bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A method to determine the bandwidth of imaging pulses for chirp-coded excitation imaging of histotripsy bubble clouds
Authors: Flores Basterrechea Katia , Miralles Giselle , Bader Kenneth B.
Published: April 2023

Histotripsy is a noninvasive focused ultrasound therapy that utilizes bubble cloud activity for tissue ablation. Real-time ultrasound imaging is used to guide histotripsy, and subharmonic imaging with chirp-coded excitation has been shown to provide effective bubble cloud contrast for targets at depth (>5 cm). Choice of appropriate parameters for the chirped imaging pulse are dependent on a number of factors, including the imaging probe bandwidth. In this study, an analytic method was developed and tested to design chirped imaging pulses for fundamental and subharmonic imaging. In silico studies were conducted to estimate received signal based on the frequency response of a curvilinear imaging probe (C5-2v, Verasonics, Inc., Kirkland, WA). To enable assessment of both bubbles and anatomic information, criteria were set to maximize the probe sensitivity for both fundamental and contrast-specific signals. Based on these analyses, in vitro studies were conducted using a scattering tissue phantom for sequences that highlight fundamental, subharmonic, or equally between the two for bubble cloud visualization. Good qualitative agreement was observed between insilico prediction and in vitro assessment of bubble cloud generation, indicating the formalism developed here is a promising approach for the development of imaging sequences for histotripsy guidance.
Development of an optically transparent, tendon-mimicking hydrogel for histotripsy
Authors: Elliott Jacob C. , Simon Julianna C.
Published: April 2023

Collagenous, anisotropic tissues such as tendon are resilient to liquefaction by histotripsy, despite verification of cavitation activity using B-mode imaging. In previous published work, dehydrated fibrin gels were shown to mimic tendon bubble dynamics but are limited in thickness due to high opacity. Here, we aim to fabricate a thicker, more optically transparent hydrogel possessing similar cavitation dynamics to tendon. Highly transparent collagen hydrogels (TeloCol®, 10 mg/mL) were fabricated, and axial sound speeds were measured to determine anisotropy. Hydrogels were then exposed to 1.5-MHz focused ultrasound with 10-ms pulses at 1-Hz for 60 s with p + =127 MPa, p− = 35 MPa. Cavitation activity was monitored with high-speed photography and passive cavitation imaging using a Philips/ATL L7-4 transducer and Vantage® ultrasound system. Despite exhibiting low degrees of anisotropy like other non-dehydrated gels (<1.2), peak cavitation energy was >20% lower than soft-tissue mimicking polyacrylamide. Additionally, both resilience to fractionation and transparency were notably improved compared to previously tested PureCol® collagen formulations. Different levels of collagen dehydration will be explored to further increase resilience to liquefaction and assess the role of water content in histotripsy fractionation. [Work supported by NIH R01EB032860.]
Automated identification of a radiological beads in breast tumors for purpose of calibrating quantitative ultrasound
Authors: Zhao Yuning , Oelze Michael L.
Published: April 2023

Quantitative Ultrasound (QUS) is an imaging method that has demonstrated the ability to detect the response of breast cancer to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. QUS is sensitive to tumor cell death, which is a hallmark of response. Traditionally, QUS requires an external reference material, e.g., reference phantom, to calibrate the system for backscatter coefficient based parameters. However, this approach does not account for losses in vivo and requires additional scans. To alleviate these issues, we used an in situ calibration target, i.e., a 2-mm diameter titanium bead, to obtain a reference signal. To automate the procedure to locate the bead in a B-mode image, we constructed a data mining method to distinguish the bead signal from other similar signals recorded from tumors having an embedded bead. The method was able to successfully locate the bead signal in a tumor image with good accuracy.
Evaluating the feasibility of differentiating glioblastoma and normal brain tissue using H-scan imaging: An ex vivo study
Authors: Kakkar Manik , Patil Jagruti M. , Trivedi Vishwas , Yadav Anushka , Rao Shilpa , Vazhayil Vikas , Mahadevan Anita , Shekhar Himanshu , Mercado-Shekhar Karla Patricia
Published: April 2023

H-scan imaging is a quantitative ultrasound technique in which raw radiofrequency (RF) echoes are matched to Gaussian-weighted Hermite polynomials of order n, which is related to the size of scatterers. This information is used to characterize tissue structures based on color-mapping large scatterers in the red channel and small scatterers in the blue channel of the H-scan image. Glioblastoma is a malignant tumor of the brain and has one of the most dismal prognoses of all tumors. In this study, we assessed the feasibility of differentiating glioblastoma and normal brain tissue ex vivo using H-scan imaging. Raw RF echoes from ex vivo brain tissues embedded in agarose phantoms were acquired using a Verasonics Vantage 128 system equipped with an L11-5v array. A total of 11 samples each of glioblastoma and normal tissues were evaluated. The intensity-weighted percentage of thered channel (IWPRED), a scatterer size-dependent and concentration-independentparameter, was computed for each sample. The IWPRED parameter estimates of glioblastoma and normal tissue samples were significantly different (24.0% ± 0.7% vs 34.2% ± 1.1%, respectively; p < 0.001). This work demonstrates the feasibility of differentiating glioblastoma tumors from normal tissue using H-scan imaging.
Experimental detection of skull-based ultrasonic Lamb waves as an intracranial pressure monitoring method
Authors: Nguyen Dan L. , White Phillip J.
Published: April 2023

Pressure within the cranial vault, which consists of cerebrospinal fluid, the central nervous system (CNS), and blood, is referred to as intracranial pressure (ICP). Severely high ICP can damage the CNS so its monitoring is crucial for patients deemed to be at high risk of elevated ICP, such as those with traumatic brain injuries or undergoing neurosurgery. The standard approach requires the insertion of a pressure probe into the ventricles through a burr hole on the skull. A noninvasive alternative to ICP monitoring using guided acoustic waves on the skull was investigated. Different modes of Lamb waves were generated in submerged acrylic skull models and their corresponding leaky components were detected. The behavior of Lamb waves upon asymmetrical pressure loading of the plate was examined to reveal metrics that were sensitive to pressure changes underneath the skull. Dispersion curves, including the anti-symmetrical and symmetrical modes of Lamb waves propagation in thin, isotropic acrylic plate comparable to thickness of cortical skull bone were computed using the Rayleigh–Lamb equation and the bisection method. Physical parameters, such as critical angle, frequency-dependence phase velocity, and time-of-arrival were analyzed.
Effect of focused ultrasound peripheral nerve stimulation on muscle mechanical properties: An in vivo murine model
Authors: Elliott Jacob C. , Moore Zoe , Vidt Meghan E. , Simon Julianna C.
Published: April 2023

Electrical muscle stimulation is limited to surface muscle activation; however, focused ultrasound (fUS) has the potential to stimulate deep skeletal muscles. This study aims to evaluate the effects of fUS peripheral nerve stimulation on muscle mechanical properties in an in vivo murine model. The sciatic nerve of 19 Sprague-Dawley rats was insonified with 3.68-MHz fUS (p+ = 6.4 MPa, p− = 5 MPa) using 10-ms pulses (0.9-ms on/0.1-ms off, 10 times) repeated at 0.5-Hz for 30, 90, or 180 severy second day for two weeks. Stimulation was monitored using electromyography (EMG) with indwelling electrodes inserted in the gastrocnemius muscle belly. Bilateral muscles were harvested for tensile mechanical testing (n = 15) and histology (n = 4). Muscle contraction was confirmed via EMG in 16/19 rats. Elastic moduli of stimulated muscles (133.2 ± 42.1 kPa) and controls (101.4 ± 39.2 kPa) were not different (ANOVA, p = 0.053). A trend toward increased elastic modulus with number of muscle stimulations was observed until 450 stimulations (not significant: ANOVA, p = 0.437), after which elastic modulus began to decrease. No tissue damage was observed histologically. The results of this pilot study demonstrate that fUS can induce repeatable muscle contraction that may improve muscle strength and mechanical properties over time. [Work supported by PSU College of Engineering Seed Grant 2021.]
Quantification of swallowing movements by ultrasound imaging in normal and disordered subjects
Authors: Schoenleb Nicholas S. , Hopkins Anna K. , Krekeler Brittany N. , Howell Rebecca J. , Boyce Suzanne , Dugan Sarah , Riley Michael A. , Spotts AnnaKate , Mast T. Douglas
Published: April 2023

Ultrasound imaging may be useful for tracking oral-pharyngeal structures of the vocal tract critical for effective swallowing, but use of this technology has been hampered by a lack of validation against standard clinical measures derived from x-ray video fluoroscopy (Modified Barium Swallow Studies or MBSS). Here, we compare quantitative tracking of hyoid bone and tongue motion from ultrasound imaging and simultaneously measured MBSS from a range of participants with disordered and healthy swallowing behavior. The proximal edge of the hyoid bone in MBSS and ultrasound recordings is tracked using CASM (Computational Analysis of Swallowing Mechanics) software, while tongue motion is tracked using TonguePART software, originally developed for analysis of speech. Hyoid trajectories and velocities measured from synchronized ultrasound and MBSS recordings are compared and standard deviations of differences between the two measurements are evaluated. Tongue motion during swallowing is characterized by analysis of root, dorsum, and blade displacement, velocity, and timingas well as tongue base retraction in the pharynx. Preliminary findings show quantitatively similar patterns in ultrasound and MBSS, suggesting that ultrasound has potential utility as an accessible tool for bedside diagnosis and biofeedback. Characteristic patterns separating normal from healthy swallowing, as well as potential therapeutic targets for biofeedback treatment of dysphagia, will be discussed.
Numerical simulations for characterization of missing articulatory information in ultrasound imaging of speech
Authors: Li Sarah R. , Boyce Suzanne , Mast T. Douglas
Published: April 2023

The air–tissue interface at the tongue surface allows submental (below the chin) B-mode ultrasound images to depict the shape of the tongue in real time, useful for measuring and understanding typical and disordered tongue articulation during speech production. However, parts of the tongue are obscured; depending on an individual speaker's anatomy and tongue movement patterns, the anterior tongue tip may be shadowed by the mandible bone and the sublingual airspace. To characterize this missing information about the tongue tip in ultrasound images, midsagittal ultrasound images were numericallysimulated. Three-dimensional anatomic models were constructed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data to map tongue tissue, surrounding air, and an estimated position of the mandible. Pulse-echo ultrasound images were then numerically simulated using the open-source k-Wave toolbox. Acoustic properties of the medium and an imaging array model are identified that allow simulations to replicate features in ultrasound images recorded from the same speakers as the MRI data, while maintaining computational efficiency. The potential to recover missing information on the tongue tip position from reverberation artifacts is assessed.
Using an online graphing calculator as an aid in teaching the physics of waves
Authors: Morrison Andrew C.
Published: April 2023

In teaching the physics of wave phenomena, it is frequently helpful to be able to interact with various representations of waves rather than showing static images to students. Through the online graphing calculator platform, Desmos.com, students can interact with animated graphics of different wave behaviors, including traveling waves, standing waves, wave interference, beats, and the Doppler effect. The platform also includes tools for instructors to design interactive activities for students to complete individually as homework or as part of a classroom activity. Instructors can share graphs, interactive simulations, and class activities with other instructors for reuse and modification in other classes. This online tool is an efficient way to bring more interactivity into the classroom for exploring wave behavior.
Building an electronic speckle pattern interferometer to visualize modal shapes in an educational setting
Authors: Rokni Eric , Dalton Kyle S. , Hendricks Dan , Furlong Trent , Case John A. , Todd Steven , Stearns Aaron , Rusk Zane T.
Published: April 2023

An electronic speckle pattern interferometer (ESPI) is an optical system used to investigate vibrating objects and can be a great educational tool for visualizing mode shapes. At the Pennsylvania State University, the Acoustical Society of America student chapter acquired funds to build an ESPI for classroom and outreach use. The design of the ESPI was based on previously published work using equipment purchased for less than $5000. To approach this project, students were split into two groups where one developed a MATLAB application to collect and process images while the other arranged the optical components of the ESPI. To test the system, interferometry was performed on a banjo head which matched mode shapes found using a scanning Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV). Future work includes adapting our ESPI system to obtain images in real-time, developing educational demos involving the ESPI, and further refining the MATLAB application. This presentation provides a model for a multi-disciplinary project that could be implemented at the undergraduate or graduate level.
Waves and fun acoustics
Authors: Brown David A.
Published: April 2023

The presenter shares some experience with teachings and demonstration on waves, vibrations, and sound from classroom visits at kindergarten lovel, after school elementry school science enrichment, high school AP physics, to required graduate course in Acoustic and Electromagetic waves. Topics includestanding waves and lasagna, vibrating strings, coupled oscillators, parametric excitation, boundary conditions, effects of gravity, phonographs, and the Shive wave machine.
Measuring and analyzing sound using phone microphone and free software
Authors: Wright Andrew
Published: April 2023

In Fall 2022 acoustics class, the students developed class projects using their smart phones to measure sound. In a laboratory exercise, the phones were calibrated against a standard microphone. A microphone circuit was bread boarded and calibrated to demonstrate the inner workings of electret microphone technology. Students developed projects around the measurement of sound, including measuring striking a cymbal, analyzing piano chords, analyzing guitar chords, characterizing reverberation time in a warehouse, and determining the amplification from a 3D printed human ear and bat ear. The sound files from the phone were edited to isolate the relevant sound and converted to WAV files using Garageband software. The WAV files were imported into Python for post-processing, such as windowing, filtering, and FFT. Most projects used a waterfall plot to demonstrate some time-frequency analysis. The ease with which the students mastered sound measurement and processing led to unexpectedly mature projects. The low cost of the equipment makes this approach a widely deployable educational paradigm.
Time domain response of a piezoelectric layer
Authors: Yoritomo John , Dzikowicz Benjamin , Tressler James
Published: April 2023

A number of one-dimensional models have been developed to inform the design of piezoelectric transducers. The majority of these models are in the frequency domain. In this paper, we develop a one-dimensional time-domain model for the mechanical response of a piezoelectric layer. Secondary effects, resulting from feedback between the acoustic and electric variables, are included in the model. Our approach utilizes the Green's function for the Helmholtz equation with radiation boundary conditions and the methods of complex analysis. The model predictions are validated by comparison with a finite-difference time-domain numerical simulation of the governing acoustic equations in and outside the layer. This time-domain model enables efficient calculation of the secondary piezoelectric action effects and provides the mechanical response to an arbitrary electrical source.
Characterization of 3-D printed porous materials for use in a low cost impedance tube
Authors: Tapia Candace , Frederickson Carl
Published: April 2023

With improvements in 3-D resin printing, it is now possible to design and print porous materials for testing in an acoustic impedance tube. The measured impedances of these materials can be compared to theoretical calculations. To do this, physical parameters, such as porosity and flow resistance, must be measured for the printed materials. Procedures for measuring these parameters will be discussed as well as preliminary measurements of the acoustic impedance. To measure flow resistance on the printed samples, a system based on the standard “Acoustics—Determination of airflow resistance Part 1: Static airflow method” (ISO 9053-1:2018) has been built and tested. These results will be compared to estimates of flow resistance through straight, round tubes. Porosity is measured in a simple volume comparison measurement.
Synthesis of nonuniformly spaced arrays
Authors: Le Nguyen , Au Jenny Y. , Chandra Kavitha , Thompson Charles
Published: April 2023

This work presents an analysis of beam formation from nonuniformly spaced planar microphone arrays. The effect of transducers' random and deterministic placement on the array's response characteristics is considered. Arrays that exhibit maximal sidelobe reduction are of particular interest. A solution for the transducer density as a function of the position is given.
Frequency-dependent surface wave suppression at the Dirac point of an acoustic graphene analog
Authors: Gangemi Nicholas , Sieck Caleb F. , Vignola Joseph , Turo Diego , Ikei Alec K. , Vignola Amelia , Baldwin Jeffrey , Liskey Steven , Edmunds Aaron , Wilson William , Boone Michael , Yesner Gregory , Photiadis Douglas , Matis Bernard
Published: April 2023

The dispersion of bound acoustic surface waves over hexagonal lattices of resonant cavities has been shown to be analogous to the dispersion of charge transport in carbon graphene. Of particular interest is the frequency range close to the acoustic Dirac point where novel physics is predicted to occur. In this study, we measure the dispersion curves of a single-layer acoustic graphene analogue with high resolution one-dimensional spatial scansand show how the curves can be suppressed (near and at the Dirac point) by strong variations in the impedance boundary conditions between the free field and surface wave regimes under certain experimental conditions. By systematically varying these impedance boundary conditions using different surface wave excitation techniques, we demonstrate that increased Rayleigh scattering and diffractive excitation can increase the dispersed surface wave pressure amplitude to an extent that the impedance-based wave suppression is circumvented. The improved conditions for observing acoustic Dirac points for two samples with two distinct operational frequency ranges are reported. The single-layer acoustic graphene analogue results discussed here are important for advancing the field of acoustic twistronics.
Classical analogous quantum coherent superposition through the Hertz-type nonlinearity of elastic granules
Authors: Mahmood Kazi Tahsin , Hasan M Arif
Published: April 2023

The theory of quantum superposition of states is one of the fundamental concepts related to quantum information science and technology (QIST). Two or more pure quantum states can be superposed to get a distinct quantum state, and one of the examples is the quantum bit, or qubit, state. But decoherence makes it easy for the current qubits, the most critical part of QIST platforms, to lose their superposition of states. Therefore, we theoretically propose and experimentally realize a classical analogous to the coherent superposition of energy states through the Hertz-type nonlinearity of elastic granules driven externally. The granules’ nonlinear vibrations depend mutually through phase and form a coherent superposition when projected into linear modes of vibration. We demonstrate how the state vector components can emerge from the amplitudes of coherent states, spanning to the two-dimensional time-dependent parametric Hilbert space. These amplitudes represent an actual amplitude rather than a probability amplitude, which opens the possibility of exploring two-state quantum-like computations through the superposition of states without decoherence and wave function collapse. These characteristics make it possible to understand the material-based quantum analogous information technology through experimentation of elastic bit.
Quantum analogue information processing using “classical entanglement” of acoustic waves
Authors: Hasan M Arif , Deymier Pierre , Runge Keith , Levine Joshua
Published: April 2023

Various quantum analogues have emerged due to recent advances in the design and fabrication of acoustic structures. Acoustic analogous to “entangled” states of quantum bits or qubits offer a transformative new solution to reach some of the goals of quantum information science. Beams of linear acoustic waves support degrees of freedom (DOF), analogous to quantum mechanics and light beams. The states associated with these DOFs—that we named phase-bits or phi-bits—are algebraically non-separable, like the DOF of a single quantum particle. The strong coupling and nonlinearity of acoustic waves in our waveguides offer new ways to realize non-separable states for classical multipartite systems that span exponentially complex Hilbert spaces with much larger dimensions [1,2]. These acoustic structures enable quantum analogue computing even at room temperature and for long periods of coherence. [Work supported by NSF.] [1] Hasan, M A, et al. “Experimental classical entanglement in a 16 acoustic qubit-analogue.” Scientific Reports 11, 2021. [2] Runge, K, et al. “Demonstration of a two-bit controlled-NOT quantum-like gate using classical acoustic qubit-analogues.” Scientific Reports 12, 2022.
Environmental sound research today: Perception, cognition, applications
Authors: Shafiro Valeriy
Published: April 2023

Environmental sounds, defined as semantically rich acoustic signals different from speech or music, are ubiquitous in daily living. Environmental sound research in various forms has been long embedded into many areas of acoustics including noise control, bioacoustics, music, signal processing, speech communication, and psychoacoustics. However, environmental sounds have been typically investigated in the limited context of specific lines of inquiry unique to each of these areas. In this fractured research landscape, there is also a growing body of work which focuses on ecological aspects and elucidates the neurobiological bases of environmental sound perception and cognition. We will review main questions addressed in recent work, including existing theoretical and methodological challenges and opportunities, and suggest directions for developing a more comprehensive framework for future environmental sound research and applications. A better understanding of environmental sound perception and cognition can in turn have practical implications for many diverse areas of acoustics and related fields.
Comparing acoustic, semantic, and deep neural network models of natural sound representation in perceived dissimilarity and cerebral fMRI responses
Authors: Giordano Bruno L. , Esposito Michele , Valente Giancarlo , Formisano Elia
Published: April 2023

Recognizing sounds implicates the cerebral transformation of input waveforms into semantic representations. Although past research identified the superior temporal gyrus (STG) as a crucial cortical region, the computational fingerprint of these cerebral transformations remains poorly characterized. Here, we contrasted the ability of pre-published acoustic, semantic, and sound-to-event deep neural network (DNN) models to account for the behavioral estimate of the perceived dissimilarity, and for the 7T fMRI responses to natural sounds in the absence of explicit task demands. We find that both perceived dissimilarity and STG fMRI responses are better predicted by sound-to-event DNNs, and, within the DNNs, by the layers intermediate between the input acoustic representation and the output semantic embedding. Our findings indicate that STG entails intermediate acoustic-to-semantic sound representations that neither acoustic nor semantic models can account for. These representations are compositional in nature and relevant to behavior.
Categorization of sound events for automatic sound event classification
Authors: Elizalde Benjamin
Published: April 2023

To train Machine Listening models that classify sounds we need to define recognizable names, attributes, relations, and interactions that produce acoustic phenomena. In this talk, we will review examples of different types of categorizations and how they drive Machine Listening. Categorization of sounds guides the annotation processes of audio datasets and the design of models, but at the same time can limit performance and quality of expression of acoustic phenomena. Examples of categories can be simply named after the sound source or inspired by Cognition (e.g., taxonomies), Psychoacoustics (e.g., adjectives), and Psychomechanics (e.g., materials). These types of classes are often defined by one or two words. Moreover, to acoustically identify sound events we may require instead a sentence providing a description. For example, “malfunctioning escalator” versus “a repeated low-frequency scraping and rubber band snapping.” In any case, we still have limited lexicalized terms in language to describe acoustic phenomena. Language determines a listener's perception and expressiveness of a perceived phenomenon. For example, the sound of water is one of the most distinguishable sounds, but how to describe it without using the word water? Despite limitations in language to describe acoustic phenomena, we should still be able to automatically recognize acoustic content in an audio signal at least as well as humans do.
Improving sound event detection with ontologies
Authors: Raj Bhiksha
Published: April 2023

Sound event recognition is the task of identifying and categorizing sounds in audio data. Automated algorithms for sound event recognition depend on having explicit models for individual sound event types to be recognized, which are trained on data tagged explicitly for those classes. The approach is data hungryand is fundamentally limited by the number of classes for which such data may be obtained. It also ignores the relationship between sounds being modeled. In this work, we attempt to address these deficiencies through the use of a human-generated sound ontology which represents sibling and parent–child relations between sound classes. We incorporate the relationships in the ontology through the design of an appropriate “loss” function (the objective function optimized to train sound-classifier models) that incorporates the relationships in the ontology, and through appropriate model update rules which utilize data from a class to update parameters (of both ontological siblings and parents). Through experiments run on the “Audioset” (a popular, large-scale dataset of 600 sound categories), we find that better-performing models can be trained for sound classes with a given dataset, and that the amount of new data required to train models for a novel sound class can be significantly reduced.
Maximizing environmental sound recognition and speech intelligibility using time-frequency masking
Authors: Johnson Eric M. , Healy Eric W.
Published: April 2023

Environmental sound recognition is an essential part of the human auditory experience that not only provides a sense of connection to one’s surroundings but also forecasts potential nearby safety hazards. Unfortunately, important environmental sounds can be rendered inaudible or otherwise unrecognizable by modern noise-reduction technology, leading to reduced environmental sound recognition. What is needed is a system that simultaneously provides listeners with access to audible, recognizable environmental sounds and intelligible speech. Many modern noise-reduction systems rely on some form of time-frequency masking, such as the ideal ratio mask. Restricting the output range of this mask by limiting the maximum allowable attenuation of any given time-frequency unit results in a mask that preserves environmental sounds to a certain extent while enhancing speech. In an experiment, subjects with hearing impairment and normal hearing listened to mixtures of sound + speech that had been processed by time-frequency masks with various levels of maximum attenuation, resulting in different amounts of environmental sound preservation. In a dual-task paradigm, environmental sound recognition and speech intelligibility were measured, and it was found that both types of listeners simultaneously attain high levels of performance on both tasks when the attenuation of time-frequency units is limited to 23 dB. [Work supported by NIH F32DC019314, NIH R01DC015521, and The OSU Graduate School.]
A corpus-based approach to define Turkish soundscapes attributes
Authors: Yilmazer Semiha , Dalirnaghadeh Donya , Fasllija Ela , Alimadhi Enkela , Şahin Zekiye , Mercan Elif
Published: April 2023

Considering the challenges of translating soundscape attributes, this study aims to identify soundscape attributes in Turkish. To conduct this study, an online questionnaire with two parts was prepared and sent to 200 native Turkish bilingual speakers from all around Turkey. In the first part, the participants were asked to translate the eight soundscape attributes in ISO 12913-2:2018 from English to Turkish. In addition to direct translations, the participants were asked to describe the acoustic environment they were present in with five perceptual adjectives in their own words. The adjectives from direct translations and the open-ended question were combined to form a pool of 196 adjectives. Through a two-step elimination process by six soundscape experts, a total of 80 attributes were obtained. Twenty-four binaural sound recordings, using a 3Dio binaural microphone and Zoom H4N recorder, were collected from indoor and outdoor public spaces with different functions (e.g., concert hall, masjid, design studio, cafe). Each participant was asked to listen to six 30s-long sound recordings one at a time and rate the 80 attributes on a five-point scale for each recording individually. The results show that the opposite adjectives with similar perceptual meanings were placed together in two main clusters.
Observed changes in the perceived ambience of public spaces elicited by added sound
Authors: Fiebig Andre , Moshona Cleopatra
Published: April 2023

New soundscape approaches consider plus sound design to create a more positive atmosphere and to reduce the audibility of unwanted sound sources. By adding water installations, sound art or simply music for example, urban noise can be efficiently masked to a certain degree. Although this design approach appears reasonable, scarce amount of data is available regarding the potential and limitations of additive sound measures in public spaces. In this context, the enrichment of the acoustic environment by music is frequently discussed and mainly applied in indoor settings. However, such measures raise ethical concerns when it comes to subconscious effects, because they might lead to behavioral changes. In Berlin, a variety of music pieces and genres were played in public transportation waiting areas to investigate the effect of the music on the atmosphere and passengers. In order to examine the effects of the music on different assessment parameters (e.g., perceived safety, cleanliness, mood, loudness) varying data collection tools were applied insitu to investigate the implications of additive sound design based on music streams in detail. The paper presents survey results with a special focus on how the perception of the soundscapes is changed by the added sound.
Domain adaptation towards speaker-independent ultrasound tongue imaging based articulatory-to-acoustic conversion
Authors: You Kang , Xu Kele , Wang Jilong , Feng Ming
Published: April 2023

In this paper, we endeavor to address an articulatory-to-acoustic issue which aims to estimate the mel-spectrogram of the acoustical signals, using midsagittal ultrasound tongue images of the vocal tract as input. Previous attempts employed statistical methods for the inversion between the articulatory movements and speech, while deep learning has begun to dominate this field. Despite the sustainable efforts that have been made, the mapping performance can be greatly varied for different speakers and most of the previous methods are constrained for the speaker-dependent scenario. Here, we present a novel approach towards speaker-independent mapping, which is inspired by the domain adaptation method. Specifically, we explore decoupling the spectrogram generation task and the speaker recognition task. Leveraging a novel designed loss function, we can improve the performance under the speaker-independent scenarios, through the adversarial learning strategy. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, extensive experiments are conducted on the Tongue and Lips (TaL) corpus. Objective evaluation is conducted to compare the generated spectrograms and ground truth, using three evaluation metrics, including the MSE, SSIM, and CW-SSIM. The results indicate that our proposed method can achieve superior performance under the speaker-independent scenario, compared with competitive solutions. Our code is available at https://github.com/xianyi11/Articulatory-to-Acoustic-with-Domain-Adaptation.
Musicality measures and generalization of an artificial dialect of English
Authors: Young Elizabeth D. , Myers Brett R.
Published: April 2023

Wide individual variability exists in the ability to imitate and generalize novel speech and voice patterns, including unfamiliar dialects. Limited research exists examining possible underlying causes of such variability, particularly in the ability to generalized novel dialects. One possible source of individual differences is variability in musicality, either in terms of musical ability or degree of musical training. The current study examines the relationship between musicality and an individual’s ability to generalize an artificial dialect of English to a novel context with minimal exposure. Thirty participants were tested, 15 self-classifying as non-musicians and 15 as musicians. All participants were given Gordon’s Advanced Measures of Music Audiation (AMMA; a musical aptitude test) and the Goldsmith’s Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI, a survey of an individual’s engagement with music). Participants then completed a dialect learning task using an artificial dialect of English (Spinu et al., 2020) in which they are first familiarized with the dialect, then asked to imitate it, then finally generalize it to novel sentences. The effect of both musicality measures on dialect generalization, as well as patterns of individual differences, will be examined.
The style effect on the TRAP phonemic split in UP English
Authors: Rankinen Wil A. , Westedt Payton , McKenzie Lauren
Published: April 2023

The short-a system, or the phonemic split of the TRAP vowel (i.e., /æ/), refers to the raised position of the vowel in pre-nasal and pre-velar phonological environments (Labov et al., 2006; Labov, 2007; Becker et al., 2010; Labov et al., 2015; Wagner et al., 2016). The present study builds upon these previous studies by examining the TRAP-system in rural, under-documented American English speech communities across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (UP). Previous work on this feature in reading passage data has revealed UP speech communities on the east- and west-sides of the peninsula have strikingly different systems (i.e., a two-way phonemic split in eastern UP, while a three-way split in western UP). The present sociophonetic talk examines the apparent-time change of the phonemic split of an 87-speaker sample as an interaction of task types (passage/word list/minimal pairs), area (east/west), age groups (18-39/40-59/60 + ), and self-gender (female/male). The three-way phonemic split of TRAP only occurs in informal speech styles in western UP; in contrast, the two-phonemic split is preferred in eastern UP irrespective of speech style. The two-way phonemic split is preferred in more formal speech styles and is stable in the eastern UP suggesting an external influence from outside Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Exploring macro-rhythm in African American English
Authors: Rochelle Thomas A. C. , Cole Jennifer
Published: April 2023

This study contributes to a growing body of research on quantifying the theory of macro-rhythm, a model of prosodic typology proposed by Sun-Ah Jun (2014) that looks at the global pitch patterns of an utterance, through comparing African American English (AAE) to Mainstream (white) US English (MUSE). Based on prior research on intonation, rhythm, and prosody in AAE (cf. Thomas, 2015 for a thorough overview), we predicted that AAE would have stronger macro-rhythm than MUSE, such that speakers would produce higher peaks and lower valleys, pitch excursions of greater magnitude, have a greater consistency in slope, a greater frequency of high (H) and low (L) pitch targets, and more regular spacing of these pitch targets. Data weretaken from the Valdosta group of the Corpus of Regional African American Language (CORAAL) for Black speakers and the Buckeye corpus for white speakers. Contrary to our expectations, Buckeye speakers proved to be more macro-rhythmic than their CORAAL counterparts in all but one metric, but these results confirm that macro-rhythm is a viable method for cross-dialectal analysis as it reveals quantifiable differences between speaker dialect groups of the same language.
Exploring speaker-specific behaviors and effects of electro-opticalstomatography palates during speech breathing
Authors: Koenig Laura , Fuchs Susanne
Published: April 2023

Speech inhalations, compared to vegetative breathing, are more likely to be associated with open oral postures, i.e., speakers may employ oral as well as nasal inspiration patterns. Past studies have suggested that there may be considerable individual variation for speech breathing behaviors as well. Recently, we have employed electro-optical stomatography (EOS) to assess lip apertures during speech breathing in healthy German-speaking women. The EOS system combines traditional electropalatography (contact sensors) with optical sensors that register distances. Consistent with past work, preliminary data on lip apertures showed that speakers frequently had open-mouth postures during speech breathing. However, the lip sensors of the EOS device, and the full coverage of the upper dentition that it involves, could have induced at least some speakers to adopt an open-mouth posture to a greater degree than usual. Thus, to explore the external validity of our data, this work will compare lip postures for speech breathing in the same speakers with and without the EOS device. We will also assess to what extent oral postures during speech inspirations vary across individuals, across normal and loud speaking conditions, and across speaking tasks that vary in their degree of naturalness.
Limited attention shifts judgments in socioindexical perception
Authors: Ross Jory P. , Clopper Cynthia G.
Published: April 2023

This project investigated how limited attention influences the perception of socially meaningful details in speech with a focus on American English ING. American English ING has two variants, a canonically standard velar variant -ing, as in cooking, and a non-standard apical variant -in’, as in cookin’. Talkers who more frequently use the apical variant are judged to be less educated, less articulate, less formal, and more likely to be Southern. In a matched guise task talkers produced apical variants, velar variants, or a mix of the two. Participants rated the talkers on intelligence, clarity, dynamism, friendliness, and gender. In a distracted condition, participants completed visual search tasks while listening to limit their ability to attend to the talkers’ speech. In a focused condition, participants listened with no concurrent task. The results revealed that apical talkers were rated as less cold and less articulate than velar talkers. Ratings for coldness, but not articulateness, were less affected by ING guise for distracted participants than focused participants. Additionally, ratings for articulateness and gender shifted between distracted and focused conditions independent of ING guise. These findings suggest that limited attention alters how listeners form judgments from indexical information in speech.
Effects of dialect familiarity on lexical processing dynamics
Authors: Laycock Kyler B. , Clopper Cynthia G.
Published: April 2023

When listeners map acoustically ambiguous forms to abstract lexical representations such that there is a potential for greater lexical competition, there is observable variation in listeners' lexical processing dynamics. As compared to non-mobile listeners, geographically mobile listeners exhibit less inhibition given competing prime-target pairsas well as less facilitation from matching prime-target pairs. This difference is attributed to mobile listeners' exposure to cross-dialect ambiguities. The current study seeks to more closely examine the role of geographic mobility and dialect-specific familiarity, and further address lexical processing dynamics by manipulating inter-stimulus-intervals (ISI). A lexical decision task using cross-modal priming and cross-dialect phonological contrasts was used to assess effects of facilitation and inhibition. Analyses show an interaction between familiarity, vowel contrast, and ISI as predictors of response time. While facilitatory effects increase and inhibitory effects decrease when participants have higher familiarity with a contrast, high familiarity and longer ISI also increase the degree of individual variability. These results support predictions that processing differences are dependent upon familiarity with particular variants as opposed to a general strategic response, though it may be the case that a longer ISI allows for additional variability in processing and the adoption of general strategic responses to emerge.
Breathing patterns of conversation partners
Authors: Diekhoff Megan , Lulich Steven M.
Published: April 2023

Previous research has shown that breathing patterns of conversation partners can become synchronized. For example, when one conversation partner is speaking, the listening partner's breathing patterns more closely resemble speech breathing than tidal breathing (McFarland, 2001). The present study aims to replicate and extend these findings using an unconventional instrumental setup consisting of a single inductive plethysmograph machine shared by both conversation partners. In addition to scripted and unscripted conversational speech, single-subject quiet breathing and speech breathing tasks of increasing length and complexity were also recorded using conventional inductive plethysmography, and used as baseline data for interpretating the conversational speech breathing data.
Effects of dialect familiarity on word identification in a visual-world eye-tracking task
Authors: Bissell Marie , Bryan Larisa , Romain Precious-Janae , Clopper Cynthia G.
Published: April 2023

The acoustic closeness of vowels across American English dialects results in cross-dialect lexical competition among minimal pair words. In the current study, we investigated how listener familiarity with specific dialects affects performance in a cross-dialect visual-world eye-tracking task. Listeners heard both acoustically close and control minimal pairs in each of three regional American English dialects (New England, Southern, and Northern) in a four-alternative forced-choice identification task. Listener dialect familiarity was assessed for each dialect based on each individual’s self-reported residential history for themselves, their parents, and their significant others. Preliminary analyses revealed more accurate and faster responses to New England talkers as familiarity with the New England dialect increased, consistent with talker and accent familiarity effects in the literature. However, responses to Southern talkers were slower as familiarity with the Southern dialect increased, contrary to the typical pattern. Responses to Northern talkers were not affected by familiarity with the Northern dialect, consistent with the lack of enregisterment of this variety. Together, these findings suggest that listener dialect familiarity has different effects on the resolution of cross-dialect lexical competition, reflecting both the nature of the variation and the social stereotypes associated with the dialect. Analysis of the eye-tracking data is ongoing.
Classification of Kansai and Chugoku dialects spoken by old Japanese speakers
Authors: Hattori Kota , Kishie Shinsuke
Published: April 2023

The present study examined how Kansai and Chugoku dialects in Japanese are classified using hierarchical density-based spatial clustering (HDBSCAN) and Random Forest (RF). We obtained the written-format pronunciations of 48 words from 1450 Japanese speakers over age 50 who had been residing in their birthplaces. We calculated phonetic distance (ALINE distance) between the dialectal pronunciations and standard Japanese ones, and ran HDBSCAN and RF models with 1000 bootstrap samples. The optimal HDBSCAN model demonstrated that there are two groups of speakers in the northern and southern pastoral areas of Kansai region. The RF models demonstrated that speakers from each prefecture were classified with a wide range of accuracies (F1 = 0.73). Kansai-region speakers in the urban area where Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara prefectures share borderlines were poorly classified. Similarly, Chugoku-region speakers living near the borderlines of Hiroshima, Shimane, and Tottori prefectures were poorly classified. The rest of the participants were generally classified well. These results suggest that each prefecture generally has its own dialect, but its distribution goes beyond prefecture borderlines. This is the first study to reveal such classification patterns of Japanese dialects using machine learning approaches.