On modeling impulsive bioacoustic signals with symmetric α-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 α-stable distribution (SαS) 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 SαS-based model was used for autoregressive (AR) estimation of their source signal. Via the parameters of SαS (a, α and γ) the effect of the transmission path on the impulsive nature of the source was described. Values of the covariation coefficient λ_XY confirmed a correlation of squawks and fine crackles in their production mechanism