Strategies to improve the performance of very low bit rate speech coders and application to a variable rate 1.2 kb/s codec

This paper presents several strategies to improve the performance of very low bit rate speech coders and describes a speech codec that incorporates these strategies and operates at an average bit rate of 1.2 kb/s. The encoding algorithm is based on several improvements in a mixed multiband excitation (MMBE) linear predictive coding (LPC) structure. A switched-predictive vector quantiser technique that outperforms previously reported schemes is adopted to encode the LSF parameters. Spectral and sound specific low rate models are used in order to achieve high quality speech at low rates. An MMBE approach with three sub-bands is employed to encode voiced frames, while fricatives and stops modelling and synthesis techniques are used for unvoiced frames. This strategy is shown to provide good quality synthesised speech, at a bit rate of only 0.4 kb/s for unvoiced frames. To reduce coding noise and improve decoded speech, spectral envelope restoration combined with noise reduction (SERNR) postfilter is used. The contributions of the techniques described in this paper are separately assessed and then combined in the design of a low bit rate codec that is evaluated against the North American Mixed Excitation Linear Prediction (MELP) coder. The performance assessment is carried out in terms of the spectral distortion of LSF quantisation, mean opinion score (MOS), A/B comparison tests and the ITU-T P.862 perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ) standard. Assessment results show that the improved methods for LSF quantisation, sound specific modelling and synthesis and the new postfiltering approach can significantly outperform previously reported techniques. Further results also indicate that a system combining the proposed improvements and operating at 1.2 kb/s, is comparable (slightly outperforming) a MELP coder operating at 2.4 kb/s. For tandem connection situations, the proposed system is clearly superior to the MELP coder.     

Efficient Acoustic Echo Cancellation With Reduced-Rank Adaptive Filtering Based on Selective Decimation and Adaptive Interpolation

This paper presents a new approach to efficient acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) based on reduced-rank adaptive filtering equipped with selective-decimation and adaptive interpolation. We propose a novel structure of an AEC scheme that jointly optimizes an interpolation filter, a decimation unit, and a reduced-rank filter. With a practical choice of parameters in AEC, the total computational complexity of the proposed reduced-rank scheme with the normalized least mean square (NLMS) algorithm is approximately half of that of the full-rank NLMS algorithm. We discuss the convergence properties of the proposed scheme and present a convergence condition. First, we examine the performance of the proposed scheme in a single-talk situation with an error-minimization criterion adopted in the decimation selection. Second, we investigate the potential of the proposed scheme in a double-talk situation by employing an ideal decimation selection. In addition to mean squared error (MSE) and power spectrum analysis of the echo estimation error, subjective assessments based on absolute category rating are performed, and the results demonstrate that the proposed structure provides significant improvements compared to the full-rank NLMS algorithm.     

Changes in proteasome activity during postmortem aging of bovine muscle

The effects of adding commercial-grade and eggshell calcium lactate on the microbiological and physicochemical properties of Nhams (Thai-style fermented pork sausage) were studied. The Nham calcium levels were 150, 300 and 450 mg/100 g. Compared to controls (no added calcium), calcium fortification did not affect the number of lactic acid bacteria or the colour value. The shear force of Nhams fortified with eggshell calcium lactate decreased (P<0.05) from 32.2 N in the controls to 19.5-22.8 N in Nhams fortified with eggshell calcium lactate. However, Nhams fortified with commercial calcium lactate had the same shear force as the controls. Sensory scores of sour taste, flavour and overall acceptance were not different between the control and calcium-fortified Nhams at a calcium level of 150 mg/100 g.     

First hydride free GaInP/GaAs carbon doped HBT grown by CBE usingDMAAs and TBP

A current gain of 120, for a base sheet resistance of 400 Ω/□, is reported in a carbon doped base heterojunction bipolar transistor grown by chemical beam epitaxy (CBE) without hydride sources. This result is to the authors' knowledge, the best obtained with hydride free CBE for this device     

An activity, stability and selectivity comparison of propioin synthesis by thiamine diphosphate-dependent enzymes in a solid/gas bioreactor

Enzymatic carboligation in a solid/gas bioreactor represents a new challenge in biotechnology. In this paper, the continuous gas-phase production of propioin from two propanal molecules by using thiamine diphosphate-dependent enzymes was studied. Two enzymes were used, namely benzaldehyde lyase (BAL) from Pseudomonas fluorescens and benzoylformate decarboxylase (BFD) from Pseudomonas putida. The enzymes are homologous and catalyze carboligase and carbolyase reactions in which no external cofactor regeneration is needed. The influence of water and substrate activity on the initial reaction rate and biocatalyst stability was investigated. An increase in water activity raised the initial reaction rates to the maximal values of 250 and 80 U g(-1) for BAL and BFD, respectively. The half-life showed the same trend with maximal values of 50 and 78 min for BAL and BFD, respectively. The increase in the half-life by increasing water activity was unexpected. It was also observed that BFD is more stable than BAL in the presence of the substrate propanal. Both enzymes showed substrate inhibition in the kinetic studies, and BAL was also deactivated during the reaction. Unexpectedly, the stereoselectivity of both enzymes (ee of 19 % for BAL and racemic mixture for BFD) was significantly impaired in the gas phase compared to the liquid phase.     

Can a new ergonomical ankle–foot orthosis (AFO) device improve patients’ daily life? A preliminary study

Abstract

Approximately two-thirds of patients survive following a cerebral vascular accident (stroke), nevertheless about half are left with a physical incapacity. The clinical picture is frequently a combination of motor, sensory, visual and cognitive deficits. Mechanically, the use of ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) appear a good option. The objective of this study was to quantify the impact of the AFO on patients having a deficit of dorsi-flexion during gait in the aim to improve their daily lives. Different biomechanical variables were analysed such as parameters of Balance in static position and spatio-temporal (ST) ones in dynamics. Seven patients were enrolled in this study (53.57 ± 16.17 years old, 1.80 ± 0.07 m height and 89 ± 15.06 kg body mass). The pressure force plate used in this experimentation aimed to measure the patients’ behaviors with and without AFO. The results showed a significant impact of AFO in terms of ST analysis (p < 0.05). These results can be related to the fact that the orthosis supports the foot during walking and propels the step during the initial swing phase. In posturography, the results showed that patients increased their balance by using AFO (p < 0.05). This result permits the patients a better expansion of their movements during gait after an immediate benefit.     

Super-resolution in respiratory synchronized positron emission tomography

Respiratory motion is a major source of reduced quality in positron emission tomography (PET). In order to minimize its effects, the use of respiratory synchronized acquisitions, leading to gated frames, has been suggested. Such frames, however, are of low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as they contain reduced statistics. Super-resolution (SR) techniques make use of the motion in a sequence of images in order to improve their quality. They aim at enhancing a low-resolution image belonging to a sequence of images representing different views of the same scene. In this work, a maximum a posteriori (MAP) super-resolution algorithm has been implemented and applied to respiratory gated PET images for motion compensation. An edge preserving Huber regularization term was used to ensure convergence. Motion fields were recovered using a B-spline based elastic registration algorithm. The performance of the SR algorithm was evaluated through the use of both simulated and clinical datasets by assessing image SNR, as well as the contrast, position and extent of the different lesions. Results were compared to summing the registered synchronized frames on both simulated and clinical datasets. The super-resolution image had higher SNR (by a factor of over 4 on average) and lesion contrast (by a factor of 2) than the single respiratory synchronized frame using the same reconstruction matrix size. In comparison to the motion corrected or the motion free images a similar SNR was obtained, while improvements of up to 20% in the recovered lesion size and contrast were measured. Finally, the recovered lesion locations on the SR images were systematically closer to the true simulated lesion positions. These observations concerning the SNR, lesion contrast and size were confirmed on two clinical datasets included in the study. In conclusion, the use of SR techniques applied to respiratory motion synchronized images lead to motion compensation combined with improved image SNR and contrast, without any increase in the overall acquisition times.     

Reduced‐rank space–time adaptive interference suppression for navigation systems based on QR decomposition and approximations of basis functions

This paper presents a novel reduced‐rank space–time adaptive processing (STAP) algorithm for interference suppression in global positioning system (GPS) receivers with low computational complexity for protection against the multipath and jamming interferences. The proposed STAP algorithm is based on the least‐squares (LS) criterion to jointly optimize a projection matrix, which is used for dimensionality reduction, and the reduced‐rank filter. The main novelties are the design of the projection matrix based on approximations of basis functions, the pattern matching between the projection matrix and the received data, and the derivation of a QR decomposition‐based reduced‐rank recursive LS algorithm for practical implementations. The proposed scheme works on an instantaneous basis, i.e. at each time instant, the most suitable pattern and the rank of the projection matrix are selected to reduce the dimensionality of the received data aiming at minimizing the squared error, while using an improved search algorithm to save the effort in finding the best projection matrix. Simulation results in a GPS system show that compared to existing reduced‐rank and full‐rank algorithms, the proposed algorithm has a much lower computational complexity, and remarkably better performance for interference suppression. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reduced-rank interference suppression for DS-CDMA based on interpolated FIR filters

Reduced-rank receivers based on interpolated finite impulse response (FIR) filters for direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) systems are proposed and a novel scheme where the interpolator is rendered time-varying is introduced. The interpolated minimum mean squared error (MMSE) and constrained minimum variance (CMV) solutions are derived for both receiver and interpolator to mitigate multiple access interference (MAI) and intersymbol interference (ISI) in a downlink scenario.     

Joint iterative interference cancellation and parameter estimation for cdma systems

This letter proposes a unified approach to joint iterative parameter estimation and interference cancellation (IC) for uplink CDMA systems in multipath channels. A unified framework is presented in which the IC problem is formulated as an optimization problem of an IC parameter vector for each stage and user. We also propose detectors based on a least-squares (LS) joint optimization method for estimating the linear receiver filter front-end, the IC, and the channel parameters. Simulations for the uplink of a synchronous DS-CDMA system show that the proposed methods significantly outperform the best known IC schemes.