Processing oblique aerial photographs in Flanders: the Havik Project at the Ghent University. A contribution to archaeological resource management

A contribution to archaeological resource management. Ghent University has organised an archaeological aerial survey of both provinces of East- and West-Flanders since the beginning of the 1980s. As a result of these activities, some 50,000 photographs have been captured. They reveal thousands of archaeological structures, from the Neolithic through to the most recent periods. Since 1997, financial support has been received from the Flemish Community aimed at the realisation of a GIS based database (Access 97 relational database - Arcview 3.1) and the digitalisation of some 50% of the photographs. As a result, it was possible to locate all 50,000 images and connect them with geographical information offered by the support centre GIS Flanders. It is expected in the near future that this information will be available for SMR-purposes and archaeological heritage management. There are also several scientific outputs: one of them is the study of Bronze Age barrows

Hearing aid controlled by binaural source localizer

An adaptive directional hearing aid system comprising a left hearing aid and a right hearing aid, wherein a binaural acoustic source localizer is located in the left hearing aid or in the right hearing aid or in a separate body- worn device connected wirelessly to the left hearing aid and the right hearing aid, the binaural acoustic source localizer configured to receive input signals from the left hearing aid and the right hearing aid and generate a control signal to control the update of a first adaptive beam former in the left hearing aid and a second adaptive beam former in the second hearing aid is disclosed. The disclosed system improves speech intelligibility and listening comfort for the user in noisy environments

Audio Processing

An audio processing arrangement (200) comprises a plurality of audio sources (101, 102) generating input audio signals, a processing circuit (110) for deriving processed audio signals from the input audio signals, a combining circuit (120) for deriving a combined audio signalfrom the processed audio signals, and a control circuit (130) for controlling the processing circuit in order to maximize a power measure of the combined audio signal and for limiting a function of gains of the processed audio signals to a predetermined value. In accordance with the present invention, the audio processing arrangement (200) comprises a pre-processing circuit (140) for deriving pre-processed audio signals from the input audio signals to minimize a cross-correlation of interferences comprised in the input audio signals. The pre-processed signals are provided to the processing circuit (110) instead of the input audio signals

Role for Akt3/Protein Kinase Bγ in Attainment of Normal Brain Size

Studies of Drosophila and mammals have revealed the importance of insulin signaling through phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and the serine/threonine kinase Akt/protein kinase B for the regulation of cell, organ, and organismal growth. In mammals, three highly conserved proteins, Akt1, Akt2, and Akt3, comprise the Akt family, of which the first two are required for normal growth and metabolism, respectively. Here we address the function of Akt3. Like Akt1, Akt3 is not required for the maintenance of normal carbohydrate metabolism but is essential for the attainment of normal organ size. However, in contrast to Akt1−/− mice, which display a proportional decrease in the sizes of all organs, Akt3−/− mice present a selective 20% decrease in brain size. Moreover, although Akt1- and Akt3-deficient brains are reduced in size to approximately the same degree, the absence of Akt1 leads to a reduction in cell number, whereas the lack of Akt3 results in smaller and fewer cells. Finally, mammalian target of rapamycin signaling is attenuated in the brains of Akt3−/− but not Akt1−/− mice, suggesting that differential regulation of this pathway contributes to an isoform-specific regulation of cell growth

Topological effects in ring polymers: A computer simulation study

Unconcatenated, unknotted polymer rings in the melt are subject to strong interactions with neighboring chains due to the presence of topological constraints. We study this by computer simulation using the bond-fluctuation algorithm for chains with up to N=512 statistical segments at a volume fraction \Phi=0.5 and show that rings in the melt are more compact than gaussian chains. A careful finite size analysis of the average ring size R \propto N^{\nu} yields an exponent \nu \approx 0.39 \pm 0.03 in agreement with a Flory-like argument for the topologica interactions. We show (using the same algorithm) that the dynamics of molten rings is similar to that of linear chains of the same mass, confirming recent experimental findings. The diffusion constant varies effectively as D_{N} \propto N^{-1.22(3) and is slightly higher than that of corresponding linear chains. For the ring sizes considered (up to 256 statistical segments) we find only one characteristic time scale \tau_{ee} \propto N^{2.0(2); this is shown by the collapse of several mean-square displacements and correlation functions onto corresponding master curves. Because of the shrunken state of the chain, this scaling is not compatible with simple Rouse motion. It applies for all sizes of ring studied and no sign of a crossover to any entangled regime is found.Comment: 20 Pages,11 eps figures, Late

AC losses and critical current density of superconducting GdBa2Cu3O7−x

Energy losses occurring in a cylindrical sample of Gd-Ba-Cu-O, subjected to an external AC magnetic field were examined. The loss dependence on the amplitude of the magnetic induction exhibits two stages of flux penetration into the superconductor. Critical current densitities for both stages of penetration were examined and an explanation for such behaviour is proposed. Support for this point of view is obtained by measurements on pulverized sample material. All measurements were performed at a temperature of 4.2 K and in absence of a background field.\ud \ud Analysis of the data provides two critical current densities: an inter-granular critical current density at weak alternating magnetic fields and an intra-granular critical current density at higher magnetic fields. The intra-granular critical current density is at least two orders of magnitude larger than the inter-granular one