Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How Linguistic Closure and Verbal Working Memory Relate to Speech Recognition in Noise—A Review

The ability to recognize masked speech, commonly measured with a speech reception threshold (SRT) test, is associated with cognitive processing abilities. Two cognitive factors frequently assessed in speech recognition research are the capacity of working memory (WM), measured by means of a reading span (Rspan) or listening span (Lspan) test, and the ability to read masked text (linguistic closure), measured by the text reception threshold (TRT). The current article provides a review of recent hearing research that examined the relationship of TRT and WM span to SRTs in various maskers. Furthermore, modality differences in WM capacity assessed with the Rspan compared to the Lspan test were examined and related to speech recognition abilities in an experimental study with young adults with normal hearing (NH). Span scores were strongly associated with each other, but were higher in the auditory modality. The results of the reviewed studies suggest that TRT and WM span are related to each other, but differ in their relationships with SRT performance. In NH adults of middle age or older, both TRT and Rspan were associated with SRTs in speech maskers, whereas TRT better predicted speech recognition in fluctuating nonspeech maskers. The associations with SRTs in steady-state noise were inconclusive for both measures. WM span was positively related to benefit from contextual information in speech recognition, but better TRTs related to less interference from unrelated cues. Data for individuals with impaired hearing are limited, but larger WM span seems to give a general advantage in various listening situations.
Hybrid Thermostat Strategy for Enhancing Fuel Economy of Series Hybrid Intracity Bus

The recently developed power distribution strategies in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are often hard to apply, or the mathematical backgrounds are burdened by very complicated calculations. In this paper, a new control strategy, referred to as a hybrid thermostat strategy, is proposed for a series-type HEV (SHEV). The proposed strategy has its foundation in the thermostat strategy and incorporates merits from the power follower strategy such that it overcomes those strategy weaknesses and accomplishes increased efficiency with a practical concept. The development of the proposed strategy is based on AMESim and Simulink cosimulation with Simplex method optimization.
4 User Behaviors : Dangers of Closed versus Open Workload Generators

The problem We all use workload generators in our empirical studies of computer system performance. Many workload generators assume a closed system model (see Figure 1(left)), where new job arrivals are only triggered by job completions, following a think time, e.g., [2, 4, 13, 7, 6, 14, 9, 11, 5, 18, 19, 20, 21, 17, 1]. However, others assume an open model (see Figure 1(right)), where job arrivals occur independently of completions, e.g. according to a stochastic process or fixed trace, e.g., [15, 8, 10, 3, 22, 16]. Unfortunately most systems builders pay little if any attention to whether the workload generator is open or closed. This fact is often left out of the documentation, since it is not assumed to be important. We ask a question that surprisingly hasn’t been asked:
Turing Computability of the Solution Operator of the Initial Value Problem for Fifth-order Camassa-Holm Equation

The computability of the solution operator of the Cauchy problem for the Fifth-order Camassa- Holm equation is studied in this paper. Firstly, a nonlinear map KR : H s → C (R; H s (R)) is defined from the initial value φ to the solution u. Then we used the relevant knowledge of type-2 theory of effectivity, functional analysis and Sobolev space to prove that when s > (6 √ 10 − 17) / 4, the solution operator of the Cauchy problem the Fifth-order Camassa-Holm equation is computable. The conclusion enriches the theories of computability.
Ischaemic heart disease among livestock and agricultural workers

Background: Agricultural workers are exposed to organic dust containing endotoxins, mites, and moulds. Aims: To compare the occurrence of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) among male and female livestock and agricultural workers with gainfully employed men and women in Sweden. Methods: Male and female livestock and agricultural workers were identified in the Swedish National Censuses of 1970 and 1990 and were followed until the end of 1995. The IHD mortality among the livestock and agricultural workers was compared with that of gainfully employed men and women. Information of smoking habits was gathered from a previous national survey. Results: Male as well as female livestock workers had slightly higher standardised mortality ratios (SMR) regarding IHD compared with all gainfully employed men and women in Sweden. The SMR for male workers was 1.06 (95% CI 0.95 to 1.18). The SMR for female workers was 1.10 (95% CI 0.98 to 1.23). Agricultural workers had lower SMRs. Adjustments for smoking habits would further increase the SMRs by about 9% in male workers and about 5% in female workers. Conclusion: The present data suggest a slightly increased risk for IHD among both male and female livestock workers, which may be the result of organic dust exposure.
Providing K-Anonymity in location based services

The offering of anonymity in relational databases has attracted a great deal of attention in the database community during the last decade [4]. Among the different solution approaches that have been proposed to tackle this problem, K-anonymity has received increased attention and has been extensively studied in various forms. New forms of data that come into existence, like location data capturing user movement, pave the way for the offering of cutting edge services such as the prevailing Location Based Services (LBSs). Given that these services assume an in-depth knowledge of the mobile users' whereabouts it is certain that the assumed knowledge may breach the privacy of the users. Thus, concrete approaches are necessary to preserve the anonymity of the mobile users when requesting LBSs. In this work, we survey recent advancements for the offering of K-anonymity in LBSs. Most of the approaches that have been proposed heavily depend on a trusted server component -- that acts as an intermediate between the end user and the service provider - to preserve the anonymity of the former entity. Existing approaches are partitioned in three categories: (a) historical K-anonymity, (b) location K-anonymity, and (c) trajectory K-anonymity. In each of these categories we present some of the most prevalentmethodologies that have been proposed and highlight their operation.
Oplossingsmethoden voor aftrekken tot 100

ie. Daarmee doen ze wat Freudenthal (1984b) 37 van psychologen vroeg. Ze proberen namelijk de conceptualisering bij leren rekenen te beschrijven als een continu proces waarbij de leerling telkens een nieuwe conceptie van ‘getal’ (concept) uit een nieuwe uitgevonden manier van opereren (procedure) abstraheert. Ze duiden dit proces aan met het begrip ‘encapsulation on successively higher levels’. Deze conceptie van de cognitieve ontwikkeling bij leren rekenen past goed bij Freudenthal’s (1987, 7) beeld van een ordeloze materie op het ene niveau, die op het volgende wordt georganiseerd. Het schema van afbeelding 3.1 maakt dit aannemelijk. Het is een sterk gecomprimeerde weergave van dit proces in de periode van het aanvankelijk rekenen tot jaargroep vier. Gray en Tall visualiseren de ‘compression’ van [resultatief tellen] tot [aantal], van [doortellen] tot [som] en van [herhaald optellen] tot [product]. Qua concept overstijgt het begrip van getallen als ‘som’ hun conceptie als ‘aantal’, precies zoals ‘doortellen’ als patroon van handeling (procedure) het ‘resultatief tellen’ overstijgt. En zo gaat het maar door. ‘Product’ overstijgt ‘som’, zoals ‘herhaald optellen’ een handeling van een hogere orde is dan gewoon ‘optellen’. In die zin zou een systematische uitwerking van het idee van Gray en Tall het beeld kunnen opleveren van de cognitieve structuur van het wisselspel van vorm tot inhoud en andersom, dat de leraar met de leerling bij leren rekenen uitvoert. Afbeelding 3.1 – Higher-order encapsulations (Uit: Gray & Tall, 1994) 37 Zie ook het artikel waarin Freudenthal (1987) het theoretisch raamwerk van Treffers becommentarieert. Reflecterend over mathematiseren, spreekt hij de volgende gedachte uit die goedkeurend anticipeert op wat Gray en Tall proberen te doen: ‘Ergens sprak ik van een ordeloze materie op het ene niveau, die op het volgende wordt georganiseerd. Deze structurering zou wel al op spontane leerprocessen van toepassing kunnen zijn en wat betreft, zou het een zaak van psychologen zijn zich van dit model van cognitieve ontwikkeling te bedienen en het te beproeven’ (p. 7; cursief van JMK).
In Search of a Rationale for Differentiated Environmental Taxes

Environmental tax schemes in OECD countries often involve tax rates differentiated across industrial, commercial and household sectors. In this paper, we investigate four potentially important arguments for these deviations from uniform taxation: pre-existing tax distortions, domestic equity concerns, global environmental effectiveness, and strategic trade policy. Our primary objective is to ascertain whether the degree of tax differentiation observed in many countries can be rationalized on economic grounds. In simulations with a computable general equilibrium model, we calculate optimal policies under various settings. Our simulation results lead us to conclude that there is little economic rationale for the common policy practice of discriminating strongly in favor of heavy industries, even when accounting for interacting taxes, distributional concerns, leakage, and international market power.
The Influence of Tungsten (W) on Properties in High Nitrogen Stainless Steels

Superaustenitic stainless steels with about 6% molybdenum (Mo) have now been used successfully for over twenty years because of their high corrosion resistance. Requirements for even better performance have resulted in more highly alloyed superaustenitic steels, also with high nitrogen (N) levels. Substituting W for Mo in stainless steels has been claimed to have both negative and positive effects. To investigate these effects, especially on corrosion resistance in high Mo superaustenitic stainless steels, a series of eight experimental steels was produced. The heats were designed to investigate the effects of substitution of W for Mo in a base alloy containing 24% chromium (Cr), 22% nickel (Ni) and 0.5% nitrogen (N). To achieve this Mo and W were varied between 5 to 7% and 0 to 5% respectively. The microstructures and resistance to localised corrosion were investigated for solution annealed and sensitised samples. Addition of W improved the resistance towards localised corrosion in a similar way as Mo. However, the structural stability was decreased on replacing Mo by W. This negative effect was observed in the whole temperature range studied and had also a negative influence on the crevice corrosion resistance.
X Hybrid Financial Analysis Model for Predicting Bankruptcy

The incidence of important bankruptcy cases has led to a growing interest in developing bankruptcy prediction models. Bankruptcy is a defective process and incurs costs on different stakeholders. By this time, several methods have been developed for predicting bankruptcy, including statistical and artificial intelligence techniques. Hybrid models have proven be a promising approach for classification system for predicting bankruptcy. This paper proposes a hybrid financial analysis model including static and trend analysis models to construct and train a back-propagation neural network (BPN) model.BPN model was applied to classify bankrupt and non-bankrupt Iranian firms listed in Tehran stock exchange (TSE) which provides a high predication rate. Sensitivity analysis determines that leverage financial ratio play important role in predicting bankruptcy.
Multimedia Privacy Protection System for Mobil Environments

In recent years, mobile phones have become very popular due to technology advances. However, unprotected personal photos and videos can easily be leaked when the phone falls into the hands of a malicious user. In this paper, we propose a multimedia privacy-preserving system for mobile phones. The system can protect information of the faces on the images or encrypt the whole image. Since most of the mobile phones are equipped with low computational power, low complexity and high accuracy are the two chief considerations for our system. Experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed method.
A model-based trajectory planning approach for flexible-link mechanisms

In this paper the problem of trajectory planning for flexible-links mechanisms is dealt with. The method proposed here is suitable for the determination of model-based optimal point-to-point trajectories with bounds on kinematic and dynamic characteristics of the mechanism. An open-loop optimal control strategy is applied to an accurate dynamic model of flexible multi-body planar mechanisms. The model, which has already benn fully validated through experimental tests, is based on finite element discretization and accounts for the main geometric and inertial nonlinearities of the linkage. Exploiting an indirect or variational solution method, the necessary optimality conditions deriving from the Pontryagin's minimum principle are imposed, and lead to a differential Two-Point Boundary Value Problem (TPBVP); numerical solution of the latter is accomplished by means of collocation techniques. Considering a lightweight RR robot, simulation results are provided for rest-to-rest trajectories with bounded speed and bounded elastic deformation. However, the strategy under investigation has general validity and can be applied to other types of machanisms, as well as with different objective functions and boundary conditions.
Information Mediation and Hop: Do Not Wipe away Footprints

In this paper, we investigate the effect of listing mediation history in the context of social network service, which has been recognized as a crucial platform for word-of-mouth diffusion. We focus on how people continuously mediate a message which is previously created. Information mediation refers to active participation of relaying an inbound message to outbound subscription nodes with sending feedback signal to the original author. The behavior has contributed a lot distributing messages efficiently and effectively in SNS; whereas, our knowledge on the impact of explicit representation of mediation is limited. Moreover, listing the background information about a mediation trail may hamper readability and reduce attention to core information. Therefore, we tried to understand its impact on variation of probability by adopting duration models. Twitter was selected as a domain of interest since the site had been known for its impact of information diffusion. By investigating out-stream messages generated from hub users, we found that explicit representation of mediation history increases possibility of continuous information mediation in multi-hop context. The finding indicates that word-of-mouth diffusion in SNS can be enhanced by explicitly imparting information about a mediation trail. Our study contributes understanding the effect of using an environmental cue for persuading users to participate in information diffusion.
Multiple dynamic models for tracking the left ventricle of the heart from ultrasound data using particle filters and deep learning architectures

The problem of automatic tracking and segmentation of the left ventricle (LV) of the heart from ultrasound images can be formulated with an algorithm that computes the expected segmentation value in the current time step given all previous and current observations using a filtering distribution. This filtering distribution depends on the observation and transition models, and since it is hard to compute the expected value using the whole parameter space of segmentations, one has to resort to Monte Carlo sampling techniques to compute the expected segmentation parameters. Generally, it is straightforward to compute probability values using the filtering distribution, but it is hard to sample from it, which indicates the need to use a proposal distribution to provide an easier sampling method. In order to be useful, this proposal distribution must be carefully designed to represent a reasonable approximation for the filtering distribution. In this paper, we introduce a new LV tracking and segmentation algorithm based on the method described above, where our contributions are focused on a new transition and observation models, and a new proposal distribution. Our tracking and segmentation algorithm achieves better overall results on a previously tested dataset used as a benchmark by the current state-of-the-art tracking algorithms of the left ventricle of the heart from ultrasound images.
Morphosyntactic Generation of Turkish from Predicate-Argument Structure

In Turkish, which is an agglutinative language, it is difficult to divide morphology and syntax, therefore it is reasonable to treat them in the same way. In this paper, we present morphosyntactic generation of Turkish surface forms from a structured meaning representation, predicate-argument structure (PAS). The algorithm uses a categorial framework which integrates inflectional morphology, syntax, and semantics, and in which the basic building blocks are morphemes. The model is based on Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG).
Inequities in postnatal care in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Objective To assess the socioeconomic, geographical and demographic inequities in the use of postnatal health-care services in low- and middle-income countries. Methods We searched Medline, Embase and Cochrane Central databases and grey literature for experimental, quasi-experimental and observational studies that had been conducted in low- and middle-income countries. We summarized the relevant studies qualitatively and performed meta-analyses of the use of postnatal care services according to selected indicators of socioeconomic status and residence in an urban or rural setting. Findings A total of 36 studies were included in the narrative synthesis and 10 of them were used for the meta-analyses. Compared with women in the lowest quintile of socioeconomic status, the pooled odds ratios for use of postnatal care by women in the second, third, fourth and fifth quintiles were: 1.14 (95% confidence interval, CI : 0.96–1.34), 1.32 (95% CI: 1.12–1.55), 1.60 (95% CI: 1.30–1.98) and 2.27 (95% CI: 1.75–2.93) respectively. Compared to women living in rural settings, the pooled odds ratio for the use of postnatal care by women living in urban settings was 1.36 (95% CI: 1.01–1.81). A qualitative assessment of the relevant published data also indicated that use of postnatal care services increased with increasing level of education. Conclusion In low- and middle-income countries, use of postnatal care services remains highly inequitable and varies markedly with socioeconomic status and between urban and rural residents.
A Wheel Graph Structured Associative Memory for Single-Cycle Pattern Recognition within P2P Networks

A novel and efficient associative-memory-based pattern recognition scheme within P2P networks is proposed and implemented. The proposed scheme, known as the multi-wheel Graph Neuron, is adapted from Graph Neuron-based algorithms which are single-cycle, light-weight, and scalable associative-memory-based pattern recognition algorithms for wireless sensor networks, and has been implemented over a structured P2P Chord overlay network. The proposed approach promotes collaboration among peers during the detection process within the P2P networks. Since the scheme only required single cycle learning, the communication cost amongst peers is minimized. The preliminary results show that the proposed single-cycle recognition scheme guarantees high detection accuracy.
The Effect of Heat Treatment on the Room Temperature and Elevated Temperature Fracture Toughness Response of Alloy 718

The effect of heat treatment on the JIC fracture toughness behavior of Alloy 718 was characterized at room temperature, 427°C and 538°C. Two different heat treatments were used: the conventional (ASTM A637) treatment, and a modified heat treatment designed to improve the toughness of Alloy 718 base metal and weldments. The elastic-plastic JIC fracture toughness response of the modified Alloy 718 was found to be superior to the JIC behavior exhibited by the conventional material over the entire test temperature range. Metallographic and fractographic examinations of Alloy 718 fracture surfaces revealed that the inferior fracture resistance of the conventional superalloy was attributed to the presence of coarse δ precipitates throughout the conventional matrix. The increased fracture toughness response of the modified Alloy 718 was related to the dissolution of coarse δ precipitates during the high temperature solution anneal employed in the modified treatment.
Informal Care for Stroke Survivors: Results From the North East Melbourne Stroke Incidence Study (NEMESIS)

Background and Purpose— Informal caregivers play an important role in the lives of stroke patients, but the cost of providing this care has not been estimated. The purpose of this study was to determine the nature and amount of informal care provided to stroke patients and to estimate the economic cost of that care. Methods— The primary caregivers of stroke patients registered in the North East Melbourne Stroke Incidence Study (NEMESIS) were interviewed at 3, 6, and 12 months after stroke, and the nature and amount of informal care provided were documented. The opportunity and replacement costs of informal care for all first-ever-in-a-lifetime strokes (excluding subarachnoid hemorrhages) that occurred in 1997 in Australia were estimated. Results— Among 3-month stroke survivors, 74% required assistance with activities of daily living and received informal care from family or friends. Two thirds of primary caregivers were women, and most primary caregivers (>90%) provided care during family or leisure time. Total first-year caregiver time costs for all first-ever-in-a-lifetime strokes were estimated to be A$21.7 million (opportunity cost approach) or A$42.5 million (replacement cost approach), and the present values of lifetime caregiver time costs were estimated to be A$171.4 million (opportunity cost approach) or A$331.8 million (replacement cost approach). Conclusions— Informal care for stroke survivors represents a significant hidden cost to Australian society. Because our community is rapidly aging, this informal care burden may increase significantly in the future.
Semantic query formulation and evaluation for XML databases

A semantic query attempts to help a user obtain or manipulate data in a database without knowing its detailed syntactic structure. Formulation and evaluation of semantic queries require schematic and other constraint information as well as general domain knowledge. A new approach to the formulation and evaluation of semantic queries for XML databases is proposed. It employs XML Declarative Description (XDD) - XML based knowledge representation - to model the databases together with the schemata of their XML elements and to represent domain knowledge resulting in a uniform representation of all the required information. Equivalent transformation (ET) - a new computation paradigm which transforms a representation into another while preserving their meanings - is used to optimize and evaluate the queries.