Prosody Generation in Neutral Speech for Storytelling Application Using Tilt Model

This paper proposes Intonation Modeling for Prosodygeneration in Neutral speech for Marathi (language spoken inMaharashtra, India) story telling applications. Now a day’s audiostory telling devices are very eminent for children. Emotion putsprecise meaning in the audio to understand content in speech. Inthis paper, we proposed tilt model for stressed words in Marathifor speech modification. Tilt model predicts modification in toneof neutral speech. GMM is used to identify stressed words formodification

Study of effects of donepezil and aspirin on working memory in rats using electroconvulsive shock model

Background: Memory is the most common cognitive ability lost with dementia commonly seen in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Donepezil was the first cholinesterase inhibitor to be licensed in UK for AD. There is preliminary evidence that aspirin decreases the risk and delays the onset of AD. Low dose aspirin users had numerically lower prevalence of Alzheimer’s dementia and had better cognitive function than non-users.Methods: Retention of conditioned avoidance response (CAR) was assessed by using repeated electroconvulsive shocks (ECS) in rats. Rats were divided into five groups: control (pretreated with distilled water), ECS (150 V, 50 Hz, with intensity of 210 mA for 0.5 sec) pretreated, combined aspirin (6.75 mg/kg) and pretreated ECS, combined donepezil (0.32 mg/kg) and pretreated ECS, combined aspirin, donepezil and pretreated ECS groups. Data were analyzed using the Chi-square test and ANOVA.Results: Findings show that administration of ECS daily for 8 days results in transient amnesia and disruption of retention of CAR. Aspirin and donepezil administration significantly increased the retention of CAR in comparison to ECS. However, aspirin failed to show an increase in the retention of CAR as compared to donepezil. The combination of the two drugs showed statistically significant increase in the retention of CAR than either of these drugs given alone.Conclusion: Neuroinflammation plays an important role in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative disorder like AD. Combination of aspirin with donepezil increased the nootropic and neuroprotective effect of aspirin and thus may hold great clinical significance in such disorders

Boundaries can steer active Janus spheres

The advent of autonomous self-propulsion has instigated research towards making colloidal machines that can deliver mechanical work in the form of transport, and other functions such as sensing and cleaning. While much progress has been made in the last 10 years on various mechanisms to generate self-propulsion, the ability to steer self-propelled colloidal devices has so far been much more limited. A critical barrier in increasing the impact of such motors is in directing their motion against the Brownian rotation, which randomizes particle orientations. In this context, here we report directed motion of a specific class of catalytic motors when moving in close proximity to solid surfaces. This is achieved through active quenching of their Brownian rotation by constraining it in a rotational well, caused not by equilibrium, but by hydrodynamic effects. We demonstrate how combining these geometric constraints can be utilized to steer these active colloids along arbitrary trajectories

A selective fluorescent probe for cysteine and its imaging in live cells

A probe for the detection of cysteine over homocysteine based on 2-(2'-hydroxyphenyl) benzothiazole (HBT) was prepared and used in confocal microscopy experiments. The probe was designed to block excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT). When bromopropionyl group protection is removed, HBT is recovered via nucleophilic substitution and intramolecular cyclization. The probe was found to have a detection limit of 2.8 mu M and exhibits a similar to 20-fold increase. The probe showed cell membrane permeability and efficacy in living Hep3B cells © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2014191

Nanostructured Scrolls from Graphene Oxide for Microjet Engines

Layered heterostructures containing graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets and 20–35 nm bimetal coatings can detach easily from a Si substrate upon sonicationspontaneously forming freestanding, micrometer-sized scrolls with GO on the outsidedue to a combination of material stresses and weak bonding between GO layers. Simple procedures can tune the scroll diameters by varying the thicknesses of the metal films, and these results are confirmed by both experiment and modeling. The selection of materials determines the stresses that control the rolling behavior, as well as the functionality of the structures. In the GO/Ti/Pt system, the Pt is located within the interior of the scrolls, which can become self-propelled microjet engines through O₂ bubbling when suspended in aqueous H₂O₂