Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Comparative Study on Multi-Sample Fusion Schemes to Enhance Spectrographic Speaker Verification

In this paper, a comparative study using multi-sample fusion schemes is evaluated in order to enhance the performance of a speaker verification system. Five multi-sample fusion strategies, i.e. the maximum, minimum, median, average and majority vote are employed for this purpose. In this study, we propose a novel approach by using the spectrogram image of the spoken word as features and the Unconstrained Minimum Average Correlation Energy (UMACE) filters are utilized as classifiers to the system. The Digit Database is used for performance evaluation and results show that the median operator outperforms the other fusion schemes yielding an overall performance of 99.64%. Key-Words: multi-sample fusion, UMACE filter, spectrographic feature, speaker verification
An Efficient Restricted Quadtree Triangulation based on the Hilbert Space-filling Curve

Digital Terrain Models play an important role in a variety of applications such as games, virtual simulations and geographic information systems. Most of terrain visualization techniques are based on multiresolution models that reduce the number of rendered primitives using different levels of detail. In fact, the main problems are the big number of primitives to visualize and the transmission of large terrain datasets across the networks. The main contributions of this paper are focused on the ﬁrst of this problems: an efﬁcient implementation of a quadtree data structure for in-memory representation of terrain models is proposed, and a triangle strip generation algorithm based on the Hilbert space-ﬁlling curve for the fast rendering of the ﬁnal multiresolution mesh.
Word Sense Disambiguation with Neural Language Models

Determining the intended sense of words in text -- word sense disambiguation (WSD) -- is a long-standing problem in natural language processing. In this paper, we present WSD algorithms which use neural network language models to achieve state-of-the-art precision. Each of these methods learns to disambiguate word senses using only a set of word senses, a few example sentences for each sense taken from a licensed lexicon, and a large unlabeled text corpus. We classify based on cosine similarity of vectors derived from the contexts in unlabeled query and labeled example sentences. We demonstrate state-of-the-art results when using the WordNet sense inventory, and significantly better than baseline performance using the New Oxford American Dictionary inventory. The best performance was achieved by combining an LSTM language model with graph label propagation.
How mentor principals interpret the mentoring process using metaphors

The study focused on how principal mentors perceived the mentoring process by means of the metaphors they used to represent it. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 principal mentors. Findings were analysed qualitatively, generating themes as an inductive process, grounded in the various metaphors articulated by participants. Analysis of the research findings revealed five themes based on principal mentors’ metaphors: exposure and mirroring, modelling, giving, empowering and supporting. Exploring the mentoring principals’ metaphors may help to improve both the mentoring process and the practical training of principal preparation programmes.
Expression of Arabidopsis MIRNA Genes1[w]

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are approximately 21-nucleotide noncoding RNAs that regulate target transcripts in plants and animals. In addition to miRNAs, plants contain several classes of endogenous small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) involved in target gene regulation and epigenetic silencing. Small RNA libraries were constructed from wild-type Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and mutant plants (rdr2 and dcl3) that were genetically enriched for miRNAs, and a computational procedure was developed to identify candidate miRNAs. Thirty-eight distinct miRNAs corresponding to 22 families were represented in the libraries. Using a 5′ rapid amplification of cDNA ends procedure, the transcription start sites for 63 miRNA primary transcripts from 52 MIRNA loci (99 loci tested) were mapped, revealing features consistent with an RNA polymerase II mechanism of transcription. Ten loci (19%) yielded transcripts from multiple start sites. A canonical TATA box motif was identified upstream of the major start site at 45 (86%) of the mapped MIRNA loci. The 5′-mapping data were combined with miRNA cloning and 3′-PCR data to definitively validate expression of at least 73 MIRNA genes. These data provide a molecular basis to explore regulatory mechanisms of miRNA expression in plants.
New control plane in 3GPP LTE/EPC architecture for on-demand connectivity service

The on-demand connectivity service is one of the main requirements of the cellular data network. It consists in moving sessions transparently and temporarily from one network equipment to another without causing user session interruption. This service enables networks to cope with the ever-changing network condition such as sudden congestion or arbitrary network equipment failure. In this paper, we argue that the cellular data networks such as LTE/EPC lack the network visibility and control elasticity that enable the on-demand connectivity service. The Software Defined Networking (SDN) is an emerging trend that should be considered to overcomes the above drawback. As a first step, we propose an OpenFlow-based control plane for LTE/EPC architectures. Using resiliency and load balancing use cases, we show that our proposal guarantees the on-demand connectivity service.
Audio-video surveillance system for public transportation

Focusing on improving security in public transports (here: trains), this paper presents a research project implementing an audio-video surveillance system. Combining audio analysis, video tracking and dedicated integration of audio-video acquisition and storage equipments, the proposed system addresses the task of providing an operator with a partially-supervised tool for tracking suspected persons along the train.
Gastric microbiota in the functional dyspepsia patients treated with probiotic yogurt

Objective To investigate the structure of the gastric microbiota in functional dyspepsia (FD) and its role in the pathophysiology. Design We compared the basic physiological properties of the gastric fluid (GF) and the structure of the microbiota in the GF of 44 healthy control (HC) participants and 44 patients with FD. We then treated the patients with FD with a yogurt containing a probiotic strain of Lactobacillus gasseri OLL2716 (LG21 yogurt) and investigated the effects on the bacteriological parameters and symptoms to examine the relationship between them. Results The volume of GF recovered from the stomach after overnight fasting was greater in the patients with FD than in the HCs, and decreased in the patients with FD whose symptoms were improved by the LG21 yogurt treatment. An analysis using a terminal restriction fragment polymorphism method demonstrated that the overall structure of the bacterial community and the abundance of genus Prevotella in the GF of the patients in the FD group were significantly different from those in the HC group. In the patients with FD, this bacteriological change was restored by treatment with LG21 yogurt. A significant inverse correlation was found between the abundance of Prevotella and the severity of postprandial distress-like symptoms in patients with FD who received LG21 yogurt. Conclusions Significant dysbiosis was found in the GF microbiota of patients with FD and considered to be involved in the pathogenesis. The abundance of genus Prevotella in the GF may be used as a biomarker of the efficacy of the treatment of FD. Trial registration number UMINCTR000022026.
Extending the Monte Carlo Processor Modeling Technique: Statistical Performance Models of the Niagara 2 Processor

With the complexity of contemporary single- and multi-core, multi-threaded processors comes a greater need for faster methods of performance analysis and design. It is no longer practical to use only cycle-accurate processor simulators for design space analysis of modern processors and systems. Therefore, we propose a statistical processor modeling method that is based on Monte Carlo techniques. In this paper, we present new details of the methodology and the recent extensions that we have made to it, including the capability to model multi-core processors. We detail the steps to develop a new model and then present statistical performance models of the Sun Niagara 2 processor micro-architecture that, together with a previously published Itanium 2 Monte Carlo model, demonstrates the validity of the technique and its new capabilities. We show that we can accurately predict single and multi-core performance within 7% of actual on average, and we can use the models to quickly pinpoint performance problems at various components.
Morphologic and Molecular Characterization of Renal Cell Carcinoma in Children and Young Adults

A new WHO classification of renal cell carcinoma has been introduced in 2004. This classification includes the recently described renal cell carcinomas with the ASPL-TFE3 gene fusion and carcinomas with a PRCC-TFE3 gene fusion. Collectively, these tumors have been termed Xp11.2 or TFE3 translocation carcinomas, which primarily occur in children and young adults. To further study the characteristics of renal cell carcinoma in young patients and to determine their genetic background, 41 renal cell carcinomas of patients younger than 22 years were morphologically and genetically characterized. Loss of heterozygosity analysis of the von Hippel-Lindau gene region and screening for VHL gene mutations by direct sequencing were performed in 20 tumors. TFE3 protein overexpression, which correlates with the presence of a TFE3 gene fusion, was assessed by immunohistochemistry. Applying the new WHO classification for renal cell carcinoma, there were 6 clear cell (15%), 9 papillary (22%), 2 chromophobe, and 2 collecting duct carcinomas. Eight carcinomas showed translocation carcinoma morphology (20%). One carcinoma occurred 4 years after a neuroblastoma. Thirteen tumors could not be assigned to types specified by the new WHO classification: 10 were grouped as unclassified (24%), including a unique renal cell carcinoma with prominently vacuolated cytoplasm and WT1 expression. Three carcinomas occurred in combination with nephroblastoma. Molecular analysis revealed deletions at 3p25-26 in one translocation carcinoma, one chromophobe renal cell carcinoma, and one papillary renal cell carcinoma. There were no VHL mutations. Nuclear TFE3 overexpression was detected in 6 renal cell carcinomas, all of which showed areas with voluminous cytoplasm and foci of papillary architecture, consistent with a translocation carcinoma phenotype. The large proportion of TFE3 “translocation” carcinomas and “unclassified” carcinomas in the first two decades of life demonstrates that renal cell carcinomas in young patients contain genetically and phenotypically distinct tumors with further potential for novel renal cell carcinoma subtypes. The far lower frequency of clear cell carcinomas and VHL alterations compared with adults suggests that renal cell carcinomas in young patients have a unique genetic background.
Biological Responses to Chemical Exposure: Case Studies in How to Manage Ostensible Inconsistencies Using the Claim Framework

Our daily decisions concerning which foods, drugs and substances to consume have a direct impact on level of exposure to chemicals. At the national level, policies set at by the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency impact both our direct and indirect exposures. Although the latter is based on the best available scientific evidence, all of these decisions are made against a backdrop of uncertainty. Consider the phrase median lethal dose (LD50), which is used in toxicology to capture the dose of a chemical that is required to kill half of the members in a given population. This measure embodies an intrinsic acceptance of inconsistencies in that it removes the need to explain why half the tested population dies at LD50 while the other half of the population survives. In addition to individual responses within the same study, differences between studies are inevitable when studying the highly complex and dynamic relationship between biological responses to chemical exposures, for example LD50 for acrylamide ranges between 85 and 1148. Our goal is to foreground this uncertainty, which can be hidden when taking only a global view of the biological responses to chemical exposure. To that end, we have developed the Claim Framework that captures how scientists communicate the results of their empirical study. The Claim Framework comprises four information facets (agent, object, change and dimension) that are pieced together to form five different claim types (explicit, implicit, comparison, correlation and observation). This paper provides case studies drawn from toxicology, medicine and epidemiology to illustrate how the level of abstraction provided by the Claim Framework is sufficient to capture experimental results from a variety of different study designs that are used to measure a biological response to chemical exposure. 1 Introduction Scientists in medicine, toxicology and epidemiology spend much of their time predicting the biological response(s) that will ensue after chemical exposure. In medicine, the biological responses typically lessen the impact of a disease or injury, while in toxicology the biological response is typically harmful. Despite their differences, both these communities employ controlled experiments to reduce the inherent uncertainty in how an individual will respond to a given chemical; however, the very controls that limit variation within the lab contribute to uncertainty beyond the laboratory where the level and duration of exposure differ from those used in the control group. For example, scientists conducting a clinical trial deliberately select study …
Global convergence of Oja's subspace algorithm for principal component extraction

Oja's principal subspace algorithm is a well-known and powerful technique for learning and tracking principal information in time series. A thorough investigation of the convergence property of Oja's algorithm is undertaken in this paper. The asymptotic convergence rates of the algorithm is discovered. The dependence of the algorithm on its initial weight matrix and the singularity of the data covariance matrix is comprehensively addressed.
Proceedings of the 5th Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation Cmc: a Pragmatic Approach to Model Checking Real Code

Many system errors do not emerge unless some intricate sequence of events occurs. In practice, this means that most systems have errors that only trigger after days or weeks of execution. Model checking [4] is an effective way to find such subtle errors. It takes a simplified description of the code and exhaustively tests it on all inputs, using techniques to explore vast state spaces efficiently. Unfortunately, while model checking systems code would be wonderful , it is almost never done in practice: building models is just too hard. It can take significantly more time to write a model than it did to write the code. Furthermore, by checking an abstraction of the code rather than the code itself, it is easy to miss errors. The paper's first contribution is a new model checker, CMC, which checks C and C++ implementations directly, eliminating the need for a separate abstract description of the system behavior. This has two major advantages: it reduces the effort to use model checking, and it reduces missed errors as well as time-wasting false error reports resulting from inconsistencies between the abstract description and the actual implementation. In addition, changes in the implementation can be checked immediately without updating a high-level description. The paper's second contribution is demonstrating that CMC works well on real code by applying it to three implementations of the Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) networking protocol [7]. We found 34 distinct errors (roughly one bug per 328 lines of code), including a bug in the AODV specification itself. Given our experience building systems, it appears that the approach will work well in other contexts, and especially well for other networking protocols.
Community Assembly Through Evolutionary Diversification and Dispersal in Middle American Treefrogs

How are ecologically diverse organisms added to local assemblages to create the community structure we see today? In general, within a given region or community, a given trait (character state) may either evolve in situ or be added through dispersal after having evolved elsewhere. Here, we develop simple metrics to quantify the relative importance of these processes and then apply them to a case study in Middle American treefrogs. We examined two ecologically important characters (larval habitat and body size) among 39 communities, using phylogenetic and ecological information from 278 species both inside and outside the region. For each character, variation among communities reflects complex patterns of evolution and dispersal. Our results support several general hypotheses about community assembly, which may apply to many other systems: (1) elevation can play an important role in creating patterns of community structure within a region, (2) contrary to expectations, species can invade communities in which species with similar ecological traits are already present, (3) dispersal events tend to occur between areas with similar climatic regimes, and (4) the first lineage to invade a region diversifies the most ecologically, whereas later invasions show limited change.
Los cautiverios de niñas y jóvenes excombatientes de grupos armados colombianos

Este articulo analiza las situaciones que las ninas y jovenes desvinculadas del conflicto armado colombiano enfrentan por ser mujeres en el contexto de una cultura patriarcal. Estas jovenes excombatientes, luego de experimentar un paso que va de la infancia a la guerra y un posterior retorno a la vida civil, construyen discursos y problematizan las relaciones de poder con el fin de buscar bienestar. Los cautiverios de estas mujeres son prisiones que envuelven sentimientos contradictorios en relacion con su propio genero y se convierten en una situacion que condiciona sus vidas en tanto que no se retomen y se resignifiquen sus discursos hacia el respeto de su propio genero. El Trabajo Social busca problematizar aquellas relaciones, tomar los discursos silenciados, reconstruir una identidad femenina y una resignificacion de sus vinculos afectivos.
Identification of the gene at the pmg locus, encoding system II, the general amino acid transporter in Neurospora crassa.

Mutations at the pmg locus in Neurospora crassa cause a deficiency in a transport system for a broad range of amino acids. We have isolated a gene that encodes a protein with a high degree of sequence similarity to the GAP1 general amino acid permease in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Our data indicate that this is the gene at the pmg locus. It encodes a 572-residue protein with a molecular mass of 62,649 Da. The predicted secondary structure has 12 membrane-spanning regions, a feature characteristic of a superfamily of permease proteins. Inactivation of the gene yielded a mutant strain with the same phenotype as the pmg- strain, and a cosmid containing a functional copy of the gene rescued the pmg- strain. Although the pmg- strain has previously been assayed in a genetic background that contains mutations in genes for two other amino acid transport systems, we have found conditions in which the pmg- strain has an identifiable phenotype in an otherwise wild-type genetic background.
Replication stress in early S phase generates apparent micronuclei and chromosome rearrangement in fission yeast

Unable to complete S phase, a fission yeast MCM mutant evades the mitotic checkpoint, causing aneuploidy, chromosome fragments, and bridges. The formation of apparent yeast micronuclei that are membrane bound is shown in real time; they develop DNA damage signals and may rejoin the parent nucleus.
Enhancing E-cadherin expression via promoter-targeted miR-373 suppresses bladder cancer cells growth and metastasis

Previous studies showed that miR-373 had the capacity to induce tumor suppressor gene E-cadherin expression in prostate cancer cells. However, whether miR-373 can activate the expression of E-cadherin in human bladder cancer (BCa) cells and inhibit cells remains to be elucidated. Here, we found that both miR-373 and E-cadherin were low expressed in BCa tissues and cell lines, and significantly correlated with tumor stage, grade, and lymph node metastasis. In addition, decreased E-cadherin expression or low expression of both miR-373 and E-cadherin is associated with poor overall survival in patients with BCa. Transfection of miR-373 into BCa cells readily activated E-cadherin expression by targeting promoter. Moreover, miR-373 exhibited robust capacity to inhibit cells proliferation, suppress migration and invasion by enhancing E-cadherin expression, and significantly suppress the growth of xenografts and metastasis in nude mice. Altogether, our findings indicate that miR-373 may as a tumor suppressor in BCa by activating E-cadherin expression.
The Coordination of Cell Growth during Fission Yeast Mating Requires Ras1-GTP Hydrolysis

The spatial and temporal control of polarity is fundamental to the survival of all organisms. Cells define their polarity using highly conserved mechanisms that frequently rely upon the action of small GTPases, such as Ras and Cdc42. Schizosaccharomyces pombe is an ideal system with which to study the control of cell polarity since it grows from defined tips using Cdc42-mediated actin remodeling. Here we have investigated the importance of Ras1-GTPase activity for the coordination of polarized cell growth during fission yeast mating. Following pheromone stimulation, Ras1 regulates both a MAPK cascade and the activity of Cdc42 to enable uni-directional cell growth towards a potential mating partner. Like all GTPases, when bound to GTP, Ras1 adopts an active conformation returning to an inactive state upon GTP-hydrolysis, a process accelerated through interaction with negative regulators such as GAPs. Here we show that, at low levels of pheromone stimulation, loss of negative regulation of Ras1 increases signal transduction via the MAPK cascade. However, at the higher concentrations observed during mating, hyperactive Ras1 mutations promote cell death. We demonstrate that these cells die due to their failure to coordinate active Cdc42 into a single growth zone resulting in disorganized actin deposition and unsustainable elongation from multiple tips. These results provide a striking demonstration that the deactivation stage of Ras signaling is fundamentally important in modulating cell polarity.
Low Plasma Testosterone Levels in Cluster Headache*

Serum levels of various hormones have been estimated in cluster headache and non-cluster headache controls. Cluster headache patients were studied prior to, during, and after attack. During the cluster phase, plasma testosterone levels were low, whereas levels were within the reference limits in the remission period of episodic cluster headache. LH levels were within reference limits. Normal values were also found in control patients with non-cluster headache. It is suggested that a decrease of plasma testosterone levels in episodic cluster headache should be viewed in context with disordered REM sleep in cluster headache.