Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A noble approach for recognizing Bangla real number automatically using CMU Sphinx4

Speech recognition is widely researched topic around the world. It is a process of conversion of speech to text. Many scientists and researchers are busy with doing works to increase the performance of speech recognition systems. Most of the languages in the world have speech recognizer of its own. But in our mother tongue Bangla there is no working speech recognizer. This work is little try to build a Bengali speech recognizer to enrich our language. In this paper we have proposed a noble approach to develop an automatic Bangla Real Number recognizer and analyze the performance of this recognition system using the most popular speech recognizer API CMU Sphinx 4 and a popular Bangla Unicode based writing software called Avro.
Automated Tiering in a QoS Environment Using Coarse Data

We present a method for providing automated performance management for a storage array with quality of service demands. Our method dynamically configures application data to heterogeneous storage devices, taking into account response time targets for the different applications. The optimization process uses widely available coarse counter statistics. We use analytical modeling of the storage system components and a gradient descent mechanism to minimize the target function. We verify the effectiveness of our optimization procedure using traces from real production systems, and show that our method improves the performance of the more significant applications, and can do so using only the coarse statistics. Our results show substantial improvements for preferred applications over an optimization procedure which does not take QoS requirements into account. We also present evidence of the complex behavior of real production storage systems, which has to be taken into account in the optimization process.
Learning Novel Objects for Domestic Service Robots

It is fair to say that robots which can interact with and serve humans especially in the domestic environment will spread widely in near future. A fundamental task called mobile manipulation is required for such domestic service robots. Therefore, many humanoid robots have been developed with the ability of mobile manipulation (1–5). Recently, competitions such as RoboCup@Home (6), Mobile Manipulation Challenge (7), and Semantic Robot Vision Challenge (8), have been proposed to evaluate such robots. Since the tasks are implemented on domestic service robots, it stands to reason that natural interaction such as speech instruction should be used for the mobile manipulation. Here, we focus on the mobile manipulation using natural speech instruction such as “Bring me X” (X is an out-of-vocabulary (OOV) word). In order to realize this task, the integration of navigation, manipulation, speech recognition, and image recognition is required. Image and speech recognition are difficult especially when novel objects are involved in the system. For example, there are objects specific to each home and new products can be brought into the home. It is impossible to register the names and images of all these objects with the robot in advance. Hence, we propose a method for learning novel objects with a simple procedure. The robot, on which the proposed learningmethod is implemented, is intended to be used in a private domestic environment. Therefore, the procedure of teaching objects to the robot must be simple. For example, the user says, “This object is X” (X is the name of the object) and shows the object to the robot (Fig.1: Left). It is easy for a user to teach a robot many objects with this procedure. Then the user orders the robot to bring him/her something. For example, the user says, “Bring me X” (Fig.1: Right). As we mentioned earlier, such extended manipulation tasks are necessary for domestic service robots. However, there are three problems in teaching novel objects to the robots. The first problem is speech recognition of an object’s name. In usual methods, phonemes of names must be registered in an internal dictionary. However, it is impossible to register all objects in advance. The second problem is the speech synthesis. A robot must utter the name of the recognized object for interaction with humans such as “Is it X? ” However, conventional robot utterance systems cannot utter a word which is not registered in the dictionary. Even if the phoneme sequence of an OOVword can be recognized, 13
The validity of situational interviews for administrative jobs

This study was conducted to determine the validity of situational interviews for making predictions of ratings of job performance and potential. The validation sample consisted of 63 candidates. The correlations of potential and performance with situational interview scores were statistically significant and both predictor and criterion measures showed acceptable levels of reliability. The study provides additional evidence on the validity of situational interviews in a new job family, i.e. administrative jobs in a large U.K. financial services organization. The discussion questions the extent to which situational interviews provide unique or overlapping predictive validity when compared with mental ability tests.
Identification of SNAREs Involved in Synaptotagmin VII-regulated Lysosomal Exocytosis*

Ca2+-regulated exocytosis of lysosomes has been recognized recently as a ubiquitous process, important for the repair of plasma membrane wounds. Lysosomal exocytosis is regulated by synaptotagmin VII, a member of the synaptotagmin family of Ca2+-binding proteins localized on lysosomes. Here we show that Ca2+-dependent interaction of the synaptotagmin VII C2A domain with SNAP-23 is facilitated by syntaxin 4. Specific interactions also occurred in cell lysates between the plasma membrane t-SNAREs SNAP-23 and syntaxin 4 and the lysosomal v-SNARE TI-VAMP/VAMP7. Following cytosolic Ca2+ elevation, SDS-resistant complexes containing SNAP-23, syntaxin 4, and TI-VAMP/VAMP7 were detected on membrane fractions. Lysosomal exocytosis was inhibited by the SNARE domains of syntaxin 4 and TI-VAMP/VAMP7 and by cleavage of SNAP-23 with botulinum neurotoxin E, thereby functionally implicating these SNAREs in Ca2+-regulated exocytosis of conventional lysosomes.
FFT-based hybrid antenna selection schemes for spatially correlated MIMO channels

In this letter, we address the antenna subset selection problem in spatially correlated multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels. To reduce the severe performance degradation of the traditional antenna selection scheme in correlated channels, we propose to embed fast Fourier transform operations in the RF chains. The resulting system shows a significant advantage both for diversity schemes and for the capacity of spatial multiplexing, while requiring only a minor hardware overhead.
Public health and the 'new' genetics: Balancing individual and collective outcomes

This paper considers the consequences for public health of developments in the understanding of the genetic basis of disease associated with the Human Genome Project (HGP). It develops a sociological perspective on the main social policy issue that arises--that of maximizing any benefits that may arise and minimizing any drawbacks, especially as regards public health. Some opportunities and dangers are discussed, as are three case studies of the impact of the human genome project on specific public health issues.
Investigations on the Degradation of Triazine Herbicides in Water by Photo-Fenton Process

In this work, the degradation of 2-chloro-4,6-diamino-1,3,5-triazine in aqueous solutions by photo-Fenton process has been investigated. The preliminary results have shown that the degradation of 2-chloro-4,6-diamino-1,3,5-triazine by photo-Fenton process is more rapid and more effective than Fenton and UV/H2O2 processes. The effects of certain experimental parameters on kinetics and efficiency of the degradation of 2-chloro-4,6,-diamino-1,3,5-triazine by photo-Fenton process, have been evaluated. Under optimal conditions, photo-Fenton process achieved more than 90% of chloride release and about 30% of nitrate formation. The results of total organic carbon (TOC) and total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) analyses have shown that no carbon dioxide and ammonia are formed during photo-Fenton treatment of aqueous solutions containing 40 mg/L triazine. These results indicate that only substituent groups of triazine ring are released; however, nitrogen atoms of triazine ring remain unaffected. A simple mechanism of degradation of 2-chloro-4,6-diamino-1,3,5-triazine has been proposed. The degradation starts by a rapid release of chlorine atoms as chloride ions to form 2-hydroxy-4,6-diamino-1,3,5-triazine. The amino groups of 2-hydroxy-4,6-diamino-1,3,5-triazine undergo are oxidized into nitro groups by hydroxyl radicals to form 2-hydroxy-4,6-dinitro-1,3,5-triazine which undergoes a slow release of nitro groups and their substitution with hydroxyl groups to form cyanuric acid and nitrate ions. The degradation of cyanuric acid by photo-Fenton process has also been investigated. The results of TOC and TKN analyzes show that no carbon dioxide is formed during the treatment.
Forecasting of Life Threatening Arrhythmias Using the Compression Entropy of Heart Rate

Summary Objectives: Ventricular tachycardia (VT) provoking sudden cardiac death (SCD) are a major cause of mortality in the developed countries. The most efficient therapy for SCD prevention are implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD). In this study heart rate variability (HRV) measures were analyzed for short-term forecasting of VT in order to improve VT sensing and to enable a patient warning of forthcoming shocks. Methods: The last 1000 normal beat-to-beat intervals before 50 VT episodes stored by the ICD were analyzed and compared to individually acquired control time series (CON). HRV analysis was performed with standard parameters of time and frequency domain as suggested by the HRV Task Force and furthermore with a newly developed and optimized nonlinear parameter that assesses the compression entropy of heart rate (Hc). Results: Except of meanNN (p = 0.02) we found no significant differences in standard HRV parameters. In contrast, Hc revealed highly significant (p = 0.007) alterations in VT compared with CON suggesting a decreased complexity before the onset of VT. Conclusion: Compression entropy might be a suitable parameter for short-term forecasting of life-threatening tachycardia in ICD.
Zellersatztherapie beim Morbus Parkinson

Zusammenfassung Der Ersatz dopaminerger Neurone bei Patienten mit Morbus Parkinson bleibt eine attraktive Behandlungsstrategie. Die Implantation von embryonalem Mittelhirngewebe war die erste Therapie, die nicht nur den »Proof-of-Principle« in Tierversuchen lieferte, sondern auch Eingang in klinische Applikationen fand. 1987 wurde zunächst eine Reihe von kleinen offenen Studien mit sorgfältiger Patientenselektion gestartet, die sehr ermutigende Ergebnisse bei zumindest einem Teil der Patienten erbrachten. In den vergangenen Jahren wurden in den USA zwei doppelblinde, kontrollierte Studien abgeschlossen, deren Resultate eher enttäuschend blieben, da die primären Endpunkte (Besserung der Parkinson-Symptomatik im Off) keine signifikanten Unterschiede zeigten. Zudem wurden in beiden Studien 12 Stunden nach L-Dopa-Einnahme Dyskinesien beobachtet. Die Ursachen dieser unterschiedlichen Ergebnisse könnten in der Variabilität des Gewebes, relevanten Immunreaktionen und ungleichmäßiger Dopaminausschüttung im Striatum liegen. Zudem legen die ethischen Probleme bei der Gewinnung des Gewebes die Notwendigkeit anderer, besser standardisierter Gewebe nahe. Derzeit scheint es möglich, dass alternativ sowohl aus embryonalen als auch neuralen Stammzellen, vielleicht sogar aus körpereigenen mesenchymalen Stammzellen dopaminerge Neurone generiert werden könnten. Diese Zellen können über einen langen Zeitraum expandiert, ausreichend standardisiert und charakterisiert werden.
The anatomical distribution of intraepithelial epidermoid carcinomas of the cervix

T H E concept of a noninfiltrating phase of carcinoma of the cervix appears to be gaining wider and, in the authors' opinion, well-merited acceptance.l, 3, % o, *-I2, 14, Nor does it seem likely that this trend will abate in thv predictable future; rather, it will probably parallel the growing nation-wide plea for diagnosis of cancer in its earliest stages. Moreover, the establishment of cancerdetection clinics in increasing numbers will add momentum, since, broadly speaking, cancer detection has more to offer in carcinoma of the cervix than in any other important form of human cancer. Even after a carcinoma of the cervix has been detected in its noninfiltrative phase, there is the residual problem of how the very early cancer can be most logically and effectively treated. Certainly there is no general agreement among clinicians. Should one rely upon irradiation alone or should irradiation be combined with surgery? If surgical means are selected to the exclusion of irradiation, shall the procedure be trachelectomy, hysterectomy, hysterectomy with removal of adnexa, or should the more radical Wertheim operation be carried out? All of these foregoing questions cannot be answered satisfactorily in this paper, but it is hoped that the study will furnish certain basic anatomical data that may be of some assistance when the problem of treatment presents itself.
Circulation and turnover of synaptic vesicle membrane in cultured fetal mammalian spinal cord neurons

Intact neurons in cultures of fetal rodent spinal cord explants show stimulation-dependent uptake of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) into many small vesicles and occasional tubules and multivesicular bodies (MVB) at presynaptic terminals. Presynaptic terminals were allowed to take up HRP during 1 h of strychnine-enhanced stimulation of synaptic transmitter release and then "chased" in tracer-free medium either with strychnine or with 10 mM Mg++ which depresses transmitter release. Tracer-containing vesicles are lost from terminals under both chase conditions; the loss is more rapid (4-8 h) with strychnine than with 10 mM Mg++ (8-16 h). There is a parallel decrease in the numbers of labeled MVB's at terminals. Loss of tracer with 10 mM Mg++ does not appear to be due to the membrane rearrangements (exocytosis coupled to endocytosis) that presumably lead to initial tracer uptake; terminals exposed to HRP and Mg++ for up to 16 h show little tracer uptake into vesicles. Nor is the decrease likely to the due to loss of HRP enzyme activity; HRP is very stable in solution. During the chases there is a striking accumulation of HRP in perikarya that is far more extensive in cultures initially exposed to tracer with strychnine than 10 mM Mg++ regardless of chase conditions. Much of the tracer ends up in large dense bodies. These findings suggest that synaptic vesicle membrane turnover involves retrograde axonal transport of membrane to neuronal perikarya for further processing, including lysosomal degradation. The more rapid (4-8 h) loss of tracer-containing vesicles with strychnine may reflect vesicle membrane reutilization for exocytosis.
The reliability of body mass index in the diagnosis of obesity and metabolic risk in children

Abstract Background: Body mass index (BMI) is the most widespread and the simplest method for the evaluation of body mass; it is often used as a sole technique in the diagnosis of obesity in children. The objective of the study was to evaluate the relationship between anthropometric and biochemical parameters and the incidence of the metabolic syndrome in obese children. Methodology: A total of 110 children, aged 2–17 years, participated in the study. No overweight children (BMI 85–95 percentiles) were included. BMI was interpreted using the 2000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Growth Charts. The skinfold measurements were performed using an John Bull British Indicators Ltd. calipers, and interpreted using an the reference table values. Results: In addition to lower sensitivity (mentioned in several earlier studies), BMI also shows a lower specificity in the diagnosis of obesity in children: BMI showed at least 10% of non-concomitance with skinfold thickness and waist circumferences and 8% with waist-to-height ratio. In addition, subscapular skinfold thickness, waist circumference, and waist/height ratio showed stronger correlations with serum insulin levels, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and family history than BMI itself. Conclusion: The unreliability of BMI as the sole parameter for diagnosing obesity in children was found in our study. Even when overweight children were excluded from the study, the lack of specificity of BMI was demonstrated. We propose utilization of waist circumference and waist/height ratio along with the BMI for definitive diagnosis instead of relying on BMI only. In addition, waist circumference and subscapular fold thickness may be even better in estimation of metabolic risk than BMI.
Implementation Guidelines for an End-to-End Standard-Based Platform for Personal Health

There is a need to develop open sensors and middleware components that allow transparent integration and plug-and-play interoperability of Medical Devices (MDs) and Computer Engines (CEs). The use of standards seems to be the internationally adopted way to solve these problems and allow implementing ubiquitous solutions, including wearable devices, focused on the new paradigm of Personal Health (p-Health). However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no experience where the full chain from personal healthcare environment to Health Centre had been implemented using interoperability standards. Even though there have been some initiatives to combine different standards, the vision of an entire end-to-end standard-based system is not yet a fact end-to-end solution. This paper presents the implementation guidelines of a ubiquitous platform for p-Health. It is end-to-end standards-based, using ISO/IEEE11073 in the patient environment and EN13606 to communicate the information to an Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) server. The platform has been designed to comply with the last ISO/IEEE11073 and EN13606 available versions and tested in a laboratory environment to demonstrate the feasibility of an end-to-end standard-based solution.
Attaching Objects to Smartphones Back Side for a Modular Interface

This paper proposes a new approach to enhancing interaction with general applications on smartphones. Physical objects held on back surface of the smartphone, which can be captured by the rear camera with a mirror, work as input devices or controllers. It does not require any additional electronic devices but offers tactile feedback. The occlusion problem does not occur when using smartphone's back side, in terms of both display and camera viewing. We implemented on an Android smartphone and confirmed that it provides richer interaction and low latency (100 ms).
4-methylcatechol increases brain-derived neurotrophic factor content and mRNA expression in cultured brain cells and in rat brain in vivo.

Practical use of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) as therapy is limited by two serious problems, i.e., its inability to cross the blood-brain barrier and its instability in the bloodstream. In the present study, we investigated the effects of 4-methylcatechol (4-MC), which stimulates nerve growth factor synthesis and protects against peripheral neuropathies in rats, on BDNF content and mRNA expression in cultured brain cells and in vivo in the rat brain. 4-MC elevated BDNF content in culture media of both rat astrocytes and neurons with different dose-response relations. The increase in BDNF mRNA level was correlated with the increase in BDNF content, demonstrating that 4-MC can stimulate BDNF synthesis of both neurons and astrocytes. Then we examined the in vivo effects of 4-MC. First, we found that ventricularly administered 4-MC facilitated an increase in the BDNF content in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus in association with its diffusion into the brain parenchyma. Second, i.p. administration of 4-MC enhanced BDNF mRNA expression in the infant rat brain, in which the blood-brain has not yet fully been established. These results demonstrate that 4-MC, once delivered into the brain, can stimulate BDNF synthesis.
Microwave-assisted Protein Preparation and Enzymatic Digestion in Proteomics*S

The combinations of gel electrophoresis or LC and mass spectrometry are two popular approaches for large scale protein identification. However, the throughput of both approaches is limited by the speed of the protein digestion process. Present research into fast protein enzymatic digestion has been focused mainly on known proteins, and it is unclear whether these results can be extrapolated to complex protein mixtures. In this study microwave technology was used to develop a fast protein preparation and enzymatic digestion method for protein mixtures. The protein mixtures in solution or in gel were prepared and digested by microwave-assisted protein enzymatic digestion, which rapidly produces peptide fragments. The peptide fragments were further analyzed by capillary LC and ESI-ion trap-MS or MALDI-TOF-MS. The technique was optimized using bovine serum albumin and then applied to human urinary proteins and yeast lysate. The method enabled preparation and digestion of protein mixtures in solution (human urinary proteins) or in gel (yeast lysate) in 6 or 25 min, respectively. Equivalent (in-solution) or better (in-gel) digestion efficiency was obtained using microwave-assisted protein enzymatic digestion compared with the standard overnight digestion method. This new application of microwave technology to protein mixture preparation and enzymatic digestion will hasten the application of proteomic techniques to biological and clinical research.
Cost-Effectiveness and Health Benefits of Pediatric 23-Valent Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Vaccine, 7-Valent and Forecasting 13-Valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines in China.

BACKGROUND Each year in China, approximately 700,000 children under 5 years old are diagnosed with pneumonia, and 30,000 die from the disease. Although 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-7) and 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV-23) are available in China, the costs are borne by the consumer, resulting in low coverage for PCV-7. We aimed to conduct a simulation study to assess the cost-effectiveness and health benefits of PCV-7, 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-13) and PPV-23 to prevent childhood pneumonia and other vaccine-preventive diseases in China. METHODS An economic evaluation was performed using a Markov simulation model. Parameters including demographic, epidemiological data, costs and efficacy of vaccines were obtained from previous studies. A hypothetical cohort of 100,000 newborns (focusing on pneumococcal diseases ≤7 years old) was followed up until death or 100 years of age. The model incorporated the impact of vaccination on reduction of incidence of pneumococcal diseases and mortality of children ≤7 years. Outcomes are presented in terms of disease cases averted, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). RESULTS Under baseline assumptions, PPV-23 is currently the only cost-effective option, while PCV-13 showed the greatest impact on pneumococcal disease burden, reducing invasive pneumococcal diseases by 31.3%, pneumonia by 15.3% and gaining 73.8 QALYs (10,000 individuals at discount rate of 3%). ICERs of PCV-13 and PCV-7 are US$29,460/QALY and US$104,094/QALY, respectively, showing no cost-effectiveness based on the World Health Organization recommended willingness-to-pay threshold. On the other hand, the ICERs of PCVs were most sensitive to vaccination costs: if it reduces 4.7% and 32.2% for PCV-7 and PCV-13 respectively, the vaccination will be cost-effective. CONCLUSIONS To scale up current vaccination strategies and achieve potential health benefits, the replacement of PCV-7 with PCV-13 should be considered. As well, PCVs costs needs to be reduced by increasing public subsidies and providing financial support to poor families.