bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Tonal cues to prosodic structure in rate-dependent speech perception
Authors: Steffman Jeremy , Jun Sun-Ah
Published: November 2021

This study explores how listeners integrate tonal cues to prosodic structure with their perception of local speech rate and consequent interpretation of durational cues. In three experiments, we manipulate the pitch and duration of speech segments immediately preceding a target sound along a vowel duration continuum (cueing coda stop voicing), testing how listeners' categorization of vowel duration shifts based on temporal and tonal context. We find that listeners perceive the presence of a phrasal boundary tone on a lengthened syllable as signaling a slowdown in speech rate, shifting perception of vowel duration, with effects that are additive when crossed in a 2 × 2 (pitch × duration) design. However, an asymmetrical effect of pitch and duration is found in an explicit duration judgement task in which listeners judge how long a pre-target syllable sounds to them. In explicit rate judgement, only durational information is consequential, unlike the categorization task, suggesting that integration of tonal and durational prosodic cues in rate-dependent perception is limited to implicit processing of speech rate. Results are discussed in terms of linguistic information in rate-dependent speech processing, the integration of prosodic cues, and implicit and explicit rate processing tasks.
Hemoglobin microbubbles for in vivo blood oxygen level dependent imaging: Boldly moving beyond MRI
Authors: Chaudhary Sugandha , Akter Nasrin , Rajeev Akshay , Hwang Misun , Sirsi Shashank
Published: November 2021

Microbubbles are gas-filled, micron-sized particles stabilized by lipid, protein, or polymer shells. They scatter ultrasound energy efficiently due to their compressible gas cores, making them excellent blood pool contrast agents in ultrasound imaging. In this project, we have developed a novel oxygen-sensitive hemoglobin-shell microbubble designed to acoustically detect blood oxygen levels in vivo. We hypothesized that structural changes in the hemoglobin in response to varying oxygen levels will alter the mechanical properties of the bubble shell, resulting in detectable changes in the bubble acoustic signature. In this project, we have (1) optimized the hemoglobin bubble formulation for in vivo circulation, (2) demonstrated that the hemoglobin shell is still responsive to oxygen after formulation, and (3) characterized the acoustic response of the microbubbles at varying oxygen levels. Our preliminary results show a strong correlation between the oxygen concentration in the solution and the acoustic response of bubbles, suggesting that they would serve as excellent oxygen sensors. If successful, in vivo sensing of oxygen levels would have numerous benefits, including evaluating the hypoxic regions in tumors and in the brain, among other blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) imaging applications.
Unraveling the nonlinear elastic response of materials with dynamic acousto-elastic testing
Authors: Riviere Jacques , Gao Linying , Shokouhi Parisa
Published: November 2021

Compared to standard nonlinear ultrasonic techniques based on harmonic generation or resonance tests that provide an average nonlinearity level, Dynamic Acousto-Elastic Testing (DAET) is a pump-probe approach that allows one to track the nonlinear elastic response at each phase of the dynamic cycle, and to quantify additional features such as transient softening/weakening and hysteresis. These so-called nonlinear signatures can help us unravel the origins of the nonlinear response at the micro/mesoscopic scale. In this talk, we first review some of the DAET results obtained by our group and others in a wide range of materials from cracked metals to rocks and unconsolidated granular media. Next, we present some of our most recent results where we investigate the effect of relative humidity (RH) on the nonlinear elastic response of granular media. We use DAET on samples of glass beads under dry (∼10%), ambient (∼60%) and humid (∼100%) conditions. We find that all extracted nonlinear parameters in humid samples increases by an order of magnitude compared to those in dry samples. This is consistent with the idea that water adsorption on the grains makes the contact junctions weaker. This has great relevance when trying to quantify the nonlinearity of porous materials.
Singular value decomposition of acousto-elastic matrix for modal analysis of mechanical structures
Authors: Palerm Chloe , Prada Claire , Gerardin Benoit , Talon Arnaud , De Rosny Julien
Published: November 2021

All mechanical structures exhibit natural vibration eigenmodes, characterized by their natural frequencies, modal shapes and damping factors. For some industrial applications, the investigation of those parameters is important either to avoid resonance phenomena or to detect the apparition of flaws. However, the analysis of symmetric or periodic structures can be complex because several modes can overlap at a same frequency. Here, we propose to measure the acousto-elastic transmission matrix between an array of loudspeakers and the displacement on the structure under test recorded with a laser vibrometer. The singular value decomposition of the transmission matrix allows detecting, counting and separating overlapping modes. The method is validated on a thin aluminum square plate, a gear and a turbine wheel. The results are compared to conventional impact hammer excitation. Based on this analysis, a selective excitation of a given mode is made possible. Finally, the effect of flaws on SVD is studied on the structures.
Expansion, contraction, and drift during the development of L2 speech categories
Authors: Matthews John , Kawasaki Takako , Tanaka Kuniyoshi
Published: November 2021

This paper investigates the acquisition of novel segmental categories that are similar to native language segments among two groups of non-native speakers and a native-speaker control group. English and Japanese both contain voiceless alveolar and post-alveolar fricatives, but while the alveolars are effectively identical, the post-alveolars differ in their precise places of articulation. English includes a palato-alveolar while Japanese includes an alveolo-palatal. We elicited pronunciations of these segments in both English and Japanese by a group of intermediate L2 learners of English in Japan and a group of Japanese–English late bilinguals with experience living and studying abroad, plus a third group made up of English native-speakers as a control group. Measurements of Center of Gravity taken at the midpoint of each fricative and F2 taken at the appearance of formant structure immediately following the fricative revealed expansive category ranges among the L2 learners but contracted categories among the bilinguals, with evidence of a new, independent post-alveolar fricative added to their L2 segmental inventory. L2 learners were found to experience persistent transfer effects from phonological neutralization of this contrast in Japanese, whereas bilinguals were found to have overcome such effects.
The evolution of vowel perception in second language learners of Spanish
Authors: Bates Daniel
Published: November 2021

Given the importance of understanding speech perception in language acquisition research (Best, 1991) and building on the methodology of Garcia de las Bayonas (2004), this remotely conducted study explores the acquisition of correct Spanish vowel perception by English-speaking learners with special attention paid to the role of syllable stress. Participants include Spanish speakers (n = 4), English speakers (n = 7), and beginning Spanish students (n = 9). In a discrimination task, learners performed most accurately with Spanish vowels in stressed syllables (88.6%) with less accuracy discriminating those in unstressed syllables (82.2%). This is likely due to the tendency of American English to reduce many unstressed vowels. In an identification task, participants selected vowel sounds (from English and Spanish inventories) believed to belong in Spanish words. High accuracy was shown identifying Spanish vowels /i/, /o/, and /u/ but all groups struggled to correctly identify /e/ and /a/, likely because these vowels occupy similar acoustic spaces as English vowels /ɛ/ and /æ/. Despite imperfect perception, learners report high confidence in their responses, indicating under-developed vowel inventories in the target language. At the time of presentation, these results will include larger and more diverse participant groups, including students at different stages of experience with the target language.
Six years of low-frequency underwater noise off the Oregon coast from the OOI Regional Cabled Array System (RCA) and interpretive linkage with RCA Oceanographic Data
Authors: Dall'Osto David R. , Dahl Peter H.
Published: November 2021

Approximately 6 years of underwater noise data recorded from the Regional Cabled Array (RCA) network, at the site known as Hydrate Ridge, is studied for purposes of examining long term trends. The acoustic data originate from station HYS14 located on the seabed at a depth of approximately 800 m and 80 km offshore of Newport, OR. The sample rate is 200 Hz, setting the analysis limit to less than 100 Hz. Seasonal warming results in a highly repeatable annual change in the levels at shipping frequencies (50–70 Hz) of order 4 dB which is out-of-phase with concurrent observations of shipping density. Using data from the shallow-water profiler (RCA station SF03A) the influence seasonal warming on the acoustic observations are studied. It is shown how higher ocean surface temperatures cause mode excitation support to move deeper and away typical ship source depths resulting in less efficient transmission of underwater sound. Deviations in the seasonal trends are also observed and shown to be correlated to atypical climatic events such as the warm water blob event of 2015–2016, and suppressed shipping activity during economic downturns, such as observed during COVID-19.
Measuring the soundscape of the Eastern United States outer continental shelf using an array of autonomous observatories
Authors: Martin S. B. , Kowarski Katie , Wilson Colleen , Miksis-Olds Jennifer , Ainslie Michael A. , Heaney Kevin D. , Lyons Anthony P.
Published: November 2021

The Atlantic deep-water Ecosystem Observation Network project (https://adeon.unh.edu/) deployed seven autonomous long-term observatory landers in waters between 250 and 900 m deep along the east coast of the United States for three years (November 2017–November 2020). The objectives of the project included quantifying the variability of the soundscape along and across the outer continental shelf in time and frequency. An early objective of the project was publication of a soundscape standard, whose recommendations were subsequently applied to the data analysis. Here we show how monthly probability density functions of the 20, 80, 630, and 3150 Hz decidecade bands provided insight to the contribution of mammals, vessels, and wind to the measured soundscapes. At some stations the soundscape measurements were hampered by flow noise at low frequency. Clear relationships between stations by month and location changed with frequency band. Application of automated detectors and a standardized approach for validating their outputs provided information on the spatial and temporal presence of marine mammals. The application of standardized methods accelerates the analysis of large passive acoustic monitoring datasets and facilitates communication of results.
Acoustic vaporization of internalized superheated perfluorocarbon nanodroplets for imaging and macrophage function modulation
Authors: Chudal Lalit , de Gracia Lux Caroline , Lux Jacques , Mattrey Robert
Published: November 2021

Ultrasound (US) can detect and interact with its contrast agents, allowing perfluorocarbon-based nanodroplets (NDs) or microbubbles (MBs) to detect and treat tumors in deep tissues. Since NDs given IV passively accumulate in tumor macrophages, we aimed to determine whether phagocytosed perfluorobutane (PFB) NDs that boil at -2 °C, can be vaporized in vivo using a clinical scanner. Should that be possible, PFB NDs can then be used to deliver drugs or genes to modulate macrophage function. We formulated stable PFB NDs and validated their internalization into THP-1 macrophages using confocal microscopy. PFB ND loaded macrophages were then infused into nude rats and US imaging (low MI US imaging, 18H6 transducer) of the liver and spleen performed in vivo using a Siemens Sequoia clinical scanner before and after applying MB destruction pulses (at 1.4 MI, 10L4 transducer). PFB ND-loaded macrophages were not visible using low MI imaging, before applying MB destruction pulses. They immediately vaporized into US visible microbubbles when destruction pulses were applied over the liver and remained visible for many minutes after vaporization. Our current focus is to assess ND-loaded macrophage function before and after ND activation to determine the feasibility of modulating immune function. [Study supported by CPRIT RR150010. RFM is a CPRIT Established Investigator. Siemens ACUSON Sequoia Ultrasound System provided as a loan by Siemens Medical Solutions, USA.]
A rapid method for pressure-mapping ultrasound fields using a moving hydrophone
Authors: Giraud David , Nazer Babak
Published: November 2021

Medical ultrasound transducers are commonly characterized in well-controlled water tanks using miniature pressure-calibrated hydrophones. Spatial beam dimensions of the ultrasound field can be quantified by positioning hydrophones in a 2D plane where acoustic waveforms are acquired at closely spaced locations. However, even when using automated computer-controlled positioning, this technique is time consuming if the hydrophone is repositioned and allowed to come to rest at each location where pressure measurements are desired. Here we present a novel technique where acoustic waveforms are acquired while the hydrophone is in motion. The transducer under test is pulsed at a rate which, depending on the hydrophone speed, determines the spatial resolution of the pressure map. Applying this technique results in substantial time savings and allows larger beam areas to be more accurately mapped. Limitations, such as translation stage motor noise and pulse length, are discussed and examples are presented which demonstrate the ability to rapidly characterize a variety of ultrasound transducer types.
Focused ultrasound-enhanced delivery of intranasally administered anti-programmed cell death-ligand 1 antibody to an intracranial murine glioma model
Authors: Ye Dezhuang , Yuan Jinyun , Yue Yimei , Rubin Joshua B , Chen Hong
Published: November 2021

Immune checkpoint inhibitors have great potential for treating the gliomas; however, their therapeutic efficacy has been partially limited by their inability to cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB). The objective of this study was to evaluate the capability of focused-ultrasound-mediated intranasal brain drug delivery (FUSIN) in achieving the locally enhanced delivery of anti-programmed cell death-ligand 1 antibody (aPD-L1) to the brain. aPD-L1 was labeled with a near-infrared fluorescence dye (IRDye 800CW) and administered to mice through the nasal route to the brain, followed by focused ultrasound sonication in the presence of systemically injected microbubbles. FUSIN enhanced the accumulation of aPD-L1 at the FUS-targeted brainstem by an average of 4.03- and 3.74-fold compared with intranasal (IN) administration alone in the non-tumor mice and glioma mice, respectively. Immunohistochemistry staining found that aPD-L1 was mainly located within the perivascular spaces after IN delivery, while FUSIN further enhanced the penetration depth and delivery efficiency of aPD-L1 to the brain parenchyma. The delivered aPD-L1 was found to be colocalized with the tumor cells after FUSIN delivery to the brainstem glioma. These findings suggest that FUSIN is a promising technique to enhance the delivery of immune checkpoint inhibitors to gliomas.
Innovative solutions for acoustic disturbances occurring in slender buildings
Authors: Murray Patrick , Schnitta Bonnie , Champagne Collin G. , Newman Jeremy R.
Published: November 2021

Many tall, slender residential building have risen from the streets of Manhattan and other cities over the past decade. Numerous problems have been recently published about acoustic disturbances present in these slender buildings due to deflection, principally from wind. These disturbances occur, not due to any structural weakness of the building, but due to excessive rigidity and lack of resiliency of the interior architectural elements, such as wall studs, tracks and gypsum board. These components must be designed and installed for resiliency in order to respond to the slender building movement, which is essential in order to ensure the building’s structural integrity. This movement consists of deflection and torquing of the slabs relative to each other. These acoustic disturbances cause occupants to lose sleep and cause them to feel unsafe, as though structural failures are occurring. Additionally, interior finishes become warped and lose aesthetic quality. These issues are detrimental to the value of units within these slender buildings. This paper presents case studies of innovative methodologies to solve these acoustic disturbances present in slender buildings. These include methodologies which ensure resiliency of the interior architectural elements. These case study examples have been successfully implemented during the base-unit design and also retrofitted after construction.
On sound dispersion and attenuation in simple and multi-fluids due to thermal and viscous effects
Authors: Zaidni Azeddine , Benjelloun Saad
Published: November 2021

We present a new formula for dispersion relation for sound waves in viscous and heat conducting (mono)fluids. In particular, this dispersion (i.e. variation of speed of sound with frequency) is shown to be of second order of magnitude, with respect to Knudsen numbers, as in the Stokes case, corresponding to non-conductive fluid (Infinite Prandtl number). This formula completes the classical attenuation relation called Stokes–Kirchhoff. In the meanwhile, we represent in a simplified manner the Kirchhoff approach to derive this attenuation, starting from the 3D compressible Navier-stokes system and emphasis the hypothesis that are essential to its validity. In a second part of the presentation we deal with the case of mixture of fluids (multi-fluids) and present how viscosity and thermal conductivity have effects on the dispersion and attenuation of sound. In addition, we show how the approach may be used to discriminate models in multi-phase modeling that do not reproduce physically meaningful sound propagation speeds.
A naturalistic approach to studying temporal processing during music performance
Authors: Piazza Elise , Cassano Riesa , Iordan Marius Cătălin , Williams Jamal , Izen Sarah , Hasson Uri
Published: November 2021

In recent years, the push to embrace naturalistic stimuli over artificial designs has enriched what we know about the neural underpinnings of human attention, memory, and communication in real life. Previous work using natural stories scrambled (at the word, sentence, and paragraph level) has revealed a hierarchy of brain regions that organize natural acoustic input at these different timescales. While this approach has advanced our understanding of language processing, many fewer studies to date have explored the neural underpinnings of music perception, let alone music production, in naturalistic settings. In our novel paradigm, we asked expert pianists to play musical pieces, scrambled at different timescales (measure, phrase, section) on a non-ferromagnetic piano keyboard inside the fMRI scanner. This dataset provides unprecedented access to expert musicians’ brains starting from their first exposure to a novel piece and continuing over the course of learning to play it. We found distinct patterns of tuning to musical timescales across several clusters of brain regions (e.g., sensory/motor, parietal, and frontal/memory). We also found that musical predictability impacts functional connectivity between auditory, motor, and higher-order regions during performance. Finally, we applied several machine learning analyses to understand how the brain dynamically represents acoustic and musical features.
The temporal unfolding of register reveals distinct mechanisms at play: A case study of Western Khmer
Authors: Maspong Sireemas
Published: November 2021

Register distinctions are a type of suprasegmental contrasts manifested in several acoustic dimensions, e.g., pitch, vowel quality, and voice quality. However, several aspects of register production remain unclear (Brunelle & Kirby, 2016). In this paper, we focus on whether a target laryngeal configuration may be responsible for the multiplicity of acoustic cues to register. We approach this question through a production study of Western Khmer, an Austronesian language spoken in Chanthaburi, Thailand. Data were collected from 19 speakers producing words with modal or breathy register in a carrier sentence. The measurements we took are trajectories of F0, F1, H1*-H2*, and H1*-A1*. Our results show that all cues are significant in distinguishing the two registers, confirming static measurement results in the previous literature (Wayland, 2001). However, a dynamic study of these register cues reveals a dissociation in their temporal alignment. The F1 transitions that mark changes in vowel quality are not aligned with the transitions of H1*-H2* and H1*-A1* that mark changes in voice quality. These findings suggest that separate asynchronous mechanisms may be responsible for the voice quality and vowel quality components of register production.
Vowel duration in the Buckeye corpus
Authors: Fulop Sean A. , Scott Hannah J.
Published: November 2021

Phonological accounts of American English [W. Labov et al., The Atlas of North American English (Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 2006)] rely on historical and phonotactic analysis to categorize the vowels as either long (two morae) or short (one mora). The vowels of beat, bait, boot, boat, bought, bite, bout, boy are traditionally identified as long, while bit, bet, bat, book, but, bot are supposedly short. It is a reasonable question whether these vowels are indeed longer and shorter, respectively, in phonetic duration. A study of “General American” [H. A. Rositzke, “Vowel-length in general American speech,” Language 15(2), 99–109 (1939)] examined the durations of the vowels of five subjects in scripted utterances, without controlling for dialect. The findings were mostly in accord with the above categories, with the exceptions that [æ, ɑ] (bat, bot) were both phonetically long. The present study is an effort to replicate Rositzke’s on 341 425 vowel tokens in the Buckeye Corpus of conversational English (40 speakers from Columbus, Ohio). The results essentially confirm that the vowels [æ, ɑ] (bat, bot) are phonetically as long as the traditional “long” vowels. This situation calls the traditional analysis of American English vowel length into question.
Monitoring fin whale calls using Ocean Observatories Initiative Regional Cabled Array
Authors: Wang Xuyang , Hilmo Rose , Wilcock William S. , Gonzalez Kathleen , Borras Mouffee
Published: November 2021

The Ocean Observatory Initiative (OOI) Regional Cable Array (RCA) and the Ocean Networks Canada NEPTUNE cabled observatory provide an opportunity for long-term studies of the distribution and behavior of calling marine mammals. We will present the results of a study to build a database of “20-Hz” fin whale calls that spans from 2015 to present. Fin whale calls were collected by bottom-mounted low-frequency hydrophones and seismometers deployed on the OOI RCA and are detected automatically by spectrogram cross-correlation with a detection kernel that sweeps down linearly from ∼26 Hz to ∼19 Hz with a duration of ∼0.8 s. The kernel is tuned to detect the high amplitude portions of both the high- and low-frequency calls of the doublet calling pattern which is currently the dominant fin whale song in this area. Preliminary results show significant interannual variations at a given site in the distribution of calls during the fall and winter calling season. The onset of calling appears to be significantly earlier near the continental slope off central Oregon than at Axial Seamount, 450 km offshore. There also appears to be a higher overall rate of calling nearer the continental slope.
Large-aperture 256-element fully populated random array for therapeutic ultrasound applications: Experimental study of its functionality and characterization of the radiated field
Authors: Sapozhnikov Oleg A. , Rosnitskiy Pavel B. , Asfandiyarov Shamil A. , Nikolaev Dmitry A. , Tsysar Sergey A. , Khokhlova Vera A.
Published: November 2021

Recently, a new method has been proposed for designing random high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) arrays with the maximum possible filling factor and polygonal elements of equal area, based on capacity constrained tessellation [Rosnitskiy et al., IEEE Trans. UFFC (2018)]. Following this approach, a 256-element piezocomposite array with a radius of curvature of 150 mm, a diameter of 200 mm, and an operating frequency of 1.2 MHz was designed at the Laboratory for Industrial and Medical Ultrasound (LIMU) of Moscow State University. The array was subsequently manufactured by Imasonic (France). It can be driven using a Verasonics ultrasound engine. Electrical matching was performed for each element using matching network created by Image Guided Therapy (France). This report presents the system design procedure and experimental results for array characterization using acoustic holography and acoustic power measurements using the radiation force balance. In addition, a theoretical study was carried out using the “HIFU beam” simulator developed at LIMU (freely available at www.limu.msu.ru) to assess the array's ability to achieve highly nonlinear regimes with shocked pressure waveforms. The possibility of using the array for HIFU applications such as acoustic levitation and manipulation, histotripsy and transcostal HIFU therapy is discussed. [Work supported by RSF 19-12-00148.]
An experimentalist's overview of wind reduction systems in infrasound measurements
Authors: Webster Jeremy
Published: November 2021

The largest limiting factor in infrasound measurements is wind noise. This noise is caused by pressure fluctuations generated by turbulent flow passing over an acoustic sensor. The size scales of these turbulent fluctuations vary from centimeters to tens of meters and larger. This, coupled with the wide variety of possible measurements, means that there is no single best solution to this problem. Instead, wind reduction systems should be tailored to best fit the intended measurement. In this talk, I will give a brief review of wind noise from an experimentalist’s point of view, and will discuss some of the physical principles to consider when choosing a wind noise reduction system. This will include spherical and domed wind screens, porous hoses and pipe arrays, probe microphones, and terrain and foliage considerations.
Sound-source localization when listeners and/or sound sources move
Authors: Yost William A. , Pastore M. Torben
Published: November 2021

In the dynamic everyday world, sound sources and/or listeners move when animals attempt to localize sound sources. Determining sound-source locations in these dynamic scenarios requires several computations by the brain. The auditory-spatial cues (Interaural Time Differences, ITDs; Interaural Level Differences, ITDS; and spectral cues associated with the head-related transfer function, HRTF) indicate the location of sound sources relative to the head. When the source and/or listener move, these cues change and by knowing the position of the head, the brain could determine which moved and where it moved based on the auditory-spatial cue changes. If interaural cues (ITDs or ILDs) are used for sound-source localization, cone-of-confusion errors occur, and head motion can resolve front-back, cone of-confusion errors. The elevation of a sound source, not effected by cone-of-confusion errors, might be able to be determined when both the source and listener move. This presentation will describe work in the Spatial Hearing Lab at ASU related to how sound source and listener motion affect sound source-location judgements in these scenarios. [Research supported by grants from NIDCD, WAY: R01-DC015214 and MTP: F32-DC016808.]
Breaking reciprocity through nonlocal coupling in elastodynamic systems
Authors: Geib Nathan , Popa Bogdan-Ioan , Grosh Karl
Published: November 2021

A commonly studied structure in active metamaterial research is an elastodynamic beam outfitted with piezoelectric patches with electronic circuitry used to modify the beam’s local material properties. These active beams have been used to validate a variety of conceptual strategies, including those to reduce vibrations, enhance flexural wave sensing, and break reciprocity. Here, we show how the coupling of adjacent piezoelectric patches can be used to create a nonlocal metamaterial featuring the highly nonreciprocal transmission of flexural waves. We discuss how a modified Bernoulli–Euler beam theory was used to design a controller to drive a piezoelectric patch using the signal from a spatially separate patch. We discuss conditions for stability and present experimental data validating model predictions.
Sensorimotor information flow and the acquisition of speech
Authors: Kuhl Patricia K.
Published: November 2021

In 1999, Doupe and Kuhl published a review of “Birdsong and Human Speech” for the Annual Review of Neuroscience that detailed the commonalities and differences between the two species’ vocal learning and the acquisition of species-specific communicative signals. As part of the review, we outlined a model for both species learning, suggesting that an initial period of sensory learning was followed by a period of sensorimotor learning. We argued that auditory experience establishes memory representations of species-typical auditory input, followed by sensorimotor learning, which is guided by the learned sensory information. In this presentation, I will review both behavioral and neural data suggesting that the model needs to be revised for human speech learning. Data suggest that from the earliest moments of life, sensory and motor information for human speech is interwoven. Bidirectional influences have been documented. I will describe a possible neural mechanism that may account for this sensorimotor information flow, and also a revision of the Doupe and Kuhl model.
Time reversal acoustics for communications, focusing, and source localization
Authors: Anderson Brian E.
Published: November 2021

Time reversal is a signal processing method used either to communicate privately between two locations, focus high amplitude energy to a selected spatial location, or to locate and characterize an unknown source. It has been used in acoustics for various applications including secure underwater communications, biomedical applications (e.g., acoustic lithotripsy), and for nondestructive evaluation of structures and mechanical parts. Time reversal techniques require that a calibration signal (i.e., Green’s function, impulse response, transfer function, etc.) be obtained between the source and receiver location(s). Assuming that conditions do not change, the calibration signal(s) may be used to send wave energy to the target location to provide a coherent reconstruction of a source or constructive interference at that selected location. This presentation will discuss how time reversal techniques work, introduce various types of processing used, and review various applications of the technique. If that does not sound interesting enough, videos will be shown of LEGO minifigures being knocked over with focused vibrations and targeted candles will be blown out with focused loud sound.
Vector sensor measurements of dispersed arrivals from explosive signals, underwater sound (SUS)
Authors: Dall'Osto David R. , Dahl Peter H.
Published: November 2021

In 2017 and 2021, ONR experiments south of New England examined the effect of the environment on sound propagation. A series of small explosive ordinance called SUS, models Mk-64 (1.1 oz) and Mk-82 (1.8 lbs), were deployed at various ranges (1-40 km) from a vector sensor positioned a 1.5 m above the seafloor. These studies focused on two areas: (1) the New England Mud Patch (NEMP) where 75 m of water overlay a thick 10-m layer of surficial mud; (2) a 60 km south-southwest of the NEMP where the continental shelf transitions to the slope. SUS provide a strong impulse signal, exciting both water-borne and sediment-borne arrivals. Owing to geometric dispersion, a time-frequency representation of the signals reveal distinct arrivals associated with the propagating normal modes. Forward models based on mode theory are presented to demonstrate the effects of bathymetry, oceanography and sediment structure on dispersed SUS signals. The model facilitates both the extraction of vector information, and inverting it to determine geo-acoustic properties of the environment. Measured vector data are also presented, including examples on the continental slope where the 3D propagation effects encountered will need to be considered for successful modeling and inversion.
Acoustical design of the Maxxon acoustical laboratory
Authors: Lilly Jerry G.
Published: November 2021

This presentation will discuss the acoustical design of the ASTM E492 and ASTM E90 sound testing laboratory for Maxxon, Inc. which was recently completed in Hamel, MN. The primary goal of the project was to create a world-class laboratory that would be able to test floor-ceiling assemblies with STC and IIC ratings as high as 80, with qualified measurements extending from 63 to 10 000 Hz. The presentation will show the results of pre-design site noise and ground vibration measurements as well as techniques that were used for environmental noise control. Reverberation room design and vibration isolation details that were employed to reduce ground-borne vibrations and control flanking will also be discussed. The presentation will also address the design, testing, and installation of low frequency sound absorption panels that were attached to the walls to control excess reverberation at low frequencies. Separate follow-up presentations will discuss the facility construction and the acoustical performance of the completed facility based on preliminary commissioning tests.
The relationship between male humpback whale song chorusing and whale abundance on the Hawaiian breeding ground
Authors: Kügler Anke , Lammers Marc , Zang Eden J. , Pack Adam
Published: November 2021

Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) with autonomous bottom-moored recorders is widely used to study cetacean occurrence, distribution, and behaviors, as it is less constrained by factors that often limit other traditional visual observation methods, such as weather and accessibility. During the breeding season, male humpback whales produce an elaborate acoustic display known as “song.” The typical asynchronous chorusing of numerous singing males at any one time can provide challenges for monitoring abundance using PAM. Chorusing becomes the dominant source of low frequency (0–1.5 kHz) noise in the marine soundscape in Hawai‘i and seasonal levels mirror the whales’ migratory patterns. However, the relationship between chorusing levels and overall whale numbers, including non-singing whales (e.g., mother-calf pairs and juveniles), has remained poorly defined. We combined long-term PAM conducted between 2014/15 and 2020/21 off West Maui with concurrent visual land- and vessel-based observations. We found that daily median root-mean-squared sound pressure levels (RMS SPLs) correlate strongly with whale numbers (land: 0.71 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.76, vessel: 0.81 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.85 for three different PAM locations). Applying these results, we were able to use PAM to document significant population fluctuations between 2015 and 2021, as well as study habitat use patterns off West Maui.
Remote and autonomous platforms for measuring broadband backscatter
Authors: Lavery Andone C. , Bassett Christopher , Petitt Robert
Published: November 2021

The use of broadband acoustic sonars in acoustical oceanography studies in a broad range of environments, particularly for ecological studies, has rapidly overtaken the use of traditional narrowband sonar systems. Almost as importantly, and often underrecognized, is the diversity of platforms that have been used to support these measurements. In this talk, we present broadband acoustic backscatter collected from a number of platforms, including AUVs, a variety of towed and profiling systems, and a bioacoustics mooring. The primary focus of this talk will be on the data collected from REMUS 600 and REMUS 100 AUVs, and the types of science questions that these platforms, outfitted with broadband scientific echosounders, best support. This work was supported by the Ocean Acoustics and Task Force Ocean Programs at the Office of Naval Research.
Summarizing long-term changes in daily echogram patterns observed by moored echosounders in the U.S. Ocean Observatories Initiative network
Authors: Lee Wu-Jung , Staneva Valentina
Published: November 2021

Long-term deployments of autonomous echosounders deliver rich data embedded with information about mid-trophic level organisms of the marine food web. As a remote sensing tool, moored echosounders have played an important role in observing temporal changes of animal distributions in the water column over large temporal scales, ranging from months, seasons to years. Taking advantage of the power of matrix decomposition techniques in exploiting regularity in the data to automatically discover low-dimensional structures in large data sets, we apply Principal Component Pursuit (PCP) and temporally smooth Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (tsNMF) in a time-windowed fashion to analyze data from a network of moored, upward-looking echosounders deployed by the U.S. Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) from 2015 to 2018. We show that these echosounder time series are low-rank in nature and can be reproduced by a time-varying linear combination (activation) of a small number of distinct daily movement patterns (components). The components and the associated activation jointly provide a compact representation that is suitable for visualization and systematic analysis of mid-trophic animal activities in response to environmental changes, such as those from seasonal changes and extreme weather events.
OOIPy: A Python toolbox for accessing and analyzing sata from the Ocean Observatories Initiative
Authors: Schwock Felix , Ragland John , Abadi Shima
Published: November 2021

The recent advent of long-term, large-scale, and publicly available underwater acoustic datasets can unlock new discoveries and fuel a deeper understanding of the ocean environment. One such dataset is provided by the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), who maintain multiple research arrays distributed across the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean that feature a variety of instruments and platforms from hydrophones to water column profilers and surface buoys. However, analyzing the OOI data can be challenging, as tools for accessing the data are either completely lacking, or require a significant amount of additional programming effort to prepare data for analysis. With the development of the Python package OOIPy we aim to address these problems for the OOI data products. OOIPy combines low level functions for accessing OOI data in Python with higher level functions for data processing, analysis, and visualization. Currently, data products from low-frequency and broadband hydrophones, which are only available through the OOI raw data server, as well as conductivity, temperature, depths sensors in the northeast Pacific Ocean are supported. Our vision for the future is to expand OOIPy and allow scientists to focus on the analysis, rather than the accessing and preprocessing, of OOI data products. [Work supported by ONR.]
Delayless polyphase implementation of filters in active noise control systems
Authors: Zhuang Yongjie , Liu Yangfan
Published: November 2021

In real-time implementation of active noise control filters, high sampling rate is sometimes preferred to reduce the delay in analog-to-digital converters or to reduce the risk of aliasing effect. A multi-rate structure is usually implemented with a polyphase structure to maintain a low sampling rate for the control filters to avoid the increase of real-time computational load. However, the use of decimation or interpolation filter will introduce additional delay, which can negatively affect the noise control performance. In the current work, a delayless implementation of polyphase structure is proposed where the original active noise control filter is first constrained to have sufficient attenuation at high frequencies in its design phase and is then decomposed into two multiplicative sub-filters, each of which involves a sufficiently high frequency attenuation. These two decomposed sub-filters can perform both noise control and decimation/interpolation without introducing additional delay in the polyphase structure. The proposed delayless approach can thus reduce the delay of a traditional multi-rate active noise control system and, in principle, can provide better active noise control performance. Moreover, if a single rate system is implemented at a high sampling rate, the proposed polyphase structure in filter implementation can effectively reduce the real-time computational load.
Long time-series measurements of high-frequency acoustic scattering from sea ice
Authors: Lyons Anthony P.
Published: November 2021

Understanding relatively recent rapid changes in Arctic sea ice calls for extensive and continuous observations of the ice cover. Utilizing datasets obtained with 38, 70, and 200 kHz upward-looking transducers in the northeast Chukchi Sea, seasonal and year-to year changes in acoustic scattering were measured. Two complete annual cycles of scattering returns from the winters of 2017–2018 and 2018–2019 were analyzed. The initial effort in this research is constrained to the stable growth phase of sea ice in winter through the early melt onset the following spring. We also restricted our analysis to individual, minimally deformed ice floes to limit the variability caused by large-scale roughness. Results from this two-year analysis will be discussed along with their implications for future measurements and acoustic remote sensing of sea ice properties.
Long-term measurements of high-frequency scattering from the seafloor
Authors: Lyons Anthony P. , Catoire Matthew , Venegas Gabriel R.
Published: November 2021

The assumption often used for predicting the performance of many sonar systems is that the acoustic response of the seafloor is solely a function of seabed type and that this response has no temporal dependence. However, seafloor properties controlling acoustic scattered levels and statistics are variable as they are influenced by near-bottom hydrodynamics and/or biological activity. Variability in seafloor acoustic scattering can significantly increase uncertainty in predictions of the performance of object-detection and classification sonar systems as well as seabed-characterization systems. Using several datasets obtained during a series of experiments utilizing 38, 70, and 200 kHz transducers, variability in scattered levels over temporal scales of weeks to months was measured at two sites near Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA. Results from these experiments will be discussed along with the mechanisms causing variability in scattering strength at the two sites and potential for modeling this temporal variability.
Insight on the acoustics in restaurants from combined analyses of logged sound levels, occupancy, and customer responses
Authors: Krapfl Blake R. , Palakapilly Joshua , Scott Gregory , Wang Lily M.
Published: November 2021

This presentation reports on analyses of acoustical measurements gathered in restaurants to study relationships between sound levels, occupancy, architectural design, and associated customer responses. Sound level meters and dosimeters logged the sound levels in occupied restaurants, and the collected octave band data have been examined. The results of using machine learning algorithms to detect occupancy from thermal camera images deployed in the same time periods are presented. Finally, restaurant patrons were encouraged to provide feedback using the SoundPrint app on the same evenings as level and occupancy data were collected, and connections between that subjective data and the objective metrics are discussed.
Pros and cons of accelerated computing on T-phase propagation simulation with a 3D parabolic equation model
Authors: Oliveira Tiago , Kushida Noriyuki , Lin Ying-Tsong
Published: November 2021

Submarine seismic activities can generate low frequency (<40 Hz) acoustic waves, known as T-phases, that propagate in the ocean with low attenuation for thousands of km. In this regard, high-performance computing is essential to simulate the propagation from an earthquake source to a receiver. This work discusses the pros and cons of accelerated computing on the simulation of T-phase propagation using a 3D geodesic Cartesian parabolic equation (PE) model. The approximately 15 000 km path of the T-phases generated in the Kermadec Trench (Pacific Ocean) to the Ascension Island (Atlantic Ocean) is simulated. This simulation requires an approximate 11 × 2000 × 15000 km3 (depth × cross-range × range) simulation domain to evaluate reflections and diffractions correctly. In general, this type of 3DPE long-range marching solution simulation in GPU is advantageous and up to 20 times faster than in sequential computation, while eight times faster than in multi-core computation using 28 cores. However, when high-resolution cross-range discretization (<50 m) is used, the GPU memory limits the computation. In these cases, the multi-core computation can become a better option to perform simulations. Numerical results revealed the importance of accelerated computing to understand 3D effects on T-phases passing the Drake Passage.
Robust speech processing for voice interfaces and video content understanding at Facebook
Authors: Seltzer Michael
Published: November 2021

As voice interfaces to devices and digital assistants have increased in popularity, so too, have the challenging environments in which they are expected to perform. In this talk, we’ll present an overview of the signal processing and speech recognition AI modeling techniques that we have developed at Facebook to enable robust voice interaction on Portal video calling devices and Oculus VR headsets. We will also describe progress in captioning and understanding the wide variety of video content shared on Facebook apps, where the acoustic conditions are diverse and challenging and the audio is typically captured on commodity mobile phones. While such systems have been historically developed to run on powerful servers in the cloud, there is increasing interest in speech models that can run locally on the client device. We will describe the challenges of on-device processing and our recent progress in creating efficient, low-footprint speech models. Finally, we will present the challenges and future directions we are exploring to enable rich voice interactions on the next generation of computing devices, including augmented reality glasses.
Sound capture and speech enhancement for speech-enabled devices
Authors: Tashev Ivan J. , Braun Sebastain
Published: November 2021

In this talk we will make an overview of the acoustical design of the sound capture systems and discuss the general architecture of speech enhancement pipelines for the needs of distant speech recognition. The talk will discuss both classical algorithms using statistical signal processing and deep learning using neural networks. It will be illustrated with real-life examples from the acoustical design and speech enhancement audio pipelines in Kinect, HoloLens, and Microsoft Teams.