the F1-F2 planes.