Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrating Binary Mask Estimation With MRF Priors of Cochleagram for Speech Separation

In present binary masking based speech separation systems, it is almost impossible to obtain the ideal binary mask (IBM). The error in IBM estimation usually results in energy absence in many speech-dominated time-frequency (T-F) units. It violates smooth evolution nature of the speech signal and creates great artefacts. Markov random field (MRF) is one of the promising approaches to model smooth evolution nature which has been extensively applied to image smoothing applications. In this letter, an MRF prior for modeling the spatial dependencies in audio cochleagram is introduced. With this prior model, we further smooth the binary mask based cochleagram and generalize binary mask to ratio mask via a Bayesian framework. Our algorithm is systematically evaluated and compared with other counterpart methods, and it yields substantially better performance, especially on suppressing artefacts.
Adaptation du calcul de la Transformée de Fourier Rapide sur une architecture mixte CPU/GPU intégrée. (Adaptation of the Fast Fourier Transform processing on hybride integrated CPU/GPU architecture)

Les architectures multi-cœurs Intel Core (IvyBridge, Haswell,.) contiennent a la fois des cœurs CPU generalistes (4), mais aussi des cœurs dedies GPU embarques sur cette meme puce (16 et 40 respectivement). Dans le cadre de l'activite de la societe Kontron (qui participe a ce financement de nature CIFRE) un objectif important est de calculer efficacement sur cette architecture des tableaux et sequences de transformees de Fourier rapides (FFT), comme par exemple on en trouve dans des applications radar. Alors que des bibliotheques natives (mais proprietaires) existent chez Intel pour les CPU, rien de tel n'est actuellement disponible pour la partie GPU. L'objectif de la these etait donc de definir le placement efficace de modules FFT, en etudiant au niveau theorique la forme optimale permettant de regrouper des etages de calcul d'une telle FFT en fonction de la localite des donnees sur un cœur de calcul unique. Ce choix a priori permet d'esperer une efficacite des traitements, en ajustant la taille de la memoire disponible a celles des donnees necessaires. Ensuite la multiplicite des cœurs reste exploitable pour disposer plusieurs FFT calculees en parallele, sans interference (sauf contention du bus entre CPU et GPU). Nous avons obtenu des resultats significatifs, tant au niveau de l'implantation d'une FFT (1024 points) sur un cœur CPU SIMD, exprimee en langage C, que pour l'implantation d'une FFT de meme taille sur un cœur GPU SIMT, exprimee alors en OpenCL. De plus nos resultats permettent de definir des regles pour synthetiser automatiquement de telles solutions, en fonction uniquement de la taille de la FFT son nombre d'etages plus precisement), et de la taille de la memoire locale pour un coeur de calcul donne. Les performances obtenues sont superieures a celles de la bibliotheque native Intel pour CPU), et demontrent un gain important de consommation sur GPU. Tous ces points sont detailles dans le document de these. Ces resultats devraient donner lieu a exploitation au sein de la societe Kontron.
Physically based modelling of rainfall-runoff processes

This PhD. research was set up to investigate the use of rainfall-runoff models for simulation of high water events in hillslope areas. First, dominant parameters for runoff production during high water events have been identified. Subsequently, the influence of antecedent conditions on runoff percentages during the event has been assessed. Finally, the required amount of spatial information in rainfall-runoff models was analysed. A procedure is developed to analyse the relation between model performance and the scale of the model elements. Based on the results, guidelines are presented for the development of rainfall runoff models as well as for measurement network design. Pilot studies are the 114 km Zwalm catchment (Belgium) and the 28000 km Mosel basin (France, Germany, Luxembourg). Results show that even for a small area like the Zwalm catchment, the use of a single raingauge is not enough to guarantee reliable estimates of the area-average rainfall. However, if a reliable estimate of catchment average parameter values and rainfall intensities are available, a lumped model performs as good as distributed model. For the Mosel basin on the other hand, simulation errors are introduced if spatial heterogeneity is not taken into account by a rainfall-runoff model. For a number of high water events it is shown that about four model elements are required to capture heterogeneity effects on the basin runoff almost completely. For some moderate events with large spatial differences, more spatial detail was needed. Finally, it is found that reliable estimates of the areal precipitation in the Mosel basin are guaranteed if a network of 10 well-distributed raingauges is available.
Proposed Research

I was a graduate student at the Mas-sachusetts Institute of Technology. The rst three years of these studies were supported by an NSF Graduate Student Fellowship. My research there led to a Ph.D. thesis entitled \Noncommutative ruled surfaces. " My thesis research describes certain classes of graded rings which arise as homogeneous coordinate rings of noncommutative quantizations of algebraically ruled surfaces. Ruled surfaces, including rational surfaces, play a central role in the classical theory of commutative algebraic surfaces. I use Van den Bergh's concept of a bimodule sheaf to construct noncommutative analogs of ruled surfaces. Bergh, and others attempting to classify graded rings of Gelfand-Kirillov-dimension 3 which are \nearly commutative" in some sense. For example, 1] describes those graded rings of GK-dimension 3 which are of nite global dimension and Gorenstein: these rings can be described as homogeneous coordinate rings of quantum projective planes or of quantum quadric surfaces (i.e. quantum P 1 P 1). My goal was to develop a method for constructing GK-dimension 3 graded rings as homogeneous coordinate rings of an arbitrary quantum ruled surface, which is a noncommutative analog of a ruled surface. Since dimension 3 com-mutative rings arise naturally as homogeneous coordinate rings of algebraic surfaces, it is reasonable to expect that noncommutative GK-dimension 3 graded rings may be constructed as homogeneous coordinate rings of quan-tized versions of algebraic surfaces. Many examples of GK-dimension 3 rings can be formed in this fashion, including homogeneous coordinate rings of quantum quadric surfaces, quotients of 4-dimensional Sklyanin algebras, and quotients of the homogenized enveloping algebra of the Lie algebra sl 2 .
Ventilator-associated lung injury in patients without acute lung injury at the onset of mechanical ventilation*

Objective:Although ventilation with small tidal volumes is recommended in patients with established acute lung injury, most others receive highly variable tidal volume aimed in part at normalizing arterial blood gas values. We tested the hypothesis that acute lung injury, which develops after the initiation of mechanical ventilation, is associated with known risk factors for ventilator-induced lung injury such as ventilation with large tidal volume. Design:Retrospective cohort study. Setting:Four intensive care units in a tertiary referral center. Patients:Patients who received invasive mechanical ventilation for ≥48 hrs between January and December 2001. Interventions:None. Measurements and Main Results:The main outcome of interest, acute lung injury, was assessed by independent review of daily digital chest radiographs and arterial blood gases. Ventilator settings, hemodynamics, and acute lung injury risk factors were extracted from the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation III database and the patients' medical records. Of 332 patients who did not have acute lung injury from the outset, 80 patients (24%) developed acute lung injury within the first 5 days of mechanical ventilation. When expressed per predicted body weight, women were ventilated with larger tidal volume than men (mean 11.4 vs. 10.4 mL/kg predicted body weight, p < .001) and tended to develop acute lung injury more often (29% vs. 20%, p = .068). In a multivariate analysis, the main risk factors associated with the development of acute lung injury were the use of large tidal volume (odds ratio 1.3 for each mL above 6 mL/kg predicted body weight, p < .001), transfusion of blood products (odds ratio, 3.0; p < 0.001), acidemia (pH < 7.35; odds ratio, 2.0; p = .032) and a history of restrictive lung disease (odds ratio, 3.6; p = .044). Conclusions:The association between the initial tidal volume and the development of acute lung injury suggests that ventilator-associated lung injury may be an important cause of this syndrome. Height and gender should be considered when setting up the ventilator. Strong consideration should be given to limiting large tidal volume, not only in patients with established acute lung injury but also in patients at risk for acute lung injury.
The therapeutic potential of angiotensin II receptor blockers in the treatment of heart failure

In clinical heart failure (HF) the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system is an important component of neurohormonal activation. Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors have been shown to be of great clinical benefit in reducing the production of angiotensin II. However, they do not fully suppress angiotensin II production in HF because there are other pathways through which angiotensin II can be produced. Theoretically, angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) have great potential because of their ability to directly block angio-tensin II produced through any pathway. A large body of literature has accumulated examining the effects of ARBs in HF. The earlier, smaller studies examined outcomes such as symptoms, neurohormonal concentrations and cardiac function. More recent, larger studies have examined the effects of ARBs on mortality and morbidity. This paper reviews the data defining the role of ARBs in the treatment of HF patients, focusing more on the large randomised clinical outcome trials.
Radio Resource Allocation Schemes in Hybrid Mode Wireless Communication Systems

Scheduling schemes achieving multiuser diversity gain are suitable to support high rate bursty data services, while orthogonal resource hopping schemes achieving statistical multiplexing gain are suitable to accommodate low/medium rate applications and real-time traffic. Hence, a hybrid mode system has been proposed to support both the scheduling and hopping schemes. We propose a distributed radio resource allocation scheme for the hybrid mode system and compare the system performance of the proposed distributed allocation scheme with that of a localized resource allocation scheme for varying the number of users. In addition, scheduling criterion threshold values for the proposed distributed allocation scheme are derived to maintain the proportion of scheduling to hopping modes. The proposed scheme allocates radio resources adaptively according to users' channel states between scheduling and hopping modes and, thus, it significantly increases system capacity as the scheduling criterion threshold value increases.
NITRATE CONCENTRATIONS IN ILLINOIS RIVERS 1967 TO 1974: COMPARISON AMONG REPORTING AGENCIES 1

ABSTRACT: Long term data on surface water quality can sometimes be assembled by combining data collected by different agencies at different times and assuming that between agency differences in data quality are insignificant. The objective of this paper was to assess the quality of riverine nitrate (NO3) concentrations in Illinois measured and reported by four agencies from 1967 to 1974 by comparing median values for similar sampling locations and periods. A total of 17 river reaches were identified for which two agencies reported NO3 concentrations during similar periods. Nonparametric comparison of median values and analysis of covariance with discharge as a covariant produced similar results. Nitrate concentrations reported by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) from 1967 to 1971 were not statistically (P > 0.05) different from values reported by the Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS) for two of three river reaches. Additionally, NO3 concentrations reported by USGS from 1972 to 1974 were not statistically different than concentrations reported by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) for four of five river reaches. From 1969 to 1971, NO3 concentrations reported by the Illinois Department of Public Heath and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IDPH/IEPA) were less than one‐fourth the magnitude of values reported by ISWS. The median NO3 concentrations measured by the Central Illinois Public Service (CIPS) were significantly greater than those measured by USGS and IDPH/IEPA in the three comparable sampling locations. The use of NO3 concentrations measured by CIPS and IDPH/IEPA prior to 1972 is not recommended.
Behavioural activation versus mindfulness-based guided self-help treatment administered through a smartphone application: a randomised controlled trial

Objectives Evaluating and comparing the effectiveness of two smartphone-delivered treatments: one based on behavioural activation (BA) and other on mindfulness. Design Parallel randomised controlled, open, trial. Participants were allocated using an online randomisation tool, handled by an independent person who was separate from the staff conducting the study. Setting General community, with recruitment nationally through mass media and advertisements. Participants 40 participants diagnosed with major depressive disorder received a BA treatment, and 41 participants received a mindfulness treatment. 9 participants were lost at the post-treatment. Intervention BA: An 8-week long behaviour programme administered via a smartphone application. Mindfulness: An 8-week long mindfulness programme, administered via a smartphone application. Main outcome measures The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire Depression Scale (PHQ-9). Results 81 participants were randomised (mean age 36.0 years (SD=10.8)) and analysed. Results showed no significant interaction effects of group and time on any of the outcome measures either from pretreatment to post-treatment or from pretreatment to the 6-month follow-up. Subgroup analyses showed that the BA treatment was more effective than the mindfulness treatment among participants with higher initial severity of depression from pretreatment to the 6-month follow-up (PHQ-9: F (1, 362.1)=5.2, p<0.05). In contrast, the mindfulness treatment worked better than the BA treatment among participants with lower initial severity from pretreatment to the 6-month follow-up (PHQ-9: F (1, 69.3)=7.7, p<0.01); BDI-II: (F(1, 53.60)=6.25, p<0.05). Conclusions The two interventions did not differ significantly from one another. For participants with higher severity of depression, the treatment based on BA was superior to the treatment based on mindfulness. For participants with lower initial severity, the treatment based on mindfulness worked significantly better than the treatment based on BA. Trial registration Clinical Trials NCT01463020.
Detection of abnormal behaviour in a surveillance environment using control charts

This paper introduces a new approach to unsupervised detection of abnormal sequences of images in video surveillance data. We leverage an online object detection method and statistical process control techniques in order to identify suspicious sequences of events. Our method assumes a training phase in which the spatial distribution of objects is learned, followed by a chart-based tracking process. We evaluate the performance of our method on a standard dataset and have implemented a publicly available open-source prototype.
Enhanced light trapping and carrier collection in glancing angle deposited nanostructures

Nanostructured materials have become an attractive alternative to their thin film and bulk counterparts in photovoltaic (PV) research. They owe this attention mainly to their superior optical and electrical properties. Light trapping in vertically aligned nanostructures results in high optical absorption and core/shell type of nanostructured devices provide enhanced carrier collection by utilizing a radial junction. Combination of these two features can potentially lead to the development of high efficiency nanostructured solar cells. Here, results from optical absorption properties of indium sulfide (In2S3; n-type semiconductor) nanostructures as a model material system in different geometries and their photoconductive properties in an In2S3-nanorods-core/metal-shell device design are presented and discussed. Glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique was used to grow In2S3 nanostructures in different shapes (i.e., zigzags, springs, screws, tilted rods, and vertical rods). Optical absorption was found to strongly depend on the shapes of semiconducting nanostructures through ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy measurements. Numerical solutions of finite difference time domain (FDTD) optical modelling show that diffracted light is distributed uniformly within the 3D nanostructure geometries, indicating an enhanced diffuse light scattering and light trapping. A high pressure sputter deposition method was used to get a conformal silver (Ag) layer around GLAD In2S3 nanorods and produce the nanostructured core/shell photoconductive devices. Core/shell geometry was observed to enhance radial interface and shorten charge carrier transit times. This provides efficient carrier collection and results in superior photocurrent and gain. Slow recovery of photocurrent arisen from prolonged carrier lifetimes due to high surface states in nanorods is also eliminated by the metal shell, which provides surface passivation and decreases surface states. Overall, we demonstrate that GLAD nanostructures provide both efficient charge carrier collection and enhanced light trapping, and therefore can lead to the utilization of low quality (i.e. low cost) materials for high efficiency solar cells.
Ontology development for health care in India

In this paper, we describe the need and development of Ontologies. We also show the creation of an Ontology in Health Domain. In a developing country like India, due to mass population and scarcity of services, health care has taken a back. People often restore to the Internet for gathering information regarding a particular diseases or a health care service. They often do not find the information of their choice as the data is often available in a scattered form. Our Ontology can be used to extract such information in a more effective and efficient manner.
The C. elegans POU-domain transcription factor UNC-86 regulates the tph-1 tryptophan hydroxylase gene and neurite outgrowth in specific serotonergic neurons.

A fundamental question in developmental neurobiology is how a common neurotransmitter is specified in different neuronal types? We describe cell-specific regulation of the serotonergic phenotype by the C. elegans POU-transcription factor UNC-86. We show that unc-86 regulates particular aspects of the terminal neuronal identity in four classes of serotonergic neurons, but that the development of the ADF serotonergic neurons is regulated by an UNC-86-independent program. In the NSM neurons, the role of unc-86 is confined in late differentiation; the neurons are generated but do not express genes necessary for serotonergic neurotransmission. unc-86-null mutations affect the expression in NSM of tph-1, which encodes the serotonin synthetic enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase, and cat-1, which encodes a vesicular transporter that loads serotonin into synaptic vesicles, suggesting that unc-86 coordinately regulates serotonin synthesis and packaging. However, unc-86-null mutations do not impair the ability of NSM to reuptake serotonin released from the ADF serotonergic chemosensory neurons and this serotonin reuptake is sensitive to the serotonin reuptake block drugs imipramine and fluoxetine, demonstrating that serotonin synthesis and reuptake is regulated by distinct factors. The NSM neurons in unc-86-null mutants also display abnormal neurite outgrowth, suggesting a role of unc-86 in regulating this process as well.
Outcomes of revision laparoscopic gastric banding: a retrospective study

Obesity is a health problem approaching pandemic proportions. Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) is the bariatric procedure of choice in Australia for effective surgical treatment of severe obesity. Complications of LAGB lead to a high proportion of patients requiring revision surgery. However, literature regarding outcomes and failure rates of revision bariatric surgery is scarce, such that the choice of procedure at reoperation remains controversial. This paper aims to present outcomes of revision laparoscopic gastric banding.
Neuropilin-1 Identifies Endothelial Precursors in Human and Murine Embryonic Stem Cells Before CD34 Expression

Background— In murine embryonic stem cells, the onset of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2) expression identifies endothelial precursors. Undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells express VEGFR-2, and VEGFR-2 expression persists on differentiation. The objective of our study was to identify a single population of endothelial precursors with common identifying features from both human and murine embryonic stem cells. Methods and Results— We report that expression of the VEGF coreceptor neuropilin-1 (NRP-1) coincides with expression of Brachyury and VEGFR-2 and identifies endothelial precursors in murine and human embryonic stem cells before CD31 or CD34 expression. When sorted and differentiated, VEGFR-2+NRP-1+ cells form endothelial-like colonies that express CD31 and CD34 7-fold more efficiently than NRP-1 cells. Finally, antagonism of both the VEGF and Semaphorin binding functions of NRP-1 impairs the differentiation of vascular precursors to endothelial cells. Conclusions— The onset of NRP-1 expression identifies endothelial precursors in murine and human stem cells. The findings define the origin of a single population of endothelial precursors from human and murine stem cells to endothelial cells. Additionally, the function of both the VEGF and Semaphorin binding activities of NRP-1 has important roles in the differentiation of stem cells to endothelial cells, providing novel insights into the role of NRP-1 in a model of vasculogenesis.