Forced Alignment Research Articles

Advanced electric-field scanning probe lithography on molecular resist using active cantilever

The routine “on demand” fabrication of features smaller than 10 nm opens up new possibilities for the realization of many devices. Driven by the thermally actuated piezoresistive cantilever technology, we have developed a prototype of a scanning probe lithography (SPL) platform which is able to image, inspect, align, and pattern features down to the single digit nanoregime. Here, we present examples of practical applications of the previously published electric-field based current-controlled scanning probe lithography. In particular, individual patterning tests are carried out on calixarene by using our developed table–top SPL system. We have demonstrated the application of a step-and-repeat SPL method including optical as well as atomic force microscopy-based navigation and alignment. The closed-loop lithography scheme was applied to sequentially write positive and negative tone features. Due to the integrated unique combination of read–write cycling, each single feature is aligned separately with the highest precision and inspected after patterning. This routine was applied to create a pattern step by step. Finally, we have demonstrated the patterning over larger areas, over existing topography, and the practical applicability of the SPL processes for lithography down to 13-nm pitch patterns. To enhance the throughput capability variable beam diameter electric field, current-controlled SPL is briefly discussed.

Various Aspects of the Multipolarity within the World Economic System

The key aspects of the world economy’s transformation in the context of the multipolar world formation are studied in the article. Various kinds of economic multipolarity are analyzed. There is specially emphasized the wide range of multipolarity’s forms except the classical form concerning the competitive interactions of great powers. The particular role of financial and industrial sectors in the formation of the «branch growth poles»is considered in detail. Specific attention is paid to the growing influence of the regional leaders and strengthening positions of developing countries within the world economic system.The reinforcing influence of the regional and transregional integration groups is underlined. The key economic tendencies concerning the vectors of reshaping of the world geo-economic alignment of forces in the nearest future are examined in the article. There is also demonstrated the global economic and political reluctance of developed countries (especially Anglo-Saxon ones) to the objective process of a gradual dispersal of geo-economic influence within the world economy. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n3s6p59

Community-Level Quality Improvement and the Patient Experience for Chronic Illness Care.

To determine whether chronically ill adults from communities participating in a community-level quality improvement effort reported greater improvement on four domains of patient experience: care coordination, patient satisfaction, provider interaction and support, and receipt of recommended care for diabetes. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) initiative provides multistakeholder alliances with funding and technical assistance to improve quality in their communities. This is a quasi-experimental, pre-post study. We used a difference-in-difference approach to detect relative changes over time on 16 survey-based outcome measures representing the four patient experience domains. We surveyed adults with chronic illness(es) in 14 AF4Q communities and a national comparison group. Wave 1 was completed in 2008 (8,140 respondents) and wave 2 in 2012 (9,565 respondents). Respondents from AF4Q communities reported modestly greater improvement on patient satisfaction and receipt of recommended care for diabetes. Results suggest that community-level QI efforts led by multistakeholder alliances hold the potential to improve patient satisfaction and receipt of recommended care for diabetes, but the magnitude of the effect may be limited. However, there is less evidence that community-level QI can improve patient perceptions of care coordination or provider interaction and support.

Real-time observation of epitaxial graphene domain reorientation.

Graphene films grown by vapour deposition tend to be polycrystalline due to the nucleation and growth of islands with different in-plane orientations. Here, using low-energy electron microscopy, we find that micron-sized graphene islands on Ir(111) rotate to a preferred orientation during thermal annealing. We observe three alignment mechanisms: the simultaneous growth of aligned domains and dissolution of rotated domains, that is, ‘ripening'; domain boundary motion within islands; and continuous lattice rotation of entire domains. By measuring the relative growth velocity of domains during ripening, we estimate that the driving force for alignment is on the order of 0.1 meV per C atom and increases with rotation angle. A simple model of the orientation-dependent energy associated with the moiré corrugation of the graphene sheet due to local variations in the graphene–substrate interaction reproduces the results. This work suggests new strategies for improving the van der Waals epitaxy of 2D materials.

Talker variation and systematicity in voice onset time: A corpus study

Previous research has demonstrated variation across talkers in the phonetic realization of speech sounds, including vowels (e.g., Peterson and Barney, 1952), fricatives (e.g., Newman et al., 2001) and stop consonants (e.g., Allen et al., 2003; Theodore et al., 2009). The challenge that talker variation presents to perceptual processes may be significantly reduced if different aspects of talker-specific phonetics are strongly correlated. The present study employs a subset of read speech from the Mixer-6 corpus (Brandschain et al., 2013), containing recordings from 129 native English participants (60 male). The voice onset time (VOT) of prevocalic word-initial stops (N = 59,075) was measured using forced alignment (Yuan & Liberman, 2008) and subphonemic postprocessing (AutoVOT; Sonderegger & Keshet, 2012). Talker means of the voiceless stops are highly correlated with each other (rs = /p/-/t/: 0.76; /p/-/k/: 0.79; /t/-/k/: 0.74; ps < 0.0006, alpha-corrected), as are /b/ and /g/ among the voiced stops (r = 0.49, p < 0.0006). Additionally, talker means of each stop category are correlated with corresponding standard deviations (r = 0.87, p < 0.0001). These suggest a degree of systematicity in variation, with implications for talker adaptation, as listeners may extrapolate from few input values to approximate talker-specific variance and cross-category means.

Effect of “only” on prosodic focus marking

This study seeks to determine how the inclusion of the focus-sensitive word “only” affects the focus-marking prosody of a sentence. Twenty-one native English speaking adults read 8 question-answer pairs. The questions were written to elicit focus on an object NP (e.g., Who did you see?). In one condition, the answer contained only (e.g., I only saw Mary); in the other condition, “only” was omitted (e.g., I saw Mary.). The recordings were annotated in Praat using forced alignment. We performed linear residualization of F0, amplitude and duration (cf. Breen et al. 2009) to remove effects of item and participant. Statistical models of residual pitch and duration on object-NP and verb failed to show any significant differences between the sentences that contain “only” and those not containing “only”. These results fail to support theories of utterance-level prominence, which posit a categorical distinction between presentational and contrastive focus (e.g., Katz and Selkirk 2011).

Detecting palatalization in spontaneous spoken English

An analysis is presented of palatalization from /s/ to [ʃ] at word boundaries in UK English. Previous work has considered the effect of lexical frequency (LF) on this phenomenon, but without combining acoustics and spontaneous speech in one study, which is undertaken using data gathered from the Audio BNC (http://www.phon.ox.ac.uk/AudioBNC). 5,197 word pairs are analyzed across five phonological contexts, comparing the acoustics of test tokens subject to palatalization (e.g. /s/ in miss you), to control tokens containing non-alternating [s] (miss it) or [ʃ] (mission, wish it, wish you). Word and segment boundaries were obtained via forced alignment, but hand-checked. The spectral moments and duration of each fricative were measured; following vowel duration and formant values were also extracted. LF was calculated using the Audio BNC. Results show that the spectral center of gravity (CoG) of /s/ before /j/ (miss you) is intermediate (p<0.01) between those of [s] and [ʃ]. Furthermore, CoG of test tokens correlates negatively with LF, indicating increased palatalization in high-frequency contexts. A supervised clustering analysis shows that /s/ before /j/ is distinct from both [s, ʃ]. This supports the view of palatalization as gestural overlap, which increases with LF in casual or fast speech.

Acclimatization of the gait pattern to wearing an ankle–foot orthosis in children with spastic cerebral palsy

BackgroundAnkle–foot orthoses can be prescribed to improve gait in children with cerebral palsy. Before evaluating the effects of ankle–foot orthoses on gait, a period to adapt or acclimatize is usually applied. It is however unknown whether an acclimatization period is actually needed to reliably evaluate the effect of a new orthosis on gait. This study aimed to investigate whether specific gait parameters in children with cerebral palsy would change within an acclimatization period after being provided with new ankle–foot orthoses. MethodsTen children with cerebral palsy, walking with excessive knee flexion in midstance (8 boys; mean (SD) 10.2 (1.9) years; Gross Motor Function Classification System levels I–II) were provided with ventral shell ankle–foot orthoses. The orthoses were worn in combination with the child's own shoes and tuned, based on ground reaction force alignment with respect to the lower limb joints. Directly after tuning (T0) and four weeks later (T1), 3D-gait analysis was performed using an optoelectronic motion capture system and a force plate. From this assessment, ten spatiotemporal, kinematic and kinetic gait parameters were derived for the most affected leg. Differences in parameters between T0 and T1 were analyzed using paired t-tests or Wilcoxon signed rank tests (P<0.05). FindingsOver the course of four weeks, no significant differences (P≥0.080) were observed for any investigated parameter. InterpretationThese results imply that the biomechanical effect of ventral shell ankle–foot orthoses on gait in independent walking children with cerebral palsy is immediately apparent, i.e., there is no further change after acclimatization.

Delayed response and biosonar perception explain movement coordination in trawling bats.

Animal coordinated movement interactions are commonly explained by assuming unspecified social forces of attraction, repulsion and alignment with parameters drawn from observed movement data. Here we propose and test a biologically realistic and quantifiable biosonar movement interaction mechanism for echolocating bats based on spatial perceptual bias, i.e. actual sound field, a reaction delay, and observed motor constraints in speed and acceleration. We found that foraging pairs of bats flying over a water surface swapped leader-follower roles and performed chases or coordinated manoeuvres by copying the heading a nearby individual has had up to 500 ms earlier. Our proposed mechanism based on the interplay between sensory-motor constraints and delayed alignment was able to recreate the observed spatial actor-reactor patterns. Remarkably, when we varied model parameters (response delay, hearing threshold and echolocation directionality) beyond those observed in nature, the spatio-temporal interaction patterns created by the model only recreated the observed interactions, i.e. chases, and best matched the observed spatial patterns for just those response delays, hearing thresholds and echolocation directionalities found to be used by bats. This supports the validity of our sensory ecology approach of movement coordination, where interacting bats localise each other by active echolocation rather than eavesdropping.

A Novel Alignment Layer for Bistable Surface by Using Electrospun PVCi Microfibers

We propose a novel forming method for the bistable surface for the nematic LC with the poly (vinyl cinnamate) (PVCi) fibers, the fibers were spun by using the ES and were carried out the photo-alignment treatment by the UV irradiation. In this method, each stable state in the bistable states for the LC orientation might be realized. Because lots of fibers were stacked not only the substrate surface but also in the bulk of the LC cell, and then the anchoring force for the LC alignment was affected in three dimensions.

Эрозия “шведской модели” и девальвация политики неприсоединения

The erosion of the socio-economic “Swedish model” and the reduction of non-alignment in the national foreign policy have been and is taking place in history and politics simultaneously, exerting a fatal mutual interaction. The derived deviations are leading to a radical alteration of Sweden’s image, of its previous national and international specificity. The degradation of the “Swedish model” has been taking place as a result of activity of intrinsic forces and factors closely connected with structural social problems, matters of national economy efficiency and adaptation to world economy requirements, to processes of globalization. The general destructive transformation, a big number of qualitative doctrinal and institutional changes taking place since 1990s till now in the framework of the “Swedish model” is also linked with the condition of internal strife and alignment of political party forces in the country, aiming at finding an adequate answer to new challenges of the 21st century. The events of Ukrainian crisis (particularly concerning Crimea and Donetsk Basin) apparently influenced Sweden, politically resounding with a known painful historical “Poltava syndrome”. Although the incorporation of Sweden (as well as that of other small Nordic states) in European regional and Nordic sub-regional integration processes reflects the principal objective economic trend to internationalization of the world economy, the forms, rates and prospects of political integration into the EU sometimes generate objections, resistance and even disapproval of state institutions by a part of society in connection with external as well as internal socioeconomic reasons (particularly in terms of the “Swedish model” acute agenda). The loss of the famous features of Sweden’s international policy, especially after its accession to the European Community/European Union, as well as its leveling led to the loss of the original political role of the country in the Northern sub-region and in Europe at large. Immanent undermining, washing out of fundamental guarantees in the Swedish policy of neutrality pushes Stockholm forward to shameless convergence with Euro-Atlantic partners and their alliances – the EU and NATO. To all appearances, a complicated search is going on in the country – the search of a new socioeconomic model, of the foreign policy and the national security policy modification.

Measuring prosodic deficits in oral discourse by speakers with fluent aphasia

Measuring prosodic deficits in oral discourse by speakers with fluent aphasia

Cardiac fluid dynamics anticipates heart adaptation

Hemodynamic forces represent an epigenetic factor during heart development and are supposed to influence the pathology of the grown heart. Cardiac blood motion is characterized by a vortical dynamics, and it is common belief that the cardiac vortex has a role in disease progressions or regression. Here we provide a preliminary demonstration about the relevance of maladaptive intra-cardiac vortex dynamics in the geometrical adaptation of the dysfunctional heart. We employed an in vivo model of patients who present a stable normal heart function in virtue of the cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT, bi-ventricular pace-maker) and who are expected to develop left ventricle remodeling if pace-maker was switched off. Intra-ventricular fluid dynamics is analyzed by echocardiography (Echo-PIV). Under normal conditions, the flow presents a longitudinal alignment of the intraventricular hemodynamic forces. When pacing is temporarily switched off, flow forces develop a misalignment hammering onto lateral walls, despite no other electro-mechanical change is noticed. Hemodynamic forces result to be the first event that evokes a physiological activity anticipating cardiac changes and could help in the prediction of longer term heart adaptations.

Selling stem cell based biologics and salesforce alignment for the biomedical device industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discover best practices for selling stem cell based biologics and ensuring proper sales force alignment in the biomedical device industry. Design/methodology/approach – This research is based on an immersion into the industry as well as several formal, semi-structured interviews and dozens of informal interviews of surgeons, medical staff and medical device salespersons and managers. Data were also collected and analyzed from wipricepoint.org. The factors analyzed were the number of discharges, average charge per procedure, median age, male/female patient ratio and total hospital charges per year. Findings – Secondary data can augment primary data collection to determine the most lucrative markets for salespersons to target their efforts. In addition, the data when combined with sales force specific data can help optimize sales force alignment. Insights into the industry are also given such as how to overcome objections to the use of stem cell based biologics for spinal surgeries. Research limitations/implications – Much of the findings are specific to only one industry (medical device sales). However, we do present a generalized process for analyzing a key source of secondary data that could be beneficial to any hospital-serving industry. Originality/value – Within the medical equipment industries, approximately 58 per cent of sales territories were either too large or too small (Zoltners and Lorimer, 2000). This paper shows how secondary data sources can be obtained and analyzed to better focus sales force effort.

On the analysis of a coupled kinetic-fluid model with local alignment forces

This paper studies global existence, hydrodynamic limit, and large-time behavior of weak solutions to a kinetic flocking model coupled to the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. The model describes the motion of particles immersed in a Navier–Stokes fluid interacting through local alignment. We first prove the existence of weak solutions using energy and Lp estimates together with the velocity averaging lemma. We also rigorously establish a hydrodynamic limit corresponding to strong noise and local alignment. In this limit, the dynamics can be totally described by a coupled compressible Euler – incompressible Navier–Stokes system. The proof is via relative entropy techniques. Finally, we show a conditional result on the large-time behavior of classical solutions. Specifically, if the mass-density satisfies a uniform in time integrability estimate, then particles align with the fluid velocity exponentially fast without any further assumption on the viscosity of the fluid.

Synthesis, optical properties and alignment of poly(9,9-dioctylfuorene) nanofibers

Poly(9,9-dioctlylfluorene) (PFO) nanofibers were fabricated by solution template wetting of anodic alumina membranes. Nanofibers with controlled thickness of 23 nm and length between 0.8 and 10 μm, were obtained, regulated by the dimensions of the used template. Nanofibers displayed spectroscopic characteristics associated with the formation of significant percentages of planar and elongated β phase within the amorphous PFO glassy-phase. Optical polarized microscopy displayed high birefringence resulting from the high degree of internal order induced by β phase generation within the fibers. The structural intra-chain reorganization associated with formation of β phase was promoted by the strong geometrical confinement imposed on the material by the porous template during polymer wetting and solvent evaporation. Flow and shear force alignment techniques were used to control the orientation of fabricated PFO nanofibers, yielding to formation of large oriented nanofiber arrays on transparent substrates.

Remodeling of Fibrous Extracellular Matrices by Contractile Cells: Predictions from Discrete Fiber Network Simulations

Contractile forces exerted on the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM) lead to the alignment and stretching of constituent fibers within the vicinity of cells. As a consequence, the matrix reorganizes to form thick bundles of aligned fibers that enable force transmission over distances larger than the size of the cells. Contractile force-mediated remodeling of ECM fibers has bearing on a number of physiologic and pathophysiologic phenomena. In this work, we present a computational model to capture cell-mediated remodeling within fibrous matrices using finite element–based discrete fiber network simulations. The model is shown to accurately capture collagen alignment, heterogeneous deformations, and long-range force transmission observed experimentally. The zone of mechanical influence surrounding a single contractile cell and the interaction between two cells are predicted from the strain-induced alignment of fibers. Through parametric studies, the effect of cell contractility and cell shape anisotropy on matrix remodeling and force transmission are quantified and summarized in a phase diagram. For highly contractile and elongated cells, we find a sensing distance that is ten times the cell size, in agreement with experimental observations.

한국어 대용량발화말뭉치의 단모음분석

The paper describes methods of conducting vowel analysis from a large-scale corpus with the aids of forced alignment and optimal formant ceiling methods. 'Read Style Corpus of Standard Korean' is used for building the forced alignment system and a subset of the corpus for the processing and extraction of features for vowel analysis based on optimal formant ceiling. The results of the vowel analysis are reliable and comparable to the results obtained using traditional analytical methods. The findings indicate that the methods adopted for the analysis can be extended and be used for more fine-grained analysis without time-consuming manual labeling without losing accuracy and reliability.

Assessing organizational change in multisector community health alliances.

The purpose of this article was to identify some common organizational features of multisector health care alliances (MHCAs) and the analytic challenges presented by those characteristics in assessing organizational change. Two rounds of an Internet-based survey of participants in 14 MHCAs. We highlight three analytic challenges that can arise when quantitatively studying the organizational characteristics of MHCAs-assessing change in MHCA organization, assessment of construct reliability, and aggregation of individual responses to reflect organizational characteristics. We illustrate these issues using a leadership effectiveness scale (12 items) validated in previous research and data from 14 MHCAs participating in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) program. High levels of instability and turnover in MHCA membership create challenges in using survey data to study changes in key organizational characteristics of MHCAs. We offer several recommendations to diagnose the source and extent of these problems.

Defect-mediated phase transitions in active soft matter.

How do topological defects affect the degree of order in active matter? To answer this question we investigate an agent-based model of self-propelled particles, which accounts for polar alignment and short-ranged repulsive interactions. For strong alignment forces we find collectively moving polycrystalline states with fluctuating networks of grain boundaries. In the regime where repulsive forces dominate, the fluctuations generated by the active system give rise to quasi-long-range transitional order, but-unlike the thermal system-without creating topological defects.