Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Contrast Function Based on Generalized Divergences for Solving the Permutation Problem in Convolved Speech Mixtures

In this paper, we propose a method for solving the permutation problem that is inherent in the separation of convolved mixtures of speech signals in the time-frequency domain. The proposed method obtains the solution through maximization of a contrast function that exploits the similarity of the temporal envelope of the speech spectrum. For this purpose, the contrast calculation uses a global measure of similarity based on the recently developed family of generalized Alpha-Beta divergences, which depend on two tuning parameters, alpha and beta. This parameterization is exploited to best measure the similarity of the speech spectrum and to obtain solutions that are robust against noise and outliers. The ability of this contrast function to solve the permutation problem is supported by a theoretical study that shows that for a simple time-frequency speech model, the contrast value reaches its maximum when the estimated components are properly aligned. Several performance studies demonstrate that the proposed method maintains a high level of permutation correction accuracy in a wide variety of acoustic environments. Moreover, it produces better results than other state-of-the-art methods for solving permutations in highly reverberant environments.
Discrete phase space and minimum-uncertainty states

The quantum state of a system of qubits can be represented by a Wigner function on a discrete phase space, each axis of the phase space taking values in a finite field. Within this framework, we show that one can make sense of the notion of a "rotationally invariant state" of any collection of qubits, and that any such state is, in a well defined sense, a state of minimum uncertainty.
An In Vitro Model of Cartilage Degradation by Chondrocytes in a Three-Dimensional Culture System

Objective: Using the alginate bead three-dimensional culturing method, which is considered to be advantageous for the in vitro study of chondrocytes, we confirmed earlier reports concerning the inhibitory effect of TGF-β on IL-1β-induced cartilage destruction and serially evaluated changes in proteinases and their inhibitors in cartilage destruction. Methods: Chondrocytes were cultured on alginate beads with IL-1β or TGF-β alone or both. The glycosaminoglycan (GAG) concentration in the culture medium was determined by use of the DMMB assay; and the levels of TIMP-1, -2 and proMMP-3 were measured with their respective sandwich EIAs. Sections of the beads were prepared and stained with toluidine blue or anti-TIMP-1 -2, -3 antibodies. The numbers of chondrocytes negative for pericellular proteoglycan staining and TIMP-positive chondrocytes were counted, and positive staining for TIMP-3 in the extracellular matrix was examined. RT-PCR was performed to evaluate the gene expression of TIMP-1, -2, -3, and MMP-3. Results: The number of TIMP-1(+)chondrocytes, TIMP-1 concentration in the culture medium, and TIMP-1-gene expression all increased maximally as early as 6 hours after IL-1β stimulation, and then gradually decreased. However, the number of cells immunopositive for TIMP-3 increased somewhat later. GAG and proMMP-3 concentrations in the culture medium increased gradually with time. The number of TIMP-3(+)chondrocytes and positive staining for TIMP-3 in the extracellular matrix significantly increased in the TGF-β group compared with the values for the IL-1β group. The proMMP-3 concentration in the culture medium of TGF-β-treated cells was significantly decreased compared with that for the IL-1β-treated ones at all times examined. Discussion: We suggest that TIMP-1 plays a primary role in the prevention of articular cartilage destruction in its early stage but that TIMP-3 gradually takes over this role. Also, TGF-β was shown to regulate these TIMPs and act as a suppressor of articular cartilage destruction. These results suggest that TIMP-1 and TIMP-3 are closely involved in preventing the progression of joint disorders such as OA.
Hardware Neural Network with MC 431 DSP Board

The paper is a description of the way in which one neural network was built on a Single-DSP PCI Board. The board was designed for software evaluation and system prototyping on NeuroMatrix® NM6403 DSP. In the first part of the paper, we will point out the importance of the hardware neural network in different lines of business and we will explain which these lines are. Further on, we will present a summary of the main features of the NM6403 board, followed by the implementation of a feedforward neural network. The network has one input layer with 20 neurons, one hidden layer with 512 neurons and an output layer with 20 neurons. We should mention that the neural network described in this paper was used for testing. The results achieved with the help of this network are encouraging and they open new possibilities of study for the future.
The Evidence Supporting the Use of Honey as a Wound Dressing

Some clinicians are under the impression that there is little or no evidence to support the use of honey as a wound dressing. To allow sound decisions to be made, this seminar article has covered the various reports that have been published on the clinical usage of honey. Positive findings on honey in wound care have been reported from 17 randomized controlled trials involving a total of 1965 participants, and 5 clinical trials of other forms involving 97 participants treated with honey. The effectiveness of honey in assisting wound healing has also been demonstrated in 16 trials on a total of 533 wounds on experimental animals. There is also a large amount of evidence in the form of case studies that have been reported. It has been shown to give good results on a very wide range of types of wound. It is therefore mystifying that there appears to be a lack of universal acceptance of honey as a wound dressing. It is recommended that clinicians should look for the clinical evidence that exists to support the use of other wound care products to compare with the evidence that exists for honey.
The Humboldtian Model and the Future of Research Universities

There was a heated debate on the practical significance of the Humboldtian Model initiated by the 200th.anniversary of Berlin University.Germany universities,as the representatives of the Humboldtian Model,are now experiencing changes in scale,structure and function.Universities' goals,relation between teaching and research,as well as the position of university research are all facing Challenges and reforms.It is necessary to reflect the practical significance of the Humboldtian Model and future development of research universities from a historical perspective.
Variation in Tropical Reef Symbiont Metagenomes Defined by Secondary Metabolism

The complex evolution of secondary metabolism is important in biology, drug development, and synthetic biology. To examine this problem at a fine scale, we compared the genomes and chemistry of 24 strains of uncultivated cyanobacteria, Prochloron didemni, that live symbiotically with tropical ascidians and that produce natural products isolated from the animals. Although several animal species were obtained along a >5500 km transect of the Pacific Ocean, P. didemni strains are >97% identical across much of their genomes, with only a few exceptions concentrated in secondary metabolism. Secondary metabolic gene clusters were sporadically present or absent in identical genomic locations with no consistent pattern of co-occurrence. Discrete mutations were observed, leading to new chemicals that we isolated from animals. Functional cassettes encoding diverse chemicals are exchanged among a single population of symbiotic P. didemni that spans the tropical Pacific, providing the host animals with a varying arsenal of secondary metabolites.
Do Dealer Firms Manage Inventory on a Stock-by-Stock or a Portfolio Basis?

This paper investigates whether dealer firms' trading and pricing decisions are governed by their equivalent inventories, based on total returns as in Ho and Stoll (1983) or on unhedgeable returns as in Froot and Stein (1998), or by their ordinary inventories, as would be the case in a decentralized market-making organisational structure. It finds that ordinary inventories, and not equivalent inventories best explain dealer firms' quote placement strategy, which dealer firm executes trades and the quality of execution offered to the trades. This finding is consistent with decentralized market making where, due to information sharing difficulties or the nature of compensation contracts, individual dealers care only about risk of stocks managed by them, and not the positions of other dealers within the firm.
Towards a ramework for automated service negotiation in cloud computing

The on-demand service provision model in cloud computing necessitates the use of well-established service level agreements (SLA). A SLA is a part of a service contract between the consumer and provider that formally defines the level of service. In cloud computing, SLAs are necessary to control the use of computing resources. Therefore, a main issue for cloud computing is to build a new layer to support a negotiation phase between service providers and consumers to establish SLAs between them. In this paper, we propose a software agent based automated service negotiation framework for on-demand cloud service provision. In this framework, autonomous agents act on half of service providers and consumers to participate in negotiations in automated and efficient way. We also propose a bilateral multi-step monotonic concession negotiation protocol for service negotiation in cloud computing environments.
An automatic method for selecting the parameter of the RBF kernel function to support vector machines

Support vector machine (SVM) is one of the most powerful techniques for supervised classification. However, the performances of SVMs are based on choosing the proper kernel functions or proper parameters of a kernel function. It is extremely time consuming by applying the k-fold cross-validation (CV) to choose the almost best parameter. Nevertheless, the searching range and fineness of the grid method should be determined in advance. In this paper, an automatic method for selecting the parameter of the RBF kernel function is proposed. In the experimental results, it costs very little time than k-fold cross-validation for selecting the parameter by our proposed method. Moreover, the corresponding SVMs can obtain more accurate or at least equal performance than SVMs by applying k-fold cross-validation to determine the parameter.
Class phrase models for language modeling

Previous attempts to automatically determine multi-words as the basic unit for language modeling have been successful for extending bigram models to improve the perplexity of the language model and/or the word accuracy of the speech decoder. However, none of these techniques gave improvements over the trigram model so far, except for the rather controlled ATIS task (McCandless & Glass, 1994). We therefore propose an algorithm that minimizes the perplexity of a bigram model directly. The new algorithm is able to reduce the trigram perplexity and also achieves word accuracy improvements in the Verbmobil task. It is the natural counterpart of successful word classification algorithms for language modeling that minimize the leaving-one-out bigram perplexity. We also give some details on the usage of class-finding techniques and m-gram models, which can be crucial to successful applications of this technique.
Paracetamol sharpens reflection and spatial memory: a double-blind randomized controlled study in healthy volunteers

Background Acetaminophen (APAP, paracetamol) mechanism for analgesic and antipyretic outcomes has been largely addressed, but APAP action on cognitive function has not been studied in humans. Animal studies have suggested an improved cognitive performance but the link with analgesic and antipyretic modes of action is incomplete. This study aims at exploring cognitive tests in healthy volunteers in the context of antinociception and temperature regulation. A double-blind randomized controlled study (NCT01390467) was carried out from May 30, 2011 to July 12, 2011. Methods Forty healthy volunteers were included and analyzed. Nociceptive thresholds, core temperature (body temperature), and a battery of cognitive tests were recorded before and after oral APAP (2 g) or placebo: Information sampling task for predecisional processing, Stockings of Cambridge for spatial memory, reaction time, delayed matching of sample, and pattern recognition memory tests. Analysis of variance for repeated measures adapted to crossover design was performed and a two-tailed type I error was fixed at 5%. Results APAP improved information sampling task (diminution of the number of errors, latency to open boxes, and increased number of opened boxes; all P<0.05). Spatial planning and working memory initial thinking time were decreased (P=0.04). All other tests were not modified by APAP. APAP had an antinociceptive effect (P<0.01) and body temperature did not change. Conclusion This study shows for the first time that APAP sharpens decision making and planning strategy in healthy volunteers and that cognitive performance and antinociception are independent of APAP effect on thermogenesis. We suggest that cognitive performance mirrors the analgesic rather than thermic cascade of events, with possibly a central role for serotonergic and cannabinoid systems that need to be explored further in the context of pain and cognition.
Interpreting brain images – reflections on an adolescent field

Functional brain imaging is maturing, but still adolescent. It has developed a rich toolbox of experimental and data analytical techniques and is addressing an ever expanding range of questions about brain and mind – at various levels of methodological rigor. Some of these questions (e.g. romantic love) are difficult to pin down with science. Occasionally results are naively overinterpreted in scientific papers and in the media. It is appropriate then to reflect on our basic assumptions.
A high efficiency single chain GaAs MESFET MMIC dual band power amplifier for GSM/DCS handsets

In this paper, we describe the development of a single chain dual band power amplifier for GSM900/1800 applications. RFIC features include: single input-single output topology, three stages of amplification, switched input and inter-stage matching, positive power control, and negative voltage generation. The chip is fabricated using a high volume ion-implanted 0.5 /spl mu/m GaAs MESFET process and is assembled in a low cost, thermally enhanced SSOP16 plastic package. Typical performance, at +4.8 volts in GSM and DCS bands, is 48% PAE at Pout=+35 dBm and 44% PAE at Pout =+32.5 dBm respectively.
New designed multifunctional handset antenna for GPS and FRS application

In some handset multifunctional mobile systems, antenna used in both Global Positioning System (GPS) and Family Radio Service (FRS) are needed. A new antenna, combining microstrip antenna with monopole antenna, works in GPS-L1 band and FRS 2.21 GHz is investigated in this paper. The antenna can work as microstrip antenna and monopole antenna at the same time. The antenna is easy to be fabricated and robust in application.
Psychological Survey and Intervention after Wenchuan Earth Quake in Grade 12 Students and Teachers from Dujiangyan

Objective: To survey the post-quake psychological condition of teachers and senior students in high school and to implement adequate and effective intervening measures.Methods:Using the self-assessment psychological questionnaire recommended by Ministry of Health,260 grade 12 students,who would soon take the national exam for entering university,and 41 teachers from Dujiangyan region were evaluated 20 days after the earthquake.Different psychological intervention measures were carried out.Results:Among the 20 items of the questionnaire,the top three items selected by students were "easily feel fatigue"(79.2%),"feeling upset,nervous or worried"(74.6%),and "unclear in thinking"(66.5%). The top three items selected by teachers were "easily feel fatigue"(80.5%),"feeling unhappy"(80.5%),and "feeling upset,nervous or worried"(75.6%). Compared with students,teachers displayed more psychological problems.And compared with male students,female students were in a worse situation.The intervention plan was developed based on the situation of the school and results of the survey,and the group or individual intorventions were implemented by a multi-functioning team consisting of teachers,psychologists and psychiatrists.Conclusion:Anxiety,depression and physical complaints are widely existed in grade 12 students and their teachers after the quake.Teachers have more problems than students,and female students have more problems than male students.Psychological education in school,group psychological counseling for students,and psychological training for teachers should be implemented combined with individual intervention by multi-function team after crisis.
Cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers are predominant DNA lesions in whole human skin exposed to UVA radiation

Solar UV radiation is the most important environmental factor involved in the pathogenesis of skin cancers. The well known genotoxic properties of UVB radiation (290–320 nm) mostly involve bipyrimidine DNA photoproducts. In contrast, the contribution of more-abundant UVA radiation (320–400 nm) that are not directly absorbed by DNA remains poorly understood in skin. Using a highly accurate and quantitative assay based on HPLC coupled with tandem mass spectrometry, we determined the type and the yield of formation of DNA damage in whole human skin exposed to UVB or UVA. Cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers, a typical UVB-induced DNA damage, were found to be produced in significant yield also in whole human skin exposed to UVA through a mechanism different from that triggered by UVB. Moreover, the latter class of photoproducts is produced in a larger amount than 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2′-deoxyguanosine, the most common oxidatively generated lesion, in human skin. Strikingly, the rate of removal of UVA-generated cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers was lower than those produced by UVB irradiation of skin. Finally, we compared the formation yields of DNA damage in whole skin with those determined in primary cultures of keratinocytes isolated from the same donors. We thus showed that human skin efficiently protects against UVB-induced DNA lesions, whereas very weak protection is afforded against UVA. These observations emphasize the likely role played by the UVA-induced DNA damage in skin carcinogenesis and should have consequences for photoprotection strategies.
On the Security of Cracking-Resistant Password Vaults

Password vaults are used to store login credentials, usually encrypted by a master password, relieving the user from memorizing a large number of complex passwords. To manage accounts on multiple devices, vaults are often stored at an online service, which substantially increases the risk of leaking the (encrypted) vault. To protect the master password against guessing attacks, previous work has introduced cracking-resistant password vaults based on Honey Encryption. If decryption is attempted with a wrong master password, they output plausible-looking decoy vaults, thus seemingly disabling offline guessing attacks. In this work, we propose attacks against cracking-resistant password vaults that are able to distinguish between real and decoy vaults with high accuracy and thus circumvent the offered protection. These attacks are based on differences in the generated distribution of passwords, which are measured using Kullback-Leibler divergence. Our attack is able to rank the correct vault into the 1.3% most likely vaults (on median), compared to 37.8% of the best-reported attack in previous work. (Note that smaller ranks are better, and 50% is achievable by random guessing.) We demonstrate that this attack is, to a certain extent, a fundamental problem with all static Natural Language Encoders (NLE), where the distribution of decoy vaults is fixed. We propose the notion of adaptive NLEs and demonstrate that they substantially limit the effectiveness of such attacks. We give one example of an adaptive NLE based on Markov models and show that the attack is only able to rank the decoy vaults with a median rank of 35.1%.
The Effects of Mid-Career Military Enlistment on Civilian Career Prospects : Evidence from Australian World War II Volunteers

This paper uses the personnel records of employees entering an Australian bank between 1917 and 1927 to analyze the labor market consequences of career interruptions due to voluntary military service during the Second World War. The records contain the employees’ career position and pay histories, and pre-war outcomes are used to control for selection bias caused by non-random enlistment. It is shown that, despite losing human capital during the War, upon their return veterans earned a small wage premium relative to non-volunteers. Finally, evidence from non-wage outcomes indicates that this premium was a form of positive discrimination by the Bank.
A Formal Approach to Market Organization: Choice Functions, Mean Eld Approximation and Maximum Entropy Principle

We present a formal, although simple, approach to the modeling of a buyer behavior in the type of markets studied in 11]. We compare possible buyer's choice functions, such as linear or logit function. We study the resulting behaviour, showing that they depend on some convexity properties of the choice function. Our results make use of standard Statistical Physics concepts and techniques. In particular we use the "mean eld approximation" to derive the long term behaviour of buyers, and we show that the standard "logit" choice function can be justiied from a general optimization principle, leading to an exploration-exploitation compromise.
Manifold learning approach to curve identification with applications to footprint segmentation

Recognition of animals via images of their footprints is a non-invasive technique recently adopted by researchers interested in monitoring endangered species. One of the challenges that they face is the extraction of features from these images, which are required for this approach. These features are points along the boundary curve of the footprints. In this paper, we propose an innovative technique for extracting these curves from depth images. We formulate the problem of identification of the boundary of the footprint as a pattern recognition problem of a stochastic process over a manifold. This methodology has other applications on segmentation of biological tissue for medical applications and tracking of extreme weather patterns. The problem of pattern identification in the manifold is posed as a shortest path problem, where the path with the smallest cost is identified as the one with the highest likelihood to belong to the stochastic process. Our methodology is tested in a new dataset of normalized depth images of tiger footprints with ground truth selected by experts in the field.