A Highly Robust Audio Monitoring System for Radio Broadcasting

Proposing a novel approach for monitoringsongs for the radio broadcasting channels is veryimportant for the interest of singers, writers andmusicians in the musical industry. Singers, writers andmusicians have a claim to intellectual property rightsfor their songs broadcast over all the radio channels.According to this intellectual property rights actsingers, writers and musicians should be paid for theirsongs broadcast over all the radio channels. Therefore wepropose a real time audio monitoring approach to solvethis problem which includes our own audio recognitionalgorithm. It is easy to recognize a song, when you providethe original high quality blueprint of the song as input. Butwe can’t expect such kind of audio input from radiochannels since lots of transformations are possible beforereaching the end user or listener. For example, addingenvironmental effects such as noise, adding commercialson the song as watermarks, playing more than one songas a chain without adding any silence between them,playing a part of the song, playing same song in variousspeeds and so on. These transformations cause change inthe uniqueness of particular song and make the problemeven more difficult. The algorithm we proposing is resistantto noise and distortion as well as it is capable of recognizingshort segment of song when broadcasting over the radiochannels. At the end of the processing our system generatesa descriptive report including title of the song, singer of thesong, writer of the song, composer of the song, number oftimes it was played and when it was played for all songs fora particular period for all radio broadcasting channels. Weevaluate our system against various types of real timescenarios and achieved overall higher level of accuracy(96%) at the end

Valuation of Ecosystem Services Provided by Pigeon Island National Park, Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

Pigeon Island National Park (PINP) is a complex marine ecosystem, which is a part of extensive system of marine habitats in Trincomalee area. PINP provides a number of Ecosystem Services that include provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services. Although this has been included under the list of conservation, PINP associated ecosystem is under the risk of degradation due to overexploitation of extractive users and additional pressure by booming tourism activities.Present study makes an attempt to establish a gross, lower bound value for the conservation of PINP. This study has asses the willingness-to-pay for conservation of the resource users in the form of a hypothetical scenario of village level corporative society. The assessment was based on surveys covered at households (150) and visitors (170) separately. Key Informant discussions & Focus Group Discussions were also held in order to gather qualitative information with the relevant stakeholders.According to the results obtained from the study, visitors are willing to contribute Rs. 68/= month and when this amount is extrapolated to annual basis it amounts Rs.60, 702,487.68 per year. Households are willing to contribute Rs.16 per month when this amount is extrapolated to population in Kuchcaveli DS division which PINP belonged to, on annual basis it amounts to Rs. 1,653,566.40 per year. These amounts can be considered in calculating national income to express the contribution from this pristine ecosystem to the national economy and hence improve the effectiveness of policy decisions.Keywords: Pigeon Island National Park, Ecosystem service

Counseling Update: A Flexible Monitoring Method for the Client and Practitioner

Recent years have seen a number of articles questioning both the utility and practicality of single-case designs. The authors propose a flexible monitoring method for practice evaluation. The proposed method is presented as a dynamic model, one that utilizes the existing evaluative procedures of the practitioner. This flexible method is proposed within the general outlines of developmental research. It is proposed as a method designed to lead practitioners toward an empirical model of practice. Some case examples are provided to substantiate the utility and value of the model.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68429/2/10.1177_104973159300300203.pd

Electric and magnetic signatures of dust devils from the 2000–2001 MATADOR desert tests

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94763/1/jgre1728.pd

Failure Mechanisms and Local Scour at Coastal Structures induced by Tsunamis

On March 11 2011, an exceptionally large tsunami event was triggered by a massive earthquake offshore, the northeast coast of Japan, which affected coastal infrastructure such as seawalls, coastal dikes and breakwaters in the Tohoku region. Such infrastructure was built to protect against the Level 1 tsunamis that previously hit the region, but not for events as significant as the 2011 Tohoku tsunami, which was categorized as a Level 2 tsunami [Shibayama et al. 2013]. The failure mechanisms of concrete-armoured dikes, breakwaters and seawalls due to Level 2 tsunamis are still not fully understood by researchers and engineers. This paper investigates the failure modes and mechanisms of damaged coastal structures in Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures, following the authors' post-disaster field surveys carried out between 2011 and 2013. Six significant failure mechanisms were identified for the coastal dikes and seawalls affected by this tsunami: 1) Leeward toe scour failure, 2) Crown armour failure, 3) Leeward slope armour failure, 4) Seaward toe and armour failure, 5) Overturning failure, and 6) Parapet wall failure, in which leeward toe scour being recognized as the major failure mechanism in most surveyed locations. The authors also propose a simple practical mathematical model for predicting the scour depth at the leeward toe of the coastal dikes, by considering the effects of the tsunami hydrodynamics, the soil properties and the type of structure. The key advantage of this model is that it depends entirely on quantities that are measurable in the field. Furthermore this model was further refined by conducting a series of hydraulic model experiments aimed to understand the governing factors of the leeward toe scour failure. Finally, based on the results obtained, key recommendations are given for the design of resilient coastal defence structures that can survive a level 2 tsunami event

An experiment in social engineering in serving the families of predelinquents

One hundred and two predelinquent adolescents were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: an experimental condition in which behavioral contracting services were offered both at home and in school or a control condition in which clients were told that they could not be accommodated by project therapists and were informed about the possibility of their receiving treatment in other programs in the community. Most of those who were assigned to the control condition did not avail themselves of services in these other programs. Results indicate that, relative to the controls, the behaviorally treated youth scored small but statistically significant improvement relative to the controls on five measures: ratings of school behavior by the person who originally referred them for service, by their teachers, by their mothers, and by their fathers, and ratings of their parent—child interactions as measured by their mothers. Gains were also reported in mothers' ratings of their children's behavior at home. The failure of significant gains to be made in two measures of school performance grades and attendance is explained by “the failure o f the treatment techniques to over-come an age-related deterioration in these areas found among most children in the participating schools. The failure of fathers to find significant improvement in their relationships with the referred adolescents is viewed as a consequence of unanticipated changes in the intrafamilial balance of power resulting from contracting services. Finally, a subsidiary analysis showed that the contracting service appeared to offer the greatest gain to the demographically defined sub-groups of youths who are among the population-at-risk in many juvenile courts .Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44596/1/10802_2004_Article_BF00917762.pd