Statistical analysis and hybrid modeling of high-frequency underwater acoustic channels affected by wind-driven surface waves.

High frequency is a solution to high data-rate underwater acoustic communications. Extensive studies have been conducted on high-frequency (>40 kHz) acoustic channels, which are strongly susceptible to surface waves. The corresponding channel statistics related to acoustic communications, however, still deserve systematic investigation. Here, an efficient channel modeling method based on statistical analysis is proposed. Three wind-associated environmental models are integrated into this hybrid model. The Texel-Marsen-Arsole spectral model is adopted to generate a three-dimensional shallow-water surface, which affects the Doppler shifts of large-scale paths. Small-scale micropaths are statistically analyzed and modeled according to the measured channels. The Hall-Novarini model is adopted to simulate the refraction and attenuation caused by wind-generated bubbles. An existing wind-generated noise model is applied to calculate the noise spectrum. The proposed model has been validated by the at-sea measurements collected in the Gulf of Mexico in 2016 and 2017. This model can be used to further analyze the channels at different carrier frequencies, bandwidths, and wind speeds for certain transmission conditions.

Impacts of channel fluctuations on least-squares channel estimation in underwater acoustic communications.

The time-varying multipath introduces major distortions to transmissions in the underwater acoustic communication channel. Channel estimation is often used as one of the central steps to address such distortions in high-rate communication receivers. The focus of this paper is to quantify the impacts of the channel fluctuations on the performance of the least-squares channel estimator. A metric, channel variation ratio (CVR), is defined to describe the rate of fluctuations in the channel impulse responses. Equations are derived to reveal the direct relationships between the CVR and channel estimation performance, which is measured by the channel estimation mean squared error (MSE) and signal prediction error (SPE). The equations show that both the MSE and SPE increase linearly with the CVR. The MSE and SPE metrics both have an error floor for time-varying impulse responses, even with zero ambient noise. It is confirmed that an optimum estimated channel length, achieving the minimum estimation error, exists for time-varying impulse responses. The truncation effects in the channel estimation are also investigated. Experimental data are used to validate the findings.

Design and Evaluation of an Acoustic Modem for a Small Autonomous Unmanned Vehicle.

Design of underwater acoustic (UWA) modems for compact-sized, underwater platforms such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) is challenging because of the practical requirement to keep an engineering balance between the performance and the system overhead. Considering this type of mobile communication scenario, Doppler spread as well as the multipath draws substantial attention in implementing the system's design and engineering. Specifically, for a small AUV, the large computational complexity of real-time resampling for the classic Doppler correction poses significant difficulty for the limited capability of the low-cost processor. In this paper, by adopting an adjustable AD (analog-to-digital) sampling rate, a Doppler compensation approach is proposed to enable low-complexity hardware implementation. Based on this, a direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) acoustic modem is designed for a low-cost, small-sized AUV. Meanwhile, the performance evaluation of this acoustic modem is conducted in terms of the robustness upon varying Doppler as well as AUV integration. Finally, experimental results performed on a commercial, small-sized AUV under different speeds are reported to verify the effectiveness of the proposed acoustic modem.

Distributed compressed sensing based channel estimation for underwater acoustic multiband transmissions.

Distributed compressed sensing techniques are applied to enhance sparse channel estimation performance in underwater acoustic multiband systems. The core idea is to use receptions from multiple sub-bands to enhance the detection of channel tap positions. A known variant of the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) algorithm based on the distributed compressed sensing principle is simultaneous orthogonal matching pursuit (SOMP). However, the impulse responses across multiple sub-bands may have different arrival structures, although they often show a certain level of similarity. To address such differences at the sub-bands, a multiple selection strategy is applied to select multiple candidates at individual sub-bands at each iteration. This is different from the conventional OMP and SOMP algorithms that select only one candidate at each iteration. When the multiple selection strategy is combined with the SOMP algorithm, the proposed algorithm is referred to as JB-MSSOMP algorithm. To take advantage of channel coherence between adjacent data blocks from different sub-bands, the multiple selection strategy is further used over time. This leads to JBT-MSSOMP algorithm. Computer simulations show improved channel estimation performance of the proposed JB-MSSOMP and JBT-MSSOMP algorithms over the OMP or SOMP algorithms. Communication data from a recent acoustic experiment demonstrates improved receiver performance with the proposed channel estimators.

Underwater acoustic channel characteristics and communication performance at 85 kHz.

A high frequency acoustic experiment was conducted in the northern portion of the Gulf of Mexico in August 2016 to examine the operating range, data rates, and performance of acoustic communication systems at the carrier frequency of 85 kHz. The received signal-to-noise ratios, channel coherence, and impulse responses were reported between two 85 kHz transducers and a five-element hydrophone array over multiple ranges up to 1500 m. Channel estimation based decision feedback equalizers (DFEs) were applied to process the communication measurements. A data rate of 27.2 kb/s was achieved for four tested ranges with a uniform set of receiver parameters.

Arrival-time fluctuations of coherent reflections from surface gravity water waves.

Arrival time fluctuations of coherent reflections from surface gravity waves are examined. A two-dimensional ray model with an evolving rough sea surface is used to explain the mechanism and formation of the deterministic striation patterns due to the surface reflection. Arrival time predictions from the ray model match qualitatively well with the measurements from bidirectional acoustic transmissions in a water depth of 100 m.

Three-dimensional mapping of evolving internal waves during the Shallow Water 2006 experiment.

Detailed knowledge of sound speed profiles and the sound speed profile's spatial and temporal variability resulting from internal waves (IWs) are indispensable to investigating significant acoustic field fluctuations in shallow water. A strategy to obtain a time-varying, three-dimensional (3D) IW temperature field is presented. It uses two types of simultaneous measurements: dense observations from a farm of thermistor strings and IW surface expressions from a ship-based radar. Using data from the Shallow Water 2006 experiment, the temperature field, over multiple kilometers in range, was reconstructed and, fed to a 3D acoustic model to demonstrate IW impacts on acoustic propagation.

Time reversal multiple-input/multiple-output acoustic communication enhanced by parallel interference cancellation.

Multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) techniques can lead to significant improvements of underwater acoustic communication capabilities. In this paper, receivers based on time reversal processing are developed for high frequency underwater MIMO channels. Time reversal followed by a single channel decision feedback equalizer, aided by frequent channel updates, is used to compensate for the time-varying inter-symbol interference. A parallel interference cancellation method is incorporated to suppress the co-channel interference in the MIMO system. The receiver performance is demonstrated by a 2008 shallow water experiment in Kauai, Hawaii. In the experiment, high frequency MIMO signals centered at 16 kHz were transmitted every hour during a 35 h period from an 8-element source array to a wide aperture 16-element vertical receiving array at 4 km range. The interference cancellation method is shown to generate significant performance enhancement, on average 2-4 dB in the output signal-to-noise ratio per data stream, throughout the 35 h MIMO transmissions. Further, communication performance and achieved data rates exhibit significant changes over the 35 h period as a result of stratification of the water column.

Time reversal acoustic communication for multiband transmission.

In this letter, multiband acoustic communication is proposed to access a relatively wide frequency band. The entire frequency band is divided into multiple separated sub-bands, each of which is several kilohertz in width. Time reversal decision feedback equalizers are used to compensate for inter-symbol interference at each sub-band. The communication scheme was demonstrated in a shallow water acoustic experiment conducted in Kauai, Hawaii during the summer of 2011. Using quadrature phase-shift keying signaling at four sub-bands over the frequency band of 10-32 kHz, a data rate of 32 k bits/s was achieved over a 3 km communication range.

Coherent reflection from surface gravity water waves during reciprocal acoustic transmissions.

During a recent experiment in Kauai, Hawaii, reciprocal transmissions were conducted between two acoustic transceivers mounted on the seafloor at a depth of 100 m. The passage of moving surface wave crests was shown to generate focused and intense coherent acoustic returns, which had increasing or decreasing delay depending on the direction of propagation relative to the direction of surface wave crests. It is shown that a rough surface two-dimensional parabolic equation model with an evolving sea surface can produce qualitative agreement with data for the dynamic surface returns.

Delay and Doppler spreads in underwater acoustic particle velocity channels.

Signal processing and communication in acoustic particle velocity channels using vector sensors are of interest in the underwater medium. Due to the presence of multiple propagation paths, a mobile receiver collects the signal with different delays and Doppler shifts. This introduces certain delay and Doppler spreads in particle velocity channels. In this paper, these channel spreads are characterized using the zero-crossing rates of channel responses in frequency and time domain. Useful expressions for delay and Doppler spreads are derived in terms of the key channel parameters mean angle of arrival and angle spread. These results are needed for design and performance prediction of systems that utilize underwater acoustic particle velocity and pressure channels.

Impact of source depth on coherent underwater acoustic communications.

A recent paper [Song et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 123, 856-865 (2008)] investigated ocean variability impact on coherent underwater acoustic communications (8-16 kHz) for a single near-seafloor transmitter in shallow water during an extended period (27 h). This letter extends that investigation to various source depths and receiver subarrays. Specifically, the middle water column source, which is either in or out of the thermocline, experiences performance variability of 6-7 dB in terms of output signal-to-noise ratio. Further, the source below the thermocline consistently outperforms the source above the thermocline when the receiver subarray is located below the thermocline.

Effect of reflected and refracted signals on coherent underwater acoustic communication: results from the Kauai experiment (KauaiEx 2003).

The performance of a communications equalizer is quantified in terms of the number of acoustic paths that are treated as usable signal. The analysis uses acoustical and oceanographic data collected off the Hawaiian Island of Kauai. Communication signals were measured on an eight-element vertical array at two different ranges, 1 and 2 km, and processed using an equalizer based on passive time-reversal signal processing. By estimating the Rayleigh parameter, it is shown that all paths reflected by the sea surface at both ranges undergo incoherent scattering. It is demonstrated that some of these incoherently scattered paths are still useful for coherent communications. At range of 1 km, optimal communications performance is achieved when six acoustic paths are retained and all paths with more than one reflection off the sea surface are rejected. Consistent with a model that ignores loss from near-surface bubbles, the performance improves by approximately 1.8 dB when increasing the number of retained paths from four to six. The four-path results though are more stable and require less frequent channel estimation. At range of 2 km, ray refraction is observed and communications performance is optimal when some paths with two sea-surface reflections are retained.

Interaction between toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) gene and alcohol drinking on Parkinson's disease risk in Chinese Han population.

The aim of this study was to investigate the association of several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) gene, additional SNP- SNP and gene- alcohol drinking interaction with Parkinson's disease (PD) risk. Generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction (GMDR) was used to screen the best interaction combination among 4 SNPs within TLR4 gene and alcohol drinking. Logistic regression was performed to calculate the ORs (95%CI) for association between 4 SNPs within TLR4 gene, additional gene- alcohol drinking interaction and PD risk. PD risk was significantly higher for carriers with the rs7873784- G allele, or with the rs19279149- C allele of within TLR4 gene than those with wild genotypes, adjusted ORs (95%CI) were 0.72 (0.55-0.95) and 0.69 (0.51-0.95). However, we did not find any significant association of rs4986791 and rs11536889 with PD susceptibility after covariates adjustment for age, sex, smoking, alcohol drinking and BMI. GMDR analysis indicated a significant two-locus model (p = 0.0010) involving rs1927914 and alcohol drinking, the cross-validation consistency of the two- locus models was 10/ 10, and the testing accuracy was 60.11%. In logistic regression analysis, we found that never alcohol- drinkers with rs1927914- TC or CC genotype within TLR4 gene have the lowest PD risk, compared to drinkers with rs1927914- TT genotype, OR (95%CI) = 0.42 (0.28-0.61), after covariates adjustment. The rs7873784- G and rs19279149- C allele within TLR4 gene, interaction between rs1927914 and alcohol drinking were associated with decreased PD risk.

A clinical risk score for prediction of stent thrombosis.

The aim was to develop a clinically useful patient risk score predictive for stent thrombosis (ST). Using readily available baseline clinical and angiographic characteristics, a Cox proportional hazards multivariate model was used to identify significant (p <0.10) predictors of ST through 1 year in 2,487 patients receiving a TAXUS Express (Boston Scientific Corp., Natick, Massachusetts) drug-eluting stent (DES) in the ARRIVE 1 registry. Hazard ratios of significant predictors were rounded to an integer value ranging from 2 to 5. These values were summed for a maximum possible score of 24. The model was validated using 1-year data from a similar DES data set (ARRIVE 2, n = 4,820 patients). The 8 significant predictors found were thienopyridine therapy discontinuation before 6 months, insulin-requiring diabetes, smoker at baseline, left main stent placement, multiple stent placement, lesion length >28 mm, moderate to severe lesion calcification, and reference vessel diameter <3 mm. Model discrimination was high, indicated by an area under the receiver-operator characteristic curve of 0.819. Stratification of patients into low-, medium-, and high-risk groups showed that ST developed in 0.8% of patients with a score <6, 3.6% of patients with a score of 7 to 13, and 12.6% of patients with a score >or=14. In conclusion, using 8 readily available clinical and angiographic characteristics, we defined an ST risk score for patients receiving a DES during the first year. Analysis of patients from ARRIVE 1 and 2 showed that most (73%) were in the lowest risk category, with 25% in the moderate risk category. Less than 2% were at highest risk of developing ST.

Impact of ocean variability on coherent underwater acoustic communications during the Kauai [corrected] experiment (KauaiEx).

During the July 2003 acoustic communications experiment conducted in 100 m deep water off the western side of Kauai, Hawaii, a 10 s binary phase shift keying signal with a symbol rate of 4 kilosymbol/s was transmitted every 30 min for 27 h from a bottom moored source at 12 kHz center frequency to a 16 element vertical array spanning the water column at about 3 km range. The communications signals are demodulated by time reversal multichannel combining followed by a single channel decision feedback equalizer using two subsets of array elements whose channel characteristics appear distinct: (1) top 10 and (2) bottom 4 elements. Due to rapid channel variations, continuous channel updates along with Doppler tracking are required prior to time reversal combining. This is especially true for the top 10 elements where the received acoustic field involves significant interaction with the dynamic ocean surface. The resulting communications performance in terms of output signal-to-noise ratio exhibits significant change over the 27 h transmission duration. This is particularly evident as the water column changes from well-mixed to a downward refracting environment.

3-(2-Nitro-phen-oxy)phthalonitrile.

In the title compound, C(14)H(7)N(3)O(3), the dihedral angle between the two arene units is 62.57 (12)°.

3-(m-Tol-yloxy)phthalonitrile.

In the mol-ecule of the title compound, C(15)H(10)N(2)O, the dihedral angle between the two benzene rings is 65.49 (9)°.

Impact of HIV/sexually transmitted infection testing on risky sexual behaviors among men who have sex with men in Langfang, China.

BACKGROUND: Men who have sex with men (MSM) in China remain at high risk for HIV infection, the proportion of reported HIV/AIDS cases that occurred among MSM rose greatly from 2005 to 2011. HIV testing and counseling is a critical HIV prevention strategy among HIV related high-risk population, including MSM in China. This article aimed to assess the association between receiving HIV testing and high-risk sexual behaviors among MSM in Langfang, Hebei Province, China. METHODS: Between September and November 2007, 233 MSM were recruited to receive an HIV testing intervention. Face-to-face interviews were conducted before HIV testing and 3 months later HIV-related risk behaviors were assessed. Serological testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) was performed. RESULTS: Of the recruited 233 MSM, 200 completed follow-up. Baseline prevalence was 7.8% for HIV, 21.0% for syphilis, 15.8% for gonorrhea, and 5.0% for chlamydia. Multivariate analysis indicated that inconsistent condom use (OR = 7.9, 95%CI: 0.9 - 66.7, P = 0.059) and bleeding during anal sex (OR = 5.9, 95%CI: 1.3 - 26.2, P = 0.019) were risk factors for HIV infection, and group sex (OR = 6.6, 95%CI: 2.2 - 19.7, P = 0.001) was a risk factor for syphilis infection at baseline. At 3 months follow-up, among STI-positive MSM, self-reported anal sex fell from 73.1% to 38.5% (P < 0.001); group sex fell from 19.2% to 5.8% (P < 0.001); and bleeding during anal sex fell from 23.1% to 5.8% (P < 0.001). Among STI-negative MSM, the frequency of one-night stands fell from 32.5% to 17.2% (P < 0.001), and oral sex rose from 57% to 78.5% (P < 0.001). STI-positive MSM were less likely to engage in anal sex compared to STI-negative MSM (χ(2) = 5.189, P = 0.023). CONCLUSIONS: HIV testing is an important intervention strategy among MSM. HIV testing services among MSM need to be scaled up, along with comprehensive, tailored interventions including condom promotion and STI treatment.

A clinical risk score for the prediction of very late stent thrombosis in drug eluting stent patients.

AIMS: Very late stent thrombosis (VLST; >1 year) is an infrequent but potentially serious complication, whose risk factors have not been fully elucidated. This investigation sought to develop a clinically useful risk stratification score for VLST following drug eluting stent (DES) placement. METHODS AND RESULTS: A Cox proportional hazards multivariate model of VLST was developed based on follow-up into a second year of patients enrolled in the ARRIVE registries, utilising readily available baseline clinical and angiographic characteristics. ST predictors between one and two years were identified among 7,459 consecutively enrolled patients who received a TAXUS® Express2™ (Boston Scientific, Natick, MA, USA) DES. Six significant predictors were found: presence of renal disease, prior myocardial infarction, multiple stenting, bifurcation lesions, prior CABG, and smoking at baseline. Each predictor was assigned a score, then summed for a maximum possible score of 10. Stratification into low and high risk groups revealed that VLST developed in 0.5% of 6,759 patients with scores<5, and 2.6% of 700 patients with scores≥5. CONCLUSIONS: We defined a VLST risk score for patients during the second year post DES-placement that provides a useful tool for risk stratification.