In multi-band frequency compression, the speech spectrum is divided into a number of analysis bands, and the spectral samples in each band are compressed towards the band center by a constant compression factor, resulting in presentation of the speech energy in relatively narrow bands, for reducing the effect of increased intraspeech spectral masking associated with sensorineural hearing loss. ...

Biological tissues have the remarkable ability to remodel and repair in response to disease, injury and mechanical stresses. Synthetic materials lack the complexity of biological tissues, and man-made materials that respond to external stresses through a permanent increase in stiffness are uncommon. Here we report that polydomain nematic liquid crystal elastomers increase in stiffness by up to ...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to compare the results of two measures of hearing aid satisfaction, an indirect measure (Satisfaction with Amplification in Daily Living, SADL; Cox & Alexander, 1999) and a direct measure (an expanded version of the MarkeTrak-IV survey; Kochkin, 1996), in a group of elderly hearing aid wearers. DESIGN A total of 43 elderly hearing aid wearers complete...

We investigated ion acceleration by an electrostatic shock in an exploded target irradiated by an ultrashort, circularly polarized laser pulse by means of one- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. We discovered that the laser field penetrating via relativistic transparency (RT) rapidly heated the upstream electron plasma to enable the formation of a high-speed electrostatic shock...

The biphasic poroviscoelastic (BPVE) model was curve fit to the simultaneous relaxation of reaction force and lateral displacement exhibited by articular cartilage in unconfined compression (n=18). Model predictions were also made for the relaxation observed in reaction force during indentation with a porous plane-ended metal indenter (n=4), indentation with a nonporous plane ended metal indent...

Abstract This study aims to describe a toughened adhesive’s ratcheting–recovery behavior under reversed cyclic load using viscoelastic–viscoplastic model. As most adhesives are based on synthetic polymers, their tensile and compression response can be different. A series of load–Sunload tests were conducted bulk bonded joints involving tension/compression–shear loads characterize the initial yi...

BACKGROUND Metastatic spinal cord compression is a dreaded complication of cancer affecting 5-10% of patients requiring urgent treatment. A clinical practice improvement project was carried out to review and fine tune the clinical pathway for the acute management of patients with metastatic spinal cord compression. OBJECTIVE To improve the quality of care for metastatic spinal cord compressio...