LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Automatic speech recognition system using acoustic and visual signals

Automatic speech-reading systems use both acoustic and visual signals to perform speech recognition. In previous work, we have shown how visual speech can improve recognition accuracy of automatic speech recognition and have described an algorithm based on deformable templates that accurately infers lip dynamics. In this paper we present a complete speech-reading system, which is able to record an utterance using a standard color video camera, preprocess both the audio and video signal, and perform speech recognition. This system is based on new algorithms for finding the talker's face and mouth and an improved template algorithm for tracking the lips. We will also compare the results from our new system with our previous work and discuss various strategies for integration of the two modalities.
Interconnection between 802.15.4 Devices and IPv6: Implications and Existing Approaches

The increasing role of home automation in routine life and the rising demand for sensor networks enhanced wireless personal area networks (WPANs) development, pervasiveness of wireless & wired network, and research. Soon arose the need of implementing the Internet Protocol in these devices in order to WPAN standards, raising the way for questions on how to provide seamless communication between wired and wireless technologies. After a quick overview of the Low-rate WPAN standard (IEEE 802.15.4) and the Zigbee stack, this paper focuses on understanding the implications when interconnecting low powered IEEE 802.15.4 devices and a wired IPv6 domain. Subsequently the focus will be on existing approaches to connect LoWPAN devices to the internet and on how these approaches try to solve these challenges, concluding with a critical analysis of interoperability problems.
Fast connected-component labeling

Article history: Received 27 March 2008 Received in revised form 2 September 2008 Accepted 20 October 2008
Successful Learning of Academic Word List via MALL: Mobile Assisted Language Learning.

Mobile phones as new addition to information and communication technologies have created new ways to help learners in the process of foreign language learning. Given the importance of academic vocabularies for university students, this study tried to investigate the effectiveness of SMS on Iranian university students’ vocabulary learning and retention. To this end forty five university freshman students with upper intermediate proficiency level were chosen to take part in this study. During 16 weeks of experiment, the participants of the experimental group (N = 28) were taught 320 head words from the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000) via SMS. During the same period of time the participants of the control group (N=17) were taught the same words by using dictionary. At the end, both groups were given a vocabulary test from Academic Word List, to see the effect of SMS on their vocabulary learning and the scores of each group were compared employing an independent t-test. The result of the t-test showed that both groups had improved in the post-test. Although there was not any significant difference between the groups in the post-test, the result of the delayed post-test showed that SMS had more significant effect on vocabulary retention compared to using dictionary, and the experimental group outperformed the control group. The result of this study can have pedagogical implication for language teachers, in that they can use SMS as a useful way to help their students to retain vocabularies in their long-term memory.
Facebook and the professional behaviours of undergraduate medical students.

BACKGROUND
The rapid growth and accessibility of social networking websites has fundamentally changed the way people manage information about their personal and professional lives. In particular, it has been suggested that interaction in virtual communities erodes elements of responsibility, accountability and social trust that build traditionally meaningful communities. The purpose of this study was to investigate how undergraduate medical students use the social network website Facebook, and to identify any unprofessional behaviour displayed online.


METHODS
A voluntary anonymous online survey was devised by the University of Liverpool, and emailed to students. Question topics included the use of Facebook, privacy settings, groups relating to the course and professional behaviours. Results were input to spss for analysis.


RESULTS
The response rate was 31 per cent (n = 56). The majority of respondents did have a Facebook account and admitted there were photos they found embarrassing on the site. Over half of the respondents reported they had seen unprofessional behaviour by their colleagues on Facebook. Although students say that they are aware of the UK's General Medical Council (GMC) guidance, unprofessional behaviour is still demonstrated on the site.


DISCUSSION
This research highlights the issue of social networking websites and professionalism amongst medical students. Further guidance from the GMC and medical schools should remind students that images and information placed on social networking sites is in the public domain, and could impact upon their professional reputation and identity.
A Gabor filter based fingerprint enhancement algorithm in wavelet domain

Fingerprint image enhancement is very essential in an automated fingerprint identification system. In this paper, we propose a new fingerprint enhancement algorithm, which can improve the clarity and continuity of ridge and valley structures. A normalized fingerprint image is decomposed into approximation and detail sub-images, then estimate the approximation image's orientation. Finally, using Gabor filter to enhance the fingerprint image in wavelet domain and reconstruct the fingerprint. We have tested the algorithm on FVC2004 fingerprint database DBl. Experiment results indicate that the algorithm has dramatic effect to low quality fingerprint images and processing time is short than fingerprint image enhancement based on Gabor filter.
Application of inclusions for modeling of complex information processes and systems

The notion of inclusion of information systems is introduced. Application of this notion provides the possibility of modeling the third and fourth classes of complex information systems on the set of operational states.
School Competition and Efficiency with Publicly Funded Catholic Schools

The province of Ontario has two publicly funded school systems: secular schools (known as public schools) that are open to all students, and separate schools that are open to children with Catholic backgrounds. The systems are administered independently and receive equal funding per student. In this paper we use detailed school and student-level data to assess whether competition between the systems leads to improved efficiency. Building on a simple model of school choice, we argue that incentives for effort will be greater in areas where there are more Catholic families, and where these families are less committed to a particular system. To measure the local determinants of cross-system competition we study the effects of school openings on enrollment growth at nearby elementary schools. We find significant cross-system responses to school openings, with a magnitude that is proportional to the fraction of Catholics in the area, and is higher in more rapidly growing areas. We then test whether schools that face greater cross-system competition have higher productivity, as measured by test score gains between 3rd and 6th grade. We estimate a statistically significant but modest-sized impact of potential competition on the growth rate of student achievement. The estimates suggest that extending competition to all students would raise average test scores in 6th grade by 6-8% of a standard deviation. David Card Department of Economics 549 Evans Hall, #3880 UC Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720-3880 and NBER card@econ.berkeley.edu Martin Dooley 1280 Main Street West Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M4 Canada dooley@mcmaster.ca Abigail Payne Department of Economics McMaster University KTH 426, 1280 Main Street West Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4M4 paynea@mcmaster.ca
The Importance of Sleep for Athletic Performance

ENSURING THAT ATHLETES FUNCTION OPTIMALLY THROUGHOUT TRAINING IS AN IMPORTANT FOCUS FOR THE STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING COACH. SLEEP IS AN INFLUENTIAL FACTOR THAT AFFECTS THE QUALITY OF TRAINING, GIVEN ITS IMPLICATIONS ON THE RECOVERY PROCESS. INTENSE TRAINING MAY PREDISPOSE ATHLETES TO RISK FACTORS SURROUNDING DISTURBED SLEEP PATTERNS. THESE MAY BE DUE TO INHERENT PHYSICAL EXERTION, COMMITMENT TO EXTENSIVE TRAINING SCHEDULES, THE EFFECTS OF TRAVEL, DOMESTIC OR INTERNATIONAL, AND THE PRESSURES THAT COMPETITION EVOKES. EDUCATING ATHLETES ON THE IMPLICATIONS OF SLEEP SHOULD BE IMPLEMENTED BY STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING COACHES TO OPTIMIZE ATHLETE RECOVERY, PROMOTE CONSISTENT SLEEP ROUTINES, AND SLEEP LENGTH.
Towards SMS Spam Filtering : Results under a New Dataset

The growth of mobile phone users has lead to a dramatic increasing of SMS spam messages. Recent reports clearly indicate that the volume of mobile phone spam is dramatically increasing year by year. In practice, fighting such plague is difficult by several factors, including the lower rate of SMS that has allowed many users and service providers to ignore the issue, and the limited availability of mobile phone spam-filtering software. Probably, one of the major concerns in academic settings is the scarcity of public SMS spam datasets, that are sorely needed for validation and comparison of different classifiers. Moreover, traditional content-based filters may have their performance seriously degraded since SMS messages are fairly short and their text is generally rife with idioms and abbreviations. In this paper, we present details about a new real, public and non-encoded SMS spam collection that is the largest one as far as we know. Moreover, we offer a comprehensive analysis of such dataset in order to ensure that there are no duplicated messages coming from previously existing datasets, since it may ease the task of learning SMS spam classifiers and could compromise the evaluation of methods. Additionally, we compare the performance achieved by several established machine learning techniques. In summary, the results indicate that the procedure followed to build the collection does not lead to near-duplicates and, regarding the classifiers, the Support Vector Machines outperforms other evaluated techniques and, hence, it can be used as a good baseline for further comparison. Keywords—Mobile phone spam; SMS spam; spam filtering; text categorization; classification.
The association of maternal ABO blood group with gestational diabetes mellitus in Japanese pregnant women.

AIMS
To investigated the association between the ABO blood group and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).


MATERIALS AND METHODS
A retrospective case-control study was conducted using data from 5424 Japanese pregnancies. GDM screening was performed in the first trimester using a casual blood glucose test and in the second trimester using a 50-g glucose challenge test. If the screening was positive, a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test was performed for a GDM diagnosis, which was defined according to the International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups. Logistic regression was used to obtain the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) adjusted for traditional risk factors.


RESULTS
Women with the A blood group (adjusted OR: 0.34, 95% CI: 0.19-0.63), B (adjusted OR: 0.35, 95% CI: 0.18-0.68), or O (adjusted OR: 0.39, 95% CI: 0.21-0.74) were at decreased risk of GDM compared with those with group AB. Women with the AB group were associated with increased risk of GDM as compared with those with A, B, or O (adjusted OR: 2.73, 95% CI: 1.64-4.57).


CONCLUSION
ABO blood groups are associated with GDM, and group AB was a risk factor for GDM in Japanese population.
Populations of a Susceptible Amphibian Species Can Grow despite the Presence of a Pathogenic Chytrid Fungus

Disease can be an important driver of host population dynamics and epizootics can cause severe host population declines. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), the pathogen causing amphibian chytridiomycosis, may occur epizootically or enzootically and can harm amphibian populations in many ways. While effects of Bd epizootics are well documented, the effects of enzootic Bd have rarely been described. We used a state-space model that accounts for observation error to test whether population trends of a species highly susceptible to Bd, the midwife toad Alytes obstetricans, are negatively affected by the enzootic presence of the pathogen. Unexpectedly, Bd had no negative effect on population growth rates from 2002-2008. This suggests that negative effects of disease on individuals do not necessarily translate into negative effects at the population level. Populations of amphibian species that are susceptible to the emerging disease chytridiomycosis can persist despite the enzootic presence of the pathogen under current environmental conditions.
Online purchase intentions: A multi-channel store image perspective

The advantages of the bricks-and-clicks retail format in the battle for the online customer has been widely discussed but empirical research on it has been limited. We applied a multi-channel store image perspective to assess its influence on online purchase intentions. Drawing on a sample of 630 customers of a large music retail store in the Netherlands, the results demonstrated that offline and online store perceptions directly influenced online purchase intention. In addition, our findings confirmed that offline store impressions were used as references for their online store counterparts. Synergy and reference effects are discussed. ! 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +31 20 5986059; fax: +31 20 5986005. E-mail address: tverhagen@feweb.vu.nl (T. Verhagen).
Is there a dose-response relationship for heart disease with low-dose radiation therapy?

PURPOSE
To quantify cardiac radiation therapy (RT) exposure using sensitive measures of cardiac dysfunction; and to correlate dysfunction with heart doses, in the setting of adjuvant RT for left-sided breast cancer.


METHODS AND MATERIALS
On a randomized trial, 32 women with node-positive left-sided breast cancer underwent pre-RT stress single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT-CT) myocardial perfusion scans. Patients received RT to the breast/chest wall and regional lymph nodes to doses of 50 to 52.2 Gy. Repeat SPECT-CT scans were performed 1 year after RT. Perfusion defects (PD), summed stress defects scores (SSS), and ejection fractions (EF) were evaluated. Doses to the heart and coronary arteries were quantified.


RESULTS
The mean difference in pre- and post-RT PD was -0.38% ± 3.20% (P=.68), with no clinically significant defects. To assess for subclinical effects, PD were also examined using a 1.5-SD below the normal mean threshold, with a mean difference of 2.53% ± 12.57% (P=.38). The mean differences in SSS and EF before and after RT were 0.78% ± 2.50% (P=.08) and 1.75% ± 7.29% (P=.39), respectively. The average heart Dmean and D95 were 2.82 Gy (range, 1.11-6.06 Gy) and 0.90 Gy (range, 0.13-2.17 Gy), respectively. The average Dmean and D95 to the left anterior descending artery were 7.22 Gy (range, 2.58-18.05 Gy) and 3.22 Gy (range, 1.23-6.86 Gy), respectively. No correlations were found between cardiac doses and changes in PD, SSS, and EF.


CONCLUSIONS
Using sensitive measures of cardiac function, no clinically significant defects were found after RT, with the average heart Dmean <5 Gy. Although a dose response may exist for measures of cardiac dysfunction at higher doses, no correlation was found in the present study for low doses delivered to cardiac structures and perfusion, SSS, or EF.
An Act of Balance Between Adaptive and Maladaptive Immunity in Depression: a Role for T Lymphocytes

Historically the monoaminergic neurotransmitter system, in particular the serotonergic system, was seen as being responsible for the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). With the advent of psychoneuroimmunology an important role of the immune system in the interface between the central nervous systems (CNS) and peripheral organ systems has emerged. In addition to the well-characterised neurobiological activities of cytokines, T cell function in the context of depression has been neglected so far. In this review we will investigate the biological roles of T cells in depression. Originally it was thought that the adaptive immune arm including T lymphocytes was excluded from the CNS. It is now clear that peripheral naïve T cells not only carry out continuous surveillance within the brain but also maintain neural plasticity. Furthermore animal studies demonstrate that regulatory T lymphocytes can provide protection against maladaptive behavioural responses associated with depression. Psychogenic stress as a major inducer of depression can lead to transient trafficking of T lymphocytes into the brain stimulating the secretion of certain neurotrophic factors and cytokines. The separate and combined mechanism of CD4 and CD8 T cell activation is likely to determine the response pattern of CNS specific neurokines and neurotrophins. Under chronic stress-induced neuroinflammatory conditions associated with depression, T cell responses may become maladaptive and can be involved in neurodegeneration. Additionally, intracellular adhesion and MHC molecule expression as well as glucocorticoid receptor expression within the brain may play a role in determining T lymphocyte functionality in depression. Taken together, T lymphocyte mechanisms, which confer susceptibility or resilience to MDD, are not yet fully understood. Further insight into the cellular and molecular mechanisms which balance the adaptive and maladaptive roles of T lymphocytes may provide a better understanding of both the neuro- degenerative and –regenerative repair functions as present within the neuroimmune network during depression. Furthermore T cells may be important players in restoration of normal behaviour and immune cell homeostasis in depression.
Scaling analysis and simulation of strongly stratified turbulent flows

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Scaling analysis and simulation of strongly stratified turbulent flows G. Brethouwer, Paul Billant, E. Lindborg, Jean-Marc Chomaz
The one repetition maximum test and the sit-to-stand test in the assessment of a specific pulmonary rehabilitation program on peripheral muscle strength in COPD patients

BACKGROUND
Individuals with COPD may present reduced peripheral muscle strength, leading to impaired mobility. Comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) should include strength training, in particular to lower limbs. Furthermore, simple tools for the assessment of peripheral muscle performance are required.


OBJECTIVES
To assess the peripheral muscle performance of COPD patients by the sit-to-stand test (STST), as compared to the one-repetition maximum (1-RM), considered as the gold standard for assessing muscle strength in non-laboratory situations, and to evaluate the responsiveness of STST to a PR program.


METHODS
Sixty moderate-to-severe COPD inpatients were randomly included into either the specific strength training group or into the usual PR program group. Patients were assessed on a 30-second STST and 1-minute STST, 1-RM, and 6-minute walking test (6MWT), before and after PR. Bland-Altman plots were used to evaluate the agreement between 1-RM and STST.


RESULTS
The two groups were not different at baseline. In all patients, 1-RM was significantly related to the 30-second STST (r=0.48, P<0.001) and to 1-minute STST (r=0.36, P=0.005). The 30-second STST was better tolerated in terms of the perceived fatigue (P=0.002) and less time consuming (P<0.001) test. In the specific strength training group significant improvements were observed in the 30-second STST (P<0.001), 1-minute STST (P=0.005), 1-RM (P<0.001), and in the 6MWT (P=0.001). In the usual PR program group, significant improvement was observed in the 30-second STST (P=0.042) and in the 6MWT (P=0.001).


CONCLUSION
Our study shows that in stable moderate-to-severe inpatients with COPD, STST is a valid and reliable tool to assess peripheral muscle performance of lower limbs, and is sensitive to a specific PR program.
A transmit/receive system for magnetic field monitoring of in vivo MRI.

Magnetic field monitoring with NMR probes has recently been introduced as a means of measuring the actual spatiotemporal magnetic field evolution during individual MR scans. Receive-only NMR probes as used thus far for this purpose impose significant practical limitations due to radiofrequency (RF) interference with the actual MR experiment. In this work these limitations are overcome with a transmit/receive (T/R) monitoring system based on RF-shielded NMR probes. The proposed system is largely autonomous and protected against RF contamination. As a consequence the field probes can be positioned freely and permit monitoring imaging procedures of arbitrary geometry and angulation. The T/R approach is also exploited to simplify probe manufacturing and remove constraints on material choices. Probe miniaturization permits monitoring imaging scans with nominal resolutions on the order of 400 microm. The added capabilities of the new probes and system are demonstrated by first in vivo results, obtained with monitored gradient-echo and spin-echo echo-planar imaging (EPI) scans.
Composing graphical models with neural networks for structured representations and fast inference

+ optimal local factor – expensive for general obs. + exploit conj. graph structure + arbitrary inference queries + natural gradients – suboptimal local factor + fast for general obs. – does all local inference – limited inference queries – no natural gradients ± optimal given conj. evidence + fast for general obs. + exploit conj. graph structure + arbitrary inference queries + some natural gradients
Face detection in color images using skin color model algorithm based on skin color information

Face detection is one of the challenging problems in image processing. This paper proposes a novel technique for detecting faces in color images using skin color model algorithm combined with skin likely-hood, skin Segmentation, Morphological operation and Template matching. Color images with skin color in the chromatic and pure color space YCrCb, which separates luminance and chrominance components. A Gaussian probability density is estimated from skin samples, collected from different ethnic groups, via the maximum-likelihood criterion. Adaptive thresholding for segmentation to localize the faces within the detected skin regions. Then, mathematical morphological operators are used to remove noisy regions and fill holes in the skin-color region, so we can extract candidate human face regions. These system is achieve high detection accuracy, high detection speed and reduce the false detecting rate.