Estimation of Severity of Speech Disability through Speech Envelope

In this paper, envelope detection of speech is discussed to distinguish the pathological cases of speech disabled children. The speech signal samples of children of age between five to eight years are considered for the present study. These speech signals are digitized and are used to determine the speech envelope. The envelope is subjected to ratio mean analysis to estimate the disability. This analysis is conducted on ten speech signal samples which are related to both place of articulation and manner of articulation. Overall speech disability of a pathological subject is estimated based on the results of above analysis.Comment: 8 pages,4 Figures,Signal & Image Processing Journal AIRC

Effect of chloride and sulfate ions on the advanced photo Fenton and modified photo Fenton degradation process of Alizarin Red S

The degradation of Alizarin Red S (ARS) was carried out by heterogeneous advanced photo Fenton processes (HAPFP) of the type Fe0/H 2O2/UV and heterogeneous modified photo Fenton process (HMPFP) of the type Fe0/ammonium persulfate (APS)/UV. The influence of various reaction parameters like pH, catalyst loading, concentration of the oxidants and the influence of inorganic anions such as Chloride (Cl-) and Sulfate (SO42-) ions on processes were investigated. Quenching of the hydroxyl radical by inorganic anions was confirmed by the decrease in the degradation rate constant for the HAPFP from 3.33 � 10-2 to 0.19 à 10-2 (for Cl- (1 M)) and 0.29 à 10-2 min-1 (for SO42- (1 M)). Similar decrease in rate constant for HMPFP is from 4.67 à 10 -2 to 0.41 à 10-2(for Cl- (1 M)) and 0.51 à 10-2 min-1 (for SO42- (1 M)) process. The combined effect of concentration of sulfate and chloride ions on the rate constant for the degradation of ARS with APS and H2O 2 as oxidants is investigated. The initial degradation mechanism involves the cleavage of a quinone group to catechol as detected by UV-visible and GC-MS analysis. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Interaction of indolicidin, a 13-residue peptide rich in tryptophan and proline and its analogues with model membranes

Indolicidin is a 13-residue broad-spectrum antibacterial peptide isolated from bovine neutrophils. The primary structure of the peptide ILPWKWPWWPWRR-amide (IL) reveals an unusually high percentage of tryptophan residues. IL and its analogues where proline residues have been replaced by alanine (ILA) and trp replaced by phe (ILF) show comparable antibacterial activitieso While IL and ILA are haemolytic, ILF does not have this property. Since aromatic residues would strongly favour partitioning of the peptide into the lipid bilayer interface, the biological activities of IL and its analogues could conceivably arise due perturbation of the lipid bilayer of membranes. We have therefore investigated the interaction of IL and its analogues with lipid vesicles. Peptides IL and ILA bind to lipid vesicles composed of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanol amine: phosphatidyl glycerol: cardiolipin. The position of λmax and I- quenching experiments suggest that the trp residues are localized at the membrane interface and not associated with the hydrophobic core of the lipid bilayer in both the peptides. Hence, membrane permeabilization is likely to occur due to deformation of the membrane surface rather than formation of transmembrane channels by indolicidin and its analogues. Peptides ILA, IL and ILF cause the release of entrapped carboxyfluorescein from phosphatidyl choline vesicles. The peptide-lipid ratios indicate that ILF is less effective than IL and ILA in permeabilizing lipid vesicles, correlating with their haemolytic activities

Increasing Average Period Lengths by Switching of Robust Chaos Maps in Finite Precision

Grebogi, Ott and Yorke (Phys. Rev. A 38(7), 1988) have investigated the effect of finite precision on average period length of chaotic maps. They showed that the average length of periodic orbits ($T$) of a dynamical system scales as a function of computer precision ($\epsilon$) and the correlation dimension ($d$) of the chaotic attractor: $T \sim \epsilon^{-d/2}$. In this work, we are concerned with increasing the average period length which is desirable for chaotic cryptography applications. Our experiments reveal that random and chaotic switching of deterministic chaotic dynamical systems yield higher average length of periodic orbits as compared to simple sequential switching or absence of switching. To illustrate the application of switching, a novel generalization of the Logistic map that exhibits Robust Chaos (absence of attracting periodic orbits) is first introduced. We then propose a pseudo-random number generator based on chaotic switching between Robust Chaos maps which is found to successfully pass stringent statistical tests of randomness.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. This paper will be published in European Physical Journal Special Topics, Vol. 165, pp. 73--83, 2008. (Related work was presented at the International conference on Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos: Advances and Perspectives, September 17-21, 2007, Aberdeen.

Restoration of Equalization and Aeration Tanks of Effluent Treatment Plant at the Mysugar Factory, Mandya, Karnataka, India

This paper deals with the restoration measures resorted to strengthen the structure and prevent the leakage of the equalization and aeration tanks of effluent treatment plant in a sugar factory. These tanks showed distress at the hydraulic test itself before commissioning due to the failure of the reinforced concrete floor and bund lining on account of loss of support due to excessive deformation of the substratum. Extensive sand piling was resorted to strengthen the substratum before recasting the reinforced concrete floor and bund lining to ensure structural stability and prevent leakage. These tanks are functioning satisfactorily since two years after restoration serving the intended functions of the eflluent treatment

Identifying specific prefrontal neurons that contribute to autism-associated abnormalities in physiology and social behavior.

Functional imaging and gene expression studies both implicate the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), particularly deep-layer projection neurons, as a potential locus for autism pathology. Here, we explored how specific deep-layer prefrontal neurons contribute to abnormal physiology and behavior in mouse models of autism. First, we find that across three etiologically distinct models-in utero valproic acid (VPA) exposure, CNTNAP2 knockout and FMR1 knockout-layer 5 subcortically projecting (SC) neurons consistently exhibit reduced input resistance and action potential firing. To explore how altered SC neuron physiology might impact behavior, we took advantage of the fact that in deep layers of the mPFC, dopamine D2 receptors (D2Rs) are mainly expressed by SC neurons, and used D2-Cre mice to label D2R+ neurons for calcium imaging or optogenetics. We found that social exploration preferentially recruits mPFC D2R+ cells, but that this recruitment is attenuated in VPA-exposed mice. Stimulating mPFC D2R+ neurons disrupts normal social interaction. Conversely, inhibiting these cells enhances social behavior in VPA-exposed mice. Importantly, this effect was not reproduced by nonspecifically inhibiting mPFC neurons in VPA-exposed mice, or by inhibiting D2R+ neurons in wild-type mice. These findings suggest that multiple forms of autism may alter the physiology of specific deep-layer prefrontal neurons that project to subcortical targets. Furthermore, a highly overlapping population-prefrontal D2R+ neurons-plays an important role in both normal and abnormal social behavior, such that targeting these cells can elicit potentially therapeutic effects

Liquid Crystal Display Modes in a Nontilted Bent-Core Biaxial Smectic Liquid Crystal

Liquid crystal display (LCD) modes associated with the rotation of the secondary director in nontilted, biaxial smectic phase of an achiral bent-core compound are demonstrated. For LCDs, we find that at least four display modes are possible using SmAPA phase of the studied material, in which the minor directors in adjacent layers are aligned antiferroelectrically. The advantages of these modes include low driving field (1–2 V/ µm), high contrast ratio 1000:1, relatively fast switching time of 0.5 ms and continuous gray scale. The molecular short axis or the polar axis in a negative dielectric, biaxial material is oriented by the in-plane electric field by a combination dielectric biaxiality and polarity at low electric fields and polarity at higher fields