总体经验模态分解能量向量用于ECG能量分布的研究

总体经验模态分解(EEMD)改进了经验模态分解(EMD)存在的模态混叠问题, 依据信号自身的波动特点将信号分解, 特别适合非线性非平稳信号的分析处理. ECG信号能量分布有一定的规律, 疾病会引起能量分布的变化, 研究ECG能量分布的改变对心脏疾病的研究和临床诊断有重要意义. 本文将ECG信号通过EEMD方法分解为多个本征模态函数(IMF)分量, 观察IMF分量的波动规律, 指出了ECG信号在不同时间尺度上的波动特点和物理意义. 将IMF分量分别计算能量, 得到ECG的能量向量, 并对健康人和三种心脏疾病患者能量向量进行对比分析. 结果表明心脏疾病导致EEMD能量向量的高频分量显著降低, 尤其是p₁分量具有较好的区分度, 可以作为心脏疾病诊断的参考依据. 相比较传统的频域分析方法单纯关注频率而忽略信号自身特点和信号成分之间的相互作用, EEMD的分解结果依赖于ECG信号本身, 因此更能够反映ECG信号的真实情况, 揭示年龄和疾病对ECG能量分布的影响.     

Frequency and phase synchronization in neuromagnetic cortical responses to flickering-color stimuli

In our earlier study dealing with the analysis of neuromagnetic responses (magnetoencephalograms—MEG) to flickering-color stimuli for a group of control human subjects (9 volunteers) and a patient with photosensitive epilepsy (a 12-year old girl), it was shown that Flicker-Noise Spectroscopy (FNS) was able to identify specific differences in the responses of each organism. The high specificity of individual MEG responses manifested itself in the values of FNS parameters for both chaotic and resonant components of the original signal. The present study applies the FNS cross-correlation function to the analysis of correlations between the MEG responses simultaneously measured at spatially separated points of the human cortex processing the red-blue flickering color stimulus. It is shown that the cross-correlations for control (healthy) subjects are characterized by frequency and phase synchronization at different points of the cortex, with the dynamics of neuromagnetic responses being determined by the low-frequency processes that correspond to normal physiological rhythms. But for the patient, the frequency and phase synchronization breaks down, which is associated with the suppression of cortical regulatory functions when the flickering-color stimulus is applied, and higher frequencies start playing the dominating role. This suggests that the disruption of correlations in the MEG responses is the indicator of pathological changes leading to photosensitive epilepsy, which can be used for developing a method of diagnosing the disease based on the analysis with the FNS cross-correlation function.     

Some effects of signal bandwidth and spectral density on the acoustic-reflex threshold in the elderly

The acoustic-reflex thresholds (ART) for multicomponent tonal complexes of varying bandwidth and spectral density were obtained from 20 normal-hearing (air-conduction thresholds less than or equal to 20 dB HL at 250-8000 Hz) young adults ranging in age from 20-30 years and 20 normal-hearing, old subjects ranging in age from 60-71 years. The results revealed that the ART decreased with spectral density, plateauing after seven components in the young group and after five components in the old group; the decrease in the acoustic-reflex threshold as a result of the increase in spectral density was less in the old than in the young group. The bandwidth effect (when bandwidth was plotted in hertz or octaves) on the acoustic-reflex threshold was present in the young adults, but substantially reduced in the elderly, as evidenced by the statistically significant interaction between subject group and signal bandwidth. The spectral density results are discussed in terms of their theoretic implications for the energy summation capacity and frequency resolution of the auditory system. The bandwidth results are discussed in terms of their theoretic implications for the frequency-resolving power of the auditory system.     

Factors affecting perception thresholds of vertical whole-body vibration in recumbent subjects: Gender and age of subjects, and vibration duration

Some factors that may affect human perception thresholds of the vertical whole-body vibrations were investigated in two laboratory experiments with recumbent subjects. In the first experiment, the effects of gender and age of subjects on perception were investigated with three groups of 12 subjects, i.e., young males, young females and old males. For continuous sinusoidal vibrations at 2, 4, 8, 16, 31.5 and 63 Hz, there were no significant differences in the perception thresholds between male and female subjects, while the thresholds of young subjects tended to be significantly lower than the thresholds of old subjects. In the second experiment, the effect of vibration duration was investigated by using sinusoidal vibrations, at the same frequencies as above, modulated by the Hanning windows with different lengths (i.e., 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 s) for 12 subjects. It was found that the peak acceleration at the threshold tended to decrease with increasing duration of vibration. The perception thresholds were also evaluated by the running root-mean-square (rms) acceleration and the fourth power acceleration method defined in the current standards. The differences in the threshold of the transient vibrations for different durations were less with the fourth power acceleration method. Additionally, the effect of the integration time on the threshold was investigated for the running rms acceleration and the fourth power acceleration. It was found that the integration time that yielded less differences in the threshold of vibrations for different durations depended on the frequency of vibration.     

Documenting laryngeal change following prolonged loud reading: A videostroboscopic study

This study investigated the effects of prolonged loud reading on trained and untrained subjects. Subjects were eight young women singers, and eight young women with limited musical experience. Each subject underwent videostroboscopic examination prior to and following 1 h of prolonged loud reading. The pretest and posttest videotaped samples were randomized and presented to three experienced judges, who evaluated various aspects of laryngeal appearance and vibratory characteristics. Analyses of group data revealed that untrained subjects showed a small but significant increase in amplitude of vocal fold excursion following the experimental task. No significant differences were noted in the trained singer group. When individual variation was analyzed, it was found that most subjects did not show many changes from pretest to posttest. It was concluded that a l-h loud-reading task was not sufficient to induce notable laryngeal alterations     

Predictability of normal heart rhythms and deterministic chaos

The evidence for deterministic chaos in normal heart rhythms is examined. Electrocardiograms were recorded of 29 subjects falling into four groups-a young healthy group, an older healthy group, and two groups of patients who had recently suffered an acute myocardial infarction. From the measured R-R intervals, a time series of 1000 first differences was constructed for each subject. The correlation integral of Grassberger and Procaccia was calculated for several subjects using these relatively short time series. No evidence was found for the existence of an attractor having a dimension less than about 4. However, a prediction method recently proposed by Sugihara and May and an autoregressive linear predictor both show that there is a measure of short-term predictability in the differenced R-R intervals. Further analysis revealed that the short-term predictability calculated by the Sugihara-May method is not consistent with the null hypothesis of a Gaussian random process. The evidence for a small amount of nonlinear dynamical behavior together with the short-term predictability suggest that there is an element of deterministic chaos in normal heart rhythms, although it is not strong or persistent. Finally, two useful parameters of the predictability curves are identified, namely, the 'first step predictability' and the 'predictability decay rate,' neither of which appears to be significantly correlated with the standard deviation of the R-R intervals.     

The cross-correlation integral: Its features and application to nonstationarity detection in time series

A generalization of the correlation integral, called the cross-correlation integral, is suggested. Features of the cross-correlation integral are studied, and a new attribute of a time series is defined. It is viewed as some kind of dimension and is associated with the fill rate of the attractor. It is demonstrated that the cross-correlation integral is calculated in much the same way as the wavelet transform of the density of points in the attractor. The cross-correlation integral is applied to detection of nonstationarity in time series. A comparison with statistical methods is made.     

噪声交叉关联强度的时间周期调制对线性过阻尼系统的随机共振的影响

针对由加性、乘性噪声和周期信号共同作用的线性过阻尼系统, 在噪声交叉关联强度受到时间周期调制的情况下,利用随机平均法推导了系统响应的信噪比的解析表达式. 研究发现这类系统比噪声间互不相关或噪声交叉关联强度为常数的线性系统具有更丰富的动力学特性, 系统响应的信噪比随交叉关联调制频率的变化出现周期振荡型随机共振, 噪声的交叉关联参数导致随机共振现象的多样化.噪声交叉关联强度的时间周期调制的引入有利于提高对微弱周期信号检测的灵敏度和实现对周期信号的频率估计. 关键词： 随机共振 周期振荡型共振 噪声交叉关联强度 信噪比     

Computerized Simulation and Chromatic Adaptation Experiments Based on a Model of Aged Human Lens

Color appearance seen by old people does not significantly differ from that seen by young subjects even though their ocular lens has become more yellow with age. We calculated the age-related change of lights reflected from Munsell color chips onto the retina, and derived results that show that the chromaticity values of all the color chips shifted to the yellow region of the xy-chromaticity diagram. However, a replot on the CIELAB diagram and the estimation by means of the von Kries adaptation model suggests that old people may compensate their color vision using a general chromatic adaptation process. To test this hypothesis, we conducted two experiments: a chromatic adaptation experiment and a color matching experiment to simulate D65-lights as seen by older people but using young subjects. The results indicate that chromatic adaptation does not provide a complete explanation for color compensation by older people, suggesting that an age-related change of the yellow-blue opponent color mechanism may contribute to this compensation.     

Detrended fluctuation analysis of heart intrabeat dynamics

We investigate scaling properties of electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings of healthy subjects and heart failure patients based on detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). While the vast majority of scaling analysis has focused on the characterization of the long-range correlations of interbeat (i.e., beat-to-beat) dynamics, in this work we consider instead the characterization of intrabeat dynamics. That is, here we use DFA to study correlations for time scales smaller than one heart beat period (about 0.75 s). Our results show that intrabeat dynamics of healthy subject are less correlated than for heart failure dynamics. As in the case of interbeat dynamics, the DFA scaling exponents can be used to discriminate healthy and pathological data. It is shown that 0.5 h recordings suffices to characterize the ECG correlation properties.     

Multifractal analysis of heartbeat dynamics during meditation training

We investigate the multifractality of heartbeat dynamics during Chinese CHI meditation in healthy young adults. The results show that the range of multifractal singularity spectrum of heartbeat interval time series during meditation is significantly narrower than those in the pre-meditation state of the same subject, which indicates that during meditation the heartbeat becomes regular and the degree of multifractality decreases.     

Maximum Duration of Sustained /s/ and /z/ and the s/z Ratio With Controlled Intensity

SUMMARY: The purpose of this study was to compare maximum prolongations of controlled-intensity /s/ vs. /z/ in young healthy male and female adults and to compare the s/z ratio in young men and women. Twenty young adult men and 20 young adult women were included in this study. Participants produced 10 trials of /s/ and 10 of /z/ with a controlled intensity of 60-dB sound-pressure level (SPL). Maximum prolongations and s/z ratio were determined by three different methods: based on the longest out of 10 trials, the longest of 3 trials, and an average of the first 3 trials. Results revealed that based on averaged group data, /s/ and /z/ seemed to be prolonged for similar durations. Men consistently prolonged both phonemes significantly longer than women. There were no significant differences in s/z ratio between men and women. However, when individual data were reviewed, it seemed that some subjects consistently prolonged /s/ for a longer duration than /z/, some subjects prolonged /z/ longer than /s/, and some subjects actually produced approximately equal durations of the two phonemes. It was further noted that /s/ durations were more favorably impacted by practice than /z/ durations.     

Clinical high-resolution mapping of the proteoglycan-bound water fraction in articular cartilage of the human knee joint

PurposeWe applied our recently introduced Bayesian analytic method to achieve clinically-feasible in-vivo mapping of the proteoglycan water fraction (PgWF) of human knee cartilage with improved spatial resolution and stability as compared to existing methods.Materials and methodsMulticomponent driven equilibrium single-pulse observation of T₁ and T₂ (mcDESPOT) datasets were acquired from the knees of two healthy young subjects and one older subject with previous knee injury. Each dataset was processed using Bayesian Monte Carlo (BMC) analysis incorporating a two-component tissue model. We assessed the performance and reproducibility of BMC and of the conventional analysis of stochastic region contraction (SRC) in the estimation of PgWF. Stability of the BMC analysis of PgWF was tested by comparing independent high-resolution (HR) datasets from each of the two young subjects.ResultsUnlike SRC, the BMC-derived maps from the two HR datasets were essentially identical. Furthermore, SRC maps showed substantial random variation in estimated PgWF, and mean values that differed from those obtained using BMC. In addition, PgWF maps derived from conventional low-resolution (LR) datasets exhibited partial volume and magnetic susceptibility effects. These artifacts were absent in HR PgWF images. Finally, our analysis showed regional variation in PgWF estimates, and substantially higher values in the younger subjects as compared to the older subject.ConclusionsBMC-mcDESPOT permits HR in-vivo mapping of PgWF in human knee cartilage in a clinically-feasible acquisition time. HR mapping reduces the impact of partial volume and magnetic susceptibility artifacts compared to LR mapping. Finally, BMC-mcDESPOT demonstrated excellent reproducibility in the determination of PgWF.     

Recognition of natural and time/intensity altered CVs by young and elderly subjects with normal hearing

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of three acoustic modifications derived from clear speech for improving consonant recognition by young and elderly normal-hearing subjects. Percent-correct nonsense syllable recognition was measured for four stimulus sets: unmodified stimuli; stimuli with consonant duration increased by 100%; stimuli with consonant-vowel ratio increased by 10 dB; and stimuli with both consonant duration and consonant-vowel ratio increased. Analyses of overall nonsense syllable recognition, consonant feature recognition, and consonant confusion patterns demonstrated that the consonant-vowel ratio increase modification produced better performance than the other acoustic modifications by both subject groups. However, elderly subjects exhibited poorer performance than young subjects in most conditions. These results and their implications are discussed.     

Cross-correlation markers in stochastic dynamics of complex systems

The neuromagnetic activity (magnetoencephalogram, MEG) from healthy human brain and from an epileptic patient against chromatic flickering stimuli has been earlier analyzed on the basis of a memory functions formalism (MFF). Information measures of memory as well as relaxation parameters revealed high individuality and unique features in the neuromagnetic brain responses of each subject. The current paper demonstrates new capabilities of MFF by studying cross-correlations between MEG signals obtained from multiple and distant brain regions. It is shown that the MEG signals of healthy subjects are characterized by well-defined effects of frequency synchronization and at the same time by the domination of low-frequency processes. On the contrary, the MEG of a patient is characterized by a sharp abnormality of frequency synchronization, and also by prevalence of high-frequency quasi-periodic processes. Modification of synchronization effects and dynamics of cross-correlations offer a promising method of detecting pathological abnormalities in brain responses.     

Influence of speech stimuli intensity on the activation of auditory cortex investigated with functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Understanding the impact of variations in the acoustic signal is critical for the development of auditory and language fMRI as an experimental tool. We describe the dependence of the BOLD signal and speech intelligibility on the intensity of auditory stimuli. Eighteen subjects were imaged on a 1.5-T MRI scanner. Speech stimuli were English monosyllabic words played at five intensity levels. Intrasubject reproducibility was measured on one subject by presenting the stimulus five times at the same intensity level. Intelligibility was measured during data acquisition as subjects signaled when hearing two targets. Each functional trial consisted of four cycles (30 s off-30 s on). Five oblique slices covering primary and association auditory areas were imaged. Activated voxels were identified by cross-correlation analysis and their percent signal change (delta S) was measured. Intersubject differences in activation extent, asymmetry, and dependence on intensity were striking. Volume of activation was significantly greater in the left than in the right hemisphere. Intrasubject reproducibility for delta S was higher than for volume of activation. delta S and intelligibility showed a similar dependence on intensity suggesting that not only intensity but also intelligibility affect the fMRI signal.     

Multifractal analysis of human synchronous 12-lead ECG signals using multiple scale factors

Life is one of the most complex nonlinear systems and heart is the core of this lifecycle system. Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals taken from healthy adult subjects have been found to characterize multifractality. In this paper, multiscale analysis method was introduced to find the most effective parameters for expressing the complex dynamic characteristics during heart electrical activities. We then investigated the multifractal singularity spectrum area of synchronous 12-lead ECG signals from healthy human subjects and those with different clinical syndromes. The spectrum areas have spatial distribution along with scale factors, which is higher in the middle and lower on both sides and is not related to data length. The statistical results suggest the arithmetical mean value of the area of the 12 leads ECG signals is obviously small for myocardial infarction (MI) sufferer and large for healthy young, while the dispersing degree of the area of the 12 leads ECG signals is apparently large for MI sufferer and small for healthy young. As for the other crowds (e.g., the ischemia sufferer), these two values are almost of middle magnitude. Through those individual discrepancies, we can find some effective approaches to distinguish among healthy persons and the heart diseased.     

Stochastic Resonance in Linear Region of a Single-Mode Laser： Effects of Amplitude Modulation of Signal

A single-mode laser noise model driven by quadratic colored pump noise and amplitude modulation signal is proposed. The real and imaginary parts of the pump noise are assumed to be cross-correlation. The effect of cross-correlation of noise and amplitude modulation of signal on laser statistical properties is studied by using the linearized approximation. The analytic expression of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is calculated. It is found that the phenomena of stochastic resonance (SR) respectively exist in the curves of the SNR versus the noise cross-correlation coefficient λ and the SNR versus the pump parameter a, as well as the SNR versus the signal frequency ω in our model. It is shown that there are three different typies of SR in the model: the conventional form of SR, the SR in the broad sense, and the bona fide SR.     

Spectral shifts and spectral switches of partially coherent vector beams propagating through an astigmatic aperture lens

By using the polarization matrix and propagation equation of the cross-spectral density function matrix, the spectral shifts and spectral switches of partially coherent vector beams propagating through an astigmatic aperture lens are studied, where the effect of lens astigmatism and beam cross-correlation on the spectral switches is stressed. It is shown that the critical position, spectral transition height and spectral minimum at spectral switches depend on the astigmatism. The beam cross-correlation plays a role in spectral switches under the condition that a polarizer is inserted. The spectral switch vanishes when the astigmatic coefficient is larger than a certain value, or the cross-correlation length is less than a certain value.