Bilaterally Combined Electric and Acoustic Hearing in Mandarin-Speaking Listeners: The Population With Poor Residual Hearing

The hearing loss criterion for cochlear implant candidacy in mainland China is extremely stringent (bilateral severe to profound hearing loss), resulting in few patients with substantial residual hearing in the nonimplanted ear. The main objective of the current study was to examine the benefit of bimodal hearing in typical Mandarin-speaking implant users who have poorer residual hearing in the nonimplanted ear relative to those used in the English-speaking studies. Seventeen Mandarinspeaking bimodal users with pure-tone averages of 80 dB HL participated in the study. Sentence recognition in quiet and in noise as well as tone and word recognition in quiet were measured in monaural and bilateral conditions. There was no significant bimodal effect for word and sentence recognition in quiet. Small bimodal effects were observed for sentence recognition in noise (6%) and tone recognition (4%). The magnitude of both effects was correlated with unaided thresholds at frequencies near voice fundamental frequencies (F0s). A weak correlation between the bimodal effect for word recognition and unaided thresholds at frequencies higher than F0s was identified. These results were consistent with previous findings that showed more robust bimodal benefits for speech recognition tasks that require higher spectral resolution than speech recognition in quiet. The significant but small F0-related bimodal benefit was also consistent with the limited acoustic hearing in the nonimplanted ear of the current subject sample, who are representative of the bimodal users in mainland China. These results advocate for a more relaxed implant candidacy criterion to be used in mainland China

Numerical approximations for the tempered fractional Laplacian: Error analysis and applications

In this paper, we propose an accurate finite difference method to discretize the $d$-dimensional (for $d\ge 1$) tempered integral fractional Laplacian and apply it to study the tempered effects on the solution of problems arising in various applications. Compared to other existing methods, our method has higher accuracy and simpler implementation. Our numerical method has an accuracy of $O(h^\epsilon)$, for $u \in C^{0, \alpha+\epsilon} (\bar{\Omega})$ if $\alpha < 1$ (or $u \in C^{1, \alpha-1+\epsilon} (\bar{\Omega})$ if $\alpha \ge 1$) with $\epsilon > 0$, suggesting the minimum consistency conditions. The accuracy can be improved to $O(h^2)$, for $u \in C^{2, \alpha+\epsilon} (\bar{\Omega})$ if $\alpha < 1$ (or $u \in C^{3, \alpha - 1 + \epsilon} (\bar{\Omega})$ if $\alpha \ge 1$). Numerical experiments confirm our analytical results and provide insights in solving the tempered fractional Poisson problem. It suggests that to achieve the second order of accuracy, our method only requires the solution $u \in C^{1,1}(\bar{\Omega})$ for any $0<\alpha<2$. Moreover, if the solution of tempered fractional Poisson problems satisfies $u \in C^{p, s}(\bar{\Omega})$ for $p = 0, 1$ and $0<s \le 1$, our method has the accuracy of $O(h^{p+s})$. Since our method yields a (multilevel) Toeplitz stiffness matrix, one can design fast algorithms via the fast Fourier transform for efficient simulations. Finally, we apply it together with fast algorithms to study the tempered effects on the solutions of various tempered fractional PDEs, including the Allen-Cahn equation and Gray-Scott equations.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, 3 table

Enhancement of shot noise due to the fluctuation of Coulomb interaction

We have developed a theoretical formalism to investigate the contribution of fluctuation of Coulomb interaction to the shot noise based on Keldysh non-equilibrium Green's function method. We have applied our theory to study the behavior of dc shot noise of atomic junctions using the method of nonequilibrium Green's function combined with the density functional theory (NEGF-DFT). In particular, for atomic carbon wire consisting 4 carbon atoms in contact with two Al(100) electrodes, first principles calculation within NEGF-DFT formalism shows a negative differential resistance (NDR) region in I-V curve at finite bias due to the effective band bottom of the Al lead. We have calculated the shot noise spectrum using the conventional gauge invariant transport theory with Coulomb interaction considered explicitly on the Hartree level along with exchange and correlation effect. Although the Fano factor is enhanced from 0.6 to 0.8 in the NDR region, the expected super-Poissonian behavior in the NDR regionis not observed. When the fluctuation of Coulomb interaction is included in the shot noise, our numerical results show that the Fano factor is greater than one in the NDR region indicating a super-Poissonian behavior

Bulk Cr tips for scanning tunneling microscopy and spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy

A simple, reliable method for preparation of bulk Cr tips for Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) is proposed and its potentialities in performing high-quality and high-resolution STM and Spin Polarized-STM (SP-STM) are investigated. Cr tips show atomic resolution on ordered surfaces. Contrary to what happens with conventional W tips, rest atoms of the Si(111)-7x7 reconstruction can be routinely observed, probably due to a different electronic structure of the tip apex. SP-STM measurements of the Cr(001) surface showing magnetic contrast are reported. Our results reveal that the peculiar properties of these tips can be suited in a number of STM experimental situations

A Census of Outflow to Magnetic Field Orientations in Nearby Molecular Clouds

We define a sample of 200 protostellar outflows showing blue and redshifted CO emission in the nearby molecular clouds Ophiuchus, Taurus, Perseus and Orion to investigate the correlation between outflow orientations and local, but relatively large-scale, magnetic field directions traced by Planck 353 GHz dust polarization. At high significance (p~1e-4), we exclude a random distribution of relative orientations and find that there is a preference for alignment of projected plane of sky outflow axes with magnetic field directions. The distribution of relative position angles peaks at ~30deg and exhibits a broad dispersion of ~50deg. These results indicate that magnetic fields have dynamical influence in regulating the launching and/or propagation directions of outflows. However, the significant dispersion around perfect alignment orientation implies that there are large measurement uncertainties and/or a high degree of intrinsic variation caused by other physical processes, such as turbulence or strong stellar dynamical interactions. Outflow to magnetic field alignment is expected to lead to a correlation in the directions of nearby outflow pairs, depending on the degree of order of the field. Analyzing this effect we find limited correlation, except on relatively small scales < 0.5 pc. Furthermore, we train a convolutional neural network to infer the inclination angle of outflows with respect to the line of sight and apply it to our outflow sample to estimate their full 3D orientations. We find that the angles between outflow pairs in 3D space also show evidence of small-scale alignment.Comment: ApJ Accepte

Direct Covalent Chemical Functionalization of Unmodified Two-Dimensional Molybdenum Disulfide

Two-dimensional semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) like molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) are generating significant excitement due to their unique electronic, chemical, and optical properties. Covalent chemical functionalization represents a critical tool for tuning the properties of TMDCs for use in many applications. However, the chemical inertness of semiconducting TMDCs has thus far hindered the robust chemical functionalization of these materials. Previous reports have required harsh chemical treatments or converting TMDCs into metallic phases prior to covalent attachment. Here, we demonstrate the direct covalent functionalization of the basal planes of unmodified semiconducting MoS2 using aryl diazonium salts without any pretreatments. Our approach preserves the semiconducting properties of MoS2, results in covalent C-S bonds, is applicable to MoS2 derived from a range of different synthesis methods, and enables a range of different functional groups to be tethered directly to the MoS2 surface. Using density functional theory calculations including van der Waals interactions and atomic-scale scanning probe microscopy studies, we demonstrate a novel reaction mechanism in which cooperative interactions enable the functionalization to propagate along the MoS2 basal plane. The flexibility of this covalent chemistry employing the diverse aryl diazonium salt family is further exploited to tether active proteins to MoS2, suggesting future biological applications and demonstrating its use as a versatile and powerful chemical platform for enhancing the utility of semiconducting TMDCsComment: To appear in Chemistry Materials (In press

CMR exploration I -- filament structure with synthetic observations

In this paper, we carry out a pilot parameter exploration for the collision-induced magnetic reconnection (CMR) mechanism that forms filamentary molecular clouds. Following Kong et al. (2021), we utilize Athena++ to model CMR in the context of resistive magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), considering the effect from seven physical conditions, including the Ohmic resistivity ($\eta$), the magnetic field ($B$), the cloud density ($\rho$), the cloud radius $R$, the isothermal temperature $T$, the collision velocity $v_x$, and the shear velocity $v_z$. Compared to their fiducial model, we consider a higher and a lower value for each one of the seven parameters. We quantify the exploration results with five metrics, including the density probability distribution function ($\rho$-PDF), the filament morphology (250 $\mu$m dust emission), the $B$-$\rho$ relation, the dominant fiber width, and the ringiness that describes the significance of the ring-like sub-structures. The exploration forms straight and curved CMR-filaments with rich sub-structures that are highly variable in space and time. The variation translates to fluctuation in all the five metrics, reflecting the chaotic nature of magnetic reconnection in CMR. A temporary $B\propto\rho$ relation is noticeable during the first 0.6 Myr. Overall, the exploration provides useful initial insights to the CMR mechanism.Comment: 31 pages, 20 figures, 1 tabl