Cross-format integration between spoken number words and Arabic digits

Spoken number words and Arabic digits are the most commonly used numerical symbols. We often transcode numerals from one to another, thus, the correspondence between them should become over-learned and automatic after years of usage. It has been shown that an integration usually exists when pairing of stimulus is over-learned, and is often reflected in the mismatch negativity (MMN). The current thesis conducted two behavioural experiments (Chapter 2) and three EEG experiments (Chapter 3 - 5) to systematically investigate the cross-modal correspondence, i.e., the integration, between spoken number words and Arabic digits in adult participants. In the behavioural experiments, a clear distance effect is shown in an audiovisual matching task. This suggests that an amodal, shared magnitude representation is activated for cross-modal numerals during a matching judgment. Moreover, the distance effect is modulated by stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). That is, the distance effect becomes smaller with the increase of SOA. This is similar to the data pattern of a common integration effect because an integration usually shows when cross-modal stimuli are temporally close. However, a disadvantage of a behavioural task is that the RTs could be influenced by response-selection or response-execution. Hence, I then used an oddball paradigm in which no responses are required for the cross-modal numerals in my EEG experiments. The results of three EEG experiments showed that an early integration effect exists between spoken number words and Arabic digits in the mismatch negativity (MMN). This result is first to show the presence of a cross-format integration between spoken number words and Arabic digits. However, the integration effect is also modulated by distance as well as stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), which may suggest that the cross-modal correspondence between audiovisual numerals is more complicated than other kinds of audiovisual stimuli, such as letters and speech sounds

A fool proof carrier design for front access storage expansion board

Storage applications, by their very nature, need an expansion hardware to consolidate more hard drives to a controller. Typically the expansion hardware is designed as an independent printed circuit board and connect to the hard drive backplane in the opposite side of hard drives. When the system is installed in the rack, it requires users to move the whole system box from the position in order to open the lid. It also requires users to power off the system before disconnect the expansion board from the hard drive backplane

Control Design for Signal Transduction Networks

Signal transduction networks of biological systems are highly complex. How to mathematically describe a signal transduction network by systematic approaches to further develop an appropriate and effective control strategy is attractive to control engineers. In this paper, the synergism and saturation system (S-systems) representations are used to describe signal transduction networks and a control design idea is presented. For constructing mathematical models, a cascaded analysis model is first proposed. Dynamic analysis and controller design are simulated and verified

The Effects of Green Energy Production on Farmland: A Case Study in Yunlin County, Taiwan

Taiwan enacted the Act of Renewable Energy in the year 2009 which promotes energy safety, green economy, and a sustainable environment, and with that the government envisages a contribution of photovoltaic energy of up to 20% by the year 2025. In this study we look into the motivation and background of this energy policy, plans for implementation and associated challenges, and its actual consequences for farmland use and farmers. In addition, we take a look into the implementation of mixed-use farmland in which agricultural activity and photovoltaic installations are planned to coexist in order to increase land value and productivity. We furthermore report on some of our findings related to a field survey conducted in Taiwan’s corn chamber of Yunlin County which has been facing a number of socioeconomic challenges

Testing an acoustic model of the P-center in English and Japanese

The notion of the “perceptual center” or the “P-center” has been put forward to account for the repeated finding that acoustic and perceived syllable onsets do not necessarily coincide, at least in the perception of simple monosyllables or disyllables. The magnitude of the discrepancy between acoustics and perception—the location of the P-center in the speech signal— has proven difficult to estimate, though acoustic models of the effect do exist. The present study asks if the P-center effect can be documented in natural connected speech of English and Japanese and examines if an acoustic model that defines the P-center as the moment of the fastest energy change in a syllabic amplitude envelope adequately reflects the P-center in the two languages. A sensorimotor synchronization paradigm was deployed to address the research questions. The results provide evidence for the existence of the P-center effect in speech of both languages while the acoustic P-center model is found to be less applicable to Japanese. Sensorimotor synchronization patterns further suggest that the P-center may reflect perceptual anticipation of a vowel onset.</p

Arabic digits and spoken number words: Timing modulates the cross-modal numerical distance effect

Moving seamlessly between spoken number words and Arabic digits is common in everyday life. In this study, we systematically investigated the correspondence between auditory number words and visual Arabic digits in adults. Auditory number words and visual Arabic digits were presented concurrently or sequentially and participants had to indicate whether they described the same quantity. We manipulated the stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) between the two stimuli (Experiment 1: −500 ms to +500 ms; Experiment 2: −200 ms to +200 ms). In both experiments, we found a significant cross-modal distance effect. This effect was strongest for simultaneous stimulus presentation and decreased with increasing SOAs. Numerical distance emerged as the most consistent significant predictor overall, in particular for simultaneous presentation. However, physical similarity between the stimuli was often a significant predictor of response times in addition to numerical distance, and at longer SOAs, physical similarity between the stimuli was the only significant predictor. This shows that SOA modulates the extent to which participants access quantity representations. Our results thus support the idea that a semantic quantity representation of auditory and visual numerical symbols is activated when participants perform a concurrent matching task, while at longer SOAs participants are more likely to rely on physical similarity between the stimuli. We also investigated whether individual differences in the efficiency of the cross-modal processing were related to differences in mathematical performance. Our results are inconclusive about whether the efficiency of cross-format numerical correspondence is related to mathematical competence in adults

Fast Video Retrieval via the Statistics of Motion

[[abstract]]Due to the popularity of the Internet and the powerful computing capability of computers, efficient processing/retrieval of multimedia data has become an important issue. In this paper, we propose a fast video retrieval algorithm that bases its search core on the statistics of object motion. The algorithm starts with extracting object motions from a shot and then transform/quantize them into the form of probability distributions. By choosing the shot that has the largest entropy value among the constituent shots of an unknown query video clip, we execute the first stage video search.By comparing two shots with different lengths, their corresponding motion probability distributions are compared by a discrete Bhattacharyya distance which is designed to measure the similarity between any two distribution functions. In the second stage, we add an adjacent shot(either preceding or subsequent) to perform a finer comparison. Experimental results demonstrate that our fast video retrieval algorithm is powerful in terms of accuracy and efficiency.[[fileno]]2030144030026[[department]]電機工程學

Emergency Open Cardiac Massage via Subxyphoid Approach in Ruptured Type A Aortic Dissection

Patient sustained cardiac tamponade caused by rupture of type A aortic dissection may result in sudden death. Pericardiocentesis is a lifesaving procedure; nevertheless, blood may occlude the catheter and fail to relieve the pressure. However, open-chest cardiac massage in resuscitation has been studied in animal models by some medical centers and laboratories with inspiring results. We report a 58-year-old woman who was transferred from a local hospital with the diagnosis of cardiac tamponade caused by ruptured type A aortic dissection. Pulseless electrical activity followed by cardiac arrest occurred thereafter. Successful resuscitation in the emergency department was achieved using open cardiac massage through the sub-xyphoid region by opening a pericardial window. Therefore, in unstable patients with cardiac tamponade due to aortic dissection, this resuscitative procedure is feasible, safe and efficient

Use of sodium bicarbonate for acute dizziness after minor head injury

AbstractObjectiveDizziness after minor head injury (mHI) is common. In some eastern countries, it is treated with 7% sodium bicarbonate solution (SB). This prospective study evaluated the clinical efficacy of SB compared with normal saline (NS).Material and methodsFrom April 2009 to April 2010, we performed a prospective observational study on 228 patients (68% female, 32% male) with acute dizziness after mHI. At the emergency physician’s discretion, intravenous SB (1 mL/kg) in NS (250 mL) or NS (250 mL) was administered to 166 patients and 62 patients, respectively, as empiric antidizziness therapy. Outcome measures were severity of dizziness and treatment response, which were measured by a visual analog scale. Various characteristics were compared between treatment groups. Any continued dizziness of the patients during follow-up was also compared with their pre-injury condition, such as prior psychiatric disorders and the presence of vertigo.ResultsThe SB group had their visual analog scale scores reduced by 25.4% compared with 24.6% in the NS group. Both groups showed a statistically significant reduction in dizziness (p < 0.001); however, the dizziness improvement did not differ significantly between the two treatment groups (p = 0.699). Sixty-four patients (28.1%) suffered from continued dizziness during follow-up (mean period, 22.4 ± 28.9 days). The prevalence of continued dizziness was higher in patients with prior psychiatric disorders, although this was not statistically significant (40% vs. 27.2%, p = 0.276), whereas patients with prior vertigo did not experience a higher dizziness relapse rate (27% vs. 28.2%).ConclusionsSB and NS administrations are both effective individually when treating patients with acute dizziness from mHI; however, both results may be attributable to the placebo effect. Therefore more research is necessary to understand the complex conditions that determine the effects of SB on this disorder