Harmonic and intermodulation performance of hearing aids under large sound pressure levels

A mathematical model for the input-output functions of the hearing aids is presented. The model, basically a sine-series function, can easily yield closed-form expressions for the amplitudes of the harmonic and intermodulation components of the output when the input is formed of multitone large sound pressure levels. The special case of two-tone equal-amplitude incident pressure level is considered in detail. The results show that the third-order intermodulation component is always higher than the third-harmonic component. The results also show that the input-output functions exhibiting peak clipping exhibit the worst harmonic and intermodulation performance for large sound pressure levels. The simple wide-dynamic range compression (WDRC) input-output function exhibits the best harmonic and intermodulation distortion performance under large sound pressure levels. These results are consistent with the previously reported observations and reveal that there is a correlation between intelligibility of high-level speech and the harmonic and intermodulation performance of the hearing aid under large sound pressure levels.     

Harmonic and intermodulation performance of optical-fiber Mach–Zehnder microphone

In this paper, closed-form mathematical expressions are obtained for the amplitudes of the harmonic and intermodulation products of the fiber optic Mach–Zehnder microphone excited by a multitone acoustical perturbation. The results show the strong dependence of the harmonic and intermodulation performance on the amplitude of the acoustical perturbation tones and the phase shift produced by the DC bias voltage applied to the reference fiber of the Mach–Zehnder interferometer. The results also show that depending on the phase shift produced by the DC bias voltage, either the third-order or the second-order intermodulation will be dominant. Compared to previously published results for other types of microphones, it appears that the phase shift produced by the DC bias voltage plays an important role in deciding the order of the dominant intermodulation product.     

Performance investigation on harmonic distortion and inter-modulation distortion induced degradation for a single- and two-tone IM-DD SCM optical link

Subcarrier multiplexing (SCM) has been utilized for data transmission in high performance broadband in access networks which requires high transport capacity and throughput with guaranteed quality of service. In a transmitter employing SCM technique in an Intensity Modulation Direct Detection (IM-DD) system, laser source nonlinearity is an important issue of concern. This work investigates the sensitivity of resulting harmonic distortion (HD) and inter-modulation distortion (IMD) to changes in subcarrier amplitude, laser bias current operational parameters and laser quantum efficiency, laser active layer volume and laser carrier life time design parameters. Results show that IMD impairment mechanism is more dominant than HD mechanism. The spectrum analyser shows distinct difference in the frequency domain display of HD and IMD dominated systems. HD and IMD mechanisms show high sensitivity to carrier amplitude and active layer volume with a positively increasing slope gradient and high sensitivity to bias current and carrier life time with negatively decreasing slope gradients. Also these impairments are moderately sensitive to laser quantum efficiency. The investigations will help in identification of the most influencing operational and design parameters and their suitable values to be used to effectively reduce the influence of the source nonlinearity of SCM links.     

fMRI of the auditory system: understanding the neural basis of auditory gestalt

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has rapidly become the most widely used imaging method for studying brain functions in humans. This is a result of its extreme flexibility of use and of the astonishingly detailed spatial and temporal information it provides. Nevertheless, until very recently, the study of the auditory system has progressed at a considerably slower pace compared to other functional systems. Several factors have limited fMRI research in the auditory field, including some intrinsic features of auditory functional anatomy and some peculiar interactions between fMRI technique and audition. A well known difficulty arises from the high intensity acoustic noise produced by gradient switching in echo-planar imaging (EPI), as well as in other fMRI sequences more similar to conventional MR sequences. The acoustic noise interacts in an unpredictable way with the experimental stimuli both from a perceptual point of view and in the evoked hemodynamics. To overcome this problem, different approaches have been proposed recently that generally require careful tailoring of the experimental design and the fMRI methodology to the specific requirements posed by the auditory research. The novel methodological approaches can make the fMRI exploration of auditory processing much easier and more reliable, and thus may permit filling the gap with other fields of neuroscience research. As a result, some fundamental neural underpinnings of audition are being clarified, and the way sound stimuli are integrated in the auditory gestalt are beginning to be understood.     

Improved linearity performance of AlGaN/GaN MISHFET over conventional HFETs: An optimization study for wireless infrastructure applications

In this work an extensive study on the linearity distortion behaviour of AlGaN/GaN MISHFET is performed and compared with those of conventional HFET structures. The contribution of higher order terms in a Taylor series expansion of small signal drain current is considered by evaluating higher order transconductance coefficients. Linearity figures of merit such as input intercept power, intermodulation distortion and other higher order harmonics have been investigated for both the structures. The impact of gate biasing on the linearity is also examined. The influence of critical technology parameters such as gate length, doping density, dopant layer thickness and gate insulator thickness is investigated to optimize the MISHFET structure for better linearity characteristics. Improved linearity performance has been observed for insulated gate structure proving its superiority over conventional HFETs for RF wireless and low noise applications. The results obtained reveal that by careful optimization of technology parameters, a suitably designed MISHFET architecture is more linear than its conventional counterparts.     

Voice Analysis of Postlingually Deaf Adults Pre- and Postcochlear Implantation

Objectives

To ascertain whether cochlear implantation (CI), without specific vocal rehabilitation, is associated with changes in perceptual and acoustic vocal parameters in adults with severe to profound postlingual deafness.

Hypothesis

Merely restoring auditory feedback could allow the individual to make necessary adjustments in vocal pattern.

Study Design

Prospective and longitudinal.

Methods

The experimental group composed of 40 postlingually deaf adults (20 males and 20 females) with no previous laryngeal or voice disorders. Participants’ voices were recorded before CI and 6–9 months after CI. To check for chance modifications between two evaluations, a control group of 12 postlingually deaf adults, six male and six female, without CI was also evaluated. All sessions composed of the recording of read sentences from Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice and sustained vowel /a/. Auditory and acoustic analyses were then conducted.

Results

We found a statistically significant reduction in overall severity, strain, loudness, and instability in auditory analysis. In vocal acoustic analysis, we found statistically significant reduction fundamental frequency (F0) values (in male participants) and F0 variability (in both genders). The control group showed no statistically significant changes in most vocal parameters assessed, apart from pitch and F0 (in female participants only). On comparing the interval of variation of results between the experimental and control groups, we found no statistically significant difference in vocal parameters between CI recipients and nonrecipients, with the exception of F0 variability in male participants.

Conclusions

The patients in our sample showed changes in overall severity, strain, loudness, and instability values, and reductions in F0 and its variability. On comparing the variation of results between the groups, we were able to prove in our study that implant recipients postlingually deaf adults (experimental group), without specific vocal rehabilitation, differed from nonrecipients (control group) in loudness and F0 variability sustained vowel /a/ in male participants.     

Improving channel capacity by nonlinearity compensation and noise suppression in high-speed multi-span optical transmission systems

In this paper, the channel capacity of 40 Gb/s multi-span nonlinear optical transmission systems with nonlinearity compensation and self-adapting Wiener filtering is studied by use of Finite State Machine (FSM) approach. The comparison of channel capacity of the system with differential phase shift keying (DPSK) and on–off keying (OOK) modulation is also investigated. The channel capacity increases monotonically with the input power for transmission systems with simultaneous compensation of dispersion and nonlinearity, which performs as well as linear system. DPSK shows a much better performance and the channel capacity has an improvement of at least 48 percent over that OOK modulation. A further reduction of the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise accumulation is obtained by Wiener filtering, which improves the channel capacity considerably when the input peak power is less than 3 mW.     

Stability analysis of linear dynamical systems with saturation nonlinearities and a short time delay

A class of linear dynamical systems subject to saturation nonlinearities and a short time delay were approximated by singular perturbation dynamical systems with saturation nonlinearities based on the notion of Pade approximation. The stability region of the approximate systems was proved to be decomposed and a convex Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) optimization model was introduced to estimate the decomposed stability region with least degree of conservativeness.     

节律性时间期待和空间期待对听觉目标辨别的影响

合理的推断和预期是加快辨别听觉目标的关键。通过听觉目标辨别的反应时任务,研究了听感知过程中节律性时间期待和空间期待对声音目标辨别的影响。实验中,听觉序列中各声音以规律或不规律的时间节奏、沿有序或随机的空间方位呈现,形成四种期待条件:时间和空间期待兼备、只有时间期待、只有空间期待和没有期待。被试对声音序列末尾随机呈现的听觉目标尽快做按键反应。结果发现:（1）节律性时间期待显著加快被试对目标声音的反应速度;（2）空间期待对目标辨别速度的促进作用仅在时间非规律条件下发生。可见,在辨别听觉目标时,听者优先使用时间期待,并在无有效时间预测信息时使用空间期待,以促成对声音目标的最优知觉加工。     

基于听觉模型的耳语音的声韵切分

本文分析了耳语音的特点，并根据生理声学及心理声学的基本理论与实验资料，提出了一种利用听觉模型来进行耳语音声韵切分的方法。这种适用于耳语音声韵切分的听觉感知模型主要分为四个层次：耳蜗对声音频率的分解机理；听觉系统的时域和频域非线性变化；中枢神经系统的侧抑制机理。这种模型能反映在噪声环境下人对低能量语音的听觉感知特性，因而适于耳语音识别，在耳语音声韵母切分实验中得到了满意的结果。     

Recommendations for enhancing the role of the auditory modality for processing sonar data

Submarine warfare continues to pose a threat in present-day military operations. Visual displays play a dominant role for operator detection and classification of underwater and surface targets. However, the visual modality is ineffective for the detection of transient signals. In spite of quieter submarines, transient sounds such as hull popping are difficult to disguise, which makes them more likely to be detected via an auditory display. Operators tend to use auditory displays less often because several factors can impede effective aural processing. In this paper, the sonar problem is reviewed followed by some proposed techniques for making more effective use of the auditory modality for the presentation of sonar signals as a means of further improving operator detection and classification of targets. Some recommendations for augmenting the aural presentation of sonar signals over headphones are then discussed. Key research areas include: (1) a reduction of the sound level of the ambient noise in noisy environments should improve the likelihood that the operator will detect weak signals; (2) the provision to replay sound bites of interest and to compare these against a library of known archetypes should lead to increased accuracy in target classification; (3) the ability to present sonar beams in a three-dimensional auditory display where the spatial position of each sonar beam corresponds to the actual position of the source in the ocean should enable the operator to monitor multiple beams and increase his/her situational awareness. Ultimately, the viability of an auditory display is dependent on operator hearing acuity.     

Suppression and enhancement of non-native molecules within biological systems

With the aim of evaluating the potential of SIMS to provide molecular information from small molecules within biological systems, here we investigate the effect of different biological compounds as they act as matrices. The results highlight the fact that the chemical environment of a molecule can have a significant effect on its limit of detection. This has implications for the imaging of drugs and xenobiotics in tissue sections and other biological matrices.A 1:1 mixture of the organic acid 2,4,6-trihydroxyacetophenone and the dipeptide valine-valine demonstrates that almost complete suppression of the [M + H]⁺ ion of one compound can be caused by the presence of a compound of higher proton affinity. The significance of this is highlighted when two similar drug molecules, atropine (a neutral molecule) and ipratropium bromide (a quaternary nitrogen containing salt) are mixed with brain homogenate. The atropine [M + H]⁺ ion shows significant suppression whilst the [M − Br]⁺ of ipratopium bromide is detected at an intensity that can be rationalised by its decreased surface concentration.By investigating the effect of two abundant tissue lipids, cholesterol and dipalmitoylphosphatidyl choline (DPPC), on the atropine [M + H]⁺ signal detected in mixtures with these lipids we see that the DPPC has a strong suppressing effect, which may be attributed to gas phase proton transfer.     

Improving consensual performance of multi-agent systems in weighted scale-free networks

This paper studies consensus problems in weighted scale-free networks of asymmetrically coupled dynamical units, where the asymmetry in a given link is determined by the relative degree of the involved nodes. It shows that the asymmetry of interactions has a great effect on the consensus. Especially, when the interactions are dominant from higher- to lower-degree nodes, both the convergence speed and the robustness to communication delay are enhanced.     

Prediction of chaotic systems with multidimensional recurrent least squares support vector machines

In this paper, we propose a multidimensional version of recurrent least squares support vector machines (MDRLS-SVM) to solve the problem about the prediction of chaotic system. To acquire better prediction performance, the high-dimensional space, which provides more information on the system than the scalar time series, is first reconstructed utilizing Takens's embedding theorem. Then the MDRLS-SVM instead of traditional RLS-SVM is used in the high-dimensional space, and the prediction performance can be improved from the point of view of reconstructed embedding phase space. In addition, the MDRLS-SVM algorithm is analysed in the context of noise, and we also find that the MDRLS-SVM has lower sensitivity to noise than the RLS-SVM.     

Simulative investigation of nonlinear distortion in single- and two-tone RoF systems using direct- and external-modulation techniques

In this paper, we investigated a Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) system consisting of two different system set-ups using direct- and external-laser modulation techniques to study frequency response. Further, second- and third-harmonic generations of single- and two-tone RoF systems have been studied. In this work, we also measured the electric Rf power of two receiving channels and BER at received optical power at different modulating Rf frequencies up to 20 GHz using EDFA or SOA amplifiers. The results have been compared for the electric Rf power of receiving channels obtained using a sin² Mach Zehnder modulator and a linear modulator, and an improvement in the received Rf power with linear modulator in comparison with the sin² modulator is observed.     

Two-tone suppression in auditory nerve of the cat: rate-intensity and temporal analyses

Responses to two-tone stimuli were recorded from auditory-nerve fibers in anesthetized cats. One tone, the suppressor, was set at a frequency above characteristic frequency and was fixed in intensity. A second tone was set at an excitatory frequency and was varied in intensity. The suppressor tone, when set at a sufficient level, always reduced the response to the excitatory tone by an amount equivalent to a fixed number of decibels, regardless of the excitatory tone's intensity. Estimates of suppression magnitude were derived from shifts in rate-intensity function obtained when the suppressor tone was present relative to the functions obtained for the excitatory tone alone. When suppressor-tone intensity was increased, suppression magnitude likewise increased. When the two tones were increasingly separated in frequency, either by varying the excitor or by varying the suppressor, suppression magnitude decreased monotonically. Suppression behaved in the same manner regardless of whether suppresor tone was excitatory or nonexcitatory. When frequency separation was small enough and when both tones were above the neuron's characteristic frequency, responses synchronized to low-order combination tones could be elicited. These responses usually possessed different rate-intensity characteristics and resulted in estimates of suppression magnitude which were spuriously low. When frequency separation is normalized with regard to position of traveling wave maxima within the cochlear duct, the magnitude of two-tone suppression for a given suppressor-tone intensity is seen to be frequency independent.     

Harmonic and Intermodulation Performance of the Semiconductor Bolometer

A mathematical model for the temperature dependence of the bolometer semiconductor resistance is presented. The model, basically a sine-series function, can easily yield closed-form expressions for the harmonic and intermodulation performance of the acquired interferogram voltage with large-amplitude multisinusoidal variations in the incident radiation. The special case of two-tone equal-amplitude incident radiation is considered in detail. The results show that the intermodulation components are always higher than the harmonic components of the same order. The results also show that the second-order intermodulation is always dominant and is higher than the second-harmonic component by about 6 dB. Moreover, the results show that for relatively small incident amplitudes of the incident radiation the ratio between the second- and third-harmonic components is almost equal to the ratio between the second-harmonic component and the fundamental. The results also show that the ratio between the amplitudes of the second- and third-order intermodulation components is almost equal to the ratio between the amplitudes of the second-order intermodulation component and the fundamental.     

Superimposed microwave modulation at two times the bit frequency: Characteristics and performance in gbps systems

We investigate the superimposition of a strong phase-locked microwave signal applied at twice the DATA frequency for applications in Gbps multimode fiber (MMF) systems. By phase-locking the auxiliaiy microwave signal (AMS), an excessive jitter on the receiver output is avoided, and any intermodulation penalty is eliminated. Because the AMS frequency is only twice the bit frequency, it is feasible to place the AMS driver chip remotely from the laser package. The investigation is mostly based on simulations at 1.06 Gbps. System experiments were conducted to verifi the reduction in modal noise and elimination of intermodulation distortion.