FIR filters are basic in spectral audio signal processing. In fact, the fastest way to implement long FIR filters in conventional CPUs5.1 is by means of FFT convolution. The convolution theorem for Fourier transforms (§2.3.5) states that the convolution of an input signal with a filter impulse-response is given by the inverse DTFT of the product of the signal's spectrum times the filter's frequency response , i.e.,
and the DTFT is defined as (§2.1)
As usual with the DTFT, the sampling rate is assumed to be . In practice, the DTFT is used in sampled form, , replacing the DTFT with a (zero-padded) FFT, as will be discussed in Chapter 8. To make the most of FFT processors for FIR filter implementation, we will need flexible ways to design many kinds of FIR filters.
This chapter provides a starting point in the area of FIR digital filter design. The so-called ``window method'' for FIR filter design, also based on the convolution theorem for Fourier transforms, is discussed in some detail, and compared with an optimal Chebyshev method. Other methods, such as least-squares, are discussed briefly to provide further perspective. Tools for FIR filter design in both Octave and the Matlab Signal Processing Toolbox are listed where applicable. For more information on digital filter design, see, e.g., the documentation for the Matlab Signal Processing Toolbox and/or [263,283,32,204,275,224,198,258].
The Ideal Lowpass Filter
An ideal lowpass may be characterized by a gain of 1 for all
frequencies below some cut-off frequency
in Hz, and a
gain of 0 for all higher frequencies.5.2
The impulse response of the ideal lowpass filter
is easy to calculate:
where denotes the normalized cut-off frequency in radians per sample. Thus, the impulse response of an ideal lowpass filter is a sinc function.
Unfortunately, we cannot implement the ideal lowpass filter in practice because its impulse response is infinitely long in time. It is also noncausal; it cannot be shifted to make it causal because the impulse response extends all the way to time . It is clear we will have to accept some sort of compromise in the design of any practical lowpass filter.
The subject of digital filter design is generally concerned with finding an optimal approximation to the desired frequency response by minimizing some norm of a prescribed error criterion with respect to a set of practical filter coefficients, perhaps subject also to some constraints (usually linear equality or inequality constraints) on the filter coefficients, as we saw for optimal window design in §126.96.36.199In audio applications, optimality is difficult to define precisely because perception is involved. It is therefore valuable to consider also suboptimal methods that are ``close enough'' to optimal, and which may have other advantages such as extreme simplicity and/or speed. We will examine some specific cases below.
Lowpass Filter Design Specifications
The design parameters are defined as follows:
- stop-band ripple ( dB is common)
- pass-band ripple ( dB typical)
- stop-band edge frequency
- pass-band edge frequency
- TW: transition width
- SBA: stop-band attenuation
In terms of these specifications, we may define an optimal FIR lowpass filter of a given length to be one which minimizes the stop-band and pass-band ripple (weighted relatively as desired) for given stop-band and pass-band edge frequencies. Such optimal filters are often designed in practice by Chebyshev methods, as we encountered already in the study of windows for spectrum analysis (§3.10,§3.13). Optimal Chebyshev FIR filters will be discussed further below (in §4.5.2), but first we look at simpler FIR design methods and compare to optimal Chebyshev designs for reference. An advantage of the simpler methods is that they are more suitable for interactive, real-time, and/or signal-adaptive FIR filter design.
- The transition width TW is zero ( in Fig.4.2).
- The pass-band and stop-band ripples are both zero
( in Fig.4.2, and ).
Optimal (but poor if unweighted)
Impulse Response Design
Perhaps the most commonly employed error criterion in signal processing is the least-squares error criterion.
Let denote some ideal filter impulse response, possibly infinitely long, and let denote the impulse response of a length causal FIR filter that we wish to design. The sum of squared errors is given by
where does not depend on . Note that . We can minimize the error by simply matching the first terms in the desired impulse response. That is, the optimal least-squares FIR filter has the following ``tap'' coefficients:
The same solution works also for any norm (§4.10.1). That is, the error
is also minimized by matching the leading terms of the desired impulse response.
In the (least-squares) case, we have, by the Fourier energy theorem (§2.3.8),
Therefore, is an optimal least-squares approximation to when is given by (4.5). In other words, the frequency response of the filter is optimal in the (least-squares) sense.
We see that, although the impulse response is optimal in the least-squares sense (in fact optimal under any norm with any error-weighting), the filter is quite poor from an audio perspective. In particular, the stop-band gain, in which zero is desired, is only about 10 dB down. Furthermore, increasing the length of the filter does not help, as evidenced by the length 71 result in Fig.4.4.
It is not the case that a length FIR filter is too short for implementing a reasonable audio lowpass filter, as can be seen in Fig.4.5. The optimal Chebyshev lowpass filter in this figure was designed by the Matlab statement
hh = firpm(L-1,[0 0.5 0.6 1],[1 1 0 0]);where, in terms of the lowpass design specs defined in §4.2 above, we are asking for
- (pass-band edge frequency)5.5
- (stop-band edge frequency)
We see that the Chebyshev design has a stop-band attenuation better than 60 dB, no corner-frequency resonance, and the error is equiripple in both stop-band (visible) and pass-band (not visible). Note also that there is a transition band between the pass-band and stop-band (specified in the call to firpm as being between normalized frequencies 0.5 and 0.6).
The main problem with the least-squares design examples above is the absence of a transition band specification. That is, the filter specification calls for an infinite roll-off rate from the pass-band to the stop-band, and this cannot be accomplished by any FIR filter. (Review Fig.4.2 for an illustration of more practical lowpass-filter design specifications.) With a transition band and a weighting function, least-squares FIR filter design can perform very well in practice. As a rule of thumb, the transition bandwidth should be at least , where is the FIR filter length in samples. (Recall that the main-lobe width of a length rectangular window is (§3.1.2).) Such a rule respects the basic Fourier duality of length in the time domain and ``minimum feature width'' in the frequency domain.
Frequency Sampling Method for
FIR Filter Design
The frequency-sampling method for FIR filter design is perhaps the simplest and most direct technique imaginable when a desired frequency response has been specified. It consists simply of uniformly sampling the desired frequency response, and performing an inverse DFT to obtain the corresponding (finite) impulse response [224, pp. 105-23], [198, pp. 251-55]. The results are not optimal, however, because the response generally deviates from what is desired between the samples. When the desired frequency-response is undersampled, which is typical, the resulting impulse response will be time aliased to some extent. It is important to evaluate the final impulse response via a simulated DTFT (FFT with lots of zero padding), comparing to the originally desired frequency response.
The window method for digital filter design is fast, convenient, and robust, but generally suboptimal. It is easily understood in terms of the convolution theorem for Fourier transforms, making it instructive to study after the Fourier theorems and windows for spectrum analysis. It can be effectively combined with the frequency sampling method, as we will see in §4.6 below.
For example, as derived in Eq. (4.3), the impulse response of the ideal lowpass filter is the well known sinc function
where is the total normalized bandwidth of the lowpass filter in Hz (counting both negative and positive frequencies), and denotes the cut-off frequency in Hz. As noted earlier, we cannot implement this filter in practice because it is noncausal and infinitely long.
Since sinc decays away from time 0 as , we would expect to be able to truncate it to the interval , for some sufficiently large , and obtain a pretty good FIR filter which approximates the ideal filter. This would be an example of using the window method with the rectangular window. We saw in §4.3 that such a choice is optimal in the least-squares sense, but it designs relatively poor audio filters. Choosing other windows corresponds to tapering the ideal impulse response to zero instead of truncating it. Tapering better preserves the shape of the desired frequency response, as we will see. By choosing the window carefully, we can manage various trade-offs so as to maximize the filter-design quality in a given application.
Window functions are always time limited. This means there is always a finite integer such that for all . The final windowed impulse response is thus always time-limited, as needed for practical implementation. The window method always designs a finite-impulse-response (FIR) digital filter (as opposed to an infinite-impulse-response (IIR) digital filter).
where is the ideal frequency response and is the window transform. For the ideal lowpass filter, is a rectangular window in the frequency domain. The frequency response is thus obtained by convolving the rectangular window with the window transform . This implies several points which can be immediately seen in terms of this convolution operation:
- The pass-band gain is primarily the area under the
main lobe of the window transform, provided the main lobe
``fits'' inside the pass-band (i.e., the total lowpass bandwidth
is greater than or equal to the main-lobe width
- The stop-band gain is given by an integral over a portion
of the side lobes of the window transform. Since side-lobes
oscillate about zero, a finite integral over them is normally much
smaller than the side-lobes themselves, due to adjacent side-lobe
cancellation under the integral.
- The best stop-band performance occurs when the cut-off
frequency is set so that the stop-band side-lobe integral traverses a
whole number of side lobes.
- The transition bandwidth is equal to the bandwidth of
the main lobe of the window transform, again provided that the main
lobe ``fits'' inside the pass-band.
- For very small lowpass bandwidths
impulse in the frequency domain. Since the impulse is the
identity operator under convolution, the resulting lowpass filter
approaches the window transform
. In particular, the stop-band gain approaches the window
side-lobe level, and the transition width approaches half the
main-lobe width. Thus, for good results, the lowpass cut-off
frequency should be set no lower than half the window's main-lobe
Matlab Support for the Window Method
- fir1 designs lowpass, highpass, bandpass, and
- fir2 takes an arbitrary magnitude frequency response
Bandpass Filter Design Example
The matlab code below designs a bandpass filter which passes frequencies between 4 kHz and 6 kHz, allowing transition bands from 3-4 kHz and 6-8 kHz (i.e., the stop-bands are 0-3 kHz and 8-10 kHz, when the sampling rate is 20 kHz). The desired stop-band attenuation is 80 dB, and the pass-band ripple is required to be no greater than 0.1 dB. For these specifications, the function kaiserord returns a beta value of and a window length of . These values are passed to the function kaiser which computes the window function itself. The ideal bandpass-filter impulse response is computed in fir1, and the supplied Kaiser window is applied to shorten it to length .
fs = 20000; % sampling rate F = [3000 4000 6000 8000]; % band limits A = [0 1 0]; % band type: 0='stop', 1='pass' dev = [0.0001 10^(0.1/20)-1 0.0001]; % ripple/attenuation spec [M,Wn,beta,typ] = kaiserord(F,A,dev,fs); % window parameters b = fir1(M,Wn,typ,kaiser(M+1,beta),'noscale'); % filter design
Note the conciseness of the matlab code thanks to the use of kaiserord and fir1 from Octave or the Matlab Signal Processing Toolbox.
Figure 4.6 shows the magnitude frequency response of the resulting FIR filter . Note that the upper pass-band edge has been moved to 6500 Hz instead of 6000 Hz, and the stop-band begins at 7500 Hz instead of 8000 Hz as requested. While this may look like a bug at first, it's actually a perfectly fine solution. As discussed earlier (§4.5), all transition-widths in filters designed by the window method must equal the window-transform's main-lobe width. Therefore, the only way to achieve specs when there are multiple transition regions specified is to set the main-lobe width to the minimum transition width. For the others, it makes sense to center the transition within the requested transition region.
where is the desired stop-band attenuation in dB (typical values in audio work are to ). Note that this estimate for becomes too small when the filter pass-band width approaches zero. In the limit of a zero-width pass-band, the frequency response becomes that of the Kaiser window transform itself. A non-zero pass-band width acts as a ``moving average'' lowpass filter on the side-lobes of the window transform, which brings them down in level. The kaiserord estimate assumes some of this side-lobe smoothing is present.
where now is the desired side-lobe attenuation in dB (as opposed to stop-band attenuation). A plot showing Kaiser window side-lobe level for various values of is given in Fig.3.28.
where is in radians between 0 and .
Without the function fir1, we would have to manually implement the window method of filter design by (1) constructing the impulse response of the ideal bandpass filter (a cosine modulated sinc function), (2) computing the Kaiser window using the estimated length and from above, then finally (3) windowing the ideal impulse response with the Kaiser window to obtain the FIR filter coefficients . A manual design of this nature will be illustrated in the Hilbert transform example of §4.6.
Comparison to the Optimal Chebyshev FIR Bandpass Filter
The following Matlab code illustrates two different bandpass filter designs. The first (different transition bands) illustrates a problem we'll look at. The second (equal transition bands, commented out), avoids the problem.
M = 101; normF = [0 0.3 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0]; % transition bands different %normF = [0 0.3 0.4 0.6 0.7 1.0]; % transition bands the same amp = [0 0 1 1 0 0]; % desired amplitude in each band [b2,err2] = firpm(M-1,normF,amp); % optimal filter of length M
Figure 4.7 shows the frequency response of the Chebyshev FIR filter designed by firpm, to be compared with the window-method FIR filter in Fig.4.6. Note that the upper transition band ``blows up''. This is a well known failure mode in FIR filter design using the Remez exchange algorithm [176,224]. It can be eliminated by narrowing the transition band, as shown in Fig.4.8. There is no error penalty in the transition region, so it is necessary that each one be ``sufficiently narrow'' to avoid this phenomenon.
Remember the rule of thumb that the narrowest transition-band possible for a length FIR filter is on the order of , because that's the width of the main-lobe of a length rectangular window (measured between zero-crossings) (§3.1.2). Therefore, this value is quite exact for the transition-widths of FIR bandpass filters designed by the window method using the rectangular window (when the main-lobe fits entirely within the adjacent pass-band and stop-band). For a Hamming window, the window-method transition width would instead be . Thus, we might expect an optimal Chebyshev design to provide transition widths in the vicinity of , but probably not too close to or below In the example above, where the sampling rate was kHz, and the filter length was , we expect to be able to achieve transition bands circa Hz, but not so low as Hz. As we found above, Hz was under-constrained, while Hz was ok, being near the ``Hamming transition width.''
Hilbert Transform Design Example
Since every real signal possesses a Hermitian spectrum , i.e., , it follows that, if we filter out the negative frequencies, we will destroy this spectral symmetry, and the output signal will be complex for every nonzero real input signal (excluding dc and half the sampling rate). In other terms, we want a filter which produces a ``single sideband'' (SSB) output signal in response to any real input signal. The Hermitian spectrum of a real signal can be viewed as two sidebands about dc (with one sideband being the ``conjugate flip'' of the other). See §2.3.3 for a review of Fourier symmetry-properties for real signals.
An ``analytic signal'' in signal processing is defined as any signal having only positive or only negative frequencies, but not both (typically only positive frequencies). In principle, the imaginary part of an analytic signal is computed from its real part by the Hilbert transform (defined and discussed below). In other words, one can ``filter out'' the negative-frequency components of a signal by taking its Hilbert transform and forming the analytic signal . Thus, an alternative problem specification is to ask for a (real) filter which approximates the Hilbert transform as closely as possible for a given filter order.
Primer on Hilbert Transform Theory
where . In the frequency domain, we have
where denotes the frequency response of the Hilbert transform . Since by definition we have for , we must have for , so that for negative frequencies (an allpass response with phase-shift degrees). To pass the positive-frequency components unchanged, we would most naturally define for . However, conventionally, the positive-frequency Hilbert-transform frequency response is defined more symmetrically as for , which gives and , i.e., the positive-frequency components of are multiplied by .
In view of the foregoing, the frequency response of the ideal Hilbert-transform filter may be defined as follows:
Note that the point at can be defined arbitrarily since the inverse-Fourier transform integral is not affected by a single finite point (being a ``set of measure zero'').
The ideal filter impulse response is obtained by finding the inverse Fourier transform of (4.16). For discrete time, we may take the inverse DTFT of (4.16) to obtain the ideal discrete-time Hilbert-transform impulse response, as pursued in Problem 10. We will work with the usual continuous-time limit in the next section.
That is, the Hilbert transform of is given by
Thus, the Hilbert transform is a non-causal linear time-invariant filter.
The complex analytic signal
corresponding to the real signal
then given by
Thus, the negative-frequency components of are canceled, while the positive-frequency components are doubled. This occurs because, as discussed above, the Hilbert transform is an allpass filter that provides a degree phase shift at all negative frequencies, and a degree phase shift at all positive frequencies, as indicated in (4.16). The use of the Hilbert transform to create an analytic signal from a real signal is one of its main applications. However, as the preceding sections make clear, a Hilbert transform in practice is far from ideal because it must be made finite-duration in some way.
Convolving a real signal with this kernel produces the imaginary part of the corresponding analytic signal. The way the ``window method'' for digital filter design is classically done is to simply sample the ideal impulse response to obtain and then window it to give . However, we know from above (e.g., §4.5.2) that we need to provide transition bands in order to obtain a reasonable design. A single-sideband filter needs a transition band between dc and , or higher, where denotes the main-lobe width (in rad/sample) of the window we choose, and a second transition band is needed between and .
Note that we cannot allow a time-domain sample at time 0 in (4.22) because it would be infinity. Instead, time 0 should be taken to lie between two samples, thereby introducing a small non-integer advance or delay. We'll choose a half-sample delay. As a result, we'll need to delay the real-part filter by half a sample as well when we make a complete single-sideband filter.
The matlab below illustrates the design of an FIR Hilbert-transform filter by the window method using a Kaiser window. For a more practical illustration, the sampling-rate assumed is set to Hz instead of being normalized to 1 as usual. The Kaiser-window parameter is set to , which normally gives ``pretty good'' audio performance (cf. Fig.3.28). From Fig.3.28, we see that we can expect a stop-band attenuation better than dB. The choice of , in setting the time-bandwidth product of the Kaiser window, determines both the stop-band rejection and the transition bandwidths required by our FIR frequency response.
M = 257; % window length = FIR filter length (Window Method) fs = 22050; % sampling rate assumed (Hz) f1 = 530; % lower pass-band limit = transition bandwidth (Hz) beta = 8; % beta for Kaiser window for decent side-lobe rejectionRecall that, for a rectangular window, our minimum transition bandwidth would be Hz, and for a Hamming window, Hz. In this example, using a Kaiser window with ( ), the main-lobe width is on the order of Hz, so we expect transition bandwidths of this width. The choice above should therefore be sufficient, but not ``tight''.5.8 For each doubling of the filter length (or each halving of the sampling rate), we may cut in half.
Given the above design parameters, we compute some derived parameters as follows:
fn = fs/2; % Nyquist limit (Hz) f2 = fn - f1; % upper pass-band limit N = 2^(nextpow2(8*M)); % large FFT for interpolated display k1 = round(N*f1/fs); % lower band edge in bins if k1<2, k1=2; end; % cannot have dc or fn response kn = N/2 + 1; % bin index at Nyquist limit (1-based) k2 = kn-k1+1; % high-frequency band edge f1 = k1*fs/N % quantized band-edge frequencies f2 = k2*fs/NSetting the upper transition band the same as the low-frequency band ( ) provides an additional benefit: the symmetry of the desired response about cuts the computational expense of the filter in half, because it forces every other sample in the impulse response to be zero [224, p. 172].5.9
w = kaiser(M,beta)'; % Kaiser window in "linear phase form"The spectrum of this window (zero-padded by more than a factor of 8) is shown in Fig.4.9 (full magnitude spectrum) and Fig.4.10 (zoom-in on the main lobe).
Windowing a Desired Impulse Response Computed by the
Frequency Sampling Method
The next step is to apply our Kaiser window to the ``desired'' impulse response, where ``desired'' means a time-shifted (by 1/2 sample) and bandlimited (to introduce transition bands) version of the ``ideal'' impulse response in (4.22). In principle, we are using the frequency-sampling method (§4.4) to prepare a desired FIR filter of length as the inverse FFT of a desired frequency response prepared by direct Fourier intuition. This long FIR filter is then ``windowed'' down to length to give us our final FIR filter designed by the window method.
If the smallest transition bandwidth is
Hz, then the FFT size
. Otherwise, there may be too much time
aliasing in the desired impulse response.5.10 The only non-obvious
part in the matlab below is ``
.^8'' which smooths the taper to
zero and looks better on a log magnitude scale. It would also make
sense to do a linear taper on a dB scale which corresponds to
an exponential taper to zero.
H = [ ([0:k1-2]/(k1-1)).^8,ones(1,k2-k1+1),... ([k1-2:-1:0]/(k1-1)).^8, zeros(1,N/2-1)];Figure 4.11 shows our desired amplitude response so constructed.
Now we inverse-FFT the desired frequency response to obtain the desired impulse response:
h = ifft(H); % desired impulse response hodd = imag(h(1:2:N)); % This should be zero ierr = norm(hodd)/norm(h); % Look at numerical round-off error % Typical value: ierr = 4.1958e-15 % Also look at time aliasing: aerr = norm(h(N/2-N/32:N/2+N/32))/norm(h); % Typical value: 4.8300e-04The real part of the desired impulse response is shown in Fig.4.12, and the imaginary part in Fig.4.13.
Now use the Kaiser window to time-limit the desired impulse response:
% put window in zero-phase form: wzp = [w((M+1)/2:M), zeros(1,N-M), w(1:(M-1)/2)]; hw = wzp .* h; % single-sideband FIR filter, zero-centered Hw = fft(hw); % for results display: plot(db(Hw)); hh = [hw(N-(M-1)/2+1:N),hw(1:(M+1)/2)]; % caual FIR % plot(db(fft([hh,zeros(1,N-M)]))); % freq resp plot
More General FIR Filter Design
- Prepare a desired frequency-response that ``seems achievable''
- Inverse FFT
- Window the result (time-limit it)
- FFT that to see how it looks
Comparison to Optimal Chebyshev FIR Filter
It turns out that the Remez exchange algorithm has convergence problems for filters larger than a few hundred taps. Therefore, the FIR filter length was chosen above to be small enough to work out in this comparison. However, keep in mind that for very large filter orders, the Remez exchange method may not be an option. There are more recently developed methods for optimal Chebyshev FIR filter design, using ``convex optimization'' techniques, that may continue to work at very high orders [218,22,153]. The fast nonparametric methods discussed above (frequency sampling, window method) will work fine at extremely high orders.
hri = firpm(M-1, [f1,f2]/fn, [1,1], , 'Hilbert');Instead, however, we will use a more robust method  which uses the Remez exchange algorithm to design a lowpass filter, followed by modulation of the lowpass impulse-response by a complex sinusoid at frequency in order to frequency-shift the lowpass to the single-sideband filter we seek:
tic; % remember the current time hrm = firpm(M-1, [0,(f2-fs/4)/fn,0.5,1], [1,1,0,0], [1,10]); dt = toc; % design time dt can be minutes hr = hrm .* j .^ [0:M-1]; % modulate lowpass to single-sidebandThe weighting [1,10] in the call to firpm above says ``make the pass-band ripple times that of the stop-band.'' For steady-state audio spectra, pass-band ripple can be as high as dB or more without audible consequences.5.11 The result is shown in Fig.4.16 (full amplitude response) and Fig.4.17 (zoom-in on the dc transition band). By symmetry the high-frequency transition region is identical (but flipped):
- The pass-band ripple is much smaller than 0.1 dB, which is
``over designed'' and therefore wasting of taps.
- The stop-band response ``droops'' which ``wastes'' filter taps
when stop-band attenuation is the only stop-band specification. In
other words, the first stop-band ripple drives the spec (
while all higher-frequency ripples are over-designed. On the other
hand, a high-frequency ``roll-off'' of this nature is quite natural
in the frequency domain, and it corresponds to a ``smoother pulse''
in the time domain. Sometimes making the stop-band attenuation
uniform will cause small impulses at the beginning and end of
the impulse response in the time domain. (The pass-band and
stop-band ripple can ``add up'' under the inverse Fourier transform
integral.) Recall this impulsive endpoint phenomenon for the
Chebyshev window shown in Fig.3.33.
- The pass-band is degraded by early roll-off. The pass-band edge
is not exactly in the desired place.
- The filter length can be thousands of taps long without running
into numerical failure. Filters this long are actually needed for
sampling rate conversion
We can also note some observations regarding the optimal Chebyshev version designed by the Remez multiple exchange algorithm:
- The stop-band is ideal, equiripple.
- The transition bandwidth is close to half that of the
window method. (We already knew our chosen transition bandwidth was
not ``tight'', but our rule-of-thumb based on the Kaiser-window
main-lobe width predicted only about
% excess width.)
- The pass-band is ideal, though over-designed for static audio spectra.
- The computational design time is orders of magnitude larger
than that for window method.
- The design fails to converge for filters much longer than 256
taps. (Need to increase working precision or use a different
method to get longer optimal Chebyshev FIR filters.)
Reiterating and expanding on points made in §4.6.3, often we need a filter with a frequency response that is not analytically known. An example is a graphic equalizer in which a user may manipulate sliders in a graphical user interface to control the gain in each of several frequency bands. From the foregoing, the following procedure, based in spirit on the window method (§4.5), can yield good results:
- Synthesize the desired frequency response as the
smoothest possible interpolation of the desired
frequency-response points. For example, in a graphic equalizer,
cubic splines  could be used to connect the
desired band gains.5.12
- If the desired frequency response is real (as in simple band
gains), either plan for a zero-phase filter in the end, or
synthesize a desired phase, such as linear phase or minimum phase
(see §4.8 below).
- Perform the inverse Fourier transform of the (sampled) desired
frequency response to obtain the desired impulse response.
- Plot an overlay of the desired impulse response and the window
to be applied, ensuring that the great majority of the signal energy
in the desired impulse response lies under the window to be used.
- Multiply by the window.
- Take an FFT (now with zero padding introduced by the window).
- Plot an overlay of the original desired response and the response retained after time-domain windowing, and verify that the specifications are within an acceptable range.
Minimum-Phase Filter Design
Above, we used the Hilbert transform to find the imaginary part of an analytic signal from its real part. A closely related application of the Hilbert transform is constructing a minimum phase  frequency response from an amplitude response.
Let denote a desired complex, minimum-phase frequency response in the digital domain ( plane):
and suppose we have only the amplitude response
Then the phase response can be computed as the Hilbert transform of . This can be seen by inspecting the log frequency response:
If is computed from by the Hilbert transform, then is an ``analytic signal'' in the frequency domain. Therefore, it has no ``negative times,'' i.e., it is causal. The time domain signal corresponding to a log spectrum is called the cepstrum . It is reviewed in the next section that a frequency response is minimum phase if and only if the corresponding cepstrum is causal [198, Ch. 10], [263, Ch. 11].
Minimum-Phase and Causal Cepstra
To show that a frequency response is minimum phase if and only if the corresponding cepstrum is causal, we may take the log of the corresponding transfer function, obtaining a sum of terms of the form for the zeros and for the poles. Since all poles and zeros of a minimum-phase system must be inside the unit circle of the plane, the Laurent expansion of all such terms (the cepstrum) must be causal. In practice, as discussed in , we may compute an approximate cepstrum as an inverse FFT of the log spectrum, and make it causal by ``flipping'' the negative-time cepstral coefficients around to positive time (adding them to the positive-time coefficients). That is , for and for . This effectively inverts all unstable poles and all non-minimum-phase zeros with respect to the unit circle. In other terms, (if unstable), and (if non-minimum phase).
The Laurent expansion of a differentiable function of a complex variable can be thought of as a two-sided Taylor expansion, i.e., it includes both positive and negative powers of , e.g.,
In digital signal processing, a Laurent series is typically expanded about points on the unit circle in the plane, because the unit circle--our frequency axis--must lie within the annulus of convergence of the series expansion in most applications. The power-of- terms are the noncausal terms, while the power-of- terms are considered causal. The term in the above general example is associated with time 0, and is included with the causal terms.
Optimal FIR Digital Filter Design
We now look briefly at the topic of optimal FIR filter design. We saw examples above of optimal Chebyshev designs (§4.5.2). and an oversimplified optimal least-squares design (§4.3). Here we elaborate a bit on optimality formulations under various error norms.
- Sum of the absolute values of the elements
- ``City block'' distance
- ``Euclidean'' distance
- Minimized by ``Least Squares'' techniques
- FIR filter coefficients
- suitable discrete set of frequencies
- desired (complex) frequency response
- obtained frequency response (typically fft(h))
- (optional) error weighting function
Optimal Chebyshev FIR Filters
As we've seen above, the defining characteristic of FIR filters optimal in the Chebyshev sense is that they minimize the maximum frequency-response error-magnitude over the frequency axis. In other terms, an optimal Chebyshev FIR filter is optimal in the minimax sense: The filter coefficients are chosen to minimize the worst-case error (maximum weighted error-magnitude ripple) over all frequencies. This also means it is optimal in the sense because, as noted above, the norm of a weighted frequency-response error is the maximum magnitude over all frequencies:
Thus, we can say that an optimal Chebyshev filter minimizes the norm of the (possibly weighted) frequency-response error. The norm is also called the uniform norm. While the optimal Chebyshev FIR filter is unique, in principle, there is no guarantee that any particular numerical algorithm can find it.
The optimal Chebyshev FIR filter can often be found effectively using the Remez multiple exchange algorithm (typically called the Parks-McClellan algorithm when applied to FIR filter design) [176,224,66]. This was illustrated in §4.6.4 above. The Parks-McClellan/Remez algorithm also appears to be the most efficient known method for designing optimal Chebyshev FIR filters (as compared with, say linear programming methods using matlab's linprog as in §3.13). This algorithm is available in Matlab's Signal Processing Toolbox as firpm() (remez() in (Linux) Octave).5.13There is also a version of the Remez exchange algorithm for complex FIR filters. See §4.10.7 below for a few details.
The Remez multiple exchange algorithm has its limitations, however. In particular, convergence of the FIR filter coefficients is unlikely for FIR filters longer than a few hundred taps or so.
Optimal Chebyshev FIR filters are normally designed to be linear phase  so that the desired frequency response can be taken to be real (i.e., first a zero-phase FIR filter is designed). The design of linear-phase FIR filters in the frequency domain can therefore be characterized as real polynomial approximation on the unit circle [229,258].
In optimal Chebyshev filter designs, the error exhibits an equiripple characteristic--that is, if the desired response is and the ripple magnitude is , then the frequency response of the optimal FIR filter (in the unweighted case, i.e., for all ) will oscillate between and as increases. The powerful alternation theorem characterizes optimal Chebyshev solutions in terms of the alternating error peaks. Essentially, if one finds sufficiently many for the given FIR filter order, then you have found the unique optimal Chebyshev solution . Another remarkable result is that the Remez multiple exchange converges monotonically to the unique optimal Chebyshev solution (in the absence of numerical round-off errors).
The window method (§4.5) and Remez-exchange method together span many practical FIR filter design needs, from ``quick and dirty'' to essentially ideal FIR filters (in terms of conventional specifications).
Let the FIR filter length be samples, with even, and suppose we'll initially design it to be centered about the time origin (``zero phase''). Then the frequency response is given on our frequency grid by
Enforcing even symmetry in the impulse response, i.e., , gives a zero-phase FIR filter that we can later right-shift samples to make a causal, linear phase filter. In this case, the frequency response reduces to a sum of cosines:
or, in matrix form:
Recall from §3.13.8, that the Remez multiple exchange algorithm is based on this formulation internally. In that case, the left-hand-side includes the alternating error, and the frequency grid iteratively seeks the frequencies of maximum error--the so-called extremal frequencies.
where these quantities are defined in (4.35). We can denote the optimal least-squares solution by
To find , we need to minimize
This is a quadratic form in . Therefore, it has a global minimum which we can find by setting the gradient to zero, and solving for .5.14Assuming all quantities are real, equating the gradient to zero yields the so-called normal equations
is known as the (Moore-Penrose) pseudo-inverse of the matrix . It can be interpreted as an orthogonal projection matrix, projecting onto the column-space of , as we illustrate further in the next section.
Typically, the number of frequency constraints is much greater than the number of design variables (filter coefficients). In these cases, we have an overdetermined system of equations (more equations than unknowns). Therefore, we cannot generally satisfy all the equations, and are left with minimizing some error criterion to find the ``optimal compromise'' solution.
In practice, the least-squares solution can be found by minimizing the sum of squared errors:
Figure 4.19 suggests that the error vector is orthogonal to the column space of the matrix , hence it must be orthogonal to each column in :
This is how the orthogonality principle can be used to derive the fact that the best least squares solution is given by
In matlab, it is numerically superior to use ``h= A h'' as opposed to explicitly computing the pseudo-inverse as in ``h = pinv(A) * d''. For a discussion of numerical issues in matrix least-squares problems, see, e.g., .
Some of the available functions are as follows:
- firls - least-squares linear-phase FIR filter design
for piecewise constant desired amplitude responses -- also designs
Hilbert transformers and differentiators
- fircls - constrained least-squares linear-phase FIR
filter design for piecewise constant desired amplitude responses --
constraints provide lower and upper bounds on the frequency response
- fircls1 - constrained least-squares linear-phase FIR
filter design for lowpass and highpass filters -- supports relative
weighting of pass-band and stop-band error
For more information, type help firls and/or doc firls, etc., and refer to the ``See Also'' section of the documentation for pointers to more relevant functions.
Chebyshev FIR Design via Linear Programming
and discuss its formulation as a linear programming problem, very similar to the optimal window formulations in §3.13. We can rewrite (4.46) as
where denotes the th row of the matrix . This can be expressed as
Introducing a new variable
then we can write
and our optimization problem can be written in more standard form:
Thus, we are minimizing a linear objective, subject to a set of linear inequality constraints. This is known as a linear programming problem, as discussed previously in §3.13.1, and it may be solved using the matlab linprog function. As in the case of optimal window design, linprog is not normally as efficient as the Remez multiple exchange algorithm (firpm), but it is more general, allowing for linear equality and inequality constraints to be imposed.
So far we have looked at the design of linear phase filters. In this case, , and are all real. In some applications, we need to specify both the magnitude and phase of the frequency response. Examples include
- minimum phase filters ,
- inverse filters (``deconvolution''),
- fractional delay filters ,
- interpolation polyphase subfilters (Chapter 11)
Nonlinear-Phase FIR Filter Design
Above, we considered only linear-phase (symmetric) FIR filters. The same methods also work for antisymmetric FIR filters having a purely imaginary frequency response, when zero-centered, such as differentiators and Hilbert transformers .
We now look at extension to nonlinear-phase FIR filters, managed by treating the real and imaginary parts separately in the frequency domain . In the nonlinear-phase case, the frequency response is complex in general. Therefore, in the formulation Eq. (4.35) both and are complex, but we still desire the FIR filter coefficients to be real. If we try to use ' ' or pinv in matlab, we will generally get a complex result for .
where , , and . Hence we have,
which can be written as
which is written in terms of only real variables.
Matlab for General FIR Filter Design
The cfirpm function (formerly cremez) [116,117] in the Matlab Signal Processing Toolbox performs complex FIR filter design (``Complex FIR Parks-McClellan''). Convergence is theoretically guaranteed for arbitrary magnitude and phase specifications versus frequency. It reduces to Parks-McClellan algorithm (Remez second algorithm) as a special case.
Finally, the fircband function in the Matlab DSP System Toolbox designs a variety of real FIR filters with various filter-types and constraints supported.
This is of course only a small sampling of what is available. See, e.g., the Matlab documentation on its various toolboxes relevant to filter design (especially the Signal Processing and Filter Design toolboxes) for much more.
In Second-Order Cone Problems (SOCP), a linear function is minimized over the intersection of an affine set and the product of second-order (quadratic) cones [153,22]. Nonlinear, convex problem including linear and (convex) quadratic programs are special cases. SOCP problems are solved by efficient primal-dual interior-point methods. The number of iterations required to solve a problem grows at most as the square root of the problem size. A typical number of iterations ranges between 5 and 50, almost independent of the problem size.
- LIPSOL: Matlab code for linear programming using interior point methods.
- Matlab's linprog (in the Optimization Toolbox)
- Octave's lp (SourceForge package)
- The fsolve function in Octave, or the Matlab Optimization Toolbox, attempts to solve unconstrained, overdetermined, nonlinear systems of equations.
- The Octave function sqp handles constrained nonlinear optimization.
- The Octave optim package includes many additional functions such as leasqr for performing Levenberg-Marquardt nonlinear regression. (Say, e.g., which leasqr and explore its directory.)
- The Matlab Optimization Toolbox similarly contains many functions for optimization.
Spectrum Analysis of Sinusoids
Spectrum Analysis Windows


Cauliflower is a cruciferous vegetable rich in fiber and B-vitamins, naturally.
It contains phytonutrients and antioxidants that can protect against cancer. It also includes fiber, choline, which is important for learning and memory, and several other significant nutrients to support weight loss and digestion.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released an article that places cauliflower 24th on a list of “powerhouse fruits and vegetables.”
Important facts about cauliflower:
Here are some primary cauliflower facts. More detail is in the main article.
- Cauliflower is a good source of vitamins and fiber as well.
- Its components can help to strengthen the bones, increase the cardiovascular system and prevent cancer.
- Tasty cauliflower eating methods include pizza with cauliflower crust and cauliflower and cheese soup.
- People who use blood thinners should not suddenly start consuming a lot of cauliflower because the drugs could respond adversely to the high levels of vitamin K.
One cup of chopped raw cauliflower, cut into half-inch pieces and weighing about 107 grams, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Nutrient Database, contains:
- 27 calories
- 2 grams (g) of protein
- 0.3 grams of fat
- 5 g of carbohydrate, including 2.1 g of fiber and 2 g of sugar
- 24 milligrams (mg) of calcium
- 16 mg of magnesium
- 47 mg of phosphorus
- 320 mg of potassium
- 51.6 mg of vitamin C
- 16.6 micrograms (mcg) of vitamin K
- 0.197 mcg of vitamin B6
- 61 mcg of folate
One cup of raw cauliflower will provide:
- 77 percent of daily vitamin C needs
- 20 percent of daily vitamin K needs
- 10 percent or more of daily needs for vitamin B 6 and folate
They also contain thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and manganese in smaller quantities.
It has been discovered that eating fruits and vegetables of all sorts reduces the risk of having many adverse health conditions.
It has been found that consuming more plant foods, such as cauliflower, decreases the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and general mortality while encouraging healthier skin, increased energy, and lower weight overall.
Studies have shown that dietary fiber also helps to control inflammation and the immune system. As a consequence, it may help reduce the risk of conditions associated with inflammation, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and obesity.
A high consumption of fiber has been related to a substantially lower risk of developing:
Cauliflower contains antioxidants which help to prevent cellular mutations and reduce free radical oxidative stress.
Indole-3-carbinol or I3C, typically contained in cruciferous vegetables such as cabbages, broccoli, and cauliflower, is one of these antioxidants. It has been shown that it decreases the risk of male and female breast and reproductive cancers.
A reduced risk of lung and colon cancer has been linked with consuming more cruciferous vegetables for the last 30 years.
Studies have proposed that compounds containing sulfur, known as sulforaphane, can help combat various cancer types. Sulforaphane is what gives the bitter bite to cruciferous vegetables.
Sulforaphane, researchers suggest, will inhibit the enzyme histone deacetylase (HDAC), which is believed to be involved in cancer cell progression.
If HDAC enzymes are blocked by foods containing sulforaphane, they may be used in the future as part of cancer treatment.
Choline in cauliflower is an essential and flexible “vitamin-like component” that helps with sleep, movement of the muscles, learning, and memory.
It also helps to preserve the cellular membrane structure, helps to transmit nerve impulses, helps to absorb fat, and decreases chronic inflammation.
By acting as a modifier of bone matrix proteins, enhancing calcium absorption, and preventing the excretion of calcium in the urine, vitamin K intake may improve bone health.
To decrease the risk of cardiovascular disorders, a high intake of fiber has been established.
People who take calcium supplements may be at risk of calcium build-up in the blood vessels, but calcium intake of vitamin K may minimize the probability of this occurring.
Cauliflower is fresh or frozen and available. Fresh cauliflower must have a firm head with no dark spots, and bright green leaves attached to the stem. Store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days in a plastic bag.
- steamed or roasted as a side dish
- baked in a cheese sauce, as cauliflower cheese
- fried until golden brown, then added to rice dishes
- as the main ingredient in a curry
Some more innovative ways to use cauliflower include:
- cauliflower crust pizza
- cauliflower “rice”
- buffalo cauliflower “wings”
The following delicious, healthy recipes also include cauliflower:
Some unwanted effects of consuming cauliflower can occur, especially if it is eaten in excess.
Bloating and flatulence: Increased bloating and flatulence may be caused by foods that are rich in fiber. Most individuals can tolerate these foods in moderate portions, though.
For health reasons, someone who raises their consumption of high-fiber foods should do so gradually and track symptoms to assess which foods cause bloating, if any.
Blood clotting: For a person taking blood thinners, high levels of vitamin K can cause complications, as vitamin K helps the blood clot.
Anyone taking blood-thinning medications, such as Coumadin or warfarin, should not immediately start consuming large quantities of vitamin K-containing foods.
For preventing illness and achieving good health, the overall diet is important. Consuming a diet with a range is healthier than relying on particular foods.
- ANDI food scores: Rating the nutrient density of foods. (n.d.) (LINK)
- Bakken, (2013, March 22). Foods can help fight inflammation
- Basic report: 11135 Cauliflower, raw. (2016, May) (LINK)
- Di Noia, J. (2014). Defining powerhouse fruits and vegetables: A nutrient density approach. Preventing Chronic Disease 11, 130390
- Maresz, K. (2015, February). Proper calcium use: Vitamin K2 as a promoter of bone and cardiovascular health. Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal 14(1), 34-39
- Marques, F. Z., Nelson, E. M., Chu, P.-Y., Horlock, D., Fielder, A., Ziemann, M., …Kaye, D. M. (2016, December 7). Heart failure in DOCA-salt hypertensive mice. Circulation
- Tortorella, S.M., Royce, S. G., Licciardi, P. V., & Karagiannis, T. C. (2015, June 1). Dietary sulforaphane in cancer chemoprevention: The role of epigenetic regulation and HDAC inhibition. Antioxidants and redox signalling 22(16), 1382–1424
- Zeisel, S. H., da Costa, K.-A. (2009). Choline: An essential nutrient for public health. Nutrition Reviews 67(11), 615-623


Chorionic villus sampling is usually done in an outpatient facility or the health care provider's office.
During the procedure
First, your health care provider will use ultrasound to determine your baby's gestational age and the position of the placenta. You'll lie on your back on an exam table and lift your shirt to expose your abdomen. Your health care provider will apply a special gel to your abdomen, and then use a small device known as an ultrasound transducer to show your baby's position on a monitor.
Next, your health care provider will use the ultrasound image as a guide and take the tissue sample from the placenta while you lie still. This can be done through your cervix (transcervical) or your abdominal wall (transabdominal).
- Transabdominal chorionic villus sampling. After cleansing your abdomen with an antiseptic, your health care provider will insert a long, thin needle through your abdominal wall and into your uterus. You might notice a stinging sensation when the needle enters your skin, and you might feel cramping when the needle enters your uterus. The tissue sample from the placenta will be withdrawn into a syringe, and the needle will be removed.
- Transcervical chorionic villus sampling. After cleansing your vagina and cervix with an antiseptic, your health care provider will open your vagina with a speculum and insert a thin, hollow tube through your cervix. When the catheter reaches the placenta, gentle suction will be used to remove a small tissue sample. You might feel cramping while the tissue sample is removed.
If your health care provider isn't able to remove an adequate amount of tissue on the first try, the procedure might need to be repeated.
After the procedure
After the tissue sample is removed, your health care provider will monitor your baby's heart rate. You might experience a small amount of vaginal bleeding immediately after the procedure. Your health care provider might schedule an ultrasound a couple of days after chorionic villus sampling to check on your baby.
You can resume your normal activity level after the procedure. However, you might consider avoiding strenuous exercise and sexual activity for a day.
Meanwhile, the tissue sample will be analyzed in a lab. Results might take a few days or a couple of weeks, depending on the complexity of the lab analysis.
Contact your health care provider if you have:
Oct. 17, 2015
- Fluid leaking from your vagina
- Heavy bleeding
- A fever
- Uterine contractions
- Ghidini A. Chorionic villus sampling. http://www.uptodate.com/home. Accessed Aug. 4, 2015.
- Frequently asked questions. Pregnancy FAQ164. Diagnostic tests for birth defects. American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. http://www.acog.org/Patients/FAQs/Diagnostic-Tests-for-Birth-Defects. Accessed July 31, 2015.
- Cunningham FG, et al. Prenatal diagnosis. In: Williams Obstetrics. 24th ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2014. http://www.accessmedicine.com. Accessed Aug. 3, 2015.
- Gabbe SG, et al. Prenatal genetic diagnosis. In: Obstetrics: Normal and Problem Pregnancies. 6th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2012. http://www.clinicalkey.com. Accessed Aug. 3, 2015.
- Frequently asked questions. Pregnancy FAQ027. The Rh factor: How it can affect your pregnancy. American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. http://www.acog.org/Patients/FAQs/The-Rh-Factor-How-It-Can-Affect-Your-Pregnancy. Accessed July 31, 2015.
- Frequently asked questions. Pregnancy FAQ171. Cystic fibrosis: Prenatal screening and diagnosis. American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. http://www.acog.org/Patients/FAQs/Cystic-Fibrosis-Prenatal-Screening-and-Diagnosis. Accessed July 31, 2015.
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Committee on Practice Bulletins — Obstetrics. ACOG Practice Bulletin No. 88: Invasive Prenatal Testing for Aneuploidy. Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2007;110:1459.
- Gibbs RS, et al. Prenatal diagnosis. In: Danforth's Obstetrics and Gynecology. 10th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Wolters Kluwer Health Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2008. http://www.danforthsobgyn.com. Accessed Aug. 3, 2015.
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Birth defects. In: Your Pregnancy and Childbirth Month to Month. 5th ed. Washington, D.C.: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; 2010:343.
- Patient information: Chorionic villus sampling. http://www.uptodate.com/home. Accessed Aug. 4, 2015.
- Beckman CRB, et al. Genetics and genetic disorders in obstetrics and gynecology. In: Obstetrics and Gynecology. 7th ed. Baltimore, Md.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2014.
- Vincent Corbett J, et al. Diagnostic procedures related to childbearing years. Laboratory Tests and Diagnostic Procedures with Nursing Diagnoses. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, Inc.; 2013.
- Fischbach FT, et al. Prenatal diagnosis and tests of fetal well-being. In: A Manual of Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests. 9th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2014.
- Pagana KD, et al. Maternal/Fetal evaluation. In: Mosby's Manual of Diagnostic and Laboratory Tests. 5th ed. St. Louis, Mo.: Elsevier Mosby; 2014.
- Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. SMFM Consult: Risks of chorionic villus sampling and amniocentesis. Contemporary OB/GYN. 2014; 59; e.1. http://contemporaryobgyn.modernmedicine.com/contemporary-obgyn/news/RC/smfm-consult-risks-chorionic-villus-sampling-and-amniocentesis. Accessed October 13, 2015.


The Huancabamba deflection, a major Andean orocline located at the Ecuador-Peru border, constitutes an important geologic boundary on the Pacific coast of South America. Crust to the north of the deflection is oceanic and the basement is composed of basic igneous rocks of Cretaceous age, whereas crust to the south is continental and felsic rocks of Precambrian to Cretaceous age make up the basement.
The northern flank of the Huancabamba Deflection in El Oro Province, Ecuador, is underlain by Precambrian polymetamorphic basic rocks of the Piedras Group; shale, siltstone, sandstone, and their metamorphosed equivalents in the Tahuin Group (in part of Devonian age); concordant syntectonic granitic rocks; quartz diorite and alaskite of the Maroabeli pluton; a protrusion of serpentinized harzburgite that contains a large inclusion of blueschist-facies metamorphic rocks, the Raspas Formation, and metamorphic rocks north of the La Palma fault.
Biotite from gneiss of the Tahuin Group yields a Late Triassic K-Ar age (210 ? 8 m.y.). This is interpreted as an uplift age and is consistent with a regional metamorphism of Paleozoic age. A nearby sample from the Piedras Group that yielded a hornblende K-Ar age of 196 ? 8 m.y. was affected by the same metamorphic event. Biotite from quartz diorite of the mesozonal Maroabeli pluton yields a Late Triassic age (214 ? 6 m.y.) which is interpreted as an uplift age which may be only slightly younger than the age of magmatic crystallization. Emplacement of the pluton may postdate regional metamorphism of the Tahuin Group. Phengite from politic schist of the Raspas Formation yields an Early Cretaceous K-Ar age (132 ? 5 m.y.). This age is believed to date the isostatic rise of the encasing serpentinized harzburgite as movement along a subjacent subduction zone ceased, and it is synchronous with the age of the youngest lavas of a coeval volcanic arc in eastern Ecuador. A Late Cretaceous K-Ar age (74.4 ? 1.1 m.y.) from hornblende in amphibolite north of the La Palma fault shows that rocks there are distinct from the superficially similar rocks of the Tahuin Group to the south. Biotite from schist in the Eastern Andean Cordillera yields an Early Eocene age (56.6 ? 1.6 m.y.). Metamorphic rocks in the northern part of the Eastern Andean Cordillera are Cretaceous in age and were metamorphosed in part in early Tertiary time. They are unrelated to and were metamorphosed later than any of the diverse rocks exposed on the northern flank of the Huancabamba Deflection.
Additional publication details
USGS Numbered Series
K-Ar geochronology of basement rocks on the northern flank of the Huancabama deflection, Ecuador


Health workers have become the first two people to become infected with Ebola outside of Africa, official health agencies report.
The first case showed up in Spain. A nurse had been treating a patient. That patient had been flown home after contracting Ebola in Sierra Leone in West Africa. The nurse developed a fever on September 29. She was eventually diagnosed with Ebola and put into isolation. The World Health Organization reported the case on October 9. This United Nations agency is based in Geneva, Switzerland. It has been keeping track of the current Ebola epidemic.
One day before the WHO report, a Liberian man died of Ebola in a hospital in Dallas, Texas. On October 10, a nurse who had treated him reported she had developed a fever overnight. When she told doctors at the hospital where she worked, they tested her and placed her in quarantine. Two days later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, confirmed that she has Ebola. This government agency is based in Atlanta, Ga. It is providing guidance about Ebola in the United States.
The Dallas nurse is the first person to become infected with Ebola while living in the United States. The man she had treated had picked up his infection in Liberia. This West African country has experienced almost half of all Ebola cases in 2014. The Liberian man’s symptoms emerged after he arrived in Dallas last month. Only then did he become contagious.
The Dallas nurse had worn protective gear each time she came into contact with her infected patient. So did the healthcare worker who became infected in Spain. CDC officials are now reviewing how to better protect nursing teams from contracting Ebola.
Healthcare workers face a high risk of picking up this disease. As of September 23, the WHO reports, 375 doctors, nurses and other health workers in Africa have picked up Ebola while taking care of patients. Of those, 211 have died.
Ebola can spread only after an individual develops symptoms. These include fever, vomiting, diarrhea and muscle pain. Flu and many other diseases also cause such symptoms. So doctors must do blood tests to confirm Ebola. Only then can they know whether a patient has contracted the rare disease. These tests typically have taken about two days. But a faster technique is becoming more available.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, is based in Vienna, Austria. On October 14, it said it would provide a new Ebola-detection system to Sierra Leone. Ebola has already sickened some 2,950 people there this year. The new virus-detection system can tell doctors within a few hours whether someone has Ebola. Called reverse transcriptase PCR, or RT-PCR, this technique makes huge numbers of exact copies of Ebola genes. When there are more of them present, they can be easier to clearly recognize. The RT-PCR technology uses radioactive materials. They serve as “markers” to help identify whether the target virus is present.
West African nations already have some access to this RT-PCR technology. However, “there is a shortage of the diagnostic kits and other materials needed” to use this technology, the IAEA notes. The affected countries also need backup equipment in case one of their RT-PCR machines breaks down.
As of October 14, this year’s outbreak in Africa has resulted in 8,914 cases of known or suspected Ebola infections, notes Bruce Aylward of the WHO. At least 4,447 of these patients have died. But CDC suspects that the actual number of 2014 cases in Africa may be 2.5 times as high as the official reports.
Especially concerning, Aylward noted in a tweet, “by December 2014” WHO expects to see between 5,000 and 10,000 new Ebola cases emerging each week in the West Africa.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC An agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC is charged with protecting public health and safety by working to control and prevent disease, injury and disabilities. It does this by investigating disease outbreaks, tracking exposures by Americans to infections and toxic chemicals, and regularly surveying diet and other habits among a representative cross-section of all Americans.
Ebola A family of viruses that cause a deadly disease in people. Most cases occur in Africa and Asia. Its symptoms include headaches, fever, muscle pain and extensive bleeding. The infection spreads from person to person (or animal to some person) through contact with infected body fluids
electron microscope A microscope with high resolution and magnification that uses electrons rather than light to image an object. Images taken with such a device are known as electron micrographs.
gene (adj. genetic) A segment of DNA that codes, or holds instructions, for producing a protein. Offspring inherit genes from their parents. Genes influence how an organism looks and behaves.
infection A disease that can spread from one organism to another.
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outbreak The sudden emergence of disease in a population of people or animals.
polymerase chain reaction(or PCR) A biochemical process that repeatedly copies a particular sequence of DNA. A related, but somewhat different technique, copies genes expressed by the DNA in a cell. This technique is called reverse transcriptase PCR. Like regular PCR, it copies genetic material so that other techniques can identify aspects of the genes or match them to known genes.
quarantine A temporary restriction on the movement of people (or animals) that are sick — or suspected of being infected — to a small area. The goal is to prevent a spread of their illness. If the illness is life-threatening and an epidemic is underway, police sometimes may be called in to enforce a government-imposed quarantine.
radioactive An adjective that describes unstable elements, such as certain forms of uranium and plutonium. Such elements are said to be unstable because their nucleus sheds energy that is carried away by photons and/or and often one or more nuclear particles. This emission of energy is by a process known as radioactive decay.
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virus Tiny infectious particles consisting of RNA or DNA surrounded by protein. Viruses can reproduce only by injecting their genetic material into the cells of living creatures. Although scientists frequently refer to viruses as live or dead, in fact no virus is truly alive. It doesn’t eat like animals do, or make its own food the way plants do. It must hijack the cellular machinery of a living cell in order to survive.
World Health Organization An agency of the United Nations, established in 1948, to promote health and to control communicable diseases. It is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The United Nations relies on the WHO for providing international leadership on global health matters. This organization also helps shape the research agenda for health issues and sets standards for pollutants and other things that could pose a risk to health. WHO also regularly reviews data to set policies for maintaining health and a healthy environment.