Integrated audio-video synchronization system for use in multimedia applications

The use of multimedia system have moved beyond the studio barriers and into the homes. As computers become more powerful, multimedia systems become more realizable on the PC. As these multimedia systems become more complicated, the need to provide complex integration systems and synchronization arises. To develop a multimedia system, one must ensure that a synchronization approach is in place to solve the timing issues related to the media types involved. Temporal information in multimedia systems must be maintained such that no loss of coherency is endured. The system must ensure that no matter how much processing is performed on the signals, the output has to maintain the temporal integrity of the signals as they were when they were inputted. This thesis develops a multimedia system that processes two media streams. Audio and video streams are fed to the system. The system produces an object segmented output, (silhouettes of the object) along with the recognized speech from the audio. The speech that is to be recognized by the system is spoken by the objects/speakers. The challenge lies in maintaining the synchronization and integrating the video and the recognized speech at the output. Note that the system is a stream based system by that the video and audio are continuously captured and processed. This thesis presents a solution to the problem of synchronization in the temporal domain and the overall integration of the multimedia system. The thesis presents a time-stamp approach to solve the synchronization problem between audio and video signals. This approach is adaptive to the cases where the video processing delay is larger or smaller than the audio processing delay. The contributions include the verification of using time-stamps in the synchronization process and that it is possible to synchronize heavily delayed signals. The system requires an integration process such that the audio and video signals are integrated with one another at the outpu

An Efficient Measure for Nonlinear Distortion Severity due to HPA in Downlink DS-CDMA Signals

This paper deals with the nonlinear distortion (NLD) effects of high power amplifiers (HPAs) on direct sequence-code division multiple access systems. Such a distortion drastically degrades the system performance in terms of bit error rate (BER) degradation and spectral regrowth. Much effort has been conducted to minimize NLD. A key requirement to do so is to define a certain measure for the HPA nonlinearity, which when reduced often allows NLD to also be reduced. Several measures were proposed such as peak-to-average power ratio, instantaneous power variance, and cubic metric. In this paper, we show that such measures are not closely related to NLD and their reduction does not always lead to optimum performance. Hence, we introduce an efficient measure, namely, nonlinearity severity (NLS), to characterize NLD effects, as an alternative to the existing measures. The NLS is characterized by having direct link to the system performance as it is formulated based on the signal characteristics contributing to BER performance and spectral regrowth. Additionally, a major advantage of the NLS measure is that it is linked to the IBO level allowing

Effect of oxytocin infusion versus tranexamic acid on reducing blood loss during hysteroscopic myomectomy: a randomized controlled trial

Background: Women undergoing hysteroscopic myomectomy are prone to significant blood loss and hematological disturbances. Oxytocin is a uterotonic drug, used mainly in obstetric practice. Tranexamic acid is a haemostatic drug that has been used to reduce blood loss after trauma and in many surgeries. The aim of our study was to compare the safety and efficacy of oxytocin versus tranexamic acid in reducing perioperative blood loss during hysteroscopic myomectomy.Methods: This study included 60 patients scheduled for hysteroscopic myomectomy allocated into 2 groups: group A: received 10 mg/kg of tranexamic acid slowly intravenous after induction of anesthesia, while group B: received infusion of 10 IU of oxytocin at a rate of 400 mIU/min throughout the procedure. Preoperative and postoperative hemoglobin and hematocrit levels, need for blood transfusion, duration of operation, complications and medications adverse effects were recorded.Results: The 2 groups were comparable in terms of the mean difference between preoperative and postoperative hemoglobin a hematocrit levels, operative time, operative complication and medications’ adverse effects. No patients needed blood component transfusion in either group.Conclusions: It can be concluded that tranexamic acid and oxytocin are equally effective in reducing blood loss and transfusion requirements during hysteroscopic myomectomy with comparable good safety profiles. Both of them can be used according to availability and surgeon preferences

Effect of nanoparticles on biological contamination of in vitro cultures and organogenic regeneration of banana

Abstract This study aimed to identify biological contaminants of banana in vitro cultures. We also tested the effect of Zn or ZnO nanoparticles on elimination of some bacterial and fungal contaminants and their influence regeneration. Nine strains of bacterial contaminants (Cellulomonas uda, Cellulomonas flarigena, Corynebacterium panrometabolum, Bacillus megaterium, Staphylococcus spp., Klebsiella spp., Erwinia cypripedii, Pseudomonas spp. and Proteus spp.) and four fungal (Fusarium spp., Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp. and Candida spp.) contaminants were identified in nanoparticles-free media of banana in vitro cultures. They eventually led the explants death. The contamination-free cultures of banana in vitro cultures were obtained as a result of application of nano Zn and ZnO particles to the culture MS media, with no negative effect on regeneration. The callus growth decreased while total proline as well as SOD, CAT and POX activities were increased significantly, when the nanoparticles doses increased. The highest percent of somatic embryogenesis was observed in MS media supplemented with 100 mg/L nano Zn followed by nano ZnO. Excellent shooting, rooting and regenerated plantlets were observed also in MS+100 mg/L nano Zn and ZnO. Regenerated plantlets were successfully acclimatized with about 98% efficiency for the experimental period (one month). Nanoparticles treated somaclones accumulated more proline, chlorophyll, antioxidant enzymes activity and developed more dry weight accumulation than the control. In conclusion, the microbial contaminants in banana in vitro culture can effectively be eliminated by incorporation of nano Zn and nano ZnO particles on growth media at different concentrations. However, 100 mg/L dose was preferable because it showed the best effects on increasing the regeneration of plantlets with well-formed root systems. Further studies are needed to investigate the mechanisms and the side effects of nanoparticles on genetic stability of banana in vitro cultures

Nanotechnology, Occupational Health and Safety Concerns

Copyright: © 2013 El-Helaly M. This is an open-access article distributed unde

SYNCHRONIZATION OF PROCESSED AUDIO-VIDEO SIGNALS USING TIME-STAMPS

ABSTRACT This paper proposes a system for synchronizing audio and video signals after they have been captured and processed in separate modules. The captured audio signal is run through a speech recognizer while the video signal, captured using a single camera, is run through an object detector. The synchronization system uses time-stamps from both processes to produce a synchronized output containing the detected objects and their relative recognized speech. The processed audio and video streams are buffered and the paper proposes an integration scheme such that a synchronized output is realized

An Efficient Measure for Nonlinear Distortion Severity due to HPA in Downlink DS-CDMA Signals

This paper deals with the nonlinear distortion (NLD) effects of high power amplifiers (HPAs) on direct sequence-code division multiple access systems. Such a distortion drastically degrades the system performance in terms of bit error rate (BER) degradation and spectral regrowth. Much effort has been conducted to minimize NLD. A key requirement to do so is to define a certain measure for the HPA nonlinearity, which when reduced often allows NLD to also be reduced. Several measures were proposed such as peak-to-average power ratio, instantaneous power variance, and cubic metric. In this paper, we show that such measures are not closely related to NLD and their reduction does not always lead to optimum performance. Hence, we introduce an efficient measure, namely, nonlinearity severity (NLS), to characterize NLD effects, as an alternative to the existing measures. The NLS is characterized by having direct link to the system performance as it is formulated based on the signal characteristics contributing to BER performance and spectral regrowth. Additionally, a major advantage of the NLS measure is that it is linked to the IBO level allowing the possibility of improving performance at all IBO levels of interest.</p

IJOMEH 2010;23(4) WORKPLACE EXPOSURES AND MALE INFERTILITY -A CASE-CONTROL STUDY

Abstract Objectives: This study examined the association between male infertility and certain occupational exposures. Material and Methods: A case-control study was carried out from January 2008 to February 2009; on 255 infertile men and 267 fertile men controls. Occupational exposure to certain chemical, physical and psychological workplace hazards was assessed by self-report questionnaire. General and andrological examination was conducted for all participants, however, semen analysis was done only for the infertile men cases, because the fertile men controls refused to give semen samples. Results: After adjustment of confounders, the results revealed that the following workplace exposure factors significantly increased the risk of male infertility: solvents and painting materials (OR: 3.88, 95% CI: 1.50-10.03), lead (OR: 5.43, 95% CI: 1.28-23.13), VDTs and computers (OR: 8.01, 95% CI: 4.03-15.87), shift work (OR: 3.60, 95% CI: 1.12-11.57) and work-related stress (fairly present: OR: 3.11, 95% CI: 1.85-5.24; often present: OR: 3.76, 95% CI: 1.96-7.52). Conclusion: In spite of the limitations of this study, it supports other studies that raise the attention to minimize the exposure to the workplace hazards that may affect the fertility of male workers