Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Klinische Aspekte der Cochleaimplantation bei Morbus Menière sowie nach Labyrinthektomie

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund: Aufgrund der natürlichen Alterung und den gelockerten CI-Implantationskriterien werden vermehrt auch früher operierte Menière-Patienten mit einem Cochleaimplantat versorgt werden. Dabei stellt sich jedoch die Frage, ob eine Implantation bei vorbehandeltem Ohr erfolgsversprechend ist. Material und Methode: Anhand von 2 Fällen, bei denen wir eine Cochleaimplantation durchgeführt haben, einerseits 10 Jahre nach transmastoidaler Labyrinthektomie und andererseits bei beidseitigem Morbus Menière, sowie anhand der Literatur weisen wir auf Probleme und Erfolgsaussichten hin. Diskussion: Histologische Studien zeigen nur eine geringe Ossifikation der Cochlea nach Labyrinthektomie. Implantierte Menière-Patienten weisen eine bessere Sprachverständlichkeit auf als andere CI-Träger. Menièrartige Drehschwindelattacken mit Tinnitus und Fluktuationen des Gehörs nach Cochleaimplantation bei Menière-Patienten sind selten oder sie werden zu wenig beschrieben. Schlussfolgerung: Es besteht der Trend bei Menière-Patienten mit invalidisierenden Schwindelbeschwerden trotz medikamentöser Therapie eine gleichzeitige Labyrinthektomie und Cochleaimplantation durchzuführen. Ein Zustand nach transmastoidale Labyrinthektomie stellt jedoch hinsichtlich einer Cochleaimplantation keine Kontraindikation dar.
Utilizing Graphical Formats to Convey Uncertainty in a Decision Making Task

Understanding how to effectively display uncertain information has become increasingly important as decision aids are able to provide operators with situational estimates and their associated uncertainty. This paper describes an experiment in which degraded icons were used to convey uncertainty. Results indicated similar performance using degraded images or numeric probabilities, suggesting that the use of degraded images may be a viable method for displaying uncertainty.
Keeping Synchrony While Tempo Changes: Accelerando and Ritardando

We studied synchronization with a metronome that smoothly changes tempo, from slow to fast (accelerando) or from fast to slow (ritardando). During the transition phase, systematic alternations of underadjustment and overadjustment of period and phase were observed. We analyzed the synchronization error (�asynchrony�) sequences in terms of two models that both assume linear period and phase correction mechanisms but differ in terms of how the timekeeper period is adjusted to the tempo change. In the interval-based model, period corrections are based on comparisons between timekeeper and metronome intervals, whereas in the asynchrony-based model, period corrections are based on the deviations of taps from metronome events. The qualitative data pattern is more compatible with an asynchrony-based model than with an interval-based model. Additional mechanisms that switch on and off period adjustment seem to be needed, however, for a quantitative fit of this model to our data.
Exploring systematicity between phonological and context-cooccurrence representations of the mental lexicon

This paper investigates the existence of systematicity between two similarity-based representations of the lexicon, one focusing on word-form and another one based on cooccurrence statistics in speech, which captures aspects of syntax and semantics. An analysis of the three most frequent form-homogeneous word groups in a Spanish speech corpus (cvcv, cvccv and cvcvcv words) supports the existence of systematicity: words that sound similar tend to occur in the same lexical contexts in speech. A lexicon that is highly systematic in this respect, however, may lead to confusion between similar-sounding words that appear in similar contexts. Exploring the impact of different phonological features on systematicity reveals that while some features (such as sharing consonants or the stress pattern) seem to underlie the measured systematicity, others (particularly, sharing the stressed vowel) oppose it, perhaps to help discriminate between words that systematicity may render ambiguous.
Permanent magnet synchronous motor drive for HEV propulsion: optimum speed ratio and parameter determination

The main objective of this paper is to determine the optimum speed ratio (i.e., the ratio of maximum to rated speed) of PMSM applied to hybrid electrical vehicle (HEV) propulsion while taking into account motor performance figures of merit (i.e., peak power, continuous power, total weight (volume), loss components, and average efficiency). PMSM are designed for different rated speeds using scaling equations to compute loss components, total weight and motor dimensions. The direct-axis reactance, quadrature-axis reactance and PM back-emf are determined using a procedure that minimizes the motor continuous power. Under certain flux-weakening operating conditions, the total armature current may increase over the current at peak power and rated speed regardless of the motor power and speed. At high speeds (frequencies), the eddy-current loss becomes predominant, reducing the high-efficiency advantage that the PMSM finds in constant-speed applications. The paper shows that the PMSM performance is very sensitive to the speed ratio and the motor parameters, which for HEV traction applications require careful design selection.
Redetermination of racemic tartaric acid monohydrate

The structure of the title compound, 2,3-di­hydroxy­succinic acid mono­hydrate, C4H6O6·H2O, (I), was first determined (to R = 0.22) and reported by Parry [Acta Cryst. (1951), 4, 131–138]. We present here a redetermination with significantly improved accuracy. In the centrosymmetric crystals (space group P\overline 1, Z = 2), the enantiomeric mol­ecules with both d- and l-configurations co-exist. An extensive intermolecular hydrogen-bond system involves hydrogen bonds formed by carboxyl and hydroxyl groups of the tartaric acid mol­ecule, as well as the crystalline water mol­ecule.
The Impact of the Read/Write Web on Learner Agency

This article scopes some of the key political elements in the higher educational use of the read/write web, or Web2.0 as it is commonly known. It investigates ways in which these tools can be used to enhance deliberative democracy, the associations between individuals and their capability for decision-making. The structuring of spaces in which individual users can come together to make decisions and act is a critical theme, and one which impacts upon the agency, access and participation, and associations that are afforded by those contexts. Where differences exist between students and/or their tutor(s), the read/write web affords tools for representing such variation. Herewith the voices of both learners and tutors are evaluated, in order to argue that the read/write web can be used positively to acknowledge difference and promote agency.
Improved Droop Method for Converter Parallel Operation in Large-Screen LCD TV Applications

Current sharing between modules in a converter parallel operation is very important for the reliability of the system. This paper proposes an improved droop method that can effectively improve current sharing accuracy. The proposed method adaptively adjusts the output voltage set-point of each module according to the current set-points. Unlike conventional droop control, modules share a signal line to communicate with each other. Nevertheless, since signals are simple and in digital form, the complexity of the circuitry is much less and noise immunity is much better than those of conventional methods utilizing communication. The operation principle and design procedure of the proposed method are described in detail. Results of the experiment on two boost converters operating in parallel under the specification of a TFT LCD TV panel power supply verify the validity of the proposed scheme.
A classification procedure for the effective management of changes during the maintenance process

The authors address the issue of assessing the difficulty of a change based on known or predictable data. They consider the present work as a first step towards the construction of customized economic models for maintainers. They propose a modeling approach, based on regular statistical techniques, that can be used in a variety of software maintenance environments. This approach can be easily automated, and is simple for people with limited statistical experience to use. Moreover, it deals effectively with the uncertainty usually associated with both model inputs and outputs. The modeling approach is validated on a data set provided by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, showing that it has been effective in classifying changes with respect to the effort involved in implementing them. Other advantages of the approach are discussed along with additional steps to improve the results.
Fatores sociodemográficos e imagem corporal em adolescentes do ensino médio

The scope of this article is to investigate associations between body image dissatisfaction and sociodemographic indicators among adolescents. Participants included 1126 high school students in the city of Santa Maria in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. Aspects regarding body image dissatisfaction and sociodemographic indicators were analyzed. Association analyses were performed using crude Poisson regression duly adjusted for sex and age. Boys were found to be dissatisfied due to slimness and girls due to excess weight. Adolescents where the parents had less schooling, as well as those from lower socioeconomic classes and with lower income were found to be more likely to have body image dissatisfaction due to slimness. However, those where the parents had completed higher education and those living in the downtown area were more likely to have body image dissatisfaction due to excess weight. Sociodemographic indicators are closely associated with body image dissatisfaction. Body image dissatisfaction due to slimness can be explained by the lower level of schooling of the parents, lower socioeconomic class and lower income. Dissatisfaction due to excess weight can be explained by the higher schooling of the parents and the fact of living in the downtown area.
Omnicarbon™ 21 mm Aortic Valve Prosthesis: In Vitro Hydrodynamic and Echo-Doppler Study

The aim of this study was to perform combined hydrodynamic and Doppler echocardiographic tests of the Omnicarbon 21 mm cardiac valve in aortic position in our Pulse Duplicator System for simultaneous assessment of valve performance and valve leakage data. During forward flow conditions, measured mean pressure gradients are between 4.5 and 20.2 mmHg (11.9 ± 4.4 mmHg) for cardiac outputs between 3.6 and 5.3 l/min (4.5 ± 0.4 l/min). Doppler-derived mean pressure gradients are between 2.0 and 17.0 mmHg (9.3 ± 3.9 mmHg) for the same flow conditions. Effective Orifice area is 1.31 ± 0.08 cm2 and the performance index is 0.74 ± 0.04, using the actual geometric orifice area, and 0.38 ± 0.02, using the tissue annulus diameter, for a cardiac output of 4.5 ± 0.4 l/min. Regurgitation volumes are below 3 ml. There is a trend to an effect of valve orientation on hemodynamics.
Cepstral analysis technique for automatic speaker verification

This paper describes new techniques for automatic speaker verification using telephone speech. The operation of the system is based on a set of functions of time obtained from acoustic analysis of a fixed, sentence-long utterance. Cepstrum coefficients are extracted by means of LPC analysis successively throughout an utterance to form time functions, and frequency response distortions introduced by transmission systems are removed. The time functions are expanded by orthogonal polynomial representations and, after a feature selection procedure, brought into time registration with stored reference functions to calculate the overall distance. This is accomplished by a new time warping method using a dynamic programming technique. A decision is made to accept or reject an identity claim, based on the overall distance. Reference functions and decision thresholds are updated for each customer. Several sets of experimental utterances were used for the evaluation of the system, which include male and female utterances recorded over a conventional telephone connection. Male utterances processed by ADPCM and LPC coding systems were used together with unprocessed utterances. Results of the experiment indicate that verification error rate of one percent or less can be obtained even if the reference and test utterances are subjected to different transmission conditions.
Selecting One Among the Many: A Simple Network Implementing Shifts in Selective Visual Attention

This study addresses the question of how simple networks can account for a variety of phenomena associated with the shift of a specialized processing focus across the visual scene. We address in particular aspects of the dichotomy between the preattentive-parallel and the attentive-serial modes of visual perception and their hypothetical neuronal implementations. Specifically, we propose the following: (1) A number of elementary features, such as color, orientation, direction of movement, disparity etc. are represented in parallel in different topographical maps, called the early representation. (2) There exists a selective mapping from this early representation into a more central representation, such that at any instant the central representation contains the properties of only a single location in the visual scene, the {\it selected} location. (3) We discuss some selection rules that determine which location will be mapped into the central representation. The major rule, using the saliency or conspicuity of locations in the early representation, is implemented using a so-called Winner-Take-All network. A hierarchical pyramid--like architecture is proposed for this network. We suggest possible implementations in neuronal hardware, including a possible role for the extensive back-projection form the cortex to the LGN.
Yagi-uda array antenna composed of twin-delta loops

When two regular triangular loops with peripheral lengths which are approximately equal to the wavelength are placed on a plane and fed in parallel to form an antenna, it acquires high gain and wide bandwidth. The overall properties of this antenna can be modified by changing the geometry of the loops. We propose a Yagi-Uda antenna consisting of these triangular elements which has high gain and wide bandwidth with a small number of loops. Some numerical results when two or three loops are used are obtained by means of the moment method based on the Hallen integral equations, and the results are compared with experimental results. With a 2-element array antenna consisting of a radiator and a reflector, the gain variation is small over an octave frequency range (the absolute gain is as high as 9.6 dB) and the impedance is also wideband. A high-gain, wideband operation will be achieved with a small number of elements when combined with conventional dipole directors.
Adaptive NN control for a class of discrete-time nonlinear systems based on input-output model

A direct adaptive control structure, inverse controller based on input-output model, is studied for a class of SISO discrete-time nonlinear systems in this paper. The developed controller and adaptation algorithm are very simple to implement. The closed-loop system has been proven to be semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded (SGUUB) if the design parameters are suitably chosen under certain requirement. An arbitrarily small tracking error can be achieved if the size of neural networks is chosen large enough. Simulation studies verify the effectiveness of the newly designed schemes and the theoretical discussion.
Reported Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Antenatal Care Services among Women in Dodoma Municipal, Tanzania

Antenatal care service is an important goal concerning in the health status of the pregnant women during their reproductive period and its health beneficial accounting for nearly one quarter of all pregnant worldwide. Early booking has an advantage for proper pregnancy information sharing and pregnancy monitoring. Unfortunately, adverse pregnancy outcome can occur even in women without identifiable risk factors. The objective of this study was to describe knowledge, attitudes and practices towards women seeking antenatal care from their previous pregnancy in Dodoma Municipal Tanzania. This was a cross sectional community based descriptive survey study. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was applied. Among the 500 women included, 299(59.8%) was from the age group of 19 to 25 years. A total of 477(95.4%) were at the level of primary education. About 341(68.2%) of them were housewives while 155(31%) of them worked as Petty business and only 4(0.8%) worked at the public work. 101(20.2%) of women having more than three children and categorized as multipara. A total of 104 women (20.8%) had history of home delivery and only 4 women (0.8%) had history of assisted by traditional birth attendance, however highest interviewed women 257(51.4%) had the hospital delivery and 117(23.4) had delivery at the health centre. Regarding of the reproduction history, 78(15.6%) of them had experienced episode of eclampsia, 235(47%) had episode of involved with perineal tear. Only 1(0.2%) of them had history of one stillbirth before while 186(37.2%) of the interviewed women had history of postpartum haemorrhage. The highest first antenatal clinic attendance of pregnancy were 28weeks of gestation age 169(33.8%) with the few of the women had attended at 36weeks of gestation age 20(4%). Only 62(12.4%) of the women admitted that they did come for antenatal visit during the first three months and others had the late visit. However, only 92(18.4%) admitted that they had delivery by caesarian section on their previous pregnancy while 408(81.6%) of them had spontaneous vaginal delivery. Only 60(12.0%) of women had one visit of antenatal clinic and 270(54.0%) were the highest which had two visit, three were 93(18.6) and four visit were 77(12.4%). In Conclusion, ANC services, awareness and the use of supplements therapy are promising in the pregnancy women. To achieve maximum ANC services and practices among pregnancy women with high and low risk groups, there is a need to integrate public and private sector concerning ANC services planned and conducted in order to improve their maternal health and eventually improve the health status of newborn child.
Author-assigned keywords versus library of congress subject headings: Implications for the cataloging of electronic theses and dissertations

This study is an examination of the overlap between author-assigned keywords and cataloger-assigned Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) for a set of electronic theses and dissertations in Ohio State University’s online catalog. The project is intended to contribute to the literature on the issue of keywords versus controlled vocabularies in the use of online catalogs and databases. Findings support previous studies’ conclusions that both keywords and controlled vocabularies complement one another. Further, even in the presence of bibliographic record enhancements, such as abstracts or summaries, keywords and subject headings provided a significant number of unique terms that could affect the success of keyword searches. Implications for the maintenance of controlled vocabularies such as LCSH also are discussed in light of the patterns of matches and nonmatches found between the keywords and their corresponding subject headings.
A portable battery-operated multi-sensor-array for whole human blood analysis

This research is made up of two parts: neutral charge carriers based electrochemical sensor array design and its integration with electronics. A miniaturized electrochemical simultaneous multi-sensor array for K/sup +/, Na/sup +/, and Ca/sup 2+/ in human whole blood, based on chemical vapor deposition technique, has been tested with binary solutions, mixed electrolytes, artificial blood (PV1 and PV2), and whole human blood, respectively. Having obtained Nernstian response with all the different testing media, a four channel portable battery-operated, including reference electrode, simultaneous multi-sensing electronic system based on discrete electronic parts has been designed, interfaced, and tested with the sensor-array leading to clinically acceptable readings.
Steering the maintenance costs: an exploration of the maintenance construct

Maintenance is a natural and necessary part of the system life-cycle and its costs. It is important to control where time and money are spent and what kind of maintenance is performed. Systems maintenance personnel must keep their eye on the potential uses of information technology for competitive purposes in order to classify existing systems projects. For this purpose it is necessary to be able to measure both maintenance, the efforts and costs, and the quality factor maintainability. Such measuring facilitates planning and steering the maintenance work in information systems organizations. The authors present a framework for evaluating software quality in organizations. They combine structure, readability, size, numbers of errors and complexity metrics, and some process attribute metrics to measure maintainability. The collected values are stored in a metric database, from where periodic reports are written. Availability to measurements offers means for the organization to distribute their information systems resources to more profitable objects and to be in control of the maintenance costs, i.e. coordination and reuse of the newly found resources. <<ETX>>
More or Less? Multimedia Effects on Perceptions of News Websites

Despite a growing trend of using multimedia to enhance online news and audience engagement, little is known about the actual benefit of such a practice. Empirical evidence regarding multimedia effects on user evaluations of news websites has been mixed and scanty. The current undertaking utilizes theoretical frameworks from modality and vividness effects research as well as the congruency/incongruency literature in an effort to bring greater insight into effects of multimedia enhancements on user responses. A 3 × 3 factorial experiment was conducted with multimedia use and multimedia congruency serving as two between-subjects factors. User perceptions were gauged through attitudes and behavioral intentions toward a news website. As the results indicate, multimedia elements serve to appeal to news consumers. However, online journalists need to consider the limitations of blending multimedia with text, including a ceiling effect on evaluations and possible side effects of incongruent multimedia on news processing.
Implementation of real-time Laplacian pyramid image fusion processing based on FPGA

In this paper, a novel method is proposed to implement Laplacian pyramid image fusion on FPGA. Firstly, implementation of image fusion algorithm based on Programable DSP (PDSP) and FPGA is compared, as well as the advantages of Laplacian pyramid for parallel processing. Secondly, the architecture and characters of Laplacian pyramid is analyzed in detail. Finally the related logical modules in FPGA are designed according to their functions of this algorithm, including controlling module, decomposing module, fusion module and reconstruction module. Inside the decomposing module, 3-stage pipeline is designed for decomposing images at each level. Three-level Laplacian pyramid image fusion algorithm is adopted through Verilog Hardware Description Language according to the designed methods forementioned. The design is verified on a real-time dual-channel image fusion system based on Virtex-4 SX35 FPGA. The experiment results show that the fusion system can realize real-time image fusion processing for dual channels 640×480 images at the rate of 25 frames per second. Comparing with input digital video stream, the output video stream delays less than 10 horizontal line clocks.