Effects of noise on speech production: acoustic and perceptual analyses

Acoustical analyses were carried out on a set of utterances produced by two male speakers talking in quiet and in 80, 90, and 100 dB SPL of masking noise. In addition to replicating previous studies demonstrating increases in amplitude, duration, and vocal pitch while talking in noise, these analyses also found reliable differences in the formant frequencies and short-term spectra of vowels. Perceptual experiments were also conducted to assess the intelligibility of utterances produced in quiet and in noise when they were presented at equal S/N ratios for identification. In each experiment, utterances originally produced in noise were found to be more intelligible than utterances produced in the quiet. The results of the acoustic analyses showed clear and consistent differences in the acoustic-phonetic characteristics of speech produced in quiet versus noisy environments. Moreover, these accounts differences produced reliable effects on intelligibility. The findings are discussed in terms of: (1) the nature of the acoustic changes that taken place when speakers produce speech under adverse conditions such as noise, psychological stress, or high cognitive load: (2) the role of training and feedback in controlling and modifying a talker's speech to improve performance of current speech recognizers; and (3) the development of robust algorithms for recognition of speech in noise.     

New approach to nonlinear dynamics of fullerenes and fullerites

A new type of nonlinear (anharmonic) excitations—bushes of vibrational modes—in physical systems with point or space symmetry is discussed. All infrared-active and Raman-active bushes for C₆₀ fullerene are found by means of special group-theoretical methods.     

Measurement of the flux of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays from monocular observations by the High Resolution Fly's Eye experiment

We have measured the cosmic ray spectrum above 10(17.2) eV using the two air-fluorescence detectors of the High Resolution Fly's Eye observatory operating in monocular mode. We describe the detector, phototube, and atmospheric calibrations, as well as the analysis techniques for the two detectors. We fit the spectrum to a model consisting of galactic and extragalactic sources.     

On the dynamic radial expansion of helical springs due to longitudinal impact

An analytical and experimental programme was conducted to investigate the dynamic radial expansion of helical springs due to longitudinal impact.The basic equations of motion were normalized in such a way that terms of the same order could be retained in a systematic manner. A minimum complexity model was then developed by making suitable approximations in the resulting simplified equations of motion. Finally, an expression for the dynamic radial expansion was obtained, and it was shown to be the result of a two-wave interaction.Impact tests were made on a specially designed spring and the resulting motions recorded by using a high speed motion picture camera. The experimental results support the predictions of the theory.     

Oral processing,texture and mouthfeel: From rheology to tribology and beyond

Texture and mouthfeel arising from the consumption of food and beverages are critical to consumer choice and acceptability. While the food structure design rules for many existing products have been well established, although not necessarily understood, the current drive to produce healthy consumer acceptable food and beverages is pushing products into a formulation space whereby these design rules no longer apply. Both subtle and large scale alterations to formulations can result in significant changes in texture and mouthfeel, even when measurable texture-related quantities such as rheology are the same. However, we are only able to predict sensations at the initial stages of consumption from knowledge of material properties of intact food.Research is now on going to develop strategies to capture the dynamic aspects of oral processing, including: from a sensory perspective, the recent development of Temporal Dominance Sensation; from a material science perspective, development of new in vitro techniques in thin film rheology and tribology as well as consideration of the multifaceted effect of saliva. While in vivo, ex vivo, imitative and empirical approaches to studying oral processing are very insightful, they either do not lend themselves to routine use or are too complex to be able to ascertain the mechanism for an observed behaviour or correlation with sensory. For these reasons, we consider that fundamental in vitro techniques are vital for rational design of food, provided they are designed appropriately to capture the important physics taking place during oral processing. We map the oral breakdown trajectory through 6 stages and suggest a dynamic multi-scale approach to capture underlying physics. The ultimate goal is to use fundamental insights and techniques to design new food and beverages that are healthy yet acceptable to consumers.     

Morphology control of the produced Ag nanoparticles by soft-template technique

The morphology of the produced Ag nanoparticle is controlled successfully by UV irradiating the reaction solution of AgAc/ethyl alcohol/1-octadeconal/1-dodecanethiol. With use of a novel solution such as soft template, Ag nanorods with different sizes and different ratios of length to diameter can be obtained by adjusting the concentrations of the solution compositions.     

Simple cubic super crystals containing PbTe nanocubes and their core-shell building blocks

We report a preparation of high-quality cubic PbTe nanocrystals and their assembly into both square-array, two-dimensional patterns and three-dimensional simple cubic super crystals. The influence of oleylamine in the nanocrystal synthesis and core-shell formation through an anion-exchange mechanism was also studied. The simple cubic super crystals together with two-dimensional assembly patterns containing PbTe nanocubes and their core-shell building blocks were examined using TEM, SEM, AFM, XRD, SAXS, and FTIR. Such super crystals consisting of cubic structural building blocks may allow engineering of more complex materials from which novel properties may emerge.     

Squaraines as unique reporters for SERRS multiplexing

Modified anilino squaraine dyes provide unique SERRS spectra that can be identified at low concentrations within any mixture of current reporters using longer, biologically compatible wavelengths of excitation.