bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Correlating shipping noise on multiple beams
Authors: Hursky Paul
Published: April 2023

There has been much interest in using transiting surface ships as sources of opportunity for tomography and geo acoustic inversion. In tomography, it would be valuable to increase the ranges at which ship signatures can be processed by measuring times of arrival at the output of beamforming processes, which provide spatial processing gain. This additional gain may enable fainter multipath arrivals to be identified and exploited as additional paths to sample the ocean water column. This seems readily achievable when cross-correlating multiple vertical beams formed on a single vertical line array for example. However, cross-correlating beams from multiple arrays, vertical or horizontal, raises questions. In both cases, different beams may have different Doppler, which is manageable with a correlation process that includes Doppler compensation. But obeserving a ship from different vantage points may be problematic, if the ship signature is due to horizontally displaced noise sources distributed around the ship. We will present results of processing surface ships observed on single and multiple arrays and assess the use of such processing in ambient noise tomography.
Vortex ultrasound catheter for cerebral intravenous sonothrombolysis
Authors: JIang Xiaoning , Zhang Bohua , Wu Huaiyu , Nogueira Raul , Shi Chengzhi
Published: April 2023

One treatment challenge for cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is to achieve recanalization within a short period of time (e.g., 30 min) for significant clinical outcomes. Ultrasound-mediated thrombolysis (sonothrombolysis) presents a promising treatment for venous embolism. In this paper, a miniature vortex ultrasound transducer with frequency of 1.8 MHz was developed for sonothrombolysis. A composite transducer with 2-by-2 sub-aperture piezoelectric elements was assembled into a 9-French catheter to generate a physical helical wavefront. The prototyped vortex ultrasound catheter was characterized by measuring the acoustic pressure amplitude and phases, followed by in-vitro- sonothrombolysis tests. It was found that a vortex ultrasound field can be successfully generated by the prototype. The vortex lytic rate was increased by more than 50% compared with the nonvortex lysis with the same acoustic power input. A long (∼7.5 cm), completely occluded in-vitro- 3D model of acute CVST was fully recanalized within 8 min. The unprecedented sonothrombolysis rate was likely attributed to the vortex ultrasound-induced shear stress, which can effectively disrupt acute blood clots. Furthermore, no vessel wall damage over ex-vivo bovine veins was found after the vortex sonothrombolysis treatment.
A model-based image reconstruction algorithm for near real-time transcranial photoacoustic imaging
Authors: Park Hyungjoo , Jing Yun
Published: April 2023

Photoacoustic imaging is a promising hybrid imaging modality that can visualize both microscopic and macroscopic structures and oxygenation changes in brain function. Phase aberration caused by the skull is a major barrier for high-quality photoacoustic imaging of the brain. Time-reversal methods have been used to address this issue, though they rely on solving the full-wave equation, and is therefore computationally heavy and slow. Herein, a near real-time model-based image reconstruction algorithm is proposed. The acoustic forward model is mathematically described as a model matrix and image reconstructions are performed by employing the pseudoinverse of the model matrix and calculating the initial pressure distribution. The pseudoinverse matrix only needs to be computed once for the same experimental setup and acoustic medium and is obtained offline prior to imaging. The proposed algorithm shows equivalent image quality but considerably faster reconstruction time (>40 times faster), compared to the time-reversal method and therefore could potentially enable near real-time photoacoustic imaging.
Therapeutic ultrasound for enhanced transcorneal macromolecule delivery
Authors: Allison Claire M. , Jimenez-Benoit Annette , Ramajayam Krishna , Haemmerich Dieter , Zderic Vesna
Published: April 2023

Previous experiments demonstrated that ultrasound exposure at 400-600 kHz can increase transcorneal drug delivery of sodium-fluorescein. Our study aims to determine if these same methods can enhance the delivery of fluorescently labeled FITC-dextran macromolecules of similar molecular weights to clinically relevant drugs. Dissected corneas of adult rabbits were placed in a diffusion cell between a donor compartment filled with a solution of FITC-dextran macromolecules diluted with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) to 1 mg/ml and a receiver compartment filled with PBS. Each cornea was exposed to the drug solution for 60 minutes, with the experimental group receiving 5 min of continuous ultrasound or 10 min of pulsed ultrasound at 50% duty cycle at the beginning of treatment. Unfocused circular ultrasound transducers were operated at 0.5 –1 W/cm2 intensity and at 600 kHz frequency. Macromolecule delivery was quantified by the fluorescence intensity detected in the receiver compartment. The greatest increase in transcorneal drug delivery seen was 1.2 times (p < 0.05) with the application of pulsed ultrasound at 0.5 W/cm2 and 600 kHz for 10 min with 40 kDa macromolecules. Gross observation of corneas after experiments demonstrated no significant damage. Ongoing microscopy and thermal-modeling studies aim to characterize any ultrasound-induced damage.
Preliminary investigations on cavitation effects in the crystalline lens
Authors: Lafond Maxime , Ganeau Alice , Ben Moussa Olfa , Mascarelli Frédéric , Thuret Gilles , Catheline Stefan , Lafon Cyril
Published: April 2023

Presbyopia is the age-related stiffening of the crystalline lens, reducing near vision. One of the main mechanisms of this lens stiffening is the formation of disulfide bonds. We propose ultrasonic cavitation to interact with the lens structure, disrupt disulfide bonds and restore flexibility. Here, we present early results on the feasibility of the technique. Cavitation was nucleated inside the porcine lenses using confocal transducers and signals emitted in the focal area were acquired using an imaging array and reconstructed using frequency-domain passive cavitation imaging. Peak negative pressure of 23MPa for 20-μs pulses at 1.1 MHz provided a clear chance of nucleating cavitation with our system. Exposures were performed during 10 seconds of cavitation at a PRF of 250 Hz. Cavitation clouds were clearly visible in B-mode images for both 6-months old and 3-years old porcine eyes. To provide initial safety data, the absence of cataract was confirmed on transparency images. Histology revealed no damage to the lens structure. A gel phantom with a disulfide bond-dependent hardening is proposed to investigate the potential for cavitation to disrupt the disulfide bonds.
Monitoring presbyopia treatment with ultrasonic cavitation using shear wave elastography (SWE): Experiments and simulations
Authors: Legrand François , Ganeau Alice , Laloy-Borgna Gabrielle , Lafon Cyril , Lafond Maxime , Catheline Stefan
Published: April 2023

This numerical study aims at evaluating quantitative monitoring of elasticity changes induced by ultrasonic cavitation using shear waves elastography (SWE). SWE is a good method to safely evaluate the lens stiffness. Yet, the absence of backscattered signal inside the lens (regardless of the imaging technique) forbids elastography inside. Experimentally, we, thus, tracked surfaces waves on multiple models (gelatin beads, porcine lens) and evaluated dispersion curves of this waves. Finite difference time domain simulations are performed in order to evaluate elasticity with access to a few surface point, starting with a simple homogeneous inclusion towards complex inclusion closer to the lens configuration. In homogeneous inclusion, we noticed Scholte wave behavior on the dispersion. Complexifying the configuration by adding layers induced a gradient in the dispersion curves, the higher the frequency is the less the surface wave depends on the deepest layers. A similar behavior was observed experimentally: low frequencies with mostly resonances then a plateau matching Scholte wave expectation. Numerical studies indicate that the surface waves is sensitive to the shear elasticity inside the inclusion, yet this behavior is highly frequency dependent. This leads the way to investigate the frequency behavior of guided wave in experiments in lens in our team.
Radiation damping effect on the sound pressure response in a structural-acoustic cavity
Authors: Sung Shung H. , Nefske Donald J.
Published: April 2023

A structural-acoustic system consisting of an enclosed cavity with flexible wall panels is considered to evaluate the effect of sound radiation-damping resulting from the panel vibration on the sound pressure level in the cavity. The interior cavity pressure can excite the flexible wall panels that will radiate noise to the exterior that in turn can reduce the interior noise due to the energy loss to the exterior surroundings. This energy loss is described as radiation damping of the interior cavity system. An enclosed rectangular cavity-plate system subjected to external random pressure excitation is used to evaluate the effect. The radiation damping is evaluated using a modal approach (FEM, BEM) to determine the radiation efficiency of the vibrating panels. The effect of the radiation damping for the example of a box-plate structure is evaluated using the CMA (classical modal analysis) method for the low-frequency range and the AMA (asymptotic modal analysis) method for the mid- and high-frequency ranges. The inclusion of radiation damping due to rigid body cavity mode excitation is shown to provide an improved prediction of the sound transmission loss especially in the low-frequency range.
Design and optimization of lightweight porous damping treatments
Authors: Xue Yutong , Bolton J. S.
Published: April 2023

Here, it is shown that properly-designed limp porous materials such as fibrous layers can provide damping equivalent to conventional viscoelastic dampers while providing advantages such as light weight and effective sound absorption. This then allows porous layers to be used as multi-functional noise and vibration control solutions in automotive and aerospace applications. It has also been found that the addition of bulk elasticity to the solid phase of the porous medium is beneficial since it improves damping performance compared to equivalent limp treatments. In this study, porous media, such as fibers and foams, were designed to serve as treatments for various vibrating structures to examine their damping effectiveness. Both analytical modeling and numerical simulation based on finite element methods were involved depending on the complexity of the structure. Specifically, a Fourier transform-based computational method was introduced as the key step to realize the accurate prediction of a panel’s spatial response based on its wavenumber-frequency spectrum. Then, parametric studies were conducted on a porous layer to identify the optimal bulk properties that would allow the layer to provide the largest possible damping within the target frequency region. Finally, design concepts for achieving the maximum damping potential of porous layers are summarized.
Sonic black hole duct
Authors: Petrover Kayla
Published: April 2023

The sonic black hole is a type of acoustic black hole that attenuates sound propagation via the acoustic black hole effect. This phenomenon is when an incident acoustic wave propagates through a power-law tapering geometry causing the wavelength to compress, the wave speed to decrease, and the time for the wave packet to reach the exit to extend infinitely. As a result, the wave never reaches the exit, so it cannot be reflected or transmitted. However, this outcome relies on the taper approaching exactly zero, which is impossible to manufacture. Therefore, the taper must be truncated leading to imperfect sound absorption. One method to increase the sound absorption is by applying perforations to the rings. This study explores the effect that varying the perforations on the sonic black hole’s rings has on the absorption coefficient from 1 to 5 kHz.
Initial observations and insights from a full-scale static rocket engine firing
Authors: Rasband Reese D. , Wall Alan T.
Published: April 2023

With increased space travel focus and launch cadence, many commercial and public entities are looking to take advantage of this form of transit. One such use would be rapid delivery of supplies or troops across the globe. One question related to its viability is acoustic impacts on communities, structures, and personnel from both launch and landing maneuvers. In order to better predict these impacts, as well as improve measurement capabilities, AFRL recently measured a static firing of full-scale static rocket engine. This paper describes the measurement setup and initial results including directivity and decay. Relevance for future modeling and measurements is discussed.
Overview of BYU’s acoustical measurements of the Falcon-9 SARah-1 launch, reentry sonic boom, and landing
Authors: Durrant J. T. , Anderson Mark C. , Bassett Michael S. , Batelaan Richard , Lawrence David C. , Hall Lucas K. , Gee Kent L.
Published: April 2023

More rockets are launching than ever before, exposing structures, environments, and communities to intense sounds and vibrations. This increased launch cadence brings about a greater need to understand the noise radiated during these launches. This paper summarizes BYU’s acoustical measurement and analysis of the Falcon 9 SARah-1 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in June 2022. In total, nine measurement stations were set up at locations between 400 m and 15 km from the launch pad. Additionally, this launch featured a booster landing back near the launch pad, resulting in a sonic boom about eight minutes after the launch. Each station successfully recorded the launch noise, sonic boom, and landing noise. Waveforms and spectra from the launch are discussed and compared across stations at different distances from the launch pad. The overall sound power level and other noise metrics are also discussed. [Work supported in part by NSF.]
Assessing the influence of rocket launch and landing noise on threatened and endangered species at Vandenberg Space Force Base
Authors: Hall Lucas K. , McCullah-Boozer Megan R. , Hinds Brooke M. , Gee Kent L. , Hart Grant W. , Moats Levi T. , LaBonte John P. , York Darryl L. , Kaiseratt Samantha O.
Published: April 2023

Understanding how species of concern respond to anthropogenic activities is becoming increasingly important. While the ways in which anthropogenic activities affect species are many, our understanding the effects of anthropogenic noise on species is still developing. Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) along the California Central Coast presents a unique opportunity to study the effects of anthropogenic noise on species of concern as (1) the rate of rocket launches/landings is predicted to significantly increase in the coming years compared to the last three decades and (2) there are multiple threatened and endangered species at VSFB that may be impacted by the increased launch cadence. Our interdisciplinary research team composed of wildlife biologists and acousticians will be studying the short and long-term behaviors of threatened and endangered shorebirds that nest relatively close to active VSFB launch complexes. Using previously collected and current bird counts and acoustic data from VSFB, models will be created that describe behavioral changes in species of concern. We will discuss the scope and overview of this project.
A comparative analysis of rocket noise recordings from wildlife acoustic monitoring devices
Authors: McCullah-Boozer Megan R. , Hinds Brooke M. , Mathews Logan T. , Anderson Mark C. , Bassett Michael , Hall Lucas K. , Gee Kent L.
Published: April 2023

Remote acoustic recorders are used in wildlife passive acoustical monitoring (PAM) and species identification. Such devices are designed to be relatively low-cost, user-friendly, weather-robust, and operate for extended periods with low maintenance. Usually, the precision of these devices is limited because most applications do not require high-fidelity measurements for typical wildlife PAM applications. However, the relatively low cost and flexibility of deployment beg the question if they can accurately record other noise sources, such as rocket launches. Such a situation calls for an evaluation of accuracy and a complete understanding of their capabilities and limitations. As such documentation is limited, this study seeks to characterize the acoustic performance of two commercially available wildlife acoustic monitoring devices: the Wildlife Acoustics SM-4 and the Cornell Ornithology Laboratory SwiftOne. We present acoustical results from a laboratory experiment and a field measurement of an orbital rocket launch. Comparisons to industry standard devices are made in the time and frequency domains and show the spectral characteristics of these devices. Recommendations are made regarding the use of these devices based on their performance.
Optimization of radical polymerization in water through the characterization of the pressure field in nested cavities excited by a piezoelectric transducer
Authors: Nerson Tristan , Sensan Tharin , Gaborit Mathieu , Piogé Sandie , Duclos Aroune , Pascual Sagrario , Desjouy Cyril
Published: April 2023

The activation of a radical polymerization using ultrasound in water is an eco-friendly way to produce synthetic latexes, as it avoids using radical initiators and surfactants that negatively impact the environment. Such an experiment can be achieved by exciting a water bath (so-called generator) in which the reaction vessel is immersed with an ultrasonic transducer. Following data from the literature, several frequency bands may be used, but the present setup uses the 480-500 kHz range. Prior experiments by the same team and others have shown that such an excitation successfully fosters polymerization. The question now pertains to optimizing the setup geometry for a more efficient reaction. In the framework of linear acoustics, the experimental setup can be described as nested cavities and the pressure field in the different domains is modeled with modal theory. By describing the cavities with parameters related to their shape and position, this contribution aims at determining optimized sets of parameters to enhance the radicals generation rate and connect it to the stable or transient cavitation activity produced by sonication. The data from the linear model are compared with some experimental data at high frequencies and high intensity.
Control of amyloidogenic protein aggregation by ultrasonic irradiation
Authors: Nakajima Kichitaro , Ota Tomoki , Yamaguchi Keiichi , Goto Yuji , Ogi Hirotsugu
Published: April 2023

Protein aggregation causes intractable diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. In these diseases, crystal-like protein aggregates, so-called amyloid fibrils, form in vivo and induce severe malfunction of biological tissues. Amyloid fibril formation comprises primary nucleation from a supersaturated solution of protein monomers and subsequent fibril growth. Within them, primary nucleation possesses an extremely high energy barrier, resulting in a long induction time for nucleation, typically over a decade in vivo and several days even in a test tube. Our previous study (1) revealed that ultrasonic irradiation to supersaturated protein solution drastically accelerates amyloid formation because of the effects of ultrasonic cavitation, which is applicable to clinical diagnosis (2). However, the degree of acceleration has not been controlled yet. Furthermore, the reproducibility of the induction time for nucleation highly depends on ultrasonic-irradiation conditions and the degree of supersaturation of initial protein solutions. Herein, we systematically investigate the optimized condition to accurately control amyloid formation using an originally developed sonoreactor (3) and discuss the underlying mechanism governing ultrasonic induction of amyloid formation. (1) K. Nakajima et al., Ultrason. Sonochem. 36, 206-211 (2017). (2) K. Nakajima et al., Nat. Commun. 13, 5689 (2022). (3) K. Nakajima et al., Ultrason. Sonochem. 73 105508 (2022).
Excitation of structures by partially correlated pressures: A review of diffuse acoustic field and turbulent boundary layer models
Authors: Shepherd Micah
Published: April 2023

Structures are sometimes excited by pressure distributions which exhibit complex spatial correlation. This differs from common acoustic excitations since the pressure at one location is only partially correlated with the pressure at another location due to inherent spatial randomness within the forcing function. Two forcing functions which exhibit partially-correlated pressures are the diffuse acoustic field (DAF) and turbulent boundary layer (TBL) flow. A basic model for representing the spatial correlation for these two forcing functions will be reviewed in both the spatial and wavenumber domains. Recent approaches for computing the vibration of structures excited by DAF or TBL flow will then be summarized. Interesting physical effects, such as intermodal coupling, will be highlighted to illustrate the importance of properly modeling partial correlations when they exist.
Exploring ways to maximize the amplitude of steady state broadband noise signals using time reversal in order to excite structures acoustically
Authors: Russell Rylee , Anderson Brian E.
Published: April 2023

Exciting structures with a broadband noise signal is a method used to assess a structure’s health and how it responds to the noise. Past work has shown that time reversal (TR) acoustics has provided a robust method to focus impulses at high amplitudes. Maximization of the highest possible amplitude while maintaining the desired spectral shape can be challenging. This study explores the benefits of using TR with equalization methods to a steady state broadband noise signal to acoustically excite structures. Tradeoffs exist between the possible amplitude of the focused noise and the duration of the noise and the amount of equalization employed. The spatial extent of the focusing will also be discussed. The use of TR to generate high amplitude broadband noise is compared to standard point application of noise equalization with the overall goal to use this high amplitude noise to excite structures under test.
On the coupled dynamics of near-field acoustic levitation bearing
Authors: Wang Yaoke
Published: April 2023

Near field acoustic levitation (NFAL) bearings, as an alternative non-contact bearing solution, has been proposed and advanced in variable aspects in recent years. To further investigate the property of NFAL and fulfill its theoretical frame, a model based on the stiffness model to analysis the coupled dynamics of the NFAL bearing system, which takes the impact of dynamic stiffness on the levitated object into consideration is proposed. In this model, due to the impact of the driving surface vibration and the dynamic stiffness on the levitated object, a real-time movement of the levitated object is superimposed on the time-averaged movement. By inducing the real-time vibration of the levitated object into the model, it is found that the levitation force and the driving frequency will no longer follow an approximate hyperbolic tangent relationship. The model indicates that, when approaching a certain frequency, the stiffness-mass system of the bearing resonates, and then the phase of the two surfaces begins to increase rapidly, thereby increasing the amplitude of the actual air gap. It is verified with experiments that the object can only be levitated above the resonant frequency.
Improved fracture predictions using Acoustic Emissions data
Authors: Sheoran Rahul
Published: April 2023

The mechanical health of any composite specimen can be monitored by recording the acoustic emissions (AE) from the surface and hence can be used to predict mechanical fracturing of the material. The non-destructive and non-invasive technique of AE is an established method to monitor the mechanical health of a structure. The AE captured from a specimen undergoing mechanical stress appears to display power law like distribution. While empirical data almost never follow power law behaviour completely, which, in turn makes the estimation of its exponent (b-value) to be highly erroneous. Literature shows that attempts have been made by the researchers to filter out the non-power law parts of the dataset, however, issues such as choice of upper and lower bounds, and fixed values of these bounds for different types of datasets remain a challenge for efficient and robust estimation of b-value. In the present work, the author has proposed a novel technique to rectify the inherent shortcomings of b-value and improved b-value (ib-value) estimation methodology. The proposed method, which is computationally light to implement, has been verified on synthetic, experimental datasets and reputed datasets from literature. The results show measurable quantitative improvements in the estimation of b-value parameter compared to previous reported methods in the literature.
Comparing pre-linguistic normalization models against US English listeners’ vowel perception
Authors: Persson Anna , Jaeger T. Florian
Published: April 2023

One of the central computational challenges for speech perception is that talkers differ in pronunciation--i.e., how they map linguistic categories and meanings onto the acoustic signal. Yet, listeners typically overcome these difficulties within minutes (Clarke & Garrett, 2004; Xie et al., 2018). The mechanisms that underlie these adaptive abilities remain unclear. One influential hypothesis holds that listeners achieve robust speech perception across talkers through low-level pre-linguistic normalization. We investigate the role of normalization in the perception of L1-US English vowels. We train ideal observers (IOs) on unnormalized or normalized acoustic cues using a phonetic database of 8 /h-VOWEL-d/ words of US English (N = 1240 recordings from 16 talkers, Xie & Jaeger, 2020). All IOs had 0 DFs in predicting perception—i.e., their predictions are completely determined by pronunciation statistics. We compare the IOs’ predictions against L1-US English listeners’ 8-way categorization responses for /h-VOWEL-d/ words in a web-based experiment. We find that (1) pre-linguistic normalization substantially improves the fit to human responses from 74% to 90% of best-possible performance (chance = 12.5%); (2) the best-performing normalization accounts centered and/or scaled formants by talker; and (3) general purpose normalization (C-CuRE, McMurray & Jongman, 2011) performed as well as vowel-specific normalization.
Comparing pre-linguistic normalization models against US English listeners’ perception of natural and resynthesized vowels
Authors: Persson Anna , Jaeger T. Florian
Published: April 2023

Talkers vary in their vowel pronunciation. One hypothesis holds that listeners achieve robust speech perception through pre-linguistic normalization. In recent work (also submitted to ASA), we modeled listeners’ perception of naturally produced /h-VOWEL-d/ words. The best-performing normalization models accounted for ∼90% of the explainable variance in listeners’ responses. Here, we investigate whether the remaining 10% follow from (1) other mechanisms or whether (2) they reflect listeners’ ability to use more cues than available to models. We constructed a new set of *synthesized* /h-VOWEL-d/ stimuli that varied only in F1 and F2. Unsurprisingly, listeners (N = 24) performed worse on these synthesized stimuli than on the natural stimuli (estimated as inter-listener agreement in categorization). Critically though, we find (1) that the same normalization accounts that best explained listeners’ responses to natural stimuli also perform best explaining responses to synthesized stimuli; (2) the best performing model again accounted for ∼90% of explainable variance. This suggests that the ‘failure’ of normalization accounts to fully explain listeners’ categorization behavior is *not* due to restrictions in the ability to feed our models all available cues. Rather, normalization alone—while critical to perception—seems insufficient to fully explain listeners’ ability to adapt based on recent input.
Studying Mandarin Tone sandhi in interaction
Authors: Pelzl Eric , Olmstead Anne J. , Viswanathan Navin
Published: April 2023

The Mandarin low-dipping tone (T3) undergoes an alteration, tone sandhi, when followed by another T3. The resulting F0 is superficially the same as that of the rising tone (T2). We investigated how Mandarin speakers adapt their speech production to overcome potential ambiguities induced by T3 sandhi during an interactive task. Ten pairs of Chinese participants completed an interactive phrase matching task. Participants were shown displays with Chinese phrases (surname + title, e.g., 1a-b). One participant read an indicated phrase which the other selected from their display. There were two conditions. In the no sandhi condition (1a-b), the title did not induce sandhi, and should result in distinct F0 patterns for the surnames. In the sandhi condition (2a-b), the title induced T3 sandhi, and should result in homophonous surnames. 1a 卢侦探 (lu2 tʃ̺ən1tan4 “Detective Lu”) 2a 卢主任 (lu2 tʃ̺u3ɹ̺ən4 “Director Lu”) 1b 鲁侦探 (lu3 tʃ̺ən1tan4 “Detective Lu”) 2b 鲁主任 (lu3 tʃ̺u3ɹ̺ən4 “Director Lu”) Task performance showed clear evidence of sandhi-induced ambiguity. Examination of accuracy and tone acoustics suggested that pairs deployed different strategies to attempt to overcome sandhi-induced ambiguity, including exaggerating F0 rise or T3 duration, or adding a pause to avoid applying sandhi processes.
Titrating effects of acoustic variability on context effects and psychometric function slopes in speech categorization
Authors: King Caleb J. , Shorey Anya E. , Stilp Christian E.
Published: April 2023

In temporal contrast effects (TCEs, also termed speaking rate normalization), a fast context sentence makes the onset of the subsequent target word sound longer, and vice versa. King, Sharpe, Shorey, and Stilp (2022 ASA) reported that variability in the talkers or lexical contents of context sentences each decreased TCE magnitudes. However, in that experiment, acoustic variability was not tightly controlled. Using the same stimuli as King et al., listeners completed three blocks, hearing one talker speaking the same sentence (1 Talker/1 Sentence) or 200 different sentences (1/200), or 200 different talkers speaking 200 different sentences (200/200). On each trial, listeners heard one (fast/slow) context sentence, then identified the subsequent target word as “deer” or “tier.” In one experiment, speaking rates were matched across 1/200 and 200/200 blocks; TCE magnitudes were comparable and psychometric slopes did not differ. In another experiment, all slow sentences were set to 2.67 syllables/sec and all fast sentences to 8 syllables/sec. Differences due to sentence variability (1/1 versus 1/200) were extinguished; TCE magnitudes were smaller and psychometric slopes were shallower in the 200/200 block. Thus, multiple levels of variability must be considered in how they shape speaking rate normalization. [Work supported by NIH R01DC020303.]
Experimental evidence: Directionality preference of tone absorption
Authors: Kwong Ken Wing Hang
Published: April 2023

Tone absorption is a very common tone alternation process in African and Asian tone languages, in which a part of the contour tone is absorbed byanother tone, and this process can take place in two directions. Typologically, right-dominant tone absorption is much more attested than the left-dominantcounterpart, although both are predicted possible. Such typological asymmetry hypothesizes the argument that there is a learnability difference between left- and right-dominant absorption. Specifically, given that the two patterns are equally complex, we hypothesized the difference is due to variations in phonetic groundedness. An artificial language learning paradigm was used for this study. We extracted possible tone absorption patterns from Tianjin Mandarin with reference to the Cantonese tonal inventory and designed an artificial language incorporating these absorption patterns. 56 native Cantonese participants took part in a word naming task, consisting of a pretest, a learning, and a test phase. They were taught a monosyllabic name of a color, and a monosyllabic name of a monster, and asked to combine them to form a disyllabic compound. Results showed that the right-dominant learners had significantly higher accuracy rates after learning. The analysis of reaction time (RT) revealed that right-dominant learners had significantly shorter RTs than the left-dominant group learners. Both findings showed that right-dominant tone absorption was better learned, suggesting that it is a universal directionality preference.
Positive implicit association to human babies’ vocalization
Authors: Alonso Arteche Maria Fernanda , Polka Linda , Menard Lucie
Published: April 2023

Cuteness in infants has mainly been associated with their morphological facial features. Infant cuteness promotes social interaction, empathy, and caregiving behaviors. It has been suggested that cuteness could go beyond the visual aspect to infants’ auditory and olfactory characteristics. The current research examines whether there is a positive valence toward babies’ neutral vowel vocalizations. Adult participants completed four Single Category Implicit Association Tasks (SC-IAT) using baby, adult, kitten, and cat vocalizations. Baby and adult vocalizations were vowels synthesized using VLAM. In this task, adults had to sort positive and negative written words and the vocalizations in the correct category; response times were measured. Preliminary results (response time) show that infant voices were associated with positive dimensions (M = 0.27), whereas adult (M = 0.06), cat (M = 0.07), and kitten (M = 0.08) showed neither a positive nor negative implicit association. A similar study testing facial features obtained comparable results (Senese et al., 2013). These findings point to a positive implicit association to babies’ vocalizations, suggesting that there is an auditory cuteness component specific to human infants. We will also discuss ongoing work focused on elucidating the acoustic characteristics that specify auditory cuteness, the role it plays in infant development, and the underlying neural mechanisms.
Hearing type influences preschoolers’ phoneme-level phonological awareness
Authors: Ingvalson Erin , Grieco-Calub Tina M. , Perry Lynn , VanDam Mark
Published: April 2023

Children who are deaf/hard of hearing (D/HH) have lower performance on test of phonological awareness, particularly phoneme-level tasks, than children with normal hearing. These performance deficits have been seen both in children who use cochlear implants (CIs) and children who use hearing aids (HAs), but few studies have explicitly compared the effect of hearing type on phonological awareness. Forty-one preschoolers who were D/HH and 36 preschoolers with normal hearing participated. Participating children were between 3- and 4-years-old. Of the D/HH children, 14 CI were users and 27 were HA users. All children completed the phonological awareness test of the Test of Preschool Early Literacy, which assesses sound blending and elision, and the sound blending test of the Tests of Early Cognitive and Academic Development. Data are raw scores. There was a clear effect of hearing type. Children who used CIs had the lowest performance (TOPEL M = 8.62, ECAD M = 2.62), followed by children who use HAs (TOPEL M = 10.76, ECAD M = 4.92), with children with normal having the best performance (TOPEL M = 15.56, ECAD M = 8.03). Children who use CIs have more difficulty with phoneme-level tasks than children who use HAs, which likely has implications for their future language and literacy development.
Validating acoustic predictors of sentence intelligibility using a racially diverse corpus
Authors: Smith Michael L. , Munson Benjamin
Published: April 2023

The goal of the present work is to validate a set of widely used acoustic measures that have been found to predict talker intelligibility using a new, racially diverse corpus of native speakers of American English. Previous work by Bradlow et al (1996, Speech Communication) predicted sentence intelligibility on a set of 20 demographically unspecified talkers from the Midwest, where they found changes in F0 and larger vowel spaces to be associated with higher sentence intelligibility. Here, we examine whether these same acoustic features can be generalized to a more racially diverse population of talkers, of which only 9 are white and non-Latine. The current corpus comprises 28 talkers, where each talker produced 60 sentences. Here, we focus on a core set of sentences, 10 Havard/IEEE and 10 BEL sentences, that all 28 talkers produced. Key acoustic features such as F0, speaking rate, and first and second formants of vowels, were extracted to associate with intelligibility measurements for these individuals. Intelligibility measures are taken from a previous study (Tripp et al., 2022, J. Acoust. Soc. Am.). Results from the present work are important in generalizing which acoustic features impact intelligibility in a racially diverse corpus.
The perceptual consequences of style shifting
Authors: Walker Abby
Published: April 2023

We focus on the perception of changes in production made by self-identified bidialectal Southern (SUSE) and Mainstream (MUSE) US English speakers, who were recorded reading words in both dialects. Acoustical analysis shows quantifiable changes across the two guises, but that speakers' MUSE guises still looks more Southern than monolingual speakers of MUSE-like dialects, consistent with claims that many bidialectals do not categorically shift between dialects (Hazen 2001). The stimuli were then used in three listening tasks – a lexical decision task, a transcription task and a speeded dialect classification task – and all show evidence that listeners (N = 123) were sensitive to the changes made by the speakers in their two guises. In fact, for the measures of communicative ease (accuracy in lexical decision, transcription accuracy), responses to the MUSE guise of the bidialectal speakers was indistinguishable from those to monodialectal MUSE speakers. For dialect classification, the MUSE guise of the bidialectal speakers is heard as significantly less Southern than their Southern guise, but more Southern than monodialectal MUSE speakers, and there is a significant effect of listener dialect, with Southern listeners more likely to hear the bidialectal MUSE guise as not Southern. The results sugget that self-identified bidialectal speakers likely use different criteria in assessing bidialectalism (intelligibility, in group perception) than linguists, who typically focus on analyzing speech production.
The effects of phonetics training on the production and perception of rhotic vowels in American English
Authors: Rankinen Wil A. , Andrzejewski Megan
Published: April 2023

This talk examines how the American “r” phoneme affects the production and perception of American English front vowels in pre-rhotic positions. Rhotic vowels challenge listeners in accurately identifying the phonetic quality of vowels due to r-coloring affecting formants (Chung etal., 2021; MacAllister et al., 2017). For example, the vowel in “beer” is commonly perceived as [i] by listeners, yet can be produced as either a tense or lax high front vowel. This challenge is particularly concerning to aspiring clinicians learning phonetic transcription. This study investigates speakers’ acoustic identity of pre-rhotic high and mid front vowels, and listeners’ ability to accurately perceive pre-rhotic vowel identities. This study examines a 50-speaker sample of college-age participants separated into two groups (with and without phonetics training). All participants read a 100-word wordlist and completed a 200-word four-alternative forced-choice identification (AFCI) task. Furthermore, the AFCI task presents each word twice by either a male or a female voice. Listeners select from four options (“BEAT,” “BIT,” “BATE,” “BET”) and rate their confidence level for each choice. Preliminary data, demarcated in PRAAT, processed using FAVE-extract, and analyzed using R software, indicate the mapping between production and perception to be strongest for those with previous phonetic training.
“Perceived” talker variability in high-variability perceptual training
Authors: Park Hanyong , Lee Jieun
Published: April 2023

It has been suggested that higher talker and acoustic variabilities in training materials are the driving factors impacting learning advantages, such as better generalization and longer retention of training effects. To investigate whether such advantages are diminished when trainees do not perceive talker variability in training stimuli, we gave three days of training on identifying Korean stop contrasts to three groups of English speakers: a group with three distinctive-voice stimuli (DV), a group with three similar-voice stimuli (SV), and a group with one-voice stimuli repeated three times (OV). We compared their performances twice: once right after the last training session and again one week later. Results showed the tendency that the DV group was better than the other two groups at generalizing their training effects to a novel talker, and this remained the same one week after their training. Although some participants in the SV group claimed they heard multiple voices during their training, their performance was similar to that of the OV group. Taken together, the results support the previously reported high-variability training benefits, and suggest that in training stimuli, the “perceived” talker variability, not just the talker and acoustic variability, is a driving factor for such benefits.
Hesitations in story retelling as a measure of listening effort
Authors: Jacewicz Ewa , Arzbecker Lian J. , Green Geoff D. , Fox Robert A.
Published: April 2023

Hesitation phenomena in natural speech (e.g., pauses, word repetitions, or phrase repairs) vary as a function of speaker characteristics, with non-native speakers typically hesitating more than native speakers (Gilquin, 2008). Here, we examine whether hesitations can also reflect listeners’ mental effort required to comprehend native and non-native speech. We asked native English listeners to retell stories told by either a native or a non-native speaker and analyzed their hesitations using a 6-category taxonomy: filler vocalizations, filler words, filler nonspeech, self-monitoring, uptalk, and point of view switching. These story-retell behavioral data were obtained after recording their brain responses during listening to the stories using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and speaker-listener interbrain synchrony technique (hyperscanning). We found a higher hesitation rate for retelling of stories produced by a non-native (11.2%) than a native speaker (7.6%), with significant increase in hesitation frequency for the former. The hesitations corroborated brain responses: Listeners had greater difficulty processing discourse in non-native English and the recruitment of additional executive resources delayed comprehension and memory processes. The analysis of hesitations is a promising approach in measuring speaker-listener communicative effort because hesitations increase as uncertainty of interpretation increases, suggesting greater demands on working memory during lexical and semantic operations.
Listeners experienced with backness harmony compensate for coarticulation in F2
Authors: Tokac Zuheyra , Cole Jennifer
Published: April 2023

A natural consequence of articulation is the partial assimilation of neighboring vowels in vowel-to-vowel coarticulation (e.g., relative fronting of /ɑ/ in [ɑiCi]). Previous research suggests that listeners are sensitive to coarticulatory variation and perceptually compensate for coarticulation, although the degree of compensation is impacted by how extensive coarticulation is in a language (e.g., English and Shona: Beddor et al., 2002). This study partially replicates Beddor et al. with Turkish listeners (N = 20), who presumably have limited experience with coarticulation in F2 due to pervasive backness harmony in Turkish, on their perception of the Turkish front-back vowel pair /ɛ ɑ/. Participants completed a 4IAX discrimination task with coarticulated /ɛ ɑ/ vowels spliced into appropriate and inappropriate coarticulatory contexts, and vowel identification tasks on an /ɛ-ɑ/ continuum in [bɑb] and [bib] contexts as well as in “no context.” Results suggest that Turkish listeners compensate for coarticulation, supporting the idea that compensation for coarticulation is automatic: Appropriate coarticulation impaired vowel discrimination, and there were boundary shifts in vowel identification across all contexts with significantly different front vowel response proportions (back>no context>front). Moreover, vowels presented with no adjacent coarticulation trigger were perceived more categorically, suggesting that coarticulatory contexts induce more continuous vowel perception.
The [s → ʃ] sound change in /str-/ contexts: Acoustic and perceptual results
Authors: Shadle Christine H. , Koenig Laura , Chen Wei-Rong
Published: April 2023

Since 1995 [Shapiro, M. A case of distant assimilation: /str/ → /ʃ tr/. American Speech, 70, 101–107], many studies have noted a sound change occurring in some dialects of English with /s/ in the context /strV/ surfacing as [ʃ trV]. At first the phenomenon was restricted to certain contexts, though studies disagree on which; increasingly, those who produce the change do so in all contexts. Is the fricative is truly identical to / ʃ / as produced by the same speaker? Or is it acoustically on a continuum, though perhaps perceived as one category or the other? In a corpus of real words, speaker W1 was perceived as exhibiting the sound change, and her /s/ spectra in /str/ context were distinctly different from her /s/ spectra in other contexts. However, speaker M1, though not perceived as exhibiting the sound change, showed spectral differences similar to W1’s. Here, acoustic measures that we have developed to characterize the [s → ʃ] difference will be applied to a more extensive corpus, and will also be related to results of formal perception tasks for multiple listeners. It is anticipated that a continuum will emerge, with perceptual classification into categories resulting in the reported sound change.
Comparing online versus in-person auditory experiments on talker adaptation
Authors: Zi Lingyu , Lim Sung-Joo
Published: April 2023

Online experiments are increasingly used as an alternative to in-person lab-based experiments. While online experimental platforms offer convenience, conducting auditory experiments online also presents several challenges, including variations in latency and jitter in auditory stimulus presentation across participants’ devices. Therefore, it is important to carefully examine whether response time data collected online are comparable to the reliability and precision of data collected in well-controlled laboratory settings. Here, we directly compared whether well-documented context- and talker-adaptation effects on response times are replicable between the laboratory and an online platform. Participants (N = 58) performed an established word identification task measuring response time in a 2 × 2 manipulation of context (isolated words versus continuous speech) and talker variability (single versus mixed talkers). The results from the laboratory session, but not the online platform, reliably replicated all main and interaction effects found in prior laboratory-based studies. While mean response times were comparable between environments, the variance of online data was significantly greater than in the lab, even after discarding outliers. These results suggest that careful considerations are needed when implementing online experiments that depend on precise auditory timing, particularly in considering how greater measurement error will impact power, sample sizes, and statistical inferences.