Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improved covariance modeling for maximum likelihood multiple subspace transformations [speech recognition applications]

Maximum likelihood (ML) multiple subspace transformation algorithms, such as semi-tied covariance (STC) and multiple heteroscedastic linear discriminant analysis (HLDA), have achieved significant improvement. In STC and multiple HLDA, all the Gaussian components are classified as multiple components sets. In each set, Gaussian components' full covariance, which is estimated by the ML criterion, is used to estimate the linear transformation of this set. However, the full covariance matrix, which contains a large number of free parameters, may not be reliably estimated by the ML criterion. Unreliable full covariance will lead to unreliable linear transformation, and will finally lead to poor recognition results. There have been several algorithms proposed to reliably estimate the full covariance, such as mixture of inverse covariance (MIC), SPAM, and hierarchical correlation compensation (HCC). In this paper, we combine HCC with STC and multiple HLDA. Experiments show that standard STC can achieve 12.47% word error rate (WER) reduction on the RM database, while our HCC+STC can achieve 19.32% WER reduction.
Dynamic Changes in the Composition of the AP‐1 Transcription Factor DNA‐binding Activity in Rat Brain Following Kainate‐induced Seizures and Cell Death

Kainate, a potent excitatory and neurotoxic agent, has also proved useful in studies on other glutamate‐driven phenomena, such as neuronal plasticity. Long‐term effects of kainate are apparently dependent on its influence on the expression of various genes, including those encoding the AP‐1 transcription factor, consisting of proteins belonging to the Fos and Jun families. In our studies we analysed c‐fos, fos B, c‐jun, jun B and jun D mRNA levels as well as a functional feature of AP‐1, its DNA‐binding activity, in the rat brain following systemic injection of kainate. Two phases of elevated AP‐1 DNA‐binding activity were observed in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex, and were correlated with period of seizures (2 and 6 h after kainate injection) and neuron damage (48–72 h). At 72 h after kainate treatment DNA fragmentation, believed to be diagnostic of apoptotic processes typical of programmed cell death phenomena, was noted. Two and six hours after the treatment, AP‐1 consisted predominantly of Fos B, c‐Fos, Fra‐2 and Jun B, while at 72 h Jun D constituted the major AP‐1 component in place of Jun B, and no c‐Fos was detected. Only a slight AP‐1 increase was seen 24 h after kainate treatment. In the sensory cortex, only the late phase of AP‐1 elevation was detected. Contrary to AP‐1, no effect of kainate on levels of two other transcription factors, CREB/ATF (cAMP‐responsive element binding proteins) and OCT (octamer element DNA‐binding activity) was seen. However, the level of OCT DNA‐binding activity was higher in the sensory cortex than in other two structures examined. These data point to a selective effect of kainate on AP‐1 in brain structures known to be particularly vulnerable to kainate, and suggest a role of AP‐1 transcription factor, and more selectively Jun D protein, in kainate‐driven programmed neuronal death.
Genetic markers of suicidal ideation emerging during citalopram treatment of major depression.

OBJECTIVE Suicidal ideation is an uncommon symptom than can emerge during antidepressant treatment. The biological basis of treatment-emergent suicidal ideation is unknown. Genetic markers may shed light on the causes of treatment-emergent suicidal ideation and help identify individuals at high risk who may benefit from closer monitoring, alternative treatments, or specialty care. METHOD A clinically representative cohort of outpatients with major depressive disorder who enrolled in the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) trial were treated with citalopram under a standard protocol for up to 14 weeks. DNA samples from 1,915 participants were genotyped for 768 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 68 candidate genes. Allele and genotype frequencies were compared between the 120 participants who developed treatment-emergent suicidal ideation and those who did not. RESULTS Two markers were significantly associated with treatment-emergent suicidal ideation in this sample (marker rs4825476, p=0.0000784, odds ratio=1.94; permutation p=0.01; marker rs2518224, p=0.0000243, odds ratio=8.23; permutation p=0.003). These markers reside within the genes GRIA3 and GRIK2, respectively, both of which encode ionotropic glutamate receptors. CONCLUSIONS Markers within GRIK2 and GRIA3 were associated with treatment-emergent suicidal ideation during citalopram therapy. If replicated, these findings may shed light on the biological basis of this potentially dangerous adverse event and help identify patients at increased risk.
An Application of Well-orderly Trees in Graph Drawing

Well-orderly trees seem to have the potential of becoming a powerful technique capable of deriving new results in graph encoding, graph enumeration and graph generation [3, 4]. In this paper, we reduce the height of the visibility representation of plane graphs from 5n/6 to (4n–1)/5, by using well-orderly trees.
You Are Where You Edit: Locating Wikipedia Contributors through Edit Histories

Whether knowingly or otherwise, Wikipedia contributors reveal their interests and expertise through their contribution patterns. An analysis of Wikipedia edit histories shows that it is often possible to associate contributors with relatively small geographic regions, usually corresponding to where they were born or where they presently live. For many contributors, the geographic coordinates of pages they have edited are tightly clustered. Results suggest that a wealth of information about contributors can be gleaned from edit histories. This illustrates the efﬁcacy of data mining on large, publicly-available datasets and raises potential privacy concerns.
Boundary Spanning through Enterprise Social Software: An External Stakeholder Perspective

Recent boundary spanning literature has recommended a shift toward assessing the role of virtual tools—such as social media. Simultaneously the proliferation of Enterprise Social Software (ESS) points to the need to theorize and investigate the supra-individual usage of these tools. This exploratory study responds to both mandates through a longitudinal, multi-method investigation of ESS’ effects on boundary spanning by virtual research teams within a worldwide provider of workplace solutions. Combining survey, ESS log, and content data, this study complements the dominant internal focus of the boundary spanning literature with an external stakeholder perspective to analyze the types of boundary spanning activities enacted through ESS, the perceptions of these activities by external parties, as well as the effect of ESS hereon. Disentangling ESS’ effects on boundary spanning not only extends our current understanding of the potential role of social media, but can further inform the design of supportive tools.
Photovoltaic multi-level inverters technology

In this paper three main types of multi-level inverters are reviewed (diode-clamped, flying capacitor, and cascaded H-Bridge inverters). Different multi-level inverter topologies which are currently available on the market as far as components for the electrical integration of PV systems are also concerned. The new trends of all of these topologies are seeking to reduce the cost, the size of the inverter and the losses by reducing the number of the switches and capacitors and keeping the output voltage steps high enough at least to be similar to the previous topologies.
Visual Search Analytics: Combining Machine Learning and Interactive Visualization to Support Human-Centred Search

Searching within large online document col- lections has become a common activity in our modern information-centric society. While simple fact verication tasks are well sup- ported by current search technologies, when the search tasks become more complex, a substantial cognitive burden is placed on the searcher to craft and rene their queries, eval- uate and explore among the search results, and ultimately making sense of what is found. Visual search analytics provides a means for relieving this burden through a combination of automatic machine learning and interactive visualization. The goal is to automatically ex- tract and infer relevant information during the search process and present this to the searcher in a visual format that allows for quick inter- pretation and easy manipulation of the search process, providing support for the full range of human-centered search activities.
Pain and satisfaction with pain control in hospitalized medical patients: no such thing as low risk.

BACKGROUND Pain is common in many populations of hospitalized patients. It is unknown if any populations of hospitalized patients are at low risk for pain. We studied the prevalence of pain and satisfaction with pain control in a general medicine inpatient service to determine if this population was at low risk for pain. METHODS We performed a prospective cohort study of 5584 hospitalized patients. Pain and pain control were assessed in a follow-up telephone survey. Predictors of pain were determined through administrative databases and patient survey. RESULTS Of the study patients, 59% had pain (28% reported severe, 19% moderate, and 12% mild pain). Among patients with common diagnoses, those with sickle cell crisis were the most likely and those with syncope were the least likely to report significant pain (90% and 34%, respectively). Patient characteristics significantly associated with increased pain included DRG (diagnosis related group) weight (odds ratio [OR], 1.19), Charlson Index score (OR, 1.03), age older than 65 years (OR, 0.65), female sex (OR, 1.17), and education level higher than high school (OR, 1.31). Pain was reported by 28% of patients without high-risk characteristics for pain; and 82.2% of patients were satisfied, 11.1% somewhat satisfied, and 6.7% dissatisfied with their pain treatment. CONCLUSIONS Pain was common in the study population and more patients rated their pain as severe than as moderate or mild. Pain was dispersed among diagnoses. Although most patients thought that their pain was adequately controlled, 18% of patients with pain (10% of all patients) reported that their pain was inadequately controlled. Although patient characteristics were associated with pain or dissatisfaction with pain control, they were weak predictors and significant pain was common even in populations at the lowest-risk for pain.
Semi-Automatic System for Land Cover Change Detection Using Bi-Temporal Remote Sensing Images

Change detection is an increasingly important research topic in remote sensing application. Previous studies achieved land cover change detection (LCCD) using bi-temporal remote sensing images. However, many widely used methods detected change depending on a series of parameters, and determining parameters is time-consuming. Furthermore, numerous methods are data-dependent. Therefore, their degree of automation should be improved significantly. Three techniques, which consist of a semi-automatic change detection system, are proposed for LCCD to overcome the abovementioned drawbacks. The three techniques are as follows: (1) change magnitude image (CMI) noise reduction is based on Gaussian filter (GF), which is coupled with OTSU for reducing CMI noise automatically using an iterative optimization strategy; (2) a method based on histogram curve fitting is suggested to predict the threshold range for parameter determination; and (3) a modified region growing algorithm is built for iteratively constructing the final change detection map. The detection accuracies of the proposed system are investigated through four experiments with different bi-temporal image scenes. Compared with several widely used change detection methods, the proposed system can be applied to detect land cover change with high accuracy and flexibility. This work is an attempt to provide a change detection system that is compatible with remote sensing images with high and median-low spatial resolution.
Development of rapid heating and cooling (flash processing) process to produce advanced high strength steel microstructures

Abstract Flash processing of an AISI8620 steel sheet, which involves rapid heating and cooling with an overall process duration of <10 s, produced a steel microstructure with a high tensile strength and good ductility similar to that of advanced high strength steels. Flash processed steel [ultimate tensile strength (UTS): 1694 MPa, elongation: 7·1%], showed at least 7% higher UTS and 30% greater elongation than published results on martensitic advanced high strength steel (UTS: 1585 MPa, elongation: 5·1%). The underlying microstructure was characterised with optical, scanning electron, transmission electron microscopy as well as hardness mapping. A complex distribution of bainitic and martensite microstructures with carbides was observed. A mechanism for the above microstructure evolution is proposed.
Tracking of Chromosome and Replisome Dynamics in Myxococcus xanthus Reveals a Novel Chromosome Arrangement

Cells closely coordinate cell division with chromosome replication and segregation; however, the mechanisms responsible for this coordination still remain largely unknown. Here, we analyzed the spatial arrangement and temporal dynamics of the 9.1 Mb circular chromosome in the rod-shaped cells of Myxococcus xanthus. For chromosome segregation, M. xanthus uses a parABS system, which is essential, and lack of ParB results in chromosome segregation defects as well as cell divisions over nucleoids and the formation of anucleate cells. From the determination of the dynamic subcellular location of six genetic loci, we conclude that in newborn cells ori, as monitored following the ParB/parS complex, and ter regions are localized in the subpolar regions of the old and new cell pole, respectively and each separated from the nearest pole by approximately 1 µm. The bulk of the chromosome is arranged between the two subpolar regions, thus leaving the two large subpolar regions devoid of DNA. Upon replication, one ori region remains in the original subpolar region while the second copy segregates unidirectionally to the opposite subpolar region followed by the rest of the chromosome. In parallel, the ter region of the mother chromosome relocates, most likely passively, to midcell, where it is replicated. Consequently, after completion of replication and segregation, the two chromosomes show an ori-ter-ter-ori arrangement with mirror symmetry about a transverse axis at midcell. Upon completion of segregation of the ParB/parS complex, ParA localizes in large patches in the DNA-free subpolar regions. Using an Ssb-YFP fusion as a proxy for replisome localization, we observed that the two replisomes track independently of each other from a subpolar region towards ter. We conclude that M. xanthus chromosome arrangement and dynamics combine features from previously described systems with new features leading to a novel spatiotemporal arrangement pattern.
Effects of kinesin-5 inhibition on dendritic architecture and microtubule organization

Inhibition of kinesin-5, a molecular motor protein best known for its essential role in mitosis, has notable effects on the morphology and microtubule organization of dendrites of terminally postmitotic neurons. Kinesin-5 acts as a brake that can limit the capacity of other motor proteins to influence microtubule organization and distribution.
A New Stereo Algorithm Integrating Luminance, Gradient and Segmentation Informations in a Belief-Propagation Framework

The paper deals with the design and implementation of a stereo algorithm. Disparity map is formulated as a Markov Random Field with a new smoothness constraint depending not only on image derivatives, but also on segmentation results and gradient directions. With these constraints we force disparity continuity inside each segmented object, while its contours are well preserved. Moreover we have designed a modified version of Belief Propagation which gives the solution to the stereo matching problem: the optimization has remarkable improvements and especially with respect to message propagation, which is actually driven by segmentation and boundary knowledge. Preliminary results are presented both on synthetic and benchmark images to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.
A Hybrid Neural Network Model for Solving Optimization Problems

A hybrid neural network model for solving optimization problems is proposed. An energy function which contains the constraints and cost criteria of an optimization problem is derived, and then the neural network is used to find the global minimum (or maximum) of the energy function, which corresponds to a solution of the optimization problem. The network contains two subnets: a constraint network and a goal network. The constraint network models the constraints of an optimization problem and computes the gradient (updating) value of each neuron such that the energy function monotonically converges to satisfy all constraints of the problem. The goal network points out the direction of convergence for finding an optimal value for the cost criteria. These two subnets ensure that the neural network finds feasible as well as optimal (or near-optimal) solutions. The traveling salesman problem and the Hamiltonian cycle problem are used to demonstrate the method. >
Nonlinear H2 and H∞ optimal controllers for current-fed induction motors

This paper presents a nonlinear control design for both the H<sub>∞</sub> and H<sub>∞</sub> optimal control for current-fed induction motor drives. These controllers are derived using the analytical stationary solutions obtained in [3] that minimizes a generalized convex energy cost function including the stored magnetic energy and the coil losses, while satisfying torque regulation control objectives. Explicit control expressions for both the H<sub>2</sub> and H<sub>∞</sub> optimal design are given. Furthermore the optimal attenuation factor, i.e. the optimal H<sub>∞</sub> norm and the corresponding worst case disturbance are both computed explicitly.
Impact of Climatic Conditions on Physical Activity: A 2-Year Cohort Study in the Arabian Gulf Region.

BACKGROUND Little is known about the effects that climatic conditions, especially extreme heat, have on physical activity (PA) levels. The aim of this 2-year cohort analysis undertaken in the Arabian Gulf region was to assess changes in objectively-assessed PA as a result of changes in climatic conditions. METHODS A total of 2088 adults (1390 men and 698 women) from many regions of the world were enrolled in a community health program in Qatar, were included in this study. For 2 years participants recorded daily step count using an Omron HJ-720 ITC pedometer. Daily climate parameters included temperature, relative humidity and other conditions. RESULTS From linear mixed model analysis it was evident that higher average temperature and humidity, and the Wet bulb Globe Temperature (WbGT), resulted in a reduction of the number of steps taken per day. Analysis of interaction effects also revealed that the effects of heat stress were equivalent across gender, age, and the region participants came from according to a World Health Organization classification scheme. CONCLUSIONS Increased temperature and humidity are associated with a reduction in the number of steps taken per day. Community-based PA programs in hot hot/humid climates should consider novel approaches to increase PA levels.
Design and control of a multifunction myoelectric hand with new adaptive grasping and self-locking mechanisms

This paper presents a multifunction myoelectric hand that is designed with underactuated mechanisms. The linger design allows an adaptive grasp, including adaptation between lingers and phalanges with respect to the shape of an object. In addition, a self-lock is embedded in the metacarpophalangeal joint to prevent back driving when external forces act on the lingers. The thumb design also provides adaptation between phalanges and adds an intermittent rotary motion to the carpometacarpal joint. As a result, the hand can perform versatile grasping motions using only two motors, and is capable of natural and stable grasping without complex sensor and servo systems. Moreover, the adaptive grasping capabilities reduce the requirements of electromyogram pattern recognition, as analogous motions, such as cylindrical and tip grasps, can be classified as one motion.
First-line erlotinib versus gemcitabine/cisplatin in patients with advanced EGFR mutation-positive non-small-cell lung cancer: analyses from the phase III, randomized, open-label, ENSURE study.

BACKGROUND The phase III, randomized, open-label ENSURE study (NCT01342965) evaluated first-line erlotinib versus gemcitabine/cisplatin (GP) in patients from China, Malaysia and the Philippines with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation-positive non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients ≥18 years old with histologically/cytologically confirmed stage IIIB/IV EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status 0-2 were randomized 1:1 to receive erlotinib (oral; 150 mg once daily until progression/unacceptable toxicity) or GP [G 1250 mg/m(2) i.v. days 1 and 8 (3-weekly cycle); P 75 mg/m(2) i.v. day 1, (3-weekly cycle) for up to four cycles]. Primary end point: investigator-assessed progression-free survival (PFS). Other end points include objective response rate (ORR), overall survival (OS), and safety. RESULTS A total of 217 patients were randomized: 110 to erlotinib and 107 to GP. Investigator-assessed median PFS was 11.0 months versus 5.5 months, erlotinib versus GP, respectively [hazard ratio (HR), 0.34, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.22-0.51; log-rank P < 0.0001]. Independent Review Committee-assessed median PFS was consistent (HR, 0.42). Median OS was 26.3 versus 25.5 months, erlotinib versus GP, respectively (HR, 0.91, 95% CI 0.63-1.31; log-rank P = .607). ORR was 62.7% for erlotinib and 33.6% for GP. Treatment-related serious adverse events (AEs) occurred in 2.7% versus 10.6% of erlotinib and GP patients, respectively. The most common grade ≥3 AEs were rash (6.4%) with erlotinib, and neutropenia (25.0%), leukopenia (14.4%), and anemia (12.5%) with GP. CONCLUSION These analyses demonstrate that first-line erlotinib provides a statistically significant improvement in PFS versus GP in Asian patients with EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC (NCT01342965).
On Iteratively Reweighted Algorithms for Nonsmooth Nonconvex Optimization in Computer Vision

Natural image statistics indicate that we should use nonconvex norms for most regularization tasks in image processing and computer vision. Still, they are rarely used in practice due to the challenge of optimization. Recently, iteratively reweighed $\ell_1$ minimization (IRL1) has been proposed as a way to tackle a class of nonconvex functions by solving a sequence of convex $\ell_2$-$\ell_1$ problems. We extend the problem class to the sum of a convex function and a (nonconvex) nondecreasing function applied to another convex function. The proposed algorithm sequentially optimizes suitably constructed convex majorizers. Convergence to a critical point is proved when the Kurdyka--Łojasiewicz property and additional mild restrictions hold for the objective function. The efficiency and practical importance of the algorithm are demonstrated in computer vision tasks such as image denoising and optical flow. Most applications seek smooth results with sharp discontinuities. These are achieved by combining nonc.