Changing state disruption of lip-reading by irrelevant sound in perceptual and memory tasks

Three experiments investigated irrelevant sound interference of lip-read lists. In Experiment 1, an acoustically changing sequence of nine irrelevant utterances was more disruptive to spoken immediate identification of lists of nine lip-read digits than nine repetitions of the same utterances (the changing-state effect; Jones, Madden, & Miles, 1992). Experiment 2 replicated this finding when lip-read items were sampled with replacement from the nine digits to form the lip-read lists. In Experiment 3, when the irrelevant sound was confined to the retention interval of a delayed recall task, a changing-state pattern of disruption also occurred. Results confirm a changing-state effect in memory for lip-read items but also point to the possibility that, for lip-reading, changing-state effects may occur at an earlier, perceptual stage.

Potential energy functions for ground state surfaces of HCO and HNO

Analytical potential functions are reported for the ground state surfaces of HCO and HNO, the functions being derived from spectroscopic and ab initio data. Harmonized force fields have been deduced for the stable configurations of both molecules and vibration frequencies predicted for the metastable species COH and NOH.

Solid-state interconversions of coordination networks and hydrogen-bonded salts

Thermal or chemical treatment of crystalline 4,4-bipyridinium salts of [MCl4]2- (M=Co, Zn, Fe, or Pt) leads to HCl loss and formation of coordination network solids [{MCl2(4,4-bipy)}n]. For M=Co, Zn, and Fe, these solids can also be prepared by mechanochemical means. Their exposure to HCl vapor or the mechanochemical reaction of metal dichlorides with [4,4-H2bipy]Cl2 gives [4,4-H2bipy]2+ salts of [CoCl4]2-, [ZnCl4]2-, and, for the first time, [FeCl4]2-.

The state estimation of flow demands in gas networks from sparse pressure telemetry

This paper presents novel observer-based techniques for the estimation of flow demands in gas networks, from sparse pressure telemetry. A completely observable model is explored, constructed by incorporating difference equations that assume the flow demands are steady. Since the flow demands usually vary slowly with time, this is a reasonable approximation. Two techniques for constructing robust observers are employed: robust eigenstructure assignment and singular value assignment. These techniques help to reduce the effects of the system approximation. Modelling error may be further reduced by making use of known profiles for the flow demands. The theory is extended to deal successfully with the problem of measurement bias. The pressure measurements available are subject to constant biases which degrade the flow demand estimates, and such biases need to be estimated. This is achieved by constructing a further model variation that incorporates the biases into an augmented state vector, but now includes information about the flow demand profiles in a new form.

Long-lived excited-state dynamics of i-motif structures probed by time-resolved infrared spectroscopy

UV-generated excited states of cytosine (C) nucleobases are precursors to mutagenic photoproduct formation. The i-motif formed from C-rich sequences is known to exhibit high yields of long-lived excited states following UV absorption. Here the excited states of several i-motif structures have been characterized following 267 nm laser excitation using time-resolved infrared spectroscopy (TRIR). All structures possess a long-lived excited state of ~300 ps and notably in some cases decays greater than 1 ns are observed. These unusually long-lived lifetimes are attributed to the interdigitated DNA structure which prevents direct base stacking overlap.

Coherent state quantization of paragrassmann algebras

By using a coherent state quantization of paragrassmann variables, operators are constructed in finite Hilbert spaces. We thus obtain in a straightforward way a matrix representation of the paragrassmann algebra. This algebra of finite matrices realizes a deformed Weyl-Heisenberg algebra. The study of mean values in coherent states of some of these operators leads to interesting conclusions.

Excited State Absorption of Doped and Undoped Polyanyline

Polyaniline is a conducting polymer with appealing electrical and optical properties, arising from the -conjugation along the polymer backbone. The understanding of its excited state absorption is of prime importance for designing and fabricating optical devices. Here, we report on the study of the excited state absorption of doped and undoped PANI by using femtosecond pulses in the spectral range from 450nm up to 850nm. For undoped PANI, we observed saturation of absorption as well as reverse saturable absorption, depending on the excitation wavelength. For doped PANI, however, only saturable absorption was observed.

Ground-state energy of a classical artificial molecule

We study the ground-state energy of a classical artificial molecule formed by two-dimensional clusters (artificial atoms) of N/2 charged particles separated by a distance d. For the small molecules of N = 2 and 4, we obtain analytical expressions for this energy. For the larger ones, we calculate the ground-state energy using molecular dynamics simulation for N up to 128. From our numerical results, we are able to find out a function to approximate the ground-state energy of the molecules covering the range from atoms to molecules for any inter-atom distance d and for particle number from N = 8 to 128 within a difference less than one percent from the MD data.