Demodulation of Narrowband Speech Spectrograms Using the Riesz Transform

We propose a two-dimensional (2-D) multicomponent amplitude-modulation, frequency-modulation (AM-FM) model for a spectrogram patch corresponding to voiced speech, and develop a new demodulation algorithm to effectively separate the AM, which is related to the vocal tract response, and the carrier, which is related to the excitation. The demodulation algorithm is based on the Riesz transform and is developed along the lines of Hilbert-transform-based demodulation for 1-D AM-FM signals. We compare the performance of the Riesz transform technique with that of the sinusoidal demodulation technique on real speech data. Experimental results show that the Riesz-transform-based demodulation technique represents spectrogram patches accurately. The spectrograms reconstructed from the demodulated AM and carrier are inverted and the corresponding speech signal is synthesized. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the reconstructed speech signal, with respect to clean speech, was found to be 2 to 4 dB higher in case of the Riesz transform technique than the sinusoidal demodulation technique.

Factors affecting distribution of fish within a tidally drained mangrove forest in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India

Mangrove forests in meso-tidal areas are completely drained during low tides, forming only temporary habitats for fish. We hypothesised that in such temporary habitats, where stranding risks are high, distance from tidal creeks that provided access to inundated areas during receding tides would be the primary determinant of fish distribution. Factors such as depth, root density and shade were hypothesised to have secondary effects. We tested these hypotheses in a tidally drained mangrove patch in the Andaman Islands, India. Using stake nets, we measured fish abundance and species richness relative to distance from creeks, root density/m(2), shade, water depth and size (total length) of fish. We also predicted that larger fish (including potential predators) would be closer to creeks, as they faced a greater chance of mortality if stranded. Thus we conducted tethering trials to examine if predation would be greater close to the creeks. Generalised linear mixed effects models showed that fish abundance was negatively influenced by increasing creek distance interacting with fish size and positively influenced by depth. Quantile regression analysis showed that species richness was limited by increasing creek distance. Proportion of predation was greatest close to the creeks (0-25 m) and declined with increasing distance. Abundance was also low very close to the creeks, suggesting that close to the creeks predation pressure may be an important determinant of fish abundance. The overall pattern however indicates that access to permanently inundated areas, may be an important determinant of fish distribution in tidally drained mangrove forests.

Weak conservation of structural features in the interfaces of homologous transient protein-protein complexes

Residue types at the interface of protein-protein complexes (PPCs) are known to be reasonably well conserved. However, we show, using a dataset of known 3-D structures of homologous transient PPCs, that the 3-D location of interfacial residues and their interaction patterns are only moderately and poorly conserved, respectively. Another surprising observation is that a residue at the interface that is conserved is not necessarily in the interface in the homolog. Such differences in homologous complexes are manifested by substitution of the residues that are spatially proximal to the conserved residue and structural differences at the interfaces as well as differences in spatial orientations of the interacting proteins. Conservation of interface location and the interaction pattern at the core of the interfaces is higher than at the periphery of the interface patch. Extents of variability of various structural features reported here for homologous transient PPCs are higher than the variation in homologous permanent homomers. Our findings suggest that straightforward extrapolation of interfacial nature and inter-residue interaction patterns from template to target could lead to serious errors in the modeled complex structure. Understanding the evolution of interfaces provides insights to improve comparative modeling of PPC structures.

Entropy Constrained Exemplar-based Image Inpainting

Image inpainting is the process of filling the unwanted region in an image marked by the user. It is used for restoring old paintings and photographs, removal of red eyes from pictures, etc. In this paper, we propose an efficient inpainting algorithm which takes care of false edge propagation. We use the classical exemplar based technique to find out the priority term for each patch. To ensure that the edge content of the nearest neighbor patch found by minimizing L-2 distance between patches, we impose an additional constraint that the entropy of the patches be similar. Entropy of the patch acts as a good measure of edge content. Additionally, we fill the image by considering overlapping patches to ensure smoothness in the output. We use structural similarity index as the measure of similarity between ground truth and inpainted image. The results of the proposed approach on a number of examples on real and synthetic images show the effectiveness of our algorithm in removing objects and thin scratches or text written on image. It is also shown that the proposed approach is robust to the shape of the manually selected target. Our results compare favorably to those obtained by existing techniques

Synergistic effect of polymorphism, substrate conductivity and electric field stimulation towards enhancing muscle cell growth in vitro

Poly(vinylidene difluoride), a well-known candidate for artificial muscle patch applications is a semi-crystalline polymer with a host of attributes such as piezo- and pyroelectricity, polymorphism along with low dielectric constant and stiffness. The present work explores the unique interplay among the factors (conductivity, polymorphism and electrical stimulation) towards cell proliferation on poly(vinylidene difluoride) (PVDF)-based composites. In this regard, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) are introduced in the PVDF matrix (limited to 2%) through melt mixing to increase the conductivity of PVDF. The addition of MWNTs also led to an increase in the fraction of piezoelectric beta-phase, tensile strength and modulus. The melting and crystallization behaviour of PVDF-MWNT together with FT-IR confirms that the crystallization is found to be aided by the presence of MWNT. The conducting PVDF-MWNTs are used as substrates for the growth of C2C12 mouse myoblast cells and electrical stimulation with a range of field strengths (0-2 V cm(-1)) is intermittently delivered to the cells in culture. The cell viability results suggest that metabolically active cell numbers can statistically increase with electric stimulation up to 1 V cm(-1), only on the PVDF + 2% MWNT. Summarising, the current study highlights the importance of biophysical cues on cellular function at the cell-substrate interface. This study further opens up new avenues in designing conducting substrates, that can be utilized for enhancing cell viability and proliferation and also reconfirms the lack of toxicity of MWNTs, when added in a tailored manner.

Atomistic Simulation of Stacked Nucleosome Core Particles: Tail Bridging, the H4 Tail, and Effect of Hydrophobic Forces

We report the first atomistic simulation of two stacked nucleosome core particles (NCPs), with an aim to understand, in molecular detail, how they interact, the effect of salt concentration, and how different histone tails contribute to their interaction, with a special emphasis on the H4 tail, known to have the largest stabilizing effect on the NCP-NCP interaction. We do not observe specific K16-mediated interaction between the H4 tail and the H2A-H2B acidic patch, in contrast with the findings from crystallographic studies, but find that the stacking was stable even in the absence of this interaction. We perform simulations with the H4 tail (partially/completely) removed and find that the region between LYS-16 and LYS-20 of the H4 tail holds special importance in mediating the inter-NCP interaction. Performing similar tail-clipped simulations with the H3 tail removed, we compare the roles of the H3 and H4 tails in maintaining the stacking. We discuss the relevance of our simulation results to the bilayer and other liquid-crystalline phases exhibited by NCPs in vitro and, through an analysis of the histone-histone interface, identify the interactions that could possibly stabilize the inter-NCP interaction in these columnar mesophases. Through the mechanical disruption of the stacked nucleosome system using steered molecular dynamics, we quantify the strength of inter-NCP stacking in the presence and absence of salt. We disrupt the stacking at some specific sites of internucleosomal tail-DNA contact and perform a comparative quantification of the binding strengths of various tails in stabilizing the stacking. We also examine how hydrophobic interactions may contribute to the overall stability of the stacking and find a marked difference in the role of hydrophobic forces as compared with electrostatic forces in determining the stability of the stacked nucleosome system.

Transient potassium channels augment degeneracy in hippocampal active dendritic spectral tuning

Hippocampal pyramidal neurons express an intraneuronal map of spectral tuning mediated by hyperpolarization-activated cyclic-nucleotide-gated nonspecific-cation channels. Modeling studies have predicted a critical regulatory role for A-type potassium (KA) channels towards augmenting functional robustness of this map. To test this, we performed patch-clamp recordings from soma and dendrites of rat hippocampal pyramidal neurons, and measured spectral tuning before and after blocking KA channels using two structurally distinct pharmacological agents. Consistent with computational predictions, we found that blocking KA channels resulted in a significant reduction in resonance frequency and significant increases in input resistance, impedance amplitude and action-potential firing frequency across the somato-apical trunk. Furthermore, across all measured locations, blocking KA channels enhanced temporal summation of postsynaptic potentials and critically altered the impedance phase profile, resulting in a significant reduction in total inductive phase. Finally, pair-wise correlations between intraneuronal percentage changes (after blocking KA channels) in different measurements were mostly weak, suggesting differential regulation of different physiological properties by KA channels. Our results unveil a pivotal role for fast transient channels in regulating theta-frequency spectral tuning and intrinsic phase response, and suggest that degeneracy with reference to several coexisting functional maps is mediated by cross-channel interactions across the active dendritic arbor.

Efecto de los factores nutricionales en la propagación in vitro de quequisque (Xanthosoma sagittifolium L.)

Esta investigación se llevó a cabo en el Laboratorio de CUltivo deTejidos Vegetales del Programa de Recursos Genéticos Nicaragüenses (REGEN) en la Universidad Nacional Agraria, con el objetivo de determinar el medio de cultivo apropiado en la micro propagación de Xanthosoma sagíttifolíum L. mediante la determinación del efecto del pH, macro y micronutrientes, sacarosa, agua de coco y vitamina. El estudio se realizó en tres etapas. En cada una se utilizó un diseño completamente aleatorizado (DCA) para evaluar las variables: altura de planta, número de raíces, número de hojas y número de hijos. En la primera etapa se evaluaron cinco grados de pH. Se estudiaron los pH 3.7, 4.7, 5.7, 6.7 y 7.7. Se hizo un análisis de regresión que demostró que pH entre 5.7 y 6.7 - produjeron los mejores resultados en todas las variables evaluadas. En la segunda etapa se evaluaron las concentraciones 50, 90 y 130 % de macro y micronutrientes utilizadas en el medio nutritivo Murashige y Skoog. Se hizo un análisis de varianza (ANDEVA) y no se encontró efecto significativo en los porcentajes de micronutrientes estudiados ni en la interacción entre macro y micronutrientes. Sin embargo, los macronutrientes presentaron efecto significativo en el número de hojas y raíces, obteniendo los mejores resultados con el 50% de macronutrientes. En la tercera etapa se estudió el efecto de diferentes concentraciones de sacarosa, agua de coco y vitamina días después de la inoculación El análisis de varianza realizado indicó que la sacarosa presentó efecto significativo en todas las variables estudiadas. Con 30 g/1 de sacarosa se obtuvo el mayor promedio de altura de planta y el mayor número de hijos. Con 45 g/1 el mayor número de raíces y el mayor número de hojas se obtuvo con 15 g/1. El agua de coco presentó efecto significativo en todas las variables. El uso de 150 ml/1 de agua de coco produjo los mejores promedios en altura de planta, número de raíces y número de hijos; sin embargo con 50 ml/1 se obtuvo el mayor número de hojas. La vitamina B12 (tiamina HCl) presentó efecto simple significativo en las variables altura de planta y número de hijos obteniendo los mayores promedios con 10 ml/1. En el número de hojas presentó efecto en interacción con la sacarosa y en el número de raíces no hubo efecto significativo.

Efecto de diferentes niveles de nitrógeno y densidades de siembra sobre el crecimiento, desarrollo y rendimiento del cultivo de maiz (Zea mays L.) var. NB-6

Con el propósito de evaluar el efecto de tres niveles de Nitrógeno y tres Densidades de siembra, sobre el crecimiento, desarrollo y rendimiento del cultivo del maíz, Var. NB-6, se estableció un ensayo durante la época de postrera de 1999, en la unidad de producción" El Plantel ", ubicada a 200 msnm, 12° 03' latitud norte y 86° 06' longitud oeste. Los factores en estudio consistieron en Nitrógeno (60,90 y 120 kg 1 ha) y densidad (71000, 85000 y 95000 plts 1 ha). Se utilizó un experimento bifactorial, con arreglo de bloques completamente al azar (B. C. A) con cuatro repeticiones. A los resultados de las variables evaluadas realizó un análisis de varianza (ANDEVA) y separación de rangos múltiples de medias de Duncan con un é2=0.05. Los resultados para el factor Nitrógeno no presentó un significativo para las variables de crecimiento, sin embargo el factor densidades, mostró diferencias significativas para la altura y el contenido de clorofila. En lo que respecta a los componentes del rendimiento el factor Nitrógeno, tuvo influencia significativa para el número de hileras por mazorca, no así para los demás componentes. El factor densidad mostró efecto significativo sobre el número de plantas cosechadas y el rendimiento de grano, obteniéndose el mejor resultado con la densidad de 95000 plts 1 ha. Los resultados del análisis económico muestran que la mejor relación Beneficio/Costo es de 7.2 y se obtuvo con el tratamiento 60 kg /ha de Nitrógeno y 95000 plts /ha.

Anaesthetic impairment of immune function is mediated via GABA(A) receptors.

BACKGROUND: GABA(A) receptors are members of the Cys-loop family of neurotransmitter receptors, proteins which are responsible for fast synaptic transmission, and are the site of action of wide range of drugs. Recent work has shown that Cys-loop receptors are present on immune cells, but their physiological roles and the effects of drugs that modify their function in the innate immune system are currently unclear. We are interested in how and why anaesthetics increase infections in intensive care patients; a serious problem as more than 50% of patients with severe sepsis will die. As many anaesthetics act via GABA(A) receptors, the aim of this study was to determine if these receptors are present on immune cells, and could play a role in immunocompromising patients. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We demonstrate, using RT-PCR, that monocytes express GABA(A) receptors constructed of α1, α4, β2, γ1 and/or δ subunits. Whole cell patch clamp electrophysiological studies show that GABA can activate these receptors, resulting in the opening of a chloride-selective channel; activation is inhibited by the GABA(A) receptor antagonists bicuculline and picrotoxin, but not enhanced by the positive modulator diazepam. The anaesthetic drugs propofol and thiopental, which can act via GABA(A) receptors, impaired monocyte function in classic immunological chemotaxis and phagocytosis assays, an effect reversed by bicuculline and picrotoxin. SIGNIFICANCE: Our results show that functional GABA(A) receptors are present on monocytes with properties similar to CNS GABA(A) receptors. The functional data provide a possible explanation as to why chronic propofol and thiopental administration can increase the risk of infection in critically ill patients: their action on GABA(A) receptors inhibits normal monocyte behaviour. The data also suggest a potential solution: monocyte GABA(A) receptors are insensitive to diazepam, thus the use of benzodiazepines as an alternative anesthetising agent may be advantageous where infection is a life threatening problem.

La nupcialidad entre la estética teológica y la ontología trinitaria

Resumen: Este artículo se propone situar la categoría de nupcialidad en la circularidad hermenéutica entre lo antropológico y lo trinitario, a fin de recuperar su poder especulativo y reconfigurador tanto para la teología como para la filosofía y la mística contemporáneas. Para ello se apela a la fuerza de las existencias teologales de Juan de la Cruz, Edith Stein y Christophe Lebreton. A partir de sus testimonios el artículo postula una relación fecunda entre Estética teológica y Ontología trinitaria que redunda en una caracterización actualizada de la nupcialidad compuesta por ocho notas distintivas que el texto desarrolla.

Letras, 2002, nº 45 (número completo)

Contenido: “Ni razón ni palabra” de Edgar Bayley: momento de transición / María Amelia Arancet Ruda – Metonimia y fantasma. Modalidades del ectoplasma en el Río de la Plata / José Mariano García – “Hombres de maíz”, una rapsodia americana / Graciela Maturo – Autobiografía y ficción en “Un verano en Tenerife” de Dulce María Loynaz / María Lucía Puppo – La condición posmoderna en la narrativa española / Analía Vélez de Villa – La armoniosa poesía de Francisco Luis Bernárdez / Gloria Videla de Rivero – Borges y Schopenhauer / Carmen Balzer – El catálogo de los ejércitos: un motivo tradicional en “The lord of the rings” / Jorge Ferro – Función y significado de las historias en “Stiller” de Max Frisch / María Esther Mangariello – La ciudad de New York a comienzos del siglo XX, bajo las miradas de Henry James y Edith Wharton / Rosa E. M. D. Penna – Reseñas bibliográficas

Los Suelos de la Finca "Las Mercedes" y las propiedades más relevantes para planear su uso y manejo

Este trabajo se efectuó en la finca “las mercedes” propiedad del instituto superior de ciencias agropecuarias. Consistió en realizar un levantamiento de suelos a nivel muy detallado (escala 1.5, 000), con la finalidad de conocer las principales propiedades de sus suelos. Estas propiedades resultan del proceso de información y evaluación del suelos y su conocimiento permite elaborar criterios valioso para plantear el uso y manejo más propiado para la finca. El patrón de distribución de los suelos y la delimitación de sus linderos se realizó mediante un muestreo sistemático, además se hizo la descripción y toma de muestra en calicatas, para su posterior análisis en el laboratorio. Se hicieron pruebas de permeabilidad e infiltración básica.

Existencia y donación : tres momentos de una experiencia

Resumen: El trabajo trata de poner en evidencia ayudado por la obra de Edith Stein, una experiencia humana que ha sido formulada filosóficamente de diferentes maneras en tres momentos de la historia, el medieval, el moderno y el de nuestros contemporáneos: la experiencia de la existencia como donación. Señala también algunas derivaciones para la ética de esta experiencia y su comprensión filosófica en la articulación de la categoría del don con la de la presencia personal y la libertad

Letras, 2003-2004, nº 48-49 (número completo)

Contenido: Nota preliminar – La transcripción de textos incluídos en los primeros impresos castellanos: algunos problemas aún sin resolver /Lilia E. Ferrario de Orduna – Símbolos “primarios” y relato “ mítico” según Paul Ricoeur en el “Libro de Buen Amor” / Sofía M. Carrizo Rueda – Adán de San Víctor y las sequentiae en las “Cantigas de Santa María” del Rey Sabio / Santiago Disalvo – Andanzas por la sierra en el “Libro de Buen Amor” / Lía Noemí Uriarte Rebaudi – Obras menores en cuaderna vía: esbozo de un panorama para el siglo XIV / María Cristina Balestrini – Algunas cuestiones vinculadas con el “Libro de Séneca hordenado e dispuesto contra la yra e saña”: fecha de composición, traductor e intencionalidad / Juan Héctor Fuentes – Legitimación y consejo en “Castigos e documentos” del rey Sancho IV / Diana Leila Albornoz – Las veinte primeras coplas del “Rimado de Palacio”: la construcción de una voz confesante / Lorena Edith Pacheco ; Gloria Edith Siracusa – Nájera en Ayala: doctrina y discurso / Jorge N. Ferro – Adiciones unitarias a la versión primitiva de las crónicas de Pero López de Ayala / José Luis Moure – Estructura y estilo del “Tratado del Aojamiento” / Lidia Beatriz Ciapparelli – Consideraciones sobre las virtudes en Mosén Diego de Valera / Hugo Roberto Basualdo Miranda ; María del Carmen Maurín ; Ángel Alfredo Atencio Santander – La historia del mago Merlín desde la perspectiva demonológica de la Baja Edad Media / Mónica Nasif – Evolución del topos constantinopolitano en los libros de caballerías: el caso de “Cirongilio de Tracia” de Bernardo de Vargas / Javier Roberto González – Las doncellas seductoras en los libros de caballerías españoles / María del Rosario Aguilar – Los procedimientos jurídico-deliberativos en el “Amadís de Gaula” / Silvia Cristina Lastra Paz – La imagen del moro en la “Leyenda de los infantes de Lara” / Irene Zaderenko – La finalidad del “Libro de Apolonio” / Carlos Crida – La estructura narrativa de las “Mocedades de Rodrigo” / Leonardo Funes – Edición crítica del manuscrito escurialense M-III-7 (Libro de las maravillas del mundo, de Juan de Mandevilla). Problemas y respuestas / María Mercedes Rodríguez