Low frequency in situ metrology of absorption and dispersion of sound absorbing porous materials based on high power ultrasonic non-linearly demodulated waves

The present work is related to acoustic in situ free-field measurements of sound absorption in porous materials, such as cellular plastic foams, glass-wool or recycled felt materials. The emphasis is given towards fine metrology of absorption in view of potential industrial applications. A powerful ultrasonic array working at 40 kHz is used. It enables to measure absorption acoustical data down to 100 Hz due to the exploitation of the non-linear ultrasonic demodulation phenomenon in air. Fine measurements of acoustic absorption are compared to numerical predictions based on the “equivalent-fluid” model (when the squeleton frame is motionless), and to some measurements performed on a Brüel and Kjaer impedance tube. Dispersion curves are also measured and compared to the numerical predictions for some automotive felt materials which are compressed at various ratios. Data obtained with a dedicated portable instrument are also discussed for the same type of materials and configurations.     

Development of a highway traffic noise prediction model that considers various road surface types

A highway traffic noise prediction model has been developed for environmental assessment in South Korea. The model is based on an outdoor sound propagation method and is fully compliant with ISO 9613 and the sound power level (PWL) estimation for a road segment, as suggested in the ASJ Model-1998 that is based on PWLs. Due to that model’s selection of two pavement types, such as asphalt or concrete pavement, an unacceptable traffic noise prediction is made in cases where the road surface is different from that on which the model is based. In order to address this problem, several road surface types are categorized, and the PWL of each surface type is determined and modeled by measuring the noise levels obtained from newly developed methods. An evaluation of the traffic noise prediction model using field measurements finds good agreement between predicted and measured noise levels.     

Effect of the Noise Correlation Time on the Stationary Current of Brownian Particle in a Spatially Symmetric Periodic Potential

We investigate the noise-induced transport of Brownian particle in a deterministic spatial symmetrical periodic potential driven by colored cross correlation between a multiplicative white noise and an additive white noise. We derive the general formula of the stationary current. Based on numerical computation, we found that directed motion of the Brownian particles can be induced by the correlation time τ of cross correlation between the multiplicative noise and the additive noise and the current reversal and the direction of the current is controlled by the τ.     

A Geometric Analysis of the Effects of Noise on Berry Phase

In this work we describe the effect of classical and quantum noise on the Berry phase. It is not a topical review article but rather an overview of our work in this field aiming at giving a simple pictorial intuition of our results.     

Performance of T-shape barriers with top surface covered with absorptive quadratic residue diffusers

A previous paper [Applied Acoustics 66 (2005) 709-730] has shown that adding a quadratic residue diffuser (QRD) to the top of a T-shape barrier can provide better barrier performance than an equivalent purely absorptive barrier. In here, we extend the study to look at the performance when a QRD is made absorptive. This paper presents an investigation on the acoustic performance of a few welled-diffusers with different absorption ability on top of a T-shape noise barrier. The absorption properties of the diffusers are modified with different sequences, by filling the wells with fiberglass, by covering the well entrance with wire meshes, and by putting perforated sheet either on the top surface or inside the wells. A 2D Boundary Element Method (BEM) is used to calculate the barrier insertion loss. The numerical and experimental results on diffuser barriers with rigid and absorptive covers are compared. Among the tested models the best method of treating diffuser barriers with absorbent agents in the QRD is found to be a perorated sheet on top or inside the diffuser wells. It is found that increasing the absorption ability of QRD by fiberglass or high resistance wire meshes has negative effect on the efficiency of a QRD barrier. It is shown that, if the increase in absorption destroys the effect of resonance in wells, it will also have negative effect on the insertion loss performance of the QRD edge barrier.     

Noise induced intercellular propagation of calcium waves

In this paper, we investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics of a bidirectional coupled chain of cells, in which a cell is subjected to an external noise. Noisy oscillations of calcium (Ca²⁺), that is, a bursting-like phenomenon induced by noise with fluctuations in the baseline values of calcium, are induced in the first cell and propagated along the chain with noise suppression. This phenomenon of noise suppression is further investigated by computing the normalized fluctuation of pulse durations. It is therefore found that the noise induced coherence resonance phenomenon occurs at the cellular level. Coherence biresonance behaviour appears in the transmission of noise induced oscillations at appropriate noise intensity or noise coupling (for low noise intensity) and the information flow in each cell can be simultaneously optimized at the optimal value of noise or coupling.     

On some properties of nearly conservative dynamics of Ikeda map and its relation with the conservative case

The behavior of the well-known Ikeda map with very weak dissipation (so-called nearly conservative case) is investigated. The changes in the bifurcation structure of the parameter plane while decreasing the dissipation are revealed. It is shown that when the dissipation is very weak the system demonstrates an “intermediate” type of dynamics combining the peculiarities of conservative and dissipative dynamics. The correspondence between the trajectories in the phase space in the conservative case and the transformations of the set of initial conditions in the nearly conservative case has been obtained. The dramatic increase of the number of coexisting low-period attractors and the extraordinary growth of the transient time while the dissipation decreases have been revealed. The method of plotting a bifurcation tree for the set of initial conditions has been used to classify the existing attractors by their structure. Also it was shown that most of the coexisting attractors are destroyed by rather small external noise, and the transient time in noisy driven systems increases still more. The new method of two-parameter analysis for conservative systems was proposed.     

Exploring the feasibility of simultaneous electroencephalography/functional magnetic resonance imaging at 7 T

The increased blood oxygenation level-dependent contrast available at high field makes the implementation of combined EEG/fMRI experiments at 7 T highly worthwhile from the point of view of fMRI data quality, but the higher field poses greater technical challenges for achieving good quality EEG data. A study of the feasibility of recording EEG signals from human subjects at 7 T using a commercially available, MR-compatible EEG system has therefore been carried out. This involved systematic measurement of the sources of noise in EEG recordings made in the 7 T scanner and measurement of RF heating effects on a gel phantom in the presence of a 32-electrode EEG cap. Having found no significant safety concerns and identified a set-up (involving switching off the magnet's cryo-cooler pumps and mounting the EEG amplifier on a cantilever) that limited scanner-induced noise, combined EEG/fMRI experiments employing visual stimulation were then successfully carried out on two human subjects. With the use of beamformer-based analysis of the EEG data, driven responses and alpha-band, event-related desynchronisation were identified in both subjects.     

在轨光学遥感仪器探测灵敏度的建模分析与应用

在分析光学遥感仪器探测信息中主要噪音源的基础上,提出了一种改进空间结构函数分析的仪器探测灵敏度在轨评价方法,包括：基于多项式递推分解的整体噪音估计模型,以及减小系统误差及修正模数转换噪音影响等基本技术途径.仿真结果证实,该改进算法的噪音估计准确度优于传统的高斯估计和基于外推的结构函数分析方法.针对实际观测数据,在去除模数转换噪音影响后,仪器噪音等效温度差指标的在轨评价准确度可达±0.05 K.该评价方法已在FY-2D静止气象卫星在轨测试中得到成功应用.