Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low-Complexity Variable Frame Rate Analysis for Speech Recognition and Voice Activity Detection

Frame-based speech processing inherently assumes a stationary behavior of speech signals in a short period of time. Over a long time, the characteristics of the signals can change significantly and frames are not equally important, underscoring the need for frame selection. In this paper, we present a low-complexity and effective frame selection approach based on a posteriori signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) weighted energy distance: The use of an energy distance, instead of, e.g., a standard cepstral distance, makes the approach computationally efficient and enables fine granularity search, and the use of a posteriori SNR weighting emphasizes the reliable regions in noisy speech signals. It is experimentally found that the approach is able to assign a higher frame rate to fast changing events such as consonants, a lower frame rate to steady regions like vowels and no frames to silence, even for very low SNR signals. The resulting variable frame rate analysis method is applied to three speech processing tasks that are essential to natural interaction with intelligent environments. First, it is used for improving speech recognition performance in noisy environments. Second, the method is used for scalable source coding schemes in distributed speech recognition where the target bit rate is met by adjusting the frame rate. Third, it is applied to voice activity detection. Very encouraging results are obtained for all three speech processing tasks.
Downlink and Uplink Cell Association in Sub-6GHz and Millimeter Wave 5G Heterogeneous Networks

Millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies promise much higher capacities than conventional sub-6GHz networks thanks to the much wider bandwidth. However, mmWaves suffer from poor penetration and diffraction characteristics and are therefore expected to be deployed as an overlay to existing sub- 6GHz networks. We develop a general analytical framework where we derive the biased uplink and downlink cell association as well as the SINR and rate coverage probabilities in such a hybrid system. Simulation results are presented to validate the analytical model. Using the analytical results, we show that decoupled uplink and downlink association plays a key role in this mixed deployment. We then show the effect of small cell biasing on the SINR and rate trends where very high biasing values are desirable to harness the gains from the wide bandwidths at mmWaves. In addition, robust modulation and coding schemes are needed to operate under very low SINR resulting from the aggressive bias values.
An Early Clinical Study of Time-Domain Microwave Radar for Breast Health Monitoring

This study reports on monthly scans of healthy patient volunteers with the clinical prototype of a microwave imaging system. The system uses time-domain measurements, and incorporates a multistatic radar approach to imaging. It operates in the 2-4 GHz range and contains 16 wideband sensors embedded in a hemispherical dielectric radome. The system has been previously tested on tissue phantoms in controlled experiments. With this system prototype, we scanned 13 patients (26 breasts) over an eight-month period, collecting a total of 342 breast scans. The goal of the study described in this paper was to investigate how the system measurements are impacted by multiple factors that are unavoidable in monthly monitoring of human subjects. These factors include both biological variability (e.g., tissue variations due to hormonal changes or weight gain) and measurement variability (e.g., inconsistencies in patient positioning, system noise). For each patient breast, we process the results of the monthly scans to assess the variability in both the raw measured signals and in the generated images. The significance of this study is that it quantifies how much variability should be anticipated when conducting microwave breast imaging of a healthy patient over a longer period. This is an important step toward establishing the feasibility of the microwave radar imaging system for frequent monitoring of breast health.
Incidence and survival of Hodgkin lymphoma patients in Girona (Spain) over three decades: a population-based study

Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is characterized by heterogeneous histologic findings, clinical presentation and outcomes. Using the Girona population-based cancer registry data we sought to explore the incidence of HL over three decades in Girona Province (Spain) and examine the relationship between clinical features at diagnosis and survival. From 1985 to 2013, 459 cases were recorded. Patients were stratified by sex, age group, stage at diagnosis, histological subtypes and the presence of B-symptoms. The crude incidence rate (CR) was 2.7 and the corresponding European age-adjusted rate was 2.6, being higher in men than in women (sex ratio=1.6). Incidence remained constant throughout the period of study. Nodular sclerosis was the most frequent histology and showed an increasing incidence over time [estimated annual percentage change=+2.4, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.8–4.0]. The 5-year observed survival and relative survival of patients diagnosed with HL were 73.1% (95% CI: 69.0–77.5) and 74.6% (95% CI: 70.0–79.4), respectively. No statistical differences in observed survival were observed across the three decades of study (P=0.455). Clinical parameters negatively influencing 5-year relative survival in the multivariate analysis were as follows: age at diagnosis at least 65 years; clinical stage IV; and presence of B-symptoms. These current patterns of presentation and outcomes of HL help delineate key populations in order to explore risk factors for HL and strategies to improve treatment outcomes.
Glutathione in Cancer Cell Death

Glutathione (L-γ-glutamyl-L-cysteinyl-glycine; GSH) in cancer cells is particularly relevant in the regulation of carcinogenic mechanisms; sensitivity against cytotoxic drugs, ionizing radiations, and some cytokines; DNA synthesis; and cell proliferation and death. The intracellular thiol redox state (controlled by GSH) is one of the endogenous effectors involved in regulating the mitochondrial permeability transition pore complex and, in consequence, thiol oxidation can be a causal factor in the mitochondrion-based mechanism that leads to cell death. Nevertheless GSH depletion is a common feature not only of apoptosis but also of other types of cell death. Indeed rates of GSH synthesis and fluxes regulate its levels in cellular compartments, and potentially influence switches among different mechanisms of death. How changes in gene expression, post-translational modifications of proteins, and signaling cascades are implicated will be discussed. Furthermore, this review will finally analyze whether GSH depletion may facilitate cancer cell death under in vivo conditions, and how this can be applied to cancer therapy.
The ligninolytic system of the white rot fungus Pycnoporus cinnabarinus: purification and characterization of the laccase

The white rot fungus Pycnoporus cinnabarinus was characterized with respect to its set of extracellular phenoloxidases. Laccase was produced as the predominant extracellular phenoloxidase in conjunction with low amounts of an unusual peroxidase. Neither lignin peroxidase nor manganese peroxidase was detected. Laccase was produced constitutively during primary metabolism. Addition of the most effective inducer, 2,5-xylidine, enhanced laccase production ninefold without altering the isoenzyme pattern of the enzyme. Laccase purified to apparent homogeneity was a single polypeptide having a molecular mass of approximately 81,000 Da, as determined by calibrated gel filtration chromatography, and a carbohydrate content of 9%. The enzyme displayed an unusual behavior on isoelectric focusing gels; the activity was split into one major band (pI, 3.7) and several minor bands of decreasing intensity which appeared at regular, closely spaced intervals toward the alkaline end of the gel. Repeated electrophoresis of the major band under identical conditions produced the same pattern, suggesting that the laccase was secreted as a single acidic isoform with a pI of about 3.7 and that the multiband pattern was an artifact produced by electrophoresis. This appeared to be confirmed by N-terminal amino acid sequencing of the purified enzyme, which yielded a single sequence for the first 21 residues. Spectroscopic analysis indicated a typical laccase active site in the P. cinnabarinus enzyme since all three typical Cu(II)-type centers were identified. Substrate specificity and inhibitor studies also indicated the enzyme to be a typical fungal laccase. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of the P. cinnabarinus laccase showed close homology to the N-terminal sequences determined for laccases from Trametes versicolor, Coriolus hirsutus, and an unidentified basidiomycete, PM1. The principal features of the P. cinnabarinus enzyme system, a single predominant laccase and a lack of lignin- or manganese-type peroxidase, make this organism an interesting model for further studies of possible alternative pathways of lignin degradation by white rot fungi.
Simple CHT: A New Derivation of the Weakest Failure Detector for Consensus

The paper proposes an alternative proof that Omega, an oracle that outputs a process identifier and guarantees that eventually the same correct process identifier is output at all correct processes, provides minimal information about failures for solving consensus in read-write shared-memory systems: every oracle that gives enough failure information to solve consensus can be used to implement Omega. Unlike the original proof by Chandra, Hadzilacos and Toueg (CHT), the proof presented in this paper builds upon the very fact that 2-process wait-free consensus is impossible. Also, since the oracle that is used to implement can solve consensus, the implementation is allowed to directly access consensus objects. As a result, the proposed proof is shorter and conceptually simpler than the original one.
Comparison of whole genome sequencing typing results and epidemiological contact information from outbreaks of Salmonella Dublin in Swedish cattle herds

Background Whole genome sequencing (WGS) is becoming a routine tool for infectious disease outbreak investigations. The Swedish situation provides an excellent opportunity to test the usefulness of WGS for investigation of outbreaks with Salmonella Dublin (S. Dublin) as epidemiological investigations are always performed when Salmonella is detected in livestock production, and index isolates from all detected herds are stored and therefore available for analysis. This study was performed to evaluate WGS as a tool in forward and backward tracings from herds infected with S. Dublin. Material and methods In this study, 28 isolates from 26 cattle herds were analysed and the WGS results were compared with results from the epidemiological investigations, for example, information on contacts between herds. The isolates originated from herds in three different outbreaks separated geographically and to some extent also in time, and from the only region in Sweden where S. Dublin is endemic (Öland). Results The WGS results of isolates from the three non-endemic regions were reliably separated from each other and from the endemic isolates. Within the outbreaks, herds with known epidemiological contacts generally showed smaller differences between isolates as compared to when there were no known epidemiological contacts. Conclusion The results indicate that WGS can provide valuable supplemental information in S. Dublin outbreak investigations. The resolution of the WGS was sufficient to distinguish isolates from the different outbreaks and provided additional information to the investigations within an outbreak.
Shared-aperture modulated metasurface antennas

This paper describes the design multibeam or dual-band antennas using just a single metasurface (MTS) aperture. An example of multi-beam antenna is presented, it is based on a superposition of modulation patterns, and presents a multi-source feeding scheme. The elements of the objective surface impedance tensor are derived in closed-form, and numerical results based on the Method of Moments are presented for validation.
Improving Readability through Individualized Summary Extraction, Using Interactive Genetic Algorithm

ABSTRACT The impact of individualized summarization is high, because a summary would be difficult to understand by all if summarized in a generic manner. When sentences are important as well as readable to the learner with reading difficulties, the summary might be useful for better comprehension of the text. In this article, we propose an Interactive Genetic Algorithm-based individualized summarization to maximize the readability of selected important sentences. The individualized summarization applies to the educational domain using readability-based features to extract readable important sentences. Inclusion of features representing reading difficulty should not dilute the informative score of the summary, moreover it aids the learner who has reading difficulties to comprehend the complete text better, using the summary as supplementary to the complete text and not as a substitute for it. The experimental results derived from intrinsic evaluation shows that individual summary extraction performs better than a GA-based approach and a baseline approach. Moreover, user -based direct evaluation also supports individualized summarization for improving the readability by the target audience.
Genetic interaction networks: better understand to better predict

A genetic interaction (GI) between two genes generally indicates that the phenotype of a double mutant differs from what is expected from each individual mutant. In the last decade, genome scale studies of quantitative GIs were completed using mainly synthetic genetic array technology and RNA interference in yeast and Caenorhabditis elegans. These studies raised questions regarding the functional interpretation of GIs, the relationship of genetic and molecular interaction networks, the usefulness of GI networks to infer gene function and co-functionality, the evolutionary conservation of GI, etc. While GIs have been used for decades to dissect signaling pathways in genetic models, their functional interpretations are still not trivial. The existence of a GI between two genes does not necessarily imply that these two genes code for interacting proteins or that the two genes are even expressed in the same cell. In fact, a GI only implies that the two genes share a functional relationship. These two genes may be involved in the same biological process or pathway; or they may also be involved in compensatory pathways with unrelated apparent function. Considering the powerful opportunity to better understand gene function, genetic relationship, robustness and evolution, provided by a genome-wide mapping of GIs, several in silico approaches have been employed to predict GIs in unicellular and multicellular organisms. Most of these methods used weighted data integration. In this article, we will review the later knowledge acquired on GI networks in metazoans by looking more closely into their relationship with pathways, biological processes and molecular complexes but also into their modularity and organization. We will also review the different in silico methods developed to predict GIs and will discuss how the knowledge acquired on GI networks can be used to design predictive tools with higher performances.
A semantic-web oriented representation of the clinical element model for secondary use of electronic health records data

The clinical element model (CEM) is an information model designed for representing clinical information in electronic health records (EHR) systems across organizations. The current representation of CEMs does not support formal semantic definitions and therefore it is not possible to perform reasoning and consistency checking on derived models. This paper introduces our efforts to represent the CEM specification using the Web Ontology Language (OWL). The CEM-OWL representation connects the CEM content with the Semantic Web environment, which provides authoring, reasoning, and querying tools. This work may also facilitate the harmonization of the CEMs with domain knowledge represented in terminology models as well as other clinical information models such as the openEHR archetype model. We have created the CEM-OWL meta ontology based on the CEM specification. A convertor has been implemented in Java to automatically translate detailed CEMs from XML to OWL. A panel evaluation has been conducted, and the results show that the OWL modeling can faithfully represent the CEM specification and represent patient data.
Mitochondrial Hormesis in Pancreatic β Cells: Does Uncoupling Protein 2 Play a Role?

In pancreatic β cells, mitochondrial metabolism translates glucose sensing into signals regulating insulin secretion. Chronic exposure of β cells to excessive nutrients, namely, glucolipotoxicity, impairs β-cell function. This is associated with elevated ROS production from overstimulated mitochondria. Mitochondria are not only the major source of cellular ROS, they are also the primary target of ROS attacks. The mitochondrial uncoupling protein UCP2, even though its uncoupling properties are debated, has been associated with protective functions against ROS toxicity. Hormesis, an adaptive response to cellular stresses, might contribute to the protection against β-cell death, possibly limiting the development of type 2 diabetes. Mitochondrial hormesis, or mitohormesis, is a defense mechanism observed in ROS-induced stress-responses by mitochondria. In β cells, mitochondrial damages induced by sublethal exogenous H2O2 can induce secondary repair and defense mechanisms. In this context, UCP2 is a marker of mitohormesis, being upregulated following stress conditions. When overexpressed in nonstressed naïve cells, UCP2 confers resistance to oxidative stress. Whether treatment with mitohormetic inducers is sufficient to restore or ameliorate secretory function of β cells remains to be determined.
Fast Estimation of the Vascular Cooling in RFA Based on Numerical Simulation

We present a novel technique to predict the outcome of an RF ablation, including the vascular cooling effect. The main idea is to separate the problem into a patient independent part, which has to be performed only once for every applicator model and generator setting, and a patient dependent part, which can be performed very fast. The patient independent part fills a look-up table of the cooling effects of blood vessels, depending on the vessel radius and the distance of the RF applicator from the vessel, using a numerical simulation of the ablation process. The patient dependent part, on the other hand, only consists of a number of table look-up processes. The paper presents this main idea, along with the required steps for its implementation. First results of the computation and the related ex-vivo evaluation are presented and discussed. The paper concludes with future extensions and improvements of the approach.
The piezojunction effect in silicon sensors and circuits and its relation to piezoresistance

Mechanical stress has a significant effect on the elec- trical characteristics of silicon transistors through the piezojunc- tion effect. This effect is physically related to the piezoresistive ef- fect, but its results are quite different. Both effects can be applied to sensor devices. They can also have a negative effect on circuit performance and this may need to be minimized. This paper gives a overview of the physical causes and shows how understanding of the piezojunction effect can be used to maximize it for sensors and minimize it for circuits.
Bistatic SAR Raw Data Simulation for Ocean

Bistatic SAR is a potential and effective tool for ocean remote sensing, and the simulation of bistatic SAR raw data from ocean surface plays a great role in the understanding of the mechanism of bistastic SAR ocean surface imaging. In this paper, a bistaitc SAR raw data simulation model for ocean surface is presented, which includes bistatic scattering simulation and ocean echo data simulation. In our research, based on IEM scattering model, a stochastic multiscale scattering model is improved by applying the second order nonlinear modulation model, and the speckle noise and coherent time character of ocean surface are simulated in the SAR raw data simulation.
Holomorphic anomaly in gauge theories and matrix models

We use the holomorphic anomaly equation to solve the gravitational corrections to Seiberg-Witten theory and a two-cut matrix model, which is related by the Dijkgraaf-Vafa conjecture to the topological B-model on a local Calabi-Yau manifold. In both cases we construct propagators that give a recursive solution in the genus modulo a holomorphic ambiguity. In the case of Seiberg-Witten theory the gravitational corrections can be calculated to all genus as quasimodular functions of Γ(2). In the matrix model we fix the holomorphic ambiguity up to genus two. The latter result establishes the Dijkgraaf-Vafa conjecture at that genus and yields a new method for solving the matrix model at fixed genus in closed form in terms of generalized hypergeometric functions.
Optimal Placement of Piezoelectric S/A for Active Vibration Control of Engineering Structures by Using Controller Design

Reducing energy consumption is the main purpose of design. Naturally, energy loss in each system can compromise the future of a system. This has drawn attention of researchers all around the world. Contentious structures the same as an engineering structure such as beam, plate, and shell are widely used in various industries. Much of industrial systems include these structures. However, the most important point in designing such structures is to avoid failure, reduce maintenance cost, and increase life of the structure. These points directly and indirectly can describe energy consumption and necessarily cannot meet the objectives of the design and not reach an optimal output and product. Vibration of any continuous system can have poor consequences on performance and can weaken the design of a system. Therefore, the effort to reduce vibration and control the mechanical phenomenon has a significant impact on reduced energy waste of a continuous structure (kinematic energy- potential energy). This paper sought to report scientific and research activities from 1980 to 2013 on vibration suppression of continuous systems focusing on optimal placement approach on the structure and installing piezoelectric S/A and smart model built by control approaches in order to attenuate and control unwanted vibrations of the system against external stimulations and disturbance.
High power laser diode driver based on power converter technology

This paper describes the design of a high speed semiconductor laser diode driver designed for driving 500 mW to 1.5 W diodes at full optical power modulation up to frequencies of 10 MHz. The duty cycle of the modulation may be varied. A switching power-converter based current source allows a higher power delivery efficiency to the diode than in previous designs, allowing for a more modest power supply and dissipation requirements. A dynamic ripple cancellation circuit reduces the power converter output current ripple to less than 1% of full-scale current. The circuit is capable of delivering up to 2.5 A to a laser load, with a 10-90% switching risetime from laser threshold to full on of less than 20 ns.