Transcription of multi-genre media archives using out-of-domain data

We describe our work on developing a speech recognition system for multi-genre media archives. The high diversity of the data makes this a challenging recognition task, which may benefit from systems trained on a combination of in-domain and out-of-domain data. Working with tandem HMMs, we present Multi-level Adaptive Networks (MLAN), a novel technique for incorporating information from out-of-domain posterior features using deep neural networks. We show that it provides a substantial reduction in WER over other systems, with relative WER reductions of 15% over a PLP baseline, 9% over in-domain tandem features and 8% over the best out-of-domain tandem features. © 2012 IEEE.

日本沼虾与海南沼虾的人工种间杂交及其同工酶分析

中国水产科学研究院基金 (2 0 0 1 1 8); 江苏省“十五”攻关 (BE2 0 0 13 77); 江苏省水产三项工程(PJ2 0 0 3 3 2 )资助

噬菌体抗体库技术及其在水产养殖的应用前景

国家自然科学基金资助项目(30271028); 中国科学院知识创新工程课题(KSCX2-1-04)

单性生殖动物的进化

传统的观念认为 ,单性动物由于失去了重组机会 ,必然难以适应变化的环境 ,终将绝灭。但是已被发现的近 5 0种单性脊椎动物不仅没有因失去基因的重组和交换而绝灭 ,反而表现出强大的生命力。其有害突变积累和较长的生物演化历程之间的矛盾和在缺乏遗传重组情况下的进化机制是特别引人关注的重大生物学问题。简要论述了单性动物独特的基因组结构、存在历史及其进化途径 (突变、三倍化、异精雌核发育生殖方式和异精效应及生殖方式多样化 )。

草鱼出血病病原的研究

草鱼出血病是草鱼种的一种严重疾病,通常在水温25-30℃时发病,其症状表现为全身性组织器官充血。其病原悬液能通过赛氏滤器(Seitz,EKS石棉滤板),能在草鱼种体内及草鱼鳍单层细胞中传代繁殖,在草鱼肌肉单层细胞和性腺单层细胞中感染并出现细胞病变。病原悬液对脂溶剂乙醚敏感,耐热性强,对四环素类药物不敏感。试验结果,我们认为草鱼出血病的病原是病毒。

Plasma biochemical responses of the omnivorous crucian carp (Carassius auratus) to crude cyanobacterial extracts

Healthy crucian carp (Carassius auratus) were treated by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of crude cyanobacterial extracts at two doses, 50 and 200 mu g MC-LR equiv kg(-1) BW. High mortality (100%) was observed within 60 h post injection in the high-dose group. In the treated fish, activities of four plasma enzymes, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), all showed substantial increases, with both dose and time-dependent effects. These increases of enzyme activity indicate severe impairment occurred in the liver of crucian carp over time. Plasma concentrations of energy-related biomolecules including glucose (GLU), cholesterol (CHO), triglyceride (TG), and total protein (TP) showed marked changes in the high-dose group, possibly a nutritional imbalance correlated with the liver injury caused by intraperitoneal exposure to crude cyanobacterial extracts.

Field studies on the environmental factors in controlling microcystin production in the subtropical shallow lakes of the Yangtze River

Microcystin (MC) problem made more and more care about in China, intercellular MC (Int-MC) and cellular MC (Cel-MC) were important contents to reflect the producing-MC ability by cyanobacteria and by lakes. To study the correlations between Int-MC, Cel-MC concentration and biological and environmental factors, eight cyanobacterial blooming lakes were studied in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Microcystin-RR (MC-RR) and Microcystin-LR (MC-LR) were the primary toxin variants in our data. From the linear correlations between MC and environmental factors, cellular-YR had significant correlation with most of chemical factors except total nitrogen (TN) and the ratio of total nitrogen and total phosphorus (TN/TP), most intracellular MC analogues had significant correlations with total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), ammonium (NH4+), nitrite (NO2-), TP, total dissolved phosphorus (TDP), Microcystis. From the canonal correspondence analysis, Int-MC concentrations were closely related with the chemical and biological factors, such as TP, total organic carbon (TOC), chlorophyll a (Chl a), Microcystis biomass, et al. While Cel-MC contents, especially Cel-RR and Cel-LR, were closely related with light environmental in the lakes such as water depth and transparence.

Microsatellite diversity and population genetic structure of redfin culter (Culter erythropterus) in fragmented lakes of the Yangtze River

Redfin culter (Culter erythropterus) is a small lethic freshwater fish and widely distributed in the adjacent lakes of the Yangtze River of China. Five microsatellite loci were applied to investigate the genetic variation and population structure of redfin culter from seven lakes in the middle-and-lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The gene diversity was high among the populations (H > 0.9), the average number of alleles among seven populations was low with a range from 2.00 to 3.87. The mean observed (H-O) and expected (H-E) heterozygosity ranged from 0.111 to 0.419 and from 0.162 to 0.750, respectively. Significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium expectation were found in 50% of the total locus-population combination tests in which heterozygote deficits were apparent. The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicated that the percentage of variance among and within these populations were 6.18 and 93.82, respectively. The Fst values (0.062, P < 0.001) among studied populations indicated that there were significant genetic differentiations among redfin culture populations from the scattered lakes with different connections to the Yangtze River. These results are useful for the evaluation and conservation of small freshwater fishes. The factors that may be involved in low intra-population polymorphism and the pattern of the population genetic structure of redfin culter from the Yangtze River were discussed.

Sediment sources and the flood record from Wanghu lake, in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River

A sediment core was collected from the centre of Wanghu Lake, in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River. The recent part of the core was dated using a combination of Pb-210 and spheroidal carbonaceous particle (SCP) techniques. Extrapolating this chronology dated the laminated section of the core, between 723 and 881 mm, to the first half of the 18th century and this section was selected for detailed study. The thicknesses of the laminae were measured using reflecting and polarizing microscopes whilst geochemistry was determined by an electron probe. The thickness of the dark layers was found to be positively correlated with titanium concentrations, and negatively correlated with aluminium and potassium concentrations. The thickness of the light layers was found to be negatively correlated with the concentrations of titanium. It is concluded that the dark layers were deposited from the Fushui River, a tributary of the Yangtze River, under periods of normal flow whilst the light Layers were mainly deposited from the Yangtze River itself during flood periods. Documentary evidence for floods occurring in the take catchment corresponded with thick laminations of high titanium concentration. Further, two of the three thickest, light laminations with low titanium concentrations were found to be synchronous with recorded flood dates of the main Yangtze River in its Middle Reaches, but one was synchronous with a local drought. These data suggest that the Lake sediment provides an archive of the relative water levels of the Yangtze and Wanghu including floods of both the main Yangtze River and the local hydrological regime. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Modelling of turbulent lifted jet flames using flamelets: A priori assessment and a posteriori validation

This study focuses on the modelling of turbulent lifted jet flames using flamelets and a presumed Probability Density Function (PDF) approach with interest in both flame lift-off height and flame brush structure. First, flamelet models used to capture contributions from premixed and non-premixed modes of the partially premixed combustion in the lifted jet flame are assessed using a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) data for a turbulent lifted hydrogen jet flame. The joint PDFs of mixture fraction Z and progress variable c, including their statistical correlation, are obtained using a copula method, which is also validated using the DNS data. The statistically independent PDFs are found to be generally inadequate to represent the joint PDFs from the DNS data. The effects of Z-c correlation and the contribution from the non-premixed combustion mode on the flame lift-off height are studied systematically by including one effect at a time in the simulations used for a posteriori validation. A simple model including the effects of chemical kinetics and scalar dissipation rate is suggested and used for non-premixed combustion contributions. The results clearly show that both Z-c correlation and non-premixed combustion effects are required in the premixed flamelets approach to get good agreement with the measured flame lift-off heights as a function of jet velocity. The flame brush structure reported in earlier experimental studies is also captured reasonably well for various axial positions. It seems that flame stabilisation is influenced by both premixed and non-premixed combustion modes, and their mutual influences. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

Comparative study of estrogenic potencies of estradiol, tamoxifen, bisphenol-A and resveratrol with two in vitro bioassays

This study was undertaken to compare the sensitivity of two in vitro screening test methods and to determine the accuracy of predicted response to spiked laboratory water samples. A newly developed enzyme-linked receptor assay (ELRA) and a widely used yeast estrogen screen (YES) assay were selected to evaluate the estrogenic responses. Four natural, pharmaceutical, xenobiotic or phytobiotic chemicals: 17beta-estradiol (E2), tamoxifen, bisphenol-A and resveratrol were examined, and 17beta-E2 was used as a positive control. 17beta-E2 can strongly induce estrogenic response in both test systems, however, ELRA was found to be more sensitive to 17beta-E2 with a detection limit of 0.07 mug/l compared to 0.88 mug/l in YES assay. Similar results were obtained for bisphenol-A and resveratrol, and their estrogen potencies relative to E2 (100%) determined by ELRA were at least 5.6 times greater than produced by YES assay. ELRA was unable to distinguish the anti-estrogen tamoxifen and YES assay is also poor at distinguishing. Comparison of response to spiked laboratory water samples show that ELRA can give accurate determination to all four chemicals with recoveries among 70-120%, while YES can only give accurate determination to 17beta-E2 and bisphenol-A with recoveries among 69-112%. The comparative results provide evidence that ELRA is more suitable for rapid screening estrogenic potency of the environmental samples. Combination of ELRA and mammalian cellular assay will constitute an advantageous test to specify agonistic or antagonistic effects. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Temperature- and salinity-dependent development of a Nordic strain of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis from rainbow trout

During the twentieth century evidence was presented which suggested the presence of various strains and races of the parasite Ichthyophthirius multifiliis Fouquet. However, ecological profiles of various parasite isolates from different climatic zones are sparse. Such stringent characterizations of parasite development at defined abiotic conditions could provide valuable criteria for the different races: profile comparison from various localities is one way to differentiate these strains. Baseline investigations were therefore performed on the associations between abiotic factors (temperature/salinity) and the development of theronts in tomocysts of I. multifiliis isolated from rainbow trout in a Danish trout farm. It was shown that tomocyst formation and theront development took place between 5 and 30degreesC. Development rates and sizes of theronts were clearly affected by temperature: theronts escaped tomocysts already after 16-27 h at 25degreesC and 30degreesC, whereas this process took 8-9 days at 5degreesC. Likewise, theront size decreased steadily from a maximum of 57.4 x 28.6 mum at 5degreesC to 28.6 x 20.0 mum at 30degreesC. This size variation was only partly associated with the number of theronts that appeared at different temperatures. The lowest number of theronts escaping from one tomocyst was indeed found at 5-7degreesC (mean 329-413). At 11.6, 17.0 and 21degreesC. the highest number of theronts appeared (mean 546-642). However, at 25 and 30degreesC, the number decreased (458 and 424, respectively). Additional studies on the salinity dependent development of the parasite (at 11.6degreesC) showed that salinities above 5 p.p.t. totally inhibited development. Even at 5 p.p.t. the developmental time significantly increased and the number of theronts produced from one tomocyst decreased.

Differential expression and characterization analysis of a new gene with WD domains in fish oogenesis

A new gene with WD domains is cloned and characterized according to its differential transcription and expression between previtellogenic oocytes (phase I oocytes) and fully-grown oocytes (phase V oocytes) from natural gynogenetic silver crucian carp (Carassius auratus gibelio) by using the combinative methods of suppressive subtraction hybridization, SMART cDNA synthesis and RACE-PCR. The full-length cDNA is 1870 bp. Its 5 ' untranslated region is 210 bp, followed by an open reading frame of 990 bp, which has the typical vertebrate initiator codon of ANNATG. The open reading frame encodes a protein with 329 amino acids. It has 670 bp of 3 ' untranslated region and an AATAAA polyadenylation signal. Because it has 92% homology to STRAP (serine-threonine kinase receptor-associated protein), a recently reported gene, we named it FSTRAP (fish STRAP). Virtual Northern blotting indicated that the FSTRAP was transcribed in fully-grown oocytes (phase V oocytes), but not in previtellogenic oocytes (phase I oocytes). RT-PCR analysis showed that FSTRAP was transcribed in brain, heart, kidney, muscle, ovary, spleen and testis, but not in liver. And its mRNA could be detected in the oocytes from phase II to phase V. Western blotting also showed that FSTRAP protein could be detected in brain, heart, kidney, muscle, ovary, spleen and testis except liver. Results of Western blotting on various oocytes were also similar to the RT-PCR data. FSTRAP protein was not expressed in the previtellogenic oocytes. Its expression initiated from phase II oocytes after vitellogenesis, and was consistent with the mRNA transcription.