Abstract: Methods and compositions for the optimization of production of influenza viruses suitable as influenza vaccines are provided.

Abstract: Methods and compositions for the optimization of production of influenza viruses suitable as influenza vaccines are provided.

Abstract: Methods and systems consistent with the present invention provide an improved IR system that performs information retrieval by using probabilities. When performing information retrieval, the improved IR system utilizes both the prior probability that a document is relevant independent of the query as well as the probability that the query was generated by a particular document given that the particular document is relevant. By using these probabilities, the improved IR system retrieves documents in a more accurate manner than conventional systems which are based on an ad hoc approach.

Abstract: Methods and compositions for the optimization of production of influenza viruses suitable as influenza vaccines are provided.

Abstract: Methods and systems consistent with the present invention provide an improved IR system that performs information retrieval by using probabilities. When performing information retrieval, the improved IR system utilizes both the prior probability that a document is relevant independent of the query as well as the probability that the query was generated by a particular document given that the particular document is relevant. By using these probabilities, the improved IR system retrieves documents in a more accurate manner than conventional systems which are based on an ad hoc approach.

Abstract: Methods and systems for providing an improved IR system that performs information retrieval by using probabilities. When performing information retrieval, the improved IR system utilizes both the prior probability that a document is relevant independent of the query as well as the probability that the query was generated by a particular document given that the particular document is relevant. By using these probabilities, the improved IR system retrieves documents in a more accurate manner than conventional systems which are based on an ad hoc approach.

Abstract: A method for improving the associating articles of information or stories with topics associated with specific subjects (subject topics) and with a general topic of words that are not associated with any subject. The inventive method is trained using Hidden Markov Models (HMM) to represent each story with each state in the HMM representing each topic. A standard Expectation and Maximization algorithm, as are known in this art field can be used to maximize the expected likelihood to the method relating the words associated with each topic to that topic. In the method, the probability that each word in a story is related to a subject topic is determined and evaluated, and the subject topics with the lowest probability are discarded. The remaining subject topics are evaluated and a sub-set of subject topics with the highest probabilities over all the words in a story are considered to be the “correct” subject topic set.

Abstract: A computer assisted method for recognizing and labeling instances of name classes in textual environments is described. The invention receives training text having instances of named-entity classes labeled, from which it generates a database of bigram and unigram occurrences. The invention uses the database of bigram and unigram occurrences to form a two level Hidden Markov Model with single output states at the lower level. The invention also receives a series of input text to be processed and labeled with respect to the name classes, and the invention uses the two level Hidden Markov Model to recognize and label instances of named-entity classes in the input text.

Abstract: A real-time or streaming speech processing system and method is disclosed with capabilities distributed between and client and a server where the server may be reached via the Internet. The speech processing entails digitizing and converting the utterances to features extracted to help the processing. The features are sent via a communications channel to the server where the recognition occurs. The features extracted allow low bandwidth channels to be used with still maintaining real-time response. The recognizer will determine the most likely text representing the utterances and return the text to the client. The system can be used to identify and/or verify who is speaking.

Abstract: A language-independent and segment free OCR system and method comprises a unique feature extraction approach which represents two dimensional data relating to OCR as one independent variable (specifically the position within a line of text in the direction of the line) so that the same CSR technology based on HMMs can be adapted in a straightforward manner to recognize optical characters. After a line finding stage, followed by a simple feature-extraction stage, the system can utilize a commercially available CSR system, with little or no modification, to perform the recognition of text by and training of the system. The whole system, including the feature extraction, training, and recognition components, are designed to be independent of the script or language of the text being recognized. The language-dependent parts of the system are confined to the lexicon and training data.

Abstract: Methods, compositions and devices are provided for the growth of human stem and/or hematopoietic cells in culture. Bioreactors are provided in which diverse cell types are simultaneously-cultured in the presence of appropriate levels of nutrients and growth factors substantially continuously maintained in the bioreactor while removing undesirable metabolic products. This simultaneous culture of multiple cell types successfully reconstructs hematopoietic tissue ex vivo. Optionally, at least one growth factor is provided through excretion by transfected stromal cells, particularly heterologous cells. The invention also allows for the separate maintenance of stromal and hematopoietic cells, and to allow for harvesting of both the adherent and non-adherent cells.

Abstract: Methods, compositions and devices are provided for the growth of human stem and/or hematopoietic cells in culture. Bioreactors are provided in which diverse cell types are simultaneously-cultured in the presence of appropriate levels of nutrients and growth factors substantially continuously maintained in the bioreactor while removing undesirable metabolic products. This simultaneous culture of multiple cell types successfully reconstructs hematopoietic tissue ex vivo. Optionally, at least one growth factor is provided through excretion by transfected stromal cells, particularly heterologous cells. The stromal cells and hematopoietic cells may be maintained separately, and both the adherent and non-adherent cells harvested.

Abstract: The invention provides a method for both the positive and negative selection of at least one mammalian cell population from a mixture of cell populations utilizing a magnetically stabilized fluidized bed. One desirable application of this method is the separation and purification of hematopoietic cells. Target cell populations include human stem cells.

Abstract: Methods, including culture media conditions, which provide for ex vivo human stem cell division and stable genetic transformation and/or the optimization of human hematopoietic progenitor cell cultures and/or increasing the metabolism or GM-CSF secretion or IL-6 secretion of human stromal cells are disclosed. The methods rely on culturing human stem cells and/or human hematopoietic progenitor cells and/or human stromal cells in a liquid culture medium which is replaced, preferably perfused, either continuously or periodically, at a rate of 1 ml of medium per ml of culture per about 24 to about 48 hour period, and removing metabolic products and replenishing depleted nutrients while maintaining the culture under physiologically acceptable conditions. Optionally growth factors are added to the culture medium.

Abstract: The invention provides a method of large vocabulary speech recognition that employs a single tree-structured phonetic hidden Markov model (HMM) at each frame of a time-synchronous process. A grammar probability is utilized upon recognition of each phoneme of a word, before recognition of the entire word is complete. Thus, grammar probabilities are exploited as early as possible during recognition of a word. At each frame of the recognition process, a grammar probability is determined for the transition from the most likely preceding grammar state to a set of words that share at least one common phoneme. The grammar probability is combined with accumulating phonetic evidence to provide a measure of the likelihood that a state in the HMM will lead to the word most likely to have been spoken. In a preferred embodiment, phonetic context information is exploited, even before the complete context of a phoneme is known.

Abstract: Devices are provided for the growth of human stem and/or hematopoietic cells in culture. Bioreactors are provided in which diverse cell types are simultaneously-cultured in the presence of appropriate levels of nutrients and growth factors substantially continuously maintained in the bioreactor while removing undesirable metabolic products. This simultaneous culture of multiple cell types successfully reconstructs hematopoietic tissue ex vivo. Optionally, at least one growth factor is provided through excretion by transfected stromal cells, particularly heterologous cells. The stromal cells and hematopoietic cells are maintained separately and both the adherent and non-adherent cells are harvested.

Abstract: The invention provides a method for both the positive and negative selection of at least one mammalian cell population from a mixture of cell populations utilizing a magnetically stabilized fluidized bed. One desirable application of this method is the separation and purification of mammalian hematopoietic cells. Target cell populations include human stem cells.

Abstract: Methods, including culture media conditions, which provide for ex vivo human stem cell division and stable genetic transformation and/or the optimization of human hematopoietic progenitor cell cultures and/or increasing the metabolism or GM-CSF secretion or IL-6 secretion of human stromal cells are disclosed. The methods rely on culturing human stem cells and/or human hematopoietic progenitor cells and/or human stromal cells in a liquid culture medium which is replaced, preferably perfused, either continuously or periodically, at a rate of 1 ml of medium per ml of culture per about 24 to about 48 hour period, and removing metabolic products and replenishing depleted nutrients while maintaining the culture under physiologically acceptable conditions. Optionally growth factors are added to the culture medium.

Abstract: As a step in finding the one most likely word sequence in a spoken language system, an N-best search is conducted to find the N most likely sentence hypotheses. During the search, word theories are distinguished based only on the one previous word. At each state within a word, the total probability is calculated for each of a few previous words. At the end of each word, the probability score is recorded for each previous word theory, together with the name of the previous word. At the end of the sentence, a recursive traceback is performed to derive the list of the N best sentences.