Adaptive inverse filters for stereophonic sound reproduction

A general theoretical basis for the design of adaptive digital filters used for the equalization of the response of multichannel sound reproduction systems is described. The approach is applied to the two-channel case and then extended to deal with arbitrary numbers of channels. The intention is to equalize not only the response of the loudspeakers and the listening room but also the crosstalk transmission from right loudspeaker to left ear and vice versa. The formulation is a generalization of the Atal-Schroeder crosstalk canceler. However, the use of a least-squares approach to the digital filter design and of appropriate modeling delays potentially allows the effective equalization of nonminimum phase components in the transmission path. A stochastic gradient algorithm which facilitates the adaptation of the digital filters to the optimal solution, thereby providing the possibility of designing the filters in situ, is presented. Some experimental results for the two-channel case are given     

Local Structure of Alkaline-Earth Boroaluminate Crystals and Glasses: II, 11B and 27Al MAS NMR Spectroscopy of Alkaline-Earth Boroaluminate Glasses

¹¹B and ²⁷Al magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS NMR) spectra of alkaline-earth boroaluminate glasses show that the structure of these glasses are far more complicated than previously thought. The relative concentrations of 3- and 4-coordinated boron vary as found by previous investigators using continuous-wave NMR methods, but the ²⁷Al NMR spectra indicate the presence of Al in 4-, 5-, and 6-fold coordination, in contrast to previous assignments. Analysis of the data based on local charge balance considerations provides a qualitative model that correctly predicts compositional variations of the NMR peak intensities and ²⁷Al chemical shifts for a wide range of boroaluminate glass compositions.     

Implicit processing in the cued recall of young and old adults.

Reports 2 cued recall experiments in which younger and older Ss studied target words varying in number of preexperimental associates. In Exp 1, targets were studied in either the absence or presence of meaning-related context cues, with recall always prompted by the cues. In the absence of context, words with smaller sets of associates were easier to recall than those with larger sets, but this effect was reduced for older Ss. The presence of a study context cue facilitated recall and eliminated the effect of associative set size for both ages. In Exp 2, targets were studied and tested in the presence of unrelated words. In this situation, words with smaller sets of associates were less likely to be recalled than words with larger sets; again the effect was reduced for older Ss. The results are interpreted as an age decrement in processing implicitly activated information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mutagenic consequences of the incorporation of 6-thioguanine into DNA

The stimulatory effect of phytin added to skim milk on acid production of Lactobacillus casei was examined. Phytin stimulated acid production of L. casei fairly well. The stimulatory effect of phytin on acid production was not shown when phytin was treated with Dowex 50 (H+) and neutralized by NaOH solution. The incinerated product of phytin maintained almost equal stimulatory effect on acid production as that before processing. The addition of Mn2+ in the amount contained in a reagent phytin augmented the stimulatory effect on acid production markedly. The further addition of Fe3+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and PO4(3-) in amounts corresponding to their contents in the preparation of phytin as well as Mn2+ increased the effect slightly. The four preparations of phytin contained 0.045-0.20% of Mn, and the greater the Mn content was, the greater the potentiation of acid production.     

The introduction of alkyl,ester, carboxylate,amino, hydroxyl,and phosphate functional groups to the surface of polyethylene

The surface of polyethylene was derivatized with ester, carboxylate, amino, hydroxyl, and phosphate functional groups. α, ω bifunctional alkanes, containing on one end a primary amine, were coupled to oxidized polyethylene through an amide linkage. Polyethylene was first oxidized with chromic acid, the carboxylate groups were converted to the acyl chloride with phosphorus pentachloride, and then reacted with a primary amine to give the covalently bound amide. The copposing ends of the bifunctional alkanes were the methyl, tertiary amine, ester, and hydroxyl groups. The ester was converted to the carboxylate by acid cleavage and the hydroxyl group converted to the phosphate by treatment first with phosphorus oxychloride and then aqueous base. Attenuated total reflection FTIR, XPS, and pH-dependent contact angle wetting were used to characterize the surfaces. The FTIR data were used to confirm the formation of the amide and to detect an undesired carboxylate/ammonium ion complex formed in the presence of trace amounts of water. XPS data were used to confirm expected changes in elemental composition and to provide quantitative estimates of the yields. Oxidation of the polyethylene introduced 5 × 10¹⁴ carboxylate groups/cm² in the 25 Å XPS sampling depth. Of these, up to 98% could be converted to the amide. The advancing contact angle data confirmed the acid/base behavior of the functional groups.     

Word-fragment cuing: The lexical search hypothesis.

In four experiments we evaluated aspects of the hypothesis that word-fragment completion depends on the results of lexical but not semantic search. Experiment 1 showed that the number of meaningful associates linked to a studied word does not affect its recovery when the test cue consists of letters and spaces for missing letters. Experiments 2 and 3 showed retroactive interference effects in fragment completion when words in a second list were lexically related to words in a first list but not when the words in the second list were meaningfully related. Experiment 4 indicated that for studied words, instructions to search at the word level facilitated completion performance and that instructions to generate letters to fill missing spaces had no effect. Other findings indicate that completion was affected by the number of words lexically related to the fragment and by the number of letters missing from the fragment. In general, experimental manipulations that focused on lexical characteristics were effective, and those that focused on semantic characteristics were ineffective. The findings support the conclusion that word fragments engender a lexical search process that does not depend on retrieving encoded meaning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Effect of Polymer Optoelectronic Properties on the Performance of Multilayer Hybrid Polymer/TiO2 Solar Cells

We report a study of the effects of polymer optoelectronic properties on the performance of photovoltaic devices consisting of nanocrystalline TiO₂ and a conjugated polymer. Three different poly(2‐methoxy‐5‐(2′‐ethylhexoxy)‐1,4‐phenylenevinylene) (MEH‐PPV)‐based polymers and a fluorene–bithiophene copolymer are compared. We use photoluminescence quenching, time‐of‐flight mobility measurements, and optical spectroscopy to characterize the exciton‐transport, charge‐transport, and light‐harvesting properties, respectively, of the polymers, and correlate these material properties with photovoltaic‐device performance. We find that photocurrent is primarily limited by the photogeneration rate and by the quality of the interfaces, rather than by hole transport in the polymer. We have also studied the photovoltaic performance of these TiO₂/polymer devices as a function of the fabrication route and device design. Including a dip‐coating step before spin‐coating the polymer leads to excellent polymer penetration into highly structured TiO₂ networks, as was confirmed through transient optical measurements of the photoinduced charge‐transfer yield and recombination kinetics. Device performance is further improved for all material combinations studied, by introducing a layer of poly(ethylene dioxythiophene) (PEDOT) doped with poly(styrene sulfonic acid) (PSS) under the top contact. Optimized devices incorporating the additional dip‐coated and PEDOT:PSS layers produced a short‐circuit current density of about 1 mA cm^–2, a fill factor of 0.50, and an open‐circuit voltage of 0.86 V under simulated AM 1.5 illumination (100 mW cm^–2, 1 sun). The corresponding power conversion efficiency under 1 sun was ≥ 0.4 %.     

Transient Green’s Tensor for a Layered Solid Half-Space With Different Interface Conditions

Pulsed ultrasonic techniques can be and have been used to examine the interface conditions of a bonded structure. To provide a theoretical basis for such testing techniques we model the structure as a layer on top of a half-space, both of different elastic properties, with various interface bonding conditions. The exact dynamic Green’s tensor for such a structure is explicitly derived from the three-dimensional equations of motion. The final solution is a series. Each term of the series corresponds to a successive arrival of a “generalized ray” and each is a definite line integral along a fixed path which can be easily computed numerically. Willis’ method is used in the derivation. A new scheme of automatic generation of the arrivals and ray paths using combinatorial analysis, along with the summation of the corresponding products of reflection coefficients is presented. A FORTRAN code is developed for computation of the Green’s tensor when both the source and the detector are located on the top surface. The Green’s tensor is then used to simulate displacements due to pulsed ultrasonic point sources of known time waveform. Results show that the interface bonding conditions have a great influence on the transient displacements. For example, when the interface bonding conditions vary, some of the first few head waves and regular reflected rays change polarities and amplitudes. This phenomenon can be used to infer the quality of the interface bond of materials in ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation. In addition the results are useful in the study of acoustic microscopy probes, coatings, and geo-exploration.