bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Attention and the refinement of auditory expectations
Authors: Loui Psyche
Published: November 2013

Although traditional approaches in psychoacoustics emphasize bottom-up processes of hearing, a lasting approach of the Hafter lab has been to merge the bottom-up view with top-down influence of cognitive and training-related factors. Much of this is embodied in a research program on auditory attention: the listener’s ability to extract relevant features of the auditory scene (Hafter et al., 2007). I joined the Hafter lab with interests in auditory attention and music perception. In work conducted in the lab we observed effects of training on attentive processing of musical harmony—musicians are slower to respond to musically unexpected harmonies but faster to respond to expected harmonies, suggesting that long-term training refines the expectations that are built up from lifelong exposure to music in one’s culture. Armed with this knowledge, we further asked if these expectations could be learned. Using a non-Western musical scale, we showed rapid learning of perceptual patterns, which can be modeled as a reduction in uncertainty and an increase in correlation with the auditory environment. In subsequent work we combined electrophysiology, neuropsychology, and neuroimaging to show that the learning mechanisms that sharpen auditory expectations are rapid, flexible, and depend on neural connectivity that also subserves linguistic processes.
Attention and effort during speech processing
Authors: Sarampalis Anastasios
Published: November 2013

The concepts of attention and effort are not new in auditory science, yet it is only recently that we have started systematically studying their involvement in speech processing. The task of deciphering speech can vary in its cognitive demands, depending on a number of factors, such as sound quality, the state of the auditory and cognitive systems, room acoustics, and the semantic complexity of the signal itself. Understanding these interactions does not only shed light on the functions supporting speech processing, but is also critical when it comes to evaluating new hearing aids and cochlear implant strategies. This presentation will describe work that is either based on Erv Hafter’s ideas while I was at UC Berkeley or inspired by discussions with him in subsequent years. Its central theme is the measuring of listening effort and its implications to digital signal processing, cochlear implants, aging, or understanding non-native languages.
Spatial release of the cognitive effort of understanding speech in multi-talker environments
Authors: Kalluri Sridhar , Xia Jing , Nooraei Nazanin , Edwards Brent
Published: November 2013

Ervin Hafter was prescient in recognizing the need for taking into account top-down cognitive processing for understanding the interaction between auditory perception and cognition. His insight, that signal processing such as noise reduction may modify cognitive demands without changing auditory performance, led to a seminal study in collaboration with the Starkey Hearing Research Center which showed that hearing aid technology can reduce the cognitive effort of understanding noisy speech. Inspired by Erv’s insight, we are studying if increasing the spatial separation between competing talkers reduces the cognitive effort needed to listen in multi-talker environments. Following the lead of Erv’s seminal study, performance on a simultaneous secondary task, in our case visual tracking, is a measure of the cognitive effort consumed by the primary task of understanding target speech. Our results show that spatial separation can reduce cognitive effort even when it does not give further improvement in speech intelligibility over existing segregation cues. These results suggest that a measure of cognitive effort is useful for assessing the benefit of hearing technology that improves spatial segregation. This is an important finding because the measure addresses benefit along a dimension that is not captured in standard assessment of speech reception performance.
Predicting the response of structures to transient shock loading
Authors: Caresta Mauro , Langley Robin S. , Woodhouse Jim
Published: November 2013

This work concerns the prediction of the response of an uncertain structure to a load of short duration. Assuming an ensemble of structures with small random variations about a nominal form, a mean impulse response can be found using only the modal density of the structure. The mean impulse response turns out to be the same as the response of an infinite structure: the response is calculated by taking into account the direct field only, without reflections. Considering the short duration of an impulsive loading, the approach is reasonable before the effect of the reverberant field becomes important. The convolution between the mean impulse response and the shock loading is solved in discrete time to calculate the response at the driving point and at remote points. Experimental and numerical examples are presented to validate the theory presented for simple structures such as beams, plates, and cylinders.
Theoretical and experimental analysis of shock isolation using non linear stiffness
Authors: Ledezma Diego , Villalobos-Luna Jose de Jesus , Ferguson Neil , Brennan Michael
Published: November 2013

Shock vibration is a common problem involving large forces and accelerations, usually resulting in nonlinear behavior. Normally shock isolation systems are modeled after linear passive stiffness elements intended to absorb the energy from the shock, and viscous damping in order to dissipate the energy. An experimental system with low dynamic stiffness is proposed and presented in this work, using a combination of positive stiffness and negative stiffness given by magnetic forces. The experimental prototype is based on a theoretical model involving a cubic restoring force. The results presented shown how such an isolator provides improved shock isolation, pointing out advantages and disadvantages.
Phonetic shift across narrative and quoted speech styles
Authors: De Decker Paul
Published: November 2013

Qualitative descriptions of speech accompanying verbs of quotation (e.g., “She was like, 'I'm not going in there!'”) characterize quoted speech as a mimetic performance (Buchstaller 2003, Winter 2002) with “selective depictions” of the quotees words (Clark and Gerrig 1990, 1). The current study aims to quantify the performative and mimetic nature of quoted speech by comparing acoustic measurements of 539 vowel productions obtained through narratives of personal experience (Labov and Waletzky 1967) as told between friends. First and second formant frequencies were measured at the temporal midpoint of each vowel using Praat5.3 (Boersma and Weenink 2012), normalized using the BARK method and compared in a one way ANOVA in SPSS. The dependent variables were F0, F1, F2, and duration while gender of speaker and lexical set key word (Wells 1982) served as the independent variables. Results indicate that mainly female speakers showed phonetically shifted vowel quality features when moving from narrative style speech to quoting voices for characters in their stories. This specific type of phonetic alteration across speech styles is examined as a type of “speech play” (Sherzer 2002) and its role in story-telling is examined further.
The case for strident vowels
Authors: Faytak Matthew
Published: November 2013

I present evidence for a natural class of strident vowels characterized by significant high-frequency energy caused by turbulent airflow. This turbulent airflow is not incidental to a narrow articulatory “tube,” as is common for high vowels (Klatt 1975, Ohala and Solé 2010). Rather, all share an acoustic signal consistent with turbulence produced by a jet of air angled so as to strike an obstacle anterior to the jet, as seen in strident fricatives (Shadle 1990). The Mandarin words “four” [sz□] and “ten” [ʂʐ□] provide examples of these vowels at alveolar and retroflexed places of articulation; I provide further examples, including labiodentals, from my research on the Kom language of Cameroon. Vowels are essential for clear and reliable perception of speech, as their low spectral center of gravity, high intensity, and open articulatory configuration allow for the realization of cues to perception of neighboring, less intrinsically perceptible consonantal segments (Liberman et al., 1954). Strident vowels, with their higher center of gravity, lower intensity, and consonant-like articulation, call into question the nature of this modulation, suggesting the utility of broader definitions for a sufficiently perceptible modulation in the speech signal (Kawasaki-Fukumori and Ohala 1997).
Falling diphthongs have a dynamic target while rising diphthongs have two targets: Acoustics and articulation of the diphthong production in Ningbo Chinese
Authors: Hu Fang
Published: November 2013

It is controversial whether diphthongs are phonologically vowel sequences and thus phonetically have two targets or diphthongs are phonologically vowel phonemes that contrast with monophthongs and thus phonetically have one dynamic target. Chinese dialects are generally known as having a rich inventory of diphthongs, and typically there are both falling and rising diphthongs. This paper is an acoustic and articulatory study on the diphthongs in Ningbo Chinese. The acoustic data are from 20 speakers and the lingual kinematic data are collected from 6 speakers by using EMA. The acoustic results show that both the onset and offset elements have comparable formant frequency patterns to their corresponding target citation vowels in a rising diphthong, but in a falling diphthong, only the onset element has a comparable formant frequency pattern to its corresponding target citation vowel whereas the offset element is highly variable. The articulatory results further reveal that diphthong onset is better controlled than diphthong offset, and more importantly, diphthong production is constrained by the general articulatory-to-acoustic relations. It is generally concluded that in Ningbo Chinese, rising diphthongs have two targets and can thus be understood as vowel sequences while falling diphthongs have only one dynamic target and should be treated as a single vowel phoneme.
Regional effects on Indian English sound and timing patterns
Authors: Sirsa Hema
Published: November 2013

English, spoken as second/third language by millions of speakers of India (IE), differs from other varieties of English in terms of sound patterns. Most descriptions of IE have focused on the influence of native language on IE (Wiltshire and Harnsberger, 2006; Sirsa and Redford, submitted). Some studies have also pointed out that IE may be evolving into multiple varieties due to social and political pressures (Wiltshire, 2005), but so far dialectal differences have not been explored independently from L1 influences. The current study aimed to do just this. Regionally based segmental and suprasegmental differences were investigated in IE spoken by Hindi and Telugu speakers, with equal numbers of speakers of each L1 recruited from two geographical sites (Delhi and Hyderabad). Analysis of IE sound patterns indicated that speakers from Hyderabad had more fronted /u/ than Delhi speakers, whereas Delhi speakers had longer phrase-final lengthening then Hyderabad speakers. Speakers from the two sites also had different rhythm structures and speech rates. These results support the suggestion that IE is evolving into multiple varieties, and that these varieties are not simply a function of different L1s.
Acoustic features of upper necaxa totonac ejective fricatives
Authors: Puderbaugh Rebekka , Tucker Benjamin V.
Published: November 2013

The purpose of this study is to investigate the acoustic properties of a class of sounds known as ejective fricatives in Upper Necaxa Totonac (UNT), a Totonac-Tepehua language of northern Puebla, Mexico, and to relate these sounds to those in other languages. Ejective fricatives are an exceedingly rare class of sounds found in only a relatively small number of the world's languages. This study attempts to clarify the nature of the acoustic signal of these sounds in UNT, whose historical origins have been reconstructed as former fricative plus glottal stop clusters [Beck, 2006, Univ. of Alberta Working Papers, 1], use the acoustic data to verify whether these segments are in fact canonical ejectives and propose future directions for further research. Analyses of the segments in question include duration and center of gravity of the fricative portions, presence or absence of any periods of silence surrounding the segments, durations of such silences, and effects on pitch, amplitude, duration, and formants of neighboring vowels. Due to the variable nature of the realization of laryngeal phonemes in UNT, pitch, amplitude, and voice quality of both preceding and following vowels were analyzed as well.
Syntactic probability affects morpheme durations
Authors: Cohen Clara
Published: November 2013

This project investigates the role of syntactic predictability on the duration of morphemes. Previous research has found that contextually predictable speech units tend to be shorter in duration. Usually, such research focuses on the duration of words or syllables, and context is defined in terms of n-gram strings. This project extends such research by investigating the role of syntactic context on the production of morphemes. Are more probable morphemes also reduced when they are more probable in a given syntactic context? Russian sentences with quantified subject noun phrases (e.g., “three chairs") allow both singular and plural verb agreement suffixes, but the probability of observing one or the other is variable. In this study, Russian speakers produced sentences with either singular or plural agreement of varying probability. The lists were counterbalanced so that each sentence was produced with both the singular and plural suffix. Although there was no difference in duration for singular suffixes, high-probability plural suffixes were shorter than low-probability plural suffixes. Differences in whole-word durations cannot account for these differences in suffix durations. These results suggest that contextual predictability in the form of agreement relations can affect the phonetic production of the morphemes that encode those relations.
Compensatory vowel shortening before complex coda clusters in the production and perception of German monosyllables
Authors: Peters Sandra , Kleber Felicitas
Published: November 2013

The main aim of the present study was to investigate incremental coda compensatory shortening in the production and perception of German monosyllables including factors such as accentuation (i.e., accented vs deaccented) and codas’ manner of articulation (i.e., sonorant vs obstruent). Ten speakers produced real German words like /klɪŋ/ and /klɪŋt/. We measured the duration of the vowel and the first coda consonant (C1). Overall there was no significant vowel shortening effect. However, some speakers did show vowel shortening and even more so in accented tokens with sonorant codas. Additionally, all speakers tended to shorten C1. In a subsequent experiment, we tested whether listeners compensate for different degrees of vowel and C1 shortening. 21 subjects judged which vowel in selected pairs such as /klɪŋ/—/klɪŋt/ was longer. In two thirds of all pairs, listeners perceived vowels before simplex codas as longer—even in pairs with equal segment durations. While this overall bias indicates perceptual vowel shortening before complex codas, listeners nevertheless show tendencies to compensate for non-shortened vowels before complex sonorant codas, i.e., they were perceived as longer. Although there was less vowel shortening in production, listeners showed perceptual vowel shortening and some tendencies toward compensation in contexts that favor shortening.
Perceptual and prosodic factors in cluster timing: Manner, order, and syllable position effects in Polish consonant clusters
Authors: Pouplier Marianne , Pastätter Manfred
Published: November 2013

We investigate timing in Polish tautosyllabic C1C2 clusters differing in manner, consonant order, and syllable position. Hoole et al. (2013) reported for German that perceptual constraints may condition timing differences in /kn/ and /kl/ clusters due to the nasal but not the lateral obscuring the preceding stop burst. Using articulography, we test this hypothesis for a variety of Polish onset clusters (C1={m, p, k}, C2={n, l, r}). Results from three speakers confirm a significant influence of both C1 and C2 on timing patterns. A C1 nasal shows more overlap than a stop. For C2, /l/ shows more overlap than /n/, consistent with the German results. However, the relative difference between C2=/n/ and C2=/l/ holds independently of whether C1 is a nasal or a stop, contra the perception hypothesis. Further, it is known from several languages that onset clusters overlap less than coda clusters, yet this observation has been confounded by the sonority conditioned change in consonant order in onset/coda. Polish has several clusters which do not change order as a function of syllable position, allowing us to tease these two factors apart. If consonant order is kept constant, there is no significant syllable position effect on C-C timing.
Entrainment by vocal effort: Coordination in postural control and speech production
Authors: Fuhrman Robert , Vilela Barbosa Adriano , Vatikiotis-Bateson Eric
Published: November 2013

The biomechanical coupling between the systems implicated in speech production, postural control, and respiration suggests that some degree of coordination in the form of postural entrainment should take place given excessive task demands in the speech domain, as has been previously reported [Vatikiotis-Bateson, et al., (2009) Proceedings of ESCOM 2009]. In this context, this work assesses the time-varying coordination and entrainment among multiple components of the postural control system that result from the modulation of vocal effort level in both read and spontaneous speech. Correlation map analysis is used to quantify the coordinated patterns of interaction between speech acoustics and a variety of related physical systems, including lower body postural configuration (center-of-pressure calculated from force plate measurements), head motion (measured with OPTOTRAK), and visual motion (optical flow from video). Cross-correlation analysis of the measured signals shows that modulation of vocal effort leads to both qualitative and quantitative shifts in the coordinative dynamics of the system, uniformly resulting in better spatiotemporal coordination and reduced rhythmic pattern complexity as vocal effort is increased.
Direct characterization of collagen recruitment in the human vocal fold lamina propria
Authors: Fata Bahar , Vergara Julio L. , Zhang Zhaoyan
Published: November 2013

The goal of this study is to develop a structurally based constitutive model to characterize the structure-function relationship of the vocal folds. Compared to phenomenological models, structurally based constitutive models allow direct prediction of changes in the mechanical behavior of the vocal folds as a result of aging or pathological conditions. The first significant step in developing such a mathematical model is to characterize the structural arrangement and load-bearing behavior of the collagen and elastin fibers, the two most mechanically significant structural proteins in the vocal fold. A micro horizontal uniaxial tensile system has been designed and coupled with the non-invasive multi-photon microscopy method. The load-bearing or recruitment behavior of collagen was characterized by simultaneously measuring the waviness of the collagen fibers and stress of the cover layer at different strain conditions. The structural arrangement of the collagen and elastin fibers in the different layers of the lamina propria were also quantified. The results of this study will directly elucidate the specific contributions of the elastin and collagen fibers to the vocal fold mechanical behavior under uniaxial tension. [Work supported by NIH.]
Characterizing post-glossectomy speech using real-time magnetic resonance imaging
Authors: Hagedorn Christina , Lammert Adam , Zu Yihe , Sinha Uttam , Goldstein Louis , Narayanan Shrikanth S.
Published: November 2013

We investigate articulatory behavior in post-glossectomy speech using real-time magnetic resonance imaging. Our data reveal that listeners judge speech produced by partial-glossectomy patients as atypical when the surgical procedure affected the oral tongue. Speech produced by patients whose procedure affected the base of tongue, however, was judged as typical. We observe that preservation and compensation mechanisms are exhibited by the patients with atypical speech. They preserve appropriate modulation of F1 using tongue and/or jaw height despite inability to appropriately modulate F2 due to the reduced size and/or mobility of the tongue. Further, durational differences between tense and lax vowels are maintained. The preservation of these features serves as evidence in support of a framework within which individual gestural parameters are independently controlled; when achievement of a particular parameter specification (e.g., constriction location) is compromised, the remaining (e.g., constriction degree, activation duration) are unchanged. Compensatory behavior is exhibited when coronal tongue movement has been impeded and is exemplified by (i) production of labiodental stops in place of target coronal stops and laterals and (ii) forming a velar constriction to produce frication in place of the alveolar frication for /s/.
Tonal noise sensitivity in hard drives
Authors: Nickerson Matthew L. , Green Kent
Published: November 2013

High levels of noise have been found to cause offline events and data loss in information technology equipment in multiple data centers. Studies by this author and others showed these events were a result interaction between rotational storage media or hard drives (HDD) and air-borne noise. In particular, noise with a great degree of tonal content posed the greatest threat to HDD performance. A series of tests has been performed to understand this noise-HDD interaction. A test fixture was built and HDDs were exposed to sinusoidal signatures from 1000 Hz to 16 kHz. The incident sound pressure was monitored to capture the sensitivity of the HDDs at multiple sound pressure levels. Sound pressure, frequency and HDD performance were all correlated along with known HDD manufacturer provided vibratory sensitivities. Each subsequent generation of HDD showed greater incidence of tonal sensitivities and lower sound pressure level needed to achieve such high levels of performance degradation. Given the correlation with the vibratory sensitivities, the tonal response seems to be unique to the design and manufacture of each HDD individually.
Microstructure of auditory sensitivity within audiometric frequencies
Authors: Quigley Rita , Yonovitz Al
Published: November 2013

Variations in audiometric thresholds between standard audiometric test frequencies may be related to speech discrimination and cochlear “dead regions.” Twenty-four logarithmically spaced frequencies between octaves were examined. A computer controlled the presentation of signals and a subject responded using a unique threshold testing algorithm that was designed to minimize the test time. Patterns of hearing loss were compared to normal variations. The hearing loss patterns included a flat loss, a noise-induced loss and a high frequency loss. The pattern of this threshold audiogram and the comparison to a test of cochlear dead regions will be discussed.
Differences elicited by intensity changes on non-monotinicities observed in amplitude and quasi-frequency modulation discrimination
Authors: Borucki Ewa , Berg Bruce G.
Published: November 2013

This study investigated the influence of intensity on the effects of cubic distortion tones (CDTs) in a task traditionally used to investigate the bandwidths of phase sensitivity. For a 2000 Hz carrier, estimates of modulation depth necessary to discriminate amplitude modulated (AM) tones and quasi-frequency modulated (QFM) were measured in a two interval forced choice task as a function modulation frequency. Threshold functions for the listeners were nonmonotonic, with sharp nonmonotonicities observed at modulation frequencies above 300 Hz. This is likely to be due to the generation of a CDT at the site of the lower sideband, creating a salient spectral cue. When stimulus intensity is decreased from 80 dB to 40 dB, a greater number of non-monotonicities are observed for high modulation frequency conditions. The decrease in intensity appears to create phasic differences in the CDT altering threshold functions.
Predicting the speech reception thresholds with physical metrics
Authors: Chen Fei , Wong Lena L. N.
Published: November 2013

Many measures [e.g., speech transmission index (STI) and speech intelligibility index (SII)] have been proposed to predict the speech intelligibility in noise. Nevertheless, most of these studies were performed under the conditions with a limited number of maskers. The present study further investigated how well the present speech intelligibility and quality metrics predicted the speech reception thresholds (SRTs) for sentences corrupted by stationary and fluctuating maskers. The SRT scores were collected from 30 normal-hearing (NH) and 15 hearing-impaired (HI) native-Cantonese listeners. Sentences were corrupted by nine types of maskers, including speech-shaped noise and eight real-life environmental noises (4- and 6-talker babbles, upper and lower deck in bus, cafe, Chinese restaurant, MTR carriage, and street). The resulting average SRT scores were subject to the correlation analysis with various metrics computed from the noise-masked sentences. Of all the objective metrics considered, the STI and CSII measures performed the best, and their high correlations (i.e., r = 0.91 to 0.96) were maintained in both NH and HI conditions. This suggests that some of the physical metrics that have been found previously to correlate highly with the intelligibility of sentences in noise may also be used to predict the SRTs affected by different maskers.
A right-lateralized cortical network drives error correction to voice pitch feedback perturbation
Authors: Kort Naomi , Nagarajan Srikantan S. , Houde John F.
Published: November 2013

One of the most intriguing discrepancies in speech neuroscience arises from data on laterality: lesion studies have provided overwhelming evidence for a left-dominant model of speech production, yet neuroimaging studies consistently show bilateral neural activity in speech related tasks. Recently, a model has been proposed to resolve this discrepancy. This model suggests that the left hemisphere generates feed-forward production of speech, while the right hemisphere, specifically right frontal regions, monitors and responds to feedback for ongoing control. Using real-time pitch-altered auditory feedback and magnetoencephalography, we demonstrate that the right hemisphere subserves feedback control of pitch production. During ongoing phonation, speakers respond rapidly to pitch shifts of their auditory feedback, altering their pitch production to oppose the applied pitch shift. Immediately following the onset of the pitch shift, bilateral sensorimotor cortex shows an increase in high gamma power. Yet, within 100 ms, the responses in the left hemisphere decrease and are limited to one region of left posterior temporal cortex while the high gamma power in the right hemisphere increases in premotor cortex, ventral supramarginal gyrus, inferior and middle frontal gyrus. These findings provide evidence for key roles for right premotor and right SMG in making small, rapid compensations to feedback errors.
The role of memory and representations in statistical learning
Authors: Black Alexis
Published: November 2013

Numerous studies have examined learners’ ability to track auditory statistical cues (e.g., Saffran, Aslin, and Newport, 1996). It remains unknown, however, how learners manage this feat. This concern is non-trivial: computation of the transitional probabilities in a traditional statistical learning task would involve access to (at least) hundreds of memory traces that have been accumulated over a mere two minutes. The present experiments aim to elucidate the mechanisms underlying statistical learning. Adult participants are exposed to a 2-min continuous speech stream, composed of native phonetic units (study 1), semi-native phonetic units (study 2), or non-native phonetic units (study 3). Participants’ memories for words are then tested through forced-choice comparisons of words, part-words, and phantom words. In study 1, participants successfully segmented the native phonetic speech stream; however, they showed no preference for part-words or phantom words. Furthermore, asymmetries in performance by syllable position (onset, medial, coda) suggest that memory for the segmented words may be more specified/stable in the medial and coda positions. Preliminary results from study 3 (non-native) suggest that participants fail to segment the stream of less familiar sounds. Taken together, these results suggest that statistical learning proceeds via a “chunking”-type mechanism (e.g., Perruchet and Vinter, 1998).
Evaluation of percentage hearing loss formulae
Authors: Vossler-Welch Colette , Leavitt Ron J.
Published: November 2013

Across the United States, those who lose their hearing in the workplace or while in the military are compensated by a formula that attempts to assign a percent of disability value to the hearing loss. Since current medical practice strives toward high-quality scientific evidence to guide the practitioner one might assume the calculation for percent hearing disability would be evidence-based and utilize level-one, scientifically validated computations. To the contrary, we have not found a strong scientific foundation for these percent hearing loss calculations in refereed scientific journals. Results from this study will show that current percent disability computations do not correlate well with the difficulties patients report in their everyday listening environments. These findings suggest a new formula is needed to compute percent disability that accurately portrays the communication difficulties of people with hearing loss.
Graph alignment and cross-modal learning during early infancy
Authors: Plummer Andrew R.
Published: November 2013

Results of decades of research on vowels support the conclusion that perception and production of language-specific vowel categories cannot be based on invariant targets that are represented directly in either the auditory domain or the articulatory (sensorimotor) domain. This raises a number of questions about how an infant can acquire the cognitive representations relevant for learning the vowels of the ambient language. Some models of the acquisition process assume a fixed auditory transform to normalize for talker vocal tract size (e.g., Callan et al., 2000), ignoring evidence that normalization must be culture-specific (e.g., Johnson, 2005). Others assume that learning can be based on statistical regularities solely within the auditory domain (e.g., Assmann and Nearey, 2008), ignoring evidence that articulatory experience also shapes vowel category learning (e.g., Kamen and Watson, 1991). This paper outlines an alternative approach that models cross-modal learning. The approach aligns graph structures, called “manifolds,” which organize sensory information in the auditory and in the articulatory domain. Graph alignment is guided by perceptual targets that are internalized in early infancy through social/vocal interaction with caregivers, so that vowel categories can be identified with the abstractions that mediate between the two domains in the alignment process.
Visual and sensori-motor influences on speech perception in infancy
Authors: Danielson D. Kyle , Greuel Alison J. , Werker Janet F.
Published: November 2013

Speech perception is multisensory and is comprised not only of auditory information, but also of visual (Burnham and Dodd, 2004; Kuhl and Meltzoff, 1984; Patterson and Werker, 2003) and proprioceptive motor information (Yeung and Werker, 2013). Building on previous studies examining perceptual attunement in young infants (Werker and Tees, 1984, inter alia), this set of experiments examines the role that vision and motor proprioception play during the perception of auditory speech sounds. In the first experiment, the developmental trajectory of perceptual attunement in English-learning infants is again explored using the dental-retroflex contrast of Hindi. We replicate the finding that English-learning 6-month-olds are able to discriminate auditory-only dental and retroflex stimuli, while English-learning 10-month-olds are not. In the second experiment, looking time measurements are used to explore the possibility that the addition of dynamic visual information acts as a perceptual anchor, now permitting discrimination of this same non-native contrast by 10-month-old infants. Finally, in the third experiment, we investigate the role of a temporary motor manipulation, designed to prevent relevant movement of the tongue in 6- and 10-month-old English infants during perception of the non-native Hindi contrast, to determine the effect of proprioceptive, sensori-motor mechanisms in auditory speech perception across development.
Low frequency sound attenuation measurements in marine sediments
Authors: Chapman Ross
Published: November 2013

This paper reports measurements of sound attenuation in marine sediments from two locations on the outer New Jersey continental shelf. At one site the sediment in the top 20 m is primarily sandy clay, while the other site includes a thin (3–5 m), over-lying layer of sand at the sea floor. The attenuation was inverted from close range, broadband data from light bulb implosions deployed at stations at the sites. The inversion method made use of the time-frequency dispersion information in signals received at single hydrophones. The signals were first processed by time warping to resolve the propagating modes at relatively close ranges (50–80 water depths). The inversion is carried out in two stages. The first stage inverted the sound speed and density by modeling the modal group velocities, and these estimates were used in the second stage to invert the attenuation from the modal amplitude ratios. The results provide estimates of low-frequency sound attenuation that can be compared to predictions from different models of sound propagation to assess the frequency dependence in the band from 100–500 Hz.
Coarticulatory effects of lateral tongue bracing in first and second language English speakers
Authors: Kanada Sunao , Wilson Ian , Gick Bryan , Erickson Donna
Published: November 2013

This study uses electromagnetic articulometry (EMA) to examine the coarticulatory effects of tongue bracing in L1 and L2 English speakers. The tongue is hydrostatic, so we brace it against our teeth for added control, and this bracing is an important part of pronunciation. The amount of bracing may differ across languages (and may be part of one’s articulatory setting), so understanding these differences could be a key to L2 pronunciation learning. Although lingual coarticulation has been examined using acoustics and midsagittal views of the vocal tract, not much focus has been placed on the coronal view. We collected EMA point-tracking data from two native speakers of North American English and looked at the movement of a lateral tongue marker. As stimuli, we choose the nursery rhyme “Mary had a Little Lamb” because of the variation in vowels, and also the /l/ and /r/ phonemes, which are absent in Japanese. Initial results show differences between vowels that occur next to /l/ and those that occur next to /r/ and stops. Results will also be presented for Japanese speakers of both their L1 (Japanese) and L2 English. If we find crosslinguistic differences in bracing, this fact will be important for pedagogical purposes.
The effects of acoustically enhanced speech on lexical tone perception in Mandarin as second language learners
Authors: Liu Huei-Mei , Tsao Feng-Ming
Published: November 2013

The tonal language learners who speak non-tone language have difficulty discriminating lexical tones of a tone language. This study aimed to examine the effects of acoustically enhanced speech on perceptual sensitivities and organizations of lexical tones in Mandarin as second language learners. Three groups of participants were recruited, native Mandarin speakers (n = 26), native English speakers (n = 28), and native Thai speakers (n = 26). Both groups of Mandarin learners have learnt Mandarin as second language (L2) for several years. Mandarin lexical tone discrimination and identification tasks with two sets of tone stimuli, with and without pitch contour exaggeration, were used in this study. The results showed that Mandarin L2 learners performed less well on the tone discrimination and identification tasks, relative to native Mandarin speakers. In addition, Mandarin L2 learners perceptually weight less to pitch direction than pitch height in their perceptual organization for tones, showing different perceptual weights from native Mandarin speakers. In the context of listening to acoustically enhanced stimuli, the group difference on tonal sensitivity and cue-weighting patterns of perceptual organization were greatly reduced. Results imply that the signal enhancement facilitates Mandarin L2 learners to process lexical tones.
The use of durational variables to characterize the rhythmic patterns of non-fluent Japanese utterance by non-native speakers
Authors: Amano Shigeaki , Yamakawa Kimiko , Kondo Mariko
Published: November 2013

Twenty-nine durational variables were examined to clarify rhythmic characteristics in non-fluent Japanese utterances by non-native speakers. Discriminant analysis with these variables was performed on 343 Japanese words, each pronounced in a carrier sentence by six native Japanese speakers and 14 non-native Japanese speakers (7 Vietnamese with low Japanese proficiency and 7 Chinese with high Japanese proficiency). The results showed that a combination of two durational variables could discriminate Japanese speakers from Vietnamese speakers with a small error (8.7%, n = 4458), namely the percentage of vowel duration and the average of “Normalized Voice Onset Asynchrony,” which is an interval time between the onset of two successive vowels divided by the first vowel's duration. However, these two variables made a large error (39.4%, n = 4458) in the discrimination of Japanese speakers from Chinese speakers who had higher Japanese proficiency than Vietnamese speakers. These results suggest that the two variables characterize the rhythmic pattern in a non-fluent Japanese utterance by non-native speakers with low Japanese proficiency. [This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 22320081, 24652087, 25284080, and by Aichi Shukutoku University Cooperative Research Grant 2013-2014.]
Vowel identification in temporal modulated noise for native and non-native listeners: Effect of language experience
Authors: Guan Jingjing , Liu Chang , Tao Sha , Mi Lin , Wang Wenjing , Dong Qi
Published: November 2013

Previous work in our laboratories found vowel identification in babble was significant different between Chinese-native listeners in China and United States. As a follow-up, the current study focused on whether the two groups of Chinese listeners had any difference in using temporal cues of noise for vowel identification. Temporal modulation transfer function and vowel identification in temporal modulated noise were measured for American English native (EN) listeners, Chinese-native listeners in United States (CNU), and Chinese-native listeners in China(CNC). Results revealed that TMTF is similar across three groups, indicating that psychophysical temporal processing is independent of listeners’ language backgrounds. However, for vowel identification in noise, EN and CNU listeners showed significantly greater masking release from temporal modulation of the noise than CNC listeners, especially at low SNR conditions (e.g., −12 dB). Altogether, native English exposure may change the use of temporal cues on English vowel identification for Chinese-native listeners.
The acoustics of Mandarin tones in careful and conversational speech
Authors: Brenner Daniel
Published: November 2013

A large proportion of the world’s languages use phonological categories centering on vocal pitch to distinguish words. One of these, Mandarin, represents the largest native speaker population of any language in the world (SIL International, 2013). Although tones have long been foregrounded in phonetic/phonological work on Mandarin, and have been estimated to carry as much information in Mandarin phonology as vowels (Surendran and Levow, 2003), little is yet known about what happens to the tonal categories in conversation. This acoustic production study aims to detail the relationship between tones produced in casual conversation and those in the careful reading of a word list to determine the separability of tonal categories and the relative utility of acoustic cues in identifying those categories across speech styles. References: SIL International. (2013). “Statistical Summaries.” In Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.), Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Online resource: http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size. Surendran, Dinoj, and Gina-Anne Levow. (2003). “The Functional Load of Tone in Mandarin is as High as that of Vowels,” in Proceedings of the International Conference on Speech Prosody 99–102.
Draft Genome Sequence of the Biosurfactant-Producing Bacterium Gordonia amicalis Strain CCMA-559, Isolated from Petroleum-Impacted Sediment
Authors: Domingos Daniela F. , Dellagnezze Bruna M. , Greenfield Paul , Reyes Luciana R. , Melo Itamar S. , Midgley David J. , Oliveira Valéria M.
Published: November 2013

Gordonia amicalis
strain CCMA-559 was isolated from an oil-contaminated mangrove swamp and shown to produce biosurfactants. This strain is a strict aerobe that readily degrades an array of carbon sources, including
N
-acetylglucosamine, cellobiose, Tween 80, and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, and, like other
G. amicalis
strains, likely desulfurizes dibenzothiophene.
Genome Sequence of a Strain of the Human Pathogenic Bacterium Pseudomonas alcaligenes That Caused Bloodstream Infection
Authors: Suzuki Masato , Suzuki Satowa , Matsui Mari , Hiraki Yoichi , Kawano Fumio , Shibayama Keigo
Published: November 2013

Pseudomonas alcaligenes
, a Gram-negative aerobic bacterium, is a rare opportunistic human pathogen. Here, we report the whole-genome sequence of
P. alcaligenes
strain MRY13-0052, which was isolated from a bloodstream infection in a medical institution in Japan and is resistant to antimicrobial agents, including broad-spectrum cephalosporins and monobactams.
Biventricular hypertrophy and heart failure as initial presentation of Cushing's disease
Authors: Hey Thomas Morris , Dahl Jordi Sanchez , Brix Thomas Heiberg , Søndergaard Eva Vad
Published: November 2013

We present a unique case of a 32-year-old woman with severe biventricular hypertrophy and acute heart failure with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction of 25–30% due to Cushing's disease. The patient was admitted to a specialised cardiac unit and treated with conventional therapy against heart failure. The department of endocrinology was consulted because of clinical suspicion of Cushing's syndrome. Initial biochemistry indicated the presence of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) dependent Cushing's syndrome and a dexamethasone suppression test confirmed the diagnosis. A cerebral MRI scan revealed a pituitary adenoma and a sinus petrosus inferior catheterisation confirmed increased production of ACTH from the pituitary. The patient was referred to the neurosurgical department and the adenoma was successfully removed by transsphenoidalic catheterisation and ablation. Five months following the initial hospitalisation the patient was nearly in full recovery with respect to her cardiac function and biochemically there were no signs of Cushing's syndrome.
Resonance energy transfer study of laser dyes LD 489 and LD 473 with rhodamine 6G
Authors: Deepa H.R. , Thipperudrappa J. , Suresh Kumar H.M.
Published: November 2013

The energy transfer using two laser dyes 6,7,8,9-tetrahydro-6,8,9-trimethyl-4-(trifluoromethyl)-2H-pyrano[2,3-b][1,8]naphthyridin-2-one (LD-489) and 1,2,3,8-tetrahydro-1,2,3,3,8-pentamethyl-5-(trifluoromethyl)-7H-pyrrolo[3,2-g]quinolin-7-one (LD-473) as donors and rhodamine 6G (Rh6G) as acceptor was investigated in methanol using steady state and time resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. The bimolecular quenching rate parameter, kq, and the translation diffusion rate parameter, kd, were calculated and these values indicated that the diffusion process alone does not operate in energy transfer process. The mean diffusion length, d1, is found to be less than the Förster distance, R0, supporting the dominance of long-range interaction. The critical transfer distances determined from both the Förster equation and the half quenching concentration are close to one another, revealing that the Förster mechanism plays an important role in overall energy transfer of the donors.
Comparative genomic organization and tissue-specific transcription of the duplicatedfabp7andfabp10genes in teleost fishes
Authors: Parmar Manoj B. , Wright Jonathan M.
Published: November 2013

A whole-genome duplication (WGD) early in the teleost fish lineage makes fish ideal organisms to study the fate of duplicated genes and underlying evolutionary trajectories that have led to the retention of ohnologous gene duplicates in fish genomes. Here, we compare the genomic organization and tissue-specific transcription of the ohnologous fabp7 and fabp10 genes in medaka, three-spined stickleback, and spotted green pufferfish to the well-studied duplicated fabp7 and fabp10 genes of zebrafish. Teleost fabp7 and fabp10 genes contain four exons interrupted by three introns. Polypeptide sequences of Fabp7 and Fabp10 show the highest sequence identity and similarity with their orthologs from vertebrates. Orthology was evident as the ohnologous Fabp7 and Fabp10 polypeptides of teleost fishes each formed distinct clades and clustered together with their orthologs from other vertebrates in a phylogenetic tree. Furthermore, ohnologous teleost fabp7 and fabp10 genes exhibit conserved gene synteny with human FABP7 and chicken FABP10, respectively, which provides compelling evidence that the duplicated fabp7 and fabp10 genes of teleost fishes most likely arose from the well-documented WGD. The tissue-specific distribution of fabp7a, fabp7b, fabp10a, and fabp10b transcripts provides evidence of diverged spatial transcriptional regulation between ohnologous gene duplicates of fabp7 and fabp10 in teleost fishes.
MAGNETIC PROPERTIES OF MnO2 SHRIMPS-LIKE NANOSTRUCTURES SYNTHESIZED BY HYDROTHERMAL ROUTE
Authors: TOUFIQ ARBAB MOHAMMAD , WANG FENGPING , JAVED QURAT-UL-AIN , LI YAN
Published: November 2013

In this paper, we report the field-dependent magnetization (M–H) and temperature-dependent magnetization (M–T) properties of hexagonal MnO 2 shrimps-like nanostructures which have been successfully synthesized by hydrothermal route using KMnO 4 and HNO 3 as precursors. The magnetic properties were characterized by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Field-dependent magnetization (M–H) measured at 300 K exhibit paramagnetic nature of MnO 2 nanostructures, while an antiferromagnetic component is observed for the as-prepared product at 55 K. The Néel temperature (TN) is calculated as 89 K by plotting temperature-dependent magnetization (M–T) curve for the as-prepared MnO 2 nanostructures. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is employed to calculate the binding energies of Mn (2p3/2, 2p1/2) and O (1s) observed in the spectrum.