Low power, compact charge coupled device signal processing system

A variety of charged coupled devices (CCDs) for performing programmable correlation for preprocessing environmental sensor data preparatory to its transmission to the ground were developed. A total of two separate ICs were developed and a third was evaluated. The first IC was a CCD chirp z transform IC capable of performing a 32 point DFT at frequencies to 1 MHz. All on chip circuitry operated as designed with the exception of the limited dynamic range caused by a fixed pattern noise due to interactions between the digital and analog circuits. The second IC developed was a 64 stage CCD analog/analog correlator for performing time domain correlation. Multiplier errors were found to be less than 1 percent at designed signal levels and less than 0.3 percent at the measured smaller levels. A prototype IC for performing time domain correlation was also evaluated

Gap Detection in School-Age Children and Adults: Center Frequency and Ramp Duration

The age at which gap detection becomes adultlike differs, depending on the stimulus characteristics. The present study evaluated whether the developmental trajectory differs as a function of stimulus frequency region or duration of the onset and offset ramps bounding the gap

Cochlear hearing loss and the detection of sinusoidal versus random amplitude modulation

This study assessed the effect of cochlear hearing loss on detection of random and sinusoidal amplitude modulation. Listeners with hearing loss and normal-hearing listeners (eight per group) generated temporal modulation transfer functions (TMTFs) for envelope fluctuations carried by a 2000-Hz pure tone. TMTFs for the two groups were similar at low modulation rates but diverged at higher rates presumably because of differences in frequency selectivity. For both groups, detection of random modulation was poorer than for sinusoidal modulation at lower rates but the reverse occurred at higher rates. No evidence was found that cochlear hearing loss, per se, affects modulation detection

Division of labour and the evolution of multicellularity

Understanding the emergence and evolution of multicellularity and cellular differentiation is a core problem in biology. We develop a quantitative model that shows that a multicellular form emerges from genetically identical unicellular ancestors when the compartmentalization of poorly compatible physiological processes into component cells of an aggregate produces a fitness advantage. This division of labour between the cells in the aggregate occurs spontaneously at the regulatory level due to mechanisms present in unicellular ancestors and does not require any genetic pre-disposition for a particular role in the aggregate or any orchestrated cooperative behaviour of aggregate cells. Mathematically, aggregation implies an increase in the dimensionality of phenotype space that generates a fitness landscape with new fitness maxima, and in which the unicellular states of optimized metabolism become fitness saddle points. Evolution of multicellularity is modeled as evolution of a hereditary parameter, the propensity of cells to stick together, which determines the fraction of time a cell spends in the aggregate form. Stickiness can increase evolutionarily due to the fitness advantage generated by the division of labour between cells in an aggregate.Comment: 28 pages, 2 figure

Effects of Self-Generated Noise on Estimates of Detection Threshold in Quiet for School-Age Children and Adults

Detection thresholds in quiet become adult-like earlier in childhood for high than low frequencies. When adults listen for sounds near threshold, they tend to engage in behaviors that reduce physiologic noise (e.g., quiet breathing), which is predominantly low frequency. Children may not suppress self-generated noise to the same extent as adults, such that low-frequency self-generated noise elevates thresholds in the associated frequency regions. This possibility was evaluated by measuring noise levels in the ear canal simultaneous with adaptive threshold estimation

Emissões de gases de efeito estufa em área de produção de arroz em função do manejo do solo e da cobertura vegetal.

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Genetic Background and Allorecognition Phenotype in Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus

The Hydractinia allorecognition complex (ARC) was initially identified as a single chromosomal interval using inbred and congenic lines. The production of defined lines necessarily homogenizes genetic background and thus may be expected to obscure the effects of unlinked allorecognition loci should they exist. Here, we report the results of crosses in which inbred lines were out-crossed to wild-type animals in an attempt to identify dominant, codominant, or incompletely dominant modifiers of allorecognition. A claim for the existence of modifiers unlinked to ARC was rejected for three different genetic backgrounds. Estimates of the genetic map distance of ARC in two wild-type haplotypes differed markedly from one another and from that measured in congenic lines. These results suggest that additional allodeterminants exist in the Hydractinia ARC