Non-intrusive signal quality assessment in general, and its application to speech signal processing, in particular, builds extensively upon statistical regression models. Commonly, the raw preference scores used for fitting these models belong to a categorical scale. Averaging the scores over a number of test subjects results in smooth, close-to-continuous ratings, thus justifying the use of re...

This paper is an inquiry into the largely unexamined analysis of arguments by analogy (ABA). By exposing the degree of philosophical complexity, which ultimately renders evaluation of ABA subjective, we shall see that the most appropriate doxastic attitude to adopt, with respect to the conclusions drawn from these arguments, is often suspension of judgment. A critical examination of Copi’s crit...

nowadays, the aims for assessing visual quality of landscape are to define and determine certain criteria and factors that can be used for conservation, rehabilitation and renovation of landscapes as well as determining whether a landscape is aesthetically appropriate or not. by this way, landscapes with aesthetic values are conserved and the rest are amended. analyzing the relations between vi...

currently, one of the most important challenges to smes is financing as their managers are faced with many problems in this area. in this study the barriers to smes financing were identified by using q methodology which is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. after literature review and conduct of interviews with 12 executive managers of smes, 64 barriers were identified to th...

Understanding how people perceive landscapes is essential for the design of forest landscapes. The study investigates intensity affects landscape complexity, preference, and eye movements urban settings. Eight groups twenty-four pictures, representing lawn, path, waterscape settings in forests, with each type setting having two pictures one group four were selected. classified into slight, low,...

This paper presents a method for searching the web for sentences expressing opinions. To retrieve an appropriate number of opinions that users may want to read, declaratively subjective clues are used to judge whether a sentence expresses an opinion. We collected declaratively subjective clues in opinionexpressing sentences from Japanese web pages retrieved with opinion search queries. These cl...

There is long-standing theoretical debate on the role of collateral in …nancial markets. There is no satisfactory evidence of the causal relationship (if any) between the amount of collateral required and the subsequent probability of overdues. We analyze an exogenous change in the number of cosigners required as collateral on small loans in South India. Our regression discontinuity approach re...