Triangulating an exotic T quark

Limits on an exotic heavy quark $T$ are broadly generalized by considering the full range of $T\rightarrow Wb, th$ or $tZ$ branching ratios. We combine results of specific $T\rightarrow tZ$ and $T\rightarrow Wb$ searches with limits on various combinations of decay modes evaluated by re-interpreting other searches. We find strong bounds across the entire space of branching ratios, ranging from $m_T > 415$ GeV to $m_T > 557$ GeV at 95% confidence level

Use of ionic liquids in the synthesis of nanocrystals and nanorods of semiconducting metal chalcogenides

We have synthesized nanoparticles of hexagonal CdS in the diameter range 3-13 nm by the reaction of cadmium acetate dihydrate with thioacetamide in imidazolium [BMIM]-based ionic liquids. We have obtained three different particle sizes of CdS by changing the anion of the ionic liquid. Addition of trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO) to the reaction mixture causes greater monodispersity as well as smaller particle size, while addition of ethylenediamine produces nanorods of 7 nm average diameter. Hexagonal ZnS and cubic PbS nanoparticles with average diameters of 3 and 10 nm, respectively, have been prepared by the reaction of the metal acetates with thioacetamide in [BMIM][BF4]. Hexagonal CdSe nanoparticles with an average diameter 12 nm were obtained by the reaction of cadmium acetate dihydrate with dimethylselenourea in [BMIM][BF4]. In this case also we observe the same effect of the addition of TOPO as in the case of CdS. Addition of ethylenediamine to the reaction mixture gives rise to nanorods. ZnSe nanowires with a cubic structures, possible diameters in the range 70-100 nm by the reaction of zinc acetate dihydrate with dimethylselenourea in [BMIM][MeSO4]. The nanostructures obtained are single crystalline in all the cases. Most of the nanostructures show characteristic UV/Vis absorption and photoluminescence emission spectra. The thermodynamically most stable structures are generally produced in the synthesis carried out in ionic liquids

Multilingual Speech Recognition With A Single End-To-End Model

Training a conventional automatic speech recognition (ASR) system to support multiple languages is challenging because the sub-word unit, lexicon and word inventories are typically language specific. In contrast, sequence-to-sequence models are well suited for multilingual ASR because they encapsulate an acoustic, pronunciation and language model jointly in a single network. In this work we present a single sequence-to-sequence ASR model trained on 9 different Indian languages, which have very little overlap in their scripts. Specifically, we take a union of language-specific grapheme sets and train a grapheme-based sequence-to-sequence model jointly on data from all languages. We find that this model, which is not explicitly given any information about language identity, improves recognition performance by 21% relative compared to analogous sequence-to-sequence models trained on each language individually. By modifying the model to accept a language identifier as an additional input feature, we further improve performance by an additional 7% relative and eliminate confusion between different languages.Comment: Accepted in ICASSP 201

A comparative study of laser posterior cordotomy and vocal cord lateralization

AbstractIntroductionThe treatment of bilateral vocal cord paralysis continues to be a challenge to the otolaryngologist, head and neck surgeon even today. Numerous surgical procedures have been proposed to improve the patient’s airway insufficiency without leaving the patient with a breathy, weak voice or an incompetent larynx. In this study we compared the outcome of laser posterior cordotomy and vocal cord lateralization in a group of bilateral abductor palsy patients.MethodRetrospective as well as a prospective study of 25 patients was carried out. The total of 25 patients was divided into 2 groups, group 1 consisted of 15 patients who underwent vocal cord lateralization with SUTUPAK suture and group 2 consisted of 10 patients who underwent laser assisted posterior partial cordotomy.ResultsThyroidectomy was the commonest cause for bilateral vocal fold paralysis i.e. 80% (20) of cases. Patients who underwent laser posterior cordotomy had 100% successful decannulation rate as compared to 92.8% for vocal cord lateralization patients. Comparison between pre and post operative voice assessment data by WILCOXON SIGNED RANKS test revealed that excepting the parameter of fluctuations/s in F0, all other parameters were statistically not significant.ConclusionLaser cordotomy is a superior, reliable and viable alternative to the other lateralization procedures for bilateral vocal fold paralysis