Between States, Hard Feelings Over a Rock’s Place

Article published in the New York Times on the dispute over Indian Head Rock from February 11, 2008.https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/indian_head_rock/1042/thumbnail.jp

Real-time Sound Source Separation For Music Applications

Sound source separation refers to the task of extracting individual sound sources from some number of mixtures of those sound sources. In this thesis, a novel sound source separation algorithm for musical applications is presented. It leverages the fact that the vast majority of commercially recorded music since the 1950s has been mixed down for two channel reproduction, more commonly known as stereo. The algorithm presented in Chapter 3 in this thesis requires no prior knowledge or learning and performs the task of separation based purely on azimuth discrimination within the stereo field. The algorithm exploits the use of the pan pot as a means to achieve image localisation within stereophonic recordings. As such, only an interaural intensity difference exists between left and right channels for a single source. We use gain scaling and phase cancellation techniques to expose frequency dependent nulls across the azimuth domain, from which source separation and resynthesis is carried out. The algorithm is demonstrated to be state of the art in the field of sound source separation but also to be a useful pre-process to other tasks such as music segmentation and surround sound upmixing

Screening of energy efficient technologies for industrial buildings' retrofit

This chapter discusses screening of energy efficient technologies for industrial buildings' retrofit

Why Canada Should Not Adopt Fair Use: A Joint Submission to the Copyright Consultations

This submission addresses the issue of fair use, in both the traditional sense, and in the sense of an expanded and more flexible fair dealing regime. Fair use should not be adopted as it leads to uncertainty, expensive litigation, and leaves important public policy decisions to be made by courts instead of Parliament. Further, fair use would reduce revenues available to creators, (which, in turn would reduce the capacity of creators to innovate), while potentially undermining legitimate collective licensing models. Fair use may also be inconsistent with Canada‘s international treaty obligations. Finally, in light of international experience rejecting the adoption of fair use it would be imprudent for Canada to do so

Morphological Analysis Based on a Fractional Dynamic Model for Hyphal Growth

The development of methods capable of accurately characterising the morphology of filamentous microbes represents a significant challenge to biotechnologists. This is because the productivity of many industrial fermentation processes is heavily dependent on the morphological form adopted by an organism. It is therefore of significant value if a quantitative model and associated metric(s) for morphological forms determined by complex phenotypes can be determined non-invasively, e.g. through image analysis. Specific interest is in the quantification of the branching behaviour of an organism. This is due to the link between branching frequency, biomass and metabolite production. In this paper we present a model for three-dimensional microbial growth that is based on a fractional dynamic model involving separable coordinate geometry. This provides a focus for an approach reported in this paper where microbial growth can be quantified using a sample microscopic digital image. In particular, we study the fractal dimension of fungal mycelial structures by generating a ‘fractal signal’ based on the object boundary. In the analysis of a population of Aspergillus oryzae mycelia, both the fractal dimension and hyphal growth unit are found to increase together over time. Further, through an analysis of different populations of Penicillium chrysogenum and A. oryzae mycelia, cultivated under a variety of different conditions, we show that there is a statistically significant logarithmic correlation between the boundary fractal dimension and hyphal growth unit

Why Canada Should Not Adopt Fair Use: A Joint Submission to the Copyright Consultations

This submission addresses the issue of fair use, in both the traditional sense, and in the sense of an expanded and more flexible fair dealing regime. Fair use should not be adopted as it leads to uncertainty, expensive litigation, and leaves important public policy decisions to be made by courts instead of Parliament. Further, fair use would reduce revenues available to creators, (which, in turn would reduce the capacity of creators to innovate), while potentially undermining legitimate collective licensing models. Fair use may also be inconsistent with Canada‘s international treaty obligations. Finally, in light of international experience rejecting the adoption of fair use it would be imprudent for Canada to do so

Localization Quality Assessment in Source Separation-Based Upmixing Algorithms

In this paper we explore the source localisation accuracy and perceived spatial distortion of a source separation based upmix algorithm for 2 to 5 channel conversion. Unlike traditional upmixing techniques, source separation based techniques allow individual sources to be separated from the mixture and repositioned independently within the surround sound field. Generally, spectral artefacts and source interference generated during the source separation process are masked when the upmixed sound field is presented in its entirety; however, this can lead to perceived spatial distortion and ambiguous source localisation. Here, we use subjective testing to compare the localisation perceived on a purposely generated discrete presentation and an upmix (2 to 5 channel) of the same source material using a source separation based upmix algorithm

Morphological Analysis from Images of Hyphal Growth Using a Fractional Dynamic Model

The development of methods capable of accurately characterising the morphology of filamentous microbes represents a significant challenge to biotechnologists. This is because the productivity of many industrial fermentation processes is heavily dependent on the morphological form adopted by an organism. It is therefore of significant value if a quantitative model and associated metric(s) for morphological forms determined by complex phenotypes can be determined non-invasively, e.g. through image analysis. Specific interest is in the quantification of the branching behaviour of an organism. This is due to the link between branching frequency, biomass and metabolite production. In this paper we present a model for three-dimensional microbial growth that is based on a fractional dynamic model involving separable coordinate geometry. This provides the focus for the approach reported in this paper where microbial growth can be quantified using a sample microscopic digital image. In particular, we study the fractal dimension of fungal mycelial structures by generating a ‘fractal signal’ based on the object boundary. In the analysis of a population of Aspergillus oryzae mycelia, both the fractal dimension and hyphal growth unit are found to increase together over time. Further, through an extensive analysis of different populations of Penicillium chrysogenum and A. oryzae mycelia, cultivated under a variety of different conditions, we show that there is a statistically significant logarithmic correlation between the boundary fractal dimension and hyphal growth unit

Commodity futures and momentum trading: implications for behavioural finance

The purpose of this paper is to expand the research on momentum strategies in the securities market. Specifically, it examines the momentum anomaly in respect to the commodity futures market, and closely follows recent work as studied by Miffre and Rallis (2007). This study identifies one statistically significant short term (1 to 12 months) momentum strategy yielding a return of 7.7% a year. This return is found to be substantially higher during specific periods of the sample. The strategy?s average abnormal gain caused by the continuation of returns is shown to be robust to the risk based explanations posited by many authors of the topic. Since the risk explanations do not hold for the momentum anomaly, the alternative explanation indicates towards market inefficiency. The results from this study indicate that market inefficiency is a plausible explanation for momentum profits as realised. Specifically, the abnormal profits seem to be a consequence of irrational investor behaviour, which tends to lead to an under-reaction to new market information