Internal conversion in poly(1-vinylnaphthalene)—IV. Photochemical processes in polymeric systems

Quantum yields of all major photoprocesses have been measured on poly(1-vinylnaphthalene) in fluid solution. These measurements indicate that approx. 84% of the excitation energy is deactivated through internal conversion processes ($\text{S}{}^0\text{? S}{}^1$). Time resolved emission and absorbance measurements have been used to characterize the excited states in this system. It appears that several different types of singlet and triplet traps may be distinguished, one of which is the monomeric excited singlet. Existence of two different singlet excimers are postulated in order to interpret the time resolved emission data.     

A generalization of Simpson's Rule

Let and let , where P _c ⁿ denoles the Taylor polynomial to f at c of order n, where n is even. TA and TM are reach generalizations of the Trapezoidal rule and the midpoint rule, respectively, and are each exact for all polynomials of degree ≤n+1. We let L(f)=αTM(f)+(1−α)TA(f), where , to obtain a numerical integration rule L which is exact for all polynomials of degree≤n+3 (see Theorem 1). The case n=0 is just the classical Simpson's rule. We analyze in some detail the case n=2, where our formulae appear to be new. By replacing P _(a+b) ^2/n+1 (x) by the Hermite cubic interpolant at a and b, we obtain some known formulae by a different approach (see [1] and [2]). Finally we discuss some nonlinear numerical integration rules obtained by taking piecewise polynomials of odd degree, each piece being the Taylor polynomial of f at a and b, respectively. Of course all of our formulae can be compounded over subintervals of [a,b].     

Spectral and threshold effects on recognition of speech at higher-than-normal levels

To examine spectral and threshold effects for speech and noise at high levels, recognition of nonsense syllables was assessed for low-pass-filtered speech and speech-shaped maskers and high-pass-filtered speech and speech-shaped maskers at three speech levels, with signal-to-noise ratio held constant. Subjects were younger adults with normal hearing and older adults with normal hearing but significantly higher average quiet thresholds. A broadband masker was always present to minimize audibility differences between subject groups and across presentation levels. For subjects with lower thresholds, the declines in recognition of low-frequency syllables in low-frequency maskers were attributed to nonlinear growth of masking which reduced "effective" signal-to-noise ratio at high levels, whereas the decline for subjects with higher thresholds was not fully explained by nonlinear masking growth. For all subjects, masking growth did not entirely account for declines in recognition of high-frequency syllables in high-frequency maskers at high levels. Relative to younger subjects with normal hearing and lower quiet thresholds, older subjects with normal hearing and higher quiet thresholds had poorer consonant recognition in noise, especially for high-frequency speech in high-frequency maskers. Age-related effects on thresholds and task proficiency may be determining factors in the recognition of speech in noise at high levels.