Sexual and individual signatures are encoded in the temporal rate of Cape gannet display calls

Vocalisations play a vital role in animal communication, as they are involved in many biological functions. Seabirds often breed in large and dense colonies, making successful recognition between mates or between parents-and offspring crucial for reproductive success. Most seabird species, including Cape gannets (Morus capensis), are monomorphic and likely rely on acoustic signals for mate selection and mate recognition. This study aimed to better understand the use of vocalisations for sex and individual recognition in Cape gannets by describing the acoustic structure of their display calls at the nest. Vocalisations of nesting Cape gannets were recorded and acoustic measurements were extracted in both temporal and frequency domains. Values of the fundamental frequency and the average of Inter-Onset-Interval appeared to be the most important acoustic variables for sex determination. Both temporal and frequency parameters showed a potential for individual identity coding, with the average units Inter-Onset-Interval being the most important variable for individual identification for both sexes. This study provides the first evidence of sex-specific and individual vocal signatures in adult breeding Cape gannets. From an applied perspective, identified sex specific differences could potentially be used as a non-invasive method for field-based sex-determination in research and monitoring projects on Cape gannets.

Analysis of Energy Utilization and Losses for Jet-Propelled Vehicles

The global control volume-based energy utilization balance for an aerospace vehicle is extended to allow for the analysis of jet-propelled vehicles. The methodology is first developed for analyzing the energy utilization and entropy generation characteristics of jet engines without airframe considerations. This methodology, when combined with separate energy utilization analysis for an unpowered airframe, allows for the assessment of a powered vehicle. Wake entropy generation for a powered vehicle is shown to be the summation of the wake entropy generation associated with the propulsion system (no airframe) and the unpowered airframe. The fundamental relationship between overall entropy generation and the flight conditions required for maximum range and endurance of a powered vehicle are also derived. Example energy utilization results obtained for a modeled turbojet engine in off-design operation are provided; wake and engine component entropy generation characteristics are directly related to engine operation and flight conditions. This engine model is then integrated with a legacy (twin-engine) Northrop F-5E Tiger II airframe. The overall entropy generation temporal rate for the vehicle is minimized, as predicted by our analysis, at flight conditions corresponding to maximum endurance. For flight conditions corresponding to maximum range, the overall entropy spatial rate is minimized.

Superior colliculus saccade motor bursts do not dictate movement kinematics

The primate superior colliculus (SC) contains a topographic map of visual field locations, such that the anatomical location of any given active neuron defines a desired eye movement amplitude and direction. Complementing such a spatial code, SC neurons also exhibit saccade-related bursts that are tightly synchronized with movement onset. Current models suggest that such bursts, and their properties, constitute a temporal rate code that may dictate moment-to-moment movement evolution. However, a recent result demonstrated altered movement properties with minimal changes in SC motor burst strengths (Buonocore, Tian, Khademi, & Hafed, 2021). Here, I support such a dissociation between the SC temporal rate code and instantaneous movement evolution: SC burst strength varies depending on whether saccades are directed towards the upper or lower visual fields, but the movements themselves have similar kinematics. Thus, SC saccade-related motor bursts do not necessarily dictate movement kinematics, motivating investigating other possible functional roles for these bursts.

Hail detection from high-frequency radiometers on the GPM constellation. A new prospect for a global hailstorm climatology

<p>Hail detection is an open issue from the remote sensing point of view both from the ground and from space. Hail is extremely difficult to observe using passive and active sensing due to signal attenuation and the relatively scarce knowledge of the cloud structure in hailstorms. Several approaches have been recently proposed mainly using radar data from the ground in connection with observations in the visible and infrared from geostationary satellites. High frequency MWs aboard to airborne and satellite were also used to infer hail patterns. The potential of the 90–190 GHz frequency range when employed in the classification of cloud types and in the detection of signals from different hail sizes was recently proved by Laviola et al. 2020 and Ferraro et al. (2020) extending previous approaches to these frequencies that are now available on several platforms. MW high frequencies offer the advantage of very high sensitivity to the scattering signature from different ice particles with diameters from a few millimeters to 10s of centimeters. Thus, we are able to classify the region of convective clouds where different hail sizes are generated by identifying severity areas characterized by small ice aggregates potentially forming hail, large hail and super hail. In this work, a probability-based model originally designed for AMSU-B/MHS (Laviola et al, 2020) has been fitted to the observations of all MHS-like radiometers onboard the satellites of the GPM constellation. All MHS-like frequency channels in the 150-170 GHz frequency range were adjusted on the MHS channel at 157 GHz in order to account for the instrumental differences and tune the original model on the MHS-like technical characteristics. The novelty of this approach offers the potential of retrieving a uniform and homogeneous hail dataset on the global scale. Currently running on 10 MHS-like radiometers orbiting on the GPM constellation, the application of the hail detection model demonstrates the high potential of this generalized model to map the evolution of hail-bearing systems at very high temporal rate. The results on the global scale also demonstrate the high performances of the hail model in detecting the differences of hailstorm structure across the two hemispheres by means of a thorough reconstruction of the seasonality of the events particularly in South America where the largest hailstones are typically observed.</p>

A Trellis Based Temporal Rate Allocation and Virtual Reference Frames for High Efficiency Video Coding

The High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard has now become the most popular video coding solution for video conferencing, broadcasting, and streaming. However, its compression performance is still a critical issue for adopting a large number of emerging video applications with higher spatial and temporal resolutions. To advance the current HEVC performance, we propose an efficient temporal rate allocation solution. The proposed method adaptively allocates the compression bitrate for each coded picture in a group of pictures by using a trellis-based dynamic programming approach. To achieve this task, we trained the trellis-based quantization parameter for each frame in a group of pictures considering the temporal layer position. We further improved coding efficiency by incorporating our proposed framework with other inter prediction methods such as a virtual reference frame. Experiments showed around 2% and 5% bitrate savings with our trellis-based rate allocation method with and without a virtual reference frame compared to the conventional HEVC standard, respectively.

Validation test on 3d heart phantom for mitral valve leaflet tracking

<p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 9pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 9pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US">Mitral valve movement is essential to be identified in order to monitor the abnormality of blood flow in right side of heart. The estimation and tracking of mitral valve has seldom been investigated since it required high temporal rate to scan the echocardiography images and it depends on the operator to capture the low-speckle and-noise images. This study presents the validation experiment performed on heart phantom made of t</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 9pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US">hermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) filament which the objective is to validate the previous </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 9pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US">features tracking technique implemented in mitral valve locating in video frames using Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) algorithm. The outcome was able to automatically detect the edge of mitral valve and thus in future, it manages to predict the flowing of blood pattern. An in-vitro experiment was conducted which involved a valve phantom scanning in water tank that connected to water pump. It was found in this study that the technique capable to detect and visualize the mitral valve up to 59 frames in 2.36 secondsby tracking the features of minimum eigenvalue within the selected region. It was also produced a good agreement of valve distance between the true value and the measured one, which achieved the minimum of 88% similarity. This yielded the validation of the proposed technique to track and visualize the mitral valves. </span></span></p>

Nowcasting and multifractal features of the seismicity in the subduction zone of Tehuantepec Isthmus, southern México

&lt;p&gt;After the M8.2 earthquake occurred on September 07, 2017 at Isthmus of Tehuantepec, notable spatial and temporal changes where&lt;br&gt;registered, the temporal rate of occurrence increased and the spatial seismicity distribution showed a clear clusterization along&lt;br&gt;the region of collision of the Tehuantepec Transform/Ridge with the Middle America Trench off Chiapas. Also, the b-value in the&lt;br&gt;Gutenberg-Richer law showed changes in time. On the basis of that behavior we studied the sequence of magnitudes of the&lt;br&gt;earthquakes occurred within the Isthmus of Tehuantepec at southern Mexico from 2010 to 2020, by using the nowcasting method&lt;br&gt;and the multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis. Our findings suggest the b-value could depend on time and after the main-shock&lt;br&gt;M8.2, the underlying dynamics in the Tehuantepec ridge has been changed, which is clearly described by our analyses based on&lt;br&gt;nowcasting method and in the multifractality estimated changes.&lt;/p&gt;

Temporal Pitch Perception in Cochlear-Implant Users: Channel Independence in Apical Cochlear Regions

Two-electrode stimuli presented on adjacent mid-array contacts in cochlear-implant users elicit pitch percepts that are not consistent with a summation of the two temporal patterns. This indicates that low-rate temporal rate codes can be applied with considerable independence on adjacent mid-array electrodes. At issue in this study was whether a similar independence of temporal pitch cues can also be observed for more apical sites of stimulation, where temporal cues have been shown to be more reliable than place cues, in contrast to middle and basal sites. In cochlear-implant recipients with single-sided deafness implanted with long lateral-wall electrode arrays, pitch percepts were assessed by matching the pitch of dual-electrode stimuli with pure tones presented to the contralateral normal-hearing ear. The results were supported with an additional pitch-ranking experiment, in a different subject population with bilateral deafness. Unmodulated pulse trains with 100, 200, and 400 pulses per second were presented on three pairs of adjacent electrodes. Pulses were separated by the minimal interchannel delay (1.7 µs) in a short-delay configuration and by half the pulse period in a long-delay configuration. The hypothesis was that subjects would perceive a pitch corresponding to the doubled temporal pattern for the long-delay stimuli due to the summation of excitation patterns from adjacent apical electrodes, if those electrodes were to activate largely overlapping neural populations. However, we found that the mean matched acoustic pitch of the long-delay pulses was not significantly different from that of the short-delay pulses. These findings suggest that also in the apical region in long-array cochlear-implant recipients, temporal cues can be transmitted largely independently on adjacent electrodes.