NESynth Project

This project was designed to create a program that can interface with user input through a keyboard to produce sounds through the use of the MIDI protocol. The goal functionality was to have the unit be able to interface with a Nintendo Entertainment System to produce synthetic sounds along with sampled sounds through the MIDI protocol. However, this goal was not able to be achieved due to technical limitations. Due to this, the sound of the A203 chip was emulated through use of sampled instruments using MIDI. The goal of this project initially was to also include a USB keyboard hybrid built into hardware that would act as a controller. Due to technical limitations, this goal was also not met. In addition to the above, this project was done in part to fulfil the requirements for an Interdisciplinary Minor, which blends Computer Science with another field of study. This field for the project was Music. Through the study of the MIDI protocol and interfacing with the user, the project took the form it needed to and accomplished its goals during the course of study. In this paper, the limitations of each part that built the NESynth will be analyzed to show how understanding these limitations brought the solutions that make the project what it is, an exercise in limitations

NESynth Project

This project was designed to create a program that can interface with user input through a keyboard to produce sounds through the use of the MIDI protocol. The goal functionality was to have the unit be able to interface with a Nintendo Entertainment System to produce synthetic sounds along with sampled sounds through the MIDI protocol. However, this goal was not able to be achieved due to technical limitations. Due to this, the sound of the A203 chip was emulated through use of sampled instruments using MIDI. The goal of this project initially was to also include a USB keyboard hybrid built into hardware that would act as a controller. Due to technical limitations, this goal was also not met. In addition to the above, this project was done in part to fulfil the requirements for an Interdisciplinary Minor, which blends Computer Science with another field of study. This field for the project was Music. Through the study of the MIDI protocol and interfacing with the user, the project took the form it needed to and accomplished its goals during the course of study. In this paper, the limitations of each part that built the NESynth will be analyzed to show how understanding these limitations brought the solutions that make the project what it is, an exercise in limitations

Analytical coordinate time at first post-Newtonian order

In this letter, we exploit the Damour-Deruelle solution to derive the analytical expression of the coordinate time in terms of the polar angle. This formula has advantageous applications in both pulsar timing and gravitational-wave theory.Comment: 5 pages; 4 figures; letter accepted on Europhysics Letters (EPL); corrected some minor typo

Faint Sources in the EUVE Survey: Identification of White Dwarfs, Active Late‐Type Stars, and Galactic Nuclei

We report the classification of 21 new extreme-ultraviolet sources from the recent catalog of Lampton et al. The optical spectra presented identify the objects as 14 active late-type stars (including two double active stars and a possible T Tauri star), three white dwarfs, and six active galactic nuclei (a Seyfert galaxy, the BL Lac object 1ES 1028+511 [=EUVE J1031+508], and four quasi-stellar objects). We have detected Ca II absorption lines in the BL Lac object and measured its redshift. Two of the white dwarfs are unusually massive (M \u3e 1.1 M☉). Our sample of late-type stars includes five previously known high proper motion objects (EUVE J1004+503, J2244-332A,B, J1802+642, and J1131-346), of which one is the well-known flare star TX PsA (EUVE J2244-332B). We report an unusually high level of activity for the primary component of the TX PsA system (EUVE J2244-332A), which may indicate flare activity. The group of late-type stars is on average almost 3 mag fainter (m ≈ 13) than the typical member of the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) all-sky survey catalog. All Galactic and extragalactic objects were also detected in the ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter survey, and most are at the faint limit of the EUVE detectors. These new identifications substantially increase the total number of EUV-selected extragalactic sources

The Rat Medial Prefrontal Cortex Exhibits Flexible Neural Activity States during the Performance of an Odor Span Task

Medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activity is fundamental for working memory (WM), attention, and behavioral inhibition; however, a comprehensive understanding of the neural computations underlying these processes is still forthcoming. Toward this goal, neural recordings were obtained from the mPFC of awake, behaving rats performing an odor span task of WM capacity. Neural populations were observed to encode distinct task epochs and the transitions between epochs were accompanied by abrupt shifts in neural activity patterns. Putative pyramidal neuron activity increased earlier in the delay for sessions where rats achieved higher spans. Furthermore, increased putative interneuron activity was only observed at the termination of the delay thus indicating that local processing in inhibitory networks was a unique feature to initiate foraging. During foraging, changes in neural activity patterns associated with the approach to a novel odor, but not familiar odors, were robust. Collectively, these data suggest that distinct mPFC activity states underlie the delay, foraging, and reward epochs of the odor span task. Transitions between these states likely enables adaptive behavior in dynamic environments that place strong demands on the substrates of working memory

The Century Survey: A Deeper Slice of the Universe

The ``Century Survey'' (CS hereafter) is a complete redshift survey of a 1$^\circ$-wide strip. It covers 0.03 steradians to a limiting m$_R$ = 16.13. The survey is 98.4% complete and contains 1762 galaxies. Large-scale features in the survey are qualitatively similar to those in other surveys: there are large voids surrounded or nearly surrounded by thin dense regions which are sections of structures like (and including) the Great Wall. The survey crosses the classical Corona Borealis supercluster. The galaxy density enhancement associated with this system extends for \simgreat 100 h^{-1} Mpc (the Hubble constant is H$_0 = 100h$ km s$^{-1}$Mpc$^{-1}$). The Schechter (1976) luminosity function parameters for the CS are: $M^*_{CS} = -20.73 ^{+0.17}_{-0.18}$, $\alpha_{CS} = -1.17 ^{+0.19}_{-0.19}$, and $\phi^*_{CS} = 0.0250\pm0.0061$ Mpc$^{-3}$mag$^{-1}$. In concert with the ESO Key Program (\cite{vet97}; \cite{zuc97}) and the AUTOFIB (\cite{ell96}) surveys, the CS indicates that the absolute normalization of the luminosity function exceeds estimates based on shallower and/or sparser surveys.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, 1 plate. The plate is substituted by a color lineplot in the preprint. AASTeX. To appear in tje December 1997 Astronomical Journa

Performance Analysis of Constrained Loosely Coupled GPS/INS Integration Solutions

The paper investigates approaches for loosely coupled GPS/INS integration. Error performance is calculated using a reference trajectory. A performance improvement can be obtained by exploiting additional map information (for example, a road boundary). A constrained solution has been developed and its performance compared with an unconstrained one. The case of GPS outages is also investigated showing how a Kalman filter that operates on the last received GPS position and velocity measurements provides a performance benefit. Results are obtained by means of simulation studies and real dat