Transformer-based Self-supervised Multimodal Representation Learning for Wearable Emotion Recognition

Recently, wearable emotion recognition based on peripheral physiological signals has drawn massive attention due to its less invasive nature and its applicability in real-life scenarios. However, how to effectively fuse multimodal data remains a challenging problem. Moreover, traditional fully-supervised based approaches suffer from overfitting given limited labeled data. To address the above issues, we propose a novel self-supervised learning (SSL) framework for wearable emotion recognition, where efficient multimodal fusion is realized with temporal convolution-based modality-specific encoders and a transformer-based shared encoder, capturing both intra-modal and inter-modal correlations. Extensive unlabeled data is automatically assigned labels by five signal transforms, and the proposed SSL model is pre-trained with signal transformation recognition as a pretext task, allowing the extraction of generalized multimodal representations for emotion-related downstream tasks. For evaluation, the proposed SSL model was first pre-trained on a large-scale self-collected physiological dataset and the resulting encoder was subsequently frozen or fine-tuned on three public supervised emotion recognition datasets. Ultimately, our SSL-based method achieved state-of-the-art results in various emotion classification tasks. Meanwhile, the proposed model proved to be more accurate and robust compared to fully-supervised methods on low data regimes.Comment: Accepted IEEE Transactions On Affective Computin

Listening to Unheard Voices: Exploring Salespeople’s Perspective on The Value of Corporate Heritage

Purpose This study aims to examine salespeople’s perspectives on the value of corporate heritage to relationship selling and the issue of trust in personal selling situations in the context of emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach An interpretive approach was adopted, and 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior salespeople in heritage institutions operating in Jordan. Findings This study reveals that corporate heritage is a valuable organizational resource for relationship selling. Reflecting the values of “trust” and “affinity,” corporate heritage confers trust to salespeople and their products in personal selling situations. Sales managers are advised to use corporate heritage to strengthen sales activities and empower salespeople. Originality/value While previous research has explained the significance of corporate heritage to relationship marketing, the significance of corporate heritage to relationship selling and the issue of trust in personal selling situations remain unexplored. Jordan represents a context that has been largely neglected despite being typical of the corporate heritage phenomenon

Fusion of Physiological and Behavioural Signals on SPD Manifolds with Application to Stress and Pain Detection

Existing multimodal stress/pain recognition approaches generally extract features from different modalities independently and thus ignore cross-modality correlations. This paper proposes a novel geometric framework for multimodal stress/pain detection utilizing Symmetric Positive Definite (SPD) matrices as a representation that incorporates the correlation relationship of physiological and behavioural signals from covariance and cross-covariance. Considering the non-linearity of the Riemannian manifold of SPD matrices, well-known machine learning techniques are not suited to classify these matrices. Therefore, a tangent space mapping method is adopted to map the derived SPD matrix sequences to the vector sequences in the tangent space where the LSTM-based network can be applied for classification. The proposed framework has been evaluated on two public multimodal datasets, achieving both the state-of-the-art results for stress and pain detection tasks.Comment: International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, IEEE SMC 2022, October 9-12, 202

Mechanisms of Bioinformatics

The article plans to acquaint computer researchers with the new field of bioinformatics. The article gives a 10,000 foot perspective of the essential ideas in atomic cell science diagrams the way of the current information, tranquilize revelation representation and portrays the sort of PC calculations and systems that are important to comprehend cell conduct. The points secured include: portrayals of the present programming particularly produced for scholars, PC and numerical cell models, and regions of software engineering that assume a critical part in bioinformatics

Kernel recursive least square tracker and long-short term memory ensemble based battery health prognostic model

Summary: A data-driven approach is developed to predict the future capacity of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in this work. The empirical mode decomposition (EMD), kernel recursive least square tracker (KRLST), and long short-term memory (LSTM) are used to derive the proposed approach. First, the LIB capacity data is split into local regeneration and monotonic global degradation using the EMD approach. Next, the KRLST is used to track the decomposed intrinsic mode functions, and the residual signal is predicted using the LSTM sub-model. Finally, all the predicted intrinsic mode functions and the residual are ensembled to get the future capacity. The experimental and comparative analysis validates the high accuracy (RMSE of 0.00103) of the proposed ensemble approach compared to Gaussian process regression and LSTM fused model. Furthermore, two times lesser error than other fused models makes this approach an efficient tool for battery health prognostics

HERBAL MEDICINES QUESTIONNAIRE AND EVALUATION OF ATTITUDE, PERCEPTIONS AND SELF-USE AMONG HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS IN RAK, UAE: PILOT STUDY

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the perceptions of different healthcare professionals towards HM. Methods: The 16-item questionnaire on the belief of health care professionals in herbal medicine was designed by the interdisciplinary task force. Eligible participants were health care providers who were English-and Arabic-literate. The response rate was 78% of participants (781 of 1000) were respondents. In total, 553 out of 781 (71%) participants indicated that they had previously used herbal medicines. The remaining 228 participants did not believe in herbal medicine due to lack of scientific evidence, ineffectiveness and other reasons. Results: The findings of this study indicate that health care professionals including pharmacists believe they have a responsibility to provide information on HM to their patients. However, the current consensus among the respondents is that current HM-focused knowledge is inadequate for such an application. Conclusion: Health care professionals believe in using HM for their needs and have a responsibility to provide information on HM to their patients

Strength correlation between individual block, prism and basic wall panel for load bearing interlocking mortarless hollow block masonry

This paper focuses on the development of the compressive strength correlation between the individual block, prism and basic wall panel for load bearing interlocking hollow mortarless blocks. The interlocking blocks used were developed by the Housing Research Centre at Universiti Putra Malaysia. The blocks consisted of stretcher, corner and half blocks. Forty individual block units from each type were tested under compression. The compressive strengths of 10 prisms assembled by stacking two stretcher blocks and two half blocks were evaluated. In addition, four wall panels each having a dimension of 1.2 × 1.2 m were assembled and tested under axial compressive loads. The results obtained were compared with those found in bonded masonry. BS 5628 Part 1:1992 were used for predicting of the compressive capacity of the bonded masonry. The interlocking mechanism, crack patterns and failure mechanism of the interlocking masonry specimens are highlighted and discussed. The correlations between the compressive strength of the interlocking masonry individual block (fcb), prism (fcp) and standard panel (fcw) found in this analysis were fcp = 0.47fcb, fcw = 0.83fcp and fcw = 0.39fcb. Test results indicate that the interlocking mechanism and strength of the block in the load-bearing wall was satisfactory

Palestinian Women Contesting Power in Chaos

Palestinian women's political participation is marked by the Israeli occupation and a volatile political situation. This article argues that the political chaos following the Oslo Agreement of 1993 has led to civil society fragmentation and the marginalisation of certain groups. However, women's traditional involvement within the Palestinian national movement led to their assumption that society would adopt a non?gender biased perspective during elections. Disappointing results led to the formation of a coalition to campaign for a quota system. Now, following its introduction, Palestinian women are faring much better than many of their other Middle Eastern counterparts in terms of political representation. However, although this article points to the importance of affirmative action in triggering increases in women's political participation; the context of persistent insecurity and siege which overshadows their lives means women are unable to wield any real political power and implement the improvements within their communities which they hoped entering politics would allow them to do