Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A global perspective on Chinese intonation

An analysis procedure of Chinese intonation is tentatively proposed from a global perspective. This procedure starts from an observation of the interaction among three prosodic parameters and the hierarchical systems of production by looking at three continuums of utterances, followed by developing a system of acoustic and perceptual based features which can be further applied to the analysis of various types of intonation. This procedure is demonstrated by investigating into the five-syllable utterances produced by a male speaker. This pilot study suggests that the hierarchies of both duration and intensity might go up in a non-linear way in a speaker’s mind, while the degree of pitch measured in semitone increases in a linear way. The selection and combination of global features indicate the restriction coming from both extrinsic (the communicative principle of explicitness) and intrinsic factors (the constraint of physical realization).
Recognizing teleoperated manipulations

The many degrees-of-freedom and distributed sensing capability of dextrous robot hands permit the use of control programs that rely on qualitative changes in sensor feedback. One way of designing such a control program is to have the robot learn the qualitative control characteristics from examples. These examples may be provided via teleoperation. Results are presented for recognizing and segmenting manipulation primitives from a teleoperated task by analysis of features in sensor feedback. k-nearest quantized pattern vectors determine potential classifications. A hidden Markov model provides task context for the final segmentation. The illustrative task is picking up a plastic egg with a spatula. <<ETX>>
A study of the relationship between ad hoc retrieval and expert finding in enterprise environment

Ad hoc retrieval returns a ranked list of documents in response to a search query, while expert finding returns a ranked list of people in response to an expertise request in the form of a search query, e.g., "information retrieval". In current state of the art expert finding approaches, ad hoc retrieval is a key component for locating documents relevant to the expertise request. While ad hoc retrieval has been well researched in information retrieval, no previous work has been carried out on the effects of document retrieval in expert finding. The main contribution of this paper is that we are the first to study the effect of document retrieval in expert finding via a background smoothing parameter in a language modeling approach and two document features, namely, anchor text and indegree. Our research gives insight into how to design an effective approach for both ad hoc retrieval and expert finding in enterprise environment. Our experiments on the TREC (Text REtrieval Conference) 2007 Enterprise Track CSIRO (Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization) dataset shows that background smoothing helps improve ad hoc retrieval but does not help or even hurt expert finding, anchor text helps expert finding but hurt ad hoc retrieval when weighted high, and indegree helps expert finding but does not help improve ad hoc retrieval significantly.
Product code error protection of packetized multimedia bitstreams

Sherwood and Zeger (1997) proposed a source-channel coding system where the source code is an embedded bitstream and the channel code is a product code such that each row code is a concatenation of a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and rate-compatible punctured convolutional codes (RCPC) and the column codes are Reed-Solomon (RS) codes. We improve this system for wireless applications by efficiently reorganizing the source code into a set of independently decodable packets, which makes it more robust in varying channels. We also give a linear-time algorithm for finding an optimal equal error protection for the resulting system. Experimental results show that the performance of our system significantly outperforms that of the current state-of-the-art in fading channels with varying statistics.
The Effects of Competition on Variation in the Quality and Cost of Medical Care

We estimate the effects of hospital competition on the level of and the variation in quality of care and hospital expenditures for elderly Medicare beneficiaries with heart attack. We compare competition's effects on more-severely ill patients, whom we assume value quality more highly, to the effects on less-severely ill, low-valuation patients. We find that low-valuation patients in less-competitive markets receive more intensive treatment than in more-competitive markets, but have statistically similar health outcomes. In contrast, high-valuation patients in less-competitive markets receive less intensive treatment than in more-competitive markets, and have significantly worse health outcomes. Since this competition-induced increase in variation in expenditures is, on net, expenditure-decreasing and outcome-beneficial, we conclude that it is welfare-enhancing. These findings are inconsistent with conventional models of vertical differentiation, although they can be accommodated by more recent models.
A Power Management Strategy for Minimization of Energy Storage Reservoirs in Wireless Systems With Energy Harvesting

Wireless transmission systems fed by ambient harvested energy power sources can operate continuously, without needing battery replacement. Such systems are ideal for applications with limited or difficult accessibility. Ambient energy sources exhibit a stochastic nature, so an energy storage device must store the harvested energy. In this work, a control method that minimizes the use of storage is developed. The strategy is to match data transmission rate as close as possible to the availability of harvested power, so the energy storage capacity can be reduced. An audio recording sensor is designed and simulated using SPICE to validate the proposed controller. For this system, the size of storage device is reduced by a factor of 24.
Predicting students' marks from Moodle logs using neural network models

A slide member includes a surface layer having a slide surface for a mating member. The surface layer has a plurality of pyramid-shaped projections protruding from a phantom plane thereby defining the slide surface along the phantom plane. The percent area A of the pyramid-shaped projections occupied in the slide surface is in a range of A>/=50%. The inclination angle theta of the pyramid-shaped projection formed by a line passing through its apex and the central portion of its base surface with respect to a reference line perpendicular to the phantom plane is in a range of 0 DEG </= theta </=30 DEG .
Speechacts: A Testbed For Continuous Speech Applications

The SpeechActs system is a testbed for building computer applications utilizing continuous speech input and speech synthesis output. It supports a variety of speech recognition (SR) systems and text-to-speech (TTS) generators; our main goal is to produce a generalized interface scheme allowing new research systems to be substituted easily. The essential components of the system, in addition to the externally-developed SR and TTS modules, are our natural language interpreter SWIFTUS, our Uniied Grammar (UG) compiler, and the discourse manager. SWIFTUS provides the tools necessary to easily develop natural language interfaces between SR systems and end applications that exhibit a suitable granularity of analysis. The Uniied Grammar compiler creates grammars supporting a variety of SR systems and NLP modules from one, module-independent formalism. The discourse manager is currently an underdeveloped prototype that coordinates user interactions between a co-existing suite of diier-ent speech applications. To date, several prototypes have been developed for a variety of end applications using several diierent SR and TTS systems.
Meet Me on the Other Side: Trans-Bilayer Modulation of a Model Voltage-Gated Ion Channel Activity by Membrane Electrostatics Asymmetry

While it is accepted that biomembrane asymmetry is generated by proteins and phospholipids distribution, little is known about how electric changes manifested in a monolayer influence functional properties of proteins localized on the opposite leaflet. Herein we used single-molecule electrophysiology and investigated how asymmetric changes in the electrostatics of an artificial lipid membrane monolayer, generated oppositely from where alamethicin - a model voltage-gated ion channel - was added, altered peptide activity. We found that phlorizin, a membrane dipole potential lowering amphiphile, augmented alamethicin activity and transport features, whereas the opposite occurred with RH-421, which enhances the monolayer dipole potential. Further, the monolayer surface potential was decreased via adsorption of sodium dodecyl sulfate, and demonstrated that vectorial modification of it also affected the alamethicin activity in a predictive manner. A new paradigm is suggested according to which asymmetric changes in the monolayer dipole and surface potential extend their effects spatially by altering the intramembrane potential, whose gradient is sensed by distantly located peptides.
Outbreak of measles in the Republic of Korea, 2007: importance of nosocomial transmission.

BACKGROUND From 2002 through 2006, Republic of Korea conducted extensive measles elimination activities and declared elimination in 2006. An outbreak of measles involving 180 confirmed cases occurred during 2007. METHODS An outbreak investigation was performed and enhanced surveillance was implemented. Detailed case investigations and laboratory testing included serologic and molecular diagnostic methods. Cases were classified according to World Health Organization and national guidelines. RESULTS During 2007, 451 suspected cases were reported and 180 (40%) cases were confirmed as measles during epidemiologic weeks 14-42. Incidence during the outbreak was 3.7 cases per million persons, excluding imported cases. Most confirmed cases were reported from Seoul; 137 (76%) cases were among children <24 months old, 124 (69%) case patients had no history of measles vaccination, and 81 (45%) case patients resulted from nosocomial transmission in 6 hospitals. Community members, patients, and health care workers all contributed to measles virus transmission. Limited outbreak control measures were implemented; high population immunity likely accounted for the self-limited transmission during this outbreak. CONCLUSIONS Limited outbreaks of measles, in which nosocomial transmission can play an important role, may occur after countries have declared elimination. Timely and opportunistic vaccination may help prevent such outbreaks; high-quality surveillance is critical for their detection.
Une plate-forme pour les échanges P2P sur les réseaux mobiles ad hoc

Les reseaux mobiles ad hoc (MANET) permettent une nouvelle forme de communication spontanee et d'acces a l'information pour les utilisateurs d'equipements mobiles. Parallelement, les reseaux paira- pair (P2P pour « peer-to-peer ») se sont developpes ces dernieres annees au dessus des reseaux fixes classiques. A l'origine, principalement utilise pour l'echange de fichiers (Gnutella), le modele P2P est de plus en plus adopte et decline pour d'autres types d'applications grand public (Skype). Notre objectif est de croiser ces deux technologies afin d'offrir aux utilisateurs un choix de nouvelles applications. Nous proposons de developper une plate-forme pour les applications pair-a-pair dans un environnement de reseau mobile ad hoc. Les principaux objectifs de la plate-forme sont d'une part de fournir une abstraction de la complexite des reseaux mobiles ad hoc aux applications s'executant sur les equipements mobiles et, d'autre part, d'offrir un ensemble de services communs aux applications P2P. Pour cela, la plate-forme doit gerer de maniere transparente certaines specificites propres aux reseaux mobiles ad hoc qui ne doivent pas necessairement etre vues par les applications. Cet article presente, tout d'abord, les motivations de notre travail au travers, en particulier, des nouveaux services P2P qui pourraient etre offerts dans un MANET. Il propose ensuite une premiere analyse des fonctionnalites que doit offrir la plate-forme cible. Cette analyse inclut un etat de l'art des plates-formes deja proposees et de leurs limites.
Desafios e Estratégias Orientadoras para o Uso de Learning Analytics em MOOCs

As ferramentas de Learning Analytics (LA) tornaram-se fundamentais para os ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem. Devido as suas potencialidades para coleta e análise de grande quantidade de dados, diversos pesquisadores têm empregado o uso de LA em contextos de Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) para alcançar diferentes propósitos educacionais e medir diferentes elementos da aprendizagem. Embora as técnicas de LA apresentem várias contribuições para o campo de análise de aprendizagem on-line, diversos desafios permeiam o uso de LA em MOOCs. Nesse contexto, essa pesquisa apresenta alguns desafios, bem como algumas estratégias orientadoras direcionadas ao uso de LA em MOOCs.
Joint Optimization of the Frequency-Domain and Time-Domain Transformations in Deriving Generalized Static and Dynamic MFCCs

Traditionally, static mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) are derived by discrete cosine transformation (DCT), and dynamic MFCCs are derived by linear regression. Their derivation may be generalized as a frequency-domain transformation of the log filter-bank energies (FBEs) followed by a time-domain transformation. In the past, these two transformations are usually estimated or optimized separately. In this letter, we consider sequences of log FBEs as a set of spectrogram images and investigate an image compression technique to jointly optimize the two transformations so that the reconstruction error of the spectrogram images is minimized; there is an efficient algorithm that solves the optimization problem. The framework allows extension to other optimization costs as well
Patient perspectives on multiple medications versus combined pills: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND A growing number of patients are taking multiple medications. Unfortunately, adherence may fall as drug numbers and procedural complexity increase. While there are plausible theoretical reasons why combining pills might improve non-adherence, patients' attitudes are unknown. AIM To explore attitudes and practices to medication regimens among patients already in receipt of multiple medications, and to assess whether a combined tablet would be perceived as advantageous. DESIGN Qualitative study. METHODS Ninety-two men and women aged >40 years currently receiving both antihypertensive and cholesterol-lowering medications took part in 14 focus groups. RESULTS Drugs were seen as unwelcome but necessary. Some took drugs flexibly by changing dose timing, thereby increasing the complexity of their regimen. A routine was seen as the key to coping with multiple medications, although it was sometimes threatened by changes in prescriptions and life circumstances. While some participants welcomed a combined pill, there was uncertainty about whether a combination that mirrored their current doses would be available. There were also concerns about tablet size, allergies, the attribution of side-effects, timing of tablets throughout the day, and the ability to alter dose levels. CONCLUSION While some patients would be willing to try a combined pill and would appreciate the associated convenience, they are likely to have a number of concerns that prescribers should address. Willingness to move to combined therapy may be hindered if drug combinations that mirror personalized and trusted regimens are not available.
Strategic Investment Under Uncertainty: Merging Real Options with Game Theory

As becomes apparent from the standard text books in industrial organization (cf. Tirole, 1988, The Theory of Industrial Organization), the analysis of the effects of uncertainty within this field is yet underdeveloped. This paper shows that the new theory of strategic real options can be used to fill this empty hole. Based on the work by Smets (1991) standard models are identified, and they are analyzed by applying a method involving symmetric mixed strategies. As an illustration, extensions regarding asymmetry, technology adoption and decreasing uncertainty over time are reviewed. Among others, it is found that the value of a high cost firm can increase in its own cost. Furthermore, it is established to what extent investments are delayed when technologial progress is anticipated, and it is found that competition can be bad for welfare.
On the applications of multiplicity automata in learning

The learnability of multiplicity automata has attracted a lot of attention, mainly because of its implications on the learnability of several classes of DNF formulae. The authors further study the learnability of multiplicity automata. The starting point is a known theorem from automata theory relating the number of states in a minimal multiplicity automaton for a function f to the rank of a certain matrix F. With this theorem in hand they obtain the following results: a new simple algorithm for learning multiplicity automata with a better query complexity. As a result, they improve the complexity for all classes that use the algorithms of Bergadano and Varricchio (1994) and Ohnishi et al. (1994) and also obtain the best query complexity for several classes known to be learnable by other methods such as decision trees and polynomials over GF(2). They prove the learnability of some new classes that were not known to be learnable before. Most notably, the class of polynomials over finite fields, the class of bounded-degree polynomials over infinite fields, the class of XOR of terms, and a certain class of decision trees. While multiplicity automata were shown to be useful to prove the learnability of some subclasses of DNF formulae and various other classes, they study the limitations of this method. They prove that this method cannot be used to resolve the learnability of some other open problems such as the learnability of general DNF formulae or even K-term DNF for k=/spl omega/ (log n) or satisfy-s DNF formulae for s=/spl omega/(1). These results are proven by exhibiting functions in the above classes that require multiplicity automata with superpolynomial number of states.
COMMITMENT, FEAR TO BE EVALUATED AND DROP OUT IN YOUNG FOOTBALLERS ACCORDING TO THE SPORT CATEGORY

The sport can enhance psychological variables in young people, such as commitment or fun, and maybe differently in each sport category. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are significant differences between competitiveness, social anxiety, engagement, fun and motivational orientation (to the ego and to the task) to the sports category U11(under-11 years old), U14(under-14 years old) and U16(under-16 years old). Total sample of this study, with a quantitative methodology, and a design descriptive and correlational, was N = 205 subjects (90 U11, 34 U14 and 81 U16). Instruments about Competitiveness Scale-10 (C-10), Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SASC-R), Perception of Success Questionnaire (POSQ), SCQ-e (The Sport Commitment Model Questionnaire) and Fun Questionnaire Subjects Sports Practice (CDPD) were applicated. The main results highlight that fear of negative evaluation scale is higher in U11, U14 and U16 in first year compared in later years; and opportunities for involvement and enjoyment increase from the first year to the subsequent years in each category, reflecting the importance of learning about experience and continuity in sport practice. Article visualizations:
ATLAS Versus NextGen Model Atmospheres: A Combined Analysis of Synthetic Spectral Energy Distributions

We carried out a critical appraisal of the two theoretical models, Kurucz' ATLAS9 and PHOENIX/NextGen, for stellar atmosphere synthesis. Our tests relied on the theoretical fit of spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for a sample of 334 target stars along the whole spectral-type sequence, from the classical optical catalogs of Gunn & Stryker and Jacoby et al. The best-fitting physical parameters (Teff, log g) of stars allowed an independent calibration of the temperature and bolometric scale versus empirical classification parameters (i.e., spectral type and MK luminosity class); in addition, the comparison of the synthetic templates from the ATLAS and NextGen grids allowed us to probe the capability of the models to match spectrophotometric properties of real stars and assess the impact of the different input physics. We can sketch the following main conclusions of our analysis: (1) Fitting accuracy of both theoretical libraries drastically degrades at low Teff at which both ATLAS and NextGen models still fail to properly account for the contribution of molecular features in the observed SED of K–M stars. (2) Compared with empirical calibrations, both ATLAS and NextGen fits tend, on average, to predict slightly warmer (by 4%–8%) Teff for both giant and dwarf stars of fixed spectral type, but ATLAS provides, in general, a sensibly better fit (a factor of 2 lower σ of flux residuals) than NextGen. (3) There is a striking tendency of NextGen to label target stars with an effective temperature and surface gravity higher than that of ATLAS. The effect is especially evident for MK I–III objects for which about one in four stars is clearly misclassified by NextGen in log g. This is a consequence of some "degeneracy" in the solution space, partly induced by the different input physics and geometry constraints in the computation of the integrated emerging flux (ATLAS model atmospheres assume standard plane-parallel layers, while NextGen adopts, for low-gravity stars, a spherical-shell geometry). A different T(τ) vertical structure of stellar atmosphere seems also required for NextGen synthetic SEDs in order to better account for limb-darkening effects in cool stars, as supported by the recent observations of the EROS BLG2000-5 microlensing event.
Output sinus filter for medium voltage drive with direct torque control

For improving the motor voltage quality and for eliminating the high dv/dt associated problems like electromagnetic interference (EMI), additional motor losses, need of high-insulation class motors and overvoltages at motor terminals when long cables are used, this paper presents the design of an output sinus filter for medium voltage drive and the implementation of resonance compensator for active damping of the resonance frequency of the system filter-motor without losses. The paper also includes the analysis of the dynamic model of filter-motor required in the DTC control routine, the implementation of neutral point control and switching frequency control.