Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new model for the short-time complex cepstrum of voiced speech

Traditionally, a very simple model for short-time homomorphic analysis has been used. It is shown that there is no theoretical justification for applying this model to voiced speech and that the model is of limited value for improving cepstral deconvolution procedures. Consequently, a more elaborate model is introduced in which the influence of window length is approximated and the spectral sampling inherent in voiced speech is explicitly represented. As a result, this new model shows that the vocal tract contribution to the complex cepstrum is repeated at every multiple of the pitch quefrency (n p ) and is multiplied by a double sinclike distortion (D(n)). It is shown that in order to achieve deconvolution with a low-time gating system, a cepstral lifter of length n p /2 should be used (instead of the usual length "less than n p "). Furthermore, the lifter should compensate for the distortion D(n). Unfortunately, the accuracy of straightforward homomorphic deconvolution approximations is limited by aliasing distortion which results from the repeated nature of the vocal tract contribution. Nevertheless, reasonable deconvolution approximations are obtained.
Semiparametric Identification of Multidimensional Screening Models

This paper considers the identification of a class of models for the pricing of differentiated products. It shows how one can use the information presented in the characteristics of the consumers, in the attributes of the goods being sold by a multiproduct monopolist and in the theoretical predictions of the model to recover preference and cost parameters. The monopolist optimally groups consumers with different characteristics by offering them the same good. By using consumers in this bunching region, one can infer the distribution of unobserved attributes, such as quality.
Payback Period and Internal Rate of Return in Real Options Analysis

We propose a new method to compute payback period (PBP) and internal rate of return (IRR) in the presence of real options. We extend the Kulatilaka–Trigeorgis general model of real options to derive the expected value of these two decision rules in the presence of the options to wait, to mothball, and to abandon. This new method is applied to a numerical example in shipping finance. We quantify the value enhancing and downside risk decreasing properties of real options with respect to IRR and PBP. We show how the choice of independent projects with these decision rules—but without real options—may induce respectively underinvestment and overinvestment, while their figures are consistent with expanded NPV if computed in the presence of real options. Finally, we gain some insight into the actual dynamic programming behavior endogenous to real options valuation.
Macrophage Endocytosis of Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles: Mechanisms and Comparison of Ferumoxides and Ferumoxtran-10

Rationale and objectivesSuperparamagnetic iron oxides (SPIO) used as magnetic resonance (MR) contrast agents undergo specific uptake by macrophages. The purpose of this study was first to determine the mechanism of macrophage uptake for Ferumoxides by using competition experiments with specific ligands of scavenger receptors SR-A (I/II) and second, to evaluate and compare the internalization of 2 different contrast agents, Ferumoxides (SPIO) and Ferumoxtran-10 (USPIO: ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide) using macrophages obtained by chemical activation of human monocytic cells. MethodsFerumoxides and Ferumoxtran-10 are 2 MR contrast agents, composed of dextran-coated iron oxide nanoparticles. The endocytosis pathway of Ferumoxides was studied using competition experiments on mouse peritoneal macrophages in the presence of specific ligands of scavenger receptors SR-A (types I and II): polyinosinic acid and fucoidan. In vitro assays using THP-1 (human promonocyte) cells activated into macrophages were performed in the presence of the 2 superparamagnetic nanoparticles. The cellular uptake was determined by measuring the iron content using ICP-AES (inductively coupled plasma–atomic emission spectrometry) and by Prussian blue staining. ResultsIn the presence of polyinosinic acid or fucoidan, the endocytosis of Ferumoxides by mouse peritoneal macrophages was inhibited. This inhibition was obtained using 10 &mgr;g/mL of scavenger receptor ligands at a concentration of 62.5 &mgr;g Fe/mL of SPIO, and a dose-dependent relationship was observed. Without competitors, the percentage of uptake of Ferumoxides by mouse peritoneal macrophages ranged between 3 and 8%. On the human activated monocyte THP-1 cell assay, Ferumoxides underwent a higher macrophage uptake (between 1.1 and 3%) compared with Ferumoxtran-10 (between 0.03 and 0.12%). This difference is attributed to the larger size of Ferumoxides nanoparticles. ConclusionsCompetition experiments indicate that the cellular uptake of Ferumoxides involves scavenger receptor SR-A-mediated endocytosis. The comparison between Ferumoxides and Ferumoxtran-10 confirms that macrophage uptake of iron oxide nanoparticles depends mainly on the size of these contrast agents.
Micropatterning of Liquid Metal by Dewetting

Although gallium-based liquid metals are attracting growing interest thanks to its potential applications in deformable, flexible electronic devices, challenges in fabrication associated with the high surface tension and oxide skin remain to be overcome. We report a novel fabrication technique for liquid metal circuits using dewetting. An excessively thin liquid film spontaneously shrinks on a substrate to reduce surface free energy. In the case of a thin liquid metal film on a substrate with microgrooves, the oxide on the microgroove wall and the additional viscous resistance delay the shrinkage in the grooves, which separates the liquid volume inside the microgrooves from the external volume. Utilizing this mechanism, we successfully produced 20- $\mu \text{m}$ -thick conductive lines of eutectic gallium indium (EGaIn) on polydimethylsiloxane. This fabrication technique is simple, fast, and cost-effective and requires no top covering layer. The resultant metal lines show potentially applicable electrical resistance to flexible and stretchable electronic devices. [2017-0082]
Assessing the Risk to Inflation from Inflation Expectations

Inflation expectations play an important role in the transmission mechanism of monetary policy. There is a risk that the periods of above-target CPI inflation in the past three years might cause inflation expectations to drift upwards. That might make inflation itself more persistent, via changes in price and wage-setting behaviour. And so, other things being equal, returning inflation to target would require tighter monetary policy. This article provides a framework that can be used to monitor the risk to inflation from inflation expectations. While recent developments provide few signs that the risk is materialising, the imperfect nature of data mean that the risk can be assessed only imperfectly.
Fighting a losing battle? Neighbourhood-based social mobility in times of retrenching social interventions

Social mobility is a key concept in neighbourhood-based policies in Europe and the US. The Dutch neighbourhood approach often implies physical restructuring combined with a range of economic and social mobility strategies such as counselling, citizenship courses, debt relief, work training / placement programs and language courses. However, the financial crisis has caused substantial cutbacks in government funding. This adds to the general retrenchment of the welfare state. A broader issue is how these larger developments precipitate in local contexts and to what extent they will harm local social interventions to support upward steps in education, employment and housing. Which elements (if any) of local interventions should be maintained in order to prevent crumbling of positive results of regeneration efforts to date? We will address these issues by a longitudinal panel study of residents in Hoogvliet, a borough of Rotterdam. After the 2007 baseline measurement, the follow-up study is currently conducted. The main objective of this study is to assess social mobility patterns and outcomes of various social and physical interventions with regard to social mobility of Hoogvliet residents, especially individuals receiving long-lasting support or counselling, which is now reduced or completely stopped. As this research project is only in its very early stages, the paper will do several things. First, we provide a literature review which focuses on larger societal trends which affect social mobility strategies, such as the ‘Big Society’ concept. Secondly, we briefly describe the results of the baseline measurement of 2007 and the design of the follow-up study. Then, the research design of the follow-up study is described. The paper concludes with preliminary conclusions.
Wind Power in Australia: Overcoming Technological and Institutional Barriers

Until recently, Australia had little installed wind capacity, although there had been many investigations into its potential during the preceding decades. Formerly, state-owned monopoly utilities showed only token interest in wind power and could dictate the terms of energy debates. This situation changed in the late 1990s: Installed wind capacity began growing rapidly following the introduction of supportive renewable energy policies and the restructuring of the electricity industry. However, wind farms still provide only 1% of Australia's electricity, the future of supportive policies is uncertain, and industry momentum is yet to become self-sustaining. Wind power, the authors argue, faces significant technological and institutional barriers, which need to be overcome if wind power is to play a significant role in Australia's electricity supply. The current window of opportunity is providing—for the first time—a significant space in which these barriers can be better understood and addressed and the requirements for wind power institutionally embedded.
Personally Tax Aggressive Executives and Corporate Tax Sheltering

This paper investigates whether executives who evidence a propensity for personal tax evasion (suspect executives) are associated with tax sheltering at the firm level. I adapt recent research to identify the presence of these executives and examine associations between suspect executive presence and firm-level measures of tax sheltering. The results indicate that the presence of suspect executives is positively associated with proxies for corporate tax sheltering. In addition, firm-years with suspect executive presence have significantly higher cash tax savings relative to firm-years without suspect executive presence. I also investigate the firm value implications of suspect executive presence and find that increases in tax sheltering are incrementally more valuable for firms that have suspect executives than similar increments made by firms that do not have suspect executives.
An almost Markovian LIBOR market model calibrated to caps and swaptions

A new variant of the LIBOR market model is implemented and calibrated simultaneously to both at-the-money and out-of-the-money caps and swaptions. This model is a two-factor version of a new class of the almost Markovian LIBOR market models with properties long sought after: (i) the almost Markovian parameterization of the LIBOR market model volatility functions is unique and asymptotically exact in the limit of a short time horizon up to a few years, (ii) only minimum plausible assumptions are required to derive the implemented volatility parameterization, (iii) the calibration yields very good results, (iv) the calibration is almost immediate, (v) the implemented LIBOR market model has a related short-rate model. Numerical results for the two-factor case show that the volatility functions for the LIBOR market model can be imported into its short-rate model cousin without adjustment.
Total factor productivity growth, technological progress and technical efficiency change : dimensions of productivity change in Yugoslavia, 1965-1978

This article, Total Factor Productivity Growth, Technological Progress, and Technical Efficiency Change: Dimensions of Productivity Change in Yugoslavia, 1965-78, was reprinted with permission from the December 1982 issue of The Economic Journal. This article proposes a methodology that decomposes total factor productivity change into two distinct elements, technological progress and changes in technical efficiency. Technological progress is defined as the change in the best practice production frontier. All other productivity change is attributed to technical efficiency change. The article provides a theoretical framework for decomposing total factor productivity growth as well as a specification and estimation of the deterministic frontier production function. It employs a programming technique to estimate a flexible functional form of the production frontier. The paper then applies this technique to empirical data from Yugoslavia of the period from 1965 to 1978. It concludes that for Yugoslavia, improvements to technical efficiency comprise the dominant contribution to total factor productivity change. This agrees with accumulating evidence that in many developing economies, productivity gain due to technological mastery of imported technology is substantial.
Infection of Cultured Rat Myotubes and Neurons from the Spinal Cord by Rabies Virus

Abstract Rabies virus multiplication was investigated in cultured primary rat my-otubes and neurons. The susceptibility of these two cell types to fixed rabies challenge virus strain (CVS) was monitored by fluorescence and virus titration. Differentiated rat myotubes were susceptible to rabies virus infection, and showed an increasing accumulation of viral material from day one to day four. However, these cells did not release infective viral particles, nor did they accumulate infectious virions in the cytoplasm. In contrast, infected neurons released large amounts of infectious particles. Electron microscopy observation of infected myotubes showed minor alterations and the presence of typical viral inclusions in the cytoplasm without mature virions assembling viral membranes. Competition binding experiments show that alpha-bungarotoxin inhibits rabies virus infection from 10-5 to 10-7 M, whereas lower toxin concentrations failed to have any effect. These data do not confirm the hypothesis of a fixed rabies virus amplification step at the site of the viral entry. On the other hand, the high susceptibility of peripheral neurons to rabies virus infection is an argument for the direct uptake of virions by these cells. The restrictive viral multiplication in the myotubes is an alternative explanation for the local persistence of rabies virus at the site of inoculation.
Cost Signals Under Uncertain R&D Outcomes

When it is difficult for firms to differentiate their products from those of their competitors, research and development (R&D) spending on process innovation to lower the cost of production is crucial for profitability. However, the information asymmetry in production costs that results from innovation reduces the efficiency of all firms in a market for a homogeneous good. We employ a signalling game to discuss the feasibility of utilising R&D spending and output levels as cost signals in an environment of quantity competition. The results show that a firm does not spend its money on R&D solely to signal the type of cost. Rather, R&D spending may be chosen as a cost signal over the output level only if expenditures on R&D can lead to a sufficiently high probability of reducing production costs.
Digital Era Governance: IT Corporations, the State, and e-Government

Government information systems are big business (costing over 1 per cent of GDP a year). They are critical to all aspects of public policy and governmental operations. Governments spend billions on them - for instance, the UK alone commits L14 billion a year to public sector IT operations. Yet governments do not generally develop or run their own systems, instead relying on private sector computer services providers to run large, long-run contracts to provide IT. Some of the biggest companies in the world (IBM, EDS, Lockheed Martin, etc) have made this a core market. The book shows how governments in some countries (the USA, Canada and Netherlands) have maintained much more effective policies than others (in the UK, Japan and Australia). It shows how public managers need to retain and develop their own IT expertise and to carefully maintain well-contested markets if they are to deliver value for money in their dealings with the very powerful global IT industry. This book describes how a critical aspect of the modern state is managed, or in some cases mismanaged. It will be vital reading for public managers, IT professionals, and business executives alike, as well as for students of modern government, business, and information studies.
Methane and nitrous oxide emissions affect the life-cycle analysis of algal biofuels

Researchers around the world are developing sustainable plant-based liquid transportation fuels (biofuels) to reduce petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Algae are attractive because they promise large yields per acre compared to grasses, grains and trees, and because they produce oils that might be converted to diesel and gasoline equivalents. It takes considerable energy to produce algal biofuels with current technology; thus, the potential benefits of algal biofuels compared to petroleum fuels must be quantified. To this end, we identified key parameters for algal biofuel production using GREET, a tool for the life-cycle analysis of energy use and emissions in transportation systems. The baseline scenario produced 55 400 g CO2 equivalent per million BTU of biodiesel compared to 101 000 g for low-sulfur petroleum diesel. The analysis considered the potential for greenhouse gas emissions from anaerobic digestion processes commonly used in algal biofuel models. The work also studied alternative scenarios, e.g., catalytic hydrothermal gasification, that may reduce these emissions. The analysis of the nitrogen recovery step from lipid-extracted algae (residues) highlighted the importance of considering the fate of the unrecovered nitrogen fraction, especially that which produces N2O, a potent greenhouse gas with global warming potential 298 times that of CO2.
Detection of specific human papillomavirus types in paraffin‐embedded sections of cervical carcinomas

Human papillomaviruses (HPV) are the causative agents of most cervical carcinomas. A complete understanding of the HPV types that cause cervical carcinoma is needed as vaccines are designed. Fresh tissues are not always available for such studies. We therefore sought to determine the feasibility of HPV studies using formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded sections of 56 cervical carcinomas, correlating typing information with the pathology and physical state of the HPV sequences within cells. Sections from each specimen were used to extract and purify DNA. Specific HPV types were identified using a PCR/reverse blot strip assay. Tyramide signal‐amplified, fluorescent DNA in situ hybridization (FISH) was used to localize HPV within cells. Human β‐globin sequences were amplified in DNA from all specimens. HPV sequences from oncogenic types were identified in 52 of 56 (92.9%) by PCR/reverse blot strip assay, and in one additional case using an HPV 16 multiplex PCR assay. HPV 16 was the most commonly detected type, present in most cases as a solitary isolate. Thirty‐ five of 42 HPV 16 or HPV 18 PCR‐positive specimens were also positive in the FISH assay, in most cases in a pattern consistent with viral integration. We conclude that HPV typing from formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded sections of cervical carcinomas is possible, with a sensitivity that is similar to that found in studies using fresh tissue. J. Med. Virol. 78:117–124, 2006. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, inc.
“Story-Networks” of Livestock and Climate Change: Actors, Their Artifacts, and the Shaping of Urban Print Media

Despite widespread media coverage of livestock-related issues and growing scientific evidence linking meat production and climate change, systematic content analysis of this relationship in media coverage has been surprisingly minimal. In this article, we combine actor-network theory with framing theory to develop the basis for “story-networks”—networks of actants and artifacts that shape how a media report or “story” is framed. We coded livestock-related articles from a major U.S. newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, over the 1999–2010 period to understand how various actants and artifacts shaped different story-networks. Just 5% of all livestock articles addressed connections with climate change; these articles focused on technology, lifestyle, or policy. Distinctive story-networks characterized each category, framing the livestock–climate change linkage as an issue to be addressed through either technological innovation, individual lifestyle choices, or policy action. In each story-network type, varying configurations of actants and artifacts were involved, including the cattle themselves.
3D Multi-Object Segmentation of Cardiac MSCT Imaging by using a Multi-Agent Approach

We propose a new technique for general purpose, semi-interactive and multi-object segmentation in N- dimensional images, applied to the extraction of cardiac structures in multislice computed tomography (MSCT) imaging. The proposed approach makes use of a multi-agent scheme combined with a supervised classification methodology allowing the introduction of a priori information and presenting fast computing times. The multi-agent system is organised around a communicating agent which manages a population of situated agents which segment the image through cooperative and competitive interactions. The proposed technique has been tested on several patient data sets. Some typical results are finally presented and discussed.
A qualitative description of falls in a neuro-rehabilitation unit: the use of a standardised fall report including the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) to describe activities and environmental factors

Abstract Purpose: Falls are a recognised problem for people with long-term neurological conditions but less is known about fall risk in young adults. This study describes fallers’ and falls’ characteristics in adults less than 60 years old, in a neuro-rehabilitation unit. Methods: This single-centre, longitudinal, observational study included 114 consecutive admissions to a UK neuro-rehabilitation unit over 20 months. The demographic and clinical characteristics of eligible patients included age, sex, diagnosis, hospital length of stay and the Functional Independence Measure (FIM). Falls were recorded prospectively in a fall report, using the activities and environmental domains of the International Classification of Functioning (ICF). Results: A total of 34 (30%) patients reported a fall, with 50% experiencing more than one fall. The majority of falls (60%) occurred during the first 2 weeks, during day-time (90%) and during mobile activities (70%). Overall, falls rate (95% confidence interval) was 1.33 (1.04 to 1.67) per 100 d of patient hospital stay. Factors associated with increased falls included becoming a walker during admission or being cognitively impaired. There were no serious fall-related injuries. Conclusion: The first 2 weeks of admission is a high risk time for fallers, in particular those who become walkers or are cognitively impaired. Prevention policies should be put in place based on fall characteristics. Implications for Rehabilitation The ICF is a valuable instrument for describing subject and environmental factors during a fall-event. Falls are frequent events but do not usually cause serious injuries during inpatient rehabilitation. There is an increased fall risk for subjects with cognitive impairments or those relearning how to walk.