Compressive Matched-Field Processing

Source localization by matched-field processing (MFP) generally involves solving a number of computationally intensive partial differential equations. This paper introduces a technique that mitigates this computational workload by "compressing" these computations. Drawing on key concepts from the recently developed field of compressed sensing, it shows how a low-dimensional proxy for the Green's function can be constructed by backpropagating a small set of random receiver vectors. Then, the source can be located by performing a number of "short" correlations between this proxy and the projection of the recorded acoustic data in the compressed space. Numerical experiments in a Pekeris ocean waveguide are presented which demonstrate that this compressed version of MFP is as effective as traditional MFP even when the compression is significant. The results are particularly promising in the broadband regime where using as few as two random backpropagations per frequency performs almost as well as the traditional broadband MFP, but with the added benefit of generic applicability. That is, the computationally intensive backpropagations may be computed offline independently from the received signals, and may be reused to locate any source within the search grid area

Opportunistic monitoring of ships' structure from diffuse vibrations: performance study for damage detection

Issued as final reportUnited States. Office of Naval Researc

Extracting short-period surface waveforms from seismic noise for the purpose of estimating local and near-regional velocity and attenuation structure

Issued as final reportUniversity of California, San Dieg

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Epidemiology of Chlamydia trachomatis in the Middle East and north Africa: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression.

BACKGROUND: The epidemiology of Chlamydia trachomatis in the Middle East and north Africa is poorly understood. We aimed to provide a comprehensive epidemiological assessment of C trachomatis infection in the Middle East and north Africa. METHODS: We did a systematic review of C trachomatis infection as well as a meta-analysis and meta-regression of C trachomatis prevalence. We searched PubMed and Embase, as well as regional and national databases up to March 13, 2019, using broad search terms with no language or year restrictions. Any document or report including biological measures for C trachomatis prevalence or incidence was eligible for inclusion. We extracted all measures of current (genital or rectal), recent, and ever infection with C trachomatis. We estimated pooled average prevalence in different populations using random-effects meta-analysis. Factors associated with prevalence and sources of between-study heterogeneity were determined using meta-regression. FINDINGS: We identified a total of 1531 citations, of which 255 reports contributed to 552 C trachomatis prevalence measures from 20 countries. No incidence measures were identified. Pooled prevalence of current genital infection was 3·0% (95% CI 2·3-3·8) in general populations, 2·8% (1·0-5·2) in intermediate-risk populations, 13·2% (7·2-20·7) in female sex workers, 11·3% (9·0-13·7) in infertility clinic attendees, 12·4% (7·9-17·7) in women with miscarriage, 12·4% (9·4-15·7) in symptomatic women, and 17·4% (12·5-22·8) in symptomatic men. Pooled prevalence of current rectal infection was 7·7% (4·2-12·0) in men who have sex with men. Substantial between-study heterogeneity was found. Multivariable meta-regression explained 29·0% of variation. Population type was most strongly associated with prevalence. Additional associations were found with assay type, sample size, country, and sex, but not with sampling methodology or response rate (about 90% of studies used convenience sampling and >75% had unclear response rate). There was no evidence for temporal variation in prevalence between 1982 and 2018. INTERPRETATION: C trachomatis prevalence in the Middle East and north Africa is similar to other regions, but higher than expected given its sexually conservative norms. High prevalence in infertility clinic attendees and in women with miscarriage suggests a potential role for C trachomatis in poor reproductive health outcomes in this region. FUNDING: National Priorities Research Program from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation)

Performance of self-adaptive techniques for multi-static, concurrent detection, classification and localization of targets in shallow water using distributed autonomous sensor networks

Issued as final reportUnited States. Office of Naval Researc

Passive estimation of the ocean seismoacoustic environment by extracting the Green's function from ambient noise

Issued as final reportUnited States. Office of Naval Researc

Broadband performance of time -reversing arrays in shallow water.

Active acoustic time reversal is the process of recording the signal from a remote source with a transducer array, and then replaying the signal in a time-reversed fashion to retro-direct the replayed sound back to the remote source to form a retrofocus, in an unknown environment. Time-Reversing Arrays (TRAs) perform well in the absence of acoustic absorption losses and temporal changes in the environment when there is sufficient array aperture and high signal-to-noise ratio. Future active sonar and underwater communication systems for use in unknown shallow ocean waters may be developed from the automatic spatial and temporal focusing properties of TRAs. The performance of TRAs can be determined by four criteria: the size, the longevity and the field amplitude of the array's retrofocus, as well as the correlation of the retrofocus signal with a time-reversed version of the original signal. Four issues related to TRAs performance are investigated in this thesis: (i) the impact of noise, (ii) the influence of array and source motion, (iii) the effects of oceanic currents, and (iv) the effectiveness of blind deconvolution of the original signal via artificial time-reversal. Noise influences TRA performance twice because the array both listens and transmits. Degradation of TRA's performance caused by noise in the acoustic environment is investigated through an analytical formulation that can be reduced to an algebraic relationship for a simple noise model. Numerical experiments that illustrate this effort are also shown. Another limitation of TRA performance is the Doppler effect induced by the dynamic source-array configuration or the moving medium. Normal modes and parabolic equation simulations illustrate these influences for various oceanic waveguides and array geometry. Finally a novel blind deconvolution technique, artificial time-reversal (ATR), is developed for providing an estimate of an unknown source signal propagating in an unknown shallow oceanic waveguide. A synthesized green's function is computed by taking advantage of the modal propagation features of a shallow oceanic waveguide, notably the independence of the phase velocity of the low order modes on the frequency for signal bandwidth of interest far from the mode cut-off frequency. Conditions and limitations are investigated using numerical simulations and experimental data recorded in the Mediterranean sea.Ph.D.AcousticsApplied SciencesMechanical engineeringPure SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/123688/2/3096187.pd

Assessing non-uniform stiffening of the achilles tendon noninvasively using surface wave

Currently, noninvasive cost-effective techniques capable of quantifying non-uniform degradation of tendon’s mechanical and structural properties associated with localized tendon injuries are not readily available. This study demonstrates the applicability of a simple surface-wave elastography (SURF-E) method for assessing the stiffness of the Achilles Tendon by measuring the propagation velocity of surface waves along the tendon in a much broader range of values than currently available Ultrasound-based or MRI-based elastography methods do. Results from this study confirm the non-uniform stiffening of the AT during passive ankle dorsiflexions

Ocean acoustic noise and passive coherent array processing

International audienceBroadband correlation processing for extracting time-domain Green's functions and coherent wavefronts from random ocean noise has been demonstrated recently using experiments and numerical simulations that are consistent with theoretical predictions. Ocean acoustic noise processing presents additional challenges over its seismological counterpart. Mainly, the ocean environment is temporally non-stationary and it is spatially heterogeneous. Further, in the lower underwater acoustic frequency regime of about 20 to 500 Hz, space-time episodic shipping is the dominant noise source. The data from different publications and research groups are gathered here, with the goal being to review recent underwater acoustic research that demonstrates the viability and potential applications of passive coherent array processing in the ocean