Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Signal energy spectrum'

The owned spectrum allocation policy, in use since the early days of modern radio communications, has been proven to effectively control interference among radio communication systems. However, the overwhelming proliferation of new operators, innovative services and wireless technologies during the last years has resulted, under this static regulatory regime, in the depletion of spectrum bands with commercially attractive radio propagation characteristics. An important number of spectrum measurements, however, have shown that spectrum is mostly underutilized, thus indicating that the virtual spectrum scarcity problem actually results from static and inflexible spectrum management policies rather than the physical scarcity of radio resources. This situation has motivated the emergence of Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) methods based on the Cognitive Radio (CR) paradigm, which has gained popularity as a promising solution to conciliate the existing conflicts between spectrum demand growth and spectrum underutilization. The basic underlying idea of DSA/CR is to allow unlicensed (secondary) users to access in an opportunistic and non-interfering manner some licensed bands temporarily unoccupied by the licensed (primary) users. Due to the opportunistic nature of this principle, the behavior and performance of a DSA/CR network depends on the spectrum occupancy patterns of the primary system. A realistic and accurate modeling of such patterns becomes therefore essential and extremely useful in the domain of DSA/CR research. The potential applicability of spectrum usage models ranges from analytical studies to the design and dimensioning of secondary networks as well as the development of innovative simulation tools and more efficient DSA/CR techniques. Spectrum occupancy modeling in the context of DSA/CR constitutes a rather unexplored research area. This dissertation addresses the problem of modeling spectrum usage in the context of DSA/CR by contributing a comprehensive and holistic set of realistic models capable to accurately capture and reproduce the statistical properties of spectrum usage in real radio communication systems in the time, frequency and space dimensions. The first part of this dissertation addresses the development of a unified methodological framework for spectrum measurements in the context of DSA/CR and presents the results of an extensive spectrum measurement campaign performed over a wide variety of locations and scenarios in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, Spain, to identify potential bands of interest for future DSA/CR deployments. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first study of these characteristics performed under the scope of the Spanish spectrum regulation and one of the earliest studies in Europe. The second part deals with various specific aspects related to the processing of measurements to extract spectrum occupancy patterns, which is largely similar to the problem of spectrum sensing in DSA/CR. The performance of energy detection, the most widely employed spectrum sensing technique in DSA/CR, is first assessed empirically. The outcome of this study motivates the development of a more accurate theoretical-empirical performance model as well as an improved energy detection scheme capable to outperform the conventional method while preserving a similar level of complexity, computational cost and application. The findings of these studies are finally applied in the third part of the dissertation to the development of innovative spectrum usage models for the time (in discrete- and continuous-time versions), frequency and space domains. The proposed models can been combined and integrated into a unified modeling approach where the time, frequency and space dimensions of spectrum usage can simultaneously be reproduced, thus providing a complete and holistic characterization of spectrum usage in real systems for the analysis, design and simulation of the future DSA/CR networks.

The theoretical contents of this thesis are studies of overcomplete models. Those are the models of signals, on which is set for their parametrization more variables, than it's necessary and consequently there's computed so-called sparse solution via iteration algorithms. A goal of this analysis is a selection just of the considerable (sparse) parameters. The theory is based on a linear algebra, vector spaces, bases and so-called frames. The task of the individual project of this thesis is a description and simulation of two speech coders: a classical coder based on linear predictive speech coding and a coder, that's making use of overcomplete stochastic ARMA processes models. A part of their realization is to simulate their decoders and a analyze their reconstruction quality. For their realization there is used MATLAB and an overcomplete models' library (toolbox frames).

One of the problems with the modern radio communication is the lack of availableradio frequencies. Recent studies have shown that, while the available licensed radiospectrum becomes more occupied, the assigned spectrum is significantly underutilized.To alleviate the situation, cognitive radio (CR) technology has been proposedto provide an opportunistic access to the licensed spectrum areas. Secondary CRsystems need to cyclically detect the presence of a primary user by continuouslysensing the spectrum area of interest. Radiowave propagation effects like fading andshadowing often complicate sensing of spectrum holes. When spectrum sensing isperformed in a cooperative manner, then the resulting sensing performance can beimproved and stabilized. In this thesis, two fully distributed and adaptive cooperative Primary User (PU)detection solutions for CR networks are studied. In the first part of this thesis we study a distributed energy detection schemewithout using any fusion center. Due to reduced communication such a topologyis more energy efficient. We propose the usage of distributed, diffusion least meansquare (LMS) type of power estimation algorithms with different network topologies.We analyze the resulting energy detection performance by using a commonframework and verify the theoretical findings through simulations. In the second part of this thesis we propose a fully distributed detection scheme,based on the largest eigenvalue of adaptively estimated correlation matrices, assumingthat the primary user signal is temporally correlated. Different forms of diffusionLMS algorithms are used for estimating and averaging the correlation matrices overthe CR network. The resulting detection performance is analyzed using a commonframework. In order to obtain analytic results on the detection performance, theadaptive correlation matrix estimates are approximated by a Wishart distribution.The theoretical findings are verified through simulations.

QC 20170908

Les systèmes de communications sans fil ne cessent de se multiplier pour devenir incontournables de nos jours. Cette croissance cause une augmentation de la demande des ressources spectrales, qui sont devenues de plus en plus rares. Afin de résoudre ce problème de pénurie de fréquences, Joseph Mitola III, en 2000, a introduit l'idée de l'allocation dynamique du spectre. Il définit ainsi le terme " Cognitive Radio " (Radio Intelligente), qui est largement pressenti pour être le prochain Big Bang dans les futures communications sans fil [1]. Dans le cadre de ce travail on s'intéresse à la problématique du spectrum sensing qui est la détection de présence des Utilisateurs Primaires dans un spectre sous licence, dans le contexte de la radio intelligente. L'objectif de ce travail est de proposer des méthodes de détection efficaces à faible complexité et/ou à faible temps d'observation et ceci en utilisant le minimum d'information a priori sur le signal à détecter. Dans la première partie on traite le problème de détection d'un signal aléatoire dans le bruit. Deux grandes méthodes de détection sont utilisées : la détection d'énergie ou radiomètre et la détection cyclostationnaire. Dans notre contexte, ces méthodes sont plus complémentaires que concurrentes. Nous proposons une architecture hybride de détection des bandes libres, qui combine la simplicité du radiomètre et la robustesse des détecteurs cyclostationnaires. Deux méthodes de détection sont proposées qui se basent sur cette même architecture. Grâce au caractère adaptatif de l'architecture, la détection évolue au cours du temps pour tendre vers la complexité du détecteur d'énergie avec des performances proches du détecteur cyclostationnaire ou du radiomètre selon la méthode utilisée et l'environnement de travail. Dans un second temps on exploite la propriété parcimonieuse de la Fonction d'Autocorrelation Cyclique (FAC) pour proposer un nouvel estimateur aveugle qui se base sur le compressed sensing afin d'estimer le Vecteur d'Autocorrelation Cyclique (VAC), qui est un vecteur particulier de la Fonction d'Autocorrelation Cyclique pour un délai fixe. On montre par simulation que ce nouvel estimateur donne de meilleures performances que celles obtenues avec l'estimateur classique, qui est non aveugle et ceci dans les mêmes conditions et en utilisant le même nombre d'échantillons. On utilise l'estimateur proposé, pour proposer deux détecteurs aveugles utilisant moins d'échantillons que nécessite le détecteur temporel de second ordre de [2] qui se base sur l'estimateur classique de la FAC. Le premier détecteur exploite uniquement la propriété de parcimonie du VAC tandis que le second détecteur exploite en plus de la parcimonie la propriété de symétrie du VAC, lui permettant ainsi d'obtenir de meilleures performances. Ces deux détecteurs outre qu'ils sont aveugles sont plus performants que le détecteur non aveugle de [2] dans le cas d'un faible nombre d'échantillons.

L'utilisation de franges d'interférence en lumière blanche comme une sonde optique en microscopie interférométrique est d'une importance croissante dans la caractérisation des matériaux, la métrologie de surface et de l'imagerie médicale. L'Interférométrie en lumière blanche est une technique basée sur la détection de l'enveloppe de franges d'interférence. Il a été démontré antérieurement, la capacité des approches 2D à rivaliser avec certaines méthodes classiques utilisées dans le domaine de l'interférométrie, en termes de robustesse et de temps de calcul. En outre, alors que la plupart des méthodes tiennent compte seulement des données 1 D, il semblerait avantageux de prendre en compte le voisinage spatial utilisant des approches multidimensionnelles (2D/3D), y compris le paramètre de temps afin d'améliorer les mesures. Le but de ce projet de thèse est de développer de nouvelles approches n-D qui sont appropriées pour une meilleure caractérisation des surfaces plus complexes et des couches transparentes
The use of white light interference fringes as an optical probe in microscopy is of growing importance in materials characterization, surface metrology and medical imaging. Coherence Scanning Interferometry (CSI, also known as White Light Scanning Interferometry, WSLI) is well known for surface roughness and topology measurement [1]. Full-Field Optical Coherence Tomography (FF-OCT) is the version used for the tomographic analysis of complex transparent layers. Both techniques generally make use of some sort of fringe scanning along the optical axis and the acquisition of a stack of xyz images. Image processing is then used to identify the fringe envelopes along z at each pixel in order to measure the positions of either a single surface or of multiple scattering objects within a layer.In CSI, the measurement of surface shape generally requires peak or phase extraction of the mono dimensional fringe signal. Most of the methods are based on an AM-FM signal model, which represents the variation in light intensity measured along the optical axis of an interference microscope [2]. We have demonstrated earlier [3, 4] the ability of 2D approaches to compete with some classical methods used in the field of interferometry, in terms of robustness and computing time. In addition, whereas most methods only take into account the 1D data, it would seem advantageous to take into account the spatial neighborhood using multidimensional approaches (2D, 3D, 4D), including the time parameter in order to improve the measurements.The purpose of this PhD project is to develop new n-D approaches that are suitable for improved characterization of more complex surfaces and transparent layers. In addition, we will enrich the field of study by means of heterogeneous image processing from multiple sensor sources (heterogeneous data fusion). Applications considered will be in the fields of materials metrology, biomaterials and medical imaging

Este trabalho tem como cenário as redes ópticas de próxima geração, por onde trafegarão supercanais flexíveis, sincronizados e modulados a taxas variáveis que podem chegar à ordem de Terabit por segundo. Mais especificamente, focaliza o supercanal óptico gerado a partir de um único laser (laser semente) composto por portadoras ortogonais entre si, travadas em frequência e moduladas de maneira síncrona. Tal arranjo constitui um sistema de transmissão conhecido como OFDM óptico (optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, O-OFDM). Este esquema não requer banda de guarda entre canais, o que proporciona uma melhor eficiência espectral, se mantidas as condições de ortogonalidade mútua, quando comparado à técnica Nyquist WDM (Nyquist wavelength division multiplexing, N-WDM), usualmente reconhecida como base para os sistemas de próxima geração. Muitos são os desafios a serem vencidos antes que a técnica O-OFDM possa ser efetivamente implantada comercialmente e esta tese busca, através de um estudo de seus princípios de funcionamento e módulos constituintes, elencar os principais obstáculos e as possíveis maneira de superá-los. Sem pretender ser exaustivo em termos de tecnologias disponíveis para alcançar este fim, o objetivo é propor novas configurações de subsistemas e arquitetura de nó para o transmissor, o nó intermediário e o receptor coerente, capazes de executar, de forma relativamente simples no domínio óptico, as principais funcionalidades de uma transmissão ponto a ponto com nós deriva/insere intermediários. Através de simulações sistêmicas e demonstrações experimentais, como prova de conceito, dois cenários são abordados: análise do desempenho numa transmissão ponto a ponto, e operação em rede, com derivação e inserção de canal em nós intermediários. Ao final, através de uma análise qualitativa, é feita uma estimativa de componentes e subsistemas necessários para tornar a transmissão de sinais O-OFDM implementável por tecnologias de fotônica integrada que atenda, com eficiência espectral e economia de energia, a sempre crescente demanda de capacidade em sistemas de transmissão óptica.
This work focuses on the scenario of next generation optical networking, where flexible optical superchannels will propagate modulated at variable rates that can reach terabits per second. More specifically, it focuses on the optical superchannel generated from a single laser (seed laser) composed of orthogonal carriers, which are frequency-locked and synchronously modulated. Such arrangement constitutes a transmission system known as optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (O-OFDM). This scheme does not require guard band between channels, which provides a better spectral efficiency, if the conditions of mutual orthogonality are maintained, when compared to the Nyquist wavelength dividing multiplexing (N-WDM) technique, usually recognized as the basis for the next generation systems. There are many challenges to overcome before O-OFDM technique can be effectively deployed commercially and this thesis seeks, through a study of its operating principles and constituent modules, to identify the main obstacles and the possible ways of overcoming them. Without intending to be exhaustive in terms of available technologies to achieve this aim, the objective is to propose new configurations of subsystems and node architecture for the transmitter, the intermediate node and the coherent receiver, able to perform in the optical domain, in a relatively simple way, the main features a point-to-point transmission with nodes drifting/inserting intermediates. Through systemic simulations and some experimental demonstrations, as proof of concept, two scenarios are addressed: performance analysis in a point-to-point transmission, and network operation, with channel derivation and insertion at intermediate nodes. At the end, through a qualitative analysis, an estimate of components and subsystems is made to make the transmission of O-OFDM signals implementable by integrated photonics technologies that meet, with spectral efficiency and energy savings, the ever increasing capacity demand in optical transmission systems.

Bioimpedance spectroscopy is very useful in biomedical field as a safe and non-invasive technique. A stable and safe excitation current below than 0.5 mA for load impedances changing from 100 Ω to 10 kΩ in the full β-dispersion range from kHz up to 1 MHz is a big challenge for the design of the current source addressed by this thesis. For a good stability and high accuracy, the source should have a high output impedance. Different current source types in “current-mode approach” and “voltage-mode approach” were investigated and compared for usability in bioimpedance measurement systems. The “voltage-mode approach” with grounded load was proven to be more suitable and stable for biomedical measurements. Thereby the Tietze and the Howland circuit in dual configuration with negative feedback have shown the lowest error of the output current and the highest output impedance, where the improved Howland circuit in dual configuration with negative feedback is preferred because it has a simple structure, high accuracy and good stability. We suggest to improve the stability of the Howland circuit in dual configuration with negative feedback by introducing compensated operational amplifiers and to reduce stray capacitances at higher frequencies by adding gain compensation capacitor. We reach thereby an accuracy of 0.5% at low frequency and 0.9% at 1 MHz. With the realized accuracy of the designed voltage controlled current source, one decisive prerequisite for portable bioimpedance measurement system is achieved. In order to select the appropriate excitation signals for short measurement time, a comparative study of signals and their parameters was carried out. It leads to the selection of binary chirp signal as a suitable excitation signal due to its short measurement time about 100 μs, low crest factor lower than 2.8 and an energy efficiency higher than 54% in a very noisy signal. Simulation results show that the designed enhanced Howland current source excited by the binary chirp signal has low error and flatness in the whole range
Die Bioimpedanzspektroskopie gewinnt aufgrund ihrer besonderen Eigenschaften als nicht-invasive, schonende Messmethode zunehmend an Bedeutung im biomedizinischen Bereich. Dabei ergeben sich besondere erausforderungen für den Entwurf der Stromquelle zur Realisierung eines stabilen und sicheren Anregungsstroms. Gefordert ist eine hohe Genauigkeit bis zu einem Maximalstrom von 0.5 mA in einem Frequenzbereich, der der β-Dispersion entspricht, von wenigen kHz bis hin zu 1 MHz. Die Stabilität muss bei variablen Lastimpedanzen im Bereich von 100 Ω bis 10 kΩ gewährleistet sein. Dafür muss die Stromquelle eine hohe Ausgangsimpedanz aufweisen. Diese Arbeit fokussiert auf den Entwurf von spannungsgesteuerten Stromquellen. Verschiedene Arten von Stromquellen wurden untersucht und verglichen. Der "Voltage-Modus-Ansatz" mit Masse-referenzierter Last hat sich als besser geeignet und stabiler für biomedizinische Messungen erwiesen. Die Tietze-Schaltung und diese Howland-Schaltung zeigen dabei die niedrigsten Fehler des Ausgangsstroms und die höchste Ausgangsimpedanz. Im direkten Vergleich besitzt die verbesserte Howland-Schaltung doch eine einfachere Struktur, höhere Genauigkeit und bessere Stabilität und wird daher gegenüber der Tietze-Schaltung bevorzugt. Um weitere Stabilitätsverbesserungen bei der Howland-Schaltung zu erreichen, werden zwei Maβnahmen vorgeschlagen. Zum einen werden kompensierte Operationsverstärker eingeführt und zum anderen wird der Einfluss von Streukapazitäten bei hohen Frequenzen minimiert indem die Verstärkung mit Kondensatoren kompensiert wird. Durch diese Maβnahmen wird eine Genauigkeit von 0.5% bei niedrigen Frequenzen und 0.9% bei 1 MHz ermöglicht. Mit dem neuen Entwurf der spannungsgesteuerten Stromquelle ist ein entscheidender Meilenstein für die Realisierung tragbarer Messsysteme der Bioimpedanz erreicht. Um eine kurze Messzeit zu realisieren wurde eine vergleichende Studie von Anregungssignalen und deren Signalparameter durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass binäre Chirp-Signale aufgrund der reduzierten Messzeit, des niedrigen Crest-Faktors unter 2.8 und hohe Energieeffizienz von mehr als 54% bei hohem Rauschlevel besonders geeignet sind. Simulationsergebnisse zeigen, dass die entwickelte Howland-Stromquelle zusammen mit einem binären Mehrfrequenzsignal den geringsten Amplitudenfehler im gesamten Frequenzbereich realisiert

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California
Bit errors often occur in a wireless communications link when impairments alter the transmitted signal. It is advantageous to be able to predict how well a system will tolerate transmission problems. This paper details laboratory performance measurements and comparisons in terms of evaluating configurations of a digital receiver for Feher patented Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (FQPSK-B) demodulation. The transmitted signal is subjected to calibrated levels of impairments while the receiver performance is monitored in real-time.

碩士
國立成功大學
工程科學系
103
Timing misalignment issue should be addressed for the spectrum sensing in future cognitive radio (CR) systems, such as femtocell networks. To obtain a near-optimal and practical energy detector (ED), this work studies an energy detector based on the generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) principle. Maximum-likelihood (ML) estimation of the timing misalignment is proposed. The performance is analyzed. The proposed detector has a low complexity and can approach the optimal performance.

碩士
國立交通大學
電信工程研究所
98
Spectrum sensing in next-generation wireless cognitive systems, such as overlay femtocell net-works, is typically subject to timing misalignment between the primary transmitter and the secondary receiver. In this thesis we investigate the performance of the energy detector (ED) when the arrival time of the primary signal is modeled as a uniform random variable over the observation interval. The exact formula for the detection probability is derived and corroborated via numerical simulation. To further improve the detection performance, we propose a robust ED based on the Bayesian principle. In addition, when the primary signal arrival time is unknown but fixed, we propose another detection rule based on the generalized-likelihood ratio test (GLRT) to improve the detection performance. Computer simulation confirms the effectiveness of the Bayesian based and the GLRT based solution when compared with the traditional ED.

Information characteristics of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) sound signals are analyzed and their descriptions for a quadcopter and monoplane are presented. The difference between signals of UAVs themselves and a noisy background becomes noticeable in the frequency domain. Research shows that signals energy spectra have a significant region of broadband noise and harmonic components with frequencies that are multiples of a rotational propellers speed. Even with averaging spectral estimates over ensemble of samples, harmonics are confidently observed. With the difference in modes of quadcopter engines the spectral maxima are divided into some portions, this can be one of the most important factors for UAV detection and classification systems. To provide their operation more close to a real time the fast algorithm is suggested. It includes the stage of forming primary recognition signs on the base of broadband sound signals spectra with harmonics and a specific noise. This description is compressed by the orthogonal transformation of its covariance matrix. Recognition of UAVs sound signals is according to the Dice similarity criteria in the compressed signal domain on using a small number of covariance matrix eigenvectors.

碩士
國立交通大學
電信工程研究所
102
Energy detection (ED) is a popular spectrum sensing technique in cognitive radios. In this thesis, we consider the effect of random arrival and departure of primary signals and derive the exact detection probability for ED. We also propose a Bayesian based ED to improve the performance. We then consider the scenario with late arrival of primary signals, and propose a weighted ED to enhance the detection performance. Simulation results are used to validate our theoretical study and to illustrate the performance of the proposed schemes.

碩士
國立暨南國際大學
電機工程學系
93
In recent decades, more and more researchers are dedicated to developing the techniques of automatic speech recognition. In order to apply the speech recognizer in a real environment, the mismatch between training and application conditions must be handled carefully. For example, various kinds of additive noise in the application environment often degrades the performance of the speech recognizer seriously. In this thesis, we focus on the problem of additive noise and use several approaches to alleviate its influence on speech recognition. These used approaches are categorized into two classes, speech enhancement and the robust speech representation. The objective of speech enhancement approaches is to modify the testing speech features obtained in the noisy environment and make them better match the clean conditions for the pre-trained models. In chapter 3, four approaches of this kind are studied. They are Energy Contour Enhancement (ECE), Spectral Exponent Adjustment (SEA), Spectral Subtraction (SS) and Wiener Filtering (WF). One the other hand, the robust speech representation can reduce the sensitivity of the speech features to a mismatched acoustic condition, and thus decrease the mismatch between the clean training and the noisy testing environments. We study four approaches in deriving robust speech representations in Chapter 4. they are Autocorrelation Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients(AMFCC), Phase Autocorrelation(PAC), Cepstral Mean Subtraction(CMS) and RelAtive SpecTrAl(RASTA). In Chapter 6 and 7, the recognition experiments and discussions are presented. The experimental results that these approaches can effectively improve the performance of the speech recognition under the noisy environment. Furthermore, in order to test whether these approaches are additive, we combine ECE or SEA with all the others to process the speech signals. Experimental results show that such a combination of two approaches can provide better recognition accuracy than the individual one in most cases. As a result, we can conclude that these robustness approaches reduce the influence of additive noise in different directions and are thus additive.

Breast cancer screening and diagnosis in X-ray mammography rely on the detection and visualization of microcalcifications (μCs) and soft tissue masses. The early detection of breast cancer has been shown to decrease breast cancer mortality. The μCs are composed mainly of calcium with attenuation coefficients greater than that of soft tissue. The detection and visualization of μCs are relatively easy over a uniform tissue background, but limited by the ‘‘clutter’’ due to overlapping tissue background present on the mammogram. The clutter in tissue background arises from the structures of glandular tissue, vessels, and soft tissue masses in the breast. However, depending upon their size and location, the visualization of calcifications in mammograms may be limited by the superimposed anatomical structures even when the calcifications have adequate contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). Dual-energy subtraction imaging techniques offer an alternative approach to the detection and visualization of μCs. With this technique, high- and low-energy images are separately acquired and ‘‘subtracted’’ from each other in a weighted fashion to cancel out the cluttered tissue structure so as to decrease the obscurity from overlapping tissue structures. In this study, computer simulations were developed in order to compute SNR as a function of various imaging parameters (X-ray spectra, μC size, breast thickness, and total exposure- 2 different cases) in Dual Energy Calcification images. Emphasis was placed on the monochromatization of the X-ray spectra with the use of K-edge filtering technique. Also, simulations provided values for various quality parameters of the spectra. Optimization was based on maximization of SNRtc while reducing total entrance exposure of the breast or Coefficient of Variation of the incident photons (CVIinc).
Ο καρκίνος του μαστού, ο οποίος είναι μια κοινή αιτία θανάτου μεταξύ των γυναικών του πληθυσμού, μπορεί να εκδηλωθεί μέσω μικροαποτιτανώσεων. Στη μαστογραφία, η ιατρική διάγνωση (συμπεριλαμβανομένων των τεχνικών ελέγχου) βασίζεται στην ανίχνευση και απεικόνιση αυτών των μικροαποτιτανώσεων (μCs) ή/ και της μάζας των μαλακών ιστών. Η έγκαιρη ανίχνευση του καρκίνου έχει αποδειχθεί ότι μειώνει τη θνησιμότητα λόγω καρκίνου του μαστού. Οι μCs αποτελούνται κυρίως από ασβέστιο (Ca), με αποτέλεσμα τη μεγαλύτερη εξασθένηση της ακτινοβολίας σε σχέση με τον μαλακό ιστό. Η ανίχνευση και η απεικόνιση των μικροαποτιτανώσεων είναι σχετικά εύκολη για έναν ομοιόμορφο μαστό. Ωστόσο, η απεικόνιση περιορίζεται από την ανομοιομορφία του υγιούς επικείμενου ιστού, που προκύπτει από τον αδενώδη ιστό, τις φλέβες και τους μαλακούς ιστούς στο μαστό. Ανάλογα με το βαθμό της ανομοιομορφίας, την αντίθεση των μCs, και τον τρόπο της επικάλυψης του ιστού, μπορεί να είναι δύσκολο να εντοπιστεί μια μικροαποτιτάνωση, παρόλο που ενδέχεται να υπάρχει επαρκής λόγος αντίθεσης προς θόρυβο (CNR). Η απεικόνιση με αφαιρετική τεχνική διπλής ενέργειας προσφέρει μια εναλλακτική προσέγγιση για την ανίχνευση και απεικόνιση των μCs. Με την τεχνική αυτή, αποκτώνται ξεχωριστά εικόνες υψηλής και χαμηλής ενέργειας και στη συνέχεια αφαιρείται η μια από την άλλη, με σκοπό να μειωθεί η ασάφεια από τις επικαλυπτόμενες δομές του ιστού. Στη παρούσα μελέτη, αναπτύχθηκε αλγόριθμος προσομοίωσης για τον υπολογισμό του SNR για διάφορους παράγοντες απεικόνισης (φάσματα ακτίνων-Χ, μέγεθος αποτιτάνωσης, πάχος μαστού και συνθήκες έκθεσης). Έμφαση δόθηκε στη τροποποίηση των φασμάτων ακτίνων-Χ ώστε να αποκτηθούν όσο το δυνατόν πιο «μονοχρωματικά» φάσματα με τη χρήση της τεχνικής K-edge. Η επιλογή των βέλτιστων φασμάτων υψηλής και χαμηλής ενέργειας βασίστηκε στην αύξηση του SNRtc με ταυτόχρονη μείωση της έκθεσης εισόδου στην επιφάνεια του μαστού ή τη μείωση του συντελεστή διακύμανσης των προσπιπτόντων φωτονίων στην είσοδο του μαστού (CVIinc).