A study on the optimal English speech level for Chinese listeners in classrooms

Speech intelligibility in classrooms affects the learning efficiency of students directly, especially for the students who are using a second language. The speech intelligibility value is determined by many factors such as speech level, signal to noise ratio, and reverberation time in the rooms. This paper investigates the contributions of these factors with subjective tests, especially speech level, which is required for designing the optimal gain for sound amplification systems in classrooms. The test material was generated by mixing the convolution output of the English Coordinate Response Measure corpus and the room impulse responses with the background noise. The subjects are all Chinese students who use English as a second language. It is found that the speech intelligibility increases first and then decreases with the increase of speech level, and the optimal English speech level is about 71 dBA in classrooms for Chinese listeners when the signal to noise ratio and the reverberation time keep constant. Finally, a regression equation is proposed to predict the speech intelligibility based on speech level, signal to noise ratio, and reverberation time.     

Volume growth and escape rate of symmetric diffusion processes

We give an upper rate function, in terms of the volume growth of the underlying state space, for the symmetric diffusion process associated with a symmetric, strongly local regular Dirichlet form. It extends the main result of Hsu and Qin [Ann. Probab. 38(4) 2010], where an upper rate function was given for Brownian motion on Riemannian manifold.     

Existence result for a gradient-type elliptic system involving a pair of p(x) and q(x)-Laplacian operators

In this paper, we deal with a typical gradient elliptic system involving a pair of p(x) and q(x)-Laplacian operators. Furthermore, the system may have nonlinearities with sign-changing. Precisely, we are interested in seeking at least one weak nontrivial solution. In this way, we establish explicitly a pair of lower and upper solutions having radial forms and related to the system. By applying the theory of monotone operators, we show that the system possesses at least one non-trivial and bounded solution.     

Enhanced quantum size effect in Li and Na clusters via rare gas doping

Albeit its chemical inertness, rare gas doping can substantially enhance the quantum size effect of nanocrystals, yet little attention has been paid on this fascination and the mechanism behind remains unclear. Here, we show that the rare gas dopant breaks bonds of its neighboring atoms, which effects the same to atomic under‐coordination on the bond strain, energy quantum entrapment, and valence electron polarization of Li and Na clusters. Consistency between density functional theory calculation and the bond‐order‐length‐strength correlation prediction revealed that the bond strain by 16.86% and 21.12% before and after He doping for Na₃₀ clusters. Observations suggest an effective yet simple means to modulate the physical properties by doping the inert gases.     

Essential,Weyl and Browder spectra of unbounded upper triangular operator matrices

This paper is concerned with the spectral properties of the unbounded upper triangular operator matrix with diagonal domain. Some sufficient and necessary conditions are given under which the essential spectrum, the Weyl spectrum and the Browder spectrum of such operator matrix, respectively, coincide with the union of the essential spectrum, the Weyl spectrum and the Browder spectrum of its diagonal entries.     

On the Approximation of Zeros of Non-Self Monotone Operators

In this article, we study the approximation of common zeros of non-self inverse strongly monotone operators defined on a closed convex subset C of a Hilbert space H. For a non-self family of operators, we introduce an iterative algorithm without relying on projections. Approximation of common fixed points for finite families of non-self strict pseudo-contractions in the sense of Browder-Petryshyn is also obtained. The novelty of our algorithm is that the coefficients are not given a priori and no assumptions are made on them, but they are constructed step by step in a natural way.     

On a singular boundary value problem arising in the theory of shallow membrane caps

We investigate the following singular boundary value problem which originates from the theory of shallow membrane caps,

     

New states in heavy Cd isotopes and evidence for weakening of the N = 82 shell structure

A chemically selective laser ion source has been used in a β-decay study of heavy Ag isotopes into even-even Cd nuclides. Gamma-spectroscopic techniques in time-resolving event-by-event and multiscaling modes have permitted the identification of the first 2⁺ and 4⁺ levels in ¹²⁶Cd₇₈, ¹²⁸Cd₈₀, and tentatively the 2⁺ state in ¹³⁰Cd₈₂. From a comparison of these new states in ₄₈Cd with the E(2⁺) and E(4⁺)/E(2⁺) level systematics of ₄₆Pd and ₅₂Te isotopes and several recent model predictions, possible evidence for a weakening of the spherical N = 82 neutron-shell below double-magic ¹³²Sn is obtained. Received: 13 July 2000 / Accepted: 12 October 2000     

Microscopic study of Gamow-Teller and spin-dipole states in 208Bi

Gamow-Teller (GT) and spin-dipole (SD) states in ²⁰⁸Bi are studied by using self-consistent Hartree-Fock + Tamm-Dancoff approximation taking into account the coupling to the continuum. Most of SD strength is found at the excitation energy E _x≈ 25MeV with a very broad width, which agrees with recent experimental observations. It is shown that Landau damping effect is responsible for the large width of SD peak, while the escape width is found to be at most 1MeV. We study also electric dipole (E1) transitions between GT and SD states in ²⁰⁸Bi. Main E1 transitions for 0^- and 1^- states are found near excitation energy expected from Brink's hypothesis in which SD states are considered as E1 resonances built on the GT state. Calculated E1 transition strengths between GT and SD states are compared with the analytic sum rules within one-particle one-hole (1p-1h) configuration space and within both 1p-1h and 2p-2h model space. Received: 11 April 2000 / Accepted: 30 August 2000     

二阶向量椭圆型方程边值问题的内层现象*

本文利用偏微分不等式理论,我们将研究奇摄动二阶向量椭圆型方程边值问题,并获得所述问题的内层现象的解的存在性及其渐近估计式。