Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Direct Acoustic Feature Using Iterative EM Algorithm and Spectral Energy for Classifying Suicidal Speech

Research has shown that the voice itself contains important information about immediate psychological state and certain vocal parameters are capable of distinguishing speaking patterns of speech signal affected by emotional disturbances (i.e., clinical depression). In this study, the GMM based feature of the vocal tract system response and spectral energy have been studied and found to be a primary acoustic feature set for separating two groups of female patients carrying a diagnosis of depression and suicidal risk.
Statistical Methods for Quantifying the Effect of the El Niño—Southern Oscillation on Wind Power in the Northern Great Plains of the United States

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon is a well-known source of inter-annual climate variability for both precipitation and temperature in the northern Great Plains of the United States. In order to determine if ENSO has similar impacts on wind speed and wind power, we applied statistical methods, including the sign test and resampling, to hourly airport wind speed measurements for the past half century at two airports in North Dakota and at another two in South Dakota. There is strong statistical evidence that ENSO has a small effect on wind speeds in some months, which affects the amount of wind power a typical utility scale wind turbine can produce. During the El Niño phase, we found monthly mean wind power production to decrease generally, consistent with the mean wind speed decreasing and the probability of a low-speed wind event increasing, at two locations in South Dakota. The ENSO connection was weaker and harder to detect in North Dakota, but we found evidence that the sign of the change appeared generally to be consistent with that in South Dakota. These effects were smaller than the general variability of wind speeds, but nevertheless were detectable as ‘signals within the noise’.
Development Environment for a RISC-V processor: Cache

—Despite the recent advent of open-source hardware, the available open-source caches have low conﬁgurability, limited lack of support for single-cycle pipelined memory accesses, and use non-standard hardware interfaces and Hardware Description Languages. In this work IOb-Cache, a high-performance con-ﬁgurable open-source Verilog cache is proposed and developed. The cache is designed modular and composed of 3 modules. The Cache-Memory module contains the memories and the cache’s main controller. The Front-End and Back-End modules isolate the cache design from the processor and memory interfaces, respectively, which enables the fast adoption of new processors or memory controllers. Currently the Front-End module supports the native interface and the Back-End module supports the native and the standard Advanced eXtensible Interface (AXI) interfaces. The cache can be conﬁgured to deﬁne the number of ways ( k ) in set-associative designs ( k = 1 selects a direct-mapped design), the number of lines and words per line, the replacement policy, etc. The write-policy is currently ﬁxed to Write-Through Not Allocate policy with an internal buffer, limiting the write accesses to word-sized data. The back-end can be conﬁgured to read bursts of multiple words per transfer to take advantage of the available memory bandwidth. To the best of our knowledge, IOb-Cache is currently the only conﬁgurable Verilog cache that supports pipelined Central Processing Unit (CPU) interfaces and the popular AXI memory bus interface. IOb-Cache is integrated into IOb-SoC Github repository, which has 16 stars, and is being used in 38 projects (forks).
Software Security Static Analysis False Alerts Handling Approaches

False Positive Alerts (FPA), generated by Static Analyzers Tools (SAT), reduce the effectiveness of the automatic code review, letting them be underused in practice. Researchers conduct a lot of tests to improve SAT accuracy while keeping FPA at a lower rate. They use different simulated and production datasets to validate their proposed methods. This paper surveys recent approaches dealing with FPA filtering; it compares them and discusses their usefulness. It also studies the used datasets to validate the identified methods and show their effectiveness to cover most program defects. This study focuses mainly on the security bugs covered by the datasets and handled by the existing methods. Keywords—Software security; static analysis; false alert reduction; source code dataset; security bugs
ORR_A_342365 275..280

1Orthopedic Spine Surgeon, Fatmawati General Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia; 2Department of Orthopedic and Traumatology, Faculty of Medicine Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia Background: Kyphosis in spondylitis tuberculosis (STb) is more than just a cosmetic issue. It has a potentially detrimental effect on both spine-associated structures and cardiopulmonary function. It can be corrected in any stage of STb; however, the corrective surgery is challenging, especially in the late case, in which the additional stiffness of the spine can come into consideration. To date, the cantilever technique is still a gold standard for sagittal plane deformity correction. However, no study to date has explored its effectiveness for thoracolumbar kyphotic deformity, especially that caused by spondylitis tuberculosis. Methods: This is a retrospective study of 16 consecutive cases of spondylitis tuberculosis with thoracolumbar kyphosis that underwent corrective surgery in our center in the period of 2020–2021. We aim to evaluate the effectiveness of the cantilever technique that we use for kyphotic correction in thoracolumbar STb patients. Results: At the 3-months follow-up, the mean Cobb angle was 14.6°±10.27°, with the mean gain of 20.90°±12.00° and positively correlate with the thoracolumbar kyphosis (TLK) correction (68.69%, r = 0.654, p = 0.001). The mean thoracic kyphosis, lumbar lordosis, and sagittal vertebral axis were 30.6°±13.08°, 39.4°±16.02°, and 1.4±4.09 cm, respectively, with sagittal Cobb difference of 12.70±9.85. Conclusion: The kyphotic Cobb angle reduction by cantilever technique in the thoracolumbar area significantly improved the thoracolumbar kyphosis and realign the spinal sagittal axis. Thus, the cantilever technique remains the gold standard for sagittal plane deformity correction which can be applied for kyphotic deformity correction in thoracolumbar STb cases.
A randomized clinical trial to stimulate the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway in patients with moderate COVID-19-pneumonia using a slow-paced breathing technique

Purpose A characteristic problem occurring in COVID-19 is excessive elevations of pro-inflammatory cytokines (e.g. IL-6 and CRP) which are associated with worse clinical outcomes. Stimulation of the vagally-mediated cholinergic anti-inflammatory reflex by slow paced breathing with prolonged exhalation may present a clinically relevant way to reduce circulating IL-6. Method Single-center randomized controlled clinical trial with enrolment of 46 patients hospitalized with confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and moderate COVID-19 pneumonia (primary diagnosis). Differences between intervention (4sec inhalation, 6sec exhalation for 20 minutes 3x daily) and control group in IL-6 calculated using multilevel mixed-effect linear regression models with random slope including the covariates relevant comorbidities, COVID-19 medication, and age. Both groups received standard care. Results Mean age was 57 years ± 13 years, N= 28 (60%) male, N=30 (65%) with relevant comorbidities. The model including group-by-time interaction revealed a significantly lower trajectory of IL-6 in the intervention group (effect size Cohens f2 = 0.11, LR-test p=.040) in the intention-to-treat sample, confirmed by per-protocol analysis (f2 = 0.15, LR-test p=.022). Exploratory analysis using the median split of practice time to predict IL-6 of the next morning indicated a dose-response relationship with beneficial effects of practice time above 45 minutes per day. Oxygen saturation remained unchanged during slow-paced breathing (95.1% ± 2.1% to 95.4% ± 1.6%). Conclusion Patients practicing slow-paced breathing had significantly lower IL-6 values than controls with a small to medium effect size and without relevant side effects. Further trials should evaluate clinical outcomes and an earlier start of the intervention. Slow-paced breathing could be an easy to implement, low-cost, safe and feasible adjuvant therapeutic approach to reduce circulating IL-6 in moderate COVID-19 pneumonia. Clinical Trial Registration https://www.drks. de, identifier DRKS00023971, Universal Trial Number (UTN) U1111-1263-8658.
The relationship between visually evoked effects and concussion in youth

Increased sensitivity to light is common following concussion. Viewing a flickering light can also produce uncomfortable somatic sensations like nausea or headache. Here we examined effects evoked by viewing a patterned, flickering screen in a cohort of 81 uninjured youth athletes and 84 youth with concussion. We used exploratory factor analysis and identified two primary dimensions of variation: the presence or absence of visually evoked effects, and variation in the tendency to manifest effects that localized to the eyes (e.g., eye watering), versus more generalized neurologic symptoms (e.g., headache). Based on these two primary dimensions, we grouped participants into three categories of evoked symptomatology: no effects, eye-predominant effects, and brain-predominant effects. A similar proportion of participants reported eye-predominant effects in the uninjured (33.3%) and concussion (32.1%) groups. By contrast, participants who experienced brain-predominant effects were almost entirely from the concussion group (1.2% of uninjured, 35.7% of concussed). The presence of brain-predominant effects was associated with a higher concussion symptom burden and reduced performance on visio-vestibular tasks. Our findings indicate that the experience of negative constitutional, somatic sensations in response to a dynamic visual stimulus is a salient marker of concussion and is indicative of more severe concussion symptomatology. We speculate that differences in visually evoked effects reflect varying levels of activation of the trigeminal nociceptive system.
Smartphone Movement Sensors for Remote Monitoring of Respiratory Rate: Observational Study

Background: Mobile health offers potential benefits to patients and healthcare systems alike. Existing remote technologies to measure respiratory rate (RR) have limitations, such as cost, accessibility and reliability. Using smartphone sensors to measure RR may offer a potential solution. Objective: The aim of this study was to conduct a comprehensive assessment of a novel mHealth smartphone application designed to measure RR using movement sensors. Methods: In Study 1, 15 participants simultaneously measured their RR with the app, and an FDA cleared reference device. A novel reference method to allow the app to be evaluated "in the wild" was also developed. In Study 2, 165 participants measured their RR using the app, and these measures were compared to the novel reference. Usability of the app was also assessed in both studies. Results: The app, when compared to the FDA-cleared and novel references, respectively, showed a mean absolute error (MAE) of 1.65 (SD=1.49) and 1.14 (1.44), relative MAE of 12.2 (9.23) and 9.5 (18.70) and bias of 0.81 (limits of agreement (LoA) =-3.27-4.89) and 0.08 (-3.68-3.51). Pearson correlation coefficients were 0.700 and 0.885. 93% of participants successfully operated the app on their first use. Conclusions: The accuracy and usability of the app demonstrated here show promise for the use of mHealth solutions employing smartphone sensors to remotely monitor RR. Further research should validate the benefits that this technology may offer patients and healthcare systems.
Severity indices for contingency screening in dynamic security assessment

At present, the computational requirement for dynamic security assessment (DSA) is a hurdle for a comprehensive on-line DSA to be implemented in energy management systems. In addition to faster time domain solutions, novel approaches and techniques are being developed for contingency screening and remedial actions. This paper describes one such development in the area of contingency screening which can be seen as an extension of techniques developed over the years for static security analysis. Some new concepts and methods are suggested for both contingency ranking and contingency classification (stable/unstable). Results from realistic test systems illustrate the capabilities and performance of the new approach.
Getting in the Way: Investigating Barriers to Optimizing Talent Development Experience

Various studies have identified features of effective talent development environments and their impact on the development of successful athletes. In contrast, there has been limited investigation of failures in talent development practice. Accordingly, the present study sought to understand the perceptions of coaches about barriers to integrating support and optimizing experience for athletes in talent development. A series of focus groups (n = 6) were conducted with academy coaches, Heads of Youth, and national staff in elite English Rugby League (n = 29 Mage = 41.2, SD = 6.9). Data were analyzed using a Reflexive Thematic Analysis approach, with findings suggesting a number of complex factors acting as barriers to optimal talent development practice and, thus, the experience of the athlete. Three overarching themes were developed to encompass barriers to integrated support and optimal experience in elite rugby league: (a) the high-performance milieu, (b) a lack of integrated working practice and (c) failures of coaching practice. Results highlight the complexity of the overall talent development milieu and the utility of deploying negative case studies to further understand optimal practice. Implications for the applied practitioner are discussed, including approaches to support systemic talent development practice.
The least square deviations criterion and inverse-source magnetostatic problems

A procedure for the determination of the distribution of magnetization in an object of interest using measured disturbances of external magnetic field is described in this paper. The object is divided into a finite number of brick-shaped elements and we prescribe uniform distribution of magnetization within each element. The contribution of each element to the total magnetic field may be calculated analytically in terms of unknown coefficients of magnetization distribution. These coefficients are determined from a set of measured magnetic field values by application of the least square deviations criterion. Such an approach enables a priori analysis of stability of computation. The application of the procedure is illustrated by an example.
Revisiting Integration in the Material Point Method: A Scheme for Easier Separation and Less Dissipation

Frame 170 Frame 600 Fig. 1. Water Spray from a Fountain Nozzle.Weakly-compressible water is simulated with the material point method. A weak frictional coefficient (0.0125) is applied between the liquid and plates. AFLIP and ASFLIP induce much less dissipation than the traditional methods, so liquid particles are more spread out within the same period. Particles advected by ASFLIP are also more energetic than AFLIP when leaving the top plate since particles are used to assist friction computation. ©2021 Tencent
Relocation and East-West competition: the case of the European automotive industry

How is the division of labour between Western and Central Eastern European (CEE) sites developing in the automotive industry, and what impacts does it have on work models? The article examines these questions on the basis of case studies of major car producers and suppliers in Central Eastern Europe. From the point of view of Central Eastern Europe, the conditions for developing high road work models are favourable: the industrial capabilities have been upgraded since the 1990s, labour shortages put pressure on companies to improve working conditions, and relocation to other low-wage countries has so far been a minor threat. In Western Europe, the actors have responded to the competition from low-wage countries by adapting their work models, the most important elements of which are greater flexibility, an extension of working hours and a modest development of wages.
Coupling Vision and Proprioception for Navigation of Legged Robots

We exploit the complementary strengths of vision and pro-prioception to develop a point-goal navigation system for legged robots, called VP-Nav. Legged systems are capable of traversing more complex terrain than wheeled robots, but to fully utilize this capability, we need a high-level path planner in the navigation system to be aware of the walking capabilities of the low-level locomotion policy in varying environments. We achieve this by using proprioceptive feedback to ensure the safety of the planned path by sensing unexpected obstacles like glass walls, terrain properties like slipperiness or softness of the ground and robot properties like extra payload that are likely missed by vision. The navigation system uses onboard cameras to generate an occupancy map and a corresponding cost map to reach the goal. A fast marching planner then generates a target path. A velocity command generator takes this as input to generate the desired velocity for the walking policy. A safety advisor module adds sensed unexpected obstacles to the occupancy map and environment-determined speed limits to the velocity command generator. We show superior performance compared to wheeled robot baselines, and ablation studies which have disjoint high-level planning and low-level control. We also show the real-world deployment of VP-Nav on a quadruped robot with onboard sensors and computation. Videos at https://navigation-locomotion.github. io
Lattice models from CFT on surfaces with holes: I. Torus partition function via two lattice cells

We construct a one-parameter family of lattice models starting from a two-dimensional rational conformal field theory on a torus with a regular lattice of holes, each of which is equipped with a conformal boundary condition. The lattice model is obtained by cutting the surface into triangles with clipped-off edges using open channel factorisation. The parameter is given by the hole radius. At finite radius, high energy states are suppressed and the model is effectively finite. In the zero-radius limit, it recovers the CFT amplitude exactly. In the touching hole limit, one obtains a topological field theory. If one chooses a special conformal boundary condition which we call ‘cloaking boundary condition’, then for each value of the radius the fusion category of topological line defects of the CFT is contained in the lattice model. The fact that the full topological symmetry of the initial CFT is realised exactly is a key feature of our lattice models. We provide an explicit recursive procedure to evaluate the interaction vertex on arbitrary states. As an example, we study the lattice model obtained from the Ising CFT on a torus with one hole, decomposed into two lattice cells. We numerically compare the truncated lattice model to the CFT expression obtained from expanding the boundary state in terms of the hole radius and we find good agreement at intermediate values of the radius.
EFFECT OF MATCH PLAY ON THE KINEMATICS OF ONE-HANDED STATIONARY NETBALL SHOOTING

Anecdotal evidence has suggested that at the completion of a competitive netball match, shooters may experience match tiredness or fatigue that may negatively influence their shooting technique and accuracy. Although several studies have examined the effect of fatigue on the performance of sport skills such as running, no studies were found which examined the influence of match play on the mechanics of netball goal shooting. The purpose of the present study was therefore to identify the effect of match play on the kinematics of one-handed stationary netball shooting performed by 10 highly skilled shooters (mean age = 23 * 3.4 years). Subjects were filmed performing one-handed stationary shots for goal 3.0 m from the post, before and immediately after (within 5 minutes of match completion) participating in one of their scheduled New South Wales Netball Association State League Competition (Division 1) matches. The shooting action was filmed using a 16 mm LOCAM Model 5001 high speed camera (100 Hz; lateral view) and a Panasonic M7 VHS video camera (25 Hz; anterior view). Two successful representative shots, one before and one after the competition match, were selected for analysis for each subject The two trials per subject were digitised and smoothed using a second order Butterworth filter (cutoff = 10 Hz). Linear velocities, joint and segmental angles, and amplitudes of segmental movement were derived from the smoothed displacement data for each shot. The subjects' shooting accuracy was also quantified during match play via game analysis procedures. T-tests for dependent means showed there was no significant difference (p < 0 05) in the kinematics of one-handed shooting performed by the subjects when standing 3.0 from the goal post before and immediately after a competition netball match Observations of individual subject results reflected this high consistency in shooting technique, despite the limited number of shots analysed per subject. It was concluded the spatial and temporal aspects of the shooting technique of this sample of highly skilled netball shooters were sufficiently automated to prevent changes in technique as a consequence of the physical demands of participating in a competition match.
Dynamic Bayesian Network Modelling of User Affect and Perceptions of a Teleoperated Robot Coach during Longitudinal Mindfulness Training

Longitudinal interaction studies with Socially Assistive Robots are crucial to ensure that the robot is relevant for long-term use and its perceptions are not prone to the novelty effect. In this paper, we present a dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) to capture the longitudinal interactions participants had with a teleoperated robot coach (RC) delivering mindfulness sessions. The DBN model is used to study complex, temporal interactions between the participants self-reported personality traits, weekly baseline wellbeing scores, session ratings, and facial AUs elicited during the sessions in a 5-week longitudinal study. DBN modelling involves learning a graphical representation that facilitates intuitive understanding of how multiple components contribute to the longitudinal changes in session ratings corresponding to the perceptions of the RC, and participants relaxation and calm levels. The learnt model captures the following within and between sessions aspects of the longitudinal interaction study: influence of the 5 personality dimensions on the facial AU states and the session ratings, influence of facial AU states on the session ratings, and the influences within the items of the session ratings. The DBN structure is learnt using first 3 time points and the obtained model is used to predict the session ratings of the last 2 time points of the 5-week longitudinal data. The predictions are quantified using subject-wise RMSE and R2 scores. We also demonstrate two applications of the model, namely, imputation of missing values in the dataset and estimation of longitudinal session ratings of a new participant with a given personality profile. The obtained DBN model thus facilitates learning of conditional dependency structure between variables in the longitudinal data and offers inferences and conceptual understanding which are not possible through other regression methodologies.