Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Classification of emotional speech through spectral pattern features

Speech Emotion Recognition (SER) is a new and challenging research area with a wide range of applications in man-machine interactions. The aim of a SER system is to recognize human emotion by analyzing the acoustics of speech sound. In this study, Spectral Pattern features (SPs) and Harmonic Energy features (HEs) for emotion recognition are proposed. These features extracted from the spectrogram of speech signal using image processing techniques. For this purpose, details in the spectrogram image are firstly highlighted using histogram equalization technique. Then, directional filters are applied to decompose the image into 6 directional components. Finally, binary masking approach is employed to extract SPs from sub-banded images. The proposed HEs are also extracted by implementing the band pass filters on the spectrogram image. The extracted features are reduced in dimensions using a filtering feature selection algorithm based on fisher discriminant ratio. The classification accuracy of the proposed SER system has been evaluated using the 10-fold cross-validation technique on the Berlin database. The average recognition rate of 88.37% and 85.04% were achieved for females and males, respectively. By considering the total number of males and females samples, the overall recognition rate of 86.91% was obtained.
Modeling rainfall infiltration through coarse and fine-grained unsaturated geomaterials

In this paper we study an imbibition test problem defined over a real two-dimensional soil domain subject to in-situ stresses and oedometric boundary conditions. Two different kinds of materials are tested, which are characterized by different pore-structures and hydro-mechanical properties. The aim is that of clarifying the behavior of real materials under real loading conditionss. The stress paths associated to rainfall infiltration processes are simulated by using the commercial code ABAQUS, endowed with an own-made sub-routine developed in order to incorporate the effects of partial saturation into the tangent stiffness.
Overexpression of the protein kinase CK2 increases the survival and resistance to chemotherapy of acute myeloid leukemia cells

Background: The critical role of protein kinase CK2 in the regulation of cellular apoptosis suggests its may be involvement in tumor cell resistance to both conventional and unconventional therapies. Aim of the study: To study the role of CK2 in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell survival and response to chemotherapeutic agents. Methods: Apoptotic pathways were evaluated by AnnexinV/Propidium Iodide staining, Western Blot analysis of Caspase3 and Parp cleavage and Real Time PCR of antiapoptotic gene expression. Results: CK2 α catalytic subunit expression level and activity were increased in AML cells as compared to normal CD34+ hematopoietic cells. CK2 inactivation with the synthetic chemical inhibitors K27, CX-4945 or RNA interference induced AML cell apoptosis of p53 wild-type but not of p53-null cells, suggesting that the apoptosis triggered by CK2 inhibition needs the presence of functional p53. Inhibition of CK2 activity with K27 or CX-4945 was associated to an increased sensitivity of the cytotoxic effects of doxorubicin and daunorubicin. Cells were also nucleofected with siRNA oligos directed against CK2 α catalytic, β regulatory or both subunits. Interestingly RNA interference of CK2 β reduced cell viability and enhanced apoptosis induced by daunorubicin, indicating a prominent role of this subunit in the resistance to chemotherapy. Based on our in-vitro results we have then examined the expression level of CK2 α and β in 32 newly diagnosed AML patients (excluding acute promyelocitic leukemia) from 2008 to 2011. Preliminary data shows a higher expression of the CK2 α subunit in the two AML subgroups with the highest risk based on cytogenetic characteristics. These laters nowadays represent the strongest prognostic factor predicting chemoresistance. Interestingly we did not find a correlation with expression of the regulatory subunit CK2 β. Conclusions: These data highlight the relevance of CK2 in AML cell survival for the influence of this kinase on the activation of anti-apoptotic pathways implicated in AML cell resistance to chemotherapy. A study to establish wether the CK2 expression at diagnosis represents an independent prognostic factor in the progression free survival and overall survival for these patients is needed.
Performance comparison of integrated z-axis frame microgyroscopes

This paper describes two different integrated surface-micromachined z-axis frame gyros fabricated side by side on a single chip for performance comparison. Frame microgyros; using an 'Inside Sense Outside Drive (ISOD)' and an 'Inside Drive Outside Sense (IDOS)' suspension designs were fabricated in the Analog Devices Modular-MEMS process using 6 /spl mu/m thick polysilicon as the structural material co-fabricated with a 0.8 /spl mu/m CMOS process. Initial characterization of these gyros suggest the ISOD frame gyro has a factor of three lower quadrature and Coriolis offset and a factor of five lower noise floor (limited by electronic noise) in comparison with the IDOS frame gyro. The surface-micromachined z-axis ISOD frame gyro exhibited a noise floor of 0.01/spl deg//s//spl radic/Hz and a scale factor of 1.5 mV//spl deg//s at 70 milli-Torr pressure.
SPECIAL AND DIFFERENTIAL TREATMENT IN MULTILATERAL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS

WTO trade negotiations stalled in recent years because of north-south trade conflicts reaching their lows during the Cancun fiasco of September 2003. The developed countries with a much longer history as "industrial economies" have always argued - often with some justification that the developing countries have long used many and varied instruments to restrict trade. The developed countries, in their turn, have maintained high protection to agriculture and textile imports to the detriment of the developing countries. One cornerstone of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) is the provision of special and differential treatment (SDT) of developing countries. The WTO framework accord reached in July 2004 reaffirms that the least-developed countries, which will have full access to all SDT provisions as stated in section 2.2 of DDA, are not required to undertake tariff reduction commitments. We believe, however, that non-reciprocity as implied in SDT must be approached with caution. Standard trade theory literature suggests that the bulk of the gains from trade come from unilateral trade liberalisation and results of our experiments support this point. We quantify the gains and losses - and their sources - by simulating a trade liberalisation scenario with and without SDT in a computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling framework. The welfare gains to most developing countries are shown to improve when SDT does not apply, and the LDC welfare gains turn out to be either small or even negative under SDT arrangements. Ironically, the already-agreed elimination of agricultural export subsidies is shown to be welfarereducing for much of the developing world. We conclude that bold improvements in market access provide greatest prospect of gains to developing countries, and need not be treated as “concessions” to these groups of countries.
Investment sensitivity and managerial decision making behaviour of Indian firms

Contemporary models of the financial theory support the proposition that the stock prices should be fundamentally a reflection of the discounted value of earnings. Accordingly the investors and analysts should base their expectations on the expected future cash flows that are logically correlated or have a carry over effect vis-ŕ-vis present stream of cash flows. This logically implies that the managers would have an incentive to manipulate investor’s expectation of future cash flows. The zeal to maximize the firm’s value based on market capitalization is expected to have a detrimental effect on the investment decisions leading to sub optimality. Given the imperfect information structure and market pressures, the Indian firms suffer from mispricing and as such the conventional robust theoretical models of agency conflicts cannot be refuted. This motivates us to examine the interrelation ship between the concerns for valuation and investment sensitivity. We use a sample statistics of selected listed firms that represent the CNX Nifty Index and test for the dependence of the investment behavior of the firm, on the sensitivity of the firms’ share prices to its current cash flow represented by surprise earings. We use the earnings response coefficient (ERC) framework proposed by Ball and Brown (1968) for 11 key industries in India. We find that the surpise in accounting earnings announcements is negatively associated with abnormal stock returns and the investment decisions taken by the firms are negatively sensitive to changes in investment opportunities.
Competitiveness and Price Convergence on the Internet: Evidence from the Online Dvd Market

We compare the pricing behavior between online branches of traditional retailers (MCR) and pure Internet retailers (Dotcom) in the DVD market. Based on a set of panel data from July 5, 2000 to June 11, 2001, we find that the average price of the MCRs is about 11.2% higher than that of the Dotcoms. Further statistical analyses on the market dynamics of price trends show that the prices of the Dotcoms went up with time much faster than the prices of the MCRs, which points to a possibility that eventually both types of retailers may charge similar prices on average. We also find that the price dispersion among the MCRs is about 74% higher than that among the Dotcoms, and that the price dispersion went down with time for the MCRs and up with time for the Dotcoms. This suggests that the two types of retailers not only will charge similar average prices in the long run, but also will have similar price dispersions. Our methodology of market price evaluation to the online retailer formats directly addresses a fundamental question whether the online markets would evolve toward a perfectly competitive market. The online DVD market seems indeed moving towards such a direction, although significant pricing differentials still exist. (Online Market; Dotcom; Multi-Channel Retailer; Pricing; Price Convergence; Competitive Market)
EFFECT OF ORGANIC POLYELECTROLYTES ON SEDIMENTATION PROPERTIES OF POST-COAGULATION SLUDGE

A study was carried out into sedimentation of sludge obtained in the process of coagulation-flocculation of pulp and paper wastewater with the use of PAC and organic polymers. An attempt was made to evaluate the effect of various organic polyelectrolytes on phase separation effectiveness. It was found that the application of cationic polymers at a dose of 1 mg dm –3 and 1.5 mg dm –3 (Z 63 and Z 92, respectively) in combination with PAC had a positive effect on the reduction in the sludge volume when compared with the sludge volume obtained in the process of coagulation with PAC without a flocculant. It was also noted that following the application of the optimum dose of either cationic or anionic polymers the sedimentation period was considerably reduced from 60 min (sample without flocculants) to even 30–35 min.
On the Electrolyte Induced Aggregation of Concentrated Silica Dispersions - An Experimental Investigation Using the Electrospray Technique

v List of Publications . vi Statement of Contribution . vii Table of
Anharmonic nuclear motion and the relative stability of hexagonal and cubic ice

We use extensive first-principles quantum mechanical calculations to show that, although the static lattice and harmonic vibrational energies are almost identical, the anharmonic vibrational energy of hexagonal ice is significantly lower than that of cubic ice. This difference in anharmonicity is crucial, stabilising hexagonal ice compared with cubic ice by at least 1.4 meV/H2O, in agreement with experimental estimates. The difference in anharmonicity arises predominantly from molecular O-H bond stretching vibrational modes and is related to the different stacking of atomic layers.
Second Law Considerations in Fourier Heat Conduction of a Lattice Chain in Relation to Intermolecular Potentials

Two aspects of conductive heat are focused here (i) the nature of conductive heat, defined as that form of energy that is transferred as a result of a temperature difference and (ii) the nature of the intermolecular potentials that induces both thermal energy flow and the temperature profile at the steady state for a 1-D lattice chain. It is found that the standard presuppositions of people like Benofy and Quay (BQ) following Joseph Fourier do not obtain for at least a certain specified regime of intermolecular potential parameters related to harmonic (quadratic) potentials for nearest neighbor interactions. For these harmonic potentials, it appears from the simulation results that steady state solutions exist utilizing non-synthetic thermostats that couple not just the two particles at the extreme ends of the lattice chain, but to a control volume of $N$ particles located at either ends of the chain that does not accord with the unique analytical solutions that obtains for single particle thermostatting at the ends of the lattice with a different thermostatting algorithm that utilizes coupling coefficients. If the method used here is considered a more "realistic" or feasible model of the physical reality, then a re-evaluation of some aspects of the standard theoretical methodology is warranted since the standard model solution profile does not accord with the simulation temperature profile determined here for this related model. We also note that the sinusoidal temperature profile generated suggests that thermal integrated circuits with several thermal P-N junctions may be constructed, opening a way to create more complex thermal transistor circuits. A stationary principle is proposed for regions that violate the Fourier principle $\mathbf{J_q. }\nabla T \le 0 $, where $\mathbf{J_q}$ is the heat current vector and $T$ the temperature.
Transport of short-lived species into the Tropical Tropopause Layer

Abstract. We use NAME, a trajectory model, to investigate the routes and timescales over which air parcels reach the tropical tropopause layer (TTL). Our aim is to assist the planning of aircraft campaigns focussed on improving knowledge of such transport. We focus on Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific which appears to be a particularly important source of air that enters the TTL. We first study the TTL above Borneo in November 2008, under neutral El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) conditions. Air parcels (trajectories) arriving in the lower TTL (below ~15 km) are most likely to have travelled from the boundary layer (BL;
Multimarker Approach by Troponin T, C-Reactive Protein, and CK-MB to Assessment in AMI in the Emergency Department

Investigation of several biochemical markers for risk stratification of patients who present with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) has been an active area of research (1). Increased concentration of one of the acute-phase proteins, C-reactive protein (CRP) appear to be predictive of higher risk for long-term cardiovascular morbidity or mortality in patients with ACS, as well as in asymptomatic patients at risk for coronary artery disease (CAD) (2). This potential predictive capacity of CRP warrants further evaluation alone and in conjunction with other established serum biochemical cardiac markers like cardiac specific troponin T (cTnT), creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) and B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) (3). cTnT is a subunit of the regulatory troponin complex in cardiac myocytes and now well recognized as a sensitive and specific
Degree of urbanisation affects Eurasian red squirrel activity patterns

Acknowledgements Wiebke Schütt and Julian Glos contributed valuable statistical advice. Lisa Warnecke’s generous assistance benefitted initial project planning and Kay Michaelis helped in the field. We are grateful for Deanna Du y at the Spatial Data Analysis Network of Charles Sturt University, who analysed vegetation cover and produced the site maps. We thank the Hamburg Cemeteries Institute of Public Law and Ohlsdorf Cemetery grounds sta for site access. Animal ethics and research conduct permissions were granted by the City of Hamburg Board of Health and Consumer Protection (permit no. 76/13) and the City of Hamburg Board of Urban Development and Environment. The project was supported by grants awarded to JMT by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Abstract
DETERMINATION OF THE ISOSTERIC HEAT TO PLANTAIN PULP (musa paradisiaca) BY SORPTION ISOTHERMS

Las isotermas de sorcion para ser usadas en la simulacion y diseno de procesos de secado y almacenamiento de alimentos deben ser representadas por modelos validos dentro de las condiciones encontradas en la practica industrial. Usando el modelo de Chungâ€“Pfost y ajustado por desorcion el calor isosterico neto y total para pulpa de platano fueron determinados. El calor neto isoterico neto decrecio con el contenido de humedad del producto variando desde 1670 kJ/kg (5%.d.b) a 215 kJ/kg (26%.d.b) donde esta variacion fue representada por el modelo potencial y polinomial.
Estimating Demand for Urban Fisheries Management: an Illustration of Conjoint Analysis as a Tool for Fisheries Managers

This paper illustrates the use of discrete-choice analysis, a nonmarket valuation technique, for assessing the effect of different management or fishing site quality variables on demand for urban fisheries. The study was carried out in three fishing ponds that are a part of the Close-to-Home Fishing Program in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. We found that, on average, anglers were willing to pay more for physical infrastructure improvements, such as flush toilets ($3.81/year) and docks ($1.28/year), than for having larger channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus stocked ($0.23/year for a 4-in increase). Willingness to pay for improvements to the ponds was less for minority anglers than for other anglers. Having relative values for potential management changes for a fishery helps to inform fisheries managers about what characteristics are valued most by anglers, allowing managers to better serve the anglers' interest and to justify the costs of implementing these changes.
Comparison of Inter-rater Reliability of Human and Computer Prosodic Annotation Using Brazil's Prosody Model

The current study examined whether the computer annotations of prodody based on Brazil’s (1997) framework were comparable with human annotations. A series of statistical tests were performed for each prosodic feature: tone unit (two accuracy scores and Pearson’s correlation), prominent syllable (accuracy, F-measure, and Cohen’s kappa), tone choice (accuracy and Fleiss' kappa), and relative pitch (accuracy, Fleiss' kappa, and Pearson’s correlation). We considered one population to be the inter-rater reliability scores between the three human coders and the other population to be the inter-rater reliability scores between the computer and the three humans. If the differences between these two populations were significant, then the computer and human annotations were considered not comparable, but if the differences were not significant, then the computer and human annotations were considered comparable. The results indicated that the computer and human annotations were comparable for tone choice and not comparable for prominent syllable. For tone unit, two of the t-tests provided evidence that they were comparable and one did not. The relative pitch t-tests showed a significant disparity between the estimates of relative pitch by the humans and the computer’s actual relative pitch calculation.
ANALYTICAL SOLUTION, FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS AND EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION OF A CANTILEVER BEAM

The purpose of this work is to show how a series of labs can be used to provide students with a process that will allow them to become efficient and effective users of commercial finite element software. The series of labs starts with the study of the beam theory and analytical solutions for deflections and stresses of a cantilever beam that can be used as “exact solutions”. Then a solution for the same problem is obtained implementing the finite element method (FEM) in a Matlab code. This ensures that students understand the basic concepts of the FEM. The next step is to use different types of elements in finite element analyses (FEA) implemented in commercial software. Advantages of simple elements must be identified by students. Convergence of results towards exact values as the number of degrees of freedom in a finite element model is increased must also be noted by students. Finally, experiments are carried out to validate the FEA results. Thus, this work presents a well-integrated "lab example" that includes Matlab programming, finite element modelling and use of commercial FEM software, as well as physical verification using test equipment and sample beams.
Developing child protection strategies:A Critical Study of Offenders’ Use of Information Technology for the Sexual Exploitation of Children

The overall aim of this thesis is to critically explore offenders’ use of information technology for the sexual exploitation of children, focusing upon child abusive material and grooming, in relation to the societal response, i.e. legal and technological regulation models. The following aspects are highlighted (i) How can offenders’ use of information technology for child abusive material and grooming be understood in relation to current regulation models? (i) What alternative models for regulation of child abusive material and grooming could be proposed? (iii) What are the implications of applying a critical approach? The motivation for conducting this research has been to contribute, with empirically based research, to the development of effective child protection strategies in relation to child abusive material and grooming. The empirical material used in this thesis consists of court and police records and interviews with offenders. The result shows that offenders’ use of information technology for child abusive material and grooming is more complex and multifaceted than current regulation models have managed to envisage. It has been recognized that the offenders are aware of the illegality in their activities and thus the risk of being observed by law enforcement and have therefore developed different technological and social strategies to be able to continue with their criminal activities. Therefore, this thesis suggests that existing regulation models such as law and the use of technology for filtering should be re-evaluated and that further dimensions such as norms and markets should be considered.
Big Data Analysis and Its Scheduling Policy - Hadoop

This paper is deals with Parallel Distributed system. Hadoop has become a central platform to store big data through its Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) as well as to run analytics on this stored big data using its MapReduce component. Map Reduce programming model have shown great value in processing huge amount of data. Map Reduce is a common framework for data-intensive distributed computing of batch jobs. Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) is a Java-based file system that provides scalable and reliable data storage that is designed to span large clusters of commodity servers. In all Hadoop implementations, the default FIFO scheduler is available where jobs are scheduled in FIFO order with support for other priority based schedulers also. During this paper, we are going to study a Hadoop framework, HDFS design and Map reduce Programming model. And also various schedulers possible with Hadoop and provided some behavior of the current scheduling schemes in Hadoop on a locally deployed cluster is described.