Universal accessible closed captioning and sign language

Visual performances often include audio portions, including spoken words. The verbal content can be difficult to hear or otherwise understand for individuals that have hearing impairments or are not fluent in the language of the verbal content. This disclosure provides a solutions to make verbal content of visual performances accessible to audience members. The described assistive techniques utilize a smartphone to present to audience members, closed captions or American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters of the verbal content portion, simultaneously as the audience members view the performance. The translation can be presented as an overlay with a view of the performance (AR), as an overlay on a projected image of the performance, (VR), or on a display screen of the smartphone (side-channel)

Voicemail Information Encoding for Better Call Direction

The present disclosure describes computer-implemented systems and methods for encoding information to outbound voicemail prompts with a computer-readable signature allowing for more efficient voicemail usage and enhanced voicemail privacy. In one embodiment, a computer readable signature is provided at the beginning of an outbound voicemail prompt to signify to a calling computing system it has reached the voicemail, and a computer readable signature is provided at the end of the outbound voicemail prompt to signify to the calling computing system that the outbound voicemail prompt has ended and the voicemail is recording

Higher and Lower Order Factor Analyses of the Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire.

The Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire (TMCQ) is a widely used parent-report measure of temperament. However, neither its lower nor higher order structures has been tested via a bottom-up, empirically based approach. We conducted higher and lower order exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) of the TMCQ in a large ( N = 654) sample of 9-year-olds. Item-level EFAs identified 92 items as suitable (i.e., with loadings ≥.40) for constructing lower order factors, only half of which resembled a TMCQ scale posited by the measure\u27s authors. Higher order EFAs of the lower order factors showed that a three-factor structure (Impulsivity/Negative Affectivity, Negative Affectivity, and Openness/Assertiveness) was the only admissible solution. Overall, many TMCQ items did not load well onto a lower order factor. In addition, only three factors, which did not show a clear resemblance to Rothbart\u27s four-factor model of temperament in middle childhood, were needed to account for the higher order structure of the TMCQ

Cold War spy satellite images reveal long-term declines of a philopatric keystone species in response to cropland expansion

Agricultural expansion drives biodiversity loss globally, but impact assessments are biased towards recent time periods. This can lead to a gross underestimation of species declines in response to habitat loss, especially when species declines are gradual and occur over long time periods. Using Cold War spy satellite images (Corona), we show that a grassland keystone species, the bobak marmot (Marmota bobak), continues to respond to agricultural expansion that happened more than 50 years ago. Although burrow densities of the bobak marmot today are highest in croplands, densities declined most strongly in areas that were persistently used as croplands since the 1960s. This response to historical agricultural conversion spans roughly eight marmot generations and suggests the longest recorded response of a mammal species to agricultural expansion. We also found evidence for remarkable philopatry: nearly half of all burrows retained their exact location since the 1960s, and this was most pronounced in grasslands. Our results stress the need for farsighted decisions, because contemporary land management will affect biodiversity decades into the future. Finally, our work pioneers the use of Corona historical Cold War spy satellite imagery for ecology. This vastly underused global remote sensing resource provides a unique opportunity to expand the time horizon of broad-scale ecological studies

Measurement of the dynamical dipolar coupling in a pair of magnetic nano-disks using a Ferromagnetic Resonance Force Microscope

International audienceWe perform an extensive experimental spectroscopic study of the collective spin-wave dynamics occurring in a pair of magnetic nano-disks coupled by the magneto-dipolar interaction. For this, we take advantage of the stray field gradient produced by the magnetic tip of a ferromagnetic resonance force microscope (f-MRFM) to continuously tune and detune the relative resonance frequencies between two adjacent nano-objects. This reveals the anti-crossing and hybridization of the spin-wave modes in the pair of disks. At the exact tuning, the measured frequency splitting between the binding and anti-binding modes precisely corresponds to the strength of the dynamical dipolar coupling $\Omega$. This accurate f-MRFM determination of $\Omega$ is measured as a function of the separation between the nano-disks. It agrees quantitatively with calculations of the expected dynamical magneto-dipolar interaction in our sample

The final stages of slip and volcanism on an oceanic detachment fault at 13°48′N, Mid‐Atlantic Ridge

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2018. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 19 (2018): 3115-3127, doi:10.1029/2018GC007536.While processes associated with initiation and maintenance of oceanic detachment faults are becoming better constrained, much less is known about the tectonic and magmatic conditions that lead to fault abandonment. Here we present results from near‐bottom investigations using the submersible Alvin and autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry at a recently extinct detachment fault near 13°48′N, Mid‐Atlantic Ridge, that allow documentation of the final stages of fault activity and magmatism. Seafloor imagery, sampling, and near‐bottom magnetic data show that the detachment footwall is intersected by an ~850 m‐wide volcanic outcrop including pillow lavas. Saturation pressures in these vesicular basalts, based on dissolved H2O and CO2, are less than their collection pressures, which could be explained by eruption at a shallower level than their present depth. Sub‐bottom profiles reveal that sediment thickness, a loose proxy for seafloor age, is ~2 m greater on top of the volcanic terrain than on the footwall adjacent to the hanging‐wall cutoff. This difference could be explained by current‐driven erosion in the axial valley or by continued slip after volcanic emplacement, on either a newly formed or pre‐existing fault. Since current speeds near the footwall are unlikely to be sufficient to cause significant erosion, we favor the hypothesis that detachment slip continued after the episode of magmatism, consistent with growing evidence that oceanic detachments can continue to slip despite hosting magmatic intrusions.National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant Numbers: OCE‐1259218, OCE‐1260578, OCE‐17365472019-03-1

Most Plastic Products Release Estrogenic Chemicals: A Potential Health Problem That Can Be Solved

Background: Chemicals having estrogenic activity (EA) reportedly cause many adverse health effects, especially at low (picomolar to nanomolar) doses in fetal and juvenile mammals

Lava geochemistry as a probe into crustal formation at the East Pacific Rise

Author Posting. © The Oceanography Society, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of The Oceanography Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Oceanography 25, no. 1 (2012): 89–93, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2012.06.Basalt lavas comprise the greatest volume of volcanic rocks on Earth, and most of them erupt along the world's mid-ocean ridges (MORs). These MOR basalts (MORBs) are generally thought to be relatively homogeneous in composition over large segments of the global ridge system (e.g., Klein, 2005). However, detailed sampling of two different regions on the northern East Pacific Rise (EPR) and extensive analysis of the samples show that fine-scale mapping and sampling of the ridge axis can reveal significant variations in lava chemistry on both small spatial and short temporal scales. The two most intensely sampled sites within the EPR Integrated Study Site (ISS) lie on and off axis between 9°17'N and 10°N, and from a wide region centered around 9°N where two segments of the EPR overlap (see Fornari et al., 2012, Figure 3, in this issue). The chemical composition of erupted lavas, similar to the genotype of an organism, can be used by igneous petrologists to trace the evolution of magmas from the mantle to the seafloor. The extensive and detailed geochemical studies at the EPR highlight how a thorough understanding of the variability in lava compositions on small spatial scales (i.e., between lava flows) and large spatial scales (i.e., from segment center to segment end and including discontinuities in the ridge crest) can be used in combination with seafloor photography, lava morphology, and bathymetry to provide insights into the magmatic system that drives volcanism and influences hydrothermal chemistry and biology at a fast-spreading MOR.Grants that supported EPR ISS field and laboratory studies for our research programs include: MRP: OCE-0138088, OCE-0819469, OCE-825265, OCE-638406, OCE-527077, OCE-535532; DJF: OCE-9819261, OCE-0525863, OCE-0838923, OCE-0096468, OCE-0732366, and OCE-0112737

Quantum chaos, random matrix theory, and statistical mechanics in two dimensions - a unified approach

We present a theory where the statistical mechanics for dilute ideal gases can be derived from random matrix approach. We show the connection of this approach with Srednicki approach which connects Berry conjecture with statistical mechanics. We further establish a link between Berry conjecture and random matrix theory, thus providing a unified edifice for quantum chaos, random matrix theory, and statistical mechanics. In the course of arguing for these connections, we observe sum rules associated with the outstanding counting problem in the theory of braid groups. We are able to show that the presented approach leads to the second law of thermodynamics.Comment: 23 pages, TeX typ