Speech, audio, and acoustic processing for multimedia

The primary advances in speech and audio signal processing that contributed to the maturing of multimedia applications are discussed in the areas of speech and audio signal compression, speech synthesis, acoustic processing and echo control, and network echo cancellation     

ERCP and CT findings of ectopic drainage of the common bile duct into the duodenal bulb

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate ERCP and CT findings of ectopic drainage of the common bile duct into the duodenal bulb. CONCLUSION: Although rare, the diagnosis of ectopic drainage of the common bile duct into the duodenal bulb is important to prevent inadvertent damage during biliary tract or gastric surgery and to clarify the cause of chronic peptic ulcers.     

Pattern recognition using discriminative feature extraction

We propose a new design method, called discriminative feature extraction for practical modular pattern recognizers. A key concept of discriminative feature extraction is the design of an overall recognizer in a manner consistent with recognition error minimization. The utility of the method is demonstrated in a Japanese vowel recognition task     

岩心PI值试验研究及应用

主要论述了在多功能采油化学用剂评价仪上进行的岩心ＰＩ值试验的步骤，现象及结论。重点考察了岩心ＰＩ值与渗透率、流量及注入截面面积的关系；平行管岩心复合ＰＩ值和其中单管岩心ＰＩ值的关系。     

Modelling of the extraction equilibrium of zinc from chloride solutions with tri-n-octylphosphine oxide

The extraction of zinc from chloride solutions with tri-n-octylphosphine oxide (TOPO) dissolved in benzene has been thermodynamically studied based on the law of mass action. A model employing the simplified Pitzer equations for stoichiometric activity coefficient estimations is found to be effective for the explanation and prediction of the distribution data, and the thermodynamic extraction constant is determined as log K_et = 5.16 ± 0.11 at 20°C.     

Human Body Posture Classification by a Neural Fuzzy Network and Home Care System Application

A new classification approach for human body postures based on a neural fuzzy network is proposed in this paper, and the approach is applied to detect emergencies that are caused by accidental falls. Four main body postures are used for posture classification, including standing, bending, sitting, and lying. After the human body is segmented from the background, the classification features are extracted from the silhouette. The body silhouette is projected onto horizontal and vertical axes, and then, a discrete Fourier transform is applied to each projected histogram. Magnitudes of significant Fourier transform coefficients together with the silhouette length-width ratio are used as features. The classifier is designed by a neural fuzzy network. The four postures can be classified with high accuracy according to experimental results. Classification results are also applicable to home care emergency detection of a person who suddenly falls and remains in the lying posture for a period of time due to experiments that were performed.     

Cardio-pulmonary function during acute unilateral occlusion of the pulmonary artery in broilers fed diets containing normal or high levels of arginine-HCl

Cardio-pulmonary function was measured in male broilers reared on diets formulated to contain 1.5% arginine (NORMAL group) or 2.5% arginine (ARGININE group). A snare placed around the right pulmonary artery permitted acute shunting of the entire cardiac output (CO) through the left pulmonary artery, resulting in sustained increases in blood flow (BF) through the left lung in both groups. The unilateral increase in BF was accompanied by sustained increases in pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) in the NORMAL group. However, following initial transient increases in PAP and PVR in the ARGININE group, subsequent pulmonary vasodilation gradually reduced PVR, and thus PAP, in spite of the ongoing elevation of BF through the left lung. The capacity of the pulmonary vasculature in the ARGININE group to accommodate an increased BF at a normal PAP accounts for the previously reported lower incidence of pulmonary hypertension syndrome (PHS, ascites) in cold-stressed broilers fed supplemental dietary arginine. Hypoxemia and respiratory acidosis ensued rapidly in both groups after tightening the pulmonary artery snare, in spite of a compensatory increase in the respiratory rate. The gradual return of PVR and PAP to presnare levels in the ARGININE group did not eliminate the concurrent ventilation-perfusion mismatch caused by the increased rate of BF through the left lung. Tightening the pulmonary artery snare caused mean systemic arterial pressure (MAP) to drop from control levels of approximately 98 mm Hg to sustained hypotensive levels of approximately 65 mm Hg in both groups. This systemic hypotension was caused by decreases in CO and total peripheral resistance (TPR). The reduction in CO were caused by reduction in stroke volume (SV) rather than heart rate (HR), suggesting that acutely tightening the pulmonary artery snare increased PVR sufficiently to impede left ventricular filling. Accordingly, the maximum increment in PAP attainable by the right ventricle during acute increases in PVR apparently was inadequate to propel the entire CO through the pulmonary vasculature, setting the stage for the congestive right-sided pooling of blood routinely associated with PHS in broilers.