Time-Domain Isolated Phoneme Classification Using Reconstructed Phase Spaces

This paper introduces a novel time-domain approach to modeling and classifying speech phoneme waveforms. The approach is based on statistical models of reconstructed phase spaces, which offer significant theoretical benefits as representations that are known to be topologically equivalent to the state dynamics of the underlying production system. The lag and dimension parameters of the reconstruction process for speech are examined in detail, comparing common estimation heuristics for these parameters with corresponding maximum likelihood recognition accuracy over the TIMIT data set. Overall accuracies are compared with a Mel-frequency cepstral baseline system across five different phonetic classes within TIMIT, and a composite classifier using both cepstral and phase space features is developed. Results indicate that although the accuracy of the phase space approach by itself is still currently below that of baseline cepstral methods, a combined approach is capable of increasing speaker independent phoneme accuracy

Redefining the common insertion site

AbstractRetroviral mutagenesis has been used as a powerful tool to discover genes involved in oncogenesis through a technique called Common Insertion Site (CIS) analysis where tumors are induced by proviral integrations and the genomic loci of the proviruses are identified. A fundamental assumption made in this analysis is that multiple proviral insertions in close proximity occurring more frequently than would be predicted randomly provides evidence that the genes near the integrations are involved in the formation of the tumors. We demonstrate here using data derived from MLV integrations not put under selection for tumor induction that CIS analysis as currently defined is often not a sufficient argument for a gene's significance in tumorigenesis

Local variance of atmospheric 14C concentrations around Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant from 2010 to 2012

Radiocarbon (14C) has been measured in single tree ring samples collected from the southwest of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant. Our data indicate south-westwards dispersion of radiocarbon and the highest 14C activity observed so far in the local environment during the 2011 accident. The abnormally high 14C activity in the late wood of 2011 ring may imply an unknown source of radiocarbon nearby after the accident. The influence of 14C shrank from 30 km during normal reactor operation to 14 km for the accident in the northwest of FDNPP, but remains unclear in the southwest

Very strong intrinsic supercurrent carrying ability and vortex avalanches in (Ba,K)Fe2As2 superconducting single crystals

We report that single crystals of (Ba,K)Fe2As2 with Tc = 32 K have a pinning potential, U0, as high as 10^4 K, with U0 showing very little field depend-ence. In addition, the (Ba,K)Fe2As2 single crystals become isotropic at low temperatures and high magnetic fields, resulting in a very rigid vortex lattice, even in fields very close to Hc2. The rigid vortices in the two dimensional (Ba,K)Fe2As2 distinguish this compound from 2D high Tc cuprate superconductors with 2D vortices, and make it being capable of cearrying very high critical current.Flux jumping due to high Jc was also observed in large samples at low temperatures.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures. submitte

Scanning tunneling microscopy study of the possible topological surface states in BiTeCl

Recently, the non-centrosymmetric bismuth tellurohalides such as BiTeCl are being studied as possible candidates of topological insulators. While some photoemission studies showed that BiTeCl is an inversion asymmetric topological insulator, others showed that it is a normal semiconductor with Rashba splitting. Meanwhile, first-principle calculationsfailed to confirm the existence of topological surface states in BiTeCl so far. Therefore, the topological nature of BiTeCl requires further investigation. Here we report low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy study on the surface states of BiTeCl single crystals. On the tellurium-terminated surfaces with low defect density, strong evidences for topological surface states are found in the quasi-particle interference patterns generated by the scattering of these states, both in the anisotropy of the scattering vectors and the fast decay of the interference near step edges. Meanwhile, on samples with much higher defect densities, we observed surface states that behave differently. Our results help to resolve the current controversy on the topological nature of BiTeCl.Comment: 13pages,4figure

Radiocarbon releases from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident

Radiocarbon activities were measured in annual tree rings for the years 2009 to 2015 from Japanese cedar trees (Cryptomeria japonica) collected at six sites ranging from 2.5–38 km northwest and north of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. The 14C specific activity varied from 280.4 Bq kg−1 C in 2010 to 226.0 Bq kg−1 C in 2015. The elevated 14C activities in the 2009 and 2010 rings confirmed 14C discharges during routine reactor operations, whereas those activities that were indistinguishable from background in 2012–2015 coincided with the permanent shutdown of the reactors after the accident in 2011. High-resolution 14C analysis of the 2011 ring indicated 14C releases during the Fukushima accident. The resulted 14C activity decreased with increasing distance from the plant. The maximum 14C activity released during the period of the accident was measured 42.4 Bq kg−1 C above the natural ambient 14C background. Our findings indicate that, unlike other Fukushima-derived radionuclides, the 14C released during the accident is indistinguishable from ambient background beyond the local environment (~30 km from the plant). Furthermore, the resulting dose to the local population from the excess 14C activities is negligible compared to the dose from natural/nuclear weapons sources

Re-colonizing spaces of memorializing: the case of the Chattri Indian Memorial, UK

This article inspects the ways that spaces of war memorialization are organized and reorganized through official and unofficial meaning-making activities. It aims to contribute to the discussion of the ‘value’ of memorializing by examining a multifaceted space of remembrance and commemoration: the Chattri Indian Memorial built near Brighton, UK. The article brings postcolonial perspectives to explore how memorializing has been organized here, focusing on the activities of once-colonized people and the affective, embodied aspects of organizing practices. Built in 1921 to honour Indian soldiers who fought in WWI, the Chattri evolved from a colonial instrument to symbol and space for ethnic-Indian group activities. The study employed historical, visual and ethnographic methods to study the tangible monument and the changing nature of the memorializing activities carried out around the monument. Memorializing is conceptualized within three inter-related processes: colonizing, de-colonizing and re-colonizing to examine how forms and practices of memorialization constitute a values-laden organizing system