Speaker-sex discrimination for voiced and whispered vowels at short durations

Whispered vowels, produced with no vocal fold vibration, lack the periodic temporal fine structure which in voiced vowels underlies the perceptual attribute of pitch (a salient auditory cue to speaker sex). Voiced vowels possess no temporal fine structure at very short durations (below two glottal cycles). The prediction was that speaker-sex discrimination performance for whispered and voiced vowels would be similar for very short durations but, as stimulus duration increases, voiced vowel performance would improve relative to whispered vowel performance as pitch information becomes available. This pattern of results was shown for women’s but not for men’s voices. A whispered vowel needs to have a duration three times longer than a voiced vowel before listeners can reliably tell whether it’s spoken by a man or woman (∼30 ms vs. ∼10 ms). Listeners were half as sensitive to information about speaker-sex when it is carried by whispered compared with voiced vowels

Surface modification of a polyether-urethane with RGD-containing peptides for enhanced cell attachment and signalling

Abstract of article examining the chemical modification of polyurethane with RGD-containing peptides offers a means of encouraging the adhesion, spreading and proliferation of cells cultured on its surface. This study assesses the efficacy of a modification procedure using surface analysis techniques and preliminary cell culture studies

Strong singularity of singular masas in II₁ factors

A singular masa A in a II1 factor N is defined by the property that any unitary w ∈ N for which A=wAw* must lie in A. A strongly singular masa A is one that satisfies the inequality ||EA- EwAw*||∞,2 ≥||w- EA(w)||2 for all unitaries w ∈ N where EA is the conditional expectation of N onto A, and ||⋅||∞,2 is defined for bounded maps Φ : N → N by sup{||Φ (x)||2:x ∈ N,||x||≤1}. Strong singularity easily implies singularity, and the main result of this paper shows the reverse implication

Perturbations of C*-algebraic invariants

Kadison and Kastler introduced a metric on the set of all C*-algebras on a fixed Hilbert space. In this paper structural properties of C*-algebras which are close in this metric are examined. Our main result is that the property of having a positive answer to Kadison’s similarity problem transfers to close C*-algebras. In establishing this result we answer questions about closeness of commutants and tensor products when one algebra satisfies the similarity property. We also examine K-theory and traces of close C*-algebras, showing that sufficiently close algebras have isomorphic Elliott invariants when one algebra has the similarity property

Real Options: A Tool for Managing Technical Risk in a Mine Plan

NPV is a static measure of project value which does not discriminate between levels of internal and external risk in project valuation. Due to current investment project?s characteristics, a much more complex model is needed: one that includes the value of flexibility and the different risk levels associated with variables subject to uncertainty (price, costs, exchange rates, grade and tonnage of the deposits, cut off grade, among many others). Few of these variables present any correlation or can be treated uniformly. In this context, Real Option Valuation (ROV) arose more than a decade ago, as a mainly theoretical model with the potential for simultaneous calculation of the risk associated with such variables. This paper reviews the literature regarding the application of Real Options Valuation in mining, noting the prior focus on external risks, and presents a case study where ROV is applied to quantify risk associated to mine planning

Neutrality of narrative discussion in annual reports of UK listed companies

This paper reports the results of an investigation into the neutrality of the narrative discussion of financial performance and position, as evidenced in 179 annual reports of UK listed companies. Neutrality of narrative discussion was determined by comparing the average proportions of good and bad news contained in the narrative and statutory accounts sections of the annual reports. The results of a comparison of the proportion of good news in the two sections of the annual reports suggest that the narrative sections contained a significantly higher proportion of good news than the statutory accounts sections. Comparison of proportions of bad news, however, indicates that the narrative sections contained a significantly lower proportion of bad news compared to the statutory accounts sections. Finally, the results also suggest that the proportion of good news as compared to bad news in the narrative sections is significantly higher than the proportion of good news compared to bad news in the statutory accounts section. The results are consistent with the suggestion that company management highlights good news in narrative discussions. The implications of the findings for company management, users, auditors and regulators are discussed

Magnetoroton instabilities and static susceptibilities in higher Landau levels

We present analytical results concerning the magneto-roton instability in higher Landau levels evaluated in the single mode approximation. The roton gap appears at a finite wave vector, which is approximately independent of the LL index n, in agreement with numerical calculations in the composite-fermion picture. However, a large maximum in the static susceptibility indicates a charge density modulation with wave vectors $q_0(n)\sim 1/\sqrt{2n+1}$, as expected from Hartree-Fock predictions. We thus obtain a unified description of the leading charge instabilities in all LLs.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Representation of the Community Earth System Model (CESM1) CAM4-chem within the Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative (CCMI)

The Community Earth System Model (CESM1) CAM4-chem has been used to perform the Chemistry Climate Model Initiative (CCMI) reference and sensitivity simulations. In this model, the Community Atmospheric Model version 4 (CAM4) is fully coupled to tropospheric and stratospheric chemistry. Details and specifics of each configuration, including new developments and improvements are described. CESM1 CAM4-chem is a low-top model that reaches up to approximately 40km and uses a horizontal resolution of 1.9° latitude and 2.5° longitude. For the specified dynamics experiments, the model is nudged to Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) reanalysis. We summarize the performance of the three reference simulations suggested by CCMI, with a focus on the last 15 years of the simulation when most observations are available. Comparisons with selected data sets are employed to demonstrate the general performance of the model. We highlight new data sets that are suited for multi-model evaluation studies. Most important improvements of the model are the treatment of stratospheric aerosols and the corresponding adjustments for radiation and optics, the updated chemistry scheme including improved polar chemistry and stratospheric dynamics and improved dry deposition rates. These updates lead to a very good representation of tropospheric ozone within 20% of values from available observations for most regions. In particular, the trend and magnitude of surface ozone is much improved compared to earlier versions of the model. Furthermore, stratospheric column ozone of the Southern Hemisphere in winter and spring is reasonably well represented. All experiments still underestimate CO most significantly in Northern Hemisphere spring and show a significant underestimation of hydrocarbons based on surface observations