Tone sequences with conflicting fundamental pitch and timbre changes are heard differently by musicians and nonmusicians.

An Auditory Ambiguity Test (AAT) was taken twice by nonmusicians, musical amateurs, and professional musicians. The AAT comprised different tone pairs, presented in both within-pair orders, in which overtone spectra rising in pitch were associated with missing fundamental frequencies (F0) falling in pitch, and vice versa. The F0 interval ranged from 2 to 9 semitones. The participants were instructed to decide whether the perceived pitch went up or down; no information was provided on the ambiguity of the stimuli. The majority of professionals classified the pitch changes according to F0, even at the smallest interval. By contrast, most nonmusicians classified according to the overtone spectra, except in the case of the largest interval. Amateurs ranged in between. A plausible explanation for the systematic group differences is that musical practice systematically shifted the perceptual focus from spectral toward missing-F0 pitch, although alternative explanations such as different genetic dispositions of musicians and nonmusicians cannot be ruled out. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimental Modelling using Low Melting Point Metallic Melts: Relevance for Metallurgical Engineering

This paper describes model experiments with liquid metals of low melting point as an important tool to investigate the flow structure and related transport processes in melt flows being relevant for metallurgical applications. Three examples have been selected to demonstrate the benefit of such experiments, namely the electromagnetic stirring of a metallic melt in a pool, the directional solidification of Al‐Si alloys under the influence of an electromagnetically driven flow and the behaviour of a liquid metal bubble plume if a vertically travelling field is applied. Results of flow measurements are presented and the relevance for metallurgical processes is discussed.     

MARQUIS: GENERATION OF USER-TAILORED MULTILINGUAL AIR QUALITY BULLETINS

Air pollution has a major influence on health. It is thus not surprising that air quality (AQ) increasingly becomes a central issue in the environmental information policy worldwide. The most common way to deliver AQ information is in terms of graphics, tables, pictograms, or color scales that display either the concentrations of the pollutant substances or the corresponding AQ indices. However, all of these presentation modi lack the explanatory dimension; nor can they be easily tailored to the needs of the individual users. MARQUIS is an AQ information generation service that produces user-tailored multilingual bulletins on the major measured and forecasted air pollution substances and their relevance to human health in five European regions. It incorporates modules for the assessment of pollutant time series episodes with respect to their relevance to a given addressee, for planning of the discourse structure of the bulletins and the selection of the adequate presentation mode, and for generation proper. The positive evaluation of the bulletins produced by MARQUIS by users shows that the use of automatic text generation techniques in such a complex and sensitive application is feasible.     

Fractal fragmentation of rocks within sturzstroms: insight derived from physical experiments within the ETH geotechnical drum centrifuge

An investigation of the behaviour and energy budget of sturzstroms has been carried out using physical, analytical and numerical modelling techniques. Sturzstroms are rock slides of very large volume and extreme run out, which display intensive fragmentation of blocks of rock due to inter-particle collisions within a collisional flow. Results from centrifugal model experiments provide strong arguments to allow the micro-mechanics and energy budget of sturzstroms to be described quantitatively by a fractal comminution model. A numerical experiment using a distinct element method (DEM) indicates rock mass and boundary conditions, which allow an alternating fragmenting and dilating dispersive regime to evolve and to sustain for long enough to replicate the spreading and run out of sturzstroms without needing to resort to peculiar mechanism. The fragmenting spreading model supported here is able to explain the run out of a fluid-absent granular flow beyond the travel distance predicted by a Coulomb frictional sliding model. This, and its strong relation to internal fragmentation, suggests that a sturzstrom constitutes a landslide category of its own. This study provides a novel framework for the understanding the physics of such sturzstroms.     

Integrated simulation method for investment decisions of micro production systems

From a production logistics point of view, micro production systems need special methods due to their special requirements and characteristics. In this paper a new approach for the assessment of different investment scenarios during the planning period with integrated cost simulation is presented. In particular, the use of single-purpose and multi-purpose machines and the cost effectiveness of function integration are examined. Thereby alternative machine pool configurations and optimal costs can be analysed, determined and taken into consideration for investment decisions.     

Zur Strömungssimulation in gasgerührten metallurgischen Pfannen

Zur Erfassung der Strömungsverhältnisse in Kaltmodellen bodengeblasener Stahlwerkspfannen wurden theoretische und experimentelle Untersuchungen durchgeführt. Frühere Berechnungen laminarer Strömungen, die unter stark vereinfachenden Annahmen vorgenommen wurden, zeigen nur tendenzielle Übereinstimmungen zu den mit LDA-Verfahren ermittelten Strömungsbildern. Durch die Entwicklung der Großrechneranlagen ist der Einsatz von Strömungssimulationsprogrammen möglich, mit denen auch turbulente Strömungen berechnet werden können. Der Vergleich der berechneten Geschwindigkeitsvektorfelder mit den gemessenen Vektorfeldern zeigt eine grundsätzlich übereinstimmende Darstellung der Strömungsverläufe. Jedoch werden die im Experiment an Wassermodellen beobachteten Gegenwirbel und Ablösungen der Abwärtsströmungen von der Gefäßwand rechnerisch nicht erfaßt. Nur die numerische Simulation für zähere Flüssigkeiten (Paraffinöl) zeigt eine von der Wand abgelöste Abwärtsströmung und die Ausbildung eines Gegenwirbels. Man kommt also nicht umhin, neben der mathematischen Modellierung auch praktische Versuche durchzuführen, wie man umgekehrt die physikalischen Modelle mit mathematischen begleiten sollte.     

The planning of Berlin's city and historic centre

Since the fall of the Wall, there has been heavy international investment in building in East Berlin. On the whole, efforts have remained marginal. Only the western part of East Berlin with its baroque grid has been developed. The central and eastern parts remain as they were. The planning for City East follows four main criteria: to redefine the historic core by structural means without resort to architectural pastiche; to redesign the major roads which occupy much of the historic centre; to restructure the modernism of the GDR capital without demolishing the (mainly prefabricated) buildings; to form an idea of the third town which would be developed by merging existing features with our new plan.     

Residual Stress State of Brazed Ceramic/Metal Compounds, Determined by Analytical Methods and X-ray Residual Stress Measurements

The residual stress state of brazed ceramic/metal compounds is described by means of X-ray residual stress determinations and analytical calculations using a model of three elastic infinite plates. It is shown that the residual stress state of the soldered compound depends on the materials combination and on the geometrical conditions. The combination of X-ray residual stress measurements and analytical calculations allows decisions on whether the assumption of a linear elastic model, based on elementary bending theory, is valid for the particular compounds.     

Möglichkeiten zur Vorausberechnung von Verweilzeitverteilungen

Possible Approaches to the Prediction of Residence Time Distributions Although the experimental determination of residence time distributions is based on a black-box method, the signal shape also permits certain conclusions to be drawn about the internal conditions. However, if it is to provide a sole basis for elucidating process steps in a plant this method is soon overtaxed. A deeper theoretical penetration of the pertinent transport processes opens up the way ahead. However, since residence time distributions are based on mass-oriented considerations, substantial advances in fluid mechanics, where location-based considerations predominate, have not led to improved predictive capability. Yet the computer power now available offers a variety of ways of calculating residence-time distributions for a known flow profile, thus permitting a step in the direction of better predictability of residence time distributions. This article presents utilisable methods and evaluates them with regard to their demands on time and effort and their predictive power. Problems arising in connection with the models are discussed.