Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring Rapid A–Ci Curves in Boreal Conifers: Black Spruce and Balsam Fir

Climate change is steering tree breeding programs towards the development of families and genotypes that will be adapted and more resilient to changing environments. Making genotype–phenotype–environment connections is central to these predictions and it requires the evaluation of functional traits such as photosynthetic rates that can be linked to environmental variables. However, the ability to rapidly measure photosynthetic parameters has always been limiting. The estimation of V c,max and J max using CO2 response curves has traditionally been time consuming, taking anywhere from 30 min to more than an hour, thereby drastically limiting the number of trees that can be assessed per day. Technological advancements have led to the development of a new generation of portable photosynthesis measurement systems offering greater chamber environmental control and automated sampling and, as a result, the proposal of a new, faster, method (RACiR) for measuring V c,maxand J max. This method was developed using poplar trees and involves measuring photosynthetic responses to CO2 over a range of CO2 concentrations changing at a constant rate. The goal of the present study was to adapt the RACiR method for use on conifers whose measurement usually requires much larger leaf chambers. We demonstrate that the RACiR method can be used to estimate V c,max and J max in conifers and provide recommendations to enhance the method. The use our method in conifers will substantially reduce measurement time, thus greatly improving genotype evaluation and selection capabilities based on photosynthetic traits. This study led to the developpement of an R package (RapidACi, https://github.com/ManuelLamothe/RapidACi) that facilitates the correction of multiple RACiR files and the post-measurement correction of leaf areas.
Development of Baseline System for Phonemes Recognition Task

The phonemes recognition is one of the fundamental problems in automatic speech recognition. Despite the great progress in speech recognition, discrimination of isolated phonemes is still challenging task due to coarticulation, and great variability in speaking style. The aim of this work is to develop a system for classification of isolated English vowels from the TIMIT dataset. In the paper, the following conventional methods are compared: a) k-Nearest Neighbours approach as a simple nonlinear instance-based classifier b) Gaussian Mixture Model, which belongs to the class of probabilistic acoustical modelling techniques. As a front-end, we applied standard mel-frequency cepstral coefficients with their time derivates. Various experimental methods such as trimming of audio data and cross-validation were used to increase recognition precision and reliability of system evaluation. The developed system will be used as a baseline for comparison with other newer state-of-the-art approaches.
Extending Czech Thesauri using Word-formation Network

In this paper, we attempt to extend existing Czech thesauri by using a word-formation network, DeriNet. Thesauri are an important resource for synonym retrieval / substitution generation but their lexical sparsity is an issue in Czech. We discuss the properties of existing thesauri and DeriNet and propose several ways of using DeriNet to extend the thesauri, such as deriving a synonym of an adverb from a synonym of corresponding adjective. We also evaluate some of our proposals.
OXIDATIVE AND ANTIOXIDANT STATUS IN DEPRESSIVE DISORDER PATHOLOGY

Depressive disorder is a psychiatric disorder often found lately. Oxidative stress is a mechanism that promotes the occurrence of major depressive disorder . Oxidative stress is defined as an imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants whereby high oxidant content is due to decrease the antioxidant cap city of the system. Objective : The aim of this study is to assess the oxidative and antioxidative status in plasma in patients diagnosed with clinical depression , and to assess whether there is a relationship between oxidative stress and severity of depression . Methods : In this study we gather 50 patients with depression according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fourth edition and 20 healthy control subjects . Activity levels of plasma malondialdehyde , superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase were measured in this study to assess the oxidative status and antioxidative defense prior to antidepressant medication . Results : Patients with depression had higher total plasma peroxide and lower plasma antioxidants than controls . Depressed oxidative stress index values patients were significantly higher than controls , and there is a significant positive correlation between the scale and the Hamilton depression Rating Oxidative stress index value . Conclusion : Patients with major depression are exposed to oxidative stress , and oxidative stress index may be useful to reflect the severity of the disease . Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:. 0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
Automatic Recognition of Slovak-English Bilingual Speech

This article describes the progress of a joint project on Multilingual Automatic Speech Recognition using Deep Neural Networks, in which the Technical University works together with National Taipei University of Technology in Taiwan. During the last year, we managed to train multilingual models of combinations of Slovak English and Slovak English Chinese/Mandarin languages. In this paper, we are presenting the results of the Slovak English model based on deep learning with and without language detection. Furthermore we present new bilingual Slovak-English code-switching database for bilingual systems training and testing. The results indicate that the use of the language detection module can lower the error rate of the multilingual model to the result similar to monolingual models that are generally better for the monolingual tasks.
Towards to the Anticipation in Simultaneous Interpreting

This paper describes a very fine, suprasegmental linguistic feature – anticipation. An ’anticipation nucleus’ is a speech signal that refers to the uniquely modulated part of an utterance that indicates continuation, it also allows for reduced semantic content in the utterance. The extent that anticipation can be expressed relies on the phonetic, syntactic, and semantic capacity of a language. In this work the special attention to the prosodic structure of speech signal was paid regarding to this issue. The work provides information about performed perceptual detection of anticipation nuclei, describes the measurement of key prosodic parameters and presents obtained results of statistical analysis.
Visual tracking with tree-structured appearance model for online learning

Deep learning has been widely used in many visual recognition tasks owing to its powerful representation ability. However, online learning is a bottleneck to obstruct the application of deep learning in visual tracking. Although many algorithms have discarded the process of online learning during tracking, they demonstrate poor robustness to the online adaptation to appearance changes of the target. In this study, the authors design a tree structure specifically for online learning, which enables the appearance model to be updated smoothly. Once the target appearance has changed severely, a new branch is generated to avoid the fuzzy boundary of classification. In addition, active learning technique and artificial data are employed in the update to make the best of the limited knowledge about the interesting object during the tracking process. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on OTB2013 and VOT2017 benchmark and outperforms many state-of-the-art methods.
Relación entre la morfología de la válvula y la raíz aórtica con la recurrencia de la fibrilación auricular no valvular

[ES] La recurrencia arritmica tras la cardioversion es frecuente a pesar del empleo de farmacos antiarritmicos. En consecuencia, en pacientes candidatos a una estrategia de control de ritmo, resulta relevante la identificacion de nuevos factores predictivos de recurrencia que permitan una estratificacion individualizada del riesgo de recidiva. La esclerosis aortica se relaciona con una sobrecarga hemodinamica que favorece la hipertrofia y el deterioro de la funcion diastolica y, consecuentemente, el aumento de las presiones de llenado telediastolicas ventriculares, provocando la distension auricular y dando lugar al desarrollo de un sustrato arritmogenico propicio. El remodelado vascular aortico es un proceso dinamico de respuesta compensadora a un cambio de la carga hemodinamica aortica que pudiera repercutir en las cavidades cardiacas. La presencia de un remodelado vascular en la raiz aortica se propone como marcador de riesgo de FA y de recurrencia arritmica. Con objeto de conocer la existencia, en ausencia de cardiopatia estructural, de una relacion independiente entre la esclerosis aortica y el diametro de la raiz aortica y la recurrencia arritmica, se diseno un estudio prospectivo observacional que incluyo, consecutivamente, 225 pacientes con FA procedentes del Hospital Universitario de Salamanca (paroxistica: 27%, persistente: 38% y permanente: 35%). Se realizo un seguimiento durante un ano con monitorizacion clinica y electrocardiografica. La tasa de recaida anual fue del 58%. La esclerosis aortica, una raiz aortica igual o mayor de 31mm, el area AI, la DTNV1 y el tercer tercil del NT-proBNP fueron factores predictivos independientes de recurrencia; el uso de antiarritmicos se comporto como factor protector. En consecuencia, la consideracion de la presencia de esclerosis aortica y/o de una raiz aortica igual o mayor de 31mm, parametros ecocardiograficos, facilmente obtenibles, con un valor predictivo aditivo, permite una mejor identificacion de los pacientes con un riesgo de recidiva superior y, por tanto, que mayor beneficio obtuvieran de una intensa estrategia terapeutica de control del ritmo
Sonification – an Alternative Presentation of the Electrocardiogram: A Systematic Literature Review

This study aims to answer the main question: “What is the state-of-the-art research studies on ECG sonification? ”, presenting a systematic literature review (SLR) in 2 databases (Scopus and Pubmed) on English papers (2007-2019). SLR identified 173 articles. Further analytical screening of titles and abstracts selected 22 articles involved into a qualitative synthesis: 5 papers on the transformation of ECG signals into sound; 7 papers on the wireless transmission of auscultatory streams for heart diagnosis; 13 papers on the synchronization between ECG and cardiac auscultation.
Design of fully-planar CSRR-based substrate integrated waveguide circuits

We present here a fully planar, low-cost and easy to fabricate power divider and a slot array antenna operating at 5G communication bands, based on a new version of the substrate integrated waveguide (SIW). The proposed SIW is synthesized by replacing each via row, with two rows of broadside-coupled complementary split ring resonators (BC-CSRRs), etched on the top and bottom metal ground surfaces of the dielectric substrate. Such resonators provide a negative effective permittivity and are capable of perfectly confining the wave within the propagating channel. The proposed waveguide exhibits excellent propagation characteristics, with losses close to those of the conventional SIW, providing a highly promising platform to implement low-cost planar components for 5G applications.
Condition monitoring of in-service oil-filled transformers: Case studies and experience

Transformers are one of the most strategic components in balancing the voltage levels and hence a high priority is given to their performance [1]. It is established that, insulation technology plays a critical role in judging the performance and service life in oil filled apparatus [2]. Performance of the insulation system depends mainly on the deterioration behavior of insulation oil and paper. The mechanisms that are responsible for premature aging of oil/paper insulation are almost the same in all the oil filled apparatus. Yet, there will be a significant difference in the intensity of the aging mechanisms in different apparatus. This intensity is attributable to rating, design, and duration of operation for different machines. The detailed discussions on these mechanisms are presented in the subsequent sections of this paper. However, aging of service insulants is unavoidable and is to be maintained at a lower rate or arrested to the greatest possible extent, such that, catastrophic failures and unscheduled outages may be mitigated [3]. Normally, utilities follow scheduled condition monitoring activities to avoid the consequences of premature aging. Hence, knowledge on these in-service condition monitoring activities will be helpful in understanding the exact deterioration rate of the insulation system. Real time in-service experience of several transformer fleets that belong to United Kingdom utilities are reported in [4]. An early degradation of insulation is noticed through increase in acidity and furan concentration in oil for several transformers in the fleet. Authors investigated this early degradation in different perspectives including loading conditions, manufacturers, and oil chemistry changes. It is inferred that changes in oil chemistry is an important attribute for early degradation and hence utilities are advised to adopt different asset management strategies for affected and unaffected transformers in a fleet. Recently, failure rate data of service aged transformer fleets of an Australian utility were analyzed to establish the relationship between aging and different failure types [5]. It is noticed that degradation of the insulation system will be rapid after 20 years of service aging thus entailing the frequent condition monitoring activities after 20 years to identify premature aging failures.
Antenna Beam Steering by Near-Field Phase Transformation: Comparison between Phase Transforming Printed Metasurfaces and Graded-Dielectric Plates

The antenna beam-steering technique based on near-field phase transformation yields antenna systems that have superior characteristics compared to the traditional methods including both mechanical and electronic. Some of the unique attributes associated with this technology are its totally passive nature, low height profile, and extremely simple operating mechanism. The technology has been used to develop two generations of antenna systems. The first generation was developed using multilayered printed metasurfaces (PMs) and the second generation used graded-dielectric plates (GDPs). In terms of radiation performance, the two antenna systems are nearly identical. The height profile of a GDP based antenna is about one free-space wavelength more than the height of a PM based antenna. PMs can only be manufactured in specialised facilities while with rapid advancements in materials and 3D printing, it may be possible to cheaply develop GDPs.
Characterization methodology up to 40 GHz of new low loss soft dielectric thermoplastic film for microwave applications

This paper presents a soft low dielectric loss thermoplastic blend based on polyolefins as a dielectric material for microwave applications. To determine the dielectric properties, more precisely the relative permittivity ${\varepsilon} \mathbf{r}$ and $\mathbf{tan}\ {\delta}$, characterization techniques and the elaboration of samples were customized to the $200-{\mu} \mathbf{m}$ thick dielectric film. Dielectric properties were extracted from the peaks of the transmission coefficient S12 measured from 10 MHz to 40 GHz with probe station and coplanar waveguide ring resonator. The measured dielectric constant and loss tangent of the investigated blends were found to be around ${\varepsilon}_{r}\approx 2.45$ and $\mathbf{tan}{\delta}\approx 0.01$ in X-Band. A proof of concept of a patch antenna based on the developed soft dielectric film of polypropylene (PP)-based polymer blend was also made. The measured return loss of the antenna showed great agreement with simulation results with HFSS® software and reached −30 dB at an operating frequency of 9.7 GHz. An investigation of the radiation characteristics in the far field in anechoic room was made. The gain and the efficiency of the patch microstrip antenna, which were extracted and calculated from the radiation pattern attained 4.56 dB and 47% respectively. These here reported results are promising for the development of blend compositions for high frequency applications.
Preliminary Experiments of a Cryogenic Boost Chopper Based on Low-Resistance MOSFETs and Zero-Resistance ReBCO Inductor under 77K

This paper presents the preliminary experiments of a cryogenic boost chopper based on low-resistance MOSFETs and zero-resistance ReBCO inductor under 77K. Three cryogenic operating behaviors of on-state resistances and breakdown voltages of commercial MOSFETs and on-state voltage across their built-in reverse diodes are experimentally investigated to demonstrate the technical feasibility of cryogenic power conversion. Being verified by extremely low conducting resistances under 77 K, two cryogenic power MOSFETs and one ReBCO inductor are subsequently used to develop a cryogenic boost chopper circuit. The experimental results obtained by different circuit schemes and testing conditions show that the overall power conversion efficiency in the cryogenic boost chopper is improved by about 7% than that in conventional boost chopper. These preliminary experiments lay some technical bases for maximizing the operating efficiencies in superconductor-semiconductor-coupled cryogenic power electronic interface towards smart DC microgrids.
Experimental Analysis of Equilibrium of Long-term Market Clearing Mechanism in China

In order to study the impact of average marginal electricity price clearing mode on the China’s electricity market, this paper first constructs the unified clearing model of current China’s market. Then based on co-evolution and experimental economics, a simulation platform is built. The current clearing method of long-term electricity market is simulated, and the equilibrium point in the market environment is analyzed, including the convergence and the clearing process under the monopolistic behavior of each subject and the connection between experimental economics and behavioral economics. The results show that the Nash equilibrium point of the power market can be found by co-evolutionary algorithm, and the price of the equilibrium point is slightly higher than the intersection of the market supply and demand marginal curve. Experimental economics results show that the experiment convergence point is neither same as the Nash equilibrium solution nor the monopoly point because of the different endowments.
Preventing disease and saving resources: the potential contribution of increasing breastfeeding rates in the UK

Breastfeeding protects babies and mothers against many illnesses. Improving care in the NHS has led to more women starting to breastfeed, but care is still patchy and a lack of support across society means that many breastfeeding mothers encounter problems that force them to stop before they want to. Most of the barriers that prevent mothers from breastfeeding for as long as they want could be removed with access to well-trained health professionals, good quality social support in the community, a widespread understanding of the profound benefits of breastmilk, and an acceptance within society that breastfeeding is normal.
Performance Evaluation of Ensemble based Collaborative Filtering Recommender System

Recommender Systems are used for finding the needle in the haystack. Recommender systems are of one the innovations in this revolution, which addresses the problem of filtering the data/information that is more likely to. Collaborative filtering is a technique which makes automatic predictions, by collecting the preferences for the users. But collecting the preferences from the user is no easy task. The Collaborative Filtering can also be a user based k-NN collaborative filtering algorithm or an item based k-NN collaborative filtering algorithm. Each type has its merits and demerits. Aiming at this concern, an ensemble based k-NN collaborative filtering is proposed. This work fuses the merits of the user based k-NN algorithm and item-based algorithm. The experiment analysis on the MovieLens dataset gives a consistent model that is accurate and results in better personalized movie recommendations than other conventional models. The experimental results show that ensemble based k-NN algorithm clearly improves enhances the recommender system’s performance, and give better recommendation $quality$.
A Survey on Women Safety Device Using IoT

In the present day scenes women safety is considered to be the major problem in both urban and rural areas. It is quite difficult to change the mind-set of the entire society, but we can provide several security devices for the women who are facing sexual harassment, acid attacks, molestation, etc. For providing the security, various smart devices and applications were developed. Many smart devices and applications are also available in the market; but, it doesn’t provide an effective solution. Experts from various field discovered women’s safety device which works in both manually and automatically. This article examines various women safety related techniques. The drawbacks and opportunities in women’s safety devices are also discussed.
Unique Solution Transmission-Only Approach for Determination of Dielectric Properties of Substrates

This paper deals with a new transmission-only method for getting the dielectric properties of substrates. The proposed method solved for the inherent S21-phase ambiguity problem by setting the starting frequency of operation below a precise limit, ideally around DC-frequency. A microstrip line structure printed on an FR4-like substrate is considered for validation. The proposed method correlate with the real substrate permittivity over several sample lengths considered. The overall relative error is between 1.5% and 6% over a wide frequency band of 0-18 GHz.
Factors affecting the job satisfaction of municipal sport officers : job satisfaction in sport

Municipalities throughout South Africa face increased demand for sport services. To meet this demand, they employ a variety of sport professionals, among whom are municipal sport officers. To prevent the voluntary turnover of their employees, municipalities have the obligation to ensure that the needs and expectations of these employees are satisfied. The purpose of this study was to examine factors influencing the job satisfaction of municipal sport officers. Using a quantitative approach, a questionnaire was developed and administered to municipal sports officers in Gauteng province of South Africa. A total of 185 municipal sport officers successfully completed the questionnaire. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and factor analysis to establish the factors that contributed to the job satisfaction of municipal sport officers. Five underlying factors, namely working conditions, skill utilisation, teamwork, creativity and autonomy that contributed to job satisfaction were extracted. Of these factors, working conditions of the respondents was perceived as contributing the most to their job satisfaction. The findings suggest that there is a need for municipalities to develop strategies to improve and sustain the job satisfaction of municipal sport officers.