Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceptual vowel contrast reduction in Australian English /l/-final rimes

In Australian English rimes, coarticulation between coda /l/ and its preceding vowel has the potential to attenuate cues that contribute to phonological vowel contrast. Therefore, vowel-/l/ coarticulation may increase ambiguity between prelateral vowels. We used a vowel identification task to test the effect of vowel-/l/ coarticulation on vowel disambiguation in perception. Listeners categorized vowels in /hVd/ and /hVl/ contexts. Results showed reduced accuracy of vowels before coda /l/ compared to coda /d/, showing that coda /l/ increases vowel disambiguation difficulty. In particular, reduced perceptual contrast was found for the rime pairs /ʉːl-ʊl, aeɔl-ael/ and /əʉl-ɔl/ (e.g., fool-full, howl-Hal, dole-doll). A second experiment tested the effect of reduced perceptual contrast on word recognition. Listeners identified minimal pairs contrasting key vowel pairs in the /CVl/ and /CVd/ contexts. Reduced accuracy and increased response time in /l/ contexts shows that coda /l/ hinders listeners’ ability to identify vowels. The implications of reduced perceptual vowel contrast for compensation for coarticulation and sound change are discussed.
Medium-low temperature hydrothermal hydrolysis kinetic characteristics of concentrated wet microalgae biomass

To improve microalgae biomass utilization efficiency during biofuel production process, medium-low temperature hydrothermal hydrolysis pretreatment was adopted in this study. The pretreatment kinetic characteristics of concentrated wet microalgae Chlorella vulgaris biomass (50 g/L) under medium-low temperature hydrolysis (100°C-200°C) were experimentally investigated. The hydrothermal hydrolysis kinetics describing the coupled effects of temperature, initial pressure and retention time then were proposed using response surface methodology (RSM). The maximum carbohydrate yield reached 327.3 mg/g dried biomass under initial pressure of 4 MPa at reaction temperature of 150°C for 120 min. The maximum protein yield (321.5 mg/g dried biomass) was obtained under initial pressure of 4 MPa at reaction temperature of 200°C for 60 min. Based on the hydrothermal hydrolysis kinetic models, it was confirmed that temperature was the most important factor affecting both carbohydrate and protein release during hydrothermal hydrolysis process. Hydrothermal initial pressure and retention time were significant to carbohydrate release, but not to protein release. While, lipid was mainly distributed in microalgae residual and almost did not exist in supernatant (about 8.03 mg/g). And with assistance of mixed hexane and methanol (the ratio of hexane to methanol was 7:3), 67.69% of microalgae lipid was extracted out from hydrothermal hydrolysed microalgae residual (123.3 mg/g dried biomass). Keywords: hydrothermal hydrolysis, kinetic characteristics, microalgae, medium-low temperature, biofuel, response surface methodology DOI: 10.3965/j.ijabe. 20171001.2699 Citation: Ding X J, Huang Y, Liao Q, Fu Q, Xia A, Xiao C, et al. Medium-low temperature hydrothermal hydrolysis kinetic characteristics of concentrated wet microalgae biomass. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2017; 10(1): 154–162.
Sexual Dimorphism , and Populational Morphometric Variation in Podium denticulatum

Studies on nesting biology in wasp and bee species using preexisting cavities have enhanced our understanding of behavior, life cycle, trophic niche and sex ratio issues, among others, contributing to the enlightenment of the life histories, ecology and evolution of these insects (Michener, 2007; Costa & Gonçalves, 2019). Additionally, knowing the nesting biology of solitary species reveals the ecological relevance of these species and contributes to their conservation. The evolution of behaviors associated with different levels of parental investment (differences in nesting and provision) and sociality have been successfully investigated using species of the Sphecidae family as model organisms (Matthews, 1991; Melo, 2000). Abstract Podium denticulatum occurs from Mexico to southern Brazil, including northeastern Argentina. Females use pre-existing cavities to build nests, consisting of cells separated by walls of mud and resin and massively provisioned with paralyzed cockroaches. Trap-nests were disposed in three localities in the state of São Paulo, Brazil (Araras, São Carlos, Rifaina), resulting in the sampling of 201 nests from December/2003 to June/2007. The founding nests were brought to the laboratory, opened and the pupae transferred to identified vials until the emergence of the adults, when they were then weighed, sexed and stored at -20 °C. The nesting activity was highly seasonal, since almost all nests were collected in the warm and rainy period of the year. The number of constructed cells ranged from one to nine per nest. The emergence rate of adults in the 716 brood cells was 74%, with mortality homogeneously distributed by egg, larva and pupa stages. This mortality was partly due to parasitism observed in 39% of nests, predominantly by Melittobia sp. A 1:1 sex ratio was observed among the newly emerged adults of each area analyzed. Strong sexual dimorphism was characterized by linear measurements of wings and body mass, with females and males showing a mass between 27-116 mg and 14-70 mg, respectively. The geometric morphometry confirmed this dimorphism and revealed significant variation of wing size and shape among individuals of the analyzed populations, a result that deserves subsequent studies to point out the factors that account for this differentiation. Sociobiology An international journal on social insects
Changes in turn-design over interactional histories-the case of instructions in driving school lessons

This paper studies how the turn-design of a highly recurrent type of action changes over time. Based on a corpus of video-recordings of German driving lessons, we consider one type of instructions and analyze how the same instructional action is produced by the same speaker (the instructor) for the same addressee (the student) in consecutive trials of a learning task. We found that instructions become increasingly shorter, indexical and syntactically less com plex; interactional sequences become more condensed and activities designed to secure mutual understanding become rarer. This study shows how larger tem poral frameworks of interpersonal interactional histories which range beyond the interactional sequence impinge on the recipient-design of turns and the deployment of multimodal resources in situ.
The Solution of the Stationary Aeroelasticity Problem for a Separation Channel with Deformable Sinusoidal Walls

One of the most urgent problems concerning the design of inertial separation devices is the failure of the trapped liquid film from the contact surfaces due to the contact with the turbulent gas-liquid flow. For extension of the range of the effective inertial separation, a method of dynamic separation was proposed using the developed separation device with deformable sinusoidal walls. In this regard, the article is aimed at the development of the general methodology for the determination of the impact of hydrodynamic characteristics on the shape parameters for the deformed separation channel. The proposed approach is based on both physical and geometrical models. The first one allows obtaining compliance of deformable walls as a result of pressure distribution in the separation channel as a result of numerical simulation. The second one allows for obtaining variations of the main geometrical parameters of the proposed model using transfer functions. The relevancy of the proposed methodology was proved by the values of the relative errors for evaluating the variations of the amplitude and the radius of curvature.
Development and Validation of a Transfusion Risk Score for Patients Receiving Maintenance Hemodialysis

Visual Abstract Abstract Key Points Variables most predictive of transfusion were previous transfusion, hemoglobin, ferritin, and length of hospitalization at baseline. Our transfusion prediction risk score performed well. It could be further developed into a clinically useful tool. The score could allow clinicians to identify hemodialysis patients most likely to benefit from an anemia treatment to avoid transfusions. Background In patients on dialysis with anemia, avoiding red blood cell transfusions is preferable. We sought to develop and validate a novel transfusion prediction risk score for patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis. Methods This retrospective cohort study used United States Renal Data System data to create a model development cohort (patients who were point prevalent and on hemodialysis on November 1, 2012) and a validation cohort (patients who were point prevalent and on hemodialysis on August 1, 2013). We characterized comorbidity, inflammatory conditions, hospitalizations, anemia and anemia management, iron parameters, intravenous iron use, and vitamin D use during a 6-month baseline period to predict subsequent 3-month transfusion risk. We used logistic least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression. In an exploratory analysis, model results were used to calculate a score to predict 6- and 12-month hospitalization and mortality. Results Variables most predictive of transfusion were prior transfusion, hemoglobin, ferritin, and number of hospital days in the baseline period. The resulting c-statistic in the validation cohort was 0.74, indicating relatively good predictive power. The score was associated with a significantly increased risk of subsequent mortality (hazard ratios 1.0, 1.22, 1.26, 1.54, 1.71, grouped from lowest to highest score), but not with hospitalization. Conclusions We developed a transfusion prediction risk score with good performance characteristics that was associated with mortality. This score could be further developed into a clinically useful application, allowing clinicians to identify patients on hemodialysis most likely to benefit from a timely, proactive anemia treatment approach, with the goal of avoiding red blood cell transfusions and attendant risks of adverse clinical outcomes.
Comparing the Quality of Primary Care between Public and Private Providers in Urban China: A Standardized Patient Study

Previous studies have been limited by not directly comparing the quality of public and private CHCs using a standardized patient method (SP). This study aims to evaluate and compare the quality of the primary care provided by public and private CHCs using a standardized patient method in urban China. We recruited 12 standardized patients from the local community presenting fixed cases (unstable angina and asthma), including 492 interactions between physicians and standardized patients across 63 CHCs in Xi’an, China. We measured the quality of primary care on seven criteria: (1) adherence to checklists, (2) correct diagnosis, (3) correct treatment, (4) number of unnecessary exams and drugs, (5) diagnosis time, (6) expense of visit, (7) patient-centered communication. Significant quality differences were observed between public CHCs and private CHCs. Private CHC physicians performed 4.73 percentage points lower of recommended questions and exams in the checklist. Compared with private CHCs, public CHC providers were more likely to give a higher proportion of correct diagnosis and correct treatment. Private CHCs provided 1.42 fewer items of unnecessary exams and provided 0.32 more items of unnecessary drugs. Private CHC physicians received a 9.31 lower score in patient-centered communication. There is significant quality inequality in different primary care models. Public CHC physicians might provide a higher quality of service. Creating a comprehensive, flexible, and integrated health care system should be considered an effective approach towards optimizing the management of CHC models.
A hybrid model-and deep learning-based framework for functional lung image synthesis from non-contrast multi-inﬂation CT

Hyperpolarized gas MRI can visualize and quantify regional lung ventilation with exquisite detail but requires highly specialized equipment and exogenous contrast. Alternative, non-contrast techniques, including CT-based models of ventilation have shown moderate spatial correlations with hyperpolarized gas MRI. Here, we propose a hybrid framework that integrates CT-ventilation modelling and deep learning approaches. The hybrid model/DL framework generated synthetic ventilation images which accurately replicated gross ventilation defects in hyperpolarized gas MRI scans, signiﬁcantly outperforming other model-and DL-only approaches. Our results show that a synergy between conventional CT-ventilation modelling and DL can improve the performance of functional lung image synthesis.
RV-Across: An Associative Processing Simulator

Associative Processing provides high-performance and energyefﬁcient parallel computation using a Content-Addressable Memory (CAM). Emerging big data applications can be signiﬁcantly sped-up by Associative Processing, but validation and evaluation are key challenges. We present RVAcross, a RISC-V Associative Processing Simulator for testing, validation, and modeling associative operations. RV-Across eases the design of associative and near-memory processing architectures by offering interfaces to both building new operations and providing high-level experimentation. Our simulator records memory and registers states of each associative operation pass, giving the user visibility and control over the simulation. The user can employ the simulation statistics provided by RV-Across to compute performance and energy metrics. RV-Across implements common associative operations and provides a framework to allow for easy extension. We show how the simulator works by experimenting with different scenarios for associative operations with three applications that test the functionality of logic and arithmetic computations: matrix multiply, checksum, and bitcount. Our results highlight the direct relation between the data length and potential performance improvement of associative processing in comparison to regular CPU serial and parallel operation. In case of matrix multiplication, the speed-up increases linearly with matrices dimension, achieving 8X for 200x200 bytes matrices and overcoming parallel execution in an 8-core CPU.
Interactive comment on “Forcing the SURFEX/Crocus snow model with combined hourly meteorological forecasts and gridded observations in southern Norway” by

The abstract is rather vague and should present some precise figures such as the overall snow depth bias for the two experiments and the number of stations used for model evaluation. A L11-13, the authors mention the assimilation of snow depth data directly into Crocus. This topic is mentioned here but never discussed in the paper. If the authors want to keep this sentence in the abstract, they need at least to discuss more the assimilation of punctual snow depth data in distributed snowpack simulations in the discussion part. Introduction: The current introduction of the paper does not described well enough the context of the study and the scientific questions the authors are investigating. For C4 example, the authors never mention the growing use of high resolution NWP forecast to drive detailed snowpack model in mountainous terrain and the limitations associated with these systems. In particular, previous studies using AROME forecasts to drive Crocus in the French Alps and the Pyrenees (Quéno et al., 2016; Vionnet et al., 2016) are not mentioned in the introduction. Similar studies using other models have also been carried out and are not mentioned in the text. For example, the work done by Bellaire et al. (2011, 2013) and Jamieson and Horton (2015) with the Canadian GEM model to drive the detailed snowpack model SNOWPACK. The authors should mention in the introduction how their work differs from these previous studies and what is their contribution to this field of mountain snow research. P 2 L 21: what are the reasons behind the selection of the simulation domain in South Norway? Hydropower forecasting? Avalanche hazard forecasting? Section 2.1: The description of the configuration of Crocus and SURFEX should be more specific. For example, the following points should be clarified: how many layers are used in the soil models? how are determined the soil and surface properties (clay and sand fraction, vegetation type, . . . )? how large is the simulation domain in km and grid points? how are initialized the soil and snowpack properties (if any snow is present) on 1st September 2014? Did the authors perform a model spin-up? P 5 L9-10: how many stations are used to generate the gridded precipitation and temperature products in the region? In particular, are these stations covering a similar altitudinal range compared to the stations used for snow depth evaluation? P 6 L 6: on Fig. 1, it seems that the stations are not covering the area of high elevation of the simulation domain. To illustrate this, point, I recommend the author to add on Fig. 2 the histogram of the distribution of elevation in the simulation domain. P 6 L 17: are MODIS snow cover data not available for winter 2015/2016? It would be interesting to compare the evolution of simulated and observed snow cover for this winter as well to see if model results are consistent in between the two winters.
A Conditional Normalizing Flow Model of 3D Syndromic Facial Shape

Due to their complexity, diversity, and subtlety, genetic syndromes can be diﬃcult to diagnose even for experienced clinicians. Many syndromes produce characteristic facial features that can be imaged using 3D facial surface scanners and utilized by computer-assisted diagnosis systems. In this work, we present a novel, highly interpretable model of 3D syndromic facial shape based on an invertible conditional normalizing ﬂow architecture. Given its in-vertible nature, our model is the ﬁrst uniﬁed, ﬂow-based 3D facial surface model that is able to (1) infer syndrome diagnosis given a 3D face, (2) generate synthetic 3D faces from demographic speciﬁc distributions, and (3) analyze facial morphological variation between and within demographic groups using information-based statistics. The model was trained and evaluated using more than 4700 facial surface scans from patients with 47 diﬀerent genetic syndromes. Our novel ﬂow model achieves a competitive syndrome classiﬁcation accuracy of 71% on this challenging data and outperforms a standard PointNet architecture by a large margin. Furthermore, as a generative classiﬁer, our model can explain its decisions in an intuitive way by generating synthetic 3D faces as well as information-based statistics.
University of Groningen Quantitative Assessment of the Importance of Phenotypic Plasticity in Adaptation to Climate Change in Wild Bird Populations Vedder,

Predictions about the fate of species or populations under climate change scenarios typically neglect adaptive evolution and phenotypic plasticity, the two major mechanisms by which organisms can adapt to changing local conditions. As a consequence, we have little understanding of the scope for organisms to track changing environments by in situ adaptation. Here, we use a detailed individual-specific long-term population study of great tits (Parus major) breeding in Wytham Woods, Oxford, UK to parameterise a mechanistic model and thus directly estimate the rate of environmental change to which in situ adaptation is possible. Using the effect of changes in early spring temperature on temporal synchrony between birds and a critical food resource, we focus in particular on the contribution of phenotypic plasticity to population persistence. Despite using conservative estimates for evolutionary and reproductive potential, our results suggest little risk of population extinction under projected local temperature change; however, this conclusion relies heavily on the extent to which phenotypic plasticity tracks the changing environment. Extrapolating the model to a broad range of life histories in birds suggests that the importance of phenotypic plasticity for adjustment to projected rates of temperature change increases with slower life histories, owing to lower evolutionary potential. Understanding the determinants and constraints on phenotypic plasticity in natural populations is thus crucial for characterising the risks that rapidly changing environments pose for the persistence of such populations. Citation: Vedder O, Bouwhuis S, Sheldon BC (2013) Quantitative Assessment of the Importance of Phenotypic Plasticity in Adaptation to Climate Change in Wild Bird Populations. PLoS Biol 11(7): e1001605. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio. 1001605 Academic Editor: Craig Moritz, Australian National University, Australia Received September 26, 2012; Accepted May 30, 2013; Published July 9, 2013 Copyright: 2013 Vedder et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This work was supported by two ‘‘Rubicon’’ fellowships of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) to OV and SB, and recent data collection by grants from NERC (NE/D011744/1 and NE/F005725/1), ERC (AdG 250164), BBSRC, and the Royal Society to BCS. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Abbreviations: SE, standard error. * E-mail: oscarvedder@hotmail.com (OV); ben.sheldon@zoo.ox. ac.uk (BCS)
Initial Output Losses from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Robust Determinants

While the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting all countries, output losses vary considerably across countries. We provide a first analysis of robust determinants of observed initial output losses using model-averaging techniques—Weighted Average Least Squares and Bayesian Model Averaging. The results suggest that countries that experienced larger output losses are those with lower GDP per capita, more stringent containment measures, higher deaths per capita, higher tourism dependence, more liberalized financial markets, higher pre-crisis growth, lower fiscal stimulus, higher ethnic and religious fractionalization and more democratic regimes. With respect to the first factor, lower resilience of poorer countries reflects the higher economic costs of containment measures and deaths in such countries and less effective fiscal and monetary policy stimulus.