Sentence recognition in noise promoting or suppressing masking release by normal-hearing and cochlear-implant listeners

Normal-hearing (NH) listeners maintain robust speech understanding in modulated noise by "glimpsing" portions of speech from a partially masked waveform--a phenomenon known as masking release (MR). Cochlear implant (CI) users, however, generally lack such resiliency. In previous studies, temporal masking of speech by noise occurred randomly, obscuring to what degree MR is attributable to the temporal overlap of speech and masker. In the present study, masker conditions were constructed to either promote (+MR) or suppress (-MR) masking release by controlling the degree of temporal overlap. Sentence recognition was measured in 14 CI subjects and 22 young-adult NH subjects. Normal-hearing subjects showed large amounts of masking release in the +MR condition and a marked difference between +MR and -MR conditions. In contrast, CI subjects demonstrated less effect of MR overall, and some displayed modulation interference as reflected by poorer performance in modulated maskers. These results suggest that the poor performance of typical CI users in noise might be accounted for by factors that extend beyond peripheral masking, such as reduced segmental boundaries between syllables or words. Encouragingly, the best CI users tested here could take advantage of masker fluctuations to better segregate the speech from the background.     

Leader-following consensus criteria for multi-agent systems with time-varying delays and switching interconnection topologies

We consider multi-agent systems with time-varying delays and switching interconnection topologies.By constructing a suitable Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional and using the reciprocally convex approach,new delay-dependent consensus criteria for the systems are established in terms of linear matrix inequalities(LMIs),which can be easily solved by using various effective optimization algorithms.Two numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.     

Nanoscale molecular superfluidity of hydrogen

We present a microscopic quantum theoretical analysis of the nanoscale superfluid properties of solvating clusters of para-H2 around the linear OCS molecule. Path-integral calculations with N=17 para-H2 molecules, constituting a full solvation shell, show the appearance of a significant superfluid response to rotation around the molecular axis at T=0.15 K. This low-temperature superfluid response is highly anisotropic and drops sharply as the temperature increases to T approximately 0.3 K. These calculations provide definitive theoretical evidence that an anisotropic superfluid state exists for molecular hydrogen in this microscopic solvation layer.     

Unifying mirror descent and dual averaging

Mathematical Programming - We introduce and analyze a new family of first-order optimization algorithms which generalizes and unifies both mirror descent and dual averaging. Within the framework of...     

Etching Characteristics and Mechanisms of Mo and Al2O3 Thin Films in O2/Cl2/Ar Inductively Coupled Plasmas: Effect of Gas Mixing Ratios

An investigation of etching behaviors for Mo and Al₂O₃ thin films in O₂/Cl₂/Ar inductively coupled plasmas at constant gas pressure (6 mTorr), input power (700 W) and bias power (200 W) was carried out. It was found that an increase in Ar mixing ratio for Cl₂/Ar plasma results in non-monotonic etching rates with the maximums of 160 nm/min at 60 % Ar for Mo and 27 nm/min at 20 % Ar for Al₂O₃. The addition of O₂ in the Cl₂/Ar plasma causes the non-monotonic Mo etching rate (max. 320 nm/min at 40–45 % O₂) while the Al₂O₃ etching rate decreases monotonically. The model-based analysis of etching kinetics allows one to relate the non-monotonic etching rates in Cl₂/Ar plasma to the change in the etching regime from the ion-flux-limited mode (at low Ar mixing ratios) to the neutral-flux-limited mode (for high Ar mixing ratios). In the Cl₂/O₂/Ar plasma, the non-monotonic Mo etching rate is probably due to the change in reaction probability.     

Regulation of Cytokines and Dihydrotestosterone Production in Human Hair Follicle Papilla Cells by Supercritical Extraction-Residues Extract of Ulmus davidiana

This study was conducted to examine the anti-hair loss mechanism of the supercritical fluid extraction-residues extract of Ulmus davidiana by the regulation of cytokine production and hormone function in human dermal follicle papilla cells (HDFPCs). To investigate the modulatory effects on H₂O₂-induced cytokines, we measured transforming growth factor-beta and insulin-like growth factor 1 secreted from HDFPCs. To investigate the regulatory effects of supercritical extraction-residues extract of Ulmus davidiana on dihydrotestosterone hormone production, cells were co-incubated with high concentrations of testosterone. The supercritical extraction-residues extract of Ulmus davidiana significantly inhibited the secretion of transforming growth factor-beta but rescued insulin-like growth factor 1 in a dose-dependent manner. The supercritical extraction-residues extract of Ulmus davidiana markedly reduced dihydrotestosterone production. These results suggest that the supercritical fluid extract residues of Ulmus davidiana and their functional molecules are candidates for preventing human hair loss.     

Holography of massive M2-brane theory: non-linear extension

We investigate the gauge/gravity duality between the \(\mathcal{N} = 6\) mass-deformed ABJM theory with \(\hbox {U}_k(N)\times \hbox {U}_{-k}(N)\) gauge symmetry and the 11-dimensional supergravity on LLM geometries with SO(2,1)\(\times \)SO(4)/\({\mathbb {Z}}_k\) \(\times \)SO(4)/\({\mathbb {Z}}_k\) isometry, in terms of a KK holography, which involves quadratic order field redefinitions. We establish the quadratic order KK mappings for various gauge invariant fields in order to obtain the canonical 4-dimensional gravity equations of motion and to reduce the LLM solutions to an asymptotically AdS\(_4\) gravity solutions. The non-linearity of the KK maps indicates that we can observe the true purpose of the non-linear KK holography of the LLM solutions. We read the vacuum expectation value of conformal dimension two operator from the asymptotically AdS\(_4\) gravity solutions. For the LLM solutions which are represented by square-shaped Young diagrams, we compare the vacuum expectation value obtained from the holographic procedure with the result obtained from the field theory, which is given by \(\langle \mathcal{O}^{(\Delta =2)}\rangle =\sqrt{k}N^{\frac{3}{2}}f_{(\Delta =2)}+\mathcal{O}(N)\), where \(f_{\Delta }\) is independent of N. Based on this result, we examine the gauge/gravity duality in the large N limit and finite k. We also show that the vacuum expectation values of the massive KK graviton modes are vanishing as expected by the supersymmetry.     

Investigation of the transverse beam dynamics in the thermal wave model with a functional method

We investigated the transverse beam dynamics in a thermal wave model by using a functional method. It can describe the beam optical elements separately with a kernel for a component. The method can be applied to general quadrupole magnets beyond a thin lens approximation as well as drift spaces. We found that the model can successfully describe the PARMILA simulation result through an FODO lattice structure for the Gaussian input beam without space charge effects.