The effect of voice lessons on the clinical and perceptual skills of graduate students in speech-language pathology

Two groups of 10 speech-language pathology graduate students were each given 7 weeks of singing lessons to determine whether voice lessons could have an effect on their clinical and perceptual skills. Pre-, mid-, and posttests to measure various skills were designed and implemented. With use of paired sample statistical testing, statistically significant results were obtained. In addition, the subjective responses of the students show that the lessons were effective in improving pitch perception, breath control, and legato production or easy onset. This study supports efforts to integrate curricula in vocal performance and speech-language pathology.     

Hydrophilic Treatment of the Dyed Nylon-6 Fabric using High-density and Extensible Antenna-coupling Microwave Plasma System

High density and well surface-distributed oxygen microwave plasma with an extensible antenna-coupling design was utilized to modify a densely weaved and large-surface-area Nylon-6 fabric within a short treatment time. Plasma pretreatment and subsequent acrylic acid (AAc) or 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) grafting process were studied and optimized at the stage after dyed and finished procedure. The monomer-grafted dyed Nylon-6 fabrics evolved lasting hydrophilic properties and thereafter created or improved surface properties such as water diffusion, drainage, moisture regain and water absorbency, in different degrees. The pHEMA-grafted sample exhibited minor effect in color perception, which was also much hydrophilic than the pAAc-grafted one. Based upon surface analyses and wetting assessment, the penetration of HEMA monomer into the plasma-treated fabric matrix contributed to the facilitation of wetting properties. This work accordingly ensures such plasma-induced system to incorporate with the pattern of hydrophilic properties on the analogous textiles without interrupting their finishing process.     

Computational gibberellin‐binding channel discovery unraveling the unexpected perception mechanism of hormone signal by gibberellin receptor

Gibberellins (GAs) are phytohormones essential for many developmental processes in plants. In this work, fundamental mechanism of hormone perception by receptor GID1 has been studied by performing computational simulations, revealing a new GA‐binding channel of GID1 and a novel hormone perception mechanism involving only one conformational state of GID1. The novel hormone perception mechanism demonstrated here is remarkably different from the previously proposed/speculated mechanism [Murase et al., Nature 2008 , 456, 459] involving two conformational states (“OPEN” and “CLOSED”) of GID1. According to the new perception mechanism, GA acts as a “conformational stabilizer,” rather than the previously speculated “allosteric inducer,” to induce the recognition of protein DELLA by GID1. The novel mechanistic insights obtained in this study provide a new starting point for further studies on the detailed molecular mechanisms of GID1 interacting with DELLA and various hormones and for mechanism‐based rational design of novel, potent growth regulators that target crops and ornamental plants. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Sensory Perception of Non-Deuterated and Deuterated Organic Compounds

The chemical background of olfactory perception has been subject of intensive research, but no available model can fully explain the sense of smell. There are also inconsistent results on the role of the isotopology of molecules. In experiments with human subjects it was found that the isotope effect is weak with acetone and D₆-acetone. In contrast, clear differences were observed in the perception of octanoic acid and D₁₅-octanoic acid. Furthermore, a trained sniffer dog was initially able to distinguish between these isotopologues of octanoic acid. In chromatographic measurements, the respective deuterated molecule showed weaker interaction with a non-polar liquid phase. Quantum chemical calculations give evidence that deuterated octanoic acid binds more strongly to a model receptor than non-deuterated. In contrast, the binding of the non-deuterated molecule is stronger with acetone. The isotope effect is calculated in the framework of statistical mechanics. It results from a complicated interplay between various thermostatistical contributions to the non-covalent free binding energies and it turns out to be very molecule-specific. The vibrational terms including non-classical zero-point energies play about the same role as rotational/translational contributions and are larger than bond length effects for the differential isotope perception of odor for which general rules cannot be derived.     

基于视觉心理学的SFS流形算法研究

通过视觉方法获取形状在科学研究及工程实践中有着重要作用,灰度图像是最容易获取的视觉信息之一。目前由灰度重构的形状(SFS,shape from shading)受到了广泛的关注,但现有的算法稳定性差、效率低,一直阻碍着SFS方法的推广应用。受近期的视觉心理学研究成果的启发,针对SFS问题,从局部分析入手,即:在图像上,在每一灰度极值点附近,根据灰度单调变化的情况,形成一个椭圆形邻域,对应着表面凹凸区;在每一椭圆域上,形状可用抛物面逼近,其参数可由局部辐射度约束求解;整个图像被椭圆形邻域覆盖,这些覆盖可构成一个二维流形;借助于流形上单位分解函数,各局部抛物面粘合在一起,形成光滑的整体形状;总体形状在整幅图像的灰度约束下再进行全局优化,可得到最终的重构结果。给出了初步算例,算法的稳定性和效率均有大幅度提高。     

基于感知的右视点质量可分级编码算法

为了减少立体视频传输如此庞大的数据量,根据人眼的立体掩蔽效应,提出了基于感知的右视点质量可分级编码算法．该算法将宏块分为3类：平坦块、纹理块和边缘块,通过不同的量化步长使得右视点图像块的质量可分级．实验证明根据左视点的图像质量,右视点在人眼感知范围内码率减少25％～37％．该算法能在人眼主观察觉范围内很好地提高码率,进一步消除人眼立体视觉冗余．     

社会化商务中消费者感知推荐信任的聚类方法研究

新兴社会化商务社会中人与人之间的高交互性及推荐信息的海量化和高动态性,对平台分析消费者感知信任提出了新的挑战。然而,对推荐信息进行聚类难以体现消费者主观性及主体间关系。本文将感知推荐信任聚类问题转化为复合网络划分问题,将主观逻辑方法与基于Normal矩阵的谱平分方法相结合构建社会化商务中消费者感知推荐信任的聚类方法。首先,将推荐信息转化为感知推荐信任,然后,从社交网络中抽取感知推荐信任相似度与关系亲密度网络,并构建Normal矩阵用谱平分方法进行划分。最后,通过多组仿真实验证明了该方法的实用性和有效性。该方法能够为社会化商务中消费者信任的分析提供新视角,为平台制定精准化营销策略提供支持。     

分类问题的在线顺序双并联快速学习机

双并联前馈神经网络模型是单层感知机和单隐层前馈神经网络的混合结构,本文构造了一种双并联快速学习机算法,与其他类似算法比较,提出的算法能利用较少的隐层单元及更少的待定参数,获得近似的学习性能.数值实验表明,对很多实际分类问题,提出的算法具备更佳的泛化能力,因而可以作为快速学习机算法的有益补充.     

Analysis of visual perception of light emitting diode brightness in dense fog with various droplet sizes

Road signs must provide a conspicuous signal to a wide variety of drivers over a broad range of environmental and geometric conditions. Recently, there are an increasing number of applications in which light emitting diodes (LEDs) are used as the light source, including critical transportation signaling. In the presence of fog, the resulting visual signal is disturbed due to light scattering by airborne water droplets. By measuring LED brightness with human spectral sensitivity in various densities and various droplet sizes (10, 30, 50, and 100 μm), it is understood that the particle size distribution (fog droplet size) and density of fog does affect visibility in fog. The colored LEDs that contain a yellow component had high brightness evaluation, blue component had low brightness evaluation in all densities and different droplet sizes. The result in this paper can contribute to air and land traffic safety and the prevention of accidents.