Maria Hansson

A double-talk detector based on coherence

We address the problem of detecting double-talk in a full duplex transmission line. A new double-talk detector (DTD) based on measuring the similarity between the far- and near-end speech signals is proposed. The detector is block oriented and operates in the frequency domain where the similarity between the signals is measured by means of the coherence function. The coherence is estimated with a short sequence of data by exploiting the multiple window spectrum estimation technique. Theoretical evaluation and examples of its performance are presented. The proposed DTD operates accurately in a wide range of situations, i.e., a difference in speech levels and hybrid attenuations ranging from 0 to 20 dB.

A multiple window method for estimation of peaked spectra

A multiple window method for estimation of the peaked power density spectrum is designed. The method optimizes a filter function utilizing the Karhunen-Loeve basis functions of a known peaked spectrum as windows to reduce variance and bias in the locality of the frequency peak. For improving performance, a penalty function is used to suppress the sidelobes outside a given bandwidth. The improved windows are obtained as the solution of a generalized eigenvalue problem. The bias at the frequency peak is reduced due to matching windows, while the variance is decreased by averaging uncorrelated periodograms. The method is compared with the Thomson multiple window estimator as well as to a single Hanning window in a simulation.

Effect of P Availability on Temporal Dynamics of Carbon Allocation and Glomus intraradices High-Affinity P Transporter Gene Induction in Arbuscular Mycorrhiza

ABSTRACT Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi depend on a C supply from the plant host and simultaneously provide phosphorus to the colonized plant. We therefore evaluated the influence of external P on C allocation in monoxenic Daucus carota-Glomus intraradices cultures in an AM symbiosis. Fungal hyphae proliferated from a solid minimal medium containing colonized roots into a C-free liquid minimal medium with high or low P availability. Roots and hyphae were harvested periodically, and the flow of C from roots to fungus was measured by isotope labeling. We also measured induction of a G. intraradices high-affinity P transporter to estimate fungal P demand. The prevailing hypothesis is that high P availability reduces mycorrhizal fungal growth, but we found that C flow to the fungus was initially highest at the high P level. Only at later harvests, after 100 days of in vitro culture, were C flow and fungal growth limited at high P availability. Thus, AM fungi can benefit initially from P-enriched environments in terms of plant C allocation. As expected, the P transporter induction was significantly greater at low P availability and greatest in very young mycelia. We found no direct link between C flow to the fungus and the P transporter transcription level, which indicates that a good C supply is not essential for induction of the high-affinity P transporter. We describe a mechanism by which P regulates symbiotic C allocation, and we discuss how this mechanism may have evolved in a competitive environment.

Western blot quantification of aggrecan fragments in human synovial fluid indicates differences in fragment patterns between joint diseases

OBJECTIVE To develop a Western blot method for quantification of multiple aggrecan fragments in human synovial fluids (SFs). METHOD SF aggrecan fragments were prepared from knee healthy (reference), knee injury and arthritis subjects by CsCl gradient centrifugations collecting D1 fractions. Samples were analyzed by Western blot, using antibodies against the N-terminal epitope ARGS and the G3 domain, and fragments were quantified using a digital luminescence image analyzer. RESULTS The method had a coefficients of variation of 10-30%, and a high correlation (r(S)=0.86) with a corresponding enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The SFs from reference, knee injured and arthritic subjects contained two major ARGS fragments, ARGS-SELE and ARGS-CS1, and three major G3 fragments (GRGT-G3, GLGS-G3 and AGEG-G3). Compared to the reference, the acute arthritis and acute joint injury groups had a 30-fold elevated concentration of ARGS fragments, and both groups had a higher proportion of the aggrecan in joint fluid as ARGS fragments compared to the other groups. The reference and chronic injury groups had an excess of ARGS-CS1 fragments over ARGS-SELE fragments, while subjects with acute arthritis or osteoarthritis had a more even distribution between these fragments. CONCLUSIONS We have developed a novel Western blot quantification method for quantification of SF aggrecan fragments which can differentiate fragments of different sizes sharing the same epitope. The anti-ARGS and anti-G3 quantitative Western blots provided information important for a better understanding of the proteolytic pathways in aggrecan breakdown, information that discriminates between different joint diseases, and may aid in identification of new biomarkers.

Characterization of two distinct aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR2) genes in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and evidence for multiple AhR2 gene lineages in salmonid fish.

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) mediates the toxicity of several environmental contaminants, e.g. 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, and other halogenated hydrocarbons in vertebrates. This receptor initiates the transcription of several biotransformation enzymes, which in turn are responsible for causing severe harm to biological tissue. Here we describe the isolation and complete characterization of the first two AhR genes from the teleost fish Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). The predicted amino acid sequences contain regions characteristic of other vertebrate AhRs including basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) and PER-ARNT-SIM (PAS) domains but show little similarity to other vertebrate AhRs across the C-terminal half. Furthermore, they do not contain distinct Q-rich domains as found in the mammalian AhR, which is in line with previously described fish AhR genes. The salmon cDNAs encode 1106 and 1107 putative residues, respectively, approximately 50 amino acids longer than previously characterized AhR genes. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that the two salmon AhR sequences cluster within the AhR subfamily of the bHLH-PAS family, in a clade containing fish AhR2 genes. Although the two AhR2 forms are 92% identical at the amino acid level, the distribution of sequence differences and the presence of both forms in 30 tested individuals suggest that they are not allelic but derived from separate loci. Interestingly, they are not orthologs of the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) AhR2 alpha and beta genes and the new salmon loci are therefore here designated AhR2 gamma and AhR2 delta. In line with this, PCR with DNA from rainbow trout revealed a new trout AhR locus that was more similar to the two salmon genes than to the trout AhR2 alpha and beta genes, suggesting that the rainbow trout possesses at least three distinct AhR2 genes. The presence of multiple AhR genes in these species is probably a consequence of the genome duplications that occurred in the early evolution of fish and later also specifically in the salmonid lineage. Reverse transcription-PCR analyses revealed that both AhR2 gamma and AhR2 delta are transcribed in the liver, spleen and muscles of adult salmon.

Kernels and Multiple Windows for Estimation of the Wigner-Ville Spectrum of Gaussian Locally Stationary Processes

This paper treats estimation of the Wigner-Ville spectrum (WVS) of Gaussian continuous-time stochastic processes using Cohens class of time-frequency representations of random signals. We study the minimum mean square error estimation kernel for locally stationary processes in Silvermans sense, and two modifications where we first allow chirp multiplication and then allow nonnegative linear combinations of covariances of the first kind. We also treat the equivalent multitaper estimation formulation and the associated problem of eigenvalue-eigenfunction decomposition of a certain Hermitian function. For a certain family of locally stationary processes which parametrizes the transition from stationarity to nonstationarity, the optimal windows are approximately dilated Hermite functions. We determine the optimal coefficients and the dilation factor for these functions as a function of the process family parameter

Optimized weighted averaging of peak matched multiple window spectrum estimators

Periodogram averaging with multiple windows can be used in spectrum analysis of nonstationary data. Usually, however, the windows for the subspectra are equally weighted in the estimate. In this correspondence, a criterion for the optimization of weighting factors is formulated as the average of normalized bias, variance, or mean square error in a certain frequency interval around a predefined peaked spectrum. The weighting factors are optimized using the peak matched multiple windows, the sinusoid multiple windows, and the discrete prolate spheroidal sequences.

Estimation of single event-related potentials utilizing the Prony method

This paper deals with estimation of the waveform of a single event-related potential, sERP. An additive noise model is used for the measured signal and the SNR of the disturbed sERP is approximately 0 dB. The sERP is described by a series expansion where the basis functions are damped sinusoids. The fundamental basis function is estimated by the least squares Prony method, derived for colored noise. The performance of the Prony method for different forms of the power density spectrum of the noise is investigated. A white noise approximation can be used at low signal-to-noise (SNR). The basis functions change slowly but the waveform of the sERP may vary from one stimulus to another, thus the authors average a small number of correlation functions in order to increase the SNR. The method is evaluated by using measurements from four subjects and the results confirm the variability of the sERP.

A system for tracking changes in the mid-latency evoked potential during anesthesia

Describes a method to measure changes in the mid-latency auditory evoked potential (MLAEP) during anesthesia. It is claimed that the position of the Nb-trough of the MLAEP indicates the level of consciousness. The component shows graded changes corresponding to the dose of anesthetic and it exhibits stable reproducible properties between different subjects. The authors propose a system that reduces the disturbances in an averaged MLAEP using fewer realizations than in the standard averaging procedure. The resulting smoothing error is reduced if the number of stimulus is decreased. Unfortunately, the variance of the waveform estimate is, thereby, increased. An improved method must be used in order to estimate the Nb-trough within a prescribed time interval of one minute. The procedure is based on inherent properties of the MLAEP and the noise. A simulation and examples of the performance on real data recorded during surgery are shown.

Identification of an estrogen receptor gene in the natural freshwater snail Bithynia tentaculata

Mollusks have received increasing interest in ecotoxicological studies but so far the available scientific analyses of how their genes are affected by anthropogenic pollutants are scarce. The focus of this study is to identify an estrogen receptor (er) gene in the common prosobranch snail Bithynia tentaculata and to test a hypothesis that 17α-Ethinylestradiol (EE2) will modulate er gene expression after short-term exposure. We set up exposure experiments with a total of 144 snails, which were collected from a natural population in southern Sweden. Snails were exposed to either 10ng/L or 100ng/L EE2 during 24h and/or 72h. From the isolated B. tentaculata RNA we successfully identified and characterized a novel er gene and phylogenetic analyses strongly indicate that the Bithynia er gene is an ortholog to the human ERα (ESR1, NR3A1). We found a significant interaction between EE2-dose and exposure duration on the ers gene expression (Two-way ANOVA; p=0.04). We also found a significant difference in the gene expression of the er when comparing the control and 100ng/L treatment groups after 72h in female snails (One-way ANOVA; p=0.047). The results from this study should be useful for future field-related studies of estrogen receptors in natural populations of mollusks.