This paper presents a model of speech articulation planning and generation based on General Tau Theory and Optimal Control Theory. Because General Tau Theory assumes that articulatory targets are ...always reached, the model accounts for speech variation via context-dependent articulatory targets. Targets are chosen via the optimization of a composite objective function. This function models three different task requirements: maximal intelligibility, minimal articulatory effort and minimal utterance duration. The paper shows that systematic phonetic variability can be reproduced by adjusting the weights assigned to each task requirement. Weights can be adjusted globally to simulate different speech styles, and can be adjusted locally to simulate different levels of prosodic prominence. The solution of the optimization procedure contains Tau equation parameter values for each articulatory movement, namely position of the articulator at the movement offset, movement duration, and a parameter which relates to the shape of the movement’s velocity profile. The paper presents simulations which illustrate the ability of the model to predict or reproduce several well-known characteristics of speech. These phenomena include close-to-symmetric velocity profiles for articulatory movement, variation related to speech rate, centralization of unstressed vowels, lengthening of stressed vowels, lenition of unstressed lingual stop consonants, and coarticulation of stop consonants.
•An articulatory planning model which uses General Tau Theory and Optimal Control Theory is presented.•Simulations show that the model parameters can be set to simulate speech variation.•Simulations show that our model can explain reduction of unstressed vowels.•Simulations show that our model can explain coarticulation and lenition of stop consonants.
Approximately one-third of humankind is chronically exposed to the carcinogenic aflatoxin M1 contained in milk. As β-cyclodextrin is frequently used in the food industry, its effect on aflatoxin M1 ...concentration was investigated during cholesterol removal from milk due to the similarity among the physicochemical properties of aflatoxin M1 and cholesterol. Moreover, the elimination of cholesterol using β-cyclodextrin has been successfully applied in many studies without any substantial effect on the quality of the treated milk. Therefore, milk samples were spiked with aflatoxin M1 within the range from 0.20 to 2.00 µg/kg, and cholesterol removal was carried out by 2.0% (w/w) β-cyclodextrin addition, as this concentration is enough for the sufficient removal of cholesterol. It was found that the mean cholesterol concentration decreased by 92.3%, while the aflatoxin M1 concentration decreased to 0.53 ± 0.04 µg/kg, i.e., by 39.1% after treatment (n = 2). This mitigation procedure itself is easy and inexpensive and thus is fully applicable with a high potential for complete decontamination of aflatoxin M1 milk. This method will therefore considerably improve the food safety issues associated with aflatoxin M1 presence in milk and dairy products.
Transcranial direct current stimulation combined with cognitive training (tDCS-cog) represents a promising approach to combat cognitive decline among healthy older adults and patients with mild ...cognitive impairment (MCI). In this 5-day-long double-blinded randomized trial, we investigated the impact of intensified tDCS-cog protocol involving two trains of stimulation per day on working memory (WM) enhancement in 35 amnestic and multidomain amnestic MCI patients. Specifically, we focused to improve WM tasks relying on top-down attentional control and hypothesized that intensified tDCS would enhance performance of visual object matching task (VOMT) immediately after the stimulation regimen and at a 1-month follow-up. Secondarily, we explored whether the stimulation would augment online visual working memory training. Using fMRI, we aimed to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying the intervention effects by analyzing BOLD activations during VOMT. Our main finding revealed no superior after-effects of tDCS-cog over the sham on VOMT among individuals with MCI as indicated by insignificant immediate and long-lasting after-effects. Additionally, the tDCS-cog did not enhance online training as predicted. The fMRI analysis revealed brain activity alterations in right insula that may be linked to tDCS-cog intervention. In the study we discuss the insignificant behavioral results in the context of the current evidence in tDCS parameter space and opening the discussion of possible interference between trained cognitive tasks.
Abstract Milk and dairy products are the most consumed foods in human diet and their safety is in the attention centre of control authorities. Aflatoxin M 1 (AFM 1 ) is a dangerous toxin that can ...occur in milk and dairy products as a metabolite formed from aflatoxin B 1 contained in contaminated animal feed. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop and validate a reliable method for the determination of AFM 1 content in milk and dairy products based on HPLC with fluorescence detection employing immunoaffinity columns (IAC) pre-treatment. Optimal chromatographic separation of AFM 1 was achieved using a water/acetonitrile mixture (80/20, v/v) as a mobile phase, column with C 18 stationary phase maintained at 25 °C, and fluorescence detection at excitation wavelengths of 360 nm and emission of 440 nm. Efficacy of AFM 1 extraction from the samples was found to be influenced by the elution agent composition. The best results were obtained using 1.25 mL of acetonitrile/methanol (3/2, v/v) and 1.25 mL of water. Validation parameters of the proposed method met the criteria set by the European legislation with the limits of detection and quantification at 0.002 and 0.007 µg/kg, respectively. Also, suitability of the method was confirmed by its application for AFM 1 determination in certified reference material. Finally, the method was applied for AFM 1 determination in 25 milk and dairy products collected in Slovakia; the AFM 1 content was below the limit of quantification. It was concluded that the method is suitable for AFM 1 content monitoring in milk and dairy products.
The article focuses on the basic characteristic of military development in the second half of the 20
century. On pursuance of William Lind´s concept or theory of Four Generations of War, the article ...describes the culmination of the Third Generation of War, based on manoeuver and mobility, coupled with air superiority. The first part deals with issues of US technical dominance in the military, the development of new ways of fighting, especially the airmobile tactics used in South Vietnam. The second part of the article focuses on the specific conditions of the Vietnam War that the US Army, for the first time, had to face while applying elements of the Fourth Generation of War. The final part focuses on the issues of implementing the theory of Four Generations of War into the Armed Forces Academy education to better understand the development of military in modern times.
One of the most carcinogenic compounds found in milk is aflatoxin M1 (AFM1), which is formed in lactating mammals after the ingestion of feeds that have been contaminated with aflatoxin B1 and then ...excreted into milk. As such, AFM1's concentration is limited at the both the national and international levels by national legislation or internationally-adopted Codex Alimentarius standards, respectively. Climatic conditions, the absence of food safety standards, or insufficient capacity for official controls have led to one-third of humankind being chronically exposed to AFM1, especially in developing countries. Despite being frequently found in milk-based products and the many attempts by researchers to eliminate AFM1 during milk processing, there is no removal procedure applicable in the dairy sector.
This article retrieves and summarises the latest scientific and patent information on AFM1 elimination procedures from milk.
Various procedures to eliminate AFM1 from milk - based on chemical, physical, biological, and physicochemical principles - are currently being developed at the laboratory level. Due to the legislative prohibition on the addition of chemical reactants capable of destroying AFM1 in the milk matrix, the technological and safety barriers associated with physical procedures, and the inaccessibility of officially approved enzymes capable of decomposing AFM1 during biological procedures, it seems that physicochemical procedures could be of primary importance in the AFM1 mitigation strategy. The suitability of physicochemical procedures also confirms the SCUFEERS concept, which is a set of criteria such as Safety, Capacity, Universality, Finance, Ecology, Efficiency, Rapidity, and Selectivity that enables the identification of the most promising procedures for dairy.
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•Aflatoxin M1 is one of the common contaminants that affects the safety of milk.•So far, no industrially applicable method has been used for its removal from milk.•Information on AFM1 elimination laboratory procedures is retrieved and characterised.•For evaluation purposes, the SCUFEERS concept was developed and applied.•Prospect procedures the aflatoxin M1 mitigation strategy applicable in dairy are outlined.
High performance, MOS EPROMs using a stacked-gate cell Salsbury, P.; Morgan, W.; Perlegos, G. ...
1977 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Digest of Technical Papers,
1977, Letnik:
XX
Conference Proceeding
A HIGH PERFORMANCE 8192-BIT Erasable PROM has been developed in response to the increasing requirements or” second generation microprocessors. The design goals of density and speed have been achieved ...through the development of an N-channel stacked-gate cell combined with novel peripheral circuits. The small cell size (1 mil2) and fast memory access (450 ns max) extend EPROM performance beyond the levels established by the well known P-channel approach.
In an experiment combining various approaches, a precise examination of a portion of the phase diagram of a CsF–Al2O3 system was carried out up to 40 mol% Al2O3. CsF–Al2O3 solidified mixtures have ...been investigated using high-field solid-state NMR (133Cs, 27Al, and 19F) spectroscopy and X-ray powder diffraction over a broad range of compositions with synchrotron powder diffraction and Rietveld analysis. A new cesium oxo-fluoro-aluminate, Cs2Al2O3F2, was discovered, prepared, and structurally analyzed by synchrotron diffraction analysis. In addition to Cs2Al2O3F2, we have synthesized the following pure compounds in order to aid in the interpretation of NMR spectra of the solidified samples: CsAlF4, Cs3AlF6, and CsAlO2.
The application of cyclodextrins in food technology is extensive due to their unique ability to form complexes with many bioactive substances. Consumption of dairy products is associated with an ...increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) due to its high content of saturated fatty acids and cholesterol, so the production of low-cholesterol content products would be one of the critical steps in CVD prevention with regards to lowered total daily cholesterol intake. To maintain consumer acceptance, organoleptic profiles of such products should be, in the optimal case, the same with comparison to original ones. So, this study deals with the development of set low cholesterol foods (milk, cream, butter, soft cheese, cottage cheese) by β-cyclodextrin treatment and the characterization of their organoleptic profiles such as color and textural characteristics. During the experiments, high effectivity of cholesterol removal was reached as follows: milk-97.3%, cream-95.6%, butter-95.6%, cottage cheese-97.9%, soft cheese-97.7%, while color differences varied from 0.25 to 1.13 and textural characteristics were not influenced by cholesterol removal as well. So, it can be concluded that the proposed procedure is enabled to be substantial for the production of a new assortment of low-cholesterol dairy products with considerable health benefits toward the incidence of CVD.
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