At a cocktail party, listeners are faced with multiple, spatially distributed interfering voices. The dominant interfering voice may change from moment to moment and, consequently, change in spatial location. The ability of the binaural system to deal with such a dynamic scene has not been systematically analyzed. Spatial release from masking (SRM) was measured in simple spatial scenes, simulated over headphones with a frontal speech source. For a single noise at 105°, SRM was reduced if that noise modulated (10 Hz square wave, 50% duty cycle, 20 dB modulation depth), but, for two noises in symmetrical locations, SRM increased if the noises were modulated in alternation, suggesting that the binaural system can "switch" between exploiting different spatial configurations. Experiment 2 assessed the contributions of interaural time and level differences as a function of modulation rate (1-20 Hz). Scenes were created using the original head-related impulse responses and ones that had been manipulated to isolate each cue. SRM decreased steeply with modulation rate. The combined effects of interaural time and level differences were consistent with additive contributions. The results indicate that binaural sluggishness limits the contribution of binaural switching to speech understanding at a cocktail party.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4794384 | DOI Listing |
J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol
January 2025
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Background: Elemental analysis of teeth allows for exposure assessment during critical windows of development and is increasingly used to link early life exposures and health. The measurement of inorganic elements in teeth is challenging; laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is the most widely used technique.
Objective: Both synchrotron x-ray fluorescence (SXRF) and LA-ICP-MS have the capability to measure elemental distributions in teeth with each having distinct advantages and disadvantages.
Nat Commun
January 2025
Department of Applied Physics, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan.
Recent studies on topological materials are expanding into the nonlinear regime, while the central principle, namely the bulk-edge correspondence, is yet to be elucidated in the strongly nonlinear regime. Here, we reveal that nonlinear topological edge modes can exhibit the transition to spatial chaos by increasing nonlinearity, which can be a universal mechanism of the breakdown of the bulk-edge correspondence. Specifically, we unveil the underlying dynamical system describing the spatial distribution of zero modes and show the emergence of chaos.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
Departamento de Ciencia de los Materiales e Ingeniería Metalúrgica y Química Orgánica, IMEYMAT, Universidad de Cádiz, Campus Río San Pedro, 11510, Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain.
Polymer blending is an interesting strategy to broaden the combination of properties available for a variety of applications. To understand the behaviour of the new materials obtained as well as the influence of the fabrication parameters used, methods to analyse the distribution of polymers in the blend with resolution below the micrometer are required. In this work, we demonstrate the capability of focused ion beam (FIB) tomography to provide 3D information of the polymer distribution in objects obtained by blending acrylonitrile-styrene-acrylate (ASA) with polycarbonate (PC) (50 wt%), fabricated by Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) and by Injection Moulding (IM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
The Alan Turing Institute, London, UK.
Air pollution in cities, especially NO, is linked to numerous health problems, ranging from mortality to mental health challenges and attention deficits in children. While cities globally have initiated policies to curtail emissions, real-time monitoring remains challenging due to limited environmental sensors and their inconsistent distribution. This gap hinders the creation of adaptive urban policies that respond to the sequence of events and daily activities affecting pollution in cities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNPJ Biofilms Microbiomes
January 2025
Institute of Drug Discovery Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, Zhejiang, China.
Dispersal plays a crucial role in the development and ecology of biofilms. While extensive studies focused on elucidating the molecular mechanisms governing this process, few have characterized the associated temporal changes in composition and structure. Here, we employed solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques to achieve time-resolved characterization of Bacillus subtilis biofilms over a 5-day period.
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