Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adaptive Sub‐Band Acoustic Echo Cancellation Algorithms for Echo Paths Involving Nonlinear Amplifiers and Transducers

This paper examines the normalized least‐mean‐squares (NLMS) algorithm, the proportionate normalized least‐mean‐squares (PNLMS) algorithm, and the affine projection algorithm (APA) applied to the linear and nonlinear sub‐band acoustic echo canceller (AEC). The AEC aims at reducing the acoustic echo generated from a loudspeaker‐enclosure‐microphone (LEM) system. In order to enhance the efficacy of echo cancellation, the AEC utilizes sub‐band structure in conjunction with the PNLMS algorithm and the APA. To cope with nonlinear distortions from low‐cost transducers, the AEC is augmented with nonlinear processors based on second‐order Volterra filters and a Hammerstein nonlinear model. The proposed AEC was verified through extensive simulations and experiments. The results have shown that the proposed system achieved improved echo cancellation performance over conventional systems and met the telecom standard ITU‐T Rec. G.168.
Machine Vision Approach for Classification of Rice Varieties Using Texture Features

ABSTRACT The main objective of this study was to assess the machine vision (MV) techniques to classify six Asian rice varieties commonly named as Kachi-Kainat, Kachi-Toota, Kainat-Pakki, Super-Basmati-Kachi, Super-Basmati-Pakki, and Super-Maryam-Kainat (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, and A6), mainly cultivated in Pakistan, China, India, Bangladesh, and neighboring countries. The sample of each selected rice variety contained 1800 grains, giving a total of 10800 (1800 × 6) grain samples. A cell phone camera captured the actual field digital images dataset in an open climate. All the captured images were enhanced and converted into the standard 8-bit gray-scale format. Six radius-based non-overlapping regions of interest (ROI’s) were taken on each captured image inducing a total of 3600 (6 × 600) ROI’s image dataset. We have extracted Binary (B), Histogram (H), and Texture (T) features from each image. We converted these forty-three features for each image into 154800 (43 × 3600) feature vector (FV) space to discriminate rice varieties. After optimizing the FV, five MV classifiers, namely; LMT Tree (LMT-T), Meta Classifier via Regression (MCR), Meta Bagging (MB), Tree J48 (T-J48), and Meta Attribute Select Classifier (MAS-C), were deployed attaining the classification accuracies as 97.4%, 97.0%, 96.3%, 95.74%, and 95.2%, respectively. The maximum overall accuracy (MOA) observed was 97.4% by LMT-Tree.
Factors Associated With Willingness to Share Health Information: Rapid Review

Background To expand research and strategies to prevent disease, comprehensive and real-time data are essential. Health data are increasingly available from platforms such as pharmaceuticals, genomics, health care imaging, medical procedures, wearable devices, and internet activity. Further, health data are integrated with an individual’s sociodemographic information, medical conditions, genetics, treatments, and health care. Ultimately, health information generation and flow are controlled by the patient or participant; however, there is a lack of understanding about the factors that influence willingness to share health information. A synthesis of the current literature on the multifactorial nature of health information sharing preferences is required to understand health information exchange. Objective The objectives of this review are to identify peer-reviewed literature that reported factors associated with health information sharing and to organize factors into cohesive themes and present a narrative synthesis of factors related to willingness to share health information. Methods This review uses a rapid review methodology to gather literature regarding willingness to share health information within the context of eHealth, which includes electronic health records, personal health records, mobile health information, general health information, or information on social determinants of health. MEDLINE and Google Scholar were searched using keywords such as electronic health records AND data sharing OR sharing preference OR willingness to share. The search was limited to any population that excluded health care workers or practitioners, and the participants aged ≥18 years within the US or Canadian context. The data abstraction process using thematic analysis where any factors associated with sharing health information were highlighted and coded inductively within each article. On the basis of shared meaning, the coded factors were collated into major themes. Results A total of 26 research articles met our inclusion criteria and were included in the qualitative analysis. The inductive thematic coding process revealed multiple major themes related to sharing health information. Conclusions This review emphasized the importance of data generators’ viewpoints and the complex systems of factors that shape their decision to share health information. The themes explored in this study emphasize the importance of trust at multiple levels to develop effective information exchange partnerships. In the case of improving precision health care, addressing the factors presented here that influence willingness to share information can improve sharing capacity for individuals and allow researchers to reorient their methods to address hesitation in sharing health information.
The Effect of Intramuscular Administration of Glutathione as Antioxidant on Semen analysis parameters of Infertile Patients Affected with Oligoasthenozoospermia

This study was designed to evaluate the effect of intramuscular administration of Glutathione (100, 200, 300 mg/person) daily for 3 months on seminal fluid analysis parameters prepared by simple layering technique and centrifugation swim up technique in infertile subjects affected with oligoasthenozoospermia. Thirty infertile men enrolled in this study and semen samples were analyzed before and after injection with Glutathione and semen processed by standard semen parameters. Furthermore, sperm concentration, sperm motility, progressive sperm motility, sperm agglutination, and normal sperm morphology were evaluated according to standard WHO criteria (2010). For preparation technique, sperm prepared and incubated for 30 minute in 5% CO 2 at 37ºC. The results of the present study indicate a highly significant (P<0.001) differences in all sperm functions after injection with Glutathione in all infertile patients and concluded that sperm functions improved and enhanced whenever increase the dose of antioxidants and the simple layering technique gave the best results as compared with centrifugation swim up technique. Further studies are recommended to assess the detrimental effect of CSUT on sperm DNA damage and embryo quality after in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET).
Sliding-mode controlled Cuk switching regulator with fast response and first-order dynamic characteristic

SMC (sliding-mode control) is successfully applied to the Cuk power converter. It results in a high-performance switching regulator with fast response and first-order dynamic characteristic and with an extremely strong ability to suppress the line-voltage and the load-current disturbances of both small and large signals, even with nonpulsating input and output currents. The performance of the SMC Cuk regulator is determined by its feedback gains. Other high-order power stages, such as the augmented boost and augmented buck converters and the buck converter with input filter, could also be handled by SMC to obtain a high-performance, closed-loop system. <<ETX>>
Is sleep apnea-hypopnea index relevant for impaired brain perfusion and desaturation in patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea syndromes?

Background : Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a common sleep disorder with the prevalence of 9-38% in the general population. Severe OSAS defined as apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ≥ 30/h is a major risk factor for developing cerebro-cardiovascular diseases like stroke. Treatments such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy are recommended for those patients because untreated OSA can cause tremendous medical expenses and economic burden. Understanding the mechanisms of how repetitive sleep apneas/hypopneas induce changes in cerebral hemodynamics in severe OSAS is crucial for the understanding of disease severity, disease progression in brain damage and the treatment efficacy. However, these mechanisms and the association between AHI and the induced changes in cerebral hemodynamics in severe OSAS are essentially unknown. Using a stepwise incremental CPAP titration protocol we aim to identify the most relevant physiological factors including AHI and their quantitative contributions to cerebral hemodynamic changes before and during CPAP treatment in severe OSAS patients. Methods and findings: 29 newly diagnosed severe OSAS patients underwent incremental CPAP titration during polysomnography recordings: 1-h sleep without CPAP served as self-controlled baseline followed by stepwise increments of 1-cmH2O pressure per-hour starting from 5-8 cmH2O individually. Frequency-domain near-infrared spectroscopy measured the changes in blood volume (BV) and oxygen saturation (StO2) in the left forehead. The coefficients of variation of BV (CV-BV) and the decreases of StO2 (de-StO2) during more than 2000 respiratory events were predicted by various predictors including AHI using linear mixed-effect models, respectively. The best predictors were automatically selected by stepwise regression. Surprisingly, AHI was excluded from the final selected models. Longer events and apneas rather than hypopneas induce larger changes in CV-BV and stronger cerebral desaturation. Respiratory events occurring during higher baseline StO2 before their onsets, during rapid-eye-movement sleep and those associated with higher heart rate (HR) during the events trigger smaller changes in CV-BV and de-StO2. CPAP pressures attenuate the changes in CV-BV Conclusions: In severe OSAS the length and the type of respiratory event rather than widely used AHI may be better parameters to indicate the severity of cerebral vascular damage. Thus both, length and type of respiratory events should be considered as predictors of cerebro-cardiovascular events in future epidemiological studies and in clinical practice. OSAS patients with profound long apnea events need to pay special attention and quickly treated with CPAP therapy as it can restore the induced cerebral hemodynamic changes. of the data points. We only show the events of durations shorter than 60 seconds, considering that only a minority of events is longer than 60 seconds and they may be outliers that can bias the fitting trends.
Efeito da taxa de carregamento sobre a remoção de poluentes de esgoto em sistemas alagados construídos

This research aimed to study the effect of loading rate on the efficiency of constructed wetlands with horizontal subsurface flow (CW-HSSF) to remove pollutants from wastewater. The CW-HSSF were fed with effluent from septic tank under volumetric organic loading rate (OLRV) of 53 to 231 g m-3d-1 of chemical oxygen demand (total-COD) and associated loading rates (LRV) of soluble chemical oxygen demand (soluble COD), total suspended solids (TSS), total nitrogen (total-N) and total phosphorus (total-P). To evaluate the performance of CW-HSSF the same variables were quantified in its effluent. Linear and positive relationship was found between the removal rates of total COD, soluble COD and TSS and the LRV, within the application range, and no negative effects on this variable in removal efficiencies of these pollutants. The removal rate of total-N and total-P did not show, however, tendency to increase with the LRV applied in the CW-HSSF planted with cattail and used in treating sanitary sewage. The loads applied of these nutrients must be considered referential in sizing these systems, if desired to maximize the overall removal of wastewater pollutants.
Pengaruh Customer Perceived Value Dan Perceived Quality Terhadap Keputusan Pembelian Ulang Melalui Brand Experience (Studi Pada Konsumen Sepeda Motor Honda Tipe Bebek Di Kecamatan Pedurungan, Semarang)

Along with the times, the need for the transportation is also more increasing. Motorcycle became transportation that most in demand by the people of Indonesia as a means of supporting the daily activities. Honda is one of the famous motorcycle brand in Indonesia. It has been years that Honda became the market leader which has never shifted from its position at the top as a motorcycle manufacturer that most widely sold its products. However, in the period of 2009-2013 the sales of Honda motorcycles types of cub decreased. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of customer perceived value and perceived quality towards repeat purchasing decision through variable brand experience on consumers of Honda motorcycles cub type at Pedurungan, Semarang. This research is explanatory research type approach uses towards 100 respondents with a sampling technique multistage sampling. The type of data collection of this study are using the technique of questionnaires, interviews and literature methods. The analysis technique used was qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative analysis using validity test, reliability test, correlation coefficient, simple and multiple regression analysis, the coefficient of determination, a signification test (t test and F test ), path analysis and also use the help application programs IBM SPSS Statistics 20 . 0 . The result of this research approved that customer perceived value (X 1 ) and perceived quality (X 2 ) partially or simultaneously can influenced brand experience (Y 1 ) and repeat purchasing decision (Y 2 ). According the result of path analysis showed that brand experience variable is not intervening variable towards repeat purchasing decision in this research.
Physical insight into electromagnetic kinetic energy transducers and appropriate energy conditioning for enhanced micro energy harvesting

This paper proposes a new method for modeling electromagnetic kinetic energy transducers and gives analytical expressions that enable the design of efficient energy conditioning circuitry. The introduced transducer modeling approach achieves high accuracy without requiring a large set of parameters. The presented transducer characterization allows physical insight into fully assembled and packaged transducers in order to extract the required transducer model parameters without knowledge of the individual components. Moreover, the electromagnetic coupling, the parasitic damping, and the optimal load can be modeled with a dependence on the external excitation. Precise co-simulation with CMOS integrated energy conditioning circuitry is possible implementing this model in a circuit simulator.
On the Importance of σ–Hole Interactions in Crystal Structures

Elements from groups 14–18 and periods 3–6 commonly behave as Lewis acids, which are involved in directional noncovalent interactions (NCI) with electron-rich species (lone pair donors), π systems (aromatic rings, triple and double bonds) as well as nonnucleophilic anions (BF4−, PF6−, ClO4−, etc.). Moreover, elements of groups 15 to 17 are also able to act as Lewis bases (from one to three available lone pairs, respectively), thus presenting a dual character. These emerging NCIs where the main group element behaves as Lewis base, belong to the σ–hole family of interactions. Particularly (i) tetrel bonding for elements belonging to group 14, (ii) pnictogen bonding for group 15, (iii) chalcogen bonding for group 16, (iv) halogen bonding for group 17, and (v) noble gas bondings for group 18. In general, σ–hole interactions exhibit different features when moving along the same group (offering larger and more positive σ–holes) or the same row (presenting a different number of available σ–holes and directionality) of the periodic table. This is illustrated in this review by using several examples retrieved from the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD), especially focused on σ–hole interactions, complemented with molecular electrostatic potential surfaces of model systems.
Boundless

Layer ID Type Act. K S D Out Skip 1 Gated Conv ELU[2] 5 1 1 32 None 2 Gated Conv ELU 3 2 1 64 None 3 Gated Conv ELU 3 1 1 64 None 4 Gated Conv ELU 3 2 1 128 None 5 Gated Conv ELU 3 1 1 128 None 6 Gated Conv ELU 3 1 1 128 None 7 Gated Conv ELU 3 1 2 128 None 8 Gated Conv ELU 3 1 4 128 None 9 Gated Conv ELU 3 1 8 128 None 10 Gated Conv ELU 3 1 16 128 None 11 Gated Conv ELU 3 1 1 128 5 12 Gated Conv ELU 3 1 1 128 4 13 Resize (2x) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 14 Gated Conv ELU 3 1 1 64 3 15 Gated Conv ELU 3 1 1 64 2 16 Resize (2x) n/a n/a 1 n/a n/a n/a 17 Gated Conv ELU 3 1 1 32 1 18 Gated Conv ELU 3 1 1 16 None 19 Conv None 3 1 1 3 None 20 Clip n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Simple self-aligned air-gap interconnect process with Cu/FSG structure

A novel self-aligned air-gap interconnect process with Cu/FSG structure was proposed. The key feature is the use of an easily removal sacrifice film by dry-etching process with a reducing gas. This process consists of a conventional Cu damascene process with 130 nm node CMOS technology. In this study, a 2 level Cu interconnect was fabricated and the effective dielectric constant of 2.3/spl sim/2.6 has been successfully achieved. These are consistent with the capacitance reduction by 37/spl sim/41% compared with a conventional Cu/FSG structure.
CFA based fully integrated Tow-Thomas biquad

A fully integrated Tow-Thomas (TT) biquad is generated using CFA based integrators developed by the authors. The proposed circuit has the following features: use of only grounded capacitors, orthogonal voltage control of /spl omega//sub 0/, and Q, and cascadability. Simulation results which agree well with the theoretical analysis are obtained.
Agent-based resource management for 3G networks

This paper discusses an architecture for efficient, scalable and robust real time control of 3G mobile systems in the context of realistic business models of network providers, service providers and customers and the relationships between these actors. The aim is to bring financial benefits to mobile users through improved efficiency; extensions to the same approach would allow management of a variety of contingencies with social benefits.
The limits of path error-neglecting in straight lane driving

Abstract It is argued that driving cannot simply be considered as a permanent, closed-loop task. Time-to-line-crossing (TLC) is used as a measure to quantify the potential role of visual open-loop and path-error-neglecting strategies. Basically, TLC represents the time available for a driver to neglect path errors until the moment at which any part of the vehicle reaches one of the lane boundaries. The strategy adopted by drivers during error-neglecting should be represented in terms of decision rules, describing how drivers switch from error-neglecting to error-correcting when approaching the edge of a lane. The experiment to be presented in this paper was designed to provide these rules for a straight lane-keeping task. Drivers were instructed to neglect the vehicle path error and to switch to error-correcting only at that moment when the vehicle heading could still comfortably be corrected to prevent a crossing of the lane boundary. The results show that the lateral distance from the lane boundary at w.
Transponders for the detection and identification of remote cooperative targets

Most efficient for remote cooperative targets telesystems are radio frequency localization (RFLO) and RF identification (RFID) methods. Passive RFLO systems are analyzed and their optimal operation range is computed. For operation ranges exceeding 1 km RFLO systems using active transponders are still mandatory. A novel RFID system development is described and its 100 m range operation is enhanced by using a small battery in the transponder. New methods for improving RFLO and RFID operation range, efficiency and reliability are presented. <<ETX>>
Nonlinear piezoelectric behavior of ceramic bending mode actuators under strong electric fields

The nonlinear electromechanical behavior of cantilevered piezoelectric ceramic bimorph, unimorph, and reduced and internally biased oxide wafer actuators is studied in a wide electric field and frequency range. It is found that under quasistatic condition, linear relationships between actuator tip displacement-electric field, and blocking force-electric field are only valid under weak field driving. With increasing the driving field, electromechanical nonlinearity begins to contribute significantly to the actuator performance because of ferroelectric hysteresis behavior associated with piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT)-type ceramic materials. The bending resonance frequencies of all these actuators vary with the magnitude of the electric field. The decrease of resonance frequency with electric field is explained by the increase of elastic compliance of PZT ceramic due to elastic nonlinearity. Mechanical quality factors of the actuators also depend on the magnitude of electric field strength. No .
Across-strike asymmetry of the Andes orogen linked to the age and geometry of the Nazca plate

The crest of the Andes—the trace of the highest mountain topography—weaves back and forth, in places near the coastline, in others farther inland. Its position reflects the asymmetric distribution of orogen mass and coincides with asymmetry of orographic precipitation. This coincidence is thought to reflect a primary influence of orographic precipitation on accumulated orogenic mass whereby the more erosive (wetter) side promotes crest migration toward the less erosive (drier) side. However, whether this remains the case after excluding tectonic controls on the size and asymmetry of the wedge is an open question. We assessed relationships between precipitation, erosion rates, and the macromorphology of the Andes. We find that precipitation rates cannot sufficiently explain orogen asymmetry after statistically controlling for the age or dip of the Nazca slab. Slab age and dip are known to primarily affect mountain building in the Andes by impacting stress and strain propagation into the retro-arc region, thus better explaining the position of the mountain chain within the orogenic wedge. Accordingly, using basin-wide erosion rate, topographic, and precipitation data, we find that precipitation possibly influences erosional efficiency in semi-arid Andean landscapes but falls short in explaining the variability of erosion rates in regions of high orographic precipitation. We conclude that the orographic effect cannot change the Andean macromorphology that is set by bottom-up tectonic processes.
Advances of Monitoring Corrosion in Reinforced Concrete Based on UGW

Monitoring the condition of steel corrosion in reinforced concrete (RC) is imperative for ensuring structural serviceability and durability of RC structures. The techniques based on ultrasonic guided wave (UGW) gain more and more popularities as they have many advantages for monitoring corrosion in reinforced concrete. In this paper, UGW based monitoring techniques in the past decade are reviewed, including corrosion monitoring mechanism and feature extraction, monitoring corrosion induced deboning, monitoring pitting corrosion, monitoring corrosion induced interface roughness. Finally, the challenges and future trends in the development of UGW based monitoring techniques for condition assessment of corrosion inreinforced concrete are put forward in this paper.