Acoustic Analysis of Pathological Voices Compressedwith MPEG System

The MPEG-1 Layer 3 compression schema of audio signal, commonly known as mp3, has caused a great impact in recent years as it has reached high compression rates while conserving a high sound quality. Music and speech samples compressed at high bitrates are perceptually indistinguishable from the original samples, but very little was known about how compression acoustically affects the voice signal. A previous work with normal voices showed a high fidelity at high-bitrate compressions both in voice parameters and the amplitude-frequency spectrum. In the present work, dysphonic voices were tested through two studies. In the first study, spectrograms, long-term average spectra (LTAS), and fast Fourier transform (FFT) spectra of compressed and original samples of running speech were compared. In the second study, intensities, formant frequencies, formant bandwidths, and a multidimensional set of voice parameters were tested in a set of sustained phonations. Results showed that compression at high bitrates (96 and 128 kbps) preserved the relevant acoustic properties of the pathological voices. With compressions at lower bitrates, fidelity decreases, introducing some important alterations. Results from both works, Gonzalez and Cervera and this paper, open up the possibility of using MPEG-compression at high bitrates to store or transmit high-quality speech recordings, without altering their acoustic properties.     

New FIR laser lines and frequency measurements for optically pumped CD3OH

Twenty new cw FIR laser lines in CD₃OH, optically pumped by a CO₂ laser, are reported. The frequencies of 39 of the stronger laser lines were measured relative to stabilized CO₂ lasers with a fractional uncertainty, as determined by the reproducibility of the FIR frequency itself, of 2 parts in 10⁷.Contribution of the U.S. Government, not subject to copyright.     

Li3N、Mg3N2、Ca3N2催化作用的比较和分析

 Li₃N、Mg₃N₂和Ca₃N₂是高温高压下以hBN为原料合成cBN的催化剂。在实验中发现它们对常压高温下生成hBN的反应也表现出催化作用。对比了三种氮化物催化效果的差异，发现三种氮化物都只有在熔融状态下才能表现出催化效果，以及三种氮化物对生成hBN反应的催化效果与它们在高温高压下合成cBN反应的催化效果次序相似。提出了对合成hBN有催化作用的化合物也将对合成cBN表现出催化作用的观点。     

Crystallization and morphology of poly(vinylidene fluoride)/poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) blends. I. Spherulitic morphology and growth by polarized microscopy

The development of the poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) morphology in the presence of already existent poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) spherulites was studied by two‐stage solidification with two separate crystallization temperatures. PVDF formed irregular dendrites at lower temperatures and regular, banded spherulites at elevated temperatures. The transition temperature of the spherulitic morphology from dendrites to regular, banded spherulites increased with increasing PVDF content. A remarkable amount of PHB was included in the PVDF dendrites, whereas PHB was rejected into the remaining melt from the banded spherulites. When PVDF crystallized as banded spherulites, PHB could consequently crystallize only around them, if at all. In contrast, PHB crystallized with a common growth front, starting from a defined site in the interfibrillar regions of volume‐filling PVDF dendrites. It formed by itself dendritic spherulites that included a large number of PVDF spherulites. For blends with a PHB content of more than 80 wt %, for which the PVDF dendrites were not volume‐filling, PHB first formed regular spherulites. Their growth started from outside the PVDF dendrites but could later interpenetrate them, and this made their own morphology dendritic. These PHB spherulites melted stepwise because the lamellae inside the PVDF dendrites melted at a lower temperature than those from outside. This reflected the regularity of the two fractions of the lamellae because that of those inside the dendrites of PVDF was controlled by the intraspherulitic order of PVDF, whereas that from outside was only controlled by the temperature and the melt composition. The described morphologies developed without mutual nucleating efficiency of the components. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 873–882, 2003     

3,7-二硝基亚氨基-2,4-二氮杂双环[3,3,0]辛烷的放热分解反应动力学

在程序升温条件下 ,用DSC研究了标题化合物的放热分解反应动力学 .用线性最小二乘法、迭代法以及二分法与最小二乘法相结合的方法 ,以积分方程、微分方程和放热速率方程拟合DSC数据 .在逻辑选择建立了微分和积分机理函数的最可几一般表达式后 ,用放热速率方程得到相应的表观活化能 (Ea)、指前因子 (A)和反应级数 (n)的值 .结果表明 :该反应的微分形式的经验动力学模式函数、Ea 和A值分别为 (1-α) 0 .44、2 30 .4kJ/mol和 10 18.16s-1.借助加热速率和所得动力学参数值 ,提出了标题化合物放热分解反应的动力学方程 .该化合物的热爆炸临界温度为 30 2 .6℃ .上述动力学参数对分析、评价标题化合物的稳定性和热变化规律十分有用 .     

Total synthesis of (3S,4S,2′S)- and (3R,4R,2′S)-viridiofungin A triester

The total synthesis of an alkylcitrate secondary metabolite from the fungi Trichoderma viride is described. An ester dienolate [2,3]-Wittig rearrangement and a S. Julia-Kocienski olefination served as key C/C-connecting transformations. The highly convergent synthesis consists of a longest linear sequence of 17 steps.     

2-乙酰氨基-3,4,6-三乙酰葡萄糖的合成

细菌内毒素(ＬＰＳ)是革兰氏阳性阴性菌细胞外膜层的主要成分,由其引起的革兰氏阴性杆菌脓度症和休克是导致战创伤病人死亡的主要原因之一。而从类脂Ａ(ＬｉｐｉｄＡ)的结构出发,以非肽类物质拮抗内毒素受体ＣＤ-14为治疗手段的研究在国外刚刚起步。2-乙酰氨基-3,4,6-三乙酰葡萄糖是合成ＬｉｐｉｄＡ结构类似物的重要中间体[1,2]。它的合成一般是通过氨基葡萄糖五乙酸酯的选择性水解[3-6]脱去一个乙酰基得到。氨基葡萄糖五乙酸酯是通过氨基葡萄糖的乙酰化反应得到的,由于氨基葡萄糖不稳定,一般是用氨基葡萄糖的盐酸盐作为起始原料。由于…     

A novel tridentate nitrogen donor as ligand in copper catalyzed ATRP of methyl methacrylate

A tridentate ligand, BPIEP: 2,6‐bis[1‐(2,6‐diisopropyl phenylimino) ethyl] pyridine, having central pyridine unit and two peripheral imine coordination sites was effectively employed in controlled/“living” radical polymerization of MMA at 90°C in toluene as solvent, Cu^IBr as catalyst, and ethyl‐2‐bromoisobutyrate (EBiB) as initiator resulting in well‐defined polymers with polydispersities M_w/M_n ≤ 1.23. The rate of polymerization follows first‐order kinetics, k_app = 3.4 × 10^?5 s^?1, indicating the presence of low radical concentration ([P*] ≤ 10^?8) throughout the reaction. The polymerization rate attains a maximum at a ligand‐to‐metal ratio of 2:1 in toluene at 90°C. The solvent concentration (v/v, with respect to monomer) has a significant effect on the polymerization kinetics. The polymerization is faster in polar solvents like, diphenylether, and anisole, as compared to toluene. Increasing the monomer concentration in toluene resulted in a better control of polymerization. The molecular weights (M_n,SEC) increased linearly with conversion and were found to be higher than predicted molecular (M_n,Cal). However, the polydispersity remained narrow, i.e., ≤1.23. The initiator efficiency at lower monomer concentration approaches a value of 0.7 in 110 min as compared to 0.5 in 330 min at higher monomer concentration. The aging of the copper salt complexed with BPIEP had a beneficial effect and resulted in polymers with narrow polydispersitities and higher conversion. PMMA obtained at room temperature in toluene (33%, v/v) gave PDI of 1.22 (M_n = 8500) in 48 h whereas, at 50°C the PDI is 1.18 (M_n = 10,300), which is achieved in 23 h. The plot of lnk_app versus 1/T gave an apparent activation energy of polymerization as (ΔE^≠_app) 58.29 KJ/mol and enthalpy of equilibrium (ΔH⁰_eq) to 28.8 KJ/mol. Reverse ATRP of MMA was successfully performed using AIBN in bulk as well as solution. The controlled nature of the polymerization reaction was established through kinetic studies and chain extension experiments. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 4996–5008, 2005