2,045 research outputs found
Preaspirated /pp tt kk/ in standard Italian
This paper investigates preaspiration of geminate stops in Standard Italian /pp tt kk/. We first compare voiceless stops produced in isolated words according to speaker sex and then region (Northern, Central and Southern Italy). We find that the frequency and duration of preaspiration remain relatively stable across these sociophonetic categories. Given these patterns we suggest that the appearance of preaspirated stops is conditioned primarily by phonetic (consonant place, vowel type, lexical stress) rather than the sociophonetic factors under consideration
Thermoluminescence fading studies: Implications for long-duration space measurements in Low Earth Orbit
Within a 1.5 year comprehensive fading experiment several batches of
LiF:Mg,Ti and LiF:Mg,Cu,P thermoluminescence detectors (TLDs) were studied. The
TLDs originated from two manufacturers and were processed by three laboratories
using different annealing and readout conditions. The TLDs were irradiated with
two radiation modalities (gamma-rays and thermal neutrons) and were stored at
two temperatures (-17.4C and +18.5C). The goal of the experiment was to verify
the stability of TLDs in the context of their application in long-term
measurements in space. The results revealed that the response of all TLDs is
stable within 10% for the studied temperature range. No influence of the
radiation type was found. These results indicate that for the properly
oven-annealed LiF TLDs, fading is not a significant problem, even for measuring
periods longer than a year
Application of a Cumulative Method for Car Borders Specification in Image
The paper deals with low-level car detection methods in images. The car detection is an integral part of all intelligent car cruise systems. This article describes the method for suppression of the edges produced by classical edge\'s operators, based on application of the cumulative method. The designed method uses the non-stationary property of the picture background in time-realizations of the image signal
Sparse Estimators and the Oracle Property, or the Return of Hodges' Estimator
We point out some pitfalls related to the concept of an oracle property as
used in Fan and Li (2001, 2002, 2004) which are reminiscent of the well-known
pitfalls related to Hodges' estimator. The oracle property is often a
consequence of sparsity of an estimator. We show that any estimator satisfying
a sparsity property has maximal risk that converges to the supremum of the loss
function; in particular, the maximal risk diverges to infinity whenever the
loss function is unbounded. For ease of presentation the result is set in the
framework of a linear regression model, but generalizes far beyond that
setting. In a Monte Carlo study we also assess the extent of the problem in
finite samples for the smoothly clipped absolute deviation (SCAD) estimator
introduced in Fan and Li (2001). We find that this estimator can perform rather
poorly in finite samples and that its worst-case performance relative to
maximum likelihood deteriorates with increasing sample size when the estimator
is tuned to sparsity.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure
Effectiveness of 4 Pulpotomy Techniques—Randomized Controlled Trial
Pulpotomy is the accepted therapy for the management of cariously exposed pulps in symptom-free primary molars; however, evidence is lacking about the most appropriate technique. The aim of this study was to compare the relative effectiveness of the Er:YAG laser, calcium hydroxide, and ferric sulfate techniques with that of dilute formocresol in retaining such molars symptom-free. Two hundred primary molars in 107 healthy children were included and randomly allocated to one of the techniques. The treated teeth were blindly re-evaluated after 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. Descriptive data analysis and logistic regression analysis, accounting for each patient's effect by a generalized estimating equation (GEE), were used. After 24 months, the following total and clinical success rates were determined (%): formocresol 85 (96), laser 78 (93), calcium hydroxide 53 (87), and ferric sulfate 86 (100). Only calcium hydroxide performed significantly worse than formocresol (p = 0.001, odds ratio = 5.6, 95% confidence interval 2.0-15.5). In conclusion, calcium hydroxide is less appropriate for pulpotomies than is formocresol
Dependence and motivation to stop smoking as predictors of success of a quit attempt among smokers seeking help to quit.
INTRODUCTION: It is not known how well motivation to stop smoking predicts abstinence in a clinical sample relative to the most widely used measure of cigarette dependence. METHODS: A secondary analysis was conducted from a trial with 864 smokers making quit attempt. Fagerström Test of Cigarette Dependence (FTCD), Heaviness of Smoking Index (HSI), and motivation to stop smoking (composite of determination to quit and importance of quitting) were measured at baseline. Continuous smoking abstinence, validated by expired-air carbon monoxide, was assessed at 4weeks, 6months and 12months post-quit date. FTCD, HSI, non-HSI items in FTCD, and motivation were assessed as predictors of abstinence. RESULTS: In multiple-logistic regressions, controlling for age, gender and medication use, lower scores for FTCD, HSI and non-HSI all significantly predicted abstinence at all follow-ups, while motivation did not predict abstinence at any time. Likelihood ratio tests showed that the FTCD contributed most to the model at 4weeks and 6months; at 12months FTCD and non-HSI equally contributed most to the model. At 4weeks and 6months, predictions were improved by combining HSI and non-HSI components, compared with using these components alone. CONCLUSIONS: Cigarette dependence, measured by the FTCD, or by its HSI or non-HSI components, predicts both short-term and medium-term outcomes of attempts to stop smoking in treatment-seeking smokers involved in a clinical trial, whereas strength of motivation to stop predicts neither. Both the HSI and non-HSI components may be considered as briefer alternatives to the full FTCD
Performance of distributed mechanisms for flow admission in wireless adhoc networks
Given a wireless network where some pairs of communication links interfere
with each other, we study sufficient conditions for determining whether a given
set of minimum bandwidth quality-of-service (QoS) requirements can be
satisfied. We are especially interested in algorithms which have low
communication overhead and low processing complexity. The interference in the
network is modeled using a conflict graph whose vertices correspond to the
communication links in the network. Two links are adjacent in this graph if and
only if they interfere with each other due to being in the same vicinity and
hence cannot be simultaneously active. The problem of scheduling the
transmission of the various links is then essentially a fractional, weighted
vertex coloring problem, for which upper bounds on the fractional chromatic
number are sought using only localized information. We recall some distributed
algorithms for this problem, and then assess their worst-case performance. Our
results on this fundamental problem imply that for some well known classes of
networks and interference models, the performance of these distributed
algorithms is within a bounded factor away from that of an optimal, centralized
algorithm. The performance bounds are simple expressions in terms of graph
invariants. It is seen that the induced star number of a network plays an
important role in the design and performance of such networks.Comment: 21 pages, submitted. Journal version of arXiv:0906.378
Emergent Fungal Entomopathogen Does Not Alter Density Dependence in a Viral Competitor
Population cycles in forest Lepidoptera often result from recurring density-dependent epizootics of entomopathogens. While these systems are typically dominated by a single pathogen species, insects are often infected by multiple pathogens, yet little is known how pathogens interact to affect host dynamics. The apparent invasion of northeastern North America by the fungal entomopathogen Entomophaga maimaiga some time prior to 1989 provides a unique opportunity to evaluate such interactions. Prior to the arrival of E. maimaga, the oscillatory dynamics of host gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, populations were apparently driven by epizootics of a nucleopolyhedrovirus. Subsequent to its emergence, E. maimaiga has caused extensive mortality in host populations, but little is known about how it has altered multigenerational dynamics of the gypsy moth and its virus. Here we compared demographic data collected in gypsy moth populations prior to vs. after E. maimaiga\u27s invasion. We found that the recently invading fungal pathogen virtually always causes greater levels of mortality in hosts than does the virus, but fungal mortality is largely density independent. Moreover, the presence of the fungus has apparently not altered the gypsy moth–virus density-dependent interactions that were shown to drive periodic oscillations in hosts before the arrival of the fungus
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