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Description
Medical ultrasound imaging is widely used today because of it being non-invasive and cost-effective. Flow estimation helps in accurate diagnosis of vascular diseases and adds an important dimension to medical ultrasound imaging. Traditionally flow estimation is done using Doppler-based methods which only estimate velocity in the beam direction. Thus

Medical ultrasound imaging is widely used today because of it being non-invasive and cost-effective. Flow estimation helps in accurate diagnosis of vascular diseases and adds an important dimension to medical ultrasound imaging. Traditionally flow estimation is done using Doppler-based methods which only estimate velocity in the beam direction. Thus when blood vessels are close to being orthogonal to the beam direction, there are large errors in the estimation results. In this dissertation, a low cost blood flow estimation method that does not have the angle dependency of Doppler-based methods, is presented.

First, a velocity estimator based on speckle tracking and synthetic lateral phase is proposed for clutter-free blood flow.

Speckle tracking is based on kernel matching and does not have any angle dependency. While velocity estimation in axial dimension is accurate, lateral velocity estimation is challenging due to reduced resolution and lack of phase information. This work presents a two tiered method which estimates the pixel level movement using sum-of-absolute difference, and then estimates the sub-pixel level using synthetic phase information in the lateral dimension. Such a method achieves highly accurate velocity estimation with reduced complexity compared to a cross correlation based method. The average bias of the proposed estimation method is less than 2% for plug flow and less than 7% for parabolic flow.

Blood is always accompanied by clutter which originates from vessel wall and surrounding tissues. As magnitude of the blood signal is usually 40-60 dB lower than magnitude of the clutter signal, clutter filtering is necessary before blood flow estimation. Clutter filters utilize the high magnitude and low frequency features of clutter signal to effectively remove them from the compound (blood + clutter) signal. Instead of low complexity FIR filter or high complexity SVD-based filters, here a power/subspace iteration based method is proposed for clutter filtering. Excellent clutter filtering performance is achieved for both slow and fast moving clutters with lower complexity compared to SVD-based filters. For instance, use of the proposed method results in the bias being less than 8% and standard deviation being less than 12% for fast moving clutter when the beam-to-flow-angle is $90^o$.

Third, a flow rate estimation method based on kernel power weighting is proposed. As the velocity estimator is a kernel-based method, the estimation accuracy degrades near the vessel boundary. In order to account for kernels that are not fully inside the vessel, fractional weights are given to these kernels based on their signal power. The proposed method achieves excellent flow rate estimation results with less than 8% bias for both slow and fast moving clutters.

The performance of the velocity estimator is also evaluated for challenging models. A 2D version of our two-tiered method is able to accurately estimate velocity vectors in a spinning disk as well as in a carotid bifurcation model, both of which are part of the synthetic aperture vector flow imaging (SA-VFI) challenge of 2018. In fact, the proposed method ranked 3rd in the challenge for testing dataset with carotid bifurcation. The flow estimation method is also evaluated for blood flow in vessels with stenosis. Simulation results show that the proposed method is able to estimate the flow rate with less than 9% bias.
ContributorsWei, Siyuan (Author) / Chakrabarti, Chaitali (Thesis advisor) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Committee member) / Ogras, Umit Y. (Committee member) / Wenisch, Thomas F. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Spike sorting is a critical step for single-unit-based analysis of neural activities extracellularly and simultaneously recorded using multi-channel electrodes. When dealing with recordings from very large numbers of neurons, existing methods, which are mostly semiautomatic in nature, become inadequate.

This dissertation aims at automating the spike sorting process. A high performance,

Spike sorting is a critical step for single-unit-based analysis of neural activities extracellularly and simultaneously recorded using multi-channel electrodes. When dealing with recordings from very large numbers of neurons, existing methods, which are mostly semiautomatic in nature, become inadequate.

This dissertation aims at automating the spike sorting process. A high performance, automatic and computationally efficient spike detection and clustering system, namely, the M-Sorter2 is presented. The M-Sorter2 employs the modified multiscale correlation of wavelet coefficients (MCWC) for neural spike detection. At the center of the proposed M-Sorter2 are two automatic spike clustering methods. They share a common hierarchical agglomerative modeling (HAM) model search procedure to strategically form a sequence of mixture models, and a new model selection criterion called difference of model evidence (DoME) to automatically determine the number of clusters. The M-Sorter2 employs two methods differing by how they perform clustering to infer model parameters: one uses robust variational Bayes (RVB) and the other uses robust Expectation-Maximization (REM) for Student’s 𝑡-mixture modeling. The M-Sorter2 is thus a significantly improved approach to sorting as an automatic procedure.

M-Sorter2 was evaluated and benchmarked with popular algorithms using simulated, artificial and real data with truth that are openly available to researchers. Simulated datasets with known statistical distributions were first used to illustrate how the clustering algorithms, namely REMHAM and RVBHAM, provide robust clustering results under commonly experienced performance degrading conditions, such as random initialization of parameters, high dimensionality of data, low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), ambiguous clusters, and asymmetry in cluster sizes. For the artificial dataset from single-channel recordings, the proposed sorter outperformed Wave_Clus, Plexon’s Offline Sorter and Klusta in most of the comparison cases. For the real dataset from multi-channel electrodes, tetrodes and polytrodes, the proposed sorter outperformed all comparison algorithms in terms of false positive and false negative rates. The software package presented in this dissertation is available for open access.
ContributorsMa, Weichao (Author) / Si, Jennie (Thesis advisor) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Committee member) / He, Jingrui (Committee member) / Helms Tillery, Stephen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Description
As the demand for wireless systems increases exponentially, it has become necessary

for different wireless modalities, like radar and communication systems, to share the

available bandwidth. One approach to realize coexistence successfully is for each

system to adopt a transmit waveform with a unique nonlinear time-varying phase

function. At the receiver of the system

As the demand for wireless systems increases exponentially, it has become necessary

for different wireless modalities, like radar and communication systems, to share the

available bandwidth. One approach to realize coexistence successfully is for each

system to adopt a transmit waveform with a unique nonlinear time-varying phase

function. At the receiver of the system of interest, the waveform received for process-

ing may still suffer from low signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) due to the

presence of the waveforms that are matched to the other coexisting systems. This

thesis uses a time-frequency based approach to increase the SINR of a system by estimating the unique nonlinear instantaneous frequency (IF) of the waveform matched

to the system. Specifically, the IF is estimated using the synchrosqueezing transform,

a highly localized time-frequency representation that also enables reconstruction of

individual waveform components. As the IF estimate is biased, modified versions of

the transform are investigated to obtain estimators that are both unbiased and also

matched to the unique nonlinear phase function of a given waveform. Simulations

using transmit waveforms of coexisting wireless systems are provided to demonstrate

the performance of the proposed approach using both biased and unbiased IF estimators.
ContributorsGattani, Vineet Sunil (Author) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Thesis advisor) / Richmond, Christ (Committee member) / Maurer, Alexander (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Speech is generated by articulators acting on

a phonatory source. Identification of this

phonatory source and articulatory geometry are

individually challenging and ill-posed

problems, called speech separation and

articulatory inversion, respectively.

There exists a trade-off

between decomposition and recovered

articulatory geometry due to multiple

possible mappings between an

articulatory configuration

and the speech produced. However, if measurements

are

Speech is generated by articulators acting on

a phonatory source. Identification of this

phonatory source and articulatory geometry are

individually challenging and ill-posed

problems, called speech separation and

articulatory inversion, respectively.

There exists a trade-off

between decomposition and recovered

articulatory geometry due to multiple

possible mappings between an

articulatory configuration

and the speech produced. However, if measurements

are obtained only from a microphone sensor,

they lack any invasive insight and add

additional challenge to an already difficult

problem.

A joint non-invasive estimation

strategy that couples articulatory and

phonatory knowledge would lead to better

articulatory speech synthesis. In this thesis,

a joint estimation strategy for speech

separation and articulatory geometry recovery

is studied. Unlike previous

periodic/aperiodic decomposition methods that

use stationary speech models within a

frame, the proposed model presents a

non-stationary speech decomposition method.

A parametric glottal source model and an

articulatory vocal tract response are

represented in a dynamic state space formulation.

The unknown parameters of the

speech generation components are estimated

using sequential Monte Carlo methods

under some specific assumptions.

The proposed approach is compared with other

glottal inverse filtering methods,

including iterative adaptive inverse filtering,

state-space inverse filtering, and

the quasi-closed phase method.
ContributorsVenkataramani, Adarsh Akkshai (Author) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Thesis advisor) / Bliss, Daniel W (Committee member) / Turaga, Pavan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
This project examines the science of electric field sensing and completes experiments, gathering data to support its utility for various applications. The basic system consists of a transmitter, receiver, and lock-in amplifier. The primary goal of the study was to determine if such a system could detect a human disturbance,

This project examines the science of electric field sensing and completes experiments, gathering data to support its utility for various applications. The basic system consists of a transmitter, receiver, and lock-in amplifier. The primary goal of the study was to determine if such a system could detect a human disturbance, due to the capacitance of a human body, and such a thesis was supported. Much different results were obtained when a person disturbed the electric field transmitted by the system than when other types of objects, such as chairs and electronic devices, were placed in the field. In fact, there was a distinct difference between persons of varied sizes as well. This thesis goes through the basic design of the system and the process of experimental design for determining the capabilities of such an electric field sensing system.
ContributorsBranham, Breana Michelle (Author) / Allee, David (Thesis director) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Committee member) / Phillips, Stephen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2013-05
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Description
Tracking targets in the presence of clutter is inevitable, and presents many challenges. Additionally, rapid, drastic changes in clutter density between different environments or scenarios can make it even more difficult for tracking algorithms to adapt. A novel approach to target tracking in such dynamic clutter environments is proposed using

Tracking targets in the presence of clutter is inevitable, and presents many challenges. Additionally, rapid, drastic changes in clutter density between different environments or scenarios can make it even more difficult for tracking algorithms to adapt. A novel approach to target tracking in such dynamic clutter environments is proposed using a particle filter (PF) integrated with Interacting Multiple Models (IMMs) to compensate and adapt to the transition between different clutter densities. This model was implemented for the case of a monostatic sensor tracking a single target moving with constant velocity along a two-dimensional trajectory, which crossed between regions of drastically different clutter densities. Multiple combinations of clutter density transitions were considered, using up to three different clutter densities. It was shown that the integrated IMM PF algorithm outperforms traditional approaches such as the PF in terms of tracking results and performance. The minimal additional computational expense of including the IMM more than warrants the benefits of having it supplement and amplify the advantages of the PF.
ContributorsDutson, Karl (Author) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Thesis advisor) / Kovvali, Narayan (Committee member) / Bliss, Daniel W (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
As the demand for spectrum sharing between radar and communications systems is steadily increasing, the coexistence between the two systems is a growing and very challenging problem. Radar tracking in the presence of strong communications interference can result in low probability of detection even when sequential Monte Carlo

tracking methods

As the demand for spectrum sharing between radar and communications systems is steadily increasing, the coexistence between the two systems is a growing and very challenging problem. Radar tracking in the presence of strong communications interference can result in low probability of detection even when sequential Monte Carlo

tracking methods such as the particle filter (PF) are used that better match the target kinematic model. In particular, the tracking performance can fluctuate as the power level of the communications interference can vary dynamically and unpredictably.

This work proposes to integrate the interacting multiple model (IMM) selection approach with the PF tracker to allow for dynamic variations in the power spectral density of the communications interference. The model switching allows for a necessary transition between different communications interference power spectral density (CI-PSD) values in order to reduce prediction errors. Simulations demonstrate the high performance of the integrated approach with as many as six dynamic CI-PSD value changes during the target track. For low signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratios, the derivation for estimating the high power levels of the communications interference is provided; the estimated power levels would be dynamically used in the IMM when integrated with a track-before-detect filter that is better matched to low SINR tracking applications.
ContributorsZhou, Jian (Author) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Thesis advisor) / Kovvali, Narayan (Committee member) / Berisha, Visar (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
The utilization of power cables is increasing with the development of renewable energy and the maintenance replacement of old overhead power lines. Therefore, effective monitoring and accurate fault location for power cables are very important for the sake of a stable power supply.

The recent technologies for power cable diagnosis

The utilization of power cables is increasing with the development of renewable energy and the maintenance replacement of old overhead power lines. Therefore, effective monitoring and accurate fault location for power cables are very important for the sake of a stable power supply.

The recent technologies for power cable diagnosis and temperature monitoring system are described including their intrinsic limitations for cable health assessment. Power cable fault location methods are reviewed with two main categories: off-line and on-line data based methods.

As a diagnostic and fault location approach, a new passive methodology is introduced. This methodology is based on analyzing the resonant frequencies of the transfer function between the input and output of the power cable system. The equivalent pi model is applied to the resonant frequency calculation for the selected underground power cable transmission system.

The characteristics of the resonant frequencies are studied by analytical derivations and PSCAD simulations. It is found that the variation of load magnitudes and change of positive power factors (i.e., inductive loads) do not affect resonant frequencies significantly, but there is considerable movement of resonant frequencies under change of negative power factors (i.e., capacitive loads).

Power cable fault conditions introduce new resonant frequencies in accordance with fault positions. Similar behaviors of the resonant frequencies are shown in a transformer (TR) connected power cable system with frequency shifts caused by the TR impedance.

The resonant frequencies can be extracted by frequency analysis of power signals and the inherent noise in these signals plays a key role to measure the resonant frequencies. Window functions provide an effective tool for improving resonant frequency discernment. The frequency analysis is implemented on noise laden PSCAD simulation signals and it reveals identical resonant frequency characteristics with theoretical studies.

Finally, the noise levels of real voltage and current signals, which are acquired from an operating power plant, are estimated and the resonant frequencies are extracted by applying window functions, and these results prove that the resonant frequency can be used as an assessment for the internal changes in power cable parameters such as defects and faults.
ContributorsKim, Youngdeug (Author) / Holbert, Keith Edwin (Thesis advisor) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Committee member) / Heydt, Gerald (Committee member) / Karady, George G. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
In recent years, there has been an increased interest in sharing available bandwidth to avoid spectrum congestion. With an ever-increasing number wireless users, it is critical to develop signal processing based spectrum sharing algorithms to achieve cooperative use of the allocated spectrum among multiple systems in order to reduce

In recent years, there has been an increased interest in sharing available bandwidth to avoid spectrum congestion. With an ever-increasing number wireless users, it is critical to develop signal processing based spectrum sharing algorithms to achieve cooperative use of the allocated spectrum among multiple systems in order to reduce interference between systems. This work studies the radar and communications systems coexistence problem using two main approaches. The first approach develops methodologies to increase radar target tracking performance under low signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) conditions due to the coexistence of strong communications interference. The second approach jointly optimizes the performance of both systems by co-designing a common transmit waveform.

When concentrating on improving radar tracking performance, a pulsed radar that is tracking a single target coexisting with high powered communications interference is considered. Although the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) on the covariance of an unbiased estimator of deterministic parameters provides a bound on the estimation mean squared error (MSE), there exists an SINR threshold at which estimator covariance rapidly deviates from the CRLB. After demonstrating that different radar waveforms experience different estimation SINR thresholds using the Barankin bound (BB), a new radar waveform design method is proposed based on predicting the waveform-dependent BB SINR threshold under low SINR operating conditions.

A novel method of predicting the SINR threshold value for maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) is proposed. A relationship is shown to exist between the formulation of the BB kernel and the probability of selecting sidelobes for the MLE. This relationship is demonstrated as an accurate means of threshold prediction for the radar target parameter estimation of frequency, time-delay and angle-of-arrival.



For the co-design radar and communications system problem, the use of a common transmit waveform for a pulse-Doppler radar and a multiuser communications system is proposed. The signaling scheme for each system is selected from a class of waveforms with nonlinear phase function by optimizing the waveform parameters to minimize interference between the two systems and interference among communications users. Using multi-objective optimization, a trade-off in system performance is demonstrated when selecting waveforms that minimize both system interference and tracking MSE.
ContributorsKota, John S (Author) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Thesis advisor) / Berisha, Visar (Committee member) / Bliss, Daniel (Committee member) / Kovvali, Narayan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
This work examines two main areas in model-based time-varying signal processing with emphasis in speech processing applications. The first area concentrates on improving speech intelligibility and on increasing the proposed methodologies application for clinical practice in speech-language pathology. The second area concentrates on signal expansions matched to physical-based models but

This work examines two main areas in model-based time-varying signal processing with emphasis in speech processing applications. The first area concentrates on improving speech intelligibility and on increasing the proposed methodologies application for clinical practice in speech-language pathology. The second area concentrates on signal expansions matched to physical-based models but without requiring independent basis functions; the significance of this work is demonstrated with speech vowels.

A fully automated Vowel Space Area (VSA) computation method is proposed that can be applied to any type of speech. It is shown that the VSA provides an efficient and reliable measure and is correlated to speech intelligibility. A clinical tool that incorporates the automated VSA was proposed for evaluation and treatment to be used by speech language pathologists. Two exploratory studies are performed using two databases by analyzing mean formant trajectories in healthy speech for a wide range of speakers, dialects, and coarticulation contexts. It is shown that phonemes crowded in formant space can often have distinct trajectories, possibly due to accurate perception.

A theory for analyzing time-varying signals models with amplitude modulation and frequency modulation is developed. Examples are provided that demonstrate other possible signal model decompositions with independent basis functions and corresponding physical interpretations. The Hilbert transform (HT) and the use of the analytic form of a signal are motivated, and a proof is provided to show that a signal can still preserve desirable mathematical properties without the use of the HT. A visualization of the Hilbert spectrum is proposed to aid in the interpretation. A signal demodulation is proposed and used to develop a modified Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) algorithm.
ContributorsSandoval, Steven, 1984- (Author) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Thesis advisor) / Liss, Julie M (Committee member) / Turaga, Pavan (Committee member) / Kovvali, Narayan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016