Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Accès lexical et reconnaissance du voisement en voix chuchotée (Lexical acces and recognition of voicing in whisper)[In French]

La reconnaissance du trait de voisement de consonnes obstruantes chuchotées en français a été examinée via un paradigme d’amorçage sémantique auditif-visuel. Un effet d’amorçage d’amplitude similaire à celui mesuré en voix modale a été observé uniquement lorsque l’obstruante du mot amorce chuchoté est sourde (dessert-CHOCOLAT). Aucun effet d’amorçage n’a été noté quand l’obstruante du mot amorce est voisée (désert) que ce soit sur le mot cible SABLE associé sémantique de désert ou sur le mot cible CHOCOLAT associé sémantique de dessert. Ainsi, même si certaines travaux ont mis en évidence qu’en voix chuchotée les consonnes obstruantes voisées maintiennent des traces phonétiques de leur identité sous-jacente, notre étude montre que ces consonnes sont ambigües pour l’auditeur et que leur reconnaissance n’est pas immédiate.
Learning by supervised clustering and matching

This article presents a procedure for a class of neural networks, known as neural logic networks, to learn multidimensional mapping of both binary and analog data. The procedure, termed supervised clustering and matching (SCM), provides a means of deducing inductive knowledge from training cases. In contrast to gradient descent error correction methods, pattern mapping is learned by fast and incremental clustering of input and output patterns. Specifically, learning/encoding only takes place when both the input and output match criteria are satisfied in a template matching process. To handle sparse and/or noisy data sets, the authors also present a weighted voting scheme whereby distributed cluster activities combine to produce a final output. The performance of the SCM algorithm, compared with alternative systems, is illustrated on a sonar return signal recognition and a sunspot time series prediction problems.
Robust Virtual Keyboard for Online Banking

Current authentication practices suffer from many loopholes. To access an online banking facility, a customer with Internet access would need to register with the institution for the service, and set up some password for authentication process. Basically there are two types of password inputs allowed by banking websites these days. The first one is the traditional input in which we enter the password using keyboards and the second one is the virtual input in which the system accepts password using a virtual keyboard available in login pages of all bank websites. Virtual keyboards are considered as additional security steps for accessing online banking websites but this paper will describe how weak this implementation can be and what security measures can be adopted to maintain the confidentiality. General Terms Social Engineering Attack, Shoulder Surfing, Virtual Keyboard, Security, Algorithms
Long-Term Oxygen Therapy.

BACKGROUND Long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) is an established treatment for patients with chronic hypoxemia. Its scientific basis is derived mainly from two trials from the early 1980s that showed a survival advantage for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) treated with LTOT. Robust data are not available for other diseases associated with hypoxemia. METHODS This review is based on pertinent publications retrieved by a selective search in PubMed. RESULTS The use of LTOT for 15 to 16 hours per day (or, better, 24 hours per day) is recommended in current guidelines for patients with chronic hypoxemia (PaO2 ≤ 55 mm Hg) because this treatment was found to be associated with a lower mortality rate compared to no LTOT (33% vs. 55%, p <0.05) based on data from the early 1980s. In the short term, oxygen administration to a hypoxemic patient can improve oxygen saturation by nine percentage points and improve physical performance to a clinically relevant extent (6-minute walking test: + 37 m, p <0.001). The available data do not support the use of LTOT for normoxemic patients. LTOT should only be administered for strict indications, in accordance with the guidelines, and only in a form suitable for the individual patient. Skin burns can occur as a side effect of LTOT because of contact explosions with any type of fire. CONCLUSION The acquisition of further robust data would be desirable, particularly with respect to patient-relevant outcome parameters including quality of life, performance status, and mortality. Moreover, the German guidelines on oxygen therapy need to be updated.
An Agricultural Sensor Data Sparse Representation and Recovery Method Based on Redundant Dictionary

Abstract. The applications based on Internet of Things are widely used. In these applications, how to efficiently compressed wireless sensor data and recover them accurately is an important problem. In order to solve this problem, we design an agricultural sensor data sparse representation and recovery method based on redundant dictionary. We test our method on real sensor data set and the results show that the sensor data can be compressed and recovered accurately.
Health inequalities and people with learning disabilities in the UK

This briefing paper will assist Primary, Acute and Specialist NHS Trusts in fulfilling their responsibilities. In this report we summarise the most recent evidence from the UK on the health status of people with learning disabilities and the determinants of the health inequalities they face. Later in the autumn, IHaL will be producing a briefing for GP Commissioning Consortia and PCTs on practical commissioning actions to help address the issues identified in this report.
Raltegravir: an integrase inhibitor for HIV-1

Background: The need to develop antiretroviral agents with novel mechanisms of action persists for the treatment of both antiretroviral- experienced and antiretroviral-naive patients with HIV/AIDS. This is mandated, in part, by the perpetual advent of antiretroviral-resistant HIV-1 strains. Raltegravir has been shown to specifically inhibit the essential, HIV-1-encoded, integrase enzyme. As a result, this agent represents a promising chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Objective: To form an evidence-based determination of the clinical efficacy, pharmacokinetics and safety profile of raltegravir. Method: We discuss available peer-reviewed publications, preliminary data presented in abstract from relevant scientific meetings and data available from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Results/conclusion: Current evidence strongly supports raltegravir use in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimens constructed to treat patients failing current therapies with multi-drug-resistant HIV-1. Additional data are needed to determine its role in the treatment of less advanced patients. Issue surrounding long-term adverse effects and genetic barriers to raltegravir resistance will be critical in determining the potential of this agent.
Complexities in the evaluation of distance education and virtual schooling

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the complexities and issues involved in the evaluation of distance education and virtual schooling. In order to provide an anchor to the issues involved in evaluating online projects we first present the evaluation design of a virtual high school project. Then, the emphasis of the paper is on the goals of the evaluation, stakeholder analysis, evaluator role, data collection, and data analysis. Finally, we discuss the need for evaluation of distance education and the ethical responsibility of the evaluators involved.De la complexité de l'évaluation de l'éducation à distance et de la scolarité virtuelle. Le but de cet article est de discuter des complexités et des problèmes posés par l'évaluation de l'éducation à distance et de la scolarité virtuelle de façon à fournir un ancrage aux problèmes impliqués dans l'évaluation de projets en lignes, nous présentons d'abord un schéma d'évaluation d'un projet d'école secondaire virtuelle. Ainsi l'article met l'accent sur les objectifs de l'évaluation, l'analyse du dépositaire d'enjeux, le rôle de l'évaluation, la collecte des données et leur analyse. Finalement, nous discutons du besoin de l'évaluation de l'éducation à distance et de la responsabilité éthique des évaluations impliquées. Komplexitäten in der Auswertung von Distance Education und virtueller Schulung. Der Zweck dieses Beitrags ist, die mit der Auswertung von Distance Education und virtueller Schulung verbundenen Komplexitäten und Fragen zu erörtern. Als Ausgangspukt zu den Fragen, die mit der Bewertung von Online-Projekten verbunden sind, zeigen wir zuerst den Auswertungsentwurf für ein virtuelles High-School-Projekt. Dann liegt der Schwerpunkt des Papiers auf den Zielen der Auswertung, Interessengruppenanalyse, Auswerterrolle, Datenerfassung und Datenanalyse. Zuletzt erörtern wir den Bedarf nach Auswertung von Distance Education und die ethische Verantwortung der eingebundenen Auswerter.
Review on Frequent Subgraph Pattern Mining Algorithms

Frequent subgraph pattern mining is a one of the most popular research topics in data mining. Aim of graph mining is finding interesting patterns within data that represent novel knowledge. Now a day frequent subgraph mining used in various domains like in chemical compounds, social networks, biological networks etc. Mining patterns from graph database is difficult because of subgraph testing and their different operations. This paper gives the idea about different subgraph algorithms based on their approaches.
Revising and Rewriting in Collaborative Writing in Higher Education and Beyond

The present study identifies the problems that students of the Educational Science Faculty of the Complutense University of Madrid encounter when revising and rewriting texts. This process involves developing and clarifying their thoughts in order to rewrite the text which, in turn, implies not only evaluating and improving the draft but also transforming and constructing knowledge. It is assumed that the revision and rewriting process specifically consists of identifying, diagnosing and rewriting language units or fragments of text which can be improved. This involves applying cognitive operations of information management to rough drafts at different linguistic and textual levels until the final text is collaboratively produced. In conclusion, it is argued that the potential of collaborative revision and rewriting, as well as the need for writer tutoring through guides which monitor the process and encourage reflection, should be highlighted.
Study of Steganography Techniques – A Review

In image steganography, secrecy is achieved by embedding data into cover image and generating a stego-image. There are different types of steganography techniques each have their strengths and weaknesses. In this paper, we review the different security and data hiding techniques that are used to implement a steganography such as LSB, ISB, MLSB etc. Key words: .
COLLABORATIVE NAVIGATION SIMULATION TOOL USING KALMAN FILTER WITH IMPLICIT CONSTRAINTS

Abstract. Collaborative Positioning (CP) is a networked positioning technique in which different multi-sensor systems (nodes) enhance the accuracy and precision of these navigation solutions by performing measurements or by sharing information (links) between each other. The wide spectrum of available sensors that are used in these complex scenarios bring the necessity to analyze the sensibility of the system to different configurations in order to find optimal solutions. In this paper, we discuss the implementation and evaluation of a simulation tool that allows us to study these questions. The simulation tool is successfully implemented as a plane based localization problem, in which the sensor measurements are fused in a Collaborative Extended Kalman Filter (C-EKF) algorithm with implicit constraints. Using a real urban scenario with three vehicles equipped with various positioning sensors, the impact of the sensor configuration is investigated and discussed by intensive Monte Carlo simulations. The results show the influence of the laser scanner measurements on the accuracy and precision of the estimation, and the increased performance of the collaborative navigation techniques with respect to the single vehicle method.
Solutions for adopting software defined network in practice

Software defined networking (SDN) has emerged as a new network paradigm, which decouples both control and management planes from data plane by implementing control and management at a (logically) centralized node, i.e., the controller. The data plane communicates with controller by using an open programming interface (like Openflow protocol1). The reference SDN architecture is given in Figure 1 and explained as follows. Data plane: The data plane consists of standard switching devices, acting as routers, switches, and access points depending on the how they are programmed. A forwarding table is available in each switching device. When a data packet arrives at the switching device, the latter looks up its forwarding table whether an entry exists for the corresponding flow. If yes, then the data packet is forwarded/dropped as per action specified in the entry. Otherwise, the switching device buffers the data packet and sends a message to the controller to ask for instructions on how to process the packet. The controller sends back a forwarding rule to install in the forwarding table, which programs the action that the switching device must apply for the buffered data packet, and eventually for the future packets belonging to the same flow. Control plane: The controller acts as the “network brain” and is responsible for computing the forwarding behavior for the data packets based on the network topology, the network requirements (e.g., specified throughout access control list (ACL) policies), and the configuration of other network management functions (e.g., load balancing). The controller computes the forwarding decision and installs the corresponding rules in the forwarding tables present in the switching devices. Management plane: The management plane specifies the network applications (like load balancing, firewall, and monitoring) developed by the network operator. Plane interfaces: These planes in SDN interact with each other through standardized interfaces. The basic interfaces are (a) the southbound interface, used for communication between data plane and control plane, and (b) the northbound interface, used for communication between control plane and management plane. The SDN architecture has several advantages over the traditional networks. First, it centralizes the control in the SDN controller allowing a single and coherent view of the network state, simplifying the development of complex network applications and enabling the network administrator to push specific policies across the entire network. Second, the SDN architecture allows to evolve the control plane without changing the switching devices, since their actual behavior is programmed at the controller and can be reprogrammed at wish. Third, in traditional networks, the network administrator has to utilize management systems and/or manually define and implement security policies (e.g., ACL) at several switching devices. Instead, in SDN, security and/or traffic engineering policies can be defined just at the controller, and these will be forced in the whole network.
Comparing the nutritional status of vegetarians and non-vegetarians from a Buddhist organisation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Introduction: A vegetarian diet is generally considered as healthy for preventing metabolic-related diseases. There is lack of studies in Malaysia comparing the nutritional status of vegetarians and non-vegetarians. This cross-sectional study aims to compare body weight status, dietary intake and blood pressure level between these two groups. Methods: A total of 131 vegetarians and 135 non-vegetarians were recruited using convenience sampling from a Buddhist organisation in Kuala Lumpur. Body weight, height, waist circumference, percentage of body fat, and blood pressure measurements were taken, while dietary intake was assessed using a 2-day 24-hour dietary recall. Results: More vegetarians were underweight than non-vegetarians (31.3% vs 15.6%), while prevalence of overweight and obesity was higher among the non-vegetarians (23.7% vs 9.9%). A higher proportion of non-vegetarians (34.1%) had an unhealthy range of body fat percentage and significantly higher risk of abdominal obesity (24.4%) than the vegetarians (19.1% body fat; 13.7% abdominal obesity). Mean intakes for protein and fat were significantly lower among the vegetarians, while no significant differences were observed in the mean intake for energy and carbohydrate. Vegetarians had significantly higher intakes of vitamins C, D and E, calcium, potassium and folate, while vitamin B12 intake was significantly higher in the non-vegetarians. More non-vegetarians presented with unhealthy blood pressure status. Conclusion: Vegetarians in this study generally showed healthier dietary intake and lower body fatness than the non-vegetarians. Studies are suggested to be undertaken on a bigger sample size of vegetarians to confirm these findings.
The Relationship between Metabolic Factors and Quality of Life Aspects in Type 2 Diabetes Patients

Background and Objective: Quality of life (QoL) significantly influences the therapeutic outcomes in diabetic patients. The present study aimed to investigate the impacts of different aspects of QoL of patients with metabolic factors. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study recruited 263 patients (mean age 51.79 years) with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Data were collected using demographic information form, the Persian version of the 36-item health-related QoL and Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life (ADDQoL) questionnaires. Clinical and laboratory tests including total cholesterol, HDL-C and LDL-C were also performed. Statistical analysis was performed with statistical package SPSS version 22.0. Results: The mean total score of Diabetes Quality of Life (DQoL) was 53.54 ± 20.85 based on SF-36. The overall score of QoL showed a negative significant correlation with the levels of FBS, HbA1C and triglycerides (P<0.05). A statistically significant negative correlation was observed between physical health and total cholesterol levels, between mental health and QoL with FBS (P= 0.000), HbA1c (P= 0.001) and total cholesterol (P=0.024); however, no significant correlation was observed with other parameters. Conclusion: Improvements in metabolic control have a significant effect on the Quality of Life among Adult T2D patients.
Highly scalable intelligent sensory application and time domain matrix for safety-critical system design

The designs of highly scalable intelligent sensory application—Ethernet-based communication architectures—are moving toward the integration of a fault recovery and fault-detection algorithm on the automotive industry. In particular, each port on the same network interface card design is required to provide highly scalable and low-latency communication. In this article, we present a study of intelligent sensory application for the Ethernet-based communication architecture and performance of multi-port configuration which is mainly used in safety-enhanced application such as automotive, military, finance, and aerospace, in other words, safety-critical applications. Our contributions and observations on the highly scalable intelligent behavior: (1) proposed network interface card board design scheme and architecture with multi-port configuration are a stable network configuration; (2) timing matrix is defined for fault detection and recovery time; (3) experimental and related verification methods by cyclic redundancy check between client–server and testing platform provide comparable results to each port configurations; and (4) application program interface–level algorithm is defined to make network interface card ready for fault detection.
Building Energy System: From System Planning To Operation

Demand side response (DSR) will be an important scheme for a secure, sustainable and affordable electricity system. Buildings will play more important roles in DSR in the future energy system as they consume much energy. Studies on system planning (SP) for buildings give the optimal energy system configuration. However, these studies usually do not examine the real operational conditions of optimally designed system. On the other hand, studies on the energy management system (EMS) usually assume capacities of the components in the energy system are pre-determined. It is unclear whether the decided system from SP can meet the system demands when subject to real operational conditions in EMS. This study aims to fill in this research gap. The optimization results from SP and the operation results from EMS were compared in a case study, which consists of photovoltaic panels, heat pump, electrical heater and hot water tank. Robust optimization was used in EMS to consider prediction uncertainties. The results show that the optimally designed system can meet the electricity and heat demands. The real operation cost from EMS is slightly higher (less than 1%) than the optimization results from SP. It should be noted that this work only considers a particular case study. Nevertheless, more cases and various operational scenarios should be considered in future works. This study compared the optimization results from system planning (SP) and the operational results from an energy management system (EMS) through a case study. The studied case is a building energy system that consists of photovoltaic panels, heat pump, electrical heater and hot water tank. The component capacities were decided in SP and were used in the EMS. The EMS employed robust optimization to tackle the uncertainties of predicted values. The results indicate that with the component capacities from SP, the system can meet all the electricity and heat demands. The operation profiles from EMS are almost identical to the optimization results of SP. The minor differences are the peak values of imported electricity and the heat pump operational profiles. The operational cost by using the EMS is 1% higher than that of SP.
A Survey of Machine Learning Techniques for Self-tuning Hadoop Performance

The Apache Hadoop framework is an open source implementation of MapReduce for processing and storing big data. However, to get the best performance from this is a big challenge because of its large number configuration parameters. In this paper, the concept of critical issues of Hadoop system, big data and machine learning have been highlighted and an analysis of some machine learning techniques applied so far, for improving the Hadoop performance is presented. Then, a promising machine learning technique using deep learning algorithm is proposed for Hadoop system performance improvement.
PSA Screening for the African American Male: When and Why?

Abstract Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in American men. Prostate cancer diagnosis and mortality differences between African American and Caucasian populations have been highlighted in the literature. Research has shown that African American males are at a biological predisposition for prostate cancer and that additional socioeconomic and physician-patient educational factors may contribute to the higher mortality rate among this group—over two times greater than that of Caucasian American males. The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently concluded that there is insufficient evidence on the harms and benefits of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening to recommend that anyone should receive the test. However, the American Urological Association (AUA) emphasizes that the value of early detection should not be overlooked and that shared decision making should be integral to screening decisions. Parameters that can be used concurrently with PSA measureme.