Close Pairs Research Articles

How to generate Muong speech directly from Vietnamese text: Cross-lingual speech synthesis for close language pair

The paper introduces a method for automatic translation of Vietnamese text into Muong speech in two dialects, Muong Bi - Hoa Binh and Muong Tan Son - Phu Tho, which are all unwritten dialects of the Muong language. Due to the very close relationship between the Vietnamese and Muong languages, the translation system was built to look like a cross-lingual speech synthesis system, in which the input is the text of one language (i.e., the Vietnamese) and the output is the speech of another language (i.e., the two Muong dialects). The system used the modern sequence-to-sequence TTS neural models Tacotron2 and WaveGlow. The evaluation results showed a high quality of translation (with a fluency score of 4.61/5.0 and an adequacy score of 4.79/5.0) and also synthesized speech quality (with naturalness on the MOS scale of 4.68/5.0 and intelligibility of 94.60%). The received results show that the applicability of the proposed system to other minority languages is promising, especially in the case of unwritten languages.

Close Major-merger Pairs at z = 0: Bulge-to-total Ratio and Star Formation Enhancement

We present a study of the bulge-to-total ratio (B/T) of a Ks-band-selected sample of 88 close major-merger pairs of galaxies (H-KPAIR), based on two-dimensional decompositions of SDSS r-band images with galfit. We investigate the dependence of the interaction-induced specific star formation rate enhancement (sSFRenh) on the B/T ratio, and the effects of this dependence on the differences between star-forming galaxies (SFGs) in spiral+spiral (S+S) and spiral+elliptical (S+E) pairs. Of all the 132 spiral galaxies in H-KPAIR, the 44 in S+E pairs show higher B/T than those in the 44 S+S pairs, with means of B/T = 0.35 ± 0.05 and B/T = 0.26 ± 0.03, respectively. There is a strong negative dependence of sSFRenh on the B/T ratio, and only paired SFGs with B/T < 0.3 show significant (>5σ) enhancement. Paired SFGs in S+S pairs show a similar trend, and many disky SFGs (B/T < 0.1) in S+S pairs have strong sSFR enhancements (sSFRenh > 0.7 dex). For SFGs in S+E pairs, the sSFR has no clear B/T dependence, nor any significant enhancement in any B/T bin. Disky SFGs in S+S pairs show significant (>4σ) enhancement in molecular gas content (), while SFGs in S+E pairs have no such enhancement in any B/T bin. No significant enhancement of the total gas content (M gas/M star) is found in any B/T bin for paired galaxies. The star formation efficiency of either the total gas (SFEgas = SFR/M gas) or molecular gas () does not depend on the B/T ratio. The only significant (> 4σ) SFE enhancement found for paired SFGs is the SFEgas for disky SFGs in S+S pairs.

Reionization time of the Local Group and Local-Group-like halo pairs

ABSTRACT Patchy cosmic reionization resulted in the ionizing UV background asynchronous rise across the Universe. The latter might have left imprints visible in present-day observations. Several numerical simulation-based studies show correlations between the reionization time and overdensities and object masses today. To remove the mass from the study, as it may not be the sole important parameter, this paper focuses solely on the properties of paired haloes within the same mass range as the Milky Way. For this purpose, it uses CoDaII, a fully coupled radiation hydrodynamics reionization simulation of the local Universe. This simulation holds a halo pair representing the Local Group, in addition to other pairs, sharing similar mass, mass ratio, distance separation, and isolation criteria but in other environments, alongside isolated haloes within the same mass range. Investigations of the paired halo reionization histories reveal a wide diversity although always inside-out, given our reionization model. Within this model, haloes in a close pair tend to be reionized at the same time but being in a pair does not bring to an earlier time their mean reionization. The only significant trend is found between the total energy at z = 0 of the pairs and their mean reionization time: Pairs with the smallest total energy (bound) are reionized up to 50 Myr earlier than others (unbound). Above all, this study reveals the variety of reionization histories undergone by halo pairs similar to the Local Group, that of the Local Group being far from an average one. In our model, its reionization time is ∼625 Myr against 660 ± 4 Myr (z ∼ 8.25 against 7.87 ± 0.02) on average.

A Corpus-based Study of Translation Universals in Korean-English Literary Translation

Translation universals hypothesizes that translational languages have conventional yet unique features of translations, distinct from those of non-translations, and these features are universally present in all translations regardless of language pairs. However, the verification of translation universals has been restricted mainly to genetically close language pairs, such as English and closely related European languages. To confirm its universality, this article investigated Korean-into-English translations in the literary genre, which have remained mostly unexplored in translation universals studies. By constructing an approximately 500,000-word comparable corpus the Comparable Corpus of American — and Korean Novels—this study tested four major sub-hypotheses: simplification, explicitation, normalization, and leveling-out. Setting aside the lexical density of simplification indices, the results from all the other indices—mean sentence length, proportions of high- and low-frequency words, normalized frequencies of connectives and lexical bundles, and standard deviations of lexical density and mean sentence length—supported the translation universals hypothesis, indicating its high generalizability.

Sub-sampling a large physical soil archive for additional analyses to support spatial mapping; a pre-registered experiment in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR) of Ethiopia

The value of physical archives of soil material from field sampling activities has been widely recognized. If we want to use archive material for new destructive analyses to support a task, such as spatial mapping, then an efficient sub-sampling strategy is needed, both to manage analytical costs and to conserve the archive material. In this paper we present an approach to this problem when the objective is spatial mapping by ordinary kriging. Our objective was to subsample the physical archive from the Ethiopia Soil Information System (EthioSIS) survey of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) for spatial mapping of two variables, concentrations of particular fractions of selenium and iodine in the soil, which had not been measured there. We used data from cognate parts of surrounding regions of Ethiopia to estimate variograms of these properties, and then computed prediction error variances for maps in SNNPR based on proposed subsets of the archive of different size, selected to optimize a spatial coverage criterion (with some close sample pairs included). On this basis a subsample was selected.This is a preregistered experiment in that we have proposed criteria for evaluating the success of our approach, and are publishing that in advance of receiving analytical data on the subsampled material from the laboratories where they are being processed. A subsequent short report will publish the outcome. The use of preregistered trials is widely recommended and used in areas of science including public health, and we believe that it is a sound strategy to promote reproducible research in soil science.

Synthesis of Highly Congested Tertiary Alcohols via the [3,3] Radical Deconstruction of Breslow Intermediates.

Pericyclic processes such as [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangements leading to the rapid generation of molecular complexity constitute highly valuable tools in organic synthesis. Herein, we report the formation of particularly hindered tertiary alcohols via rearrangement of Breslow intermediates formed in situ from readily available N-allyl thiazolium salts and benzaldehyde derivatives. Experimental mechanistic studies performed suggest that the reaction proceeds via a close radical pair which recombine in a regio- and diastereoselective manner, formally leading to [3,3]-rearranged products.

New Bounds for Range Closest-Pair Problems

Given a dataset S of points in $${\mathbb {R}}^2$$ , the range closest-pair (RCP) problem aims to preprocess S into a data structure such that when a query range X is specified, the closest-pair in $$S \cap X$$ can be reported efficiently. The RCP problem can be viewed as a range-search version of the classical closest-pair problem, and finds applications in many areas. Due to its non-decomposability, the RCP problem is much more challenging than many traditional range-search problems. This paper revisits the RCP problem, and proposes new data structures for various query types including quadrants, strips, rectangles, and halfplanes. Both worst-case and average-case analyses (in the sense that the data points are drawn uniformly and independently from the unit square) are applied to these new data structures, which result in new bounds for the RCP problem. Some of the new bounds significantly improve the previous results, while the others are entirely new.

Can the Universe Think?

Quantized spacetime could be an infinite ocean of virtual pairs of points, one point traveling forward an elementary unit of time and the other traveling backward an elementary unit of time, the share their time and disappear, with both an elementary unit of distance apart. Randomly blinking virtual pairs of points would make spacetime move in integral jumps of the elementary unit of time and integral jumps in the elementary unit of distance, thus quantizing spacetime, the points are spacetime. An unpaired point, say a -, would have no partner, so it would last and be able to share time with any + point from any close pair. Both would disappear leaving the – point from the close pair as the new unpaired point an elementary distance unit away, then share time again and again the same way each in the elementary unit of time, and zips around randomly at the speed of light creating the matter wave and matter.

The environmental dependence of the stellar velocity dispresion of active galactic nucleus (AGN) host galaxies and dependence of the clustering properties of AGN host galaxies on the stellar velocity dispersion

We use two volume-limited active galactic nucleus (AGN) host galaxy samples constructed by Deng &amp; Wen [47], and explore the environmental dependence of the stellar velocity dispersion in these two volume-limited AGN host galaxy samples. In the luminous volume-limited AGN host galaxy sample, the stellar velocity dispersion of AGN host galaxies apparently depends on local environments: AGN host galaxies with large stellar velocity dispersion exist preferentially in high density regime, while AGN host galaxies with small stellar velocity dispersion are located preferentially in low density regions. But in the faint volume-limited AGN host galaxy sample, this dependence is fairly weak. We also examine the dependence of the clustering properties of AGN host galaxies on the stellar velocity dispersion by cluster analysis, and find that in the luminous volume-limited AGN host galaxy sample, AGN host galaxies with small stellar velocity dispersion preferentially form isolated galaxies, close pairs and small groups, while AGN host galaxies with large stellar velocity dispersion preferentially inhabit the dense groups and clusters. In the faint volume-limited AGN host galaxy sample, although the fraction of isolated galaxies with small stellar velocity dispersion is apparently higher than the one with large stellar velocity dispersion, the trend in the luminous volume-limited sample is very difficultly observed. This likely is due to the galaxy number of the faint volume-limited AGN host galaxy sample being too small to ensure an ideal statistical analysis.

Characterisation of the spectrum and genetic dependence of collateral mutations induced by translesion DNA synthesis.

Translesion DNA synthesis (TLS) is a fundamental damage bypass pathway that utilises specialised polymerases with relaxed template specificity to achieve replication through damaged DNA. Misinsertions by low fidelity TLS polymerases may introduce additional mutations on undamaged DNA near the original lesion site, which we termed collateral mutations. In this study, we used whole genome sequencing datasets of chicken DT40 and several human cell lines to obtain evidence for collateral mutagenesis in higher eukaryotes. We found that cisplatin and UVC radiation frequently induce close mutation pairs within 25 base pairs that consist of an adduct-associated primary and a downstream collateral mutation, and genetically linked their formation to TLS activity involving PCNA ubiquitylation and polymerase κ. PCNA ubiquitylation was also indispensable for close mutation pairs observed amongst spontaneously arising base substitutions in cell lines with disrupted homologous recombination. Collateral mutation pairs were also found in melanoma genomes with evidence of UV exposure. We showed that collateral mutations frequently copy the upstream base, and extracted a base substitution signature that describes collateral mutagenesis in the presented dataset regardless of the primary mutagenic process. Using this mutation signature, we showed that collateral mutagenesis creates approximately 10-20% of non-paired substitutions as well, underscoring the importance of the process.

Intrinsic alignments of the extended radio continuum emission of galaxies in the EAGLE simulations

ABSTRACT We present measurements of the intrinsic alignments (IAs) of the star-forming gas of galaxies in the EAGLE simulations. Radio continuum imaging of this gas enables cosmic shear measurements complementary to optical surveys. We measure the orientation of star-forming gas with respect to the direction to, and orientation of, neighbouring galaxies. Star-forming gas exhibits a preferentially radial orientation–direction alignment that is a decreasing function of galaxy pair separation, but remains significant to $\gtrsim 1\, {\rm Mpc}$ at z = 0. The alignment is qualitatively similar to that exhibited by the stars, but is weaker at fixed separation. Pairs of galaxies hosted by more massive subhaloes exhibit stronger alignment at fixed separation, but the strong alignment of close pairs is dominated by ∼L⋆ galaxies and their satellites. At fixed comoving separation, the radial alignment is stronger at higher redshift. The orientation–orientation alignment is consistent with random at all separations, despite subhaloes exhibiting preferential parallel minor axis alignment. The weaker IA of star-forming gas than for stars stems from the former’s tendency to be less well aligned with the dark matter (DM) structure of galaxies than the latter, and implies that the systematic uncertainty due to IA may be less severe in radio continuum weak lensing surveys than in optical counterparts. Alignment models equating the orientation of star-forming gas discs to that of stellar discs or the DM structure of host subhaloes will therefore overestimate the impact of IAs on radio continuum cosmic shear measurements.

Closest Pair Algorithms in 2D space,a commentary on complexity and reductions

One of the most challenging problems in computational geometry is closest pair of points given n points. Brute force algorithms[1] and Divide and conquer[1] have been verified and the lowest complexity of attributed to latter class of algorithms, with worst case being for the former being . We propose a method of partitioning the set of n-points based on the least area rectangle that can circumscribe these points

Testing the Validity of the Health Mavenness Self-Report Measure with Self-Other Correlations

The three superdiffuser traits (health maven, connector, persuader) are identified using a self-report measure. The construct validity of the health maven measure requires that the health maven’s social network perceive the health maven to be a health maven. To test this validity hypothesis, a sample of 98 pairs of people who knew each other was drawn such that one member completed the self-reported superdiffuser measures and the other completed a modified version targeted at the other person. Closeness was also measured as a potential moderator. The self-other correlation for the health maven measure was positive, medium in size, and unmoderated. The self-other correlation for the connector scale was moderated by closeness such that it was stronger among closer pairs.

Re-evaluating the landscape of early ecclesiastical foundation in the Kingdom of Lindsey

In 1993, David Stocker published a review of the evidence for the early church in Lincolnshire, proposing a series of models explaining the pattern behind the documented foundations of the 7th and 8th centuries. Over the last three decades, excavations at West Halton, Partney, Little Carlton and the long-awaited publication of those from Flixborough, in addition to new research at a range of other sites, make a re-evaluation of his arguments possible. By focusing on the historical Kingdom of Lindsey, this paper revisits some of Stocker’s propositions, and in particular the notion of the close pairing of ecclesiastical and secular settlements. Further attention is drawn to the close connection between newly established churches and pre-existing ritual features, as exemplified by the recently excavated pre-Christian shrine at West Halton.

Об одном факторе, снижающем продуктивность скважин на поздней стадии разработки месторождений

The paper presents a study of the influence of the displacement factor of perforation channels in the bottomhole zones of wells relative to the perforations in the casing pipes at a late stage of oil and gas field development, characterized by a decrease in reservoir pressure. It is shown that in most cases this displacement leads to deterioration or complete disappearance of the hydrodynamic connection of the bottomhole zone with the wellbore. It was found that the processes of creep of rocks, increasing the magnitude of the displacement of the seam top, enhance the effectof this factor. It is shown that in order to reduce the negative effects of displacement of perforation channels, it is advisable to use slotted perforation of wells or the technology of forming vertically close pairs of perforationchannels during the secondary opening of productive formations. The results of the study can be used for a reasonable choice of technologies for influencing the bottomhole zones of wells at a late stage of oil and gas field development.

Phylogenetic relatedness and competition: a pot experiment with semiarid tree species

Background: Factors determining the coexistence of species have been recognized since Darwin, but empirical studies have brought the relationship between niche similarity and competition into question. Knowing the mechanisms of coexistence makes it possible to predict biological invasions and determine better species combinations for the restoration and recovery of degraded areas. The aim of this study was to test the competition-relatedness hypothesis for semiarid tree species. Thus, an experiment was carried out with a phylogenetic gradient of tree species, planted in pairs. The phylogenetically closest pair consisted of congeneric species of the same clade, the intermediate pair comprised congeneric species of distinct clades, and the more distant pair were species of the same family. Results: Our results show that the phylogenetically closest and the more distant pairs corroborated the competition-relatedness hypothesis, but the presence of one species with high competitive ability in the intermediate pair caused an unexpected pattern. Conclusion: Niche differences are important for coexistence, but it is necessary to know the competitive ability of each species and the specific associations that are more productive to improve the efficiency of restoration programs and to reveal the degree of aggressiveness in the case of invasive species.

The incisive foramen as character in distinguishing morphologically similar species of mammals

An analysis of the morphology and variability of the size and shape of a key morphological structure in the rostral part of the skull—the incisive foramen—has been carried out. It is shown that incisive foramina are variable morphological structures, the features of which are group-specific (at the level of genera and families), and in some cases also species-specific. At both these levels, the shape and size of the incisive foramen have features that can serve as criteria for species identification by osteological patterns. Their location is important for diagnosis because these structures are preserved in most specimens that have suffered various kinds of damage (e.g. in fodder residues of carnivorous mammals or in owl pellets), and their placement in the anterior part of the bony palate as well as them being protected from the sides with rows of teeth makes these structures invulnerable to trauma-related variation. It is shown that there is a specific structure (size, location, and shape) of incisive foramina at the level of taxonomic groups of all ranks, from orders to species. The analysis was performed mainly on the examples of different groups of rodents as an order, represented by the largest number of pairs of close species. Examples with several different groups, in particular with different pairs of species of voles, mice, mole rats, ground squirrels, and others are considered. Examples with differences in close pairs of species in other groups (white-toothed shrews, polecats, roe deer, etc.) are also known. In all pairs of related species, a pattern was found, according to which species that are restricted to steppe ecosystems have the smallest incisive foramina, while species from wetland habitats have large ones. In many cases, groups of genera and families well differ in the shape and location of incisive foramina, and close pairs of species differ well in the size of these structures (primarily in length), although it is important to always consider the ontogenetic age of specimens: in young individuals, the incisive foramina are naturally small, similar to incisive foramina in other species, which are characterized by small incisive foramina in general. Based on the known data on the role of incisive foramina and the Jacobson organ in the life of mammals, hypotheses have been considered that may explain the differences in species and genera by the structure (size, location, and shape) of incisive foramina.

A Cointegration Approach for Selection of Currency Pairs

Pairs trading is a statistical arbitrage strategy based on the construction of mean reversion in prices of securities. While these strategies tend to perform well in equities, their effectiveness and performance in the currency market is yet to be tested, which is generally inefficient and predictable. The purpose of this study was to select the pairs for pairs trading in the forex market of select currencies: EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/CAD, USD/INR, USD/JPY, and USD/NZD during the period starting from October 1, 2010 – October 20, 2020. The research was organized into three parts to determine the possible pairs of six currencies over different time periods. First, the closeness of potential pairs of six currencies was established using the distance approach for 10 years, 5 years, and 2 years. After that, the Engle – Granger two-step test for cointegration was applied to examine the validity of the top 10 closest pairs of currencies for pairs trading in the study. Based on the empirical results of the cointegration approach, we found very few good pairs in the forex market in our study. USD_INR/USD_NZD was found to be statistically significant at a 10% level of significance over the 10-year sample period, and the same pair of currencies was also found to be statistically significant over a 5-year sample period, but this pair was not found to be statistically significant in the 2-year sample period; whereas, USD_JPY/USD_NZD was found to be statistically significant in the 2 - year period at a 10% level of significance.

Language distance modulates cognitive control in bilinguals

Linguistic processes in the bilingual brain are partially shared across languages, and the degree of neural overlap between the languages is influenced by several factors, including the age of acquisition, relative language proficiency, and immersion. There is limited evidence on the role of linguistic distance on the performance of the language control as well as domain-general cognitive control systems. The present study aims at exploring whether being bilingual in close and distant language pairs (CLP and DLP) influences language control and domain-general cognitive processes. We recruited two groups of DLP (Persian–English) and CLP (French–English) bilinguals. Subjects performed language nonswitching and switching picture-naming tasks and a nonlinguistic switching task while EEG data were recorded. Behaviorally, CLP bilinguals showed a lower cognitive cost than DLP bilinguals, reflected in faster reaction times both in language switching (compared to nonswitching) and nonlinguistic switching. ERPs showed differential involvement of cognitive control regions between the CLP and DLP groups during linguistic switching vs. nonswitching at 450 to 515 ms poststimulus presentation. Moreover, there was a difference between CLP and DLP groups from 40 to 150 ms in the nonlinguistic task. Our electrophysiological results confirm a stronger involvement of language control and domain-general cognitive control regions in CLP bilinguals.

Statistics of galaxy mergers: bridging the gap between theory and observation

ABSTRACT We present a study of galaxy mergers up to z = 10 using the Planck Millennium cosmological dark matter simulation and the GALFORM semi-analytical model of galaxy formation. Utilizing the full 800 Mpc3 volume of the simulation, we studied the statistics of galaxy mergers in terms of merger rates and close pair fractions. We predict that merger rates begin to drop rapidly for high-mass galaxies (M* &amp;gt; 1011.3–1010.5 M⊙ for z = 0–4), as a result of the exponential decline in the galaxy stellar mass function. The predicted merger rates for massive galaxies (M* &amp;gt; 1010 M⊙) increase and then turn over with increasing redshift, by z = 3.5, in disagreement with hydrodynamical simulations and semi-empirical models. In agreement with most other models and observations, we find that close pair fractions flatten or turn over at some redshift (dependent on the mass selection). We conduct an extensive comparison of close pair fractions, and highlight inconsistencies among models, but also between different observations. We provide a fitting formula for the major merger time-scale for close galaxy pairs, in which the slope of the stellar mass dependence is redshift dependent. This is in disagreement with previous theoretical results that implied a constant slope. Instead, we find a weak redshift dependence only for massive galaxies (M* &amp;gt; 1010 M⊙): in this case the merger time-scale varies approximately as $M_*^{-0.55}$. We find that close pair fractions and merger time-scales depend on the maximum projected separation as $r_\mathrm{max}^{1.32}$, in agreement with observations of small-scale clustering of galaxies.