bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Perception of low-pass filtered speech in hearing-impaired children, with and without cochlear dead regions and children with normal hearing
Authors: Malicka Alicja N. , Munro Kevin J. , Baer Thomas , Baker Richard J. , Moore Brian C.
Published: November 2016

There are reports that adults with high-frequency cochlear dead regions (CDRs) exhibit an enhanced ability to use audible low-frequency acoustic information. This results in better performance of participants with CDRs compared to those without CDRs on tasks where the speech is low-pass filtered with a cutoff frequency near the edge frequency of the CDR (Moore and Vinay 2009). This enhanced ability to use low-frequency information may be related to cortical plasticity induced by the presence of a CDR and may be stronger in children due to maximal plasticity of the central auditory pathways. The aim of this study was to determine if children (aged 7-15 years) with a high-frequency congenital hearing loss and CDRs also show enhanced ability to use low frequency information. Vowel-consonant-vowel nonsense speech stimuli were low-pass filtered at various frequencies, amplified to correct for any hearing loss and presented via headphones. The percentage of correctly identified consonants for each low-pass filtering condition were measured in each ear separately. The performance of children with CDRs was compared against performance of age matched children without CDR, children with normal hearing and against the Speech Intelligibility Index prediction. Preliminary data do not support the hypothesis that children with high-frequency CDRs use low-frequency information more effectively than their no-CDR counterparts or normal hearing children.
Cognitive predictors of older adults’ perception of difficult speech
Authors: Ingvalson Erin , Lansford Kaitlin , Federova Valeriya , Fernandez Gabriel
Published: November 2016

Recent work suggests that receptive vocabulary, over working memory capacity, may predict older adults’ ability to perceive disordered speech, particularly when hearing acuity is poor (McAuliffe et al., 2013). Further work in younger adults suggests that both receptive vocabulary and cognitive flexibility may predict listeners’ ability to perceive accented speech (Baese-Berk, et al., 2015). Fifteen older adults transcribed phrases produced by five non-native English speakers and four talkers with dysarthria and completed measures on receptive vocabulary, auditory working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control. Listeners were more accurate identifying speech produced by talkers with dysarthria than by talkers with foreign accents (t(14) = 11.08, p <.001). Mixed effect models indicated that hearing acuity, auditory working memory, and inhibitory control were significant predictors of both difficult speech conditions; cognitive flexibility was an additional predictor of older adults’ ability to perceive dysarthric speech. In contrast to earlier work, receptive vocabulary was not a significant predictor of listeners’ accuracy in either condition, nor were listeners’ perception of the accented speech and the dysarthric speech correlated. These data add to the growing picture that difficult speech perception is a cognitively demanding task for older adults, regardless of hearing ability.
Patterns in speech errors among children with auditory processing disorder
Authors: DeVore Brooke , Nagao Kyoko , Pereira Olivia , Nemith Julianne , Sklar Rachele , Deeves Emily , Kish Emily , Welsh Kelsey , Morlet Thierry
Published: November 2016

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), a neurological hearing impairment, often leads to delays in speech development when diagnosed in childhood. It is unclear whether children with APD make articulation errors due to auditory processing deficits. The purpose of this study was to analyze the articulation error patterns of children diagnosed with APD. We examined speech samples from 26 children diagnosed with APD who participated in a previous research study involving speech perception testing. During this task, each child repeated each of 50 monosyllabic words presented to them in quiet. For each incorrect response, we examined the errors by type of articulation error (substitution, deletion, insertion, or distortion) and the syllable position (onset or coda). Speech perception scores were normal in quiet. However, 22 subjects responded incorrectly for one or more words, with substitution errors (40-50%) being the most prevalent type of errors. Articulation errors in the coda position (81%) were more common than errors in the onset position (19%). These results imply that children with APD, though generally performing well on speech tests in quiet, tend to display articulation issues not typically seen in normally developing children in the same age group. [Work supported by NIH COBRE Grants 2P20RR020173-06A1 and P30GM114736.]
Target-word identification in noise with formant enhancement for hearing-impaired listeners
Authors: Guan Jingjing , Liu Chang
Published: November 2016

Degraded speech intelligibility in background noise is a common complaint of most listeners with hearing loss. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the effect of spectral enhancement of F2 on target-word identification in noise for the old listeners with hearing loss (HL) and with normal hearing (NH). Target words (e.g., name, color, and digit) were selected and presented based on the paradigm of coordinate response measure (CRM) corpus of English and Chinese versions. Identification tasks with original and F2-enhanced speech in the 2-talker and 6-talker babbles were designed for the two groups (HL and NH). Thresholds of word identification was measured by using adaptive up-down methods. Results showed that listeners with NH had better performance on word identification in noise than listeners with HL in almost all listening conditions. More importantly, thresholds of both groups were improved for enhanced speech signals. Compared with NH group, listeners with HL gained significantly greater benefits in the most challenging condition. These preliminary results suggested that speech sounds with F2 enhancement might improve listeners’ ordinary speech perception in noise.
Effect of dimension-switch ability in children with high-functioning Autism's perception of emotional prosody
Authors: Kao Chieh , Tsao Feng-Ming
Published: November 2016

Children with High-Functioning Autism's (HFA) sensitivity to emotional prosody in speech sounds, was long under debate. The stiffness prohibiting them to switch between diverse features might be one of the factors that make them difficult to understand emotional prosody in daily communications. Present study explored how dimension-switch ability in identifying lexical tone would modulate children's perception of emotional prosody, since both prosody and lexical tone are conveyed by pitch height and contour. Mandarin-speaking HFA (n = 22) and typically developing (TD, n = 16) children aged 7 to 12 first classified emotions of 24 emotion-prosody congruent/incongruent words. Second, they identified lexical tone in a categorical perception task, and then received a dimension switch task, which asked them to choose the wrong answer. Two groups of children performed similarly in these tasks. HFA children identified basic emotions well as TD children even under the incongruent word pairs, which could be explained by their even performances in dimension switch task. Despite the similarity, there was a correlation between the accuracy rate of emotion classification and lexical tone perception in HFA children, which was not seen in TD children. This showed that HFA children used correlated mechanisms in understanding emotional prosody and lexical tone.
Changes in lateralized /s/ production after treatment with opti-speech visual biofeedback
Authors: Mental Rebecca L. , Carey Holle , Schreiber Nolan , Barnes Andrew , Lee Gregory S. , Vick Jennell
Published: November 2016

Opti-Speech is a visual biofeedback software for the treatment of speech sound placement errors. It utilizes Northern Digital Wave platform for electromagnetic articulography. Opti-Speech tracks the movement of five sensors on a talker’s tongue to animate a 3D tongue avatar that moves in real time with the talker’s own tongue. The avatar is viewable from multiple angles, and virtual targets can be created to guide the participant’s speech movements. Opti-Speech has found initial success in small feasibility studies (Katz and Mehta, 2015; Vick et al., 2016). The two participants described in this study are part of a larger scale clinical trial to evaluate efficacy. Both adolescent males presented with the lateralized /s/ speech error. Their intensive biofeedback treatment schedule included two one-hour sessions per day over five sequential days. Data analyses include acoustic measures (spectral mean and kurtosis of the /s/) and trained perceptual judgments of speech sound accuracy on a 16 item probe list from baseline and across all treatment sessions. Overall impressions of the utility of this biofeedback system as a treatment tool will be discussed from the perspective of both the treating clinician and the participants.
Phonological deficits in Mandarin-speaking congenital amusics
Authors: Nan Yun , Tang Wei , Dong Qi
Published: November 2016

Congenital amusia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that mainly affects pitch processing in music and speech. Recent research reveals possible phonological deficits among amusic individuals from non-tonal language speakers. In a tone language such as Mandarin, only a subgroup of amusic individuals showed speech tone deficits. In the present study, we examined whether a similar phonological deficit exists in Mandarin amusics and whether the phonological deficits are confined to the subgroup of amusics who showed speech tone deficits. An simple identification task targeted at either vowel, tone, or a combination of vowel and tone for 20 monosyllabic words was administered to three groups of Mandarin speakers: amusics with (tone agnosics) and without tone deficits (pure amusics), and matched controls. Tone agnosics lagged significantly behind both the pure amusics and controls when identifying tone and the combination of vowel and tone, but performed similarly to the latter two groups when identifying vowel. However, pure amusics performed comparable with the control group for identification of vowel, tone, and the combination of vowel and tone. These results suggest that only the tone agnosics were impaired in phonological processing and their phonological difficulties are mainly due to the speech tone deficits.
Vocal fold vibration and voice quality in the elderly
Authors: Samlan Robin A. , Kunduk Melda , Ikuma Takeshi
Published: November 2016

The vocal fold vibration patterns of incomplete glottal closure, aperiodicity, and asymmetry are characteristic of older adults with normal voice quality. Given that these patterns are also reported in older adults with voice concerns (i.e., age-related dysphonia, presbylarygis, or presbyphonia), the question of whether they relate to voice quality becomes relevant to providers making evaluation and management decisions. METHOD: Thirty-eight adults aged 70 years and older underwent laryngeal high-speed video examination at 4000 frames per second. Analysis included measurements of the glottal closure over time (i.e., open quotient, relative glottal gap), spectral noise (i.e., harmonics-to-deterministic-noise ratio, harmonics-to-noise ratio), and symmetry (i.e., amplitude symmetry, phase symmetry). Multiple regression will be used to compare the high-speed measures to cepstral peak prominence of the acoustic signal and perceived voice quality. Results will be interpreted in terms of how glottal closure and vibratory periodicity and symmetry affect voice quality in elderly speakers. Implications for clinical management will be discussed.
Perceptual differentiation of African American and European American children: Accuracy, confidence, and reaction time
Authors: Simmons Emily , Salas Dalila , Marsh Nicole , Licata Julia , Trent-Brown Sonja
Published: November 2016

Previous research has demonstrated that adult speakers can be perceptually differentiated with respect to gender and ethnicity (Thomas & Reaser, 2004). We examine how age, gender, and ethnicity of child speakers, ages 8-12, affect the perceptual accuracy of adult listeners, determining the point at which perceptual accuracy meets the level for adult speakers. Undergraduates listened to forward and reversed recordings of European American and African American children producing /h-vowel-d/ words (/i,ɪ,e,ɛ,æ,ʌ,ɑ,ɔ,o,ʊ,u,ɝ/) and sentences (“I hear the sound of /h-V-d/ some more”) in General American English. Listeners identified speaker ethnicity and gender and rated their confidence. Reaction times were also measured for identification and confidence ratings. We expect greater accuracy, faster reaction times, and higher median ratings for forward blocks, sentences, and female speakers. We do not expect there to be a difference in identification of European American voices versus African American voices. We also anticipate that accuracy of identification will improve as the age of the speaker increases. Implications of this work can be extended for individuals who work with children and in speech-related professions to reduce biases that occur as a result of personal language experience.
The use of ultrasound to determine the most effective placement cues for /s/ during articulation therapy
Authors: Siren Kathleen
Published: November 2016

Although two distinct normal tongue configurations for /s/ have been documented for many years (Borden & Gay, 1978), estimates of the frequency of tongue tip up vs. tongue tip down /s/ articulation in the general population vary. Therapy procedures often focus exclusively on one or the other of the two tongue postures. Given that /s/ is one of the most frequently misarticulated sounds in English, clinicians may need guidance in determining which tongue placement is most natural for each client. In recent years, portable ultrasound devices have become more widely accessible for use in speech therapy. In such cases, ultrasound has generally been used as a visual feedback technique for clients (Bernhardt, Gick, Bacsfalvi & Adler-Bock, 2005; Cleland, Scobbie & Wrench, 2015). The current study investigates the use of ultrasound imaging as a preliminary information gathering tool for clinicians to guide decisions regarding /s/ therapy techniques and procedures. In this investigation, students utilized ultrasound to attempt to determine tongue tip configuration during /s/ production for various individuals. Results indicate that ultrasound can provide clinicians with enough initial information to determine the most natural tongue configuration for /s/ production for most clients, thus potentially reducing therapy time and increasing therapy effectiveness.
Effect of speech tasks on cepstral measures of articulation
Authors: Anand Supraja , Skowronski Mark D. , Shrivastav Rahul
Published: November 2016

Hypokinesia in articulatory movements is one of the predominant characteristics in individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Past research quantified such hypokinesias through measures of formant frequencies (F1 and F2) and/or derivative measures such as vowel space area. Extractions of these acoustic measures are labor intensive, time consuming and require phonetic segmentation. In this study, we characterize acoustic measures of articulatory range, rate and acceleration using human factor cepstral coefficients (HFCCs) across speech tasks (e.g. syllable repetition, sentence reading and monologues). Cepstral measures of articulation can be readily derived from entire sentences in an automated, time/computationally efficient method. We hypothesize that these cepstral measures will show a significant effect of group and speech task. Twelve individuals with clinical diagnosis of idiopathic PD and age/gender matched healthy controls repeated syllables at a fast rate, read some sentences, and provided monologue samples. Articulatory range, rate and acceleration were studied using cepstral coefficient standard deviation sum (CC SDS), delta (Δ), and delta delta (ΔΔ) coefficients, respectively. Preliminary findings suggest that temporal derivatives differentiated the groups better in the syllable repetition task and CC SDS revealed trends in the reading and monologue tasks, showing promise for differential and early diagnosis.
An event related potentials method for assessing audiovisual speech integration: Implications for children with autism spectrum disorders
Authors: Irwin Julia , Brancazio Lawrence , Turcios Jacqueline , Avery Trey , Landi Nicole
Published: November 2016

Perceptual studies of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) strongly implicate deficits in processing of audiovisual (AV) speech. Previous research with AV stimuli has typically been conducted in the context of auditory noise or with mismatched auditory and visual (“McGurk”) stimuli. Although both types of stimuli are well-established methods for testing typically developing (TD) participants, they may create additional processing problems for children with ASD. To more precisely examine audiovisual (AV) speech perception in children with ASD, we developed a novel measure of AV processing that involves neither noise nor AV cross-category conflict. The speech stimuli include clear exemplars of the syllable /ba/ and a modified version of /ba/ in which the consonant is substantially weakened so that the syllable is heard as “/a/ ”. These are dubbed with a video of the speaker saying /ba/. Audiovisual integration should result in the visual information effectively “restoring” the weakened auditory “/a/ ” cues so that the stimulus is perceived as /ba/. Using event related potentials (ERP), we will present evidence from typically developing adults and preliminary results from children with ASD and TD to examine whether children with ASD are weaker in AV speech integration.
The perceptual and acoustic characteristics of Japanese elderly speech—The relationship between cognition and speech motor performance
Authors: Yoshimura Takako , Kariyasu Makoto , Saito Akie , Toyama Minoru , Osaka Mariko
Published: November 2016

Recent studies showed the evidences that language complexity or cognitive load may deteriorate the speed and accuracy of speech. No study was found to explore the relationship between cognitive load and speech movement directly from the perspective of working memory (WM) capacity. In Reading Span Test (RST), WM capacity would be reduced for speech production as the number of sentences and target words increased. The aim of our study is to reveal perceptual and acoustic characteristics of the elderly speech in relation to WM capacity. It was hypothesized that slower speech rate and/or slurred speech would be observed for elderly adults with reduced WM capacity or low cognitive function. Twelve elderly adult speakers of Japanese participated in this study. The scores of Montreal Cognitive Assessment Japanese version was used to divide the participants into high and low cognitive groups. For RST, each participant was asked to read visually presented sentence(s) aloud and to recall target word(s). Reading performances were recorded by a microphone being set in front of each participant for later acoustic evaluations. The reading performances of two cognitive groups were compared and results regarding on the presence of slower speech rate and slurred speech, judged by experienced speech language pathologists, were presented. We will discuss the relationship between the cognitive load and speech movement in the elderly based on the acoustic evaluation.
Acoustic correlates to word order in Infant- and adult directed speech: A cross-linguistic study
Authors: de la Cruz-Pavía Irene , Gervain Judit , McAuliffe Michael , Vatikiotis-Bateson Eric , Werker Janet F.
Published: November 2016

The acoustic realization of phrasal prominence correlates systematically with the order of Verbs and Objects in natural languages. Prominence is realized as a durational contrast in V(erb)-O(bject) languages (English: short-long, to [Ro]me), and as a pitch/intensity contrast in O(bject)-V(erb) languages (Japanese: high-low, [‘To]kyo ni). Seven-month-old infants can use phrasal prominence to segment unknown artificial languages. This information might thus allow prelexical infants to learn the basic word order of their native language(s). The present study investigates whether this differing realization of phrasal prominence is also found in I(nfant) D(irected) S(peech), previously unexamined speech style. We recorded 15 adult native talkers of languages with opposite word orders producing target phrases (English: VO, e.g., behind furniture, Japanese: OV, e.g., jisho niwa) embedded in carrier sentences, both in A(dult) D(irected) S(peech) and IDS, and conducted acoustic analysis of the phrases (i.e., pitch maximum, mean pitch and intensity, duration). The results revealed the expected contrast in pitch in Japanese IDS and a similar trend in ADS. In English, the predicted durational contrast was found in ADS, additionally accompanied by a pitch contrast. Interestingly, a pitch contrast but no durational contrast was found in IDS.
Phonological development is affected by speech discrimination skills in typically developing children
Authors: Aalto Eija M. , Saaristo-Helin Katri , Stolt Suvi
Published: November 2016

In early language development accurate auditory discrimination is necessary for building phonological representations to mental lexicon. However, little is known about the connections between phonological development and auditory discrimination in noise in children at the age of 3;6 years. The aim of this study is to clarify the associations between phonological skills and auditory perception of 3;6 aged children (N = 65) acquiring Finnish. Phonological skills were assessed using Finnish Phonology Test (FPT) that has been normed previously. Auditory discrimination skills were assessed using a recognizing task which was created for the present study (ADT). In the task, children recognize and point from pictures (6-8 pictures in 5 subtasks) phonological neighbour words in babble noise (signal-to-noise ratio 13 dB). The results show that FPT and ADT scores correlated moderately (Spearman, r = 0.32, p = 0.01). Results support the view that auditory discrimination skills and phonological skills are associated in typically developed Finnish children. Thus, even typically developing children may benefit from decreased noise levels in their learning environment.
The development of gendered /s/ perception in children and adolescents
Authors: Li Fangfang
Published: November 2016

The sound /s/ in English is gender differentiating: women tend to produce a variant of /s/ with higher spectral mean frequency than men (Fox & Nissen, 2005; Stuart-Smith et al., 2007). The gender marking cue inherent in /s/ frication is perceptually salient (Munson et al., 2006; Strand & Johnson, 1996), but prior research has focused exclusively on adults. The current study aims to identify the developmental course of the perception of speaker gender when hearing isolated segments of fricative /s/. Sixty children and adolescents from three age groups (7~8 years; 10-11 years; and 13-14 years) participated in the study. They were asked to listen to a series of /s/ segments and identity speakers’ gender for each sound by clicking on a female’s or a male’s face on the screen. Our results indicate the developmental change in adolescents in the accuracy of gender perception and their association with the primary gender-marking cue in /s/ frication when comparing with the two younger groups of children. This study suggests that speech perception, particularly the type of perceptual knowledge related to socio-indexical aspects, can continue to develop beyond school years.
The role of auditory working memory In the development of glimpsing skills in children
Authors: Sullivan Jessica R. , Schafer Erin C. , Osman Homira
Published: November 2016

Glimpsing is a complex process involving lower-and higher level auditory skills required for speech understanding in noise. However, little is know the role of working memory as glimpsing develops in children. The present study aimed to determine the extent to which auditory working memory contributes across the continuum of auditory perception skills in children. This study investigated the role working memory plays in speech recognition and auditory comprehension task in the presences of noise. We measured working memory, speech recognition and auditory comprehension performance with noise in 20 seven-to-nine year old children with normal hearing. Backward digit recall was used to assess working memory. Speech recognition in noise performance was measure using the Hearing In Noise Test. Comprehension was measured by a child’s ability to answer five questions associated to auditorily-presented stories. Each question evaluated a different level of comprehension. In general, there are no relationships between the speech recognition in noise performance and working memory. However, the relationship between working memory and comprehension was stronger. These results suggest that working memory contributes more when the auditory task is more complex especially in the presence of noise.
English-learning infants’ perception of boundary tones
Authors: Sundara Megha , Molnar Monika , Frota Sonia
Published: November 2016

Like consonants and vowels, infants’ ability to discriminate lexical pitch becomes language-specific with age (Mattock & Burnham, 2006). We know less about when infants perceive pitch marking of prosodic units. We tested English-learning infants on Portuguese bisyllabic stimuli where statements and yes/no questions are segmentally identical but distinguished by a fall versus a rise on the final syllable. Using the visual habituation paradigm, we found that unlike Portuguese infants (Frota et al., 2014), only English 8-, but not 4-month-olds are able to distinguish final rise from fall in the presence of segmental variability. Besides having a rising pitch, the final syllable in Portuguese questions is also longer. We are currently testing English 8-month-olds with resynthesized Portuguese stimuli that maintain the pitch difference, but neutralize duration. Together, the results will help us reconcile the previously reported failure of English-learning infants to distinguish English statements from questions (Soderstrom et al., 2011; Geffen, 2014), with their precocious sensitivity to prosody (Jusczyk, 1997).
Strong direct path interference suppression based on spatial filtering
Authors: Sheng Xueli , Sun Xiaoyi , Shi Yali , Guo Longxiang , Lu Dian
Published: November 2016

Strong direct path interference suppression is one of the problems to be solved in AUVs' cluster system which has the advantages of concealment, precision, anti-jamming capability and function distance. In order to estimate the target direction，3 methods of beamforming，including covariance matrix taper(CMT) condition，null-constrained condition and second-order cone programing(SOCP) constraint condition, are used to restrain direct path interference suppression separately in this paper. Comparing the 3 methods with simulation, SOCP gives the weights taking main lobe response, sidelobe level, depth, and width of zeros into consideration; null-constrained condition has a smaller amount of calculate and better anti-interference ability. But when the array disturbance exists, all the methods' performances are not good. Then, an improved algorithm is proposed to improve the tolerance of array disturbances.
Extracting elastic target information from acoustic scattering data of underwater munitions
Authors: Malphurs David E.
Published: November 2016

Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) acoustic scattering data from a variety of underwater munitions was collected in the Target and Reverberation Experiment 2013 (TREX13), Bay Experiment 2014 (BayEX14) and from the Acoustic Test Facility at Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division. One data product from these tests is two dimensional templates of back scattered acoustic intensity as a function of aspect angle and frequency. A common method of target classification utilizes normalized template cross-correlations as the input into classification algorithms. This is typically done in a manner agnostic to observable physics-based scattering phenomena derived from the physical size, material composition, and geometry of the targets that might help improve classification performance. This presentation discusses methods explored to process the available data to make target elastic phenomena easier to recognize so that associated information can be extracted and used as target classifier input. The methods explored include: lower dimensional representations of the data that preserve the physics-based phenomena, analysis of the data in time-frequency space, and using phase information in template correlations to help isolate resonance related information. [Work supported by ONR.]
Multi-channel non-negative matrix factorization with binary mask initialization for automatic speech recognition
Authors: Miura Iori , Tachioka Yuuki , Narita Tomohiro , Ishii Jun , Yoshiyama Fuminori , Uenohara Shingo , Furuya Ken'ichi
Published: November 2016

Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) factorizes a non-negative matrix into two non-negative matrices. In the field of acoustics, multichannel expansion has been proposed to consider spatial information for sound source separation. Conventional multi-channel NMF has a difficulty in an initial-value dependency of the separation performance due to local minima. This paper proposes initial value settings by using binary masking based sound source separation whose masks on the time frequency domain are calculated from the time difference of arrival of each source. The proposed method calculates initial spatial correlation matrices using separated sources by binary masking. The music separation experiments confirmed that the separation performance of the proposed method was better than that of the conventional method. In addition, we evaluated initial value settings by using binary masking for automatic speech recognition (ASR) tasks in noisy environments. The ASR experiments confirmed that appropriate initial value settings were effective because initializations starting from previously well-estimated spatial correlation matrices achieved better ASR performances than random initializations.
Feature extraction for acoustic signatures of small boats
Authors: Pollara Alexander S. , Sutin Alexander , Salloum Hady
Published: November 2016

Small boats represent a particular challenge to maritime surveillance due to their ubiquity, low radar cross-section, and absence of AIS transmission. We present a review of previously developed acoustic classification methods and demonstrate the importance of both the engine, and propeller as the two sources of small vessel noise. The features used for classification are extracted using various signal processing methods including signal spectra, spectra of Detection of Envelope Modulation on Noise (DEMON), and Cepstrum. The normalization of the features allowing to remove the dependence of the parameters on the distance to a boat and its speed was conducted. Acoustic signatures of six small boats including a panga, a jetski, an electrical boat, a go fast boat and two speed boats of the type common in the United States were collected by Stevens in a large glacial lake in NJ. The sound sources of various tonal components in the signal spectra are discussed. The program for automated extraction of classification features is presented and the identification of each of the 6 small boats with these features is demonstrated. [This work was supported by DHS’s S&T Directorate.]
Applying the unit circle constraint to the diagonal loaded minimum variance distortionless response beamformer
Authors: Ryan Colin , Buck John R.
Published: November 2016

Estimating the direction of arrival of a narrowband planewave using a uniform line array is a common array processing problem. Capon's minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) adaptive beamformer (ABF) suppresses interferers by steering nulls in their directions while maintaining unity gain in the desired look direction. Practical ABFs replace the ensemble covariance matrix (ECM) with a sample covariance matrix (SCM) estimated from array observations, or snapshots. When the ABF cannot average enough snapshots, the SCM is a poor estimate of the ECM, and may be rank deficient. Applying diagonal loading (DL) to the SCM improves the ABF's performance by limiting the white noise power, but may also limit interferer suppression. Projecting the zeros of the beamformer's array polynomial onto the unit circle (UC) provides deeper nulls to suppress interferers but exhibits worse white noise behavior than DL. The UCDL MVDR beamformer combines the UC constraint with the DL MVDR weights to achieve better SINR than either the UC or DL MVDR alone. Even when the UCDL beamformer suffers mismatch on the DL level, the UCDL SINR rivals or betters the DL MVDR with the optimal DL level. [Research funded by ONR grant N00014-15-1-2238.]
Sound source localization based on sparse estimation and convex clustering
Authors: Tachikawa Tomoya , Yatabe Kohei , Ikeda Yusuke , Oikawa Yasuhiro
Published: November 2016

Sound source localization techniques in array signal processing have been interested for many years. A lot of direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation methods have been proposed. Most of them use plane waves as model. On the other hand, 3D sound source localization techniques are important for many applications. They are required to estimate the DOA and the distance of sound sources. In the case of the techniques targeted to estimate the distances of sound sources, monopoles must be used for the model. The positions of monopoles are candidates for the sound source positions. However, it is difficult to handle a large number of monopoles placed at various distances. Moreover, it is difficult to decide the number of sound sources to be estimated from the candidates. The proposed method uses sparse estimation with a monopole dictionary in frequency domain, as is well known that the effectiveness of sparse representation for DOA estimation has been in late years. After the sparse estimation, the proposed method uses convex clustering to estimate the DOA and the distance of sound sources. In addition, the proposed method includes the idea that decides the number of all sound sources without a priori information about the number of sound sources.
Acoustical Society of America Trent-Crede Medal: Earl G. Williams
Authors: Maynard J. D. , Feit David
Published: November 2016

The Trent-Crede Medal is presented to an individual, irrespective of nationality, age, or society affiliation, who has made an outstanding contribution to the science of mechanical vibration and shock, as evidenced by publication of research results in professional journals or by other accomplishments in the field.
The Co-Construction of Cooperative Learning in Physical Education With Elementary Classroom Teachers
Authors: Dyson Ben P. , Colby Rachel , Barratt Mark
Published: November 2016

The purpose of this study was to investigate generalist classroom elementary teachers’ implementation of the Cooperative Learning (CL) pedagogical model into their physical education classes. The study used multiple sources of data drawing on qualitative data collection and data analysis research traditions (Miles, Huberman, & Saldana, 2014). Data were gathered from teacher post-lesson reflections, researcher journals, field notes, emails, and documents (such as lesson plans, school physical education programs, meeting transcripts), and on-going interviews with 12 teachers from four schools. The research team drew four categories from the data: Teachers’ lack of physical education preparation, Social skills needed for Cooperative Learning, Teachers’ understanding of Cooperative Learning, and Changing pedagogy to a student focus. An important feature in this study was the on-going, embedded support teachers received from a critical friend and their collaboration in the school’s CL Professional Learning Group. The findings suggest that with this type of support, generalist classroom teachers can learn to teach CL in their physical education classes. We found that teacher professional learning should be hands-on, take place in a social context, and be embedded in teachers’ own school context.
How boundaries shape chemical delivery in microfluidics
Authors: Aminian Manuchehr , Bernardi Francesca , Camassa Roberto , Harris Daniel M. , McLaughlin Richard M.
Published: November 2016

Aspects of the design

In microfluidics systems, the small size of the channels ensures that the flow profiles are laminar, so solute mixing is largely governed by diffusion in the absence of active mixing. Aminian
et al.
revisited the classic phenomenon of Taylor diffusion to investigate the effects that the aspect ratio of the conduit has on the longtime axial distribution of solutes. They show both numerically and experimentally that the aspect ratio controls the skewness of this distribution, and thus pipe design alone is enough to control mixing profiles.

Science
, this issue p.
1252
Rosetta’s comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko sheds its dusty mantle to reveal its icy nature
Authors: Fornasier S. , Mottola S. , Keller H. U. , Barucci M. A. , Davidsson B. , Feller C. , Deshapriya J. D. P. , Sierks H. , Barbieri C. , Lamy P. L. , Rodrigo R. , Koschny D. , Rickman H. , A’Hearn M. , Agarwal J. , Bertaux J.-L. , Bertini I. , Besse S. , Cremonese G. , Da Deppo V. , Debei S. , De Cecco M. , Deller J. , El-Maarry M. R. , Fulle M. , Groussin O. , Gutierrez P. J. , Güttler C. , Hofmann M. , Hviid S. F. , Ip W.-H. , Jorda L. , Knollenberg J. , Kovacs G. , Kramm R. , Kührt E. , Küppers M. , Lara M. L. , Lazzarin M. , Moreno J. J. Lopez , Marzari F. , Massironi M. , Naletto G. , Oklay N. , Pajola M. , Pommerol A. , Preusker F. , Scholten F. , Shi X. , Thomas N. , Toth I. , Tubiana C. , Vincent J.-B.
Published: November 2016

Rosetta observes sublimating surface ices

Comets are “dirty snowballs” made of ice and dust, but they are dark because the ice sublimates away, leaving some of the dust behind on the surface. The Rosetta spacecraft has provided a close-up view of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as it passes through its closest point to the Sun (see the Perspective by Dello Russo). Filacchione
et al.
detected the spectral signature of solid CO
2
(dry ice) in small patches on the surface of the nucleus as they emerged from local winter. By modeling how the CO
2
sublimates, they constrain the composition of comets and how ices generate the gaseous coma and tail. Fornasier
et al.
studied images of the comet and discovered bright patches on the surface where ice was exposed, which disappeared as the ice sublimated. They also saw frost emerging from receding shadows. The surface of the comet was noticeably less red just after local dawn, indicating that icy material is removed by sunlight during the local day.

Science
, this issue p.
1563
, p.
1566
; see also p.
1536
Complete Genome Sequence of a Vaccinal Newcastle Disease Virus Strain Isolated from an Owl (
Rhinoptynx clamator
)
Authors: Van Borm Steven , Rizotto Laís S. , Ullmann Leila S. , Scagion Guilherme P. , Malossi Camila D. , Simão Raphael M. , Araújo João P. , Cordeiro Izabelle M. , Keid Lara B. , Oliveira Trícia Maria F. Sousa , Soares Rodrigo M. , Martini Matheus C. , Orsi Maria A. , Arns Clarice W. , Ferreira Helena L.
Published: November 2016

A Newcastle disease virus (NDV) was isolated in chicken embryonated eggs after detection by real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RRT-PCR) from a captive owl swab. The complete genome sequence of APMV-1/
Rhinoptynx clamator
/Brazil/22516/2009 (APMV-1, avian paramyxovirus type 1) was obtained using Illumina sequencing. Phylogenetic analysis of the complete genome classified the isolate within NDV class II genotype II.
Complete Nucleotide Sequence of an Australian Isolate of
Turnip mosaic virus
before and after Seven Years of Serial Passaging
Authors: Pretorius Lara , Moyle Richard L. , Dalton-Morgan Jessica , Hussein Nasser , Schenk Peer M.
Published: November 2016

The complete genome sequence of an Australian isolate of
Turnip mosaic virus
was determined by Sanger sequencing. After seven years of serial passaging by mechanical inoculation, the isolate was resequenced by RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq). Eighteen single nucleotide polymorphisms were identified between the isolates. Both isolates had 96% identity to isolate AUST10.
Genome Sequence of
Mycobacterium
Phage Waterfoul
Authors: Jackson Paige N. , Embry Ella K. , Johnson Christa O. , Watson Tiara L. , Weast Sayre K. , DeGraw Caroline J. , Douglas Jessica R. , Sellers J. Michael , D'Angelo William A. , Mavrodi Dmitri V.
Published: November 2016

Waterfoul is a newly isolated temperate siphovirus of
Mycobacterium smegmatis
mc
2
155. It was identified as a member of the K5 cluster of
Mycobacterium
phages and has a 61,248-bp genome with 95 predicted genes.
Complete Genome Sequences for Three Chromosomes of the Burkholderia stabilis Type Strain (ATCC BAA-67)
Authors: Bugrysheva Julia V. , Cherney Blake , Sue David , Conley Andrew B. , Rowe Lori A. , Knipe Kristen M. , Frace Michael A. , Loparev Vladimir N. , Avila Julie R. , Anderson Kevin , Hodge David R. , Pillai Segaran P. , Weigel Linda M.
Published: November 2016

We report here the complete annotated genome sequence of the
Burkholderia stabilis
type strain ATCC BAA-67. There were three circular chromosomes with a combined size of 8,527,947 bp and G+C composition of 66.4%. These characteristics closely resemble the genomes of other sequenced members of the
Burkholderia cepacia
complex.
Complete Genome Sequence of a Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus Subgenotype 1e Strain, SLO/2407/2006, Isolated in Slovenia
Authors: Toplak Ivan , Kuhar Urška , Kušar Darja , Papić Bojan , Koren Simon , Toplak Nataša
Published: November 2016

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) subgenotype 1e was isolated for the first time in Slovenia in 2006. Here, we report the complete genome sequence of BVDV-1e, strain SLO/2407/2006. The published genome will increase our understanding of the molecular characteristics of the BVDV-1e strains circulating in Europe.
Genome Sequence of Formosa haliotis Strain MA1, a Brown Alga-Degrading Bacterium Isolated from the Gut of Abalone
Haliotis gigantea
Authors: Tanaka Reiji , Mizutani Yukino , Shibata Toshiyuki , Miyake Hideo , Iehata Shunpei , Mori Tetsushi , Kuroda Kouichi , Ueda Mitsuyoshi
Published: November 2016

Formosa haliotis
is a brown alga-degrading bacterium isolated from the gut of abalone
Haliotis gigantea
. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of this bacterium and pointed out possible important features related to alginate degradation.
Challenges in the use of immunotherapy in metastatic melanoma
Authors: Tran Ashley , Sarosiek Shayna , Ko Naomi Y
Published: November 2016

A 65-year-old man with metastatic melanoma was started on immunotherapy, switched to alternative targeted therapy and developed disseminated intravascular coagulation. This case underscores the complexity of interpreting and managing side effects of novel therapies in cancer care, identification of progression versus pseudoprogression and challenges in sequencing treatments in metastatic melanoma.
Development and psychometric validation of the ‘Parent Perspective University of Rhode Island Change Assessment-Short’ (PURICA-S) Questionnaire for the application in parents of children with overweight and obesity
Authors: Junne Florian , Ziser Katrin , Mander Johannes , Martus Peter , Denzer Christian , Reinehr Thomas , Wabitsch Martin , Wiegand Susanna , Renner Tobias , Giel Katrin E , Teufel Martin , Zipfel Stephan , Ehehalt Stefan
Published: November 2016

Introduction

High prevalence rates of childhood obesity urgently call for improved effectiveness of intervention programmes for affected children and their families. One promising attempt can be seen in tailoring interventions according to the motivational stages of parents as ‘agents of change’ for their children. Evidence from other behavioural contexts (eg, addiction) clearly shows the superiority of motivational-stage dependent tailored (behavioural) interventions. For the time-efficient assessment of motivational stages of change, this study aims to develop and psychometrically validate a ‘Parent Perspective Version’ of the existing University of Rhode Island Change Assessment-Short, an instrument assessing the motivational stages based on the theoretical fundamentals of the Transtheoretical Model of Psychotherapy.

Methods and analysis

In a multistep Delphi procedure, involving experts from the study context, the original items of the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment-Short Questionnaire will be transformed from the ‘self-perspective’ (‘I am having a problem’) to the parent perspective (‘my child is having a problem’). Following item adaptation, the new version of the questionnaire will be psychometrically validated in a cohort of N=300 parents with overweight or obese children. Parents will be recruited within a multicentre and multisite approach involving private paediatric practices, specialised outpatient clinics as well as inpatient and rehabilitation sites. Analyses will include confirmatory factor analyses, internal consistencies (reliability) as well as convergent and criterion validity. Convergent validity will be analysed using subscales of the HAKEMP-90 Questionnaire, an instrument which has been shown to differentiate between ‘state’ and ‘action’ orientation of individuals.

Ethics and dissemination

This study has been granted ethics committee approval by the University of Tuebingen (number 644/2014BO2). The results of this study will be released to the participating study centres and will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals and presented at international conferences.

Trial registration number

VfD_PURICA-S_15_003607.
How does work disability of patients with MS develop before and after diagnosis? A nationwide cohort study with a reference group
Authors: Gyllensten Hanna , Wiberg Michael , Alexanderson Kristina , Hillert Jan , Tinghög Petter
Published: November 2016

Objectives

We compared work disability of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) from 5 years before with 5 years after diagnosis, with that of matched controls, and analysed whether progression in work disability among patients with MS was associated with sociodemography.

Design

Population-based cohort study.

Setting

The adult Swedish general population.

Participants

Residents aged 24–57 diagnosed with MS (n=3685) in 2003–2006 and 18 425 matched controls without MS.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Annual net days of sickness absence (SA) and disability pension (DP), used as a proxy for work disability, followed from 5 years before to 5 years after diagnosis (ie, T−5–T+5). For patients with MS, regression was used to identify sociodemographic factors related to progression in work disability.

Results

Work disability of patients with MS increased gradually between T−5 and T−1 (mean: 46–82 days) followed by a sharp increase (T+1, 142 days), after which only a marginal increase was observed (T+5, 149 days). The matched controls had less work disability, slightly increasing during the period to a maximum of ∼40 days. Men with MS had a sharper increase in work disability before diagnosis. High educational level was associated with less progression in work disability before and around diagnosis.

Conclusions

Patients with MS had more work disability days also 5 years before diagnosis. Several sociodemographic variables were associated with the absolute level and the progression in SA and DP.