Auditory motivated level-crossing approach to instantaneous frequency estimation

We address the problem of estimating the instantaneous frequency (IF) of a phase signal using its level-crossing (LC) information based on front-end auditory processing motivation. We show that the problem of IF estimation using LC information can be cast in the framework of estimation from irregularly sampled data. The formulation has the generality of estimating different types of IF without the need for a quasistationary assumption. We consider two types of IF-polynomial and bandlimited; we use polynomial interpolating functions for the former, and for the latter, we propose a novel "line plus sum of sines" model. The model parameters are estimated by linear regression. Considering the noisy case, LC data for different levels is analyzed, and methods for combining different estimators from LCs are discussed. Theoretical and extensive simulation results show that the performance of the zero-crossing (ZC) based IF estimator and the level-crossing based IF estimator with smaller level values is better than those obtained with higher level values or their combinations. The new technique reaches the Crame/spl acute/r-Rao bound (CRB) roughly above 4 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and its performance does not deteriorate rapidly with mismatch in the IF order compared with the other techniques in the literature.     

Instability due to Viscosity Stratification Downstream of a Centerline Injector

A common injector geometry upstream of a static mixer is the centerline injector. A flow instability can arise due to viscosity differences between the injected core‐flow and the outer co‐flow. This instability can adversely affect the effectiveness of the mixing operation. An experimental investigation of miscible viscosity‐stratified flow in a circular geometry was performed using Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The experimental results for the stable region agree with the analytical results. The unstable region exhibits different modes depending on the viscosity ratio, volume flux ratio, and Reynolds number. The modes include wavy core‐flow with fissures and wavy core‐flow with core breakup. The time‐averaged experiment velocity profiles for the unstable core indicate a broadening of the jet at the centerline, which is consistent with the LIF visualization.     

Curcumin Prevents Cerebellar Hypoplasia and Restores the Behavior in Hyperbilirubinemic Gunn Rat by a Pleiotropic Effect on the Molecular Effectors of Brain Damage

Bilirubin toxicity to the central nervous system (CNS) is responsible for severe and permanent neurologic damage, resulting in hearing loss, cognitive, and movement impairment. Timely and effective management of severe neonatal hyperbilirubinemia by phototherapy or exchange transfusion is crucial for avoiding permanent neurological consequences, but these therapies are not always possible, particularly in low-income countries. To explore alternative options, we investigated a pharmaceutical approach focused on protecting the CNS from pigment toxicity, independently from serum bilirubin level. To this goal, we tested the ability of curcumin, a nutraceutical already used with relevant results in animal models as well as in clinics in other diseases, in the Gunn rat, the spontaneous model of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia. Curcumin treatment fully abolished the landmark cerebellar hypoplasia of Gunn rat, restoring the histological features, and reverting the behavioral abnormalities present in the hyperbilirubinemic rat. The protection was mediated by a multi-target action on the main bilirubin-induced pathological mechanism ongoing CNS damage (inflammation, redox imbalance, and glutamate neurotoxicity). If confirmed by independent studies, the result suggests the potential of curcumin as an alternative/complementary approach to bilirubin-induced brain damage in the clinical scenario.     

TURBULENT FLOW IN A PIPE WITH INTERMITTENT ROUGH PATCHES: AN ANALOGUE OF ANNULAR TWO-PHASE FLOW

The response of turbulent pipe flow to sudden changes in wall roughness and flow cross-sectional area has been studied experimentally and numerically. Changes typical of those encountered by the gas phase in annular gas-liquid flow have been considered. The results show that the flow field and the pressure field can be significantly distorted at these transitions. Good agreement has been obtained between the measured results and those calculated using the Harwell-FLOW3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code.     

Reduced complexity two stage vector quantization

We address the issue of complexity for vector quantization (VQ) of wide-band speech LSF (line spectrum frequency) parameters. The recently proposed switched split VQ (SSVQ) method provides better rate–distortion (R/D) performance than the traditional split VQ (SVQ) method, even at the requirement of lower computational complexity, but at the expense of much higher memory. We develop the two stage SVQ (TsSVQ) method, by which we gain both the memory and computational advantages and still retain good R/D performance. The proposed TsSVQ method uses a full dimensional quantizer in its first stage for exploiting all the higher dimensional coding advantages and then, uses an SVQ method for quantizing the residual vector in the second stage so as to reduce the complexity. We also develop a transform domain residual coding method in this two stage architecture such that it further reduces the computational complexity. To design an effective residual codebook in the second stage, variance normalization of Voronoi regions is carried out which leads to the design of two new methods, referred to as normalized two stage SVQ (NTsSVQ) and normalized two stage transform domain SVQ (NTsTrSVQ). These two new methods have complimentary strengths and hence, they are combined in a switched VQ mode which leads to the further improvement in R/D performance, but retaining the low complexity requirement. We evaluate the performances of new methods for wide-band speech LSF parameter quantization and show their advantages over established SVQ and SSVQ methods.     

QoS Management in Educational Digital Library Environments

Advances in multimedia computing technologies offer new approaches to the support of computer-assisted education and training within many application domains. Novel interactive presentation tools can be built to enhance traditional teaching methods with more active learning. Since a variety of user expectations are possible in such an environment, research must address the incorporation of these factors into presentation tools. During an interactive learning/training process, presentation tools must be able to handle various types of delays. A flexibly adjustable quality of service (QoS) should thus be supported. In this paper, we investigate a framework and systematic strategies for supporting the continuous and synchronized retrieval and presentation of multimedia data streams in a client/server distributed multimedia environment for educational digital libraries. Specifically, we establish a practical framework for specifying multimedia objects, tasks, schedules, and synchronization constraints between media streams. We identify the QoS parameters critical to the support of multimedia presentations for learning and training activities. Based on the proposed framework and QoS specifications, we develop presentation scheduling and buffer management strategies which can enforce the specified QoS requirements in an educational digital library environment.     

Variability in rheology of cemented paste backfill with hydration age,binder and superplasticizer dosages

The use of (CPB) material to ameliorate geotechnical stability of underground mine is in nascent stage in India. Rheological properties of CPB change with travelling time as it is transported to underground mine stope through pipeline reticulation. In this paper, rheological properties of CPB based on mill tailings of a carbonate rich mineral processing waste are evaluated for different dosages of polycarboxylate (PC) based (SP). Each CPB sample having 78?wt% solids is mixed separately with 4%, 6% or 8% of binder dosages (ratio of the weight of dry binder to the weight of dry tailings) and, 0%, 0.5%, or 1.0% of SP dosages as weight of dry binder. The paper presents a methodology for determining yield stress, plastic viscosity and thixotropic behaviour of CPB mixture as a function of hydration age, binder and SP dosages. Results from the experimental campaigns indicate that SP content has significant influence on rheological behaviour of CPB and can be suitably exploited to enhance the flow characteristics of the carbonate rich process tailings. The study also develops multivariate linear regression models of yield stress, plastic viscosity and thixotropy of CPB depending on the hydration age, binder and SP dosages.     

Delineation of salt-affected soils and waterlogged areas in the Indo-Gangetic plains using IRS-1C LISS-III data

Waterlogging and subsequent salinization and/alkalinization is the major land degradation problem in irrigated commands in the arid and semi-arid regions. The Linear Imaging Self-scanning Sensor (LISS-III) digital data acquired by the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-1C) over part of the Indo-gangetic plains are digitally analysed for delineating salt-affected and waterlogged areas on a IBM RS-6000 system. A comparison with the IRS-1B LISS-II data, with comparable spectral bands and acquired very close to LISS-III data, reveals a relatively poor overall classification accuracy achieved from this data as compared to LISS-II data. This may be attributed to higher intra-class spectral variations resulting from high spatial resolution LISS-III data. The classifiers capable of exploiting the spectral variations in spatial domain, like segmentation, textural analysis, etc., need to be used for exploiting the full potential of IRS-1C LISS-III data for mapping salt-affected soils and other degraded lands.     

Optimum short-time polynomial regression for signal analysis

Sādhanā - We propose a short-time polynomial regression (STPR) for time-varying signal analysis. The advantage of using polynomials is that the notion of a spectrum is not needed and the...     

A comparative study of three advanced controllers for the regulation of hypnosis

The anesthetic state is a dynamic combination of hypnosis, analgesia and neuromuscular blockade that is maintained by infusing a cocktail of drugs. This work focuses on controlling the hypnosis during a surgical procedure by automatic regulation of isoflurane and employs Bispectral Index (BIS) as the primary controlled variable. A seventh-order nonlinear pharmacokinetic–pharmacodynamic representation has been used for the hypnosis dynamics of patients. This study uses a model predictive control structure for the regulation of BIS. Performance of this controller has been tested for a range of patients and compared with two previously employed control strategies (cascade internal model controller and cascade controller with modeling error compensation). Performance of the three controllers has also been studied for a step change in BIS, measured disturbances and noise in the measured variables. Numerical simulations show that the model predictive controller performed better than the other two controllers.