Local Visual Microphones: Improved Sound Extraction from Silent Video

Sound waves cause small vibrations in nearby objects. A few techniques exist in the literature that can extract sound from video. In this paper we study local vibration patterns at different image locations. We show that different locations in the image vibrate differently. We carefully aggregate local vibrations and produce a sound quality that improves state-of-the-art. We show that local vibrations could have a time delay because sound waves take time to travel through the air. We use this phenomenon to estimate sound direction. We also present a novel algorithm that speeds up sound extraction by two to three orders of magnitude and reaches real-time performance in a 20KHz video.Comment: Accepted to BMVC 201

On the performance of 1-level LDPC lattices

The low-density parity-check (LDPC) lattices perform very well in high dimensions under generalized min-sum iterative decoding algorithm. In this work we focus on 1-level LDPC lattices. We show that these lattices are the same as lattices constructed based on Construction A and low-density lattice-code (LDLC) lattices. In spite of having slightly lower coding gain, 1-level regular LDPC lattices have remarkable performances. The lower complexity nature of the decoding algorithm for these type of lattices allows us to run it for higher dimensions easily. Our simulation results show that a 1-level LDPC lattice of size 10000 can work as close as 1.1 dB at normalized error probability (NEP) of $10^{-5}$.This can also be reported as 0.6 dB at symbol error rate (SER) of $10^{-5}$ with sum-product algorithm.Comment: 1 figure, submitted to IWCIT 201

Evaluation of the susceptibility of the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, to a selection of novel biorational insecticides using an artificial diet

An improved technique was developed to assay the toxicity of insecticides against aphids using an artificial diet. The susceptibility of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris) (Hemiptera: Aphidoidea) was determined for a selection of novel biorational insecticides, each representing a novel mode of action. Flonicamid, a novel systemic insecticide with selective activity as feeding blocker against sucking insects, showed high toxicity against first-instar A. pisum nymphs with an LC50 of 20.4 mu g/ml after 24 h, and of 0.24 mu g/ml after 72 h. The toxicity was compared with another feeding blocker, pymetrozine, and the neonicotinoid, imidacloprid. In addition, four insect growth regulators were tested. The chitin synthesis inhibitor flufenoxuron, the juvenile hormone analogue pyriproxyfen, and the azadirachtin compound Neem Azal-T/S showed strong effects and reduced the aphid population by 50% after 3 days of treatment at a concentration of 7-9 mu g/ml. The ecdysone agonist tested, halofenozide, was less potent. In conclusion, the improved aphid feeding apparatus can be useful as a miniature screening device for insecticides against different aphid pests. The present study demonstrated rapid and strong toxicity of flonicamid, and other biorational insecticides towards A. pisum

An Empirical Analysis of Imports of Iran: Are Imports, Exchange Rate and GDP Cointegrated?

This paper investigates the effect of exchange rate and other variables such as world GDP, domestic GDP and Inflation on Iran’s Imports using cointegration method suggested by Gregory and Hansen. The empirical analysis indicates that there is a long run relationship between imports and these variables as they are cointegrated and there is an evidence of a structural shift during 1995. The empirical results indicate that the variables have expected signs. In view of these findings some policy suggestions have been made

Modeling transport of charged species in pore networks: solution of the Nernst-Planck equations coupled with fluid flow and charge conservation equations

A pore network modeling (PNM) framework for the simulation of transport of charged species, such as ions, in porous media is presented. It includes the Nernst-Planck (NP) equations for each charged species in the electrolytic solution in addition to a charge conservation equation which relates the species concentration to each other. Moreover, momentum and mass conservation equations are adopted and there solution allows for the calculation of the advective contribution to the transport in the NP equations. The proposed framework is developed by first deriving the numerical model equations (NMEs) corresponding to the partial differential equations (PDEs) based on several different time and space discretization schemes, which are compared to assess solutions accuracy. The derivation also considers various charge conservation scenarios, which also have pros and cons in terms of speed and accuracy. Ion transport problems in arbitrary pore networks were considered and solved using both PNM and finite element method (FEM) solvers. Comparisons showed an average deviation, in terms of ions concentration, between PNM and FEM below $5\%$ with the PNM simulations being over ${10}^{4}$ times faster than the FEM ones for a medium including about ${10}^{4}$ pores. The improved accuracy is achieved by utilizing more accurate discretization schemes for both the advective and migrative terms, adopted from the CFD literature. The NMEs were implemented within the open-source package OpenPNM based on the iterative Gummel algorithm with relaxation. This work presents a comprehensive approach to modeling charged species transport suitable for a wide range of applications from electrochemical devices to nanoparticle movement in the subsurface

Attribution of ghrelin to cancer; Attempts to unravel an apparent controversy

Ghrelin is an endogenous peptide hormone mainly produced in the stomach. It has been known to regulate energy homeostasis, stimulate secretion of growth hormone, and mediate many other physiologic effects. Various effects attributed to ghrelin contribute to many aspects of cancer development and progression. Accordingly, a large body of evidence has emerged about the association of ghrelin with several types of cancer in scales of cell-line, animal, and human studies. However, existing data are controversial. This controversy occurs in two main domains: one is the controversial results in local effects of ghrelin on different types of human cancer cell-lines; the second is the apparent disagreement in the results o