Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of an inverse filtering technique using physical modeling of voice production

Glottal flows and sound pressure waveforms of four different fundamental frequencies were generated using a computational model of vocal fold vibration and acoustic wave propagation in order to evaluate the performance of an inverse filtering method. Four time-based parameters of the glottal flow were used in order to assess the accuracy of the inverse filtering technique. The results show that for most of the cases analyzed the relative error was less than 5 % when the time-based parameters extracted from the estimated glottal flows were compared to those obtained from the original flow waveforms produced by the physical model of the vocal fold vibration.
Locking plate osteosynthesis in displaced 4-part fractures of the proximal humerus

Background and purpose There is considerable uncertainty about the optimal treatment of displaced 4-part fractures of the proximal humerus. Within the last decade, locking plate technology has been considered a breakthrough in the treatment of these complex injuries. Methods We systematically identified and reviewed clinical studies on the benefits and harms after osteosynthesis with locking plates in displaced 4-part fractures. Results We included 14 studies with 374 four-part fractures. There were 10 case series, 3 retrospective observational comparative studies, 1 prospective observational comparative study, and no randomized trials. Small studies with a high risk of bias precluded reliable estimates of functional outcome. High rates of complications (16–64%) and reoperations (11–27%) were reported. Interpretation The empirical foundation for the value of locking plates in displaced 4-part fractures of the proximal humerus is weak. We emphasize the need for well-conducted randomized trials and observational studies.
Provable deterministic leverage score sampling

We explain theoretically a curious empirical phenomenon: "Approximating a matrix by deterministically selecting a subset of its columns with the corresponding largest leverage scores results in a good low-rank matrix surrogate". In this work, we provide a novel theoretical analysis of deterministic leverage score sampling. We show that such sampling can be provably as accurate as its randomized counterparts, if the leverage scores follow a moderately steep power-law decay. We support this power-law assumption by providing empirical evidence that such decay laws are abundant in real-world data sets. We then demonstrate empirically the performance of deterministic leverage score sampling, which many times matches or outperforms the state-of-the-art techniques.
Functional connectivity of the posterior hippocampus is more dominant as we age

The role of the hippocampus in memory is dependent on its interaction with distributed brain areas. Anterior and posterior hippocampus have different roles in memory processing, and are impacted differently by aging in terms of structural decline, however, functional connectivity of these hippocampal regions in aging is not well understood. Young (age 17–30) and aging (age 60–69) cognitively normal subjects underwent resting-state functional MRI revealing a shift from anterior hippocampus dominant hippocampus connectivity in younger age group to posterior hippocampus dominant connectivity in aging subjects. We identified a subset of neocortical regions that are connected to the anterior hippocampus in younger adults but to the posterior hippocampus among older subjects, suggesting an age-related reorganization of hippocampal networks supporting normal cognitive function. We also performed volumetric analysis which revealed no significant structural differences between groups. These findings provide evidence that “functional anatomy” which supports normal memory performance changes across the life span.
“I Wasted 3 Years, Thinking It’s Not a Problem”: Patient and Health System Delays in Diagnosis of Leprosy in India: A Mixed-Methods Study

Background Worldwide, leprosy is one of the major causes of preventable disability. India contributes to 60% of global leprosy burden. With increasing numbers of leprosy with grade 2 disability (visible disability) at diagnosis, we aimed to determine risk factors associated with grade 2 disability among new cases and explore patients and providers’ perspectives into reasons for late presentation. Methodology/Principal Findings This was an explanatory mixed-methods study where the quantitative component, a matched case-control design, was followed by a qualitative component. A total of 70 cases (grade 2 disability) and 140 controls (grade 0) matched for age and sex were randomly sampled from new patients registered between January 2013-January 2015 in three districts of Maharashtra (Mumbai, Thane and Amaravati) and interviewed using a structured close ended questionnaire. Eight public health care providers involved in leprosy care and 7 leprosy patients were purposively selected (maximum variation sampling) and interviewed using a structured open-ended interview schedule. Among cases, overall median (IQR) diagnosis delay in months was 17.9(7–30); patient and health system delay was 7(4–16.5) and 5.5(0.9–12.5) respectively; this was significantly higher than the delay in controls. Reasons for delayed presentation identified by the quantitative and qualitative data were: poor awareness of leprosy symptoms, first health care provider visited being private practitioners who were not aware about provision of free leprosy treatment at public health care facilities, reduced engagement and capacity of the general health care system in leprosy control. Conclusions Raising awareness in communities and health care providers regarding early leprosy symptoms, engagement of private health care provider in early leprosy diagnosis and increasing capacity of general health system staff, especially targeting high endemic areas that are hotspots for leprosy transmission may help in reducing diagnosis delays.
Infrared Extinction toward Nearby Star-forming Regions

We present an independent estimate of the interstellar extinction law for the Spitzer IRAC bands, as well as a first attempt at extending the law to the 24 μm MIPS band. The source data for these measurements are observations of five nearby star-forming regions: the Orion A cloud, NGC 2068/2071, NGC 2024/2023, Serpens, and Ophiuchus. Color excess ratios E/E were measured for stars without infrared excess dust emission from circumstellar disks/envelopes. For four of these five regions, the extinction laws are similar at all wavelengths and differ systematically from a previous determination of the extinction law, which was dominated by the diffuse ISM, derived for the IRAC bands. This difference could be due to the difference in the dust properties of the dense molecular clouds observed here and those of the diffuse ISM. The extinction law at longer wavelengths toward the Ophiuchus region lies between that to the other four regions studied here and that for the ISM. In addition, we extended our extinction law determination to 24 μm for Serpens and NGC 2068/2071 using Spitzer MIPS data. We compare these results against several ISO extinction law determinations, although in each case there are assumptions which make absolute comparison uncertain. However, our work confirms a relatively flatter extinction curve from 4 to 8 μm than the previously assumed standard, as noted by all of these recent studies. The extinction law at 24 μm is consistent with previous measurements and models, although there are relatively large uncertainties.
Experiences of Faculty With Doctoral Student Supervision in Programs Delivered via Distance

Abstract Many education doctoral programs offer extensive amounts of coursework online or from a distance utilizing a variety of combinations of course delivery. Given the increase in the number of online programs in recent years, it is reasonable to believe that blended, distance, and online practices will continue to be integrated more widely into education graduate studies and programs. The purpose of the study was to examine the perspectives and understandings of experienced doctoral supervisors in blended and distance-delivered doctorate programs to get a clearer picture of their current doctoral supervision practices. A mixed-method study was conducted to describe online and distance doctoral supervisors' experiences. Findings suggest that doctoral supervision within a distance setting requires more strategic attention, and some suggestions are made in terms of understanding doctoral supervision as building research capacity.
Bad Neighborhoods in a Good City?

Within the context of the ongoing discussion on how the media represents spaces and territories to audiences, this pilot study proposes a methodological approach to investigate how diverse online news sources (national and regional legacy media, local public institutions, hyperlocal and community media, etc.) cover a territory—in this case, Brussels. Through a transversal analysis of the contents produced in 152 news items from as many sources, the paper aims to examine how online media ascribes particular meanings to spaces, which in the end might affect audiences’ perceptions. To assess how Brussels and its municipalities are represented, positive and negative values are assigned to news items describing its social problems. Results show that the complexity of Brussels’s institutional structure is an issue for the Belgian media, which has difficulty describing the territory it covers. Furthermore, the contents produced about Brussels indicate that online news producers may consistently portray poorer areas of the city as hosting more social problems than richer areas, hence stigmatizing these places. Finally, results suggest that the methodology presented and tested is viable to study place-problematizing.
'It Is Never Too Late': Optimal Penalty for Investment Delay in Italian Public Procurement Contracts

We provide a general framework in which to determine the optimal penalty fee inducing the contractor to respect the contracted delivery date in public procurement contracts (PPCs). We do this by developing a real option model that enables us to investigate the contractor’s value of investment timing flexibility which the penalty rule - de facto - introduces. We then apply this setting in order to evaluate the range of penalty fees in the Italian legislation on PPCs. According to our calibration analysis, there is no evidence that the substantial delays recorded in the execution times of Italian PPCs are due to incorrectly set penalty fees. This result opens the way for other explanations of delays in Italian PPCs: specifically, we extend our model to investigate the probability of enforcing a penalty which we assume negatively affected by the "quality" of the judicial system and the discretionality of the court in voiding the rule. Our simulations show that the penalty fee is highly sensitive to the "quality" of the judicial system. Specifically referring to the Italian case, we show that the optimal penalty should be higher than those set according to the present Italian law.
Running head : Navigational correlates of human theta 5 6

46 47 Previous rodent studies demonstrate movement-related increases in theta 48 oscillations and recent evidence suggests that multiple navigationally relevant 49 variables are reflected in this activity. Human invasive recordings have revealed 50 movement-related modulations in delta and theta activity, although it is unclear if 51 additional behavioral variables are responsible for modulating this neural activity 52 during navigation. We tested the role of delta and theta oscillations during 53 navigation by addressing whether spatial-related processing, in addition to speed 54 and task variables, modulates delta and theta activity. Recording from 317 55 hippocampal intracranial electrodes in ten patients undergoing seizure monitoring, 56 we observed increasing delta and theta power with increasing virtual speed at 57 significantly more electrodes than would be expected by chance, replicating 58 previous findings in nonhuman mammals. Delta and theta power were more 59 consistently modulated, though, as a function of spatial-view, including when 60 subjects looked at stores in the virtual environment both to find a relevant goal or 61 for spatial updating. A significantly larger proportion of electrodes showed view62 related effects than speed-related modulations. Although speed, task, and spatial63 view affected delta and theta activity, individual electrodes were most frequently 64 modulated by only one variable, rather than a combination of variables. These 65 electrodes likely sampled independent delta and theta generators, which reflected 66 movement-related and allocentric processing, respectively. These results extend 67 previous findings in nonhuman mammals and humans, expanding our knowledge of 68 the role of human hippocampal low-frequency oscillations in navigation. 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 9
Validation of Gene Expression Profiles in Genomic Data through Complementary Use of Cluster Analysis and PCA-Related Biplots

High-throughput genomic assays are used in molecular biology to explore patterns of joint expression of thousands of genes. These methodologies had relevant developments in the last decade, and concurrently there was a need for appropriate methods for analyzing the massive data generated. Identifying sets of genes and samples characterized by similar values of expression and validating these results are two critical issues related to these investigations because of their clinical implication. From a statistical perspective, unsupervised class discovery methods like Cluster Analysis are generally adopted. However, the use of Cluster Analysis mainly relies on the use of hierarchical techniques without considering possible use of other methods. This is partially due to software availability and to easiness of representation of results through a heatmap, which allows to simultaneously visualize clusterization of genes and samples on the same graphical device. One drawback of this strategy is that clustersâ€™ stability is often neglected, thus leading to over-interpretation of results. Moreover, validation of results using external datasets is still subject of discussion, since it is well known that batch effects may condition gene expression results even after normalization. In this paper we compared several clustering algorithms (hierarchical, k-means, model-based, Affinity Propagation) and stability indices to discover common patterns of expression and to assess clustering reliability, and propose a rank-based passive projection of Principal Components for validation purposes. Results from a study involving 23 tumor cell lines and 76 genes related to a specific biological pathway and derived from a publicly available dataset, are presented.
Some notes on the moduli of stable sheaves on elliptic surfaces

Abstract In this paper, we shall consider the birational structure of moduli of stable sheaves on elliptic surfaces, which is a generalization of Friedman’s results to higher rank cases. As applications, we show that some moduli spaces of stable sheaves on ℙ2 are rational. We also compute the Picard groups of those on Abelian surfaces.
The early days of plastid retrograde signaling with respect to replication and transcription

The plastid signal was originally defined as a pathway that informs the nucleus of the chloroplast status and results in the modulation of expression of nuclear-encoded plastid protein genes. However, the transfer of chloroplast genes into the nuclear genome is a prerequisite in this scheme, although it should not have been established during the very early phase of chloroplast evolution. We recently demonstrated in a primitive red alga that the plastid-derived Mg-protoporphyrin IX activates nuclear DNA replication (NDR) through the stabilization of a G1 cyclin, which coordinates the timing of organelle and NDR. This mechanism apparently does not involve any transcriptional regulation in the nucleus, and could have been established prior to gene transfer events. However, a retrograde signal mediating light-responsive gene expression may have been established alongside gene transfer, because essential light sensing and regulatory systems were originally incorporated into plant cells by the photosynthetic endosymbiont. In this short article, we discuss the origins, early days and evolution of the plastid retrograde signal(s).
Do Companies Invest and Hire More after Shareholder Tax Cuts ?

This paper tests for changes in investment and employment following changes in capital gains and dividend taxes. We show that firms with less elastic demand for equity capital will expand operations less than other firms following shareholder tax cuts. Since financial constraint is a factor that diminishes a firm’s demand elasticity for capital, we predict that financially constrained firms expand less than other companies following shareholder tax reductions. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that financially constrained companies increased their capital expenditures, research and development, selling, general and administrative expenses, acquisitions, and hiring less than other firms did, following the two most recent U.S. reductions in shareholder taxes. To our knowledge, these findings provide the first direct link between the investment and employment of a company and the taxes that its owners face. We thank Ted Day, Robert Kieschnick, Kelsey Wei, Toni Whited, Yexiao Xu and seminar participants at the University of Texas at Dallas for their constructive comments.
On Loss Functions for Deep Neural Networks in Classification

Deep neural networks are currently among the most commonly used classifiers. Despite easily achieving very good performance, one of the best selling points of these models is their modular design - one can conveniently adapt their architecture to specific needs, change connectivity patterns, attach specialised layers, experiment with a large amount of activation functions, normalisation schemes and many others. While one can find impressively wide spread of various configurations of almost every aspect of the deep nets, one element is, in authors' opinion, underrepresented - while solving classification problems, vast majority of papers and applications simply use log loss. In this paper we try to investigate how particular choices of loss functions affect deep models and their learning dynamics, as well as resulting classifiers robustness to various effects. We perform experiments on classical datasets, as well as provide some additional, theoretical insights into the problem. In particular we show that L1 and L2 losses are, quite surprisingly, justified classification objectives for deep nets, by providing probabilistic interpretation in terms of expected misclassification. We also introduce two losses which are not typically used as deep nets objectives and show that they are viable alternatives to the existing ones.
Developing Mindfulness in College Students Through Movement-Based Courses: Effects on Self-Regulatory Self-Efficacy, Mood, Stress, and Sleep Quality

Abstract Objective: This study examined whether mindfulness increased through participation in movement-based courses and whether changes in self-regulatory self-efficacy, mood, and perceived stress mediated the relationship between increased mindfulness and better sleep. Participants: 166 college students enrolled in the 2007–2008 academic year in 15 week classes in Pilates, Taiji quan, or GYROKINESIS. Methods: At beginning, middle, and end of the semester, participants completed measures of mindfulness, self-regulatory self-efficacy, mood, perceived stress, and sleep quality. Results: Total mindfulness scores and mindfulness subscales increased overall. Greater changes in mindfulness were directly related to better sleep quality at the end of the semester after adjusting for sleep disturbance at the beginning. Tiredness, Negative Arousal, Relaxation, and Perceived Stress mediated the effect of increased mindfulness on improved sleep. Conclusions: Movement-based courses can increase mindfulness. Increased mindfulness accounts for changes in mood and perceived stress, which explain, in part, improved sleep quality.
Social Desirability Bias and Polling Errors in the 2016 Presidential Election

Social scientists have observed that socially desirable responding (SDR) often biases unincentivized surveys. Nonetheless, media, campaigns, and markets all employ unincentivized polls to make predictions about electoral outcomes. During the 2016 presidential campaign, we conducted three list experiments to test the effect SDR has on polls of agreement with presidential candidates. We elicit a subject’s agreement with either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump using explicit questioning or an implicit elicitation that allows subjects to conceal their individual responses. We find evidence that explicit polling overstates agreement with Clinton relative to Trump. Subgroup analysis by party identification shows that SDR significantly diminishes explicit statements of agreement with the opposing party’s candidate driven largely by Democrats who are significantly less likely to explicitly state agreement with Trump. We measure economic policy preferences and find no evidence that ideological agreement drives SDR. We find suggestive evidence that local voting patterns predict SDR.
Effect of 5E Learning Model on Academic Achievement, Attitude and Science Process Skills: Meta-Analysis Study

Today, with the development of science and technology and its rapid progress, the importance attached to science education has increased. This increase in interest has led to the development of the methods, techniques, and approaches that enable the students to be active, question and construct knowledge. The 5E learning model is one of them, and many studies have been conducted in literature related to this model. These independent studies have been carried out in different study areas, with different study groups, and different results have been achieved. In order to evaluate these results in general, it is necessary to make use of as many studies as possible. Meta-analysis was considered to work to reveal how each work has impacted the situation and make a generalization. From this point of view, a meta-analysis study was planned in this study to evaluate the effect of the 5E learning model on academic achievement, retention and scientific process skills. For this purpose, all the Master's, doctoral theses and articles in Turkish and English languages which were carried out in Turkey between 2006 and 2016 and which are suitable for the research problem have been scanned and included in the scope of the study. In order to limit studies and conduct meta-analysis in this context, studies had to be planned with semi-experimental design with experiment and control groups; there had to be quantitative data such as mean, standard deviation, and sample size and they had to be applied only in science courses. The data obtained from the articles and theses were meta-analyzed and it was determined that the 5E learning model had an effect on the students' academic achievement, attitude towards science and science process skills. In this context, studies should be conducted in order to limit the studies and to perform the meta-analysis, in which semi-experimental design with experimental and control groups is planned, t-test is applied only in science courses. By analyzing the data obtained from the articles and theses, a general evaluation was made about the effect of the 5E learning model on academic achievement, attitude toward science and science process skills. As a result of the study, the effect of the method applied for each dependent variable was found to favor the experimental group.