Binaural unmasking with multiple adjacent masking electrodes in bilateral cochlear implant users

Bilateral cochlear implant (BiCI) users gain an advantage in noisy situations from a second implant, but their bilateral performance falls short of normal hearing listeners. Channel interactions due to overlapping electrical fields between electrodes can impair speech perception, but its role in limiting binaural hearing performance has not been well characterized. To address the issue, binaural masking level differences (BMLD) for a 125 Hz tone in narrowband noise were measured using a pair of pitch-matched electrodes while simultaneously presenting the same masking noise to adjacent electrodes, representing a more realistic stimulation condition compared to prior studies that used only a single electrode pair. For five subjects, BMLDs averaged 8.9 ± 1.0 dB (mean ± s.e.) in single electrode pairs but dropped to 2.1 ± 0.4 dB when presenting noise on adjacent masking electrodes, demonstrating a negative impact of the additional maskers. Removing the masking noise from only the pitch-matched electrode pair not only lowered thresholds but also resulted in smaller BMLDs. The degree of channel interaction estimated from auditory nerve evoked potentials in three subjects was significantly and negatively correlated with BMLD. The data suggest that if the amount of channel interactions can be reduced, BiCI users may experience some performance improvements related to binaural hearing.     

Prior exposure to an attenuated <Emphasis Type="Italic">Listeria</Emphasis> vaccine does not reduce immunogenicity: pre-clinical assessment of the efficacy of a <Emphasis Type="Italic">Listeria</Emphasis>vaccine in the induction of immune responses against HIV

Background  

We have evaluated an attenuated Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) candidate vaccine vector in nonhuman primates using a delivery regimen relying solely on oral vaccination. We sought to determine the impact of prior Lm vector exposure on the development of new immune responses against HIV antigens.     

Exact g-function flows from the staircase model

Equations are found for exact g  -functions corresponding to integrable bulk and boundary flows between successive unitary c<1$c<1$ minimal conformal field theories in two dimensions, confirming and extending previous perturbative results. These equations are obtained via an embedding of the flows into a boundary version of Al. Zamolodchikov's staircase model.     

Tricyclic-isoxazolidine analogues via intramolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of nitrones

The tricyclic-isoxazolidine analogues tetrahydrothiochromenoisoxazoles, hexahydroisoxazolequinolines and tetrahydroisoxazolepyranopyridines were prepared by an intramolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of a nitrone with an alkene. For N-alkylated hexahydroisoxazolequinolines, reduction of the reaction time from two days to 40 min was achieved using microwave heating. The cyclization to form tetrahydroisoxazolepyranopyridines only proceeded when the alkene was substituted with an electron withdrawing group.     

Isospectral surfaces with distinct covering spectra via Cayley graphs

The covering spectrum is a geometric invariant of a Riemannian manifold, more generally of a metric space, that measures the size of its one-dimensional holes by isolating a portion of the length spectrum. In a previous paper we demonstrated that the covering spectrum is not a spectral invariant of a manifold in dimensions three and higher. In this article we give an example of two isospectral Cayley graphs that admit length space structures with distinct covering spectra. From this we deduce the existence of infinitely many pairs of Sunada-isospectral surfaces with unequal covering spectra.     

An experimental and numerical investigation of the dynamics of microconfined droplets in systems with one viscoelastic phase

The dynamics of single droplets in a bounded shear flow is experimentally and numerically investigated for blends that contain one viscoelastic component. Results are presented for systems with a viscosity ratio of 1.5 and a Deborah number for the viscoelastic phase of 1. The numerical algorithm is a volume-of-fluid method for tracking the placement of the two liquids. First, we demonstrate the validation of the code with an existing boundary integral method and with experimental data for confined systems containing Newtonian components. This is followed by numerical simulations and experimental data for the combined effect of geometrical confinement and component viscoelasticity on the droplet dynamics after startup of shear flow at a moderate capillary number. The viscoelastic liquids are Boger fluids, which are modeled with the Oldroyd-B constitutive model and the Giesekus model. Confinement substantially increases the viscoelastic stresses and the elongation rates in and around the droplet. We show that the latter can be dramatic for the use of the Oldroyd-B model in confined systems with viscoelastic components. A sensitivity analysis for the choice of the model parameters in the Giesekus constitutive equation is presented.     

Chemical shift assignment and conformational analysis of monoalkylated acylguanidines

Monoalkylated acylguanidines are important functional groups in many biologically active compounds and additionally applied in coordination chemistry. Yet a straightforward assignment of the individual NH chemical shifts and the acylguanidine conformations is still missing. Therefore, in this study, NMR spectroscopic approaches for the chemical and especially the conformational assignment of protonated monoalkylated acylguanidines are presented. While NOESY and ³J_{H, H} scalar couplings cannot be applied successfully for the assignment of acylguanidines, ⁴J_{H, H} scalar couplings in ¹H,¹H COSY spectra allow for an unambiguous chemical shift and conformational assignment. It is shown that these ⁴J_{H, H} long‐range couplings between individual acylguanidinium NH resonances are observed solely across all‐trans (w) pathways. Already one cis orientation in the magnetisation transfer pathway leads to signal intensities below the actual detection limit and significantly lower than cross‐peaks from ²J_{NH, NH} couplings or chemical exchange. However, it should be noted that also in the case of conformational exchange being fast on the NMR time scale, averaged cross‐peaks from all‐trans ⁴J_{H, H} scalar couplings are detected, which may lead at first glance to an incomplete or even wrong conformational analysis. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Packing and covering the plane with translates of a convex polygon

A covering of the Euclidean plane by a polygon P is a system of translated copies of P whose union is the plane, and a packing of P in the plane is a system of translated copies of P whose interiors are disjoint. A lattice covering is a covering in which the translates are defined by the points of a lattice, and a lattice packing is defined similarly. We show that, given a convex polygon P with n vertices, the densest lattice packing of P in the plane can be found in O(n) time. We also show that the sparsest lattice covering of the plane by a centrally symmetric convex polygon can be solved in O(n) time. Our approach utilizes results from classical geometry that reduce these packing and covering problems to the problems of finding certain extremal enclosed figures within the polygon.