The effect of the magnetic field on the electrostatic potential of electrons inside and in close vicinity outside the quark surface of the star is studied. Depending on the value of the crust potential and the electron chemical potential at the base of the nuclear crust, we find that the strong surface magnetic field, 1.0 × 1014 ≤ H ≤ 3.0 × 1016 Gauss leads to a considerable reduction of the el...

2014 It is shown that the large variations found in transport measurements in thin films of low density-of-states amorphous silicon can be explained by the effect of a variable charge density at the film-substrate interface. The amount and even the sign of these charges have been varied by application of an electric field across the substrate. These surface charges effects can be used to measur...

We introduce a dynamically weighted Halley (DWH) iteration for computing the polar decomposition of a matrix, and prove that the new method is globally and asymptotically cubically convergent. For matrices with condition number no greater than 1016, the DWH method needs at most 6 iterations for convergence with the tolerance 10−16. The Halley iteration can be implemented via QR decompositions w...

The lateral distribution of Cerenkov light at ground level records important information on the development of the air shower which produces it. We have constructed a Broad Lateral Non-imaging Cerenkov Array (BLANCA) to measure this lateral distribution at the CASA-MIA air shower detector in Dugway, Utah. Together, the arrays can sample the lateral distributions of electrons, muons, and Cerenko...

Speech coding at very low bitrate is useful for purposes such as voice communication over computer networks. However, speech coding at around 2.0 kbit/s is di cult for CELP coders while maintaining a high quality. In this paper, a speech coding model called `normalized pitch waveform' and its quantization scheme are presented, aiming for effective compression coding of the `voiced' speech. List...

The rapid growth of mobile users is creating great deal of interest in the development of robust speech systems in wireless environment. The major challenges involved in adapting the present speech processing technology to mobile wireless systems are: (1) Effect of varying background conditions in mobile environment. (2) Degradations introduced by the speech coders. (3) Errors introduced due to...

In this paper we present a study of channel optimized ma­ trix quantizer (COMQ) applied to quantize LSP parameters in a CELP (Code Excited Linear Prediction) coder. A mod­ ification of the DoD FS-1016 standard [2} is used for this purpose. A Gaussian channel is considered as the channel through which information is sent and BPSK (Binary Phase Shift-Keying) is used as modulation technique. To me...

A highly e cient algorithm termed adaptive forward-backward vector quantization (AFBVQ) is developed for variable bit rate quantization of linear predictive coding (LPC) coe cients and integrated with the FS1016 Federal Standard Code Excited Linear Predictive (CELP) coder. This results in a high performance low bit rate speech coder called as AFBVQ-CELP which brings in two-fold bit rate reducti...

IMPORTANCE Family caregivers of individuals with serious illness are at risk for depressive symptoms and depression. Hospice includes the provision of support services for family caregivers, yet evidence is limited regarding the effect of hospice use on depressive symptoms among surviving caregivers. OBJECTIVE To determine the association between hospice use and depressive symptoms in survivi...