Task Demands Modulate the Effects of Speech on Text Processing

Task-irrelevant background sound can disrupt performance of visually-based cognitive tasks. The cross-modal breakdown of attentional selectivity in the context of reading was addressed using analyses of eye-movements. Moreover, the study addressed whether task-sensitivity to distraction via background speech on reading was modulated by the cognitive demands of the focal task. Two randomly-assigned groups of native-Chinese participants read the same set of Chinese experimental sentences while being exposed to meaningful speech, meaningless (foreign) speech, or silence. For one group, participants were instructed to judge whether the sentences made sense (i.e., semantic acceptability task); for another, participants were instructed to detect whether the sentences contained a non-character (i.e., non-character detection task). Results showed no significant effect across sound conditions for the non-character detection task. For the semantic acceptability task, however, there was a substantial disruptive effect of the meaningfulness of the speech. Compared with reading with meaningless speech or reading in silence, the meaningful speech increased numbers of fixations, regressions, regression path and total reading times. These results suggest that the disruption of reading by background speech is jointly dependent on the nature of the speech and the task-process deployed, thereby favouring an Interference-by-Process account over Interference-by-Content and Attentional Diversion accounts of distraction to reading by background sound

Extensive beam test study of prototype MRPCs for the T0 detector at the CSR external-target experiment

The CSR External-target Experiment (CEE) will be the first large-scale nuclear physics experiment device at the Cooling Storage Ring (CSR) of the Heavy-Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL) in China. A new T0 detector has been proposed to measure the multiplicity, angular distribution and timing information of charged particles produced in heavy-ion collisions at the target region. Multi-gap resistive plate chamber (MRPC) technology was chosen as part of the construction of the T0 detector, which provides precision event collision times (T0) and collision geometry information. The prototype was tested with hadron and heavy-ion beams to study its performance. By comparing the experimental results with a Monte Carlo simulation, the time resolution of the MRPCs are found to be $\sim$ 50 ps or better. The timing performance of the T0 detector, including both detector and readout electronics, we found to fulfil the requirements of the CEE.Comment: 12 pages, 36 figure

Challenges in QCD matter physics - The Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR

Substantial experimental and theoretical efforts worldwide are devoted to explore the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. At LHC and top RHIC energies, QCD matter is studied at very high temperatures and nearly vanishing net-baryon densities. There is evidence that a Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) was created at experiments at RHIC and LHC. The transition from the QGP back to the hadron gas is found to be a smooth cross over. For larger net-baryon densities and lower temperatures, it is expected that the QCD phase diagram exhibits a rich structure, such as a first-order phase transition between hadronic and partonic matter which terminates in a critical point, or exotic phases like quarkyonic matter. The discovery of these landmarks would be a breakthrough in our understanding of the strong interaction and is therefore in the focus of various high-energy heavy-ion research programs. The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR will play a unique role in the exploration of the QCD phase diagram in the region of high net-baryon densities, because it is designed to run at unprecedented interaction rates. High-rate operation is the key prerequisite for high-precision measurements of multi-differential observables and of rare diagnostic probes which are sensitive to the dense phase of the nuclear fireball. The goal of the CBM experiment at SIS100 (sqrt(s_NN) = 2.7 - 4.9 GeV) is to discover fundamental properties of QCD matter: the phase structure at large baryon-chemical potentials (mu_B > 500 MeV), effects of chiral symmetry, and the equation-of-state at high density as it is expected to occur in the core of neutron stars. In this article, we review the motivation for and the physics programme of CBM, including activities before the start of data taking in 2022, in the context of the worldwide efforts to explore high-density QCD matter.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Published in European Physical Journal

Improving liming mode for remediation of Cd-contaminated acidic paddy soils: Identifying the optimal soil pH, model and efficacies

Liming has been widely taken to remediate Cd-contaminated acidic paddy soils, whereas liming mode involving in the relevant optimal soil pH, model and efficacies remain unclear. Both soil and field liming experiments were conducted to improve liming mode for precise remediation of Cd-contaminated acidic paddy soils. Soil batch liming experiments indicated soil DTPA-Cd and CaCl2-Cd were piecewise linearly correlated to soil pH with nodes of 6.8–8.0, and decreased respectively by 15.3%37.7% and 80.7%93.8% (P < 0.05) when soil pH raised over the nodes, indicating an appropriate target soil pH 7.0 for liming. Stepwise linear regression revealed that liming ratio (LR, kg ha−1) could be estimated from soil basal pH (pH0) and the interval to the target soil pH (ΔpH), as [LR=exp(1.10 ×ΔpH+0.61 ×pH0-4.98), R2 = 0.97, n = 42, P < 0.01]. The model exhibited high prediction accuracy (95.2%), low mean estimation error (−0.02) and root mean square error (0.20). Field liming experiment indicated liming to target pH decreased respectively soil CaCl2-Cd by 95.2–98.0% and rice grain Cd by 59.8–80.6% (P < 0.01), whereas uninfluenced rice grain yield. Correlation analysis and structural equation models (SEM) demonstrated that great reduction in Cd phytoavailability was mainly attributed to the transformation of soil water-soluble and exchangeable Cd to carbonate-bound Cd and Fe/Mn oxides-bound Cd and reduced Cd in iron plaque as increasing soil pH. However, rice grain Cd of 50% samples met national food safety standards limit of China (0.2 mg kg−1) due to the high soil Cd level (0.8 mg kg−1). In conclusion, liming to target soil pH 7.0 could be considered as a precise and effective remediation mode for Cd-contaminated acidic paddy soils and complementary practices should be implemented for severe pollution. Our results could provide novel insights on precise liming remediation of Cd-contaminated acidic paddy soils

Prognostic value of miR-21 in various cancers: an updating meta-analysis.

Recently, more and more studies investigated the value of microRNA (miRNA) as a diagnostic or prognostic biomarker in various cancers. MiR-21 was found dysregulated in almost all types of cancers. While the prognostic role of miR-21 in many cancers has been studied, the results were not consistent.We performed a meta-analysis to investigate the correlation between miR-21 and survival of general cancers by calculating pooled hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).The pooled results of 63 published studies showed that elevated miR-21 was a predictor for poor survival of general carcinomas, with pooled HR of 1.91 (95%CI: 1.66-2.19) for OS, 1.42 (95% CI: 1.16-1.74) for DFS and 2.2 (95% CI: 1.64-2.96) for RFS/CSS. MiR-21 was also a prognostic biomarker in the patients who received adjuvant therapy, with pooled HR of 2.4 (95%CI: 1.18-4.9) for OS.Our results showed that miR-21 could act as a significant biomarker in the prognosis of various cancers. Further studies are warranted before the application of the useful biomarker in the clinical

A Layered Bidirectional Active Equalization Method for Retired Power Lithium-Ion Batteries for Energy Storage Applications

The power from lithium-ion batteries can be retired from electric vehicles (EVs) and can be used for energy storage applications when the residual capacity is up to 70% of their initial capacity. The retired batteries have characteristics of serious inconsistency. In order to solve this problem, a layered bidirectional active equalization topology is proposed in this paper. Specifically, a bridge-type equalization topology based on an inductor is adopted in the bottom layer, and the distributed equalization topological structure based on the bidirectional BUCK-BOOST circuit is adopted in the top layer. State of charge (SOC) is used as the equalization target variable, and the bottom layer equalization algorithm based on a &ldquo;partition&rdquo; idea and route optimization is proposed. The static equalization experiments and charge equalization experiments are performed by the 12 retired batteries selected from an electric sanitation vehicle. The results show that the proposed equalization method can reduce the SOC difference between retired batteries and can effectively improve the inconsistency of the retired battery pack with a faster equalization speed