A Study on Effects of Sound Masking on Speech Intelligibility

This study relates to the effects of sound masking on speech intelligibility. The International Standards such as ANSI SII and ITU-T PESQ were used for the evaluation on the speech intelligibility under masking noise environments. Also, for the subjective evaluation, the listening test was performed by people. Experimental results on speech intelligibility proved that sound masking method is effective for masking the unwanted speech signals of other people

Light localization in biological media

Light in natural and biological media is known as freely diffusing. When light undergoes multiple scattering through inhomogeneous dielectric biomacromolecules, interference is ignored. If scattered waves return to their origin points along the time-reversed paths for constructive interference, outgoing waves can be forbidden, occasionally being on-resonance or off-resonance with Anderson localized modes. However, such a phenomenon in optics requires high-refractive-index contrasts, which intrinsically do not exist in organic molecules (e.g. proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids). Here we predict and show experimentally that the long-standing perception of diffusive nature of light in biological media is broken by an exquisite distribution of silk protein structures produced from Bombyx mori (silkworm) and layered aragonite structures produced from Haliotis fulgens (abalone). We demonstrate how optical transmission quantities (e.g. light flux in transmission channels) are analyzed satisfying critical values of the Anderson localization transition. We find that the size of modes is smaller than specimen sizes and that the statistics of modes, decomposed from excitation at the gain-loss equilibrium, clearly differentiates silk and nacre from diffusive structures sharing the microscopic morphological similarity. This explains how the dimension, the size, and the distribution of disordered biological nanostructures result in enhanced light-matter interactions, in spite of low refractive index contrasts of constituent materials. As wave localization is universal, the presented results of electromagnetic waves will allow us to extend insight into electronic and mechanical waves in biological systems. Importantly, such optical resonances are extremely sensitive to subtle nanoscale perturbations, and thus can be implemented to biosensing platforms

Self Efficacy for Multiple Roles on Women Career & Japanese Labor Practices

　本論文の関心は,今日における日本の働く女性の性格とあり方にある.日本の女性労働を考える際にもっとも気になる問題の一つであり,もっとも象徴的な問題の一つは,いまだに改善されない「M字型カーブ」の存在であろう.この「M字型カーブ」の存在が意味するものについての疑問から,日本の女性労働の現状の問題の一つの出掛かりとして,本論文においては,まず,「自己効力(Self-Efficacy)」に着目する.そして,今日,働く女性に与えられている「役割(Role)」に注目し,そこでの一つの問題として,現実的に「仕事も家庭も(ワーク・ライフ・バランス)」という働く女性に対する期待された「多重役割」に対して,この「多重役割」を担うための必要な概念として,「多重役割自己効力(Self-Efficacy for Multiple Role)」の問題を取り上げる.働く女性の生涯人生において重要な意味をもつ多重役割が,結婚や出産・子育てなどのライフ・イベントと関係なく働き続けたい女性労働のキャリア形成の観点から,与えられた役割に対する自己認識としての「多重役割のための自己効力」の問題を取り上げる.働く女性のキャリア形成を考える際に,日本の社会・組織現場での諸慣行や意識など多様なレベルでの労働慣行(Labor Practices)が,女性労働のキャリアに重要な意味を持つ「多重役割のための自己効力感」の形成に決定的な阻害要因として存在することを指摘したい.そして,現実的に働く女性に期待された「仕事も家庭・生活も」という「多重役割」に対する自己認識として,ここで強調する「多重役割効力」の必要性について検討するものである

The Korean Market for Private Participation in Infrastructure - An Analysis of Risks and Opportunities for Private Investors

The driving factor behind Koreas push for development of infrastructure is its recognition in recent years that the acute lack of infrastructure in key sectors affects the countrys overall productivity. Despite this pressing need, the government has had to turn to the private sector for its much-needed greenfield infrastructure projects due to budgetary and financial constraints. In this respect, the Korean government firmly recognizes the correlation between a nations highly-developed infrastructure and its overall competitiveness in todays globalized economy, and it is this need for development which has led the Korean government to focus on its private participation in infrastructure (PPI) scheme, encouraging both equity and debt participation by domestic and foreign participants

Automatic Volume Control Based on Background Noise Characteristics

In this study, we propose a novel technique for automatic volume control (AVC). Contemporary AVC systems operate according to background noise level. This paper presentsan AVC system that adaptively updates the audio volumeconsidering the frequency characteristics of the background noise. From the experiments, we conclude that the developed techniques can be successfully used for various acoustic environments