Human abilities revealed through auditory tests.

Used established findings from studies of visual, musical, and speech perception abilities to guide the construction of auditory ability tests. 44 measures based on these tests were obtained from a sample of 241 adult males (mean age 25.64 yrs). Correlation and factorial analyses were used to indicate structural interrelationships and relationships with education, musical experience, general intelligence, and age. The results indicate separate capacities for Auditory Verbal Comprehension, Auditory Immediate Memory, Temporal Tracking, Auditory Cognition of Relationships, Discrimination Among Sound Patterns, Speech Perception Under Distraction/Distortion, and Maintaining and Judging Rhythm. (61 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparison of a laboratorial scale synthesized and a commercial yttria-tetragonal zirconia polycrystals ceramics submitted to microwave sintering

Conventional sintering techniques of yttria-tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (Y-TZP) ceramics have presented limitations regarding the sintering time and temperature, increasing the cost of the final dental and biomedical products. Herein, microwave sintering comes to be an interesting alternative by providing fast heating, high densification, and grain-size control. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of microwave sintering of Y-TZP dental ceramics prepared from a pre-sintered commercial block and produced from powders synthesized in a laboratorial scale by the precipitation route. The synthetized and commercial discs were submitted to microwave sintering at 1450°C and 1350°C for 15, 30, and 60 minutes. Densification, fracture toughness, grain size, and crystalline phase quantification of the sintered groups were evaluated. Both synthetized and commercial groups sintered at 1450°C for 15 and 30 minutes showed the higher densification results (98% TD). XRD quantitative phase analysis indicates that samples present 89% tetragonal and 11% cubic phases, except for the group prepared from coprecipitated powders sintered at 1450°C for 30 minutes, that presented 79% and 21% of tetragonal and cubic phases. The microwave sintering at 1450°C allows hardness and fracture toughness values comparable to conventional sintering.     

Bismuth doped PbZr0.70Ti0.30O3 ceramics and their properties driven by high temperature local polarity

Lead zirconate-titanate PbZr_0.70Ti_0.30O₃ ceramics doped with bismuth oxide has been investigated. Dielectric and optical measurements were performed to check the dopant influence on phase transitions and pre-transitional effects. It has been postulated that the temperature at which maximum permittivity occurs is not connected with structural phase transitions.     

Managing digital accessibility at universities during the COVID-19 pandemic

Universal Access in the Information Society - Students, faculty and staff with disabilities at universities have faced many digital accessibility barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the...     

The 1923 Belgrade Master Plan – historic town modernization

The paper analyses the 1923 Belgrade Master Plan's preparation and implementation process, a significant moment in Belgrade's political and urban history when, after the First World War, the city lost its centuries-long border position, becoming the capital of a newly established extended country, the Kingdom SHS, later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The goal of government and city authorities was to create a representative national capital and overcome the city's existential and functional problems. Crucial to the process was the Association of Serbian Architects and Engineers’ organization of an international competition in 1921–1922. Twenty-two projects were submitted, from Vienna, Paris, Budapest, Berlin, Zurich, Prague, etc. First prize was not awarded, but 18 were rewarded and purchased. These represented the basis for creating a final plan, supervised by G. P. Kovalevsky. The 1923 Master Plan introduced very innovative and modern approaches to solving the city's problems and improving residential areas, traffic, and greenery. The paper discusses the plan's realization, its extensive changes and partial implementation, which greatly influenced later city development. Despite obstacles, the plan initiated some important and progressive ideas whose impact was vital for the functional transformation of the city and its realization represents Belgrade's modern urban heritage.     

Stability analysis and controller synthesis for hybrid dynamical systems

Wherever continuous and discrete dynamics interact, hybrid systems arise. This is especially the case in many technological systems in which logic decision-making and embedded control actions are combined with continuous physical processes. Also for many mechanical, biological, electrical and economical systems the use of hybrid models is essential to adequately describe their behaviour. To capture the evolution of these systems, mathematical models are needed that combine in one way or another the dynamics of the continuous parts of the system with the dynamics of the logic and discrete parts. These mathematical models come in all kinds of variations, but basically consist of some form of differential or difference equations on the one hand and automata or other discrete-event models on the other hand. The collection of analysis and synthesis techniques based on these models forms the research area of hybrid systems theory, which plays an important role in the multi-disciplinary design of many technological systems that surround us. This paper presents an overview from the perspective of the control community on modelling, analysis and control design for hybrid dynamical systems and surveys the major research lines in this appealing and lively research area.     

Transforming sugars into fat – lipid biosynthesis using different sugars in Yarrowia lipolytica

In an era of ever‐increasing energy demands, a promising technology is being developed: the use of oleaginous microorganisms such as Yarrowia lipolytica to convert waste materials into biofuels. Here, we constructed two Y. lipolytica strains that displayed both increased lipid accumulation and more efficient use of biomass‐derived sugars, including glucose, fructose, galactose and inulin. The first strain, Y. lipolytica YLZ150, was derived from the French wild‐type strain W29. It had inhibited triacylglycerol mobilization (?tgl4 ) and β‐oxidation (?pox1–6 ), and it overexpressed GPD1 , DGA2 , HXK1 , the native Leloir pathway, SUC2 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and INU1 from Kluyveromyces marxianus . The second strain, Y. lipolytica Y4779, was derived from the Polish A‐101 strain. It had inhibited β‐oxidation (?mfe2 ) and overexpressed GPD1 , DGA1 , HXK1 , YHT3, SUC2 and INU1 . In the first experiment, strain YLZ150 was batch‐cultured in media containing different hexoses; the highest values for lipid concentration and yield of lipids from the substrate were obtained using fructose (20.3 g dm^?3 and 0.14 g g^?1, respectively). In the second experiment, we grew the two strains in fed‐batch cultures to examine lipid biosynthesis from inulin (a fructose polymer). For Y4779, the lipid concentration was 10.3 g dm^?3 and the yield of lipids from substrate was 0.07 g g^?1; in contrast, for YLZ150, these values were 24 g dm^?3 and 0.16 g g^?1, respectively. The YLZ150 strain is thus able to efficiently exploit glucose, fructose, galactose, sucrose and inulin for lipid biosynthesis. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.