Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Independent Component Analysis and Time-Frequency Masking for Speech Recognition in Multitalker Conditions

When a number of speakers are simultaneously active, for example in meetings or noisy public places, the sources of interest need to be separated from interfering speakers and from each other in order to be robustly recognized. Independent component analysis (ICA) has proven a valuable tool for this purpose. However, ICA outputs can still contain strong residual components of the interfering speakers whenever noise or reverberation is high. In such cases, nonlinear postprocessing can be applied to the ICA outputs, for the purpose of reducing remaining interferences. In order to improve robustness to the artefacts and loss of information caused by this process, recognition can be greatly enhanced by considering the processed speech feature vector as a random variable with time-varying uncertainty, rather than as deterministic. The aim of this paper is to show the potential to improve recognition of multiple overlapping speech signals through nonlinear postprocessing together with uncertainty-based decoding techniques.
Surgical treatment of blood blister-like aneurysms of the supraclinoid internal carotid artery with extracranial-intracranial bypass and trapping.

OBJECT Blood blister-like aneurysms (BBAs) arise from the supraclinoid internal carotid artery (ICA) at non-branching sites. These aneurysms are challenging to treat primarily with either surgical clip placement or endovascular therapy. The authors describe a series of 4 patients who presented with high-grade subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) due to a BBA, which was treated with an extracranial-intracranial (EC-IC) bypass followed by trapping of the aneurysm. METHODS Four patients presented with SAH due to a BBA of the ICA. Three of these patients were treated with an endovascular procedure; following the vasospasm period, definitive treatment with EC-IC bypass followed by trapping of the aneurysmal parent vessel was performed. RESULTS Two of the patients who were treated endovascularly suffered rebleeding prior to bypass and trapping. Three of the 4 patients had a good outcome (modified Rankin Scale Score 1 or 2), and 1 patient who suffered 2 episodes of rebleeding died. CONCLUSIONS Treatment of BBAs of the ICA remains difficult, particularly in the setting of high-grade SAH. Patients with this challenging condition often require multiple procedures and have a high incidence of rebleeding. Definitive treatment of these aneurysms consists of EC-IC bypass and surgical or endovascular trapping.
Semi Analytical Formulation of Dispersion Characteristics for a Step and Parabolic-Index Optical Fiber: Introduction of Nelder-Mead Simplex Method for Nonlinear Unconstrained Minimization

Variational principle has been incorporated in the proposed semi analytical formulation to characterize graded index optical fiber and optimization process is being carried out by NelderMead Simplex method for nonlinear unconstrained minimization. By introducing increased optimizing parameters in the formulation of fundamental modal field, more flexibility to refine a design and thus achieving a greater accuracy for a particular requirement, has been presented. Employing variational technique, effective index, normalized propagation constant, normalized group delay and modal dispersion parameter of an optical fiber have been evaluated analytically, by using the proposed formulation of fundamental field. The calculations show excellent agreement to the exact results, over a wide range of normalized frequency. Optimized values of three parameters, incorporated in the fundamental modal field have been presented for various values of normalized frequencies. This approximation can be used in the analysis of doped and nonlinear fiber amplifier, or in the case of dispersion–shifted fiber with large effective area.
Instantaneous polarization attributes in the time–frequency domain and wavefield separation

We introduce a method of wavefield separation from multicomponent data sets based on the use of the continuous wavelet transform. Our method is a further generalization of the approach proposed by Morozov and Smithson, in that by using the continuous wavelet transform, we can achieve a better separation of wave types by designing the filter in the time–frequency domain. Furthermore, using the instantaneous polarization attributes defined in the wavelet domain, we show how to construct filters tailored to separate different wave types (elliptically or linearly polarized), followed by an inverse wavelet transform to obtain the desired wave type in the time domain. Using synthetic and experimental data, we show how the present method can be used for wavefield separation.
Dopaminergic Response to Drug Words in Cocaine Addiction

When exposed to drug conditioned cues (stimuli associated with the drug), addicted individuals experience an intense desire for the drug, which is associated with increased dopamine cell firing. We hypothesized that drug-related words can trigger activation in the mesencephalon, where dopaminergic cells are located. During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 15 individuals with cocaine use disorders and 15 demographically matched healthy control subjects pressed buttons for color of drug-related versus neutral words. Results showed that the drug words, but not neutral words, activated the mesencephalon in the cocaine users only. Further, in the cocaine users only, these increased drug-related mesencephalic responses were associated with enhanced verbal fluency specifically for drug words. Our results for the first time demonstrate fMRI response to drug words in cocaine-addicted individuals in mesencephalic regions as possibly associated with dopaminergic mechanisms and with conditioning to language (in this case drug words). The correlation between the brief verbal fluency test, which can be easily administered (crucial for clinical studies), and fMRI cue reactivity could be used as a biomarker of neurobiological changes in addiction.
Radiocarbon Evidence for Rates of Lateral Expansion in Raised Mires in Southern Finland

Abstract Radiocarbon ages from the bottom peat deposits and detailed morphometric measurements at five peatlands in the boreal region of southern Finland were used to reconstruct the Holocene patterns of raised mire development. The results suggest that the areal expansion of the mires has been extremely rapid at times—up to several hundreds hectares per millennium—but the periods of more rapid expansion were not coincident among the mires. The rate of lateral extension was shown to depend mainly on the topography of the mineral substrate. Horizontal expansion did not always correlate with vertical growth. Mires expanded slowly between ca. 6000 and 4000 yr B.P., probably as a consequence of drier climatic conditions at that time. The mires also expanded slowly during the two to three recent millennia, the reason for this most probably lying in steepening of the bottom gradient toward the marginal areas of the present mires, The results point to a substantial measure of local environmental control over the lateral extension in raised mire ecosystems.
Fast Matching of CBG Patterns with Applications to Protein Matching

The large data set sizes produced in many biological applications, makes pattern matching in computational biology a challenge. We present a technique for pattern matching an important class of protein patterns. We show how such a protein pattern can be represented as a logical expression, from which a circuit can be automatically synthesised, and implemented on field programmable gate arrays, which leads to highly parallelisable solutions. The method was tested on the Prosite database, and almost all the patterns could be dealt with very efficiently leading to throughput rates in most cases excess of 108 symbols per second.
Broadband receiver response from dual-streamer data and applications in deep reflection seismology

A method to process dual-streamer data with under and over configuration is presented. The method combines the results of dephase-sum and dephase-subtraction methods. In the dephase methods, the response of one streamer is time shifted so that the primary arrivals on both streamers are aligned, and these responses are then summed or subtracted. The method provides a broad spectral response from dual-streamer data and increases the signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of 1.5. Testing was done on synthetic data and then applied to a real data set collected by the British Institutions Reflection Profiling Syndicate (BIRPS). Its application to a deep seismic reflection data set from the British Isles shows that the reflections from the lower crust contain frequencies up to 80 Hz, suggesting that some of the lower crustal reflectors may have sharp boundaries and could be 20-30 m thick.
Geometrically Invariant Watermark Using Fast Correlation Attacks

This paper proposes a novel geometrical invariant watermark scheme based on fast correlation attacks of stream ciphers. The binary bit sequences of watermark as the initial state are fed into the LSFR, and the output m-sequence is embedded into the triangles that are obtained according to the scale-space Harris feature points and Delaunay tessellations. During the detection, the embedded watermark will be extracted based on the fast correlation attacks technique. Owing to its powerful error-correcting capability, the robustness against both geometrical distortion and common signal processing can be readily obtained. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme is highly robust against all kinds of geometrical attacks even including RBA in the StirMark.
Comparing global land-cover products – implications for geoscience applications: an investigation for the trans-boundary Mekong Basin

In this article we present the results of a comparison of six globally available land-cover products for the Mekong Basin – an area that spans 795,000 km2 and comprises parts of six riparian countries: China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The basin covers most climatic zones: from high-altitude, snow-covered mountainous regions in the north, to subtropical and tropical rainforest areas and agricultural land further south. The geopolitically important region not only is home to over 72,000,000 inhabitants, but also is a centre of attention of several environmental modelling experts, trying to assess future hydrologic dynamics, climate variability, as well probable land-use developments in the area. We compare land-cover products of the University of Maryland, UMD 1992–1993, the GLC 2000 product, the GlobCover products of 2004–2006 and 2009, as well as the MODIS-derived land-cover products of 2001 and 2009. For harmonization of individual legends, the Land Cover Classification System, LCCS, has been employed. However, even after harmonization, cross-tabulation among the products reveals extreme differences, where the impact of differing classification algorithms weighs higher than the impact of temporal coincidence of products. Especially, differences within mixed-vegetation classes are large, strongly impacting the overall assessment of forested land, other vegetated land, and even cultivated land in the Mekong Basin. The findings presented here are of high relevance for the modelling community as well as Mekong-related environmental studies, which should consider global remote-sensing-derived products with caution and solid background knowledge.
Correlation and studies of habitat selection: problem, red herring or opportunity?

With the advent of new technologies, animal locations are being collected at ever finer spatio-temporal scales. We review analytical methods for dealing with correlated data in the context of resource selection, including post hoc variance inflation techniques, ‘two-stage’ approaches based on models fit to each individual, generalized estimating equations and hierarchical mixed-effects models. These methods are applicable to a wide range of correlated data problems, but can be difficult to apply and remain especially challenging for use–availability sampling designs because the correlation structure for combinations of used and available points are not likely to follow common parametric forms. We also review emerging approaches to studying habitat selection that use fine-scale temporal data to arrive at biologically based definitions of available habitat, while naturally accounting for autocorrelation by modelling animal movement between telemetry locations. Sophisticated analyses that explicitly model correlation rather than consider it a nuisance, like mixed effects and state-space models, offer potentially novel insights into the process of resource selection, but additional work is needed to make them more generally applicable to large datasets based on the use–availability designs. Until then, variance inflation techniques and two-stage approaches should offer pragmatic and flexible approaches to modelling correlated data.
Text Patterns and Compression Models for Semantic Class Learning

This paper proposes a weakly-supervised approach for extracting instances of semantic classes. This method constructs simple wrappers automatically based on specified seed instances and uses a compression model to assess the contextual evidence of its extraction. By adopting this compression model, our approach can better avoid erroneous extractions in a noisy corpus such as the Web. The empirical results show that our system performs quite consistently even when operating on a noisy text with a lot of possibly irrelevant documents.
Correlation of aerosol nucleation rate with sulfuric acid and ammonia in Kent, Ohio: An atmospheric observation

(5.2 × 10 6 cm −3 ) and summer (2.9 × 10 6 cm −3 ) than in winter (6 × 10 5 cm −3 ) and fall (5 × 10 5 cm −3 ). We have used the inverse model Particle Growth and Nucleation to derive aerosol nucleation and growth rates from the measured aerosol size distributions. Nucleation rates derived during the NPF events ranged from 1.4 to 12.9 cm −3 s −1 and were proportional to the measured sulfuric acid concentration with a power of 0.6–2.3. Our results show that sulfuric acid is an important aerosol nucleation precursor, but only a small fraction of the aerosol growth rates could be explained by the condensation of sulfuric acid alone. Ammonia mixing ratios did not have a diurnal trend but had some seasonal variations, higher in spring than in fall and winter, typically at sub‐ppbv level; aerosol nucleation rates did not show a clear correlation with ammonia at least at this sub‐ppbv level, mostly because the ammonia mixing ratios were nearly constant. Our observations also indicate that the role that ammonia plays in aerosol nucleation is more complicated than is currently understood by the aerosol nucleation theories.
Optimal Resource Allocation for Device -to-Device Communication and Minimizing the base Station Transmission Power

The Long term Evolution (LTE) and LTE – Advanced (LTE A) are provides the new communications such has Device to Device Communications (D2D), cellular networks direct transmission between the two are more devices. In this paper, we consider a system for D2D communication in cellular networks and minimizing the transmission power in Base station (BS). The D2D systems followed spectrum sharing protocol and Multiuser MIMO-OFDMA transmission system base station follows three power saving mechanism: Power control, Discontinuous transmission and antenna adaptation. The power control using the algorithm is known about sleep mode duration and channel knowledge. A simulation result denotes the D2D transmission versus cellular transmission and improves the system performance by reusing the cellular resources.
A Preliminary Characterization of Eco-Innovators and Eco-Designers in Slovenia

Eco-innovation is crucial to Europe’s economic competitiveness; environment-friendly technologies have a positive impact on businesses and contribute to job creation. A survey of perceptions and attitudes about eco-innovation and eco-design among 712 Slovenian enterprises was conducted. The survey included micro, small and medium enterprises, and large companies. Analysis of the survey revealed that eco-design in Slovenia is underexploited. Only approximately 50 % of the 657 respondents have established an innovative environment for sustainable development or support for eco-innovation processes. Based on the survey results, it was concluded that further development and promotion will require comprehensive policies at the local and national levels. Specifi cally, policy solutions should advocate combining eco-innovation and adopting a life-cycle design approach. These policies could result in the development of successful innovations at a breakthrough level. Eco-innovation and eco-design present Slovenian enterprises with the opportunity to create new markets where they could dominate and prosper. Furthermore, Slovenia could become an important contributor to the European Union goal of becoming a smart, sustainable, and inclusive economy by fully satisfying the objectives of four “Europe 2020” Flagship initiatives, while simultaneously contributing to reducing climate change.
Twitter as a Tool for Predicting Elections Results

The use of social networking sites, such as Twitter, for various purposes, continues to grown since its first appearance. This social net is a microblogging site to share short messages on a variety of topics. In particular, political elections are a very interesting field to exchange views using this platform. In this paper we have used Spanish elections to investigate the use of Twitter for this purpose, and to find out if the conversations maintained there can anticipate, in some way, the results of the elections. In order to do this, we have developed a tool, called Tara tweet, to define experiments and to capture the defined conversations, and have applied it to the cases of three Spanish elections during 2011 and 2012. Our results show that Twitter is used for political discussion, and that the references to the different political parties correlate, significatively, with the votes of the electors. This is an indicator that Twitter may be used by social researchers as a tool, among others, to predict future results of the elections. Of course, with due caution because the measured data correspond to distinct actions, so obviously, much more research and studies should be done in this field.
GUARANTEED ERROR ROBUST FIR EQUALIZATION FOR UNCERTAIN CHANNELS

Abstract The equalization problem is a problem of estimating a signal transmitted over a telecommunication channel. This problem has a range of applications in telecommunications. In this paper, we consider a version of the problem in which the channel model contains an uncertainty. Our goal is to design a robust finite impulse response (FIR) equalizer which guarantees certain bound on the worst-case estimation error. The design procedure presented in the paper relies on the recent progress in maxdet convex optimization. Another result used in the paper concerns minimax optimal control and filtering of uncertain systems with relative entropy constraints on the uncertainty.
Inferring on the Intentions of Others by Hierarchical Bayesian Learning

Inferring on others' (potentially time-varying) intentions is a fundamental problem during many social transactions. To investigate the underlying mechanisms, we applied computational modeling to behavioral data from an economic game in which 16 pairs of volunteers (randomly assigned to “player” or “adviser” roles) interacted. The player performed a probabilistic reinforcement learning task, receiving information about a binary lottery from a visual pie chart. The adviser, who received more predictive information, issued an additional recommendation. Critically, the game was structured such that the adviser's incentives to provide helpful or misleading information varied in time. Using a meta-Bayesian modeling framework, we found that the players' behavior was best explained by the deployment of hierarchical learning: they inferred upon the volatility of the advisers' intentions in order to optimize their predictions about the validity of their advice. Beyond learning, volatility estimates also affected the trial-by-trial variability of decisions: participants were more likely to rely on their estimates of advice accuracy for making choices when they believed that the adviser's intentions were presently stable. Finally, our model of the players' inference predicted the players' interpersonal reactivity index (IRI) scores, explicit ratings of the advisers' helpfulness and the advisers' self-reports on their chosen strategy. Overall, our results suggest that humans (i) employ hierarchical generative models to infer on the changing intentions of others, (ii) use volatility estimates to inform decision-making in social interactions, and (iii) integrate estimates of advice accuracy with non-social sources of information. The Bayesian framework presented here can quantify individual differences in these mechanisms from simple behavioral readouts and may prove useful in future clinical studies of maladaptive social cognition.
The effect of a novel core stabilization technique on managing patients with chronic low back pain: a randomized, controlled, experimenter-blinded study

Objective: To identify the effect of a novel augmented core stabilization exercise technique on physical function, pain and core stability in patients with chronic low back pain. Design: A block randomized controlled trial with two groups. Setting: A sports rehabilitation clinic. Participants: Forty patients with low back pain (20 experimental, mean (SD) age 50.35 (9.26) years and 20 control, 51.30 (7.01)), 19 men and 21 women. Interventions: In the experimental group ankle dorsiflexion was used in addition to drawing in the abdominal wall; the control group involved drawing in the abdominal wall alone. Both groups received the same conventional physical therapy training three days a week for eight weeks. Main outcome measures: Physical disability instruments; Oswestry Disability Index and Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire; pain intensity assessments; visual analogue scale, Pain Disability Index, and a pain rating scale; and core stability measures, such as the active straight leg raise, were determined at pretest, posttest and two-month follow-up. Results: After the intervention, the experimental group showed significant greater improvement at two months compared with the control group. Physical disability results included Oswestry Disability Index (P = 0.001, from 24.25 (7.08) to 13.35 (4.17)) and Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (P = 0.001, from 15.55 (1.99) to 8.15 (1.69)), pain intensity including visual analogue scale (P = 0.001, from 6.30 (1.03) to 3.35 (0.59)), Pain Disability Index (P = 0.001, 31.25 (5.44) to 19.00 (3.58)) and pain rating scale (P = 0.001, from 72.25 (18.73) to 50.10 (15.47)), and the core stability test such as active straight leg raise (P = 0.001, from 7.40 (0.75) to 2.15 (0.49)). Conclusions: This study provides the clinical evidence that adding ankle dorsiflexion to drawing in the abdominal wall gave increased benefit in terms of physical disability, pain and core stability in patients with chronic low back pain.