Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An ultrasound‐based silent speech interface

The paper proposes the use of ultrasound scans of tongue movement and video sequences of the lips to synthesize speech. A speech synthesizer driven only by video acquisitions may be qualified as a “silent speech interface,” which could be used by laryngectomyzed patient as an alternative to tracheo‐esophageal speech, for voice communication where silence must be maintained, or in very noisy environments. Our system is based on the building of a one‐hour audiovisual corpus of phonetic units, which associates visual features extracted from video with acoustic observations. The ultrasound and optical images are interpreted as a linear combination of standard configurations obtained by principal components analysis (PCA) from a phonetically balanced subset of typical frames. HMM‐based stochastic models trained on these visual features sequences are subsequently used to predict phonetic targets from video‐only data. Finally, a Viterbi unit selection algorithm is used to find the optimal sequence of acoustic un.
A local unstable manifold for differential equations with state-dependent delay

Existence and $C^N$-smoothness of a local unstable manifold at $0$ are shown for the delay differential equation $\dot x(t)=F(x_t)$ with $F:C([-h,0],\mathbb R^n)\to \mathbb R^n$, $h>0$, $F(0)=0$, under the hypotheses: There exist a linear continuous $L$ and a continuous $g$ with $F=L+g$; $0$ is a hyperbolic equilibrium of $\dot y(t)=Ly_t$; the restriction $g|_{C^k([-h,0],\mathbb R^n)}:C^k([-h,0],\mathbb R^n)\to \mathbb R^n$ is $C^k$-smooth for each $k\in$ {$1,\ldots,N$}; $D(g|_{C^1([-h,0],\mathbb R^n)})(0)=0$; in addition, for the derivatives $D^k(g|_{C^k([-h,0],\mathbb R^n)}) $, $k\in${$1,\ldots,N$}, certain extension properties hold. The conditions on $F$ are motivated and are satisfied by a wide class of differential equations with state-dependent delay.
Normalization for articulatory recovery

Articulatory recovery in an analysis‐by‐synthesis procedure must account for individual differences in vocal tracts. In the procedure described here, all individual vocal tracts are referenced to the vocal tract of an articulatory synthesizer, known as the standard vocal tract. In order to normalize for any given talker, characteristics of the standard vocal tract are adjusted until its sound output closely matches the sound output of the talker over a range of speech sounds. After these standard vocal tract characteristics are fixed, the analysis‐by‐synthesis procedure is enabled to recover the articulation from the talker. Experiments are conducted with articulatory and acoustic data from the Wisconsin x‐ray microbeam database. The midsagittal sections of the standard vocal tract are made to match those of the x‐ray microbeam over a set of phones. Characteristics of the standard vocal tract are adjusted so that its acoustic output matches that of the talker as closely as possible over this range of phon.
Wavelet Analysis of Coherent Structures at the Atmosphere-Forest Interface.

Abstract Wavelet analysis was applied to turbulence data for temperature and vertical velocity within and above a deciduous forest. This method appears to provide an objective technique for examining thermal and flow fields associated with coherent structures occurring near the forest. The two-dimensional unfolding in time and scale by the wavelet transform illustrates discrete warm and cool centers associated with organized updrafts and downdrafts, which have similar patterns but different magnitudes at different heights. Wavelet variances computed for temperature and velocity at different heights appear to have local maximum values corresponding to certain time scales, which are self-consistent and useful for objective determination of the principal time scale of the structures. Within the canopy, the principal time scales of the structures determined by this technique are 5660 s and 4044 s for the temperature and vertical velocity fields, respectively. These time scales are close to those determined .
Ionized and neutral donor-bound excitons in ZnO

We show for ZnO a correlation between the ionized donor bound exciton D+X recombinations I0, I1, and I2 and the neutral donor bound exciton D0X recombinations I6a, I8, and I9, respectively. The experimental data on the localization energies of ionized and neutral donor bound excitons are compared to theoretical predictions and a good agreement is found. We give an estimate of the localization energies of neutral acceptor bound excitons. One can conclude that the localization energies of neutral donor and acceptor bound excitons in ZnO will be very close in energy and an assignment of transition lines to donors and/or acceptors in the absence of decisive data from magneto-optics will not be straightforward.
Bimetallic nanopetals for thousand-fold fluorescence enhancements

We present a simple, ultra-rapid and robust method to create sharp nanostructures—nanopetals—in a shape memory polymer substrate demonstrating unprecedented enhancements for surface enhanced sensing over large surface areas. These bimetallic nanostructures demonstrate extremely strong surface plasmon resonance effects due to the high density multifaceted petal structures that increase the probability of forming nanogaps. We demonstrate that our nanopetals exhibit extremely strong surface plasmons, confining the emission and enhancing the fluorescence intensity of the nearby high-quantum yield fluorescein by >4000×. The enhancements are confined to the extremely small volumes at the nanopetal borders. This enables us to achieve single molecule detection at relatively high and physiological concentrations.
Translation of bubbles subject to weak acoustic forcing and error in decoupling from volume oscillations

A microbubble in a sound wave oscillates in volume and translates unsteadily. The two motions are coupled. In large-scale simulations of the structure of bubble clouds driven by acoustic fields, it has been of significant convenience to decouple volume oscillations and translation, as an approximation. The errors of this decoupling approximation were considered in an earlier presentation [A. J. Reddy and A. J. Szeri, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 112, 1346–1352 (2002)], in the parameter range of interest in medical ultrasound. In this work, the approximation is reexamined for a much broader range of driving frequencies and bubble sizes. Solving the equation of motion for linearly oscillating bubbles, it is found that even for weak acoustic forcing, the translation speed obtained with the decoupling approximation can be in error as much as 30% relative to the translation speed in the full equations. The error depends on the bubble size, the driving frequency, and the liquid properties. The results are presented in a.
Effect of nonlinear instability on gravity-wave momentum transport

Abstract Internal gravity waves, and the stress divergence and turbulence induced by them, are essential components of the atmospheric and oceanic general circulations. Theoretical studies have not yet reached a consensus as to how gravity waves transport and deposit momentum. The two best-known theories, resonant interaction and Eikonal saturation, yield contradictory answers to this question. In resonant interaction theory, an energetic, high-frequency, low-wavenumber wave is unstable to two waves of approximately half the frequency and is backscattered by a low-frequency wave or mean finestructure of twice the vertical wavenumber. By contrast, the Eikonal saturation model, as it is commonly used, ignores reflection by assuming a slowly varying basic state and does not question the longevity of the primary wave in the presence of local Kelvin–Helmboltz or convective instabilities. The resonant interaction formalism demands that the interactions be weakly nonlinear. The Eikonal saturation model allows st.
Three-Dimensional Multi-Objective Design Optimization of a Transonic Compressor Rotor

A method for transonic compressor multi-objective design optimization was developed and applied to the NASA rotor 37, a test case representative of complex three-dimensional viscous flow structures in transonic bladings. The optimization problem considered was to maximize the isentropic efficiency of the rotor and to maximize its pressure ratio at the design point, using a constraint on the mass flow rate. The three-dimensional Navier‐Stokes code CFXTASCflow ® was used for the aerodynamic analysis of blade designs. The capability of the code was validated by comparing the computed results to experimental data available in the open literature from probe traverses upand downstream of the rotor. A multi-objective evolutionary algorithm was used for handling the optimization problem that makes use of Pareto optimality concepts and implements a novel genetic diversity evaluation method to establish a criterion for fitness assignment. The optimal rotor configurations, which correspond to the maximum pressure ratio and maximum efficiency, were obtained and compared to the original design.
A general approach to account for dependence in large-scale multiple testing

The data generated by high-throughput biotechnologies are characterized by their high-dimension and heterogeneity. Usual, tried and tested inference approaches are questioned in the statistical analysis of such data. Motivated by issues raised by the analysis of gene expressions data, I focus on the impact of dependence on the properties of multiple testing procedures in high-dimension. This article aims at presenting the main results: after introducing the issues brought by dependence among variables, the impact of dependence on the error rates and on the procedures developed to control them is more particularly studied. It results in the description of an innovative methodology based on a factor structure to model the data heterogeneity, which provides a general framework to deal with dependence in multiple testing. The proposed framework leads to less variability for error rates and consequently shows large improvements of power and stability of simultaneous inference with respect to existing multiple testing procedures. Besides, the model parameters estimation in a high-dimensional setting and the determination of the number of factors to be considered in the model are evoked. These results are then illustrated by real data from microarray experiments analyzed using the R package called FAMT.
Experimental and computational investigations of flapping wings for Nano-air-vehicles

This paper presents the finalized results of a recent project which investigated the aeromechanical aspects of aerodynamic force generation by making use of flapping wings. Flapping-wing experiments using small wings have some unique challenges posed by the low force level (∼1 N) and the cyclic wing motion. A tailored experimental water tunnel facility was developed for flapping wings operating at high reduced frequency with a complex two-dimensional and a three-dimensional motion profile. The experimental capability is demonstrated by the test cases of two-dimensional and three-dimensional flapping wings, designed according to a proposed notional nano-air-vehicle at a hovering condition. The features of the water tunnel, the geometric and kinematic parameters of the airfoils/wings, and the setups of the motion rigs for each test case are described. Measured forces and particle image velocimetry data are analyzed and cross-checked with the numerical results obtained from a code developed in-house. The comparisons of the experimental and numerical results show that the established experimental approach obtained a quantitatively reliable solution for the development of flapping wings and can serve for numerical validation of engineering tool developments. The investigation reveals that the kinematics of a rigid airfoil or wing is the dominant influence in the generation of aerodynamic forces, while the cross-section profile plays a secondary role. An asymmetric-wake-in-time is found behind the single airfoils and wings, which contributes to an asymmetry behavior of the resulting aerodynamic forces. In addition to the findings of single airfoils and wings, further analyses of the numerical and experimental results confirm that wing-wing interaction through the clap-fling mechanism can intensify the generation of the thrust force while accompanied by a small reduction in the overall propulsion efficiency.
Geometric parameter estimation with a multiscale template library

A common image processing problem is determining the location of an object using a template when the size and rotation of the object are unknown. In the case of known geometric parameters, it is possible to use an impulse reconstruction technique to determine object location. In the case of unknown parameters, we show that localization is possible by computing a likelihood surface for a dense sampling of the size and rotation space. However, the surface produced is not amenable to conventional minimization methods due to local minima and regions of small or zero gradient. Using a smooth approximate template, we can overcome these difficulties at the expense of estimation accuracy. We therefore demonstrate a technique which employs a library of templates starting from the smooth approximation and adding detail until the exact template is reached. Successively estimating the geometric parameters using these templates achieves the accuracy of the exact template while remaining within a well-behaved 'bowl' in the search space which allows standard minimization techniques to be used.
Automatic PMD compensation experiment with particle swarm optimization and adaptive dithering algorithms for 10-gb/s NRZ and RZ formats

We demonstrate a 10-Gb/s polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) compensation experiment by using a 4-degree of freedom compensator for both NRZ and RZ formats. The particle swarm optimization method is used as the searching algorithm and an adaptive dithering algorithm is employed in tracking process. The results show that the searching process is finished within several hundreds of milliseconds and the response time for the compensator to recover from a sudden disturbance is less than 20 ms.
Turbulent air flow over the dominant component of wind-generated water waves

This paper presents a laboratory study of the dynamic properties of air flow over small wind-generated water waves. On the basis of measurements of mean velocity profiles, turbulent intensity profiles and energy spectra, the detailed structure of turbulent wind immediately above and between the crests of progressive water waves has been examined. The velocity sensor (a hot-wire anemometer) was fastened to a self-adjusting positioner to measure instantaneous air velocities at a fixed distance from a moving water surface. The waves had a dominant frequency, 2·4 Hz, and a ratio of wave celerity and air friction velocity close to one. With the aid of a digital computer, the desired parameters of air flow were obtained by a statistical technique which was developed to sample and average simultaneous recordings of water surface displacements and instantaneous air velocities. The results of the wind field measurements over representative waves indicate that, on the average, the air flow separates from the wavy water surface just behind crests, and reattaches somewhere on the windward face of the next wave. The measured turbulent quantities consistently show the characteristics of separated air flow. The separation phenomenon suggests that, without some modification, the Benjamin-Miles shearing flow mechanism is inapplicable to the growth of fully-developed small water waves, at least when the ratio of the phase speed to air friction velocity is of order unity. The observed flow configuration tends to support the separation mechanism of energy transfer originally outlined by Jeffreys and later explored further by Stewart and Deardorff. Mean properties of the turbulent air flow referred to the mean water level were obtained by continuous sampling of the air flow over many waves with a sensing probe, either at a fixed distance from the mean water level (fixed probe measurement) or at a constant distance from the moving water surface (moving probe measurement). It was found that for continuously averaged measurements, the fixed probe yielded results which deviate less from the local mean than the moving probe results. This holds for the mean velocity distributions and especially for the turbulent quantities.
The Jet of M87 at Tenth-Arcsecond Resolution: Optical, Ultraviolet, and Radio Observations

The European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera (FOC) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was used to obtain optical and UV imaging of the jet of M87 prior to the HST refurbishment. We present a detailed comparison to new VLA radio observations at similar spatial resolution and flux information for the radio, optical, and UV bands. While the radio and optical images present a remarkable degree of similarity, there are nevertheless significant differences. The optical/UV images show intrinsically higher contrast than the radio, with compact regions of emission localized within the knots. The jet is narrower in the optical/UV; the emission is more concentrated to the jet's center in the optical/UV than in the radio band. The radio-to-optical spectral index of the interknot regions is steeper than that of the knots themselves. There are also differences in the detailed knot structure of the optical emission compared to the radio, and there is a weak overall spectral steepening with distance from the nucleus beyond knot A. The jet does not show pronounced limb brightening in the optical/UV. This indicates that the emission occurs within the jet and not in a thin boundary around the jet, as in some jet models. We explore an idealized synchrotron model of jet emission and derive volume-deprojected physical parameters for the model. While the knots themselves are overpressured with respect to the surroundings, the pressure of the interknot regions in this observationally based model drops to the ambient external pressure, as in theories that invoke jet recollimation at shocks. Alternatively, internal shocks may be triggered by boundary instabilities or time-dependent power output from the nucleus. Downstream from knot A, the situation is less ordered, although in situ acceleration near the jet's center line also seems to be required, as the optical jet remains narrower than the radio jet there.
Optical-radio frequency resonances free from power-broadening.

We have demonstrated a new mode of operation of an optical-radio-frequency double-resonance measurement, which allows high-resolution rf spectroscopy with negligible power broadening. The method is based on saturating, resonant excitation, and nonresonant detection of an atomic alignment of alkali-metal atoms by magneto-optical means. Its application to precision measurements, in particular to atomic magnetometry, is discussed.
Proposta de um framework para prototipagem de sistemas heurísticos multiagentes baseados em algorítmos de colônia de formigas

The study of multi-agent systems usually begins by implementing a base-algorithm, which is changed as required by the aim of the research. In this context, carrying out different algorithms, which have already been established, is not a trivial task as it requires implementing these algorithms.This article proposes a computer framework that enables one to prototype a large set of heuristics based on the Ant Colony System metaheuristic. As an example of the proposed framework, four important AS algorithms were implemented. The results show a significant reduction in the implementation time by using the proposed framework.
Resource Letter: PER-1: Physics Education Research

The purpose of this Resource Letter is to provide an overview of research on the learning and teaching of physics. The references have been selected to meet the needs of two groups of physicists engaged in physics education. The first is the growing number whose field of scholarly inquiry is (or might become) physics education research. The second is the much larger community of physics instructors whose primary interest is in using the results from research as a guide for improving instruction.
Effects of varying the force levels and direction of force change on accuracy and force variability in a cyclic isometric pinch force tracking task

Abstract: This study investigated how varying the required force level and the direction of force change produced by the thumb and index finger affect the accuracy and variability of a cyclic isometric pinch force-tracking task. Accuracy was examined by both absolute error and relative error for the minimum and maximum force levels and by root mean square error (RMSE) and normalized root mean square error (normalized RMSE) for the force direction reversals. Variability was represented by coefficient of variation of error (CVE). In this study, ‘maximum force’ was defined as the highest force level of a given target force range, and ‘minimum force’ was defined as the minimum force level of the target range. In addition, ‘force increasing to decreasing’ indicated that the track ball motion changed from increasing to decreasing, requiring the performer to exert increasing force up to the maximum force level and then decreasing force to follow the track ball moving toward the minimum force level. The phrase
Large area synchrotron X-ray fluorescence mapping of biological samples

Large area mapping of inorganic material in biological samples has suffered severely from prohibitively long acquisition times. With the advent of new detector technology we can now generate statistically relevant information for studying cell populations, inter-variability and bioinorganic chemistry in large specimen. We have been implementing ultrafast synchrotron-based XRF mapping afforded by the MAIA detector for large area mapping of biological material. For example, a 2.5 million pixel map can be acquired in 3 hours, compared to a typical synchrotron XRF set-up needing over 1 month of uninterrupted beamtime. Of particular focus to us is the fate of metals and nanoparticles in cells, 3D tissue models and animal tissues. The large area scanning has for the first time provided statistically significant information on sufficiently large numbers of cells to provide data on intercellular variability in uptake of nanoparticles. Techniques such as flow cytometry generally require analysis of thousands of cells for statistically meaningful comparison, due to the large degree of variability. Large area XRF now gives comparable information in a quantifiable manner. Furthermore, we can now image localised deposition of nanoparticles in tissues that would be highly improbable to `find' by typical XRF imaging. In addition, the ultra fast nature also makes it viable to conduct 3D XRF tomography over large dimensions. This technology avails new opportunities in biomonitoring and understanding metal and nanoparticle fate ex-vivo. Following from this is extension to molecular imaging through specific anti-body targeted nanoparticles to label specific tissues and monitor cellular process or biological consequence.