Auditory spatial resolution in horizontal,vertical, and diagonal planes

Minimum audible angle (MAA) and minimum audible movement angle (MAMA) thresholds were measured for stimuli in horizontal, vertical, and diagonal (60 degrees) planes. A pseudovirtual technique was employed in which signals were recorded through KEMAR's ears and played back to subjects through insert earphones. Thresholds were obtained for wideband, high-pass, and low-pass noises. Only 6 of 20 subjects obtained wideband vertical-plane MAAs less than 10 degrees, and only these 6 subjects were retained for the complete study. For all three filter conditions thresholds were lowest in the horizontal plane, slightly (but significantly) higher in the diagonal plane, and highest for the vertical plane. These results were similar in magnitude and pattern to those reported by Perrott and Saberi [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 87, 1728-1731 (1990)] and Saberi and Perrott [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 88, 2639-2644 (1990)], except that these investigators generally found that thresholds for diagonal planes were as good as those for the horizontal plane. The present results are consistent with the hypothesis that diagonal-plane performance is based on independent contributions from a horizontal-plane system (sensitive to interaural differences) and a vertical-plane system (sensitive to pinna-based spectral changes). Measurements of the stimuli recorded through KEMAR indicated that sources presented from diagonal planes can produce larger interaural level differences (ILDs) in certain frequency regions than would be expected based on the horizontal projection of the trajectory. Such frequency-specific ILD cues may underlie the very good performance reported in previous studies for diagonal spatial resolution. Subjects in the present study could apparently not take advantage of these cues in the diagonal-plane condition, possibly because they did not externalize the images to their appropriate positions in space or possibly because of the absence of a patterned visual field.     

Characterization of a Solvatochromic Fluorophore: 1-(2,2-Dicyanovinyo)-2,5-Dimethoxybenzene (DCN-2,5-DMOB)

Absorption spectra and steady-state fluorescence emission spectra for l-(2,2-dicyanovinyl)-2,5-dimethoxybenzene in five solvents were determined. Although the absorption spectra demonstrate little solvatochromism, emission peaks show a red shift of roughly 90 nm between cyclohexane and methanol or acetonitrile, which appears to indicate charge transfer associated with a relaxed, as opposed to a vertical, excited state. Semiempirical gas phase AM1 calculations on this compound and the related unsubstituted 2,2-dicyanovinyl benzene indicate a dihedral twist of roughly 35° between the phenyl and the dicyanovinyl planes for both molecules in their ground states, as well as substantial polarity associated with the ground states of these compounds.     

Effect of nitrogen substituents on the relative energies of twist and chair-form conformations of CIS 2-oxo-2-dimethylamino-5-t-butyl-1,3,2-oxazaphosphorinanes

Replacement of the phenyl substituent on nitrogen of the 1,3,2-oxaza ring of the title compounds changes the twist-chair equilibrium such that the chair conformation is populated rather than the twist form primarily occupied in the N-phenyl case. A possible rationale based on Me₂N-phenyl interactions is proposed.     

Traveling in randomly embedded random graphs

We consider the problem of traveling among random points in Euclidean space, when only a random fraction of the pairs are joined by traversable connections. In particular, we show a threshold for a pair of points to be connected by a geodesic of length arbitrarily close to their Euclidean distance, and analyze the minimum length Traveling Salesperson Tour, extending the Beardwood‐Halton‐Hammersley theorem to this setting.