Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Binaural Pitch Fusion: Binaural Pitch Averaging in Cochlear Implant Users With Broad Binaural Fusion.

OBJECTIVES Individuals who use hearing aids (HAs) or cochlear implants (CIs) can experience broad binaural pitch fusion, such that sounds differing in pitch by as much as 3 to 4 octaves are perceptually integrated across ears. Previously, it was shown in HA users that the fused pitch is a weighted average of the two monaural pitches, ranging from equal weighting to dominance by the lower pitch. The goal of this study was to systematically measure the fused pitches in adult CI users, and determine whether CI users experience similar pitch averaging effects as observed in HA users. DESIGN Twelve adult CI users (Cochlear Ltd, Sydney, Australia) participated in this study: six bimodal CI users, who wear a CI with a contralateral HA, and six bilateral CI users. Stimuli to HA ears were acoustic pure tones, and stimuli to CI ears were biphasic pulse trains delivered to individual electrodes. Fusion ranges, the ranges of frequencies/electrodes in the comparison ear that were fused with a single electrode (electrode 22, 18, 12, or 6) in the reference ear, were measured using simultaneous, dichotic presentation of reference and comparison stimuli in opposite ears, and varying the comparison stimulus. Once the fusion ranges were measured, the fused binaural pitch of a reference-pair stimulus combination was measured by finding a pitch match to monaural comparison stimuli presented to the paired stimulus ear. RESULTS Fusion pitch weighting in CI users varied depending on the pitch difference of the reference-pair stimulus combination, with equal pitch averaging occurring for stimuli closer in pitch and lower pitch dominance occurring for stimuli farther apart in pitch. The averaging region was typically 0.5 to 2.3 octaves around the reference for bimodal CI users and 0.4 to 1.5 octaves for bilateral CI users. In some cases, a bias in the averaging region was observed toward the ear with greater stimulus variability. CONCLUSIONS Fusion pitch weighting effects in CI users were similar to those observed previously in HA users. However, CI users showed greater inter-subject variability in both pitch averaging ranges and bias effects. These findings suggest that binaural pitch averaging could be a common underlying mechanism in hearing-impaired listeners.
Lipid rafts as a therapeutic target

Lipid rafts regulate the initiation of cellular metabolic and signaling pathways by organizing the pathway components in ordered microdomains on the cell surface. Cellular responses regulated by lipid rafts range from physiological to pathological, and the success of a therapeutic approach targeting “pathological” lipid rafts depends on the ability of a remedial agent to recognize them and disrupt pathological lipid rafts without affecting normal raft-dependent cellular functions. In this article, concluding the Thematic Review Series on Biology of Lipid Rafts, we review current experimental therapies targeting pathological lipid rafts, including examples of inflammarafts and clusters of apoptotic signaling molecule-enriched rafts. The corrective approaches include regulation of cholesterol and sphingolipid metabolism and membrane trafficking by using HDL and its mimetics, LXR agonists, ABCA1 overexpression, and cyclodextrins, as well as a more targeted intervention with apoA-I binding protein. Among others, we highlight the design of antagonists that target inflammatory receptors only in their activated form of homo- or heterodimers, when receptor dimerization occurs in pathological lipid rafts. Other therapies aim to promote raft-dependent physiological functions, such as augmenting caveolae-dependent tissue repair. The overview of this highly dynamic field will provide readers with a view on the emerging concept of targeting lipid rafts as a therapeutic strategy.
Racial disparities in automated speech recognition

Significance Automated speech recognition (ASR) systems are now used in a variety of applications to convert spoken language to text, from virtual assistants, to closed captioning, to hands-free computing. By analyzing a large corpus of sociolinguistic interviews with white and African American speakers, we demonstrate large racial disparities in the performance of five popular commercial ASR systems. Our results point to hurdles faced by African Americans in using increasingly widespread tools driven by speech recognition technology. More generally, our work illustrates the need to audit emerging machine-learning systems to ensure they are broadly inclusive. Automated speech recognition (ASR) systems, which use sophisticated machine-learning algorithms to convert spoken language to text, have become increasingly widespread, powering popular virtual assistants, facilitating automated closed captioning, and enabling digital dictation platforms for health care. Over the last several years, the quality of these systems has dramatically improved, due both to advances in deep learning and to the collection of large-scale datasets used to train the systems. There is concern, however, that these tools do not work equally well for all subgroups of the population. Here, we examine the ability of five state-of-the-art ASR systems—developed by Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, and Microsoft—to transcribe structured interviews conducted with 42 white speakers and 73 black speakers. In total, this corpus spans five US cities and consists of 19.8 h of audio matched on the age and gender of the speaker. We found that all five ASR systems exhibited substantial racial disparities, with an average word error rate (WER) of 0.35 for black speakers compared with 0.19 for white speakers. We trace these disparities to the underlying acoustic models used by the ASR systems as the race gap was equally large on a subset of identical phrases spoken by black and white individuals in our corpus. We conclude by proposing strategies—such as using more diverse training datasets that include African American Vernacular English—to reduce these performance differences and ensure speech recognition technology is inclusive.
Harsh parenting and youth systemic inflammation: Modulation by the autonomic nervous system.

OBJECTIVE The present study aimed to test the role of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in modulating the impact of family stress induced by harsh parenting on youths' inflammation. First, we examined the direct effect of severity of adverse parenting behaviors on two serum biomarkers of systemic inflammation (C-reactive protein and interleukin-6) among youth. Second, we tested the moderating role of ANS reactivity in response to laboratory-induced stress in the association between harsh parenting and inflammation among these youth. METHOD The sample included 101 low-income children (75.2% African American) between 9 and 12 years of age (Mage = 10.9; SDage = 1.2) who participated in a conflict task with their primary caregiver in a laboratory setting. Heart rate variability reactivity (HRV-R), skin conductance level reactivity (SCL-R), and preejection period reactivity (PEPr-R) were used to index parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system reactivity. Markers of low-grade inflammation (C-reactive protein and interleukin-6) were obtained from serum. RESULTS After adjusting for confounding variables, ANS activity moderated the associations between family stress and systemic inflammation. Specifically, elevated HRV-R buffered the effect of family stress on youths' inflammation, whereas elevated PEPr-R and SCL-R exacerbated the effect. CONCLUSION These findings show that self-regulatory capacity and threat sensitivity, as indicated by ANS function, may have an impact on the associations between family stress and systemic inflammation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Relationship between decline in cognitive resources and physical activity.

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to test whether the level of cognitive resources explains engagement in physical activity across aging and whether the age-related decline of cognitive resources precede the decline in physical activity. METHOD Data from 105,206 adults aged 50 to 90 years from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) were used in adjusted linear mixed models to examine whether the engagement in moderate physical activity and its evolution across aging were dependent on cognitive resources. Cognitive resources and physical activity were measured 5 times over a 12-year period. Delayed recall, verbal fluency, and the level of education were used as indicators of cognitive resources. The frequency of engagement in moderate physical activity was self-reported. Dynamic structural equation models (SEM) were used to assess the temporal precedence of changes in cognitive resources and physical activity. RESULTS Lower cognitive resources were associated with lower levels and steeper decreases in moderate physical activity across aging. Results further revealed a time-ordered effect with a stronger influence of cognitive resources (delayed recall and verbal fluency) on subsequent changes in moderate physical activity than the opposite. CONCLUSION These findings suggest that, after age 50, the level of engagement in moderate physical activity and its trajectory depend on the availability of cognitive resources. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Interactive Motion-Assisted Exposure Therapy for Veterans with Treatment-Resistant Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) tend to benefit less from evidence-based treatments than other PTSD populations. A novel virtual reality and motion-assisted exposure therapy, called 3MDR, provides treatment in an immersive, personalized and activating context. Objective: To study the efficacy of 3MDR for veterans with treatment-resistant PTSD. Method: In a randomized controlled trial (n = 43) 3MDR was compared to a non-specific treatment component control group. Primary outcome was clinician-rated PTSD symptoms at baseline, after 3MDR, and at the 12-week and 16-week follow-up (primary end point). Intention-to-treat analyses of covariance and mixed models were applied to study differences between groups at the end point and over the course of intervention, controlling for baseline scores. Results: The decrease in PTSD symptom severity from baseline to end point was significantly greater for 3MDR as compared to the control group, with a large effect size (F[1, 37] = 6.43, p = 0.016, d = 0.83). No significant between-group difference was detected in the course of PTSD symptoms during treatment when including all time points. The dropout rate was low (7%), and 45% of the patients in the 3MDR group improved clinically. The number needed to treat was 2.86. Conclusions: In this trial, 3MDR significantly decreased PTSD symptoms in veterans with, on average, a history of 4 unsuccessful treatments. The low dropout rate may be indicative of high engagement. However, a lack of significant differences on secondary outcomes limits conclusions that can be drawn on its efficacy and underlines the need for larger phase III trials. These data show emerging evidence for 3MDR and its potential to progress PTSD treatment for veterans (Dutch Trial Register Identifier: NL5126).
Artificial intelligence driven next-generation renal histomorphometry.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Successful integration of artificial intelligence into extant clinical workflows is contingent upon a number of factors including clinician comprehension and interpretation of computer vision. This article discusses how image analysis and machine learning have enabled comprehensive characterization of kidney morphology for development of automated diagnostic and prognostic renal pathology applications. RECENT FINDINGS The primordial digital pathology informatics work employed classical image analysis and machine learning to prognosticate renal disease. Although this classical approach demonstrated tremendous potential, subsequent advancements in hardware technology rendered artificial neural networks '(ANNs) the method of choice for machine vision in computational pathology'. Offering rapid and reproducible detection, characterization and classification of kidney morphology, ANNs have facilitated the development of diagnostic and prognostic applications. In addition, modern machine learning with ANNs has revealed novel biomarkers in kidney disease, demonstrating the potential for machine vision to elucidate novel pathologic mechanisms beyond extant clinical knowledge. SUMMARY Despite the revolutionary developments potentiated by modern machine learning, several challenges remain, including data quality control and curation, image annotation and ontology, integration of multimodal data and interpretation of machine vision or 'opening the black box'. Resolution of these challenges will not only revolutionize diagnostic pathology but also pave the way for precision medicine and integration of artificial intelligence in the process of care.
Automatic variable selection for exposure‐driven propensity score matching with unmeasured confounders

Multivariable model building for propensity score modeling approaches is challenging. A common propensity score approach is exposure‐driven propensity score matching, where the best model selection strategy is still unclear. In particular, the situation may require variable selection, while it is still unclear if variables included in the propensity score should be associated with the exposure and the outcome, with either the exposure or the outcome, with at least the exposure or with at least the outcome. Unmeasured confounders, complex correlation structures, and non‐normal covariate distributions further complicate matters. We consider the performance of different modeling strategies in a simulation design with a complex but realistic structure and effects on a binary outcome. We compare the strategies in terms of bias and variance in estimated marginal exposure effects. Considering the bias in estimated marginal exposure effects, the most reliable results for estimating the propensity score are obtained by selecting variables related to the exposure. On average this results in the least bias and does not greatly increase variances. Although our results cannot be generalized, this provides a counterexample to existing recommendations in the literature based on simple simulation settings. This highlights that recommendations obtained in simple simulation settings cannot always be generalized to more complex, but realistic settings and that more complex simulation studies are needed.
Can You Hedge Dry Bulk Stock Prices Using Forward Freight Agreements?

This thesis investigates if forward freight agreements (FFA) can be used to hedge stock price risk in the dry bulk shipping sector. We establish a cointegrated relationship between FFAs and dry bulk stock prices based on the link between freight rates and stock price returns of dry bulk companies. Using contracts in the Capesize, Panamax and Supramax segment, we evaluate hedge efficiency and minimum variance hedge ratios derived from the Ederington regression. The hedge efficiency is compared across various hedge intervals, different maturities and selected companies operating in the dry bulk shipping segment. We discover that the investigated attributes have differing implications for the hedge efficiency. From the comparison across hedge intervals, we find that hedge efficiency both increases and decreases with increasing hedging horizon. Thus, our results are rather unclear, and we cannot draw any conclusions about the implication of hedge horizon. Secondly, we show that forward contracts with a maturity of one calendar year achieve, in general, higher hedging efficiency than forward contracts with a maturity of one quarter. Furthermore, our results indicate that the hedging efficiency of stock prices is partially explained by a company’s risk profile in the physical market. Finally, we compare our findings to other studies, and find that the hedging efficiency of FFAs on stock price risk is, in general, mediocre. We believe that our findings are important for both private investors and investment funds trading in the shipping stock market. Our findings provide useful insight to risk management for equity investors in the dry bulk shipping sector.
Influence of Service Quality on Muslim Customers’ Satisfaction towards Islamic Banking: A Study on Malaysian Islamic Banks

The purpose for this study is to explore the connection between consumer loyalty and five measurements of service quality in Islamic banks of Malaysia. This examination utilizes an example of 270 clients of Islamic banks; 175 reactions have been taken from every city like Kuala-Lumpur and Zohur Baru and Penang. Organized poll procedure has been utilized to gather information. The paper's discoveries uncover that Malaysian Islamic banks clients consider Trust, responsiveness, assurance as critical variables for consumer loyalty, then again, the elements of the service quality as the substantial is not emphatically noteworthiness as a measurements of fulfilment. Constraint of this examination is test size of the respondents. For the scholarly perspective, there is an incredible hugeness too an as professionals, administrators and approach creators can be discover the examples of consumer loyalty in the terms of administration quality for Islamic banks in Malaysia. The estimation of the present examination is specific since it is a measuring investigation of consumer loyalty and service quality measurements of Islamic banks in Malaysia.
Semmes Weinstein monofilaments versus Weinstein enhanced monofilaments: Their use in the hand clinic

In re search stud ies, the most com monly used quan ti ta tive tests to as sess sen si bil ity are the twopoint dis crimi na tion, vi bra tion, and pres sure thresh old tests (1,2). How ever, in a busy hand clinic, the use of these quan ti ta tive tests de pends upon sev eral fac tors such as the avail abil ity and sim plic ity of the meas ur ing de vice as well as the time con sumed for test ing. Pres sure thresh old is usu ally meas ured us ing a set of Semmes We in stein mon ofila ments (North Coast Medi cal Inc, San Jose, CA). Af ter 50 years of so ma to sen sory re search, We in stein (3) re cently in tro duced a new modi fi ca tion of the origi nal mon ofila ment test and called it the ‘W ei nstein en hanced sen sory test’ or WEST (Con necti cut Bio in stru ments Inc, Dan bury, CT). In this pa per, the fre quency of test ing pres sure thresh old, the time con sumed for test ing, and the slip page rate us ing the origi nal Semmes We in stein mon ofila ments (SW fila ments) or the en hanced mon ofila ments (WEST fila ments) in the hand clinic are stud ied.
RECONSTRUCTING SPEECH INPUT FROM CONVOLUTIONAL NEURAL NETWORK ACTIVITY

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) applied to the auditory domain have achieved great results. However, little research has been performed to uncover the underlying mechanisms that allow auditory CNNs to reach these achievements. This exploratory research attempts to help uncover these mechanisms by using a CNN’s activation patterns generated by speech inputs to reconstruct those inputs. It is found that training a decoder to decode activity patterns to a preliminary reconstruction and consequently ﬁne-tuning that reconstruction through further backpropgation generates the best results. The reconstructions show that the network preserves a good representation of the input up to and including the fully connected units. Reinforcingly, this representation appears to be suited to speech, instead of, for example, audio in general. Furthermore, it becomes apparent that the network is insensitive to input intensity as well as to the input’s activation scale on the time-domain. Further research is required to discover more properties of CNNs applied to the auditory domain.
Ethnomedicinal review of Usnakantaka (Echinops

Maurya, et al.: Echinops echinatus Roxb. plant review 150 Pharmacognosy Reviews | July-December 2015 | Vol 9 | Issue 18 pinnatifid, 7‐12 cm long, and covered with cottony wool beneath; the lobes are triangular, simuate, and prickly, and the spines are often 2.5 cm long. Flowerheads occur in solitary white spherical balls (globose), 3-5 cm across, clustered at the ends of branches. The flowers are surrounded by strong white bristles resembling pappus hairs; the pappus is short, yellowish, and forms a short cylindrical brush above the achene. Petals of the tiny white flowers are 5 mm long. Flowering occurs between December and January.
IMPROVING CARNATION RESISTANCE TO ROOT-KNOT NEMATODE INFECTION UNDER GREENHOUSE CONDITIONS

The current research was conducted at Tissue Culture laboratory of Vegetables and Ornamental Dept., and greenhouse of Nematology Research Unit, Agricultural Zoology Dept., Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura Univ., Egypt. The effect of certain components i.e. L-glutamic acid, ascorbic acid, yeast extract and phenylalanine introduced singly at 1 g/ L added to MS medium used for the growth of the carnation seeds, obtained from France before transplanting into plastic pots filled with sterilized loamy sandy soil on Meloidogyne incognita infection was evaluated under greenhouse conditions at 22±5°C. Results indicate that among tested treatments, application of L-glutamic acid gave the highest reduction percentage in M. incognita root galls by 57.14% while ascorbic acid ranked first in respect to eggmasses with value of 65.25%. However, Yeast extract exceeded other tested components in percentage increase of the whole plant fresh and shoot dry weights of the infected carnation seedlings and uninfected plants as well with values of 99.09 and 53.33%; and 55.96 and 211.8%, respectively. Thus, it could be concluded that yeast extract or L-glutamic acid applied in MS medium considered the best treatments in improving growth of carnation plants, increasing growth and suppressing M. incognita development and reproduction under greenhouse conditions.
Seismic response of two-dimensional absorbing structures by the ray method

A method of seismic response analysis of 2D inhomogeneous structures, based on the ray method and on the application of the Debye procedure to include slight absorption, is presented. Program package RESPO, designed for such an analysis of the seismic response on the free surface of a general 2D laterally varying, geological near-surface structure assuming P, SV or SH plane-wave incidence from below, is briefly described. The package is tested on the classical model of a sedimentary basin. The study differs from previous applications of the ray method to the basin model in the following aspects. The frequencydomain approach is used. A comparison of the ray method results with the results of the discrete wavenumber method for long periods is made. More attention is paid to the analysis of the formation of the wave field. This analysis reveals two main types of wave propagation inside the basin: the dominant horizontally propagating local interference waves and less expressive vertically propagating waves in the central part of the basin. Effects of slight absorption (Futterman's causal absorption) are considered. The absorption causes a decrease in amplitudes and time delays at later times. The decrease in the amplitudes is not so expressive because of large periods and relatively short travel times of the waves investigated.