Changes in Objective Acoustic Measurements and Subjective Voice Complaints in Call Center Customer-Service Advisors During One Working Day

SUMMARY: The aim of this study was to investigate how different acoustic parameters, extracted both from speech pressure waveforms and glottal flows, can be used in measuring vocal loading in modern working environments and how these parameters reflect the possible changes in the vocal function during a working day. In addition, correlations between objective acoustic parameters and subjective voice symptoms were addressed. The subjects were 24 female and 8 male customer-service advisors, who mainly use telephone during their working hours. Speech samples were recorded from continuous speech four times during a working day and voice symptom questionnaires were completed simultaneously. Among the various objective parameters, only F0 resulted in a statistically significant increase for both genders. No correlations between the changes in objective and subjective parameters appeared. However, the results encourage researchers within the field of occupational voice use to apply versatile measurement techniques in studying occupational voice loading.     

Robust inverse optimal control for flexible structures

An inverse optimal control problem is formulated to develop robust control laws for purely oscillatory systems. The optimal control solution requires output feedback with specified constraints, leading to robustness with respect to unmodeled modes and a large class of parameter variations. The robustness properties are proved directly from known properties of control laws resulting from quadratic performance indices. The control laws are useful for poorly damped flexible structures.This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research, Contract No. N00014-77-C-0247.     

Metal deposition onto thiol-covered gold: Platinum on a 4-mercaptopyridine SAM

In this study we describe details of a new technique that allows to deposit metal on top of a self-assembled monolayer (SAM). Monoatomic high platinum islands were formed on a 4-mercaptopyridine SAM on Au(1 1 1) by first immersing the SAM-covered gold electrode in an aqueous solution of K₂PtCl₄ without potential control to allow Pt(II) ions to form a complex with the pyridine nitrogen. The complexed Pt(II) ions were then reduced electrochemically to Pt(0) after transferring the electrode to a Pt(II) ion-free solution. Upon reduction, monoatomic high Pt islands were observed in STM, the total coverage depending on the time for complexation. Ex situ angle-resolved XPS studies reveal that the Pt islands indeed reside on top of the SAM.     

Identifying the structure of group correlation in the Korean financial market

We investigate the structure of the cross-correlation in the Korean stock market. We analyze daily cross-correlations between price fluctuations of 586 different Korean stock entities for the 6-year time period from 2003 to 2008. The main purpose is to investigate the structure of group correlation and its stability by undressing the market-wide effect using the Markowitz multi-factor model and the network-based approach. We find the explicit list of significant firms in the few largest eigenvectors from the undressed correlation matrix. We also observe that each contributor is involved in the same business sectors. The structure of group correlation can not remain constant during each 1-year time period with different starting points, whereas only two largest eigenvectors are stable for 6 years 8-9 eigenvectors remain stable for half-year. The structure of group correlation in the Korean financial market is disturbed during a sufficiently short time period even though the group correlation exists as an ensemble for the 6-year time period in the evolution of the system. We verify the structure of group correlation by applying a network-based approach. In addition, we examine relations between market capitalization and businesses. The Korean stock market shows a different behavior compared to mature markets, implying that the KOSPI is a target for short-positioned investors.     

Exact solutions for KdV system equations hierarchy

Exact solutions for KdV system equations hierarchy are obtained by using the inverse scattering transform. Exact solutions of isospectral KdV hierarchy, nonisospectral KdV hierarchies and τ$\tau$-equations related to the KdV spectral problem are obtained by reduction. The interaction of two solitons is investigated.     

Iterative regularization methods for atmospheric remote sensing

In this paper we present different inversion algorithms for nonlinear ill-posed problems arising in atmosphere remote sensing. The proposed methods are Landweber's method (LwM), the iteratively regularized Gauss-Newton method, and the conventional and regularizing Levenberg-Marquardt method. In addition, some accelerated LwMs and a technique for smoothing the Levenberg-Marquardt solution are proposed. The numerical performance of the methods is studied by means of simulations. Results are presented for an inverse problem in atmospheric remote sensing, i.e., temperature sounding with an airborne uplooking high-resolution far-infrared spectrometer.     

RCCo_3(CO)_9的电化学和RCCo_3(CO)_9~-的ESR谱研究

本文对三种RCCo_3(CO)_9及相应的自由基进行了电化学和ESR谱研究.电化学研究表明,RCCo_3(CO)_9被还原为自由基的难易与R的性质有关,RCCo_3(CO)_9在室温下可以稳定存在.在对分子轨道对称性分析的基础上对簇合物自由基的ESR谱进行了讨论.确定了超精细偶合常数的符号和未成对电子占据轨道的性质,计算了Co的3d轨道和4s轨道的自旋密度.     

Inverse problems of aggregation processes

The coagulation frequency is the key ingredient in the population balance (Smoluchowski) equation of coagulation kinetics. An inverse problem is formulated to extract the coagulation frequency from transient size distributions when these distributions are self-similar. Two numerical examples illustrate the procedure. The first demonstrates the inverse problem for the recovery of singular coagulation frequencies, while the second shows the procedure when self-similarity is approximate. Transient droplet coagulation experiments in a turbulent flow field have been performed. The resulting size distributions are observed to be self-similar. The inverse problem is used to determine the drop coagulation frequency. This frequency shows significant deviation from the coagulation frequencies derived from simple models of drop-drop interactions in a turbulent flow field.     

Minimum energy pulse synthesis via the inverse scattering transform

This paper considers a variety of problems in the design of selective RF-pulses. We apply a formula of Zakharov and Manakov to directly relate the energy of an RF-envelope to the magnetization profile and certain auxiliary parameters used in the inverse scattering transform (IST) approach to RF-pulse synthesis. This allows a determination of the minimum possible energy for a given magnetization profile. We give an algorithm to construct both the minimum energy RF-envelope as well as any other envelope that produces a given magnetization profile. This includes an algorithm for solving the Gel'fand-Levitan-Marchenko equations with bound states. The SLR method is analyzed in terms of traditional scattering data, and shown to be a special (singular) case of the IST approach. RF-envelopes are computed for a variety of examples.     

Synthesis,structural, electrochemical,and photophysical properties of 4,2′‐thiopyrylogens – a novel class of sensitizers for photoinduced electron transfer reactions

The first three examples of the thioanalog of the 4,2′‐pyrylogen ring system are reported. The influence of the sulfur atom on the structural, electrochemical, and photophysical behavior of this ring system is discussed. In addition, these 4,2′‐thiopyrylogens are compared to their previously reported 4,4′‐isomers and their 4,4′‐ and 4,2′‐oxygen analogs. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.