Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling and efficient decoding of large vocabulary conversational speech

Capturing the large variability of conversational speech in the framework of purely phone based speech recognizers is virtually impossible. It has been shown earlier that suprasegmental features such as speaking rate, duration and syllabic, syntactic and semantic structure are important predictors of pronunciation variation. In order to allow for a tighter coupling of these predictors of pronunciation, duration and acoustic modeling a new recognition toolkit has been developed. The phonetic transcription of speech has been generalized to an attribute based representation, thus enabling the integra-tion of suprasegmental, non-phonetic features. A pronunciation model is trained to augment the attribute transcription to mark possible pronunciation e(cid:11)ects which are then taken into account by the acoustic model induction algorithm. A (cid:12)nite state machine single-pre(cid:12)x-tree, one-pass, time-synchronous decoder is presented that ef-(cid:12)ciently decodes highly spontaneous speech within this new representational framework.
Effect of ultra-superheated steam on aflatoxin reduction and roasted peanut properties.

BACKGROUND Aflatoxins are carcinogenic toxins produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus that are found naturally in peanut. It requires extremely high temperatures to eliminate aflatoxins from the nuts. The aims of this study were to investigate the effect of ultra-superheated steam (USS) on the reduction of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1 ) accompanying the roasting process and to determine roasted peanut qualities that affected consumer acceptance. RESULTS Whole peanut kernels were intentionally contaminated by AFB1 standard solution at the level of 50 ± 10 µg kg-1 before subjecting to USS treatment at 300-400 °C between 10 and 80 s. The high temperature of USS could significantly decrease AFB1 level to 9.83 ± 3.51, 15.33 ± 2.23 and 8.95 ± 2.32 µg kg-1 when 300 °C for 80 s, 350 °C for 40 s and 400 °C for 40 s were employed, respectively. AFB1 was reduced as much as 83.86 ± 2.66% when 400 °C for 40 s was applied. The moisture content of treated peanuts was decreased to less than 3% and browning index was developed from 30.96 ± 1.59 to 95.76 ± 7.23. CONCLUSION Higher roasting degree was obtained according to the increase in browning index. Oil quality showed that peroxide values and acid values were greatly below the allowance level. USS could effectively decrease AFB1 and render expectable roasting qualities of peanut. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.
Effects of tetrahydrouridine on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of oral decitabine.

The deoxycytidine analog decitabine (DAC) can deplete DNA methyl-transferase 1 (DNMT1) and thereby modify cellular epigenetics, gene expression, and differentiation. However, a barrier to efficacious and accessible DNMT1-targeted therapy is cytidine deaminase, an enzyme highly expressed in the intestine and liver that rapidly metabolizes DAC into inactive uridine counterparts, severely limiting exposure time and oral bioavailability. In the present study, the effects of tetrahydrouridine (THU), a competitive inhibitor of cytidine deaminase, on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of oral DAC were evaluated in mice and nonhuman primates. Oral administration of THU before oral DAC extended DAC absorption time and widened the concentration-time profile, increasing the exposure time for S-phase-specific depletion of DNMT1 without the high peak DAC levels that can cause DNA damage and cytotoxicity. THU also decreased interindividual variability in pharmacokinetics seen with DAC alone. One potential clinical application of DNMT1-targeted therapy is to increase fetal hemoglobin and treat hemoglobinopathy. Oral THU-DAC at a dose that would produce peak DAC concentrations of less than 0. 2μM administered 2×/wk for 8 weeks to nonhuman primates was not myelotoxic, hypomethylated DNA in the γ-globin gene promoter, and produced large cumulative increases in fetal hemoglobin. Combining oral THU with oral DAC changes DAC pharmacology in a manner that may facilitate accessible noncytotoxic DNMT1-targeted therapy.
Systemic effects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterised by an inappropriate/excessive inflammatory response of the lungs to respiratory pollutants, mainly tobacco smoking. Recently, besides the typical pulmonary pathology of COPD (i.e. chronic bronchitis and emphysema), several effects occurring outside the lungs have been described, the so-called systemic effects of COPD. These effects are clinically relevant because they modify and can help in the classification and management of the disease. The present review discusses the following systemic effects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: 1) systemic inflammation; 2) nutritional abnormalities and weight loss; 3) skeletal muscle dysfunction; and 4) other potential systemic effects. For each of these, the potential mechanisms and clinical implications are discussed and areas requiring further research are highlighted.
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2014: India Report

GEM India Team:- Sunil Shukla, Krishna Tanuku, Bibek Banerjee, Pankaj Bharti, Vijay Vyas, Amitkumar Dwivedi, Santosh Srinivas, Ashish Kumar, Muzzafar Hussain, Vikash Gupta, Noel Saraf and Safal Batra
Maximum Causal Entropy Correlated Equilibria for Markov Games

Motivated by a machine learning perspective---that game-theoretic equilibria constraints should serve as guidelines for predicting agents' strategies, we introduce maximum causal entropy correlated equilibria (MCECE), a novel solution concept for general-sum Markov games. In line with this perspective, a MCECE strategy profile is a uniquely-defined joint probability distribution over actions for each game state that minimizes the worst-case prediction of agents' actions under log-loss. Equivalently, it maximizes the worst-case growth rate for gambling on the sequences of agents' joint actions under uniform odds. We present a convex optimization technique for obtaining MCECE strategy profiles that resembles value iteration in finite-horizon games. We assess the predictive benefits of our approach by predicting the strategies generated by previously proposed correlated equilibria solution concepts, and compare against those previous approaches on that same prediction task.
Software Engineering Research at the International Conference on Software Engineering in 2016

With the goal of helping software engineering researchers understand how to improve their papers, Mary Shaw presented "Writing Good Software Engineering Research Papers" in 2003. Shaw analyzed the abstracts of the papers submitted to the 2002 International Conference of Software Engineering (ICSE) to determine trends in research question type, contribution type, and validation approach. We revisit Shaw's work to see how the software engineering research community has evolved since 2002. The goal of this paper is to aid software engineering researchers in understanding trends in research question design, research question type, and validation approach by analyzing the abstracts of the papers submitted to ICSE 2016. We implemented Shaw's recommendation for replicating her study through the use of multiple coders and the calculation of inter-rater reliability and demonstrate that her approach can be repeated. Our results indicate that reviewers have increased expectations that papers have solid evaluations of the research contribution. Additionally, the 2016 results include at least 17% mining software repository (MSR) papers, a category of papers not seen in 2002. The advent of MSR papers has increased the use of generalization/characterization research questions, the production of empirical report contribution, and validation by evaluation.
An Extension of STFT Uncertainty Propagation for GMM-Based Super-Gaussian a Priori Models

Feature compensation is a low computational cost technique to achieve robust automatic speech recognition (ASR). Short-time Fourier Transform Uncertainty Propagation (STFT-UP) provides feature compensation in domains used for ASR as, e.g., Mel-Frequency Cepstra Coefficient (MFCC), while using STFT domain distortion models. However, STFT-UP is limited to Gaussian priors when modeling speech distortion, whereas super-Gaussian priors are known to provide improved performance. In this letter, an extension of STFT-UP is presented that uses approximate super-Gaussian priors. This is achieved by extending the conventional complex Gaussian priors to complex Gaussian mixture priors. The approach can be applied to any of the STFT-UP existing solutions, thus providing super-Gaussian uncertainty propagation. The method is exemplified by a Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) MFCC estimator with an approximate generalized Gamma speech prior. This estimator clearly outperforms the Gaussian-based MMSE-MFCC feature compensation on the AURORA4 corpus.
Changes in Thy 1 gene expression associated with damaged retinal ganglion cells

A complete understanding of neuronal cell death may have an important impact on the development of new treatments for a variety of chronic and acute neurological diseases. Retinal ganglion cells have historically been a model cell-type for study both in vitro and in vivo, since they represent an accessible population of neurons of the central nervous system [1] and have been examined in numerous experimental paradigms. Ganglion cells are also the primary retinal cell-type affected by several blinding diseases including glaucoma, tumor-associated optic nerve compression, and ischemic optic neuropathy. The mechanism of ganglion cell death has been studied under a variety of conditions. Several experimental stimuli activate their death including direct damage to the optic nerve, exposure to elevated concentrations of excitatory amino acids, or moderate to severe elevations in intraocular pressure (IOP). These cells also undergo programmed cell death where half the population dies during normal retinal development [2,3]. In each of these circumstances, cell death exhibits morphological and biochemical characteristics of apoptosis [4-13]. Recent studies have focused on the genes that control ganglion cell death with particular emphasis on the genes that are known to regulate this process in other cell-types [14]. Ganglion cell survival is influenced by genes such as p53 [15], Bcl2 [16,17], and Bax [18-20]. Kinetic analysis of p53 [15,21] and Bax expression [19] indicate that both these genes are upregulated in ganglion cells during periods of cell death. In addition, retinal ganglion cells in Bax-deficient mice show nearly complete attenuation of developmental cell loss [18] and are significantly resistant to the damaging effects of optic nerve crush [20]. These studies have provided some insight into the sequence of events in the ganglion cell apoptotic program. Reports on other neuronal cell-types have suggested that prior to the upregulation of apoptotic regulatory genes, metabolic processes, such as protein synthesis and glucose uptake, are decreased [22]. Similar decreases in gene expression may also occur. Retinal ganglion cells, for example, exhibit a dramatic decrease in the expression of some genes, including BclX [23], before detectable cell loss. It is not clear if this decrease in gene expression is a consequence of the activation of the cell death program or if it is an independent event. To better © Molecular Vision
Catheter Ablation of Multiple Ventricular Tachycardias After Myocardial Infarction Guided by Combined Contact and Noncontact Mapping

Background— Insights gained from noncontact mapping of ventricular tachycardia (VT) have not been systematically applied to contact maps. This study sought to unify both techniques for an individualized approach to the patient with multiple ischemic VTs irrespective of cycle length. Methods and Results— For 12 consecutive patients with chronic myocardial infarction and recurrent VT, bipolar contact maps were acquired during sinus or paced rhythm. Additional noncontact maps were obtained during 48 induced VTs (cycle length 192 to 579 ms). Endocardial exit sites were superimposed on contact maps and verified by pace-mapping. Radiofrequency lesions were extended for critical borders defined by multiple neighboring exits and followed the isovoltage contour line of contact maps. Nine critical borders were identified in 8 patients and constituted the substrate for 31 VTs. The voltage at exit sites was 0.8 mV (range 0.1 to 2.3). Noncontact maps revealed 23±18% of isthmus conduction. Thirty-seven (77%) of all and 83% of clinically documented VTs were rendered noninducible irrespective of cycle length by application of 27 radiofrequency lesions (range 18 to 56). Spontaneous transitions between distinct VTs along critical borders were demonstrated in 4 patients. Pace-mapping reproduced the QRS morphology of 81% of VTs and was associated with successful ablation (P<0.01). Noninducibility of any sustained VT was reached for 8 (67%) patients. During 15 months (range 5 to 28) of follow-up, 8 patients remained without recurrence, and VT episodes were reduced in the other 4 patients (P<0.01). VT cycle length was not predictive for acute or long-term success. Conclusion— The combined approach of contact and noncontact mapping effectively defines critical borders as the substrate of multiple VTs without limitation for unstable VTs.
Scrapie Resistance in ARQ Sheep

ABSTRACT Variation in the ovine prion protein amino acid sequence influences scrapie progression, with sheep homozygous for A136R154Q171 considered susceptible. This study examined the association of survival time of scrapie-exposed ARQ sheep with variation elsewhere in the ovine prion gene. Four single nucleotide polymorphism alleles were associated with prolonged survival. One nonsynonymous allele (T112) was associated with an additional 687 days of survival for scrapie-exposed sheep compared to M112 sheep (odds ratio, 42.5; P = 0.00014). The only two sheep homozygous for T112 (TARQ) did not develop scrapie, suggesting that the allelic effect may be additive. These results provide evidence that TARQ sheep are genetically resistant to development of classical scrapie.
Nucleotide sequence analysis reveals linked N-acetyl hydrolase, thioesterase, transport, and regulatory genes encoded by the bialaphos biosynthetic gene cluster of Streptomyces hygroscopicus

Nucleotide sequence analysis of a 5,000-bp region of the bialaphos antibiotic production (bap) gene cluster defined five open reading frames (ORFs) which predicted structural genes in the order bah, ORF1, ORF2, and ORF3 followed by the regulatory gene, brpA (H. Anzai, T. Murakami, S. Imai, A. Satoh, K. Nagaoka, and C.J. Thompson, J. Bacteriol. 169:3482-3488, 1987). The four structural genes were translationally coupled and apparently cotranscribed from an undefined promoter(s) under the positive control of the brpA gene product. S1 mapping experiments indicated that brpA was transcribed by two promoters (brpAp1 and brpAp2) which initiate transcription 150 and 157 bp upstream of brp A within an intergenic region and at least one promoter further upstream within the bap gene cluster (brpAp3). All three transcripts were present at low levels during exponential growth and increased just before the stationary phase. The levels of the brpAp3 band continued to increase at the onset of stationary phase, whereas brpAp1-and brpAp2-protected fragments showed no further change. BrpA contained a possible helix-turn-helix motif at its C terminus which was similar to the C-terminal regulatory motif found in the receiver component of a family of two-component transcriptional activator proteins. This motif was not associated with the N-terminal domain conserved in other members of the family. The structural gene cluster sequenced began with bah, encoding a bialaphos acetylhydrolase which removes the N-acetyl group from bialaphos as one of the final steps in the biosynthetic pathway. The observation that Bah was similar to a rat and to a bacterial (Acinetobacter calcoaceticus) lipase probably reflects the fact that the ester bonds of triglycerides and the amide bond linking acetate to phosphinothricin are similar and hydrolysis is catalyzed by structurally related enzymes. This was followed by two regions encoding ORF1 and ORF2 which were similar to each other (48% nucleotide identity, 31% amino acid identity), as well as to GrsT, a protein encoded by a gene located adjacent to gramicidin S synthetase in Bacillus brevis, and to vertebrate (mallard duck and rat) thioesterases. The amino acid sequence and hydrophobicity profile of ORF3 indicated that it was related to a family of membrane transport proteins. It was strikingly similar to the citrate uptake protein encoded by the transposon Tn3411.
Effect of Non-Anticoagulant N-Desulfated Heparin on Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor Expression, Angiogenesis, and Metastasis of Gastric Carcinoma In Vitro and In Vivo

Objective. The present study was performed to investigate the effect of N-desulfated heparin on basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) expression, tumor angiogenesis and metastasis of gastric carcinoma. Methods. Human gastric cancer SGC-7901 tissues were orthotopically implanted into the stomach of NOD SCID mice. Twenty mice were randomly divided into two groups which received either intravenous injection of 0.9% NaCl solution (normal saline group) or 10 mg/kg N-desulfated heparin (N-desulfated heparin group) twice weekly for three weeks. In vitro, human gastric carcinoma SGC-7901 cells were treated with N-desulfated heparin in different concentration (0.1 mg/mL, 1 mg/mL, N-desulfated heparin group), and treated with medium (control group). Results. In vivo, the tumor metastasis rates were 9/10 in normal saline group and 2/10 in N-desulfated heparin group (P < 0.05). The intratumoral microvessel density was higher in normal saline group than in N-desulfated heparin group (P < 0.05). bFGF expression in gastric tissue was inhibited by N-desulfated heparin (P < 0.05). There was no bleeding in N-desulfated heparin group. In vitro, N-desulfated heparin inhibited significantly bFGF protein and mRNA expression of gastric carcinoma cells (P < 0.05). Conclusions. N-desulfated heparin can inhibit the metastasis of gastric cancer through inhibiting tumor bFGF expression and tumor angiogenesis with no obvious anticoagulant activity.
Efficient Clustering Approach using Statistical Method of Expectation-Maximization

Clustering is the activity of grouping objects in a dataset based on certain similarity.Available reports on clustering present several algorithms for obtaining effective clusters.Among the existing clustering techniques, hierarchical clustering is one of the widely preferred algorithms.Though there are many algorithms existing,KMeans for hierarchical clustering stand top.But still it is observed that the K-Means algorithm has number of limitations like initialization of parameters. To overcome this limitation, we propose the utilization of E-M algorithm. The K-Means algorithm is implemented by using measure of Cosine similarity and Expectation-Maximization(E-M) with Gaussian Mixture Model.The proposed method has two steps.In first step, the K-Means and E-M methods are combined to partition the input dataset into several smaller sub clusters.In the second step, sub clusters are merged continuously based on maximized Gaussian measure. Key Terms K-Means, Expectation-Maximization, Gaussian Mixture Model, clustering, similarity measure.
Loss of covalently labeled glycoproteins and glycolipids from the surface of newly transformed schistosomula of Schistosoma mansoni

Schistosomula of Schistosoma mansoni were labeled by oxidation with galactose oxidase or with periodate followed by reduction with NaB3H4 to study the loss of the surface membrane of these parasites in vitro. Grain counts of light microscope autoradiographs (LMARG) of radiolabeled schistosomula show that both galactose oxidase and periodate specifically label the surface of the organisms. Galactose oxidase labels 11 glycoproteins on the surface of skin and mechanical schistosomula, ranging in apparent molecular weight from 17,000 to greater than 105,000. These glycoproteins are lost from the surface of schistosomula with a halftime of 10-15 h in culture in defined medium. Most of these glycoproteins appear to be shed intact from the surface of the schistosomula rather than endocytosed and degraded, because greater than 50% of each of the lost proteins can be recovered by trichloroacetic acid precipitation of the culture medium and because there is no internalization of the radiolabels into cultured schistosomula examined by LMARG. In addition to glycoproteins, periodate labels at least seven glycolipids on the surface of mechanical schistosomula. After culture for 15 h, more than half of each of these periodate-labeled proteins and lipids are lost from the schistosomula, and their abundance relative to each other remains similar to that of freshly labeled organisms. Since both proteins and lipids are lost from the surface of the schistosomula at the same rate, we believe that we are observing a general loss of the parasite surface membrane.
Unification of scheduling, binding, and retiming to reduce power consumption under timings and resources constraints

Scheduling and binding are two tasks found in high-level synthesis of hardware as well as in compiling software. These tasks are realized on graphs that are models of the hardware or of the software to be compiled to run on a specific processor. Scheduling focuses on determining the start execution time of each node in the graph. Binding is the task of assigning each node in the graph to a specific computational element. Realize binding before or after scheduling can exclude generating high-quality designs (hardware or binary code). The latter statement is true in particular in the era of design for low power. Do not combine scheduling and binding can lead to designs with high switching activities and hence to high power consumption. To the best of our knowledge, there is no approach at this moment that addresses the problem of unifying scheduling and binding with an exact algorithm to produce designs with reduced power consumption. Known approaches to that problem are heuristics. That problem is NP-hard in general, since it is the composition of two NP-hard problems. Also, it has not yet been formulated in the literature. The problem becomes more complex when one has to deal with cyclic graphs and/or there are constraints to be met such as timings. For cyclic graphs, one has to integrate retiming in the unification of scheduling and binding. We propose a mathematical formulation to that problem. We extend this formulation to solve the problem of combining modulo scheduling, binding, and retiming under timings and resources constraints while reducing power consumption due to switching activities. The proposed approach is tested using known benchmarks. Based on obtained numerical results, this approach is able to reduce power consumption by 33.24% on average, with an average of 33.83 s as a run time.