Within-session variability modelling for factor analysis speaker verification

This work presents an extended Joint Factor Analysis model including explicit modelling of unwanted within-session variability. The goals of the proposed extended JFA model are to improve verification performance with short utterances by compensating for the effects of limited or imbalanced phonetic coverage, and to produce a flexible JFA model that is effective over a wide range of utterance lengths without adjusting model parameters such as retraining session subspaces. Experimental results on the 2006 NIST SRE corpus demonstrate the flexibility of the proposed model by providing competitive results over a wide range of utterance lengths without retraining and also yielding modest improvements in a number of conditions over current state-of-the-art.

"And one fine morning" : Gatsby, Obama, and the resurection of hope

Hope is a word that has re-emerged in light of Obama's stunning win in the United States election. In this time of economic gloom and the reality of bleak recession and unprecedented job losses the United States has embraced the hopeful message of Barack Obama. For many years 'hope' has been a word that has been lost, forgotten , and banished to the margins of romantic longing and wishful thinking. Hope is also a word that has been much discussed in relation to the iconic The Great Gatsby but usually in a negative fashion to demonstrate the unattainability of the American dream. Marcella Taylor called Gatsby "the unfinished American Epic" which focused on the "passing of the last utopian frontier" and suggested the significance of this passing on American society as a whole. In the last months, however, hope has made a return and one gets the feeling that Fitzgerald's words "but that's no matter-to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther . . . And one fine morning' are once again being heard.

Multi-factor password-authenticated key exchange

We consider a new form of authenticated key exchange which we call multi-factor password-authenticated key exchange, where session establishment depends on successful authentication of multiple short secrets that are complementary in nature, such as a long-term password and a one-time response, allowing the client and server to be mutually assured of each other's identity without directly disclosing private information to the other party. Multi-factor authentication can provide an enhanced level of assurance in higher-security scenarios such as online banking, virtual private network access, and physical access because a multi-factor protocol is designed to remain secure even if all but one of the factors has been compromised. We introduce a security model for multi-factor password-authenticated key exchange protocols, propose an efficient and secure protocol called MFPAK, and provide a security argument to show that our protocol is secure in this model. Our security model is an extension of the Bellare-Pointcheval-Rogaway security model for password-authenticated key exchange and accommodates an arbitrary number of symmetric and asymmetric authentication factors.

Randomized controlled trial of cognitive-behavioural therapy for coexisting depression and alcohol problems : short-term outcome

AIMS: Alcohol use disorders and depression co-occur frequently and are associated with poorer outcomes than when either condition occurs alone. The present study (Depression and Alcohol Integrated and Single-focused Interventions; DAISI) aimed to compare the effectiveness of brief intervention, single-focused and integrated psychological interventions for treatment of coexisting depression and alcohol use problems. METHODS: Participants (n = 284) with current depressive symptoms and hazardous alcohol use were assessed and randomly allocated to one of four individually delivered interventions: (i) a brief intervention only (single 90-minute session) with an integrated focus on depression and alcohol, or followed by a further nine 1-hour sessions with (ii) an alcohol focus; (iii) a depression focus; or (iv) an integrated focus. Follow-up assessments occurred 18 weeks after baseline. RESULTS: Compared with the brief intervention, 10 sessions were associated with greater reductions in average drinks per week, average drinking days per week and maximum consumption on 1 day. No difference in duration of treatment was found for depression outcomes. Compared with single-focused interventions, integrated treatment was associated with a greater reduction in drinking days and level of depression. For men, the alcohol-focused rather than depression-focused intervention was associated with a greater reduction in average drinks per day and drinks per week and an increased level of general functioning. Women showed greater improvements on each of these variables when they received depression-focused rather than alcohol-focused treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Integrated treatment may be superior to single-focused treatment for coexisting depression and alcohol problems, at least in the short term. Gender differences between single-focused depression and alcohol treatments warrant further study.

Depression, anxiety and body image after treatment for invasive stage one epithelial ovarian cancer

Background: Diagnosis of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) in young women has major implications including those to their reproductive potential. We evaluated depression, anxiety and body image in patients with stage I EOC treated with fertility sparing surgery (FSS) or radical surgery (RS). We also investigated fertility outcomes after FSS.----- Methods: A retrospective study was undertaken in which 62 patients completed questionnaires related to anxiety, depression, body image and fertility outcomes. Additional information on adjuvant therapy after FSS and RS and demographic details were abstracted from medical records. Both bi and multivariate regression models were used to assess the relationship between demographic, clinical and pathological results and scores for anxiety, depression and body image.----- Results: Thirty-nine patients underwent RS and the rest, FSS. The percentage of patients reporting elevated anxiety and depression (subscores ≥ 11) were 27 % and 5% respectively. The median (inter quartile range) score for body image scale (BIS) was 6 (3-15). None of the demographic or clinical factors examined showed significant association with anxiety and BIS with the exception of ‘time since diagnosis’. For depression, post-menopausal status was the only independent predictor. Among those 23 patients treated by FSS, 14 patients tried to conceive (7 successful), resulting in 7 live births, one termination of pregnancy and one miscarriage.----- Conclusion: This study shows that psychological issues are common in women treated for stage I EOC. Reproduction after FSS is feasible and lead to the birth of healthy babies in about half of patients who wished to have another child. Further prospective studies with standardised instruments are required.

4-Hydroxy-4,4-diphenylbutan-2-one

The mol­ecules of the title compound, C16H16O2, display an intra­molecular O—HO hydrogen bond between the hydroxyl donor and the ketone acceptor. Inter­molecular C—Hπ inter­actions connect adjacent mol­ecules into chains that propagate parallel to the ac diagonal. The chains are arranged in sheets, and mol­ecules in adjacent sheets inter­act via inter­molecular O—HO hydrogen bonds.

In-session processes in online counselling with young people : an exploratory approach

Aims : The aim of this study was to conduct an exploratory investigation into the in-session processes and behaviours that occur between therapists and young people in online counseling. Method: The Consensual Qualitative Research method was employed to identify in-session behaviours and a coding instrument was developed to determine their frequency of use and assess whether nuances carried in the meaning of text messages have an influential effect during sessions. Eighty-five single-session transcripts were examined in total by two independent coders. Results: Sample statistics revealed that, on average, rapport-building processes were used more consistently across cases with both types of processes having a moderately strong positive effect on young people. However, closer examination of these processes revealed weaker positive effects for in-session behaviours that rely more heavily on verbal and non-verbal cues to be accurately interpreted. Implications for Practice and Future Research: These findings imply that therapists may focus more on building rapport than accomplishing tasks with young people during online counselling sessions due to the absence of verbal and non-verbal information when communicating via text messages.

One-dimensional hydrogen-bonded structures in the 1:1 proton-transfer salts of 4,5-dichlorophthalic acid with the aliphatic Lewis bases diisopropylamine and hexamethylenetetramine

The crystal structures of the 1:1 proton-transfer compounds of 4,5-dichlorophthalic acid with the aliphatic Lewis bases diisopropylamine and hexamethylenetetramine, viz. diisopropylaminium 2-carboxy-4,5-dichlorobenzoate (1) and hexamethylenetetraminium 2-carboxy-4,5-dichlorobenzoate hemihydrate (2), have been determined. Crystals of both 1 and 2 are triclinic, space group P-1, with Z = 2 in cells with a = 7.0299(5), b = 9.4712(7), c = 12.790(1)Å, α = 99.476(6), β = 100.843(6), γ = 97.578(6)o (1) and a = 7.5624(8), b = 9.8918(8), c = 11.5881(16)Å, α = 65.660(6), β = 86.583(4), γ = 86.987(8)o (2). In each, one-dimensional hydrogen-bonded chain structures are found: in 1 formed through aminium N+-H...Ocarboxyl cation-anion interactions. In 2, the chains are formed through anion carboxyl O...H-Obridging water interactions with the cations peripherally bound. In both structures, the hydrogen phthalate anions are essentially planar with short intra-species carboxylic acid O-H...Ocarboxyl hydrogen bonds [O…O, 2.381(3) Å (1) and 2.381(8) Å (2)].

Adaptive dual control of topic-based information retrieval

Information Retrieval is an important albeit imperfect component of information technologies. A problem of insufficient diversity of retrieved documents is one of the primary issues studied in this research. This study shows that this problem leads to a decrease of precision and recall, traditional measures of information retrieval effectiveness. This thesis presents an adaptive IR system based on the theory of adaptive dual control. The aim of the approach is the optimization of retrieval precision after all feedback has been issued. This is done by increasing the diversity of retrieved documents. This study shows that the value of recall reflects this diversity. The Probability Ranking Principle is viewed in the literature as the “bedrock” of current probabilistic Information Retrieval theory. Neither the proposed approach nor other methods of diversification of retrieved documents from the literature conform to this principle. This study shows by counterexample that the Probability Ranking Principle does not in general lead to optimal precision in a search session with feedback (for which it may not have been designed but is actively used). Retrieval precision of the search session should be optimized with a multistage stochastic programming model to accomplish the aim. However, such models are computationally intractable. Therefore, approximate linear multistage stochastic programming models are derived in this study, where the multistage improvement of the probability distribution is modelled using the proposed feedback correctness method. The proposed optimization models are based on several assumptions, starting with the assumption that Information Retrieval is conducted in units of topics. The use of clusters is the primary reasons why a new method of probability estimation is proposed. The adaptive dual control of topic-based IR system was evaluated in a series of experiments conducted on the Reuters, Wikipedia and TREC collections of documents. The Wikipedia experiment revealed that the dual control feedback mechanism improves precision and S-recall when all the underlying assumptions are satisfied. In the TREC experiment, this feedback mechanism was compared to a state-of-the-art adaptive IR system based on BM-25 term weighting and the Rocchio relevance feedback algorithm. The baseline system exhibited better effectiveness than the cluster-based optimization model of ADTIR. The main reason for this was insufficient quality of the generated clusters in the TREC collection that violated the underlying assumption.

Nursing care of the mechanically ventilated patient: what does the evidence say? Part one.

The care of the mechanically ventilated patient is at the core of a nurse's clinical practice in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Published work relating to the numerous nursing issues of the care of the mechanically ventilated patient in the ICU is growing significantly. Literature focuses on patient assessment and management strategies for patient stressors, pain and sedation. Yet this literature is fragmentary by nature. The purpose of this paper is to provide a single comprehensive examination of the evidence related to the care of the mechanically ventilated patient. In part one of this two-part paper, the evidence on nursing care of the mechanically ventilated patient is explored with specific focus on patient safety: particularly patient and equipment assessment. Part two of the paper examines the evidence related to the mechanically ventilated patient's comfort, the patient/family unit, patient position, hygiene, management of stressors, pain management and sedation.

Does quality of life among breast cancer survivors one year after diagnosis differ depending on urban and non-urban residence? A comparative study

Background: This study examined the quality of life (QOL), measured by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT) questionnaire, among urban (n=277) and non-urban (n=323) breast cancer survivors and women from the general population (n=1140) in Queensland, Australia. ---------- Methods: Population-based samples of breast cancer survivors aged <75 years who were 12 months post-diagnosis and similarly-aged women from the general population were recruited between 2002 and 2007. ---------- Results: Age-adjusted QOL among urban and non-urban breast cancer survivors was similar, although QOL related to breast cancer concerns was the weakest domain and was lower among non-urban survivors than their urban counterparts (36.8 versus 40.4, P<0.01). Irrespective of residence, breast cancer survivors, on average, reported comparable scores on most QOL scales as their general population peers, although physical well-being was significantly lower among non-urban survivors (versus the general population, P<0.01). Overall, around 20%-33% of survivors experienced lower QOL than peers without the disease. The odds of reporting QOL below normative levels were increased more than two-fold for those who experienced complications following surgery, reported upper-body problems, had higher perceived stress levels and/or a poor perception of handling stress (P<0.01 for all). ---------- Conclusions: Results can be used to identify subgroups of women at risk of low QOL and to inform components of tailored recovery interventions to optimize QOL for these women following cancer treatment.

Resembling Florida : transpacific transfer of ideas from one Gold Coast to another

Despite different political structures and planning systems, striking physical similarities exist between the tourist destinations of the Gold Coasts of Queensland and Florida. Both have been fast developing sub-tropical coastal areas, subject to massive land booms, speculation, and entrepreneurs’ grand visions throughout their history. As a result, both have become tourist destinations of international renown. Drawing on historical sources, the present research seeks to investigate the extent to which these similarities result from taking American cities as a model for newer development in Australia; in this case from transferring planning and marketing ideas from one Gold Coast to another, with the development of the Florida Gold Coast setting precedent for the development of the Queensland Gold Coast.

Generic one round group key exchange in the standard model

Minimizing complexity of group key exchange (GKE) protocols is an important milestone towards their practical deployment. An interesting approach to achieve this goal is to simplify the design of GKE protocols by using generic building blocks. In this paper we investigate the possibility of founding GKE protocols based on a primitive called multi key encapsulation mechanism (mKEM) and describe advantages and limitations of this approach. In particular, we show how to design a one-round GKE protocol which satisfies the classical requirement of authenticated key exchange (AKE) security, yet without forward secrecy. As a result, we obtain the first one-round GKE protocol secure in the standard model. We also conduct our analysis using recent formal models that take into account both outsider and insider attacks as well as the notion of key compromise impersonation resilience (KCIR). In contrast to previous models we show how to model both outsider and insider KCIR within the definition of mutual authentication. Our analysis additionally implies that the insider security compiler by Katz and Shin from ACM CCS 2005 can be used to achieve more than what is shown in the original work, namely both outsider and insider KCIR.