Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ensemble of Multimodal Deep Learning Models for Violin Bowing Techniques Classification

—Bowing gesture while playing violin refers to the motion of the violinist’s arm. Violinists use different types of bow strokes to express musical phrases, played by the movement of the right arm holding the fiddle bow. Although the sound produced by each bow stroke is distinct, it can be difficult for new fiddlers to distinguish and recognize these bowing techniques. So, this paper presents a novel approach of an ensemble of multimodal deep learning models consisting of one Convolution Neural Network (CNN) and two Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) models to classify into one of the five bowing classes: detaché, legato, martelé, spiccato and staccato. The dataset used consists of audio samples performed by 8 violinists along with the motion of their forearms measured using a Myo sensor device, to acquire 8-channels of Electromyogram (EMG) data and 13-channels of Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) data. The audio features are extracted from audio excerpts and time domain features are extracted from EMG and IMU motion signals. These features are passed into an ensemble of deep learning models to make the final prediction using weighted voting. The proposed ensemble classifier was able to deliver optimal results with an overall accuracy of 99.5%, which is better than the previous studies that took only either audio or motion data into consideration.
Physical and data structure of 3D genome

New theoretical and experimental work suggests that 10-nm chromatin fiber is folded into tree-like domains in single cells. With the textbook view of chromatin folding based on the 30-nm fiber being challenged, it has been proposed that interphase DNA has an irregular 10-nm nucleosome polymer structure whose folding philosophy is unknown. Nevertheless, experimental advances suggest that this irregular packing is associated with many nontrivial physical properties that are puzzling from a polymer physics point of view. Here, we show that the reconciliation of these exotic properties necessitates modularizing three-dimensional genome into tree data structures on top of, and in striking contrast to, the linear topology of DNA double helix. These functional modules need to be connected and isolated by an open backbone that results in porous and heterogeneous packing in a quasi–self-similar manner, as revealed by our electron and optical imaging. Our multiscale theoretical and experimental results suggest the existence of higher-order universal folding principles for a disordered chromatin fiber to avoid entanglement and fulfill its biological functions.
Targeted Temperature Management for Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Literature Review

Despite significant advances in medical imaging, thrombolytic therapy, and mechanical thrombectomy, acute ischemic strokes (AIS) remain a major cause of mortality and morbidity globally. Targeted temperature management (TTM) has emerged as a potential therapeutic intervention, aiming to mitigate neuronal damage and improve outcomes. This literature review examines the efficacy and challenges of TTM in the context of an AIS. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using databases such as PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Studies were selected based on relevance and quality. We identified key factors influencing the effectiveness of TTM such as its timing, depth and duration, and method of application. The review also highlighted challenges associated with TTM, including increased pneumonia rates. The target temperature range was typically between 32 and 36 °C, with the duration of cooling from 24 to 72 h. Early initiation of TTM was associated with better outcomes, with optimal results observed when TTM was started within the first 6 h post-stroke. Emerging evidence indicates that TTM shows considerable potential as an adjunctive treatment for AIS when implemented promptly and with precision, thereby potentially mitigating neuronal damage and enhancing overall patient outcomes. However, its application is complex and requires the careful consideration of various factors.
Trait identity and functional diversity co‐drive response of ecosystem productivity to nitrogen enrichment

Exploring the mechanisms underlying the change in ecosystem productivity under anthropogenic nitrogen (N) inputs is of fundamental ecological interest. It has been proposed that functional traits, environmental factors and species richness are central drivers linking ecosystem productivity with environmental change. However, few studies have considered the joint effects of functional traits, environmental factors and species richness on ecosystem productivity under increasing N inputs. We established a N‐manipulation experiment in a Tibetan alpine steppe in 2013. Using structural equation models, we assessed the effects of N‐induced changes in environmental factors, species richness and trait metrics (mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis of trait distribution) on gross ecosystem productivity as well as three resource use efficiencies (water, light and phosphorus (P) use efficiencies), based on measurements during the peak growing season in 2016. We found that both light and P use efficiencies decreased under N enrichment, largely due to the N‐induced decline in functional diversity of leaf P concentration. However, both gross ecosystem productivity and water use efficiency exhibited initial increases and subsequent slight decreases with N addition. These nonlinear patterns were closely associated with both the increased morphological trait (i.e. mean of leaf area) and decreased diversity of leaf P concentration. Synthesis. Our results illustrate how N‐induced changes in functional traits may have dual effects on ecosystem productivity: the stimulating effects of the dominant trait identity via increasing canopy light interception versus the inhibiting effect of decreasing trait diversity via declining resource use efficiencies. Our results highlight the importance of including functional traits in land surface models to improve predictions of the response of ecosystem function to N inputs.
Uwarunkowania rozwoju przedsiębiorczości na obszarach wiejskich na przykładzie gospodarstw agroturystycznych województwa małopolskiego

Agritourism seems to be the fastest growing form of rural tourism and at the same time a manifestation of entrepreneurship of farmers in recent years. It’s essence relates to the provision of services by operating farm and its surroundings. Its essence relates to the provision of services by operating a farm and its surroundings. It’s a trend in the development of modern tourism, relies on growing interest in environmentally friendly tourism. The main purpose of this type of tourism is to care for the preservation of sustainable resource development and tourism values through the integration of tourism activities with the objectives of nature conservation and socio-economic life. The aim of the study is to show conditions for the development of agritourism in the Malopolska Voivodeship and its state and ongoing changes. The basis of the characteristics of a given problem was to analyze literature, data on the number of tourist farms based on the materials contained in the statistical yearbooks and other sources published and collected by the authors from official web portals of municipalities and counties on tourism, including agritourism. The authors estimated the number of farms in the region and analyzed their activities. In order to supplement and verify the collected material a survey was carried out in 175 randomly selected farms. In-depth interviews with landowners about your business and services have been conducted.Natural, historical and demographic conditions existing in the Malopolska province cause that the agrarian structure is and will be dominated by agriculture and small-scale farms. Under these conditions, a major challenge for entrepreneurial activities among farmers engaged in agritourism is to overcome resulting from the historical past the aversion to all forms of association and joint initiatives. Joint initiatives in this area by creating new tourism offers related to existing resources and to promote them may be a key issue in terms of survival and development of small farms and related tourist services.
Effects of Vertical Seismic Accelerations on Slope Displacements

The behaviour of earth slopes under seismic conditions can be effectively studied by evaluating the suffered displacements, which are key parameters in the recent performance design approaches (Pianc/PTCII/WG34, 200 1). Different methodologies have been developed to evaluate displacements (Whitman, 1993). Slope instabilities caused by yielding due to seismic inertial forces can be studied by methods based on the well-known model of a rigid block sliding on a plane surface wewmark 1965). These methodologies utilise accelerometric time histories which allow to take into account the real characteristics of the seismic motion (Simonelli and Viggiani 1995). Displacement analyses are traditionally performed adopting only horizontal accelerograms. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effects of vertical components of seismic motions. In this case, the critical acceleration depends on the direction of the resulting motion (Sarma 1975, 1999). The analyses have been performed for three major Italian earthquakes. The case of an indefinite slope in dry cohesionless soil has been examined. The results of the analyses have been synthesised in diagrams, which show that the displacement variations induced by vertical accelerations are negligible for the range of displacements values (of the order of centimetres), which are of interest from an engineering point of view.
Temporal and spatial patterns of sediment routing across the southeast margin of the Tibetan Plateau: Insights from detrital zircon

The Cenozoic deposits of the Tibetan Plateau's southeastern margin are often cited as part of a continental‐scale river system connecting the Paleo‐Yangtze River with the Paleo‐Red River. Confirming the purported connection and any subsequent drainage reorganization has garnered significant attention and varied proposed ages for reorganization. This study presents detrital zircon U‐Pb ages and paleocurrents in Eocene to Pleistocene sedimentary basin deposits distributed over a broad area of the southeast Tibetan Plateau margin within the area of proposed paleoriver connectivity. When combined with previously published studies, our U‐Pb ages allow examination of the temporal and spatial distributions of provenance throughout the Cenozoic. We identify six key age components of the detrital U‐Pb age distributions and use these to examine the patterns of sediment provenance for different Cenozoic epochs. Detailed analysis of these components shows that provenance for both onshore and offshore deposits is best described by local bedrock sources and provides little to no evidence of regional changes in provenance. This suggests that a stable fluvial system similar to the modern drainage network has existed since the Eocene with no evidence for major provenance‐altering river capture. Paleoflow measurements taken throughout the SE margin further corroborate the results of detrital zircon provenance. The combination of U‐Pb age components and paleocurrent directions does not support a Cenozoic connection between the Paleo‐Yangtze and Paleo‐Red Rivers.
Vaccinium gaultherioides: Another insight into water relations of alpine dwarf shrubs

Dwarf shrubs exhibit different requirements for a safe and efficient water supply compared to trees due their basitonic branching and low growth height. Though, only few studies dealt with the hydraulics of this growth form. Here we report key hydraulic parameters (vulnerability to drought-induced embolism, xylem hydraulic conductivity, cell osmotic potential, potential at turgor loss point) and related wood anatomical traits for Vaccinium gaultherioides, a wide-spread species in the European Alps. The results affirm the current knowledge, by indicating a relatively risky hydraulic strategy with low hydraulic safety compared to alpine trees and osmotic properties connected to the species’ soil humidity requirements.
Fluvial transport of impact evidence from cratonic interior to passive margin: Vredefort-derived shocked zircon on the Atlantic coast of South Africa

Abstract Meteorite impacts produce shocked minerals in target rocks that record diagnostic high-pressure deformation microstructures unique to hypervelocity processes. When impact craters erode, detrital shocked minerals can be transported by fluvial processes, as has been demonstrated through studies of modern alluvium at some of the largest known impact structures. However, the ultimate fate of distally transported detrital shocked minerals in fluvial systems is not well understood and is an important parameter for constraining the location of a source crater. In South Africa, detrital shocked minerals from the 2020 Ma Vredefort impact structure have been documented in the Vaal River basin, downriver from the structure. Here, we report results of an extensive microstructural survey of detrital zircon from the Orange River basin and the Atlantic coast of South Africa to search for the presence of far-traveled Vredefort-derived detrital shocked zircon grains in different modern sedimentary environments. Three shocked grains were found out of 11 168 grains surveyed (0.03%) by scanning electron microscopy, including two in beach sand on the Atlantic coast and one from a sandbar 15 km upstream from the mouth of the Orange River. Shock-produced {112} twins documented by electron backscatter diffraction in each of the three grains confirm their impact provenance, and U-Pb ages from 3130 to 3040 Ma are consistent with derivation from bedrock at the Vredefort impact structure. These results demonstrate the transport of Vredefort-derived shocked zircon to the coast via the Vaal-Orange river system, which requires 1940 km of fluvial transport from their point source on the Kaapvaal craton to the Atlantic coast passive margin. These results further demonstrate that shocked zircon grains can be detected in detrital populations at abundances <1%, and can ultimately be transported outside their basin of origin when they arrive at continental margins. Detrital shocked zircon thus constitutes long-lived evidence of former impacts, as they retain microstructural evidence of shock deformation, as well as geochemical (U-Th-Pb) fingerprints of their source terrain. The study of detrital shocked minerals uniquely merges impact cratering with sedimentology, as identification of detrital grains with diagnostic shock microstructures in siliciclastic sediments can be applied to search the sedimentary record for evidence of eroded impact structures of any age, from the Phanerozoic to the Hadean, which can aid in reconstructing the impact record of Earth.
An Attentive Hough Transform Module for Building Extraction From High Resolution Aerial Imagery

In the era of abundant high-resolution aerial imagery, the automatic extraction of buildings is indispensable for applications like disaster response, environmental monitoring, and urban growth analysis. Deep learning approaches, particularly fully convolutional networks, have exhibited remarkable performance in this challenging task. Nevertheless, the accurate identification and delineation of building boundaries pose persistent challenges hindering further improvements in building extraction precision. To tackle these, we introduce a novel deep learning architecture explicitly designed for building extraction in high-resolution aerial images. Our method addresses the precise identification of building borders by combining both local and global contextual information. We efficiently preserve object boundaries and optimize the representation of straight lines within buildings through the integration of the Attentive Hough Transform and Inverse Hough Transform (AttHT-IHT) module into the U-Net architecture. Extensive experiments on the Potsdam dataset showcase substantial enhancements in building extraction accuracy, with a 97.73% accuracy rating and a 96.42% recall rate. Generalization capability on the WHU satellite dataset I was assessed to validate the adaptability of our proposed method.
Managers’ perception of product market competition and earnings management: a textual analysis of firms’ 10-K reports

PurposeIn this study, the author examines the effect of managers’ perception of product market competition on accruals and real earnings management.Design/methodology/approachThe author develops a new text-based measure of the emphasis managers place on product market competition by conducting a textual analysis of firms’ 10-K filings. Using this measure, the author conducts a battery of econometric analyses and robustness checks to investigate the impact of this measure of product market competition on measures of accruals and real earnings management.FindingsThis study finds robust evidence that when management perceives more competitive threats, they are more likely to engage in accruals-based earnings manipulation but are less likely to engage in real earnings management activity. The author argues that these findings are due to managers’ career concerns enticing them to manage earnings via accrual when competition is high, but that greater product market competition discourages real earning management activity as it can diminish firms’ competitiveness.Practical implicationsThe findings of this paper have important policy and practical implications since it signals that managers’ perceptions of product market competition is able to affect accounting choices, information environments and economic outcomes in firms.Originality/valueThis study develops a new text-based measure of managers’ perception of product market competition with the aid of GPT-4. The author then using this measure provides firm-level evidence on how this relates to earnings management.
Liver Stiffness Measurement is Useful in Predicting Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Among Nonalcohol Fatty Liver Disease Patients

Background Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are closely related conditions. Aim This study investigated a group of individuals with NAFLD to evaluate if liver fibrosis, identified by FibroScan, correlated with T2DM. Methods 154 NAFLD patients obtained FibroScan, liver ultrasonography (US), and a thorough assessment of clinical implications and chemical biomarkers. Results In comparison to the NAFLD without T2DM group, the hemoglobin A1c(HBA1c)(mmol/mol%), homeostasis model of assessment for insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), fibrosis indices, and liver stiffness measurement (LSM) values were all considerably higher in the NAFLD with T2DM group. Patients with NAFLD and T2DM had considerably lower serum uric acid(SUA) levels than those with NAFLD alone.Those with severe fibrosis (79.3%, 23/29) in the NAFLD group showed a greater frequency of T2DM than those with mild fibrosis (45.6%, 21/46) or no fibrosis (27.85%, 22/79) (P=0.000). LSM value and elements of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) were independent risk factors for incident T2DM among NAFLD patients (OR=1.466, 95% CI [1.139-1.888], P=0.003; and OR=0.273, 95% CI [0.081-0.916], P=0.036). Conclusion FibroScan can identify significant fibrosis, which is independently linked to a higher prevalence of T2DM. As a result, it is crucial to make use of this technology to predict T2DM in NAFLD patients.
Sea ice drift and deformation in the coastal boundary zone

Small‐scale sea ice deformation was studied in the coastal boundary zone (CBZ). Sequences of coastal radar images from the northern Baltic Sea (13 February to 13 May 2011) were used and trajectories of identifiable objects calculated. Average drift velocities in CBZ are small (<0.01 m/s), and events of high drift speeds are short and local. Deformations follow power law scaling but with an exponent of greater magnitude than in the Arctic. We discovered a connection between air temperature and sea ice deformation on a short time scale. During warm days, the mean deformation rate was significantly higher in all length scales than during cold days. This cannot be explained by changes in ice thickness or concentration, which suggests that the ice pack strength responds to air temperature faster than previously assumed. However, we cannot quantify how much this response is enhanced by lower ice thickness compared to the Arctic.
The expertise of internal accounting control personnel and financial statement conservatism: Korean evidence

The purpose of this study is to analyze how the expertise of internal accounting control personnel impacts financial statement conservatism. This study analyzed companies listed on the Korean stock market. Listed companies in Korea have been disclosing information on internal accounting personnel since 2012. Using a fixed-effect regression model, an analysis of 3,276 firm-years from 2012 to 2018 shows a positive correlation between the expertise of internal accounting control personnel and financial statement conservatism. The results from Ball and Shivakumar’s (2006) CF, DD, and Jones models are all significant at the 1% level, enhancing the robustness of the study’s findings. The coefficients were 0.872, 0.869, and 0.846, and the t-values were 3.93, 3.95, and 3.83 in each model. This indicates that firms with CPAs (Certified Public Accountant) among their internal accounting control personnel show stronger tendencies toward conservatism compared to those without CPAs. Furthermore, an analysis based on the firm ownership structure reveals a positive correlation between internal accounting control personnel expertise and financial statement conservatism in a non-Chaebol subsample (coefficient = 1.043, t-value = 3.58 in CF model); however, the results in the Chaebol subsample were not significant. This suggests that while having CPAs involved in non-Chaebol firms’ internal control is effective, it is not effective in Chaebol companies that are highly influenced by their owners.