Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of the effects of word emphasis and echo question on F0 contours of Cantonese utterances

Word emphasis and question intonation have significant effects on F0 contours for various languages. This paper employs the command-response F0 model to investigate the effects of the two factors for Cantonese, a typical tone language with nine tones. Analysis shows that the main effect of word emphasis associated with narrow focus is not on tone command but on phrase command. An additional or a larger phrase command tends to occur immediately preceding the emphasized word. For the tone command of the emphasized word, duration may be lengthened but polarity and amplitude are hardly affected so that the inherent tone patterns are kept. Also, echo question will replace the tone command in the later part of the sentence-final syllable by a positive tone command of much larger amplitude than usual. Both the effects of the two factors can be embedded in the framework of our model.
Interactive versus passive distraction for acute pain management in young children: the role of selective attention and development.

OBJECTIVE To examine whether age and developmental differences in selective attention influence young children's differential responses to interactive and passive distraction. METHODS 65 3- to 6-year-old children underwent three cold-pressor trials while receiving no intervention, playing a video game (interactive distraction), or watching a video game (passive distraction). In addition, children completed a test of selective attention, and parents completed ratings of attention. RESULTS Consistent with neurocognitive models of pain, children benefited more from interactive distraction than from passive distraction. Although older children demonstrated superior pain tolerance overall, age and selective attention skills did not moderate children's responses to the distraction intervention. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that younger preschoolers can benefit from interactive distraction to manage acute pain, provided that the distraction activity is developmentally appropriate. Research is needed to determine whether developmental issues are more important moderators of children's responses to distraction when faced with more challenging task demands.
Hypothermia Prolongs Activation of NF-κ B and Augments Generation of Inflammatory Cytokines

While moderate hypothermia is protective against ischemic cardiac and brain injury (8), it is associated with much higher mortality in patients with sepsis. We previously showed that in vitro exposure to moderate hypothermia (32°C) delays induction and prolongs duration of TNFα and IL-1β secretion by lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated human mononuclear phagocytes. In the present study, we extended these observations by showing that moderate hypothermia exerts effects on TNFα and IL-1β generation in the human THP-1 monocyte cell line similar to those we previously found in primary cultured monocytes, that hypothermia causes comparable changes in cytokine generation stimulated by zymosan, TSST-1, and LPS, and that hypothermia causes similar changes in TNFα and IL-1β mRNA accumulation. TNFα mRNA half-life, determined after transcriptional arrest with actinomycin D, was not significantly prolonged by lowering incubation temperature from 37° to 32°C, suggesting that hypothermia modifies TNFα gene transcription. This was further supported by reporter gene studies showing a 3-fold increase in activity of the human TNFα promoter at 32° vs 37°C. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay revealed that hypothermia prolonged NF-κB activation, identifying a potential role for this transcription factor in mediating the effects of hypothermia on TNFα and IL-1β production. Delayed reexpression of the inhibitor IκBα, shown by Northern and immunoblotting, may account in part for the prolonged NF-κB activation at 32°C. Augmentation of NF-κB-dependent gene expression during prolonged exposure to hypothermia may be a common mechanism leading to increased lethality in sepsis, late onset systemic inflammatory response syndrome after accidental hypothermia, and neuroprotection following ischemia.
Pronunciation Difficulties of Japanese Speakers of English : Predictions Based on a Contrastive Analysis

A contrastive analysis of English and Japanese phonology can help to identify potential, even likely, challenges for Japanese speakers of English (JSE). Learners of English will encounter differences in many areas: the distribution of allophones and phonemes, the number of vowels and consonants, the variety of environments in which fricatives occur, the discrimination and production of /r/ and /l/ and other English approximates, the variety of syllable structures, and prosody. Knowledge of these phonological contrasts would aid instructors and learners in selecting critical features for focused attention.
Propositional dynamic logic for Petri nets

Propositional Dynamic Logic (PDL) is a multi-modal logic used for specifying and reasoning on sequential programs. Petri Net is a widely used formalism to specify and to analyse concurrent programs with a very nice graphical representation. In this work, we propose a PDL to reasoning about Petri Nets. First we define a compositional encoding of Petri Nets from basic nets as terms. Second, we use these terms as PDL programs and provide a compositional semantics to PDL Formulas. Finally, we present an axiomatization and prove completeness w.r. t. our semantics. The advantage of our approach is that we can do reasoning about Petri Nets using our dynamic logic and we do not need to to translate it to other formalisms. Moreover our approach is compositional allowing for construction of complex nets using basic ones.
Age‐related differences in multiple measures of white matter integrity: A diffusion tensor imaging study of healthy aging

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures diffusion of molecular water, which can be used to calculate indices of white matter integrity. Early DTI studies of aging primarily focused on two global measures of integrity; the average rate (mean diffusivity, MD) and orientation coherence (fractional anisotropy, FA) of diffusion. More recent studies have added measures of water movement parallel (axial diffusivity, AD) and perpendicular (radial diffusivity, RD) to the primary diffusion direction, which are thought to reflect the neural bases of age differences in diffusion (i.e., axonal shrinkage and demyelination, respectively). In this study, patterns of age differences in white matter integrity were assessed by comparing younger and healthy older adults on multiple measures of integrity (FA, AD, and RD). Results revealed two commonly reported patterns (Radial Increase Only and Radial/Axial Increase), and one relatively novel pattern (Radial Increase/Axial Decrease) that varied by brain region and may reflect differential aging of microstructural (e.g., degree of myelination) and macrostructural (e.g., coherence of fiber orientation) properties of white matter. In addition, larger age differences in FA in frontal white matter were consistent with the anterior–posterior gradient of age differences in white matter integrity. Together, these findings complement other recent studies in providing information about patterns of diffusivity that are characteristic of healthy aging. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Travel Time Estimation Using Floating Car Data

This report explores the use of machine learning techniques to accurately predict travel times in city streets and highways using floating car data (location information of user vehicles on a road network). The aim of this report is twofold, first we present a general architecture of solving this problem, then present and evaluate few techniques on real floating car data gathered over a month on a 5 Km highway in New Delhi.
A planetary eclipse map of CoRoT-2a - Comprehensive lightcurve modeling combining rotational-modulation and transits

We analyze the surface structure of the planet host star CoRoT-2a using a consistent model for both the “global” (i.e., rotationally modulated) lightcurve and the transit lightcurves, using data provided by the CoRoT mission. After selecting a time interval covering two stellar rotations and six transits of the planetary companion CoRoT-2b, we have adopted a “strip” model of the surface to reproduce the photometric modulation inside and outside the transits simultaneously. Our reconstructions show that it is possible to achieve appropriate fits for the entire subinterval using a low-resolution surface model with 36 strips. The surface reconstructions indicate that the brightness on the eclipsed section of the stellar surface is (6 ± 1)% lower than the average brightness of the remaining surface. This result suggests a concentration of stellar activity in a band around the stellar equator similar to the behavior observed on the Sun.
Modeling an electronically switchable directional antenna for low-power wireless networks

We present an empirical link-layer model of an electronically switch-able directional antenna for low-power wireless networks. By virtue of directed transmissions, such antennas alleviate wireless contention and increase the communication range at no additional energy cost. In addition, the ability to dynamically change the direction of maximum gain allows to steer the radiated power in different directions on a per-packet basis. However, the few protocols that leverage such features are usually based on abstract antenna models, and are thus of limited applicability. On the contrary, we base our model on extensive real-world experiments using an existing antenna prototype we built. Our model mimics the temporal variations caused by environmental dynamics. We are currently embedding our model in the Cooja simulator, enabling the investigation of protocols leveraging this antenna technology in networks of arbitrary size.
IP Traceback for Flooding attacks on Internet Threat Monitors (ITM) Using Honeypots

The Internet Threat Monitoring (ITM) is an efficient monitoring system used globally to measure, detect, characterize and track threats such as denial of service (DoS) and distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and worms. To block the monitoring system in the internet the attackers are targeted the ITM system. In this paper we address the flooding attack of DDoS against ITM monitors to exhaust the network resources, such as bandwidth, computing power, or operating system data structures by sending the malicious traffic. We propose an information-theoretic frame work that models the flooding attacks using Botnet on ITM. One possible way to counter DDoS attacks is to trace the attack sources and punish the perpetrators. we propose a novel traceback method for DDoS using Honeypots. IP tracing through honeypot is a single packet tracing method and is more efficient than commonly used packet marking techniques.
Defocus Map Estimation From a Single Image Based on Two-Parameter Defocus Model

Defocus map estimation (DME) is highly important in many computer vision applications. Nearly, all existing approaches for DME from a single image are based on a one-parameter defocus model, which does not allow for the variation of depth over edges. In this paper, a novel two-parameter model of defocused edges is proposed for DME from a single image. We can estimate the defocus amounts for each side of the edges through this proposed model, and the confidence that the edge is a pattern edge, where the depth remains the same over the edge, can be generated. Then, we modify the TV-L1 algorithm for structure-texture decomposition by taking advantage of this confidence to eliminate pattern edges while preserving structural ones. Finally, the defocus amounts estimated at the edge positions are used as initial values, and the structure component is employed as a guidance in the following Laplacian matting procedure to avoid the influence of pattern edges on the final defocus map. Experiment results show that the proposed method can effectively eliminate the influence of pattern edges compared with the state-of-art method. Furthermore, the estimated defocus map is feasible in applications of depth estimation and foreground/background segmentation.
An inventory model with random replenishment quantities.

A single-period random demand inventory model is analysed under the assumption that the replenishment quantity is a random function of the amount ordered. The structure of optimal policies is characterized for linear ordering cost functions, both with and without a setup cost. Generalizations of base-stock policies and (s, S) policies are shown to be optimal. Closed form analytic expressions for optimal policies are obtained for the special ease of linear ordering cost and uniformly distributed demand. Optimal policies are compared with two heuristics in a more general demand environment. It is shown that a very simple heuristic policy performs quite well.
Information Overload In Social Media Streams And The Approaches To Solve It

We discuss the problem of information overload in social media streams. We identify two groups of approaches to solve the problem. The ﬁrst group is based on ﬁltering social media streams. These methods are already quite mature and successfully used in practice. The second group of approaches proposes completely diﬀerent paradigms for information sharing and consumption rather than stream. Such approaches only start to emerge, and we discuss opportunities and research challenges that they raise. One of the alternative paradigms described in this paper, passive information consumption via the push model , is currently being developed by the authors at Yandex Labs.
Oversampled filter bank evaluation for joint subband audio processing and coding

This paper presents an experimental evaluation of oversampled, modulated filter banks for joint subband audio processing and coding applications. Joint subband processing and coding may be useful in some wireless audio devices such as advanced wireless digital hearing aids. We examine the use of oversampled GDFT and cosine modulated filter banks and propose using single sideband (SSB) real-valued filter banks as a compromise which is ideal for this application. The SSB filter bank provides real-valued signals for audio coding which are free from any aliasing cancellation constraints and hence are also suitable for audio processing such as subband gain adjustment. We support this conclusion with an experimental analysis of various filter bank designs for subband gain adjustment and subband audio coding.
Application of Optimization in Image De-noising by Shrinkage of Wavelet Coefficients

In the paper the optimization is applied to determine the threshold of wavelet coefficients in image de-noising aiming at grayscale image corrupted by additive white Gaussian noise and Daubechies wavelet transform. In the method the entropy of an image is the optimality criteria, which makes image de-noising a process of optimizing objective index of an image. The example proves that the presented method has an advantage over the universal soft-thresholding method in both the signal-to-noise ratio and the entropy.
Do We Really Know How Inflation Targeters Set Interest Rates

In inflation targeting (IT) regimes, the Monetary Authority announces an explicit objective, the target for inflation. However, other objectives that possibly conflict with the inflation goal are present, such as keeping output close to its potential level and the stability of financial markets. This multiplicity of objectives has spurred a debate on whether inflation targeting really provides a transparent framework for monetary policy. This question is addressed in this paper, focusing on the experience of six countries that adopted IT. The empirical investigation is based on a variety of data sets (including real time data and Central Bank's forecasts), as well as on alternative forward-looking reaction functions. The main finding is that, if transparency is interpreted as the short run predictability of policy actions, consistent with the announced inflation goal, then most of the IT regimes here examined are remarkably transparent. However, this is not necessarily true if a more broad interpretation of transparency is required. The data also reveals a certain degree of heterogeneity across countries and time, and therefore recommends caution with respect to general statements regarding the properties of IT regimes.
SCDFinder, a Web-based tool for the identification of putative novel ATM and ATR targets

MOTIVATION The S/TQ cluster domain (SCD) constitutes a new type of protein domain that is not defined by sequence similarity but by the presence of multiple S/TQ motifs within a variable stretch of amino acids. SCDs are recognized targets for DNA damage response (DDR) kinases like ATM and ATR. Characterizing DDR targets is of significant interest. The aim of this work was to develop a web-based tool to allow for easy identification and visualization of SCDs within specific proteins or in whole proteome sets, a feature not supported by current domain and motif search tools. RESULTS We have developed an algorithm that (i) generates a list of all proteins in an organism containing at least one user-defined SCD within their sequence, or (ii) identifies and renders a visual representation of all user-defined SCDs present in a single sequence or batch of sequences. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION The application was developed using Pearl and Python, and is available at the following URL: http://ustbioinfo.webfactional. com/scd/.
Mirror Therapy for Phantom Limb Pain

Phantom limb pain is a painful sensation that is perceived in a body part that no longer exists. To control this pain, many methods have been used such as medication, physical treatment, nerve block, neuromodulation, surgical treatment and mirror therapy. However, until now, there effects have been uncertain. We report the successful reduction of phantom limb pain using mirror therapy when other treatments initially failed to control the pain.
Anonymous Credential Scheme Supporting Active Revocation

With the rapid development of electronic commerce, digital credentials are used with increasing frequency. Today users employing digital credentials not only complete the identity authentication process and obtain service, but also attach importance to their anonymity with the concept of privacy protection that is being rapidly developed. For this reason, anonymous credential mechanisms are being increasingly studied. However, while anonymous credentials provide privacy protection for users, the question of how to manage the credentials is a problem for issuers and service providers. In recent years, many literatures have proposed that the revocation list is a challenge to effectively implement, while users and credential consumers receive the corresponding revocation list with massive computational costs. In this paper, we present an improved anonymous credential revocation mechanism in which we examine how users not only provide passive revocation management but must spend considerable time in computational terms. We distribute the permission of revocation to the issuer and the service provider. The revocation phase can be executed only if both issuer and service provider permit, so users are not afraid that the issuer or service provider will access their private information. In addition, the issuer and the service provider can also manage illegal users. Consequently, online service systems can be more widely used. Further, we add a mechanism of time-revocation, which sets a time limit on the revocability of the anonymous credentials. This capability enables the issuer to more effectively manage the revocation phase.
Time-to-space conversion of sub-picosecond waveforms at 1.55 µm in bulk and slab waveguide nonlinear media

Ever growing demand for internet data transmission capacity drives the search for innovative optical communications transmission and signal processing techniques. Optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) enables high baud rate data transmission on a single wavelength channel which, combined with advanced modulation formats, can maximize spectral efficiency. Time-to-space conversion is a complementary signal processing technique for all-optical serial-to-parallel demultiplexing of a Terabit/s OTDM channel. It is based on sum-frequency generation (SFG) between signal and reference pulses in a spectral processor and converts a time domain (serial) ultrashort signal waveform to a space domain (parallel) output image. We present two generations of time-to-space conversion, first in a bulk nonlinear crystal and then in a slab nonlinear waveguide. A ~40ps time window of operation and sub-picosecond output image resolution were achieved, showing the potential of this technique for Terabit/s OTDM demultiplexing. In addition, the quasi-monochromatic SFG signal generated implies the possibility for coherent detection of the demultiplexed output tributaries, enabling compatibility with advanced modulation formats.
Wheat from Chaff: Meta-Analysis as Quantitative Literature Review: Response

This paper presents and develops a quantitative method of literature reviewing and evaluating empirical research, meta-regression analysis or MRA. Economics is theory-driven. Yet, we must learn empirically if economics is to advance. MRA offers a more objective statistical method to summarize our empirical knowledge and to explain the wide study-to-study variation in economic research. MRA is used to assess the evidence for Ricardian equivalence, and its findings are contrasted to those of conventional narrative review. Furthermore, MRA establishes a platform from which to distinguish genuine empirical effect from the exploitable specification error that infests applied econometrics.
Modeling and Forecasting Primary Commodity Prices

Contents: Introduction History of Commodity Price Analysis. Long Run Price Movements: Identifying trends and breaks Convergence of commodity prices. Medium Run Price Movements: Identifying price cycles Business cycle impacts. Short Run Price Movements: Color of commodity prices Wavelet models in the time frequency domain. Price Forecasting: Noisy chaotic dynamics Structural forecasting models Prospects for the future Appendix: resources for future research Bibliography Index.
Adaptive selection of ensembles for imbalanced class distributions

Boolean combination (BC) techniques have been shown to efficiently integrate the responses of multiple diversified classifiers in the ROC space to improve the overall accuracy and reliability of pattern recognition systems. In practice, since class distributions are often imbalanced and change over time, the BC of classifiers, and thus selection of ensembles, should be adapted to reflect operational conditions. Although the impact on classification performance of imbalanced distributions may be addressed using ensemble-based techniques, this is difficult to observe from ROC curves. However, given a desired false positive rate and class imbalance, performing BC in the Precision-Recall Operating Characteristic (PROC) space with skewed data may lead to a higher level of performance. In this paper, an adaptive system is proposed that initially generates several PROC curves, each one from data with a different level of skew. Then, during operations, the class imbalance is periodically estimated, and used to approximate the most accurate BC of classifiers among operational points of these curves. Simulation results indicate that this approach maintains a high level of accuracy that is comparable to full Boolean re-combination (as required for a specific level of imbalance), but for a significantly lower computational cost.