Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Proficiency Assessment of ESL Learner's Sentence Prosody with TTS Synthesized Voice as Reference

We investigate how to assess the prosody quality of an ESL learner’s spoken sentence against native speaker’s natural recording or TTS synthesized voice. A spo k en English utterance read by an ESL leaner is compared with the recording of a native spea k er, or TTS voice. The corresponding F0 contours (with voicings) and brea k s are compared at the mapped syllable level via a DTW. The correlations between the prosody patterns of learner and native spea k er (or TTS voice) of the same sentence are computed after the speech rates and F0 distributions between spea k ers are equalized. Based upon collected native and non-native speakers’ databases and correlation coefficients, we use Gaussian mixtures to model them as continuous distributions for training a two-class (native vs non-native) neural net classifier. We found that classification accuracy between using native spea k er’s and TTS reference is close, i.e., 91.2% vs 88.1%. To assess the prosody proficiency of an ESL learner with one sentence input, the prosody patterns of our high quality TTS is almost as effective as those of native speakers’ recordings, which are more expensive and inconvenient to collect.
The Early Stages of New Product Development in Entrepreneurial High-Tech Firms

This study examines the most valuable sources of new product ideas and the criteria used to screen potential new products in entrepreneurial, high-tech firms. Teresa Pavia explored the practices of 118 small, young, high-tech firms. Her findings complement a variety of existing studies of the new product process in large firms and the few existing studies of the process in entrepreneurial, high-tech firms. The firms participating in this study rely on informal techniques to generate new product ideas. They place heavy reliance on input from their customers and often develop new products in response to problems articulated by these customers. Although the annual strategic plan is not used by most firms as a new product identification tool, it is highly rated by the most successful firms. Successful firms also actively engage in environmental scanning. The majority of the respondents do nt use financial measures as a screening criterion, preferring to evaluate new products by “gut feel. ” However, the firms that have experienced the fastest growth in sales employ financial hurdles for project selection. The educational background of the key GO/NO GO decision-makers was also evaluated. Two thirds of the firms reported having a key decisionmaker with an educational background in business. The educational background of the key decision-makers had little impact on the aspects of the new product process studied here.
Effects of limited sleep deprivation on performance of selected motor tasks.

Abstract This study was conducted to determine the effects of one night's sleep deprivation on the subsequent performance of two short motor tasks (jumping and manipulation) and on subsequent work performance of a more extended nature on a bicycle ergometer. Cardiac rate was monitored by an electrocardiogram. Twenty-four male college students participated in a 4-week training program prior to the sleep deprivation stress. One night's sleep loss had no significant effect upon the speed or accuracy with which the jump and manipulation tasks were performed, but work performance, as measured by a bicycle work test, showed a significant decrement. There was also a significant decrease in resting heart rate following sleep deprivation, but working heart rate (i.e., the increase over the resting rate I was not consistently altered by the experimentally imposed sleeplessness. It was concluded that the loss of a single night's sleep has no detrimental effect on the performance of motor tasks which are discrete and.
Galanin/GMAP‐ and NPY‐like immunoreactivities in locus coeruleus and noradrenergic nerve terminals in the hippocampal formation and cortex with notes on the galanin‐R1 and ‐R2 receptors

By using immunofluorescence methodology, extensive galanin (GAL) and GAL message‐associated peptide (GMAP)‐positive terminal networks were observed in the hippocampal formation. The majority of the GAL/GMAP fibers were dopamine β‐hydroxylase‐ (DBH) positive, that is, they were noradrenergic. This finding was established with GAL/GMAP‐DBH double‐staining and with 6‐hydroxy‐dopamine treatment, which totally abolished all fibers in which GAL/GMAP and DBH coexisted. Also, reserpine treatment caused a marked depletion of GAL. No evidence for GAL/GMAP coexistence with 5‐hydroxytryptamine was obtained. In the ventral hippocampus, GAL/GMAP‐, DBH‐negative fibers were seen in the stratum oriens, the anterior stratum radiatum, along the granule cell layer and in the strata oriens and alveus. In the locus coeruleus (LC), around 80% of the GMAP‐positive neurons contained neuropeptide tyrosine (NPY), and about 40% of the NPY‐positive neurons expressed GMAP. GAL‐R1 receptor mRNA was expressed in Barrington's nucleus (close to the LC), but was not detected in the hippocampal formation/dorsal cortical areas. GAL‐R2 receptor mRNA was found in the granule cell layer in the dentate gyrus.
Price Perceptions and Consumer Shopping Behavior: A Field Study

Seven price-related constructs—five consistent with a perception of price in its “negative role” and two consistent with a perception of price in its “positive role”— are used as independent variables to predict marketplace responses/behaviors in five domains: price search, generic product purchases, price recall, sale responsiveness, and coupon redemption. The price-related constructs explain a significant amount of variance in all five domains, providing evidence of predictive validity. Results of a higher order factor analysis are also reported, which provide some support for the positive-negative perception of price taxonomy.
Child Mortality in Maharashtra

Aseries of events at the grass roots level pointed towards the possibility of serious problems in the official statistics about child deaths in Maharashtra and raised questions with bearing on policy which led us to conduct this study. (1) Gadchiroli is the least developed district in Maharashtra. Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH) operates a vital statistics measurement system in nearly 100 villages in Gadchiroli since 1988, which regularly generates quality data on birth rate and child mortality which have been the basis of some internationally published field studies [Bang et al 1990, Bang et al 1999]. We observed a gross discrepancy in the infant mortality rate (IMR) recorded by us in Gadchiroli and the IMR reported by the health and family welfare (FW) department in the district. The district magistrate (collector) was asked by the state government to verify this (1997). The collector selected one block (Aheri) in the district, collected information on births and child deaths during two months (April and August 1998), and then compared his findings with the child death rates reported for Aheri block by the health and FW department for the previous five years (1992-97), during April and August. He reported the following results to the government of Maharashtra: Though his methods of estimating child mortality rates were far from perfect, the district collector’s report brought out a major problem. However, the collector was immediately transferred (October 1998).
Central Bank Interventions, Communication & Interest Rate Policy in Emerging European Economies

This paper analyses the effectiveness of foreign exchange interventions in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey using the event study approach. Interventions are found to be effective only in the short run when they ease appreciation pressures. Central bank communication and interest rate steps considerably enhance their effectiveness. The observed effect of interventions on the exchange rate corresponds to the declared objectives of the central banks of Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and perhaps also Romania, whereas this is only partially true for Slovakia and Turkey. Finally, interventions are mostly sterilized in all countries except Croatia. Interventions are not much more effective in Croatia than in the other countries studied. This suggests that unsterilized interventions do not automatically influence the exchange rate.
Selection of third-party reverse logistics providers for End-of-Life computers using TOPSIS-AHP based approach

Business organisations including those of computer companies would like to focus on their core competency areas and are, therefore, outsourcing all or part of their reverse logistics process to Third-Party Logistics Providers (3PLPs). Thus, a key strategic issue for top management is the selection of 3PLPs who can effectively provide reverse logistics services to organisation. This study aims to efficiently assist the decision-makers in determining the most appropriate third-party reverse logistics provider using a combination of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods. A numerical example from a case company is included to demonstrate the steps of the proposed model.
Industry in transition: corporate identity on hold?

Banking has not been caught off guard by the speed of change within the industry brought about by Internet banking. In fact, the combination of the speed and direction of change has acted as a catalyst for a new era in financial services. This paper considers what impact this has for the corporate identities of the companies concerned, whether existing banks can leverage their corporate identity to obtain sustainable competitive advantage and whether new entrants in the financial market will be able to woo new customers.
Repair of DNA Strand Breaks by the Overlapping Functions of Lesion-Specific and Non-Lesion-Specific DNA 3′ Phosphatases

ABSTRACT In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) endonucleases Apn1 and Apn2 act as alternative pathways for the removal of various 3′-terminal blocking lesions from DNA strand breaks and in the repair of abasic sites, which both result from oxidative DNA damage. Here we demonstrate that Tpp1, a homologue of the 3′ phosphatase domain of polynucleotide kinase, is a third member of this group of redundant 3′ processing enzymes. Unlike Apn1 and Apn2, Tpp1 is specific for the removal of 3′ phosphates at strand breaks and does not possess more general 3′ phosphodiesterase, exonuclease, or AP endonuclease activities. Deletion ofTPP1 in an apn1 apn2 mutant background dramatically increased the sensitivity of the double mutant to DNA damage caused by H2O2 and bleomycin but not to damage caused by methyl methanesulfonate. The triple mutant was also deficient in the repair of 3′ phosphate lesions left by Tdp1-mediated cleavage of camptothecin-stabilized Top1-DNA covalent complexes. Finally, the tpp1 apn1 apn2 triple mutation displayed synthetic lethality in combination with rad52, possibly implicating postreplication repair in the removal of unrepaired 3′-terminal lesions resulting from endogenous damage. Taken together, these results demonstrate a clear role for the lesion-specific enzyme, Tpp1, in the repair of a subset of DNA strand breaks.
Blindfolded robotic teleoperation using spatial force feedback to the toe

This paper examines the capability to incorporate spatial force feedback to the human toe when teleoperating a robotic arm in a force task. Due to the growing complexity of teleoperated systems new means of feedback get increasingly important. To investigate the viability of spatial toe-feedback, experiments with 12 subjects were conducted. The participants had to teleoperate a DLR Light-Weight Robot (LWR) via optical tracking of one finger in order to push a toy train. The orientation of the rail was unknown to the subject and had to be explored using the haptic feedback — a three-dimensional spatial force to the toe, reflecting the contact forces at the robotic end-effector — in absence of visual feedback. The rail was mounted in one of four possible orientations (differences of 45°). The main task of the experiment was to identify the present orientation. In our study subjects could successfully identify the orientation of the rail in more than two thirds of all trials (68%). In almost half of the trials (44%) the subjects were able to move the train along the rails long enough to reach the bumpers at the end and identify them as such. Assuming no feedback would be provided at all, the first metric has a chance level of 25%, and reaching the bumper can be considered impossible. Thus, we can conclude that humans can incorporate spatial force feedback to the toe into their sensorimotor loop.
Intact pituitary function is decisive for the catabolic response to TNF-α: studies of protein, glucose and fatty acid metabolism in hypopituitary and healthy subjects.

CONTEXT TNF-α generates inflammatory responses and insulin resistance, lipolysis, and protein breakdown. It is unclear whether these changes depend on intact hypothalamo-pituitary stress hormone responses to trigger the release of cortisol and growth hormone. OBJECTIVE To define differential effects of TNF-α on glucose, protein, and lipid metabolism in hypopituitary patients (without intact hypothalamo-pituitary axis) and healthy controls. DESIGN Randomized, placebo controlled, single-blinded. Setting, Participants, and Intervention: We studied eight hypopituitary (HP) patients and eight matched control subjects [control volunteers (CTR)] twice during 4-h basal and 2-h hyperinsulinemic clamp conditions with isotope dilution during infusion of saline or TNF-α(12 ng/kg/h) for 6 h. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Phenylalanine, urea, palmitate, and glucose fluxes and fat biopsies in basal and clamp periods. RESULTS TNF-α infusion significantly increased cortisol and GH levels in CTR but not in HP. TNF-α increased phenylalanine fluxes in both groups, with the increase being significantly greater in CTR, and raised urea flux by 40 % in CTR without any alteration in HP. Endogenous glucose production (EGP) was elevated in CTR compared to HP after TNF-α administration, whereas insulin sensitivity remained similarly unaffected in both groups. TNF-α increased whole body palmitate fluxes and decreased palmitate specific activity in CTR, but not in HP without statistical difference between groups. We did not detect significant effects TNF-α on lipase expression or regulation in fat. CONCLUSIONS TNF-α increased both urea and amino acid fluxes and EGP significantly more in CTR compared to HP, suggesting that increases in endogenous cortisol and GH release are significant components of the metabolic response to TNF-α.
Method Analysis For The Measurement Of Electromagnetic Field From LTE Base Stations

This paper is focused to analyze the proposed methods for in-situ measurements of electromagnetic fields transmitted by LTE base stations. One of the methods is based on measurements of physical broadcast channel (PBCH) using basic spectrum analyzer, whereas the other method is based on measurements of the reference signal (RS) using a decoder. Both alternatives are proposed to be used for extrapolation to the maximum electromagnetic field exposure level at full base station traffic load. The analysis is conducted with respect to instrument requirements, accuracy and time requirements. Different instrument settings of the spectrum analyzer and their impact on the measurement results is analyzed and discussed. Measurements using the spectrum analyzer method overestimate the electric field strength compared with the LTE decoder method in  70 % of all measurement cases in this work. All spectrum analyzer based measurements conducted in the main beam of an antenna at distances of less than 100 m were within ± 20% compared with the decoder results. Measurement results obtained in a reflective environment show that both methods are affected by fading, but significant deviations between the two methods indicate that the spectrum analyzer method is more sensitive to frequency selective fading.
Model-based Development of Modular Complex Systems for Accomplishing System Integration for Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 provides a framework for integration of cyber-physical systems (CPS), internet of things (IoT), internet of services (IoS) and internet of data (IoD) with the manufacturing domain so as to make it smart, flexible and adaptable to the dynamic market changes and the customer requirements. It will enable companies to form a connected "smart manufacturing" ecosystem having interconnections between the suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and even the products in order to provide better services to the end customer. However, due to the presence of heterogeneous systems that might not adhere to the industrial standards, there is a gap in achieving this vision of an interconnected ecosystem. In this paper, we focus on providing a solution for the modularity and interoperability issues related to the Industry 4.0 from a systems integration viewpoint. We propose a model-based approach for modular complex systems development by separating (1) the behavior model and (2) the implem entation logic (execution) of the system. Moreover, we use unified modeling language (UML) based modeling techniques to model system behavior and connect the behavior models to the application programming interface (API) of the CPS. Thus, instead of generating source code for the CPS using models, we directly execute the CPS in the physical world via model execution. The model execution is supported by the standard execution semantics of UML. Using our approach, multiple heterogeneous systems can be modeled and integrated together to create a "plug and play" ecosystem needed for achieving the vision of Industry 4.0
“Getting on Board” with AMJ: Balancing Quality and Innovation in the Review Process

This article discusses the importance of the editorial review process and the importance of having a fair and effective means of evaluating submitted works. Editors of journals such as the “Academy of Management Journal” (AMJ) must also be careful that in upholding the scientific standards of reliability and validity they don't become so conservative that they sacrifice innovation, variety, and risk taking. The author also outlines the AMJ editorial board selection process that insures the preservation of innovation while maintaining quality.
Photobioreactor design for isotopic non‐stationary 13C‐metabolic flux analysis (INST 13C‐MFA) under photoautotrophic conditions

Adaptive metabolic behavior of photoautotrophic microorganisms toward genetic and environmental perturbations can be interpreted in a quantitative depiction of carbon flow through a biochemical reaction network using isotopic non‐stationary 13C‐metabolic flux analysis (INST 13C‐MFA). To evaluate 13C‐metabolic flux maps for Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, an original experimental framework was designed allowing rapid, reliable collection of high‐quality isotopomer data against time. It involved (i) a short‐time 13C labeling injection device based on mixing control in a torus‐shaped photobioreactor with plug‐flow hydrodynamics allowing a sudden step‐change in the 13C proportion in the substrate feed and (ii) a rapid sampling procedure using an automatic fast filtration method coupled to a manual rapid liquid nitrogen quenching step. 13C‐substrate labeling enrichment was controlled through the total dissolved inorganic carbon concentration in the pulsed solution. First results were obtained from steady‐state continuous culture measurements allowing the characterization of the kinetics of label incorporation into light‐limited growing cells cultivated in a photobioreactor operating at the maximal biomass productivity for an incident photon flux density of 200 µmol m−2 s−1. 13C label incorporation was measured for 21 intracellular metabolites using IC‐MS/MS in 58 samples collected across a labeling experiment duration of 7 min. The fastest labeling rate was observed for 2/3‐phosphoglycerate with an apparent isotopic stationary state reached after 300 s. The labeling rate was consistent with the optimized mixing time of about 4.9 s inside the reactor and the shortest reliable sampling period assessed at 5 s. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2012; 109: 3030–3040. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Objective measurements of corneal light-backscatter during corneal swelling, by optical coherence tomography.

PURPOSE To demonstrate that corneal light-backscatter can be measured objectively during corneal swelling by optical coherence tomography (OCT). METHODS One eye (randomly selected) of 20 non-contact-lens wearers (10 men and 10 women; mean age, 35.6 +/- 9.6 years) was patched during 3 hours of soft contact lens (SCL) wear. The contralateral eye acted as the control. Central corneal images were captured before and after SCL wear at 20-minute intervals over 100 minutes using optical coherence tomography (OCT) to obtain corneal thickness and light-backscatter profiles. OCT backscattered light of the epithelial layer (decided by the thickness measurements) and 10 equally divided layers of the remaining cornea were analyzed with a custom software program. Two baseline measurements were taken at different visits before lens wear to test the repeatability of light-backscatter measurements. RESULTS From two baseline measurements, repeated measurements showed good repeatability of normalized backscatter results. Immediately after contact lens removal, total central corneal thickness increased significantly by 13.8% +/- 2.3% (mean +/- SD) compared with baseline (P = 0.0001, paired t-test) and then decreased during the deswelling course. Corneal backscattered light changed significantly (repeated-measures ANOVA [Re-ANOVA]: F((50, 950)) = 2.22, P = 0.0001) after lens wear, and a significant increase in backscatter was found in the epithelial layer (36.4%) and the most posterior corneal layer (35.6%) immediately after lens removal (post hoc test, P = 0.005). There was a strong correlation (r = 0.9375, P < 0.05) between the change in backscatter and corneal swelling during the deswelling period. The backscatter recovery rate was approximately the same for both epithelial and posterior layers after lens removal. CONCLUSIONS Light-backscattering analysis with OCT seems to be a promising and repeatable method of objectively measuring corneal backscatter. This study has demonstrated that corneal backscattered light increased in the anterior and posterior layers of the cornea during corneal swelling induced by contact lens wear and eye closure.
Measurement of News Websites Quality: An Empirical Study

Based on a three dimensional model of internal, external, and contextual factors, this paper strives to develop a reliable, valid, and flexible instrument for measuring news websites quality (NewsQual) from the perspectives of the users. In this respect, A survey on the Internet was applied (N=132). The instrument was validated, after which the hypotheses were tested by way of a structural equation model (SEM) via PLS-Graph Version 3.00. The findings revealed that content; usability; website organization; and familiarity are the most influential factors in perceived quality of a news site, whereas website design, trust, reputation, and experience does not significantly influence in perceived quality. The results of study provide a valuable insight on the direct impact of quality factors that may enhance users' attitudes toward news websites. In addition, it could be a springboard for reliable applications across a broad range of online media.