The costs and benefits of tonal centers for chord processing.

Harmonic priming studies have shown that a musical context, with its established tonal center, influences target chord processing. This study investigated costs and benefits of priming tonal centers for target processing by adding a baseline condition (sequences without a specific tonal center). Results confirmed harmonic priming, with faster processing for related than for unrelated and less related targets (tonic chord, out-of-key chord, subdominant chord). Comparing targets in baseline contexts with targets in sequences with well-established tonal centers revealed a benefit of processing for related targets but a cost of processing for unrelated and less related targets. Findings are discussed in terms of tonal knowledge activation and suggest that an activated tonal center gives rise to strong expectations for the tonic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Systematics study through scanning electron microscopy; a tool for the authentication of herbal drug Mentha suaveolens Ehrh

In all over the world, herbal drugs are usually adulterated with similar species or varieties due to incorrect identification. Most of herbal products devoid purity and quality, therefore an attempt was carried out to identify plant species and authenticate its herbal drug products from Mentha suaveolens. Microscopy tools provide an excellent platform to identify plants at species level. In this study, microscopic and pharmacokinetic parameters of M. suaveolens were observed. Plant species were collected from high diverse areas of Northern Pakistan. Macro and micro‐morphology including palynology and anatomical features were analyzed to study M. suaveolens. Species characteristics were studied, while implementing microscopic techniques for the delimitation and identification of the species. Traditionally Mentha species are used to cure several diseases that is, digestive disorders, respiratory disorders. Micromorphology (stem, leaves, flowers structure, length etc.), palynology (shape, size of pollen etc.), and anatomical characters (types of stomata, epidermal cell shape, and trichomes) were studied. Micromorphology and anatomical characters were of great interest and significance to discuss the taxonomy of the species. Taxonomic characters were studied to characterize and authenticate the species. The aim of the present study is to observe in detail the taxonomic identification of the species in term of morphology, palynology, and foliar epidermal anatomy for the correct identification along with their medicinal uses in the area.     

The minor third communicates sadness in speech, mirroring its use in music.

There is a long history of attempts to explain why music is perceived as expressing emotion. The relationship between pitches serves as an important cue for conveying emotion in music. The musical interval referred to as the minor third is generally thought to convey sadness. We reveal that the minor third also occurs in the pitch contour of speech conveying sadness. Bisyllabic speech samples conveying four emotions were recorded by 9 actresses. Acoustic analyses revealed that the relationship between the 2 salient pitches of the sad speech samples tended to approximate a minor third. Participants rated the speech samples for perceived emotion, and the use of numerous acoustic parameters as cues for emotional identification was modeled using regression analysis. The minor third was the most reliable cue for identifying sadness. Additional participants rated musical intervals for emotion, and their ratings verified the historical association between the musical minor third and sadness. These findings support the theory that human vocal expressions and music share an acoustic code for communicating sadness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of Absolute Configuration on the Optical and NMR Properties of Oligonucleotides Containing Benzo[a]Pyrene Adducts at N 6 of Deoxyadenosine

For oligonucleotide duplexes derived from trans opening of benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxides (BaP DEs) by the exocyclic N⁶-amino group of deoxyadenosine (dA), the hydrocarbon is intercalated toward the 5′-end of the modified strand when the configuration at the site of attachment of the base to the hydrocarbon (C-10) is R, and toward the 3′-end when this configuration is S. In oligonucleotide 11-mer duplexes modified by BaP DE-1 (benzylic 7-OH and epoxide oxygen cis) and DE-2 (7-OH and epoxide oxygen trans), as well as 7,8,9,10-tetrahydro BaP 9,10-epoxide, 10R adducts had consistently higher (5–9d°C) T_m values than the corresponding 10S adducts. Dodecamer duplexes from the HPRT gene with trans opened 10S (but not those with 10R) BaP DE-2 adducts at either of two adjacent dA residues exhibited blue shifts at ～350 nm at temperatures well below the T_m. We propose that these blue shifts result from a conformation in which the hydrocarbon is not stacked with the DNA bases.     

如何设计兼具隔离效果和安全性的医疗设备

使用交流电源的医疗设备,可能会因不恰当的接地和电气隔离造成漏电,让患者和医疗人员暴露在危险之下,同时漏电也可能影响到邻近其它医疗设备的性能.对医疗设备来说,EMC是一个相当重要的条件,从2005年11月开始,医疗设备必须符合国际电工委员会(IEC)更新后的IEC 60601-1-2:2001EMC标准.     

Robust Integral Sliding Mode Control Design for Stability Enhancement of Under-actuated Quadcopter

International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems - In this paper, a robust backstepping integral sliding mode control (RBISMC) technique is designed for the flight control of a quadcopter,...     

Synergistic evaluation of AgO2 nanoparticles with ceftriaxone against CTXM and blaSHV genes positive ESBL producing clinical strains of Uro‐pathogenic E. coli

The silver oxide nanoparticles (AgO₂ ‐NPs) were synthesised using silver foil as a new precursor in wet chemical method. X‐ray diffraction analysis shows crystallographic structures of AgO₂ ‐NPs with crystallite size of 35.54 nm well‐matched with standard cubic structure. Scanning electron microscopy analysis clearly shows the random distribution of spherical‐shaped nanoparticles. Energy dispersive X‐ray analysis confirmed the purity of the samples as it shows no impurity element. Fourier transforms infra‐red analysis confirmed the formation of AgO₂ ‐NPs with the presence of Ag‐O‐Ag stretching bond. All the techniques also confirmed the loading of ceftriaxone drug on the surface of AgO₂ ‐NPs. This study also described the effect of AgO₂ ‐NPs having synergistic activity with β lactam antibiotic i.e. ceftriaxone against ESBL generating Escherichia coli (E. coli). Among isolated strains of E. coli, 60.0% were found to be ESBL producer. The synergistic activities of AgO₂ ‐NPs with ceftriaxone suggest that these combinations are effective against MDR‐ESBL E. coli strains as evident by increase in zone sizes. The present study observed rise in MDR‐ESBL E. coli with polymorphism of blaCTXM and blaSHV causing UTI infections in Pakistani population. The antibiotic and AgO₂ ‐NPs synergistic effect can be used as an efficient approach to combat uro‐pathogenic infections.Inspec keywords: antibacterial activity, nanofabrication, nanomedicine, drugs, nanoparticles, microorganisms, crystallites, scanning electron microscopy, silver compounds, X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray chemical analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectra, organic compounds, geneticsOther keywords: synergistic evaluation, clinical strains, silver oxide nanoparticles, silver foil, wet chemical method, X‐ray diffraction analysis, crystallographic structures, standard cubic structure, spherical‐shaped nanoparticles, energy dispersive X‐ray analysis, ceftriaxone drug, synergistic activity, ESBL producer, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared analysis, Escherichia coli, blaSHV gene positive ESBL, crystallite size, random distribution, β lactam antibiotics, MDR‐ESBL E. coli strains, polymorphism, blaCTXM, uro‐pathogenic infections, uro‐pathogenic E. coli, AgO₂      

Modularity in musical processing: The automaticity of harmonic priming.

Three experiments investigated the modularity of harmonic expectations that are based on cultural schemata despite the availability of more predictive veridical information. Participants were presented with prime–target chord pairs and made an intonation judgment about each target. Schematic expectation was manipulated by the combination of prime and target, with some transitions being schematically more probable than others. Veridical information in the form of prime–target previews, local transition probabilities, or valid versus invalid previews was also provided. Processing was facilitated when a schematically probable target chord followed the prime. Furthermore, this effect was independent of all manipulations of veridical expectation. A solution to L. B. Meyer's (1967b) query "On Rehearing Music" is suggested, in which schematic knowledge contributes to harmonic expectation in a modular manner regardless of whether any veridical knowledge exists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

自主轮式移动机器人路径追踪的纵向与侧向滑动控制（英文）

研究目的:轮式机器人广泛应用于自主移动机器人研究。已有文献大多数将机器人抽象成具备非完整约束的机械模型,这一假设条件仅在机器人低速运动时成立。本文考虑四轮机器人,同时考虑其纵向和侧向滑动控制,与实际情况更贴近。创新要点:针对轮式移动机器人模型,同时考虑纵向和侧向滑动分量。研究方法:设计纵向滑行控制策略(图1)。改变自然频率(图4)、阻尼和质量(图5)、轮子半径(图6)分别测试控制器响应,最终获取最优控制参数(表2)。重要结论:仿真结果验证所提控制策略的有效性。通过测试选择合适参数使控制器实现快速平滑响应。所设计的控制器对轮子滑动扰动不作限制性假设,即可实现误差指数收敛。