Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clear Speech Variants: An Acoustic Study in Parkinson's Disease.

PURPOSE The authors investigated how different variants of clear speech affect segmental and suprasegmental acoustic measures of speech in speakers with Parkinson's disease and a healthy control group. METHOD A total of 14 participants with Parkinson's disease and 14 control participants served as speakers. Each speaker produced 18 different sentences selected from the Sentence Intelligibility Test (Yorkston & Beukelman, 1996). All speakers produced stimuli in 4 speaking conditions (habitual, clear, overenunciate, and hearing impaired). Segmental acoustic measures included vowel space area and first moment (M1) coefficient difference measures for consonant pairs. Second formant slope of diphthongs and measures of vowel and fricative durations were also obtained. Suprasegmental measures included fundamental frequency, sound pressure level, and articulation rate. RESULTS For the majority of adjustments, all variants of clear speech instruction differed from the habitual condition. The overenunciate condition elicited the greatest magnitude of change for segmental measures (vowel space area, vowel durations) and the slowest articulation rates. The hearing impaired condition elicited the greatest fricative durations and suprasegmental adjustments (fundamental frequency, sound pressure level). CONCLUSIONS Findings have implications for a model of speech production for healthy speakers as well as for speakers with dysarthria. Findings also suggest that particular clear speech instructions may target distinct speech subsystems.
Defect Reduction in Epitaxial 3C-SiC on Si(001) and Si(111) by Deep Substrate Patterning

The heteroepitaxial growth of 3C-SiC on Si (001) and Si (111) substrates deeply patterned at a micron scale by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition is shown to lead to space-filling isolated structures resulting from a mechanism of self-limitation of lateral expansion. Stacking fault densities and wafer bowing may be drastically reduced for optimized pattern geometries.
Joint optimization of intra- and inter-autonomous system traffic engineering

Traffic Engineering (TE) involves network configuration in order to achieve optimal IP network performance. The existing literature considers intra- and inter-AS (Autonomous System) TE independently. However, if these two aspects are considered separately, the overall network performance may not be truly optimized. This is due to the interaction between intra and inter-AS TE, where a good solution of inter-AS TE may not be good for intra-AS TE. To remedy this situation, we propose a joint optimization of intra- and inter-AS TE in order to improve the overall network performance by simultaneously finding the best egress points for inter-AS traffic and the best routing scheme for intra-AS traffic. Three strategies are presented to attack the problem, sequential, nested and integrated optimization. Our evaluation shows that, in comparison to sequential and nested optimization, integrated optimization can significantly improve overall network performance by being able to accommodate approximately 30%-60% more traffic demand.
IntPhys: A Framework and Benchmark for Visual Intuitive Physics Reasoning

In order to reach human performance on complexvisual tasks, artificial systems need to incorporate a sig-nificant amount of understanding of the world in termsof macroscopic objects, movements, forces, etc. Inspiredby work on intuitive physics in infants, we propose anevaluation benchmark which diagnoses how much a givensystem understands about physics by testing whether itcan tell apart well matched videos of possible versusimpossible events constructed with a game engine. Thetest requires systems to compute a physical plausibilityscore over an entire video. It is free of bias and cantest a range of basic physical reasoning concepts. Wethen describe two Deep Neural Networks systems aimedat learning intuitive physics in an unsupervised way,using only physically possible videos. The systems aretrained with a future semantic mask prediction objectiveand tested on the possible versus impossible discrimi-nation task. The analysis of their results compared tohuman data gives novel insights in the potentials andlimitations of next frame prediction architectures.
Gifts from orthodontists to general dentists.

OBJECTIVES To determine how often general dentists receive gifts from orthodontists, the value and number of the gifts they receive, and how they perceive the motivation behind the gift. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a questionnaire-based study. A questionnaire was constructed and tested for validity and reliability. An electronic version of survey was sent via email to 1300 general dentists. RESULTS The validity and reliability of the survey was confirmed. Two hundred fifty-four valid responses were received (20%). Eighty-five percent of responding general practitioners reported that they received gifts from an orthodontist. Almost 100% reported that they referred patients to orthodontists. About one-third of the responding general practitioners reported that their office provided orthodontic care. There were statistically significant correlations between the number of annual patient referrals the general practitioners reported making and the number and value of the gifts they received from the orthodontists. Female general practitioners reported receiving a higher number of gifts of greater total value than male practitioners. General practitioners who reported providing orthodontic treatment did not differ from those who did not in the number of referrals they made annually and the number and value of the gifts they received. Quality of care was the most common reason general practitioners reported for their referral to an orthodontist. Forty-four percent of the responders reported that they received discounted orthodontic treatment. CONCLUSIONS General practitioners refer patients to orthodontists and receive gifts from them. The number and value of the gifts reflects the number of referrals they make.
THE DEMAND FOR BEEF PRODUCTS: CROSS-SECTION ESTIMATION OF DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC EFFECTS

This paper presents estimates of the economic and demographic effects on the demand for steak, roast, and ground beef. Using an almost ideal demand system, the results indicate that demand is inelastic for steak and ground beef, elastic for roast, cross-price effects are significant, and all goods are Hicks-Allen substitutes. The impact of certain demographic effects, such as household size, region, tenancy, and ethnic origin, was generally quite significant. Other demographic variables, such as employment status, shopper, and occupation, were generally not significant.
Preservative effects of some selected spice oleoresins to stabilize the sunflower oil in comparison to tertiary butylhydroquinone

Abstract DPPH (1, 1‐Diphenyl‐2‐Picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging activity was performed to find out the antioxidant activity (AA) of all the antioxidants used at a concentration of 5, 10, and 15 μl/ml. Effect of spice oleoresins (clove, black pepper, and ginger) (200 ppm) and TBHQ (200 ppm) were incorporated in stabilizing refined, bleached, and deodorized (RBD) sunflower oil heating at frying temperature (170°C) and during accelerated oxidation storage (70°C) was studied in comparison to Tert‐Butylhydroquinone (TBHQ). Antioxidant activity (AA) was found to be in the order TBHQ > clove > ginger > pepper at a concentration of 5; 10; 15 μl/ml. A direct correlation was found between AA and the effectiveness of oleoresins and TBHQ in controlling AV and PV of the sunflower oil. During both heating and storage, TBHQ was found most effective to control AV and PV followed by clove, pepper, and ginger.
Development of an intervention to stimulate physical activity in hard-to-reach physically disabled people and design of a pilot implementation: an intervention mapping approach

Introduction Physically disabled people are less physically active compared with healthy people. Existing physical activity (PA) interventions are limited in reach, since they are primarily rehabilitation or school based. The current study aims to develop a community-based intervention for stimulating PA in hard-to-reach physically disabled people. Methods and analysis To systematically develop a PA-stimulating intervention, intervention mapping (six steps) was applied. PA level and health-related quality of life of patients after rehabilitation was determined using questionnaires (step 1). Qualitative research was performed to study professionals’ and physically disabled people’s ideas about intervention objectives, determinants and design (steps 2 and 3). Since experts expressed no need for a new intervention, the existing intervention ‘Activity coach’ was adapted to the specific target population. The adapted intervention ‘Activity coach+’ composes a network of intermediate organisations that refers participants to an activity coach, who coaches participants during 1 year. After a preintervention physical assessment by a physiotherapist, participants will be individually guided to existing organised or non-organised activities. An activity tracker will be used to monitor and stimulate PA in daily life (step 4). To support adoption and implementation, meetings between involved parties are organised (step 5). ‘Activity coach+’ is implemented in community in March 2017, and will be evaluated using a mixed-method analysis. Quantitative evaluation of intervention effects on PA, health and social participation takes place after 0, 2, 4, 6 and 12 months. The implementation process and experiences with the intervention will be determined using qualitative research (step 6). Ethics and dissemination Insights from this study will be used for dissemination and further development of the intervention. The Medical Ethical Committee of the University Medical Center Groningen confirmed that formal ethical approval was not required (METc 2016/630). Trial registration number NTR6858.
Revisiting the Link between Maternal Employment and School-Aged Children Health Status in Developing Countries: An Instrumental Variable Approach

This study analyses the link between maternal employment and the health status of the child. Using data from Indonesia, it uses mothers' risk averse measures, households' recent flood and drought experience, and the interactions between risk measures and experience of recent natural disasters to explain endogenous maternal employment as proxied by mothers' working hours. Critical values based on Stock and Yogo (2002) suggest that these are strong instruments. Moreover, the Hausman test suggests that the Instrumental Variable method is preferred to the Ordinary Least Squares method. However, estimates across differing specifications consistently suggest insignificant effects of maternal employment on children's health status. However, a mother's education and her health knowledge are important for child's well-being. In contrast, school's lunch programs, sanitation, sports and health facilities are not significantly associated with child's well-being. The results emphasise the roles of family compared to schools, in particular the roles of mothers in improving their children's well-being. In addition, there still seems to be inequality in the well-being of children between in urban and rural areas. Finally, this study finds no significant evidence of the link between hiring a domestic assistant, outside food consumption and a child's well-being.
A Unsupervised Person Re-identification Method Using Model Based Representation and Ranking

As a core technique supporting the multi-camera tracking task, person re-identification attracts increasing research interests in both academic and industrial communities. Its aim is to match individuals across a group of spatially non-overlapping surveillance cameras, which are usually interfered by various imaging conditions and object motions. Current methods mainly focus on robust feature representation and accurate distance measure, where intensive computations and expensive training samples prohibit their practical applications. To address the above problems, this paper proposes a new unsupervised person re-identification method featured by its competitive accuracy and high efficiency. Both merits stem from model based person image representation and ranking, with which, merely 4-dimension pixel-level features can achieve over 20% matching rate at Rank 1 on the challenging VIPeR dataset.
Does Ease Mediate the Ease-of-Retrieval Effect? A Meta-Analysis

A wealth of literature suggests individuals use feelings in addition to facts as sources of information for judgment. This paper focuses on a manipulation in which participants list either a few or many examples of a given type, and then make a judgment. Instead of using the number of arguments or evidence strength, participants are hypothesized to use the subjective ease of generating examples as the primary input to judgment. This result is commonly called the ease-of-retrieval effect, and the feeling of ease is typically assumed to mediate the effect. We use meta-analytic methods across 142 papers, 263 studies, and 582 effect sizes to assess the robustness of the ease-of-retrieval effect, and whether or not the effect is mediated by subjective ease. On average, the standard few-versus-many manipulation exhibits a medium-sized effect. In experimental conditions designed to replicate the standard effect, about a third to half of the total effect is mediated by subjective ease. This supports the standard explanation, but suggests that other mediators are present. Further, we find evidence of publication bias that reduces the standard effect by up to 1 third. We also find that (a) moderator manipulations that differ from the standard manipulation lead to smaller, often reversed effects that are not as strongly mediated by ease, (b) several manipulations of theory-based moderators (e.g., polarized attitudes, misattribution) yield strong theory-consistent effects, (c) method-based moderators have little or no effects on the results, and (d) the mediation results are robust with respect to assumptions about error structure.
Effectiveness of interferon-free therapy for the treatment of HCV-patients with compensated cirrhosis treated through the Irish early access program

ABSTRACT Background: We investigated the real-world effectiveness of interferon-free regimens for the treatment of patients with compensated cirrhosis infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). Method: Using the Irish national HCV treatment registry, the effectiveness and safety of interferon-free regimens for HCV-infected patients treated between April 2015 and August 2016, was determined. Results: A SVR12 was achieved in 86% of subjects treated with sofosbuvir/ledipasvir ± ribavirin (SOF/LDV±RBV), 93% treated with paritaprevir, ombitasvir and ritonavir combined with dasabuvir ± ribavirin (3D±RBV) and 89% treated with sofosbuvir/daclatasvir ± ribavirin (SOF/DCV±RBV). The discontinuation rate was 5% and the on-treatment mortality rate was 1%. Conclusion: The availability of interferon-free regimens represents a significant breakthrough for the treatment of HCV infection. Treatments options, with high SVR12 rates, are now available for patients with compensated cirrhosis who were unsuitable for treatment with interferon-based regimens. Data obtained from studies conducted in real world practice provide robust information fundamental for input into future economic evaluations for agents used for the treatment of HCV infection.
Blood pressure among Australian Aboriginal children

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of elevated blood pressure (BP) and potential predictors of SBP and DBP in urban Australian aboriginal children. Methods: The Study of Environment on Aboriginal Resilience and Child Health is a prospective cohort study of urban Aboriginal children attending four Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services in New South Wales, Australia. Clinical measures included a manual BP measured by research officers using standardized protocols. BP z-scores adjusted for sex, age, and height were used in regression analyses. Hypertension was defined as a BP at least 95th centile and prehypertension at least 90th centile. Factors considered in relation to BP included child (BMI, dietary history, socioeconomic status, sedentary behavior) and caregiver measures (BP and caregiver stress). Results: Overall, data from 657 children, aged 2–17 years and their caregivers, collected from 2008 to 2011, were included. Median child age was 6.3 years (interquartile range: 4.0, 9.9); 15.6% (95% confidence interval 12.2–19.1%) had hypertension and 12.3% (9.2–5.5%) prehypertension. Following adjustment, the strongest predictor of BP was caregiver BP (0.15 increase in systolic z-score per 10 mmHg of caregiver BP, 95% confidence interval 0.07–0.24, P < 0.001); child BMI z-score was significantly related to diastolic [0.08 increase (0.01–0.15) per mg/m2 BMI increase, P = 0.03] but not SBP [0.08 increase (−0.01 to 0.16) per mg/m2 BMI increase, P = 0.08]. None of the other factors examined were significantly related to BP. Conclusion: BP is frequently elevated in urban aboriginal children. The strongest predictors of BP were caregiver BP and child BMI. Based on these data, and given the strong community linkages of aboriginal people, we recommend family-based interventions to reduce BP in this high-risk group.
Survey of Medical Image Registration

Computerized Image Registration approaches can offer automatic and accurate image alignments without extensive user involvement and provide tools for visualizing combined images. The aim of this survey is to present a review of publications related to Medical Image Registration. This paper paints a comprehensive picture of image registration methods and their applications. This paper is an introduction for those new to the ﬁeld, an overview for those working in the ﬁeld and a reference for those searching for literature on a speciﬁc application. Methods are classiﬁed according to the diﬀerent aspects of Medical Image Registration.
Present and future of biologic drugs in primary Sjögren’s syndrome

ABSTRACT Introduction: Primary Sjögren’s (pSS) syndrome is a chronic, autoimmune, and systemic disease characterized by xerostomia, xerophthalmia, muscle pain and fatigue. The disease may be complicated by a systemic involvement, such as a pulmonary fibrosis or the development of lymphoma which severely worsens the prognosis. Actually, there are no recommendations for the management of pSS. However, recent advances in the understanding of its pathogenesis have uncovered some pathways that have potential as therapeutic targets. Areas covered: In this review, the authors present the biologic drugs potentially valuable to the treatment of pSS in light of its physiopathology with a ‘bird’s eye’ view of future prospects. The authors took into account relevant studies published from 2004 to 2016. Expert opinion: Biological treatment in pSS is a promising opportunity to potentially control disease activity and prevent its complication. Currently, inhibition of B-cell and IL-17 pathways seem to be the most promising avenues. New achievements in the knowledge of pSS pathophysiology are necessary in order to try to simultaneously predict the predominant pathogenic pathway, the kind of patients at major risk to develop a more severe disease, and the appropriate biological therapy to use.
Security enhancement of AODV routing protocol in mobile ad hoc network

Mobile ad hoc Network (MANET) is a collection of network devices which are connected through the wireless links. It is used to exchange the information. Thus in order to make the communication in MANET more secure we are exploring an approach based on trust method to secure MANETs against attacks such as black hole attack, gray hole and DOS attack. The proposed approach detects malicious node by computing trust value of the node of MANET. The approach uses generation of dummy packets by the source node and send to the destination node. Problem is taken as, to develop an approach that can secure and enhance the performance of Reactive Routing Protocol family.
Selective and Efficient Neural Coding of Communication Signals Depends on Early Acoustic and Social Environment

Previous research has shown that postnatal exposure to simple, synthetic sounds can affect the sound representation in the auditory cortex as reflected by changes in the tonotopic map or other relatively simple tuning properties, such as AM tuning. However, their functional implications for neural processing in the generation of ethologically-based perception remain unexplored. Here we examined the effects of noise-rearing and social isolation on the neural processing of communication sounds such as species-specific song, in the primary auditory cortex analog of adult zebra finches. Our electrophysiological recordings reveal that neural tuning to simple frequency-based synthetic sounds is initially established in all the laminae independent of patterned acoustic experience; however, we provide the first evidence that early exposure to patterned sound statistics, such as those found in native sounds, is required for the subsequent emergence of neural selectivity for complex vocalizations and for shaping neural spiking precision in superficial and deep cortical laminae, and for creating efficient neural representations of song and a less redundant ensemble code in all the laminae. Our study also provides the first causal evidence for ‘sparse coding’, such that when the statistics of the stimuli were changed during rearing, as in noise-rearing, that the sparse or optimal representation for species-specific vocalizations disappeared. Taken together, these results imply that a layer-specific differential development of the auditory cortex requires patterned acoustic input, and a specialized and robust sensory representation of complex communication sounds in the auditory cortex requires a rich acoustic and social environment.
Calcium isotope (DCa) variations of Neogene planktonic foraminifera

[1] Measurements of the calcium isotopic composition (dCa) of planktonic foraminifera from the western equatorial Pacific and the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean show variations of about 0.6% over the past 24 Myr. The stacked dCa record of Globigerinoides trilobus and Globigerina bulloides indicates a minimum in dCasw (seawater calcium) at 15 to 16 Ma and a subsequent general increase toward the present, interrupted by a second minimum at 3 to 5 Ma. Applying a coupled calcium/carbon cycle model, we find two scenarios that can explain a large portion of the observed dCasw variations. In both cases, variations in the Ca input flux to the ocean without proportional changes in the carbonate flux are invoked. The first scenario increases the riverine calcium input to the ocean without a proportional increase of the carbonate flux. The second scenario generates an additional calcium flux from the exchange of Ca by Mg during dolomitization. In both cases the calcium flux variations lead to drastic changes in the seawater Ca concentrations on million year timescales. Our dCasw record therefore indicates that the global calcium cycle may be much more dynamic than previously assumed.