Forward masking as a mechanism of automatic gain control in odontocete biosonar: a psychophysical study

In a false killer whale Pseudorca crassidens, echo perception thresholds were measured using a go/no-go psychophysical paradigm and one-up-one-down staircase procedure. Computer controlled echoes were electronically synthesized pulses that were played back through a transducer and triggered by whale emitted biosonar pulses. The echo amplitudes were proportional to biosonar pulse amplitudes; echo levels were specified in terms of the attenuation of the echo sound pressure level near the animal's head relative to the source level of the biosonar pulses. With increasing echo delay, the thresholds (echo attenuation factor) decreased from -49.3 dB at 2 ms to -79.5 dB at 16 ms, with a regression slope of -9.5 dB per delay doubling (-31.5 dB per delay decade). At the longer delays, the threshold remained nearly constant around -80.4 dB. Levels of emitted pulses slightly increased with delay prolongation (threshold decrease), with a regression slope of 3.2 dB per delay doubling (10.7 dB per delay decade). The echo threshold dependence on delay is interpreted as a release from forward masking by the preceding emitted pulse. This release may compensate for the echo level decrease with distance, thus keeping the echo sensation level for the animal near constant within a certain distance range.     

Natural fluctuations in a quartz crystal oscillator with automatic gain control

A method is developed for calculation of natural fluctuations in oscillators with automatic gain control (AGC). As an example, a three-terminal capacitive transistor crystal oscillator is considered. It is shown that the AGC system permits stabilization of the amplitude and frequency of the oscillator output signal.     

Source-to-sensation level ratio of transmitted biosonar pulses in an echolocating false killer whale

Transmitted biosonar pulses, and the brain auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) associated with those pulses, were synchronously recorded in a false killer whale Pseudorca crassidens trained to accept suction-cup EEG electrodes and to detect targets by echolocation. AEP amplitude was investigated as a function of the transmitted biosonar pulse source level. For that, a few thousand of the individual AEP records were sorted according to the spontaneously varied amplitude of synchronously recorded biosonar pulses. In each of the sorting bins (in 5-dB steps) AEP records were averaged to extract AEP from noise; AEP amplitude was plotted as a function of the biosonar pulse source level. For comparison, AEPs were recorded to external (in free field) sound pulses of a waveform and spectrum similar to those of the biosonar pulses; amplitude of these AEPs was plotted as a function of sound pressure level. A comparison of these two functions has shown that, depending on the presence or absence of a target, the sensitivity of the whale's hearing to its own transmitted biosonar pulses was 30 to 45 dB lower than might be expected in a free acoustic field.     

Technical fluctuations in a quartz crystal oscillator with automatic gain control

Technical fluctuations in quartz crystal oscillators with automatic gain control (AGC) are studied. Using the example of a three-terminal capacitive transistor circuit, the contribution of technical fluctuations of individual components to the spectral characteristics of the output signal is determined. It is shown that an AGC system can significantly improve the oscillator technical characteristics.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 21, No. 12, pp. 1772–1777, December, 1978.The authors express their gratitude to A. V. Yakimov and A. N. Malakhov for their helpful evluation of the study.     

Enhancement in the gain recovery of a semiconductor optical amplifier by device temperature control

We present a numerical investigation on the temperature dependence of gain recovery, of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). It is shown that the decrease in temperature significantly speed-up the gain recovery of the SOA. Under typical operating conditions, a 20 K reduction in temperature of the SOA results in a decrease of 150 ps in the gain recovery time. A comparative estimation of device temperature and assisted-light power requirements for enhancing the gain recovery has also been carried out. It is found that, a decrease of 8 K in the temperature of the SOA, is as effective in enhancing the gain recovery as injection of 25 dBm assisted-light power in the counter-propagating mode. Our study shows that under moderate current biasing conditions, temperature reduction is a better and convenient option to speed-up the gain recovery of an SOA, than the use of external assisted-light injection, which requires an additional laser source and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) components for coupling and de-coupling, leading to insertion losses in the communication channel.     

An experimental study of technical fluctuations in a quartz crystal oscillator with automatic gain control

The contribution of technical fluctuations of individual circuit components of a quartz crystal oscillator with AGC to the technical characteristics of the output signal is determined. The noise of the elements studied is simulated. It is demonstrated that the AGC system significantly improves the amplitude-frequency characteristics of the oscillator output signal. Requirements are determined for the noise characteristics of individual oscillator stage components for the purpose of obtaining high short-term frequency stability.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 21, No. 12, pp. 1778–1784, December, 1978.     

Auditory brainstem response in a harbor porpoise show lack of automatic gain control for simulated echoes

The auditory brainstem response (ABR) response to simulated echolocation clicks was studied in a harbor porpoise, Phocoena phocoena, to determine the relationship between the animal's perceived echo strength and the simulated target distance. In one experiment the click level at the listening post was kept constant while delay was changed, in another, the level was varied to approximate spreading losses. Results of both experiments indicate that there is no automatic gain control in the hearing system of this harbor porpoise.     

激光对红外热成像设备自动增益控制电路的干扰效果

 为了研究激光对红外热成像设备自动增益控制（AGC）电路的干扰效果,在分析红外热成像设备AGC电路工作原理基础上,探论了激光对红外热成像设备AGC电路的干扰机理,开展了激光对某型红外热成像设备AGC电路的干扰实验,并提出了区域灰度变化测试AGC增益的分析方法。对实验结果进行了定量研究,结果表明：激光对红成像设备AGC电路持续有效干扰应满足干扰激光脉冲周期小于自动增益调整时间的条件。     

Measuring inter-pulse intervals in sperm whale clicks: consistency of automatic estimation methods

Sperm whale clicks are characterized by a multi-pulsed structure. The time lag between consecutive pulses, i.e., the inter-pulse interval (IPI), is related to the size of the sound production organ such that its measurement provides a means to acoustically estimate the size of individual whales. Due to off-axis effects the identification of pulses is, however, not always straightforward, and automatic measurement methods provide not only more objective estimation, but may also facilitate IPI estimation in cases where single click measurements are ambiguous. In particular, averaging measurements over a time series of clicks from the same whale could enhance the discrimination of time invariant pulses. The authors developed two automatic methods of automatic IPI measurement based on waveform and autocorrelation averaging and compared their accuracy and consistency with other previously used methods. Manual measurement by an experienced operator provided the most self-consistent estimates. The autocorrelation averaging technique had the best overall performance of the automated methods achieving a very similar performance to manual measurement. On some recordings cepstrum averaging methods converged when autocorrelation did not. Therefore, applying both of these automated methods and choosing the best of the two are recommended.     

Novel automatic control for the optimum optical gain and phase differences in SOA-MZI wavelength converter: Theory and experiment

We have proposed, simulated, and experimentally verified the novel automatic control method and apparatus to automatically adjust and constantly maintain the optimum optical gain and phase differences in order to achieve the automatically optimized semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) wavelength converter (WC) with wide input power dynamic range (IPDR) and maximum extinction ratio (ER). Our automatic control algorithm is proposed through the results of simulation and its validity is confirmed through the experiment.     

On the possibility of double phase transitions in unsymmetric systems

The existence of double phase transitions in unsymmetric disordering systems is predicted. Conditions and temperatures at which these transitions are realised are obtained.     

Hearing-aid automatic gain control adapting to two sound sources in the environment, using three time constants

A hearing aid AGC algorithm is presented that uses a richer representation of the sound environment than previous algorithms. The proposed algorithm is designed to (1) adapt slowly (in approximately 10 s) between different listening environments, e.g., when the user leaves a single talker lecture for a multi-babble coffee-break; (2) switch rapidly (about 100 ms) between different dominant sound sources within one listening situation, such as the change from the user's own voice to a distant speaker's voice in a quiet conference room; (3) instantly reduce gain for strong transient sounds and then quickly return to the previous gain setting; and (4) not change the gain in silent pauses but instead keep the gain setting of the previous sound source. An acoustic evaluation showed that the algorithm worked as intended. The algorithm was evaluated together with a reference algorithm in a pilot field test. When evaluated by nine users in a set of speech recognition tests, the algorithm showed similar results to the reference algorithm.     

Click production during breathing in a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus)

A sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) was observed at the surface with above- and underwater video and synchronized underwater sound recordings. During seven instances the whale ventilated its lungs while clicking. From this observation it is inferred that click production is achieved by pressurizing air in the right nasal passage, pneumatically disconnected from the lungs and the left nasal passage, and that air flows anterior through the phonic lips into the distal air sac. The capability of breathing and clicking at the same time is unique among studied odontocetes and relates to the extreme asymmetry of the sperm whale sound-producing forehead.     

Detection of whale calls in noise: performance comparison between a beluga whale, human listeners, and a neural network

This article examines the masking by anthropogenic noise of beluga whale calls. Results from human masking experiments and a software backpropagation neural network are compared to the performance of a trained beluga whale. The goal was to find an accurate, reliable, and fast model to replace lengthy and expensive animal experiments. A beluga call was masked by three types of noise, an icebreaker's bubbler system and propeller noise, and ambient arctic ice-cracking noise. Both the human experiment and the neural network successfully modeled the beluga data in the sense that they classified the noises in the same order from strongest to weakest masking as the whale and with similar call-detection thresholds. The neural network slightly outperformed the humans. Both models were then used to predict the masking of a fourth type of noise, Gaussian white noise. Their prediction ability was judged by returning to the aquarium to measure masked-hearing thresholds of a beluga in white noise. Both models and the whale identified bubbler noise as the strongest masker, followed by ramming, then white noise. Natural ice-cracking noise masked the least. However, the humans and the neural network slightly overpredicted the amount of masking for white noise. This is neglecting individual variation in belugas, because only one animal could be trained. Comparing the human model to the neural network model, the latter has the advantage of objectivity, reproducibility of results, and efficiency, particularly if the interference of a large number of signals and noise is to be examined.     

Transverse mode control by manipulating gain distribution in a Yb:YAG ceramic thin disk

We demonstrated that transverse mode can be controlled by manipulating gain distribution in a Yb:YAG ceramic thin disk. Several elongated higher order transverse modes of a Hermite-Gaussian beam were observed when a straight-line-shaped gain region was created by using a diode laser output from an optical fiber. An orthogonally crossing pair of straight-line-shaped gain regions created with an additional optical fiber output resulted in the generation of a doughnut-shaped Laguerre-Gaussian beam. This implies that easy and quick switching of Hermite-Gaussian and Laguerre-Gaussian beams is possible without mechanical handling.