Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A robust begin-end point detector for highly noisy conditions

Most recognition methods, which have shown to be highly efficient under noise-free conditions fail dramatically with S/N ratios around or below 10 dB. One of the consequences of these high noise levels is that most Begin-End Point Detectors fail to separate properly the speech segments of the noise ones. Therefore, the speech recognition mechanisms will not have a clear boundary to start the processing of the signal, and as a consequence, speech segments will be lost, and noisy segments will be used in recognition. The overall reliability of the Speech Recognition System will dramatically experience the consequences of this impairment in its results. What is being proposed in this paper is to use the side information provided by an Adaptive Noise Canceller for the dynamic detection of word boundaries.
Bone Marrow Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Incorporate into the Prostate during Regrowth

Background Prostate cancer recurrence involves increased growth of cancer epithelial cells, as androgen dependent prostate cancer progresses to castrate resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) following initial therapy. Understanding CRPC prostate regrowth will provide opportunities for new cancer therapies to treat advanced disease. Methodology/Principal Findings Elevated chemokine expression in the prostate stroma of a castrate resistant mouse model, Tgfbr2fspKO, prompted us to look at the involvement of bone marrow derived cells (BMDCs) in prostate regrowth. We identified bone marrow cells recruited to the prostate in GFP-chimeric mice. A dramatic increase in BMDC recruitment for prostate regrowth occurred three days after exogenous testosterone implantation. Recruitment led to incorporation of BMDCs within the prostate epithelia. Immunofluorescence staining suggested BMDCs in the prostate coexpressed androgen receptor; p63, a basal epithelial marker; and cytokeratin 8, a luminal epithelial marker. A subset of the BMDC population, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), were specifically found to be incorporated in the prostate at its greatest time of remodeling. Rosa26 expressing MSCs injected into GFP mice supported MSC fusion with resident prostate epithelial cells through co-localization of β-galactosidase and GFP during regrowth. In a human C4-2B xenograft model of CRPC, MSCs were specifically recruited. Injection of GFP-labeled MSCs supported C4-2B tumor progression by potentiating canonical Wnt signaling. The use of MSCs as a targeted delivery vector for the exogenously expressed Wnt antagonist, secreted frizzled related protein-2 (SFRP2), reduced tumor growth, increased apoptosis and potentiated tumor necrosis. Conclusions/Significance Mesenchymal stem cells fuse with prostate epithelia during the process of prostate regrowth. MSCs recruited to the regrowing prostate can be used as a vehicle for transporting genetic information with potential therapeutic effects on castrate resistant prostate cancer, for instance by antagonizing Wnt signaling through SFRP2.
Recommending social media content to community owners

Online communities within the enterprise offer their leaders an easy and accessible way to attract, engage, and influence others. Our research studies the recommendation of social media content to leaders (owners) of online communities within the enterprise. We developed a system that suggests to owners new content from outside the community, which might interest the community members. As online communities are taking a central role in the pervasion of social media to the enterprise, sharing such recommendations can help owners create a more lively and engaging community. We compared seven different methods for generating recommendations, including content-based, member-based, and hybridization of the two. For member-based recommendations, we experimented with three groups: owners, active members, and regular members. Our evaluation is based on a survey in which 851 community owners rated a total of 8,218 recommended content items. We analyzed the quality of the different recommendation methods and examined the effect of different community characteristics, such as type and size.
Conic Relaxations of Power System Optimization : Theory and Algorithms

Conic optimization has recently emerged as a powerful tool for designing tractable and guaranteed algorithms for power system operation. On the one hand, tractability is crucial due to the large size of modern electricity transmission grids. This is a result of the numerous interconnections that have been build over time. On the other hand, guarantees are needed to ensure reliability and safety for consumers at a time when power systems are growing in complexity. This is in large part due to the high penetration of renewable energy sources and the advent of electric vehicles. The aim of this paper is to review the latest literature in order to demonstrate the success of conic optimization when applied to power systems. The main focus is on how linear programming, second-order conic programming, and semidefinite programming can be used to address a central problem named the optimal power flow problem. We describe how they are used to design convex relaxations of this highly challenging non-convex optimization problem. We also show how sum-of-squares can be used to strengthen these relaxations. Finally, we present advances in first-order methods, interior-point methods, and nonconvex methods for solving conic optimization. Challenges for future research are also discussed.
Quality, Trade and the Moving Window: The Globalization Process

The globalisation process is analysed in a model where firms differ in productivity and quality. A lower bound to quality emerges, below which firms cannot sell, however low their (local) wage rate. The range of quality levels between the maximum and this lower bound shifts upwards when trade is liberalised (the ‘moving window’). The initial phase of globalisation, associated with trade liberalisation, in an initially segmented (but not autarkic) world, may reduce welfare in countries with intermediate levels of capability, but these countries may be the most important gainers as capabilities are transferred in subsequent phases.
Distributed Visual–Vestibular Processing in the Cerebral Cortex of Man and Macaque

Recent advances in understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of visual–vestibular interactions underlying self-motion perception are reviewed with an emphasis on comparisons between the macaque and human brains. In both species, several distinct cortical regions have been identified that are active during both visual and vestibular stimulation and in some of these there is clear evidence for sensory integration. Several possible cross-species homologies between cortical regions are identified. A key feature of cortical organization is that the same information is apparently represented in multiple, anatomically diverse cortical regions, suggesting that information about self-motion is used for different purposes in different brain regions.
3D classification of crossroads from multiple aerial images using conditional random fields

We apply Conditional Random Fields for the classification of scenes containing crossroads, using a simple appearance-based model in combination with a probabilistic model of the co-occurrence of class labels at neighbouring image sites. We use multiple overlap aerial images to derive a digital surface model and a true orthophoto without dynamic objects such as cars. An evaluation on an urban data set of aerial images delivers promising results.
Regular Paper Information Visualization System For Activation of Shotengai

This paper attempts to activate a large scale shopping district (shotengai) using new internet techniques. Recently decline of shotengai is a serious problem by development of large shopping centers. We made a new approach with internet techniques to activate shotengai, which is a typical Japanese shopping district. The Osu Shotengai is one of the most famous shotengai in Nagoya, Japan, which includes about 400 stores. We developed Osu shotengai official web site, called “At Osu. ” First, the information of 400 stores in Osu shotengai, which includes 9 streets, was collected. Then we created an interactive “Information Visualization System” to put fresh information of shotengai on the web site in real time. It includes “Comment Upload System,” where store owners can upload their comments and informing news directly on the web site. Further, we developed a new approach to stimulate store owners motivations for participating in the web site. And we also mention about an attractive and interactive web design using twitters to get opinions of users. By developing the new web site, the number of visitors of “At Osu” has increased rapidly. Many articles about this new approach to activate shotengai with a web site were published in newspapers or magazines and we have receives many inquiries.
A Model-based Approach for Rigid Object Recognition

Most object recognition systems require large databases of real images for classifier training. To collect real images for this purpose is a difficult and expensive process. This paper introduces a unified framework based on the creation and use of synthetic images for training various classifiers to achieve recognition of real-world objects. A 3D model of the object (i.e. trolley in this case) is constructed from a minimum of two photographs. The constructed 3D model is used to automatically generate the relevant synthetic images that are subsequently used to train the Adaboost and support vector machine-based recognition systems. Experimental results obtained are very encouraging suggesting that synthetically generated images generated by our approach can augment the real training samples used in current recognition systems
INVERSE ENZYMATIC CHANGES IN NEURONS AND GLIA DURING INCREASED FUNCTION AND HYPOXIA

Following stimulation of the vestibular nerve in the rabbit, respiratory enzyme activities increased in Deiters' nerve cells. The anaerobic glycolysis, measured as 10-4 µl CO2 per hour per cell, was found to decrease concomitantly by 25 to 40 per cent, suggesting a Pasteur effect. By contrast, in the surrounding glia the anaerobic glycolysis increased and the respiratory enzyme activity decreased, suggesting a Crabtree effect. The evidence is discussed for a regulatory metabolic mechanism operating between the neuron and its glia. Hypoxia of 8 per cent O2 caused an increase of both oxygen consumption and CO2 production in the nerve cells, but did not change the glia values.
Are stellar coronae optically thin in X-rays?. A systematic investigation of opacity effects

The relevance of resonant scattering in the solar corona has always been discussed controversially. Ratios of emission lines from identical ions but different oscillator strengths have been used in order to estimate damping of resonance lines due to possible resonant scattering, i.e., absorption by photo-excitation and re-emission out of the line of sight. The analysis of stellar spectra in analogy to previous works for the Sun is possible now with XMM-Newton and Chandra grating spectra and requires this issue to be considered again. In this work we present a sample of 45 X-ray spectra obtained for 26 stellar coronae with the RGS on board XMM-Newton and the LETGS and HETGS on board Chandra. We use ratios of the Fe  lines at 15.27 A and 16.78 A lines to the resonance line at 15.03 A as well as the He-like f /r ratio of O  and Ne  to measure optical depth effects and compare them with ratios obtained from optically thin plasma atomic databases such as MEKAL, Chianti, and APEC. From the Fe  line ratios we find no convincing proof for resonance line scattering. Optical depths are basically identical for all kinds of stellar coronae and we conclude that identical optical depths are more probable when effects from resonant scattering are generally negligible. The 15.27/15.03 A ratio shows a regular trend suggesting blending of the 15.27 A line by a cooler Fe line, possibly Fe . The He-like f /r ratios for O and Ne show no indication for significant damping of the resonance lines. We mainly attribute deviations from the atomic databases to still uncertain emissivities which do not agree well with laboratory measurements and which come out with differing results when accounting for one or the other side effect. We attribute the discrepancies in the solar data to geometrical effects from observing individual emitting regions in the solar corona but only overall emission for stellar coronae including photons eventually scattered into the line of sight.
PASTURE SEEDS MIXTURES, COMPETITION AND PRODUCTIVITY

THE PRINCIPLES involved in making up a pasture seeds mixture are many and complicated, and while considerable attention was paid to these principles in the period between 1910-30 (e.g., Cockayne, 1914, 1917; Levy, 1923, 1936; Stapledon and Davies, 1927, 1928) development of other areas of investigation of sward performance have in recent years tended to overshadow the importance of the species mixture in determining the productivity of a sward. In the establishment of pasture on bush-burns in the early stages of grasslands farming in New Zealand, it was common practice to include 20 species in a seeds mixture. Viewed in retrospect, such multi-species seeding was probably wise practice since there was little available knowledge to suggest which species would provide maximum productivity and cover in respect to climate, topography and soil. Pasture ecologists noted that, from these complex seeds mixtures, the succession from the established sowing led to the dominance of a few species in a homogeneous environment. Levy (1936) and others, working from these principles, suggested the simplification of mixtures, although some opposed this reasoning (Smith, 1936). Land development to produce an environment conducive to the maintenance of a simple perennial ryegrass/ white clover-dominant sward was indicated as the goal to grasslands attainment in New Zealand by Levy (1936).
On Low Complexity Multi-Resource Packet Scheduling with Dominant Resource Fairness

Middleboxes are widely deployed in today’s enterprise networks. They perform a wide range of important network functions, including WAN optimizations, intrusion detection systems, network and application level firewalls, etc. Depending on the processing requirement of traffic, packet processing for different traffic flows may consume vastly different amounts of hardware resources (e.g., CPU and link bandwidth). Multiresource fair queueing allows each traffic flow to receive a fair share of multiple middlebox resources. Previous schemes for multi-resource fair queueing, however, are expensive to implement at high speeds. Specifically, the time complexity to schedule a packet is O(log n), where n is the number of backlogged flows. In this paper, we design a new multi-resource fair queueing scheme that schedules packets in a manner similar to Elastic Round Robin. Our scheme requires only O(1) work to schedule a packet and is simple enough to implement in practice. We show, both analytically and experimentally, that our queueing scheme achieves nearly perfect Dominant Resource Fairness.
An Implementation of AODV Routing Protocol with Multi-Metrics

A Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) is actually a set of nodes which are self-configured and organized dynamically. Furthermore, nodes can communicate with each other without any fixed infrastructure as the base stations. The Ad-hoc On demand Distance Vector (AODV) is the most typical reactive routing protocol in MANET. It has been extensively studied through not only computer simulations but also implementations on real network. In this paper, an implementation of AODV routing protocol with multi-metric was presented. In the implementation, an Uppsala University routing protocol, AODVUU was modified in order to apply multi-metrics. Moreover, both AODV-UU and modified AODV-UU were implemented within a Linux-based test bed: a real ad-hoc network. Finally, the performance of both protocols was evaluated experimentally.
Using Magnetic RAM to Build Low-Power and Soft Error-Resilient L1 Cache

Due to its great scalability, fast read access, low leakage power, and nonvolatility, magnetic random access memory (MRAM) appears to be a promising memory technology for on-chip cache memory in microprocessors. However, the write-to-MRAM process is relatively slow and results in high dynamic power consumption. Such inherent disadvantages of MRAM make researchers easily conclude that MRAM can only be used for low-level caches (e.g., L2 or L3 cache), where cache memories are less frequently accessed and slow write to MRAM can be more easily compensated using simple architectural techniques. By developing a hybrid cache architecture, this paper attempts to show that, with appropriate architecture design, MRAM can also be used in L1 cache to improve both the energy efficiency and soft error immunity. The basic idea is to supplement the MRAM L1 cache with several small SRAM buffers, which can substantially mitigate the performance degradation and dynamic energy overhead induced by MRAM write operations. Moreover, the proposed hybrid cache architecture is also an efficient solution to protect cache memory from radiation-induced soft errors, as MRAM is inherently invulnerable to emissive particles. Simulation results show that, with only less than 2% performance degradation, the proposed design approach can reduce the power consumption by up to 76.1% on average compared with the traditional SRAM L1 cache. In addition, the architectural vulnerability factor of L1 data cache is reduced from 28.3% to as low as 0.5%.
Mycorrhizal Associations in Eucalyptus spp . : Status and Needs

In nature, there are some intraor interspecific ecological relations with different dependence levels. Plant roots are good examples of this, because they develop ecological relations with many soil microorganisms, mainly with the fungi, forming mycorrhizae. The interest in studying this association has risen up due to increasing necessity of alternative handling methods that promote improvement in the plant growth and productivity. Arbuscular mycorrhiza have been known and explored for a long time due to the ecological significance and effects in the growth and nutrition of plants, playing an important role for the nutrient uptake system. The mycorrhizal establishment in eucalyptus has been known for many years, and the benefits of this symbiosis have been commercially explored. The most recent outcomes regarding the occurrence, importance and use of arbuscular mycorrhiza in Eucalyptus spp. are presented in this paper. Firstly, these will be grouped in various research topics (state of the art, mycorrhizal dependence; colonization and benefits; diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in eucalyptus forests; coexistence of arbuscular-and ecto-mycorrhizal fungi; perspectives and needs). Then, a brief discussion will take place in order to define the real state of knowledge of this subject related to Eucalyptus spp. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Are Efficient Farms and Inefficient Farms Heterogeneous

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is one technique that is commonly used for measuring efficiency. Previous studies focus on identifying the sources of inefficiency with implicit assumption of homogeneity between efficient and inefficient farms. Since technical efficiency cannot be greater than one in the standard DEA, those studies are not capturing the marginal effects of input variables on the efficiency improvement for efficient farms, which leaves the heterogeneity in the marginal effects hard to be examined. We exploit a methodology called super DEA, which facilitates the study on the heterogeneity by producing the ranking information in the efficient Decision Making Units(DMUs). A quantile regression is employed to identify the sources of efficiency for efficient farms and inefficient farms, respectively. Using the Kansas Farm Management Association (KFMA), we find that an increase in feed affects efficiency in opposite ways for efficient farms and inefficient farms. This result suggests that efficient and inefficient farms are heterogeneous.
Spontaneous service provision framework based on semantic object

This paper describes the core of an spontaneous service provision framework offering general functionality based on objects in Internet of Things. The framework supports sensor, wireless network and end system based on services and service features. The framework is more generic than traditional hierarchical sensor and actuator networks framework. It supports grids and spontaneous service provision. In the framework, techniques of spontaneous service provision, grid, context-aware, semantic reasoning, and pervasive service management are smoothly synthesized. A seven-layer conceptual architecture is introduced on the basis of functional characteristics of framework. It enables objects in domain of things to interact spontaneously, provides semantic-integration context awareness, and supports meta-service based adaptability and scalability.
On dynamics in selfish network creation

We consider the dynamic behavior of several variants of the Network Creation Game, introduced by Fabrikant et al. [PODC'03]. Equilibrium networks in these models have desirable properties like low social cost and small diameter, which makes them attractive for the decentralized creation of overlay-networks. Unfortunately, due to the non-constructiveness of the Nash equilibrium, no distributed algorithm for finding such networks is known. We treat these games as sequential-move games and analyze if (uncoordinated) selfish play eventually converges to an equilibrium. Thus, we shed light on one of the most natural algorithms for this problem: distributed local search, where in each step some agent performs a myopic selfish improving move. We show that fast convergence is guaranteed for all versions of Swap Games, introduced by Alon et al. [SPAA'10], if the initial network is a tree. Furthermore, we prove that this process can be sped up to an almost optimal number of moves by employing a very natural move policy. Unfortunately, these positive results are no longer true if the initial network has cycles and we show the surprising result that even one non-tree edge suffices to destroy the convergence guarantee. This answers an open problem from Ehsani et al. [SPAA'11] in the negative. Moreover, we show that on non-tree networks no move policy can enforce convergence. We extend our negative results to the well-studied original version, where agents are allowed to buy and delete edges as well. For this model we prove that there is no convergence guarantee - even if all agents play optimally. Even worse, if played on a non-complete host-graph, then there are instances where no sequence of improving moves leads to a stable network. Furthermore, we analyze whether cost-sharing has positive impact on the convergence behavior. For this we consider a version by Corbo and Parkes [PODC'05] where bilateral consent is needed for the creation of an edge and where edge-costs are shared among the involved agents. We show that employing such a cost-sharing rule yields even worse dynamic behavior.