Amplitude modulation of turbulence noise by voicing in fricatives

The two principal sources of sound in speech, voicing and frication, occur simultaneously in voiced fricatives as well as at the vowel-fricative boundary in phonologically voiceless fricatives. Instead of simply overlapping, the two sources interact. This paper is an acoustic study of one such interaction effect: the amplitude modulation of the frication component when voicing is present. Corpora of sustained and fluent-speech English fricatives were recorded and analyzed using a signal-processing technique designed to extract estimates of modulation depth. Results reveal a pattern, consistent across speaking style, speaker, and place of articulation, for modulation at fo to rise at low voicing strengths and subsequently saturate. Voicing strength needed to produce saturation varied 60-66 dB across subjects and experimental conditions. Modulation depths at saturation varied little across speakers but significantly for place of articulation (with [z] showing particularly strong modulation) clustering at approximately 0.4-0.5 (a 40%-50% fluctuation above and below unmodulated amplitude); spectral analysis of modulating signals revealed weak but detectable modulation at the second and third harmonics (i.e., 2fo and 3fo).     

信号调制下分段噪声驱动的线性系统的随机共振

研究了由乘性和加性噪声的线性组合作为调制噪声的线性系统的随机共振.运用平均法,得到了一、二阶矩和信噪比的精确表达式. 通过分析信噪比,在此系统中发现了真实的随机共振、传统的随机共振和广义随机共振.发现在真实的随机共振中,适当地调整参数,共振和抑制会同时出现.此外,还发现对不同的互关联强度,分别选用乘性和加性噪声作为调制噪声能够提高信噪比. 关键词： 随机共振 信噪比 调制噪声 分段噪声     

On the perception of voicing in syllable-initial plosives in noise

Previous studies [Lisker, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 57, 1547-1551 (1975); Summerfield and Haggard, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 62, 435-448 (1977)] have shown that voice onset time (VOT) and the onset frequency of the first formant are important perceptual cues of voicing in syllable-initial plosives. Most prior work, however, has focused on speech perception in quiet environments. The present study seeks to determine which cues are important for the perception of voicing in syllable-initial plosives in the presence of noise. Perceptual experiments were conducted using stimuli consisting of naturally spoken consonant-vowel syllables by four talkers in various levels of additive white Gaussian noise. Plosives sharing the same place of articulation and vowel context (e.g., /pa,ba/) were presented to subjects in two alternate forced choice identification tasks, and a threshold signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) value (corresponding to the 79% correct classification score) was estimated for each voiced/voiceless pair. The threshold SNR values were then correlated with several acoustic measurements of the speech tokens. Results indicate that the onset frequency of the first formant is critical in perceiving voicing in syllable-initial plosives in additive white Gaussian noise, while the VOT duration is not.     

Mesoscopic stoner instability in metallic nanoparticles revealed by shot noise

We study sequential tunneling through a metallic nanoparticle close to the Stoner instability coupled to parallel magnetized electrodes. Increasing the bias voltage successively opens transport channels associated with excitations of the nanoparticle's total spin. For the current this leads just to a steplike increase. The Fano factor, in contrast, shows oscillations between large super-Poissonian and sub-Poissonian values as a function of bias voltage. We explain the enhanced Fano factor in terms of generalized random-telegraph noise and propose the shot noise as a convenient tool to probe the mesoscopic Stoner instability.     

Significant residue features revealed by eigenvalue decomposition analysis of BLOSUM matrices

Here we attempt to characterize protein evolution by residue features which dominate residue substitution in homologous proteins. Evolutionary information contained in residue substitution matrix is abstracted with the method of eigenvalue decomposition. Top eigenvectors in the eigenvalue spectrums are analyzed as function of the level of similarity, i.e. sequence identity (SI) between homologous proteins. It is found that hydrophobicity and volume are two significant residue features conserved in protein evolution. There is a transition point at SI≈45%. Residue hydrophobicity is a feature governing residue substitution as SI?45%. Whereas below this SI level, residue volume is a dominant feature.     

Real time decomposition of speech into modulated components

Motivated by the active process of the outer hair cell (OHC) in the mammalian inner ear, a real time decomposition of speech into modulated components is presented. A generalized phase lock loop (GPLL) was applied to decompose the speech signal into its envelope and positive instantaneous frequency (PIF) parts, which can be further processed and represented by timing information alone. A log-derivative operator is applied to the bandpass signal. Analytic and antianalytic components occupying non overlapping frequency bands are separated by filtering. The proposed algorithms are used to represent speech signals processed through a bandpass filter bank.     

Superconducting proximity effect in interacting quantum dots revealed by shot noise

We study the full counting statistics of charge transport through a quantum dot tunnel coupled to one normal and one superconducting lead with a large superconducting gap. As a function of the level detuning, there is a crossover from a regime with strong superconducting correlations in the quantum dot to a regime in which the proximity effect on the quantum dot is suppressed. We analyze the current fluctuations of this crossover in the shot-noise regime. In particular, we predict that the full counting statistics changes from Poissonian with charge 2e, typical for Cooper pairs, to Poissonian with charge e, when the superconducting proximity effect is present. Thus, the onset of the superconducting proximity effect is revealed by the reduction of the Fano factor from 2 to 1.     

Shot noise in magnetic field modulated graphene superlattice

We investigate the shot noise properties in a monolayer graphene superlattice modulated by N parallel ferromagnets deposited on a dielectric layer. It is found that for the antiparallel magnetization configuration or when magnetic field is zero the new Dirac-like point appears in graphene superlattice. The transport is almost forbidden at this new Dirac-like point, and the Fano factor reaches its maximum value 1/3. In the parallel magnetization configuration as the number of magnetic barriers increases, the shot noise increases. In this case, the transmission can be blocked by the magnetic–electric barrier and the Fano factor approaches 1, which is dramatically distinguishable from that in antiparallel alignment. The results may be helpful to control the electron transport in graphene-based electronic devices.     

脉冲信号被噪声调制的单模激光随机共振

建立了一个脉冲信号受噪声调制的新型的单模激光随机共振模型, 采用线性化近似的方法计算了相应的光强关联函数和系统的输出信噪比, 并详细讨论了相应的随机共振现象. 研究结果表明: 由于噪声调制脉冲信号, 使得单模激光表现出崭新的随机共振现象, 即通过改变脉冲信号周期T来实现抑制或优化输出信噪比的目的.     

Pumped shot noise in adiabatically modulated graphene-based double-barrier structures

Quantum pumping processes are accompanied by considerable quantum noise. Based on the scattering approach, we investigated the pumped shot noise properties in adiabatically modulated graphene-based double-barrier structures. It is found that compared with the Poisson processes, the pumped shot noise is dramatically enhanced where the dc pumped current changes flow direction, which demonstrates the effect of the Klein paradox.     

Spectral integration in bands of modulated or unmodulated noise

Spectral integration was measured for pure-tone signals masked by unmodulated or modulated noise bands centered at the signal frequencies. The bands were typically 100 Hz wide, and when modulated, they were sinusoidally amplitude modulated at a rate of 8 Hz and a depth of 100%. In experiment 1, thresholds were first measured for each individual pure tone of a triplet in the presence of its respective masker band, and then for those three tones added together at their respective threshold levels, masked by their respective masker bands. Four sets of triplets were used: 250, 1000, 4000 Hz; 354, 1000, 2828 Hz; 500, 1000, 2000 Hz; and 800, 1000, 1200 Hz. When the masker bands were unmodulated, the amount of spectral integration was about 2.4 dB for all triplets, consistent with the integration expected based on the multiband energy detector model. When the bands were modulated, the amount of integration depended upon the spacing between masker bands; for the two widest spacings, the integration was between about 0 and 3 dB, whereas for the two closest spacings, the integration was approximately 5 dB. Experiments 2 and 3 addressed the cause of this greater spectral integration in the presence of the modulated masker bands with closer spacing. The second experiment demonstrated that sensitivity (d') was proportional to signal power regardless of whether the background noise was modulated or not, and thus the greater integration in dB in the presence of the modulated noise bands could not be accounted for by shallower psychometric functions in those conditions. Instead, the third experiment showed that the greater integration was likely due to the fact that the masker bands were comodulated. In other words, it was probably due to cues related to comodulation masking release when all three bands (and signals) were present.     

Envelope-onset asynchrony as a cue to voicing in initial english consonants

An acoustic cue for voicing is proposed based on the underlying processes associated with the production of the voicing contrast. This cue is based on the time asynchrony between the onsets of two amplitude-envelope signals derived from different bands of speech (i.e., envelopes derived from a lowpass-filtered band at 350 Hz and from a highpass-filtered band at 3000 Hz). Acoustic measurements made on the envelope signals of a set of 16 initial consonants represented through multiple tokens of C1VC2 syllables indicate that the onset-timing difference between the low- and high-frequency envelopes (Envelope-Onset Asynchrony or EOA) provides a reliable and robust cue for distinguishing voiced from voiceless consonants. This cue, which is simply derived in real-time, has applications to the design of sensory aids for persons with profound hearing impairments (e.g., as a supplement to lipreading), as well as to automatic speech recognition.     

基于经验模式分解的拖曳式声纳拖船噪声抵消研究

拖曳式线列阵声纳的拖船噪声具有多途角扩展等特点，并且是一个非平稳过程，使得对该噪声的消除或抑制是一大难点。经验模式分解是一种用于分析非线性非平稳信号的新方法，该方法自适应地将嵌于数据内部的多个固有模式函数逐一分解开来。本文尝试利用经验模式分解方法分离出水听器接收信号中的拖船干扰噪声，从而达到消除干扰的目的。海上试验数据的处理结果充分验证了这种方法的可行性。     

Gap detection in modulated noise: across-frequency facilitation and interference

This study tested the hypothesis that a detection advantage for gaps in comodulated noise relative to random noise can be demonstrated in conditions of continuous noise and salient envelope fluctuations. Experiment 1 used five 25-Hz-wide bands of Gaussian noise, low-fluctuation noise, and a noise with increased salience of the inherent fluctuations (staccato noise). The bands were centered at 444, 667, 1000, 1500, and 2250 Hz, with the gap signal always inserted in the 1000-Hz band. Results indicated that a gap detection advantage existed in continuous comodulated noise only for Gaussian and staccato noise. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the advantage did not exist for gated presentation. This experiment also showed that the advantage bore some similarity to comodulation masking release. However, differences were also noted in terms of the effects of the number of flanking bands and the absence of a detection advantage in gated conditions. The detrimental effect of a gated flanking band was less pronounced for a comodulated band than for a random band. This study indicates that, under some conditions, a detection advantage for gaps carried by a narrow band of noise can occur in the presence of comodulated flanking bands of noise.     

具有周期信号调制噪声的线性模型的随机共振

研究了具有周期信号调制噪声的过阻尼线性系统的随机共振现象.当采用非对称的分段噪声 时，可以得到系统响应的一、二阶矩和信噪比的精确表达式.通过对信噪比的分析, 发现了 “真实的"随机共振和传统的随机共振现象，讨论了乘性噪声的非对称性、自相关时间和噪 声之间的相关强度对信噪比的影响. 关键词： 随机共振 信噪比 周期信号调制噪声 线性模型