Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modelling the recognition of spectrally reduced speech

Jon Barker and Martin Cooke fj.barker,m.cookeg@dcs.shef. ac.uk Department of Computer Science, University of She eld, She eld, UK ABSTRACT Progress in robust automatic speech recognition may bene t from a fuller account of the mechanisms and representations used by listeners in processing distorted speech. This paper reports on a number of studies which consider how recognisers trained on clean speech can be adapted to cope with a particular form of spectral distortion, namely reduction of clean speech to sine-wave replicas. Using the Resource Management corpus, the rst set of recognition experiments con rm the high information content of sine-wave replicas by demonstrating that such tokens can be recognised at levels approaching those for natural speech if matched conditions apply during training. Further recognition tests show that sine-wave speech can be recognised using natural speech models if a spectral peak representation is employed in concert with occluded speech recognition techniques.
Uncalibrated visual servoing of robots using a depth-independent interaction matrix

This paper presents a new adaptive controller for image-based dynamic control of a robot manipulator using a fixed camera whose intrinsic and extrinsic parameters are not known. To map the visual signals onto the joints of the robot manipulator, this paper proposes a depth-independent interaction matrix, which differs from the traditional interaction matrix in that it does not depend on the depths of the feature points. Using the depth-independent interaction matrix makes the unknown camera parameters appear linearly in the closed-loop dynamics so that a new algorithm is developed to estimate their values on-line. This adaptive algorithm combines the Slotine-Li method with on-line minimization of the errors between the real and estimated projections of the feature points on the image plane. Based on the nonlinear robot dynamics, we prove asymptotic convergence of the image errors to zero by the Lyapunov theory. Experiments have been conducted to verify the performance of the proposed controller. The results demonstrated good convergence of the image errors
Assessment of the Bacteriocinogenic Potential of Marine Bacteria Reveals Lichenicidin Production by Seaweed-Derived Bacillus spp.

The objectives of this study were (1) to assess the bacteriocinogenic potential of bacteria derived mainly from seaweed, but also sand and seawater, (2) to identify at least some of the bacteriocins produced, if any and (3) to determine if they are unique to the marine environment and/or novel. Fifteen Bacillus licheniformis or pumilus isolates with antimicrobial activity against at least one of the indicator bacteria used were recovered. Some, at least, of the antimicrobials produced were bacteriocins, as they were proteinaceous and the producers displayed immunity. Screening with PCR primers for known Bacillus bacteriocins revealed that three seaweed-derived Bacillus licheniformis harbored the bli04127 gene which encodes one of the peptides of the two-peptide lantibiotic lichenicidin. Production of both lichenicidin peptides was then confirmed by mass spectrometry. This is the first definitive proof of bacteriocin production by seaweed-derived bacteria. The authors acknowledge that the bacteriocin produced has previously been discovered and is not unique to the marine environment. However, the other marine isolates likely produce novel bacteriocins, as none harboured genes for known Bacillus bacteriocins.
Performance and Readability: A Response to Jones' Comment

In his comment, Jones discusses prior findings on the relationship between corporate performance and readability of narrative sections of corporate annual reports. More specifically, Jones focuses on our findings (Subramanian, Insley, & Blackwell, 1993) as reported in The Journal of Business Communication. We reported that, based on a style analysis of 60 corporate annual reports, companies that performed well (in terms of absolute net profits) had narrative sections of their annual reports that were easier to read than those of companies that performed poorly. Our findings, thus, appeared to contradict earlier findings by Courtis (1986) and Jones (1988), neither of whom found a positive correlation between readability and performance. We ascribed possible reasons for the contradictory findings that included the use of different measures of performance and the time frame used in the study. Courtis’ (1986) study used four measures of performance (current ratio, leverage, earnings variability, and rate of return on total assets) that we argued were derived measures. These derived measures were different from our absolute measure of &dquo;net profits&dquo; which could have resulted in different findings. We also reported that Jones’ (1988) study used &dquo;sales turnover&dquo; as the sole measure of corporate performance which, being different from our measure of net income, could have caused the findings to be different. However, as Jones correctly points out in his comment, his 1988 study also used net profit to sales and return on capital employed as measures of performance in addition to sales turnover. We apologize for this oversight in stating that Jones used sales turnover as the sole measure of performance. However, our contention is that Jones’ measures-net profit to sales and return on capital employed are derived measures, while sales turnover is a different absolute measure than net profit-were different from those we used and that this difference could have caused the contradictory findings. In addition, as Jones points out in his comment, his
Evolution of the selfing syndrome in Ipomoea

Plants that are highly selfing typically exhibit a suite of morphological traits termed a “selfing syndrome,” including reduced corollas and reproductive structures, loss of corolla pigmentation, little anther-stigma separation, and a lower pollen/ovule (P/O) ratio. While it is typically assumed that these changes are adaptive, few attempts have been made to determine whether they result from the operation of natural selection or genetic drift. In the southeastern United States, Ipomoea lacunosa has evolved a typical selfing syndrome compared to its close relative, Ipomoea cordatotriloba. Microsatellite markers confirmed that selfing rates are substantially higher in I. lacunosa. Furthermore, using a standard QST – FST comparison, we evaluated the relative importance of selection and drift in the evolution of selfing syndrome traits in I. lacunosa. The analysis demonstrated that natural selection is responsible for the evolution of reduced corolla size, anther-stigma distance, and style length in this species. By contrast, leaf characteristics unrelated to selfing were found to have diverged largely by genetic drift. Our study provides one of the first confirmations that natural selection drives the evolution of selfing-syndrome traits.
Drosophila mitochondrial transcription factor A: characterization of its cDNA and expression pattern during development.

We cloned a cDNA for Drosophila mitochondrial transcription factor A (D-mtTFA) and characterized the recombinant protein. In Drosophila Kc cells, D-mtTFA was localized in the mitochondria, but not in the nucleus. By repetitive precipitation with His-tag and PCR amplification, the consensus nucleotide sequence for D-mtTFA-binding was determined to be 5'-TTATC/G. The binding sequence was found to be clustered in the A + T region of mitochondrial DNA which is suggested to be a replication origin and promoter region for light strand and heavy strand. We found a DNA replication-related element (DRE)-like sequence located upstream of the transcription initiation site of the D-mtTFA gene and obtained results indicating that DRE-binding factor (DREF) can bind to the DRE-like sequence of the D-mtTFA gene. The data suggest that transcription of the D-mtTFA gene is under control of the DRE/DREF regulatory system. Based on these results, the functions of D-mtTFA were discussed in relation to mitochondrial biogenesis of Drosophila melanogaster.
Trigeminal Neuralgia

ABSTRACT Purpose of Review: Although trigeminal neuralgia is well known to neurologists, recent developments in classification and clinical diagnosis, new MRI methods, and a debate about surgical options necessitate an update on the topic. Recent Findings: Currently, a worldwide controversy exists regarding the classification, diagnostic process, and surgical treatment of trigeminal neuralgia. This controversy has been caused on one side by the recognition that some 50% of patients with trigeminal neuralgia, apart from characteristic paroxysmal attacks, also have continuous pain in the same territory, which results in greater diagnostic difficulties and is associated with a lower response to medical and surgical treatments. In contrast, recent developments in MRI methods allow differentiation between a mere neurovascular contact and an effective compression of the trigeminal root by an anomalous vessel, which implies more difficulties in the choice of surgical treatment, with the indication for microvascular decompression becoming more restricted. Summary: This article proposes that the diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia, with or without concomitant continuous pain, must rely on clinical grounds only. Diagnostic tests are necessary to distinguish three etiologic categories: idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia (nothing is found), classic trigeminal neuralgia (an anomalous vessel produces morphologic changes of the trigeminal root near its entry into the pons), and secondary trigeminal neuralgia (due to major neurologic disease, such as multiple sclerosis or tumors at the cerebellopontine angle). Carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine (ie, voltage-gated, frequency-dependent sodium channel blockers) are still the first-choice medical treatment, although many patients experience significant side effects, and those with concomitant continuous pain respond less well to treatment. The development of sodium channel blockers that are selective for the sodium channel 1.7 (Nav1.7) receptor will hopefully help. Although all the surgical interventions (percutaneous ganglion lesions, gamma knife radiosurgery, and microvascular decompression) are very efficacious, precise MRI criteria for differentiating a real neurovascular compression from an irrelevant contact will be of benefit in better selecting patients for microvascular decompression.
Role of rituximab in first-line treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a biologically heterogeneous illness that primarily afflicts the elderly. For many decades, the initial therapy for most patients requiring treatment was limited to single-agent alkylator therapy. Within the last two decades, we have seen remarkable progress in understanding the biology of CLL and the development of more effective treatment strategies that have employed monoclonal antibodies, such as rituximab (anti-CD20). Furthermore, recognition of the synergy between fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and rituximab (FCR) prompted investigators to explore the clinical activity of FCR in Phase II and III trials in patients with relapsed/refractory or previously untreated CLL. On the basis of these findings, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved rituximab in combination with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory or previously untreated CD20-postive CLL. Recent data from a randomized Phase III trial has confirmed improved overall survival with FCR in patients with previously untreated CLL. However, FCR is not for everyone. More tolerable regimens using rituximab for the elderly and less fit patients are being pursued in clinical trials. Recent Phase II trials have explored potentially less myelosuppressive approaches by using lower doses of fludarabine and cyclophosphamide, replacing fludarabine with pentostatin, and combining rituximab with chlorambucil. Furthermore new biomarkers predictive of early disease progression have prompted investigators to explore the benefits of early treatment with rituximab combined with other agents. In addition to the proven utility of rituximab as a frontline agent for CLL, rituximab has a favorable toxicity profile both as a single agent and in combination with chemotherapy. The majority of adverse events are Grade 1 and 2 infusion-related reactions (fevers, chills, and rigors) and occur with the first dose of rituximab. The improved tolerability observed with second and subsequent infusions allows for shorter infusion times. Rituximab’s proven activity and favorable toxicity profile has made it an ideal agent for expanding treatment options for patients with CLL, the majority of whom are elderly.
LockPeeker: Detecting latent locks in Java APIs

Detecting lock-related defects has long been a hot research topic in software engineering. Many efforts have been spent on detecting such deadlocks in concurrent software systems. However, latent locks may be hidden in application programming interface (API) methods whose source code may not be accessible to developers. Many APIs have latent locks. For example, our study has shown that J2SE alone can have 2,000+ latent locks. As latent locks are less known by developers, they can cause deadlocks that are hard to perceive or diagnose. Meanwhile, the state-of-the-art tools mostly handle API methods as black boxes, and cannot detect deadlocks that involve such latent locks. In this paper, we propose a novel black-box testing approach, called LockPeeker, that reveals latent locks in Java APIs. The essential idea of LockPeeker is that latent locks of a given API method can be revealed by testing the method and summarizing the locking effects during testing execution. We have evaluated LockPeeker on ten real-world Java projects. Our evaluation results show that (1) LockPeeker detects 74.9% of latent locks in API methods, and (2) it enables state-of-the-art tools to detect deadlocks that otherwise cannot be detected.
Faster Rubisco Is the Key to Superior Nitrogen-Use Efficiency in NADP-Malic Enzyme Relative to NAD-Malic Enzyme C4 Grasses1

In 27 C4 grasses grown under adequate or deficient nitrogen (N) supplies, N-use efficiency at the photosynthetic (assimilation rate per unit leaf N) and whole-plant (dry mass per total leaf N) level was greater in NADP-malic enzyme (ME) than NAD-ME species. This was due to lower N content in NADP-ME than NAD-ME leaves because neither assimilation rates nor plant dry mass differed significantly between the two C4 subtypes. Relative to NAD-ME, NADP-ME leaves had greater in vivo (assimilation rate per Rubisco catalytic sites) and in vitro Rubisco turnover rates (kcat; 3.8 versus 5.7 s−1 at 25°C). The two parameters were linearly related. In 2 NAD-ME (Panicum miliaceum and Panicum coloratum) and 2 NADP-ME (Sorghum bicolor and Cenchrus ciliaris) grasses, 30% of leaf N was allocated to thylakoids and 5% to 9% to amino acids and nitrate. Soluble protein represented a smaller fraction of leaf N in NADP-ME (41%) than in NAD-ME (53%) leaves, of which Rubisco accounted for one-seventh. Soluble protein averaged 7 and 10 g (mmol chlorophyll)−1 in NADP-ME and NAD-ME leaves, respectively. The majority (65%) of leaf N and chlorophyll was found in the mesophyll of NADP-ME and bundle sheath of NAD-ME leaves. The mesophyll-bundle sheath distribution of functional thylakoid complexes (photosystems I and II and cytochrome f) varied among species, with a tendency to be mostly located in the mesophyll. In conclusion, superior N-use efficiency of NADP-ME relative to NAD-ME grasses was achieved with less leaf N, soluble protein, and Rubisco having a faster kcat.
Characterization of Peripapillary Atrophy Using Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography

Purpose To characterize the features of peripapillary atrophy (PPA), as imaged by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Methods SD-OCT imaging of the optic disc was performed on healthy eyes, eyes suspected of having glaucoma, and eyes diagnosed with glaucoma. From the peripheral β-zone, the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), the junction of the inner and outer segments (IS/OS) of the photoreceptor layer, and the Bruch's membrane/retinal pigment epithelium complex layer (BRL) were visualized. Results Nineteen consecutive eyes of 10 subjects were imaged. The RNFL was observed in the PPA β-zone of all eyes, and no eye showed an IS/OS complex in the β-zone. The BRL was absent in the β-zone of two eyes. The BRL was incomplete or showed posterior bowing in the β-zone of five eyes. Conclusions The common findings in the PPA β-zone were that the RNFL was present, but the photoreceptor layer was absent. Presence of the BRL was variable in the β-zone areas.
VEGF is necessary for exercise‐induced adult hippocampal neurogenesis

Declining learning and memory function is associated with the attenuation of adult hippocampal neurogenesis. As in humans, chronic stress or depression in animals is accompanied by hippocampal dysfunction, and neurogenesis is correspondingly down regulated, in part, by the activity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis as well as glutamatergic and serotonergic networks. Antidepressants can reverse this effect over time but one of the most clinically effective moderators of stress or depression and robust stimulators of neurogenesis is simple voluntary physical exercise such as running. Curiously, running also elevates circulating stress hormone levels yet neurogenesis is doubled in running animals. In evaluating the signalling that running provides to the central nervous system in mice, we have found that peripheral vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is necessary for the effects of running on adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Peripheral blockade of VEGF abolished running‐induced neurogenesis but had no detectable effect on baseline neurogenesis in non‐running animals. These data suggest that VEGF is an important element of a ‘somatic regulator’ of adult neurogenesis and that these somatic signalling networks can function independently of the central regulatory networks that are typically considered in the context of hippocampal neurogenesis.
Discriminative Neural Topic Models

We propose a neural network based approach for learning topics from text and image datasets. The model makes no assumptions about the conditional distribution of the observed features given the latent topics. This allows us to perform topic modelling efficiently using sentences of documents and patches of images as observed features, rather than limiting ourselves to words. Moreover, the proposed approach is online, and hence can be used for streaming data. Furthermore, since the approach utilizes neural networks, it can be implemented on GPU with ease, and hence it is very scalable.
A Phase Error Estimation Method for Broad Beam High-Frequency Radar

High-frequency radar is an effective instrument for ocean state surveillance. However, phase response differences in antenna elements, cables and receivers cause distortions in beam pattern, resulting in the loss of azimuth resolution. In this letter, a novel method is presented to estimate phase errors in array received data using single-direction-of-arrival (DOA) first-order sea echoes as calibration sources. Eigenstructure decomposition of each signal is used to form a cost function. By minimizing the cost function, phase errors and DOAs are jointly estimated through an iterative procedure. For large phase errors situation, a conditional optimization is conducted to provide rough initial estimates for the iterative procedure. Simulation results reveal the effectiveness of proposed method. We apply this method to estimate the phase errors in the experiment data of multifrequency high-frequency radar. Experiment results validate its performance on DOA estimation.
MLR: a recovery method for multi-level systems

To achieve high concurrency in a database system has meant building a system that copes well with important special cases. Recent work on multi-level systems suggest a systematic path to high concurrency. A multi-level system using locks permits restrictive low level locks of a subtransaction to be replaced with less restrictive high level locks when sub-transactions commit, enhancing concurrency. This is possible because sub-transactions can be undone via high level compensation actions rather than by restoring a prior lower level state. We describe a recovery scheme, called Multi-Level Recovery (MLR) that logs this high level undo operation with the commit record for the subtransaction that it compensates, posting log records to only a single log. A variant of the method copes with nested transactions, and both nested and multi-level transactions can be treated in a unified fashion.
Combined use of satellite and surface observations to infer the imaginary part of refractive index of Saharan dust

We present a method for the retrieval of the imaginary part of refractive index of desert dust aerosol at near UV wavelengths. The method uses observations of radiances at 331 and 360 nm by the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer, and aerosol optical depth measurements by the Aerosol Robotic Network. The derived values of imaginary part of refractive index of Saharan dust aerosol at 360 nm are significantly lower than previously reported values. The average retrieved values vary between 0.0054 and 0.0066 for different geographical locations. The results reported in this work are in good agreement with the results of several recent investigations.
Ieee Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics Reconstruction and Visualization of Planetary Nebulae

— From our terrestrially confined viewpoint, the actual three-dimensional shape of distant astronomical objects is, in general, very challenging to determine. For one class of astronomical objects, however, spatial structure can be recovered from conventional 2D images alone. So-called planetary nebulae (PNe) exhibit pronounced symmetry characteristics that come about due to fundamental physical processes. Making use of this symmetry constraint, we present a technique to automatically recover the axisymmetric structure of many planetary nebulae from photographs. With GPU-based volume rendering driving a non-linear optimization, we estimate the nebula's local emission density as a function of its radial and axial coordinates, and we recover the orientation of the nebula relative to Earth. The optimization refines the nebula model and its orientation by minimizing the differences between the rendered image and the original astronomical image. The resulting model allows creating realistic 3D visualizations of these nebulae, for example for planetarium shows and other educational purposes. In addition, the recovered spatial distribution of the emissive gas can help astrophysicists gain deeper insight into the formation processes of planetary nebulae.