Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Model Adaptation for Long Convolutional Distortion by Maximum Likelihood Based State Filtering Approach

In environment with considerably long reverberation time, each frame of speech is affected by energy components from the preceding frames. Therefore, to adapt parameters of a state of HMM, it becomes necessary to consider these frames, and compute their contributions to current state. However, these speech frames preceding to a state of HMM are not known during adaptation of the models. In this paper, we propose to use preceding states as units of preceding speech segments, estimate their contributions to current state in maximum likelihood manner, and adapt models by accounting their contributions. When clean models were adapted by proposed method for a speaker-dependent isolated word recognition task, word accuracy of the system typically increased from 67.6% to 83.2%, and from 44.8% to 72.5%, for channel distorted speech simulated by linear convolution of clean speech and impulse responses with reverberation time (T60) of 310 ms and 780 ms, respectively
Constructing immersive virtual space for HAI with photos

This research presents a system to construct immersive virtual spaces for human agent interaction which added information for agents not to unnaturally behave by using photos. We need virtual spaces which look like the real world to observe human agent interaction, for expansion of research scope. To make such a space, we think that immersive space, photos and information of objects' positions are needed. We use panorama images to show immersive spaces and depth maps to describe objects' positions. Moreover, we interpolate between panorama images pairs for use to move. To do so, we develop methods which reconstruct depth maps and find corresponding points on panorama images. This research succeeds in creating and implementing a system constructing virtual spaces automatically for HAI in an immersive environment. The system creates automatically a 20m × 20m virtual space in 4 days which looks natural for humans if we shoot around 1200 photos.
Cooperation and Surviving with Limited Resources

A network of agents cooperate on a given area. Time evolution of their power is described within a set of nonlinear equations. The limitation of resources is introduced via the Verhulst term, equivalent to a global coupling. Each agent is fed by some other agents from his neighborhood. Two subsequent stages of the time evolution can be observed. Initially, the richness of everybody increases distinctly, but its distribution becomes wide. After some transient time, however, resources are exhausted. Richness of some agents falls to zero and they are eliminated. Cooperation becomes less effective, what leads to subsequent falls. Finally, small percent of agents survive in a steady state. We investigate, how the cooperation influences the rate of surviving.
OneD: increasing reproducibility of Hi-C samples with abnormal karyotypes

The three-dimensional conformation of genomes is an essential component of their biological activity. The advent of the Hi-C technology enabled an unprecedented progress in our understanding of genome structures. However, Hi-C is subject to systematic biases that can compromise downstream analyses. Several strategies have been proposed to remove those biases, but the issue of abnormal karyotypes received little attention. Many experiments are performed in cancer cell lines, which typically harbor large-scale copy number variations that create visible defects on the raw Hi-C maps. The consequences of these widespread artifacts on the normalized maps are mostly unexplored. We observed that current normalization methods are not robust to the presence of large-scale copy number variations, potentially obscuring biological differences and enhancing batch effects. To address this issue, we developed an alternative approach designed to take into account chromosomal abnormalities. The method, called OneD, increases reproducibility among replicates of Hi-C samples with abnormal karyotype, outperforming previous methods significantly. On normal karyotypes, OneD fared equally well as state-of-the-art methods, making it a safe choice for Hi-C normalization. OneD is fast and scales well in terms of computing resources for resolutions up to 1 kbp. OneD is implemented as an R package available at http://www.github. com/qenvio/dryhic.
3 D Place Recognition and Object Detection using a Small-sized Quadrotor

We present a system for 3D place recognition and object detection using a small-sized quadrotor. The robot is equipped with a horizontally scanning 2D range-scanner and occasionally acquires 3D scans by hovering on the spot and changing its altitude. Our approach is able to accurately and robustly recognize previously seen places of the environment. Additionally, our system can be applied to match the current observations to models stored in a database which allows the robot to perform object detection. We evaluate our approach in real-world experiments to demonstrate the robustness and reliability of our algorithms.
Role of Protein Kinase Network in Excitation-Contraction Coupling in Smooth Muscle Cell

Etienne Roux1,2, Prisca Mbikou3 and Ales Fajmut4 1 Univ. de Bordeaux, Adaptation Cardiovasculaire a l'ischemie, Pessac, 2INSERM, Adaptation Cardiovasculaire a l'ischemie, Pessac, 3Institute of Biomedical Technologies, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, 4University of Maribor, Medical Faculty, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and Faculty of Health Sciences, 1,2France 3New Zealand 4Slovenia
Wnt signaling in caudal dysgenesis and diabetic embryopathy.

BACKGROUND Congenital defects are a major complication of diabetic pregnancy, and the leading cause of infant death in the first year of life. Caudal dysgenesis, occurring up to 200-fold more frequently in children born to diabetic mothers, is a hallmark of diabetic pregnancy. Given that there is also an at least threefold higher risk for heart defects and NTDs, it is important to identify the underlying molecular mechanisms for aberrant embryonic development. METHODS We have investigated gene expression in a transgenic mouse model of caudal dysgenesis, and in a pharmacological model using situ hybridization and quantitative real-time PCR. RESULTS We identified altered expression of several molecules that control developmental processes and embryonic growth. CONCLUSIONS The results from our models point towards major implication of altered Wnt signaling in the pathogenesis of developmental anomalies associated with embryonic exposure to maternal diabetes.
Cryptanalysis and enhancement of a distributed fine-grained access control in wireless sensor networks

Fine-grained access control is used to assign unique access privilege to a particular user for accessing the relevant information. Recently, Yu et al. and Ruj et al. proposed a couple of fine grained access control schemes using public key cryptography. These schemes exploit and maneuver the concept of KP-ABE and a cryptographic technique based on bilinear pairing on elliptive curve groups. In this paper, we first show that though these schemes are efficient, but both schemes suffer from some fatal weakness such as vulnerability against an insider attack, specifically key abuse attacks by the genuine users. Therefore, a user with lower access privilege can access the secret data sent for a user of higher access privilege. This contradicts the basic objective of fine grained access control. Also, information sent for a particular user can be revealed to an adversary. In order to remedy that weakness, we propose some simple countermeasures to prevent key-abuse insider attack while the merits of existing fine grained access control scheme are left unchanged. Further, our scheme is unconditionally secure against various attacks such as man-in-the-middle attack, replay attack and denial of service attack. While providing these extra security features, our scheme incurs no such extra communication, computation or storage overhead as compared to the existing schemes.
Effect of betaxolol on the hemodynamic, gas exchange, and cardiac output response to exercise in chronic atrial fibrillation.

BACKGROUND beta-blockade controls the ventricular response to exercise in chronic atrial fibrillation (AF), but the effects of beta-blockers on exercise capacity in AF have been debated. METHODS Twelve men with AF (65+/-8 years) participated in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of betaxolol (20 mg daily). Patients underwent maximal exercise testing with ventilatory gas exchange analysis, and a separate, submaximal test (50% of maximum) during which cardiac output was measured by a CO2 rebreathing technique. RESULTS After betaxolol therapy, heart rate was reduced both at rest (92+/-27 vs 62+/-12 beats/min; p < 0.001) and at peak exercise (173+/-22 vs 116+/-24 beats/min; p < 0.001). Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2) was reduced by 19% after betaxolol (21.8+/-5.3 with placebo vs 17.6+/-5.1 mL/kg/min with betaxolol; p < 0.05), with similar reductions observed for maximal exercise time, minute ventilation, and CO2 production. VO2 was reduced by a similar extent (19%) at the ventilatory threshold. Submaximal cardiac output was reduced by 15% during betaxolol therapy (12.9+/-2.3 vs 10.9+/-1.3 L/min; p < 0.05), and stroke volume was higher (88.0+/-21 vs 105.6+/-19 mL/beat; p < 0.05). CONCLUSION Betaxolol therapy in patients with AF effectively controlled the ventricular rate at rest and during exercise, but also caused considerable reductions in maximal VO2 and cardiac output during exercise. The observed increase in stroke volume could not adequately compensate for reduced heart rate to maintain VO2 during exercise.
Efficacy of Coupling Inhibitory and Facilitatory Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to Enhance Motor Recovery in Hemiplegic Stroke Patients

Background and Purpose— Although there has been extensive research on the effectiveness of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to improve patients’ motor performance after experiencing chronic stroke, explicit findings on the coupling of different rTMS protocols are meager. We designed this sham-controlled randomized study to investigate the potential for a consecutive suppressive-facilitatory TMS protocol to improve motor outcomes after chronic stroke. Methods— Fifty-four chronic hemiplegic stroke patients were allocated across 4 groups to undergo 20 daily sessions of (1) 1 Hz rTMS over the contralesional primary motor cortex (M1) and then intermittent theta burst stimulation over the ipsilesional M1 (group A); (2) contralesional sham stimulation and then ipsilesional real intermittent theta burst stimulation (group B); (3) contralesional real 1 Hz rTMS and then ipsilesional sham stimulation (group C); or (4) bilateral sham-control procedures (group D). We tested cortical excitability and motor activity assessments at the baseline, postpriming rTMS, and postconsequent rTMS periods. Results— At post, group A showed greater muscle strength, Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA), Wolf Motor Function test, and reaction time improvement in comparison with group B (P<0.001≈0.003) and group C (P=0.001≈0.003). Correlation analyses in group A revealed a close relation between contralesional map area decrement and Wolf Motor Function test gain (P=0.005; r=−0.75), and also revealed ipsilesional map area increment and reaction time decrement (P=0.02; r=−0.87). We detected no such relations in the other 3 groups. Conclusions— Our clinical trials established an extended timeframe during which conditioning could be safely continued and produced more favorable outcomes in facilitating motor performance and ameliorating interhemispheric imbalance than those obtained from single-course rTMS modulation alone.
Stable penalty-based model of frictional contacts

This paper presents a stable penalty-based model for simulating frictional contacts between many complex objects. The major advantage of our model is that it solves the problems in implementing Coulomb's friction model for computer simulation: iterative computation and slip velocity threshold. We also introduce a robust method for computing the normal vector and penetration depth at each contact point of a pair of interpenetrating polygonal objects. We demonstrate the validity and usability of the model by comparing the simulation results with closed-form solutions of Coulomb's friction model and conventional friction model, as well as performing dynamics simulation of highly complex scenes with tens of objects composed of thousands of polygons
Nuclear RNA export

Eukaryotic cells export several different classes of RNA molecule from the nucleus, where they are transcribed, to the cytoplasm, where the majority participate in different aspects of protein synthesis. It is now clear that these different classes of RNA, including rRNAs, tRNAs, mRNAs and snRNAs, are specifically directed into distinct but in some cases partially overlapping nuclear export pathways. All non-coding RNAs are now known to depend on members of the karyopherin family of Ran-dependent nucleocytoplasmic transport factors for their nuclear export. In contrast, mRNA export is generally mediated by a distinct, Ran-independent nuclear export pathway that is both complex and, as yet, incompletely understood. However, for all classes of RNA molecules, nuclear export is dependent on the assembly of the RNA into the appropriate ribonucleoprotein complex, and nuclear export therefore also appears to function as an important proofreading mechanism.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND CHARACTER TRAIT AMONG DELINQUENT ADOLESCENTS IN KOREA

Objective：At the present time in Korea, for a considerable proportion of children and adolescent, delinquent behavior and violence has become as a way of life in their lives and a major social problem issue as well. The contributing factors to this problem were assumed to be the negative interaction between family environment and character of adolescent. The purpose of this study is to search the relationship between these constructs and juvenile delinquency. Method：Data were collected through questionnaire survey over a period of 2 months. Subjects served for this study consisted of 1,863 adolescents including 657 delinquent adolescents and 1,206 student adolescents in Korea, sampled from Korean student population and delinquent adolescent population confined in juvenile corrective institutions, using proportional stratified random sampling method. Their age ranged between 12 and 18 years. Data were analysed by IBM PC using SAS program. Statistical methods employed were Chi-square and principal component analysis. Results：The results of this study were as follows：Inconsistency by parental child rearing patterns tended to affect delinquent behavior among delinquent adolescents. On the other hand, adolescent students were consistently reared by their parent with democratic, flexible, trusting their children and reward-oriented attitudes. In comparison of both parents in the degree of influence on their children, it was revealed that paternal child rearing pattern was more influential on their children’s behaviors than maternal’s. The psychological instability of family, disharmonious parent-child relationships tended to be contributing to delinquent behavior among delinquent adolescents. Especially, It was an interesting finding that student’s mother is the higher employed than delinquent’s mother. However working mother was more prevalent in the student’ adolescents than in student adolescents in previous studies. The delinquent adolescents have more depressive trend, more complaints of psychosomatic symptoms, the higher degree of need frustration, the more maladaptive and antisocial personality pattern than student adolescents. Conclusion：Recently, many studies on association between family factor, character of adolescent and juvenile delinquent behavior have produced relatively consistent results. This study showed that family environment and character trait of adolescent also were linked with delinquent behavior such as smoking, drinking, runaway and physical assaults etc. The results of this survey may provide impetus for future speculation and study of correlation or reciprocal interaction between family factor, character trait of adolescent and delinquent behavior during adolescence and beyond.
High‐resolution magnetization‐prepared 3D‐FLAIR imaging at 7.0 Tesla

The aim of the present study is to develop a submillimeter volumetric (three‐dimensional) fluid‐attenuated inversion recovery sequence at 7T. Implementation of the fluid‐attenuated inversion recovery sequence is difficult as increased T1 weighting from prolonged T1 constants at 7T dominate the desired T2 contrast and yield suboptimal signal‐to‐noise ratio. Magnetization preparation was used to reduce T1 weighting and improve the T2 weighting. Also, practical challenges limit the implementation. Long refocusing trains with low flip angles were used to mitigate the specific absorption rate constraints. This resulted in a three‐dimensional magnetization preparation fluid‐attenuated inversion recovery sequence with 0.8 × 0.8 × 0.8 = 0.5 mm3 resolution in a clinically acceptable scan time. The contrast‐to‐noise ratio between gray matter and white matter (contrast‐to‐noise ratio = signal‐to‐noise ratio [gray matter] − signal‐to‐noise ratio [white matter]) increased from 12 ± 9 without magnetization preparation to 28 ± 8 with magnetization preparation (n = 12). The signal‐to‐noise ratio increased for white matter by 13 ± 6% and for gray matter by 48 ± 15%. In conclusion, three‐dimensional fluid‐attenuated inversion recovery with high resolution and full brain coverage is feasible at 7T. Magnetization preparation reduces the T1 weighting, thereby improving the T2 weighted contrast and signal‐to‐noise ratio. Magn Reson Med, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Election Reform and Electronic Voting Systems (DREs): Analysis of Security Issues

This report discusses several questions about voting-system security. To address these questions, this report begins with a description of the historical and policy context of the controversy. That is followed by an analysis of the issues in the broader context of computer security. The next section discusses several proposals that have been made for addressing those issues, and the last section discusses options for action that might be considered by policymakers.
Investigation of Anaerobic Fluidized Bed Reactor/ Aerobic Moving Bed Bio Reactor (AFBR/MMBR) System for Treatment of Currant Wastewater

Background: Anaerobic treatment methods are more suitable for the treatment of concentrated wastewater streams, offer lower operating costs, the production of usable biogas product. The aim of this study was to investigate the performance of an Anaerobic Fluidized Bed Reactor (AFBR)-Aerobic Moving Bed Bio Reactor (MBBR) in series arrangement to treat Currant wastewater. Methods: The bed materials of AFBR were cylindrical particles made of PVC with a diameter of 2–2.3 mm, particle density of 1250 kg/m3. The volume of all bed materials was 1.7 liter which expanded to 2.46 liters in fluidized situation. In MBBR, support media was composed of 1.5 liters Bee-Cell 2000 having porosity of 87% and specific surface area of 650m2/m3. Results: When system operated at 35 ºC, chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies were achieved to 98% and 81.6% for organic loading rates (OLR) of 9.4 and 24.2 g COD/l.d, and hydraulic retention times (HRT) of 48 and 18 h, in average COD concentration feeding of 18.4 g/l, respectively. Conclusion: The contribution of AFBR in total COD removal efficiency at an organic loading rate (OLR) of 9.4 g COD/l.d was 95%, and gradually decreased to 76.5% in OLR of 24.2 g COD/l.d. Also with increasing in organic loading rate the contribution of aerobic reactor in removing COD gradually decreased. In this system, the anaerobic reactor played the most important role in the removal of COD, and the aerobic MBBR was actually needed to polish the anaerobic treated wastewater.
Comparison of three different osteoporosis risk assessment tools: ORAI (osteoporosis risk assessment instrument), SCORE (simple calculated osteoporosis risk estimation) and OST (osteoporosis self-assessment tool)

Background: SCORE, OST and ORAI risk assessment tools could reduce the cost burden of BMD tests by selecting the high risk patients to osteoporosis. In this study we compared the ability of these risk assessment measures to assess probability of the osteoporosis among post-menopausal women. Methods: 211 post-menopausal women aged 45-88 years enrolled into the study. All of the patients underwent BMD test and divided into two groups according to T-Score level. 43 patients (20.4%) had T-Score ≤-2.5 (osteoporotic) (group-1) and 168 (70.6%) patients had T-Score of > -2.5 (non-osteoporotic). Among 168 nonosteoporotic cases, 88 had -2.5≤T-Score≤-2 in at least one bony area. These 88 cases in addition to the 43 cases with -2.5≤T-Score considered as high risk group to osteoporosis (group 2). Afterward, SCORE, OST and ORAI risk scores were calculated and sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratio, accuracy index and area under the curve of each tool were determined in both groups and then compared with each other. Results: SCORE had the highest sensitivity compared with others in both groups (95% and 88.2% respectively). Moreover, it had the highest diagnostic odds ratio and negative predictive value between the three methods. OST had the highest likelihood ratio and specificity in both groups (71.4% and 75.4%). There was significant difference between the sensitivity and specificity of the tests (p= 0.004 and 0.027). Conclusion: OST with the highest specificity and positive LR had a special role in determining the osteoporotic patients and SCORE with the highest sensitivity and negative predictive value had an exceptional role in exclusion of the non- osteoporotic individuals. However, considering the area under the curve, there was no significant difference among these three methods in determining osteoporosis.