New journal: Applied Water Science

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Radial Basis Function Networks for Conversion of Sound Spectra

In many advanced signal processing tasks, such as pitch shifting, voice conversion or sound synthesis, accurate spectral processing is required. Here, the use of Radial Basis Function Networks (RBFN) is proposed for the modeling of the spectral changes (or conversions) related to the control of important sound parameters, such as pitch or intensity. The identification of such conversion functions is based on a procedure which learns the shape of the conversion from few couples of target spectra from a data set. The generalization properties of RBFNs provides for interpolation with respect to the pitch range. In the construction of the training set, mel-cepstral encoding of the spectrum is used to catch the perceptually most relevant spectral changes. Moreover, a singular value decomposition (SVD) approach is used to reduce the dimension of conversion functions. The RBFN conversion functions introduced are characterized by a perceptually-based fast training procedure, desirable interpolation properties and computational efficiency

Science centres around the world see unrest for art and science in society

In present times it would not be appropriate to say art made a “debut” in science centres, as it has been a feature since the beginning of their history, and it appeared precisely in the ‘parent’ science centre, the Exploratorium. However, now it is time to check the progress. There is unrest for this issue, as in history-making times, and it is worthwhile to follow the new developments and hear the words of the coordinators of the artistic activities in science centres and, more in general, in science museums, and also of the artists involved in the process. The goal is to promote a debate on the final results of this phenomenon and on what will happen next. Also, emphasis should be put on the importance for each museum to define right from the start an ‘art policy’, even a complex one, but somehow structured, that may be employed at many levels according to the needs of the museum itself

Pregnant Women's Attitudes Towards Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Synthesis

This item is only available electronically.Issue addressed: Alcohol consumption during pregnancy is associated with significant risks for the unborn child, including Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, physical deformities and cognitive deficits. Though considerable efforts to minimise alcohol consumption by pregnant women have been made, many women globally continue to consume alcohol while pregnant. As such, there remains a need to understand women's attitudes towards alcohol use in pregnancy. This study aims to investigate pregnant women's attitudes towards the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. Methods: A meta-synthesis using a meta-aggregative approach was employed. Seven databases (CINAHL, EMBASE, PubMed, PsychINFO, Scopus, Sociological Abstracts and Web of Science) were searched from database inception until mid-May 2021. Potentially eligible articles underwent a quality appraisal before being synthesised. Results: 21 studies met inclusion criteria. Critical appraisals revealed that the reporting quality of included studies was generally high. Three synthesised findings describe the complexities of navigating health advice, implications of abstaining from alcohol during pregnancy, and questions of bodily autonomy. Conclusions: Women receive confusing and contradictory advice regarding the consumption of alcohol in pregnancy. Decisions to consume alcohol in pregnancy are complex, nuanced, and socially situated. Therefore, those offering health advice to pregnant women must consider these complexities. So what? Health campaigns and health professionals must offer consistent health advice with a clear rationale for recommendations to avoid alcohol in pregnancy. Interventions that seek to improve pregnant women’s self-efficacy and involve their support networks are also likely reduce alcohol consumption in pregnancy.Thesis (M.Psych(Health)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 202

membrane engineering for green process engineering

Abstract Green process engineering, which is based on the principles of the process intensification strategy, can provide an important contribution toward achieving industrial sustainable development. Green process engineering refers to innovative equipment and process methods that are expected to bring about substantial improvements in chemical and any other manufacturing and processing aspects. It includes decreasing production costs, equipment size, energy consumption, and waste generation, and improving remote control, information fluxes, and process flexibility. Membrane-based technology assists in the pursuit of these principles, and the potential of membrane operations has been widely recognized in the last few years. This work starts by presenting an overview of the membrane operations that are utilized in water treatment and in the production of energy and raw materials. Next, it describes the potential advantages of innovative membrane-based integrated systems. A case study on an integrated membrane system (IMS) for seawater desalination coupled with raw materials production is presented. The aim of this work is to show how membrane systems can contribute to the realization of the goals of zero liquid discharge (ZLD), total raw materials utilization, and low energy consumption

Membrane Condenser: Direct and Indirect Support to CO2 capture

Today membrane technology for gas separation (GS) is a well-consolidated technique, in various cases competing with traditional operations. The separation of air components, H2 from refinery industrial gases, natural gas dehumidification, separation and recovery of CO2 from biogas and natural gas are some examples in which membrane technology is successfully used in industry. Recent constraints and regulations on CO2 emissions from power plants have forced researchers to focus on the separation of CO2 from flue gas streams and to develop specific CO2 capture technologies that can be retrofitted to existing power plants as well designed into new plants with the goal to achieve 90% of CO2 capture limiting the increase in cost of electricity to no more than 35%. Currently, the main strategies for the carbon dioxide capture in a fossil fuel combustion process are: Oxy-fuel combustion, pre-combustion capture and post-combustion capture. The main technical problems are related to the fact that polymeric membranes cannot withstand, however, high temperatures and/or chemically harsh conditions. Refinery gas streams contain impurities such as water vapor, acid gases, olefins, aromatics and other organics. Heavy hydrocarbons can be present in the feed also in petrochemical plants and natural gas treatment, representing a problem, mainly in hollow fiber modules. At relatively low concentrations, these impurities cause membrane plasticization and loss of selectivity, while at higher concentrations they can condense on the membrane surface which could be damaged. Many polymers are swollen or plasticized in presence of hydrocarbons or CO2 at high partial pressure: the result is a significant reduction in their separation performance, or, their damage. Another issue is physical aging which negatively affect the properties of interesting polymers (PTMSP, PIMs, etc.) and limit their applicability. The solution for a successful operation of polymeric modules is a careful selection of feed pre-treatment. In this field, membrane condensers can be considered as a proper solution for pre-treating the flue gas streams that have to be fed to another membrane unit for CO2 separation and whose performances are strongly affected by the presence of such contaminants as SOx, NH3, etc. In a membrane condenser, the waste gaseous stream (e.g. flue gas) from an industrial plant at a certain temperature and, in most cases, water saturated, is fed to the membrane condenser kept at a lower temperature for cooling the gas up to a super-saturation state. The water condenses onto the membrane surface and the hydrophobic nature of the latter prevents the penetration of the liquid into the pores, letting the dehydrated gases pass through the membrane and retaining the liquid water at the retentate side. In comparison with other technologies, the membrane condensers offer higher water recovery and are not affected by desiccant losses, corrosion phenomena typical of traditional condensers or desiccant units. Compared with the dense membrane technology, the latter requires a high pressure difference between the two membrane sides to promote the permeation of water vapor but allows the recovery of a very pure stream. On the contrary, the purity of the water recovered in membrane condensers can be affected by the possible condensation of contaminants – if present in the gaseous stream – but it is sufficient for cooling tower or boiler make up. However, further purifications would be needed to make it drinkable. Moreover, the possibility of controlling, by opportunely tuning the operating conditions, the condensation of contaminants in the liquid water recovered in the retentate side of the membrane condenser could lead to two different options for its use: as a unit for water recovery, minimizing the contaminants content, or, as the pre-treatment stage in post-combustion capture, forcing most of the contaminants to be retained. References Macedonio F., Brunetti A., Barbieri G., Drioli E. Membrane Condenser as a new technology for water recovery from humidified “waste” gaseous streams. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 2012; 52(3): 1160-1167. Macedonio F., Cersosimo M., Brunetti A., Barbieri G., Drioli E. Water recovery from humidified waste gas streams: Quality control using membrane condenser technology. Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification, 2014; 86: 196-203

Accurate glottal model parametrization by integrating audio and high-speed endoscopic video data

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of using video data for voice source parametrization in the representation of voice production through physical modeling. Laryngeal imaging techniques can be effectively used to obtain vocal fold video sequences and to derive time patterns of relevant glottal cues, such as folds edge position or glottal area. In many physically based numerical models of the vocal folds, these parameters are estimated from the inverse filtered glottal flow waveform, obtained from audio recordings of the sound pressure at lips. However, this model inversion process is often problematic and affected by accuracy and robustness issues. It is here discussed how video analysis of the fold vibration might be effectively coupled to the parametric estimation algorithms based on voice recordings, to improve accuracy and robustness of model inversio