Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stimulus, task, and learning effects on measures of temporal resolution: implications for predictors of language outcome.

PURPOSE Some studies find that temporal processing ability predicts language outcome whereas other studies do not. Resolution of this debate is hindered by the variety of temporal measures used, nonsensory loading of the tasks, and differential amounts of practice across studies. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of stimulus properties, experimental task, and perceptual learning on listeners' gap detection performance. METHOD Gap detection thresholds were obtained from adults with normal hearing and language ability. The effects of marker frequency similarity and marker duration on thresholds were examined in yes-no, two-interval forced-choice (2IFC), and dual-pair comparison tasks (which vary in nonsensory loading) over 4 days of testing. RESULTS Thresholds were highest for gaps defined by markers with disparate frequencies (1000 and 4000 Hz; i.e., between-channel gap detection), and with longer (300 ms) trailing markers, obtained using yes-no and 2IFC tasks. However, these effects were attenuated with training or the initial use of the dual-pair comparison task. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that gap detection thresholds reflect a variety of sensory and nonsensory factors. Understanding these underlying factors is critical to any evaluation of the relation between temporal processing and language outcome.
A switching linear regulator based on a fast-self-clocked comparator with very low probability of meta-stability and a parallel analog ripple control module

Point of load regulators, with fast response to load transients, are becoming critical components in low power systems. Linear regulators are an area-efficient way to implement fast-response regulation as they require only the transistors and capacitors available in any standard CMOS process. This paper presents a switching linear regulator with a comparator that samples the difference between the regulated voltage and the reference (error) at 4GHz. The comparator uses a novel self-clocking scheme to achieve extremely low probability of meta-stability, even at very high clock frequency. In fast transient mode, the regulator achieves zero droop when the load current steps from < 1mA to 170mA in 100ps. A digital ripple control mechanism, and an analog ripple control module work together to reduce the ripple on the regulated output. The regulator, fabricated in TSMC's 16nm finFET technology, achieves a peak current efficiency of 97.6% when operating at 4GHz.
M I Burden, resilience, and happiness in family caregivers of spinal cord injured patients

Background: Although, family members face complex problems in caring for patients who suffer from spinal cord injury (SCI), little attention has been paid to burden and its associated factors among family caregivers of patients with SCI in Iran. Therefore, the present study is aimed to explore the relationship between burden, resilience and happiness among family caregivers of patients with
An ESD transient clamp with 494 pA leakage current in GP 65 nm CMOS technology

In this paper, a low-leakage PMOS based transient clamp with a thyristor as a delay element in 65 nm general-purpose (GP) CMOS technology is presented. Simulation results show that the proposed clamp is capable of protecting the circuit core against ±1.5 kV HBM and ±125 V CDM ESD stress by limiting the voltage across it to less than 5 V. The proposed clamp was characterized over PVT conditions with 2200 different combinations to investigate the selectivity to power-on ramp rates. Extensive analysis and measurements demonstrate that the clamp is robust against false triggering and transient induced latch-up. Measurement results show that the clamp is capable of handling 3.82 A, while its leakage is only 494 pA at room temperature. HBM and CDM measurement results show that the proposed clamp passed +3.25 kV and −1.75 kV HBM stresses and +800 V and −550 V CDM stresses.
Using road markers as fiducials for automatic speed estimation in road videos

This paper presents a method for using the uniformly spaced dashed lines which are painted on U.S. roads, to estimate the speed of a vehicle. These dashed lines are technically called line lane markers, and their uniform size allows speed estimation using an inexpensive dash-cam mounted on the front of the car with a clear view of the road ahead. A novel road line detection technique is used. The method does not require infra-red cameras, LiDAR, sonar, GPS, accelerometers, vehicular odometry, or training a convolutional neural network. The current implementation provides speed estimates from any 30 frames per second (fps) dash-cam video, even those downloaded off the Internet from unknown cameras. Potential applications include lane departure warning, lane intrusion detection, and forensic speed analysis.
Verbal memory and search speed in early midlife are associated with mortality over 25 years’ follow-up, independently of health status and early life factors: a British birth cohort study

Background Cognitive capabilities in childhood and in late life are inversely associated with mortality rates. However, it is unclear if adult cognition, at a time still relatively free from comorbidity, is associated with subsequent mortality, and whether this explains the associations of early life factors with adult mortality. Methods We used data from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development, a birth cohort study prospectively assessing 5362 participants born in 1946. The present analysis includes participants followed up from age 43 and undergoing cognitive assessment (verbal memory and search speed). Mortality outcomes were notified through linkage with a national register. Cox regression was used to estimate mortality hazards in relation to cognitive performance at age 43, adjusting for early life factors, socioeconomic position and health status. Results Data were available on 3192 individuals. Univariable analyses indicated that adult verbal memory and search speed, parental factors, childhood cognition and educational attainment were associated with mortality. However, multivariable models showed that the mortality associations with earlier life factors were explained by adult cognitive capability. A standard deviation increase in verbal memory and search speed scores was associated with lower mortality rates [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.86, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.77-0.97, P = 0.02; HR = 0.88, 95% CI 0.78-1.00, P = 0.05, respectively), after adjustment for adult health. Conclusions Cognitive capability in early midlife was inversely associated with mortality rates over 25 years and accounted for the associations of family background, childhood cognitive ability and educational attainment with mortality. These findings, in a nationally representative cohort with long-term follow-up, suggest that building cognitive reserve may improve later life health and survival chances.
Dynamic linear modeling of monthly electricity demand in Japan: Time variation of electricity conservation effect

After the severe nuclear disaster in Fukushima, which was triggered by the Great East Japan earthquake in March 2011, nuclear power plants in Japan were temporarily shut down for mandatory inspections. To prevent large-scale blackouts, the Japanese government requested companies and households to reduce electricity consumption in summer and winter. It is reported that the domestic electricity demand had a structural decrease because of the electricity conservation effect (ECE). However, quantitative analysis of the ECE is not sufficient, and especially time variation of the ECE remains unclear. Understanding the ECE is important because Japan’s NDC (nationally determined contribution) assumes the reduction of CO2 emissions through aggressive energy conservation. In this study, we develop a time series model of monthly electricity demand in Japan and estimate time variation of the ECE. Moreover, we evaluate the impact of electricity conservation on CO2 emissions from power plants. The dynamic linear model is used to separate the ECE from the effects of other irrelevant factors (e.g. air temperature, economic production, and electricity price). Our result clearly shows that consumers’ electricity conservation behavior after the earthquake was not temporary but became established as a habit. Between March 2011 and March 2016, the ECE on industrial electricity demand ranged from 3.9% to 5.4%, and the ECE on residential electricity demand ranged from 1.6% to 7.6%. The ECE on the total electricity demand was estimated at 3.2%–6.0%. We found a seasonal pattern that the residential ECE in summer is higher than that in winter. The emissions increase from the shutdown of nuclear power plants was mitigated by electricity conservation. The emissions reduction effect was estimated at 0.82 MtCO2–2.26 MtCO2 (−4.5% on average compared to the zero-ECE case). The time-varying ECE is necessary for predicting Japan’s electricity demand and CO2 emissions after the earthquake.
Using the Temperature Dependency of the FRA to Evaluate the Pressure of the Transformer Press Ring

The frequency response analysis (FRA) is an effective method to detect the existing mechanical faults inside transformers. Some mechanical failures are due to the loss of press ring pressure and, therefore, detection of pressure loss can save the transformer from subsequent damage. This letter proposes a novel idea to evaluate the pressure of the press ring using the FRA. In this idea, after temperature stimulation, the FRA traces of different temperatures are compared without any need of a fingerprint from the past. The experimental results also support the functionality of the idea and show its early potential.
Diversity and Abundance of Bolidophyceae (Heterokonta) in Two Oceanic Regions

ABSTRACT The diversity and abundance of the Bolidophyceae (Heterokonta), a newly described picoplanktonic algal class which is a sister group to the diatoms, was assessed in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and in the Mediterranean Sea by culture isolation, molecular biology techniques, and pigment analyses. Eight strains of Bolidophyceae were isolated in culture from different mesotrophic and oligotrophic areas. The corresponding small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene sequences allowed us to design two probes specific for the Bolidophyceae. These probes have been used in natural samples (i) to selectively amplify and detect Bolidophyceae sequences and (ii) to quantify the relative abundance of Bolidophyceae within the picoeukaryote community. Sequences available to date indicate that the class Bolidophyceae comprises at least three different clades, two corresponding to the previously described speciesBolidomonas pacifica and Bolidomonas mediterranea and the third one corresponding to a subspecies ofB. pacifica. Amplification of the SSU rRNA gene from natural samples with universal primers and hybridization using aBolidomonas-specific probe followed by a eukaryote-specific probe allowed us to estimate the contribution of the Bolidophyceae to the eukaryotic DNA in both Pacific and Mediterranean waters to be lower than 1%. Similarly, high-performance liquid chromatography analyses of fucoxanthin, the major carotenoid present in Bolidophyceae, indicated that less than 4% of the total chlorophyll a in the picoplanktonic fraction in the equatorial Pacific was due to Bolidophyceae. Consequently, although strains of Bolidophyceae have been isolated from samples collected at several stations, this new class seems to have been a minor component of the natural picoeukaryotic populations in the ecosystems investigated, at least during the periods sampled.
The effects of graded levels of calorie restriction: IX. Global metabolomic screen reveals modulation of carnitines, sphingolipids and bile acids in the liver of C57BL/6 mice

Calorie restriction (CR) remains the most robust intervention to extend lifespan and improve health span. Using a global mass spectrometry‐based metabolomic approach, we identified 193 metabolites that were significantly differentially expressed (SDE) in the livers of C57BL/6 mice, fed graded levels of CR (10, 20, 30 and 40% CR) compared to mice fed ad libitum for 12 h a day. The differential expression of metabolites also varied with the different feeding groups. Pathway analysis revealed that graded CR had an impact on carnitine synthesis and the carnitine shuttle pathway, sphingosine‐1‐phosphate (S1P) signalling and methionine metabolism. S1P, sphingomyelin and L‐carnitine were negatively correlated with body mass, leptin, insulin‐like growth factor‐ 1 (IGF‐1) and major urinary proteins (MUPs). In addition, metabolites which showed a graded effect, such as ceramide, S1P, taurocholic acid and L‐carnitine, responded in the opposite direction to previously observed age‐related changes. We suggest that the modulation of this set of metabolites may improve liver processes involved in energy release from fatty acids. S1P also negatively correlated with catalase activity and body temperature, and positively correlated with food anticipatory activity. Injecting mice with S1P or an S1P receptor 1 agonist did not precipitate changes in body temperature, physical activity or food intake suggesting that these correlations were not causal relationships.
Repeatability and Reproducibility of a Clinically Based QUS Phantom Study and Methodologies

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the repeatability and reproducibility (R&R) of quantitative ultrasound (QUS) estimates, specifically attenuation coefficient (AC) and backscatter coefficient (BSC), using the same Siemens 3000 clinical ultrasound scanner. Additionally, the purpose of this work is to detail the measurement and analysis methodology. Repeatability is closeness of agreement between measures obtained with the same method under same conditions (same sonographer and same transducer) and reproducibility is closeness of agreement between measures obtained with the same method under different conditions (different sonographers and/or different transducers). Calibrated phantoms were scanned by two sonographers using two transducers in each session for multiple sessions over a period of four months. The phantom scans occurred as part of a clinical QUS liver study in human research participants spanning a spectrum of obesity and liver disease severity. The scanner was adjusted in each participant to obtain the highest quality liver B-mode images prior to acquiring data from the phantoms for which no scanner adjustments were made. The R&R were analyzed and estimated using the unweighted sums of squares ANOVA approach by applying two random effect models. The measurement variance caused by repeatability and reproducibility is small (AC: 2.4-3.2 × 10-4 [dB/cm-MHz]2; 10log10BSC: 0.23-0.27 dB2). The reproducibility variance is statistically significantly lower than the repeatability variance. The total R&R was not influenced by phantom properties over a wide range representing those found in liver in vivo.
Green Energy Harvesting Using Piezoelectric Materials from Bridge Vibrations

Piezoelectric energy harvesting from bridge vibrations has attracted many researchers not because it provides a clean and autonomous solution to power portable electronic devices, in addition, it helps in making a smart city. This paper focuses on energy harvesting from low-frequency bridge vibrations which includes vibrations measurements from a city flyover and laboratory experiment using traditional rectifier circuit at low frequency and small amplitude vibrations for storage. The typical practical issues have been addressed associated with PEH from bridge vibrations and electrical circuitry.
A Case‐Control Study of the Effectiveness of Cervical Cancer Screening in Osaka, Japan

In the small town of Nose in Osaka, Japan, a population‐based screening program for cervical cancer by Papanicolaou smear has been conducted since 1965. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of screening in terms of the reduction of the mortality and the incidence of invasive cervical cancer, two types of case‐control studies were carried out. In the first study, the case series consisted of all women who died of cervical cancer under 80 years of age at the time of diagnosis in 1965‐1987 (N = 15). For each case, 10 controls were chosen from living residents, matched by year of birth. It showed that the odds ratio (OR) of dying of cervical cancer for screened versus non‐screened women was 0.22 (95%CI = 0.03‐1.95). In the second study, the case series consisted of all women who were diagnosed as having invasive cancer under 80 years of age at the time of diagnosis in the same period (N = 28). For each case, 10 controls were chosen from living residents without invasive cancer, matched by year of birth and according to whether or not they were screened at the year of the diagnosis of the matched case. It showed that the OR of getting invasive cancer for screened versus non‐screened women was 0,41 (95%CI = 0.13‐1.29). From these results, it was estimated that 78% of cervical cancer mortality and 59% of invasive cervical cancer incidence among non‐screened women could be prevented by cervical cancer screening.
A cooperative control framework for haptic guidance of bimanual surgical tasks based on Learning From Demonstration

Whilst current minimally invasive surgical robots offer many advantages to the surgeon, most of them are still controlled using the traditional master-slave approach, without fully exploiting the complementary strengths of both the human user and the robot. This paper proposes a framework that provides a cooperative control approach to human-robot interaction. Typical teleoperation is enhanced by incorporating haptic guidance-based feedback for surgical tasks, which are demonstrated to and learned by the robot. Safety in the surgical scene is maintained during reproduction of the learned tasks by including the surgeon in the guided execution of the learned task at all times. Continuous Hidden Markov Models are used for task learning, real-time learned task recognition and generating setpoint trajectories for haptic guidance. Two different surgical training tasks were demonstrated and encoded by the system, and the framework was evaluated using the Raven II surgical robot research platform. The results indicate an improvement in user task performance with the haptic guidance in comparison to unguided teleoperation.
Relative Pose Estimation From Image Correspondences Under a Remote Center of Motion Constraint

This letter proposes an algorithm to estimate the relative pose between two image view-points assuming that a camera is moving under a remote center of motion constraint. This is useful in minimally invasive robotic surgery, where the motion of a laparoscopic camera is constrained by the keyhole insertion point. Our method uses point correspondences between the two images and does not require any knowledge about the position of the remote center of motion. The pipeline consists of a 4-point minimal closed-form solver, used within a robust RANSAC framework to filter outlier correspondences, followed by a Levenberg–Marquardt refinement step. Our method compares favorably against the classic relative pose solution for unconstrained motion (5-point algorithm) both with synthetic data and a real footage of endoscopic robotic surgery.
From Puppy to Maturity: Experiences in Developing Terrier

The Terrier information retrieval (IR) platform, maintained by the University of Glasgow, has been open sourced since 2004. Open source IR platforms are vital to the research community, as they provide state-of-the-art baselines and structures, thereby alleviating the need to ‘reinvent the wheel’. Moreover, the open source nature of Terrier is critical, since it enables researchers to build their own unique research on top of it rather than treating it as a black box. In this position paper, we describe our experiences in developing the Terrier platform for the community. Furthermore, we discuss the vision for Terrier over the next few years and provide a roadmap for the future.
Sensitivity of quantitative photoacoustic tomography inversion schemes to experimental uncertainty

The ability to accurately quantify chromophore concentration from photoacoustic images would have a major impact on pre-clinical and clinical imaging. Recent years have seen significant advances in the theoretical understanding of quantitative photoacoustic imaging and in the development of model-based inversion strategies that overcome issues such as non-uniqueness and non-linearity. Nevertheless, their full in vivo implementation has not successfully been achieved, partially because experimental uncertainties complicate the transition. In this study, a sensitivity analysis is performed to assess the impact on accuracy of having uncertainty in critical experimental parameters such as scattering, beam diameter, beam position and calibration factor. This study was performed using two virtual phantoms, at one illumination and four optical wavelengths. The model-based inversion was applied in 3 variants - one just inverting for chromophores and two others further inverting for either a scaling factor or the scatterer concentration. The performance of these model-based inversions is also compared to linear unmixing strategies - with and without fluence correction. The results show that experimental uncertainties in a priori fixed parameters - especially calibration factor and scatterer concentration - significantly affect accuracy of model-based inversions and therefore measures to ameliorate this uncertainty should be considered. Including a scaling parameter in the inversion appears to improve quantification estimates. Furthermore, even with realistic levels of experimental uncertainty in model-based input parameters, they outperform linear unmixing approaches. If parameter uncertainty is large and has significant impact on accuracy, the parameter can be included as an unknown in model-based schemes.
Arterial Blood Pressure Estimation From Local Pulse Wave Velocity Using Dual-Element Photoplethysmograph Probe

An arterial compliance, dual-element photoplethysmograph probe for local pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurement was developed. Initially, the experimental validation study was performed on 25 young volunteers (age =24.5 ± 4 years). Local PWV was assessed from a small section (23 mm) of the carotid artery. The prototype device demonstrated its capability of measuring reliable, repeatable, and reproducible carotid local PWV. Further, in 15 healthy male volunteers (age = 22.25 ± 3.5 years), carotid local PWV and brachial blood pressure (BP) were continuously recorded during their postexercise recovery period. Local PWV followed the changes in arterial BP parameters. The group average correlation coefficients (r) of local PWV versus BP parameters were between 0.772 ± 0.033 and 0.934 ± 0.028. In a population of 50 patients (normotensive and hypertensive) aged 24–80 years, local PWV–BP correlations were investigated. Local PWV tended to follow the diastolic BP (DBP; <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$r = 0.82$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) and mean arterial pressure (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$r = 0.83$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) better than systolic BP (SBP; <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$r = 0.69$ </tex-math></inline-formula>). It was significantly inferior in tracking pulse pressure values (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$r = 0.35$ </tex-math></inline-formula>). Cuffless estimation of arterial pressure was also performed on the same patients using measured carotid local PWV with best-case calibrations. Local PWV yielded good DBP prediction than SBP prediction. Statistically, significant correlation (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$r = 0.79$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) and a root-mean-square error of 5.26 mmHg versus reference brachial DBP were achieved. The introduced technique has a potential for short- or long-term noninvasive, cuffless monitoring of BP parameters from superficial arteries.