Information entropy of humpback whale songs

The structure of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) songs was examined using information theory techniques. The song is an ordered sequence of individual sound elements separated by gaps of silence. Song samples were converted into sequences of discrete symbols by both human and automated classifiers. This paper analyzes the song structure in these symbol sequences using information entropy estimators and autocorrelation estimators. Both parametric and nonparametric entropy estimators are applied to the symbol sequences representing the songs. The results provide quantitative evidence consistent with the hierarchical structure proposed for these songs by Payne and McVay [Science 173, 587-597 (1971)]. Specifically, this analysis demonstrates that: (1) There is a strong structural constraint, or syntax, in the generation of the songs, and (2) the structural constraints exhibit periodicities with periods of 6-8 and 180-400 units. This implies that no empirical Markov model is capable of representing the songs' structure. The results are robust to the choice of either human or automated song-to-symbol classifiers. In addition, the entropy estimates indicate that the maximum amount of information that could be communicated by the sequence of sounds made is less than 1 bit per second.     

Speech-Music-Noise Discrimination in Sound Indexing of Multimedia Documents

Sound indexing and segmentation of digital documents especially in the internet and digital libraries are very useful to simplify and to accelerate the multimedia document retrieval. We can imagine that we can extract multimedia files not only by keywords but also by speech semantic contents. The main difficulty of this operation is the parameterization and modelling of the sound track and the discrimination of the speech, music and noise segments. In this paper, we will present a Speech/Music/Noise indexing interface designed for audio discrimination in multimedia documents. The program uses a statistical method based on ANN and HMM classifiers. After pre-emphasis and segmentation, the audio segments are analysed by the cepstral acoustic analysis method. The developed system was evaluated on a database constituted of music songs with Arabic speech segments under several noisy environments.     

Differential degradation of antbird songs in a neotropical rainforest: adaptation to perch height?

Habitat characteristics that affect transmission and degradation of acoustical signals should influence strongly the evolution of bird songs. In this study propagation properties of songs of five antbird species were measured in a rainforest in southern Venezuela. The investigated species (Myrmothera campanisona, Thamnophilus aethiops, Thamnophilus amazonicus, Myrmotherula axillaris, and Herpsilochmus dorsimaculatus) use different song post heights at all levels of the rainforest. Because there is a height-specific pattern in degradation, it is hypothesized that their songs are adapted to species-specific transmission paths. To test this assumption, transmission parameters (excess attenuation, signal-to-noise ratio, and blur ratio) were measured for the songs at five different heights and at three different distances. In three of the five species, the results indicate a strong influence of environmental conditions on the design of the vocalizations. Degradation was minimized by the concentration of the signal to a narrower frequency range, the usage of lower frequencies, or a slower time structure for the songs near the ground. The results are discussed in relation to acoustical models of sound propagation and physiology, and it is suggested that height-dependent degradation within a forest is an important selection pressure for transmissibility in avian communication.     

Unsupervised bird song syllable classification using evolving neural networks

Evolution of bird vocalizations is subjected to selection pressure related to their functions. Passerine bird songs are also under a neutral model of evolution because of the learning process supporting their transmission; thus they contain signals of individual, population, and species relationships. In order to retrieve this information, large amounts of data need to be processed. From vocalization recordings, songs are extracted and encoded as sequences of syllables before being compared. Encoding songs in such a way can be done either by ear and spectrogram visual analysis or by specific algorithms permitting reproducible studies. Here, a specific automatic method is presented to compute a syllable distance measure allowing an unsupervised classification of song syllables. Results obtained from the encoding of White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys pugetensis) songs are compared to human-based analysis.     

Effects of auditory recognition learning on the perception of vocal features in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)

Learning to recognize complex sensory signals can change the way they are perceived. European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) recognize other starlings by their song, which consists of a series of complex, stereotyped motifs. Song recognition learning is accompanied by plasticity in secondary auditory areas, suggesting that perceptual learning is involved. Here, to investigate whether perceptual learning can be observed behaviorally, a same-different operant task was used to measure how starlings perceived small differences in motif structure. Birds trained to recognize conspecific songs were better at detecting variations in motifs from the songs they learned, even though this variation was not directly necessary to learn the associative task. Discrimination also improved as the reference stimulus was repeated multiple times. Perception of the much larger differences between different motifs was unaffected by training. These results indicate that sensory representations of motifs are enhanced when starlings learn to recognize songs.     

Morphing the shell model into an effective theory

We describe a strategy for attacking the canonical nuclear structure problem-bound-state properties of a system of point nucleons interacting via a two-body potential-which involves an expansion in the number of particles scattering at high momenta, but is otherwise exact. The required self-consistent solutions of the Bloch-Horowitz equation for effective interactions and operators are obtained by an efficient Green's function method based on the Lanczos algorithm. We carry out this program for the simplest nuclei, d and 3He, in order to explore the consequences of reformulating the shell model as a controlled effective theory.     

Nucleon structures functionsin the three-flavor NJL soliton model

We study the relevance of strange degrees of freedom for nucleon structure functions. For this purpose we employ the three-flavor generalization of the collective quantization approach to the chiral soliton of the bosonized Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. Contrary to many other soliton models the hadronic tensor is tractable in this model. By applying the Bjorken limit to the hadronic tensor we extract the leading twist contributions to the nucleon structure functions at the low energy scale at which the model is assumed to approximate QCD. After transforming to the infinite momentum frame and performing the DGLAP evolution program to these structure functions we compare with available data for deep inelastic electron-nucleon scattering.     

A Gauge Invariant Description for the General Conic Constrained Particle from the FJBW Iteration Algorithm

We consider a second-degree algebraic curve describing a general conic constraint imposed on the motion of a massive spinless particle. The problem is trivial at classical level but becomes involved and interesting concerning its quantum counterpart with subtleties in its symplectic structure and symmetries. We start with a second-class version of the general conic constrained particle, which encompasses previous versions of circular and elliptical paths discussed in the literature. By applying the symplectic FJBW iteration program, we proceed on to show how a gauge invariant version for the model can be achieved from the originally second-class system. We pursue the complete constraint analysis in phase space and perform the Faddeev-Jackiw symplectic quantization following the Barcelos-Wotzasek iteration program to unravel the essential aspects of the constraint structure. While in the standard Dirac-Bergmann approach there are four second-class constraints, in the FJBW they reduce to two. By using the symplectic potential obtained in the last step of the FJBW iteration process, we construct a gauge invariant model exhibiting explicitly its BRST symmetry. We obtain the quantum BRST charge and write the Green functions generator for the gauge invariant version. Our results reproduce and neatly generalize the known BRST symmetry of the rigid rotor, clearly showing that this last one constitutes a particular case of a broader class of theories.     

基于SALOME的蒙卡计算模型CAD反转可视化

基于开源SALOME平台,采用以体代面思想和栅元层次多叉树方法,开展蒙卡计算模型CAD反向转换及三维可视化研究。基于本文方法开发了CAD反转可视化程序模块SALOME-MC,模块可实现蒙卡计算模型几何建模、材料建模和三维可视化等功能。选取三种典型反应堆蒙卡计算模型对本文方法和程序进行测试验证,测试结果表明,本文方法和程序可妥善处理蒙卡计算模型的复杂几何体与大规模重复结构,并精准地实现蒙卡计算模型CAD三维反转可视化,证明SALOME-MC的蒙卡计算模型反转能力和可视化效果的正确性与可靠性,提高了蒙卡计算模型几何建模效率和展示度。     

Complexity-entropy causality plane: A useful approach for distinguishing songs

Nowadays we are often faced with huge databases resulting from the rapid growth of data storage technologies. This is particularly true when dealing with music databases. In this context, it is essential to have techniques and tools able to discriminate properties from these massive sets. In this work, we report on a statistical analysis of more than ten thousand songs aiming to obtain a complexity hierarchy. Our approach is based on the estimation of the permutation entropy combined with an intensive complexity measure, building up the complexity-entropy causality plane. The results obtained indicate that this representation space is very promising to discriminate songs as well as to allow a relative quantitative comparison among songs. Additionally, we believe that the here-reported method may be applied in practical situations since it is simple, robust and has a fast numerical implementation.     

Variation in humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) song length in relation to low-frequency sound broadcasts

Humpback whale song lengths were measured from recordings made off the west coast of the island of Hawai'i in March 1998 in relation to acoustic broadcasts ("pings") from the U.S. Navy SURTASS Low Frequency Active sonar system. Generalized additive models were used to investigate the relationships between song length and time of year, time of day, and broadcast factors. There were significant seasonal and diurnal effects. The seasonal factor was associated with changes in the density of whales sighted near shore. The diurnal factor was associated with changes in surface social activity. Songs that ended within a few minutes of the most recent ping tended to be longer than songs sung during control periods. Many songs that were overlapped by pings, and songs that ended several minutes after the most recent ping, did not differ from songs sung in control periods. The longest songs were sung between 1 and 2 h after the last ping. Humpbacks responded to louder broadcasts with longer songs. The fraction of variation in song length that could be attributed to broadcast factors was low. Much of the variation in humpback song length remains unexplained.     

应用粒子群算法进行光学自动设计

将粒子群算法用于光学系统的设计优化中,构造相应的数学模型,并编程实现算法.设计了关于曲率半径r、透镜面之间的距离d和玻璃折射率n等光学系统结构参数的适应度函数,用此函数作为评价函数实现对像差的自动校正.给出用粒子群算法进行光学系统设计的实例.结果证明,粒子群算法可以克服以往光学设计中高度依赖初始结构的缺点,可以自由控制结构参数的搜索范围,从而提高光学系统设计的智能化程度.     

A class of chaotic bird calls?

Evidence is presented that the basic vocalized sound produced by some cockatoos, specifically the Australian sulfur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) and the gang-gang cockatoo (Callocephalon fimbriatum), has a chaotic acoustic structure rather than the harmonic structure characteristic of most birdsongs. These findings support those of Fee et al. [Nature (London) 395(3), 67-71 (1999)] on nonlinear period-doubling transitions in the song of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). It is suggested that syllables with chaotic structure may be a feature of the songs of many birds.     

On a Lorentz Non-Invariant Generalization of the Dirac Equation

A generalized Dirac equation is presented as a model theory of disturbed Lorentz invariance. The physical properties of this model and experimental consequences are discussed. A program is described how such Lorentz noninvariant equations may be produced by cosmological induction of local causal structure.     

Model building of a molluscan hemocyanin from X-ray solution scattering

Molluscan hemocyanins are proteins of a truly enormous size. Because of this, determination of their quaternary structure at high resolution cannot easily be obtained by standard methods such as X-ray crystallography and NMR. Therefore, different approaches, using several low-resolution techniques are currently necessary to understand hemocyanin structure. In this work a model of the Rapana venosa hemocyanin has been obtained from a template model and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) data. The template model was built from the electron density of the closely related Haliotis tuberculata hemocyanin and a computer program was written to fit this model to the SAXS data using the simulated annealing algorithm.     

Perceptual classification based on the component structure of song in European starlings

The ability to recognize individuals based on their vocalizations is common among many species of songbirds. Examining the psychological and neural basis of this functionally relevant behavior can provide insight into the perceptual processing of acoustically complex, real-world, communication signals. In one species of songbird, European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), males sing long and acoustically complex songs composed of small stereotyped note clusters called motifs. Previous studies demonstrate that starlings are capable of individual vocal recognition, and suggest that vocal recognition results from the association of specific motifs with specific individuals. The present study tests this possibility by examining how variation among the motifs that comprise a song affect its discrimination and classification. Starlings were trained, using operant techniques, to associate multiple songs from a single male starling with one response, and songs from four other male starlings with another response. The level of stimulus control exerted by motif variation was then measured by having subjects classify three sets of novel song bouts in which motifs from the training songs were systematically recombined. The results demonstrate a significant, and approximately linear, relationship between song classification and the relative proportions of familiar motifs from different singers that compose a bout. The results also indicate that the motif proportion effects on song classification are primary to retroactive interference in the recall for specific motifs, and independent of any biases due to the syntactic organization of motifs within a bout. Together, the results of this study suggest that starlings organize the complex vocalizations of conspecifics by memorizing large numbers of unique song components (i.e., motifs) that are then associated with different classes. Because individual starlings tend to possess unique motif repertoires, it is likely that under natural conditions such classes will correspond to individual identity. Thus, it is likely that perceptual processing mechanisms similar to those described by the results of the present study form the basis for individual vocal recognition in starlings.     

Explore the QCD phase transition phenomena from a multiphase transport model

We study the phase structure of QCD matter in the framework of a multiphase transport model by implementing a strong local parton density fluctuation scenario. Our calculations on the beam energy dependence of net-proton high moment show that local parton density fluctuation only has a small effect. But it becomes important when all baryons are included. We then study the effect on elliptic flow and find that an enhanced local parton density fluctuation leads to a significant effect on protons but a small effect on pions. Our study provides a reference of transport dynamics on QCD phase transition phenomena and will be relevant for the upcoming phase II of the beam energy scan program at RHIC.     

In-plane free vibration analysis of cable-arch structure

Cable-stayed arch bridge is a new type of composite bridge, which utilizes the mechanical characters of cable and arch. Based on the supporting members of cable-stayed arch bridge and of erection of arch bridge using of the cantilever construction method with tiebacks, we propose a novel mechanical model of cable-arch structure. In this model, the equations governing vibrations of the cable-arch are derived according to Hamilton's principle for dynamic problems in elastic body under equilibrium state. Then, the program of solving the dynamic governing equations is ultimately established by the transfer matrix method for free vibration of uniform and variable cross-section, and the internal characteristics of the cable-arch are investigated. After analyzing step by step, the research results approve that the program is accurate; meanwhile, the mechanical model and method are both valuable and significant not only in theoretical research and calculation but also in design of engineering.     

强流四杆型RFQ加速腔水冷系统的设计和数值模拟

为了研制一个强中子发生器，北京大学重离子物理研究所设计了一台高负载因子、高流强的RFQ加速器. 本文讨论了RFQ加速腔水冷系统的设计，使用有限元软件ANSYS对水冷系统进行了分析. 使用MAFIA模拟计算得到的功率密度，并将其作为ANSYS水冷模型的边界条件. 因为MAFIA程序和ANSYS程序分网方法的不同，使用一个程序来将MAFIA的结果导入到ANSYS模型中，从而建立起了RFQ加速腔的热分析模型. 通过这个热分析模型分析并检验了水冷系统的设计，确定了水冷系统的结构. 模拟计算结果表明：使用目前设计的这套水冷系统，能够使RFQ加速器工作在适宜的温度下以及长时间稳定的运行.