Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synchronization between music dynamics and heart rhythm is modulated by the musician’s emotional involvement: A single case study

In this study we evaluated heart rate variability (HRV) changes in a pianist, playing in a laboratory, to investigate whether HRV changes are guided by music temporal features or by technical difficulty and/or subjective factors (e.g., experienced effort). The pianist was equipped with a wearable telemetry device for ECG recording during the execution of 4 classical and 5 jazz pieces. From ECG we derived the RR intervals series (tachogram), and, for each piece, analyzed HRV in the time (RR, RMSSD, Stress Index) and frequency domains (Total spectral power) and performed non-linear analysis (Multiscale Entropy). We also studied the correlation (Pearson) between the time course of music volume envelope and tachogram. Results showed a general reduction of parasympathetic and an increase of sympathetic activity, with the greatest changes during the classical pieces execution, the pianist appraised as more demanding than the jazz ones. The most marked changes occurred during the most technically/emotionally demanding piece, and correlation analysis revealed a negative association between music volume envelope time course and tachogram only for this piece, suggesting a modulation of the limbic system on the synchronization between heart rhythm and music temporal features. Classical music was also associated with the increase of entropy (1st scale) with respect to rest, indicating its effectiveness in driving flexible, healthy, heart dynamics. In conclusion, HRV seems modulated not only by the music temporal features, but also by the pianist’s emotional involvement, which is greatly influenced, in a non-trivial manner, by the technical demands and musician expertise.
Kimyasal Denge Konusunun Mikro Boyutta Anlaşılmasına Farklı Öğretim Yöntemlerinin Etkisi

Bu arastirmanin amaci, kimyasal denge konusunun ogrenci takimlari basari bolumleri (OTBB) yontemi ve modeller kullanilarak mikro boyutta anlasilmasinin saglanmasidir. Arastirmada yari-deneysel yontem kullanilmistir. Arastirmanin orneklemini, fen bilgisi egitimi birinci sinifinda ogrenim goren 90 ogrenci olusturmaktadir. Arastirmada iki deney grubu [OTBB yonteminin uygulandigi Isbirlikli Ogrenme Grubu (IOG), (N= 22) ve OTBB yontemi ve modellerin birlikte kullanildigi Isbirlikli Model Grubu (IMG), (N=41)] ve bir kontrol grubu (KG) (N= 27) olmak uzere uc grupla calisilmistir. Arastirmada veri toplama araci olarak kimyasal denge ile ilgili coktan secmeli maddenin tanecikli yapisi testi (MTYTa) ve acik uclu maddenin tanecikli yapisi testi (MTYTb) kullanilmistir. Uygulama asamasina gecilmeden once tum gruplara MTYTa on test olarak uygulanmistir. Daha sonra her grup kendi yontemine gore dersi islemistir. Ogrencilerin kavramsal anlamalarini belirlemek icin MTYTa daki secenekler cikartilarak acik uclu MTYTb testi olusturulmus ve tum gruplara uygulanmis, ogrencilerin mikro boyutta cizim yapmalari istenmistir. Ardindan MTYTa coktan secmeli testi son test olarak tum gruplara tekrar uygulanmistir. Tum gruplarda son test olarak uygulanan MTYTa ve acik uclu olarak uygulanan MTYTb karsilastirilmis ogrencilerin kendi cizimleriyle coktan secmeli test arasindaki iliskiye bakilmistir. MTYTa’nin on ve son test olarak uygulanmasiyla elde edilen verilere yapilan ANOVA sonucuna gore gruplar arasinda istatistiksel olarak anlamli bir fark bulunmamistir. Soru bazinda yapilan degerlendirmelerde ise gruplarin bazi sorularda zorluk cektikleri belirlenmistir. MTYTb’deki ogrenci cizimlerinden elde edilen bulgulara gore ogrencilerin bircok kavram yanilgisina sahip olduklari gorulmustur. Ogrencilerin kimyasal denge konusunda dengeye etki eden faktorlerden, reaksiyon orani ile kimyasal denge sabiti arasindaki iliski ve hacim- basinc etkisini mikro boyuta anlamada zorluk cektikleri gorulmustur.
The role of endometrial thickness in predicting ectopic pregnancy after in vitro fertilization and the establishment of a prediction model

Objective To explore the risk factors of ectopic pregnancy after in vitro fertilization. Methods This retrospective cohort study was conducted at the Reproductive Medical Center of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January 2016 to April 2020. Univariate and multivariate analysis were used to analyze the related factors affecting the occurrence of ectopic pregnancy (EP) and to construct a nomographic prediction model for the incidence of ectopic pregnancy. Results A total of 12,766 cycles of 10109 patients were included, comprising 214 cases of EP and 12,552 cases of intrauterine pregnancy (IUP). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the tubal factor was associated with a 2-fold increased risk for EP (aOR = 2.72, 95% CI: 1.69-4.39, P < 0.0001). A stratified analysis showed that women with an endometrial thickness (EMT) between 7.6 to 12.1mm (aOR = 0.57, 95%CI: 0.36-0.90, P = 0.0153) and >12.1mm (aOR = 0.42, 95%CI: 0.24-0.74, P = 0.0026) had a significant reduction of the risk of EP compared to women with an EMT of <7.6mm. Compared to cleavage stage transfer, blastocyst transfer can reduce the risk of ectopic pregnancy (aOR = 0.36, 95%CI: 0.26-0.50, P < 0.0001). The saturation model (full mode) establishes a nomographic prediction model with an AUC = 0.68 and a sensitivity and specificity of 0.67and 0.64, respectively. The nomination model was internally verified by self-sampling method (bootstrap sampling resampling times = 500). The resulting AUC = 0.68 (sensitivity: 0.65; specificity: 0.65) showed that the model was relatively stable. Conclusions Our findings indicate that EMT is inversely proportional to the risk of EP. Embryo stage, number of embryos transferred were also significantly associated with EP rate. A simple nomogram for the predicting the risk of EP was established in order to reduce the occurrence of EP.
Constrained Optimization in Simulation: A Novel Approach

This paper presents a novel heuristic for constrained optimization of random computer simulation models, in which one of the simulation outputs is selected as the objective to be minimized while the other outputs need to satisfy prespeci¯ed target values. Besides the simulation outputs, the simulation inputs must meet prespeci¯ed constraints including the constraint that the inputs be integer. The proposed heuristic combines (i) experimental design to specify the simulation input combinations, (ii) Kriging (also called spatial correlation mod- eling) to analyze the global simulation input/output data that result from this experimental design, and (iii) integer nonlinear programming to estimate the optimal solution from the Krig- ing metamodels. The heuristic is applied to an (s, S) inventory system and a realistic call-center simulation model, and compared with the popular commercial heuristic OptQuest embedded in the ARENA versions 11 and 12. These two applications show that the novel heuristic outper- forms OptQuest in terms of search speed (it moves faster towards high-quality solutions) and consistency of the solution quality.
An Electronic Portfolio to Support Learning

n this paper, we provide a description of a CSLP research project that looked at portfolio use within a middle school, the web-based e-portfolio software we have developed within the context of the Quebec educational system, our plans for further development of the tool, and our research plans related to the use of portfolios to support learning. Our aim is to combine research evidence on portfolio use with practical feedback from the field in an attempt to develop easy-to-use, powerful software designed to support active self-regulated student learning in schools.
A simple SPICE model for coupled transmission lines

An exact model of a lossless multiconductor transmission line (MTL) is presented. The model is directly implementable in the SPICE code. It is therefore more readily available for use than a specially designed FORTRAN code. It is also an exact solution of the MTL equations, whereas most specially designed time-domain FORTRAN codes are approximate solutions. Implementation of the model in a SPICE code allows the incorporation of nonlinear terminations already present in SPICE. Therefore, a wide variety of electronic-circuit design problems can be investigated, and the actual crosstalk in a particular conductor interconnection pattern can be investigated. The model is suitable for use in the personal computer versions of SPICE; the predictions were obtained on an IBM PC AT using the demo version of PSPICE. <<ETX>>
Multi-channel Feature Enhancement for Robust Speech Recognition

In the last decades, a great deal of research has been devoted to extending our capacity of verbal communication with computers through automatic speech recognition (ASR). Although optimum performance can be reached when the speech signal is captured close to the speaker’s mouth, there are still obstacles to overcome in making reliable distant speech recognition (DSR) systems. The two major sources of degradation in DSR are distortions, such as additive noise and reverberation. This implies that speech enhancement techniques are typically required to achieve best possible signal quality. Different methodologies have been proposed in literature for environment robustness in speech recognition over the past two decades (Gong (1995); Hussain, Chetouani, Squartini, Bastari & Piazza (2007)). Two main classes can be identified (Li et al. (2009)). The first class encompasses the so called model-based techniques, which operate on the acoustic model to adapt or adjust its parameters so that the system fits better the distorted environment. The most popular of such techniques are multi-style training (Lippmann et al. (2003)), parallel model combination (PMC) (Gales & Young (2002)) and the vector Taylor series (VTS) model adaptation (Moreno (1996)). Although model-based techniques obtain excellent results, they require heavy modifications to the decoding stage and, in most cases, a greater computational burden. Conversely, the second class directly enhances the speech signal before it is presented to the recognizer, and show some significant advantages with respect to the previous class:
Aerodynamic Measurements of a Variable-Speed Power-Turbine Blade Section in a Transonic Turbine Cascade

The purpose of this thesis is to document the impact of incidence angle and Reynolds number variations on the three-dimensional flow field and midspan loss and turning of a two-dimensional section of a variable-speed power-turbine (VSPT) rotor blade. Aerodynamic measurements were obtained in a transonic linear cascade at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Steady-state data were obtained for 10 incidence angles ranging from +15.8deg to -51.0deg. At each angle, data were acquired at five flow conditions with the exit Reynolds number (based on axial chord) varying over an order-of-magnitude from 2.12105 to 2.12106. Data were obtained at the design exit Mach number of 0.72 and at a reduced exit Mach number of 0.35 as required to achieve the lowest Reynolds number. Midspan tota lpressure and exit flow angle data were acquired using a five-hole pitch/yaw probe surveyed on a plane located 7.0 percent axial-chord downstream of the blade trailing edge plane. The survey spanned three blade passages. Additionally, three-dimensional half-span flow fields were examined with additional probe survey data acquired at 26 span locations for two key incidence angles of +5.8deg and -36.7deg. Survey data near the endwall were acquired with a three-hole boundary-layer probe. The data were integrated to determine average exit total-pressure and flow angle as functions of incidence and flow conditions. The data set also includes blade static pressures measured on four spanwise planes and endwall static pressures.
An approach to ontology construction : and its application to community portals

The goal of the work presented here is to identify current limitations of community portals, introduce community-driven ontology management as a new approach to ontology construction and demonstrate the added value to community portals of being community-driven. The three main parts of the work are: (i) the development of a framework allowing and motivating collaborative ontology construction and reuse for the end users (a person and a community), (ii) building a prototype on the basis of this specification, namely the People's portal, and (iii) the application of the developed infrastructure to scenarios in semantically-enhanced community portals with the involvement of real users. The development of the framework for community-driven ontology management is aimed at enriching with community-supporting features the established practices for ontology management in the areas of ontology development and population, storage, matching and versioning. The objective of community-driven ontology management is to provide the means and motivations for a large number of users to "weave" and adopt the Semantic Web.
Application of Robotic and Mechatronic Systems to Neurorehabilitation

During the last decades, the potentiality of robotics as a tool for neuroscientific investigations has been demonstrated, thus contributing to increase knowledge on biological systems. On the other hand, a detailed analysis of the potentialities of these systems (Dario et al., 2003) based on recent neuroscientific achievements, in particular about the mechanisms of neurogenesis and cerebral plasticity underlying the motor learning and the functional recovery after cerebral injury, highlights the advisability of using the robotic technologies, as systems able to contribute to a breakthrough in the clinical procedures of neurorehabilitative treatments. Several examples of robotic machines applied to both neuroscience and neurorehabilitation can be found in the literature (Krebs et al., 1998; Colombo et al, 2000). One of the main scientific and technological challenges is represented by the design and development of innovative robotic and mechatronic systems able to i) simplify interaction modalities during assisted motor exercises, ii) enhance adaptability of the machines to the actual patient performance and residual abilities, iii) provide a comprehensive picture of the psycho-physiological status of the patient for assessment purposes, through the integrated use of brain imaging techniques. The basic assumption of this work relies on a human-centred approach applied to the design of robotic and mechatronic devices aimed at carrying out neuroscientific investigations on human sensorimotor behaviour, delivering innovative neurorehabilitation therapies and assessing the functional recovery of disabled patients. Special attention is paid to the issues related to human-machine interaction modalities inspired to human motor mechanisms and the design of machines for the analysis of human motor behaviour and the quantitative assessment of motor performance.
An Analysis of the Effects of Memory Allocation Policy on Storage Fragmentation

Acknowledgments This thesis is part of a joint eeort by the Object Oriented Programming Systems Research Group. Much credit is due to Mark Johnstone and his related study of memory allocation in garbage collection systems 9]. Credit also goes to David Boles for initial work on the heap simulator. The study of dynamic memory allocation has been dominated by measurement of performance of allocators with random input streams of requests. This study introduces a new methodology that separates the issue of policy from implementation and focuses on the eeects of placement policy on fragmentation. It studies the eeects of policy decisions such as object placement, splitting, and coalescing, on storage fragmentation. A useful and accurate measurement of fragmentation is presented that is based on the amount of waste at the point of peak memory usage. We have attempted to pick a representative set of allocators from the space of reasonable combinations of known policies. The allocators are used in memory allocation simulations to determine their respective fragmentation. Our results show that the best t (FIFO, LIFO or address-ordered) and address-ordered rst t policies yield the lowest fragmentation on average (14%), and that the overheads associated with these allocators are the largest source of wasted memory. We also explain how best t can be implemented eeciently. A representative set of real program allocation traces is used in the simulations, and compared with randomized traces, to show that the application's patterns of allocation are an important factor in the allocator's performance and that studies based on synthetic traces are fundamentally awed. Contents Acknowledgments iv Abstract v Chapter 1 Overview 1 viii Bibliography 77 Vita 81 ix Chapter 1 Overview Memory allocation is the problem of maintaining an application's heap space by keeping track of allocated and freed blocks. In this study, we are only interested in non-moving memory allocation, the kind that is used in most conventional computer systems. Allocators that can move objects are called compacting allocators because they can move allocated objects together to make more contiguous free space available. Compaction complicates pointer manipulation and makes applications slower due to the time overhead of copying blocks of memory, and the costs of tracking and updating pointers to moved blocks 23]. In particular, we are interested in allocation policies that use the application's heap space eeciently. Some allocators leave unusable holes in memory known as fragmentation. These holes are created when …
An alternative power tracing method for transmission open access

The competitive environment of electricity markets necessitates wide access to transmission networks that connect dispersed customers and suppliers. Regardless of market structure, it is important to know whether or not, and to what extent, each power system user contributes to the usage of a particular system component. This information facilitates the restructured power system to operate economically and efficiently. Moreover it brings fair pricing and open access to all system users. Due to non linear nature of power flow, it is difficult to determine transmission usage accurately. Therefore it required to use approximate models, tracing algorithms or sensitivity indices for usage allocation. The tracing methods are based on the actual power flows in the network and the proportional sharing principle. To date several tracing algorithms have been proposed in the literature [1-11]. A novel tracing method is presented in [1-3]. But, even though the approach is conceptually very simple, it requires inverting a sparse matrix of the rank equal to the number of network nodes. In [4] graph theory is applied to trace active power and it is limited to systems without loop flows. Reference [5] is based on the concept of generator ‘domains’, ‘commons’ and ‘links’. Nodal generation distribution factor (NGDF) [7] for active and reactive power allocation is based on time consuming search algorithm. AC power flow tracing algorithms [8], [9] use a complicated line representation to account for the losses and line charging, Detecting and solving the loop flows is a pre requisite to these methods. In order to overcome the difficulties arise in reactive power tracing due to interaction cause by losses, [10] traces active and reactive power using real and imaginary currents respectively. This technique automatically becomes lossless real and imaginary current networks and does not require to model line losses but the method still involves the disadvantages of the concept of ‘domains’ and ‘commons’. Reference [11], proved that real and imaginary current networks are acyclic directed graphs. Then authors attempt to show the share of the generators to the loads, ignoring line charging elements. The above mentioned disadvantages have been the reason for developing a new method to know how much, and to what extent, each generator supplies to each load. The algorithm uses the advantages of real and imaginary current networks along with the basic concept of graph theory. Starting from load flow solutions, it first decomposes line complex currents based on the proportion of generator and network injected currents. The amount of current attributed to each current source in the lines and to each current sink is then used to allocate the contribution from each active and reactive generator to system loads. Shunt elements are handled by introducing additional fictitious nodes.
Stereoscopic distance perception

Limited cue, open-loop tasks in which a human observer indicates distances or relations among distances are discussed. By open-loop tasks, it is meant tasks in which the observer gets no feedback as to the accuracy of the responses. What happens when cues are added and when the loop is closed are considered. The implications of this research for the effectiveness of visual displays is discussed. Errors in visual distance tasks do not necessarily mean that the percept is in error. The error could arise in transformations that intervene between the percept and the response. It is argued that the percept is in error. It is also argued that there exist post-perceptual transformations that may contribute to the error or be modified by feedback to correct for the error.
The Philosophy of Grammar

1. Living grammar 2. Systematic grammar 3. Systematic grammar (continued) 4. Parts of speech 5. Substantive and adjectives 6. Parts of speech (concluded) 7. The three ranks 8. Junction and nexus 9. Various kinds of nexus 10. Nexus-substantives. Final words on nexus 11. Subject and predicate 12. Object. Active and passive 13. Case 14. Number 15. Number (concluded) 16. Person 17. Sex and Gender 18. Comparison 19. Time and tense 20. Time and tense (concluded 21. Direct and indirect speech 22. Classification of utterances 23. Moods 24. Negation 25. Conclusion
A Good Year for viXra

The main part of viXra is the pre-print archive which we started in 2009 for scientists and mathematicians who experienced problems submitting to other archives such as arXiv. Since then it has gone from strength to strength as shown in the plots of paper upload and download counts. We now have over 4000 pre-prints online. The blog, viXra Log, has passed the 1 million view mark in December Thank you all for your support.
On the acquisition of Italian restrictive relative clauses in typical and atypical development

La tesi presenta i risultati di un esperimento di produzione elicitata di frasi relative restrittive in bambini italiani dai 6 ai 10 anni di età, con sviluppo tipico o dislessia. L'esperimento si inserisce in un progetto più ampio di elaborazione di un nuovo test di produzione volto a elicitare le seguenti strutture sintattiche: frasi relative soggetto/oggetto, frasi scisse soggetto/oggetto, passive e domande. Nella tesi ci focalizziamo sull'acquisizione delle relative restrittive nelle varie fasce d'età e sulle asimmetrie riscontrate in presenza di sviluppo tipico/atipico, individuando linee di demarcazione utili alla pratica clinica. Inoltre, presentiamo importanti modifiche apportate al test della Preferenza elaborato da Novogrodsky e Friedmann (2006) per la produzione elicitata di frasi relative nell'ebraico, e successivamente adattato per il suo utilizzo in vari studi sull'italiano (Utzeri, 2006; 2007; Volpato, 2010; Contemori, 2011; Guasti et al., 2012), nonché nel presente studio. In questo modo, ci inseriamo nell'acceso dibattito sull'acquisizione delle frasi relative fornendo dati importanti sulle differenze riscontrabili in acquisizione in presenza di sviluppo tipico o atipico. Diversamente dagli studi sopra citati, abbiamo riscontrato e analizzato delle asimmetrie fra relative con gap e relative resuntive, riguardanti la natura della testa (quello/DP lessicale) e la posizione dei soggetti (preverbali/postverbali); inoltre, questo è il primo studio sull’Italiano che presenta dati sulla natura della testa relativa in bambini normodotati/con dislessia, individuando differenze nella produzione fra i vari gruppi di età.