bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Fluoroscopically Guided Supraglenoid Tubercle Steroid Injections for the Management of Biceps Tendonitis
Authors: Mitra Raj , Nguyen Andrew , Stevens Kathryn J.
Published: November 2010

Background:  The management of bicipital tendonitis can be challenging to the clinician. Traditionally, blind injections near the bicipital groove have been performed by clinicians with risk of bicipital tendon rupture or atrophy. Because of the inaccuracy and risk associated with blind bicipital tendon steroid injections, we sought to ascertain whether a fluoroscopically guided steroid injection into the region of the origin of the long head of the bicipital tendon (supraglenoid tubercle) was efficacious.

Methods:  A retrospective chart review of 6 consecutive patients with a diagnosis of bicipital tendonitis was performed. All patients underwent a fluoroscopically guided steroid/anesthetic injection into the supraglenoid tubercle of the shoulder. The main outcome measure was post‐procedure change in visual analog pain scale; the secondary outcome was the physical examination (presence of a Speed's test).

Results:  Ten cases were identified, but only 6 had complete data and were included in the analysis. Five of the 6 patients experienced a reduction in pain by 50% at follow‐up.

Discussion:  A fluoroscopically guided block injected into the supraglenoid tubercle may be effective in the management of bicipital tendonitis.
Detection of Volatile Spoilage Metabolites in Fermented Cucumbers Using Nontargeted, Comprehensive 2‐Dimensional Gas Chromatography‐Time‐of‐Flight Mass Spectrometry (GC×GC‐TOFMS)
Authors: Johanningsmeier Suzanne D. , McFeeters Roger F.
Published: November 2010

Abstract:  A nontargeted, comprehensive 2‐dimensional gas chromatography‐time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC‐TOFMS) method was developed for the analysis of fermented cucumber volatiles before and after anaerobic spoilage. Volatile compounds extracted by solid‐phase microextraction were separated on a polyethylene glycol 1st‐dimension column and 14% cyanopropylphenyl 2nd‐dimension column. Among 314 components detected in fermented cucumber brine, 199 had peak areas with coefficients of variation below 30%. Peak identifications established by mass spectral library matching were 92% accurate based on 63 authentic standards. Analysis of variance of analytes’ log peak areas revealed 33 metabolites changed in concentration after spoilage (P < 0.05), including increases in acetic, propanoic, and butyric acids, n‐propyl acetate, several alcohols, and a decrease in furfural. GC×GC‐TOFMS with a nontargeted, semi‐automated approach to data analysis made possible the separation, identification, and determination of differences in polar volatile components, facilitating the discovery of several metabolites related to fermented cucumber spoilage.

Practical Application:  An optimized method for the chemical analysis of volatile food components is described and applied to the profiling of volatile compounds in fermented cucumbers, resulting in the identification of 137 components, many of which are being reported for the first time in fermented cucumbers. This nontargeted GC×GC‐TOFMS method and inclusive data analysis platform facilitated the discovery of several metabolites that were formed or utilized during anaerobic spoilage of fermented cucumbers. Further study of these metabolites will enhance our ability to understand and potentially control the metabolism of spoilage bacteria that can degrade lactic acid under the restrictive environmental conditions present in fermented cucumbers.
A comparison of decentralized, distributed, and centralized vibro-acoustic control
Authors: Frampton Kenneth D. , Baumann Oliver N. , Gardonio Paolo
Published: November 2010

Direct velocity feedback control of structures is well known to increase structural damping and thus reduce vibration. In multi-channel systems the way in which the velocity signals are used to inform the actuators ranges from decentralized control, through distributed or clustered control to fully centralized control. The objective of distributed controllers is to exploit the anticipated performance advantage of the centralized control while maintaining the scalability, ease of implementation, and robustness of decentralized control. However, and in seeming contradiction, some investigations have concluded that decentralized control performs as well as distributed and centralized control, while other results have indicated that distributed control has significant performance advantages over decentralized control. The purpose of this work is to explain this seeming contradiction in results, to explore the effectiveness of decentralized, distributed, and centralized vibro-acoustic control, and to expand the concept of distributed control to include the distribution of the optimization process and the cost function employed.
Nonlinear optimization of acoustic energy harvesting using piezoelectric devices
Authors: Lallart Mickaël , Guyomar Daniel , Richard Claude , Petit Lionel
Published: November 2010

In the first part of the paper, a single degree-of-freedom model of a vibrating membrane with piezoelectric inserts is introduced and is initially applied to the case when a plane wave is incident with frequency close to one of the resonance frequencies. The model is a prototype of a device which converts ambient acoustical energy to electrical energy with the use of piezoelectric devices. The paper then proposes an enhancement of the energy harvesting process using a nonlinear processing of the output voltage of piezoelectric actuators, and suggests that this improves the energy conversion and reduces the sensitivity to frequency drifts. A theoretical discussion is given for the electrical power that can be expected making use of various models. This and supporting experimental results suggest that a nonlinear optimization approach allows a gain of up to 10 in harvested energy and a doubling of the bandwidth. A model is introduced in the latter part of the paper for predicting the behavior of the energy-harvesting device with changes in acoustic frequency, this model taking into account the damping effect and the frequency changes introduced by the nonlinear processes in the device.
Tailored nearfield Green’s functions for arbitrary geometries
Authors: Bonamy C. , Jordan P. , Gervais Y.
Published: November 2010

An iterative technique, taken from the field of optics, is used to obtain tailored Green’s functions suitable for the evaluation, in the nearfield, of pressure fluctuations generated by turbulent flow in the vicinity of solid boundaries. Comparisons are made with the analytical solution for the solid sphere, and with results obtained using conventional boundary element method (BEM) for the case of a thick semi-infinite plate. A divergence issue in the case of the solid sphere is resolved by the introduction of a relaxation factor. The performance of the iterative approach is found to be comparable to that of conventional BEM, except at irregular frequencies, where the bandwidth of the error is slightly larger than that of the conventional BEM. The main advantage of the iterative approach is a significantly reduced computational cost, which allows for higher surface mesh densities and a broader useful frequency range.
Killer whales (Orcinus orca) produce ultrasonic whistles
Authors: Samarra Filipa I. P. , Deecke Volker B. , Vinding Katja , Rasmussen Marianne H. , Swift René J. , Miller Patrick J. O.
Published: November 2010

This study reports that killer whales, the largest dolphin, produce whistles with the highest fundamental frequencies ever reported in a delphinid. Using wide-band acoustic sampling from both animal-attached (Dtag) and remotely deployed hydrophone arrays, ultrasonic whistles were detected in three Northeast Atlantic populations but not in two Northeast Pacific populations. These results are inconsistent with analyses suggesting a correlation of maximum frequency of whistles with body size in delphinids, indicate substantial intraspecific variation in whistle production in killer whales, and highlight the importance of appropriate acoustic sampling techniques when conducting comparative analyses of sound repertoires.
Vowel spaces in Swedish adolescents with cochlear implants
Authors: Löfqvist Anders , Sahlén Birgitta , Ibertsson Tina
Published: November 2010

This paper examines vowel production in Swedish adolescents with cochlear implants. Twelve adolescents with cochlear implants and 11 adolescents with normal hearing participated. Measurements were made of the first and second formants in all the nine long Swedish vowels. The values in hertz were bark-transformed, and two measures of the size of the vowel space were obtained. The first of them was the average Euclidean distance in the F1–F2 plane between the nine vowels and the mean F1 and F2 values of all the vowels. The second was the mean Euclidean distance in the F1–F2 plane between all the vowels. The results showed a significant difference for both vowel space measures between the two groups of adolescents. The cochlear implant users had a smaller space than the adolescents with normal hearing. In general, the size of the vowel space showed no correlations with measures of receptive and productive linguistic abilities. However, the results of an identification test showed that the listeners made more confusions of the vowels produced by speakers who had a small mean distance in the F1–F2 plane between all the vowels.
Simulative and experimental investigations on pressure-induced structural vibrations of a rear muffler
Authors: Junge Michael , Brunner Dominik , Walz Nico-Philipp , Gaul Lothar
Published: November 2010

The periodically blown out exhaust gas of a combustion engine may excite structural vibrations of the exhaust system. In addition to the noise of the orifice, these vibrations contribute to the overall noise radiation of the exhaust system. In this work, the excitation of structural vibrations of a rear muffler via the acoustic path is investigated both in experiments and simulations. In both cases transfer functions from the acoustic pressure at the inlet to the structural deflection on the surface of the rear muffler are determined and compared to each other. For the simulation an FE-FE (finite element) coupling is applied to account for the fluid-structure interaction. To efficiently predict the fluid-structure coupled behavior, a model reduction technique for the finite element method based on the Craig–Bampton method and the Rubin method is presented. In a last step, the sound radiation is evaluated by solving the exterior acoustic problem with the fast multipole boundary element method. For this purpose, the results of the FE computation are used as boundary datum.
Auditory sensitivity may require dynamically unstable spike generators: Evidence from a model of electrical stimulation
Authors: O’Gorman David E. , Colburn H. Steven , Shera Christopher A.
Published: November 2010

The response of the auditory nerve to electrical stimulation is highly sensitive to small modulations (<0.5%). This report demonstrates that dynamical instability (i.e., a positive Lyapunov exponent) can account for this sensitivity in a modified FitzHugh-Nagumo model of spike generation, so long as the input noise is not too large. This finding suggests both that spike generator instability is necessary to account for auditory nerve sensitivity and that the amplitude of physiological noise, such as that produced by the random behavior of voltage-gated sodium channels, is small. Based on these results with direct electrical stimulation, it is hypothesized that spike generator instability may be the mechanism that reconciles high sensitivity with the cross-fiber independence observed under acoustic stimulation.
Notes on radial oscillations of gas bubbles in liquids: Thermal effects
Authors: Zhang Yuning , Li S. C.
Published: November 2010

For oscillations of gas bubbles in liquids, the polytropic exponent and thermal damping constant for the high frequency region have been re-evaluated based on the framework by Prosperetti [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 61, 17–27 (2007)]. It is seen that the approximation of G1⪡1 in Prosperetti (1977) should be dropped for G1≥10−2. The ratios of bubble radii to wavelengths are the paramount parameters categorizing the behavior into three different regions.
Comment on “Optimum absorption and aperture parameters for realistic coupled volume spaces determined from computational analysis and subjective testing results” [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 127, 223–232 (2010)]
Authors: Xiang Ning , Robinson Philip , Botts Jonathan
Published: November 2010

A recent paper [D. T. Bradley and L. M. Wang, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 127, 223–232 (2010)] has reported inconsistencies between the results of two different approaches for characterizing non-exponential decays in coupled-volume systems. This letter aims to expose the origin of these inconsistencies, which are due to a limitation in the methodology utilized for the analysis presented in the paper referenced above.
Effects of target-masker contextual similarity on the multimasker penalty in a three-talker diotic listening task
Authors: Iyer Nandini , Brungart Douglas S. , Simpson Brian D.
Published: November 2010

In many multitalker listening tasks, the degradation in performance that occurs when the number of interfering talkers increases from one to two is much larger than would be predicted from the corresponding decrease in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this experiment, a variety of contextually-relevant speech maskers, contextually-irrelevant speech maskers and non-speech maskers were used to examine the impact that the characteristics of the interfering sound sources have on the magnitude of this “multimasker penalty.” The results show that a significant multimasker penalty only occurred in cases where two specific conditions were met: 1) the stimulus contained at least one contextually-relevant masker that could be confused with the target; and 2) the signal-to-noise ratio of the target relative to the combined masker stimulus was less than 0 dB. Remarkably, in cases where one masker was contextually relevant, the specific characteristics of the second masker had virtually no impact on the size of the multimasker penalty. Indeed, when the results were corrected for random guessing, there was essentially no difference in performance between conditions with three contextually-relevant talkers and those with two contextually-relevant talkers and one irrelevant talker. The results of a second experiment suggest that the listeners are generally able to hear keywords spoken by all three talkers even in situations where the multimasker penalty occurs, implying that the primary cause of the penalty is a degradation in the listener’s ability to use prosodic cues and voice characteristics to link together words spoken at different points in the target phrase.
Bandwidth-efficient frequency-domain equalization for single carrier multiple-input multiple-output underwater acoustic communications
Authors: Zhang Jian , Zheng Yahong Rosa
Published: November 2010

This paper proposes a single carrier (SC) receiver scheme with bandwidth-efficient frequency-domain equalization (FDE) for underwater acoustic (UWA) communications employing multiple transducers and multiple hydrophones. Different from the FDE methods that perform FDE on a whole data block, the proposed algorithm implements an overlapped-window FDE by partitioning a large block into small subblocks. A decision-directed channel estimation scheme is incorporated with the overlapped-window FDE to track channel variations and improve the error performance. The proposed algorithm significantly increases the length of each block and keeps the same number of training symbols per block, hence achieving better data efficiency without performance degradation. The proposed scheme is tested by the undersea data collected in the Rescheduled Acoustic Communications Experiment (RACE) in March 2008. Without coding, the 2-by-12 MIMO overlapped-window FDE reduces the average bit error rate (BER) over traditional SC-FDE schemes by 74.4% and 84.6% for the 400 m and 1000 m range systems, respectively, at the same data efficiency. If the same BER performance is required, the proposed algorithm has only 8.4% transmission overhead, comparing to over 20% overhead in other existing UWA OFDM and SC-FDE systems. The improved data efficiency and/or error performance of the proposed FDE scheme is achieved by slightly increased computational complexity over traditional SC-FDE schemes.
A plane wave generation method by wave number domain point focusing
Authors: Chang Ji-Ho , Choi Jung-Woo , Kim Yang-Hann
Published: November 2010

A method for generation of a wave-field that is a plane wave is described. This method uses an array of loudspeakers phased so that the field in the wave-number domain is nearly concentrated at a point, this point being at the wave-number vector of the desired plane wave. The method described here for such a wave-number concentration makes use of an expansion in spherical harmonics, and requires a relatively small number of measurement points for a good approximate achievement of a plane wave. The measurement points are on a spherical surface surrounding the array of loudspeakers. The input signals for the individual loudspeakers can be derived without a matrix inversion or without explicit assumptions about the loudspeakers. The mathematical development involves spherical harmonics and three-dimensional Fourier transforms. Some numerical examples are given, with various assumptions concerning the nature of the loudspeakers, that support the premise that the method described in the present paper may be useful in applications.
Properties of photocured epoxy resin materials for application in piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer matching layers
Authors: Trogé Alexandre , O’Leary Richard L. , Hayward Gordon , Pethrick Richard A. , Mullholland Anthony J.
Published: November 2010

This paper describes the acoustic properties of a range of epoxy resins prepared by photocuring that are suitable for application in piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer matching layers. Materials, based on blends of diglycidyl ether of Bisphenol A and 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol diglycidyl ether, are described. Furthermore, in order to vary the elastic character of the base resin, samples containing polymer microspheres or barium sulfate particles are also described. The acoustic properties of the materials are determined by a liquid coupled through transmission methodology, capable of determining the velocity and attenuation of longitudinal and shear waves propagating in an isotropic layer. Measured acoustic properties are reported which demonstrate materials with specific acoustic impedance varying in the range 0.88–6.25 MRayls. In the samples comprising blends of resin types, a linear variation in the acoustic velocities and density was observed. In the barium sulfate filled samples, acoustic impedance showed an approximately linear variation with composition, reflecting the dominance of the density variation. While such variations can be predicted by simple mixing laws, relaxation and scattering effects influence the attenuation in both the blended and filled resins. These phenomena are discussed with reference to dynamic mechanical thermal analysis and differential scanning calorimetry of the samples.
Aeroacoustic sound generation in simple expansion chambers
Authors: English Emmet J. , Holland Keith R.
Published: November 2010

A method is presented for measuring the aeroacoustic source strength in ducts with flow at frequencies at which the wave motion can be considered substantially one-dimensional. The method is based on coherent power flux measurements using pairs of microphones positioned both upstream and downstream of the source region. The method is applied to a flow excited expansion chamber with aeroacoustic source measurements presented for chambers with a range of flow velocities and chamber lengths. The results indicate locked-on flow tones are generated in the chamber. The frequency of these locked-on flow tones is compared with that predicted using describing function theory applied to resonators with a grazing flow as well as that of other literature.
The role of annoyance in the relation between transportation noise and children’s health and cognition
Authors: van Kempen Elise , van Kamp Irene , Nilsson Mats , Lammers Jan , Emmen Harry , Clark Charlotte , Stansfeld Stephen
Published: November 2010

On the basis of this study it cannot be ruled out that the appraisal of the noise affects the association between air and road traffic noise exposure and children’s health and cognition. However, the conclusion is limited due to the relatively small group of annoyed children, which may have influenced our group comparisons. Furthermore, the observed relation between annoyance and perceived health is possibly biased due to the fact that both were measured within the same questionnaire. These are the main conclusions of a cross-sectional multi-center study carried out among 2,844 schoolchildren (age 9–11 years) attending 89 primary schools around three European airports. The aim was to investigate how annoyance affects the relation between air and road traffic noise exposure and children’s health and cognition. Different, sometimes competing, working mechanisms of how noise affects children’s health are suggested. Some effects are supposed to be precipitated through (chronic) stress, while others may arise directly. There is still no theory that can adequately account for the circumstances in which noise will affect cognitive performance.
Estimating the total ultrasound attenuation along the propagation path by using a reference phantom
Authors: Labyed Yassin , Bigelow Timothy A.
Published: November 2010

In this study, an algorithm previously developed for estimating the total ultrasonic attenuation along the propagation path from the surface of the transducer to a region of interest (ROI) in tissue, was modified to make it more practical for use in clinical settings. Specifically, the algorithm was re-derived for when a tissue mimicking phantom rather than a planar reflector is used to obtain the reference power spectrum. The reference power spectrum is needed to compensate for the transfer function of the transmitted pulse, the transfer function of transducer, and the diffraction effects that result from focusing/beam forming. The modified algorithm was tested on simulated radio frequency (RF) echo lines obtained from two samples that have different scatterer sizes and different attenuation coefficient slopes, one of which was used as a reference. The mean and standard deviation of the percent errors in the attenuation coefficient estimates (ACEs) were less than 5% and 10%, respectively, for ROIs that contain more than 10 pulse lengths and more than 25 independent echo lines. The proposed algorithm was also tested on two tissue mimicking phantoms that have attenuation coefficient slopes of 0.7 dB/cm-MHz and 0.5 dB/cm-MHz respectively, the latter being the reference phantom. When a single element spherically focused source was used, the mean and standard deviation of the percent errors in the ACEs were less than 5% and 10% respectively for windows that contain more than 10 pulse lengths and more than 17 independent echo lines. When a clinical array transducer was used, the mean and standard deviation of the percent errors in the ACEs were less than 5% and 25%, respectively, for windows that contain more than 12 pulse lengths and more than 45 independent echo lines.
Ultrasonic backscatter coefficient quantitative estimates from Chinese hamster ovary cell pellet biophantoms
Authors: Teisseire Maxime , Han Aiguo , Abuhabsah Rami , Blue James P. , Sarwate Sandhya , O’Brien William D.
Published: November 2010

A cell pellet biophantom technique is introduced, and applied to the ultrasonic backscatter coefficient (BSC) estimate using Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Also introduced is a concentric sphere scattering model because of its geometrical similarities to cells with a nucleus. BSC comparisons were made between the concentric sphere model and other well-understood models for mathematical verification purposes. BSC estimates from CHO cell pellet biophantoms of known number density were performed with 40 and 80 MHz focused transducers (overall bandwidth: 26–105 MHz). These biophantoms were histologically processed and then evaluated for cell viability. Cell pellet BSC estimates were in agreement with the concentric sphere model. Fitting the model to the BSC data yielded quantitative values for the outer sphere and inner sphere. The radius of the cell model was 6.8±0.7 μm; the impedance of the cytoplasm model was 1.63±0.03 Mrayl and the impedance of the nuclear model was 1.55±0.09 Mrayl. The concentric sphere model appears as a new tool for providing quantitative information on cell structures and will tend to have a fundamental role in the classification of biological tissues.
Contributions to the acoustic excitation of bubbles released from a nozzle
Authors: Czerski Helen , Deane Grant B.
Published: November 2010

It has recently been demonstrated that air bubbles released from a nozzle are excited into volume mode oscillations by the collapse of the neck of air formed at the moment of bubble detachment. A pulse of sound is caused by these breathing mode oscillations, and the sound of air-entraining flows is made up of many such pulses emitted as bubbles are created. This paper is an elaboration on a JASA-EL paper, which examined the acoustical excitation of bubbles released from a nozzle. Here, further details of the collapse of a neck of air formed at the moment of bubble formation and its implications for the emission of sound by newly formed bubbles are presented. The role of fluid surface tension was studied using high-speed photography and found to be consistent with a simple model for neck collapse. A re-entrant fluid jet forms inside the bubble just after detachment, and its role in acoustic excitation is assessed. It is found that for slowly-grown bubbles the jet does make a noticeable difference to the total volume decrease during neck collapse, but that it is not a dominant effect in the overall acoustic excitation.
Bicoherence analysis of model-scale jet noise
Authors: Gee Kent L. , Atchley Anthony A. , Falco Lauren E. , Shepherd Micah R. , Ukeiley Lawrence S. , Jansen Bernard J. , Seiner John M.
Published: November 2010

Bicoherence analysis has been used to characterize nonlinear effects in the propagation of noise from a model-scale, Mach-2.0, unheated jet. Nonlinear propagation effects are predominantly limited to regions near the peak directivity angle for this jet source and propagation range. The analysis also examines the practice of identifying nonlinear propagation by comparing spectra measured at two different distances and assuming far-field, linear propagation between them. This spectral comparison method can lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the role of nonlinearity when the observations are made in the geometric near field of an extended, directional radiator, such as a jet.
Infants’ sensitivity to non-adjacent dependencies across phonological phrase boundaries
Authors: van Heugten Marieke , Shi Rushen
Published: November 2010

Natural languages contain numerous non-adjacent relationships between words or morphemes in a sentence, often straddling phonological phrase boundaries (e.g., [these sheep] [have …]). Since phonological phrases are considered the main processing unit for infants, this may cause the acquisition of cross-phrase dependencies to be challenging. This study, however, shows that by 17 months of age, French-learning infants have nonetheless gained sensitivity to remote determiner-auxiliary co-occurrences that are interceded by phonological phrase boundaries. Infants thus possess a robust mechanism for tracking non-adjacent dependencies. This ability is essential for early grammatical development.
General second-order covariance of Gaussian maximum likelihood estimates applied to passive source localization in fluctuating waveguides
Authors: Bertsatos Ioannis , Zanolin Michele , Ratilal Purnima , Chen Tianrun , Makris Nicholas C.
Published: November 2010

A method is provided for determining necessary conditions on sample size or signal to noise ratio (SNR) to obtain accurate parameter estimates from remote sensing measurements in fluctuating environments. These conditions are derived by expanding the bias and covariance of maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) in inverse orders of sample size or SNR, where the first-order covariance term is the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB). Necessary sample sizes or SNRs are determined by requiring that (i) the first-order bias and the second-order covariance are much smaller than the true parameter value and the CRLB, respectively, and (ii) the CRLB falls within desired error thresholds. An analytical expression is provided for the second-order covariance of MLEs obtained from general complex Gaussian data vectors, which can be used in many practical problems since (i) data distributions can often be assumed to be Gaussian by virtue of the central limit theorem, and (ii) it allows for both the mean and variance of the measurement to be functions of the estimation parameters. Here, conditions are derived to obtain accurate source localization estimates in a fluctuating ocean waveguide containing random internal waves, and the consequences of the loss of coherence on their accuracy are quantified.
Morphology suggests noseleaf and pinnae cooperate to enhance bat echolocation
Authors: Kuc Roman
Published: November 2010

A protruding noseleaf and concave pinna structures suggest that some bats may use these to enhance their echolocation capabilities. This paper considers two possible mechanisms that each exploit the combination of direct and delayed acoustic paths to achieve more complex emission or sensitivity echolocation patterns. The first is an emission mechanism, in which the protruding noseleaf vibrates to emit sound in both the forward and backward directions, and pinna structures reflect the backward emission to enhance the forward beam. The second is a reception mechanism, which has a direct echo path to the ear canal and a delayed path involving pinna structures reflecting onto the noseleaf and then into the ear canal. A model using Davis’ Round-eared Bat illustrates that such direct and delayed acoustic paths provide target elevation cues. The model demonstrates the delayed pinna component can increase the on-axis emission strength, narrow the beam width, and sculpt frequency-dependent beam patterns useful for echolocation.
Seabed geoacoustic characterization with a vector sensor array
Authors: Santos P. , Rodríguez O. C. , Felisberto P. , Jesus S. M.
Published: November 2010

This paper proposes a vector sensor measurement model and the related Bartlett estimator based on particle velocity measurements for generic parameter estimation, illustrating the advantages of the Vector Sensor Array (VSA). A reliable estimate of the seabed properties such as sediment compressional speed, density and compressional attenuation based on matched-field inversion (MFI) techniques can be achieved using a small aperture VSA. It is shown that VSAs improve the resolution of seabed parameter estimation when compared with pressure sensor arrays with the same number of sensors. The data considered herein was acquired by a four-element VSA in the 8–14 kHz band, during the Makai Experiment in 2005. The results obtained with the MFI technique are compared with those obtained with a method proposed by C. Harrison, which determines the bottom reflection loss as the ratio between the upward and downward beam responses. The results show a good agreement and are in line with the historical information for the area. The particle velocity information provided by the VSA increases significantly the resolution of seabed parameter estimation and in some cases reliable results are obtained using only the vertical component of the particle velocity.
Implementation of a constrained Ritz series modeling technique for acoustic cavity-structural systems
Authors: Ginsberg Jerry H.
Published: November 2010

A prior study [Ginsberg, J. H. (2010b). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 127, 2749–2758] used Ritz series in conjunction with Hamilton’s principle to derive general equations describing the time domain response of an acoustic cavity bounded by an elastic structure. The equations of motion are supplemented by constraint equations that explicitly enforce velocity continuity at the cavity’s surface. These constraints are imposed by the surface traction, which is represented by unknown coefficients of Ritz-type series. The resulting set of equations are differential-algebraic type. Three methods are presented to convert the governing equations to forms that are familiar to structural acoustics, including one that transforms them from differential-algebraic type to the standard ordinary differential equations associated with linear multi-degree-of-freedom vibratory systems. In cases where only the structure is excited, the formulation offers options as to how displacement/velocity boundary conditions on the nonstructural boundary are enforced, as well as whether zero pressure boundary conditions are enforced at all. An example of a one-dimensional waveguide that is closed at one end by an oscillator is used to explore the quality of solutions obtained from each of these options. Results for natural frequencies and mode functions are examined for accuracy and convergence.
Wideband characterization of the complex wave number and characteristic impedance of sound absorbers
Authors: Salissou Yacoubou , Panneton Raymond
Published: November 2010

Several methods for measuring the complex wave number and the characteristic impedance of sound absorbers have been proposed in the literature. These methods can be classified into single frequency and wideband methods. In this paper, the main existing methods are revisited and discussed. An alternative method which is not well known or discussed in the literature while exhibiting great potential is also discussed. This method is essentially an improvement of the wideband method described by Iwase et al., rewritten so that the setup is more ISO 10534-2 standard-compliant. Glass wool, melamine foam and acoustical/thermal insulator wool are used to compare the main existing wideband non-iterative methods with this alternative method. It is found that, in the middle and high frequency ranges the alternative method yields results that are comparable in accuracy to the classical two-cavity method and the four-microphone transfer-matrix method. However, in the low frequency range, the alternative method appears to be more accurate than the other methods, especially when measuring the complex wave number.
Nonlinear propagation acoustics of dual-frequency wide-band excitation pulses in a focused ultrasound system
Authors: Måsøy Svein-Erik , Standal Øyvind , Deibele Jochen M. , Näsholm Sven Peter , Angelsen Bjørn , Johansen Tonni F. , Tangen Thor Andreas , Hansen Rune
Published: November 2010

In this article, acoustic propagation effects of dual-frequency wide-band excitation pulses in a focused ultrasound system are demonstrated in vitro. A designed and manufactured dual-frequency band annular array capable of transmitting 0.9/7.5 MHz center frequency wide-band pulses was used for this purpose. The dual-frequency band annular array, has been designed using a bi-layer piezo-electric stack. Water tank measurements demonstrate the function of the array by activating the low- and high-frequency layers individually and simultaneously. The results show that the array works as intended. Activating the low- and high-frequency layers individually, results in less than −50 dB signal level from the high- and low-frequency layers respectively. Activating both layers simultaneously, produce a well defined dual-frequency pulse. The presence of the low-frequency pulse leads to compression, expansion, and a time delay of the high-frequency pulse. There is a phase shift between the low- and high-frequency pulse as it propagates from the array to the focus. This makes the latter described effects also dependent on the array configuration. By varying the low-frequency pressure, a shift of up to 0.5 MHz in center frequency of a 8.0 MHz transmitted high-frequency pulse is observed at the array focus. The results demonstrate the high propagation complexity of dual-frequency pulses.
High-rate multiuser communications in shallow water
Authors: Song H. C. , Kim J. S. , Hodgkiss W. S. , Kuperman W. A. , Stevenson M.
Published: November 2010

Passive multiuser communications in shallow water previously was demonstrated in the 3–4 kHz band using a time reversal approach. This paper extends those experimental results in three respects. First, a larger bandwidth at higher frequency (11–19 kHz) is employed allowing for the use of various symbol rates (or bandwidths). Second, two different shaping pulses are examined: a raised cosine filter and LFM (linear frequency modulation) chirp. Third, the adaptive time reversal approach with spatial nulling is applied to suppress the crosstalk among users. It is shown that the use of a larger bandwidth is beneficial along with the time reversal receiver which can handle significant intersymbol interference with minimal computational complexity. In addition, adding each user degrades the performance by about 4 dB for the benefit of linear increase in data rate. It is demonstrated that an aggregate data rate of 60 kbits/s can be achieved with a 7.5 kHz bandwidth (a spectral efficiency of 8 bits/s Hz) by three users distributed over 4.2-m depth at a 2.2 km range in shallow water using 16-QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation).
On the interpretation of sensitivity analyses of neural responses
Authors: Brette Romain
Published: November 2010

Responses of auditory neurons vary with many dimensions of acoustical stimuli. As a consequence, there is a difference between sensitivity to a particular dimension (e.g., ITD or level), which is assessed when only that dimension is varied while other dimensions are fixed (yielding tuning curves), and information about that dimension, which requires that all natural variability be considered. In particular, the rate of a neuron can be very sensitive to a dimension while poorly informative about it, if it is also sensitive to other dimensions. One implication is that in a multi-dimensional world, stimulus properties such as ITD are optimally coded with heterogeneous neural populations.
Identification of speaker sex from one vowel across a range of fundamental frequencies
Authors: Honorof Douglas N. , Whalen D. H.
Published: November 2010

To identify a speaker’s sex, listeners may rely on sex-based differences in average fundamental frequency (F0), but overlap in male and female F0 ranges undermines such judgments. To test accuracy of sex-identification throughout the F0 range, listeners were asked to judge sex based on audio recordings of /ɑ/ spoken on a number of overlapping steady F0s by 10 male and 10 female English speakers. In general, listeners performed above chance (71.6% correct). However, near range extrema, listeners followed an apparent bias toward hearing high F0s as female and low as male; confidence was high when accuracy was high and vice-versa. At mid-range, listeners identified sex fairly accurately but were not very confident in their judgments. In a forced-choice task, vowels close in F0 (but beyond the difference limen) were presented in male-female or female-male pairs. Listeners weakly identified speaker sex (63.3% correct). Identification of the male voice was considerably above chance only when the male had the lower F0 of the pair. Reliance on stereotypes of speaking F0 may bias listeners to hear low F0s as male and high F0s as female, perhaps with a contribution from vocal-tract length information. No strong evidence for a contribution of voice quality obtained.
Propagation in a waveguide with range-dependent seabed properties
Authors: Holland Charles W.
Published: November 2010

The ocean environment contains features affecting acoustic propagation that vary on a wide range of time and space scales. A significant body of work over recent decades has aimed at understanding the effects of water column spatial and temporal variability on acoustic propagation. Much less is understood about the impact of spatial variability of seabed properties on propagation, which is the focus of this study. Here, a simple, intuitive expression for propagation with range-dependent boundary properties and uniform water depth is derived. It is shown that incoherent range-dependent propagation depends upon the geometric mean of the seabed plane-wave reflection coefficient and the arithmetic mean of the cycle distance. Thus, only the spatial probability distributions (pdfs) of the sediment properties are required. Also, it is shown that the propagation over a range-dependent seabed tends to be controlled by the lossiest, not the hardest, sediments. Thus, range-dependence generally leads to higher propagation loss than would be expected, due for example to lossy sediment patches and/or nulls in the reflection coefficient. In a few instances, propagation over a range-dependent seabed can be calculated using range-independent sediment properties. The theory may be useful for other (non-oceanic) waveguides.
Influence of anabolic steroid treatment associated to physical exercise in the ultrasonic vocalization of rats
Authors: Bittencourt Maria F. Q. P. , Dong Karis E. , Caetano Ariadiny L. , Viel Tania A. , Andrada e Silva Marta A. , Buck Hudson S.
Published: November 2010

Unlike humans, who communicate in frequency bands between 250 Hz and 6 kHz, rats can communicate in frequencies above 18 kHz. Their vocalization types depend on the context and are normally associated to subjective or emotional states. It was reported significant vocal changes due to administration of replacement testosterone in a trained tenor singer with hypogonadism. Speech-Language Pathology clinical practices are being sought by singers who sporadically use anabolic steroids associated with physical exercise. They report difficulties in reaching and keeping high notes, “breakage” in the passage of musical notes and post singing vocal fatigue. Those abnormalities could be raised by the association of anabolic steroids and physical exercise. Thus, in order to verify if this association could promote vocal changes, maximum, minimum and fundamental frequencies and call duration in rats treated with anabolic steroids and physically trained (10 weeks duration) were evaluated. The vocalizations were obtained by handling the animals. At the end of that period, rats treated and trained showed significant decrease in call duration, but not in other parameters. The decrease in call duration could be associated to functional alterations in the vocal folds of treated and trained animals due to a synergism between anabolic steroids and physical training.
High-frequency wind-driven ambient noise in shallow brackish water: Measurements and spectra
Authors: Poikonen Ari Antti
Published: November 2010

Ambient noise measurements were carried out in shallow brackish water within a frequency range extending up to 70 kHz. The high-frequency spectral slopes become steeper above 10 kHz at intermediate and high wind speeds. This is because the start of the wind speed dependence shifts rapidly to higher wind speeds at frequencies above 13 kHz. A physical explanation for this observation may be the low proportion of bubbles in brackish water that are small enough to radiate sound above 10 kHz. Such bubbles apparently do not begin to develop in brackish water until high wind speeds are attained.
Scattering of plane guided waves obliquely incident on a straight feature with uniform cross-section
Authors: Wilcox Paul D. , Velichko Alexander , Drinkwater Bruce W. , Croxford Anthony J. , Todd Michael D.
Published: November 2010

A frequency-domain finite element (FE) method is presented for modeling the scattering of plane guided waves incident on an infinitely-long, straight feature with uniform cross-section in a planar host waveguide. The method utilizes a mesh of 2-dimensional finite elements with harmonic shape functions in the perpendicular direction. The model domain comprises a cross-section through the feature and short lengths of the adjoining host waveguide. A spatial frequency equal to the wavenumber of the desired incident mode multiplied by the sine of the desired incidence angle is prescribed for the element shape functions. An integral representation of the incident mode is used to determine a suitable system of harmonic forces to uniquely excite that mode. These are applied at nodes through the thickness of the host waveguide on one side of the feature. The displacement field is measured at nodes through the thickness of the host waveguide on either side of the feature and decomposed into reflected and transmitted modes. The cases of guided wave transmission in a featureless waveguide and the reflection of guided waves from a free-edge are examined as validation cases. Finally, the results for transmission at an adhesively-bonded stiffener are presented and compared with experimental measurements.
Designing nonuniform linear arrays to maximize mutual information for bearing estimation
Authors: Zhu Xiaoli , Buck John R.
Published: November 2010

Estimating the bearing of a narrowband sound source using a towed horizontal array is a common array processing problem. This paper designs nonuniform linear symmetric arrays of fixed apertures for estimating the bearing of a sound source. Specifically, the hydrophone spacings for a symmetric linear array are chosen to maximize the upper bound on the mutual information between the true bearing and the estimated bearing in spatially white noise. The arrays maximizing the mutual information while nulling the forward endfire direction look significantly different from the uniform arrays commonly used in towed systems. Arrays maximizing mutual information are helpful when bearing estimation is considered as a quantization problem to assign the source to the correct partition. The optimal partitions for the array are designed using the Lloyd algorithm with an inner product distortion metric based on maximizing the likelihood function of the observations. In these approaches, increasing the mutual information and optimizing the partitions should reduce the probability of error (Pe) in choosing the partition containing an unknown source. Simulation results with MAP and ML estimators demonstrate that the optimum arrays and partitions proposed here have a much lower Pe than the uniform array and uniform partitions.
The effect of narrow-band noise maskers on increment detection
Authors: Messersmith Jessica J. , Patra Harisadhan , Jesteadt Walt
Published: November 2010

It is often assumed that listeners detect an increment in the intensity of a pure tone by detecting an increase in the energy falling within the critical band centered on the signal frequency. A noise masker can be used to limit the use of signal energy falling outside of the critical band, but facets of the noise may impact increment detection beyond this intended purpose. The current study evaluated the impact of envelope fluctuation in a noise masker on thresholds for detection of an increment. Thresholds were obtained for detection of an increment in the intensity of a 0.25- or 4-kHz pedestal in quiet and in the presence of noise of varying bandwidth. Results indicate that thresholds for detection of an increment in the intensity of a pure tone increase with increasing bandwidth for an on-frequency noise masker, but are unchanged by an off-frequency noise masker. Neither a model that includes a modulation-filter-bank analysis of envelope modulation nor a model based on discrimination of spectral patterns can account for all aspects of the observed data.