bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Micromachined optical microphone structures with low thermal-mechanical noise levels
Authors: Hall Neal A. , Okandan Murat , Littrell Robert , Bicen Baris , Degertekin F. Levent
Published: September 2007

Micromachined microphones with diffraction-based optical displacement detection have been introduced previously [Hall et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 118, 3000–3009 (2005)]. The approach has the advantage of providing high displacement detection resolution of the microphone diaphragm independent of device size and capacitance—creating an unconstrained design space for the mechanical structure itself. Micromachined microphone structures with 1.5-mm-diam polysilicon diaphragms and monolithically integrated diffraction grating electrodes are presented in this work with backplate architectures that deviate substantially from traditional perforated plate designs. These structures have been designed for broadband frequency response and low thermal mechanical noise levels. Rigorous experimental characterization indicates a diaphragm displacement detection resolution of 20fm∕√Hz and a thermal mechanical induced diaphragm displacement noise density of 60fm∕√Hz, corresponding to an A-weighted sound pressure level detection limit of 24dB(A) for these structures. Measured thermal mechanical displacement noise spectra are in excellent agreement with simulations based on system parameters derived from dynamic frequency response characterization measurements, which show a diaphragm resonance limited bandwidth of approximately 20kHz. These designs are substantial improvements over initial prototypes presented previously. The high performance-to-size ratio achievable with this technology is expected to have an impact on a variety of instrumentation and hearing applications.
Characterization of ultrasound-induced fracture of polymer-shelled ultrasonic contrast agents by correlation analysis
Authors: Pecorari Claudio , Grishenkov Dmitry
Published: September 2007

Beyond a characteristic value of the negative peak pressure, ultrasound fracture the shell of ultrasonic contrast agents (UCAs). Existing criteria for ascertaining this threshold value exploit the dependence of the amplitude of the UCA acoustic response on the incident pressure. However, under the common experimental conditions used in this work, these criteria appear to be unreliable when they are applied to UCAs that are stabilized by a thick polymeric shell. An alternative criterion for determining the onset of shell fracture is introduced here, which uses variations of the shape of the acoustic time-domain response of an UCA suspension. Experimental evidence is presented that links the changes of the cross-correlation coefficient between consecutive time-domain signals to the fracture of the shells, and consequent release of air microbubbles. In principle, this criterion may be used to characterize similar properties of other types of particles that cannot undergo inertial cavitation.
Ultrasonically determined thickness of long cortical bones: Three-dimensional simulations of in vitro experiments
Authors: Moilanen Petro , Talmant Maryline , Nicholson Patrick H. F. , Cheng Sulin , Timonen Jussi , Laugier Pascal
Published: September 2007

It was reported in a previous study that simulated guided wave axial transmission velocities on two-dimensional (2D) numerically reproduced geometry of long bones predicted moderately real in vitro ultrasound data on the same bone samples. It was also shown that fitting of ultrasound velocity with simple analytical model yielded a precise estimate (UTh) for true cortical bone thickness. This current study expands the 2D bone model into three dimensions (3D). To this end, wave velocities and UTh were determined from experiments and from time-domain finite-difference simulations of wave propagation, both performed on a collection of 10 human radii (29 measurement sites). A 3D numerical bone model was developed with tuneable fixed material properties and individualized geometry based on X-ray computed tomography reconstructions of real bones. Simulated UTh data were in good accordance (root-mean-square error was 0.40mm; r2=0.79, p<0.001) with true cortical thickness, and hence the measured phase velocity can be well estimated by using a simple analytical inversion model also in 3D. Prediction of in vitro data was improved significantly (by 10% units) and the upgraded bone model thus explained most of the variability (up to 95% when sites were carefully matched) observed in in vitro ultrasound data.
Sound pressure distribution and power flow within the gerbil ear canal from 100Hzto80kHz
Authors: Ravicz Michael E. , Olson Elizabeth S. , Rosowski John J.
Published: September 2007

Sound pressure was mapped in the bony ear canal of gerbils during closed-field sound stimulation at frequencies from 0.1to80kHz. A 1.27-mm-diam probe-tube microphone or a 0.17-mm-diam fiber-optic miniature microphone was positioned along approximately longitudinal trajectories within the 2.3-mm-diam ear canal. Substantial spatial variations in sound pressure, sharp minima in magnitude, and half-cycle phase changes occurred at frequencies >30kHz. The sound frequencies of these transitions increased with decreasing distance from the tympanic membrane (TM). Sound pressure measured orthogonally across the surface of the TM showed only small variations at frequencies below 60kHz. Hence, the ear canal sound field can be described fairly well as a one-dimensional standing wave pattern. Ear-canal power reflectance estimated from longitudinal spatial variations was roughly constant at 0.2–0.5 at frequencies between 30 and 45kHz. In contrast, reflectance increased at higher frequencies to at least 0.8 above 60kHz. Sound pressure was also mapped in a microphone-terminated uniform tube—an “artificial ear.” Comparison with ear canal sound fields suggests that an artificial ear or “artificial cavity calibration” technique may underestimate the in situ sound pressure by 5–15dB between 40 and 60kHz.
Further studies on the dual-resonance nonlinear filter model of cochlear frequency selectivity: Responses to tones
Authors: Lopez-Najera Alberto , Lopez-Poveda Enrique A. , Meddis Ray
Published: September 2007

A number of phenomenological models that simulate the response of the basilar membrane motion can reproduce a range of complex features observed in animal measurements over different sites along its cochlea. The present report shows a detailed analysis of the responses to tones of an improved model based on a dual-resonance nonlinear filter. The improvement consists in adding a third path formed by a linear gain and an all-pass filter. This improvement allows the model to reproduce the gain and phase plateaus observed empirically at frequencies above the best frequency. The middle ear was simulated by using a digital filter based on the empirical impulse response of the chinchilla stapes. The improved algorithm is evaluated against observations of basilar membrane responses to tones at seven different sites along the chinchilla cochlear partition. This is the first time that a whole set of animal observations using the same technique has been available in one species for modeling. The resulting model was able to simulate amplitude and phase responses to tones from basal to apical sites. Linear regression across the optimized parameters for seven different sites was used to generate a complete filterbank.
Temporal integration and compression near absolute threshold in normal and impaired ears
Authors: Plack Christopher J. , Skeels Vicki
Published: September 2007

The decrease in absolute threshold with increasing stimulus duration (often referred to as “temporal integration”) is greater for listeners with normal hearing than for listeners with sensorineural hearing loss. It has been suggested that the difference is related to reduced basilar-membrane (BM) compression in the impaired group. The present experiment tested this hypothesis by comparing temporal integration and BM compression in normal and impaired ears at low levels. Absolute thresholds were measured for 4, 24, and 44ms pure-tone signals, with frequencies (fs) of 2 and 4kHz. The difference between the absolute thresholds for the 4 and 24ms signals was used as a measure of temporal integration. Compression near threshold was estimated by measuring the level of a 100ms off-frequency (0.45fs) pure-tone forward masker required to mask a 44ms pure-tone signal presented at sensation levels of 5 and 10dB. There was a significant negative correlation between amount of temporal integration and absolute threshold. However, there was no correlation between absolute threshold and compression at low levels; both normal and impaired ears showed a nearly linear response. The results suggest that the differences in integration between normal and impaired ears cannot be explained by differences in BM compression.
Robust matched-field processing using a coherent broadband white noise constraint processor
Authors: Debever Claire , Kuperman W. A.
Published: September 2007

Adaptive matched-field processing (MFP) is not only very sensitive to mismatch, but also requires the received sound levels to exceed a threshold signal-to-noise ratio. Furthermore, acoustic sources and interferers have to move slowly enough across resolution cells so that a full rank cross-spectral density matrix can be constructed. Coherent-broadband MFP takes advantage of the temporal complexity of the signal, and therefore offers an additional gain over narrow-band processing by augmenting the dimension of the data space. However, the sensitivity to mismatch is also increased in the process, since a single constraint is usually not enough to achieve robustness and the snapshot requirement becomes even more problematic. The white noise constraint method, typically used for narrow-band processing, is applied to a previously derived broadband processor to enhance its robustness to environmental mismatch and snapshot deficiency. The broadband white noise constraint theory is presented and validated through simulation and experimental data. The dynamic range bias obtained from the snapshot-deficient processing is shown to be consistent with that previously presented in the literature for a single frequency.
Prediction of noise changes due to traffic speed control
Authors: Makarewicz Rufin , Kokowski Piotr
Published: September 2007

The effects of vehicle speed variation on road traffic noise are analyzed. The steady speed motion is replaced by deceleration, cruise, and acceleration. Because of a relatively loud acceleration noise, such a speed variation results not only in the noise decrease zones, but in the noise increase zones as well. The location of these zones depends slightly upon the ground covering (grass, concrete, etc.). Conversely, their boundaries change dramatically with the parameters describing noise emission during deceleration, cruise, and acceleration. For example, the Japanese and Polish models of noise emission have been applied. The critical length L* of the cruise segment of the road is introduced: for L>L* the sound energy decline (due to speed reduction) compensates the sound energy growth (due to acceleration). The results obtained could be useful for road administrators.
Phantom echo highlight amplitude and temporal difference resolutions of an echolocating dolphin, Tursiops truncatus
Authors: Muller Mark W. , Au Whitlow W. L. , Nachtigall Paul E. , Allen John S. , Breese Marlee
Published: September 2007

A dolphin’s ability to discriminate targets may depend greatly on the relative amplitudes and the time separations of echo highlights within the received signal. Previous experiments with dolphins varied the physical parameters of targets, but did not fully investigate how changes in these parameters correspond with the scattered acoustic wave forms and the dolphin’s subsequent response. This experiment utilizes a phantom echo system to test a dolphin’s detection response to relative amplitude differences of secondary and trailing echo highlights and the time separation differences of all the echo highlights both within and outside the animal’s integration window. By electronically manipulating the amplitude and temporal separation of the echo highlights, the underlying acoustic classification cues are more efficiently investigated. The animal successfully discriminated between a standard echo signal and one with the secondary highlight amplitude lowered by 7dB from the standard. Furthermore, the animal successfully discriminated between a standard echo signal and one with the trailing highlight amplitude lowered by 3dB from the standard and also a standard echo signal and one with a time separation of 150μs between the secondary and trailing highlights.
Rectangular cymbal arrays for improved ultrasonic transdermal insulin delivery
Authors: Luis Joseph , Park Eun Joo , Meyer Richard J. , Smith Nadine Barrie
Published: September 2007

Circular cymbal ultrasound arrays have been shown to be effective in delivering therapeutic levels of insulin in rats, rabbits, and pigs. To improve delivery efficiency, a rectangular cymbal design was desired in order to achieve a broader spatial intensity field without increasing the size of the device or the spatial-peak temporal-peak intensity (ISPTP). With a similar intensity (50mW∕cm2), the goal was to determine if the 3×1 rectangular cymbal array could perform significantly better than the 3×3 circular array for glucose reduction in hyperglycemic rabbits. Rabbit experiments were performed using three groups: nonsonicated control (n=3), ultrasound exposure using a circular cymbal array (n=3), and ultrasound exposure using a rectangular cymbal array (n=3). Rabbits were anesthetized and a water tight reservoir that held the insulin was fastened on the rabbit’s thigh. At the beginning of the experiment and every 15min for 90min, the blood glucose level was determined. For comparison between individual rabbits, the absolute level is normalized by subtracting out the baseline in order to arrive at the change in glucose level. For the control group, the normalized glucose level increased (more hyperglycemic) to +80.0±28.8mg∕dl (mean±SEM). Using the circular array, the glucose level decreased to −146.7±17.8mg∕dl at 90min. However, using the rectangular cymbal array, the glucose decreased faster and to a level of −200.8±5.9mg∕dl after 90min. These results indicated the feasibility of the rectangular cymbal array as an improved device for drug delivery.
Prediction of noise levels and annoyance from aircraft run-ups at Vancouver International Airport
Authors: Scherebnyj Katrina , Hodgson Murray
Published: September 2007

Annoyance complaints resulting from engine run-ups have been increasing at Vancouver International Airport for several years. To assist the Airport in managing run-up noise levels, a prediction tool based on a Green’s function parabolic equation (GFPE) model has been consolidated, evaluated, and applied. It was extended to include more realistic atmospheric and ground input parameters. Measurements were made of the noise-radiation characteristics of a CRJ200 jet aircraft. The GFPE model was validated by comparing predictions with results in the literature. A sensitivity analysis showed that predicted levels are relatively insensitive to small variations in geometry and ground impedance, but relatively sensitive to variations in wind speed, atmosphere type, and aircraft heading and power setting. Predicted noise levels were compared with levels measured at noise monitoring terminals. For the four cases for which all input information was available, agreement was within 10dBA. For events for which some information had to be estimated, predictions were within 20dBA. The predicted annoyance corresponding to the run-up events considered ranged from 1.8% to 9.5% of people awoken, suggesting that noise complaints can be expected.
Approximate reconstruction of sound fields close to the source surface using spherical nearfield acoustical holography
Authors: Prager Jens
Published: September 2007

This paper presents an investigation of the reconstruction of sound field parameters close to the surface of arbitrarily shaped sound sources. The field is reconstructed using nearfield acoustical holography (NAH) in spherical coordinates. Of particular interest are source shapes where the Rayleigh hypothesis is violated. To overcome the limitation of the minimal sphere given by the validity restriction of the Rayleigh hypothesis an algorithm is proposed for extracting local information from the nonconvergent NAH solution. For the assessment of the results an appropriate virtual test rig is developed employing the Kirchhoff–Helmholtz integral theorem.
A comparative study of distortion-product-otoacoustic-emission fine structure in human newborns and adults with normal hearing
Authors: Dhar Sumitrajit , Abdala Carolina
Published: September 2007

Distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) measured in human newborns are not adult-like. More than a decade of work from various investigators has created a well-developed body of evidence describing these differences but the putative anatomy or physiology has only been partially explained. Recently, Abdala and Keefe [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 120, 3832–3842 (2006)] have identified outer and middle ear immaturities that at least partially describe the differences observed between newborn and adult input–output functions and suppression tuning curves. DPOAE fine structure characteristics and their maturation have not been examined to any extent in the literature. Fine structure characteristics in two groups of ten newborns and young adults with normal hearing sensitivity are compared here. Consistent with previous reports, the newborns show higher DPOAE levels; greater fine structure depth and wider fine structure spacing is also observed in the newborns. Differences in fine structure morphology are also observed between the two age groups. While some of these findings are attributable to an immature outer and middle ear system in the newborns, it is argued that some observed differences in fine structure characteristics might be due to remnant immaturities in passive motion of the basilar membrane in the newborn cochlea.
Existence of extraordinary zero-curvature slowness curve in anisotropic elastic media
Authors: Wang Litian , Ryne Kent G.
Published: September 2007

Acoustic wave propagation in elastic media is characterized by the slowness surface. The slowness surface consists of three sheets associated with three modes of wave propagation and the two outer sheets can have zero-curvature locally. It is shown that the outmost sheet can admit extraordinary zero-curvature and the slowness curve can appear as a straight line locally. Using the perturbation method, the conditions for the extraordinary zero-curvature are derived analytically without violating the thermodynamic condition for elastic media. The results can be applied to crystals with higher symmetry and to the study of phonon focusing and surface waves.
When and why listeners disagree in voice quality assessment tasks
Authors: Kreiman Jody , Gerratt Bruce R. , Ito Mika
Published: September 2007

Modeling sources of listener variability in voice quality assessment is the first step in developing reliable, valid protocols for measuring quality, and provides insight into the reasons that listeners disagree in their quality assessments. This study examined the adequacy of one such model by quantifying the contributions of four factors to interrater variability: instability of listeners’ internal standards for different qualities, difficulties isolating individual attributes in voice patterns, scale resolution, and the magnitude of the attribute being measured. One hundred twenty listeners in six experiments assessed vocal quality in tasks that differed in scale resolution, in the presence/absence of comparison stimuli, and in the extent to which the comparison stimuli (if present) matched the target voices. These factors accounted for 84.2% of the variance in the likelihood that listeners would agree exactly in their assessments. Providing listeners with comparison stimuli that matched the target voices doubled the likelihood that they would agree exactly. Listeners also agreed significantly better when assessing quality on continuous versus six-point scales. These results indicate that interrater variability is an issue of task design, not of listener unreliability.
Exact wave field simulation for finite-volume scattering problems
Authors: van Manen Dirk-Jan , Robertsson Johan O. A. , Curtis Andrew
Published: September 2007

An exact boundary condition is presented for scattering problems involving spatially limited perturbations of arbitrary magnitude to a background model in generally inhomogeneous acoustic media. The boundary condition decouples the wave propagation on a perturbed domain while maintaining all interactions with the background model, thus eliminating the need to regenerate the wave field response on the full model. The method, which is explicit, relies on a Kirchhoff-type integral extrapolation to update the boundary condition at every time step of the simulation. The Green’s functions required for extrapolation through the background model are computed efficiently using wave field interferometry.
Changes in signal parameters over time for an echolocating Atlantic bottlenose dolphin performing the same target discrimination task
Authors: Ibsen Stuart D. , Au Whitlow W. L. , Nachtigall Paul E. , DeLong Caroline M. , Breese Marlee
Published: September 2007

This study documents the changes in peak frequency, source level, and spectrum shape of echolocation clicks made by the same dolphin performing the same discrimination task in 1998 and in 2003/2004 with spherical solid stainless steel and brass targets. The total average peak frequency used in 1998 was 138kHz but in 2003/2004 it had shifted down nearly 3.5 octaves to 40kHz. The total average source level also shifted down from 206dB in 1998 to 187kHz in 2003/2004. The standard deviation of these parameter values within time periods was small indicating a consistent difference between time periods. The average parameter values for clicks used when exposed to brass versus steel targets were very similar indicating that target type did not greatly influence the dolphin’s average echolocation behavior. The spectrum shapes of the average clicks used in 1998 and in 2003/2004 were nearly mirror images of each other with the peak energy in 2003/2004 being concentrated where the 1998 clicks had the lowest energy content and vice versa. Despite the dramatic differences in click frequency content the dolphin was able to perform the same discrimination task at nearly the same level of success.
Representing multiple discrimination cues in a computational model of the bottlenose dolphin auditory system
Authors: Branstetter Brian K. , Mercado Eduardo , Au Whitlow L.
Published: September 2007

A computational model of the dolphin auditory system was developed to describe how multiple discrimination cues may be represented and employed during echolocation discrimination tasks. The model consisted of a bank of gammatone filters followed by half-wave rectification and low pass filtering. The output of the model resembles a spectrogram; however, the model reflects temporal and spectral resolving properties of the dolphin auditory system. Model outputs were organized to represent discrimination cues related to spectral, temporal and intensity information. Two empirical experiments, a phase discrimination experiment [Johnson et al., Animal Sonar Processes and Performance (Plenum, New York, 1988)] and a cylinder wall thickness discrimination tasks [Au and Pawolski, J. Comp. Physiol. A 170, 41–47 (1992)] were then simulated. Model performance was compared to dolphin performance. Although multiple discrimination cues were potentially available to the dolphin, simulation results suggest temporal information was used in the former experiment and spectral information in the latter. This model’s representation of sound provides a more accurate approximation to what the dolphin may be hearing compared to conventional spectrograms, time-amplitude, or spectral representations.
Analogical model for mechanical vibrations in flue organ pipes inferred by independent component analysis
Authors: De Lauro Enza , De Martino Salvatore , Esposito Enrico , Falanga Mariarosaria , Primo Tomasini Enrico
Published: September 2007

Several experiments have been performed to investigate the mechanical vibrations associated with an organ pipe. The measurements have been made by using laser Doppler vibrometry, a well-known not-invasive optical measurement technique that is very widely used in structural dynamics. The recorded signals are analyzed by using a well-established decomposition method in time domain, i.e., independent component analysis. Asymptotic dynamics methods to recognize low-dimensional dynamic system associated with this wave field is then considered. The full-toned recorded signals appear decomposed into three independent components. The independent components are nonlinear due to the fractal dimension of the attractor. These results for the mechanic vibrational field are compared with those of the acoustic one. It is interesting to note that the two fields have many common characteristics. Finally, a low-dimensional dynamic system that reproduces the main characteristics of the mechanical wave field in the time and frequency domains is introduced.
A study of regressive place assimilation in spontaneous speech and its implications for spoken word recognition
Authors: Dilley Laura C. , Pitt Mark A.
Published: September 2007

Regressive place assimilation is a form of pronunciation variation in which a word-final alveolar sound takes the place of articulation of a following labial or velar sound, as when green boat is pronounced greem boat. How listeners recover the intended word (e.g., green, given greem) has been a major focus of spoken word recognition theories. However, the extent to which this variation occurs in casual, unscripted speech has previously not been reported. Two studies of pronunciation variation were conducted using a spontaneous speech corpus. First, phonetic labeling data were used to identify contexts in which assimilation could occur, namely, when a word-final alveolar stop (/t/, /d/, or /n/) was followed by a velar or labial consonant. Assimilation was indicated relatively infrequently, while deletion, glottalization, or canonical pronunciations were more often indicated. Moreover, lexical frequency was shown to affect pronunciation; high frequency lexical items showed more types of variation. Second, acoustic analyses showed that neither place of articulation cues (indicated by second formant variation) nor relative amplitude was sufficient to distinguish assimilated from deleted and canonical variants; only when closure duration was additionally taken into account were these three variant types distinguishable. Implications for theories of word recognition are discussed.
A role for the second subglottal resonance in lexical access
Authors: Lulich Steven M. , Bachrach Asaf , Malyska Nicolas
Published: September 2007

Acoustic coupling between the vocal tract and the lower (subglottal) airway results in the introduction of pole-zero pairs corresponding to resonances of the uncoupled lower airway. If the second formant (F2) passes through the second subglottal resonance a discontinuity in amplitude occurs. This work explores the hypothesis that this F2 discontinuity affects how listeners perceive the distinctive feature [back] in transitions from a front vowel (high F2) to a labial stop (low F2). Two versions of the utterances “apter” and “up there” were synthesized with an F2 discontinuity at different locations in the initial VC transition. Subjects heard portions of the utterances with and without the discontinuity, and were asked to identify whether the utterances were real words or not. Results show that the frequency of the F2 discontinuity in an utterance influences the perception of backness in the vowel. Discontinuities of this sort are proposed to play a role in shaping vowel inventories in the world’s languages [K. N. Stevens, J. Phonetics 17, 3–46 (1989)]. The results support a model of lexical access in which articulatory-acoustic discontinuities subserve phonological feature identification.
Static features in real-time recognition of isolated vowels at high pitch
Authors: Ferreira Aníbal J. S.
Published: September 2007

This paper addresses the problem of automatic identification of vowels uttered in isolation by female and child speakers. In this case, the magnitude spectrum of voiced vowels is sparsely sampled since only frequencies at integer multiples of F0 are significant. This impacts negatively on the performance of vowel identification techniques that either ignore pitch or rely on global shape models. A new pitch-dependent approach to vowel identification is proposed that emerges from the concept of timbre and that defines perceptual spectral clusters (PSC) of harmonic partials. A representative set of static PSC-related features are estimated and their performance is evaluated in automatic classification tests using the Mahalanobis distance. Linear prediction features and Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) coefficients are used as a reference and a database of five (Portuguese) natural vowel sounds uttered by 44 speakers (including 27 child speakers) is used for training and testing the Gaussian models. Results indicate that perceptual spectral cluster (PSC) features perform better than plain linear prediction features, but perform slightly worse than MFCC features. However, PSC features have the potential to take full advantage of the pitch structure of voiced vowels, namely in the analysis of concurrent voices, or by using pitch as a normalization parameter.
A statistical geoacoustic inversion scheme based on a modified radial basis functions neural network
Authors: Tzagkarakis George , Taroudakis Michael I. , Tsakalides Panagiotis
Published: September 2007

This paper addresses the task of recovering the geoacoustic parameters of a shallow-water environment using measurements of the acoustic field due to a known source and a neural network based inversion process. First, a novel efficient “observable” of the acoustic signal is proposed, which represents the signal in accordance with the recoverable parameters. Motivated by recent studies in non-Gaussian statistical theory, the observable is defined as a set of estimated model parameters of the alpha-stable distributions, which fit the marginal statistics of the wavelet subband coefficients, obtained after the transformation of the original signal via a one-dimensional wavelet decomposition. Following the modeling process to extract the observables as features, a radial basis functions neural network is employed to approximate the vector function that takes as input the observables and gives as output the corresponding set of environmental parameters. The performance of the proposed approach in recovering the sound speed and density in the substrate of a typical shallow-water environment is evaluated using a database of synthetic acoustic signals, generated by means of a normal-mode acoustic propagation algorithm.
Use of a sigmoidal-shaped function for noise attenuation in cochlear implants
Authors: Hu Yi , Loizou Philipos C. , Li Ning , Kasturi Kalyan
Published: September 2007

A new noise reduction algorithm is proposed for cochlear implants that applies attenuation to the noisy envelopes inversely proportional to the estimated signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in each channel. The performance of the proposed noise reduction algorithm is evaluated with nine Clarion CII cochlear implant patients using IEEE sentences embedded in multi-talker babble and speech-shaped noise at 0–10dB SNR. Results indicate that the sigmoidal-shaped weighting function produces significant improvements to speech recognition compared to the subjects’ daily strategy. Much of the success of the proposed noise reduction algorithm is attributed to the improved temporal envelope contrast.
Speech disruption during delayed auditory feedback with simultaneous visual feedback
Authors: Jones Jeffery A. , Striemer Danielle
Published: September 2007

Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) regarding speech can cause dysfluency. The purpose of this study was to explore whether providing visual feedback in addition to DAF would ameliorate speech disruption. Speakers repeated sentences and heard their auditory feedback delayed with and without simultaneous visual feedback. DAF led to increased sentence durations and an increased number of speech disruptions. Although visual feedback did not reduce DAF effects on duration, a promising but nonsignificant trend was observed for fewer speech disruptions when visual feedback was provided. This trend was significant in speakers who were overall less affected by DAF. The results suggest the possibility that speakers strategically use alternative sources of feedback.
Effects of mobile phone exposure on time frequency fine structure of transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions
Authors: Paglialonga Alessia , Tognola Gabriella , Parazzini Marta , Lutman Mark E. , Bell Steven L. , Thuroczy Gyorgy , Ravazzani Paolo
Published: September 2007

Mobile phones have become very commonly used worldwide within a short period of time. To date there is only limited knowledge about interaction between electromagnetic fields (EMFs) emitted by mobile phones and the auditory function. Moreover, there is widespread concern that there may be potential for harm. The aim of this study was to assess potential subtle changes in cochlear function by measuring the temporal and spectral fine structure of transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) in normal hearing subjects after exposure to EMFs emitted by Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) mobile phones. TEOAEs were recorded in 27 healthy young adults before and after 10min of real or sham exposure in a double-blind design. TEOAE data were analyzed both globally (broadband analysis) and using the Wavelet Transform (analysis of the time-frequency fine structure). The broadband analysis revealed no significant effect on TEOAEs related to exposure, confirming results of previous studies; in addition, no significant change was detected in the analysis of the elementary wavelet components, suggesting that the temporal and spectral fine structure of TEOAEs is not affected by 10min exposure to low-intensity EMFs emitted by GSM mobile phones.
Compensatory responses to loudness-shifted voice feedback during production of Mandarin speech
Authors: Liu Hanjun , Zhang Qianru , Xu Yi , Larson Charles R.
Published: September 2007

Previous studies have demonstrated that perturbations in voice pitch or loudness feedback lead to compensatory changes in voice F0 or amplitude during production of sustained vowels. Responses to pitch-shifted auditory feedback have also been observed during English and Mandarin speech. The present study investigated whether Mandarin speakers would respond to amplitude-shifted feedback during meaningful speech production. Native speakers of Mandarin produced two-syllable utterances with focus on the first syllable, the second syllable, or none of the syllables, as prompted by corresponding questions. Their acoustic speech signal was fed back to them with loudness shifted by ±3dB for 200ms durations. The responses to the feedback perturbations had mean latencies of approximately 142ms and magnitudes of approximately 0.86dB. Response magnitudes were greater and latencies were longer when emphasis was placed on the first syllable than when there was no emphasis. Since amplitude is not known for being highly effective in encoding linguistic contrasts, the fact that subjects reacted to amplitude perturbation just as fast as they reacted to F0 perturbations in previous studies provides clear evidence that a highly automatic feedback mechanism is active in controlling both F0 and amplitude of speech production.
Asymmetric airflow and vibration induced by the Coanda effect in a symmetric model of the vocal folds
Authors: Tao Chao , Zhang Yu , Hottinger Daniel G. , Jiang Jack J.
Published: September 2007

A model constructed from Navier-Stokes equations and a two-mass vocal fold description is proposed in this study. The composite model not only has the capability to describe the aerodynamics in a vibratory glottis but also can be used to study the vocal fold vibration under the driving of the complex airflow in the glottis. Numerical simulations show that this model can predict self-oscillations of the coupled glottal aerodynamics and vocal fold system. The Coanda effect could occur in the vibratory glottis even though the vocal folds have left-right symmetric prephonatory shape and tissue properties. The Coanda effect causes the asymmetric flow in the glottis and the difference in the driving force on the left and right vocal folds. The different pressures applied to the left and right vocal folds induce their displacement asymmetry. By using various lung pressures (0.6–2.0kPa) to drive the composite model, it was found that the asymmetry of the vocal fold displacement is increased from 1.87% to 11.2%. These simulation results provide numerical evidence for the presence of asymmetric flow in the vibratory glottis; moreover, they indicate that glottal aerodynamics is an important factor in inducing the asymmetric vibration of the vocal folds.
Sensorimotor adaptation to feedback perturbations of vowel acoustics and its relation to perception
Authors: Villacorta Virgilio M. , Perkell Joseph S. , Guenther Frank H.
Published: September 2007

The role of auditory feedback in speech motor control was explored in three related experiments. Experiment 1 investigated auditory sensorimotor adaptation: the process by which speakers alter their speech production to compensate for perturbations of auditory feedback. When the first formant frequency (F1) was shifted in the feedback heard by subjects as they produced vowels in consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words, the subjects’ vowels demonstrated compensatory formant shifts that were maintained when auditory feedback was subsequently masked by noise—evidence of adaptation. Experiment 2 investigated auditory discrimination of synthetic vowel stimuli differing in F1 frequency, using the same subjects. Those with more acute F1 discrimination had compensated more to F1 perturbation. Experiment 3 consisted of simulations with the directions into velocities of articulators model of speech motor planning, which showed that the model can account for key aspects of compensation. In the model, movement goals for vowels are regions in auditory space; perturbation of auditory feedback invokes auditory feedback control mechanisms that correct for the perturbation, which in turn causes updating of feedforward commands to incorporate these corrections. The relation between speaker acuity and amount of compensation to auditory perturbation is mediated by the size of speakers’ auditory goal regions, with more acute speakers having smaller goal regions.
Contribution of consonant versus vowel information to sentence intelligibility for young normal-hearing and elderly hearing-impaired listeners
Authors: Kewley-Port Diane , Burkle T. Zachary , Lee Jae Hee
Published: September 2007

The purpose of this study was to examine the contribution of information provided by vowels versus consonants to sentence intelligibility in young normal-hearing (YNH) and typical elderly hearing-impaired (EHI) listeners. Sentences were presented in three conditions, unaltered or with either the vowels or the consonants replaced with speech shaped noise. Sentences from male and female talkers in the TIMIT database were selected. Baseline performance was established at a 70dB SPL level using YNH listeners. Subsequently EHI and YNH participants listened at 95dB SPL. Participants listened to each sentence twice and were asked to repeat the entire sentence after each presentation. Words were scored correct if identified exactly. Average performance for unaltered sentences was greater than 94%. Overall, EHI listeners performed more poorly than YNH listeners. However, vowel-only sentences were always significantly more intelligible than consonant-only sentences, usually by a ratio of 2:1 across groups. In contrast to written English or words spoken in isolation, these results demonstrated that for spoken sentences, vowels carry more information about sentence intelligibility than consonants for both young normal-hearing and elderly hearing-impaired listeners.
Wigner distribution of a transducer beam pattern within a multiple scattering formalism for heterogeneous solids
Authors: Ghoshal Goutam , Turner Joseph A. , Weaver Richard L.
Published: September 2007

Diffuse ultrasonic backscatter measurements have been especially useful for extracting microstructural information and for detecting flaws in materials. Accurate interpretation of experimental data requires robust scattering models. Quantitative ultrasonic scattering models include components of transducer beam patterns as well as microstructural scattering information. Here, the Wigner distribution is used in conjunction with the stochastic wave equation to model this scattering problem. The Wigner distribution represents a distribution in space and time of spectral energy density as a function of wave vector and frequency. The scattered response is derived within the context of the Wigner distribution of the beam pattern of a Gaussian transducer. The source and receiver distributions are included in the analysis in a rigorous fashion. The resulting scattered response is then simplified in the single-scattering limit typical of many diffuse backscatter experiments. Such experiments, usually done using a modified pulse-echo technique, utilize the variance of the signals in space as the primary measure of microstructure. The derivation presented forms a rigorous foundation for the multiple scattering process associated with ultrasonic experiments in heterogeneous media. These results are anticipated to be relevant to ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation of polycrystalline and other heterogeneous solids.
Simulation of diagnostic ultrasound image pulse sequences in cavitation bioeffects research
Authors: Miller Douglas L. , Dou Chunyan , Wiggins Roger C.
Published: September 2007

Research on cavitational bioeffects of diagnostic ultrasound (DUS) typically involves a diagnostic scanner as the exposure source. However, this can limit the ranges of exposure parameters for experimentation. Anesthetized hairless rats were mounted in a water bath and their right kidneys were exposed to ultrasound. Amplitude modulation with Gaussian envelopes simulated the image pulse sequences (IPSs) produced by diagnostic scanning. A 10μl∕kg∕min IV dose of Definity® contrast agent was given during 1–5min exposures. Glomerular capillary hemorrhage was assessed by histology. A stationary exposure approximated the bioeffects induced by DUS within the beam area. However, the use of five closely spaced exposures more faithfully reproduced the total effect produced within a DUS scan plane. Single pulses delivered at 1s intervals induced the same effect as the simulated DUS. Use of 100ms triangle-wave modulations for ramp-up or ramp-down of the IPS gave no effect or a large effect, respectively. Finally, an air-backed transducer simulating DUS without contrast agent showed a zero effect even operating at twice the present DUS guideline upper limit. Relatively simple single-element laboratory exposure systems can simulate diagnostic ultrasound exposure and allow exploration of parameter ranges beyond those available on present clinical systems.
Speech intelligibility in cochlear implant simulations: Effects of carrier type, interfering noise, and subject experience
Authors: Whitmal Nathaniel A. , Poissant Sarah F. , Freyman Richard L. , Helfer Karen S.
Published: September 2007

Channel vocoders using either tone or band-limited noise carriers have been used in experiments to simulate cochlear implant processing in normal-hearing listeners. Previous results from these experiments have suggested that the two vocoder types produce speech of nearly equal intelligibility in quiet conditions. The purpose of this study was to further compare the performance of tone and noise-band vocoders in both quiet and noisy listening conditions. In each of four experiments, normal-hearing subjects were better able to identify tone-vocoded sentences and vowel-consonant-vowel syllables than noise-vocoded sentences and syllables, both in quiet and in the presence of either speech-spectrum noise or two-talker babble. An analysis of consonant confusions for listening in both quiet and speech-spectrum noise revealed significantly different error patterns that were related to each vocoder’s ability to produce tone or noise output that accurately reflected the consonant’s manner of articulation. Subject experience was also shown to influence intelligibility. Simulations using a computational model of modulation detection suggest that the noise vocoder’s disadvantage is in part due to the intrinsic temporal fluctuations of its carriers, which can interfere with temporal fluctuations that convey speech recognition cues.
Further results for antiplane scattering by a thin strip
Authors: Caleap Mihai , Aristégui Christophe , Angel Yves C.
Published: September 2007

A result, which does not appear to be available elsewhere, concerning the far-field scattering of antiplane waves by a single thin crack in an elastic solid is obtained in this letter. Specifically, the angular shape function is derived, with scattering coefficients expressed in terms of the crack-opening displacement. With this function, numerical values for effective speed and attenuation through a distribution of parallel cracks are obtained.
Long-range acoustic scattering from a shallow-water mud-volcano cluster
Authors: Holland Charles W. , Preston John R. , Abraham Douglas A.
Published: September 2007

Analysis of reverberation measurements in the Straits of Sicily shows high intensity, discrete, scattered returns 10–20dB above background reverberation. These returns are due to scattering from mud volcanoes. The reverberation from the mud volcanoes at ranges of 15–22km is reasonably consistent over these spatial scales (i.e., kilometers) and temporal scales of several hours; measurements separated by 4years are also similar. Statistical characterization indicates that the reverberation associated with a mud-volcano cluster is strongly non-Rayleigh and that the reverberation can be characterized by a single (shape) parameter, roughly independent of frequency. The non-Rayleigh statistics, with a concomitant increase in the probability of false alarm, indicate that mud volcanoes are a likely source of clutter. Mean target strengths were estimated at 1–11dB over 160–1400Hz and are consistent with target strengths measured during a different year at short (direct-path) ranges. Accumulated evidence points to small (order 10m diameter and several meters high) carbonate chimneys on the mud-volcano edifice as the scattering mechanism as opposed to the edifice itself or scattering from gas bubbles in the water column. Thus, the results represent acoustic scattering from mud volcanoes in a quiescent state.
A further test of the linearity of temporal summation in forward masking
Authors: Plack Christopher J. , Carcagno Samuele , Oxenham Andrew J.
Published: September 2007

An experiment tested the hypothesis that the masking effects of two nonoverlapping forward maskers are summed linearly over time. First, the levels of individual noise maskers required to mask a brief 4-kHz signal presented at 10-, 20-, 30-, or 40-dB sensation level (SL) were found. The hypothesis predicts that a combination of the first masker presented at the level required to mask the 10-dB SL signal and the second masker presented at the level required to mask the 20-dB SL signal, should produce the same amount of masking as the converse situation (i.e., the first masker presented at the level required to mask the 20-dB SL signal and the second masker presented at the level required to mask the 10-dB SL signal), and similarly for the 30- and 40-dB SL signals. The results were consistent with the predictions.