Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low-latency sound source separation using deep neural networks

Sound source separation at low-latency requires that each incoming frame of audio data be processed at very low delay, and outputted as soon as possible. For practical purposes involving human listeners, a 20 ms algorithmic delay is the uppermost limit which is comfortable to the listener. In this paper, we propose a low-latency (algorithmic delay < 20 ms) deep neural network (DNN) based source separation method. The proposed method takes advantage of an extended past context, outputting soft time-frequency masking filters which are then applied to incoming audio frames to give better separation performance as compared to NMF baseline. Acoustic mixtures from five pairs of speakers from CMU Arctic database [1] were used for the experiments. At least 1 dB average improvement in source to distortion ratios (SDR) was observed in our DNN-based system over a low-latency NMF baseline for different processing and analysis frame lengths. The effect of incorporating previous temporal context into DNN inputs yielded significant improvements in SDR for short processing frame lengths.
Activity patterns in the category‐selective occipitotemporal cortex predict upcoming motor actions

Converging lines of evidence point to the occipitotemporal cortex (OTC) as a critical structure in visual perception. For instance, human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has revealed a modular organisation of object‐selective, face‐selective, body‐selective and scene‐selective visual areas in the OTC, and disruptions to the processing within these regions, either in neuropsychological patients or through transcranial magnetic stimulation, can produce category‐specific deficits in visual recognition. Here we show, using fMRI and pattern classification methods, that the activity in the OTC also represents how stimuli will be interacted with by the body – a level of processing more traditionally associated with the preparatory activity in sensorimotor circuits of the brain. Combining functional mapping of different OTC areas with a real object‐directed delayed movement task, we found that the pre‐movement spatial activity patterns across the OTC could be used to predict both the action of an upcoming hand movement (grasping vs. reaching) and the effector (left hand vs. right hand) to be used. Interestingly, we were able to extract this wide range of predictive movement information even though nearly all OTC areas showed either baseline‐level or below baseline‐level activity prior to action onset. Our characterisation of different OTC areas according to the features of upcoming movements that they could predict also revealed a general gradient of effector‐to‐action‐dependent movement representations along the posterior–anterior OTC axis. These findings suggest that the ventral visual pathway, which is well known to be involved in object recognition and perceptual processing, plays a larger than previously expected role in preparing object‐directed hand actions.
Assessing the social organization of multi-dog households: dog behaviour, hormones, personality, and demographics

Domestic dogs and grey wolves, although related species, display differences in social organization. As has been shown in captive vs. free-living wolves, context differences affecting social organization are likely to exist in domestic dogs. Social status has been investigated in free-ranging domestic dogs, among dogs living in kennel environments, and among pet dogs at a day-care facility, but not among cohabiting pet dogs. This study examines whether three methods (a toy possession test (TPT), behavioural characteristics, and owner-reported dominance) for evaluating dominance among dogs living in multi-dog homes yield convergent results. There were no significant relationships among the outcomes of the three methods, indicating they are likely measuring different constructs. Higher TPT scores were related to higher baseline testosterone, an interaction between baseline cortisol and testosterone characterized by low cortisol/high testosterone levels, relative age, Extraversion and Motivation. Behaviours previously associated with dominance were not consistent in their relationships with dog demographics (sex, age), hormones, and personality traits, as measured by the Monash Canine Personality Questionnaire-Revised (MCPQ-R). Owner-reported dominant dogs had higher relative Motivation and Training Focus and lower Amicability. Cohabiting pet dog social organization is probably different from that found in other dog groups, perhaps due to owner behaviour. Assumptions derived from wolf and feral dog studies about the concept of dominance must be evaluated carefully before being accepted as valid for pet dogs.
The normative and the personal life: Individual differences in life scripts and life story events among USA and Danish undergraduates

Life scripts are culturally shared expectations about the order and timing of life events in a prototypical life course. American and Danish undergraduates produced life story events and life scripts by listing the seven most important events in their own lives and in the lives of hypothetical people living ordinary lives. They also rated their events on several scales and completed measures of depression, PTSD symptoms, and centrality of a negative event to their lives. The Danish life script replicated earlier work; the American life script showed minor differences from the Danish life script, apparently reflecting genuine differences in shared events as well as less homogeneity in the American sample. Both consisted of mostly positive events that came disproportionately from ages 15 to 30. Valence of life story events correlated with life script valence, depression, PTSD symptoms, and identity. In the Danish undergraduates, measures of life story deviation from the life script correlated with measures of depression and PTSD symptoms.
Discrete approximation of quantum stochastic models

We develop a general technique for proving convergence of repeated quantum interactions to the solution of a quantum stochastic differential equation. The wide applicability of the method is illustrated in a variety of examples. Our main theorem, which is based on the Trotter–Kato theorem, is not restricted to a specific noise model and does not require boundedness of the limit coefficients.
Assessment of local and global cardiac function based on AHA standardization

A special report from the American Heart Association (AHA), American College of Cardiology, and Society of Nuclear Medicine defined standards for plane selection and displays orientation for serial myocardial slices generated by cardiac 2-dimensional (2D) or tomographic imaging witch aimed to give a standardized myocardial nomenclature for CT images. This standardization gives also an efficient evaluation of the cardiac function. In fact, cardiac function allows doctors to have an idea about the extent and the severity of cardiac anomalies, their scalability and the treatment efficiency. Estimation of myocardial function still up to now subjective and depends on doctors opinions. In this work, we propose a quantitative analysis of the myocardium function namely defining the thickness quantification of the myocardium in two specific states of the cardiac cycle (end systole and end diastole) based on the AHA standardization.
Applying Module System Research to Package Management

Package managers found in popular operating systems are similar to module systems in many programming languages. Recent language research has focused on numerous ways to improve module systems, especially by endowing them with the characteristics of components. These improvements map well to package managers also. We identify several weaknesses with package managers, describe how components solve these problems in the programming context, and suggest how the structural principles of components can be applied to build the next generation of package managers.
Exploration of α1-Antitrypsin Treatment Protocol for Islet Transplantation: Dosing Plan and Route of Administration

Lifelong weekly infusions of human α1-antitrypsin (hAAT) are currently administered as augmentation therapy for patients with genetic AAT deficiency (AATD). Several recent clinical trials attempt to extend hAAT therapy to conditions outside AATD, including type 1 diabetes. Because the endpoint for AATD is primarily the reduction of risk for pulmonary emphysema, the present study explores hAAT dose protocols and routes of administration in attempt to optimize hAAT therapy for islet-related injury. Islet-grafted mice were treated with hAAT (Glassia; intraperitoneally or subcutaneously) under an array of clinically relevant dosing plans. Serum hAAT and immunocyte cell membrane association were examined, as well as parameters of islet survival. Results indicate that dividing the commonly prescribed 60 mg/kg i.p. dose to three 20 mg/kg injections is superior in affording islet graft survival; in addition, a short dynamic descending dose protocol (240→120→60→60 mg/kg i.p.) is comparable in outcomes to indefinite 60 mg/kg injections. Although pharmacokinetics after intraperitoneal administration in mice resembles exogenous hAAT treatment in humans, subcutaneous administration better imitated the physiologic progressive rise of hAAT during acute phase responses; nonetheless, only the 60 mg/kg dose depicted an advantage using the subcutaneous route. Taken together, this study provides a platform for extrapolating an islet-relevant clinical protocol from animal models that use hAAT to protect islets. In addition, the study places emphasis on outcome-oriented analyses of drug efficacy, particularly important when considering that hAAT is presently at an era of drug-repurposing toward an extended list of clinical indications outside genetic AATD.
Designing feedback: multimodality and specificity

Now that many of us carry around devices that are equipped with sensors (e.g., smartphones with accelerometers) we can use these sensors to measure behavior. The data thus captured can be used to give someone feedback about this behavior. These feedback mechanisms are often used in so called smart coaches, a growing group of product-service systems within the domain of persuasive technology. Despite decades of research on persuasive systems, challenges remain for designers of feedback systems. Little is known about how to design feedback in such a way that it is most effective in motivating people to change their behavior. In this paper, we give a categorization of feedback systems based on the modality that the feedback is offered in and on the specificity of the feedback. We discuss under what circumstances the different types of feedback may be most effective considering the context a feedback system is used in and the goals that users of the system have. Finally, we discuss future research on feedback systems aimed at find more specific design guidelines for feedback systems that apply to persuasive technology in different situations.
Resistance to MPTP-Neurotoxicity in α-Synuclein Knockout Mice Is Complemented by Human α-Synuclein and Associated with Increased β-Synuclein and Akt Activation

Genetic and biochemical abnormalities of α-synuclein are associated with the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. In the present study we investigated the in vivo interaction of mouse and human α-synuclein with the potent parkinsonian neurotoxin, MPTP. We find that while lack of mouse α-synuclein in mice is associated with reduced vulnerability to MPTP, increased levels of human α-synuclein expression is not associated with obvious changes in the vulnerability of dopaminergic neurons to MPTP. However, expressing human α-synuclein variants (human wild type or A53T) in the α-synuclein null mice completely restores the vulnerability of nigral dopaminergic neurons to MPTP. These results indicate that human α-synuclein can functionally replace mouse α-synuclein in regard to vulnerability of dopaminergic neurons to MPTP-toxicity. Significantly, α-synuclein null mice and wild type mice were equally sensitive to neurodegeneration induced by 2′NH2-MPTP, a MPTP analog that is selective for serotoninergic and noradrenergic neurons. These results suggest that effects of α-synuclein on MPTP like compounds are selective for nigral dopaminergic neurons. Immunoblot analysis of β-synuclein and Akt levels in the mice reveals selective increases in β-synuclein and phosphorylated Akt levels in ventral midbrain, but not in other brain regions, of α-synuclein null mice, implicating the α-synuclein-level dependent regulation of β-synuclein expression in modulation of MPTP-toxicity by α-synuclein. Together these findings provide new mechanistic insights on the role α-synuclein in modulating neurodegenerative phenotypes by regulation of Akt-mediated cell survival signaling in vivo.
Juggling ideals and constraints

In bilingual streams in the Netherlands, school subjects are taught in an additional language so that pupils learn both subject content and the target language by using language meaningfully. Teachers of English in bilingual streams (TEBs) are often expected to collaborate with subject teacher colleagues (STs). In addition, they teach separate language lessons. This provides TEBs with specific challenges. This article reports on a focus group (FG) study exploring the extent to which the ideals of stakeholders in bilingual schools in the Netherlands reflect the literature on this topic, using a frame of reference developed for this purpose (Dale, Oostdam, & Verspoor, 2017). Five FGs were held with TEBs and STs from Dutch schools in the network for bilingual education and with members of the network’s quality assurance panels. Each FG consisted of between three and six participants with a similar role in bilingual education; audit panel chairpersons, audit panel secretaries and STs and TEBs from different schools. Participants were asked to discuss what an ideal English teacher would do in English lessons and in cooperation with subject colleagues. Data consists of five transcripts of the FG discussions. On the basis of inductive and deductive analyses (using MaxQDA), the ideals of stakeholders are positioned in the framework to explore to what extent different types of stakeholders have complementary or conflicting views. The findings suggest that stakeholders need to develop more shared understandings and a shared language to allow TEBs to realise their ambitions.
PARIS: A Personal Archiving and Retrieving Image System

PARIS (personal archiving and retrieving image system) is an experiment personal photograph library, which includes more than 80,000 of consumer photographs accumulated within a duration of approximately five years, metadata based on our proposed MPEG-7 annotation architecture, dozen dimensional digital content (DDDC), and a relational database structure. The DDDC architecture is specially designed for facilitating the managing, browsing and retrieving of personal digital photograph collections. In annotating process, we also utilize a proposed spatial and temporal ontology (STO) designed based on the general characteristic of personal photograph collections. This paper explains PRAIS system
Working Papers in Economics and Statistics Skewness Preferences and Asset Selection: an Experimental Study Skewness Preferences and Asset Selection: an Experimental Study

In this paper we experimentally test skewness preferences at the individual level. Several prospects that can be ordered with respect to the third-degree stochastic dominance (3SD) criterion are ranked by the participants of the experiment. We find that the skewness of a distribution has a significant impact on the decisions. Yet, while skewness has an impact, its direction differs substantially across subjects: 39% of our subjects act in accordance with skewness seeking and 10% seem to avoid skewness. On the level of individual decisions we find that the variance of the prospects and subjects' experience increase the probability of choosing the lottery with greater skewness.
Understanding the Origins of Morphological Diversity: the Linguistic Niche Hypothesis

Human language is unparalleled in both its expressive capacity and its diversity. What accounts for the enormous diversity of human languages [13]? Recent evidence suggests that the structure of languages may be shaped by the social and demographic environment in which the languages are learned and used. In an analysis of over 2000 languages Lupyan and Dale [25] demonstrated that socio-demographic variables, such as population size, significantly predicted the complexity of inflectional morphology. Languages spoken by smaller populations tend to employ more complex inflectional systems. Languages spoken by larger populations tend to avoid complex morphological paradigms, employing lexical constructions instead. This relationship may exist because of how language learning takes place in these different social contexts [44, 45]. In a smaller population, a tightly-knit social group combined with exclusive or almost exclusive language acquisition by infants permits accumulation of complex inflectional forms. In larger populations, adult language learning and more extensive cross-group interactions produce pressures that lead to morphological simplification. In the current paper, we explore this learning-based hypothesis in two ways. First, we develop an agent-based simulation that serves as a simple existence proof: As adult interaction increases, languages lose inflections. Second, we carry out a correlational study showing that English-speaking adults who had more interaction with non-native speakers as children showed a relative preference for over-regularized (i.e. morphologically simpler) forms. The results of the simulation and experiment lend support to the linguistic niche hypothesis: Languages may vary in the ways they do in part due to different social environments in which they are learned and used. In short, languages adapt to the learning constraints and biases of their learners.
An exploratory study of acculturation among Muslims in Australia

ABSTRACT Muslims constitute 2.2% of the Australian population. Given the current socio-political climate and the limited research, the present exploratory study explores the relationship between acculturation, ethnic identity, self-identity, generational status, religiosity, and demographics among adult Australian Muslims. A cross-sectional convenience sample of 324 adult Australian Muslims completed either online or paper-based questionnaires in either English or Arabic. Recruitment was via convenience sampling and social media advertisements. Acculturation, ethnic identity (MEIM), religiosity, and demographic variables were measured. The study sample was young and mostly female, with high religiosity levels. Acculturation was negatively correlated with ethnic identity. From multiple regression analysis, acculturation was predicted independently by religiosity (low), age (young), gender (male) and ethnic identity (low). First generation Australian Muslims were older, had stronger ethnic identity and religiosity, and more commonly self-identified as non-Australian. By contrast second- and third-generation were more likely to self-identify as bicultural or Australian. In summary, acculturation of Australian Muslims is influenced by multiple variables, particularly ethnic identity, religiosity, and generation; hence all these variables need to be included in policy regarding successful integration of migrants.
Enhanced local binary pattern for chest X-ray classification

The Local Binary Pattern (LBP) descriptor encodes the complementary information of the spatial patterns and intensity variations in a local image neighborhood. The richness of this multidimensional information offers many possible variations to the encoding process. Taking advantage of this, several variants of the LBP have been proposed. This work attempts to further optimize the discriminative power of the LBP specifically for the medical image classification task. It proposes an LBP variant that takes into account the salient edge features that are found particularly in chest X-ray images. In addition, it introduces a semi-global histogram to replace the commonly used global histogram which normally represents the spatial distribution of the generated codes in the LBP encoding process. The proposed LBP variant has been applied to the task of classifying X-rays of the ImageCLEFmed 2009 dataset into different chest categories. Experimental results show that while reducing the computational load the proposed LBP variant achieved an accuracy of 99.19% as compared to the best reported LBP based results of 98.73%, in classifying chest x-ray images of the ImageCLEFmed 2009 dataset.
A Connectionist Attentional Shift Model of Eye-Movement Control in Reading

A connectionist attentional-shift model of eye movement control (CASMEC) in reading is described. The model provides an integrated account of a range of saccadic control effects found in reading, such as word-skipping, refixation, and of course normal saccadic progression.
Asymmetrical trajectories: The past and present of –body/–one

Abstract The set of English [+human] pronominal quantifiers has been variable for at least 500 years, with the compound forms –body and –one competing since Middle and Early Modern English. This change has still to run its course (cf. Nevalainen & Raumolin-Brunberg, 2003:78). Using corpora of historical texts, we track the development of these variants alongside the demise of the earlier variant –man. Then, drawing on contemporary and regionally diverse corpora, we trace the continued development of –body/–one variation through the 20th century. The trajectories reveal paradigmatic leveling in the late 19th century and the rise of –one as the dominant form. However, grammatical, social, and lexical developments continue. Most striking is that after an initial phase of historical leveling, the different lexical quantifiers—any, every, some, no—go their own ways in the collection of varieties examined here, demonstrating that the mechanisms shaping evolutionary pathways across the globe are not only systemic, but also retain local alternations.
Excluded by design: informality versus tactical urbanism in the redevelopment of Detroit neighborhoods

ABSTRACT Over the last half century, Detroit has been defined by economic collapse and worsening social stratification. Street vending, murals, and urban agriculture have served as means for disenfranchised communities to resist exclusion from and discrimination by the formal systems that provide services and amenities to their wealthier counterparts. In recent years, “tactical urbanism” has been promoted by urban designers appropriating informal practices as spurs to redevelopment. This paper analyzes media coverage of the simultaneous use of street vending, murals, and urban agriculture by private investors in Detroit's redeveloping neighborhoods, and their informal adoption by marginalized Detroiters, and reveals how the appropriation of informal practices by developers and new arrivals to the city has become commonplace in reinvested areas, but is treated fundamentally differently than informal practices of long-standing residents. My analysis points to inconsistencies in the ways that informal activities, often condemned as illegal when practiced by long-standing residents, are accepted as entrepreneurial by the media and presented as necessary to attract an arriving class of young professionals. I consider how new, more affluent arrivals to the city participate in the “renaissance” of Detroit by manipulating legal frameworks that define the realms of informality and criminality.