6,157 research outputs found
Acoustic cues to tonal contrasts in Mandarin: Implications for cochlear implants
The present study systematically manipulated three acoustic cues-fundamental frequency (f0), amplitude envelope, and duration-to investigate their contributions to tonal contrasts in Mandarin. Simplified stimuli with all possible combinations of these three cues were presented for identification to eight normal-hearing listeners, all native speakers of Mandarin from Taiwan. The f0 information was conveyed either by an f0-controlled sawtooth carrier or a modulated noise so as to compare the performance achievable by a clear indication of voice f0 and what is possible with purely temporal coding of f0. Tone recognition performance with explicit f0 was much better than that with any combination of other acoustic cues (consistently greater than 90% correct compared to 33%-65%; chance is 25%). In the absence of explicit f0, the temporal coding of f0 and amplitude envelope both contributed somewhat to tone recognition, while duration had only a marginal effect. Performance based on these secondary cues varied greatly across listeners. These results explain the relatively poor perception of tone in cochlear implant users, given that cochlear implants currently provide only weak cues to f0, so that users must rely upon the purely temporal (and secondary) features for the perception of tone. (c) 2008 Acoustical Society of America
Evaluating critical rainfall conditions for large-scale landslides by detecting event times from seismic records
One purpose of landslide research is to establish early
warning thresholds for rainfall-induced landslides. Insufficient observations
of past events have inhibited the analysis of critical rainfall conditions
triggering landslides. This difficulty may be resolved by extracting the
timing of landslide occurrences through analysis of seismic signals. In this
study, seismic records of the Broadband Array in Taiwan for Seismology were
examined to identify ground motion triggered by large landslides that
occurred in the years 2005 to 2014. A total of 62 landslide-induced seismic
signals were identified. The seismic signals were analyzed to determine the
timing of landslide occurrences, and the rainfall conditions at those times
– including rainfall intensity (I), duration (D), and effective rainfall
(Rt) – were assessed. Three common rainfall threshold models (I–D,
I–Rt, and Rt–D) were compared, and the crucial factors of a
forecast warning model were found to be duration and effective rainfall. In
addition, rainfall information related to the 62 landslides was analyzed to
establish a critical height of water model, (I − 1.5) ⋅ D = 430.2. The
critical height of water model was applied to data from Typhoon Soudelor of
2015, and the model issued a large landslide warning for southern Taiwan.</p
CMB polarimetry with BICEP: instrument characterization, calibration, and performance
BICEP is a ground-based millimeter-wave bolometric array designed to target
the primordial gravity wave signature on the polarization of the cosmic
microwave background (CMB) at degree angular scales. Currently in its third
year of operation at the South Pole, BICEP is measuring the CMB polarization
with unprecedented sensitivity at 100 and 150 GHz in the cleanest available 2%
of the sky, as well as deriving independent constraints on the diffuse
polarized foregrounds with select observations on and off the Galactic plane.
Instrument calibrations are discussed in the context of rigorous control of
systematic errors, and the performance during the first two years of the
experiment is reviewed.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures, updated version of a paper accepted for
Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy IV,
Proceedings of SPIE, 7020, 200
Absolute polarization angle calibration using polarized diffuse Galactic emission observed by BICEP
We present a method of cross-calibrating the polarization angle of a
polarimeter using BICEP Galactic observations. \bicep\ was a ground based
experiment using an array of 49 pairs of polarization sensitive bolometers
observing from the geographic South Pole at 100 and 150 GHz. The BICEP
polarimeter is calibrated to +/-0.01 in cross-polarization and less than +/-0.7
degrees in absolute polarization orientation. BICEP observed the temperature
and polarization of the Galactic plane (R.A= 100 degrees ~ 270 degrees and Dec.
= -67 degrees ~ -48 degrees). We show that the statistical error in the 100 GHz
BICEP Galaxy map can constrain the polarization angle offset of WMAP Wband to
0.6 degrees +\- 1.4 degrees. The expected 1 sigma errors on the polarization
angle cross-calibration for Planck or EPIC are 1.3 degrees and 0.3 degrees at
100 and 150 GHz, respectively. We also discuss the expected improvement of the
BICEP Galactic field observations with forthcoming BICEP2 and Keck
observations.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures and 2 tables. To appear in Proceedings of SPIE
Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 201
CMB-S4 Science Book, First Edition
This book lays out the scientific goals to be addressed by the
next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background experiment, CMB-S4,
envisioned to consist of dedicated telescopes at the South Pole, the high
Chilean Atacama plateau and possibly a northern hemisphere site, all equipped
with new superconducting cameras. CMB-S4 will dramatically advance cosmological
studies by crossing critical thresholds in the search for the B-mode
polarization signature of primordial gravitational waves, in the determination
of the number and masses of the neutrinos, in the search for evidence of new
light relics, in constraining the nature of dark energy, and in testing general
relativity on large scales
Recommended from our members
Characterization of the BICEP Telescope for High-precision Cosmic Microwave Background Polarimetry
The Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP) experiment was designed specifically to search for the signature of inflationary gravitational waves in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Using a novel small-aperture refractor and 49 pairs of polarization-sensitive bolometers, BICEP has completed three years of successful observations at the South Pole beginning in 2006 February. To constrain the amplitude of the inflationary B-mode polarization, which is expected to be at least 7 orders of magnitude fainter than the 3 K CMB intensity, precise control of systematic effects is essential. This paper describes the characterization of potential systematic errors for the BICEP experiment, supplementing a companion paper on the initial cosmological results. Using the analysis pipelines for the experiment, we have simulated the impact of systematic errors on the B-mode polarization measurement. Guided by these simulations, we have established benchmarks for the characterization of critical instrumental properties including bolometer relative gains, beam mismatch, polarization orientation, telescope pointing, sidelobes, thermal stability, and timestream noise model. A comparison of the benchmarks with the measured values shows that we have characterized the instrument adequately to ensure that systematic errors do not limit BICEP's two-year results, and identifies which future refinements are likely necessary to probe inflationary B-mode polarization down to levels below a tensor-to-scalar ratio r = 0.1.Astronom
SEPTIN12 Genetic Variants Confer Susceptibility to Teratozoospermia
It is estimated that 10–15% of couples are infertile and male factors account for about half of these cases. With the advent of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), many infertile men have been able to father offspring. However, teratozoospermia still remains a big challenge to tackle. Septins belong to a family of cytoskeletal proteins with GTPase activity and are involved in various biological processes e.g. morphogenesis, compartmentalization, apoptosis and cytokinesis. SEPTIN12, identified by c-DNA microarray analysis of infertile men, is exclusively expressed in the post meiotic male germ cells. Septin12+/+/Septin12+/− chimeric mice have multiple reproductive defects including the presence of immature sperm in the semen, and sperm with bent neck (defect of the annulus) and nuclear DNA damage. These facts make SEPTIN12 a potential sterile gene in humans. In this study, we sequenced the entire coding region of SEPTIN12 in infertile men (n = 160) and fertile controls (n = 200) and identified ten variants. Among them is the c.474 G>A variant within exon 5 that encodes part of the GTP binding domain. The variant creates a novel splice donor site that causes skipping of a portion of exon 5, resulting in a truncated protein lacking the C-terminal half of SEPTIN12. Most individuals homozygous for the c.474 A allele had teratozoospermia (abnormal sperm <14%) and their sperm showed bent tail and de-condensed nucleus with significant DNA damage. Ex vivo experiment showed truncated SEPT12 inhibits filament formation in a dose-dependent manner. This study provides the first causal link between SEPTIN12 genetic variant and male infertility with distinctive sperm pathology. Our finding also suggests vital roles of SEPT12 in sperm nuclear integrity and tail development
Measurement of the branching fractions for B- --> D(*)+ pi- l- nu-bar and B0bar --> D(*)0 pi+ l- nu-bar
We report on a measurement of the branching fractions for B- --> D(*)+ pi- l-
nu-bar and B0bar --> D(*)0 pi+ l- nu-bar with 275 million BBbar events
collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at KEKB. Events
are tagged by fully reconstructing one of the B mesons in hadronic modes. We
obtain Br(B- --> D+ pi- l- nu-bar) = (0.54 +/- 0.07(stat) +/- 0.07(syst) +/-
0.06(BR)) x 10^-2, Br(B- --> D*+ pi- l- nu-bar) = (0.67 +/- 0.11(stat) +/-
0.09(syst) +/- 0.03(BR)) x 10^-2, Br(B0bar --> D0 pi+ l- nu-bar) = (0.33 +/-
0.06(stat) +/- 0.06(syst) +/- 0.03(BR)) x 10^-2, Br(B0bar --> D*0 pi+ l-
nu-bar) = (0.65 +/- 0.12(stat) +/- 0.08(syst) +/- 0.05(BR)) x 10^-2, where the
third error comes from the error on Bbar --> D(*) l- nu-bar decays.
Contributions from B0bar --> D*+ l- nu-bar decays are excluded in the
measurement of B0bar --> D0 pi+ l- nu-bar.Comment: 6 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Physical Review D (Rapid
Communication), the Lepton-Photon 2005 Conference (Uppsala, Sweden) and the
HEP2005 Europhysics Conference (Lisboa, Portugal
Berberine modulates expression of mdr1 gene product and the responses of digestive track cancer cells to Paclitaxel
Berberine is the major constituent of Coptis chinese and is commonly used in Chinese herbal medicine to treat patients with gastrointestinal disorders. In this study, using flow cytometry, we have found that a 24-h berberine treatment up-regulated the multidrug-resistant transporter (pgp-170) expression in two oral (KB, OC2), two gastric (SC-M1, NUGC-3) and two colon (COLO 205, CT 26) cancer cell lines. Decreased retention of rhodamine 123 was observed in berberine-treated cells as compared to vehicle control. To examine whether the berberine modulated pgp-170 expression in cancer cells is associated with changes in drug resistance, we determined the cytotoxicity, cell cycle progression and cell morphology of Paclitaxel-treated cells. Paclitaxel (1 nM–10 μM) treatment for 24 h induced cytotoxicity in OC2, SC-M1 and COLO 205 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Pretreatment of cells with 32 μM berberine for 24 h prior to Paclitaxel treatment resulted in increased viability as compared to that of Paclitaxel-treated cells. In addition, Paclitaxel-induced apoptosis and/or G2/M arrest in these three cancer cell lines. Pretreatment of cells with berberine prior to Paclitaxel blocked the Paclitaxel-induced cell cycle responses and morphological changes. These results together suggest that berberine modulated the expression and function of pgp-170 that leads to reduced response to Paclitaxel in digestive track cancer cells. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig
Determination of |V_ub| from Measurements of the Inclusive Charmless Semileptonic Partial Rates of B Mesons using Full Reconstruction Tags
We present a measurement of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element
|V_ub|, based on 253 fb^-1 of data collected by the Belle detector at the KEKB
e^+e^- asymmetric collider. Events are tagged by fully reconstructing one of
the B mesons, produced in pairs from Upsilon(4S). The signal for b->u
semileptonic decay is distinguished from the b->c background using the hadronic
mass M_X, the leptonic invariant mass squared q^2 and the variable P_+ =
E_X-|\vec{p}_X|. The results are obtained for events with the prompt-lepton
momentum, p_l^* >= 1GeV/c, in three kinematic regions (1) M_X < 1.7 Gev/c^2,
(2) M_X 8 GeV^2/c^2, and by (3) P_+ < 0.66
GeV/c, allowing for a comparison of the three methods. The matrix element
|V_ub| is found to be (4.09+-0.19+-0.20(+0.14-0.15)+-0.18), where the errors
are statistical, systematic including Monte Carlo modeling, theoretical, and
from shape function parameter determination, respectively.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables. Version as it appears in PRL. Changes
from v1: |V_ub| recalculated using mb(SF)=4.60+-0.04 and
mu_pi^2(SF)=0.20+-0.04. Title and text changed to reflect the calculation of
partial rate instead of partial Br. Fig. 3 changed. Explicit dependence of
the result on mb(SF) is give
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