Efficacy of speech intervention using electropalatography with a cochlear implant user

Electropalatography (EPG) has become relatively well established as a safe and convenient technique for use in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of children and adults with articulation disorders. EPG's wide applicability is reflected in the range of different cases that has been researched in recent years. Some research has been carried out using EPG therapy for deaf individuals who use hearing aids, however there are no similar studies for cochlear implant users. The purpose of this single case study is to explore the technique of EPG as a therapeutic intervention to treat voiceless velar stop consonant sound production in a deaf child cochlear implant user. EPG therapy was offered as a last resort when traditional therapy failed to achieve specific changes. During therapy, a list of familiar words was practised, using the visual feedback provided by EPG. The client's articulation was assessed using objective (EPG printouts) and subjective (listener ratings) measures at four assessment points. Changes were found to be statistically significant. Generalization of the newly‐acquired skills to untaught words containing voiceless velars was also observed. The results are discussed in the broader context of implications of this type of therapy with deaf clients

Limits on the temporal variation of the fine structure constant, quark masses and strong interaction from quasar absorption spectra and atomic clock experiments

We perform calculations of the dependence of nuclear magnetic moments on quark masses and obtain limits on the variation of $(m_q/\Lambda_{QCD})$ from recent measurements of hydrogen hyperfine (21 cm) and molecular rotational transitions in quasar absorption systems, atomic clock experiments with hyperfine transitions in H, Rb, Cs, Yb$^+$, Hg$^+$ and optical transition in Hg$^+$. Experiments with Cd$^+$, deuterium/hydrogen, molecular SF$_6$ and Zeeman transitions in $^3$He/Xe are also discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, uses revtex

Long-Wavelength Modes of Cosmological Scalar Fields

We give a numerical analysis of long-wavelength modes in the WKB approximation of cosmological scalar fields coupled to gravity via $\xi\phi^{2}R$. Massless fields are coupled conformally at $\xi=1/6$. Conformality can be preserved for fields of nonzero mass by shifting $\xi$. We discuss implications for density perturbations.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, several stylistic improvement

Spatial variability of soil properties and soil erodibility in the Alqueva reservoir watershed

The aim of this work is to investigate how the spatial variability of soil properties and soil erodibility (K factor) were affected by the changes in land use allowed by irrigation with water from a reservoir in a semiarid area. To this end, three areas representative of different land uses (agroforestry grassland, lucerne crop and olive orchard) were studied within a 900 ha farm. The interrelationships between variables were analyzed by multivariate techniques and extrapolated using geostatistics. The results confirmed differences between land uses for all properties analyzed, which was explained mainly by the existence of diverse management practices (tillage, fertilization and irrigation), vegetation cover and local soil characteristics. Soil organic matter, clay and nitrogen content decreased significantly, while the K factor increased with intensive cultivation. The HJ-Biplot methodology was used to represent the variation of soil erodibility properties grouped in land uses. Native grassland was the least correlated with the other land uses. The K factor demonstrated high correlation mainly with very fine sand and silt. The maps produced with geostatistics were crucial to understand the current spatial variability in the Alqueva region. Facing the intensification of land-use conversion, a sustainable management is needed to introduce protective measures to control soil erosion

Coupled thermomechanical dynamics of phase transitions in shape memory alloys and related hysteresis phenomena

In this paper the nonlinear dynamics of shape memory alloy phase transformations is studied with thermomechanical models based on coupled systems of partial differential equations by using computer algebra tools. The reduction procedures of the original model to a system of differential-algebraic equations and its solution are based on the general methodology developed by the authors for the analysis of phase transformations in shape memory materials with low dimensional approximations derived from center manifold theory. Results of computational experiments revealing the martensitic-austenitic phase transition mechanism in a shape-memory-alloy rod are presented. Several groups of computational experiments are reported. They include results on stress- and temperature-induced phase transformations as well as the analysis of the hysteresis phenomenon. All computational experiments are presented for Cu-based structures

The collective quantization of three-flavored Skyrmions revisited

A self-consistent large $N_c$ approach is developed for the collective quantization of SU(3) flavor hedgehog solitons, such as the Skyrmion. The key to this analysis is the determination of all of the zero modes associated with small fluctuations around the hedgehog. These are used in the conventional way to construct collective coordinates. This approach differs from previous work in that it does not implicitly assume that each static zero mode is associated with a dynamical zero mode. It is demonstrated explicitly in the context of the Skyrmion that there are fewer dynamical zero modes than static ones due to the Witten-Wess-Zumino term in the action. Group-theoretic methods are employed to identify the physical states resulting from canonical quantization of the collectively rotating soliton. The collective states fall into representations of SU(3) flavor labeled by $(p,q)$ and are given by $(2J, \frac{Nc}{2} -J)$ where $J={1/2},{3/2},...$ is the spin of the collective state. States with strangeness $S > 0$ do not arise as collective states from this procedure; thus the $\theta^{+}$ (pentaquark) resonance does not arise as a collective excitation in models of this type.Comment: 12 pages; uses package "youngtab

Yukawa Couplings in Heterotic Standard Models

In this paper, we present a formalism for computing the Yukawa couplings in heterotic standard models. This is accomplished by calculating the relevant triple products of cohomology groups, leading to terms proportional to Q*H*u, Q*Hbar*d, L*H*nu and L*Hbar*e in the low energy superpotential. These interactions are subject to two very restrictive selection rules arising from the geometry of the Calabi-Yau manifold. We apply our formalism to the "minimal" heterotic standard model whose observable sector matter spectrum is exactly that of the MSSM. The non-vanishing Yukawa interactions are explicitly computed in this context. These interactions exhibit a texture rendering one out of the three quark/lepton families naturally light.Comment: 21 pages, LaTe

Correlation between superfluid density and Tc of underdoped YBa2Cu3O6+x near the superconductor-insulator transition

We report measurements of the ab-plane superfluid density Ns (magnetic penetration depth, \lambda) of severely underdoped films of YBa2Cu3O6+x, with Tc's from 6 to 50 K. Tc is not proportional to Ns(0); instead, we find Tc ~ Ns^{1/2.3 +/- 0.4}. At the lowest dopings, Tc is as much as 5 times larger than the upper limit set by the KTB transition temperature of individual CuO2 bilayers.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

National Catastrophic Drug Insurance Revisited: Who Would Benefit from Senator Kirby's Recommendations?

The recent "Romanow" and "Kirby" inquiries into the Canadian health care system recommended a publicly funded catastrophic prescription drug insurance program to protect Canadians from potentially ruinous drug costs. While the Romanow commission was not specific about the nature of such a program, the Kirby commission recommended that household prescription drug expenses be capped at 3% of total household income, or $1,500 per household member, whichever is lower, with government picking up the remainder. Using recent survey data on household spending, we estimate how the program would assist households of different means and ages, residing in different regions of the country. We find that, despite the fact that senior and low income non-senior households are the primary beneficiaries of provincial government drug plans, average subsidies would be over 4 times higher for these households than for all other (non-senior, non-indigent) households. A small percentage of other households would be among the largest beneficiaries of the program. Program benefits are typically larger in provinces with less generous public coverage and tend to benefit lower income households. Program costs are estimated to be at least$461 million annually, although reductions in out of pocket drug spending will reduce medical tax credits and thereby increase tax revenues by at least $80 million. Program costs appeared to be very sensitive to increased household drug spending that might result from the program introduction.drug insurance; prescription drug expenses