Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new approach to compensate degeneration of speech intelligibility for elderly listeners

This paper presents a portable real-time speech rate conversion system which slows the input speech rate in order to compensate for the degeneration of hearing intelligibility of elderly listeners who suffers if speech is uttered rapidly. It is increasingly necessary to provide broadcasting services taking elderly listeners' hearing ability into account. It is well known that many elderly listeners have some degree of hearing impairment, including poorer absolute thresholds of audibility, lower processing speed for identification of speech and weaker effective cognitive storage capacity. The new system is designed to compensate for such deterioration by slowing the input speech rate instead of direct processing of the related auditory functions. The portable system, which can be installed in a receiver, enables the listener to convert the speech rate directly as desired in real time with invariance in pitch as well as small impairments in quality. When watching TV, the system can synchronize the converted speech with visual images at every onset of a breath group, with temporal changes in the speech rate along a monotone decreasing curve similar to temporal changes in pitch frequency.
OLWRED: Best Selected Strategy for Data Transmission in Heterogeneous Networks

The routing protocols are used for wireless networks, cannot be used for wired networks because of the network's mobility. A varying of network conditions with variety of routing protocols are analyzed to find an optimized path from a source to destination. Use the appropriate protocol strengthens the data transfer process and it is very necessary to ensure the speed of the flow of data traffic and to avoid the congestion due to a bottleneck in the network. There is a common major problem in wired and wireless networks (heterogeneous network) namely a congestion, which affects the speed and accuracy access packages. Congestion is the biggest challenge that appears when the transmission of data from the source to the destination and it can be measured by several parameters such as; network throughput, utilization of network and the queue delay. This paper proposed a new strategy representing the fast and suitable approach to transmit a huge data according to weight random early detection (WRED) strategy with different kind of wireless routing protocols (reactive routing protocols, proactive routing protocols and hybrid routing protocols), to get the best performance with
The Residues AGDV of Recombinant γ Chains of Human Fibrinogen Must Be Carboxy-Terminal to Support Human Platelet Aggregation

Summary The carboxy-terminus of the γ chain of fibrinogen contains a sequence which is believed to be one of the domains that interacts with glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa to support platelet aggregation. A normal variant of fibrinogen exists in which the four carboxy-terminal amino acids are replaced by 20 amino acids. This variant, known as γ’, has been reported to bind less effectively to platelets. The purpose of the present study was to engineer novel proteins to determine what differences in amino acid sequence between the γ and γ’ chains influence the interaction of the carboxyterminus with GPIIb/IIIa. In this regard, the γ chain cDNA in a bacterial plasmid expression vector was modified by oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis to produce recombinant γ chains with amino acid changes in the carboxy-terminus which reflect the differences between γ and γ’. The recombinant γ chain with an unmodified carboxy-terminus supported adenosine diphosphate (ADP)-induced platelet aggregation to the same extent as intact fibrinogen. In contrast, the ability of γ’ 427 (the recombinant γ’ variant) and γ 427 (where the 16 amino acid γ’ extension [412–427] was added to the carboxy-terminus of γ) to support platelet aggregation was markedly reduced. In addition, the extent of ADP-induced platelet aggregation was decreased in the presence of γ’ 411 (where amino acids 408–411 in γ were replaced with amino acids 408–411 in γ’), while γ 407 (where the four carboxy-terminal amino acids were deleted) was not capable of supporting aggregation. These findings demonstrate that the four residues AGDV are not only required but must be carboxy-terminal to support platelet aggregation.
An analytical model of restricted diffusion in bovine optic nerve

An analytical model of restricted diffusion in bovine optic nerve is presented. The nerve tissue model is composed of two different objects: prolate ellipsoids (axons) and spheres (glial cells) surrounded by partially permeable membranes. The free diffusion coefficients of intracellular and extra cellular water may differ. Analytical formulas for signal loss due to diffusion in the pulsed gradient spin echo (PGSE) experiment for this tissue model are derived. The model is fitted to experimental data for bovine optic nerve. The obtained model parameters are shown to be reasonable. The model describes all of the characteristics of the PGSE data: anisotropy, upward curvature of decay curves, and diffusion time dependence. The validity and sensitivity of the model are also discussed.
Handheld Augmented Reality in education

Conceptualization Reflective Observation Figure 3.2: The wheel of Kolb’s learning. concrete experience (do), a reflective observation (observe), an abstract conceptualization (think), and an active experience (plan or testing in new situations). In Kolb’s theory, the wheel that forms the four phases can be started from any point, which can lead to different learning processes. Our game was designed to initiate the learning wheel through a concrete experience. In the reflecting phase, the students think about what the have experienced (what have been seen, heard, or manipulated) and integrate this with their prior knowledge about the water cycle. These previous phases allow abstraction and generalization, adding meaning to the experience. The acquired concepts can be used actively in new situations, and the children can use what they learned in their daily life. As an example of the application of this theory to our game, the player assumes the mission of completing the cycle of water and she has to perform different activities. The player has the concrete experience of collecting suns to raise the temperature, with a reflecting observation with the feedback of the game, and creating an abstract conceptualization as a result of receiving all the information, in this case, evaporation. And what is very important, the student has an active experience using the game. 3.2. 2 Description of the game The aim of the game was to reinforce the learning of children in the subject of water, including its composition, the water cycle and water pollution. These topics were shown in the same way they had been studied at school. They saw the major processes of the water cycle. They started with the evaporation phase, when the sun heated up water and turned it into vapor or steam. Then, this water vapor or steam lifted into the air. Next, they saw the condensation phase, which was produced when water vapor in the air got cold and changed back into liquid, forming clouds. The third water cycle phase they saw was precipitation, which occurred when the small drops that formed the clouds got cold. The last water cycle phase was collection, which occurred when water fell back to earth as precipitation. Apart from the water cycle, the children also learned the water composition and about water pollutants. Using AR, the children explored a room looking for the objects requested by the guide character, which in the game was a drop of water. To search for the objects, the children focused the device’s camera on the different markers distributed around the room. Ten different AR markers were used and placed in the activity room, which was decorated with wall posters and images throughout
Gammaherpesvirus Tegument Protein ORF33 Is Associated with Intranuclear Capsids at an Early Stage of the Tegumentation Process

ABSTRACT Herpesvirus nascent capsids, after assembly in the nucleus, must acquire a variety of tegument proteins during maturation. However, little is known about the identity of the tegument proteins that are associated with capsids in the nucleus or the molecular mechanisms involved in the nuclear egress of capsids into the cytoplasm, especially for the two human gammaherpesviruses Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), due to a lack of efficient lytic replication systems. Murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (MHV-68) is genetically related to human gammaherpesviruses and serves as an excellent model to study the de novo lytic replication of gammaherpesviruses. We have previously shown that open reading frame 33 (ORF33) of MHV-68 is a tegument protein of mature virions and is essential for virion assembly and egress. However, it remains unclear how ORF33 is incorporated into virions. In this study, we first show that the endogenous ORF33 protein colocalizes with capsid proteins at discrete areas in the nucleus during viral infection. Cosedimentation analysis as well as an immunoprecipitation assay demonstrated that ORF33 is associated with both nuclear and cytoplasmic capsids. An immunogold labeling experiment using an anti-ORF33 monoclonal antibody revealed that ORF33-rich areas in the nucleus are surrounded by immature capsids. Moreover, ORF33 is associated with nucleocapsids prior to primary envelopment as well as with mature virions in the cytoplasm. Finally, we show that ORF33 interacts with two capsid proteins, suggesting that nucleocapsids may interact with ORF33 in a direct manner. In summary, we identified ORF33 to be a tegument protein that is associated with intranuclear capsids prior to primary envelopment, likely through interacting with capsid proteins in a direct manner. IMPORTANCE Morphogenesis is an essential step in virus propagation that leads to the generation of progeny virions. For herpesviruses, this is a complicated process that starts in the nucleus. Although the process of capsid assembly and genome packaging is relatively well understood, how capsids acquire tegument (the layer between the capsid and the envelope in a herpesvirus virion) and whether the initial tegumentation process takes place in the nucleus remain unclear. We previously showed that ORF33 of MHV-68 is a tegument protein and functions in both the nuclear egress of capsids and final virion maturation in the cytoplasm. In the present study, we show that ORF33 is associated with intranuclear capsids prior to primary envelopment and identify novel interactions between ORF33 and two capsid proteins. Our work provides new insights into the association between tegument proteins and nucleocapsids at an early stage of the virion maturation process for herpesviruses.
A clade of trypsins found in cold‐adapted fish

A clade of trypsins, known as group III, is identified by phylogenetic analysis. These trypsins occur in fish that spend all or part of their lives at temperatures near 0°C and may represent extreme psychrophilic enzymes. A principal component analysis of amino acid compositions distinguishes group III from mesophilic trypsins, as do molecular trees and multidimensional scaling of molecular sequence distances. The primary sequences of group III trypsins, in conjunction with the known structures of mesophilic trypsins, permit insight into function and mechanisms of cold adaption. The techniques employed are broadly applicable to phylogenies characterized by a markedly different, or “fast‐evolving,” clade. An updated lactate dehydrogenase molecular tree illustrates an additional fast‐evolving clade. Proteins 2002;47:31–44. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Allosteric properties of PH domains in Arf regulatory proteins

ABSTRACT Pleckstrin Homology (PH) domains bind phospholipids and proteins. They are critical regulatory elements of a number enzymes including guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) and GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs) for Ras-superfamily guanine nucleotide binding proteins such as ADP-ribosylation factors (Arfs). Recent studies have indicated that many PH domains may bind more than one ligand cooperatively. Here we discuss the molecular basis of PH domain-dependent allosteric behavior of 2 ADP-ribosylation factor exchange factors, Grp1 and Brag2, cooperative binding of ligands to the PH domains of Grp1 and the Arf GTPase-activating protein, ASAP1, and the consequences for activity of the associated catalytic domains.
Effects of hydrolysis on the delta13C values of individual amino acids derived from polypeptides and proteins.

This study investigates the effects of hydrolysis on the delta13C values of individual amino acids (IAAs) derived from polypeptide standards, and modern and ancient bone collagen. All IAAs were derivatised to their trifluoroacetyl/isopropyl (TFA/IP) esters for delta13C determination using gas chromatography/combustion/isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC/C/IRMS). Firstly, authentic single poly amino acid standards (SPAAs; n = 5) were hydrolysed for 4, 10, 24 and 48 h. As expected, IAA yields increased as a function of hydrolysis time. Significantly, it was only after 24 h of hydrolysis that IAA delta13C values were statistically identical to bulk SPAA values for all five standards. The accuracy of IAA delta13C values was thus shown to be a function of yield; however, poly phenylalanine demonstrated accurate IAA delta13C values with yields of only 1.4 and 4.3%, after 24 and 48 h of hydrolysis time, respectively. Authentic mixed poly amino acid standards (MPAAs; n = 5) comprising two different amino acids were then hydrolysed for 24 h. Percentage recoveries ranged from 36-95%. Estimates of bulk MPAA delta13C values calculated from measured IAA delta13C values agreed within experimental error with measured bulk MPAA values for three out of the five standards. Finally, the experimental procedure was applied to modern rat (MBCs; n = 20) and ancient ovi-caprine and bovine (ABCs; n = 27) bone collagen samples where the delta13C values of 12 out of its 18 constituent amino acids were determined. Estimated bulk MBC and ABC delta13C values were calculated from constituent amino acid delta13C values using mass balance. With the exclusion of three ABC samples, calculated bulk bone collagen delta13C values (delta13C(BCcal)) were shown to correlate extremely well with measured bone collagen values (delta13C(BCmes)) for both modern and ancient samples, where R2 = 0.91 and 0.84, respectively. Significantly, the variation between calculated and measured bone collagen values (Delta13C(BCcal-BCmes)) exhibited similar ranges for both MBC (from -2.6 to +1.2 per thousand ) and ABC (from -2.7 to +2.2 per thousand ) samples, providing evidence for the preservation of intact collagen in the ancient samples. These results demonstrate that the experimental procedures employed in the acid hydrolytic cleavage of peptides or proteins to their constituent amino acids does not involve significant isotopic fractionation.
Fabrication process for thick-film micromachined multi-pole electromagnets

This letter introduces a fabrication process for thick (>50 μm) multipole electromagnets that produce fields exceeding 20 mT across 0.2-mm3 free-space volumes. The novelty of the process involves the multistep thick-film electroplating of a magnetic alloy inside a high-density high-aspect-ratio solenoidal coil, producing high intensity fields across a larger volume than previous microelectromechanical systems electromagnets. To demonstrate an application enabled by this process, a 600-μm-gap four-pole electromagnet is fabricated, packaged, and used to steer a 34-keV electron beam.
Kamusi pre-D-source-side disambiguation and a sense aligned multilingual lexicon

This paper discusses Kamusi Pre:D, a system to improve translation by disambiguating word senses in a source document with reference to a large concept-based lexicon that is aligned by sense across numerous languages. Currently under active development, the program prompts users to select the intended meaning when polysemous terms occur, and gives the user the option to select multiword expressions instead of individual words when the MWE occurs as a lexicalized dictionary entry. The disambiguated text is then automatically matched to sense-specific translation equivalents that have been aligned across languages. Pre:D is intended to integrate with existing translation tools, but greatly improve accuracy by involving human intelligence in vocabulary selection, both through manual document review of ambiguous terms and by reference to the underlying curated multilingual Kamusi dictionary data. Pre:D will aid accurate vocabulary translation among a wide range of language pairs, most currently unserved, and offer significant advantages in time, effort, and quality for multilingual translation projects by disambiguating a document one time for concepts that can be rendered appropriately across numerous languages.
Severity ranking of non‐deletional alpha thalassemic alleles: insights from an Omani family study

In an Omani family, four different alpha thalassemic alleles, one single‐gene deletional (−α3.7) and three non‐deletional forms (αTSaudi, αΔ5nt, and αΔG), interact in various combinations and result in two distinct hematological phenotypes, with and without HbH inclusions. After excluding the presence of potential genetic modifiers, viz associated β‐thalassemic alleles or functional alpha hemoglobin stabilizing protein (AHSP) polymorphisms, we observed that only the genetic combinations involving αTSaudi mutation are associated with HbH inclusions (a marker of degree of α/β‐chain imbalance) and high reticulocyte count (a marker of ongoing hemolysis). Overall, the αTSaudi mutation is associated with a more severe α‐globin deficiency than the other two (αΔ5nt and αΔG) non‐deletional α0 thalassemic mutations. The likely molecular explanation is that the compensatory increase in the linked α1 globin gene expression is much more compromised in cases with αTSaudi mutation.
Investigation and Design of On-Chip Power-Rail ESD Clamp Circuits Without Suffering Latchup-Like Failure During System-Level ESD Test

On-chip power-rail electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit designed with active ESD detection function is the key role to significantly improve ESD robustness of CMOS integrated circuits (ICs). Four power-rail ESD clamp circuits with different ESD-transient detection circuits were fabricated in a 0.18-mum CMOS process and tested to compare their system-level ESD susceptibility, which are named as power-rail ESD clamp circuits with typical RC-based detection, PMOS feedback, NMOS+PMOS feedback, and cascaded PMOS feedback in this work. During the system-level ESD test, where the ICs in a system have been powered up, the feedback loop used in the power-rail ESD clamp circuits provides the lock function to keep the ESD-clamping NMOS in a ldquolatch-onrdquo state. The latch-on ESD-clamping NMOS, which is often drawn with a larger device dimension to sustain high ESD level, conducts a huge current between the power lines to perform a latchup-like failure after the system-level ESD test. A modified power-rail ESD clamp circuit is proposed to solve this problem. The proposed power-rail ESD clamp circuit can provide high enough chip-level ESD robustness, and without suffering the latchup-like failure during the system-level ESD test.
Inter- and intra-individual differences in energy expenditure and mechanical efficiency.

Differences in oxygen consumption between individuals and also within individuals on 4 different tasks and at 2 rates of energy expenditure were examined. Criteria are proposed for indicating differences in physiological ‘ skill ’ between individuals and in some tasks such differences were found. Weight was found to be correlated with maximum oxygen intake, the factor which sets a limit to the maximum level of endurance work, and is also correlated with oxygen consumption in two of the tasks. It is considered that differences between individuals in maximum oxygen intake is more important than are differences in oxygen consumption in tasks requiring prolonged physical effort. Gross mechanical efficiencies were estimated in order to compare the mean efficiencies of this group of men when performing different tasks.
International NMR-based environmental metabolomics intercomparison exercise.

Several fundamental requirements must be met so that NMR-based metabolomics and the related technique of metabonomics can be formally adopted into environmental monitoring and chemical risk assessment. Here we report an intercomparison exercise which has evaluated the effectiveness of 1H NMR metabolomics to generate comparable data sets from environmentally derived samples. It focuses on laboratory practice that follows sample collection and metabolite extraction, specifically the final stages of sample preparation, NMR data collection (500, 600, and 800 MHz), data processing, and multivariate analysis. Seven laboratories have participated from the U.S.A. , Canada, U.K., and Australia, generating a total of ten data sets. Phase 1 comprised the analysis of synthetic metabolite mixtures, while Phase 2 investigated European flounder (Platichthys flesus) liver extracts from clean and contaminated sites. Overall, the comparability of data sets from the participating laboratories was good. Principal components analyses (PCA) of the individual data sets yielded ten highly similar scores plots for the synthetic mixtures, with a comparable result for the liver extracts. Furthermore, the same metabolic biomarkers that discriminated fish from clean and contaminated sites were discovered by all the laboratories. PCA of the combined data sets showed excellent clustering of the multiple analyses. These results demonstrate that NMR-based metabolomics can generate data that are sufficiently comparable between laboratories to support its continued evaluation for regulatory environmental studies.
Rethinking Comparative Cultural Sociology: Repertoires Of Evaluation In France And The United States

1. Introduction: toward a renewed comparative cultural sociology Michele Lamont and Laurent Thevenot Part I. Race, Gender, and Multiculturalism: 2. The rhetorics of racism and anti-racism in France and the United States Michele Lamont 3. Sexual harassment in France and the United States: activists and public figures defend their definitions Abigail Cope Saguy 4. Assessing the literary intellectual boundaries in French and American literary studies Jason Duell Part II. The Cultural Sphere: Publishing, Journalism, and the Arts: 5. Culture or commerce? Symbolic boundaries in French and American book publishing Daniel Weber 6. Involvement and detachment among French and American journalists: to be or not to be a 'real' professional Cyril Lemieux and John Schmalzbauer 7. From rejection of contemporary art to culture war Nathalie Heinich Part III. Political Cultures and Practices 8. Community and civic culture: the Rotary Club in France and the United States Agnes Camus-Vigue 9. Political practice and culture in French and American environmental disputes: 9a. French and American disputes: an introduction Claudette Lafaye, Michael Moody and Laurent Thevenot 9b. Forms of valuing nature: arguments and modes of justification in French and American environmental disputes Laurent Thevenot, Michael Moody and Claudette Lafaye 9c. Comparing models of strategy, interests, and the public good in French and American environmental disputes Michael Moody and Laurent Thevenot 10. Conclusion: Exploring the French and the American polity Laurent Thevenot and Michele Lamont.