Acoustic Analysis Findings in Objective Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Patients

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to identify the effects of objective laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) on the acoustic parameters of patients by comparing their voice samples with that of control subjects. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective study in two tertiary reference hospitals. METHODS: 48 consecutive patients with symptoms related to LPR and 64 control subjects were included in the study. Suspected LPR patients underwent a 24-hour ambulatory pH monitoring, and 25 (52%) of them were shown to have objective LPR. Acoustical evaluation results of objective LPR patients were compared with that of symptomatic LPR patients and control subjects. RESULTS: All frequency perturbation values obtained from objective and symptomatic LPR patients were higher than the control subjects (P<0.01). Mean fundamental frequency, amplitude perturbation measures, and noise-to-harmonics ratio were not significantly different between groups. CONCLUSION: LPR patients have significantly different frequency perturbation values than control subjects.     

Filter-radiometer-based realization of candela and establishment of photometric scale at UME

The luminous intensity unit of candela was realized based on filter-radiometer, which is traceable to detector-based primary standard electrical substitution cryogenic radiometer (ESCR). In that realization the traditional Osram Wi41/G-type incandescent lamp and filter-radiometer consisting of an aperture, a V(λ) filter and a silicon photodiode based trap detector were used as light source and detection element, respectively. Measurement techniques of effective aperture area, spectral transmittance of V(λ) filter and absolute responsivity of trap detector are also presented.     

Design,modelling and simulation of a new nonlinear and full adaptive backstepping speed tracking controller for uncertain PMSM

In this study, a new nonlinear and full adaptive backstepping speed tracking control scheme is developed for an uncertain permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM). Except for the number of pole pairs, all the other parameters in both PMSM and load dynamics are assumed unknown. Three phase currents and rotor speed are supposed to be measurable and available for feedback in the controller design. By designing virtual control inputs and choosing appropriate Lyapunov functions, the final control and parameter estimation laws are derived. The overall control system possesses global asymptotic stability; all the signals in the closed loop system remain bounded, according to stability analysis results based on Lyapunov stability theory. Further, the proposed controller does not require computation of regression matrices, with the result that take the nonlinearities in quite general. Simulation results clearly exhibit that the controller guarantees tracking of a time varying desired reference speed trajectory under all the uncertainties in both PMSM and load dynamics without singularity and overparameterization. The results also show that all the parameter estimates converge to their true values on account of the fact that reference speed signal chosen to be sufficiently rich ensures persistency of excitation condition. Consequently, the proposed controller ensures strong robustness against all the parameter uncertainties and unknown bounded load torque disturbance in the PMSM drive system. Numerical simulations demonstrate the performance and feasibility of the proposed controller.     

Thermal analysis of lanthanide polyphosphates

Summary A study of thermal analysis of some lanthanide polyphosphates has been reported. The DTA curves of Ce, Pr and Sm polyphosphates were of similar nature. They exhibited a sharp exothermic peak indicating crystallization temperature (T _c) around 520 °C. However, no peak indicatingT _m was observed upto 800 °C. TG curves of Ce, La, Pr, Sm, Y polyphosphates indicated weight loss occurring in three stages. The integral procedural decomposition thermal analysis (ipdt) indicated that these materials had refractory nature.With 4 figures and 2 tables     

Synthesis and characterization of novel flavonoid-substituted phthalocyanines using (±)naringenin

In this study, novel unsymmetrical mono- and di-substituted metal free and metallo phthalocyanines containing peripheral naringeninoxy moieties have been prepared. The naringenin-substituted phthalonitrile was synthesized from 4-nitrophthalonitrile and (±)naringenin in dimethylsulfoxide. Preparation of unsymmetrical mono- and di-substituted phthalocyanines, 2-naringenin-7-O-phthalocyaninatozinc, 2,9-bis-naringenin-7-O-phthalocyaninatozinc, 2,9-bis-naringenin-7-O-phthalocyaninatocobalt and 2,9-bis-naringenin-7-O-phthalocyanine was performed at 120-140 °C using the corresponding phthalonitrile in the presence of N,N-dimethylethanolamine (DMAE), ZnCl₂, CoCl₂ and LiCl, respectively. Synthesized new phthalocyanine compounds have been characterized by elemental analysis and ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, FT-IR, MS and UV-vis spectroscopy. These are the first known examples of flavonoid-substituted phthalocyanines.     

The neural network and multivariate linear regression approach for observing phase transitions of polymers with the differential thermal analysis method

The aim of this study was to correlate the results of experimental data using DTA method and predictions of artificial neural network (ANN) and multivariate linear regression (MLR). Thermal decomposition of polymers was analyzed by simultaneous DTA method, and kinetic parameters (critical points, the change of enthalpy and entropy) of polymers were investigated. A computer model based on multilayer feed forwarding back propagation and multilayer linear regression model were used for the prediction of critical points, phase transitions of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and mid-density polyethylene. As a result of our study, we concluded that ANN model is more suitable than MLR about prediction of experimental data.     

Structured replacement policies for a Markov-modulated shock model

We establish the optimality of structured replacement policies for a periodically inspected system that fails silently whenever the cumulative number of shocks, or the magnitude of a single shock it has received, exceeds a corresponding threshold. Shocks arrive according to a Markov-modulated Poisson process which represents the (controllable or uncontrollable) environment.     

Supplier diversification under binomial yield

We consider supplier diversification in an EOQ type inventory setting with multiple suppliers and binomial yields. We characterize the optimal policy for the model and show that, in this case, it does not pay to diversify, in contrast to previous results in the random yield literature.     

Pressure-induced phase transition of zinc-blende AlN: An ab initio molecular dynamics study

An ab initio constant pressure technique is carried out to study the pressure-induced phase transition of the zinc blende AlN (aluminum nitride). A first order phase transformation into a rock salt structure is observed in the constant pressure simulations. The transformation is accompanied by an initial tetragonal distortion and a subsequent shearing, similar to that found in the other zinc blende structured materials. This phase transition should occur around 6.2 GPa based upon the enthalpy calculations.