EXC!TE SNARE DRUM — Making an Audio Plugin with Pure Data inside

This report describes how we made a VST3 plugin containing Pure Data and integrated libpd into VCV Rack, iPlug2 and the VST3SDK. The plugin is a real-time snare drum synthesizer using an exciter-resonator model. We discovered an undesirable effect in Pd where the computationally cheap 4-point interpolation on delread4~ creates audible artefacts, effecting our wave-guide. Our solution to this issue was to implement our own interpolation object based on advice from Cyrille Henry posted to the Pd mailing list in 2008. The implementation was taken from Julius O. Smith‘s Digital Audio Resampling reference book.

Instability Risk and Beam Profile Variation in Optical Ring Resonator due to Thin Gradient Index Lens

In this study, a simple ring resonator model in presence of thin gradient index (GRIN) lens is investigated to characterize the optical beam maginification quality beyond its traditional modalities. This model allow us to vary and control the limit of resonator stability more significantly.It consist of two folding arms and each arm can be realized by its cavity components. Insertation of thin GRIN lens ( thickness < 9.3mm) in ring resonator, mainly in between first folding range gives the magnified output beams and meets the beam expander feature for the laser. Variation of GRIN lens thickness (L) is an emphatic and influencing parameter than its refractive index (n) to disturb the resonator stability. Resonator stability in Tangential (T) plane is relatively more sensitive than sagittal (S) plane. Vigorous magnification in optical beam size at the end of output range in a cavity is the noticeable consequences because of GRIN lens.

The shapes of stories: A “resonator” model of plot structure

Plots have been described as having shapes based on the changes in tension that occur across a story. We present here a model of plot shape that is predicated on the alternating rises and falls in the protagonist’s emotional state. The basic tenet of the model is that, once the emotional valence of the beginning and ending of a story has been specified, then the internal phases of the story are constrained to connect these endpoints by oscillating between emotional rises and falls in a wavelike manner. This makes plot structure akin to a musical resonator – such as a flute – which can only conduct sound waves of certain discrete shapes depending on the structure of the tube’s endpoints. Using this metaphor, we describe four fundamental plot-shapes based on a 2 x 2 crossing of the emotional valence of a story’s beginning (happy beginning vs. sad beginning) and ending (happy ending vs. sad ending).

Tunable gallium nitride-based devices for ultrafast signal processing

In this paper, we propose a micro-ring resonator model based on gallium nitride (GaN) and graphene, which exhibits tunable properties of nonlinearity. It provides a great bandwidth covering from visible to telecommunication band. Especially, based on the characteristic of GaN, it has unique advantages in shorter wavelength, which is used for demonstrating the ultrafast signal processing including wavelength conversion, temporal amplification and pulse compression. Moreover, the tunable signal processing is achieved via the method of applying additional bias voltage to graphene without changing the geometric dimension of the device. These results have significant potential applications of nonlinear optics and optical communications.

A linear oscillator model predicts dynamic temporal attention and pupillary entrainment to rhythmic patterns

Rhythm is a ubiquitous feature of music that induces specific neural modes of processing. In this paper, we assess the potential of a stimulus-driven linear oscillator model (Tomic & Janata, 2008) to predict dynamic attention to complex musical rhythms on an instant-by-instant basis. We use perceptual thresholds and pupillometry as attentional indices against which to test our model pre- dictions. During a deviance detection task, participants listened to continuously looping, multi- instrument, rhythmic patterns, while being eye-tracked. Their task was to respond anytime they heard an increase in intensity (dB SPL). An adaptive thresholding algorithm adjusted deviant in- tensity at multiple probed temporal locations throughout each rhythmic stimulus. The oscillator model predicted participants’ perceptual thresholds for detecting deviants at probed locations, with a low temporal salience prediction corresponding to a high perceptual threshold and vice versa. A pupil dilation response was observed for all deviants. Notably, the pupil dilated even when partic- ipants did not report hearing a deviant. Maximum pupil size and resonator model output were sig- nificant predictors of whether a deviant was detected or missed on any given trial. Besides the evoked pupillary response to deviants, we also assessed the continuous pupillary signal to the rhythmic patterns. The pupil exhibited entrainment at prominent periodicities present in the stimuli and followed each of the different rhythmic patterns in a unique way. Overall, these results repli- cate previous studies using the linear oscillator model to predict dynamic attention to complex auditory scenes and extend the utility of the model to the prediction of neurophysiological signals, in this case the pupillary time course; however, we note that the amplitude envelope of the acoustic patterns may serve as a similarly useful predictor. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to show entrainment of pupil dynamics by demonstrating a phase relationship between musical stimuli and the pupillary signal.

An Ultra-Sensitive Optical Ring-Based Micro-Resonator Model towards Nanoparticle and Protein Detection

Optical resonator biosensors have emerged as one of the most sensitive and practical microsystem biodetection technology. Here, we have developed a model for an optical microring resonator to be used as an ultrasensitive biosensor. A linear correlation between increasing the radius of the microring and the red shift in the resonance wavelengths has been observed. In fact, resonance shifts for very small changes in microring radius, as low as 10 nm, have been detected. Furthermore, sensing capability of the resonator has been simulated by introducing TiDO2 nanoparticles and protein molecules to the resonator surface by varying both thickness and effective refractive index of the attached layer such that the layer size has been changed from 10 nm to 100 nm with an increment of 10 nm. We have observed readily detectable unique resonance shifts for both TiDO2 nanoparticles and protein molecules. Moreover, effective medium approach has been implemented in order to account for refractive index fluctuations in sensing medium. As a consequence, combination of optical resonators with microfluidics could produce a simple-to-operate, portable and robust diagnostic tool enabling new insights into biomolecular function and recognition.