The role of acoustic features of maternal infant-directed singing in enhancing infant sensorimotor, language and socioemotional development.

The quality of infant-directed speech (IDS) and infant-directed singing (IDSi) are considered vital to children, but empirical studies on protomusical qualities of the IDSi influencing infant development are rare. The current prospective study examines the role of IDSi acoustic features, such as pitch variability, shape and movement, and vocal amplitude vibration, timbre, and resonance, in associating with infant sensorimotor, language, and socioemotional development at six and 18 months. The sample consists of 236 Palestinian mothers from Gaza Strip singing to their six-month-olds a song by their own choice.

Reference-frame-independent quantum-key-distribution server with a telecom tether for an on-chip client.

We demonstrate a client-server quantum key distribution (QKD) scheme. Large resources such as laser and detectors are situated at the server side, which is accessible via telecom fiber to a client requiring only an on-chip polarization rotator, which may be integrated into a handheld device. The detrimental effects of unstable fiber birefringence are overcome by employing the reference-frame-independent QKD protocol for polarization qubits in polarization maintaining fiber, where standard QKD protocols fail, as we show for comparison.

Expansions for infinite or finite plane circular time-reversal mirrors and acoustic curtains for wave-field-synthesis.

An acoustic curtain is an array of microphones used for recording sound which is subsequently reproduced through an array of loudspeakers in which each loudspeaker reproduces the signal from its corresponding microphone. Here the sound originates from a point source on the axis of symmetry of the circular array. The Kirchhoff-Helmholtz integral for a plane circular curtain is solved analytically as fast-converging expansions, assuming an ideal continuous array, to speed up computations and provide insight.

Ultrafast graphene oxide humidity sensors.

Sensors allow an electronic device to become a gateway between the digital and physical worlds, and sensor materials with unprecedented performance can create new applications and new avenues for user interaction. Graphene oxide can be exploited in humidity and temperature sensors with a number of convenient features such as flexibility, transparency and suitability for large-scale manufacturing. Here we show that the two-dimensional nature of graphene oxide and its superpermeability to water combine to enable humidity sensors with unprecedented response speed (∼30 ms response and recovery times).

Graphene for energy solutions and its industrialization.

Graphene attracts intensive interest globally across academia and industry since the award of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2010. Within the last half decade, there has been an explosion in the number of scientific publications, patents and industry projects involved in this topic. On the other hand, energy is one of the biggest challenges of this century and related to the global sustainable economy.

Multiview-video-plus-depth coding based on the advanced video coding standard.

This paper presents a multiview-video-plus-depth coding scheme, which is compatible with the advanced video coding (H.264/AVC) standard and its multiview video coding (MVC) extension. This scheme introduces several encoding and in-loop coding tools for depth and texture video coding, such as depth-based texture motion vector prediction, depth-range-based weighted prediction, joint inter-view depth filtering, and gradual view refresh.

A nanostructured electrochromic supercapacitor.

We report the first successful application of an ordered bicontinuous double-gyroid vanadium pentoxide network in an electrochromic supercapacitor. The freestanding vanadia network was fabricated by electrodeposition into a voided block copolymer template that had self-assembled into the double-gyroid morphology. The highly ordered structure with 11.

Graphene from electrochemical exfoliation and its direct applications in enhanced energy storage devices.

Graphite was electrochemically exfoliated in mixtures of room temperature ionic liquids and deionized water containing lithium salts to produce functionalized graphenes and such an electrochemical exfoliation technique can be directly used in making primary battery electrodes with significantly enhanced specific energy capacity.

Silicon nanowire arrays as learning chemical vapour classifiers.

Nanowire field-effect transistors are a promising class of devices for various sensing applications. Apart from detecting individual chemical or biological analytes, it is especially interesting to use multiple selective sensors to look at their collective response in order to perform classification into predetermined categories. We show that non-functionalised silicon nanowire arrays can be used to robustly classify different chemical vapours using simple statistical machine learning methods.

Input/output pulse operation of ZnO nanowire threshold integrators.

Integrating more functionality into individual nano-components is a key step to exploit alternative architectures for energy-efficient computation, such as, for instance, neuromorphic computing. Here, we show how to configure ZnO nanowire field-effect transistors as light pulse integrators with programmable threshold. We demonstrate that these single-component devices can be operated as both synchronous and asynchronous neuron-like structures, where the firing threshold and the form of the output signal, either step-like or spiked, can be controlled by using several operational parameters, including the environment in which the device operates.

Application of coupled nanoscale resonators for spectral sensing.

In this paper we propose a method to perform tunable spectral sensing using globally inhibitory coupled oscillators. The suggested system may operate in the analog radio frequency (RF) domain without high speed ADC and heavy digital signal processing. Oscillator arrays may be made of imprecise elements such as nanoresonators.

Using heart rate monitors for personal wellness--the user experience perspective.

In this paper, we present a user study of the heart rate monitors (HRM), which is a commonly used personal wellness technology. HRMs have been used over several years for adjusting the exercise level and in the advanced form, also for measuring the users' fitness level and its progress. The user study included interviews with the HRM users and a survey with over 860 active or former users.

A customizable mobile tool for supporting health behavior interventions.

Recorded self-observations on a regular basis is an important component in many health behavior interventions. Using information and communication technologies (ICT) and especially mobile eHealth applications is a promising way of improving user-friendliness and possibly the overall effectiveness of self-monitoring. Mobility as such brings the added value of continuous availability and timely information access.

A service platform architecture design towards a light integration of heterogeneous systems in the wellbeing domain.

System integration is one of the major challenges for building wellbeing or healthcare related information systems. In this paper, we are going to share our experiences on how to design a service platform called Nuadu service platform, for providing integrated services in occupational health promotion and health risk management through two heterogeneous systems. Our design aims for a light integration covering the layers, from data through service up to presentation, while maintaining the integrity of the underlying systems.

Wearable FPGA based wireless sensor platform.

A new wearable sensor platform has been developed. It is based on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) device. Because of this the hardware is very flexible and gives the platform unique opportunities for research of a wide range of architectures, applications and signal processing algorithms.

Comparisons of Computed Mobile Phone Induced SAR in the SAM Phantom to That in Anatomically Correct Models of the Human Head.

The specific absorption rates (SAR) determined computationally in the specific anthropomorphic mannequin (SAM) and anatomically correct models of the human head when exposed to a mobile phone model are compared as part of a study organized by IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee 34, SubCommittee 2, and Working Group 2, and carried out by an international task force comprising 14 government, academic, and industrial research institutions. The detailed study protocol defined the computational head and mobile phone models. The participants used different finite-difference time-domain software and independently positioned the mobile phone and head models in accordance with the protocol.

Analysis of augmented-input-layer RBFNN.

In this paper we present and analyze a new structure for designing a radial basis function neural network (RBFNN). In the training phase, input layer of RBFNN is augmented with desired output vector. Generalization phase involves the following steps: (1) identify the cluster to which a previously unseen input vector belongs; (2) augment the input layer with an average of the targets of the input vectors in the identified cluster; and (3) use the augmented network to estimate the unknown target.

Human exposure by mobile phones in enclosed areas.

Human exposure by mobile phones in enclosed areas such as train carriages, elevators, and cars is considered. Equivalent power density and whole body specific absorption rate (SAR) are estimated by applying multimode resonant cavity theory and a straight forward worst case approach. The results show that exceeding the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines due to simultaneous use of several mobile phones in enclosed areas is highly improbable.

Data mining applied to linkage disequilibrium mapping.

We introduce a new method for linkage disequilibrium mapping: haplotype pattern mining (HPM). The method, inspired by data mining methods, is based on discovery of recurrent patterns. We define a class of useful haplotype patterns in genetic case-control data and use the algorithm for finding disease-associated haplotypes.