Prosodic marking in Russian multiple wh-questions: A sentence production study

Although the prosody of regular constituent/wh-questions is increasingly often discussed in the context of theories of prominence, focus and prosodic constituency (e.g [1]), prosodic contours of multiple wh-questions (cf. English Who bought what?) received surprisingly little attention in the literature so far. Slavic languages offer an additional dimension of interest to the problem as all wh-phrases are typically fronted in the clausal left periphery forming a wh-cluster, cf. Russian (1). Investigation of prosody of multiple wh-questions in these languages is likely to bring new theoretical insights, in particular, regarding realization of units with very similar prosodic properties, limits of prosodic autonomy of wh-phrases and the degree of mapping between prosodic and syntactic boundaries (cf. [2]

Twin Families of Bisolitons in Dispersion Managed Systems

We calculate bisoliton solutions using a slowly varying stroboscopic equation. The system is characterized in terms of a single dimensionless parameter. We find two branches of solutions and describe the structure of the tails for the lower branch solutions.Comment: 3 pages 4 figure

Performance Assessment of Reinforcement Learning Policies for Battery Lifetime Extension in Mobile Multi-RAT LPWAN Scenarios

Considering the dynamically changing nature of the radio propagation environment, the envisioned battery lifetime of the end device (ED) for massive machine-type communication (mMTC) stands for a critical challenge. As the selected radio technology bounds the battery lifetime, the possibility of choosing among several low-power wide-area (LPWAN) technologies integrated at a single ED may dramatically improve its lifetime. In this paper, we propose a novel approach of battery lifetime extension utilizing reinforcement learning (RL) policies. Notably, the system assesses the radio environment conditions and assigns the appropriate rewards to minimize the overall power consumption and increase reliability. To this aim, we carry out extensive propagation and power measurements campaigns at the city-scale level and then utilize these results for composing real-life use-cases for static and mobile deployments. Our numerical results show that RL-based techniques allow for a noticeable increase in EDs’ battery lifetime when operating in multi-RAT mode. Furthermore, out of all considered schemes, the performance of the weighted average policy shows the most consistent results for both considered deployments. Specifically, all RL policies can achieve 90 % of their maximum gain during the initialization phase for the stationary EDs while utilizing less than 50 messages. Considering the mobile deployment, the improvements in battery lifetime could reach 200 %.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Optimizing NB-IoT Communication Patterns for Permanently Connected mMTC Devices

The new types of industry-driven applications that need to be supported by low-power wide-area networks (LP-WANs), such as remote control or metering of devices within the massive machine-type infrastructures (e.g., Smart Grids), require a permanent connection to the remote server. In addition, there is also a shift in the communication paradigm, as the user equipment (UE) nodes are queried in regular and frequent intervals. Notably, the presence of this type of traffic may drastically deteriorate the performance of LPWAN technologies initially developed to support conventional use-cases characterized by non-synchronized transmissions. Though none of the LPWAN technologies is inherently designed to handle such demanding communication patterns, the narrowband Internet of things (NB-IoT) still stands for the best candidate as it operates within the license frequency spectrum. To optimize the delay performance of both types of traffic coexisting at the NB-IoT air interface, we propose an approach based on spreading the message transmission time instants of regular and stochastic traffic. We show an optimal value of the spreading interval minimizing the message transmission delay of regular traffic and propose a mathematical model to estimate its value. By parameterizing the model using a detailed measurements campaign of NB-IoT, we show that the optimal value of spreading interval and associated mean message delay is a linear function of the number of UEs. We report these values for a wide range of UEs in the coverage area of the NB-IoT base station and show that conventional stochastic traffic does not influence regular traffic performance.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Analysis of driven nanorod transport through a biopolymer matrix

Applying magnetic fields to guide and retain drug-loaded magnetic particles in vivo has been proposed as a way of treating illnesses. Largely, these efforts have been targeted at tumors. One significant barrier to long range transport within tumors is the extracellular matrix (ECM). We perform single particle measurements of 18 nm diameter nanorods undergoing magnetophoresis through ECM, and analyze the motion of these nanorods in two dimensions. We observe intra-particle magnetophoresis in this viscoelastic environment and measure the fraction of time these nanorods spend effectively hindered, versus effectively translating

Magnetic Fields in the Milky Way

This chapter presents a review of observational studies to determine the magnetic field in the Milky Way, both in the disk and in the halo, focused on recent developments and on magnetic fields in the diffuse interstellar medium. I discuss some terminology which is confusingly or inconsistently used and try to summarize current status of our knowledge on magnetic field configurations and strengths in the Milky Way. Although many open questions still exist, more and more conclusions can be drawn on the large-scale and small-scale components of the Galactic magnetic field. The chapter is concluded with a brief outlook to observational projects in the near future.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, to appear in "Magnetic Fields in Diffuse Media", eds. E.M. de Gouveia Dal Pino and A. Lazaria

Image-guided Placement of Magnetic Neuroparticles as a Potential High-Resolution Brain-Machine Interface

We are developing methods of noninvasively delivering magnetic neuroparticles™ via intranasal administration followed by image-guided magnetic propulsion to selected locations in the brain. Once placed, the particles can activate neurons via vibrational motion or magnetoelectric stimulation. Similar particles might be used to read out neuronal electrical pulses via spintronic or liquid-crystal magnetic interactions, for fast bidirectional brain-machine interface. We have shown that particles containing liquid crystals can be read out with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using embedded magnetic nanoparticles and that the signal is visible even for voltages comparable to physiological characteristics. Such particles can be moved within the brain (e.g., across midline) without causing changes to neurological firing

Soluble Cyanobacterial Carotenoprotein as a Robust Antioxidant Nanocarrier and Delivery Module

To counteract oxidative stress, antioxidants including carotenoids are highly promising, yet their exploitation is drastically limited by the poor bioavailability and fast photodestruction, whereas current delivery systems are far from being efficient. Here we demonstrate that the recently discovered nanometer-sized water-soluble carotenoprotein from Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 (termed AnaCTDH) transiently interacts with liposomes to efficiently extract carotenoids via carotenoid-mediated homodimerization, yielding violet–purple protein samples. We characterize the spectroscopic properties of the obtained pigment–protein complexes and the thermodynamics of liposome–protein carotenoid transfer and demonstrate the delivery of carotenoid echinenone from AnaCTDH into liposomes with an efficiency of up to 70 ± 3%. Most importantly, we show efficient carotenoid delivery to membranes of mammalian cells, which provides protection from reactive oxygen species (ROS). Incubation of neuroblastoma cell line Tet21N in the presence of 1 μM AnaCTDH binding echinenone decreased antimycin A ROS production by 25% (p < 0.05). The described carotenoprotein may be considered as part of modular systems for the targeted antioxidant delivery.BMBF, 01DJ15007, Carotenoidbindende photoschaltbare Proteine: Lichtinduzierte Dynamik und Anwendungen in modernen mikroskopischen Verfahre