Abstract: Polyphonic signals are used to create a main signal, typically a mono signal, and a side signal. A number of encoding schemes for the side signal are provided. Each encoding scheme is characterized by a set of sub-frames of different lengths. The total length of the sub-frames corresponds to the length of the encoding frame of the encoding scheme. The encoding scheme to be used on the side signal is selected dependent on the present signal content of the polyphonic signals. In a preferred embodiment, a side residual signal is created as the difference between the side signal and the main signal scaled with a balance factor. The balance factor is selected to minimize the side residual signal. The optimized side residual signal and the balance factor are encoded and provided as encoding parameters representing the side signal.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a water absorbing material obtainable by a process comprising the steps of bringing particles of a non surface-crosslinked water-absorbing polymer in contact with a) at least one post-crosslinker, b) 0.1-1.0 wt. % of at least one water-insoluble metal phosphate, based on the non surface-crosslinked water-absorbing polymer, and at least one further ingredient selected from c) at least one Nitrogen-containing water-soluble polymer of which the Nitrogen can be protonated, and d) at least one hydrophobic polymer and heat-treating the particles thus obtained at a temperature in the range from 120° C. to 300° C. and a method for the production thereof.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a water absorbing material obtainable by a process comprising the steps of bringing particles of a non surface-crosslinked water-absorbing polymer in contact with a) at least one postcrosslinker, b) 10-1000 ppm, based on the non surface-crosslinked water-absorbing polymer, of at least one Nitrogen-containing water-soluble polymer of which the Nitrogen can be protonated, and c) at least one hydrophobic polymer and heat-treating the particles thus obtained at a temperature in the range from 120° C. to 300° C. and a method for the production thereof.

Abstract: The invention relates to a process for continuously preparing styrene polymers by anionic spray polymerization, which comprises i) styrene and the initiator solution being mixed in a dynamic or static mixer and then the mixture being sprayed, ii) the resultant droplets passing from the liquid monomer state to the melted polymer state during their free fall in the spraying tower, iii) the melt droplets being collected as a melt at the foot of the tower, the melt having a monomer content of below 1%, preferably below 0.1% (<1000 ppm), and being discharged by suitable means.

Abstract: A parametric model is used for error concealment. The model filter allows for recovering signal components of original audio channel signals that now are lost or erroneous from signal components of at least one other audio channel. During error-free reception of valid frames, the parameters of that model will be derived and stored. In case of frame loss or frame error affecting the multi-channel information, a conjecture of the missing information is recovered by applying the model, using the stored parameters. In case of several subsequent lost or erroneous frames, it is possible either to use the parameters derived during the last valid frame or to use parameters derived from the recovered multi-channel information of the respective previous invalid frame. Furthermore, if there are long sequences of lost frames, it can be beneficial to apply some gradual muting of the model parameters, which essentially results in a gradual attenuation of the recovered multi-channel information.

Abstract: A process for producing water-absorbing polymeric particles by dropletization polymerization in the gas phase, which comprises drying the polymeric particles after the polymerization in a fluidized bed, the water-absorbing polymeric particles themselves, hygiene articles comprising these water-absorbing polymeric particles and also apparatus for implementing the process.

Abstract: Signals of different channels are combined into one mono signal. A set of adaptive filters, preferably one for each channel, is derived in a respective filter adaptation unit. When an adaptive filter is applied to the mono signal it reconstructs the signal of the respective channel under a perceptual constraint. The perceptual constraint is a gain and/or shape constraint. The gain constraint allows the preservation of the relative energy between the channels while the shape constraint allows more stability by avoiding unnecessary filtering of spectral nulls. The transmitted parameters are the mono signal, in encoded form, and the parameters of the adaptive filters, preferably also encoded. The receiver reconstructs the signal of the different channels by applying the adaptive filters and possibly some additional post-processing.

Abstract: In a method of smoothing background noise in a telecommunication speech session; receiving and decoding S1O a signal representative of a speech session, the signal comprising both a speech component and a background noise component. Subsequently, determining LPC parameters S20 and an excitation signal S30 for the received signal. Thereafter, synthesizing and outputting (S40) an output signal based on the determined LPC parameters and excitation signal. In addition, modifying S35 the determined excitation signal by reducing power and spectral fluctuations of the excitation signal to provide a smoothed output signal.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to an absorbent structure for use in a diaper for babies and infants, a feminine hygiene article and/or an incontinence article, said absorbent structure comprising a water-absorbing material, the water-absorbing material being obtainable by a process comprising the steps of A) treating a particulate, non-surface-crosslinked, water-absorbing polymer with a mixture comprising an aqueous solvent and at least one salt of a transition metal and B) irradiating the polymer treated according to A) with UV radiation, and to a process for its production.

Abstract: In a method of smoothing stationary background noise in a telecommunication speech session, initially receiving and decoding S10 a signal representative of a speech session, where the signal comprises both a speech component and a background noise component. Subsequently, providing S20 a noisiness measure for the signal, and adaptively S30 smoothing the background noise component based on the provided noisiness measure.

Abstract: A decoder arrangement comprising a receiver input for parameters of frame-based coded signals and a decoder arranged to provide frames of decoded audio signals based on the parameters. The receiver input and/or the decoder is arranged to establish a time difference between the occasion when parameters of a first frame is available at the receiver input and the occasion when a decoded audio signal of the first frame is available at an output of the decoder, which time difference corresponds to at least one frame. A postfilter is connected to the output of the decoder and to the receiver input. The postfilter is arranged to provide a filtering of the frames of decoded audio signals into an output signal in response to parameters of a respective subsequent frame.

Abstract: A scalable decoder device (50) for signals representing audio comprises a primary decoder (21) connected to an input (40). The primary decoder (21) is arranged to provide a primary decoded signal (23) based on received parameters (4). A primary postfilter (31) is connected to the primary decoder (23) to provide a primary postfiltered signal (32). A secondary enhancement decoder (45) is connected to the input (40) and arranged to provide a secondary decoded enhancement signal (44). The device further comprises a combiner arrangement (55), arranged for combining the primary postfiltered signal (32) and a signal (53) based on the secondary decoded enhancement signal (44) into an output signal (6) to be provided at an output (6). The combining is made with an adaptable strength relation between contributions from the two signals. A method for decoding coded signals representing audio operates in analogy with the scalable decoder device (50).

Abstract: An audio/speech sender and an audio/speech receiver and methods thereof. The audio/speech sender comprising a core encoder adapted to encode a core frequency band of an input audio/speech signal having a first sampling frequency, wherein the core frequency band comprises frequencies up to a cut-off frequency. The audio/speech sender further comprises a segmentation device adapted to perform a segmentation of the input audio/speech signal into a plurality of segments, a cut-off frequency estimator adapted to estimate a cut-off frequency for each segment and adapted to transmit information about the estimated cut-off frequency to a decoder, a low-pass filter adapted to filter each segment at said estimated cut-off frequency, and a re-sampler adapted to resample the filtered segments with a second sampling frequency that is related to said cut-off frequency in order to generate an audio/speech frame to be encoded by said core encoder.

Abstract: Techniques for discontinuous transmission (DTX) and fast in-band signaling of configuration changes and protocol messages in speech communications systems provide cost efficiency in terms of radio transmission capacity, in terms of fixed line transmission, and in terms of implementation effort. An exemplary method for performing discontinuous transmission (DTX) in a communications system in which source data is interleaved for transmission from a first component in the system to a second component in the system includes the steps of detecting periods of source data inactivity, and transmitting silence descriptor (SID) frames from the first to the second component during the periods of source data inactivity, certain of the transmitted SID frames being interleaved using a different interleaving algorithm as compared to that used for source data. For example, the source data can be block diagonally interleaved, and certain of the SID frames can be block interleaved.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an improvement in frame based codecs and in particular to a en encoding/decoding method, an coder/decoder (codec) and a radio communication device. The signal provided at the output of the improved frame based codec comprises frames of regular duration though the start of a frame is time offset in relation to the end of the preceding frame. The time offset varies from frame to frame. The output signal from the improved codec has no fixed framing grid. Time offsets may be positive, in which case two successive frames are separated with a gap in which substitution signals are inserted, or negative in which case two successive frames are overlapping. As substitution signals an extrapolation of the signal in a preceding frame, an interpolation of signals from a preceding frame and a following frame or a directly coded signal may be used. Negative offset makes it possible to capture transients in the signal to be encoded.

Abstract: The invention refers to absorbent structures for use in an absorbent article, the absorbent structure comprising a water absorbing material. The water absorbing material is obtainable by a process comprising the steps of bringing particles of a non surface-crosslinked water-absorbing polymer in contact with at least one postcrosslinker, at least one Nitrogen-containing water-soluble polymer, and at least one hydrophobic polymer. The particles are heat-treated at a temperature in the range from 120° C. to 300° C.

Abstract: The invention refers to absorbent structures for use in an absorbent article, the absorbent structure comprising a water absorbing material. The water absorbing material is obtainable by a process comprising the steps of bringing particles of a non surface-crosslinked water-absorbing polymer in contact with at least one post-crosslinker, at least one water-insoluble metal phosphate, and at least one further ingredient. The at least one ingredient is selected from at least one Nitrogen-containing water-soluble polymer, and at least one hydrophobic polymer. The particles are heat-treated at a temperature in the range from 120° C. to 300° C.

Abstract: A non-intrusive signal quality assessment apparatus includes a feature vector calculator that determines parameters representing frames of a signal and extracts a collection of per-frame feature vectors (?;(n)) representing structural information of the signal from the parameters. A frame selector preferably selects only frames (?\with a feature vector (?;(n)) lying within a predetermined multi-dimensional window (?). Means determine a global feature set (?) over the collection of feature vectors (?;(n)) from statistical moments of selected feature vector components ((1?,01, . . . O11). A quality predictor predicts a signal quality measure (Qj from the global feature set (?)).

Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for producing a water-absorbing material comprising the step of spray-coating water-absorbing polymeric particles with at least one non-reactive coating agent in a continuous process in a fluidized bed reactor in the range from 0° C. to 150° C., with the proviso that the non-reactive coating agents do not comprise an elastic film-forming polymer, the water-absorbing material obtainable by this process, the use of the water-absorbing material in hygiene articles and packaging material and hygiene articles comprising this material.

Abstract: A process for producing a water-absorbing polymer by polymerizing a monomer solution and drying the resulting hydrogel by means of a heated gas stream comprises effecting the drying in two or more temperature zones, and/or the gas stream is flowed against the hydrogel upwardly in the upstream sector of the belt dryer and downwardly in the downstream sector of the belt dryer, the direction of flow being reversed at a water content of 15% to 45% by weight for the hydrogel, and/or the hydrogel layer is flowed against in a belt dryer upwardly to some extent at least, the gas velocity being 5% to 30% of the gas velocity required to lift the hydrogel off the belt, also apparatus for carrying out the process and use of the water-absorbing polymers produced by the process to produce hygiene articles.