Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Toward a practical implementation of exemplar-based noise robust ASR

In previous work it was shown that, at least in principle, an exemplar-based approach to noise robust ASR is possible. The method, sparse representation based classification (SC), works by modelling noisy speech as a sparse linear combination of speech and noise exemplars. After recovering the sparsest possible linear combination of labelled exemplars, noise robust posterior likelihoods are estimated by using the weights of the exemplars as evidence of the state labels underlying exemplars. Although promising recognition accuracies at low SNRs were obtained, the method was impractical due to its slow execution speed. Moreover, the performance was not as good on noisy speech corrupted by noise types not represented by the noise exemplars. The importance of sparsity was poorly understood, and the influence of the size of the exemplar-dictionary was unclear. In this paper we investigate all these issues, and we show for example that speedups of a factor 28 can be obtained by using modern GPUs, bringing its execution speed within range to practical applications.
ZmCCT and the genetic basis of day-length adaptation underlying the postdomestication spread of maize

Teosinte, the progenitor of maize, is restricted to tropical environments in Mexico and Central America. The pre-Columbian spread of maize from its center of origin in tropical Southern Mexico to the higher latitudes of the Americas required postdomestication selection for adaptation to longer day lengths. Flowering time of teosinte and tropical maize is delayed under long day lengths, whereas temperate maize evolved a reduced sensitivity to photoperiod. We measured flowering time of the maize nested association and diverse association mapping panels in the field under both short and long day lengths, and of a maize-teosinte mapping population under long day lengths. Flowering time in maize is a complex trait affected by many genes and the environment. Photoperiod response is one component of flowering time involving a subset of flowering time genes whose effects are strongly influenced by day length. Genome-wide association and targeted high-resolution linkage mapping identified ZmCCT, a homologue of the rice photoperiod response regulator Ghd7, as the most important gene affecting photoperiod response in maize. Under long day lengths ZmCCT alleles from diverse teosintes are consistently expressed at higher levels and confer later flowering than temperate maize alleles. Many maize inbred lines, including some adapted to tropical regions, carry ZmCCT alleles with no sensitivity to day length. Indigenous farmers of the Americas were remarkably successful at selecting on genetic variation at key genes affecting the photoperiod response to create maize varieties adapted to vastly diverse environments despite the hindrance of the geographic axis of the Americas and the complex genetic control of flowering time.
Is Gravitational Lensing by Intercluster Filaments Always Negligible?

Intercluster filaments negligibly contribute to the weak lensing signal in general relativity (GR), γN ∼ 10−4–10−3. In the context of relativistic modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) introduced by Bekenstein, however, a single filament inclined by ≈45° from the line of sight can cause substantial distortion of background sources pointing toward the filament’s axis [κ = γ = (1 − A−1)/2 ∼ 0.01]; this is rigorous for infinitely long uniform filaments, but also qualitatively true for short filaments (~30 Mpc), and even in regions where the projected matter density of the filament is equal to zero. Since galaxies and galaxy clusters are generally embedded in filaments or are projected on such structures, this contribution complicates the interpretation of the weak lensing shear map in the context of MOND. While our analysis is of mainly theoretical interest providing order-of-magnitude estimates only, it seems safe to conclude that when modeling systems with anomalous weak lensing signals, e.g., the “bullet cluster” of Clowe et al., the “cosmic train wreck” of A520 from Mahdavi et al., and the “dark clusters” of Erben et al., filamentary structures might contribute in a significant and likely complex fashion. On the other hand, our predictions of a (conceptual) difference in the weak lensing signal could, in principle, be used to falsify MOND/TeVeS and its variations.
Androgens and human hair growth

The human species is frequently considered as the ‘naked ape’ (Morris, 1967), but in fact most human skin, except for the lips, palms and soles, produces hair. Two main types of hair are present after birth, although intermediate forms are also seen. Small, fine, unpigmented vellus hairs are found on parts of the body which are generally considered ‘hairless’, such as a child’s cheek, while longer, thicker, pigmented terminal hairs are found in ‘hairy’ areas such as the scalp, eyebrows and eyelashes in both sexes of adults and children. Androgens are the clearest regulators of human hair growth. They are responsible for the gradual replacement of vellus hairs by longer, thicker and more pigmented hairs during puberty in the axilla and pubic areas of both sexes and the beard and suprapubic regions in men (Hamilton, 1958; Marshall & Tanner, 1969; 1970). They have the opposite effect on the scalp causing regression of terminal hair follicles to vellus ones with increasing age, resulting in androgenetic alopecia or male pattern baldness in genetically disposed individuals (Hamilton, 1942; 1960) (Fig. 1). How one type of circulating hormone has such contrary effects on a single tissue depending on its body site is not clear; this biological paradox alone makes androgen action in hair follicles very intriguing. The hair follicle is also an interesting system for studies of development since the hair cycle in the adult partly recapitulates the embryonic development of hair follicles; this involves interactions between mesenchyme derived and epithelial tissues (Oliver & Jahoda, 1989) in parallel with other steriod target tissues such as the prostate (Cunha et al., 1987) and the breast (Oka & Yoshimura, 1986). Understanding the androgenic control of the human hair follicle may well, therefore, lead to better comprehension of steroid related cancers. In addition, the various clinical conditions associated with androgens and the hair follicle, such as hirsutism, androgenetic alopecia in both sexes, and possibly also hidradenitis suppurativa, are relatively poorly controlled; greater knowledge of human hair follicles and their function should allow improved therapy for these widespread disorders. This review summarizes our present understanding of the structure and function of the human hair follicle and its hormonal regulation, particularly by androgens. It does not attempt to review fully mammalian hair growth and its hormonal control, although this is mentioned where relevant; fuller details can be found in Ebling et al., 1991. Although androgen dependent clinical conditions of hair growth and their treatment are discussed, an extensive literature review is not included since these have recently been covered elsewhere.
[Genotyping of the Chinese isolates of coltivirus].

OBJECTIVE To classify the Chinese isolates of Coltiviruses. METHODS Three sets of primers were selected among them two were specific to the 9th and 12th segments of subgroup B2, and one was for the 12th segment of subgroup B1-All the Chinese isolates of Coltivirus selected in the experiment were classified according to the lengths of different amplicons of the reverse transcriptase-polymerase Chain reaction (RT-PCR). The homogenicity of the nucleic acids of the isolates BJ95-75 and YN-6 was also compared with other Coltivirus strains belonging to subgroup B2. RESULTS With the primers 12-854-S/12-B2-R, which were specific to the 12th segment of Coltivirus subgroup B2-850 bp amplicons were obtained from Beijing isolate BJ95-75 and all the Yunnan isolates such as YN-6, -67-1, -68-1, -69, -70-1, -70-2, -90, -92-2, -93 of Coltivirus 492 bp DNA fragments were also amplified from all of them with the segment 9th specific primers 9-JKT-S/9-JKT-R. However no positive results were obtained from Northeast isolates NE97-12, NE97-31 and control viruses YN-99(Orbivirus),YN-151-1(JEV) with the same two sets of primers. With 12-B1-S/12-B1R primers specific to the 12th segment of subgroup B1, no amplicons of right length were obtained from any of the Chinese isolates of Coltivirus and the control viruses. When compared the nucleic acid sequences of BJ95-75 and YN-6 with other Coltivirus strains such as Bannavirus, JKT6423, JKT6969, JKT7043, the amplicons from segment 12th of these two strains had more than 89.4% homology with the other strains, especially to the earlier Chinese isolate Bannavirus, the homolog was more then 98.9%. Nearly 96.5% and 99.2% of the nucleic acids of the amplicons from segment 9th of the two strains were being homologous to Bannavirus and about 84.0% to JKT6423, which had been classified into type B2a. But the maximal homogenicity was about 53% when compared with the other two coltivirus strains. JKT6969 and JKT7043 which had been classified into type B2b. CONCLUSION Genotyping the recent Chinese isolates of coltivirus for the first time in our country. Most of the Chinese isolates belong to subgroup B2, more exactly type B2a. The Northeast isolates NE97-12 and NE97-31 were not correctly grouped with the available primers.
An improved MOEA/D for multi-objective job shop scheduling problem

In this article, an improved multi-objective evolutionary algorithm, which is based on decomposition (IMOEA/D) for multi-objective job shop scheduling problem, is proposed to solve multiple objectives job shop scheduling problems. Three minimisation objectives – the maximum completion time (makespan), the total flow time and the tardiness time are considered simultaneously. In the proposed algorithm, several prior rules are presented to construct the initial population with a high level of quality. Meanwhile, according to the contribution of each operator to the external archive, an adaptive mechanism is adopted to select corresponding operators to generate new solutions, which can accelerate convergence speed. Simulation results on the standard test instances show that IMOEA/D has a better convergence performance compared with multi-objective evolutionary algorithms based on Pareto dominance.
Organizational control: Restrictive or productive?

Abstract Organizational control is conventionally – from a critical stance – viewed as a negative and restrictive phenomenon, which in one way or another subjugates workers. In this theoretical paper, we argue that organizational control is often based on a particular understanding of power; an understanding that views power as repressive, equating it with domination and subjugation while paying little attention to its productive function. We question what the implications for understanding organizational control would be if we were also to see power as productive. We contend that the Foucauldian notions of pastoral power, disciplinary power, and governmentality can be used together through the concept of regime of practices to enrich our understanding of the workings of organizational control. We thus delineate an analytical framework for the study of organizational control based on an open-ended investigation of the regimes of control in local settings.
Daily stress, coping, and dietary restraint in binge eating.

OBJECTIVE The current study evaluated whether psychological stress, use of specific coping strategies, and trait dietary restraint would prospectively predict binge eating episodes. METHOD After completing a baseline measure of restraint, 46 binge eating college women kept daily diaries assessing depressed affect, stress, coping, and binge eating for 30 days. RESULTS Regardless of level of depressed mood, higher stress was associated with increased risk of same-day binge eating; distraction coping was associated with increased risk of future binge eating; social support was associated with decreased risk of same-day binge eating; and women with high versus low dietary restraint showed different patterns of relationship for stress, coping, and binge eating. DISCUSSION Vulnerability to binge eating in women who differ in terms of dietary restraint level may vary as a function of their coping responses to stress. Results highlight the complexities of stress and coping in binge eating.
MCMC Supervision for People Re-identification in Nonoverlapping Cameras

We present a pedestrian tracking system that uses re-identification to monitor nonoverlapping cameras. As tracking, re-identification is an assignment problem, the difficulties being to generate an accurate representation and to prune unlikely pairings. The assignments are realised in two stages. First, a Markovian multi-target trackingby-detection framework which includes identification in the search space is run in the cameras. This generates tracks in the cameras and a first assignment between them thanks to the local identification. This solution is then optimized globally by a network supervisor benefiting from coarse topology knowledge over a sliding window with MCMC sampling. The tracking results obtained on a large ground-truthed dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.
'Kindling theory' in arson: how dangerous are firesetters?

OBJECTIVE This article aims to review the literature on firesetters particularly looking at recidivism rates. The early literature described firesetters as dangerous individuals. This article reviews the more recent empirical data to examine if it supports the early literature. METHOD A literature review was performed examining papers which described firesetters with any reference to recidivism. These were divided into three broad categories based on where studies have been performed, namely in forensic psychiatric settings, the criminal justice system and general and psychiatric hospitals. RESULTS The literature has been poorly focused and provides little help when assessing an individual firesetter. Risk factors associated with general criminology have been cited. CONCLUSIONS The empirical literature cannot support the hypothesis that firesetters are inherently dangerous. More research should target different groups of firesetters and examining individual risk within that group with an aim of researching treatment for the different groups.
Ungas politiska deltagande. Nya former och aktivitet genom sociala medier

2014 ars Demokratiutredning har i uppgift att analysera behovet av och utarbeta forslag till atgarder for att oka och bredda engagemanget inom den representativa demokratin. Utredningen ska aven foresla atgarder i syfte att starka individens mojligheter till delaktighet i och inflytande over det politiska beslutsfattandet mellan de allmanna valen. En sarskild uppgift for utredningen ar att belysa fragor om ungas politiska representation, delaktighet och inflytande. Inom ramen for denna uppgift ska utredningen undersoka ungas forutsattningar att medverka i formella beslutsprocesser och foresla atgarder som kan bidra till att ungas inflytande och delaktighet i politiska beslutsprocesser starks. Hanna Back, Emma Back och Nils Gustafsson har pa uppdrag av 2014 ars Demokratiutredning skrivit en rapport om sociala mediers betydelse for ungas politiska deltagande. Hanna Back ar professor i statsvetenskap vid Lunds universitet, Emma Back ar doktor i psykologi vid Goteborgs universitet och Nils Gustafsson, doktor i statsvetenskap vid Lunds universitet. (Less)
CDCP1 Regulates the Function of MT1-MMP and Invadopodia-Mediated Invasion of Cancer Cells

Complement C1r/C1s, Uegf, Bmp1 (CUB) domain-containing protein 1 (CDCP1) is a transmembrane protein that regulates anchorage-independent growth and cancer cell migration and invasion. Expression of CDCP1 is detected in a number of cancer cell lines and tissues and is closely correlated with poor prognosis. Invadopodia are actin-based protrusions on the surface of invasive cancer cells that promote the degradation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) via localized proteolysis, which is mainly mediated by membrane type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP). MT1-MMP is accumulated at invadopodia by targeted delivery via membrane trafficking. The present study shows that CDCP1 is required for ECM degradation by invadopodia in human breast cancer and melanoma cells. CDCP1 localized to caveolin-1–containing vesicular structures and lipid rafts and was detected in close proximity to invadopodia. Further biochemical analysis revealed that substantial amounts of CDCP1 existed in the Triton X-100 insoluble lipid raft fraction. CDCP1 was coimmunoprecipitated with MT1-MMP and colocalized with MT1-MMP at the vesicular structures. The siRNA-mediated knockdown of the CDCP1 expression markedly inhibited MT1-MMP–dependent ECM degradation and Matrigel invasion and reduced the accumulation of MT1-MMP at invadopodia, as shown by immunofluorescence analysis. These results indicate that CDCP1 is an essential regulator of the trafficking and function of MT1-MMP- and invadopodia-mediated invasion of cancer cells. Mol Cancer Res; 11(6); 628–37. ©2013 AACR.
Group-Invariant Cross-Modal Subspace Learning

Cross-modal learning tries to find various types of heterogeneous data (e.g., image) from a given query (e.g., text). Most cross-modal algorithms heavily rely on semantic labels and benefit from a semantic-preserving aggregation of pairs of heterogeneous data. However, the semantic labels are not readily obtained in many real-world applications. This paper studies the aggregation of these pairs unsupervisedly. Apart from lower pairwise correspondences that force the data from one pair to be close to each other, we propose a novel concept, referred as groupwise correspondences, supposing that each paired heterogeneous data are from an identical latent group. We incorporate this groupwise correspondences into canonical correlation analysis (CCA) model, and seek a latent common subspace where data are naturally clustered into several latent groups. To simplify this nonconvex and nonsmooth problem, we introduce a nonnegative orthogonal variable to represent the soft group membership, then two coupled computationally efficient subproblems (a generalized ratio-trace problem and a non-negative problem) are alternatively minimized to guarantee the proposed algorithm converges locally. Experimental results on two benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed unsupervised algorithm even achieves comparable performance to some state-of-the-art supervised cross-modal algorithms.
Melatonin: a panacea for desperate parents? (Hype or truth)

Sleep disorders are common in children with neurodevelopmental disorder and are a major source of stress for the whole family. In children with neurodevelopmental disabilities the prevalence may be as high as 80%. 1 The current literature is suggestive of circadian rhythm dysfunction, social difficulties, and abnormal melatonin levels in children with autism.2 Hypnotics and sedatives can produce side effects and tolerance, …
The idiom principle revisited

© 2014 Oxford University Press 2014. John Sinclair's Idiom Principle famously posited that most texts are largely composed of multi-word expressions that 'constitute single choices' in the mental lexicon. At the time that assertion was made, little actual psycholinguistic evidence existed in support of that holistic, 'single choice', view of formulaic language. In the intervening years, a number of studies have shown that multi-word expressions are indeed processed differently from novel phrases. This processing advantage, however, does not necessarily support the holistic view of formulaic language. The present review aims to bring together studies on the processing of multi-word expressions in a first and second language that have used a range of psycholinguistic techniques, and presents why such research is important. Practical implications and pathways for future research are discussed.
A LLVM Just-in-Time Compilation Cost Analysis

The compilation time and generated code quality are important factors of a Just-inTime (JIT) compilation Dynamic Binary Translation (DBT) system. In order to decide which optimization level to apply, a good DBT must know in advance for how long it will halt the execution system until the optimization finishes. If this time is known, the system can make a better judgment on which subset of optimizations it should use. Nevertheless, the algorithms used for code optimization and generation execute a number of steps that is difficult to predict. The algorithms complexity in time is dependent on a transitory input that changes every time a pass from the compilation pipeline finishes. For worklist-based algorithms, the worst-case time and average-case time may differ greatly, affecting the usefulness of an analytical approach to time estimation. This technical report presents an analysis of the LLVM compilation cost and proposes a model to predict this compilation cost as a function of code properties. We use an empirical approach that provides an easy way to understand the behavior of code generation performance and provide a quantitative analysis of the compilation time of all C and C++ functions from the SPEC CPU2006 benchmarks. We also show that the error of our final model is under 21% for 90% of the tests.
Towards in-home collection of behavior specimens: Within the cultural context of autism in Pakistan

Children with autism often engage in problem behaviors. The frequency and severity of these behaviors can be very detrimental to their quality of life. Direct observation of problem behaviors is the gold standard for assessment and intervention, but it can be costly and intrusive. It also introduces specific challenges, such as lack of occurrence of episodes of problem behavior during clinical observation, and behavior reactivity in the presence of an observer. We propose a smart phone based capture system that can support parents in collecting samples of their child's problem behaviors in the home for assessment and intervention purposes. Four concept exploration and concept validation studies were conducted with parents, behavior analysts and other caregivers of children with autism in Pakistan. A prototype informed by the concept exploration studies was developed and used as a probe in the concept validation studies conducted in laboratory and real world settings. In this paper we present our findings and their impact on the ecological integration within the cultural context of a developing but conservative society.