Evaluation of spoken document retrieval for historic speech collections

The re-use of spoken word audio collections maintained by audiovisual archives is severely hindered by their generally limited access. The CHoral project, which is part of the CATCH program funded by the Dutch Research Council, aims to provide users of speech archives with online, instead of on-location, access to relevant fragments, instead of full documents. To meet this goal, a spoken document retrieval framework is being developed. In this paper the evaluation efforts undertaken so far to assess and improve various aspects of the framework are presented. These efforts include (i) evaluation of the automatically generated textual representations of the spoken word documents that enable word-based search, (ii) the development of measures to estimate the quality of the textual representations for use in information retrieval, and (iii) studies to establish the potential user groups of the to-be-developed technology, and the first versions of the user interface supporting online access to spoken word collections

A Look At Three Different Scenarios for Bulge Formation

In this paper, we present three qualitatively different scenarios for bulge formation: a secular evolution model in which bulges form after disks and undergo several central starbursts, a primordial collapse model in which bulges and disks form simultaneously, and an early bulge formation model in which bulges form prior to disks. We normalize our models to the local z=0 observations of de Jong & van der Kruit (1994) and Peletier & Balcells (1996) and make comparisons with high redshift observations. We consider model predictions relating directly to bulge-to-disk properties. As expected, smaller bulge-to-disk ratios and bluer bulge colors are predicted by the secular evolution model at all redshifts, although uncertainties in the data are currently too large to differentiate strongly between the models.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Scientific Findings of the Neskak Gora Project on Second Generation Immigrant Girls and Young Women from North African and South Asian Families in Europe

Research project “Neskak Gora” on discrimination against young second generation female migrants in six European countrie

Enhanced sensitivity of postsynaptic serotonin-1A receptors in rats and mice with high trait aggression

Individual differences in aggressive behaviour have been linked to variability in central serotonergic activity, both in humans and animals. A previous experiment in mice, selectively bred for high or low levels of aggression, showed an up-regulation of postsynaptic serotonin-1A (5-HT1A) receptors, both in receptor binding and in mRNA levels, in the aggressive line. The aim of this experiment was to study whether similar differences in 5-HT1A receptors exist in individuals from a random-bred rat strain, varying in aggressiveness. In addition, because little is known about the functional consequences of these receptor differences, a response mediated via postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptors (i.e., hypothermia) was studied both in the selection lines of mice and in the randomly bred rats. The difference in receptor binding, as demonstrated in mice previously, could not be shown in rats. However, both in rats and mice, the hypothermic response to the 5-HT1A agonist alnespirone was larger in aggressive individuals. So, in the rat strain as well as in the mouse lines, there is, to a greater or lesser extent, an enhanced sensitivity of postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptors in aggressive individuals. This could be a compensatory up-regulation induced by a lower basal 5-HT neurotransmission, which is in agreement with the serotonin deficiency hypothesis of aggression.

The small protein CydX is required for function of cytochrome bd oxidase in Brucella abortus.

A large number of hypothetical genes potentially encoding small proteins of unknown function are annotated in the Brucella abortus genome. Individual deletion of 30 of these genes identified four mutants, in BAB1_0355, BAB2_0726, BAB2_0470, and BAB2_0450 that were highly attenuated for infection. BAB2_0726, an YbgT-family protein located at the 3' end of the cydAB genes encoding cytochrome bd ubiquinal oxidase, was designated cydX. A B. abortus cydX mutant lacked cytochrome bd oxidase activity, as shown by increased sensitivity to H(2)O(2), decreased acid tolerance and increased resistance to killing by respiratory inhibitors. The C terminus, but not the N terminus, of CydX was located in the periplasm, suggesting that CydX is an integral cytoplasmic membrane protein. Phenotypic analysis of the cydX mutant, therefore, suggested that CydX is required for full function of cytochrome bd oxidase, possibly via regulation of its assembly or activity

Towards a fully self-consistent spectral function of the nucleon in nuclear matter

We present a calculation of nuclear matter which goes beyond the usual quasi-particle approximation in that it includes part of the off-shell dependence of the self-energy in the self-consistent solution of the single-particle spectrum. The spectral function is separated in contributions for energies above and below the chemical potential. For holes we approximate the spectral function for energies below the chemical potential by a $\delta$-function at the quasi-particle peak and retain the standard form for energies above the chemical potential. For particles a similar procedure is followed. The approximated spectral function is consistently used at all levels of the calculation. Results for a model calculation are presented, the main conclusion is that although several observables are affected by the inclusion of the continuum contributions the physical consistency of the model does not improve with the improved self-consistency of the solution method. This in contrast to expectations based on the crucial role of self-consistency in the proofs of conservation laws.Comment: 26 pages Revtex with 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.