A Multitasking Electrical Impedance Tomography System Using Titanium Alloy Electrode

This paper presents a multitasking electrical impedance tomography (EIT) system designed to improve the flexibility and durability of an existing EIT system. The ability of the present EIT system to detect, locate, and reshape objects was evaluated by four different experiments. The results of the study show that the system can detect and locate an object with a diameter as small as 1.5 mm in a testing tank with a diameter of 134 mm. Moreover, the results demonstrate the ability of the current system to reconstruct an image of several dielectric object shapes. Based on the results of the experiments, the programmable EIT system can adapt the EIT system for different applications without the need to implement a new EIT system, which may help to save time and cost. The setup for all the experiments consisted of a testing tank with an attached 16-electrode array made of titanium alloy grade 2. The titanium alloy electrode was used to enhance EIT system’s durability and lifespan

The ability of 3- to 6-years-old Persian-speaking children in production of consonant clusters in mono-syllable CVCC words

Background and Aim: During speech development in normal children, cluster reduction is one of the natural phonological processes. Children begin to produce some consonant clusters from the age of 2 years but ability to produce all consonant clusters continues up to 9. The main objective of this investigation was assessing the ability of Persian-speaking children in production of consonant clusters in mono-syllable CVCC words.Methods: In this cross-sectional and comparative study, production of 19 clusters with stop, fricative, affricate, nasal, and glide consonants in 38 words were tested in 200 Persian-speaking children at the age of 3 to 6 years in kindergartens of Tehran, Iran. Content validity indexes of 38 words were above 0.80 and Cronbach’s alpha of split half was 0.91.Results: More than 75% of 3-years-old children were able to produce /xl/, /bz/, /rs/, and /xm/ clusters. Age was positively correlated with correct production scores of words (p=0.001) and was negatively correlated with cluster reduction scores (p=0.001). Conclusion: Three-years-old normal Persian-speaking children may use cluster reduction in words with consonant clusters but this phonological process decreased by increasing of age; so, most of the 6-years-old children could produce consonant clusters correctly. Place of articulation more than manner of articulation affect on correct production of consonant clusters