To many, high-frequency (HF) radio communications is obsolete in this age of long distance satellite communications and undersea optical fiber. Yet despite this, the HF band is used by defence agencies for backup communications and spectrum surveillance, and is monitored by spectrum management organizations to enforce licensing. Such activity usually requires systems capable of locating distant transmitters, separating valid signals from interference and noise, and recognizing signal modulation. Research presented here targets the latter issue. The ultimate aim is to develop robust algorithms for automatic modulation recognition of real HF signals, where real means signals propagating by multiple ionospheric modes with co-channel signals and non- Gaussian noise. However, many researchers adopt Gaussian noise models for signals for the sake of convenience at the cost of accuracy. Furthermore, literature describing the probability density function (PDF) of HF noise does not abound. So an additional aim of this research is measurement of the PDF of HF noise. A simple empirical technique, not found in the literature, is described that supports the hypothesis that HF noise is generally not Gaussian. In fact, the probability density function varies with the time of day, electromagnetic environment, and state of the ionosphere. Key contributions of this work relate to the statistics of HF noise and the discrimination of real HF signals via three signal features. Through two unique experiments, the density function of natural HF noise is found to closely follow a Bi-Kappa distribution. This distribution can model natural and man-made HF noise through a single control parameter. Regarding signal features, the coherence function is found to be a brute-force technique suitable only for hard (not soft) decisions. A novel application of an entropic distance measure proves able to separate four real HF signals based on their modulation types. And, an estimator for signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio is shown to provide reasonable measures of SNR for the same real HF signals. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1330848 / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 2008

<p>Seismic methods have been used in sedimentary environment for almost 80 years. During that time, exploration geophysicists have developed a number of techniques to handle specific aspects of working in sedimentary areas. This is not the case for studies in the hardrock environment, where significantly less time and money have been invested on seismic investigations. Therefore, there is still a need to develop the right techniques appropriate for working in hardrock environments. The research presented here, covers aspects of acquisition, processing and interpretation in hardrock environments. A cost-effective alternative for two-dimensional data acquisition is presented. Acquisition parameters are also discussed and recommendations for future work are given. The main effort of this thesis, however, was to find appropriate processing methods to address some of the different problems present in datasets acquired in the hardrock environment. Comparison of two computer programs for first arrival seismic tomography was performed in order to find the most suitable one for processing crooked line geometries. Three-dimensional pre-stack depth migration was also tested to find a detailed near-surface image. A processing method geared to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio was applied to the dataset with the lowest signal amplitudes to improve the quality of the stack. Finally, cross-dip analysis and corrections were performed on two of the three datasets included in this thesis. Cross-dip analysis was also applied as an interpretation tool to provide the information needed for estimation of the true dip of some of the reflectors related to geological structures. The results presented in this thesis indicate that cross-dip analysis and corrections are one of the most powerful tools for processing and interpretation in the presence of complex geology. Therefore, it is recommended to include this method as a standard step in the processing and interpretation sequence of data acquired in hardrock environments. </p>

No description available.

In the last decade, microwave and millimeter-wave systems have gained importance in civil and security applications. Due to an increasing maturity and availability of circuits and components, these systems are getting more compact while being less expensive. Furthermore, quantitative imaging has been conducted at lower frequencies using computational intensive inverse problem algorithms. Due to the ill-posed character of the inverse problem, these algorithms are, in general, very sensitive to noise: the key to their successful application to experimental data is the precision of the measurement system. Only a few research teams investigate systems for imaging in the W-band. In this manuscript such a system is presented, designed to provide scattered field data to quantitative reconstruction algorithms. This manuscript is divided into six chapters. Chapter 2 describes the theory to compute numerically the scattered fields of known objects. In Chapter 3, the W-band measurement setup in the anechoic chamber is shown. Preliminary measurement results are analyzed. Relying on the measurement results, the error sources are studied and corrected by post-processing. The final results are used for the qualitative reconstruction of all three targets of interest and to image quantitatively the small cylinder. The reconstructed images are compared in detail in Chapter 4. Close range imaging has been investigated using a vector analyzer and a radar system. This is described in Chapter 5, based on a future application, which is the detection of FOD on airport runways. The conclusion is addressed in Chapter 6 and some future investigations are discussed.

The use of Computerised microtomography (CμT) in biomedical research is well established, with most applications developed at synchrotron facilities. The possibility to non-invasively monitor morphological changes in biological samples, makes it an attractive technique in biomedicine. However, high absorbed doses and long examination times are a disadvantage that limits the possibilities of performing longitudinal examinations. The aim of this work was to optimise CmT using conventional X-ray tubes for applications in non-destructive material testing and for skeleton research in small animals (rat). A calculational model of the imaging system was developed and used to optimise the relation between image quality, expressed as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in detecting a contrasting detail, and imaging time in material testing. The model was modified to optimise the relation between the SNR in detecting a trabecular detail in cancelleous bone and the mean absorbed dose in spongiosa and skin for (rat) tibia and femur. Gastrectomized Sprague-Dawley rats were used to initiate osteoporotic changes. In order to detect differences in between gastrectomized rats and controls, spatial resolutions of 150 mm or better were needed. The minimum absorbed doses in femur spongiosa at SNR = 5 were 1mGy - 700 mGy at spatial resolutions from 100 mm to10 mm. In femur skin, the corresponding minimum absorbed doses were 2 mGy - 2000 mGy. Corresponding values for tibia were 0.3 mGy - 300 mGy for both spongiosa and skin (spatial resolution of 100 mm to10 mm). Taking 0.5 Gy as the tolerance limit for the spongiosa dose, longitudinal studies with six repeated examinations will be possible at a spatial resolution of 25 mm in femur and 17 examinations in tibia.

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Tecnologia, Departamento de Engenharia Elétrica, 2015. / Submitted by Albânia Cézar de Melo (albania@bce.unb.br) on 2016-02-16T14:01:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_RubenOrtegaBlanco.pdf: 78834010 bytes, checksum: 3420abfa3f7efe2d616b97f09d14ff70 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Raquel Viana(raquelviana@bce.unb.br) on 2016-02-19T21:04:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_RubenOrtegaBlanco.pdf: 78834010 bytes, checksum: 3420abfa3f7efe2d616b97f09d14ff70 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-19T21:04:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_RubenOrtegaBlanco.pdf: 78834010 bytes, checksum: 3420abfa3f7efe2d616b97f09d14ff70 (MD5) / O objetivo do seguinte trabalho é determinar um modelo matemático que permita-nos obter a Relação Sinal Ruído mais Interferência (SNIR do Inglês Signal-to-Noise plus Interference Ratio), a Taxa de Erro de Bits (BER do Inglês Bit Error Rate) de um salto e a Taxa de Erro de Bits fim-a-fim numa rede acústica submarina. Com esse propósito foi desenvolvido um modelo matemático que permite o cálculo destes parâmetros considerando a interferência para o protocolo de acesso ao meio (MAC do Inglês Medium Access Control) ALOHA puro. Também foi necessário desenvolver antes diferentes parâmetros da rede, tais como, distância média do salto, distância média até o nó central, distância média entre os nós, número médio de saltos na rota e desvio médio. Com o uso deste modelo também é possível obter o valor da frequência ótima utilizando uma função de otimização. Comparações entre a Taxa de Erro de Bits de um salto e fim-a fim também forem feitas, para diferentes valores de máximo ângulo de desvio na topologia de rede usada. Estas comparações demonstran quando pode ser mais convenente o uso de um salto ou múltiple-salto. Simulações Monte-Carlo e modelo forem comparados com o propósito de validar os resultados obtidos. Estas comparações demostram a grande similitude entre nosso modelo e as simulações de Monte-Carlo. Além disso foi possível o estudo do comportamento da SNIR e do BER variando importante parâmetros da rede tais como frequência de transmissão, número de nós, raio da esfera e máximo ângulo de desvio. Os resultados obtidos provarem que a SNIR para um salto diminui com o aumento do número de nós e o raio da esfera, mas aumenta com o incremento da potência de transmissão. O comportamento de BER é contrário ao comportamento de SNIR. Também foi possível observar a existência da frequência ótima, onde os melhores valores de SNIR e o BER são obtidos. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / The objective of this work is to nd a mathematical model that allow us to obtain the Signal-to-Noise plus Interference Ratio (SNIR), the One-Hop Bit Error Rate (BER) and the End-to-End Bit Error Rate for an Underwater Acoustic Network (UAN). Considering this, it was developed a model that includes the interference as an important impairment and for ALOHA MAC (Medium Access Control) protocol. In addition, it was necessary to obtain before several parameters from the network, such as, average distance of the hop, average distance between nodes, average distance to the central node, average number of hops and average deviation. With this model, it is also possible to nd the optimal value of frequency using an optimization function. It was made comparisons between the One-Hop BER and the End-to-End BER for various values of maximal deviation angle. This comparison shows when it is more adequate to either use one-hop or multi-hop. Finally, we compared numerical and Monte-Carlo simulation results, giving a rst validation to our model. These comparisons show a big similitude between the developed model and the Monte-Carlo simulation. In addition, it was possible to analyse the behaviour of the SNIR and BER by varying important parameters of the network, such as, transmission frequency, number of nodes and sphere radius among others. From the obtained results it was prove that the SNIR decreases with an increase from the number of nodes and the sphere radius, but increases with the transmission power. The End-to-End BER has an contrary behavior with the SNIR.

Gamma-ray spectroscopy is undoubtedly the most effective tool for understanding the structure of the nucleus. In common with many other problems however, there is more information available that can be readily measured by standard experimental facilities. Therefore, this thesis investigates the potential for the use of a new detector material, CdZnTe, in nuclear physics applications. To evaluate the requirements of detection systems for nuclear physics applications, a y-ray spectroscopy experiment was performed to investigate neutron alignments in 100Mo, 104Ru and 108Pd using deep-inelastic reactions. This showed that a detector capable of detecting low energy (< 100 keV) X- rays without compromising y-ray detection efficiency could have significant benefit. A room temperature CdZnTe semiconductor detector could reasonably form part of a standard escape suppressed spectrometer. However, there is a substantially higher leakage current associated with room temperature semiconductor devices than standard cryogenically cooled semiconductor detectors. CdZnTe suffers from significant charge trapping, and therefore the rise time of the radiation induced pulses forms an important part of the signal analysis from such detectors. These two problems have implications on the design of preamplifier systems for CdZnTe detectors. For this reason, this thesis describes the design of optimised electronic systems for use with room-temperature operated CdZnTe detectors. Here, the focus is on the preamplifier design, and on practical ways of analysing noise performance of the preamplifier. A new preamplifier configuration with digital output has been developed, and a detailed signal-to-noise analysis performed. Such a circuit facilitates simultaneous measurement of both energy and pulse shape information.

Fifteen nonsmoking and fifteen smoking females 19 to 36 years of age were evaluated on measures of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), jitter, shimmer, and speaking fundamental frequency (F0). The results indicated that: 1) there is a significant difference between female smokers and nonsmokers on measures of SNR, mean, and maximum F0 and, 2) there is no significant difference between female smokers and nonsmokers on measures of jitter, shimmer and minimum F0 . The SNR was found to be a powerful tool which is capable of distinguishing subtle vocal characteristics between the subject groups. It would appear that cigarette smoking may have an impact on the voice before distinct laryngeal pathologies are present.

Background: In certain masking paradigms, the masker can have two components, energetic and informational. Energetic masking is the traditional peripheral masking, whereas informational masking involves confusions (uncertainty) between the signal and masker that originate more centrally in the auditory system. Sperry et al (1997) used Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 (NU-6) words in multitalker babble to study the differential effects of energetic and informational masking using babble played temporally forward (FB) and backward (BB). The FB and BB are the same except BB is void of the contextual and semantic content cues that are available in FB. It is these informational cues that are thought to fuel informational masking. Sperry et al found 15% better recognition performance (∼3 dB) on BB than on FB, which can be interpreted as the presence of informational masking in the FB condition and not in the BB condition (Dirks and Bower, 1969). The Words-in-Noise Test (WIN) (Wilson, 2003; Wilson and McArdle, 2007) uses NU-6 words as the signal and multitalker babble as the masker, which is a combination of stimuli that potentially could produce informational masking. The WIN presents 5 or 10 words at each of seven signal-to-noise ratios (S/N, SNR) from 24 to 0 dB in 4 dB decrements with the 50% correct point being the metric of interest. The same recordings of the NU-6 words and multitalker babble used by Sperry et al are used in the WIN. Purpose: To determine whether informational masking was involved with the WIN. Research Design: Descriptive, quasi-experimental designs were conducted in three experiments using FB and BB in various paradigms in which FB and BB varied from 4.3 sec concatenated segments to essentially continuous. Study Sample: Eighty young adults with normal hearing and 64 older adults with sensorineural hearing losses participated in a series of three experiments. Data Collection and Analysis: Experiment 1 compared performance on the normal WIN (FB) with performance on the WIN in which the babble segment with each word was reversed temporally (BB). Experiment 2 examined the effects of continuous FB and BB segments on WIN performance. Experiment 3 replicated the Sperry et al (1997) experiment at 4 and 0 dB S/N using NU-6 words in the FB and BB conditions. Results: Experiment 1-with the WIN paradigm, recognition performances on FB and BB were the same for listeners with normal hearing and listeners with hearing loss, except at the 0 dB S/N with the listeners with normal hearing at which performance was significantly better on BB than FB. Experiment 2-recognition performances on FB and BB were the same at all SNRs for listeners with normal hearing using a slightly modified WIN paradigm. Experiment 3-there was no difference in performances on the FB and BB conditions with either of the two SNRs. Conclusions: Informational masking was not involved in the WIN paradigm. The Sperry et al results were not replicated, which is thought to be related to the way in which the Sperry et al BB condition was produced.

This review presents a brief history of the evolution of speech audiometry from the 1800s to present day. The two-component aspect of hearing loss (audibility and distortion), which was formalized into a framework in past literature, is presented in the context of speech recognition. The differences between speech recognition in quiet and in background noise are discussed as they relate to listeners with normal hearing and listeners with hearing loss. A discussion of the use of sentence materials versus word materials for clinical use is included as is a discussion of the effects of presentation level on recognition performance in quiet and noise. Finally, the effects of age and hearing loss on speech recognition are considered.