Improvement to speech-music discrimination using sinusoidal model based features

This paper addresses a model-based audio content analysis for classification of speech-music mixed audio signals into speech and music. A set of new features is presented and evaluated based on sinusoidal modeling of audio signals. The new feature set, including variance of the birth frequencies and duration of the longest frequency track in sinusoidal model, as a measure of the harmony and signal continuity, is introduced and discussed in detail. These features are used and compared to typical features as inputs to an audio classifier. Performance of these sinusoidal model features is evaluated through classification of audio into speech and music using both the GMM (Gaussian Mixture Model) and the SVM (Support Vector Machine) classifiers. Experimental results show that the proposed features are quite successful in speech/music discrimination. By using only a set of two sinusoidal model features, extracted from 1-s segments of the signal, we achieved 96.84% accuracy in the audio classification. Experimental comparisons also confirm superiority of the sinusoidal model features to the popular time domain and frequency domain features in audio classification.     

Mobile application driven consumer engagement

The growing popularity of mobile technologies and applications, lead many companies to develop relations with consumers through mobile applications. Therefore, it is important to understand how to design applications based on consumer preferences. This research seeks to understand which features of mobile applications stimulate consumer engagement and lead to continuous use of mobile applications. This study used an online questionnaire to collect data from 246 respondents. The data was analyzed making use of Structural Equations Modeling (SEM). The results indicate that perception of such features as design solutions and information quality will result in higher engagement leading to continuous usage of mobile applications. Moreover, consumer engagement positively influenced users’ intention to continuous usage of mobile applications. Inconsistent with expectation, consumer interaction and functionality features are not found to be positively related to consumer engagement with mobile applications.     

A Universal Image Steganalysis System Based On Double Sparse Representation Classification (DSRC)

Achieving high rates of detection in low rates of embedding is still a challenging problem in many steganalysis systems. The newly proposed steganalysis system based on sparse representation classifier has shown remarkable detection rates in low embedding rate. In this paper, we propose a new steganalysis system based on double sparse representation classifier. We compare our proposed method with other steganalysis systems which use different classifier (including nearest neighbor, support vector machine, ensemble support vector machine and sparse representation). In all of our experiments, input features to the classifier are fixed and the ability of classifier is examined. Also we provide a complexity analysis in terms of execution time for different classifier. In most of experiments, our proposed method shows superior performance in terms of detection rate and complexity for low embedding rates.     

Role and composition of the mobile phase in coal

Extraction of Pittsburgh and Illinois No. 6 coals with tetrahydrofuran to remove a significant proportion of the mobile phase resulted in the elimination of thermoplastic properties. Cocarbonization of these extracted residues with large polycondensed aromatic molecules such as decacyclene and coronene resulted in the restoration of thermoplastic properties. It is proposed that large thermally stable aromatic molecules can perform a similar role to the molecular entities present in the mobile phase of bituminous coals, and that the presence of hydroaromatic (hydrogen donor) species in the mobile phase is unnecessary for the development of thermoplastic properties. The ability of thermally stable polycondensed aromatics to confer thermoplastic properties to coal appears to be related either to their hydrogen shuttling or radical stabilization propensity. The amounts and chemical nature of extracts from four coals (lignitic to high-volatile bituminous) were investigated. With increasing rank, the yields, aromaticity and degree of ring condensation of the extract (the mobile phase) all increased. For the two bituminous coals studied, the majority of the mobile phase was shown to consist of these thermally stable polycondensed aromatic species.     

Experimental investigation of CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> capture using sodium hydroxide particles in a fluidized bed

CO₂ capture from air using sodium hydroxide solid sorbent in a laboratory scale fluidized bed reactor was investigated experimentally. The influence of three parameters of temperature, inlet CO₂ volume percentage and inlet air flow rate on the CO₂ removal rate was studied. Experimental results showed that the optimum rate was at 25 °C when the inlet CO₂ volume percentage was 1%. The results also showed that the adsorption process was reactive, and the reaction mechanism depended on the reaction temperature. In addition, empirical observation revealed only one adsorption cycle happened at low temperatures (25-30 °C). As the temperature increased, the second adsorption cycle occurred and, finally, CO₂ desorption cycle took place in the range of 90-115 °C.     

Community-aware single-copy content forwarding in Mobile Social Network

Wireless Networks - One of the most challenging issues in Mobile Social Networks (MSNs) is to design a messages forwarding method that achieves high delivery and low communication overhead....     

Evaluation of antibacterial property of hydroxyapatite and zirconium oxide‐modificated magnetic nanoparticles against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli

In the first section of this research, superparamagnetic nanoparticles (NPs) (Fe₃ O₄) modified with hydroxyapatite (HAP) and zirconium oxide (ZrO₂) and thereby Fe₃ O₄ /HAP and Fe₃ O₄ /ZrO₂ NPs were synthesised through co‐precipitation method. Then Fe₃ O₄ /HAP and Fe₃ O₄ /ZrO₂ NPs characterised with various techniques such as X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X‐ray analysis, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, Fourier transform infrared, and vibrating sample magnetometer. Observed results confirmed the successful synthesis of desired NPs. In the second section, the antibacterial activity of synthesised magnetic NPs (MNPs) was investigated. This investigation performed with multiple microbial cultivations on the two bacteria; Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). Obtained results proved that although both MNPs have good antibacterial properties, however, Fe₃ O₄ /HAP NP has greater antibacterial performance than the other. Based on minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration evaluations, S. aureus bacteria are more sensitive to both NPs. These nanocomposites combine the advantages of MNP and antibacterial effects, with distinctive merits including easy preparation, high inactivation capacity, and easy isolation from sample solutions by the application of an external magnetic field.Inspec keywords: nanocomposites, X‐ray chemical analysis, microorganisms, magnetic particles, scanning electron microscopy, precipitation (physical chemistry), nanomagnetics, X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray photoelectron spectra, nanoparticles, superparamagnetism, iron compounds, antibacterial activity, biomedical materials, nanomedicine, calcium compounds, nanofabrication, Fourier transform infrared spectra, magnetometers, zirconium compoundsOther keywords: antibacterial effects, antibacterial property, superparamagnetic nanoparticles, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray analysis, antibacterial activity, bactericidal concentration, S. aureus bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, hydroxyapatite, coprecipitation method, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X‐ray analysis, Brunauer‐Emmett‐Teller method, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, vibrating sample magnetometer, microbial cultivations, nanocomposites     

Surface effects on free vibration of piezoelectric functionally graded nanobeams using nonlocal elasticity

Free vibration of functionally graded material (FGM) nanobeams is investigated by considering surface effects including surface elasticity, surface stress, and surface density as well as the piezoelectric field using nonlocal elasticity theory. The balance conditions between the nanobeam bulk and its surfaces are satisfied assuming a cubic variation for the normal stress, ${\sigma_{zz}}$ , through the piezoelectric FG nanobeam thickness. Accordingly, the surface density is introduced into the governing equation of the free vibration of nanobeams. The results are obtained for various gradient indices, voltage values of the piezoelectric field, nanobeam lengths, and mode numbers. It is shown that making changes to voltage values and modifying mechanical properties of piezoelectric FGM nanobeams are two main approaches to achieve desired natural frequencies.