In this paper we propose to use Variational Bayesian Analysis (VBA) instead of Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimation for Universal Background Model (UBM) building in GMM text independent speaker verification systems. Using VBA estimation solves the problem of the optimal choice of the UBM mixture dimensionality for the training data set, as well as the problem of noise Gaussians which are typical ...

Conditional heterosis associated with two isoallelic forms of octanol dehydrogenase in Drosophila pseudoobscura has been detected in flies that have been (a) inbred for several generations to make the background genotype as homozygous as practicable, and (b) grown on a medium containing a small amount of octanol. The heterosis was first found in inbred males. The possibility that the effect in ...

The main purpose of this article is to present several new statistical tests of neutrality of mutations against a class of alternative models, under which DNA polymorphisms tend to exhibit excesses of rare alleles or young mutations. Another purpose is to study the powers of existing and newly developed tests and to examine the detailed pattern of polymorphisms under population growth, genetic ...

Celiac disease is a common small intestinal inflammatory condition induced by wheat gluten and related proteins from rye and barley. Left untreated, the clinical presentation of CD can include failure to thrive, malnutrition, and distension in juveniles. The disease can additionally lead to vitamin deficiencies, anemia, and osteoporosis. Therefore, CD potentially negatively affected fitness in ...

A central focus of population genetics has been examining the contribution of selective and neutral processes in shaping patterns of intraspecies diversity. In terms of selection specifically, surveys of higher organisms have shown considerable variation in the relative contributions of background selection and genetic hitchhiking in shaping the distribution of polymorphisms, although these ana...

The peculiar position of Sardinia in the Mediterranean sea has rendered its population an interesting biogeographical isolate. The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic population structure, as well as to estimate Runs of Homozygosity and regions under positive selection, using about 1.2 million single nucleotide polymorphisms genotyped in 1077 Sardinian individuals. Using four diffe...

Most methods for modeling species distributions from occurrence records require additional data representing the range of environmental conditions in the modeled region. These data, called background or pseudo-absence data, are usually drawn at random from the entire region, whereas occurrence collection is often spatially biased toward easily accessed areas. Since the spatial bias generally re...

A composite likelihood ratio test implemented in the program sweepfinder is a commonly used method for scanning a genome for recent selective sweeps. sweepfinder uses information on the spatial pattern (along the chromosome) of the site frequency spectrum around the selected locus. To avoid confounding effects of background selection and variation in the mutation process along the genome, the m...

BACKGROUND Age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) is the most prevalent cause of visual loss in patients older than 60 years in the United States. Observation of drusen is the hallmark finding in the clinical evaluation of ARMD. OBJECTIVES To segment and quantify drusen found in patients with ARMD using image analysis and to compare the efficacy of image analysis segmentation with that of st...

A wearable computer that perceives and responds to the wearer's aaective state ooers a new kind of perceptual interface. Instead of asking the user to continuously select preferences from a menu, the aaective wearable gets to know its wearer's preferences by recognizing and responding to signals that carry emotional information. This paper presents a new design for an aaective wearable interfac...