bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Factors related to teachers' attitudes towards the inclusive education of students with severe intellectual disabilities in Riyadh, Saudi
Authors: Alquraini Turki A.
Published: July 2012

In Saudi Arabia, the majority of students with severe intellectual disabilities are still educated in special schools that do not meet their unique needs for interaction with their typically developing peers in public schools settings where they could improve social, communication and academic skills. One of the most significant obstacles to inclusion of this group of students is teachers' perspectives regarding inclusive education for this category of students. As a result, this study examined teachers' perspectives regarding the inclusion of students with severe intellectual disabilities using a quantitative approach. In addition, this study also examined the relationship between teachers' perspectives regarding the inclusion of students with severe intellectual disabilities and current teaching position, training, teacher's levels of education, previous teaching experience with any kind of disabilities in inclusive settings, grade level being taught, teacher's gender and whether they have a family member with a disability. Three hundred and three teachers responded to the Opinions Relative to inclusion of Students with Disabilities (ORI: Arabic version) survey, including 161 males and 139 females, and three non‐specified gender. A two‐way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), a one‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and an independent t‐test were used to answer the research questions. The findings of the study indicate that teachers have slightly negative perspectives towards the inclusive education of students with severe intellectual disabilities. Significant factors regarding teachers' perspectives towards the inclusion of this group of students included their current teaching position, previous teaching experience with students who had any kind of disability in inclusive settings and the teacher's gender.
Mental and physical attributes defining world‐class Norwegian athletes: Content analysis of interviews
Authors: Boes R. , Harung H. S. , Travis F. , Pensgaard A. M.
Published: July 2012

This study reports the results of a content analysis of interviews with 28 Norwegian world‐class athletes and 28 controls, matched for gender, age, and type of sport. Semi‐structured interviews explored their perceptions of their best performance. The interviews were analyzed using the ATLAS.ti and yielded 20 higher‐order codes. Nine higher‐order codes were categorized as inner‐oriented, five were categorized as outer‐oriented, and six were a combination of inner‐ and outer‐oriented. Statistical analysis, using the Mann‐Whitney test, showed significant group differences for seven higher‐order codes: (a) two outer‐oriented codes relating to “mastery – achievements” and “training – outer”; and (b) five inner‐oriented codes relating to “mental preparation,” “self‐reliance,” “training – inner,” “wholeness,” “performance – inner,” and “growth orientation.” These findings highlight the importance of both inner‐ and outer‐oriented development for high‐level achievement in sports – the “mental game” is as important as the physical game, both during training and competitions. Previously published quantitative data reported higher levels of brain integration, faster habitation to a loud tone, and higher ego and moral development in these world‐class athletes. These findings are interpreted in light of a Unified Theory of Performance, which proposes that higher mind‐brain development provides a basis for higher performance in any activity.
Physical exercise on the rat ventral prostate: Steroid hormone receptors, apoptosis and cell proliferation
Authors: Teixeira G. R. , Fávaro W. J. , Pinheiro P. F. F. , Chuffa L. G. A. , Amorim J. P. A. , Mendes L. O. , Fioruci B. A. , Oba E. , Martins O. A. , Martinez M. , Martinez F. E.
Published: July 2012

Studies have investigated the effect of exercise on prostate cancer risk. However, there are still doubts regarding the correlation between physical activity and the steroid hormones with respect to the reduction of the risk for prostatic lesions. We evaluated the levels of corticosterone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), testosterone, estradiol, and steroid hormone receptors, and investigated the relationship between apoptosis and cell proliferation in the rat ventral prostate after training. Two groups were included in this study: control and trained. The trained group was submitted to training for 13 weeks (1 week of adaptation). Two days after the last training session, all animals were euthanized, and the intermediate and distal regions of the ventral prostate were collected and processed for immunohistochemistry, Western blotting and hormonal analyses. Physical exercise increased the corticosterone plasma, DHT and testosterone. In addition, androgen receptor expression was lower and estrogen receptor (ER) α and ER
β expression were higher in the trained group. However, the trained group showed disruption of the ratio of apoptotic to proliferating cells, indicating a predominance of apoptosis. We conclude that physical exercise alters the sex hormones and their receptors and is associated with the disruption of the balance between apoptosis and cell proliferation in the rat ventral prostate.
Adolescent elite athletes’ cigarette smoking, use of snus, and alcohol
Authors: Martinsen M. , Sundgot‐Borgen J.
Published: July 2012

The purpose was to examine cigarette smoking, use of snus, alcohol, and performance‐enhancing illicit drugs among adolescent elite athletes and controls, and possible gender and sport group differences. First‐year students at 16 Norwegian Elite Sport High Schools (n = 677) and two randomly selected high schools (controls, n = 421) were invited to participate. Totally, 602 athletes (89%) and 354 (84%) controls completed the questionnaire. More controls than athletes were smoking, using snus, and drinking alcohol. Competing in team sports was associated with use of snus [odds ratio = 2.8, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.6 to 4.7] and a similar percentage of male and female handball (22.2% vs 18.8%) and soccer players (15.7% vs 15.0%) reported using snus. For controls, not participating in organized sport was a predictor for smoking (odds ratio = 4.9, 95% CI 2.2 to 10.9). Female athletes were more prone to drink alcohol than males (46.3% vs 31.0%, P < 0.001). Only, 1.2% athletes and 2.8% controls reported use of performance‐enhancing illicit drugs. In conclusion, use of legal drugs is less common among athletes, but this relationship depends on type of sport and competition level. The association between team sports and use of snus suggests that sport subcultures play a role.
Microhabitat Variation Explains Local‐scale Distribution of Terrestrial Amazonian Lizards in Rondônia, Western Brazil
Authors: Garda Adrian A. , Wiederhecker Helga C. , Gainsbury Alison M. , Costa Gabriel C. , Pyron R. Alexander , Calazans Vieira Gustavo H. , Werneck Fernanda P. , Colli Guarino R.
Published: July 2012

We investigate the role of ecology and phylogeny in the association between lizard abundance and microhabitat variables in an Amazon rain forest site. Using pitfall trap arrays, we collected data from 349 individuals belonging to 23 lizard species. After accounting for spatial autocorrelation and using a canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), we found that lizard captures were significantly associated with microhabitat variables, which accounted for 48 percent of the observed variation. Furthermore, a canonical phylogenetic ordination (CPO) indicated that microhabitat variables are more important in determining the distribution of lizard species than phylogenetic relationships among species. Termite nests, canopy openness, and tree circumference were strongly associated with the number of captures of certain lizard species. Our results confirm autecology studies of individual lizard species for which data are available. We suggest that maintaining heterogeneous forested microhabitats should be a central goal for sustaining a high lizard biodiversity in Amazon rain forests.
“Producing a Reconciliation of Disinterestedness and Commerce”: The Political Rhetoric of Education in the Early Republic
Authors: Koganzon Rita
Published: July 2012

One of the vexing ambiguities in the historiography of the civic republican tradition has been just when and how republicanism ended. The American Revolution itself, according to Gordon Wood and J. G. A. Pocock, was waged for republican principles, but the government established in its wake represented what Wood called “the end of classical politics,” abandoning virtue in the name of commerce and liberal individualism. By the close of the eighteenth century, Pocock writes, “A condition of thought … in which a bourgeois ideology, a civic morality for the market man, was ardently desired but apparently not to be found.” Later historians sought to extend republicanism's life into the nineteenth century, identifying figures and institutions who held fast to the tradition against the prevailing commercial and industrial winds, while others have taken the ambiguity of republicanism's end to suggest that no such coherent worldview existed in the United States, which was from the outset a liberal project employing only an occasional and misleading republican vocabulary. Even Wood, whoseRadicalism of the American Revolutionspecifically set out to narrate the transformation of American political ideology from the Revolution to the ascent of the Jeffersonians, offers a general account of shifting rhetorical emphases—from virtue to equality, the common good to self-interest—but not the contours of this shift in any specific realm of American life.
Adherence to Blood Pressure Telemonitoring in a Cluster‐Randomized Clinical Trial
Authors: Kerby Tessa J. , Asche Stephen E. , Maciosek Michael V. , O’Connor Patrick J. , Sperl‐Hillen JoAnn M. , Margolis Karen L.
Published: July 2012

J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2012;14:668–674. ©2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Hypertension is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease and death worldwide. Advances in technology have added telemedicine as a tool for managing hypertension. The effectiveness of telemedicine depends on patients’ ability to adhere to schedules of home monitoring and case management. Participants with uncontrolled hypertension in the intervention arm of a randomized trial who completed 6 months of follow‐up were included in this analysis. They were asked to measure their blood pressure (BP) a minimum of 6 times per week using a telemonitor that transmitted the readings to their pharmacist case manager. Hypertensive patients in this study had high adherence to telemonitoring (73% took at least 6 BP readings per week) and phone visits (88% of expected visits were attended). In a multivariate analysis, older age, male sex, and some college education predicted better telemonitoring adherence. White non‐Hispanic race/ethnicity predicted better adherence to phone visits with pharmacist case managers. Telemonitoring adherence and phone adherence were highly correlated; participants who did not send readings on schedule were more likely to skip at least one phone visit with their pharmacist case manager. The findings from this analysis indicate that hypertensive patients in this study were able to achieve and maintain high adherence to both the telemonitoring and the phone case management visits.
Acoustics in fisheries in the 21st century
Authors: Rose George A.
Published: July 2012

The history, current state, and future potential of acoustics in fisheries research and management will be addressed. Fisheries management worldwide is undergoing a fundamental paradigm change in response to population pressures and overharvesting of marine and freshwater stocks. Future fisheries management will be more conservation based and responsive to ecosystem considerations. These trends will demand more comprehensive knowledge of the components of fisheries’ ecosystems and their dynamics, and more realistic estimates of the precision of ocean measurements. Acoustics is poised to take a new and leading role in these developments. Acoustics is nondestructive of marine life, can be near-synoptic, and can measure most of the water column. However, acoustic methods are still hampered by problems with detectability, especially near boundaries, uncertainties about target strengths of the myriad of species and life stages whose scattering properties are complex and behaviorally mediated, and taxonomic identification. These problems will be discussed, and a general experimental plan will be laid out to solve them. The 21st century of fisheries belongs to acoustics and allied technologies.
Condenser fan noise reduction solutions
Authors: Bobeczko Michael
Published: July 2012

There has been a surge in the building of multimillion dollar homes along the California Coast. Often, large commercial style air conditioners are installed with multiple axial flow propeller condenser fans. They can generate low-frequency tones that annoy highly sensitive neighbors. By replacing 3- to 4-bladed stamped metal fans with a 6-, 9-, and 12-bladed highly efficient airfoil fan with pitch compensation, by reducing motor speeds from 1140 to 870 rpm, and by installing a variable speed controller, sound levels were reduced 14 dB @ 77 Hz as well as reducing energy consumption. This noise reduction solutions have proven to be far more effective than traditional barriers.
Right boundary strengthening in American English
Authors: Shattuck-Hufnagel Stefanie
Published: July 2012

A prominent theme in recent phonetic research is the role of constituent structure in governing the phonetic implementation of phonemic segments. For example, Fougeron and Keating (1997) describe an articulatory strengthening effect for some constituent-initial consonants which reflects the prosodic constituent hierarchy: utterance-initial /n/ is produced with greater tongue contact than phrase-initial /n/, which is in turn produced with more contact than word-initial /n/, etc. This articulatory strengthening is reflected to some extent in acoustic measures of duration. Is such strengthening limited to the left edge of constituents, or can it also occur at the right edge? Results from read laboratory speech show that the occurrence of aspiration in a word-final /k/ in American English is governed in part by the nature of the prosodic boundary following the word. Results for five speakers showed that (a) utterance-final /k/, as in ‘‘Please say bake,’’ was almost always aspirated (as determined by acoustic measures of the wave form); (b) word-final /k/ before a word-initial schwa, as in ‘‘Please say bake again,’’ was almost never aspirated, and (c) phrase-final /k/ before word-initial schwa, as in ‘‘Please say bake, again,’’ was sometimes aspirated and sometimes not. [Work supported by NIH DC02125-05.]
Design and construction of a convertible hemi/anechoic acoustical laboratory for testing space flight hardware at the NASA Glenn Research Center
Authors: Cooper Beth A.
Published: July 2012

At the NASA Glenn Research Center, science experiment payloads developed for the International Space Station are designed to meet noise emission criteria that promote hearing conservation and speech intelligibility goals. A key component in the successful design of low-noise hardware is the frequent use of acoustical testing as a diagnostic and design verification tool. NASA has designed and constructed a convertible hemi/anechoic acoustical testing laboratory that provides convenient access to accurate and repeatable sound pressure level measurements as well as state-of-the art capabilities for sound power level testing per ANSI S12.35 using a multichannel PC-based data acquisition system. The laboratory consists of a 100-Hz hemianechoic chamber, vibration-isolated to 3 Hz, with 21′×17′×17′(h) interior working dimensions and removable floor wedges. A separate, sound-isolated control room doubles as a test support equipment enclosure when testing flight hardware that requires remote connections to high-noise support equipment and utilities. Movable modular furnishings facilitate reconfiguration of the enclosure, and data acquisition and test control functions are easily relocated to an adjacent quiet area. The Glenn Research Center Acoustical Testing Laboratory also offers a full range of noise control services to assist payload developers with meeting the ISS noise emission criteria.
A correction to Maekawa’s curve for the insertion loss behind noise barriers
Authors: Menounou Penelope
Published: July 2012

Maekawa’s curve is one of the most established methods for predicting the insertion loss (IL) behind barriers. For the simple case of a barrier modeled as a half plane, the IL is given versus a single parameter, the Fresnel number (N1). Predictions obtained by Maekawa’s curve deviate largely from experimental data and predictions obtained by analytical solutions when the receiver is either close to the barrier or at the boundary separating the illuminated from the shadow zone. It is shown that if a second Fresnel number (N2) is appropriately defined, the IL obtained by the rigorous analytical solutions can be expressed versus N1 and N2 for several types of incident radiation (plane, cylindrical, and spherical). Accordingly, the single curve in Maekawa’s chart can be replaced by a family of curves. Each curve corresponds to a different N2 and provides the IL vs N1. The Kurze–Anderson formula (a mathematical expression of Maekawa’s curve) is also modified to describe this set of curves. The new chart gives predictions that agree well with analytical solutions and experimental data for all receiver locations. Moreover, unlike Maekawa’s, this chart can be used for line, point, and plane wave sources. [Work supported by ATP.]
Experimental evaluation of leaky LMS algorithms for active noise reduction in communication headsets
Authors: Cartes David A. , Ray Laura R. , Collier Robert D.
Published: July 2012

An adaptive leaky LMS algorithm has been developed to optimize stability and performance of active noise cancellation systems. The research addresses performance issues related to insufficient excitation, nonstationary noise fields, and signal-to-noise ratio. The algorithm is based on a Lyapunov tuning approach in which three candidate algorithms, each of which is a function of the instantaneous measured reference input, measurement noise variance, and filter length, provide varying degrees of trade-off between stability and performance. Each algorithm is evaluated experimentally for reduction of low-frequency noise in communication headsets and compared with that of traditional LMS algorithms. Acoustic measurements are made in a specially designed acoustic test cell which is based on the original work of Shaw, Brammer and co-workers and which provides a highly controlled and uniform acoustic environment. The stability and performance of the ANR system, including prototype communication headsets, are investigated for a variety of noise sources ranging from stationary white noise to highly nonstationary measured F-16 aircraft noise over a 20-dB dynamic range. Results demonstrate significant improvements in stability of Lyapunov-tuned LMS algorithms over traditional leaky or nonleaky normalized algorithms while providing noise reduction performance equivalent to that of the NLMS algorithm for idealized noise fields.
Volume acoustic backscattering measurements with a 68-kHz cylindrical array
Authors: Gallaudet Timothy C. , de Christian P.
Published: July 2012

Most sensors designed to measure volume acoustic backscatter over the entire water column have limited horizontal coverage. The 68-kHz cylindrical arrays of the U.S. Navy’s Toroidal Volume Search Sonar (TVSS), towed 80 m below the sea surface in 200-m water depth, have been used to measure volume backscatter over the entire water column with about 4.5 deg of angular resolution over a swath roughly 300 m wide. The data were analyzed to determine the volume acoustic backscattering strengths and cross sections, and the target strengths of (1) near-surface bubble clouds in the tow ship wake; (2) midcolumn zooplankton layers; and (3) near-bottom fish schools. Unlike previous acoustic studies of ship wakes, these results are obtained from data which sample the bubble field at a constant distance from the ship. Echo integration over a midcolumn scattering layer is used to assess the patchiness of zooplankton in the region. Target strengths of near-bottom fish schools are easily distinguished from the surrounding seafloor backscattering strengths. [Work sponsored by ONR-NRL (Contract No. N00014-96-1-G913).]
Certifying noise emissions from heat recovery steam generators (HRSG) in complex power plant environments
Authors: Hessler George F.
Published: July 2012

HRSG units are used to generate steam by capture of heat from the combustion turbine exhaust gas, typically at 1000°F. Combustion turbines, nominally in the 100–200-MW size, generate approximately 150 dB, re 1 pW ‘‘A’’ weighted sound power. Hence, noise emissions from the HRSG wall surfaces and stack outlet are a significant source of power plant noise in today’s combustion turbine-based plants. Noise mitigation measures are required for most installations, and it is the responsibility of the HRSG supplier to engineer, furnish, and warrant the performance of the HRSG assembly. Verification of HRSG noise emissions in the field is difficult since the units are typically surrounded by countless other plant noise sources in complex arrangements. There is no applicable test standard in place for reference. This paper presents alternative methods of isolating and verifying HRSG noise source emissions in complex environments, and recommends test methods based on experience.
Work programs and interrelations of IEC/TC29, ISO/TC43 and ISO/TC43/SC1
Authors: Brinkmann Klaus
Published: July 2012

IEC/TC29 ‘‘Electroacoustics’’ and ISO/TC43 ‘‘Acoustics,’’ together with its Subcommittee ISO/TC43/SC1 ‘‘Noise,’’ each have very distinctive scopes. IEC/TC29 is mainly responsible for specification of performance characteristics of electroacoustical measuring instruments such as microphones, sound-level meters, sound calibrators, and audiometers, while ISO/TC43 and its SC1 primarily deal with measuring methods in audiology and noise control. Close links are, however, established by basically the same procedure for developing standards used in IEC and ISO, by common interest and mutual stimulation with respect to the instrumentation used for acoustical measurements and by overlapping involvement of experts in all three committees. The program of work of each committee will be briefly reviewed. Most actual information will be provided on IEC/TC29, which will have had its meeting just the week before. ISO/TC43 and ISO/TC43/SC1 will meet the following week, thus only allowing a forecast on expected achievements.
ASTM Committee E-33 and its role in acoustical and noise standardization
Authors: Brown Steven M.
Published: July 2012

ASTM Committee E-33 on Environmental Acoustics develops standards on the characteristics and performance of materials, products, systems, and services relating to the acoustical environment and the promotion of related knowledge. The Committee holds jurisdiction for over 50 standards on sound absorption, open plan spaces, sound transmission, the application of acoustical materials and systems, acoustical research, acoustical terminology, mechanical and electrical system noise, and community noise. Among these are the principal building acoustics standards used in North America and other areas. The Committee also provides the U.S. Technical Advisory Group for ISO/TC 43/SC 2 on Building Acoustics. This talk describes and explains E-33’s activities and its relationship with other standards development organizations.
SAE transportation noise activities
Authors: Schumacher Richard F. , Donavan Paul R.
Published: July 2012

The SAE Vehicle Sound Level Form Committee continues to ensure the SAE road vehicle standards are maintained. Currently, there is a trend to move to internationally recognized standards that are technically valid procedures for rating the various products or subsystems. Although SAE has not initiated a development program, the light-vehicle standards group is actively reviewing an ISO project to develop more representatives of urban driving operations. All proposals are being evaluated to ensure that the procedure accommodates all vehicle designs including the US-style electronic-controlled automatic transmissions. An SAE horn and an accessory component committee are both actively involved in updating or developing new standards. SAE, while not involved in any major new initiatives, provides a significant role in review of world procedures. The expansion of our industrial world boundaries requires a continuing adjustment of our priorities to ensure we maintain standards that are relevant and provide the US-based industry an equal opportunity to be active participants in the global markets.
Standards in acoustics of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)
Authors: Peppin Richard J.
Published: July 2012

This paper presents the extent of ASHRAE’s involvement in sound and noise standards. ASHRAE has only a limited number of formal standards in acoustics but its two volumes of the four-volume set of handbooks contain many items that have become de facto standards. The ‘‘Fundamentals Handbook’’ and the ‘‘Applications Handbook’’ provide tables that show the power loss due to end reflection, attenuation of lined ducts, room criteria approaches and metrics, and other material properties that are used even though, and in spite of the fact that, they never were evaluated as a standard by Canvass or other means. I will summarize the topics in the ASHRAE publications and discuss the limitations and current controversial topics.
Analyzing structure radiation with eigenfunction expansions
Authors: Maynard J. D.
Published: July 2012

A first step in noise control is to locate the regions on a structure which strongly couple sound energy into the surrounding medium. A powerful tool for accomplishing this is near-field acoustic holography, which can produce a map of the acoustic energy flow surrounding a structure. In the most manageable form of holography, reconstructions of the surface of the source can be obtained if the surface coincides with a level surface of a separable coordinate system, a severe limitation. For treating sources with arbitrarily shaped surfaces a new technique, using spherical wave function expansions and singular value decomposition, was developed at Penn State University. This technique avoids the evanescent waves of plane wave expansions. Computer implementations have become feasible with the availability of high-speed computers. A successful application of the new technique was an explanation of the measured radiation damping of elastic solids vibrating in a high-density gas. [Research was supported by National Science Foundation DMR 9801844 and the US Office of Naval Research.]
Optimal regularization and resolution limits for the reconstruction of acoustic source strength by inverse methods
Authors: Nelson Philip A. , Kim Youngtae
Published: July 2012

Generalized cross validation (GCV) provides an effective method for the determination of optimal regularization parameters in acoustical inverse problems. The problem of reconstructing acoustic source distributions from field measurements is very often ill-posed.The use of Tikonhov regularization, for example, often suppresses the effect of small singular values in the Green function matrix to be inverted and these are in turn often associated with ‘‘high spatial frequencies’’ of the source distribution. The net effect is to produce a useful estimate of the acoustic source strength distribution but with a limited spatial resolution. This paper will explore the relationship between estimation accuracy, spatial resolution, noise level, and source sensor geometry when a range of inverse sound radiation problems is regularized using GCV. [Youngtae Kim is supported by a British Council Grant which is gratefully acknowledged.]
Backscattering enhancements associated with antisymmetric Lamb waves on circular plates in water: Observations and imaging of the plate surface using acoustic holography
Authors: Hefner Brian T. , Marston Philip L.
Published: July 2012

When a tilted circular plate is illuminated with high-frequency sound in water, significant enhancements occur when the angle of incidence corresponds to a Lamb wave coupling angle. Previously, scattering associated with the lowest-order symmetric Lamb wave, s0, was studied using acoustic holography and modeled using quantitative ray methods [B. T. Hefner and P. L. Marston, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 107, 2847 (2000)]. The present investigation focuses on backscattering associated with the antisymmetric Lamb waves. Above the cutoff frequency of the first-order antisymmetric wave, a1, enhancements are observed which are associated with both the a1 wave and the a0 wave. For these enhancements, however, mode conversion between these modes plays a significant role. To examine the mode conversion and to identify the scattering mechanisms, acoustic holography was used to image the plate surface when the plate is ensonified at the a1 wave coupling angle. From the imaged wave field, the enhancement at this angle involves a wave which moves around the circumference of the plate: a ‘‘whispering gallery’’ mode involving the a1 wave or a flexural edge wave. Both of these possibilities are considered as well as a possible scattering mechanism at the a0 wave coupling angle. [Work supported by the Office of Naval Research.]
The noise spectrum characteristics of retroflexed consonants in Mandarin Chinese
Authors: Jeng Jing-Yi
Published: July 2012

Retroflexed consonants are the most complex and difficult sounds for Mandarin speakers. The four retroflexed consonants in Mandarin are produced with the tip of the tongue retracted and curled up close to the positions of the hard palate. The purpose of this study was to investigate the acoustic characteristics of retroflexed consonants for normal speakers. The moment analysis and the noise duration of retroflexed and nonretroflexed fricatives and affricates were studied for 10 adult speakers. Moment analysis is a statistical approach for the power spectrum. The results showed that retroflexed consonants had lower mean noise frequencies (M1) than nonretroflexed consonants. The standard deviation of noise energy frequencies (M2) of retroflexed consonants was smaller than those of nonretroflexed consonants. Results will be discussed in terms of the linkage between acoustic data and tongue positions. The discriminate analysis by using moment and duration parameters to classify word-initial retro- flexed consonants was also reported.
Acoustic evidence of a phonetics-phonology mismatch in Nuu-chah-nulth
Authors: Wilson Ian L.
Published: July 2012

Measurements were made of the acoustic properties of the pharyngeal ʕ in Ahousaht Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka), an endangered language spoken on Vancouver Island. One goal of the study was to test whether phonetics and phonology make the same predictions regarding the classification of ʕ. Although the phonological data largely favors an analysis of ʕ as a type of glottalized pharyngeal stop, the results of acoustic measurements suggested that it is a glottalized glide. These acoustic measurements included a comparison of the waveforms and spectrograms of ʕ to those of glottalized resonants and glottalized stops. Three types of acoustic evidence were found to support the claim that ʕ is a glottalized glide. Specifically, the timing of glottalization in ʕ was like that of a glottalized resonant, rather than a glottalized stop; in several tokens full stop closure was not achieved; and the duration of the formant transition of ʕ is more like that of a glide than a stop. This acoustic evidence helps to illustrate one example of a phonetics-phonology mismatch, and the fact that there is a mismatch supports a modular view of grammatical organization. [Work supported by SSHRCC and NSERC Grants.]
Dialect differences in the temporal characteristics of vowels: A comparison of standard (Parisian) and Swiss French
Authors: Miller Joanne L. , Mondini Michèle , Grosjean François , Dommergues Jean-Yves
Published: July 2012

Earlier we reported a dialect difference in the use of temporal information for vowel perception: Native speakers of Swiss French used temporal as well as spectral information when identifying /o/ versus /ɔ/, whereas native speakers of standard (Parisian) French used only spectral information [J. L. Miller and F. Grosjean, Language Speech 40, 277–288 (1997)]. We interpreted this dialect difference in terms of the more prominent role that vowel duration plays overall in the phonological system of Swiss French compared to standard French. To investigate further the basis of the dialect effect, we have been measuring the duration of /o/ and /ɔ/ in monosyllabic words for native speakers of the two dialects. Our findings to date indicate a robust dialect effect in production: The duration difference between /o/ and /ɔ/ is substantially larger and more consistent in Swiss French than in standard French. Thus the perceptual dialect effect for /o/ and /ɔ/ we reported earlier reflects both a specific difference in the temporal characteristics of this vowel pair and an overall difference in the role of vowel duration in the phonological systems of the two dialects. [Work supported by NIH/NIDCD, Swiss NSF.]
Tongue surface dynamics during speech and swallowing
Authors: Green Jordan R. , Pittelko Steven L. , Wang Yutsai
Published: July 2012

This investigation characterizes tongue surface dynamics that underlie phonemic variation and that distinguish speech from swallowing. Vertical displacements of pellets affixed to the tongue were extracted from the x-ray microbeam database [Westbury, J. X-ray Microbeam Speech Production Database Users Handbook, Version 1 (1994)], which contains articulatory kinematic data from 57 typical speakers. Participants recited 21 vowel–consonant–vowel (VCV) combinations, read the Grandfather Passage, and swallowed 10 cc of water. Consonantal context was manipulated in the VCV utterances as a means to describe the range of tongue dynamics produced during speech. For each task, tongue dynamics was quantified by performing zero-lag cross correlations on selected pellet pairs. A coupling index was then computed by scaling the derived coefficients by a multiplier that reflected the amplitude of each displacement signal. A wide range of movement coupling among tongue pellets was observed across tasks. Phonemic differentiation in vertical tongue dynamics was observed as coupling varied predictably across marker pairs with place of articulation. Moreover, tongue displacements for speech and swallowing clustered into distinct groups based on their coupling profiles. The strengths and weaknesses of the coupling index for characterizing tongue surface dynamics across multiple speakers are considered.
An EPG study of allophonic variation in the gestural magnitude of English lingual consonants
Authors: Gick Bryan
Published: July 2012

Previous work on English glides and liquids has shown that certain (consonant) gestures are most constricted in initial allophones, least constricted in final allophones, and constricted to an intermediate degree in ambisyllabic or resyllabified allophones. It is not known, however, whether this generalization applies to other consonants such as stops and fricatives. As the point-tracking and imaging techniques used in previous studies are not well suited for measuring these types of segments, the present paper will present the results of an EPG study testing the degree of tongue contact during lingual consonants in these three syllable positions. Results of a pilot study using two subjects and a reduced set of consonants were mixed, failing to replicate previous findings for some previously measured consonants (e.g., /n/), while supporting the predicted pattern for others not previously measured (e.g., /z/). Results will be presented for additional subjects using the full inventory of lingual consonants. [Work supported by NSERC.]
The use of functional data analysis to study variability in children’s speech
Authors: Koenig Laura L. , Lucero Jorge C.
Published: July 2012

A common finding in studies of children’s speech is increased variability relative to adults. This result may be observed well after the age when basic phonological contrasts are established. Researchers debate the sources of this variability, but most agree that the study of variability, and its decrease over time, may provide insight into motor control development. Recent data on oral airflow during /h/ in 5-year-olds and adults revealed that the children presented greater relative amplitude variability than the adults, and seemed to show less regularity in the rates of ad/abduction for /h/. This presentation applies functional data analysis (FDA) to the airflow data from two women and one 5-year-old speaker. In FDA, signals are nonlinearly normalized using a smooth warping function of time, and separate indices are obtained for phasing (temporal) and amplitude variability. Results indicate that the child shows greater variability in both temporal and amplitude measures, but the extent of adult–child differences depends somewhat on the specific methods of normalization and alignment. FDA shows potential as a means of gaining more detailed information about the nature of variability in children’s speech data. [Work supported by NIH and CNPq, Brazil.]
Buried target detection using synthetic aperture sonar
Authors: Commander Kerry W. , Piper John E.
Published: July 2012

During the Sediment Acoustics Experiment in 1999, the Coastal Systems Station fielded a synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) operating at 20 kHz. The SAS was able to detect and image 1.5 × 0.5 m cylinders at burial depths up to 50 cm and grazing angles well below the critical angle. In order to clarify the effect of the rough surface (sand ripple field) on sound propagation into the sediment, an experiment was recently conducted using five 10-in. fluid-filled target spheres that were buried at depths ranging from 5 to 50 cm below the top of the spheres. The interior fluid was chosen to maximize the target strength of the spheres (approximately −11 dB) when buried in sediment with a sound speed of 1750 m/s. Using aspect-independent targets enables the determination of the sound level transmitted into the sediment as a function of the angle between the transmitted acoustic beam and the sand ripple direction. Complete 360 deg azimuthal patterns of target echo levels are presented, illustrating the variation due to transmit/receive azimuthal angle with respect to the ripple structure. These azimuthally dependent echo level patterns are presented for several incident grazing angles, all of which are subcritical. [Work supported by ONR Code 321TS.]
Refraction and scattering in sandy sediments
Authors: Chotiros Nicholas P. , Smith D. Eric , Piper James N.
Published: July 2012

Signals collected from a buried acoustic receiving array in a sandy sediment off the west coast of Florida, as part of the Sediment Acoustics Experiment (SAX99), were analyzed to determine the penetration processes. The two main candidate processes are refraction and scattering. Wave front coherence and direction of arrival, as well as sound speed measurements, provide important clues concerning the processes involved. The sound was projected by a wideband sound source carried on a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) in the band 10 to 100 kHz. Coherent and incoherent processing methods were explored. [Work supported by the Office of Naval Research, Ocean Acoustics.]
High-frequency measurements of absorption and dispersion in a sandy sediment
Authors: Jackson Darrell R. , Williams Kevin L. , Tang Dajun , Thorsos Eric I.
Published: July 2012

As part of the SAX99 experiment, a buried hydrophone array was deployed together with a movable tower with attached sources covering the frequency range 11–50 kHz. With the tower placed to provide incident grazing angles well above the critical angle, this system was used to obtain data from which sediment sound speed and absorption were determined. The sound-speed data exhibit significant dispersion, while the absorption data show an approximate linear frequency dependence. When these data are combined with data at other frequencies from the same site, the dispersion and absorption are found to be consistent with causality and with the Biot model [Work supported by ONR.]
High-frequency, low-grazing-angle backscattering from a sandy bottom
Authors: Greenlaw Charles F. , Holliday D. Van , McGehee Duncan E.
Published: July 2012

Backscattering measurements from a sandy bottom off East Destin, FL were obtained using a multi-frequency echosounder attached to a pan/tilt head on a bottom-mounted tower during the Sediment Acoustics Experiment, SAX99. Usable data were obtained over the frequency range from 265–1850 kHz, spanning the transition from roughness-controlled to grain-size-controlled scattering, at grazing angles around 15. Field results will be discussed and compared to laboratory measurements. [Work supported by ONR Code 322 BC.]
Scale-model MLS measurements of edge diffraction
Authors: Torres Rendell R. , Vorländer Michael
Published: July 2012

To better understand edge diffraction in room acoustics, scattering is measured from 1:10 scale models of reflector arrays and a stage house. The source is an 11-cm dodecahedron with tweeter elements having an effective frequency range of 600–6000 Hz. Maximum-length sequences (MLS) are used, which have various advantages over spark sources for scale models. The main three reflector arrays have approximately the same equivalent area: an array of five long rectangular panels, a 7-by-5 array of smaller square panels, and a single solid panel. Measurements are taken along a line under the reflector arrays and repeated for different array sizes and coverage. The stage-house measurements include a stepped reflector array and receiver positions shadowed from the receiver. Results compare well with previous work [R. W. Leonard et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 36, 2328–2333 (1964)], and some practical rules of thumb are discussed. [Work performed as guest of the Inst. fuer Techn. Akustik, RWTH-Aachen, Germany; support provided by the Axson Johnson Foundation, Sweden.]
Statistical requirements to demonstrate subtle impacts of noise on passerine bird populations
Authors: Hunsaker Don
Published: July 2012

We are conducting a study on the effects of noise on California gnatcather (CAGN) and least Bell’s vireo (LBV) populations at military installations in San Diego, CA. In order to improve the statistical power to be able to accurately measure subtle effects of noise on the birds, we have had to expand the size of the study considerably. We have mapped noise levels and reproductive success in the study area. This provides an estimation of the noise covariate at all the sampled nests and enables us to characterize the magnitude of effects of noise on reproductive success by estimating the strength of correlation between noise and nesting success endpoints. Our analysis determined that 60 nesting pairs would provide data to detect a 20% difference at the 5% significance level with 80% power. This ability to measure only gross impacts was unacceptable to us. The design now includes 5 years to sample 300 nests of CAGN and 800–1000 nests of LBV for us to achieve the power to assess these subtle effects at the 5% level.
A comparison of behavioral and auditory brainstem response methods for examining hearing sensitivities in the harbor seal (Phoca vitulina)
Authors: Wolski Lawrence F. , Anderson Rindy C. , Bowles Ann E.
Published: July 2012

Auditory brainstem response (ABR) and behavioral methods (method of constant limits and staircase method) were used to generate in-air audiograms for an adult female harbor seal to examine relative sensitivities obtained using the two methods. Behavioral thresholds ranged from 0.250–30 kHz and indicated best sensitivity from 6–12 kHz (∼12 dB re: 20 μPa). The staircase method was more sensitive than the method of constant limits, resulting in thresholds averaging 10 dB lower. ABR thresholds were recorded at 2, 4, 8, 16, and 22 kHz and showed a similar range of best sensitivity (8–16 kHz). ABR and behavioral thresholds differed by an average of 5 dB; ABR thresholds averaged 3.8 dB higher than behavioral thresholds from 2–8 kHz, but were 12 and 3 dB lower at 16 and 22 kHz, respectively. The lower ABR thresholds at higher frequencies may reflect the behavior of the seal during ABR testing as well as broadband characteristics of ABR test stimuli. These results agree with comparisons of ABR and behavioral methods performed in other recent studies and indicate that auditory evoked potential methods represent an accurate alternative to behavioral methods for estimating hearing range and sensitivity in wild animals. [Work supported by NASA: NAS1-20101.]
When is a bubble a bubble?: The subtleties of cavitation threshold detection at MHz frequencies
Authors: Roy Ronald A.
Published: July 2012

Detecting the onset of cavitation induced by short-pulse ultrasound at MHz frequencies is tricky business, for one must be positioned to observe the genesis and evolution of a single micron-sized bubble lasting as short as one acoustic cycle. The observation is rarely accomplished directly. Rather, investigators often rely on indirect evidence of cavitation activity manifested by physical effects such as noise (a.k.a. passive cavitation detection), light emission, and mechanical damage. These techniques are noise limited, and investigators frequently measure a threshold for ‘‘detectable’’ cavitation. Another approach is to actively probe the medium with a high-frequency acoustic beam, and watch for anomalous backscatter associated with bubble activity. This technique, often termed active cavitation detection, can be quite sensitive, which is part of the problem; transient disturbances in the medium can be mistaken for bona fide cavitation activity. Such errors are often associated with, say, the motion of solid particles in a test liquid that is put into motion by acoustic radiation forces or entrained by acoustic streaming. In all cases, the ability to detect and monitor minute, spurious cavitation activity is limited by noise, clutter, or reverberation. These issues are discussed, examples given, and potential solutions proposed. [Work supported by DARPA.]
Acoustic spectrum and sonoluminescence as indicators of cell membrane disruption by ultrasound
Authors: Prausnitz Mark R. , Guzman Hector R. , Cochran Stephen
Published: July 2012

Ultrasound has been shown to reversibly disrupt cell membranes and thereby drive drugs and genes into cells by a mechanism believed to involve cavitation. We have measured the number of molecules delivered into cells and levels of cell viability following exposure to a broad range of ultrasound conditions. Many cellular responses are possible, including uptake of up to millions of molecules per cell and cell viability ranging from 0 to 100%. Because these effects are believed to occur due to acoustic cavitation, we measured features of the acoustic spectrum known to be associated with cavitation and measured sonoluminescence light output during ultrasound exposures. We found that these measures of cavitation correlate with both the number of molecules taken up by cells and levels of cell viability. This observation strengthens the hypothesis that ultrasound’s bioeffects are mediated by cavitation and suggests a noninvasive means to assess these bioeffects which could be used as part of a real-time feedback loop. [Work supported by the NSF, NIH, and Whitaker Foundation.]