Sharif Digital Repository

This paper presents an improved low order technique for the design of FIR fractional delay (FD) filters. This method is based on a new use of the least square method in Hilbert space to approximate the ideal FD transfer function with a FIR filter. The main advantages of the resulting filter are: very good response at all frequencies and a good method to create very small delay. Design examples are demonstrated to illustrate the effectiveness of this new design approach. © 2004 IEEE  

An extension to conventional Hidden Markov Model (HMM)-based speech enhancement method is developed. An algebraic method is proposed to estimate gain of speech and noise in order to improve the quality of the estimated speech. Different pronunciations and intonations may affect speech gain. Besides, gain of noise may vary remarkably from one environment to the other one. This may lead in a mismatch between energy contour of trained models and energy contour of noisy speech signal. In this work, speech gain and noise gain are estimated based on an algebraic method simultaneously in order to match gain of noisy speech and noisy model. To carry out this procedure an extension of least square... 

Steganalysis of least significant bit (LSB) embedded images in spatial domain has been investigated extensively over the past decade and most well-known LSB steganography methods have been shown to be detectable. However, according to the latest findings in the area, two major issues of very low-rate (VLR) embedding and content-adaptive steganography have remained hard to resolve. The problem of VLR embedding is indeed a generic problem to any steganalyser, while the issue of adaptive embedding specifically depends on the hiding algorithm employed. The latter challenge has recently been brought up again to the area of LSB steganalysis by highly undetectable stego image steganography that... 

In this paper we examine demodulation methods for nonuniform Pulse Position Modulation (PPM), which is generated by the crossings of a modulating signal with a sawtooth wave. Here, we are interested in PPM at the Nyquist rate and illustrate the efficiency of the iterative methods. Several iterative methods such as Wiley/Marvasti, Time-varying, adaptive weight, Zero-order-hold, Voronoi, linear interpolation algorithms are discussed, where the PPM demodulation is converted as a nonuniform sampling reconstruction problem. Also another approach called the inverse system approach is introduced and the performance of the two algorithms is assessed. © Springer-Verlag 2004  

The electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is widely used for diagnosis of various types of cardiac diseases. However, in practical cases, the signal is corrupted by artifacts through the recording process. Thus, denoising of this type of biological signals seems necessary. Several methods have been suggested in recent years for the purpose of ECG denoising; some of which have been based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). In this paper, an EMD-based approach is proposed which uses the time interval between two adjacent zero crossings within an Intrinsic Mode Function (IMF), defined as Instantaneous Half Period (IHP), to distinguish noise components from the main ECG signal. Noisy signal is... 

Evaluation of the reaction force on a tool which is used for exertion of force on biomaterials such as biological cells or soft tissues has applications in virtual reality based medical simulators or haptic tools. In this study, two least square based support vector machine (SVM) models have been constructed to predict the indentation or reaction force on mouse oocyte and embryo cells in cell injection experiment. Inputs of these two models are geometrical parameters of indented cell, namely dimple radius (a), dimple depth (w) and radius of the semicircular curve (R). Experimental data for calibration and prediction of the models have been captured from literatures. The performance of the... 

Recently, there has been a growing interest in estimation of sparse channels as they are observed in underwater acoustic and ultrawideband channels. In this paper we present a new Bayesian sparse channel estimation (SCE) algorithm that, unlike traditional SCE methods, exploits noise statistical information to improve the estimates. The proposed method uses approximate maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) to detect the non-zero channel tap locations while least square estimation is used to determine the values of the channel taps. Computer simulations shows that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing algorithms in terms of normalized mean squared error (NMSE) and approaches... 

In this paper, vehicle longitudinal velocity during the braking process is estimated by measuring the wheels speed. Here, a new algorithm based on the unknown input Kalman filter is developed to estimate the vehicle longitudinal velocity with a minimum mean square error and without using the value of braking torque in the estimation procedure. The stability and convergence of the filter are analysed and proved. Effectiveness of the method is shown by designing a real experiment and comparing the estimation result with actual longitudinal velocity computing from a three-axis accelerometer output  

In this letter, we study the joint source-channel coding problem of communicating the linear functions of correlated Gaussian sources over a Gaussian multiple access channel. In this setup, each transmitter observes one of two correlated sources. The receiver aims to reconstruct a linear combination of both correlated Gaussian sources within an average distortion level. For this setup, we first obtain a new lower bound on the achievable distortion and then, we propose a novel lattice-based hybrid transmission scheme and its achievable distortion is derived. We show that our proposed scheme can achieve the optimal distortion under some conditions  

Realistic simulation of tool-tissue interactions can help to develop more effective surgical training systems and simulators. This study uses a finite element and meshless modeling approach to simulate the grasping procedure of a large intra-abdominal organ, i.e. a kidney, during laparoscopic surgery. Results indicate that the accuracy of the meshless method is comparable with that of the finite element method, with root mean square errors in the range of 0.8 to 2.3 mm in different directions. For the model presented in this study, the computational cost of the meshless method was much less than that of the finite element model  

Diffusion imaging with confinement tensor (DICT) is a new model that employs a tensorial representation of the geometry confining the movements of water molecules. The model differs substantially from the commonly employed diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) technique even at small diffusion weightings when the dependence of the signal on the timing parameters of the pulse sequence is concerned. In this work, we assess the accuracy of the two models on a data set acquired from an excised monkey brain. The publicly available data set features differing values for diffusion pulse duration and separation. Our results indicate that the normalized mean squared error is reduced in an overwhelming... 

Quantum metrology calculates the ultimate precision of all estimation strategies, measuring what is their root-mean-square error (RMSE) and their Fisher information. Here, instead, we ask how many bits of the parameter we can recover; namely, we derive an information-theoretic quantum metrology. In this setting, we redefine "Heisenberg bound" and "standard quantum limit" (the usual benchmarks in the quantum estimation theory) and show that the former can be attained only by sequential strategies or parallel strategies that employ entanglement among probes, whereas parallel-separable strategies are limited by the latter. We highlight the differences between this setting and the RMSE-based... 

Inference and Estimation in Missing Information (MI) scenarios are important topics in Statistical Learning Theory and Machine Learning (ML). In ML literature, attempts have been made to enhance prediction through precise feature selection methods. In sparse linear models, LASSO is well-known in extracting the desired support of the signal and resisting against noisy systems. When sparse models are also suffering from MI, the sparse recovery and inference of the missing models are taken into account simultaneously. In this paper, we will introduce an approach which enjoys sparse regression and covariance matrix estimation to improve matrix completion accuracy, and as a result enhancing... 

We report the design, fabrication and error analysis of a sun sensor array composed of six photodiodes. The sensor estimates the direction of the sun using a linear least squares method. The performance of the sensor is deteriorated by three major sources: fabrication errors, scattered environmental light, and inexact modeling of photodiodes. Using a calibration procedure and modeling the uniform component of the environmental light, we mitigate the first two errors and significantly reduce root mean squared error from 2.63° to 0.83°. For a Field of View (FOV) of 110°, the maximum estimation error also drops from 3.8° to 1.6°. Through exact mathematical modeling of photodiodes, we... 

To date various commercial systems have been used in the GAIT analysis. These systems have some difficulties for clinical use, such as interfering with normal movement and high prices. The possibility of utilization of Kinect as a sensor for GAIT analysis has been studied in this research. The accuracy of Kinect in calculation of GAIT parameters such as lower limb joint angles, stride time, and stride length were computed during normal walking. The effects of the sensor's position and direction relative to the walkway were also investigated. The Kinect sensor was installed at different positions toward the motion path. In each position the data was recorded by both Kinect and a commercial... 

A number of geometrically-detailed passive finite element (FE) models of the lumbar spine have been developed and validated under in vitro loading conditions. These models are devoid of muscles and thus cannot be directly used to simulate in vivo loading conditions acting on the lumbar joint structures or spinal implants. Gravity loads and muscle forces estimated by a trunk musculoskeletal (MS) model under twelve static activities were applied to a passive FE model of the L4-L5 segment to estimate load sharing among the joint structures (disc, ligaments, and facets) under simulated in vivo loading conditions. An equivalent follower (FL), that generates IDP equal to that generated by muscle... 

This study implements an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) approach to predict the precipitation amount of the asphaltene using temperature (T), dilution ratio (Rv), and molecular weight of different n-alkanes. Results are then evaluated using graphical and statistical error analysis methods, confirming the model’s great ability for appropriate prediction of the precipitation amount. Mean squared error and determination coefficient (R2) values of 0.036 and 0.995, respectively are obtained for the proposed ANFIS model. Results are then compared to those from previously reported correlations revealing the better performance of the proposed model. © 2018, © 2018 Taylor & Francis... 

A number of geometrically-detailed passive finite element (FE) models of the lumbar spine have been developed and validated under in vitro loading conditions. These models are devoid of muscles and thus cannot be directly used to simulate in vivo loading conditions acting on the lumbar joint structures or spinal implants. Gravity loads and muscle forces estimated by a trunk musculoskeletal (MS) model under twelve static activities were applied to a passive FE model of the L4-L5 segment to estimate load sharing among the joint structures (disc, ligaments, and facets) under simulated in vivo loading conditions. An equivalent follower (FL), that generates IDP equal to that generated by muscle... 

In wideband interferometric direction finding ambiguity is inevitable due to practical antenna array dimensions. A new algorithm for wideband interferometer direction finding is developed to resolve the ambiguity problem with minimum number of antennas. The method is based on direction finding by three antennas arranged at the three vertices of a triangle named the base-triangle. A two dimensional matrix of ambiguous angles is generated. The ambiguity problem is resolved by an auxiliary base-triangle formed by a fourth antenna in the arrangement. The common angle between the two ambiguous directions derived from the two base-triangles, is the desired angle. As such a four antenna array is... 

Community Question-Answering websites, such as StackOverflow and Quora, expect users to follow specific guidelines in order to maintain content quality. These systems mainly rely on community reports for assessing contents, which has serious problems, such as the slow handling of violations, the loss of normal and experienced users' time, the low quality of some reports, and discouraging feedback to new users. Therefore, with the overall goal of providing solutions for automating moderation actions in QA websites, we aim to provide a model to predict 20 quality or subjective aspects of questions in QA websites. To this end, we used data gathered by the CrowdSource team at Google Research in...