Search Results (27)

This paper presents a novel cochlear implant (CI) sound coding strategy called Spectral Feature Extraction (SFE). The SFE is a novel Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)-based Continuous Interleaved Sampling (CIS) strategy that provides less-smeared spectral cues to CI patients compared to Crystalis, a predecessor strategy used in Oticon Medical devices. The study also explores how the SFE can be enhanced into a Temporal Fine Structure (TFS)-based strategy named Spectral Event Extraction (SEE), combining spectral sharpness with temporal cues. Background/Objectives: Many CI recipients understand speech in quiet settings but struggle with music and complex environments, increasing cognitive effort. De-smearing the power spectrum and extracting spectral peak features can reduce this load. The SFE targets feature extraction from spectral peaks, while the SEE enhances TFS-based coding by tracking these features across frames. Methods: The SFE strategy extracts spectral peaks and models them with synthetic pure tone spectra characterized by instantaneous frequency, phase, energy, and peak resemblance. This deblurs input peaks by estimating their center frequency. In SEE, synthetic peaks are tracked across frames to yield reliable temporal cues (e.g., zero-crossings) aligned with stimulation pulses. Strategy characteristics are analyzed using electrodograms. Results: A flexible Frequency Allocation Map (FAM) can be applied to both SFE and SEE strategies without being limited by FFT bandwidth constraints. Electrodograms of Crystalis and SFE strategies showed that SFE reduces spectral blurring and provides detailed temporal information of harmonics in speech and music. Conclusions: SFE and SEE are expected to enhance speech understanding, lower listening effort, and improve temporal feature coding. These strategies could benefit CI users, especially in challenging acoustic environments. Full article

A novel application of microresonators for refractometric sensing in aqueous media is presented. To carry out this approach, microspheres of different materials and sizes were fabricated and doped with Nd³⁺ ions. Under 532 nm excitation, the microspheres presented typical NIR Nd³⁺ emission bands with superimposed sharp peaks, related to the Whispering Gallery Modes (WGMs), due to the geometry of the microspheres. When the microspheres were submerged in water with increasing concentrations of glycerol, spectral shifts for the WGMs were observed as a function of the glycerol concentration. These spectral shifts were studied and calibrated for three different microspheres and validated with the theoretical shifts, obtained by solving the Helmholtz equations for the electromagnetic field, considering the geometry of the system, and also by calculating the extinction cross-section. WGM shifts strongly depend on the diameter of the microspheres and their refractive index (RI) difference compared with the external medium, and are greater for decreasing values of the diameter and lower values of RI difference. Experimental sensitivities ranging from 2.18 to 113.36 nm/RIU (refractive index unit) were obtained for different microspheres. Furthermore, reproducibility measurements were carried out, leading to a repeatability of 2.3 pm and a limit of detection of 5 × 10⁻⁴ RIU. The proposed sensors, taking advantage of confocal microscopy for excitation and detection, offer a robust, reliable, and contactless alternative for environmental water analysis. Full article

To characterize the trace-element characteristics of chrysoberyl, we studied twenty-six chrysoberyl samples from various localities by using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA–ICP–MS), photoluminescence (PL), and ultraviolet–visible–near-infrared (UV–Vis–NIR) spectroscopy. Chemical analysis has confirmed the existence of trace elements, including Fe, Ti, Ga, Sn, B, Cr, and V. The phenomenon of ionic isomorphic substitution frequently occurs at lattice sites within chrysoberyl. Notably, the isomorphic substitution of Al³⁺ in octahedral sites is significant, with the primary substituting elements being Fe, Ti, Cr, V, Ga, and Sn. The PL spectra of chrysoberyl samples exhibit sharp peaks at 678 and 680 nm, which are attributed to Cr³⁺, even in samples in which the Cr concentration is below the detection limit of LA-ICP-MS. This demonstrates the high-sensitivity feature of PL spectroscopy. The UV–Vis–NIR spectra of chrysoberyl samples consistently exhibit a band at 440 nm, and strong double narrow bands near 367 nm and 375 nm are observed. These spectral features are associated with Fe³⁺ chromophores—specifically, Fe³⁺-Fe³⁺ pairs or clusters and Fe³⁺ ions, respectively. By combining LA–ICP–MS analysis and PL mapping on a sample exhibiting color zoning, it has been found that the darker sections contain a higher concentration of Cr compared to the lighter sections, while the concentrations of other elements remain largely consistent. In other words, subtle variations in Cr concentration may be the underlying cause of color zoning in chrysoberyl. Full article

This paper presents a novel approach to enhancing the security and reliability of drone communications through the integration of Quantum Random Number Generators (QRNG) in Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) systems. We propose a multi-drone framework that leverages QRNG technology to generate truly random frequency hopping sequences, significantly improving resistance against jamming and interception attempts. Our method introduces a concurrent access protocol for multiple drones to share a QRNG device efficiently, incorporating robust error handling and a shared memory system for random number distribution. The implementation includes secure communication protocols, ensuring data integrity and confidentiality through encryption and Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) verification. We demonstrate the system’s effectiveness through comprehensive simulations and statistical analyses, including spectral density, frequency distribution, and autocorrelation studies of the generated frequency sequences. The results show a significant enhancement in the unpredictability and uniformity of frequency distributions compared to traditional pseudo-random number generator-based approaches. Specifically, the frequency distributions of the drones exhibited a relatively uniform spread across the available spectrum, with minimal discernible patterns in the frequency sequences, indicating high unpredictability. Autocorrelation analyses revealed a sharp peak at zero lag and linear decrease to zero values for other lags, confirming a general absence of periodicity or predictability in the sequences, which enhances resistance to predictive attacks. Spectral analysis confirmed a relatively flat power spectral density across frequencies, characteristic of truly random sequences, thereby minimizing vulnerabilities to spectral-based jamming. Statistical tests, including Chi-squared and Kolmogorov-Smirnov, further confirm the unpredictability of the frequency sequences generated by QRNG, supporting enhanced security measures against predictive attacks. While some short-term correlations were observed, suggesting areas for improvement in QRNG technology, the overall findings confirm the potential of QRNG-based FHSS systems in significantly improving the security and reliability of drone communications. This work contributes to the growing field of quantum-enhanced wireless communications, offering substantial advancements in security and reliability for drone operations. The proposed system has potential applications in military, emergency response, and secure commercial drone operations, where enhanced communication security is paramount. Full article

Organic/inorganic hybrid perovskite materials, such as CH₃NH₃PbX₃ (X = I, Br), have attracted the attention of the scientific community due to their excellent properties such as a widely tunable bandgap, high optical absorption coefficient, excellent power conversion efficiency, etc. The exposure of perovskite solar cells and photovoltaic devices to heat can significantly degrade their performance. Therefore, elucidating their temperature-dependent optical properties is essential for performance optimization of perovskite solar cells. We synthesized CH₃NH₃PbBr₃ (MAPbBr₃) single crystals through the polymer-controlled nucleation route and investigated the optical properties and molecular structure evolution of them with temperature. Through temperature evolution photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, we found that the fluorescence intensity was greatly affected by increasing the temperature, with an asymmetric PL profile suggesting that more captured excitons undergo radiative complexation. The optical photographs showed that the color of MAPbBr₃ single crystals faded. Raman spectroscopy revealed that during the heating process, the structure of MAPbBr₃ was still preserved at 90 °C since all of the Raman bands were very clear. When the temperature increased to 120 °C, the Raman bands of the internal modes became very weak. On further heating, the inorganic framework on sample’s surface started to disintegrate above 210 °C. During the heating process, the PL spectra exhibited significant changes in spectral intensity, peak position and Full Width Half Maximum (FWHM). The PL spectral intensity decreased abruptly with increasing temperature. The peak position was blue shifted with increasing temperature, and the peak shape showed an obvious asymmetry. The FMWH of the PL spectra was gradually broadened with the increase in the temperature, and there was a sharp increase from 270 °C to 300 °C. These variations in the PL spectra with temperature indicate that the optical properties of MAPbBr₃ are greatly affected by temperature, which in turn affects the application of MAPbBr₃ in fields such as optical devices. These results may be instructive for the application of MAPbBr₃. Full article

Recently, several arbitrary-scale models have been proposed for single-image super-resolution. Furthermore, the importance of arbitrary-scale single image super-resolution is emphasized for applications such as satellite image processing, HR display, and video-based surveillance. However, the baseline integer-scale model must be retrained to fit the existing network, and the learning speed is slow. This paper proposes a network to solve these problems, processing super-resolution by restoring the high-frequency information lost in the remaining arbitrary-scale while maintaining the baseline integer scale. The proposed network extends an integer-scaled image to an arbitrary-scale target in the discrete cosine transform spectral domain. We also modulate the high-frequency restoration weights of the depthwise multi-head attention to use memory efficiently. Finally, we demonstrate the performance through experiments with existing state-of-the-art models and their flexibility through integration with existing integer-scale models in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and similarity index measure (SSIM) scores. This means that the proposed network restores high-resolution (HR) images appropriately by improving the image sharpness of low-resolution (LR) images. Full article

As a fast and non-destructive spectroscopic analysis technique, Raman spectroscopy has been widely applied in chemistry. However, noise is usually unavoidable in Raman spectra. Hence, denoising is an important step before Raman spectral analysis. A novel spectral denoising method based on variational mode decomposition (VMD) was introduced to solve the above problem. The spectrum is decomposed into a series of modes (uk) by VMD. Then, the high-frequency noise modes are removed and the remaining modes are reconstructed to obtain the denoised spectrum. The proposed method was verified by two artificial noised signals and two Raman spectra of inorganic materials, i.e., MnCo ISAs/CN and Fe-NCNT. For comparison, empirical mode decomposition (EMD), Savitzky–Golay (SG) smoothing, and discrete wavelet transformation (DWT) are also investigated. At the same time, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was introduced as evaluation indicators to verify the performance of the proposed method. The results show that compared with EMD, VMD can significantly improve mode mixing and the endpoint effect. Moreover, the Raman spectrum by VMD denoising is more excellent than that of EMD, SG smoothing and DWT in terms of visualization and SNR. For the small sharp peaks, some information is lost after denoising by EMD, SG smoothing, DWT and VMD while VMD loses fewest information. Therefore, VMD may be an alternative method for Raman spectral denoising. Full article

Low-frequency Raman spectroscopy (LFRS) is a valuable tool to detect the solid state of amorphous and crystalline drugs in solid dosage forms and the transformation of drugs between different polymorphic forms. It has also been applied to track the solubilisation of solid drugs as suspensions in milk and infant formula during in vitro digestion. This study reports the use of LFRS as an approach to probe drug precipitation from a lipid-based drug delivery system (medium-chain self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system, MC-SNEDDS) during in vitro digestion. Upon lipolysis of the digestible components in MC-SNEDDS containing fenofibrate as a model drug, sharp phonon peaks appeared at the low-frequency Raman spectral region (<200 cm⁻¹), indicating the precipitation of fenofibrate in a crystalline form from the formulation. Two multivariate data analysis approaches (principal component analysis and partial least squares discriminant analysis) and one univariate analysis approach (band ratios) were explored to track these spectral changes over time. The low-frequency Raman data produces results in good agreement with in situ small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements with all data analysis approaches used, whereas the mid-frequency Raman requires the use of PLS-DA to gain similar results. This suggests that LFRS can be used as a complementary, and potentially more accessible, technique to SAXS to determine the kinetics of drug precipitation from lipid-based formulations. Full article

This paper proposes an optical sensor based on nanoscale metamaterial structures. The design of the sensor has been explored with respect to biosensing applications through numerical modeling and analysis. The sensor comprises silica substrate and diamond nanostructures, both of which represent dielectrics. The sensing principle is based on the detection of ambient refractive index change. As the analyte properties change, the refractive index changes, as well. The refractive index change has been detected by striking electromagnetic waves onto the structure and noting the spectral response. Ultraviolet waves have been utilized for recording spectral responses and evaluating sensor performance. The sensor displays multiple sharp resonance peaks in the reflected beam. By altering the refractive index of the analyte present around the sensor, the peaks can be seen choosing different wavelengths. The resonance peaks have been investigated to observe electric and magnetic field dipoles in the sensor structure. The spectrum peaks have also been studied to understand fabrication tolerances. The sensor displays a linear response, along with a large Quality (Q) factor. The maximum value of the achieved Quality (Q) factor for the proposed sensor is 1229 while operating across the refractive index range of 1.4–1.45. The claim has been supported by comparison with contemporary works on similar platforms. A range of other sensing parameters have also been calculated and benchmarked. Metamaterial-based optical sensors can provide smaller device sizes, faster response times and label-free detection. Full article

A pressure sensor, located for four months in the middle of a 1275 m-long taut deep-ocean mooring in 2380 m water depth above a seamount with sub-surface top-buoys and seafloor anchor-weight, demonstrates narrow-band spectral peaks of deterministic well-predictable signals with equivalent 0.5 m amplitudes at uncommon sub-harmonic frequencies f*/4, f*/2, 3f*/4 of the local near-inertial frequency f* = 1.085f, where f denotes the Coriolis parameter. None of these sub-harmonics can be associated with oceanographic motions, which are dominated by super-inertial internal waves that are more broadband and less predictable. No corresponding peaks are found in spectra of other observables like current velocity (differences), temperature, and pressure in the top buoy of the mooring. The mid-cable pressure sensor was mounted on a nearly 1 kN weighing non-swiveled frame. Its data are hypothesized to reflect a resonant mechanical oscillation of the high-tensioned elastic steel mooring cable under repeated short-scale Strouhal cable vibrations induced by vortex-shedding due to water-flow drag and/or possibly by tidal baroclinic motions that are about 50% larger near the sloping seafloor of the seamount than mid-depth thereby modifying the mooring-cable in a helical shape. Cable dynamics and mooring-motion considerations yield inconclusive results to explain the observations. Hypothesizing, the observations suggest, cable dynamically, sub-harmonic drainage of helix-shape source at non-tidal semidiurnal center-frequency (M₂ + S₂)/2 = 3f*/2, physically, the measurement of Earth rotation thereby mimicking a Foucault–Wheatstone device, and, oceanographically, the relative vortex-rotation ζ/2 = 0.085f being possibly induced by water-flow interacting quasi-permanently with the nearby seamount by a topographic obstruction, so that total local near-inertial frequency f* = f + ζ/2. Full article

Nowadays, modern scientific research has sparked a renewed interest to study the interaction of electromagnetic field (EM) with magnetic nanostructures and in particular in nanophotonics and spintronics. The current work is devoted to an ab initio study of the magneto-optical properties of step-decorated oxide Co nanowires (1D oxides) on vicinal Pt surfaces. Theoretical calculations of the magnetic moments are based on ab initio spin-polarized density-functional theory (DFT) including a self-consistent treatment of spin-orbit coupling. The first-principles calculations revealed the effect of magnetic coupling between cobalt spins on refractivity and extinction spectra of these 1D oxides governed by atomic structure and cobalt-oxygen interaction within a nanowire at the step edge. The emergence of a sharp pronounced peak in the spectral difference of the refractive indexes has been observed between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic configurations of the nanowire. Anisotropy of an extinction coefficient in the terahertz (THz) range of the spectra was established for oxide Co nanowires in an antiferromagnetic state in contrast with a ferromagnetic one. Full article

Potocki–Lupski Syndrome (PTLS) is a rare condition associated with a duplication of 17p11.2 that may underlie a wide range of congenital abnormalities and heterogeneous behavioral phenotypes. Along with developmental delay and intellectual disability, autism-specific traits are often reported to be the most common among patients with PTLS. To contribute to the discussion of the role of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the PTLS phenotype, we present a case of a female adolescent with a de novo dup(17) (p11.2p11.2) without ASD features, focusing on in-depth clinical, behavioral, and electrophysiological (EEG) evaluations. Among EEG features, we found the atypical peak–slow wave patterns and a unique saw-like sharp wave of 13 Hz that was not previously described in any other patient. The power spectral density of the resting state EEG was typical in our patient with only the values of non-linear EEG dynamics: Hjorth complexity and fractal dimension were drastically attenuated compared with the patient’s neurotypical peers. Here we also summarize results from previously published reports of PTLS that point to the approximately 21% occurrence of ASD in PTLS that might be biased, taking into account methodological limitations. More consistent among PTLS patients were intellectual disability and speech and language disorders. Full article

Cyclic 3d-4f molecular magnets have received considerable attention owing to their potential applications in high-density data storage and quantum information processing. As a rare example of ferromagnetic polynuclear Cr rings, {Cr₈Y₈} represents a valuable test bed to directly study the magnetic interaction between Cr³⁺ ions in large hexadecametallic {Cr₈Ln₈} (Ln = 4f metal) molecules. We have proposed a “single-J” model to approximate the low-temperature spin dynamics of {Cr₈Y₈} in our earlier study, while a zero-field splitting (ZFS) of the quantum levels was also suggested by the heat capacity data. In order to have a deeper understanding of the magnetism of {Cr₈Y₈}, it is necessary to verify the ZFS by means of high-resolution spectral methods and identify its origin. In this work, we present a high-frequency electron spin resonance (HF-ESR) study on the ZFS of {Cr₈Y₈}. The X-band ESR spectra consists of multi-peak structure, indicative of magnetic anisotropy that breaks the degeneracy between spin states in the absence of a magnetic field. HF-ESR spectra are collected to extract the ZFS parameters. We observed a sharp resonance peak due to the transitions between the S = 11 quantum levels and a broadband corresponding to a distribution of resonance peaks due to the ZFS of the S = 12 quantum levels. By analyzing HF-ESR spectra, we confirm the expected S = 12 ground state and determine its ZFS parameter D as −0.069 K, and, furthermore, we reproduce the spectra recorded at 154 GHz. The macrospin model proves to still be valid. The ZFS is attributed to the axial magnetic anisotropy, as found in some other Cr-based molecular wheels. The detailed HF-ESR investigation presented in this paper will benefit the studies on other {Cr₈Ln₈} wheels with magnetic Ln³⁺ ions and highlights the importance of the HF-ESR method as a high-resolution probe in determining the ZFS parameters with very small magnitude. Full article

Total phosphorus (TP) is the main limiting factor of eutrophication for most inland waters globally. However, the combination of the limited temporal-spatial ranges of traditional manual sampling, poor spectral resolutions, and weather-vulnerable satellite observations, have yielded great data gaps in TP dynamics in short-lived, extreme episodic, or unpredictable pollution. Hence, a novel ground-based hyperspectral proximal sensing system (GHPSs) with a maximum observation frequency of 20 s and a spectral resolution of 1 nm between 400 and 900 nm was developed for automatic, real-time and continuous observation of TP. Focusing on the GHRSs, a TP machine learning model was developed and validated with ideal accuracy (R² = 0.97, RMSE = 0.017 mg·L⁻¹, MAPE = 12.8%) using 377 pairs of in situ TP measurements collected from Fuchunjiang Reservoir (FR), Liangxi River (LR), and Lake Taihu (LT). Second-scale TP results showed a low-value stable period followed by a sharp change period in LT during 29–31 October and 1–3 November, respectively. The exponential increase (R² = 0.65, p < 0.05) on 1 November and the two complete variations with peak values of 0.32 mg·L⁻¹ and 0.42 mg·L⁻¹ were recorded in LT on 2 and 3 November, respectively. Simultaneously, a significant decrease (R² = 0.57, p < 0.05) over the observation days was observed in LR and no obvious change was observed in FR. High consistency between the GHPSs spectrum data standardized at 574 nm and the measured reflectance in different weather demonstrated the accuracy of the GHPSs spectrum data (R² > 0.99, slop = 0.98). Short and rapid TP changes were observed within one day in LT and LR based on GHPSs minute scale monitoring, which highlighted the importance of high frequency observations of TP. Several advantages of real-time, high accuracy and wide applicability to complex weather were highlighted for the GHPSs for TP monitoring compared to traditional equipment. Therefore, there are potential applications of the GHPSs in the integrated space-air-ground TP monitoring, as well as emergency monitoring and early-warning systems in the future, and it can raise our awareness of the dynamics and driving mechanisms of water quality for inland waters. Full article

We present a numerical investigation of an acoustic sensor based on a cylindrical resonator to monitor the acoustic properties of liquids flowing in a tube. The sensor design consists of a hollow cylindrical washer surrounding the tube, which carries the liquid, and which can be filled during the sensing process. Due to the impedance mismatch between the liquid and the solid washer, we demonstrate the presence of high-quality factor resonances associated with the acoustic properties of the liquid (such as velocity, density, or viscosity) appearing as sharp spectral features in the transmission and detection measurements. An appropriate choice of geometrical parameters allows either to obtain two distinct resonances associated with the liquid and the surrounding washer or to overlap the narrow resonance of the liquid with the broad resonance of the washer and achieve a Fano-type resonance from their interaction. The sensitivity of the resonances to the acoustic properties of the liquid are investigated as a function of the geometrical parameters. We show that for highly viscous fluids, the vanishing of very narrow peaks can be avoided by increasing the thickness of the washer and, therefore, decreasing the quality factors. The calculations are performed in the framework of a finite element method. Our design provides a promising platform for sensing several acoustic characteristics of liquids flowing in tubes. Full article