Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transients Detection and Segmentation in Audio Signals

In this paper, we present a time domain frame based approach for transient detection and modelling of audio signals. Most audio signals are mainly composed of two parts: a deterministic and a stochastic part. The deterministic part of an audio signal consists of sinusoids, while noise and transients represent the stochastic part. Although the Spectral Modelling Synthesis approach proposed by Smith and Serra improves the originally Sinusoidal Modelling proposed by McAulay and Quatieri by taking into account the stochastic part, it does not make any differentiation between noise and transients. Since transients do not fit well into the proposed noise model, they therefore need their own model. Our time domain frame based approach is using linear prediction to calculate the prediction error of an audio signal. Since sudden changes in audio signals, like transients, remain unpredictable, the prediction error will show transients more accentuated in transient parts of the audio signal. Based on that assumption, we build an adaptive threshold based on envelope estimation of the obtained prediction error. The threshold function is kept constant in the transient area and follows the signal elsewhere. If a complete transient or a beginning of transient is detected in one frame, it will automatically be separated. A three components model is built and transients are thus left to their own model. With that technique we succeed in detecting and separating several transients in different types of audio signals.
Risk factors of extra-hepatic progression after transarterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma patients: a retrospective study in 654 cases

Aim: To investigate the risk factors of extra-hepatic progression after TACE in HCC. Methods: The study population included 654 HCC patients who underwent TACE between October 2005 and September 2012. We collected and analyzed their clinical characteristics and survival information. TACE was performed as previously described with minor modifications. When necessary, superselective chemoembolization was performed through the segmental or subsegmental arteries, based on the tumor location and extent and hepatic function reserve. If stasis could not be achieved in a tumor-feeding artery, iodized oil was used solely in some patients. Embolization was then performed with injection of absorbable gelfoam particles (1-2 mm in diameter) through the angiographic catheter. Results: The tumor response to initial TACE was evaluated in 645 patients. The CR rate, response rate (RR), and disease control rate (DCR) were 9.92%, 25.89%, and 70.39%, respectively. The median overall survival (OS) period was 14.5 months. The 6-month, 1-, 2-, 3-, and 5-year OS rates were 75.5%, 55.0%, 33.9%, 22.8%, and 14.9%, respectively. The median progression-free survival (PFS) period was 4.3 months. The 6-month, 1-, 2-, 3-, and 5-year PFS rates were 40.7%, 27.1%, 16.7%, 13.9%, and 9.3%, respectively. One hundred and fifty patients developed extrahepatic progression during follow-up. We demonstrated that in the absence of radical treatment after initial TACE (p<0.001), the presence of extrahepatic metastasis before initial TACE (p<0.001), AST >45 U/L (p=0.024), ALB <35 g/L (p=0.012), and tumor response were evaluated as PD and SD after initial TACE (p<0.001) and were found to be independent predictors of a poorer prognosis of extrahepatic PFS. Conclusions: We identified risk factors for extrahepatic progression after TACE in HCC patients. Early combination treatment was strongly recommended in patients that met these risk factors.
Detecting Mismatch Between Speech and Transcription Using Cross-Modal Attention

In this paper, we propose to detect mismatches between speech and transcriptions using deep neural networks. Although it is generally assumed there are no mismatches in some speech related applications, it is hard to avoid the errors due to one reason or another. Moreover, the use of mismatched data probably leads to performance reduction when training a model. In our work, instead of detecting the errors by computing the distance between manual transcriptions and text strings obtained using a speech recogniser, we view mismatch detection as a classification task and merge speech and transcription features using deep neural networks. To enhance detection ability, we use crossmodal attention mechanism in our approach by learning the relevance between the features obtained from the two modalities. To evaluate the effectiveness of our approach, we test it on Factored WSJCAM0 by randomly setting three kinds of mismatch, word deletion, insertion or substitution. To test its robustness, we train our models using a small number of samples and detect mismatch with different number of words being removed, inserted, and substituted. In our experiments, the results show the use of our approach for mismatch detection is close to 80% on insertion and deletion and outperforms the baseline.
Reducing the missed opportunities and Increasing Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Rates among Early Adolescents with Low Socioeconomic Status

Background: Almost 43,000 people in the United States have an HPV-associated cancer each year, with cancers in varying sites including the vagina, cervix, penis and anus. A majority of these cancers can be prevented through the 9valent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination that is the current recommended type of vaccine by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Unfortunately, the rates of individuals that have fully been vaccinated against HPV in the United States is still less than 50%. The goal of our study was to analyze the HPV vaccination rate of vaccine eligible patients (VEP), between the ages of 9-15 years attending a community Children’s Physician (CP) Pediatrics Clinic in Omaha, Nebraska and assess missed opportunities (MO) before and after intervention. Method: We did two providerfocused interventions after an initial lunch and learn education session about HPV vaccination: 1. avoiding MO by checking vaccination records and 2. weekly reminder emails with HPV information to PCPs. Result: The baseline immunization rate, calculated as percent of VEP vaccinated at their visit, was significantly lower in 2018 (13.16% MO 86.84%) than in 2017 (23.45% MO 76.55), p <0.05. Immunization rates of VEP in 2018 increased during intervention 1 (23.35% MO 76.65%) compared to baseline (13.16% MO 86.84%). Rates further improved during intervention 2 (46.32% MO 53.68%), and this was higher than the same months in 2017 (35.68% MO 64.32%), when no intervention was in place. This is the only timeperiod which differs significantly from its 2017 counterpart. Male vaccination rates for VEP trended similarly to the combined results: lower baseline in 2018 (11.7% MO 88.3%) vs. 2017 (28.17% MO 71.83%), increased rate during intervention 1 (21.43% MO 78.57%), and further increased rate during intervention 2 (48.33% MO 51.67%). Female vaccination rates of VEP showed an upward trend from baseline in 2018 (14.58% MO 85.42%) to maintenance period 2 (45.92% MO 54.08%), but there were no significant changes from the same time periods in 2017. Conclusion: Through provider education and email reminders the missed opportunities for HPV vaccination was reduced.
Unemployment and private returns to higher education in Argentina (1974-2002)

The paper analyzes the private returns to higher education in Argentina during the period 1974–2002. The main conclusion is that returns to education are positive and increase once corrected by the level of unemployment. As a consequence, when analyzing whether to invest in education, one should not only consider as benefits the differential in earnings, but also the higher probability of having a job that comes with attaining more education. This is particularly relevant in a country like Argentina which had unemployment rates of 5% during the eighties and started to have unemployment rates in the double digits by the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.
Ultrasound coupling media: their relative transmissivity.

: The relative transmissivities of several commonly used ultrasonic coupling agents were measured to determine if there were significant differences in their effectiveness. Coupling media were evaluated in thin films to simulate clinical use. In order to minimize experimental error in this determination, transmitted energy was measured in the far field of the sonating transducer; the receiving transducer was angled slightly to minimize standing waves; and the sonating chamber was made as anechoic as possible. It was found that there is no practical difference in the transmissivities of the common coupling agents, except that hydrocortisone ointments and creams had lower transmissivities, probably due to microscopically entrapped air. When used as a thin film, absorption of ultrasound in the media was insignificant, and variation in transducer pressure was found to cause differences in energy transmitted greater than those found between the common coupling media. Consequently, it was concluded that coupling media can be chosen primarily on the basis of cost and convenience.
Hypoglycaemic Activity of Tissue cultured and Field grown Plants of Tinospora cordifolia

Copyright  2014 irjpbs A protocol was established for rapid clonal propagation of the valuable medicinal plant, Tinospora cordifolia. Best shoot induction was observed on MS basal medium supplemented with 4.36 μM KIN produces 2.32 0.1 cm length with 1.8  0.1 numbers of shoots with 70 % response. Nodal explants of Tinospora cordifolia were cultured on MS medium with various concentrations of BA alone and in combination with NAA or IAA for multiple shoot proliferation. Among the different experiments, BA (8.82 μM) alone showed better growth response and produced 4.81 0.2 numbers of shoots with an average length of 3.1 0.1 cm after 20 days. Small shootlet were transferred to shoot elongation medium supplemented with 8.82 μM of BA alone. An average length of 4.82 0.4 cm with 4.61 0.2 numbers of shoots produced. The elongated shootlets transferred to half strength MS medium and 6.43 μM of IBA with 3% sucrose produce 5.2 0.2 rootlets per plant with average root length of 3.2 0.1 cm. Rooted plantlets were transplanted ex vitro and raised in pots containing red soil, vermiculite and farmyard manure in 1:1:1 ratio, kept under green house conditions for one month followed by their field transfer. Approximately 80% of plantlets survived. The present investigation is an attempt to assess the comparative hypoglycaemic effect of daily oral administration of methanolic extract of micropropagated and wild Tinospora cordifolia (T.C) (500mg/kg body weight) for 6weeks in normal and alloxan induced diabetic rats. A significant decrease in blood glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin, cholesterol, urea (p<0.05), and increase in body weight and protein (p<0.01) were observed in diabetic rats on treatment with T.C. S. methanolic extract when compared to normal. The activity of the hepatic enzyme hexokinase was significantly increased where as glucose 6-phosphatase and fructose 1, 6bisphosphatase were significantly decreased (p<0.01) by the oral administration of T.C. S. methanolic extract in diabetic rats when compared to normal. When compared wild the micropropagated plant have greater signifying to control blood glucose in alloxan induced diabetic rats.
O ct 2 01 0 Passive scheme with photon-number-resolving detector for monitoring the untrusted source in Plug-and-Play quantum key distribution system

A passive scheme with a beam splitter and a photon-number-re solving (PNR) detector is proposed to verify the photon statistics of an untrusted source in a plug-and-p lay quantum-key-distribution system by applying a three-intensity decoy-state protocol. The practical issu e due to statistical fluctuation and detection noise are analyzed. The simulation results show that the scheme can wo rk efficiently when the total number of optical pulses sent from Alice to Bob is above 10 8, and the dark count rate of the PNR detector is below 0.5 count s/pulse, which is realizable with current techniques. Furthermore, w propose a practical realization of the PNR detector with a variable optical attenuator combined with a threshol d detector.
Using Satellite Imagery to Predict Health

Obtaining quality data on population health statistics in developing countries is currently an expensive and infrequent process. Policy makers must rely on this sparse data in order to decide where to provide aid. In the same direction as recent works, we make efforts to automate this data collection through the use of remote sensing with deep learning. We use Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to directly predict poverty and malnutrition from satellite imagery. We find that directly predicting malnutrition is difficult, but our model can successfully classify impoverished regions with relatively high accuracy.
Traces of Locomotion of Ediacaran Macroorganisms

We describe traces of macroorganisms in association with the body imprints of trace-producers from Ediacaran (Vendian) deposits of the southeastern White Sea region. They are interpreted as traces of locomotion and are not directly related to a food gathering. The complex remains belong to three species: Kimberella quadrata, Dickinsonia cf. menneri, and Tribrachidium heraldicum. They were found in three different burials. The traces have the form of narrow ridges or wide bands (grooves and linear depressions on natural imprints). In elongated Kimberella and Dickinsonia, the traces are stretched parallel to the longitudinal axis of the body and extend from its posterior end. In the case of the isometric Tribrachidium, the trace is directed away from the margin of the shield. A short length of the traces indicates that they were left by the organisms that were covered with the sediment just before their death. The traces overlaid the microbial mat with no clear signs of deformation under or around the traces. A trace substance, apparently, differed from the material of the bearing layers (i.e., a fine-grained sandstone or siltstone) and was not preserved on the imprints. This suggests that the traces were made with organic material, probably mucus, which was secreted by animals in a stressful situation. The mucus traced the movements of the organism before death. The discovered traces of locomotion are direct evidence of the ability of some Ediacaran macroorganisms to move independently.
First-class dynamic types

Since LISP, dynamic languages have supported dynamically-checked type annotations. Even in dynamic languages, these annotations are typically static: tests are restricted to checking low-level features of objects and values, such as primitive types or membership of an explicit programmer-defined class. We propose much more dynamic types for dynamic languages — first-class objects that programmers can customise, that can be composed with other types and depend on computed values — and to use these first-class type-like values as types. In this way programs can define their own conceptual models of types, extending both the kinds of tests programs can make via types, and the guarantees those tests can provide. Building on a comprehensive pattern-matching system and leveraging standard language syntax lets these types be created, composed, applied, and reused straightforwardly, so programmers can use these truly dynamic first-class types to make their programs easier to read, understand, and debug.
Comparison of Non-native Speaker Adaptations for Large Vocabulary Continuous Mandarin Speech Recognition

Improving the performance of the state-of-the-art Mandarin speech recognition system for non-native speech remains a challenging task because of wide varieties of non-native accents. The recognition accuracy of the baseline models trained by Standard Mandarin Corpus was drastically low for the non-native speakers from Naxi and Lisu in Yunnan than for the native ones. To verify that the acoustic deviation is one of important factors affecting the performance of recognizer, maximum likelihood linear regression (MLLR) was adopted both alone and in combination with maximum a posteriori (MAP) with the Linguistic Minorities Accents Mandarin Speech Corpus which collected by our laboratory. It is shown that when MLLR and MLLR + MAP are used, the correct rates increase evidently. Keyword: Mandarin speech recognition, non-native speaker, Naxi accent, Lisu accent, speaker adaptation, MLLR, MAP.
THE USE OF DESIGN IN THE QUALITY MANAGEMENT : A CHANGE OF PARADIGMS IN THE FURNITURE SECTOR OF SANTA MARIA-RS

This study aims to identify the customer needs in the furniture sector in the region of Santa Maria RS. It has the purpose of providing benefits of a theoretical and practical order to add value through the use of design in the furniture production. The lack of professionals in the design business is a big challenge, because it involves changes in the paradigms that, as a matter of fact, refer to the acceptance of design as a differential factor. For the theoretical basis of the study it was used the furniture industry, emphasizing their main characteristics, as well as the origin and evolution of the management of design and quality. The field work was conducted through semi-structured interviews with managers of the micro and small companies. It was used in the research a questionnaire to seek the opinions of consumers on the importance of using design as a differential factor. The data found in the questionnaires were compared with the interview with the managers, and the results reinforce the need for companies using design as a tool in quality management.
اثر شدت تمرینات تناوبی بر PGC-1α عضلهی اسکلتی و مقاومت به انسولین در رتهای نر دیابتی نوع دو

Background: The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of a 12 weeks interval training with high and moderate intensity on PGC-1α of skeletal muscle in type 2 diabetic male rats. Methods: 40 male rats were divided into two groups: High fat diet (HFD) (n=32) and standard diet (C) (n=8) for 10 weeks. After inducing type2 diabetes via STZ, 8 diabetic rats (D) and 8 rats in group C rats sacrificed and the remaining 24 Rats were randomly assigned to three groups of diabetic control (DC), moderate intensity interval training (MIIT) and high intensity interval training (HIIT). The MIIT protocol includes 13 bouts of 4minute activity with equivalent intensity of 60-65% vo2max and the HIIT protocol includes 10 bouts of 4minute activity with equivalent intensity of 85-90% vo2max with 2 minute active rest periods that was applied for 12 weeks, 5 sessions per week. Western Blot method was used to measure PGC-1α protein levels. Results: The results showed that PGC-1α protein levels were significantly lower in the D group compared to the HC group. In contrast, the HIIT protocol resulted in an increase in protein levels of PGC-1α compared to DC2 group. While MICT had no significant effect on protein levels of PGC-1α (P <0.05). Also, there was no significant difference between the two training groups (P<0.05). Conclusion: It seems that the intensity of interval training plays an important role in the regulation of skeletal muscle PGC-1α and possibly mitochondria biogenesis in type 2 diabetic rats.
CoFiH : A heuristic for concept discovery in computer-assisted conceptual analysis

While conceptual analysis can be facilitated by computer assistance, the absence of proper models for concepts in text has curtailed the development of such tools. The most common heuristic, which consists in identifying keywords as canonical expression of a concept, poses problems of ambiguity and fails to retrieve most of the relevant textual data. In this paper, we present CoFiH, an algorithm that exploits topics in order to retrieve segments relevant to a given concept. It is then applied to C.S. Peirce's Collected Papers to facilitate the analysis of Peirce's concept of LAW. Compared to the baseline, CoFiH produces better recall and enables a meaningful analysis along several topics.
The Return to Biomedical Research: Treatment and Behavioral Effects

This paper estimates the value of medical research, using cardiovascular disease as a case study. We highlight two roles of medical research: the new therapies it leads to; the information that is provided to consumers, allowing for health-improving behavioral changes. We estimate the return to new medical treatments at about 4 to 1 and the return to health knowledge at about 30 to1. In both cases, innovation has very high returns.
Composite Kernel Machines on Kernel Locally Consistent Concept Factorization Space for Data Mining

This paper proposes a novel approach to overcome the main problems in high-dimensional data mining. We construct a composite kernel machine (CKM) on a special space (the kernel locally consistent concept factorization (KLCCF) space) to solve three problems in high-dimensional data mining: the curse of dimensionality, data complexity and nonlinearity. CKM exploits multiple data sources with strong capability to identify the relevant ones and their apposite kernel representation. KLCCF finds a compact representation of data, which uncovers the hidden information and simultaneously respects the intrinsic geometric structure of data manifold. Our new system robustly overcomes the weakness of CKM, it outperforms many traditional classification systems.
Creating Supply Chain Resilience Through Agile Six Sigma

www.criticaleye. net 24 Today’s global supply chains are, in effect, highly complex networks. They are increasingly vulnerable to disruption which can have significant impact on profitability and shareholder value. Recent research at Cranfield School of Management has highlighted where the sources of risk in supply chains might lie and how that risk might be mitigated and managed by the application of ‘Six Sigma’ philosophies and procedures. Creating Supply Chain Resilience Through Agile Six Sigma
ScienceDirect Association mapping of quantitative trait loci for yield-related agronomic traits in rice ( Oryza sativa L . )

High yield in rice mainly depends on large grain weight, ideal plant architecture and proper flowering time adapting to various geographic regions. To help achieve higher yield, phenotype variations of heading date (HD), plant architecture and grain shape in a panel of 416 rice accessions were investigated in this study. A total of 143 markers including 100 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and 43 gene-tagged markers were employed in association mapping to detect quantitative trait loci (QTL) responsible for these variations. Among the 7 subpopulations, POP5 in japonica group showed the largest values of HD and grain width (GW), but the smallest values of grain length (GL) and grain length to width ratio (GLW). Among the six indica groups, POP7 had the largest values of HD, GL, GLW, and 1 000-grain weight (TGW). A total of 27 QTLs were detected underlying these phenotypic variations in single year, while 12 of them could be detected in 2006 and 2007. GS3 marker was closely associated with GL, GW and GLW, and widely distributed in different groups. The starch synthesis related gene markers, SSI, SSIIa, SBE1, AGPL4, and ISA1, were linked to plant height (PH), panicle length (PL), flag leaf length (FLL), GW, and GLW. The SSR markers, RM267, RM340 and RM346, were linked to at least two traits. Therefore, these new markers will probably be used to improve rice grain yield or plant architecture when performing marker-assisted selection of proper alleles.