5,563 research outputs found
Contribution of tonal components to the overall loudness, annoyance and noisiness of noise: Relation between single tones and noise spectral shape
A large scale laboratory investigation of loudness, annoyance, and noisiness produced by single-tone-noise complexes was undertaken to establish a broader data base for quanitification and prediction of perceived annoyance of sounds containing tonal components. Loudness, annoyance, and noisiness were distinguished as separate, distinct, attributes of sound. Three different spectral patterns of broadband noise with and without added tones were studied: broadband-flat, low-pass, and high-pass. Judgments were obtained by absolute magnitude estimation supplement by loudness matching. The data were examined and evaluated to determine the potential effects of (1) the overall sound pressure level (SPL) of the noise-tone complex, (2) tone SPL, (3) noise SPL, (4) tone-to-noise ratio, (5) the frequency of the added tone, (6) noise spectral shape, and (7) subjective attribute judged on absolute magnitude of annoyance. Results showed that, in contrast to noisiness, loudness and annoyance growth behavior depends on the relationship between the frequency of the added tone and the spectral shape of the noise. The close correspondence between the frequency of the added tone and the spectral shape of the noise. The close correspondence between loundness and annoyance suggests that, to better understand perceived annoyance of sound mixtures, it is necessary to relate the results to basic auditory mechanisms governing loudness and masking
Most \u3cem\u3eCaenorhabditis elegans\u3c/em\u3e MicroRNAs are Individually Not Essential for Development or Viability
MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a large class of short noncoding RNAs found in many plants and animals, often act to post-transcriptionally inhibit gene expression. We report the generation of deletion mutations in 87 miRNA genes in Caenorhabditis elegans, expanding the number of mutated miRNA genes to 95, or 83% of known C. elegans miRNAs. We find that the majority of miRNAs are not essential for the viability or development of C. elegans, and mutations in most miRNA genes do not result in grossly abnormal phenotypes. These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that there is significant functional redundancy among miRNAs or among gene pathways regulated by miRNAs. This study represents the first comprehensive genetic analysis of miRNA function in any organism and provides a unique, permanent resource for the systematic study of miRNAs
Atlas Data-Challenge 1 on NorduGrid
The first LHC application ever to be executed in a computational Grid
environment is the so-called ATLAS Data-Challenge 1, more specifically, the
part assigned to the Scandinavian members of the ATLAS Collaboration. Taking
advantage of the NorduGrid testbed and tools, physicists from Denmark, Norway
and Sweden were able to participate in the overall exercise starting in July
2002 and continuing through the rest of 2002 and the first part of 2003 using
solely the NorduGrid environment. This allowed to distribute input data over a
wide area, and rely on the NorduGrid resource discovery mechanism to find an
optimal cluster for job submission. During the whole Data-Challenge 1, more
than 2 TB of input data was processed and more than 2.5 TB of output data was
produced by more than 4750 Grid jobs.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy Physics and Nuclear
Physics (CHEP03), La Jolla, Ca, USA, March 2003, 7 pages, 3 ps figure
The Science of Open Spaces: Theory and Practice for Conserving Large, Complex Systems. Charles G. Curtin.
The phrase âopen spaces,â may bring to mind expansive tracts of prairie, rangeland, or even desert, stretching lonely and unchanged to the horizon. Open spaces also could conjure open oceans or interstitial rural lands between urbanized hubs, dotted with farms, fields, and woodlands. In an abstract sense, open spaces could represent gaps in human understanding or blank spaces on a map. In his book The Science of Open Spaces, landscape ecologist Charles Curtin combines all these perspectives, expanding the definition of âopen spacesâ to multi-layered and multi-scaled complex systems that are âgreater than the sum of their parts.â He populates these vastnesses with the diversity of species, hierarchy of biotic and abiotic interactions, and human social elements that comprise and link open spaces together as social-ecological systems. The Science of Open Spaces provides readers with a roadmap to 21st century land management, where the stakes are high, collaboration is crucial, and profound uncertainty in the face of the complexity often hampers decision-making
Shock-Induced Turbulent Boundary Layer Separation in Over-Expanded Rocket Nozzles: Physics, Models, Random Side Loads, and the Diffusive Character of Stochastic Rocket Ascent
Reframing the science and policy of nicotine, illegal drugs and alcohol - conclusions of the ALICE RAP Project.
In 2013, illegal drug use was responsible for 1.8% of years of life lost in the European Union, alcohol was responsible for 8.2% and tobacco for 18.2%, imposing economic burdens in excess of 2.5% of GDP. No single European country has optimal governance structures for reducing the harm done by nicotine, illegal drugs and alcohol, and existing ones are poorly designed, fragmented, and sometimes cause harm. Reporting the main science and policy conclusions of a transdisciplinary five-year analysis of the place of addictions in Europe, researchers from 67 scientific institutions addressed these problems by reframing an understanding of addictions. A new paradigm needs to account for evolutionary evidence which suggests that humans are biologically predisposed to seek out drugs, and that, today, individuals face availability of high drug doses, consequently increasing the risk of harm. New definitions need to acknowledge that the defining element of addictive drugs is 'heavy use over time', a concept that could replace the diagnostic artefact captured by the clinical term 'substance use disorder', thus opening the door for new substances to be considered such as sugar. Tools of quantitative risk assessment that recognize drugs as toxins could be further deployed to assess regulatory approaches to reducing harm. Re-designed governance of drugs requires embedding policy within a comprehensive societal well-being frame that encompasses a range of domains of well-being, including quality of life, material living conditions and sustainability over time; such a frame adds arguments to the inappropriateness of policies that criminalize individuals for using drugs and that continue to categorize certain drugs as illegal. A health footprint, modelled on the carbon footprint, and using quantitative measures such as years of life lost due to death or disability, could serve as the accountability tool that apportions responsibility for who and what causes drug-related harm
Correlated sampling in quantum Monte Carlo: a route to forces
In order to find the equilibrium geometries of molecules and solids and to
perform ab initio molecular dynamics, it is necessary to calculate the forces
on the nuclei. We present a correlated sampling method to efficiently calculate
numerical forces and potential energy surfaces in diffusion Monte Carlo. It
employs a novel coordinate transformation, earlier used in variational Monte
Carlo, to greatly reduce the statistical error. Results are presented for
first-row diatomic molecules.Comment: 5 pages, 2 postscript figure
Enhancement of the electronic contribution to the low temperature specific heat of Fe/Cr magnetic multilayer
We measured the low temperature specific heat of a sputtered
magnetic multilayer, as well as separate
thick Fe and Cr films. Magnetoresistance and magnetization
measurements on the multilayer demonstrated antiparallel coupling between the
Fe layers. Using microcalorimeters made in our group, we measured the specific
heat for and in magnetic fields up to for the multilayer. The
low temperature electronic specific heat coefficient of the multilayer in the
temperature range is . This is
significantly larger than that measured for the Fe or Cr films (5.4 and respectively). No magnetic field dependence of was
observed up to . These results can be explained by a softening of the
phonon modes observed in the same data and the presence of an Fe-Cr alloy phase
at the interfaces.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure
A scalable data taking system at a test beam for LHC
We propose the installation of a data taking system at a test beam for the simultaneous test of LHC detectors, trigger and readout electronics, together with the development of the supporting architecture in a multiprocessor environment. A strong emphasis is put on a highly modular design, such that new hardware and software developments can be conveniently introduced for training and evaluation. One of the main thrusts of the project will be the modelling and system integration of different readout architectures, which are meant to provide a valuable training ground for new techniques. To address these aspects in a realistic manner, we propose to collaborate with two detector R+D projects
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