The Effects of the Active Hypoxia to the Speech Signal Inharmonicity

When the people are climbing on the mountain, they are exposed to decreased oxygen concentration in the tissue, which is commonly called the active hypoxia. This paper addressed the problem of an acute hypoxia that affects the speech signal at the altitude up to 2500 m. For the experiment, the speech signal database that contains the articulation of vowels was recorded at different alti¬tudes. This speech signal was processed by the originally developed algorithm, which extracted the fundamental frequency and the inharmonicity coefficient. Then, they were subjected to the analysis in order to derive the effects of the acute hypoxia. The results showed that the hypoxia level can be determined by the change of the inharmonicity coefficient. Accordingly, the degree of hypoxia can be estimated

The Effects of the Acute Hypoxia to the Fundamental Frequency of the Speech Signal

When people that live at the small altitudes (up to 400 m above the sea level) climb on the mountain, they are exposed to the effects of an acute hypoxia. As a consequence, theirs oxygen concentration decreases in the tissue. This paper presents the analysis of the acute hypoxia effects to the speech signal at the altitudes up to 2600 m above the sea level. For the experiment, the articulation of vowels (A, E, I, O, U) from the test group of persons was recorded at different altitudes, which creates the speech signal database. The speech signal from database is processed by the original algorithm. As the results, the fundamental frequency and the energy of dissonant intervals of speech signal are obtained. Furthermore, the acute hypoxia effect to the energy distribution in the dissonant intervals of the speech signal is analyzed. At the end, the comparative analysis of the acute hypoxia effects shows that the level of the hypoxia can be determined by the change of the fundamental frequency and the energy of the dissonant intervals of speech signal. Hence, it is possible to bring conclusions about the degree of hypoxia, which in many situations can be of importance for avoiding catastrophic consequences

Simulation Model of the ANC System for Noise Reduction in the Real Ambient

The simulation model of ANC system for noise reduction caused by rotating machines in a room was described in the first part of this paper. This simulation model was presented in an acoustic-electrical diagram. The detailed mathematical analysis of the adaptive algorithm was performed. The second part of the paper presents the simulation results of the application of the ANC system for the noise reduction of fans in a room intended for a classroom. Simulation was performed for sine and real aroused signal. The results are presented both numerically and graphically and the comparative analysis was also done

Fundamental Frequency Estimation of the Speech Signal Compressed by MP3 Algorithm Using PCC Interpolation

In this paper the fundamental frequency estimation results of the MP3 modeled speech signal are analyzed. The estimation of the fundamental frequency was performed by the Picking-Peaks algorithm with the implemented Parametric Cubic Convolution (PCC) interpolation. The efficiency of PCC was tested for Catmull-Rom, Greville and Greville two-parametric kernel. Depending on MSE, a window that gives optimal results was chosen

Enhanced liver fibrosis score as a biomarker for vascular damage assessment in patients with takayasu arteritis—a pilot study

Takayasu Arteritis (TA) is characterized by granulomatous panarteritis, vessel wall fibrosis, and irreversible vascular impairment. The aim of this study is to explore the usefulness of the Enhanced Liver Fibrosis score (ELF), procollagen-III aminoterminal propeptide (PIIINP), tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1), and hyaluronic acid (HA) in assessing vascular damage in TA patients. ELF, PIIINP, TIMP-1, and HA were measured in 24 TA patients, and the results were correlated with the clinical damage indexes (VDI and TADS), an imaging damage score (CARDS), and disease activity scores (NIH and ITAS2010). A mean ELF score 8.42 (±1.12) and values higher than 7.7 (cut-off for liver fibrosis) in 21/24 (87.5%) of patients were detected. The VDI and TADS correlated significantly to ELF (p < 0.01). Additionally, a strong association across ELF and CARDS (p < 0.0001), PIIINP and CARDS (p < 0.001), and HA and CARDS (p < 0.001) was observed. No correlations of the tested biomarkers with inflammatory parameters, NIH, and ITAS2010 scores were found. To our knowledge, this is the first study that suggests the association of the serum biomarkers PIIINP, HA, and ELF score with damage but not with disease activity in TA patients. The ELF score and PIIINP may be useful biomarkers reflecting an ongoing fibrotic process and quantifying vascular damage

Commercial and sexualized nationalism on Serbian reality TV

This article explores the way in which the portrayal of gender becomes linked to that of ethno-nationalism on the popular Serbian reality show The Palace. On the basis of a textual analysis of the public reactions to the reality show and its interpretations by the local audiences in Slovenia and Serbia, we claim that the show promotes specifically gendered and sexualized ethno-national identities, and that the interpretation of the show continues to be aligned with discourses of ethno-nationalist belonging. We argue that commercial, ethno-national femininity is currently employed to re-legitimate patriarchal nationalism in the name of freedom and empowerment via self-promotion