bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Absorption scaling theory applied to an energy-intensity boundary element method for prediction of broadband acoustic fields in enclosures
Authors: Raudales David , Bliss Donald B.
Published: June 2017

Insight into the acoustic energy distribution in enclosures is gained by applying Absorption Scaling Theory. Broadband high-frequency acoustic fields within 3D rectangular enclosures are modeled with an energy-intensity boundary element method (EIBEM) that replaces the enclosure boundary with a distribution of broadband uncorrelated directional intensity sources to simulate either diffuse or specular reflection. Assuming a highly reflective enclosure, the boundary panel strengths are expanded in a power series with the spatially-averaged absorption as a small parameter. For diffuse reflection fields, where the theory is well developed, a matrix formulation is derived for each of the expansion coefficients that must be solved in sequential order. The leading order term in the expansion is inversely proportional to the scaling parameter and estimates the average level inside the enclosure, the next term gives spatial variation independent of average absorption level, while higher order terms account for the spatial variation of energy due to the distribution of absorption and the location of sources. For a highly reflective enclosure, only a few terms are needed to accurately predict the mean-square pressures. Similar behavior is demonstrated for specular reflection using numerical simulations. Applications include theoretical and empirical enclosure design and assessment, and solving the inverse problem.
Development of the underwater acoustic prism
Authors: Woolfe Katherine F. , Rogers Jeffrey S. , Guild Matthew D. , Rohde Charles , Naify Christina J. , Orris Gregory
Published: June 2017

The acoustic prism (i.e., leaky wave antenna) has been experimentally demonstrated in air as a way to steer an emitted beam using only a single broadband acoustic source. The prism relies on a leaky, dispersive waveguide to provide a unique radiation angle for each narrowband frequency projected by the acoustic source. In air, the leakage occurs through a series of periodically spaced shunts in the waveguide. This study examines an acoustic prism design that is capable of operating underwater, where leakage occurs through the waveguide wall itself due to the much lower impedance contrast of the waveguide material in water to that in air. This results in a geometrically simpler design in the underwater case. However, shear wave effects must be considered in the design of the underwater acoustic prism. The waveguide wall is constructed out of a composite material to have a high impedance but a low shear modulus, which are both necessary conditions to decrease sidelobes in the radiated pressure field. Numerical results indicate that the acoustic prism design is capable of scanning a range of frequencies from broadside to forward endfire. Experimental realization of the underwater acoustic prism is also discussed. [Work sponsored by ONR.]
A model of Mandarin Chinese question intonation
Authors: Flemming Edward
Published: June 2017

Echo questions in Mandarin Chinese provide an interesting case study of the interaction between lexical tone and intonation because it appears that echo questions are distinguished from declaratives by modifying the F0 trajectory of the sentence-final lexical tone in ways that depend on the identity of that tone. The most general effect is that the offset of the final tone is higher in a question than in a declarative rendition of the same sentence. If the final tone is high or falling, F0 is raised throughout the tone, but if the final tone if low or rising, the F0 minimum is not raised in questions. We propose a quantitative analysis according to which question intonation consists of a high boundary tone realized simultaneously with the offset of the final lexical tone. Compromise between the boundary tone and targets for the lexical tone results in raising of the offset of the tone. Additional effects result from interactions with other targets pertaining to the shape of the lexical tone. For example, simply raising the offset of a falling tone would result in failure to realize a sufficiently steep fall, so the onset of the fall is raised as well.
Loudness trumps pitch in politeness judgments: Evidence from Korean
Authors: Idemaru Kaori , Brown Lucien , Winter Bodo , Oh Grace E.
Published: June 2017

Politeness is a vital aspect of everyday life that is receiving increased attention in sociophonetic research. The current study investigated how deferential and intimate stances, examples of politeness-related expressions, are conveyed by phonetic cues in Korean. Previously, we found that Korean listeners can distinguish these stances based on speech acoustics alone. The current study manipulated fundamental frequency (F0) and intensity of spoken Korean utterances to investigate the specific role of these cues in politeness judgments. Across three experiments with a total of 63 Korean listeners, we found that intensity reliably influenced politeness judgments, but F0 did not. An examination of individual differences revealed that all listeners interpreted deferential stances to be associated with low intensity: quiet utterances were perceived as deferential. On the other hand, the interpretation of F0 varied across listeners: some perceived high-pitched utterances as deferential and others perceived low-pitched utterances as deferential. These results present a challenge to the Frequency Code as a universal principle underlying politeness phenomena. The results also indicate that perception does not perfectly mirror production in politeness expressions in Korean, since previous production studies have reliably found low pitch to be associated with deferential stances.
Uptalk in northern Irish English
Authors: Jespersen Anna
Published: June 2017

This paper presents work in progress on the phonetic realization of uptalk rises in Northern Irish English, a variety which is well-known for another type of rising intonation, the rise-plateau(-slump) (Cruttenden 1997; Grabe 2002; Ladd 2008). However, a recent pilot study has shown that the steeper and more steadily rising uptalk rise, which is mainly associated with American and Antipodean Englishes, is now found not only in Southern British English (cf. Arvaniti and Atkins 2016), but also in Northern Ireland. For this study, 6 female speakers were recorded while taking part in a Map Task and approximately 3 minutes of speech was examined. Intonational rises were labeled using the IViE guidelines (see Grabe et al. 2000; Grabe 2002) and f0 measurements were taken at 10 intervals between the low starting points and peaks of each rise. Rises were then assigned to either the rise-plateau or uptalk categories according to the phonological label assigned and the steepness, height and steadiness of the rise. This study thus provides confirmation that Northern Irish English speakers really use uptalk rises, and acoustic evidence of how these differ from the variety’s traditional rise-plateaux.
Segmental intonation in tonal and non-tonal languages
Authors: Percival Maida , Bamba Kaz
Published: June 2017

The nature of edge intonational contours as well as acoustics of fricatives have generally been independently discussed in the literature (Hughes & Halle 1956; Ladd 1996; Gussenhoven 2004 inter alia). Voiceless consonants were traditionally conceived as irrelevant to the study of utterance-level intonation and thought merely to interrupt pitch contours (Bolinger 1964). However, Niebuhr (2012) proposes that the two domains interact, reporting that German fricatives exhibit relatively higher centre of gravity (CoG) and higher acoustic energy in the context of rising intonation. This phenomenon, known as segmental intonation, has been found in some languages (Polish, Zygis et al. 2014; Dutch, Heeren 2015), but remains controversial in others (English, Niebuhr p.c.). We test this hypothesis by replicating the reading task in Niebuhr’s (2012) study for English and also extending to a tonal language, Cantonese, in which F0 is used grammatically to distinguish words, in addition to intonation. Preliminary results from 10 speakers suggest that segmental intonation in the form of higher CoG and intensity exists in English, but not in Cantonese. With additional data recently collected, we hope to confirm these findings and contribute to determining whether the segmental intonation is an epiphenomenon of speech production in general or not.
Recognition of emotional prosody in Mandarin: Evidence from a synthetic speech paradigm
Authors: Pak Cecilia L. , Katz William F.
Published: June 2017

Pitch-dominant information is reduced in the spectrally-impoverished signal transmitted by cochlear implants (CIs), leading to potential difficulties in perceiving voice emotion. However, this evidence comes from non-tonal languages such as English, in which pitch information is not required for lexical meaning. In order to better understand how hearing impaired (HI) speakers of a tone language with cochlear implants (CIs) process emotional prosody, an experiment was conducted with healthy normal hearing (NH) Mandarin-speaking adults listening to synthetic stimuli designed to resemble CI input. Listeners heard short sentences from a read-speech database produced by professional actors. Stimuli were selected to express four emotions (“angry,” “happy,” “sad,” and “neutral”), under four conditions which varied the lexical tones of Mandarin. Listeners heard natural speech and three noise-vocoded speech conditions (4-, 8-, and 16-spectral channels) and made a four-alternative, forced-choice decision about the basic emotion underlying each sentence. Preliminary results indicate more accurate emotional prosody recognition for natural speech than for synthesized speech, with greater accuracy for higher channel stimuli than lower channel stimuli. The findings also suggest NH Mandarin-speaking listeners show lower overall vocal emotional prosody accuracy compared with previous studies of non-tonal languages (e.g., English).
Proposal of description for an intonation pattern: The simulacrum of neutral intonation
Authors: Martins Marcus Vinicius Moreira , Ferreira-Netto Waldemar
Published: June 2017

The aim of this study is describe the intonation pattern Simulacrum of Neutral Intonation (SNI), defined as the monotone speech produced by the speakers with a prevalence of rhythm and a flat speech melody. As first step, 71 recordings were separated by gender of the subjects and their emotional states: 9 anger male and female speech, 10 neutral male speech, 11 neutral female speech, 11 sad male speech, 9 sad female speech, 7 SNI female speech, and 5 SNI male speech. The 71 samples were analyzed in terms of 44 acoustical parameters established a priori and separated by clustered using the parameters selected by Principal Component Analysis. The four final parameters of this analysis were as follows: (i) lower F0 value, (ii) lower dispersion of positive variations of Focus/Emphasis, (ii) lower mean interval between units of bearing of intonation, and (iv) lower median of these same intervals. These values shows a possible characterization of intonational speech register, called Simulacrum of Neutral Intonation. The SNI record is similar to other speech registers, as those used by speakers with psychic disorders or in stressful situations. These values confirms some findings, as seen in Ragin et al. (1989) and Thomas et al. (1990).
Word length modulates the effect of emotional prosody
Authors: Kim Seung Kyung
Published: June 2017

Previous work has shown that emotional prosody, independent of the lexical carrier, activates words associated with the emotional information (Kim, 2015; Kim & Sumner, submitted). For example, hearing a non-emotional word (pineapple) uttered with angry prosody facilitates recognition of angry-associated words (mad). Building on this finding, the current study delves into the nature of the affective priming between emotional prosody and emotional words and tests if word length modulates affective priming. Word length is an important dimension in lexical processing, as longer words are shown to produce stronger lexical activation than shorter words (Pitt & Samuel, 2006). I hypothesize that social information shows a stronger effect in spoken word processing when lexical activation is weaker. Then we should find stronger affective priming with shorter words than longer words. This hypothesis was tested with a cross-modal priming experiment. The visual targets were 12 angry related words (e.g., mad, upset). The targets were preceded by two-, three-, or four-syllable non-emotional primes (e.g., atom, envelope, aluminum) spoken with angry prosody. Listeners recognized angry words faster after hearing angry prosody than after hearing neutral prosody when the prime words were short (2 syllables) but not when the prime words were longer (3-4 syllables). The current results provide evidence that social effects in word recognition are modulated by the strength of lexical activation.
A cross-linguistic study of speech modulation spectra
Authors: Varnet Léo , Ortiz-Barajas Maria C. , Guevara Erra Ramón , Gervain Judit , Lorenzi Christian
Published: June 2017

Languages show systematic variation in their sound patterns and grammars. Accordingly, they have been classified into typological categories such as stress-timed vs. syllable-timed on the basis of their rhythms, Head-Complement vs. Complement-Head on the basis of their basic word order, or tonal vs. non-tonal on the basis of the presence/absence of lexical tones. To date, it has remained incompletely understood how these linguistic properties are reflected in the acoustic characteristics of speech in different languages. In the present study, the amplitude-modulation (AM) and frequency-modulation (FM) spectra of 1862 utterances produced by 44 speakers in 12 languages were analyzed. Overall, the spectra were similar across languages. However, a perceptually based representation of the AM spectrum revealed significant differences between languages. The maximum value of this spectrum distinguished between HC non-tonal, CH non-tonal, and tonal languages, while the exact frequency of this maximum value differed between stress-timed and syllable-timed languages. Furthermore, when normalized, the f0-modulation spectra of tonal and non-tonal languages also differed. These findings reveal that broad linguistic categories are reflected in differences in temporal modulation features of different languages. This has important implications for theories of language processing and acquisition.
Imitation of F0 timing in Mandarin disyllabic sequences
Authors: Yi Hao , Tilsen Sam
Published: June 2017

This study investigates the control of relative timing between tones and segments in Mandarin Chinese. Thirty native Mandarin speakers participated in an experiment in which they imitated the variation in a disyllabic, bi-tonal sequence—Tone2 + Tone2 (rising + rising). The stimuli vary parametrically in the relative timing of F0 turning points with respect to the segment boundary. The variation occurs either within the first syllable or between the two syllables. The results show that within the first syllable, speakers did not imitate the variation in the relative timing patterns. However, across syllable boundaries, such parametric variation leads to more faithful imitations in terms of the relative timing of F0 turning points. Therefore, native Mandarin speakers are more sensitive to variation in the relative timing patterns across syllable boundaries than within the first syllable. This shows that the control over the relative timing between F0 gestures and articulatory gestures within the first syllable is more stable than across syllable boundaries. We argue this is because final lengthening of the second syllable can provide an additional co-selection set with which the Low tone gesture can be associated.
Listener adaptation to lexical stress misplacement
Authors: Morimoto Maho
Published: June 2017

Speech including unfamiliar accents can result in decreased processing efficiency. However, listeners are able to overcome the difficulty of processing accented speech with adequate exposure, through the process of perceptual adaptation (Norris, McQueen & Cutler 2003; Bradlow & Bent 2008, among others). The current study addresses the role of word-level prosodic information in listener adaptation to accented speech. Specifically, it investigates adaptation to lexical stress misplacement in English, and examines how it compares with adaptation to segmental mismatches and accentedness at the whole utterance level. 91 native speakers of English were exposed to English words in isolation with canonical and non-canonical stress position, while performing a speeded cross-modal matching task. Results suggest that adaptation to lexical stress misplacement is largely comparable to adaptation to non-canonical productions at the segmental or utterance level in terms of speed and generalizability across lexical items. Results also indicate that adaptation to lexical stress misplacement is generalizable across talkers to some extent.
Decoding linguistically-relevant pitch patterns from frequency-following responses using hidden Markov models
Authors: Llanos Fernando , Xie Zilong , Chandrasekaran Bharath
Published: June 2017

Pitch encoding is often studied with frequency-following response (FFR), a scalp-recorded potential reflecting phase-locked activity from auditory subcortical ensembles. Prior work using FFR have shown that long-term language experience modulates subcortical encoding of linguistically-relevant pitch patterns. These studies typically rely on FFRs averaging across thousands of repetitions, due to low signal-to-noise ratio of single-trial FFRs. Here, we evaluated the extent to which hidden Markov models (HMMs), with fewer numbers of trials, can be used to quantify pitch encoding as well as capture language experience-dependent plasticity in pitch encoding. FFRs were recorded from fourteen Mandarin Chinese and fourteen American English passively listening to four Mandarin tones (1000 trials per tone). HMMs were used to recognize FFRs to each tone in individual participants. Specifically, HMMs were trained and tested across FFR sets of different sizes, ranging from 50 to 500 trials. Results showed that HMMs were able to recognize tones from FFRs, above chance, across all training sizes and languages. Interestingly, HMMs picked up language differences (Chinese > English) at very small sizes for training (e.g., 200) and testing (e.g., 100). These findings highlight the potential benefits of using HMMs to reduce experimental time and efforts in FFR data collection. [Project funded by NIH NoR01DC013315 834 (B.C.).]
Effects of consonant voicing on vocalic segment duration across resonants and prosodic boundaries
Authors: Whalen D. H.
Published: June 2017

Most languages, and especially English, reduce the duration of vocalic segments before voiceless obstruents relative to voiced ones. Previous studies examined this effect for final singleton consonants in tauto- and heterosyllabic contexts within a word. Here, monosyllabic words are examined for the effect both across resonants (e.g., “code”/”coat” vs. “cold”/”colt”) and across word boundaries and stress conditions (e.g., “no CODE”/”NO code” vs. “no GOAD”/”NO goad”). Preliminary results showed a typical effect for singleton stops, with vocalic segment reduced 33.6% for the voiceless stop. Vocalic segments were somewhat reduced with an intervening resonant (26.4%) but the resonance itself was more reduced (57.3%); vocalic segment and resonance were approximately the same duration as the vocalic segments alone in singleton syllables. The vocalic segment of “no” decreased slightly with following voiceless stop (8.2% when unstressed, 10.2% when stressed); this was smaller than other studies’ effect across syllable boundaries within words. The results indicate that the word and syllable structure impose timing effects of different magnitudes on both vowels and resonants due to voicing of an adjacent stop. It is surprising that the effect occurs across word boundaries and further that stress makes little difference. [Work supported by NIH grant DC-002717.]
Instantaneous wide-area passive acoustic monitoring of surface ships and submerged vehicles using a coherent hydrophone array
Authors: Huang Wei , Makris Purnima R. , Garcia Heriberto A.
Published: June 2017

The ability to monitor surface ships and other ocean vehicles continuously over instantaneous wide areas is essential for a wide range of applications including defense and ocean environmental assessment. Here, we employ a large-aperture coherent hydrophone array system to detect, localize, and classify several surface ships and other ocean vehicles from their sounds radiated underwater using the passive ocean acoustic waveguide remote sensing (POAWRS) technique. The approach is calibrated for four distinct research and fisheries survey vessels with accurately known locations obtained from global positioning systems (GPS). Acoustic signals passively recorded on the coherent hydrophone array are first beamformed for their azimuthal dependencies. The sounds radiated by ocean vehicles are automatically detected using a threshold detector from the beamformed spectrograms. The bearing versus time trajectories of sequences of detections are used to localize the ocean vehicles by employing the moving array triangulation technique. The sounds radiated by the ships are dominated by distinct tonals and cyclostationary signals in the 50 to 2000 Hz frequency range. The temporal-spectral characteristics of these signal can be used to classify each ship. Our analysis indicates the ocean vehicles can be instantaneously monitored and tracked over wide areas spanning more than 300 km in diameter.
Direction-finding techniques for a small-aperture hydrophone array
Authors: Gassmann Martin , Wiggins Sean M. , Hildebrand John
Published: June 2017

A volumetric array of hydrophones was coupled to a long-term, autonomous acoustic recorder and deployed ~130 km offshore of Southern California to the seafloor (~1300 m depth) to track continuous-wave (CW) and transient underwater sound sources. The array was composed of four, wide-band, omnidirectional hydrophones closely-spaced ~1 m apart. Sampling was continuous at 100 KSamples/s for each hydrophone over a period of more than two months. To track CW sound sources, conventional and adaptive beamforming techniques were implemented. The array’s beam pattern characteristics as a function of frequency (10—1000 Hz) were investigated by simulating the arrival of plane waves from directions of interest. Beamforming techniques were opportunistically applied to nearby (<5 km) transiting commercial ships with automated identification system (AIS) transmitted locations. Discrepancies were within the physical dimension of the transiting ships. Source levels for each of the transiting ships were estimated at the ships’ various aspects to characterize the directionality of underwater ship noise. In addition, a cross-correlation based direction-finding technique for transient sounds was developed and implemented for short duration (<1 ms), frequency-modulated echolocation clicks emitted by deep-diving beaked whales.
Fessenden and Boyle: Two Canadian Sonar Pioneers
Authors: Merklinger Harold M. , Ellis Dale D.
Published: June 2017

Reginald Fessenden developed voice-modulated radio in the early 20th century using special alternators and microphones capable of handling kilowatts of power. When the Titanic struck the iceberg in 1912, Fessenden, then in Boston, developed an audio-frequency acoustic transmitter-receiver, which he used to detect an iceberg at two miles. When the “Great War” began, UK interests turned to detecting submarines. Ernest Rutherford, on behalf of the Bureau of Investigation and Research (BIR), invited former students A. B. Wood, and R. W. Boyle, to join the anti-submarine effort. Fessenden was also consulted. The team detected submarines using Fessenden’s device but experienced difficulty determining target bearing. After consulting Paul Langevin, Boyle agreed that quartz transducers operating at ultrasonic frequencies should provide a solution. Boyle then developed the UK Type 112 “ASDIC” which was being fitted to Royal Navy warships just as the War ended. Boyle returned to the University of Alberta after the war and continued work in ultrasonics. In 1929 he was appointed Director of Physics at Canada’s National Research Council. There he established an Acoustics Section, and during World War II started a scientific activity in Halifax, NS, which later became the Naval Research Establishment.
German Navy sonar development during the two world wars and interwar years
Authors: Hackmann Willem D.
Published: June 2017

In the German Navy, as in the UK and America, the development of underwater acoustical detection was shaped by institutional, political, and technical constraints and in response to tactical events. German hydrophone development in WWI was less advanced than that of the Allies, who focussed on combating an all-out U-boat war. The German Navy did not develop the variety of hydrophones developed by the Allies in particular the towed hydrophone array of the American Navy, which nevertheless inspired their passive sonar arrays known as “Gruppenhorchgerät” (GHG), German for “group listening device” in the interwar years, developed for the long-range protection of their capital ships, until 1935 with the signing of the Anglo German Naval Agreement when they commenced their submarine building program. For strategic reasons, Germany continued to concentrate on pro-submarine research so that at the start of WWII the German Navy had developed sophisticated GHG systems available which they improved further into the “Balkon” system of the later high-speed U-boats, Type XXI and XXVI. Their operational echo-ranging Asdic equipment was tactically inferior to that of the Royal Navy, and some interesting prototypes in development did not reach active service.
Overview of Chinese underwater acoustics
Authors: Guo Lianghao , Li Zhenglin
Published: June 2017

French physicist Paul Langevin was the pioneer of active sonar [Ainslie, , p.10, Springer, 2010]. His graduate student and later collaborator, Dezhao Wang, founded the first Chinese underwater acoustics laboratory at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1958. Shie Yang founded the first department of underwater acoustics engineering of China at Harbin Engineering University in 1959. In accordance with the development strategy of “from the near to the distant; from the shallow to the deep,” Chinese underwater acoustics research has been active in shallow-water acoustics, and has increased its efforts in deep sea acoustics in recent years. The Chinese underwater acoustics community has nurtured nine of CAS/CAE(Chinese Academy of Engineering) academicians and several world outstanding scholars in shallow-water acoustics. Under the support from the CAS and US ONR, two comprehensive China-US joint sea-going experiments were conducted; many international conferences in ocean acoustics were held in China. This paper briefly introduces the history of Chinese underwater acoustics research and overviews some underwater acoustics progresses that have publicly been released in China, including basic research in ocean acoustics, signal processing, and underwater acoustic transducers. [Work supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 61571436, 11434012, and 41561144006.]
Sound speed profile measurement uncertainties due to rough interfaces: A parametric study using the Langston-Kirchhoff model
Authors: Pinson Samuel
Published: June 2017

In the context of sound-speed profile measurement by the image source method, interface roughnesses are responsible for result uncertainties. The image source method models the reflected wave from a layered media as a collection of images which are the mirror reflections of the real source over the interfaces. From image source positions, one can deduce the sound-speed profile. Interface roughnesses might blur these image sources and reduce the accuracy of their localization. Using the Langston-Kirchhoff model of a 3D layered media with rough interfaces, it is possible to perform a parametric study of these uncertainties as a function of roughness parameters. In the aim of performing roughness parameter inversion, theoretical uncertainties are calculated and compared with estimated uncertainties from numerical experiments.
Creating synthetic aperture images using experimental and simulated backscattering of solid elastic cubes
Authors: Bollen Viktor , Daniel Timothy , Marston Philip L.
Published: June 2017

To study aspect and material dependent backscattering of objects, we used cubes as their geometry has distinct exposure points for different backscattering mechanisms. We insonified two solid cubes, one brass and the other steel, in underwater tank scale experiments, measuring their backscattering using circular, linear, and cylindrical synthetic aperture sonar. The right angles of the edges allow for enhanced backscattering by Rayleigh waves, which couple in at material-specific angles, since the waves are retroreflected by the cube’s edges [K. Gipson and P. L. Marston, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 105, 700-710 (1998)]. In concert with the experiments, we model the backscattering from our cubes using Kirchhoff-Integration based simulations. The simulation isolates the specular responses, simplifying the complex responses from the cube’s geometry and allowing us to identify specific effects, such as splitting from the corner reflections of a cube when its top ridge is tilted. Using Fourier based back-projection algorithms, we reconstructed target images from both the experimental and simulation results. Three dimensional images were also recreated from the cylindrical data. Using a combination of experimental and simulation results, we identified aspect dependent mechanisms. [Work supported by ONR.]
Standing on the shoulders of an ET giant
Authors: Tsaih Lucky S.
Published: June 2017

Professor Bertram Y. Kinzey, Jr., is the main author of the Environmental Technologies in Architecture. This valuable book was first published in 1951 and has been intellectually stimulating for Architecture students at UF and around the world. It was astonishing to read through the Preface of the book. It reveals this giant’s farsighted provision on how an architect should take account of complex environmental control systems and balance them with the physiological and psychological needs of the occupants during the design process. These environmental control systems include thermal, atmosphere, and environmental control, acoustics, sanitation, lighting, electrical machinery, and power distribution, coincide with current “hot” sustainable design topics. In particular, he expresses the idea of seamless integration between the architect and his engineering consultants through entire life cycle of a project. This concept, serves as the heart of the BIM development and its implementation process. Following his insight, the current architecture design curriculum and sustainable research areas at NTUST has worked toward this holistic integration mode. As said by Newton, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”!
Subjective listening tests: Perception and preference of simulated sound fields
Authors: Ermann Michael , Hulva Andrew , Upthegrove Tanner , Rehfuss Randall J. , Haim Walter , Kanapesky Aaron , Mcmillon Trey , Park Caroyln , Reardon Alexander , Rynes Jeffrey , Ye Sam , Nichols Charles
Published: June 2017

Concert hall sound fields were simulated by architecture students and anechoic recordings were convolved to create auralizations in those simulated performance spaces. Then an architectural feature was altered digitally and a second track was auralized. College music students were recruited, tested for hearing loss, and brought to a low-reverberance room with a spatial sound array of 28 mounted speakers. They were asked to identify which of the two simulated tracks they prefer. We compared simulated performance spaces: (1) with four tiers of balconies vs with one tier of balcony; (2) with an over-stage canopy vs without a canopy; (3) with separate balcony boxes vs with a continuous balcony not fragmented by box walls; and (4) with a higher scattering coefficient vs a lower scattering coefficient. Those in the audience will be invited to judge preference between the tracks for themselves. The study will be framed by the extraordinary career arc of Bert Kinzey who engaged architecture students in the study of architectural acoustics at both Virginia Tech and at the University of Florida.
Other testimonials for the life and work of Professor Bertram Y. Kinzey, Jr
Authors: Siebein Gary W.
Published: June 2017

This session invites testimonials from people in the audience or in the form of letters from those who cannot attend to the life, work, and influences of Professor Bertram Y. Kinzey, Jr.
Reverberation time analysis for nonrectangular rooms using the Monte Carlo method
Authors: Rosenhouse Giora
Published: June 2017

Reverberation time (RT) of a nonrectangular room involves its mean free path (MFP). Statistics of sound ray consecutive collisions of the enveloping room surfaces solve the MFP value. The classical halls RT formulae are based on physical models and assumptions, including discrepancies. Thus, we use here the Monte Carlo Method (MCM) to calculate MFP and the probabilities of sound rays colliding with their surrounding surfaces and their RT. The method presented here includes statistical analysis, sensitivity to changes of different parameters, validation and interpretation. It calculates averages of a series of lengths of individual paths for each ray emanating from a sound source and its direction cosines, chosen at random from a uniform distribution and considering range by means of pseudo random generator (PRG). The process recurs for a fixed number of rays and a computer run for an average of one block and its MFP. Each run involves an initial PRG seed. The analysis of a fixed number of paths of one ray is a result of deterministic algorithm and thus its values are dependent. Therefore, its averages constitute a population that follows the large numbers theorem, which does not necessarily follow the central limit theorem.
Advanced methods to determine sound power radiated from planar structures
Authors: Schoenwald Stefan , Vallely Sven , Tröbs Hans-Martin
Published: June 2017

In building acoustics, the most fundamental aim is to determine the sound power radiated by building elements. In this paper, two methods that are more sophisticated than the conventional measurement of sound pressure in a receiving room are presented and discussed. Both methods, the Discrete Calculation Method and the Integral Transform Method, require only the surface velocity measured in a grid on the radiating surface as input data. Thus the sound power is univocally associated to the considered element. The first assumes a series of radiating piston sources on the surface that move with same velocity and phase relationship as the structure. The second uses spatial Fourier Transformations to determine the radiated sound power in the wavenumber domain, analogous to Nearfield Acoustic Holography. The Integral Transform Method additionally obtains the angle dependent flexural wavenumbers of the structure, which is essential for the analysis of the element dynamics, and as input data for the prediction of sound radiation efficiency and transmission loss of orthotropic building elements, for example, Cross-Laminated-Timber elements. Both methods were applied in some exemplary cases; based on their performance and results, conclusions are drawn on the benefits of both methods.
Analysis of impact sound insulation properties of wooden joist and cross laminated timber (CLT) floor constructions
Authors: Homb Anders
Published: June 2017

During the last years, there has been an increased interest of developing lightweight constructions with improved sound insulation properties compared to previous, well-known solutions. There have been a progress on prediction tools as well as new solutions, for instance, from the WoodWisdom-Net project “Silent Timber Build.” Previous research establish the fact that including the frequency range below 100 Hz is crucial to get satisfying correlation between perceived and measured impact sound insulation quantities. Research work at SINTEF Building & Infrastructure concerning lightweight floor constructions include therefore frequencies down to at least 50 Hz. The paper will present analysis of a number of laboratory measurement results from joist floor constructions and CLT floor constructions. The paper will focus on the most challenging parameter, the impact sound insulation including the spectrum adaptation term CI,50-2500. Analysis will include parameters such as the mass of the floors, the height of the floors, and of course structural connections and properties of the resilient layers involved. Improved low frequency properties introduce of course more mass and or stiffness of the floor, but the result also show that optimization of the contributing components and material properties is necessary for the development of robust and environmental friendly solutions.
New acoustic solutions for cross laminated timber based buildings
Authors: De Geetere Lieven , Ingelaere Bart , Dijckmans Arne
Published: June 2017

Cross laminated timber is becoming a popular building material for the construction of multifamily dwellings, offices, hotels, etc. The acoustic challenges are important: in contrast to light weight timber frame constructions, it is far more sensitive to flanking transmission and its equally relatively light weight and orthotropic character in comparison with traditional heavy stone requires special solutions for the direct airborne and impact sound insulation. The paper presents a new, special, and patented building system that almost annihilates flanking transmission and will detail optimized low frequency sound insulation solutions for floors.
Achieving high sound isolation between rooms with stone wool ceilings and plenum barriers when the ceiling grid runs continuously over partial height demising walls
Authors: Madaras Gary , Heuer Andrew
Published: June 2017

The Optimized Acoustics Research Program is a multi-year investigation being conducted by ROCKFON, ROXUL, and NGC Testing Services into efficient and economical means of constructing interior architecture that complies with the higher sound absorption and higher sound isolation criteria in standards, guidelines, and building rating systems. Prior program updates have included the negative effects of noise flanking paths through ceiling light fixtures and air distribution devices (Inter-Noise 2015) and optimizing the combination of absorptive, stone wool, ceilings and lightweight plenum barriers to achieve sound transmission class (STC) ratings of 40, 45, and 50 without full height demising walls (Noise-Con 2016). This update addresses a worst-case scenario, when the suspended ceiling grid runs continuously over partial height demising walls. Building the walls to the underside of the ceiling grid avoids the need to reconstruct the ceiling if the walls are relocated in the future. However, this approach has historically not complied with the standards and results in poor acoustic performance. The current research shows how to install standard 16 mm (5/8 in.) thick, stone wool, modular, acoustic ceilings and 38 mm (1.5 in.) thick stone wool plenum barriers to achieve ratings up to STC 52.
Relative salience of syllable order versus syllable fine structure in Zebra Finch song
Authors: Lawson Shelby , Fishbein Adam , Prior Nora H. , Lohr Bernard , Ball Gregory F. , Dooling Robert
Published: June 2017

Zebra finches have become a popular model for the investigation of the motor and perceptual mechanisms underlying vocal learning. These birds are closed-ended learners that have a brief sensitive period for song learning, after which a new song cannot be learned. This song is a single, highly stereotyped, invariant, sequence of 3-8 harmonic syllables, termed a motif, which is repeated several times throughout the song bout. Here, using an operant conditioning discrimination task, we confirm earlier results that these birds find syllable reversals (i.e., changes in temporal fine structure) highly salient. By contrast, finches find syllable ordering in these natural motifs much less salient. The ability to extract and learn sound patterns is a common feature of animal bioacoustic systems including, of course, human speech and language learning. We know from both single unit recordings in the auditory forebrain as well as operant studies, that these birds encode the syllable ordering in song-like stimuli and can learn to discriminate differences in syllable ordering. The large difference in salience between these two sets of acoustic features in these natural motifs—syllable structure versus syllable ordering—raises significant questions about how these natural sounds are processed in the CNS.
Social experience influences ultrasonic vocalization perception in laboratory mice
Authors: Screven Laurel A. , Dent Micheal L.
Published: June 2017

Mice emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) which vary in spectrotemporal parameters (e.g., frequency, amplitude, and duration) in a multitude of social situations. USVs are often assumed to possess speech-like characteristics, although it has not yet been established that mice are using USVs for communication purposes. Previous studies have shown changes in auditory cortex activity in maternal females to pup calls, but it is currently unknown how previous social experience with other mice throughout development affects perception of adult vocalizations. To test the effect of socialization, we used an operant conditioning task to determine if discrimination of USVs was negatively impacted by chronic social isolation compared to mice that were group housed throughout their lifespan. Mice discriminated between twelve USVs of three different categories. Mice that had been socially isolated since weaning showed deficits in discrimination of some USVs. Additionally, socially isolated mice required more training and testing, and more trials to complete the task than socially experienced mice. These results indicate that experiencing USVs during social interactions affects how the mice perceive their vocalizations, suggesting that these vocalizations could have context-specific meaning that is learned through hearing USVs within the appropriate social context.
Ambient noise from turbidity currents
Authors: Hatcher Matthew , Hay Alex E. , Hughes Clarke John E.
Published: June 2017

Sediment mass transport from the Squamish River delta into the adjacent fjord (Howe Sound, British Columbia) is dominated by discrete turbidity current events which have incised semi-permanent channels on the delta front and out onto the prodelta. Acoustic data were collected in the spring of 2013, including both active and passive systems. Data from the active sonars are used to determine flow speed, flow thickness and suspended sediment concentration. The noise generated by these discrete turbidity currents is broadband (10 to 200 kHz) and, based on the sediment grain size and flow speeds, is shown to be due to sediment-generated noise, most likely at the base of the flows.
Shear wave phase velocity dispersion estimation in viscoelastic materials using the Multiple Signal Classification method
Authors: Urban Matthew W. , Kijanka Piotr , Qiang Bo , Song Pengfei , Amador Carolina , Chen Shigao
Published: June 2017

Shear wave elastography (SWE) is clinically used for the measurement of soft tissue mechanical properties. Most SWE methods assume that the tissue is elastic, but soft tissues are inherently viscoelastic. The viscoelasticity can be characterized by examining phase velocity dispersion. Methods to extract the phase velocities from the spatiotemporal data, v(x,t), involve using a two-dimensional Fourier transform. The Fourier representation, V(k,f), is searched for peaks that correspond to the phase velocities. We present a method that uses the Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) method to provide robust estimation of the phase velocity dispersion curves. We compared results from the MUSIC method with the current approach of searching for peaks in the V(k,f) representation. We tested this method on digital phantom data created using finite element models (FEMs) in viscoelastic media excited by a simulated acoustic radiation force push from a curved linear array. We evaluated the algorithm with different levels of added noise. Additionally, we tested the methods on data acquired in viscoelastic phantoms with a Verasonics system. The MUSIC algorithm provided dispersion estimation with lower errors than the conventional peak search strategy. This method can be used for evaluation of wave velocity dispersion in viscoelastic tissues and guided wave propagation. [This work was supported in part by grant R01DK092255.]
Magnetoelastic waves in a soft electrically conducting solid in a strong magnetic field
Authors: Gendin Daniel , Barbone Paul E.
Published: June 2017

Shear wave motion of a soft, electrically conducting solid in the presence of a strong magnetic field excites eddy currents in the solid. These, in turn, give rise to Lorentz forces that resist the wave motion. We derive a mathematical model for linear elastic wave propagation in a soft electrically conducting solid in the presence of a strong magnetic field. The model reduces to an effective anisotropic dissipation term resembling an anisotropic viscous foundation. We consider the application to magnetic resonance elastography, which uses strong magnetic fields to measure shear wave speed in soft tissues for diagnostic purposes. We find that for typical values of magnetic field, mass density, and electrical conductivity of soft tissues, eddy current dissipation is negligible. For materials with higher conductivity (e.g., metals), the effect can be stronger.
Shear elasticity and shear viscosity imaging in viscoelastic phantoms
Authors: Yang Yiqun , Song Pengfei , Chen Shigao , Urban Matthew W. , McGough Robert J.
Published: June 2017

Shear wave elasticity imaging determines the mechanical parameters of soft tissue by analyzing measured shear waves induced by an acoustic radiation force. Currently, the widely used time-of-flight method calculates the correlation between shear waveforms at adjacent lateral observation points to estimate the shear elasticity value. Although this method provides accurate estimates of the shear elasticity in purely elastic media, our experience suggests that this approach overestimates the shear elasticity values in viscoelastic media because the effects of diffraction, attenuation, and dispersion are not taken into account. To address this problem, we have developed an approach that directly accounts for all of these effects when estimating the shear elasticity. This new approach simulates shear waveforms using a Green’s function-based approach with a Voigt model, while the shear elasticity and viscosity values are estimated using an optimization-based approach by comparing measured shear waveforms with simulated shear waveforms in the time-domain. This operation is then performed on a point-by-point basis to generate images. The results indicate that there is good agreement between the simulated and measured shear velocity waveforms, and that this approach yields improved images of the shear elasticity and shear viscosity. [Work supported, in part, by NIH Grant R01DK092255.]