Voice of Postradiotherapy Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Patients: Evidence of Vocal Tract Effect

This study was aimed at identifying acoustic and physiological measures useful for monitoring voice changes in postnasopharyngeal patients with nonlaryngeal malignancies, and providing evidences of vocal tract effect on voice through comparisons between individuals with and without intact vocal tract. Simultaneous acoustic-electroglottographic signals recorded during phonation of vowels /i/ and /a/ sustained at habitual, high, and low pitch levels were compared among 10 postradiotherapy patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), 10 voice patients (VPs) with intact vocal tract, and 10 healthy individuals with normal voice (NORM). Results from a series of discriminant analyses revealed that the NPC group generally exhibited lower signal-to-noise (SNR) and open quotient (OQ) and higher Formant 1 frequency (F(1)) and speed quotient (SQ) than the NORM group. Unlike both VP and NORM groups, the NPC group failed to show a pitch effect on all voice measures, including OQ, SQ, percent jitter, percent shimmer, and SNR, suggesting an effect of radiotherapy and/or vocal tract on laryngeal behaviors. For the vowel /i/, on the other hand, only the NPC and NORM groups showed a pattern of pitch-dependent F(1) raising, a reflection of increased pharyngeal narrowing. These findings suggested that the pitch effect on laryngeal behaviors differed not only between individuals with intact vocal tract and those without but also between those with structural and dynamic changes of vocal tract.     

Analysis on motion of Earth’s center of mass observed with CHAMP mission

Geocenter motion (GCM) is one important topic for constructing and maintaining the terrestrial reference frame and its applications. GCM is studied from CHAMP with the multi-step approach in this paper. Geometric orbits of CHAMP in 2001–2006 are precisely determined with the kinematic method only from the satellite-borne GPS zero-difference data. Then a GCM time series is estimated from the precise kinematic orbits based on the theory of satellite dynamics to fit the CHAMP’s real geometric orbits. We compare the series with the geocenter series used in ITRF2005. Then the GCM series are analyzed with Fourier transform and wavelet transformation. The mean motions within 6 years in TX, TY and TZ directions are respectively 0.8 mm, 2.2 mm, and 7.9 mm. The trends of GCM in the three directions are 0.495 mm/a, −0.004 mm/a, and 1.309 mm/a, respectively. The long-term movement (2001–2006) indicates that the crustal figure is changing. The seasonal variations are the main component which may be excitated by the mass redistribution of Earth’s fluid layer, e.g. ocean, atmosphere and continental water. The inter-annual variations are also found in the GCM series measured with CHAMP. Supported by the International S&T Cooperation Program of China (Grant No. 2006DFA21980), the National Hi-tech R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2006AA12z303), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40774009), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China (Grant No. Y2003E01)     

Hysteresis suppression improvement of polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors by two-step hydrogenation

The effect of two-step hydrogenation, consisting of plasma hydrogenation and annealing in hydrogen, on the hysteresis phenomenon of metal-induced unilaterally crystallized silicon thin-film transistors (MIUC-Si TFTs) was investigated. The large hysteresis level of the conventional MIUC-Si TFTs caused a wide variation of the drain current with the previous gate voltage. As the plasma exposure time increased, the plasma hydrogenation commonly used for stability in poly-Si TFTs was found to increase the hysteresis level of MIUC-Si TFTs after a minimum point. This is because plasma-induced damages correlated with unique defects of MIUC-Si such as metal-related weak bonds, are accompanied by passivation. The following annealing repaired the damages. Consequently the hysteresis level was lower, which resulted in a narrower variation of the drain current.     

Resonance fluorescence of gaseous chlorine excited with a single longitudinal mode argon ion laser

Resonance fluorescence spectra of gaseous chlorine, excited with a high power single longitudinal mode argon ion laser which was tuned through the lasing profiles of the 4880-, 4965-, 5017-, and 5145-Å lines, were studied. Five progressions of fluorescence lines were found and assigned as the fluorescence of ³⁵Cl³⁵Cl and ³⁷Cl³⁷Cl isotopic molecules resonantly excited from v = 0 and 1 levels of the X¹Σ state to the B³Π state. The fluorescence line positions agreed with those of the theoretical calculation within 0.2 cm^?1. The fluorescence intensities were very weak due to the extremely small transition probability between the B³Π and the X¹Σ states.     

Singular perturbed Markov chains and exact behaviors of simulated annealing processes

We study asymptotic properties of discrete and continuous time generalized simulated annealing processesX(·) by considering a class of singular perturbed Markov chains which are closely related to the large deviation of perturbed diffusion processes. Convergence ofX(t) in probability to a setS ₀ of desired states, e.g., the set of global minima, and in distribution to a probability concentrated onS ₀ are studied. The corresponding two critical constants denoted byd and withd are given explicitly. When the cooling schedule is of the formc/logt, X(t) converges weakly forc>0. Whether the weak limit depends onX(0) or concentrates onS ₀ is determined by the relation betweenc, d, and . Whenc>, the expression for the rate of convergence for each state is also derived.     

Dense stars with exotic configurations

In this paper, we consider dense stars with configurations expected from the SU(3)_C×SU(2)_W× U(1) standard model of strong and electroweak interactions. Following a recent suggestion that strange matter, a form of (uds) quark matter, may be the true ground state of hadronic matter, we investigate the prospect for the existence of dense stars consisting partially, or entirely, of strange matter by comparing the relative stability between neutron matter and strange matter. It is found that the restriction on the maximum star mass holds in all cases, including a pure strange star, a pure neutron star, and a neutron star with a quark core. It is also found that the choice of both the bag constantB and the strong coupling constant _s has a decisive effect on the relative stability between strange matter and neutron matter. For currently accepted values of (B, _s), anA= dense starcannot consist entirely,nor partially, of strange matter. Nevertheless, such conclusion may be subject to change if corrections ofO ( _s ² ) or other effects are taken into account. Finally, we use the framework of Tolman, Oppenheimer, and Volkoff to analyze two cases of boson stars: gluon stars and stars consisting of massive scalar particles (massive bosons). It is found that, in the case of gluon stars, the presence of the bag constant in the QCD vacuum yields results very similar to that found in quark stars. On the other hand, soliton stars consisting of massive bosons exist if there is some background pressure which plays the role similar to the bag constant for lowering the matter pressure. The stability problem for both gluon stars and soliton stars is briefly discussed.     

Arterial stenosis murmurs: an analysis of flow and pressure fields

The flow field distal to an arterial stenosis is simulated by a confined turbulent jet with moderate Reynolds numbers. The wall pressure fluctuations are related to the momentum fluctuations of the jet by the Poisson equation. A Green's function was derived to satisfy the boundary conditions on a cylindrical surface. This allows the solution of the Poisson's equation to include only a volume integral of the fluctuating momentum, weighed by the relative distance between the source and the sensor. The velocity fluctuations on the jet centerline and at the middle of the shear layer were measured using a laser Doppler anemometer. The wall pressure fluctuations were detected simultaneously by an array of nine wall-mounted pressure transducers along the axial direction. Cross correlation performed between the velocity and pressure fluctuations reveals that the pressure fluctuations were mostly imposed by the passage of turbulent eddies with a convective velocity that is a function of the jet exit velocity. The Strouhal number, defined by the frequency of the passing large-scale structure, is a function of the initial conditions only very close to the jet exit. Further downstream, where the effect of the initial conditions is lost, the Strouhal number approaches a constant irrespect of the jet Reynolds number. The contribution of a source near the jet exit to wall pressure fluctuation near the reattachment is rather weak due to the rapidly decaying weighting function in the axial direction. However, for sources located within one nozzle diameter from the sensor, the cross-spectral density function has a high magnitude with maximum coherence where the pressure spectral changes its slope.