This paper presents a parametric audio compression scheme intended for scalable audio coding applications, and is particularly well suited for operation at low rates, in the vicinity of 5 to 32 Kbps. The model consists of two complementary components: Sines plus Noise (SN). The principal component of the system is an. overlap-add analysis-by-synthesis sinusoidal model based on conjugate matching pursuits. Perceptual information about human hearing is explicitly included into the model by psychoacoustically weighting the pursuit metric. Once analyzed, SN parameters are efficiently quantized and coded. Our informal listening tests demonstrated that our coder gave competitive performance to the-state-of-the- art HelixTM Producer Plus 9 from Real Networks®, and on the average our coder Offered a 20 percent lower bitrate for the some audio quality. The audio coder gives a much wider range of scalability than previous work of sinusoidal coders as well as existing commercial audio coders. Moreover, the audio coder a gracefully degrades in quality from hi-fidelity to a reasonable quality at a very low bitrate, 5 Kbps. The most obvious application for the SN coder is in scalable, high fidelity audio coding and signal modification.
Background: Dental stone casts come into contact with impression materials and becomes susceptible to cross contamination from saliva and blood. This study was done to evaluate the physical and mechanical properties of dental stone type IV after treatments with various disinfecting agents and regimes (methods). Materials and Methods: Type IV dental stone and different types of disinfecting agents were used and divided into seven groups: G1: dental stone without disinfection (control group), G2: dental stone mixed with silver nitrate powder 0.5% , G3: dental stone mixed with silver nitrate powder 1%, G4: dental stone mixed with copper sulfate powder 0.5%, G5: dental stone mixed with copper sulfate powder 1% ,G6: dental stone immersed in prop
... Show MoreIn this paper, the Reliability Analysis with utilizing a Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) process was conducted on the equation of the collapse potential predicted by ANN to study its reliability when utilized in a situation of soil that has uncertainty in its properties. The prediction equation utilized in this study was developed previously by the authors. The probabilities of failure were then plotted against a range of uncertainties expressed in terms of coefficient of variation. As a result of reliability analysis, it was found that the collapse potential equation showed a high degree of reliability in case of uncertainty in gypseous sandy soil properties within the specified coefficient of variation (COV) for each property. When t
... Show MoreBackground: The irradiation of teeth with a laser results in an interaction between the light and the biological constituents of the dental hard substance, which is converted directly into heat.This thermal effect is the cause of the structural and chemical enamel changes.The combined treatment of topical fluoride agent with laser may increase fluoride uptake, and reduce progression of caries-like lesions. The aim of this study was to measure the uptake of the acidulated phosphate fluoride and sodium fluoride to the buccal and lingual caries-like lesion enamel surfaces before and after irradiated by Nd-YAG laser in comparison with matching control group. Materials and methods: The sample consisted of 30 human healthy upper premolar teeth wh
... Show MoreThe hydatid materials were collected and studied, so they were contained 50 fertile human hydatid cases {33 (66%) females and 17 (34%) males}. They were collected from Al-Ramadi General Hospital during the period from December, 2003 to July, 2004 .Cysts were observed in 40 (80%) from the liver, 5 (10%) from the lungs, 3 (6%) from the kidney and 2 (4%) cysts from urinary bladder. The specimens were taken from patients of different ages. The in vitro viability of protoscoleces was assessed on the basis of flame cell activity and eosein exclusion, which were considered as criteria to determine the death or viability of protoscoleces. In addition to this movement (flame cell activity), another motility like constriction – relaxatio
... Show MoreBackground: fixed orthodontic appliances deleterious influence on gingival health is well documented. Association between weight status and gingival health is presented in many studies. This study aimed to evaluate how early the impact of fixed orthodontic therapy on patients` gingival health, and if there are differences of that impact among different weight status groups. Materials and Methods: Sample consisted of 54 patients (25 males, 29 females; age limits are 16 -18 years) going under the course of treatment with fixed orthodontic appliance. Patients were categorized according to their Body Mass Index (BMI) into 3 weight status groups considering WHO charts in 2007 (underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese), then determinat
... Show MoreThe reticuloendothelial system (RES) play an important role in immunity against bacterial infection and Klebsiella pneumoniae one of the most common causes of hospital-acquired infections. Dextran70 (D70), a polysaccharide, may alter functions of this system through changing many biological activities in the tissues.
Cadmium sulphide CdS films with 200 nm have been prepared by thermal evaporation technique on glass substrate at substrate room temperature under vacuum of 10-5mbar.In this paper, the effect of Dielectric Barrier Discharge plasma on the optical properties of the CdS film. The prepared films were exposed to different time intervals (0, 3, 5, 8) min. For every sample, the Absorption A, absorption coefficient α , energy gap Eg ,extinction coefficient K and dielectric constant ε were studied. It is found that the energy gap were decreased with exposure time, and absorption , Absorption coefficient, refractive index, extinction coefficient, dielectric constant increased with time of exposure to the plasma. Our study conside
... Show MoreThe activity of the aqueous extract of Olea europaea was tested at concentrations of 8, 15 or 20 mg/kg of body weight on lipid profile in twenty female local rabbits. These animals were randomly divided into four groups (five animals in each group). Three groups were dosed orally with the concentrations mentioned above, while the last was administered with distilled water and considered as a control group. These animals were orally dosed by aqueous extract using a micropipette for 30 days. The results showed that there was a significant (P<0.05) decrease in cholesterol, triglycerides, low density lipoprotein (LDL-cholesterol), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL-cholesterol) concentrations and atherosclerosis index means for the three trea
... Show MoreSalt stress negatively affects germination and seedling growth. Sorghum cultivars (Bohuth70, Inqath and Rabeh), seed soaking in dry yeast extract (3, 6 and 9 g l-1) in addition to dry seeds and electrical conductivity (4, 10 and 16 dS m-1) were studied. Traits of germination ratio at first and final counts, lengths of radicle and plumule, seedling dry weight and seedling vigour index were studied. The cultivar of Bohuth70 and concentration of yeast extract (9 g l-1) were superior at all studied traits, while all traits values were reduced with increased saline stress. The combination (Bohuth70×9×4) was superior to most other treatments at first and final counts, radicle length and seedling dry weight, while superiority of plumule length a
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