Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A comparison of two word-recognition tasks in multitalker babble: Speech Recognition in Noise Test (SPRINT) and Words-in-Noise Test (WIN).

BACKGROUND The Speech Recognition in Noise Test (SPRINT) is a word-recognition instrument that presents the 200 Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 (NU-6) words binaurally at 50 dB HL in a multitalker babble at a 9 dB signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) (Cord et al, 1992). The SPRINT was developed by and used by the Army as a more valid predictor of communication abilities (than pure-tone thresholds or word-recognition in quiet) for issues involving fitness for duty from a hearing perspective of Army personnel. The Words-in-Noise test (WIN) is a slightly different word-recognition task in a fixed level multitalker babble with 10 NU-6 words presented at each of 7 S/N from 24 to 0 dB S/N in 4 dB decrements (Wilson, 2003; Wilson and McArdle, 2007). For the two instruments, both the babble and the speakers of the words are different. The SPRINT uses all 200 NU-6 words, whereas the WIN uses a maximum of 70 words. PURPOSE The purpose was to compare recognition performances by 24 young listeners with normal hearing and 48 older listeners with sensorineural hearing on the SPRINT and WIN protocols. RESEARCH DESIGN A quasi-experimental, mixed model design was used. STUDY SAMPLE The 24 young listeners with normal hearing (19 to 29 years, mean = 23.3 years) were from the local university and had normal hearing (< or = 20 dB HL; American National Standards Institute, 2004) at the 250-8000 Hz octave intervals. The 48 older listeners with sensorineural hearing loss (60 to 82 years, mean = 69.9 years) had the following inclusion criteria: (1) a threshold at 500 Hz between 15 and 30 dB HL, (2) a threshold at 1000 Hz between 20 and 40 dB HL, (3) a three-frequency puretone average (500, 1000, and 2000 Hz) of < or = 40 dB HL, (4) word-recognition scores in quiet > or = 40%, and (5) no history of middle ear or retrocochlear pathology as determined by an audiologic evaluation. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS The speech materials were presented bilaterally in the following order: (1) the SPRINT at 50 dB HL, (2) two half lists of NU-6 words in quiet at 60 dB HL and 80 dB HL, and (3) the two 35-word lists of the WIN materials with the multitalker babble fixed at 60 dB HL. Data collection occurred during a 40-60 minute session. Recognition performances on each stimulus word were analyzed. RESULTS The listeners with normal hearing obtained 92.5% correct on the SPRINT with a 50% point on the WIN of 2.7 dB S/N. The listeners with hearing loss obtained 65.3% correct on the SPRINT and a WIN 50% point at 12.0 dB S/N. The SPRINT and WIN were significantly correlated (r = -0.81, p < .01), indicating that the SPRINT had good concurrent validity. The high-frequency, pure-tone average (1000, 2000, 4000 Hz) had higher correlations with the SPRINT, WIN, and NU-6 in quiet than did the traditional three-frequency pure-tone average (500, 1000, 2000 Hz). CONCLUSIONS Graphically and numerically the SPRINT and WIN were highly related, which is indicative of good concurrent validity of the SPRINT.
AuthLoop: End-to-End Cryptographic Authentication for Telephony over Voice Channels

Telephones remain a trusted platform for conducting some of our most sensitive exchanges. From banking to taxes, wide swathes of industry and government rely on telephony as a secure fall-back when attempting to confirm the veracity of a transaction. In spite of this, authentication is poorly managed between these systems, and in the general case it is impossible to be certain of the identity (i.e., Caller ID) of the entity at the other end of a call. We address this problem with AuthLoop, the first system to provide cryptographic authentication solely within the voice channel. We design, implement and characterize the performance of an in-band modem for executing a TLS-inspired authentication protocol, and demonstrate its abilities to ensure that the explicit single-sided authentication procedures pervading the web are also possible on all phones. We show experimentally that this protocol can be executed with minimal computational overhead and only a few seconds of user time (≈ 9 instead of ≈ 97 seconds for a naı̈ve implementation of TLS 1.2) over heterogeneous networks. In so doing, we demonstrate that strong end-to-end validation of Caller ID is indeed practical for all telephony networks.
Climate change impacts on the watersheds of Lakes Onego and Ladoga from remote sensing and in situ data

ABSTRACT This study investigated climate change impacts on watershed parameters as well as on water balance, water temperatures, and ice-cover regime for 2 large lakes in western Russia, Lakes Ladoga and Onego. Parts of the study occurred during a period of pronounced warming and limited ice cover on Lake Ladoga, which precluded winter surveys of the lake. This limitation notwithstanding, the research provides background climatic and hydrological conditions for the joint Russian–Swiss project “Lake Ladoga – Life under the ice. ” For both Lakes Onego and Ladoga from 1955 to 2017, air temperature, precipitation, and evaporation data all showed increasing trends, and inflow, outflow, and water levels showed no discernible changes from baseline conditions. Thermal and ice conditions of Lake Onego showed greater sensitivity to climatic changes than corresponding conditions for Lake Ladoga because of the latter’s significantly smaller volume and lower heat content. The total ice-cover duration for Lake Onego decreased ∼20 days during the observation period. Detailed data analysis also revealed key characteristics of the Shuya River discharge into Petrozavodsk Bay, where a major part of the fieldwork occurred. River discharge into Lakes Ladoga and Onego increased in the winter. These processes collectively can change the hydrochemical conditions, water quality, and habitat.
Robust spatially selective excitation using radiofrequency pulses adapted to the effective spatially encoding magnetic fields

Multidimensional spatially selective excitation (SSE) has stimulated a variety of useful applications in magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which have regained considerable interest after the recent introduction of parallel excitation. For SSE, radiofrequency pulses are designed specifically for certain time‐courses of spatially encoding magnetic fields (SEM) which are applied simultaneously with the radiofrequency pulses. However, experimental imperfections of gradient‐systems and undesired SEM field contributions often prevent the correct co‐action of radiofrequency pulses and gradient‐waveforms and therefore degrade the fidelity of excitation patterns, especially for parallel excitation. To cope with such imperfections, a classical measurement of k‐space‐trajectories can be performed followed by an adaptation of the SSE‐pulses. However, this method is limited to linear SEM field distributions, which are describable in the k‐space‐formalism. Hence, this work presents a more sophisticated method consisting in a spatially resolved measurement of the temporal phase evolution of the transverse magnetization. This exhaustive phase information can be incorporated into pulse‐design algorithms to compensate even for undesired spatially nonlinear, dynamic SEM field contributions. Both approaches are assessed in various experimental scenarios and individual benefits and limitations are discussed. The adaptation of SSE‐pulses to experimentally achieved calibration data turned out to be very beneficial, and especially the novel spatially resolved method exhibited high potential for robust SSE even in adverse experimental setups. Magn Reson Med, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Striatal intrinsic reinforcement signals during recognition memory: relationship to response bias and dysregulation in schizophrenia

Ventral striatum (VS) is a critical brain region for reinforcement learning and motivation, and VS hypofunction is implicated in psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia. Providing rewards or performance feedback has been shown to activate VS. Intrinsically motivated subjects performing challenging cognitive tasks are likely to engage reinforcement circuitry even in the absence of external feedback or incentives. However, such intrinsic reinforcement responses have received little attention, have not been examined in relation to behavioral performance, and have not been evaluated for impairment in neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. Here we used fMRI to examine a challenging “old” vs. “new” visual recognition task in healthy subjects and patients with schizophrenia. Targets were unique fractal stimuli previously presented as salient distractors in a visual oddball task, producing incidental memory encoding. Based on the prediction error theory of reinforcement learning, we hypothesized that correct target recognition would activate VS in controls, and that this activation would be greater in subjects with lower expectation of responding correctly as indexed by a more conservative response bias. We also predicted these effects would be reduced in patients with schizophrenia. Consistent with these predictions, controls activated VS and other reinforcement processing regions during correct recognition, with greater VS activation in those with a more conservative response bias. Patients did not show either effect, with significant group differences suggesting hyporesponsivity in patients to internally generated feedback. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for intrinsic motivation and reward when studying cognitive tasks, and add to growing evidence of reward circuit dysfunction in schizophrenia that may impact cognition and function.
Recursive algorithms for estimation of hidden Markov models and autoregressive models with Markov regime

This paper is concerned with recursive algorithms for the estimation of hidden Markov models (HMMs) and autoregressive (AR) models under the Markov regime. Convergence and rate of convergence results are derived. Acceleration of convergence by averaging of the iterates and the observations are treated. Finally, constant step-size tracking algorithms are presented and examined.
Saying No to Inhibition: The Encoding and Use of Words

Modelers of cognitive processes have been identified as belonging to one or the other oftwo camps: inhibitophiles or inhibitophobes (see chap. 15, this volume). Therefore, it seems reasonable to make clear our points of view on the issue that underlies this volume, namely, what is the proper role of the construct of inhibition in cognitive theory? David S. Gorfein falls into the inhibitophobic camp, whereas Vincent R. Brown admits to inhibitophilic tendencies but with several caveats. Brown suggests that honest inhibitophiles
The Self-Organizing Map Applying the "Survival of the Fittest Type" Learning Algorithm

The self-organizing map that Kohonen has proposed maps high-dimensional vector data to low-dimensional space by phase conservation. And, it generates the feature map that visually catches the similarity among data. In addition, the reference vector where the unit in a competitive layer of SOM is achieved can interpolate an intermediate vector of the input vector data. In the pattern recognition of the class label, SOM that adds the class label to the element of the pattern and learns is especially called to be the supervised SOM. We propose SOM based on the survival of the fittest type learning algorithm to solve the problem of the delay and the over-training. As a result, the learning of the survival of the fittest type becomes possible, a needless node is excluded, and the probability density function can be presumed by the optimal number of nodes.
Lamotrigine extended-release as adjunctive therapy for partial seizures

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of once-daily adjunctive lamotrigine extended-release (XR) for partial seizures in epilepsy. Methods: Patients more than 12 years old diagnosed with epilepsy with partial seizures and taking one to two baseline antiepileptic drugs were randomized to adjunctive once-daily lamotrigine XR or placebo in a double-blind, parallel-group trial. The study comprised a baseline phase, a 7-week double-blind escalation phase, and a 12-week double-blind maintenance phase during which doses of study medication and concomitant antiepileptic drugs were maintained. Results: Of the 243 randomized patients, 239 (118 lamotrigine XR, 121 placebo) entered the escalation phase and received study medication. Lamotrigine XR was more effective than placebo with respect to median percent reduction from baseline in weekly partial seizure frequency (primary endpoint—entire 19-week treatment phase: 46.1% vs 24.2%, p = 0.0004 via Wilcoxon test; escalation phase: 28.0% vs 16.3%, p = 0.028; maintenance phase: 58.0% vs 26.7%, p < 0.0001). The percentage of patients with ≥50% reduction in partial seizure frequency (42.2% vs 24.2%, p = 0.0037) and time to ≥50% reduction in partial seizure frequency (p = 0.0007) also favored lamotrigine XR over placebo. A similar pattern of results was observed for secondarily generalized seizures. The most common adverse events were headache (lamotrigine XR 17%, placebo 15%) and dizziness (lamotrigine XR 18%, placebo 5%). Differences between lamotrigine XR and placebo on health outcomes measures were not significant. Conclusions: Once-daily adjunctive lamotrigine extended-release compared with placebo effectively reduced partial seizure frequency and was well tolerated in this double-blind study. Results support the clinical utility of this new once-daily formulation. GLOSSARY: AED = antiepileptic drug; AEP = Adverse Experience Profile; CES-D = Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale; ESS = Epworth Sleepiness Scale; IR = immediate-release; NDDI-E = Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory-Epilepsy; POMS = Profile of Mood States; QOLIE-31-P = Quality of Life in Epilepsy-31-P; SSQ = Seizure Severity Questionnaire; VNS = vagus nerve stimulators; XR = extended-release.
From Electromagnetics to System Performance: A New Method for the Error-Rate Prediction of Atmospheric Communications Links

An original and general method is proposed to predict the impact of electromagnetic effects due to the environment on the error performance of microwave communications systems. The method is based on the concept of a process-oriented model which consists of a simplified representation of the physical phenomenon responsible for transmission impairments and simulates its influence on the signals received by any given communications link. The method yields a thorough characterization of the system impairments in both the time domain, by calculating the fluctuations of the received signal during the evolution of the physical process, and the frequency domain, by inferring the communication channel transfer function from the frequency dependence of the received waveform. In addition, by introducing the simulated channel transfer function as a filter in a communications system simulation software, the method evaluates the degradation induced in the system performance. Three applications as different as scintillation due to turbulence in clouds, depolarization by rain and ice crystals, and interference in the presence of diffraction on obstacles demonstrate the ability of the method to deal with actual radio-communications system impairments.
Administration of Exogenous Growth Hormone Is Associated with Changes in Plasma and Intracellular Mammary Amino Acid Profiles and Abundance of the Mammary Gland Amino Acid Transporter SLC3A2 in Mid-Lactation Dairy Cows

The objectives of this study were to (1) identify changes in plasma and mammary intracellular amino acid (AA) profiles in dairy cows treated with growth hormone (GH), and (2) evaluate the expression of mammary gland genes involved in the transport of AA identified in (1). Eight non-pregnant (n = 4 per group) lactating dairy cows were treated with a single subcutaneous injection of either a slow-release formulation of commercially available GH (Lactotropin 500 mg) or physiological saline solution. Six days after treatment, cows were milked and blood collected from the jugular vein for the analysis of free AA in the plasma. Cows were euthanized and mammary tissue harvested. Treatment with GH increased milk, protein, fat and lactose yields, with no effect on dry matter intake. Plasma concentrations of lysine and group I AA decreased significantly, and arginine, methionine, tyrosine and arginine-family AA tended to decrease in GH-treated cows. Concentrations of intracellular glycine, serine and glutamate increased significantly, with a trend for decreased arginine observed in the mammary gland of GH-treated cows. A trend for increased concentrations of intracellular total AA, NEAA and arginine-family AA were observed in the mammary gland of GH-treated cows. Variance in the concentration of plasma methionine, tyrosine, valine, alanine, ornithine, BCAA, EAA was significantly different between treatments. Variance in the concentration of intracellular lysine, valine, glutamine, EAA and group II was significantly different between treatments. AA changes were associated with increased mRNA abundance of the mammary gland AA transporter SLC3A2. We propose that these changes occur to support increased milk protein and fatty acid production in the mammary gland of GH-treated cows via potential mTOR pathway signaling.
Space-time turbo equalization in frequency-selective MIMO channels

A computationally efficient space-time turbo equalization algorithm is derived for frequency-selective multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) channels. The algorithm is an extension of the iterative equalization algorithm by Reynolds and Wang (see Signal Processing, vol.81, no.5, p.989-995, 2001) for frequency-selective fading channels and of iterative multiuser detection for code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems by Wang and Poor (see IEEE Trans. Commun., vol.47, p.1046-1061, 1999). The proposed algorithm is implemented as a MIMO detector consisting of a soft-input-soft-output (SISO) linear MMSE detector followed by SISO channel decoders for the multiple users. The detector first forms a soft replica of each composite interfering signal using the log likelihood ratio (LLR), fed back from the SISO channel decoders, of the transmitted coded symbols and subtracts it from the received signal vector. Linear adaptive filtering then takes place to suppress the interference residuals: filter taps are adjusted based on the minimum mean square error (MMSE) criterion. The LLR is then calculated for adaptive filter output. This process is repeated in an iterative fashion to enhance signal-detection performance. This paper also discusses the performance sensitivity of the proposed algorithm to channel-estimation error. A channel-estimation scheme is introduced that works with the iterative MIMO equalization process to reduce estimation errors.
Is Cardiovascular Disease in Women Inevitable?: Preparing for Menopause and Beyond

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death for American women. Women share many of the same risk factors (RFs) for CVD as men, and in both, women and men, these RFs are associated with age. Additionally, the prevalence of multiple RFs increases with age. Though menopause has been thought to increase CVD risk in women, the association between menopause and age obfuscates a causal relationship. While men's CVD mortality has decreased since the 1980s, women's CVD mortality has climbed until 2000. This has resulted in a sex-related CVD mortality gap, with women having higher mortality than men since 1984. Contributing to this female-majority CVD mortality gap is a lack of awareness of CVD risk among women and their physicians. Awareness campaigns, such as the Heart Truth and the Red Dress symbol, appear to have improved recognition of CVD risk in women. Further, female-specific guidelines have been developed to prevent and reduce CVD in women. Though the current understanding of the role of menopause in CVD is controversial, studies suggest that menopause does not exacerbate CVD independent of aging, and hormone replacement therapy is not effective for secondary prevention of CVD.
The exploration of relationships between information fulfilment and organisational design

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between information fulfilment and organisational design.Design/methodology/approach – The exploration is undertaken in four ways. First, the early part of the paper places information fulfilment within the literature. Second, there is an attempt to further determine the meaning of information fulfilment. Third, the factors that impact on information fulfilment are identified within the context of organisational design. Fourth, empirical findings are reported in the form of a European project which investigated the “relationship” between organisational design and information fulfilment.Findings – Information fulfilment is shown to be about the process of taking an intuitive “feel” and delineating a number of aspects which are concerned with what might be called emotion. Fulfilment is also connected with organisational roles and wider environmental issues.Originality/value – The contribution of this paper to the discipline of information ma.
How does randomized beamforming improve the connectivity of ad hoc networks?

This paper analyzes the impact of beamforming antennas on the topological connectivity of multihop wireless networks. As a metric for the connectivity of the network, we use the percentage P(path) of nodes that are connected via a multihop path. We show that simple randomized beamforming - i.e., each node adjusts its main beam into a randomly chosen direction for transmission and reception - significantly improves P(path) compared to networks with omnidirectional antennas employing the same power and sensitivity. The study is performed using accurate, analytical antenna models for uniform linear and circular antenna arrays. Already small arrays with four antenna elements give high gains of P(path). These gains are achieved although the nodes' average number of neighbors does not necessarily increase.
A pilot, open study of sertraline in outpatients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) or with a history of TRD who responded but later relapsed

While most depressed patients are prescribed a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) as an initial treatment, the use of SSRIs as a second or third-line treatment for depression is not as prevalent. This trial assessed the efficacy of sertraline for patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) or patients with a history of TRD who responded but later relapsed. Twelve patients with TRD who had not responded to a number of antidepressant trials (n=7), or had responded but subsequently suffered a relapse (n=5), were enrolled in an 8-week, open trial of sertraline. Both a completer analysis (n=6) and an intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis (n=12) were performed to evaluate sertraline response rates. Using a completer analysis, four patients (66.6%) were classified as responders; one (16.7%) as a partial responder and one (16.7%) as a non-responder. An ITT analysis resulted in five (41.7%) patients being classified as responders; one (8.3%) as a partial responder and six (50%) as non-responders. Of the four responders in the completer analysis, three (50%) achieved remission. Of the five responders in the ITT analysis, four (33.3%) achieved remission. Overall, two of seven (28.6%) non-responders and three of five (60.0%) relapsers responded to sertraline. The present results suggest the potential utility of sertraline for patients with TRD, or those with a history of TRD who responded but later relapsed, and warrant larger, placebo-controlled studies to further explore the potential role of sertraline for such patients.