Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automated transcription and topic segmentation of large spoken archives

Digital archives have emerged as the pre-eminent method for capturing the human experience. Before such archives can be used efficiently, their contents must be described. The scale of such archives along with the associated content mark up cost make it impractical to provide access via purely manual means, but automatic technologies for search in spoken materials still have relatively limited capabilities. The NSF-funded MALACH project will use the world’s largest digital archive of video oral histories, collected by the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation (VHF) to make a quantum leap in the ability to access such archives by advancing the state-of-the-art in Automated Speech Recognition (ASR), Natural Language Processing (NLP) and related technologies [1, 2]. This corpus consists of over 115,000 hours of unconstrained, natural speech from 52,000 speakers in 32 different languages, filled with disfluencies, heavy accents, age-related coarticulations, and un-cued speaker and language switching. Thispaper discusses some of theASR and NLPtools and technologies that we have been building for the English speech in the MALACH corpus. We also discuss this new test bed while emphasizing the unique characteristics of this corpus.
International Conference on Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure Hong Kong | 9-11 December 2013 IMPROVING REMAINING-FATIGUE-LIFE EVALUATION USING DATA INTERPRETATION

This paper presents a methodology that improves fatigue-performance evaluations using model-based data interpretation. The accuracy of stress-range values is essential for quantifying fatigue damage. These values are usually predicted using physics-based models such as those used within finite element analyses. In the modelling process, simplifications are inevitable, thus causing systematic errors in model predictions. Structural health monitoring coupled with model-based data-interpretation approaches have the potential to reduce uncertainties associated with the evaluation of stress-range predictions. Because of the presence of modelling and measurement uncertainties, many models may explain the true structural behaviour. A model falsification approach, which is able to cope with incomplete knowledge of uncertainties, is used to isolate candidate models from an initial population of models. This approach is robust for systematic errors that are correlated spatially. The candidate models that are identified using the model-falsification approach predict stress ranges in structural members, from which the remaining fatigue life is determined. Due to the uncertainty reduction in model predictions during data interpretation, the accuracy of the fatigue prognosis is improved. A steel beam composed of a circular hollow-section truss is studied for illustration. Monitoring data that is interpreted using a model-falsification methodology shows potential for improving evaluations of remaining fatigue life.
Functional Assessment in End‐Stage Renal Disease: Enhancing Quality of Life

Why do functional assessments in patients with end‐stage renal disease (ESRD) matter? Multiple studies show that new dialysis patients undergo a substantial decline among activities of daily living. Moreover, poor functional status in ESRD patients is associated with early morality. That is why CMS has developed new criteria to assess ESRD patients in regards to their functional, psychologic, and cognitive capabilities. Functional assessments by health providers have been used in field of Rehabilitation Medicine for over 50 years; rehabilitation physicians have found them effective in establishing goals and monitoring improvement. Assessments can provide guidance by identifying the needs and types of intervention most suited for patients. Impairments can be addressed with referrals to physical therapy for gross motor issues, occupational therapy for self‐care problems, psychiatry for mental disorders, and neurology for cognitive deficits. The more accurate the assessments over time, the more targeted and effective the therapies become. We believe that the new CMS goals to assess functionality will improve ESRD patient's quality of life, longevity, and long‐term healthcare costs.
Iteratively solving linear inverse problems under general convex constraints

We consider linear inverse problems where the solution is assumed to fulfill some general homogeneous convex constraint. We develop an algo- rithm that amounts to a projected Landweber iteration and that provides and iterative approach to the solution of this inverse problem. For relatively mod- erate assumptions on the constraint we can always prove weak convergence of the iterative scheme. In certain cases, i.e. for special families of convex con- straints, weak convergence implies norm convergence. The presented approach covers a wide range of problems, e.g. Besov- or BV-restoration for which we present also numerical experiments in the context of image processing.
Information hiding and retrieval in Rydberg wave packets using half-cycle pulses

We demonstrate an information hiding and retrieval scheme with the relative phases between states in a Rydberg wave packet acting as the bits of a data register. We use a terahertz half-cycle pulse (HCP) to transfer phase-encoded information from an optically accessible angular momentum manifold to another manifold which is not directly accessed by our laser pulses, effectively hiding the information from our optical interferometric measurement techniques. A subsequent HCP acting on these wave packets reintroduces the information back into the optically accessible data register manifold which can then be read out.
Homeokinesis - A new principle to back up evolution with learning

It is well known that individual learning can speed up artificial evolution enormously. However both supervised learning and reinforcement learning require specific learning goals which usually are not available or difficult to find. We introduce a new principle – homeokinesis –which is completely unspecific and yet induces specific, seemingly goal–oriented behaviors of an agent in a complex external world. The principle is based on the assumption that the agent is equipped with an adaptive model of its behavior. A learning signal for both the model and the controller is derived from the misfit between the real behavior of the agent in the world and that predicted by the model. If the structural complexity of the model is chosen adequately, this misfit is minimized if the agent exhibits a smooth controlled behavior. The principle is explicated by two examples. We moreover discuss how functional modularization emerges in a natural way in a structured system from a mechanism of competition for the best internal representation.
ResponsesReceptors to Enhance Cellular Immune Proinflammatory Actions of Thromboxane

Metabolism of arachidonic acid by the cyclo-oxygenase (COX) pathway generates a family of prostanoid mediators. Nonsteroidal anti-inﬂammatory drugs (NSAIDs) act by inhibiting COX, thereby reducing prostanoid synthesis. The efﬁcacy of these agents in reducing inﬂammation suggests a dominant proinﬂammatory role for the COX pathway. However, the actions of COX metabolites are complex, and certain prostanoids, such as PGE 2 , in some circumstances actually inhibit immune and inﬂammatory responses. In these studies, we examine the hypothesis that anti-inﬂammatory actions of NSAIDs may be due, in part, to inhibition of thromboxane A 2 synthesis. To study the immunoregulatory actions of thromboxane A 2 , we used mice with a targeted disruption of the gene encoding the thromboxane-prostanoid (TP) receptor. Both mitogen-induced responses and cellular responses to alloantigen were substantially reduced in TP (cid:1) / (cid:1) spleen cells. Similar attenuation was observed with pharmacological inhibition of TP signaling in wild-type splenocytes, suggesting that reduced responsiveness was not due to subtle developmental abnormalities in the TP-deﬁcient mice. The absence of TP receptors reduced immune-mediated tissue injury following cardiac transplant rejection, an in vivo model of intense inﬂammation. Taken together, these ﬁndings show that thromboxane augments cellular immune responses and inﬂammatory tissue injury. Speciﬁc inhibition of the TP receptor may provide a more precise approach to limit inﬂammation without some of the untoward effects associated with NSAIDs. The Journal of Immunology, 2003, 171: 6389–6395.
Temperature and Food Influence Shell Growth and Mantle Gene Expression of Shell Matrix Proteins in the Pearl Oyster Pinctada margaritifera

In this study, we analyzed the combined effect of microalgal concentration and temperature on the shell growth of the bivalve Pinctada margaritifera and the molecular mechanisms underlying this biomineralization process. Shell growth was measured after two months of rearing in experimental conditions, using calcein staining of the calcified structures. Molecular mechanisms were studied though the expression of 11 genes encoding proteins implicated in the biomineralization process, which was assessed in the mantle. We showed that shell growth is influenced by both microalgal concentration and temperature, and that these environmental factors also regulate the expression of most of the genes studied. Gene expression measurement of shell matrix protein thereby appears to be an appropriate indicator for the evaluation of the biomineralization activity in the pearl oyster P. margaritifera under varying environmental conditions. This study provides valuable information on the molecular mechanisms of mollusk shell growth and its environmental control.
Utility-driven workload management using nested control design

Virtualization and consolidation of IT resources have created a need for more effective workload management tools, one that dynamically controls resource allocation to a hosted application to achieve quality of service (QoS) goals. These goals can in turn be driven by the utility of the service, typically based on the application's service level agreement (SLA) as well as the cost of resources allocated. In this paper, we build on our earlier work on dynamic CPU allocation to applications on shared servers, and present a feedback control system consisting of two nested integral control loops for managing the QoS metric of the application along with the utilization of the allocated CPU resource. The control system was implemented on a lab testbed running an Apache Web server and using the 90th percentile of the response times as the QoS metric. Experiments using a synthetic workload based on an industry benchmark validated two important features of the nested control design. First, compared to a single loop for controlling response time only, the nested design is less sensitive to the bimodal behavior of the system resulting in more robust performance. Second, compared to a single loop for controlling CPU utilization only, the new design provides a framework for dealing with the tradeoff between better QoS and lower cost of resources, therefore resulting in better overall utility of the service
User-driven sampling strategies in image exploitation

Both visual analytics and interactive machine learning try to leverage the complementary strengths of humans and machines to solve complex data exploitation tasks. These fields overlap most significantly when training is involved: the visualization or machine learning tool improves over time by exploiting observations of the human–computer interaction. This article focuses on one aspect of the human–computer interaction that we call user-driven sampling strategies. Unlike relevance feedback and active learning sampling strategies, where the computer selects which data to label at each iteration, we investigate situations where the user selects which data are to be labeled at each iteration. User-driven sampling strategies can emerge in many visual analytics applications, but they have not been fully developed in machine learning. User-driven sampling strategies suggest new theoretical and practical research questions for both visualization science and machine learning. In this article, we identify and quantify the potential benefits of these strategies in a practical image analysis application. We find user-driven sampling strategies can sometimes provide significant performance gains by steering tools toward local minima that have lower error than tools trained with all of the data. In preliminary experiments, we find these performance gains are particularly pronounced when the user is experienced with the tool and application domain.
The Possible Impact of Vaccination for Seasonal Influenza on Emergence of Pandemic Influenza via Reassortment

Background One pathway through which pandemic influenza strains might emerge is reassortment from coinfection of different influenza A viruses. Seasonal influenza vaccines are designed to target the circulating strains, which intuitively decreases the prevalence of coinfection and the chance of pandemic emergence due to reassortment. However, individual-based analyses on 2009 pandemic influenza show that the previous seasonal vaccination may increase the risk of pandemic A(H1N1) pdm09 infection. In view of pandemic influenza preparedness, it is essential to understand the overall effect of seasonal vaccination on pandemic emergence via reassortment. Methods and Findings In a previous study we applied a population dynamics approach to investigate the effect of infection-induced cross-immunity on reducing such a pandemic risk. Here the model was extended by incorporating vaccination for seasonal influenza to assess its potential role on the pandemic emergence via reassortment and its effect in protecting humans if a pandemic does emerge. The vaccination is assumed to protect against the target strains but only partially against other strains. We find that a universal seasonal vaccine that provides full-spectrum cross-immunity substantially reduces the opportunity of pandemic emergence. However, our results show that such effectiveness depends on the strength of infection-induced cross-immunity against any novel reassortant strain. If it is weak, the vaccine that induces cross-immunity strongly against non-target resident strains but weakly against novel reassortant strains, can further depress the pandemic emergence; if it is very strong, the same kind of vaccine increases the probability of pandemic emergence. Conclusions Two types of vaccines are available: inactivated and live attenuated, only live attenuated vaccines can induce heterosubtypic immunity. Current vaccines are effective in controlling circulating strains; they cannot always help restrain pandemic emergence because of the uncertainty of the oncoming reassortant strains, however. This urges the development of universal vaccines for prevention of pandemic influenza.
Cytokine-Induced Src Homology 2 Protein (Cis) Promotes T Cell Receptor–Mediated Proliferation and Prolongs Survival of Activated T Cells

Members of the suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) family were discovered as negative regulators of cytokine signaling by inhibition of the Janus kinase–signal transducer and activator of transcription (Jak-STAT) pathway. Among them, cytokine-induced Src homology 2 (SH2) protein (CIS) was found to inhibit the interleukin 3– and erythropietin-mediated STAT5 signaling pathway. However, involvement of SOCS proteins in other signaling pathways is still unknown. This study shows that the expression of CIS is selectively induced in T cells after T cell receptor (TCR) stimulation. In transgenic mice, with selective expression of CIS in CD4 T cells, elevated CIS strongly promotes TCR-mediated proliferation and cytokine production in vitro, and superantigen-induced T cell activation in vivo. Forced expression of CIS also prolongs survival of CD4 T cells after TCR activation. Molecular events immediately downstream from the TCR are not changed in CIS-expressing CD4 T cells, but activation of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase pathways by TCR stimulation is significantly enhanced. Together with the increased MAP kinase activation, a direct interaction of CIS and protein kinase Cθ was also demonstrated. These results suggest that CIS is one of the important regulators of TCR-mediated T cell activation. The functions of CIS, enhancing TCR signaling and inhibiting cytokine signaling, may be important in the regulation of immune response and homeostasis.
Effects of an attachment-based intervention on daily cortisol moderated by dopamine receptor D4: A randomized control trial on 1- to 3-year-olds screened for externalizing behavior

Abstract The effect of the Video-Feedback Intervention to Promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD) on daily cortisol production was tested in a randomized controlled trial with 130 families with 1- to 3-year-old children screened for their relatively high levels of externalizing behavior. Six 1.5-hr intervention sessions focusing on maternal sensitivity and discipline were conducted with individual families at their homes. Children in the intervention group showed lower cortisol levels, with a moderating role of the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) VNTR exon III polymorphism. The VIPP-SD program proved to be effective in decreasing daily cortisol production in children with the DRD4 7-repeat allele, but not in children without the DRD4 7-repeat allele. Our findings indicate that children are differentially susceptible to intervention effects dependent on the presence of the 7-repeat DRD4 allele.
Effects of Oral Administration of Silymarin in a Juvenile Murine Model of Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis

The increasing prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in adolescents is challenging the global care system. No therapeutic strategies have been defined so far, and changes in the lifestyle remain the only alternative. In this study, we assessed the protective effects of silymarin in a juvenile non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) model and the in vitro effects on fat-laden human hepatocytes. C57Bl/6 mice were exposed to HFHC diet immediately after weaning. After eight weeks, animals showed histological signs of NASH. Silymarin was added to the HFHC diet, the treatment continued for additional 12 weeks and the effects on BMI, hepatomegaly, visceral fat, lipid profile, transaminases, HOMA-IR, steatosis, inflammation, fibrosis, oxidative stress, and apoptosis were determined. The switch from HFHC to control diet was used to mimic lifestyle changes. In vitro experiments were performed in parallel in human hepatocytes. HFHC diet supplemented with silymarin showed a significant improvement in glycemia, visceral fat, lipid profile, and liver fibrosis. Moreover, it reduced (both in vitro and in vivo) ALT, hepatic inflammation, oxidative stress, and apoptosis. Lifestyle changes restored the control group parameters. The data presented show the beneficial effects of the oral administration of silymarin in the absence of changes in the dietary habits in a juvenile model of NASH.
Diversity Constraints in Public Housing Allocation

The state of Singapore operates a national public housing program, accounting for over 80% of its residential real estate. Singapore uses its housing allocation program to ensure ethnic diversity in its neighborhoods; it does so by imposing ethnic quotas: every ethnic group must not own more than a certain percentage in a housing project, thus ensuring that every neighborhood contains members from each ethnic group. However, imposing diversity constraints naturally results in some welfare loss. Our work studies the tradeoff between diversity and social welfare from the perspective of computational economics. We model the problem as an extension of the classic assignment problem, with additional diversity constraints. While the classic assignment program is poly-time computable, we show that adding diversity constraints makes the problem computationally intractable; however, we identify a $\tfrac{1}{2}$-approximation algorithm, as well as reasonable agent utility models which admit poly-time algorithms. In addition, we study the price of diversity: this is the loss in welfare incurred by imposing diversity constraints; we provide upper bounds on the price of diversity as a function of natural problem parameters; next, we analyze public data from Singapore's Housing and Development Board, and create a simulated framework testing the welfare loss due to diversity constraints in realistic large-scale scenarios.
Advantages of multi-look SAR processing

The multi-look signal processing is a powerful technique for improving quality of SAR images. Recent advances in the development and implementation of such technique are reviewed. The usage of the multi-look processing for the correction of geometric and radiometric image distortions that arise under unstable flight conditions is described. The proposed solutions are illustrated by data obtained with an X-band airborne SAR recently developed and tested at the Institute of Radio Astronomy.
HCI⁁2 Workbench: A development tool for multimodal human-computer interaction systems

In this paper, we present a novel software tool designed and implemented to simplify the development process of Multimodal Human-Computer Interaction (MHCI) systems. This tool, which is called the HCI⁁2 Workbench, exploits a Publish / Subscribe (P/S) architecture [13] [14] to facilitate efficient and reliable inter-module data communication and runtime system management. In addition, through a combination of SDK, software tools, and standardized description / configuration file semantics, the HCI⁁2 Workbench provides an easy-to-follow procedure for developing highly flexible and reusable modules. Moreover, the HCI⁁2 Workbench features system persistence and portability by using standardized module packaging method and system configuration files. Last but not least, usability was another major concern. Unlike other similar tool, including Psyclone [9] and ActiveMQ [10], the HCI⁁2 Workbench provides a complete graphical environment to support every step in a typical MHCI system development process, including module program development and debugging, module packaging, module management, system configuration, module and system testing, in a convenient and intuitive manner. To help demonstrating the HCI⁁2 Workbench, we also present a readily-applicable system developed using our tool. This open-source demo system, which is called the CamGame, consists of an interactive system allowing users to play a computer game using hand-held marker(s) and low-cost camera(s) instead of keyboard and mouse.