Automatic Processing Pipeline for Collecting and Annotating Air-Traffic Voice Communication Data

This document describes our pipeline for automatic processing of ATCO pilot audio communication we developed as part of the ATCO2 project. So far, we collected two thousand hours of audio recordings that we either preprocessed for the transcribers or used for semi-supervised training. Both methods of using the collected data can further improve our pipeline by retraining our models. The proposed automatic processing pipeline is a cascade of many standalone components: (a) segmentation, (b) volume control, (c) signal-to-noise ratio filtering, (d) diarization, (e) ‘speech-to-text’ (ASR) module, (f) English language detection, (g) call-sign code recognition, (h) ATCO—pilot classification and (i) highlighting commands and values. The key component of the pipeline is a speech-to-text transcription system that has to be trained with real-world ATC data; otherwise, the performance is poor. In order to further improve speech-to-text performance, we apply both semi-supervised training with our recordings and the contextual adaptation that uses a list of plausible callsigns from surveillance data as auxiliary information. Downstream NLP/NLU tasks are important from an application point of view. These application tasks need accurate models operating on top of the real speech-to-text output; thus, there is a need for more data too. Creating ATC data is the main aspiration of the ATCO2 project. At the end of the project, the data will be packaged and distributed by ELDA.

Modelling of communicants' strategic plans in personal German-language interview

This article describes and tests the author's methodology for analyzing the specifics of interaction and the implementation of communicants' strategic plans in personal German-language interview. The author's understanding of the personal interview as a communicative event, in which the interaction of communicative processes of varying degrees of complexity and structure is implemented, implies a detailed study of the conditions and nature of each of them. In order to study communicative activity and features of interaction in the personal German-speaking interview, which has such characteristics as goal-setting and spontaneity, ritualization and self-organization, the presence of subject-logical and psycho-social plans of interaction development, the author undertakes to develop a comprehensive method of analysis. The material for the study in this article was an interview with the renowned German literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki Hasste Marcel Reich-Ranicki wirklich die Frauen?. The linguistic material was examined in detail using a transcript of the video interview created with the FOLKER / Exmaralda programme (Institut fr Deutsche Sprache) in accordance with the GAT2 transcription system. The complex method of analysis described in this article is based on the theoretical postulates and practical methods of the current trends in modern linguistics and communication research. It enables the study of the peculiarities of communicative interaction and the analysis of verbal realization of communicants' strategic programs. As a result of the application of the described complex method of analysis the author identified structural and discursive units of analysis and made a conclusion that the core of the interviewer's strategic program forms the strategy of information request with the dominance of tactics of argumentation and establishing and maintaining intersubjective relations. The interviewee's strategic program is constituted by the strategy of self-presentation, the core of which in this interview are the tactics of enhancing one's own image and the tactics of informing.

The human RNA polymerase I structure reveals an HMG-like transcription factor docking domain specific to metazoans

Transcription of the ribosomal RNA precursor by RNA polymerase (Pol) I is a major determinant of cellular growth and dysregulation is observed in many cancer types. Here, we present the purification of human Pol I from cells carrying a genomic GFP-fusion on the largest subunit allowing the structural and functional analysis of the enzyme across species. In contrast to yeast, human Pol I carries a single-subunit stalk and in vitro transcription indicates a reduced proofreading activity. Determination of the human Pol I cryo-EM reconstruction in a close-to-native state rationalizes the effects of disease-associated mutations and uncovers an additional domain that is built into the sequence of Pol I subunit RPA1. This "dock II" domain resembles a truncated HMG-box incapable of DNA-binding which may serve as a downstream-transcription factor binding platform in metazoans. Biochemical analysis and ChIP data indicate that Topoisomerase 2a can be recruited to Pol I via the domain and cooperates with the HMG-box domain containing factor UBF. These adaptations of the metazoan Pol I transcription system may allow efficient release of positive DNA supercoils accumulating downstream of the transcription bubble.

Programmable cell-free transcriptional switches for antibodies detection

We report here the development of a cell-free in-vitro transcription system for the detection of specific target antibodies. The approach is based on the use of programmable antigen-conjugated DNA-based conformational switches that, upon binding to a target antibody, can trigger the cell-free transcription of a light-up fluorescence-activating RNA aptamer. The system couples the unique programmability and responsiveness of DNA-based systems with the specificity and sensitivity offered by in-vitro genetic circuitries and commercially available transcription kits. We demonstrate that cell-free transcriptional switches can efficiently measure antibody levels directly in blood serum. Thanks to the programmable nature of the sensing platform the method can be adapted to different antibodies: we demonstrate here the sensitive, rapid and cost-effective detection of three different antibodies and the possible use of this approach for the simultaneous detection of two antibodies in the same solution.

T7Max transcription system

Efficient cell-free protein expression from linear DNA templates has remained a challenge primarily due to template degradation. Here we present a modified T7 RNA polymerase promoter that acts to significantly increase the yields of both transcription and translation within in vitro systems. The modified promoter, termed T7Max, recruits standard T7 RNA polymerase, so no protein engineering is needed to take advantage of this method. This technique could be used with any T7 RNA polymerase- based in vitro protein expression system. Unlike other methods of limiting linear template degradation, the T7Max promoter increases transcript concentration in a T7 transcription reaction, providing more mRNA for translation.

Functional insights into Mycobacterium tuberculosis DevR-dependent transcriptional machinery utilizing Escherichia coli

DevR/DosR response regulator is believed to participate in virulence, dormancy adaptation and antibiotic tolerance mechanisms of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by regulating the expression of the dormancy regulon. We have previously shown that interaction of DevR with RNA polymerase is essential for the expression of DevR-regulated genes. Here, we developed a M. tuberculosis-specific in vivo transcription system to enrich our understanding of DevR-RNA polymerase interaction. This in vivo assay involves co-transforming E. coli with two plasmids that express α, β, β’ and σA subunits of M. tuberculosis RNA polymerase and a third plasmid that harbours a DevR expression cassette and a GFP reporter gene under the DevR-regulated fdxA promoter. We show that DevR-dependent transcription is sponsored exclusively by M. tuberculosis RNA polymerase and regulated by α and σA subunits of M. tuberculosis RNA polymerase. Using this E. coli triple plasmid system to express mutant variants of M. tuberculosis RNA polymerase, we identified E280 residue in C-terminal domain of α and K513 and R515 residues of σA to participate in DevR-dependent transcription. In silico modelling of a ternary complex of DevR, σA domain 4 and fdxA promoter suggest an interaction of Q505, R515 and K513 residues of σA with E178 and D172 residues of DevR and E471 of σA, respectively. These findings provide us with new insights into the interactions between DevR and RNA polymerase of M. tuberculosis which can be targeted for intercepting DevR function. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of this system for screening of anti-DevR compounds.

The dynamics of gene transcription with a periodic synthesis rate

The periodic transcription output is ubiquitously observed in an isogenic cell population. To understand mechanisms of cyclic behavior in transcription, we extend the gene activation process in the two-state model by assuming that the synthesis rate is periodic. We derive the analytical forms of the mean transcript level and the noise. The limits of them indicate that the mean level and the noise display periodic behaviors. Numerical examples strongly suggest that the transcription system with a periodic synthesis rate generates more noise than that with a constant rate but maintains transcription homeostasis in each period. It is also suggested that if the periodicity is not considered, the calculated noise may be greater than the real value.

THE PROBLEMS OF THE TRANSCRIPTION AN ARABOGRAPHIC WORKS

The article deals the problems of transcription an arabographic literary heritage. Turkic people are used various writing systems and alphabets to nowadays, and we have a lot of works which as considering as a cultural heritage. These works are researched by domestic scientists in accordance with modern realities and norms of the Kazakh language. Comprehensive studies of the written heritage are being conducted to this day, which starting from ancient stone writing monuments, written relics of the Uyghur, Karakhanid, Khorezm, Chagatai periods. Although the Orkhon-Yenisei inscriptions were first read by foreign Turkologists, domestic researchers also have many works in this area. In the course of such work, scientists have used various symbols of transcription and transliteration. Russian, Turkish and Western scholars have used their own symbols and methods of transcription. This indicates a lack of methods of unification among scientists. In Russia and the CIS countries are used the Cyrillic system of transcription. The transition of the Kazakh alphabet to the Latin script presupposes the formation of a new transcription system of medieval written relics.