gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Acoustic feature-based sentiment analysis of call center data (2017)

With the advancement of machine learning methods, audio sentiment analysis has become an active research area in recent years. For example, business organizations are interested in persuasion tactics from vocal cues and acoustic measures in speech. A typical approach is to find a set of acoustic features from audio data that can indicate or predict a customer's attitude, opinion, or emotion state. For audio signals, acoustic features have been widely used in many machine learning applications, such as music classification, language recognition, emotion recognition, and so on. For emotion recognition, previous work shows that pitch and speech rate features are important features. This thesis work focuses on determining sentiment from call center audio records, each containing a conversation between a sales representative and a customer. The sentiment of an audio record is considered positive if the conversation ended with an appointment being made, and is negative otherwise. In this project, a data processing and machine learning pipeline for this problem has been developed. It consists of three major steps: 1) an audio record is split into segments by speaker turns; 2) acoustic features are extracted from each segment; and 3) classification models are trained on the acoustic features to predict sentiment. Different set of features have been used and different machine learning methods, including classical machine learning algorithms and deep neural networks, have been implemented in the pipeline. In our deep neural network method, the feature vectors of audio segments are stacked in temporal order into a feature matrix, which is fed into deep convolution neural networks as input. Experimental results based on real data shows that acoustic features, such as Mel frequency cepstral coefficients, timbre and Chroma features, are good indicators for sentiment. Temporal information in an audio record can be captured by deep convolutional neural networks for improved prediction accuracy.
Magellan (2016)

Entity matching (EM) has been a long-standing challenge in data management. Most current EM works focus only on developing matching algorithms. We argue that far more efforts should be devoted to building EM systems. We discuss the limitations of current EM systems, then present as a solution Magellan, a new kind of EM systems. Magellan is novel in four important aspects. (1) It provides how-to guides that tell users what to do in each EM scenario, step by step. (2) It provides tools to help users do these steps; the tools seek to cover the entire EM pipeline, not just matching and blocking as current EM systems do. (3) Tools are built on top of the data analysis and Big Data stacks in Python, allowing Magellan to borrow a rich set of capabilities in data cleaning, IE, visualization, learning, etc. (4) Magellan provides a powerful scripting environment to facilitate interactive experimentation and quick "patching" of the system. We describe research challenges raised by Magellan, then present extensive experiments with 44 students and users at several organizations that show the promise of the Magellan approach.
Marginalized multilevel models and likelihood inference (with comments and a rejoinder by the authors) (2000)

Hierarchical or ‘‘multilevel’’ regression models typically parameterize the mean response conditional on unobserved latent variables or ‘‘random’’ effects and then make simple assumptions regarding their distribution. The interpretation of a regression parameter in such a model is the change in possibly transformed mean response per unit change in a particular predictor having controlled for all conditioning variables including the random effects. An often overlooked limitation of the conditional formulation for nonlinear models is that the interpretation of regression coefficients and their estimates can be highly sensitive to difficult-to-verify assumptions about the distribution of random effects, particularly the dependence of the latent variable distribution on covariates. In this article, we present an alternative parameterization for the multilevel model in which the marginal mean, rather than the conditional mean given random effects, is regressed on covariates. The impact of random effects model violations on the marginal and more traditional conditional parameters is compared through calculation of asymptotic relative biases. A simple two-level example from a study of teratogenicity is presented where the binomial overdispersion depends on the binary treatment assignment and greatly influences likelihood-based estimates of the treatment effect in the conditional model. A second example considers a three-level structure where attitudes toward abortion over time are correlated with person and district level covariates. We observe that regression parameters in conditionally specified models are more sensitive to random effects assumptions than their counterparts in the marginal formulation.
Photocross-Linking of Nucleic Acids to Associated Proteins (1997)

Photocross-linking is a useful technique for the partial definition of the nucleic acid-protein interface of nucleoprotein complexes. It can be accomplished by one or two photon excitations of wild-type nucleoprotein complexes or by one photon excitation of nucleoprotein complexes bearing one or more substitutions with photoreactive chromophores. Chromophores that have been incorporated into nucleic acids for this purpose include aryl azides, 5-azidouracil, 8-azidoadenine, 8-azidoguanine, 4-thiouracil, 5-bromouracil, 5-iodouracil, and 5-iodocytosine. The various techniques and chromophores are described and compared, with attention to the photochemical mechanism.
Delaying the Employer Mandate: Small Change in the Short Term, Big Cost in the Long Run. (2013)

In July 2013, the Obama administration announced a one-year delay in enforcement of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) penalty on large employers that do not offer affordable health insurance coverage. To help policymakers understand the implications of this decision, RAND analysts employed the COMPARE microsimulation model to gauge the impact of the one-year delay of the so-called employer mandate. They found that the delay will not have a large impact on insurance coverage: Because relatively few firms and employees are affected, only 300,000 fewer people, or 0.2% of the population, will have access to insurance from their employer, and nearly all of these will get insurance from another source. However, a one-year delay in implementation of the mandate will result in $11 billion dollars less in federal inflows from employer penalties for that year. A full repeal of the employer mandate would cause revenue to fall by $149 billion over the next ten years (10% of the ACA's spending offsets), providing substantially less money to pay for other components of the law. The bottom line: The one-year delay in the employer mandate will have relatively few consequences, primarily resulting in a relatively small one-year drop in revenue; however, a complete elimination of the mandate would have a large cumulative net cost, potentially removing a nontrivial revenue source that in turn funds the coverage provisions in the ACA.
Flow Behavior and Turbulent Drag Reduction of Viscoelastic Fluids (2014)

The unsteady flow behavior and turbulent drag reduction were investigated experimentally and numerically. Regarding unsteady swirling flows of aqueous polymer solutions due to a rotating disc in a cylindrical casing, we found a new phenomenon of vortex shedding in which the ring vortex formed near the rotating disc was periodically shed away from the rotating disc. The numerical simulation of the confined swirling flow was also performed at low Reynolds numbers, in which the Giesekus model was used as a constitutive equation. For drag-reducing turbulent boundary layers of aqueous cationic and nonionic surfactant solutions, turbulence statistics and structures were investigated by the LDV and PIV systems. For the cationic surfactant solution, the additional maximum of the streamwise turbulence intensity near the center of boundary layer was explained by the bilayered structure model. The mechanism of the drag reduction was investigated by the direct numerical simulation of viscoelastic fluids.
NMR CHARACTERIZATIONS OF PROPERTIES OF HETEROGENEOUS MEDIA (2005)

A critical and long-standing need within the petroleum industry is the specification of suitable petrophysical properties for mathematical simulation of fluid flow in petroleum reservoirs (i.e., reservoir characterization). The development of accurate reservoir characterizations is extremely challenging. Property variations may be described on many scales, and the information available from measurements reflect different scales. In fact, experiments on laboratory core samples, well-log data, well-test data, and reservoir-production data all represent information potentially valuable to reservoir characterization, yet they all reflect information about spatial variations of properties at different scales. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and imaging (MRI) provide enormous potential for developing new descriptions and understandings of heterogeneous media. NMR has the rare capability to probe permeable media non-invasively, with spatial resolution, and it provides unique information about molecular motions and interactions that are sensitive to morphology. NMR well-logging provides the best opportunity ever to resolve permeability distributions within petroleum reservoirs. We develop MRI methods to determine, for the first time, spatially resolved distributions of porosity and permeability within permeable media samples that approach the intrinsic scale: the finest resolution of these macroscopic properties possible. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the permeability is actually resolved at a scale smaller than the sample. In order to do this, we have developed a robust method to determine of relaxation distributions from NMR experiments and a novel implementation and analysis of MRI experiments to determine the amount of fluid corresponding to imaging regions, which are in turn used to determine porosity and saturation distributions. We have developed a novel MRI experiment to determine velocity distributions within flowing experiments, and developed methodology using that data to determine spatially resolved permeability distributions. We investigate the use of intrinsic properties for developing improved correlations for predicting permeability from NMR well-logging data and for obtaining more accurate estimates of multiphase flow properties--the relative permeability and capillary pressure--from displacement experiments. We demonstrate the use of MRI measurements of saturation and relaxation for prediction wetting-phase relative permeability for unstable experiments. Finally, we developed an improved method for determining surface relaxivity with NMR experiments, which can provide better descriptions of permeable media microstructures and improved correlations for permeability predictions.
Inhibition of translational initiation in <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> by secondary structure: the roles of the stability and position of stem‐loops in the mRNA leader (1993)

A new modular gene-expression system for use in studies of translational control in Saccharomyces cerevisiae was constructed. A GAL::PGK fusion promoter (GPF) directed the inducible synthesis of mRNAs initiated at a single major site. A series of leader sequences were tested in combination with each of two reporter genes (encoding chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (cat) and luciferase (luc)). Stem-loop structures of three different sizes and predicted stabilities were inserted into each of two different unique restriction sites in the leader. After correction for relative mRNA abundance, a stem-loop of predicted stability equivalent to approximately -18 kcal mol-1 inhibited translation by up to 89%. The degree of inhibition exerted by the other stem-loops correlated positively with their predicted stabilities. Combinations of two stem-loops at different sites yielded an inhibitory effect greater than that of either individual stem-loop alone. Similar inhibitory effects were observed with both reporter genes. However, inhibition of translation, particularly of the cat gene, was more effective when the stem-loop was positioned close to the start codon rather than at the 5' end of the leader. The observed results reflect an important form of post-transcriptional control that is expected to act on a large number of genes in yeast.
Finding targets in complex hosts using airborne EM (2003)

Two basic questions lay at the heart of AEM surveys, one concerning the basic physics of the process, the other the interpreter's capability. Is the equipment capable of exciting the target to the extent that it will produce a detectable signal above background response? Can the presence of a target be deduced from this signal?This study examines the response of a 400 siemen sulphide lens in an altered ultramafic lying at the boundary of a faulted host under a moderately conductive saprolite cover. In the easy case, the surface is flat and in the other, the whole lies under moderately steep topography. The study compares the ability of fixed wing time-domain, helicopter time-domain and helicopter frequency-domain systems to differentiate between when the lens target is present and when it is absent. Constant receiver ground clearance is assumed. In general the effect of the lens was to smooth the response horizontally so that a naive interpreter might mistake the barren response for the target response and vice versa. For the time-domain systems, the vertical component showed the greatest differentiation whereas the in-phase, in-line coaxial component was the most effective for the idealised HEM system. HEM systems showed better anomaly localisation than did fixed wing systems due to shorter transmitter-receiver separation and lower flying heights.Conductivity depth images and other interpretations based on one-dimensional earth models yield misleading information for the type of model studied.
<i>In-Situ</i> Electrochemical Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (ECSTM) Study of Cyanide-Induced Corrosion of Naked and Hexadecyl Mercaptan-Passivated Au(111) (1997)

In-situ electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy (ECSTM) was used to study the corrosion of naked and n-alkanethiol-modified Au(111) surfaces in basic CN- solutions. In these studies, the potential of a naked Au electrode is poised at a sufficiently negative value that no electrochemical etching takes place. Small positive potential excursions from the initial potential permit observation of the initial stages of corrosion. The data indicate that initial corrosion of naked Au(111) occurs only at high energy defect sites such as pits and step edges. At slightly higher overpotentials, pitting occurs in the middle of terraces while continuing at step edges. At even higher overpotentials, etching occurs rapidly and uniformly and the surface becomes very rough. Results from this experiment are compared to those obtained after coating the Au surface with a hexadecyl mercaptan self-assembled monolayer (SAM) to determine the extent to which the organomercaptan SAM inhibits Au corrosion. On the SAM-modified Au(111) surface the onset potential for a significant level of etching is shifted several hundred millivolts more positive than on the naked surface. Additionally, the rate of etching is significantly slower and the corrosion process is very different: etching initially occurs on terraces at defect sites within the monolayer instead of on step edges. We determined that potential, rather than time, is the primary factor that controls the rate of corrosion.
Serum Albumin Stimulates Protein Kinase G-dependent Microneme Secretion in Toxoplasma gondii (2016)

Microneme secretion is essential for motility, invasion, and egress in apicomplexan parasites. Although previous studies indicate that Ca(2+) and cGMP control microneme secretion, little is known about how these pathways are naturally activated. Here we have developed genetically encoded indicators for Ca(2+) and microneme secretion to better define the signaling pathways that regulate these processes in Toxoplasma gondii We found that microneme secretion was triggered in vitro by exposure to a single host protein, serum albumin. The natural agonist serum albumin induced microneme secretion in a protein kinase G-dependent manner that correlated with increased cGMP levels. Surprisingly, serum albumin acted independently of elevated Ca(2+) and yet it was augmented by artificial agonists that raise Ca(2+), such as ethanol. Furthermore, although ethanol elevated intracellular Ca(2+), it alone was unable to trigger secretion without the presence of serum or serum albumin. This dichotomy was recapitulated by zaprinast, a phosphodiesterase inhibitor that elevated cGMP and separately increased Ca(2+) in a protein kinase G-independent manner leading to microneme secretion. Taken together, these findings reveal that microneme secretion is centrally controlled by protein kinase G and that this pathway is further augmented by elevation of intracellular Ca(2.)
<title>Adaptive optics at the University of Hawaii IV: a photon-counting curvature wavefront sensor</title> (1994)

A photon counting wavefront curvature sensor (WFS) with 13 subapertures suitable for adaptive optics in astronomy has been developed at the University of Hawaii. This sensor is capable of using very faint point sources or slightly extended sources to derive the wavefront signal. The sensitivity of this sensor is continuously variable and can be adjusted in real time to match the seeing conditions at the time. The wavefront sampling geometry has been optimized for correcting the standard atmosphere up to 9 orders expressed in terms of Zernike's. Its output is used in conjunction with a newly developed deformable bimorph mirror for high efficiency correction capabilities. This WFS has successfully been used recently at the CFHT and UKIRT facilities on Mauna Kea on a variety of astronomical objects. Point sources, double stars, planetary nebula, galactic nuclei, and some of the moons of Jupiter have all been successfully attempted. Limiting magnitude has not been explored in great detail at the telescope, but we have taken the system down to magnitude R equals 13.7 (V equals 15) with a 3.6 meter aperture with success. This was achieved during bright time or whilst the full moon was present.
Topic Segmentation and Labeling in Asynchronous Conversations (2013)

Topic segmentation and labeling is often considered a prerequisite for higher-level conversation analysis and has been shown to be useful in many Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications. We present two new corpora of email and blog conversations annotated with topics, and evaluate annotator reliability for the segmentation and labeling tasks in these asynchronous conversations. We propose a complete computational framework for topic segmentation and labeling in asynchronous conversations. Our approach extends state-of-the-art methods by considering a fine-grained structure of an asynchronous conversation, along with other conversational features by applying recent graph-based methods for NLP. For topic segmentation, we propose two novel unsupervised models that exploit the fine-grained conversational structure, and a novel graph-theoretic supervised model that combines lexical, conversational and topic features. For topic labeling, we propose two novel (unsupervised) random walk models that respectively capture conversation specific clues from two different sources: the leading sentences and the fine-grained conversational structure. Empirical evaluation shows that the segmentation and the labeling performed by our best models beat the state-of-the-art, and are highly correlated with human annotations.
Calcium phosphate coprecipitation greatly enhances transduction of cardiac myocytes and vascular smooth muscle cells by lentivirus vectors. (2007)

These data show that lentivirus with CaPi coprecipitates increases both the efficiency and the speed of gene transfer. These approaches provide an efficient method and an improved tool for research and possibly for therapy of cardiovascular diseases.
Vlasov Instability in Longitudinal Plasma Oscillations (1958)

It is concluded from the sizable currents computed that Vlasov instabilities of the simple type considered will not play a major role in the problem of magnetic confinement and attendant diamagnetic currents. The situation investigated may have a valid application to the plasma of the sun's corona and possibly the simple types of Vlasov instabilities have some connection with solar prominences. (T.B.C.)
Predicting Machine Translation Adequacy with Document Embeddings (2015)

This paper describes USAAR's submission to the the metrics shared task of the Workshop on Statistical Machine Translation (WMT) in 2015. The goal of our submission is to take advantage of the semantic overlap between hypothesis and reference translation for predicting MT output adequacy using language independent document embeddings. The approach presented here is learning a Bayesian Ridge Regressor using document skip-gram embeddings in order to automatically evaluate Machine Translation (MT) output by predicting semantic adequacy scores. The evaluation of our submission -measured by the correlation with human judgements -shows promising results on system-level scores.
Audio Matching Via Chroma-Based Statistical Features. (2005)

[TODO] Add abstract here.
Refractive keratoplasty with hydrogel implants in primates. (1984)

Histological examination of primate corneas with hydrogel lenses implanted in intrastromal pockets showed the corneal lamella posterior to the implant protruding into the anterior chamber; these eyes had shown no increase in anterior corneal curvature. In an attempt to obtain a dioptric increase without removing a corneal lamella, relaxing incisions were made in Bowman's layer followed by intrastromal implantation of hydrogel lenses. However, no refractive increase resulted, although six of the seven eyes were optically clear eight months postoperatively.
Heterozygous Mutations Causing Partial Prohormone Convertase 1 Deficiency Contribute to Human Obesity (2011)

Null mutations in the PCSK1 gene, encoding the proprotein convertase 1/3 (PC1/3), cause recessive monogenic early onset obesity. Frequent coding variants that modestly impair PC1/3 function mildly increase the risk for common obesity. The aim of this study was to determine the contribution of rare functional PCSK1 mutations to obesity. PCSK1 exons were sequenced in 845 nonconsanguineous extremely obese Europeans. Eight novel nonsynonymous PCSK1 mutations were identified, all heterozygous. Seven mutations had a deleterious effect on either the maturation or the enzymatic activity of PC1/3 in cell lines. Of interest, five of these novel mutations, one of the previously described frequent variants (N221D), and the mutation found in an obese mouse model (N222D), affect residues at or near the structural calcium binding site Ca-1. The prevalence of the newly identified mutations was assessed in 6,233 obese and 6,274 lean European adults and children, which showed that carriers of any of these mutations causing partial PCSK1 deficiency had an 8.7-fold higher risk to be obese than wild-type carriers. These results provide the first evidence of an increased risk of obesity in heterozygous carriers of mutations in the PCSK1 gene. Furthermore, mutations causing partial PCSK1 deficiency are present in 0.83% of extreme obesity phenotypes.