6,512 research outputs found
Effects of congenital hearing loss and cochlear implantation on audiovisual speech perception in infants and children
Purpose: Cochlear implantation has recently become available as an intervention strategy for young children with profound hearing impairment. In fact, infants as young as 6 months are now receiving cochlear implants (CIs), and even younger infants are being fitted with hearing aids (HAs). Because early audiovisual experience may be important for normal development of speech perception, it is important to investigate the effects of a period of auditory deprivation and amplification type on multimodal perceptual processes of infants and children. The purpose of this study was to investigate audiovisual perception skills in normal-hearing (NH) infants and children and deaf infants and children with CIs and HAs of similar chronological ages. Methods: We used an Intermodal Preferential Looking Paradigm to present the same woman\u27s face articulating two words ( judge and back ) in temporal synchrony on two sides of a TV monitor, along with an auditory presentation of one of the words. Results: The results showed that NH infants and children spontaneously matched auditory and visual information in spoken words; deaf infants and children with HAs did not integrate the audiovisual information; and deaf infants and children with CIs initially did not initially integrate the audiovisual information but gradually matched the auditory and visual information in spoken words. Conclusions: These results suggest that a period of auditory deprivation affects multimodal perceptual processes that may begin to develop normally after several months of auditory experience
Initial state maximizing the nonexponentially decaying survival probability for unstable multilevel systems
The long-time behavior of the survival probability for unstable multilevel
systems that follows the power-decay law is studied based on the N-level
Friedrichs model, and is shown to depend on the initial population in unstable
states. A special initial state maximizing the asymptote of the survival
probability at long times is found and examined by considering the spontaneous
emission process for the hydrogen atom interacting with the electromagnetic
field.Comment: 5 pages, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Entanglement of orbital angular momentum states between an ensemble of cold atoms and a photon
Recently, atomic ensemble and single photons were successfully entangled by
using collective enhancement [D. N. Matsukevich, \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev.
Lett. \textbf{95}, 040405(2005).], where atomic internal states and photonic
polarization states were correlated in nonlocal manner. Here we experimentally
clarified that in an ensemble of atoms and a photon system, there also exists
an entanglement concerned with spatial degrees of freedom. Generation of
higher-dimensional entanglement between remote atomic ensemble and an
application to condensed matter physics are also discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Modular differential equations for torus one-point functions
It is shown that in a rational conformal field theory every torus one-point
function of a given highest weight state satisfies a modular differential
equation. We derive and solve these differential equations explicitly for some
Virasoro minimal models. In general, however, the resulting amplitudes do not
seem to be expressible in terms of standard transcendental functions.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX; reference adde
Suzaku Observation of Two Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources in NGC 1313
Two ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in the nearby Sb galaxy NGC 1313,
named X-1 and X-2, were observed with Suzaku on 2005 September 15. During the
observation for a net exposure of 28~ks (but over a gross time span of 90~ks),
both objects varied in intensity by about 50~%. The 0.4--10 keV X-ray
luminosity of X-1 and X-2 was measured as
and , respectively, with the former the
highest ever reported for this ULX. The spectrum of X-1 can be explained by a
sum of a strong and variable power-law component with a high energy cutoff, and
a stable multicolor blackbody with an innermost disk temperature of
keV. These results suggest that X-1 was in a ``very high'' state, where the
disk emission is strongly Comptonized. The absorber within NGC 1313 toward X-1
is suggested to have a subsolar oxygen abundance. The spectrum of X-2 is best
represented, in its fainter phase, by a multicolor blackbody model with the
innermost disk temperature of 1.2--1.3 keV, and becomes flatter as the source
becomes brighter. Hence X-2 is interpreted to be in a slim-disk state. These
results suggest that the two ULXs have black hole masses of a few tens to a few
hundreds solar masses.Comment: accepted for publication in PAS
Substructure in the Andromeda Galaxy Globular Cluster System
In the most prominent current scenario of galaxy formation, galaxies form
hierarchically through the merger of smaller systems. Such mergers could leave
behind dynamical signatures which may linger long after the event. In
particular, the globular cluster system (GCS) of a merging satellite galaxy may
remain as a distinct sub-population within the GCS of a massive galaxy. Using
the latest available globular cluster velocities and metallicities, we present
the results of a search for grouping in the GCS of our nearest large spiral
galaxy neighbor, M31. A modified friends-of-friends algorithm is used to
identify a number of possible merger remnants in projected position, radial
velocity and [Fe/H] parameter space. Numerical simulations are used to check
that such merger remnants are indeed plausible over the timescales of interest.
The identification of stellar streams associated with these groups is required
in order to confirm that they represent merger remnants.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in the Ap
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