Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Revisiting dysarthria assessment intelligibility metrics

This study reports on the development of an automated isolated-word intelligibility metric system designed to improve the scoring consistency and reliability of the Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment Test (FDA). The proposed intelligibility measurements are based on the probabilistic likelihood scores derived from the forced alignment of the dysarthric speech to whole-word hidden Markov models (HMMs) trained on data from a variety of normal speakers. The hypothesis is that these probability scores are correlated to the decoding effort made by naive listeners when trying to comprehend dysarthric utterances. Initial results indicate that the scores returned from these composite measurements provide a more fine-grained assessment of a given dysarthric individual’s oral communicative competence when compared with traditional ‘right-or-wrong’ scoring of expert listeners’ transcriptions of dysarthric speech samples.
Central Bank Reaction Functions in Inflation and Non-Inflation Targeting Countries: Are They Informative About the Conduct of Monetary Policy?

This paper seeks, through the estimation of central bank reaction functions for 19 OECD countries in a panel setting, to examine the relationship between certain key target variables and an instrument of monetary policy, namely short-term interest rates. A rolling, reduced form, vector autoregression of interest rates, unemployment and inflation rates is employed to mimic a central bank's information set. The results of this study suggest that central banks react in a predictable manner to unemployment and inflation innovations. However, when the group of inflation targeting countries are separately considered, reaction functions are much more informative about both central bank and government motives.
Evaluation of stray load loss in induction motors, a comparison of input-output and calorimetric methods

This paper is concerned with the problems of accurately measuring stray load loss in induction motors and thereby declaring the correct machine efficiency. The standard experimental approach of input-output power measurement, using the IEEE 112 or C390 technique is well used but has limitations. The objective of this paper is to consider possible sources of error and to provide indications of how some of these errors may be mitigated. Results obtained by calorimetric methods are used to validate the standard test methods. Additional experimental work is used to highlight common sources of error. The value of the work is in improving measurement techniques. EASA and IEMT sponsor the work as part of research into the influence of electric motor repair upon machine losses.
Money Demand in an Open Transition Economy

This article offers an internationalized view of the demand for money as applied to the Czech Republic. The traditional money demand function, consisting purely of domestic variables, is extended to include certain foreign determinants that likely affect the demand for money in a small open transition economy. In this respect, both narrow and broad money are considered. Several estimation techniques, DOLS, DGLS, the Johansen method, and ARDL, are applied to increase robustness of the results acquired. The stability of the estimates obtained is tested to study changes in the estimated relations during the transition period. Finally, estimates of the possible effects of money market disequilibria on prices and output are presented. The results suggest that international variables are significant mainly in the context of broad money demand and that liquidity gaps significantly influence prices and output dynamics.
General Technical Approvals for Decentralised Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS)—The Current Situation in Germany

The use of decentralised, sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) for the treatment of stormwater runoff is becoming increasingly prevalent in Germany. Decentralised SUDS can offer a viable and attractive alternative to end of pipe treatment systems for stormwater runoff from urban areas. However, there is still some uncertainty regarding the long-term performance of SUDS, and the general legislative requirements for SUDS approval and testing. Whilst the allowable pollution levels in stormwater runoff that infiltrate into ground and/or water table are regulated across Germany by the Federal Soil Protection Law, there is presently no federal law addressing the discharge requirements for surface water runoff. The lack of clear guidance can make it difficult for planners and designers to implement these innovative and sustainable stormwater treatment systems. This study clarifies the current understanding of urban stormwater treatment requirements and new technical approval guidelines for decentralised SUDS devices in Germany. The study findings should assist researchers, designers and asset managers to better anticipate and understand the performance, effective life-spans, and the planning and maintenance requirements for decentralised SUDS systems. This should help promote even greater use of these systems in the future.
Contact trivialization of ordinary di erential equations

We find the explicit conditions under which a single ordinary differential equation (shortly ODE) of order ≥ 4 is (locally) equivalent to the trivial equation under the group of contact transformations. The computation of these conditions is based on the canonical Cartan connection associated with any ordinary differential equation of higher order.
Childhood cognitive ability and risk of late-onset Alzheimer and vascular dementia

Background: Risk factors for dementia can be divided into those that lead to pathologic insults and those that render the brain more vulnerable to such insults. Dementia prevention strategies need to be informed as to whether to prioritize reducing risk of pathology or to reduce the vulnerability of the brain to pathologic insult. Lower premorbid cognitive ability is associated with both increased vascular risk and reduced cognitive reserve, a measure of brain vulnerability. We investigated differential effects of premorbid cognitive ability on dementia subtypes to clarify which causal pathway was predominant. Methods: A total of 297 cases of late onset dementia were identified from local case registers, born in 1921, and thus may have participated in the Scottish Mental Survey of 1932 (SMS1932). A total of 183 had mental ability scores identified in the SMS1932. A total of 173 of these were matched by birth records to one set of controls (controls1) by date of birth, sex, and district of birth registration. A further set of controls (controls2) was generated additionally matched on paternal occupation. Results: Vascular dementia cases had significantly lower premorbid cognitive ability (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.41–0.94, for every 10-point increase [0.7 SD] in mental ability score vs controls2), but there was no significant difference in the premorbid cognitive ability of Alzheimer disease cases (OR 1.02, 95% CI 0.82–1.28) vs controls2. Conclusion: Lower premorbid cognitive ability is a risk factor for vascular dementia, but not Alzheimer disease. This suggests its effect acts mainly through vascular pathology rather than brain vulnerability.
Affective Learning with Online Software Tutors for Programming

We conducted a study to see if there was any difference in the affective learning of students who used software tutors to learn programming concepts. We used two software tutors – on arithmetic expression evaluation and tracing selection statements for this study. Data was collected over five semesters with the arithmetic tutor and over four semesters with the selection tutor, yielding a sample size in the thousands. The data was analysed using ANOVA, with sex (male versus female), representation (Caucasians and Asians versus other races), and discipline (Computer Science versus other disciplines) as fixed factors. We found no difference in the affective learning of any demographic group - all the groups felt in equal measure that they had learned using the software tutors. This is a positive result since affective learning complements cognitive learning. But, we did find statistically significant difference between the sexes and between the representation groups on prior-preparedness on arithmetic tutor, but not selection tutor. This may be because arithmetic tutor covered concepts that students had been exposed to in high school, but the concepts covered by selection tutor were unique to programming and unlikely to have been seen by students who had had no prior programming experience. Finally, non-Computer Science majors learned significantly more concepts than Computer Science majors on both the tutors, even though no significant difference was found between the two disciplinary groups on prior-preparedness. This may allude to difference in perceived self-efficacy of the two groups towards learning from software tutors.
Extended Abstract : Programming Wireless Sensor Networks using UML 2 Activity Diagrams

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consist of a large amount sensor notes (spots). We address the problem of how theses spots can be controlled, so that they collaborate to fulfill a common task. UML2 Activity Diagrams (UADs) enable the user to model workflows, describing activities, in a graphical, structured and hierarchical manner. The novelty of our work is that we program WSNs using UADs. Our approach not only covers workflow description, but also action allocation. We develop a framework to design activities describing the behavior of WSNs and to execute those diagrams by spots, after an automated transformation of the model file. As a result of our first experiments, testing this framework using 12 spots, we can say that UADs can be used to program in a platform-centric as well as in an application-centric way. Additionally, we are able to adapt the behavior of a spot during runtime by reloading activities. Further research is necessary to see the full spectrum of drawbacks and benefits of our attempt.
Just Not Like Us: The Interactive Impact of Dimensions of Identity and Race in Attitudes towards Immigration

Since 2009, more Mexicans have been leaving rather than coming to the USA; likewise, illegal immigration from Mexico has declined. Yet, immigration remains a hotly contested issue in the 2016 presidential election, with a seemingly marked increase in anti-immigrant policy and rhetoric, much of which is directed at immigrants from Mexico. In this paper, we seek to explain how individual ethnocultural and civic-based conceptions of what it means to be an American influence attitudes towards immigration. Past theoretical research on national identity has framed the effects of these dimensions as interactive but past empirical work has yet to demonstrate an important interaction between race and ethnocultural identity. Failure to account for these interaction effects has led to inaccurate assumptions about the levels of hostility towards immigrants and how widespread anti-immigrant sentiment really is. We demonstrate a clear interactive effect between identification as white and ethnocultural dimensions of identity and show that this effect has masked the root of the most ardent anti-immigrant sentiment. We also show that while there is a sizeable minority of the population that identifies as both white and have high levels of ethnocultural identity, a majority of Americans prefer to keep immigration levels at the status quo and have an identity that is balanced between ethnoculturalism and civic-based conceptions of identity.
DRY AND WET FAKE FUR RENDERING

This work presents a probabilistic lighting model for rendering of thin fur of mammals under environmental influence, particularly water. We have extended the technique known as Fakefur by adding a method for capturing the key characteristics of fur influenced by water. The system described in this work has a lower computational cost than typical resolvable fur methods, due not only to its probabilistic nature, but also to its GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) implementation, that provides realtime renderings of furry animals dry and wet. Palavras-chave Renderização de pêlo seco e molhado, Renderização em tempo-real, GPU.
Solubility evaluation of murine hybridoma antibodies

The successful development of antibody therapeutics depends on the molecules having properties that are suitable for manufacturing, as well as use by patients. Because high solubility is a desirable property for antibodies, screening for solubility has become an essential step during the early candidate selection process. In considering the screening process, we formed a hypothesis that hybridoma antibodies are filtered by nature to possess high solubility and tested this hypothesis using a large number of murine hybridoma-derived antibodies. Using the cross-interaction chromatography (CIC) method, we screened the solubility of 92 murine hybridoma-derived monoclonal antibodies and found that all of these molecules exhibited CIC profiles that are indicative of high solubility (>100mg/mL). Further investigations revealed that variable region N-linked glycosylation or isoelectric parameters are unlikely to contribute to the high solubility of these antibodies. These results support the general hypothesis that hybridoma monoclonal antibodies are highly soluble.
HANDOVER PROBLEM FOR INTEGRATING LTE WITH FEMTOCELL NETWORK

Femtocell handover is more exigent than normal macr ocell cellular handover because the backhaul network is different and there is also little possi bility of direct communication between the macrocel l and the femtocell. In this paper we have analysed the p revailing handover strategy, where Femtocell deploy ed in LTE Network and a new handover strategy between macrocell and femtocell for LTE-based network in hybrid access mode named RWTL-HO algorithm has also been proposed. This new strategy can avoid unnecessary handover and reduce handover failure.
Neural networks in intestinal immunoregulation

Key physiological functions of the intestine are governed by nerves and neurotransmitters. This complex control relies on two neuronal systems: an extrinsic innervation supplied by the two branches of the autonomic nervous system and an intrinsic innervation provided by the enteric nervous system. As a result of constant exposure to commensal and pathogenic microflora, the intestine developed a tightly regulated immune system. In this review, we cover the current knowledge on the interactions between the gut innervation and the intestinal immune system. The relations between extrinsic and intrinsic neuronal inputs are highlighted with regards to the intestinal immune response. Moreover, we discuss the latest findings on mechanisms underlying inflammatory neural reflexes and examine their relevance in the context of the intestinal inflammation. Finally, we discuss some of the recent data on the identification of the gut microbiota as an emerging player influencing the brain function.
Employability through covenants

How can a sustainable employment insurance system be guaranteed as a major element of the ESM? First a summary overview of the Lisbon targets and their impact on the policies of and in the member states of the European Union is given. Then follow data and problems associated with the target of enhancing employability by means of pushing continuous vocational training (CVT). Next, some Dutch experiences are sketched with covenants, and point to critical success factors. The contribution elaborates on two issues: 1. an example of employability, in particular continuous vocational training within the European Union and illustrated by some relevant, mainly, OECD-data on the subject; 2. An argument about covenants on employability as a contribution to the transformation of an unemployment into an employment insurance.
Simulations and Experiments on Cubic Film Resonator for Wireless Energy Transfer System

In this paper, a novel resonator of wireless energy transfer system based on resonant coupling (WETRC) is studied. The cubic film resonator, consisting of copper strips on outer layer, which is separated by an insulation interlayer to copper sheets on inner layer, is fabricated. The relationship between resonant frequency and several key parameters of the resonator is analyzed using finite element method (FEM). Then the experiments have been carried out. Both simulation and experiment results show that the dielectric constant of interlayer and the length of inner copper sheet have significant influence on the resonant frequency of the system.
Fast graph operations in quantum computation

The connection between certain entangled states and graphs has been heavily studied in the context of measurement-based quantum computation as a tool for understanding entanglement. Here we show that this correspondence can be harnessed in the reverse direction to yield a graph data structure, which allows for more efficient manipulation and comparison of graphs than any possible classical structure. We introduce efficient algorithms for many transformation and comparison operations on graphs represented as graph states, and prove that no classical data structure can have similar performance for the full set of operations studied.
A Service-Oriented Analysis and Design Approach Based On Data Flow Diagram

In the paper, we analyze the shortages of Service- Oriented Analysis and Design (SOAD) methodologies, and then review the features of data flow diagram as a kind of requirement analysis technology. Finally, we propose an SOAD method using DFD diagram. Therefore, a process is provided as a guideline to aid analyst to accomplish high-quality service identification with the method. Through an illustration of the SOAD, we can conclude that the method has several strong points compared to methodologies else based on business process and enterprise architecture.
Higher Order Variational Problems 2001 CNA SUMMER SCHOOL May 30–June 9, 2001

Higher order variational problems appear often in the engineering literature and in connection with the so-called gradient theories of phase transitions within elasto-plastic regimes. The study of equilibria of micromagnetic materials asks for mastery of second order energies (see [51], [91]; see also [31], [38], [44], [45], [61], [77], [78], [79], [108]), and the Blake-Zisserman model for image segmentation in computer vision (see [34], [35], [36]; see also [50]) seats squarely among second-order free discontinuity models which may be recasted as higher order Griffiths’ models for fracture mechanics (see [7], [24], [28],[58], [68], [69], [70], [71]). The energy functionals may include lower dimensional order terms to take into account interfacial energies and discontinuities of underlying fields (see [10]). Here we will neglect the role played by these terms and we will focus on the added difficulties inherent to the presence of derivatives of order two or more.
FOR A TEAM OF AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

A multi-vehicle search strategy based on the simplex algorithm is proposed. The strategy is decomposed into a hierarchical scheme with three layers. The upper layer is described by a discrete-event system. The output of this layer is a set of way-points for the vehicles and it is used by the middle layer in order to coordinate the motion of the vehicles. The lower layer drives each vehicle to a way-point. The paper compares two possible discrete coordination strategies: one minimizes the travelled distance of the vehicles and the other avoids their trajectories to cross. Minimization of vehicle intercommunication is also studied. Copyright c © 2004 IFAC
High-Quality-Factor Active Capacitors for Millimeter-Wave Applications

This paper presents single-ended and differential configurations of active capacitors that exhibit high-quality (Q) factor at millimeter-wave frequencies. Both structures provide a small tunable negative resistance that can be exploited to compensate for the loss of other components, such as inductors in millimeter-wave integrated circuits. Unlike passive capacitors, which exhibit increasing capacitance with frequency (due to the inductive parasitic), the proposed active capacitors display relatively frequency-independent values. Fabricated in 0.13-μm IBM CMOS, tunable Q values of more than 20 are obtained at 60 GHz. A 40-GHz bandpass filter is designed and fabricated using the single-ended active capacitor cells in a 0.13-μm IBM CMOS process exhibiting 0-dB insertion loss.
A model of the decision process for GIS adoption and diffusion in a government environment

The way a government organisation conducts its business can be viewed as a public management system, consisting of a `public production process' in an organisational setting. In this system, many factors interact with one another to make it operate. Accordingly, the decision for the adoption and diffusion of GIS in such a system also will be subject to the influence of these factors. Based on the experience of GIS adoption and utilisation observed in several Australian State government agencies in 1995, seven such factors are identified, namely, GIS paradigm, aligned vision of decision makers, production infrastructure, production process, product mix, organisational setting, and the external environment of the stakeholders. Their relationships are described in a model which confirms the need for alignment between GIS and these factors in a government organisation. It is hoped that the model will contribute to the theoretical understanding of the process of GIS diffusion in a government environment, and as a result, facilitate the planning and management of the process in future.
A variational approach to Ising spin glasses in finite dimensions

We introduce a hierarchical class of approximations of the random Ising spin glass in $d$ dimensions. The attention is focused on finite clusters of spins where the action of the rest of the system is properly taken into account. At the lower level (cluster of a single spin) our approximation coincides with the SK model while at the highest level it coincides with the true $d$-dimensional system. The method is variational and it uses the replica approach to spin glasses and the Parisi ansatz for the order parameter. As a result we have rigorous bounds for the quenched free energy which become more and more precise when larger and larger clusters are considered.
Large-scale image mosaicking using multimodal hyperedge constraints from multiple registration methods within the Generalized Graph SLAM framework

Underwater image mosaicking is an important tool for visual surveys, object detection, and as a means to control the underwater robot if done online. Such application areas can benefit significantly from a recent focus on robust methods for graph-based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). This paper focuses on two contributions: An approach to combine registration results from multiple methods in multimodal constraints and, up to the authors' knowledge, the first method to generate hyperedge constraints from state-of-the-art place recognition techniques. Both contributions are implemented within the Generalized Graph SLAM framework. Experimental results show that the methods generate informative constraints and that the authors' Prefilter method outperforms related methods on a large underwater image dataset processed with these methods.