Search for weakly populated states in the decay of51Cr

A low level counting facility equipped with two large Na I(Tl) detectors was used to search for previously reported transitions of 470 and 640 keV in the decay of⁵¹Cr. Our results yield upper limits of 1.4× 10^?6 and 0.95× 10^?6 transitions/decay for these two transitions, respectively. These limits are now so low as to indicate these levels do not exist in⁵¹V.     

Voice gender differences and separation of simultaneous talkers in cochlear implant users with residual hearing

Perception of a target voice in the presence of a competing talker, of same or different gender as the target, was investigated in cochlear implant users, in implant-alone and bimodal (acoustic hearing in the non-implanted ear) conditions. Recordings of two male and two female talkers acted as targets and maskers, to investigate whether bimodal benefit increased for different compared to same gender target/maskers due to increased ability to perceive and utilize fundamental frequency and spectral-shape differences. In both listening conditions participants showed benefit of target/masker gender difference. There was an overall bimodal benefit, which was independent of target/masker gender difference.     

Aluminium nitrate as a precursor of mesoporous aluminium oxides

The thermal transformations of the products of hydrous aluminium nitrate hydrolysis in ammonia medium were studied by thermal analysis, mass spectrometry, infrared spectrophotometry, X-ray phase analysis, and sorption methods. Experiments have shown that the hydrolysis of hydrous aluminium nitrate in ammonia medium at pH=6-7 leads to the formation of boehmite. The degree of crystallinity of this product increases, if the hydrolysis is carried out for 264 h at 100°C, with respect the samples separated from the mother liquor just after completing the dosage of the reagents. It has also been found that aluminium oxide, obtained by thermal decomposition of the products of hydrolysis carried out for 264 h at an increased temperature, is characterized by a well developed specific surface, stable at high temperatures, amounting to about 100 m2 g^-1, after calcination for 2 h at 1200°C. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Hubbard relations for linear molecules

The Hubbard relations for linear molecules in the cases of the extended diffusion model (EDM) and Ivanov's theory are derived. The M-diffusion variant of the EDM leads to an unphysical result as the dielectric and Raman correlation times approach infinity and it is suggested that M-diffusion is not a realistic model. The J-diffusion is almost the same as for spherical molecules. When the reduced angular momentum correlation time, τ _J *, is very much less than unity both EDM and Ivanov theory give a relation similar to the friction model [2], i.e. the original Hubbard relations [14] with the coefficient 6^-1, instead of 2^-1 as obtained by O'Reilly [3]. For τ _J * > 1 the various versions of Hubbard's relations are different enough to be distinguished experimentally.     

A semiclasical justification for the use of non-spreading wavepackets in dynamics calculations

A justification is given for the use of non-spreading or frozen gaussian packets in dynamics calculations. In this work an initial wavefunction or quantum density operator is expanded in a complete set of grussian wavepackets. It is demonstrated that the time evolution of this wavepacket expansion for the quantum wavefunction or density is correctly given within the approximations employed by the classical propagation of the avarage position and momentum of each gaussian packet, holding the shape of these individual gaussians fixed. The semiclassical approximation is employed for the quantum propagator and the stationary phase approximation for certain integrals is utilized in this derivation. This analysis demonstrates that the divergence of the classical trajectories associated with the individual gaussian packets accounts for the changes in shape of the quantum wavefunction or density, as has been suggested on intuitive grounds by Heller. The method should be exact for quadratic potentials and this is verified by explicitly applying it for the harmonic oscillator example.     

Beneficial acoustic speech cues for cochlear implant users with residual acoustic hearing

This study investigated which acoustic cues within the speech signal are responsible for bimodal speech perception benefit. Seven cochlear implant (CI) users with usable residual hearing at low frequencies in the non-implanted ear participated. Sentence tests were performed in near-quiet (some noise on the CI side to reduce scores from ceiling) and in a modulated noise background, with the implant alone and with the addition, in the hearing ear, of one of four types of acoustic signals derived from the same sentences: (1) a complex tone modulated by the fundamental frequency (F0) and amplitude envelope contours; (2) a pure tone modulated by the F0 and amplitude contours; (3) a noise-vocoded signal; (4) unprocessed speech. The modulated tones provided F0 information without spectral shape information, whilst the vocoded signal presented spectral shape information without F0 information. For the group as a whole, only the unprocessed speech condition provided significant benefit over implant-alone scores, in both near-quiet and noise. This suggests that, on average, F0 or spectral cues in isolation provided limited benefit for these subjects in the tested listening conditions, and that the significant benefit observed in the full-signal condition was derived from implantees' use of a combination of these cues.     

Adsorption and Structural Properties of Mineral–Carbon Sorbents

In the present work an attempt was made to obtain mineral–carbon sorbents by thermal decompositon. The mineral matrix for the sorbents (aluminium hydroxide) was based on petrochemical waste stream containing considerable amounts of aluminium chloride. Reference tests were carried out with a model solution prepared with the use of analytical grade AlCl₃. Atactic polypropylene and hydrocarbon mixtures obtained in the flotation of petrochemical waste waters were used as carbon-containing raw materials. The aim of this work was to determine the adsorption and structural characteristics of the complex sorbents and to check the possibility of evaluation of their hydrophobic-hydrophilic properties. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Band mixing in156Gd and158Gd

A detailed investigation of the energies and intensities of the γ-rays that depopulate the low spin levels of the β- and γ-vibrational bands of¹⁵⁶Gd and the γ-vibrational band of¹⁵⁸Gd has been conducted. Both singles and γ-γ coincidence measurements were made on sources of 15-d¹⁵⁶Eu and 46-min¹⁵⁸Eu by use of large volume, high resolution Ge(Li) detectors. In addition to the γ-band at 1154.09 keV, twoK ^π=0⁺ bands were observed in¹⁵⁶Gd with band heads at 1049.45 and 1168.11 keV, respectively. The 2⁺ and 3⁺ members of the γ-vibrational band in¹⁵⁸Gd were observed at 1187.12 and 1265.43 keV, respectively, as well as a newK ^π=0⁺ band at 1195.98 keV. A first order perturbational treatment of the branching ratios was applied to both nuclei. In addition, the mixing between the ground state, the β-, and the γ-vibrational bands of¹⁵⁶Gd is considered from two approaches, but neither satisfactorily explains all the experimentalB(E2) ratios.     

K conversion coefficients of transitions in87Sr

TheK conversion coefficients of the 388 and 483 keV transitions in⁸⁷Sr populated in the decay of⁸⁷Y have been measured with Ge(Li) and Si(Li) detectors by the NPG method. We find α _K values of 0.162 ± 0.010 and 0.00260 ± 0.00013 for the 388 and 483 keV transitions, respectively.