576 research outputs found
Cross-linguistic study of vocal pathology: perceptual features of spasmodic dysphonia in French-speaking subjects
Clinical characterisation of Spasmodic Dysphonia of the adductor type (SD) in French speakers by Klap and colleagues (1993) appears to differ from that of SD in English. This perceptual analysis aims to describe the phonetic features of French SD. A video of 6 French speakers with SD supplied by Klap and colleagues was analysed for frequency of phonatory breaks, pitch breaks, harshness, creak, breathiness and falsetto voice, rate of production, and quantity of speech output. In contrast to English SD, the French speaking SD patients demonstrated no evidence pitch breaks, but phonatory breaks, harshness and breathiness were prominent features. This verifies the French authors’ (1993) clinical description. These findings suggest that phonetic properties of a specific language may affect the manifestation of pathology in neurogenic voice disorders
From planning the port/city to planning the port-city : exploring the economic interface in European port cities
In last three decades, planning agencies of most ports have institutionally evolved into a (semi-) independent port authority. The rationale behind this process is that port authorities are able to react more quickly to changing logistical and spatial preferences of maritime firms, hence increasing the competitiveness of ports. Although these dedicated port authorities have proven to be largely successful, new economic, social, and environmental challenges are quickly catching up on these port governance models, and particularly leads to (spatial) policy ‘conflicts’ between port and city. This chapter starts by assessing this conflict and argue that the conflict is partly a result of dominant—often also academic—spatial representations of the port city as two separate entities. To escape this divisive conception of contemporary port cities, this chapter presents a relational visualisation method that is able to analyse the economic interface between port and city. Based on our results, we reflect back on our proposition and argue that the core challenge today for researchers and policy makers is acknowledging the bias of port/city, being arguably a self-fulfilling prophecy. Hence, we turn the idea of (planning the) port/city conflicts into planning the port-city’s strengths and weaknesses
Measurement of the Probability Distribution of Total Transmission in Random Waveguides
Measurements have been made of the probability distribution of total
transmission of microwave radiation in waveguides filled with randomly
positioned scatterers which would have values of the dimensionless conductance
g near unity. The distributions are markedly non-Gaussian and have exponential
tails. The measured distributions are accurately described by diagrammatic and
random matrix calculations carried out for nonabsorbing samples in the limit g
>> 1 when g is expressed in terms of the variance of the distribution, which
equals the degree of long-range intensity correlation across the output face of
the sample.Comment: 5 pages, 5 post script figures, RevTe
A Dynamic Programming Approach to Adaptive Fractionation
We conduct a theoretical study of various solution methods for the adaptive
fractionation problem. The two messages of this paper are: (i) dynamic
programming (DP) is a useful framework for adaptive radiation therapy,
particularly adaptive fractionation, because it allows us to assess how close
to optimal different methods are, and (ii) heuristic methods proposed in this
paper are near-optimal, and therefore, can be used to evaluate the best
possible benefit of using an adaptive fraction size.
The essence of adaptive fractionation is to increase the fraction size when
the tumor and organ-at-risk (OAR) are far apart (a "favorable" anatomy) and to
decrease the fraction size when they are close together. Given that a fixed
prescribed dose must be delivered to the tumor over the course of the
treatment, such an approach results in a lower cumulative dose to the OAR when
compared to that resulting from standard fractionation. We first establish a
benchmark by using the DP algorithm to solve the problem exactly. In this case,
we characterize the structure of an optimal policy, which provides guidance for
our choice of heuristics. We develop two intuitive, numerically near-optimal
heuristic policies, which could be used for more complex, high-dimensional
problems. Furthermore, one of the heuristics requires only a statistic of the
motion probability distribution, making it a reasonable method for use in a
realistic setting. Numerically, we find that the amount of decrease in dose to
the OAR can vary significantly (5 - 85%) depending on the amount of motion in
the anatomy, the number of fractions, and the range of fraction sizes allowed.
In general, the decrease in dose to the OAR is more pronounced when: (i) we
have a high probability of large tumor-OAR distances, (ii) we use many
fractions (as in a hyper-fractionated setting), and (iii) we allow large daily
fraction size deviations.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
Exploring out-of-equilibrium quantum magnetism and thermalization in a spin-3 many-body dipolar lattice system
Understanding quantum thermalization through entanglement build-up in
isolated quantum systems addresses fundamental questions on how unitary
dynamics connects to statistical physics. Here, we study the spin dynamics and
approach towards local thermal equilibrium of a macroscopic ensemble of S = 3
spins prepared in a pure coherent spin state, tilted compared to the magnetic
field, under the effect of magnetic dipole-dipole interactions. The experiment
uses a unit filled array of 104 chromium atoms in a three dimensional optical
lattice, realizing the spin-3 XXZ Heisenberg model. The buildup of quantum
correlation during the dynamics, especially as the angle approaches pi/2, is
supported by comparison with an improved numerical quantum phase-space method
and further confirmed by the observation that our isolated system thermalizes
under its own dynamics, reaching a steady state consistent with the one
extracted from a thermal ensemble with a temperature dictated from the system's
energy. This indicates a scenario of quantum thermalization which is tied to
the growth of entanglement entropy. Although direct experimental measurements
of the Renyi entropy in our macroscopic system are unfeasible, the excellent
agreement with the theory, which can compute this entropy, does indicate
entanglement build-up.Comment: 12 figure
Quantum-Statistical Current Correlations in Multi-Lead Chaotic Cavities
Quantum mechanics requires that identical particles are treated as
indistinguishable. This requirement leads to correlations in the fluctuating
properties of a system. Theoretical predictions are made for an experiment on a
multi-lead chaotic quantum dot which can identify exchange effects in
electronic current-current correlations. Interestingly, we find that the
ensemble averaged exchange effects are of the order of the channel number, and
are insensitive to dephasing.Comment: 4 pages REVTEX, including two figure
Non-perturbative calculation of the probability distribution of plane-wave transmission through a disordered waveguide
A non-perturbative random-matrix theory is applied to the transmission of a
monochromatic scalar wave through a disordered waveguide. The probability
distributions of the transmittances T_{mn} and T_n=\sum_m T_{mn} of an incident
mode n are calculated in the thick-waveguide limit, for broken time-reversal
symmetry. A crossover occurs from Rayleigh or Gaussian statistics in the
diffusive regime to lognormal statistics in the localized regime. A
qualitatively different crossover occurs if the disordered region is replaced
by a chaotic cavity. ***Submitted to Physical Review E.***Comment: 7 pages, REVTeX-3.0, 5 postscript figures appended as self-extracting
archive. A complete postscript file with figures and text (4 pages) is
available from http://rulgm4.LeidenUniv.nl/preprints.htm
Entangled Hanbury Brown Twiss effects with edge states
Electronic Hanbury Brown Twiss correlations are discussed for geometries in
which transport is along adiabatically guided edge channels. We briefly discuss
partition noise experiments and discuss the effect of inelastic scattering and
dephasing on current correlations. We then consider a two-source Hanbury Brown
Twiss experiment which demonstrates strikingly that even in geometries without
an Aharonov-Bohm effect in the conductance matrix (second-order interference),
correlation functions can (due to fourth-order interference) be sensitive to a
flux. Interestingly we find that this fourth-order interference effect is
closely related to orbital entanglement. The entanglement can be detected via
violation of a Bell Inequality in this geometry even so particles emanate from
uncorrelated sources.Comment: International Symposium "Quantum Hall Effect: Past, Present and
Future
Reflection and transmission of waves in surface-disordered waveguides
The reflection and transmission amplitudes of waves in disordered multimode
waveguides are studied by means of numerical simulations based on the invariant
embedding equations. In particular, we analyze the influence of surface-type
disorder on the behavior of the ensemble average and fluctuations of the
reflection and transmission coefficients, reflectance, transmittance, and
conductance. Our results show anomalous effects stemming from the combination
of mode dispersion and rough surface scattering: For a given waveguide length,
the larger the mode transverse momentum is, the more strongly is the mode
scattered. These effects manifest themselves in the mode selectivity of the
transmission coefficients, anomalous backscattering enhancement, and speckle
pattern both in reflection and transmission, reflectance and transmittance, and
also in the conductance and its universal fluctuations. It is shown that, in
contrast to volume impurities, surface scattering in quasi-one-dimensional
structures (waveguides) gives rise to the coexistence of the ballistic,
diffusive, and localized regimes within the same sample.Comment: LaTeX (REVTeX), 12 pages with 14 EPS figures (epsf macro), minor
change
Regulation of branching dynamics by axon-intrinsic asymmetries in Tyrosine Kinase Receptor signaling
Axonal branching allows a neuron to connect to several targets, increasing neuronal circuit complexity. While axonal branching is well described, the mechanisms that control it remain largely unknown. We find that in the Drosophila CNS branches develop through a process of excessive growth followed by pruning. In vivo high-resolution live imaging of developing brains as well as loss and gain of function experiments show that activation of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) is necessary for branch dynamics and the final branching pattern. Live imaging also reveals that intrinsic asymmetry in EGFR localization regulates the balance between dynamic and static filopodia. Elimination of signaling asymmetry by either loss or gain of EGFR function results in reduced dynamics leading to excessive branch formation. In summary, we propose that the dynamic process of axon branch development is mediated by differential local distribution of signaling receptors
- …