Denoising swallowing sound to improve the evaluator's qualitative analysis

Swallowing dynamics involves the coordination and interaction of several muscles and nerves which allow correct food transport from mouth to stomach without laryngotracheal penetration or aspiration. Clinical swallowing assessment depends on the evaluator's knowledge of anatomic structures and of neurophysiological processes involved in swallowing. Any alteration in those steps is denominated oropharyngeal dysphagia, which may have many causes, such as neurological or mechanical disorders. Videofluoroscopy of swallowing is presently considered to be the best exam to objectively assess the dynamics of swallowing, but the exam needs to be conducted under certain restrictions, due to patient's exposure to radiation, which limits periodical repetition for monitoring swallowing therapy. Another method, called cervical auscultation, is a promising new diagnostic tool for the assessment of swallowing disorders. The potential to diagnose dysphagia in a noninvasive manner by assessing the sounds of swallowing is a highly attractive option for the dysphagia clinician. Even so, the captured sound has an amount of noise, which can hamper the evaluator's decision. In that way, the present paper proposes the use of a filter to improve the quality of audible sound and facilitate the perception of examination. The wavelet denoising approach is used to decompose the noisy signal. The signal to noise ratio was evaluated to demonstrate the quantitative results of the proposed methodology. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.34214815

Collectivity in (41)S

Yrast states in the neutron-rich S41 nucleus have been studied using binary grazing reactions produced by the interaction of a 215-MeV beam of S36 ions with a thin Pb208 target. The magnetic spectrometer, PRISMA, and the γ-ray array, CLARA, were used in the measurements. γ-ray transitions of energy 449 and 638 keV were observed. Results from published intermediate-energy Coulomb excitation measurements in combination with those from the present work have led to the construction of a new S41 level scheme. Proposed Jπ values are based on experimental observation and on model-dependent arguments. The level scheme and published electromagnetic transition probabilities are discussed within the context of state-of-art shell-model calculations using the SDPF-U effective interaction. In contrast with the excellent agreement observed in earlier published work, here there are significant discrepancies between experiment and the results of shell-model calculations. © 2011 American Physical Society.Supported in part by the EPSRC (UK) and by the European Union under Contract No. RII3-CT- 2004-506065. A.J. acknowledges financial support from the m Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion under Contracts No. FPA2007-66069 and No. FPA2009-13377-C02-02. Zs.D. acknowledges the financial support from OTKA Project No. K68801.Peer Reviewe

Gamma-ray spectroscopy of neutron-rich S-40

Yrast states up to (6+) in the neutron-rich S40 nucleus have been studied using binary grazing reactions produced by the interaction of a 215 MeV beam of S36 ions with a thin Pb208 target. The novel experimental setup that combines the large acceptance magnetic spectrometer, PRISMA, and the high-efficiency γ-ray detection array, CLARA, was used. A new γ-ray transition at an energy of 1572 keV was observed and tentatively assigned to the (6+)→(4+) transition. A comparison of experimental observations and the results of large-scale 0 ω sd-pf shell-model calculations indicates that one- and two-proton excitations from the 2s1/2 to the 1d3/2 orbitals play an important role in reproducing the S40 yrast level structure and the published B(E2;0g.s.+→21+) value. The structure of the yrast states of the even-A isotopes of sulfur is interpreted in terms of the configurations of valence protons and neutrons within the context of large-scale 0 ω sd-pf shell-model calculations. © 2010 The American Physical Society.Supported in part by the EPSRC (UK) and by the European Union under Contract No. RII3-CT-2004-506065. Support from STFC. Support from ORSAS and from the University of the West of Scotland. Support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under Contract Nos. FPA2007-66069 and FPA2009-13377-C02-02. Support from OTKA Project No. K68801.Peer Reviewe