What drives sound symbolism? Different acoustic cues underlie sound-size and sound-shape mappings

Sound symbolism refers to the non-arbitrary mappings that exist between phonetic properties of speech sounds and their meaning. Despite there being an extensive literature on the topic, the acoustic features and psychological mechanisms that give rise to sound symbolism are not, as yet, altogether clear. The present study was designed to investigate whether different sets of acoustic cues predict size and shape symbolism, respectively. In two experiments, participants judged whether a given consonant-vowel speech sound was large or small, round or angular, using a size or shape scale. Visual size judgments were predicted by vowel formant F1 in combination with F2, and by vowel duration. Visual shape judgments were, however, predicted by formants F2 and F3. Size and shape symbolism were thus not induced by a common mechanism, but rather were distinctly affected by acoustic properties of speech sounds. These findings portray sound symbolism as a process that is not based merely on broad categorical contrasts, such as round/unround and front/back vowels. Rather, individuals seem to base their sound-symbolic judgments on specific sets of acoustic cues, extracted from speech sounds, which vary across judgment dimensions

Communicating cosmology with multisensory metaphorical experiences

We present a novel approach to communicating abstract concepts in cosmology and astrophysics in a more accessible and inclusive manner. We describe an exhibit aiming at creating an immersive, multisensory metaphorical experience of an otherwise imperceptible physical phenomenon-dark matter. Human-Computer Interaction experts and physicists co-created a multisensory journey through dark matter by exploiting the latest advances in haptic and olfactory technology. We present the concept design of a pilot and a second, improved event, both held at the London Science Museum, including the practical setup of the multisensory dark matter experience, the delivery of sensory stimulation and preliminary insights from users' feedback

A new experimental snow avalanche test site at Seehore peak in Aosta Valley (NW Italian Alps) - Part II: Engineering aspects

The estimate of the effects produced by the impact of a snow avalanche against an obstacle is of the utmost importance in designing safe mountain constructions. For this purpose, an ad-hoc instrumented obstacle was designed and built in order to measure impact forces of small and medium snow avalanches at Seehore peak (NW Italian Alps). The structural design had to consider several specific and unusual demands dictated by the difficult environment. In this article, the new test facility is described from the engineering point of view, discussing the most important aspects of the analyzed problems which were solved before and after the construction. The performance of the instrumented obstacle in the first two operating seasons, and some proposals for future upgrading are eventually illustrate

Associação de silicato de potássio a diferentes fungicidas no controle mancha alvo na cultura da soja.

MAYER, M. C.: grafia correta MEYER, M. C

Smell, Taste, and Temperature Interfaces

Everyday life hinges on smell, taste, and temperature-based experiences, from eating to detecting potential hazards (e.g., smell of rotten food, microbial threats, and non-microbial threats such as from hazardous gases) to responding to thermal behavioral changes. These experiences are formative as visceral, vital signals of information, and contribute directly to our safety, well-being, and enjoyment. Despite this, contemporary technology mostly stimulates vision, audition, and - more recently - touch, unfortunately leaving out the senses of smell taste and temperature. In the last decade, smell, taste, and temperature interfaces have gained a renewed attention in the field of Human Computer Interaction, fueled by the growth of virtual reality and wearable devices. As these modalities are further explored, it is imperative to discuss underlying cultural contexts of these experiences, how researchers can robustly stimulate and sense these modalities, and in what contexts such multisensory technologies are meaningful. This workshop addresses these topics and seeks to provoke critical discussions around chemo- and thermo-sensory HCI

Vortex length, vortex energy and fractal dimension of superfluid turbulence at very low temperature

By assuming a self-similar structure for Kelvin waves along vortex loops with successive smaller scale features, we model the fractal dimension of a superfluid vortex tangle in the zero temperature limit. Our model assumes that at each step the total energy of the vortices is conserved, but the total length can change. We obtain a relation between the fractal dimension and the exponent describing how the vortex energy per unit length changes with the length scale. This relation does not depend on the specific model, and shows that if smaller length scales make a decreasing relative contribution to the energy per unit length of vortex lines, the fractal dimension will be higher than unity. Finally, for the sake of more concrete illustration, we relate the fractal dimension of the tangle to the scaling exponents of amplitude and wavelength of a cascade of Kelvin waves.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figur

Deep Burst Denoising

Noise is an inherent issue of low-light image capture, one which is exacerbated on mobile devices due to their narrow apertures and small sensors. One strategy for mitigating noise in a low-light situation is to increase the shutter time of the camera, thus allowing each photosite to integrate more light and decrease noise variance. However, there are two downsides of long exposures: (a) bright regions can exceed the sensor range, and (b) camera and scene motion will result in blurred images. Another way of gathering more light is to capture multiple short (thus noisy) frames in a "burst" and intelligently integrate the content, thus avoiding the above downsides. In this paper, we use the burst-capture strategy and implement the intelligent integration via a recurrent fully convolutional deep neural net (CNN). We build our novel, multiframe architecture to be a simple addition to any single frame denoising model, and design to handle an arbitrary number of noisy input frames. We show that it achieves state of the art denoising results on our burst dataset, improving on the best published multi-frame techniques, such as VBM4D and FlexISP. Finally, we explore other applications of image enhancement by integrating content from multiple frames and demonstrate that our DNN architecture generalizes well to image super-resolution

Light-Triggered Trafficking to the Cell Nucleus of a Cationic Polyamidoamine Functionalized with Ruthenium Complexes

Strategies for endosomal escape and access to the cell nucleus are highly sought for nanocarriers to deliver their load efficiently following endocytosis. In this work, we have studied the uptake and intracellular trafficking of a polycationic polyamidoamine endowed with a luminescent Ru complex, Ru-PhenAN, that shows unique trafficking to the cell nucleus. Live cell imaging confirmed the capacity of this polymer to access the nucleus, excluding artefacts due to cell fixation, and clarified that the mechanism of escape is light-triggered and relies on the presence of the Ru complexes and their capacity to absorb light and act as photosensitizers for singlet oxygen production. These results open up the possibility to use polyamidoamineruthenium complexes for targeted light-triggered delivery of genetic material or drugs to the cytosol and nucleus

Serum proteomic test in advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer treated in first line with standard chemotherapy

Background:VeriStrat is a blood-based proteomic test with predictive and prognostic significance in second-line treatments for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This trial was designed to investigate the role of VeriStrat in first-line treatment of advanced NSCLC with standard chemotherapy. Here we present the results for 76 non-squamous patients treated with a combination of carboplatin or cisplatin with pemetrexed.Methods:The test-assigned classifications of VeriStrat Good or VeriStrat Poor to samples collected at baseline. The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS); secondary end points included overall survival (OS) and objective response. Exploratory analyses of end points separately in carboplatin/pemetrexed and cisplatin/pemetrexed subgroups were also conducted.Results:Patients classified as VeriStrat Good had longer PFS and OS than VeriStrat Poor: 6.5 vs 1.6 months and 10.8 vs 3.4 months, respectively; the corresponding hazard ratios (HRs) were 0.36 (P<0.0001) and 0.26 (P<0.0001); they were also more likely to achieve objective response. Prognostic significance of VeriStrat was confirmed in multivariate analysis. Significant differences in OS and PFS between Veristrat classifications were also found when treatment subgroups were analysed separately.Conclusions:The trial demonstrated clinical utility of VeriStrat as a prognostic test for standard first-line chemotherapy of non-squamous advanced NSCLC

Analysis of prion protein gene (prnp) polymorphisms in healthy Morada Nova sheep reveals the presence of genotypes susceptible to scrapie.

Prion diseases, such as sheep scrapie, are usually associated with certain genotypes of prion protein gene (PRNP). Polymorphisms at codons 136, 154 and 171 of ovine PRNP open reading frame (ORF) are believed to confer either resistance or susceptibility to scrapie. In this study 72 healthy sheep from two different flocks, representing two meat type color variants from hair breed Morada Nova, from the State of Ceará, Brazil, were analyzed. PRNP ORF sequences were investigated for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) detection, followed by genotype analysis of codons 136, 154 and 171. Well known polymorphisms at codons 136 (coding for A/V) and 171 (coding for Q/R) were identified among the subjects, while at codon 154 only codon R has been observed. PRNP genotypes observed among Morada Nova subjects were ARQ/ ARQ (34.75%), ARQ/ARR (30.49%), ARR/ARR (31.92%) and the rare VRR/VRR (2.78%). We suggest here that the observed high homozygote frequency among Morada Nova PRNP genotypes AA at codon 136 and RR at codon 171 could be a genetic element for a putative natural resistance to scrapie. This is the first report of PRNP genotyping in Morada Nova breed and the first time the scrapie susceptible allele VRR has been identified in Brazil. RESUMO - Doenças priônicas, como o scrapie (Paraplexia Enzoótica dos Ovinos) estão usualmente associadas com determinados genótipos do gene da proteína priônica (PRNP). Polimorfismos na matriz aberta de leitura (ORF) dos códons 136, 154 e 171 de PRNP de ovinos estão associados a resistência ou suscetibilidade a scrapie. Neste estudo, um total de 72 ovinos saudáveis, de 2 rebanhos e diferente variação de cor de pelagem, da raça deslanada Morada Nova no Estado do Ceará, foram analisadas. Seqüências PRNP, compreendendo as ORF, do gene PRNP foram investigadas para a identificação dos Polimorfismos de único nucleotídeo (SNPs), seguida de detalhado seqüenciamento do DNA e análise bioinformática para os códons 136, 154 e 171. As freqüências genotípicas dos polimorfismos do PRNP são relatadas. Os polimorfismos já identificados no códon 136 (codificando A/V), 171 (codificando Q/R), entretanto no códon 154 não houve variação (somente R). As variantes alélicas e genotípicas para o PRNP observadas entre os ovinos Morada Nova foram: ARQ/ARQ (34,75%), ARQ/ARR (30,49%), ARR/ARR (31,92%) além do genótipo raro VRR/VRR (2,78%). Além das variantes alélicas e genótipicas, nós discutimos a freqüência da homozigozidade dos alelos AA no códon 136 e RR no códon 171 do PRNP e correspondentes haplótipos nos ovinos Morada Nova como elementos genéticos como um suposto elemento de resistência natural a scrapie. Este é o primeiro relato de genotipagem para PRNP em ovinos da raça Morada Nova e primeira observação do genótipo VRR/VRR em rebanho brasileiro