Neural net pattern recognition based auscultation of croup cough and pertussis using phase portrait features

Cough signal analysis for understanding the pathological condition has become important from the outset of the exigency posed by the epidemic COVID-19. The present work suggests a surrogate approach for the classification of cough signals - croup cough (CC) and pertussis (PT) – based on spectral, fractal, and nonlinear time-series techniques. The spectral analysis of CC reveals the presence of more frequency components in the short duration cough sound compared to PT. The musical nature of CC is unveiled not only through the spectral analysis but also through the phase portrait features – sample entropy (S), maximal Lyapunov exponent (L), and Hurst exponent (H_b). The modifications in the internal morphology of the respiratory tract, giving rise to more frequency components associated with the complex airflow dynamics, get staged through the higher fractal dimension of CC. Among the two supervised classification tools, cubic KNN (CKNN) and neural net pattern recognition (NNPR), used for classifying the CC and PT signals based on nonlinear time series parameters, NNPR is found better. Thus, the study opens the possibility of identification of pulmonary pathological conditions through cough sound signal analysis.     

A comparative analysis of multi-pulse techniques in contrast-enhanced ultrasound medical imaging

One of the important issues in the field of ultrasound medical imaging using contrast agents is the development of techniques able to separate the response of the contrast media from that of the biological tissues. In the literature, one can find various solutions involving the use of multiple transmitted signals and the combination of related echoes. However, the quality of these techniques may be reduced due to some undesired effects that are seldom considered, despite the fact that they are always present in real systems. These effects are the signal distortions introduced by the hardware equipment, the thermal noise in the electronic circuitry, and body motion between successive pulses. In this paper we propose a simulation tool that will allow the calculation of the backscattered echo from a population of contrast agents immersed in a biological tissue, considering all the mentioned effects. With this tool, an assessment of the comparative robustness of three well-known multi-pulse techniques has been carried out under realistic working conditions and the performance of the three techniques has been evaluated in terms of contrast-to-tissue ratio and signal-to-noise ratio. The results show that the undesired effects have a strong impact on these techniques and that there are notable differences in their robustness. Finally, some suggestions on the choice of the particular technique to be applied are provided on the basis of the specific work conditions.     

Optical saturation in the photothermal spectroscopy of fluorescent materials

The dependence of the fundamental and harmonic photothermal (PT) signal on the intensity I ₀ of the illumination source is analyzed. It is shown that both components of the PT signal do not increase indefinitely with I ₀, but at sufficiently high power densities begin to decrease as 1/I ₀. Along with photoacoustic saturation, this defines an upper limit for the sensitivity of spectrometers based on PT detection.     

基于连续光谱分析的在线水质检测信号处理研究

在线光谱水质检测仪器是现代水资源环境监测技术的重要发展方向之一,具有多参数监测和准确度高、重复性好的技术优势,然在线被测水样的光谱信号处理是其关键核心技术,为此,基于连续光谱分析,建立了在线被测水样光谱测量信号的数学模型,提出了基于双波长光强比值不变性的光谱测量信号系统误差处理方法,并结合小波多分辨率滤波噪声处理技术,系统研究了基于在线被测水质参数光谱特征的背景干扰处理方法。以上信号处理方法应用于自主研制的多参数光谱水质监测仪器,在线检测标准环境水样及实际环境水样中的化学需氧量、六价铬和阴离子表面活性剂等水质参数,并与国家标准分析方法展开了现场对比测试,仪器的关键参数重复性(相对标准偏差RSD≤10%)与准确度(实际水样比对试验相对误差A≤10%)均达到并优于国家环境保护技术标准要求,表明该信号处理方法能够有效消除在线水质检测光谱测量信号的系统误差及噪声与背景干扰,对于提升光谱水质监测仪器的技术性能具有重要的作用。     

Quantitative evaluation of optical lock-in and pulsed thermography for aluminum foam material

In this article, quantitative evaluation of optical thermographic techniques relative to the non-destructive inspection of aluminum foam material is studied. For this purpose, a set of aluminum foam specimens with flat-bottom holes (FBH) was inspected by both optical lock-in thermography (LT) and pulsed thermography (PT). Probability of detection (PoD) analysis, as a quantitative method to estimate the capability and reliability of a particular inspection technique, was studied and compared for both optical LT and PT inspection results.     

Radiation beam therapy evolution: From X-rays to hadrons

The history of external radiation beam therapy (radiotherapy)—in particular, proton therapy (PT)—is brietly outlined. Two possible strategies in increasing the efficacy of radiotherapy are considered. The radiotherapy methods and techniques are brietly described. The possibilities of PT in providing effective treatment and the main achievements are demonstrated. The state of the art in the PT development involving the active creation of large clinical PT centers since 1990 is analyzed.     

New automatic localization technique of acoustic emission signals in thin metal plates

In acoustic emission (AE) measurement, the information of the arrival time is very important for event location, event identification and source mechanism analysis. Manual picks are time-consuming and sometimes subjective, especially in the case of large volumes of digital data. Various techniques have been presented in the literature and are routinely used in practice such as amplitude threshold, analysis of the long-term average/short-term average (LTA/STA), high-order statistics or artificial neural networks.A new automatic determination technique of the first arrival times of AE signals is presented for thin metal plates. Based on Akaike’s information criterion, proposed algorithm of the first arrival detection uses a specific characteristic function, which is sensitive to change of frequency in contrast to others such as envelope of the signal. The approach is applied to data sets of three different tests. Reliable results show the potential of our approach.     

Research on Raman-scattering and Fabrication of Multilayer Thin Film with Different Structures and Components Based on Pt/Ti/Si3N4/SiO2/Si Substrate

选用三水醋酸铅、乙酰基丙酮酸锆、四异丙氧基钛、乙酰丙酮作初始材料,用同样的方法分别制备了锆钛酸铅(PZT)和钛酸铅(PT)两种固体前驱物. 采用改良型的溶胶-凝胶工艺技术,分别在不同的Pt-Ti-Si₃N₄-SiO₂-Si基底上,按照不同的组合方式,制备了三种多层薄膜：PZT、PT/PZT-PZT/PT、PT/PZT/-/PZT/PT. 较详细地讨论了薄膜制备的工艺技术,发现当凝胶通过烧结和干燥后变成固态物质时,薄膜内部存在着较大的残余应力,当薄膜在600 ºC下退火时其内部残余应力可以被减小. 通过拉曼     

Quantitative evaluation of the lactate signal loss and its spatial dependence in press localized (1)H NMR spectroscopy

Localized (1)H NMR spectroscopy using the 90 degrees -t(1)-180 degrees -t(1)+t(2)-180 degrees -t(2)-Acq. PRESS sequence can lead to a signal loss for the lactate doublet compared with signals from uncoupled nuclei which is dependent on the choice of t(1) and t(2). The most striking signal loss of up to 78% of the total signal occurs with the symmetrical PRESS sequence (t(1)=t(2)) at an echo time of 2/J (approximately 290 ms). Calculations have shown that this signal loss is related to the pulse angle distributions produced by the two refocusing pulses which leads to the creation of single quantum polarization transfer (PT) as well as to not directly observable states (NDOS) of the lactate AX(3) spin system: zero- and multiple-quantum coherences, and longitudinal spin orders. In addition, the chemical shift dependent voxel displacement (VOD) leads to further signal loss. By calculating the density operator for various of the echo times TE=n/J, n=1, 2, 3,..., we calculated quantitatively the contributions of these effects to the signal loss as well as their spatial distribution. A maximum signal loss of 75% can be expected from theory for the symmetrical PRESS sequence and TE=2/J for Hamming filtered sinc pulses, whereby 47% are due to the creation of NDOS and up to 28% arise from PT. Taking also the VOD effect into account (2 mT/m slice selection gradients, 20-mm slices) leads to 54% signal loss from NDOS and up to 24% from PT, leading to a maximum signal loss of 78%. Using RE-BURP pulses with their more rectangular pulse angle distributions reduces the maximum signal loss to 44%. Experiments at 1.5 T using a lactate solution demonstrated a maximum lactate signal loss for sinc pulses of 82% (52% NDOS, 30% PT) at TE=290 ms using the symmetrical PRESS sequence. The great signal loss and its spatial distribution is of importance for investigations using a symmetrical PRESS sequence at TE=2/J.     

Three-dimensional visualization of objects in scattering medium using integral imaging and spectral analysis

This paper presents a three-dimensional visualization method of 3D objects in a scattering medium. The proposed method employs integral imaging and spectral analysis to improve the visual quality of 3D images. The images observed from 3D objects in the scattering medium such as turbid water suffer from image degradation due to scattering. The main reason is that the observed image signal is very weak compared with the scattering signal. Common image enhancement techniques including histogram equalization and contrast enhancement works improperly to overcome the problem. Thus, integral imaging that enables to integrate the weak signals from multiple images was discussed to improve image quality. In this paper, we apply spectral analysis to an integral imaging system such as the computational integral imaging reconstruction. Also, we introduce a signal model with a visibility parameter to analyze the scattering signal. The proposed method based on spectral analysis efficiently estimates the original signal and it is applied to elemental images. The visibility-enhanced elemental images are then used to reconstruct 3D images using a computational integral imaging reconstruction algorithm. To evaluate the proposed method, we perform the optical experiments for 3D objects in turbid water. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method outperforms the existing methods.     

Optoelectronic techniques for ultrafast device network analysis to 700 GHz

Recent advances in state-of-the-art optoelectronic techniques are presented for small-signal electronic device network analysis. The impetus for optoelectronic approaches is given by the severely inadequate bandwidth coverage of existing measurement techniques. Based on a comparison of the trade-offs offered by various optoelectronic techniques, external electrooptic sampling was chosen. Then, the three basic building blocks of an electrooptic characterization system are discussed, which cover the areas of wide-band signal measurement, generation and transmission. The building blocks are subsequently integrated into a complete electrooptic network analyser system capable of active device characterization over a 100 GHz bandwidth. These capabilities are demonstrated on a heterojunction field-effect transistor with a directly-measured maximum frequency of oscillation of 94 GHz. Then, the performance of the electrooptic network analyser is optimized by minimizing transmission line losses, and by improving signal generation and measurement geometries. The resulting system exhibits an unprecedented single-measurement bandwidth of 700 GHz on passive structures. The system performance is verified by comparing measured results with simple models of the measured passive structures.     

Femtosecond laser-induced Cu plasma spectra at different laser polarizations and sample temperatures

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a good technique for detecting and analyzing material elements due to the plasma emission produced by the high-power laser pulse. Currently, a significant topic of LIBS research is improving the emission intensity of LIBS. This study investigated the effect of laser-polarization on femtosecond laser-ablated Cu plasma spectra at different sample temperatures. The measured lines under circularly polarized lasers were higher than those under linearly and elliptically polarized lasers. The enhancement effect was evident at higher Cu temperatures when comparing the plasma spectra that have circular and linear polarizations for different target temperatures. To understand the influence of laser-polarization and sample temperature on signal intensity, we calculated the plasma temperature (PT) and electron density (ED) . The change in PT and ED was consistent with the change in the atomic lines as the laser polarization was being adjusted. When raising the Cu temperature, the PT increased while the ED decreased. Raising the Cu temperature whilst adjusting the laser-polarization is effective for improving the signal of femtosecond LIBS compared to raising the initial sample temperature alone or only changing the laser polarization.     

A constrained Gauss-Seidel method for correction of point spread function effect in MR spectroscopic imaging

Magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging is limited by a low signal-to-noise ratio, so a compromise between spatial resolution and examination time is needed in clinical application. The reconstruction of truncated signal introduces a Point Spread Function that considerably affects the spatial resolution. In order to reduce spatial contamination, three methods, applied after Fourier transform image reconstruction, based on deconvolution or iterative techniques are tested to decrease Point Spread Function contamination. A Gauss-Seidel (GS) algorithm is used for iterative techniques with and without a non-negative constraint (GS+). Convergence and noise dependence studies of the GS algorithm have been done. The linear property of contamination was validated on a point sample phantom. A significant decrease of contamination without broadening the spatial resolution was obtained with GS+ method compared to a conventional apodization. This post-processing method can provide a contrast enhancement of clinical spectroscopic images without changes in acquisition time.     

Computing Partial Transposes and Related Entanglement Functions

The partial transpose (PT) is an important function for entanglement testing and quantification and also for the study of geometrical aspects of the quantum state space. In this article, considering general bipartite and multipartite discrete systems, explicit formulas ready for the numerical implementation of the PT and of related entanglement functions are presented and the Fortran code produced for that purpose is described. What is more, we obtain an analytical expression for the Hilbert-Schmidt entanglement of two-qudit systems and for the associated closest separable state. In contrast to previous works on this matter, we only use the properties of the PT, not applying Lagrange multipliers.     

3种主动合成孔径成像技术极限探测能力的分析与比较

为了深入研究可行的中高轨成像技术,本文从探测能力角度(用最低发射激光功率表示)深入分析和比较3种主动干涉合成孔径成像技术——傅立叶望远镜(又称为相干场成像或条纹场扫描成像)、成像相关术(又称为强度相关成像)和剪切光束成像。本文利用光电倍增管的信噪比模型和激光作用距离方程,较为细致地分析每种技术在满足单次信噪比(SNR=5)条件下的极限探测能力。通过仿真分析得出:傅立叶望远镜、成像相关术和剪切光束成像所需的最低单光束单脉冲能量分别为11. 4 J、0. 73 MJ和3. 1 MJ。最终得出傅立叶望远镜是上述3种主动成像技术中在目前技术水平下最适合中高轨目标(约36 000 km)高分辨成像的可用技术的结论。     

Solar loading thermography: Time-lapsed thermographic survey and advanced thermographic signal processing for the inspection of civil engineering and cultural heritage structures

The experimental results from infrared thermography surveys over two buildings externally exposed walls are presented. Data acquisition was performed on a static configuration by recording direct and indirect solar loading during several days and was processed using advanced signal processing techniques in order to increase signal-to-noise ratio and signature contrast of the elements of interest. It is demonstrated that it is possible to detect the thermal signature of large internal structures as well as surface features under such thermographic scenarios. Results from a long-wave microbolometer compared favorably to those from a mid-wave cooled infrared camera for the detection of large subsurface features from unprocessed images. In both cases, however, advanced signal processing greatly improved contrast of the internal features.     

高效液相色谱-原子荧光光谱联用中的连续数字信号采集和处理

本文报道了利用Visual C 编写原子荧光光谱仪的数字信号采集和处理软件,成功地解决了原子荧光光谱仪作为联用技术在线检测器的数据采集问题,实现了通过计算机串口对瞬变光谱信号的连续采集和实时的曲线绘制。本工作采用Savitzky-Golay平滑、傅里叶变换滤波和小波滤噪三种数据处理技术对采集数据进行平滑和滤波,并对其处理效果进行了比较。并以镉为例,验证了高效液相色谱与国产原子荧光光谱联用应用于形态分析的可能性。     

Concerted versus stepwise mechanisms of cyclic proton transfer: Experiments,simulations, and current challenges

Proton transfer (PT) is a process of fundamental importance in hydrogen (H)-bonded systems. At cryogenic or moderate temperatures, pronounced quantum tunneling may happen due to the light mass of H. Single PT processes have been extensively studied. However, for PT involving multiple protons, our understanding remains in its infancy stage due to the complicated interplay between the high-dimensional nature of the process and the quantum nature of tunneling. Cyclic H-bonded systems are typical examples of this, where PT can happen separately via a "stepwise" mechanism or collectively via a "concerted" mechanism. In the first scenario, some protons hop first, typically resulting in metastable intermediate states (ISs) and the reaction pathway passes through multiple transition states. Whilst in the concerted mechanism, all protons move simultaneously, resulting in only one barrier along the path. Here, we review previous experimental and theoretical studies probing quantum tunneling in several representative systems for cyclic PT, with more focus on recent theoretical findings with path-integral based methods. For gas-phase porphyrin and porphycene, as well as porphycene on a metal surface, theoretical predictions are consistent with experimental observations, and enhance our understanding of the processes. Yet, discrepancies in the PT kinetic isotope effects between experiment and theory appear in two systems, most noticeably in water tetramer adsorbed on NaCl (001) surface, and also hinted in porphycene adsorbed on Ag (110) surface. In ice I_h, controversy surrounding concerted PT remains even between experiments. Despite of the recent progress in both theoretical methods and experimental techniques, multiple PT processes in cyclic H-bonded systems remain to be mysterious.     

Topology of a parity-time symmetric non-Hermitian rhombic lattice

We investigate the topological properties of a trimerized parity–time(PT)symmetric non-Hermitian rhombic lattice.Although the system is PT-symmetric,the topology is not inherited from the Hermitian lattice;in contrast,the topology can be altered by the non-Hermiticity and depends on the couplings between the sublattices.The bulk–boundary correspondence is valid and the Bloch bulk captures the band topology.Topological edge states present in the two band gaps and are predicted from the global Zak phase obtained through the Wilson loop approach.In addition,the anomalous edge states compactly localize within two diamond plaquettes at the boundaries when all bands are flat at the exceptional point of the lattice.Our findings reveal the topological properties of the??PT-symmetric non-Hermitian rhombic lattice and shed light on the investigation of multi-band non-Hermitian topological phases.     

低飞小目标电视跟踪作用距离的分析

结合长期从事光电跟踪仪器研制的实践，针对低飞小目标远距离跟踪测量的特点，从跟踪信号的大小及其对比度两个方面分析了它们对电视作用距离的影响。深入探讨了目标穿越电视视场产生的动态对比度及其对作用距离的影响。并提出采用电子快门和光谱匹配技术提高目标信号对比度，提高电视跟踪作用距离的方法。