LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Speech Production System in Audiovisual Speech Perception 

Seeing the articulatory gestures of the speaker significantly enhances speech perception. Findings from recent neuroimaging studies suggest that activation of the speech motor system during lipreading enhance speech perception by tuning, in a top-down fashion, speech-sound processing in the superior aspects of the posterior temporal lobe. Anatomically, the superior-posterior temporal lobe areas receive connections from the auditory, visual, and speech motor cortical areas. Thus, it is possible that neuronal receptive fields are shaped during development to respond to speech-sound features that coincide with visual and motor speech cues, in contrast with the anterior/lateral temporal lobe areas that might process speech sounds predominantly based on acoustic cues. The superior-posterior temporal lobe areas have also been consistently associated with auditory spatial processing. Thus, the involvement of these areas in audiovisual speech perception might partly be explained by the spatial processing requirements when associating sounds, seen articulations, and one's own motor movements. Tentatively, it is possible that the anterior "what" and posterior "where / how" auditory cortical processing pathways are parts of an interacting network, the instantaneous state of which determines what one ultimately perceives, as potentially reflected in the dynamics of oscillatory activity.
Cobblers and Song-birds: The Language and Imagery of Disability

Summary In this article the author traces the development and delivery of a workshop on the language and imagery of disability. Within a context of post-modernist ontology and epistemology in which he sees language as the constituent of being, he examines the perceived discrepancy between attitude and structures in relation to disability, considering on the way questions of power and identity. Using a new paradigm narrative, model he discusses the language and imagery of disability created by means of a self-contained text in the workshop, attempting to demonstrate that any language behaviour will illustrate stereotypes in the wider societal culture. Because of the textual methodology he discusses briefly the nature of ‘readership’. The workshop was for him an exploration and his discoveries lead him to examine the implications for disabled consultant/trainers and disabled people generally with respect to their relationship with non-disabled society.
Blended learning in higher education: Students' perceptions and their relation to outcomes

New information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide educators and learners with an innovative learning environment to stimulate and enhance the teaching and learning process. In this context, novel educational concepts such as blended learning are being developed. In the present paper, we present the results obtained from a blended learning experience carried out at the University of Granada. A total of 17 groups took part, with 1431 students registered for the 2009–2010 academic year. In this study, we use objective outcomes and the students’ perceptions regarding the blended learning activities performed. The study shows that the use of blended learning has a positive effect in reducing dropout rates and in improving exam marks. Moreover, the students’ perceptions on blended learning are interrelated, with their final marks depending on the blended learning activities, and on the students’ age, background and class attendance rate. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Perception of disease burden and treatment satisfaction in patients with ulcerative colitis from outpatient clinics in Spain: UC-LIFE survey.

OBJECTIVES
Ulcerative colitis (UC) conditions patients' everyday life. With this survey, we aimed to assess the perceived disease burden, preferred treatment attributes, and treatment satisfaction reported by Spanish UC patients.


METHODS
Consecutive unselected UC patients aged at least 18 years were recruited from outpatient hospital clinics. Patients completed the survey at home, returning it by postmail. With test-like questions, they described UC behavior, preferences, and satisfaction with treatment.


RESULTS
Of 585 patients invited, 436 (75%) returned the survey (mean age 46 years, 53% men). Of these, 47.1% described their disease during the past year as 'controlled or nearly controlled', 28.0% as 'symptoms not impairing everyday life,' and 24.9% 'disruptive symptoms'. Only 8.7% reported the complete absence of symptoms during the previous year, and 18.8, 30.7, and 47.4%, respectively, described at least one hospital admission, emergency room visit, or nonscheduled visit because of UC activity. Urgency of defecation was the most disruptive symptom. The most important therapy attribute was continuous control of symptoms (44.6%). Most patients (78.8%) were 'very satisfied' or 'satisfied' with current treatment, even those reporting a high burden of symptoms.


CONCLUSION
Half of the patients considered their UC as 'controlled or nearly controlled' and the degree of satisfaction with their therapies was high. However, they reported a high burden of symptoms and resource consumption during the previous year. These findings indicate that patients may get used to living with symptoms, underestimating the potential of therapy for achieving a complete remission. Urgency of defecation was mentioned as highly disrupting and should probably be included in scores and patient-reported outcomes.
New Twin Crossbar Architecture of Binary Memristors for Low-Power Image Recognition With Discrete Cosine Transform

In this paper, we propose a new twin crossbar architecture of binary memristors for low-power image recognition. In the new twin crossbar, we use two identical memristor arrays instead of using the previous complementary memristor arrays of M+ and M-. Thereby, we can apply the discrete cosine transform (DCT) algorithm to reduce the number of low-resistance state (LRS) cells in the two identical M+ arrays. With the reduced number of LRS cells in two M+ arrays, the power consumption in the crossbar can be significantly saved compared to the previous complementary crossbar that is not suitable to DCT. When the number of discarded coefficients in the DCT matrix is 56.25%, 67.19%, 76.56%, and 84.38%, the power consumption of the new twin crossbar is reduced by 51.7%, 61.3%, 69.9%, and 77.4%, respectively, compared to the previous complementary one.
Periprosthetic humeral fractures during shoulder arthroplasty.

BACKGROUND
Currently, there is little information available on the treatment and outcome of intraoperative periprosthetic humeral fractures that occur during shoulder arthroplasty. The purpose of this study was to report on the incidence, treatment, and outcome of, as well as the risk factors for, intraoperative periprosthetic humeral fractures.


METHODS
Between 1980 and 2002, forty-five intraoperative periprosthetic humeral fractures occurred during shoulder arthroplasty at our institution. Twenty-eight fractures occurred during primary total shoulder arthroplasty, three occurred during primary hemiarthroplasty, and fourteen occurred during revision arthroplasty. Nineteen fractures involved the greater tuberosity, sixteen involved the humeral shaft, six involved the metaphysis, three involved the greater tuberosity and the humeral shaft, and one involved both the greater and lesser tuberosities. All patients were followed for a minimum of two years. At the time of the latest follow-up, outcomes were assessed, radiographs were examined, and relative risks were calculated.


RESULTS
Over the twenty-two-year study period, the rate of intraoperative humeral fractures at our institution was 1.5%. All fractures healed at a mean of seventeen weeks. In the primary arthroplasty group (thirty-one patients), range of motion and pain scores improved significantly (p < 0.05) at the time of follow-up. In the revision arthroplasty group (fourteen patients), range of motion remained unchanged whereas pain scores improved significantly (p < 0.005). Transient nerve injuries occurred in six patients. Four fractures displaced postoperatively and were then treated nonoperatively; all four healed. Significant relative risks for intraoperative fracture were female sex, revision surgery, and press-fit implants (p < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The data from the present study suggest that although intraoperative humeral fractures are associated with a high rate of healing, there was a substantial rate of associated complications, including transient nerve injuries and fracture displacement. Significant risk factors for intraoperative fractures include female sex, revision surgery, and press-fit humeral implants.
Group to Group Commitments Do Not Shrink

We investigate commitment schemes whose messages, keys, commitments, and decommitments are elements of bilinear groups, and whose openings are verified by pairing product equations. Such commitments facilitate efficient zero-knowledge proofs of knowledge of a correct opening. We show two lower bounds on such schemes: a commitment cannot be shorter than the message and verifying the opening in a symmetric bilinear group setting requires evaluating at least two independent pairing product equations. We also present optimal constructions that match the lower bounds in symmetric and asymmetric bilinear group settings.
LiveEye : Driver Attention Monitoring System

A large majority of road accidents are relative to driver fatigue, distraction and drowsiness which are widely believed to be the largest contributors to fatalities and severe injuries, either as a direct cause of falling asleep at the wheel or as a contributing factor in lowering the attention and reaction time of a driver in critical situations. Thus to prevent road accidents, a countermeasure device has to be used. This paper illuminates and highlights the various measures that have been studied to detect drowsiness such as vehicle based, physiological based, and behavioural based measures. The main objective is to develop a real time non-contact system which will be able to identify driver’s drowsiness beforehand. The system uses an IR sensitive monochrome camera that detects the position and state of the eyes to calculate the drowsiness of a driver. Once the driver is detected as drowsy, the system will generate warning signals to alert the driver. In case the signal is not re-established the system will shut off the engine to prevent any mishap. Keywords— Drowsiness, Road Accidents, Eye Detection, Face Detection, Blink Pattern, PERCLOS, MATLAB, Arduino Nano
A systematic review of the global prevalence of low back pain.

OBJECTIVE
To perform a systematic review of the global prevalence of low back pain, and to examine the influence that case definition, prevalence period, and other variables have on prevalence.


METHODS
We conducted a new systematic review of the global prevalence of low back pain that included general population studies published between 1980 and 2009. A total of 165 studies from 54 countries were identified. Of these, 64% had been published since the last comparable review.


RESULTS
Low back pain was shown to be a major problem throughout the world, with the highest prevalence among female individuals and those aged 40-80 years. After adjusting for methodologic variation, the mean ± SEM point prevalence was estimated to be 11.9 ± 2.0%, and the 1-month prevalence was estimated to be 23.2 ± 2.9%.


CONCLUSION
As the population ages, the global number of individuals with low back pain is likely to increase substantially over the coming decades. Investigators are encouraged to adopt recent recommendations for a standard definition of low back pain and to consult a recently developed tool for assessing the risk of bias of prevalence studies.
Effect of Helicobacter pylori eradication on reflux esophagitis therapy: a multi-center randomized control study.

BACKGROUND
Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) frequently colonizes the stomach. Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a common and costly disease. But the relationship of H. pylori and GERD is still unclear. This study aimed to explore the effect of H. pylori and its eradication on reflux esophagitis therapy.


METHODS
Patients diagnosed with reflux esophagitis by endoscopy were enrolled; based on rapid urease test and Warth-Starry stain, they were divided into H. pylori positive and negative groups. H. pylori positive patients were randomly given H. pylori eradication treatment for 10 days, then esomeprazole 20 mg bid for 46 days. The other patients received esomeprazole 20 mg bid therapy for 8 weeks. After treatment, three patient groups were obtained: H. pylori positive eradicated, H. pylori positive uneradicated, and H. pylori negative. Before and after therapy, reflux symptoms were scored and compared. Healing rates were compared among groups. The χ2 test and t-test were used, respectively, for enumeration and measurement data.


RESULTS
There were 176 H. pylori positive (with 92 eradication cases) and 180 negative cases. Healing rates in the H. pylori positive eradicated and H. pylori positive uneradicated groups reached 80.4% and 79.8% (P = 0.911), with reflux symptom scores of 0.22 and 0.14 (P = 0.588). Healing rates of esophagitis in the H. pylori positive uneradicated and H. pylori negative groups were, respectively, 79.8% and 82.2% (P = 0.848); reflux symptom scores were 0.14 and 0.21 (P = 0.546).


CONCLUSIONS
Based on esomeprazole therapy, H. pylori infection and eradication have no significant effect on reflux esophagitis therapy.
Learning in Auctions: Regret is Hard, Envy is Easy

An extensive body of recent work studies the welfare guarantees of simple and prevalent combinatorial auction formats, such as selling m items via simultaneous second price auctions (SiSPAs) [1], [2], [3]. These guarantees hold even when the auctions are repeatedly executed and the players use no-regret learning algorithms to choose their actions. Unfortunately, off-the-shelf no-regret learning algorithms for these auctions are computationally inefficient as the number of actions available to the players becomes exponential. We show that this obstacle is inevitable: there are no polynomial-time no-regret learning algorithms for SiSPAs, unless RP ⊇ NP, even when the bidders are unit-demand. Our lower bound raises the question of how good outcomes polynomially-bounded bidders may discover in such auctions. To answer this question, we propose a novel concept of learning in auctions, termed "no-envy learning." This notion is founded upon Walrasian equilibrium, and we show that it is both efficiently implementable and results in approximately optimal welfare, even when the bidders have valuations from the broad class of fractionally subadditive (XOS) valuations (assuming demand oracle access to the valuations) or coverage valuations (even without demand oracles). No-envy learning outcomes are a relaxation of no-regret learning outcomes, which maintain their approximate welfare optimality while endowing them with computational tractability. Our positive and negative results extend to several auction formats that have been studied in the literature via the smoothness paradigm. Our positive results for XOS valuations are enabled by a novel Follow-The-Perturbed-Leader algorithm for settings where the number of experts and states of nature are both infinite, and the payoff function of the learner is non-linear. We show that this algorithm has applications outside of auction settings, establishing significant gains in a recent application of no-regret learning in security games. Our efficient learning result for coverage valuations is based on a novel use of convex rounding schemes and a reduction to online convex optimization.
Iron stores and coagulation parameters in patients with hypoxemic polycythemia secondary to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: the effect of phlebotomies.

UNLABELLED
This study was designed to determine the effects of phlebotomy on iron body contents and coagulation tests of COPD patients with polycythemia secondary to hypoxemia. Seventeen patients with COPD and hematocrits higher than 54 percent (mean Hct: 57 +/- 0.49 percent), who had not received anti-inflammatory or antiplatelet aggregation agents recently. Their mean forced expiratory volume at 1 second (FEV1) was 0.92 +/- 0.11 L.


INTERVENTION
Blood work was collected to evaluate the following: serum iron and ferritin levels, total iron binding capacity, transferrin saturation index, fibrinogen plasma levels, activated partial thromboplastin time, platelet count, platelet aggregation measurements, and thromboelastography coagulation parameters. The blood samples were obtained before and about 7 days after the hematocrit correction by 300-400 ml phlebotomies done every other day. The mean number of phlebotomies done for each patient was 4.4. Postphlebotomy iron serum levels decreased from 90.1 +/- 14.8 to 59.7 +/- 9.9 mg/dl and the ferritin serum levels from 133.8 +/- 37.9 to 70.8 +/- 32.7 ng/ml (p < 0.05). Regarding the coagulation studies, there were significant increases in the platelet count, from 227,300 +/- 13,900 to 312,500 +/- 30,200 per mm3, and in the maximum clot amplitude (a) obtained by thromboelastography (from 53.6 +/- 1.4 percent to 60.4 +/- 1.1 percent). The coagulation time (k) of the thromboelastography also decreased significantly, from 7.5 +/- 0.7mm prephlebotomy to 4.5 +/- 0.3mm postphlebotomy. Although the coagulation changes were small amount, the observed significant decrease in iron contents may have clinical implications.
Are fast food restaurants an environmental risk factor for obesity?

OBJECTIVE
Eating at "fast food" restaurants has increased and is linked to obesity. This study examined whether living or working near "fast food" restaurants is associated with body weight.


METHODS
A telephone survey of 1033 Minnesota residents assessed body height and weight, frequency of eating at restaurants, and work and home addresses. Proximity of home and work to restaurants was assessed by Global Index System (GIS) methodology.


RESULTS
Eating at "fast food" restaurants was positively associated with having children, a high fat diet and Body Mass Index (BMI). It was negatively associated with vegetable consumption and physical activity. Proximity of "fast food" restaurants to home or work was not associated with eating at "fast food" restaurants or with BMI. Proximity of "non-fast food" restaurants was not associated with BMI, but was associated with frequency of eating at those restaurants.


CONCLUSION
Failure to find relationships between proximity to "fast food" restaurants and obesity may be due to methodological weaknesses, e.g. the operational definition of "fast food" or "proximity", or homogeneity of restaurant proximity. Alternatively, the proliferation of "fast food" restaurants may not be a strong unique cause of obesity.
Conditioning and hyperalgesia in newborns exposed to repeated heel lances.

CONTEXT
Hospitalized infants undergo repeated invasive procedures. It is unknown whether cumulative experiences with pain lead to anticipatory pain behaviors and hyperalgesia.


OBJECTIVES
To determine whether newborns who are born to mothers with diabetes and undergo repeated pain learn to anticipate pain and exhibit more pain during a painful procedure than normal infants.


DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Prospective cohort study of 21 full-term newborns born to mothers with diabetes and 21 born to mothers with uneventful pregnancies, at a university teaching hospital between August 1999 and October 2000. Infants of diabetic mothers underwent repeated heel lances in the first 24 to 36 hours of life for monitoring of blood glucose concentrations. Pain responses of all infants undergoing a venipuncture on the dorsum of the hand to obtain blood for the newborn screening test after the first day of life were compared. In addition, from September through November 2001, 12 infants of diabetic mothers and 12 normal infants were compared for pain reactions to intramuscular vitamin K injection after birth.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Percentages of time observed grimacing and crying and visual analog scale (VAS) scores.


RESULTS
Raters were blinded to exposure group. Median baseline scores for grimacing, crying time, and VAS did not differ significantly between groups (P =.27, P =.32, and P =.32, respectively). Median scores (interquartile range) for grimacing during skin cleansing were higher in infants of diabetic mothers (22.2% [77.5%] vs 0% [15%]; P =.03). The VAS scores for both groups were zero, but the distribution of the scores was significantly different (86% of normal infants vs 52% of infants of diabetic mothers had scores of zero) (P =.04). During venipuncture, infants of diabetic mothers had higher median scores for grimacing (81.7% [32.5%] vs 40% [73.4%]; P =.01), VAS (69% [27.5%] vs 5% [60.5%]; P =.002), and crying (40.2% [77%] vs 0% [54.8%]; P =.03) compared with normal infants. There were no differences between groups on any pain measure in response to intramuscular injection.


CONCLUSIONS
Newborns who had diabetic mothers and were exposed to repeated heel lances in the first 24 to 36 hours of life learned to anticipate pain and exhibited more intense pain responses during venipuncture than normal infants.
Microstructural and light emission properties of ZnSnP 2 thin film absorber: Study of native defects

Abstract Thin films of ZnSnP 2 were successfully grown on p-type silicon (001), sapphire and glass substrate by e-beam evaporation method. The as-deposited films were characterized using scanning and high resolution transmission electron microscopes, reflectance and transmittance spectroscopy and photoluminescence measurement at low temperature. Polycrystalline nature of the films was verified by high resolution transmission electron microscopy. An optical band gap of 1.71 eV was estimated at room temperature. Two broad luminescence bands at 1.529 eV and at 1.634 eV were observed at 15 K. The light emission characteristics of the ZnSnP 2 were explained in terms of donor-acceptor pair recombination mechanism. Tin-on-zinc sites and zinc vacancies/zinc-on-tin sites were considered as donor and acceptor due to presence of native defects in the films. A schematic band model based on the experimental finding was suggested to account for the DA pair recombination.
Facilitating needle alignment in-plane to an ultrasound beam using a portable laser unit.

OBJECTIVE
Ultrasound guidance can increase success with peripheral nerve blocks. Accurate anesthetic injection is optimized with both clear visualization and fine adjustment of the needle tip at the target area. Good needle alignment with the ultrasound beam and using a freehand technique are both desirable for these conditions. The purpose of this report is to describe how a unique, in-plane laser guide may be used to improve the alignment of injection needles with ultrasound beams in order to promote best needle tip visualization.


ILLUSTRATION IMAGES
By using a small, battery-operated laser unit mounted onto an ultrasound transducer, a method to align the ultrasound scanning plane and laser-line projection plane was developed. Such alignment was further demonstrated and illustrated in a water bath model. Ultrasound was then used to show how clearly the needle shaft and tip can be visualized after needle alignment to the ultrasound beam using the laser line shining on the shaft of the needle.


CONCLUSION
This in vitro demonstration describes the potential use of a readily available laser-line unit to assist with in-plane needle alignment with the ultrasound plane in order to ultimately improve needle visibility during ultrasound-guided peripheral nerve block. It requires minimum specialized training and may allow for maximum flexibility with freehand needle insertions in a sterile fashion.