Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Score-level compensation of extreme speech duration variability in speaker verification

In this work we aim at compensating the degrading effects of utterance length variability of speaker veriﬁcation systems, which appear in many typical applications such as forensics. The paper concentrates in the score misalignments due to different utterance lengths, proposing several algorithms for its normalization. In order to test the proposed methods, we have built two corpora from NIST SRE 2006 and 2008 data to simulate high utterance length variability. Results show an improvement of the overall system performance for all the algorithms proposed, which is signiﬁcant even when score normalization techniques such as T-Norm are used.
A nitric oxide‐releasing derivative of enalapril, NCX 899, prevents progressive cardiac dysfunction and remodeling in hamsters with heart failure

Nitric oxide (NO) production is known to be impaired in heart failure. A new compound (NCX 899), a NO‐releasing derivative of enalapril was characterized, and its actions were evaluated in Bio 14.6 cardiomyopathic (CM) hamsters with heart failure. The hamsters were randomized to oral treatment for 4 weeks with vehicle (n=11), NCX 899 (NCX, 25 mg/kg, n=10), or enalapril (25 mg/kg, n=10). In the vehicle group, fractional shortening by echocardiography decreased (−23.6±2.0%) and LV end‐diastolic dimension) increased (+10.9±1.0%), whereas fractional shortening increased (+17.5±4.4%) in NCX and was unchanged in the enalapril group (both P<0.01 vs. vehicle). End‐diastolic dimension decreased only in NCX. LV contractility (LVdP/dt max and Emax) was significantly greater in NCX than in enalapril or vehicle, while relaxation (Tau) was shortened in both NCX and enalapril vs. vehicle. ACE activity was inhibited equally by NCX and enalapril in the CM hamster, and plasma nitrate levels were increased only in NCX (P<0.05 vs. enalapril and vehicle). In aortic strips endothelium‐independent relaxation occurred only with NCX. The superior effects of NO‐releasing enalapril (NCX) vs. enalapril alone to enhance vascular effects, increase LV contractility and prevent unfavorable remodeling and are consistent with vascular delivery of exogenous NO. NCX 899 may hold promise for the future treatment of heart failure.
Fighting spam with statistics

Spam—unsolicited commercial e‐mail—is a complex and growing problem, and threatens to derail the internet revolution. Joshua Goodman and David Heckerman of Microsoft Research describe some statistics‐based methods for blocking spam, first by distinguishing it from wanted mail, and then by constructing puzzles they propose to use to challenge suspected spammers.
Markets and pro‐poor agricultural growth: insights from livelihood and informal rural economy models in Malawi

This article presents the development of a set of programming models describing the major features of different rural livelihoods and of the informal rural economy they together make up in Malawi. The models allow for differentiated responses by different household types to change and for the partial equilibrium effects of consequent supply, demand, and price adjustments in labor and grain markets. The models provide insights into the relations between own-farm and nonown-farm activities in different households' livelihoods and in the informal rural economy as a whole, and are used to investigate possible impacts of increasing cash crop prices and of a more open rural economy. Impacts of these changes on the poor are found to be critically dependent upon supply and demand elasticities in labor and grain markets, but the poor could potentially suffer significant losses from increased openness of the local economy leading to increased expenditure by less poor households on imported goods and services. Copyright 2006 International Association of Agricultural Economists.
Unrealized Partisanship: A Theory of Dealignment

This paper develops a theory of partisan dealignment from which it examines the contemporary dealignment of the American electorate. The theory specifies three factors: the vividness of the existing alignment, the stability of the issue agenda, and the ambiguity of party issue positions, which condition the extent to which new voters are socialized into the existing party alignment. When these conditions are favorable, as they were in American politics from the New Deal until the early 1960s, most voters adopt their parents' partisanship. However, as the conditions become less favorable--as they clearly did beginning in the mid-1960s--increasing numbers of voters fail to "realize" their expected partisanship and become Independents instead. The strain toward unrealization is most intense for those who are most vulnerable, voters with issue attitudes that are sharply at odds with their inherited partisanship. Thus, Unrealized Democrats are consistently more conservative than Democrats while Unrealized Republicans are more liberal than Republicans. This study thus demonstrates that dealignment may be understood as an issue-driven phenomenon.
Alcohol-specific socialization, parenting behaviors and alcohol use by children.

OBJECTIVE This panel study examined the relations between alcohol-specific socialization by parents (monitoring of alcohol use by children, allowing alcohol use by children at home, communicating against alcohol use and setting rules against alcohol use), general dimensions of parenting behavior (responsiveness and demandingness) and alcohol use by children. METHOD A sample of 488 fifth-grade children reported their perceptions of alcohol-specific socialization by parents, parental responsiveness and parental demandingness. These variables were used to predict alcohol use when children in the panel were in seventh grade. RESULTS Nineteen percent of seventh-grade children reported alcohol use in the past 30 days. Logistic regression analyses indicated that, after accounting for children's age, sex, single parent status, prior use of alcohol and exposure to parental modeling of alcohol use, the odds of alcohol use were significantly greater among children who perceived no parental monitoring of alcohol use, who had been allowed by parents to have a drink with alcohol at home and who perceived relatively low levels of parental demandingness. Rules against alcohol use, parental communication against alcohol use and parental responsiveness were unrelated to the study outcome. CONCLUSIONS Parental monitoring of alcohol use by children, family norms regarding alcohol use by children at home and parental ability to set and enforce behavioral rules merit consideration as factors that should be modified by prevention programs. There is a need, however, for additional research that further examines the relations between exposure to such parenting behaviors during childhood and alcohol use during adolescence.
Reconsidering the roles of gratitude and indebtedness in social exchange

ABSTRACT Receiving favors is often a mixed blessing and commonly triggers two emotions: the positive emotion gratitude and negative emotion indebtedness. In three studies, we examined the hypothesis that gratitude and indebtedness have distinct functions in social exchange. Contrary to current views, we believe that the function of gratitude does not primarily reside in facilitating social exchange. Instead, we propose that indebtedness motivates people to repay favours received, and thus accounts for most of the prosocial effects commonly attributed to gratitude. On the other hand consistent with current views, we believe that gratitude signals the potential for developing a relationship and fosters proximity seeking. Supporting these assumptions, in Study 1 we found that gratitude and indebtedness were associated with aspects of the favour that reflect the concern for relationship and the level of inequity. Studies 2 and 3 provided causal support for these relations, and revealed the unique associations between gratitude and the motivation of proximity seeking, and between indebtedness and the motivation to reciprocate. We argue that this functional distinction has escaped research attention as gratitude and indebtedness are naturally correlated because they stem from the same eliciting event. To appreciate this functional distinction, both emotions should be studied simultaneously in the context of social exchange.
THE LONG‐RUN RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEFENCE EXPENDITURES AND GDP IN TAIWAN

Using the Solow–Swan growth model and the time‐trend included in the aggregate production function, this study applies the multivariate cointegration approach to re‐investigate the long‐run and causal relationships between defence expenditures and GDP while controlling for capital and labour input in Taiwan during the 1955–2002 period. It examines the long‐run causal relationship using the weak exogeneity test and utilizes general impulse response functions to determine whether a shock to defence expenditures affects economic growth or vice versa. Our findings provide substantive evidence in favour of the existence of a long‐run equilibrium cointegrated relationship between defence expenditures, GDP, labour and capital stock. The results of the weak exogeneity test indicate that a bi‐directional causal relationship exists in the long‐run between defence expenditures and GDP. Thus, the main policy implication that emerges from the long‐run results is that increasing defence expenditures in Taiwan is an effective means to boost overall economic performance and, with this improved economy, it should then be able to increase its defence expenditures further. Lastly, from our dynamic vector error correction model estimations, it is found that defence expenditures are a major means of adjusting for disequilibria that occur within the system.
The Future Regulation of Work and Welfare: Time for a Revised Social and Gender Contract?

In this article we provide a critical review of comparative political economy approaches to the regulation of work and welfare in Europe. We use the holistic concept of gendered employment systems to identify how the regulation of work and welfare is managed in different ways according to the capacity and constraints of national and European actors. A re-evaluation of regulations governing the established social contract between capital and labour requires reconsideration of the nature of the gender contract between men and women. We illustrate this argument with examples of three different types of regulatory reform strategies adopted in different European societies.
Recent Developments in California Labor Relations

Author(s): Mitchell, Daniel J. B. | Abstract: California’s state budget crisis and soft economy have conditioned its labor relations climate. Roughly half of union workers are in the public sector and so are affected by fiscal distress. Neither employers nor economic forecasters expect a robust economic recovery in the state in the near term. A number of union-supported bills were enacted under Governor Gray Davis, including a new paid family leave program, a hike in unemployment insurance benefits, and a mandated mediation process for union-represented farm workers. Nevertheless, state social programs have come under stress. The California Compensation Insurance Fund, which provides workers’ compensation insurance for employers unable to buy it elsewhere, is having financial problems. Lack of job-based health insurance for many low-wage workers has revived legislative interest in alternative proposals for universal coverage. Because of the budget squeeze, threats of layoffs and demands for pay freezes have marked labor relations in government. Job security has been an issue in the private sector, notably in the longshore lockout during the fall of 2002. Health care has been a focus of union organizing and labor disputes, especially involving nurses, against a backdrop of downward pressure on public health program spending and widespread employer concerns about escalating premiums. Until there is a clear-cut improvement in economic conditions, in both public and private sectors, labor relations will continue to reflect an environment of limited resources.
Differential Reaction to Bond Downgrades for Small Versus Large Firms

ings forecast revisions. Inasmuch as empirical results of investigations of the information relevance of bond rating changes have been mixed, we believe this approach provides du-ect insight into, and represencs a sipficant contribution to, thus area of financial research. We focus on revisions in financial analysts’ expectations of short-term earnings a:; a signal of change in the riskiness of a firm. Because firms are generally known to differ in their &closure environments because of size hfferences, we expected to find dfferential analysts’ reactions to bond downgrades for small versus large firms. Our research findlngs confirm this expectation. We extend earlier research on thl: information effect of bond rating changes by examining financial analysts’ reactions rather than the market reaction. Another contribution to the research is in our use of statistical methodology. Consistent with Brous [1992], we examine not only changes in raw monthly analysts’ forecast revisions of earnings per share, but also the ubnormul hrecast revisions of earnings per share. T refined method of measuring the expected earn-
On the Desirability of a Regional Basket Currency Arrangement

This paper considers a theoretical model to examine an optimal exchange rate regime for (Asian) emerging market economies that export goods to the U.S., Japan, and neighboring countries. The optimality of the exchange rate regime is defined as minimizing the fluctuation of trade balances, in the environment where the yen-dollar exchange rate fluctuates. Since the de facto dollar peg regime is blamed as one of the factors that caused the Asian currency crisis, the question of the optimal exchange rate regime is quite relevant in Asia. The novelty of this paper is to show how an emerging market economy's choice of the exchange rate regime (or weights in the basket) is dependent on the neighboring country's. The dollar weights in the currency baskets of the two countries are determined as a Nash equilibrium. In general, there are multiple equilibria, and a coordination failure' may result.
Phosphatidylinositol-3-OH kinase regulatory subunits are differentially expressed during development of the rat cerebellum.

Recent evidence implicates a central role for PI3K signalling in mediating cell survival during the process of neuronal differentiation. Although PI3K activity is stimulated by a wide range of growth factors and cytokines in different cell lines and tissues, activation of this pathway by insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) most likely represents the main survival signal during neuronal differentiation. IGF-I is highly expressed during development of the central nervous system, and thus is a critical factor for the development and maturation of the cerebellum. Upon ligand binding, the IGF-I receptor phosphorylates tyrosine residues in SHC and insulin receptor substrates (IRSs) initiating two main signalling cascades, the MAP kinase and the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathways. Activated PI3K is composed of a catalytic subunit (p110alpha or beta) associated with one of a large family of regulatory subunits (p85alpha, p85beta, p55gamma, p55alpha, and p50alpha). To evaluate the contributions of these various regulatory subunits to neuronal differentiation, we have used antibodies specific for each of the PI3K subunits. Using these antisera, we now demonstrate that PI3K subunits are differentially regulated in cerebellar development, and that the expression level of the p55gamma regulatory subunit reaches a maximum during postnatal development, decreasing thereafter to low levels in the adult cerebellum. Furthermore, our studies reveal that the distribution of the various PI3K regulatory subunits varies during development of the cerebellum. Interestingly, p55gamma is expressed in both glial and neuronal cells; moreover, in Purkinje neurones, this subunit colocalises with the IGF-IR.
The Astonishing Regularity of Service Employment Expansion

An update of Victor Fuchs analysis shows an astonishing regularity of the relationship between per capita income and service industry employment. The two major theoretical hypotheses for the growth of the service sector, shifts in final demand towards services and the technological stagnancy of services, are then analyzed. Theories achieve simplicity and clarity from radical assumptions and it is therefore not surprising that empirically both dimensions are relevant. Shifts in final demand to services-especially of private consumption, however, gained importance over the last decades indicating a fundamental change of the division of labor: the marketization of household production, which is analyzed finally. Copyright © 2007 The Author; Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Individual Funding for Disability Support: What are the Implications for Accountability?

A range of different countries have experimented with the concept of individualised funding and self-directed support, particularly for long term care. With the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, individual funding looks set to be an area of future development in Australia. Individual funding is concerned with making the financial aspects of care more explicit at the level of the individual. Supporters suggest that it has the potential to transform paternalistic and inflexible systems into ones that grant greater power to individuals. The introduction of individualised funding also poses a number of interesting questions about accountability. The paper considers these accountability dilemmas and provides evidence from different national settings to illustrate how these accountabilities may manifest in an Australian context. The paper concludes by setting out a framework of accountability bringing together these different dilemmas to think about provision of care as a whole.
Acoustic-Visual Speech Synthesis by Bimodal Unit Selection. (Synthèse Acoustico-Visuelle de la Parole par Séléction d'Unités Bimodales)

This work deals with audio-visual speech synthesis. In the vast literature available in this direction, many of the approaches deal with it by dividing it into two synthesis problems. One of it is acoustic speech synthesis and the other being the generation of corresponding facial animation. But, this does not guarantee a perfectly synchronous and coherent audio-visual speech. To overcome the above drawback implicitly, we proposed a different approach of acoustic-visual speech synthesis by the selection of naturally synchronous bimodal units. The synthesis is based on the classical unit selection paradigm. The main idea behind this synthesis technique is to keep the natural association between the acoustic and visual modality intact. We describe the audio-visual corpus acquisition technique and database preparation for our system. We present an overview of our system and detail the various aspects of bimodal unit selection that need to be optimized for good synthesis. The main focus of this work is to synthesize the speech dynamics well rather than a comprehensive talking head. We describe the visual target features that we designed. We subsequently present an algorithm for target feature weighting. This algorithm that we developed performs target feature weighting and redundant feature elimination iteratively. This is based on the comparison of target cost based ranking and a distance calculated based on the acoustic and visual speech signals of units in the corpus. Finally, we present the perceptual and subjective evaluation of the final synthesis system. The results show that we have achieved the goal of synthesizing the speech dynamics reasonably well.
Improved Carrier Distributions by Varying Barrier Thickness for InGaN/GaN LEDs

In this paper, we minimized efficiency droop by varying barrier thickness for InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MWQs) featuring narrow quantum barriers (NQBs). The external quantum efficiency (EQE) for a light-emitting diode (LED) possessing NQBs improved by 18% at a current density of 200 A·cm-2, compared to that of a conventional LED incorporating a 12-nm-thick barrier. The enhanced carrier distribution resulting from the presence of NQBs was practically approved from another experimental design in this study. We suggest that the NQBs displayed uniform carrier distribution in active layer and decreased the carrier density in the active layer at a critical current density.
Unit-Linked Life Insurance Contracts with Lapse Rates Dependent on Economic Factors

ABSTRACT Many recently introduced unit-linked life insurance policies contain provisions allowing policyholders to lapse the product. The problem of pricing this surrender option is difficult as it involves modelling lapse decisions which may be contingent on different factors. This paper develops a methodology which enables us to model lapse behaviour within a framework provided by developments in financial economics. Using marked point processes with stochastic intensities, we present an approach which accounts for changes in the lapse behaviour of policyholders due to different economic factors. As a result, the model produces more accurate financial values for insurance contracts contingent on financial markets. In the context of unit-linked policies, we illustrate the method by allowing the lapse decision to depend on the stochastic volatility of the underlying asset. Our simulation study indicates that there is a strong relation between the single premiums of these policies and the lapse behaviour.
A re‐examination of the q theory of investment using u.s. firm data

Investment models based on Tobin's q are theoretically appealing, but they have been an empirical disappointment when applied to aggregate time-series data. This paper explores two potential explanations for the poor empirical performance of q investment models, problems arising from aggregation and imperfect competition. The results suggest that aggregation is responsible for spurious evidence of dynamic misspecification and at least partially responsible for an upward bias in estimated adjustment costs. The evidence also suggests that imperfect competition in output markets may have an effect on the investment behavior of some firms. Copyright 1990 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Valuing Food Safety in Experimental Auction Markets

In this paper, we value food safety in a nonhypothetical setting—experimental auction markets. First, subjects underestimate the relatively low probabilities of food-borne illness. Second, measures of value are within a relatively flat range across a wide range of risks, even with repeated market experience and full information on the objective probability and severity of illness, suggesting subjects rely on prior perceptions. Third, marginal willingness to pay decreases as risk increases, suggesting that the perceived quality of new information can affect the weight the individuals place on the information. Finally, pathogen-specific values seem to act as surrogates for general food safety preferences.
Modelling the Effects of Shopping Centre Size and Store Variety on Consumer Choice Behaviour

In this paper it is argued that models of consumer choice of shopping destination have included few attributes related to the selection of stores available in a shopping centre. The authors seek to develop and illustrate empirically a way to define the selection of stores in shopping centres, such that effects of various modifications to the available selection can be modelled by conjoint analysis (or stated preference of decompositional choice) methods. Profiles of hypothetical shopping centres are developed that describe the total size of centres as well as the marketing mix positionings of the individual stores within these centres. The approach is implemented in choice experiments, one on food shopping and one on shopping for clothing and shoes. Logit models are estimated and compared for these two product categories and for large versus small centres.