Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spectral and Latent Speech Representation Distortion for TTS Evaluation

One of the main problems in the development of text-to-speech (TTS) systems is its reliance on subjective measures, typically the Mean Opinion Score (MOS). MOS requires a large number of people to reliably rate each utterance, making the development process slow and expensive. Recent research on speech quality assessment tends to focus on training models to estimate MOS, which requires a large number of training data, some-thing that might not be available in low-resource languages. We propose an objective assessment metric based on the DTW distance using the spectrogram and the high-level features from an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) model to cover both acoustic and linguistic information. Experiments on Thai TTS and the Blizzard Challenge datasets show that our method out-performed other baselines in both utterance-and system-level by a large margin in terms of correlation coefﬁcients. Our metric also outperformed the best baseline by 9.58% when used in head-to-head utterance-level comparisons. Ablation studies suggest that the middle layers of the ASR model are most suitable for TTS evaluation when used in conjunction with spectral features.
Monitoring of self-healing in concrete with micro-capsules using a combination of air-coupled surface wave and computer-vision techniques

This study mainly aims to investigate the applicability of the combination of air-coupled surface-wave and computer-vision techniques to the evaluation of self-healing in in situ concrete members. Small-scale beam specimens were made from ordinary concrete and concretes with solid- and liquid-type capsules; the capsules were employed as self-healing agents. To monitor the crack healing progress, surface-wave tests using an air-coupled transducer and contact receivers were conducted on each specimen in uncracked, cracked, and healed conditions after 7, 14, 28, and 63 days of water immersion. Additionally, a computer-vision technique involving image binarization and registration was applied to measure high-resolution crack information. The specimens containing the micro-capsules showed superior healing performance compared to the ordinary concrete specimens. After 63 days of self-healing, the spectral energy transmission ratio increased up to about 80% of the uncracked, while the crack area decreased up to about 94% of the fully cracked. The healing rate was estimated using the change in spectral energy transmission ratio strongly correlated with that estimated using the change in crack area.
Kompressionssyndrome peripherer Nerven

Der Begriff Nervenkompressionssyndrom (synonym: Nervenengpasssyndrom) bezeichnet eine chronische Irritation bzw. Druckschädigung eines peripheren Nervs an einer präformierten anatomischen Engstelle bzw. in einem fibroossären Kanal [1]. Das chronische Nervenkompressionssyndrom ist dabei abzugrenzen von einer akuten exogenen Druckschädigung des Nervs, welche allerdings ebenfalls an einer solchen präformierten Engstelle lokalisiert sein kann.
Improvement of Static Voltage Gain of a Non-Isolated Positive Output Single-Switch DC-DC Converter Structure Using a Diode-Capacitor Cell

There are different low switching stress non-isolated DC-DC power converter structures developed for Photo-Voltaic (PV) applications with a view to achieve high voltage conversion ratio. The work proposed in this research article investigates the performance analysis of a coupled inductor and diode-capacitor multiplier cell based non-isolated high gain single-switch DC–DC conversion scheme with a single-ended primary-inductor on the input side. The presented converter suitable for renewable energy applications has the merits such as continuous input current, high voltage conversion ratio, and reduced voltage stress across the power switch. The multiplier cell consisting of two diodes and two capacitors is mainly used to enhance the converter output voltage level. A MATLAB / SIMULINK model of the suggested topology has been developed to validate its performance. During the simulation of the converter, a DC voltage of 50 V was given at the input side. The load end received a DC voltage of approximately 900 V. Thus, through this study, it was found that the addition of diode-capacitor cell can significantly improve the static gain of the suggested converter. The findings of this research may serve as a base for future studies on improvement of voltage gain of DC-DC converters.
Co-location of Formal and Informal Manufacturing and Firm’s Performance: Evidence from India

This study analyses the impact of co-location between formal and informal manufacturing sectors on plant-level productivity. We employ a unique data obtained by merging plant-level data from Annual Survey of Industries (ASI 2011–2012) and Survey of Unorganised Manufacturing and Repairing Enterprises provided by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO 67th round). We find that formal and informal manufacturing plants gain from localisation. Further, co-location with informal enterprises has a positive impact on productivity of formal sector plants; however, we observe insignificant impact of co-location on informal sector enterprises. Additionally, we find evidence that informal sector enterprises benefit from industrially diversified regions. JEL Codes: D24, R12, R3
Public Reactions to Noncompliance with Judicial Orders

Constitutions empower people to ask judges for binding orders directing state agents to remedy rights violations, but state agents do not always comply. Scholars propose that by making it easier to observe noncompliance, courts can leverage public pressure for compliance when it exists. Yet, exposure to information about noncompliance might lead individuals to accept high levels of noncompliance and reduce support for judicial remedies. We estimate the rate of noncompliance with judges’ orders via a rigorous tracking study of the Colombian tutela. We then embed this rate in three survey experiments fielded with online national quota samples. We show that people find the noncompliance rate in the tutela highly unacceptable regardless of a variety of mitigating factors. We also show that public reactions to this information depend on prior expectations, a finding that stresses the importance of scholarship in cognitive psychology for studies of compliance in law and politics.
Global Mindset Initiative Working Paper 2: Designing an Intervention to Motivate Growth Mindset-Supportive Teaching Practices

The purpose of this paper is to outline what we believe to be promising a strategy for developing a scalable behavioral intervention to encourage teachers to adopt teaching practices that support a growth-mindset classroom culture. We first briefly review the most widely-implemented current policies and programs aimed at influencing teachers' instructional practices and consider, based on the available research, how effective those approaches are likely to be for encouraging growth mindset-supportive teaching practices. We then lay out what we believe to be the most important psychological forces currently at play, either facilitating or hindering teachers’ adoption of such practices. On the basis of this analysis of existing psychological forces, and drawing ideas from the research literature in four complementary disciplines, we propose an “intervention toolkit”—candidate intervention ideas that we suggest should be considered for inclusion as components of a larger intervention. Throughout, we identify additional issues for consideration in designing the intervention and important questions for future research.
The molecular, electrophysiological, and structural changes in the vestibular nucleus during vestibular compensation: a narrative review

Abstract The vestibular system involves high-level sensory and cognitive processes, such as spatial perception, balance control, visual stability, and emotional control. Vestibular dysfunction can induce vertigo, blurred vision, postural imbalance, walking instability, and spatial discomfort, which causes serious damage to health. It has long been known that after peripheral vestibular lesion, vestibular dysfunction may spontaneously recover. This is known as vestibular compensation. However, at least 20% to 30% of patients with vestibular disorders cannot yield vestibular compensation and remain with vestibular dysfunction for the rest of their lives. The exploration of the biological characteristics and regulatory factors of the loss and reestablishment of vestibular function will establish a new understanding of the mechanism of vestibular compensation and provide new tools and strategies for promoting vestibular rehabilitation. We aim to comprehensively review the mechanism of vestibular compensation and discuss future directions in this field.
Distributed Task Migration Optimization in MEC by Deep Reinforcement Learning Strategy

Mobile management is a challenging technology in Mobile Edge Computing (MEC). When the device is moving, computation tasks need to be dynamically migrated between multiple edge servers to maintain service continuity. This paper proposes a migration optimization of distributed task in MEC by deep reinforcement learning solution to optimize delay. In Multi-agent Deep Reinforcement Learning (MADRL), we construct an adaptive weight deep deterministic policy gradient (AWDDPG) algorithm to optimize the migration cost and service delay, and adopt centralized training and distributed execution to solve the high-dimensional problem. Experiments show that our algorithm greatly reduces the service delay compared with the related algorithms.
Counseling on Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS) In Adolescents

Background: Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) is the most common health problem reported by adolescents. The main contributing factors of PMS are due to the imbalance of work of the hormones estrogen and progesterone’s as well as changes in serotonin levels. Approximately 30-80% of women experience mood or somatic disorders (or both) that occur during the menstrual cycle. The WHO (World Health Organization) report explains that PMS symptoms are experienced in 65.7 of young women. Due to lack of knowledge can decrease the quality of life of adolescents. So the knowledge about PMS is needed for young women to be ready to face the PMS.Purpose: Improving young women's knowledge of PMS.Method: The provision of PMS material was done by lecture method and leaflet giving. The object of devotion was young women. Before the counseling being given, young women took pre-tests, later conducted post-tests to evaluate the knowledge related to PMS. Result: Counseling on PMS had been conducted. There was an increased in young women's knowledge of Premenstrual Syndrome. T-test results obtained significance value of 0.000 (p<0.005). Conclusions and Suggestions: Counseling has a positive effect on young women's knowledge, especially about PMS. Pkd Wonorejo midwives should be able to provide regular counseling for young women. For the young women, after the counseling obtained results that can increase knowledge about PMS thus that it is expected to be better prepared to face the PMS
Transport coefficients from in medium quarkonium dynamics

Three are the mechanisms that influence quarkonium suppression in a medium: screening, thermal decay, and recombination. In recent years, a framework that can treat them consistently at the same time has been put forward, the open quantum system approach. In this talk, we will discuss how the combination of open quantum system and Effective Field Theory techniques are useful to understand quarkonium evolution in a medium in the regime in which the temperature is smaller than the inverse of the typical radius. In this case, the interaction parameter depends only on two transport coefficients $\kappa$ and $\gamma$, where $\kappa$ is the heavy quark diffusion coefficient. Combining these results with recent lattice QCD evaluations of the mass shift and thermal decay width of quarkonium we are able to obtain a non-perturbative determination of κ compatible with state-of-the-art results.
Consciousness and complexity: a consilience of evidence

Abstract Over the last years, a surge of empirical studies converged on complexity-related measures as reliable markers of consciousness across many different conditions, such as sleep, anesthesia, hallucinatory states, coma, and related disorders. Most of these measures were independently proposed by researchers endorsing disparate frameworks and employing different methods and techniques. Since this body of evidence has not been systematically reviewed and coherently organized so far, this positive trend has remained somewhat below the radar. The aim of this paper is to make this consilience of evidence in the science of consciousness explicit. We start with a systematic assessment of the growing literature on complexity-related measures and identify their common denominator, tracing it back to core theoretical principles and predictions put forward more than 20 years ago. In doing this, we highlight a consistent trajectory spanning two decades of consciousness research and provide a provisional taxonomy of the present literature. Finally, we consider all of the above as a positive ground to approach new questions and devise future experiments that may help consolidate and further develop a promising field where empirical research on consciousness appears to have, so far, naturally converged.
Potensi Ekstrak Sarang Semut sebagai Anthelmintik terhadap Ascaris suum secara In Vitro

Pengendalian parasit cacing dapat dilakukan dengan pemberian obat cacing, salah satunya dengan menggunakan obat tradisional. Salah satunya adalah sarang semut yang memiliki potensi antelmitik pada cacing Ascaris suum. Penelitian ini menggunakan cacing A. suum yang diperoleh dari RPH Pesanggaran, Denpasar kemudian ditumbuhkan secara in vitro. Sebanyak 90 ekor cacing yang terbagi menjadi 6 kelompok perlakuan dimana masing masing dosis menggunakan 5 ekor cacing. Kelompok P0 cacing yang direndam dengan 20ml NaCl Fisiologis sebagain kontrol negatif, P1 kelompok cacing yang direndam dengan 20ml NaCl Fisiologis dan di tambah albendazol 1% sebagai control positif, P2 kelompok cacing yang direndam dengan larutan ekstrak sarang semut 5%, P3 kelompok cacing yang direndam dengan larutan ekstrak sarang semut 10%, P4 kelompok cacing yang direndam dengan larutan ekstrak sarang semut 15 %, P5 kelompok cacing yang direndam dengan larutan ekstrak sarang semut 20%. Hasil yang diperoleh menunjukkan bahwa adanya peningkatan daya antelmintik ekstrak sarang semut terhadap cacing A. suum. Pada dosis ekstrak sarang semut 20% memiliki daya antelmintik yang sama dengan kontrol positif (93,33%). Ekstrak sarang semut efektif sebagai obat cacing A. suum terbukti berkhasiat memiliki efek antelmintik sehingga dapat di kembangkan penggunaanya untuk pengendalian ascariasis pada babi.
Next Generation of AMR Network

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity, especially in low-resource settings, and requires an interdisciplinary response across academia, government, countries, and societies. If unchecked, AMR will hamper progress towards reaching the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including ending poverty and hunger, promoting healthy lives and well-being, and achieving sustained economic growth. There are many global initiatives to curb the effects of AMR, but significant gaps remain. New ways of thinking and operating in the context of the SDGs are essential to making progress. In this entry, we define the next generation of the AMR research network, its composition, and strategic activities that can help mitigate the threats due to AMR at the local, regional, and global levels. This is supported by a review of recent literature and bibliometric and network analyses to examine the current and future state of AMR research networks for global health and sustainable development.
Why Media Systems Matter: A Fact-Checking Study of UK Television News during the Coronavirus Pandemic

Abstract Academic attention towards the effectiveness of fact-checking often centres on how receptive people are to the correction of news. But many studies do not take into account audience expectations of fact-checking or their engagement with news generally in the context of a national media system or its political culture. Our study makes an intervention into debates about fact-checking by focussing on the effectiveness this type of journalism has with audiences who were attentive to the news in the UK’s media system during a key point in a major health crisis. Drawing on a six-week news diary study (N = 200) during the coronavirus pandemic, our study concluded that the UK’s impartial media ecology and public service ethos creates an environment where audiences are largely receptive to journalists’ fact-checking and countering misinformation. Yet our content analysis of television news (N = 1259) during the pandemic found most broadcasters did not regularly challenge or question the government’s decision-making. We argue that since audiences favoured robust forms of journalistic scrutiny, broadcasters could more prominently fact-check claims and question dubious statements without undermining trust in journalism. We recommend scholars should pay more attention to understanding the audience reception of fact-checking across different media and political systems.
The effect of sleep restriction therapy for insomnia on sleep pressure and arousal: a randomised controlled mechanistic trial.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Sleep restriction therapy (SRT) effectively treats insomnia but mechanisms are poorly understood. Theoretical models suggest that potentiation of sleep pressure and reduction of arousal are key mechanisms of action. To our knowledge this has never been directly tested. We designed a randomised controlled trial with embedded mechanistic measurement to investigate if SRT causally modifies multidimensional assessments of sleep pressure and arousal. METHODS Participants aged 25-55 who met DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for insomnia disorder were randomised to four weeks of SRT or time in bed regularisation (TBR), a control intervention that involves prescription of a regular but not reduced time in bed. Sleep pressure was assessed through daily diary appraisal of morning and evening sleepiness, weekly Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) scores, psychomotor vigilance, and NREM delta power (0.75-4.5Hz) from ambulatory polysomnographic recordings. Arousal was assessed through daily diary appraisal of cognitive arousal, the pre-sleep arousal scale (PSAS), and NREM beta power (15-32Hz). Outcomes were assessed at baseline (2-week period prior to randomisation), during the intervention phase (1-4 weeks post-randomisation), and at 12-week follow-up. We performed intention-to-treat analyses using linear mixed models. For continuous daily measures, the treatment period was split into early (weeks 1-2) and late (weeks 3-4) treatment. RESULTS Fifty-six participants (39 females, mean age=40.78±9.08) were assigned to SRT (n=27) or TBR (n=29). The SRT group showed enhanced sleep pressure relative to TBR, reflected in (1) enhanced sleepiness in the evening during early (d=1.17) and late treatment (d=0.92), and in the morning during early treatment (d=0.47); (2) higher daytime sleepiness on the ESS at weeks-1 and -2 (d=0.54, d=0.45); and (3) reduced psychomotor vigilance at week-1 (d=0.34). The SRT group also showed reduced arousal relative to TBR, reflected in lower levels of daily-monitored cognitive arousal during early treatment (d=0.53) and decreased PSAS total score at week-4 and week-12 (ds≥0.39). Power spectral analysis of all night NREM sleep revealed an increase in relative, but not absolute, EEG delta power at week-1 and week-4 (ds≥0.52) and a decrease of relative EEG beta power at week-4 (d=0.11). CONCLUSION For the first time we show that SRT increases sleep pressure and decreases arousal during acute implementation, providing support for mechanism-of-action.
Explaining intention to apply renewable energy in agriculture: the case of broiler farms in Southwest Iran

ABSTRACT The government of Iran has established national targets for the deployment of renewable energy sources (RES) across various sectors in the country, including agriculture. Human factors, such as the intention and willingness to use RES, are crucial for understanding RES deployment. This paper focuses on one group of stakeholders, farmers in Iran, and investigates what factors influence their intention and willingness to use RES in the energy-intensive broiler industry. The theoretical basis of the study is the health belief model (HBM). Empirical data were collected using a survey, which was developed based on the available evidence of human factors of the energy transition. Cronbach’s alpha was used to examine the internal reliability of the items of each variable through a pilot study. All scales had acceptable to good reliabilities of about 0.67 to 0.79. Altogether, 150 broiler farm owners participated, selected from Bushehr Province in southern Iran using a random sampling procedure. Structural equation modeling showed that 67% of the variation in farmer intention to use RES can be estimated. Cue to action, self-efficacy, and general health concern, also have a significant effect on intention, whereas other variables do not. The findings showed the HBM to be an effective tool for predicting farmers’ intentions to use RES. Based on these findings, more information needs to be provided to people to encourage them to use RES. Energy policy programs should pay special attention to educational and awareness-raising programs when seeking to increase renewable energy and other environmental behaviors.
Mixture Model Attention: Flexible Streaming and Non-Streaming Automatic Speech Recognition

Streaming automatic speech recognition (ASR) hypothesizes words as soon as the input audio arrives, whereas non-streaming ASR can potentially wait for the completion of the entire ut-terance to hypothesize words. Streaming and non-streaming ASR systems have typically used different acoustic encoders. Recent work has attempted to unify them by either jointly training a ﬁxed stack of streaming and non-streaming layers or using knowledge distillation during training to ensure consistency between the streaming and non-streaming predictions. We propose mixture model (MiMo) attention as a simpler and theoretically-motivated alternative that replaces only the attention mechanism, requires no change to the training loss, and allows greater ﬂexibility of switching between streaming and non-streaming mode during inference. Our experiments on the public Librispeech data set and a few Indic language data sets show that MiMo attention endows a single ASR model with the ability to operate in both streaming and non-streaming modes without any overhead and without signiﬁcant loss in accuracy compared to separately-trained streaming and non-streaming models. We also illustrate this beneﬁt of MiMo attention in a second-pass rescoring setting.
Adaptive Listening Difficulty Detection for L2 Learners Through Moderating ASR Resources

Teaching listening skills to those learning a second language (L2) is one of the most challenging tasks mainly because predicting L2 listening difﬁculties is not always straightforward. Complex processes are involved in decoding connected speech, constructing meaning, and comprehending the audio material. Many studies have attempted to identify the signiﬁcant factors leading to listening difﬁculties, yet, a comprehensive model is to be constructed. We argue that an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system with limited training can be viewed as a rough model for an L2 listener with particular language proﬁciency. We proposed a method to select the training samples for the ASR system to match the mistakes of L2 listeners when listening to the authentic listening materials. This model can predict the learners’ listening difﬁculties, thus allowing for generating tailored captions to assist them with L2 listening.