Clemonsgrimes4851

Emotion recognition from speech has its fair share of applications and consequently extensive research has been done over the past few years in this interesting field. However, many of the existing solutions aren't yet ready for real time applications. In this work, we propose a compact representation of audio using conventional autoencoders for dimensionality reduction, and test the approach on two benchmark publicly available datasets. Such compact and simple classification systems where the computing cost is low and memory is managed efficiently may be more useful for real time application. System is evaluated on the Ryerson Audio-Visual Database of Emotional Speech and Song (RAVDESS) and the Toronto Emotional Speech Set (TESS). Three classifiers, namely, support vector machines (SVM), decision tree classifier, and convolutional neural networks (CNN) have been implemented to judge the impact of the approach. The results obtained by attempting classification with Alexnet and Resnet50 are also reported. Observations proved that this introduction of autoencoders indeed can improve the classification accuracy of the emotion in the input audio files. It can be concluded that in emotion recognition from speech, the choice and application of dimensionality reduction of audio features impacts the results that are achieved and therefore, by working on this aspect of the general speech emotion recognition model, it may be possible to make great improvements in the future.Enduring sustainability challenges requires a new model of collective leadership that embraces critical reflection, inclusivity and care. Leadership collectives can support a move in academia from metrics to merits, from a focus on career to care, and enact a shift from disciplinary to inter- and trans-disciplinary research. Academic organisations need to reorient their training programs, work ethics and reward systems to encourage collective excellence and to allow space for future leaders to develop and enact a radically re-imagined vision of how to lead as a collective with care for people and the planet.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11625-021-00909-y.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11625-021-00909-y.

Some medical disciplines have reported astrong decrease of emergencies during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic; however, the effect of the lockdown on general surgery emergencies remains unclear.

This study is aretrospective, multicenter analysis of general surgery emergency operations performed during the period from 1 March to 15th 2020 lockdown and in the same time period of 2019 in three medical centers providing emergency surgical care to the area Salzburg-North, Austria.

In total 165 emergency surgeries were performed in the study period of 2020 compared to 287 in 2019. This is asignificant decrease of 122 (42.5%) emergency surgeries during the COVID-19 lockdown (

 = 0.005). The length of hospital stay was reduced to 3days in 2020 compared to 4 in 2019. Appendectomy remained the most performed emergency surgery for both periods; however the number of surgeries was reduced to less than ahalf, with 72cases in 2019 and 33cases in 2020 (

 = 0.118). Emergency colon surgery observed the strongest decrease of 75% from 17cases in 2019 to 4 in 2020. In addition, the emergency abdominal wall hernia, cholecystectomies for acute cholecystitis, small surgeries and proctological emergencies recorded drops of 70%, 39%, 33% and 47% respectively. The strongest reduction in frequencies of emergency surgeries was reported from the designated COVID center in the examined region.

Emergency general surgery is an essential service that continues to run under all circumstances. Our data show that COVID-19-related restrictions have resulted in asignificant decrease in the utilization of acute surgical care.

Emergency general surgery is an essential service that continues to run under all circumstances. Our data show that COVID-19-related restrictions have resulted in a significant decrease in the utilization of acute surgical care.The paper looks into the image of China in Slovakia. Following the period of relative disinterest of the media in majority of topics connected with China, media are starting to pay increasingly more attention towards China and various aspects of its development, domestic policy, and foreign affairs. Increased media coverage of China begs to ask the question what image of China the Slovak media are presenting to the public. The proposed article draws upon an extensive database of media pieces published or broadcasted by Slovak newspapers, TV stations, radios, as well as online media outlets in the period of 2010-2017. OTSSP167 solubility dmso Using the method of qualitative content analysis, a selection of over 2600 media pieces are analyzed and coded for general sentiments and themes covered in the media. Secondly, the paper also analyzes the perception of China among Slovak political elites, drawing on interviews with key stakeholders among the most important political parties, as well as public perception based on several opinion surveys. The article concludes that while negative perception of China prevails in the media and among the public, it is not complex and prone to change. On the level of political parties, three distinct groups exist, defined by their levels of pragmatism and pro-China positions (pragmatic supporters, ideological supporters, and ideological opponents).Previous research suggests that psychological and behavioural factors such as worry, severity, controllability, and preventive behaviours are associated with mental health and well-being. Less is known about simultaneous effects of those factors in predicting mental health and well-being. This study aimed to present the prevalence of mental health problems and identify the predictors of mental health and subjective well-being of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants included 245 healthcare workers (M age  = 33.16 ± 7.33; 50.61% females) from a pandemic hospital in Turkey. Healthcare workers reported mild/severe depression, anxiety, and stress. Females tended to be more vulnerable to developing psychiatric symptoms. Worry, severity, and controllability significantly predicted depression, anxiety, stress, and subjective well-being while preventive behaviours only predicted subjective well-being. These findings suggest the importance of assessing healthcare workers' experiences of mental health and subjective well-being and their associated factors to assist mental health providers tailor assessments and treatment during a pandemic.In March 2020 schools in Austria temporarily closed and switched to distance learning to contain the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). The resulting situation posed great challenges to teachers, guardians and students (Huber and Helm 2020). Research has shown that perceived competence (Deci and Ryan 2000) affects selfregulated learning (SRL), intrinsic motivation and procrastination, however few studies have considered these variables in context of distance learning among adolescents. This study investigated differences in students who perceived themselves as high vs. low in competence with respect to these constructs. In an online questionnaire, 2652 Austrian secondary school students answered closed questions regarding SRL, intrinsic motivation and procrastination as well as open-ended questions about challenges, successes and need for support in distance. Structural equation modeling was applied for the quantitative analysis which was complemented by thematic analysis for the qualitative questions (Braun and Clarke 2006). Results showed that students who experienced themselves as highly competent use SRL strategies (goal setting and planning, time management, metacognitive strategies) more often and are more intrinsically motivated than students with lower perceived competence. They also procrastinate less. Furthermore, qualitative analysis revealed that although all students face similar challenges (e.g., independent learning, time and task management, learning on the computer, lack of contact with teachers and peers), students who perceived themselves as highly competent seemed to cope better, and have less need for support. Implications for distance learning and future research are discussed.

The online version of this article (10.1007/s11618-021-01002-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The online version of this article (10.1007/s11618-021-01002-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.The review provides a systematic overview of the state of quantitative research on teaching and learning characteristics during school closures due to corona. The review comprises 97 online surveys conducted between 24th of March 2020 and 11th of November 2020 and covering 255,955 cases (students, parents, teachers, school leaders etc.). The analysis and synthesis of the findings was carried out along two models, the phase model of the research process and the "integrative model on distance education". The review makes clear that central aspects of teaching and learning during corona-based school closures in Spring 2020, such as distance learning characteristics (e.g. quality dimensions), student characteristics (e.g. self-sufficiency) and characteristics of home resources for learning (e.g. parental support) have already been the object of many surveys. The school situation during the corona pandemic is therefore no longer an unexplored phenomenon. Rather, the scientific ethos of researchers in this field demands that the current state of research needs to be considered in their work. The review presented here is intended to facilitate this task by not only listing the existing surveys, but also synthesizing their central findings. In addition, the review provides a relevant information basis for decisions and action in politics, administration and school practice. At the same time, the review warns against an unreflected adoption of the findings by critically discussing the scientific quality of the surveys.Keeping schools open was an active strategy in Sweden to meet the threats of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article we analyze how a collection of welfare state agents with different tasks, resources and interests in interaction formed an assemblage in their responses to the pandemic and how education thereby became part of a strategy to keep the society going. The inquiries concern what this tells us about education as framed and constrained as a part of society. Our observations are based on statements presented by the government and public agencies, mass media and websites. We identified an assemblage of interwoven agents such as institutions, laws, regulations and recommendations, pandemic manuals, statistics and media. All these were brought together by actions and ideas to handle a pandemic when there were no preventive vaccines. The overarching principle was to educate the population to competent actions in dealing with the pandemic. To keep schools open was part of that principle combined with caretaking ambitions.