Acoustic Space Movement Planning in a Neural Model of Motor Equivalent Vowel Production

Recent evidence suggests that speakers utilize an acoustic-like reference frame for the planning of speech movements. DIVA, a computational model of speech acquisition and motor equivalent speech production, has previously been shown to provide explanations for a wide range of speech production data using a constriction-based reference frame for movement planning. This paper extends the previous work by investigating an acoustic-like planning frame in the DIVA modeling framework. During a babbling phase, the model self-organizes targets in the planning space for each of ten vowels and learns a mapping from desired movement directions in this planning space into appropriate articulator velocities. Simulation results verify that after babbling the model is capable of producing easily recognizable vowel sounds using an acoustic planning space consisting of the formants F1 and F2. The model successfully reaches all vowel targets from any initial vocal tract configuration, even in the presence of constraints such as a blocked jaw.Office of Naval Research (N00014-91-J-4100, N00014-92-J-4015); Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-92-J-0499

THE ROLE OF SCIENTIFIC AND BUSINESS INTEGRITY IN THE FUTURE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY: A SCENARIO ANALYSIS

The emergence of biotechnology in crop and livestock applications has been an issue of great controversy. Proponents argue that the potential benefits are dramatic while opponents have raised many concerns about the technology's risks. The Starlink debacle is a prime example of the undesirable outcomes which the debate has created. Given the controversy, what is the future of biotechnology for food uses? This paper is designed to address this question with a focus on the feasible range of alternative futures (scenarios) that could emerge. As a major variable in this analysis, the integrity of the scientific and business communities plays a critically important role. The paper begins with a description of three key uncertainties-food security, environmental/health impacts, and consumer reaction-that will define the future for biotechnology's use in food applications. Based on these uncertainties, four alternative future scenarios for biotechnology are presented. The role of messenger integrity is then introduced. The integrity of various possible messengers (scientists, businesses, government, and non-profits) is examined. The concept of integrity is then used to address a series of current biotechnology issues. Throughout the paper, comparisons and contrasts between the developed and developing world are made.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

How Do Galaxies Get Their Gas?

We examine the temperature history of gas accreted by forming galaxies in SPH simulations. About half the gas shock heats to roughly the virial temperature of the galaxy potential well before cooling, condensing, and forming stars, but the other half radiates its acquired gravitational energy at much lower temperatures, typically T<10^5 K, and the histogram of maximum gas temperatures is clearly bimodal. The "cold mode" of gas accretion dominates for low mass galaxies (M_baryon < 10^{10.3}Msun or M_halo < 10^{11.4}Msun), while the conventional "hot mode" dominates the growth of high mass systems. Cold accretion is often directed along filaments, allowing galaxies to efficiently draw gas from large distances, while hot accretion is quasi-spherical. The galaxy and halo mass dependence leads to redshift and environment dependence of cold and hot accretion rates, with cold mode dominating at high redshift and in low density regions today, and hot mode dominating in group and cluster environments at low redshift. Star formation rates closely track accretion rates, and we discuss the physics behind the observed environment and redshift dependence of galactic scale star formation. If we allowed hot accretion to be suppressed by conduction or AGN feedback, then the simulation predictions would change in interesting ways, perhaps resolving conflicts with the colors of ellipticals and the cutoff of the galaxy luminosity function. The transition between cold and hot accretion at M_h ~ 10^{11.4}Msun is similar to that found by Birnboim & Dekel (2003) using 1-d simulations and analytic arguments. The corresponding baryonic mass is tantalizingly close to the scale at which Kauffmann et al. (2003) find a marked shift in galaxy properties. We speculate on connections between these theoretical and observational transitions.Comment: 1 figure added, Appendix discussing SAMs added, some text changes. Matches the version accepted by MNRAS. 31 pages (MNRAS style), 21 figures,For high resolution version of the paper (highly recommended) follow http://www.astro.umass.edu/~keres/paper/ms2.ps.g

Views on Value of Gold

Generally people and even economist use word value of gold. It is erroneous use. The status of feeling value in gold has prime six reasons and mostly the influence of gold on the human mind is due to its assured exchange value, otherwise there are few needs that might be satisfied directly by gold or its chemical compositions. The potential of status of gold is founded on the prime six reasons and it constitutes trust in assured exchange value (not value) that ultimately becomes a hope of satisfying various needs of a man. A big catastrophic collapse of social systems automatically makes gold valueless, this is proved by history also, and it is the proof of its dependency on exchange value as well as inevitability of social system. A hungry man who finds value in bread in his hand, even if he is exclusively alone on this planet earth. While a man with gold coin needs at least one more person on earth and in his association to sense so called value in the coin. That is the difference one should try to understand before using word value for gold while explaining critical topics of economics. The gold has sound foundation of history and its prestige is also evolved with evolution of human society. Not only that, but gold has ruled man with its potential of influence. However, man has faced occasions and events that convinced him about futile impression of value in gold that he carried throughout his life till date. Most tragic reality is that people are not with clarity why we sense value in gold and why the same value becomes absurd in some situation or circumstances. It is tried here to reveal some facts and realities responsible for the dilemma of the people

An inquiry on social issues – Part 1

The readers who have studied the history of mankind and path of evolution of human society on this planet Earth will have better understanding of my saying in this article. I have presented my personal views and conclusions based on my contemplation on various social issues of our present society. I agree, there are innumerable social issues in our society and some of them varies with time and place also. There can never be a society without an issue. The issues are the foundation of flow of various processes and activities in the human society. However, at a glance, if we count on our fingers regarding the most sensitive and gruesome issues generally influencing major part of living world today, they are climatic and environmental issue, terrorism, drugs addiction, human trafficking, corruption, destruction of natural wealth, over growth in human population, health problem, child llabor and helpless sex workers and many other issues. We shall address these all social issues as “social issues” onwards to this articl

Optimization of process parameters for enhanced biodegradation of acid red 119 by Bacillus thuringiensis SRDD

Developed Bacillus thuringiensis SRDD showed degradation of C.I. Acid red 119 and growth under the extremecondition of temperature 70°C, pH 3-8, heavy metals concentration of 0.8 mM, NaCl up to 900 mM and 1000 ppm dye. Cottonseed, caster cake and corn cake powders were found to be better and cheaper nutrient supplements for the Bacillus thuringiensisSRDD for biodegradation as compared to molasses. After development of the culture and the process, more than99% degradation was achieved in less than 2 hrs of contact time even on 18th cycles of addition of 100 ppm AR-119 dye. Thedeveloped process showed AR-119 biodegradation rate as high as 220 mg L-1 h-1, which is found to be 130 times more ascompared to the reported data. U.V., FTIR, TLC and HPLC analysis data confirmed biodegradation ability of the Bacillusthuringiensis for AR-119

Elementary investigation on Division of Labour- Part 2.

We discussed the “Division of labour Part 1” at a length in previous issue (issue 3) of FIRM. Here we shall take up a discussion on very sensitive and vital part of this article. We learned from the previous discussion that process of division of labour simultaneously emerged with the classical coordination as one of its inseparable organs. The originally evolved process of division of labour was without unethical influence of human characteristics

ALTERNATIVE ITALIAN AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE SYSTEMS IN THE CHANGING EU FOOD SYSTEM

The European food system is undergoing significant change driven both by global competitive forces and local conditions. Market globalization and technological innovation are interacting with the reform of EU's agricultural policies (CAP) and a renewed interest by the European society in the social and environmental functions of agriculture. These factors have created a new and challenging economic environment both for farmers and the food industry across Europe (Tarditi, 1997).Agribusiness,

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF BIOTECHNOLOGY: A SCENARIO ANALYSIS

Over the years agricultural technology has created remarkable commodity production growth rates and enhanced general economic growth through food production, manufactured goods and trade for most nations. Biotechnology holds the promise of continuing this remarkable record. There is a long list of potential benefits of biotechnology but unfortunately the perceived costs/risks are also many. These concerns have lead to significant consumer reluctance to accept the technology and, in some cases, outright consumer rejection of the technology. To discuss the future of biotechnology, scenario analysis is used to examine the social and economic impact of biotechnology on industrialized and emerging nations. Four scenarios are discussed in detail: biotechnology may be formally or informally banned (Scenario 1), fully accepted (Scenario 2), marketed through strict labeling (Scenario 3), or limited to non-food applications (Scenario 4). Consumer acceptance of this technology will be key to determining which scenario becomes the future for each nation. The likelihood of each scenario is different for each nation, the U.S. will most likely evolve into scenario 2 or 3, while in the EU scenarios 1 or 4 are more likely. Determining the future for emerging nations is extremely complex and dependent on several factors like malnutrition rates, environmental safety and historical trading routes. Each scenario has a major impact on small producers worldwide which ultimately influences the health of rural communities. The analysis indicates that emerging nations are the most sensitive to the timing of decisions being made about the future of biotechnology. If biotechnology becomes a reality, new data will be required to assess the social and economic impact of this technology.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

MEMBERS' FINANCIAL EVALUATION AND COOPERATIVES' DECISION PROCESSES

The paper presents an analysis of cooperative investment decision based on the coalition theoretical framework (Staatz 1983, 1987, 1989). According to this framework, cooperatives can be considered as coalitions of groups with different interests. The behavior of any cooperative is determined by the interaction of its many groups (different types of farmers, managers, lenders, input suppliers, buyers, etc.) with different objectives. The group that can impose its will on the coalition will determine the cooperative's strategy. The other parties may accept this leadership, leave the cooperative or try to use their bargaining power to modify the final outcome. The paper discusses the impact of group bargaining on cooperatives' decision process. In particular, the paper addresses the issues related to the consequences of members' heterogeneity on cooperative efficiency. The proposed model utilizes tools from financial theory already successfully applied in the literature (Peterson 1992, Hendrikse 1998) providing a more detailed insight into the determinants of the cooperative decision process. The paper shows that cooperatives evaluate investments differently from IOFs due to the unique characteristics of their patrons compared to other types of investors.Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance,