Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PERCEPTUAL AND ACOUSTIC ANALYSIS OF VOWEL PRODUCTIONS IN WORDS AND PSEUDO WORDS IN CHILDREN WITH SUSPECTED CHILDHOOD APRAXIA OF SPEECH

Purpose: Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a developmental disorder affecting speech motor programming and planning. This study aims to investigate deviant vowel and diphthong articulations of German children with suspected CAS. Methods and Data: A corpus of 115 isolated stimulus words and 33 pseudo words were elicited by picture naming or by repetition respectively from three three German children with suspected CAS aged 5;9 to 6;3 years as well as for 21 age and gender matched controls. Perceptual and acoustic analyses were performed in order to judge the monophthong and diphthong realizations of suspected CAS-children versus control speakers.Results: The perceptual evaluation shows monophthong and diphthong errors in the suspected CAS-children in contrast to the controls. The deviant productions concern monophthongs and diphthongs in monoas well as in multisyllabic words. The stimuli with incorrect monophthong and diphthong productions were examined more closely by acoustic means.Discussion: This study shows that incorrect monophthong and diphthong productions can be detected in children with suspected CAS by perceptual and acoustic evaluation. Incorrect monophthong and diphthong productions seem to be an appropriate diagnostic criterion, which can be also observed in the German population and described by perceptual and acoustic evaluation. Further Investigations are planned to dissociate children with Phonological Disorders (PD) from suspected CAS and to examine wether monophthong and diphthong errors can be used as an diagnostic marker.
Deep, Robust and Single Shot 3D Multi-Person Human Pose Estimation from Monocular Images

In this paper, we propose a new single shot method for multi-person 3D pose estimation, from monocular RGB images. Our model jointly learns to locate the human joints in the image, to estimate their 3D coordinates and to group these predictions into full human skeletons. Our approach leverages and extends the Stacked Hourglass Network and its multi-scale feature learning to manage multi-person situations. Thus, we exploit the Occlusions Robust Pose Maps (ORPM) to fully describe several 3D human poses even in case of strong occlusions or cropping. Then, joint grouping and human pose estimation for an arbitrary number of people are performed using associative embedding. We evaluate our method on the challenging CMU Panoptic dataset, and demonstrate that it achieves better results than the state of the art.
Selectivity and opportunism : two dimensions of gender differences in trust games and network formation

We test two hypotheses, based on sexual selection theory, about gender differences in individual choices with respect to social interactions requiring investment (of time or economic resources). The differential selectivity hypothesis predicts that women invest less than men in an interaction with a new partner, other things equal. The differential opportunism hypothesis predicts that women’s investment in a social interaction is less responsive to information about the likely economic payoff to that investment. Both hypotheses, if true, imply important differences in the formation of social networks by women and men. Two cohorts of a total of 363 students were matched randomly over two rounds with a partner to play a trust game. In the second round of the trust game they also had the chance to invite a new partner to play. We find evidence in favor of both hypotheses. In particular, women invest less in new partners in both rounds, and invest even less in a framing treatment that reminds them of the need to reflect on the decision. They also react less elastically to their a priori beliefs about the likely returns to their investment, and to information that is revealed at the beginning of the second round about the return to the amounts sent to their previous partner. JEL-Classification: C91, D81, J16
TWO MODELS OF CANADIAN INTERREGIONAL MIGRATION

The specifie aim of this research is to answer the following questions concerning migration in Canada: (a) What is the long run distribu­ tion of interprovincial transition probabilities? , and (b) What is the long run population distribution, given that the population is heterogeneous and exhibits cumulative inertia? These questions are examined empirically in the second section of this paper. A more abstract issue-the relationship between the moyer-stayer model and a semi-Markov model-forms the subject of the third section. The present section places the research in context, first by referring to observed empirieal facts about heterogeneity and cumulative iner­ tia and then by discussing the implications of these facts for model design.
INFLATION TARGETING AND INDIA CAN MONETARY POLICY IN INDIA FOLLOW INFLATION TARGETING AND ARE THE MONETARY POLICY REACTION FUNCTIONS ASYMMETRIC ?

Inflation, being one of the most volatile variables in the economy, possesses the potential to cause severe impact on the economy and on the life of people. The Economists and Policy makers have been trying to bring inflation under their control and to reduce its volatility as much as possible. Out of the various strategies adopted, the strategy that yielded the best result was the policy of Inflation Targeting. India has also been suffering from highly volatile inflation over the years and hence this paper tries to examine whether the Central bank, given the policy response now, could adopt the policy of Inflation targeting in India. The paper also attempts to examine whether there exists any asymmetry in the monetary policy in the India. Taylor rule and Linux Preference Function were used as models in the study. The study used secondary data collected from various publications of RBI. GMM technique was employed for the estimation of the models. The results showed that with the kind of policy response that exists now, RBI is more efficient in controlling output gap rather than current inflation in India. The study also reveals that there exists asymmetry in the monetary policy reaction of RBI.
Assessing the Status of E-Banking and its Effect on Employees ’ Job Satisfaction in Commercial Bank of Ethiopia , Hawassa City Branches , SNNPRS , Ethiopia

Banking plays a vital role in the economy of any country. In Ethiopia, most of the Banks have deployed IT to transform their processes in to an e-based service. In line with this the study has been carried out to assess the functioning of EBanking and its effects on employees’ job satisfaction in Commercial of Ethiopia branches in Hawassa City. A Sample size of 155 respondents were taken from all selected branches who had been involved at least one of the e-banking types. To gain a reserach understanding of the status of e-banking in selected branches of commercial banks of Ethiopia, descriptive survey research design was used for this study. Both primary and secondary data sources were used for the study. Descriptive analysis results revealed that of the various types of e-banking service quality dimensions, transaction efficiency, service security and ease of useare the major aspects to improve e-banking service quality and in turn overall employees’ satisfaction. Reliability, transaction efficiency and ease of use have a positive relationship with employee’s satisfaction. An increase in reliability, transaction efficiency, and ease of use are found in the service delivery.
PREVENTIVE BEHAVIORS OF STRESS MANAGEMENT IN ESSENTIAL-MILD HYPERTENSION PATIENTS AT BMA HEALTH CENTER REGION 48, BANGKOK

This analytical cross-sectional survey on knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of preventive behaviors regarding stress management in 300 essential-mild hypertension out-patients at BMA Health Center No. 48 during February to March 2008 mainly found that (1) the subjects’ knowledge was on a high level (53.0%), with moderate level of attitude (44.3%), and moderate level of practice (51.0%), (2) only an ability to relieve stress (demographic data variable) had a significant statistically relationship with knowledge (p<0.05) and attitude (p<0.001), but not with practices (p=0.074), (3) there was a strong and statistically significant positive relationship between knowledge and attitude (p<0.001); and attitude and practice (p<0.001); but not between knowledge and practice (p=0.142). The key recommendation for clinical practice is that a complete cycle of intervention should be achieved, considering knowledge, attitude, ability to relieve stress and skills to cope with stress, and practice, in order to increase patients’ practice of preventive behaviors regarding stress management. The missing link of an ability to relieve stress and skills to cope with stress to KAP on the current issue is the main improvement recommended for existing health prevention/promotion campaign offered by the involved public sector.
Gifting Relationships and School Dropout in Rural Malawi: Examining Differences by Gender and Poverty Level

Abstract Research from sub‐Saharan Africa has shown the heightened likelihood of dropping out of school for students in sexual relationships, particularly girls. However, our knowledge is limited as to whether the risk of school dropout is exacerbated by the exchange of gifts in the relationship as well as students’ poverty level. Drawing on longitudinal survey data from rural Malawi, this study explores these questions, examining differences by gender and poverty level in the association between being in a sexual relationship in which gifts are exchanged and school dropout for adolescents in primary school. Our findings show that for both boys and girls, being in a gifting relationship heightens the risk of school dropout and eliminates the protective advantages of being nonpoor on dropout. However, non‐gifting sexual relationships also erase the protective advantage of being nonpoor for girls, but not for boys. These results point to the value of examining poverty–gender interactions to gain a more nuanced understanding of the impact of sexual relationships on adolescent trajectories.
Gender differences and the use of health care services in childhood asthma

Objectives: To compare gender differences in childhood asthma and to assess whether there is a gender difference in the use ofhealth care services. Method: An analysis of the data collected by Peat et al. [34] in the years of 1991 to 1993 has been used for this study. The population sample comprised of 5468 children from eight to eleven years of age. Results: Males had a high prevalence of wheeze and asthma (P<O.OOl) compared to females. They had more frequent consultations with a general practitioner (P<O.05), more assessments in the Accident and Emergency department (P<O.OOl), more admissions to hospital (P<O.OOl) and used more medications for asthma (P<O.OOl). In the asthma severity groups, males diagnosed with asthma and wheeze in the last 12 months had more admissions to hospital (P<O.Ol), consultations with a general practitioner (P<O.Ol) and assessments in the emergency department (P<O.05) than females. In addition, compared to females, males with four or more episodes of whee.ze in the last 12 months used more medications for asthma (P<O.05) and males with atopy had more hospital admissions, assessments in the emergency department and consultations with a general practitioner (P<O.05). Conclusion: The study found significant differences by gender in the use of health care services, in childhood asthma. Males had a greater preponderance to wheeze and asthma and used more health care services than females. When further analyses relating to the· severity of the disease were conducted, males not only had more asthma than females, but male asthmatics had more severe asthma as indicated by a greater use of health care servIces.
王国のゴルフ = Golf in the Kingdom

シーヴァス・アイアンズ 彼の名前に関する注記 王国のゴルフ ゴルフ讃歌 シエイマス・マクダフの３番ウッド 大空を舞う凧になれ 解明可能なゴルフの隠された意味 内なる肉体 真の重力についての若干の注記 オカルト反動 ゴルファーの十二宮 １９５５年のＵＳオープンでのホーガンとフレック ゴルフでわかる性格の欠陥 ゴルフのルール スコアの記録について 練習の楽しみ シーヴァス・アイアンズの西洋史 曲がりくねった黄金の川 高位の自我 全体像と肥沃な虚空 万物の内部透視と頑丈な心の蝶番 人間には二つの面がある シーヴァスの理想
Modeling of interactions between the human 5-HT7 receptor and ligands

By constructing homology models of the human 5-HT7 (5-hydroxytryptamin, serotonin) receptor based on three different X-ray crystals of the turkey beta1 adrenergic receptor (one with an agonist complex, one with antagonist complex and one with a partial agonist complex) we tried to determine if there are any difference between the docking of agonists, antagonist and partial agonist ligands in the three different models, and look into which amino acids that are important for ligand binding. The building of the homology models and docking was done using Molsoft ICM pro. X-ray crystal structures where downloaded from the PDB database (www.rcsb.org) and the amino acid sequence from UniProt database (www.uniprot.org). Ligands were selected from was selected from ChEMBL database. Article searches where done in www.pubmed. com. Results did not indicate a difference in ligand-receptor interactions or energy state of the complexes across the agonist and antagonist models. The model based on the partial agonist complex template yielded less successful dockings and higher energy levels of docking complexes. Residues included in the binding site, in trans membrane helix's 3 (Asp3.32), 5 (Thr5.43, Ser5.42, Tyr5.38, Phe5.47), 6 (Phe6.51, Phe6.52, Ser6.55), and 7 (Phe7.38), that interact with the ligands in this study, are in accordance with previously published SAR, docking and mutation papers included in this research. Other residues with repeating interaction with ligands include Val2.60, Val3.33 and Tyr5.38. Further investigation on the role of these amino acids in ligand binding could be useful. Agonists and partial agonists tend to bind in the pocket between helix's 4-7, while the antagonists occupy both the pocket between TMH4-6 and the pocket between TMH7-3.
Exploring practice-based education in podiatry : an action research project

i Tables . xi Figures . xii Acknowledgements . xiv Author’s declaration . xv Glossary . xvi Abbreviations . xvii CHAPTER ONE: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK . 1 1.1 Author’s perspective . 1 1.2 Definitions . 3 1.3 Local context of a practice-based education in podiatry . 4 1.4 National context of practice placement learning . 10 1.5 Literature review of practice placements in podiatry . 12 1.5. 1 Responsibilities of the clinical educator in podiatry. 23 1.5. 2 Establishing a learning environment . 23 1.5. 3 Relationships . 24 1.6 Teaching in the clinical environment . 25 1.6. 1 Developing psychomotor skills . 25 1.6. 2 Feedback . 27 1.6. 3 Judging competence . 29 1.6. 4 Student assessment . 31 1.6. 5 Barriers and challenges to practice-based learning . 32 1.7 Platform for research . 35 1.8 Thesis outline. 38 CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK . 40 2.
Contour-based character segmentation for printed Arabic text with diacritics

Abstract. Current developments in sensors open new possible uses across numerous real-life applications, including optical character recognition (OCR). An OCR system requires incorporation of text processing tools into the sensor functionality. The most critical stage in OCR systems is the segmentation stage. It refers to the challenge of subdividing a text image into characters, which can be individually processed using a classifier. The cursive nature of the Arabic script such as the existence of different shapes for each character according to its location in the word besides the existence of diacritics makes Arabic character segmentation a very challenging task. A robust offline character segmentation algorithm for printed Arabic text with diacritics is developed based on the contour extraction technique. The algorithm works through extracting the up-contour part of a word and then identifies the splitting areas of the word characters. Then a postprocessing stage is used to handle the over-segmentation problems that appear in the initial segmentation stage. The proposed scheme is benchmarked using the APTI dataset and a manually collected dataset consisting of image texts varying in font size, type, and style for more than 38,000 words. The experiments show that the proposed algorithm is able to segment Arabic words with diacritics with an average accuracy of 98.5%.
cells reveal differential roles of the nucleus in cell migration, polarity, and mechanotransduction

scratch. For experiments with REF52 cells, scratches were made using a P200 pipet tip at a ∼ 45° angle, resulting in a ∼ 200-µm-wide scratch. For HUV ECs, scratches were made using a gel loading pipet tip at a ∼ 45° angle, resulting in a ∼ 100-µm-wide scratch. Cells were imaged every 10 min for 16 h with a 20× objective under 0.5× magnification on an Olympus VivaView FL microscope. Nuclei were stained with the Vybrant DyeCycle Green nuclear stain at the end of all experiments. Nuclear density was measured for both intact cells and cytoplasts at the end of experiments via sampling three random regions per nuclear image with a 100 µm × 100 µm–square region. These values were then averaged and reported per scratch assay run. Scratch closure was measured for each hour over a 16-h experiment by manually outlining the open cleft area using ImageJ. Scratch closure rates were measured from three or four fields of view per dish. Closure rates were quantified relative to the starting area of the cleft (from t = 0). All data were collected from at least three independent experiments.
Studies on neural regulation of blood pressure in hypertension

﻿ Resetting of baroreceptor afferent firing in hypertensive animals, and the reduction in baroreflex regulation of the heart rate seen in man, are thought to be secondary to changes in vascular distensibility in hypertension. Diminished baroreflex sensitivity should be reflected in a withdrawal of inhibition of sympathetic nervous function. This hypothesis was investigated in 62 hypertensive subjects using three indirect indices of sympathetic nervous activity: (1) the haemodynamic responses to mental and physical exercise, (2) plasma noradrenaline concentrations at rest, and on exercise, and (3) the beat-to-beat variability of waking ambulatory blood pressure. Subjects with diminished baroreflex sensitivity (1) achieved higher maximum mean arterial blood pressures during four different exercises, and greater absolute increases in blood pressure when bicycling, (2) tended (P The time course and extent of changes in baroreflex sensitivity, in relation to changes in the heart and (by inference from previous work) the peripheral vasculature, during the development and reversal of 2-kidney 1-clip Goldblatt hypertension was investigated in rats. A reduction in baroreflex sensitivity occurred within three days of renovascular hypertension, before the occurrence of cardiovascular changes and resetting of the threshold for carotid sinus activation. Baroreflex sensitivity returned to normal one day after the reversal of renovascular hypertension, at a time when these structural changes were still present. It was concluded that 'non-structural', rather than 'structural' factors were responsible for the reduction in baroreflex sensitivity during the initial stages of renovascular hypertension.
MRI Tracking of SPIO- and Fth1-Labeled Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Transplantation for Treatment of Stroke

We aimed to identify a suitable method for long-term monitoring of the migration and proliferation of mesenchymal stromal cells in stroke models of rats using ferritin transgene expression by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs) were transduced with a lentivirus containing a shuttle plasmid (pCDH-CMV-MCS-EF1-copGFP) carrying the ferritin heavy chain 1 (Fth1) gene. Ferritin expression in stromal cells was evaluated with western blotting and immunofluorescent staining. The iron uptake of Fth1-BMSCs was measured with Prussian blue staining. Following surgical introduction of middle cerebral artery occlusion, Fth1-BMSCs and superparamagnetic iron oxide- (SPIO-) labeled BMSCs were injected through the internal jugular vein. The imaging and signal intensities were monitored by diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), T2-weighted imaging (T2WI), and susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) in vitro and in vivo. Pathology was performed for comparison. We observed that the MRI signal intensity of SPIO-BMSCs gradually reduced over time. Fth1-BMSCs showed the same signal intensity between 10 and 60 days. SWI showed hypointense lesions in the SPIO-BMSC (traceable for 30 d) and Fth1-BMSC groups. T2WI was not sensitive enough to trace Fth1-BMSCs. After transplantation, Prussian blue-stained cells were observed around the infarction area and in the infarction center in both transplantation models. Fth1-BMSCs transplanted for treating focal cerebral infarction were safe, reliable, and traceable by MRI. Fth1 labeling was more stable and suitable than SPIO labeling for long-term tracking. SWI was more sensitive than T2W1 and suitable as the optimal MRI-tracking sequence.
LORE: a large-scale offer recommendation engine with eligibility and capacity constraints

Businesses, such as Amazon, department store chains, home furnishing store chains, Uber, and Lyft, frequently offer deals, product discounts and incentives to drive sales, increase new product acceptance and engage with users. In order to appeal to diverse user groups, these businesses typically design more than one promotion offer but market different ones to different users. For instance, Uber offers a percentage discount in the rides to some users and a low fixed price to others. In this paper, we propose solutions to optimally recommend promotions and items to maximize user conversion constrained by user eligibility and item or offer capacity (limited quantity of items or offers) simultaneously. We achieve this through an offer recommendation model based on Min-Cost Flow network optimization, which enables us to satisfy the constraints within the optimization itself and solve it in polynomial time. We present two approaches that can be used in various settings: single period solution and sequential time period offering. We evaluate these approaches against competing methods using counterfactual evaluation in offline mode. We also discuss three practical aspects that may affect the online performance of constrained optimization: capacity determination, traffic arrival pattern and clustering for large scale setting.
8th Workshop Automotive HMIs: UI Research in the Age of New Digital Realities

Even though many aspects of automated driving have not yet become reality, many human factors issues have already been investigated. However, recent discussions revealed common misconceptions in both research and society about vehicle automation and the levels of automation levels. This might be due to the fact that automated driving functions are misnamed (cf. Autopilot) and that vehicles integrate functions at different automation levels (L1 lane keeping assistant, L2/L3 traffic jam assist, L4 valet parking). The user interface is one of the most critical issues in the interaction between humans and vehicles -- and diverging mental models might be a major challenge here. Today's (manual) vehicles are ill-suited for appropriate HMI testing for automated vehicles. Instead, virtual or mixed reality might be a much better playground to test new interaction concepts in an automated driving setting. In this workshop - motivated by the conference theme - we will look into the potential of new digital realities for concepts, visualizations, and experiments in the car, e. g. , by replacing all the windows with displays or transferring the entire environment into a VR world. We are further interested in discussing novel forms of interaction (speech, gestures, gaze-based interaction) and information displays to support the driver/passenger.