Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PERFORMANCE MONITOR TECHNIQUES FOR NOISE ROBUST SPEECH

Performance of automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems degrade rapidly when there is a mismatch between test and training acoustic conditions. Knowledge about the performance of an ASR system for an unknown test utterance can be useful in improving the robustness of ASR system. In this work we propose two techniques to estimate the performance of ASR system. The first technique, namely, M-delta measure is an extension of the previously proposed Mmeasure. The M-measure, predicts confidence in the output of a probability estimator by measuring divergences of probability estimates spaced at specific time intervals. The M-measure is improved by explicitly taking into account the probability that distant frames have different phoneme labels, providing a more accurate indicator of the estimator’s ability to distinguish between phonemes. The proposed techniques for confidence estimation are evaluated in a multistream-based adaptation paradigm [2]. A new autoencoder based technique for estimating the performance of ASR systems is also proposed in this work. For a well trained autoencoder, reconstruction error of a vector sampled from the training distribution will be small compared to a vector sampled from a different distribution. Statistics computed from the reconstruction error are used as estimates of the accuracy of a given test utterance. The proposed technique is used to predict performance of deep neural network based large vocabulary continuous speech recognition system. In terms of correlation with word error rate, the proposed technique performs better than M-measure.
The Effect of 7 E Learning Cycle on Learning in Science Teaching : A meta-Analysis Study

This article reports the results of a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of 7E learning cycle in science teaching. Totally 35 different effect sizes from 24 experimental studies, comprising 2918 students were included in the meta-analysis. The results confirmed that 7E learning cycle have a positive effect on students’ achievement. The overall effect size (Hedges’s g) value obtained from independent studies was calculated as 1.245 (% 95 CI, SE = .148) between confidence intervals 956 and 1.534 according to the random effects model. Among all effect sizes 32 had a positive effect whereas 3 of them had negative effect. A number of sub-group analyses (school level, type of publication, subject matter and duration) were conducted. The effect of 7E was not significant for school level, type of publication and duration. However, regarding the subject matter a significant difference was observed. The high effect size calculated in this meta-analysis implies that the 7E learning cycle is a useful strategy that should be included in science curriculums.
IMPROVING TEXTBOOK UNDERSTANDING IN WRITE TO LEFT LANGUAGE ( CASE STUDY OF PERSIAN TEXTBOOK )

This study aimed to investigate the effect of Persian font type on reading speed, accuracy and comprehension of textbooks. The research plan was pretest-posttest experimental design with control group. The population of study was third grade elementary student at Bakarz city in academic year of 2014-2015. Using clustering sampling 4 classrooms with 60 students selected and assigned in 4 groups, 19 students in control group and 41 students in 3 experimental groups. In order to gadder data a text from the course of “reading Persian” presents to groups with four different font types. Reading speed assessed with chronometer, accuracy assessed with the number of student Incorrect answers and comprehension assessed with teacher made test. Validity of test analyzed by teachers and the reliability estimated . 85 by test-retest method. Covariance test where used to analyze data. Results revealed there is no differences between groups in “reading speed” and “comprehension” but significant differences were found in “accuracy” variable. Based on finding “Zar” as a Persian font type improve accuracy of reading. According to system view students and their study habit are the input of university and they are the readers of university books therefore this study conclude and recommend finding for university level.
Ethno-Network Homogeneity on Facebook: Does Friendship Demographic Composition Contribute to Users’ Wellbeing and Self-Esteem?

Social capital theory (Bourdieu, 1986) sees social benefits in friendship networks, particularly those comprised of densely close-knit relationships. Based on this premise, this study investigated the socio-psychological benefits – in terms of wellbeing and self-esteem – embedded in ethno-homogenous networks among Facebook users. The dynamic was further complicated with the inclusion of other network-related moderators of psychological welfare (that is, ethnic identity strength, narcissism, and social comparisons on Facebook). Only Facebook users (N = 160) who socially compared to their network or experienced higher scores of narcissism predicted psychological outcomes. Study findings continue to support social media studies that suggest shifts in wellbeing and self-esteem among Facebook users, but observed results contradict the belief that the socio-demographic structure of networks predicts the relationship (see Seder & Oishi, 2009). Obtained findings are explained under a social identity framework (Tajfel & Turner, 1986) and the unfavorable side of social capital (Portes, 1998).
Determining the metallicity of the solar envelope using seismic inversion techniques

The solar metallicity issue is a long-lasting problem of astrophysics, impacting multi- ple fields and still subject to debate and uncertainties. While spectroscopy has mostly been used to determine the solar heavy elements abundance, helioseismologists at- tempted providing a seismic determination of the metallicity in the solar convective enveloppe. However, the puzzle remains since two independent groups prodived two radically different values for this crucial astrophysical parameter. We aim at provid- ing an independent seismic measurement of the solar metallicity in the convective enveloppe. Our main goal is to help provide new information to break the current stalemate amongst seismic determinations of the solar heavy element abundance. We start by presenting the kernels, the inversion technique and the target function of the inversion we have developed. We then test our approach in multiple hare-and-hounds exercises to assess its reliability and accuracy. We then apply our technique to solar data using calibrated solar models and determine an interval of seismic measurements for the solar metallicity. We show that our inversion can indeed be used to estimate the solar metallicity thanks to our hare-and-hounds exercises. However, we also show that further dependencies in the physical ingredients of solar models lead to a low accuracy. Nevertheless, using various physical ingredients for our solar models, we determine metallicity values between 0.008 and 0.014.
Asynchronous Parallel Ant-Colony Optimization Strategies : Application to the Multi-Depot Vehicle Scheduling Problem with Line Exchanges

The Multi-Depot Vehicle Scheduling Problem with Line Exchanges is an NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem arising in transit service companies. Due to the complexity of the problem and the large size of the search space, complete search cannot be used in order to guarantee optimality. Hence, we adopted the Ant-Colony Optimization (ACO) metaheuristic. ACO can be improved using parallel computing. However, in order to maintain the semantics of the original ACO metaheuristic, parallelization strategies need to be synchronous, originating the straggler problem. We propose three shared-memory asynchronous parallelization strategies that break the original ACO algorithm semantics and differ essentially on the degree of concurrency allowed while manipulating the learned information. The results show that two of our asynchronous strategies outperform synchronous ones in terms of the speedup achieved and also solution quality. Additionally, the speedup increases as the level of concurrency allowed in asynchronous strategies increases, without sacrificing the quality of the solutions obtained. The proposed strategies effectiveness is validated through an analysis and discussion of the ACO convergence and scalability, in terms of search depth and number of threads used in a shared-memory architecture, with multi-core processors.
DYNAMICS OF A SUBTROPICAL POPULATION OF THE ZEBRA LONGWING BUTTERFLY HELICONIUS CHARITHONIA (NYMPHALIDAE)

Abstract We studied the population dynamics of the zebra longwing butterfly, Heliconius charithonia (Nymphalidae), in a 0.05 ha garden in Miami, Florida, for 2 years to answer the following questions: (1) How stable is a suburban, subtropical population of this widespread neotropical butterfly? (2) What are the major factors influencing its population dynamics? (3) What are the implications of adult mobility regarding gene flow within and between fragmented urban populations of this species? A mark-recapture study indicated that adult population size averaged 59 individuals (range: 9-115 individuals). Peak numbers occurred in mid-wet season (September) in 1996 and in the late dry and early wet seasons (April through June) in 1997. Fluctuations in size of the adult population paralleled changes in biomass of the larval food plant, Passiflora incense. Population sex ratio was consistently male-biased (68% males). Reproduction occurred year-round, and parasitism by a trichogrammatid wasp killed about 50% of Heliconius eggs throughout the year. Recruitment of adults from chrysalises produced in the garden and deaths, rather than immigration and emigration, accounted for most numerical changes. Both males and females apparently adjust their home range locations in response to changes in the biomass of Passiflora plants. Females search these plants for suitable oviposition sites, and males search them for female pupae (mates). In addition to relatively high mortality from egg parasitism, fluctuations in the number of suitable oviposition sites and amount of larval food limited recruitment into the adult butterfly population. High adult mobility probably results in substantial gene flow within and between populations of this butterfly in urban south Florida.
On the foundations of Lévy nance : Equilibrium for a single-agent nancial market with jumps

For a continuous-time nancial market with a single agent, we establish equilibrium pricing formulae under the assumption that the dividends follow an exponential Lévy process. The agent is allowed to consume a lump at the terminal date; before, only ow consumption is allowed. The agent's utility function is assumed to be additive, de ned via strictly increasing, strictly concave smooth felicity functions which are bounded below (thus, many CRRA and CARA utility functions are included). For technical reasons we require that only pathwise continuous trading strategies are permitted in the demand set. The resulting equilibrium prices depend on the agent's risk-aversion through the felicity functions. It turns out that the these prices will be the (stochastic) exponential of a Lévy process essentially only if this process is geometric Brownian motion.
FREQUENCY-AWARE CNN FOR OPEN SET ACOUSTIC SCENE CLASSIFICATION

This report describes systems used for Task 1c of the DCASE 2019 Challenge - Open Set Acoustic Scene Classiﬁcation. The main sys-tem consists of a 5-layer convolutional neural network which preserves the location of features on the frequency axis. This is in contrast to the standard approach where global pooling is applied along the frequency-related dimension. Additionally the main sys-tem is combined with an ensemble of calibrated neural networks in order to improve generalization.
Long-Term Outcomes in Juvenile Fibromyalgia (JFM) Patients with Early Reports of Potentially Traumatic Events (PTEs)

Juvenile Fibromyalgia (JFM) is a pediatric chronic pain condition characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain and multiple tender points. JFM impacts individuals both physically and mentally with symptoms including frequent headaches, chronic fatigue, decreased physical activity, anxiety, and depression. The impact of potentially traumatic events (PTEs) on the JFM population is poorly understood in the literature. However, it is well understood that exposure to PTEs are commonly associated with increased psychopathology and somatic symptoms. It is important to understand whether individuals with a combination of PTEs and JFM are placed at greater risk for negative long-term outcomes. This study sets out to gain an understanding of the types of PTEs that are experienced by a sample of youth diagnosed with JFM. Additionally, utilizing data over an eight-year time period, long-term outcomes in youth with JFM and PTEs were explored through a dose-response model. Results found that more than half of the sample endorsed exposure to a PTE. A dose-response relationship was observed with PTEs and JFM symptom severity. Conversely, PTEs did not predict depression, average level of pain, pain locations, physical function or role limitations due to physical problems. Similarly, PTEs did not predict health care utilization (outpatient visits, radiological scans, and emergency department visits). Results suggest that PTEs are complex and require additional research to understand the extent to which PTEs impact youth with chronic pain. Preliminary findings show a significant relationship between PTEs and JFM symptom severity, however, the mechanisms that influence this relationship is not well understood. Thus, future work should focus on identifying the mechanisms that influence this relationship in order to better understand this
Adult attachment and emotional intelligence

123 Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering & Sciences Publication Retrieval Number: A10170581S19/19©BEIESP Abstract: This study aims to identify the relationship between adult attachment and emotional intelligence among trainee counsellors in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. This research is the study of correlational design. The sample consisted of 50 respondents consist of trainee counsellors from third year of Counselling. The study involves two main variables of Adult Attachment and Emotional Intelligence. In this study, the questionnaire used is Experience in Close Relationship (ECR) developed by Brennan and Shaver, (1998) and Emotional Intelligence Self-Assessment developed by Paul Mohapel. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) analysis showed a significant relationship between Attachment Avoidant and Emotional Awareness with Pearson correlation value of -0.538 indicates strong negative correlations. This finding showed that people with attachment avoidant would have low emotional awareness made them not aware of other people feeling and emotional condition, as they tend to avoid from facing any issue. This research would benefit the field of counselling in the future.
Iconicity a ff ects children ’ s comprehension of complex sentences : The role of semantics , clause order , input and individual di ff erences

Complex sentences involving adverbial clauses appear in children’s speech at about three years of age yet children have difficulty comprehending these sentences well into the school years. To date, the reasons for these difficulties are unclear, largely because previous studies have tended to focus on only sub-types of adverbial clauses, or have tested only limited theoretical models. In this paper, we provide the most comprehensive experimental study to date. We tested four-year-olds, five-year-olds and adults on four different adverbial clauses (before, after, because, if) to evaluate four different theoretical models (semantic, syntactic, frequency-based and capacity-constrained). 71 children and 10 adults (as controls) completed a forced-choice, picture-selection comprehension test, providing accuracy and response time data. Children also completed a battery of tests to assess their linguistic and general cognitive abilities. We found that children’s comprehension was strongly influenced by semantic factors – the iconicity of the event-to-language mappings – and that their response times were influenced by the type of relation expressed by the connective (temporal vs. causal). Neither input frequency (frequency-based account), nor clause order (syntax account) or working memory (capacity-constrained account) provided a good fit to the data. Our findings thus contribute to the development of more sophisticated models of sentence processing. We conclude that such models must also take into account how children’s emerging linguistic understanding interacts with developments in other cognitive domains such as their ability to construct mental models and reason flexibly about them.
Optimized Quantum State Transitions : A Survey of the Quantum Brachistochrone Problem

The quantum brachistochrone problem – to find the time-optimal transition between given initial and final quantum states – is investigated in this bachelor’s thesis. First the quantum equivalent of distance (the Fubini-Study metric) is formulated, using geometry of spheres. Together with constraints, it is used to create the quantum action. Functional derivatives are then taken of said action to find equations of motion (eoms). For the unconstrained case (excluding finite energy), these eoms are solved in closed form, whilst general to be solved formulae are obtained for the constrained case. The latter is used to explicitly solve an example quantum brachistochrone problem: a spin-1/2 particle in a controllable magnetic field constrained to an x-y plane. Finally, the link with quantum computing is illustrated through the time-optimization of unitary transformations that the quantum brachistochrone yields us. Mathematics Supervisor: Prof. Dr. H. Waalkens Physics Supervisor: Prof. Dr. G. Palasantzas Scholtens, R.W. Optimized Quantum State Transitions
1 Overeducation and Social Generations : Welfare Regimes and Inter Cohort Inequalities in Return to Education : 1

This paper presents a comparative theory and an emp irical analysis of intercohort inequalities in terms of economic opportunities and of returns to e ducation. It focuses on the consequences of economic slow down in different models of welfare r egimes and analyses how discontinuities in economic trends could have diverse responses in ter ms of balance between birth cohorts. We will analyze how these changes could configure divergent birth-cohort life chances, and, in fine, could create different conditions for the emergence of so cial generations (Mannheim, 1928).
THERMAL INSTABILITY IN A LAYER OF COUPLE STRESS NANOFLUID SATURATED POROUS MEDIUM

Thermal instability in a horizontal layer of Couple-stress nanofluid in a porous medium is investigated. Darcy model is used for porous medium. The model used for nanofluid incorporates the effect of Brownian diffusion and thermophoresis. The flux of volume fraction of nanoparticle is taken to be zero on the isothermal boundaries. Normal mode analysis and perturbation method is employed to solve the eigenvalue problem with the Rayleigh number as eigenvalue. Oscillatory convection cannot occur for the problem. The effects of Couple-stress parameter, Lewis number, modified diffusivity ratio, concentration Rayleigh number and porosity on stationary convection are shown both analytically and graphically.
Cognitive Development re there different pathways to explicit false belief nderstanding ? General language and complementation in ypical and atypical children

Though converging empirical evidence strongly supports the role of language in explicit false belief understanding (FBU), there is a lack of consensus on the theoretical basis of this link. This debate has centered on whether complement syntax is required for FBU or whether general language skills are sufficient. Although hundreds of investigations have confirmed the role of language in FBU, the precise role of complementation and general language remains unclear. In the present review, we selectively examine through both meta-analysis and qualitative analysis, only studies that utilize both complementation and general language measures in typically and atypically developing children (e.g., children with autism). These analyses supported the general language hypothesis, but not the complementation hypothesis in typically developing children. In contrast, the complementation hypothesis was supported in the children with autism, as well (children with deafness and SLI). Together, these results suggests there are different linguistic pathways for developing FBU in typical and atypical children. These alternate routes may be attributable to differences in children’s ability to benefit from social interactions in acquiring FBU. Finally, we discuss suggestions for future research including methodological choices in research design, language assessments, and populations. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Phytochemical Analysis of Bark Extract of Cinnamomum verum : A Medicinal Herb Used for the Treatment of Coronary Heart Disease in Malayali Tribes , Pachamalai Hills , Tamil Nadu , India

The present study was carried out to characterize the bioactive constituent present in bark extract of Cinnamomum verumusing UV-VIS and FTIR analysis. The crude extract of Cinnamomumverum was scanned in the wave length ranging from 200-800 nm by using Perkin Elmer spectrophotometer system and the characteristic peaks were detected. FTIR analysis was also performed on a Perkin Elmer spectrophotometer system, which was used to detect the characteristic peak value and their functional groups. UV-Vis profile showed peaks at 286 nm, 206nm and 219 nm with observation of 0.5, 0.7 and 0.6 respectively. FTIR analysis results proved the presence of alcohols, phenols, alkynes, alkanes, aromatic amines, alkyl halides, aliphatic amines and major functional groups observed were cinnamaldehyde and eugenol.
A double-edged sword : credit market imperfections , stereotyping , and education subsidies

We examine a framework with statistical discrimination where potential workers differ along both race (black and white) and class (rich and poor) lines, and poor workers of either race must access an imperfect credit market if they wish to get educated. We show that the greater average income level of the whites translates into more stringent labour market standards, as well as lower utility faced by all black workers. These labour market outcomes have consequences in the loan market, and leads to higher interest rates, as well as higher default rates for black workers. Further, any stereotyping by prospective employers exacerbates the twin problems faced by poor blacks: poorer labour market prospects and also higher interest rates in the credit market. These results are consistent with empirical findings that poor minorities indeed face worse terms in the credit market. Turning to policy, while small educational subsidies targeted at the poor reduce interest rates for poor workers, and improve labour market outcome for all workers, a large enough subsidy may be counter-productive as it may lead to labour market stereo-typing in certain economies, when not only are the rich blacks worse off, but even the poor blacks may be adversely affected. JEL No.: J71, J78, D78, D82.