Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Systemic Review and Meta-analysis of the Effect of SARS-CoV-2 Infection on Sperm Parameters

Objective . Several studies examined the putative e ﬀ ects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on sperm parameters. However, the results remain controversial. In this study, we conducted the most up-to-date systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the e ﬀ ect of SARS-CoV-2 infection on sperm quality in COVID-19-positive and COVID-19-negative male participants. Method . Seven databases were searched for literature released through June 10, 2022, containing estimates for the outcomes of interest. Using a random-e ﬀ ects model (REM) or a ﬁ xed-e ﬀ ects model (FEM), we analyzed the pooled results. The quality of all included studies was assessed by the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. In addition, we performed a quantitative and subgroup analysis of semen data across all included studies. Results . Fourteen studies were extracted from 10 publications, involving a total of 1174 participates for meta-analysis. Sperm parameters of 521 COVID-19 male patients and 653 controls were analyzed. In 8 case-control studies, the pooled mean di ﬀ erence (MD) of total sperm motility was -5.37% (95% con ﬁ dence interval (CI): -8.47 to -2.28; p < 0 : 05 ), suggesting that total motility was signi ﬁ cantly impaired in male COVID-19 cases. Subgroup analysis showed a signi ﬁ cant decrease in semen volume, sperm concentration, and total motility in 238 patients with a recovery time of less than 90 days. Moreover, in the other 6 included pre- to post-COVID-19 studies, the pooled MDs of sperm concentration, total sperm count, total motility, progressive motility, and normal morphology were − 6 : 54 × 10 6 /ml (95% CI: -10.27 to -2.81; p < 0 : 05 ), − 38 : 89 × 10 6 (95% CI: -59.20 to -18.58; p < 0 : 05 ), -7.21% (95% CI: -14.36 to -0.07; p < 0 : 05 ), -5.12% (95% CI: -8.71 to -1.53; p < 0 : 05 ), and -1.52% (95% CI: -2.88 to -0.16; p < 0 : 05 ), respectively, which indicate SARS-CoV-2 infection signi ﬁ cantly a ﬀ ected these ﬁ ve sperm parameters. Conclusion . Our results revealed that SARS-CoV-2 infection was signi ﬁ cantly correlated with decreased sperm quality. Of six sperm parameters, total motility and sperm concentration were the most signi ﬁ cantly decreased parameters. These results suggest a possible negative in ﬂ uence of SARS-CoV-2 infection on testicular function and male fertility. Given the potential detrimental e ﬀ ect of SARS-CoV-2 on semen quality, male reproductive health should be monitored closely in patients with COVID-19. This trial is registered with CRD42021275823.
Sawmill Willingness to Pay Price Premiums for Higher Quality Pine Sawtimber in the Southeastern United States

The southeastern United States is widely regarded as a leading region for intensively managed, short rotation pine forests. One drawback of this intensive approach is the production of more juvenile wood with lower quality properties that are less desirable for solid end uses. Improved construction sectors (e.g., housing) demand larger diameter sawtimbers. Delaying the final harvest allows for the production of larger diameter higher quality solid wood; however, this approach may incur additional costs to the landowner, which may disincentivize extending the rotation without additional monetary compensation. Sawmills are a primary consumer of pine sawtimber and exert a strong influence on stumpage prices. Therefore, understanding the importance of wood quality to sawmills is important for understanding price dynamics. To explore this aspect, we conducted a mail survey of softwood sawmills in the southeastern United States to determine willingness to pay price premiums for higher quality pine sawtimber. Most sawmills (57%) were willing to pay price premiums. The mean willingness to pay, estimated using a tobit regression, ranged from USD 4.22/ton to USD 12.98/ton. Sawlog size, procurement radius, sawlog grade, and the number of employees positively influenced sawmills’ willingness to pay a price premium for higher quality sawtimber, while sawmills’ processing capacity and the number of years in business had a negative impact. The results will be useful to landowners considering delaying the final harvest to grow large diameter sawtimber.
PUMP: Pyramidal and Uniqueness Matching Priors for Unsupervised Learning of Local Descriptors

Existing approaches for learning local image descriptors have shown remarkable achievements in a wide range of geometric tasks. However, most of them require perpixel correspondence-level supervision, which is difficult to acquire at scale and in high quality. In this paper, we propose to explicitly integrate two matching priors in a single loss in order to learn local descriptors without supervision. Given two images depicting the same scene, we extract pixel descriptors and build a correlation volume. The first prior enforces the local consistency of matches in this volume via a pyramidal structure iteratively constructed using a non-parametric module. The second prior exploits the fact that each descriptor should match with at most one descriptor from the other image. We combine our unsupervised loss with a standard self-supervised loss trained from synthetic image augmentations. Feature descriptors learned by the proposed approach outperform their fully- and self-supervised counterparts on various geometric benchmarks such as visual localization and image matching, achieving state-of-the-art performance. Project webpage: https://europe.naverlabs. com/research/3d-vision/pump.
Gender Wage Gap in Rural Labour Markets: An Empirical Study of North East India

Even after three decades of economic reforms, India’s labor market is characterized by stark inter-gender differences in terms of both participation rate and working time. Identification of the causes is necessary to remove the disparity and unequal sharing of economic opportunities to make way for women’s empowerment. This research attempts in that direction, examining the prevalence of these inequities in rural areas of North-East Indian states using unit-level data from the 2017–18 Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). The methodology for the estimation here is based on Blinder- Oaxaca decomposition method after correcting for sample bias forwarded by Heckman. The analysis shows that in both labor force participation and the wage gap, the females in the region lag behind their male counterparts by a huge margin. Further, the analysis shows that one of the main factors leading to the difference is the disparities in human capital assets. On top of female educational enrollment being low, there is also a huge lack of higher educational attainment, while males have accomplished much better in both the parameters. Moreover, the presence of social stigma against women working and discrimination put the female labor outcomes in a gloomy state.
Prospect of PM Vernier Machine for Wind Power Application †

: This paper investigates the prospect of permanent magnet vernier machine (PMVM) technology for wind power applications. Two types of PMVMs are deﬁned based on the winding arrangements and resultant gear ratio ranges. A comprehensive design study of the selected PMVM topologies is conducted at 1 and 3MW power levels. The optimized candidate designs of the PMVMs are then evaluated and also compared against the equivalent permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) in terms of performance, costs, size and mass. While the existing research publications mainly focused on the PMVM designs of ( G r = 5), this study reveals that the pole/slot combinations of PMVMs with ( G r ≤ 5) are more appealing as there is a good trade-off between a reasonable power factor and high power density in these designs. It shows, in this paper, that the PMVM is a promising alternative to common PMSM technology for utility-scale wind-turbine drive-train applications.
Modeling Fashion Brand Authenticity Toward Brand Usage Intention: Evidence from Indonesia

The growth of local fashion brands in Indonesia is interesting because of the speed with which new designs are made, many variants are created, and local brands are developed. However, when it comes to buying local fashion products, the brand isn’t the sole consideration. As a result, the marketing effectiveness of local fashion brands needs to be examined more thoroughly. The purpose of this study was to understand more about brand authenticity and how it affects brand usage intentions. The unit of analysis in this study was Generation Z, who purchase from local fashion companies online. A quantitative research methodology was used. The data was analyzed using the PLS-SEM method to test the hypotheses with the dependent variables. The variables were the intention of using the brand, the quality of the brand relationship, and the authenticity of the brand. The results of this study indicated that brand authenticity had an effect on brand usage intent and brand relations quality mediates the positive effect of brand authenticity on brand usage intent.
Human Meshes in Olympic Sports

The task of generation human meshes on static images and video data has made tremendous progress. However, many state of the art methods struggle on complicated videos with multiple occlusions, multiple people, and fast motion. In this work, we generate 200 short video clips from the 2018 and 2020 Olympics and evaluate VIBE and HMMR models on each clip. Our results are public in a Box Repository. Finally, we attempt to use the motion discrimi-nator from VIBE to match pose tracks to generate a smooth track. Our method provides sub-par results and we discuss future directions.
Describing Stratified Multiple Responses for Sparse Data

Surveys often contain qualitative variables for which respondents may select any number of the outcome categories. For instance, for the question “What type of contraception have you used? ” with possible responses (oral, condom, lubricated condom, spermicide, and diaphragm), respondents would be instructed to select as many of the outcomes that apply. This type of response is called multiple responses. Bilder and Loughin (2002) proposed a CochranMantel-Haenszel (MH) type method to test whether the choice of type of contraception is marginally independent of an explanatory variable given a stratification variable (known as conditional multiple marginal independence, CMMI). We apply the generalized MH type estimators (Greenland, 1989) to estimate the conditional group effects among the c outcome categories and follow the bootstrap method to estimate the variances and covariances for the estimators. The method can also be used for data with dependent observations across strata. It performs well even for highly sparse data.
Influence of habitat characteristics on the assemblage and distribution of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (EPT) at selected recreational rivers in Kelantan, Malaysia

This study was carried out to identify the habitat factors that contribute to the variation of EPT at three recreational rivers in Kelantan, Malaysia. Therefore, the further implementation of EPT index as bio-indicator can be standardized and efficient. The results showed that, EPT assemblage and distribution at these rivers varies even though there is no significant difference in the water quality. Water quality of all the rivers are in the range of ‘good’ level. Therefore, regression analysis was made to confirm the main factors influencing the variation of EPT assemblage within selected recreational rivers in Kelantan, Malaysia. The substrate composition appeared as the main factor influencing the variation in distribution and composition of EPT in good water quality from the analysis. Thus, it is concluded that the substrate composition is the major factor influencing the composition and distribution of EPT in recreational river (good water quality).
Fabricable Multi‐Scale Wang Tiles

Wang tiles, also known as Wang dominoes, are a jigsaw puzzle system with matching edges. Due to their compactness and expressiveness in representing variations, they have become a popular tool in the procedural synthesis of textures, height fields, 3D printing and representing other large and non‐repetitive data. Multi‐scale tiles created from low‐level tiles allow for a higher tiling efficiency, although they face the problem of combinatorial explosion. In this paper, we propose a generation method for multi‐scale Wang tiles that aims at minimizing the amount of needed tiles while still resembling a tiling appearance similar to low‐level tiles. Based on a set of representative multi‐scale Wang tiles, we use a dynamic generation algorithm for this purpose. Our method can be used for rapid texture synthesis and image halftoning. Respecting physical constraints, our tiles are connected, lightweight, independent of the fabrication scale, able to tile larger areas with image contents and contribute to “mass customization”.
NeRFReN: Neural Radiance Fields with Reflections

An illustration of how λd and λbdc change with the training process is shown in Fig. 2. Note that we first increase λd to ensure correct geometry for the transmitted component and then increase λbdc to remove redundancies in the reflected component. We find this stabilize training compared to optimizing both at the same time. Then we gradually decrease the weights to concern more on photometric loss to get more accurate renderings. Effects of warm-up training are demonstrated in Sec. 4.1.
FOCAL IMPAIRED AWARENESS SEIZURE DETECTION USING A SMARTWATCH

Epileptic seizures are commonly classified as either generalized (originating simultaneously in cortical neurons across the entire brain) or focal (originating in a subpopulation of cortical neurons in a focal brain region). Focal seizures are further subdivided according to whether the seizure causes impaired awareness (focal impaired), or does not (focal aware). Focal impaired awareness seizures cause more disability because patients cannot adequately react to their surroundings, increasing the risk of car crashes, burns, and other accidents. FIA seizures can also be accompanied by automatic behaviors, such as undressing or running, which can be embarrassing or dangerous. While treatments exist for epileptic patients with FIA seizures, tracking the efficacy of treatments can be difficult since patients often will not remember the episodes or recognize that one has occurred. In order to effectively track FIA seizures in epileptic patients, active detection that does not hinder daily life is needed. FIA seizures may originate in different regions of the brain and thus may have very different clinical manifestations across individuals. However, most cause an increase in heart rate, likely through stimulation of sympathetic efferents in the hypothalamus, without a commensurate increase in physical activity. Using a common consumer-grade smartwatch, the Apple Watch, we used a refined set of engineered features derived from the photoplethysmogram (PPG) heart rate sensor date and tri-axial accelerometer data to train neural networks to detect FIA seizures associated with an increase in heart rate. This strategy was based on our judgment that FIA seizures without an increase in heart rate are not sufficiently stereotyped across patients to detect with any of the available sensors in consumer wearable devices. A binary classification, artificial neural network was trained using leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV). Each of the models correctly identified
A multidimensional free market and income inequality in developing Asia: How does the quality of governance matter?

This paper empirically examines how a free market, a governance quality, and their interaction simultaneously affect income inequality in 23 Asian developing countries over the period 2000-2019. Especially, different dimensions of a free market proxied by various components of economic freedom are analysed. Results show that the overall economic freedom and three of its components including labour freedom, trade freedom, and investment freedom reduce income inequality; but other components including business freedom, monetary freedom, and financial freedom widen income inequality. Meanwhile, the governance quality not only decreases income inequality, but also intensifies the beneficial impacts of the overall economic freedom and those respective components of economic freedom on income equality. Notably, at certain thresholds of governance quality, the detrimental impacts of business freedom, monetary freedom, and financial freedom on income equality turn into the advantageous ones. The findings consolidate the appropriate combination of free market with specific dimensions and the governance quality in boosting the equality of income distribution in Asian developing countries.
Proposal of a new virtual evaluation approach of preventive safety applications and advanced driver assistance functions – application: AEB system

This study presents a new virtual evaluation approach of preventive safety applications and advanced driver assistance functions. The approach identifies the worst-case scenarios for a given advanced driver assistance function, AEB system in this study, based on field operational tests (FOT) [safety pilot model deployment (SPMD), in this study]. The authors begin with a description of the studied AEB system and a synthesis of the most relevant tests scenarios. Then, they model the distribution of each test parameter retrieved from the SPMD database by applying two estimation methods (kernel method and expectation-maximisation algorithm). A comparison was made between the two methods to choose the best one. These distributions are then sampled using the proposed sampling strategy based on Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. Then, the idea is to take the samples of each parameter retrieved with this sampler, simulate them on a vehicular software simulator (PreScan) and to get their simulation results. For each test and in case of impact, a proportional score to the speed of impact reduction is attributed. Finally, a risk classification is done based on the scoring results which allows to recover high and very high-risk cases to build a set of worst-case scenarios.
Absorbing Boundary Conditions for Scalar and Elastic Waves in the Time-Domain

Absorbing boundary conditions are a requisite element of many computational wave prop-agation problems. With our main motivation being the anchor loss simulations of Micro-electromechanical Systems (MEMS) in three dimensions, efficient time-domain absorbingboundary conditions which do work well for elastodynamics are in demand. In this workwe investigate three classes of absorbing boundary conditions which we believe are promis-ing, viz., perfectly matched layers (PMLs), perfectly matched discrete layers (PMDLs), andhigh-order absorbing boundary conditions (HOABCs). We first devise a PML formulation onspherical domains which is particularly suited for the simulation of a large class of MEMS-resonator systems. What distinguishes our original PML formulation from most existingPML formulations is that it works with standard numerical solvers such as discontinuousGalerkin methods on unstructured meshes and that it allows for a natural application ofNeumann boundary conditions on traction-free surfaces. It is also of significant impor-tance in large three-dimensional problems that our formulation has fewer number of degreesof freedom than any existing PML formulations. We demonstrate the applicability of ourspherical PML formulation to large problems via a simulation of a three-dimensional double-disk resonator in the time-domain using a discontinuous Galerkin method and an explicitfourth-order Runge-Kutta method. PMDL methods and HOABC methods are alternativesto PML methods, which in the context of the scalar wave equation surpass PML methods intheir overall behavior. Unfortunately, their mathematical properties are not as well under-stood in the context of elastodynamics and, at least in a certain setting, they are known toresult in unstable systems. Due to its involved nature, we focus in this work on the analysisof PMDLs/HOABCs for the scalar wave equation and prove several useful identities whichwill also be useful in the analysis of PMDLs/HOABCs for elastodynamics.
A Simple Precoding Scheme for Multi-User MIMO Transmission Over a Shared Channel in a TDD Cellular Network

—Multi-User Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) transmission is one of the key technologies for achieving the ambitious targets for coverage and throughput in modern cellular networks. It allows us to take advantage of the large number of transmission elements possible in the radio-heads or eNodeB and allow users to share a channel. A key challenge in the deployment of multi-user MIMO is the problem of cross-user interference due to mutual non-orthogonality within the shared channel. The transmitter must select an optimal transmit precoding so as to eliminate this cross-user interference, since the receivers cannot coordinate and jointly decode the transmission. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm for multi-user MIMO precoding over a shared channel. Our algorithm is a combination of ideas both from Dirty Paper Coding as well as the more recent Interference Alignment techniques. We demonstrate that we can achieve better performance than zero-forcing and that our algorithm is practical to implement within the framework of existing 4th and upcoming 5th generation systems, being realizable in linear time.
The Structure and Dynamics of the Proto-Planetary Nebula M1-92

We present high-resolution (1.″0) maps of 13CO J = 2-1 in the proto-planetary nebula M1-92, Minkowski's Footprint, obtained with the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM) interferometer at Plateau de Bure. We confirm the main components found in our previous works: a central disklike condensation, a bipolar double-shell structure with axial outward velocity increasing with the distance to the star, and two opposed features at the tips of the nebula where the maximal deprojected velocity is attained, ~70 km s-1. The major quality of the present data allows us to estimate the very small width of the double-shell walls, ~0. ″6 (2 × 1016 cm), and the diameter of the central disk, 2''-3'' (1017 cm). The whole structure is probably the remnant of the previous asymptotic giant branch (AGB) shell after being shocked by the bipolar post-AGB jets. The mass of the molecular envelope is about 0.9 M☉, and its kinetic momentum and energy (released by the wind interaction) are ~3 × 1039 g cm s-1 and ~7 × 1045 ergs, respectively. Since the interaction time must be significantly smaller than the age of the nebula, 900 yr, these figures imply very energetic post-AGB jets that cannot be driven by radiation pressure. We also notice that the inner disklike structure is too large for collimating the very narrow post-AGB jets. We propose that reaccretion of material, ejected during the previous AGB phase, is the most likely mechanism to explain the strongly bipolar and very energetic post-AGB ejections.