INTRODUÇÃO: A angioplastia carotídea com stent (ACS) sob proteção cerebral é opção terapêutica em pacientes com estenose carotídea. Existe o risco de embolia apesar da utilização do filtro e as modificações na perfusão cerebral após tratamento da estenose carotídea não são claras. O propósito deste estudo é avaliar, após ACS sob proteção cerebral por filtros, modificações nas seqüências de RM de difusão (DWI) e perfusão (PWI), correlacionando-as com os aspectos técnicos da ACS, com as características da estenose e com dados demográficos dos pacientes. MÉTODO: Trinta e seis pacientes portadores de estenose carotídea com idade média de 72,08 anos foram submetidos a exame de RM um dia antes e até 72 horas após a ACS com filtro de proteção. Todos os pacientes eram assintomáticos após a ACS. Áreas de restrição na DWI após a ACS foram correlacionadas com aspectos demográficos, com aspectos da técnica de angioplastia e com a presença de infartos prévios por RM. Os parâmetros CBV volume sanguíneo cerebral, MTT tempo de trânsito médio e TTP tempo para o pico são empregados para análise por PWI. RESULTADOS: Na DWI, 18 de 36 (50,00%) pacientes apresentaram novos focos (NF) de restrição na DWI após ACS. Todos os NF foram clinicamente silenciosos (100%). Estes NF eram localizados em território cerebral nutrido pela artéria carótida submetida à ACS em 77,19% e menores que 10 mm em 91,53%. Os NF em território cerebral não irrigado pela artéria carótida submetida à angioplastia correspondiam a 22,81% destes. A presença de infartos cerebrais prévios na RM foi o único fator com influência no aparecimento de NF (p=0,037). Fatores demográficos e aspectos relacionados com a técnica de angioplastia não tiveram importância na gênese dos NF. Na PWI foi observada melhora nos parâmetros temporais TTP (p<0,001) e MTT (p=0,019) quando comparados de forma normalizada em relação ao território contralateral. CONCLUSÃO: Os novos focos de restrição na DWI após ACS (NF) foram mais comuns no território ipsilateral (77,19%), no entanto houve NF no território contralateral à ACS (22,81%), possivelmente, associados ao cateterismo diagnóstico. Os NF, na sua maioria, são de pequeno diâmetro (<10 mm em 91,53%). Melhora precoce na PWI, observada nos dados normalizados, foi demonstrada nos parâmetros temporais (TTP e MTT). / INTRODUCTION: Carotid angioplasty with stent (CAS) under cerebral protection is a therapeutic option in patients with carotid stenosis. There is a risk of embolism even with a filter, and changes in cerebral perfusion after treatment are not clearly understood. The purpose of this study was to evaluate changes in diffusion- (DWI) and perfusion- (PWI) weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences correlating them with the technical aspects of CAS, stenosis characteristics and patient demographic data. METHODS: Thirty-six carotid stenosis patients with an mean age of 72.08 years were submitted to MRI exam one day before and up to 72 hours after CAS with filter protection. All patients were asymptomatic after CAS. Areas of restriction on DWI were correlated to demographic aspects, technique of angioplasty as well the presence of previous stroke by MRI. The parameters, CBV - cerebral blood volume; MTT - mean transit time, and TTP- time to peak, are used for PWI analysis. RESULTS: Eighteen of the 36 patients (50.00%) presented new focus (NF) of restriction by DWI after CAS. All new focus were clinically silent. The NF were located in the cerebral area fed by the carotid artery submitted to CAS in 77.19% and smaller than 10mm in 91.53%. NF in cerebral area not irrigated by carotid artery submitted by angioplasty correspond to 22,81 %. The presence of previous ischemic lesion on MRI was the only factor which influenced the appearance of NF (p=0.037). Demographic factors and aspects related to angioplasty technique had no importance on NF genesis. Improvement in PWI timing parameters - TTP (p<0.001) and MTT (p=0.019) were observed in relation to the contralateral territory (normalized data). CONCLUSION: The restriction NF in the DWI after CAS are more common in the ipsilateral territory (77.19%), however there were some NF in the contralateral territory to the CAS (22.81%), possibly associated with diagnostic catheterization. Most of the NF were small in diameter (<10mm in 91.53%). Short-term improvement in PWI were demonstrated by normalized timing parameters (TTP and MTT).

O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar os resultados radiográficos obtidos pelas analises de subtração radiográfica digital e linear de implantes dentários com superfície SLA e SLActive submetidos a carga funcional e sobrecarga oclusal precoce restaurados com reconstruções em cantilever (pôntico suspenso). Cinco cães beagle tiveram seus pré-molares mandibulares extraídos bilateralmente. Após três meses, retalhos foram elevados e seis implantes (três SLA e três SLActive) foram instalados em um desenho de boca dividida e aleatorização por blocos. Após quatro semanas, os implantes foram restaurados em cada lado da mandíbula da seguinte forma: uma coroa unitária com contatos oclusais estáveis (OE), uma coroa e uma unidade de cantilever com contatos oclusais excessivos (SO), e um implante protegido pela unidade em cantilever que não recebeu carga funcional (NR). Os cães foram mantidos em um programa de controle de placa periódico, durante o período do experimento. Radiografias padronizadas foram tomadas utilizando-se guias radiográficas individualizadas e padronizadas em dois momentos: na instalação das próteses e 24 semanas após o carregamento. Análises de subtração radiográfica digital e medições lineares (entre um plano projetado entre os ombros do implante e o primeiro contato implante-osso) foram realizadas. As análises estatísticas, ANOVA para medidas repetidas, ANOVA para dados equilibrados e teste t de Bonferroni foram utilizados para identificar diferenças entre as médias, entre os seis grupos avaliados: SLA OE, SLA SO, SLA NR, SLActive OE, SLActive SO e SLActive NR. Achados gerais similares foram observados para os grupos SLA e SLActive (todos os grupos OE, NR e SO) em relação ao nível ósseo peri-implantar e as dimensões das áreas indicando alterações de densidade óssea ao redor dos implantes. As mensurações lineares variaram de 1,61 mm (grupo SLActive SO) a 1,94 mm (grupo SLA SO) no tempo 0 (antes da aplicação das cargas funcionais) e 2,00 mm (grupo SLA SO) a 2,99 mm (grupo SLActive NR) na avaliação após 24 semanas, sem diferenças estatisticamente significativas dentro ou entre-grupos (p = 0,672). Com relação à área de mudança de densidade óssea, esta variou de 0,91 mm2 (grupo SLA OE) para 1,40 mm2 (grupo SLA SO), mas sem diferenças significativas entre os grupos (p = 0,568). Por outro lado, um ganho de densidade óssea estatisticamente significativa foi encontrado para o grupo SLA com sobrecarga oclusal (p = 0,012). Nenhuma diferença significativa na alteração de densidade óssea foi detectada entre os outros cinco grupos (p> 0,05). Em conclusão, a sobrecarga oclusal precoce aplicada sobre implantes restaurados com reconstruções em cantilever, não levou a mudanças significativas na altura óssea peri-implantar após 24 semanas. No entanto, a densidade óssea ao redor de implantes SLA com sobrecarga oclusal, foi significativamente maior que nos outros grupos. / The objective of this study was to evaluate the radiographic outcomes of SLA and SLActive dental implants submitted to functional load and early occlusal overload restored with cantilever reconstructions. Five beagle dogs had their mandibular premolars extracted bilaterally. After three months, flaps were raised and six implants (three SLA and three SLActive) were installed in a block-randomized split-mouth design. After four weeks, implants were restored on each side of the mandible as follows: one single crown with stable occlusal contacts (OE), one crown and a cantilever unit with overt occlusal contacts (SO), and an implant protected by the cantilever unit not submitted to functional load (NR). The dogs were maintained in a strict and periodic plaque control program during the period of the experiment. Standardized radiographies were taken using standardized and individualized radiographic stents in two distinct moments: at prostheses installation and 24-weeks after loading. Digital subtraction radiography analyses and linear measurements were performed. Statistical analyses used repeated measures ANOVA and ANOVA for balanced data and the Bonferroni Student t test to identify differences between the means of the six evaluated groups: SLA OE, SLA SO, SLA NR, SLActive OE, SLActive SO and SLActive NR. Similar findings were found for SLA and SLActive groups regarding the peri-implant bone level and the area of bone density change around implants. Baseline linear measurements ranged from 1.61 mm (SLActive SO group) to 1.94 mm (SLA SO group) at baseline, and from 2.00 mm (SLA SO group) to 2.99 mm (SLActive NR group) at the 24-week evaluation, with no statistically significant differences within- or between-groups (p=0.672). With respect to the areas of bone density change, they ranged from 0.91 mm2 (SLA OE group) to 1.40 mm2 (SLA SO group), but without significant differences between groups (p=0.568). On the other hand, a statistically significant bone density gain was found for the overloaded SLA group (p=0.012). No significant differences in bone density change were detected between the other five groups (p>0.05). In conclusion, the early occlusal overload applied to implants restored with cantilever reconstructions did not lead to significant changes in the peri-implant bone height. However, bone density around overloaded SLA implants was significantly higher than in the other groups.

Abstract Gestures are present in most daily human activities and automatic gestures analysis is a significant topic with the goal of enabling the interaction between humans and computers as natural as the communication between humans. From a computer vision perspective, a gesture analysis system is typically composed of two stages, the low-level stage for human motion detection and the high-level stage for understanding human gestures. Therefore, this thesis contributes to the research on gesture analysis from two aspects, 1) Detection: human motion segmentation from video sequences, and 2) Understanding: gesture cues extraction and recognition. In the first part of this thesis, two sparse signal recovery based human motion detection methods are presented. In real videos the foreground (human motions) pixels are often not randomly distributed but have the group properties in both spatial and temporal domains. Based on this observation, a spatio-temporal group sparsity recovery model is proposed, which explicitly consider the foreground pixels' group clustering priors of spatial coherence and temporal contiguity. Moreover, a pixel should be considered as a multi-channel signal. Namely, if a pixel is equal to the adjacent ones that means all the three RGB coefficients should be equal. Motivated by this observation, a multi-channel fused Lasso regularizer is developed to explore the smoothness of multi-channels signals. In the second part of this thesis, two human gesture recognition methods are presented to resolve the issue of temporal dynamics, which is crucial to the interpretation of the observed gestures. In the first study, a gesture skeletal sequence is characterized by a trajectory on a Riemannian manifold. Then, a time-warping invariant metric on the Riemannian manifold is proposed. Furthermore, a sparse coding for skeletal trajectories is presented by explicitly considering the labelling information, with the aim to enforcing the discriminant validity of the dictionary. In the second work, based on the observation that a gesture is a time series with distinctly defined phases, a low-rank matrix decomposition model is proposed to build temporal compositions of gestures. In this way, a more appropriate alignment of hidden states for a hidden Markov model can be achieved. / Tiivistelmä Eleet ovat läsnä useimmissa päivittäisissä ihmisen toiminnoissa. Automaattista eleiden analyysia tarvitaan laitteiden ja ihmisten välisestä vuorovaikutuksesta parantamiseksi ja tavoitteena on yhtä luonnollinen vuorovaikutus kuin ihmisten välinen vuorovaikutus. Konenäön näkökulmasta eleiden analyysijärjestelmä koostuu ihmisen liikkeiden havainnoinnista ja eleiden tunnistamisesta. Tämä väitöskirjatyö edistää eleanalyysin-tutkimusta erityisesti kahdesta näkökulmasta: 1) Havainnointi - ihmisen liikkeiden segmentointi videosekvenssistä. 2) Ymmärtäminen - elemarkkerien erottaminen ja tunnistaminen. Väitöskirjan ensimmäinen osa esittelee kaksi liikkeen havainnointi menetelmää, jotka perustuvat harvan signaalin rekonstruktioon. Videokuvan etualan (ihmisen liikkeet) pikselit eivät yleensä ole satunnaisesti jakautuneita vaan niillä toisistaan riippuvia ominaisuuksia spatiaali- ja aikatasolla tarkasteltuna. Tähän havaintoon perustuen esitellään spatiaalis-ajallinen harva rekonstruktiomalli, joka käsittää etualan pikseleiden klusteroinnin spatiaalisen koherenssin ja ajallisen jatkuvuuden perusteella. Lisäksi tehdään oletus, että pikseli on monikanavainen signaali (RGB-väriarvot). Pikselin ollessa samankaltainen vieruspikseliensä kanssa myös niiden värikanava-arvot ovat samankaltaisia. Havaintoon nojautuen kehitettiin kanavat yhdistävä lasso-regularisointi, joka mahdollistaa monikanavaisen signaalin tasaisuuden tutkimisen. Väitöskirjan toisessa osassa esitellään kaksi menetelmää ihmisen eleiden tunnistamiseksi. Menetelmiä voidaan käyttää eleiden ajallisen dynamiikan ongelmien (eleiden nopeuden vaihtelu) ratkaisemiseksi, mikä on ensiarvoisen tärkeää havainnoitujen eleiden oikein tulkitsemiseksi. Ensimmäisessä menetelmässä ele kuvataan luurankomallin liikeratana Riemannin monistossa (Riemannian manifold), joka hyödyntää aikavääristymille sietoista metriikkaa. Lisäksi esitellään harvakoodaus (sparse coding) luurankomallien liikeradoille. Harvakoodaus perustuu nimiöintitietoon, jonka tavoitteena on varmistua koodisanaston keskinäisestä riippumattomuudesta. Toisen menetelmän lähtökohtana on havainto, että ele on ajallinen sarja selkeästi määriteltäviä vaiheita. Vaiheiden yhdistämiseen ehdotetaan matala-asteista matriisihajotelmamallia, jotta piilotilat voidaan sovittaa paremmin Markovin piilomalliin (Hidden Markov Model).

O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar os resultados radiográficos obtidos pelas analises de subtração radiográfica digital e linear de implantes dentários com superfície SLA e SLActive submetidos a carga funcional e sobrecarga oclusal precoce restaurados com reconstruções em cantilever (pôntico suspenso). Cinco cães beagle tiveram seus pré-molares mandibulares extraídos bilateralmente. Após três meses, retalhos foram elevados e seis implantes (três SLA e três SLActive) foram instalados em um desenho de boca dividida e aleatorização por blocos. Após quatro semanas, os implantes foram restaurados em cada lado da mandíbula da seguinte forma: uma coroa unitária com contatos oclusais estáveis (OE), uma coroa e uma unidade de cantilever com contatos oclusais excessivos (SO), e um implante protegido pela unidade em cantilever que não recebeu carga funcional (NR). Os cães foram mantidos em um programa de controle de placa periódico, durante o período do experimento. Radiografias padronizadas foram tomadas utilizando-se guias radiográficas individualizadas e padronizadas em dois momentos: na instalação das próteses e 24 semanas após o carregamento. Análises de subtração radiográfica digital e medições lineares (entre um plano projetado entre os ombros do implante e o primeiro contato implante-osso) foram realizadas. As análises estatísticas, ANOVA para medidas repetidas, ANOVA para dados equilibrados e teste t de Bonferroni foram utilizados para identificar diferenças entre as médias, entre os seis grupos avaliados: SLA OE, SLA SO, SLA NR, SLActive OE, SLActive SO e SLActive NR. Achados gerais similares foram observados para os grupos SLA e SLActive (todos os grupos OE, NR e SO) em relação ao nível ósseo peri-implantar e as dimensões das áreas indicando alterações de densidade óssea ao redor dos implantes. As mensurações lineares variaram de 1,61 mm (grupo SLActive SO) a 1,94 mm (grupo SLA SO) no tempo 0 (antes da aplicação das cargas funcionais) e 2,00 mm (grupo SLA SO) a 2,99 mm (grupo SLActive NR) na avaliação após 24 semanas, sem diferenças estatisticamente significativas dentro ou entre-grupos (p = 0,672). Com relação à área de mudança de densidade óssea, esta variou de 0,91 mm2 (grupo SLA OE) para 1,40 mm2 (grupo SLA SO), mas sem diferenças significativas entre os grupos (p = 0,568). Por outro lado, um ganho de densidade óssea estatisticamente significativa foi encontrado para o grupo SLA com sobrecarga oclusal (p = 0,012). Nenhuma diferença significativa na alteração de densidade óssea foi detectada entre os outros cinco grupos (p> 0,05). Em conclusão, a sobrecarga oclusal precoce aplicada sobre implantes restaurados com reconstruções em cantilever, não levou a mudanças significativas na altura óssea peri-implantar após 24 semanas. No entanto, a densidade óssea ao redor de implantes SLA com sobrecarga oclusal, foi significativamente maior que nos outros grupos. / The objective of this study was to evaluate the radiographic outcomes of SLA and SLActive dental implants submitted to functional load and early occlusal overload restored with cantilever reconstructions. Five beagle dogs had their mandibular premolars extracted bilaterally. After three months, flaps were raised and six implants (three SLA and three SLActive) were installed in a block-randomized split-mouth design. After four weeks, implants were restored on each side of the mandible as follows: one single crown with stable occlusal contacts (OE), one crown and a cantilever unit with overt occlusal contacts (SO), and an implant protected by the cantilever unit not submitted to functional load (NR). The dogs were maintained in a strict and periodic plaque control program during the period of the experiment. Standardized radiographies were taken using standardized and individualized radiographic stents in two distinct moments: at prostheses installation and 24-weeks after loading. Digital subtraction radiography analyses and linear measurements were performed. Statistical analyses used repeated measures ANOVA and ANOVA for balanced data and the Bonferroni Student t test to identify differences between the means of the six evaluated groups: SLA OE, SLA SO, SLA NR, SLActive OE, SLActive SO and SLActive NR. Similar findings were found for SLA and SLActive groups regarding the peri-implant bone level and the area of bone density change around implants. Baseline linear measurements ranged from 1.61 mm (SLActive SO group) to 1.94 mm (SLA SO group) at baseline, and from 2.00 mm (SLA SO group) to 2.99 mm (SLActive NR group) at the 24-week evaluation, with no statistically significant differences within- or between-groups (p=0.672). With respect to the areas of bone density change, they ranged from 0.91 mm2 (SLA OE group) to 1.40 mm2 (SLA SO group), but without significant differences between groups (p=0.568). On the other hand, a statistically significant bone density gain was found for the overloaded SLA group (p=0.012). No significant differences in bone density change were detected between the other five groups (p>0.05). In conclusion, the early occlusal overload applied to implants restored with cantilever reconstructions did not lead to significant changes in the peri-implant bone height. However, bone density around overloaded SLA implants was significantly higher than in the other groups.

L’objectif de cette thèse est de contribuer à l’amélioration du processus de dépouillement d’essais de sûreté visant étudier le comportement d'un combustible nucléaire en contexte d’accident d’injection de réactivité (RIA), via la technique de contrôle par émission acoustique. Il s’agit notamment d’identifier clairement les mécanismes physiques pouvant intervenir au cours des essais à travers leur signature acoustique. Dans un premier temps, au travers de calculs analytiques et des simulation numériques conduites au moyen d’une méthode d’éléments finis spectraux, l’impact du dispositif d’essais sur la propagation des ondes est étudié. Une fréquence de résonance du dispositif est identifiée. On établit également que les mécanismes basses fréquences ne sont pas impactés par le dispositif d'essais. En second lieu, diverses techniques de traitement du signal (soustraction spectrale, analyse spectrale singulière, ondelettes. . . ) sont expérimentées, afin de proposer des outils permettant de traiter différent types de bruit survenant lors des essais RIA. La soustraction spectrale s’avère être la méthode la plus robuste aux changements de nature du bruit, avec un fort potentiel d’amélioration du rapport signal-à-bruit. Enfin, des méthodes d’analyse de données multivariées et d’analyse de données fonctionnelles ont été appliquées, afin de proposer un algorithme de classification statistique permettant de mieux comprendre la phénoménologie des accidents de type RIA et d’identifier les mécanismes physiques. Selon l’approche (multivariée ou fonctionnelle), les algorithmes obtenus permettent de reconnaître le mécanisme associé à une salve dans plus de 80% des cas. / The objective of the thesis is to contribute to the improvement of the monitoring process of nuclear safety experiments dedicated to study the behavior of the nuclear fuel in a reactivity initiated accident (RIA) context, by using the acoustic emission technique. In particular, we want to identify the physical mechanisms occurring during the experiments through their acoustic signatures. Firstly, analytical derivations and numerical simulations using the spectral finite element method have been performed in order to evaluate the impact of the wave travelpath in the test device on the recorded signals. A resonant frequency has been identified and it has been shown that the geometry and the configuration of the test device may not influence the wave propagation in the low frequency range. Secondly, signal processing methods (spectral subtraction, singular spectrum analysis, wavelets,…) have been explored in order to propose different denoising strategies according to the type of noise observed during the experiments. If we consider only the global SNR improvement ratio, the spectral subtraction method is the most robust to changes in the stochastic behavior of noise. Finally, classical multivariate and functional data analysis tools are used in order to create a machine learning algorithm dedicated to contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenology of RIA accidents. According to the method (multivariate or functional), the obtained algorithms allow to identify the mechanisms in more than 80 % of cases.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that more than 11.2 million people require critical and emergency care in the United States per year. Optimizing and improving patient morbidity and mortality outcomes are the primary objectives of monitoring in critical and emergency care. Patients in need of critical or emergency care in general are at a risk of single or multiple organ failures occurring due to a traumatic injury, a surgical event, or an underlying pathology that results in severe patient hemodynamic instability. Hence, continuous monitoring of fundamental cardiovascular hemodynamic parameters, such as heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, blood oxygenation and core temperature, is essential to accomplish diagnostics in critical and emergency care. Today’s standard of care measures these critical parameters using multiple monitoring technologies. Though it is possible to measure all the fundamental cardiovascular hemodynamic parameters using the blood flow dynamics, its use is currently only limited to measuring continuous blood pressure. No other comparable studies in the literature were successful in quantifying other critical parameters from the blood flow dynamics for a few reasons. First, the blood flow dynamics exhibit a complicated and sensitive dynamic pressure field. Existing blood flow based data acquisition systems are unable to detect these sensitive variations in the pressure field. Further, the pressure field is also influenced by the presence of background acoustic interference, resulting in a noisy pressure profile. Thus in order to extract critical parameters from this dynamic pressure field with fidelity, there is need for an integrated framework that is composed of a highly sensitive data acquisition system and advanced signal processing. In addition, existing state-of-the-art technologies require expensive instrumentation and complex infrastructure. The information sensed using these multiple monitoring technologies is integrated and visualized using a clinical information system. This process of integration and visualization creates the need for functional interoperability within the multiple monitoring technologies. Limited functional interoperability not only results in diagnostic errors but also their complexity makes it impossible to use such technologies to accomplish monitoring in low resource settings. These multiple monitoring technologies are neither portable nor scalable, in addition to inducing extreme patient discomfort. For these reasons, existing monitoring technologies do not efficiently meet the monitoring and diagnostic requirements of critical and emergency care. In order to address the challenges presented by existing blood flow based data acquisition systems and other monitoring systems, a point of care monitoring device was developed to provide multiple critical parameters by means of uniquely measuring a physiological process. To demonstrate the usability of this novel catheter multiscope, a feasibility study was performed using an animal model. The corresponding results are presented in this dissertation. The developed measurement system first acquires the dynamics of blood flow through a minimally invasive catheter. Then, a signal processing framework is developed to characterize the blood flow dynamics and to provide critical parameters such as heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure. The framework used to extract the physiological data corresponding to the acoustic field of the blood flow consisted of a noise cancellation technique and a wavelet based source separation. The preliminary results of the acoustic field of the blood flow revealed the presence of acoustic heart and respiratory pulses. A unique and novel framework was also developed to extract continuous blood pressure from the pressure field of the blood flow. Finally, the computed heart and respiratory rates, systolic and diastolic pressures were benchmarked with actual values measured using conventional devices to validate the measurements of the catheter multiscope. In summary, the results of the feasibility study showed that the novel catheter multiscope can provide critical parameters such as heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure with clinical accuracy. In addition, this dissertation also highlights the diagnostic potential of the developed catheter multiscope by presenting preliminary results of proof of concept studies performed for application case studies such as sinus rhythm pattern recognition and fetal monitoring through phonocardiography.

This thesis attempts to address the problem of how best to remedy different types of channel distortions on speech when that speech is to be used in automatic speaker recognition and verification systems. Automatic speaker recognition is when a person's voice is analysed by a machine and the person's identity is worked out by the comparison of speech features to a known set of speech features. Automatic speaker verification is when a person claims an identity and the machine determines if that claimed identity is correct or whether that person is an impostor. Channel distortion occurs whenever information is sent electronically through any type of channel whether that channel is a basic wired telephone channel or a wireless channel. The types of distortion that can corrupt the information include time-variant or time-invariant filtering of the information or the addition of 'thermal noise' to the information, both of these types of distortion can cause varying degrees of error in information being received and analysed. The experiments presented in this thesis investigate the effects of channel distortion on the average speaker recognition rates and testing the effectiveness of various channel compensation algorithms designed to mitigate the effects of channel distortion. The speaker recognition system was represented by a basic recognition algorithm consisting of: speech analysis, extraction of feature vectors in the form of the Mel-Cepstral Coefficients, and a classification part based on the minimum distance rule. Two types of channel distortion were investigated: • Convolutional (or lowpass filtering) effects • Addition of white Gaussian noise Three different methods of channel compensation were tested: • Cepstral Mean Subtraction (CMS) • RelAtive SpecTrAl (RASTA) Processing • Constant Modulus Algorithm (CMA) The results from the experiments showed that for both CMS and RASTA processing that filtering at low cutoff frequencies, (3 or 4 kHz), produced improvements in the average speaker recognition rates compared to speech with no compensation. The levels of improvement due to RASTA processing were higher than the levels achieved due to the CMS method. Neither the CMS or RASTA methods were able to improve accuracy of the speaker recognition system for cutoff frequencies of 5 kHz, 6 kHz or 7 kHz. In the case of noisy speech all methods analysed were able to compensate for high SNR of 40 dB and 30 dB and only RASTA processing was able to compensate and improve the average recognition rate for speech corrupted with a high level of noise (SNR of 20 dB and 10 dB).

L'épaule est un complexe articulaire formé par le thorax, la clavicule, la scapula et l'humérus. Alors que les orientation et position de ces derniers la rendent difficile à étudier, la compréhension approfondie de l'interrelation de ces segments demeure cliniquement importante. Ainsi, un nouveau modèle du membre supérieur est développé et présenté. La cinématique articulaire de 15 sujets sains est collectée et reconstruite à l'aide du modèle. Celle-ci s'avère être généralement moins variable et plus facilement interprétable que le modèle de référence. Parallèlement, l'utilisation de simplifications, issues de la 2D, sur le calcul d'amplitude de mouvement en 3D est critiquée. Cependant, des cas d'exception où ces simplifications s'appliquent sont dégagés et prouvés. Ainsi, ils sont une éventuelle avenue d'amélioration supplémentaire des modèles sans compromission de leur validé. / The shoulder is an articulated complex composed of the thorax, clavicle, scapula and humerus. While the relative orientation and position of the segments makes an in-depth study of the shoulder difficult, understanding the interaction between the segments remains clinically important. Thus, a new model of the upper limb is proposed. Joint kinematics of 15 subjects were collected and reconstructed using the model, and were found to be less variable and easier to interpret when compared to the reference model. Meanwhile, simplifications involving the use of 2D analysis to calculate range of motion in 3D are criticized. Exceptions where these simplifications apply, were however, shown. Thus, such simplifications can be applied to models in certain situations without compromising the models validity.

In speech communication systems such as voice-controlled systems, hands-free mobile telephones and hearing aids, the received signals are degraded by room reverberation and background noise. This degradation can reduce the perceived quality and intelligibility of the speech, and decrease the performance of speech enhancement and source localization. These problems are difficult to solve due to the colored and nonstationary nature of the speech signals, and features of the Room Impulse Response (RIR) such as its long duration and non-minimum phase. In this dissertation, we focus on two topics of speech enhancement and speaker localization in noisy reverberant environments. A two-stage speech enhancement method is presented to suppress both early and late reverberation in noisy speech using only one microphone. It is shown that this method works well even in highly reverberant rooms. Experiments under different acoustic conditions confirm that the proposed blind method is superior in terms of reducing early and late reverberation effects and noise compared to other well known single-microphone techniques in the literature. Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA)-based methods usually provide the most accurate source localization in adverse conditions. The key issue for these methods is to accurately estimate the TDOA using the smallest number of microphones. Two robust Time Delay Estimation (TDE) methods are proposed which use the information from only two microphones. One method is based on adaptive inverse filtering which provides superior performance even in highly reverberant and moderately noisy conditions. It also has negligible failure estimation which makes it a reliable method in realistic environments. This method has high computational complexity due to the estimation in the first stage for the first microphone. As a result, it can not be applied in time-varying environments and real-time applications. Our second method improves this problem by introducing two effective preprocessing stages for the conventional Cross Correlation (CC)-based methods. The results obtained in different noisy reverberant conditions including a real and time-varying environment demonstrate that the proposed methods are superior compared to the conventional TDE methods. / Graduate / 0544 / 0984 / saeed.mosayyebpour@gmail.com

In speech communication systems such as voice-controlled systems, hands-free mobile telephones and hearing aids, the received signals are degraded by room reverberation and background noise. This degradation can reduce the perceived quality and intelligibility of the speech, and decrease the performance of speech enhancement and source localization. These problems are difficult to solve due to the colored and nonstationary nature of the speech signals, and features of the Room Impulse Response (RIR) such as its long duration and non-minimum phase. In this dissertation, we focus on two topics of speech enhancement and speaker localization in noisy reverberant environments. A two-stage speech enhancement method is presented to suppress both early and late reverberation in noisy speech using only one microphone. It is shown that this method works well even in highly reverberant rooms. Experiments under different acoustic conditions confirm that the proposed blind method is superior in terms of reducing early and late reverberation effects and noise compared to other well known single-microphone techniques in the literature. Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA)-based methods usually provide the most accurate source localization in adverse conditions. The key issue for these methods is to accurately estimate the TDOA using the smallest number of microphones. Two robust Time Delay Estimation (TDE) methods are proposed which use the information from only two microphones. One method is based on adaptive inverse filtering which provides superior performance even in highly reverberant and moderately noisy conditions. It also has negligible failure estimation which makes it a reliable method in realistic environments. This method has high computational complexity due to the estimation in the first stage for the first microphone. As a result, it can not be applied in time-varying environments and real-time applications. Our second method improves this problem by introducing two effective preprocessing stages for the conventional Cross Correlation (CC)-based methods. The results obtained in different noisy reverberant conditions including a real and time-varying environment demonstrate that the proposed methods are superior compared to the conventional TDE methods. / Graduate / 2015-04-23 / 0544 / 0984 / saeed.mosayyebpour@gmail.com