Developing A System For Blind Acoustic Source Localization And Separation

This dissertation presents innovate methodologies for locating, extracting, and separating multiple incoherent sound sources in three-dimensional (3D) space; and applications of the time reversal (TR) algorithm to pinpoint the hyper active neural activities inside the brain auditory structure that are correlated to the tinnitus pathology. Specifically, an acoustic modeling based method is developed for locating arbitrary and incoherent sound sources in 3D space in real time by using a minimal number of microphones, and the Point Source Separation (PSS) method is developed for extracting target signals from directly measured mixed signals. Combining these two approaches leads to a novel technology known as Blind Sources Localization and Separation (BSLS) that enables one to locate multiple incoherent sound signals in 3D space and separate original individual sources simultaneously, based on the directly measured mixed signals. These technologies have been validated through numerical simulations and experiments conducted in various non-ideal environments where there are non-negligible, unspecified sound reflections and reverberation as well as interferences from random background noise. Another innovation presented in this dissertation is concerned with applications of the TR algorithm to pinpoint the exact locations of hyper-active neurons in the brain auditory structure that are directly correlated to the tinnitus perception. Benchmark tests conducted on normal rats have confirmed the localization results provided by the TR algorithm. Results demonstrate that the spatial resolution of this source localization can be as high as the micrometer level. This high precision localization may lead to a paradigm shift in tinnitus diagnosis, which may in turn produce a more cost-effective treatment for tinnitus than any of the existing ones

Delivery practices in a rural area of North Karnataka A cross sectional study

Background and aims: InIndia, various programs have been launched to provide primary health care to women and children, particularly in the rural areas. Most life threatening obstetric complications require hospital management to prevent maternal mortality. InIndia, most of the rural deliveries are conducted at home. Since Factors affecting non utilization of primary health centre for deliveries are not completely understood hence the present study was undertaken to study the delivery practices in the village and also to know the various reasons for non utilization of primary health centre for deliveries. Methods and Material: This community based cross-sectional study was done during the period of October 1st 2004 to October 1st 2005 among all the women (n=63) who had delivered during this period residing in Vantamuri village which is a rural field practice area of Primary Health Centre (PHC) attached to a Medical College in South India of Belagavi District. Data was collected using predesigned and pretested questionnaire. Statistical analysis was done by using percentages and chi square test. Results: Most of the study participants (53.96%) delivered at home followed by private hospitals (25.39%). In this study among the home deliveries only 23.53% were conducted by trained dais where as remaining 76.47% were conducted by others. When we enquired about reasons for not utilizing Primary Health Centre, Vantamuri for deliveries most (33.33%) of study participants told that they delivered at their mother place, some (22.80%) told that there was no proper facility at Primary Health Centre. A significant association (p 0.001) was found between place of delivery and early initiation of breast feeding. Conclusion: There needs to have an end for home deliveries which can be achieved by Strengthening the information, education and communication (IEC) activities. The facilities in the Primary Health Centre should be improved both in terms of manpower and infrastructur

On the Solution to Octic Equations

We present a novel decomposition method to decompose an eighth-degree polynomial equation, into its two constituent fourth-degree polynomials, as factors, leading to its solution. The salient feature of the octic equation solved here is that, the sum of its four roots being equal to the sum of the remaining four roots. We derive the condition to be satisfied by coefficients so that the given octic is solvable by the proposed method

Comparison of concentrations in the breathing zone

The concentrations in the breathing zone were analyzed on three human subjects in simulating work conditions. The experiments were carried out in a wind tunnel having 40&feet; x 12&feet; x 9&feet; dimensions. Ethanol vapor mixed with nitrogen was used as a tracer gas. Samples were taken at the forehead, adjacent to the nose (nose), the mouth, neck, chest, right lapel, left lapel. Nose was sampled at l liter per minute (lpm) and 0.15 lpm at different times, while the others were sampled at 0.15 lpm at two different wind tunnel velocities. The source was released at naval height for each subject.;It was concluded that wind tunnel velocities, and ratios of the chest and the shoulder dimensions played a significant role in the concentration among the sampling sites. Sampling rate affected only the concentration at the nose and at no other sampling site. Further studies would be useful in determining the impact of wind tunnel velocities and the selection of human subjects with a variety of anthropometrical dimensions and clothing use

An Estimation of Distribution Improved Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

PSO is a powerful evolutionary algorithm used for finding global solution to a multidimensional problem. Particles in PSO tend to re-explore already visited bad solution regions of search space because they do not learn as a whole. This is avoided by restricting particles into promising regions through probabilistic modeling of the archive of best solutions. This paper presents hybrids of estimation of distribution algorithm and two PSO variants. These algorithms are tested on benchmark functions having high dimensionalities. Results indicate that the methods strengthen the global optimization abilities of PSO and therefore, serve as attractive choices to determine solutions to optimization problems in areas including sensor networks

Quality of Service Issues for Reinforcement Learning Based Routing Algorithm for Ad-Hoc Networks

Mobile ad-hoc networks are dynamic networks which are decentralized and autonomous in nature. Many routing algorithms have been proposed for these dynamic networks. It is an important problem to model Quality of Service requirements on these types of algorithms which traditionally have certain limitations. To model this scenario we have considered a reinforcement learning algorithm SAMPLE. SAMPLE promises to deal effectively with congestion and under high traffic load. As it is natural for ad-hoc networks to move in groups, we have considered the various group mobility models. The Pursue Mobility Model with its superiormobilitymetrics exhibits better performance. At the data link layer we have considered IEEE 802.11e, a MAC layer which has provisions to support QoS. As mobile ad-hoc networks are constrained by resources like energy and bandwidth, it is imperative for them to cooperate in a reasonably selfish manner. Thus, in this paper we propose cooperation with a moderately punishing algorithm based on game theory. The proposed algorithm in synchronization with SAMPLE yields better results on IEEE 802.11e

Redundancy in Face Image Recognition

Many researchers paid attention to formulate different algorithms to faces and its classes for accurate classification but, did not paid attention to the fact that redundancy may exists even though faces with different classes are effectively classified. Researchers working on SVD and its extended algorithm versions which were based on face matrix decomposition for face recognition concluded that they are the best algorithms for classification of occluded faces. The problem with these designed algorithms is that there is every likely hood of having more than one value of amplification factor along with classified faces. It is pointed out by researchers that every face will be having one and only one amplification factor and its classified face. This factor will definitely add to the already existing facial recognition problems and challenges. Here is a paper which shows the redundancy in recognition which will be treated as an added problem and challenge for facial recognition

Keyword Specific Cloud Computing

It is now a known fact that Internet of things (Iot) and Cloud computing will be the way ahead. Store and transmit of massive amounts of data is on the cards in the coming years which will profoundly affect other areas of everyday life in the next generation. Cloud and Iot are merged together is seen as an enabler of a large number of application scenarios. As an example at the start of 2016 automakers are building a driverless taxi service. Keeping this in mind a novel idea of keyword based Cloud Computing is brought about in this paper which gives out entire data to the user if the user types the keyword of the required entity

Quality of Service (QoS) routing algorithm for Software Defined Network (SDN)

Due to the use of various technologies like mobile, cloud, big data. The network traffic has increased this has resulted in the  re examination of the working of  traditional network architectures as these are built as static architectures and cannot handle the rapid growing traffic on the internet. A dynamic architecture which can be programmed according to the traffic behaviour was the need. Software Defined Networking (SDN) was emerged to address the growing needs of the dynamic traffic which has been in the moonlight since 2010. SDN increase and makes the network as flexible to program according to the programmers needs by keeping the traffic in line. It gives the user flexibility of adjusting the network resources by separating the control plane and data plane. By using SDN networks can be managed dynamically. The capacity of a network to offer good services to the selected network traffic over various technologies is termed as Quality of Service (QoS). To transfer high-bandwidth video and multimedia information continuously QoS is of particular objective.Â

On the extraction of roots of nonics

We present a novel decomposition method, which decomposes the given nonic equation into quartic and quintic polynomials as factors, eventually leading to the extraction of its four roots in radicals. The conditions to be satisfied by the coefficients of such partially solvable nonic are derived