Comprehension of familiar and unfamiliar native accents under adverse listening conditions

This study aimed to determine the relative processing cost associated with comprehension of an unfamiliar native accent under adverse listening conditions. Two sentence verification experiments were conducted in which listeners heard sentences at various signal-to-noise ratios. In Experiment 1, these sentences were spoken in a familiar or an unfamiliar native accent or in two familiar native accents. In Experiment 2, they were spoken in a familiar or unfamiliar native accent or in a nonnative accent. The results indicated that the differences between the native accents influenced the speed of language processing under adverse listening conditions and that this processing speed was modulated by the relative familiarity of the listener with the native accent. Furthermore, the results showed that the processing cost associated with the nonnative accent was larger than for the unfamiliar native accent

Satellite remote sensing facility for oceanograhic applications

The project organization, design process, and construction of a Remote Sensing Facility at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at LaJolla, California are described. The facility is capable of receiving, processing, and displaying oceanographic data received from satellites. Data are primarily imaging data representing the multispectral ocean emissions and reflectances, and are accumulated during 8 to 10 minute satellite passes over the California coast. The most important feature of the facility is the reception and processing of satellite data in real time, allowing investigators to direct ships to areas of interest for on-site verifications and experiments

Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of oscillatory shape evolution for electromigration-driven islands

The shape evolution of two-dimensional islands under electromigration-driven periphery diffusion is studied by kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations and continuum theory. The energetics of the KMC model is adapted to the Cu(100) surface, and the continuum model is matched to the KMC model by a suitably parametrized choice of the orientation-dependent step stiffness and step atom mobility. At 700 K shape oscillations predicted by continuum theory are quantitatively verified by the KMC simulations, while at 500 K qualitative differences between the two modeling approaches are found.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Spontaneous Jamming in One-Dimensional Systems

We study the phenomenon of jamming in driven diffusive systems. We introduce a simple microscopic model in which jamming of a conserved driven species is mediated by the presence of a non-conserved quantity, causing an effective long range interaction of the driven species. We study the model analytically and numerically, providing strong evidence that jamming occurs; however, this proceeds via a strict phase transition (with spontaneous symmetry breaking) only in a prescribed limit. Outside this limit, the nearby transition (characterised by an essential singularity) induces sharp crossovers and transient coarsening phenomena. We discuss the relevance of the model to two physical situations: the clustering of buses, and the clogging of a suspension forced along a pipe.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, uses epsfig. Submitted to Europhysics Letter

Validity, reliability, acceptability, and utility of the Social Inclusion Questionnaire User Experience (SInQUE): a clinical tool to facilitate social inclusion amongst people with severe mental health problems.

BACKGROUND: Individuals with severe mental health problems are at risk of social exclusion, which may complicate their recovery. Mental health and social care staff have, until now, had no valid or reliable way of assessing their clients' social inclusion. The Social Inclusion Questionnaire User Experience (SInQUE) was developed to address this. It assesses five domains: social integration; productivity; consumption; access to services; and political engagement, in the year prior to first psychiatric admission (T1) and the year prior to interview (T2) from which a total score at each time point can be calculated. AIMS: To establish the validity, reliability, and acceptability of the SInQUE in individuals with a broad range of psychiatric diagnoses receiving care from community mental health services and its utility for mental health staff. METHOD: Participants were 192 mental health service users with psychosis, personality disorder, or common mental disorder (e.g., depression, anxiety) who completed the SInQUE alongside other validated outcome measures. Test-retest reliability was assessed in a sub-sample of 30 participants and inter-rater reliability was assessed in 11 participants. SInQUE ratings of 28 participants were compared with those of a sibling with no experience of mental illness to account for shared socio-cultural factors. Acceptability and utility of the tool were assessed using completion rates and focus groups with staff. RESULTS: The SInQUE demonstrated acceptable convergent validity. The total score and the Social Integration domain score were strongly correlated with quality of life, both in the full sample and in the three diagnostic groups. Discriminant validity and test-retest reliability were established across all domains, although the test-retest reliability on scores for the Service Access and Political Engagement domains prior to first admission to hospital (T1) was lower than other domains. Inter-rater reliability was excellent for all domains at T1 and T2. CONCLUSIONS: The component of the SInQUE that assesses current social inclusion has good psychometric properties and can be recommended for use by mental health staff

Laserlight visual cueing device for freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease: a case study of the biomechanics involved

AbstractBackground: Freezing of gait (FOG) is a serious gait disorder affecting up to two-thirds of people with Parkinson's disease (PD). Cueing has been explored as a method of generating motor execution using visual transverse lines on the floor. However, the impact of a laser light visual cue remains unclear. Objective: To determine the biomechanical effect of a laser cane on FOG in a participant with PD compared to a healthy age- and gender-matched control. Methods: The participant with PD and healthy control were given a task of initiating gait from standing. Electromyography (EMG) data were collected from the tibialis anterior (TA) and the medial gastrocnemius (GS) muscles using an 8-channel system. A 10-camera system (Qualisys) recorded movement in 6 degrees of freedom and a calibrated anatomical system technique was used to construct a full body model. Center of mass (COM) and center of pressure (COP) were the main outcome measures. Results: The uncued condition showed that separation of COM and COP took longer and was of smaller magnitude than the cued condition. EMG activity revealed prolonged activation of GS, with little to no TA activity. The cued condition showed earlier COM and COP separation. There was reduced fluctuation in GS, with abnormal, early bursts of TA activity. Step length improved in the cued condition compared to the uncued condition. Conclusion: Laserlight visual cueing improved step length beyond a non-cued condition for this patient indicating improved posture and muscle control

Theoretical and numerical studies of chemisorption on a line with precursor layer diffusion

We consider a model for random deposition of monomers on a line with extrinsic precursor states. As the adsorbate coverage increases, the system develops non-trivial correlations due to the diffusion mediated deposition mechanism. In a numeric simulation, we study various quantities describing the evolution of the island structure. We propose a simple, self-consistent theory which incorporates pair correlations. The results for the correlations, island density number, average island size and probabilities of island nucleation, growth and coagulation show good agreement with the simulation data.Comment: 17 pages(LaTeX), 11 figures(1 PS file, uuencoded), submmited to Phys. Rev.

Phase Transition in the ABC Model

Recent studies have shown that one-dimensional driven systems can exhibit phase separation even if the dynamics is governed by local rules. The ABC model, which comprises three particle species that diffuse asymmetrically around a ring, shows anomalous coarsening into a phase separated steady state. In the limiting case in which the dynamics is symmetric and the parameter $q$ describing the asymmetry tends to one, no phase separation occurs and the steady state of the system is disordered. In the present work we consider the weak asymmetry regime $q=\exp{(-\beta/N)}$ where $N$ is the system size and study how the disordered state is approached. In the case of equal densities, we find that the system exhibits a second order phase transition at some nonzero $\beta_c$. The value of $\beta_c = 2 \pi \sqrt{3}$ and the optimal profiles can be obtained by writing the exact large deviation functional. For nonequal densities, we write down mean field equations and analyze some of their predictions.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure

EAGLE ISS - A modular twin-channel integral-field near-IR spectrograph

The ISS (Integral-field Spectrograph System) has been designed as part of the EAGLE Phase A Instrument Study for the E-ELT. It consists of two input channels of 1.65x1.65 arcsec field-of-view, each reconfigured spatially by an image-slicing integral-field unit to feed a single near-IR spectrograph using cryogenic volume-phase-holographic (VPH) gratings to disperse the image spectrally. A 4k x 4k array detector array records the dispersed images. The optical design employs anamorphic magnification, image slicing, VPH gratings scanned with a novel cryo-mechanism and a three-lens camera. The mechanical implementation features IFU optics in Zerodur, a modular bench structure and a number of high-precision cryo-mechanisms.Comment: 12 pages, to be published in Proc SPIE 7735: Ground-based & Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy II