Auditory evoked responses: A tool to assess the fetal neurological activity

An intact auditory system at birth is requisite for the successful accomplishment of many developmental skills. Evoked responses to auditory stimuli have been used as a sensitive test to determine the functional status of the adult and neonatal brain. It has been established that fetuses can hear in utero and respond to external acoustic stimuli. We present an overview of the transmission of sound through the maternal abdomen to the fetal ear and the recordings of an auditory evoked response obtained from the fetus using a non-invasive magnetoencephalography technique. The investigation of cortical activity of the fetus in response to auditory stimulation can help understand and track the neurological development of the fetus.     

Furtivity and Masking Problems in Time-Dependent Electromagnetic Obstacle Scattering

In this paper, we consider furtivity and masking problems in time-dependent three-dimensional electromagnetic obstacle scattering. That is, we propose a criterion based on a merit function to minimize or to mask the electromagnetic field scattered by a bounded obstacle when hit by an incoming electromagnetic field and, with respect to this criterion, we drive the optimal strategy. These problems are natural generalizations to the context of electromagnetic scattering of the furtivity problem in time-dependent acoustic obstacle scattering presented in Ref. 1. We propose mathematical models of the furtivity and masking time-dependent three-dimensional electromagnetic scattering problems that consist in optimal control problems for systems of partial differential equations derived from the Maxwell equations. These control problems are approached using the Pontryagin maximum principle. We formulate the first-order optimality conditions for the control problems considered as exterior problems defined outside the obstacle for systems of partial differential equations. Moreover, the first-order optimality conditions derived are solved numerically with a highly parallelizable numerical method based on a perturbative series of the type considered in Refs. 2–3. Finally, we assess and validate the mathematical models and the numerical method proposed analyzing the numerical results obtained with a parallel implementation of the numerical method in several experiments on test problems. Impressive speedup factors are obtained executing the algorithms on a parallel machine when the number of processors used in the computation ranges between 1 and 100. Some virtual reality applications and some animations relative to the numerical experiments can be found in the website http://www.econ.unian.it/recchioni/w10/.     

合并带流动注射分光光度法研究硫羟乳酸掩蔽性能

本文运用合并带流动注射分析技术，建立了以Ｙｂ＾３＋ＸＯ显色体系为参考体系研究硫羟乳酸掩蔽性能的方法，在ｐＨ５．６硫羟乳酸能掩蔽Ｓｎ＾４＋，Ｂｉ＾３＋，Ｔｌ＾３＋，Ｈｇ＾２＋，Ｃｕ＾２＋，Ｃｒ＾３＋和Ｃｄ＾２＋测定Ｙｂ＾３＋的线性范围为１．３６×１０＾－６～２．７２×１０＾－５ｍｏｌ／Ｌ，采样频率可达１２０次／ｈ。     

Future of biological aerosol detection

Biological aerosol detection in real time is an urgent civilian and military requirement. Such detection capability will be useful in environmental monitoring, for example, in gathering information in perceived hazardous areas such as housing developments downwind of sewage treatment plants. To be truly functional, the instrument has to operate continuously, 24 h a day and 7 days a week with minimal maintenance and few false alarms. A novel concept is proposed. The system employs a rapid front-end warning/alarming mechanism based on optical technologies that provides useful information for protection decision makers. This is connected to a sample collector that feeds a slower back-end liquid chemistry system that provides analytical results to the medical personnel to assist in prophylaxis and therapy decisions. Experience gained from measuring fluorescence signals of single bacterial spores under flow cytometry (FCM) using UV excitation at 340-360 nm, was applied to concept testing of a prototype instrument, built to do the same for aerosols. This machine was capable of resolving particle size as well as fluorescence intensity of each particle under laboratory and field conditions; it was called the fluorescent aerodynamic particle sizer (FLAPS). This paper describes practical aspects of measuring biological aerosols when the results must be compared to reference samplers that provide culturable or “live” data. Treatment of particle size and fluorescence information is discussed with respect to FLAPS and reference data fidelity. Along with an objective method to evaluate FLAPS data correlation to reference data, an approach for determining limit of detection in the field is discussed. In addressing the back-end detector chemistry, we have prioritized a number of important biological characteristics that must be given to a clinician to help in prophylaxis and therapy decisions. A series of biochemical measurements are proposed to define the threat of a sample and different solutions are given to implement these tests. We predict that the future for biological detection looks promising for fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques in identifying microorganisms. A conceptual instrument based on merging FCM and microchip-based analysis is described.     

Complexometric determination of thallium(III) in pure solution,alloys, and complexes using semicarbazide hydrochloride as a releasing agent

A simple and accurate complexometric method is proposed for the determination of Tl(III) using semicarbazide hydrochloride as a releasing agent. In the presence of diverse metal ions, thallium is complexed first with a known excess of EDTA, and the surplus EDTA is then titrated with standard zinc sulfate at pH 5.0–6.0 (hexamine) using xylenol orange indicator. An excess of 5% aqueous neutral solution of semicarbazide hydrochloride is then added and the released EDTA is titrated against standard zinc sulfate solution. The method works well in the range 2–50 mg of Tl(III) with relative errors < 0.5%, standard deviations 0.05mg and coefficient of variation 0.4%. The method is applied for the determination of thallium content in complexes and alloy compositions     

动态阈值谱法语音增强

根据人耳能从噪声中提取有用信息的听觉特征，并结合语音信号的基本特征，提出并研究了一个适合于语音增强的听党内模型；实验结果表明，这个方法不仅在提高语音信噪比方面，而且在减小语音失真度方面均有较好的改善。     

A novel audio watermarking scheme using multiscale wavelet modulation

A novel audio watermarking scheme to embed robust and inaudible watermarks for the purpose of copyright protection is proposed. The key innovation is to add time-frequency redundancy into watermark signals by multiscale wavelet modulation. In order to maximize the watermarking strength within perceptual constraints, the signals synthesized from different scales are masked using a frequency auditory model, respectively, and then intergrated to form the final watermark signal. The detection structure is built using the redundancy in watermark signals, and the performance is further enhanced by modeling the statistical behaviors of wavelet coefficients as generalized Gaussian distribution. The use of original audio signal is not required in watermark detection. The experimental results show that our approach can achieve not only good transparency but also satisfying robustness to common audio manipulations.     

Distance rendering and perception of nearby virtual sound sources with a near-field filter model

Headphone rendering of nearby virtual sound sources represents to date an open issue in 3-D audio, due to a number of technical challenges and temporal requirements involved in the measurement of individual Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs). In order to tackle this problem, we propose a filter model of near-field effects based on the Distance Variation Function (Kan et al., 2009). Thanks to its simple structure and low order, the model can be applied to any far-field virtual auditory display to yield a realistic and computationally efficient near-field compensation of spectral and binaural effects. The model is subjectively evaluated in two psychophysical experiments where the relative distance of pairs of virtually rendered sound sources is judged. Results show that even though sound intensity overshadows subtler near-field effects when it is available as a cue for distance, the model is capable of offering relative distance information of near lateral virtual sources when intensity cues are removed. Furthermore, performances of the model in relative distance rendering are compared to those of alternative near-field rendering methods available in the literature.     

基于听觉场景分析的近讲语音增强算法

针对近讲场景,提出一种双麦克近讲语音增强算法。该算法基于耳间延时差(ITD)、耳间强度差(IID)特征来区分目标语音,利用声学掩蔽效应,实现目标语音对背景噪声的分离降噪。与传统的单麦克增强方法相比,该算法可消除多种类型噪声且对语音造成的损伤较小。实验表明:该算法能将8～33dB的白噪声、音乐噪声、广播噪声3种噪声类型的带噪语音的信噪比提高到36dB以上,同时保持较高的目标语音可懂度。对于冲击噪声的带噪语音也具有较好的降噪效果。