WorldWideScience

Sample records for strongest signal obtained

  1. Pulsar discoveries by volunteer distributed computing and the strongest continuous gravitational wave signal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knispel, Benjamin

    2011-07-01

    Neutron stars are the endpoints of stellar evolution and one of the most compact forms of matter in the universe. They can be observed as radio pulsars and are promising sources for the emission of continuous gravitational waves. Discovering new radio pulsars in tight binary orbits offers the opportunity to conduct very high precision tests of General Relativity and to further our understanding of neutron star structure and matter at super-nuclear densities. The direct detection of gravitational waves would validate Einstein's theory of Relativity and open a new window to the universe by offering a novel astronomical tool. This thesis addresses both of these scientific fields: the first fully coherent search for radio pulsars in tight, circular orbits has been planned, set up and conducted in the course of this thesis. Two unusual radio pulsars, one of them in a binary system, have been discovered. The other half of this thesis is concerned with the simulation of the Galactic neutron star population to predict their emission of continuous gravitational waves. First realistic statistical upper limits on the strongest continuous gravitational-wave signal and detection predictions for realistic all-sky blind searches have been obtained. The data from a large-scale pulsar survey with the 305-m Arecibo radio telescope were searched for signals from radio pulsars in binary orbits. The massive amount of computational work was done on hundreds of thousands of computers volunteered by members of the general public through the distributed computing project Einstein@Home. The newly developed analysis pipeline searched for pulsar spin frequencies below 250 Hz and for orbital periods as short as 11 min. The structure of the search pipeline consisting of data preparation, data analysis, result post-processing, and set-up of the pipeline components is presented in detail. The first radio pulsar, discovered with this search, PSR J2007+2722, is an isolated radio pulsar, likely from

  2. The Strongest Magnetic Field in Sunspots

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okamoto, J.; Sakurai, T.

    2017-12-01

    Sunspots are concentrations of magnetic fields on the solar surface. Generally, the strongest magnetic field in each sunspot is located in the dark umbra in most cases. A typical field strength in sunspots is around 3,000 G. On the other hand, some exceptions also have been found in complex sunspots with bright regions such as light bridges that separate opposite polarity umbrae, for instance with a strength of 4,300 G. However, the formation mechanism of such strong fields outside umbrae is still puzzling. Here we report an extremely strong magnetic field in a sunspot, which was located in a bright region sandwiched by two opposite-polarity umbrae. The strength is 6,250 G, which is the largest ever observed since the discovery of magnetic field on the Sun in 1908 by Hale. We obtained 31 scanned maps of the active region observed by Hinode/SOT/SP with a cadence of 3 hours over 5 days (February 1-6, 2014). Considering the spatial and temporal evolution of the vector magnetic field and the Doppler velocity in the bright region, we suggested that this strong field region was generated as a result of compression of one umbra pushed by the outward flow from the other umbra (Evershed flow), like the subduction of the Earth's crust in plate tectonics.

  3. Pitfall of the Strongest Cells in Static Random Access Memory Physical Unclonable Functions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mingyang Gong

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available Static Random Access Memory (SRAM Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs are some of the most popular PUFs that provide a highly-secured solution for secret key storage. Given that PUF responses are noisy, the key reconstruction must use error correcting code (ECC to reduce the noise. Repetition code is widely used in resource constrained systems as it is concise and lightweight, however, research has shown that repetition codes can lead to information leakage. In this paper we found that the strongest cell distribution in a SRAM array may leak information of the responses of SRAM PUF when the repetition code is directly applied. Experimentally, on an ASIC platform with the HHGRACE 0.13 μm process, we recovered 8.3% of the measured response using the strongest cells revealed by the helper data, and we finally obtained a clone response 79% similar to weak response using the public helper data. We therefore propose Error Resistant Fuzzy Extractor (ERFE, a 4-bit error tolerant fuzzy extractor, that extracts the value of the sum of the responses as a unique key and reduces the failure rate to 1.8 × 10−8 with 256 bit entropy.

  4. Comparison of respiratory-induced variations in photoplethysmographic signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Jin; Jin, Jie; Chen, Xiang; Sun, Weixin; Guo, Ping

    2010-01-01

    Photoplethysmography (PPG) is an optical method for detecting blood volume changes in tissue. Respiratory-induced intensity, frequency and amplitude variations are contained in the PPG signal; thus, an understanding of the relationships between all of these variations and respiration is essential to advancing respiration monitoring based on PPG. This study investigated correlations between respiratory-induced variations extracted from PPG and simultaneous respiratory signals. PPG signals were recorded from 28 healthy subjects under eight different conditions. Six respiratory-induced variations, i.e. the period of the systole, diastole and pulse, the amplitude of the systole and diastole, and the intensity variation, were determined from the PPG signal. The results indicate that, compared with the period of the pulse, the period of the systole and diastole correlates weakly with respiration; the amplitude of the diastole has a stronger correlation with respiration than the amplitude of the systole. For men, when the respiratory rate is less than 10 breaths min −1 , the period of the pulse has the strongest correlation with respiration, whereas up to or above 15 breaths min −1 , the intensity variation becomes strongest in the sitting posture, while the amplitude of the diastole is strongest in the supine posture. For women, compared with the other variations, the period of the pulse has nearly the strongest correlation with respiration, independent of respiratory rate or posture

  5. Salomon: '97 E and P looking strongest in 9 years

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1997-01-01

    Based on companies' disclosed spending plans, 1997 is shaping up to be the strongest year-ahead outlook in 9 years, according to Salomon Bros. Inc. Salomon Bros.' conclusion stems from its 15th annual survey of worldwide oil and gas exploration and production spending. The survey, released last month, included 125 US independents, 97 Canadian companies, 103 companies outside the US and Canada, and 15 majors. Significantly, when the 15% growth experienced in 1996 is combined with the 1997 outlook, it represents the strongest indicator of 2-year activity in the past 15 years, said Salomon Bros. Double-digit spending growth is projected in all regions for 1997, the analyst said. Salomon Bros. said a higher percentage of companies' E and P budgets are being allocated to offshore projects, driven in part by attractive prospects, 3D seismic technology, and increased operational efficiencies

  6. The strongest magnetic fields in the universe

    CERN Document Server

    Balogh, A; Falanga, M; Lyutikov, M; Mereghetti, S; Piran, T; Treumann, RA

    2016-01-01

    This volume extends the ISSI series on magnetic fields in the Universe into the domain of what are by far the strongest fields in the Universe, and stronger than any field that could be produced on Earth. The chapters describe the magnetic fields in non-degenerate strongly magnetized stars, degenerate stars (such as white dwarfs and neutron stars), exotic members called magnetars, and in their environments, as well as magnetic fields in the environments of black holes. These strong fields have a profound effect on the behavior of matter, visible in particular in highly variable processes like radiation in all known wavelengths, including Gamma-Ray bursts. The generation and structure of such strong magnetic fields and effects on the environment are also described.

  7. Symbolic transfer entropy-based premature signal analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang Jun; Yu Zheng-Feng

    2012-01-01

    In this paper, we use symbolic transfer entropy to study the coupling strength between premature signals. Numerical experiments show that three types of signal couplings are in the same direction. Among them, normal signal coupling is the strongest, followed by that of premature ventricular contractions, and that of atrial premature beats is the weakest. The T test shows that the entropies of the three signals are distinct. Symbolic transfer entropy requires less data, can distinguish the three types of signals and has very good computational efficiency. (interdisciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology)

  8. Blandford's argument: The strongest continuous gravitational wave signal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Knispel, Benjamin; Allen, Bruce

    2008-01-01

    For a uniform population of neutron stars whose spin-down is dominated by the emission of gravitational radiation, an old argument of Blandford states that the expected gravitational-wave amplitude of the nearest source is independent of the deformation and rotation frequency of the objects. Recent work has improved and extended this argument to set upper limits on the expected amplitude from neutron stars that also emit electromagnetic radiation. We restate these arguments in a more general framework, and simulate the evolution of such a population of stars in the gravitational potential of our galaxy. The simulations allow us to test the assumptions of Blandford's argument on a realistic model of our galaxy. We show that the two key assumptions of the argument (two dimensionality of the spatial distribution and a steady-state frequency distribution) are in general not fulfilled. The effective scaling dimension D of the spatial distribution of neutron stars is significantly larger than two, and for frequencies detectable by terrestrial instruments the frequency distribution is not in a steady state unless the ellipticity is unrealistically large. Thus, in the cases of most interest, the maximum expected gravitational-wave amplitude does have a strong dependence on the deformation and rotation frequency of the population. The results strengthen the previous upper limits on the expected gravitational-wave amplitude from neutron stars by a factor of 6 for realistic values of ellipticity.

  9. Strongest Tropical cyclones: 1980-2009: A 30-year collage of Hurricane Satellite (HURSAT) data

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Strongest Tropical Cyclones: 1980-2009 poster - a 30-year collage of Hurricane Satellite (HURSAT) data. This poster depicts a series of 5 degree grids where within...

  10. The obtaining of statistical characteristics of informative features of signals in the Autonomous information systems using neural networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. K. Hohlov

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The article studies a neural network approach to obtain the statistical characteristics of the input vector implementations of signal and noise at ill-conditioned matrices of correlation moments to solve the problems to select and reduce the vector dimensions of informative features at detection and recognition of signals and noise based on regression methods.A scientific novelty is determined by applying neural network algorithms for the efficient solution of problems to select the informative features and determine the parameters of regression algorithms in terms of the degeneracy or ill-conditioned data with unknown expectation and covariance matrices.The article proposes to use a single-layer neural network with no zero weights and activation functions to calculate the initial regression characteristics and the mean-square value error of multiple initial regression representations, which are necessary to justify the selection of informative features, reduce a dimension of sign vectors and implement the regression algorithms. It is shown that when excluding direct links between the inputs and their corresponding neurons, in the training network the weight coefficients of neuron inputs are the coefficients of initial multiple regression, the error meansquare value of multiple initial regression representations is calculated at the outputs of neurons. The article considers conditionality of the problem to calculate the matrix that is inverse one for matrix of correlation moments. It defines a condition number, which characterizes the relative error of stated task.The problem concerning the matrix condition of the correlation moment of informative signal features and noise arises when solving the problem to find the multiple coefficients of initial regression (MCIR and the residual mean-square values of the multiple regression representations. For obtaining the MCIR and finding the residual mean-square values the matrix of correlation moments of

  11. The Strength of the Strongest Ties in Collaborative Problem Solving

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    de Montjoye, Yves-Alexandre; Stopczynski, Arkadiusz; Shmueli, Erez

    2014-01-01

    Complex problem solving in science, engineering, and business has become a highly collaborative endeavor. Teams of scientists or engineers collaborate on projects using their social networks to gather new ideas and feedback. Here we bridge the literature on team performance and information networks...... by studying teams' problem solving abilities as a function of both their within-team networks and their members' extended networks. We show that, while an assigned team's performance is strongly correlated with its networks of expressive and instrumental ties, only the strongest ties in both networks have...... an effect on performance. Both networks of strong ties explain more of the variance than other factors, such as measured or self-evaluated technical competencies, or the personalities of the team members. In fact, the inclusion of the network of strong ties renders these factors non...

  12. The Strength of the Strongest Ties in Collaborative Problem Solving

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Montjoye, Yves-Alexandre; Stopczynski, Arkadiusz; Shmueli, Erez; Pentland, Alex; Lehmann, Sune

    2014-06-01

    Complex problem solving in science, engineering, and business has become a highly collaborative endeavor. Teams of scientists or engineers collaborate on projects using their social networks to gather new ideas and feedback. Here we bridge the literature on team performance and information networks by studying teams' problem solving abilities as a function of both their within-team networks and their members' extended networks. We show that, while an assigned team's performance is strongly correlated with its networks of expressive and instrumental ties, only the strongest ties in both networks have an effect on performance. Both networks of strong ties explain more of the variance than other factors, such as measured or self-evaluated technical competencies, or the personalities of the team members. In fact, the inclusion of the network of strong ties renders these factors non-significant in the statistical analysis. Our results have consequences for the organization of teams of scientists, engineers, and other knowledge workers tackling today's most complex problems.

  13. Evidence for the strongest version of the 4d a-theorem via a-maximization along RG flows

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barnes, Edwin; Intriligator, Ken; Wecht, Brian; Wright, Jason

    2004-01-01

    In earlier work, we (KI and BW) gave a two line 'almost proof' (for supersymmetric RG flows) of the weakest form of the conjectured 4d a-theorem, that aIRaUV, using our result that the exact superconformal R-symmetry of 4d SCFTs maximizes a=3TrR3-TrR. The proof was incomplete because of two identified loopholes: theories with accidental symmetries, and the fact that it is only a local maximum of a. Here we discuss and extend a proposal of Kutasov (which helps close the latter loophole) in which a-maximization is generalized away from the endpoints of the RG flow, with Lagrange multipliers that are conjectured to be identified with the running coupling constants. a-maximization then yields a monotonically decreasing 'a-function' along the RG flow to the IR. As we discuss, this proposal in fact suggests the strongest version of the a-theorem: that 4d RG flows are gradient flows of an a-function, with positive-definite metric. In the perturbative limit, the RG flow metric thus obtained is shown to agree precisely with that found by very different computations by Osborn and collaborators. As examples, we discuss a new class of 4d SCFTs, along with their dual descriptions and IR phases, obtained from SQCD by coupling some of the flavors to added singlets

  14. Analysis of simulated ECT signals obtained at tubesheet and tube expansion area

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Song, Sung Chul; Lee, Yun Tai; Jung, Hee Sung; Shin, Young Kil

    2006-01-01

    Steam generator(SG) tubes are expanded inside tubesheet holes by using explosive or hydraulic methods to be fixed in the tubesheet. In the tube expansion process, it is important to minimize the crevice gap between tubesheet and expanded tube. In this paper, absolute and differential signals are predicted by a numerical method for several different locations of tube expansion inside and outside the tubesheet and signal variations due to tubesheet, tube expansion and operating frequency are observed. Results show that low frequency is good for detecting tubesheet location in both types of signals and high frequency is suitable for sizing of tube diameter as well as the detection of transition region. Also learned is that the absolute signal is good for measuring tube diameter, while the differential signal is good for locating the top of tubesheet and both ends of the transition region.

  15. Perception and the strongest sensory memory trace of multi-stable displays both form shortly after the stimulus onset.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pastukhov, Alexander

    2016-02-01

    We investigated the relation between perception and sensory memory of multi-stable structure-from-motion displays. The latter is an implicit visual memory that reflects a recent history of perceptual dominance and influences only the initial perception of multi-stable displays. First, we established the earliest time point when the direction of an illusory rotation can be reversed after the display onset (29-114 ms). Because our display manipulation did not bias perception towards a specific direction of illusory rotation but only signaled the change in motion, this means that the perceptual dominance was established no later than 29-114 ms after the stimulus onset. Second, we used orientation-selectivity of sensory memory to establish which display orientation produced the strongest memory trace and when this orientation was presented during the preceding prime interval (80-140 ms). Surprisingly, both estimates point towards the time interval immediately after the display onset, indicating that both perception and sensory memory form at approximately the same time. This suggests a tighter integration between perception and sensory memory than previously thought, warrants a reconsideration of its role in visual perception, and indicates that sensory memory could be a unique behavioral correlate of the earlier perceptual inference that can be studied post hoc.

  16. ON POTENTIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DISTRIBUTION LAW OF RARE STRONGEST EARTHQUAKES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. V. Rodkin

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Assessment of long-term seismic hazard is critically dependent on the behavior of tail of the distribution function of rare strongest earthquakes. Analyses of empirical data cannot however yield the credible solution of this problem because the instrumental catalogs of earthquake are available only for a rather short time intervals, and the uncertainty in estimations of magnitude of paleoearthquakes is high. From the available data, it was possible only to propose a number of alternative models characterizing the distribution of rare strongest earthquakes. There are the following models: the model based on theGuttenberg – Richter law suggested to be valid until a maximum possible seismic event (Мmах, models of 'bend down' of earthquake recurrence curve, and the characteristic earthquakes model. We discuss these models from the general physical concepts supported by the theory of extreme values (with reference to the generalized extreme value (GEV distribution and the generalized Pareto distribution (GPD and the multiplicative cascade model of seismic regime. In terms of the multiplicative cascade model, seismic regime is treated as a large number of episodes of avalanche-type relaxation of metastable states which take place in a set of metastable sub-systems.The model of magnitude-unlimited continuation of the Guttenberg – Richter law is invalid from the physical point of view because it corresponds to an infinite mean value of seismic energy and infinite capacity of the process generating seismicity. A model of an abrupt cut of this law by a maximum possible event, Мmах is not fully logical either.A model with the 'bend-down' of earthquake recurrence curve can ensure both continuity of the distribution law and finiteness of seismic energy value. Results of studies with the use of the theory of extreme values provide a convincing support to the model of 'bend-down' of earthquakes’ recurrence curve. Moreover they testify also that the

  17. Trans-ethnic fine-mapping of lipid loci identifies population-specific signals and allelic heterogeneity that increases the trait variance explained.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ying Wu

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Genome-wide association studies (GWAS have identified ~100 loci associated with blood lipid levels, but much of the trait heritability remains unexplained, and at most loci the identities of the trait-influencing variants remain unknown. We conducted a trans-ethnic fine-mapping study at 18, 22, and 18 GWAS loci on the Metabochip for their association with triglycerides (TG, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C, respectively, in individuals of African American (n = 6,832, East Asian (n = 9,449, and European (n = 10,829 ancestry. We aimed to identify the variants with strongest association at each locus, identify additional and population-specific signals, refine association signals, and assess the relative significance of previously described functional variants. Among the 58 loci, 33 exhibited evidence of association at P<1 × 10(-4 in at least one ancestry group. Sequential conditional analyses revealed that ten, nine, and four loci in African Americans, Europeans, and East Asians, respectively, exhibited two or more signals. At these loci, accounting for all signals led to a 1.3- to 1.8-fold increase in the explained phenotypic variance compared to the strongest signals. Distinct signals across ancestry groups were identified at PCSK9 and APOA5. Trans-ethnic analyses narrowed the signals to smaller sets of variants at GCKR, PPP1R3B, ABO, LCAT, and ABCA1. Of 27 variants reported previously to have functional effects, 74% exhibited the strongest association at the respective signal. In conclusion, trans-ethnic high-density genotyping and analysis confirm the presence of allelic heterogeneity, allow the identification of population-specific variants, and limit the number of candidate SNPs for functional studies.

  18. Simulation and Analysis of ECT Signals Obtained at Tubesheet and Tube Expansion Area

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Song, Sung Chul; Lee, Yun Tai; Jung, Hee Sung; Shin, Young Kil

    2006-01-01

    Steam generator (SG) tubes are expanded inside tubesheet holes by using explosive or hydraulic methods to be fixed in a tubesheet. In the tube expansion process, it is important to minimize the crevice gap between expanded tube and tube sheet. In this paper, absolute and differential signals are computed by a numerical method for several different locations of tube expansion inside and outside a tubesheet and signal variations due to tubesheet, tube expansion and operating frequencies are observed. Results show that low frequency is good for detecting tubesheet location in both types of signals and high frequency is suitable for sizing of tube diameter as well as the detection of transition region. Also learned is that the absolute signal is good for measuring tube diameter, while the differential signal is good for locating the top of tubesheet and both ends of the transition region. In the case of mingled anomaly with tube expansion and tubesheet, low frequency inspection is found to be useful to analyze the mixed signal

  19. The strongest spectral lines of stable elements with other interfering elements in compiled and plotted version

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bauer, M.; Weitkamp, C.

    1977-01-01

    The strongest spectra lines of the 85 stable chemical elements have been compiled and plotted along with lines from other elements that may interfere in applications like spectroscopic multielement analysis. For each line a wavelength range of +- 0.25 A.U. around the line of interest has been considered. The tables contain the wavelength, intensity and assignment to an ionization state of the emitting atom, the plots visualize the lines with a doppler broadening corresponding to 8,000 K. (orig.) [de

  20. Dynamic characteristics of laser Doppler flowmetry signals obtained in response to a local and progressive pressure applied on diabetic and healthy subjects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Humeau, Anne; Koitka, Audrey; Abraham, Pierre; Saumet, Jean-Louis; L'Huillier, Jean-Pierre

    2004-09-01

    In the biomedical field, the laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) technique is a non-invasive method to monitor skin perfusion. On the skin of healthy humans, LDF signals present a significant transient increase in response to a local and progressive pressure application. This vasodilatory reflex response may have important implications for cutaneous pathologies involved in various neurological diseases and in the pathophysiology of decubitus ulcers. The present work analyses the dynamic characteristics of these signals on young type 1 diabetic patients, and on healthy age-matched subjects. To obtain accurate dynamic characteristic values, a de-noising wavelet-based algorithm is first applied to LDF signals. All the de-noised signals are then normalised to the same value. The blood flow peak and the time to reach this peak are then calculated on each computed signal. The results show that a large vasodilation is present on signals of healthy subjects. The mean peak occurs at a pressure of 3.2 kPa approximately. However, a vasodilation of limited amplitude appears on type 1 diabetic patients. The maximum value is visualised, on the average, when the pressure is 1.1 kPa. The inability for diabetic patients to increase largely their cutaneous blood flow may bring explanations to foot ulcers.

  1. Five years of Project META - An all-sky narrow-band radio search for extraterrestrial signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horowitz, Paul; Sagan, Carl

    1993-01-01

    We have conducted a five-year search of the northern sky (delta between 30 and 60 deg) for narrow-band radio signals near the 1420 MHz line of neutral hydrogen, and its second harmonic, using an 8.4 x 10 exp 6 channel Fourier spectrometer of 0.05 Hz resolution and 400 kHz instantaneous bandwidth. The observing frequency was corrected both for motions with respect to three astronomical inertial frames, and for the effect of Earth's rotation, which provides a characteristic changing Doppler signature for narrow-band signals of extraterrestrial origin. Among the 6 x 10 exp 13 spectral channels searched, we have found 37 candidate events exceeding the average detection threshold of 1.7 x 10 exp -23 W/sq m, none of which was detected upon reobservation. The strongest of these appear to be dominated by rare processor errors. However, the strongest signals that survive culling for terrestrial interference lie in or near the Galactic plane. We describe the search and candidate events, and set limits on the prevalence of supercivilizations transmitting Doppler-precompensated beacons at H I or its second harmonic. We conclude with recommendations for future searches, based upon these findings, and a description of our next-generation search system.

  2. Remote population-based intervention for disruptive behavior at age four: study protocol for a randomized trial of Internet-assisted parent training (Strongest Families Finland-Canada)

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    Background Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is characterized by angry and noncompliant behaviour. It is the most common disruptive behaviour disorder (DBD), with prevalence estimates of 6-9% for preschoolers and is closely linked to several long-term difficulties, including disorders of conduct, mood, anxiety, impulse-control, and substance abuse. ODD in children is related to parental depression, family dysfunction, and impairments in parental work performance. Children displaying early DBDs exhibit more symptoms of greater severity, more frequent offences, and commit more serious crimes later in life. The goal of the Strongest Families™ Finland Canada (SFFC) Smart Website intervention research program is to develop and evaluate an affordable, accessible, effective secondary prevention parent training program for disruptive behaviour in preschoolers to prevent the negative sequelae of ODD. Strongest Families is an 11-session program with two booster sessions that focuses on teaching skills to: strengthen parent–child relationships; reinforce positive behaviour; reduce conflict; manage daily transitions; plan for potentially problematic situations; promote emotional regulation and pro-social behaviour and decrease antisocial behaviour. Methods/design This protocol paper describes an ongoing population-based randomized controlled trial (RCT) of high-risk 4 year-olds attending well-child clinics in Turku, Finland and environs to examine the effectiveness of the Strongest Families Smart Website intervention compared to an Education Control condition. Randomization consists of a 1:1 ratio for intervention versus the education group, stratified by the child’s sex. The participants randomized to the intervention group receive access to the Strongest Families Smart Website and weekly telephone coaching sessions. The participants randomized to the Education Control condition receive access to a static website with parenting tips. Children are followed using

  3. Remote population-based intervention for disruptive behavior at age four: study protocol for a randomized trial of Internet-assisted parent training (Strongest Families Finland-Canada).

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGrath, Patrick J; Sourander, Andre; Lingley-Pottie, Patricia; Ristkari, Terja; Cunningham, Charles; Huttunen, Jukka; Filbert, Katharine; Aromaa, Minna; Corkum, Penny; Hinkka-Yli-Salomäki, Susanna; Kinnunen, Malin; Lampi, Katja; Penttinen, Anne; Sinokki, Atte; Unruh, Anita; Vuorio, Jenni; Watters, Carolyn

    2013-10-21

    Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is characterized by angry and noncompliant behaviour. It is the most common disruptive behaviour disorder (DBD), with prevalence estimates of 6-9% for preschoolers and is closely linked to several long-term difficulties, including disorders of conduct, mood, anxiety, impulse-control, and substance abuse. ODD in children is related to parental depression, family dysfunction, and impairments in parental work performance. Children displaying early DBDs exhibit more symptoms of greater severity, more frequent offences, and commit more serious crimes later in life. The goal of the Strongest Families Finland Canada (SFFC) Smart Website intervention research program is to develop and evaluate an affordable, accessible, effective secondary prevention parent training program for disruptive behaviour in preschoolers to prevent the negative sequelae of ODD. Strongest Families is an 11-session program with two booster sessions that focuses on teaching skills to: strengthen parent-child relationships; reinforce positive behaviour; reduce conflict; manage daily transitions; plan for potentially problematic situations; promote emotional regulation and pro-social behaviour and decrease antisocial behaviour. This protocol paper describes an ongoing population-based randomized controlled trial (RCT) of high-risk 4 year-olds attending well-child clinics in Turku, Finland and environs to examine the effectiveness of the Strongest Families Smart Website intervention compared to an Education Control condition. Randomization consists of a 1:1 ratio for intervention versus the education group, stratified by the child's sex. The participants randomized to the intervention group receive access to the Strongest Families Smart Website and weekly telephone coaching sessions. The participants randomized to the Education Control condition receive access to a static website with parenting tips. Children are followed using parental and daycare teacher measures

  4. Method of signal analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Berthomier, Charles

    1975-01-01

    A method capable of handling the amplitude and the frequency time laws of a certain kind of geophysical signals is described here. This method is based upon the analytical signal idea of Gabor and Ville, which is constructed either in the time domain by adding an imaginary part to the real signal (in-quadrature signal), or in the frequency domain by suppressing negative frequency components. The instantaneous frequency of the initial signal is then defined as the time derivative of the phase of the analytical signal, and his amplitude, or envelope, as the modulus of this complex signal. The method is applied to three types of magnetospheric signals: chorus, whistlers and pearls. The results obtained by analog and numerical calculations are compared to results obtained by classical systems using filters, i.e. based upon a different definition of the concept of frequency. The precision with which the frequency-time laws are determined leads then to the examination of the principle of the method and to a definition of instantaneous power density spectrum attached to the signal, and to the first consequences of this definition. In this way, a two-dimensional representation of the signal is introduced which is less deformed by the analysis system properties than the usual representation, and which moreover has the advantage of being obtainable practically in real time [fr

  5. Digital dewaxing of Raman signals: discrimination between nevi and melanoma spectra obtained from paraffin-embedded skin biopsies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tfayli, Ali; Gobinet, Cyril; Vrabie, Valeriu; Huez, Regis; Manfait, Michel; Piot, Olivier

    2009-05-01

    Malignant melanoma (MM) is the most severe tumor affecting the skin and accounts for three quarters of all skin cancer deaths. Raman spectroscopy is a promising nondestructive tool that has been increasingly used for characterization of the molecular features of cancerous tissues. Different multivariate statistical analysis techniques are used in order to extract relevant information that can be considered as functional spectroscopic descriptors of a particular pathology. Paraffin embedding (waxing) is a highly efficient process used to conserve biopsies in tumor banks for several years. However, the use of non-dewaxed formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues for Raman spectroscopic investigations remains very restricted, limiting the development of the technique as a routine analytical tool for biomedical purposes. This is due to the highly intense signal of paraffin, which masks important vibrations of the biological tissues. In addition to being time consuming and chemical intensive, chemical dewaxing methods are not efficient and they leave traces of the paraffin in tissues, which affects the Raman signal. In the present study, we use independent component analysis (ICA) on Raman spectral images collected on melanoma and nevus samples. The sources obtained from these images are then used to eliminate, using non-negativity constrained least squares (NCLS), the paraffin contribution from each individual spectrum of the spectral images of nevi and melanomas. Corrected spectra of both types of lesion are then compared and classified into dendrograms using hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA).

  6. A signal combining technique based on channel shortening for cooperative sensor networks

    KAUST Repository

    Hussain, Syed Imtiaz; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim; Hasna, Mazen Omar

    2010-01-01

    The cooperative relaying process needs proper coordination among the communicating and the relaying nodes. This coordination and the required capabilities may not be available in some wireless systems, e.g. wireless sensor networks where the nodes are equipped with very basic communication hardware. In this paper, we consider a scenario where the source node transmits its signal to the destination through multiple relays in an uncoordinated fashion. The destination can capture the multiple copies of the transmitted signal through a Rake receiver. We analyze a situation where the number of Rake fingers N is less than that of the relaying nodes L. In this case, the receiver can combine N strongest signals out of L. The remaining signals will be lost and act as interference to the desired signal components. To tackle this problem, we develop a novel signal combining technique based on channel shortening. This technique proposes a processing block before the Rake reception which compresses the energy of L signal components over N branches while keeping the noise level at its minimum. The proposed scheme saves the system resources and makes the received signal compatible to the available hardware. Simulation results show that it outperforms the selection combining scheme. ©2010 IEEE.

  7. A signal combining technique based on channel shortening for cooperative sensor networks

    KAUST Repository

    Hussain, Syed Imtiaz

    2010-06-01

    The cooperative relaying process needs proper coordination among the communicating and the relaying nodes. This coordination and the required capabilities may not be available in some wireless systems, e.g. wireless sensor networks where the nodes are equipped with very basic communication hardware. In this paper, we consider a scenario where the source node transmits its signal to the destination through multiple relays in an uncoordinated fashion. The destination can capture the multiple copies of the transmitted signal through a Rake receiver. We analyze a situation where the number of Rake fingers N is less than that of the relaying nodes L. In this case, the receiver can combine N strongest signals out of L. The remaining signals will be lost and act as interference to the desired signal components. To tackle this problem, we develop a novel signal combining technique based on channel shortening. This technique proposes a processing block before the Rake reception which compresses the energy of L signal components over N branches while keeping the noise level at its minimum. The proposed scheme saves the system resources and makes the received signal compatible to the available hardware. Simulation results show that it outperforms the selection combining scheme. ©2010 IEEE.

  8. Annona muricata leaves have strongest cytotoxic activity against breast cancer cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Susi Endrini

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Background Plant-derived herbal compounds have a long history of clinical use, better patient tolerance and acceptance. They are freely available natural compounds that can be safely used to prevent various ailments. Plants have been the basis of traditional medicine throughout the world for thousands of years and are providing mankind with new remedies. The objective of this study was to determine the cytotoxicity of soursop (Anona muricata Linn leaves and pearl grass (Hedyotis corymbosa (L. Lam. on the hormone-dependent human breast carcinoma Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF-7 cell line. Methods This study used two types of solvents (water and ethanol in the extraction process and two incubation times (24 hours and 48 hours in the MTT assays to analyze the cytotoxic effects of both plants. Results Preliminary results showed that the ethanolic extract of soursop leaves (SE displayed cytotoxic effects against MCF-7 on 24- and 48-hour incubation times with IC50 values of 88.788 ìg/ml and 14.678 mg/ml, respectively. Ethanolic pearl grass extract (PE showed similar results, with IC50 values of 65.011 mg/ml on 24-hour incubation time and 52.329 mg/ml on 48-hour incubation time against MCF-7 cell line. However, the water extract of both plants displayed lower cytotoxic effect against MCF-7 cell line. Conclusion The ethanolic extract of both plants displayed cytotoxic effect against MCF-7. Soursop (Anona muricata Linn leaves have the strongest cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 breast cancer cell line.

  9. Annona muricata leaves have strongest cytotoxic activity against breast cancer cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Susi Endrini

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND Plant-derived herbal compounds have a long history of clinical use, better patient tolerance and acceptance. They are freely available natural compounds that can be safely used to prevent various ailments. Plants have been the basis of traditional medicine throughout the world for thousands of years and are providing mankind with new remedies. The objective of this study was to determine the cytotoxicity of soursop (Anona muricata Linn leaves and pearl grass (Hedyotis corymbosa (L. Lam. on the hormone-dependent human breast carcinoma Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF-7 cell line. METHODS This study used two types of solvents (water and ethanol in the extraction process and two incubation times (24 hours and 48 hours in the MTT assays to analyze the cytotoxic effects of both plants. RESULTS Preliminary results showed that the ethanolic extract of soursop leaves (SE displayed cytotoxic effects against MCF-7 on 24- and 48-hour incubation times with IC50 values of 88.788 μg/ml and 14.678 μg/ml, respectively. Ethanolic pearl grass extract (PE showed similar results, with IC50 values of 65.011 μg/ ml on 24-hour incubation time and 52.329 μg/ml on 48-hour incubation time against MCF-7 cell line. However, the water extract of both plants displayed lower cytotoxic effect against MCF-7 cell line. CONCLUSION The ethanolic extract of both plants displayed cytotoxic effect against MCF-7. Soursop (Anona muricata Linn leaves have the strongest cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 breast cancer cell line.

  10. Determination of elastic mechanical characteristics of surface coatings from analysis of signals obtained by impulse excitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nyaguly, E.; Craştiu, I.; Deac, S.; Gozman-Pop, C.; Drăgănescu, G.; Bereteu, L.

    2018-01-01

    Most of the surface coatings are based on the synthetic polymers, which are substances composed from very large molecules that form tough, flexible, adhesive films when applied to surfaces. The other components of surface coverings materials are pigments that provide colour, opacity, gloss and other properties. Surface coatings are two-phase composite materials: constitute a polymer matrix on the one side, and on the other side of the pigments and additives dispersed in the matrix. Their role is not only aesthetically but also to ensure anticorrosive protection or even improve some mechanical properties of coated surfaces. In this paper it will follow, starting from the mechanical properties of the substrate, the metallic sheet in general, to determine the new properties of the assembly of substrate and the two coating layers, also the determination of mechanical properties of the layers. From the analysis of vibroacoustic signals obtained by the impulse excitation of the sample, one can determine the elasticity modulus. These results come to validate the results based on finite element analysis (FEA) of the same samples.

  11. Factors related to the magnitude of T2* MR signal changes during functional imaging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krings, T.; Reinges, M.H.T.; Gilsbach, J.M.; Willmes, K.; Nuerk, H.C.; Meister, I.G.; Thron, A.

    2002-01-01

    Our aim was to determine whether age, sex, the degree of weakness, anticonvulsants, the histology of the underlying lesion(s), the presence of oedema or the distance of the lesion from the motor region have an impact on the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal strength and therefore on the validity of functional MRI (fMRI). We studied 98 patients with masses near the central region imaged for surgical planning at 1.5 tesla, employing a BOLD sequence during a motor task. We calculated percentage signal change in the primary motor cortex between rest and activation and carried out multiple linear regression to examine the impact of the above factors on signal strength. Using a stepwise analysis strategy, the distance of the lesion from the motor region had the strongest influence (r=0.653, P 0.20). Disturbances of cerebral blood flow and metabolism induced by the tumour were presumed to be the causes of a decrease in signal in the adjacent cortex. (orig.)

  12. Analytic reconstruction of magnetic resonance imaging signal obtained from a periodic encoding field.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rybicki, F J; Hrovat, M I; Patz, S

    2000-09-01

    We have proposed a two-dimensional PERiodic-Linear (PERL) magnetic encoding field geometry B(x,y) = g(y)y cos(q(x)x) and a magnetic resonance imaging pulse sequence which incorporates two fields to image a two-dimensional spin density: a standard linear gradient in the x dimension, and the PERL field. Because of its periodicity, the PERL field produces a signal where the phase of the two dimensions is functionally different. The x dimension is encoded linearly, but the y dimension appears as the argument of a sinusoidal phase term. Thus, the time-domain signal and image spin density are not related by a two-dimensional Fourier transform. They are related by a one-dimensional Fourier transform in the x dimension and a new Bessel function integral transform (the PERL transform) in the y dimension. The inverse of the PERL transform provides a reconstruction algorithm for the y dimension of the spin density from the signal space. To date, the inverse transform has been computed numerically by a Bessel function expansion over its basis functions. This numerical solution used a finite sum to approximate an infinite summation and thus introduced a truncation error. This work analytically determines the basis functions for the PERL transform and incorporates them into the reconstruction algorithm. The improved algorithm is demonstrated by (1) direct comparison between the numerically and analytically computed basis functions, and (2) reconstruction of a known spin density. The new solution for the basis functions also lends proof of the system function for the PERL transform under specific conditions.

  13. Characteristics of Helicopter-Generated and Volcano-Related Seismic Tremor Signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eibl, Eva P. S.; Lokmer, Ivan; Bean, Christopher J.; Akerlie, Eggert; Vogfjörd, Kristin S.

    2017-04-01

    In volcanic environments it is crucial to distinguish between man-made seismic signals and signals created by the volcano. We compare volcanic, seismic signals with helicopter generated, seismic signals recorded in the last 2.5 years in Iceland. In both cases a long-lasting, emergent seismic signal, that can be referred to as seismic tremor, was generated. In the case of a helicopter, the rotating blades generate pressure pulses that travel through the air and excite Rayleigh waves at up to 40 km distance depending on wind speed, wind direction and topographic features. The longest helicopter related seismic signal we recorded was at the order of 40 minutes long. The tremor usually has a fundamental frequency of more than 10 Hz and overtones at integers of the fundamental frequency. Changes in distance lead to either increases or decreases of the frequency due to the Doppler Effect and are strongest for small source-receiver distances. The volcanic tremor signal was recorded during the Bardarbunga eruption at Holuhraun in 2014/15. For volcano-related seismic signals it is usually more difficult to determine the source process that generated the tremor. The pre-eruptive tremor persists for 2 weeks, while the co-eruptive tremor lasted for 6 months. We observed no frequency changes, most energy between 1 and 2 Hz and no or very little energy above 5 Hz. We compare the different characteristics of helicopter-related and volcano-related seismic signals and discuss how they can be distinguished. In addition we discuss how we can determine if a frequency change is related to a moving source or change in repeat time or a change in the geometry of the resonating body.

  14. Relationship between signal intensity of blood flow in the pulmonary artery obtained by magnetic resonance imaging and results of right cardiac catheterization in patients with pulmonary disease

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yuguchi, Yasutoshi; Nagao, Keiichi; Kouno, Norihiro; Tanabe, Nobuhiro; Okita, Shinya; Tojima, Hirokazu; Okada, Osamu; Kuriyama, Takayuki [Chiba Univ. (Japan). School of Medicine; Yamaguchi, Tetsuo

    1992-08-01

    Electrocardiogram-gated spin-echo magnetic resonance (MR) images of the chest were obtained in five normal controls and 35 patients with pulmonary disease (11 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 6 pulmonary thromboembolism, 5 primary pulmonary hypertension, 4 interstitial pulmonary disease, 4 pulmonary hypertension with disturbance of portal circulation, and 5 other diseases) who underwent right cardiac catheterization. In transverse images at the level of the right main pulmonary artery (rPA) and sagittal images at the level through the midsternal line and the spinal cord, the signal intensity of blood flow in the rPA was quantitatively evaluated, and the correlations with the MR signal intensity of intravascular flow and the parameters of hemodynamics were studied. In diastole MR images of both normal controls and patients mostly showed a significant signal and visible flow images. In systolic MR images, the mean values of hemodynamic parameters (mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP), pulmonary arteriolar resistance (PAR), and cardiac index (CI)) were abnormal in patients with significant signal intensity of flow compared with those in patients without sufficient MR signal. The signal intensity was not correlated with mPAP; however, it significantly increased as PAR increased, and it increased as CI decreased both in diastole and in systole. Especially in systole, there was good correlation between the signal intensity in transverse MR images and CI and between signal intensity in sagittal MR images and PAR . These results suggest that the signal intensity of blood flow in the rPA on MR images can be used as an index of the severity of right heart failure associated with pulmonary disease. MR imaging is a useful modality to evaluate pulmonary circulation disturbance because of its ability to assess blood flow in the pulmonary artery noninvasively without interference from other structures such as bone and normal lung. (J.P.N.).

  15. Evaluation of agreement between temporal series obtained from electrocardiogram and pulse wave.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leikan, GM; Rossi, E.; Sanz, MCuadra; Delisle Rodríguez, D.; Mántaras, MC; Nicolet, J.; Zapata, D.; Lapyckyj, I.; Siri, L. Nicola; Perrone, MS

    2016-04-01

    Heart rate variability allows to study the cardiovascular autonomic nervous system modulation. Usually, this signal is obtained from the electrocardiogram (ECG). A simpler method for recording the pulse wave (PW) is by means of finger photoplethysmography (PPG), which also provides information about the duration of the cardiac cycle. In this study, the correlation and agreement between the time series of the intervals between heartbeats obtained from the ECG with those obtained from the PPG, were studied. Signals analyzed were obtained from young, healthy and resting subjects. For statistical analysis, the Pearson correlation coefficient and the Bland and Altman limits of agreement were used. Results show that the time series constructed from the PW would not replace the ones obtained from ECG.

  16. Heart and/or soul : reality and fiction in the association between the two strongest contributors to the global burden of disease - ischemic heart disease and depression

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Jonge, Peter

    Depression and heart disease are the strongest contributors to the global burden of disease and are often intertwined: depression is a risk factor for heart disease and vice versa. Moreover, depression in patients with established heart disease is associated with cardiovascular disease progression.

  17. Traffic signal synchronization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Ding-wei; Huang, Wei-neng

    2003-05-01

    The benefits of traffic signal synchronization are examined within the cellular automata approach. The microsimulations of traffic flow are obtained with different settings of signal period T and time delay delta. Both numerical results and analytical approximations are presented. For undersaturated traffic, the green-light wave solutions can be realized. For saturated traffic, the correlation among the traffic signals has no effect on the throughput. For oversaturated traffic, the benefits of synchronization are manifest only when stochastic noise is suppressed.

  18. A Review on Successive Interference Cancellation-Based Optical PPM-CDMA Signaling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alsowaidi, Naif; Eltaif, Tawfig; Mokhtar, Mohd Ridzuan

    2017-06-01

    This paper presents a comprehensive review of successive interference cancellation (SIC) scheme using pulse position modulation (PPM) for optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) systems. SIC scheme focuses on high-intensity signal, which will be selected after all users were detected, and then it will be subtracted from the overall received signal, hence, generating a new received signal. This process continues till all users eliminated one by one have been detected. It is shown that the random location of the sequences due to PPM encoding can reduce the probability of concentrated buildup of the pulse overlap in any one-slot time, and support SIC to easily remove the effect of the strongest signal at each stage of the cancellation process. The system bit error rate (BER) performance with modified quadratic congruence (MQC) codes used as signature sequence has been investigated. A detailed theoretical analysis of proposed system taking into account the impact of imperfect interference cancellation, the loss produced from the splitting during encoding and decoding, the channel loss and multiple access interference is presented. Results show that under average effective power constraint optical CDMA system using SIC scheme with M-ary PPM modulation outperforms conventional correlator detector and SIC scheme with on-off keying (OOK) modulation.

  19. FGFR2-Driven Signaling Counteracts Tamoxifen Effect on ERα-Positive Breast Cancer Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lukasz Turczyk

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Signaling mediated by growth factors receptors has long been suggested as one of the key factors responsible for failure of endocrine treatment in breast cancer (BCa. Herein we present that in the presence of tamoxifen, FGFs (Fibroblast Growth Factors promote BCa cell growth with the strongest effect being produced by FGF7. FGFR2 was identified as a mediator of FGF7 action and the FGFR2-induced signaling was found to underlie cancer-associated fibroblasts-dependent resistance to tamoxifen. FGF7/FGFR2-triggered pathway was shown to induce ER phosphorylation, ubiquitination and subsequent ER proteasomal degradation which counteracted tamoxifen-promoted ER stabilization. We also identified activation of PI3K/AKT signaling targeting ER-Ser167 and regulation of Bcl-2 expression as a mediator of FGFR2-promoted resistance to tamoxifen. Analysis of tissue samples from patients with invasive ductal carcinoma revealed an inversed correlation between expression of FGFR2 and ER, thus supporting our in vitro data. These results unveil the complexity of ER regulation by FGFR2-mediated signaling likely to be associated with BCa resistance to endocrine therapy.

  20. Alcohol abuse as the strongest risk factor for violent offending in patients with paranoid schizophrenia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kudumija Slijepcevic, Marija; Jukic, Vlado; Novalic, Darko; Zarkovic-Palijan, Tija; Milosevic, Milan; Rosenzweig, Ivana

    2014-04-01

    To determine predictive risk factors for violent offending in patients with paranoid schizophrenia in Croatia. The cross-sectional study including male in-patients with paranoid schizophrenia with (N=104) and without (N=102) history of physical violence and violent offending was conducted simultaneously in several hospitals in Croatia during one-year period (2010-2011). Data on their sociodemographic characteristics, duration of untreated illness phase (DUP), alcohol abuse, suicidal behavior, personality features, and insight into illness were collected and compared between groups. Binary logistic regression model was used to determine the predictors of violent offending. Predictors of violent offending were older age, DUP before first contact with psychiatric services, and alcohol abuse. Regression model showed that the strongest positive predictive factor was harmful alcohol use, as determined by AUDIT test (odds ratio 37.01; 95% confidence interval 5.20-263.24). Psychopathy, emotional stability, and conscientiousness were significant positive predictive factors, while extroversion, pleasantness, and intellect were significant negative predictive factors for violent offending. This study found an association between alcohol abuse and the risk for violent offending in paranoid schizophrenia. We hope that this finding will help improve public and mental health prevention strategies in this vulnerable patient group.

  1. Expression of multiple sexual signals by fathers and sons in the East-Mediterranean barn swallow: are advertising strategies heritable?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vortman, Yoni; Safran, Rebecca J; Reiner Brodetzki, Tali; Dor, Roi; Lotem, Arnon

    2015-01-01

    The level of expression of sexually selected traits is generally determined by genes, environment and their interaction. In species that use multiple sexual signals which may be costly to produce, investing in the expression of one sexual signal may limit the expression of the other, favoring the evolution of a strategy for resource allocation among signals. As a result, even when the expression of sexual signals is condition dependent, the relative level of expression of each signal may be heritable. We tested this hypothesis in the East-Mediterranean barn swallow (Hirundo rustica transitiva), in which males have been shown to express two uncorrelated sexual signals: red-brown ventral coloration, and long tail streamers. We show that variation in both signals may partially be explained by age, as well as by paternal origin (genetic father-son regressions), but that the strongest similarity between fathers and sons is the relative allocation towards one trait or the other (relative expression index), rather than the expression of the traits themselves. These results suggest that the expression of one signal is not independent of the other, and that genetic strategies for resource allocation among sexual signals may be selected for during the evolution of multiple sexual signals.

  2. Factors related to the magnitude of T2* MR signal changes during functional imaging

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Krings, T. [Department of Neuroradiology, University Hospital of the Technical University Aachen (Germany); Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital of the Technical University Aachen (Germany); Interdisciplinary Centre for Clinical Research - Central Nervous System, University Hospital of the Technical University Aachen, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52057 Aachen (Germany); Reinges, M.H.T.; Gilsbach, J.M. [Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital of the Technical University Aachen (Germany); Willmes, K.; Nuerk, H.C. [Section of Neuropsychology, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of the Technical University Aachen (Germany); Meister, I.G. [Department of Neurology, University Hospital of the Technical University Aachen (Germany); Thron, A. [Department of Neuroradiology, University Hospital of the Technical University Aachen (Germany)

    2002-06-01

    Our aim was to determine whether age, sex, the degree of weakness, anticonvulsants, the histology of the underlying lesion(s), the presence of oedema or the distance of the lesion from the motor region have an impact on the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal strength and therefore on the validity of functional MRI (fMRI). We studied 98 patients with masses near the central region imaged for surgical planning at 1.5 tesla, employing a BOLD sequence during a motor task. We calculated percentage signal change in the primary motor cortex between rest and activation and carried out multiple linear regression to examine the impact of the above factors on signal strength. Using a stepwise analysis strategy, the distance of the lesion from the motor region had the strongest influence (r=0.653, P<0.001). The factor with largest uncorrelated additional impact on signal change was the presence of oedema. Both predictors together formed a highly significant multiple r=0.739 (P<0.001). No other predictive factor was identified (all P>0.20). Disturbances of cerebral blood flow and metabolism induced by the tumour were presumed to be the causes of a decrease in signal in the adjacent cortex. (orig.)

  3. Semi-classical signal analysis

    KAUST Repository

    Laleg-Kirati, Taous-Meriem

    2012-09-30

    This study introduces a new signal analysis method, based on a semi-classical approach. The main idea in this method is to interpret a pulse-shaped signal as a potential of a Schrödinger operator and then to use the discrete spectrum of this operator for the analysis of the signal. We present some numerical examples and the first results obtained with this method on the analysis of arterial blood pressure waveforms. © 2012 Springer-Verlag London Limited.

  4. Mixed-Signal Hardware Security: Attacks and Countermeasures for ΔΣ ADC

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shayan Taheri

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs play an eminent and critical role in design and development of the embedded systems leveraged within smart weapons and military systems. These ICs can be a golden target for adversaries to compromise in order to function maliciously. In this work, we study the security aspects of a tunnel field effect transistor (TFET-based first-order one-bit delta-sigma ( Δ Σ analog to digital converter (ADC through proposing four attack and one defense models. The first attack manipulates the input signal to the Δ Σ modulator. The second attack manipulates the analog version of the modulator output bit and is triggered by the noise signal. The third attack manipulates the modulator output bit and has a controllable trigger mechanism. The fourth attack manipulates the analog version of the modulator output bit and is triggered by a victim capacitance within the chip. For the defense, a number of signal processing filters are used in order to purge the analog version of the modulator output bit for elimination of the malicious unwanted features, introduced by the attacks. According to the simulation results, the second threat model displays the strongest attack. Derived from the countermeasure evaluation, the best filter to confront the threat models is the robust regression using the least absolute residual computing method.

  5. Wnt pathway in Dupuytren disease: connecting profibrotic signals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Beuge, Marike M; Ten Dam, Evert-Jan P M; Werker, Paul M N; Bank, Ruud A

    2015-12-01

    A role of Wnt signaling in Dupuytren disease, a fibroproliferative disease of the hand and fingers, has not been fully elucidated. We examined a large set of Wnt pathway components and signaling targets and found significant dysregulation of 41 Wnt-related genes in tissue from the Dupuytren nodules compared with patient-matched control tissue. A large proportion of genes coding for Wnt proteins themselves was downregulated. However, both canonical Wnt targets and components of the noncanonical signaling pathway were upregulated. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that protein expression of Wnt1-inducible secreted protein 1 (WISP1), a known Wnt target, was increased in nodules compared with control tissue, but knockdown of WISP1 using small interfering RNA (siRNA) in the Dupuytren myofibroblasts did not confirm a functional role. The protein expression of noncanonical pathway components Wnt5A and VANGL2 as well as noncanonical coreceptors Ror2 and Ryk was increased in nodules. On the contrary, the strongest downregulated genes in this study were 4 antagonists of Wnt signaling (DKK1, FRZB, SFRP1, and WIF1). Downregulation of these genes in the Dupuytren tissue was mimicked in vitro by treating normal fibroblasts with transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1), suggesting cross talk between different profibrotic pathways. Furthermore, siRNA-mediated knockdown of these antagonists in normal fibroblasts led to increased nuclear translocation of Wnt target β-catenin in response to TGF-β1 treatment. In conclusion, we have shown extensive dysregulation of Wnt signaling in affected tissue from Dupuytren disease patients. Components of both the canonical and the noncanonical pathways are upregulated, whereas endogenous antagonists are downregulated, possibly via interaction with other profibrotic pathways. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Education is the strongest socio-economic predictor of smoking in pregnancy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Härkönen, Juho; Lindberg, Matti; Karlsson, Linnea; Karlsson, Hasse; Scheinin, Noora M

    2018-06-01

    To investigate socio-economic disparities in smoking in pregnancy (SIP) by the mother's education, occupational class and current economic conditions. Cross-sectional analysis with linked survey and register data. South-western Finland. A total of 2667 pregnant women [70% of the original sample (n = 3808)] from FinnBrain, a prospective pregnancy cohort study. The outcome was smoking during the first pregnancy trimester, measured from the Finnish Medical Birth Register. Education and occupational class were linked from population registers. Income support recipiency and subjective economic wellbeing were questionnaire-based measures of current economic conditions. These were adjusted for age, partnership status, residential area type, parental separation, parity, childhood socio-economic background, childhood adversities (the Trauma and Distressing Events During Childhood scale) and antenatal stress (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale). Logistic regressions and attributable fractions (AF) were estimated. Mother's education was the strongest socio-economic predictor of SIP. Compared with university education, adjusted odds ratios (aORs) of SIP were: 2.2 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.2-3.9; P = 0.011] for tertiary vocational education, 4.4 (95% CI = 2.1-9.0; P < 0.001) for combined general and vocational secondary education, 2.9 (95% CI = 1.4-6.1; P = 0.006) for general secondary education, 9.5 (95% CI 5.0-18.2; P < 0.001) for vocational secondary education and 14.4 (95% CI = 6.3-33.0; P < 0.001) for compulsory schooling. The total AF of education was 0.5. Adjusted for the other variables, occupational class and subjective economic wellbeing did not predict SIP. Income support recipiency was associated positively with SIP (aOR = 1.8; 95% CI = 1.1-3.1; P = 0.022). Antenatal stress predicted SIP (aOR = 2.0; 95% CI = 1.4-2.8; P < 0.001), but did not attenuate its socio-economic disparities. In Finland, socio-economic disparities in

  7. Signal recovery of the corrupted metal impact signal using the adaptive filtering in NPPs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Dai Il; Shin, Won Ky; Oh, Sung Hun; Yun, Won Young

    1995-01-01

    Loose Part Monitoring System (LPMS) is one of the fundamental diagnostic tools installed in the nuclear power plants. In this paper, recovery process algorithm and model for the corrupted impact signal generated by loose parts is presented. The characteristics of this algorithm can obtain a proper burst signal even though background noise is considerably high level comparing with actual impact signal. To verify performance of the proposed algorithm, we evaluate mathematically signal-to-noise ratio of primary output and noise. The performance of this recovery process algorithm is shown through computer simulation

  8. Topological Signals of Singularities in Ricci Flow

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul M. Alsing

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available We implement methods from computational homology to obtain a topological signal of singularity formation in a selection of geometries evolved numerically by Ricci flow. Our approach, based on persistent homology, produces precise, quantitative measures describing the behavior of an entire collection of data across a discrete sample of times. We analyze the topological signals of geometric criticality obtained numerically from the application of persistent homology to models manifesting singularities under Ricci flow. The results we obtain for these numerical models suggest that the topological signals distinguish global singularity formation (collapse to a round point from local singularity formation (neckpinch. Finally, we discuss the interpretation and implication of these results and future applications.

  9. Noisy signaling: theory and experiment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Haan, T.; Offerman, T.; Sloof, R.

    2011-01-01

    We introduce noise in the signaling technology of an otherwise standard wasteful signaling model (Spence, 1973). We theoretically derive the properties of the equilibria under different levels of noise and we experimentally test how behavior changes with noise. We obtain three main insights. First,

  10. Do nonphysical punishments reduce antisocial behavior more than spanking? a comparison using the strongest previous causal evidence against spanking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cox Ronald B

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The strongest causal evidence that customary spanking increases antisocial behavior is based on prospective studies that control statistically for initial antisocial differences. None of those studies have investigated alternative disciplinary tactics that parents could use instead of spanking, however. Further, the small effects in those studies could be artifactual due to residual confounding, reflecting child effects on the frequency of all disciplinary tactics. This study re-analyzes the strongest causal evidence against customary spanking and uses these same methods to determine whether alternative disciplinary tactics are more effective in reducing antisocial behavior. Methods This study re-analyzed a study by Straus et al.1 on spanking and antisocial behavior using a sample of 785 children who were 6 to 9 years old in the 1988 cohort of the American National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The comprehensiveness and reliability of the covariate measure of initial antisocial behavior were varied to test for residual confounding. All analyses were repeated for grounding, privilege removal, and sending children to their room, and for psychotherapy. To account for covarying use of disciplinary tactics, the analyses were redone first for the 73% who had reported using at least one discipline tactic and second by controlling for usage of other disciplinary tactics and psychotherapy. Results The apparently adverse effect of spanking on antisocial behavior was replicated using the original trichotomous covariate for initial antisocial behavior. A similar pattern of adverse effects was shown for grounding and psychotherapy and partially for the other two disciplinary tactics. All of these effects became non-significant after controlling for latent comprehensive measures of externalizing behavior problems. Conclusions These results are consistent with residual confounding, a statistical artifact that makes all corrective actions by

  11. Stochastic Learning and the Intuitive Criterion in Simple Signaling Games

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sloth, Birgitte; Whitta-Jacobsen, Hans Jørgen

    A stochastic learning process for signaling games with two types, two signals, and two responses gives rise to equilibrium selection which is in remarkable accordance with the selection obtained by the intuitive criterion......A stochastic learning process for signaling games with two types, two signals, and two responses gives rise to equilibrium selection which is in remarkable accordance with the selection obtained by the intuitive criterion...

  12. Signal correlations in biomass combustion. An information theoretic analysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ruusunen, M.

    2013-09-01

    Increasing environmental and economic awareness are driving the development of combustion technologies to efficient biomass use and clean burning. To accomplish these goals, quantitative information about combustion variables is needed. However, for small-scale combustion units the existing monitoring methods are often expensive or complex. This study aimed to quantify correlations between flue gas temperatures and combustion variables, namely typical emission components, heat output, and efficiency. For this, data acquired from four small-scale combustion units and a large circulating fluidised bed boiler was studied. The fuel range varied from wood logs, wood chips, and wood pellets to biomass residue. Original signals and a defined set of their mathematical transformations were applied to data analysis. In order to evaluate the strength of the correlations, a multivariate distance measure based on information theory was derived. The analysis further assessed time-varying signal correlations and relative time delays. Ranking of the analysis results was based on the distance measure. The uniformity of the correlations in the different data sets was studied by comparing the 10-quantiles of the measured signal. The method was validated with two benchmark data sets. The flue gas temperatures and the combustion variables measured carried similar information. The strongest correlations were mainly linear with the transformed signal combinations and explicable by the combustion theory. Remarkably, the results showed uniformity of the correlations across the data sets with several signal transformations. This was also indicated by simulations using a linear model with constant structure to monitor carbon dioxide in flue gas. Acceptable performance was observed according to three validation criteria used to quantify modelling error in each data set. In general, the findings demonstrate that the presented signal transformations enable real-time approximation of the studied

  13. CIRCADIAN REGULATION METABOLIC SIGNALING MECHANISMS OF HUMAN BREAST CANCER GROWTH BY THE NOCTURNAL MELATONIN SIGNAL AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF ITS DISRUPTION BY LIGHT AT NIGHT

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blask, David E.; Hill, Steven M.; Dauchy, Robert T.; Xiang, Shulin; Yuan, Lin; Duplessis, Tamika; Mao, Lulu; Dauchy, Erin; Sauer, Leonard A.

    2011-01-01

    This review article discusses recent work on the melatonin-mediated circadian regulation and integration of molecular, dietary and metabolic signaling mechanisms involved in human breast cancer growth and the consequences of circadian disruption by exposure to light-at-night (LAN). The antiproliferative effects of the circadian melatonin signal are mediated through a major mechanism involving the activation of MT1 melatonin receptors expressed in human breast cancer cell lines and xenografts. In estrogen receptor (ERα+) human breast cancer cells, melatonin suppresses both ERα mRNA expression and estrogen-induced transcriptional activity of the ERα via MT1-induced activation of Gαi2 signaling and reduction of cAMP levels. Melatonin also regulates the transactivation of additional members of the steroid hormone/nuclear receptor super-family, enzymes involved in estrogen metabolism, expression/activation of telomerase and the expression of core clock and clock-related genes. The anti-invasive/anti-metastatic actions of melatonin involve the blockade of p38 phosphorylation and the expression of matrix metalloproteinases. Melatonin also inhibits the growth of human breast cancer xenografts via another critical pathway involving MT1-mediated suppression of cAMP leading to blockade of linoleic acid (LA) uptake and its metabolism to the mitogenic signaling molecule 13-hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid (13-HODE). Down-regulation of 13-HODE reduces the activation of growth factor pathways supporting cell proliferation and survival. Experimental evidence in rats and humans indicating that LAN-induced circadian disruption of the nocturnal melatonin signal activates human breast cancer growth, metabolism and signaling provides the strongest mechanistic support, thus far, for population and ecological studies demonstrating elevated breast cancer risk in night shift workers and other individuals increasingly exposed to LAN. PMID:21605163

  14. Fundamentals of statistical signal processing

    CERN Document Server

    Kay, Steven M

    1993-01-01

    A unified presentation of parameter estimation for those involved in the design and implementation of statistical signal processing algorithms. Covers important approaches to obtaining an optimal estimator and analyzing its performance; and includes numerous examples as well as applications to real- world problems. MARKETS: For practicing engineers and scientists who design and analyze signal processing systems, i.e., to extract information from noisy signals — radar engineer, sonar engineer, geophysicist, oceanographer, biomedical engineer, communications engineer, economist, statistician, physicist, etc.

  15. The 100 strongest radio point sources in the field of the Large Magellanic Cloud at 1.4 GHz

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Payne J.L.

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available We present the 100 strongest 1.4 GHz point sources from a new mosaic image in the direction of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC. The observations making up the mosaic were made using Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA over a ten year period and were combined with Parkes single dish data at 1.4 GHz to complete the image for short spacing. An initial list of co-identifications within 1000 at 0.843, 4.8 and 8.6 GHz consisted of 2682 sources. Elimination of extended objects and artifact noise allowed the creation of a refined list containing 1988 point sources. Most of these are presumed to be background objects seen through the LMC; a small portion may represent compact H ii regions, young SNRs and radio planetary nebulae. For the 1988 point sources we find a preliminary average spectral index (α of -0.53 and present a 1.4 GHz image showing source location in the direction of the LMC.

  16. The 100 Strongest Radio Point Sources in the Field of the Large Magellanic Cloud at 1.4 GHz

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Payne, J. L.

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available We present the 100 strongest 1.4~GHz point sources from a new mosaicimage in the direction of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC. The observationsmaking up the mosaic were made using Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCAover a ten year period and were combined with Parkes single dish data at 1.4 GHz to complete the image for short spacing. An initial list of co-identifications within 10arcsec at 0.843, 4.8 and 8.6 GHz consisted of 2682 sources. Elimination of extended objects and artifact noise allowed the creation of a refined list containing 1988 point sources. Most of these are presumed to be background objects seen through the LMC; a small portion may represent compact HII regions, young SNRs and radio planetary nebulae. For the 1988 point sources we find a preliminary average spectral index ($alpha$ of -0.53 and present a 1.4 GHz image showing source locationin the direction of the LMC.

  17. Bioelectric Signal Measuring System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guadarrama-Santana, A.; Pólo-Parada, L.; García-Valenzuela, A.

    2015-01-01

    We describe a low noise measuring system based on interdigitated electrodes for sensing bioelectrical signals. The system registers differential voltage measurements in order of microvolts. The base noise during measurements was in nanovolts and thus, the sensing signals presented a very good signal to noise ratio. An excitation voltage of 1Vrms with 10 KHz frequency was applied to an interdigitated capacitive sensor without a material under test and to a mirror device simultaneously. The output signals of both devices was then subtracted in order to obtain an initial reference value near cero volts and reduce parasitic capacitances due to the electronics, wiring and system hardware as well. The response of the measuring system was characterized by monitoring temporal bioelectrical signals in real time of biological materials such as embryo chicken heart cells and bovine suprarenal gland cells.

  18. Calibration of Galileo signals for time metrology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Defraigne, Pascale; Aerts, Wim; Cerretto, Giancarlo; Cantoni, Elena; Sleewaegen, Jean-Marie

    2014-12-01

    Using global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals for accurate timing and time transfer requires the knowledge of all electric delays of the signals inside the receiving system. GNSS stations dedicated to timing or time transfer are classically calibrated only for Global Positioning System (GPS) signals. This paper proposes a procedure to determine the hardware delays of a GNSS receiving station for Galileo signals, once the delays of the GPS signals are known. This approach makes use of the broadcast satellite inter-signal biases, and is based on the ionospheric delay measured from dual-frequency combinations of GPS and Galileo signals. The uncertainty on the so-determined hardware delays is estimated to 3.7 ns for each isolated code in the L5 frequency band, and 4.2 ns for the ionosphere-free combination of E1 with a code of the L5 frequency band. For the calibration of a time transfer link between two stations, another approach can be used, based on the difference between the common-view time transfer results obtained with calibrated GPS data and with uncalibrated Galileo data. It is shown that the results obtained with this approach or with the ionospheric method are equivalent.

  19. Comparison of yield, composition, and antioxidant activity of turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) extracts obtained using various techniques.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braga, Mara E M; Leal, Patrícia F; Carvalho, João E; Meireles, M Angela A

    2003-10-22

    Turmeric extracts were obtained from two lots of raw material (M and S) using various techniques: hydrodistillation, low pressure solvent extraction, Soxhlet, and supercritical extraction using carbon dioxide and cosolvents. The solvents and cosolvents tested were ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, and their mixture in equal proportions. The composition of the extracts was determined by gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID) and UV. The largest yield (27%, weight) was obtained in the Soxhlet extraction (turmeric (S), ethanol = 1:100); the lowest yield was detected in the hydrodistillation process (2.1%). For the supercritical extraction, the best cosolvent was a mixture of ethanol and isopropyl alcohol. Sixty percent of the light fraction of the extracts consisted of ar-turmerone, (Z)-gamma-atlantone, and (E)-gamma-atlantone, except for the Soxhlet extracts (1:100, ethanol), for which only ar-turmeronol and (Z)-alpha-atlantone were detected. The maximum amount of curcuminoids (8.43%) was obtained using Soxhlet extraction (ethanol/isopropyl alcohol). The Soxhlet and low pressure extract exhibited the strongest antioxidant activities.

  20. Indoor Localisation Based on GSM Signals: Multistorey Building Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rafał Górak

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Among the accurate indoor localisation systems that are using WiFi, Bluetooth, or infrared technologies, the ones that are based on the GSM rely on a stable external infrastructure that can be used even in an emergency. This paper presents an accurate GSM indoor localisation system that achieves a median error of 4.39 metres in horizontal coordinates and up to 64 percent accuracy in floor prediction (for 84 percent of cases the floor prediction is mistaken by not more than a single floor. The test and reference measurements were made inside a six-floor academic building, with an irregular shape, whose dimensions are around 50 metres by 70 metres. The localisation algorithm uses GSM signal readings from the 7 strongest cells available in the GSM standard (or fewer, if fewer than 7 are available. We estimate the location by a three-step method. Firstly, we propose a point localisation solution (i.e., localisation based on only one measurement. Then, by applying the central tendency filters and the Multilayer Perceptron, we build a localisation system that uses a sequence of estimations of current and past locations. We also discuss major accuracy factors such as the number of observed signals or the types of spaces in the building.

  1. Seasonal influenza vaccination is the strongest correlate of cross-reactive antibody responses in migratory bird handlers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oshansky, Christine M; Wong, Sook-San; Jeevan, Trushar; Smallwood, Heather S; Webby, Richard J; Shafir, Shira C; Thomas, Paul G

    2014-12-09

    Avian species are reservoirs of influenza A viruses and could harbor viruses with significant pandemic potential. We examined the antibody and cellular immune responses to influenza A viruses in field or laboratory workers with a spectrum of occupational exposure to avian species for evidence of zoonotic infections. We measured the seroprevalence and T cell responses among 95 individuals with various types and degrees of prior field or laboratory occupational exposure to wild North American avian species using whole blood samples collected in 2010. Plasma samples were tested using endpoint enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and hemagglutination (HA) inhibition (HAI) assays to subtypes H3, H4, H5, H6, H7, H8, and H12 proteins. Detectable antibodies were found against influenza HA antigens in 77% of individuals, while 65% of individuals tested had measurable T cell responses (gamma interferon [IFN-γ] enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot assay [ELISPOT]) to multiple HA antigens of avian origin. To begin defining the observed antibody specificities, Spearman rank correlation analysis showed that ELISA responses, which measure both head- and stalk-binding antibodies, do not predict HAI reactivities, which measure primarily head-binding antibodies. This result suggests that ELISA titers can report cross-reactivity based on the levels of non-head-binding responses. However, the strongest positive correlate of HA-specific ELISA antibody titers was receipt of seasonal influenza virus vaccination. Occupational exposure was largely uncorrelated with serological measures, with the exception of individuals exposed to poultry, who had higher levels of H7-specific antibodies than non-poultry-exposed individuals. While the cohort had antibody and T cell reactivity to a broad range of influenza viruses, only occupational exposure to poultry was associated with a significant difference in antibody levels to a specific subtype (H7). There was no evidence that T cell assays

  2. The dynamics of competitive activity performance of the strongest athletes in the world during the Olympic year

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rabin Muhammad Fahmi

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The paper scrutinizes the annual dynamics of competitive activity performance of prize winners in track and field of the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro. The studies performed allow to identify two basic strategies of participation of elite athletes in the competitions. The first implies a strong focus on achieving the best results in major competitions of the year. It is used by most of the strongest athletes in the world. The second focuses the athlete on the effective combination of competitive activity in major competitions of the year (the Olympics and World Championships and in the Diamond League. As shown by the experience of the best sports practice, only a limited number of athletes manage to implement the latter strategy. The methodological approaches to planning competitive activity during the year are identified. The first involves the rational allocation of the optimal number of competitions throughout the year, the second focuses on preparatory competitive activities of a fairly high intensity, and the third involves the use of a small number of competitions in the system of annual training.

  3. Algorithm for removing scalp signals from functional near-infrared spectroscopy signals in real time using multidistance optodes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kiguchi, Masashi; Funane, Tsukasa

    2014-11-01

    A real-time algorithm for removing scalp-blood signals from functional near-infrared spectroscopy signals is proposed. Scalp and deep signals have different dependencies on the source-detector distance. These signals were separated using this characteristic. The algorithm was validated through an experiment using a dynamic phantom in which shallow and deep absorptions were independently changed. The algorithm for measurement of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobins using two wavelengths was explicitly obtained. This algorithm is potentially useful for real-time systems, e.g., brain-computer interfaces and neuro-feedback systems.

  4. Motion sensing using WLAN signal fluctuations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kavitha Muthukrishnan, K.; Lijding, M.E.M.; Meratnia, Nirvana; Havinga, Paul J.M.

    2006-01-01

    The ability to infer the motion of the user has previously been possible only with the usage of additional hardware. In this paper we show how motion sensing can be obtained just by observing the WLAN radio’s signal strength and its fluctuations. For the first time, we have analyzed the signal

  5. An iterative method for obtaining the optimum lightning location on a spherical surface

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chao, Gao; Qiming, MA

    1991-01-01

    A brief introduction to the basic principles of an eigen method used to obtain the optimum source location of lightning is presented. The location of the optimum source is obtained by using multiple direction finders (DF's) on a spherical surface. An improvement of this method, which takes the distance of source-DF's as a constant, is presented. It is pointed out that using a weight factor of signal strength is not the most ideal method because of the inexact inverse signal strength-distance relation and the inaccurate signal amplitude. An iterative calculation method is presented using the distance from the source to the DF as a weight factor. This improved method has higher accuracy and needs only a little more calculation time. Some computer simulations for a 4DF system are presented to show the improvement of location through use of the iterative method.

  6. Conversion of interlaced image signals into progressive scanned image signals.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    2008-01-01

    In a method of de-interlacing video data (F), at least three different de-interlacing algorithms (VTF, MED1, CM3) are applied on the video data (F) to obtain at least three de-interlaced signals (DIO-1, DIO-2, DIO-3), no majority of de-interlacing algorithms copying a single spatio-temporally

  7. Optimizing Methods of Obtaining Stellar Parameters for the H3 Survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ivory, KeShawn; Conroy, Charlie; Cargile, Phillip

    2018-01-01

    The Stellar Halo at High Resolution with Hectochelle Survey (H3) is in the process of observing and collecting stellar parameters for stars in the Milky Way's halo. With a goal of measuring radial velocities for fainter stars, it is crucial that we have optimal methods of obtaining this and other parameters from the data from these stars.The method currently developed is The Payne, named after Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, a code that uses neural networks and Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods to utilize both spectra and photometry to obtain values for stellar parameters. This project was to investigate the benefit of fitting both spectra and spectral energy distributions (SED). Mock spectra using the parameters of the Sun were created and noise was inserted at various signal to noise values. The Payne then fit each mock spectrum with and without a mock SED also generated from solar parameters. The result was that at high signal to noise, the spectrum dominated and the effect of fitting the SED was minimal. But at low signal to noise, the addition of the SED greatly decreased the standard deviation of the data and resulted in more accurate values for temperature and metallicity.

  8. Seismic signals hard clipping overcoming

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olszowa, Paula; Sokolowski, Jakub

    2018-01-01

    In signal processing the clipping is understand as the phenomenon of limiting the signal beyond certain threshold. It is often related to overloading of a sensor. Two particular types of clipping are being recognized: soft and hard. Beyond the limiting value soft clipping reduces the signal real gain while the hard clipping stiffly sets the signal values at the limit. In both cases certain amount of signal information is lost. Obviously if one possess the model which describes the considered signal and the threshold value (which might be slightly more difficult to obtain in the soft clipping case), the attempt of restoring the signal can be made. Commonly it is assumed that the seismic signals take form of an impulse response of some specific system. This may lead to belief that the sine wave may be the most appropriate to fit in the clipping period. However, this should be tested. In this paper the possibility of overcoming the hard clipping in seismic signals originating from a geoseismic station belonging to an underground mine is considered. A set of raw signals will be hard-clipped manually and then couple different functions will be fitted and compared in terms of least squares. The results will be then analysed.

  9. Muscle quality and relative adiposity are the strongest predictors of lower-extremity physical function in older women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Straight, Chad R; Brady, Anne O; Evans, Ellen M

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this study was to examine the relative contributions of physical activity, adiposity, lean mass and muscle quality to lower-extremity physical function (LEPF) in older women. Cross-sectional analysis at a university research laboratory. Community-dwelling older women (n=96, 73.9 ± 5.6 years, BMI=26.5 ± 4.7 kg/m(2)) were assessed for body composition via dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, leg extension power using the Nottingham power rig, muscle quality (W/kg) as the ratio of leg extension power (W) to lower-body mineral free lean mass (kg) and moderate-intensity physical activity via questionnaire. A composite measure of LEPF was calculated by summing Z-scores of the 6-min walk, 8-foot up-and-go and 30-s chair stand tests. Muscle quality and physical activity were associated with all measures of LEPF (all p0.05). Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed that muscle quality (standardized β=0.47, pquality and relative adiposity are the strongest independent predictors of LEPF in older women. These findings suggest that maintaining muscle quality, especially relative to adiposity, may be a critical target for interventions to prevent declines in physical function in older women. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Sensing RF signals with the optical wideband converter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valley, George C.; Sefler, George A.; Shaw, T. J.

    2013-01-01

    The optical wideband converter (OWC) is a system for measuring properties of RF signals in the GHz band without use of high speed electronics. In the OWC the RF signal is modulated on a repetitively pulsed optical field with a large wavelength chirp, the optical field is diffracted onto a spatial light modulator (SLM) whose pixels are modulated with a pseudo-random bit sequences (PRBSs), and finally the optical field is directed to a photodiode and the resulting current integrated for each PRBS. When the number of PRBSs and measurements equals the number of SLM pixels, the RF signal can be obtained in principle by multiplying the measurement vector by the inverse of the square matrix given by the PRBSs and the properties of the optics. When the number of measurements is smaller than the number of pixels, a compressive sensing (CS) measurement can be performed, and sparse RF signals can be obtained using one of the standard CS recovery algorithms such as the penalized l1 norm (also known as basis pursuit) or one of the variants of matching pursuit. Accurate reconstruction of RF signals requires good calibration of the OWC. In this paper, we present results using the OWC for RF signals consisting of 2 sinusoids recovered using 3 techniques (matrix inversion, basis pursuit, and matching pursuit). We compare results obtained with orthogonal matching pursuit with nonlinear least squares to basis pursuit with an over-complete dictionary.

  11. Signal intensity analysis and optimization for in vivo imaging of Cherenkov and excited luminescence

    Science.gov (United States)

    LaRochelle, Ethan P. M.; Shell, Jennifer R.; Gunn, Jason R.; Davis, Scott C.; Pogue, Brian W.

    2018-04-01

    During external beam radiotherapy (EBRT), in vivo Cherenkov optical emissions can be used as a dosimetry tool or to excite luminescence, termed Cherenkov-excited luminescence (CEL) with microsecond-level time-gated cameras. The goal of this work was to develop a complete theoretical foundation for the detectable signal strength, in order to provide guidance on optimization of the limits of detection and how to optimize near real time imaging. The key parameters affecting photon production, propagation and detection were considered and experimental validation with both tissue phantoms and a murine model are shown. Both the theoretical analysis and experimental data indicate that the detection level is near a single photon-per-pixel for the detection geometry and frame rates commonly used, with the strongest factor being the signal decrease with the square of distance from tissue to camera. Experimental data demonstrates how the SNR improves with increasing integration time, but only up to the point where the dominance of camera read noise is overcome by stray photon noise that cannot be suppressed. For the current camera in a fixed geometry, the signal to background ratio limits the detection of light signals, and the observed in vivo Cherenkov emission is on the order of 100×  stronger than CEL signals. As a result, imaging signals from depths  <15 mm is reasonable for Cherenkov light, and depths  <3 mm is reasonable for CEL imaging. The current investigation modeled Cherenkov and CEL imaging of two oxygen sensing phosphorescent compounds, but the modularity of the code allows for easy comparison of different agents or alternative cameras, geometries or tissues.

  12. CC2D1A Regulates Human Intellectual and Social Function as well as NF-κB Signaling Homeostasis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Chiara Manzini

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Autism spectrum disorder (ASD and intellectual disability (ID are often comorbid, but the extent to which they share common genetic causes remains controversial. Here, we present two autosomal-recessive “founder” mutations in the CC2D1A gene causing fully penetrant cognitive phenotypes, including mild-to-severe ID, ASD, as well as seizures, suggesting shared developmental mechanisms. CC2D1A regulates multiple intracellular signaling pathways, and we found its strongest effect to be on the transcription factor nuclear factor κB (NF-κB. Cc2d1a gain and loss of function both increase activation of NF-κB, revealing a critical role of Cc2d1a in homeostatic control of intracellular signaling. Cc2d1a knockdown in neurons reduces dendritic complexity and increases NF-κB activity, and the effects of Cc2d1a depletion can be rescued by inhibiting NF-κB activity. Homeostatic regulation of neuronal signaling pathways provides a mechanism whereby common founder mutations could manifest diverse symptoms in different patients.

  13. Contact-Free Heartbeat Signal for Human Identification and Forensics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nasrollahi, Kamal; Haque, Mohammad Ahsanul; Irani, Ramin

    2017-01-01

    The heartbeat signal, which is one of the physiological signals, is of great importance in many real-world applications, for example, in patient monitoring and biometric recognition. The traditional methods for measuring such this signal use contact-based sensors that need to be installed...... been developed for contact-free extraction of the heartbeat signal. We have recently used the contact-free measured heartbeat signal, for bio- metric recognition, and have obtained promising results, indicating the importance of these signals for biometrics recognition and also for forensics...

  14. Where was ENSO strongest?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cane, M. A.; Chen, D.; Kaplan, A.

    2008-12-01

    Mark A. Cane, Dake Chen, Alexey Kaplan The description of this session begins: "Historical SST records suggest that for the past three decades, ENSO has been anomalously strong" and goes on to ask why. In this talk we dispute this interpretation of the historical record from within the historical record. In particular, we suggest that the most "anomalously strong" period in the historical ENSO record is the late nineteenth century. This claim requires a discussion of how we measure "ENSO strength". We also speculate on possible reasons for the strength of ENSO in this earlier period. Finally, we consult the models, and in reiteration of the collective conclusion of all speakers at this session, find that the riddles the models provide are inelegant and disobliging, lacking the cryptic wisdom of the classical oracles.

  15. Advantages of the non-stationary approach: test on eddy current signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brunel, P.

    1993-12-01

    Conventional signal processing is often unsuitable for the interpretation of intrinsically non-stationary signals, such as surveillance or non destructive testing signals. In these cases, ''advanced'' methods are required. This report presents two applications of non-stationary signal processing methods to the complex signals obtained in eddy current non destructive testing of steam generator tubes. The first application consists in segmenting the absolute channel, which can be likened to a piecewise constant signal. The Page-Hinkley cumulative sum algorithm is used, enabling detection of unknown mean amplitude jumps in a piecewise constant signal disturbed by a white noise. Results are comparable to those obtained with the empirical method currently in use. As easy to implement as the latter, the Page-Hinkley algorithm has the added advantage of being well formalized and of identifying whether the jumps in mean are positive or negative. The second application concerns assistance in detecting characteristic fault transients in the differential channels, using the continuous wavelet transform. The useful signal and noise spectra are fairly close, but not strictly identical. With the continuous wavelet transform, these frequency differences can be turned to account. The method was tested on synthetic signals obtained by summing noise and real defect signals. Using the continuous wavelet transform reduces the minimum signal-to-noise ratio by 5 dB for detection of a transient as compared with direct detection on the original signal. Finally, a summary of non-stationary methods using our data is presented. The two investigations described confirm that non-stationary methods may be considered as interesting signal and image analysis tools, as an efficient complement to conventional methods. (author). 24 figs., 13 refs

  16. Synthesis of vibroarthrographic signals in knee osteoarthritis diagnosis training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shieh, Chin-Shiuh; Tseng, Chin-Dar; Chang, Li-Yun; Lin, Wei-Chun; Wu, Li-Fu; Wang, Hung-Yu; Chao, Pei-Ju; Chiu, Chien-Liang; Lee, Tsair-Fwu

    2016-07-19

    Vibroarthrographic (VAG) signals are used as useful indicators of knee osteoarthritis (OA) status. The objective was to build a template database of knee crepitus sounds. Internships can practice in the template database to shorten the time of training for diagnosis of OA. A knee sound signal was obtained using an innovative stethoscope device with a goniometer. Each knee sound signal was recorded with a Kellgren-Lawrence (KL) grade. The sound signal was segmented according to the goniometer data. The signal was Fourier transformed on the correlated frequency segment. An inverse Fourier transform was performed to obtain the time-domain signal. Haar wavelet transform was then done. The median and mean of the wavelet coefficients were chosen to inverse transform the synthesized signal in each KL category. The quality of the synthesized signal was assessed by a clinician. The sample signals were evaluated using different algorithms (median and mean). The accuracy rate of the median coefficient algorithm (93 %) was better than the mean coefficient algorithm (88 %) for cross-validation by a clinician using synthesis of VAG. The artificial signal we synthesized has the potential to build a learning system for medical students, internships and para-medical personnel for the diagnosis of OA. Therefore, our method provides a feasible way to evaluate crepitus sounds that may assist in the diagnosis of knee OA.

  17. Signal analysis for failure detection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Parpaglione, M.C.; Perez, L.V.; Rubio, D.A.; Czibener, D.; D'Attellis, C.E.; Brudny, P.I.; Ruzzante, J.E.

    1994-01-01

    Several methods for analysis of acoustic emission signals are presented. They are mainly oriented to detection of changes in noisy signals and characterization of higher amplitude discrete pulses or bursts. The aim was to relate changes and events with failure, crack or wear in materials, being the final goal to obtain automatic means of detecting such changes and/or events. Performance evaluation was made using both simulated and laboratory test signals. The methods being presented are the following: 1. Application of the Hopfield Neural Network (NN) model for classifying faults in pipes and detecting wear of a bearing. 2. Application of the Kohonnen and Back Propagation Neural Network model for the same problem. 3. Application of Kalman filtering to determine time occurrence of bursts. 4. Application of a bank of Kalman filters (KF) for failure detection in pipes. 5. Study of amplitude distribution of signals for detecting changes in their shape. 6. Application of the entropy distance to measure differences between signals. (author). 10 refs, 11 figs

  18. Current signal of silicon detectors facing charged particles and heavy ions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hamrita, H.

    2005-07-01

    This work consisted in collecting and studying for the first time the shapes of current signals obtained from charged particles or heavy ions produced by silicon detectors. The document is divided into two main parts. The first consisted in reducing the experimental data obtained with charged particles as well as with heavy ions. These experiments were performed at the Orsay Tandem and at GANIL using LISE. These two experiments enabled us to create a data base formed of current signals with various shapes and various times of collection. The second part consisted in carrying out a simulation of the current signals obtained from the various ions. To obtain this simulation we propose a new model describing the formation of the signal. We used the data base of the signals obtained in experiments in order to constrain the three parameters of our model. In this model, the charge carriers created are regarded as dipoles and their density is related to the dielectric polarization in the silicon detector. This phenomenon induces an increase in permittivity throughout the range of the incident ion and consequently the electric field between the electrodes of the detector is decreased inside the trace. We coupled with this phenomenon a dissociation and extraction mode of the charge carriers so that they can be moved in the electric field. (author)

  19. First search for a dark matter annual modulation signal with NaI(Tl) in the Southern Hemisphere by DM-Ice17

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Barbosa de Souza, E.; Cherwinka, J.; Cole, A.; Ezeribe, A. C.; Grant, D.; Halzen, F.; Heeger, K. M.; Hsu, L.; Hubbard, A. J. F.; Jo, J. H.; Karle, A.; Kauer, M.; Kudryavtsev, V. A.; Lim, K. E.; Macdonald, C.; Maruyama, R. H.; Mouton, F.; Paling, S. M.; Pettus, W.; Pierpoint, Z. P.; Reilly, B. N.; Robinson, M.; Rogers, F. R.; Sandstrom, P.; Scarff, A.; Spooner, N. J. C.; Telfer, S.; Yang, L.

    2017-02-28

    The first search for a dark matter annual modulation signal with NaI(Tl) target material in the Southern Hemisphere conducted with the DM-Ice17 experiment is presented. DM-Ice17 consists of 17 kg of NaI(Tl) scintillating crystal under 2200 m.w.e. overburden of Antarctic glacial ice. The analysis presented here utilizes a 60.8 kg yr exposure. While unable to exclude the signal reported by DAMA/LIBRA, the DM-Ice17 data are consistent with no modulation in the energy range of 4-20 keV, providing the strongest limits on WIMP candidates from a direct detection experiment located in the Southern Hemisphere. Additionally, the successful deployment and stable operation of 17 kg of NaI(Tl) crystal over 3.5 years establishes the South Pole ice as a viable location for future underground, low-background experiments.

  20. MR evaluation of breast lesions obtained by diffusion-weighted imaging with background body signal suppression (DWIBS) and correlations with histological findings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moschetta, Marco; Telegrafo, Michele; Rella, Leonarda; Capolongo, Arcangela; Stabile Ianora, Amato Antonio; Angelelli, Giuseppe

    2014-07-01

    Diffusion imaging represents a new imaging tool for the diagnosis of breast cancer. This study aims to investigate the role of diffusion-weighted MRI with background body signal suppression (DWIBS) for evaluating breast lesions. 90 patients were prospectively evaluated by MRI with STIR, TSE-T2, contrast enhanced THRIVE-T1 and DWIBS sequences. DWIBS were analyzed searching for the presence of breast lesions and calculating the ADC value. ADC values of ≤1.44×10(-3)mm(2)/s were considered suspicious for malignancy. This analysis was then compared with the histological findings. Sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic accuracy (DA), positive predictive value (PPV) and negative (NPV) were calculated. In 53/90 (59%) patients, DWIBS indicated the presence of breast lesions, 16 (30%) with ADC values of >1.44 and 37 (70%) with ADC≤1.44. The comparison with histology showed 25 malignant and 28 benign lesions. DWIBS sequences obtained sensitivity, specificity, DA, PPV and NPV values of 100, 82, 87, 68 and 100%, respectively. DWIBS can be proposed in the MRI breast protocol representing an accurate diagnostic complement. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Climate change signal and uncertainty in CMIP5-based projections of global ocean surface wave heights

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Xiaolan L.; Feng, Yang; Swail, Val R.

    2015-05-01

    This study uses the analysis of variance approaches to quantify the climate change signal and uncertainty in multimodel ensembles of statistical simulations of significant wave height (Hs), which are based on the CMIP5 historical, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 forcing scenario simulations of sea level pressure. Here the signal of climate change refers to the temporal variations caused by the prescribed forcing. "Significant" means "significantly different from zero at 5% level." In a four-model ensemble of Hs simulations, the common signal—the signal that is simulated in all the four models—is found to strengthen over time. For the historical followed by RCP8.5 scenario, the common signal in annual mean Hs is found to be significant in 16.6% and 82.2% of the area by year 2005 and 2099, respectively. The global average of the variance proportion of the common signal increases from 0.75% in year 2005 to 12.0% by year 2099. The signal is strongest in the eastern tropical Pacific (ETP), featuring significant increases in both the annual mean and maximum of Hs in this region. The climate model uncertainty (i.e., intermodel variability) is significant nearly globally; its magnitude is comparable to or greater than that of the common signal in most areas, except in the ETP where the signal is much larger. In a 20-model ensemble of Hs simulations for the period 2006-2099, the model uncertainty is found to be significant globally; it is about 10 times as large as the variability between the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. The copyright line for this article was changed on 10 JUNE 2015 after original online publication.

  2. Evaluation of diagnostic thresholds dependability for tribologic signals received in the environment disturbed by vibroacoustic and functional signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lindstedt Paweł

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Determination of dependable diagnostic thresholds for tribologic signals received e.g. from antifriction bearings (in particular for insufficient number of measurements, only 4÷5 is a really difficult task due to complexity of working environment where such bearings are operated. Typical working environment for such objects must take account for operation time under various working conditions and accompanying (and disturbing signals, e.g. vibroacoustic ones. The sought assessment of the relationship between diagnostic signals and environmental noise can be determined from convolution of both diagnostic and environments signals that make up the complete set of received information. The convolution of these two series of signals can be obtained from an algorithm based on the Cauchy product. Then one has to find the coherence factor and the square of amplitude gain for the set of diagnostic signals with reference to various sets of signals received from environment, which makes it possible to evaluate cohesion of the investigated series of signals, thus their suitability to determine diagnostic threshold for tribologic signals intended for the analysis.

  3. Influence of different envelope maskers on signal recognition and neuronal representation in the auditory system of a grasshopper.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniela Neuhofer

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Animals that communicate by sound face the problem that the signals arriving at the receiver often are degraded and masked by noise. Frequency filters in the receiver's auditory system may improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR by excluding parts of the spectrum which are not occupied by the species-specific signals. This solution, however, is hardly amenable to species that produce broad band signals or have ears with broad frequency tuning. In mammals auditory filters exist that work in the temporal domain of amplitude modulations (AM. Do insects also use this type of filtering? PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Combining behavioural and neurophysiological experiments we investigated whether AM filters may improve the recognition of masked communication signals in grasshoppers. The AM pattern of the sound, its envelope, is crucial for signal recognition in these animals. We degraded the species-specific song by adding random fluctuations to its envelope. Six noise bands were used that differed in their overlap with the spectral content of the song envelope. If AM filters contribute to reduced masking, signal recognition should depend on the degree of overlap between the song envelope spectrum and the noise spectra. Contrary to this prediction, the resistance against signal degradation was the same for five of six masker bands. Most remarkably, the band with the strongest frequency overlap to the natural song envelope (0-100 Hz impaired acceptance of degraded signals the least. To assess the noise filter capacities of single auditory neurons, the changes of spike trains as a function of the masking level were assessed. Increasing levels of signal degradation in different frequency bands led to similar changes in the spike trains in most neurones. CONCLUSIONS: There is no indication that auditory neurones of grasshoppers are specialized to improve the SNR with respect to the pattern of amplitude modulations.

  4. Signal systems asset management state-of-the-practice review

    Science.gov (United States)

    2004-04-01

    The purpose of this project is to obtain a better understanding of operations-level asset management by examining the specific case of signal systems. Key products will include: a synthesis of existing signal systems asset management practices; a gen...

  5. Asynchronous monitoring of the quality of multilevel optical PAM signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siuzdak, J.

    2017-08-01

    In the paper, there is analyzed the signal quality assessment method based on delay tap asynchronous sampling, both for binary and multilevel PAM signals. The obtained multilevel phase diagrams are far more complicated than binary ones. The phase diagrams are affected by the signal distortions but it is difficult to relate reliably the phase diagram form to the distortion type and its influence on the signal quality.

  6. A SNP uncoupling Mina expression from the TGFβ signaling pathway.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lian, Shang L; Mihi, Belgacem; Koyanagi, Madoka; Nakayama, Toshinori; Bix, Mark

    2018-03-01

    Mina is a JmjC family 2-oxoglutarate oxygenase with pleiotropic roles in cell proliferation, cancer, T cell differentiation, pulmonary inflammation, and intestinal parasite expulsion. Although Mina expression varies according to cell-type, developmental stage and activation state, its transcriptional regulation is poorly understood. Across inbred mouse strains, Mina protein level exhibits a bimodal distribution, correlating with inheritance of a biallelic haplotype block comprising 21 promoter/intron 1-region SNPs. We previously showed that heritable differences in Mina protein level are transcriptionally regulated. Accordingly, we decided to test the hypothesis that at least one of the promoter/intron 1-region SNPs perturbs a Mina cis-regulatory element (CRE). Here, we have comprehensively scanned for CREs across a Mina locus-spanning 26-kilobase genomic interval. We discovered 8 potential CREs and functionally validated 4 of these, the strongest of which (E2), residing in intron 1, contained a SNP whose BALB/c-but not C57Bl/6 allele-abolished both Smad3 binding and transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) responsiveness. Our results demonstrate the TGFβ signaling pathway plays a critical role in regulating Mina expression and SNP rs4191790 controls heritable variation in Mina expression level, raising important questions regarding the evolution of an allele that uncouples Mina expression from the TGFβ signaling pathway. © 2017 The Authors. Immunity, Inflammation and Disease Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  7. Regulation of gene expression by photosynthetic signals triggered through modified CO2 availability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wormuth Dennis

    2006-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background To coordinate metabolite fluxes and energy availability, plants adjust metabolism and gene expression to environmental changes through employment of interacting signalling pathways. Results Comparing the response of Arabidopsis wild-type plants with that of the mutants adg1, pgr1 and vtc1 upon altered CO2-availability, the regulatory role of the cellular energy status, photosynthetic electron transport, the redox state and concentration of ascorbate and glutathione and the assimilatory force was analyzed in relation to the transcript abundance of stress-responsive nuclear encoded genes and psaA and psbA encoding the reaction centre proteins of photosystem I and II, respectively. Transcript abundance of Bap1, Stp1, psaA and psaB was coupled with seven metabolic parameters. Especially for psaA and psaB, the complex analysis demonstrated that the assumed PQ-dependent redox control is subordinate to signals linked to the relative availability of 3-PGA and DHAP, which define the assimilatory force. For the transcripts of sAPx and Csd2 high correlations with the calculated redox state of NADPH were observed in pgr1, but not in wild-type, suggesting that in wild-type plants signals depending on thylakoid acidification overlay a predominant redox-signal. Strongest correlation with the redox state of ascorbate was observed for 2CPA, whose transcript abundance regulation however was almost insensitive to the ascorbate content demonstrating dominance of redox regulation over metabolite sensing. Conclusion In the mutants, signalling pathways are partially uncoupled, demonstrating dominance of metabolic control of photoreaction centre expression over sensing the redox state of the PQ-pool. The balance between the cellular redox poise and the energy signature regulates sAPx and Csd2 transcript abundance, while 2CPA expression is primarily redox-controlled.

  8. Antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of lecithin free egg yolk protein preparation hydrolysates obtained with digestive enzymes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aleksandra Zambrowicz

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT:Several biological activities have now been associated with egg protein- derived peptides, including antihypertensive, antimicrobial, immunomodulatory, anticancer and antioxidantactivities, highlighting the importance of these biopeptides in human health, and disease prevention and treatment. Special attention has been given to peptides with antioxidant and antimicrobial activities as a new source of natural preservatives in food industry. In this study, the antioxidant properties of the egg-yolk protein by-product (YP hydrolysates were evaluated based on their radical scavenging capacity (DPPH, Fe2+chelating effect and ferric reducing power (FRAP. Furthermore, antimicrobial properties of obtained hydrolysates against Bacillus species were studied. The degrees (DHs of hydrolysis for 4h hydrolysates were: 19.1%, 13.5% and 13.0%, for pepsin, chymotrypsin and trypsin, respectively. Pepsin was the most effective in producing the free amino groups (1410.3 μmolGly/g. The RP-HPLC profiles of the protein hydrolysates showed differences in the hydrophobicity of the generated peptides.Trypsin hydrolysate obtained after 4h reaction demonstrated the strongest DPPH free radical scavenging activity (0.85 µmol Troloxeq/mg. Trypsin and chymotrypsin hydrolysates obtained after 4h reaction exhibited 4 times higher ferric reducing capacity than those treated bypepsin. The hydrolysis products obtained from YP exhibited significant chelating activity. The 4h trypsin hydrolysate exhibited weak antimicrobial activity against B. subtilis B3; B. cereus B512; B. cereus B 3p and B. laterosporum B6.

  9. Fetal QRS extraction from abdominal recordings via model-based signal processing and intelligent signal merging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Haghpanahi, Masoumeh; Borkholder, David A

    2014-01-01

    Noninvasive fetal ECG (fECG) monitoring has potential applications in diagnosing congenital heart diseases in a timely manner and assisting clinicians to make more appropriate decisions during labor. However, despite advances in signal processing and machine learning techniques, the analysis of fECG signals has still remained in its preliminary stages. In this work, we describe an algorithm to automatically locate QRS complexes in noninvasive fECG signals obtained from a set of four electrodes placed on the mother’s abdomen. The algorithm is based on an iterative decomposition of the maternal and fetal subspaces and filtering of the maternal ECG (mECG) components from the fECG recordings. Once the maternal components are removed, a novel merging technique is applied to merge the signals and detect the fetal QRS (fQRS) complexes. The algorithm was trained and tested on the fECG datasets provided by the PhysioNet/CinC challenge 2013. The final results indicate that the algorithm is able to detect fetal peaks for a variety of signals with different morphologies and strength levels encountered in clinical practice. (paper)

  10. Signal Timing Optimization Based on Fuzzy Compromise Programming for Isolated Signalized Intersection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dexin Yu

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available In order to optimize the signal timing for isolated intersection, a new method based on fuzzy programming approach is proposed in this paper. Considering the whole operation efficiency of the intersection comprehensively, traffic capacity, vehicle cycle delay, cycle stops, and exhaust emission are chosen as optimization goals to establish a multiobjective function first. Then fuzzy compromise programming approach is employed to give different weight coefficients to various optimization objectives for different traffic flow ratios states. And then the multiobjective function is converted to a single objective function. By using genetic algorithm, the optimized signal cycle and effective green time can be obtained. Finally, the performance of the traditional method and new method proposed in this paper is compared and analyzed through VISSIM software. It can be concluded that the signal timing optimized in this paper can effectively reduce vehicle delays and stops, which can improve traffic capacity of the intersection as well.

  11. A Segmental Approach with SWT Technique for Denoising the EOG Signal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Naga Rajesh

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The Electrooculogram (EOG signal is often contaminated with artifacts and power-line while recording. It is very much essential to denoise the EOG signal for quality diagnosis. The present study deals with denoising of noisy EOG signals using Stationary Wavelet Transformation (SWT technique by two different approaches, namely, increasing segments of the EOG signal and different equal segments of the EOG signal. For performing the segmental denoising analysis, an EOG signal is simulated and added with controlled noise powers of 5 dB, 10 dB, 15 dB, 20 dB, and 25 dB so as to obtain five different noisy EOG signals. The results obtained after denoising them are extremely encouraging. Root Mean Square Error (RMSE values between reference EOG signal and EOG signals with noise powers of 5 dB, 10 dB, and 15 dB are very less when compared with 20 dB and 25 dB noise powers. The findings suggest that the SWT technique can be used to denoise the noisy EOG signal with optimum noise powers ranging from 5 dB to 15 dB. This technique might be useful in quality diagnosis of various neurological or eye disorders.

  12. Signal Detection, Target Tracking and Differential Geometry Applications to Statistical Inference

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Rao, C

    1997-01-01

    Signal detection and target tracking. A novel method known as polynomial rooting approach is proposed to obtain estimates of frequencies, amplitudes and noise variance of two-dimensional exponential signals...

  13. An Experiment of Ocular Artifacts Elimination from EEG Signals using ICA and PCA Methods

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arjon Turnip

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available In the modern world of automation, biological signals, especially Electroencephalogram (EEG is gaining wide attention as a source of biometric information. Eye-blinks and movement of the eyeballs produce electrical signals (contaminate the EEG signals that are collectively known as ocular artifacts. These noise signals are required to be separated from the EEG signals to obtain the accurate results. This paper reports an experiment of ocular artifacts elimination from EEG signal using blind source separation algorithm based on independent component analysis and principal component analysis. EEG signals are recorded on three conditions, which are normal conditions, closed eyes, and blinked eyes. After processing, the dominant frequency of EEG signals in the range of 12-14 Hz either on normal, closed, and blinked eyes conditions is obtained

  14. A view to the intermediate-depth Vrancea earthquake of May 30, 1990: Case study in NE Bulgaria

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kouteva, M.; Paskaleva, I.; Panza, G.F.; Romanelli, F.

    2004-02-01

    A deterministic analytical procedure for ground motion modelling, combining both modal summation and mode coupling techniques has been implemented to obtain synthetic seismic signals at Russe, NE Bulgaria, due to one of the strongest Vrancea intermediate-depth earthquakes, which occurred during the last century, May 30, 1990. The frequency content of the synthetic signals in different frequency ranges, up to 1 and 2Hz, has been studied separately. The results of this study, i.e. time histories and related ground motions parameters, can be used for different earthquake engineering analyses, e.g. structural performance assessments. (author)

  15. Wavelet analysis for nonstationary signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Penha, Rosani Maria Libardi da

    1999-01-01

    Mechanical vibration signals play an important role in anomalies identification resulting of equipment malfunctioning. Traditionally, Fourier spectral analysis is used where the signals are assumed to be stationary. However, occasional transient impulses and start-up process are examples of nonstationary signals that can be found in mechanical vibrations. These signals can provide important information about the equipment condition, as early fault detection. The Fourier analysis can not adequately be applied to nonstationary signals because the results provide data about the frequency composition averaged over the duration of the signal. In this work, two methods for nonstationary signal analysis are used: Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) and wavelet transform. The STFT is a method of adapting Fourier spectral analysis for nonstationary application to time-frequency domain. To have a unique resolution throughout the entire time-frequency domain is its main limitation. The wavelet transform is a new analysis technique suitable to nonstationary signals, which handles the STFT drawbacks, providing multi-resolution frequency analysis and time localization in a unique time-scale graphic. The multiple frequency resolutions are obtained by scaling (dilatation/compression) the wavelet function. A comparison of the conventional Fourier transform, STFT and wavelet transform is made applying these techniques to: simulated signals, arrangement rotor rig vibration signal and rotate machine vibration signal Hanning window was used to STFT analysis. Daubechies and harmonic wavelets were used to continuos, discrete and multi-resolution wavelet analysis. The results show the Fourier analysis was not able to detect changes in the signal frequencies or discontinuities. The STFT analysis detected the changes in the signal frequencies, but with time-frequency resolution problems. The wavelet continuos and discrete transform demonstrated to be a high efficient tool to detect

  16. New methods to get valid signals at high temperature conditions by using DSP tools of the ASSA (Abnormal Signal Simulation Analyzer)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koo, Kil-Mo; Hong, Seong-Wan; Song, Jin-Ho; Baek, Won-Pil; Jung, Myung-Kwan

    2012-01-01

    A new method to get valid signals under high temperature conditions using DSP (Digital Signal Processing) tools of an ASSA (Abnormal Signal Simulation Analyzer) module through a signal analysis of important circuit modeling under severe accident conditions has been suggested. Already exist, such kinds of DSP technique operated by LabVIEW or MatLab code linked with PSpice code, which have convenient tools as a special function of the ASSA module including a signal reconstruction method. If we can obtain a shift data of the transient parameters such as the time constant of the R-L-C circuit affected by high temperature under a severe accident condition, it will be possible to reconstruct an abnormal signal using a trained deconvolution algorithm as a sort of DSP technique. (author)

  17. Thermoluminescent Signals Caused by Disturbing Effects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    German, U.; Weinstein, M.; Ben-Shachar, B.

    1999-01-01

    One of the major sources of uncertainty in the measurement of low radiation doses by means of thermoluminescence dosemeters is the presence of disturbing thermoluminescence signals, especially luminescence caused by visible light, and by materials attached to the heated areas. Glow curves of thermoluminescence dosemeters contain useful information that can improve the accuracy and the reliability of the thermoluminescent measurements. The influence of the various disturbing effects can be recognised in the shape of the glow curves and can sometimes be separated from the exposure. Some examples are presented of signals arising from the two disturbing effects mentioned above, the signal contributed by Teflon used in the TLD-100 cards of Bicron/Harshaw and some abnormal glow curves due to dirt attached to the cards. Subtraction of the contributions due to these effects is suggested to obtain the net exposure signal. (author)

  18. Sleep staging with movement-related signals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jansen, B H; Shankar, K

    1993-05-01

    Body movement related signals (i.e., activity due to postural changes and the ballistocardiac effort) were recorded from six normal volunteers using the static-charge-sensitive bed (SCSB). Visual sleep staging was performed on the basis of simultaneously recorded EEG, EMG and EOG signals. A statistical classification technique was used to determine if reliable sleep staging could be performed using only the SCSB signal. A classification rate of between 52% and 75% was obtained for sleep staging in the five conventional sleep stages and the awake state. These rates improved from 78% to 89% for classification between awake, REM and non-REM sleep and from 86% to 98% for awake versus asleep classification.

  19. Monitoring of electric-cardio signals based on DSP

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, Yi-xin; Sun, Hui-nan; Lv, Shuang

    2008-10-01

    Monitoring of electric-cardio signals is the most direct method of discovering heart diseases. This article presents an electric-cardio signal acquisition and processing system based on DSP. According to the features of electric-cardio signals, the proposed system uses the AgCl electrode as electric-cardio signals sensor, and acquires analog signals with AD620 as the prepositional amplifier, and the digital system equipped is with TMS320LF2407A DSP. The design of digital filter and the analysis of heart rate variation are realized by programming in the DSP. Finally the ECG is obtained with P and T waves along with obvious QRS multi-wave characteristics. The system has low power dissipation, low cost and high precision, which meets the requirements for medical instruments.

  20. Strongest gravitational waves from neutrino oscillations at supernova core bounce

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mosquera Cuesta, H.J.; Fiuza, K.

    2004-01-01

    Resonant active-to-active (ν a →ν a ), as well as active-to-sterile (ν a →ν s ) neutrino (ν) oscillations can take place during the core bounce of a supernova collapse. Besides, over this phase, weak magnetism increases the antineutrino (anti ν) mean free path, and thus its luminosity. Because the oscillation feeds mass-energy into the target ν species, the large mass-squared difference between the species (ν a →ν s ) implies a huge amount of energy to be given off as gravitational waves (L GW ∝10 49 erg s -1 ), due to anisotropic but coherent ν flow over the oscillation length. This asymmetric ν-flux is driven by both the spin-magnetic and the universal spin-rotation coupling. The novel contribution of this paper stems from (1) the new computation of the anisotropy parameter α∝0.1-0.01, and (2) the use of the tight constraints from neutrino experiments as SNO and KamLAND, and the cosmic probe WMAP, to compute the gravitational-wave emission during neutrino oscillations in supernovae core collapse and bounce. We show that the mass of the sterile neutrino ν s that can be resonantly produced during the flavor conversions makes it a good candidate for dark matter as suggested by Fuller et al., Phys. Rev. D 68, 103002 (2003). The new spacetime strain thus estimated is still several orders of magnitude larger than those from ν diffusion (convection and cooling) or quadrupole moments of neutron star matter. This new feature turns these bursts into the more promising supernova gravitational-wave signals that may be detected by observatories as LIGO, VIRGO, etc., for distances far out to the VIRGO cluster of galaxies. (orig.)

  1. Specificity of herbivore-induced hormonal signaling and defensive traits in five closely related milkweeds (Asclepias spp.).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agrawal, Anurag A; Hastings, Amy P; Patrick, Eamonn T; Knight, Anna C

    2014-07-01

    Despite the recognition that phytohormonal signaling mediates induced responses to herbivory, we still have little understanding of how such signaling varies among closely related species and may generate herbivore-specific induced responses. We studied closely related milkweeds (Asclepias) to link: 1) plant damage by two specialist chewing herbivores (milkweed leaf beetles Labidomera clivicolis and monarch caterpillars Danaus plexippus); 2) production of the phytohormones jasmonic acid (JA), salicylic acid (SA), and abscisic acid (ABA); 3) induction of defensive cardenolides and latex; and 4) impacts on Danaus caterpillars. We first show that A. syriaca exhibits induced resistance following monarch herbivory (i.e., reduced monarch growth on previously damaged plants), while the defensively dissimilar A. tuberosa does not. We next worked with a broader group of five Asclepias, including these two species, that are highly divergent in defensive traits yet from the same clade. Three of the five species showed herbivore-induced changes in cardenolides, while induced latex was found in four species. Among the phytohormones, JA and ABA showed specific responses (although they generally increased) to insect species and among the plant species. In contrast, SA responses were consistent among plant and herbivore species, showing a decline following herbivore attack. Jasmonic acid showed a positive quantitative relationship only with latex, and this was strongest in plants damaged by D. plexippus. Although phytohormones showed qualitative tradeoffs (i.e., treatments that enhanced JA reduced SA), the few significant individual plant-level correlations among hormones were positive, and these were strongest between JA and ABA in monarch damaged plants. We conclude that: 1) latex exudation is positively associated with endogenous JA levels, even among low-latex species; 2) correlations among milkweed hormones are generally positive, although herbivore damage induces a

  2. Signal Recovery in Compressive Sensing via Multiple Sparsifying Bases

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wijewardhana, U. L.; Belyaev, Evgeny; Codreanu, M.

    2017-01-01

    is sparse is the key assumption utilized by such algorithms. However, the basis in which the signal is the sparsest is unknown for many natural signals of interest. Instead there may exist multiple bases which lead to a compressible representation of the signal: e.g., an image is compressible in different...... wavelet transforms. We show that a significant performance improvement can be achieved by utilizing multiple estimates of the signal using sparsifying bases in the context of signal reconstruction from compressive samples. Further, we derive a customized interior-point method to jointly obtain multiple...... estimates of a 2-D signal (image) from compressive measurements utilizing multiple sparsifying bases as well as the fact that the images usually have a sparse gradient....

  3. Clustering method to process signals from a CdZnTe detector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Lan; Takahashi, Hiroyuki; Fukuda, Daiji; Nakazawa, Masaharu

    2001-01-01

    The poor mobility of holes in a compound semiconductor detector results in the imperfect collection of the primary charge deposited in the detector. Furthermore the fluctuation of the charge loss efficiency due to the change in the hole collection path length seriously degrades the energy resolution of the detector. Since the charge collection efficiency varies with the signal waveform, we can expect the improvement of the energy resolution through a proper waveform signal processing method. We developed a new digital signal processing technique, a clustering method which derives typical patterns containing the information on the real situation inside a detector from measured signals. The obtained typical patterns for the detector are then used for the pattern matching method. Measured signals are classified through analyzing the practical waveform variation due to the charge trapping, the electric field and the crystal defect etc. Signals with similar shape are placed into the same cluster. For each cluster we calculate an average waveform as a reference pattern. Using these reference patterns obtained from all the clusters, we can classify other measured signal waveforms from the same detector. Then signals are independently processed according to the classified category and form corresponding spectra. Finally these spectra are merged into one spectrum by multiplying normalization coefficients. The effectiveness of this method was verified with a CdZnTe detector of 2 mm thick and a 137 Cs gamma-ray source. The obtained energy resolution as improved to about 8 keV (FWHM). Because the clustering method is only related to the measured waveforms, it can be applied to any type and size of detectors and compatible with any type of filtering methods. (author)

  4. Fault Diagnosis using Audio and Vibration Signals in a Circulating Pump

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Henríquez, P; Alonso, J B; Ferrer, M A; Travieso, C M; Gómez, G

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents the use of audio and vibration signals in fault diagnosis of a circulating pump. The novelty of this paper is the use of audio signals acquired by microphones. The objective of this paper is to determine if audio signals are capable to distinguish between normal and different abnormal conditions in a circulating pump. In order to compare results, vibration signals are also acquired and analysed. Wavelet package is used to obtain the energies in different frequency bands from the audio and vibration signals. Neural networks are used to evaluate the discrimination ability of the extracted features between normal and fault conditions. The results show that information from sound signals can distinguish between normal and different faulty conditions with a success rate of 83.33%, 98% and 91.33% for each microphone respectively. These success rates are similar and even higher that those obtained from accelerometers (68%, 90.67% and 71.33% for each accelerometer respectively). Success rates also show that the position of microphones and accelerometers affects on the final results.

  5. Digital signal display board design: A knowledge based study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chaitanya, V. Sree Krishna; Rao, C. Raghavendra

    2007-01-01

    The digital signal display board is assumed to be composed of picture tubes for the purpose of displaying characters. The signal board with the picture tubes constitutes an Information System. A methodology for obtaining the discrimable matrix or table (more decisive attributes) and knowledge reduction for the above information system is proposed

  6. Breast cancer cells obtain an osteomimetic feature via epithelial-mesenchymal transition that have undergone BMP2/RUNX2 signaling pathway induction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tan, Cong-Cong; Li, Gui-Xi; Tan, Li-Duan; Du, Xin; Li, Xiao-Qing; He, Rui; Wang, Qing-Shan; Feng, Yu-Mei

    2016-11-29

    Bone is one of the most common organs of breast cancer metastasis. Cancer cells that mimic osteoblasts by expressing bone matrix proteins and factors have a higher likelihood of metastasizing to bone. However, the molecular mechanisms of osteomimicry formation of cancer cells remain undefined. Herein, we identified a set of bone-related genes (BRGs) that are ectopically co-expressed in primary breast cancer tissues and determined that osteomimetic feature is obtained due to the osteoblast-like transformation of epithelial breast cancer cells that have undergone epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) followed by bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP2) stimulation. Furthermore, we demonstrated that breast cancer cells that transformed into osteoblast-like cells with high expression of BRGs showed enhanced chemotaxis, adhesion, proliferation and multidrug resistance in an osteoblast-mimic bone microenvironment in vitro. During these processes, runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2) functioned as a master mediator by suppressing or activating the transcription of BRGs that underlie the dynamic antagonism between the TGF-β/SMAD and BMP/SMAD signaling pathways in breast cancer cells. Our findings suggest a novel mechanism of osteomimicry formation that arises in primary breast tumors, which may explain the propensity of breast cancer to metastasize to the skeleton and contribute to potential strategies for predicting and targeting breast cancer bone metastasis and multidrug resistance.

  7. Signal detection without finite-energy limits to quantum resolution

    OpenAIRE

    Luis Aina, Alfredo

    2013-01-01

    We show that there are extremely simple signal detection schemes where the finiteness of energy resources places no limit on the resolution. On the contrary, larger resolution can be obtained with lower energy. To this end the generator of the signal-dependent transformation encoding the signal information on the probe state must be different from the energy. We show that the larger the deviation of the probe state from being the minimum-uncertainty state, the better the resolution.

  8. Nuclear pulse signal processing technique based on blind deconvolution method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hong Pengfei; Yang Lei; Fu Tingyan; Qi Zhong; Li Dongcang; Ren Zhongguo

    2012-01-01

    In this paper, we present a method for measurement and analysis of nuclear pulse signal, with which pile-up signal is removed, the signal baseline is restored, and the original signal is obtained. The data acquisition system includes FPGA, ADC and USB. The FPGA controls the high-speed ADC to sample the signal of nuclear radiation, and the USB makes the ADC work on the Slave FIFO mode to implement high-speed transmission status. Using the LabVIEW, it accomplishes online data processing of the blind deconvolution algorithm and data display. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate advantages of the method. (authors)

  9. A novel algorithm to separate motion artifacts from photoplethysmographic signals obtained with a reflectance pulse oximeter.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yao, Jianchu; Warren, Steve

    2004-01-01

    Pulse oximeters are mainstays for acquiring blood oxygen saturation in static environments such as hospital rooms. However, motion artifacts prevent their broad in wearable, ambulatory environments. To this end, we present a novel algorithm to separate the motion artifacts from plethysmographic data gathered by pulse oximeters. This algorithm, based on the Beer-Lambert law, requires photoplethysmographic data acquired at three excitation wavelengths. The algorithm can calculate venous blood oxygen saturation (SvO2) as well as arterial blood oxygen saturation (SaO2). Preliminary results indicate that the extraction of the venous signal, which is assumed to be most affected by motions, is successful with data acquired from a reflectance-mode sensor.

  10. Decoding a combined amplitude modulated and frequency modulated signal

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    2015-01-01

    The present disclosure relates to a method for decoding a combined AM/FM encoded signal, comprising the steps of: combining said encoded optical signal with light from a local oscillator configured with a local oscillator frequency; converting the combined local oscillator and encoded optical...... signal into one or more electrical signals by means of at least one opto-electrical converter having a predefined frequency bandwidth, thereby providing an amplified and encoded electrical signal having one or more encoded signal current(s), where one type of states have a higher oscillation frequency...... than other type of states; rectifying the encoded signal current(s), thereby obtaining an encoded power spectrum, wherein said power spectrum has different states, such as "0"-states and "1"-states, with different power levels such that they can be discriminated, said local oscillator frequency...

  11. Emg Signal Analysis of Healthy and Neuropathic Individuals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gupta, Ashutosh; Sayed, Tabassum; Garg, Ridhi; Shreyam, Richa

    2017-08-01

    Electromyography is a method to evaluate levels of muscle activity. When a muscle contracts, an action potential is generated and this circulates along the muscular fibers. In electromyography, electrodes are connected to the skin and the electrical activity of muscles is measured and graph is plotted. The surface EMG signals picked up during the muscular activity are interfaced with a system. The EMG signals from individual suffering from Neuropathy and healthy individual, so obtained, are processed and analyzed using signal processing techniques. This project includes the investigation and interpretation of EMG signals of healthy and Neuropathic individuals using MATLAB. The prospective use of this study is in developing the prosthetic device for the people with Neuropathic disability.

  12. How common is within-plant signalling via volatiles?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Li, Tao; Blande, James D.

    2017-01-01

    or neighbouring plants to impending danger. It has been postulated that HIPVs evolved for within-plant signalling and that other organisms subsequently evolved to use them. However, only seven studies have reported HIPV-mediated within-plant signalling, most conducted in the laboratory or greenhouse. This leaves...... open the ecological relevance and evolutionary underpinning of the phenomenon. We recently observed within-plant signalling in hybrid aspen under laboratory and field conditions. Greenhouse experiments showed that HIPVs mediated the process. While our study adds an aspen hybrid to the list of plants...... in which within-plant signalling has been demonstrated, we lack understanding of how common the process is and whether plants obtain fitness benefits....

  13. Detection of electron magnetic circular dichroism signals under zone axial diffraction geometry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Song, Dongsheng [National Center for Electron Microscopy in Beijing, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials (MOE) and The State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); Rusz, Jan [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, S-751 20 Uppsala (Sweden); Cai, Jianwang [Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China); Zhu, Jing, E-mail: jzhu@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn [National Center for Electron Microscopy in Beijing, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials (MOE) and The State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China)

    2016-10-15

    EMCD (electron magnetic circular dichroism) technique provides us a new opportunity to explore magnetic properties in the transmission electron microscope. However, specific diffraction geometry is the major limitation. Only the two-beam and three-beam case are demonstrated in the experiments until now. Here, we present the more general case of zone axial (ZA) diffraction geometry through which the EMCD signals can be detected even with the very strong sensitivity to dynamical diffraction conditions. Our detailed calculations and well-controlled diffraction conditions lead to experiments in agreement with theory. The effect of dynamical diffraction conditions on EMCD signals are discussed both in theory and experiments. Moreover, with the detailed analysis of dynamical diffraction effects, we experimentally obtain the separate EMCD signals for each crystallographic site in Y{sub 3}Fe{sub 5}O{sub 12}, which is also applicable for other materials and cannot be achieved by site-specific EMCD and XMCD technique directly. Our work extends application of more general diffraction geometries and will further promote the development of EMCD technique. - Highlights: • The zone axial (ZA) diffraction geometry is presented for EMCD technique. • The detailed calculations for EMCD signals under ZA case are conducted. • The EMCD signals are obtained under the ZA case in the experiments. • The effect of dynamical effect on EMCD signals under ZA case is discussed. • Site-specific EMCD signals of Fe in Y{sub 3}Fe{sub 5}O{sub 12} are obtained by specific ZA conditions.

  14. Signal recovery in imaging photoplethysmography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holton, Benjamin D; Mannapperuma, Kavan; Lesniewski, Peter J; Thomas, John C

    2013-01-01

    Imaging photoplethysmography is an emerging technique for the extraction of biometric information from people using video recordings. The focus is on extracting the cardiac heart rate of the subject by analysing the luminance of the colour video signal and identifying periodic components. Advanced signal processing is needed to recover the information required. In this paper, independent component analysis (ICA), principal component analysis, auto- and cross-correlation are investigated and compared with respect to their effectiveness in extracting the relevant information from video recordings. Results obtained are compared with those recorded by a modern commercial finger pulse oximeter. It is found that ICA produces the most consistent results. (paper)

  15. Signal recovery in imaging photoplethysmography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holton, Benjamin D; Mannapperuma, Kavan; Lesniewski, Peter J; Thomas, John C

    2013-11-01

    Imaging photoplethysmography is an emerging technique for the extraction of biometric information from people using video recordings. The focus is on extracting the cardiac heart rate of the subject by analysing the luminance of the colour video signal and identifying periodic components. Advanced signal processing is needed to recover the information required. In this paper, independent component analysis (ICA), principal component analysis, auto- and cross-correlation are investigated and compared with respect to their effectiveness in extracting the relevant information from video recordings. Results obtained are compared with those recorded by a modern commercial finger pulse oximeter. It is found that ICA produces the most consistent results.

  16. Generalized Wavelet Fisher’s Information of 1/fα Signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julio Ramírez-Pacheco

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper defines the generalized wavelet Fisher information of parameter q. This information measure is obtained by generalizing the time-domain definition of Fisher’s information of Furuichi to the wavelet domain and allows to quantify smoothness and correlation, among other signals characteristics. Closed-form expressions of generalized wavelet Fisher information for 1/fα signals are determined and a detailed discussion of their properties, characteristics and their relationship with wavelet q-Fisher information are given. Information planes of 1/f signals Fisher information are obtained and, based on these, potential applications are highlighted. Finally, generalized wavelet Fisher information is applied to the problem of detecting and locating weak structural breaks in stationary 1/f signals, particularly for fractional Gaussian noise series. It is shown that by using a joint Fisher/F-Statistic procedure, significant improvements in time and accuracy are achieved in comparison with the sole application of the F-statistic.

  17. Time-Frequency Analysis of Signals Generated by Rotating Machines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Zetik

    1999-06-01

    Full Text Available This contribution is devoted to the higher order time-frequency analyses of signals. Firstly, time-frequency representations of higher order (TFRHO are defined. Then L-Wigner distribution (LWD is given as a special case of TFRHO. Basic properties of LWD are illustrated based on the analysis of mono-component and multi-component synthetic signals and acoustical signals generated by rotating machine. The obtained results confirm usefulness of LWD application for the purpose of rotating machine condition monitoring.

  18. Simulation of X-ray signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weller, A.

    1980-12-01

    A parameterized form of the local emissivity is used for the simulation of soft X-ray signals obtained on the WENDELSTEIN W VII-A stellarator with a 30 diode array. Numerical calculation of the line integrals for the different viewing angles and for a set of rotation angles covering one full signal period provides simulated periodic signals. In addition radial profiles of the line integrated emmission averaged over some time interval or at specific times, the relative amplitude modulation and the relative phase of the oscillations are calculated. These have to be fitted to the corresponding measured signals and profiles in order to get a reliable picture of the local emissivity. The model can take into account two poloidally asymmetric contributions of the type m = 1,2,3 or 4 (m = poloidal mode number). Each asymmetry can be generated in two ways (modulation of intensity and of geometry parameters). Besides an uniform rotation of the asymmetric terms some specific simple time evolution of the signals can be included (non-uniform rotation, growth of oscillations, sawtooth oscillations). The various input parameters are illustrated and the result of a simulation procedure is presented for a particular discharge in W VII-A. (orig.)

  19. The Development of a Greeting Signal in Wild Chimpanzees

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laporte, Marion N. C.; Zuberbuhler, Klaus

    2011-01-01

    Adult chimpanzees produce a unique vocal signal, the pant-grunt, when encountering higher-ranking group members. The behaviour is typically directed to a specific receiver and has thus been interpreted as a "greeting" signal. The alpha male obtains a large share of these calls, followed by the other adult males of the group. In this study, we…

  20. Invariance algorithms for processing NDE signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mandayam, Shreekanth; Udpa, Lalita; Udpa, Satish S.; Lord, William

    1996-11-01

    Signals that are obtained in a variety of nondestructive evaluation (NDE) processes capture information not only about the characteristics of the flaw, but also reflect variations in the specimen's material properties. Such signal changes may be viewed as anomalies that could obscure defect related information. An example of this situation occurs during in-line inspection of gas transmission pipelines. The magnetic flux leakage (MFL) method is used to conduct noninvasive measurements of the integrity of the pipe-wall. The MFL signals contain information both about the permeability of the pipe-wall and the dimensions of the flaw. Similar operational effects can be found in other NDE processes. This paper presents algorithms to render NDE signals invariant to selected test parameters, while retaining defect related information. Wavelet transform based neural network techniques are employed to develop the invariance algorithms. The invariance transformation is shown to be a necessary pre-processing step for subsequent defect characterization and visualization schemes. Results demonstrating the successful application of the method are presented.

  1. Foragers of sympatric Asian honey bee species intercept competitor signals by avoiding benzyl acetate from Apis cerana alarm pheromone.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wen, Ping; Cheng, Yanan; Qu, Yufeng; Zhang, Hongxia; Li, Jianjun; Bell, Heather; Tan, Ken; Nieh, James

    2017-07-27

    While foraging, animals can form inter- and intraspecific social signalling networks to avoid similar predators. We report here that foragers of different native Asian honey bee species can detect and use a specialized alarm pheromone component, benzyl acetate (BA), to avoid danger. We analysed the volatile alarm pheromone produced by attacked workers of the most abundant native Asian honey bee, Apis cerana and tested the responses of other bee species to these alarm signals. As compared to nest guards, A. cerana foragers produced 3.38 fold higher levels of BA. In foragers, BA and (E)-dec-2-en-1-yl acetate (DA) generated the strongest antennal electrophysiological responses. BA was also the only compound that alerted flying foragers and inhibited A. cerana foraging. BA thereby decreased A. cerana foraging for risky sites. Interestingly, although BA occurs only in trace amounts and is nearly absent in sympatric honeybee species (respectively only 0.07% and 0.44% as much in A. dorsata and A. florea), these floral generalists detected and avoided BA as strongly as they did to their own alarm pheromone on natural inflorescences. These results demonstrate that competing pollinators can take advantage of alarm signal information provided by other species.

  2. High-level expression of nattokinase in Bacillus licheniformis by manipulating signal peptide and signal peptidase.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cai, D; Wei, X; Qiu, Y; Chen, Y; Chen, J; Wen, Z; Chen, S

    2016-09-01

    Nattokinase is an enzyme produced by Bacillus licheniformis and has potential to be used as a drug for treating cardiovascular disease due to its beneficial effects of preventing fibrin clots etc. However, the low activity and titre of this protein produced by B. licheniformis often hinders its application of commercial production. The aim of this work is to improve the nattokinase production by manipulating signal peptides and signal peptidases in B. licheniformis. The P43 promoter, amyL terminator and AprN target gene were used to form the nattokinase expression vector, pHY-SP-NK, which was transformed into B. licheniformis and nattokinase was expressed successfully. A library containing 81 predicted signal peptides was constructed for nattokinase expression in B. licheniformis, with the maximum activity being obtained under the signal peptide of AprE. Among four type I signal peptidases genes (sipS, sipT, sipV, sipW) in B. licheniformis, the deletion of sipV resulted in a highest decrease in nattokinase activity. Overexpression of sipV in B. licheniformis led to a nattokinase activity of 35·60 FU ml(-1) , a 4·68-fold improvement over activity produced by the initial strain. This work demonstrates the potential of B. licheniformis for industrial production of nattokinase through manipulation of signal peptides and signal peptidases expression. This study has screened the signal peptides of extracellular proteins of B. licheniformis for nattokinase production. Four kinds of Type I signal peptidases genes have been detected respectively in B. licheniformis to identify which one played the vital role for nattokinase production. This study provided a promising strain for industry production of nattokinase. © 2016 The Society for Applied Microbiology.

  3. Dysphagia Screening: Contributions of Cervical Auscultation Signals and Modern Signal-Processing Techniques

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dudik, Joshua M.; Coyle, James L.

    2015-01-01

    Cervical auscultation is the recording of sounds and vibrations caused by the human body from the throat during swallowing. While traditionally done by a trained clinician with a stethoscope, much work has been put towards developing more sensitive and clinically useful methods to characterize the data obtained with this technique. The eventual goal of the field is to improve the effectiveness of screening algorithms designed to predict the risk that swallowing disorders pose to individual patients’ health and safety. This paper provides an overview of these signal processing techniques and summarizes recent advances made with digital transducers in hopes of organizing the highly varied research on cervical auscultation. It investigates where on the body these transducers are placed in order to record a signal as well as the collection of analog and digital filtering techniques used to further improve the signal quality. It also presents the wide array of methods and features used to characterize these signals, ranging from simply counting the number of swallows that occur over a period of time to calculating various descriptive features in the time, frequency, and phase space domains. Finally, this paper presents the algorithms that have been used to classify this data into ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ categories. Both linear as well as non-linear techniques are presented in this regard. PMID:26213659

  4. Spectral Properties of Chaotic Signals Generated by the Bernoulli Map

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rafael A. da Costa

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available In the last decades, the use of chaotic signals as broadband carriers has been considered in Telecommunications. Despite the relevance of the frequency domain analysis in this field, there are few studies that are concerned with spectral properties of chaotic signals. Bearing this in mind, this paper aims the characterization of the power spectral density (PSD of chaotic orbits generated by Bernoulli maps. We obtain analytic expressions for autocorrelation sequence, PSD and essential bandwidth for chaotic orbits generated by this map as function of the family parameter and Lyapunov exponent. Moreover, we verify that analytical expressions match numerical results. We conclude that the power of the generated orbits is concentrated in low frequencies for all parameters values. Besides, it is possible to obtain chaotic narrowband signals.

  5. On the optimum signal constellation design for high-speed optical transport networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Tao; Djordjevic, Ivan B

    2012-08-27

    In this paper, we first describe an optimum signal constellation design algorithm, which is optimum in MMSE-sense, called MMSE-OSCD, for channel capacity achieving source distribution. Secondly, we introduce a feedback channel capacity inspired optimum signal constellation design (FCC-OSCD) to further improve the performance of MMSE-OSCD, inspired by the fact that feedback channel capacity is higher than that of systems without feedback. The constellations obtained by FCC-OSCD are, however, OSNR dependent. The optimization is jointly performed together with regular quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check (LDPC) code design. Such obtained coded-modulation scheme, in combination with polarization-multiplexing, is suitable as both 400 Gb/s and multi-Tb/s optical transport enabling technology. Using large girth LDPC code, we demonstrate by Monte Carlo simulations that a 32-ary signal constellation, obtained by FCC-OSCD, outperforms previously proposed optimized 32-ary CIPQ signal constellation by 0.8 dB at BER of 10(-7). On the other hand, the LDPC-coded 16-ary FCC-OSCD outperforms 16-QAM by 1.15 dB at the same BER.

  6. A novel signal compression method based on optimal ensemble empirical mode decomposition for bearing vibration signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Wei; Tse, Peter W.

    2013-01-01

    Today, remote machine condition monitoring is popular due to the continuous advancement in wireless communication. Bearing is the most frequently and easily failed component in many rotating machines. To accurately identify the type of bearing fault, large amounts of vibration data need to be collected. However, the volume of transmitted data cannot be too high because the bandwidth of wireless communication is limited. To solve this problem, the data are usually compressed before transmitting to a remote maintenance center. This paper proposes a novel signal compression method that can substantially reduce the amount of data that need to be transmitted without sacrificing the accuracy of fault identification. The proposed signal compression method is based on ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD), which is an effective method for adaptively decomposing the vibration signal into different bands of signal components, termed intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). An optimization method was designed to automatically select appropriate EEMD parameters for the analyzed signal, and in particular to select the appropriate level of the added white noise in the EEMD method. An index termed the relative root-mean-square error was used to evaluate the decomposition performances under different noise levels to find the optimal level. After applying the optimal EEMD method to a vibration signal, the IMF relating to the bearing fault can be extracted from the original vibration signal. Compressing this signal component obtains a much smaller proportion of data samples to be retained for transmission and further reconstruction. The proposed compression method were also compared with the popular wavelet compression method. Experimental results demonstrate that the optimization of EEMD parameters can automatically find appropriate EEMD parameters for the analyzed signals, and the IMF-based compression method provides a higher compression ratio, while retaining the bearing defect

  7. Deterministic ground motion modelling at Russe, NE Bulgaria, associated to the Vrancea intermediate-depth earthquakes

    CERN Document Server

    Kouteva, M; Paskaleva, I; Romanelli, F

    2003-01-01

    An analytical deterministic technique, based on the detailed knowledge of the seismic source process and of the propagation of seismic waves, has been applied to generate synthetic seismic signals at Russe, NE Bulgaria, associated to the strongest intermediate-depth Vrancea earthquakes, which occurred during the last century (1940, 1977, 1986 and 1990). The obtained results show that all ground motion components contribute significantly to the seismic loading and that the seismic source parameters influence the shape and the amplitude of the seismic signal. The approach we used proves that realistic seismic input (also at remote distances) can be constructed via waveform modelling, considering all the possible factors influencing the ground motion.

  8. Radio Science from an Optical Communications Signal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moision, Bruce; Asmar, Sami; Oudrhiri, Kamal

    2013-01-01

    NASA is currently developing the capability to deploy deep space optical communications links. This creates the opportunity to utilize the optical link to obtain range, doppler, and signal intensity estimates. These may, in turn, be used to complement or extend the capabilities of current radio science. In this paper we illustrate the achievable precision in estimating range, doppler, and received signal intensity of an non-coherent optical link (the current state-of-the-art for a deep-space link). We provide a joint estimation algorithm with performance close to the bound. We draw comparisons to estimates based on a coherent radio frequency signal, illustrating that large gains in either precision or observation time are possible with an optical link.

  9. Cross-Term Suppression in Time Order Distribution for AWGN Signal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    WAQAS MAHMOOD

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available A technique of cross-term suppression in WD (Wigner Distribution for a multi-component signal that is embedded WGN (White Gaussian Noise is proposed. In this technique, an optimized algorithm is developed for time-varying noisy signal and a CAD (Computer Aided Design simulator is designed for Numerical simulations of synthetic signal. In proposed technique, signal components are localized in tf (time frequency plane by STFT (Short Time Fourier Transform. Rectified STFT is computed and Spectral Kurtosis is used to separate a signal components from noise in t-f plane. The t-f plane is segmented and then signal components are filtered out by FFT (Fractional Fourier Transform. Finally, WD (free of cross terms of isolated signal component is computed to obtain high resolution in t-f plane.

  10. Hide and go seek with temperature signals of Northeastern US Tree Species

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alexander, M. R.; Pederson, N.; Bishop, D. A.; Pearl, J. K.; Anchukaitis, K. J.

    2017-12-01

    Improving reconstructions of past climate is vital in providing long-term context for regional climate change. There have been only two published reconstructions of past temperatures in the northeastern U.S. (NEUS) since the 1980s, one based on Picea rubens, and one out in 2017 based upon Chamaecyparis thyoides (Atlantic white cedar; AWC). Because increased species diversity generally improves dendrohydroclimatic reconstructions and both Picea rubens and AWC have limitations as paleoproxies due to land-use and air pollution, we conducted a series of tests to ask, "Does species diversity improve reconstructions of temperature history in the northeastern United States?" The first two tests were performed on AWC and then a network of AWC and Picea rubens. Subsequent tests added groups of species or genera from a network of 230 tree-ring chronologies beginning with those having the strongest relation between warming temperatures and increased growth. PC1 of the AWC test represented 40% of the variance and showed a significant positive relation with winter temperature (r = 0.38). As additional species were included, the "winter temperature PC" accounted for less of the overall variance, ranging from 26% of the variance in test 2 to 5% by test 5. AWC is swamped by the hydroclimatic signal that dominates our network. Populations of species such as Fagus grandifolia, Fraxinus nigra, Juniperus virginiana, Liriodendron tulipifera, Pinus rigida, and Pinus strobus from our network loaded strongest with AWC on the winter temperature PC. Including multiple species accounted for almost 20% more variance in the winter temperature record than AWC alone. Although drought is a dominating influence of tree growth in this region, our results suggest that winter temperatures are recorded within NEUS tree rings. Increasing the species diversity of tree proxies has the potential for improving reconstruction of paleotemperatures in regions lacking latitudinal or altitudinal tree lines

  11. Signal-averaged P wave duration and the dimensions of the atria

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dixen, Ulrik; Joens, Christian; Rasmussen, Bo V

    2004-01-01

    Delay of atrial electrical conduction measured as prolonged signal-averaged P wave duration (SAPWD) could be due to atrial enlargement. Here, we aimed to compare different atrial size parameters obtained from echocardiography with the SAPWD measured with a signal-averaged electrocardiogram (SAECG)....

  12. K-mean clustering algorithm for processing signals from compound semiconductor detectors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tada, Tsutomu; Hitomi, Keitaro; Wu, Yan; Kim, Seong-Yun; Yamazaki, Hiromichi; Ishii, Keizo

    2011-01-01

    The K-mean clustering algorithm was employed for processing signal waveforms from TlBr detectors. The signal waveforms were classified based on its shape reflecting the charge collection process in the detector. The classified signal waveforms were processed individually to suppress the pulse height variation of signals due to the charge collection loss. The obtained energy resolution of a 137 Cs spectrum measured with a 0.5 mm thick TlBr detector was 1.3% FWHM by employing 500 clusters.

  13. The measurement of layer thickness by the deconvolution of ultrasonic signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McIntyre, P.J.

    1977-07-01

    An ultrasonic technique for measuring layer thickness, such as oxide on corroded steel, is described. A time domain response function is extracted from an ultrasonic signal reflected from the layered system. This signal is the convolution of the input signal with the response function of the layer. By using a signal reflected from a non-layered surface to represent the input, the response function may be obtained by deconvolution. The advantage of this technique over that described by Haines and Bel (1975) is that the quality of the results obtained using their method depends on the ability of a skilled operator in lining up an arbitrary common feature of the signals received. Using deconvolution no operator manipulations are necessary and so less highly trained personnel may successfully make the measurements. Results are presented for layers of araldite on aluminium and magnetite of steel. The results agreed satisfactorily with predictions but in the case of magnetite, its high velocity of sound meant that thicknesses of less than 250 microns were difficult to measure accurately. (author)

  14. Encoding circuit for transform coding of a picture signal and decoding circuit for encoding said signal

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    1991-01-01

    Encoding circuit for transforming a picture signal into blocks of, for example, 8*8 coefficients, in which each block of coefficients is read motion-adaptively. In the case of motion within a sub-picture, the block of coefficients is read in such an order that the obtained series of coefficients

  15. Signaling pathways in a Citrus EST database

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angela Mehta

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Citrus spp. are economically important crops, which in Brazil are grown mainly in the State of São Paulo. Citrus cultures are attacked by several pathogens, causing severe yield losses. In order to better understand this culture, the Millenium Project (IAC Cordeirópolis was launched in order to sequence Citrus ESTs (expressed sequence tags from different tissues, including leaf, bark, fruit, root and flower. Plants were submitted to biotic and abiotic stresses and investigated under different development stages (adult vs. juvenile. Several cDNA libraries were constructed and the sequences obtained formed the Citrus ESTs database with almost 200,000 sequences. Searches were performed in the Citrus database to investigate the presence of different signaling pathway components. Several of the genes involved in the signaling of sugar, calcium, cytokinin, plant hormones, inositol phosphate, MAPKinase and COP9 were found in the citrus genome and are discussed in this paper. The results obtained may indicate that similar mechanisms described in other plants, such as Arabidopsis, occur in citrus. Further experimental studies must be conducted in order to understand the different signaling pathways present.

  16. Thermoluminescence properties of zinc oxide obtained by solution combustion synthesis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Orante B, V. R.; Escobar O, F. M.; Cruz V, C. [Universidad de Sonora, Departamento de Investigacion en Polimeros y Materiales, Apdo. Postal 130, 83000 Hermosillo, Sonora (Mexico); Bernal, R., E-mail: victor.orante@polimeros.uson.mx [Universidad de Sonora, Departamento de Investigacion en Fisica, Apdo. Postal 5-088, 83190 Hermosillo, Sonora (Mexico)

    2014-08-15

    High-dose thermoluminescence dosimetry properties of novel zinc oxide obtained by solution combustion synthesis in a glycine-nitrate process, with a non-stoichiometric value of the elemental stoichiometric coefficient (Φ{sub c}) are presented in this work. Zn O powder samples obtained were annealed afterwards at 900 grades C during 2 h in air. Sintered particles of sizes between ∼ 0.5 and ∼ 2 μm were obtained, according to scanning electron microscopy results. X-ray diffraction indicates the presence of the hexagonal phase of Zn O for the powder samples obtained, before and after thermal annealing, without any remaining nitrate peaks observed. Thermoluminescence glow curves of Zn O obtained after being exposed to beta radiation consists of two maxima; one located at ∼ 149 grades C and another at ∼ 308 grades C, being the latter the dosimetric component of the curve. Dosimetric characterization of non-stoichiometric zinc oxide provided experimental evidence like asymptotic behavior of the Tl signal fading for times greater than 16 h between irradiation and the corresponding Tl readout, as well as the linear behaviour of the dose response without saturation in the dose interval studied (from 12.5 up to 400 Gy). Such characteristics place Zn O phosphors obtained in this work as a promising material for high-dose radiation dosimetry applications (e.g., radiotherapy and food industry). (author)

  17. Thermoluminescence properties of zinc oxide obtained by solution combustion synthesis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Orante B, V. R.; Escobar O, F. M.; Cruz V, C.; Bernal, R.

    2014-08-01

    High-dose thermoluminescence dosimetry properties of novel zinc oxide obtained by solution combustion synthesis in a glycine-nitrate process, with a non-stoichiometric value of the elemental stoichiometric coefficient (Φ c ) are presented in this work. Zn O powder samples obtained were annealed afterwards at 900 grades C during 2 h in air. Sintered particles of sizes between ∼ 0.5 and ∼ 2 μm were obtained, according to scanning electron microscopy results. X-ray diffraction indicates the presence of the hexagonal phase of Zn O for the powder samples obtained, before and after thermal annealing, without any remaining nitrate peaks observed. Thermoluminescence glow curves of Zn O obtained after being exposed to beta radiation consists of two maxima; one located at ∼ 149 grades C and another at ∼ 308 grades C, being the latter the dosimetric component of the curve. Dosimetric characterization of non-stoichiometric zinc oxide provided experimental evidence like asymptotic behavior of the Tl signal fading for times greater than 16 h between irradiation and the corresponding Tl readout, as well as the linear behaviour of the dose response without saturation in the dose interval studied (from 12.5 up to 400 Gy). Such characteristics place Zn O phosphors obtained in this work as a promising material for high-dose radiation dosimetry applications (e.g., radiotherapy and food industry). (author)

  18. Realization of Flight Control System in Virtual Reality Environment with Biological Signals

    OpenAIRE

    ALTIN, Cemil; ER, Orhan

    2018-01-01

    In this study, anunmanned aerial vehicle was flown on a virtual reality gaming platform with thehelp of commands processed by signal processing methods of biological signals. In thedeveloped application, Matlab signal processing environment and Unity 3Denvironment which is a virtual reality software platform are integrated witheach other and made to work. The biological signals obtained from the EEG ve EMGsensors are processed in Matlab environment and then converted to commands andtransferre...

  19. Improper signaling in two-path relay channels

    KAUST Repository

    Gaafar, Mohamed

    2017-07-03

    Inter-relay interference (IRI) challenges the operation of two-path relaying systems. Furthermore, the unavailability of the channel state information (CSI) at the source and the limited detection capabilities at the relays prevent neither eliminating the interference nor adopting joint detection at the relays nodes. Improper signaling is a powerful signaling scheme that has the capability to reduce the interference impact at the receiver side and improves the achievable rate performance. Therefore, improper signaling is adopted at both relays, which have access to the global CSI. Then, improper signal characteristics are designed to maximize the total end-to-end achievable rate at the relays. To this end, both the power and the circularity coefficient, a measure of the impropriety degree of the signal, are optimized at the relays. Although the optimization problem is not convex, optimal power allocation for both relays for a fixed circularity coefficient is obtained. Moreover, the circularity coefficient is tuned to maximize the rate for a given power allocation. Finally, a joint solution of the optimization problem is proposed using a coordinate descent method based on alternate optimization. The simulation results show that employing improper signaling improves the achievable rate at medium and high IRI.

  20. Improper signaling in two-path relay channels

    KAUST Repository

    Gaafar, Mohamed; Amin, Osama; Schaefer, Rafael F.; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

    2017-01-01

    Inter-relay interference (IRI) challenges the operation of two-path relaying systems. Furthermore, the unavailability of the channel state information (CSI) at the source and the limited detection capabilities at the relays prevent neither eliminating the interference nor adopting joint detection at the relays nodes. Improper signaling is a powerful signaling scheme that has the capability to reduce the interference impact at the receiver side and improves the achievable rate performance. Therefore, improper signaling is adopted at both relays, which have access to the global CSI. Then, improper signal characteristics are designed to maximize the total end-to-end achievable rate at the relays. To this end, both the power and the circularity coefficient, a measure of the impropriety degree of the signal, are optimized at the relays. Although the optimization problem is not convex, optimal power allocation for both relays for a fixed circularity coefficient is obtained. Moreover, the circularity coefficient is tuned to maximize the rate for a given power allocation. Finally, a joint solution of the optimization problem is proposed using a coordinate descent method based on alternate optimization. The simulation results show that employing improper signaling improves the achievable rate at medium and high IRI.

  1. Digital Signal Processing for a Sliceable Transceiver for Optical Access Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Saldaña Cercos, Silvia; Wagner, Christoph; Vegas Olmos, Juan José

    2015-01-01

    Methods to upgrade the network infrastructure to cope with current traffic demands has attracted increasing research efforts. A promising alternative is signal slicing. Signal slicing aims at re-using low bandwidth equipment to satisfy high bandwidth traffic demands. This technique has been used...... also for implementing full signal path symmetry in real-time oscilloscopes to provide performance and signal fidelity (i.e. lower noise and jitter). In this paper the key digital signal processing (DSP) subsystems required to achieve signal slicing are surveyed. It also presents, for the first time...... penalty is reported for 10 Gbps. Power savings of the order of hundreds of Watts can be obtained when using signal slicing as an alternative to 10 Gbps implemented access networks....

  2. Obtaining isochrones from pollution signals in a fluvial sediment record: A case study in a uranium-polluted floodplain of the Ploučnice River, Czech Republic

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matys Grygar, T.; Elznicová, J.; Bábek, O.; Hošek, M.; Engel, Z.; Kiss, T.

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • Integrated approach to assess pollutant distribution in floodplain. • Natural background concentration is a function and not a value. • Concept of local enrichment factors based on local background functions. • Secondary pollution from transient fluvial deposits. - Abstract: Uranium mining and processing in the watershed of the Ploučnice River in the Czech Republic during a well-defined time interval (1969–1989) allowed for a study of pollutant fates in sediments of a meandering river that is otherwise in a nearly natural state. A considerable part of the primary pollution is present in hotspots in the floodplain 10–15 km downstream from the mining district. One of the hotspots was characterised using geoinformatic, geophysical and geochemical means. The floodplain geomorphology and architecture and river channel dynamics were studied to develop an understanding of the formation of the hotspot and evaluate further movement of pollutants in the river system. Local background functions (with Rb or Ti as a predictor) and local enrichment factors (LEFs) were obtained for Ba, Ni, Pb, U and Zn concentrations in unpolluted sediments from the deeper strata of the active floodplain, an abandoned floodplain and an ancient terrace. The most recent (2013) overbank fines in the study area are still considerably enriched in Ni, U and Zn (LEF 3, 6 and 8, respectively), and thus pollution by heavy metals several km downstream of the hotspots continuously increases even though the primary source of pollution was terminated more than 20 years ago. The onset of the primary pollution (the base of the polluted strata) is hence clearly identified in the distal floodplain sediments as persistent and a potentially isochronous pollution signal in the fluvial record, whereas a secondary pollution signal overwrites the expected “primary pollution climax” and “pollution improvement” signals. That inertia of the fluvial system can also be expected in other

  3. Noise Reduction of Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Defect Electromagnetic Signal by Combined Use of Improved Wavelet and EMD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hong-Wei Ma

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available In order to reduce the noise of a defect electromagnetic signal of the steel cord conveyor belt used in coal mines, a new signal noise reduction method by combined use of the improved threshold wavelet and Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD is proposed. Firstly, the denoising method based on the improved threshold wavelet is applied to reduce the noise of a defect electromagnetic signal obtained by an electromagnetic testing system. Then, the EMD is used to decompose the denoised signal and then the effective Intrinsic Mode Function (IMF is extracted by the dominant eigenvalue strategy. Finally, the signal reconstruction is carried out by utilizing the obtained IMF. In order to verify the proposed noise reduction method, the experiments are carried out in two cases including the defective joint and steel wire rope break. The experimental results show that the proposed method in this paper obtains the higher Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR for the defect electromagnetic signal noise reduction of steel cord conveyor belts.

  4. Retroactive signaling in short signaling pathways.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jacques-Alexandre Sepulchre

    Full Text Available In biochemical signaling pathways without explicit feedback connections, the core signal transduction is usually described as a one-way communication, going from upstream to downstream in a feedforward chain or network of covalent modification cycles. In this paper we explore the possibility of a new type of signaling called retroactive signaling, offered by the recently demonstrated property of retroactivity in signaling cascades. The possibility of retroactive signaling is analysed in the simplest case of the stationary states of a bicyclic cascade of signaling cycles. In this case, we work out the conditions for which variables of the upstream cycle are affected by a change of the total amount of protein in the downstream cycle, or by a variation of the phosphatase deactivating the same protein. Particularly, we predict the characteristic ranges of the downstream protein, or of the downstream phosphatase, for which a retroactive effect can be observed on the upstream cycle variables. Next, we extend the possibility of retroactive signaling in short but nonlinear signaling pathways involving a few covalent modification cycles.

  5. Experimental and numerical investigation of ion signals in boosted HCCI combustion using cesium and potassium acetate additives

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mack, J. Hunter; Butt, Ryan H.; Chen, Yulin; Chen, Jyh-Yuan; Dibble, Robert W.

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • HCCI engine experiments show that CsOAc and KOAc additives increased the ion SNR. • The ion signal is more apparent at higher equivalence ratios. • An increase in intake pressure produces a decrease in the ion signal. • Use of metal acetates as additives yielded reductions in IMEP g and maximum ROHR. • A numerical model predicted peak ion signal, CA50, and p intake dependence. - Abstract: A sparkplug ion sensor can be used to measure the ion current in a homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine, providing insight into the ion chemistry inside the cylinders during combustion. HCCI engines typically operate at lean equivalence ratios (ϕ) at which the ion current becomes increasingly indistinguishable from background noise. This paper investigates the effect of fuel additives on the ion signal at low equivalence ratios, determines side effects of metal acetate addition, and validates numerical model for ionization chemistry. Cesium acetate (CsOAc) and potassium acetate (KOAc) were used as additives to ethanol as the primary fuel. Concentration levels of 100, 200, and 400 mg/L of metal acetate-in-ethanol are investigated at equivalence ratios of 0.08, 0.20, and 0.30. The engine experiments were conducted at a boosted intake pressure of 1.8 bar absolute and compared to naturally aspirated results. Combustion timing was maintained at 2.5° after top-dead-center (ATDC), as defined by the crank angle degree (CAD) where 50% of the cumulative heat release occurs (CA50). CsOAc consistently produced the strongest ion signals at all conditions when compared to KOAc. The ion signal was found to decrease with increased intake pressure; an increase in the additive concentration increased the ion signal for all cases. However, the addition of the metal acetates decreased the gross indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP g ), maximum rate of heat release (ROHR), and peak cylinder pressure. Experimental results were used to validate ion chemistry

  6. Image restoration by Wiener filtering in the presence of signal-dependent noise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kondo, K; Ichioka, Y; Suzuki, T

    1977-09-01

    An optimum filter to restore the degraded image due to blurring and the signal-dependent noise is obtained on the basis of the theory of Wiener filtering. Computer simulations of image restoration using signal-dependent noise models are carried out. It becomes clear that the optimum filter, which makes use of a priori information on the signal-dependent nature of the noise and the spectral density of the signal and the noise showing significant spatial correlation, is potentially advantageous.

  7. Reconstruction of gastric slow wave from finger photoplethysmographic signal using radial basis function neural network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohamed Yacin, S; Srinivasa Chakravarthy, V; Manivannan, M

    2011-11-01

    Extraction of extra-cardiac information from photoplethysmography (PPG) signal is a challenging research problem with significant clinical applications. In this study, radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) is used to reconstruct the gastric myoelectric activity (GMA) slow wave from finger PPG signal. Finger PPG and GMA (measured using Electrogastrogram, EGG) signals were acquired simultaneously at the sampling rate of 100 Hz from ten healthy subjects. Discrete wavelet transform (DWT) was used to extract slow wave (0-0.1953 Hz) component from the finger PPG signal; this slow wave PPG was used to reconstruct EGG. A RBFNN is trained on signals obtained from six subjects in both fasting and postprandial conditions. The trained network is tested on data obtained from the remaining four subjects. In the earlier study, we have shown the presence of GMA information in finger PPG signal using DWT and cross-correlation method. In this study, we explicitly reconstruct gastric slow wave from finger PPG signal by the proposed RBFNN-based method. It was found that the network-reconstructed slow wave provided significantly higher (P wave than the correlation obtained (≈0.7) between the PPG slow wave from DWT and the EEG slow wave. Our results showed that a simple finger PPG signal can be used to reconstruct gastric slow wave using RBFNN method.

  8. A signal-substrate match in the substrate-borne component of a multimodal courtship display

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Damian O. ELIAS, Andrew C. MASON, Eileen A. HEBETS

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available The environment can impose strong limitations on the efficacy of signal transmission. In particular, for vibratory communication, the signaling environment is often extremely heterogeneous at very small scales. Nevertheless, natural selection is expected to select for signals well-suited to effective transmission. Here, we test for substrate-dependent signal efficacy in the wolf spider Schizocosa stridulans Stratton 1991. We first explore the transmission characteristics of this important signaling modality by playing recorded substrate-borne signals through three different substrates (leaf litter, pine litter, and red clay and measuring the propagated signal. We found that the substrate-borne signal of S. stridulans attenuates the least on leaf litter, the substrate upon which the species is naturally found. Next, by assessing mating success with artificially muted and non-muted males across different signaling substrates (leaf litter, pine litter, and sand, we explored the relationship between substrate-borne signaling and substrate for mating success. We found that muted males were unsuccessful in obtaining copulations regardless of substrate, while mating success was dependent on the signaling substrate for non-muted males. For non-muted males, more males copulated on leaf litter than any other substrate. Taken together, these results confirm the importance of substrate-borne signaling in S. stridulans and suggest a match between signal properties and signal efficacy – leaf litter transmits the signal most effectively and males are most successful in obtaining copulations on leaf litter [Current Zoology 56 (3: 370–378, 2010].

  9. Devices for obtaining information about radiation sources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tosswill, C.H.

    1981-01-01

    The invention provides a sensitive, fast, high-resolution device for obtaining information about the distribution of gamma and X-radiation sources and provides a radiation detector useful in such a device. It comprises a slit collimator with a multiplicity of slits each with slit-defining walls of material and thickness to absorb beam components impinging on them. The slits extend further in one transverse direction than the other. The detector for separately detecting beam components passing through the slits also provides data output signals. It comprises a plurality of radiation transducing portions, each at the end of a slit. A positioner changes the transverse position of the slits and radiation transducer (a photoconductor) relative to the source. Applications are in nuclear medicine and industry. Full details and preferred embodiments are given. (U.K.)

  10. Signal processing for smart cards

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quisquater, Jean-Jacques; Samyde, David

    2003-06-01

    In 1998, Paul Kocher showed that when a smart card computes cryptographic algorithms, for signatures or encryption, its consumption or its radiations leak information. The keys or the secrets hidden in the card can then be recovered using a differential measurement based on the intercorrelation function. A lot of silicon manufacturers use desynchronization countermeasures to defeat power analysis. In this article we detail a new resynchronization technic. This method can be used to facilitate the use of a neural network to do the code recognition. It becomes possible to reverse engineer a software code automatically. Using data and clock separation methods, we show how to optimize the synchronization using signal processing. Then we compare these methods with watermarking methods for 1D and 2D signal. The very last watermarking detection improvements can be applied to signal processing for smart cards with very few modifications. Bayesian processing is one of the best ways to do Differential Power Analysis, and it is possible to extract a PIN code from a smart card in very few samples. So this article shows the need to continue to set up effective countermeasures for cryptographic processors. Although the idea to use advanced signal processing operators has been commonly known for a long time, no publication explains that results can be obtained. The main idea of differential measurement is to use the cross-correlation of two random variables and to repeat consumption measurements on the processor to be analyzed. We use two processors clocked at the same external frequency and computing the same data. The applications of our design are numerous. Two measurements provide the inputs of a central operator. With the most accurate operator we can improve the signal noise ratio, re-synchronize the acquisition clock with the internal one, or remove jitter. The analysis based on consumption or electromagnetic measurements can be improved using our structure. At first sight

  11. Quality-on-Demand Compression of EEG Signals for Telemedicine Applications Using Neural Network Predictors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Sriraam

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available A telemedicine system using communication and information technology to deliver medical signals such as ECG, EEG for long distance medical services has become reality. In either the urgent treatment or ordinary healthcare, it is necessary to compress these signals for the efficient use of bandwidth. This paper discusses a quality on demand compression of EEG signals using neural network predictors for telemedicine applications. The objective is to obtain a greater compression gains at a low bit rate while preserving the clinical information content. A two-stage compression scheme with a predictor and an entropy encoder is used. The residue signals obtained after prediction is first thresholded using various levels of thresholds and are further quantized and then encoded using an arithmetic encoder. Three neural network models, single-layer and multi-layer perceptrons and Elman network are used and the results are compared with linear predictors such as FIR filters and AR modeling. The fidelity of the reconstructed EEG signal is assessed quantitatively using parameters such as PRD, SNR, cross correlation and power spectral density. It is found from the results that the quality of the reconstructed signal is preserved at a low PRD thereby yielding better compression results compared to results obtained using lossless scheme.

  12. Ambiguity Function and Resolution Characteristic Analysis of DVB-S Signal for Passive Radar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jin Wei

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper gives the performance research on the ambiguity function and resolution of passive radar based on DVB-S (Digital Video Broadcasting-Satellite signal. The radar system structure and signal model of DVB-S signal are firstly studied, then the ambiguity function of DVB-S signal is analyzed. At last, it has been obtained how the bistatic radar position impacts the resolution. Theoretical analyses and computer simulation show that DVB-S signal is applicable as an illuminator for passive radar.

  13. HER/ErbB Receptor Interactions and Signaling Patterns in Human Mammary Epithelial Cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhang, Yi; Opresko, Lee K.; Shankaran, Harish; Chrisler, William B.; Wiley, H. S.; Resat, Haluk

    2009-10-31

    Knowledge about signaling pathways is typically compiled based on data gathered using different cell lines. This approach implicitly assumes that cell line dependence is not important, which can be misleading because different cell lines do not always respond to a particular stimulus in the same way. The lack of coherent data collected from closely related cellular systems can be detrimental to the efforts to understand the regulation of biological processes. In this study, we report the development of a library of human mammary epithelial (HME) cell lines which express endogenous levels of the cell surface receptor EGFR/HER1, and different levels of HER2 and HER3. Using our clone library, we have quantified the interactions among the HER1-3 receptors and systematically investigated the existing hypotheses about their interaction patterns. Contrary to earlier suggestions, we find that lateral interactions with HER2 do not lead to strong transactivation between EGFR and HER3. Our study identified HER2 as the dominant dimerization partner for both EGFR and HER3, and revealed that EGFR and HER3 activations are only weakly linked in HME cells. We have also quantified the time-dependent activation patterns of the downstream effectors Erk and Akt. We found that HER3 signaling makes the strongest contribution to Akt activation and that, stimulation of either EGFR or HER3 pathways activate Erk at significant levels. Our study shows that cell libraries formed from closely related clones can be a powerful resource for pursuing the quantitative investigations that are necessary for developing a systems level understanding of cell signaling.

  14. Applying advanced digital signal processing techniques in industrial radioisotopes applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mahmoud, H.K.A.E.

    2012-01-01

    Radioisotopes can be used to obtain signals or images in order to recognize the information inside the industrial systems. The main problems of using these techniques are the difficulty of identification of the obtained signals or images and the requirement of skilled experts for the interpretation process of the output data of these applications. Now, the interpretation of the output data from these applications is performed mainly manually, depending heavily on the skills and the experience of trained operators. This process is time consuming and the results typically suffer from inconsistency and errors. The objective of the thesis is to apply the advanced digital signal processing techniques for improving the treatment and the interpretation of the output data from the different Industrial Radioisotopes Applications (IRA). This thesis focuses on two IRA; the Residence Time Distribution (RTD) measurement and the defect inspection of welded pipes using a gamma source (gamma radiography). In RTD measurement application, this thesis presents methods for signal pre-processing and modeling of the RTD signals. Simulation results have been presented for two case studies. The first case study is a laboratory experiment for measuring the RTD in a water flow rig. The second case study is an experiment for measuring the RTD in a phosphate production unit. The thesis proposes an approach for RTD signal identification in the presence of noise. In this approach, after signal processing, the Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) and polynomial coefficients are extracted from the processed signal or from one of its transforms. The Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), and Discrete Sine Transform (DST) have been tested and compared for efficient feature extraction. Neural networks have been used for matching of the extracted features. Furthermore, the Power Density Spectrum (PDS) of the RTD signal has been also used instead of the discrete

  15. The Role of Head Movements and Signal Spectrum in an Auditory Front/Back Illusion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    W Owen Brimijoin

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available We used a dynamic auditory spatial illusion to investigate the role of self-motion and acoustics in shaping our spatial percept of the environment. Using motion capture, we smoothly moved a sound source around listeners as a function of their own head movements. A lowpass filtered sound behind a listener that moved in the direction it would have moved if it had been located in the front was perceived as statically located in front. The contrariwise effect occurred if the sound was in front but moved as if it were behind. The illusion was strongest for sounds lowpass filtered at 500 Hz and weakened as a function of increasing lowpass cutoff frequency. The signals with the most high frequency energy were often associated with an unstable location percept that flickered from front to back as self-motion cues and spectral cues for location came into conflict with one another.

  16. No-signaling, perfect bipartite dichotomic correlations and local randomness

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seevinck, M. P.

    2011-01-01

    The no-signaling constraint on bi-partite correlations is reviewed. It is shown that in order to obtain non-trivial Bell-type inequalities that discern no-signaling correlations from more general ones, one must go beyond considering expectation values of products of observables only. A new set of nontrivial no-signaling inequalities is derived which have a remarkably close resemblance to the CHSH inequality, yet are fundamentally different. A set of inequalities by Roy and Singh and Avis et al., which is claimed to be useful for discerning no-signaling correlations, is shown to be trivially satisfied by any correlation whatsoever. Finally, using the set of newly derived no-signaling inequalities a result with potential cryptographic consequences is proven: if different parties use identical devices, then, once they have perfect correlations at spacelike separation between dichotomic observables, they know that because of no-signaling the local marginals cannot but be completely random.

  17. Overrepresentation of glutamate signaling in Alzheimer's disease: network-based pathway enrichment using meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eduardo Pérez-Palma

    Full Text Available Genome-wide association studies (GWAS have successfully identified several risk loci for Alzheimer's disease (AD. Nonetheless, these loci do not explain the entire susceptibility of the disease, suggesting that other genetic contributions remain to be identified. Here, we performed a meta-analysis combining data of 4,569 individuals (2,540 cases and 2,029 healthy controls derived from three publicly available GWAS in AD and replicated a broad genomic region (>248,000 bp associated with the disease near the APOE/TOMM40 locus in chromosome 19. To detect minor effect size contributions that could help to explain the remaining genetic risk, we conducted network-based pathway analyses either by extracting gene-wise p-values (GW, defined as the single strongest association signal within a gene, or calculated a more stringent gene-based association p-value using the extended Simes (GATES procedure. Comparison of these strategies revealed that ontological sub-networks (SNs involved in glutamate signaling were significantly overrepresented in AD (p<2.7×10(-11, p<1.9×10(-11; GW and GATES, respectively. Notably, glutamate signaling SNs were also found to be significantly overrepresented (p<5.1×10(-8 in the Alzheimer's disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI study, which was used as a targeted replication sample. Interestingly, components of the glutamate signaling SNs are coordinately expressed in disease-related tissues, which are tightly related to known pathological hallmarks of AD. Our findings suggest that genetic variation within glutamate signaling contributes to the remaining genetic risk of AD and support the notion that functional biological networks should be targeted in future therapies aimed to prevent or treat this devastating neurological disorder.

  18. Stability of X-band EPR signals from fingernails under vacuum storage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sholom, Sergey; McKeever, Stephen

    2017-12-01

    EPR signals of different origin have been tested in human finger- and toe-nails with an X-band EPR technique for different conditions of nail storage. Three different signals were identified, namely a singlet at g=2.005, a doublet at g=2.004 with a splitting constant A=1.8 mT, and an anisotropic signal at g1=2.057, g2=2.029 and g3=2.003 (positions of local extrema). All EPR spectra from nails, whether irradiated or mechanically stressed, can be described as a superposition of these three signals. The singlet is responsible for the background signal (BG), is the main component of radiation-induced signals (RIS) for low doses (100 Gy or lower) and also contributes to mechanically-induced signals (MIS). This signal is quite stable under vacuum storage, but can be reduced almost to zero by soaking in water. The behavior of this signal under ambient conditions depends on many factors, such as absorbed dose, air humidity, and ambient illumination intensity at the place of storage. The doublet arises after exposure of nails to high (few hundreds Gy and higher) doses or after mechanical stress of samples. Depending on how this signal was obtained, it may have bulk or surface locations with quite different stability properties. The surface-located doublet (generated on the nail edges during cutting or clipping) is quite unstable and decays over about two hours for samples stored at ambient conditions and within several seconds for samples immersed in water. The volume-distributed doublet decays within a few minutes in water, several hours at ambient conditions and several days in vacuum. The anisotropic signal may also be generated by both ionizing radiation and mechanical stress; this signal is quite stable in vacuum and decays over several days at ambient conditions or a few tens of minutes in water. The reference lines for the above-described three EPR signals were obtained and a procedure of spectra deconvolution was developed and tested on samples exposed to both

  19. Phantom with pulsatile arteries to investigate the influence of blood vessel depth on pulse oximeter signal strength.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stuban, Norbert; Niwayama, Masatsugu; Santha, Hunor

    2012-01-01

    This paper describes a three-layer head phantom with artificial pulsating arteries at five different depths (1.2 mm, 3.7 mm, 6.8 mm, 9.6 mm and 11.8 mm). The structure enables formation of spatially and temporally varying tissue properties similar to those of living tissues. In our experiment, pressure pulses were generated in the arteries by an electronically controlled pump. The physical and optical parameters of the layers and the liquid in the artificial arteries were similar to those of real tissues and blood. The amplitude of the pulsating component of the light returning from the phantom tissues was measured at each artery depth mentioned above. The build-up of the in-house-developed pulse oximeter used for performing the measurements and the physical layout of the measuring head are described. The radiant flux generated by the LED on the measuring head was measured to be 1.8 mW at 910 nm. The backscattered radiant flux was measured, and found to be 0.46 nW (0.26 ppm), 0.55 nW (0.31 ppm), and 0.18 nW (0.10 ppm) for the 1.2 mm, 3.7 mm and 6.8 mm arteries, respectively. In the case of the 9.6 mm and 11.8 mm arteries, useful measurement data were not obtained owing to weak signals. We simulated the phantom with the arteries at the above-mentioned five depths and at two additional ones (2.5 mm and 5.3 mm in depth) using the Monte Carlo method. The measurement results were verified by the simulation results. We concluded that in case of 11 mm source-detector separation the arteries at a depth of about 2.5 mm generate the strongest pulse oximeter signal level in a tissue system comprising three layers of thicknesses: 1.5 mm (skin), 5.0 mm (skull), and >50 mm (brain).

  20. Phantom with Pulsatile Arteries to Investigate the Influence of Blood Vessel Depth on Pulse Oximeter Signal Strength

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hunor Santha

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes a three-layer head phantom with artificial pulsating arteries at five different depths (1.2 mm, 3.7 mm, 6.8 mm, 9.6 mm and 11.8 mm. The structure enables formation of spatially and temporally varying tissue properties similar to those of living tissues. In our experiment, pressure pulses were generated in the arteries by an electronically controlled pump. The physical and optical parameters of the layers and the liquid in the artificial arteries were similar to those of real tissues and blood. The amplitude of the pulsating component of the light returning from the phantom tissues was measured at each artery depth mentioned above. The build-up of the in-house-developed pulse oximeter used for performing the measurements and the physical layout of the measuring head are described. The radiant flux generated by the LED on the measuring head was measured to be 1.8 mW at 910 nm. The backscattered radiant flux was measured, and found to be 0.46 nW (0.26 ppm, 0.55 nW (0.31 ppm, and 0.18 nW (0.10 ppm for the 1.2 mm, 3.7 mm and 6.8 mm arteries, respectively. In the case of the 9.6 mm and 11.8 mm arteries, useful measurement data were not obtained owing to weak signals. We simulated the phantom with the arteries at the above-mentioned five depths and at two additional ones (2.5 mm and 5.3 mm in depth using the Monte Carlo method. The measurement results were verified by the simulation results. We concluded that in case of 11 mm source-detector separation the arteries at a depth of about 2.5 mm generate the strongest pulse oximeter signal level in a tissue system comprising three layers of thicknesses: 1.5 mm (skin, 5.0 mm (skull, and > 50 mm (brain.

  1. A portable system for acquiring and removing motion artefact from ECG signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Griffiths, A.; Das, A.; Fernandes, B.; Gaydecki, P.

    2007-07-01

    A novel electrocardiograph (ECG) signal acquisition and display system is under development. It is designed for patients ranging from the elderly to athletes. The signals are obtained from electrodes integrated into a vest, amplified, digitally processed and transmitted via Bluetooth to a PC with a Labview ® interface. Digital signal processing is performed to remove movement artefact and electromyographic (EMG) noise, which severely distorts signal morphology and complicates clinical diagnosis. Independent component analysis (ICA) is also used to improve the signal quality. The complete system will integrate the electronics into a single module which will be embedded in the vest.

  2. A portable system for acquiring and removing motion artefact from ECG signals

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Griffiths, A; Das, A; Fernandes, B; Gaydecki, P [School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Manchester, PO Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD (United Kingdom)

    2007-07-15

    A novel electrocardiograph (ECG) signal acquisition and display system is under development. It is designed for patients ranging from the elderly to athletes. The signals are obtained from electrodes integrated into a vest, amplified, digitally processed and transmitted via Bluetooth to a PC with a Labview (registered) interface. Digital signal processing is performed to remove movement artefact and electromyographic (EMG) noise, which severely distorts signal morphology and complicates clinical diagnosis. Independent component analysis (ICA) is also used to improve the signal quality. The complete system will integrate the electronics into a single module which will be embedded in the ves000.

  3. Compressive Sampling of EEG Signals with Finite Rate of Innovation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Poh Kok-Kiong

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Analyses of electroencephalographic signals and subsequent diagnoses can only be done effectively on long term recordings that preserve the signals' morphologies. Currently, electroencephalographic signals are obtained at Nyquist rate or higher, thus introducing redundancies. Existing compression methods remove these redundancies, thereby achieving compression. We propose an alternative compression scheme based on a sampling theory developed for signals with a finite rate of innovation (FRI which compresses electroencephalographic signals during acquisition. We model the signals as FRI signals and then sample them at their rate of innovation. The signals are thus effectively represented by a small set of Fourier coefficients corresponding to the signals' rate of innovation. Using the FRI theory, original signals can be reconstructed using this set of coefficients. Seventy-two hours of electroencephalographic recording are tested and results based on metrices used in compression literature and morphological similarities of electroencephalographic signals are presented. The proposed method achieves results comparable to that of wavelet compression methods, achieving low reconstruction errors while preserving the morphologiies of the signals. More importantly, it introduces a new framework to acquire electroencephalographic signals at their rate of innovation, thus entailing a less costly low-rate sampling device that does not waste precious computational resources.

  4. Signal quality enhancement using higher order wavelets for ultrasonic TOFD signals from austenitic stainless steel welds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Praveen, Angam; Vijayarekha, K; Abraham, Saju T; Venkatraman, B

    2013-09-01

    Time of flight diffraction (TOFD) technique is a well-developed ultrasonic non-destructive testing (NDT) method and has been applied successfully for accurate sizing of defects in metallic materials. This technique was developed in early 1970s as a means for accurate sizing and positioning of cracks in nuclear components became very popular in the late 1990s and is today being widely used in various industries for weld inspection. One of the main advantages of TOFD is that, apart from fast technique, it provides higher probability of detection for linear defects. Since TOFD is based on diffraction of sound waves from the extremities of the defect compared to reflection from planar faces as in pulse echo and phased array, the resultant signal would be quite weak and signal to noise ratio (SNR) low. In many cases the defect signal is submerged in this noise making it difficult for detection, positioning and sizing. Several signal processing methods such as digital filtering, Split Spectrum Processing (SSP), Hilbert Transform and Correlation techniques have been developed in order to suppress unwanted noise and enhance the quality of the defect signal which can thus be used for characterization of defects and the material. Wavelet Transform based thresholding techniques have been applied largely for de-noising of ultrasonic signals. However in this paper, higher order wavelets are used for analyzing the de-noising performance for TOFD signals obtained from Austenitic Stainless Steel welds. It is observed that higher order wavelets give greater SNR improvement compared to the lower order wavelets. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Evolutionary Interactions Between Visual and Chemical Signals: Chemosignals Compensate for the Loss of a Visual Signal in Male Sceloporus Lizards.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pruett, Jake A; Zúñiga-Vega, J Jaime; Campos, Stephanie M; Soini, Helena A; Novotny, Milos V; Vital-García, Cuauhcihuatl; Martins, Emília P; Hews, Diana K

    2016-11-01

    Animals rely on multimodal signals to obtain information from conspecifics through alternative sensory systems, and the evolutionary loss of a signal in one modality may lead to compensation through increased use of signals in an alternative modality. We investigated associations between chemical signaling and evolutionary loss of abdominal color patches in males of four species (two plain-bellied and two colorful-bellied) of Sceloporus lizards. We conducted field trials to compare behavioral responses of male lizards to swabs with femoral gland (FG) secretions from conspecific males and control swabs (clean paper). We also analyzed the volatile organic compound (VOC) composition of male FG secretions by stir bar extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to test the hypothesis that loss of the visual signal is associated with elaboration of the chemical signal. Males of plain-bellied, but not colorful-bellied species exhibited different rates of visual displays when exposed to swabs of conspecific FG secretions relative to control swabs. The VOC composition of male Sceloporus FG secretions was similar across all four species, and no clear association between relative abundances of VOCs and evolutionary loss of abdominal color patches was observed. The emerging pattern is that behavioral responses to conspecific chemical signals are species- and context-specific in male Sceloporus, and compensatory changes in receivers, but not signalers may be involved in mediating increased responsiveness to chemical signals in males of plain-bellied species.

  6. A Sparse Modulation Signal Bispectrum Analysis Method for Rolling Element Bearing Diagnosis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guangbin Wang

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Modulation signal bispectrum (MSB analysis is an effective method to obtain the fault frequency for rolling bearing, but harmonics make fault frequency dense and even frequency aliasing. Carrier frequency of bearing is generally determined by its structure and inherent characteristics and changes with the increase of the damage degree, so it is hard to be accurately found. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a sparse modulation signal bispectrum analysis method. Firstly the vibration signal is demodulated by MSB analysis and its bispectrum is obtained. After the frequency domain filtering, the carrier frequency is computed based on the characteristics of energy concentration at the carrier frequency on MSB. By shift-frequency MSB (SF-MSB, the carrier frequency is moved to the coordinate origin, the entire MSB is shifted for the same distance, and SF-MSB is obtained. At last, the bispectrum is shifted to the frequency zero point and diagonal slices are performed to obtain a sparse representation of MSB. Experimental results show that sparse MSB (S-MSB method can not only eliminate the interference of harmonic frequency, but also make the extracted characteristic frequency of fault more obvious.

  7. Fractal characterization for noise signal validation in power reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aguilar Martinez, Omar

    2003-01-01

    Up to now, a great variety of methods is used for the dynamical characterization of different components of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). With this aim, time and spectral analysis are usually considered, and different tools of non-stationary and non-gaussian analysis are also presented. When applying non-lineal dynamics theory for noise signal validation purposes in power reactors, the extraction of fractal echoes plays a main role. Fractal characterization for noise signal validation purposes can be integrated to the task of processing and acquisition of time signals in noise (fluctuation parameters) analysis systems. The possibility of discrimination between deterministic chaotic signals and pure noise signals has been incorporated, as a complement; to noise signals analysis in normal and anomalous operational conditions in NPPs using a fractal approach. In this work the detailed analysis of a neutronic sensor response is considered and the fractal characterization of its dynamics state (i.e. sensor line) for noise signal classification, it is presented. The experiment from where the time series (signals) were obtained, was carried out at the Research Reactor of the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary, during a model experiment for ageing process study of in-core neutron detectors (author)

  8. Research on the Wire Network Signal Prediction Based on the Improved NNARX Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Zipeng; Fan, Tao; Wang, Shuqing

    It is difficult to obtain accurately the wire net signal of power system's high voltage power transmission lines in the process of monitoring and repairing. In order to solve this problem, the signal measured in remote substation or laboratory is employed to make multipoint prediction to gain the needed data. But, the obtained power grid frequency signal is delay. In order to solve the problem, an improved NNARX network which can predict frequency signal based on multi-point data collected by remote substation PMU is describes in this paper. As the error curved surface of the NNARX network is more complicated, this paper uses L-M algorithm to train the network. The result of the simulation shows that the NNARX network has preferable predication performance which provides accurate real time data for field testing and maintenance.

  9. Signal analysis of acoustic and flow-induced vibrations of BWR main steam line

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Espinosa-Paredes, G., E-mail: gepe@xanum.uam.mx [División de Ciencias Básicas e Ingeniería, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, México, D.F. 09340 (Mexico); Prieto-Guerrero, A. [División de Ciencias Básicas e Ingeniería, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, México, D.F. 09340 (Mexico); Núñez-Carrera, A. [Comisión Nacional de Seguridad Nuclear y Salvaguardias, Doctor Barragán 779, Col. Narvarte, México, D.F. 03020 (Mexico); Vázquez-Rodríguez, A. [División de Ciencias Básicas e Ingeniería, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, México, D.F. 09340 (Mexico); Centeno-Pérez, J. [Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Escuela Superior de Física y Matemáticas Unidad Profesional “Adolfo López Mateos”, Av. IPN, s/n, México, D.F. 07738 (Mexico); Espinosa-Martínez, E.-G. [Departamento de Sistemas Energéticos, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D.F. 04510 (Mexico); and others

    2016-05-15

    Highlights: • Acoustic and flow-induced vibrations of BWR are analyzed. • BWR performance after extended power uprate is considered. • Effect of acoustic side branches (ASB) is analyzed. • The ASB represents a reduction in the acoustic loads to the steam dryer. • Methodology developed for simultaneous analyzing the signals in the MSL. - Abstract: The aim of this work is the signal analysis of acoustic waves due to phenomenon known as singing in Safety Relief Valves (SRV) of the main steam lines (MSL) in a typical BWR5. The acoustic resonance in SRV standpipes and fluctuating pressure is propagated from SRV to the dryer through the MSL. The signals are analyzed with a novel method based on the Multivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition (M-EMD). The M-EMD algorithm has the potential to find common oscillatory modes (IMF) within multivariate data. Based on this fact, we implement the M-EMD technique to find the oscillatory mode in BWR considering the measurements obtained collected by the strain gauges located around the MSL. These IMF, analyzed simultaneously in time, allow obtaining an estimation of the effects of the multiple-SRV in the MSL. Two scenarios are analyzed: the first is the signal obtained before the installation of the acoustic dampers (ASB), and the second, the signal obtained after installation. The results show the effectiveness of the ASB to damp the strong resonances when the steam flow increases, which represents an important reduction in the acoustic loads to the steam dryer.

  10. Signal analysis of acoustic and flow-induced vibrations of BWR main steam line

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Espinosa-Paredes, G.; Prieto-Guerrero, A.; Núñez-Carrera, A.; Vázquez-Rodríguez, A.; Centeno-Pérez, J.; Espinosa-Martínez, E.-G.

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • Acoustic and flow-induced vibrations of BWR are analyzed. • BWR performance after extended power uprate is considered. • Effect of acoustic side branches (ASB) is analyzed. • The ASB represents a reduction in the acoustic loads to the steam dryer. • Methodology developed for simultaneous analyzing the signals in the MSL. - Abstract: The aim of this work is the signal analysis of acoustic waves due to phenomenon known as singing in Safety Relief Valves (SRV) of the main steam lines (MSL) in a typical BWR5. The acoustic resonance in SRV standpipes and fluctuating pressure is propagated from SRV to the dryer through the MSL. The signals are analyzed with a novel method based on the Multivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition (M-EMD). The M-EMD algorithm has the potential to find common oscillatory modes (IMF) within multivariate data. Based on this fact, we implement the M-EMD technique to find the oscillatory mode in BWR considering the measurements obtained collected by the strain gauges located around the MSL. These IMF, analyzed simultaneously in time, allow obtaining an estimation of the effects of the multiple-SRV in the MSL. Two scenarios are analyzed: the first is the signal obtained before the installation of the acoustic dampers (ASB), and the second, the signal obtained after installation. The results show the effectiveness of the ASB to damp the strong resonances when the steam flow increases, which represents an important reduction in the acoustic loads to the steam dryer.

  11. Deterministic ground motion modelling at Russe, NE Bulgaria, associated to the Vrancea intermediate-depth earthquakes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kouteva, M.; Paskaleva, I.; Panza, G.F.; Romanelli, F.

    2003-06-01

    An analytical deterministic technique, based on the detailed knowledge of the seismic source process and of the propagation of seismic waves, has been applied to generate synthetic seismic signals at Russe, NE Bulgaria, associated to the strongest intermediate-depth Vrancea earthquakes, which occurred during the last century (1940, 1977, 1986 and 1990). The obtained results show that all ground motion components contribute significantly to the seismic loading and that the seismic source parameters influence the shape and the amplitude of the seismic signal. The approach we used proves that realistic seismic input (also at remote distances) can be constructed via waveform modelling, considering all the possible factors influencing the ground motion. (author)

  12. Time-frequency analysis of phonocardiogram signals using wavelet transform: a comparative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ergen, Burhan; Tatar, Yetkin; Gulcur, Halil Ozcan

    2012-01-01

    Analysis of phonocardiogram (PCG) signals provides a non-invasive means to determine the abnormalities caused by cardiovascular system pathology. In general, time-frequency representation (TFR) methods are used to study the PCG signal because it is one of the non-stationary bio-signals. The continuous wavelet transform (CWT) is especially suitable for the analysis of non-stationary signals and to obtain the TFR, due to its high resolution, both in time and in frequency and has recently become a favourite tool. It decomposes a signal in terms of elementary contributions called wavelets, which are shifted and dilated copies of a fixed mother wavelet function, and yields a joint TFR. Although the basic characteristics of the wavelets are similar, each type of the wavelets produces a different TFR. In this study, eight real types of the most known wavelets are examined on typical PCG signals indicating heart abnormalities in order to determine the best wavelet to obtain a reliable TFR. For this purpose, the wavelet energy and frequency spectrum estimations based on the CWT and the spectra of the chosen wavelets were compared with the energy distribution and the autoregressive frequency spectra in order to determine the most suitable wavelet. The results show that Morlet wavelet is the most reliable wavelet for the time-frequency analysis of PCG signals.

  13. Signals and noise in measurements of low-frequency geomagnetic fields

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nichols, E.A.; Morrison, H.F.; Clarke, J.

    1988-01-01

    The apparent magnetic noise, obtained from the coherency function for two parallel magnetic sensors, generally overstimates sensor noise because the sensors do not measure the same signal. The different signals result from the nonparallel alignment of the sensors and from the additional magnetic signal induced in each sensor by its motion in the Earth's magnetic field. A magnetometer array experiment was completed in Grass Valley, Nevada, to determine the minimum magnetic signal that could be detected in the presence of background natural field variations and motion of the sensor. Superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometers with interval biaxial tiltmeters were used to record the magnetic fields and the motion of the sensors

  14. Digital signal processing for CdTe detectors using VXIbus data collection systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fukuda, Daiji; Takahashi, Hiroyuki; Kurahashi, Tomohiko; Iguchi, Tetsuo; Nakazawa, Masaharu

    1996-07-01

    Recently fast signal digitizing technique has been developed, and signal waveforms with very short time periods can be obtained. In this paper, we analyzed each measured pulse which was digitized by an apparatus of this kind, and tried to improve an energy resolution of a CdTe semiconductor detector. The result of the energy resolution for {sup 137}Cs 662 keV photopeak was 13 keV. Also, we developed a fast data collection system based on VXIbus standard, and the counting rate on this system was obtained about 50 counts per second. (author)

  15. Some properties of orders generated by uninorm and 2-uninorm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Umit Ertugrul

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, the order definition obtained from uninorm has been reorganized and some features have been examined in this way. Order-weakest uninorm and order-strongest uninorm was determined. Using the notions of order-weakest uninorm and order-strongest uninorm, order-weakest 2-uninorm and order-strongest 2-uninorm was also determined. A way to obtain partially ordered relation via orders obtained from uninorms on subinterval of bounded lattice is given. The relation between the order obtained 2-uninorm and this new construction method is investigated.

  16. Prioritizing Signaling Information Transmission in Next Generation Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jasmina Baraković

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Next generation transport network is characterized by the use of in-band signaling, where Internet Protocol (IP packets carrying signaling or media information are mixed in transmission. Since transport resources are limited, when any segment of access or core network is congested, IP packets carrying signaling information may be discarded. As a consequence, it may be impossible to implement reachability and quality of service (QoS. Since present approaches are insufficient to completely address this problem, a novel approach is proposed, which is based on prioritizing signaling information transmission. To proof the concept, a simulation study was performed using Network Simulator version 2 (ns-2 and independently developed Session Initiation Protocol (SIP module. The obtained results were statistically processed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 15.0. Summarizing our research results, several issues are identified for future work.

  17. Method for Estimating the Parameters of LFM Radar Signal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tan Chuan-Zhang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In order to obtain reliable estimate of parameters, it is very important to protect the integrality of linear frequency modulation (LFM signal. Therefore, in the practical LFM radar signal processing, the length of data frame is often greater than the pulse width (PW of signal. In this condition, estimating the parameters by fractional Fourier transform (FrFT will cause the signal to noise ratio (SNR decrease. Aiming at this problem, we multiply the data frame by a Gaussian window to improve the SNR. Besides, for a further improvement of parameters estimation precision, a novel algorithm is derived via Lagrange interpolation polynomial, and we enhance the algorithm by a logarithmic transformation. Simulation results demonstrate that the derived algorithm significantly reduces the estimation errors of chirp-rate and initial frequency.

  18. 4D MR imaging using robust internal respiratory signal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hui, CheukKai; Wen, Zhifei; Beddar, Sam; Stemkens, Bjorn; Tijssen, R H N; Van den Berg, C A T; Hwang, Ken-Pin

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to investigate the feasibility of using internal respiratory (IR) surrogates to sort four-dimensional (4D) magnetic resonance (MR) images. The 4D MR images were constructed by acquiring fast 2D cine MR images sequentially, with each slice scanned for more than one breathing cycle. The 4D volume was then sorted retrospectively using the IR signal. In this study, we propose to use multiple low-frequency components in the Fourier space as well as the anterior body boundary as potential IR surrogates. From these potential IR surrogates, we used a clustering algorithm to identify those that best represented the respiratory pattern to derive the IR signal. A study with healthy volunteers was performed to assess the feasibility of the proposed IR signal. We compared this proposed IR signal with the respiratory signal obtained using respiratory bellows. Overall, 99% of the IR signals matched the bellows signals. The average difference between the end inspiration times in the IR signal and bellows signal was 0.18 s in this cohort of matching signals. For the acquired images corresponding to the other 1% of non-matching signal pairs, the respiratory motion shown in the images was coherent with the respiratory phases determined by the IR signal, but not the bellows signal. This suggested that the IR signal determined by the proposed method could potentially correct the faulty bellows signal. The sorted 4D images showed minimal mismatched artefacts and potential clinical applicability. The proposed IR signal therefore provides a feasible alternative to effectively sort MR images in 4D. (paper)

  19. Variable reflectivity signal mirrors and signal response measurements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vine, Glenn de; Shaddock, Daniel A; McClelland, David E

    2002-01-01

    Future gravitational wave detectors will include some form of signal mirror in order to alter the signal response of the device. We introduce interferometer configurations which utilize a variable reflectivity signal mirror allowing a tunable peak frequency and variable signal bandwidth. A detector configured with a Fabry-Perot cavity as the signal mirror is compared theoretically with one using a Michelson interferometer for a signal mirror. A system for the measurement of the interferometer signal responses is introduced. This technique is applied to a power-recycled Michelson interferometer with resonant sideband extraction. We present broadband measurements of the benchtop prototype's signal response for a range of signal cavity detunings. This technique is also applicable to most other gravitational wave detector configurations

  20. Variable reflectivity signal mirrors and signal response measurements

    CERN Document Server

    Vine, G D; McClelland, D E

    2002-01-01

    Future gravitational wave detectors will include some form of signal mirror in order to alter the signal response of the device. We introduce interferometer configurations which utilize a variable reflectivity signal mirror allowing a tunable peak frequency and variable signal bandwidth. A detector configured with a Fabry-Perot cavity as the signal mirror is compared theoretically with one using a Michelson interferometer for a signal mirror. A system for the measurement of the interferometer signal responses is introduced. This technique is applied to a power-recycled Michelson interferometer with resonant sideband extraction. We present broadband measurements of the benchtop prototype's signal response for a range of signal cavity detunings. This technique is also applicable to most other gravitational wave detector configurations.

  1. Preferred sensor sites for surface EMG signal decomposition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zaheer, Farah; Roy, Serge H; De Luca, Carlo J

    2012-01-01

    Technologies for decomposing the electromyographic (EMG) signal into its constituent motor unit action potential trains have become more practical by the advent of a non-invasive methodology using surface EMG (sEMG) sensors placed on the skin above the muscle of interest (De Luca et al 2006 J. Neurophysiol. 96 1646–57 and Nawab et al 2010 Clin. Neurophysiol. 121 1602–15). This advancement has widespread appeal among researchers and clinicians because of the ease of use, reduced risk of infection, and the greater number of motor unit action potential trains obtained compared to needle sensor techniques. In this study we investigated the influence of the sensor site on the number of identified motor unit action potential trains in six lower limb muscles and one upper limb muscle with the intent of locating preferred sensor sites that provided the greatest number of decomposed motor unit action potential trains, or motor unit yield. Sensor sites rendered varying motor unit yields throughout the surface of a muscle. The preferred sites were located between the center and the tendinous areas of the muscle. The motor unit yield was positively correlated with the signal-to-noise ratio of the detected sEMG. The signal-to-noise ratio was inversely related to the thickness of the tissue between the sensor and the muscle fibers. A signal-to-noise ratio of 3 was found to be the minimum required to obtain a reliable motor unit yield. (paper)

  2. Balanced detection for self-mixing interferometry to improve signal-to-noise ratio

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Changming; Norgia, Michele; Li, Kun

    2018-01-01

    We apply balanced detection to self-mixing interferometry for displacement and vibration measurement, using two photodiodes for implementing a differential acquisition. The method is based on the phase opposition of the self-mixing signal measured between the two laser diode facet outputs. The balanced signal obtained by enlarging the self-mixing signal, also by canceling of the common-due noises mainly due to disturbances on laser supply and transimpedance amplifier. Experimental results demonstrate the signal-to-noise ratio significantly improves, with almost twice signals enhancement and more than half noise decreasing. This method allows for more robust, longer-distance measurement systems, especially using fringe-counting.

  3. Sparsely corrupted stimulated scattering signals recovery by iterative reweighted continuous basis pursuit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, Kunpeng; Chai, Yi [College of Automation, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044 (China); Su, Chunxiao [Research Center of Laser Fusion, CAEP, P. O. Box 919-983, Mianyang 621900 (China)

    2013-08-15

    In this paper, we consider the problem of extracting the desired signals from noisy measurements. This is a classical problem of signal recovery which is of paramount importance in inertial confinement fusion. To accomplish this task, we develop a tractable algorithm based on continuous basis pursuit and reweighted ℓ{sub 1}-minimization. By modeling the observed signals as superposition of scale time-shifted copies of theoretical waveform, structured noise, and unstructured noise on a finite time interval, a sparse optimization problem is obtained. We propose to solve this problem through an iterative procedure that alternates between convex optimization to estimate the amplitude, and local optimization to estimate the dictionary. The performance of the method was evaluated both numerically and experimentally. Numerically, we recovered theoretical signals embedded in increasing amounts of unstructured noise and compared the results with those obtained through popular denoising methods. We also applied the proposed method to a set of actual experimental data acquired from the Shenguang-II laser whose energy was below the detector noise-equivalent energy. Both simulation and experiments show that the proposed method improves the signal recovery performance and extends the dynamic detection range of detectors.

  4. The application of empirical mode decomposition for the enhancement of cardiotocograph signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krupa, B N; Mohd Ali, M A; Zahedi, E

    2009-01-01

    Cardiotocograph (CTG) is widely used in everyday clinical practice for fetal surveillance, where it is used to record fetal heart rate (FHR) and uterine activity (UA). These two biosignals can be used for antepartum and intrapartum fetal monitoring and are, in fact, nonlinear and non-stationary. CTG recordings are often corrupted by artifacts such as missing beats in FHR, high-frequency noise in FHR and UA signals. In this paper, an empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method is applied on CTG signals. A recursive algorithm is first utilized to eliminate missing beats. High-frequency noise is reduced using EMD followed by the partial reconstruction (PAR) method, where the noise order is identified by a statistical method. The obtained signal enhancement from the proposed method is validated by comparing the resulting traces with the output obtained by applying classical signal processing methods such as Butterworth low-pass filtering, linear interpolation and a moving average filter on 12 CTG signals. Three obstetricians evaluated all 12 sets of traces and rated the proposed method, on average, 3.8 out of 5 on a scale of 1(lowest) to 5 (highest)

  5. Improving the Molecular Ion Signal Intensity for In Situ Liquid SIMS Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Yufan; Yao, Juan; Ding, Yuanzhao; Yu, Jiachao; Hua, Xin; Evans, James E; Yu, Xiaofei; Lao, David B; Heldebrant, David J; Nune, Satish K; Cao, Bin; Bowden, Mark E; Yu, Xiao-Ying; Wang, Xue-Lin; Zhu, Zihua

    2016-12-01

    In situ liquid secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) enabled by system for analysis at the liquid vacuum interface (SALVI) has proven to be a promising new tool to provide molecular information at solid-liquid and liquid-vacuum interfaces. However, the initial data showed that useful signals in positive ion spectra are too weak to be meaningful in most cases. In addition, it is difficult to obtain strong negative molecular ion signals when m/z>200. These two drawbacks have been the biggest obstacle towards practical use of this new analytical approach. In this study, we report that strong and reliable positive and negative molecular signals are achievable after optimizing the SIMS experimental conditions. Four model systems, including a 1,8-diazabicycloundec-7-ene (DBU)-base switchable ionic liquid, a live Shewanella oneidensis biofilm, a hydrated mammalian epithelia cell, and an electrolyte popularly used in Li ion batteries were studied. A signal enhancement of about two orders of magnitude was obtained in comparison with non-optimized conditions. Therefore, molecular ion signal intensity has become very acceptable for use of in situ liquid SIMS to study solid-liquid and liquid-vacuum interfaces. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

  6. Sparsely corrupted stimulated scattering signals recovery by iterative reweighted continuous basis pursuit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Kunpeng; Chai, Yi; Su, Chunxiao

    2013-01-01

    In this paper, we consider the problem of extracting the desired signals from noisy measurements. This is a classical problem of signal recovery which is of paramount importance in inertial confinement fusion. To accomplish this task, we develop a tractable algorithm based on continuous basis pursuit and reweighted ℓ 1 -minimization. By modeling the observed signals as superposition of scale time-shifted copies of theoretical waveform, structured noise, and unstructured noise on a finite time interval, a sparse optimization problem is obtained. We propose to solve this problem through an iterative procedure that alternates between convex optimization to estimate the amplitude, and local optimization to estimate the dictionary. The performance of the method was evaluated both numerically and experimentally. Numerically, we recovered theoretical signals embedded in increasing amounts of unstructured noise and compared the results with those obtained through popular denoising methods. We also applied the proposed method to a set of actual experimental data acquired from the Shenguang-II laser whose energy was below the detector noise-equivalent energy. Both simulation and experiments show that the proposed method improves the signal recovery performance and extends the dynamic detection range of detectors

  7. Contactless physiological signals extraction based on skin color magnification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suh, Kun Ha; Lee, Eui Chul

    2017-11-01

    Although the human visual system is not sufficiently sensitive to perceive blood circulation, blood flow caused by cardiac activity makes slight changes on human skin surfaces. With advances in imaging technology, it has become possible to capture these changes through digital cameras. However, it is difficult to obtain clear physiological signals from such changes due to its fineness and noise factors, such as motion artifacts and camera sensing disturbances. We propose a method for extracting physiological signals with improved quality from skin colored-videos recorded with a remote RGB camera. The results showed that our skin color magnification method reveals the hidden physiological components remarkably in the time-series signal. A Korea Food and Drug Administration-approved heart rate monitor was used for verifying the resulting signal synchronized with the actual cardiac pulse, and comparisons of signal peaks showed correlation coefficients of almost 1.0. In particular, our method can be an effective preprocessing before applying additional postfiltering techniques to improve accuracy in image-based physiological signal extractions.

  8. The response of a linear monostable system and its application in parameters estimation for PSK signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Duan, Chaowei; Zhan, Yafeng

    2016-01-01

    The output characteristics of a linear monostable system driven with a periodic signal and an additive white Gaussian noise are studied in this paper. Theoretical analysis shows that the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) decreases monotonously with the increasing noise intensity but the output SNR-gain is stable. Inspired by this high SNR-gain phenomenon, this paper applies the linear monostable system in the parameters estimation algorithm for phase shift keying (PSK) signals and improves the estimation performance. - Highlights: • The response of a linear monostable system driven with a periodic signal and an additive white Gaussian noise is analyzed. • The optimal parameter of this linear monostable system to maximum the output SNR-gain is obtained. • Application of this linear monostable system in parameters estimation algorithm for PSK signals obtains performance improvement.

  9. On the uncertainty inequality as applied to discrete signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. V. Venkatesh

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available Given a continuous-time bandlimited signal, the Shannon sampling theorem provides an interpolation scheme for exactly reconstructing it from its discrete samples. We analyze the relationship between concentration (or compactness in the temporal/spectral domains of the (i continuous-time and (ii discrete-time signals. The former is governed by the Heisenberg uncertainty inequality which prescribes a lower bound on the product of effective temporal and spectral spreads of the signal. On the other hand, the discrete-time counterpart seems to exhibit some strange properties, and this provides motivation for the present paper. We consider the following problem: for a bandlimited signal, can the uncertainty inequality be expressed in terms of the samples, using thestandard definitions of the temporal and spectral spreads of the signal? In contrast with the results of the literature, we present a new approach to solve this problem. We also present a comparison of the results obtained using the proposed definitions with those available in the literature.

  10. Locally-adaptive Myriad Filters for Processing ECG Signals in Real Time

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nataliya Tulyakova

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The locally adaptive myriad filters to suppress noise in electrocardiographic (ECG signals in almost in real time are proposed. Statistical estimates of efficiency according to integral values of such criteria as mean square error (MSE and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR for the test ECG signals sampled at 400 Hz embedded in additive Gaussian noise with different values of variance are obtained. Comparative analysis of adaptive filters is carried out. High efficiency of ECG filtering and high quality of signal preservation are demonstrated. It is shown that locally adaptive myriad filters provide higher degree of suppressing additive Gaussian noise with possibility of real time implementation.

  11. Hemoglobin to Hematocrit Ratio: The Strongest Predictor of Femoral Head Osteonecrosis in Children With Sickle Cell Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Worrall, Douglas; Smith-Whitley, Kim; Wells, Lawrence

    2016-03-01

    Femoral head osteonecrosis (ON) secondary to sickle cell disease (SCD) often progresses to femoral head collapse, requiring total hip arthroplasty. However, this treatment has a limited durability and patients with SCD have higher rates of complications, requiring multiple revision operations. Identifying risk factors linked to ON in SCD can facilitate earlier precollapse diagnosis and surgical treatment aimed at preservation of the native hip joint. Fifty-nine children treated at our institution between January 2001 and April 2012 with SCD and ON, as diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging or radiographic imaging, were compared with age-matched and sickle cell phenotype-matched (SS, SC, Sβ, Sβ) controls with no evidence of ON. Two sided t-tests assuming unequal variances determined statistically risk factors and threshold values were assigned to calculate odds ratios. Systolic blood pressure (P=1.2×10, OR=3.68), diastolic blood pressure (P=0.0084, OR=1.41), weight in the SCD-SS population (P=0.04, OR=1.85), and hemoglobin (Hb) in the SCD-SS population (P=0.036, OR=2.56) were elevated in cases. Curiously, dividing the Hb by the hematocrit to serve as a clinical proxy for the mean corpuscular Hb concentration (MCHC) produced an excellent predictor of ON (P=2.06×10, OR=5.17), which was especially pronounced in the SCD-SS subpopulation (P=2.28×10, OR=8.65). Among children with SCD, the overall prevalence of ON was 9% (59/658) and the phenotype with the highest prevalence of ON was Sβ thalassemia with an ON prevalence of 11.1%. There was no observed correlation between ON and height, body mass index, cholesterol, mean corpuscular volume, hematocrit, or glucocorticoid use. These data support a novel clinical marker, the MCHC proxy, as the strongest predictor of ON in children with SCD. High-risk children should receive hip magnetic resonance imaging to diagnose early ON and facilitate interventions focused on hip preservation, forestalling, or possibly preventing

  12. Measuring soil sydric content by the attenuation of a microwave signal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Orden, S.; Goldberg, M.; Landini, A.; Sainato, C.; Bottini, L.; Arrigo, N.

    1995-01-01

    Measuring soil water content by means of microwave signal attenuation. The attenuation of microwave signal was used to measure the moisture of various soils. Samples of three soils with different textures and organic matter contents were used. The attenuation of the transmitted electromagnetic signal was measured for each sample with different values of soil moisture. Linear regression models were used to fit the experimental values obtained, and the 95% prediction interval was estimated for the attenuation. From the comparison between the moisture values obtained with this method and those of the gravimetric method, the advantages of the first one are seen, both in speed and in the possibility to estimate the in situ moisture, even if this method has a greater relative error. This method would be useful to operate an automatic control irrigation system, preventing hydric stress when the values of soil moisture reach near field capacity. (author) [es

  13. Long-range gap junctional signaling controls oncogene-mediated tumorigenesis in Xenopus laevis embryos

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brook T Chernet

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available In addition to the immediate microenvironment, long-range signaling may be an important component of cancer. Molecular-genetic analyses have implicated gap junctions – key mediators of cell-cell communication – in carcinogenesis. We recently showed that the resting voltage potential of distant cell groups is a key determinant of metastatic transformation and tumor induction. Here, we show in the Xenopus laevis model that gap junctional communication (GJC is a modulator of the long-range bioelectric signaling that regulates tumor formation. Genetic disruption of GJC taking place within tumors, within remote host tissues, or between the host and tumors – significantly lowers the incidence of tumors induced by KRAS mutations. The most pronounced suppression of tumor incidence was observed upon GJC disruption taking place farther away from oncogene-expressing cells, revealing a role for GJC in distant cells in the control of tumor growth. In contrast, enhanced GJC communication through the overexpression of wild-type connexin Cx26 increased tumor incidence. Our data confirm a role for GJC in tumorigenesis, and reveal that this effect is non-local. Based on these results and on published data on movement of ions through GJs, we present a quantitative model linking the GJC coupling and bioelectrical state of cells to the ability of oncogenes to initiate tumorigenesis. When integrated with data on endogenous bioelectric signaling during left-right patterning, the model predicts differential tumor incidence outcomes depending on the spatial configurations of gap junction paths relative to tumor location and major anatomical body axes. Testing these predictions, we found that the strongest influence of GJ modulation on tumor suppression by hyperpolarization occurred along the embryonic left-right axis. Together, these data reveal new, long-range aspects of cancer control by the host’s physiological parameters.

  14. Devices for obtaining information about radiation sources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tosswill, C.H.

    1981-01-01

    The invention provides a sensitive, fast high-resolution device for obtaining information about the distribution of gamma and X-radiation sources and provides a radiation detector useful in such a device. It comprises a slit collimator with a multiplicity of slits each with slit-defining walls of material and thickness to absorb beam components impinging on them. The slits extend further in one direction than the other. The detector for separately detecting beam components passing through the slits also provides data output signals. It comprises a plurality of radiation transducing portions which are not photoconductor elements each at the end of a slit. A positioner operates to change the transverse position of the slits and radiation transducing portions relative to the source, wherein each radiation transducing element is positioned within its respective slit between the slit defining walls. Full details and preferred embodiments are given. (U.K.)

  15. A Computer- Based Digital Signal Processing for Nuclear Scintillator Detectors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ashour, M.A.; Abo Shosha, A.M.

    2000-01-01

    In this paper, a Digital Signal Processing (DSP) Computer-based system for the nuclear scintillation signals with exponential decay is presented. The main objective of this work is to identify the characteristics of the acquired signals smoothly, this can be done by transferring the signal environment from random signal domain to deterministic domain using digital manipulation techniques. The proposed system consists of two major parts. The first part is the high performance data acquisition system (DAQ) that depends on a multi-channel Logic Scope. Which is interfaced with the host computer through the General Purpose Interface Board (GPIB) Ver. IEEE 488.2. Also, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) has been designed for this purpose using the graphical programming facilities. The second of the system is the DSP software Algorithm which analyses, demonstrates, monitoring these data to obtain the main characteristics of the acquired signals; the amplitude, the pulse count, the pulse width, decay factor, and the arrival time

  16. Simulation-based robust optimization for signal timing and setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-12-30

    The performance of signal timing plans obtained from traditional approaches for : pre-timed (fixed-time or actuated) control systems is often unstable under fluctuating traffic : conditions. This report develops a general approach for optimizing the ...

  17. An implementation of signal processing algorithms for ultrasonic NDE

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ericsson, L.; Stepinski, T.

    1994-01-01

    Probability of detection flaws during ultrasonic pulse-echo inspection is often limited by the presence of backscattered echoes from the material structure. A digital signal processing technique for removal of this material noise, referred to as split spectrum processing (SSP), has been developed and verified using laboratory experiments during the last decade. The authors have performed recently a limited scale evaluation of various SSP techniques for ultrasonic signals acquired during the inspection of welds in austenitic steel. They have obtained very encouraging results that indicate promising capabilities of the SSP for inspection of nuclear power plants. Thus, a more extensive investigation of the technique using large amounts of ultrasonic data is motivated. This analysis should employ different combinations of materials, flaws and transducers. Due to the considerable number of ultrasonic signals required to verify the technique for future practical use, a custom-made computer software is necessary. At the request of the Swedish nuclear power industry the authors have developed such a program package. The program provides a user-friendly graphical interface and is intended for processing of B-scan data in a flexible way. Assembled in the program are a number of signal processing algorithms including traditional Split Spectrum Processing and the more recent Cut Spectrum Processing algorithm developed by them. The program and some results obtained using the various algorithms are presented in the paper

  18. How common is within-plant signaling via volatiles?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Tao; Blande, James D

    2017-08-03

    Many plants respond to herbivory by releasing a complex blend of volatiles that may differ from that emitted by intact counterparts. These herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPV) mediate many interactions among plants and their community members, including alerting undamaged leaves of the attacked or neighboring plants to impending danger. It has been postulated that HIPVs evolved for within-plant signaling and that other organisms subsequently evolved to use them. However, only 7 studies have reported HIPV-mediated within-plant signaling, most conducted in the laboratory or greenhouse. This leaves open the ecological relevance and evolutionary underpinning of the phenomenon. We recently observed within-plant signaling in hybrid aspen under laboratory and field conditions. Greenhouse experiments showed that HIPVs mediated the process. While our study adds an aspen hybrid to the list of plants in which within-plant signaling has been demonstrated, we lack understanding of how common the process is and whether plants obtain fitness benefits.

  19. GAMMA BAND PLASTICITY IN SENSORY CORTEX IS A SIGNATURE OF THE STRONGEST MEMORY RATHER THAN MEMORY OF THE TRAINING STIMULUS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weinberger, Norman M.; Miasnikov, Alexandre A.; Bieszczad, Kasia M.; Chen, Jemmy C.

    2013-01-01

    Gamma oscillations (~30–120 Hz) are considered to be a reflection of coordinated neuronal activity, linked to processes underlying synaptic integration and plasticity. Increases in gamma power within the cerebral cortex have been found during many cognitive processes such as attention, learning, memory and problem solving in both humans and animals. However, the specificity of gamma to the detailed contents of memory remains largely unknown. We investigated the relationship between learning-induced increased gamma power in the primary auditory cortex (A1) and the strength of memory for acoustic frequency. Adult male rats (n = 16) received three days (200 trials each) of pairing a tone (3.66 kHz) with stimulation of the nucleus basalis, which implanted a memory for acoustic frequency as assessed by associatively-induced disruption of ongoing behavior, viz., respiration. Post-training frequency generalization gradients (FGGs) revealed peaks at non-CS frequencies in 11/16 cases, likely reflecting normal variation in pre-training acoustic experiences. A stronger relationship was found between increased gamma power and the frequency with the strongest memory (peak of the difference between individual post- and pre-training FGGs) vs. behavioral responses to the CS training frequency. No such relationship was found for the theta/alpha band (4–15 Hz). These findings indicate that the strength of specific increased neuronal synchronization within primary sensory cortical fields can determine the specific contents of memory. PMID:23669065

  20. Gamma band plasticity in sensory cortex is a signature of the strongest memory rather than memory of the training stimulus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weinberger, Norman M; Miasnikov, Alexandre A; Bieszczad, Kasia M; Chen, Jemmy C

    2013-09-01

    Gamma oscillations (∼30-120Hz) are considered to be a reflection of coordinated neuronal activity, linked to processes underlying synaptic integration and plasticity. Increases in gamma power within the cerebral cortex have been found during many cognitive processes such as attention, learning, memory and problem solving in both humans and animals. However, the specificity of gamma to the detailed contents of memory remains largely unknown. We investigated the relationship between learning-induced increased gamma power in the primary auditory cortex (A1) and the strength of memory for acoustic frequency. Adult male rats (n=16) received three days (200 trials each) of pairing a tone (3.66 kHz) with stimulation of the nucleus basalis, which implanted a memory for acoustic frequency as assessed by associatively-induced disruption of ongoing behavior, viz., respiration. Post-training frequency generalization gradients (FGGs) revealed peaks at non-CS frequencies in 11/16 cases, likely reflecting normal variation in pre-training acoustic experiences. A stronger relationship was found between increased gamma power and the frequency with the strongest memory (peak of the difference between individual post- and pre-training FGGs) vs. behavioral responses to the CS training frequency. No such relationship was found for the theta/alpha band (4-15 Hz). These findings indicate that the strength of specific increased neuronal synchronization within primary sensory cortical fields can determine the specific contents of memory. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. a Signal-Tuned Gabor Transform with Application to Eeg Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torreão, José R. A.; Victer, Silvia M. C.; Fernandes, João L.

    2013-04-01

    We introduce a time-frequency transform based on Gabor functions whose parameters are given by the Fourier transform of the analyzed signal. At any given frequency, the width and the phase of the Gabor function are obtained, respectively, from the magnitude and the phase of the signal's corresponding Fourier component, yielding an analyzing kernel which is a representation of the signal's content at that particular frequency. The resulting Gabor transform tunes itself to the input signal, allowing the accurate detection of time and frequency events, even in situations where the traditional Gabor and S-transform approaches tend to fail. This is the case, for instance, when considering the time-frequency representation of electroencephalogram traces (EEG) of epileptic subjects, as illustrated by the experimental study presented here.

  2. Study of interhemispheric asymmetries in electroencephalographic signals by frequency analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zapata, J F; Garzon, J

    2011-01-01

    This study provides a new method for the detection of interhemispheric asymmetries in patients with continuous video-electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring at Intensive Care Unit (ICU), using wavelet energy. We obtained the registration of EEG signals in 42 patients with different pathologies, and then we proceeded to perform signal processing using the Matlab program, we compared the abnormalities recorded in the report by the neurophysiologist, the images of each patient and the result of signals analysis with the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). Conclusions: there exists correspondence between the abnormalities found in the processing of the signal with the clinical reports of findings in patients; according to previous conclusion, the methodology used can be a useful tool for diagnosis and early quantitative detection of interhemispheric asymmetries.

  3. Estimation of the Tool Condition by Applying the Wavelet Transform to Acoustic Emission Signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gomez, M. P.; Piotrkowski, R.; Ruzzante, J. E.; D'Attellis, C. E.

    2007-01-01

    This work follows the search of parameters to evaluate the tool condition in machining processes. The selected sensing technique is acoustic emission and it is applied to a turning process of steel samples. The obtained signals are studied using the wavelet transformation. The tool wear level is quantified as a percentage of the final wear specified by the Standard ISO 3685. The amplitude and relevant scale obtained of acoustic emission signals could be related with the wear level

  4. Effect of the crystallinity in the Tl signal induced by the gamma radiation in Al2O3: Eu obtained by the sol gel method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mendoza A, D.; Gonzalez M, P.R.; Custodio, E.; Rubio, E.; Rodriguez L, V.

    2004-01-01

    In this work the synthesis and characterization process of Al 2 O 3 and Al 2 O 3 : Eu by sol gel method is reported. A previous thermal treatment at 500 and 1000 C on the material powder type showed a notable influences on the thermoluminescent signal induced by the gamma radiation, such that the intensity thermoluminescent signal produced by samples with thermal treatment at 1000 C is much bigger that thermoluminescent signal produced by samples thermal treatment at 500 C. In order to explain this behavior, an analysis for X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy was also realized. The results show a notably influence of the crystalline array and the microstructure on the thermoluminescent behavior of the alumina. (Author)

  5. A low-cost biomedical signal transceiver based on a Bluetooth wireless system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fazel-Rezai, Reza; Pauls, Mark; Slawinski, David

    2007-01-01

    Most current wireless biomedical signal transceivers use range-limiting communication. This work presents a low-cost biomedical signal transceiver that uses Bluetooth wireless technology. The design is implemented in a modular form to be adaptable to different types of biomedical signals. The signal front end obtains and processes incoming signals, which are then transmitted via a microcontroller and wireless module. Near real-time receive software in LabVIEW was developed to demonstrate the system capability. The completed transmitter prototype successfully transmits ECG signals, and is able to simultaneously send multiple signals. The sampling rate of the transmitter is fast enough to send up to thirteen ECG signals simultaneously, with an error rate below 0.1% for transmission exceeding 65 meters. A low-cost wireless biomedical transceiver has many applications, such as real-time monitoring of patients with a known condition in non-clinical settings.

  6. Meteorological information in GPS-RO reflected signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Boniface

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Vertical profiles of the atmosphere can be obtained globally with the radio-occultation technique. However, the lowest layers of the atmosphere are less accurately extracted. A good description of these layers is important for the good performance of Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP systems, and an improvement of the observational data available for the low troposphere would thus be of great interest for data assimilation. We outline here how supplemental meteorological information close to the surface can be extracted whenever reflected signals are available. We separate the reflected signal through a radioholographic filter, and we interpret it with a ray tracing procedure, analyzing the trajectories of the electromagnetic waves over a 3-D field of refractive index. A perturbation approach is then used to perform an inversion, identifying the relevant contribution of the lowest layers of the atmosphere to the properties of the reflected signal, and extracting some supplemental information to the solution of the inversion of the direct propagation signals. It is found that there is a significant amount of useful information in the reflected signal, which is sufficient to extract a stand-alone profile of the low atmosphere, with a precision of approximately 0.1 %. The methodology is applied to one reflection case.

  7. Proteus mirabilis interkingdom swarming signals attract blow flies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flies transport specific bacteria with their larvae which provides a wider range of nutrients for those bacteria. Our hypothesis was that this symbiotic interaction may depend on interkingdom signaling. We obtained Proteus mirabilis from the salivary glands of the blow fly Lucilia sericat. This s...

  8. Quantitative measurement of intervertebral disc signal using MRI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Niemelaeinen, R.; Videman, T.; Dhillon, S.S.; Battie, M.C.

    2008-01-01

    Aim: To investigate the spinal cord as an alternative intra-body reference to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in evaluating thoracic disc signal intensity. Materials and methods: T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images of T6-T12 were obtained using 1.5 T machines for a population-based sample of 523 men aged 35-70 years. Quantitative data on the signal intensities were acquired using an image analysis program (SpEx (copy right) ). A random sample of 30 subjects and intraclass correlation coeffcients (ICC) were used to examine the repeatability of the spinal cord measurements. The validity of using the spinal cord as a reference was examined by correlating cord and CSF samples. Finally, thoracic disc signal was validated by correlating it with age without adjustment and adjusting for either cord or CSF. Pearson's r was used for correlational analyses. Results: The repeatability of the spinal cord signal measurements was extremely high (≥0.99). The correlations between the signals of spinal cord and CSF by level were all above 0.9. The spinal cord-adjusted disc signal and age correlated similarly with CSF-adjusted disc signal and age (r = -0.30 to -0.40 versus r = -0.26 to -0.36). Conclusion: Adjacent spinal cord is a good alternative reference to the current reference standard, CSF, for quantitative measurements of disc signal intensity. Clearly fewer levels were excluded when using spinal cord as compared to CSF due to missing reference samples

  9. Quantitative measurement of intervertebral disc signal using MRI

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Niemelaeinen, R. [Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton (Canada)], E-mail: riikka.niemelainen@ualberta.ca; Videman, T. [Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton (Canada); Dhillon, S.S. [Department of Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging, University of Alberta, Edmonton (Canada); Battie, M.C. [Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton (Canada)

    2008-03-15

    Aim: To investigate the spinal cord as an alternative intra-body reference to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in evaluating thoracic disc signal intensity. Materials and methods: T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images of T6-T12 were obtained using 1.5 T machines for a population-based sample of 523 men aged 35-70 years. Quantitative data on the signal intensities were acquired using an image analysis program (SpEx (copy right) ). A random sample of 30 subjects and intraclass correlation coeffcients (ICC) were used to examine the repeatability of the spinal cord measurements. The validity of using the spinal cord as a reference was examined by correlating cord and CSF samples. Finally, thoracic disc signal was validated by correlating it with age without adjustment and adjusting for either cord or CSF. Pearson's r was used for correlational analyses. Results: The repeatability of the spinal cord signal measurements was extremely high ({>=}0.99). The correlations between the signals of spinal cord and CSF by level were all above 0.9. The spinal cord-adjusted disc signal and age correlated similarly with CSF-adjusted disc signal and age (r = -0.30 to -0.40 versus r = -0.26 to -0.36). Conclusion: Adjacent spinal cord is a good alternative reference to the current reference standard, CSF, for quantitative measurements of disc signal intensity. Clearly fewer levels were excluded when using spinal cord as compared to CSF due to missing reference samples.

  10. Digital signal processing for He3 proportional counter

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zeynalov, Sh.S.; Ahmadov, Q.S.

    2010-01-01

    Full text : Data acquisition systems for nuclear spectroscopy have traditionally been based on systems with analog shaping amplifiers followed by analog-to-digital converters. Recently, however, new systems based on digital signal processing make possible to replace the analog shaping and timing circuitry the numerical algorithms to derive properties of the pulse such as its amplitude. DSP is a fully numerical analysis of the detector pulse signals and this technique demonstrates significant advantages over analog systems in some circumstances. From a mathematical point of view, one can consider the signal evolution from the detector to the ADC as a sequence of transformations that can be described by precisely defined mathematical expressions. Digital signal processing with ADCs has the possibility to utilize further information on the signal pulses from radiation detectors. In the experiment each step of the signal generation in the 3He filled proportional counter was described using digital signal processing techniques (DSP). The electronic system has consisted of a detector, a preamplifier and a digital oscilloscope. The pulses from the detector were digitized using a digital storage oscilloscope. This oscilloscope allowed signal digitization with accuracy of 8 bit (256 levels) and with frequency of up to 5 * 10 8 samples/s. As a neutron source was used Cf-252. To obtain detector output current pulse I(t) created by the motions of the ions/electrons pairs was written an algorithm which can easily be programmed using modern computer programming languages.

  11. Robust Bio-Signal Based Control of an Intelligent Wheelchair

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dongyi Chen

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, an adaptive human-machine interaction (HMI method that is based on surface electromyography (sEMG signals is proposed for the hands-free control of an intelligent wheelchair. sEMG signals generated by the facial movements are obtained by a convenient dry electrodes sensing device. After the signals features are extracted from the autoregressive model, control data samples are updated and trained by an incremental online learning algorithm in real-time. Experimental results show that the proposed method can significantly improve the classification accuracy and training speed. Moreover, this method can effectively reduce the influence of muscle fatigue during a long time operation of sEMG-based HMI.

  12. The strongest magnetic barrier in the DIII-D tokamak and comparison with the ASDEX UG

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ali, Halima; Punjabi, Alkesh

    2013-05-01

    (2010)] based on continued fraction decomposition of the rotational transform labeling the barriers for selecting and identifying the strongest noble irrational barrier is used. The results are compared and contrasted with our previous results on the ASDEX UG. About six times stronger a barrier can be built in the DIII-D than in the ASDEX UG. High magnetic shear near the separatrix in the DIII-D is inferred as the possible cause of this. Implications of this for the DIII-D and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) are discussed.

  13. An oject oriented environment for multi-channel signal analysis and understanding

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Maurer, W.J.; Dowla, F.U. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)

    1994-11-15

    We describe an interactive signal analysis an understanding tool for multichannel signals. The system, written entirely in the C++ language, takes full advantage of the modern workstation GUI tools and integrates traditional signal-processing methods with intelligent domain-specific tools for the exploration and analysis of semistructured problems. By semistructured problems, we mean problems that require a high degree of interactive analysis, and further, the analysis steps are highly adaptive. In other words, a finite number of rules cannot be used to obtain a good solution to the problem.

  14. A Partitioned Approach to Signal Separation with Microphone Ad Hoc Arrays

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tavakoli, Vincent Mohammad; Jensen, Jesper Rindom; Benesty, Jacob

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, a blind algorithm is proposed for speech enhancement in multi-speaker scenarios, in which interference rejection is the main objective. Here, the ad hoc array is broken into microphone duples which are used to partition the array into local sub-arrays. The core algorithm takes...... advantage of differences in signal structure in each duple. A geometric mean filter is then used to merge the output signals obtained with different duples, and to form a global broadband maximum signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) enhancement apparatus. The resulting filter outputs are enhanced acoustic...

  15. The Signalling Value of Education across Genders

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsson, Ulf; Steingrimsdottir, Herdis

    2018-01-01

    This study examines gender discrimination and the possibility that education is more important for signalling ability among women than men. As social networks tend to run along gender lines and managers in the labour market are predominantly male, it may be more difficult for women to signal...... their ability without college credentials. The Lang and Manove (Am Econ Rev 101(4):1467-1496, 2011) model of racial discrimination and educational sorting is applied to examine the gender gap in schooling attainment. The model is empirically estimated for whites, blacks and Hispanics separately......, with the results among whites consistent with education being more valuable to women due to signalling. For 90% of the whites in the sample women choose a higher level of education, given their ability, than men. Women on average obtain 0.5-0.7 extra years of schooling compared to men with the same ability score....

  16. Acquirement and enhancement of remote speech signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lü, Tao; Guo, Jin; Zhang, He-yong; Yan, Chun-hui; Wang, Can-jin

    2017-07-01

    To address the challenges of non-cooperative and remote acoustic detection, an all-fiber laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) is established. The all-fiber LDV system can offer the advantages of smaller size, lightweight design and robust structure, hence it is a better fit for remote speech detection. In order to improve the performance and the efficiency of LDV for long-range hearing, the speech enhancement technology based on optimally modified log-spectral amplitude (OM-LSA) algorithm is used. The experimental results show that the comprehensible speech signals within the range of 150 m can be obtained by the proposed LDV. The signal-to-noise ratio ( SNR) and mean opinion score ( MOS) of the LDV speech signal can be increased by 100% and 27%, respectively, by using the speech enhancement technology. This all-fiber LDV, which combines the speech enhancement technology, can meet the practical demand in engineering.

  17. Robust Parameter and Signal Estimation in Induction Motors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Børsting, H.

    This thesis deals with theories and methods for robust parameter and signal estimation in induction motors. The project originates in industrial interests concerning sensor-less control of electrical drives. During the work, some general problems concerning estimation of signals and parameters...... in nonlinear systems, have been exposed. The main objectives of this project are: - analysis and application of theories and methods for robust estimation of parameters in a model structure, obtained from knowledge of the physics of the induction motor. - analysis and application of theories and methods...... for robust estimation of the rotor speed and driving torque of the induction motor based only on measurements of stator voltages and currents. Only contimuous-time models have been used, which means that physical related signals and parameters are estimated directly and not indirectly by some discrete...

  18. Control of striatal signaling by G protein regulators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Keqiang eXie

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Signaling via heterotrimeric G proteins plays a crucial role in modulating the responses of striatal neurons that ultimately shape core behaviors mediated by the basal ganglia circuitry, such as reward valuation, habit formation and movement coordination. Activation of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs by extracellular signals activates heterotrimeric G proteins by promoting the binding of GTP to their α subunits. G proteins exert their effects by influencing the activity of key effector proteins in this region, including ion channels, second messenger enzymes and protein kinases. Striatal neurons express a staggering number of GPCRs whose activation results in the engagement of downstream signaling pathways and cellular responses with unique profiles but common molecular mechanisms. Studies over the last decade have revealed that the extent and duration of GPCR signaling are controlled by a conserved protein family named Regulator of G protein Signaling (RGS. RGS proteins accelerate GTP hydrolysis by the α subunits of G proteins, thus promoting deactivation of GPCR signaling. In this review, we discuss the progress made in understanding the roles of RGS proteins in controlling striatal G protein signaling and providing integration and selectivity of signal transmission. We review evidence on the formation of a macromolecular complex between RGS proteins and other components of striatal signaling pathways, their molecular regulatory mechanisms and impacts on GPCR signaling in the striatum obtained from biochemical studies and experiments involving genetic mouse models. Special emphasis is placed on RGS9-2, a member of the RGS family that is highly enriched in the striatum and plays critical roles in drug addiction and motor control.

  19. Cascadability of Silicon Microring Resonators for40-Gbit/s OOK and DPSK Optical Signals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ozolins, Oskars; An, Yi; Lali-Dastjerdi, Zohreh

    2012-01-01

    The cascadability of a single silicon micro-ring resonator for CSRZ-OOK and CSRZ-DPSK signals is experimentally demonstrated at 40 Gbit/s for the first time. Error-free performance is obtained for both modulation formats after 5 cascaded resonators.......The cascadability of a single silicon micro-ring resonator for CSRZ-OOK and CSRZ-DPSK signals is experimentally demonstrated at 40 Gbit/s for the first time. Error-free performance is obtained for both modulation formats after 5 cascaded resonators....

  20. Executed Movement Using EEG Signals through a Naive Bayes Classifier

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juliano Machado

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Recent years have witnessed a rapid development of brain-computer interface (BCI technology. An independent BCI is a communication system for controlling a device by human intension, e.g., a computer, a wheelchair or a neuroprosthes is, not depending on the brain’s normal output pathways of peripheral nerves and muscles, but on detectable signals that represent responsive or intentional brain activities. This paper presents a comparative study of the usage of the linear discriminant analysis (LDA and the naive Bayes (NB classifiers on describing both right- and left-hand movement through electroencephalographic signal (EEG acquisition. For the analysis, we considered the following input features: the energy of the segments of a band pass-filtered signal with the frequency band in sensorimotor rhythms and the components of the spectral energy obtained through the Welch method. We also used the common spatial pattern (CSP filter, so as to increase the discriminatory activity among movement classes. By using the database generated by this experiment, we obtained hit rates up to 70%. The results are compatible with previous studies.

  1. Statistical mechanics of learning orthogonal signals for general covariance models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoyle, David C

    2010-01-01

    Statistical mechanics techniques have proved to be useful tools in quantifying the accuracy with which signal vectors are extracted from experimental data. However, analysis has previously been limited to specific model forms for the population covariance C, which may be inappropriate for real world data sets. In this paper we obtain new statistical mechanical results for a general population covariance matrix C. For data sets consisting of p sample points in R N we use the replica method to study the accuracy of orthogonal signal vectors estimated from the sample data. In the asymptotic limit of N,p→∞ at fixed α = p/N, we derive analytical results for the signal direction learning curves. In the asymptotic limit the learning curves follow a single universal form, each displaying a retarded learning transition. An explicit formula for the location of the retarded learning transition is obtained and we find marked variation in the location of the retarded learning transition dependent on the distribution of population covariance eigenvalues. The results of the replica analysis are confirmed against simulation

  2. Signal quality measures for unsupervised blood pressure measurement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abdul Sukor, J; Redmond, S J; Lovell, N H; Chan, G S H

    2012-01-01

    differences between the result obtained from the algorithm and the RS. 90% of the actual noise contaminated signals were correctly identified, and a sample-wise accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of 97.0%, 80.61% and 98.16%, respectively, were obtained from 100 pooled signals. The mean systolic and diastolic differences were 0.37 ± 3.31 and 3.10 ± 5.46 mmHg, respectively, when the artifact detection algorithm was utilized, with the algorithm correctly determined if the signal was clean enough to attempt an estimation of systolic or diastolic pressures in 93% of blood pressure measurements. (paper)

  3. Variability, trends, and teleconnections of stream flows with large-scale climate signals in the Omo-Ghibe River Basin, Ethiopia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Degefu, Mekonnen Adnew; Bewket, Woldeamlak

    2017-04-01

    This study assesses variability, trends, and teleconnections of stream flow with large-scale climate signals (global sea surface temperatures (SSTs)) for the Omo-Ghibe River Basin of Ethiopia. Fourteen hydrological indices of variability and extremes were defined from daily stream flow data series and analyzed for two common periods, which are 1972-2006 for 5 stations and 1982-2006 for 15 stations. The Mann-Kendall's test was used to detect trends at 0.05 significance level, and simple correlation analysis was applied to evaluate associations between the selected stream flow indices and SSTs. We found weak and mixed (upward and downward) trend signals for annual and wet (Kiremt) season flows. Indices generated for high-flow (flood) magnitudes showed the same weak trend signals. However, trend tests for flood frequencies and low-flow magnitudes showed little evidences of increasing change. It was also found that El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) are the major anomalies affecting stream flow variability in the Omo-Ghibe Basin. The strongest associations are observed between ENSO/Niño3.4 and the stream flow in August and September, mean Kiremt flow (July-September), and flood frequency (peak over threshold on average three peaks per year (POT3_Fre)). The findings of this study provide a general overview on the long-term stream flow variability and predictability of stream flows for the Omo-Ghibe River Basin.

  4. Analysis of the competitive activities of Ukrainian champions with the strongest fighters of world (based on world championship in Greco-Roman wrestling in 2011

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Radchenko Y.А.

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available The comparative analysis of results of competition activity of the strongest fighters is presented Greco-Roman style on a world of 2011 cup. Found out some tendencies and conformities to the law in application technical tactical actions by fighters in a competition duel on the modern stage of development to Greco-Roman fight. It is set that in most cases sportsmen won due to ability to win with insignificant advantage for all of competitors. They most adjusted to the modern requirements of conduct of duel, conduct an active fight and own effective attacking receptions, reliably they are applied and rarely attack without an estimation. One of more effective receptions in an orchestra there is defence of fighter which is down. Found out failings in preparation of the Ukrainian sportsmen can underlie correction of the programs of preparation to the Olympic games. It is recommended to utillize the resulted information for the design of the special trainings tasks which are conditioned the individual features of separate sportsmen.

  5. General PFG signal attenuation expressions for anisotropic anomalous diffusion by modified-Bloch equations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Guoxing

    2018-05-01

    Anomalous diffusion exists widely in polymer and biological systems. Pulsed-field gradient (PFG) anomalous diffusion is complicated, especially in the anisotropic case where limited research has been reported. A general PFG signal attenuation expression, including the finite gradient pulse (FGPW) effect for free general anisotropic fractional diffusion { 0 integral modified-Bloch equation, were extended to obtain general PFG signal attenuation expressions for anisotropic anomalous diffusion. Various cases of PFG anisotropic anomalous diffusion were investigated, including coupled and uncoupled anisotropic anomalous diffusion. The continuous-time random walk (CTRW) simulation was also carried out to support the theoretical results. The theory and the CTRW simulation agree with each other. The obtained signal attenuation expressions and the three-dimensional fractional modified-Bloch equations are important for analyzing PFG anisotropic anomalous diffusion in NMR and MRI.

  6. Expression profiling and functional analysis reveals that TOR is a key player in regulating photosynthesis and phytohormone signaling pathways in Arabidopsis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Pan; Xiong, Fangjie; Que, Yumei; Wang, Kai; Yu, Lihua; Li, Zhengguo; Ren, Maozhi

    2015-01-01

    Target of rapamycin (TOR) acts as a master regulator to control cell growth by integrating nutrient, energy, and growth factors in all eukaryotic species. TOR plays an evolutionarily conserved role in regulating the transcription of genes associated with anabolic and catabolic processes in Arabidopsis, but little is known about the functions of TOR in photosynthesis and phytohormone signaling, which are unique features of plants. In this study, AZD8055 (AZD) was screened as the strongest active-site TOR inhibitor (asTORi) in Arabidopsis compared with TORIN1 and KU63794 (KU). Gene expression profiles were evaluated using RNA-seq after treating Arabidopsis seedlings with AZD. More than three-fold differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in AZD-treated plants relative to rapamycin-treated plants in previous studies. Most of the DEGs and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways involved in cell wall elongation, ribosome biogenesis, and cell autophagy were common to both AZD- and rapamycin-treated samples, but AZD displayed much broader and more efficient inhibition of TOR compared with rapamycin. Importantly, the suppression of TOR by AZD resulted in remodeling of the expression profile of the genes associated with photosynthesis and various phytohormones, indicating that TOR plays a crucial role in modulating photosynthesis and phytohormone signaling in Arabidopsis. These newly identified DEGs expand the understanding of TOR signaling in plants. This study elucidates the novel functions of TOR in photosynthesis and phytohormone signaling and provides a platform to study the downstream targets of TOR in Arabidopsis.

  7. Signal-to-noise ratios of multiplexing spectrometers in high backgrounds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knacke, R. F.

    1978-01-01

    Signal-to-noise ratios and the amount of multiplexing gain achieved with a Michelson spectrometer during detector and background noise are studied. Noise caused by the warm background is found in 10 and 20-micron atmospheric windows in high resolution Fourier spectroscopy. An equation is derived for the signal-to-noise ratio based on the number of channels, total time to obtain the complete spectrum, the signal power in one spectral element, and the detector noise equivalent power in the presence of negligible background. Similar expressions are derived for backgrounds yielding a noise equivalent power to a spectral element, and backgrounds having flat spectra in the frequency range under investigation.

  8. Fabrication of Composite Microneedle Array Electrode for Temperature and Bio-Signal Monitoring.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Yiwei; Ren, Lei; Jiang, Lelun; Tang, Yong; Liu, Bin

    2018-04-13

    Body temperature and bio-signals are important health indicators that reflect the human health condition. However, monitoring these indexes is inconvenient and time-consuming, requires various instruments, and needs professional skill. In this study, a composite microneedle array electrode (CMAE) was designed and fabricated. It simultaneously detects body temperature and bio-signals. The CMAE consists of a 6 × 6 microneedles array with a height of 500 μm and a base diameter of 200 μm. Multiple insertion experiments indicate that the CMAE possesses excellent mechanical properties. The CMAE can pierce porcine skin 100 times without breaking or bending. A linear calibration relationship between temperature and voltage are experimentally obtained. Armpit temperature (35.8 °C) and forearm temperature (35.3 °C) are detected with the CMAE, and the measurements agree well with the data acquired with a clinical thermometer. Bio-signals including EII, ECG, and EMG are recorded and compared with those obtained by a commercial Ag/AgCl electrode. The CMAE continuously monitors bio-signals and is more convenient to apply because it does not require skin preparation and gel usage. The CMAE exhibits good potential for continuous and repetitive monitoring of body temperature and bio-signals.

  9. Fabrication of Composite Microneedle Array Electrode for Temperature and Bio-Signal Monitoring

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yiwei Sun

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Body temperature and bio-signals are important health indicators that reflect the human health condition. However, monitoring these indexes is inconvenient and time-consuming, requires various instruments, and needs professional skill. In this study, a composite microneedle array electrode (CMAE was designed and fabricated. It simultaneously detects body temperature and bio-signals. The CMAE consists of a 6 × 6 microneedles array with a height of 500 μm and a base diameter of 200 μm. Multiple insertion experiments indicate that the CMAE possesses excellent mechanical properties. The CMAE can pierce porcine skin 100 times without breaking or bending. A linear calibration relationship between temperature and voltage are experimentally obtained. Armpit temperature (35.8 °C and forearm temperature (35.3 °C are detected with the CMAE, and the measurements agree well with the data acquired with a clinical thermometer. Bio-signals including EII, ECG, and EMG are recorded and compared with those obtained by a commercial Ag/AgCl electrode. The CMAE continuously monitors bio-signals and is more convenient to apply because it does not require skin preparation and gel usage. The CMAE exhibits good potential for continuous and repetitive monitoring of body temperature and bio-signals.

  10. Measurement of splanchnic photoplethysmographic signals using a new reflectance fiber optic sensor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hickey, Michelle; Samuels, Neal; Randive, Nilesh; Langford, Richard M.; Kyriacou, Panayiotis A.

    2010-03-01

    Splanchnic organs are particularly vulnerable to hypoperfusion. Currently, there is no technique that allows for the continuous estimation of splanchnic blood oxygen saturation (SpO2). As a preliminary to developing a suitable splanchnic SpO2 sensor, a new reflectance fiber optic photoplethysmographic (PPG) sensor and processing system are developed. An experimental procedure to examine the effect of fiber source detector separation distance on acquired PPG signals is carried out before finalizing the sensor design. PPG signals are acquired from four volunteers for separation distances of 1 to 8 mm. The separation range of 3 to 6 mm provides the best quality PPG signals with large amplitudes and the highest signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Preliminary calculation of SpO2 shows that distances of 3 and 4 mm provide the most realistic values. Therefore, it is suggested that the separation distance in the design of a fiber optic reflectance pulse oximeter be in the range of 3 to 4 mm. Preliminary PPG signals from various splanchnic organs and the periphery are obtained from six anaesthetized patients. The normalized amplitudes of the splanchnic PPGs are, on average, approximately the same as those obtained simultaneously from the periphery. These observations suggest that fiber optic pulse oximetry may be a valid monitoring technique for splanchnic organs.

  11. Guidelines for Vehicle Robbery Prevention using Remote Blocking Signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Narong Sangwaranatee

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, the radio signal remote sensing device was used to control the vehicle door switching control, which was the field trials experiment. The switching "On" and "Off" of the switching signals were used to control the vehicle door and investigated. In application, the blocking signal from the commit the remote vehicle crime in the venerable place can be protected. The results obtained have shown that the signal blocking by using another remote control over 5 meters, 10 meters and 15 meters could be achieved. The proposed models and tested results have shown that the Vehicle Brand A Model No. 1 could be blocked by 83.33 percent, while Brand A Model No.2 by 83.33 percent, Brand B Model No.1 by 40 percent, Brand B Model No.2 by 60 percent, Brand C Model No. 1 by 83.33 percent, Brand C Model No. 2 by 83.33 percent, meanwhile, the remote control for general vehicle are used radio waves with frequency 315 and 433 MHz, where the criminal will use the interference signals to form the blocking (jamming signals, the vehicle can be robbed.

  12. Joint probability discrimination between stationary tissue and blood velocity signals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schlaikjer, Malene; Jensen, Jørgen Arendt

    2001-01-01

    before and after echo-canceling, and (b) the amplitude variations between samples in consecutive RF-signals before and after echo-canceling. The statistical discriminator was obtained by computing the probability density functions (PDFs) for each feature through histogram analysis of data....... This study presents a new statistical discriminator. Investigation of the RF-signals reveals that features can be derived that distinguish the segments of the signal, which do an do not carry information on the blood flow. In this study 4 features, have been determined: (a) the energy content in the segments....... The discrimination is performed by determining the joint probability of the features for the segment under investigation and choosing the segment type that is most likely. The method was tested on simulated data resembling RF-signals from the carotid artery....

  13. Synthesis of digital locomotive receiver of automatic locomotive signaling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. V. Goncharov

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Purpose. Automatic locomotive signaling of continuous type with a numeric coding (ALSN has several disadvantages: a small number of signal indications, low noise stability, high inertia and low functional flexibility. Search for new and more advanced methods of signal processing for automatic locomotive signaling, synthesis of the noise proof digital locomotive receiver are essential. Methodology. The proposed algorithm of detection and identification locomotive signaling codes is based on the definition of mutual correlations of received oscillation and reference signals. For selecting threshold levels of decision element the following criterion has been formulated: the locomotive receiver should maximum set the correct solution for a given probability of dangerous errors. Findings. It has been found that the random nature of the ALSN signal amplitude does not affect the detection algorithm. However, the distribution law and numeric characteristics of signal amplitude affect the probability of errors, and should be considered when selecting a threshold levels According to obtained algorithm of detection and identification ALSN signals the digital locomotive receiver has been synthesized. It contains band pass filter, peak limiter, normalizing amplifier with automatic gain control circuit, analog to digital converter and digital signal processor. Originality. The ALSN system is improved by the way of the transfer of technical means to modern microelectronic element base, more perfect methods of detection and identification codes of locomotive signaling are applied. Practical value. Use of digital technology in the construction of the locomotive receiver ALSN will expand its functionality, will increase the noise immunity and operation stability of the locomotive signal system in conditions of various destabilizing factors.

  14. Multitaper spectral analysis of atmospheric radar signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. K. Anandan

    2004-11-01

    Full Text Available Multitaper spectral analysis using sinusoidal taper has been carried out on the backscattered signals received from the troposphere and lower stratosphere by the Gadanki Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST radar under various conditions of the signal-to-noise ratio. Comparison of study is made with sinusoidal taper of the order of three and single tapers of Hanning and rectangular tapers, to understand the relative merits of processing under the scheme. Power spectra plots show that echoes are better identified in the case of multitaper estimation, especially in the region of a weak signal-to-noise ratio. Further analysis is carried out to obtain three lower order moments from three estimation techniques. The results show that multitaper analysis gives a better signal-to-noise ratio or higher detectability. The spectral analysis through multitaper and single tapers is subjected to study of consistency in measurements. Results show that the multitaper estimate is better consistent in Doppler measurements compared to single taper estimates. Doppler width measurements with different approaches were studied and the results show that the estimation was better in the multitaper technique in terms of temporal resolution and estimation accuracy.

  15. High-speed optical coherence tomography signal processing on GPU

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li Xiqi; Shi Guohua; Zhang Yudong

    2011-01-01

    The signal processing speed of spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) has become a bottleneck in many medical applications. Recently, a time-domain interpolation method was proposed. This method not only gets a better signal-to noise ratio (SNR) but also gets a faster signal processing time for the SD-OCT than the widely used zero-padding interpolation method. Furthermore, the re-sampled data is obtained by convoluting the acquired data and the coefficients in time domain. Thus, a lot of interpolations can be performed concurrently. So, this interpolation method is suitable for parallel computing. An ultra-high optical coherence tomography signal processing can be realized by using graphics processing unit (GPU) with computer unified device architecture (CUDA). This paper will introduce the signal processing steps of SD-OCT on GPU. An experiment is performed to acquire a frame SD-OCT data (400A-linesx2048 pixel per A-line) and real-time processed the data on GPU. The results show that it can be finished in 6.208 milliseconds, which is 37 times faster than that on Central Processing Unit (CPU).

  16. Optimal Hotspots of Dynamic Surfaced-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Drugs Quantitative Detection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, Xiunan; Li, Pan; Zhou, Binbin; Tang, Xianghu; Li, Xiaoyun; Weng, Shizhuang; Yang, Liangbao; Liu, Jinhuai

    2017-05-02

    Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) as a powerful qualitative analysis method has been widely applied in many fields. However, SERS for quantitative analysis still suffers from several challenges partially because of the absence of stable and credible analytical strategy. Here, we demonstrate that the optimal hotspots created from dynamic surfaced-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (D-SERS) can be used for quantitative SERS measurements. In situ small-angle X-ray scattering was carried out to in situ real-time monitor the formation of the optimal hotspots, where the optimal hotspots with the most efficient hotspots were generated during the monodisperse Au-sol evaporating process. Importantly, the natural evaporation of Au-sol avoids the nanoparticles instability of salt-induced, and formation of ordered three-dimensional hotspots allows SERS detection with excellent reproducibility. Considering SERS signal variability in the D-SERS process, 4-mercaptopyridine (4-mpy) acted as internal standard to validly correct and improve stability as well as reduce fluctuation of signals. The strongest SERS spectra at the optimal hotspots of D-SERS have been extracted to statistics analysis. By using the SERS signal of 4-mpy as a stable internal calibration standard, the relative SERS intensity of target molecules demonstrated a linear response versus the negative logarithm of concentrations at the point of strongest SERS signals, which illustrates the great potential for quantitative analysis. The public drugs 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine and α-methyltryptamine hydrochloride obtained precise analysis with internal standard D-SERS strategy. As a consequence, one has reason to believe our approach is promising to challenge quantitative problems in conventional SERS analysis.

  17. Digital signal processing for He3 proportional counter

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ahmadov, Q.S.; Institute of Radiation Problems, ANAS, Baku

    2011-01-01

    Full text: Data acquisition systems for nuclear spectroscopy have traditionally been based on systems with analog shaping amplifiers followed by analog-to-digital converters. Recently, however, new systems based on digital signal processing allow us to replace the analog shaping and timing circuitry the numerical algorithms to derive properties of the pulse such as its amplitude. DSP is a fully numerical analysis of the detector pulse signals and this technique demonstrates significant advantages over analog systems in some circumstances. From a mathematical point of view, one can consider the signal evolution from the detector to the ADC as a sequence of transformations that can be described by precisely defined mathematical expressions.Digital signal processing with ADCs has the possibility to utilize further information on the signal pulses from radiation detectors [1] [2]. In the experiment each step of the signal generation in the 3He filled proportional counter was described using digital signal processing techniques (DSP). The electronic system has consisted of a detector, a preamplifier and a digital oscilloscope. The pulses from the detector were digitized using a OTSZS-02 (250USB)-4 digital storage oscilloscope from ZAO R UDNEV-SHILYAYEV . This oscilloscope allowed signal digitization with accuracy of 8 bit(256 levels) and with frequency of up to 5.10''8 samples/s. As a neutron source was used Cf-252.To obtain detector output current pulse I(t) created by the motions of the ions/electrons pairs was written an algorithm which can easily be programmed using modern computer programming languages

  18. GPR Signal Denoising and Target Extraction With the CEEMD Method

    KAUST Repository

    Li, Jing

    2015-04-17

    In this letter, we apply a time and frequency analysis method based on the complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition (CEEMD) method in ground-penetrating radar (GPR) signal processing. It decomposes the GPR signal into a sum of oscillatory components, with guaranteed positive and smoothly varying instantaneous frequencies. The key idea of this method relies on averaging the modes obtained by empirical mode decomposition (EMD) applied to several realizations of Gaussian white noise added to the original signal. It can solve the mode-mixing problem in the EMD method and improve the resolution of ensemble EMD (EEMD) when the signal has a low signal-to-noise ratio. First, we analyze the difference between the basic theory of EMD, EEMD, and CEEMD. Then, we compare the time and frequency analysis with Hilbert-Huang transform to test the results of different methods. The synthetic and real GPR data demonstrate that CEEMD promises higher spectral-spatial resolution than the other two EMD methods in GPR signal denoising and target extraction. Its decomposition is complete, with a numerically negligible error.

  19. Indoor signal attenuation assessment via fuzzy logic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexandre de Assis Mota

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available This work focuses on the analysis of signal´s attenuation in indoor environments using a fuzzy logic approach based on the Shadowing Signal Propagation Model (SSPM. The SSPM allows the characterization of the attenuation caused by the environment through the ? parameter present in this model. In addition to this, the Fuzzy Logic provides a form of approximate reasoning that allows the treatment of problems with incomplete, vague and imprecise information. Also, it offers a simple way to obtain a possible solution for a problem using the heuristic knowledge about a particular situation. The results show that the methodology produced satisfactory results, close to the ones yielded by experimental methods.

  20. Absorbing systematic effects to obtain a better background model in a search for new physics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Caron, S; Horner, S; Sundermann, J E; Cowan, G; Gross, E

    2009-01-01

    This paper presents a novel approach to estimate the Standard Model backgrounds based on modifying Monte Carlo predictions within their systematic uncertainties. The improved background model is obtained by altering the original predictions with successively more complex correction functions in signal-free control selections. Statistical tests indicate when sufficient compatibility with data is reached. In this way, systematic effects are absorbed into the new background model. The same correction is then applied on the Monte Carlo prediction in the signal region. Comparing this method to other background estimation techniques shows improvements with respect to statistical and systematic uncertainties. The proposed method can also be applied in other fields beyond high energy physics.

  1. Advanced signal separation and recovery algorithms for digital x-ray spectroscopy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mahmoud, Imbaby I.; El-Tokhy, Mohamed S.

    2015-01-01

    X-ray spectroscopy is widely used for in-situ applications for samples analysis. Therefore, spectrum drawing and assessment of x-ray spectroscopy with high accuracy is the main scope of this paper. A Silicon Lithium Si(Li) detector that cooled with a nitrogen is used for signal extraction. The resolution of the ADC is 12 bits. Also, the sampling rate of ADC is 5 MHz. Hence, different algorithms are implemented. These algorithms were run on a personal computer with Intel core TM i5-3470 CPU and 3.20 GHz. These algorithms are signal preprocessing, signal separation and recovery algorithms, and spectrum drawing algorithm. Moreover, statistical measurements are used for evaluation of these algorithms. Signal preprocessing based on DC-offset correction and signal de-noising is performed. DC-offset correction was done by using minimum value of radiation signal. However, signal de-noising was implemented using fourth order finite impulse response (FIR) filter, linear phase least-square FIR filter, complex wavelet transforms (CWT) and Kalman filter methods. We noticed that Kalman filter achieves large peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and lower error than other methods. However, CWT takes much longer execution time. Moreover, three different algorithms that allow correction of x-ray signal overlapping are presented. These algorithms are 1D non-derivative peak search algorithm, second derivative peak search algorithm and extrema algorithm. Additionally, the effect of signal separation and recovery algorithms on spectrum drawing is measured. Comparison between these algorithms is introduced. The obtained results confirm that second derivative peak search algorithm as well as extrema algorithm have very small error in comparison with 1D non-derivative peak search algorithm. However, the second derivative peak search algorithm takes much longer execution time. Therefore, extrema algorithm introduces better results over other algorithms. It has the advantage of recovering and

  2. Heartbeat Signal from Facial Video for Biometric Recognition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Haque, Mohammad Ahsanul; Nasrollahi, Kamal; Moeslund, Thomas B.

    2015-01-01

    Different biometric traits such as face appearance and heartbeat signal from Electrocardiogram (ECG)/Phonocardiogram (PCG) are widely used in the human identity recognition. Recent advances in facial video based measurement of cardio-physiological parameters such as heartbeat rate, respiratory rate......, and blood volume pressure provide the possibility of extracting heartbeat signal from facial video instead of using obtrusive ECG or PCG sensors in the body. This paper proposes the Heartbeat Signal from Facial Video (HSFV) as a new biometric trait for human identity recognition, for the first time...... to the best of our knowledge. Feature extraction from the HSFV is accomplished by employing Radon transform on a waterfall model of the replicated HSFV. The pairwise Minkowski distances are obtained from the Radon image as the features. The authentication is accomplished by a decision tree based supervised...

  3. Optimal quantum state estimation with use of the no-signaling principle

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Han, Yeong-Deok; Bae, Joonwoo; Wang Xiangbin; Hwang, Won-Young

    2010-01-01

    A simple derivation of the optimal state estimation of a quantum bit was obtained by using the no-signaling principle. In particular, the no-signaling principle determines a unique form of the guessing probability independent of figures of merit, such as the fidelity or information gain. This proves that the optimal estimation for a quantum bit can be achieved by the same measurement for almost all figures of merit.

  4. ECG Signal Processing, Classification and Interpretation A Comprehensive Framework of Computational Intelligence

    CERN Document Server

    Pedrycz, Witold

    2012-01-01

    Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are among the most important sources of diagnostic information in healthcare so improvements in their analysis may also have telling consequences. Both the underlying signal technology and a burgeoning variety of algorithms and systems developments have proved successful targets for recent rapid advances in research. ECG Signal Processing, Classification and Interpretation shows how the various paradigms of Computational Intelligence, employed either singly or in combination, can produce an effective structure for obtaining often vital information from ECG signals. Neural networks do well at capturing the nonlinear nature of the signals, information granules realized as fuzzy sets help to confer interpretability on the data and evolutionary optimization may be critical in supporting the structural development of ECG classifiers and models of ECG signals. The contributors address concepts, methodology, algorithms, and case studies and applications exploiting the paradigm of Comp...

  5. Stochastic resonance in multi-stable coupled systems driven by two driving signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Pengfei; Jin, Yanfei

    2018-02-01

    The stochastic resonance (SR) in multi-stable coupled systems subjected to Gaussian white noises and two different driving signals is investigated in this paper. Using the adiabatic approximation and the perturbation method, the coupled systems with four-well potential are transformed into the master equations and the amplitude of the response is obtained. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is calculated numerically to demonstrate the occurrence of SR. For the case of two driving signals with different amplitudes, the interwell resonance between two wells S1 and S3 emerges for strong coupling. The SR can appear in the subsystem with weaker signal amplitude or even without driving signal with the help of coupling. For the case of two driving signals with different frequencies, the effects of SR in two subsystems driven by high and low frequency signals are both weakened with an increase in coupling strength. The stochastic multi-resonance phenomenon is observed in the subsystem subjected to the low frequency signal. Moreover, an effective scheme for phase suppressing SR is proposed by using a relative phase between two driving signals.

  6. Decoding Speech With Integrated Hybrid Signals Recorded From the Human Ventral Motor Cortex

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kenji Ibayashi

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Restoration of speech communication for locked-in patients by means of brain computer interfaces (BCIs is currently an important area of active research. Among the neural signals obtained from intracranial recordings, single/multi-unit activity (SUA/MUA, local field potential (LFP, and electrocorticography (ECoG are good candidates for an input signal for BCIs. However, the question of which signal or which combination of the three signal modalities is best suited for decoding speech production remains unverified. In order to record SUA, LFP, and ECoG simultaneously from a highly localized area of human ventral sensorimotor cortex (vSMC, we fabricated an electrode the size of which was 7 by 13 mm containing sparsely arranged microneedle and conventional macro contacts. We determined which signal modality is the most capable of decoding speech production, and tested if the combination of these signals could improve the decoding accuracy of spoken phonemes. Feature vectors were constructed from spike frequency obtained from SUAs and event-related spectral perturbation derived from ECoG and LFP signals, then input to the decoder. The results showed that the decoding accuracy for five spoken vowels was highest when features from multiple signals were combined and optimized for each subject, and reached 59% when averaged across all six subjects. This result suggests that multi-scale signals convey complementary information for speech articulation. The current study demonstrated that simultaneous recording of multi-scale neuronal activities could raise decoding accuracy even though the recording area is limited to a small portion of cortex, which is advantageous for future implementation of speech-assisting BCIs.

  7. Effective signaling of surface boundaries by L-vertices reflect the consistency of their contrast in natural images.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vessel, Edward A; Biederman, Irving; Subramaniam, Suresh; Greene, Michelle R

    2016-07-01

    An L-vertex, the point at which two contours coterminate, provides highly reliable evidence that a surface terminates at that vertex, thus providing the strongest constraint on the extraction of shape from images (Guzman, 1968). Such vertices are pervasive in our visual world but the importance of a statistical regularity about them has been underappreciated: The contours defining the vertex are (almost) always of the same direction of contrast with respect to the background (i.e., both darker or both lighter). Here we show that when the two contours are of different directions of contrast, the capacity of the L-vertex to signal the termination of a surface, as reflected in object recognition, is markedly reduced. Although image statistics have been implicated in determining the connectivity in the earliest cortical visual stage (V1) and in grouping during visual search, this finding provides evidence that such statistics are involved in later stages where object representations are derived from two-dimensional images.

  8. The effect of thermal treatment on radiation-induced EPR signals in tooth enamel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vorona, I.P.; Ishchenko, S.S.; Baran, N.P.

    2005-01-01

    The effect of thermal treatment on the radiation-induced EPR spectrum of tooth enamel was studied. Annealing before sample irradiation was found to increase enamel radiation sensitivity by more than 40%. Depending on the annealing conditions the EPR signals of three supplementary radiation radicals were observed in addition to the main signal caused by CO 2 - radicals. It was found that the presence of these signals in the enamel EPR spectra provides evidence of sample annealing. The possibility of obtaining information about sample history by studying the additional EPR signals is discussed. It can be important to EPR dating and EPR dosimetry

  9. Bayesian signal reconstruction for 1-bit compressed sensing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xu, Yingying; Kabashima, Yoshiyuki; Zdeborová, Lenka

    2014-01-01

    The 1-bit compressed sensing framework enables the recovery of a sparse vector x from the sign information of each entry of its linear transformation. Discarding the amplitude information can significantly reduce the amount of data, which is highly beneficial in practical applications. In this paper, we present a Bayesian approach to signal reconstruction for 1-bit compressed sensing and analyze its typical performance using statistical mechanics. As a basic setup, we consider the case that the measuring matrix Φ has i.i.d entries and the measurements y are noiseless. Utilizing the replica method, we show that the Bayesian approach enables better reconstruction than the l 1 -norm minimization approach, asymptotically saturating the performance obtained when the non-zero entry positions of the signal are known, for signals whose non-zero entries follow zero mean Gaussian distributions. We also test a message passing algorithm for signal reconstruction on the basis of belief propagation. The results of numerical experiments are consistent with those of the theoretical analysis. (paper)

  10. Measurement of magnetic susceptibility on tailings cores report on cores obtained from the Ontario Research Foundation lysimeter experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1984-10-01

    Bulk susceptibility and induced magnetic remanence results are reported for 40 cores obtained from the uranium tailings lysimeter experiment at the Ontario Research Foundation. Both methods indicate a broad threefold subdivision of the tailings pile. An upper zone is characterized by an enhanced susceptibility level, which is related to enhanced concentration of both magnetite and hematite. Depletion zones, where present, are of limited areal extent and strongly developed. An intermediate zone is characterized by a mixture of large areas of reduced susceptibility that separate smaller regions of slightly enhanced susceptibility. The zones of susceptibility depletion appear to define a dendritic drainage pattern. Locally in this zone magnetite is enhanced and hematite depleted. In the lowermost zone susceptibility levels are reduced over most of the tailings bed. Only in the upper most right hand corner is there any vestige of a positive susceptibility concentration. Both magnetite and hematite are strongly depleted in this lower zone. Visually it is apparent that this lowermost depleted zone correlates to the zones of strongest 'yellowcake' development

  11. No-signaling quantum key distribution: solution by linear programming

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hwang, Won-Young; Bae, Joonwoo; Killoran, Nathan

    2015-02-01

    We outline a straightforward approach for obtaining a secret key rate using only no-signaling constraints and linear programming. Assuming an individual attack, we consider all possible joint probabilities. Initially, we study only the case where Eve has binary outcomes, and we impose constraints due to the no-signaling principle and given measurement outcomes. Within the remaining space of joint probabilities, by using linear programming, we get bound on the probability of Eve correctly guessing Bob's bit. We then make use of an inequality that relates this guessing probability to the mutual information between Bob and a more general Eve, who is not binary-restricted. Putting our computed bound together with the Csiszár-Körner formula, we obtain a positive key generation rate. The optimal value of this rate agrees with known results, but was calculated in a more straightforward way, offering the potential of generalization to different scenarios.

  12. Fusion of ECG and ABP signals based on wavelet transform for cardiac arrhythmias classification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arvanaghi, Roghayyeh; Daneshvar, Sabalan; Seyedarabi, Hadi; Goshvarpour, Atefeh

    2017-11-01

    Each of Electrocardiogram (ECG) and Atrial Blood Pressure (ABP) signals contain information of cardiac status. This information can be used for diagnosis and monitoring of diseases. The majority of previously proposed methods rely only on ECG signal to classify heart rhythms. In this paper, ECG and ABP were used to classify five different types of heart rhythms. To this end, two mentioned signals (ECG and ABP) have been fused. These physiological signals have been used from MINIC physioNet database. ECG and ABP signals have been fused together on the basis of the proposed Discrete Wavelet Transformation fusion technique. Then, some frequency features were extracted from the fused signal. To classify the different types of cardiac arrhythmias, these features were given to a multi-layer perceptron neural network. In this study, the best results for the proposed fusion algorithm were obtained. In this case, the accuracy rates of 96.6%, 96.9%, 95.6% and 93.9% were achieved for two, three, four and five classes, respectively. However, the maximum classification rate of 89% was obtained for two classes on the basis of ECG features. It has been found that the higher accuracy rates were acquired by using the proposed fusion technique. The results confirmed the importance of fusing features from different physiological signals to gain more accurate assessments. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. The application of sparse linear prediction dictionary to compressive sensing in speech signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    YOU Hanxu

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Appling compressive sensing (CS,which theoretically guarantees that signal sampling and signal compression can be achieved simultaneously,into audio and speech signal processing is one of the most popular research topics in recent years.In this paper,K-SVD algorithm was employed to learn a sparse linear prediction dictionary regarding as the sparse basis of underlying speech signals.Compressed signals was obtained by applying random Gaussian matrix to sample original speech frames.Orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP and compressive sampling matching pursuit (CoSaMP were adopted to recovery original signals from compressed one.Numbers of experiments were carried out to investigate the impact of speech frames length,compression ratios,sparse basis and reconstruction algorithms on CS performance.Results show that sparse linear prediction dictionary can advance the performance of speech signals reconstruction compared with discrete cosine transform (DCT matrix.

  14. Robust DOA Estimation of Harmonic Signals Using Constrained Filters on Phase Estimates

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Karimian-Azari, Sam; Jensen, Jesper Rindom; Christensen, Mads Græsbøll

    2014-01-01

    In array signal processing, distances between receivers, e.g., microphones, cause time delays depending on the direction of arrival (DOA) of a signal source. We can then estimate the DOA from the time-difference of arrival (TDOA) estimates. However, many conventional DOA estimators based on TDOA...... estimates are not optimal in colored noise. In this paper, we estimate the DOA of a harmonic signal source from multi-channel phase estimates, which relate to narrowband TDOA estimates. More specifically, we design filters to apply on phase estimates to obtain a DOA estimate with minimum variance. Using...

  15. Full-sky survey searching for ultra-narrow-band artificial CW signals: analysis of the results of Project META

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lemarchand, Guillermo A.

    1996-06-01

    Project META (Megachannel ExtraTerrestrial Assay), a full-sky survey for artificial narrow-band signals, has been conducted from the Harvard/Smithsonian 26 m radiotelescope at Agassiz Station and from one of the two 30 m radiotelescopes of the Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomia (IAR). The search was performed near the 1420 MHz line of neutral hydrogen, and its second harmonic, using two 8.4 X 10(superscript 6) channel Fourier spectrometers of 0.05 Hz resolution and 400 kHz of instantaneous bandwidth. The observing frequency was corrected both for motions with respect to three astronomical inertial frames, and for the effect of Earth's rotation, which provides a characteristic changing signature for narrow-band signals of extraterrestrial origin. Among the 6 X 10(superscript 13) spectral channels searched in the northern hemisphere, Horowitz and Sagan reported 37 candidates events exceeding the average threshold of 1.7 X 10(superscript -23) W m(superscript -2), while in the southern hemisphere among 2 X 10(superscript 13) spectral channels analyzed we found 19 events exceeding the same threshold. The strongest signals that survive culling for terrestrial interference lie in or near the Galactic Plane. The first high resolution southern target search around 71 stars (-90 degrees intelligence. It is showed that these narrow-band non-repeating 'events' found by Project META can be generated by (a) radiometer noise fluctuations, (b) a population of constant galactic sources which undergo deep fading and amplification due to interstellar scintillation, consistent with ETI transmissions and (c) real, transient signals of either terrestrial or extraterrestrial origin. The Bayesian test shows that hypothesis (b) and (c) are both highly preferred to (a), but the first two are about equally likely. Using this analysis we discuss the best observing strategies to determine the real origin of these 'events'.

  16. Near-Infrared Scintillation of Liquid Argon: Recent Results Obtained with the NIR Facility at Fermilab

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Escobar, C. O. [Fermilab; Rubinov, P. [Fermilab; Tilly, E. [Sewanee U.

    2018-03-19

    After a short review of previous attempts to observe and measure the near-infrared scintillation in liquid argon, we present new results obtained with NIR, a dedicated cryostat at the Fermilab Proton Assembly Building (PAB). The new results give confidence that the near-infrared light can be used as the much needed light signal in large liquid argon time projection chambers.11 pages,

  17. The development of a PZT-based microdrive for neural signal recording

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Park, Sangkyu; Yoon, Euisung; Park, Sukho; Lee, Sukchan; Shin, Hee-sup; Park, Hyunjun; Kim, Byungkyu; Kim, Daesoo; Park, Jongoh

    2008-01-01

    A hand-controlled microdrive has been used to obtain neural signals from rodents such as rats and mice. However, it places severe physical stress on the rodents during its manipulation, and this stress leads to alertness in the mice and low efficiency in obtaining neural signals from the mice. To overcome this issue, we developed a novel microdrive, which allows one to adjust the electrodes by a piezoelectric device (PZT) with high precision. Its mass is light enough to install on the mouse's head. The proposed microdrive has three H-type PZT actuators and their guiding structure. The operation principle of the microdrive is based on the well known inchworm mechanism. When the three PZT actuators are synchronized, linear motion of the electrode is produced along the guiding structure. The electrodes used for the recording of the neural signals from neuron cells were fixed at one of the PZT actuators. Our proposed microdrive has an accuracy of about 400 nm and a long stroke of about 5 mm. In response to formalin-induced pain, single unit activities are robustly measured at the thalamus with electrodes whose vertical depth is adjusted by the microdrive under urethane anesthesia. In addition, the microdrive was efficient in detecting neural signals from mice that were moving freely. Thus, the present study suggests that the PZT-based microdrive could be an alternative for the efficient detection of neural signals from mice during behavioral states without any stress to the mice. (technical note)

  18. ESR signals in quartz for the studies of earth surface processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Toyoda, S.; Shimada, A., , Dr; Takada, M.

    2017-12-01

    Various ESR (electron spin resonance) signals are observed in quartz. As they are formed by natural radiation, the signals are useful in dating of geological events, such as volcanic eruption, faulting and sedimentation. It was also found that those paramagnetic defects can be fingerprints of sediments, to be used for studies in sediment provenance. The signal of the E1' center, unpaired electron at an oxygen vacancy, was first used for such studies. A method was proposed to estimate the number of the precursors (oxygen vacancies) from the E1' center intensity. The number of oxygen vacancies in quartz was found to have positive correlation with the crystallization age. Using this feature, studies were quite successful in aeolian dust. It was shown that the sources of aeolian dust deposited in northern part of Japanese Islands were different between in MIS1 and MIS 2. In combination with crystallinity index, the contributions of the dust components from three origins were quantitatively obtained. After these, the provenance studies on river sediments have started where the impurity centers in quartz were employed, which are the Al center, the Ti centers, and the Ge centers. Sediments of Kizu River, Mie to Nara prefectures in Central Japan are most extensively studied. Firstly, it was shown that each of possible sources of granitic quartz around the reaches has respective characteristics in the number of oxygen vacancies and the signal intensities of impurity centers. Secondary, by the artificial mixing experiments, the impurity signal intensities have the values consistent with the mixing ratio of the two samples of quartz with different intensities. At river junctions, the mixing ratios were calculated from the ESR signals. At some locations, the mixing ratio values obtained from one signal were consistent with the ones from another signal while at some locations they were not. The latter inconsistent results would indicate that the river sediments are

  19. Use of signal subtraction methods in ESR dating of burned flint

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Porat, Naomi; Schwarcz, H.P.

    1991-01-01

    Geological samples of chert display some of the characteristics of electron spin resonance (ESR) signals of quartz. When chert is heated in a fireplace, most of these signals are annealed. The signals grow again in fire-heated chert buried in archaeological sites, as a result of internal and external radiation doses. The date of the heating event can be determined from the acquired dose (AD) and the dose rate. The E' and Al signals are best suited for dating. Although many cherts, when heated to a sufficient temperature, acquire a carbon radical (C) signal that largely obscures the E' signal, it can be subtracted from digitized spectra. The E' signal also appears to saturate at relatively low doses, restricting the time range of dating to between 200 and 600 ka, depending on the dose rates. The Al signal shows no saturation, but is also interfered with by organic signals, present in burnt and unburned flint. These can also be subtracted to reveal the ''pure'' Al signal. Applying the E' signal to date flint from Yabroud, we obtain an age between 100 and 125 ka, while both thermoluminescence (TL) dating of the flint and ESR dating of tooth enamel give 195 and 225 ka, respectively; the discrepancy may be due to an overestimate of the α-efficiency. At Nahr Ibrahim, the age (c. 80 ka) is consistent with archaeological estimates. (author)

  20. Histologic correlation of MR signal intensity in parathyroid adenomas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rumancik, W.M.; Khan, A.; Mir, R.N.; Attie, J.N.; Davis, J.E.; Ashtari, M.; Herman, P.G.

    1988-01-01

    The classic MR signal intensity pattern of parathyroid adenoma (PTA) is bright enhancement on T2-weighted images. However, variations in SI pattern have been observed in clinical practice. The purpose of this report is to describe the histologic characteristics of surgically removed PTAs as correlated with their in vivo MR imaging appearance. From May 1987 to April 1988, 51 consecutive patients with primary hyperparathyroidism were evaluated with MR imaging for preoperative localization of PTA. Surgical confirmation was obtained in all patients, with histologic evaluation available in 40. MR imaging was performed on 1.0-T system (Siemens, Magnetom) using a Helmhotz surface coil positioned at the neck. Spin-echo T1-weighted and T2-weighted multisection images were evaluated retrospectively. Signal intensities of PTA, adjacent thyroid, fat, and skeletal muscle were obtained (1) from direct region of interest determinations, and (2) visually as respective relationships of PTA to thyroid, fat, and muscle. Histologic classification was graded for (1) predominant cell type (i.e., chief or oxyphil cells), (2) acinar or solid growth pattern, (3) cystic change, (4) presence or absence of residual fat, (5) cell count per high power field, (6) heterogeneous histology, (7) gland weight, and (8) giant size (≥3 cm). The relationship of MR signal intensity to histology appears multifactorial

  1. Generalized Hurst exponent estimates differentiate EEG signals of healthy and epileptic patients

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lahmiri, Salim

    2018-01-01

    The aim of our current study is to check whether multifractal patterns of the electroencephalographic (EEG) signals of normal and epileptic patients are statistically similar or different. In this regard, the generalized Hurst exponent (GHE) method is used for robust estimation of the multifractals in each type of EEG signals, and three powerful statistical tests are performed to check existence of differences between estimated GHEs from healthy control subjects and epileptic patients. The obtained results show that multifractals exist in both types of EEG signals. Particularly, it was found that the degree of fractal is more pronounced in short variations of normal EEG signals than in short variations of EEG signals with seizure free intervals. In contrary, it is more pronounced in long variations of EEG signals with seizure free intervals than in normal EEG signals. Importantly, both parametric and nonparametric statistical tests show strong evidence that estimated GHEs of normal EEG signals are statistically and significantly different from those with seizure free intervals. Therefore, GHEs can be efficiently used to distinguish between healthy and patients suffering from epilepsy.

  2. Magnetic effects in the paraxial regime of elastic electron scattering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edström, Alexander; Lubk, Axel; Rusz, Ján

    2016-11-01

    Motivated by a recent claim [Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 127203 (2016), 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.127203] that electron vortex beams can be used to image magnetism at the nanoscale in elastic scattering experiments, using transmission electron microscopy, a comprehensive computational study is performed to study magnetic effects in the paraxial regime of elastic electron scattering in magnetic solids. Magnetic interactions from electron vortex beams, spin polarized electron beams, and beams with phase aberrations are considered, as they pass through ferromagnetic FePt or antiferromagnetic LaMnAsO. The magnetic signals are obtained by comparing the intensity over a disk in the diffraction plane for beams with opposite angular momentum or aberrations. The strongest magnetic signals are obtained from vortex beams with large orbital angular momentum, where relative magnetic signals above 10-3 are indicated for 10 ℏ orbital angular momentum, meaning that relative signals of one percent could be expected with the even larger orbital angular momenta, which have been produced in experimental setups. All results indicate that beams with low acceleration voltage and small convergence angles yield stronger magnetic signals, which is unfortunately problematic for the possibility of high spatial resolution imaging. Nevertheless, under atomic resolution conditions, relative magnetic signals in the order of 10-4 are demonstrated, corresponding to an increase with one order of magnitude compared to previous work.

  3. Tensor product of no-signaling boxes in the framework of quantum logics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tylec, T I; Kuś, M

    2017-01-01

    In the quantum logic framework we show that the no-signaling box model is a particular type of tensor product with single box logics. Such notion of a tensor product is too strong to apply in the category of logics of quantum mechanical systems. In the light of the obtained results, the statement that no-signaling box models are generalizations of quantum models is questionable. (letter)

  4. Time difference of arrival estimation of microseismic signals based on alpha-stable distribution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jia, Rui-Sheng; Gong, Yue; Peng, Yan-Jun; Sun, Hong-Mei; Zhang, Xing-Li; Lu, Xin-Ming

    2018-05-01

    Microseismic signals are generally considered to follow the Gauss distribution. A comparison of the dynamic characteristics of sample variance and the symmetry of microseismic signals with the signals which follow α-stable distribution reveals that the microseismic signals have obvious pulse characteristics and that the probability density curve of the microseismic signal is approximately symmetric. Thus, the hypothesis that microseismic signals follow the symmetric α-stable distribution is proposed. On the premise of this hypothesis, the characteristic exponent α of the microseismic signals is obtained by utilizing the fractional low-order statistics, and then a new method of time difference of arrival (TDOA) estimation of microseismic signals based on fractional low-order covariance (FLOC) is proposed. Upon applying this method to the TDOA estimation of Ricker wavelet simulation signals and real microseismic signals, experimental results show that the FLOC method, which is based on the assumption of the symmetric α-stable distribution, leads to enhanced spatial resolution of the TDOA estimation relative to the generalized cross correlation (GCC) method, which is based on the assumption of the Gaussian distribution.

  5. Manipulating potential wells in Logical Stochastic Resonance to obtain XOR logic

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Storni, Remo; Ando, Hiroyasu; Aihara, Kazuyuki; Murali, K.; Sinha, Sudeshna

    2012-01-01

    Logical Stochastic Resonance (LSR) is the application of Stochastic Resonance to logic computation, namely the phenomenon where a nonlinear system driven by weak signals representing logic inputs, under optimal noise, can yield logic outputs. We extend the existing results, obtained in the context of bistable systems, to multi-stable dynamical systems, allowing us to obtain XOR logic, in addition to the AND (NAND) and OR (NOR) logic observed in earlier studies. This strategy widens the scope of LSR from the application point of view, as XOR forms the basis of ubiquitous bit-by-bit addition, and conceptually, showing the ability to yield non-monotonic input–output logic associations. -- Highlights: ► We generalize Logical Stochastic Resonance from bistable to multi-stable systems. ► We propose a tristable dynamical system formed of piecewise linear functions. ► The system can correctly reproduce XOR logic behavior using the LSR principle. ► The system yields different logic behavior without the need to change the dynamics.

  6. Signaling aggression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Staaden, Moira J; Searcy, William A; Hanlon, Roger T

    2011-01-01

    From psychological and sociological standpoints, aggression is regarded as intentional behavior aimed at inflicting pain and manifested by hostility and attacking behaviors. In contrast, biologists define aggression as behavior associated with attack or escalation toward attack, omitting any stipulation about intentions and goals. Certain animal signals are strongly associated with escalation toward attack and have the same function as physical attack in intimidating opponents and winning contests, and ethologists therefore consider them an integral part of aggressive behavior. Aggressive signals have been molded by evolution to make them ever more effective in mediating interactions between the contestants. Early theoretical analyses of aggressive signaling suggested that signals could never be honest about fighting ability or aggressive intentions because weak individuals would exaggerate such signals whenever they were effective in influencing the behavior of opponents. More recent game theory models, however, demonstrate that given the right costs and constraints, aggressive signals are both reliable about strength and intentions and effective in influencing contest outcomes. Here, we review the role of signaling in lieu of physical violence, considering threat displays from an ethological perspective as an adaptive outcome of evolutionary selection pressures. Fighting prowess is conveyed by performance signals whose production is constrained by physical ability and thus limited to just some individuals, whereas aggressive intent is encoded in strategic signals that all signalers are able to produce. We illustrate recent advances in the study of aggressive signaling with case studies of charismatic taxa that employ a range of sensory modalities, viz. visual and chemical signaling in cephalopod behavior, and indicators of aggressive intent in the territorial calls of songbirds. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Detection of driving fatigue by using noncontact EMG and ECG signals measurement system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fu, Rongrong; Wang, Hong

    2014-05-01

    Driver fatigue can be detected by constructing a discriminant mode using some features obtained from physiological signals. There exist two major challenges of this kind of methods. One is how to collect physiological signals from subjects while they are driving without any interruption. The other is to find features of physiological signals that are of corresponding change with the loss of attention caused by driver fatigue. Driving fatigue is detected based on the study of surface electromyography (EMG) and electrocardiograph (ECG) during the driving period. The noncontact data acquisition system was used to collect physiological signals from the biceps femoris of each subject to tackle the first challenge. Fast independent component analysis (FastICA) and digital filter were utilized to process the original signals. Based on the statistical analysis results given by Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z test, the peak factor of EMG (p fatigue of drivers. The discriminant criterion of fatigue was obtained from the training samples by using Mahalanobis distance, and then the average classification accuracy was given by 10-fold cross-validation. The results showed that the method proposed in this paper can give well performance in distinguishing the normal state and fatigue state. The noncontact, onboard vehicle drivers' fatigue detection system was developed to reduce fatigue-related risks.

  8. Nonreciprocal signal routing in an active quantum network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Metelmann, A.; Türeci, H. E.

    2018-04-01

    As superconductor quantum technologies are moving towards large-scale integrated circuits, a robust and flexible approach to routing photons at the quantum level becomes a critical problem. Active circuits, which contain parametrically driven elements selectively embedded in the circuit, offer a viable solution. Here, we present a general strategy for routing nonreciprocally quantum signals between two sites of a given lattice of oscillators, implementable with existing superconducting circuit components. Our approach makes use of a dual lattice of overdamped oscillators linking the nodes of the main lattice. Solutions for spatially selective driving of the lattice elements can be found, which optimally balance coherent and dissipative hopping of microwave photons to nonreciprocally route signals between two given nodes. In certain lattices these optimal solutions are obtained at the exceptional point of the dynamical matrix of the network. We also demonstrate that signal and noise transmission characteristics can be separately optimized.

  9. Detecting early warning signals of tree mortality in boreal North America using multiscale satellite data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rogers, Brendan M; Solvik, Kylen; Hogg, Edward H; Ju, Junchang; Masek, Jeffrey G; Michaelian, Michael; Berner, Logan T; Goetz, Scott J

    2018-02-26

    Increasing tree mortality from global change drivers such as drought and biotic infestations is a widespread phenomenon, including in the boreal zone where climate changes and feedbacks to the Earth system are relatively large. Despite the importance for science and management communities, our ability to forecast tree mortality at landscape to continental scales is limited. However, two independent information streams have the potential to inform and improve mortality forecasts: repeat forest inventories and satellite remote sensing. Time series of tree-level growth patterns indicate that productivity declines and related temporal dynamics often precede mortality years to decades before death. Plot-level productivity, in turn, has been related to satellite-based indices such as the Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Here we link these two data sources to show that early warning signals of mortality are evident in several NDVI-based metrics up to 24 years before death. We focus on two repeat forest inventories and three NDVI products across western boreal North America where productivity and mortality dynamics are influenced by periodic drought. These data sources capture a range of forest conditions and spatial resolution to highlight the sensitivity and limitations of our approach. Overall, results indicate potential to use satellite NDVI for early warning signals of mortality. Relationships are broadly consistent across inventories, species, and spatial resolutions, although the utility of coarse-scale imagery in the heterogeneous aspen parkland was limited. Longer-term NDVI data and annually remeasured sites with high mortality levels generate the strongest signals, although we still found robust relationships at sites remeasured at a typical 5 year frequency. The approach and relationships developed here can be used as a basis for improving forest mortality models and monitoring systems. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  10. Robust power detector for wideband signals among many single tone signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Musgrove, Cameron H.; Thompson, Douglas

    2018-03-06

    Various technologies for isolating a signal of interest from signals received contemporaneously by an antenna are described herein. A time period for which a signal of interest is present in a second signal can be identified based upon ratios of values of the second signal to the mean value of the second signal. When the ratio of the value of the second signal at a particular time to the mean of the second signal exceeds a threshold value, the signal of interest is considered to be present in the second signal.

  11. Characterization of Harmonic Signal Acquisition with Parallel Dipole and Multipole Detectors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Sung-Gun; Anderson, Gordon A.; Bruce, James E.

    2018-04-01

    Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS) is a powerful instrument for the study of complex biological samples due to its high resolution and mass measurement accuracy. However, the relatively long signal acquisition periods needed to achieve high resolution can serve to limit applications of FTICR-MS. The use of multiple pairs of detector electrodes enables detection of harmonic frequencies present at integer multiples of the fundamental cyclotron frequency, and the obtained resolving power for a given acquisition period increases linearly with the order of harmonic signal. However, harmonic signal detection also increases spectral complexity and presents challenges for interpretation. In the present work, ICR cells with independent dipole and harmonic detection electrodes and preamplifiers are demonstrated. A benefit of this approach is the ability to independently acquire fundamental and multiple harmonic signals in parallel using the same ions under identical conditions, enabling direct comparison of achieved performance as parameters are varied. Spectra from harmonic signals showed generally higher resolving power than spectra acquired with fundamental signals and equal signal duration. In addition, the maximum observed signal to noise (S/N) ratio from harmonic signals exceeded that of fundamental signals by 50 to 100%. Finally, parallel detection of fundamental and harmonic signals enables deconvolution of overlapping harmonic signals since observed fundamental frequencies can be used to unambiguously calculate all possible harmonic frequencies. Thus, the present application of parallel fundamental and harmonic signal acquisition offers a general approach to improve utilization of harmonic signals to yield high-resolution spectra with decreased acquisition time. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

  12. Salicylic acid signaling inhibits apoplastic reactive oxygen species signaling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Enjun; Brosché, Mikael

    2014-06-04

    Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are used by plants as signaling molecules during stress and development. Given the amount of possible challenges a plant face from their environment, plants need to activate and prioritize between potentially conflicting defense signaling pathways. Until recently, most studies on signal interactions have focused on phytohormone interaction, such as the antagonistic relationship between salicylic acid (SA)-jasmonic acid and cytokinin-auxin. In this study, we report an antagonistic interaction between SA signaling and apoplastic ROS signaling. Treatment with ozone (O3) leads to a ROS burst in the apoplast and induces extensive changes in gene expression and elevation of defense hormones. However, Arabidopsis thaliana dnd1 (defense no death1) exhibited an attenuated response to O3. In addition, the dnd1 mutant displayed constitutive expression of defense genes and spontaneous cell death. To determine the exact process which blocks the apoplastic ROS signaling, double and triple mutants involved in various signaling pathway were generated in dnd1 background. Simultaneous elimination of SA-dependent and SA-independent signaling components from dnd1 restored its responsiveness to O3. Conversely, pre-treatment of plants with SA or using mutants that constitutively activate SA signaling led to an attenuation of changes in gene expression elicited by O3. Based upon these findings, we conclude that plants are able to prioritize the response between ROS and SA via an antagonistic action of SA and SA signaling on apoplastic ROS signaling.

  13. Improved wavelet packet classification algorithm for vibrational intrusions in distributed fiber-optic monitoring systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Bingjie; Pi, Shaohua; Sun, Qi; Jia, Bo

    2015-05-01

    An improved classification algorithm that considers multiscale wavelet packet Shannon entropy is proposed. Decomposition coefficients at all levels are obtained to build the initial Shannon entropy feature vector. After subtracting the Shannon entropy map of the background signal, components of the strongest discriminating power in the initial feature vector are picked out to rebuild the Shannon entropy feature vector, which is transferred to radial basis function (RBF) neural network for classification. Four types of man-made vibrational intrusion signals are recorded based on a modified Sagnac interferometer. The performance of the improved classification algorithm has been evaluated by the classification experiments via RBF neural network under different diffusion coefficients. An 85% classification accuracy rate is achieved, which is higher than the other common algorithms. The classification results show that this improved classification algorithm can be used to classify vibrational intrusion signals in an automatic real-time monitoring system.

  14. Metagenome-based diversity analyses suggest a strong locality signal for bacterial communities associated with oyster aquaculture farms in Ofunato Bay

    KAUST Repository

    Kobiyama, Atsushi

    2018-04-30

    Ofunato Bay, in Japan, is the home of buoy-and-rope-type oyster aquaculture activities. Since the oysters filter suspended materials and excrete organic matter into the seawater, bacterial communities residing in its vicinity may show dynamic changes depending on the oyster culture activities. We employed a shotgun metagenomic technique to study bacterial communities near oyster aquaculture facilities at the center of the bay (KSt. 2) and compared the results with those of two other localities far from the station, one to the northeast (innermost bay, KSt. 1) and the other to the southwest (bay entrance, KSt. 3). Seawater samples were collected every month from January to December 2015 from the surface (1 m) and deeper (8 or 10 m) layers of the three locations, and the sequentially filtered fraction on 0.2-μm membranes was sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq system. The acquired reads were uploaded to MG-RAST for KEGG functional abundance analysis, while taxonomic analyses at the phylum and genus levels were performed using MEGAN after parsing the BLAST output. Discrimination analyses were then performed using the ROC-AUC value of the cross validation, targeting the depth (shallow or deep), locality [(KSt. 1 + KSt. 2) vs. KSt 3; (KSt. 1 + KSt. 3) vs. KSt. 2 or the (KSt. 2 + KSt. 3) vs. KSt. 1] and seasonality (12 months). The matrix discrimination analysis on the adjacent 2 continuous seasons by ROC-AUC, which was based on the datasets that originated from different depths, localities and months, showed the strongest discrimination signal on the taxonomy matrix at the phylum level for the datasets from July to August compared with those from September to June, while the KEGG matrix showed the strongest signal for the datasets from March to June compared with those from July to February. Then, the locality combination was subjected to the same ROC-AUC discrimination analysis, resulting in significant differences between KSt. 2 and KSt. 1 + KSt. 3

  15. Metagenome-based diversity analyses suggest a strong locality signal for bacterial communities associated with oyster aquaculture farms in Ofunato Bay

    KAUST Repository

    Kobiyama, Atsushi; Ikeo, Kazuho; Reza, Md. Shaheed; Rashid, Jonaira; Yamada, Yuichiro; Ikeda, Yuri; Ikeda, Daisuke; Mizusawa, Nanami; Sato, Shigeru; Ogata, Takehiko; Jimbo, Mitsuru; Kudo, Toshiaki; Kaga, Shinnosuke; Watanabe, Shiho; Naiki, Kimiaki; Kaga, Yoshimasa; Mineta, Katsuhiko; Bajic, Vladimir B.; Gojobori, Takashi; Watabe, Shugo

    2018-01-01

    Ofunato Bay, in Japan, is the home of buoy-and-rope-type oyster aquaculture activities. Since the oysters filter suspended materials and excrete organic matter into the seawater, bacterial communities residing in its vicinity may show dynamic changes depending on the oyster culture activities. We employed a shotgun metagenomic technique to study bacterial communities near oyster aquaculture facilities at the center of the bay (KSt. 2) and compared the results with those of two other localities far from the station, one to the northeast (innermost bay, KSt. 1) and the other to the southwest (bay entrance, KSt. 3). Seawater samples were collected every month from January to December 2015 from the surface (1 m) and deeper (8 or 10 m) layers of the three locations, and the sequentially filtered fraction on 0.2-μm membranes was sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq system. The acquired reads were uploaded to MG-RAST for KEGG functional abundance analysis, while taxonomic analyses at the phylum and genus levels were performed using MEGAN after parsing the BLAST output. Discrimination analyses were then performed using the ROC-AUC value of the cross validation, targeting the depth (shallow or deep), locality [(KSt. 1 + KSt. 2) vs. KSt 3; (KSt. 1 + KSt. 3) vs. KSt. 2 or the (KSt. 2 + KSt. 3) vs. KSt. 1] and seasonality (12 months). The matrix discrimination analysis on the adjacent 2 continuous seasons by ROC-AUC, which was based on the datasets that originated from different depths, localities and months, showed the strongest discrimination signal on the taxonomy matrix at the phylum level for the datasets from July to August compared with those from September to June, while the KEGG matrix showed the strongest signal for the datasets from March to June compared with those from July to February. Then, the locality combination was subjected to the same ROC-AUC discrimination analysis, resulting in significant differences between KSt. 2 and KSt. 1 + KSt. 3

  16. Statistical-uncertainty-based adaptive filtering of lidar signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fuehrer, P. L.; Friehe, C. A.; Hristov, T. S.; Cooper, D. I.; Eichinger, W. E.

    2000-01-01

    An adaptive filter signal processing technique is developed to overcome the problem of Raman lidar water-vapor mixing ratio (the ratio of the water-vapor density to the dry-air density) with a highly variable statistical uncertainty that increases with decreasing photomultiplier-tube signal strength and masks the true desired water-vapor structure. The technique, applied to horizontal scans, assumes only statistical horizontal homogeneity. The result is a variable spatial resolution water-vapor signal with a constant variance out to a range limit set by a specified signal-to-noise ratio. The technique was applied to Raman water-vapor lidar data obtained at a coastal pier site together with in situ instruments located 320 m from the lidar. The micrometerological humidity data were used to calibrate the ratio of the lidar gains of the H 2 O and the N 2 photomultiplier tubes and set the water-vapor mixing ratio variance for the adaptive filter. For the coastal experiment the effective limit of the lidar range was found to be approximately 200 m for a maximum noise-to-signal variance ratio of 0.1 with the implemented data-reduction procedure. The technique can be adapted to off-horizontal scans with a small reduction in the constraints and is also applicable to other remote-sensing devices that exhibit the same inherent range-dependent signal-to-noise ratio problem. (c) 2000 Optical Society of America

  17. Bayesian spatial filters for source signal extraction: a study in the peripheral nerve.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Y; Wodlinger, B; Durand, D M

    2014-03-01

    The ability to extract physiological source signals to control various prosthetics offer tremendous therapeutic potential to improve the quality of life for patients suffering from motor disabilities. Regardless of the modality, recordings of physiological source signals are contaminated with noise and interference along with crosstalk between the sources. These impediments render the task of isolating potential physiological source signals for control difficult. In this paper, a novel Bayesian Source Filter for signal Extraction (BSFE) algorithm for extracting physiological source signals for control is presented. The BSFE algorithm is based on the source localization method Champagne and constructs spatial filters using Bayesian methods that simultaneously maximize the signal to noise ratio of the recovered source signal of interest while minimizing crosstalk interference between sources. When evaluated over peripheral nerve recordings obtained in vivo, the algorithm achieved the highest signal to noise interference ratio ( 7.00 ±3.45 dB) amongst the group of methodologies compared with average correlation between the extracted source signal and the original source signal R = 0.93. The results support the efficacy of the BSFE algorithm for extracting source signals from the peripheral nerve.

  18. Acquisition and deconvolution of seismic signals by different methods to perform direct ground-force measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poletto, Flavio; Schleifer, Andrea; Zgauc, Franco; Meneghini, Fabio; Petronio, Lorenzo

    2016-12-01

    We present the results of a novel borehole-seismic experiment in which we used different types of onshore-transient-impulsive and non-impulsive-surface sources together with direct ground-force recordings. The ground-force signals were obtained by baseplate load cells located beneath the sources, and by buried soil-stress sensors installed in the very shallow-subsurface together with accelerometers. The aim was to characterize the source's emission by its complex impedance, function of the near-field vibrations and soil stress components, and above all to obtain appropriate deconvolution operators to remove the signature of the sources in the far-field seismic signals. The data analysis shows the differences in the reference measurements utilized to deconvolve the source signature. As downgoing waves, we process the signals of vertical seismic profiles (VSP) recorded in the far-field approximation by an array of permanent geophones cemented at shallow-medium depth outside the casing of an instrumented well. We obtain a significant improvement in the waveform of the radiated seismic-vibrator signals deconvolved by ground force, similar to that of the seismograms generated by the impulsive sources, and demonstrates that the results obtained by different sources present low values in their repeatability norm. The comparison evidences the potentiality of the direct ground-force measurement approach to effectively remove the far-field source signature in VSP onshore data, and to increase the performance of permanent acquisition installations for time-lapse application purposes.

  19. 2D biological representations with reduced speckle obtained from two perpendicular ultrasonic arrays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodriguez-Hernandez, Miguel A; Gomez-Sacristan, Angel; Sempere-Payá, Víctor M

    2016-04-29

    Ultrasound diagnosis is a widely used medical tool. Among the various ultrasound techniques, ultrasonic imaging is particularly relevant. This paper presents an improvement to a two-dimensional (2D) ultrasonic system using measurements taken from perpendicular planes, where digital signal processing techniques are used to combine one-dimensional (1D) A-scans were acquired by individual transducers in arrays located in perpendicular planes. An algorithm used to combine measurements is improved based on the wavelet transform, which includes a denoising step during the 2D representation generation process. The inclusion of this new denoising stage generates higher quality 2D representations with a reduced level of speckling. The paper includes different 2D representations obtained from noisy A-scans and compares the improvements obtained by including the denoising stage.

  20. APPLICATION OF COMPENSATION METHOD FOR SEPARATION USEFUL SIGNAL AND INTERFERENCE FROM NEARBY SOURCES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Based on the comparative analysis of the known methods of noise suppression the ratios for the angular measurements are obtained. A mathematical model experiment to estimate the dependence of measurement error on the relative position of interference source and useful signal has been conducted. The modified method of interfer- ence compensation is tested experimentally. The analysis of obtained angular measurements for the considered methods shows that the modified method of compensation allows obtaining more precise estimates. The analyzed methodsallow considerably eliminating the useful signal from the antenna additional channel which reduces errors of angular misalignment.To determine the degree of the radar error analytically is not always possible, and in future comparison of the ef- fectiveness of various methods of interference compensation will be expected to conduct by means of mathematical model-ing of radar closed contour.

  1. Filtration of the FMICW radar output signals by the advanced windows

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Filtration of the FMICW radar output signals by the advanced windows. ... PROMOTING ACCESS TO AFRICAN RESEARCH ... This paper deals with the special types of windows application on the two dimensional spectrum obtained using the ...

  2. Optimal Signal Quality Index for Photoplethysmogram Signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohamed Elgendi

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available A photoplethysmogram (PPG is a noninvasive circulatory signal related to the pulsatile volume of blood in tissue and is typically collected by pulse oximeters. PPG signals collected via mobile devices are prone to artifacts that negatively impact measurement accuracy, which can lead to a significant number of misleading diagnoses. Given the rapidly increased use of mobile devices to collect PPG signals, developing an optimal signal quality index (SQI is essential to classify the signal quality from these devices. Eight SQIs were developed and tested based on: perfusion, kurtosis, skewness, relative power, non-stationarity, zero crossing, entropy, and the matching of systolic wave detectors. Two independent annotators annotated all PPG data (106 recordings, 60 s each and a third expert conducted the adjudication of differences. The independent annotators labeled each PPG signal with one of the following labels: excellent, acceptable or unfit for diagnosis. All indices were compared using Mahalanobis distance, linear discriminant analysis, quadratic discriminant analysis, and support vector machine with leave-one-out cross-validation. The skewness index outperformed the other seven indices in differentiating between excellent PPG and acceptable, acceptable combined with unfit, and unfit recordings, with overall F 1 scores of 86.0%, 87.2%, and 79.1%, respectively.

  3. Optimal Signal Quality Index for Photoplethysmogram Signals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elgendi, Mohamed

    2016-09-22

    A photoplethysmogram (PPG) is a noninvasive circulatory signal related to the pulsatile volume of blood in tissue and is typically collected by pulse oximeters. PPG signals collected via mobile devices are prone to artifacts that negatively impact measurement accuracy, which can lead to a significant number of misleading diagnoses. Given the rapidly increased use of mobile devices to collect PPG signals, developing an optimal signal quality index (SQI) is essential to classify the signal quality from these devices. Eight SQIs were developed and tested based on: perfusion, kurtosis, skewness, relative power, non-stationarity, zero crossing, entropy, and the matching of systolic wave detectors. Two independent annotators annotated all PPG data (106 recordings, 60 s each) and a third expert conducted the adjudication of differences. The independent annotators labeled each PPG signal with one of the following labels: excellent, acceptable or unfit for diagnosis. All indices were compared using Mahalanobis distance, linear discriminant analysis, quadratic discriminant analysis, and support vector machine with leave-one-out cross-validation. The skewness index outperformed the other seven indices in differentiating between excellent PPG and acceptable, acceptable combined with unfit, and unfit recordings, with overall F 1 scores of 86.0%, 87.2%, and 79.1%, respectively.

  4. Accurate measurement of imaging photoplethysmographic signals based camera using weighted average

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pang, Zongguang; Kong, Lingqin; Zhao, Yuejin; Sun, Huijuan; Dong, Liquan; Hui, Mei; Liu, Ming; Liu, Xiaohua; Liu, Lingling; Li, Xiaohui; Li, Rongji

    2018-01-01

    Imaging Photoplethysmography (IPPG) is an emerging technique for the extraction of vital signs of human being using video recordings. IPPG technology with its advantages like non-contact measurement, low cost and easy operation has become one research hot spot in the field of biomedicine. However, the noise disturbance caused by non-microarterial area cannot be removed because of the uneven distribution of micro-arterial, different signal strength of each region, which results in a low signal noise ratio of IPPG signals and low accuracy of heart rate. In this paper, we propose a method of improving the signal noise ratio of camera-based IPPG signals of each sub-region of the face using a weighted average. Firstly, we obtain the region of interest (ROI) of a subject's face based camera. Secondly, each region of interest is tracked and feature-based matched in each frame of the video. Each tracked region of face is divided into 60x60 pixel block. Thirdly, the weights of PPG signal of each sub-region are calculated, based on the signal-to-noise ratio of each sub-region. Finally, we combine the IPPG signal from all the tracked ROI using weighted average. Compared with the existing approaches, the result shows that the proposed method takes modest but significant effects on improvement of signal noise ratio of camera-based PPG estimated and accuracy of heart rate measurement.

  5. Signal Words

    Science.gov (United States)

    SIGNAL WORDS TOPIC FACT SHEET NPIC fact sheets are designed to answer questions that are commonly asked by the ... making decisions about pesticide use. What are Signal Words? Signal words are found on pesticide product labels, ...

  6. Optimizing the top quark signal to background ratio at hadron colliders

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Field, R.D.; Kanev, Y.; Tayebnejad, M.

    1996-01-01

    We investigate the event signature of the ell νb bar bq bar q decay mode of top-pair production in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.8 TeV. Neural networks and Fisher discriminates are used in conjunction with modified Fox-Wolfram open-quotes shapeclose quotes variables to help distinguish the top-pair signal from the W + jets and b bar b+jets background. Instead of requiring at least four jets in the event, we find that it is faster and better to simply cut on the number of calorimeter cells with transverse energy greater than some minimum. By combining these cell cuts with the event shape information, we are able to obtain a signal to background ratio of around 9 while keeping 30% of the signal. This corresponds to a signal to background enhancement of around 370

  7. Robust regularized least-squares beamforming approach to signal estimation

    KAUST Repository

    Suliman, Mohamed Abdalla Elhag

    2017-05-12

    In this paper, we address the problem of robust adaptive beamforming of signals received by a linear array. The challenge associated with the beamforming problem is twofold. Firstly, the process requires the inversion of the usually ill-conditioned covariance matrix of the received signals. Secondly, the steering vector pertaining to the direction of arrival of the signal of interest is not known precisely. To tackle these two challenges, the standard capon beamformer is manipulated to a form where the beamformer output is obtained as a scaled version of the inner product of two vectors. The two vectors are linearly related to the steering vector and the received signal snapshot, respectively. The linear operator, in both cases, is the square root of the covariance matrix. A regularized least-squares (RLS) approach is proposed to estimate these two vectors and to provide robustness without exploiting prior information. Simulation results show that the RLS beamformer using the proposed regularization algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art beamforming algorithms, as well as another RLS beamformers using a standard regularization approaches.

  8. Sensor response time calculation with no stationary signals from a Nuclear Power Plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vela, O.; Vallejo, I.

    1998-01-01

    Protection systems in a Nuclear Power Plant have to response in a specific time fixed by design requirements. This time includes the event detection (sensor delay) and the actuation time system. This time is obtained in refuel simulating the physics event, which trigger the protection system, with an electric signal and measuring the protection system actuation time. Nowadays sensor delay is calculated with noise analysis techniques. The signals are measured in Control Room during the normal operation of the Plant, decreasing both the cost in time and personal radioactive exposure. The noise analysis techniques require stationary signals but normally the data collected are mixed with process signals that are no stationary. This work shows the signals processing to avoid no-stationary components using conventional filters and new wavelets analysis. (Author) 2 refs

  9. Impact of the Test Device on the Behavior of the Acoustic Emission Signals: Contribution of the Numerical Modeling to Signal Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Issiaka Traore, Oumar; Cristini, Paul; Favretto-Cristini, Nathalie; Pantera, Laurent; Viguier-Pla, Sylvie

    2018-01-01

    In a context of nuclear safety experiment monitoring with the non destructive testing method of acoustic emission, we study the impact of the test device on the interpretation of the recorded physical signals by using spectral finite element modeling. The numerical results are validated by comparison with real acoustic emission data obtained from previous experiments. The results show that several parameters can have significant impacts on acoustic wave propagation and then on the interpretation of the physical signals. The potential position of the source mechanism, the positions of the receivers and the nature of the coolant fluid have to be taken into account in the definition a pre-processing strategy of the real acoustic emission signals. In order to show the relevance of such an approach, we use the results to propose an optimization of the positions of the acoustic emission sensors in order to reduce the estimation bias of the time-delay and then improve the localization of the source mechanisms.

  10. Application of Data Smoothing Method in Signal Processing for Vortex Flow Meters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhang Jun

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Vortex flow meter is typical flow measure equipment. Its measurement output signals can easily be impaired by environmental conditions. In order to obtain an improved estimate of the time-averaged velocity from the vortex flow meter, a signal filter method is applied in this paper. The method is based on a simple Savitzky-Golay smoothing filter algorithm. According with the algorithm, a numerical program is developed in Python with the scientific library numerical Numpy. Two sample data sets are processed through the program. The results demonstrate that the processed data is available accepted compared with the original data. The improved data of the time-averaged velocity is obtained within smoothing curves. Finally the simple data smoothing program is useable and stable for this filter.

  11. New luminescence lines in nanodiamonds obtained by chemical vapor deposition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Golubev, V. G.; Grudinkin, S. A.; Davydov, V. Yu.; Smirnov, A. N.; Feoktistov, N. A.

    2017-12-01

    The spectral characteristics of the photoluminescence lines detected for nanodiamonds obtained by the reactive ion etching of diamond particles in oxygen plasma, deposited by chemical vapor deposition on a silicon substrate, are studied. At room temperature, narrow lines are observed in the visible and infrared spectral regions, with a full width at half-maximum in the range of 1-2 nm at an almost complete absence of a broadband photoluminescence background signal. At decreasing temperature, the lines narrowed to 0.2-0.6 nm at T = 79 K, and the minimum line width was 0.055 nm at T = 10 K. With increasing temperature, the narrow lines shifted to the long-wavelength region of the spectrum, and their intensity decreased.

  12. HgI2 nanostructures obtained hydrothermally for application in ionizing radiation detection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pérez Barthaburu, María; Bentos Pereira, Heinkel; Fornaro, Laura; Galain, Isabel; Aguiar, Ivana

    2016-01-01

    The compound semiconductor HgI 2 has been widely studied and employed as a material for ionizing radiation detection. Monocrystal growth is an intricate method for obtaining materials for this application. With the aim of finding a simpler and more effective way to develop ionizing radiation detectors, we employed HgI 2 nanostructures subjected to a hydrothermal treatment and then pressed for this purpose. In the synthesis procedure, aqueous solutions of Hg(NO 3 ) 2 and NaI were mixed until their reaction completed and the suspension obtained was then placed in a homemade autoclave and heated at 120 °C for 2, 10 or 24 h. We confirmed the HgI 2 tetragonal phase by powder XRD in all cases, independently of the synthesis conditions employed. Nanoparticles were characterized by their size and morphology by TEM. We used the HgI 2 nanostructures to obtain a pellet by applying 0.7 GPa of pressure at room temperature. The pellet was then used to construct the detector, and we studied the electrical properties of the detector and its response to 241 Am sources of different exposure rates. The resistivity and signal-to-noise ratio obtained are of the order of those reported for HgI 2 detectors assembled with monocrystals. The results obtained in this work encourage us to work further on this topic, improving the method, scaling the detector’s size and studying its spectrometric grade. (paper)

  13. Integrated Enrichment Analysis of Variants and Pathways in Genome-Wide Association Studies Indicates Central Role for IL-2 Signaling Genes in Type 1 Diabetes, and Cytokine Signaling Genes in Crohn's Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carbonetto, Peter; Stephens, Matthew

    2013-01-01

    Pathway analyses of genome-wide association studies aggregate information over sets of related genes, such as genes in common pathways, to identify gene sets that are enriched for variants associated with disease. We develop a model-based approach to pathway analysis, and apply this approach to data from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC) studies. Our method offers several benefits over existing approaches. First, our method not only interrogates pathways for enrichment of disease associations, but also estimates the level of enrichment, which yields a coherent way to promote variants in enriched pathways, enhancing discovery of genes underlying disease. Second, our approach allows for multiple enriched pathways, a feature that leads to novel findings in two diseases where the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a major determinant of disease susceptibility. Third, by modeling disease as the combined effect of multiple markers, our method automatically accounts for linkage disequilibrium among variants. Interrogation of pathways from eight pathway databases yields strong support for enriched pathways, indicating links between Crohn's disease (CD) and cytokine-driven networks that modulate immune responses; between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and “Measles” pathway genes involved in immune responses triggered by measles infection; and between type 1 diabetes (T1D) and IL2-mediated signaling genes. Prioritizing variants in these enriched pathways yields many additional putative disease associations compared to analyses without enrichment. For CD and RA, 7 of 8 additional non-MHC associations are corroborated by other studies, providing validation for our approach. For T1D, prioritization of IL-2 signaling genes yields strong evidence for 7 additional non-MHC candidate disease loci, as well as suggestive evidence for several more. Of the 7 strongest associations, 4 are validated by other studies, and 3 (near IL-2 signaling genes RAF1, MAPK14

  14. Presynaptic calcium signalling in cerebellar mossy fibres

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thomsen, Louiza Bohn; Jörntell, Henrik; Midtgaard, Jens

    2010-01-01

    Whole-cell recordings were obtained from mossy fibre terminals in adult turtles in order to characterize the basic membrane properties. Calcium imaging of presynaptic calcium signals was carried out in order to analyse calcium dynamics and presynaptic GABA B inhibition. A tetrodotoxin (TTX......)-sensitive fast Na(+) spike faithfully followed repetitive depolarizing pulses with little change in spike duration or amplitude, while a strong outward rectification dominated responses to long-lasting depolarizations. High-threshold calcium spikes were uncovered following addition of potassium channel blockers....... Calcium imaging using Calcium-Green dextran revealed a stimulus-evoked all-or-none TTX-sensitive calcium signal in simple and complex rosettes. All compartments of a complex rosette were activated during electrical activation of the mossy fibre, while individual simple and complex rosettes along an axon...

  15. Synchronization transmission of laser pattern signal within uncertain switched network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lü, Ling; Li, Chengren; Li, Gang; Sun, Ao; Yan, Zhe; Rong, Tingting; Gao, Yan

    2017-06-01

    We propose a new technology for synchronization transmission of laser pattern signal within uncertain network with controllable topology. In synchronization process, the connection of dynamic network can vary at all time according to different demands. Especially, we construct the Lyapunov function of network through designing a special semi-positive definite function, and the synchronization transmission of laser pattern signal within uncertain network with controllable topology can be realized perfectly, which effectively avoids the complicated calculation for solving the second largest eignvalue of the coupling matrix of the dynamic network in order to obtain the network synchronization condition. At the same time, the uncertain parameters in dynamic equations belonging to network nodes can also be identified accurately via designing the identification laws of uncertain parameters. In addition, there are not any limitations for the synchronization target of network in the new technology, in other words, the target can either be a state variable signal of an arbitrary node within the network or an exterior signal.

  16. A Modified Adaptive Stochastic Resonance for Detecting Faint Signal in Sensors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hengwei Li

    2007-02-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, an approach is presented to detect faint signals with strong noises in sensors by stochastic resonance (SR. We adopt the power spectrum as the evaluation tool of SR, which can be obtained by the fast Fourier transform (FFT. Furthermore, we introduce the adaptive filtering scheme to realize signal processing automatically. The key of the scheme is how to adjust the barrier height to satisfy the optimal condition of SR in the presence of any input. For the given input signal, we present an operable procedure to execute the adjustment scheme. An example utilizing one audio sensor to detect the fault information from the power supply is given. Simulation results show that th

  17. Automated detection of delamination and disbond from wavefield images obtained using a scanning laser vibrometer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sohn, H; Yang, J Y; Dutta, D; DeSimio, M; Olson, S; Swenson, E

    2011-01-01

    The paper presents signal and image processing algorithms to automatically detect delamination and disbond in composite plates from wavefield images obtained using a scanning laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV). Lamb waves are excited by a lead zirconate titanate transducer (PZT) mounted on the surface of a composite plate, and the out-of-plane velocity field is measured using an LDV. From the scanned time signals, wavefield images are constructed and processed to study the interaction of Lamb waves with hidden delaminations and disbonds. In particular, the frequency–wavenumber (f–k) domain filter and the Laplacian image filter are used to enhance the visibility of defects in the scanned images. Thereafter, a statistical cluster detection algorithm is used to identify the defect location and distinguish damaged specimens from undamaged ones

  18. Determination of the X, Y coordinates of a pulsed ultrasonic source of signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sokolov, B.V.; Shemyakin, V.V.

    1975-01-01

    A range of problems in predicting the emergency state of large-scale vessel housings are determined for subsequent solution involving acoustic emission phenomena. The authors specify the position of a given problem and present substantial grounds for selecting the minimum number of group signal receivers for unambiguous calculation of the location of the source. Relationships are obtained between X, Y - the coordinates of the pulse signal source - and experimentally measured time differences in recording of signals by group receivers. A criterion is given for selecting the true signal group combination when the receivers simultaneously record waves from several sources. Specific suggestions are made regarding the experimental information to be stored in a central computer for subsequent processing [ru

  19. Evaluation of cardiac signals using discrete wavelet transform with MATLAB graphical user interface.

    Science.gov (United States)

    John, Agnes Aruna; Subramanian, Aruna Priyadharshni; Jaganathan, Saravana Kumar; Sethuraman, Balasubramanian

    2015-01-01

    To process the electrocardiogram (ECG) signals using MATLAB-based graphical user interface (GUI) and to classify the signals based on heart rate. The subject condition was identified using R-peak detection based on discrete wavelet transform followed by a Bayes classifier that classifies the ECG signals. The GUI was designed to display the ECG signal plot. Obtained from MIT database 18 patients had normal heart rate and 9 patients had abnormal heart rate; 14.81% of the patients suffered from tachycardia and 18.52% of the patients have bradycardia. The proposed GUI display was found useful to analyze the digitized ECG signal by a non-technical user and may help in diagnostics. Further improvement can be done by employing field programmable gate array for the real time processing of cardiac signals. Copyright © 2015 Cardiological Society of India. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Study on signal processing in Eddy current testing for defects in spline gear

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Jae Ho; Park, Tae Sug; Park, Ik Keun

    2016-01-01

    Eddy current testing (ECT) is commonly applied for the inspection of automated production lines of metallic products, because it has a high inspection speed and a reasonable price. When ECT is applied for the inspection of a metallic object having an uneven target surface, such as the spline gear of a spline shaft, it is difficult to distinguish between the original signal obtained from the sensor and the signal generated by a defect because of the relatively large surface signals having similar frequency distributions. To facilitate the detection of defect signals from the spline gear, implementation of high-order filters is essential, so that the fault signals can be distinguished from the surrounding noise signals, and simultaneously, the pass-band of the filter can be adjusted according to the status of each production line and the object to be inspected. We will examine the infinite impulse filters (IIR filters) available for implementing an advanced filter for ECT, and attempt to detect the flaw signals through optimization of system design parameters for detecting the signals at the system level

  1. Integrated circuit for processing a low-frequency signal from a seismic detector

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Malashevich, N. I.; Roslyakov, A. S.; Polomoshnov, S. A., E-mail: S.Polomoshnov@tsen.ru; Fedorov, R. A. [Research and Production Complex ' Technological Center' of the Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology (Russian Federation)

    2011-12-15

    Specific features for the detection and processing of a low-frequency signal from a seismic detector are considered in terms of an integrated circuit based on a large matrix crystal of the 5507 series. This integrated circuit is designed for the detection of human movements. The specific features of the information signal, obtained at the output of the seismic detector, and the main characteristics of the integrated circuit and its structure are reported.

  2. A Spectrum Sensing Method Based on Signal Feature and Clustering Algorithm in Cognitive Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yongwei Zhang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In order to solve the problem of difficulty in determining the threshold in spectrum sensing technologies based on the random matrix theory, a spectrum sensing method based on clustering algorithm and signal feature is proposed for Cognitive Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks. Firstly, the wireless communication signal features are obtained according to the sampling signal covariance matrix. Then, the clustering algorithm is used to classify and test the signal features. Different signal features and clustering algorithms are compared in this paper. The experimental results show that the proposed method has better sensing performance.

  3. Analysis of respiratory mechanomyographic signals by means of the empirical mode decomposition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Torres, A; Jane, R; Fiz, J A; Laciar, E; Galdiz, J B; Gea, J; Morera, J

    2007-01-01

    The study of the mechanomyographic (MMG) signals of respiratory muscles is a promising technique in order to evaluate the respiratory muscles effort. A critical point in MMG studies is the selection of the cut-off frequency in order to separate the low frequency (LF) component (basically due to gross movement of the muscle or of the body) and the high frequency (HF) component (related with the vibration of the muscle fibres during contraction). In this study, we propose to use the Empirical Mode Decomposition method in order to analyze the Intrinsic Mode Functions of MMG signals of the diaphragm muscle, acquired by means of a capacitive accelerometer applied on the costal wall. The method was tested on an animal model, with two incremental respiratory protocols performed by two non anesthetized mongrel dogs. The proposed EMD based method seems to be a useful tool to eliminate the low frequency component of MMG signals. The obtained correlation coefficients between respiratory and MMG parameters were higher than the ones obtained with a Wavelet multiresolution decomposition method utilized in a previous work

  4. Partial Adaptation of Obtained and Observed Value Signals Preserves Information about Gains and Losses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burke, Christopher J; Baddeley, Michelle; Tobler, Philippe N; Schultz, Wolfram

    2016-09-28

    Given that the range of rewarding and punishing outcomes of actions is large but neural coding capacity is limited, efficient processing of outcomes by the brain is necessary. One mechanism to increase efficiency is to rescale neural output to the range of outcomes expected in the current context, and process only experienced deviations from this expectation. However, this mechanism comes at the cost of not being able to discriminate between unexpectedly low losses when times are bad versus unexpectedly high gains when times are good. Thus, too much adaptation would result in disregarding information about the nature and absolute magnitude of outcomes, preventing learning about the longer-term value structure of the environment. Here we investigate the degree of adaptation in outcome coding brain regions in humans, for directly experienced outcomes and observed outcomes. We scanned participants while they performed a social learning task in gain and loss blocks. Multivariate pattern analysis showed two distinct networks of brain regions adapt to the most likely outcomes within a block. Frontostriatal areas adapted to directly experienced outcomes, whereas lateral frontal and temporoparietal regions adapted to observed social outcomes. Critically, in both cases, adaptation was incomplete and information about whether the outcomes arose in a gain block or a loss block was retained. Univariate analysis confirmed incomplete adaptive coding in these regions but also detected nonadapting outcome signals. Thus, although neural areas rescale their responses to outcomes for efficient coding, they adapt incompletely and keep track of the longer-term incentives available in the environment. Optimal value-based choice requires that the brain precisely and efficiently represents positive and negative outcomes. One way to increase efficiency is to adapt responding to the most likely outcomes in a given context. However, too strong adaptation would result in loss of precise

  5. Electro-optical techniques for the investigation of photoplethysmographic signals in human abdominal organs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kyriacou, P A; Crerar-Gilber, A; Langford, R M; Jones, D P

    2006-01-01

    There is a need for reliable continuous monitoring of abdominal organ oxygen saturation (SpO 2 ). Splanchnic ischaemia may ultimately lead to cellular hypoxia and necrosis and may well contribute to the development of multiple organ failures and increased mortality. A new reflectance electro-optical photoplethysmographic (PPG) probe and signal processing system were developed. PPG signals from abdominal organs (bowel, liver, and kidney) and the finger were obtained from 12 anaesthetised patients. The amplitudes of the abdominal organ PPGs were, on average, approximately the same as those obtained simultaneously from the finger. These observations suggest that pulse oximetry may be a valid monitoring technique for abdominal organs such as the bowel liver and kidney

  6. Optimal signal constellation design for ultra-high-speed optical transport in the presence of nonlinear phase noise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Tao; Djordjevic, Ivan B

    2014-12-29

    In this paper, we first describe an optimal signal constellation design algorithm suitable for the coherent optical channels dominated by the linear phase noise. Then, we modify this algorithm to be suitable for the nonlinear phase noise dominated channels. In optimization procedure, the proposed algorithm uses the cumulative log-likelihood function instead of the Euclidian distance. Further, an LDPC coded modulation scheme is proposed to be used in combination with signal constellations obtained by proposed algorithm. Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the LDPC-coded modulation schemes employing the new constellation sets, obtained by our new signal constellation design algorithm, outperform corresponding QAM constellations significantly in terms of transmission distance and have better nonlinearity tolerance.

  7. Intelligent Agent Based Traffic Signal Control on Isolated Intersections

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniela Koltovska

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to develop an adaptive signal control strategy on isolated urban intersections. An innovative approach to defining the set of states dependent on the actual and primarily observed parameters has been introduced. ?he Q–learning algorithm has been applied. The developed self-learning adaptive signal strategy has been tested on a re?l intersection. The intelligent agent results have been compared to those in cases of fixed-time and actuated control. Regarding the average total delay, the total number of stops and the total throughput, the best results have been obtained for unknown traffic demand and over-capacity.

  8. Efficient feature for classification of eye movements using electrooculography signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Phukpattaranont Pornchai

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Electrooculography (EOG signal is widely and successfully used to detect activities of human eye. The advantages of the EOG-based interface over other conventional interfaces have been presented in the last two decades; however, due to a lot of information in EOG signals, the extraction of useful features should be done before the classification task. In this study, an efficient feature extracted from two directional EOG signals: vertical and horizontal signals has been presented and evaluated. There are the maximum peak and valley amplitude values, the maximum peak and valley position values, and slope, which are derived from both vertical and horizontal signals. In the experiments, EOG signals obtained from five healthy subjects with ten directional eye movements were employed: up, down, right, left, up-right, up-left, down-right down-left clockwise and counterclockwise. The mean feature values and their standard deviations have been reported. The difference between the mean values of the proposed feature from different eye movements can be clearly seen. Using the scatter plot, the differences in features can be also clearly observed. Results show that classification accuracy can approach 100% with a simple distinction feature rule. The proposed features can be useful for various advanced human-computer interface applications in future researches.

  9. Amplitude calibration of an acoustic backscattered signal from a bottom-moored ADCP based on long-term measurement series

    Science.gov (United States)

    Piotukh, V. B.; Zatsepin, A. G.; Kuklev, S. B.

    2017-05-01

    A possible approach to, and preliminary results of, amplitude calibration of acoustic signals backscattered from an ADCP moored at the bottom of the near-shelf zone of the Black Sea is considered. The aim of this work is to obtain vertical profiles of acoustic scattering signal levels, showing the real characteristics of the volume content of suspended sediments in sea water in units of conventional acoustic turbidity for a given signal frequency. In this case, the assumption about the intervals of maximum acoustic transparency and vertical homogeneity of the marine environment in long-term series of ADCP measurements is used. According to this hypothesis, the intervals of the least values of acoustic backscattered signals are detected, an empirical transfer function of the ADCP reception path is constructed, and it is calibrated. Normalized sets of acoustic backscattered signals relative to a signal from a level of conventionally clear water are obtained. New features in the behavior of vertical profiles of an acoustic echo-signal are revealed due to the calibration. The results of this work will be used in subsequent analysis of the vertical and time variations in suspended sediment content in the near-shelf zone of the Black Sea.

  10. Heterodyne detection of CPFSK signals with and without wavelength conversion up to 5 Gb/s

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Rune Johan Skullerud; Ebskamp, F.; Mikkelsen, Benny

    1993-01-01

    Detection of wavelength converted signals by a coherent continuous-phase frequency-shift-keying receiver is reported. The signals are wavelength converted over 35 nm, and record receiver sensitivities of -38.7 dBm at 4.0Gb/s and -35.6 dBm at 4.8Gb/s are obtained. Comparison between results...

  11. Intersection signal control multi-objective optimization based on genetic algorithm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhanhong Zhou

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available A signal control intersection increases not only vehicle delay, but also vehicle emissions and fuel consumption in that area. Because more and more fuel and air pollution problems arise recently, an intersection signal control optimization method which aims at reducing vehicle emissions, fuel consumption and vehicle delay is required heavily. This paper proposed a signal control multi-object optimization method to reduce vehicle emissions, fuel consumption and vehicle delay simultaneously at an intersection. The optimization method combined the Paramics microscopic traffic simulation software, Comprehensive Modal Emissions Model (CMEM, and genetic algorithm. An intersection in Haizhu District, Guangzhou, was taken for a case study. The result of the case study shows the optimal timing scheme obtained from this method is better than the Webster timing scheme.

  12. Characteristics of Acceleration and Acoustic Emission Signals from Mechanical Seals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Do Hwan; Ha, Che Woong

    2015-01-01

    Based on these results, the applicability of acceleration signals for condition monitoring of mechanical seals is examined in the present study. Mechanical seals are used for pumps to prevent excessive leakage that might be occurred between rotational and stationary parts. The mechanical seals account for the major pump component failures. In spite of its importance, there have been few studies on condition monitoring of the components. Recently, some researchers have paid attention to the application of acoustic emission (AE) sensors for the fault detection of seals. The characteristics of acceleration and AE signals obtained from various defects are investigated. In order to prevent excessive leakage from mechanical seals, a condition monitoring technique is necessary. Based on the previous studies on AE techniques for seal monitoring, the signal characteristics from accelerometer

  13. Characteristics of Acceleration and Acoustic Emission Signals from Mechanical Seals

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Do Hwan; Ha, Che Woong [KHNP Central Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2015-10-15

    Based on these results, the applicability of acceleration signals for condition monitoring of mechanical seals is examined in the present study. Mechanical seals are used for pumps to prevent excessive leakage that might be occurred between rotational and stationary parts. The mechanical seals account for the major pump component failures. In spite of its importance, there have been few studies on condition monitoring of the components. Recently, some researchers have paid attention to the application of acoustic emission (AE) sensors for the fault detection of seals. The characteristics of acceleration and AE signals obtained from various defects are investigated. In order to prevent excessive leakage from mechanical seals, a condition monitoring technique is necessary. Based on the previous studies on AE techniques for seal monitoring, the signal characteristics from accelerometer.

  14. Single session imaging of cerebellum at 7 Tesla: obtaining structure and function of multiple motor subsystems in individual subjects.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Melissa A Batson

    Full Text Available The recent increase in the use of high field MR systems is accompanied by a demand for acquisition techniques and coil systems that can take advantage of increased power and accuracy without being susceptible to increased noise. Physical location and anatomical complexity of targeted regions must be considered when attempting to image deeper structures with small nuclei and/or complex cytoarchitechtonics (i.e. small microvasculature and deep nuclei, such as the brainstem and the cerebellum (Cb. Once these obstacles are overcome, the concomitant increase in signal strength at higher field strength should allow for faster acquisition of MR images. Here we show that it is technically feasible to quickly and accurately detect blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD signal changes and obtain anatomical images of Cb at high spatial resolutions in individual subjects at 7 Tesla in a single one-hour session. Images were obtained using two high-density multi-element surface coils (32 channels in total placed beneath the head at the level of Cb, two channel transmission, and three-dimensional sensitivity encoded (3D, SENSE acquisitions to investigate sensorimotor activations in Cb. Two classic sensorimotor tasks were used to detect Cb activations. BOLD signal changes during motor activity resulted in concentrated clusters of activity within the Cb lobules associated with each task, observed consistently and independently in each subject: Oculomotor vermis (VI/VII and CrusI/II for pro- and anti-saccades; ipsilateral hemispheres IV-VI for finger tapping; and topographical separation of eye- and hand- activations in hemispheres VI and VIIb/VIII. Though fast temporal resolution was not attempted here, these functional patches of highly specific BOLD signal changes may reflect small-scale shunting of blood in the microvasculature of Cb. The observed improvements in acquisition time and signal detection are ideal for individualized investigations such as

  15. Viscoelastic fingering with a pulsed pressure signal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Corvera Poire, E; Rio, J A del

    2004-01-01

    We derive a generalized Darcy's law in the frequency domain for a linear viscoelastic fluid flowing in a Hele-Shaw cell. This leads to an analytic expression for the dynamic permeability that has maxima which are several orders of magnitude larger than the static permeability. We then follow an argument of de Gennes (1987 Europhys. Lett. 2 195) to obtain the smallest possible finger width when viscoelasticity is important. Using this and a conservation law, we obtain the lowest bound for the width of a single finger displacing a viscoelastic fluid. When the driving force consists of a constant pressure gradient plus an oscillatory signal, our results indicate that the finger width varies in time following the frequency of the incident signal. Also, the amplitude of the finger width in time depends on the value of the dynamic permeability at the imposed frequency. When the finger is driven with a frequency that maximizes the permeability, variations in the amplitude are also maximized. This gives results that are very different for Newtonian and viscoelastic fluids. For the former ones the amplitude of the oscillation decays with frequency. For the latter ones on the other hand, the amplitude has maxima at the same frequencies that maximize the dynamic permeability

  16. Phase-rectified signal averaging method to predict perinatal outcome in infants with very preterm fetal growth restriction- a secondary analysis of TRUFFLE-trial

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lobmaier, Silvia M.; Mensing van Charante, Nico; Ferrazzi, Enrico; Giussani, Dino A.; Shaw, Caroline J.; Müller, Alexander; Ortiz, Javier U.; Ostermayer, Eva; Haller, Bernhard; Prefumo, Federico; Frusca, Tiziana; Hecher, Kurt; Arabin, Birgit; Thilaganathan, Baskaran; Papageorghiou, Aris T.; Bhide, Amarnath; Martinelli, Pasquale; Duvekot, Johannes J.; van Eyck, Jim; Visser, Gerard H A; Schmidt, Georg; Ganzevoort, Wessel; Lees, Christoph C.; Schneider, Karl T M; Bilardo, Caterina M.; Brezinka, Christoph; Diemert, Anke; Derks, Jan B.; Schlembach, Dietmar; Todros, Tullia; Valcamonico, Adriana; Marlow, Neil; van Wassenaer-Leemhuis, Aleid

    2016-01-01

    Background Phase-rectified signal averaging, an innovative signal processing technique, can be used to investigate quasi-periodic oscillations in noisy, nonstationary signals that are obtained from fetal heart rate. Phase-rectified signal averaging is currently the best method to predict survival

  17. Phase-rectified signal averaging method to predict perinatal outcome in infants with very preterm fetal growth restriction- a secondary analysis of TRUFFLE-trial

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lobmaier, Silvia M.; Mensing van Charante, Nico; Ferrazzi, Enrico; Giussani, Dino A.; Shaw, Caroline J.; Müller, Alexander; Ortiz, Javier U.; Ostermayer, Eva; Haller, Bernhard; Prefumo, Federico; Frusca, Tiziana; Hecher, Kurt; Arabin, Birgit; Thilaganathan, Baskaran; Papageorghiou, Aris T.; Bhide, Amarnath; Martinelli, Pasquale; Duvekot, Johannes J.; van Eyck, Jim; Visser, Gerard H. A.; Schmidt, Georg; Ganzevoort, Wessel; Lees, Christoph C.; Schneider, Karl T. M.; Bilardo, Caterina M.; Brezinka, Christoph; Diemert, Anke; Derks, Jan B.; Schlembach, Dietmar; Todros, Tullia; Valcamonico, Adriana; Marlow, Neil; van Wassenaer-Leemhuis, Aleid

    2016-01-01

    Phase-rectified signal averaging, an innovative signal processing technique, can be used to investigate quasi-periodic oscillations in noisy, nonstationary signals that are obtained from fetal heart rate. Phase-rectified signal averaging is currently the best method to predict survival after

  18. Application of empirical mode decomposition method for characterization of random vibration signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Setyamartana Parman

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Characterization of finite measured signals is a great of importance in dynamical modeling and system identification. This paper addresses an approach for characterization of measured random vibration signals where the approach rests on a method called empirical mode decomposition (EMD. The applicability of proposed approach is tested in one numerical and experimental data from a structural system, namely spar platform. The results are three main signal components, comprising: noise embedded in the measured signal as the first component, first intrinsic mode function (IMF called as the wave frequency response (WFR as the second component and second IMF called as the low frequency response (LFR as the third component while the residue is the trend. Band-pass filter (BPF method is taken as benchmark for the results obtained from EMD method.

  19. Signal-background interference effects for gg→H→W+W- beyond leading order

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bonvini, Marco; Caola, Fabrizio; Melnikov, Kirill; Ridolfi, Giovanni

    2013-04-01

    We study the effect of QCD corrections to the gg → H → W + W - signal-background interference at the LHC for a heavy Higgs boson. We construct a soft-collinear approximation to the NLO and NNLO corrections for the background process, which is exactly known only at LO. We estimate its accuracy by constructing and comparing the same approximation to the exact result for the signal process, which is known up to NNLO, and we conclude that we can describe the signal-background interference to better than O(10%) accuracy. We show that our result implies that, in practice, a fairly good approximation to higher-order QCD corrections to the interference may also be obtained by rescaling the known LO result by a K-factor computed using the signal process.

  20. A New Wavelet Threshold Determination Method Considering Interscale Correlation in Signal Denoising

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Can He

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Due to simple calculation and good denoising effect, wavelet threshold denoising method has been widely used in signal denoising. In this method, the threshold is an important parameter that affects the denoising effect. In order to improve the denoising effect of the existing methods, a new threshold considering interscale correlation is presented. Firstly, a new correlation index is proposed based on the propagation characteristics of the wavelet coefficients. Then, a threshold determination strategy is obtained using the new index. At the end of the paper, a simulation experiment is given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. In the experiment, four benchmark signals are used as test signals. Simulation results show that the proposed method can achieve a good denoising effect under various signal types, noise intensities, and thresholding functions.

  1. Evaluation of blood signal in cardiac MR imaging using ''black-blood'' technique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakanishi, Tadashi; Yamada, Takayuki; Tamura, Akihisa; Miyasaka, Kenji; Kohata, Minako; Ono, Chiaki; Kajima, Toshio; Ito, Katsuhide

    1999-01-01

    Degradation of image quality encountered in cardiac imaging has been attributed to flowing blood signal in the ventricular cavity. To solve this problem, a sequence in which a pair of selective and non-selective inversion pulse in used for a preparation pulse, has been proposed. However, even with this sequence we frequently observed the signal in the blood pool caused by blood itself rather than blood flow. In this article, we investigated the characteristics of those signals. Five healthy normal volunteers and 13 patients with ischemic heart disease were scanned with a 1.5-tesla MR imager. Breath-hold ECG gated fast spin echo with the pair of inversion pulses was performed to obtain cardiac images with T 2 contrast. Typical blood signal appeared as inhomogeneous high intense band adjacent to inner surface of left ventricular apex. At ventricular base, no such signal was encountered even at akinetic myocardium in patients with old myocardial infarction. This signal was observed in all volunteers and 39% of patients. Decrease of TR resulting from tachycardia tended to reduce the blood signal in the left ventricular cavity. Thicker slice section and selective inversion pulse tended to increase the blood signal. Recognition of the signal is essential to differentiate true myocardial infarcts from blood signal, although bright blood imaging like gradient echo or thinner section can partly be helpful. (author)

  2. Detection of Noise in Composite Step Signal Pattern by Visualizing Signal Waveforms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chaman Verma

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The Step Composite Signals is the combination of vital informative signals that are compressed and coded to produce a predefined test image on a display device. It carries the desired sequence of information from source to destination. This information may be transmitted as digital signal, video information or data signal required as an input for the destination module. For testing of display panels, Composite Test Signals are the most important attribute of test signal transmission system. In the current research paper we present an approach for the noise detection in Composite Step Signal by analysing Composite Step Signal waveforms. The analysis of the signal waveforms reveals that the noise affected components of the signal and subsequently noise reduction process is initiated which targets noisy signal component only. Thus the quality of signal is not compromised during noise reduction process.

  3. n-Order and maximum fuzzy similarity entropy for discrimination of signals of different complexity: Application to fetal heart rate signals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaylaa, Amira; Oudjemia, Souad; Charara, Jamal; Girault, Jean-Marc

    2015-09-01

    This paper presents two new concepts for discrimination of signals of different complexity. The first focused initially on solving the problem of setting entropy descriptors by varying the pattern size instead of the tolerance. This led to the search for the optimal pattern size that maximized the similarity entropy. The second paradigm was based on the n-order similarity entropy that encompasses the 1-order similarity entropy. To improve the statistical stability, n-order fuzzy similarity entropy was proposed. Fractional Brownian motion was simulated to validate the different methods proposed, and fetal heart rate signals were used to discriminate normal from abnormal fetuses. In all cases, it was found that it was possible to discriminate time series of different complexity such as fractional Brownian motion and fetal heart rate signals. The best levels of performance in terms of sensitivity (90%) and specificity (90%) were obtained with the n-order fuzzy similarity entropy. However, it was shown that the optimal pattern size and the maximum similarity measurement were related to intrinsic features of the time series. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Modulation of EEG Theta Band Signal Complexity by Music Therapy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhattacharya, Joydeep; Lee, Eun-Jeong

    The primary goal of this study was to investigate the impact of monochord (MC) sounds, a type of archaic sounds used in music therapy, on the neural complexity of EEG signals obtained from patients undergoing chemotherapy. The secondary goal was to compare the EEG signal complexity values for monochords with those for progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), an alternative therapy for relaxation. Forty cancer patients were randomly allocated to one of the two relaxation groups, MC and PMR, over a period of six months; continuous EEG signals were recorded during the first and last sessions. EEG signals were analyzed by applying signal mode complexity, a measure of complexity of neuronal oscillations. Across sessions, both groups showed a modulation of complexity of beta-2 band (20-29Hz) at midfrontal regions, but only MC group showed a modulation of complexity of theta band (3.5-7.5Hz) at posterior regions. Therefore, the neuronal complexity patterns showed different changes in EEG frequency band specific complexity resulting in two different types of interventions. Moreover, the different neural responses to listening to monochords and PMR were observed after regular relaxation interventions over a short time span.

  5. An intuitive method to automatically detect the common and not common frequencies for two or more time-varying signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doca, C.; Paunoiu, C.; Doca, L.

    2013-01-01

    Sampling a time-varying signal and his spectral analysis are, both, subjected to theoretically compelling, such as Shannon's theorem and the objectively limiting of the frequencys resolution. After obtaining the signals (Fourier) spectrum, this is processed and interpreted usually by a scientist who, presumably, has sufficient prior information about the monitored signal to conclude, for example, on the significant frequencies. Obviously, processing and interpretation of individual spectra are routine tasks that can be automated by suitable software (PC application). The problems complicate if we need to compare two or more spectra corresponding to different signals and/or phenomena. In the above context, this paper presents an intuitive method for automatic identification of the common and not common frequencies for two or more congruent spectra. The method is illustrated by numerical simulations, and by the results obtained in the analysis of the noise from some experimental measured signals. (authors)

  6. Magnetoencephalography from signals to dynamic cortical networks

    CERN Document Server

    Aine, Cheryl

    2014-01-01

    "Magnetoencephalography (MEG) provides a time-accurate view into human brain function. The concerted action of neurons generates minute magnetic fields that can be detected---totally noninvasively---by sensitive multichannel magnetometers. The obtained millisecond accuracycomplements information obtained by other modern brain-imaging tools. Accurate timing is quintessential in normal brain function, often distorted in brain disorders. The noninvasiveness and time-sensitivityof MEG are great assets to developmental studies, as well. This multiauthored book covers an ambitiously wide range of MEG research from introductory to advanced level, from sensors to signals, and from focal sources to the dynamics of cortical networks. Written by active practioners of this multidisciplinary field, the book contains tutorials for newcomers and chapters of new challenging methods and emerging technologies to advanced MEG users. The reader will obtain a firm grasp of the possibilities of MEG in the study of audition, vision...

  7. Characterization of early autophagy signaling by quantitative phosphoproteomics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rigbolt, Kristoffer Tg; Zarei, Mostafa; Sprenger, Adrian

    2014-01-01

    . To elucidate the regulation of early signaling events upon autophagy induction, we applied quantitative phosphoproteomics characterizing the temporal phosphorylation dynamics after starvation and rapamycin treatment. We obtained a comprehensive atlas of phosphorylation kinetics within the first 30 min upon...... revealing regulated phosphorylation sites on proteins involved in a wide range of cellular processes and an impact of the treatments on the kinome. To approach the potential function of the identified phosphorylation sites we performed a screen for MAP1LC3-interacting proteins and identified a group...... induction of autophagy with both treatments affecting widely different cellular processes. The identification of dynamic phosphorylation already after 2 min demonstrates that the earliest events in autophagy signaling occur rapidly after induction. The data was subjected to extensive bioinformatics analysis...

  8. Analyzing power spectral of electroencephalogram (EEG) signal to identify motoric arm movement using EMOTIV EPOC+

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bustomi, A.; Wijaya, S. K.; Prawito

    2017-07-01

    Rehabilitation of motoric dysfunction from the body becomes the main objective of developing Brain Computer Interface (BCI) technique, especially in the field of medical rehabilitation technology. BCI technology based on electrical activity of the brain, allow patient to be able to restore motoric disfunction of the body and help them to overcome the shortcomings mobility. In this study, EEG signal phenomenon was obtained from EMOTIV EPOC+, the signals were generated from the imagery of lifting arm, and look for any correlation between the imagery of motoric muscle movement against the recorded signals. The signals processing were done in the time-frequency domain, using Wavelet relative power (WRP) as feature extraction, and Support vector machine (SVM) as the classifier. In this study, it was obtained the result of maximum accuracy of 81.3 % using 8 channel (AF3, F7, F3, FC5, FC6, F4, F8, and AF4), 6 channel remaining on EMOTIV EPOC + does not contribute to the improvement of the accuracy of the classification system

  9. Closed-Form Algorithm for 3-D Near-Field OFDM Signal Localization under Uniform Circular Array.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Su, Xiaolong; Liu, Zhen; Chen, Xin; Wei, Xizhang

    2018-01-14

    Due to its widespread application in communications, radar, etc., the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal has become increasingly urgent in the field of localization. Under uniform circular array (UCA) and near-field conditions, this paper presents a closed-form algorithm based on phase difference for estimating the three-dimensional (3-D) location (azimuth angle, elevation angle, and range) of the OFDM signal. In the algorithm, considering that it is difficult to distinguish the frequency of the OFDM signal's subcarriers and the phase-based method is always affected by errors of the frequency estimation, this paper employs sparse representation (SR) to obtain the super-resolution frequencies and the corresponding phases of subcarriers. Further, as the phase differences of the adjacent sensors including azimuth angle, elevation angle and range parameters can be expressed as indefinite equations, the near-field OFDM signal's 3-D location is obtained by employing the least square method, where the phase differences are based on the average of the estimated subcarriers. Finally, the performance of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by several simulations.

  10. Successful observation of Schottky signals at the Tevatron collider

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goldberg, D.A.; Lambertson, G.R.

    1989-08-01

    We have constructed a Schottky detector for the Tevatron collider in the form of a high-Q (∼5000) cavity which operates at roughly 2 GHz, well above the frequency at which the Tevatron's single-bunch frequency spectrum begins to roll off. Initial spectra obtained from the detector show clearly observable Schottky betatron lines, free of coherent contaminants; also seen are the ''common-mode'' longitudinal signals due to the offset of the beam from the detector center. The latter signals indicate that at 2 GHz, the coherent single-bunch spectrum from the detector is reduced by >80 dB; therefore, in normal collider operation, the Schottky betatron lines are >40 dB greater than their coherent counterparts. We describe how the data we have obtained give information on transverse and longitudinal emittances, synchrotron frequency, and betatron tunes, as well as reveal what may be previously unobserved phenomena. Space limitations restrict us to presenting only as much data as should be necessary to convince even the skeptical reader of the validity of the claim made in the paper's title. 3 refs., 2 figs

  11. Reference analysis of the signal + background model in counting experiments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Casadei, D.

    2012-01-01

    The model representing two independent Poisson processes, labelled as ``signal'' and ``background'' and both contributing additively to the total number of counted events, is considered from a Bayesian point of view. This is a widely used model for the searches of rare or exotic events in presence of a background source, as for example in the searches performed by high-energy physics experiments. In the assumption of prior knowledge about the background yield, a reference prior is obtained for the signal alone and its properties are studied. Finally, the properties of the full solution, the marginal reference posterior, are illustrated with few examples.

  12. Background noise of acoustic emission signals in sodium piping loop

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mori, Y.; Aoki, K.; Kuribayashi, K.; Kishi, T.; Sakakibara, Y.

    1985-01-01

    Background noise measurement in the frequency range of acoustic emission (AE) signals was made on the sodium piping loops of a 50 MW steam generator test facility in the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation (PNC). During the dynamic characteristics test of the steam generator over a wide range of operating conditions, the background noise generated on the pipe surface was measured using wideband AE sensor externally mounted with waveguide. Data were obtained for the effect of power loads of steam generator on both amplitude and frequency spectra of background noise signals. Source and nature of background noise were established

  13. Multimodal signal variation in space and time : how important is matching a signal with its signaler?

    OpenAIRE

    Taylor, Ryan C.; Klein, Barrett; Stein, Joey; Ryan, Michael J.

    2011-01-01

    Multimodal signals (acoustic+visual) are known to be used by many anuran amphibians during courtship displays. The relative degree to which each signal component influences female mate choice, however, remains poorly understood. In this study we used a robotic frog with an inflating vocal sac and acoustic playbacks to document responses of female túngara frogs to unimodal signal components (acoustic and visual). We then tested female responses to a synchronous multimodal signal. Finally, we t...

  14. Adaptive EMG noise reduction in ECG signals using noise level approximation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marouf, Mohamed; Saranovac, Lazar

    2017-12-01

    In this paper the usage of noise level approximation for adaptive Electromyogram (EMG) noise reduction in the Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals is introduced. To achieve the adequate adaptiveness, a translation-invariant noise level approximation is employed. The approximation is done in the form of a guiding signal extracted as an estimation of the signal quality vs. EMG noise. The noise reduction framework is based on a bank of low pass filters. So, the adaptive noise reduction is achieved by selecting the appropriate filter with respect to the guiding signal aiming to obtain the best trade-off between the signal distortion caused by filtering and the signal readability. For the evaluation purposes; both real EMG and artificial noises are used. The tested ECG signals are from the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database Directory, while both real and artificial records of EMG noise are added and used in the evaluation process. Firstly, comparison with state of the art methods is conducted to verify the performance of the proposed approach in terms of noise cancellation while preserving the QRS complex waves. Additionally, the signal to noise ratio improvement after the adaptive noise reduction is computed and presented for the proposed method. Finally, the impact of adaptive noise reduction method on QRS complexes detection was studied. The tested signals are delineated using a state of the art method, and the QRS detection improvement for different SNR is presented.

  15. A Hybrid Wavelet-Based Method for the Peak Detection of Photoplethysmography Signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Suyi Li

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The noninvasive peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2 and the pulse rate can be extracted from photoplethysmography (PPG signals. However, the accuracy of the extraction is directly affected by the quality of the signal obtained and the peak of the signal identified; therefore, a hybrid wavelet-based method is proposed in this study. Firstly, we suppressed the partial motion artifacts and corrected the baseline drift by using a wavelet method based on the principle of wavelet multiresolution. And then, we designed a quadratic spline wavelet modulus maximum algorithm to identify the PPG peaks automatically. To evaluate this hybrid method, a reflective pulse oximeter was used to acquire ten subjects’ PPG signals under sitting, raising hand, and gently walking postures, and the peak recognition results on the raw signal and on the corrected signal were compared, respectively. The results showed that the hybrid method not only corrected the morphologies of the signal well but also optimized the peaks identification quality, subsequently elevating the measurement accuracy of SpO2 and the pulse rate. As a result, our hybrid wavelet-based method profoundly optimized the evaluation of respiratory function and heart rate variability analysis.

  16. A Hybrid Wavelet-Based Method for the Peak Detection of Photoplethysmography Signals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Suyi; Jiang, Shanqing; Jiang, Shan; Wu, Jiang; Xiong, Wenji; Diao, Shu

    2017-01-01

    The noninvasive peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO 2 ) and the pulse rate can be extracted from photoplethysmography (PPG) signals. However, the accuracy of the extraction is directly affected by the quality of the signal obtained and the peak of the signal identified; therefore, a hybrid wavelet-based method is proposed in this study. Firstly, we suppressed the partial motion artifacts and corrected the baseline drift by using a wavelet method based on the principle of wavelet multiresolution. And then, we designed a quadratic spline wavelet modulus maximum algorithm to identify the PPG peaks automatically. To evaluate this hybrid method, a reflective pulse oximeter was used to acquire ten subjects' PPG signals under sitting, raising hand, and gently walking postures, and the peak recognition results on the raw signal and on the corrected signal were compared, respectively. The results showed that the hybrid method not only corrected the morphologies of the signal well but also optimized the peaks identification quality, subsequently elevating the measurement accuracy of SpO 2 and the pulse rate. As a result, our hybrid wavelet-based method profoundly optimized the evaluation of respiratory function and heart rate variability analysis.

  17. A Hybrid Wavelet-Based Method for the Peak Detection of Photoplethysmography Signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Shanqing; Jiang, Shan; Wu, Jiang; Xiong, Wenji

    2017-01-01

    The noninvasive peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2) and the pulse rate can be extracted from photoplethysmography (PPG) signals. However, the accuracy of the extraction is directly affected by the quality of the signal obtained and the peak of the signal identified; therefore, a hybrid wavelet-based method is proposed in this study. Firstly, we suppressed the partial motion artifacts and corrected the baseline drift by using a wavelet method based on the principle of wavelet multiresolution. And then, we designed a quadratic spline wavelet modulus maximum algorithm to identify the PPG peaks automatically. To evaluate this hybrid method, a reflective pulse oximeter was used to acquire ten subjects' PPG signals under sitting, raising hand, and gently walking postures, and the peak recognition results on the raw signal and on the corrected signal were compared, respectively. The results showed that the hybrid method not only corrected the morphologies of the signal well but also optimized the peaks identification quality, subsequently elevating the measurement accuracy of SpO2 and the pulse rate. As a result, our hybrid wavelet-based method profoundly optimized the evaluation of respiratory function and heart rate variability analysis. PMID:29250135

  18. A Hybrid Fuzzy Genetic Algorithm for an Adaptive Traffic Signal System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. M. Odeh

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a hybrid algorithm that combines Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC and Genetic Algorithms (GAs and its application on a traffic signal system. FLCs have been widely used in many applications in diverse areas, such as control system, pattern recognition, signal processing, and forecasting. They are, essentially, rule-based systems, in which the definition of these rules and fuzzy membership functions is generally based on verbally formulated rules that overlap through the parameter space. They have a great influence over the performance of the system. On the other hand, the Genetic Algorithm is a metaheuristic that provides a robust search in complex spaces. In this work, it has been used to adapt the decision rules of FLCs that define an intelligent traffic signal system, obtaining a higher performance than a classical FLC-based control. The simulation results yielded by the hybrid algorithm show an improvement of up to 34% in the performance with respect to a standard traffic signal controller, Conventional Traffic Signal Controller (CTC, and up to 31% in the comparison with a traditional logic controller, FLC.

  19. Neural Network Based Recognition of Signal Patterns in Application to Automatic Testing of Rails

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomasz Ciszewski

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper describes the application of neural network for recognition of signal patterns in measuring data gathered by the railroad ultrasound testing car. Digital conversion of the measuring signal allows to store and process large quantities of data. The elaboration of smart, effective and automatic procedures recognizing the obtained patterns on the basisof measured signal amplitude has been presented. The test shows only two classes of pattern recognition. In authors’ opinion if we deliver big enough quantity of training data, presented method is applicable to a system that recognizes many classes.

  20. Optical coherence tomography signal analysis: LIDAR like equation and inverse methods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Amaral, Marcello Magri

    2012-01-01

    Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is based on the media backscattering properties in order to obtain tomographic images. In a similar way, LIDAR (Light Detection and Range) technique uses these properties to determine atmospheric characteristics, specially the signal extinction coefficient. Exploring this similarity allowed the application of signal inversion methods to the OCT images, allowing to construct images based in the extinction coefficient, original result until now. The goal of this work was to study, propose, develop and implement algorithms based on OCT signal inversion methodologies with the aim of determine the extinction coefficient as a function of depth. Three inversion methods were used and implemented in LABView R : slope, boundary point and optical depth. Associated errors were studied and real samples (homogeneous and stratified) were used for two and three dimension analysis. The extinction coefficient images obtained from the optical depth method were capable to differentiate air from the sample. The images were studied applying PCA and cluster analysis that established the methodology strength in determining the sample's extinction coefficient value. Moreover, the optical depth methodology was applied to study the hypothesis that there is some correlation between signal extinction coefficient and the enamel teeth demineralization during a cariogenic process. By applying this methodology, it was possible to observe the variation of the extinction coefficient as depth function and its correlation with microhardness variation, showing that in deeper layers its values tends to a healthy tooth values, behaving as the same way that the microhardness. (author)

  1. A novel time-domain signal processing algorithm for real time ventricular fibrillation detection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Monte, G E; Scarone, N C; Liscovsky, P O; Rotter, P

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents an application of a novel algorithm for real time detection of ECG pathologies, especially ventricular fibrillation. It is based on segmentation and labeling process of an oversampled signal. After this treatment, analyzing sequence of segments, global signal behaviours are obtained in the same way like a human being does. The entire process can be seen as a morphological filtering after a smart data sampling. The algorithm does not require any ECG digital signal pre-processing, and the computational cost is low, so it can be embedded into the sensors for wearable and permanent applications. The proposed algorithms could be the input signal description to expert systems or to artificial intelligence software in order to detect other pathologies.

  2. A novel time-domain signal processing algorithm for real time ventricular fibrillation detection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monte, G. E.; Scarone, N. C.; Liscovsky, P. O.; Rotter S/N, P.

    2011-12-01

    This paper presents an application of a novel algorithm for real time detection of ECG pathologies, especially ventricular fibrillation. It is based on segmentation and labeling process of an oversampled signal. After this treatment, analyzing sequence of segments, global signal behaviours are obtained in the same way like a human being does. The entire process can be seen as a morphological filtering after a smart data sampling. The algorithm does not require any ECG digital signal pre-processing, and the computational cost is low, so it can be embedded into the sensors for wearable and permanent applications. The proposed algorithms could be the input signal description to expert systems or to artificial intelligence software in order to detect other pathologies.

  3. Purinergic signaling triggers endfoot high-amplitude Ca2+ signals and causes inversion of neurovascular coupling after subarachnoid hemorrhage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pappas, Anthony C; Koide, Masayo; Wellman, George C

    2016-11-01

    Neurovascular coupling supports brain metabolism by matching focal increases in neuronal activity with local arteriolar dilation. Previously, we demonstrated that an emergence of spontaneous endfoot high-amplitude Ca 2+ signals (eHACSs) caused a pathologic shift in neurovascular coupling from vasodilation to vasoconstriction in brain slices obtained from subarachnoid hemorrhage model animals. Extracellular purine nucleotides (e.g., ATP) can trigger astrocyte Ca 2+ oscillations and may be elevated following subarachnoid hemorrhage. Here, the role of purinergic signaling in subarachnoid hemorrhage-induced eHACSs and inversion of neurovascular coupling was examined by imaging parenchymal arteriolar diameter and astrocyte Ca 2+ signals in rat brain slices using two-photon fluorescent and infrared-differential interference contrast microscopy. We report that broad-spectrum inhibition of purinergic (P2) receptors using suramin blocked eHACSs and restored vasodilatory neurovascular coupling after subarachnoid hemorrhage. Importantly, eHACSs were also abolished using a cocktail of inhibitors targeting G q -coupled P2Y receptors. Further, activation of P2Y receptors in brain slices from un-operated animals triggered high-amplitude Ca 2+ events resembling eHACSs and disrupted neurovascular coupling. Neither tetrodotoxin nor bafilomycin A1 affected eHACSs suggesting that purine nucleotides are not released by ongoing neurotransmission and/or vesicular release after subarachnoid hemorrhage. These results indicate that purinergic signaling via P2Y receptors contributes to subarachnoid hemorrhage-induced eHACSs and inversion of neurovascular coupling. © The Author(s) 2016.

  4. Identification of Bearing Failure Using Signal Vibrations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yani, Irsyadi; Resti, Yulia; Burlian, Firmansyah

    2018-04-01

    Vibration analysis can be used to identify damage to mechanical systems such as journal bearings. Identification of failure can be done by observing the resulting vibration spectrum by measuring the vibration signal occurring in a mechanical system Bearing is one of the engine elements commonly used in mechanical systems. The main purpose of this research is to monitor the bearing condition and to identify bearing failure on a mechanical system by observing the resulting vibration. Data collection techniques based on recordings of sound caused by the vibration of the mechanical system were used in this study, then created a database system based bearing failure due to vibration signal recording sounds on a mechanical system The next step is to group the bearing damage by type based on the databases obtained. The results show the percentage of success in identifying bearing damage is 98 %.

  5. Signal Enhancement with Variable Span Linear Filters

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Benesty, Jacob; Christensen, Mads Græsbøll; Jensen, Jesper Rindom

    This book introduces readers to the novel concept of variable span speech enhancement filters, and demonstrates how it can be used for effective noise reduction in various ways. Further, the book provides the accompanying Matlab code, allowing readers to easily implement the main ideas discussed....... Variable span filters combine the ideas of optimal linear filters with those of subspace methods, as they involve the joint diagonalization of the correlation matrices of the desired signal and the noise. The book shows how some well-known filter designs, e.g. the minimum distortion, maximum signal......-to-noise ratio, Wiener, and tradeoff filters (including their new generalizations) can be obtained using the variable span filter framework. It then illustrates how the variable span filters can be applied in various contexts, namely in single-channel STFT-based enhancement, in multichannel enhancement in both...

  6. Comparison of Linear Prediction Models for Audio Signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    2009-03-01

    Full Text Available While linear prediction (LP has become immensely popular in speech modeling, it does not seem to provide a good approach for modeling audio signals. This is somewhat surprising, since a tonal signal consisting of a number of sinusoids can be perfectly predicted based on an (all-pole LP model with a model order that is twice the number of sinusoids. We provide an explanation why this result cannot simply be extrapolated to LP of audio signals. If noise is taken into account in the tonal signal model, a low-order all-pole model appears to be only appropriate when the tonal components are uniformly distributed in the Nyquist interval. Based on this observation, different alternatives to the conventional LP model can be suggested. Either the model should be changed to a pole-zero, a high-order all-pole, or a pitch prediction model, or the conventional LP model should be preceded by an appropriate frequency transform, such as a frequency warping or downsampling. By comparing these alternative LP models to the conventional LP model in terms of frequency estimation accuracy, residual spectral flatness, and perceptual frequency resolution, we obtain several new and promising approaches to LP-based audio modeling.

  7. Method for signal conditioning and data acquisition system, based on variable amplification and feedback technique

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Conti, Livio, E-mail: livio.conti@uninettunouniversity.net [Facoltà di Ingegneria, Università Telematica Internazionale Uninettuno, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 39, 00186 Rome, Italy INFN Sezione Roma Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome (Italy); Sgrigna, Vittorio [Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università Roma Tre, 84 Via della Vasca Navale, I-00146 Rome (Italy); Zilpimiani, David [National Institute of Geophysics, Georgian Academy of Sciences, 1 M. Alexidze St., 009 Tbilisi, Georgia (United States); Assante, Dario [Facoltà di Ingegneria, Università Telematica Internazionale Uninettuno, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 39, 00186 Rome, Italy INFN Sezione Roma Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome (Italy)

    2014-08-21

    An original method of signal conditioning and adaptive amplification is proposed for data acquisition systems of analog signals, conceived to obtain a high resolution spectrum of any input signal. The procedure is based on a feedback scheme of the signal amplification with aim at maximizing the dynamic range and resolution of the data acquisition system. The paper describes the signal conditioning, digitization, and data processing procedures applied to an a priori unknown signal in order to enucleate its amplitude and frequency content for applications in different environments: on the ground, in space, or in the laboratory. An electronic board of the conditioning module has also been constructed and described. In the paper are also discussed the main fields of application and advantages of the method with respect to those known today.

  8. Method for signal conditioning and data acquisition system, based on variable amplification and feedback technique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Conti, Livio; Sgrigna, Vittorio; Zilpimiani, David; Assante, Dario

    2014-01-01

    An original method of signal conditioning and adaptive amplification is proposed for data acquisition systems of analog signals, conceived to obtain a high resolution spectrum of any input signal. The procedure is based on a feedback scheme of the signal amplification with aim at maximizing the dynamic range and resolution of the data acquisition system. The paper describes the signal conditioning, digitization, and data processing procedures applied to an a priori unknown signal in order to enucleate its amplitude and frequency content for applications in different environments: on the ground, in space, or in the laboratory. An electronic board of the conditioning module has also been constructed and described. In the paper are also discussed the main fields of application and advantages of the method with respect to those known today

  9. Cascaded analysis of signal and noise propagation through a heterogeneous breast model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mainprize, James G.; Yaffe, Martin J.

    2010-01-01

    Purpose: The detectability of lesions in radiographic images can be impaired by patterns caused by the surrounding anatomic structures. The presence of such patterns is often referred to as anatomic noise. Others have previously extended signal and noise propagation theory to include variable background structure as an additional noise term and used in simulations for analysis by human and ideal observers. Here, the analytic forms of the signal and noise transfer are derived to obtain an exact expression for any input random distribution and the ''power law'' filter used to generate the texture of the tissue distribution. Methods: A cascaded analysis of propagation through a heterogeneous model is derived for x-ray projection through simulated heterogeneous backgrounds. This is achieved by considering transmission through the breast as a correlated amplification point process. The analytic forms of the cascaded analysis were compared to monoenergetic Monte Carlo simulations of x-ray propagation through power law structured backgrounds. Results: As expected, it was found that although the quantum noise power component scales linearly with the x-ray signal, the anatomic noise will scale with the square of the x-ray signal. There was a good agreement between results obtained using analytic expressions for the noise power and those from Monte Carlo simulations for different background textures, random input functions, and x-ray fluence. Conclusions: Analytic equations for the signal and noise properties of heterogeneous backgrounds were derived. These may be used in direct analysis or as a tool to validate simulations in evaluating detectability.

  10. Development of an electronic system for signals amplification

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Santos, Italo S.; Tobias, Carmen C.B.

    2009-01-01

    This paper presents the obtained results with a spectrometer for electromagnetic radiation whose detector, a Si PIN type diode, was directly coupled to a signal amplification system developed in this project for scientific initiation. The linearity conditions and the gain operational limits, constituted of two stages of amplification based on the employment of devices from AMTEK A225 and A206, were determined using a precision pulse generator. The obtained results shown that the developed system is stable and linear in the gain range of 50-150. The spectrometric response of the electronic system coupled to the Siemens SFH-00206 type diode, were studied in view of the register of the 59.5 keV gamma ray spectra proceeding from 241 Am as function of the reversal polarization voltage. The influence pf the voltage and the electronic contribution in the energy resolution of the registered spectra under room temperature (22 degree Celsius) had also investigated considering the more adequate value of the coupling capacitance of the amplification system diode. Up to the present. the best energy resolution (FWHM = 4.85 keV) of the 59.5 keV line was obtained for the condition of the detector polarization at 16 V. This result proves that the signal amplification system developed coupled to the SFH00206 diode, besides the low cost, excellent operational condition for the detection and spectrometry or low energy electromagnetic radiation

  11. Design and implementation of a data acquisition system for the study of dynamics signals in the time Domain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Daza, Arnoldo; Hinojosa, Ana; Diaz, Xavier; Neira, Oscar

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this research was to design and implement a data acquisition system for the study of dynamic signals in the time in order of nanoseconds, through the use of electronic instrumentation to obtain the temporal profiles of light signals, such as pulses of light from a laser or fluorescent light signals. To carry out the design and implementation of the data acquisition system proposed, we used a rapid response transducer and a data acquisition card of high speed. As well, it was developed a graphical user interface for visualization, analysis and study of the data acquired. Thus, it was possible to perform the digitization of a pulse on the order of nanoseconds, as well as the acquisition of fluorescence signals of different wavelengths, from which to obtain theoretical and experimental valuable knowledge based on the physics of spectroscopy.

  12. Classification Technique for Ultrasonic Weld Inspection Signals using a Neural Network based on 2-dimensional fourier Transform and Principle Component Analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Jae Joon

    2004-01-01

    Neural network-based signal classification systems are increasingly used in the analysis of large volumes of data obtained in NDE applications. Ultrasonic inspection methods on the other hand are commonly used in the nondestructive evaluation of welds to detect flaws. An important characteristic of ultrasonic inspection is the ability to identify the type of discontinuity that gives rise to a peculiar signal. Standard techniques rely on differences in individual A-scans to classify the signals. This paper proposes an ultrasonic signal classification technique based on the information tying in the neighboring signals. The approach is based on a 2-dimensional Fourier transform and the principal component analysis to generate a reduced dimensional feature vector for classification. Results of applying the technique to data obtained from the inspection of actual steel welds are presented

  13. Signal detection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tholomier, M.

    1985-01-01

    In a scanning electron microscope, whatever is the measured signal, the same set is found: incident beam, sample, signal detection, signal amplification. The resulting signal is used to control the spot luminosity with the observer cathodoscope. This is synchronized with the beam scanning on the sample; on the cathodoscope, the image in secondary electrons, backscattered electrons,... of the sample surface is reconstituted. The best compromise must be found between a register time low enough to remove eventual variations (under the incident beam) of the nature of the observed phenomenon, and a good spatial resolution of the image and a signal-to-noise ratio high enough. The noise is one of the basic limitations of the scanning electron microscope performance. The whose measurement line must be optimized to reduce it [fr

  14. Neural signal processing for identifying failed fuel rods in nuclear reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seixas, Jose M. de; Soares Filho, William; Pereira, Wagner C.A.; Teles, Claudio C.B.

    2002-01-01

    Ultrasonic pulses were used for automatic detection of failed nuclear fuel rods. For experimental tests of the proposed method, an assembly prototype of 16 x 16 rods was built by using genuine rods but without fuel inside (just air). Some rods were partially filled with water to simulate cracked rods. Using neural signal processing on the received echoes of the emitted ultrasonic pulses, a detection efficiency of 97% was obtained. Neural detection is shown to outperform other classical discriminating methods and can also reveal important features of the signal structure of the received echoes. (author)

  15. The effect of suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 on GH signaling in beta-cells

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rønn, Sif G; Hansen, Johnny A; Lindberg, Karen

    2002-01-01

    GH is an important regulator of cell growth and metabolism. In the pancreas, GH stimulates mitogenesis as well as insulin production in beta-cells. The cellular effects of GH are exerted mainly through activation of the Janus kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) pathway...... stable transfection of the beta-cell lines with plasmids expressing SOCS-3 under the control of an inducible promoter, a time- and dose-dependent expression of SOCS-3 in the cells was obtained. EMSA showed that SOCS-3 is able to inhibit GH-induced DNA binding of both STAT3 and STAT5 in RIN-5AH cells...

  16. Variables and potential models for the bleaching of luminescence signals in fluvial environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gray, Harrison J.; Mahan, Shannon

    2015-01-01

    Luminescence dating of fluvial sediments rests on the assumption that sufficient sunlight is available to remove a previously obtained signal in a process deemed bleaching. However, luminescence signals obtained from sediment in the active channels of rivers often contain residual signals. This paper explores and attempts to build theoretical models for the bleaching of luminescence signals in fluvial settings. We present two models, one for sediment transported in an episodic manner, such as flood-driven washes in arid environments, and one for sediment transported in a continuous manner, such as in large continental scale rivers. The episodic flow model assumes that the majority of sediment is bleached while exposed to sunlight at the near surface between flood events and predicts a power-law decay in luminescence signal with downstream transport distance. The continuous flow model is developed by combining the Beer–Lambert law for the attenuation of light through a water column with a general-order kinetics equation to produce an equation with the form of a double negative exponential. The inflection point of this equation is compared with the sediment concentration from a Rouse profile to derive a non-dimensional number capable of assessing the likely extent of bleaching for a given set of luminescence and fluvial parameters. Although these models are theoretically based and not yet necessarily applicable to real-world fluvial systems, we introduce these ideas to stimulate discussion and encourage the development of comprehensive bleaching models with predictive power.

  17. Monte Carlo Simulation of the Echo Signals from Low-Flying Targets for Airborne Radar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mingyuan Man

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available A demonstrated hybrid method based on the combination of half-space physical optics method (PO, graphical-electromagnetic computing (GRECO, and Monte Carlo method on echo signals from low-flying targets based on actual environment for airborne radar is presented in this paper. The half-space physical optics method , combined with the graphical-electromagnetic computing (GRECO method to eliminate the shadow regions quickly and rebuild the target automatically, is employed to calculate the radar cross section (RCS of the conductive targets in half space fast and accurately. The direct echo is computed based on the radar equation. The reflected paths from sea or ground surface cause multipath effects. In order to accurately obtain the echo signals, the phase factors are modified for fluctuations in multipath, and the statistical average value of the echo signals is obtained using the Monte Carlo method. A typical simulation is performed, and the numerical results show the accuracy of the proposed method.

  18. Analysis and modelization of short-duration windows of seismic signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Berriani, B.; Lacoume, J.L.; Martin, N.; Cliet, C.; Dubesset, M.

    1987-01-01

    The spectral analysis of a seismic arrival is of a great interest, but unfortunately the common Fourier analysis is unserviceable on short-time windows. So, in order to obtain the spectral characteristics of the dominant components of a seismic signal on a short-time interval, the authors study parametric methods. At first, the autoregressive methods are able to localize a small number of non-stationary pure frequencies. But the amplitude determination is impossible with these methods. So, they develop a combination of AR and Capon's methods. In the Capon's method, the amplitude is conserved for a given frequency, at the very time when the contribution of the other frequencies is minimized. Finally, to characterize completely the different pure-frequency dominant components of the signal and to be able to reconstruct the signal and to be able to reconstruct the signal with these elements, the authors need also the phase and the attenuation; for that, they use the Prony's method where the signal is represented by a sum of damped sinusoids. This last method is used to modelize an offset VSP. It is shown that, using four frequencies and their attributes (amplitude, phase, attenuation), it is possible to modelize quasi-exactly the section. When reconstructing the signal, if one (or more) frequency is eliminated, an efficient filtering can be applied. The AR methods, and Prony's in particular, are efficient tools for signal component decomposition and information compression

  19. Simulators of tray distillation columns as tools for interpreting gamma-ray scan profile signal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Offei-Mensah, P.S.; Gbadago, J.K.; Dagadu, C.P.K.; Danso, K.A.

    2008-01-01

    Simulators of tray distillation columns were used to provide technical guidelines for interpreting signals from gamma ray scans used for analysing malfunctions in distillation columns. The transmitted radiation intensities at 0.05 m intervals were determined from top to bottom of simulators of tray distillation columns exposed to 20 mCi of '1'3'7 Cs. Signals generated from the simulators were identical with the experimental signals obtained from the stabilizer column of the crude oil distillation unit at the Tema Oil Refinery Ghana Limited. Changes in the signal level were observed with changes in diameter, type of material (gasoline, air, debris, steel) and orientation of scan line. The analysis provided accurate interpretation of gamma scan profiles. (au)

  20. Colored nectar as an honest signal in plant-animal interactions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Feng-Ping; Larson-Rabin, Zachary; Li, De-Zhu; Wang, Hong

    2012-07-01

    Many flowering plants obtain the services of pollinators by using their floral traits as signals to advertise the rewards they offer to visitors-such as nectar, pollen and other food resources. Some plants use colorful pigments to draw pollinators' attention to their nectar, instead of relying on the appeal of nectar taste. Although this rare floral trait of colored nectar was first recorded by the Greek poet Homer in the Odyssey, it has only recently received the attention of modern science. This mini-review focuses on recent findings about some of the species that use colored nectar; topics include its function as an honest signal for pollinators, as well as the pigments responsible for the nectar coloration. Such research of the ecology and physiology of colored nectar expands our understanding of the role and evolution of pollinator signaling in plants.

  1. Astrocyte calcium signal and gliotransmission in human brain tissue.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Navarrete, Marta; Perea, Gertrudis; Maglio, Laura; Pastor, Jesús; García de Sola, Rafael; Araque, Alfonso

    2013-05-01

    Brain function is recognized to rely on neuronal activity and signaling processes between neurons, whereas astrocytes are generally considered to play supportive roles for proper neuronal function. However, accumulating evidence indicates that astrocytes sense and control neuronal and synaptic activity, indicating that neuron and astrocytes reciprocally communicate. While this evidence has been obtained in experimental animal models, whether this bidirectional signaling between astrocytes and neurons occurs in human brain remains unknown. We have investigated the existence of astrocyte-neuron communication in human brain tissue, using electrophysiological and Ca(2+) imaging techniques in slices of the cortex and hippocampus obtained from biopsies from epileptic patients. Cortical and hippocampal human astrocytes displayed spontaneous Ca(2+) elevations that were independent of neuronal activity. Local application of transmitter receptor agonists or nerve electrical stimulation transiently elevated Ca(2+) in astrocytes, indicating that human astrocytes detect synaptic activity and respond to synaptically released neurotransmitters, suggesting the existence of neuron-to-astrocyte communication in human brain tissue. Electrophysiological recordings in neurons revealed the presence of slow inward currents (SICs) mediated by NMDA receptor activation. The frequency of SICs increased after local application of ATP that elevated astrocyte Ca(2+). Therefore, human astrocytes are able to release the gliotransmitter glutamate, which affect neuronal excitability through activation of NMDA receptors in neurons. These results reveal the existence of reciprocal signaling between neurons and astrocytes in human brain tissue, indicating that astrocytes are relevant in human neurophysiology and are involved in human brain function.

  2. Novel ST-MUSIC-based spectral analysis for detection of ULF geomagnetic signals anomalies associated with seismic events in Mexico

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Omar Chavez

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Recently, the analysis of ultra-low-frequency (ULF geomagnetic signals in order to detect seismic anomalies has been reported in several works. Yet, they, although having promising results, present problems for their detection since these anomalies are generally too much weak and embedded in high noise levels. In this work, a short-time multiple signal classification (ST-MUSIC, which is a technique with high-frequency resolution and noise immunity, is proposed for the detection of seismic anomalies in the ULF geomagnetic signals. Besides, the energy (E of geomagnetic signals processed by ST-MUSIC is also presented as a complementary parameter to measure the fluctuations between seismic activity and seismic calm period. The usefulness and effectiveness of the proposal are demonstrated through the analysis of a synthetic signal and five real signals with earthquakes. The analysed ULF geomagnetic signals have been obtained using a tri-axial fluxgate magnetometer at the Juriquilla station, which is localized in Queretaro, Mexico (geographic coordinates: longitude 100.45° E and latitude 20.70° N. The results obtained show the detection of seismic perturbations before, during, and after the main shock, making the proposal a suitable tool for detecting seismic precursors.

  3. A New Waveform Signal Processing Method Based on Adaptive Clustering-Genetic Algorithms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Noha Shaaban; Fukuzo Masuda; Hidetsugu Morota

    2006-01-01

    We present a fast digital signal processing method for numerical analysis of individual pulses from CdZnTe compound semiconductor detectors. Using Maxi-Mini Distance Algorithm and Genetic Algorithms based discrimination technique. A parametric approach has been used for classifying the discriminated waveforms into a set of clusters each has a similar signal shape with a corresponding pulse height spectrum. A corrected total pulse height spectrum was obtained by applying a normalization factor for the full energy peak for each cluster with a highly improvements in the energy spectrum characteristics. This method applied successfully for both simulated and real measured data, it can be applied to any detector suffers from signal shape variation. (authors)

  4. Confidence Measurement in the Light of Signal Detection Theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sébastien eMassoni

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available We compare three alternative methods for eliciting retrospective confidence in the context of a simple perceptual task: the Simple Confidence Rating (a direct report on a numerical scale, the Quadratic Scoring Rule (a post-wagering procedure and the Matching Probability (a generalization of the no-loss gambling method. We systematically compare the results obtained with these three rules to the theoretical confidence levels that can be inferred from performance in the perceptual task using Signal Detection Theory. We find that the Matching Probability provides better results in that respect. We conclude that Matching Probability is particularly well suited for studies of confidence that use Signal Detection Theory as a theoretical framework.

  5. Separable Reversible Data Hiding in Encrypted Signals with Public Key Cryptography

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei-Liang Tai

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available We propose separable reversible data hiding in an encrypted signal with public key cryptography. In our separable framework, the image owner encrypts the original image by using a public key. On receipt of the encrypted signal, the data-hider embeds data in it by using a data-hiding key. The image decryption and data extraction are independent and separable at the receiver side. Even though the receiver, who has only the data-hiding key, does not learn about the decrypted content, he can extract data from the received marked encrypted signal. However, the receiver who has only the private key cannot extract the embedded data, but he can directly decrypt the received marked encrypted signal to obtain the original image without any error. Compared with other schemes using a cipher stream to encrypt the image, the proposed scheme is more appropriate for cloud services without degrading the security level.

  6. Digital signal processing the Tevatron BPM signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cancelo, G.; James, E.; Wolbers, S.

    2005-01-01

    The Beam Position Monitor (TeV BPM) readout system at Fermilab's Tevatron has been updated and is currently being commissioned. The new BPMs use new analog and digital hardware to achieve better beam position measurement resolution. The new system reads signals from both ends of the existing directional stripline pickups to provide simultaneous proton and antiproton measurements. The signals provided by the two ends of the BPM pickups are processed by analog band-pass filters and sampled by 14-bit ADCs at 74.3MHz. A crucial part of this work has been the design of digital filters that process the signal. This paper describes the digital processing and estimation techniques used to optimize the beam position measurement. The BPM electronics must operate in narrow-band and wide-band modes to enable measurements of closed-orbit and turn-by-turn positions. The filtering and timing conditions of the signals are tuned accordingly for the operational modes. The analysis and the optimized result for each mode are presented

  7. Photoplethysmography Signal Analysis for Optimal Region-of-Interest Determination in Video Imaging on a Built-In Smartphone under Different Conditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yunyoung Nam

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Smartphones and tablets are widely used in medical fields, which can improve healthcare and reduce healthcare costs. Many medical applications for smartphones and tablets have already been developed and widely used by both health professionals and patients. Specifically, video recordings of fingertips made using a smartphone camera contain a pulsatile component caused by the cardiac pulse equivalent to that present in a photoplethysmographic signal. By performing peak detection on the pulsatile signal, it is possible to estimate a continuous heart rate and a respiratory rate. To estimate the heart rate and respiratory rate accurately, which pixel regions of the color bands give the most optimal signal quality should be investigated. In this paper, we investigate signal quality to determine the best signal quality by the largest amplitude values for three different smartphones under different conditions. We conducted several experiments to obtain reliable PPG signals and compared the PPG signal strength in the three color bands when the flashlight was both on and off. We also evaluated the intensity changes of PPG signals obtained from the smartphones with motion artifacts and fingertip pressure force. Furthermore, we have compared the PSNR of PPG signals of the full-size images with that of the region of interests (ROIs.

  8. Angular dependence of Auger signals from a GaAs (111) surface

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barnard, W.O.

    1984-03-01

    This dissertation is concerned with the angular dependence of the L 3 M 4 M 4 1067 eV Ga and L 3 M 4 M 4 1228 eV As Auger electron signals from a (111) GaAs surface, using a system which is equipped with a cylindrical mirror analyser. Following a detailed discussion of the Auger process, a review is given of angular effects in the emission excitation and detection of Auger signals. Present theories are discussed and an empirical theory is developed to test the experimental results obtained in this study. The experimental procedures and equipment used are presented. It was found that the Auger signals show a strong variation with the angle of rotation about the normal of a GaAs surface. Furthermore, the nature of the angular spectra of the Ga and As signals are interchanged when the electron beam incident surface is changed from (111) to (111). The main features of the angular variation of the quasi-elastic backscattered signal is reflected in the corresponding Ga and As Auger angular spectra. The angular dependence of the quasi-elastic backscattered signal can be explained semi-quantitatively in terms of the empirical theory. Theoretical arguments are presented which suggest that the Auger signals should show an angular dependence similar to the quasi-elastic backscattered signal. Evidence was found that geometric screening-off of underlying atoms by surface and near surface atoms influence the Auger yield

  9. Transient-Switch-Signal Suppressor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bozeman, Richard J., Jr.

    1995-01-01

    Circuit delays transmission of switch-opening or switch-closing signal until after preset suppression time. Used to prevent transmission of undesired momentary switch signal. Basic mode of operation simple. Beginning of switch signal initiates timing sequence. If switch signal persists after preset suppression time, circuit transmits switch signal to external circuitry. If switch signal no longer present after suppression time, switch signal deemed transient, and circuit does not pass signal on to external circuitry, as though no transient switch signal. Suppression time preset at value large enough to allow for damping of underlying pressure wave or other mechanical transient.

  10. Reliability of temperature signal in various climate indicators from northern Europe.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pertti Hari

    Full Text Available We collected relevant observational and measured annual-resolution time series dealing with climate in northern Europe, focusing in Finland. We analysed these series for the reliability of their temperature signal at annual and seasonal resolutions. Importantly, we analysed all of the indicators within the same statistical framework, which allows for their meaningful comparison. In this framework, we employed a cross-validation procedure designed to reduce the adverse effects of estimation bias that may inflate the reliability of various temperature indicators, especially when several indicators are used in a multiple regression model. In our data sets, timing of phenological observations and ice break-up were connected with spring, tree ring characteristics (width, density, carbon isotopic composition with summer and ice formation with autumn temperatures. Baltic Sea ice extent and the duration of ice cover in different watercourses were good indicators of winter temperatures. Using combinations of various temperature indicator series resulted in reliable temperature signals for each of the four seasons, as well as a reliable annual temperature signal. The results hence demonstrated that we can obtain reliable temperature information over different seasons, using a careful selection of indicators, combining the results with regression analysis, and by determining the reliability of the obtained indicator.

  11. Decoding Individual Finger Movements from One Hand Using Human EEG Signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gonzalez, Jania; Ding, Lei

    2014-01-01

    Brain computer interface (BCI) is an assistive technology, which decodes neurophysiological signals generated by the human brain and translates them into control signals to control external devices, e.g., wheelchairs. One problem challenging noninvasive BCI technologies is the limited control dimensions from decoding movements of, mainly, large body parts, e.g., upper and lower limbs. It has been reported that complicated dexterous functions, i.e., finger movements, can be decoded in electrocorticography (ECoG) signals, while it remains unclear whether noninvasive electroencephalography (EEG) signals also have sufficient information to decode the same type of movements. Phenomena of broadband power increase and low-frequency-band power decrease were observed in EEG in the present study, when EEG power spectra were decomposed by a principal component analysis (PCA). These movement-related spectral structures and their changes caused by finger movements in EEG are consistent with observations in previous ECoG study, as well as the results from ECoG data in the present study. The average decoding accuracy of 77.11% over all subjects was obtained in classifying each pair of fingers from one hand using movement-related spectral changes as features to be decoded using a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. The average decoding accuracy in three epilepsy patients using ECoG data was 91.28% with the similarly obtained features and same classifier. Both decoding accuracies of EEG and ECoG are significantly higher than the empirical guessing level (51.26%) in all subjects (pEEG as in ECoG, and demonstrates the feasibility of discriminating finger movements from one hand using EEG. These findings are promising to facilitate the development of BCIs with rich control signals using noninvasive technologies. PMID:24416360

  12. Large-signal analysis of DC motor drive system using state-space averaging technique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bekir Yildiz, Ali

    2008-01-01

    The analysis of a separately excited DC motor driven by DC-DC converter is realized by using state-space averaging technique. Firstly, a general and unified large-signal averaged circuit model for DC-DC converters is given. The method converts power electronic systems, which are periodic time-variant because of their switching operation, to unified and time independent systems. Using the averaged circuit model enables us to combine the different topologies of converters. Thus, all analysis and design processes about DC motor can be easily realized by using the unified averaged model which is valid during whole period. Some large-signal variations such as speed and current relating to DC motor, steady-state analysis, large-signal and small-signal transfer functions are easily obtained by using the averaged circuit model

  13. Signal Integrity Applications of an EBG Surface

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MATEKOVITS, L.

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Electromagnetic band-gap (EBG surfaces have found applications in mitigation of parallel-plate noise that occurs in high speed circuits. A 2D periodic structure previously introduced by the same authors is dimensioned here for adjusting EBG parameters in view of meeting applications requirements by decreasing the phase velocity of the propagating waves. This adjustment corresponds to decreasing the lower bound of the EBG spectra. The positions of the EBGs' in frequency are determined through full-wave simulation, by solving the corresponding eigenmode equation and by imposing the appropriate boundary conditions on all faces of the unit cell. The operation of a device relying on a finite surface is also demonstrated. Obtained results show that the proposed structure fits for the signal integrity related applications as verified also by comparing the transmission along a finite structure of an ideal signal line and one with an induced discontinuity.

  14. Analysis of EMG Signals in Aggressive and Normal Activities by Using Higher-Order Spectra

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Necmettin Sezgin

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The analysis and classification of electromyography (EMG signals are very important in order to detect some symptoms of diseases, prosthetic arm/leg control, and so on. In this study, an EMG signal was analyzed using bispectrum, which belongs to a family of higher-order spectra. An EMG signal is the electrical potential difference of muscle cells. The EMG signals used in the present study are aggressive or normal actions. The EMG dataset was obtained from the machine learning repository. First, the aggressive and normal EMG activities were analyzed using bispectrum and the quadratic phase coupling of each EMG episode was determined. Next, the features of the analyzed EMG signals were fed into learning machines to separate the aggressive and normal actions. The best classification result was 99.75%, which is sufficient to significantly classify the aggressive and normal actions.

  15. Analysis of EMG Signals in Aggressive and Normal Activities by Using Higher-Order Spectra

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sezgin, Necmettin

    2012-01-01

    The analysis and classification of electromyography (EMG) signals are very important in order to detect some symptoms of diseases, prosthetic arm/leg control, and so on. In this study, an EMG signal was analyzed using bispectrum, which belongs to a family of higher-order spectra. An EMG signal is the electrical potential difference of muscle cells. The EMG signals used in the present study are aggressive or normal actions. The EMG dataset was obtained from the machine learning repository. First, the aggressive and normal EMG activities were analyzed using bispectrum and the quadratic phase coupling of each EMG episode was determined. Next, the features of the analyzed EMG signals were fed into learning machines to separate the aggressive and normal actions. The best classification result was 99.75%, which is sufficient to significantly classify the aggressive and normal actions. PMID:23193379

  16. Response Analysis on Electrical Pulses under Severe Nuclear Accident Temperature Conditions Using an Abnormal Signal Simulation Analysis Module

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kil-Mo Koo

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Unlike design basis accidents, some inherent uncertainties of the reliability of instrumentations are expected while subjected to harsh environments (e.g., high temperature and pressure, high humidity, and high radioactivity occurring in severe nuclear accident conditions. Even under such conditions, an electrical signal should be within its expected range so that some mitigating actions can be taken based on the signal in the control room. For example, an industrial process control standard requires that the normal signal level for pressure, flow, and resistance temperature detector sensors be in the range of 4~20 mA for most instruments. Whereas, in the case that an abnormal signal is expected from an instrument, such a signal should be refined through a signal validation process so that the refined signal could be available in the control room. For some abnormal signals expected under severe accident conditions, to date, diagnostics and response analysis have been evaluated with an equivalent circuit model of real instruments, which is regarded as the best method. The main objective of this paper is to introduce a program designed to implement a diagnostic and response analysis for equivalent circuit modeling. The program links signal analysis tool code to abnormal signal simulation engine code not only as a one body order system, but also as a part of functions of a PC-based ASSA (abnormal signal simulation analysis module developed to obtain a varying range of the R-C circuit elements in high temperature conditions. As a result, a special function for abnormal pulse signal patterns can be obtained through the program, which in turn makes it possible to analyze the abnormal output pulse signals through a response characteristic of a 4~20 mA circuit model and a range of the elements changing with temperature under an accident condition.

  17. Nature sunlight bleaching of Ti center ESR signal in quartz

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yin Gongming; Liu Chunru; Li Jianping; Fang Jiahu; Gao Lu; Lin Min

    2009-01-01

    Quartz grains were extracted from granite. Bleaching was carried out in four different area chosen for their different altitudes (Beijing, Yinchuan, Germu, Lhasa), in order to observe their behavior under different intensities of the UV (Ultra violet) component of sunlight. The result of our experiments indicate that the Ti center signal is totally bleachable by the natural sunlight and show that the Ti center signal was reduced to zero after about 128 h in Beijing and after 56 h for Lhasa. We can speculate that different intensity of the UV component of sunlight lead to different minimal time necessary to obtain the total bleaching of the quartz sample. (authors)

  18. Amplification and discrimination of signals from proportional multiwire chambers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Papadopoulos, L.; Bosio, C.; Cordelli, M.

    1976-03-01

    A circuit is described which detects signals from proportional multiwire chambers. The threshold is about 3μ A and the time jitter of the pulse obtained is better than 2.5 ns. The circuit has one negative input and two complementary outputs. The realized module includes 8 channels with common trigger level control and was built as NIM standard unit

  19. Fast digitizing and digital signal processing of detector signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hannaske, Roland

    2008-01-01

    A fast-digitizer data acquisition system recently installed at the neutron time-of-flight experiment nELBE, which is located at the superconducting electron accelerator ELBE of Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, is tested with two different detector types. Preamplifier signals from a high-purity germanium detector are digitized, stored and finally processed. For a precise determination of the energy of the detected radiation, the moving-window deconvolution algorithm is used to compensate the ballistic deficit and different shaping algorithms are applied. The energy resolution is determined in an experiment with γ-rays from a 22 Na source and is compared to the energy resolution achieved with analogously processed signals. On the other hand, signals from the photomultipliers of barium fluoride and plastic scintillation detectors are digitized. These signals have risetimes of a few nanoseconds only. The moment of interaction of the radiation with the detector is determined by methods of digital signal processing. Therefore, different timing algorithms are implemented and tested with data from an experiment at nELBE. The time resolutions achieved with these algorithms are compared to each other as well as to reference values coming from analog signal processing. In addition to these experiments, some properties of the digitizing hardware are measured and a program for the analysis of stored, digitized data is developed. The analysis of the signals shows that the energy resolution achieved with the 10-bit digitizer system used here is not competitive to a 14-bit peak-sensing ADC, although the ballistic deficit can be fully corrected. However, digital methods give better result in sub-ns timing than analog signal processing. (orig.)

  20. Advances in biomedical signal and image processing – A systematic review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Rajeswari

    Full Text Available Biomedical signal and image processing establish a dynamic area of specialization in both academic as well as research aspects of biomedical engineering. The concepts of signal and image processing have been widely used for extracting the physiological information in implementing many clinical procedures for sophisticated medical practices and applications. In this paper, the relationship between electrophysiological signals, i.e., electrocardiogram (ECG, electromyogram (EMG, electroencephalogram (EEG and functional image processing and their derived interactions have been discussed. Examples have been investigated in various case studies such as neurosciences, functional imaging, and cardiovascular system, by using different algorithms and methods. The interaction between the extracted information obtained from multiple signals and modalities seems to be very promising. The advanced algorithms and methods in the area of information retrieval based on time-frequency representation have been investigated. Finally, some examples of algorithms have been discussed in which the electrophysiological signals and functional images have been properly extracted and have a significant impact on various biomedical applications. Keywords: Biomedical signals and images, Processing, Analysis

  1. Second-hand signals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bergenholtz, Carsten

    2014-01-01

    Studies of signaling theory have traditionally focused on the dyadic link between the sender and receiver of the signal. Within a science‐based perspective this framing has led scholars to investigate how patents and publications of firms function as signals. I explore another important type...... used by various agents in their search for and assessment of products and firms. I conclude by arguing how this second‐hand nature of signals goes beyond a simple dyadic focus on senders and receivers of signals, and thus elucidates the more complex interrelations of the various types of agents...

  2. Functional variants at the 11q13 risk locus for breast cancer regulate cyclin D1 expression through long-range enhancers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    French, Juliet D; Ghoussaini, Maya; Edwards, Stacey L

    2013-01-01

    Analysis of 4,405 variants in 89,050 European subjects from 41 case-control studies identified three independent association signals for estrogen-receptor-positive tumors at 11q13. The strongest signal maps to a transcriptional enhancer element in which the G allele of the best candidate causativ...

  3. Psychotic Experiences and Working Memory: A Population-Based Study Using Signal-Detection Analysis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rodolfo Rossi

    Full Text Available Psychotic Experiences (PEs during adolescence index increased risk for psychotic disorders and schizophrenia in adult life. Working memory (WM deficits are a core feature of these disorders. Our objective was to examine the relationship between PEs and WM in a general population sample of young people in a case control study. 4744 individuals of age 17-18 from Bristol and surrounding areas (UK were analyzed in a cross-sectional study nested within the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC birth cohort study. The dependent variable was PEs, assessed using the semi-structured Psychosis-Like Symptom Interview (PLIKSi. The independent variable was performance on a computerized numerical n-back working memory task. Signal-Detection Theory indices, including standardized hits rate, false alarms rate, discriminability index (d' and response bias (c from 2-Back and 3-Back tasks were calculated. 3576 and 3527 individuals had complete data for 2-Back and 3-Back respectively. Suspected/definite PEs prevalence was 7.9% (N = 374. Strongest evidence of association was seen between PEs and false alarms on the 2-Back, (odds ratio (OR = 1.17 [95% confidence intervals (CI 1.01, 1.35] and 3-back (OR = 1.35 [1.18, 1.54] and with c (OR = 1.59 [1.09, 2.34], and lower d' (OR = 0.76 [0.65, 0.89], on the 3-Back. Adjustment for several potential confounders, including general IQ, drug exposure and different psycho-social factors, and subsequent multiple imputation of missing data did not materially alter the results. WM is impaired in young people with PEs in the general population. False alarms, rather than poor accuracy, are more closely related to PEs. Such impairment is consistent with different neuropsychological models of psychosis focusing on signal-to-noise discrimination, probabilistic reasoning and impaired reality monitoring as a basis of psychotic symptoms.

  4. Reference-tracking feedforward control design for linear dynamical systems through signal decomposition

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kasemsinsup, Y.; Romagnoli, R.; Heertjes, M.F.; Weiland, S.; Butler, H.

    2017-01-01

    In this work, we study a novel approach towards the reference-tracking feedforward control design for linear dynamical systems. By utilizing the superposition property and exploiting signal decomposition together with a quadratic optimization process, we obtain a feedforward design procedure for

  5. Signal-BNF: A Bayesian Network Fusing Approach to Predict Signal Peptides

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhi Zheng

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available A signal peptide is a short peptide chain that directs the transport of a protein and has become the crucial vehicle in finding new drugs or reprogramming cells for gene therapy. As the avalanche of new protein sequences generated in the postgenomic era, the challenge of identifying new signal sequences has become even more urgent and critical in biomedical engineering. In this paper, we propose a novel predictor called Signal-BNF to predict the N-terminal signal peptide as well as its cleavage site based on Bayesian reasoning network. Signal-BNF is formed by fusing the results of different Bayesian classifiers which used different feature datasets as its input through weighted voting system. Experiment results show that Signal-BNF is superior to the popular online predictors such as Signal-3L and PrediSi. Signal-BNF is featured by high prediction accuracy that may serve as a useful tool for further investigating many unclear details regarding the molecular mechanism of the zip code protein-sorting system in cells.

  6. The 9.2 ka event in Asian summer monsoon area: the strongest millennial scale collapse of the monsoon during the Holocene

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Wenchao; Yan, Hong; Dodson, John; Cheng, Peng; Liu, Chengcheng; Li, Jianyong; Lu, Fengyan; Zhou, Weijian; An, Zhisheng

    2018-04-01

    Numerous Holocene paleo-proxy records exhibit a series of centennial-millennial scale rapid climatic events. Unlike the widely acknowledged 8.2 ka climate anomaly, the likelihood of a significant climate excursion at around 9.2 cal ka BP, which has been notably recognized in some studies, remains to be fully clarified in terms of its magnitude and intensity, as well as its characteristics and spatial distributions in a range of paleoclimatic records. In this study, a peat sediment profile from the Dajiuhu Basin in central China was collected with several geochemical proxies and a pollen analysis carried out to help improve understanding of the climate changes around 9.2 cal ka BP. The results show that the peat development was interrupted abruptly at around 9.2 cal ka BP, when the chemical weathering strength decreased and the tree-pollen declined. This suggests that a strong drier regional climatic event occurred at around 9.2 cal ka BP in central China, which was, in turn, probably connected to the rapid 9.2 ka climate event co-developing worldwide. In addition, based on the synthesis of our peat records and the other Holocene hydrological records from Asian summer monsoon (ASM) region, we further found that the 9.2 ka event probably constituted the strongest abrupt collapse of the Asian monsoon system during the full Holocene interval. The correlations between ASM and the atmospheric 14C production rate, the North Atlantic drift ice records and Greenland temperature indicated that the weakened ASM event at around 9.2 cal ka BP could be interpreted by the co-influence of external and internal factors, related to the changes of the solar activity and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).

  7. Cell response to nanocrystallized metallic substrates obtained through severe plastic deformation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bagherifard, Sara; Ghelichi, Ramin; Khademhosseini, Ali; Guagliano, Mario

    2014-06-11

    Cell-substrate interface is known to control the cell response and subsequent cell functions. Among the various biophysical signals, grain structure, which indicates the repeating arrangement of atoms in the material, has also proved to play a role of significant importance in mediating the cell activities. Moreover, refining the grain size through severe plastic deformation is known to provide the processed material with novel mechanical properties. The potential application of such advanced materials as biomedical implants has recently been evaluated by investigating the effect of different substrate grain sizes on a wide variety of cell activities. In this review, recent advances in biomedical applications of severe plastic deformation techniques are highlighted with special attention to the effect of the obtained nano/ultra-fine-grain size on cell-substrate interactions. Various severe plastic deformation techniques used for this purpose are discussed presenting a brief description of the mechanism for each process. The results obtained for each treatment on cell morphology, adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation, as well as the in vivo studies, are discussed. Finally, the advantages and challenges regarding the application of these techniques to produce multifunctional bio-implant materials are addressed.

  8. SignalPlant: an open signal processing software platform.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plesinger, F; Jurco, J; Halamek, J; Jurak, P

    2016-07-01

    The growing technical standard of acquisition systems allows the acquisition of large records, often reaching gigabytes or more in size as is the case with whole-day electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings, for example. Although current 64-bit software for signal processing is able to process (e.g. filter, analyze, etc) such data, visual inspection and labeling will probably suffer from rather long latency during the rendering of large portions of recorded signals. For this reason, we have developed SignalPlant-a stand-alone application for signal inspection, labeling and processing. The main motivation was to supply investigators with a tool allowing fast and interactive work with large multichannel records produced by EEG, electrocardiograph and similar devices. The rendering latency was compared with EEGLAB and proves significantly faster when displaying an image from a large number of samples (e.g. 163-times faster for 75  ×  10(6) samples). The presented SignalPlant software is available free and does not depend on any other computation software. Furthermore, it can be extended with plugins by third parties ensuring its adaptability to future research tasks and new data formats.

  9. Printed silver nanowire antennas with low signal loss at high-frequency radio

    Science.gov (United States)

    Komoda, Natsuki; Nogi, Masaya; Suganuma, Katsuaki; Kohno, Kazuo; Akiyama, Yutaka; Otsuka, Kanji

    2012-05-01

    Silver nanowires are printable and conductive, and are believed to be promising materials in the field of printed electronics. However, the resistivity of silver nanowire printed lines is higher than that of metallic particles or flakes even when sintered at high temperatures of 100-400 °C. Therefore, their applications have been limited to the replacement of transparent electrodes made from high-resistivity materials, such as doped metallic oxides, conductive polymers, carbon nanotubes, or graphenes. Here we report that using printed silver nanowire lines, signal losses obtained in the high-frequency radio were lower than those obtained using etched copper foil antennas, because their surfaces were much smoother than those of etched copper foil antennas. This was the case even though the resistivity of silver nanowire lines was 43-71 μΩ cm, which is much higher than that of etched copper foil (2 μΩ cm). When printed silver nanowire antennas were heated at 100 °C, they achieved signal losses that were much lower than those of silver paste antennas comprising microparticles, nanoparticles, and flakes. Furthermore, using a low temperature process, we succeeded in remotely controlling a commercialized radio-controlled car by transmitting a 2.45 GHz signal via a silver nanowire antenna printed on a polyethylene terephthalate film.Silver nanowires are printable and conductive, and are believed to be promising materials in the field of printed electronics. However, the resistivity of silver nanowire printed lines is higher than that of metallic particles or flakes even when sintered at high temperatures of 100-400 °C. Therefore, their applications have been limited to the replacement of transparent electrodes made from high-resistivity materials, such as doped metallic oxides, conductive polymers, carbon nanotubes, or graphenes. Here we report that using printed silver nanowire lines, signal losses obtained in the high-frequency radio were lower than those

  10. Inbreeding affects sexual signalling in males but not females of Tenebrio molitor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pölkki, Mari; Krams, Indrikis; Kangassalo, Katariina; Rantala, Markus J

    2012-06-23

    In many species of animals, individuals advertise their quality with sexual signals to obtain mates. Chemical signals such as volatile pheromones are species specific, and their primary purpose is to influence mate choice by carrying information about the phenotypic and genetic quality of the sender. The deleterious effects of consanguineous mating on individual quality are generally known, whereas the effect of inbreeding on sexual signalling is poorly understood. Here, we tested whether inbreeding reduces the attractiveness of sexual signalling in the mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor, by testing the preferences for odours of inbred and outbred (control) individuals of the opposite sex. Females were more attracted to the odours produced by outbred males than the odours produced by inbred males, suggesting that inbreeding reduces the attractiveness of male sexual signalling. However, we did not find any difference between the attractiveness of inbred and outbred female odours, which may indicate that the quality of females is either irrelevant for T. molitor males or quality is not revealed through female odours.

  11. Parameter Optimization for Quantitative Signal-Concentration Mapping Using Spoiled Gradient Echo MRI

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gasser Hathout

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Rationale and Objectives. Accurate signal to tracer concentration maps are critical to quantitative MRI. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and optimize spoiled gradient echo (SPGR MR sequences for the use of gadolinium (Gd-DTPA as a kinetic tracer. Methods. Water-gadolinium phantoms were constructed for a physiologic range of gadolinium concentrations. Observed and calculated SPGR signal to concentration curves were generated. Using a percentage error determination, optimal pulse parameters for signal to concentration mapping were obtained. Results. The accuracy of the SPGR equation is a function of the chosen MR pulse parameters, particularly the time to repetition (TR and the flip angle (FA. At all experimental values of TR, increasing FA decreases the ratio between observed and calculated signals. Conversely, for a constant FA, increasing TR increases this ratio. Using optimized pulse parameter sets, it is possible to achieve excellent accuracy (approximately 5% over a physiologic range of concentration tracer concentrations. Conclusion. Optimal pulse parameter sets exist and their use is essential for deriving accurate signal to concentration curves in quantitative MRI.

  12. Current signal of silicon detectors facing charged particles and heavy ions; Reponse en courant des detecteurs silicium aux particules chargees et aux ions lourds

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hamrita, H

    2005-07-01

    This work consisted in collecting and studying for the first time the shapes of current signals obtained from charged particles or heavy ions produced by silicon detectors. The document is divided into two main parts. The first consisted in reducing the experimental data obtained with charged particles as well as with heavy ions. These experiments were performed at the Orsay Tandem and at GANIL using LISE. These two experiments enabled us to create a data base formed of current signals with various shapes and various times of collection. The second part consisted in carrying out a simulation of the current signals obtained from the various ions. To obtain this simulation we propose a new model describing the formation of the signal. We used the data base of the signals obtained in experiments in order to constrain the three parameters of our model. In this model, the charge carriers created are regarded as dipoles and their density is related to the dielectric polarization in the silicon detector. This phenomenon induces an increase in permittivity throughout the range of the incident ion and consequently the electric field between the electrodes of the detector is decreased inside the trace. We coupled with this phenomenon a dissociation and extraction mode of the charge carriers so that they can be moved in the electric field. (author)

  13. Time-frequency analysis of non-stationary fusion plasma signals using an improved Hilbert-Huang transform

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, Yangqing; Tan, Yi; Xie, Huiqiao; Wang, Wenhao; Gao, Zhe

    2014-01-01

    An improved Hilbert-Huang transform method is developed to the time-frequency analysis of non-stationary signals in tokamak plasmas. Maximal overlap discrete wavelet packet transform rather than wavelet packet transform is proposed as a preprocessor to decompose a signal into various narrow-band components. Then, a correlation coefficient based selection method is utilized to eliminate the irrelevant intrinsic mode functions obtained from empirical mode decomposition of those narrow-band components. Subsequently, a time varying vector autoregressive moving average model instead of Hilbert spectral analysis is performed to compute the Hilbert spectrum, i.e., a three-dimensional time-frequency distribution of the signal. The feasibility and effectiveness of the improved Hilbert-Huang transform method is demonstrated by analyzing a non-stationary simulated signal and actual experimental signals in fusion plasmas

  14. Expert system for eddy current signal analysis: non destructive testing of steam generator tubings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Benoist, B.

    1991-01-01

    Automatic analysis, by computer, of defect signals in steam generator tubes, based on Eddy current multifrequency technique, is must often inefficient due to pilgrim noise. The first step is to use a method that allows us to eleminate the noise: the adaptative interpolation. Thanks to this method, which ensures reliable data on each channel, the analysis can be realised by taking into account the data corresponding to each basic or mixed channel. By correlating these diverse data, we can class the signals according to two types of defects: single defects (symmetrical), multiple defects (several in the same place). The second step is to use an expert system which allows a reliable diagnosis for whatever family the defect belongs to. According to this classification, analysis is continued and results in the characterization of the defect. The expert system has already been developed with the general purpose application expert system shell SUPER, which is briefly described. The knowledge base (SOCRATE) and the specific tools developed for this application are thoroughly described. The first results obtained with signals corresponding to real defects, that have been recorded in different places, are presented and discussed. The expert system is revealed efficient in all the studied cases, even with signals obtained in very noisy environments [fr

  15. A map of recent positive selection in the human genome.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Benjamin F Voight

    2006-03-01

    Full Text Available The identification of signals of very recent positive selection provides information about the adaptation of modern humans to local conditions. We report here on a genome-wide scan for signals of very recent positive selection in favor of variants that have not yet reached fixation. We describe a new analytical method for scanning single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP data for signals of recent selection, and apply this to data from the International HapMap Project. In all three continental groups we find widespread signals of recent positive selection. Most signals are region-specific, though a significant excess are shared across groups. Contrary to some earlier low resolution studies that suggested a paucity of recent selection in sub-Saharan Africans, we find that by some measures our strongest signals of selection are from the Yoruba population. Finally, since these signals indicate the existence of genetic variants that have substantially different fitnesses, they must indicate loci that are the source of significant phenotypic variation. Though the relevant phenotypes are generally not known, such loci should be of particular interest in mapping studies of complex traits. For this purpose we have developed a set of SNPs that can be used to tag the strongest approximately 250 signals of recent selection in each population.

  16. Ionospheric effects of earthquakes in Japan in March 2011 obtained from observations of lightning electromagnetic radio signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. A. Mullayarov

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Manifestations of disturbances in the lower ionosphere caused by a complex series of earthquakes (the strong earthquakes with M = 7.3 and M = 9 – known as M9 Tohoku EQ – and the subsequent aftershocks that occurred near the Japanese island of Honshu have been considered with the use of monitoring measurements of the amplitude of lightning electromagnetic signals (atmospherics received at Yakutsk. Some data of one-point lightning location systems have been compared with the data of the WWLLN network.

    The analysis of hourly values variation of the atmospheric amplitude passing over the earthquake epicenters shows that during the initial period (the strong earthquakes on 9 March and 11 March a typical pattern of variations was observed. It was manifested in the increased amplitude after both earthquakes. There were also possible precursors in the form of the increase in amplitude 12–14 days before the events. Though the focuses of these earthquakes were very close to each other, the registration of both precursors may indicate that both of the lithospheric processes developed to a certain extent independently.

    During all the days of the atmospheric amplitude enhancement the quasi-periodic variation trains were recorded. Together with the delay of earthquake effects relative to the time of the events, they may testify in favor of transferring the energy of lithospheric processes into the lower ionosphere by means of atmospheric gravity waves.

  17. Investigating the effect of traditional Persian music on ECG signals in young women using wavelet transform and neural networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abedi, Behzad; Abbasi, Ataollah; Goshvarpour, Atefeh

    2017-05-01

    In the past few decades, several studies have reported the physiological effects of listening to music. The physiological effects of different music types on different people are different. In the present study, we aimed to examine the effects of listening to traditional Persian music on electrocardiogram (ECG) signals in young women. Twenty-two healthy females participated in this study. ECG signals were recorded under two conditions: rest and music. For each ECG signal, 20 morphological and wavelet-based features were selected. Artificial neural network (ANN) and probabilistic neural network (PNN) classifiers were used for the classification of ECG signals during and before listening to music. Collected data were separated into two data sets: train and test. Classification accuracies of 88% and 97% were achieved in train data sets using ANN and PNN, respectively. In addition, the test data set was employed for evaluating the classifiers, and classification rates of 84% and 93% were obtained using ANN and PNN, respectively. The present study investigated the effect of music on ECG signals based on wavelet transform and morphological features. The results obtained here can provide a good understanding on the effects of music on ECG signals to researchers.

  18. Operating regimes of signaling cycles: statics, dynamics, and noise filtering.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos Gomez-Uribe

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available A ubiquitous building block of signaling pathways is a cycle of covalent modification (e.g., phosphorylation and dephosphorylation in MAPK cascades. Our paper explores the kind of information processing and filtering that can be accomplished by this simple biochemical circuit. Signaling cycles are particularly known for exhibiting a highly sigmoidal (ultrasensitive input-output characteristic in a certain steady-state regime. Here, we systematically study the cycle's steady-state behavior and its response to time-varying stimuli. We demonstrate that the cycle can actually operate in four different regimes, each with its specific input-output characteristics. These results are obtained using the total quasi-steady-state approximation, which is more generally valid than the typically used Michaelis-Menten approximation for enzymatic reactions. We invoke experimental data that suggest the possibility of signaling cycles operating in one of the new regimes. We then consider the cycle's dynamic behavior, which has so far been relatively neglected. We demonstrate that the intrinsic architecture of the cycles makes them act--in all four regimes--as tunable low-pass filters, filtering out high-frequency fluctuations or noise in signals and environmental cues. Moreover, the cutoff frequency can be adjusted by the cell. Numerical simulations show that our analytical results hold well even for noise of large amplitude. We suggest that noise filtering and tunability make signaling cycles versatile components of more elaborate cell-signaling pathways.

  19. A method for detecting nonlinear determinism in normal and epileptic brain EEG signals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meghdadi, Amir H; Fazel-Rezai, Reza; Aghakhani, Yahya

    2007-01-01

    A robust method of detecting determinism for short time series is proposed and applied to both healthy and epileptic EEG signals. The method provides a robust measure of determinism through characterizing the trajectories of the signal components which are obtained through singular value decomposition. Robustness of the method is shown by calculating proposed index of determinism at different levels of white and colored noise added to a simulated chaotic signal. The method is shown to be able to detect determinism at considerably high levels of additive noise. The method is then applied to both intracranial and scalp EEG recordings collected in different data sets for healthy and epileptic brain signals. The results show that for all of the studied EEG data sets there is enough evidence of determinism. The determinism is more significant for intracranial EEG recordings particularly during seizure activity.

  20. Tunable Signal-Off and Signal-On Electrochemical Cisplatin Sensor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Yao; Lai, Rebecca Y

    2017-09-19

    We report the first electrochemical cisplatin sensor fabricated with a thiolated and methylene blue (MB)-modified oligo-adenine (A)-guanine (G) DNA probe. Depending on the probe coverage, the sensor can behave as a signal-off or signal-on sensor. For the high-coverage sensor, formation of intrastrand Pt(II)-AG adducts rigidifies the oligo-AG probe, resulting in a concentration-dependent decrease in the MB signal. For the low-coverage sensor, the increase in probe-to-probe spacing enables binding of cisplatin via the intrastrand GNG motif (N = A), generating a bend in the probe which results in an increase in the MB current. Although both high-coverage signal-off and low-coverage signal-on sensors are capable of detecting cisplatin, the signal-on sensing mechanism is better suited for real time analysis of cisplatin. The low-coverage sensor has a lower limit of detection, wider optimal AC frequency range, and faster response time. It has high specificity for cisplatin and potentially other Pt(II) drugs and does not cross-react with satraplatin, a Pt(IV) prodrug. It is also selective enough to be employed directly in 50% saliva and 50% urine. This detection strategy may offer a new approach for sensitive and real time analysis of cisplatin in clinical samples.

  1. Eddy Current Signal Analysis for Transmit-Receive Pancake Coil on ECT Array Probe

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Hyang Beom

    2006-01-01

    In this paper, the eddy current signals come from a pair of transmit-receive (T/R) pancake coil on ECT array Probe are analyzed with the variations of the lift-of and of the distance between transmit and receive coils. To obtain the electromagnetic characteristics of the probes, the governing equation describing the eddy current problems is derived from Maxwell's equation and is solved using three-dimensional finite element method. Eddy current signals from T/R coils on ECT array probe have quite different characteristics compared with ones from impedance coil on rotating pancake coil probe. The results in this paper ran be helpful when the field eddy current signals from ECT array probe are evaluated

  2. Signal sciences workshop proceedings

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Candy, J.V.

    1997-05-01

    This meeting is aimed primarily at signal processing and controls. The technical program for the 1997 Workshop includes a variety of efforts in the Signal Sciences with applications in the Microtechnology Area a new program at LLNL and a future area of application for both Signal/Image Sciences. Special sessions organized by various individuals in Seismic and Optical Signal Processing as well as Micro-Impulse Radar Processing highlight the program, while the speakers at the Signal Processing Applications session discuss various applications of signal processing/control to real world problems. For the more theoretical, a session on Signal Processing Algorithms was organized as well as for the more pragmatic, featuring a session on Real-Time Signal Processing.

  3. Signal sciences workshop. Proceedings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Candy, J.V.

    1997-01-01

    This meeting is aimed primarily at signal processing and controls. The technical program for the 1997 Workshop includes a variety of efforts in the Signal Sciences with applications in the Microtechnology Area a new program at LLNL and a future area of application for both Signal/Image Sciences. Special sessions organized by various individuals in Seismic and Optical Signal Processing as well as Micro-Impulse Radar Processing highlight the program, while the speakers at the Signal Processing Applications session discuss various applications of signal processing/control to real world problems. For the more theoretical, a session on Signal Processing Algorithms was organized as well as for the more pragmatic, featuring a session on Real-Time Signal Processing

  4. Search for γ -Ray Line Signals from Dark Matter Annihilations in the Inner Galactic Halo from 10 Years of Observations with H.E.S.S.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdallah, H.; Abramowski, A.; Aharonian, F.; Ait Benkhali, F.; Angüner, E. O.; Arakawa, M.; Arrieta, M.; Aubert, P.; Backes, M.; Balzer, A.; Barnard, M.; Becherini, Y.; Becker Tjus, J.; Berge, D.; Bernhard, S.; Bernlöhr, K.; Blackwell, R.; Böttcher, M.; Boisson, C.; Bolmont, J.; Bonnefoy, S.; Bordas, P.; Bregeon, J.; Brun, F.; Brun, P.; Bryan, M.; Büchele, M.; Bulik, T.; Capasso, M.; Caroff, S.; Carosi, A.; Carr, J.; Casanova, S.; Cerruti, M.; Chakraborty, N.; Chaves, R. C. G.; Chen, A.; Chevalier, J.; Colafrancesco, S.; Condon, B.; Conrad, J.; Davids, I. D.; Decock, J.; Deil, C.; Devin, J.; deWilt, P.; Dirson, L.; Djannati-Ataï, A.; Domainko, W.; Donath, A.; Drury, L. O'C.; Dutson, K.; Dyks, J.; Edwards, T.; Egberts, K.; Eger, P.; Emery, G.; Ernenwein, J.-P.; Eschbach, S.; Farnier, C.; Fegan, S.; Fernandes, M. V.; Fiasson, A.; Fontaine, G.; Förster, A.; Funk, S.; Füßling, M.; Gabici, S.; Gallant, Y. A.; Garrigoux, T.; Gaté, F.; Giavitto, G.; Giebels, B.; Glawion, D.; Glicenstein, J. F.; Gottschall, D.; Grondin, M.-H.; Hahn, J.; Haupt, M.; Hawkes, J.; Heinzelmann, G.; Henri, G.; Hermann, G.; Hinton, J. A.; Hofmann, W.; Hoischen, C.; Holch, T. L.; Holler, M.; Horns, D.; Ivascenko, A.; Iwasaki, H.; Jacholkowska, A.; Jamrozy, M.; Janiak, M.; Jankowsky, D.; Jankowsky, F.; Jingo, M.; Jouvin, L.; Jung-Richardt, I.; Kastendieck, M. A.; Katarzyński, K.; Katsuragawa, M.; Katz, U.; Kerszberg, D.; Khangulyan, D.; Khélifi, B.; King, J.; Klepser, S.; Klochkov, D.; Kluźniak, W.; Komin, Nu.; Kosack, K.; Krakau, S.; Kraus, M.; Krüger, P. P.; Laffon, H.; Lamanna, G.; Lau, J.; Lees, J.-P.; Lefaucheur, J.; Lemière, A.; Lemoine-Goumard, M.; Lenain, J.-P.; Leser, E.; Liu, R.; Lohse, T.; Lorentz, M.; López-Coto, R.; Lypova, I.; Malyshev, D.; Marandon, V.; Marcowith, A.; Mariaud, C.; Marx, R.; Maurin, G.; Maxted, N.; Mayer, M.; Meintjes, P. J.; Meyer, M.; Mitchell, A. M. W.; Moderski, R.; Mohamed, M.; Mohrmann, L.; Morâ, K.; Moulin, E.; Murach, T.; Nakashima, S.; de Naurois, M.; Ndiyavala, H.; Niederwanger, F.; Niemiec, J.; Oakes, L.; O'Brien, P.; Odaka, H.; Ohm, S.; Ostrowski, M.; Oya, I.; Padovani, M.; Panter, M.; Parsons, R. D.; Pekeur, N. W.; Pelletier, G.; Perennes, C.; Petrucci, P.-O.; Peyaud, B.; Piel, Q.; Pita, S.; Poireau, V.; Poon, H.; Prokhorov, D.; Prokoph, H.; Pühlhofer, G.; Punch, M.; Quirrenbach, A.; Raab, S.; Rauth, R.; Reimer, A.; Reimer, O.; Renaud, M.; de los Reyes, R.; Rieger, F.; Rinchiuso, L.; Romoli, C.; Rowell, G.; Rudak, B.; Rulten, C. B.; Sahakian, V.; Saito, S.; Sanchez, D. A.; Santangelo, A.; Sasaki, M.; Schandri, M.; Schlickeiser, R.; Schüssler, F.; Schulz, A.; Schwanke, U.; Schwemmer, S.; Seglar-Arroyo, M.; Settimo, M.; Seyffert, A. S.; Shafi, N.; Shilon, I.; Shiningayamwe, K.; Simoni, R.; Sol, H.; Spanier, F.; Spir-Jacob, M.; Stawarz, Ł.; Steenkamp, R.; Stegmann, C.; Steppa, C.; Sushch, I.; Takahashi, T.; Tavernet, J.-P.; Tavernier, T.; Taylor, A. M.; Terrier, R.; Tibaldo, L.; Tiziani, D.; Tluczykont, M.; Trichard, C.; Tsirou, M.; Tsuji, N.; Tuffs, R.; Uchiyama, Y.; van der Walt, J.; van Eldik, C.; van Rensburg, C.; van Soelen, B.; Vasileiadis, G.; Veh, J.; Venter, C.; Viana, A.; Vincent, P.; Vink, J.; Voisin, F.; Völk, H. J.; Vuillaume, T.; Wadiasingh, Z.; Wagner, S. J.; Wagner, P.; Wagner, R. M.; White, R.; Wierzcholska, A.; Willmann, P.; Wörnlein, A.; Wouters, D.; Yang, R.; Zaborov, D.; Zacharias, M.; Zanin, R.; Zdziarski, A. A.; Zech, A.; Zefi, F.; Ziegler, A.; Zorn, J.; Żywucka, N.; H. E. S. S. Collaboration

    2018-05-01

    Spectral lines are among the most powerful signatures for dark matter (DM) annihilation searches in very-high-energy γ rays. The central region of the Milky Way halo is one of the most promising targets given its large amount of DM and proximity to Earth. We report on a search for a monoenergetic spectral line from self-annihilations of DM particles in the energy range from 300 GeV to 70 TeV using a two-dimensional maximum likelihood method taking advantage of both the spectral and spatial features of the signal versus background. The analysis makes use of Galactic center observations accumulated over ten years (2004-2014) with the H.E.S.S. array of ground-based Cherenkov telescopes. No significant γ -ray excess above the background is found. We derive upper limits on the annihilation cross section ⟨σ v ⟩ for monoenergetic DM lines at the level of 4 ×10-28 cm3 s-1 at 1 TeV, assuming an Einasto DM profile for the Milky Way halo. For a DM mass of 1 TeV, they improve over the previous ones by a factor of 6. The present constraints are the strongest obtained so far for DM particles in the mass range 300 GeV-70 TeV. Ground-based γ -ray observations have reached sufficient sensitivity to explore relevant velocity-averaged cross sections for DM annihilation into two γ -ray photons at the level expected from the thermal relic density for TeV DM particles.

  5. Dependence of accuracy of ESPRIT estimates on signal eigenvalues: the case of a noisy sum of two real exponentials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alexandrov, Theodore; Golyandina, Nina; Timofeyev, Alexey

    2009-02-26

    This paper is devoted to estimation of parameters for a noisy sum of two real exponential functions. Singular Spectrum Analysis is used to extract the signal subspace and then the ESPRIT method exploiting signal subspace features is applied to obtain estimates of the desired exponential rates. Dependence of estimation quality on signal eigenvalues is investigated. The special design to test this relation is elaborated.

  6. Reconstruction of signal in plastic scintillator of PET using Tikhonov regularization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raczynski, Lech

    2015-08-01

    The new concept of Time of Flight Positron Emission Tomography (TOF-PET) detection system, which allows for single bed imaging of the whole human body, is currently under development at the Jagiellonian University. The Jagiellonian-PET (J-PET) detector improves the TOF resolution due to the use of fast plastic scintillators. Since registration of the waveform of signals with duration times of few nanoseconds is not feasible, a novel front-end electronics allowing for sampling in a voltage domain at four thresholds was developed. To take fully advantage of these fast signals a novel scheme of recovery of the waveform of the signal, based on idea from the Tikhonov regularization method, is presented. From the Bayes theory the properties of regularized solution, especially its covariance matrix, may be easily derived. This step is crucial to introduce and prove the formula for calculations of the signal recovery error. The method is tested using signals registered by means of the single detection module of the J-PET detector built out from the 30 cm long plastic scintillator strip. It is shown that using the recovered waveform of the signals, instead of samples at four voltage levels alone, improves the spatial resolution of the hit position reconstruction from 1.05 cm to 0.94 cm. Moreover, the obtained result is only slightly worse than the one evaluated using the original raw-signal. The spatial resolution calculated under these conditions is equal to 0.93 cm.

  7. Orexin/Hypocretin Signaling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kukkonen, Jyrki P

    Orexin/hypocretin peptide (orexin-A and orexin-B) signaling is believed to take place via the two G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), named OX 1 and OX 2 orexin receptors, as described in the previous chapters. Signaling of orexin peptides has been investigated in diverse endogenously orexin receptor-expressing cells - mainly neurons but also other types of cells - and in recombinant cells expressing the receptors in a heterologous manner. Findings in the different systems are partially convergent but also indicate cellular background-specific signaling. The general picture suggests an inherently high degree of diversity in orexin receptor signaling.In the current chapter, I present orexin signaling on the cellular and molecular levels. Discussion of the connection to (potential) physiological orexin responses is only brief since these are in focus of other chapters in this book. The same goes for the post-synaptic signaling mechanisms, which are dealt with in Burdakov: Postsynaptic actions of orexin. The current chapter is organized according to the tissue type, starting from the central nervous system. Finally, receptor signaling pathways are discussed across tissues, cell types, and even species.

  8. Analytical formulation of directly modulated OOFDM signals transmitted over an IM/DD dispersive link.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sánchez, C; Ortega, B; Wei, J L; Tang, J; Capmany, J

    2013-03-25

    We provide an analytical study on the propagation effects of a directly modulated OOFDM signal through a dispersive fiber and subsequent photo-detection. The analysis includes the effects of the laser operation point and the interplay between chromatic dispersion and laser chirp. The final expression allows to understand the physics behind the transmission of a multi-carrier signal in the presence of residual frequency modulation and the description of the induced intermodulation distortion gives us a detailed insight into the diferent intermodulation products which impair the recovered signal at the receiver-end side. Numerical comparisons between transmission simulations results and those provided by evaluating the expression obtained are carried out for different laser operation points. Results obtained by changing the fiber length, laser parameters and using single mode fiber with negative and positive dispersion are calculated in order to demonstrate the validity and versatility of the theory provided in this paper. Therefore, a novel analytical formulation is presented as a versatile tool for the description and study of IM/DD OOFDM systems with variable design parameters.

  9. Regularized non-stationary morphological reconstruction algorithm for weak signal detection in microseismic monitoring: methodology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Weilin; Wang, Runqiu; Chen, Yangkang

    2018-05-01

    Microseismic signal is typically weak compared with the strong background noise. In order to effectively detect the weak signal in microseismic data, we propose a mathematical morphology based approach. We decompose the initial data into several morphological multiscale components. For detection of weak signal, a non-stationary weighting operator is proposed and introduced into the process of reconstruction of data by morphological multiscale components. The non-stationary weighting operator can be obtained by solving an inversion problem. The regularized non-stationary method can be understood as a non-stationary matching filtering method, where the matching filter has the same size as the data to be filtered. In this paper, we provide detailed algorithmic descriptions and analysis. The detailed algorithm framework, parameter selection and computational issue for the regularized non-stationary morphological reconstruction (RNMR) method are presented. We validate the presented method through a comprehensive analysis through different data examples. We first test the proposed technique using a synthetic data set. Then the proposed technique is applied to a field project, where the signals induced from hydraulic fracturing are recorded by 12 three-component geophones in a monitoring well. The result demonstrates that the RNMR can improve the detectability of the weak microseismic signals. Using the processed data, the short-term-average over long-term average picking algorithm and Geiger's method are applied to obtain new locations of microseismic events. In addition, we show that the proposed RNMR method can be used not only in microseismic data but also in reflection seismic data to detect the weak signal. We also discussed the extension of RNMR from 1-D to 2-D or a higher dimensional version.

  10. Parametric roll resonance monitoring using signal-based detection

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Galeazzi, Roberto; Blanke, Mogens; Falkenberg, Thomas

    2015-01-01

    Extreme roll motion of ships can be caused by several phenomena, one of which is parametric roll resonance. Several incidents occurred unexpectedly around the millennium and caused vast fiscal losses on large container vessels. The phenomenon is now well understood and some consider parametric roll...... algorithms in real conditions, and to evaluate the frequency of parametric roll events on the selected vessels. Detection performance is scrutinised through the validation of the detected events using owners’ standard methods, and supported by available wave radar data. Further, a bivariate statistical...... analysis of the outcome of the signal-based detectors is performed to assess the real life false alarm probability. It is shown that detection robustness and very low false warning rates are obtained. The study concludes that small parametric roll events are occurring, and that the proposed signal...

  11. 97 Medical Apparatuses tested at the Academic Medical Center (AMC) Amsterdam for interference by WLAN/WiFi signals

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hensbroek, R.

    2009-01-01

    This research describes the influence of WLAN 1 signals on medical apparatuses in the Academic Medical Center (AMC) Amsterdam. The results in this report were obtained by testing medical equipment with WLAN signals. A comparable research was reported earlier. See TNO report KvL/P&Z 2007.117 dated

  12. Signal-noise separation based on self-similarity testing in 1D-timeseries data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bourdin, Philippe A.

    2015-08-01

    The continuous improvement of the resolution delivered by modern instrumentation is a cost-intensive part of any new space- or ground-based observatory. Typically, scientists later reduce the resolution of the obtained raw-data, for example in the spatial, spectral, or temporal domain, in order to suppress the effects of noise in the measurements. In practice, only simple methods are used that just smear out the noise, instead of trying to remove it, so that the noise can nomore be seen. In high-precision 1D-timeseries data, this usually results in an unwanted quality-loss and corruption of power spectra at selected frequency ranges. Novel methods exist that are based on non-local averaging, which would conserve much of the initial resolution, but these methods are so far focusing on 2D or 3D data. We present here a method specialized for 1D-timeseries, e.g. as obtained by magnetic field measurements from the recently launched MMS satellites. To identify the noise, we use a self-similarity testing and non-local averaging method in order to separate different types of noise and signals, like the instrument noise, non-correlated fluctuations in the signal from heliospheric sources, and correlated fluctuations such as harmonic waves or shock fronts. In power spectra of test data, we are able to restore significant parts of a previously know signal from a noisy measurement. This method also works for high frequencies, where the background noise may have a larger contribution to the spectral power than the signal itself. We offer an easy-to-use software tools set, which enables scientists to use this novel technique on their own noisy data. This allows to use the maximum possible capacity of the instrumental hardware and helps to enhance the quality of the obtained scientific results.

  13. Signal enhancement with variable span linear filters

    CERN Document Server

    Benesty, Jacob; Jensen, Jesper R

    2016-01-01

    This book introduces readers to the novel concept of variable span speech enhancement filters, and demonstrates how it can be used for effective noise reduction in various ways. Further, the book provides the accompanying Matlab code, allowing readers to easily implement the main ideas discussed. Variable span filters combine the ideas of optimal linear filters with those of subspace methods, as they involve the joint diagonalization of the correlation matrices of the desired signal and the noise. The book shows how some well-known filter designs, e.g. the minimum distortion, maximum signal-to-noise ratio, Wiener, and tradeoff filters (including their new generalizations) can be obtained using the variable span filter framework. It then illustrates how the variable span filters can be applied in various contexts, namely in single-channel STFT-based enhancement, in multichannel enhancement in both the time and STFT domains, and, lastly, in time-domain binaural enhancement. In these contexts, the properties of ...

  14. Improvement of Source Number Estimation Method for Single Channel Signal.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhi Dong

    Full Text Available Source number estimation methods for single channel signal have been investigated and the improvements for each method are suggested in this work. Firstly, the single channel data is converted to multi-channel form by delay process. Then, algorithms used in the array signal processing, such as Gerschgorin's disk estimation (GDE and minimum description length (MDL, are introduced to estimate the source number of the received signal. The previous results have shown that the MDL based on information theoretic criteria (ITC obtains a superior performance than GDE at low SNR. However it has no ability to handle the signals containing colored noise. On the contrary, the GDE method can eliminate the influence of colored noise. Nevertheless, its performance at low SNR is not satisfactory. In order to solve these problems and contradictions, the work makes remarkable improvements on these two methods on account of the above consideration. A diagonal loading technique is employed to ameliorate the MDL method and a jackknife technique is referenced to optimize the data covariance matrix in order to improve the performance of the GDE method. The results of simulation have illustrated that the performance of original methods have been promoted largely.

  15. Obtaining of inulin acetate

    OpenAIRE

    Khusenov, Arslonnazar; Rakhmanberdiev, Gappar; Rakhimov, Dilshod; Khalikov, Muzaffar

    2014-01-01

    In the article first obtained inulin ester inulin acetate, by etherification of inulin with acetic anhydride has been exposed. Obtained product has been studied using elementary analysis and IR spectroscopy.

  16. Angle-of-arrival-based gesture recognition using ultrasonic multi-frequency signals

    KAUST Repository

    Chen, Hui

    2017-11-02

    Hand gestures are tools for conveying information, expressing emotion, interacting with electronic devices or even serving disabled people as a second language. A gesture can be recognized by capturing the movement of the hand, in real time, and classifying the collected data. Several commercial products such as Microsoft Kinect, Leap Motion Sensor, Synertial Gloves and HTC Vive have been released and new solutions have been proposed by researchers to handle this task. These systems are mainly based on optical measurements, inertial measurements, ultrasound signals and radio signals. This paper proposes an ultrasonic-based gesture recognition system using AOA (Angle of Arrival) information of ultrasonic signals emitted from a wearable ultrasound transducer. The 2-D angles of the moving hand are estimated using multi-frequency signals captured by a fixed receiver array. A simple redundant dictionary matching classifier is designed to recognize gestures representing the numbers from `0\\' to `9\\' and compared with a neural network classifier. Average classification accuracies of 95.5% and 94.4% are obtained, respectively, using the two classification methods.

  17. Spectral Correlation of Multicarrier Modulated Signals and Its Application for Signal Detection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhang Haijian

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Spectral correlation theory for cyclostationary time-series signals has been studied for decades. Explicit formulas of spectral correlation function for various types of analog-modulated and digital-modulated signals are already derived. In this paper, we investigate and exploit the cyclostationarity characteristics for two kinds of multicarrier modulated (MCM signals: conventional OFDM and filter bank based multicarrier (FBMC signals. The spectral correlation characterization of MCM signal can be described by a special linear periodic time-variant (LPTV system. Using this LPTV description, we have derived the explicit theoretical formulas of nonconjugate and conjugate cyclic autocorrelation function (CAF and spectral correlation function (SCF for OFDM and FBMC signals. According to theoretical spectral analysis, Cyclostationary Signatures (CS are artificially embedded into MCM signal and a low-complexity signature detector is, therefore, presented for detecting MCM signal. Theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of this CS detector compared to traditionary energy detector.

  18. Postprocessing algorithm for automated analysis of pelvic intraoperative neuromonitoring signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wegner Celine

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Two dimensional pelvic intraoperative neuromonitoring (pIONM® is based on electric stimulation of autonomic nerves under observation of electromyography of internal anal sphincter (IAS and manometry of urinary bladder. The method provides nerve identification and verification of its’ functional integrity. Currently pIONM® is gaining increased attention in times where preservation of function is becoming more and more important. Ongoing technical and methodological developments in experimental and clinical settings require further analysis of the obtained signals. This work describes a postprocessing algorithm for pIONM® signals, developed for automated analysis of huge amount of recorded data. The analysis routine includes a graphical representation of the recorded signals in the time and frequency domain, as well as a quantitative evaluation by means of features calculated from the time and frequency domain. The produced plots are summarized automatically in a PowerPoint presentation. The calculated features are filled into a standardized Excel-sheet, ready for statistical analysis.

  19. Assessment of the Dominant Path Model and Field Measurements for NLOS DTV Signal Propagation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adonias, Geoflly L.; Carvalho, Joabson N.

    2018-03-01

    In Brazil, one of the most important telecommunications systems is broadcast television. Such relevance demands an extensive analysis to be performed chasing technical excellence in order to offer a better digital transmission to the user. Therefore, it is mandatory to evaluate the quality and strength of the Digital TV signal, through studies of coverage predictions models, allowing stations to be projected in a way that their respective signals are harmoniously distributed. The purpose of this study is to appraise measurements of digital television signal obtained in the field and to compare them with numerical results from the simulation of the Dominant Path Model. The outcomes indicate possible blocking zones and a low accumulated probability index above the reception threshold, as well as characterise the gain level of the receiving antenna, which would prevent signal blocking.

  20. Retinoid receptor signaling and autophagy in acute promyelocytic leukemia.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Orfali, Nina

    2014-05-15

    Retinoids are a family of signaling molecules derived from vitamin A with well established roles in cellular differentiation. Physiologically active retinoids mediate transcriptional effects on cells through interactions with retinoic acid (RARs) and retinoid-X (RXR) receptors. Chromosomal translocations involving the RARα gene, which lead to impaired retinoid signaling, are implicated in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). All-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA), alone and in combination with arsenic trioxide (ATO), restores differentiation in APL cells and promotes degradation of the abnormal oncogenic fusion protein through several proteolytic mechanisms. RARα fusion-protein elimination is emerging as critical to obtaining sustained remission and long-term cure in APL. Autophagy is a degradative cellular pathway involved in protein turnover. Both ATRA and ATO also induce autophagy in APL cells. Enhancing autophagy may therefore be of therapeutic benefit in resistant APL and could broaden the application of differentiation therapy to other cancers. Here we discuss retinoid signaling in hematopoiesis, leukemogenesis, and APL treatment. We highlight autophagy as a potential important regulator in anti-leukemic strategies.

  1. Vibration of signal wires in wire detectors under irradiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bojko, I.R.; Shelkov, G.A.; Dodonov, V.I.; Ignatenko, M.A.; Nikolenko, M.Yu.

    1995-01-01

    Radiation-induced vibration of signal wires in wire detectors is found and explained. The phenomenon is based on repulsion of a signal wire with a positive potential and a cloud of positive ions that remains after neutralization of the electron part of the avalanche formed in the course of gas amplification. Vibration with a noticeable amplitude may arise from fluctuations of repulsive forces, which act on the wire and whose sources are numerous ion clusters. A formula is obtained which allows wire oscillations to be estimated for all types of wire detectors. Calculation shows that oscillations of signal wires can be substantial for the coordinate accuracy of a detector working in the limited streamer mode at fluxes over 10 5 particles per second per wire. In the proportional mode an average oscillation amplitude can be as large as 20-30 μm at some detector parameters and external radiation fluxes over 10 5 . The experimental investigations show that the proposed model well describes the main features of the phenomenon. 6 refs., 8 figs

  2. Brain source localization: A new method based on MUltiple SIgnal Classification algorithm and spatial sparsity of the field signal for electroencephalogram measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vergallo, P.; Lay-Ekuakille, A.

    2013-08-01

    Brain activity can be recorded by means of EEG (Electroencephalogram) electrodes placed on the scalp of the patient. The EEG reflects the activity of groups of neurons located in the head, and the fundamental problem in neurophysiology is the identification of the sources responsible of brain activity, especially if a seizure occurs and in this case it is important to identify it. The studies conducted in order to formalize the relationship between the electromagnetic activity in the head and the recording of the generated external field allow to know pattern of brain activity. The inverse problem, that is given the sampling field at different electrodes the underlying asset must be determined, is more difficult because the problem may not have a unique solution, or the search for the solution is made difficult by a low spatial resolution which may not allow to distinguish between activities involving sources close to each other. Thus, sources of interest may be obscured or not detected and known method in source localization problem as MUSIC (MUltiple SIgnal Classification) could fail. Many advanced source localization techniques achieve a best resolution by exploiting sparsity: if the number of sources is small as a result, the neural power vs. location is sparse. In this work a solution based on the spatial sparsity of the field signal is presented and analyzed to improve MUSIC method. For this purpose, it is necessary to set a priori information of the sparsity in the signal. The problem is formulated and solved using a regularization method as Tikhonov, which calculates a solution that is the better compromise between two cost functions to minimize, one related to the fitting of the data, and another concerning the maintenance of the sparsity of the signal. At the first, the method is tested on simulated EEG signals obtained by the solution of the forward problem. Relatively to the model considered for the head and brain sources, the result obtained allows to

  3. Expression of the potential therapeutic target CXXC5 in primary acute myeloid leukemia cells - high expression is associated with adverse prognosis as well as altered intracellular signaling and transcriptional regulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruserud, Øystein; Reikvam, Håkon; Fredly, Hanne; Skavland, Jørn; Hagen, Karen-Marie; van Hoang, Tuyen Thy; Brenner, Annette K; Kadi, Amir; Astori, Audrey; Gjertsen, Bjørn Tore; Pendino, Frederic

    2015-02-20

    The CXXC5 gene encodes a transcriptional activator with a zinc-finger domain, and high expression in human acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells is associated with adverse prognosis. We now characterized the biological context of CXXC5 expression in primary human AML cells. The global gene expression profile of AML cells derived from 48 consecutive patients was analyzed; cells with high and low CXXC5 expression then showed major differences with regard to extracellular communication and intracellular signaling. We observed significant differences in the phosphorylation status of several intracellular signaling mediators (CREB, PDK1, SRC, STAT1, p38, STAT3, rpS6) that are important for PI3K-Akt-mTOR signaling and/or transcriptional regulation. High CXXC5 expression was also associated with high mRNA expression of several stem cell-associated transcriptional regulators, the strongest associations being with WT1, GATA2, RUNX1, LYL1, DNMT3, SPI1, and MYB. Finally, CXXC5 knockdown in human AML cell lines caused significantly increased expression of the potential tumor suppressor gene TSC22 and genes encoding the growth factor receptor KIT, the cytokine Angiopoietin 1 and the selenium-containing glycoprotein Selenoprotein P. Thus, high CXXC5 expression seems to affect several steps in human leukemogenesis, including intracellular events as well as extracellular communication.

  4. ATP signals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Novak, Ivana

    2016-01-01

    The Department of Biology at the University of Copenhagen explains the function of ATP signalling in the pancreas......The Department of Biology at the University of Copenhagen explains the function of ATP signalling in the pancreas...

  5. Basic digital signal processing

    CERN Document Server

    Lockhart, Gordon B

    1985-01-01

    Basic Digital Signal Processing describes the principles of digital signal processing and experiments with BASIC programs involving the fast Fourier theorem (FFT). The book reviews the fundamentals of the BASIC program, continuous and discrete time signals including analog signals, Fourier analysis, discrete Fourier transform, signal energy, power. The text also explains digital signal processing involving digital filters, linear time-variant systems, discrete time unit impulse, discrete-time convolution, and the alternative structure for second order infinite impulse response (IIR) sections.

  6. Modeling High-Dimensional Multichannel Brain Signals

    KAUST Repository

    Hu, Lechuan

    2017-12-12

    Our goal is to model and measure functional and effective (directional) connectivity in multichannel brain physiological signals (e.g., electroencephalograms, local field potentials). The difficulties from analyzing these data mainly come from two aspects: first, there are major statistical and computational challenges for modeling and analyzing high-dimensional multichannel brain signals; second, there is no set of universally agreed measures for characterizing connectivity. To model multichannel brain signals, our approach is to fit a vector autoregressive (VAR) model with potentially high lag order so that complex lead-lag temporal dynamics between the channels can be captured. Estimates of the VAR model will be obtained by our proposed hybrid LASSLE (LASSO + LSE) method which combines regularization (to control for sparsity) and least squares estimation (to improve bias and mean-squared error). Then we employ some measures of connectivity but put an emphasis on partial directed coherence (PDC) which can capture the directional connectivity between channels. PDC is a frequency-specific measure that explains the extent to which the present oscillatory activity in a sender channel influences the future oscillatory activity in a specific receiver channel relative to all possible receivers in the network. The proposed modeling approach provided key insights into potential functional relationships among simultaneously recorded sites during performance of a complex memory task. Specifically, this novel method was successful in quantifying patterns of effective connectivity across electrode locations, and in capturing how these patterns varied across trial epochs and trial types.

  7. Telocinobufagin inhibits the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of breast cancer cells through the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B/extracellular signal-regulated kinase/Snail signaling pathway.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Yuxue; Shi, Lihong; Cao, Zhen; Zhu, Xuetao; Li, Feng; Wang, Ruyan; Xu, Jinyuan; Zhong, Jinyi; Zhang, Baogang; Lu, Shijun

    2018-05-01

    Telocinobufagin (TBG), an active ingredient of Venenumbufonis , exhibits an immunomodulatory activity. However, its antimetastatic activity in breast cancer remains unknown. The present study investigated whether TBG prevents breast cancer metastasis and evaluated its regulatory mechanism. TBG inhibited the migration and invasion of 4T1 breast cancer cells. Furthermore, TBG triggered the collapse of F-actin filaments in breast cancer. The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers, vimentin and fibronectin, were downregulated following TBG treatment. However, E-cadherin was upregulated following TBG treatment. Snail, a crucial transcriptional factor of EMT, was downregulated following TBG treatment. Signaling pathway markers, including phosphorylated protein kinase B (P-Akt), p-mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) and p-extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), were decreased following TBG treatment. The same results were obtained from in vivo experiments. In conclusion, in vitro and in vivo experiments reveal that TBG inhibited migration, invasion and EMT via the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt/ERK/Snail signaling pathway in breast cancer.

  8. A novel biometric authentication approach using ECG and EMG signals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Belgacem, Noureddine; Fournier, Régis; Nait-Ali, Amine; Bereksi-Reguig, Fethi

    2015-05-01

    Security biometrics is a secure alternative to traditional methods of identity verification of individuals, such as authentication systems based on user name and password. Recently, it has been found that the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal formed by five successive waves (P, Q, R, S and T) is unique to each individual. In fact, better than any other biometrics' measures, it delivers proof of subject's being alive as extra information which other biometrics cannot deliver. The main purpose of this work is to present a low-cost method for online acquisition and processing of ECG signals for person authentication and to study the possibility of providing additional information and retrieve personal data from an electrocardiogram signal to yield a reliable decision. This study explores the effectiveness of a novel biometric system resulting from the fusion of information and knowledge provided by ECG and EMG (Electromyogram) physiological recordings. It is shown that biometrics based on these ECG/EMG signals offers a novel way to robustly authenticate subjects. Five ECG databases (MIT-BIH, ST-T, NSR, PTB and ECG-ID) and several ECG signals collected in-house from volunteers were exploited. A palm-based ECG biometric system was developed where the signals are collected from the palm of the subject through a minimally intrusive one-lead ECG set-up. A total of 3750 ECG beats were used in this work. Feature extraction was performed on ECG signals using Fourier descriptors (spectral coefficients). Optimum-Path Forest classifier was used to calculate the degree of similarity between individuals. The obtained results from the proposed approach look promising for individuals' authentication.

  9. Application of the correction's system of bottom by deuterium's lamp of a spectrophotometer of atomic absorption to the obtaining of ultraviolet spectrums

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Villalobos Chaves, Alberto Enrique

    2002-01-01

    The correction system of bottom by lamp of deuterium's arch of a spectrophotometer of atomic absorption has been utilized with sweep's capacity of wavelength to get spectrums of ultraviolet absorption of samples in gaseous phase, whether in presence as in absence of flame, in the region between 200 nm and 365 nm. The spectral information was obtained after of a process of electronic subtraction of the source's signal, except for the source's signal plus the sample and its subsequent analysis by a programmed data's processor to give a report in terms of wavelength. The spectrums obtained in absence of flame were practiced in samples contained in a gas's sell for infrared spectroscopy with polyethylene's windows, it is located of the burner and directly in front to the radiation's beam, comparable spectrums with the reported in the literature were obtained and with a bigger resolution than the measure with an conventional ultraviolet absorption's spectrophotometer utilized like reference. The spectrums in presence of flame have been of flame have been obtained from dissolved samples and directly suctioned, it achieves to obtain spectral information that is normally not detected conveniently when it performs qualitative analysis by emission of flame in elements such like zinc, lead, cobalt, mercury and nickel among other. The information obtained on this way has been utilized like an alternative method to the elemental analysis by humid way with a view to increase the reliability of the results that have been utilized like basis in the determination of the tariff classification of imported or exported products. (Author) [es

  10. A Hygroscopic Sensor Electrode for Fast Stabilized Non-Contact ECG Signal Acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fong, Ee-May; Chung, Wan-Young

    2015-08-05

    A capacitive electrocardiography (cECG) technique using a non-invasive ECG measuring technology that does not require direct contact between the sensor and the skin has attracted much interest. The system encounters several challenges when the sensor electrode and subject's skin are weakly coupled. Because there is no direct physical contact between the subject and any grounding point, there is no discharge path for the built-up electrostatic charge. Subsequently, the electrostatic charge build-up can temporarily contaminate the ECG signal from being clearly visible; a stabilization period (3-15 min) is required for the measurement of a clean, stable ECG signal at low humidity levels (below 55% relative humidity). Therefore, to obtain a clear ECG signal without noise and to reduce the ECG signal stabilization time to within 2 min in a dry ambient environment, we have developed a fabric electrode with embedded polymer (FEEP). The designed hygroscopic FEEP has an embedded superabsorbent polymer layer. The principle of FEEP as a conductive electrode is to provide humidity to the capacitive coupling to ensure strong coupling and to allow for the measurement of a stable, clear biomedical signal. The evaluation results show that hygroscopic FEEP is capable of rapidly measuring high-accuracy ECG signals with a higher SNR ratio.

  11. ECG signal processing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    2009-01-01

    A system extracts an ECG signal from a composite signal (308) representing an electric measurement of a living subject. Identification means (304) identify a plurality of temporal segments (309) of the composite signal corresponding to a plurality of predetermined segments (202,204,206) of an ECG

  12. A hybrid filtering method based on a novel empirical mode decomposition for friction signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Chengwei; Zhan, Liwei

    2015-01-01

    During a measurement, the measured signal usually contains noise. To remove the noise and preserve the important feature of the signal, we introduce a hybrid filtering method that uses a new intrinsic mode function (NIMF) and a modified Hausdorff distance. The NIMF is defined as the difference between the noisy signal and each intrinsic mode function (IMF), which is obtained by empirical mode decomposition (EMD), ensemble EMD, complementary ensemble EMD, or complete ensemble EMD with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN). The relevant mode selecting is based on the similarity between the first NIMF and the rest of the NIMFs. With this filtering method, the EMD and improved versions are used to filter the simulation and friction signals. The friction signal between an airplane tire and the runaway is recorded during a simulated airplane touchdown and features spikes of various amplitudes and noise. The filtering effectiveness of the four hybrid filtering methods are compared and discussed. The results show that the filtering method based on CEEMDAN outperforms other signal filtering methods. (paper)

  13. Halo-independent determination of the unmodulated WIMP signal in DAMA: the isotropic case

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gondolo, Paolo [Department of Physics, University of Utah, 115 South 1400 East #201, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0830 (United States); Scopel, Stefano, E-mail: paolo.gondolo@utah.edu, E-mail: scopel@sogang.ac.kr [Department of Physics, Sogang University, Seoul 121-742 (Korea, Republic of)

    2017-09-01

    We present a halo-independent determination of the unmodulated signal corresponding to the DAMA modulation if interpreted as due to dark matter weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). First we show how a modulated signal gives information on the WIMP velocity distribution function in the Galactic rest frame from which the unmodulated signal descends. Then we describe a mathematically-sound profile likelihood analysis in which the likelihood is profiled over a continuum of nuisance parameters (namely, the WIMP velocity distribution). As a first application of the method, which is very general and valid for any class of velocity distributions, we restrict the analysis to velocity distributions that are isotropic in the Galactic frame. In this way we obtain halo-independent maximum-likelihood estimates and confidence intervals for the DAMA unmodulated signal. We find that the estimated unmodulated signal is in line with expectations for a WIMP-induced modulation and is compatible with the DAMA background+signal rate. Specifically, for the isotropic case we find that the modulated amplitude ranges between a few percent and about 25% of the unmodulated amplitude, depending on the WIMP mass.

  14. Rapidly exploring structural and dynamic properties of signaling networks using PathwayOracle

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ram Prahlad T

    2008-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background In systems biology the experimentalist is presented with a selection of software for analyzing dynamic properties of signaling networks. These tools either assume that the network is in steady-state or require highly parameterized models of the network of interest. For biologists interested in assessing how signal propagates through a network under specific conditions, the first class of methods does not provide sufficiently detailed results and the second class requires models which may not be easily and accurately constructed. A tool that is able to characterize the dynamics of a signaling network using an unparameterized model of the network would allow biologists to quickly obtain insights into a signaling network's behavior. Results We introduce PathwayOracle, an integrated suite of software tools for computationally inferring and analyzing structural and dynamic properties of a signaling network. The feature which differentiates PathwayOracle from other tools is a method that can predict the response of a signaling network to various experimental conditions and stimuli using only the connectivity of the signaling network. Thus signaling models are relatively easy to build. The method allows for tracking signal flow in a network and comparison of signal flows under different experimental conditions. In addition, PathwayOracle includes tools for the enumeration and visualization of coherent and incoherent signaling paths between proteins, and for experimental analysis – loading and superimposing experimental data, such as microarray intensities, on the network model. Conclusion PathwayOracle provides an integrated environment in which both structural and dynamic analysis of a signaling network can be quickly conducted and visualized along side experimental results. By using the signaling network connectivity, analyses and predictions can be performed quickly using relatively easily constructed signaling network models

  15. Application of adaptive digital signal processing to speech enhancement for the hearing impaired.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chabries, D M; Christiansen, R W; Brey, R H; Robinette, M S; Harris, R W

    1987-01-01

    A major complaint of individuals with normal hearing and hearing impairments is a reduced ability to understand speech in a noisy environment. This paper describes the concept of adaptive noise cancelling for removing noise from corrupted speech signals. Application of adaptive digital signal processing has long been known and is described from a historical as well as technical perspective. The Widrow-Hoff LMS (least mean square) algorithm developed in 1959 forms the introduction to modern adaptive signal processing. This method uses a "primary" input which consists of the desired speech signal corrupted with noise and a second "reference" signal which is used to estimate the primary noise signal. By subtracting the adaptively filtered estimate of the noise, the desired speech signal is obtained. Recent developments in the field as they relate to noise cancellation are described. These developments include more computationally efficient algorithms as well as algorithms that exhibit improved learning performance. A second method for removing noise from speech, for use when no independent reference for the noise exists, is referred to as single channel noise suppression. Both adaptive and spectral subtraction techniques have been applied to this problem--often with the result of decreased speech intelligibility. Current techniques applied to this problem are described, including signal processing techniques that offer promise in the noise suppression application.

  16. Primary Study about Intensity Signal of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance in vivo Tooth Dosimetry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Choi, Hoon; Gang, Seo Gon; Kim, Jeong In; Lee, Byung Il [KHNP Radiation Health Institute, Gyeongju (Korea, Republic of)

    2017-04-15

    The signal of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance(EPR) dosimetry system using human tooth has been well introduced as one of the efficient tool to evaluate radiation exposure. But, EPR dosimetry, even in the case of classical in vitro EPR system using tooth sample(measured molars), was regarded as having big signal fluctuation. One of reason for such difficulty in getting accurate intensity was the big effect of organic materials mixed in enamel part of teeth samples. They are mainly caused by the adaptation process of system itself to the movement of measured human subject. Generally, when we measured human teeth in vivo, five of six teeth spectrum were gathered and averaged for real evaluation. The these spectrum are measured under very different environment like angle of external magnet making magnetic filed with teeth(incisor). Random movement of these signals should be considered in different view point to understand and compare each EPR in vivo EPR spectrum. The peak to peak value of obtained five or six in vivo EPR system to get averaged value for final quantity of free radicals in hydroxy apatite crystal construction in enamel part of human teeth looks so randomly changed without regulation. But, in overall view, the EPR signal, especially at no irradiation level, is almost same for every measurement trial which is mainly composed of big noise and very small signal from real free radicals. The peak to peak value of obtained five or six in vivo EPR system to get averaged value for final quantity of free radicals in hydroxy apatite crystal construction in enamel part of human teeth looks so randomly changed without regulation.

  17. Primary Study about Intensity Signal of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance in vivo Tooth Dosimetry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Choi, Hoon; Gang, Seo Gon; Kim, Jeong In; Lee, Byung Il

    2017-01-01

    The signal of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance(EPR) dosimetry system using human tooth has been well introduced as one of the efficient tool to evaluate radiation exposure. But, EPR dosimetry, even in the case of classical in vitro EPR system using tooth sample(measured molars), was regarded as having big signal fluctuation. One of reason for such difficulty in getting accurate intensity was the big effect of organic materials mixed in enamel part of teeth samples. They are mainly caused by the adaptation process of system itself to the movement of measured human subject. Generally, when we measured human teeth in vivo, five of six teeth spectrum were gathered and averaged for real evaluation. The these spectrum are measured under very different environment like angle of external magnet making magnetic filed with teeth(incisor). Random movement of these signals should be considered in different view point to understand and compare each EPR in vivo EPR spectrum. The peak to peak value of obtained five or six in vivo EPR system to get averaged value for final quantity of free radicals in hydroxy apatite crystal construction in enamel part of human teeth looks so randomly changed without regulation. But, in overall view, the EPR signal, especially at no irradiation level, is almost same for every measurement trial which is mainly composed of big noise and very small signal from real free radicals. The peak to peak value of obtained five or six in vivo EPR system to get averaged value for final quantity of free radicals in hydroxy apatite crystal construction in enamel part of human teeth looks so randomly changed without regulation.

  18. Signal of microstrip scanning near-field optical microscope in far- and near-field zones.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morozov, Yevhenii M; Lapchuk, Anatoliy S

    2016-05-01

    An analytical model of interference between an electromagnetic field of fundamental quasi-TM(EH)00-mode and an electromagnetic field of background radiation at the apex of a near-field probe based on an optical plasmon microstrip line (microstrip probe) has been proposed. The condition of the occurrence of electromagnetic energy reverse flux at the apex of the microstrip probe was obtained. It has been shown that the nature of the interference depends on the length of the probe. Numerical simulation of the sample scanning process was conducted in illumination-reflection and illumination-collection modes. Results of numerical simulation have shown that interference affects the scanning signal in both modes. However, in illumination-collection mode (pure near-field mode), the signal shape and its polarity are practically insensible to probe length change; only signal amplitude (contrast) is slightly changed. However, changing the probe length strongly affects the signal amplitude and shape in the illumination-reflection mode (the signal formed in the far-field zone). Thus, we can conclude that even small background radiation can significantly influence the signal in the far-field zone and has practically no influence on a pure near-field signal.

  19. Quantitation of magnetic resonance spectroscopy signals: the jMRUI software package

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stefan, D; Andrasescu, A; Cesare, F Di; Popa, E; Lazariev, A; Graveron-Demilly, D; Vescovo, E; Williams, S; Strbak, O; Starcuk, Z; Cabanas, M; Van Ormondt, D

    2009-01-01

    The software package jMRUI with Java-based graphical user interface enables user-friendly time-domain analysis of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) and HRMAS-NMR signals. Version 3.x has been distributed in more than 1200 groups or hospitals worldwide. The new version 4.x is a plug-in platform enabling the users to add their own algorithms. Moreover, it offers new functionalities compared to versions 3.x. The quantum-mechanical simulator based on NMR-SCOPE, the quantitation algorithm QUEST and the main MRSI functionalities are described. Quantitation results of signals obtained in vivo from a mouse and a human brain are given

  20. Nichtkontinuierliche (zeitdiskrete) Signale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plaßmann, Wilfried

    Zeitdiskrete Signale werden häufig aus zeitkontinuierlichen Signalen durch Abtastung erzeugt. Dass beide Signale gleichwertig sind, zeigt das Abtasttheorem (Kap. 116) von Shannon, sofern die Bedingung nach (116.2), f_{ab}≈(2{,}2 {\\ldots} 4)\\cdot fg) eingehalten wird. Digitale Signale haben Vorteile: Einfache Speicherung, Weiterverarbeitung in Rechnern, wenig störanfällige Übertragung. Für die Bearbeitung dieser Signale dienen die im Kapitel dargestellten Hilfsmittel: Diskrete Fouriertransformation; Schnelle Fouriertransformation; z-Transformation: Darstellung, Sätze zur z-Transformation, Korrespondenzen zu Zeitfunktionen, Beispiele.

  1. Digital signal processing

    CERN Document Server

    O'Shea, Peter; Hussain, Zahir M

    2011-01-01

    In three parts, this book contributes to the advancement of engineering education and that serves as a general reference on digital signal processing. Part I presents the basics of analog and digital signals and systems in the time and frequency domain. It covers the core topics: convolution, transforms, filters, and random signal analysis. It also treats important applications including signal detection in noise, radar range estimation for airborne targets, binary communication systems, channel estimation, banking and financial applications, and audio effects production. Part II considers sel

  2. On the improvement of signal repeatability in laser-induced air plasmas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Shuai; Sheta, Sahar; Hou, Zong-Yu; Wang, Zhe

    2018-04-01

    The relatively low repeatability of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) severely hinders its wide commercialization. In the present work, we investigate the optimization of LIBS system for repeatability improvement for both signal generation (plasma evolution) and signal collection. Timeintegrated spectra and images were obtained under different laser energies and focal lengths to investigate the optimum configuration for stable plasmas and repeatable signals. Using our experimental setup, the optimum conditions were found to be a laser energy of 250 mJ and a focus length of 100 mm. A stable and homogeneous plasma with the largest hot core area in the optimum condition yielded the most stable LIBS signal. Time-resolved images showed that the rebounding processes through the air plasma evolution caused the relative standard deviation (RSD) to increase with laser energies of > 250 mJ. In addition, the emission collection was improved by using a concave spherical mirror. The line intensities doubled as their RSDs decreased by approximately 25%. When the signal generation and collection were optimized simultaneously, the pulse-to-pulse RSDs were reduced to approximately 3% for O(I), N(I), and H(I) lines, which are better than the RSDs reported for solid samples and showed great potential for LIBS quantitative analysis by gasifying the solid or liquid samples.

  3. Classifier for gravitational-wave inspiral signals in nonideal single-detector data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kapadia, S. J.; Dent, T.; Dal Canton, T.

    2017-11-01

    We describe a multivariate classifier for candidate events in a templated search for gravitational-wave (GW) inspiral signals from neutron-star-black-hole (NS-BH) binaries, in data from ground-based detectors where sensitivity is limited by non-Gaussian noise transients. The standard signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and chi-squared test for inspiral searches use only properties of a single matched filter at the time of an event; instead, we propose a classifier using features derived from a bank of inspiral templates around the time of each event, and also from a search using approximate sine-Gaussian templates. The classifier thus extracts additional information from strain data to discriminate inspiral signals from noise transients. We evaluate a random forest classifier on a set of single-detector events obtained from realistic simulated advanced LIGO data, using simulated NS-BH signals added to the data. The new classifier detects a factor of 1.5-2 more signals at low false positive rates as compared to the standard "reweighted SNR" statistic, and does not require the chi-squared test to be computed. Conversely, if only the SNR and chi-squared values of single-detector events are available, random forest classification performs nearly identically to the reweighted SNR.

  4. Silicon Photonics for Signal Processing of Tbit/s Serial Data Signals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Oxenløwe, Leif Katsuo; Ji, Hua; Galili, Michael

    2012-01-01

    In this paper, we describe our recent work on signal processing of terabit per second optical serial data signals using pure silicon waveguides. We employ nonlinear optical signal processing in nanoengineered silicon waveguides to perform demultiplexing and optical waveform sampling of 1.28-Tbit/...

  5. Intracellular calcium signals display an avalanche-like behavior over multiple lengthscales.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lucía eLopez

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available Many natural phenomena display "self-organized criticality'' (SOC. This refers to spatially extended systems for which patterns of activity characterized by different lengthscales can occur with a probability density that follows a power law with pattern size. Differently from power laws at phase transitions, systems displaying SOC do not need the tuning of an external parameter. Here we analyze intracellular calcium Ca2+ signals, a key component of the signaling toolkit of almost any cell type. Ca2+ signals can either be spatially restricted (local or propagate throughout the cell (global. Different models have suggested that the transition from local to global signals is similar to that of directed percolation. Directed percolation has been associated, in turn, to the appearance of self-organized criticality. In this paper we discuss these issues within the framework of simple models of Ca2+ signal propagation. We also analyze the size distribution of local signals ("puffs'' observed in immature Xenopus Laevis oocytes. The puff amplitude distribution obtained from observed local signals is not Gaussian with a noticeable fraction of large size events. The experimental distribution of puff areas in the spatio-temporal record of the image has a long tail that is approximately log-normal. The distribution can also be fitted with a power law relationship albeit with a smaller goodness of fit. The power law behavior is encountered within a simple model that includes some coupling among individual signals for a wide range of parameter values. An analysis of the model shows that a global elevation of the Ca2+ concentration plays a major role in determining whether the puff size distribution is long-tailed or not. This suggests that Ca2+-clearing from the cytosol is key to determine whether IP3-mediated Ca2+ signals can display a SOC-like behavior or not.

  6. Muon Signals at a Low Signal-to-Noise Ratio Environment

    CERN Document Server

    Zakareishvili, Tamar; The ATLAS collaboration

    2017-01-01

    Calorimeters provide high-resolution energy measurements for particle detection. Muon signals are important for evaluating electronics performance, since they produce a signal that is close to electronic noise values. This work provides a noise RMS analysis for the Demonstrator drawer of the 2016 Tile Calorimeter (TileCal) Test Beam in order to help reconstruct events in a low signal-to-noise environment. Muon signals were then found for a beam penetrating through all three layers of the drawer. The Demonstrator drawer is an electronic candidate for TileCal, part of the ATLAS experiment for the Large Hadron Collider that operates at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

  7. Quantification of in vivo 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy signals with baseline and lineshape estimation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Osorio-Garcia, M I; Sima, D M; Van Huffel, S; Nielsen, F U; Dresselaers, T; Himmelreich, U; Van Leuven, F

    2011-01-01

    The in vivo quantification of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) signals is a method to estimate metabolite concentrations of living tissue. Obtaining reliable concentrations is still a challenge due to the experimental conditions affecting spectral quality. Additionally, lipids and macromolecules overlap with the metabolites of interest, affecting their reliable estimation. In this study, we propose to combine the self-deconvolution lineshape estimation method, which accounts for spectral shape distortions, with two different approaches for taking into account the macromolecular baseline contribution: (a) based on macromolecules and lipids measured in vivo using an inversion recovery technique, and (b) based on the simulation of macromolecular resonances using prior knowledge from a database of inversion recovery signals. The ultimate goal is to measure macromolecular and lipid data only once as described in (a) to create macromolecular and lipid profiles. These profiles then can be used as described in (b) for data measured under the same conditions. The method is evaluated on in vivo 1 H MRS signals at 9.4 T from mouse hippocampus. Results show that better metabolite fits are obtained when lineshape and baseline estimations are simultaneously performed and that baseline estimation based on prior knowledge from macromolecular measured signals can be reliably used to replace time-consuming individual macromolecular and lipid acquisitions

  8. A Novel Blind Source Separation Algorithm and Performance Analysis of Weak Signal against Strong Interference in Passive Radar Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chengjie Li

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available In Passive Radar System, obtaining the mixed weak object signal against the super power signal (jamming is still a challenging task. In this paper, a novel framework based on Passive Radar System is designed for weak object signal separation. Firstly, we propose an Interference Cancellation algorithm (IC-algorithm to extract the mixed weak object signals from the strong jamming. Then, an improved FastICA algorithm with K-means cluster is designed to separate each weak signal from the mixed weak object signals. At last, we discuss the performance of the proposed method and verify the novel method based on several simulations. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

  9. Cleavable DNA-protein hybrid molecular beacon: A novel efficient signal translator for sensitive fluorescence anisotropy bioassay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Pan; Yang, Bin

    2016-01-15

    Due to its unique features such as high sensitivity, homogeneous format, and independence on fluorescent intensity, fluorescence anisotropy (FA) assay has become a hotspot of study in oligonucleotide-based bioassays. However, until now most FA probes require carefully customized structure designs, and thus are neither generalizable for different sensing systems nor effective to obtain sufficient signal response. To address this issue, a cleavable DNA-protein hybrid molecular beacon was successfully engineered for signal amplified FA bioassay, via combining the unique stable structure of molecular beacon and the large molecular mass of streptavidin. Compared with single DNA strand probe or conventional molecular beacon, the DNA-protein hybrid molecular beacon exhibited a much higher FA value, which was potential to obtain high signal-background ratio in sensing process. As proof-of-principle, this novel DNA-protein hybrid molecular beacon was further applied for FA bioassay using DNAzyme-Pb(2+) as a model sensing system. This FA assay approach could selectively detect as low as 0.5nM Pb(2+) in buffer solution, and also be successful for real samples analysis with good recovery values. Compatible with most of oligonucleotide probes' designs and enzyme-based signal amplification strategies, the molecular beacon can serve as a novel signal translator to expand the application prospect of FA technology in various bioassays. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. Modelling of polysomnographic respiratory measurements for artefact detection and signal restoration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rathnayake, S I; Abeyratne, U R; Hukins, C; Duce, B

    2008-01-01

    Polysomnography (PSG), which incorporates measures of sleep with measures of EEG arousal, air flow, respiratory movement and oxygenation, is universally regarded as the reference standard in diagnosing sleep-related respiratory diseases such as obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome. Over 15 channels of physiological signals are measured from a subject undergoing a typical overnight PSG session. The signals often suffer from data losses, interferences and artefacts. In a typical sleep scoring session, artefact-corrupted signal segments are visually detected and removed from further consideration. This is a highly time-consuming process, and subjective judgement is required for the job. During typical sleep scoring sessions, the target is the detection of segments of diagnostic interest, and signal restoration is not utilized for distorted segments. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for artefact detection and signal restoration based on the redundancy among respiratory flow signals. We focus on the air flow (thermistor sensors) and nasal pressure signals which are clinically significant in detecting respiratory disturbances. The method treats the respiratory system and other organs that provide respiratory-related inputs/outputs to it (e.g., cardiovascular, brain) as a possibly nonlinear coupled-dynamical system, and uses the celebrated Takens embedding theorem as the theoretical basis for signal prediction. Nonlinear prediction across time (self-prediction) and signals (cross-prediction) provides us with a mechanism to detect artefacts as unexplained deviations. In addition to detection, the proposed method carries the potential to correct certain classes of artefacts and restore the signal. In this study, we categorize commonly occurring artefacts and distortions in air flow and nasal pressure measurements into several groups and explore the efficacy of the proposed technique in detecting/recovering them. The results we obtained from a database of clinical

  11. Fat suppression techniques for obtaining high resolution dynamic contrast enhanced bilateral breast MR images at 7 tesla

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    van der Velden, Tijl A; Schmitz, Alexander M Th; Gilhuijs, Kenneth G A

    2016-01-01

    contained 3D T1-weighted gradient echo images obtained with both WSE fat suppression, multi echo Dixon fat suppression, and without fat suppression. Images were acquired at a (0.8mm)(3) or (0.7mm)(3) isotropic resolution with equal field of view and optimized such to obtain a maximal SNR. Image quality...... was scored qualitatively on overall image quality, sharpness of anatomical details, presence of artefacts, inhomogeneous fat suppression and the presence of water-fat shift. A quantitative scoring was obtained from the signal to noise ratio and contrast to noise ratio. RESULTS: WSE scored significantly...... better in terms of overall image quality and the absence of artefacts. No significant difference in contrast to noise ratio was found between the two fat suppression methods. CONCLUSION: When maximizing temporal and spatial resolution of high resolution DCE MRI of the breast, water selective excitation...

  12. Optimal Signal Design for Mixed Equilibrium Networks with Autonomous and Regular Vehicles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nan Jiang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available A signal design problem is studied for efficiently managing autonomous vehicles (AVs and regular vehicles (RVs simultaneously in transportation networks. AVs and RVs move on separate lanes and two types of vehicles share the green times at the same intersections. The signal design problem is formulated as a bilevel program. The lower-level model describes a mixed equilibrium where autonomous vehicles follow the Cournot-Nash (CN principle and RVs follow the user equilibrium (UE principle. In the upper-level model, signal timings are optimized at signalized intersections to allocate appropriate green times to both autonomous and RVs to minimize system travel cost. The sensitivity analysis based method is used to solve the bilevel optimization model. Various signal control strategies are evaluated through numerical examples and some insightful findings are obtained. It was found that the number of phases at intersections should be reduced for the optimal control of the AVs and RVs in the mixed networks. More importantly, incorporating AVs into the transportation network would improve the system performance due to the value of AV technologies in reducing random delays at intersections. Meanwhile, travelers prefer to choose AVs when the networks turn to be congested.

  13. Delay Pressure Detection Method to Eliminate Pump Pressure Interference on the Downhole Mud Pressure Signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yue Shen

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The feasibility of applying delay pressure detection method to eliminate mud pump pressure interference on the downhole mud pressure signals is studied. Two pressure sensors mounted on the mud pipe in some distance apart are provided to detect the downhole mud continuous pressure wave signals on the surface according to the delayed time produced by mud pressure wave transmitting between the two sensors. A mathematical model of delay pressure detection is built by analysis of transmission path between mud pump pressure interference and downhole mud pressure signals. Considering pressure signal transmission characteristics of the mud pipe, a mathematical model of ideal low-pass filter for limited frequency band signal is introduced to study the pole frequency impact on the signal reconstruction and the constraints of pressure sensor distance are obtained by pole frequencies analysis. Theoretical calculation and numerical simulation show that the method can effectively eliminate mud pump pressure interference and the downhole mud continuous pressure wave signals can be reconstructed successfully with a significant improvement in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR in the condition of satisfying the constraints of pressure sensor distance.

  14. Distortions in frequency spectra of signals associated with sampling-pulse shapes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Njau, E.C.

    1983-04-01

    A method developed earlier by the author [IC/82/44; IC/82/45] is used to investigate distortions introduced into frequency spectra of signals by the shapes of the sampling pulses involved. Conditions are established under which the use of trapezoid or exponentially-edged pulses to digitize signals can make the frequency spectra of the resultant data samples devoid of the main features of the signals. This observation does not, however, apply in any way to cosinusoidally-edged pulses or to pulses with cosine-squared edges. Since parts of the Earth's surface and atmosphere receive direct solar energy in discrete samples (i.e. only from sunrise to sunset) we have extended the technique and attempted to develop a theory that explains the observed solar terrestrial relationships. A very good agreement is obtained between the theory and previous long-term and short-term observations. (author)

  15. High signal intensity of fat on fast spin echo imaging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ogura, Akio; Yamazaki, Masaru; Hongoh, Takaharu; Inoue, Hiroshi; Ishikuro, Akihiro

    2000-01-01

    The fast spin echo (FSE) technique of producing T 2 -weighted images in greatly reduced imaging times has recently been used for routine clinical study. FSE images show contrast that is very similar in most tissues to that of conventional SE images. However, fat shows a high signal intensity that is influenced by j-coupling and the magnetization transfer effect. The purpose of this study was to assess whether the higher signal intensity of fat is different among MRI systems and to examine the effects of j-coupling and magnetization transfer on the high signal intensity of fat on FSE. The contrast in signal intensity between fat and water was measured for various echo train lengths (ETL) with and without multislicing on FSE using a contrast phantom. Measurements were obtained with four different MRI systems. In addition, the effective T 2 values of fat were calculated for the above conditions. Results indicated that contrast for fat and water was reduced with increased ETL and by using multislicing and was different among the four MRI systems. The effective T 2 values of fat were extended for increased ETL and were not dependent on multislicing. They also differed among the four MRI systems. The extent of effective T 2 values was affected by j-coupling. In this study, it was indicated that the degree of the high signal intensity of fat on FSE differed for different MRI systems. In addition, the reasons for the high signal intensity of fat on FSE were related to the effects of j-coupling and magnetization transfer. (author)

  16. Time-frequency energy density precipitation method for time-of-flight extraction of narrowband Lamb wave detection signals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Y; Huang, S L; Wang, S; Zhao, W

    2016-05-01

    The time-of-flight of the Lamb wave provides an important basis for defect evaluation in metal plates and is the input signal for Lamb wave tomographic imaging. However, the time-of-flight can be difficult to acquire because of the Lamb wave dispersion characteristics. This work proposes a time-frequency energy density precipitation method to accurately extract the time-of-flight of narrowband Lamb wave detection signals in metal plates. In the proposed method, a discrete short-time Fourier transform is performed on the narrowband Lamb wave detection signals to obtain the corresponding discrete time-frequency energy density distribution. The energy density values at the center frequency for all discrete time points are then calculated by linear interpolation. Next, the time-domain energy density curve focused on that center frequency is precipitated by least squares fitting of the calculated energy density values. Finally, the peak times of the energy density curve obtained relative to the initial pulse signal are extracted as the time-of-flight for the narrowband Lamb wave detection signals. An experimental platform is established for time-of-flight extraction of narrowband Lamb wave detection signals, and sensitivity analysis of the proposed time-frequency energy density precipitation method is performed in terms of propagation distance, dispersion characteristics, center frequency, and plate thickness. For comparison, the widely used Hilbert-Huang transform method is also implemented for time-of-flight extraction. The results show that the time-frequency energy density precipitation method can accurately extract the time-of-flight with relative error of wave detection signals.

  17. Signal Tracking Beyond the Time Resolution of an Atomic Sensor by Kalman Filtering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiménez-Martínez, Ricardo; Kołodyński, Jan; Troullinou, Charikleia; Lucivero, Vito Giovanni; Kong, Jia; Mitchell, Morgan W.

    2018-01-01

    We study causal waveform estimation (tracking) of time-varying signals in a paradigmatic atomic sensor, an alkali vapor monitored by Faraday rotation probing. We use Kalman filtering, which optimally tracks known linear Gaussian stochastic processes, to estimate stochastic input signals that we generate by optical pumping. Comparing the known input to the estimates, we confirm the accuracy of the atomic statistical model and the reliability of the Kalman filter, allowing recovery of waveform details far briefer than the sensor's intrinsic time resolution. With proper filter choice, we obtain similar benefits when tracking partially known and non-Gaussian signal processes, as are found in most practical sensing applications. The method evades the trade-off between sensitivity and time resolution in coherent sensing.

  18. Aperiodic signals processing via parameter-tuning stochastic resonance in a photorefractive ring cavity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xuefeng Li

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Based on solving numerically the generalized nonlinear Langevin equation describing the nonlinear dynamics of stochastic resonance by Fourth-order Runge-Kutta method, an aperiodic stochastic resonance based on an optical bistable system is numerically investigated. The numerical results show that a parameter-tuning stochastic resonance system can be realized by choosing the appropriate optical bistable parameters, which performs well in reconstructing aperiodic signals from a very high level of noise background. The influences of optical bistable parameters on the stochastic resonance effect are numerically analyzed via cross-correlation, and a maximum cross-correlation gain of 8 is obtained by optimizing optical bistable parameters. This provides a prospective method for reconstructing noise-hidden weak signals in all-optical signal processing systems.

  19. Pilot Signal Design and Direct Ranging Methods for Radio Localization Using OFDM Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jing, Lishuai

    Having accurate localization capability is becoming important for existing and future terrestrial wireless communication systems, in particular for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, such as WiMAX, wireless local area network, long-term evolution (LTE) and its extension LTE......-Advanced. To obtain accurate position estimates, not only advanced estimation algorithms are needed but also the transmitted signals should be scrutinized. In this dissertation, we investigate how to design OFDM pilot signals and propose and evaluate high accuracy ranging techniques with tractable computational....... For scenarios where the number of path components is unknown and these components are not necessary separable, we propose a direct ranging technique using the received frequency-domain OFDM pilot signals. Compared to conventional (two-step) ranging methods, which estimate intermediate parameters...

  20. eCTG: an automatic procedure to extract digital cardiotocographic signals from digital images.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sbrollini, Agnese; Agostinelli, Angela; Marcantoni, Ilaria; Morettini, Micaela; Burattini, Luca; Di Nardo, Francesco; Fioretti, Sandro; Burattini, Laura

    2018-03-01

    Cardiotocography (CTG), consisting in the simultaneous recording of fetal heart rate (FHR) and maternal uterine contractions (UC), is a popular clinical test to assess fetal health status. Typically, CTG machines provide paper reports that are visually interpreted by clinicians. Consequently, visual CTG interpretation depends on clinician's experience and has a poor reproducibility. The lack of databases containing digital CTG signals has limited number and importance of retrospective studies finalized to set up procedures for automatic CTG analysis that could contrast visual CTG interpretation subjectivity. In order to help overcoming this problem, this study proposes an electronic procedure, termed eCTG, to extract digital CTG signals from digital CTG images, possibly obtainable by scanning paper CTG reports. eCTG was specifically designed to extract digital CTG signals from digital CTG images. It includes four main steps: pre-processing, Otsu's global thresholding, signal extraction and signal calibration. Its validation was performed by means of the "CTU-UHB Intrapartum Cardiotocography Database" by Physionet, that contains digital signals of 552 CTG recordings. Using MATLAB, each signal was plotted and saved as a digital image that was then submitted to eCTG. Digital CTG signals extracted by eCTG were eventually compared to corresponding signals directly available in the database. Comparison occurred in terms of signal similarity (evaluated by the correlation coefficient ρ, and the mean signal error MSE) and clinical features (including FHR baseline and variability; number, amplitude and duration of tachycardia, bradycardia, acceleration and deceleration episodes; number of early, variable, late and prolonged decelerations; and UC number, amplitude, duration and period). The value of ρ between eCTG and reference signals was 0.85 (P digital FHR and UC signals from digital CTG images. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Simulation of Silicon Photomultiplier Signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seifert, Stefan; van Dam, Herman T.; Huizenga, Jan; Vinke, Ruud; Dendooven, Peter; Lohner, Herbert; Schaart, Dennis R.

    2009-12-01

    In a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM), also referred to as multi-pixel photon counter (MPPC), many Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes (GM-APDs) are connected in parallel so as to combine the photon counting capabilities of each of these so-called microcells into a proportional light sensor. The discharge of a single microcell is relatively well understood and electronic models exist to simulate this process. In this paper we introduce an extended model that is able to simulate the simultaneous discharge of multiple cells. This model is used to predict the SiPM signal in response to fast light pulses as a function of the number of fired cells, taking into account the influence of the input impedance of the SiPM preamplifier. The model predicts that the electronic signal is not proportional to the number of fired cells if the preamplifier input impedance is not zero. This effect becomes more important for SiPMs with lower parasitic capacitance (which otherwise is a favorable property). The model is validated by comparing its predictions to experimental data obtained with two different SiPMs (Hamamatsu S10362-11-25u and Hamamatsu S10362-33-25c) illuminated with ps laser pulses. The experimental results are in good agreement with the model predictions.

  2. Signals, systems, transforms, and digital signal processing with Matlab

    CERN Document Server

    Corinthios, Michael

    2009-01-01

    Continuous-Time and Discrete-Time Signals and SystemsIntroductionContinuous-Time SignalsPeriodic FunctionsUnit Step FunctionGraphical Representation of FunctionsEven and Odd Parts of a FunctionDirac-Delta ImpulseBasic Properties of the Dirac-Delta ImpulseOther Important Properties of the ImpulseContinuous-Time SystemsCausality, StabilityExamples of Electrical Continuous-Time SystemsMechanical SystemsTransfer Function and Frequency ResponseConvolution and CorrelationA Right-Sided and a Left-Sided FunctionConvolution with an Impulse and Its DerivativesAdditional Convolution PropertiesCorrelation FunctionProperties of the Correlation FunctionGraphical InterpretationCorrelation of Periodic FunctionsAverage, Energy and Power of Continuous-Time SignalsDiscrete-Time SignalsPeriodicityDifference EquationsEven/Odd DecompositionAverage Value, Energy and Power SequencesCausality, StabilityProblemsAnswers to Selected ProblemsFourier Series ExpansionTrigonometric Fourier SeriesExponential Fourier SeriesExponential versus ...

  3. Quorum Quenching Revisited—From Signal Decays to Signalling Confusion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kok-Gan Chan

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available In a polymicrobial community, while some bacteria are communicating with neighboring cells (quorum sensing, others are interrupting the communication (quorum quenching, thus creating a constant arms race between intercellular communication. In the past decade, numerous quorum quenching enzymes have been found and initially thought to inactivate the signalling molecules. Though this is widely accepted, the actual roles of these quorum quenching enzymes are now being uncovered. Recent evidence extends the role of quorum quenching to detoxification or metabolism of signalling molecules as food and energy source; this includes “signalling confusion”, a term coined in this paper to refer to the phenomenon of non-destructive modification of signalling molecules. While quorum quenching has been explored as a novel anti-infective therapy targeting, quorum sensing evidence begins to show the development of resistance against quorum quenching.

  4. Detecting impact signal in mechanical fault diagnosis under chaotic and Gaussian background noise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Jinfeng; Duan, Jie; Chen, Zhuo; Li, Huiyong; Xie, Julan; Chen, Hanwen

    2018-01-01

    In actual fault diagnosis, useful information is often submerged in heavy noise, and the feature information is difficult to extract. Traditional methods, such like stochastic resonance (SR), which using noise to enhance weak signals instead of suppressing noise, failed in chaotic background. Neural network, which use reference sequence to estimate and reconstruct the background noise, failed in white Gaussian noise. To solve these problems, a novel weak signal detection method aimed at the problem of detecting impact signal buried under heavy chaotic and Gaussian background noise is proposed. First, the proposed method obtains the virtual reference sequence by constructing the Hankel data matrix. Then an M-order optimal FIR filter is designed, which can minimize the output power of background noise and pass the weak periodic signal undistorted. Finally, detection and reconstruction of the weak periodic signal are achieved from the output SBNR (signal to background noise ratio). The simulation shows, compared with the stochastic resonance (SR) method, the proposed method can detect the weak periodic signal in chaotic noise background while stochastic resonance (SR) method cannot. Compared with the neural network method, (a) the proposed method does not need a reference sequence while neural network method needs one; (b) the proposed method can detect the weak periodic signal in white Gaussian noise background while the neural network method fails, in chaotic noise background, the proposed method can detect the weak periodic signal under a lower SBNR (about 8-17 dB lower) than the neural network method; (c) the proposed method can reconstruct the weak periodic signal precisely.

  5. Optoelectronic analogue signal transfer for LHC detectors, 1991

    CERN Document Server

    Dowell, John D; Homer, R J; Jovanovic, P; Kenyon, I; Staley, R; Webster, K; Da Via, C; Feyt, J; Nappey, P; Stefanini, G; Dwir, B; Reinhart, F K; Davies, J; Green, N; Stewart, W; Young, T; Hall, G; Akesson, T; Jarlskog, G; Kröll, S; Nickerson, R; Jaroslawski, S; CERN. Geneva. Detector Research and Development Committee

    1991-01-01

    We propose to study and develop opto-electronic analogue front-ends based on electro-optic intensity modulators. These devices translate the detector electrical analogue signals into optical signals which are then transferred via optical fibres to photodetector receivers at the remote readout. In comparison with conventional solutions based on copper cables, this technique offers the advantages of high speed, very low power dissipation and transmission losses, compactness and immunity to electromagnetic interference. The linearity and dynamic range that can be obtained are more than adequate for central tracking detectors, and the proposed devices have considerable radiation- hardness capabilities. The large bandwidth and short transit times offer possibilities for improved triggering schemes. The proposed R&D programme is aimed at producing multi-channel "demonstrator" units for evaluation both in laboratory and beam tests. This will allow the choice of the most effective technology. A detailed study wil...

  6. Effect of annealing on the mechanical and scratch properties of BCN films obtained by magnetron sputtering deposition

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xu, Shuyan, E-mail: xsynefu@126.com [Key Laboratory of Forest Sustainable Management and Environmental Microorganism Engineering of Heilongjiang Province, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040 (China); Ma, Xinxin [School of Material Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001 (China); Wen, Huiying [Key Laboratory of Forest Sustainable Management and Environmental Microorganism Engineering of Heilongjiang Province, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040 (China); Tang, Guangze [School of Material Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001 (China); Li, Chunwei [Key Laboratory of Forest Sustainable Management and Environmental Microorganism Engineering of Heilongjiang Province, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040 (China)

    2014-09-15

    Highlights: • The amorphous BCN films were annealed at different temperatures under vacuum condition. • The order degree increases with the annealing temperature increasing, and the films do not decompose even the annealing temperature rise to 1000 °C. • The nano-hardness and modulus of the films decrease with the increasing of annealing temperatures. • The critical load of BCN films is not affected by the annealing temperature, and the films have good interfacial adhesion. • The scratch resistance properties of BCN film are improved by annealing at 600 °C. - Abstract: Boron-carbon-nitride (BCN) films have been fabricated by direct current unbalanced magnetron sputtering. Boron carbide/graphite compound and a mixture of nitrogen and argon are used as target and carrier gas, respectively, during BCN synthesis. The obtained BCN films are annealed at different temperatures under vacuum condition. The effect of annealing temperature on the structure, mechanical properties and scratch behavior of the BCN films has been investigated. The results indicate that no decomposition products are found even the BCN films are annealed at 1000 °C. The hardness and elastic modulus of the films decrease with the increase of annealing temperatures. The BCN film annealed at 600 °C has the strongest scratch resistance. The friction coefficient of all BCN films is in range of 0.05 to 0.15.

  7. Effect of annealing on the mechanical and scratch properties of BCN films obtained by magnetron sputtering deposition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xu, Shuyan; Ma, Xinxin; Wen, Huiying; Tang, Guangze; Li, Chunwei

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • The amorphous BCN films were annealed at different temperatures under vacuum condition. • The order degree increases with the annealing temperature increasing, and the films do not decompose even the annealing temperature rise to 1000 °C. • The nano-hardness and modulus of the films decrease with the increasing of annealing temperatures. • The critical load of BCN films is not affected by the annealing temperature, and the films have good interfacial adhesion. • The scratch resistance properties of BCN film are improved by annealing at 600 °C. - Abstract: Boron-carbon-nitride (BCN) films have been fabricated by direct current unbalanced magnetron sputtering. Boron carbide/graphite compound and a mixture of nitrogen and argon are used as target and carrier gas, respectively, during BCN synthesis. The obtained BCN films are annealed at different temperatures under vacuum condition. The effect of annealing temperature on the structure, mechanical properties and scratch behavior of the BCN films has been investigated. The results indicate that no decomposition products are found even the BCN films are annealed at 1000 °C. The hardness and elastic modulus of the films decrease with the increase of annealing temperatures. The BCN film annealed at 600 °C has the strongest scratch resistance. The friction coefficient of all BCN films is in range of 0.05 to 0.15

  8. Measurand transient signal suppressor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bozeman, Richard J., Jr. (Inventor)

    1994-01-01

    A transient signal suppressor for use in a controls system which is adapted to respond to a change in a physical parameter whenever it crosses a predetermined threshold value in a selected direction of increasing or decreasing values with respect to the threshold value and is sustained for a selected discrete time interval is presented. The suppressor includes a sensor transducer for sensing the physical parameter and generating an electrical input signal whenever the sensed physical parameter crosses the threshold level in the selected direction. A manually operated switch is provided for adapting the suppressor to produce an output drive signal whenever the physical parameter crosses the threshold value in the selected direction of increasing or decreasing values. A time delay circuit is selectively adjustable for suppressing the transducer input signal for a preselected one of a plurality of available discrete suppression time and producing an output signal only if the input signal is sustained for a time greater than the selected suppression time. An electronic gate is coupled to receive the transducer input signal and the timer output signal and produce an output drive signal for energizing a control relay whenever the transducer input is a non-transient signal which is sustained beyond the selected time interval.

  9. Demostration of 520 Gb/s/λ pre-equalized DFT-spread PDM-16QAM-OFDM signal transmission.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Fan; Yu, Jianjun; Cao, Zizheng; Chen, Ming; Zhang, Junwen; Li, Xinying

    2016-02-08

    In this paper, we successfully transmit 8 × 520 Gb/s pre-equalized DFT-spread PDM-16QAM orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) signal over 840 km SMF with BER under 2.4 × 10(-2). We discuss how to obtain accurate tranceivers' response during pre-equalization for DFT-spread OFDM with coherent detection and we find conventional OFDM symbols training sequences (TSs) outperform DFT-spread OFDM symbols TSs in obtaining channel response for pre-equalization and equalization. Additionally, the optimal IFFT/FFT size is explored for the pre-equalized DFT-spread PDM-16QAM-OFDM transmission systems. It is the first time to realize 400 Gb/s/λ net rate OFDM signal transmission.

  10. Adaptive signal processor

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Walz, H.V.

    1980-07-01

    An experimental, general purpose adaptive signal processor system has been developed, utilizing a quantized (clipped) version of the Widrow-Hoff least-mean-square adaptive algorithm developed by Moschner. The system accommodates 64 adaptive weight channels with 8-bit resolution for each weight. Internal weight update arithmetic is performed with 16-bit resolution, and the system error signal is measured with 12-bit resolution. An adapt cycle of adjusting all 64 weight channels is accomplished in 8 ..mu..sec. Hardware of the signal processor utilizes primarily Schottky-TTL type integrated circuits. A prototype system with 24 weight channels has been constructed and tested. This report presents details of the system design and describes basic experiments performed with the prototype signal processor. Finally some system configurations and applications for this adaptive signal processor are discussed.

  11. Adaptive signal processor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Walz, H.V.

    1980-07-01

    An experimental, general purpose adaptive signal processor system has been developed, utilizing a quantized (clipped) version of the Widrow-Hoff least-mean-square adaptive algorithm developed by Moschner. The system accommodates 64 adaptive weight channels with 8-bit resolution for each weight. Internal weight update arithmetic is performed with 16-bit resolution, and the system error signal is measured with 12-bit resolution. An adapt cycle of adjusting all 64 weight channels is accomplished in 8 μsec. Hardware of the signal processor utilizes primarily Schottky-TTL type integrated circuits. A prototype system with 24 weight channels has been constructed and tested. This report presents details of the system design and describes basic experiments performed with the prototype signal processor. Finally some system configurations and applications for this adaptive signal processor are discussed

  12. Bmp signaling mediates endoderm pouch morphogenesis by regulating Fgf signaling in zebrafish

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swartz, Mary E.; McCarthy, Neil; Norrie, Jacqueline L.; Eberhart, Johann K.

    2016-01-01

    The endodermal pouches are a series of reiterated structures that segment the pharyngeal arches and help pattern the vertebrate face. Multiple pathways regulate the complex process of endodermal development, including the Bone morphogenetic protein (Bmp) pathway. However, the role of Bmp signaling in pouch morphogenesis is poorly understood. Using genetic and chemical inhibitor approaches, we show that pouch morphogenesis requires Bmp signaling from 10-18 h post-fertilization, immediately following gastrulation. Blocking Bmp signaling during this window results in morphological defects to the pouches and craniofacial skeleton. Using genetic chimeras we show that Bmp signals directly to the endoderm for proper morphogenesis. Time-lapse imaging and analysis of reporter transgenics show that Bmp signaling is necessary for pouch outpocketing via the Fibroblast growth factor (Fgf) pathway. Double loss-of-function analyses demonstrate that Bmp and Fgf signaling interact synergistically in craniofacial development. Collectively, our analyses shed light on the tissue and signaling interactions that regulate development of the vertebrate face. PMID:27122171

  13. Cellular signaling identifiability analysis: a case study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roper, Ryan T; Pia Saccomani, Maria; Vicini, Paolo

    2010-05-21

    Two primary purposes for mathematical modeling in cell biology are (1) simulation for making predictions of experimental outcomes and (2) parameter estimation for drawing inferences from experimental data about unobserved aspects of biological systems. While the former purpose has become common in the biological sciences, the latter is less common, particularly when studying cellular and subcellular phenomena such as signaling-the focus of the current study. Data are difficult to obtain at this level. Therefore, even models of only modest complexity can contain parameters for which the available data are insufficient for estimation. In the present study, we use a set of published cellular signaling models to address issues related to global parameter identifiability. That is, we address the following question: assuming known time courses for some model variables, which parameters is it theoretically impossible to estimate, even with continuous, noise-free data? Following an introduction to this problem and its relevance, we perform a full identifiability analysis on a set of cellular signaling models using DAISY (Differential Algebra for the Identifiability of SYstems). We use our analysis to bring to light important issues related to parameter identifiability in ordinary differential equation (ODE) models. We contend that this is, as of yet, an under-appreciated issue in biological modeling and, more particularly, cell biology. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Investigating electro-mechanical signals from collocated piezoelectric wafers for the reference-free damage diagnosis of a plate

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Eun Jin; Park, Hyun Woo; Kim, Min Koo; Sohn, Hoon

    2011-01-01

    The electro-mechanical (EM) signals from piezoelectric (PZT) wafers are investigated for reference-free damage diagnosis so that a notch in a plate can be detected without requiring direct comparison with a baseline EM signal. Two identical PZT wafers collocated on both surfaces of a plate are utilized for extracting the mode-converted Lamb wave signals created by a notch. As harmonic input voltage signals are exerted on the collocated PZT wafers, the corresponding mode-converted Lamb wave signals become steady-state in the presence of damage. Applying fast Fourier transform to these mode-converted Lamb wave signals followed by a proper normalization, the EM signals associated with the mode conversion can be obtained. The theoretical finding of this paper is validated through spectral element simulations of a cantilever beam with a notch. The effects of the size and the location of the notch on the mode-converted EM signals are investigated as well. Finally, the applicability of the decomposed EM signals to reference-free damage diagnosis is discussed

  15. Non-destructive Inspection of Multi-layered Composite Using Ultrasonic Signal Processing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ng, S C; Ismail, N; Ali, Aidy; Sahari, Barkawi; Yusof, J M; Chu, B W

    2011-01-01

    Composites exhibit higher strength and stiffness, better design practice and greater corrosion resistance compare to metal material. However, composites are susceptible to impact damage and the typical damage behaviour in the laminated composites is fibre-breakage and delamination. Detection of failure in laminated composites is complicated compared with ordinary non-destructive testing for metal materials as they are sensitive to echoes drown in noise due to the properties of the constituent materials and the multi-layered structure of the composites. In the current study, the detection of failure in multi-layered composite materials is investigated. To obtain a high probability of defect detection in composite materials, signal processing algorithms were used to resolve echoes associated with defects in glass fibre-reinforced plastics (GRP) detected by using ultrasonic testing. Pulse-echo method with single transducer was used to transmit and receive ultrasound. The obtained signals were processed to reduce noise and to extract suitable features. Results were validated on GRP with and without defects in order to demonstrate the feasibility of the method on defect detection in composites.

  16. To signal or not to signal: that should not be the question.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Faw, Harold W

    2013-10-01

    The purpose of the present research was to examine rates of turn signal use, a positive and potentially valuable means by which drivers can communicate. A second purpose was to explore factors that might impact these rates, including the modeling influence of other drivers. A series of observations involving more than 5600 vehicles making turns were recorded at a variety of intersections in British Columbia, Canada. Though the occurrence of signal use varied widely, ranging from a low of 54% to a high of 95%, the overall rate was 76%. Drivers used turn signals significantly less often when making right as compared with left turns, when traffic volume was higher, and when a designated turning lane was provided. In addition, compared with drivers following another vehicle not using signals, those following a vehicle with turn signals on were significantly more likely to activate their turn signals, suggesting a possible modeling effect. Both internal and external influences on turn signal use by drivers were considered. External factors explored in this research included direction of turn, traffic volume, intersection configuration, and the example of other drivers. It was concluded that the practice of signaling turns merits more research attention, since consistent use of signals is a potential contributor to enhanced safety for all road users. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Enhanced Schottky signals from electron-cooled, coasting beams in a heavy-ion storage ring

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Krantz, C., E-mail: claude.krantz@mpi-hd.mpg.d [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany); Blaum, K.; Grieser, M. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany); Litvinov, Yu.A. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany); GSI Helmholtzzentrum fuer Schwerionenforschung, Planckstrasse 1, D-64291 Darmstadt (Germany); Repnow, R.; Wolf, A. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)

    2011-02-11

    Measurements at the Test Storage Ring of the Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik in Heidelberg (Germany) have shown that the signal amplitude induced in a Schottky-noise pickup electrode by a coasting electron-cooled ion beam can be greatly enhanced by exposure of the latter to a perturbing radiofrequency signal which is detuned from the true beam revolution frequency. The centre frequencies obtained from harmonic analysis of the observed pickup signal closely follow those imposed on the ions by the electron cooling force. The phenomenon can be exploited to measure the true revolution frequency of ion beams of very low intensity, whose pure Schottky noise is too weak to be measurable under normal circumstances.

  18. TSLP signaling pathway map: a platform for analysis of TSLP-mediated signaling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhong, Jun; Sharma, Jyoti; Raju, Rajesh; Palapetta, Shyam Mohan; Prasad, T S Keshava; Huang, Tai-Chung; Yoda, Akinori; Tyner, Jeffrey W; van Bodegom, Diederik; Weinstock, David M; Ziegler, Steven F; Pandey, Akhilesh

    2014-01-01

    Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) is a four-helix bundle cytokine that plays a critical role in the regulation of immune responses and in the differentiation of hematopoietic cells. TSLP signals through a heterodimeric receptor complex consisting of an interleukin-7 receptor α chain and a unique TSLP receptor (TSLPR) [also known as cytokine receptor-like factor 2 (CRLF2)]. Cellular targets of TSLP include dendritic cells, B cells, mast cells, regulatory T (Treg) cells and CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. The TSLP/TSLPR axis can activate multiple signaling transduction pathways including the JAK/STAT pathway and the PI-3 kinase pathway. Aberrant TSLP/TSLPR signaling has been associated with a variety of human diseases including asthma, atopic dermatitis, nasal polyposis, inflammatory bowel disease, eosinophilic eosophagitis and, most recently, acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A centralized resource of the TSLP signaling pathway cataloging signaling events is not yet available. In this study, we present a literature-annotated resource of reactions in the TSLP signaling pathway. This pathway map is publicly available through NetPath (http://www.netpath.org/), an open access signal transduction pathway resource developed previously by our group. This map includes 236 molecules and 252 reactions that are involved in TSLP/TSLPR signaling pathway. We expect that the TSLP signaling pathway map will provide a rich resource to study the biology of this important cytokine as well as to identify novel therapeutic targets for diseases associated with dysregulated TSLP/TSLPR signaling. Database URL: http://www.netpath.org/pathways?path_id=NetPath_24.

  19. Constraints on an annihilation signal from a core of constant dark matter density around the milky way center with H.E.S.S.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abramowski, A; Aharonian, F; Ait Benkhali, F; Akhperjanian, A G; Angüner, E O; Backes, M; Balenderan, S; Balzer, A; Barnacka, A; Becherini, Y; Becker Tjus, J; Berge, D; Bernhard, S; Bernlöhr, K; Birsin, E; Biteau, J; Böttcher, M; Boisson, C; Bolmont, J; Bordas, P; Bregeon, J; Brun, F; Brun, P; Bryan, M; Bulik, T; Carrigan, S; Casanova, S; Chadwick, P M; Chakraborty, N; Chalme-Calvet, R; Chaves, R C G; Chrétien, M; Colafrancesco, S; Cologna, G; Conrad, J; Couturier, C; Cui, Y; Davids, I D; Degrange, B; Deil, C; deWilt, P; Djannati-Ataï, A; Domainko, W; Donath, A; Drury, L O'C; Dubus, G; Dutson, K; Dyks, J; Dyrda, M; Edwards, T; Egberts, K; Eger, P; Espigat, P; Farnier, C; Fegan, S; Feinstein, F; Fernandes, M V; Fernandez, D; Fiasson, A; Fontaine, G; Förster, A; Füßling, M; Gabici, S; Gajdus, M; Gallant, Y A; Garrigoux, T; Giavitto, G; Giebels, B; Glicenstein, J F; Gottschall, D; Grondin, M-H; Grudzińska, M; Hadasch, D; Häffner, S; Hahn, J; Harris, J; Heinzelmann, G; Henri, G; Hermann, G; Hervet, O; Hillert, A; Hinton, J A; Hofmann, W; Hofverberg, P; Holler, M; Horns, D; Ivascenko, A; Jacholkowska, A; Jahn, C; Jamrozy, M; Janiak, M; Jankowsky, F; Jung-Richardt, I; Kastendieck, M A; Katarzyński, K; Katz, U; Kaufmann, S; Khélifi, B; Kieffer, M; Klepser, S; Klochkov, D; Kluźniak, W; Kolitzus, D; Komin, Nu; Kosack, K; Krakau, S; Krayzel, F; Krüger, P P; Laffon, H; Lamanna, G; Lefaucheur, J; Lefranc, V; Lemière, A; Lemoine-Goumard, M; Lenain, J-P; Lohse, T; Lopatin, A; Lu, C-C; Marandon, V; Marcowith, A; Marx, R; Maurin, G; Maxted, N; Mayer, M; McComb, T J L; Méhault, J; Meintjes, P J; Menzler, U; Meyer, M; Mitchell, A M W; Moderski, R; Mohamed, M; Morå, K; Moulin, E; Murach, T; de Naurois, M; Niemiec, J; Nolan, S J; Oakes, L; Odaka, H; Ohm, S; Opitz, B; Ostrowski, M; Oya, I; Panter, M; Parsons, R D; Paz Arribas, M; Pekeur, N W; Pelletier, G; Petrucci, P-O; Peyaud, B; Pita, S; Poon, H; Pühlhofer, G; Punch, M; Quirrenbach, A; Raab, S; Reichardt, I; Reimer, A; Reimer, O; Renaud, M; de Los Reyes, R; Rieger, F; Romoli, C; Rosier-Lees, S; Rowell, G; Rudak, B; Rulten, C B; Sahakian, V; Salek, D; Sanchez, D A; Santangelo, A; Schlickeiser, R; Schüssler, F; Schulz, A; Schwanke, U; Schwarzburg, S; Schwemmer, S; Sol, H; Spanier, F; Spengler, G; Spies, F; Stawarz, Ł; Steenkamp, R; Stegmann, C; Stinzing, F; Stycz, K; Sushch, I; Tavernet, J-P; Tavernier, T; Taylor, A M; Terrier, R; Tluczykont, M; Trichard, C; Valerius, K; van Eldik, C; van Soelen, B; Vasileiadis, G; Veh, J; Venter, C; Viana, A; Vincent, P; Vink, J; Völk, H J; Volpe, F; Vorster, M; Vuillaume, T; Wagner, S J; Wagner, P; Wagner, R M; Ward, M; Weidinger, M; Weitzel, Q; White, R; Wierzcholska, A; Willmann, P; Wörnlein, A; Wouters, D; Yang, R; Zabalza, V; Zaborov, D; Zacharias, M; Zdziarski, A A; Zech, A; Zechlin, H-S

    2015-02-27

    An annihilation signal of dark matter is searched for from the central region of the Milky Way. Data acquired in dedicated on-off observations of the Galactic center region with H.E.S.S. are analyzed for this purpose. No significant signal is found in a total of ∼9  h of on-off observations. Upper limits on the velocity averaged cross section, ⟨σv⟩, for the annihilation of dark matter particles with masses in the range of ∼300  GeV to ∼10  TeV are derived. In contrast to previous constraints derived from observations of the Galactic center region, the constraints that are derived here apply also under the assumption of a central core of constant dark matter density around the center of the Galaxy. Values of ⟨σv⟩ that are larger than 3×10^{-24}  cm^{3}/s are excluded for dark matter particles with masses between ∼1 and ∼4  TeV at 95% C.L. if the radius of the central dark matter density core does not exceed 500 pc. This is the strongest constraint that is derived on ⟨σv⟩ for annihilating TeV mass dark matter without the assumption of a centrally cusped dark matter density distribution in the search region.

  20. Differential diagnosis of the signal-compromised lunate in MRI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schmitt, R.; Christopoulos, G.; Coblenz, G.; Froehner, S.; Brunner, H.; Kalb, K.; Krimmer, H.; Lanz, U.

    2005-01-01

    Purpose: To define both the underlying pathology and diagnostic criteria in lunates presenting with conspicuous signal pattern in MRI. Materials and Methods: The retrospective evaluation of 2940 MRI examinations revealed 203 patients with signal alterations of the lunate. All MRI examinations were performed on 1.5-Tesla platforms using dedicated surface coils and an intravenous contrast agent. To establish a definitive diagnosis, a total of 252 MRI examinations (49 follow-ups), 22 CT examinations and 4 arthroscopic studies were obtained in addition to the obligatory conventional radiographs. Results: Incorporating all clinical data, radiographs and MRI examinations succeeded in assigning a diagnosis in 136 signal-compromised lunates (67.0%), whereas additional diagnostic procedures or follow-up examinations were required for the definitive diagnosis in 57 cases (33.0%). The most frequent entities were 51 cases of Kienboeck's disease (25.1%), 47 cases of ulnolunate-(triquetral) impaction syndromes (23.2%) and 44 cases of intra-osseous ganglion cysts (21.7%). Other pathologies included 23 degenerative, 19 traumatic and 10 inflammatory changes as well as 9 congenital conditions. For MRI assessment of the altered lunate, the most important parameters were location and morphology as well as involvement of the articular and osseous structures of the carpus. Conclusion: The lunate may be affected by different pathological states of the wrist. In total, only one quarter of the signal-compromised lunate represented Kienboeck's disease. (orig.)

  1. Inference on inspiral signals using LISA MLDC data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roever, Christian; Stroeer, Alexander; Bloomer, Ed; Christensen, Nelson; Clark, James; Hendry, Martin; Messenger, Chris; Meyer, Renate; Pitkin, Matt; Toher, Jennifer; Umstaetter, Richard; Vecchio, Alberto; Veitch, John; Woan, Graham

    2007-01-01

    In this paper, we describe a Bayesian inference framework for the analysis of data obtained by LISA. We set up a model for binary inspiral signals as defined for the Mock LISA Data Challenge 1.2 (MLDC), and implemented a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm to facilitate exploration and integration of the posterior distribution over the nine-dimensional parameter space. Here, we present intermediate results showing how, using this method, information about the nine parameters can be extracted from the data

  2. Envelope statistics of self-motion signals experienced by human subjects during everyday activities: Implications for vestibular processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carriot, Jérome; Jamali, Mohsen; Cullen, Kathleen E; Chacron, Maurice J

    2017-01-01

    There is accumulating evidence that the brain's neural coding strategies are constrained by natural stimulus statistics. Here we investigated the statistics of the time varying envelope (i.e. a second-order stimulus attribute that is related to variance) of rotational and translational self-motion signals experienced by human subjects during everyday activities. We found that envelopes can reach large values across all six motion dimensions (~450 deg/s for rotations and ~4 G for translations). Unlike results obtained in other sensory modalities, the spectral power of envelope signals decreased slowly for low (2 Hz) temporal frequencies and thus was not well-fit by a power law. We next compared the spectral properties of envelope signals resulting from active and passive self-motion, as well as those resulting from signals obtained when the subject is absent (i.e. external stimuli). Our data suggest that different mechanisms underlie deviation from scale invariance in rotational and translational self-motion envelopes. Specifically, active self-motion and filtering by the human body cause deviation from scale invariance primarily for translational and rotational envelope signals, respectively. Finally, we used well-established models in order to predict the responses of peripheral vestibular afferents to natural envelope stimuli. We found that irregular afferents responded more strongly to envelopes than their regular counterparts. Our findings have important consequences for understanding the coding strategies used by the vestibular system to process natural second-order self-motion signals.

  3. Analysis of cutting force signals by wavelet packet transform for surface roughness monitoring in CNC turning

    Science.gov (United States)

    García Plaza, E.; Núñez López, P. J.

    2018-01-01

    On-line monitoring of surface finish in machining processes has proven to be a substantial advancement over traditional post-process quality control techniques by reducing inspection times and costs and by avoiding the manufacture of defective products. This study applied techniques for processing cutting force signals based on the wavelet packet transform (WPT) method for the monitoring of surface finish in computer numerical control (CNC) turning operations. The behaviour of 40 mother wavelets was analysed using three techniques: global packet analysis (G-WPT), and the application of two packet reduction criteria: maximum energy (E-WPT) and maximum entropy (SE-WPT). The optimum signal decomposition level (Lj) was determined to eliminate noise and to obtain information correlated to surface finish. The results obtained with the G-WPT method provided an in-depth analysis of cutting force signals, and frequency ranges and signal characteristics were correlated to surface finish with excellent results in the accuracy and reliability of the predictive models. The radial and tangential cutting force components at low frequency provided most of the information for the monitoring of surface finish. The E-WPT and SE-WPT packet reduction criteria substantially reduced signal processing time, but at the expense of discarding packets with relevant information, which impoverished the results. The G-WPT method was observed to be an ideal procedure for processing cutting force signals applied to the real-time monitoring of surface finish, and was estimated to be highly accurate and reliable at a low analytical-computational cost.

  4. Seizure classification in EEG signals utilizing Hilbert-Huang transform

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdulhay Enas W

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Classification method capable of recognizing abnormal activities of the brain functionality are either brain imaging or brain signal analysis. The abnormal activity of interest in this study is characterized by a disturbance caused by changes in neuronal electrochemical activity that results in abnormal synchronous discharges. The method aims at helping physicians discriminate between healthy and seizure electroencephalographic (EEG signals. Method Discrimination in this work is achieved by analyzing EEG signals obtained from freely accessible databases. MATLAB has been used to implement and test the proposed classification algorithm. The analysis in question presents a classification of normal and ictal activities using a feature relied on Hilbert-Huang Transform. Through this method, information related to the intrinsic functions contained in the EEG signal has been extracted to track the local amplitude and the frequency of the signal. Based on this local information, weighted frequencies are calculated and a comparison between ictal and seizure-free determinant intrinsic functions is then performed. Methods of comparison used are the t-test and the Euclidean clustering. Results The t-test results in a P-value Conclusion An original tool for EEG signal processing giving physicians the possibility to diagnose brain functionality abnormalities is presented in this paper. The proposed system bears the potential of providing several credible benefits such as fast diagnosis, high accuracy, good sensitivity and specificity, time saving and user friendly. Furthermore, the classification of mode mixing can be achieved using the extracted instantaneous information of every IMF, but it would be most likely a hard task if only the average value is used. Extra benefits of this proposed system include low cost, and ease of interface. All of that indicate the usefulness of the tool and its use as an efficient diagnostic tool.

  5. Seizure classification in EEG signals utilizing Hilbert-Huang transform.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oweis, Rami J; Abdulhay, Enas W

    2011-05-24

    Classification method capable of recognizing abnormal activities of the brain functionality are either brain imaging or brain signal analysis. The abnormal activity of interest in this study is characterized by a disturbance caused by changes in neuronal electrochemical activity that results in abnormal synchronous discharges. The method aims at helping physicians discriminate between healthy and seizure electroencephalographic (EEG) signals. Discrimination in this work is achieved by analyzing EEG signals obtained from freely accessible databases. MATLAB has been used to implement and test the proposed classification algorithm. The analysis in question presents a classification of normal and ictal activities using a feature relied on Hilbert-Huang Transform. Through this method, information related to the intrinsic functions contained in the EEG signal has been extracted to track the local amplitude and the frequency of the signal. Based on this local information, weighted frequencies are calculated and a comparison between ictal and seizure-free determinant intrinsic functions is then performed. Methods of comparison used are the t-test and the Euclidean clustering. The t-test results in a P-value with respect to its fast response and ease to use. An original tool for EEG signal processing giving physicians the possibility to diagnose brain functionality abnormalities is presented in this paper. The proposed system bears the potential of providing several credible benefits such as fast diagnosis, high accuracy, good sensitivity and specificity, time saving and user friendly. Furthermore, the classification of mode mixing can be achieved using the extracted instantaneous information of every IMF, but it would be most likely a hard task if only the average value is used. Extra benefits of this proposed system include low cost, and ease of interface. All of that indicate the usefulness of the tool and its use as an efficient diagnostic tool.

  6. Design of EEG Signal Acquisition System Using Arduino MEGA1280 and EEGAnalyzer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saptono Debyo

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This study integrates the hardware circuit design and software development to achieve a 16 channels Electroencephalogram (EEG system for Brain Computer Interface (BCI applications. Signals obtained should be strong enough amplitude that is usually expressed in units of millivolts and reasonably clean of noise that appears when the data acquisition process. The process of data acquisition consists of two stages are the acquisition of the original EEG signal can be done by the active electrode with an instrumentation amplifier or a preamplifier and processing the signal to get better signals with improved signal quality by removing noise using filters with IC OPAMP. The design of a preamplifier with high common-mode rejection ratio and high signal-to-noise ratio is very important. Moreover, the friction between the electrode pads and the skin as well as the design of dual power supply. Designs used single-power AC-coupled circuit, which effectively reduces the DC bias and improves the error caused by the effects of part errors. At the same time, the digital way is applied to design the adjustable amplification and filter function, which can design for different EEG frequency bands. The next step, those EEG signals received by the microcontroller through a port Analog to Digital Converter (ADC that integrated and converted into digital signals and stored in the RAM of microcontroller which simultaneously at 16 ports in accordance with the minimal number of points of data collection on the human scalp. Implementation results have shown the series of acquisitions to work properly so that it can be displayed EEG signals via software EEGAnalyzer.

  7. An approach of traffic signal control based on NLRSQP algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zou, Yuan-Yang; Hu, Yu

    2017-11-01

    This paper presents a linear program model with linear complementarity constraints (LPLCC) to solve traffic signal optimization problem. The objective function of the model is to obtain the minimization of total queue length with weight factors at the end of each cycle. Then, a combination algorithm based on the nonlinear least regression and sequence quadratic program (NLRSQP) is proposed, by which the local optimal solution can be obtained. Furthermore, four numerical experiments are proposed to study how to set the initial solution of the algorithm that can get a better local optimal solution more quickly. In particular, the results of numerical experiments show that: The model is effective for different arrival rates and weight factors; and the lower bound of the initial solution is, the better optimal solution can be obtained.

  8. Redox signaling in the growth and development of colonial hydroids.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blackstone, Neil W

    2003-02-01

    Redox signaling provides a quick and efficient mechanism for clonal or colonial organisms to adapt their growth and development to aspects of the environment, e.g. the food supply. A 'signature' of mitochondrial redox signaling, particularly as mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS), can be elucidated by experimental manipulation of the electron transport chain. The major sites of ROS formation are found at NADH dehydrogenase of complex I and at the interface between coenzyme Q and complex III. Inhibitors of complex III should thus upregulate ROS from both sites; inhibitors of complex I should upregulate ROS from the first but not the second site, while uncouplers of oxidative phosphorylation should downregulate ROS from both sites. To investigate the possibility of such redox signaling, perturbations of colony growth and development were carried out using the hydroid Podocoryna carnea. Oxygen uptake of colonies was measured to determine comparable physiological doses of antimycin A(1) (an inhibitor of complex III), rotenone (an inhibitor of complex I) and carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP; an uncoupler of oxidative phosphorylation). Using these doses, clear effects on colony growth and development were obtained. Treatment with antimycin A(1) results in 'runner-like' colony growth, with widely spaced polyps and stolon branches, while treatment with CCCP results in 'sheet-like' growth, with closely spaced polyps and stolon branches. Parallel results have been obtained previously with azide, an inhibitor of complex IV, and dinitrophenol, another uncoupler of oxidative phosphorylation. Perhaps surprisingly, rotenone produced effects on colony development similar to those of CCCP. Assays of peroxides using 2',7'-dichlorofluorescin diacetate and fluorescent microscopy suggest a moderate difference in ROS formation between the antimycin and rotenone treatments. The second site of ROS formation (the interface between coenzyme Q and complex III) may thus

  9. Total focusing method with correlation processing of antenna array signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kozhemyak, O. A.; Bortalevich, S. I.; Loginov, E. L.; Shinyakov, Y. A.; Sukhorukov, M. P.

    2018-03-01

    The article proposes a method of preliminary correlation processing of a complete set of antenna array signals used in the image reconstruction algorithm. The results of experimental studies of 3D reconstruction of various reflectors using and without correlation processing are presented in the article. Software ‘IDealSystem3D’ by IDeal-Technologies was used for experiments. Copper wires of different diameters located in a water bath were used as a reflector. The use of correlation processing makes it possible to obtain more accurate reconstruction of the image of the reflectors and to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. The experimental results were processed using an original program. This program allows varying the parameters of the antenna array and sampling frequency.

  10. Ca2+ signaling in pancreatic acinar cells: physiology and pathophysiology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    O.H. Petersen

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available The pancreatic acinar cell is a classical model for studies of secretion and signal transduction mechanisms. Because of the extensive endoplasmic reticulum and the large granular compartment, it has been possible - by direct measurements - to obtain considerable insights into intracellular Ca2+ handling under both normal and pathological conditions. Recent studies have also revealed important characteristics of stimulus-secretion coupling mechanisms in isolated human pancreatic acinar cells. The acinar cells are potentially dangerous because of the high intra-granular concentration of proteases, which become inappropriately activated in the human disease acute pancreatitis. This disease is due to toxic Ca2+ signals generated by excessive liberation of Ca2+ from both the endoplasmic reticulum and the secretory granules.

  11. The Hedgehog Signal Induced Modulation of Bone Morphogenetic Protein Signaling: An Essential Signaling Relay for Urinary Tract Morphogenesis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakagata, Naomi; Miyagawa, Shinichi; Suzuki, Kentaro; Kitazawa, Sohei; Yamada, Gen

    2012-01-01

    Background Congenital diseases of the urinary tract are frequently observed in infants. Such diseases present a number of developmental anomalies such as hydroureter and hydronephrosis. Although some genetically-modified mouse models of growth factor signaling genes reproduce urinary phenotypes, the pathogenic mechanisms remain obscure. Previous studies suggest that a portion of the cells in the external genitalia and bladder are derived from peri-cloacal mesenchymal cells that receive Hedgehog (Hh) signaling in the early developmental stages. We hypothesized that defects in such progenitor cells, which give rise to urinary tract tissues, may be a cause of such diseases. Methodology/Principal Findings To elucidate the pathogenic mechanisms of upper urinary tract malformations, we analyzed a series of Sonic hedgehog (Shh) deficient mice. Shh−/− displayed hydroureter and hydronephrosis phenotypes and reduced expression of several developmental markers. In addition, we suggested that Shh modulation at an early embryonic stage is responsible for such phenotypes by analyzing the Shh conditional mutants. Tissue contribution assays of Hh-responsive cells revealed that peri-cloacal mesenchymal cells, which received Hh signal secreted from cloacal epithelium, could contribute to the ureteral mesenchyme. Gain- and loss-of-functional mutants for Hh signaling revealed a correlation between Hh signaling and Bone morphogenetic protein (Bmp) signaling. Finally, a conditional ablation of Bmp receptor type IA (BmprIA) gene was examined in Hh-responsive cell lineages. This system thus made it possible to analyze the primary functions of the growth factor signaling relay. The defective Hh-to-Bmp signaling relay resulted in severe urinary tract phenotypes with a decrease in the number of Hh-responsive cells. Conclusions/Significance This study identified the essential embryonic stages for the pathogenesis of urinary tract phenotypes. These results suggested that Hh

  12. The newest digital signal processing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Chae Uk

    2002-08-01

    This book deal with the newest digital signal processing, which contains introduction on conception of digital signal processing, constitution and purpose, signal and system such as signal, continuos signal, discrete signal and discrete system, I/O expression on impress response, convolution, mutual connection of system and frequency character,z transform of definition, range, application of z transform and relationship with laplace transform, Discrete fourier, Fast fourier transform on IDFT algorithm and FFT application, foundation of digital filter of notion, expression, types, frequency characteristic of digital filter and design order of filter, Design order of filter, Design of FIR digital filter, Design of IIR digital filter, Adaptive signal processing, Audio signal processing, video signal processing and application of digital signal processing.

  13. BMP and Ihh/PTHrP signaling interact to coordinate chondrocyte proliferation and differentiation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Minina, E; Wenzel, H M; Kreschel, C; Karp, S; Gaffield, W; McMahon, A P; Vortkamp, A

    2001-11-01

    During endochondral ossification, two secreted signals, Indian hedgehog (Ihh) and parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP), have been shown to form a negative feedback loop regulating the onset of hypertrophic differentiation of chondrocytes. Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), another family of secreted factors regulating bone formation, have been implicated as potential interactors of the Ihh/PTHrP feedback loop. To analyze the relationship between the two signaling pathways, we used an organ culture system for limb explants of mouse and chick embryos. We manipulated chondrocyte differentiation by supplementing these cultures either with BMP2, PTHrP and Sonic hedgehog as activators or with Noggin and cyclopamine as inhibitors of the BMP and Ihh/PTHrP signaling systems. Overexpression of Ihh in the cartilage elements of transgenic mice results in an upregulation of PTHrP expression and a delayed onset of hypertrophic differentiation. Noggin treatment of limbs from these mice did not antagonize the effects of Ihh overexpression. Conversely, the promotion of chondrocyte maturation induced by cyclopamine, which blocks Ihh signaling, could not be rescued with BMP2. Thus BMP signaling does not act as a secondary signal of Ihh to induce PTHrP expression or to delay the onset of hypertrophic differentiation. Similar results were obtained using cultures of chick limbs. We further investigated the role of BMP signaling in regulating proliferation and hypertrophic differentiation of chondrocytes and identified three functions of BMP signaling in this process. First we found that maintaining a normal proliferation rate requires BMP and Ihh signaling acting in parallel. We further identified a role for BMP signaling in modulating the expression of IHH: Finally, the application of Noggin to mouse limb explants resulted in advanced differentiation of terminally hypertrophic cells, implicating BMP signaling in delaying the process of hypertrophic differentiation itself. This

  14. Calibration and Process of Signal of Photomultiplier Tube in Rayleigh Scattering of Supersonic Jet Clusters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lu Jianfeng; Liu Meng; Han Jifeng; Li Jia; Luo Xiaobing; Miao Jingwei; Yang Chaowen

    2009-01-01

    In the experiments of Rayleigh scattering of gas-jet clusters, the signal amplitude of PMT is not only affected by duster itself, but also by the intensity of light source and work voltage of PMT. When the back pressure of cluster source varies from 10 atm to about 100atm, the signal amplitude of PMT may be from linear to nonlinear. In order to solve the problem, signal calibration of PMT under different intensifies of light and voltage of PMT has been done. The relationship between the amplitude of signal and intensities of light as well as voltage of PMT has been obtained. The function of scatter factor of Ar clusters with the back pressure of cluster source is gotten experimentally, and agrees with related experimental and theoretical results. (authors)

  15. Mathematical properties of a semi-classical signal analysis method: Noisy signal case

    KAUST Repository

    Liu, Dayan

    2012-08-01

    Recently, a new signal analysis method based on a semi-classical approach has been proposed [1]. The main idea in this method is to interpret a signal as a potential of a Schrodinger operator and then to use the discrete spectrum of this operator to analyze the signal. In this paper, we are interested in a mathematical analysis of this method in discrete case considering noisy signals. © 2012 IEEE.

  16. Mathematical properties of a semi-classical signal analysis method: Noisy signal case

    KAUST Repository

    Liu, Dayan; Laleg-Kirati, Taous-Meriem

    2012-01-01

    Recently, a new signal analysis method based on a semi-classical approach has been proposed [1]. The main idea in this method is to interpret a signal as a potential of a Schrodinger operator and then to use the discrete spectrum of this operator to analyze the signal. In this paper, we are interested in a mathematical analysis of this method in discrete case considering noisy signals. © 2012 IEEE.

  17. GPS Signal Corruption by the Discrete Aurora: Precise Measurements From the Mahali Experiment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Semeter, Joshua; Mrak, Sebastijan; Hirsch, Michael; Swoboda, John; Akbari, Hassan; Starr, Gregory; Hampton, Don; Erickson, Philip; Lind, Frank; Coster, Anthea; Pankratius, Victor

    2017-10-01

    Measurements from a dense network of GPS receivers have been used to clarify the relationship between substorm auroras and GPS signal corruption as manifested by loss of lock on the received signal. A network of nine receivers was deployed along roadways near the Poker Flat Research Range in central Alaska, with receiver spacing between 15 and 30 km. Instances of large-amplitude phase fluctuations and signal loss of lock were registered in space and time with auroral forms associated with a sequence of westward traveling surges associated with a substorm onset over central Canada. The following conclusions were obtained: (1) The signal corruption originated in the ionospheric E region, between 100 and 150 km altitude, and (2) the GPS links suffering loss of lock were confined to a narrow band (<20 km wide) along the trailing edge of the moving auroral forms. The results are discussed in the context of mechanisms typically cited to account for GPS phase scintillation by auroral processes.

  18. A Dynamical System Exhibits High Signal-to-noise Ratio Gain by Stochastic Resonance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Makra, Peter; Gingl, Zoltan

    2003-05-01

    On the basis of mixed-signal simulations, we demonstrate that signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gains much greater than unity can be obtained in the double-well potential through stochastic resonance (SR) with a symmetric periodic pulse train as deterministic and Gaussian white noise as random excitation. We also show that significant SNR improvement is possible in this system even for a sub-threshold sinusoid input if, instead of the commonly used narrow-band SNR, we apply an equally simple but much more realistic wide-band SNR definition. Using the latter result as an argument, we draw attention to the fact that the choice of the measure to reflect signal quality is critical with regard to the extent of signal improvement observed, and urge reconsideration of the practice prevalent in SR studies that most often the narrow-band SNR is used to characterise SR. Finally, we pose some questions concerning the possibilities of applying SNR improvement in practical set-ups.

  19. Computational identification of signalling pathways in Plasmodium falciparum.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oyelade, Jelili; Ewejobi, Itunu; Brors, Benedikt; Eils, Roland; Adebiyi, Ezekiel

    2011-06-01

    Malaria is one of the world's most common and serious diseases causing death of about 3 million people each year. Its most severe occurrence is caused by the protozoan Plasmodium falciparum. Reports have shown that the resistance of the parasite to existing drugs is increasing. Therefore, there is a huge and urgent need to discover and validate new drug or vaccine targets to enable the development of new treatments for malaria. The ability to discover these drug or vaccine targets can only be enhanced from our deep understanding of the detailed biology of the parasite, for example how cells function and how proteins organize into modules such as metabolic, regulatory and signal transduction pathways. It has been noted that the knowledge of signalling transduction pathways in Plasmodium is fundamental to aid the design of new strategies against malaria. This work uses a linear-time algorithm for finding paths in a network under modified biologically motivated constraints. We predicted several important signalling transduction pathways in Plasmodium falciparum. We have predicted a viable signalling pathway characterized in terms of the genes responsible that may be the PfPKB pathway recently elucidated in Plasmodium falciparum. We obtained from the FIKK family, a signal transduction pathway that ends up on a chloroquine resistance marker protein, which indicates that interference with FIKK proteins might reverse Plasmodium falciparum from resistant to sensitive phenotype. We also proposed a hypothesis that showed the FIKK proteins in this pathway as enabling the resistance parasite to have a mechanism for releasing chloroquine (via an efflux process). Furthermore, we also predicted a signalling pathway that may have been responsible for signalling the start of the invasion process of Red Blood Cell (RBC) by the merozoites. It has been noted that the understanding of this pathway will give insight into the parasite virulence and will facilitate rational vaccine design

  20. Improved prediction of signal peptides: SignalP 3.0

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bendtsen, Jannick Dyrløv; Nielsen, Henrik; von Heijne, G.

    2004-01-01

    We describe improvements of the currently most popular method for prediction of classically secreted proteins, SignalP. SignalP consists of two different predictors based on neural network and hidden Markov model algorithms, where both components have been updated. Motivated by the idea that the ...