Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Complete Sound and Speech Recognition System for Health Smart Homes: Application to the Recognition of Activities of Daily Living

This chapter presents the AUDITHIS system which performs real-time sound analysis from eight microphone channels in Health Smart Home associated to the autonomous speech analyzer RAPHAEL. The evaluation of AUDITHIS and RAPHAEL in different settings showed that audio modality is very promising to acquire information that are not available through other classical sensors. Audio processing is also the most natural way for a human to interact with his environment. Thus, this approach particularly fits Health Smart Homes that include home automation (e.g., voice command) or other high level interactions (e.g., dialogue). The originality of the work is also to include sounds of daily living as indicators to distinguish distress from normal situations. First development gave acceptable results for the sound recognition (72% correct classification) and we are working on the reduction of missed-alarm rate to improve performance in the near future. Although the current system suffers a number of limitations and that we raised numerous challenges that need to be addressed, the pair AUDITHIS and RAPHAEL is, to the best of our knowledge, one of the first serious attempts to build a real-time system that consider sound and speech analysis for ambient assisted living. This work also includes several evalu- ations on data acquired from volunteers in a real health smart home condition. Further work will include refinement of the acoustic models to adapt the speech recognition to the aged population as well as connexion to home automation systems.
PENGARUH HARGA DAN KUALITAS PRODUK TERHADAP KEPUASAN PELANGGAN

This research is intended to examine the effect of price and product quality on customer satisfaction both partially and simultaneously at PT Sophie Paris Indonesia, Pondok Gede branch. The research method used is descriptive and verification research methods. Data was collected using the questionnaire method, and data analysis used was multiple linear regression analysis. The results showed that price, product quality and customer satisfaction.
Day-of-the-Week Effect in Post-Communist East European Stock Markets

This study examines the day-of-the-week effect in 18 Post-Communist East European stock markets: Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine, over the period January 2005 to March 2014. The results indicate the presence of day-of-the-week effect in Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Serbia and Slovenia even after we incorporate in the analysis the market risk, proxied by the return on the Dow Jones Global Total Stock Market Index.
RICAP: Random Image Cropping and Patching Data Augmentation for Deep CNNs

Deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have demonstrated remarkable results in image recognition owing to their rich expression ability and numerous parameters. However, an excessive expression ability compared to the variety of training images often has a risk of overfitting. Data augmentation techniques have been proposed to address this problem as they enrich datasets by flipping, cropping, resizing, and color-translating images. They enable deep CNNs to achieve an impressive performance. In this study, we propose a new data augmentation technique called random image cropping and patching (RICAP), which randomly crops four images and patches them to construct a new training image. Hence, RICAP randomly picks up subsets of original features among the four images and discard others, enriching the variety of training images. Also, RICAP mixes the class labels of the four images and enjoys a benefit similar to label smoothing. We evaluated RICAP with current state-of-the-art CNNs (e.g., shake-shake regularization model) and achieved a new state-of-the-art test error of 2.23% on CIFAR-10 among competitive data augmentation techniques such as cutout and mixup. We also confirmed that deep CNNs with RICAP achieved better results on CIFAR-100 and ImageNet than those results obtained by other techniques.
STIMULATING AND PROTECTIVE EFFECTS OF VITAMIN E ON BOVINE SPERMATOZOA

As spermatozoa are particularly sensitive towards oxidative damage, the search for a potential antioxidant substance to preserve and protect them under in vitro conditions has recently attracted the attention of the scientific community. The aim of this study was to assess the doseand time-dependent in vitro effects of vitamin E on bovine spermatozoa during three different time periods (Time 0 h, 12 h and 24 h). Semen samples were collected from 15 adult breeding bulls, and diluted in physiological saline solution containing 0.5% ethanol (96%) together with 0, 10, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 μM of vitamin E. Spermatozoa motility was determined using the Sperm Vision and CASA (Computer Assisted Semen Analyzer) system. Cell viability was measured using the metabolic activity MTT assay, the nitroblue-tetrazolium (NBT) test was used to assess the intracellular superoxide formation. Spermatozoa motility differences between the control and groups A and B were the only one significant (P<0.05 and P<0.001, respectively) at 0 h, however, increased motility parameters were observed in all experimental groups after 12 h, with significant differences (P<0.001) after 24 h. The MTT assay indicated that none of the vitamin E concentrations had a negative or cytotoxic effect on the spermatozoa mitochondrial activity and furthermore showed a significantly (P<0.001) improved cell viability in groups B, C and D at 24 h. The NBT test showed that the addition of 500, 100 and 50 μM of vitamin E had an instant positive effect on JMBFS / Tvrdá et al. 2013 : 2 (Special issue 1) 1386-1395 1387 the spermatozoa protection against free radical production. This protection remained present with a significant impact at 12 h (P<0.001 and P<0.05, respectively). Furthermore, all vitamin E concentrations exhibited significant (P<0.05; P<0.001) protective effects on the spermatozoa free radical formation. The results indicate that the addition of vitamin E, especially in concentrations of 500 μM to 50 μM to the culture medium could be beneficial for the overall stimulation of spermatozoa activity and protection against possible in vitro oxidative stress development.
Zinc Uptake in Neocosmospora vasinfecta

SUMMARY: Mycelium of Neocosmospora vasinfecta harvested in mid-logarithmic phase absorbs Zn2+ from dilute solutions in the absence of growth. Zn2+ uptake involves two phases: a rapidly established phase 1 believed to represent adsorption to negatively charged groups in the hyphal surface-membrane and a slowly established phase 2 which represents transport into the cytoplasm. Phase 1 is not influenced by low temperature, NaN3 or anaerobiosis applied for short periods, conforms to the Langmuir adsorption equation and is reduced in the presence of various other divalent cations. Phase 2 is strongly inhibited by low temperature, NaN3 and anaerobiosis and exhibits carrier-type kinetics with an apparent K m for Zn2+ of 0.2 mM. Mn2+ competitively inhibits phase 2 zinc uptake: Mg2+ acts as a ‘mixed-type’ inhibitor. Electron microscopy of unstained material indicates that part at least of phase 2 Zn is deposited in the cytoplasm and nucleus. A model for the metabolic uptake of Zn2+ involving phase 1 binding as a requisite preliminary process is suggested.
Competing on Standards? Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, and Platform Technologies

Entrepreneurs often rely on intellectual property (IP) to earn a return on their innovations, and also compatibility standards, which allow them to supply specialized components for a shared technology platform. This paper compares the IP strategies of small entrepreneurs and large incumbents that disclose patents at 13 voluntary standard setting organizations (SSOs). These patents have a relatively high litigation rate. For small private firms, the probability of filing a lawsuit increases after disclosure to the SSO. For large public firms, the filing rate is unchanged. Although forward citations increase after disclosure for all firms, the size of this effect is the same for entrepreneurs and incumbents.
EVALUATION OF CLIGEN PRECIPITATION PARAMETERS AND THEIR IMPLICATION ON WEPP RUNOFF AND EROSION PREDICTION

The quality of synthesized daily weather data directly affects the output of hydrological and agricultural response models. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the ability of the CLIGEN model to reproduce daily, monthly, and annual precipitation amounts, extremes, and internal storm patterns (i.e., storm duration, relative peak intensity, and time to peak) and to assess further the impact of generated storm patterns on WEPP runoff and erosion prediction. Four Oklahoma stations with more than 50 years of daily precipitation data and eight other sites across the U.S. with an average record of 10 years of measured storm patterns were used. Mean absolute relative errors for simulating daily, monthly, and annual precipitation across the four Oklahoma stations were 4.7%, 1.7%, and 1.5% for the means and 3.7%, 6.7%, and 15% for the standard deviations, respectively. Mean absolute relative errors for the all–time maxima of daily, monthly, and yearly precipitation were 17.7%, 8.9%, and 6.5%, respectively. Storm pattern generation, especially storm duration, was determined to need improvement for better prediction of runoff and soil erosion. The measured storm patterns showed positive linear correlations between precipitation, duration, and relative peak intensity, but little correlation was shown for generated storm patterns. The CLIGEN–generated durations were generally too long for small storms and too short for large storms. Inaccurate storm pattern generation led to WEPP prediction errors as high as 35% for average annual runoff and 47% for annual sediment yield on the test sites. To improve WEPP runoff and erosion prediction, storm duration generation should be reconsidered, and a distribution–free approach may be used to induce proper correlations between the input storm variables.
Sparse Additive Gaussian Process with Soft Interactions

This paper presents a novel variable selection method in additive nonparametric regression model. This work is motivated by the need to select the number of nonparametric components and number of variables within each nonparametric component. The proposed method uses a combination of hard and soft shrinkages to separately control the number of additive components and the variables within each component. An efficient algorithm is developed to select the importance of variables and estimate the interaction network. Excellent performance is obtained in simulated and real data examples.
Burnout and engagement of reformed church ministers Burnout and engagement of reformed church ministers

Main findings: Regression analysis indicated that the pace, amount of work and emotional demands were indicators of burnout while growth opportunities, social support and job significance were indicators of engagement. Furthermore, it was found that exhaustion predicted somatic symptoms and depression, while mental distance predicted depression. Engagement predicted social functioning and affective commitment.
Cursing the Blessings? Natural Resource Abundance, Institutions, and Economic Growth

Summary Since Sachs and Warner's [Sachs, J. D. , & Warner, A. M. (1995a). Natural resource abundance and economic growth. NBER working paper, no. 5398] contribution, there has been a lively debate on the so-called natural resource curse. This paper re-examines the effects of natural resource abundance on economic growth using new measures of resource endowment and considering the role of institutional quality. We find a positive direct empirical relationship between natural resource abundance and economic growth. In both OLS and 2SLS regressions, the positive resource effects are particularly strong for subsoil wealth. Our results also show no evidence of negative indirect effects of natural resources through the institutional channel.
Collusion Detection at Forest Service Timber Sales ∗ ( Job Market Paper )

This paper examines bidding in U.S. Forest Service first price timber auctions in the Northern Region, where the potential for collusive bidding has been recognized. I modify the empirical methods in Porter and Zona (1993) and find a group of potentially cooperative (PC) bidders, who can submit complementary bids. Benefiting from a striking feature of data, where sealed bid auctions and ascending bid auctions were used side by side, I find further corroboration for my findings by analyzing PC bidders’ bids in ascending bid auctions. ∗I am indebted to my adviser Robert C. Marshall for his help and guidance. Many thanks to Edward Green, Patrik Guggenberger, Keisuke Hirano, Sung Jae Jun, Vijay Krishna and Shigeki Isogai for useful comments and discussions. The remaining errors are my own. Please click here for the latest version. †czs197@psu.edu, Department of Economics, Penn State University.
The rheology and microstructure of an aging thermoreversible colloidal gel

Colloidal gels exhibit time-dependent bulk properties. However, the processes and mechanisms by which aging occurs are poorly understood, which complicates the prediction of macroscopic behavior in these systems. Using a model, thermoreversible, adhesive hard sphere system consisting of octadecyl-coated silica nanoparticles dispersed in tetradecane, rheological aging is quantitatively related to structural aging. By simultaneously measuring the bulk properties and gel microstructure using rheometry and small angle neutron scattering, respectively, we show a one-to-one correspondence between the time-dependent storage modulus and the microstructure, and further, that this correspondence is independent of the gel's thermal and shear history. At the working volume fraction, the gel is homogeneous and, unlike phase-separated gels, aging behavior is not due to heterogeneous coarsening. Instead, the results presented here are consistent with homogeneous, local particle rearrangements as the mechanism of rheolog.
Discussion Papers Sovereign Risk , Interbank Freezes , and Aggregate Fluctuations

This paper studies the bank-sovereign link in a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium set-up with strategic default on public debt. Heterogeneous banks give rise to an interbank market where government bonds are used as collateral. A default penalty arises from a breakdown of interbank intermediation that induces a credit crunch. Government borrowing under limited commitment is costly ex ante as bank funding conditions tighten when the quality of collateral drops. This lowers the penalty from an interbank freeze and feeds back into default risk. The arising amplification mechanism propagates aggregate shocks to the macroeconomy. The model is calibrated using Spanish data and is capable of reproducing key business cycle statistics alongside stylized facts during the European sovereign debt crisis.
Egg production in furnished cages

In the European Union, conventional cages for laying hens will be faded out at the beginning of 2012. The rationale behind this is a public concern over animal welfare in egg production. As alternatives to conventional cages, the European Union Council Directive 1999/74/ EC allows non-cage systems and enriched (furnished) cages. Layer performance, behavior, and welfare in differently sized furnished cages have been investigated quite widely during recent decades, but nutrition of hens in this production system has received less attention. This thesis aims to compare production and feed intake of laying hens in furnished and conventional cages and to study the effects of different dietary treatments in these production systems, thus contributing to the general knowledge of furnished cages as an egg production system. A furnished cage model for 8 hens was compared with a 3-hen conventional cage. Three consecutive experiments each studied one aspect of layer diet: The first experiment investigated the effects of dietary protein/energy ratio, the second dietary energy levels, and the third the effects of extra limestone supplementation. In addition, a fourth experiment evaluated the effects of perches on feed consumption and behavior of hens in furnished cages. The dietary treatments in experiments 1–3 generally had similar effects in the two cage types. Thus, there was no evidence supporting a change in nutrient requirements for laying hens when conventional cages are replaced with small-group furnished cages. Moreover, the results from nutritional experiments conducted in conventional cages can be applied to smallgroup furnished cage systems. These results support the view that production performance comparable with conventional cages can be achieved in furnished cages. All of the advantages of cages for bird welfare are sustained in the smallgroup furnished cages used here. In addition, frequent use of perches and nests implies a wider behavioral repertoire in furnished cages than in conventional cages. The increase observed in bone ash content may improve bird welfare in furnished cages. The presence of perches diminished feed consumption during the prelaying period and enhanced the feed conversion ratio during the early laying period in furnished cages. However, as the presence or absence of perches in furnished cages had no significant effect on feed consumption after the prelaying period, the lower feed consumption observed in furnished cages than in conventional cages could be attributed to other factors, such as the presence of wood shavings or a nest box. The wider feed trough space per hen in conventional than in furnished cages may partly explain the higher feed consumption observed in conventional cages.
Improved Approaches Edge Direction Histogram and HSV Histogram, Color Auto Correlagram; Gabor Wavelet Transforms using CBIR

Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) is a creating pattern in Digital Image Processing (DIP) for seeking and recovering the question picture from extensive variety of databases. CBIR framework comprise of different stages to concentrate and match the highlights and hunt the pictures from the substantial scale picture databases based on visual substance such as Color, Shape and Texture according to the user’s interest. To supply the reasonable answer to the client query, CBIR provides some run of work. A new method is planned in this paper for color picture indexing by developing the ease of SVM system. A New technique is proposed on this paper for coloration photograph indexing via exploiting the simplicity of the Histogram equalization method. In this algorithm, now we have proposed a mixture of color, shape and texture features. In this approach, the past work is improved to accomplish better precision. In this paper we propose histogram equalization to improve image quality and applied distance matrix to get better result than base work. At that point we encrypt the three channels independently. Here component Extraction was
Marginal Inferential Models: Prior-Free Probabilistic Inference on Interest Parameters

The inferential models (IM) framework provides prior-free, frequency-calibrated, and posterior probabilistic inference. The key is the use of random sets to predict unobservable auxiliary variables connected to the observable data and unknown parameters. When nuisance parameters are present, a marginalization step can reduce the dimension of the auxiliary variable which, in turn, leads to more efficient inference. For regular problems, exact marginalization can be achieved, and we give conditions for marginal IM validity. We show that our approach provides exact and efficient marginal inference in several challenging problems, including a many-normal-means problem. In nonregular problems, we propose a generalized marginalization technique and prove its validity. Details are given for two benchmark examples, namely, the Behrens–Fisher and gamma mean problems.
Review : Multimodal Evaluation of Tissue-Engineered Cartilage

Tissue engineering (TE) has promise as a biological solution and a disease modifying treatment for arthritis. Although cartilage can be generated by TE, substantial interand intra-donor variability makes it impossible to guarantee optimal, reproducible results. TE cartilage must be able to perform the functions of native tissue, thus mechanical and biological properties approaching those of native cartilage are likely a prerequisite for successful implantation. A quality-control assessment of these properties should be part of the implantation release criteria for TE cartilage. Release criteria should certify that selected tissue properties have reached certain target ranges, and should be predictive of the likelihood of success of an implant in vivo. Unfortunately, it is not currently known which properties are needed to establish release criteria, nor how close one has to be to the properties of native cartilage to achieve success. Achieving properties approaching those of native cartilage requires a clear understanding of the target properties and reproducible assessment methodology. This paper reviews several main aspects of quality control as it applies to TE cartilage. This includes a look at known mechanical and biological properties of native cartilage, which should be the target for engineered tissues. An overview of the state of the art of tissue assessment, focusing on native articular and TE cartilage, is also presented. Finally, the arguments for developing and validating non-destructive testing methods for assessing TE products are reviewed.
Bromodomain PHD-finger transcription factor promotes glioma progression and indicates poor prognosis

Glioma is one of the most deadly central nervous system tumors around the world. Uncontrollable cell proliferation and invasion are key factors of cancer progression as well as glioma. Available evidence suggests that bromodomain PHD-finger transcription factor (BPTF) plays an important role in stem cell proliferation and differentiation, as well as in progression of some tumors, but there is little data on glioma. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the functional role and potential clinical value of BPTF in glioma. Public database, real-time PCR and western blotting were used to detect the expression of BPTF in glioma tissue and cells. The relationship between BPTF with clinicopathological features and the prognosis of glioma patients was analyzed by immunohistochemical staining in 113 cases of paraffin-embedded primary glioma specimens. Furthermore, cytological experiments were conducted to elucidate the functional role of BPTF in glioma U251 cells, as well as the potential molecular mechanism. The expression of BPTF in glioma tissues was significantly higher than that in normal brain tissues. The association analysis results revealed that high BPTF expression was significantly associated with WHO grade and tumor size. Survival analysis revealed that the BPTF high-expression group had poorer overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) compared with the low-expression group. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses revealed that BPTF expression was an independent prognostic factor for the OS and PFS of glioma patients. Cytological experiments revealed that BPTF overexpression could significantly promote the proliferation, migration and invasion of human glioma U251 cells. A study of the underlying mechanism indicated that BPTF promoted glioma progression via MYC signaling. Our results preliminarily indicated that BPTF promoted glioma progression via MYC signaling and may be a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for glioma patients.