Searching Spontaneous Conversational Speech

The ACM SIGIR Workshop on Searching Spontaneous Conversational Speech was held as part of the 2007 ACM SIGIR Conference in Amsterdam.\ud The workshop program was a mix of elements, including a keynote speech, paper presentations and panel discussions. This brief report describes the organization of this workshop and summarizes the discussions

Computerized Response Inhibition Training For Children With Trichotillomania

Evidence suggests that trichotillomania is characterized by impairment in response inhibition, which is the ability to suppress pre-potent/dominant but inappropriate responses. This study sought to test the feasibility of computerized response inhibition training for children with trichotillomania. Twenty-two children were randomized to the 8-session response inhibition training (RIT; n = 12) or a waitlisted control (WLT; n = 10). Primary outcomes were assessed by an independent evaluator, using the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-I), and the NIMH Trichotillomania Severity (NIMH-TSS) and Impairment scales (NIMH-TIS) at pre, post-training/waiting, and 1-month follow-up. Relative to the WLT group, the RIT group showed a higher response rate (55% vs. 11%) on the CGI-I and a lower level of impairment on the NIMH-TIS, at post-training. Overall symptom reductions rates on the NIMH-TSS were 34% (RIT) vs. 21% (WLT) at post-training. The RIT\u27s therapeutic gains were maintained at 1-month follow-up, as indicated by the CGI-I responder status (= 66%), and a continuing reduction in symptom on the NIMH-TSS. This pattern of findings was also replicated by the 6 waitlisted children who received the same RIT intervention after post-waiting assessment. Results suggest that computerized RIT may be a potentially useful intervention for trichotillomania

FPGA implementation of a cyclostationary detector for OFDM signals

Due to the ubiquity of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) based communications standards such as IEEE 802.11 a/g/n and 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), a growing interest has developed in techniques for reliably detecting the presence of these signals in dynamic radio systems. A popular approach for detection is to exploit the cyclostationary nature of OFDM communications signals. In this paper, we focus on a frequency domain cyclostationary detection algorithm first introduced by Giannakis and Dandawate and study its performance in detecting IEEE 802.11a OFDM signals in the presence of practical radio impairments such as Carrier Frequency offset (CFO), Phase Noise, I/Q Imbalance, Multipath Fading and DC offset. We then present a hardware implementation of this algorithm developed using MathWorks HDL Coder and provide implementation results after targeting to a Xilinx 7 Series FPGA device

Synthesis and Reactivity of the [NCCCO]⁻ Cyanoketenate Anion

Cyanoketene is a fundamental molecule that is actively being searched for in the interstellar medium. Its deprotonated form (cyanoketenate) is a heterocumulene that is isoelectronic to carbon suboxide whose structure has been the subject of debate. However, the investigation of cyanoketene and its derivatives is hampered by the lack of practical synthetic routes to these compounds. We report the first synthesis of the cyanoketenate anion in [K(18‐crown‐6)][NCCCO] (1) as a stable molecule on a multigram scale in excellent yields (>90 %). The structure of this molecule is probed crystallographically and computationally. We also explore the protonation of 1, and its reaction with triphenylsilylchloride and carbon dioxide. In all cases, anionic dimers are formed. The cyanoketene could be synthesized and crystallographically characterized when stabilized by a N‐heterocyclic carbene. The cyanoketenate is a very useful unsaturated building block containing N, C and O atoms that can now be explored with relative ease and will undoubtedly unlock more interesting reactivity

Reversible Metal-Free Carbon Dioxide Binding by Frustrated Lewis Pairs

Frustrated Lewis pairs comprising phosphine and borane react to reversibly bind and release CO2, offering a rare example of metal-free CO2 sequestration. The mechanism of formation of CO2 derivatives by almost simultaneous P-C and O-B bond formation was characterized by quantum chemical calculations

Synthesis and Reactivity of the [NCCCO]⁻ Cyanoketenate Anion

Cyanoketene is a fundamental molecule that is actively being searched for in the interstellar medium. Its deprotonated form (cyanoketenate) is a heterocumulene that is isoelectronic to carbon suboxide whose structure has been the subject of debate. However, the investigation of cyanoketene and its derivatives is hampered by the lack of practical synthetic routes to these compounds. We report the first synthesis of the cyanoketenate anion in [K(18‐crown‐6)][NCCCO] (1) as a stable molecule on a multigram scale in excellent yields (>90 %). The structure of this molecule is probed crystallographically and computationally. We also explore the protonation of 1, and its reaction with triphenylsilylchloride and carbon dioxide. In all cases, anionic dimers are formed. The cyanoketene could be synthesized and crystallographically characterized when stabilized by a N‐heterocyclic carbene. The cyanoketenate is a very useful unsaturated building block containing N, C and O atoms that can now be explored with relative ease and will undoubtedly unlock more interesting reactivity

Electrophilic boron carboxylate and phosphinate complexes

The reactions of a series of carboxylic acids with H2B(C6F5)·SMe2 are shown to afford species of the form [RC(O)OB(C6F5)]2O, (R = Tol 1, Ph 2, C6F53, Me2BrC 4, Me 5) in 87–95% yields with the concurrent reduction of the carboxylic acid to the corresponding aldehyde. A mechanism for the formation of 1–5 is proposed to proceed via a cyclic eight-membered ring species. Analogues of these species were prepared via reactions of carboxylic and phosphinic acids with HB(C6F5)2 and H2B(C6F5)·SMe2, respectively, to give [TolC(O)OB(C6F5)2]26, [(C6F5)C(O)OB(C6F5)2]27, and [Ph2P(O)OBH(C6F5)]28. These products react subsequently to give TolC(O)OBH(C6F5)(NC5H4NMe2) 9 and Ph2P(O)OBH(C6F5)(NC5H4NMe2) 10. The acyloxyborate derivatives 1–4 were shown to be inactive in mediating the direct amidation of carboxylic acids, consistent with previous observations that infer the need for a sterically congested environment about the boron centres

The effects of excluding patients from the analysis in randomised controlled trials: meta-epidemiological study

Objective To examine whether excluding patients from the analysis of randomised trials are associated with biased estimates of treatment effects and higher heterogeneity between trials

Small study effects in meta-analyses of osteoarthritis trials: meta-epidemiological study

Objective To examine the presence and extent of small study effects in clinical osteoarthritis research