Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Voice Conversion Challenge 2020: Intra-lingual semi-parallel and cross-lingual voice conversion

The voice conversion challenge is a bi-annual scientific event held to compare and understand different voice conversion (VC) systems built on a common dataset. In 2020, we organized the third edition of the challenge and constructed and distributed a new database for two tasks, intra-lingual semi-parallel and cross-lingual VC. After a two-month challenge period, we received 33 submissions, including 3 baselines built on the database. From the results of crowd-sourced listening tests, we observed that VC methods have progressed rapidly thanks to advanced deep learning methods. In particular, speaker similarity scores of several systems turned out to be as high as target speakers in the intra-lingual semi-parallel VC task. However, we confirmed that none of them have achieved human-level naturalness yet for the same task. The cross-lingual conversion task is, as expected, a more difficult task, and the overall naturalness and similarity scores were lower than those for the intra-lingual conversion task. However, we observed encouraging results, and the MOS scores of the best systems were higher than 4.0. We also show a few additional analysis results to aid in understanding cross-lingual VC better.
The effect of supplemental prey and prescribed fire on success of artificial nests

Nest predation hinders recruitment of avian species and may be affected by availability of alternative prey and amount of nesting cover. Therefore, we evaluated effects of food abundance (i.e., supplemental prey) and time since prescribed fire on nest success of artificial ground nests. We monitored the fate of 759 artificial ground nests from June to July 2000. No interaction (P= 0.74) occurred between fire and supplemental prey treatments. Nest success in prey-supplemented plots (37.6%) did not differ (P= 0.70) from control plots (44.9%), and nest success in burned plots (41.8%) did not differ (P = 0.86) from nonburned plots (40.7%). Motion-sensitive cameras placed on feeders revealed that mesomammals accounted for >80% of visits to feeders, indicating that supplemental prey was detected and consumed by mesomammals. Nest predators differed as a function of food abundance, with combined avian and small-mammal predation being greater in prey-supplemented (46.5%) than in control (25.9%) plots. Nest predators also differed as a function of prescribed fire Avian predation of nests was greater in burned (13.7%) than nonburned (9.9%) plots. whereas small-mammal predation was greater in nonburned (30.9%) than in burned (15.1%) plots. Altering food and cover to manage nest success may result in compensatory predation. Further work to quantify the extent of compensatory predation is needed to fully understand trade-offs of various practices for managing nest predation.
High frequency of extra-pair paternity in a dense and synchronous population of Willow Warblers Phylloscopus trochilus

Genetic parentage was studied in a Norwegian, sub-alpine population of Willow Warblers Phylloscopus trochilus by means of multilocus DNA fingerprinting. We found that 33% (36/109) of the offspring were unrelated to the putative father, and that one additional offspring was unrelated to both putative parents. Altogether 50% (10/20) of the broods contained illegitimate young. The distribution of extra-pair paternity was bimodal, with several broods containing many extra-pair offspring. These results contrast markedly with a previous study of the same species, reporting no cases of mismatched parentage in a Swedish lowland population. Potentially, the high frequency of extra-pair paternity could be attributed to a higher breeding density and/or synchrony in our study population. Cuckolded males had a lower body mass, but no shorter tarsi or wings, than non-cuckolded males. This suggests that a male's loss of paternity is somehow related to his body condition. The data set includes five broods in which the pair male was permanently removed on the day the first egg was laid. There was no tendency that the manipulation increased the
A Framework for Studying Reinforcement Learning and Sim-to-Real in Robot Soccer

This article introduces an open framework, called VSSS-RL, for studying Reinforcement Learning (RL) and sim-to-real in robot soccer, focusing on the IEEE Very Small Size Soccer (VSSS) league. We propose a simulated environment in which continuous or discrete control policies can be trained to control the complete behavior of soccer agents and a sim-to-real method based on domain adaptation to adapt the obtained policies to real robots. Our results show that the trained policies learned a broad repertoire of behaviors that are difficult to implement with handcrafted control policies. With VSSS-RL, we were able to beat human-designed policies in the 2019 Latin American Robotics Competition (LARC), achieving 4th place out of 21 teams, being the first to apply Reinforcement Learning (RL) successfully in this competition. Both environment and hardware specifications are available open-source to allow reproducibility of our results and further studies.
Essential oil composition and biomass productivity of Moroccan endemic Thymus satureioides Coss. & Ball. growing in the Agoundis Valley

Thymus satureioides Coss. & Ball. (Th. satureioides) is an endemic thyme of Morocco. Thirty two samples of wild T. satureioides were collected from High Atlas Mountains (Valley of Agoundis). The essential oils (EO) isolated by hydrodistillation from the aerial parts were analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The yield of EO ranged from 0.2 to 2.3%. Twenty six components, representing more than 95% of the oil, were fully characterized. Borneol was the main constituent. Its proportion varied between 22.7 and 37.5%. Cluster analysis of the identified components grouped the samples into three main chemotypes, borneol/carvacrol (B/Ca), borneol/camphene/carvacrol (B/C/Ca) and borneol/camphene/α-pinene (B/C/P). Other constituents were identified in significant amounts: α-terpineol (3.1 to 10.6%), 3-carene (1.5 to 10.5%) and p-cymene (2.3 to 8%). The fresh matter productivity average of T. satureioides was around 1.3 t/ha, revealing low potential of exploitation for collectors. This study has shown that the thyme growing in the valley of Agoundis is dominated by borneol chemotypes, showing different level of essential oil yield, according to locations and/or genotyes within general low potential of biomass production. Key words: Thymus satureioides, Agoundis Valley, matter productivity, GC-MS, essential oil, borneol, carvacrol.
4. Biologically Important Areas for Selected Cetaceans Within U.S. Waters – West Coast Region

In this review, we combine existing published and unpublished information along with expert judgment to identify and support the delineation of 28 Biologically Important Areas (BIAs) in U.S. waters along the West Coast for blue whales, gray whales, humpback whales, and harbor porpoises. BIAs for blue whales and humpback whales are based on high concentration areas of feeding animals observed from small boat surveys, ship surveys, and opportunistic sources. These BIAs compare favorably to broader habitat-based density models. BIAs for gray whales are based on their migratory corridor as they transit between primary feeding areas located in northern latitudes and breeding areas off Mexico. Additional gray whale BIAs are defined for the primary feeding areas of a smaller resident population. Two small and resident population BIAs defined for harbor porpoises located off California encompass the populations’ primary areas of use. The size of the individual BIAs ranged from approximately 171 to 138,000 km. The BIAs for feeding blue, gray, and humpback whales represent relatively small portions of the overall West Coast area (< 5%) but encompass a large majority (77 to 89%) of the thousands of sightings documented and evaluated for each species. We also evaluate and discuss potential feeding BIAs for fin whales, but none are delineated due to limited or conflicting information. The intent of identifying BIAs is to synthesize existing biological information in a transparent format that is easily accessible to scientists, managers, policymakers, and the public for use during the planning and design phase of anthropogenic activities for which U.S. statutes require the characterization and minimization of impacts on marine mammals. To maintain their utility, West Coast region BIAs should be re-evaluated and revised, if necessary, as new information becomes available.
Recognizing More Emotions with Less Data Using Self-supervised Transfer Learning

We propose a novel transfer learning method for speech emotion recognition allowing us to obtain promising results when only few training data is available. With as low as 125 examples per emotion class, we were able to reach a higher accuracy than a strong baseline trained on 8 times more data. Our method leverages knowledge contained in pre-trained speech representations extracted from models trained on a more general self-supervised task which doesn’t require human annotations, such as the wav2vec model. We provide detailed insights on the benefits of our approach by varying the training data size, which can help labeling teams to work more efficiently. We compare performance with other popular methods on the IEMOCAP dataset, a well-benchmarked dataset among the Speech Emotion Recognition (SER) research community. Furthermore, we demonstrate that results can be greatly improved by combining acoustic and linguistic knowledge from transfer learning. We align acoustic pre-trained representations with semantic representations from the BERT model through an attention-based recurrent neural network. Performance improves significantly when combining both modalities and scales with the amount of data. When trained on the full IEMOCAP dataset, we reach a new state-of-the-art of 73.9% unweighted accuracy (UA).
Genetic relationships among pomegranate genotypes studied by fruit characteristics and RAPD markers

Summary The aim of this research was to study 24 Iranian pomegranate genotypes and thereby reveal their genetic relationships. Measurements of 28 fruit characteristics together with Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) marker data were used for this purpose. Mean values of fruit characteristics were used for factor analysis which determined seven main factors. Grouping of pomegranate genotypes by these factors was performed by Ward’s method. Among 113 random decamer primers tested, 27 showed good amplification and polymorphism, and a total of 158 RAPD markers were produced. Estimates of genetic relationships, using Jaccard’s similarity coefficient, ranged from 0.30 – 0.88 for the RAPD data. Grouping by fruit characteristics was compared with the results from RAPD analysis, but did not produce a significant correlation. This means that information based on fruit characteristics is not sufficient for genetic discrimination in pomegranate; however, RAPD markers provided a useful technique to study genetic diversity in pomegranate.
Study the Individual Performance of Bulrush as a Natural Sorbent to Remove Oil Layer from Simulated Sea Water for Isothermal Batch Processes

Petrol is an important power source of energy and used in many industries. Accidents occur during transfer of petrol. That can cause harmful consequences for eco-system. One of the techniques to remove it is sorbents. Bulrush was used in this study as a local natural green material to remove petrol in batch isothermal systems. Two factors were tested (time and Bulrush mass). Bulrush was found sufficient to remove 90% of oil at 6 grams of Bulrush. Maximum sorption capacity was (9) for 1 gram of sorbent. Second order equation was suitable to represent the kinetics of Bulrush sorption. Freundlich model was found more acceptable to represent the equilibrium sorption isotherm.
Lagrangian description of electric circuits

In this project, we study different electric circuits using the Lagrangian formalism. The circuits we study are: the LC-circuit, RL-circuit, coupled circuits and a simple example of a DC-DC power converter. To start the equations of motion for the initial two circuits are acquired by using Kirchhoff’s circuits laws, which were then compared to the solutions obtained by using the Lagrangian formalism. The Lagrangian formalism is then directly applied to the coupled circuits. As for the DC-DC converter of the boost type, the equations of motion are obtained directly using the Lagrangian formalism. Course Code: FYGB08 Yasser Kadhim January 22, 2016
Altered Brain Function in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Patients With Gait Disorders: A Resting-State Functional MRI Study

Gait disturbances are important clinical features of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) that increase the risk of falls and disability. Brain structural alterations and gait disturbances in CSVD patients have been well demonstrated. However, intrinsic resting cerebral function patterns in CSVD patients with gait disorders remain largely unknown. Fifty-eight CSVD patients were enrolled in our studies and categorized into the gait disorder group (CSVD-GD, n = 29) and no-gait disorder group (CSVD-NGD, n = 29) based on a gait examination. Gait was quantitatively assessed with the Timed Up and Go test and the intelligent device for energy expenditure and activity (IDEEA). Functional MRI and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) analyses were employed to explore local intrinsic neural oscillation alterations. Functional connectivity based on fALFF results was calculated to detect the potential changes in remote connectivity. Compared with the CSVD-NGD group, the CSVD-GD group showed decreased fALFF in regions mainly located in the sensorimotor network and frontoparietal network, such as the left supplementary motor area (SMA.L) and the left superior parietal gyrus, and increased fALFF in the right inferior frontal gyrus (orbital part), the left caudate, and the left precuneus. Moreover, the CSVD-GD patients exhibited lower connectivity between the SMA.L and temporal lobe, which was related to gait speed. The fALFF value of the SMA.L was associated with cadence. This study highlights the regional and network interaction abnormalities of the SMA in CSVD patients with gait disturbances. These findings could provide further insight into the neural mechanisms of gait disturbances in CSVD.
Not All Competitions Come to Harm! Competitive Biofeedback to Increase Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia in Managers

Despite the positive impact on achievement, competition has been associated with elevated psychophysiological activation, potentially leading to a greater risk of cardiovascular diseases. Competitive biofeedback (BF) can be used to highlight the effects of competition on the same physiological responses that are going to be controlled through BF. However, it is still unknown whether competition could enhance the effects of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA)-BF training in improving cardiac vagal control. The present study explored whether competitive RSA-BF could be more effective than non-competitive RSA-BF in increasing RSA in executive managers, who are at higher cardiovascular risk of being commonly exposed to highly competitive conditions. Thirty managers leading outstanding private or public companies were randomly assigned to either a Competition (n = 14) or a Control (n = 16) RSA-BF training lasting five weekly sessions. Managers in the Competition group underwent the RSA-BF in couples and each participant was requested to produce a better performance (i.e., higher RSA) than the paired challenger. After the training, results showed that managers in the Competition group succeeded in increasing cardiac vagal control, as supported by the specific increase in RSA (p < 0.001), the standard deviation of R-R wave intervals (SDNN; p < 0.001), and root mean square of the successive differences between adjacent heartbeats (rMSSD; p < 0.001). A significant increase in the percentage of successive normal sinus beat to beat intervals more than 50 ms (pNN50; p = 0.023; η2p = 0.17), low frequency (p = ≤ 0.001; η2p = 0.44), and high frequency power (p = 0.005; η2p = 0.25) emerged independently from the competitive condition. Intriguingly, managers who compete showed the same reduction in resting heart rate (HR; p = 0.003, η2p = 0.28), systolic blood pressure (SBP; p = 0.013, η2p = 0.20), respiration rate (p < 0.001; η2p = 0.46), and skin conductance level (SCL; p = 0.001, η2p = 0.32) as non-competitive participants. Also, the same reduction in social anxiety (p = 0.005; η2p = 0.25), state (p = 0.038, η2p = 0.14) and trait anxiety (p = 0.001, η2p = 0.31), and depressive symptoms (p = 0.023, η2p = 0.17) emerged in the two groups. The present results showed that managers competing for increasing RSA showed a greater improvement in their parasympathetic modulation than non-competing managers. Most importantly, competition did not lead to the classic pattern of increased psychophysiological activation under competitive RSA-BF. Therefore, competition could facilitate the use of self-regulation strategies, especially in highly competitive individuals, to promote adaptive responses to psychological stress.
Seasonal food webs with migrations: multi-season models reveal indirect species interactions in the Canadian Arctic tundra

Models incorporating seasonality are necessary to fully assess the impact of global warming on Arctic communities. Seasonal migrations are a key component of Arctic food webs that still elude current theories predicting a single community equilibrium. We develop a multi-season model of predator–prey dynamics using a hybrid dynamical systems framework applied to a simplified tundra food web (lemming–fox–goose–owl). Hybrid systems models can accommodate multiple equilibria, which is a basic requirement for modelling food webs whose topology changes with season. We demonstrate that our model can generate multi-annual cycling in lemming dynamics, solely from a combined effect of seasonality and state-dependent behaviour. We compare our multi-season model to a static model of the predator–prey community dynamics and study the interactions between species. Interestingly, including seasonality reveals indirect interactions between migrants and residents not captured by the static model. Further, we find that the direction and magnitude of interactions between two species are not necessarily accurate using only summer time-series. Our study demonstrates the need for the development of multi-season models and provides the tools to analyse them. Integrating seasonality in food web modelling is a vital step to improve predictions about the impacts of climate change on ecosystem functioning. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The changing Arctic Ocean: consequences for biological communities, biogeochemical processes and ecosystem functioning’.
CHAPTER 6:The Molecular Diversity of Conoidean Venom Peptides and their Targets: From Basic Research to Therapeutic Applications

The >10 000 species of venomous marine snails (superfamily Conoidea) have evolved sophisticated chemical strategies to interact with other animals in their environment. A conoidean venom typically contains 50–200 peptides unique to that species, each honed by natural selection to interact with a specific molecular target in the prey, predators or competitors of the snail. The diversity and molecular targeting specificity of conoidean venom peptides has provided sets of ligands that allow the pharmacological differentiation of different subtypes in large ion channel/receptor families (such as Na channels and nicotinic receptors). Conoidean venoms contain multiple sets of peptides, known as “cabals”, acting in concert on functionally linked molecular targets to achieve a specific physiological end-point, such as paralysis or excitotoxic shock. Each cabal targets a cognate “constellation” of receptors and ion channels in a physiological circuit. For example, the “motor cabal” causes neuromuscular paralysis, with different peptides of the cabal targeting specific motor constellation components, including Ca channels in motor neurons, Na channels and nAChRs in muscle. The elucidation of venom-peptide cabals and receptor/ion-channel constellations has inspired a new pharmacological paradigm called “Constellation Pharmacology” with the potential to transform both the discovery of novel pharmacological agents and the development of therapeutic drugs.
Development and Application of a Prophage Integrase Typing Scheme for Group B Streptococcus

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a gram-positive pathogen mainly affecting humans, cattle, and fishes. Mobile genetic elements play an important role in the evolution of GBS, its adaptation to host species and niches, and its pathogenicity. In particular, lysogenic prophages have been associated with a high virulence of certain strains and with their ability to cause invasive infections in humans. It is therefore important to be able to accurately detect and classify prophages in GBS genomes. Several bioinformatic tools for the identification of prophages in bacterial genomes are available on-line. However, genome searches for most of these programs are affected by the composition of their reference database. Lack of databases specific to GBS results in failure to recognize all prophages in the species. Additionally, performance of these programs is affected by genome fragmentation in the case of draft genomes, leading to underestimation of the number of phages. They also prove impractical when dealing with large genome datasets and they do not offer a quick way of classifying bacteriophages. We developed a GBS-specific method to screen genome assemblies for the presence of prophages and to classify them based on a reproducible typing scheme. This was achieved through an extensive search of a vast number of high-quality GBS sequences (n = 572) originating from different host species and countries in order to build a database of phage integrase types, on which the scheme is based. The proposed typing scheme comprises 12 integration sites and sixteen prophage integrase types, including multiple subtypes per integration site and integrase genes that were not site-specific. Two putative phage-inducible chromosomal islands (PICI) and their insertion sites were also identified during the course of these analyses. Phages were common and diverse in all major clonal complexes associated with human disease and detected in isolates from every animal species and continent included in the study. This database will facilitate further work on the prevalence and role of prophages in GBS evolution, and identifies the roles of PICIs in GBS and of prophage in hypervirulent ST283 as areas for further research.