Internal interactions within the human circadian system: the masking effect

Summary In the realm of human circadian rhythms, the masking effect is defined as the change in the course of deep body temperature induced by changes in the degree of physical activity, or by the alteration between sleep and wake. This effect is particularly obvious during internal desynchronization where the rhythms of deep body temperature, and the sleep-wake sleep-wake sleep cycle — i.e. one of the masking factors — run with different periods.Every sleep onset is accompanied by a rapid drop, and wake onset by a rapid rise in deep body temperature, each one with an overshoot of about 50% of the steady state variations. When rhythms are calculated, with the dominant temperature period as the screening period, exclusively from data obtained during sleep episodes, on the one hand, and from those obtained exclusively during wake, on the other, two average cycles emerge: the sleep temperature curve and the wake temperature curve. Both run in parallel but are separated by the masking effcct. As derived from many experiments, the mean masking effect amounts to 0.28±0.06°C. The masking effect also depends to some extent on the phase of the temperature rhtthm; it is larger than average around the temperature maximum and during the descending phase of the temperature cycle, where the alertness commonly is highest and the probability to sleep, in general, and the REM sleep propensity, in particular, are smaller than average. This also can be interpreted to indicate that the sleep temperature curve is phase advanced relative to the wake temperature curve; this, on the average, by 0.9±0.3 h.If the individually determined amount of masking is added to the temperature data obtained during sleep, or substracted from the temperature data obtained during wake, a temperature curve emerges that can be though of as being purified of the masking effect. Analyses of this artificial curve allow estimation of that part of the internal interactions uninfluenced by the masking effect. On the average, about half of the amount of interaction between the rhythm of sleep-wake and that of deep body temperature is explained by the masking effect, whereas the other half is oscillatory interaction. Both types of interaction are inherent and inseparable parts of the circadian clock mechanism, as can be deduced from model considerations.     

A novel audio watermarking scheme using multiscale wavelet modulation

A novel audio watermarking scheme to embed robust and inaudible watermarks for the purpose of copyright protection is proposed. The key innovation is to add time-frequency redundancy into watermark signals by multiscale wavelet modulation. In order to maximize the watermarking strength within perceptual constraints, the signals synthesized from different scales are masked using a frequency auditory model, respectively, and then intergrated to form the final watermark signal. The detection structure is built using the redundancy in watermark signals, and the performance is further enhanced by modeling the statistical behaviors of wavelet coefficients as generalized Gaussian distribution. The use of original audio signal is not required in watermark detection. The experimental results show that our approach can achieve not only good transparency but also satisfying robustness to common audio manipulations.     

基于听觉场景分析的近讲语音增强算法

针对近讲场景,提出一种双麦克近讲语音增强算法。该算法基于耳间延时差(ITD)、耳间强度差(IID)特征来区分目标语音,利用声学掩蔽效应,实现目标语音对背景噪声的分离降噪。与传统的单麦克增强方法相比,该算法可消除多种类型噪声且对语音造成的损伤较小。实验表明:该算法能将8～33dB的白噪声、音乐噪声、广播噪声3种噪声类型的带噪语音的信噪比提高到36dB以上,同时保持较高的目标语音可懂度。对于冲击噪声的带噪语音也具有较好的降噪效果。     

一种基于视觉掩盖模型的数字水印技术

通过分析人的视觉特性提出一种视觉掩盖模型,得到该模型水印嵌入算法和水印检测算法。在DCT系统低频域上给典型的“Lena”图像嵌入水印后,进行压缩、加高斯噪声污染、滤波等试验,测试水印的稳健性。结果发现：水印输出响应非常高,有很好的鲁棒性,嵌入水印后的图像经一定的压缩、噪声污染、滤波等处理后仍可被检测到。     

一种基于H.264的自适应快速模式选择算法

提出了一种基于H.264的快速模式选择算法.该算法首先进行Skip模式的判断.如果Skip模式不适合当前宏块,则继续利用宏块的空间同质性和时间静态性进行其他帧间模式的筛选.然后根据帧间模式选择的结果判断是否继续进行帧内预测.算法设计过程中,充分考虑Quan-tize Parameter对模式选择的影响,从而可以适用于不同码率的环境.实验证明,该算法在高低码率下都能在保证图像质量的同时大幅度提升编码速度.     

利用掩蔽系数同时测定中草药中的钼和铜(PF-PAN-TritonX-100体系)

本文研究了在混合显色剂（ＰＦ＋ＰＡＮ）的胶束体系中，利用掩蔽系数同时测定中草药中钼和铜的光度分析法．实验表明：在混合体系中，钼量在０～１０μｇ，铜量在０～５０μｇ的范围内符合比耳定律，ε′Ｍｏ＝９２×１０４，ε′Ｃｕ＝１５×１０４．该法用于中草药样品的分析，结果令人满意，回收率可达９２％～１１１％．     

基于IRT的大动态反射系数微动目标检测算法

当雷达回波信号中同时存在强弱差异较大的微动目标时,弱反射目标分量常常会被噪声和强反射目标所掩盖,导致弱反射目标难以被检测。为解决该问题,提出一种大动态反射系数微动目标检测算法。首先该算法利用逆Radon变换(inverse Radon transform, IRT)来获取强微动分量的参数估计值,然后通过逐次消去强分量来增强弱分量,从而使得弱分量更容易被检测。本文算法能够实现反射系数差异较大的多个微动目标的检测,同时能够准确估计出其微动参数。仿真实验证明了本文算法的正确性，同时对本文算法的性能进行了分析。     

Forecasting value‐at‐risk with a parsimonious portfolio spillover GARCH (PS‐GARCH) model

Accurate modelling of volatility (or risk) is important in finance, particularly as it relates to the modelling and forecasting of value‐at‐risk (VaR) thresholds. As financial applications typically deal with a portfolio of assets and risk, there are several multivariate GARCH models which specify the risk of one asset as depending on its own past as well as the past behaviour of other assets. Multivariate effects, whereby the risk of a given asset depends on the previous risk of any other asset, are termed spillover effects. In this paper we analyse the importance of considering spillover effects when forecasting financial volatility. The forecasting performance of the VARMA‐GARCH model of Ling and McAleer (2003), which includes spillover effects from all assets, the CCC model of Bollerslev (1990), which includes no spillovers, and a new Portfolio Spillover GARCH (PS‐GARCH) model, which accommodates aggregate spillovers parsimoniously and hence avoids the so‐called curse of dimensionality, are compared using a VaR example for a portfolio containing four international stock market indices. The empirical results suggest that spillover effects are statistically significant. However, the VaR threshold forecasts are generally found to be insensitive to the inclusion of spillover effects in any of the multivariate models considered. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

面向连续变量量子密钥分发的多边型LDPC码设计与性能分析

为满足连续变量量子密钥分发(continuous-variable quantum key distribution, CV-QKD)应用场景中对高性能低密度奇偶校验(low density parity check, LDPC)码的需求,提出了针对一类具有3种边类型且部分变量节点度为1的多边型LDPC(multi-edge type LDPC, MET-LDPC)码的设计方法。通过掩模到需要的度分布的方式设计左上角矩阵;采用基于多路径外在信息度(extrinsic message degree,EMD)策略的渐进边增长(progressive edge growth, PEG)算法设计左下角矩阵;将各部分矩阵组合在一起完成MET-LDPC码的设计。仿真结果表明,采用掩模加PEG算法设计的MET-LDPC码比单独用PEG算法设计的MET-LDPC码性能更优。     

一种新的蔡氏混沌掩盖通信方法

提出了一种传输较大幅度信息信号的混沌掩盖保密通信方法。由于信息信号的幅度可以与混沌信号相当 ,从而提高了保密通信的安全性 ,改善了解密后信号的信噪比。在接收端 ,采用一个自适应线性神经元 (Ada line)来维持收发系统的混沌同步 ,并通过逆系统恢复出信息信号。当混沌系统一定时 ,同步误差及恢复信号的精度随信息信号频率的降低而提高。以蔡氏电路为例 ,给出了理论分析和数值模拟的结果