Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Minimum Mean-Square Error Estimation of Discrete Fourier Coefficients With Generalized Gamma Priors

This paper considers techniques for single-channel speech enhancement based on the discrete Fourier transform (DFT). Specifically, we derive minimum mean-square error (MMSE) estimators of speech DFT coefficient magnitudes as well as of complex-valued DFT coefficients based on two classes of generalized gamma distributions, under an additive Gaussian noise assumption. The resulting generalized DFT magnitude estimator has as a special case the existing scheme based on a Rayleigh speech prior, while the complex DFT estimators generalize existing schemes based on Gaussian, Laplacian, and Gamma speech priors. Extensive simulation experiments with speech signals degraded by various additive noise sources verify that significant improvements are possible with the more recent estimators based on super-Gaussian priors. The increase in perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ) over the noisy signals is about 0.5 points for street noise and about 1 point for white noise, nearly independent of input signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The assumptions made for deriving the complex DFT estimators are less accurate than those for the magnitude estimators, leading to a higher maximum achievable speech quality with the magnitude estimators.
Impact of elevated CO2 and increased temperature on Japanese beetle herbivory

To examine how the major elements of global change affect herbivory in agroecosystems, a multifactorial experiment was conducted where soybeans were grown at two levels of carbon dioxide and temperature, including those predicted for 2050, under otherwise normal field conditions. Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica Newman) were enclosed on foliage for 24 h, after which the beetle survivorship, total and per capita leaf consumption, and leaf protease inhibitor activity were measured. The direct effect of temperature on beetle consumption and survivorship also was measured under controlled environmental conditions. No differences in total foliage consumption were observed; however, beetles forced to feed at elevated temperature in the field demonstrated greater per capita consumption and reduced survivorship compared to beetles feeding at ambient temperature. Survivorship was also greater for beetles that consumed foliage grown under elevated CO2, but there were no interactive effects of CO2 and temperature, and no differences in leaf chemistry were resolved. Leaf consumption by beetles increased strongly with increasing temperature up to ∼37° C, above which increased mortality caused a precipitous decrease in consumption. An empirical model based on the temperature dependence of leaf consumption and flight suggests that the 3.5°C increase in temperature predicted for 2050 will increase the optimal feeding window for the Japanese beetle by 290%. Elevated temperature and CO2 operating independently have the potential to greatly increase foliage damage to soybean by chewing insects, such as Popillia japonica, potentially affecting crop yields.
Endoscopic Endonasal Multilayer Repair Of CSF Rhinorrhea With Utilization Of The Middle Turbinate Rotational Flap

Background: In recent years, many techniques for endoscopic closure of CSF leaks have been described and almost completely replaced the more traumatic transcranial and extracranial procedures. Aim of work: To evaluate endoscopic endonasal multilayer repair of CSF rhinorrhea of anterior and middle cranial fossae utilizing the vascularized middle turbinate rotational flap. Patients and methods: The study included 25 patients who were admitted to the Otorhinolaryngology and Neurosurgery Departments of Zagazig University Hospitals in the period from March 2008 to July 2011. All the patients suffered from CSF leaks of different etiologies with failure of conservative treatment. An endoscopic endonasal multilayer repair utilizing the middle turbinate rotational flap was used for repair of the CSF leak in all patients. Results: This study included 25 patients; 11 females (44%) and 14 males (56%). The age of patients ranged from 17 to 65 years with a mean age of 41 years. The etiology of CSF rhinorrhea was traumatic in 18 patients (72%) and non traumatic in 7 patients (28%). The success rate of endoscopic multilayer repair of CSF rhinorrhea at the first attempt was 92% and with the second attempt increased to 100%. Conclusion: Endoscopic repair of CSF rhinorrhea utilizing the middle turbinate rotational flab provides a better field of vision , accurate positioning of the graft, safe and effective technique with preservation of nasal and neurological function.
The association between diabetes and depressive symptoms varies by quality of diabetes care across Europe

Abstract Background Depressive symptoms are more common in adults with diabetes and may arise from the physical and psychosocial burden of disease. Better quality of diabetes care may be associated with a reduced disease burden and fewer depressive symptoms. Methods This cross-sectional study included 34 420 participants from 19 countries in the European Social Survey Round 7 (2014–2015). Countries were grouped into quartiles based on their quality of diabetes care as measured in the Euro Diabetes Index 2014. Individual-level depressive symptoms were measured using the 8-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies—Depression Scale. Negative binomial regression was used to compare the number of depressive symptoms between adults with and without diabetes in each quartile of diabetes care quality. Analyses included adjustment for covariates and survey weights. Results In countries with the highest quality of diabetes care, having diabetes was associated with only a 3% relative increase in depressive symptoms (95% CI 1.00–1.05). In countries in the second, third and fourth (lowest) quartiles of diabetes care quality, having diabetes was associated with a 13% (95% CI 1.08–1.17), 13% (1.08–1.19) and 22% (1.14–1.31) relative increase in depressive symptoms, respectively. Conclusion The association between diabetes and depressive symptoms appears stronger in European countries with lower quality of diabetes care. Potential pathways for this association include the financial aspects of diabetes care, access to services and differential exposure to the social determinants of heath. Further research is needed to unpack these mechanisms and improve the quality of life of people with diabetes across Europe.
Unpackaging Demand for Water Service Quality: Evidence from Conjoint Surveys in Sri Lanka

In the early 2000s, the Government of Sri Lanka considered engaging private sector operators to manage water and sewerage services in two separate service areas: one in the town of Negombo (north of Colombo), and one stretching along the coastal strip (south from Colombo) from the towns of Kalutara to Galle. Since then, the government has abandoned the idea of setting up a public-private partnership in these two areas. This paper is part of a series of investigations to determine how these pilot private sector transactions (forming part of the overall water sector reform strategy) could be designed in such a manner that they would benefit the poor. The authors describe the results of a conjoint survey evaluating the factors that drive customer demand for alternative water supply and sanitation services in Sri Lanka. They show how conjoint surveys can be used to unpackage household demand for attributes of urban services and improve the design of infrastructure policies. They present conjoint surveys as a tool for field experiments and a source of valuable empirical data. In the study of three coastal towns in southwestern Sri Lanka the conjoint survey allows the authors to compare household preferences for four water supply attributes-price, quantity, safety, and reliability. They examine subpopulations of different income levels to determine if demand is heterogeneous. The case study suggests that households care about service quality (not just price). In general, the authors find that households have diverse preferences in terms of quantity, safety, and service options, but not with regard to hours of supply. In particular, they find that the poor have lower ability to trade off income for services, a finding that has significant equity implications in terms of allocating scarce public services and achieving universal water access.
DEFINITIVE RECONSTRUCTION OF CIRCUMFERENTIAL, FUSIFORM INTRACRANIAL ANEURYSMS WITH THE PIPELINE EMBOLIZATION DEVICE

OBJECTIVEThe Pipeline embolization device (PED; Chestnut Medical, Menlo Park, CA) is a new endovascular construct designed to exclude aneurysms from the parent cerebrovasculature. We report the results of the first two human implantations of this device in North America. CLINICAL PRESENTATIONTwo patients presenting with large, symptomatic, circumferential, fusiform intracranial vertebral artery aneurysms were treated with the PED. In both cases, more traditional open microneurosurgical and neuroendovascular treatment strategies had either failed or were associated with unacceptably high risk. INTERVENTIONThree PEDs were placed across the aneurysms in each of the patients to achieve reconstruction of a new parent vessel through the center of a circumferential aneurysm. In the first patient, who had previously been treated with stent-supported coil embolization, the PED construct alone was sufficient to achieve parent vessel reconstruction and exclusion of the recurrent aneurysm. In the second patient, a microcatheter was jailed within the saccular portion of the aneurysm and the parent vessel was reconstructed with three telescoped PEDs. Although the PED construct dramatically reduced flow into the aneurysm, the lesion remained patent. Coiling of the saccular portion of the aneurysm was subsequently performed via the jailed microcatheter. Follow-up angiography performed 72 hours after the procedure demonstrated occlusion of the aneurysm with cylindrical reconstruction of the affected vascular segment. Neither patient has experienced any complication in the periprocedural period (30 d) or during subsequent long-term (>1 year) follow-up. CONCLUSIONThe PED represents an important advance in the endovascular therapy of cerebral aneurysms, targeting primary parent vessel reconstruction rather than endosaccular occlusion as a means by which to achieve exclusion of the aneurysm and definitive anatomic reconstruction of the parent artery.
Towards a corpus-based identification

The notion of prototype is relevant to many analyses within cognitive linguistics. On the basis of a syntactic example (the so-called dative alternation), this analysis introduces a corpus-based technique for (i) the identification of prototypical instances of categories and (ii) the quantification of the degree of similarity between different category members. First, several desiderata for such a statistical prototype identification are motivated. Second, I propose a multifactorial technique to sort instances of constructions according to their degree of prototypicality. Third, I demonstrate that the resulting sorting of constructions is supported both by investigating the resulting typicality continuum and an in-depth experimental study of judgement data. Finally, I briefly discuss some implications and point to further applications of the proposed technique.
Driving Behavior Differences among Early Licensed Teen, Novice Teen, and Experienced Drivers in Simulator and Real World Potential Hazards

Age and driving experience play a critical role in the vehicle control and eye movement behaviors of drivers subjected to hazardous environments. This study investigates whether significant differences exist in vehicle control and eye movement behaviors among drivers of different age and experience groups while driving in a simulator and through real world potential hazards. Three groups of drivers were studied: “novice teen,” “early licensed teen” and “experienced adult” drivers, consisting of five participants each and having driving experience of about 6 months, 2 years and 10 years, respectively. The subjects were asked to drive through four potentially hazardous scenarios in the simulator and in the real world, namely a left-turning truck ahead, a mid-block crosswalk, a hidden crosswalk, and curved stop ahead. Indicators measured for eye movement were eye gaze rotation for simulator and eye gaze direction for the real world. In the simulator drive, measured parameters for vehicle control analysis were speed, lateral and longitudinal acceleration, lane deviation and braking force. Those for the real world were speed, accelerator pedal angle and braking force. The results indicated that different driving conditions in the simulator did not have a major effect on the eye movement behavior of the participants. However, different eye movement behavior was evident, both in the simulator and the real world drive, between the “experienced” and “early licensed teen” driver group at the scenario “curved stop ahead”. Significant differences in the vehicle control behavior between these two groups were also observed under specific circumstances.
The Systems Metaphor in Therapy Discourse: Introducing Systems Intelligence

Following the relational turn in psychoanalytic theorizing, the systems metaphor has increasingly become a part of the therapeutic vocabulary. This has led to a view of therapy as an ongoing process in which the mutual interplay between the analyst and the patient cocreates a systemic higher level dimension that is based on bidirectional and jointly coordinated, simultaneous forms of interaction that influence the mental processes and regulatory patterns of both of the participants thus creating possibilities for creative therapeutic interventions. However, the objectivistic overtones of the systems metaphor can lead to reifying interpretations of the therapeutic encounter and to a failure to acknowledge its intrinsically subtle context-bound nuances and often idiosyncratic possibilities. This pitfall is avoided by introducing into therapeutic discourse the concept of systems intelligence, which integrates systems thinking with subjectivistic and intersubjectivistic parameters. By emphasizing the analyst's embeddedness within the systemic wholeness of the therapeutic situation and her sensibilities-based abilities to act intelligently in it, systems intelligence provides a humanly tuned meta-understanding for the systemic aspects of the therapist in action. Analytic therapists tolerate uncertainty, find meaning in apparently disordered communication, and embrace the unexpected twists and turns that emerge from intimate attention to the ordinary complexities of everyday life. These are hallmarks of a psychoanalytic sensibility that spans various theoretical persuasions. Non-linear dynamic systems embodies the same sensibilities: It emphasizes such descriptions as pattern, complexity, flux and flow, the interplay of ambiguity and order, stability and instability, and the natural value of uncertainty and generative chaos. — Seligman (2005, p. 285)
A rare symptom of a very rare disease: a case report of a oculodentodigital dysplasia with lymphedema.

Introduction Oculodentodigital dysplasia (ODDD; MIM #164200) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by a range of facial, ocular, skeletal, and dermatological phenotypic features including facial dysmorphism, ocular and dental abnormalities, syndactyly, and neurologic findings, with a prevalence of less than 1/100 0000 (Abrams and Scherer, 2012). ODDD shows strong penetrance and variability in its clinical presentation (Paznekas et al., 2003). Neurologic problems and some uncommon skinrelated findings including dry-sparse hair and keratoderma (Paznekas et al., 2009) have been reported in some patients. Although autosomal dominant inheritance is common, autosomal recessive and sporadic cases have also been described (Huang et al., 2013). Mutations in the gap junction protein α-1 (GJA1) gene on the human chromosome 6q22.31, a member of the connexin gene family, are the leading cause of ODDD (Paznekas et al., 2003; Doshi et al., 2016). Limb lymphedema has been reported only in a single patient with Cx43 and some patients with Cx47 dysfunction; thus, primary lymphedema appears to be an infrequent but distinctive phenotype associated with ODDD (Ferrell et al., 2010; Brice et al., 2013). Here, we report the second case of lymphedema in an ODDD patient related to a Cx43 mutation.
Demography of Gut Symbiotic and Aposymbiotic Nezara viridula L. (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae)

ABSTRACT Nezara viridula L. is a highly polyphagous and cosmopolitan pentatomid stink bug. Despite its economic importance, aspects of its biology are poorly understood. N. viridula has one primary bacterium associated with its gastric caeca, which females provide to offspring by smearing it on the surface of eggs during oviposition. We studied the impact of three temperatures and egg mass surface sterilization on N. viridula's nymphal development rate and reproductive performance. Our results show that maintenance of the symbiont is affected both by temperature and egg mass surface sterilization. We detected the symbiont in 100, 84, and 8.3% of the untreated control insects at 20, 25, and 30°C, respectively, by using polymerase chain reaction. In insects originated from surface sterilized egg masses, the symbiont was never detected at 20 or 30°C and was detected in only 1 of 21 insects at 25°C. Nymphal mean development time decreased with increasing temperature, but there were no differences between the sterilized and control treatments. Sterilized insects at 20°C lived longer than insects in any other treatment but never laid eggs. Life table analysis of N. viridula adults showed that net reproductive rate, intrinsic rate of increase, finite rate of increase, and gross reproductive rate were not significantly different among treatments except at 20°C for the surface sterilized treatment. Mean generation time, however, was significantly longer at 20°C (70.96 ± 4.43 d), regardless of the surface sterilization treatment. Our results highlight the effect that temperature has on the maintenance of this symbiosis and its relationship with N. viridula host's development and reproduction.
ENDOCRINE-DISRUPTING CHEMICALS: A REVIEW OF THE STATE OF THE SCIENCE

In recent years, the possible effects of synthetic and naturally occurring chemicals with the potential to disrupt the endocrine system have been raised by scientists and environmental groups through the scientifi c literature, the Internet, books and television. These concerns were highlighted when research began to show that chemicals associated with adverse developmental effects in wildlife were also able to mimic the action of 17β-oestradiol, a female sex hormone.
A neuroscientific perspective on basic psychological needs.

OBJECTIVE Self-determination theory's (SDT) most basic propositions are, first, that all people possess an inherent set of psychological needs and, second, that autonomy, competence, and relatedness are the three critical psychological satisfactions needed to maintain and promote personal growth and well-being. In this article, we identify the neural basis of the psychological needs and, in doing so, seek to advance the integration of SDT and neuroscience. METHOD We examine the neural underpinnings of SDT-based motivational states and traits for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. To study motivational states, participants are exposed to situational conditions known to affect their psychological needs, and neuroscience methods (e.g., fMRI) are used to examine changes in their brain activity. To study motivational traits, participants complete self-report trait measures that are then correlated with their brain activity observed during need-satisfying activities. RESULTS For both motivational states and traits and across all three needs, intrinsic satisfaction is associated with striatum-based reward processing, anterior insula-based subjective feelings, and the integration of these subjective feelings with reward-based processing. CONCLUSIONS Psychological need satisfaction is associated with striatum activity, anterior insula activity, and the functional coactivation between these two brain areas. Given these findings, it is now clear that several opportunities exist to integrate SDT motivational constructs with neuroscientific study, so we suggest eight new questions for future research.
Interspecific variation in avian blood parasites and haematology associated with urbanization in a desert habitat

Many avian species are negatively impacted by urbanization, but other species survive and prosper in urbanized areas. One factor potentially contributing to the success of some species in urban areas is the reduced presence of predators or parasite vectors in urban compared to rural areas. In addition, urban areas may provide increased food and water resources, which can enhance immune capacity to resist infection and the ability to eliminate parasites. We determined patterns of blood parasitism, body condition, and immune cell profiles in urban and rural populations of five adult male songbird species that vary in their relative abundance within urban areas. Urban birds generally exhibited less blood parasitism than rural birds. This difference was particularly evident for the urban-adaptable Abert's towhee Pipilo aberti. In contrast, no difference in haemoparasitism was seen between urban and rural populations of the curve-billed thrasher Toxostoma curvirostre, a less-urban adaptable species. In two closely related species, the curve-billed thrasher and the northern mockingbird Mimus polyglottos, urban birds had a higher leukocyte count and a higher heterophil to lymphocyte ratio, which is often associated with chronic stress or current infection, than rural birds. Urban northern mockingbirds were in better condition than rural counterparts, but no habitat-related differences in condition were detected for other species. Parasitic infection was correlated with body condition in only one species, the canyon towhee Pipilo fuscus. Parasitic infection in most species was correlated with changes in leukocyte abundance and profile. The findings suggest that interspecific differences in parasitic infection cannot be attributed entirely to differences in vector abundance or body condition. Interactions between immune function, parasite infection risk, and resource availability may contribute to determining the relative ability of certain species to adapt to cities.
Short-term memory functions of the human fetus recorded with magnetoencephalography

Studies in fetuses and in prematurely born infants show that auditory discriminative skills are present prior to birth. The magnetic fields generated by the fetal brain activity pass the maternal tissues and, despite their weakness, can be detected externally using MEG. Recent studies on the auditory evoked magnetic responses show that the fetal brain responds to sound onset. In contrast, higher-level auditory skills, such as those involving discriminative and memory functions, were not so far studied in fetuses with MEG. Here we show that fetal responses related to discriminating sounds can be recorded, implicating that the auditory change-detection system is functional. These results open new views to developmental neuroscience by enabling one to determine the sensory capabilities as well as the extent and accuracy of the short-term memory system of the fetus, and, further, to follow the development of these crucial processes.