Letter Knowledge in Parent–Child Conversations

Science.gov (United States)

Robins, Sarah; Treiman, Rebecca; Rosales, Nicole

2014-01-01

Learning about letters is an important component of emergent literacy. We explored the possibility that parent speech provides information about letters, and also that children’s speech reflects their own letter knowledge. By studying conversations transcribed in CHILDES (MacWhinney, 2000) between parents and children aged one to five, we found that alphabetic order influenced use of individual letters and letter sequences. The frequency of letters in children’s books influenced parent utterances throughout the age range studied, but children’s utterances only after age two. Conversations emphasized some literacy-relevant features of letters, such as their shapes and association with words, but not letters’ sounds. Describing these patterns and how they change over the preschool years offers important insight into the home literacy environment. PMID:25598577

A classification of marked hijaiyah letters' pronunciation using hidden Markov model

Science.gov (United States)

Wisesty, Untari N.; Mubarok, M. Syahrul; Adiwijaya

2017-08-01

Hijaiyah letters are the letters that arrange the words in Al Qur'an consisting of 28 letters. They symbolize the consonant sounds. On the other hand, the vowel sounds are symbolized by harokat/marks. Speech recognition system is a system used to process the sound signal to be data so that it can be recognized by computer. To build the system, some stages are needed i.e characteristics/feature extraction and classification. In this research, LPC and MFCC extraction method, K-Means Quantization vector and Hidden Markov Model classification are used. The data used are the 28 letters and 6 harakat with the total class of 168. After several are testing done, it can be concluded that the system can recognize the pronunciation pattern of marked hijaiyah letter very well in the training data with its highest accuracy of 96.1% using the feature of LPC extraction and 94% using the MFCC. Meanwhile, when testing system is used, the accuracy decreases up to 41%.

The Effectiveness of a Multi Sensory Approach in Improving Letter-Sound Correspondence among Mild Intellectual Disabled Students in State of Kuwait

Science.gov (United States)

Moustafa, Amr; Ghani, Mohd Zuri

2016-01-01

This research examines the effectiveness of multi sensory approach for the purpose of improving the knowledge on English Letter sound correspondence among mild disabled students in the state of Kuwait. The discussion in this study is based on the multisensory approach that could be applied in the teaching of reading skills as well as phonemic…

Letter and symbol identification: No evidence for letter-specific crowding mechanisms.

Science.gov (United States)

Castet, Eric; Descamps, Marine; Denis-Noël, Ambre; Colé, Pascale

2017-09-01

It has been proposed that letters, as opposed to symbols, trigger specialized crowding processes, boosting identification of the first and last letters of words. This hypothesis is based on evidence that single-letter accuracy as a function of within-string position has a W shape (the classic serial position function [SPF] in psycholinguistics) whereas an inverted V shape is obtained when measured with symbols. Our main goal was to test the robustness of the latter result. Our hypothesis was that any letter/symbol difference might result from short-term visual memory processes (due to the partial report [PR] procedures used in SPF studies) rather than from crowding. We therefore removed the involvement of short-term memory by precueing target-item position and compared SPFs with precueing and postcueing. Perimetric complexity was stringently matched between letters and symbols. In postcueing conditions similar to previous studies, we did not reproduce the inverted V shape for symbols: Clear-cut W shapes were observed with an overall smaller accuracy for symbols compared to letters. This letter/symbol difference was dramatically reduced in precueing conditions in keeping with our prediction. Our results are not consistent with the claim that letter strings trigger specialized crowding processes. We argue that PR procedures are not fit to isolate crowding processes.

Effect of orthographic processes on letter-identity and letter-position encoding in dyslexic children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Caroline eReilhac

2012-05-01

Full Text Available The ability to identify letters and encode their position is a crucial step of the word recognition process. However and despite their word identification problem, the ability of dyslexic children to encode letter-identity and letter-position within strings was not systematically investigated. This study aimed at filling this gap and further explored how letter identity and letter position encoding is modulated by letter context in developmental dyslexia. For this purpose, a letter-string comparison task was administered to French dyslexic children and two chronological-age (CA and reading-age (RA-matched control groups. Children had to judge whether two successively and briefly presented 4-letter-strings were identical or different. Letter-position and letter-identity were manipulated through the transposition (e.g., RTGM vs. RMGT or substitution of two letters (e.g., TSHF vs. TGHD. Non-words, pseudo-words and words were used as stimuli to investigate sub-lexical and lexical effects on letter encoding. Dyslexic children showed both substitution and transposition detection problems relative to CA controls. A substitution advantage over transpositions was only found for words in dyslexic children whereas it extended to pseudo-words in RA controls and to all type of items in CA controls. Letters were better identified in the dyslexic group when belonging to orthographically familiar strings. Letter position encoding was very impaired in dyslexic children who did not show any word context effect in contrast to CA controls. Overall, the current findings point to a strong letter identity and letter position encoding disorder in developmental dyslexia.

Early Sound Symbolism for Vowel Sounds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ferrinne Spector

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Children and adults consistently match some words (e.g., kiki to jagged shapes and other words (e.g., bouba to rounded shapes, providing evidence for non-arbitrary sound–shape mapping. In this study, we investigated the influence of vowels on sound–shape matching in toddlers, using four contrasting pairs of nonsense words differing in vowel sound (/i/ as in feet vs. /o/ as in boat and four rounded–jagged shape pairs. Crucially, we used reduplicated syllables (e.g., kiki vs. koko rather than confounding vowel sound with consonant context and syllable variability (e.g., kiki vs. bouba. Toddlers consistently matched words with /o/ to rounded shapes and words with /i/ to jagged shapes (p < 0.01. The results suggest that there may be naturally biased correspondences between vowel sound and shape.

Contributions of Emergent Literacy Skills to Name Writing, Letter Writing, and Spelling in Preschool Children

Science.gov (United States)

Puranik, Cynthia S.; Lonigan, Christopher J.; Kim, Young-Suk

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine which emergent literacy skills contribute to preschool children’s emergent writing (name-writing, letter-writing, and spelling) skills. Emergent reading and writing tasks were administered to 296 preschool children aged 4–5 years. Print knowledge and letter-writing skills made positive contributions to name writing; whereas alphabet knowledge, print knowledge, and name writing made positive contributions to letter writing. Both name-writing and letter-writing skills made significant contributions to the prediction of spelling after controlling for age, parental education, print knowledge, phonological awareness, and letter-name and letter-sound knowledge; however, only letter-writing abilities made a significant unique contribution to the prediction of spelling when both letter-writing and name-writing skills were considered together. Name writing reflects knowledge of some letters rather than a broader knowledge of letters that may be needed to support early spelling. Children’s letter-writing skills may be a better indicator of children’s emergent literacy and developing spelling skills than are their name-writing skills at the end of the preschool year. Spelling is a developmentally complex skill beginning in preschool and includes letter writing and blending skills, print knowledge, and letter-name and letter-sound knowledge. PMID:21927537

Serial recall of rhythms and verbal sequences: Impacts of concurrent tasks and irrelevant sound.

Science.gov (United States)

Hall, Debbora; Gathercole, Susan E

2011-08-01

Rhythmic grouping enhances verbal serial recall, yet very little is known about memory for rhythmic patterns. The aim of this study was to compare the cognitive processes supporting memory for rhythmic and verbal sequences using a range of concurrent tasks and irrelevant sounds. In Experiment 1, both concurrent articulation and paced finger tapping during presentation and during a retention interval impaired rhythm recall, while letter recall was only impaired by concurrent articulation. In Experiments 2 and 3, irrelevant sound consisted of irrelevant speech or tones, changing-state or steady-state sound, and syncopated or paced sound during presentation and during a retention interval. Irrelevant speech was more damaging to rhythm and letter recall than was irrelevant tone sound, but there was no effect of changing state on rhythm recall, while letter recall accuracy was disrupted by changing-state sound. Pacing of sound did not consistently affect either rhythm or letter recall. There are similarities in the way speech and rhythms are processed that appear to extend beyond reliance on temporal coding mechanisms involved in serial-order recall.

The letter knowledge assessment tool.

Science.gov (United States)

Pedro, Cassandra; Lousada, Marisa; Pereira, Rita; Hall, Andreia; Jesus, Luis M T

2017-10-10

There is a need to develop letter knowledge assessment tools to characterise the letter knowledge in Portuguese pre-schoolers and to compare it with pre-schoolers from other countries, but there are no tools for this purpose in Portugal. The aim of this paper is to describe the development and validation procedures of the Prova de Avaliação de Competências de Pré-Literacia (PACPL), which assesses letter knowledge. This study includes data that has been gathered in two phases: pilot and main study. In the pilot study, an expert panel of six speech and language pathologists analysed the instrument. Children (n = 216) aged 5;0-7;11 participated in the main study that reports data related to the psychometric characteristics of the PACPL. Content validity, internal consistency, reliability and contributing factors to performance were examined statistically. A modified Bland-Altman method revealed good agreement amongst evaluators. The main study showed that the PACPL has a very good internal consistency and high inter-rater (96.2% of agreement and a Cohen's k value of 0.92) and intra-rater (95.6% of agreement and a Cohen's k value of 0.91) agreement. Construct validity of the PCAPL was also assured (Cronbach's α of 0.982). Significant differences were found between age groups with children increasing their letter knowledge with age. In addition, they were better at identifying than at producing both letter names and letter sounds. The PACPL is a valid and reliable instrument to assess letter knowledge in Portuguese children.

LEXICAL UNITS STARTING WITH THE LETTERS «Б» AND «B» MATCHING IN THE PLANE OF EXPRESSION (BASED ON THE RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ms. Maria A. Ankudinova

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This article is devoted to lexical units starting with the letters «б» and «b» matching in the plane of expression, based on the Russian and English languages. Lexical units were chosen by the random sampling method, were classified and analyzed, based on their spelling and pronunciation.

Memory for product sounds: the effect of sound and label type.

Science.gov (United States)

Ozcan, Elif; van Egmond, René

2007-11-01

The (mnemonic) interactions between auditory, visual, and the semantic systems have been investigated using structurally complex auditory stimuli (i.e., product sounds). Six types of product sounds (air, alarm, cyclic, impact, liquid, mechanical) that vary in spectral-temporal structure were presented in four label type conditions: self-generated text, text, image, and pictogram. A memory paradigm that incorporated free recall, recognition, and matching tasks was employed. The results for the sound type suggest that the amount of spectral-temporal structure in a sound can be indicative for memory performance. Findings related to label type suggest that 'self' creates a strong bias for the retrieval and the recognition of sounds that were self-labeled; the density and the complexity of the visual information (i.e., pictograms) hinders the memory performance ('visual' overshadowing effect); and image labeling has an additive effect on the recall and matching tasks (dual coding). Thus, the findings suggest that the memory performances for product sounds are task-dependent.

12 CFR 614.4810 - Standby letters of credit.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... party in the performance of an obligation. (b) As a matter of sound banking practice, banks for... 12 Banks and Banking 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Standby letters of credit. 614.4810 Section 614.4810 Banks and Banking FARM CREDIT ADMINISTRATION FARM CREDIT SYSTEM LOAN POLICIES AND OPERATIONS Banks...

A Comparison of the Metalinguistic Performance and Spelling Development of Children With Inconsistent Speech Sound Disorder and Their Age-Matched and Reading-Matched Peers.

Science.gov (United States)

McNeill, Brigid C; Wolter, Julie; Gillon, Gail T

2017-05-17

This study explored the specific nature of a spelling impairment in children with speech sound disorder (SSD) in relation to metalinguistic predictors of spelling development. The metalinguistic (phoneme, morphological, and orthographic awareness) and spelling development of 28 children ages 6-8 years with a history of inconsistent SSD were compared to those of their age-matched (n = 28) and reading-matched (n = 28) peers. Analysis of the literacy outcomes of children within the cohort with persistent (n = 18) versus resolved (n = 10) SSD was also conducted. The age-matched peers outperformed the SSD group on all measures. Children with SSD performed comparably to their reading-matched peers on metalinguistic measures but exhibited lower spelling scores. Children with persistent SSD generally had less favorable outcomes than children with resolved SSD; however, even children with resolved SSD performed poorly on normative spelling measures. Children with SSD have a specific difficulty with spelling that is not commensurate with their metalinguistic and reading ability. Although low metalinguistic awareness appears to inhibit these children's spelling development, other factors should be considered, such as nonverbal rehearsal during spelling attempts and motoric ability. Integration of speech-production and spelling-intervention goals is important to enhance literacy outcomes for this group.

Variability in word reading performance of dyslexic readers: effects of letter length, phoneme length and digraph presence

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marinus, E.; de Jong, P.F.

2010-01-01

The marked word-length effect in dyslexic children suggests the use of a letter-by-letter reading strategy. Such a strategy should make it more difficult to infer the sound of digraphs. Our main aim was to disentangle length and digraph-presence effects in word and pseudoword reading. In addition,

Name-letter branding under scrutiny: real products, new algorithms, and the probability of buying.

Science.gov (United States)

Stieger, Stefan

2010-06-01

People like letters matching their own first and last name initials more than nonname letters. This name-letter effect has also been found for brands, i.e., people like brands resembling their own name letters (initial or first three). This has been termed name-letter branding effect. In the present study of 199 participants, ages 12 to 79 years, this name-letter branding effect was found for a modified design (1) using real products, (2) concentrating on product names rather than brand names, (3) using five different products for each letter of the Roman alphabet, (4) asking for the buying probability, and (5) using recently introduced algorithms, controlling for individual response tendencies (i.e., liking all letters more or less) and general normative popularity of particular letters (i.e., some letters are generally preferred more than other letters).

Color improves ‘visual’ acuity via sound

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shelly eLevy-Tzedek

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Visual-to-auditory sensory substitution devices (SSDs convey visual information via sound, with the primary goal of making visual information accessible to blind and visually impaired individuals. We developed the EyeMusic SSD, which transforms shape, location and color information into musical notes. We tested the 'visual' acuity of 23 individuals (13 blind and 10 blindfolded sighted on the Snellen tumbling-E test, with the EyeMusic. Participants were asked to determine the orientation of the letter ‘E’. The test was repeated twice: in one test, the letter ‘E’ was drawn with a single color (white, and in the other test, with two colors (red and white. In the latter case, the vertical line in the letter, when upright, was drawn in red, with the three horizontal lines drawn in white. We found no significant differences in performance between the blind and the sighted groups. We found a significant effect of the added color on the ‘visual’ acuity. The highest acuity participants reached in the monochromatic test was 20/800, whereas with the added color, acuity doubled to 20/400. We conclude that color improves 'visual' acuity via sound.

Allograph priming is based on abstract letter identities: Evidence from Japanese kana.

Science.gov (United States)

Kinoshita, Sachiko; Schubert, Teresa; Verdonschot, Rinus G

2018-04-23

It is well-established that allographs like the uppercase and lowercase forms of the Roman alphabet (e.g., a and A) map onto the same "abstract letter identity," orthographic representations that are independent of the visual form. Consistent with this, in the allograph match task ("Are 'a' and 'A' the same letter?"), priming by a masked letter prime is equally robust for visually dissimilar prime-target pairs (e.g., d and D) and similar pairs (e.g., c and C). However, in principle this pattern of priming is also consistent with the possibility that allograph priming is purely phonological, based on the letter name. Because different allographic forms of the same letter, by definition, share a letter name, it is impossible to rule out this possibility a priori. In the present study, we investigated the influence of shared letter names by taking advantage of the fact that Japanese is written in two distinct writing systems, syllabic kana-that has two parallel forms, hiragana and katakana-and logographic kanji. Using the allograph match task, we tested whether a kanji prime with the same pronunciation as the target kana (e.g., - い, both pronounced /i/) produces the same amount of priming as a kana prime in the opposite kana form (e.g., イ- い). We found that the kana primes produced substantially greater priming than the phonologically identical kanji prime, which we take as evidence that allograph priming is based on abstract kana identity, not purely phonology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Remembering that big things sound big: Sound symbolism and associative memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Preziosi, Melissa A; Coane, Jennifer H

2017-01-01

According to sound symbolism theory, individual sounds or clusters of sounds can convey meaning. To examine the role of sound symbolic effects on processing and memory for nonwords, we developed a novel set of 100 nonwords to convey largeness (nonwords containing plosive consonants and back vowels) and smallness (nonwords containing fricative consonants and front vowels). In Experiments 1A and 1B, participants rated the size of the 100 nonwords and provided definitions to them as if they were products. Nonwords composed of fricative/front vowels were rated as smaller than those composed of plosive/back vowels. In Experiment 2, participants studied sound symbolic congruent and incongruent nonword and participant-generated definition pairings. Definitions paired with nonwords that matched the size and participant-generated meanings were recalled better than those that did not match. When the participant-generated definitions were re-paired with other nonwords, this mnemonic advantage was reduced, although still reliable. In a final free association study, the possibility that plosive/back vowel and fricative/front vowel nonwords elicit sound symbolic size effects due to mediation from word neighbors was ruled out. Together, these results suggest that definitions that are sound symbolically congruent with a nonword are more memorable than incongruent definition-nonword pairings. This work has implications for the creation of brand names and how to create brand names that not only convey desired product characteristics, but also are memorable for consumers.

Polysyllable Speech Accuracy and Predictors of Later Literacy Development in Preschool Children With Speech Sound Disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Masso, Sarah; Baker, Elise; McLeod, Sharynne; Wang, Cen

2017-07-12

The aim of this study was to determine if polysyllable accuracy in preschoolers with speech sound disorders (SSD) was related to known predictors of later literacy development: phonological processing, receptive vocabulary, and print knowledge. Polysyllables-words of three or more syllables-are important to consider because unlike monosyllables, polysyllables have been associated with phonological processing and literacy difficulties in school-aged children. They therefore have the potential to help identify preschoolers most at risk of future literacy difficulties. Participants were 93 preschool children with SSD from the Sound Start Study. Participants completed the Polysyllable Preschool Test (Baker, 2013) as well as phonological processing, receptive vocabulary, and print knowledge tasks. Cluster analysis was completed, and 2 clusters were identified: low polysyllable accuracy and moderate polysyllable accuracy. The clusters were significantly different based on 2 measures of phonological awareness and measures of receptive vocabulary, rapid naming, and digit span. The clusters were not significantly different on sound matching accuracy or letter, sound, or print concept knowledge. The participants' poor performance on print knowledge tasks suggested that as a group, they were at risk of literacy difficulties but that there was a cluster of participants at greater risk-those with both low polysyllable accuracy and poor phonological processing.

The organization of words and environmental sounds in memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Hendrickson, Kristi; Walenski, Matthew; Friend, Margaret; Love, Tracy

2015-03-01

In the present study we used event-related potentials to compare the organization of linguistic and meaningful nonlinguistic sounds in memory. We examined N400 amplitudes as adults viewed pictures presented with words or environmental sounds that matched the picture (Match), that shared semantic features with the expected match (Near Violation), and that shared relatively few semantic features with the expected match (Far Violation). Words demonstrated incremental N400 amplitudes based on featural similarity from 300-700ms, such that both Near and Far Violations exhibited significant N400 effects, however Far Violations exhibited greater N400 effects than Near Violations. For environmental sounds, Far Violations but not Near Violations elicited significant N400 effects, in both early (300-400ms) and late (500-700ms) time windows, though a graded pattern similar to that of words was seen in the mid-latency time window (400-500ms). These results indicate that the organization of words and environmental sounds in memory is differentially influenced by featural similarity, with a consistently fine-grained graded structure for words but not sounds. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Ultra-thin smart acoustic metasurface for low-frequency sound insulation

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Hao; Xiao, Yong; Wen, Jihong; Yu, Dianlong; Wen, Xisen

2016-04-01

Insulating low-frequency sound is a conventional challenge due to the high areal mass required by mass law. In this letter, we propose a smart acoustic metasurface consisting of an ultra-thin aluminum foil bonded with piezoelectric resonators. Numerical and experimental results show that the metasurface can break the conventional mass law of sound insulation by 30 dB in the low frequency regime (sound insulation performance is attributed to the infinite effective dynamic mass density produced by the smart resonators. It is also demonstrated that the excellent sound insulation property can be conveniently tuned by simply adjusting the external circuits instead of modifying the structure of the metasurface.

The organization of words and environmental sounds in memory☆

Science.gov (United States)

Hendrickson, Kristi; Walenski, Matthew; Friend, Margaret; Love, Tracy

2015-01-01

In the present study we used event-related potentials to compare the organization of linguistic and meaningful nonlinguistic sounds in memory. We examined N400 amplitudes as adults viewed pictures presented with words or environmental sounds that matched the picture (Match), that shared semantic features with the expected match (Near Violation), and that shared relatively few semantic features with the expected match (Far Violation). Words demonstrated incremental N400 amplitudes based on featural similarity from 300–700 ms, such that both Near and Far Violations exhibited significant N400 effects, however Far Violations exhibited greater N400 effects than Near Violations. For environmental sounds, Far Violations but not Near Violations elicited significant N400 effects, in both early (300–400 ms) and late (500–700 ms) time windows, though a graded pattern similar to that of words was seen in the midlatency time window (400–500 ms). These results indicate that the organization of words and environmental sounds in memory is differentially influenced by featural similarity, with a consistently fine-grained graded structure for words but not sounds. PMID:25624059

13 CFR 119.8 - Are there matching requirements for grantees?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... constraints on the historical and projected ability to raise matching funds as demonstrated by financial statements and letters of rejection from previous funders and potential new funding sources; (2) Evidence of... to the matching requirements of this section. (c) Applicants or grantees with severe constraints on...

Contributions of Letter-Speech Sound Learning and Visual Print Tuning to Reading Improvement: Evidence from Brain Potential and Dyslexia Training Studies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gorka Fraga González

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We use a neurocognitive perspective to discuss the contribution of learning letter-speech sound (L-SS associations and visual specialization in the initial phases of reading in dyslexic children. We review findings from associative learning studies on related cognitive skills important for establishing and consolidating L-SS associations. Then we review brain potential studies, including our own, that yielded two markers associated with reading fluency. Here we show that the marker related to visual specialization (N170 predicts word and pseudoword reading fluency in children who received additional practice in the processing of morphological word structure. Conversely, L-SS integration (indexed by mismatch negativity (MMN may only remain important when direct orthography to semantic conversion is not possible, such as in pseudoword reading. In addition, the correlation between these two markers supports the notion that multisensory integration facilitates visual specialization. Finally, we review the role of implicit learning and executive functions in audiovisual learning in dyslexia. Implications for remedial research are discussed and suggestions for future studies are presented.

Letters in the Forest: Global precedence effect disappears for letters but not for non-letters under reading-like conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas eLachmann

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Normally-skilled reading involves special processing strategies for letters, which are habitually funneled into an abstract letter code. On the basis of previous studies we argue that this habit leads to the preferred usage of an analytic strategy for the processing of letters, while non-letters are preferably processed via a holistic strategy. The well-known Global Precedence Effect (GPE seems to contradict to this assumption, since, with compound, hierarchical figures, including letter items, faster responses are observed to the global than to the local level of the figure, as well as an asymmetric interference effect from global to local level. We argue that with letters these effects depend on presentation conditions; only when they elicit the processing strategies automatized for reading, an analytic strategy for letters in contrast to non-letters is to be expected. We compared the GPE for letters and non-letters in central viewing, with the global stimulus size close to the functional visual field in whole word reading (6.5o of visual angle and local stimuli close to the critical size for fluent reading of individual letters (.5o of visual angle. Under these conditions, the GPE remained robust for non-letters. For letters, however, it disappeared: letters showed no overall response time advantage for the global level and symmetric congruence effects (local-to-global as well as global-to local interference. We interpret these results as according to the view that reading is based on resident analytic visual processing strategies for letters.

Color associations for days and letters across different languages

Science.gov (United States)

Rouw, Romke; Case, Laura; Gosavi, Radhika; Ramachandran, Vilayanur

2014-01-01

While colors are commonplace in everyday metaphors, relatively little is known about implicit color associations to linguistic or semantic concepts in a general population. In this study, we test color associations for ordered linguistic concepts (letters and days). The culture and language specificity of these effects was examined in a large group (457) of Dutch-speaking participants, 92 English-speaking participants, and 49 Hindi-speaking participants. Non-random distributions of color choices were revealed; consistencies were found across the three language groups in color preferences for both days and letters. Interestingly, while the Hindi-speaking participants were presented with letter stimuli matched on phonology, their pattern of letter-to-color preferences still showed similarities with Dutch- and English-speaking participants. Furthermore, we found that that the color preferences corresponded between participants indicating to have conscious color experiences with letters or days (putative synesthetes) and participants who do not (non-synesthetes). We also explored possible mechanisms underlying the color preferences. There were a few specific associations, including red for “A,” red for “Monday,” and white for “Sunday.” We also explored more general mechanisms, such as overall color preferences as shown by Simner et al. (2005). While certainly not all variation can be explained or predicted, the results show that regularities are present in color-to-letter or color-to-day preferences in both putative synesthetes and non-synesthetes across languages. Both letter-to-color and day-to-color preferences were influenced by multiple factors. The findings support a notion of abstract concepts (such as days and letters) that are not represented in isolation, but are connected to perceptual representational systems. Interestingly, at least some of these connections to color representations are shared across different language/cultural groups. PMID

Color associations for days and letters across different languages

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Romke eRouw

2014-05-01

Full Text Available While colors are commonplace in everyday metaphors, relatively little is known about implicit color associations to linguistic or semantic concepts in a general population. In this study, we test color associations for ordered linguistic concepts (letters and days. The culture and language specificity of these effects was examined in a large group (457 of Dutch-speaking participants, 92 English-speaking participants, and 49 Hindi-speaking participants. Non-random distributions of color choices were revealed; consistencies were found across the three language groups in color preferences for both days and letters. Interestingly, while the Hindi-speaking participants were presented with letter stimuli matched on phonology, their pattern of letter-to-color preferences still showed similarities with Dutch- and English-speaking participants. Furthermore, we found that that the color preferences corresponded between participants indicating to have conscious color experiences with letters or days (putative synesthetes and participants who do not (non-synesthetes. We also explored possible mechanisms underlying the color preferences. There were a few specific associations, including red for A, red for Monday, and white for Sunday. We also explored more general mechanisms, such as overall color preferences shown by Simner et al (2005. While certainly not all variation can be explained or predicted, the results show that regularities are present in color-to-letter or color-to-day preferences in both putative synesthetes and non-synesthetes across languages. Both letter-to-color and day-to-color preferences were influenced by multiple factors. The findings support a notion of abstract concepts (such as days and letters that are not represented in isolation, but are connected to perceptual representational systems. Interestingly, at least some of these connections to color representations are shared across different language/cultural groups.

An Inductive Characterization of Matching in Binding Bigraphs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Damgaard, Troels Christoffer; Glenstrup, Arne John; Birkedal, Lars

2010-01-01

We analyze the matching problem for bigraphs. In particular, we present a sound and complete inductive characterization of matching in bigraphs with binding. Our results yield a specification for a provably correct matching algorithm, as needed by our prototype tool implementing bigraphical react...... reactive systems....

A Sorting-to-Matching Method to Teach Compound Matching to Sample

OpenAIRE

Farber, Rachel S.; Dube, William V.; Dickson, Chata A.

2016-01-01

Individuals with developmental disabilities may fail to attend to multiple features in compound stimuli (e.g., arrays of pictures, letters within words) with detrimental effects on learning. Participants were 5 children with autism spectrum disorders who had low to intermediate accuracy scores (35% to 84%) on a computer-presented compound matching task. Sample stimuli were pairs of icons (e.g., chair-tree), the correct comparison was identical to the sample, and each incorrect comparison had ...

A personal letter to an aspiring physician or nurse (or other caring professional).

Science.gov (United States)

Savett, Laurence A

2014-01-01

In a letter to an aspiring physician or nurse, the author describes some of the important dimensions and timeless values of a fulfilling career in health care, the importance of the professional-patient relationship, ways to make an informed career choice, the guidance provided by sound values, and his response to some of the myths about health care careers.

Football match spectator sound exposure and effect on hearing: A ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This was a one-group pretest–post-test design of football spectators attending a premier soccer league match at a designated FIFA 2010 training stadium in Gauteng, South Africa. Individual spectator noise exposure for the duration of the football match and post-match changes in hearing thresholds were measured with ...

Ultrasound sounding in air by fast-moving receiver

Science.gov (United States)

Sukhanov, D.; Erzakova, N.

2018-05-01

A method of ultrasound imaging in the air for a fast receiver. The case, when the speed of movement of the receiver can not be neglected with respect to the speed of sound. In this case, the Doppler effect is significant, making it difficult for matched filtering of the backscattered signal. The proposed method does not use a continuous repetitive noise-sounding signal. generalized approach applies spatial matched filtering in the time domain to recover the ultrasonic tomographic images.

[Prevention of dyslexia – short-term and intermediate effects of promoting phonological awareness and letter-sound correspondence with at-risk preschool children].

Science.gov (United States)

Höse, Anna; Wyschkon, Anne; Moraske, Svenja; Eggeling, Marie; Quandte, Sabine; Kohn, Juliane; Poltz, Nadine; von Aster, Michael; Esser, Günter

2016-09-01

This study assesses the short-term and intermediate effects of preschool training stimulating phonological awareness and letter-sound correspondence for children at risk of developing dyslexia. Moreover, we examined whether training reduced the frequency of subsequent dyslexic problems. 25 children at risk of developing dyslexia were trained with Hören, Lauschen, Lernen 1 und 2 (Küspert & Schneider, 2008; Plume & Schneider, 2004) by their kindergarten teachers and were compared with 60 untrained at-risk children. The training revealed a significant short-term effect: The phonological awareness of trained at-risk children increased significantly over that of untrained at-risk children. However, there were no differences in phonological awareness, spelling, and reading ability between the first-graders in the training and control group. Furthermore, reading problems were reduced in the training group. In the future, phonological awareness as well as additional predictors should be included when identifying children vulnerable to developing dyslexia. Moreover, in order to prevent dyslexia, additional prerequisite deficits need to be identified, alleviated, and their effects evaluated.

The relevance of visual information on learning sounds in infancy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

ter Schure, S.M.M.

2016-01-01

Newborn infants are sensitive to combinations of visual and auditory speech. Does this ability to match sounds and sights affect how infants learn the sounds of their native language? And are visual articulations the only type of visual information that can influence sound learning? This

Structured printed referral letter (form letter; saves time and improves communication

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R.P.J.C. Ramanayake

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Referral of patients to hospitals, specialists and other institutions is an essential part of primary health care. Patients are referred to specialists when investigation or therapeutic options are exhausted in primary care or when opinion or advice is needed from them. Referral has considerable implications for patients, health care system and health care costs. Good communication between primary and secondary care is essential for the smooth running of any health care system. Referral and reply letters are the sole means of communication between doctors most of the time and breakdown in communication could lead to poor continuity of care, delayed diagnoses, polypharmacy, increased litigation risk and unnecessary testing. A referral letter also helps to avoid patient dissatisfaction and loss of confidence in family physician. Studies of referral letters have reported that specialists are dissatisfied with their quality and content. Inclusion of letter writing skills in the medical curriculum, peer assessment and feedback have shown to improve the quality of referral letters. . Form letters have shown to enhance information content and communication in referral process. In Sri Lanka referral letters are usually hand written and frequent complaints are that these letters do not contain adequate information and retrieval of information is a problem due to poor legibility and clarity. Sometimes Primary care doctors refer patients to hospitals and specialists with only verbal instructions. To address these short comings this form letter was introduced. Based on the guidelines and systematic review of published articles, items of information to be included were decided. Printed forms of the letter are kept in the practice and the doctor has to just fill up relevant information under each heading. The objectives of introducing this structured referral letter was to improve the quality and standard of referral letters and save time for both general

Nonlinear soliton matching between optical fibers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Agger, Christian; Sørensen, Simon Toft; Thomsen, Carsten L.

2011-01-01

In this Letter, we propose a generic nonlinear coupling coefficient, η2 NL ¼ ηjγ=β2jfiber2=jγ=β2jfiber1, which gives a quantitative measure for the efficiency of nonlinear matching of optical fibers by describing how a fundamental soliton couples from one fiber into another. Specifically, we use η...

Mode-matching strategies in slowly varying engine ducts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ovenden, N.C.; Rienstra, S.W.

2003-01-01

A matching method is proposed to connect the CFD source region to the CAA propagation region of rotorstator interaction sound produced in a turbofan engine. The method is based on a modal decomposition across three neighbouring axial interfaces adjacent to the matching interface. The modal

Characterizing the D2 statistic: word matches in biological sequences.

Science.gov (United States)

Forêt, Sylvain; Wilson, Susan R; Burden, Conrad J

2009-01-01

Word matches are often used in sequence comparison methods, either as a measure of sequence similarity or in the first search steps of algorithms such as BLAST or BLAT. The D2 statistic is the number of matches of words of k letters between two sequences. Recent advances have been made in the characterization of this statistic and in the approximation of its distribution. Here, these results are extended to the case of approximate word matches. We compute the exact value of the variance of the D2 statistic for the case of a uniform letter distribution, and introduce a method to provide accurate approximations of the variance in the remaining cases. This enables the distribution of D2 to be approximated for typical situations arising in biological research. We apply these results to the identification of cis-regulatory modules, and show that this method detects such sequences with a high accuracy. The ability to approximate the distribution of D2 for both exact and approximate word matches will enable the use of this statistic in a more precise manner for sequence comparison, database searches, and identification of transcription factor binding sites.

The effect of letter string length and report condition on letter recognition accuracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Raghunandan, Avesh; Karmazinaite, Berta; Rossow, Andrea S

Letter sequence recognition accuracy has been postulated to be limited primarily by low-level visual factors. The influence of high level factors such as visual memory (load and decay) has been largely overlooked. This study provides insight into the role of these factors by investigating the interaction between letter sequence recognition accuracy, letter string length and report condition. Letter sequence recognition accuracy for trigrams and pentagrams were measured in 10 adult subjects for two report conditions. In the complete report condition subjects reported all 3 or all 5 letters comprising trigrams and pentagrams, respectively. In the partial report condition, subjects reported only a single letter in the trigram or pentagram. Letters were presented for 100ms and rendered in high contrast, using black lowercase Courier font that subtended 0.4° at the fixation distance of 0.57m. Letter sequence recognition accuracy was consistently higher for trigrams compared to pentagrams especially for letter positions away from fixation. While partial report increased recognition accuracy in both string length conditions, the effect was larger for pentagrams, and most evident for the final letter positions within trigrams and pentagrams. The effect of partial report on recognition accuracy for the final letter positions increased as eccentricity increased away from fixation, and was independent of the inner/outer position of a letter. Higher-level visual memory functions (memory load and decay) play a role in letter sequence recognition accuracy. There is also suggestion of additional delays imposed on memory encoding by crowded letter elements. Copyright © 2016 Spanish General Council of Optometry. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Letters and Letter Writing in Early Modern Culture: An Introduction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriella Del Lungo Camiciotti

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The recently renewed scholarly interest in historical letters and letter writing has given rise to several studies which explore the culture of epistolarity from different perspectives. The article offers an introduction to recent scholarship on epistolary discourse and practices in early modern culture. Given the importance of letters as data for several types of diachronic investigation, the article focuses on three points that are crucial for an understanding of the relevance of epistolary discourse itself in early modern European culture. Firstly, letters are invaluable data for historical linguistics, to which they provide information for the history of languages, and sociohistorical and sociolinguistic research. A second recent field of investigation considers letters as documents and material items; the results of research in this area have contributed to the reconstruction of official relationships and information exchanges in past cultures and shed light on social interaction. A third, more traditional area of study, deals with the letter as a form that has given rise to many different genres across the centuries, both practical and literary.

The Opponent Channel Population Code of Sound Location Is an Efficient Representation of Natural Binaural Sounds

Science.gov (United States)

Młynarski, Wiktor

2015-01-01

In mammalian auditory cortex, sound source position is represented by a population of broadly tuned neurons whose firing is modulated by sounds located at all positions surrounding the animal. Peaks of their tuning curves are concentrated at lateral position, while their slopes are steepest at the interaural midline, allowing for the maximum localization accuracy in that area. These experimental observations contradict initial assumptions that the auditory space is represented as a topographic cortical map. It has been suggested that a “panoramic” code has evolved to match specific demands of the sound localization task. This work provides evidence suggesting that properties of spatial auditory neurons identified experimentally follow from a general design principle- learning a sparse, efficient representation of natural stimuli. Natural binaural sounds were recorded and served as input to a hierarchical sparse-coding model. In the first layer, left and right ear sounds were separately encoded by a population of complex-valued basis functions which separated phase and amplitude. Both parameters are known to carry information relevant for spatial hearing. Monaural input converged in the second layer, which learned a joint representation of amplitude and interaural phase difference. Spatial selectivity of each second-layer unit was measured by exposing the model to natural sound sources recorded at different positions. Obtained tuning curves match well tuning characteristics of neurons in the mammalian auditory cortex. This study connects neuronal coding of the auditory space with natural stimulus statistics and generates new experimental predictions. Moreover, results presented here suggest that cortical regions with seemingly different functions may implement the same computational strategy-efficient coding. PMID:25996373

Synesthetic colors are elicited by sound quality in Japanese synesthetes.

Science.gov (United States)

Asano, Michiko; Yokosawa, Kazuhiko

2011-12-01

Determinants of synesthetic color choice for Japanese phonetic characters were studied in six Japanese synesthetes. The study used Hiragana and Katakana characters, which represent the same set of syllables although their visual forms are dissimilar. From a palette of 138 colors, synesthetes selected a color corresponding to each character. Results revealed that synesthetic color choices for Hiragana characters and those for their Katakana counterparts were remarkably consistent, indicating that color selection depended on character-related sounds and not visual form. This Hiragana-Katakana invariance cannot be regarded as the same phenomenon as letter case invariance, usually reported for English grapheme-color synesthesia, because Hiragana and Katakana characters have different identities whereas upper and lower case letters have the same identity. This involvement of phonology suggests that cross-activation between an inducer (i.e., letter/character) brain region and that of the concurrent (i.e., color) area in grapheme-color synesthesia is mediated by higher order cortical processing areas. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effect of direction on loudness for wideband and reverberant sounds

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sivonen, Ville Pekka; Ellermeier, Wolfgang

2006-01-01

The effect of incidence angle on loudness was investigated for wideband and reverberant sounds. In an adaptive procedure, five listeners matched the loudness of a sound coming from five incidence angles in the horizontal plane to that of the same sound with frontal incidence. The stimuli were...... presented to the listeners via individual binaural synthesis. The results confirm that loudness depends on sound incidence angle, as it does for narrow-band, anechoic sounds. The directional effects, however, were attenuated with the wideband and reverberant stimuli used in the present investigation....

What Do Letter Migration Errors Reveal About Letter Position Coding in Visual Word Recognition?

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Colin J.; Bowers, Jeffrey S.

2004-01-01

Dividing attention across multiple words occasionally results in misidentifications whereby letters apparently migrate between words. Previous studies have found that letter migrations preserve within-word letter position, which has been interpreted as support for position-specific letter coding. To investigate this issue, the authors used word…

Analysis of reliability of professor recommendation letters based on concordance with self-introduction letter.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sang Hyun

2013-12-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the concordance between a checklist's categories of professor recommendation letters and characteristics of the self-introduction letter. Checklists of professor recommendation letters were analyzed and classified into cognitive, social, and affective domains. Simple correlation was performed to determine whether the characteristics of the checklists were concordant with those of the self-introduction letter. The difference in ratings of the checklists by pass or fail grades was analyzed by independent sample t-test. Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine whether a pass or fail grade was influenced by ratings on the checklists. The Cronbach alpha value of the checklists was 0.854. Initiative, as an affective domain, in the professor's recommendation letter was highly ranked among the six checklist categories. Self-directed learning in the self-introduction letter was influenced by a pass or fail grade by logistic regression analysis (pprofessor recommendation letters and the sum of all characteristics in the self-introduction letter.

An Implementation of Bigraph Matching

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Glenstrup, Arne John; Damgaard, Troels Christoffer; Birkedal, Lars

We describe a provably sound and complete matching algorithm for bigraphical reactive systems. The algorithm has been implemented in our BPL Tool, a first implementation of bigraphical reactive systems. We describe the tool and present a concrete example of how it can be used to simulate a model...

Sound Visualisation

OpenAIRE

Dolenc, Peter

2013-01-01

This thesis contains a description of a construction of subwoofer case that has an extra functionality of being able to produce special visual effects and display visualizations that match the currently playing sound. For this reason, multiple lighting elements made out of LED (Light Emitting Diode) diodes were installed onto the subwoofer case. The lighting elements are controlled by dedicated software that was also developed. The software runs on STM32F4-Discovery evaluation board inside a ...

A STUDY ON LEGIBILITY OF LETTERING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Merve ERSAN,

2016-04-01

Full Text Available In the most general sense, lettering is the art of drawing letters, in which the letter forms carry illustrtive features. In this research which is titled "An Analysis on Legibility in Letterings Used in Print Advertisements", letterings used in and specially designed for print ads are analysed and their contribution to the ads are examined. Legibility, which is the fundamental function of writing and typography is examined in the field of lettering that has an illustrative approach. Also, the article puts emphasis on the technique and form’s contribution on content in letterings. Keywords: Lettering, print advertisements, letter design, illustration, legibility.

On Which Abilities Are Category Fluency and Letter Fluency Grounded A Confirmatory Factor Analysis of 53 Alzheimer's Dementia Patients

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ilaria Bizzozero

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Background/Aims: In Alzheimer's dementia (AD, letter fluency is less impaired than category fluency. To check whether category fluency and letter fluency depend differently on semantics and attention, 53 mild AD patients were given animal and letter fluency tasks, two semantic tests (the Verbal Semantic Questionnaire and the BORB Association Match test, and two attentional tests (the Stroop Colour-Word Interference test and the Digit Cancellation test. Methods: We conducted a LISREL confirmatory factor analysis to check the extent to which category fluency and letter fluency tasks were related to semantics and attention, viewed as latent variables. Results: Both types of fluency tasks were related to the latent variable Semantics but not to the latent variable Attention. Conclusions: Our findings warn against interpreting the disproportionate impairment of AD patients on category and letter fluency as a contrast between semantics and attention.

Matching Element Symbols with State Abbreviations: A Fun Activity for Browsing the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements

Science.gov (United States)

Woelk, Klaus

2009-01-01

A classroom activity is presented in which students are challenged to find matches between the United States two-letter postal abbreviations for states and chemical element symbols. The activity aims to lessen negative apprehensions students might have when the periodic table of the elements with its more than 100 combinations of letters is first…

Effects of musical training on sound pattern processing in high-school students.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Wenjung; Staffaroni, Laura; Reid, Errold; Steinschneider, Mitchell; Sussman, Elyse

2009-05-01

Recognizing melody in music involves detection of both the pitch intervals and the silence between sequentially presented sounds. This study tested the hypothesis that active musical training in adolescents facilitates the ability to passively detect sequential sound patterns compared to musically non-trained age-matched peers. Twenty adolescents, aged 15-18 years, were divided into groups according to their musical training and current experience. A fixed order tone pattern was presented at various stimulus rates while electroencephalogram was recorded. The influence of musical training on passive auditory processing of the sound patterns was assessed using components of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The mismatch negativity (MMN) ERP component was elicited in different stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) conditions in non-musicians than musicians, indicating that musically active adolescents were able to detect sound patterns across longer time intervals than age-matched peers. Musical training facilitates detection of auditory patterns, allowing the ability to automatically recognize sequential sound patterns over longer time periods than non-musical counterparts.

Cross-Modal Correspondence between Brightness and Chinese Speech Sound with Aspiration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sachiko Hirata

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Phonetic symbolism is the phenomenon of speech sounds evoking images based on sensory experiences; it is often discussed with cross-modal correspondence. By using Garner's task, Hirata, Kita, and Ukita (2009 showed the cross-modal congruence between brightness and voiced/voiceless consonants in Japanese speech sound, which is known as phonetic symbolism. In the present study, we examined the effect of the meaning of mimetics (lexical words whose sound reflects its meaning, like “ding-dong” in Japanese language on the cross-modal correspondence. We conducted an experiment with Chinese speech sounds with or without aspiration using Chinese people. Chinese vocabulary also contains mimetics but the existence of aspiration doesn't relate to the meaning of Chinese mimetics. As a result, Chinese speech sounds with aspiration, which resemble voiceless consonants, were matched with white color, whereas those without aspiration were matched with black. This result is identical to its pattern in Japanese people and consequently suggests that cross-modal correspondence occurs without the effect of the meaning of mimetics. The problem that whether these cross-modal correspondences are purely based on physical properties of speech sound or affected from phonetic properties remains for further study.

Investigating emotional contagion in dogs (Canis familiaris) to emotional sounds of humans and conspecifics.

Science.gov (United States)

Huber, Annika; Barber, Anjuli L A; Faragó, Tamás; Müller, Corsin A; Huber, Ludwig

2017-07-01

Emotional contagion, a basic component of empathy defined as emotional state-matching between individuals, has previously been shown in dogs even upon solely hearing negative emotional sounds of humans or conspecifics. The current investigation further sheds light on this phenomenon by directly contrasting emotional sounds of both species (humans and dogs) as well as opposed valences (positive and negative) to gain insights into intra- and interspecies empathy as well as differences between positively and negatively valenced sounds. Different types of sounds were played back to measure the influence of three dimensions on the dogs' behavioural response. We found that dogs behaved differently after hearing non-emotional sounds of their environment compared to emotional sounds of humans and conspecifics ("Emotionality" dimension), but the subjects responded similarly to human and conspecific sounds ("Species" dimension). However, dogs expressed more freezing behaviour after conspecific sounds, independent of the valence. Comparing positively with negatively valenced sounds of both species ("Valence" dimension), we found that, independent of the species from which the sound originated, dogs expressed more behavioural indicators for arousal and negatively valenced states after hearing negative emotional sounds. This response pattern indicates emotional state-matching or emotional contagion for negative sounds of humans and conspecifics. It furthermore indicates that dogs recognized the different valences of the emotional sounds, which is a promising finding for future studies on empathy for positive emotional states in dogs.

10 Hz Amplitude Modulated Sounds Induce Short-Term Tinnitus Suppression

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patrick Neff

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Objectives: Acoustic stimulation or sound therapy is proposed as a main treatment option for chronic subjective tinnitus. To further probe the field of acoustic stimulations for tinnitus therapy, this exploratory study compared 10 Hz amplitude modulated (AM sounds (two pure tones, noise, music, and frequency modulated (FM sounds and unmodulated sounds (pure tone, noise regarding their temporary suppression of tinnitus loudness. First, it was hypothesized that modulated sounds elicit larger temporary loudness suppression (residual inhibition than unmodulated sounds. Second, with manipulation of stimulus loudness and duration of the modulated sounds weaker or stronger effects of loudness suppression were expected, respectively.Methods: We recruited 29 participants with chronic tonal tinnitus from the multidisciplinary Tinnitus Clinic of the University of Regensburg. Participants underwent audiometric, psychometric and tinnitus pitch matching assessments followed by an acoustic stimulation experiment with a tinnitus loudness growth paradigm. In a first block participants were stimulated with all of the sounds for 3 min each and rated their subjective tinnitus loudness to the pre-stimulus loudness every 30 s after stimulus offset. The same procedure was deployed in the second block with the pure tone AM stimuli matched to the tinnitus frequency, manipulated in length (6 min, and loudness (reduced by 30 dB and linear fade out. Repeated measures mixed model analyses of variance (ANOVA were calculated to assess differences in loudness growth between the stimuli for each block separately.Results: First, we found that all sounds elicit a short-term suppression of tinnitus loudness (seconds to minutes with strongest suppression right after stimulus offset [F(6, 1331 = 3.74, p < 0.01]. Second, similar to previous findings we found that AM sounds near the tinnitus frequency produce significantly stronger tinnitus loudness suppression than noise [vs. Pink

Letter-speech sound learning in children with dyslexia : From behavioral research to clinical practice

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aravena, S.

2017-01-01

In alphabetic languages, learning to associate speech-sounds with unfamiliar characters is a critical step in becoming a proficient reader. This dissertation aimed at expanding our knowledge of this learning process and its relation to dyslexia, with an emphasis on bridging the gap between

Credit Card Debt Hardship Letter Samples

OpenAIRE

lissa coffey

2016-01-01

Having trouble with your credit card debt? Below you will find examples of hardship letters. There are several things to consider when writing a credit card hardship letter. A hardship letter is the first step to letting the credit card company know that things are bad. This free credit card hardship letter sample is only a guide in order to start the negotiation. Credit card debt hardship letter example, hardship letter to credit card. If you are having trouble paying off your debt and need ...

Critical contrastive rhetoric: The influence of L2 letter writing instruction on L1letter writing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mehrnoosh Fakharzadeh

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The present study employed critical contrastive rhetoric to investigate the L2 to L1 transfer of organizational pattern and directness level of speech acts in business complaint letters. By examining the L1 complaint letters of 30 tourism university students in two phases of study, pre and post instruction of English complaint letter, the study revealed that the rhetorical organization of Persian letters are in a state of hybridity. The post instruction comparison of letters, however, showed a tendency towards applying English conventions both in organization and directness level of complaint speech act in the L1 complaint letters. The results also revealed that after instruction the expert in the field of tourism viewed some letters as inappropriate in terms of politeness which is reflected through some lexical items.

Binaural loudness for artificial-head measurements in directional sound fields

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sivonen, Ville Pekka; Ellermeier, Wolfgang

2008-01-01

The effect of the sound incidence angle on loudness was investigated for fifteen listeners who matched the loudness of sounds coming from five different incidence angles in the horizontal plane to that of the same sound with frontal incidence. The stimuli were presented via binaural synthesis...... by using head-related transfer functions measured for an artificial head. The results, which exhibited marked individual differences, show that loudness depends on the direction from which a sound reaches the listener. The average results suggest a relatively simple rule for combining the two signals...... at the ears of an artificial head for binaural loudness predictions....

Physiological phenotyping of dementias using emotional sounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Fletcher, Phillip D; Nicholas, Jennifer M; Shakespeare, Timothy J; Downey, Laura E; Golden, Hannah L; Agustus, Jennifer L; Clark, Camilla N; Mummery, Catherine J; Schott, Jonathan M; Crutch, Sebastian J; Warren, Jason D

2015-06-01

Emotional behavioral disturbances are hallmarks of many dementias but their pathophysiology is poorly understood. Here we addressed this issue using the paradigm of emotionally salient sounds. Pupil responses and affective valence ratings for nonverbal sounds of varying emotional salience were assessed in patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) (n = 14), semantic dementia (SD) (n = 10), progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA) (n = 12), and AD (n = 10) versus healthy age-matched individuals (n = 26). Referenced to healthy individuals, overall autonomic reactivity to sound was normal in Alzheimer's disease (AD) but reduced in other syndromes. Patients with bvFTD, SD, and AD showed altered coupling between pupillary and affective behavioral responses to emotionally salient sounds. Emotional sounds are a useful model system for analyzing how dementias affect the processing of salient environmental signals, with implications for defining pathophysiological mechanisms and novel biomarker development.

A Letter to Ahmad Khan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I.M. Mirgaleev

2016-12-01

Full Text Available We bring to attention of specialists an undated letter of Ottoman ruler Mehmed II Fatih to the Great Horde khan Ahmad from the collection of famous collector of Ottoman charters Feridun-bey [1, S. 289]. The addressee is the famous ruler of the Great Horde, khan Ahmad. Daulat Khan mentioned in the letter is Nur-Davlet. He was connected with khan Ahmad, and, as indicated by the letter, he had also set in close contact with the Ottomans whose ruler openly declares in a letter that “our sight of benevolence and patronage is directed toward him”. Thereby the Sultan made it clear to the “principal” Tatar khan Akhmad that Nur-Davlet was under the patronage of the Ottoman Empire. Considering the period of activity of Nur-Davlet in Crimea, presumably the letter was written in 1477. Famous researcher of the Crimean Khanate V.D. Smirnov had already examined the letter and the question of why Ahmad Khan was named the Crimean khan in the title of the letter [2, p. 221–222].

Vocal Imitations of Non-Vocal Sounds

Science.gov (United States)

Houix, Olivier; Voisin, Frédéric; Misdariis, Nicolas; Susini, Patrick

2016-01-01

Imitative behaviors are widespread in humans, in particular whenever two persons communicate and interact. Several tokens of spoken languages (onomatopoeias, ideophones, and phonesthemes) also display different degrees of iconicity between the sound of a word and what it refers to. Thus, it probably comes at no surprise that human speakers use a lot of imitative vocalizations and gestures when they communicate about sounds, as sounds are notably difficult to describe. What is more surprising is that vocal imitations of non-vocal everyday sounds (e.g. the sound of a car passing by) are in practice very effective: listeners identify sounds better with vocal imitations than with verbal descriptions, despite the fact that vocal imitations are inaccurate reproductions of a sound created by a particular mechanical system (e.g. a car driving by) through a different system (the voice apparatus). The present study investigated the semantic representations evoked by vocal imitations of sounds by experimentally quantifying how well listeners could match sounds to category labels. The experiment used three different types of sounds: recordings of easily identifiable sounds (sounds of human actions and manufactured products), human vocal imitations, and computational “auditory sketches” (created by algorithmic computations). The results show that performance with the best vocal imitations was similar to the best auditory sketches for most categories of sounds, and even to the referent sounds themselves in some cases. More detailed analyses showed that the acoustic distance between a vocal imitation and a referent sound is not sufficient to account for such performance. Analyses suggested that instead of trying to reproduce the referent sound as accurately as vocally possible, vocal imitations focus on a few important features, which depend on each particular sound category. These results offer perspectives for understanding how human listeners store and access long

Letters persistence after physical offset: visual word form area and left planum temporale. An fMRI study.

Science.gov (United States)

Barban, Francesco; Zannino, Gian Daniele; Macaluso, Emiliano; Caltagirone, Carlo; Carlesimo, Giovanni A

2013-06-01

Iconic memory is a high-capacity low-duration visual memory store that allows the persistence of a visual stimulus after its offset. The categorical nature of this store has been extensively debated. This study provides functional magnetic resonance imaging evidence for brain regions underlying the persistence of postcategorical representations of visual stimuli. In a partial report paradigm, subjects matched a cued row of a 3 × 3 array of letters (postcategorical stimuli) or false fonts (precategorical stimuli) with a subsequent triplet of stimuli. The cued row was indicated by two visual flankers presented at the onset (physical stimulus readout) or after the offset of the array (iconic memory readout). The left planum temporale showed a greater modulation of the source of readout (iconic memory vs. physical stimulus) when letters were presented compared to false fonts. This is a multimodal brain region responsible for matching incoming acoustic and visual patterns with acoustic pattern templates. These findings suggest that letters persist after their physical offset in an abstract postcategorical representation. A targeted region of interest analysis revealed a similar pattern of activation in the Visual Word Form Area. These results suggest that multiple higher-order visual areas mediate iconic memory for postcategorical stimuli. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Contribution of Sound Intensity in Vocal Emotion Perception: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Xuhai; Yang, Jianfeng; Gan, Shuzhen; Yang, Yufang

2012-01-01

Although its role is frequently stressed in acoustic profile for vocal emotion, sound intensity is frequently regarded as a control parameter in neurocognitive studies of vocal emotion, leaving its role and neural underpinnings unclear. To investigate these issues, we asked participants to rate the angry level of neutral and angry prosodies before and after sound intensity modification in Experiment 1, and recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) for mismatching emotional prosodies with and without sound intensity modification and for matching emotional prosodies while participants performed emotional feature or sound intensity congruity judgment in Experiment 2. It was found that sound intensity modification had significant effect on the rating of angry level for angry prosodies, but not for neutral ones. Moreover, mismatching emotional prosodies, relative to matching ones, induced enhanced N2/P3 complex and theta band synchronization irrespective of sound intensity modification and task demands. However, mismatching emotional prosodies with reduced sound intensity showed prolonged peak latency and decreased amplitude in N2/P3 complex and smaller theta band synchronization. These findings suggest that though it cannot categorically affect emotionality conveyed in emotional prosodies, sound intensity contributes to emotional significance quantitatively, implying that sound intensity should not simply be taken as a control parameter and its unique role needs to be specified in vocal emotion studies. PMID:22291928

The contribution of sound intensity in vocal emotion perception: behavioral and electrophysiological evidence.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xuhai Chen

Full Text Available Although its role is frequently stressed in acoustic profile for vocal emotion, sound intensity is frequently regarded as a control parameter in neurocognitive studies of vocal emotion, leaving its role and neural underpinnings unclear. To investigate these issues, we asked participants to rate the angry level of neutral and angry prosodies before and after sound intensity modification in Experiment 1, and recorded electroencephalogram (EEG for mismatching emotional prosodies with and without sound intensity modification and for matching emotional prosodies while participants performed emotional feature or sound intensity congruity judgment in Experiment 2. It was found that sound intensity modification had significant effect on the rating of angry level for angry prosodies, but not for neutral ones. Moreover, mismatching emotional prosodies, relative to matching ones, induced enhanced N2/P3 complex and theta band synchronization irrespective of sound intensity modification and task demands. However, mismatching emotional prosodies with reduced sound intensity showed prolonged peak latency and decreased amplitude in N2/P3 complex and smaller theta band synchronization. These findings suggest that though it cannot categorically affect emotionality conveyed in emotional prosodies, sound intensity contributes to emotional significance quantitatively, implying that sound intensity should not simply be taken as a control parameter and its unique role needs to be specified in vocal emotion studies.

Letter-transposition effects are not universal: The impact of transposing letters in Hebrew.

Science.gov (United States)

Velan, Hadas; Frost, Ram

2009-10-01

We examined the effects of letter transposition in Hebrew in three masked-priming experiments. Hebrew, like English has an alphabetic orthography where sequential and contiguous letter strings represent phonemes. However, being a Semitic language it has a non-concatenated morphology that is based on root derivations. Experiment 1 showed that transposed-letter (TL) root primes inhibited responses to targets derived from the non-transposed root letters, and that this inhibition was unrelated to relative root frequency. Experiment 2 replicated this result and showed that if the transposed letters of the root created a nonsense-root that had no lexical representation, then no inhibition and no facilitation were obtained. Finally, Experiment 3 demonstrated that in contrast to English, French, or Spanish, TL nonword primes did not facilitate recognition of targets, and when the root letters embedded in them consisted of a legal root morpheme, they produced inhibition. These results suggest that lexical space in alphabetic orthographies may be structured very differently in different languages if their morphological structure diverges qualitatively. In Hebrew, lexical space is organized according to root families rather than simple orthographic structure, so that all words derived from the same root are interconnected or clustered together, independent of overall orthographic similarity.

Mapping symbols to sounds: electrophysiological correlates of the impaired reading process in dyslexia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andreas eWidmann

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Dyslexic and control first grade school children were compared in a Symbol-to-Sound matching test based on a nonlinguistic audiovisual training which is known to have a remediating effect on dyslexia. Visual symbol patterns had to be matched with predicted sound patterns. Sounds incongruent with the corresponding visual symbol (thus not matching the prediction elicited the N2b and P3a event-related potential (ERP components relative to congruent sounds in control children. Their ERPs resembled the ERP effects previously reported for healthy adults with this paradigm. In dyslexic children, N2b onset latency was delayed and its amplitude significantly reduced over left hemisphere whereas P3a was absent. Moreover, N2b amplitudes significantly correlated with the reading skills. ERPs to sound changes in a control condition were unaffected. In addition, correctly predicted sounds, that is, sounds that are congruent with the visual symbol, elicited an early induced auditory gamma band response (GBR reflecting synchronization of brain activity in normal-reading children as previously observed in healthy adults. However, dyslexic children showed no GBR. This indicates that visual symbolic and auditory sensory information are not integrated into a unitary audiovisual object representation in them. Finally, incongruent sounds were followed by a later desynchronization of brain activity in the gamma band in both groups. This desynchronization was significantly larger in dyslexic children. Although both groups accomplished the task successfully remarkable group differences in brain responses suggest that normal-reading children and dyslexic children recruit (partly different brain mechanisms when solving the task. We propose that abnormal ERPs and GBRs in dyslexic readers indicate a deficit resulting in a widespread impairment in processing and integrating auditory and visual information and contributing to the reading impairment in dyslexia.

Cross-Modal Associations between Sounds and Drink Tastes/Textures: A Study with Spontaneous Production of Sound-Symbolic Words.

Science.gov (United States)

Sakamoto, Maki; Watanabe, Junji

2016-03-01

Many languages have a word class whose speech sounds are linked to sensory experiences. Several recent studies have demonstrated cross-modal associations (or correspondences) between sounds and gustatory sensations by asking participants to match predefined sound-symbolic words (e.g., "maluma/takete") with the taste/texture of foods. Here, we further explore cross-modal associations using the spontaneous production of words and semantic ratings of sensations. In the experiment, after drinking liquids, participants were asked to express their taste/texture using Japanese sound-symbolic words, and at the same time, to evaluate it in terms of criteria expressed by adjectives. Because the Japanese language has a large vocabulary of sound-symbolic words, and Japanese people frequently use them to describe taste/texture, analyzing a variety of Japanese sound-symbolic words spontaneously produced to express taste/textures might enable us to explore the mechanism of taste/texture categorization. A hierarchical cluster analysis based on the relationship between linguistic sounds and taste/texture evaluations revealed the structure of sensation categories. The results indicate that an emotional evaluation like pleasant/unpleasant is the primary cluster in gustation. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Intermodal Matching on the Example of Sound and Color Connection in Norm and Pathology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dyachenko A.

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The article describes the initial period of research of synesthesia and further work, experimental and theoretical, related to the study of various intermodal correspondences. Information about the presence of a statistically significant phenomenon of various intermodal correspondences in healthy people (which includes for example the connection of sound and color is provided. Present experiment reveals that the phenomenon of sound-color correspondences undergoes destructive changes in patients with schizophrenia compared with that in healthy individuals, but does not detect new distinct patterns.

A generalized sound extrapolation method for turbulent flows

Science.gov (United States)

Zhong, Siyang; Zhang, Xin

2018-02-01

Sound extrapolation methods are often used to compute acoustic far-field directivities using near-field flow data in aeroacoustics applications. The results may be erroneous if the volume integrals are neglected (to save computational cost), while non-acoustic fluctuations are collected on the integration surfaces. In this work, we develop a new sound extrapolation method based on an acoustic analogy using Taylor's hypothesis (Taylor 1938 Proc. R. Soc. Lon. A 164, 476-490. (doi:10.1098/rspa.1938.0032)). Typically, a convection operator is used to filter out the acoustically inefficient components in the turbulent flows, and an acoustics dominant indirect variable Dcp‧ is solved. The sound pressure p' at the far field is computed from Dcp‧ based on the asymptotic properties of the Green's function. Validations results for benchmark problems with well-defined sources match well with the exact solutions. For aeroacoustics applications: the sound predictions by the aerofoil-gust interaction are close to those by an earlier method specially developed to remove the effect of vortical fluctuations (Zhong & Zhang 2017 J. Fluid Mech. 820, 424-450. (doi:10.1017/jfm.2017.219)); for the case of vortex shedding noise from a cylinder, the off-body predictions by the proposed method match well with the on-body Ffowcs-Williams and Hawkings result; different integration surfaces yield close predictions (of both spectra and far-field directivities) for a co-flowing jet case using an established direct numerical simulation database. The results suggest that the method may be a potential candidate for sound projection in aeroacoustics applications.

Mode-matching strategies in slowly varying engine ducts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ovenden, N.C.; Rienstra, S.W.

2004-01-01

A matching method is proposed to connect the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) source region to the computational aeroacoustics propagation region of rotor–stator interaction sound produced in a turbofan engine. The method is based on a modal decomposition across three neighbouring axial interfaces

Overt use of a tactile-kinesthetic strategy shifts to covert processing in rehabilitation of letter-by-letter reading.

Science.gov (United States)

Lott, Susan Nitzberg; Carney, Aimee Syms; Glezer, Laurie S; Friedman, Rhonda B

2010-11-01

BACKGROUND: Letter-by-letter readers identify each letter of the word they are reading serially in left to right order before recognizing the word. When their letter naming is also impaired, letter-by-letter reading is inaccurate and can render even single word reading very poor. Tactile and/or kinesthetic strategies have been reported to improve reading in these patients, but only under certain conditions or for a limited set of stimuli. AIMS: The primary aim of the current study was to determine whether a tactile/kinesthetic treatment could significantly improve reading specifically under normal reading conditions, i.e. reading untrained words presented in free vision and read without overt use of the strategy. METHODS #ENTITYSTARTX00026; PROCEDURES: Three chronic letter-by-letter readers participated in a tactile/kinesthetic treatment aimed at first improving letter naming accuracy (phase 1) and then letter-by-letter reading speed (phase 2). In a multiple case series design, accuracy and speed of reading untrained words without overt use of the trained tactile/kinesthetic strategy was assessed before phase 1, after phase 1 and again after phase 2. OUTCOMES #ENTITYSTARTX00026; RESULTS: All three patients significantly improved both their speed and accuracy reading untrained words without overt use of the trained tactile/kinesthetic strategy. All three patients required the additional practice in phase 2 to achieve significant improvement. Treatment did not target sentence level reading, yet two of the three patients became so adept that they could read entire sentences. CONCLUSIONS: This study replicates previous findings on the efficacy of tactile/kinesthetic treatment for letter-by-letter readers with poor letter naming. It further demonstrates that this treatment can alter cognitive processing such that words never specifically trained can be read in free vision without overtly using the trained strategy. The data suggest that an important element in achieving

Improved LSB matching steganography with histogram characters reserved

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Zhihong; Liu, Wenyao

2008-03-01

This letter bases on the researches of LSB (least significant bit, i.e. the last bit of a binary pixel value) matching steganographic method and the steganalytic method which aims at histograms of cover images, and proposes a modification to LSB matching. In the LSB matching, if the LSB of the next cover pixel matches the next bit of secret data, do nothing; otherwise, choose to add or subtract one from the cover pixel value at random. In our improved method, a steganographic information table is defined and records the changes which embedded secrete bits introduce in. Through the table, the next LSB which has the same pixel value will be judged to add or subtract one dynamically in order to ensure the histogram's change of cover image is minimized. Therefore, the modified method allows embedding the same payload as the LSB matching but with improved steganographic security and less vulnerability to attacks compared with LSB matching. The experimental results of the new method show that the histograms maintain their attributes, such as peak values and alternative trends, in an acceptable degree and have better performance than LSB matching in the respects of histogram distortion and resistance against existing steganalysis.

Writing more informative letters of reference.

Science.gov (United States)

Wright, Scott M; Ziegelstein, Roy C

2004-05-01

Writing a meaningful and valuable letter of reference is not an easy task. Several factors influence the quality of any letter of reference. First, the accuracy and reliability of the writer's impressions and judgment depend on how well he knows the individual being described. Second, the writer's frame of reference, which is determined by the number of persons at the same level that he has worked with, will impact the context and significance of his beliefs and estimations. Third, the letter-writing skills of the person composing the letter will naturally affect the letter. To support the other components of a candidate's application, a letter of reference should provide specific examples of how an individual's behavior or attitude compares to a reference group and should assess "intangibles" that are hard to glean from a curriculum vitae or from test scores. This report offers suggestions that should help physicians write more informative letters of reference.

Letters From Peplau.

Science.gov (United States)

Peden, Ann R

2018-03-01

Dr. Hildegard Peplau, considered to be our first modern Nurse theorist and the Mother of Psychiatric Nursing, was a prolific writer, engaging in correspondence with colleagues and students who sought her professional and theoretical expertise. Through these letters, she influenced psychiatric nursing while maintaining a broad international network of professional colleagues. An analysis of letters, written between 1990 and 1998, provides insights into Peplau's last decade of professional life and a model of how to support the next generation of nurse scholars. Using content analysis, 24 letters received between 1990 and 1998 were read, reread, and coded. Recurring themes were identified. Three themes were identified. These include Peplau, the Person: Living a Life of Professional Balance; Lighting a Spark: Investing in the Next Generation; and Work in the Vineyards of Nursing: Maintaining a Life of Scholarship. The letters depict Peplau's keen intellect, her wide professional network, her leisure time spent with family and friends, and her own work to assure that her theoretical legacy continued. Peplau's insights continue to be relevant as psychiatric mental health nursing leaders engage in activities to support the next generation of scholars and leaders.

Intercepting a sound without vision

Science.gov (United States)

Vercillo, Tiziana; Tonelli, Alessia; Gori, Monica

2017-01-01

Visual information is extremely important to generate internal spatial representations. In the auditory modality, the absence of visual cues during early infancy does not preclude the development of some spatial strategies. However, specific spatial abilities might result impaired. In the current study, we investigated the effect of early visual deprivation on the ability to localize static and moving auditory stimuli by comparing sighted and early blind individuals’ performance in different spatial tasks. We also examined perceptual stability in the two groups of participants by matching localization accuracy in a static and a dynamic head condition that involved rotational head movements. Sighted participants accurately localized static and moving sounds. Their localization ability remained unchanged after rotational movements of the head. Conversely, blind participants showed a leftward bias during the localization of static sounds and a little bias for moving sounds. Moreover, head movements induced a significant bias in the direction of head motion during the localization of moving sounds. These results suggest that internal spatial representations might be body-centered in blind individuals and that in sighted people the availability of visual cues during early infancy may affect sensory-motor interactions. PMID:28481939

The legibility of letters and words

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Beier, Sofie

2016-01-01

The saying made famous by Mathew Carter that "type is a beautiful group of letters, not a group of beautiful letters”, highlights the fact that although a typeface consists of a number of letters it is when the letters are assembled in a word that they become type. However, research indicates...... that what makes letters legible in isolation is not necessarily the same as what makes them legible in words. Is it possible to create a typeface where both letters and words have a high level of legibility or are those factors so different that they cannot be combined? Through a literature review...... on relevant experimental investigations, I will in this talk present examples of when the legibility findings on letters and words correlate and when they differ....

A Letter of Ladizlaus, the Franciscan Custodian of Gazaria (Caffa, April 10, 1287.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roman Hautala

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The following letter of Friar Ladizlaus, Franciscan Custodian of Gazaria (that is, of the Northern Black Sea region, contains an interesting description of the collision between Catholic missionaries and Muslim residents of Solkhat. In his letter, Friar Ladizalus describes the circumstances of the conflict that arose in the summer of 1286 between the Franciscans of Solkhat and local Muslim residents who were angered by Catholics’ habit of sound a bell on their church. During the conflict, the Solkhat Muslims demolished this bell and destroyed the Catholic church. In turn, the Franciscans submitted a complaint against their actions to khan Tula-Buga and Nogay. In response to the Minorites’ petition, Jochid rulers sent their representatives to Solkhat. Despite personal commitment to the Muslim faith, these representatives severely punished Franciscans’ offenders and allowed the Minorites both to rebuild their church and to hang three bells instead of one destroyed earlier. Letter’s translation is provided with the necessary comments, which will be expanded in the future monograph of the author. It is appropriate to note that the letter was analyzed in detail in a recent article of the Hungarian researcher Szylvia Kovács [4, p. 157–164]. The Latin text of the letter is reproduced according to Girolamo Golubovich’s edition based on the Codex Ottoboniana 2115 from the Vatican library (fol. 62 [3, p. 444–445]. Discrepancies from the followin earlier editions are also taken into account in the text: [8, no. 250, s. 248–250 (referred to as Starzer & Redlich; 2, p. 165, nota 1 (referred to as Eubel].

Second sound scattering in superfluid helium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rosgen, T.

1985-01-01

Focusing cavities are used to study the scattering of second sound in liquid helium II. The special geometries reduce wall interference effects and allow measurements in very small test volumes. In a first experiment, a double elliptical cavity is used to focus a second sound wave onto a small wire target. A thin film bolometer measures the side scattered wave component. The agreement with a theoretical estimate is reasonable, although some problems arise from the small measurement volume and associated alignment requirements. A second cavity is based on confocal parabolas, thus enabling the use of large planar sensors. A cylindrical heater produces again a focused second sound wave. Three sensors monitor the transmitted wave component as well as the side scatter in two different directions. The side looking sensors have very high sensitivities due to their large size and resistance. Specially developed cryogenic amplifers are used to match them to the signal cables. In one case, a second auxiliary heater is used to set up a strong counterflow in the focal region. The second sound wave then scatters from the induced fluid disturbances

Can "CANISO" Activate "CASINO"? Transposed-Letter Similarity Effects with Nonadjacent Letter Positions

Science.gov (United States)

Perea, Manuel; Lupker, Stephen J.

2004-01-01

Nonwords created by transposing two "adjacent" letters (i.e., transposed-letter (TL) nonwords like "jugde") are very effective at activating the lexical representation of their base words. This fact poses problems for most computational models of word recognition (e.g., the interactive-activation model and its extensions), which assume that exact…

Precision of working memory for speech sounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Joseph, Sabine; Iverson, Paul; Manohar, Sanjay; Fox, Zoe; Scott, Sophie K; Husain, Masud

2015-01-01

Memory for speech sounds is a key component of models of verbal working memory (WM). But how good is verbal WM? Most investigations assess this using binary report measures to derive a fixed number of items that can be stored. However, recent findings in visual WM have challenged such "quantized" views by employing measures of recall precision with an analogue response scale. WM for speech sounds might rely on both continuous and categorical storage mechanisms. Using a novel speech matching paradigm, we measured WM recall precision for phonemes. Vowel qualities were sampled from a formant space continuum. A probe vowel had to be adjusted to match the vowel quality of a target on a continuous, analogue response scale. Crucially, this provided an index of the variability of a memory representation around its true value and thus allowed us to estimate how memories were distorted from the original sounds. Memory load affected the quality of speech sound recall in two ways. First, there was a gradual decline in recall precision with increasing number of items, consistent with the view that WM representations of speech sounds become noisier with an increase in the number of items held in memory, just as for vision. Based on multidimensional scaling (MDS), the level of noise appeared to be reflected in distortions of the formant space. Second, as memory load increased, there was evidence of greater clustering of participants' responses around particular vowels. A mixture model captured both continuous and categorical responses, demonstrating a shift from continuous to categorical memory with increasing WM load. This suggests that direct acoustic storage can be used for single items, but when more items must be stored, categorical representations must be used.

Letters

Science.gov (United States)

2001-03-01

The Editor welcomes letters, by e-mail to ped@iop.org or by post to Dirac House, Temple Back, Bristol BS1 6BE Contents: Force on a pendulum Sound slows down Bond is back Force on a pendulum The simple pendulum has been used by several educationalists for investigating the patterns of thinking among students and their observations that Aristotelian thinking persists among students at college level. I had also considered the simple pendulum in my 1985 letter in Physics Today [1], so I was interested to read the test given by Lenka Czudková and Jana Musilová [2]. When students were asked to draw net forces acting on the particle at various positions, 31.9% of students believed that the net force was tangential to the particle's path the whole time. To me this is no surprise because in our derivation of the equation for the period of a simple pendulum we assume that the unbalanced sine component provides the restoring force for the harmonic motion of the bob. Of course, Czudková and Musilová's question asked students for the net force on the particle, not the component. The student's answer fits well with the logic of the equilibrium of forces and the parallelogram law. Lastly, let me bring out the similarity between the student's answer and the thinking of George Gamow. He used to call positrons 'donkey' electrons because of their displacement against the applied force, before Paul Dirac termed them positrons. Victor Weisskeptf told me this anecdote in a letter in May 1982. References [1] Sathe D 1985 Phys. Today 38 144 [2] Czudková L and Musilová J 2000 Phys. Educ. 35 428 Dileep V Sathe Dadawala Jr College, Pune, India Sound slows down Without wanting to stir up more trouble amongst the already muddy waters of Physics teaching, consider how many times you have heard (or, more worryingly, read) this: 'Sound waves travel faster in a denser material' But...The velocity of simple longitudinal waves in a bulk medium is given by v = (K/ρ)1/2 where K is

Sound and sound sources

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Ole Næsbye; Wahlberg, Magnus

2017-01-01

There is no difference in principle between the infrasonic and ultrasonic sounds, which are inaudible to humans (or other animals) and the sounds that we can hear. In all cases, sound is a wave of pressure and particle oscillations propagating through an elastic medium, such as air. This chapter...... is about the physical laws that govern how animals produce sound signals and how physical principles determine the signals’ frequency content and sound level, the nature of the sound field (sound pressure versus particle vibrations) as well as directional properties of the emitted signal. Many...... of these properties are dictated by simple physical relationships between the size of the sound emitter and the wavelength of emitted sound. The wavelengths of the signals need to be sufficiently short in relation to the size of the emitter to allow for the efficient production of propagating sound pressure waves...

Acoustic Analysis of Soccer Fans in Acute Phonotrauma After the Match.

Science.gov (United States)

Pinarbasli, Mehmet Ozgur; Kaya, Ercan; Ozudogru, Erkan; Gurbuz, Melek Kezban; Colak, Ertugrul; Aksoy, Mehmet Akif; Birdane, Leman; Guney, Fatma Ozgur

2017-11-13

Acute phonotrauma is the result of sound production by shouting or straining one's voice. In this study, we aimed to investigate the acute changes in the vocal folds and voices of soccer fans who voluntarily applied to our clinic after the soccer match where they engaged in acute phonotrauma. There are no other studies in the literature conducted on a similar sample group. This is a case-control study. Videolaryngostroboscopic (VLS) examination, acoustic voice analysis, and Voice Handicap Index (VHI) questionnaire were performed on 29 voluntary soccer fans included to the study before the match and at the first hour after the match. The values obtained were compared statistically with each other and with 29 control groups without voice pathology. The jitter, shimmer, and normalized noise energy values measured after the match increased significantly statistically compared with the pre-match level, but harmonic noise ratio value decreased significantly (P < 0.05). VHI scores increased significantly after the match according to the pre-match scores (P < 0.05). In the VLS examinations, there was no difference in the images before and after the match. It has been concluded that people who are using their voices loudly and intensely by shouting during the match are exposed to sound changes after the match, and if this situation becomes persistent, it may cause permanent voice pathologies. It is thought that VHI and acoustic voice analysis should be done together with VLS for diagnosis and follow-up of voice changes for which the VLS examination alone is not sufficient. Copyright © 2017 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Looking at the ventriloquist: visual outcome of eye movements calibrates sound localization.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel S Pages

Full Text Available A general problem in learning is how the brain determines what lesson to learn (and what lessons not to learn. For example, sound localization is a behavior that is partially learned with the aid of vision. This process requires correctly matching a visual location to that of a sound. This is an intrinsically circular problem when sound location is itself uncertain and the visual scene is rife with possible visual matches. Here, we develop a simple paradigm using visual guidance of sound localization to gain insight into how the brain confronts this type of circularity. We tested two competing hypotheses. 1: The brain guides sound location learning based on the synchrony or simultaneity of auditory-visual stimuli, potentially involving a Hebbian associative mechanism. 2: The brain uses a 'guess and check' heuristic in which visual feedback that is obtained after an eye movement to a sound alters future performance, perhaps by recruiting the brain's reward-related circuitry. We assessed the effects of exposure to visual stimuli spatially mismatched from sounds on performance of an interleaved auditory-only saccade task. We found that when humans and monkeys were provided the visual stimulus asynchronously with the sound but as feedback to an auditory-guided saccade, they shifted their subsequent auditory-only performance toward the direction of the visual cue by 1.3-1.7 degrees, or 22-28% of the original 6 degree visual-auditory mismatch. In contrast when the visual stimulus was presented synchronously with the sound but extinguished too quickly to provide this feedback, there was little change in subsequent auditory-only performance. Our results suggest that the outcome of our own actions is vital to localizing sounds correctly. Contrary to previous expectations, visual calibration of auditory space does not appear to require visual-auditory associations based on synchrony/simultaneity.

Assessing Generative Braille Responding Following Training in a Matching-to-Sample Format

Science.gov (United States)

Putnam, Brittany C.; Tiger, Jeffrey H.

2016-01-01

We evaluated the effects of teaching sighted college students to select printed text letters given a braille sample stimulus in a matching-to-sample (MTS) format on the emergence of untrained (a) construction of print characters given braille samples, (b) construction of braille characters given print samples, (c) transcription of print characters…

Sound at the zoo: Using animal monitoring, sound measurement, and noise reduction in zoo animal management.

Science.gov (United States)

Orban, David A; Soltis, Joseph; Perkins, Lori; Mellen, Jill D

2017-05-01

A clear need for evidence-based animal management in zoos and aquariums has been expressed by industry leaders. Here, we show how individual animal welfare monitoring can be combined with measurement of environmental conditions to inform science-based animal management decisions. Over the last several years, Disney's Animal Kingdom® has been undergoing significant construction and exhibit renovation, warranting institution-wide animal welfare monitoring. Animal care and science staff developed a model that tracked animal keepers' daily assessments of an animal's physical health, behavior, and responses to husbandry activity; these data were matched to different external stimuli and environmental conditions, including sound levels. A case study of a female giant anteater and her environment is presented to illustrate how this process worked. Associated with this case, several sound-reducing barriers were tested for efficacy in mitigating sound. Integrating daily animal welfare assessment with environmental monitoring can lead to a better understanding of animals and their sensory environment and positively impact animal welfare. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

ERP correlates of letter identity and letter position are modulated by lexical frequency

Science.gov (United States)

Vergara-Martínez, Marta; Perea, Manuel; Gómez, Pablo; Swaab, Tamara Y.

2013-01-01

The encoding of letter position is a key aspect in all recently proposed models of visual-word recognition. We analyzed the impact of lexical frequency on letter position assignment by examining the temporal dynamics of lexical activation induced by pseudowords extracted from words of different frequencies. For each word (e.g., BRIDGE), we created two pseudowords: A transposed-letter (TL: BRIGDE) and a replaced-letter pseudoword (RL: BRITGE). ERPs were recorded while participants read words and pseudowords in two tasks: Semantic categorization (Experiment 1) and lexical decision (Experiment 2). For high-frequency stimuli, similar ERPs were obtained for words and TL-pseudowords, but the N400 component to words was reduced relative to RL-pseudowords, indicating less lexical/semantic activation. In contrast, TL- and RL-pseudowords created from low-frequency stimuli elicited similar ERPs. Behavioral responses in the lexical decision task paralleled this asymmetry. The present findings impose constraints on computational and neural models of visual-word recognition. PMID:23454070

Letter-Transposition Effects Are Not Universal: The Impact of Transposing Letters in Hebrew

Science.gov (United States)

Velan, Hadas; Frost, Ram

2009-01-01

We examined the effects of letter-transposition in Hebrew in three masked-priming experiments. Hebrew, like English has an alphabetic orthography where sequential and contiguous letter strings represent phonemes. However, being a Semitic language it has a non-concatenated morphology that is based on root derivations. Experiment 1 showed that…

7 CFR 3560.709 - Demand letter.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Demand letter. 3560.709 Section 3560.709 Agriculture... DIRECT MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING LOANS AND GRANTS Unauthorized Assistance § 3560.709 Demand letter. (a) If a... repayment schedule, the Agency will send the borrower a demand letter specifying: (1) The amount of...

Letters of Map Change (LOMC)

Data.gov (United States)

Department of Homeland Security — Documents, including different types of Letters of MAP Revision (LOMR) and Letters of Map Amendment (LOMA), which are issued by FEMA to revise or amend the flood...

High frequency source localization in a shallow ocean sound channel using frequency difference matched field processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Worthmann, Brian M; Song, H C; Dowling, David R

2015-12-01

Matched field processing (MFP) is an established technique for source localization in known multipath acoustic environments. Unfortunately, in many situations, particularly those involving high frequency signals, imperfect knowledge of the actual propagation environment prevents accurate propagation modeling and source localization via MFP fails. For beamforming applications, this actual-to-model mismatch problem was mitigated through a frequency downshift, made possible by a nonlinear array-signal-processing technique called frequency difference beamforming [Abadi, Song, and Dowling (2012). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 132, 3018-3029]. Here, this technique is extended to conventional (Bartlett) MFP using simulations and measurements from the 2011 Kauai Acoustic Communications MURI experiment (KAM11) to produce ambiguity surfaces at frequencies well below the signal bandwidth where the detrimental effects of mismatch are reduced. Both the simulation and experimental results suggest that frequency difference MFP can be more robust against environmental mismatch than conventional MFP. In particular, signals of frequency 11.2 kHz-32.8 kHz were broadcast 3 km through a 106-m-deep shallow ocean sound channel to a sparse 16-element vertical receiving array. Frequency difference MFP unambiguously localized the source in several experimental data sets with average peak-to-side-lobe ratio of 0.9 dB, average absolute-value range error of 170 m, and average absolute-value depth error of 10 m.

English Orthographic Learning in Chinese-L1 Young EFL Beginners.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Yu-Lin

2017-12-01

English orthographic learning, among Chinese-L1 children who were beginning to learn English as a foreign language, was documented when: (1) only visual memory was at their disposal, (2) visual memory and either some letter-sound knowledge or some semantic information was available, and (3) visual memory, some letter-sound knowledge and some semantic information were all available. When only visual memory was available, orthographic learning (measured via an orthographic choice test) was meagre. Orthographic learning was significant when either semantic information or letter-sound knowledge supplemented visual memory, with letter-sound knowledge generating greater significance. Although the results suggest that letter-sound knowledge plays a more important role than semantic information, letter-sound knowledge alone does not suffice to achieve perfect orthographic learning, as orthographic learning was greatest when letter-sound knowledge and semantic information were both available. The present findings are congruent with a view that the orthography of a foreign language drives its orthographic learning more than L1 orthographic learning experience, thus extending Share's (Cognition 55:151-218, 1995) self-teaching hypothesis to include non-alphabetic L1 children's orthographic learning of an alphabetic foreign language. The little letter-sound knowledge development observed in the experiment-I control group indicates that very little letter-sound knowledge develops in the absence of dedicated letter-sound training. Given the important role of letter-sound knowledge in English orthographic learning, dedicated letter-sound instruction is highly recommended.

31 CFR 29.511 - Demand letters.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 31 Money and Finance: Treasury 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Demand letters. 29.511 Section 29.511... Overpayments § 29.511 Demand letters. Except as provided in § 29.516(e), before starting collection action to recover an overpayment, the Benefits Administrator must send a demand letter that informs the debtor in...

Letter Dice. Technical Note No. 6.

Science.gov (United States)

Gunter, Jock

Letter and syllable dice devised for a project in rural Ecuador provide inexpensive, easily reproducible learning materials for practice in basic literary skills. Eleven wooden cubes with six letters on each cube are cast onto a surface and the player constructs words from the letters on the top side of the dice. After a word is formed and…

Letter to the parliament:

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2017-01-01

This piece was a letter directed towards various ministers in the parliament, targeted at raising a discussion on the values in the education of architects in Denmark and various related topics.......This piece was a letter directed towards various ministers in the parliament, targeted at raising a discussion on the values in the education of architects in Denmark and various related topics....

Teacher candidates' mastery of phoneme-grapheme correspondence: massed versus distributed practice in teacher education.

Science.gov (United States)

Sayeski, Kristin L; Earle, Gentry A; Eslinger, R Paige; Whitenton, Jessy N

2017-04-01

Matching phonemes (speech sounds) to graphemes (letters and letter combinations) is an important aspect of decoding (translating print to speech) and encoding (translating speech to print). Yet, many teacher candidates do not receive explicit training in phoneme-grapheme correspondence. Difficulty with accurate phoneme production and/or lack of understanding of sound-symbol correspondence can make it challenging for teachers to (a) identify student errors on common assessments and (b) serve as a model for students when teaching beginning reading or providing remedial reading instruction. For students with dyslexia, lack of teacher proficiency in this area is particularly problematic. This study examined differences between two learning conditions (massed and distributed practice) on teacher candidates' development of phoneme-grapheme correspondence knowledge and skills. An experimental, pretest-posttest-delayed test design was employed with teacher candidates (n = 52) to compare a massed practice condition (one, 60-min session) to a distributed practice condition (four, 15-min sessions distributed over 4 weeks) for learning phonemes associated with letters and letter combinations. Participants in the distributed practice condition significantly outperformed participants in the massed practice condition on their ability to correctly produce phonemes associated with different letters and letter combinations. Implications for teacher preparation are discussed.

Spongelike Acquisition of Sight Vocabulary in Beginning Readers?

Science.gov (United States)

Stuart, Morag; Masterson, Jackie; Dixon, Maureen

2000-01-01

Investigates the relation between phonological awareness, sound-to-letter mapping knowledge, and printed word learning in novice five-year-old readers. Explores effects of visual memory and of teaching methods. Finds mental representations of printed words are more easily formed by beginners who are able to match at least some of the phonological…

Dementias show differential physiological responses to salient sounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Fletcher, Phillip D; Nicholas, Jennifer M; Shakespeare, Timothy J; Downey, Laura E; Golden, Hannah L; Agustus, Jennifer L; Clark, Camilla N; Mummery, Catherine J; Schott, Jonathan M; Crutch, Sebastian J; Warren, Jason D

2015-01-01

Abnormal responsiveness to salient sensory signals is often a prominent feature of dementia diseases, particularly the frontotemporal lobar degenerations, but has been little studied. Here we assessed processing of one important class of salient signals, looming sounds, in canonical dementia syndromes. We manipulated tones using intensity cues to create percepts of salient approaching ("looming") or less salient withdrawing sounds. Pupil dilatation responses and behavioral rating responses to these stimuli were compared in patients fulfilling consensus criteria for dementia syndromes (semantic dementia, n = 10; behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia, n = 16, progressive nonfluent aphasia, n = 12; amnestic Alzheimer's disease, n = 10) and a cohort of 26 healthy age-matched individuals. Approaching sounds were rated as more salient than withdrawing sounds by healthy older individuals but this behavioral response to salience did not differentiate healthy individuals from patients with dementia syndromes. Pupil responses to approaching sounds were greater than responses to withdrawing sounds in healthy older individuals and in patients with semantic dementia: this differential pupil response was reduced in patients with progressive nonfluent aphasia and Alzheimer's disease relative both to the healthy control and semantic dementia groups, and did not correlate with nonverbal auditory semantic function. Autonomic responses to auditory salience are differentially affected by dementias and may constitute a novel biomarker of these diseases.

Directional loudness in an anechoic sound field, head-related transfer functions, and binaural summation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sivonen, Ville Pekka; Ellermeier, Wolfgang

2006-01-01

planes. Matches were obtained via a two-interval, adaptive forced-choice (2AFC) procedure for three center frequencies (0.4, 1 and 5 kHz) and two overall levels (45 and 65 dB SPL). The results showed that loudness is not constant over sound incidence angles, with directional sensitivity varying over......The effect of sound incidence angle on loudness was investigated using real sound sources positioned in an anechoic chamber. Eight normal-hearing listeners produced loudness matches between a frontal reference location and seven sources placed at other directions, both in the horizontal and median...... a range of up to 10 dB, exhibiting considerable frequency dependence, but only minor effects of overall level. The pattern of results varied substantially between subjects, but was largely accounted for by variations in individual head-related transfer functions. Modeling of binaural loudness based...

Resource Letter: GW-1: Global warming

Science.gov (United States)

Firor, John W.

1994-06-01

This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on the possibility of a human-induced climate change—a global warming. Journal articles and books are cited for the following topics: the Greenhouse Effect, sources of infrared-trapping gases, climate models and their uncertainties, verification of climate models, past climate changes, and economics, ethics, and politics of policy responses to climate change. [The letter E after an item indicates elementary level or material of general interest to persons becoming informed in the field. The letter I, for intermediate level, indicates material of somewhat more specialized nature, and the letter A indicates rather specialized or advanced material.

Implied reading direction and prioritization of letter encoding.

Science.gov (United States)

Holcombe, Alex O; Nguyen, Elizabeth H L; Goodbourn, Patrick T

2017-10-01

Capacity limits hinder processing of multiple stimuli, contributing to poorer performance for identifying two briefly presented letters than for identifying a single letter. Higher accuracy is typically found for identifying the letter on the left, which has been attributed to a right-hemisphere dominance for selective attention. Here, we use rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of letters in two locations at once. The letters to be identified are simultaneous and cued by rings. In the first experiment, we manipulated implied reading direction by rotating or mirror-reversing the letters to face to the left rather than to the right. The left-side performance advantage was eliminated. In the second experiment, letters were positioned above and below fixation, oriented such that they appeared to face downward (90° clockwise rotation) or upward (90° counterclockwise rotation). Again consistent with an effect of implied reading direction, performance was better for the top position in the downward condition, but not in the upward condition. In both experiments, mixture modeling of participants' report errors revealed that attentional sampling from the two locations was approximately simultaneous, ruling out the theory that the letter on one side was processed first, followed by a shift of attention to sample the other letter. Thus, the orientation of the letters apparently controls not when the letters are sampled from the scene, but rather the dynamics of a subsequent process, such as tokenization or memory consolidation. Implied reading direction appears to determine the letter prioritized at a high-level processing bottleneck. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Research on fiber Bragg grating heart sound sensing and wavelength demodulation method

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Cheng; Miao, Chang-Yun; Gao, Hua; Gan, Jing-Meng; Li, Hong-Qiang

2010-11-01

Heart sound includes a lot of physiological and pathological information of heart and blood vessel. Heart sound detecting is an important method to gain the heart status, and has important significance to early diagnoses of cardiopathy. In order to improve sensitivity and reduce noise, a heart sound measurement method based on fiber Bragg grating was researched. By the vibration principle of plane round diaphragm, a heart sound sensor structure of fiber Bragg grating was designed and a heart sound sensing mathematical model was established. A formula of heart sound sensitivity was deduced and the theoretical sensitivity of the designed sensor is 957.11pm/KPa. Based on matched grating method, the experiment system was built, by which the excursion of reflected wavelength of the sensing grating was detected and the information of heart sound was obtained. Experiments show that the designed sensor can detect the heart sound and the reflected wavelength variety range is about 70pm. When the sampling frequency is 1 KHz, the extracted heart sound waveform by using the db4 wavelet has the same characteristics with a standard heart sound sensor.

48 CFR 42.504 - Postaward letters.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION AND AUDIT SERVICES Postaward Orientation 42.504 Postaward letters. In some circumstances, a letter or other written form of communication to the contractor may be adequate postaward...

Perceived loudness of spatially distributed sound sources

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Song, Woo-keun; Ellermeier, Wolfgang; Minnaar, Pauli

2005-01-01

psychoacoustic attributes into account. Therefore, a method for deriving loudness maps was developed in an earlier study [Song, Internoise2004, paper 271]. The present experiment investigates to which extent perceived loudness depends on the distribution of individual sound sources. Three loudspeakers were...... positioned 1.5 m from the centre of the listener’s head, one straight ahead, and two 10 degrees to the right and left, respectively. Six participants matched the loudness of either one, or two simultaneous sounds (narrow-band noises with 1-kHz, and 3.15-kHz centre frequencies) to a 2-kHz, 60-dB SPL narrow......-band noise placed in the frontal loudspeaker. The two sounds were either originating from the central speaker, or from the two offset loudspeakers. It turned out that the subjects perceived the noises to be softer when they were distributed in space. In addition, loudness was calculated from the recordings...

A Stimulus Sampling Theory of Letter Identity and Order

Science.gov (United States)

Norris, Dennis; Kinoshita, Sachiko; van Casteren, Maarten

2010-01-01

Early on during word recognition, letter positions are not accurately coded. Evidence for this comes from transposed-letter (TL) priming effects, in which letter strings generated by transposing two adjacent letters (e.g., "jugde") produce large priming effects, more than primes with the letters replaced in the corresponding position (e.g.,…

Launch of Zoological Letters.

Science.gov (United States)

Fukatsu, Takema; Kuratani, Shigeru

2016-02-01

A new open-access journal, Zoological Letters, was launched as a sister journal to Zoological Science, in January 2015. The new journal aims at publishing topical papers of high quality from a wide range of basic zoological research fields. This review highlights the notable reviews and research articles that have been published in the first year of Zoological Letters, providing an overview on the current achievements and future directions of the journal.

SoundScapes - Beyond Interaction... in search of the ultimate human-centred interface

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brooks, Tony

2006-01-01

that can also benefit communication. To achieve this a new generation of intuitive natural interfaces will be required and SoundScapes (see below) is a step toward this goal to discover the ultimate interface for matching the human experience to technology. Emergent hypothesis that have developed...... as a result of the SoundScapes research will be discussed. Introduction to SoundScapes SoundScapes is a contemporary art concept that has become widely known as an interdisciplinary platform for knowledge exchange, innovative product creation of creative and scientific work that uses non-invasive sensor...... Resonance. The multimedia content is adaptable so that the environment is tailored for each participant according to a user profile. This full body movement or the smallest of gesture results in human data input to SoundScapes. The same technology that enables this empowerment is used for performance art...

Letters to those who Dare Feel: Using Reflective Letter-Writing to Explore the Emotionality of Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan

2012-02-01

Full Text Available Using reflective letter-writing as a method of generating data, a group of four researchers embarked on a collaborative autoethnographic inquiry into the emotional dimensions of researching social aspects of HIV & AIDS. In this article, we use the medium of a narrative dialogue to represent and re-examine our reflective letter-writing method. The dialogue draws attention to key features of reflective letter-writing as a collaborative autoethnographic research method and, in so doing, highlights and explores the nature, potential significance, and challenges of this method. Our discussion points to the value of a collaborative process of reflective letter-writing as a way for researchers to access and portray emotional aspects of their research experience, to deepen their engagement with these emotional dimensions, and to gain insight into their own and others' lived research experiences.

Foley Sounds vs Real Sounds

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Trento, Stefano; Götzen, Amalia De

2011-01-01

This paper is an initial attempt to study the world of sound effects for motion pictures, also known as Foley sounds. Throughout several audio and audio-video tests we have compared both Foley and real sounds originated by an identical action. The main purpose was to evaluate if sound effects...

Written Communications Simulation: Write Me a Letter.

Science.gov (United States)

North Carolina State Dept. of Public Instruction, Raleigh. Div. of Vocational Education.

This simulation is intended for use as a culminating activity after students have been exposed to personal and/or business letter writing, use of reference manuals, typing of letters, mailing procedures, typing of numbers, punctuation practice, and filing procedures. Stated objectives are to enable students to type a mailable letter; to inspect,…

On Coding Non-Contiguous Letter Combinations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frédéric eDandurand

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Starting from the hypothesis that printed word identification initially involves the parallel mapping of visual features onto location-specific letter identities, we analyze the type of information that would be involved in optimally mapping this location-specific orthographic code onto a location-invariant lexical code. We assume that some intermediate level of coding exists between individual letters and whole words, and that this involves the representation of letter combinations. We then investigate the nature of this intermediate level of coding given the constraints of optimality. This intermediate level of coding is expected to compress data while retaining as much information as possible about word identity. Information conveyed by letters is a function of how much they constrain word identity and how visible they are. Optimization of this coding is a combination of minimizing resources (using the most compact representations and maximizing information. We show that in a large proportion of cases, non-contiguous letter sequences contain more information than contiguous sequences, while at the same time requiring less precise coding. Moreover, we found that the best predictor of human performance in orthographic priming experiments was within-word ranking of conditional probabilities, rather than average conditional probabilities. We conclude that from an optimality perspective, readers learn to select certain contiguous and non-contiguous letter combinations as information that provides the best cue to word identity.

The Sound Quality of Cochlear Implants: Studies With Single-sided Deaf Patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Dorman, Michael F; Natale, Sarah Cook; Butts, Austin M; Zeitler, Daniel M; Carlson, Matthew L

2017-09-01

The goal of the present study was to assess the sound quality of a cochlear implant for single-sided deaf (SSD) patients fit with a cochlear implant (CI). One of the fundamental, unanswered questions in CI research is "what does an implant sound like?" Conventional CI patients must use the memory of a clean signal, often decades old, to judge the sound quality of their CIs. In contrast, SSD-CI patients can rate the similarity of a clean signal presented to the CI ear and candidate, CI-like signals presented to the ear with normal hearing. For Experiment 1 four types of stimuli were created for presentation to the normal hearing ear: noise vocoded signals, sine vocoded signals, frequency shifted, sine vocoded signals and band-pass filtered, natural speech signals. Listeners rated the similarity of these signals to unmodified signals sent to the CI on a scale of 0 to 10 with 10 being a complete match to the CI signal. For Experiment 2 multitrack signal mixing was used to create natural speech signals that varied along multiple dimensions. In Experiment 1 for eight adult SSD-CI listeners, the best median similarity rating to the sound of the CI for noise vocoded signals was 1.9; for sine vocoded signals 2.9; for frequency upshifted signals, 1.9; and for band pass filtered signals, 5.5. In Experiment 2 for three young listeners, combinations of band pass filtering and spectral smearing lead to ratings of 10. The sound quality of noise and sine vocoders does not generally correspond to the sound quality of cochlear implants fit to SSD patients. Our preliminary conclusion is that natural speech signals that have been muffled to one degree or another by band pass filtering and/or spectral smearing provide a close, but incomplete, match to CI sound quality for some patients.

Dementias show differential physiological responses to salient sounds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Phillip David Fletcher

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Abnormal responsiveness to salient sensory signals is often a prominent feature of dementia diseases, particularly the frontotemporal lobar degenerations, but has been little studied. Here we assessed processing of one important class of salient signals, looming sounds, in canonical dementia syndromes. We manipulated tones using intensity cues to create percepts of salient approaching (‘looming’ or less salient withdrawing sounds. Pupil dilatation responses and behavioural rating responses to these stimuli were compared in patients fulfilling consensus criteria for dementia syndromes (semantic dementia, n=10; behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, n=16, progressive non-fluent aphasia, n=12; amnestic Alzheimer’s disease, n=10 and a cohort of 26 healthy age-matched individuals. Approaching sounds were rated as more salient than withdrawing sounds by healthy older individuals but this behavioural response to salience did not differentiate healthy individuals from patients with dementia syndromes. Pupil responses to approaching sounds were greater than responses to withdrawing sounds in healthy older individuals and in patients with semantic dementia: this differential pupil response was reduced in patients with progressive nonfluent aphasia and Alzheimer’s disease relative both to the healthy control and semantic dementia groups, and did not correlate with nonverbal auditory semantic function. Autonomic responses to auditory salience are differentially affected by dementias and may constitute a novel biomarker of these diseases.

Dementias show differential physiological responses to salient sounds

Science.gov (United States)

Fletcher, Phillip D.; Nicholas, Jennifer M.; Shakespeare, Timothy J.; Downey, Laura E.; Golden, Hannah L.; Agustus, Jennifer L.; Clark, Camilla N.; Mummery, Catherine J.; Schott, Jonathan M.; Crutch, Sebastian J.; Warren, Jason D.

2015-01-01

Abnormal responsiveness to salient sensory signals is often a prominent feature of dementia diseases, particularly the frontotemporal lobar degenerations, but has been little studied. Here we assessed processing of one important class of salient signals, looming sounds, in canonical dementia syndromes. We manipulated tones using intensity cues to create percepts of salient approaching (“looming”) or less salient withdrawing sounds. Pupil dilatation responses and behavioral rating responses to these stimuli were compared in patients fulfilling consensus criteria for dementia syndromes (semantic dementia, n = 10; behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia, n = 16, progressive nonfluent aphasia, n = 12; amnestic Alzheimer's disease, n = 10) and a cohort of 26 healthy age-matched individuals. Approaching sounds were rated as more salient than withdrawing sounds by healthy older individuals but this behavioral response to salience did not differentiate healthy individuals from patients with dementia syndromes. Pupil responses to approaching sounds were greater than responses to withdrawing sounds in healthy older individuals and in patients with semantic dementia: this differential pupil response was reduced in patients with progressive nonfluent aphasia and Alzheimer's disease relative both to the healthy control and semantic dementia groups, and did not correlate with nonverbal auditory semantic function. Autonomic responses to auditory salience are differentially affected by dementias and may constitute a novel biomarker of these diseases. PMID:25859194

78 FR 13869 - Puget Sound Energy, Inc.; Puget Sound Energy, Inc.; Puget Sound Energy, Inc.; Puget Sound Energy...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-03-01

...-123-LNG; 12-128-NG; 12-148-NG; 12- 158-NG] Puget Sound Energy, Inc.; Puget Sound Energy, Inc.; Puget Sound Energy, Inc.; Puget Sound Energy, Inc.; Puget Sound Energy, Inc.; CE FLNG, LLC; Consolidated...-NG Puget Sound Energy, Inc Order granting long- term authority to import/export natural gas from/to...

Writing More Informative Letters of Reference

OpenAIRE

Wright, Scott M; Ziegelstein, Roy C

2004-01-01

Writing a meaningful and valuable letter of reference is not an easy task. Several factors influence the quality of any letter of reference. First, the accuracy and reliability of the writer's impressions and judgment depend on how well he knows the individual being described. Second, the writer's frame of reference, which is determined by the number of persons at the same level that he has worked with, will impact the context and significance of his beliefs and estimations. Third, the letter...

Use of Standard Guidelines for Department of Medicine Summary Letters.

Science.gov (United States)

Fitz, Matthew; La Rochelle, Jeffrey; Lang, Valerie; DeWaay, Deborah; Adams, William; Nasraty, Farah

2018-04-12

Phenomenon: Fourth-year medical students obtain Department of Medicine (DOM) letters ("Chair" letters) to support their residency applications. Writing and interpreting DOM letters are challenging. There is heterogeneity in the letters that makes it difficult to both write and read these letters. The purpose of this study is to determine the value of new guidelines developed by a task force of clerkship directors and program directors in internal medicine and assess the implementation of these guidelines. The Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine performed a cross-sectional survey of internal medicine clerkship directors at U.S. and Canadian medical schools in 2014. In addition, the primary author's institution reviewed 1,347 DOM letters between 2012 and 2014 to assess the implementation of these guidelines. The survey response rate was 78%. DOM letter writers reported the guidelines were better, easier to implement, and more compatible with the purpose of DOM letters than previously. Most letter readers reported that letters using the guidelines were more credible. Writers of DOM letters in lower academic ranks rated the letters with guidelines higher in several domains than those in higher academic ranks. Readers of DOM letters in higher academic ranks rated the letters with guidelines higher in several domains than those in lower academic ranks. In the DOM letters examined, the odds of meeting each guideline increased with each additional year. However, for 3 guidelines there was an initial decline in adherence from 2012 to 2013 before increasing again in 2014-the recommended length, clerkship description, and detailed narrative guidelines. Letters solely written by a chair were less likely to incorporate the guidelines. Insights: Clerkship directors often write the DOM letters and identify with the purpose of the guidelines. As writers, lower ranking academic faculty value the guidelines more than higher ranking academic faculty. As readers of DOM letters

Primate auditory recognition memory performance varies with sound type.

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, Chi-Wing; Plakke, Bethany; Poremba, Amy

2009-10-01

Neural correlates of auditory processing, including for species-specific vocalizations that convey biological and ethological significance (e.g., social status, kinship, environment), have been identified in a wide variety of areas including the temporal and frontal cortices. However, few studies elucidate how non-human primates interact with these vocalization signals when they are challenged by tasks requiring auditory discrimination, recognition and/or memory. The present study employs a delayed matching-to-sample task with auditory stimuli to examine auditory memory performance of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), wherein two sounds are determined to be the same or different. Rhesus macaques seem to have relatively poor short-term memory with auditory stimuli, and we examine if particular sound types are more favorable for memory performance. Experiment 1 suggests memory performance with vocalization sound types (particularly monkey), are significantly better than when using non-vocalization sound types, and male monkeys outperform female monkeys overall. Experiment 2, controlling for number of sound exemplars and presentation pairings across types, replicates Experiment 1, demonstrating better performance or decreased response latencies, depending on trial type, to species-specific monkey vocalizations. The findings cannot be explained by acoustic differences between monkey vocalizations and the other sound types, suggesting the biological, and/or ethological meaning of these sounds are more effective for auditory memory. 2009 Elsevier B.V.

A Mixed-Methods Trial of Broad Band Noise and Nature Sounds for Tinnitus Therapy: Group and Individual Responses Modeled under the Adaptation Level Theory of Tinnitus.

Science.gov (United States)

Durai, Mithila; Searchfield, Grant D

2017-01-01

Objectives: A randomized cross-over trial in 18 participants tested the hypothesis that nature sounds, with unpredictable temporal characteristics and high valence would yield greater improvement in tinnitus than constant, emotionally neutral broadband noise. Study Design: The primary outcome measure was the Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI). Secondary measures were: loudness and annoyance ratings, loudness level matches, minimum masking levels, positive and negative emotionality, attention reaction and discrimination time, anxiety, depression and stress. Each sound was administered using MP3 players with earbuds for 8 continuous weeks, with a 3 week wash-out period before crossing over to the other treatment sound. Measurements were undertaken for each arm at sound fitting, 4 and 8 weeks after administration. Qualitative interviews were conducted at each of these appointments. Results: From a baseline TFI score of 41.3, sound therapy resulted in TFI scores at 8 weeks of 35.6; broadband noise resulted in significantly greater reduction (8.2 points) after 8 weeks of sound therapy use than nature sounds (3.2 points). The positive effect of sound on tinnitus was supported by secondary outcome measures of tinnitus, emotion, attention, and psychological state, but not interviews. Tinnitus loudness level match was higher for BBN at 8 weeks; while there was little change in loudness level matches for nature sounds. There was no change in minimum masking levels following sound therapy administration. Self-reported preference for one sound over another did not correlate with changes in tinnitus. Conclusions: Modeled under an adaptation level theory framework of tinnitus perception, the results indicate that the introduction of broadband noise shifts internal adaptation level weighting away from the tinnitus signal, reducing tinnitus magnitude. Nature sounds may modify the affective components of tinnitus via a secondary, residual pathway, but this appears to be less important

Letter-case information and the identification of brand names.

Science.gov (United States)

Perea, Manuel; Jiménez, María; Talero, Fernanda; López-Cañada, Soraya

2015-02-01

A central tenet of most current models of visual-word recognition is that lexical units are activated on the basis of case-invariant abstract letter representations. Here, we examined this assumption by using a unique type of words: brand names. The rationale of the experiments is that brand names are archetypically printed either in lowercase (e.g., adidas) or uppercase (e.g., IKEA). This allows us to present the brand names in their standard or non-standard case configuration (e.g., adidas, IKEA vs. ADIDAS, ikea, respectively). We conducted two experiments with a brand-decision task ('is it a brand name?'): a single-presentation experiment and a masked priming experiment. Results in the single-presentation experiment revealed faster identification times of brand names in their standard case configuration than in their non-standard case configuration (i.e., adidas faster than ADIDAS; IKEA faster than ikea). In the masked priming experiment, we found faster identification times of brand names when they were preceded by an identity prime that matched its standard case configuration than when it did not (i.e., faster response times to adidas-adidas than to ADIDAS-adidas). Taken together, the present findings strongly suggest that letter-case information forms part of a brand name's graphemic information, thus posing some limits to current models of visual-word recognition. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Matching is not naming: a direct comparison of lexical manipulations in explicit and implicit reading tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Vogel, Alecia C; Petersen, Steven E; Schlaggar, Bradley L

2013-10-01

The neurobiological basis of reading is of considerable interest, yet analyzing data from subjects reading words aloud during functional MRI data collection can be difficult. Therefore, many investigators use surrogate tasks such as visual matching or rhyme matching to eliminate the need for spoken output. Use of these tasks has been justified by the presumption of "automatic activation" of reading-related neural processing when a word is viewed. We have tested the efficacy of using a nonreading task for studying "reading effects" by directly comparing blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) activity in subjects performing a visual matching task and an item naming task on words, pseudowords (meaningless but legal letter combinations), and nonwords (meaningless and illegal letter combinations). When compared directly, there is significantly more activity during the naming task in "reading-related" regions such as the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and supramarginal gyrus. More importantly, there are differing effects of lexicality in the tasks. A whole-brain task (matching vs. naming) by string type (word vs. pseudoword vs. nonword) by BOLD timecourse analysis identifies regions showing this three-way interaction, including the left IFG and left angular gyrus (AG). In the majority of the identified regions (including the left IFG and left AG), there is a string type × timecourse interaction in the naming but not the matching task. These results argue that the processing performed in specific regions is contingent on task, even in reading-related regions and is thus nonautomatic. Such differences should be taken into consideration when designing studies intended to investigate reading. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Maritime Geo-Fence Letter Report

Science.gov (United States)

2016-07-01

1 Classification | CG-926 RDC | author | audience | month year Maritime Geo-Fence Letter Report Authors: Irene Gonin and Gregory...Johnson   Distribution Statement A: Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. July 2016 Report No. CG-D-10-16 Maritime Geo-Fence...United States Coast Guard Research & Development Center 1 Chelsea Street New London, CT 06320 Maritime Geo-Fence Letter Report 1

The role of sensorimotor learning in the perception of letter-like forms: tracking the causes of neural specialization for letters.

Science.gov (United States)

James, Karin H; Atwood, Thea P

2009-02-01

Functional specialization in the brain is considered a hallmark of efficient processing. It is therefore not surprising that there are brain areas specialized for processing letters. To better understand the causes of functional specialization for letters, we explore the emergence of this pattern of response in the ventral processing stream through a training paradigm. Previously, we hypothesized that the specialized response pattern seen during letter perception may be due in part to our experience in writing letters. The work presented here investigates whether or not this aspect of letter processing-the integration of sensorimotor systems through writing-leads to functional specialization in the visual system. To test this idea, we investigated whether or not different types of experiences with letter-like stimuli ("pseudoletters") led to functional specialization similar to that which exists for letters. Neural activation patterns were measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before and after three different types of training sessions. Participants were trained to recognize pseudoletters by writing, typing, or purely visual practice. Results suggested that only after writing practice did neural activation patterns to pseudoletters resemble patterns seen for letters. That is, neural activation in the left fusiform and dorsal precentral gyrus was greater when participants viewed pseudoletters than other, similar stimuli but only after writing experience. Neural activation also increased after typing practice in the right fusiform and left precentral gyrus, suggesting that in some areas, any motor experience may change visual processing. The results of this experiment suggest an intimate interaction among perceptual and motor systems during pseudoletter perception that may be extended to everyday letter perception.

Recognition of Frequency Modulated Whistle-Like Sounds by a Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and Humans with Transformations in Amplitude, Duration and Frequency

Science.gov (United States)

Branstetter, Brian K.; DeLong, Caroline M.; Dziedzic, Brandon; Black, Amy; Bakhtiari, Kimberly

2016-01-01

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) use the frequency contour of whistles produced by conspecifics for individual recognition. Here we tested a bottlenose dolphin’s (Tursiops truncatus) ability to recognize frequency modulated whistle-like sounds using a three alternative matching-to-sample paradigm. The dolphin was first trained to select a specific object (object A) in response to a specific sound (sound A) for a total of three object-sound associations. The sounds were then transformed by amplitude, duration, or frequency transposition while still preserving the frequency contour of each sound. For comparison purposes, 30 human participants completed an identical task with the same sounds, objects, and training procedure. The dolphin’s ability to correctly match objects to sounds was robust to changes in amplitude with only a minor decrement in performance for short durations. The dolphin failed to recognize sounds that were frequency transposed by plus or minus ½ octaves. Human participants demonstrated robust recognition with all acoustic transformations. The results indicate that this dolphin’s acoustic recognition of whistle-like sounds was constrained by absolute pitch. Unlike human speech, which varies considerably in average frequency, signature whistles are relatively stable in frequency, which may have selected for a whistle recognition system invariant to frequency transposition. PMID:26863519

Recognition of Frequency Modulated Whistle-Like Sounds by a Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus and Humans with Transformations in Amplitude, Duration and Frequency.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brian K Branstetter

Full Text Available Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus use the frequency contour of whistles produced by conspecifics for individual recognition. Here we tested a bottlenose dolphin's (Tursiops truncatus ability to recognize frequency modulated whistle-like sounds using a three alternative matching-to-sample paradigm. The dolphin was first trained to select a specific object (object A in response to a specific sound (sound A for a total of three object-sound associations. The sounds were then transformed by amplitude, duration, or frequency transposition while still preserving the frequency contour of each sound. For comparison purposes, 30 human participants completed an identical task with the same sounds, objects, and training procedure. The dolphin's ability to correctly match objects to sounds was robust to changes in amplitude with only a minor decrement in performance for short durations. The dolphin failed to recognize sounds that were frequency transposed by plus or minus ½ octaves. Human participants demonstrated robust recognition with all acoustic transformations. The results indicate that this dolphin's acoustic recognition of whistle-like sounds was constrained by absolute pitch. Unlike human speech, which varies considerably in average frequency, signature whistles are relatively stable in frequency, which may have selected for a whistle recognition system invariant to frequency transposition.

Phonological and orthographic influences in the bouba-kiki effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Cuskley, Christine; Simner, Julia; Kirby, Simon

2017-01-01

We examine a high-profile phenomenon known as the bouba-kiki effect, in which non-word names are assigned to abstract shapes in systematic ways (e.g. rounded shapes are preferentially labelled bouba over kiki). In a detailed evaluation of the literature, we show that most accounts of the effect point to predominantly or entirely iconic cross-sensory mappings between acoustic or articulatory properties of sound and shape as the mechanism underlying the effect. However, these accounts have tended to confound the acoustic or articulatory properties of non-words with another fundamental property: their written form. We compare traditional accounts of direct audio or articulatory-visual mapping with an account in which the effect is heavily influenced by matching between the shapes of graphemes and the abstract shape targets. The results of our two studies suggest that the dominant mechanism underlying the effect for literate subjects is matching based on aligning letter curvature and shape roundedness (i.e. non-words with curved letters are matched to round shapes). We show that letter curvature is strong enough to significantly influence word-shape associations even in auditory tasks, where written word forms are never presented to participants. However, we also find an additional phonological influence in that voiced sounds are preferentially linked with rounded shapes, although this arises only in a purely auditory word-shape association task. We conclude that many previous investigations of the bouba-kiki effect may not have given appropriate consideration or weight to the influence of orthography among literate subjects.

Cross-modal attention influences auditory contrast sensitivity: Decreasing visual load improves auditory thresholds for amplitude- and frequency-modulated sounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Ciaramitaro, Vivian M; Chow, Hiu Mei; Eglington, Luke G

2017-03-01

We used a cross-modal dual task to examine how changing visual-task demands influenced auditory processing, namely auditory thresholds for amplitude- and frequency-modulated sounds. Observers had to attend to two consecutive intervals of sounds and report which interval contained the auditory stimulus that was modulated in amplitude (Experiment 1) or frequency (Experiment 2). During auditory-stimulus presentation, observers simultaneously attended to a rapid sequential visual presentation-two consecutive intervals of streams of visual letters-and had to report which interval contained a particular color (low load, demanding less attentional resources) or, in separate blocks of trials, which interval contained more of a target letter (high load, demanding more attentional resources). We hypothesized that if attention is a shared resource across vision and audition, an easier visual task should free up more attentional resources for auditory processing on an unrelated task, hence improving auditory thresholds. Auditory detection thresholds were lower-that is, auditory sensitivity was improved-for both amplitude- and frequency-modulated sounds when observers engaged in a less demanding (compared to a more demanding) visual task. In accord with previous work, our findings suggest that visual-task demands can influence the processing of auditory information on an unrelated concurrent task, providing support for shared attentional resources. More importantly, our results suggest that attending to information in a different modality, cross-modal attention, can influence basic auditory contrast sensitivity functions, highlighting potential similarities between basic mechanisms for visual and auditory attention.

Neuromorphic Audio-Visual Sensor Fusion on a Sound-Localising Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vincent Yue-Sek Chan

2012-02-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the first robotic system featuring audio-visual sensor fusion with neuromorphic sensors. We combine a pair of silicon cochleae and a silicon retina on a robotic platform to allow the robot to learn sound localisation through self-motion and visual feedback, using an adaptive ITD-based sound localisation algorithm. After training, the robot can localise sound sources (white or pink noise in a reverberant environment with an RMS error of 4 to 5 degrees in azimuth. In the second part of the paper, we investigate the source binding problem. An experiment is conducted to test the effectiveness of matching an audio event with a corresponding visual event based on their onset time. The results show that this technique can be quite effective, despite its simplicity.

Teaching Complaint and Adjustment Letters--And Tact (My Favorite Assignment).

Science.gov (United States)

Deimling, Paula

1992-01-01

Describes a three-part assignment in which each student writes a complaint letter and an adjustment letter responding to another student's complaint letter. Discusses how the third part of the assignment--journal entries--allows students to formulate their own criteria for excellent letters based upon their reactions to the letters they receive.…

Fiche Pratique: Histoire de modes . . . toujours; Premiers contacts; Jongler avec les lettres; Un conte a votre facon (Practical Ideas: On the Subject of Verbal Moods . . . Again; First Contacts; Juggling letters; A Story Your Own Way).

Science.gov (United States)

Weiss, Francois; And Others

1993-01-01

The four language classroom activities described include work with verbal moods (subjunctive, conditional) by eliciting student suggestions for ways to help third-world countries; ways to practice social meeting/greeting/introduction situations; development of phonetic understanding and vocabulary through letter and sound changes; use of…

The origins of the cochlea and impedance matching hearing in synapsids

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Laass

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The origin of tympanic hearing in early synapsids is still controversial, because little is known about their inner ear and the function of their sound conducting apparatus. Here I describe the earliest known tympanic ear in the synapsid lineage, the ear of Pristerodon (Therapsida, Anomodontia from the Late Permian of South Africa, which was virtually reconstructed from neutron tomographic data. Although Pristerodon is not a direct ancestor of mammals, its inner ear with distinctive cochlear cavity represents a connecting link between the primitive therapsid inner ear and the mammalian inner ear. The anatomy of the sound conducting apparatus of Pristerodon and the increased sound pressure transformer ratio points to a sensitivity to airborne sound. Furthermore, the origins of the cochlea and impedance matching hearing in synapsids coincided with the loss of contact between head and substrate, which already took place at least in Late Permian therapsids even before the postdentary bones became detached from the mandible.

Temporal integration of loudness measured using categorical loudness scaling and matching procedures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Valente, Daniel L.; Joshi, Suyash Narendra; Jesteadt, Walt

2011-01-01

integration of loudness and previously reported nonmonotonic behavior observed at mid-sound pressure level levels is replicated with this procedure. Stimuli that are assigned to the same category are effectively matched in loudness, allowing the measurement of temporal integration with CLS without curve...

Sound field control with a circular double-layer array of loudspeakers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chang, Jiho; Jacobsen, Finn

2012-01-01

, and their performance is examined using computer simulations. Two performance indices are used in this work, (a) the level difference between the average sound energy density in the listening zone and that in the quiet zone (sometimes called “the acoustic contrast”), and (b) a normalized measure of the deviations...... between the desired and the generated sound field in the listening zone. It is concluded that the best compromise is obtained with a method that combines pure contrast maximization with a pressure matching technique.......This paper describes a method of generating a controlled sound field for listeners inside a circular array of loudspeakers without disturbing people outside the array appreciably. To achieve this objective, a double-layer array of loudspeakers is used. Several solution methods are suggested...

Exploring Corporate Rhetoric: Metadiscourse in the CEO's Letter.

Science.gov (United States)

Hyland, Ken

1998-01-01

Examines how metadiscourse is used to create a positive corporate image in 137 CEOs' letters, showing how CEOs use nonpropositional material to realize rational, credible, and affective appeals. Reveals the essentially rhetorical nature of CEOs' letters by comparing the frequency and distribution of metadiscourse in their letters and directors'…

Angles of Refraction: The Letters of Mary Delany

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eleonora Chiavetta

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Mary Delany (1700-1788 is particularly famous for her paper-cuttings or ‘mosaicks’ based on botanical subjects. A very lively woman of fashion, she was close to Queen Charlotte and one of the Bluestocking Ladies. She left a vivid portrait of life and society in eighteenth century England and Ireland in the six volumes of her Autobiography and Letters, edited in 1861 by her descendant Lady Llanover. Her autobiography is made up of 18 letters sent to her most intimate friend, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Portland. The first letter is dated 1740, but in this, as in the following ones, Mrs. Delany narrates her past life to her friend, starting from the early years of her life, describing her unhappy marriage, financial difficulties as a widow, and family relationships. Along with these ‘autobiographical’ letters, other letters written by her to her sister Ann are introduced, which date to the periods of life Mrs. Delany is dealing with. The aim of this paper is to focus on the textual, linguistic and content differences between the two letter types, and analyse how the identity of Mary Delany is differently constructed and perceived in the explicit autobiographical letters addressed to the Duchess of Portland, and the ones written to her sister. 

Sound

CERN Document Server

Robertson, William C

2003-01-01

Muddled about what makes music? Stuck on the study of harmonics? Dumbfounded by how sound gets around? Now you no longer have to struggle to teach concepts you really don t grasp yourself. Sound takes an intentionally light touch to help out all those adults science teachers, parents wanting to help with homework, home-schoolers seeking necessary scientific background to teach middle school physics with confidence. The book introduces sound waves and uses that model to explain sound-related occurrences. Starting with the basics of what causes sound and how it travels, you'll learn how musical instruments work, how sound waves add and subtract, how the human ear works, and even why you can sound like a Munchkin when you inhale helium. Sound is the fourth book in the award-winning Stop Faking It! Series, published by NSTA Press. Like the other popular volumes, it is written by irreverent educator Bill Robertson, who offers this Sound recommendation: One of the coolest activities is whacking a spinning metal rod...

Student Teacher Letters of Reference: A Critical Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Mason, Richard W.; Schroeder, Mark P.

2012-01-01

Letters of reference are commonly used in acquiring a job in education. Despite serious issues of validity and reliability in writing and evaluating letters, there is a dearth of research that systematically examines the evaluation process and defines the constructs that define high quality letters. The current study used NVivo to examine 160…

Sixty-Minute Review of Letter Writing

Science.gov (United States)

Cunningham, Donald H.; Graham, Louise

1974-01-01

The article describes a one-hour presentation which provides a basic stereotyped pattern of letter organization for the four types of letters (order, request, claim, and reply) the business of secretarial student is most likely to have to write. The four paragraphs of the pattern are: purpose, explanation, optional, and closing. (AG)

A Study of Memory and Forgetting in The Sound of One Hand Clapping

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

杨炤宇

2011-01-01

The Sound of One Hand Clapping is a 1997 novel by Australian author Richard Flanagan. Richard Flanagan was born in 1961 in Tasmania. He left school at 16, later winning a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford, where he took a Master of Letters degree. He later worked as a labourer and river guide. The Sound of One Hand Clapping （1998） is his second novel which tells the story of Slovenian immigrants; Richard Flanagan also wrote and directed the film version of The Sound of One Hand Clapping, which was re- leased in 1998, and world premiered at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival, where it was nominated for Golden Bear for Best film. The novel, The Sound of One Hand Clapping （1998）, examines the Tasmanian immigrant experience. It asks us not to ignore the existence of the soul and the spirit, not to sublimate all to a blind rationality, Flanagan also suggests that healing is not only possible but that it should be looked for. Original, poetic and compelling, this novel comes highly recommended,？As the novel is formed largely by means of memory and forgetting. So the author of this paper intends to give a tentative study of memory as well as forgetting, Wing to figure out the reasons and influences that memory and forgetting brings on different characters.

Precision of synesthetic color matching resembles that for recollected colors rather than physical colors.

Science.gov (United States)

Arnold, Derek H; Wegener, Signy V; Brown, Francesca; Mattingley, Jason B

2012-10-01

Grapheme-color synesthesia is an atypical condition in which individuals experience sensations of color when reading printed graphemes such as letters and digits. For some grapheme-color synesthetes, seeing a printed grapheme triggers a sensation of color, but hearing the name of a grapheme does not. This dissociation allowed us to compare the precision with which synesthetes are able to match their color experiences triggered by visible graphemes, with the precision of their matches for recalled colors based on the same graphemes spoken aloud. In six synesthetes, color matching for printed graphemes was equally variable relative to recalled experiences. In a control experiment, synesthetes and age-matched controls either matched the color of a circular patch while it was visible on a screen, or they judged its color from memory after it had disappeared. Both synesthetes and controls were more variable when matching from memory, and the variance of synesthetes' recalled color judgments matched that associated with their synesthetic judgments for visible graphemes in the first experiment. Results suggest that synesthetic experiences of color triggered by achromatic graphemes are analogous to recollections of color.

Initial and noninitial name-letter preferences as obtained through repeated letter rating tasks continue to reflect (different aspects of) self-esteem.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoorens, Vera; Takano, Keisuke; Franck, Erik; Roberts, John E; Raes, Filip

2015-09-01

We tested the usefulness of name-letter preference scores as indirect indicators of self-esteem by exploring whether multiple unsupervised self-administrations of letter rating tasks within a short period of time yield useful data. We also examined whether preferences for initials and noninitial name-letters tap different aspects of self-esteem. Participants from a community sample (N = 164; 58 men and 106 women, 17-67 years, Mage = 34.57, SD = 13.28) completed daily letter rating tasks and state self-esteem questionnaires for 7 consecutive days. They also completed a trait self-esteem questionnaire on the first measurement day as well as 6 months later. Preference scores for first-name initials were stronger but more unstable than preference scores for other name-letters. Preferences for first-name initials were primarily associated with directly measured state self-esteem whereas preferences for noninitials were primarily associated with directly measured trait self-esteem even if the latter was measured 6 months later. Thus, we showed that preferences for initials and noninitials are not simply interchangeable. Previous letter rating studies, which almost exclusively used initial preferences, should be interpreted in terms of state rather than trait self-esteem. In future studies, researchers should focus on the name-letter preference that reflects the aspect of self-esteem they wish to address. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Advice letter on policy instruments renewable electricity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-01-01

In a letter of July 2010 the Energy Council made recommendations for a policy framework with more obligations and fewer subsidies. This included the Energy Council's advice to investigate whether the introduction of a supplier obligation could play a major role in the realisation of the CO2 emission target of the Netherlands and increase the share of renewable energy in line with European agreements. This advice letter deals with one aspect of the broader considerations: the share of renewable electricity and the kind of incentive framework that is needed to achieve the target concerned. In this letter we will examine the possibilities of the SDE+ support (financial incentive for renewable energy) scheme and the supplier obligation, the effects on the market and the consequences for achieving the target. This letter closes with conclusions and recommendations. [nl

Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells a Story

OpenAIRE

Rosen, Michael

2013-01-01

From minding your Ps and Qs to wondering why X should mark the spot, Alphabetical is a book for everyone who loves words and language. Whether it's how letters are arranged on keyboards or Viking runes, textspeak or zip codes, this book will change the way you think about letters for ever. How on Earth did we fix upon our twenty-six letters, what do they really mean, and how did we come to write them down in the first place? Michael Rosen takes you on an unforgettable adventure through the hi...

Open letter to Pope John Paul II.

Science.gov (United States)

Sai, F

1991-01-01

In an Open Letter to Pope John Paul II, written on World Population Day (July 11) 1991, Dr. Fred Sai, President of International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), called for a dialogue on voluntary family planning as a means of avoiding unwanted pregnancy. A half million women die each year from pregnancy-related causes--a death toll that could be dramatically reduced by universal access to low cost, effective contraception. Family planning further represents the best protection against abortion. The Catholic Church's vehement opposition to abortion and family planning methods other than periodic abstinence is in marked contrast to its support to human rights in other settings. The Church has supported struggles for economic ju stice in and among nations, sided with the poor, and advocated for transitions to democracy. At the same time, the family planning movement--which has as its overall objective the protection of the health and welfare of women, children, and families--is viewed by the Vatican as a vehicle for the enslavement rather than liberation of women. The opening of a sensitive dialogue between the Catholic Church and supporters of voluntary family planning could help couples make sound moral decisions about their families and contribute to saving the lives of millions of women, most of them poor.

A State-of-the-Art Review: Personalization of Tinnitus Sound Therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Searchfield, Grant D; Durai, Mithila; Linford, Tania

2017-01-01

Background: There are several established, and an increasing number of putative, therapies using sound to treat tinnitus. There appear to be few guidelines for sound therapy selection and application. Aim: To review current approaches to personalizing sound therapy for tinnitus. Methods: A "state-of-the-art" review (Grant and Booth, 2009) was undertaken to answer the question: how do current sound-based therapies for tinnitus adjust for tinnitus heterogeneity? Scopus, Google Scholar, Embase and PubMed were searched for the 10-year period 2006-2016. The search strategy used the following key words: "tinnitus" AND "sound" AND "therapy" AND "guidelines" OR "personalized" OR "customized" OR "individual" OR "questionnaire" OR "selection." The results of the review were cataloged and organized into themes. Results: In total 165 articles were reviewed in full, 83 contained sufficient details to contribute to answering the study question. The key themes identified were hearing compensation, pitched-match therapy, maskability, reaction to sound and psychosocial factors. Although many therapies mentioned customization, few could be classified as being personalized. Several psychoacoustic and questionnaire-based methods for assisting treatment selection were identified. Conclusions: Assessment methods are available to assist clinicians to personalize sound-therapy and empower patients to be active in therapy decision-making. Most current therapies are modified using only one characteristic of the individual and/or their tinnitus.

Visual and Artistic Functions of Letters in Khaghani’s Poetry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohsen Zolfaghari

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract The intensity of emotion and fluctuation of meaning in the poet's mind causes him to go beyond the ordinary language and convey intellectual and emotional meanings through metaphors, similes and linguistic preparations. He has sharp eyes and a sensitive spirit and creative temperament and attempts strengthening his own literary language and creating personal style by inventing novel images, showing the creativity and imagination and entering in various arenas of imagination. This point more than anything else could be done by presenting images and new figures. Perhaps in the sixth century, and especially in Azerbaijani school, more than other periods, poets have been looking for creating innovative style in eloquence. Their major attempts were mainly in imaging, a wide field that they have competed. It is obvious that in this illustration the alphabet letters would be very helpful. Khaghani's Divan of poetry, as one of the greatest poets of this school, is the perfect poetical book of paintings in which meaning has been hidden under a delicate pattern and new different scientific, cultural and religious images. Letters are a broad range of elements that put a new field in front of the poet and he is aware of the potential features of the letters, new images, and artistic creativity techniques as well. This paper shows descriptive - analytical study of various aspects of Khaghani’s poetry and frequency of letters in the alphabet letters, alphabetic-based authenticity of images, different similarity reasons, semantic and literal multi-relevance of letters in the context of poetry, producing figures of speech based on letters, sensational relationship exists between images and letters which have been shown in his poetry. Letter have a double and even multiple application in Khaghani's poetic works (divan and moreover the construction of words and conveying meaning which is the real and common usage, they were used as artistic instruments

Letter position coding across modalities: the case of Braille readers.

Science.gov (United States)

Perea, Manuel; García-Chamorro, Cristina; Martín-Suesta, Miguel; Gómez, Pablo

2012-01-01

The question of how the brain encodes letter position in written words has attracted increasing attention in recent years. A number of models have recently been proposed to accommodate the fact that transposed-letter stimuli like jugde or caniso are perceptually very close to their base words. Here we examined how letter position coding is attained in the tactile modality via Braille reading. The idea is that Braille word recognition may provide more serial processing than the visual modality, and this may produce differences in the input coding schemes employed to encode letters in written words. To that end, we conducted a lexical decision experiment with adult Braille readers in which the pseudowords were created by transposing/replacing two letters. We found a word-frequency effect for words. In addition, unlike parallel experiments in the visual modality, we failed to find any clear signs of transposed-letter confusability effects. This dissociation highlights the differences between modalities. The present data argue against models of letter position coding that assume that transposed-letter effects (in the visual modality) occur at a relatively late, abstract locus.

Digit and letter alexia in carbon monoxide poisoning

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Qingyu Shen; Xiaoming Rong; Rui Pan; Ying Peng; Wei Peng; Yamei Tang

2012-01-01

This study examined a 24-year-old patient with delayed encephalopathy, who was admitted to hospital with complaints of headache and visual impairment 1 week after acute carbon monoxide poisoning. The results of a visual field assessment, electroencephalography and head magnetic resonance imaging indicated damage to the cerebral cortex. After a 2-week treatment period, the patient had recovered from the visual impairment, but exhibited digit- and letter-reading difficulty. The Chinese aphasia battery and the number and letter battery supplement were conducted. The results revealed that the patient exhibited digit and letter alexia, while the ability to read Chinese characters was preserved. In contrast, the patient exhibited a deficit in Chinese character writing, while number and letter writing remained intact. Following treatment, reading and writing ability was improved and electroencephalographic abnormalities were ameliorated. Overall, our experimental findings demonstrated that delayed encephalopathy following acute carbon monoxide poisoning was characterized by digit and letter alexia.

The Indirect Empathic Approach to Claim Letters.

Science.gov (United States)

Bell, James D.

1985-01-01

In discussing letter-writing methods for business communication classes, the article explains that claim letter formats other than the direct approach are not only legitimate, but also effective, and suggests that the approach selected should depend upon the circumstances surrounding the claim. (CT)

Culture and subculture in transactional letter writing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shaw, Philip; Okamura, Akiko

2000-01-01

This study examines the relative contributions of subculture membership and mother-tongue status/target culture membership in writing transactional letters. We examined the letters accompanying articles initially submitted for publication by 26 NSE and 23 NNSE academics, and compared them with ef...

50 CFR 216.257 - Letters of Authorization.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE MARINE MAMMALS REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE TAKING AND IMPORTING OF MARINE MAMMALS Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Conducting Precision Strike Weapon Missions in the Gulf of Mexico § 216.257 Letters of Authorization. (a) A Letter of Authorization, unless suspended or revoked...

Particles and nuclei, letters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-01-01

The present collection of letters from JINR, Dubna, contains nine separate letters on data on elastic (p,n) charge exchange: compilation, the potentialities of δ-electron control of luminosity in experiments with internal targets at the Nuclotron, pion broadening and low-mass dilepton production, fluctuation of electromagnetic cascade axis in dense amorphous segmented media, the forward detector of the ANKE spectrometer. Tracking system and its use in data analysis, quantum field theory with three-dimensional vector time, curvature decomposition and the Einstein-Yang-Mills equations, an integral equation for the spinor amplitude of a massive neutral Dirac particle in a curved space time with arbitrary geometry and surprising resonances in 147 Sm(nα) 144 Nd reaction

Language style matching in writing: synchrony in essays, correspondence, and poetry.

Science.gov (United States)

Ireland, Molly E; Pennebaker, James W

2010-09-01

Each relationship has its own personality. Almost immediately after a social interaction begins, verbal and nonverbal behaviors become synchronized. Even in asocial contexts, individuals tend to produce utterances that match the grammatical structure of sentences they have recently heard or read. Three projects explore language style matching (LSM) in everyday writing tasks and professional writing. LSM is the relative use of 9 function word categories (e.g., articles, personal pronouns) between any 2 texts. In the first project, 2 samples totaling 1,744 college students answered 4 essay questions written in very different styles. Students automatically matched the language style of the target questions. Overall, the LSM metric was internally consistent and reliable across writing tasks. Women, participants of higher socioeconomic status, and students who earned higher test grades matched with targets more than others did. In the second project, 74 participants completed cliffhanger excerpts from popular fiction. Judges' ratings of excerpt-response similarity were related to content matching but not function word matching, as indexed by LSM. Further, participants were not able to intentionally increase style or content matching. In the final project, an archival study tracked the professional writing and personal correspondence of 3 pairs of famous writers across their relationships. Language matching in poetry and letters reflected fluctuations in the relationships of 3 couples: Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, and Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Implications for using LSM as an implicit marker of social engagement and influence are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Letter position coding across modalities: the case of Braille readers.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manuel Perea

Full Text Available The question of how the brain encodes letter position in written words has attracted increasing attention in recent years. A number of models have recently been proposed to accommodate the fact that transposed-letter stimuli like jugde or caniso are perceptually very close to their base words.Here we examined how letter position coding is attained in the tactile modality via Braille reading. The idea is that Braille word recognition may provide more serial processing than the visual modality, and this may produce differences in the input coding schemes employed to encode letters in written words. To that end, we conducted a lexical decision experiment with adult Braille readers in which the pseudowords were created by transposing/replacing two letters.We found a word-frequency effect for words. In addition, unlike parallel experiments in the visual modality, we failed to find any clear signs of transposed-letter confusability effects. This dissociation highlights the differences between modalities.The present data argue against models of letter position coding that assume that transposed-letter effects (in the visual modality occur at a relatively late, abstract locus.

Experimental test of contemporary mathematical models of visual letter recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Townsend, J T; Ashby, F G

1982-12-01

A letter confusion experiment that used brief durations manipulated payoffs across the four stimulus letters, which were composed of line segments equal in length. The observers were required to report the features they perceived as well as to give a letter response. The early feature-sampling process is separated from the later letter-decision process in the substantive feature models, and predictions are thus obtained for the frequencies of feature report as well as letter report. Four substantive visual feature-processing models are developed and tested against one another and against three models of a more descriptive nature. The substantive models predict the decisional letter report phase much better than they do the feature-sampling phase, but the best overall 4 X 4 letter confusion matrix fits are obtained with one of the descriptive models, the similarity choice model. The present and other recent results suggest that the assumption that features are sampled in a stochastically independent manner may not be generally valid. The traditional high-threshold conceptualization of feature sampling is also falsified by the frequent reporting by observers of features not contained in the stimulus letter.

When Do First Letters Mnemonics Aid Recall?

Science.gov (United States)

Morris, P. E.; Cook, N.

1978-01-01

The evidence for the effectiveness of the first letter mnemonic technique is confused. There are at least three studies showing no effect, and one where an improvement in recall occurred. Reports two experiments which attempted to locate the conditions under which the first letter mnemonic is effective. (Author/RK)

Letter to the editor regarding "GRAS from the ground up: Review of the Interim Pilot Program for GRAS notification" by.

Science.gov (United States)

Sewalt, Vincent; LaMarta, James; Shanahan, Diane; Gregg, Lori; Carrillo, Roberto

2017-09-01

Present letter is aimed at clarifying some critical points highlighted by Hanlon et al. regarding the common knowledge element of the safety of food enzymes in support of their GRAS designation. Particularly, we outline the development of peer-reviewed, generally recognized safety evaluation methodology for microbial enzymes and its adoption by the enzyme industry, which provides the US FDA with a review framework for enzyme GRAS Notices. This approach may serve as a model to other food ingredient categories for a scientifically sound, rigorous, and transparent application of the GRAS concept. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Extra-large letter spacing improves reading in dyslexia

Science.gov (United States)

Zorzi, Marco; Barbiero, Chiara; Facoetti, Andrea; Lonciari, Isabella; Carrozzi, Marco; Montico, Marcella; Bravar, Laura; George, Florence; Pech-Georgel, Catherine; Ziegler, Johannes C.

2012-01-01

Although the causes of dyslexia are still debated, all researchers agree that the main challenge is to find ways that allow a child with dyslexia to read more words in less time, because reading more is undisputedly the most efficient intervention for dyslexia. Sophisticated training programs exist, but they typically target the component skills of reading, such as phonological awareness. After the component skills have improved, the main challenge remains (that is, reading deficits must be treated by reading more—a vicious circle for a dyslexic child). Here, we show that a simple manipulation of letter spacing substantially improved text reading performance on the fly (without any training) in a large, unselected sample of Italian and French dyslexic children. Extra-large letter spacing helps reading, because dyslexics are abnormally affected by crowding, a perceptual phenomenon with detrimental effects on letter recognition that is modulated by the spacing between letters. Extra-large letter spacing may help to break the vicious circle by rendering the reading material more easily accessible. PMID:22665803

Sound algorithms

OpenAIRE

De Götzen , Amalia; Mion , Luca; Tache , Olivier

2007-01-01

International audience; We call sound algorithms the categories of algorithms that deal with digital sound signal. Sound algorithms appeared in the very infancy of computer. Sound algorithms present strong specificities that are the consequence of two dual considerations: the properties of the digital sound signal itself and its uses, and the properties of auditory perception.

THE INTONATION AND SOUND CHARACTERISTICS OF ADVERTISING PRONUNCIATION STYLE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chernyavskaya Elena Sergeevna

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The article aims at describing the intonation and sound characteristics of advertising phonetic style. On the basis of acoustic analysis of transcripts of radio advertising tape recordings, broadcasted at different radio stations, as well as in the result of processing the representative part of phrases with the help of special computer programs, the author determines the parameters of superfix means. The article proves that the stylistic parameters of advertising phonetic style are oriented on modern orthoepy, and that the originality of radio advertising sounding is determined by two tendencies – the reduction of stressed vowels duration in the terminal and non-terminal word and the increase of pre-tonic and post-tonic vowels duration of non-terminal word in a phrase. The article also shows that the peculiarity of rhythmic structure of terminal and non-terminal word in radio advertising is formed by means of leveling stressed and unstressed sounds in length. The specificity of intonational structure of an advertising text consists in the following peculiarities: matching of syntactic and syntagmatic division, which allows to denote the blocks of semantic models, forming the text of radio advertising; the allocation of keywords into separate syntagmas; the design of informative parts of advertising text by means of symmetric length correlation of minimal speech segments; the combination of interstyle prosodic elements in the framework of sounding text. Thus, the conducted analysis allowed to conclude, that the texts of sounding advertising are designed using special pronunciation style, marked by sound duration.

On the exactness of the cavity method for weighted b-matchings on arbitrary graphs and its relation to linear programs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bayati, Mohsen; Borgs, Christian; Chayes, Jennifer; Zecchina, Riccardo

2008-01-01

We consider the general problem of finding the minimum weight b-matching on arbitrary graphs. We prove that, whenever the linear programing relaxation of the problem has no fractional solutions, then the cavity or belief propagation equations converge to the correct solution both for synchronous and asynchronous updating. (letter)

The Predictive Validity of Teacher Candidate Letters of Reference

Science.gov (United States)

Mason, Richard W.; Schroeder, Mark P.

2014-01-01

Letters of reference are widely used as an essential part of the hiring process of newly licensed teachers. While the predictive validity of these letters of reference has been called into question it has never been empirically studied. The current study examined the predictive validity of the quality of letters of reference for forty-one student…

46 CFR 7.20 - Nantucket Sound, Vineyard Sound, Buzzards Bay, Narragansett Bay, MA, Block Island Sound and...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Nantucket Sound, Vineyard Sound, Buzzards Bay, Narragansett Bay, MA, Block Island Sound and easterly entrance to Long Island Sound, NY. 7.20 Section 7.20... Atlantic Coast § 7.20 Nantucket Sound, Vineyard Sound, Buzzards Bay, Narragansett Bay, MA, Block Island...

40 CFR 280.99 - Letter of credit.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... (UST) Financial Responsibility § 280.99 Letter of credit. (a) An owner or operator may satisfy the... brackets are to be replaced with the relevant information and the brackets deleted: Irrevocable Standby.... We certify that the wording of this letter of credit is identical to the wording specified in 40 CFR...

Particles and Nuclei, Letters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-01-01

The present collection of letters from JINR, Dubna, contains eight separate letters on analysis of experimental data on relativistic nuclear collisions in the Lobachevski space, relativistic contribution of the final-state interaction to deuteron photodisintegration, on the charge asymmetry of the like-sign lepton pairs induced by B - B bar - production asymmetry, limits on the ν e → ν e neutrino oscillation parameters from an experiment at the IHEP-JINR neutrino detector, excitation of high spin isomers in photonuclear reactions, study of product formation in proton-nuclear reactions on the 129 I target induced by 660-MeV protons, application of jet pumps in the cryogenic system of the Nuclotron - superconducting accelerator of relativistic particles and study of the silicon drift detector performance with inclined tracks

On the sound insulation of acoustic metasurface using a sub-structuring approach

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Xiang; Lu, Zhenbo; Cheng, Li; Cui, Fangsen

2017-08-01

The feasibility of using an acoustic metasurface (AMS) with acoustic stop-band property to realize sound insulation with ventilation function is investigated. An efficient numerical approach is proposed to evaluate its sound insulation performance. The AMS is excited by a reverberant sound source and the standardized sound reduction index (SRI) is numerically investigated. To facilitate the modeling, the coupling between the AMS and the adjacent acoustic fields is formulated using a sub-structuring approach. A modal based formulation is applied to both the source and receiving room, enabling an efficient calculation in the frequency range from 125 Hz to 2000 Hz. The sound pressures and the velocities at the interface are matched by using a transfer function relation based on ;patches;. For illustration purposes, numerical examples are investigated using the proposed approach. The unit cell constituting the AMS is constructed in the shape of a thin acoustic chamber with tailored inner structures, whose stop-band property is numerically analyzed and experimentally demonstrated. The AMS is shown to provide effective sound insulation of over 30 dB in the stop-band frequencies from 600 to 1600 Hz. It is also shown that the proposed approach has the potential to be applied to a broad range of AMS studies and optimization problems.

Facilitated auditory detection for speech sounds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carine eSignoret

2011-07-01

Full Text Available If it is well known that knowledge facilitates higher cognitive functions, such as visual and auditory word recognition, little is known about the influence of knowledge on detection, particularly in the auditory modality. Our study tested the influence of phonological and lexical knowledge on auditory detection. Words, pseudo words and complex non phonological sounds, energetically matched as closely as possible, were presented at a range of presentation levels from sub threshold to clearly audible. The participants performed a detection task (Experiments 1 and 2 that was followed by a two alternative forced choice recognition task in Experiment 2. The results of this second task in Experiment 2 suggest a correct recognition of words in the absence of detection with a subjective threshold approach. In the detection task of both experiments, phonological stimuli (words and pseudo words were better detected than non phonological stimuli (complex sounds, presented close to the auditory threshold. This finding suggests an advantage of speech for signal detection. An additional advantage of words over pseudo words was observed in Experiment 2, suggesting that lexical knowledge could also improve auditory detection when listeners had to recognize the stimulus in a subsequent task. Two simulations of detection performance performed on the sound signals confirmed that the advantage of speech over non speech processing could not be attributed to energetic differences in the stimuli.

The elaboration of motor programs for the automation of letter production.

Science.gov (United States)

Thibon, Laurence Séraphin; Gerber, Silvain; Kandel, Sonia

2018-01-01

We investigated how children learn to write letters. Letter writing evolves from stroke-by-stroke to whole-letter programming. Children of ages 6 to 9 (N=98) wrote letters of varying complexity on a digitizer. At ages 6 and 7 movement duration, dysfluency and trajectory increased with stroke number. This indicates that the motor program they activated mainly coded information on stroke production. Stroke number affected the older children's production much less, suggesting that they programmed stroke chunks or the whole letter. The fact that movement duration and dysfluency decreased from ages 6 to 8, and remained stable at ages 8 and 9 suggests that automation of letter writing begins at age 8. Automation seems to require the elaboration of stroke chunks and/or letter-sized motor programs. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Peer assessment of outpatient consultation letters – feasibility and satisfaction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dojeiji Suzan

2007-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Written correspondence is one of the most important forms of communication between health care providers, yet there is little feedback provided to specialists. The objective of this study was to determine the feasibility and satisfaction of a peer assessment program on consultation letters and to determine inter-rater reliability between family physicians and specialists. Methods A rating scale of nine 5-point Likert scale items including specific content, style items, education value of the letter and an overall rating was developed from a previous validated tool. Nine Internal Medicine specialists/subspecialists from two tertiary care centres submitted 10 letters with patient and physician identifiers removed. Two Internal Medicine specialists, and 2 family physicians from the other centre rated each letter (to protect writer anonymity. A satisfaction survey was sent to each writer and rater after collation of the results. A follow-up survey was sent 6–8 months later. Results There was a high degree of satisfaction with the process and feedback. The rating scale information was felt to be useful and appropriate for evaluating the quality of consultation letters by 6/7 writers. 5/7 seven writers felt that the feedback they received resulted in immediate changes to their letters. Six months later, 6/9 writers indicated they had maintained changes in their letters. Raters rank ordered letters similarly (Cronbach's alpha 0.57–0.84 but mean scores were highly variant. At site 1 there were significant differences in scoring brevity (p Conclusion Most participants found peer assessment of letters feasible and beneficial and longstanding changes occurred in some individuals. Family physicians and specialists appear to have different expectations on some items. Further studies on reliability and validity, with a larger sample, are required before high stakes professional assessments include consultation letters.

Pseudo-synesthesia through reading books with colored letters.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olympia Colizoli

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Synesthesia is a phenomenon where a stimulus produces consistent extraordinary subjective experiences. A relatively common type of synesthesia involves perception of color when viewing letters (e.g. the letter 'a' always appears as light blue. In this study, we examine whether traits typically regarded as markers of synesthesia can be acquired by simply reading in color. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Non-synesthetes were given specially prepared colored books to read. A modified Stroop task was administered before and after reading. A perceptual crowding task was administered after reading. Reading one book (>49,000 words was sufficient to induce effects regarded as behavioral markers for synesthesia. The results of the Stroop tasks indicate that it is possible to learn letter-color associations through reading in color (F(1, 14 = 5.85, p = .030. Furthermore, Stroop effects correlated with subjective reports about experiencing letters in color (r(13 = 0.51, p = .05. The frequency of viewing letters is related to the level of association as seen by the difference in the Stroop effect size between upper- and lower-case letters (t(14 = 2.79, p = .014 and in a subgroup of participants whose Stroop effects increased as they continued to read in color. Readers did not show significant performance advantages on the crowding task compared to controls. Acknowledging the many differences between trainees and synesthetes, results suggest that it may be possible to acquire a subset of synesthetic behavioral traits in adulthood through training. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of acquiring letter-color associations through reading in color. Reading in color appears to be a promising avenue in which we may explore the differences and similarities between synesthetes and non-synesthetes. Additionally, reading in color is a plausible method for a long-term 'synesthetic' training program.

Hemispheric processing of vocal emblem sounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Neumann-Werth, Yael; Levy, Erika S; Obler, Loraine K

2013-01-01

Vocal emblems, such as shh and brr, are speech sounds that have linguistic and nonlinguistic features; thus, it is unclear how they are processed in the brain. Five adult dextral individuals with left-brain damage and moderate-severe Wernicke's aphasia, five adult dextral individuals with right-brain damage, and five Controls participated in two tasks: (1) matching vocal emblems to photographs ('picture task') and (2) matching vocal emblems to verbal translations ('phrase task'). Cross-group statistical analyses on items on which the Controls performed at ceiling revealed lower accuracy by the group with left-brain damage (than by Controls) on both tasks, and lower accuracy by the group with right-brain damage (than by Controls) on the picture task. Additionally, the group with left-brain damage performed significantly less accurately than the group with right-brain damage on the phrase task only. Findings suggest that comprehension of vocal emblems recruits more left- than right-hemisphere processing.

Letter of Map Revision

Data.gov (United States)

Earth Data Analysis Center, University of New Mexico — The National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL) data incorporates all Digital Flood Insurance Rate Map(DFIRM) databases published by FEMA, and any Letters Of Map Revision...

Particles and nuclei, letters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-01-01

The present collection of letters from JINR, Dubna, contains nine separate letters on nonlocal chiral quark model with confinement, perturbation of finite-lattice spectral levels by nearby nuclear resonances, on the application of 'Z 0 + jet' events for determining the gluon distribution in a proton at the LHC, account of light velocity constancy in the Galilean problem on the free movement of a particle and its fall onto the ground, first results of crystal deflector investigations at the Nuclotron external beams, decay parameters of K mesons, measured at proton synchrotron U-70 using 'Hyperon' set-up and modern world data, prototype of atomic-emission spectrometer on the basis of one-electrode impulse RF discharge for analytical measurements, polarimeter for Nuclotron internal beam and primordial bubbles of colour superconducting quark matter

Patient information letters on nutrition: development and implementation.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Binsbergen, J.J. van; Drenthen, A.J.

2003-01-01

BACKGROUND: In 1998 the Dutch College of General Practitioners (NHG) began developing patient information letters (PILs), based on the practice guidelines for family physicians (FPs) (NHG standards). Five nutritional guidance letters have since been developed with the Dutch Nutrition Center.

Incidental Learning of Sound Categories is Impaired in Developmental Dyslexia

Science.gov (United States)

Gabay, Yafit; Holt, Lori L.

2015-01-01

Developmental dyslexia is commonly thought to arise from specific phonological impairments. However, recent evidence is consistent with the possibility that phonological impairments arise as symptoms of an underlying dysfunction of procedural learning. The nature of the link between impaired procedural learning and phonological dysfunction is unresolved. Motivated by the observation that speech processing involves the acquisition of procedural category knowledge, the present study investigates the possibility that procedural learning impairment may affect phonological processing by interfering with the typical course of phonetic category learning. The present study tests this hypothesis while controlling for linguistic experience and possible speech-specific deficits by comparing auditory category learning across artificial, nonlinguistic sounds among dyslexic adults and matched controls in a specialized first-person shooter videogame that has been shown to engage procedural learning. Nonspeech auditory category learning was assessed online via within-game measures and also with a post-training task involving overt categorization of familiar and novel sound exemplars. Each measure reveals that dyslexic participants do not acquire procedural category knowledge as effectively as age- and cognitive-ability matched controls. This difference cannot be explained by differences in perceptual acuity for the sounds. Moreover, poor nonspeech category learning is associated with slower phonological processing. Whereas phonological processing impairments have been emphasized as the cause of dyslexia, the current results suggest that impaired auditory category learning, general in nature and not specific to speech signals, could contribute to phonological deficits in dyslexia with subsequent negative effects on language acquisition and reading. Implications for the neuro-cognitive mechanisms of developmental dyslexia are discussed. PMID:26409017

Michelangelo, a Tireless Letter Writer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adelin Charles Fiorato

2014-04-01

Full Text Available A titan of artistic creation, the sculptor-painter-architect Michelangelo was also a tireless letter writer. Five hundred and eighteen of his letters have reached us, stretching from his youth to the eve of his death, but we know that many others have been lost. Written in a kind of familiar Florentine and in a style of minimalist ‘realism’ – which does not prevent the presence of either impetuous polemical flights or pages of literary indulgence – these letters deal mainly with everyday subjects: day-by-day relationships, either endearing or resentful, with his relatives, financial or property matters and, above all, the marriage problems which concerned his nephew Leonardo, the sole heir of the family. But one also discovers in them the artist’s warm feelings of friendship and love, his poetic and aesthetic exchanges, his relationships, often conflictual, with his fellow-artists and patrons as well as his reflections on old age and death. All in all, these letters represent a documentary chronicle of a Florentine bourgeois family and the technical hassle of an entrepreneur’s activity. If, on the one hand, the Carteggio does not shed light either on Michelangelo’s conception of art or the way in which he realized his works, on the other it illustrates certain latent aspects of his projects, as well as of his personality, which was at the same time melancholy and aggressive, surprisingly whole and manifold. This luxuriant correspondence presents, so to speak, a ‘genetic’ interest, since it reveals the hidden face of the brilliant conceiver and creator, of the artist and entrepreneur struggling with the obstacles whose overcoming makes creation possible. 

How To Write a Business Letter. Power of the Printed Word.

Science.gov (United States)

Forbes, Malcolm

Business letters should turn people on rather than turning them off. To write a good business letter, know what the goal is before starting to write, call the reader by name, tell what the letter is about in the first paragraph, refer to dates when answering letters, and write from the reader's point of view. Be positive, be nice, and be natural.…

DOCUMENTARY LETTER OF CREDIT IN THE REGULATION OF 600-PARIS PUBLICATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

VASILE NEMES

2011-04-01

Full Text Available In the year 2007 was adopted the Publication no. 600 of Paris regarding the Rules and the Uniform Practices for documentary letters of credit which replaced the Publication no. 500. Publication no. 600 (UCP 600 is applied to all the irrevocable documentary letters of credit when the parties make express reference to these Rules. The Publication no. 600 includes uniform rules, international practices and standards of irrevocable documentary letters of credit. The new Publication has brought a number of changes on the issues regarding the performance of the letters of credit, both in the relationship with the nonbanking institutions participants and in the relationship between the credit institutions participating in the performance of the letter of credit. This study, without being exhaustive, aims to capture the main aspects of novelty brought by the publication no. 600 and their legal approach to the new perspective of the international trade relations. It has in view, in particular, the irrevocable character of the letter of credit, the elaboration method and procedure of the letter of credit, the participants to the unfolding of the specific relationship of the letter of credit and the main duties of the involved credit institutions.

Return to sender: Constantijn Huygens as a man of letters

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gosseye, L.; Blom, F.; Leerintveld, A.

2013-01-01

Return to Sender takes as its starting point Constantijn Huygens’ letters and shows us the author in his different guises: intimus of René Descartes, translator of John Donne, collector of art, writer of flirtatious love letters and the author of a long consolatory letter-poem for an ailing friend

Evidence for magnocellular involvement in the identification of flanked letters

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Omtzigt, D.; Hendriks, A.W.C.J.; Kolk, H.H.J.

2002-01-01

Little is known about the role of the magno system in reading. One important hypothesis is that this system is involved in the allocation of attention. We reasoned that the presentation of a single letter automatically draws attention to this letter, whereas in the case of a flanked letter, an

Letter to Carl Niigeli

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

We reproduce an english translation of one of these letters below, in which ... contemporary scientific knowledge, and that under the circumstances ... generation it became necessary to limit the numbers because of lack of space, so that, in.

Letters of intent

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1993-01-01

Thursday 5 November was another major milestone en route to the establishment of the experimental programme for CERN's LHC protonproton collider to be built in the 27- kilometre LEP tunnel. After initial discussions of 'Expressions of Interest' at the specially arranged meeting at Evian-les-Bains, France, earlier this year (May, page 1), three Letters of Intent have emerged, together involving nearly 2000 physicists from research institutes all over the world. As well as these researchers listed on the documents, the plans in fact involve many additional technical specialists who work behind the scenes. It was a historic moment as these three detector proposals were aired at the first open meeting of the new LHC Experiments Committee. CERN's main auditorium and a large overflow room receiving relayed video pictures were both packed. From these three schemes - ATLAS, CMS and L3P - and the first reactions to their letters of intent, eventually two projects will emerge, for which full technical proposals will be prepared, including construction plans and credible costings

Problems in nonlinear acoustics: Scattering of sound by sound, parametric receiving arrays, nonlinear effects in asymmetric sound beams and pulsed finite amplitude sound beams

Science.gov (United States)

Hamilton, Mark F.

1989-08-01

Four projects are discussed in this annual summary report, all of which involve basic research in nonlinear acoustics: Scattering of Sound by Sound, a theoretical study of two nonconlinear Gaussian beams which interact to produce sum and difference frequency sound; Parametric Receiving Arrays, a theoretical study of parametric reception in a reverberant environment; Nonlinear Effects in Asymmetric Sound Beams, a numerical study of two dimensional finite amplitude sound fields; and Pulsed Finite Amplitude Sound Beams, a numerical time domain solution of the KZK equation.

Pseudo-synesthesia through reading books with colored letters

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Colizoli, O.; Murre, J.M.J.; Rouw, R.

2012-01-01

Background Synesthesia is a phenomenon where a stimulus produces consistent extraordinary subjective experiences. A relatively common type of synesthesia involves perception of color when viewing letters (e.g. the letter ‘a’ always appears as light blue). In this study, we examine whether traits

Letters on nuclear controversy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kafka, P.; Maier-Leibnitz, H.

1982-01-01

Heinz Maier-Leibnitz a well-known scientist, nuclear physicist, for 50 years, who publicily supported the idea not to overrate the dangers of peaceful utilization of nuclear energy, has grown tired of talking only to colleagues. He invites a junior fellow physicist, who held engaged speeches against the nuclear power plant Zwentendorf, to an exchange of thoughts. Peter Kafka, an astro-physicist studied the self organisation of the universe from the big bang to the economic crisis and encountered the question of which conditions have to be fulfilled to prevent progress from becoming caranogenous. He became one of the spokesmen of 'political ecology' and called for resistance again large-scale technological use of scientific knowledge. He was enthusiastic about the idea of an exchange of letters, because he - just like his partner - believes in gaining knowledge by discussion. The variety of subjects is sketched briefly in form of three lectures. In the letters both scientists discuss intensly about: - Freedom of science and responsibility of science. - Decisions on energy questions under time-pressure. - Risks of nuclear plants. - Large scale technology and large-scale research or decentralization. - Energy utilization and energy waste. - Nuclear energy and alternatives. - Sense and nonsense of detailed future planning. In the end no one has convinced the other. The reader however finds a lot of new incentives in the letters - printed in unabridged form - a lot of new and significant arguments for a discussion which has only just started. (orig.) [de

PREFACE: Aerodynamic sound Aerodynamic sound

Science.gov (United States)

Akishita, Sadao

2010-02-01

The modern theory of aerodynamic sound originates from Lighthill's two papers in 1952 and 1954, as is well known. I have heard that Lighthill was motivated in writing the papers by the jet-noise emitted by the newly commercialized jet-engined airplanes at that time. The technology of aerodynamic sound is destined for environmental problems. Therefore the theory should always be applied to newly emerged public nuisances. This issue of Fluid Dynamics Research (FDR) reflects problems of environmental sound in present Japanese technology. The Japanese community studying aerodynamic sound has held an annual symposium since 29 years ago when the late Professor S Kotake and Professor S Kaji of Teikyo University organized the symposium. Most of the Japanese authors in this issue are members of the annual symposium. I should note the contribution of the two professors cited above in establishing the Japanese community of aerodynamic sound research. It is my pleasure to present the publication in this issue of ten papers discussed at the annual symposium. I would like to express many thanks to the Editorial Board of FDR for giving us the chance to contribute these papers. We have a review paper by T Suzuki on the study of jet noise, which continues to be important nowadays, and is expected to reform the theoretical model of generating mechanisms. Professor M S Howe and R S McGowan contribute an analytical paper, a valuable study in today's fluid dynamics research. They apply hydrodynamics to solve the compressible flow generated in the vocal cords of the human body. Experimental study continues to be the main methodology in aerodynamic sound, and it is expected to explore new horizons. H Fujita's study on the Aeolian tone provides a new viewpoint on major, longstanding sound problems. The paper by M Nishimura and T Goto on textile fabrics describes new technology for the effective reduction of bluff-body noise. The paper by T Sueki et al also reports new technology for the

Transposed-letter priming of prelexical orthographic representations.

Science.gov (United States)

Kinoshita, Sachiko; Norris, Dennis

2009-01-01

A prime generated by transposing two internal letters (e.g., jugde) produces strong priming of the original word (judge). In lexical decision, this transposed-letter (TL) priming effect is generally weak or absent for nonword targets; thus, it is unclear whether the origin of this effect is lexical or prelexical. The authors describe the Bayesian Reader theory of masked priming (D. Norris & S. Kinoshita, 2008), which explains why nonwords do not show priming in lexical decision but why they do in the cross-case same-different task. This analysis is followed by 3 experiments that show that priming in this task is not based on low-level perceptual similarity between the prime and target, or on phonology, to make the case that priming is based on prelexical orthographic representation. The authors then use this task to demonstrate equivalent TL priming effects for nonwords and words. The results are interpreted as the first reliable evidence based on the masked priming procedure that letter position is not coded absolutely within the prelexical, orthographic representation. The implications of the results for current letter position coding schemes are discussed.

Phonological Encoding in Speech-Sound Disorder: Evidence from a Cross-Modal Priming Experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Munson, Benjamin; Krause, Miriam O. P.

2017-01-01

Background: Psycholinguistic models of language production provide a framework for determining the locus of language breakdown that leads to speech-sound disorder (SSD) in children. Aims: To examine whether children with SSD differ from their age-matched peers with typical speech and language development (TD) in the ability phonologically to…

Insights from developmental and acquired letter position dyslexia on morphological decomposition in reading

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naama eFriedmann

2015-07-01

Full Text Available We explored morphological decomposition in reading, the locus in the reading process in which it takes place and its nature, comparing different types of morphemes. We assessed these questions through the analysis of letter position errors in readers with letter position dyslexia(LPD. LPD is a selective impairment to letter position encoding in the early stage of word reading, which results in letter migrations (cloud-could. We used the fact that migrations in LPD occur mainly in word-interior letters, whereas exterior letters rarely migrate.The rationale was that if morphological decomposition occurs prior to letter position encoding and strips off affixes, word-interior letters adjacent to an affix (signs-signs would become exterior following affix-stripping and hence exhibit fewer migrations.We tested 11 Hebrew readers with developmental LPD and 1 with acquired LPD in 6 experiments of reading aloud, lexical decision, and comprehension, at the single word and sentence levels. We examined migrations next to inflectional,derivational,or bound function morphemes compared with exterior letters.Root letters adjacent to inflectional and derivational morphemes were treated like middle letters, and migrated frequently, whereas root letters adjacent to bound function morphemes patterned with exterior letters, and almost never migrated. Given that LPD is a pre-lexical deficit, these results indicate that morphological decomposition takes place in an early, pre-lexical stage. Morphologically complex nonwords showed the same pattern, indicating that this decomposition is structurally, rather than lexically, driven.We suggest that letter position encoding takes place before morphological analysis, but in some cases, as with bound function morphemes, the complex word is re-analyzed as two separate words. In this reanalysis, letter positions in each constituent word are encoded separately,and hence the exterior letters of the root are treated as exterior and

A State-of-the-Art Review: Personalization of Tinnitus Sound Therapy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Grant D. Searchfield

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Background: There are several established, and an increasing number of putative, therapies using sound to treat tinnitus. There appear to be few guidelines for sound therapy selection and application.Aim: To review current approaches to personalizing sound therapy for tinnitus.Methods: A “state-of-the-art” review (Grant and Booth, 2009 was undertaken to answer the question: how do current sound-based therapies for tinnitus adjust for tinnitus heterogeneity? Scopus, Google Scholar, Embase and PubMed were searched for the 10-year period 2006–2016. The search strategy used the following key words: “tinnitus” AND “sound” AND “therapy” AND “guidelines” OR “personalized” OR “customized” OR “individual” OR “questionnaire” OR “selection.” The results of the review were cataloged and organized into themes.Results: In total 165 articles were reviewed in full, 83 contained sufficient details to contribute to answering the study question. The key themes identified were hearing compensation, pitched-match therapy, maskability, reaction to sound and psychosocial factors. Although many therapies mentioned customization, few could be classified as being personalized. Several psychoacoustic and questionnaire-based methods for assisting treatment selection were identified.Conclusions: Assessment methods are available to assist clinicians to personalize sound-therapy and empower patients to be active in therapy decision-making. Most current therapies are modified using only one characteristic of the individual and/or their tinnitus.

An extended research of crossmodal correspondence between color and sound in psychology and cognitive ergonomics.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Xiuwen; Li, Xiaoling; Ji, Lingyu; Han, Feng; Wang, Huifen; Liu, Yang; Chen, Yao; Lou, Zhiyuan; Li, Zhuoyun

2018-01-01

Based on the existing research on sound symbolism and crossmodal correspondence, this study proposed an extended research on cross-modal correspondence between various sound attributes and color properties in a group of non-synesthetes. In Experiment 1, we assessed the associations between each property of sounds and colors. Twenty sounds with five auditory properties (pitch, roughness, sharpness, tempo and discontinuity), each varied in four levels, were used as the sound stimuli. Forty-nine colors with different hues, saturation and brightness were used to match to those sounds. Result revealed that besides pitch and tempo, roughness and sharpness also played roles in sound-color correspondence. Reaction times of sound-hue were a little longer than the reaction times of sound-lightness. In Experiment 2, a speeded target discrimination task was used to assess whether the associations between sound attributes and color properties could invoke natural cross-modal correspondence and improve participants' cognitive efficiency in cognitive tasks. Several typical sound-color pairings were selected according to the results of Experiment 1. Participants were divided into two groups (congruent and incongruent). In each trial participants had to judge whether the presented color could appropriately be associated with the sound stimuli. Result revealed that participants responded more quickly and accurately in the congruent group than in the incongruent group. It was also found that there was no significant difference in reaction times and error rates between sound-hue and sound-lightness. The results of Experiment 1 and 2 indicate the existence of a robust crossmodal correspondence between multiple attributes of sound and color, which also has strong influence on cognitive tasks. The inconsistency of the reaction times between sound-hue and sound-lightness in Experiment 1 and 2 is probably owing to the difference in experimental protocol, which indicates that the complexity

7 CFR 1737.80 - Description of characteristics letter.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... the amount of the proposed loan, its purposes, rate of interest, loan security requirements, and other... SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE PRE-LOAN POLICIES AND PROCEDURES COMMON TO INSURED AND GUARANTEED TELECOMMUNICATIONS LOANS Characteristics Letter § 1737.80 Description of characteristics letter. (a) After all of the...

Sight Word Reading in Prereaders: Use of Logographic vs. Alphabetic Access Routes.

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, Judith Anne; Ehri, Linnea C.

1990-01-01

Investigates whether prereaders who knew all their letters are better at forming logographic access routes than letter-sound access routes into memory from words read by sight. Concludes that prereaders become capable of forming letter-sound access routes when they learn letters well enough to take advantage of the phonetic cues the letters…

Pseudo-Synesthesia through Reading Books with Colored Letters

Science.gov (United States)

Colizoli, Olympia; Murre, Jaap M. J.; Rouw, Romke

2012-01-01

Background Synesthesia is a phenomenon where a stimulus produces consistent extraordinary subjective experiences. A relatively common type of synesthesia involves perception of color when viewing letters (e.g. the letter ‘a’ always appears as light blue). In this study, we examine whether traits typically regarded as markers of synesthesia can be acquired by simply reading in color. Methodology/Principal Findings Non-synesthetes were given specially prepared colored books to read. A modified Stroop task was administered before and after reading. A perceptual crowding task was administered after reading. Reading one book (>49,000 words) was sufficient to induce effects regarded as behavioral markers for synesthesia. The results of the Stroop tasks indicate that it is possible to learn letter-color associations through reading in color (F(1, 14) = 5.85, p = .030). Furthermore, Stroop effects correlated with subjective reports about experiencing letters in color (r(13) = 0.51, p = .05). The frequency of viewing letters is related to the level of association as seen by the difference in the Stroop effect size between upper- and lower-case letters (t(14) = 2.79, p = .014) and in a subgroup of participants whose Stroop effects increased as they continued to read in color. Readers did not show significant performance advantages on the crowding task compared to controls. Acknowledging the many differences between trainees and synesthetes, results suggest that it may be possible to acquire a subset of synesthetic behavioral traits in adulthood through training. Conclusion/Significance To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of acquiring letter-color associations through reading in color. Reading in color appears to be a promising avenue in which we may explore the differences and similarities between synesthetes and non-synesthetes. Additionally, reading in color is a plausible method for a long-term ‘synesthetic’ training program. PMID

30 CFR 1.3 - Use of letters and acronym MSHA.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Use of letters and acronym MSHA. 1.3 Section 1.3 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR OFFICIAL EMBLEM AND...; ESTABLISHMENT AND USE OF OFFICIAL EMBLEM § 1.3 Use of letters and acronym MSHA. The letters and acronym MSHA may...

Anonymous letters? DNA and fingerprints technologies combined to solve a case.

Science.gov (United States)

Barbaro, A; Cormaci, P; Teatino, A; La Marca, A; Barbaro, A

2004-12-02

Two brothers, living in two different cities, received two different anonymous letters. We performed latent prints development and DNA research on the letters and also on a glass used by a cousin suspected to be the letters' sender.

Letters of Marcus Antonius Kappus from colonial America IV

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Janez Stanonik

1989-12-01

Full Text Available The letter of Marcus Antonius Kappus which we publish in our present the fourth - continuation of his letters from Colonial America, is not preserved - as the first three letters are - in a manuscript. Instead we find it published in the famous contemporary collection of Jesuitic letters which appeared from 1728 till 1758 under the editorship of Joseph Stöcklein and his successors in Augsburg and Graz under the title Der neue Welt-Bott mit Allerhand Nachrichten derer Missionariorum Soc. Jesu. Kappus' letter can be found in vol. I, part II, p. 86-88 under the number 56. It has never since 1728 been reprinted in German, neither has it ever been published in an English translation. Our reprint of the German text is justified because Stöcklein's collection is generally not available even in the largest libraries, especially in America. An English translation can be useful because of the difficulties the old form of its German with its localisms can cause to its readers.

Open Letter to Religious Leaders about Sex Education

Science.gov (United States)

American Journal of Sexuality Education, 2011

2011-01-01

The "Open Letter to Religious Leaders about Sex Education" reinforces scriptural and theological commitments to truth-telling in calling for "full and honest education about sexual and reproductive health." This "Open Letter" was published in 2002, at about the midpoint of a decade-long federal government commitment to…

Analyzing International Letters in a Business Communication Class.

Science.gov (United States)

Devet, Bonnie

1998-01-01

Shows how students can use persuasive principles of communication (format and writer's purpose) and of classical rhetoric (organization, ethos, pathos, logos, and style) to improve their ability to analyze business letters. Shows how applying these principles to the analysis of business letters from other countries helps students write better and…

Reproduction of nearby sources by imposing true interaural differences on a sound field control approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Badajoz, Javier; Chang, Ji-ho; Agerkvist, Finn T.

2015-01-01

In anechoic conditions, the Interaural Level Difference (ILD) is the most significant auditory cue to judge the distance to a sound source located within 1 m of the listener's head. This is due to the unique characteristics of a point source in its near field, which result in exceptionally high...... as Pressure Matching (PM), and a binaural control technique. While PM aims at reproducing the incident sound field, the objective of the binaural control technique is to ensure a correct reproduction of interaural differences. The combination of these two approaches gives rise to the following features: (i......, distance dependent ILDs. When reproducing the sound field of sources located near the head with line or circular arrays of loudspeakers, the reproduced ILDs are generally lower than expected, due to physical limitations. This study presents an approach that combines a sound field reproduction method, known...

The distributed neural system for top-down letter processing: an fMRI study

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Jiangang; Feng, Lu; Li, Ling; Tian, Jie

2011-03-01

This fMRI study used Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) to investigate top-down letter processing with an illusory letter detection task. After an initial training that became increasingly difficult, participant was instructed to detect a letter from pure noise images where there was actually no letter. Such experimental paradigm allowed for isolating top-down components of letter processing and minimizing the influence of bottom-up perceptual input. A distributed cortical network of top-down letter processing was identified by analyzing the functional connectivity patterns of letter-preferential area (LA) within the left fusiform gyrus. Such network extends from the visual cortex to high level cognitive cortexes, including the left middle frontal gyrus, left medial frontal gyrus, left superior parietal gyrus, bilateral precuneus, and left inferior occipital gyrus. These findings suggest that top-down letter processing contains not only regions for processing of letter phonology and appearance, but also those involved in internal information generation and maintenance, and attention and memory processing.

Professional Citation Practices in Child Maltreatment Forensic Letters

Science.gov (United States)

Schryer, Catherine F.; Bell, Stephanie; Mian, Marcellina; Spafford, Marlee M.; Lingard, Lorelei

2011-01-01

Using rhetorical genre theory and research on reported speech, this study investigates the citation practices in 81 forensic letters written by paediatricians and nurse practitioners that provide their opinion for the courts as to whether a child has experienced maltreatment. These letters exist in a complex social situation where a lack of…

Incidental learning of sound categories is impaired in developmental dyslexia.

Science.gov (United States)

Gabay, Yafit; Holt, Lori L

2015-12-01

Developmental dyslexia is commonly thought to arise from specific phonological impairments. However, recent evidence is consistent with the possibility that phonological impairments arise as symptoms of an underlying dysfunction of procedural learning. The nature of the link between impaired procedural learning and phonological dysfunction is unresolved. Motivated by the observation that speech processing involves the acquisition of procedural category knowledge, the present study investigates the possibility that procedural learning impairment may affect phonological processing by interfering with the typical course of phonetic category learning. The present study tests this hypothesis while controlling for linguistic experience and possible speech-specific deficits by comparing auditory category learning across artificial, nonlinguistic sounds among dyslexic adults and matched controls in a specialized first-person shooter videogame that has been shown to engage procedural learning. Nonspeech auditory category learning was assessed online via within-game measures and also with a post-training task involving overt categorization of familiar and novel sound exemplars. Each measure reveals that dyslexic participants do not acquire procedural category knowledge as effectively as age- and cognitive-ability matched controls. This difference cannot be explained by differences in perceptual acuity for the sounds. Moreover, poor nonspeech category learning is associated with slower phonological processing. Whereas phonological processing impairments have been emphasized as the cause of dyslexia, the current results suggest that impaired auditory category learning, general in nature and not specific to speech signals, could contribute to phonological deficits in dyslexia with subsequent negative effects on language acquisition and reading. Implications for the neuro-cognitive mechanisms of developmental dyslexia are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights

Imagining Sound

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grimshaw, Mark; Garner, Tom Alexander

2014-01-01

We make the case in this essay that sound that is imagined is both a perception and as much a sound as that perceived through external stimulation. To argue this, we look at the evidence from auditory science, neuroscience, and philosophy, briefly present some new conceptual thinking on sound...... that accounts for this view, and then use this to look at what the future might hold in the context of imagining sound and developing technology....

Readability of "Dear Patient" device advisory notification letters created by a device manufacturer.

Science.gov (United States)

Mueller, Luke A; Sharma, Arjun; Ottenberg, Abigale L; Mueller, Paul S

2013-04-01

In 2006, the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) recommended that cardiovascular implantable electronic device (CIED) manufacturers use advisory notification letters to communicate with affected patients. To evaluate the readability of the HRS sample "patient device advisory notification" letter and those created by 1 CIED manufacturer. The HRS sample letter and 25 Boston Scientific Corporation letters dated from 2005 through 2011 were evaluated by using 6 readability tests. Readability (Flesch-Kincaid score) of the HRS sample letter was grade level 12.5, and median readability of the device manufacturer letters was grade level 12.8 (range 10.8-18.9). Similar results were obtained by using other readability scales. No letters had readability scores at the National Work Group on Literacy and Health's recommended reading level-fifth grade; the letters' readability exceeded this recommended level by an average of 7.7 grades (95% confidence interval 6.9-8.5; Preadability scores at the average reading level of US adults-eighth grade; the letters' readability exceeded this level by an average of 4.7 grades (95% confidence interval 3.9-5.5; Preadability of the HRS sample letter and those created by a CIED manufacturer significantly exceeded the recommended and average US adults' reading skill levels. Such letters are unlikely to be informative to many patients. CIED manufacturers should ensure that advisory letters are comprehensible to most affected patients. Copyright © 2013 Heart Rhythm Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sound-proof Sandwich Panel Design via Metamaterial Concept

Science.gov (United States)

Sui, Ni

the core material maintains the mechanical property and yields a sound transmission loss that is consistently greater than 50 dB at low frequencies. Furthermore, the absorption property of the proposed honeycomb sandwich panel was experimentally studied. The honeycomb sandwich panel shows an excellent sound absorbing performance at high frequencies by using reinforced glass fiber without adding too much mass. The effect of the panel size and the stiffness of the grid-like frame effect of the honeycomb sandwich structures on sound transmission are discussed lastly. For the second sound-proof sandwich panel design, each unit cell of the sandwich panel is replaced by a Helmholtz resonator by perforating a small hole on the top face sheet. A perfect sound absorber sandwich panel with coupled Helmholtz resonators is proposed by two types: single identical Helmholtz resonator in each unit cell and dual Helmholtz resonators with different orifices, arranged in each cell arranged periodically. The soundproof sandwich panel is modelled as a panel embedded in rigid panel and assumed as a semiinfinite space with hard boundary condition. The net/mutual impedance model is first proposed and derived by solving Kirchhoff-Helmholtz integral by using the Green's function. The thermal-viscous energy dissipation at the thermal boundary layer dominates the total energy consumed. Two types of perfect sound absorber sandwich panel are designed in the last part. Two theoretical methods: the average energy and the equivalent surface impedance method are used to predict sound absorption performance. The geometry for perfect sound absorber sandwich panel at a target frequency can be obtained when the all the Helmholtz resonators are at resonance and the surface impedance of the sandwich panel matches the air impedance. The bandwidth for the identical sandwich panel mainly depends on the neck radius. The absorptive property of the dual Helmholtz resonators type of sandwich panel is studied by

Visual and Artistic Functions of Letters Khaghani’s Poetry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dr. M. Zolfaghari

Full Text Available The intensity of emotion and vibration of meaning in the poet's mind causes him to go beyond the ordinary language and through metaphors, similes and linguistic preparation he conveys intellectual and emotional meanings. He has a sharp eye and a sensitive spirit and creative temprement and by inventing new images shows the creativity and imagination in various arenas and attempts in the way of literary strength and creating personal style and this point more than anything else must be done by presenting images and newness. Perhaps in the sixth century, and especially in Azerbaijani school, more than other periods, poets have been looking for creating innovative style in eloquence. Their major attempts were mainly in imaging, it was a wide field that they have competed and it is natural that in this illustration the alphabet letters would be very helpful. Khaghani poetry as one of the greatest poets of this school has the perfect poetrical book of painting and meaning, and delicated pattern in new and different scientific, cultural and religious paintings and letters are a broad range of elements that put a new field in front of the poet and he is aware of the potential features of the letters and also the new images and the artistic creativity.This paper shows descriptive - analytical study of various aspects of Khaghani’s poetry and frequency of letters in the alphabet, authentic images based on alphabet, taken at different pseudo relevance of poetry in the context of multiple semantic and literal characters, making figures of speech based on literary characters, images and characters and the sense of connection . . . which has been shown in his poetry.Letter has double and even multiple uses in Khaghani poetic works (divan and more than the construction of words which is the real and common sense that is used as an artistic. There is a world in the heart of every letter, word and morpheme lies in the poet's point of view is the last and

Letter Frequency Analysis of Lithuanian and Other Languages Using the Latin Alphabet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gintautas Grigas

2015-12-01

Full Text Available It is important to evaluate specificities of alphabets, particularly the letter frequencies while designing keyboards, analyzing texts, designing games based on alphabets, and doing some text mining. In order to adequately compare lettter frequences of Lithuanian language to other languages in the Internet space, Wikipedia source was selected which content is common to different languages. The method of letter frequency jumps is used. The main attention is paid to the analysis of letter frequencies at the boundary between native letters and foreign letters used in Lithuanian and other languages.

Letter-By-Letter Reading: Natural Recovery and Response to Treatment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pélagie M. Beeson

2005-01-01

Full Text Available The present investigation provides a longitudinal study of an individual (RB with acquired alexia following left posterior cerebral artery stroke. At initial testing, RB exhibited acquired alexia characterized by letter-by-letter (LBL reading, mild anomic aphasia, and acquired agraphia. Repeated measures of reading accuracy and rate were collected for single words and text over the course of one year, along with probes of naming and spelling abilities. Improvements associated with natural recovery (i.e., without treatment were documented up to the fourth month post onset, when text reading appeared to be relatively stable. Multiple oral reading (MOR treatment was initiated at 22 weeks post-stroke, and additional improvements in reading rate and accuracy for text were documented that were greater than those expected on the basis of spontaneous recovery alone. Over the course of one year, reading reaction times for single words improved, and the word-length effect that is the hallmark of LBL reading diminished. RB's response to treatment supports the therapeutic value of MOR treatment to in LBL readers. His residual impairment of reading and spelling one-year post stroke raised the question as to whether further progress was impeded by degraded orthographic knowledge.

Standardized Letter of Recommendation for Otolaryngology Residency Selection

Science.gov (United States)

Perkins, Jonathan N.; Liang, Conan; McFann, Kim; Abaza, Mona M.; Streubel, Sven-Olrik; Prager, Jeremy D.

2013-01-01

Objectives/Hypothesis Develop a standardized letter of recommendation (SLOR) for otolaryngology residency application that investigates the qualities desired in residents and letter writer’s experience. Compare this SLOR to narrative letters of recommendation (NLOR). Study Design Prospective SLOR/NLOR Comparison. Methods The SLOR was sent to a NLOR writer for each applicant. The applicant’s NLOR/SLOR pair was blinded and ranked in seven categories by three reviewers. Inter-rater reliability and NLOR/SLOR rankings were compared. Means of cumulative NLOR and SLOR scores were compared to our departmental rank list. Results Thirty-one SLORs (66%) were collected. The SLORs had higher inter-rater reliability for applicant’s qualifications for otolaryngology, global assessment, summary statement, and overall letter ranking. Writer’s background, comparison to contemporaries/predecessors, and letter review ease had higher inter-rater reliability on the NLORs. Mean SLOR rankings were higher for writer’s background (p=0.0007), comparison of applicant to contemporaries/predecessors (p=0.0031), and letter review ease (p<0.0001). Mean SLOR writing time was 4.17±2.18 minutes. Mean ranking time was significantly lower (p<0.0001) for the SLORs (39.24±23.45 seconds) compared to the NLORs (70.95±40.14 seconds). Means of cumulative SLOR scores correlated with our rank list (p=0.004), whereas means of cumulative NLOR scores did not (p=0.18). Means of cumulative NLOR and SLOR scores did not correlate (p=0.26). Conclusions SLORs require little writing time, save reviewing time, and are easier to review compared to NLORs. Our SLOR had higher inter-rater reliability in 4 of 7 categories and was correlated with our rank list. This tool conveys standardized information in an efficient manner. PMID:23172646

Should intellectual property be disseminated by "forwarding" rejected letters without permission?

Science.gov (United States)

Gupta, V K

1996-08-01

Substantive scientific letter writing is a cost-effective mode of complementing observational and experimental research. The value of such philosophically uncommitted and unsponsored well-balanced scientific activity has been relegated. Critical letter writing entails the abilities to: maintain rational scepticism; refuse to conform in order to explain data; persist in keeping common sense centre-stage; exercise logic to evaluate the biological significance of mathematical figures, including statistics, and the ability to sustain the will to share insights regarding disease mechanisms on an ostensibly lower research platform. During peer review, innovative letter writing may share the occasionally unfortunate fate of innovative research. Rejected scientific letters do not automatically lose copyright. Periodicals with high letter loads will see some valuable contributions wasted, but that is the price for maintaining autonomy in scientific publication. The scientific community is an integrated whole that must respect the rights of authors at all levels. Unauthorised forwarding of rejected letters sets the dangerous precedent of justifying unjust means.

Letters to a Young Baller: Exploring Epistolary Criticism

Science.gov (United States)

Chawansky, Megan

2010-01-01

This article explores the possibilities of epistolary criticism within the realm of sport studies and aspires to encourage scholars to consider the use of non-traditional sport memorabilia and source materials when telling emotive stories about sport and sport practices. The use of letters and the letter-writing format to tell a personal narrative…

Melanie Klein's letters addressed to Marcelle Spira (1955-1960).

Science.gov (United States)

Quinodoz, Jean-Michel

2009-12-01

Between 1955 and 1960, Melanie Klein wrote some 45 hitherto unpublished letters to Marcelle Spira, the Swiss psychoanalyst living at that time in Geneva. In 2006, after Spira's death, these letters were deposited with the Raymond de Saussure Psychoanalysis Centre in Geneva. They are the only known letters that Klein addressed to her psychoanalyst colleagues. Several topics are mentioned in them: (1) the meetings between the two women in Geneva and London; (2) Spira's contribution to Boulanger's translation into French of The Psychoanalysis of Children, which Klein herself carefully revised; (3) the papers that Klein was at that time working on, including Envy and Gratitude; (4) Spira's own work; (5) the difficulties that Spira, a Kleinian psychoanalyst who trained in Buenos Aires, was encountering in her attempt to be admitted to the Swiss Psychoanalytical Society; and (6) a few items of personal and family news. In addition to the invaluable historical information that these letters provide, they offer us a very moving epistolary self-portrait of Melanie Klein, enabling us to discover her personality in the final years of her life - she died in September 1960, just two months after writing her last letter to Spira.

[Representation of letter position in visual word recognition process].

Science.gov (United States)

Makioka, S

1994-08-01

Two experiments investigated the representation of letter position in visual word recognition process. In Experiment 1, subjects (12 undergraduates and graduates) were asked to detect a target word in a briefly-presented probe. Probes consisted of two kanji words. The latters which formed targets (critical letters) were always contained in probes. (e.g. target: [symbol: see text] probe: [symbol: see text]) High false alarm rate was observed when critical letters occupied the same within-word relative position (left or right within the word) in the probe words as in the target word. In Experiment 2 (subject were ten undergraduates and graduates), spaces adjacent to probe words were replaced by randomly chosen hiragana letters (e.g. [symbol: see text]), because spaces are not used to separate words in regular Japanese sentences. In addition to the effect of within-word relative position as in Experiment 1, the effect of between-word relative position (left or right across the probe words) was observed. These results suggest that information about within-word relative position of a letter is used in word recognition process. The effect of within-word relative position was explained by a connectionist model of word recognition.

Entropy-Weighted Instance Matching Between Different Sourcing Points of Interest

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lin Li

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The crucial problem for integrating geospatial data is finding the corresponding objects (the counterpart from different sources. Most current studies focus on object matching with individual attributes such as spatial, name, or other attributes, which avoids the difficulty of integrating those attributes, but at the cost of an ineffective matching. In this study, we propose an approach for matching instances by integrating heterogeneous attributes with the allocation of suitable attribute weights via information entropy. First, a normalized similarity formula is developed, which can simplify the calculation of spatial attribute similarity. Second, sound-based and word segmentation-based methods are adopted to eliminate the semantic ambiguity when there is a lack of a normative coding standard in geospatial data to express the name attribute. Third, category mapping is established to address the heterogeneity among different classifications. Finally, to address the non-linear characteristic of attribute similarity, the weights of the attributes are calculated by the entropy of the attributes. Experiments demonstrate that the Entropy-Weighted Approach (EWA has good performance both in terms of precision and recall for instance matching from different data sets.

[Patients' letters and pre-modern medical lay-culture].

Science.gov (United States)

Stolberg, Michael

2007-01-01

Consulting by letter was fairly common practice among the educated, upper classes of early modern Europe. Surviving letters of consultation written by patients, relatives or friends count among the most valuable source for the analysis of pre-modern experiences of disease and the body. This essay gives a brief overview of the various types of consultation letters and related documents which resulted from this practice before tracing the historical development of epistolary consultations from the late Middle Ages through the heyday medical correspondence in the 18th c. before its decline in the 19th c. It presents "experience", "self-fashioning" and "discourse" as three particularly fruitful levels of analysis on which patients' letters can be used within the wider framework of a cultural history of medicine. These three levels of analysis, or three distinct approaches, enable historians to access a greater awareness of the ways in which the experience of illness and the body is culturally framed with an analysis of the performative effects of patients' narratives and the influence of medical discourse among the wider society.

The sound-induced phosphene illusion.

Science.gov (United States)

Bolognini, Nadia; Convento, Silvia; Fusaro, Martina; Vallar, Giuseppe

2013-12-01

Crossmodal illusions clearly show how perception, rather than being a modular and self-contained function, can be dramatically altered by interactions between senses. Here, we provide evidence for a novel crossmodal "physiological" illusion, showing that sounds can boost visual cortical responses in such a way to give rise to a striking illusory visual percept. In healthy participants, a single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (sTMS) delivered to the occipital cortex evoked a visual percept, i.e., a phosphene. When sTMS is accompanied by two auditory beeps, the second beep induces in neurologically unimpaired participants the perception of an illusory second phosphene, namely the sound-induced phosphene illusion. This perceptual "fission" of a single phosphene, due to multiple beeps, is not matched by a "fusion" of double phosphenes due to a single beep, and it is characterized by an early auditory modulation of the TMS-induced visual responses (~80 ms). Multiple beeps also induce an illusory feeling of multiple TMS pulses on the participants' scalp, consistent with an audio-tactile fission illusion. In conclusion, an auditory stimulation may bring about a phenomenological change in the conscious visual experience produced by the transcranial stimulation of the occipital cortex, which reveals crossmodal binding mechanisms within early stages of visual processing.

Collected Letters of José Martí: a linguistic approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guerra, Ana Jústiz

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Any approach to José Marti’s literary production should consider the study of his collected letters, which are noticeable for its content and expressive devices. This article synthesizes the criteria of former researchers who have considered Marti’s collected letters as a privileged genre among the multiple and diverse cultivated by the Apostle (speeches, dramas, essays, journal article, short stories and literary criticism. The collected letters takes a large proportion of his prolific literary production and its expressive force has been widely recognized as a source of inspiration for other poets. His collection of letters is outstanding and lasting in time for its expressive magnificence, its depth of content and precise choice of words. Originally written for a definite addressee, the letters are currently read by new generations of readers, who rediscover a new message in each. Topic considered in this article is part of a wider range study which is been prepared as Ph. D. thesis.

The Complaint Letter and Response.

Science.gov (United States)

Shukla, P. K.

1998-01-01

Describes an assignment in which students write a letter of complaint, and discusses how this assignment aids students in seeing the importance of effective written communication to their daily lives. (SR)

Scientific Letter: Monosymptomatic Hypochondriacal Psychosis ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Scientific Letter: Monosymptomatic Hypochondriacal Psychosis (somatic delusional disorder): A report of two cases. ... African Journal of Psychiatry. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current Issue · Archives.

Particles and nuclei, letters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-01-01

The present collection of letters from JINR, Dubna, contains thirteen separate letters on start-to-end simulations of SASE FEL at the TESLA test facility, possible ways of improvement of the FEM oscillator with a Bragg resonator, the status and perspectives of the electron cooling method development, crystalline ion beams in storage rings, latest results of modeling of LHC beam injection, charge exchange injection in a synchrotron equipped with an electron cooling system, fringe and hysteresis effects in electron guns, nonstationary regimes of electron flow formation in secondary emission inverse coaxial diodes, a proposal of the experiment testing of the fine structure of the Vavilov-Cherenkov radiation, computer simulation of the electron beam dynamics at the accelerator structure and the injector of S-band linac with energies of 3 and 10 MeV, calculation of the electron beam dynamics of the accelerator LUE-200, the accelerator-accumulation facility ITEP-TWAC and accelerators-drivers of electronuclear facilities

Cross-Modal Correspondences Enhance Performance on a Colour-to-Sound Sensory Substitution Device.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamilton-Fletcher, Giles; Wright, Thomas D; Ward, Jamie

Visual sensory substitution devices (SSDs) can represent visual characteristics through distinct patterns of sound, allowing a visually impaired user access to visual information. Previous SSDs have avoided colour and when they do encode colour, have assigned sounds to colour in a largely unprincipled way. This study introduces a new tablet-based SSD termed the ‘Creole’ (so called because it combines tactile scanning with image sonification) and a new algorithm for converting colour to sound that is based on established cross-modal correspondences (intuitive mappings between different sensory dimensions). To test the utility of correspondences, we examined the colour–sound associative memory and object recognition abilities of sighted users who had their device either coded in line with or opposite to sound–colour correspondences. Improved colour memory and reduced colour-errors were made by users who had the correspondence-based mappings. Interestingly, the colour–sound mappings that provided the highest improvements during the associative memory task also saw the greatest gains for recognising realistic objects that also featured these colours, indicating a transfer of abilities from memory to recognition. These users were also marginally better at matching sounds to images varying in luminance, even though luminance was coded identically across the different versions of the device. These findings are discussed with relevance for both colour and correspondences for sensory substitution use.

Sound radiation contrast in MR phase images. Method for the representation of elasticity, sound damping, and sound impedance changes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Radicke, Marcus

2009-01-01

The method presented in this thesis combines ultrasound techniques with the magnetic-resonance tomography (MRT). An ultrasonic wave generates in absorbing media a static force in sound-propagation direction. The force leads at sound intensities of some W/cm 2 and a sound frequency in the lower MHz range to a tissue shift in the micrometer range. This tissue shift depends on the sound power, the sound frequency, the sound absorption, and the elastic properties of the tissue. A MRT sequence of the Siemens Healthcare AG was modified so that it measures (indirectly) the tissue shift, codes as grey values, and presents as 2D picture. By means of the grey values the sound-beam slope in the tissue can be visualized, and so additionally sound obstacles (changes of the sound impedance) can be detected. By the MRT images token up spatial changes of the tissue parameters sound absorption and elasticity can be detected. In this thesis measurements are presented, which show the feasibility and future chances of this method especially for the mammary-cancer diagnostics. [de

Burroughs's Postcolonial Visions in The Yage Letters

OpenAIRE

Keomany, Melanie

2016-01-01

In her article "Burroughs's Postcolonial Visions in The Yage Letters" Melanie Keomany discusses the contents of William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg's The Yage Letters which could be dismissed as openly bigoted and racist. Keomany posits that the text reveals valuable connections between the colonial expansion of the eighteenth century and 1950s USA and Latin America. By re-shaping Burroughs's lived experiences in the Amazon into a text where the narrator William Lee mimics sardonically an...

Letters to a Young Writer.

Science.gov (United States)

Waldman, Anne; Becker, Robin

2002-01-01

Presents words of encouragement to a young poet. Includes empathetic words and motivating ideas. Presents a letter including a quote from "Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth and ideas about that quote. (SG)

Effectiveness of pre-admission data and letters of recommendation to predict students who will need professional behavior intervention during clinical rotations in the United States

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chalee Engelhard

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The study aimed at finding the value of letters of recommendation in predicting professional behavior problems in the clinical portion of a Doctor of Physical Therapy program learning cohorts from 2009-2014 in the United States. De-identified records of 137 Doctor of Physical Therapy graduates were examined by the descriptive statistics and comparison analysis. Thirty letters of recommendation were investigated based on grounded theory from 10 student applications with 5 randomly selected students of interest and 5 non-students of interest. Critical thinking, organizational skills, and judgement were statistically significant and quantitative differentiating characteristics. Qualitatively, significant characteristics of the student of interest included effective communication and cultural competency. Meanwhile, those of nonstudents of interest included conflicting personality descriptor, commitment to learning, balance, teamwork skills, potential future success, compatible learning skills, effective leadership skills, and emotional intelligence. Emerged significant characteristics did not consistently match common non-professional behavior issues encountered in clinic. Pre-admission data and letters of recommendation appear of limited value in predicting professional behavior performance in clinic.

Multi-sensory learning and learning to read.

Science.gov (United States)

Blomert, Leo; Froyen, Dries

2010-09-01

The basis of literacy acquisition in alphabetic orthographies is the learning of the associations between the letters and the corresponding speech sounds. In spite of this primacy in learning to read, there is only scarce knowledge on how this audiovisual integration process works and which mechanisms are involved. Recent electrophysiological studies of letter-speech sound processing have revealed that normally developing readers take years to automate these associations and dyslexic readers hardly exhibit automation of these associations. It is argued that the reason for this effortful learning may reside in the nature of the audiovisual process that is recruited for the integration of in principle arbitrarily linked elements. It is shown that letter-speech sound integration does not resemble the processes involved in the integration of natural audiovisual objects such as audiovisual speech. The automatic symmetrical recruitment of the assumedly uni-sensory visual and auditory cortices in audiovisual speech integration does not occur for letter and speech sound integration. It is also argued that letter-speech sound integration only partly resembles the integration of arbitrarily linked unfamiliar audiovisual objects. Letter-sound integration and artificial audiovisual objects share the necessity of a narrow time window for integration to occur. However, they differ from these artificial objects, because they constitute an integration of partly familiar elements which acquire meaning through the learning of an orthography. Although letter-speech sound pairs share similarities with audiovisual speech processing as well as with unfamiliar, arbitrary objects, it seems that letter-speech sound pairs develop into unique audiovisual objects that furthermore have to be processed in a unique way in order to enable fluent reading and thus very likely recruit other neurobiological learning mechanisms than the ones involved in learning natural or arbitrary unfamiliar

The impact of familiarization strategies on the missing-letter effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Plamondon, Andréanne; Roy-Charland, Annie; Chamberland, Justin; Quenneville, Joannie; Laforge, Christian

2017-08-01

When reading a text and searching for a target letter, readers make more omissions of the target letter if it is embedded in frequent function words than if it is in rare content words. While word frequency effects are consistently found, few studies have examined the impacts of passage familiarity on the missing-letter effect and studies that have present conflicting evidence. The present study examines the effects of passage familiarity, as well as the impacts of passage familiarization strategy promoting surface or deep encoding, on the missing-letter effect. Participants were familiarized with a passage by retyping a text, replacing all common nouns with synonyms, or generating a text on the same topic as that of the original text, and then completed a letter search task on the familiar passage as well as an unfamiliar passage. In Experiment 1, when both familiar and unfamiliar passages use the same words, results revealed fewer omissions for the retyping and synonyms conditions. However, in Experiment 2, when different words are used in both types of texts, no effect of familiarization strategy was observed. Furthermore, the missing-letter effect is maintained in all conditions, adding support to the robustness of the effect regardless of familiarity with the text.

The effect of using social pressure in cover letters to improve retention in a longitudinal health study: an embedded randomised controlled retention trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Cotterill, Sarah; Howells, Kelly; Rhodes, Sarah; Bower, Peter

2017-07-20

Retention of participants in cohort studies is important for validity. One way to promote retention is by sending a persuasive cover letter with surveys. The study aimed to compare the effectiveness of a covering letter containing social pressure with a standard covering letter on retention in a health cohort study. Social pressure involves persuading people to behave in a certain way by the promise that their actions will be made know to others. We implemented a mild form of social pressure, where the recipient was told that information about whether they responded to the current survey would be noted by the research team and printed on future correspondence from the research team to the recipient. The design was an embedded randomised controlled retention trial, conducted between July 2015 and April 2016 in Salford, UK. Participants in the host health cohort study were eligible. They received either: (1) a covering letter with two consecutive surveys (sent six and twelve months after recruitment), containing a social pressure intervention; or (2) a matching letter without the social pressure text. The primary outcome was retention in the host study, defined as return of both surveys. Randomisation was computer-generated, with stratification by household size. Participants were blinded to group assignment. Researchers were blinded for outcome ascertainment. Adults (n = 4447) aged over 65 years, with a long-term condition and enrolled in the host study, were randomly allocated to receive a social pressure covering letter (n = 2223) or control (n = 2224). All 4447 participants were included in the analysis. Both questionnaires were returned by 1577 participants (71%) sent the social pressure letters and 1511 (68%) sent control letters, a risk difference of 3 percentage points (adjusted odds ratio = 1.16 (95% confidence interval = 1.02-1.33)). A mild form of social pressure made a small but significant improvement in retention of older adults in

A simplified model of saltcake moisture distribution. Letter report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Simmons, C.S.

1995-09-01

This letter report describes the formulation of a simplified model for finding the moisture distribution in a saltcake waste profile that has been stabilized by pumping out the drainable interstitial liquid. The model is based on assuming that capillarity mainly governs the distribution of moisture in the porous saltcake waste. A stead upward flow of moisture driven by evaporation from the waste surface is conceptualized to occur for isothermal conditions. To obtain hydraulic parameters for unsaturated conditions, the model is calibrated or matched to the relative saturation distribution as measured by neutron probe scans. The model is demonstrated on Tanks 104-BY and 105-TX as examples. A value of the model is that it identifies the key physical parameters that control the surface moisture content in a waste profile. Moreover, the model can be used to estimate the brine application rate at the waste surface that would raise the moisture content there to a safe level. Thus, the model can be applied to help design a strategy for correcting the moisture conditions in a saltcake waste tank

An extended research of crossmodal correspondence between color and sound in psychology and cognitive ergonomics

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Xiuwen; Ji, Lingyu; Han, Feng; Wang, Huifen; Liu, Yang; Chen, Yao; Lou, Zhiyuan; Li, Zhuoyun

2018-01-01

Based on the existing research on sound symbolism and crossmodal correspondence, this study proposed an extended research on cross-modal correspondence between various sound attributes and color properties in a group of non-synesthetes. In Experiment 1, we assessed the associations between each property of sounds and colors. Twenty sounds with five auditory properties (pitch, roughness, sharpness, tempo and discontinuity), each varied in four levels, were used as the sound stimuli. Forty-nine colors with different hues, saturation and brightness were used to match to those sounds. Result revealed that besides pitch and tempo, roughness and sharpness also played roles in sound-color correspondence. Reaction times of sound-hue were a little longer than the reaction times of sound-lightness. In Experiment 2, a speeded target discrimination task was used to assess whether the associations between sound attributes and color properties could invoke natural cross-modal correspondence and improve participants’ cognitive efficiency in cognitive tasks. Several typical sound-color pairings were selected according to the results of Experiment 1. Participants were divided into two groups (congruent and incongruent). In each trial participants had to judge whether the presented color could appropriately be associated with the sound stimuli. Result revealed that participants responded more quickly and accurately in the congruent group than in the incongruent group. It was also found that there was no significant difference in reaction times and error rates between sound-hue and sound-lightness. The results of Experiment 1 and 2 indicate the existence of a robust crossmodal correspondence between multiple attributes of sound and color, which also has strong influence on cognitive tasks. The inconsistency of the reaction times between sound-hue and sound-lightness in Experiment 1 and 2 is probably owing to the difference in experimental protocol, which indicates that the

An extended research of crossmodal correspondence between color and sound in psychology and cognitive ergonomics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiuwen Sun

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Based on the existing research on sound symbolism and crossmodal correspondence, this study proposed an extended research on cross-modal correspondence between various sound attributes and color properties in a group of non-synesthetes. In Experiment 1, we assessed the associations between each property of sounds and colors. Twenty sounds with five auditory properties (pitch, roughness, sharpness, tempo and discontinuity, each varied in four levels, were used as the sound stimuli. Forty-nine colors with different hues, saturation and brightness were used to match to those sounds. Result revealed that besides pitch and tempo, roughness and sharpness also played roles in sound-color correspondence. Reaction times of sound-hue were a little longer than the reaction times of sound-lightness. In Experiment 2, a speeded target discrimination task was used to assess whether the associations between sound attributes and color properties could invoke natural cross-modal correspondence and improve participants’ cognitive efficiency in cognitive tasks. Several typical sound-color pairings were selected according to the results of Experiment 1. Participants were divided into two groups (congruent and incongruent. In each trial participants had to judge whether the presented color could appropriately be associated with the sound stimuli. Result revealed that participants responded more quickly and accurately in the congruent group than in the incongruent group. It was also found that there was no significant difference in reaction times and error rates between sound-hue and sound-lightness. The results of Experiment 1 and 2 indicate the existence of a robust crossmodal correspondence between multiple attributes of sound and color, which also has strong influence on cognitive tasks. The inconsistency of the reaction times between sound-hue and sound-lightness in Experiment 1 and 2 is probably owing to the difference in experimental protocol, which indicates

Development of Prediction Tool for Sound Absorption and Sound Insulation for Sound Proof Properties

OpenAIRE

Yoshio Kurosawa; Takao Yamaguchi

2015-01-01

High frequency automotive interior noise above 500 Hz considerably affects automotive passenger comfort. To reduce this noise, sound insulation material is often laminated on body panels or interior trim panels. For a more effective noise reduction, the sound reduction properties of this laminated structure need to be estimated. We have developed a new calculate tool that can roughly calculate the sound absorption and insulation properties of laminate structure and handy ...

Integrating Satellite, Radar and Surface Observation with Time and Space Matching

Science.gov (United States)

Ho, Y.; Weber, J.

2015-12-01

The Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) from Unidata is a Java™-based software framework for analyzing and visualizing geoscience data. It brings together the ability to display and work with satellite imagery, gridded data, surface observations, balloon soundings, NWS WSR-88D Level II and Level III RADAR data, and NOAA National Profiler Network data, all within a unified interface. Applying time and space matching on the satellite, radar and surface observation datasets will automatically synchronize the display from different data sources and spatially subset to match the display area in the view window. These features allow the IDV users to effectively integrate these observations and provide 3 dimensional views of the weather system to better understand the underlying dynamics and physics of weather phenomena.

Open letter to EU Commission about proposed EDC Criteria

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ågerstrand, Marlene; Bero, Lisa; Beronius, Anna

2016-01-01

Open letter in response to the proposed criteria for identification and regulation of endocrine disrupting chemicals, under the PPP and Biocides Regulations......Open letter in response to the proposed criteria for identification and regulation of endocrine disrupting chemicals, under the PPP and Biocides Regulations...

50 CFR 216.258 - Renewal of Letters of Authorization.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE MARINE MAMMALS REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE TAKING AND IMPORTING OF MARINE MAMMALS Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Conducting Precision Strike Weapon Missions in the Gulf of Mexico § 216.258 Renewal of Letters of Authorization. (a) A Letter of Authorization...

Parameterizing Sound: Design Considerations for an Environmental Sound Database

Science.gov (United States)

2015-04-01

associated with, or produced by, a physical event or human activity and 2) sound sources that are common in the environment. Reproductions or sound...Rogers S. Confrontation naming of environmental sounds. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology . 2000;22(6):830–864. 14 VanDerveer NJ

David Bohm : causality and chance, letters to three women

CERN Document Server

2017-01-01

The letters transcribed in this book were written by physicist David Bohm to three close female acquaintances in the period 1950 to 1956. They provide a background to his causal interpretation of quantum mechanics and the Marxist philosophy that inspired his scientific work in quantum theory, probability and statistical mechanics. In his letters, Bohm reveals the ideas that led to his ground breaking book Causality and Chance in Modern Physics. The political arguments as well as the acute personal problems contained in these letters help to give a rounded, human picture of this leading scientist and twentieth century thinker.

A feasibility study of predictable and unpredictable surf-like sounds for tinnitus therapy using personal music players.

Science.gov (United States)

Durai, Mithila; Kobayashi, Kei; Searchfield, Grant D

2018-05-28

To evaluate the feasibility of predictable or unpredictable amplitude-modulated sounds for tinnitus therapy. The study consisted of two parts. (1) An adaptation experiment. Loudness level matches and rating scales (10-point) for loudness and distress were obtained at a silent baseline and at the end of three counterbalanced 30-min exposures (silence, predictable and unpredictable). (2) A qualitative 2-week sound therapy feasibility trial. Participants took home a personal music player (PMP). Part 1: 23 individuals with chronic tinnitus and part 2: seven individuals randomly selected from Part 1. Self-reported tinnitus loudness and annoyance were significantly lower than baseline ratings after acute unpredictable sound exposure. Tinnitus annoyance ratings were also significantly lower than the baseline but the effect was small. The feasibility trial identified that participant preferences for sounds varied. Three participants did not obtain any benefit from either sound. Three participants preferred unpredictable compared to predictable sounds. Some participants had difficulty using the PMP, the average self-report hours of use were low (less <1 h/day). Unpredictable surf-like sounds played using a PMP is a feasible tinnitus treatment. Further work is required to improve the acceptance of the sound and ease of PMP use.

What can a string of letters possibly mean when it is not a word? Speech sounds as one answer to the search for meaning in Finnegans Wake.

Science.gov (United States)

Whissell, Cynthia

2015-02-01

In his last novel, Finnegans Wake, James Joyce attempted to redirect readers' search for meaning away from traditional paths by using many non-words (combinations, foreign words, neologisms, and onomatopoeic words). Words and non-words in the novel were analyzed in terms of the emotional meanings of their constituent sounds using the model developed by Whissell where motor responses involved in enunciating sounds are associated with their emotional meaning. Significant sound-emotion differences were identified among and within chapters. "Smiling" pleasant long e (as in "tee") was used at higher rates in successive chapters and "sighing" passive AO (as in "Shaun") was used at especially high rates in Chapters 8 ("Anna Livia Plurabelle") and 12 ("Mamalujo"). Sound emotionality is one of the alternative paths to meaning in the novel.

Effect of fMRI acoustic noise on non-auditory working memory task: comparison between continuous and pulsed sound emitting EPI.

Science.gov (United States)

Haller, Sven; Bartsch, Andreas J; Radue, Ernst W; Klarhöfer, Markus; Seifritz, Erich; Scheffler, Klaus

2005-11-01

Conventional blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is accompanied by substantial acoustic gradient noise. This noise can influence the performance as well as neuronal activations. Conventional fMRI typically has a pulsed noise component, which is a particularly efficient auditory stimulus. We investigated whether the elimination of this pulsed noise component in a recent modification of continuous-sound fMRI modifies neuronal activations in a cognitively demanding non-auditory working memory task. Sixteen normal subjects performed a letter variant n-back task. Brain activity and psychomotor performance was examined during fMRI with continuous-sound fMRI and conventional fMRI. We found greater BOLD responses in bilateral medial frontal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, left hippocampus, right superior frontal gyrus, right precuneus and right cingulate gyrus with continuous-sound compared to conventional fMRI. Conversely, BOLD responses were greater in bilateral cingulate gyrus, left middle and superior frontal gyrus and right lingual gyrus with conventional compared to continuous-sound fMRI. There were no differences in psychomotor performance between both scanning protocols. Although behavioral performance was not affected, acoustic gradient noise interferes with neuronal activations in non-auditory cognitive tasks and represents a putative systematic confound.

Horizontal sound localization in cochlear implant users with a contralateral hearing aid.

Science.gov (United States)

Veugen, Lidwien C E; Hendrikse, Maartje M E; van Wanrooij, Marc M; Agterberg, Martijn J H; Chalupper, Josef; Mens, Lucas H M; Snik, Ad F M; John van Opstal, A

2016-06-01

Interaural differences in sound arrival time (ITD) and in level (ILD) enable us to localize sounds in the horizontal plane, and can support source segregation and speech understanding in noisy environments. It is uncertain whether these cues are also available to hearing-impaired listeners who are bimodally fitted, i.e. with a cochlear implant (CI) and a contralateral hearing aid (HA). Here, we assessed sound localization behavior of fourteen bimodal listeners, all using the same Phonak HA and an Advanced Bionics CI processor, matched with respect to loudness growth. We aimed to determine the availability and contribution of binaural (ILDs, temporal fine structure and envelope ITDs) and monaural (loudness, spectral) cues to horizontal sound localization in bimodal listeners, by systematically varying the frequency band, level and envelope of the stimuli. The sound bandwidth had a strong effect on the localization bias of bimodal listeners, although localization performance was typically poor for all conditions. Responses could be systematically changed by adjusting the frequency range of the stimulus, or by simply switching the HA and CI on and off. Localization responses were largely biased to one side, typically the CI side for broadband and high-pass filtered sounds, and occasionally to the HA side for low-pass filtered sounds. HA-aided thresholds better than 45 dB HL in the frequency range of the stimulus appeared to be a prerequisite, but not a guarantee, for the ability to indicate sound source direction. We argue that bimodal sound localization is likely based on ILD cues, even at frequencies below 1500 Hz for which the natural ILDs are small. These cues are typically perturbed in bimodal listeners, leading to a biased localization percept of sounds. The high accuracy of some listeners could result from a combination of sufficient spectral overlap and loudness balance in bimodal hearing. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Making fictions sound real - On film sound, perceptual realism and genre

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Birger Langkjær

2010-05-01

Full Text Available This article examines the role that sound plays in making fictions perceptually real to film audiences, whether these fictions are realist or non-realist in content and narrative form. I will argue that some aspects of film sound practices and the kind of experiences they trigger are related to basic rules of human perception, whereas others are more properly explained in relation to how aesthetic devices, including sound, are used to characterise the fiction and thereby make it perceptually real to its audience. Finally, I will argue that not all genres can be defined by a simple taxonomy of sounds. Apart from an account of the kinds of sounds that typically appear in a specific genre, a genre analysis of sound may also benefit from a functionalist approach that focuses on how sounds can make both realist and non-realist aspects of genres sound real to audiences.

Making fictions sound real - On film sound, perceptual realism and genre

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Birger Langkjær

2009-09-01

Full Text Available This article examines the role that sound plays in making fictions perceptually real to film audiences, whether these fictions are realist or non-realist in content and narrative form. I will argue that some aspects of film sound practices and the kind of experiences they trigger are related to basic rules of human perception, whereas others are more properly explained in relation to how aesthetic devices, including sound, are used to characterise the fiction and thereby make it perceptually real to its audience. Finally, I will argue that not all genres can be defined by a simple taxonomy of sounds. Apart from an account of the kinds of sounds that typically appear in a specific genre, a genre analysis of sound may also benefit from a functionalist approach that focuses on how sounds can make both realist and non-realist aspects of genres sound real to audiences.

LETTERS OF MARIA KUNCEWICZOWA TO HER LATE HUSBAND

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Wzorek

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The article discusses the last book of Maria Kuncewiczowa – a set of twenty-three letters (provided with a postscript addressed to her deceased husband. The uniqueness of this correspondence, presented in literary form, lies in the fact that the recipient is dead, treated by the sender as someone constantly present in the real world and still associated with the temporality. "Listy do Jerzego" ("Letters to Jerzy" are – as Tadeusz Swat, one of the reviewers say – “an attempt at denial of death, to save Jerzy by love, memory, and literature.” The analysis of the work highlights the occurring axiological categories. It has been demonstrated that "Letters to Jerzy" is a book about eternal love reaching beyond the grave (in this respect, in stark contrast with "Tristan" 1946, felt with dignity of old age, and finally transcending into faith. "Letters to Jerzy" is also an attempt to reduce the suffering of the writer over the loss of her beloved husband. To some extent, therefore, they correspond to her earlier work "Cudzoziemka" ("Foreigner" in which Kuncewiczowa liberates from the negative emotions associated with the death of her mother.

GraphoGame - A catalyst for multi-level promotion of literacy in diverse contexts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emma eOjanen

2015-06-01

Full Text Available GraphoGame (GG is originally a technology-based intervention method for supporting children with reading difficulties. It is now known that children who face problems in reading acquisition have difficulties in learning to differentiate and manipulate speech sounds and consequently, in connecting these sounds to corresponding letters. GG was developed to provide intensive training in matching speech sounds and larger units of speech to their written counterparts. GG has been shown to benefit children with reading difficulties and the game is now available for all Finnish school children for literacy support. Presently millions of children in Africa fail to learn to read despite years of primary school education. As many African languages have transparent writing systems similar in structure to Finnish, it was hypothesized that GG-based training of letter-sound correspondences could also be effective in supporting children's learning in African countries. In this article we will describe how GG has been developed from a Finnish dyslexia prevention game to an intervention method that can be used not only to improve children's reading performance but also to raise teachers' and parents' awareness of the development of reading skill and effective reading instruction methods. We will also provide an overview of the GraphoGame activities in Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Namibia, and the potential to promote education for all with a combination of scientific research and mobile learning.

Referral letters to the psychiatrist in Nigeria: is communication ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

history, may not be elements that non-psychiatrist phy- sicians routinely collect during their examinations and, therefore, one would not expect such information to be available to be included in referral letters. Conclusion. Deficits in communication or information transfer through referral letters to the psychiatrist are common.

Referral letters to the psychiatrist in Nigeria: is communication ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Result: A majority (>80%) of the referral letters had no information on the current medication list, relevant psychosocial history, outline of management to date, results of investigations to date, and known allergies. Conclusion: Deficits in communication or information transfer through referral letters to the psychiatrist are ...

Basic Reading Instruction for Students in Automotive Occupations. Student's Handbook.

Science.gov (United States)

General Behavioral Systems, Inc., Torrance, CA.

The basic reading course outlined in this student handbook emphasizes the decoding process. The contents consist of a letter-and-sound spelling chart and 87 course modules which are based on single-letter and letter-combination sounds. Many of the modules include exercises, and some contain reading material. (JM)

Love letters to the dead: resurrecting an epistolary art.

Science.gov (United States)

Lander, Dorothy A; Graham-Pole, John R

This article explores the art of letter-writing, specifically to our beloved dead, as a form of autoethnographic research, pedagogy, and care work. As university teachers and qualitative researchers in palliative and end-of-life care, we review the literature and history of epistolary communications with the deceased, as a prelude to writing our own letters. John writes to his long-dead mother and Dorothy to her recently deceased spouse Patrick, each letter followed by a reflective dialogue between us. Through this dialogue, we highlight the potential application of this art, or handcraft, to formal and informal palliative care, and the implications for practice, pedagogy, policy, and research. We propose that such direct, non-mediated, communications can offer a valuable form of healing for bereaved people. The therapeutic potential of letter writing and the abundance of literary and popular culture exemplars of responses from the dead are also largely unexplored in death education and research.

Letters in this Issue

Science.gov (United States)

1998-01-01

Reforming the General Chemistry Textbook individual letters by Edward T. Samulski; Stephen J. Hawkes; Stephen J. Fisher; J. Stephen Hartman; A. R. H. Cole; Stanley Pine, Ronald Archer, and Herbert Kaesz; Jimmy Reeves; Robert Hill; and Brock Spencer, C. Bradley Moore and Nedah Rose. Re: article by R. J. Gillespie The author replies

Sound Absorbers

Science.gov (United States)

Fuchs, H. V.; Möser, M.

Sound absorption indicates the transformation of sound energy into heat. It is, for instance, employed to design the acoustics in rooms. The noise emitted by machinery and plants shall be reduced before arriving at a workplace; auditoria such as lecture rooms or concert halls require a certain reverberation time. Such design goals are realised by installing absorbing components at the walls with well-defined absorption characteristics, which are adjusted for corresponding demands. Sound absorbers also play an important role in acoustic capsules, ducts and screens to avoid sound immission from noise intensive environments into the neighbourhood.

Letter processing and font information during reading: beyond distinctiveness, where vision meets design.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanocki, Thomas; Dyson, Mary C

2012-01-01

Letter identification is a critical front end of the reading process. In general, conceptualizations of the identification process have emphasized arbitrary sets of distinctive features. However, a richer view of letter processing incorporates principles from the field of type design, including an emphasis on uniformities across letters within a font. The importance of uniformities is supported by a small body of research indicating that consistency of font increases letter identification efficiency. We review design concepts and the relevant literature, with the goal of stimulating further thinking about letter processing during reading.

The Syntax of Persuasion: Two Business Letters of Request.

Science.gov (United States)

Limaye, Mohan R.

1983-01-01

Business letter-writers are advised to develop reader empathy and benefit before they ask a favor. The author analyzed two model 16th century letters of request to determine if similar advice was given in the past, and found that the request was subordinate to building a mutually beneficial relationship. (PD)

Making Sound Connections

Science.gov (United States)

Deal, Walter F., III

2007-01-01

Sound provides and offers amazing insights into the world. Sound waves may be defined as mechanical energy that moves through air or other medium as a longitudinal wave and consists of pressure fluctuations. Humans and animals alike use sound as a means of communication and a tool for survival. Mammals, such as bats, use ultrasonic sound waves to…

Undergraduate nursing students writing therapeutic letters to families: an educational strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Erlingsson, Christen

2009-02-01

Writing therapeutic letters to families is discussed in this article as an educational strategy encouraging students to think reflectively about family nursing. At the University of Kalmar, Sweden, undergraduate nursing students in a primary care module interviewed families using the Calgary Family Assessment Model and wrote therapeutic letters to these families. This article describes (a) the examination process, which was the context for writing therapeutic letters, (b) results of analyses of the letters, and (c) student's post-examination evaluation comments. Results indicate that most students needed encouragement to focus on the family's strengths and resources instead of focusing on own feelings or problems they perceived the family as having. Students also needed support in relinquishing their hierarchical role of "expert nurse." Students' evaluation comments showed that writing therapeutic letters provided students with opportunities to reflect about the connections between family nursing theory and the family itself.

A Fragmentary Archive: Migratory Feelings in Early Anglo-Saxon Women's Letters.

Science.gov (United States)

Watt, Diane

2017-01-01

The letters by Anglo-Saxon women in the Boniface correspondence are connected by cultural practices and emotions centered on the conversion mission that functioned to maintain connections between the Anglo-Saxon diaspora. A striking recurring focus of these letters is on loss and isolation, which connects them to the Old English elegies. Many of the letters describe the writers' traumatic experiences that result from the death or absence of kin. These are women who endured the trauma of being left behind when others migrated overseas or who, in traveling away from their homeland, found themselves isolated in an alien environment, displaced in time as well as space. This article offers an analysis of the letters, focusing on the queer temporalities they explore, the queer emotions they evoke, and the queer kinships that they forge. It argues that the women's letters represent fragments of an early queer archive of migratory feelings.

Open letter to the Vatican.

Science.gov (United States)

1999-01-01

An open letter was published by Latin American and Caribbean women during the Special Session of the UN General Assembly on the International Conference on Population and Development. The letter generally focused on the Church¿s stand on women's reproductive rights. In particular, it questioned the Church on the following aspects of reproductive health, which include: 1) maternal death related to lack of access to reproductive health care; 2) Vatican representatives insisting that only parents can supervise their children education and health, which also lead to many cases of sexual abuse and incest; 3) women's sexual inequality and daily violence; 4) the Vatican delegation blocking the advances of contraception, sexual education, and HIV prevention; 5) problems of migrants and allocation of resources; and 6) the Church failing to recognize the capacity of young people to make decisions based on their own conscience.

Scientific Letter: High-intent suicide and the Beck's Suicide Intent ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Scientific Letter: High-intent suicide and the Beck's Suicide Intent scale: a case report. ... African Journal of Psychiatry. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current ... Abstract. Scientific Letter - No Abstract Available ...

Abnormal sound detection device

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamada, Izumi; Matsui, Yuji.

1995-01-01

Only components synchronized with rotation of pumps are sampled from detected acoustic sounds, to judge the presence or absence of abnormality based on the magnitude of the synchronized components. A synchronized component sampling means can remove resonance sounds and other acoustic sounds generated at a synchronously with the rotation based on the knowledge that generated acoustic components in a normal state are a sort of resonance sounds and are not precisely synchronized with the number of rotation. On the other hand, abnormal sounds of a rotating body are often caused by compulsory force accompanying the rotation as a generation source, and the abnormal sounds can be detected by extracting only the rotation-synchronized components. Since components of normal acoustic sounds generated at present are discriminated from the detected sounds, reduction of the abnormal sounds due to a signal processing can be avoided and, as a result, abnormal sound detection sensitivity can be improved. Further, since it is adapted to discriminate the occurrence of the abnormal sound from the actually detected sounds, the other frequency components which are forecast but not generated actually are not removed, so that it is further effective for the improvement of detection sensitivity. (N.H.)

[Changes in CIRUGIA ESPANOLA Letters to the Editor between 2000 and 2007].

Science.gov (United States)

Rosell-Pradas, Jorge; Sánchez-Cantalejo, Emilio

2008-09-01

To describe the frequency and bibliographic characteristics of letters to the editor in the journal, Cirugía Española published between 2000 and 2007 and to compare the differences in the periods between 2000-2003 and 2004-2007. A descriptive and cross-sectional study, using the letters to the editor published in Spanish surgery between 2000 and 2007, as observation units. The variables considered were: the number of letters according to the volume and year of publication, substantive content of the paper, text length, graphics resources use, number of signatories and their professional profile, institutions of the authors, by origin and number of Autonomous Communities and number of bibliographical references. To meet the second objective, we compared letters from the period 2000-2003 with the period 2004-2007 against the rest of variables considered as a result. We used descriptive statistics and statistical analysis for comparison of distributions (chi2), with a level of significance of p < 0.05, using the SPSS software (Version 15.0). We identified 312 documents classified as letters. Between 2002 and 2005 their number was small. Often referring to clinical cases 187 (59.9%) and related letters, 98 (31.4%). Of those, 81.1% met the standard length of the text and only 6 letters (1.9%) was the use of graphics exceeded. In 122 letters (39.1%) the permitted number of authors was exceeded. They were mostly contributed by surgeons, 238 cases (76.3%), usually a single hospital, with 294 letters (94.2%) mainly from, Catalonia, Andalusia, Madrid and Valencia. Only 58.1% of the letters complied with the permitted number of references. More related letters were published in the last period (59 letters; 42.1%) than during the years 2000-2003 (39 letters; 22.7%) (chi2 = 14.79; p < 0.001). The correct length of the text improved in the second period, 136 (97.1%), compared to the first 117 (68%) (chi2 = 42.67; p < 0.001. The graphics resources were used properly in both

32 CFR 884.17 - Commander's instruction letter to member.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... instruction letter to member. Subject: Instructions in Case of Release on Bail or Personal Recognizance 1. You... 32 National Defense 6 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Commander's instruction letter to member. 884.17... civilian custody on bail or on your own recognizance, report immediately in person or by telephone to the...

Lost and Found, Letters and Methods: Assessing Attitudes toward Chiropractic and Medical Care

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hannah Kern

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Attitudes toward traditional and chiropractic medicine were compared using Milgram's lost letter technique. A total of 192 letters were placed on the windshields of vehicles in parking lots at six restaurants and department stores in each of four quadrants of a medium-sized, Southeastern city. These letters were addressed to "Admissions" at either a fictitious Institute of Medicine or Institute of Chiropractic Care. Return addresses included either a male or a female name. Thus, those who found a lost letter were faced with the option of returning or not returning a letter from either a male or a female, addressed to an Institute of traditional or non-traditional medicine. After examining previous studies which had used the lost letter technique, numerous methodological improvements were implemented. For example, letters were randomly assigned to potential drop spots for each of 24 study locations (six study locations in each of four city quadrants, and a Latin square design was used to control for possible order effects in the four study conditions that were implemented. Nearly 65% of the letters (124 of 192 were returned. We found: 1 letters addressed to a fictitious Institute of Chiropractic Care were just as likely to be returned as those addressed to a fictitious Institute of Medicine; 2 letters with female return addresses were as likely to be returned as those with male return addresses; 3 there was no interaction between study conditions; 4 based on what was essentially a replication study, a comparison of the pattern of returns using the first and second cycle of lost letters (n = 96 for each cycle revealed an equivalent pattern of no-difference findings. DOI: 10.2458/azu_jmmss.v1i1.78

Contemporary trends in the research of the Letter to Philemon

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bartosz Adamczewski

2005-03-01

Full Text Available In the period of last two or three decades interpretation of the Letter to Philemon has undergone significant changes. Exegetes applying the historical-critical method proposed recently several new ways of reconstructing the situation that occasioned Paul’s writing the letter. It has been suggested e.g. that Onesimus was no runaway, but probably an envoy from Colossae, or Philemon’s estranged brother, or a slave justifiably seeking intercession, or a roamer. Synchronic methods applied by many exegetes (structural, rhetorical, narrative and pragmatic criticism elucidate various kinds of influence of the letter upon the reader. More and more popular becomes also nowadays manifold liberationist approach. However, beyond applying these various hermeneutic procedures there is also, at least for believing exegetes, an important task of adequate explaining the significance of the Letter to Philemon as an inspired writing.

The A.I.D.A. Plan and the Writing of Sales Letters.

Science.gov (United States)

Jong, Rowena

A study based on textual analysis of sales letters is reported that evaluates the Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action (AIDA) approach to teaching the writing of sales letters. Thirty business letters written by undergraduate business students and executives were analyzed. The forms of cohesion, voice pattern, and information focus of the…

Sound Search Engine Concept

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2006-01-01

Sound search is provided by the major search engines, however, indexing is text based, not sound based. We will establish a dedicated sound search services with based on sound feature indexing. The current demo shows the concept of the sound search engine. The first engine will be realased June...

The sound manifesto

Science.gov (United States)

O'Donnell, Michael J.; Bisnovatyi, Ilia

2000-11-01

Computing practice today depends on visual output to drive almost all user interaction. Other senses, such as audition, may be totally neglected, or used tangentially, or used in highly restricted specialized ways. We have excellent audio rendering through D-A conversion, but we lack rich general facilities for modeling and manipulating sound comparable in quality and flexibility to graphics. We need coordinated research in several disciplines to improve the use of sound as an interactive information channel. Incremental and separate improvements in synthesis, analysis, speech processing, audiology, acoustics, music, etc. will not alone produce the radical progress that we seek in sonic practice. We also need to create a new central topic of study in digital audio research. The new topic will assimilate the contributions of different disciplines on a common foundation. The key central concept that we lack is sound as a general-purpose information channel. We must investigate the structure of this information channel, which is driven by the cooperative development of auditory perception and physical sound production. Particular audible encodings, such as speech and music, illuminate sonic information by example, but they are no more sufficient for a characterization than typography is sufficient for characterization of visual information. To develop this new conceptual topic of sonic information structure, we need to integrate insights from a number of different disciplines that deal with sound. In particular, we need to coordinate central and foundational studies of the representational models of sound with specific applications that illuminate the good and bad qualities of these models. Each natural or artificial process that generates informative sound, and each perceptual mechanism that derives information from sound, will teach us something about the right structure to attribute to the sound itself. The new Sound topic will combine the work of computer

Unsound Sound

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knakkergaard, Martin

2016-01-01

This article discusses the change in premise that digitally produced sound brings about and how digital technologies more generally have changed our relationship to the musical artifact, not simply in degree but in kind. It demonstrates how our acoustical conceptions are thoroughly challenged...... by the digital production of sound and, by questioning the ontological basis for digital sound, turns our understanding of the core term substance upside down....

22 CFR 201.71 - Terms of letters of credit.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... shall not be inconsistent with or contrary to the terms of the letter of commitment. Any such letter of credit or agreement may be modified or extended at any time in such a manner and to such extent as is acceptable to the approved applicant and the bank: Provided, That such modification or extension may not be...

Matching Automatic Gain Control Across Devices in Bimodal Cochlear Implant Users.

Science.gov (United States)

Veugen, Lidwien C E; Chalupper, Josef; Snik, Ad F M; Opstal, A John van; Mens, Lucas H M

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to improve bimodal benefit in listeners using a cochlear implant (CI) and a hearing aid (HA) in contralateral ears, by matching the time constants and the number of compression channels of the automatic gain control (AGC) of the HA to the CI. Equivalent AGC was hypothesized to support a balanced loudness for dynamically changing signals like speech and improve bimodal benefit for speech understanding in quiet and with noise presented from the side(s) at 90 degree. Fifteen subjects participated in the study, all using the same Advanced Bionics Harmony CI processor and HA (Phonak Naida S IX UP). In a 3-visit crossover design with 4 weeks between sessions, performance was measured using a HA with a standard AGC (syllabic multichannel compression with 1 ms attack time and 50 ms release time) or an AGC that was adjusted to match that of the CI processor (dual AGC broadband compression, 3 and 240 msec attack time, 80 and 1500 msec release time). In all devices, the AGC was activated above the threshold of 63 dB SPL. The authors balanced loudness across the devices for soft and loud input sounds in 3 frequency bands (0 to 548, 548 to 1000, and >1000 Hz). Speech understanding was tested in free field in quiet and in noise for three spatial speaker configurations, with target speech always presented from the front. Single-talker noise was either presented from the CI side or the HA side, or uncorrelated stationary speech-weighted noise or single-talker noise was presented from both sides. Questionnaires were administered to assess differences in perception between the two bimodal fittings. Significant bimodal benefit over the CI alone was only found for the AGC-matched HA for the speech tests with single-talker noise. Compared with the standard HA, matched AGC characteristics significantly improved speech understanding in single-talker noise by 1.9 dB when noise was presented from the HA side. AGC matching increased bimodal benefit

24 CFR 242.49 - Funds and finances: deposits and letters of credit.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... collection under the letter of credit. In the event a demand for payment thereunder is not immediately met... letters of credit. 242.49 Section 242.49 Housing and Urban Development Regulations Relating to Housing and...: deposits and letters of credit. (a) Deposits. Where HUD requires the mortgagor to make a deposit of cash or...

Sound Art and Spatial Practices: Situating Sound Installation Art Since 1958

OpenAIRE

Ouzounian, Gascia

2008-01-01

This dissertation examines the emergence and development ofsound installation art, an under-recognized tradition that hasdeveloped between music, architecture, and media art practicessince the late 1950s. Unlike many musical works, which are concernedwith organizing sounds in time, sound installations organize sounds inspace; they thus necessitate new theoretical and analytical modelsthat take into consideration the spatial situated-ness of sound. Existingdiscourses on “spatial sound” privile...

Scientific Letter: Stabbing nails into the neck: an unusual self ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Scientific Letter: Stabbing nails into the neck: an unusual self-damaging behavior mandating neurosurgery. A Aghabiklooei, R Aghabiklooei, N Zamani. Abstract. Scientific Letter - No Abstract Available. Full Text: EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT · DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT.

Involuntary attention with uncertainty: peripheral cues improve perception of masked letters, but may impair perception of low-contrast letters.

Science.gov (United States)

Kerzel, Dirk; Gauch, Angélique; Buetti, Simona

2010-10-01

Improvements of perceptual performance following the presentation of peripheral cues have been ascribed to accelerated accrual of information, enhanced contrast perception, and decision bias. We investigated effects of peripheral cues on the perception of Gabor and letter stimuli. Non-predictive, peripheral cues improved perceptual accuracy when the stimuli were masked. In contrast, peripheral cues degraded perception of low-contrast letters and did not affect the perception of low-contrast Gabors. The results suggest that involuntary attention accelerates accrual of information but are not entirely consistent with the idea that involuntary attention enhances subjective contrast. Rather, peripheral cues may cause crowding with single letter targets of low contrast. Further, we investigated the effect of the amount of uncertainty on involuntary attention. Cueing effects were (initially) larger when there were more possible target locations. In addition, cueing effects were larger when error feedback was absent and observers had no knowledge of results. Despite these strategic factors, location uncertainty was not sufficient to produce cueing effects, showing that location uncertainty paired with non-predictive cues reveals perceptual and not (only) decisional processes.

The Danish letters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Beier, Sofie; Ejlers, Steen

2011-01-01

The talk will focus on Danish type designers and their work on Æ (AE), Ø (Oslash) and Å (Aring). These 'anomalies' found in the Danish written language, often causes difficulties for type designers. The counters of Ø/ø sometimes appear overcrowded, the uppercase Æ can result in an uncomfortably o......' attempt to create the optimal variation of these letters, we will give a brief introduction to the Danish typography tradition ranging from the early 20th Century and up until today....

Letters to the Editor

Science.gov (United States)

1999-09-01

All the Letters to the Editor in this issue are in the same PostScript or PDF file. Contents The imaginary Sun? Harold Aspden Energy Science Ltd, PO Box 35, Southampton SO16 7RB, UK Difficult physics? Tim Akrill Chief Examiner, A-level Physics, Edexcel Foundation Was it a dream? Bill Jarvis 6 Peggy's Mill Road, Edinburgh EH4 6JY

Analysis of letter name knowledge using Rasch measurement.

Science.gov (United States)

Bowles, Ryan P; Skibbe, Lori E; Justice, Laura M

2011-01-01

Letter name knowledge (LNK) is a key predictor of later reading ability and has been emphasized strongly in recent educational policy. Studies of LNK have implicitly treated it as a unidimensional construct with all letters equally relevant to its measurement. However, some empirical research suggests that contextual factors can affect the measurement of LNK. In this study, we analyze responses from 909 children on measures of LNK using the Rasch model and its extensions, and consider two contextual factors: the format of assessment and the own-name advantage, which states that children are more likely to know letters in their own first names. Results indicate that both contextual factors have important impacts on measurement and that LNK does not meet the requirements of Rasch measurement even when accounting for the contextual factors. These findings introduce philosophical concerns for measurement of constrained skills which have limited content for assessment.

Sound a very short introduction

CERN Document Server

Goldsmith, Mike

2015-01-01

Sound is integral to how we experience the world, in the form of noise as well as music. But what is sound? What is the physical basis of pitch and harmony? And how are sound waves exploited in musical instruments? Sound: A Very Short Introduction looks at the science of sound and the behaviour of sound waves with their different frequencies. It also explores sound in different contexts, covering the audible and inaudible, sound underground and underwater, acoustic and electronic sound, and hearing in humans and animals. It concludes with the problem of sound out of place—noise and its reduction.

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 26, Number 4, July-August 2010

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2010-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Learning Progressions in Science: A New Approach Emphasizes Sustained Instruction in Big Ideas (Patti Hartigan); (2) Putting the "Boy Crisis" in…

29 CFR 1621.3 - Procedure for requesting an opinion letter.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 1621.3 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION PROCEDURES-THE EQUAL PAY ACT § 1621.3 Procedure for requesting an opinion letter. (a) A request for an opinion letter should be submitted in writing to the Chairman, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission...

Pirates at Parties: Letter Position Processing in Developing Readers

Science.gov (United States)

Kohnen, Saskia; Castles, Anne

2013-01-01

There has been much recent interest in letter position coding in adults, but little is known about the development of this process in children learning to read. Here, the letter position coding abilities of 127 children in Grades 2, 3, and 4 (aged 7-10 years) were examined by comparing their performance in reading aloud "migratable" words (e.g.,…

Referral letters to the emergency department: is the medication list accurate?

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

McCullagh, M

2015-02-01

Medication errors are common when patients transfer across healthcare boundaries. This study was designed to investigate the quality of information on medicines provided by general practitioners (GPs) on emergency department (ED) referral letters. A convenience sample of referral letters to the ED of a teaching hospital was reviewed. The medication list and\\/or patient\\'s drug allergy status were noted. Medicines reconciliation including patient (or carer) interview was conducted to determine the patient\\'s actual home medication list. This was compared with the GP list and any discrepancies were identified and addressed. A total of 92 referral letters were included in the analysis of which 60 were computer-generated and 32 were hand-written. GPs provided dose and frequency of administration information in 47 (51%) of the letters sampled i.e. 44 (71%) computer-generated versus 3 (10%) hand-written; p < 0.001. In addition, the patient was taking their medicines exactly as per the GP list in 20 (22%) of cases. The patient\\'s drug allergy status was documented in 13 (14%) of the letters.

A comparative performance study of sound zoning methods in a reflective environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olik, Marek; Francombe, Jon; Coleman, Philip

2013-01-01

Whilst sound zoning methods have typically been studied under anechoic conditions, it is desirable to evaluate the performance of various methods in a real room. Three control methods were implemented (delay and sum, DS; acoustic contrast control, ACC; and pressure matching, PM) on two regular 24...... monophonic auralisations from measured system responses to collect ratings of perceived distraction due to the alternate audio programme. Distraction ratings were a ected by control method and programme material....

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 23, Number 1, January-February 2007

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2007-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Response to Intervention: A New Approach to Reading Instruction Aims to Catch Struggling Readers Early (Nancy Walser); (2) Getting Advisory Right: Focus and…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 26, Number 2, March-April 2010

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2010-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Online Testing, Version 1.0: Oregon's Adaptive Computer-Based Accountability Test Offers a Peek at a Brave New Future (Robert Rothman); (2) Beyond…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 26, Number 5, September-October 2010

Science.gov (United States)

Walser, Nancy, Ed.

2010-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Scenes from the School Turnaround Movement: Passion, Frustration, Mid-Course Corrections Mark Rapid Reforms (Laura Pappano); (2) The Media Savvy Educator:…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 28, Number 2, March-April 2012

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2012-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Course Credits on the Quick: Controversial Online Recovery Programs Speed the Path to Graduation (Andrew Brownstein); (2) Collaborating to Make Schools More Inclusive…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 27, Number 4, July-August 2011

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2011-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Integrated Data Systems Link Schools and Communities: Researchers Combine School and Non-School Data to Inform Interventions and Policy (Patti Hartigan);…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 25, Number 3, May-June 2009

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2009-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Improving Teaching and Learning through Instructional Rounds (Lee Teitel); (2) Developmentally Appropriate Practice in the Age of Testing: New Reports Outline Key Principles…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 25, Number 6, November-December 2009

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2009-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) "Platooning" Instruction: Districts Weigh Pros and Cons of Departmentalizing Elementary Schools (Lucy Hood); (2) Behind the Classroom Door: A Rare Glimpse Indicates the…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 24, Number 4, July-August 2008

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2008-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Taking the Measure of New Teachers: California Shifts from Standardized Tests to Performance-Based Assessment as a Condition of Licensure (Robert Rothman);…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 27, Number 1, January-February 2011

Science.gov (United States)

Walser, Caroline T., Ed.

2011-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) The Greening of Environmental Ed: Teachers Focus on Complexity, Evidence, and Letting Students Draw Their Own Conclusions (Lucy Hood); (2) Like Teacher,…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 27, Number 3, May-June 2011

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2011-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Bringing Art into School, Byte by Byte: Innovative Programs Use Technology to Expand Access to the Arts (Patti Hartigan); (2) Differentiated Instruction…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 25, Number 4, July-August 2009

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2009-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Putting the Brakes on "Summer Slide": Modified School Calendars Build in Time to Enrich Learning and Sustain Gains (Brigid Schulte); (2) Closing…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 25, Number 1, January-February 2009

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2009-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Learning Across Distance: Virtual-Instruction Programs Are Growing Rapidly, but the Impact on "Brick-and-Mortar" Classrooms Is Still up in the Air…

Different letter-processing strategies in diagnostic subgroups of developmental dyslexia.

Science.gov (United States)

Lachmann, Thomas; van Leeuwen, Cees

2008-07-01

Normally reading adults (N = 15) and primary school children (N = 24) and two diagnostic subgroups of children with developmental dyslexia (N = 21)-all native German speakers-performed a successive same-different task with pairs of letters and nonletters (pseudoletters or geometrical shapes). The first item of a pair was always presented on its own, and the second either on its own or surrounded by a congruent or incongruent nontarget shape. Adults showed congruence effects with nonletters but not with letters, and children with both types of stimuli. Frequent-word reading-impaired dyslexics (N = 11) in addition showed dramatically slower overall reaction times. Nonword reading-impaired dyslexics (N = 10) showed congruence effects with nonletters but negative congruence effects with letters. The results support the notion that normal readers have established a special visual processing strategy for letters. Processing speed rather than reading expertise seems crucial for this strategy to emerge. The contrasting effects between subgroups of dyslexics reveal specific underlying deficits.

How to write effective business letters: scribing information for pharmacists.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamilton, C W

1993-11-01

Pharmacists frequently write letters but lack specific training on how to do it well. This review summarizes strategies for improving business correspondence, emphasizes basic writing guidelines, and offers practical advice for pharmacists. The first steps for effective communication are careful planning and identifying the main message to be conveyed. The purpose for writing should be stated in the opening paragraph of the letter. To ensure a successful outcome, actions needed should be clearly summarized and visually highlighted. The tone of the letter should reflect a reasonable speech pattern, not the cryptic writing found in many scientific papers. The layout of the letter should be inviting, which is readily achievable through judicious use of word processing. Many delivery options are available, such as traditional postal services, express mail, and facsimile transmission. Readers are encouraged to test these basic writing principles and decide for themselves whether these recommendations affect the success of business correspondence.

John von Neumann selected letters

CERN Document Server

2005-01-01

John von Neuman was perhaps the most influential mathematician of the twentieth century, especially if his broad influence outside mathematics is included. Not only did he contribute to almost all branches of mathematics and created new fields, but he also changed post-World War II history with his work on the design of computers and with being a sought-after technical advisor to many figures in the U.S. military-political establishment in the 1940s and 1950s. The present volume is the first substantial collection of (previously mainly unpublished) letters written by von Neumann to colleagues, friends, government officials, and others. The letters give us a glimpse of the thinking of John von Neumann about mathematics, physics, computer science, science management, education, consulting, politics, and war. Readers of quite diverse backgrounds will find much of interest in this fascinating first-hand look at one of the towering figures of twentieth century science.

What is Sound?

OpenAIRE

Nelson, Peter

2014-01-01

What is sound? This question is posed in contradiction to the every-day understanding that sound is a phenomenon apart from us, to be heard, made, shaped and organised. Thinking through the history of computer music, and considering the current configuration of digital communi-cations, sound is reconfigured as a type of network. This network is envisaged as non-hierarchical, in keeping with currents of thought that refuse to prioritise the human in the world. The relationship of sound to musi...

Broadcast sound technology

CERN Document Server

Talbot-Smith, Michael

1990-01-01

Broadcast Sound Technology provides an explanation of the underlying principles of modern audio technology. Organized into 21 chapters, the book first describes the basic sound; behavior of sound waves; aspects of hearing, harming, and charming the ear; room acoustics; reverberation; microphones; phantom power; loudspeakers; basic stereo; and monitoring of audio signal. Subsequent chapters explore the processing of audio signal, sockets, sound desks, and digital audio. Analogue and digital tape recording and reproduction, as well as noise reduction, are also explained.

Propagation of sound

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wahlberg, Magnus; Larsen, Ole Næsbye

2017-01-01

properties can be modified by sound absorption, refraction, and interference from multi paths caused by reflections.The path from the source to the receiver may be bent due to refraction. Besides geometrical attenuation, the ground effect and turbulence are the most important mechanisms to influence...... communication sounds for airborne acoustics and bottom and surface effects for underwater sounds. Refraction becomes very important close to shadow zones. For echolocation signals, geometric attenuation and sound absorption have the largest effects on the signals....

Making fictions sound real

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Langkjær, Birger

2010-01-01

This article examines the role that sound plays in making fictions perceptually real to film audiences, whether these fictions are realist or non-realist in content and narrative form. I will argue that some aspects of film sound practices and the kind of experiences they trigger are related...... to basic rules of human perception, whereas others are more properly explained in relation to how aesthetic devices, including sound, are used to characterise the fiction and thereby make it perceptually real to its audience. Finally, I will argue that not all genres can be defined by a simple taxonomy...... of sounds. Apart from an account of the kinds of sounds that typically appear in a specific genre, a genre analysis of sound may also benefit from a functionalist approach that focuses on how sounds can make both realist and non-realist aspects of genres sound real to audiences....

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 22, Number 6, November-December 2006

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2006-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) (In)formative Assessments: New Tests and Activities Can Help Teachers Guide Student Learning (Robert Rothman); (2) Recent Research on the Achievement Gap: How Lifestyle…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 25, Number 5, September-October 2009

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2009-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) The Invisible Hand in Education Policy: Behind the Scenes, Economists Wield Unprecedented Influence (David McKay Wilson); (2) Bonding and Bridging: Schools Open Doors for…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 26, Number 1, January-February 2010

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2010-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Charters and Unions: What's the Future for This Unorthodox Relationship? (Alexander Russo); (2) From Special Ed to Higher Ed: Transition Planning for Disabled Students Focuses…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 24, Number 3, May-June 2008

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2008-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) "Equity, Access, and Opportunity": Despite Challenges, More Districts Adopt One-to-One Laptop Programs (Colleen Gillard); (2) Small Kids, Big Words: Research-Based Strategies…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 26, Number 6, November-December 2010

Science.gov (United States)

Walser, Nancy, Ed.

2010-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Video Games Take Testing to the Next Level: Researchers See Promise in Game-Like Assessments That Measure Complex Skills (Robert Rothman); (2) An Academic…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 28, Number 1, January-February 2012

Science.gov (United States)

Walser, Nancy, Ed.

2012-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Using Theater to Teach Social Skills: Researchers Document Improvements for Children with Autism (Patti Hartigan); (2) The Family Model of Schooling Revisited: Few Teachers,…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 23, Number 5, September-October 2007

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2007-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Confronting the Autism Epidemic: New Expectations for Children with Autism Means a New Role for Public Schools (Kate McKenna); (2) Internet Research 101:…

Intertextuality in Ba's So Long a Letter and Umunnakwe's Dear ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Intertextuality takes for granted the interdependence of literary texts because every artistic creation is a re-echoing of past knowledge. Mariama Ba's So Long A Letter and Ndubisi Umunnakwe's Dear Ramatoulaye are African examples. This work examines how Ba's So Long A Letter intertextualises with Umunnakwe's Dear ...

24 CFR 200.63 - Required deposits and letters of credit.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... Commissioner for collection under the letter of credit. In the event a demand for payment thereunder is not... credit. 200.63 Section 200.63 Housing and Urban Development Regulations Relating to Housing and Urban... Required deposits and letters of credit. (a) Deposits. Where the Commissioner requires the mortgagor to...

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 21, Number 6, November-December 2005

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2005-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Is History... History?: Standards, Accountability, and the Future of Our Nation's Past (Robert Rothman); (2) Curriculum Access for All: How Teachers Can Use Universal Design…

Malamih al-Ashwat al-'Arabiyyah wa Makharijaha

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amrah Muhammad Kasim

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This writing discusses on al-ashwat al-‘arabiyyah that is known with “phonetic” term. It talks and interprets makharij al-huruf or place for producing sounds and also processing production of sounds by parts of mouth in Arabic language. The problems of sounds and its systems in Arabic language have been conducted by the scholars of al-ashwat al-‘arabiyyah attractively, neatly, and detail and gotten ahead the phonetic western scholars. Part of their analysis results formulate the study about al-ashwat al-sakinah (al-Shamit is known with vocal and consonant sounds in research questions shawait – shawamit. Ibnu Jinni has formulated “harakat”(wowel in Arabic language and dimension of letter  mad and liyn on alif  letter - waw - ya’ (ا و ي, from these letters create  harakat fathah, dammah, and kasrah. Moreover, in this writing also exist the description of hija’i letters and its makhraj that are correct from parts of mouth and the unity of coordinative sounds that produce sounds in morphemes arrangement, in one word that produces meaning. The result of phonological study has divided al-ashwat to be kinds of sound like the pronounced sounds, produced sounds from mouth, and heard sound.

Electronic Discharge Letter Mobile App

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lezcano, Leonardo; Triana, Michel; Ternier, Stefaan; Hartkopf, Kathleen; Stieger, Lina; Schroeder, Hanna; Sopka, Sasa; Drachsler, Hendrik; Maher, Bridget; Henn, Patrick; Orrego, Carola; Specht, Marcus

2014-01-01

The electronic discharge letter mobile app takes advantage of Near Field Communication (NFC) within the PATIENT project and a related post-doc study. NFC enabled phones to read passive RFID tags, but can also use this short-range wireless technology to exchange (small) messages. NFC in that sense

Sound sensitivity of neurons in rat hippocampus during performance of a sound-guided task

Science.gov (United States)

Vinnik, Ekaterina; Honey, Christian; Schnupp, Jan; Diamond, Mathew E.

2012-01-01

To investigate how hippocampal neurons encode sound stimuli, and the conjunction of sound stimuli with the animal's position in space, we recorded from neurons in the CA1 region of hippocampus in rats while they performed a sound discrimination task. Four different sounds were used, two associated with water reward on the right side of the animal and the other two with water reward on the left side. This allowed us to separate neuronal activity related to sound identity from activity related to response direction. To test the effect of spatial context on sound coding, we trained rats to carry out the task on two identical testing platforms at different locations in the same room. Twenty-one percent of the recorded neurons exhibited sensitivity to sound identity, as quantified by the difference in firing rate for the two sounds associated with the same response direction. Sensitivity to sound identity was often observed on only one of the two testing platforms, indicating an effect of spatial context on sensory responses. Forty-three percent of the neurons were sensitive to response direction, and the probability that any one neuron was sensitive to response direction was statistically independent from its sensitivity to sound identity. There was no significant coding for sound identity when the rats heard the same sounds outside the behavioral task. These results suggest that CA1 neurons encode sound stimuli, but only when those sounds are associated with actions. PMID:22219030

Traditions of martyrdom in the Ignatian Letters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Fuhrmann

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The letters of Ignatius represent one of the key texts for the emergence of martyrdom during the second century AD in Christianity. This article is concerned with the question whether Ignatius contributed to a “theology of martyrdom” or whether he rather relied on previous traditions. The author argues, by undertaking an analysis of certain pragmatics and semantics, that the motif of martyrdom is solely used to buttress Ignatius’ claim for authority among his intended addressees by referring to an understanding of martyrdom that has its roots in the New Testament. An identification of the author of the letters with a historical martyr is regarded as unlikely.

Hearing with an atympanic ear: good vibration and poor sound-pressure detection in the royal python, Python regius.

Science.gov (United States)

Christensen, Christian Bech; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jakob; Brandt, Christian; Madsen, Peter Teglberg

2012-01-15

Snakes lack both an outer ear and a tympanic middle ear, which in most tetrapods provide impedance matching between the air and inner ear fluids and hence improve pressure hearing in air. Snakes would therefore be expected to have very poor pressure hearing and generally be insensitive to airborne sound, whereas the connection of the middle ear bone to the jaw bones in snakes should confer acute sensitivity to substrate vibrations. Some studies have nevertheless claimed that snakes are quite sensitive to both vibration and sound pressure. Here we test the two hypotheses that: (1) snakes are sensitive to sound pressure and (2) snakes are sensitive to vibrations, but cannot hear the sound pressure per se. Vibration and sound-pressure sensitivities were quantified by measuring brainstem evoked potentials in 11 royal pythons, Python regius. Vibrograms and audiograms showed greatest sensitivity at low frequencies of 80-160 Hz, with sensitivities of -54 dB re. 1 m s(-2) and 78 dB re. 20 μPa, respectively. To investigate whether pythons detect sound pressure or sound-induced head vibrations, we measured the sound-induced head vibrations in three dimensions when snakes were exposed to sound pressure at threshold levels. In general, head vibrations induced by threshold-level sound pressure were equal to or greater than those induced by threshold-level vibrations, and therefore sound-pressure sensitivity can be explained by sound-induced head vibration. From this we conclude that pythons, and possibly all snakes, lost effective pressure hearing with the complete reduction of a functional outer and middle ear, but have an acute vibration sensitivity that may be used for communication and detection of predators and prey.

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 27, Number 2, March-April 2011

Science.gov (United States)

Walser, Nancy, Ed.

2011-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Hybrid Schools for the iGeneration: New Schools Combine "Bricks" and "Clicks" (Brigid Schulte); (2) Dual Language Programs on the Rise: "Enrichment" Model Puts Content Learning…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 26, Number 3, May-June 2010

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2010-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Unleashing the "Brain Power" of Groups in the Classroom: The Neuroscience behind Collaborative Work (Nancy Walser); (2) Putting AP to the Test: New Research Assesses the…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 25, Number 2, March-April 2009

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2009-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Money and Motivation: New Initiatives Rekindle Debate over the Link between Rewards and Student Achievement (David McKay Wilson); (2) An Inexact Science: What Are the Technical…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 24, Number 6, November-December 2008

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2008-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) When Worlds Collide: Universal PreK Brings New Challenges for Public Elementary Schools (David McKay Wilson); (2) Answers and Questions: Schools Survey Their Students--and…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 23, Number 6, November-December 2007

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2007-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Charting a New Course toward Racial Integration: Districts Seek Legal Routes to Capture the Benefits of Diversity (Brigid Schulte); (2) Voluntary Integration: Two Views--(a)…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 27, Number 6, November-December 2011

Science.gov (United States)

Walser, Nancy, Ed.

2011-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) With Cheating on the Rise, Schools Respond (David McKay Wilson); (2) Waldorf Education in Public Schools: Educators Adopt--and Adapt--This Developmental, Arts-Rich Approach…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 24, Number 2, March-April 2008

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2008-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Educating Teenage Immigrants: High Schools Experiment with Ways to Group New English-Language Learners (Lucy Hood); (2) Hot Topics and Key Words: Pilot Project Brings Teachers…

Why Doctors Do Not Answer Referral Letters | Smith | South African ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Healthcare workers at primary healthcare (PHC) clinics are frustrated by the fact that they do not receive replies to their referral letters to doctors. Referral letters act as permission slips to allow patients easy access to treatment by specialists at secondary and tertiary service levels and communicate reasons for ...

21 CFR 170.6 - Opinion letters on food additive status.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2010-04-01 2009-04-01 true Opinion letters on food additive status. 170.6... (CONTINUED) FOOD FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION (CONTINUED) FOOD ADDITIVES General Provisions § 170.6 Opinion letters on food additive status. (a) Over the years the Food and Drug Administration has given informal...

Teaching Braille Letters, Numerals, Punctuation, and Contractions to Sighted Individuals

Science.gov (United States)

Putnam, Brittany C.; Tiger, Jeffrey H.

2015-01-01

Braille-character recognition is one of the foundational skills required for teachers of braille. Prior research has evaluated computer programming for teaching braille-to-print letter relations (e.g., Scheithauer & Tiger, 2012). In the current study, we developed a program (the Visual Braille Trainer) to teach not only letters but also…

Trends in the Employment Process: Resumes and Job Application Letters.

Science.gov (United States)

Spinks, Neld; Wells, Barron

1999-01-01

Surveys of Fortune 500 companies in 1978, 1985, and 1995 revealed trends and preferences in content of resumes and cover letters. Compared to earlier years, current preferences were for both letters and resumes in the initial contact, more emphasis on grammar and spelling, and acceptance of two-page resumes. (SK)

Reach Out and Write Someone.

Science.gov (United States)

Arnold, Vanessa D.; Roach, Terry D.

1993-01-01

Writing letters to elected officials and letters to the editor helps students articulate their thoughts based on sound evidence and valid reasoning, avoiding "sounding off" and emotional appeals. Writing skills, critical thinking, and civic values are reinforced. (SK)

33 CFR 167.1702 - In Prince William Sound: Prince William Sound Traffic Separation Scheme.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false In Prince William Sound: Prince William Sound Traffic Separation Scheme. 167.1702 Section 167.1702 Navigation and Navigable Waters COAST....1702 In Prince William Sound: Prince William Sound Traffic Separation Scheme. The Prince William Sound...

Sounds Exaggerate Visual Shape

Science.gov (United States)

Sweeny, Timothy D.; Guzman-Martinez, Emmanuel; Ortega, Laura; Grabowecky, Marcia; Suzuki, Satoru

2012-01-01

While perceiving speech, people see mouth shapes that are systematically associated with sounds. In particular, a vertically stretched mouth produces a /woo/ sound, whereas a horizontally stretched mouth produces a /wee/ sound. We demonstrate that hearing these speech sounds alters how we see aspect ratio, a basic visual feature that contributes…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 24, Number 1, January-February 2008

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2008-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Leadership Lessons From Schools Becoming "Data Wise" (Jennifer L. Steele and Kathryn Parker Boudett); (2) A Guide on the Side: Mentors Help New Leaders Prepare for Life in the…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 27, Number 5, September-October 2011

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2011-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions: One Small Change Can Yield Big Results (Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana); (2) Voice of Experience: Jerry Weast--Leading a System…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 23, Number 2, March-April 2007

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2007-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) More Than "Making Nice": Getting Teachers to (Truly) Collaborate (Laura Pappano); (2) "Doing the Critical Things First": An Aligned Approach to PreK and Early Elementary Math;…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 24, Number 5, September-October 2008

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2008-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Teaching 21st Century Skills: What Does It Look Like in Practice? (Nancy Walser); (2) Getting and Spending: Schools and Districts Share Lessons on the Effective Uses of…

21 CFR 570.6 - Opinion letters on food additive status.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 6 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Opinion letters on food additive status. 570.6... (CONTINUED) ANIMAL DRUGS, FEEDS, AND RELATED PRODUCTS FOOD ADDITIVES General Provisions § 570.6 Opinion letters on food additive status. (a) Over the years the Food and Drug Administration has given informal...

Mud, Blood, and Bullet Holes: Teaching History with War Letters

Science.gov (United States)

Carroll, Andrew

2013-01-01

From handwritten letters of the American Revolution to typed emails from Iraq and Afghanistan, correspondence from U.S. troops offers students deep insight into the specific conflicts and experiences of soldiers. Over 100,000 correspondences have been donated to the Legacy Project, a national initiative launched in 1998 to preserve war letters by…

Sound Zones

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Møller, Martin Bo; Olsen, Martin

2017-01-01

Sound zones, i.e. spatially confined regions of individual audio content, can be created by appropriate filtering of the desired audio signals reproduced by an array of loudspeakers. The challenge of designing filters for sound zones is twofold: First, the filtered responses should generate...... an acoustic separation between the control regions. Secondly, the pre- and post-ringing as well as spectral deterioration introduced by the filters should be minimized. The tradeoff between acoustic separation and filter ringing is the focus of this paper. A weighted L2-norm penalty is introduced in the sound...

The match-to-match variation of match-running in elite female soccer.

Science.gov (United States)

Trewin, Joshua; Meylan, César; Varley, Matthew C; Cronin, John

2018-02-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the match-to-match variation of match-running in elite female soccer players utilising GPS, using full-match and rolling period analyses. Longitudinal study. Elite female soccer players (n=45) from the same national team were observed during 55 international fixtures across 5 years (2012-2016). Data was analysed using a custom built MS Excel spreadsheet as full-matches and using a rolling 5-min analysis period, for all players who played 90-min matches (files=172). Variation was examined using co-efficient of variation and 90% confidence limits, calculated following log transformation. Total distance per minute exhibited the smallest variation when both the full-match and peak 5-min running periods were examined (CV=6.8-7.2%). Sprint-efforts were the most variable during a full-match (CV=53%), whilst high-speed running per minute exhibited the greatest variation in the post-peak 5-min period (CV=143%). Peak running periods were observed as slightly more variable than full-match analyses, with the post-peak period very-highly variable. Variability of accelerations (CV=17%) and Player Load (CV=14%) was lower than that of high-speed actions. Positional differences were also present, with centre backs exhibiting the greatest variation in high-speed movements (CV=41-65%). Practitioners and researchers should account for within player variability when examining match performances. Identification of peak running periods should be used to assist worst case scenarios. Whilst micro-sensor technology should be further examined as to its viable use within match-analyses. Copyright © 2017 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Can road traffic mask sound from wind turbines? Response to wind turbine sound at different levels of road traffic sound

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pedersen, Eja; Berg, Frits van den; Bakker, Roel; Bouma, Jelte

2010-01-01

Wind turbines are favoured in the switch-over to renewable energy. Suitable sites for further developments could be difficult to find as the sound emitted from the rotor blades calls for a sufficient distance to residents to avoid negative effects. The aim of this study was to explore if road traffic sound could mask wind turbine sound or, in contrast, increases annoyance due to wind turbine noise. Annoyance of road traffic and wind turbine noise was measured in the WINDFARMperception survey in the Netherlands in 2007 (n=725) and related to calculated levels of sound. The presence of road traffic sound did not in general decrease annoyance with wind turbine noise, except when levels of wind turbine sound were moderate (35-40 dB(A) Lden) and road traffic sound level exceeded that level with at least 20 dB(A). Annoyance with both noises was intercorrelated but this correlation was probably due to the influence of individual factors. Furthermore, visibility and attitude towards wind turbines were significantly related to noise annoyance of modern wind turbines. The results can be used for the selection of suitable sites, possibly favouring already noise exposed areas if wind turbine sound levels are sufficiently low.

46 CFR 308.522 - Collateral deposit fund, letter of transmittal, Form MA-302.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 8 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Collateral deposit fund, letter of transmittal, Form MA... Collateral deposit fund, letter of transmittal, Form MA-302. The standard form of letter of transmittal for use in establishing a collateral deposit fund, may be obtained from the American War Risk Agency or...

Resource Letter MP-3: The Manhattan Project and Related Nuclear Research

Science.gov (United States)

Reed, B. Cameron

2016-10-01

This Resource Letter is a supplement to the earlier Resource Letters MP-1 and MP-2, and provides further sources on the Manhattan Project and related research. Books, review papers, journal articles, videos, and websites are cited for the following topics: general works, technical works, biographical and autobiographical works, foreign wartime nuclear programs and related allied intelligence, the use of the bombs against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, technical papers of historical interest, postwar policy and technical developments, and educational materials. Together, these three Resource Letters describe nearly 400 sources of information on the Manhattan Project.

Dear Hacker Letters to the Editor of 2600

CERN Document Server

Goldstein, Emmanuel

2010-01-01

Actual letters written to the leading hackers' magazine. For 25 years, 2600: The Hacker Quarterly has given voice to the hacker community in all its manifestations. This collection of letters to the magazine reveals the thoughts and viewpoints of hackers, both white and black hat, as well as hacker wannabes, technophiles, and people concerned about computer security. Insightful and entertaining, the exchanges illustrate 2600 's vast readership, from teenage rebels, anarchists, and survivalists to law enforcement, consumer advocates, and worried parents.: 2600: The Hacker Quarterly has been the

Structure-borne sound structural vibrations and sound radiation at audio frequencies

CERN Document Server

Cremer, L; Petersson, Björn AT

2005-01-01

Structure-Borne Sound"" is a thorough introduction to structural vibrations with emphasis on audio frequencies and the associated radiation of sound. The book presents in-depth discussions of fundamental principles and basic problems, in order to enable the reader to understand and solve his own problems. It includes chapters dealing with measurement and generation of vibrations and sound, various types of structural wave motion, structural damping and its effects, impedances and vibration responses of the important types of structures, as well as with attenuation of vibrations, and sound radi

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 23, Number 3, May-June 2007

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2007-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) The Road to School Improvement: It's Hard, It's Bumpy, and It Takes as Long as It Takes (Richard F. Elmore and Elizabeth A. City); (2) Better Teaching with Web Tools: How…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 23, Number 4, July-August 2007

Science.gov (United States)

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2007-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Meeting of the Minds: The Parent-Teacher Conference Is the Cornerstone of School-Home Relations. How Can It Work for All Families? (Laura Pappano); (2) In Search of That "Third…

InfoSound

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sonnenwald, Diane H.; Gopinath, B.; Haberman, Gary O.

1990-01-01

The authors explore ways to enhance users' comprehension of complex applications using music and sound effects to present application-program events that are difficult to detect visually. A prototype system, Infosound, allows developers to create and store musical sequences and sound effects with...

Composing chaotic music from the letter m

Science.gov (United States)

Sotiropoulos, Anastasios D.

Chaotic music is composed from a proposed iterative map depicting the letter m, relating the pitch, duration and loudness of successive steps. Each of the two curves of the letter m is based on the classical logistic map. Thus, the generating map is xn+1 = r xn(1/2 - xn) for xn between 0 and 1/2 defining the first curve, and xn+1 = r (xn - 1/2)(1 - xn) for xn between 1/2 and 1 representing the second curve. The parameter r which determines the height(s) of the letter m varies from 2 to 16, the latter value ensuring fully developed chaotic solutions for the whole letter m; r = 8 yielding full chaotic solutions only for its first curve. The m-model yields fixed points, bifurcation points and chaotic regions for each separate curve, as well as values of the parameter r greater than 8 which produce inter-fixed points, inter-bifurcation points and inter-chaotic regions from the interplay of the two curves. Based on this, music is composed from mapping the m- recurrence model solutions onto actual notes. The resulting musical score strongly depends on the sequence of notes chosen by the composer to define the musical range corresponding to the range of the chaotic mathematical solutions x from 0 to 1. Here, two musical ranges are used; one is the middle chromatic scale and the other is the seven- octaves range. At the composer's will and, for aesthetics, within the same composition, notes can be the outcome of different values of r and/or shifted in any octave. Compositions with endings of non-repeating note patterns result from values of r in the m-model that do not produce bifurcations. Scores of chaotic music composed from the m-model and the classical logistic model are presented.

Verse Letter from Gregory of Nazianzus to Vitalianus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erika Brodňanská

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The article offers a complex view of the poetic letter of Gregory of Nazianzus II, II, 3 Ad Vitalianum, which has not yet been the subject of modern criticism. The letter is a plea by Vitalianus’ banished sons for their father to take them back. Based on the manuscript tradition, the article’s author concludes that the fictional author of the letter is the son Phocas rather than Peter. The disrupted relationship between father and sons is reflected in both the content of the poem and the forms of salutations used: the seemingly positive epithets φέριστε, μακάρτατε, and φίλε; forms of address which directly express a certain distance and coldness (μέγα φέρτατε, ὦ ἄνα, or even animosity towards the father (ὀλοώτατε δαῖμον, ὦ κακόβουλε. The poetic letter has a concentric structure (A; B; C; D; E; F; G; F´; E´; D´; C´; B´; A´, with individual com­ponents linked for the most part thematically. The letter is written in dactylic hexameter. The most frequently used metre in the verses is the holodactyl, and the most frequent caesura is the caesura post tertium trochaeum. As far as the breach of Hermann’s bridge in verses is concerned, and based on the understanding of the term ‘word’ in metrics, the author of the article concludes that in the majority of cases the breach is only ‘visual’, and cannot be detected when listened to. Gregory did not avoid three true hiatuses; and in two verses, in order to keep the rhythm of dactylic hexameter, it is essential to measure a long syllable as a short one. However, metric errors may be related to prosodic licence.

The Sound of Science

Science.gov (United States)

Merwade, Venkatesh; Eichinger, David; Harriger, Bradley; Doherty, Erin; Habben, Ryan

2014-01-01

While the science of sound can be taught by explaining the concept of sound waves and vibrations, the authors of this article focused their efforts on creating a more engaging way to teach the science of sound--through engineering design. In this article they share the experience of teaching sound to third graders through an engineering challenge…

Open letter to Mr Christian Bataille, Deputy of Nord region, France. Open letter on nuclear energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Delacroix P

2007-02-01

The author, by means of a letter to the deputy Christian Bataille, presents arguments to the shutdown of old nuclear power plants. He points out the environmental and economical arguments in favor of a decrease of the nuclear power use in France. (A.L.B.)

50 CFR 216.219 - Renewal and modifications of Letters of Authorization.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE MARINE MAMMALS REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE TAKING AND IMPORTING OF MARINE MAMMALS Taking of Marine Mammals Incidental to Explosive Severance.... Gulf of Mexico § 216.219 Renewal and modifications of Letters of Authorization. (a) A Letter of...

The Reduction of Vertical Interchannel Crosstalk: The Analysis of Localisation Thresholds for Natural Sound Sources

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rory Wallis

2017-03-01

Full Text Available In subjective listening tests, natural sound sources were presented to subjects as vertically-oriented phantom images from two layers of loudspeakers, ‘height’ and ‘main’. Subjects were required to reduce the amplitude of the height layer until the position of the resultant sound source matched that of the same source presented from the main layer only (the localisation threshold. Delays of 0, 1 and 10 ms were applied to the height layer with respect to the main, with vertical stereophonic and quadraphonic conditions being tested. The results of the study showed that the localisation thresholds obtained were not significantly affected by sound source or presentation method. Instead, the only variable whose effect was significant was interchannel time difference (ICTD. For ICTD of 0 ms, the median threshold was −9.5 dB, which was significantly lower than the −7 dB found for both 1 and 10 ms. The results of the study have implications both for the recording of sound sources for three-dimensional (3D audio reproduction formats and also for the rendering of 3D images.

Experimental analysis of considering the sound pressure distribution pattern at the ear canal entrance as an unrevealed head-related localization clue

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

TONG Xin; QI Na; MENG Zihou

2018-01-01

By analyzing the differences between binaural recording and real listening,it was deduced that there were some unrevealed auditory localization clues,and the sound pressure distribution pattern at the entrance of ear canal was probably a clue.It was proved through the listening test that the unrevealed auditory localization clues really exist with the reduction to absurdity.And the effective frequency bands of the unrevealed localization clues were induced and summed.The result of finite element based simulations showed that the pressure distribution at the entrance of ear canal was non-uniform,and the pattern was related to the direction of sound source.And it was proved that the sound pressure distribution pattern at the entrance of the ear canal carried the sound source direction information and could be used as an unrevealed localization cluc.The frequency bands in which the sound pressure distribution patterns had significant differences between front and back sound source directions were roughly matched with the effective frequency bands of unrevealed localization clues obtained from the listening tests.To some extent,it supports the hypothesis that the sound pressure distribution pattern could be a kind of unrevealed auditory localization clues.

Letter: Meyerhofer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mackinnon, A.J.

2011-01-01

This letter confirms that the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) was an important part of the FY10 NIF Polar Drive Exploding Pusher experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF). These experiments were designed by LLE to produce requested neutron yields to calibrate and qualify nuclear diagnostics. LLE built a deuterium-tritium filling system for the glass shells and provided them to LLNL for mounting. In FY10, four exploding pusher implosions were performed with measured neutron yields within a factor of two of requested and ion temperatures within 20% of requested. These implosions are proving to be an ideal platform for commissioning the nuclear diagnostic suite on the NIF and are achieving all of the objectives planned for this campaign.

SiD Letter of Intent

CERN Document Server

Aihara, H.; Oreglia, M.; Berger, E.L.; Guarino, V.; Repond, J.; Weerts, H.; Xia, L.; Zhang, J.; Zhang, Q.; Srivastava, A.; Butler, J.M.; Goldstein, Joel; Velthuis, J.; Radeka, V.; Zhu, R.-Y.; Lutz, P.; de Roeck, A.; Elsener, K.; Gaddi, A.; Gerwig, H.; Grefe, C.; Klempt, W.; Linssen, L.; Schlatter, D.; Speckmayer, P.; Thom, J.; Yang, J.; Christian, D.C.; Cihangir, S.; Cooper, W.E.; Demarteau, M.; Fisk, H.E.; Garren, L.A.; Krempetz, K.; Kutschke, R.K.; Lipton, R.; Para, A.; Tschirhart, R.; Wenzel, H.; Yarema, R.; Grunewald, M.; Pankov, A.; U., Gomel State Tech.; Dutta, T.; Dauncey, P.D.; Balbuena, J.P.; Fleta, C.; Lozano, M.; Ullan, M.; Christian, G.B.; Faus-Golfe, A.; Fuster, J.; Lacasta, C.; Marinnas, C.; Vos, M.; Duarte, J.; Fernandez, M.; Gonzalez, J.; Jaramillo, R.; Lopez, Virto A.; Martinez-Eivero, C.; Moya, D.; Ruiz-Mimeno, A.; Vila, I.; Colledani, C.; Dorokhov, A.; Hu-Guo, C.; Winter, M.; Moortgat-Pick, G.; Onoprienko, D.V.; Kim, G.N.; Park, H.; Adloff, C.; Blaha, J.; Blaising, J.-J.; Cap, S.; Chefdeville, M.; Drancourt, C.; Espargiliare, A.; Gaglione, R.; Geffroy, N.; Jacquemier, J.; Karyotakis, Y.; Prast, J.; Vouters, G.; Gronberg, J.; Walston, S.; Wright, D.; Sawyer, L.; Laloum, M.; Ciobanu, C.; Chauveau, J.; Savoy-Navarro, A.; Andricek, L.; Moser, H.-G.; Cowan, R.f.; Fisher, P.; Yamamoto, R.K.; Kenney, ClMl; Boos, E.E.; Merkin, M.; Chen, S.; Chakraborty, D.; Dyshkant, A.; Hedin, D.; Zutshi, V.; Galkin, V.; D'Ascenzo, N.; Ossetski, D.; Saveliev, V.; Kapusta, F.; De Masi, R.; Vrba, V.; Lu, C.; McDonald, K.T.; Smith, A.J.S.; Bortoletto, D.; Coath, R.; Crooks, J.; Damerell, C.; Gibson, M.; Nichols, A.; Stanitzki, M.; Strube, J.; Turchetta, R.; Tyndel, M.; Weber, M.; Worm, S.; Zhang, Z.; Barklow, T.L.; Belymam, A.; Breidenbach, M.; Cassell, R.; Craddock, W.; Deaconu, C.; Dragone, A.; Graf, N.A.; Haller, G.; Herbst, R.; Hewett, J.L.; Jaros, J.A.; Johnson, A.S.; Kim, P.C.; MacFarlane, D.B.; Markiewicz, T.; Maruyama, T.; McCormick, J.; Moffeit, K.; Neal, H.A.; Nelson, T.K.; Oriunno, M.; Partridge, R.; Peskin, M.E.; Rizzo, T.G.; Rowson, P.; Su, D.; Woods, M.; Chakrabarti, S.; Dieguez, A.; Garrido, Ll.; Kaminski, J.; Conway, J.S.; Chertok, M.; Gunion, J.; Holbrook, B.; Lander, R.L.; Tripathi, S.M.; Fadeyev, V.; Schumm, B.A.; Oreglia, M.; Gill, J.; Nauenberg, U.; Oleinik, G.; Wagner, S.R.; Ranjan, K.; Shivpuri, R.; Varner, G.S.; Orava, R.; Van Kooten, R.; Bilki, B.; Charles, M.; Kim, T.J.; Mallik, U.; Norbeck, E.; Onel, Y.; Brau, B.P.; Willocq, S.; Taylor, G.N.; Riles, Keith; Yang, H.-J.; Kriske, R.; Cremaldi, L.; Rahmat, R.; Lastovicka-Medin, G.; Seidel, S.; Hildreth, M.D.; Wayne, M.; Brau, J.E.; Frey, R.; Sinev, N.; Strom, D.M.; Torrence, E.; Banda, Y.; Burrows, P.N.; Devetak, E.; Foster, B.; Lastovicka, T.; Li, Y.-M.; Nomerotski, A.; Riera-Babures, J.; Vilasis-Cardona, X.; Manly, S.; Adeva, B.; Iglesias Escudero, C.; Vazquez Regueiro, P.; Saborido Silva, J.J.; Gallas Torreira, A.; Gao, D.; Jie, W.; Jungfeng, Y.; Li, C.; Liu, S.; Liu, Y.; Sun, Y.; Wang, Q.; Yi, J.; Yonggang, W.; Zhao, Z.; De, K.; Farbin, A.; Park, S.; Smith, J.; White, A.P.; Yu, J.; Lou, X.C.; Abe, T.; Iwasaki, M.; Lubatti, H.J.; Band, H.R.; Feyzi, F.; Prepost, R.; Karchin, P.E.; Milstene, C.; Baltay, C.; Dhawan, S.; Kwon, Y.-J.

2009-01-01

Letter of intent describing SiD (Silicon Detector) for consideration by the International Linear Collider IDAG panel. This detector concept is founded on the use of silicon detectors for vertexing, tracking, and electromagnetic calorimetry. The detector has been cost-optimized as a general-purpose detector for a 500 GeV electron-positron linear collider.

Letter knowledge in parent-child conversations: differences between families differing in socio-economic status.

Science.gov (United States)

Robins, Sarah; Ghosh, Dina; Rosales, Nicole; Treiman, Rebecca

2014-01-01

When formal literacy instruction begins, around the age of 5 or 6, children from families low in socioeconomic status (SES) tend to be less prepared than children from families of higher SES. The goal of our study is to explore one route through which SES may influence children's early literacy skills: informal conversations about letters. The study builds on previous studies (Robins and Treiman, 2009; Robins et al., 2012, 2014) of parent-child conversations that show how U. S. parents and their young children talk about writing and provide preliminary evidence about similarities and differences in parent-child conversations as a function of SES. Focusing on parents and children aged three to five, we conducted five separate analyses of these conversations, asking whether and how family SES influences the previously established patterns. Although we found talk about letters in both upper and lower SES families, there were differences in the nature of these conversations. The proportion of letter talk utterances that were questions was lower in lower SES families and, of all the letter names that lower SES families talked about, more of them were uttered in isolation rather than in sequences. Lower SES families were especially likely to associate letters with the child's name, and they placed more emphasis on sequences in alphabetic order. We found no SES differences in the factors that influenced use of particular letter names (monograms), but there were SES differences in two-letter sequences (digrams). Focusing on the alphabet and on associations between the child's name and the letters within it may help to interest the child in literacy activities, but they many not be very informative about the relationship between letters and words in general. Understanding the patterns in parent-child conversations about letters is an important first step for exploring their contribution to children's early literacy skills and school readiness.

ERP Indices of Stimulus Prediction in Letter Sequences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edith Kaan

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Given the current focus on anticipation in perception, action and cognition, including language processing, there is a need for a method to tap into predictive processing in situations in which cue and feedback stimuli are not explicitly marked as such. To this aim, event related potentials (ERPs were obtained while participants viewed alphabetic letter sequences (“A”, “B”, “C”, “D”, “E”, …, in which the letters were highly predictable, and random sequences (“S”, “B”, “A”, “I”, “F”, “M”, …, without feedback. Occasionally, the presentation of a letter in a sequence was delayed by 300 ms. During this delay period, an increased negativity was observed for predictive versus random sequences. In addition, the early positivity following the delay was larger for predictive compared with random sequences. These results suggest that expectation-sensitive ERP modulations can be elicited in anticipation of stimuli that are not explicit targets, rewards, feedback or instructions, and that a delay can strengthen the prediction for a particular stimulus. Applications to language processing will be discussed.

Reasoning heuristics across the psychosis continuum: the contribution of hypersalient evidence-hypothesis matches.

Science.gov (United States)

Balzan, Ryan; Delfabbro, Paul; Galletly, Cherrie; Woodward, Todd

2012-01-01

Hypersalience of evidence-hypothesis matches has recently been proposed as the cognitive mechanism responsible for the cognitive biases which, in turn, may contribute to the formation and maintenance of delusions. However, the construct lacks empirical support. The current paper investigates the possibility that individuals with delusions are hypersalient to evidence-hypothesis matches using a series of cognitive tasks designed to elicit the representativeness and availability reasoning heuristics. It was hypothesised that hypersalience of evidence-hypothesis matches may increase a person's propensity to rely on judgements of representativeness (i.e., when the probability of an outcome is based on its similarity with its parent population) and availability (i.e., estimates of frequency based on the ease with which relevant events come to mind). A total of 75 participants (25 diagnosed with schizophrenia with a history of delusions; 25 nonclinical delusion-prone; 25 nondelusion-prone controls) completed four heuristics tasks based on the original Tversky and Kahnemann experiments. These included two representativeness tasks ("coin-toss" random sequence task; "lawyer-engineer" base-rates task) and two availability tasks ("famous-names" and "letter-frequency" tasks). The results across these four heuristics tasks showed that participants with schizophrenia were more susceptible than nonclinical groups to both the representativeness and availability reasoning heuristics. These results suggest that delusional ideation is linked to a hypersalience of evidence-hypothesis matches. The theoretical implications of this cognitive mechanism on the formation and maintenance of delusions are discussed.

Episodic Short-Term Recognition Requires Encoding into Visual Working Memory: Evidence from Probe Recognition after Letter Report.

Science.gov (United States)

Poth, Christian H; Schneider, Werner X

2016-01-01

Human vision is organized in discrete processing episodes (e.g., eye fixations or task-steps). Object information must be transmitted across episodes to enable episodic short-term recognition: recognizing whether a current object has been seen in a previous episode. We ask whether episodic short-term recognition presupposes that objects have been encoded into capacity-limited visual working memory (VWM), which retains visual information for report. Alternatively, it could rely on the activation of visual features or categories that occurs before encoding into VWM. We assessed the dependence of episodic short-term recognition on VWM by a new paradigm combining letter report and probe recognition. Participants viewed displays of 10 letters and reported as many as possible after a retention interval (whole report). Next, participants viewed a probe letter and indicated whether it had been one of the 10 letters (probe recognition). In Experiment 1, probe recognition was more accurate for letters that had been encoded into VWM (reported letters) compared with non-encoded letters (non-reported letters). Interestingly, those letters that participants reported in their whole report had been near to one another within the letter displays. This suggests that the encoding into VWM proceeded in a spatially clustered manner. In Experiment 2, participants reported only one of 10 letters (partial report) and probes either referred to this letter, to letters that had been near to it, or far from it. Probe recognition was more accurate for near than for far letters, although none of these letters had to be reported. These findings indicate that episodic short-term recognition is constrained to a small number of simultaneously presented objects that have been encoded into VWM.

Episodic Short-Term Recognition Requires Encoding into Visual Working Memory: Evidence from Probe Recognition after Letter Report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christian H. Poth

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Human vision is organized in discrete processing episodes (e.g. eye fixations or task-steps. Object information must be transmitted across episodes to enable episodic short-term recognition: recognizing whether a current object has been seen in a previous episode. We ask whether episodic short-term recognition presupposes that objects have been encoded into capacity-limited visual working memory (VWM, which retains visual information for report. Alternatively, it could rely on the activation of visual features or categories that occurs before encoding into VWM. We assessed the dependence of episodic short-term recognition on VWM by a new paradigm combining letter report and probe recognition. Participants viewed displays of ten letters and reported as many as possible after a retention interval (whole report. Next, participants viewed a probe letter and indicated whether it had been one of the ten letters (probe recognition. In Experiment 1, probe recognition was more accurate for letters that had been encoded into VWM (reported letters compared with non-encoded letters (non-reported letters. Interestingly, those letters that participants reported in their whole report had been near to one another within the letter displays. This suggests that the encoding into VWM proceeded in a spatially clustered manner. In Experiment 2 participants reported only one of ten letters (partial report and probes either referred to this letter, to letters that had been near to it, or far from it. Probe recognition was more accurate for near than for far letters, although none of these letters had to be reported. These findings indicate that episodic short-term recognition is constrained to a small number of simultaneously presented objects that have been encoded into VWM.

Light and Sound

CERN Document Server

Karam, P Andrew

2010-01-01

Our world is largely defined by what we see and hear-but our uses for light and sound go far beyond simply seeing a photo or hearing a song. A concentrated beam of light, lasers are powerful tools used in industry, research, and medicine, as well as in everyday electronics like DVD and CD players. Ultrasound, sound emitted at a high frequency, helps create images of a developing baby, cleans teeth, and much more. Light and Sound teaches how light and sound work, how they are used in our day-to-day lives, and how they can be used to learn about the universe at large.

The Textile Form of Sound

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bendixen, Cecilie

Sound is a part of architecture, and sound is complex. Upon this, sound is invisible. How is it then possible to design visual objects that interact with the sound? This paper addresses the problem of how to get access to the complexity of sound and how to make textile material revealing the form...... goemetry by analysing the sound pattern at a specific spot. This analysis is done theoretically with algorithmic systems and practical with waves in water. The paper describes the experiments and the findings, and explains how an analysis of sound can be catched in a textile form....

Efficient techniques for wave-based sound propagation in interactive applications

Science.gov (United States)

Mehra, Ravish

Sound propagation techniques model the effect of the environment on sound waves and predict their behavior from point of emission at the source to the final point of arrival at the listener. Sound is a pressure wave produced by mechanical vibration of a surface that propagates through a medium such as air or water, and the problem of sound propagation can be formulated mathematically as a second-order partial differential equation called the wave equation. Accurate techniques based on solving the wave equation, also called the wave-based techniques, are too expensive computationally and memory-wise. Therefore, these techniques face many challenges in terms of their applicability in interactive applications including sound propagation in large environments, time-varying source and listener directivity, and high simulation cost for mid-frequencies. In this dissertation, we propose a set of efficient wave-based sound propagation techniques that solve these three challenges and enable the use of wave-based sound propagation in interactive applications. Firstly, we propose a novel equivalent source technique for interactive wave-based sound propagation in large scenes spanning hundreds of meters. It is based on the equivalent source theory used for solving radiation and scattering problems in acoustics and electromagnetics. Instead of using a volumetric or surface-based approach, this technique takes an object-centric approach to sound propagation. The proposed equivalent source technique generates realistic acoustic effects and takes orders of magnitude less runtime memory compared to prior wave-based techniques. Secondly, we present an efficient framework for handling time-varying source and listener directivity for interactive wave-based sound propagation. The source directivity is represented as a linear combination of elementary spherical harmonic sources. This spherical harmonic-based representation of source directivity can support analytical, data

Reduction of heart sound interference from lung sound signals using empirical mode decomposition technique.

Science.gov (United States)

Mondal, Ashok; Bhattacharya, P S; Saha, Goutam

2011-01-01

During the recording time of lung sound (LS) signals from the chest wall of a subject, there is always heart sound (HS) signal interfering with it. This obscures the features of lung sound signals and creates confusion on pathological states, if any, of the lungs. A novel method based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) technique is proposed in this paper for reducing the undesired heart sound interference from the desired lung sound signals. In this, the mixed signal is split into several components. Some of these components contain larger proportions of interfering signals like heart sound, environmental noise etc. and are filtered out. Experiments have been conducted on simulated and real-time recorded mixed signals of heart sound and lung sound. The proposed method is found to be superior in terms of time domain, frequency domain, and time-frequency domain representations and also in listening test performed by pulmonologist.

Sense-Making and Map-Making: War Letters as Personal Geographies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christina Knopf

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Structured in three parts, this article will briefly review David Herman’s idea of “spatial reference” in narrative, particularly in epistolary form, and explain the research method used in this project; introduce military geographies and demonstrate how various spatial references function in war letters; and, lastly, illustrate the value of war letters as spatial artifacts and subjective cartography.

Sound generator

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berkhoff, Arthur P.

2008-01-01

A sound generator, particularly a loudspeaker, configured to emit sound, comprising a rigid element (2) enclosing a plurality of air compartments (3), wherein the rigid element (2) has a back side (B) comprising apertures (4), and a front side (F) that is closed, wherein the generator is provided

Sound generator

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berkhoff, Arthur P.

2010-01-01

A sound generator, particularly a loudspeaker, configured to emit sound, comprising a rigid element (2) enclosing a plurality of air compartments (3), wherein the rigid element (2) has a back side (B) comprising apertures (4), and a front side (F) that is closed, wherein the generator is provided

Sound generator

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berkhoff, Arthur P.

2007-01-01

A sound generator, particularly a loudspeaker, configured to emit sound, comprising a rigid element (2) enclosing a plurality of air compartments (3), wherein the rigid element (2) has a back side (B) comprising apertures (4), and a front side (F) that is closed, wherein the generator is provided

A Novel Handwritten Letter Recognizer Using Enhanced Evolutionary Neural Network

Science.gov (United States)

Mahmoudi, Fariborz; Mirzashaeri, Mohsen; Shahamatnia, Ehsan; Faridnia, Saed

This paper introduces a novel design for handwritten letter recognition by employing a hybrid back-propagation neural network with an enhanced evolutionary algorithm. Feeding the neural network consists of a new approach which is invariant to translation, rotation, and scaling of input letters. Evolutionary algorithm is used for the global search of the search space and the back-propagation algorithm is used for the local search. The results have been computed by implementing this approach for recognizing 26 English capital letters in the handwritings of different people. The computational results show that the neural network reaches very satisfying results with relatively scarce input data and a promising performance improvement in convergence of the hybrid evolutionary back-propagation algorithms is exhibited.

NASA Space Sounds API

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — NASA has released a series of space sounds via sound cloud. We have abstracted away some of the hassle in accessing these sounds, so that developers can play with...

Some Influences of Greek and Roman Rhetoric on Early Letter Writing.

Science.gov (United States)

Hildebrandt, Herbert W.

1988-01-01

Describes how letter writing, especially business letters, was influenced by Greek and Roman oral rhetoricians. Discusses three precepts of oral rhetoric--inventio, dispositio, and style--and notes that the classical theories' reflection in written communication can be seen in selected Italian, German, and English epistolographic works. (MM)

Auditory spatial attention to speech and complex non-speech sounds in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Soskey, Laura N; Allen, Paul D; Bennetto, Loisa

2017-08-01

One of the earliest observable impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a failure to orient to speech and other social stimuli. Auditory spatial attention, a key component of orienting to sounds in the environment, has been shown to be impaired in adults with ASD. Additionally, specific deficits in orienting to social sounds could be related to increased acoustic complexity of speech. We aimed to characterize auditory spatial attention in children with ASD and neurotypical controls, and to determine the effect of auditory stimulus complexity on spatial attention. In a spatial attention task, target and distractor sounds were played randomly in rapid succession from speakers in a free-field array. Participants attended to a central or peripheral location, and were instructed to respond to target sounds at the attended location while ignoring nearby sounds. Stimulus-specific blocks evaluated spatial attention for simple non-speech tones, speech sounds (vowels), and complex non-speech sounds matched to vowels on key acoustic properties. Children with ASD had significantly more diffuse auditory spatial attention than neurotypical children when attending front, indicated by increased responding to sounds at adjacent non-target locations. No significant differences in spatial attention emerged based on stimulus complexity. Additionally, in the ASD group, more diffuse spatial attention was associated with more severe ASD symptoms but not with general inattention symptoms. Spatial attention deficits have important implications for understanding social orienting deficits and atypical attentional processes that contribute to core deficits of ASD. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1405-1416. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Does ability to establish sound-symbol pairings mediate the RAN reading relationship?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Poulsen, Mads; Juul, Holger; Elbro, Carsten

for animals in a paired associate learning task. These animals were then used in a rapid naming task. Results Preliminary results show that reading correlated with the amount of training required for learning the animal names (r=-.19, p=.06). RAN speed with the same animals did not correlate with reading......Performance on tests to rapidly name letters and digits has been shown to correlate with reading. One possible reason is that these tests probe the ability to learn and automatise symbol-sound associations. However, most studies have not controlled for the amount of experience with the RAN......-items, so it is unclear whether it is the experience or the ability to take advantage of the experience that is responsible for the correlation between RAN and reading. Paired associate learning tasks have been shown to differentiate dyslexics from controls, and to correlate with reading in unselected...

Philosophical Intelligence: Letters, Print, and Experiment during Napoleon's Continental Blockade.

Science.gov (United States)

Watts, Iain P

2015-12-01

This essay investigates scientific exchanges between Britain and France from 1806 to 1814, at the height of the Napoleonic Wars. It argues for a picture of scientific communication that sees letters and printed texts not as separate media worlds, but as interconnected bearers of time-critical information within a single system of intelligence gathering and experimental practice. During this period, Napoleon Bonaparte's Continental System blockade severed most links between Britain and continental Europe, yet scientific communications continued--particularly on electrochemistry, a subject of fierce rivalry between Britain and France. The essay traces these exchanges using the archive of a key go-between, the English man of science Sir Charles Blagden. The first two sections look at Blagden's letter-writing operation, reconstructing how he harnessed connections with neutral American diplomats, merchants, and the State to get scientific intelligence between London and Paris. The third section, following Blagden's words from Britain to France to America, looks at how information in letters cross-fertilized with information in print. The final section considers how letters and print were used together to solve the difficult practical problem of replicating experiments across the blockade.

Sound Insulation between Dwellings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Birgit

2011-01-01

Regulatory sound insulation requirements for dwellings exist in more than 30 countries in Europe. In some countries, requirements have existed since the 1950s. Findings from comparative studies show that sound insulation descriptors and requirements represent a high degree of diversity...... and initiate – where needed – improvement of sound insulation of new and existing dwellings in Europe to the benefit of the inhabitants and the society. A European COST Action TU0901 "Integrating and Harmonizing Sound Insulation Aspects in Sustainable Urban Housing Constructions", has been established and runs...... 2009-2013. The main objectives of TU0901 are to prepare proposals for harmonized sound insulation descriptors and for a European sound classification scheme with a number of quality classes for dwellings. Findings from the studies provide input for the discussions in COST TU0901. Data collected from 24...

An Antropologist of Sound

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Groth, Sanne Krogh

2015-01-01

PROFESSOR PORTRAIT: Sanne Krogh Groth met Holger Schulze, newly appointed professor in Musicology at the Department for Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen, to a talk about anthropology of sound, sound studies, musical canons and ideology.......PROFESSOR PORTRAIT: Sanne Krogh Groth met Holger Schulze, newly appointed professor in Musicology at the Department for Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen, to a talk about anthropology of sound, sound studies, musical canons and ideology....

Politeness Strategies in Good-news Business Letters

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

毕争; 李纳

2008-01-01

This paper analyzes the presentation of politeness in good-news business letters at the lexical,syntactic,and discourse levels based on Leech's Politeness Principle and Brown and Levinson's Face-saving Theory.

Dehydration in the tropical tropopause layer estimated from the water vapor match

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Inai

2013-09-01

Full Text Available We apply the match technique, whereby the same air mass is observed more than once and such cases are termed a "match", to study the dehydration process associated with horizontal advection in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL over the western Pacific. The matches are obtained from profile data taken by the Soundings of Ozone and Water in the Equatorial Region (SOWER campaign network observations using isentropic trajectories calculated from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF operational analyses. For the matches identified, extensive screening procedures are performed to verify the representativeness of the air parcel and the validity of the isentropic treatment, and to check for possible water injection by deep convection, consistency between the sonde data and analysis field referring to the ozone conservation. Among the matches that passed the screening tests, we identified some cases corresponding to the first quantitative value of dehydration associated with horizontal advection in the TTL. The statistical features of dehydration for the air parcels advected in the lower TTL are derived from the matches. The threshold of nucleation is estimated to be 146 ± 1% (1σ in relative humidity with respect to ice (RHice, while dehydration seems to continue until RHice reaches about 75 ± 23% (1σ in the altitude region from 350 to 360 K. The efficiency of dehydration expressed by the relaxation time required for the supersaturated air parcel to approach saturation is empirically determined from the matches. A relaxation time of approximately one hour reproduces the second water vapor observation reasonably well, given the first observed water vapor amount and the history of the saturation mixing ratio during advection in the lower TTL.

Development of motion-defined figure-ground segregation in preschool and older children, using a letter-identification task.

Science.gov (United States)

Giaschi, D; Regan, D

1997-09-01

Three-month-old infants can discriminate motion-defined (MD) form, but we do not know the age at which this ability reaches adult levels. Previous psychophysical evidence suggests that different neural mechanisms are involved in the processing of luminance-defined (LD) and MD spatial form in adults. This difference may be reflected in the development of LD versus MD form identification in children. We measured speed threshold for identifying MD letters, letter-chart (i.e, Snellen) acuity for high-contrast LD letters and single-letter acuity for high- and low-contrast LD letters. Forty-seven children between 3 and 12 years of age and 20 adult subjects were tested. Development to the adult level was observed as follows: low-contrast single-letter acuity before 3 years; high-contrast single-letter acuity by 5 to 6 years; the ability to identify MD letters by 7 to 8 years; letter-chart acuity by 9 to 10 years. MD form identification continues to mature in preschool children. LD form identification also matures in this age group but with a different time course. MD letters are not equivalent to low-contrast letters developmentally. Our findings provide further support for the hypothesis that the spatial aspects of MD and LD form are processed separately to some extent.

Y2K affiliation, immediate pedestrian density, and helping responses to lost letters.

Science.gov (United States)

Bridges, F S; Thompson, P C

2001-06-01

Of 75 letters "lost" in Florida, 41 were returned in the mail (the helpful response). Immediate pedestrian density was significantly related to nonhelping responses. The greater the number of subjects passing by a lost letter, the less likely any one of them would respond to it. The rates of return did vary with the addressees' affiliations. Returned responses for the affiliates, Y2K Arkbuilders and the Believers of God's Judgement Against Homosexuals: Y2K Millennium Bug, were substantially lower than for the affiliate, Y2K Computer Repair & Programming, Inc. Returns for the Believers of God's Judgement Against Homosexuals: Y2K Millennium Bug affiliate were significantly lower than for the Y2K Arkbuilders affiliate. Variables such as sex, race, and estimated age of subjects were not associated with helping to return a lost letter. The rate of return of lost letters is not the only important measure to be examined in studies using lost letters.

Letter position coding across modalities: braille and sighted reading of sentences with jumbled words.

Science.gov (United States)

Perea, Manuel; Jiménez, María; Martín-Suesta, Miguel; Gómez, Pablo

2015-04-01

This article explores how letter position coding is attained during braille reading and its implications for models of word recognition. When text is presented visually, the reading process easily adjusts to the jumbling of some letters (jugde-judge), with a small cost in reading speed. Two explanations have been proposed: One relies on a general mechanism of perceptual uncertainty at the visual level, and the other focuses on the activation of an abstract level of representation (i.e., bigrams) that is shared by all orthographic codes. Thus, these explanations make differential predictions about reading in a tactile modality. In the present study, congenitally blind readers read sentences presented on a braille display that tracked the finger position. The sentences either were intact or involved letter transpositions. A parallel experiment was conducted in the visual modality. Results revealed a substantially greater reading cost for the sentences with transposed-letter words in braille readers. In contrast with the findings with sighted readers, in which there is a cost of transpositions in the external (initial and final) letters, the reading cost in braille readers occurs serially, with a large cost for initial letter transpositions. Thus, these data suggest that the letter-position-related effects in visual word recognition are due to the characteristics of the visual stream.

Letters from a Nightingale nurse.

Science.gov (United States)

Denny, E

1996-01-01

Mary Cadbury was one of six daughters in a wealthy Birmingham family, all of whom took up professional or unpaid philanthropic work. In 1873 Mary began nurse training at the Nightingale School, St Thomas's Hospital, and regularly sent letters to family and friends, which provide a graphic account of the experience of a nurse in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Letter Knowledge in Parent–Child Conversations: Differences between Families Differing in Socio-Economic Status

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah eRobins

2014-06-01

Full Text Available When formal literacy instruction begins, around the age of 5 or 6, children from families low in socioeconomic status (SES tend to be less prepared than children from families of higher SES. The goal of our study is to explore one route through which SES may influence children’s early literacy skills: informal conversations about letters. The study builds on previous studies (Robins, Treiman, & Rosales, 2014; Robins, Treiman, Rosales, & Otake, 2012; Robins & Treiman, 2009 that show how U. S. parents and their young children talk about writing and provides preliminary evidence about similarities and differences in parent–child conversations as a function of SES. Focusing on parents and children aged three to five, we conducted five separate analyses of these conversations, asking whether and how family SES influences the previously established patterns. Although we found talk about letters in both upper and lower SES families, there were differences in the nature of these conversations. The proportion of letter talk utterances that were questions was lower in lower SES families and, of all the letter names that lower SES families talked about, more of them were uttered in isolation rather than in sequences. Lower SES families were especially likely to associate letters with the child’s name, and they placed more emphasis on sequences in alphabetic order. We found no SES differences in the factors that influenced use of particular letter names (monograms, but there were SES differences in two-letter sequences (digrams. Focusing on the alphabet and on associations between the child’s name and the letters within it may help to interest the child in literacy activities, but they many not be very informative about the relationship between letters and words in general. Understanding the patterns in parent–child conversations about letters is an important first step for exploring their contribution to children’s early literacy skills and

Magnocellular involvement in flanked-letter identification relates to the allocation of attention

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Omtzigt, D.; Hendriks, A.W.C.J.

2004-01-01

To verify the hypothesis that the magnocellular system is important to flanked-letter identification [Neuropsychologia 40 (2002) 1881] because it subserves attention allocation, we conducted three letter-naming experiments in which we manipulated magnocellular involvement (colour vs. luminance

Samuel Hartlib on the death of Descartes: a rediscovered letter to Henry More

Science.gov (United States)

Penman, Leigh T. I.

2015-01-01

This paper discloses the content of a previously overlooked epistle by the Anglo-Prussian intelligencer Samuel Hartlib to Henry More concerning the death of René Descartes. After a discussion situating the letter within the sequence of the More–Hartlib correspondence, an analysis of the rhetorical structure of the epistle is offered, followed by a brief assessment of Hartlib's attitude towards Descartes, and the identification of his source concerning the news of the philosopher's death. An account of the transmission of the letter via a nineteenth-century periodical is also provided. The text of Hartlib's letter and an overlooked passage of Hartlib's diary concerning Descartes's death, which draws on the content of the More letter, are presented as appendixes.

Re-Audit of the Contents of GP Referral letters to General Adult Community Psychiatrists.

Science.gov (United States)

Odelola, Catherine; Jabbar, Farid

2017-09-01

The quality of information provided by referring general practitioners to secondary care mental health services are crucial elements in the effective management of patients. In order to establish effective communication, both primary and secondary care health professionals should contribute to planning and organising this process taking into account their different opinions and views. Anonymous questionnaire was designed to collect information on items that GPs and psychiatrist rated as most important items in GP referral letters to psychiatrists. The questionnaires were sent out electronically. Each item was scored using a rating scale where 0 was least important and 10 was most important. Items that scored 8 and above were agreed by all as the most important items. 76 GP letters were audited using a devised checklist of the identified most important items. Data was collected and analysed using a devised data collection tool. A re-audit was done 6months later. A response rate of 70% was obtained for both psychiatrists and GPs. Reasons for referral were described in almost all GP referral letters (95%). Only 24% referral letters had details about current physical health which improved to 59%. Concerns about risk were described in only 47% of letters and treatment provided by GP in 50% of letters. These improved in 79% and 71% of letters respectively in the re-audit. The involvement of professionals in devising a standardised approach for referral letters has improved communication in this re-audit between GPs and Psychiatrists. This is evident in the improvement in key aspects of the referral letters: past medical history, past psychiatric history, current physical health, treatment provided by GP. Efficient communication between GPs and psychiatrists improves the quality of health care for patients.

Sound specificity effects in spoken word recognition: The effect of integrality between words and sounds

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Strori, Dorina; Zaar, Johannes; Cooke, Martin

2017-01-01

Recent evidence has shown that nonlinguistic sounds co-occurring with spoken words may be retained in memory and affect later retrieval of the words. This sound-specificity effect shares many characteristics with the classic voice-specificity effect. In this study, we argue that the sound......-specificity effect is conditional upon the context in which the word and sound coexist. Specifically, we argue that, besides co-occurrence, integrality between words and sounds is a crucial factor in the emergence of the effect. In two recognition-memory experiments, we compared the emergence of voice and sound...... from a mere co-occurrence context effect by removing the intensity modulation. The absence of integrality led to the disappearance of the sound-specificity effect. Taken together, the results suggest that the assimilation of background sounds into memory cannot be reduced to a simple context effect...

42 CFR 93.202 - Charge letter.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 42 Public Health 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Charge letter. 93.202 Section 93.202 Public Health PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES HEALTH ASSESSMENTS AND HEALTH EFFECTS STUDIES OF HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES RELEASES AND FACILITIES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE POLICIES ON RESEARCH...

Active sound reduction system and method

NARCIS (Netherlands)

2016-01-01

The present invention refers to an active sound reduction system and method for attenuation of sound emitted by a primary sound source, especially for attenuation of snoring sounds emitted by a human being. This system comprises a primary sound source, at least one speaker as a secondary sound

Particles and nuclei, letters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-01-01

The present collection of letters from JINR, Dubna, contains six separate records on the DELPHI experiment at LEP, the Fermi-surface dynamics of rotating nuclei, production of large samples of the silica dioxide aerogel in the 37-litre autoclave and test of its optical properties, preliminary radiation resource results on scintillating fibers, a new algorithm for the direct transformation method of time to digital with the high time resolution and development and design of analogue read-out electronics for HADES drift chamber system

Recognition and characterization of unstructured environmental sounds

Science.gov (United States)

Chu, Selina

2011-12-01

be used for realistic environmental sound. Natural unstructured environment sounds contain a large variety of sounds, which are in fact noise-like and are not effectively modeled by Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) or other commonly-used audio features, e.g. energy, zero-crossing, etc. Due to the lack of appropriate features that is suitable for environmental audio and to achieve a more effective representation, I proposed a specialized feature extraction algorithm for environmental sounds that utilizes the matching pursuit (MP) algorithm to learn the inherent structure of each type of sounds, which we called MP-features. MP-features have shown to capture and represent sounds from different sources and different ranges, where frequency domain features (e.g., MFCCs) fail and can be advantageous when combining with MFCCs to improve the overall performance. The third component leads to our investigation on modeling and detecting the background audio. One of the goals of this research is to characterize an environment. Since many events would blend into the background, I wanted to look for a way to achieve a general model for any particular environment. Once we have an idea of the background, it will enable us to identify foreground events even if we havent seen these events before. Therefore, the next step is to investigate into learning the audio background model for each environment type, despite the occurrences of different foreground events. In this work, I presented a framework for robust audio background modeling, which includes learning the models for prediction, data knowledge and persistent characteristics of the environment. This approach has the ability to model the background and detect foreground events as well as the ability to verify whether the predicted background is indeed the background or a foreground event that protracts for a longer period of time. In this work, I also investigated the use of a semi-supervised learning technique to

Michael Maier--nine newly discovered letters.

Science.gov (United States)

Lenke, Nils; Roudet, Nicolas; Tilton, Hereward

2014-02-01

The authors provide a transcription, translation, and evaluation of nine newly discovered letters from the alchemist Michael Maier (1568-1622) to Gebhardt Johann von Alvensleben (1576-1631), a noble landholder in the vicinity of Magdeburg. Stemming from the final year of his life, this correspondence casts new light on Maier's biography, detailing his efforts to secure patronage amid the financial crisis of the early Thirty Years' War. While his ill-fated quest to perfect potable gold continued to form the central focus of his patronage suits, Maier also offered his services in several arts that he had condemned in his printed works, namely astrology and "supernatural" magic. Remarks concerning his previously unknown acquaintance with Heinrich Khunrath call for a re-evaluation of Maier's negotiation of the discursive boundaries between Lutheran orthodoxy and Paracelsianism. The letters also reveal Maier's substantial contribution to a work previously ascribed solely to the English alchemist Francis Anthony.

أوهَامُ السِّيرَافي في نِسْبَةِ الآراءِ إلى الفَرَّاء(دراسة صوتية Seraphic illusions in the ratio of views to the fur (study Sounds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dr. Haidar Fakery Miran د. حيدر فخري ميران

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Acoustic study is the important factor which takes place on the basis of linguistic single building, and through two directions: first: singular sound, and the second: the sound when installation. These two sides formed the inter Arabic through a series of audio clips producing human speech. The interest in the lesson voice Arab linked directly related to the study of Arabic letters and their impact on the Koran as the voices necessary give it right and deserved in terms of output and capacity, began to search for a linguistically through extrapolation thought the voice of the Arab where letters recommended and non-recommended in poetry reading and ended up including improves reading the Qur'an and what does not improve and the latter of interesting intonation scientists.

Sound Symbolism in Basic Vocabulary

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Søren Wichmann

2010-04-01

Full Text Available The relationship between meanings of words and their sound shapes is to a large extent arbitrary, but it is well known that languages exhibit sound symbolism effects violating arbitrariness. Evidence for sound symbolism is typically anecdotal, however. Here we present a systematic approach. Using a selection of basic vocabulary in nearly one half of the world’s languages we find commonalities among sound shapes for words referring to same concepts. These are interpreted as due to sound symbolism. Studying the effects of sound symbolism cross-linguistically is of key importance for the understanding of language evolution.

Age-related differences in the automatic processing of single letters: implications for selective attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Daffner, Kirk R; Alperin, Brittany R; Mott, Katherine K; Holcomb, Phillip J

2014-01-22

Older adults exhibit diminished ability to inhibit the processing of visual stimuli that are supposed to be ignored. The extent to which age-related changes in early visual processing contribute to impairments in selective attention remains to be determined. Here, 103 adults, 18-85 years of age, completed a color selective attention task in which they were asked to attend to a specified color and respond to designated target letters. An optimal approach would be to initially filter according to color and then process letter forms in the attend color to identify targets. An asymmetric N170 ERP component (larger amplitude over left posterior hemisphere sites) was used as a marker of the early automatic processing of letter forms. Young and middle-aged adults did not generate an asymmetric N170 component. In contrast, young-old and old-old adults produced a larger N170 over the left hemisphere. Furthermore, older adults generated a larger N170 to letter than nonletter stimuli over the left, but not right hemisphere. More asymmetric N170 responses predicted greater allocation of late selection resources to target letters in the ignore color, as indexed by P3b amplitude. These results suggest that unlike their younger counterparts, older adults automatically process stimuli as letters early in the selection process, when it would be more efficient to attend to color only. The inability to ignore letters early in the processing stream helps explain the age-related increase in subsequent processing of target letter forms presented in the ignore color.

Sounding the Alarm: An Introduction to Ecological Sound Art

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonathan Gilmurray

2016-12-01

Full Text Available In recent years, a number of sound artists have begun engaging with ecological issues through their work, forming a growing movement of ˝ecological sound art˝. This paper traces its development, examines its influences, and provides examples of the artists whose work is currently defining this important and timely new field.

Sound Stuff? Naïve materialism in middle-school students' conceptions of sound

Science.gov (United States)

Eshach, Haim; Schwartz, Judah L.

2006-06-01

Few studies have dealt with students’ preconceptions of sounds. The current research employs Reiner et al. (2000) substance schema to reveal new insights about students’ difficulties in understanding this fundamental topic. It aims not only to detect whether the substance schema is present in middle school students’ thinking, but also examines how students use the schema’s properties. It asks, moreover, whether the substance schema properties are used as islands of local consistency or whether one can identify more global coherent consistencies among the properties that the students use to explain the sound phenomena. In-depth standardized open-ended interviews were conducted with ten middle school students. Consistent with the substance schema, sound was perceived by our participants as being pushable, frictional, containable, or transitional. However, sound was also viewed as a substance different from the ordinary with respect to its stability, corpuscular nature, additive properties, and inertial characteristics. In other words, students’ conceptions of sound do not seem to fit Reiner et al.’s schema in all respects. Our results also indicate that students’ conceptualization of sound lack internal consistency. Analyzing our results with respect to local and global coherence, we found students’ conception of sound is close to diSessa’s “loosely connected, fragmented collection of ideas.” The notion that sound is perceived only as a “sort of a material,” we believe, requires some revision of the substance schema as it applies to sound. The article closes with a discussion concerning the implications of the results for instruction.

Sound symbolism: the role of word sound in meaning.

Science.gov (United States)

Svantesson, Jan-Olof

2017-09-01

The question whether there is a natural connection between sound and meaning or if they are related only by convention has been debated since antiquity. In linguistics, it is usually taken for granted that 'the linguistic sign is arbitrary,' and exceptions like onomatopoeia have been regarded as marginal phenomena. However, it is becoming more and more clear that motivated relations between sound and meaning are more common and important than has been thought. There is now a large and rapidly growing literature on subjects as ideophones (or expressives), words that describe how a speaker perceives a situation with the senses, and phonaesthemes, units like English gl-, which occur in many words that share a meaning component (in this case 'light': gleam, glitter, etc.). Furthermore, psychological experiments have shown that sound symbolism in one language can be understood by speakers of other languages, suggesting that some kinds of sound symbolism are universal. WIREs Cogn Sci 2017, 8:e1441. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1441 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Justification and authority in institutional review board decision letters.

Science.gov (United States)

Clapp, Justin T; Gleason, Katharine A; Joffe, Steven

2017-12-01

While ethnographic study has described the discussions that occur during human subjects research ethics review, investigators have minimal access to the interactions of ethics oversight committees. They instead receive letters stipulating changes to their proposed studies. Ethics committee letters are central to the practice of research ethics: they change the nature of research, alter the knowledge it produces, and in doing so construct what ethical research is and how it is pursued. However, these letters have rarely been objects of analysis. Accordingly, we conducted a qualitative analysis of letters written by American institutional review boards (IRBs) overseeing biomedical and health behavioral research. We sought to clarify how IRBs exercise their authority by assessing the frequency with which they provided reasons for their stipulations as well as the nature of these reasons. We found that IRBs frequently do not justify their stipulations; rather, they often leave ethical or regulatory concerns implicit or frame their comments as boilerplate language replacements, procedural instructions, or demands for missing information. When they do provide justifications, their rationales exhibit substantial variability in explicitness and clarity. These rhetorical tendencies indicate that the authority of IRBs is grounded primarily in their role as bureaucratic gatekeepers. We conclude by suggesting that greater attention to justification could help shift the basis of the IRB-researcher relationship from compliance to mutual accountability. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Substituted-Letter and Transposed-Letter Effects in a Masked Priming Paradigm with French Developing Readers and Dyslexics

Science.gov (United States)

Lete, Bernard; Fayol, Michel

2013-01-01

The aim of the study was to undertake a behavioral investigation of the development of automatic orthographic processing during reading acquisition in French. Following Castles and colleagues' 2007 study ("Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 97," 165-182) and their lexical tuning hypothesis framework, substituted-letter and…

Sound-by-sound thalamic stimulation modulates midbrain auditory excitability and relative binaural sensitivity in frogs.

Science.gov (United States)

Ponnath, Abhilash; Farris, Hamilton E

2014-01-01

Descending circuitry can modulate auditory processing, biasing sensitivity to particular stimulus parameters and locations. Using awake in vivo single unit recordings, this study tested whether electrical stimulation of the thalamus modulates auditory excitability and relative binaural sensitivity in neurons of the amphibian midbrain. In addition, by using electrical stimuli that were either longer than the acoustic stimuli (i.e., seconds) or presented on a sound-by-sound basis (ms), experiments addressed whether the form of modulation depended on the temporal structure of the electrical stimulus. Following long duration electrical stimulation (3-10 s of 20 Hz square pulses), excitability (spikes/acoustic stimulus) to free-field noise stimuli decreased by 32%, but returned over 600 s. In contrast, sound-by-sound electrical stimulation using a single 2 ms duration electrical pulse 25 ms before each noise stimulus caused faster and varied forms of modulation: modulation lasted sound-by-sound electrical stimulation varied between different acoustic stimuli, including for different male calls, suggesting modulation is specific to certain stimulus attributes. For binaural units, modulation depended on the ear of input, as sound-by-sound electrical stimulation preceding dichotic acoustic stimulation caused asymmetric modulatory effects: sensitivity shifted for sounds at only one ear, or by different relative amounts for both ears. This caused a change in the relative difference in binaural sensitivity. Thus, sound-by-sound electrical stimulation revealed fast and ear-specific (i.e., lateralized) auditory modulation that is potentially suited to shifts in auditory attention during sound segregation in the auditory scene.

Sound specificity effects in spoken word recognition: The effect of integrality between words and sounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Strori, Dorina; Zaar, Johannes; Cooke, Martin; Mattys, Sven L

2018-01-01

Recent evidence has shown that nonlinguistic sounds co-occurring with spoken words may be retained in memory and affect later retrieval of the words. This sound-specificity effect shares many characteristics with the classic voice-specificity effect. In this study, we argue that the sound-specificity effect is conditional upon the context in which the word and sound coexist. Specifically, we argue that, besides co-occurrence, integrality between words and sounds is a crucial factor in the emergence of the effect. In two recognition-memory experiments, we compared the emergence of voice and sound specificity effects. In Experiment 1 , we examined two conditions where integrality is high. Namely, the classic voice-specificity effect (Exp. 1a) was compared with a condition in which the intensity envelope of a background sound was modulated along the intensity envelope of the accompanying spoken word (Exp. 1b). Results revealed a robust voice-specificity effect and, critically, a comparable sound-specificity effect: A change in the paired sound from exposure to test led to a decrease in word-recognition performance. In the second experiment, we sought to disentangle the contribution of integrality from a mere co-occurrence context effect by removing the intensity modulation. The absence of integrality led to the disappearance of the sound-specificity effect. Taken together, the results suggest that the assimilation of background sounds into memory cannot be reduced to a simple context effect. Rather, it is conditioned by the extent to which words and sounds are perceived as integral as opposed to distinct auditory objects.

Analysis, Synthesis, and Perception of Musical Sounds The Sound of Music

CERN Document Server

Beauchamp, James W

2007-01-01

Analysis, Synthesis, and Perception of Musical Sounds contains a detailed treatment of basic methods for analysis and synthesis of musical sounds, including the phase vocoder method, the McAulay-Quatieri frequency-tracking method, the constant-Q transform, and methods for pitch tracking with several examples shown. Various aspects of musical sound spectra such as spectral envelope, spectral centroid, spectral flux, and spectral irregularity are defined and discussed. One chapter is devoted to the control and synthesis of spectral envelopes. Two advanced methods of analysis/synthesis are given: "Sines Plus Transients Plus Noise" and "Spectrotemporal Reassignment" are covered. Methods for timbre morphing are given. The last two chapters discuss the perception of musical sounds based on discrimination and multidimensional scaling timbre models.

Suggestopaedia-Canada. Information Letter, No. 4.

Science.gov (United States)

Racle, Gabriel

This issue of the information letter consists of two articles, "Music Therapy" and "Research and Applications of Psychomusical Techniques"; a review of the book, "La musicotherapie et les methods nouvelles d'association des techniques" by Guilhot and Cecourt, and a bibliography of books on music therapy written in…

Michael Jackson's Sound Stages

OpenAIRE

Morten Michelsen

2012-01-01

In order to discuss analytically spatial aspects of recorded sound William Moylan’s concept of ‘sound stage’ is developed within a musicological framework as part of a sound paradigm which includes timbre, texture and sound stage. Two Michael Jackson songs (‘The Lady in My Life’ from 1982 and ‘Scream’ from 1995) are used to: a) demonstrate the value of such a conceptualisation, and b) demonstrate that the model has its limits, as record producers in the 1990s began ignoring the conventions of...

Matching theory

CERN Document Server

Plummer, MD

1986-01-01

This study of matching theory deals with bipartite matching, network flows, and presents fundamental results for the non-bipartite case. It goes on to study elementary bipartite graphs and elementary graphs in general. Further discussed are 2-matchings, general matching problems as linear programs, the Edmonds Matching Algorithm (and other algorithmic approaches), f-factors and vertex packing.

ABOUT SOUNDS IN VIDEO GAMES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Denikin Anton A.

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The article considers the aesthetical and practical possibilities for sounds (sound design in video games and interactive applications. Outlines the key features of the game sound, such as simulation, representativeness, interactivity, immersion, randomization, and audio-visuality. The author defines the basic terminology in study of game audio, as well as identifies significant aesthetic differences between film sounds and sounds in video game projects. It is an attempt to determine the techniques of art analysis for the approaches in study of video games including aesthetics of their sounds. The article offers a range of research methods, considering the video game scoring as a contemporary creative practice.

[Letters to the editor published in Peruvian biomedical journals indexed in SciELO-Peru 2006-2013].

Science.gov (United States)

Montenegro-Idrogo, Juan José; Mejía-Dolores, Jhon William; Chalco-Huamán, Joel L

2015-01-01

This bibliometric study describes the characteristics of letters to the editor published between 2006-2013 in biomedical journals indexed in SciELO-Peru.253 letters (10.3% of total publications) were collected. Most letters (139) were in the Peruvian Journal of Experimental Medicine and Public Health, with marked increase throughout those years. 25% of letters submitted included medical student participation. 14% of authors presented with international affiliations and 27% with endogenous affiliation - common in university journals (Anales de la Facultad de Medicina, Revista Médica Herediana).The usual criteria justifying the publication of letters were: opinion of medical fact or public domain (35.6%) and discussion of results, methodological flaws or interpretation (22.9%). In biomedical journals indexed in SciELO Peru the letters to the editor comprise a percentage of publications that has increased in recent years, with low publication of letters of findings or primary data, compared with opinion or criticism.

”Sound [signal] noise

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bjørnsten, Thomas

2012-01-01

The article discusses the intricate relationship between sound and signification through notions of noise. The emergence of new fields of sonic artistic practices has generated several questions of how to approach sound as aesthetic form and material. During the past decade an increased attention...... has been paid to, for instance, a category such as ‘sound art’ together with an equally strengthened interest in phenomena and concepts that fall outside the accepted aesthetic procedures and constructions of what we traditionally would term as musical sound – a recurring example being ‘noise’....

Bayesian Action–Perception Computational Model: Interaction of Production and Recognition of Cursive Letters

Science.gov (United States)

Gilet, Estelle; Diard, Julien; Bessière, Pierre

2011-01-01

In this paper, we study the collaboration of perception and action representations involved in cursive letter recognition and production. We propose a mathematical formulation for the whole perception–action loop, based on probabilistic modeling and Bayesian inference, which we call the Bayesian Action–Perception (BAP) model. Being a model of both perception and action processes, the purpose of this model is to study the interaction of these processes. More precisely, the model includes a feedback loop from motor production, which implements an internal simulation of movement. Motor knowledge can therefore be involved during perception tasks. In this paper, we formally define the BAP model and show how it solves the following six varied cognitive tasks using Bayesian inference: i) letter recognition (purely sensory), ii) writer recognition, iii) letter production (with different effectors), iv) copying of trajectories, v) copying of letters, and vi) letter recognition (with internal simulation of movements). We present computer simulations of each of these cognitive tasks, and discuss experimental predictions and theoretical developments. PMID:21674043

Beneath sci-fi sound: primer, science fiction sound design, and American independent cinema

OpenAIRE

Johnston, Nessa

2012-01-01

Primer is a very low budget science-fiction film that deals with the subject of time travel; however, it looks and sounds quite distinctively different from other films associated with the genre. While Hollywood blockbuster sci-fi relies on “sound spectacle” as a key attraction, in contrast Primer sounds “lo-fi” and screen-centred, mixed to two channel stereo rather than the now industry-standard 5.1 surround sound. Although this is partly a consequence of the economics of its production, the...

Reply to letter to the editor

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Woelders, H.

2006-01-01

In response to the letter by Dr. Amir Arav I would like to mention the following. The application of the principle of directional solidification to cryopreservation of living cells was, as far as I am aware, not the invention of Dr. Arav. It was first published and patented by Rubinsky (Berkeley,

Sound classification of dwellings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Birgit

2012-01-01

National schemes for sound classification of dwellings exist in more than ten countries in Europe, typically published as national standards. The schemes define quality classes reflecting different levels of acoustical comfort. Main criteria concern airborne and impact sound insulation between...... dwellings, facade sound insulation and installation noise. The schemes have been developed, implemented and revised gradually since the early 1990s. However, due to lack of coordination between countries, there are significant discrepancies, and new standards and revisions continue to increase the diversity...... is needed, and a European COST Action TU0901 "Integrating and Harmonizing Sound Insulation Aspects in Sustainable Urban Housing Constructions", has been established and runs 2009-2013, one of the main objectives being to prepare a proposal for a European sound classification scheme with a number of quality...

Sound Art Situations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krogh Groth, Sanne; Samson, Kristine

2017-01-01

and combine theories from several fields. Aspects of sound art studies, performance studies and contemporary art studies are presented in order to theoretically explore the very diverse dimensions of the two sound art pieces: Visual, auditory, performative, social, spatial and durational dimensions become......This article is an analysis of two sound art performances that took place June 2015 in outdoor public spaces in the social housing area Urbanplanen in Copenhagen, Denmark. The two performances were On the production of a poor acoustics by Brandon LaBelle and Green Interactive Biofeedback...... Environments (GIBE) by Jeremy Woodruff. In order to investigate the complex situation that arises when sound art is staged in such contexts, the authors of this article suggest exploring the events through approaching them as ‘situations’ (Doherty 2009). With this approach it becomes possible to engage...

31 CFR 500.406 - Drafts under irrevocable letters of credit; documentary drafts.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 31 Money and Finance: Treasury 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Drafts under irrevocable letters of credit; documentary drafts. 500.406 Section 500.406 Money and Finance: Treasury Regulations Relating to... ASSETS CONTROL REGULATIONS Interpretations § 500.406 Drafts under irrevocable letters of credit...

31 CFR 515.406 - Drafts under irrevocable letters of credit; documentary drafts.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 31 Money and Finance: Treasury 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Drafts under irrevocable letters of credit; documentary drafts. 515.406 Section 515.406 Money and Finance: Treasury Regulations Relating to... CONTROL REGULATIONS Interpretations § 515.406 Drafts under irrevocable letters of credit; documentary...

Why doctors do not answer referral letters

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Referral letters act as permission slips to allow patients easy access to ... Methods: A qualitative study method was used, as the purpose of this study was to .... The total list of topics ..... Research design: qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Characteristic sounds facilitate visual search.

Science.gov (United States)

Iordanescu, Lucica; Guzman-Martinez, Emmanuel; Grabowecky, Marcia; Suzuki, Satoru

2008-06-01

In a natural environment, objects that we look for often make characteristic sounds. A hiding cat may meow, or the keys in the cluttered drawer may jingle when moved. Using a visual search paradigm, we demonstrated that characteristic sounds facilitated visual localization of objects, even when the sounds carried no location information. For example, finding a cat was faster when participants heard a meow sound. In contrast, sounds had no effect when participants searched for names rather than pictures of objects. For example, hearing "meow" did not facilitate localization of the word cat. These results suggest that characteristic sounds cross-modally enhance visual (rather than conceptual) processing of the corresponding objects. Our behavioral demonstration of object-based cross-modal enhancement complements the extensive literature on space-based cross-modal interactions. When looking for your keys next time, you might want to play jingling sounds.

Classification of the Correct Quranic Letters Pronunciation of Male and Female Reciters

Science.gov (United States)

Khairuddin, Safiah; Ahmad, Salmiah; Embong, Abdul Halim; Nur Wahidah Nik Hashim, Nik; Altamas, Tareq M. K.; Nuratikah Syd Badaruddin, Syarifah; Shahbudin Hassan, Surul

2017-11-01

Recitation of the Holy Quran with the correct Tajweed is essential for every Muslim. Islam has encouraged Quranic education since early age as the recitation of the Quran correctly will represent the correct meaning of the words of Allah. It is important to recite the Quranic verses according to its characteristics (sifaat) and from its point of articulations (makhraj). This paper presents the identification and classification analysis of Quranic letters pronunciation for both male and female reciters, to obtain the unique representation of each letter by male as compared to female expert reciters. Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) was used as the classifier to classify the data with Formants and Power Spectral Density (PSD) as the acoustic features. The result shows that linear classifier of PSD with band 1 and band 2 power spectral combinations gives a high percentage of classification accuracy for most of the Quranic letters. It is also shown that the pronunciation by male reciters gives better result in the classification of the Quranic letters.

Determining the speed of sound in the air by sound wave interference

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, Abel A.

2017-07-01

Mechanical waves propagate through material media. Sound is an example of a mechanical wave. In fluids like air, sound waves propagate through successive longitudinal perturbations of compression and decompression. Audible sound frequencies for human ears range from 20 to 20 000 Hz. In this study, the speed of sound v in the air is determined using the identification of maxima of interference from two synchronous waves at frequency f. The values of v were correct to 0 °C. The experimental average value of {\\bar{ν }}\\exp =336 +/- 4 {{m}} {{{s}}}-1 was found. It is 1.5% larger than the reference value. The standard deviation of 4 m s-1 (1.2% of {\\bar{ν }}\\exp ) is an improved value by the use of the concept of the central limit theorem. The proposed procedure to determine the speed of sound in the air aims to be an academic activity for physics classes of scientific and technological courses in college.

46 CFR 28.60 - Exemption letter.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... VESSELS General Provisions § 28.60 Exemption letter. (a) Types of exemptions. (1) Specific exemption means... for an exemption of either type must be in writing, have specific reasons for the request, and be sent... vessel to which any exemption applies. (e) Right of appeal. Any person directly affected by a decision or...

Fluid Sounds

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Explorations and analysis of soundscapes have, since Canadian R. Murray Schafer's work during the early 1970's, developed into various established research - and artistic disciplines. The interest in sonic environments is today present within a broad range of contemporary art projects and in arch......Explorations and analysis of soundscapes have, since Canadian R. Murray Schafer's work during the early 1970's, developed into various established research - and artistic disciplines. The interest in sonic environments is today present within a broad range of contemporary art projects...... and in architectural design. Aesthetics, psychoacoustics, perception, and cognition are all present in this expanding field embracing such categories as soundscape composition, sound art, sonic art, sound design, sound studies and auditory culture. Of greatest significance to the overall field is the investigation...

The influence of environmental sound training on the perception of spectrally degraded speech and environmental sounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Shafiro, Valeriy; Sheft, Stanley; Gygi, Brian; Ho, Kim Thien N

2012-06-01

Perceptual training with spectrally degraded environmental sounds results in improved environmental sound identification, with benefits shown to extend to untrained speech perception as well. The present study extended those findings to examine longer-term training effects as well as effects of mere repeated exposure to sounds over time. Participants received two pretests (1 week apart) prior to a week-long environmental sound training regimen, which was followed by two posttest sessions, separated by another week without training. Spectrally degraded stimuli, processed with a four-channel vocoder, consisted of a 160-item environmental sound test, word and sentence tests, and a battery of basic auditory abilities and cognitive tests. Results indicated significant improvements in all speech and environmental sound scores between the initial pretest and the last posttest with performance increments following both exposure and training. For environmental sounds (the stimulus class that was trained), the magnitude of positive change that accompanied training was much greater than that due to exposure alone, with improvement for untrained sounds roughly comparable to the speech benefit from exposure. Additional tests of auditory and cognitive abilities showed that speech and environmental sound performance were differentially correlated with tests of spectral and temporal-fine-structure processing, whereas working memory and executive function were correlated with speech, but not environmental sound perception. These findings indicate generalizability of environmental sound training and provide a basis for implementing environmental sound training programs for cochlear implant (CI) patients.

Sound Surfing Network (SSN): Mobile Phone-based Sound Spatialization with Audience Collaboration

OpenAIRE

Park, Saebyul; Ban, Seonghoon; Hong, Dae Ryong; Yeo, Woon Seung

2013-01-01

SSN (Sound Surfing Network) is a performance system that provides a new musicalexperience by incorporating mobile phone-based spatial sound control tocollaborative music performance. SSN enables both the performer and theaudience to manipulate the spatial distribution of sound using the smartphonesof the audience as distributed speaker system. Proposing a new perspective tothe social aspect music appreciation, SSN will provide a new possibility tomobile music performances in the context of in...

Decoding English Alphabet Letters Using EEG Phase Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

YiYan Wang

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Increasing evidence indicates that the phase pattern and power of the low frequency oscillations of brain electroencephalograms (EEG contain significant information during the human cognition of sensory signals such as auditory and visual stimuli. Here, we investigate whether and how the letters of the alphabet can be directly decoded from EEG phase and power data. In addition, we investigate how different band oscillations contribute to the classification and determine the critical time periods. An English letter recognition task was assigned, and statistical analyses were conducted to decode the EEG signal corresponding to each letter visualized on a computer screen. We applied support vector machine (SVM with gradient descent method to learn the potential features for classification. It was observed that the EEG phase signals have a higher decoding accuracy than the oscillation power information. Low-frequency theta and alpha oscillations have phase information with higher accuracy than do other bands. The decoding performance was best when the analysis period began from 180 to 380 ms after stimulus presentation, especially in the lateral occipital and posterior temporal scalp regions (PO7 and PO8. These results may provide a new approach for brain-computer interface techniques (BCI and may deepen our understanding of EEG oscillations in cognition.

The Relationship Between Speech, Language, and Phonological Awareness in Preschool-Age Children With Developmental Disabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Barton-Hulsey, Andrea; Sevcik, Rose A; Romski, MaryAnn

2018-05-03

A number of intrinsic factors, including expressive speech skills, have been suggested to place children with developmental disabilities at risk for limited development of reading skills. This study examines the relationship between these factors, speech ability, and children's phonological awareness skills. A nonexperimental study design was used to examine the relationship between intrinsic skills of speech, language, print, and letter-sound knowledge to phonological awareness in 42 children with developmental disabilities between the ages of 48 and 69 months. Hierarchical multiple regression was done to determine if speech ability accounted for a unique amount of variance in phonological awareness skill beyond what would be expected by developmental skills inclusive of receptive language and print and letter-sound knowledge. A range of skill in all areas of direct assessment was found. Children with limited speech were found to have emerging skills in print knowledge, letter-sound knowledge, and phonological awareness. Speech ability did not predict a significant amount of variance in phonological awareness beyond what would be expected by developmental skills of receptive language and print and letter-sound knowledge. Children with limited speech ability were found to have receptive language and letter-sound knowledge that supported the development of phonological awareness skills. This study provides implications for practitioners and researchers concerning the factors related to early reading development in children with limited speech ability and developmental disabilities.

ORTHOGRAPHIC INTERFERENCE and THE TEACHING OF BRITISH PRONUNCIATION TO TURKISH LEARNERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Prof. Dr.Sinan Bayraktaroğlu

2008-10-01

Full Text Available This article is the report of an investigation of pronunciation difficulties of Turkish speakers/learners of English which are due to differences in the sound-letter representations in the orthographies of the two languages, namely called “ortographic interference”. These difficulties are different in nature than those arising from differences in the sound sysytems of Turkish and English.1While Turkish orthography is to a large extent phonemic, i.e. employing a one-to-one letter-sound correspondence (with few exceptions such as k - kâr- ɡ - yegane- gavur, etc., English orthography, on the other hand, represents 46 sounds of the spoken language with 102 single or group of letters in the written language.Such actual difficulties arising from the differences in the orthographic sound-letter represenatations of Turkish and English are classified, evaluated, and their sources are explained through a detailed phonetic analysis as applied to research methods of “contarstive analysis” and “error analysis”, which are effective approaches in the field of Applied Linguistics and Foreign Language Learning.For different categories of difficulties, corrective exercises are recommended for the teaching and learning of English pronunciation to Turkish students.

Sound Exposure of Symphony Orchestra Musicians

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schmidt, Jesper Hvass; Pedersen, Ellen Raben; Juhl, Peter Møller

2011-01-01

dBA and their left ear was exposed 4.6 dB more than the right ear. Percussionists were exposed to high sound peaks >115 dBC but less continuous sound exposure was observed in this group. Musicians were exposed up to LAeq8h of 92 dB and a majority of musicians were exposed to sound levels exceeding......Background: Assessment of sound exposure by noise dosimetry can be challenging especially when measuring the exposure of classical orchestra musicians where sound originate from many different instruments. A new measurement method of bilateral sound exposure of classical musicians was developed...... and used to characterize sound exposure of the left and right ear simultaneously in two different symphony orchestras.Objectives: To measure binaural sound exposure of professional classical musicians and to identify possible exposure risk factors of specific musicians.Methods: Sound exposure was measured...

Particles and nuclei, letters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2001-01-01

The present collection of letters from JINR, Dubna, contains seven separate records on physics from extra dimensions, new physics in the new millennium with GENIUS: double beta decay, dark matter, solar neutrinos, the (μ - , e + ) conversion in nuclei mediated by light Majorana neutrinos, exotic muon-to-positron conversion in nuclei: partial transition sum evaluation by using shell model, solar neutrino problem accounting for self consistent magnetohydrodynamics solution for solar magnetic fields, first neutrino observations from the Sudbury neutrino observatory and status report on BOREXINO and results of the muon-background measurements at CERN

Particles and nuclei, letters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-01-01

The present collection of letters from JINR, Dubna, contains seven separate records on kinematic separation and mass analysis of heavy recoiling nuclei, dynamical effects prior to heavy ion fusion, VACTIV-DELPHI graphical dialog based program for the analysis of gamma-ray spectra, irradiation of nuclear emulsions in relativistic beams of 6 He and 3 H nuclei, optical and structural investigations of PLZT x/65/35 (x = 4, 8 %) ferroelectric ceramics irradiated by a high-current pulsed electron beam, the oscillating charge and first evidence for neutrinoless double beta decay

Multi-frequency acoustic metasurface for extraordinary reflection and sound focusing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yi-Fan Zhu

2016-12-01

Full Text Available We theoretically and numerically present the design of multi-frequency acoustic metasurfaces (MFAMs with simple structure that can work not only at fundamental frequency, but also at their harmonic frequencies, which breaks the single frequency limitation in conventional resonance-based acoustic metasurfaces. The phase matched condition for achromatic manipulation is discussed. We demonstrate achromatic extraordinary reflection and sound focusing at 1700Hz, 3400Hz, and 5100Hz, that is, they have the same reflection direction and the same focusing position. This significant feature may pave the way to new type of acoustic metasurface, and will also extend acoustic metasurface applications to strongly nonlinear source cases.

African Journals Online: Browse Alphabetically -- letter T

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Items 1 - 19 of 19 ... African Journals Online: Browse Alphabetically -- letter T ... and economic aspects of management and conservation of tropical flora and fauna. ... Les principaux thèmes qui y sont abordés recouvrent les axes de recherche ...

Modelling Hyperboloid Sound Scattering

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Burry, Jane; Davis, Daniel; Peters, Brady

2011-01-01

The Responsive Acoustic Surfaces workshop project described here sought new understandings about the interaction between geometry and sound in the arena of sound scattering. This paper reports on the challenges associated with modelling, simulating, fabricating and measuring this phenomenon using...... both physical and digital models at three distinct scales. The results suggest hyperboloid geometry, while difficult to fabricate, facilitates sound scattering....

The influence of ski helmets on sound perception and sound localisation on the ski slope

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lana Ružić

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate whether a ski helmet interferes with the sound localization and the time of sound perception in the frontal plane. Material and Methods: Twenty-three participants (age 30.7±10.2 were tested on the slope in 2 conditions, with and without wearing the ski helmet, by 6 different spatially distributed sound stimuli per each condition. Each of the subjects had to react when hearing the sound as soon as possible and to signalize the correct side of the sound arrival. Results: The results showed a significant difference in the ability to localize the specific ski sounds; 72.5±15.6% of correct answers without a helmet vs. 61.3±16.2% with a helmet (p < 0.01. However, the performance on this test did not depend on whether they were used to wearing a helmet (p = 0.89. In identifying the timing, at which the sound was firstly perceived, the results were also in favor of the subjects not wearing a helmet. The subjects reported hearing the ski sound clues at 73.4±5.56 m without a helmet vs. 60.29±6.34 m with a helmet (p < 0.001. In that case the results did depend on previously used helmets (p < 0.05, meaning that that regular usage of helmets might help to diminish the attenuation of the sound identification that occurs because of the helmets. Conclusions: Ski helmets might limit the ability of a skier to localize the direction of the sounds of danger and might interfere with the moment, in which the sound is firstly heard.

Increasing Word-Reading Speed in Poor Readers: No Additional Benefits of Explicit Letter-Cluster Training

Science.gov (United States)

Marinus, Eva; de Jong, Peter; van der Leij, Aryan

2012-01-01

The present study examined whether explicit training of letter-clusters leads to more gains in word-reading speed than training of the separate letters of the same clusters. Ninety-nine poor reading second-grade children were randomly assigned to a cluster-training, a parallel letter-training, or a no-training condition. The cluster-training…

77 FR 37318 - Eighth Coast Guard District Annual Safety Zones; Sound of Independence; Santa Rosa Sound; Fort...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-06-21

...-AA00 Eighth Coast Guard District Annual Safety Zones; Sound of Independence; Santa Rosa Sound; Fort... Coast Guard will enforce a Safety Zone for the Sound of Independence event in the Santa Rosa Sound, Fort... during the Sound of Independence. During the enforcement period, entry into, transiting or anchoring in...

The New Scarlet Letter: Student Perceptions of the Accounting Profession after Enron

Science.gov (United States)

Coleman, Mimi; Kreuze, Jerry; Langsam, Sheldon

2004-01-01

Recent scandals have tarnished the integrity of the accounting profession, marking it with a modern version of the scarlet letter "A," which represented disgrace in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter." In this study, the authors surveyed college business students on their perceptions of the accounting profession and examined how it can…

Should intellectual property be disseminated by "forwarding" rejected letters without permission?

OpenAIRE

Gupta, V K

1996-01-01

Substantive scientific letter writing is a cost-effective mode of complementing observational and experimental research. The value of such philosophically uncommitted and unsponsored well-balanced scientific activity has been relegated. Critical letter writing entails the abilities to: maintain rational scepticism; refuse to conform in order to explain data; persist in keeping common sense centre-stage; exercise logic to evaluate the biological significance of mathematical figures, including ...

Analysis and synthesis of nuclear medical letters in the field of nephrological diseases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kley, K.H.

1979-01-01

The task of this study consisted in providing the conditions for the automized issue of nuclear nephrological medical letters based on the nuclear medical polyclinic Marburg Selex system working for 8 years now. Part of the task was to develop the structure and coding of the medical letter content appropriately for EDP documentation, as in the Selex system all data for medical letter acquisition are simultaneously acquired on a data carrier for EDP documentation. The analysis of commonly provided medical letters also exhibited in this field the known weaknesses: especially insufficient systematics and the all-over information of interfering redundances. The work describes in detail how the required thesaurus has been worked out and structured into obligatory and optional rough and detailed components. A general form was developed for the findings of paired organs and the special form for nuclear nephrological medical letters was adapted to it. Of the auxiliaries worked out for the doctor in setting up the working instructions to operate the Selex system, scriptate leaflet, short vocabulary album; the two former are presented fully and the latter with typical examples. The result of this work can basically also be applied to other hardware. (orig.) [de

Material sound source localization through headphones

Science.gov (United States)

Dunai, Larisa; Peris-Fajarnes, Guillermo; Lengua, Ismael Lengua; Montaña, Ignacio Tortajada

2012-09-01

In the present paper a study of sound localization is carried out, considering two different sounds emitted from different hit materials (wood and bongo) as well as a Delta sound. The motivation of this research is to study how humans localize sounds coming from different materials, with the purpose of a future implementation of the acoustic sounds with better localization features in navigation aid systems or training audio-games suited for blind people. Wood and bongo sounds are recorded after hitting two objects made of these materials. Afterwards, they are analysed and processed. On the other hand, the Delta sound (click) is generated by using the Adobe Audition software, considering a frequency of 44.1 kHz. All sounds are analysed and convolved with previously measured non-individual Head-Related Transfer Functions both for an anechoic environment and for an environment with reverberation. The First Choice method is used in this experiment. Subjects are asked to localize the source position of the sound listened through the headphones, by using a graphic user interface. The analyses of the recorded data reveal that no significant differences are obtained either when considering the nature of the sounds (wood, bongo, Delta) or their environmental context (with or without reverberation). The localization accuracies for the anechoic sounds are: wood 90.19%, bongo 92.96% and Delta sound 89.59%, whereas for the sounds with reverberation the results are: wood 90.59%, bongo 92.63% and Delta sound 90.91%. According to these data, we can conclude that even when considering the reverberation effect, the localization accuracy does not significantly increase.

Lexical semantic access and letter access are involved in different aspects of reading

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Poulsen, Mads

). In this subset sample, both letter access and lexical access accounted for unique variance in reading fluency. The pattern of effects for lexical access did not change by controlling for serial rapid naming (RAN). Conclusions: The results suggest that letter access and lexical access are important for different......Purpose: This study investigated the effects of lexical access speed and letter access speed on reading fluency and reading comprehension. We hypothesized that 1) letter access speed would correlate with reading fluency but not comprehension, while 2) lexical access speed would influence reading...... comprehension. For readers who are struggling with recoding, most of the reading effort is probably tied up with recoding, leaving little to be explained by lexical access. Therefore we expected that 3) lexical access speed would primarily predict reading fluency for readers who were no longer struggling...

Waveform analysis of sound

CERN Document Server

Tohyama, Mikio

2015-01-01

What is this sound? What does that sound indicate? These are two questions frequently heard in daily conversation. Sound results from the vibrations of elastic media and in daily life provides informative signals of events happening in the surrounding environment. In interpreting auditory sensations, the human ear seems particularly good at extracting the signal signatures from sound waves. Although exploring auditory processing schemes may be beyond our capabilities, source signature analysis is a very attractive area in which signal-processing schemes can be developed using mathematical expressions. This book is inspired by such processing schemes and is oriented to signature analysis of waveforms. Most of the examples in the book are taken from data of sound and vibrations; however, the methods and theories are mostly formulated using mathematical expressions rather than by acoustical interpretation. This book might therefore be attractive and informative for scientists, engineers, researchers, and graduat...