Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analyzing analytical methods: The case of phonology in neural models of spoken language

Given the fast development of analysis techniques for NLP and speech processing systems, few systematic studies have been conducted to compare the strengths and weaknesses of each method. As a step in this direction we study the case of representations of phonology in neural network models of spoken language. We use two commonly applied analytical techniques, diagnostic classifiers and representational similarity analysis, to quantify to what extent neural activation patterns encode phonemes and phoneme sequences. We manipulate two factors that can affect the outcome of analysis. First, we investigate the role of learning by comparing neural activations extracted from trained versus randomly-initialized models. Second, we examine the temporal scope of the activations by probing both local activations corresponding to a few milliseconds of the speech signal, and global activations pooled over the whole utterance. We conclude that reporting analysis results with randomly initialized models is crucial, and that global-scope methods tend to yield more consistent and interpretable results and we recommend their use as a complement to local-scope diagnostic methods.
Heat Transmission Through Walls with Slotted Steel Studs

An insulated wall can be supported internally by thin steel studs. There will be extra heat loss caused by the metal U~studs, but slitting the web a/the V-studs perpendicular to the heatflow direction reduces this heat loss. Calculation of the heat transmittance is a difficult numerical problem due to the high ratio of thermal conductivity between the insulation and the steel. This study presents results of calculations in three dimensions. The proper choice of the numerical mesh is discussed. Simplified equations for the V-factor are derived and implemented in a computer program. The heat transmittance is quickly calculated for different parameters-thermal conductivity of insulation and steel, steel thickness, distance between studs, and additional insulated layers (with or without cross-laid steel studs), Afew results from hot box measurements are also presented. INTRODUCTION An insulated wall may be supported internally by steel studs, and there will be extra heat loss caused by the metal. Several authors estimate a 30% to 50% reduction of the wall thennal resistance due to the metal studs (Brown and Stephenson 1993; Kosny and Christian 1995; Trethowen 1988). Slitting the web of the studs perpendicular to the heat flow direction is an efficient way to reduce the thermal bridge effect. Calculation of the heat transmittance is a difficult numerical problem due to the high ratio of thermal conductivity between the insulation and the steel. This study presents threedimensional numerical calculations for a particular problem of this type. The proper choice of a numerical mesh is discussed. The dependence of the obtained U-factor on a number of different parameters is dealt with. Simplified equations for the U-factor are derived and implemented in a handy PC-program. The heat transmittance is quickly calculated for different parameters-thelmal conductivity of insulation and steel, steel thickness, distance between studs, and additional insulated layers (with or without cross-laid steel studs). The PC-program HEAT3 (Blomberg, 1998) has been used for the three-dimensional calculations. Figure I shows the structure of a wall in which insulation is contained between two gypsum boards of 13 mm thickness each. The distance between the metal U-studs is denoted by Lg• There is an extra heat loss caused by the metal V-studs. Slitting the web of the U-studs perpendicular to the heat flow direction, as shown in Figure 2, can reduce this heat loss. The thickness of the stud is denoted by t. The stud considered is a typical one that has been in use in Scandinavia for the last five to ten years. DATA FOR NUMERICAL CALCULATION The problem is not perfectly symmetrical due to different flange lengths (40 mm and 46 rnm, see Figure 2). However, this is neglected in the calculations, and the left flange length ~ l' I I I I \ I! \ \ \ \ I I I \ \ I \ \ \ \ \ I \ \ \ I I I \ I I \ I \ I \ \ \ I \ \ \ I \ I \ I \ \ n I \ I I \ \ \ \ \ I \ \ \ I \ \ \ \ \ \ \ I \ \ I \ \ \ \ \ I I \ \ \ \ \ I \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ I I 15 1\ \ ~ \ \ \ \ I I \ \ ,
The Gaussian Process Prior VAE for Interpretable Latent Dynamics from Pixels

We consider the problem of unsupervised learning of a low dimensional, interpretable, latent state of a video containing a moving object. The problem of distilling interpretable dynamics from pixels has been extensively considered through the lens of graphical/state space models (Fraccaro et al., 2017; Lin et al., 2018; Pearce et al., 2018; Chiappa and Paquet, 2019) that exploit Markov structure for cheap computation and structured priors for enforcing interpretability on latent representations. We take a step towards extending these approaches by discarding the Markov structure; inspired by Gaussian process dynamical models (Wang et al., 2006), we instead repurpose the recently proposed Gaussian Process Prior Variational Autoencoder (Casale et al., 2018) for learning interpretable latent dynamics. We describe the model and perform experiments on a synthetic dataset and see that the model reliably reconstructs smooth dynamics exhibiting U-turns and loops. We also observe that this model may be trained without any β annealing or freeze-thaw of training parameters in contrast to previous works, albeit for slightly different use cases, where application specific training tricks are often required.
The effects of technology acceptance and use behaviour on women’s entrepreneurship motivation factors

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of factors affecting the acceptance and use of technology on the factors affecting women’s entrepreneurship motivation. ,This study was conducted with 156 women entrepreneurs in Turkey in February 2019. A mixed method evaluation design has been adopted in the study. ,The findings revealed that effort expectancy was negatively associated with behaviour intention and push factor and positively associated with pull factor. Performance expectancy was positively associated with balance factor, push factor and behaviour intention. Hedonic motivation was positively associated with behaviour intention and emotional factor. Behaviour intention was negatively associated with use behaviour. Facilitating conditions was positively associated with push factor. Habit was positively associated with behaviour intention and negatively associated with pull, push, balance and emotional factors. Necessities and habit were not motivation factors for women entrepreneurs. ,The sample was restricted to women entrepreneurs, limiting the generalizability of the findings. ,The practical implications of the study show that effort expectancy, performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, facilitating conditions and habit are the key factors for the women’s entrepreneurship motivation. Women’s entrepreneurship commissions to be established in chambers of commerce and industry can improve entrepreneurial motivation. ,This is the first study that reveals the effects of technology acceptance and use behaviours on women’s entrepreneurship motivation. Theoretical background, discussion, managerial implications, limitations and recommendations for future studies are discussed.
Dietary Supplementation of the Antioxidant Curcumin Halts Systemic LPS-Induced Neuroinflammation-Associated Neurodegeneration and Memory/Synaptic Impairment via the JNK/NF-κB/Akt Signaling Pathway in Adult Rats

Curcumin is a natural polyphenolic compound widely known to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiapoptotic properties. In the present study, we explored the neuroprotective effect of curcumin against lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced reactive oxygen species- (ROS-) mediated neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration, and memory deficits in the adult rat hippocampus via regulation of the JNK/NF-κB/Akt signaling pathway. Adult rats were treated intraperitoneally with LPS at a dose of 250 μg/kg for 7 days and curcumin at a dose of 300 mg/kg for 14 days. After 14 days, the rats were sacrificed, and western blotting and ROS and lipid peroxidation assays were performed. For immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy, the rats were perfused transcardially with 4% paraformaldehyde. In order to verify the JNK-dependent neuroprotective effect of curcumin and to confirm the in vivo results, HT-22 neuronal and BV2 microglial cells were exposed to LPS at a dose of 1 μg/ml, curcumin 100 μg/ml, and SP600125 (a specific JNK inhibitor) 20 μM. Our immunohistochemical, immunofluorescence, and biochemical results revealed that curcumin inhibited LPS-induced oxidative stress by reducing malondialdehyde and 2,7-dichlorofluorescein levels and ameliorating neuroinflammation and neuronal cell death via regulation of the JNK/NF-κB/Akt signaling pathway both in vivo (adult rat hippocampus) and in vitro (HT-22/BV2 cell lines). Moreover, curcumin markedly improved LPS-induced memory impairment in the Morris water maze and Y-maze tasks. Taken together, our results suggest that curcumin may be a potential preventive and therapeutic candidate for LPS-induced ROS-mediated neurotoxicity and memory deficits in an adult rat model.
Variational Gaussian Process Models without Matrix Inverses

One major obstacle to the wider adoption of Gaussian Process (GP) (Rasmussen and Williams, 2006) based models is their computational cost, which is mainly caused by matrix inverses and determinants. Advances in variational approximate inference methods have reduced the size of the matrices on which expensive operations need to be performed, leading to O ( NM2 ) time costs instead of O ( N3 ) (Titsias, 2009), with approximations arbitrarily good with M N (Burt et al., 2019). Minibatches of size B N can be used for training at a cost of O ( BM2 +M3 ) per iteration (Hensman et al., 2013). The usefulness of training with small minibatches is hampered by the iteration cost being dominated by O ( M3 ) , which again comes from an inverse and determinant. The computation is usually done using the Cholesky decomposition, which requires serial operations and high-precision arithmetic. So in addition to being an asymptotically expensive operation, it is also poorly suited to modern deep learning hardware. Removing these per-iteration matrix operations therefore seems necessary to speed up training. In this work, we provide a variational lower bound that can be computed without expensive matrix operations like inversion. Our bound can be used as a drop-in replacement to the existing variational method of Hensman et al. (2013, 2015), and can therefore directly be applied in a wide variety of models, such as deep GPs (Damianou and Lawrence, 2013). We focus on the theoretical properties of this new bound, and show some initial experimental results for optimising this bound. We hope to realise the full promise in scalability that this new bound has in future work.
Physicochemical Quality of Water and Health Risks Associated with the Consumption of the Extant African Lung Fish (Protopterus annectens) from Nyabarongo and Nyabugogo Rivers, Rwanda

Water is an indispensable natural resource that is often prodigiously threatened by anthropomorphic activities. This study evaluated the physicochemical properties of water and selected heavy metals in edible muscles of a piscivorous fish (Protopterus annectens) from Nyabarongo and Nyabugogo rivers of Rwanda. Edibility health risk was evaluated using the target hazard quotient method. Water samples were taken in triplicate from Ruliba station and Kirinda bridge on Nyabarongo river and Giticyinyoni on Nyabugogo river. Fish samples were obtained from the sampling stations on Nyabarongo river. All samples were analyzed following standard methods and analytical results indicated that the average temperature, pH, total dissolved solids and electrolytic conductivity of water from the rivers were within WHO acceptable limits. The statistical mean concentrations of the ionic components of the water samples were 1.61 ± 0.03, 0.53 ± 0.002, 0.24 ± 0.02 and 0.051 ± 0.01 mg/L for Fe, Mn, Cu and Pb respectively at Ruliba station and 0.63 ± 0.02, 0.02 ± 0.002, 0.09 ± 0.01, 0.06 ± 0.002 and 0.75 ± 0.02 mg/L for Fe, Mn, Zn, Cr and Pb respectively at Kirinda bridge. Water from Giticyinyoni had 1.57 ± 0.02, 0.49 ± 0.03, 0.29 ± 0.058, 0.43 ± 0.058, 0.15 ± 0.00 and 0.59 ± 0.058 mg/L of Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Cr and Pb respectively. Zinc, Cu, Cr and Cd were below detection limits in samples from Ruliba station and Kirinda bridge (Nyabarongo river). Edible muscles of P. annectens from Nyabarongo river contained 272.8 ± 0.36, 292.2 ± 0.25, 8.8 ± 0.36, 135.2 ± 0.15, 148.0 ± 0.21 and 432. 0 ± 0.50 mgkg-1 for Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Cr and Pb at Ruliba station and 336.0 ± 0.70, 302.6 ± 1.22, 6.4 ± 0.26, 44.7 ± 0.20, 138.2 ± 0.17 and 302.4 ± 1.50 mgkg-1 for Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Cr and Pb respectively at Kirinda bridge. Health risk assessment indicated that consumption of the edible muscles of P. annectens may lead to deleterious health effects as reflected by values of target hazard quotients being greater than one. Therefore, the Rwandese government should lay strategies to reduce pollution of the rivers. Further research should evaluate the heavy metal content of metabolically active organs of P. annectens from Nyabarongo river as well as the microbiological profile of water from the rivers.
Financial Liberalization and Inflationary Dynamics in the Context of Southern European Economies: An Open Economy Analysis

This paper essentially attempts to extend our initial closed-economy analysis on financial distortions and inflation into an open-economy framework. Three regressional analyses carried out by Haslag and Hein (1995), Haslag (1998) and Haslag and Koo (1999) have indicated a positive relationship between financial repression and inflation. This paper tries to provide a microeconomic foundation in explaining such a relationship. Specifically, we use an endogenous monetary growth model of a small open semi-industrailized economy with intermediate good imports and financial intermediaries subjected to “high” and mandatory cash reserves serving as the source of financial repression. When calibrated to four Southern European semi-industrialized countries, namely Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, that typically had high reserve requirements, the model, just like in the closed economic environment, indicates a positive inflation-financial repression relationship irrespective of the risk aversion parameter and hence the specification of preferences. But the strength of the relationship obtained from the model is found to be much ∗This is a revised version of the third chapter of my dissertation at the University of Connecticut. I am particularly grateful to my major advisor Christian Zimmermann for many helpful comments and discussions. All remaining errors are mine. Email: Rangan.2. Gupta@huskymail.uconn. edu
ANSYS Fluent Mosaic Technology Automatically Combines Disparate Meshes with Polyhedral Elements for Fast, Accurate Flow Resolution

Transitioning between varying types of mesh elements in complex geometries and flow tegimes has long been a major simulation challenge. ANSYS Mosaic technology meets this challenge by automatically connecting different types of meshes with general polyhedral elements. Poly-Hexcore, the first application of Mosaic technology, fills the bulk region with octree hexes, keeps a high-quality layered poly-prism mesh in the boundary layer and conformally connects these two meshes with general polyhedral elements. The resulting simulation is faster with greater solution accuracy while using less RAM.
Firms’ Characteristics and Human Resource Accounting Disclosure in Nigerian Quoted Manufacturing Companies

Human Resource Accounting (HRA) is a measurement process that recognizes the human resources of an organisation as an intangible asset, whose cost and value are included in the financial statements of an organisation so that the true value of the organisation can be established. An overriding challenge of HRA however, has been the lack of universal approach to reporting human resource contribution, and researchers have suggested that the valuation of HR through HRA can be made possible if the reporting companies and professionals in the area of accounting agree on a universal model/approach for reporting human capital. This study examines other factors that might likely influence HRA disclosure, apart from the aforementioned. Specifically, the influence of firm characteristics such as turnover, age, market size and number of employees are examined in quoted Nigerian manufacturing companies. The study sample comprises 37 randomly selected companies from the consumer goods, industrial goods, and agriculture and conglomerate sectors. Secondary data, sourced from the 2015 Annual Reports of the sampled companies, are used and Panel data analysis is applied for data analysis. Results show that firm turnover had no significant influence on human resource accounting disclosure, while age of business, market size and number of employees were found to have significant influence on human resource accounting disclosure in the companies. The study therefore concludes that, overall, firms’ characteristics influence human resource accounting disclosure to a significant extent. The compelling need for Nigerian quoted manufacturing companies to leverage on the competitive advantages of increased human resource disclosure, rather than focussing only on the cost of doing so, was emphasised, particularly at this time that the nation’s economy is in the doldrums.
The formation of secondary organic aerosol

The formation of secondary organic aerosol from the isoprene + OH reaction in the absence of NOx T. E. Kleindienst, M. Lewandowski, J. H. Offenberg, M. Jaoui, and E. O. Edney National Exposure Research Laboratory, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA Alion Science and Technology, Box 12313, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA Received: 25 February 2009 – Accepted: 1 April 2009 – Published: 20 April 2009 Correspondence to: T. E. Kleindienst (kleindienst.tad@epa.gov) Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.
Genotyping of DRD2 Allele In A Female Indian Population Indicate Significant Association With Obesity and Depression

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between A1 allele of the DRD2 gene encoding the D2 sub type of the dopamine receptor with obesity and depression in obese, female Indian population. Methods: A resource population of 270 obese female individuals with mean body weight of 96.3 ± 9.4 Kg and body mass index of 33.1 ± 2.7 Kg/m were genotyped for the DRD2 A1 allele using the PCRRFLP method. Multivariate analysis was performed using a logistic regression model to test the association between phenotype variables and genotypes. Results: Out of 270 obese subjects, 35.55% were heterozygous for the DRD2 A1 allele. No subjects homozygous for this pathogenic allele were encountered. Out of the sub population bearing one copy of the DRD2 A1 allele, 65.62% were suffering from depression. Conclusion: The pathogenic DRD2 allele was found to be significantly associated with conditions of obesity and depression in a section of obese, female Indian population.
Crustacean amphipods from the seagrasses Zostera marina, Cymodocea nodosa and Posidonia oceanica in the Adriatic Sea (Italy): a first comparison

In the framework of a wider research programme aimed at identifying the functioning and the temporal dynamics of seagrass ecosystems along the Italian coasts of the Adriatic Sea, crustacean amphipods were studied in Zostera marina, Cymodocea nodosa and Posidonia oceanica beds. Data on Z. marina, which is very rare in the Mediterranean Sea and is scarcely studied as it concerns amphipods, are of particular interest. Samples were collected by hand net and air-lift sampler in Z. marina (0.5 m) and C. nodosa (1.2 m) at Grado (northern Adriatic Sea), and in P. oceanica (6.5 m) at Otranto (southern Adriatic Sea). First data from ten samples collected in February and May 1997 are given. Fifty-five species (Z. marina: 24; C. nodosa: 29; P. oceanica: 31) in 41 genera and 25 families belonging to 7324 individuals were identified. The cluster and nMDS analyses showed the presence of different assemblages in the three seagrasses. The lowest average dissimilarity was present between Z. marina and C. nodosa (43.13: air-lift sampler; 51.66: hand net) and the higher between Z. marina and P. oceanica (81.36: air-lift sampler), and between C.
PETRA HORKÁ (born KULÍŠKOVÁ) Factors influencing movement and behaviour of animals in riverine environment

Animals living in riverine environments are influenced by various abiotic and biotic factors which shape their behaviour. Among the most distinctive behavioural traits by which animals react and adapt to environmental variability is movement behaviour. In my study I focused on movement and distribution of several species and their response to environmental and anthropogenic factors. The thesis consists of two parts: the first part synthesizes studies on behaviour of European grayling Thymallus thymallus, ide Leuciscus idus and an invasive crustacean Hemimysis anomala; the objectives of individual projects were to determine which environmental factors influence the species’ behaviour and how. The first two chapters present extensive radio-telemetry studies which examined diel movements and migration of ide (one year observation in the River Elbe) and European grayling (study conducted in autumn-winter periods of three consecutive years in the River Blanice, focusing on differences between juveniles of wild and hatchery origin). The third study was also conducted in the Elbe and evaluated the diurnal behavioural patterns and spread of the Pontocaspian mysid shrimp Hemimysis anomala. The second part of the thesis consists of two chapters focusing on young-of-the-year (YOY) fish assemblages: the first deals with YOY assemblage sampling as a tool for assessing the ecological quality of running waters for the requirements of the Water Framework Directive, the second assesses the response of fish community to river obstacles and evaluates the composition of YOY fish from rivers with different ecological status. The last study, included in my dissertation as an appendix, focus again on European grayling. Its aim was the validation of a widely used scale-age determination method substantial for the understanding the dynamics of fish population and appropriate management of fish stocks. My results show, however, that the scale-based age estimated may be substantially biased for particular species.