On modeling impulsive bioacoustic signals with symmetric /spl alpha/-stable distributions: application in discontinuous adventitious lung sounds and explosive bowel sounds

A new perspective in modeling impulsive bioacoustic signals (BS) by means of symmetric /spl alpha/-stable distribution (S/spl alpha/S) is presented in this work. The method was applied in discontinuous adventitious lung sounds and explosive bowel sounds drawn from BS databases, after de-noising. Their non-Gaussianity due to their strong impulsiveness was confirmed and S/spl alpha/S-based model was used for autoregressive (AR) estimation of their source signal. Via the parameters of S/spl alpha/S (a, /spl alpha/ and /spl gamma/) the effect of the transmission path on the impulsive nature of the source was described. Values of the covariation coefficient /spl lambda//sub XY/ confirmed a correlation of squawks and fine crackles in their production mechanism.