text:
The theme verse of 1 & 2 Kings are combined for two reasons: first, the two documents were originally written as one book, but were simply divided up because of scroll length. This is true also of 1 & 2 Chronicles and 1 & 2 Samuel, but in this case, the theme of both 1 & 2 Kings was best summed up together (in the other book pairs, each book had a more distinctive theme).
There's no shortage of Father's Day activities to celebrate your favorite guy on his special day, from a father-daughter or father-son getaway to bonding over a few dad-centric tunes. But once the gifts have been exchanged and the brunch has been devoured, one of the best ways to continue the celebrations at home is to plop down on the sofa and share some Father's Day Bible verses together. Wind things down, grab the good book, and tap into your faith by reading up on these short passages about fathers, husbands, and the love of God. Whether you're a son, daughter, or spouse of the man of honor, you can remind him why he's so loved with these inspirational words (or write them in his Father's Day card!). Scripture Images
Thus says the Lord, "Go, buy a potter's earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests, and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. You shall say, 'Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind— ... Scripture Images
The Bible is full of encouraging scriptures that are such a blessing to read and memorize. Here are ten of my favorite scripture quotes for encouragement. Feel free to share these with others as these encouraging Bible verses will brighten anyone's day. The Scriptures used are filled with hope, comfort and inspiration. These famous Bible quotes are from the Old and New Testament. Christian Art and Gifts
Our Gift Shop is full of amazing products that we think you might like that compliment many of our wall arts. All the items in our Gift Shop are made by other companies. When you click on one to purchase you will be directed to Amazon to make the purchase. Please note that those purchases are not covered by our guarantees. All purchases, refunds, exchanges, or service issues must be dealt with through Amazon. However, at no cost to you, we make a small commission when you purchase through our links. We greatly appreciate that support as it allows us to help keep the price on our wall arts down. Thank you in advance for any purchases you make through our Gift Shop. Scripture Image
Now there were four supports at the four corners of each stand; its supports were part of the stand itself. On the top of the stand there was a circular form half a cubit high, and on the top of the stand its stays and its borders were part of it. He engraved on the plates of its stays and on its borders, cherubim, lions and palm trees, according to the clear space on each, with wreaths all around.read more.
On this page, I have indexed for your convenience some Christian Housewarming Bible Verses you may like to use in cards, scrapbooks or crafts. All the Housewarming Scripture references are taken from the Amplified translation unless otherwise stated, and are linked to 'Bible Gateway' so you can click on the scripture link to be referred to the Bible Gateway website where you can change the 'bible translation' or 'language translation' if you wish.
My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. ... Christian Art and Gifts
Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. ... Scripture Image
Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Contact me: openbibleinfo (at) gmail.com. Cite this page: Editor: Stephen Smith. Publication date: May 9, 2019. Publisher: OpenBible.info. Christian Art and Gifts
He made 300 shields of beaten gold, using three minas of gold on each shield, and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with refined gold. There were six steps to the throne and a round top to the throne at its rear, and arms on each side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the arms. Twelve lions were standing there on the six steps on the one side and on the other; nothing like it was made for any other kingdom. All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None was of silver; it was not considered valuable in the days of Solomon.
Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For "God has put all things in subjection under his feet." But when it says, "all things are put in subjection," it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.
"Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whom the Lord has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded." And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work. And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, and said to Moses, "The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do." ... Scripture Image
Glory of ChristChrist AtoningThe Effect Of The Word Of GodChrist's Own GloryimagepersonalityThe Beauty Of NatureGod On HighRight Hand Of GodRadiancyGod Sustaining CreationPower Of Christ, ShownHand Of GodGod, Living And Self sustainingRight SidesSalvation, Nature OfKnowledge, Of Jesus ChristCreatorGod's Glory In Jesus ChristMediatorGod, Power OfGod, Glory Of
"Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lust than she, and her harlotries were more than the harlotries of her sister. "She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and officials, the ones near, magnificently dressed, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. "I saw that she had defiled herself; they both took the same way.read more. Christian Art and Gifts
"Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lust than she, and her harlotries were more than the harlotries of her sister. "She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and officials, the ones near, magnificently dressed, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. "I saw that she had defiled herself; they both took the same way.read more. Scripture Image
Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For "God has put all things in subjection under his feet." But when it says, "all things are put in subjection," it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. Christian Art and Gifts
Practice hospitality to one another (those of the household of faith). [Be hospitable, be a lover of strangers, with brotherly affection for the unknown guests, the foreigners, the poor, and all others who come your way who are of Christ's body.] And [in each instance] do it ungrudgingly (cordially and graciously, without complaining but as representing Him). - 1 Peter 4:9 (AMPC)
The house that I am to build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him? So now send me a man skilled to work in gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and in purple, crimson, and blue fabrics, trained also in engraving, to be with the skilled workers who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, whom David my father provided.
Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Contact me: openbibleinfo (at) gmail.com. Cite this page: Editor: Stephen Smith. Publication date: Jun 22, 2019. Publisher: OpenBible.info.
For the last 5 years, the in-house design team at the Faithlife Corporation has illustrated one Bible verse every day. This art has found its way onto t-shirts, magnets, and postcards—and now, a beautiful picture book. In print for the first time, art from Faithlife's Verse of the Day series paired with uplifting devotionals will encourage and inspire you. Share Your Faith Products Gifts
Our extensive experience ensures you of the highest quality product. As in most industries, when they start to mature the low price competitors come in to make quick money with inferior products. The Vinyl Wall Decal industry has been no different. Just in the past few years, we have seen a flood of inferior products coming in from overseas. While these products are usually cheap, they aren't usually even functional. These products come without necessities like pre-installed transfer tape making it almost impossible for you to actually install the product. One company we know of doesn't even "weed" their products making them useless for most customers. Of course, trying to fight with a Chinese company for a $5 refund is seldom worth the time so most users just end up frustrated and disappointed. Scripture Image


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\section{Introduction}
\label{sec:Introduction}
Multi-microphone speech enhancement algorithms in currently available hearing aid devices are able to perform source separation and reduce background noise to improve speech intelligibility. However, the performance of these algorithms in improving speech intelligibility typically depends on correctly identifying the target speaker to be enhanced. In hearing aid applications, the target speaker is typically identified using assumptions such as the target speaker being
located in front of the listener or being the loudest speaker.
However, since in real-world conditions these assumptions may often be violated, e.g., when the auditory attention of the listener is misaligned with the assumptions, the performance of speech enhancement methods decreases and results in a substantially reduced benefit from hearing aids.

Recent advances in electroencephalography (EEG) have shown that it is possible to identify the target speaker from single-trial EEG recordings of a listener by decoding the auditory attention \cite{OSullivan_neural_2017, Simon_Eyndhoven_2016, Aroudi_2020_cognitive-driven_beamforming_ASLP}.
Several auditory attention decoding (AAD) methods have been
proposed to identify the target speaker, based on, e.g., a linear least-squares cost function \cite{OSullivan2014, Wong_Frontiers_2018, Alickovic_2019, Sina_2018} and non-linear neural networks \cite{Tobias_2018, Gregory_2019}.
The linear least-squares-based AAD method proposed in \cite{OSullivan2014} is able to exploit the linear neural process of attention along the auditory pathway to identify the attended speaker. The non-linear neural-network-based AAD method proposed in \cite{Tobias_2018} is able to exploit the non-linear neural process of attention in addition to the linear neural process. To identify the attended speaker, these methods aim at reconstructing the attended speech envelope from the EEG recordings using a trained spatio-temporal estimator.
In the training step, a spatio-temporal envelope estimator is trained by either minimizing the least-squares error or maximizing the correlation cost function between the attended speech envelope and the reconstructed envelope.
In the decoding step, the attended speech envelope is reconstructed using the trained envelope estimator and then directly compared with the speech envelopes of two speakers using Pearson correlation coefficients to identify the attended speaker.
Since these correlation coefficients are highly fluctuating,
for a reliable decoding a large correlation window on the order of $30$ seconds is typically used, which causes a large processing delay and hence limits the feasibility of AAD for hearing aid applications.
In \cite{Sina_2018}, it has been proposed to
use coefficients of least-squares-based envelope estimators, obtained separately for reconstructing the attended and the unattended speech envelope.
Using coefficients of estimators, a state-space model then identifies the attended speaker.
In this paper, we investigate a state-space model using correlation coefficients obtained with a small correlation window to improve the decoding performance of the  (linear) least-squares-based AAD method and the (non-linear) neural-network-based AAD method. The correlation coefficients are generated using either the least-squares-based AAD method or the neural-network-based AAD method. The state-space model then translates the generated correlation coefficients into smooth estimates of the attention state, based on which the attended speaker is identified.

For an acoustic scenario with two competing speakers and diffuse noise at different SNRs and reverberation times, 64-channel EEG responses with 18 participants were
recorded. The experimental results show for correlation coefficients obtained with a $5$-second correlation window that the least-squares-based AAD method and the neural-network-based AAD method yield a low decoding performance. However, when using the state-space model with the least-squares-based AAD method, the decoding performance  significantly improves.

\section{Auditory attention decoding}
\label{sec:Auditory attention decoding}
This section presents the auditory attention decoding using a state-space model, which   employs correlation coefficients generated either by the least-squares-based AAD method and the neural-network-based AAD method. In Section \ref{subsec:Configuration and notation} the acoustic scenario and the notation are defined. Section \ref{subsec: AAD using state-space model} describes the state-space model. Section \ref{subsec: Least-squares-based AAD} and  Section \ref{subsec: Neural-network-based AAD} describe the least-squares-based AAD method and the neural-network-based AAD method.
\subsection{Configuration and notation}
\label{subsec:Configuration and notation}
We consider an acoustic scenario comprising two competing speakers and background noise in a reverberant environment, where the ongoing EEG responses of a listener to these acoustic stimuli are recorded (See Fig. \ref{fig:decoding flow process}). The clean speech signal of speaker $1$ is denoted as $s_{1}\left[n\right]$, with $n$ the discrete time index, while the clean speech signal of speaker $2$ is denoted as $s_{2}\left[n\right]$. The envelopes of the clean speech signals of speaker $1$ and $2$ are denoted as  $e_{1}\left[k\right]$ and $e_{2}\left[k\right]$, with $k$ the sub-sampled time index, respectively.

The reconstructed attended speech envelope from $C$-channel EEG recordings $r_{c}\left[k\right]$, with $c=1\ldots C$, using a trained spatio-temporal envelope estimator $F$ is given by
\begin{equation}
\hat{e}_{a}\left[k\right]=F(\mathbf{r}\left[k\right]),   \end{equation}
with
\begin{equation}
\mathbf{r}\left[k\right]=\left[\mathbf{r}_{1}^{T}\left[k\right]\,\mathbf{r}_{2}^{T}\left[k\right]\;\ldots\;\mathbf{r}_{C}^{T}\left[k\right]\right]^{T},
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
\mathbf{r}_{c}\left[k\right]=\left[r_{c}\left[k\right]\,r_{c}\left[k+1\right]\;\ldots\;r_{c}\left[k+\Delta\right]\right]^{T},
\label{eq: eeg of a channel}
\end{equation}
where $\Delta$ denotes the latency considered for modeling the attentional effect in the EEG responses to acoustic stimuli.

The Pearson correlation coefficients between the reconstructed attended envelope $\hat{e}_{a}\left[k\right]$ and the envelope of two speakers are given by
\begin{equation}
\rho_{1,k}=\rho\left(\mathbf{e}_{1}\left[k\right],\;\hat{\mathbf{e}}_{a}\left[k\right]\right),\;\ \rho_{2,k}=\rho\left(\mathbf{e}_{2}\left[k\right],\;\hat{\mathbf{e}}_{a}\left[k\right]\right),
\label{eq:corr coff}
\end{equation}
where $\hat{\mathbf{e}}_{a}\left[k\right]$ denotes the stacked vector of the reconstructed attended envelope corresponding to a correlation window of length $K_{\text{COR}}$, i.e.,
\begin{equation}
\hat{\mathbf{e}}_{a}\left[k\right]=\left[\hat{e}_{a}\left[(k-1)K_{\text{COR}}+1\right]\,\hat{e}_{a}\left[(k-1)K_{\text{COR}}+2\right]\;\ldots\;\hat{e}_{a}\left[kK_{\text{COR}}\right]\right]^{T},
\label{eq: stacked vector of the reconstructed envelope}
\end{equation}
and $\mathbf{e}_{1}\left[k\right]$ and $\mathbf{e}_{2}\left[k\right]$ are defined similarly as in (\ref{eq: stacked vector of the reconstructed envelope}).
Please note that in this paper we assume that the clean speech signal of speakers are available for obtaining the envelopes of speakers $e_{1}\left[k\right]$ and $e_{2}\left[k\right]$. However, since in practice only  microphone signals containing a mixture of speakers and ambient noise are available, the clean speech signal of speakers needs to be appropriately estimated from microphone signals, e.g., by using the noise reduction and source separation algorithms proposed in \cite{Aroudi_2020_cognitive-driven_beamforming_ASLP, Aroudi_ICASSP2019, Cong_2019, Simon_Eyndhoven_2016}.

\begin{figure}[t]
 \centering
  \centerline{\includegraphics[width=6cm,height=8cm]{./fig/flow_process/decoding_flow_process.png}}
 \caption{Illustration of the process flow of AAD using state-space model.}
\label{fig:decoding flow process}
\end{figure}

\subsection{AAD using state-space model}
\label{subsec: AAD using state-space model}
Suppose the attended envelope is reconstructed using a trained (linear or nonlinear) spatio-temporal estimator and the correlation coefficients of speakers are obtained.
We aim at estimating the probability of attending to speaker $1$ or $2$ based on a state-space model using the past and the subsequent correlation coefficients (see Fig. \ref{fig:decoding flow process}).
Let the attention state of the listener when attending to either speaker $1$ or $2$ be defined as a binary random variable, i.e.,
\begin{equation}
\left\{ \begin{array}{cc}
d_{k}=1, & \text{when attending to speaker 1}\\
d_{k}=2, & \text{when attending to speaker 2}
\end{array}\right.,
\end{equation}
which follows a Bernoulli process.
The probability of attending to speakers based on the state-space model is obtained as \cite{Sahar_2016, Sina_2018}
\begin{equation}
p\left(d_{k}=1\right)=1-p\left(d_{k}=2\right)=\dfrac{1}{1+e^{-\left(z_{k}\right)}},
\label{eq: prob_1_and_2}
\end{equation}
with
\begin{equation}
z_{k}=c_{0}z_{k-1}+w_{k},
\label{eq: autoregressive}
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
w_{k}\sim\mathcal{N}\left(0,\eta_{k}\right),
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
\eta_{k}\sim\textrm{Inverse-Gamma}\left(a_{0},b_{0}\right),
\label{eq: Inverse-Gamma}
\end{equation}
, $c_{0}$ denoting the hyperparameter ensuring the stability of  $z_{k}$, and  $a_{0}$ and $b_{0}$ denoting the hyperparameters used to control the smoothing degree of the state-space model by tuning the variations of $z_{k}$ and $p\left(d_{k}=\left\{ 1,2\right\} \right)$.
The autoregressive model in (\ref{eq: autoregressive}) implies that the (attention state) parameter $z_{k}$ at instance $k$ is predicted from $z_{k-1}$ at the instance $k-1$ with some uncertainty, which is modeled by the noise process $w\left(k\right)$. Please note that when $z_{k}$ varies from $-\infty$ to $\infty$, $p\left(d_{k}=1\right)$ monotonically varies from $0$ to $1$.
To relate the correlation coefficients of speakers to the attention state, the probability of the absolute values of correlation coefficients given attending to either speaker $1$ or $2$ is modeled using a Log-Normal distribution, i.e.,
\begin{equation}
\begin{array}{cc}
p\left(\left|\rho_{l,k}\right|\mid d_{k}=l\right)\sim\textrm{Log-Normal}\left(\boldsymbol{\alpha}_{a}\right), & l=1,2\end{array}
\label{eq: atteneded Log-Normal distribution}
\end{equation}
with $\boldsymbol{\alpha}_{a}$ denoting the parameter set of the attended Log-Normal distribution.
The probability of the correlation coefficients given ignoring either speaker $1$ or $2$ is modeled as
\begin{equation}
\begin{array}{cc}
p\left(\left|\rho_{l,k}\right|\mid d_{k}\neq l\right)\sim\textrm{Log-Normal}\left(\boldsymbol{\alpha}_{u}\right), & l=1,2\end{array}
\label{eq: unatteneded Log-Normal distribution}
\end{equation}
with $\boldsymbol{\alpha}_{u}$ denoting the parameter set of the unattended Log-Normal distribution.

Let's suppose we are at the instance $k=k_{0}$ (see Fig. \ref{fig:decoding flow process}) and aim to estimate the probability of attending to speakers  $p\left(d_{k}=\left\{ 1,2\right\} \right)$ at the instance $k=k^{\ast}$ using the correlation coefficients obtained within a sliding smoothing window of length $\ensuremath{\ensuremath{K_{\text{SSM}}}}=K_{P}+K_{A}+1$, with $K_{P}$ and $K_{A}$ denoting the parameters determining the number of the correlation coefficient prior to and after the instance $k^{\ast}$, respectively.  The parameters of the state-space model corresponding to the smoothing window are hence given as $\Omega=\left\{ z_{k_{0}-\ensuremath{K_{\text{SSM}}+1}:k_{0}},\eta_{k_{0}-\ensuremath{K_{\text{SSM}}+1}:k_{0}},\boldsymbol{\alpha}_{a},\boldsymbol{\alpha}_{u}\right\} $. Theses parameters including $z_{k^{\ast}}$ are estimated from the correlation coefficients $\rho_{1,k_{0}-\ensuremath{K_{\text{SSM}}+1}:k_{0}}$ and $\rho_{2,k_{0}-\ensuremath{K_{\text{SSM}}+1}:k_{0}}$ obtained within the smoothing window  using the  Expectation Maximization (EM) estimation algorithm proposed in \cite{Sahar_2016, Sina_2018}. Based on the estimated attention state parameter $z_{k^{\ast}}$, the probability of attending to speakers $p\left(d_{k^{\ast}}=\left\{ 1,2\right\} \right)$ are obtained. It is then decided that the listener attended to speaker 1 if $p\left(d_{k^{\ast}}=1\right)>p\left(d_{k^{\ast}}=2\right)$ or attended to speaker 2 otherwise. Please note that the estimated parameters $\Omega$ are also used for the initialization of parameters in the next smoothing window.

In the simulations (see Section \ref{sec:Experimental setup}), we will consider to use the state-space model with correlation coefficients generated either by the least-squares-based AAD method (see Section \ref{subsec: Least-squares-based AAD}) or the neural-network-based AAD method (see Section \ref{subsec: Neural-network-based AAD}).

\subsection{Least-squares-based AAD}
\label{subsec: Least-squares-based AAD}
The least-squares-based AAD method proposed in \cite{OSullivan2014} aims at estimating the attended speech envelope from the EEG recordings using a trained linear spatio-temporal estimator.
In the training step, the attended speaker is assumed to be
known and an attended speech signal is used to train a linear estimator by minimizing the least-squares error between the attended speech envelope $e_{a}\left[k\right]$ and the reconstructed envelope $\hat{e}_{a}\left[k\right]$, i.e.,
\begin{equation}
\underset{\mathbf{g}}{\textrm{min}}\frac{1}{K}\overset{K}{\underset{k=1}{\sum}}\left(e_{a}\left[k\right]-\hat{e}_{a}\left[k\right]\right)^{2}+\beta\mathbf{g}^{T}\mathbf{D}\mathbf{g},
\label{eq: LS cost function}
\end{equation}
with $\hat{e}_{a}\left[k\right]=F(\mathbf{r}\left[k\right])=\mathbf{g}^{T}\mathbf{r}\left[k\right]$,
 $\mathbf{D}$ denoting the derivative matrix \cite{Aroudi_EMBC_2017} and $\beta$ denoting a regularization parameter. The linear estimator minimizing the regularized least-squares cost function in (\ref{eq: LS cost function}) is equal to
\begin{equation}
\mathbf{g}=\left(\mathit{\mathbf{Q}+\beta\mathbf{D}}\right)^{-1}\mathbf{q},
\label{eq:LS estimator}
\end{equation}
with the correlation matrix $\mathbf{Q}$ and the cross-correlation vector $\mathbf{q}$ given by
\begin{equation}
\mathbf{Q}=\mathit{\frac{\mathrm{1}}{K}\overset{K}{\underset{k=\mathrm{1}}{\sum}}\left(\mathbf{r}\left[k\right]\mathbf{r}^{T}\left[k\right]\right)},\;\ \mathbf{q}=\mathit{\frac{\mathrm{1}}{K}\overset{K}{\underset{k=\mathrm{1}}{\sum}}\left(\mathbf{r}\left[k\right]e_{a}\left[k\right]\right)}.
\label{eq: correlatin matrix and vector}
\end{equation}

In the decoding step, the attended envelope $\hat{e}_{a}\left[k\right]$ is obtained using the (trained) linear estimator $\mathbf{g}$ in (\ref{eq:LS estimator}). Next, the correlation coefficients between the reconstructed attended envelope and the envelope of two speaker $\rho_{1,k}$ and $\rho_{2,k}$ are computed as in (\ref{eq:corr coff}).
Based on these correlation coefficients, it is then decided that the listener attended to speaker 1 if $\rho_{1,k}>\rho_{2,k}$ or attended to speaker 2 otherwise.

\subsection{Neural-network-based AAD}
\label{subsec: Neural-network-based AAD}
The neural-network-based AAD method aims at estimating the attended speech envelope from the EEG recordings using a trained non-linear spatio-temporal estimator. Similarly as in \cite{Tobias_2018, Gregory_2019}, we consider a network $\mathcal{H}$ consisting of a hidden convolutional layer with hyperbolic tangent activation functions and one output layer with linear activation functions.
In the training step, the network is trained to maximize the correlation between the attended speech envelope and the reconstructed envelope by minimizing the correlation cost function \cite{Tobias_2018}, i.e.,
\begin{equation}
\text{min \ensuremath{\frac{1}{K}\overset{K}{\underset{k=1}{\sum}}}}(1-\rho\left(\mathbf{e}_{a}\left[k\right],\;\hat{\mathbf{e}}_{a}\left[k\right]\right)),
\end{equation}
A correlation cost function equal to $0$ corresponds to the maximum correlation between the attended speech envelope and the reconstructed envelope, i.e., $\rho\left(\mathbf{e}_{a}\left[k\right],\;\hat{\mathbf{e}}_{a}\left[k\right]\right)=1$, while a correlation cost function equal to $1$ corresponds to the minimum correlation. A correlation cost function larger than $1$ corresponds to a negative correlation.

In the decoding step, the attended envelope is obtained using the (trained) network $\mathcal{H}$, i.e., $\hat{e}_{a}\left[k\right]=F(\mathbf{r}\left[k\right])=\mathcal{H}(\mathbf{r}\left[k\right])$.
Next, the correlation coefficients between the reconstructed attended envelope and the envelope of two speaker are computed  $\rho_{1,k}$ and $\rho_{2,k}$ as in (\ref{eq:corr coff}).
Based on these correlation coefficients, it is then decided that the listener attended to speaker 1 if $\rho_{1,k}>\rho_{2,k}$ or attended to speaker 2 otherwise.

\section{Experimental setup}
\label{sec:Experimental setup}

\subsection{Acoustic stimuli and EEG measurement}
EEG responses were recorded for $18$ native German-speaking participants. Two German audio stories, uttered by two different male speakers, were simultaneously presented to the participants using
insert earphones. The presented stimuli at both ears were generated by convolving the clean speech signals, i.e., the audio stories, with (non-individualized) binaural impulse responses from \cite{Kayser2009}, and adding diffuse noise, generated according to \cite{Habets2008}. The left and the right speaker were simulated at $\theta_{1}=-45^{\circ}$ and $\theta_{2}=45^{\circ}$.
Eight different acoustic conditions were considered for the stimuli: one anechoic condition with no background noise, two reverberant conditions with a moderate and a large reverberation time (reverberation time $T_{60}=0.5$ s and $1$ s), two anechoic conditions with
binaural input $\mathrm{SNRs}=9.0$ dB and $4.0$ dB, and three combinations of reverberation and noise. Among all participants, $8$ participants were instructed to attend to the left speaker, while $10$ participants were instructed to attend to the right speaker. Two participants were excluded from the analysis, one participant due to poor attentional performance and the other one due to a technical hardware problem.
The EEG responses were recorded using $C=64$ channels at a sampling frequency of $500$ Hz, and referenced to the nose electrode. The EEG responses were re-referenced offline to a common average reference, band-pass filtered between $2$ Hz and $8$ Hz using a third-order Butterworth band-pass filter, and subsequently downsampled to $64$ Hz. The envelopes of the speech signals were obtained using a Hilbert transform, followed by low-pass filtering at $8$ Hz and downsampling to $64$ Hz.

\subsection{AAD training and testing}
For AAD training and testing, the EEG recordings for the different acoustic conditions were grouped together based on acoustic similarity, resulting in four experimental analysis conditions, i.e., anechoic, reverberant, anechoic-noisy, and reverberant-noisy, each of length $20$ minutes.
To avoid using EEG recordings of the same experimental analysis condition for training and testing, the leave-one-condition-out approach was used, i.e., four combinations of three experimental analysis conditions without repetition were considered for training and the left condition for each combination was considered for testing. This resulted in four training conditions and four testing conditions.

For the least-squares-based AAD method, the latency parameter of the linear estimator in (\ref{eq: eeg of a channel}) was set to $\Delta=20$ (corresponding to $312$ ms), as found to be an appropriate choice for AAD \cite{OSullivan2014, Ali_2019_neural_system}.
For training, the estimator in (\ref{eq:LS estimator}) and the regularization parameter $\beta$ of the estimator in (\ref{eq: LS cost function}) was determined using a k-fold cross-validation approach with $k=10$, each of length $6$ minutes. For testing, the EEG recordings were segmented into trials of length $5$ s with an overlap of $4.98$ s (corresponding to one sample shift). The correlation coefficients were computed using a correlation window of length $\ensuremath{K_{\text{COR}}}=5$ s with an overlap of $4.5$ s.

For the neural-network-based AAD method, the network $\mathcal{H}$ consisting of a convolutional hidden layer with a filter kernel size of 20 samples (corresponding to $312$ ms) was used.
For training, the network was trained using a k-fold cross-validation approach with $k=10$, each of length $6$ minutes. The network was trained with the Nadam optimizer \cite{Dozat2016} using a batch size of 3840 samples (corresponding to $60$ seconds $\times$ $64$ channels), a learning rate of $0.002$, and $3000$ iterations.  To avoid over-fitting, the dropout technique from \cite{Srivastava_2014} was used with a ratio of $0.25$, which corresponds to randomly setting $25\%$ of the hidden units to $0$.
The network was implemented in Keras \cite{chollet2015keras}. For testing, the correlation coefficients were obtained using the same correlation window setting as used for the least-squares-based AAD method.

For the state space model, the hyperparameters $c_{0}$ in (\ref{eq: autoregressive}) and $a_{0}$ and $b_{0}$ in (\ref{eq: Inverse-Gamma}) were set to $c_{0}=1$, $a_{0}=2.008$ and $b_{0}=0.2016$, similarly as in \cite{Sina_2018}. For testing, a sliding smoothing window of length $\ensuremath{K_{\text{SSM}}}=3$ with $K_{A}=1$, $K_{P}=1$ was used.
For each testing condition, the parameter set of the attended Log-Normal distribution $\boldsymbol{\alpha}_{a}$ in (\ref{eq: atteneded Log-Normal distribution}) was initialized by fitting over correlation coefficients of the (oracle) attended speaker obtained during the first $15$ s and was then fixed. The parameter set of the unattended Log-Normal distribution $\boldsymbol{\alpha}_{u}$ in (\ref{eq: unatteneded Log-Normal distribution}) was similarly initialized by fitting over correlation coefficients of the (oracle) unattended speaker. For testing, the parameters of the state-space model $\Omega$ corresponding to an smoothing window were estimated using the EM estimation algorithm with $20$ iterations.

The quality of correlation coefficients generated by either the least-squares-based AAD method or the neural-network-based AAD method was evaluated in terms of the attended correlation and the unattended correlation. The attended correlation was computed using the Pearson correlation between the reconstructed envelopes and the envelopes of the attended speaker, i.e., $\rho_{a,k}=\rho\left(\mathbf{e}_{a}\left[k\right],\;\hat{\mathbf{e}}_{a}\left[k\right]\right)$. The unattended correlation was computed between the reconstructed envelopes and the envelopes of the unattended speaker, i.e. $\rho_{u,k}=\rho\left(\mathbf{e}_{u}\left[k\right],\;\hat{\mathbf{e}}_{a}\left[k\right]\right)$,

The decoding performance was evaluated for several AAD methods, i.e., the least-squares-based AAD method (LS), the neural-network-based AAD method (NN), the state-space model using with the least-squares-based AAD method (LS-SSM) and the state-space model with the neural-network-based AAD method (NN-SSM).
The decoding performance for the least-squares-based and the neural-network-based AAD method was computed as the percentage of correctly decoded $5$-second correlation windows. The decoding performance for the state-space model using either the least-squares-based or the neural-network-based AAD method was computed as the percentage of correctly decoded $5$-second smoothing windows.

\begin{figure}[t]
\begin{minipage}[b]{.50\linewidth}
  \centering
  \centerline{\includegraphics[width=4.7cm]{./fig/cc/_K_F1_K_B1_fixed_a_corr_}}
\end{minipage}%
\begin{minipage}[b]{.55\linewidth}
  \centering
  \centerline{\includegraphics[width=4.7cm]{./fig/cc/_K_F1_K_B1_fixed_u_corr_}}
\end{minipage}
\caption{Attended correlation and unattended correlation for different acoustic conditions when using the least-squares-based method and the neural-network-based AAD method.}
\label{fig: attended and unattended correlations}
\end{figure}

\section{Results and discussion}
\label{sec:Experimental Results}
\begin{figure}[t]
  \centering
  \centerline{\includegraphics[width=7cm]{./fig/dp/_K_F1_K_B1_fixed_}}
\caption{Decoding performance for different acoustic conditions when using the least-squares-based method, the neural-network-based AAD method, the state-space model with the least-squares-based method and the state-space model with the neural-network-based AAD method.}
\label{fig: decoding performance}
\end{figure}

For the least-squares-based AAD method and the neural-network-based AAD method, Fig. \ref{fig: attended and unattended correlations} depicts the attended correlation and the unattended correlation for different acoustic conditions.
It can be observed for all acoustic conditions that
the attended correlation obtained by the neural-network-based AAD method (NN) is larger than the least-squares-based AAD method (LS), showing that the neural-network-based AAD method is able to reconstruct the attended speech envelope with a better accuracy. However, the attended correlation obtained by the neural-network-based AAD has a larger variability compared to the least-squares-based AAD method, which corresponds to attended correlation coefficients with a larger fluctuation. In addition, it can be observed that there is no significant difference in the unattended correlation obtained by the least-squares-based AAD method and the neural-network-based AAD method. However, the unattended correlation obtained by the neural-network-based AAD has a larger variability compared to the least-squares-based AAD method.

For all acoustic conditions, Fig. \ref{fig: decoding performance} depicts the decoding performance when using either the least-squares-based AAD method, the neural-network-based AAD method, the state-space model with the least-squares-based AAD method, or the state-space model with neural-network-based AAD method.
It can be observed that when using either the least-squares-based AAD method or the neural-network-based AAD method, a relatively low decoding performance (with the median decoding performance $69\%-73\%$) is obtained, mainly due to quite small (attended and unattended) correlations with a large variability (see Fig. \ref{fig: attended and unattended correlations}) based on which decoding is performed by these methods. A statistical multiple comparison test (Kruskal-Wallis test followed by the posthoc Dunn and Sidak test \cite{Hochberg1987}) revealed no significant difference ($p>0.05$) in decoding performance when using the least-squares-based AAD method or the neural-network-based AAD method. When using the state-space model with either the least-squares-based or the neural-network-based AAD method (LS--SSM, LS--NN), the decoding performance increases. The increase is considerably larger for the least-squares-based AAD method (with the median decoding performance $>94\%$) compared to the neural-network-based AAD method (with the median decoding performance $>73\%$). The larger decoding performance can be explained by the fact that the correlations generated by the least-squares-based AAD method have a lower variability compared to the correlations generated by the neural-network-based AAD method, which leads to a smoother estimate of attention probabilities and a more stable decoding. The statistical multiple comparison test revealed that for most acoustic conditions (except anechoic--noisy) the decoding performance using the state-space model with the least-squares-based AAD method is significantly larger ($p<0.05$) compared to using the least-squares-based AAD method, the neural-network-based AAD method, and the state-space model with the neural-network-based AAD method.

\section{Conclusion}
\label{sec:conclusion}
In this paper, we investigated a state-space model using correlation coefficients obtained with a 5-second correlation window to improve the decoding performance of the (linear) least-squares-based AAD method and the (non-linear) neural-network-based AAD method.
The state-space model translates correlation coefficients, generated either by the least-squares-based or the neural-network-based AAD method, into smooth estimates of the attention state.
The experimental results showed for all acoustic conditions that there is no significant difference in decoding performance between using the least-squares-based AAD method and the neural-network-based AAD method. However, when using the state-space model with the least-squares-based AAD method, for most acoustic conditions the decoding performance significantly improves.

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Is hemp the most sustainable fabric?
Of all of the plants available for cultivation and utilisation by human beings, hemp has got to be up there as one of the most handy. Hemp is a strain of the cannabis species so it has long been utilised for its medicinal purposes, but it's super versatile; it can be used to make paper, art supplies, skincare products, food products, biomass fuels and, because the fibers have immense strength and durability, it is even used to form an insulating building block similar to concrete. So basically, hemp is a super plant.
What we're most interested in, though, is hemp as a fabric, and we've found out some pretty cool things about this Wonder Woman of the plant kingdom. Unfortunately no, you cannot get high if you sniff your hemp garments really hard. Give it a go if you like but we guarantee you'll just look a bit (or a lot) silly. Although it is a variety of the cannabis plant, hemp contains virtually no THC—the chemical in marijuana that gets you high—so your hemp garments will be completely dope but also completely dope-free.
Caring for your Hemp
A gentle cycle with cold water is best when washing hemp products.
Iron your hemp when it is still damp from washing as it is stronger when wet.
Hemp dries quickly so tumble-drying is not usually necessary. If tumble-drying, do not leave it in the machine for long as this can weaken the hemp fibers or shrink your hemp item.
Stains will set quickly so tend to them as soon as they occur.
Environmental Impact and Growing Process
The hemp plant is very fast growing and can produce more fiber than cotton and flax in the same amount of land. Hemp is also one of the most eco-friendly plants to cultivate not only due to its ability to grow well without herbicides or pesticides but also because its deep-root system helps to prevent soil erosion and aerate the soil for future crops. Sustainable much? In terms of producing hemp, tropical climates are the best conditions in which to grow this plant, which is why movies with marijuana as a key plot device always feature men in sunglasses and unbuttoned floral shirts.
As a fabric, the raw texture of hemp is quite similar to linen in its strength and durability and also in its temperature regulating abilities. The hemp fibers can be spun into a fabric similar to linen or blended with other fibers like cotton, silk, and linen, and the garments crafted from hemp fibers will also last the buyer a long time—the material is less likely to fade than cotton because it is very receptive to dyes. Hemp fabric is also hypoallergenic, UV resistant, and is eight times stronger than cotton. We've come to the conclusion that hemp is basically the natural world's equivalent to Clare Press: adaptable, versatile in its abilities, and good at everything it does.
Hemp has an even longer history than JB and Selena—it has long been cultivated for textile fiber, and the use of hemp as a fabric dates back to 8,000 BC! Tombs from this time were discovered to contain hemp fabrics, and The Columbia History of the World has since stated that these are the oldest relics of human history. It's believed that China was one of the first cultures to utilise hemp fibers, and they're still the world's biggest producer of the hemp plant. How crazy is that? It's also been used for centuries as the fabric for sail canvas and rope because of its natural resistance to UV rays and mould.
Because of its extremely strong and resilient fibers and its ability to withstand harsh UV rays whilst absorbing moisture, it is no surprise as to why hemp is so widely cultivated, and why its fibers are used to create the very clothing we put onto our backs. It's eco-friendly, its ability to clean the soil for the next plants makes it a sustainable and withstanding plant, and it can produce more fiber than cotton and flax. There are not many negatives associated with the hemp crop and its fibers, which leaves us on a massive high. Sorry, had to.
If you're interested, here are three of our favourite companies utilising hemp:
Citizen Wolf
The Hemp Temple (aka the biz who we credit for this photo).
0 responses to "Is hemp the most sustainable fabric?"
What is linen made from, and why do so many people love wearing it?
Let's talk about linen. You may only be acquainted with this wonder fabric through your favourite Zingara Collection piece, or because that linen tablecloth your grandma gave you when you moved out of home five years ago is still going strong (regardless of the copious amounts of spilled wine).
What is rayon and how does it break down?
One of the challenges in buying fashion a little more mindfully lies in the journey to find clothing made with fairly paid, happy employees, and within the boundaries of safe and sustainable practices. After this, the hurdle is identifying the fabrics these clothes were made of, and considering the impacts both the creation of that fabric had on the environment and its decomposition process.
Fabrics, Fashion
Why do brands burn unsold clothes?
As a consumer, you may well have heard of the common practices that brands participate in when ridding themselves of unwanted stock. Incinerating unsold consumer products is a regular occurrence in France and is executed by the country's leading fashion brands

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Dental tourism is on the rise, with many patients from the United States traveling to Poland and the Czech Republic to have work done on their teeth. Procedures for everything from cosmetic repair to root canals are often cheaper, just as well done, and are often long-lasting in other countries than the United States.
Poland's Baltic coast, known for its foreign tourists that come to visit the sandy beaches and riverbanks, is a key tourist destination in Europe.
International patients started to flock to the area a little over a decade ago when one dental clinic in the area started to offer services to international clients. The trend has led to almost every dental clinic in the area offering services to foreign visitors.
Financial Times claims one clinic has as much as 80% of clients come from abroad.
Foreigners that come to Poland are leading to a new trend: new employees. Many of the clinics have had to hire additional employees that will work with the tourist to provide them with everything, from sightseeing to hotel bookings.
Medical tourism is growing 12 – 15% annually in central and eastern Europe.
Hungary is also facing rising medical tourism, with specialization in dental services. Clinics in Hungary offer everything from dentures to implants to foreigners. The Czech Republic focuses primarily on the cataract surgery market, yet there has also been an increase in dental and other procedures being performed in the country.
Experts claim that the market is not yet fully developed, but the benefits are clear for many of the clinics and healthcare providers that rely on foreigners to stay in operation.
The PwC claims that clinics can begin offering more complex surgeries as a way to expand the industry further.
Poland has a key foothold in the plastic surgery industry as well as the dental industry.
Tourists from the United Kingdom and Germany are also going to the Czech Republic and Poland for medical spas or cosmetic treatments. Prices in the two countries are often two to three times lower than in the patient's home country.
A European Union directive has helped fuel the industry since 2013. The directive allows for member states to offer medical treatment and have it refunded under the respective healthcare schemes. This allows patients from the UK to travel abroad to have procedures performed and be reimbursed under the National Health Services.
Titanium implants, for example, may cost £2,500 in the United Kingdom for a single tooth. Czech implants can cost less than £1,200, depending on the make of the implant. Poland's prices for dental implants are as low as $506 per implant. Prices in the United States are as high as $4,000 for one tooth.
Thailand's medical tourism industry is also booming, with many tourists saving 50% to 75%. The medical and dental tourism industries are expected to continue to rise by as much as 15% annually for the foreseeable future.


text:
« The Gentleman Has No Idea Batgirl Is Standing Right Behind Him
Perhaps A Reminder The Inauguration Is Coming Is In Order, Right About Now »
Capsula, The Greatest Rock'n'Roll Band In The World — Yeah, You Read That Right — Are About To Release A Remake Of "Ziggy Stardust"
There's a reason this site is called Tulip Frenzy, not Tulip Placidity, and it has to do with the team here's thoroughly warped love of real rock'n'roll. Recent readers might get the impression we think the world revolves around young Ty Segall, and yeah, it sort of does. But if there is one band in the world today that absolutely twangs our woogie, it's Capsula, the Buenos Aires natives who, a few years back, moved their operation to Bilbao, Spain. (They did it because they couldn't earn a living playing across South America, given the distances between the cities; in Bilbao, they can play anywhere in Europe and be back on Monday.) Longtime Tulip Frenzy denizens will remember, we think Capsula is the greatest punk rock band of our sorry age.
We first heard Songs & Circuits, which came out in 2006, after their move, and after they'd begun recording in English. Our mind? Blown like a 50-amp fuse. We would have moved to Bilbao, too, but they're, like, touring all the time. So we stayed put and just kept playing their music, pressing cds into the hands of friends and saying, "You won't believe it, but these guys are up there with the Clash, and Gang of 4, and the Ramones, and Richard Hell and the Voidoids." (Things got worse, of course, when they actually played on an album by former Voidoid Ivan Julian. The release of The Naked Flame converted our mere fandom into a full-blown, well, frenzy.) All signs of skepticism would drain from said friends' faces by the time the second power chord was played. Songs & Circuits is still the high water mark, but they've released two albums since then, the very good Rising Mountains (2009), and the awesome In The Land Of The Silver Souls, which made Tulip Frenzy's Top 10 List last year.
And now we find out that on Tuesday, they are releasing their version of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust," entitled Dreaming Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, and featuring old friends like Ivan Julian on guitar. Moreover, they're releasing a DVD on their making of the record.
Whoa. We did not see this coming! Everything will be available Tuesday AM. We plan on camping out all night, right outside our own den where the iMac sits.
And wait, there's more! The three previously unreleased, Spanish-language albums they recorded in Argentina just showed up in the new iTunes Store. This'll tide us over 'til Ziggy's out next week.
This entry was posted on November 30, 2012 at 1:09 am and is filed under Music with tags "Dreaming Of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars", Capsula. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


Diktamos Villas brings a new style of boutique luxury to the area, offering superb service and a warm welcoming atmosphere. These exclusive houses sit within a 1.500 m² private estate on the northern coast of Crete, near the town of Rethymnon, in the village of Atsipopoulo. The site is situated high on the hills with fine views of the Aegean sea and the northern coast of Crete. It is within driving distance from the Venetian town of Rethymnon and good sandy beaches. It combines a natural setting and is the perfect choice to meet the taste and expectations of travellers who value quality, quiet, privacy and the experience of a unique holiday.
Diktamos Villas are located in the village "Atsipopoulo", a well known village which has flourished in the last 10 years and now is actually a small town in itself and a suburb of Rethymno.


text:
Kate Middleton and Prince William Are Symbolically Leading the Monarchy Through COVID-19 Crisis
The future king and queen are stepping up.
By The Editors published 31 March 20
It's been a difficult few months for Prince William and Kate Middleton, but it's also been a period that's seen them go from respected and beloved senior royals to the future of the royal family. Following the resignation of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry as senior royals, and the necessary stepping back of the Queen, Prince Charles, and Camilla Parker-Bowles amid the coronavirus crisis that's swept the U.K. and much of the world, Kate and William have made a concerted effort to be the face of the royal family during a time of fear and uncertainty in the U.K.—and it's a template for how we can expect them to behave as king and queen (well, queen consort).
Part of the reason that we've seen and heard more from the Cambridges than any other senior royal family household (there are two others, now the Sussexes are formerly stepping down: The Queen and Prince Philip, and Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles) is that they're able to be more public-facing than the rest of the family right now. While the other two households were forced to self-isolate by mid-March—the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, and Camilla are all over the age of 70, which is considered a risk factor for coronavirus—the Cambridges were able to make a critical appearance at an emergency center in Croydon, England, on March 20 to show their support for first responders. Body language expert Alison Ward told The Express that it looked as though that William and Kate "feel much more comfortable in their heightened roles."
In addition to taking the lead for the monarchy during the coronavirus crisis, Kate and William are coming off an uncomfortable few months following the resignation of another royal household, the Sussexes—a pair they had been frequently compared to, even in spite of commentators pointing out that Kate and William have a very different role to play as future king and queen. Yet the departure (and apparent emigration) of Meghan, Harry, and Archie means that Kate and William are now at center stage as the future of the British royal family. (One royal commentator, Richard Fitzwilliams, noted: "Harry and Meghan's departure clears the way for William and Kate, who are devoted to their royal duties, to shine in the global spotlight.")
This fact was echoed in William's address to the nation, in which he urged the British people to "come together" to "overcome the challenge" of COVID-19, a speech not unlike the one that he would have given if he were king. The Queen, meanwhile, is self-isolating in Windsor, but has not given any video speech, even though she's been expected to—perhaps a sign that she's allowing William, who is no longer sharing any duties with his brother, to take the mantle.
Honestly, watch this and tell me this isn't king-like:
That said, the Cambridges' effort to "keep calm and carry on"—they had been the only senior royals to make an appearance since March 12—were sidelined when a national U.K. lockdown was put in place on March 23. Yet the couple has continued to post frequently to Instagram with never-before-seen photos and videos, which is in stark contrast to the winding down of the Sussexes' popular Instagram account (which formally posted for the last time March 30). The Cambridges, meanwhile, posted a sweet and much-talked-about collage of photos for U.K. Mother's Day, including a candid look at Prince George's artwork; released a video of their three children applauding first responders in tandem with the nation; and shared candid photographs of their home office to make clear that they continue to be the face of the monarchy during this time. All made headlines, while Harry and Meghan continue to retreat from them (it's likely that we won't hear from them for months).
A post shared by Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@dukeandduchessofcambridge)
Several eagle-eyed fans have also noticed that Kate's style has evolved as she prepares to one day become Queen. These days, she utilizes a similar color palette to the Queen, and has increasingly been borrowing her grandmother-in-law's jewelry for show-stopping looks.
None of this, of course, means that Kate and William are likely to become king and queen any sooner than they have long expected; Prince Charles is next in line for the throne, and although there's been speculation that the the crown could "skip" him and go directly to William, that's actually very unlikely. What it does suggest, however, is that Kate and William, who have hinted that they've now completed their family, are becoming increasingly comfortable stepping into the leadership roles that they have long been certain are their destiny.
For more stories like this, including celebrity news, beauty and fashion advice, savvy political commentary, and fascinating features, sign up for the Marie Claire newsletter.
(Image credit: WPA Pool)
How Meghan and Harry "Snubbed" Kate and Will
(Image credit: Samir Hussein)
Will and Kate Share Never-Before-Seen Family Photo
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Wished Kate Middleton a Happy 40th Birthday Over a "Private" Video Call, Expert Says
Smoothing things over.
So, Did Navarro College Win at Daytona in 2021?
Navarro vs. Trinity Valley was the matchup of the year.
By Quinci LeGardye
Prince Harry Could Delay the Release of His Memoir After Prince Charles Extended an "Olive Branch" in 'Newsweek' Essay, Expert Says
A new era?
Prince Harry Reportedly Wants to Skip the Oscars to Avoid Kristen Stewart
He is apparently less than thrilled about 'Spencer.'
Prince William Was "Furious" About the Oprah Interview, Didn't Want to Attend the Princess Diana Statue Unveiling With Prince Harry
Kate Middleton stepped in.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Relationship Isn't "Smooth-Sailing," But "They Are Certainly in Love," Astrologer and Body Language Expert Says
Sounds like "kiss and make up" is the couple's motto.
Kate Middleton's Birthday Portraits Represent Her "Unfurling Her Wings" to Become Queen, Body Language Expert Says
The Cambridges released three photos for the duchess' 40th.
Kate Middleton at 40: Royal Experts on the Evolution of the Future Queen
To mark the Duchess of Cambridge's 40th birthday, Marie Claire spoke to royal experts about her evolution from poised but shy fiancée to confident powerhouse.
The Queen Was "Surprised" by How Suddenly Kate Middleton and Prince William Announced Their Engagement, Expert Says
They moved really quickly.


You must make sure you give a cat the care and attention it needs. Cats require different grooming than dogs. You have to provide extra attention in order to make sure they are clean and look their best. This article will show you with some tips for everything about cat care.
You must always take your cat for regular vet to make sure everything is okay. Cats need yearly shots to prevent illness and overall health assessments. Try to stay with one vet during the same veterinarian throughout your pet's life. This is because this person will know your cat's history.
Cats really enjoy squeezing into small spaces. A breakaway collar let's go if pulled too tight. This will help to save a couple of your cat's life.
Prevent your cat from getting zapped by coating exposed wires with bitter apple on them. If this does not work, hide the cords as best you can. You can do this by bundling them and tucking them in the cardboard rolls that come inside paper towels.
It can be hard to make your cat stay off the countertops. Cats instinctively want to be at a high places so that they can survey their surroundings. You may be able to battle this issue by giving your cat to hang out.
Think about putting a microchip inserted in your cat. Even cats who live completely indoors may someday jump through an open window. Collars or tags can identify your cat, however cats are experts at wiggling out of these, and they are also at risk of getting hung up on something. Microchips are tiny and contain all your important contact information.
Cats can have nocturnal than not. This refers to the fact that they're going to be running around more active at night. This will keep them from attacking your sleeping space and awakening you.
The litter box for your cat needs to be positioned in a good location. Don't put it close to your cat's food or near their food. Also make sure the area is ventilated so the smell to a minimum. Your cat and you will too.
You can often find a better deal on your cat's prescription online instead of purchasing them from the veterinarian. In some cases you may not be able to buy online, in the case of emergencies, of course. But, if your cat is on a regular medication, you will be able to save up to half the price if you buy online.
Do not discipline your cat if they make a mess in the area outside its litter box. If your cat makes a mess, it may be because you have not kept the box as clean as you should.Punishing your cat may cause him to become afraid of you in the future.
Canned food is an excellent choice for your cat.Dry food is less expensive, but there are quite a few benefits to canned food. Aging cats will find it makes it much easier to chew. Speak with the vet, but keep this tip in mind.
Once you have taken great care of your cat, it can be a better pet. You have it in your power to do a great deal to give your cat a great life. Make sure that you groom your cat every couple of days. Remember these tips for a happy and healthy cat.


How do I print something from my iPad? - Ask Us!
Q. How do I print something from my iPad?
You can print from a mobile device by sending your print job to print@mtsu.edu. The email must come from your mtsu email and at this time must be in either .doc(x) or .pdf format.
Note: this option is not available to guests.


Jer 5:3 O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth?
Jer 5:15 "Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel," declares the LORD.
And cast up a siege against Jerusalem.
In whose midst there is only oppression.
That you may know and assay their way."
Jer 7:8 ¶ "Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail.
Jer 7:15 "I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim.
Jer 7:18 "The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to spite Me.
Jer 7:21 ¶ Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh.
Jer 7:22 "For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.
Jer 7:32 ¶ "Therefore, behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place.


text:
Q: Send status with media I want to send a status with media using twitter api.
I know how to send a status, but not  a status+media.
And I don't want to use a third-party class.
To post a status, I use https://api.twitter.com/1.1/statuses/update.json and do this :
function buildBaseString($baseURI, $method, $params) {
    $r = array();
    ksort($params);
    foreach($params as $key=>$value){
        $r[] = "$key=" . rawurlencode($value);
    }
    return $method."&" . rawurlencode($baseURI) . '&' . rawurlencode(implode('&', $r));
}
function buildAuthorizationHeader($oauth) {
    $r = 'Authorization: OAuth ';
    $values = array();
    foreach($oauth as $key=>$value)
        $values[] = "$key=\"" . rawurlencode($value) . "\"";
    $r .= implode(', ', $values);
    return $r;
}

$oauth = array( 'oauth_consumer_key' => $consumer_key,
               'oauth_nonce' => time(),
               'oauth_signature_method' => 'HMAC-SHA1',
               'oauth_token' => $oauth_access_token,
               'oauth_timestamp' => time(),
               'oauth_version' => '1.0');

if ($method == 'POST') {
    $oauth['status'] = $status;
}

$base_info = buildBaseString($url, $method, $oauth);
$composite_key = rawurlencode($consumer_secret) . '&' . rawurlencode($oauth_access_token_secret);
$oauth_signature = base64_encode(hash_hmac('sha1', $base_info, $composite_key, true));
$oauth['oauth_signature'] = $oauth_signature;

$header = array(buildAuthorizationHeader($oauth),
                'Expect:');

$options = array(CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => $header
                 CURLOPT_VERBOSE => true,
                 CURLOPT_HEADER => false,
                 CURLOPT_URL => $url,
                 CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
                 CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => false,
                 CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER => true,
                 CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST => 2,
                 CURLOPT_CAINFO => 'C:\xampp\php\cacert.pem');
    if ($method == 'POST') {
    $options[CURLOPT_POST] = true;
    $options[CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS] = 'status='.rawurlencode($status);

$feed = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($feed, $options);
$json = curl_exec($feed);

This post my new status.
But what's the minimum I need to change to send status+media ?
Using https://upload.twitter.com/1.1/media/upload.json ,
I've tried this which is not working :
if ($method == 'POST') {
    $oauth['status'] = $status;
    $oauth['media[]'] = ''; //trying with empty string
}

if ($method == 'POST') {
    $options[CURLOPT_POST] = true;
    $options[CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS] = 'status='.rawurlencode($status).'&media[]='.rawurlencode('');
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The USA is trying to unleash WWIII as a solution to their economic decline. // Leaders of the EU are US puppets and European mainstream media is controlled by the USA to spread anti-Russian panic.
No evidence given. The US is not in economic decline. Its annual GDP growth has been constantly positive in the past 6 years (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG). // Member states of the EU are independent and sovereign countries.
This information is reported by European Values Think-Tank in Disinformation Review issue 27. The item is located at row number 7 in the report.
Click to view the source material, or here to view all reports from issue 27.


Federal officials have criticized and threatened cities like Austin over their limited cooperation with ICE enforcement of new immigration policies. But local officials don't yet know exactly how the administration intends to crack down on 'sanctuary cities'.
On Monday,, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions criticized so-called 'sanctuary cities' and threatened cuts in federal funding if local governments do not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requests to detain people in their jails who may be undocumented. In Austin, both the city and county government have resisted some federal hold requests, and Mayor Steve Adler says he's looking for clarification as to the federal government's intentions.
Adler and a number of other mayors will meet with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly in Washington on Wednesday.


text:
It's... Andrew Martin's Radio ChessBase Show
11/8/2005 – The NiC Yearbook 76 paints a very poor portrait of Black's chances after 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 a6 6.g3. In his Wednesday night Playchess lecture our chess trainer offers improvements that no Scandinavian player should miss.
It's ... Andrew Martin's Radio ChessBase Show
Andrew Martin writes:
1...b6 has never really been considered as a respectable opening, but there is far more to this relatively unexplored move than meets the eye. The recent game V.Bologan-A.Martin gives ample food for thought!
A damning article in New In Chess Yearbook 76 paints a very poor portrait of Black's chances after 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 a6 6.g3
In Wednesday's show Andrew Martin offers his improvements on that article and shows the right way for Black to play. The result is a must-listen for Scandinavian fans!
Add the usual book reviews, a competition, some comments on the wonderful Fritz 9 and the final product is worth your full attention!
For this Wednesday only, the show will take place later at 11:00 pm GMT, 12 midnight CET. From next week on, the time will revert to the normal 7.30 pm.
The Andrew Martin Radio ChessBase lecture begins on Wednesdays at 20:30h CEST (European Central time = server time, which translates to 19:30h London, 2:30 p.m. New York, 04:30 a.m. Sydney (on Thursday). You can use Fritz or any Fritz-compatible program (Shredder, Junior, Tiger, Hiarcs) to follow the lectures, or download a free trial client.
Andrew Martin, chess trainer and teacher
He is not some unknown in the world of chess. Andrew Martin was the star commentator in the 2000 London match between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, and he gained recent international fame and popularity with his live audio commentary on Playchess.com during the FIDE world championship in San Luis.
Andrew is also a prolific chess trainer, not just live in British scholastic circles, but also in a series of training DVDs he has produced for ChessBase, taking full advantage of our Chess Media System. His lively, entertaining style, combined with a good dash of humour, makes any lesson with him a delight to follow.
Andrew Martin is 47 years old and lives in Sandhurst, England, with his wife and four children. His book King's Indian Battle Plans for Thinkers Press was an international best-seller.
Each week Martin will cast his eye over the contemporary chess scene, presenting a veritable pot-pourri of interesting topics. We look forward to the pleasure of your company.
Andrew Martin: The Trompowsky – The easy way


Our Rustic Hickory keepsake box makes a perfect gift for your most valued keepsakes! We hand-pick every board that makes this product, and believe the beauty shows in our wood grain. Order yours today!
The possibilities are endless with our custom-made keepsake boxes! Our lead craftsman will work his hardest to design a box for your most treasured keepsakes. Our hinged Rustic Hickory keepsake box measures 10" x 6" x 3" and comes in rustic hickory hardwood. Add laser engraving for that personal touch! We believe the beauty is in the grain and hand-pick every board that makes this product. All of our products are made in Edina, Missouri. Order yours today!


text:
Q: Why doesn't php script print results to log when initiated via cron? crontab:
* * * * * /usr/bin/php /path/to/script.php  > /tmp/log/cron-$(date "+%F_%T").log 2>&1

When run manually this produces the expected log file:
$ php /path/to/script.php > /tmp/log/cron-$(date "+%F_%T").log
...
$ ls /tmp/log/
cron-2014-12-17_20:04:17.log

But when it's run from the cron, there is no record of the script running saved to a log file.
What am I missing?
Update
Alright, it appears to be a permission issue. If I create a log file and chmod 777 the cron will write to this file. But a cron will not write to a newly created date file. How can I allow this?
# This works, but does not allow dynamic dates
* * * * * /usr/bin/php /path/to/script.php  > /tmp/log/cron.log 2>&1

# This does not work
* * * * * /usr/bin/php /path/to/script.php  > /tmp/log/cron-$(date "+%F_%T").log 2>&1

/tmp/log is owned by apache, but the cron is initiated as root.
What do you recommend?

A: run
$which php
to figure out where your php is installed. Then check to see if root has it in the path.
you can just install it as your own crontab using
$crontab -e
that's much better than running as root for many reasons, the least of which is that if your script has a vulernability it will have less access as you than as root.

A: Is it the ampersand?  You can redirect the output to the log with just the > operator.  My guess is the & sends the process to the background, and then there is nothing for the > operator to redirect to your log.


EI_SNAPSHOTS  Number of snapshots for empirical interpolation.
EISIZE        Number of interpolation DOFs.
SNAPSHOTS     Number of snapshots for basis generation.
--grid=NI                       Use grid with (2*NI)*NI elements [default: 60].
--grid-type=TYPE                Type of grid to use (rect, tria) [default: rect].
--lxf-lambda=VALUE              Parameter lambda in Lax-Friedrichs flux [default: 1].
--nt=COUNT                      Number of time steps [default: 100].
-h, --help                      Show this message.
--plot-ei-err                   Plot empirical interpolation error.
--plot-error-landscape          Calculate and show plot of reduction error vs. basis sizes.
--plot-solutions                Plot some example solutions.
--vx=XSPEED                     Speed in x-direction [default: 1].
--vy=YSPEED                     Speed in y-direction [default: 1].
--ipython-profile=PROFILE       IPython profile to use for parallelization.


text:
Euptychia cuculixta är en fjärilsart som beskrevs av Otto Staudinger. Euptychia cuculixta ingår i släktet Euptychia och familjen praktfjärilar. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Praktfjärilar
cuculixta

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Bonfils-Stanton Foundation provides grants and fellowships to advance the arts and inspire creative leadership in Denver. Each year the foundation gives more than $3 million to arts organizations and nonprofit leaders.
Colorado Media Network LLC is the foundation's primary communications consultant, providing expert counsel on the organization's website, social media, newsletters, strategic marketing planning and content production.
Follow Bonfils-Stanton Foundation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
The Agile Tester is dedicated to the advancement of quality practices used by agile and lean teams. They are experts with decades of experience delivering reliable software, coding in a manner that is sustainable and easily supports the change required in iterative development methods, such as Scrum and Kanban.
Colorado Media Network LLC oversees The Agile Tester's overall branding, social media accounts, newsletters, public classes and website design.
Follow The Agile Tester on Facebook and on Twitter @TheAgileTester.
Bumi Design is a Seattle-based architecture firm. Their design philosophy is to create spaces and additions to homes that do not look or feel like they are foreign to the existing home. The changes should complement and not compete. We work to blend modern day functionality with the existing good bones of a home.
Colorado Media Network LLC provided Bumi Design with website consultation and design, and continues to provide website hosting and design tools.
University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) is the Rocky Mountain region's leading academic medical center. They are ranked among the top 10 academic medical centers in the United States by the University HealthSystem Consortium and is the top-rated hospital in the Denver metro area and one of the best in the country by U.S.News & World Report.
Colorado Media Network LLC oversaw the hospital's social media accounts and day-to-day stories/pieces of content reaching thousands online.
Follow University of Colorado Hospital on Facebook and on Twitter @UCHMedia.
The University of Colorado Hospital Foundation assists the hospital in transforming health care by securing private support so that the lives of their patients can be enhanced and extended. The University of Colorado Hospital is a not-for-profit organization that depends on donations from individuals, families, corporations and foundations to ensure its continued excellence in patient care, education for health care professionals and research.
Colorado Media Network LLC oversees the Foundation's day-to-day social media presence in addition to help push PR for their key fundraising events including Save the Males, Men for the Cure and Hearts of All Ages.
Like University of Colorado Hospital Foundation on Facebook and follow them on Twitter @UCHFoundation.


text:
Pot Luck – Elvis Presley
Posted bymusicalrevue22 November 9, 2020 Posted inUncategorizedTags:1960s, Elvis, Elvis Presley, King of Rock, Music, Pot Luck, Rock n' Roll
Pot Luck released on May 18, 1962
Kiss Me Quick
Just for Old Time Sake
Gonna Get Back Home Somehow
(Such an) Easy Question
Steppin' Out of Line
I'm Yours
I Feel That I've Known You Forever
Night Rider
Fountain of Love
That's Someone You Never Forget
Pot Luck, released on May 18, 1962 is Elvis' 7th studio album. Recorded in 6 days spanning a year, the album was primarily recorded in Nashville and Hollywood. The primary songwriters on Pot Luck were Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, who also wrote the album's most well known song, "Suspicion".
My lukewarm reaction to the last album and the increasing watering down of Elvis Presley made me hesitant to listen to this album. At first, it felt like my fears were justified, and I found myself dreading the fact that I had to continue listening to Elvis' discography. However, after just two songs the album picked up the pace for me, opening up the possibilities of a new, still affecting sound from Elvis. Here's hoping. This album has many enjoyable bops.
The album gets right into it with "Kiss Me Quick", but it still spends much of the running time trying to find its groove. Elvis' voice does sound good, and he is not holding back too much. But therein lies my problem with Elvis' offerings from this period, he sounds 50s-lite, a cheap imitation of the power he used to bring on his earlier hits. "Just For Old Time Sake" is gospel hymn like and understated. However, the piano in the second verse is very distracting and unfortunately, my biggest takeaway from this song.
"Gonna Get Back Home Somehow" is where this album began to pick up for me. The song is very influenced by the surf rock genre that was beginning to be in vogue at this time. And while the guitar and Elvis' voice are on the verge of sounding edgy and cool, the lush arrangement keeps the song from going anywhere approaching dangerous or forbidden. The ending does try to salvage it though! Elvis comes in strong, his voice and the instruments building together in frantic desperation.
For cool, breezy vibes turn to the 4th track, "(Such an) Easy Question". I have the most vivid picture of this song in my head. I picture Elvis standing outside, nonchalantly leaning against a telephone pole, and being coy (and maybe smoking a cigarette?). There is such a knowing smirk to this song that it made me blush and feel all flustered. Elvis: 1, Maria: 0.
Elvis in 1962
Elvis goes rockabilly on "Steppin' Out of Line". The baritone backing vocals are great on this short song, but the true star of this song is the sax solo, by legendary player Boots Randolph. I could spend days talking about this sax solo, but to spare you, I will not. Let's just say that the sax brings the dance party to this one and I am forever grateful. With the ballad "I'm Yours", Elvis brings softness. Much like the ballads on his early records, particularly his cover of "Blue Moon", this ballad is very soft and loopy, serving as a casual declaration of his love. If you rearranged this song ever so slightly, it could easily be performed by a barbershop quartet, this is especially true considering the wonderful and ridiculous speaking part by Elvis that functions as the bridge of this song…ahh the early '60s and their spoken bridges.
My favorite song on the album is the heartbreaking track 7, "Something Blue". The piano part greets you first, and it is so beautiful and melancholy, setting the tone for the rest of this very sad song. The vocal melody here is pretty and there are some surprising melodic fluctuations throughout. The song is a play on the wedding saying "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue". While this extended metaphor could have easily turned corny, the lyrics evolve during the song, telling more and more of this story of sadness and separation. The last time Elvis sings "his wedding band" sounds like he has legit tears in his eyes. This is made even more palpable by the fact that he tries to recover on the next line, "something borrowed" but quickly gives up, resigning himself to the fact that he is to remain broken hearted. Amazing vocal performance that choked me up.
The most well known track on the album is the aforementioned "Suspicion". Like the first track, this song kicks right into gear, which is probably not a coincidence as they were written by the same songwriting team, Pomus/Shuman. Elvis' incredible vocal streak continues here, as he portrays a sense of onomatopoeia, sound a little sketched out every beat of the way. This song has a really fun groove to it, and I love the line, "maybe I'm suspicious because love is hard to find". Ain't that the truth.
The way Elvis sings "forever" on the ninth track, "I Feel I've Known You Forever", is why people still talk about Elvis. He can instill a book's worth of meaning in just one word, and it feels so sincere. While the backing vocals are a little overpowering on this one, they sound so heavenly and reminiscent of a church choir that is is hard to complain about it. Lovely song. The surf rock influence emerges again on "Night Rider". "Oh my!", was my reaction when this song started. This is a fun one. While I am not exactly sure what a night rider is, it sounds like he is a bit of a party animal, which, after being stuck inside for almost 8 months, sounds like a blast and a half.
"Fountain of Love" is very busy right away. There's a lot going on, which is not my favorite sonic landscape for Elvis, simply because his voice is powerful enough on its own. There is a warm, velvety guitar part that stands out here, which suits Elvis' warm, velvety vocals just fine. In the middle of the song all the elements that were previously doing their own thing come together. It's nice, but I just wish it had happened sooner.
The album ends on a very sad note. Rumored to be about Elvis' recently deceased mother, "That's Someone You Never Forget" is different in tone, conveyed by the backing vocals which are seeped in minor chords that permeate the entire song with a mournful undercurrent. Elvis even sounds vulnerable here, his fragile vocals emphasizing this song is about a tough loss. Such a sad, emotional, beautiful way to end this album.
Listen to Pot Luck here
Personnel:
Scotty Moore – rhythm guitar
Jerry Kennedy – lead guitar on "Night Rider"
Hank Garland – lead guitar on "Kiss Me Quick," "I'm Yours," and "That's Someone You Never Forget"
Tiny Timbrell – rhythm guitar on "Steppin' Out of Line"
Harold Bradley – guitar
Grady Martin – guitar, vibes
Floyd Cramer – piano, organ
Dudley Brooks – piano
Gordon Stoker – piano
Bob Moore – double bass
D.J. Fontana – drums
Buddy Harman – drums
Millie Kirkham – backing vocals
The Jordanaires – backing vocals
Boots Randolph – saxophone
Something For Everybody
Elvis for Everyone!