Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Attack on a Text-independent Speaker Authentication System

We mount an effective attack on a third-party open-source text-independent speaker verification system. Specifically, we show how an attacker can simply use a signal generated at fixed frequency to pass speaker verification and gain access to other user accounts. We demonstrate this attack on the GMM-UBM based ALIZE speaker verification system using the YOHO voice database. We show through experimentation that the attacker can impersonate any users in the database of 69 people with about 25% success rate with only 5 trials. The success rate can achieve more than 50% by increasing the allowed authentication attempts to 20. These success rates are significantly higher than the rates achievable by exploiting the false positive rate of the speaker verification system using random trials.
The Association between Venous Thromboembolism and Lipid Profile in a Tunisian Population

Background and objectives: Lipids and lipoproteins modulate the expression and/or the function of thrombotic, fibrinolytic and rheological factors among patients with cardiovascular disease. Many studies have suggested a link between risk factors of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and dyslipidemia but results are heterogeneous. We sought to identify if dyslipidemia is a risk factor of VTE disease. Patients and methods: We have developed an hospital-based case-control study which was conducted in 32 patients with VTE and 33 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. We were proceeding to compare the lipid profile of the two groups after analysing the total cholesterol, triglycerides, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), Lipoprotein Lp(a), Apo-A1, Apo-B and Apo-E. Patients who have cancer and whose taken statins or fibrates are excluded. Results: The two groups have the same demographic characteristics but there were more diabetics, arterial hypertension and obese in the VTE group than the control group respectively (Diabetic: 37% vs. 18%, hypertension: 68.6% vs. 15.2% and (body mass index) BMI ≥30 Kg/m2: 43.8% vs. 18.2%). The mean value of the total cholesterol (TC), the LDL-C, Lipoprotein Lp (a), and Apo-B were statistically higher in the VTE group compared to control group respectively ; TC (4.942 ± 1.409 vs. 4.362 ± 0.872 mmol/L,P=0.049), LDL-C (3.114 ± 1.100 vs. 2.602 ± 0.695 mmol/L, P=0.001), Lp (a) (0.205 ± 0.115 vs. 0.0819 ± 0.0479 g/l, P <10-3), Apo-B (1.333 ± 0.253 vs. 0.8006 ± 0.238 g/l, P<10-3), but there was no statistical significant difference was observed between the two groups in the value of Triglycerides and Apo E respectively (1.710 ± 0.816 vs. 1.366 ± 0.636 mmol/L, P=0.62), (0.102 ± 0.070 vs. 0.0810 ± 0.153 g/l, P=0.48). However, the mean value of HDL-C and Apo-A1 were statically lower in the VTE group; HDL-C (1.048 ± 0.237 vs. 1.473 ± 0.334 mmol/L, P<0.001) and Apo-A1 (1.010 ± 0.2437 vs. 1.414 ± 0.2911 g/l, P<10-3). Furthermore, enhanced HDL-C ≤0.906 mmol/L was diagnosed in 21 patients (65.6%) in the VTE group versus 4 patients (12.1%) in the control group (P<0.001), so it was also independently associated with a risk of VTE. Conclusion: The present study shows a significant association between the occurrence of venous thromboembolism and lower levels of HDL-C and ApoA1 and higher levels of LDL-C, Apo-B and Lp(a), but, there were no effect of Triglycerides and ApoE. Nevertheless, these results must be confirmed with a large population study to prove an eventual independent factor for VTE and dyslipidemia
OPTIMAL BOUNDS FOR INVERSE PROBLEMS WITH JACOBI-TYPE EIGENFUNCTIONS

We consider inverse problems where one wishes to recover an unknown function from the observation of a transformation of it by a linear operator, corrupted by an additive white noise perturbation. We assume that the operator admits a singular value decomposition where the eigenvalues decay in a polynomial way, and where Jacobi polynomials appear as eigenfunctions. This includes, as an application, the well known Wicksell's problem. We determine the asymptotic rate of the minimax risk for this model in a wide framework, considering (Lp) losses (1 < p < \infty), and Besov-like regularity spaces. We draw a comparison with the minimax rates of the deconvolution problem, which appears as a critical case of the Jacobi-type rates. We also establish some new results on the needlets introduced by Petrushev and Xu (2005) which appear as essential tools in this setting.
Perception, Knowledge, and Attitude Toward Physical Activity Behavior: Implications for Participation Among Pregnant Women

Objective: This study explored the perception and knowledge of, attitude toward, and participation in physical activity (PA) among pregnant women attending public hospitals in a southeastern Nigerian state. Background: Despite reports of PA-related health benefits, reports of low PA among pregnant women are postulated to stem from negative attitude, perhaps, due to poor knowledge of PA. Study design: Cross-sectional survey. Methods: This study involved 150 pregnant women seeking care from antenatal clinics of the 2 teaching hospitals in Anambra State, Nigeria. Information on age, parity, weeks of pregnancy, highest educational attainment, marital status, occupation, week of commencing antenatal care, perception of PA, knowledge about PA, attitude toward PA, and participation in PA was collected using a self-developed and pilot-tested questionnaire. Physical activity level was assessed using Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire. Results: Most participants reported favorable perceptions of PA behavior in terms of having time, being able to afford, and lack of barrier (home, work, and family-/friend-related), and its benefits. They reported good knowledge about PA behavior in line with established PA guidelines in pregnancy. The participants demonstrated positive attitude in terms of its benefits, importance, and involved risk, and reported high level of participation in PA. There were statistically significant correlations between perception of PA, PA knowledge, attitude toward PA and PA participation. Conclusions: Improving the perception and knowledge of PA in pregnant women may foster positive attitude toward PA participation and thus a positive increase in PA participation.
Sparse Recovery in Large Ensembles of Kernel Machines On-Line Learning and Bandits

A problem of learning a prediction rule that is approximated in a linear span of a large number of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces is considered. The method is based on penalized empirical risk minimization with (cid:96) 1 - type complexity penalty. Oracle inequalities on excess risk of such estimators are proved showing that the method is adaptive to unknown degree of “sparsity” of the target function.
Unitarity in the Brout-Englert-Higgs Mechanism for Gravity

Just like the vector bosons in Abelian and non-Abelian gauge theories, gravitons can attain mass by spontaneous local symmetry breaking. The question is whether this can happen in a Lorentz-invariant way. We consider the use of four scalar fields that break coordinate reparametrization invariance, by playing the role of preferred flat coordinates x, y, z, and t. In the unbroken representation, the theory has a (negative) cosmological constant, which is tuned to zero by the scalars in the broken phase. Massive spin 2 bosons and a single massive scalar survive. The theory is not renormalizable, so at best it can be viewed as an effective field theory for massive spin 2 particles. One may think of applications in cosmology, but a more tantalizing idea is to apply it to string theory approaches to QCD: if the gluon sector is to be described by a compactified 26 or 10 dimensional bosonic string theory, then the ideas considered here could be used to describe the mechanism that removes a massless or tachyonic scalar and provides mass to the spin 2 glueball states. The delicate problem of removing indefinite metric and/or negative energy states is addressed. The scalar particle has negative metric, so that unitarity demands that only states with an even number of them are allowed. Various ways are considered to adapt the matter section of the theory such that matter only couples to positive metric states, and we succeed in suppressing the main contributions to unitarity-violating amplitudes, but the exact restoration of unitarity in the spinless sector will continue to be a delicate issue in theories of this sort.
Проблема поєднання професійних та сімейних ролей у кар’єрно успішних жінок (The unification problem of professional and family roles at carrer-successful women)

У статті представлено теоретичний аналіз основних підходів до проблеми переживання жінкою внутрішньоособистісного конфлікту, пов’язаного із поєднанням професійних та сімейних ролей. Визначено причини рольового конфлікту “робота – сім’я” у жінок, які прагнуть досягти успіху в кар’єрі. Проаналізовано основні джерела тиску на кар’єрно успішних жінок. Запропоновано психологічні засоби зменшення рольової напруги у жінок, які прагнуть до професійної самореалізації. (The article gives its theoretical analysis the main approaches to the problem of inner-personal women’s conflict connected with their pro fessional and family roles. The reasons of their role conflict “job – family” for women who intend to make their career successful are determined in this work. The author analyses the main sources of op pression that influences successful women in their career growth. Psychological methods to reduce role tension for women who are on their way to their professional realization are offered by this article)
Taking Action: A Cross-Modal Investigation of Discourse-Level Representations

Segmenting stimuli into events and understanding the relations between those events is crucial for understanding the world. For example, on the linguistic level, successful language use requires the ability to recognize semantic coherence relations between events (e.g., causality, similarity). However, relatively little is known about the mental representation of discourse structure. We report two experiments that used a cross-modal priming paradigm to investigate how humans represent the relations between events. Participants repeated a motor action modeled by the experimenter (e.g., rolled a ball toward mini bowling pins to knock them over), and then completed an unrelated sentence-continuation task (e.g., provided a continuation for “Peter scratched John.…”). In two experiments, we tested whether and how the coherence relations represented by the motor actions (e.g., causal events vs. non-causal events) influence participants’ performance in the linguistic task. (A production study was also conducted to explore potential syntactic priming effects.) Our analyses focused on the coherence relations between the prompt sentences and participants’ continuations, as well as the referential shifts in the continuations. As a whole, the results suggest that the mental representations activated by motor actions overlap with the mental representations used during linguistic discourse-level processing, but nevertheless contain fine-grained information about sub-types of causality (reaction vs. consequence). In addition, the findings point to parallels between shifting one’s attention from one-event to another and shifting one’s attention from one referent to another, and indicate that the event structure of causal sequences is conceptualized more like single events than like two distinct events. As a whole, the results point toward common representations activated by motor sequences and discourse-semantic relations, and further our understanding of the mental representation of discourse structure, an area that is still not yet well-understood.
Solution of the quantum inverse problem

We derive a formula that expresses the local spin and field operators of fundamental graded models in terms of the elements of the monodromy matrix. This formula is a quantum analogue of the classical inverse scattering transform. It applies to fundamental spin chains, such as the XYZ chain, and to a number of important exactly solvable models of strongly correlated electrons, such as the supersymmetric t-J model or the the EKS model.
SIMULATION OF THE TETRAHYDROFURAN DEHYDRATION PROCESS BY EXTRACTIVE DISTILLATION

The aim of this work is to simulate and analyze an extractive distillation process (extractive distillation and recovery columns) for the separation of Tetrahydrofuran (THF)-Water azeotropic mixture using Aspen Plus® and Aspen Split simulators. Calculation of vapor liquid equilibrium of Tetrahydrofuran-Water-Entrainer system was done using the NRTL model, which binary interaction parameters were regressed using experimental data. A methodology for the study and selection of different candidate entrainers was followed, determining that the most suitable is glycerol. The solvent to feed molar ratio, reflux molar ratio, feed stage, feed solvent stage, and fe ed solvent temperature, were determined and their effects on the separation and the energy consumption in the two columns was studied.
Dark Tourism, Emotions, and Postexperience Visitor Effects in a Sensitive Geopolitical Context: A Chinese Case Study

Engaging the neglected intersection between dark tourism, the visitor postexperience and geopolitics, this research reports the findings from a survey of 1,082 domestic visitors to Lushun Prison Museum in Dalian, China, a Japanese-era incarceration and punishment site that projects hegemonic anti-Japanese social representations. Most respondents reported strong emotional reactions and elevated patriotism along with worsened attitudes toward Japan, Japanese products and, to a lesser degree, Japanese people, suggesting negative implications for the increasingly tense China–Japan bilateral relationship. However, sample diversity is indicated by the revelation of small Japan-neutral clusters whose members are more likely to express contemplation and pity as dominant emotions rather than the anger and hate of the majority, and who qualify the dominant social representations accordingly. Communist Party membership, age, lack of student affiliation, and not having Japanese friends or knowing any Japanese people were all associated with Japan-negative perceptions and intentions.
Endurance Exercise Enhances the Effect of Strength Training on Muscle Fiber Size and Protein Expression of Akt and mTOR

Reports concerning the effect of endurance exercise on the anabolic response to strength training have been contradictory. This study re-investigated this issue, focusing on training effects on indicators of protein synthesis and degradation. Two groups of male subjects performed 7 weeks of resistance exercise alone (R; n = 7) or in combination with preceding endurance exercise, including both continuous and interval cycling (ER; n = 9). Muscle biopsies were taken before and after the training period. Similar increases in leg-press 1 repetition maximum (30%; P<0.05) were observed in both groups, whereas maximal oxygen uptake was elevated (8%; P<0.05) only in the ER group. The ER training enlarged the areas of both type I and type II fibers, whereas the R protocol increased only the type II fibers. The mean fiber area increased by 28% (P<0.05) in the ER group, whereas no significant increase was observed in the R group. Moreover, expression of Akt and mTOR protein was enhanced in the ER group, whereas only the level of mTOR was elevated following R training. Training-induced alterations in the levels of both Akt and mTOR protein were correlated to changes in type I fiber area (r = 0.55–0.61, P<0.05), as well as mean fiber area (r = 0.55–0.61, P<0.05), reflecting the important role played by these proteins in connection with muscle hypertrophy. Both training regimes reduced the level of MAFbx protein (P<0.05) and tended to elevate that of MuRF-1. The present findings indicate that the larger hypertrophy observed in the ER group is due more to pronounced stimulation of anabolic rather than inhibition of catabolic processes.
DNA Cytometry and Nuclear Morphometry in Ovarian Benign, Borderline and Malignant Tumors

BACKDROUND: Ovarian carcinoma is a leading cause of death in gynecological malignancy. Ovarian surface epithelial serous and mucinous tumours are classified as benign, borderline, and malignant. The identification of borderline tumours most likely to act aggressively remains an important clinical issue. AIM: This work aimed to study DNA ploidy and nuclear area in ovarian serous and mucinous; benign, borderline and malignant tumours. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study included forty ovarian (23 serous and 17 mucinous) tumours. Paraffin blocks were sectioned; stained with haematoxylin and eosin for histopathologic and morphometric studies and with blue feulgen for DNA analysis. RESULTS: All four serous and six out of nine mucinous benign tumours were diploid. All eight serous and five mucinous malignant tumours were aneuploid. Nine of eleven (81.8%) serous and all three mucinous borderline tumours were aneuploid. There were highly significant differences in mean aneuploid cells percentage between serous benign (1.5%), borderline (45.6%) and malignant (74.5%) (p = 0.0001) and between mucinous benign (13.2%) and both borderline (63.7%) and malignant (68.4%) groups (p = 0.0001). There were significant differences in nuclear area between serous benign (26.191%), borderline (45.619%) and malignant (67.634 %) and a significant positive correlation between mean percentage aneuploid value and mean nuclear area in all serous and mucinous groups. CONCLUSION: We suggest that DNA ploidy and nuclear area combined, may be adjuncts to histopathology; in ovarian serous and mucinous benign, borderline and malignant neoplasms; identifying the aggressive borderline tumours.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Work engagement and Machiavellianism in the ethical leadership process

Leaders who express an ethical identity are proposed to affect followers’ attitudes and work behaviors. In two multi-source studies, we first test a model suggesting that work engagement acts as a mediator in the relationships between ethical leadership and employee initiative (a form of organizational citizenship behavior) as well as counterproductive work behavior. Next, we focus on whether ethical leadership always forms an authentic expression of an ethical identity, thus in the second study, we add leader Machiavellianism to the model. For Machiavellian leaders, the publicly expressed identity of ethical leadership is inconsistent with the privately held unethical Machiavellian norms. Literature on surface acting suggests people can at least to some extent pick up on such inauthentic displays, making the effects less strong. We thus argue that the positive effects of ethical leader behavior are likely to be suppressed when leaders are highly Machiavellian. Support for this moderated mediation model was found: The effects of ethical leader behavior on engagement are less strong when ethical leaders are high as opposed to low on Machiavellianism.
Liraglutide in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus: clinical utility and patient perspectives

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a progressive disease associated with significant morbidity and mortality. There is good evidence that intensive glycemic control reduces the development and progression of complications in patients with diabetes. In order to achieve glycemic targets, patients often require a combination of oral therapy and/or insulin in addition to lifestyle modification. Unfortunately many currently available therapies for T2DM are associated with weight gain and hypoglycemia resulting in poor compliance and subsequent worsening glycemic control. Glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is an incretin hormone secreted from the small intestine that lowers fasting and postprandial glucose through multiple mechanisms including glucose-dependent insulin secretion, reduction of glucagon secretion, delaying gastric emptying and increased satiety. Liraglutide is a long acting GLP-1 mimetic that is administered once a day by subcutaneous injection and is now licensed for the treatment of T2DM. Phase 3 clinical trials have demonstrated beneficial effects on glycemic control and weight with liraglutide therapy. Within this article, we provide an overview of pharmacology, efficacy, safety and patient experience on liraglutide in the management of T2DM.
The Bright Side of Gelatinous Blooms: Nutraceutical Value and Antioxidant Properties of Three Mediterranean Jellyfish (Scyphozoa)

Jellyfish are recorded with increasing frequency and magnitude in many coastal areas and several species display biological features comparable to the most popular Asiatic edible jellyfish. The biochemical and antioxidant properties of wild gelatinous biomasses, in terms of nutritional and nutraceutical values, are still largely unexplored. In this paper, three of the most abundant and commonly recorded jellyfish species (Aurelia sp.1, Cotylorhiza tuberculata and Rhizostoma pulmo) in the Mediterranean Sea were subject to investigation. A sequential enzymatic hydrolysis of jellyfish proteins was set up by pepsin and collagenase treatments of jellyfish samples after aqueous or hydroalcoholic protein extraction. The content and composition of proteins, amino acids, phenolics, and fatty acids of the three species were recorded and compared. Protein content (mainly represented by collagen) up to 40% of jellyfish dry weight were found in two of the three jellyfish species (C. tuberculata and R. pulmo), whereas the presence of ω-3 and ω-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) was significantly higher in the zooxanthellate jellyfish C. tuberculata only. Remarkable antioxidant ability was also recorded from both proteinaceous and non proteinaceous extracts and the hydrolyzed protein fractions in all the three species. The abundance of collagen, peptides and other bioactive molecules make these Mediterranean gelatinous biomasses a largely untapped source of natural compounds of nutraceutical, cosmeceutical and pharmacological interest.
The Utility of R‐Curves for Understanding Fracture Toughness‐Strength Relations in Bridging Ceramics

The mechanical behavior of four rare earth (RE)-Mg-doped Si 3 N 4 ceramics (RE = La, Lu, Y, Yb) with varying grain-boundary adhesion has been examined with emphasis on materials containing La and Lu (which represent the extremes of RE ionic radius). Fracture-resistance curves (R-curves) for all ceramics rose very steeply initially, giving them exceptional strength and relative insensitivity to flaw size. The highest strength was seen in the Lu-doped material, which may be explained by its steeper initial R-curve; the highest "apparent" toughness (for fracture from millimeter-scale micronotches) was seen in the lowest strength La-doped material, which may be explained by its slowly rising R-curve at longer crack lengths. Excellent agreement was found between the predicted strengths from R-curves and the actual strengths for failures originating from natural flaws, a result attributed to careful estimation of the early part of the R-curve by deducing the intrinsic toughness, K 0 , and the fact that this portion of the R-curve is relatively insensitive to sample geometry. Finally, it was found that RE elements with relatively large ionic radius (e.g., La) tended to result in lower grain-boundary adhesion. This implies that there is a small window of optimal grain-boundary adhesion which can lead to the fastest rising R-curves (for short cracks) and the highest strengths. The importance of this work is that it reinforces the notion that factors which contribute to the early part of the R-curve are critical for the design of ceramic microstructures with both high strength and high toughness.