Virtual acoustic system with a multichannel headphone

The performance of current virtual acoustic systems is highly sensitive to the geometry of the individual ear at high frequencies. The objective of this paper is to study a virtual acoustic system which may be not sensitive to individual ear shape. The incident sound field around the ear is reproduced by using a multichannel headphone. The results of computer simulations show that the desired sound pressure at the eardrum can be successfully replicated in a virtual acoustic environment by using a multichannel headphone

Demonstrating frequency-dependent transmission of sarcoptic mange in red foxes

Understanding the relationship between disease transmission and host density is essential for predicting disease spread and control. Using long-term data on sarcoptic mange in a red fox Vulpes vulpes population, we tested long-held assumptions of density- and frequency-dependent direct disease transmission. We also assessed the role of indirect transmission. Contrary to assumptions typical of epidemiological models, mange dynamics are better explained by frequency-dependent disease transmission than by density-dependent transmission in this canid. We found no support for indirect transmission. We present the first estimates of R0 and age-specific transmission coefficients for mange in foxes. These parameters are important for managing this poorly understood but highly contagious and economically damaging disease

Optimal Hypercontractivity for Fermi Fields and Related Non-Commutative Integration

Optimal hypercontractivity bounds for the fermion oscillator semigroup are obtained. These are the fermion analogs of the optimal hypercontractivity bounds for the boson oscillator semigroup obtained by Nelson. In the process, several results of independent interest in the theory of non-commutative integration are established. {}.Comment: 18 p., princeton/ecel/7-12-9

Perhaps the 1970s FOMC did what it said it did

Briefing forecasts prepared for the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) are used to estimate changes in the design of US monetary policy and in the implied policy target for inflation from 1970 through 1997. Both estimated policy rate responses and FOMC transcripts are consistent with intermediate targeting of monetary aggregates throughout the Great Inflation of the 1970s. The unpublished FOMC targets for M1 growth are tabulated. Empirical results support an effective inflation target of roughly 7% in the 1970s and 3% thereafter. A notable difference in the 1970s monetary policies of the US and Germany is the absence of explicit public objectives for US long-run inflation