Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ripple Analysis in Ferret Primary Auditory Cortex. 3. Prediction of Unit Responses to Arbitrary Spectral Profiles

Abstract : We examined whether Al responses to arbitrary spectral profiles can be explained by the superposition of responses to the individual ripple components that make up the spectral pattern. For each unit, the ripple transfer function was first measured using ripple stimuli consisting of broadband complexes with sinusoidally modulated spectral envelopes (Shamma et al. 1994). Unit responses to various combinations of ripples were compared to those predicted from the superposition of responses according to the transfer function. Spectral profiles included combinations of 2-5 ripples of equal amplitudes and random phases, and vowel-like profiles composed of 10 ripples with various amplitudes and phases. The results demonstrate that predicted and measured responses are reasonably well matched, and hence support the notion that Al analyzes the acoustic spectrum in a substantially linear manner.
A review of risk factors for hamstring injury in soccer: a biomechanical approach

The aim has been to review the literature about the risk factors of hamstring injury in soccer from a biomechanical point of view. METHODOLOGY. Data bases of bibliography references were Medline, Scopus and SportDiscuss. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. Many prospective studies have shown that the previous injury is the greatest risk factor of sustaining the injury. However the primary causes of the injury are unclear in soccer. A lack of hamstring flexibility has been one of the main injury risk factors with controversies on the results. Imbalance of isokinetic force is a risk factor but electrical coactivation of all muscles participating during knee flexion and extension are unknown in football. While the importance of lumbopelvic-hamstrings muscles synchronization during running seems to be crucial for understanding the risk of injury, no research has been developed in this topic in football. CONCLUSIONS. More research using new data recording procedures as Dynamic Scanners, Surface EMG, Inverse Dynamic Analysis are needed. The analysis of more specific movements as running, kicking or jumping is clearly required. Managers, coaches, physical trainers, physiotherapists, sport physicians and researchers should work together in order to improve the injury prevention and rehabilitation programs of football players.
"Same but different": Associations between multiple aspects of self-regulation, cognition, and academic abilities.

Self-regulation describes the ability to control both behaviors and internal states against a backdrop of conflicting or distracting situations, drives, or impulses. In the cognitive psychology tradition, individual differences in self-regulation are commonly measured with performance-based tests of executive functioning, whereas in the personality psychology tradition, individual differences in self-regulation are typically assessed with report-based measures of impulse control, sustained motivation, and perseverance. The goal of this project was (a) to comprehensively examine the structure of associations between multiple self-regulatory constructs stemming from the cognitive and personality psychology traditions; (b) to estimate how these constructs, individually and collectively, related to mathematics and reading ability beyond psychometric measures of processing speed and fluid intelligence; and (c) to estimate the extent to which genetic and environmental factors mediated the observed associations. Data were available for 1,019 child participants from the Texas Twin Project (M age = 10.79, range = 7.8-15.5). Results highlighted the differentiation among cognitive and personality aspects of self-regulation, both at observed and genetic levels. After accounting for processing speed and fluid intelligence, EF remained a significant predictor of reading and mathematics ability. Educationally relevant measures of personality-particularly an openness factor representing curiosity and intellectual self-concept-incrementally contributed to individual differences in reading ability. Collectively, measures of cognition, self-regulation, and other educationally relevant aspects of personality accounted for the entirety of genetic variance in mathematics and reading ability. The current findings point to the important independent role that each construct plays in academic settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
Application of FMCW Radar for Dynamic Continuous Hand Gesture Recognition

Recently, hand gesture recognition systems have become increasingly interesting to researchers in the field of human-computer interfaces. Real-world systems for human dynamic hand gesture recognition is challenging as: 1) the system must be robustness to various conditions; 2) there is a rich diversity in how people perform hand gestures, making hand gesture recognition difficult; 3) the system must detect and recognize hand gestures continuously using unsegmented input streams in order to avoid noticeable lag between performing a gesture and its classification. In this paper, to address these challenges, we present a novel system for dynamic continuous hand gesture recognition based on Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar sensor. The radar system does not depend on lighting, noise or atmospheric conditions. We employ a recurrent three-dimensional convolutional neural network to perform classification of dynamic hand gestures. To enhance the processing performance, Connectionist Temporal Classification (CTC) algorithm is used to train the network to predict class labels from inprogress gestures in unsegmented input streams. The experimental results show that this system is able to achieve high recognition rates of 96%, which is higher than state-of-the-art hand gesture recognition systems. In addition, the conclusion in this work can be used for real-time hand gesture recognition system design.
Economic performance of the NUTS III Regions in the Czech Republic in the context of entrepreneurship subsidies from the EU Structural Funds

Entrepreneurship is considered to be one of the essential factors of economic growth and entrepreneurship policy is considered to be a significant contributor to the regional economic development. The aim of the present paper is to determine whether the unemployment rate and the GDP per capita of the NUTS III regions in the Czech Republic are influenced by the amount of financial subsidies paid to businesses from the Operational Programme Enterprise and Innovation (OPEI). We employed regression analysis and Granger Causality testing in order to evaluate our Hypotheses. Results from the use of econometric models confirmed statistically significant positive impact of OPEI subsidies lagged by one year on the growth of NUTS III GDP per capita. However, we were unable to confirm statistically significant initial impact of OPEI subsidies on the growth of GDP per capita. The hypothesis assuming negative impact of OPEI subsidies on changes of regional unemployment rate was statistically confirmed both initially and with a lag of one year.
Detecting asset misappropriation: a framework for external auditors

Fraud is a major concern for investors, regulators, and external auditors. Of particular concern is asset misappropriation because it was given less attention in prior audit literature as well as the audit practice though it is the most common type of occupational fraud. This motivated the current study to examine areas related to asset misappropriation that had never been examined before and alert external auditors in Egypt to a type of fraud which was given less attention. The current study also proposed a framework for external auditors that might help them properly assess and respond to fraud risk factors arising from asset misappropriation. This framework was designed after careful consideration of prior audit literature, Egyptian auditors’ perceptions of the most important red flags of asset misappropriation, and their experience on the most effective fraud risk response. Study data was gathered using prior literature, a questionnaire, and a semi-structured interview.
Underground Economy and Tax Evasion in Pakistan A Critical Evaluation

This paper is an attempt to get fresh estimates of the underground economy and tax evasion in Pakistan. Various methodologies have been used to measure the size of the underground economy, i.e., the monetary, fiscal, and labour market approaches in particular. The monetary approach has strong assumptions but this is the best, easiest, and the most appropriate approach for estimation. The year 1973 has been chosen as the benchmark period, because the pre-1973 data on money supply is not reliable. The results obtained in the study show that the underground economy and tax evasion as a percentage of GDP have increased by 1.83 times in the last 29 years. These were the maximum in 1998 but after that, due to low level of economic activity, there was a decline. This shows that there is a strong relationship with the formal economy. The underground economy and tax evasion increased sharply from 1991 to 1998, and then declined till 2002. Between 1991 and 1998, the rate of increase in the underground economy is greater than the rate of increase in the formal economy, which is a major concern to the Government. It is recommended not to use estimates of the underground economy (estimated by any indirect methodology) for policy-making purposes, but rather to use the results to observe the overall trend of growth of the underground economy.
Facial emotion recognition in WS and DS

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Monosexual and nonmonosexual women in same-sex couples’ relationship quality during the first five years of parenthood

ABSTRACT Research on relationship quality in same-sex couples has rarely focused on (1) couples who are parents, or (2) couples in which partners differ in sexual identity. Insomuch as nonmonosexual women (i.e., women with non-exclusive sexual orientations) experience unique challenges due to monosexism, relationship quality may be influenced by whether partners share a monosexual or nonmonosexual identity. The current study is a longitudinal, dyadic analysis of 118 female parents within 63 same-sex couples whose relationship quality (relationship maintenance, conflict, love, ambivalence) was assessed at five time points across the first 5 years of adoptive parenthood. Monosexual women were those who identified as exclusively lesbian/gay (n = 68); nonmonosexual women were those who identified as mostly lesbian/gay, bisexual, queer, pansexual, or mostly heterosexual (n = 50). Analyses revealed both actor and partner effects on maintenance and conflict, such that nonmonosexual women reported more maintenance and conflict than monosexual women, and women with nonmonosexual partners reported more maintenance and conflict than women with monosexual partners. Depression was related to greater conflict and ambivalence and less love; internalized sexual stigma was related to greater conflict and ambivalence. Maintenance and love declined over time whereas ambivalence increased during early parenthood.
Ripple Analysis in Ferret Primary Auditory Cortex. I. Response Characteristics of Single Units to Sinusoidally Rippled Spectra

Abstract : We compared the response properties of single units to tones and sinusoidally rippled spectral stimuli in the primary auditory cortex (Al) of the barbiturate-anesthetized ferret. Using two-tone stimuli, we determined the response area of each cell and parameterized it in terms of best frequency (BF), the bandwidth of the excitatory responses at 20dB above threshold (BW20), and an asymmetry index measuring the balance of inhibition and excitation around the BF. Using frequency-modulated (FM) tones, we also determined a directional sensitivity index for the cell. Using broadband stimuli (1-20 kHz) with sinusoidally modulated spectral envelopes (ripples), we measured the response magnitude of each cell as a function of ripple frequency (omega) and ripple phase (phi), and then reconstructed the magnitude and phase of a ripple transfer function. Most cells (approximately 90%) were tuned to a specific ripple frequency, denoted as a characteristic ripple frequency (omegao) Most cells also exhibited a linear ripple phase as a function of omega.
Ammonia and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Biogas Digester Effluent Stored at Different Depths

Abstract. Carbonaceous and nitrogenous gases are produced during storage of livestock manure, with the magnitude of production being affected by the chemical properties of the manure and the physical conditions of storage. This lab-scale study quantifies the emission rates of ammonia (NH 3 ), nitric oxide (NO), and greenhouse gases (GHG), i.e., methane (CH 4 ), carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), nitrous oxide (N 2 O), from biogas digester effluent (BDE) stored at different depths of 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 m in dynamic emission vessels (DEVs). The selected storage depths were reflective of the typical depth range of on-farm BDE storage in China. The static storage was held at a relatively constant media temperature of 15°C and an air exchange rate of 11.5 air changes per hour (ACH) for 78 days. Each depth regimen was replicated four times using four DEVs (12 DEVs total). The results showed that the mean (±SE) daily gaseous emission rates per volume of BDE stored at 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 m depths, in g gas m -3 d -1 , were, respectively, 9.1 (±0.7), 10.1 (±0.6), and 10.1 (±0.4) for CH 4 (p = 0.39); 38.0 (±2.2), 34.5 (±1.3), and 30.7 (±0.6) for CO 2 (p 3 (p -3 , 5.0 (±0.8) A— 10 -3 , and 3.4 (±0.2) A— 10 -3 for N 2 O (p 4 + N 2 O + CO 2 ) emissions were dominated by CH 4 , which accounted for more than 85% of the CO 2 -equivalent emissions for all three storage depths. The CH 4 emissions peaked during the early storage period, with the first 20-day cumulative emissions accounting for 56% to 58% of the total 78-day storage emissions. The results reveal that storage of BDE at 2.0 m depth yielded lower CO 2 , NH 3 , and N 2 O emission rates but similar CH 4 emission rates compared to the 1.0 and 1.5 m depths.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Compiled and Vectorized Queries But Were Afraid to Ask

The query engines of most modern database systems are either based on vectorization or data-centric code generation. These two state-of-the-art query processing paradigms are fundamentally different in terms of system structure and query execution code. Both paradigms were used to build fast systems. However, until today it is not clear which paradigm yields faster query execution, as many implementation-specific choices obstruct a direct comparison of architectures. In this paper, we experimentally compare the two models by implementing both within the same test system. This allows us to use for both models the same query processing algorithms, the same data structures, and the same parallelization framework to ultimately create an apples-to-apples comparison. We find that both are efficient, but have different strengths and weaknesses. Vectorization is better at hiding cache miss latency, whereas data-centric compilation requires fewer CPU instructions, which benefits cache-resident workloads. Besides raw, single-threaded performance, we also investigate SIMD as well as multi-core parallelization and different hardware architectures. Finally, we analyze qualitative differences as a guide for system architects.
Razzer: Finding Kernel Race Bugs through Fuzzing

A data race in a kernel is an important class of bugs, critically impacting the reliability and security of the associated system. As a result of a race, the kernel may become unresponsive. Even worse, an attacker may launch a privilege escalation attack to acquire root privileges. In this paper, we propose Razzer, a tool to find race bugs in kernels. The core of Razzer is in guiding fuzz testing towards potential data race spots in the kernel. Razzer employs two techniques to find races efficiently: a static analysis and a deterministic thread interleaving technique. Using a static analysis, Razzer identifies over-approximated potential data race spots, guiding the fuzzer to search for data races in the kernel more efficiently. Using the deterministic thread interleaving technique implemented at the hypervisor, Razzer tames the non-deterministic behavior of the kernel such that it can deterministically trigger a race. We implemented a prototype of Razzer and ran the latest Linux kernel (from v4.16-rc3 to v4.18-rc3) using Razzer. As a result, Razzer discovered 30 new races in the kernel, with 16 subsequently confirmed and accordingly patched by kernel developers after they were reported.
The relationship between CO emission and visual extinction traced by dust emission in the Magellanic Clouds

To test the theoretical understanding that finding bright CO emission depends primarily on dust shielding, we investigate the relationship between CO emission ($I_{\rm CO}$) and the amount of dust (estimated from IR emission and expressed as "$A_V$") across the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Small Magellanic Cloud, and the Milky Way. We show that at our common resolution of 10 pc scales, $I_{\rm CO}$ given a fixed line-of-sight $A_V$ is similar across all three systems despite the difference in metallicity. We find some evidence for a secondary dependence of $I_{\rm CO}$ on radiation field; in the LMC, $I_{\rm CO}$ at a given $A_V$ is smaller in regions of high $T_{\rm dust}$, perhaps because of an increased photodissociating radiation field. We suggest a simple but useful picture in which the CO-to-H$_2$ conversion factor (\xco) depends on two separable factors: (1) the distribution of gas column densities, which maps to an extinction distribution via a dust-to-gas ratio; and (2) the dependence of $I_{\rm CO}$ on $A_V$. Assuming that the probability distribution function (PDF) of local Milky Way clouds is universal, this approach predicts a dependence of \xco\ on $Z$ between $Z^{-1}$ and $Z^{-2}$ above about a third solar metallicity. Below this metallicity, CO emerges from only the high column density parts of the cloud and so depends very sensitively on the adopted PDF and the H$_2$/{\sc Hi} prescription. The PDF of low metallicity clouds is thus of considerable interest and the uncertainty associated with even an ideal prescription for \xco\ at very low metallicity will be large.
Phosphorylation of MAPK-like proteins in three intertidal macroalgae under stress conditions

The presence and activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)-like pro- teins in 3 macroalgae with different morphology and phylogeny (Ulva rigida, Ellisolandia elon- gata and Cystoseira tamariscifolia) were studied during the experimental workshop of the Inter- national Group on Aquatic Productivity. Macroalgae were exposed in the short term (days) to different carbon and nitrogen levels and raised temperature (+4°C over ambient conditions) in mesocosms under controlled conditions mimicking current and future ocean acidification. Three MAPK-like proteins of 40, 42 and 44 kDa similar to mammalian p38 kinase (p38), stress-activated protein kinase/c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) were detected, and their phosphorylation occurred both under low- and high-carbon as well as under low- and high-nitrogen conditions (LC, HC, LN, HN, respectively). Moreover, increased temperature led to differential responses of the MAPKs in these species. In U. rigida, p38 phos- phorylation initiated the acclimation to temperature stress in LC, while this role was mainly played by JNK in HC during the first 24 h. In E. elongata, p38 was primarily activated in LCLN and in HC treatment. In C. tamariscifolia, JNK was mainly activated in LN during the first 24 h, while both p38 and JNK were activated in HC, but only after 24 h at elevated temperature. U. rigida was the only species in which ERK phosphorylation increased at increased temperature. These results suggest that both E. elongata and C. tamariscifolia are close to the upper limit of their temperature range at the temperatures tested in this work, and that Ulvales could have physiological advan- tages in Medi terranean systems in a scenario of future CO2-enrichment with high nitrogen loads.
Relation Classification Slot Filling

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a field of computer science, artificial intelligence, and computational linguistics concerned with fruitfully processing large natural language corpora. There are many commonly researched tasks in NLP that work on syntax, semantics, discourse, and speech. Relation extraction is one of the tasks for semantics, and specifically, relation classification is one of its major subtasks. The task of relation classification is to predict semantic relations between pairs of nominal entities in a sentence. In other words, given a pair of nominal entities, we aim to fill the relation type (or called “relation slot”) between them (Zeng et al., 2014). In 1999, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) initiated the Automatic Content Extraction (ACE) program in order to develop technologies for extracting and characterizing meanings of human languages in the form of text. The ACE corpora, especially ACE04 and ACE05, have been widely used for end-to-end relation extraction tasks. In the International Workshop on Semantic Evaluation (SemEval) 2010, SemEval, an ongoing series of evaluations of computational semantic analysis systems, released a benchmark (often referred to as “SemEval-2010 Task 8”) (Hendrickx et al., 2009). Since then, it has become the most popular dataset for evaluating the performance on relation classification. Table 1 shows an example of classifying the relation between two nominal entities in the SemEval dataset. The task of “relation-classification slot filling (RC-SF)” is defined as below: Given a sentence and two nominal entities in the sentence, identify the most probable semantic relation between the entities (Zeng et al., 2014). Table 2 shows most popular datasets used in relation classification evaluation.
The Impact of Paid Maternity Leave on Maternal Health.

We examine the impact of the introduction of paid maternity leave in Norway in 1977 on maternal health. Before the policy reform, mothers were eligible for 12 weeks of unpaid leave. Mothers giving birth after July 1, 1977 were entitled to 4 months of paid leave and 12 months of unpaid leave. We combine Norwegian administrative data with survey data on the health of women around age 40 and estimate the medium- and long-term impacts of the reform using regression discontinuity and difference-inregression discontinuity designs. Our results suggest paid maternity leave benefits are protective of maternal health. The reform improved a range of maternal health outcomes, including BMI, blood pressure, pain, and me mntal health, and it increased health-promoting behaviors, such as exercise and not smoking. The effects were larger for first-time and low-resource mothers and women who would have taken little unpaid leave in the absence of the reform. We also study the maternal health effects of subsequent expansions in paid maternity leave and find evidence of diminishing returns to leave length.