Coarticulation dampening properties of the glottal stop

The acoustics of adjacent phonemes influence each other due to the interaction of the articulators in a process known as coarticulation. The glottal stop is a phoneme that is reported to not use any supralaryngeal articulators which makes it a candidate for being a phoneme that can dampen coarticulation effects of adjacent phonemes. I use acoustic data of the formants in vowels only preceded by a glottal stop and compare that data to those of vowels preceded by both a consonant and a glottal stop, in that order, to analyze the coarticulation dampening properties of the glottal stop. I look for non-significance for each of the first two formants between the different utterance conditions of either having a pre-glottal consonant or not to see if coarticulation is prevented in certain formants in the vowels depending on the place of articulation similarity with the pre-glottal stop consonant. I find that the glottal stop was able to dampen coarticulation effects from /g/ in the following vowels for all contexts except for /a/ in the onset position. This research challenges the “transparent” status of the glottal stop.Ope

In Search of Cellular Immunophenotypes in the Blood of Children with Autism

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social behavior, communication difficulties and the occurrence of repetitive or stereotyped behaviors. There has been substantial evidence for dysregulation of the immune system in autism.We evaluated differences in the number and phenotype of circulating blood cells in young children with autism (n = 70) compared with age-matched controls (n = 35). Children with a confirmed diagnosis of autism (4-6 years of age) were further subdivided into low (IQ<68, n = 35) or high functioning (IQ ≥ 68, n = 35) groups. Age- and gender-matched typically developing children constituted the control group. Six hundred and forty four primary and secondary variables, including cell counts and the abundance of cell surface antigens, were assessed using microvolume laser scanning cytometry.There were multiple differences in immune cell populations between the autism and control groups. The absolute number of B cells per volume of blood was over 20% higher for children with autism and the absolute number of NK cells was about 40% higher. Neither of these variables showed significant difference between the low and high functioning autism groups. While the absolute number of T cells was not different across groups, a number of cellular activation markers, including HLA-DR and CD26 on T cells, and CD38 on B cells, were significantly higher in the autism group compared to controls.These results support previous findings that immune dysfunction may occur in some children with autism. Further evaluation of the nature of the dysfunction and how it may play a role in the etiology of autism or in facets of autism neuropathology and/or behavior are needed

Fabrication and in vitro deployment of a laser-activated shape memory polymer vascular stent

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Vascular stents are small tubular scaffolds used in the treatment of arterial stenosis (narrowing of the vessel). Most vascular stents are metallic and are deployed either by balloon expansion or by self-expansion. A shape memory polymer (SMP) stent may enhance flexibility, compliance, and drug elution compared to its current metallic counterparts. The purpose of this study was to describe the fabrication of a laser-activated SMP stent and demonstrate photothermal expansion of the stent in an <it>in vitro </it>artery model.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A novel SMP stent was fabricated from thermoplastic polyurethane. A solid SMP tube formed by dip coating a stainless steel pin was laser-etched to create the mesh pattern of the finished stent. The stent was crimped over a fiber-optic cylindrical light diffuser coupled to an infrared diode laser. Photothermal actuation of the stent was performed in a water-filled mock artery.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At a physiological flow rate, the stent did not fully expand at the maximum laser power (8.6 W) due to convective cooling. However, under zero flow, simulating the technique of endovascular flow occlusion, complete laser actuation was achieved in the mock artery at a laser power of ~8 W.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We have shown the design and fabrication of an SMP stent and a means of light delivery for photothermal actuation. Though further studies are required to optimize the device and assess thermal tissue damage, photothermal actuation of the SMP stent was demonstrated.</p

MANGROVE FOREST COVER EXTRACTION OF THE COASTAL AREAS OF NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, WESTERN VISAYAS, PHILIPPINES USING LIDAR DATA

Mangroves have a lot of economic and ecological advantages which include coastal protection, habitat for wildlife, fisheries and forestry products. Determination of the extent of mangrove patches in the coastal areas of the Philippines is therefore important especially in resource conservation, protection and management. This starts with a well-defined and accurate map. LiDARwas used in the mangrove extraction in the different coastal areas of Negros Occidental in Western Visayas, Philippines. Total coastal study area is 1,082.55 km² for the 14 municipalities/ cities processed. Derivatives that were used in the extraction include, DSM, DTM, Hillshade, Intensity, Number of Returns and PCA. The RGB bands of the Orthographic photographs taken at the same time with the LiDAR data were also used as one of the layers during the processing. NDVI, GRVI and Hillshade using Canny Edge Layer were derived as well to produce an enhanced segmentation. Training and Validation points were collected through field validation and visual inspection using Stratified Random Sampling. The points were then used to feed the Support Vector Machine (SVM) based on tall structures. Only four classes were used, namely, Built-up, Mangroves, Other Trees and Sugarcane. Buffering and contextual editing were incorporated to reclassify the extracted mangroves. Overall accuracy assessment is at 98.73% (KIA of 98.24%) while overall accuracy assessment for Mangroves only is at 98.00%. Using this workflow, mangroves can already be extracted in a large-scale level with acceptable overall accuracy assessments

Modules for implementing a voice over internet protocol telephony system on a TMS320C6711 DSK using an LD-CELP voice CODEC algorithm

Abstract. The emergence of the trend in globalization called for a need to establish a low cost communication system that would allow the transfer of both data and voice. Current technology offers that there is a separate network for data and voice, which is costly due to the fact that maintenance is expensive. Already, VoIP is gaining ground in the industry as an alternative communication tool as this allows the users to maintain only a single network for both voice and data. The basic idea of VoIP is that it compresses voice and allows it to travel in the data network, this is in turn allows users of voice and data to share a common medium, maximizing the efficiency of the network. Currently, there are several proponents working on Client software solutions for VoIP. However, software based VoIP would not be able to provide enough advantage as compared to embedded system VoIP because the embedded system frees a computer workstation to perform other task when in conference. This in turn would mean better savings and efficiency for corporations. This study investigates the application of VoIP into TMS320C6711 DSK, with the use of an LD-CELP voice codec algorithm that compresses a 64 kbps speech sample into a 16 kbps codevector representation would allow transfer of same amount of information is a smaller bandwidth

A correlation study on the academic anxiety and academic performance of grade 12 students in De La Salle Medical and Health Sciences Institute towards General Physics 1 during the S.Y. 2019-2020

This study will focus on the level of academic anxiety of grade 12 senior high school students of De La Salle Medical and Health Sciences Institute 2019- 2020 towards the subject General Physics I. The academic anxiety that will be observed is dependent on the subject General Physics I alone. All other subjects will be excluded in determining the academic anxiety of the students. The academic anxiety will influence the academic performance of the students (Rao B.V., Chaturvedi, 2017). Thus, the data gathered will be interpreted into the results that will determine the influence of academic anxiety to the student’s performance. The breakdown of the student’s grades is confidential, therefore, interpretation of the students’ performance will be limited to their final grade in General Physics I alone. The type of data used is primary data which is collected from the original source or the student themselves. Extraneous or unrelated data, such as the student’s profile or demography will be ignored. Academic performance is solely focused on their final grade. Data will be gathered from a sample size of 60 students from the population of grade 12 senior high school students. Moreover, the number of respondents will be appropriate for the methods that will be used. The study will utilize an anxiety scale called Cognitive Test Anxiety by Dr. Jerrell C. Cassady which is focused on students’ anxiety during examinations. General Physics I examinations comprise 30% of the final grade, therefore, the anxiety scale that the researchers will utilize will prove to be beneficial

Gene regulatory networks shape developmental plasticity of root cell types under water extremes in rice

: Understanding how roots modulate development under varied irrigation or rainfall is crucial for development of climate-resilient crops. We established a toolbox of tagged rice lines to profile translating mRNAs and chromatin accessibility within specific cell populations. We used these to study roots in a range of environments: plates in the lab, controlled greenhouse stress and recovery conditions, and outdoors in a paddy. Integration of chromatin and mRNA data resolves regulatory networks of the following: cycle genes in proliferating cells that attenuate DNA synthesis under submergence; genes involved in auxin signaling, the circadian clock, and small RNA regulation in ground tissue; and suberin biosynthesis, iron transporters, and nitrogen assimilation in endodermal/exodermal cells modulated with water availability. By applying a systems approach, we identify known and candidate driver transcription factors of water-deficit responses and xylem development plasticity. Collectively, this resource will facilitate genetic improvements in root systems for optimal climate resilience

Isolation of nuclei in tagged cell types (intact), rna extraction and ribosomal rna degradation to prepare material for rna-seq

International audienceGene expression is dynamically regulated on many levels, including chromatin accessibility and transcription. In order to study these nuclear regulatory events, we describe our method to purify nuclei with Isolation of Nuclei in TAgged Cell Types (INTACT). As nuclear RNA is low in polyadenylated transcripts and conventional pulldown methods would not capture non-polyadenylated pre-mRNA, we also present our method to remove ribosomal RNA from the total nuclear RNA in preparation for nuclear RNA-Seq