Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimation of TDOA for room reflections by iterative weighted l1 constraint

Estimation of Time Difference of Arrivals (TDOAs) corresponding to early room reflections can be formulated as a Blind Channel Identification (BCI) problem, exploiting signals acquired by a set of microphones, given an unknown transmitted source. To cope with the intrinsic noise sensitivity and ill-posedness of the problem, sparsity and non-negativity priors on the Acoustic Impulse Response (AIR) of the room can be exploited. Here we propose a novel iterative method, resulting in a sequence of convex problems relying on a weighted l1 constraint. The proposed method allows to outperform current state of the art on speech and non-speech real signals, while lowering the number of parameters to tune and the sensitivity of solution given the few free parameters.
Performance study of adaptive routing algorithms for LEO satellite constellations under Self-Similar and Poisson traffic

A comparative study of routing techniques is carried out for LEO constellations interconnecting high speed terrestrial networks, assuming Poisson and Self-Similar input traffic. Shortest path routing as well as optimal routing (flow deviation) methods are applied for balanced and unbalanced traffic load and for uniform and non uniform distribution of the earth stations. The performance of flow deviation method is shown to be very successful even for the LEO complicated networks, for both Poisson or Self-Similar input. A modification of the classic flow deviation algorithm regarding the number of paths we work with is proposed. Indeed, it is proved that a k-paths flow deviation method is always easy to obtain and gives robust results for any traffic pattern at a very affordable algorithmic complexity.
System combination for short utterance speaker recognition

For text-independent short-utterance speaker recognition (SUSR), the performance often degrades dramatically. This paper presents a combination approach to the SUSR tasks with two phonetic-aware systems: one is the DNN-based i-vector system and the other is our recently proposed subregion-based GMM-UBM system. The former employs phone posteriors to construct an i-vector model in which the shared statistics offers stronger robustness against limited test data, while the latter establishes a phone-dependent GMM-UBM system which represents speaker characteristics with more details. A score-level fusion is implemented to integrate the respective advantages from the two systems. Experimental results show that for the text-independent SUSR task, both the DNN-based i-vector system and the subregion-based GMM-UBM system outperform their respective baselines, and the score-level system combination delivers performance improvement.
THE ABSENCE CONSEQUENCES OF OVERTIME IN THE TRANSIT INDUSTRY

This article studies the absence consequences of overtime in the transit industry through a disaggregate model of absence. The model was estimated with panel data of transit operators to test the hypothesis that widespread availability of overtime may induce absence. The results suggest that absence is more a habit than the result of a decision process based on past overtime worked.
A Markov-switching Model of Inflation in Australia

This paper applies the methodology of Markov-switching models to describe the inflation process in Australia in the period since the early 1960s. In contrast to conventional modelling, the approach makes explicit allowance for the possibility of structural change: inflation is modelled within a framework that allows endogenous switching between simple inflation equations. The approach may be relevant to understanding shifts in inflation expectations if the public also uses relatively simple forecasting rules in formulating expectations. The results suggest that inflation is reasonably well represented by relatively simple functions of past inflation and an output gap term, with major regime changes occurring in the early 1970s and early 1990s.
Data processing and analysis in real‐world traditional Chinese medicine clinical data: challenges and approaches

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a clinical‐based discipline in which real‐world clinical practice plays a significant role for both the development of clinical therapy and theoretical research. The large‐scale clinical data generated during the daily clinical operations of TCM provide a highly valuable knowledge source for clinical decision making. Secondary analysis of these data would be a vital task for TCM clinical studies before the randomised controlled trials are conducted. In this article, we discuss the challenges and issues, such as structured data curation, data preprocessing and quality, large‐scale data management and complex data analysis requirements, in the data processing and analysis of real‐world TCM clinical data. Furthermore, we also discuss related state‐of‐the‐art research and solutions in China. We have shown that the clinical data warehouse based on the collection of structured electronic medical record data and clinical terminology would be a promising approach for generating clinical hypotheses and helping the discovery of clinical knowledge from large‐scale real‐world TCM clinical data. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The X-ray emission of the most luminous 3CR radio sources

Context. Although many radio-loud quasars and galaxies have been observed in X-rays, systematic studies of well defined samples are rare. Aims. We investigate the X-ray properties of the most luminous radio sources in the 3CR catalogue, in order to assess whether they are similar to the most luminous radio-quiet quasars, for instance in the X-ray normalization with respect to the optical luminosity, or in the distribution of the absorption column density. Methods. We have selected the (optically identified) 3CR radio sources whose 178-MHz monochromatic luminosity lies in the highest factor-of-three bin. The 4 most luminous objects had already been observed in X-rays. Of the remaining 16, we observed 8 randomly chosen ones with XMM-Newton, with the only requirement that half were of type 1 and half of type 2 according to the optical identification. Results. All targets were detected. The optical-to-X-ray spectral index, $\alpha_{\rm ox}$, can be computed only for the type 1s and, in agreement with previous studies, is found to be flatter than in radio-quiet quasars of similar luminosity. However, the Compton-thin type 2s have an absorption-corrected X-ray luminosity systematically lower than the type 1s, by a factor which makes them consistent with the radio-quiet $\alpha_{\rm ox}$. Within the limited statistics, the Compton-thick objects seem to have a reflected component more luminous than the Compton-thin ones. Conclusions. The extra X-ray component observed in type 1 radio-loud quasars is beamed for intrinsic causes, and is not collimated by the absorbing torus as is the case for the (intrinsically isotropic) disk emission. The extra component can be associated with a relativistic outflow, provided that the flow opening angle and the Doppler beaming factor are ~$1/5$-$1/7$ radians.
DISCOUNTED CASH FLOW AND BUSINESS VALUATION IN A NINETEENTH CENTURY MERGER A NOTE

In 1889 the Shelton Iron, Steel and Coal Company Limited was incorporated to take over the assets and business activities of two existing companies. To guide the contracting parties in negotiating a price to be paid for the properties belonging to the Shelton Collieries and Ironworks an independent valuation was arranged by Deloitte, Dever, Griffiths & Co., later appointed auditors of the new company. The article comprises an appraisal of the valuation exercise, which is an early example of the use of a discounted cash flow technique to provide relevant information for a capital investment decision.
Virulence and immunogenicity of genetically defined human and porcine isolates of M. avium subsp. hominissuis in an experimental mouse infection

Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis (Mah) represents a health concern for humans and to a lesser extent for pigs, but its zoonotic potential remains elusive. Using multispacer sequence typing (MST) we previously identified 49 different genotypes of Mah among Belgian clinical and porcine isolates, with 5 MSTs shared by both hosts. Using experimental intranasal infection of BALB/c mice, we compared the virulence and immunogenicity of porcine and clinical human isolates with shared genotype or with a genotype only found in humans or pigs. Bacterial replication was monitored for 20 weeks in lungs, spleen and liver and mycobacteria specific spleen cell IFN-γ, IL-10 and IL-17 production as well as serum antibody responses were analyzed. Isolates varied in virulence, with human and porcine isolates sharing MST22 genotype showing a thousand fold higher bacterial replication in lungs and more dissemination to spleen and liver than the human and porcine MST91 isolates. Virulent MST22 type was also associated with progressive suppression of IFN-γ and IL-17 responses, and increased IL-10 production. Whole genome sequencing of the two virulent isolates with MST22 genotype and two avirulent isolates of genotype MST91 and comparison with two well-studied M. avium subsp. hominissuis reference strains i.e. Mah 104 and Mah TH135, identified in the two MST22 isolates nine specific virulence factors of the mammalian cell entry family, that were identical with Mah 104 strain. Despite the obvious limitations of the mouse model, a striking link of virulence and identity at the genome level of porcine and human isolates with the same multisequence type, for which no correlation of place of residence (humans) or farm of origin (pigs) was observed, seems to point to the existence in the environment of certain genotypes of Mah which may be more infectious both for humans and pigs than other genotypes.
Semantic Enterprise Description for the Needs of Business Process Automation

Enterprises today face an increasing need to easily access and process knowledge they produce as well as automate their business processes. This need may be fulfilled by taking advantage of the Semantic Web and Semantic Web services technologies and implementing the concept of Semantic Business Process Management. In order to fulfil this vision, an enterprise and the specified part of the knowledge from the enterprisepsilas environment needs to be properly described. The main goal of this paper is to present Business Roles Ontology (BRO) and Business Functions Ontology (BFO) which are to provide description of business functions and corresponding business roles. Both ontologies may be used within automated business process management lifecycle and are the result of our research work.
Adaptive framework for multivariate stream data processing in data-centric sensor applications

We introduce an adaptive framework for multivariate sensor stream data reduction. The proposed method takes as input a sliding window of multivariate stream data, classifies the data in each window, and chooses reduction strategies that are most appropriate for the window. In the classification step, it discretizes the stream data into a string of symbols that characterize the signal changes and then applies classification algorithms to classify the transformed sensor stream data. In the second step, depending on the classification labels assigned to each window, it applies most appropriate data reduction techniques and reduction ratios to the window. For classification, we considered supervised methods including Naïve Bayes Model and SVM, and unsupervised methods including Jaccard, TFIDF, Jaro and JaroWinkler. For data reduction, we compared Wavelet, Sampling, SVD and Hierarchical clustering. In our experiments, SVM and TFIDF outperformed the other classification methods and SVD and Sampling showed the best result in data reduction.
MEME: discovering and analyzing DNA and protein sequence motifs

MEME (Multiple EM for Motif Elicitation) is one of the most widely used tools for searching for novel ‘signals’ in sets of biological sequences. Applications include the discovery of new transcription factor binding sites and protein domains. MEME works by searching for repeated, ungapped sequence patterns that occur in the DNA or protein sequences provided by the user. Users can perform MEME searches via the web server hosted by the National Biomedical Computation Resource () and several mirror sites. Through the same web server, users can also access the Motif Alignment and Search Tool to search sequence databases for matches to motifs encoded in several popular formats. By clicking on buttons in the MEME output, users can compare the motifs discovered in their input sequences with databases of known motifs, search sequence databases for matches to the motifs and display the motifs in various formats. This article describes the freely accessible web server and its architecture, and discusses ways to use MEME effectively to find new sequence patterns in biological sequences and analyze their significance.
Influences on the harmonisation of accounting and disclosure in Cameroon

Pressures for the harmonisation of accounting practice in Cameroon arose out of UDEAC Acts which had already been incorporated into Cameroon law and required all companies in the Anglophone and Francophone provinces of the country to adopt the OCAM Plan, a variant of the continental European uniform accounting systems. The aim of this study is threefold: (i) to assess whether or not the characteristic features of the OCAM Plan are compatible with indigenous cultural values; (ii) to investigate the implementation problems associated with the OCAM Plan; and (iii) an inquiry into the factors which affect compliance with the Plan's extensive mandatory disclosures by domestic and transnational companies. The research design involved some degree of triangulation - i.e. both qualitative (case study) and positivist (questionnaire survey) modes of inquiry were used to study the same problem. The findings of the case studies and questionnaire survey indicate a broad dichotomy between the accounting values of the Anglophones on the one hand and those of the Francophones on the other. These results led to the conclusion that, by and large, the advantages or disadvantages of the OCAM Plan are not absolute as suggested in the literature. Rather, the way in which individuals of different backgrounds perceive its pros and cons seem largely dependent on their own accounting sub-culture values. Overall, the results indicate that the design of the Plan is more positively in tune with the accounting values of the French/Francophone Cameroonian groups than those of their Anglo-American/Anglophone Cameroonian counterparts. Whilst this appears inconsistent with the linkage between accounting and societal values postulated by Gray (1988) and the cultural determinism models enunciated by some scholars (e.g. Perera, 1989; Belkaoui, 1990; Belkaoui and Picur, 1991), the mismatch was explained in terms of some ecological and institutional influences within a cybernetic paradigm. (Now unrestricted)
Maintenance of Mitochondrial Morphology by Autophagy and Its Role in High Glucose Effects on Chronological Lifespan of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, mitochondrial morphology changes when cells are shifted between nonfermentative and fermentative carbon sources. Here, we show that cells of S. cerevisiae grown in different glucose concentrations display different mitochondrial morphologies. The morphology of mitochondria in the cells growing in 0.5% glucose was similar to that of mitochondria in respiring cells. However, the mitochondria of cells growing in higher glucose concentrations (2% and 4%) became fragmented after growth in these media, due to the production of acetic acid; however, the fragmentation was not due to intracellular acidification. From a screen of mutants involved in sensing and utilizing nutrients, cells lacking TOR1 had reduced mitochondrial fragmentation, and autophagy was found to be essential for this reduction. Mitochondrial fragmentation in cells grown in high glucose was reversible by transferring them into conditioned medium from a culture grown on 0.5% glucose. Similarly, the chronological lifespan of cells grown in high glucose medium was reduced, and this phenotype could be reversed when cells were transferred to low glucose conditioned medium. These data indicate that chronological lifespan seems correlated with mitochondrial morphology of yeast cells and that both phenotypes can be influenced by factors from conditioned medium of cultures grown in low glucose medium.
Expression of MMP-2, −7, −9, MT1-MMP and TIMP-1 and −2 has no prognostic relevance in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their tissue inhibitors (TIMPs) are involved in tumor invasion, but their prognostic significance is still under discussion. We set out to analyze the epithelial and stromal expression of MMP-2, MMP-7, MMP-9, MT1-MMP, TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 in advanced epithelial ovarian cancers and to assess their prognostic value. A tissue microarray of malignant ovarian tumors from 69 patients was constructed. Immunostaining results were scored using the HSCORE and assessed by univariate analysis with Bonferroni correction and classical multidimensional scaling (CMDS). Kaplan-Meier survival curves calculated with regard to patient and tumor characteristics were compared by the log-rank test. Patients treated by primary surgery (n=43) had a higher tumor size and a trend toward higher epithelial MMP and TIMP expression than those treated by interval surgery (n=26). Optimal cytoreduction (residue ≤1 cm) was obtained in 27 and 18 patients, respectively. Clinical and histological characteristics were not different in patients with optimal cytoreduction and those with suboptimal cytoreduction. The expression of epithelial MMP-9 (P=0.002) and TIMP-2 (P=0.026) were higher in the latter group. CMDS failed to demonstrate any influence of MMP and TIMP expression with regard to cytoreduction outcome. MMP and TIMP expression did not influence survival. Their prognostic values were outweighed by histological type, lymph node involvement and cytoreduction. Standard statistical analysis adjusted after Bonferroni correction and CMDS reduced the relevance of MMPs and TIMPs in the prognosis of patients with advanced ovarian cancer.
COMPUTATION OF SOUND GENERATED BY FLOW OVER A CIRCULARCYLINDER : AN ACOUSTIC ANALOGY

SUMMARY The sound generated by viscous ow past a circular cylinder is predicted via the Lighthill acoustic analogy approach. The two dimensional ow eld is predicted using two unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes solvers. Flow eld computations are made for laminar ow at three Reynolds numbers (Re = 1000, Re = 10; 000, and Re = 90; 000) and two diierent turbulent models at Re = 90; 000. The unsteady surface pressures are utilized by an acoustics code that implements Farassat's formulation 1A to predict the acoustic eld. The acoustic code is a 3-D code|2-D results are found by using a long cylinder length. The 2-D predictions overpredict the acoustic amplitude; however, if correlation lengths in the range of 3 to 10 cylinder diameters are used, the predicted acoustic amplitude agrees well with experiment.
Doppler Spread Estimation by Subspace Tracking for OFDM Systems

In this paper, a novel maximum Doppler spread estimation algorithm is presented for OFDM systems with the comb-type pilot pattern. The least squared estimated channel frequency responses (CFR's) on pilot tones are used to generate the auto-correlation matrices with/without a known lag, from which the time correlation function can be measured. The maximum Doppler spread is acquired by inverting the time correlation function. Since the noise term will bias the estimator, the estimated CFR's are projected onto the delay subspace of the channel to reduce the bias term as well as the computation complexity. Furthermore, the subspace tracking algorithm is adopted to automatically update the delay subspace. Simulation results demonstrate the proposed algorithm can quickly converge to the true values for a wide range of SNR's and Doppler spreads in Rayleigh fading channels.
A Novel Data Mining Method on Falling Detection and Daily Activities Recognition

With the intensification of aging population, a growing number of elderly people have to live alone due to domestic and social reasons. Falling becomes one of the most crucial factors in threatening the elderly's lives, which is always difficult to be detected as it is instantaneous and easy to be confused with other motions, such as lying down. In this paper, a new method is proposed for accurate falling detection and activities recognition. It applies hierarchical classifiers to the time series data set including eleven activities of daily living (ADLs), collected by four wearable sensors. The new method combines two machine learning algorithms, performs concrete analysis on the original outcome and then obtains several scarcely-confused groups separately. The experiment indicates that the new method improves the accuracy of classification to a larger extent, reached to more than 90%. Furthermore, the matched algorithm for applying these classifiers, called Hierarchical Classifier Algorithm (HCA), is proposed as well.
Hyperbolic Discounting and the Sustainability of Rotational Savings Arrangements

People across the developing world join rotational savings and credit associations (roscas) to fund repeated purchases of nondivisible goods. When the scope for punishment is weak, there is a natural question about why agents not defect from roscas. This paper models roscas as commitment savings devices and derives conditions under which hyperbolic discounters will never defect, even in the absence of formal contracting, social punishment, and reputation. I show why, unlike with standard commitment devices, a hyperbolic discounter will not postpone entry into a rosca. Finally, this paper makes predictions about the relative survival of random and fixed roscas. (JEL D14, D91, O12)
Isolation of High-Efficient Low-Temperature Methanogen and Comparation on Flora in Anaerobic Fermentation Production Biogas

With the Hun gate anaerobic techniques, a low-temperature methanogen strain was isolated from sludge in De Qing Alpine region from Tibet, named XZF21. The colony is white, not transparent, Gram-negative, uses formate as the substrate forCH4 formation, the most suitable growth temperature is 23¡æ, most suitable pH is 7.0 with yeast extract, the shape, physical characteristics and the analysis of 16S rDNA indicated that this bacteria is Methano corpusculum parvum. Methane bacteria and coupled bacteria as inoculum in the fish pond sludge and fresh pig manure, under the strict fermentation temperature (23¡À1¡æ) to contrast the biogas production. The result showed: Compared the sludge and pig manure as fermentation medium, increasing the bacterias can largely enhance the methane production. Further more, with the pig manure as fermentation matrix is more advantageous for the methane synthesis than that sludge, and the production of biogas is four times higher than the sludge, the degeneration rate of TS and VS improved25.20%-32.35%, 6.28%-14.85% respectively.