Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A novel discontinuity metric for unit selection text-to-speech synthesis

The level of quality that can be achieved by modern concatenative text-to-speech synthesis heavily depends on the optimization criteria used in the unit selection process. While effective cost functions arise naturally in the assessment of prosodic characteristics, the criteria typically selected to quantify discontinuities at the speech signal level do not tightly reflect users’ perception of the resulting acoustic waveform. This paper introduces a novel discontinuity measure which jointly, albeit implicitly, accounts for both interframe incoherence and discrepancies in formant frequencies/bandwidths. This metric is derived from a distinct feature extraction paradigm, eschewing general purpose Fourier analysis in favor of a separately optimized modal decomposition for each boundary region. This alternative transform framework preserves, by construction, those properties of the waveform which are globally relevant to each concatenation considered. Experimental evaluations are conducted to characterize the behavior of the new measure, first on a contiguity prediction task, and then via a systematic listening comparison using a conventional metric as baseline. The results underscores the viability of the proposed approach in quantifying the perception of discontinuity between acoustic units.
Identification of dcmR, the regulatory gene governing expression of dichloromethane dehalogenase in Methylobacterium sp. strain DM4

The genes for dichloromethane utilization by Methylobacterium sp. strain DM4 are encoded on a 2.8-kb sequenced DNA fragment, the dcm region. This fragment contains dcmA, the structural gene of dichloromethane dehalogenase and, upstream of dcmA, a 1.5-kb region responsible for inducibility of dichloromethane dehalogenase by dichloromethane. A fragment of the dcm region covering dcmA and 230 bp of its upstream region was integrated into the chromosome of a Methylobacterium sp. strain DM4 mutant deleted for the dcm region. This yielded a strain expressin dichloromethane dehalogenase constitutively at the induced level. Plasmids carrying various segments of the 1.5-kb regulatory region were tested for their ability to restore regulation. The data obtained led to the identification of dcmR, the structural gene of a putative dcm-specific repressor. Transcription of dcmR was divergent from dcmA. dcmR encoded a 30-kDa protein with a helix-turn-helix motif near the amino terminus. The transcription start sites of dcmA and dcmR were identified by nuclease S1 mapping. The promoter regions of these genes contained nearly identical 12-bp sequences covering positions -14 to -25 relative to the mRNA start sites. Experiments with dcmR'-'lacZ fusions demonstrated that dcmR expression was markedly autoregulated at the level of transcription and less so at the protein level. These findings are compatible with both dcmA and dcmR expression being negatively controlled at the transcriptional level by the DcmR protein.
Prevention of Atherosclerosis Progression by 9-cis-β-Carotene Rich Alga Dunaliella in apoE-Deficient Mice

Introduction. β-Carotene-rich diet has been shown to be inversely associated with the risk of coronary heart disease. However, clinical trials using synthetic all-trans-β-carotene failed to demonstrate a beneficial effect. We therefore sought to study the effect of natural source of β-carotene, the alga Dunaliella, containing both all-trans and 9-cis-β-carotene on atherosclerosis. In a previous study we showed that 9-cis-β-carotene-rich powder of the alga Dunaliella inhibits early atherogenesis in low-density lipoprotein receptor knockout mice. Aims. The aims of the current work were to study whether diet enriched with Dunaliella powder would inhibit the progression of established atherosclerosis in old male apoE-deficient mice and to compare the effect of Dunaliella on lipid profile and atherosclerosis in a low-versus high-fat diet fed mice. Methods. In the first experiment, young mice (12 weeks old) were allocated into 3 groups: (1) low-fat diet; (2) low-fat diet + Dunaliella powder (8%); (3) low-fat diet + β-carotene-deficient Dunaliella. In the second experiment, old mice (7 months old) with established atherosclerotic lesions were allocated into 4 groups: (1) low-fat diet; (2) low-fat diet + Dunaliella; (3) high fat-diet; (4) high-fat diet + Dunaliella. Results. In young mice fed a low-fat diet, a trend toward lower atherosclerotic lesion area in the aortic sinus was found in the Dunaliella group compared with the control group. In old mice with established atherosclerotic lesion, Dunaliella inhibited significantly plasma cholesterol elevation and atherosclerosis progression in mice fed a high-fat diet. Conclusion. The results of this study suggest that a diet containing natural carotenoids, rich in 9-cis-β-carotene, has the potential to inhibit atherosclerosis progression, particularly in high-fat diet regime.
A study in transfer learning: leveraging data from multiple hospitals to enhance hospital-specific predictions

BACKGROUND Data-driven risk stratification models built using data from a single hospital often have a paucity of training data. However, leveraging data from other hospitals can be challenging owing to institutional differences with patients and with data coding and capture. OBJECTIVE To investigate three approaches to learning hospital-specific predictions about the risk of hospital-associated infection with Clostridium difficile, and perform a comparative analysis of the value of different ways of using external data to enhance hospital-specific predictions. MATERIALS AND METHODS We evaluated each approach on 132 853 admissions from three hospitals, varying in size and location. The first approach was a single-task approach, in which only training data from the target hospital (ie, the hospital for which the model was intended) were used. The second used only data from the other two hospitals. The third approach jointly incorporated data from all hospitals while seeking a solution in the target space. RESULTS The relative performance of the three different approaches was found to be sensitive to the hospital selected as the target. However, incorporating data from all hospitals consistently had the highest performance. DISCUSSION The results characterize the challenges and opportunities that come with (1) using data or models from collections of hospitals without adapting them to the site at which the model will be used, and (2) using only local data to build models for small institutions or rare events. CONCLUSIONS We show how external data from other hospitals can be successfully and efficiently incorporated into hospital-specific models.
Nef-Induced CD4 and Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I (MHC-I) Down-Regulation Are Governed by Distinct Determinants: N-Terminal Alpha Helix and Proline Repeat of Nef Selectively Regulate MHC-I Trafficking

ABSTRACT The Nef protein of primate lentiviruses triggers the accelerated endocytosis of CD4 and of class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC-I), thereby down-modulating the cell surface expression of these receptors. Nef acts as a connector between the CD4 cytoplasmic tail and intracellular sorting pathways both in the Golgi and at the plasma membrane, triggering the de novo formation of CD4-specific clathrin-coated pits (CCP). The downstream partners of Nef in this event are the adapter protein complex (AP) of CCP and possibly a subunit of the vacuolar ATPase. Whether Nef-induced MHC-I down-regulation stems from a similar mechanism is unknown. By comparing human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Nef mutants for their ability to affect either CD4 or MHC-I expression, both in transient-transfection assays and in the context of HIV-1 infection, it was determined that Nef-induced CD4 and MHC-I down-regulation constitute genetically and functionally separate properties. Mutations affecting only CD4 regulation mapped to residues previously shown to mediate the binding of Nef to this receptor, such as W57 and L58, as well as to an AP-recruiting dileucine motif and to an acidic dipeptide in the C-terminal region of the protein. In contrast, mutation of residues in an alpha-helical region in the proximal portion of Nef and amino acid substitutions in a proline-based SH3 domain-binding motif selectively affected MHC-I down-modulation. Although both the N-terminal alpha-helix and the proline-rich region of Nef have been implicated in recruiting Src family protein kinases, the inhibitor herbimycin A did not block MHC-I down-regulation, suggesting that the latter process is not mediated through an activation of this family of tyrosine kinases.
Investigating the Relationship between Literary Genres and Emotional Plot Development

Literary genres are commonly viewed as being defined in terms of content and stylistic features. In this paper, we focus on one particular class of lexical features, namely emotion information, and investigate the hypothesis that emotion-related information correlates with particular genres. Using genre classification as a testbed, we compare a model that computes lexicon-based emotion scores globally for complete stories with a model that tracks emotion arcs through stories on a subset of Project Gutenberg with five genres. Our main findings are: (a), the global emotion model is competitive with a large-vocabulary bag-of-words genre classifier (80%F1); (b), the emotion arc model shows a lower performance (59 % F1) but shows complementary behavior to the global model, as indicated by a very good performance of an oracle model (94 % F1) and an improved performance of an ensemble model (84 % F1); (c), genres differ in the extent to which stories follow the same emotional arcs, with particularly uniform behavior for anger (mystery) and fear (adventures, romance, humor, science fiction).
Interpreting Contextual Effects By Contextual Modeling In Recommender Systems

Recommender systems have been widely applied to assist user's decision making by providing a list of personalized item recommendations. Context-aware recommender systems (CARS) additionally take context information into considering in the recommendation process, since user's tastes on the items may vary from contexts to contexts. Several context-aware recommendation algorithms have been proposed and developed to improve the quality of recommendations. However, there are limited research which explore and discuss the capability of interpreting the contextual effects by the recommendation models. In this paper, we specifically focus on different contextual modeling approaches, reshape the structure of the models, and exploit how to utilize the existing contextual modeling to interpret the contextual effects in the recommender systems. We compare the explanations of contextual effects, as well as the recommendation performance over two-real world data sets in order to examine the quality of interpretations.
Multisite optical recording of excitability in the enteric nervous system

A multisite optical recording technique consisting of an array of 464 photodiodes was used to measure dynamic changes in transmembrane potentials (Vm) of guinea‐pig and mouse enteric neurones stained with the voltage‐sensitive dye Di‐8‐ANEPPS. Optical recordings of Vm changes in enteric neurones which were evoked by depolarizing current pulses or synaptic activation mirrored the Vm changes measured intracellularly in the same neurone. Action potentials had fractional change in fluorescence of –0.09 ± 0.06% and their peak to peak noise level was 20 ± 14% of the action potential amplitude. Optical recordings after electrical stimulation of interganglionic nerve strands revealed slow EPSPs, nicotinergic supra‐ and subthreshold fast EPSPs as well as propagation of action potentials along interganglionic strands. Local application of acetylcholine onto a single ganglion induced reproducibly and dose dependently action potential discharge demonstrating the feasibility of neuropharmacological studies. The optical mapping made it possible to record action potentials simultaneously in a large number of neurones with high spatiotemporal resolution that is unattainable by conventional techniques. This technique presents a powerful tool to study excitability spread within enteric circuits and to assess differential activation of enteric populations in response to a number of stimuli which modulate neuronal activity directly or through synaptic mechanisms.
Unification and polymorphism in region inference

Region Inference is a technique for inferring lifetimes of values in strict, higher-order programming languages such as Standard ML. The purpose of this paper is to show how ideas from Milner's polymorphic type discipline can serve as a basis for region inference, even in the presence of a limited form of polymorphic recursion.
Homocellular Conduction Along Endothelium and Smooth Muscle of Arterioles in Hamster Cheek Pouch: Unmasking an NO Wave

Abstract— We investigated roles for homocellular (endothelium or smooth muscle) and heterocellular (myoendothelial) conduction pathways along hamster cheek pouch arterioles in vivo (n=64; diameter, 33±1 &mgr;m). Endothelium-dependent and -independent vasoactive agents were delivered from micropipettes (0.5 or 1 second pulse) onto an arteriole while observing diameter changes at defined distances along the vessel. Acetylcholine (ACh) produced maximal diameter (63±1 &mgr;m) locally and vasodilation conducted rapidly (≈10 &mgr;m response at 2 mm, <1 second). Responses to bradykinin (BK) were similar, whereas sodium nitroprusside produced maximal dilation locally without conduction. KCl evoked biphasic conduction of vasoconstriction and vasodilation, whereas phenylephrine (PE) produced conducted vasoconstriction. Disrupting the integrity of endothelium as a conduction pathway using focal light-dye treatment (LDT) abolished conducted vasodilation to BK and to KCl but not to ACh. Disruption of smooth muscle integrity with LDT abolished conducted vasoconstriction with no effect on conducted vasodilation. After LDT of respective cell layers at sites 1 mm apart, vasodilation to ACh conducted past disrupted smooth muscle or disrupted endothelium, but not beyond both sites in series. The loss of conduction after selective LDT indicates a lack of effective myoendothelial coupling along the arteriolar wall. During NO synthase inhibition (L-NA, 100 &mgr;mol/L), conducted vasodilation was abolished to BK and to KCl yet remained intact to ACh. However, after LDT of smooth muscle, L-NA inhibited conduction to ACh by 60%. Thus, conduction of vasodilation entails a wave of NO release along arteriolar endothelium that is masked when smooth muscle provides a parallel conduction pathway.
Feasibility of multi-protocol attacks

Formal modeling and verification of security protocols typically assumes that a protocol is executed in isolation, without other protocols sharing the network. We investigate the existence of multi-protocol attacks on protocols described in literature. Given two or more protocols, that share key structures and are executed in the same environment, are new attacks possible? Out of 30 protocols from literature, we find that 23 are vulnerable to multi-protocol attacks. We identify two likely attack patterns and sketch a tagging scheme to prevent multi-protocol attacks.
Flexible, Penetrating Brain Probes Enabled by Advances in Polymer Microfabrication

The acquisition of high-fidelity, long-term neural recordings in vivo is critically important to advance neuroscience and brain–machine interfaces. For decades, rigid materials such as metal microwires and micromachined silicon shanks were used as invasive electrophysiological interfaces to neurons, providing either single or multiple electrode recording sites. Extensive research has revealed that such rigid interfaces suffer from gradual recording quality degradation, in part stemming from tissue damage and the ensuing immune response arising from mechanical mismatch between the probe and brain. The development of “soft” neural probes constructed from polymer shanks has been enabled by advancements in microfabrication; this alternative has the potential to mitigate mismatch-related side effects and thus improve the quality of recordings. This review examines soft neural probe materials and their associated microfabrication techniques, the resulting soft neural probes, and their implementation including custom implantation and electrical packaging strategies. The use of soft materials necessitates careful consideration of surgical placement, often requiring the use of additional surgical shuttles or biodegradable coatings that impart temporary stiffness. Investigation of surgical implantation mechanics and histological evidence to support the use of soft probes will be presented. The review concludes with a critical discussion of the remaining technical challenges and future outlook.
Bcl-2high mantle cell lymphoma cells are sensitized to acadesine with ABT-199

Acadesine is a nucleoside analogue with known activity against B-cell malignancies. Herein, we showed that in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) cells acadesine induced caspase-dependent apoptosis through turning on the mitochondrial apoptotic machinery. At the molecular level, the compound triggered the activation of the AMPK pathway, consequently modulating known downstream targets, such as mTOR and the cell motility-related vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP). VASP phosphorylation by acadesine was concomitant with a blockade of CXCL12-induced migration. The inhibition of the mTOR cascade by acadesine, committed MCL cells to enter in apoptosis by a translational downregulation of the antiapoptotic Mcl-1 protein. In contrast, Bcl-2 protein levels were unaffected by acadesine and MCL samples expressing high levels of Bcl-2 tended to have a reduced response to the drug. Targeting Bcl-2 with the selective BH3-mimetic agent ABT-199 sensitized Bcl-2 high MCL cells to acadesine. This effect was validated in vivo, where the combination of both agents displayed a more marked inhibition of tumor outgrowth than each drug alone. These findings support the notions that antiapoptotic proteins of the Bcl-2 family regulate MCL cell sensitivity to acadesine and that the combination of this agent with Bcl-2 inhibitors might be an interesting therapeutic option to treat MCL patients.
A comparative study of GA, PSO and APSO: Feed point optimization of a patch antenna

In this age of wireless communication, micro strip antennas have drawn maximum attention of antenna community because of its compact size, light weight and low profile configuration. In this paper the problem of locating feed point of an inset fed microstrip patch antenna designed for wireless communication is dealt with. The optimization is done using three techniques: Genetic Optimization (GA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Accelerated Particle Swarm Optimization (APSO). Results obtained using all these techniques are in good agreement and are compared using convergence graphs. Return loss and radiation pattern for the optimized antenna was verified using IE3D software.
Document normalization revisited

Cosine Pivoted Document Length Normalization has reached a point of stability where many researchers indiscriminately apply a specific value of 0.2 regardless of the collection. Our efforts, however, demonstrate that applying this specific value without tuning for the document collection degrades average precision by as much as 20%.
Anaerobic Degradation of Ethylbenzene by a New Type of Marine Sulfate-Reducing Bacterium

ABSTRACT Anaerobic degradation of the aromatic hydrocarbon ethylbenzene was studied with sulfate as the electron acceptor. Enrichment cultures prepared with marine sediment samples from different locations showed ethylbenzene-dependent reduction of sulfate to sulfide and always contained a characteristic cell type that formed gas vesicles towards the end of growth. A pure culture of this cell type, strain EbS7, was isolated from sediment from Guaymas Basin (Gulf of California). Complete mineralization of ethylbenzene coupled to sulfate reduction was demonstrated in growth experiments with strain EbS7. Sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene revealed a close relationship between strain EbS7 and the previously described marine sulfate-reducing strains NaphS2 and mXyS1 (similarity values, 97.6 and 96.2%, respectively), which grow anaerobically with naphthalene and m-xylene, respectively. However, strain EbS7 did not oxidize naphthalene, m-xylene, or toluene. Other compounds utilized by strain EbS7 were phenylacetate, 3-phenylpropionate, formate, n-hexanoate, lactate, and pyruvate. 1-Phenylethanol and acetophenone, the characteristic intermediates in anaerobic ethylbenzene degradation by denitrifying bacteria, neither served as growth substrates nor were detectable as metabolites by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in ethylbenzene-grown cultures of strain EbS7. Rather, (1-phenylethyl)succinate and 4-phenylpentanoate were detected as specific metabolites in such cultures. Formation of these intermediates can be explained by a reaction sequence involving addition of the benzyl carbon atom of ethylbenzene to fumarate, carbon skeleton rearrangement of the succinate moiety (as a thioester), and loss of one carboxyl group. Such reactions are analogous to those suggested for anaerobic n-alkane degradation and thus differ from the initial reactions in anaerobic ethylbenzene degradation by denitrifying bacteria which employ dehydrogenations.
AI in training (1980-2000): Foundation for the future or misplaced optimism?

Since the beginning of the use of technology to support training and learning there has always been the belief that such new technologies would be able to add value either by reducing costs or increasing effectiveness. The 1980s and early 1990s were a period of enormous optimism as to the promise that such technology could bring. The governments of Europe and the US were generous in their funding of research in this area. In Europe research and development programmes such as ESPRIT, DELTA, RACE, ERASMUS and COMETT, to name only a few, funded a wealth of initiatives aimed at advancing the use of technology. At the margins of the early initiatives was the belief that AI must have a part to play in these developments. This paper reviews the early initiatives and suggests reasons why the potential for the use of AI in education and training has never been truly fulfilled.