Robust backward adaptive formant prediction for speech coder

To improve the error performance of speech coders, an adaptation method for the backward adapted formant predictor is proposed. The filtered residual signal is used instead of the reconstructed output signal as the input to an adaptation of the formant predictor. The performance of the filtered-residual driven adaption method in the noise free channel is as good as that of conventional output driven adaptation. Moreover, the new adaptation method maintains the same robustness to channel errors as residual driven adaptation     

Secobarbital in humans discriminating triazolam under two-response and novel-response procedures

The percentage of long-term survivors after intensive chemotherapy and the outcome of MDS patients who achieve partial remission (PR) with intensive chemotherapy (IC) are not known. Between 1981 and 1996 we treated 99 patients with de novo MDS who had high-risk MDS or progression to AML, with IC. 41 (41%) achieved CR, 16 (16%) achieved partial remission (PR), 26 (26%) had failure, and 16 (16%) died in aplasia. Eight of the patients who achieved CR were autografted, three were allografted and the remaining cases received moderate consolidation chemotherapy. After IC, the 16 PR patients fulfilled the criteria for RA in 15 cases and CMML in one case. Median PR duration was 17 months, and three PR were > 3 years (39, 50+, 82+ months). Median actuarial survival of patients who achieved PR and CR was 18 months and 20 months from the onset of IC, respectively (difference not significant). Of the 71 patients treated before 1993, with sufficient follow-up, 10 (14%) had survived > 4 years (long-term survivors). Four of them were alive in first CR after 49+ to 110+ months and probably cured, two were alive in PR after 50+ and 82+ months and four had died after 49-78 months. Long-term survivors were characterized by a significantly higher incidence of RAEB-T at diagnosis, and with normal or favourable cytogenetic findings. In patients with RAEB-T at diagnosis included before 1993, 8/23 (35%) cases who had no unfavourable karyotype had survived > 4 years. Our findings suggest that MDS patients who achieve PR with IC, and not only those who achieve CR, can benefit from this type of treatment. The percentage of long-term survivors remains low, however, and is almost restricted to patients with RAEB-T at diagnosis and no unfavourable karyotype.     

Duration of spinal anaesthesia is determined by the partition coefficient of local anaesthetic

We have compared the duration of motor block produced by four local anaesthetics administered into a chronically implanted subarachnoid catheter in rabbits. Each group (n = 6) received four different doses of amethocaine, bupivacaine, lignocaine or procaine, and the duration of the resulting motor block was assessed. Dose-response curves were plotted for each drug. As a measure of activity of the anaesthetics, we used the dose of each drug required to produce block of 60-min duration (D60 min) and the correlation between D60 min and different drug properties was examined. An inverse linear correlation (r = 0.995; P < 0.01) was observed between log D60 min and the log of the partition coefficient of the local anaesthetics. No correlation was found between the effect and degree of protein binding, pKa or molecular weight. These results suggest that, in spinal anaesthesia, the partition coefficient could be used as a predictor of the duration of anaesthetic action.     

The microstructures of laser-alloyed Ni-Ta surface layers

Evaporated thin tantalum films on single and polycrystalline nickel have been laser surface alloyed using either continuous-wave CO₂ or Q-switched Nd-YAG radiation. In the case of the continuous-wave laser, surface alloys contain amorphous tantalum-rich regions, intermediate polycrystalline bands of TaNi, and an underlying Ni(Ta) solid solution. In the Q-switched laser case, a much more laterally uniform amorphous phase with approximately equal atomic fractions of nickel and tantalum is found, with little evidence of polycrystalline intermetallics.In situ annealing with the electron beam of the microscope results in formation of microcrystallites, predominantly nickel.     

The Metaflow architecture

The Metaflow architecture, a unified approach to maximizing the performance of superscalar microprocessors, is introduced. The Metaflow architecture exploits inherent instruction-level parallelism in conventional sequential programs by hardware means, without relying on optimizing compilers. It is based on a unified structure, the DRIS (deferred-scheduling, register-renaming instruction shelf), that manages out-of-order execution and most of the attendant problems. Coupling the DRIS with a speculative-execution mechanism that avoids conditional branch stalls results in performance limited only be inherent instruction-level parallelism and available execution resources. Although presented in the context of superscalar machines, the technique is equally applicable to a superpipelined implementation. Lightning, the first implementation of the Metaflow architecture, which executes the Sparc RISC instruction set is described     

Agenesis of the corpus callosum in a mother and son

Most reported familial cases of agenesis of the corpus callosum have followed either an autosomal recessive or an X-linked recessive pattern of inheritance. To the best of our knowledge, there is only one previous report of a family showing clear-cut autosomal dominant inheritance. We present the second such family, among whom a mother and her son had moderately severe coordination problems and low-normal intelligence. We suggest that agenesis of the corpus callosum, when transmitted as an autosomal dominant trait, is clinically characterized by a relatively milder phenotype than that occurring when inheritance is either autosomal or X-linked recessive and may be more common than has been thought.