The benefit of practice for sound localization without sight

An experiment was designed to determine whether normally sighted human subjects would be able to adapt to the handicapping effects of sudden deprivation of visual cues on horizontal plane sound localization. Two groups of sighted normal-hearing young adults participated. One group was allowed the benefit of sight. The other group was blindfolded. Measurements of accuracy and the time to respond were made daily over the course of five consecutive days, in a semi-reverberant sound proof booth that modeled listening in a small office. Sound localization was assessed using an array of eight speakers that surrounded the subject in space. Each day, one block of 120 trials was presented for each of three stimuli, two one-third octave noise bands, centred at 0.5 and 4 kHz, and broadband noise, to assess the utilization of interaural temporal difference cues, interaural level difference cues and binaural and spectral cues in combination. Blindfolded subjects were relatively less accurate than sighted subjects. Both groups showed gains with practice, the blindfolded group to a greater degree, largely due to improvements in the use of spectral cues. The blindfolded group took longer to respond than the sighted group, but showed greater decrements in response time with practice.     

On the factors governing the minimum size of light beams during self-focusing

The final stage of self-focusing of 500-ps pulses of a neodymium laser in silicate and phosphate glasses and in the nonlinear liquids perfluorooctane, benzene, and toluene is studied theoretically and experimentally. The formation of spatial solitons, which are stable due to the nonlinearity saturation, is demonstrated. It is found that the intensity of the nonlinearity saturation is close to that of the threshold breakdown for glasses and the role of stimulated Raman scattering is significant for liquids.     

Effect of superfluidity on the structure of the inner crust of neutron stars

A self-consistent, completely quantum calculation of the structure of the inner crust of neutron stars is carried out in the Wigner-Seitz approximation with a realistic phenomenological nuclear energy functional, where pair correlations of neutrons and protons are included in the explicit form. It has been shown that the superfluidity of neutrons and protons affects the structure of the ground state of the crust.     

Moment Inequalities and High-Energy Tails for Boltzmann Equations with Inelastic Interactions

Journal of Statistical Physics - We study high-energy asymptotics of the steady velocity distributions for model kinetic equations describing various regimes in dilute granular flows. The main...     

Recording and decay of transient gratings in a system of saturable three-level centers

The kinetics of formation and relaxation of transient holographic gratings recorded in a system of saturable three-level centers is studied. Distortions in the shape of the profile of recorded and decaying structures of population and of the refractive index are taken into account. The analysis of the time dependences of diffraction efficiencies of different orders is performed for phase (thermal) and amplitude (concentration) gratings.     

Fourier-Feynman transform, convolution and first variation

We examine several interesting relationships and expressions involving Fourier-Feynman transform, convolution product and first variation for functionals in the Fresnel class F(B) of an abstract Wiener space B. We also prove a translation theorem and Parseval's identity for the analytic Feynman integral. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Pd-catalyzed one-pot coupling of allylamines, activated alkenes, and unsaturated halides (or triflate): an atom efficient synthesis of highly functionalized pyrrolidines

A Pd-catalyzed three-component assembling of highly functionalized 4-benzyl-(and allyl-)pyrrolidines was achieved based on a combination of allyl amines, gem-diactivated alkenes, and unsaturated halides (or triflate).     

The Development of the Asymptotic Viscous Dissipation Profile in a Vertical Free Convective Boundary Layer Flow in a Porous Medium

The effect of viscous dissipation on the development of the boundary layer flow from a cold vertical surface embedded in a Darcian porous medium is investigated. It is found that the flow evolves gradually from the classical Cheng–Minkowycz form to the recently discovered asymptotic dissipation profile which is a parallel flow.