Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Malay continuous speech recognition using fast HMM match algorithm

This paper describes the implementation of fast hidden Markov model (HMM) match algorithm in a phoneme-based Malay continuous speech recognition system. The decoding algorithm decouples the computations of state-likelihoods of phone HMM's from the main search which is bounded by syntactical and lexical constraints. This avoids the redundant state-likelihood computations of identical phone HMM's for different word models in the tightly integrated search and thus substantially reduce the decoding time. The algorithm is implemented in the framework of one pass dynamic programming search. For a 541-word task, the fast HMM match reduces the real-time factor (RTF) by a factor of 31.8 from 286.45 × RT to 9.02 × RT, compared to without decoupling. The word accuracy is maintained at 91.6% without loss for a test set perplexity of 15.45 in speaker-dependent mode.
Teaching receptive vocabulary to children with specific language impairment: a curriculum-based approach

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) frequently experience difficulties with understanding vocabulary and are subsequently academically disadvantaged. This study describes a curriculum-based assessment and therapy technique and its implementation with two children with language difficulties. Mathematical vocabulary that the children did not understand was randomly allocated to either the treatment or the control conditions. Over a period of seven to eight weeks, two boys were individually taught 18 words each. Each word was taught in one session only. The intervention was found to be effective for both children. The results of this study have implications for the rate of teaching of receptive vocabulary, the role of speech and language therapy in schools and the assessment of receptive vocabulary.
Translation of clinical practice guidelines for childhood obesity prevention in primary care mobilizes a rural Midwest community

Purpose:The purpose of this project was to implement clinic system changes that support evidence‐based guidelines for childhood obesity prevention. Adherence rates for prevention and screening of children in a rural Midwest primary care setting were used to measure the success of the program. Data sources:Retrospective chart reviews reflected gaps in current practice and documentation. An evidence‐based toolkit for childhood obesity prevention was used to implement clinic system changes for the identified gaps. Conclusions:The quality improvement approach proved to be effective in translating knowledge of obesity prevention guidelines into rural clinic practices with significant improvements in documentation of prevention measures that may positively impact the childhood obesity epidemic. Implications for practice:Primary care providers, including nurse practitioners (NPs), are at the forefront of diagnosing, educating, and counseling children and families on obesity prevention and need appropriate resources and tools to deliver premier care. The program successfully demonstrated how barriers to practice, even with the unique challenges in a rural setting, can be overcome. NPs fulfill a pivotal primary care role and can provide leadership that may positively impact obesity prevention in their communities.
The teaching and learning of psychotherapy

are more general and are devoted to therapies that are more limited in scope and more open in relationship between doctor and patient. Naturally, each training center attempts to orient its students in the best ways of handling the therapeutic problems that arise within a wide variety of relationships established for the many purposes included under the heading of psychotherapy. There is a great deal of difficulty among the faculties of these training centers in establishing any modal procedures because each supervisor of students of psychotherapy has developed his own life style and through his individual investment of the techniques is unsympathetic to those carried on by others. The student often becomes bewildered and is not grateful for the opportunity to observe a wide variety of techniques. He feels confused and resentful that final positive words of details applicable to every therapeutic situation are not given to him without emphasis and authority. He finds it difficult to imagine that he will ever be able to find his own individual style. However, usually this is exactly what happens, not in the training program itself but after the student has been on his own for a while and begins to synthesize the bits of information he has learned from a wide variety of supervisors. Then, having digested and being ready for assimilation, he performs according to his own personality requirements. Most training centers are concerned with methods of supervision, and supervisors spend
Effects of feeding polydextrose on faecal characteristics, microbiota and fermentative end products in healthy adult dogs

Polydextrose is a potential prebiotic, but has not been well tested in dogs. Thus, the objective of the present study was to determine the effects of polydextrose on faecal characteristics, microbial populations and fermentative end products in healthy adult dogs. A total of eight adult hound dogs (3·5 (sem 0·5) years; 20 (sem 0·5) kg) were randomly allotted to one of four test diets containing the following concentrations of polydextrose: (1) 0 % (control); (2) 0·5 %; (3) 1·0 %; or (4) 1·5 %. A Latin square design was used, with each treatment period lasting 14 d (days 0–10 adaptation; days 11–14 fresh and total faecal collection). All dogs were fed to maintain body weight. Data were evaluated for linear and quadratic effects using SAS software. Although apparent total tract DM digestibility was unaffected, total tract crude protein digestibility tended to decrease (P < 0·10) linearly with increasing dietary polydextrose concentrations. Fresh faecal DM percentage tended to decrease (P < 0·10) linearly, while faecal scores increased (P < 0·05; looser stools) with increasing dietary concentrations of polydextrose. Faecal acetate, propionate and total SCFA concentrations increased (P < 0·05) linearly with increased dietary polydextrose. Faecal pH decreased (P < 0·05) linearly with increasing polydextrose. Faecal indole tended to decrease (P < 0·10) linearly with increasing polydextrose, but other faecal protein catabolites were not changed. Faecal Clostridium perfringens linearly decreased (P < 0·05) with increasing dietary polydextrose concentrations, but Escherichia coli, Lactobacillus spp. and Bifidobacterium spp. were not affected. Based on the present results, polydextrose appears to act as a highly fermentable fibre, but requires further research to test its potential as a prebiotic in dogs.
Objective Tests as Instruments of Psychological Theory

CHAPTER I. EXTENSION OF THE CONCEPT OF VALIDITY A. Critique of classical validity concept B. Construct validity : elucidation of terms -------------______----------------. ---. -----------CHAPTER 11. RELATION OF TEST BEHAVIOR TO THEORY A. Test responses as signs and as samples B. The problem of homogeneity ___. _____. ____. ------------. ---------------------------------------C. Observation prior to measurement D. The psychology of objective test behavior CHAPTER 111. COMPONENTS OF CONSTRUCT VALIDITY -_. ----------------------------------------A. Substantive component --_. _. ________--------------. -------------------------------------. ----------1. Use of content in item selection . a. Content valldlty b. Empirical keying ----_-____--_-. ------------------------------------------------2. The universe and the pool _. __. _______-------------------------------------------------3. The concept of substantive validity ----------___-_-_---------------7--------------B. Structural component __. __. ___---_-_____--------. ---------------------------------------------------1. The concept of structural validity 2. Some kinds of structure -
Behavior therapy better than placebo treatments: Fact or artifact?

Brody's comment on our meta-analysis (Bowers & Clum, 1988) seems to suggest that the efficacy of behavior therapy has not been established relative to placebo control conditions, especially for «neurotic conditions». The comments appear directed at defending an earlier meta-analysis (Priouleau, Murdock, & Brody, 1983) that concluded that psychotherapy was not more efficacious than a placebo control. We agree with Brody regarding the need for increased use of the heteromethod approach and longer follow-up for psychotherapy studies. However, we do not agree that the 10 studies Brody selected do not support the effectiveness of behavior therapy relative to placebo controls
Quantum-resolved investigations of flux dynamics: Collective and single vortex effects.

The dynamics of flux vortices in Pb films has been investigated with single fluxon resolution. With increasing magnetic field, there is a crossover from a region where single vortex effects dominate to one where vortex motion becomes correlated. We have measured the flux bundle correlation radius directly and tracked single vortices or correlated bundles as they moved under the action of an applied dc current or in response to a change in temperature. The signatures of flux flow and flux creep have been identified, enabling us to determine the pinning force at individual pinning sites.
The Only Gay in the Village? Everyday Life of Gays and Lesbians in Rural Slovenia

The article deals with the comparison of the characteristics, experiences, and perceptions of everyday life of gays and lesbians living in rural and urban areas of Slovenia. We focus on the following thematic aspects: (1) coming out; (2) intimate partnerships; (3) the access and the use of gay infrastructure; and (4) violence against gays and lesbians. The article also addresses and discusses the urban/rural divide as a Western construct that might not be completely applicable to other social and cultural contexts. Taking Slovenia as an example, this article questions the self-evidence of rural/urban divide as an analytical concept. On the basis of our research, we conclude that this concept requires continuous revisions and reinterpretations in a concrete social and cultural context(s). The characteristics of gay and lesbian everyday life either in rural or in urban context in Slovenia lead to the conclusion that even within a specific social and cultural context, the concept of urban/rural divide should be used carefully, taking into account complexities of everyday lives and various factors that influence them.
An Isolated Multi-Input ZCS DC–DC Front-End-Converter Based Multilevel Inverter for the Integration of Renewable Energy Sources

A new isolated current-fed zero-current switched (ZCS) front-end dc/dc converter based multilevel inverter is proposed for multi-input applications. The proposed front-end converter with only two controllable switches integrates two different renewable energy sources, resulting in an advantageous compact structure and low conduction losses. The ZCS turn-off is achieved in both the controllable switches with the proposed modulation scheme. The converter maintains ZCS turn-off under a wide load, as well as input voltage variations by employing frequency modulation along with a variable duty ratio technique. Simple structure, soft switching, high gain, and automatic load regulation make the converter structure novel for simultaneous power management in multi-input renewable energy applications. Converter operation and design guidelines have been outlined. A laboratory prototype of the proposed converter is developed and tested at 300-W power level. Simulations and experimental results demonstrate the robust performance of the converter under load, as well as input source voltage variations.
Enhanced stiffness modeling, identification and characterization for robot manipulators

This paper presents the enhanced stiffness modeling and analysis of robot manipulators, and a methodology for their stiffness identification and characterization. Assuming that the manipulator links are infinitely stiff, the enhanced stiffness model contains: 1) the passive and active stiffness of the joints and 2) the active stiffness created by the change in the manipulator configuration, and by external force vector acting upon the manipulator end point. The stiffness formulation not accounting for the latter is known as conventional stiffness formulation, which is obviously not complete and is valid only when: 1) the manipulator is in an unloaded quasistatic configuration and 2) the manipulator Jacobian matrix is constant throughout the workspace. The experimental system considered in this study is a Motoman SK 120 robot manipulator with a closed-chain mechanism. While the deflection of the manipulator end point under a range of external forces is provided by a high precision laser measurement system, a wrist force/torque sensor measures the external forces. Based on the experimental data and the enhanced stiffness model, the joint stiffness values are first identified. These stiffness values are then used to prove that conventional stiffness modeling is incomplete. Finally, they are employed to characterize stiffness properties of the robot manipulator. It has been found that although the component of the stiffness matrix differentiating the enhanced stiffness model from the conventional one is not always positive definite, the resulting stiffness matrix can still be positive definite. This follows that stability of the stiffness matrix is not influenced by this stiffness component. This study contributes to the previously reported work from the point of view of using the enhanced stiffness model for stiffness identification, verification and characterization, and of new experimental results proving that the conventional stiffness matrix is not complete and is valid under certain assumptions.
Design of an expression system for detecting folded protein domains and mapping macromolecular interactions by NMR

Two protein expression vectors have been designed for the preparation of NMR samples. The vectors encode the immunoglobulin‐binding domain of streptococcal protein G (GB1 domain) linked to the N‐terminus of the desired proteins. This fusion strategy takes advantage of the small size, stable fold, and high bacterial expression capability of the GB1 domain to allow direct NMR spectroscopic analysis of the fusion protein by 1H‐15N correlation spectroscopy. Using this system accelerates the initial assessment of protein NMR projects such that, in a matter of days, the solubility and stability of a protein can be determined. In addition, 15‐labeling of peptides and their testing for DNA binding are facilitated. Several examples are presented that demonstrate the usefulness of this technique for screening protein/DNA complexes, as well as for probing ligand‐receptor interactions, using 15N‐labeled GB1‐peptide fusions and unlabeled target.
High throughput laser doping for selective emitter crystalline Si solar cells

One of the most promising methods to improve the efficiency of crystalline solar cells is the implementation of so-called selective emitters [1,2]. This is the decoupling of the requirements for the front doping for light conversion and metallization. Underneath the contact fingers, a high doping is chosen to insure a good ohmic contact, whereas in the photoactive area a light doping is employed to reduce recombination losses and increase quantum efficiency in the short wavelength region of the device. Besides using costly and lengthy masking processes, selective emitters can be produced using lasers by means of laser doping. A laser beam with a suitable wavelength with good absorption in silicon is focused to a spot size which matches the width of the contact fingers. In this paper the process is explained, results are presented which show that the targeted effect can be achieved without detrimental “side effects”, and an optical beam splitter technology for high throughput production is proposed.
Risk factors of falls in inpatients and their practical use in identifying high-risk persons at admission: Fukushima Medical University Hospital cohort study

Objectives To clarify the risk factors for falls in hospital settings and to propose the use of such factors to identify high-risk persons at admission. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Fukushima Medical University Hospital, Japan, from August 2008 and September 2009. Participants 9957 adult consecutive inpatients admitted to our hospital. Methods Information was collected at admission from clinical records obtained from a structured questionnaire conducted in face-to-face interviews with subjects by nurses and doctors and fall events were collected from clinical records. Results The proportion of patients who fell during follow-up was 2.5% and the incidence of falls was 3.28 per 100 person-days. There were significant differences in age, history of falling, cognitive dysfunction, planned surgery, wheelchair use, need for help to move, use of a remote caring system, rehabilitation, use of laxative, hypnotic or psychotropic medications and need for help with activities of daily living (ADL) between patients who did and did not fall. Multivariable adjusted ORs for falls showed that age, history of falls and need for help with ADL were common risk factors in both men and women. Using psychotropic medication also increased the risk of falling in men while cognitive dysfunction and use of hypnotic medication increased the risk of falling in women. Planned surgery was associated with a low risk of falls in women. Conclusions To prevent falls in inpatients it is important to identify high-risk persons. Age, history of falling and the need for help with ADL are the most important pieces of information to be obtained at admission. Care plans for patients including fall prevention should be clear and considered.
Evaluation of Two Self-Managed Rest Break Systems for VDT Users

Two self-managed rest break systems for video display terminal (VDT) users were evaluated using measures of heart rate and heart rate variability, breathing, and work-physiological synchronization in addition to conventional measures of performance, mood, user acceptance, and musculoskeletal discomfort. Undergraduate typists (N=30) entered lines of randomized words during a 55-min work period. Cognitive demand was increased by having typists reverse-type a specified word in each line. In the feedback condition, typists were continuously informed of the discrepancy between a target rest break standard of 30 s every 8 min and their discretionary rest breaks. This feedback information was absent in the control condition. Management of discretionary rest breaks was better in the feedback condition and VDT users reported less task disruption and lower back discomfort. Time-related trends in performance and physiological response reflected behavioral changes associated with fatigue, but did not differentiate between experimental conditions. The lack of adverse psychophysiological responses in the feedback condition supports the conclusion that continuous feedback about rest break behavior can help VDT users self-manage discretionary rest breaks, with no untoward effects on performance or well-being.
Psychosocial predictors of weight loss and psychological adjustment following bariatric surgery and a weight-loss program: the mediating role of emotional eating.

OBJECTIVE To examine a structural equation model of the effects of personal and interpersonal factors on treatment outcome of bariatric surgery and weight-loss program. METHOD Forty-four participants of the surgery group and 47 participants of the diet group completed questionnaires before treatment and 1 year afterward. Predictor measures are as follows: social support, motivation for control, sense of control, self-esteem, neuroticism, fear of intimacy, and emotional eating (EE). OUTCOME MEASURES Weight loss, quality of life, and mental health. RESULTS Neurotic predisposition (NP), a latent variable indicated by neuroticism, low self-esteem, and fear of intimacy, had an effect on weight loss that was fully mediated by EE. NP also had an effect on quality of life improvement that was fully mediated by EE and weight loss in both treatment groups. DISCUSSION Both NP and EE predict outcome of obesity treatments, but EE is the more proximal variable that mediates the effect of NP.
The Robustness of Domain Lexico-Taxonomy: Expanding Domain Lexicon with CiLin

This paper deals with the robust expansion of Domain LexicoTaxonomy (DLT). DLT is a domain taxonomy enriched with domain lexica. DLT was proposed as an infrastructure for crossing domain barriers (Huang et al. 2004). The DLT proposal is based on the observation that domain lexica contain entries that are also part of a general lexicon. Hence, when entries of a general lexicon are marked with their associated domain attributes, this information can have two important applications. First, the DLT will serve as seeds for domain lexica. Second, the DLT offers the most reliable evidence for deciding the domain of a new text since these lexical clues belong to the general lexicon and do occur reliably in all texts. Hence general lexicon lemmas are extracted to populate domain lexica, which are situated in domain taxonomy. Based on this previous work, we show in this paper that the original DLT can be further expanded when a new language resource is introduced. We applied CiLin, a Chinese thesaurus, and added more than 1000 new entries for DLT and show with evaluation that the DLT approach is robust since the size and number of domain lexica increased effectively.
The Impact of Parents' Involvement in and Attitude toward Their Children's Foreign Language Programs for Learning English

Since parents and their involvement and attitude have a crucial role in children’s achievement in learning English, the present study is to explore and evaluate the impact of Iranian parents’ involvement in and attitude toward their children’s foreign language programs for learning English. In other words, the effectiveness of their high level of involvement and strength of attitude will be evaluated. Besides, this study is to explore whether some factors such as parents’ gender, knowledge of English, income, and educational background are related in the parents’ involvement and attitude or not. To this end, first of all, a reliable questionnaire, checked through a pilot study, was distributed among 140 parents to find out the level of their involvement in and attitude toward the programs. Based on the normal curve and the Z score, the parents were divided into two groups, one with a higher level of involvement and more positive attitude and the other with a lower level of involvement and less positive attitude. By using a standard final achievement test of the course book among 70 primary school student in third grade and Independent T-test analysis, the impact of parents’ involvement and attitude were checked. As the results revealed those parents who have high level of involvement in and positive attitude toward their children’s English language programs made their children’s higher level of achievement in the language program. Besides, the further outcomes showed that there are significant differences between the parents’ knowledge of English, income, and educational background and their level of involvement and attitude. The aforementioned factors affect children’s achievement test scores as well.