Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effective pseudo-relevance feedback for language modeling in speech recognition

A part and parcel of any automatic speech recognition (ASR) system is language modeling (LM), which helps to constrain the acoustic analysis, guide the search through multiple candidate word strings, and quantify the acceptability of the final output hypothesis given an input utterance. Despite the fact that the n-gram model remains the predominant one, a number of novel and ingenious LM methods have been developed to complement or be used in place of the n-gram model. A more recent line of research is to leverage information cues gleaned from pseudo-relevance feedback (PRF) to derive an utterance-regularized language model for complementing the n-gram model. This paper presents a continuation of this general line of research and its main contribution is two-fold. First, we explore an alternative and more efficient formulation to construct such an utterance-regularized language model for ASR. Second, the utilities of various utterance-regularized language models are analyzed and compared extensively. Empirical experiments on a large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR) task demonstrate that our proposed language models can offer substantial improvements over the baseline n-gram system, and achieve performance competitive to, or better than, some state-of-the-art language models.
BASIC SCIENCE REVIEW

Initial cancer evaluation includes assessment of histologic appearance, tumor grading, assessment of lymph node status, and presence of metastasis. However, traditional diagnostic methods such as histopathology and radiology are not sensitive enough to detect small numbers of cancer cells and are limited in their ability to predict response to treatment. Recently, there has been considerable progress in molecular diagnostics in these areas. Using molecular-based technologies, it is now possible to detect cancer early in asymptomatic individuals, identify minimal residual disease at histopathologic normal surgical margins, more precisely assess tumor burden in cancer patients, and more accurately assess the prognosis of the patients. Examples of these applications in the evaluation of head and neck cancer are reviewed here. However, despite the great promise of these new molecular approaches for cancer detection, much of the current technology limits their implementation into routine clinical use. A 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 27: 995–1003, 2005
Chemoattraction of CD34+ Progenitor Cells and Dendritic Cells to the Site of Tumor Excision as the First Step of an Immunotherapeutic Approach to Target Residual Tumor Cells

The authors previously showed that C34+ progenitor cells are mobilized into the peripheral blood in tumor bearers. The current study used a murine Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) model to examine if the CD34+ cells can be chemoattracted to a tumor excision site as the first step to inducing differentiation of the attracted CD34+ cells into immune stimulatory dendritic cells (DC). Upon tumor excision, gelatin sponges were implanted into the surgical site and infused with phosphate-buffered saline or vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF). The implants were removed after 4, 7, 14, and 21 days and analyzed for their cellular content. The incorporation of VEGF into implants increased the accumulation of CD34+ cells early after implantation. By day 21, the CD34+ cell content declined. However, the numbers of DCs became increased in the VEGF-containing sponges and this persisted throughout the 3-week duration of the study. The VEGF-containing implants contained a lower percentage of CD11b+ myeloid cells for the first 2 weeks after implantation as compared with the control implants. By 21 days, myeloid cell numbers declined in the control and VEGF implants. Since endothelial cell precursors have a common precursor with myeloid progenitor cells, the implants were also examined for their endothelial cell content. With increasing time after implantation, the number of endothelial cells and formation of vessel-like structures became greater in the VEGF-containing implant as compared with the control implants. These results show the feasibility of using VEGF-containing sponges to attract DC precursors and to increase the number of DCs at the tumor excision site.
Reirradiation for recurrent head and neck cancer

Recurrence of head and neck cancer in a previously irradiated volume presents a challenging problem and has poor prognosis. A minority of patients are eligible for the preferred therapy, surgical resection. Systemic therapy is offered to patients with unresectable disease but offers little, if any, chance of cure. Repeat irradiation with systemic therapy is a potentially curative option. One randomized trial and several cooperative group and institutional studies support its use. Long-term disease-free survival has been observed, albeit with the risk of significant, possibly life threatening, late complications. Intensity-modulated radiotherapy has been shown to reduce toxicity and improve disease control. Novel systemic therapies and radiotherapy techniques, including stereotactic body radiotherapy, are under active study.
Preclinical stress test for coding strategies in cochlear implants.

Although modern cochlear implants (CI) are able to restore speech perception to a high degree, there is still a large potential for improvements e.g. in music perception and speech discrimination in noise. To evaluate and optimize novel coding strategies a toolbox was developed which calculates the excitation of the auditory nerve to sound stimuli. The toolbox includes detailed models of the CI speech processor, electrical field spread in the cochlea and the electrical excitation of spiral ganglion neurons. The toolbox allowed qualitative and quantitative comparison of neurograms elicited by different coding strategies with auditory nerve responses of the healthy inner ear. Quantitative evaluations are provided with two methods: i) automatic speech recognition to evaluate speech discrimination with a noisy speech database. ii) a binaural model which evaluates interaural time differences and quantifies the temporal precision of cochlear implant coding strategies. The major advantage of this approach is that we are able to evaluate both spectral and temporal aspects of novel coding strategies before we conduct extensive clinical studies.
The effect of hindfoot realignment in triple arthrodesis.

UNLABELLED Triple arthrodesis is a useful form of surgical intervention for repair of advanced hindfoot deformity. Crucial to the success of triple arthrodesis is achievement of a suitable alignment of the hindfoot in relation to the leg and forefoot. A number of radiographic measurements can be used to describe the resultant alignment of the foot and, in this article, we present the results of a review of a series of 28 triple arthrodeses, in 24 patients, followed for a median duration of 19 (range 12 to 38) months. The results of this investigation showed clinically and statistically significant improvements in the anteroposterior talocalcaneal angle and talo-first metatarsal angles, and the lateral talo-first metatarsal angle; and triple arthrodesis realigned the hindfoot primarily by means of transverse plane movement of the talus over the calcaneus, and sagittal plane realignment occurred primarily by means of reduction of the downward pitch of the talus rather than by means of elevation of the pitch of the calcaneus. Only 1 (1.19% of fusion sites, 3.57% of cases, 4.17% of patients) symptomatic nonunion was observed. Correlation analyses showed that a normal (35 degrees to 50 degrees ) preoperative lateral talocalcaneal angle was moderately inversely correlated, and a normal (< or = 21 degrees ) preoperative lateral talar declination angle was strongly positively correlated, with none to mild postoperative pain. Based on these findings, we concluded that triple arthrodesis satisfactorily realigned the hindfoot and reduced pain in patients with advanced arthrosis. LEVEL OF CLINICAL EVIDENCE 4.
The integral scale in homogeneous isotropic turbulence

A simple spectral model is used to examine what is required to determine the energy and integral scale in homogeneous isotropic turbulence. The problem is that these are determined in part by the largest scales of the turbulence which are either not simulated at all by DNS or experiments, or cannot be estimated because of an insufficient statistical sample. The absence of scales an order of magnitude below the peak in the energy spectrum is shown to affect the determination significantly. Since this energy peak shifts to lower wavenumbers as the flow evolves, the problem becomes progressively worse during decay. It is suggested that almost all reported integral scales for isotropic decaying turbulence are questionable, and that the power laws fitted to them are seriously in error. Approximate correction using the spectral model shows that recent DNS data which decay as u2 ∝ tn with constant n, are also consistent with L ∝ t1/2.
Dynamical properties of red blood cell model in shear flow

Cells in a shear flow exhibit tumbling and tank-treading. This rotational movement is characterized by rotational frequency. In this work, we analyze and test a computational model of red blood cell by comparing simulated movement of a cell in a shear flow to the experimental data. We set up a computational experiment that recasts dynamical behavior of cells in a shear flow. We analyze the dependence of the rotational frequency of cells on the shear rate. Results show that the model including the stretching, bending, area and volume preservation moduli does not recover frequencies from the biological data. After adding the visco-elastic modulus, the simulations show compliance with the data.
Cutaneous leiomyosarcoma originating in a symplastic pilar leiomyoma: a rare occurrence and potential diagnostic pitfall

A case of cutaneous leiomyosarcoma originating in a symplastic pilar leiomyoma is described. The patient was a 60‐year‐old man who presented with a painless nodule on his chest. Thorough clinical examination did not reveal any evidence of tumor elsewhere. A punch biopsy was performed which showed a benign spindle cell neoplasm with focal cellular pleomorphism that had smooth muscle differentiation and was clearly originating from the arrector pili muscle, consistent with a cutaneous symplastic pilar leiomyoma. Immunohistochemical studies were performed and the tumor cells were strongly positive for smooth muscle actin (SMA) and desmin. Given the clinical information of a mass on the chest, clinical evaluation was recommended and a re‐excision was performed. Histologically, the re‐excision showed two distinct populations of cells. The upper portion of the tumor mirrored the initial biopsy; however, the base of the tumor showed hypercellular areas composed of spindle cells with marked pleomorphism and increased number of mitoses. The diagnosis of a cutaneous leiomyosarcoma originating in a symplastic pilar leiomyoma was given. This is the first report of this association of such occurrence reported in the literature.
Determinants and Costs of Current Account Reversals Under Heterogeneity and Serial Correlation

Using large panel data sets for analysis of determinants and costs of reversals asks for controls of latent heterogeneity among countries. This article performs a Bayesian analysis, which allows for a parsimonious yet flexible handling of country specific heterogeneity via random coefficients and serially correlated errors. Consideration of persistence within the employed macroeconomic data is important to gauge the impact of explaining variables suggested by theory correctly. Bayesian specification tests provide evidence in favour of models incorporating heterogeneity and serial correlation. The results suggest that costs of reversals are overestimated, when country specific heterogeneity is neglected and stress the importance of external variables in explaining current account reversals. Results are checked for robustness against the underlying reversal definition.
Management and Outcome of Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia in Pregnancy: A Systematic Review.

OBJECTIVE Safety and efficacy of therapeutic agents used for heparin-induced thrombocytopenia are not established in pregnancy. METHODS MEDLINE database was searched in November 2014 to identify all patients who received therapy for HIT during pregnancy. RESULTS A total of 12 patients with the median age of 28 years (range 21-39) were diagnosed with HIT at the median gestational age of 20 weeks (range 5-34). Clinical probability (4T) score for HIT was high (50%) or intermediate (50%) and associated with thrombosis in 50%. Patients were initially managed with lepirudin (33%), argatroban (25%), danaparoid (25%) or fondaparinux (17%) and ultimately bridged to vitamin K antagonist or maintained on lepirudin. All patients had resolution of HIT. Complications included therapeutic abortion prior to valve replacement for valve thrombosis (8%), preterm delivery (18%) and preeclampsia (8%). Except for one instance of hypoplastic lung related to preterm delivery, none of the other newborns had any complications during delivery. CONCLUSION Confirmed cases of HIT in pregnant patients appear to be rare. Within the limits of retrospective analysis, the use of argatroban, danaparoid, fondaparinux and lepirudin may be effective in preventing the thrombotic complications of HIT in pregnancy. The effect of HIT or its therapy on obstetrical complications cannot be determined based on this study since many of the obstetrical complications are common in otherwise healthy pregnancies. Although this study did not identify any fetal teratogenicity except hypoplastic lung related to preterm delivery, small number of cases treated with various therapies precludes any definite conclusion.
On the commutativity of jumps

Abstract We study the following classes: ● Q* (r1A1….rkAk) which is defined to be the collection of all sets that can be computed by a Turing machine that on any input makes a total of ri, queries to Ai, for all i ∈ {1. … k}. ● Q(r1A1….rkAk) which is defined like Q* (r1A1…. rkAk) except that queries to Ai, must be made before queries to Ai+1 for all i ∈ {1…. k – 1}. ● QC(r1A1…. rkAk) which is defined like Q{r1A1…. rkAk) except that the Turing machine must halt even if given incorrect answers to some of its queries. We show that if A1 …. Ak are jumps that are not too close together, then all three of these classes are identical and are not changed if we permute (r1….rkAk). This extends a result of Beigel's [1]. Since the second class is not affected by permutations, we say that these sets commute with each other. We also show that jumps that are too close together may not commute. We also characterize the commutative sequences of sets obtained by iterating the jump operation through an ordinal notation.
Institutions, incentives and the future of fisheries

Fisheries around the world are managed with a broad range of institutional structures. Some of these have been quite disastrous, whereas others have proven both biologically and economically successful. Unsuccessful systems have generally involved either open access, attempts at top–down control with poor ability to monitor and implement regulations, or reliance on consensus. Successful systems range from local cooperatives to strong governmental control, to various forms of property rights, but usually involve institutional systems that provide incentives to individual operators that lead to behaviour consistent with conservation.
A 22.8GOPS 2.83mW neuro-fuzzy Object Detection Engine for fast multi-object recognition

A neuro-fuzzy Object Detection Engine (ODE) is proposed as the pre-processing accelerator of multi-object recognition processor to reduce the computational complexity. It performs a fast and robust neuro-fuzzy object detection algorithm with Motion Estimator (ME) and Visual Attention Engine (VAE) within 1ms. The mixed mode implementation achieves 22.9GOPS 2.83mW ODE, and reduces the area by 59% and power consumption by 44%. The ODE can increase the frame rate by 2.09x and reduce power consumption by 38% of the multi-object recognition processor.
Heterogeneous placement optimization for database query processing

Abstract Computing hardware is constantly evolving and database systems need to adapt to ongoing hardware changes to improve performance. The current hardware trend is heterogeneity, where multiple computing units like CPUs and GPUs are used together in one system. In this paper, we summarize our efforts to use hardware heterogeneity efficiently for query processing. We discuss different approaches of execution and investigate heterogeneous placement in detail by showing, how to automatically determine operator placement decisions according to the given hardware environment and query properties.
Canonical and non-canonical Wnt signaling pathways in Caenorhabditis elegans: variations on a common signaling theme.

Wnt glycoproteins are signaling molecules that control a wide range of developmental processes in organisms ranging from the simple metazoan Hydra to vertebrates. Wnt signaling also plays a key role in the development of the nematode C. elegans, and is involved in cell fate specification and determination of cell polarity and cell migration. Surprisingly, the first genetic studies of Wnt signaling in C. elegans revealed major differences with the established (canonical) Wnt signaling pathways of Drosophila and vertebrates. Thus, the Wnt-dependent induction of endoderm in the early embryo and the specification of several asymmetric cell divisions during larval development are mediated by as yet novel Wnt signaling pathways that repress, rather than activate the TCF/LEF-1 transcription factor POP-1. Recently, however, it has been shown that, in addition to these divergent Wnt pathways, C. elegans also has a canonical Wnt pathway that converts POP-1 into an activator and controls the expression of several homeobox genes. Interestingly, these different Wnt pathways use distinct beta-catenins to control POP-1 function: the endoderm induction pathway requires the beta-catenin WRM-1 and parallel input from a mitogen-activated kinase (MAPK) pathway to downregulate POP-1, whereas the canonical Wnt pathway employs the beta-catenin BAR-1 to activate Wnt target gene expression.
Specific aspects of high blood pressure in the elderly

In the elderly, as in the middle-aged, hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality. Hypertension has an increased prevalence in the elderly and has a specific haemodynamic pattern involving four main particularities: increased pulse pressure (PP), resulting from an increase of systolic blood pressure (SBP) and a decrease of diastolic (DBP); disappearance of PP amplification; early wave reflections; and increased arterial rigidity. All these alterations taken together largely explain why PP, aortic stiffness and wave reflections are nowadays recognised as significant independent predictors of CV risk. Beneficial effects on arterial stiffness and wave reflections have been shown with nitrates, drugs affecting the renin-angiotensin system (RAS), spironolactone and aminoguanidine. The main therapeutic trial demonstrating the role of arterial stiffness in the control of SBP and PP in hypertensive subjects was performed in patients with endstage renal disease undergoing haemodialysis. Optimisation of antihypertensive therapy in the elderly would need a combination of using standard hypertensive drugs at adapted dosages, development of new antihypertensive agents and individualisation of therapy.
Symposium on integrating the science of environmental justice into decision-making at the Environmental Protection Agency: an overview.

In March 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) collaborated with government and nongovernmental organizations to host a groundbreaking symposium, "Strengthening Environmental Justice Research and Decision Making: A Symposium on the Science of Disproportionate Environmental Health Impacts. " The symposium provided a forum for discourse on the state of scientific knowledge about factors identified by EPA that may contribute to higher burdens of environmental exposure or risk in racial/ethnic minorities and low-income populations. Also featured were discussions on how environmental justice considerations may be integrated into EPA's analytical and decision-making frameworks and on research needs for advancing the integration of environmental justice into environmental policymaking. We summarize key discussions and conclusions from the symposium and briefly introduce the articles in this issue.
Longitudinal ocular motor study in corticobasal degeneration and progressive supranuclear palsy

Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of ocular motor information in the early diagnosis of corticobasal degeneration (CBD) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Methods: Seven PSP patients, six CBD patients, and three atypical CBD patients were followed longitudinally with repeated electrooculographic (EOG) recordings, at 6-month intervals, to search for features that could confirm or modify the diagnosis. Visually guided saccades and antisaccades were studied. Data from clinical evaluations were independently collected. Results: PSP patients had decreased saccade velocity throughout the disease course. Patients with probable CBD showed preserved saccade velocity but important increased saccade latency ipsilateral to the apraxia side. Similar to patients with PSP, those with atypical CBD features exhibited clinically evident abnormalities of vertical saccades and early slowing of horizontal saccade velocity, but no increase in saccade latency or early square-wave jerks. When clinical “telltale signs” appeared and the clinical diagnosis was reviewed independent of EOG recording, the three patients with atypical CBD features were diagnosed as having PSP although new or overlapping syndromes cannot be excluded. Conclusions: Consecutive EOG recordings help diagnose atypical CBD and PSP disorders earlier.
Parkinsonism exacerbated by paroxetine

with surrounding edema. Four-vessel angiography showed occlusion of the right anterior cerebral and middle cerebral arteries. Discussion. This young man developed a cerebral infarct in association with use of shortterm, high-dosage anabolic steroids. Experimental evidence suggests that testosterone stimulates thrombus formation by suppressing prostacyclin production in arterial smooth muscle cells in rats. ’ Nagelberg et aI3 reported another young man receiving testosterone for hypogonadism who developed a cerebral infarct. Shiozawa et a14 described three patients who developed superior sagittal sinus thrombosis after receiving androgen therapy for hypoplastic anemia. I t is unclear whether migraine added to the risk in these patients. With the more common use of anabolic steroids in the young, both users and their physicians should clearly be aware of this possible complication.
Approximate Inverse Preconditioning of Finite Element Discretizations of Elliptic Operators with Nonsmooth Coefficients

A new class of approximate inverse preconditioners for large finite element stiffness matrices arising from second order elliptic partial differential operators is introduced which guarantees a bounded, problem-independent condition number. Since the proposed preconditioner is based on hierarchical matrices, it can be generated, stored, and multiplied by a vector with almost linear complexity. This preconditioner may be used as a black-box method, because it is robust with respect to varying coefficients and because it can be applied to arbitrary quasi-uniform grids.