bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Acoustics and the built environment in pediatric hospital units
Authors: Hough Ian R. , Hasegawa Yoshimi , Ryherd Erica E.
Published: November 2017

Previous studies have indicated that noise in hospitals can present challenges for patients and staff such as sleep disruption and increased stress symptoms. However, few studies have looked more holistically at the built environment to include evaluations of aspects in addition to noise, such as lighting, thermal comfort, and air quality. In this study, built environment measures and staff perception surveys were conducted in two units: a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and a pediatric medical-surgical unit (MedSurg). Results were evaluated to understand physical and perceptual differences based on the time of day, type of unit, and location within the unit. Results revealed interesting trends about acoustics and the built environment. For example, perception of noise, lighting, thermal comfort, and odor differed depending on the location within the unit (nurse stations, patient rooms, and corridors). Many perceptual results tracked with trends in the built environment measures. For example, day shift workers were significantly more annoyed with noise. Likewise, acoustic occurrence rates were generally found to be higher during the day, indicating the units were louder more often in the daytime with shorter periods of restoration. Viewed holistically, these findings reveal potential opportunities to improve the overall built environment in hospitals.
A study on 7 color marking of impact noise
Authors: Song Uk-Jin , Bae Myungjin
Published: November 2017

Interlayer noise is a noise pollution that occurs mainly in a space where a large number of households, such as multi-family houses or apartments, are together. There are various types of interlayer noise depending on what kind of sound is generated, but there are impact sounds as a great stimulus to human auditory sense. However, to date, the issue of interlayer noise has been the subject of concern because the interlayer noise criterion limits the average size of a certain section and there is no standard for impact noise that appears temporarily. Therefore, in this paper, A7B shows the number of impulse sounds in a row in order to make objective visual data about the interlaminar impact noise. In this case, the criterion of the impact sound is defined as a portion where a large change in sound volume occurs within 0.1 second. Experimental results show that the results similar to the number of impact sounds of the corresponding interlaminar impact noise source can be visually confirmed, and furthermore, it is possible to present clear and objective data in the interstory noise dispute.
Porous lead zirconate titanate ceramics with optimized acoustic properties for high-frequency ultrasonic transducer applications
Authors: Lethiecq Marc , Kuscer Danjela , Bustillo Julien , Abellard Andre-Pierre , Bakaric Tina , Levassort Franck
Published: November 2017

Acoustic properties of porous PZT ceramics intended to be used as backing in high-frequency transducer applications are investigated using a novel method where an electroded piezoelectric thick film is deposited on the backing under test. Two backings with pore sizes 1.5 μm and 10 μm were obtained by sintering a mixture of ceramic powder and an organic template, their porosity was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy at 15%, leading to a density around 6.5 g/cm3. The electroacoustic impulse responses of these devices were measured considering the backing as a propagation medium, the initial thickness of which was chosen small enough to allow back-wall echoes to be detected and large enough to be able to separate the signals in time domain. Then the thickness of the backing was reduced (from around 2 mm to less than 1 mm) and the measurements were repeated. Acoustic properties were then deduced: attenuation coefficients reaching 4 dB/mm/MHz and group velocities around 3400 m/s were obtained, leading to an acoustic impedance around 22 MRa. Such combination of high attenuation and moderate acoustical impedance make these materials an interesting solution for high-resolution ultrasonic imaging transducers.
Zone folding induced topological insulators in phononic crystals
Authors: Deng Yuanchen , lu minghui , Jing Yun
Published: November 2017

This study investigates a flow-free, pseudospin-based acoustic topological insulator. Zone folding, a strategy originated from photonic crystal, is used to form double Dirac cones in phononic crystal. The lattice symmetry of the phononic crystal is broken by tuning the size of the center “atom” of the unit cell in order to open the nontrivial topological gap. Robust sound one-way propagation is demonstrated both numerically and experimentally. This study provides a flexible approach for realizing acoustic topological insulators, which are promising for applications such as noise control and waveguide design.
Optimizing sound transmission through 3D pentamode materials in water
Authors: Su Xiaoshi , Norris Andrew
Published: November 2017

Pentamode materials (PMs) are engineered isotropic or anisotropic elastic structures that mimic the acoustic behavior of ideal fluids. Recently, many applications such as negative refraction lens, focal lens, and a cloak have been designed and demonstrated using 2D PMs. We consider metallic lattice structures in which only one wave mode propagates over a wide frequency band. Unlike the 2D PM which naturally has a boundary, the three dimensional PM needs to be sealed to isolate the interior structure from water. However, the material used for encapsulation alters the effective surface impedance of the material. In this talk, we present 3D PMs with acoustic properties matched to water and show that the transmission is sensitive to the thickness of the boundary plate. An analytic model is established to provide some insights into the boundary transmission. Iterations were performed in FEM simulations to achieve optimal transmission within the frequency range of interest (4 kHz–10 kHz). The model PM with partial boundary is made using 3D metal printing, and the remaining boundary is added post fabrication. Preliminary experimental results will be discussed. [Work supported by ONR/MURI.]
Unidirectional sound manipulation with acoustic metamaterials
Authors: Zhu Jie
Published: November 2017

Abstract: Unidirectional sound propagation introduces strong direction-dependent responses. Such effect has drawn considerable attentions in acoustics. In this presentation, we introduce some of the interesting unidirectional sound manipulation phenomenon that is achieved by acoustic metamaterials. The experimentally observed phenomenon is associated with the enhanced wave-structure interactions. We can predict and tune the operating frequency by further trimming the material’s geometry. Our demonstration provides a new degree of freedom to the realization of unique wave dynamics for applications like noise control, acoustic sensing, and imaging. [This work was supported by the Early Career Scheme (ECS) of Hong Kong RGC (Grant No. 25208115).]
Tracking larynx movement in real-time MRI data
Authors: Oh Miran , Toutios Asterios , Byrd Dani , Goldstein Louis , Narayanan Shrikanth S.
Published: November 2017

Ejective and implosive consonants involve rapid raising or lowering, respectively, of the larynx coordinated with an oral constriction formation and release. Techniques such as contour tracking and region-of-interest (ROI) direct image analysis are becoming established for examining supralaryngeal constriction formation in real-time MRI data, but quantification of larynx movement from dynamic vocal-tract magnetic resonance imaging has not been tackled. We will evaluate methods of indexing the movement of the larynx in fast real-time MRI data collected in the midsagittal plane. We analyze data from USC’s real-time MRI IPA database produced by several phoneticians and data from speakers of the Hausa language producing both ejectives and implosives. Kinematic profiles of the laryngeal movements are obtained by outlining the arytenoid structure and applying principal component analysis on the vocal-tract outlines. In addition, vertical movement of the larynx is indexed by calculating the time-varying pixel intensity centroid (i.e., intensity-weighted average spatial position) in a rectangular ROI defined for larynx movement. Once direct measurement of the larynx actions is validated for this type of imaging data, further work will focus on the temporal coordination of the laryngeal raising/lowering gestures and the supralaryngeal constriction gestures that occur in glottalic airstream consonants. [Work supported by NIH.]
Using machine learning to identify articulatory gestures in time course data
Authors: Styler Will , Krivokapic Jelena , Parrell Ben , Kim Jiseung
Published: November 2017

One difficulty in working with articulatory data is objectively identifying phonological gestures, that is, distinguishing targeted gestural movement from general variability. Although human annotators are generally used, an automated approach to identifying meaningful patterns offers advantages in speed, consistency, and objective characterization of gestures (cf. Shaw and Kawahara 2017). This study examines Electromagnetic Articulography (EMA) data from seven American English speakers, aiming to identify and characterize pause postures (specific vocal tract configurations at prosodic boundaries; Katsika et al. 2014). Supervised machine learning using kernelized Support Vector Machine Classifiers (SVMs) took as training data 852 trajectories from three speakers analyzed to date, containing 104 pause postures identified by a human annotator, and classified the between-words lip aperture (LA) trajectory to identify tokens containing the pause posture, while also providing token-by-token gesture probability. Features of the curvature were extracted using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) of both the actual LA trajectory and of the deviation from a direct word-to-word interpolation. The SVM achieves 94.0% classification accuracy in cross-validation tests, with Cohen’s Kappa showing machine-to-annotator agreement of 0.978. These methods of machine-learning-based curve classification are potentially useful and applicable to any time-course articulatory data. [Work supported by NIH and NSF.]
Phonological neighborhood density and intra-speaker variation in vowel production
Authors: Munson Benjamin , Anderson Tait , Sasisekaran Jayanthi
Published: November 2017

Words’ phonetic characteristics are affected by numerous lexical factors. Wright (2004) showed that words’ phonological neighborhood density (PND) affects the production of vowels. Vowels in words with high PND are hyperarticulated relative to the same vowels in low-PND words. Wright interpreted this as evidence that speech production accommodates listeners’ presumed needs: high-PND words are hyper-articulated because they are generally harder to perceive than low-PND words (Vitevitch & Luce, 1998). This effect has been the subject of numerous recent studies, including ones by Munson and Solomon (2004) and Munson (2013) that replicated the effect, and ones by Buz and Jaeger (2016) and Gahl, Yao, and Johnson (2012) that did not. One possible explanation for Wright’s original effect is that the ease with which low-density words are perceived allows speakers more freedom to produce the sounds in them variably, including under-articulating them. If this is true, then we would predict that the acoustic characteristics of low-PND words would show more trial-to-trial variability than those of high-PND words. To examine this, we recorded 19 speakers saying 10 repetitions each of high- and low-PND CVC words. The F1 and F2 frequencies of the vowels were measured. For each token, the distance from the center of each speaker’s F1/F2 space was computed. The coefficient of variation for this measure was higher (i.e., more variable) for low-PND words than for high-PND words, t[18]=−2.80, p = 0.011.
Articulatory and acoustic correlates of tongue root contrasts in Gua
Authors: Myers Samantha , Berkson Kelly , de Jong Kenneth
Published: November 2017

Vowel systems in West African languages are often noted for using the position of the tongue root (TR) to contrast vowels throughout the vowel space. E.g. X-ray studies of Igbo show that pairs of vowels such as /i/ and /ɪ/ contrast with regards to tongue root position. A similar study of Akan shows that vowel height also gets incorporated into the contrast (Ladefoged and Maddieson 1990). While many languages are noted for having TR contrasts, imaging data are available for only a small subset. Gua, a Kwa language from the Niger Congo family spoken in coastal Ghana (Simons and Fennig 2017, Yeboah-Obiri 2013), is a critically under-documented language which contains TR contrasts in all high and mid vowels (Advanced TR: /i e o u/; Retracted TR: /ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ/). Acoustic analysis and articulatory data from 3D ultrasound recordings reveal that RTR vowels show a variety of deformations of the tongue surface, depending on the vowel. However, these deformations are linked by the mechanics of tongue root retraction. Also, images reveal that differences in tongue height in addition to TR advancement are often present.
Phonetic realizations of the post-consonantal liquid in North and South Korean dialects
Authors: Yun Suyeon , Kang Yoonjung
Published: November 2017

This study presents large-scale production data of consonant-liquid sequences in North and South Korean dialects. It is known that in South Korean, the liquid /L/ is not allowed in post-consonantal onset position and is nasalized not only after a nasal (e.g., /kɨmLi/ → [kɨmni] “interest”) but after a stop, involving the nasalization of the stop (e.g., /sʌpLi/ → [sʌmni] “providence”). We investigate whether this holds (i) for Seoul Korean speakers who become familiar with the onset liquid through exposure to English and (ii) for North Korean speakers who retain the onset liquid in their dialect. Thirty five North Korean defectors speaking Northern Hamkyeong dialect and 20 Seoul Korean speakers read 236 Korean words including a nasal-liquid (/mL, nL, ŋL/) or a stop-liquid sequence (/pL, kL/). Acoustic measurements for the sequences include formant frequencies, high/low frequency energy ratios, and presence of closure and release. Results show that the most common pattern is the nasalized output, with speaker and lexical variation. The post-consonantal /L/ was also realized as the lateral [l] or the tap [ɾ], depending on the speaker’s age (old vs. young) and the dialect (north vs. south).
Cross-contextual consistency of /s/ length and spectral quality in gay men’s speech
Authors: Bouavichith Dominique A.
Published: November 2017

Previous literature on gay(-sounding) speech has shown that gay men tend to produce longer /s/ tokens with higher spectral centers of gravity (Munson & Babel (2010), Levon (2006, 2007), and Linville (1998)). The existing body of work, however, has only shown this difference using word-initial, non-cluster /s/ tokens or aggregate average values across all contexts. This study specifically investigates these questions in /sC/ clusters, both word-initally and -finally. Participants produced words in a carrier phrase containing either /s/ or an /s/-stop cluster, in either word-initial or word-final position (N = 16). To control for speech rate variation, /s/ tokens were measured with respect to participants’ syllable length. Preliminary findings show that gay speakers did in fact lengthen /s/ tokens in all contexts, at similar rates across cluster and singleton contexts. Significant differences between gay and straight men were found for both /s/-to-syllable ratio and spectral center of gravity at /s/ midpoints. These findings contribute to the depth of gay speech acoustics research and provide a basis for context-specific sociophonetic perceptual studies.
Speaking of sexuality: Analyzing [s] as an index of speaker identity in Japanese
Authors: Redmond Ryan C.
Published: November 2017

While variation in the production of the voiceless alveolar fricative [s] has been proposed as a marker of alternative sexualities in some languages, this phenomenon has yet to be tested in Japanese. In the present study, data from Japanese television shows and self-uploaded online “coming out” videos are used to sample 600 tokens of word-initial/intervocalic [s] from 20 different speakers: 10 queer men (older camp-gay “onee” celebrities, and younger Youtubers), and 10 men and women who do not identify as gay. Following a moments analysis, spectral center of gravity and skew measurements arose as the clearest delineating variables (i.e., these factors contributed to significant variation in [s] production) between the queer vs. non-queer male groups, as well as the non-queer male vs. non-queer female groups, but not the queer male vs. non-queer female groups. These findings may suggest alignment between Japanese women’s language and Japanese “gay” speech, as has been noted in previous research, but two counter theories are posed. One theory notes the social benefits associated with hyperarticulation that could arise from the usage of these variant phones, while the other theory suggests that non-queer men could be the ones deviating from the norm.
Nasalization as a correlate of word-final voicing in English
Authors: Ahn Suzy , Dmitrieva Olga
Published: November 2017

Maintenance of laryngeal voicing during closure of word-final stops is believed to be articulatory challenging (Westbury & Keating, 1986). Additional articulatory maneuvers may help sustain voicing during final closure, and one such maneuver is pre-nasalization (Rothenberg, 1968). It has been demonstrated that pre-nasalization is associated with voicing in utterance-initial stops in French, Spanish, and to a lesser extent, in English where voiced stops are often realized without voicing during closure (Solé, 2011). Laryngeal contrast is typically maintained between word-final voiced and voiceless stops in English, and voicing is often found during closure. Therefore, articulatory maneuvers supporting the phonetic realization of this contrast are particularly important in final position. The proposed study examines the degree of nasalization in the vowel immediately preceding word-final stops in monosyllabic real words of American English (N = 18, monolingual speakers of Mid-western dialect). Preliminary examination of word-final stops in English indicates that pre-nasalization occurs for word-final voiced stops as well. Moreover, the presence of nasalization is predicted to correlate with the amount/duration of voicing during the stop closure of final consonant. The results will contribute to our understanding of the phonetics of word-final laryngeal contrast and potentially expand the inventory of secondary perceptual cues to word-final voicing.
Acoustic localization of distributed coherent and incoherent sources using SEMWAN with subarray smoothing
Authors: Flynn Tyler J. , Dowling David R.
Published: November 2017

Accurate estimation of the location and level of remote acoustic sources from recorded acoustic signals is attractive in many applications. In wind tunnel tests, where noise sources are commonly distributed and incoherent, high resolution array signal processing techniques like the spectral estimation method with additive noise (SEMWAN) have been useful for source localization when background noise measurements are available. However, for many continuously distributed systems, such as a simple vibrating plate, the assumption of incoherent sources is incorrect, and techniques like SEMWAN may yield spurious results. In this presentation, results are reported for the use of SEMWAN alongside a subarray smoothing technique to formulate the coherent source localization problem as an incoherent source localization problem. Simulations comparing localization performance for distributed coherent and incoherent sources are shown. Results from a proof-of-concept experiment using multiple sources and a 15-element linear receiver array are also evaluated against simulation. Performance comparisons are made between SEMWAN, MUSIC, and conventional beamforming techniques in addition to showing the effects of subarray smoothing. [Sponsored by NAVSEA through the NEEC and by the U.S. DoD through an NDSEG Fellowship.]
Experimental investigation of the unit circle minimum variance distortionless response adaptive beamformer
Authors: Tidwell Matthew , Buck John R.
Published: November 2017

Source masking occurs when loud interferers produce high side lobes in the conventional beamformer (CBF) scanned response, obscuring the true direction-of-arrival of the desired signal. The minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) adaptive beamformer (ABF) places deep beampattern notches near interferer directions to suppress their power in the ABF output while maintaining unity gain in the look direction. In practice, the sample matrix inversion (SMI) MVDR ABF replaces the ensemble covariance matrix with the sample covariance matrix (SCM) when computing the array weights. Estimation of the SCM in snapshot-limited and snapshot-deficient scenarios causes perturbations of the array polynomial zeros from the unit circle. The unit circle (UC) MVDR ABF projects the array polynomial zeros radially back to the unit circle, producing deeper notches and reduced sidelobe levels [Tuladhar and Buck, ICASSP 2015]. Preliminary experiments in an outdoor, free-field environment with a 21-microphone uniform linear array at a design frequency of 2.3 kHz found the UC MVDR ABF consistently outperformed both the conventional and SMI MVDR beamformers in interferer suppression when limited to 21 snapshots (one snapshot/sensor). Additionally, the UC MVDR beamformer averaged 18 dB better white noise gain than the SMI beamformer across six independent trials. [Research funded by ONR.]
Evaluating direction of arrival uncertainty in undersea canyons with internal tides
Authors: Duda Timothy F. , Cornuelle Bruce , Lin Ying-Tsong , Newhall Arthur , Zhang Weifeng G.
Published: November 2017

The slopes of undersea canyon regions impart complexity to underwater acoustic fields for two reasons: intricate patterns of reflection from the seabed, and sound-speed anomalies from internal tides generated at the slopes. Both may spread the horizontal directional spectrum of sound from “line of sight” to a source. The directional spectrum is tied to the covariance matrix of the field, a fundamental quantity that can be measured or modeled. Here, sound-field horizontal-lag spatial covariance matrices and other derived quantities are generated from time-stepped 3D parabolic equation acoustic simulations made using sound-speed fields from ocean models. The covariance matrices are then inserted into the direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation problem. Analysis of DOA estimates and error bounds is done for a conventional beamformer and for a Gauss-Markov inverse-based beamformer for a variety of signal-to-noise ratios. The method treats non-line of sight acoustic energy as a form of noise. At low signal-to-noise ratio, the Gauss-Markov estimator can perform better that the other. This analysis of field variability allows performance degradation caused by evolving ocean structures to be directly compared to other detrimental influences such as excess noise and array deformation. Detection, localization, and tracking are affected by the processes examined here.
Measuring broadband wide angle bottom loss using a hydrophone equipped underwater glider
Authors: Jiang Yong-Min
Published: November 2017

Seabed bottom loss is an important factor for predicting sound transmission loss in water. The NATO–STO–CMRE has been investigating novel remote sensing solutions for transforming well established bottom characterization methodologies developed for scientific studies to autonomous platforms. During ONR sponsored Seabed Characterization Experiment 2017, an omni-directional hydrophone equipped Slocum glider was adopted to measure the wide angle bottom loss of a mud patch in New England, 60 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA. An omni-directional acoustic source was deployed over the side of R/V Endeavor to a depth of 30 meters under the sea surface. Chirp pulses ranging from 2 to 20 kHz in frequency domain were transmitted by the acoustic source. The glider was programmed to glider from and then back to the source. Broadband, wide angle bottom loss as a function of grazing angle and frequency was obtained by registering the ratios of bottom reflected and direct arrivals measured at the hydrophone on the glider over an angular range and at different 1/3 octave bands. The measurement technique, signal processing procedure and preliminary results are presented in this paper. [Work funded by NATO-Allied Command Transformation and Office of Naval Research—Global.]
Physical and acoustical properties of marine sediments with a wide particle size distribution
Authors: Dubin Justin T. , Venegas Gabriel R. , Ballard Megan S. , Lee Kevin M. , Wilson Preston S.
Published: November 2017

Naturally occurring marine sediments can possess poorly sorted or multimodal particle size distributions. Furthermore, while well-sorted coarse grained sediments are typically characterized according to their grain size, for mixed or fine grained sediments the shape of the particles can have significant influence on the acoustical properties. In this work, particle size and morphology are investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Images of dry particles are analyzed to determine the sphericity and angularity of sand and silt grains and to estimate the shape (e.g. platelets or needles) and aspect ratio of clay particles. SEM images of wet samples are analyzed to understand the sediment microstructure, including the interaction between sand, silt, and clay particles. Additionally, the effect of the proportionally varying composition of sand, silt, and clay particles on the bulk properties of the sediment, including the porosity and compressional wave speed, will be examined using a multiphase effective medium model. These techniques are applied to sediments collected in the New England Mud Patch as part of the Seabed Characterization Experiment. [Work supported by ARL:UT IR&D and ONR.]
Restaurants, bars, and dives—Can you hear me now??
Authors: Roy Kenneth P.
Published: November 2017

The acoustics of “places of public accommodation” including restaurants, bars, and dives have been an ongoing issue with the users of such places for many years. ASTM International once considered writing a standard for the measurement/performance of such spaces, but it died an uncertain death during development. More recently, the ASA was requested to look at the possibility of writing such a standard, and to that end a special session on “restaurant acoustics” sponsored by the ASA Panel on Public Policy was conducted in Boston. So what to do?? More data are obviously needed—but to what end?? It may be possible to write a measurement standard, probably at ASTM, and it may be possible to write a performance standard, probably at ASA. But, this would be a tall task given the variety of such places and the diffused focus between entertainment and “hunger and thirst” … maybe a rating system would be a more appropriate starting point. A proposal for that approach will be made herewith.
Speech intelligibility in restaurants—A reverberation or early reflection problem?
Authors: Mapp Peter
Published: November 2017

Several acoustic factors coincide to create hostile sonic environments in restaurants—including noise & reverberation. Reverberation time is often cited as the cause of noise build up and resultant lack of speech ineligibility in restaurants and similar spaces. This paper suggests that in smaller dining rooms and spaces for socializing, it is the generation of strong early reflections and occupation density rather than reverberation time that are the key factors. Ceiling height is also shown to be a significant factor. The paper presents an acoustic analysis of three dining/socializing spaces and the effect that the application of acoustic treatment has on the ambient noise levels and potential intelligibility. A rough rule of thumb for the volume per person required for satisfactory speech conditions is also presented together with case history data.
Numerical simulation of the ultrasonic propagation in bone tissue
Authors: Nagatani Yoshiki
Published: November 2017

Since bone has a complex structure, it is difficult to model analytically the behavior of ultrasound propagating in bone although ultrasound is useful for the diagnosis of not only bone density but also bone quality. Our group, therefore, had been working on simulating ultrasound propagation inside cancellous bones and models with cortical bones using actual mammal bones. In this paper, the basis and the results of the 3-D elastic FDTD (finite-difference time domain) method will be presented. The FDTD simulation only requires the 3-D geometry of the model and the distribution of acoustic parameters (density, speed of longitudinal wave, and shear wave) of the media such as bone and bone marrow, so that the effect of the each acoustic parameter or the geometry (e.g., BV/TV) can be easily investigated by changing these values. In addition, the effect of the frequency-dependent absorption caused by the viscosity and the piezoelectricity of bone also can be considered in the viscoelastic FDTD and the piezoelastic FDTD, respectively. The effects of these characteristics are not negligible. Moreover, thanks to the recent progress of the PC resource, a real-size simulation of human radius model is realized. Some preliminary data will also be presented. [JSPS KAKENHI 16K01431.]
Evaluation of complex stimuli and resulting distortion product spectrum in auditory distortion product synthesis
Authors: Chechile Alex
Published: November 2017

Auditory distortion products are frequency components produced within the listener’s ears upon the presentation of simultaneously sounding stimulus tones. Under certain conditions the listener can perceive distortion products as additional frequencies not present in the acoustic space, and the tones appear to be localized within the head. Musicians have been aware of this phenomenon of “combination tones” since the 18th century, but advancements in technology allow for new possibilities in music synthesis. On the Sensations of Tone is a series of compositions featuring a separate stream of musical material generated as auditory distortion products. The pieces are built using The Ear Tone Toolbox, a collection of open-source instruments for producing combination tones. While a single pair of stimulus frequencies typically elicits a small number of perceivable distortion products, the author puts forth a technique for evoking a spectrum of distortion products using a greater number of frequencies. The technique is informed by a mathematical model and is the basis of the next version of The Ear Tone Toolbox. This talk will provide an overview of the updated software, model, and compositions in the series.
Acoustic radiation force moment on non-spherical objects in liquid
Authors: Lipkens Bart , Ilinskii Yurii A. , Zabolotskaya Evgenia A.
Published: November 2017

Previously, a study of the acoustic radiation force acting on a spheroidal object in liquid showed that the radiation force depends on the angle between the incident acoustic wave and the main axis of a spheroid. This investigation demonstrated that there is a radiation force moment which acts on the spheroidal object and depends on particle orientation. This contribution is a continuation of the previously reported work. Here, the acoustic radiation force moment on prolate objects in an acoustic field in liquid is investigated analytically, i.e., the equations to describe the moment are derived. The incident acoustic and scattered field are expanded with respect to spherical waves. Analytically, scattering amplitudes are calculated from boundary conditions for spheroidal functions that are solutions of a wave equation in spheroidal coordinates ζ, η, φ. The radiation force moment is analyzed numerically. Randomly oriented spheroidal particles distributed in liquid align in an acoustic field as scattering amplitudes of each particle and therefore the acoustic radiation force acting on them depend on object orientation. The radiation force moments on each particle also depend on their orientation, and the prolate spheroidal objects are turned in such a way to make the torque of them to be equal to zero.
Does the right ear advantage persist in mature auditory systems when cognitive demand for processing increases?
Authors: Sacchinelli Danielle M. , Weaver Aurora J. , Wilson Martha
Published: November 2017

Based on Kimura’s (1967) anatomical model of dichotic listening, the right ear has a slight advantage (REA) or performance asymmetry, compared with the left ear. This is due to left hemisphere dominance for language, which receives direct input from the right ear. Accurate performance on dichotic tests relies on sensory organization and memory; however, there is little evidence regarding the impact of increasing cognitive demands (i.e., number of items for recall) on auditory performance asymmetries in mature auditory systems. This study investigated 42 participants’ auditory perceptual and working memory abilities (e.g., forward and reverse digit spans, dichotic digits test, and directed ear dichotic digits test) to explore the relationships among cognitive demanded and performance asymmetries. Repeated measures ANOVA showed a significant effect for directed ear and digit list length. In addition, a priori comparison indicated significant performance asymmetry, with persistent REA when listening demands exceeded an individual’s auditory memory capacity. No significant performance differences were identified for digit list lengths relative to, or below an individual’s simple memory capacity. Overall, the study found the right ear tends to show better performance on dichotic listening tasks, even in adults, when the number of digits exceeded the participants’ digit span capacity.
Development and validation of a portable platform for auditory testing
Authors: Gallun Frederick J. , Seitz Aaron , Stavropoulos Trevor , Eddins David A. , Hoover Eric , Gordon Samuel , Molis Michelle R. , Jakien Kasey , Diedesch Anna
Published: November 2017

This presentation will describe a portable platform for psychoacoustical testing using relatively inexpensive components that can be used outside of the laboratory, making it available for a broad range of research, clinical, and academic uses. This project is based on the concept of leveraging the fact that, due to the support of the tools and community of the $100 billion gaming industry, high-performance interactive audio-visual systems are now easily available in the form of consumer devices. The first task was to develop mobile applications capable of administering tests of multiple psychoacoustics tests such as (1) binaural processing, (2) spectrotemporal sensitivity, and (3) speech intelligibility in competition with and without spatial cues. The second task was to verify that the system performed within design specifications, by acoustic analysis of the sound output and comparison of behavioral thresholds to those obtained using traditional methods. The final task was the creation of experimenter interfaces that facilitate the use of the system by researchers and clinicians without requiring expertise in the underlying technologies. Data and examples of our success with all three tasks will be presented, implemented with a system based on only two relatively inexpensive devices: an Apple iPad Pro with audio output connected directly to Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones. [Funding provided by NIH R01 DC 015051 and VARR&D NCRAR.]
Assessment of acoustic characteristics of the nasal cavity by measuring sound transmission from one nostril to the other by a small speaker and a microphone
Authors: Biswas Amitava
Published: November 2017

Sometimes clinicians need to assess aerodynamic and acoustic characteristics of the nasal cavity. Some patients with cranio-facial anomalies such as cleft palates may need such assessments. Certain disease specific pathologies may involve temporary blockage in the nasal cavity. This study will present a simple procedure of computing the transfer function of acoustic energy from one nostril to the other.
Some thoughts on teaching and learning phonetic transcription
Authors: Hillenbrand James
Published: November 2017

Phonetics instructors often observe considerable variability in the ease with which students learn phonetic transcription. As an initial step toward understanding this variability, 50 students were tested on 12 phonological awareness (PA) tasks (e.g., finding the odd vowel, odd consonant, or odd stress pattern in a set of words, determining the word that would result from speech sound substitution, deletion, or reversal, …). Students were tested at the beginning of an introductory phonetics course. PA performance was then compared with student performance on: (1) quizzes and exam items related to transcription, and (2) student performance on all aspects of the course other than transcription. A strong relationship (ρ = 0.84) was found between average PA and transcription performance. However, a very strong relationship (ρ = 0.88) was also found between average PA and student performance in all areas of the course other than transcription. This finding suggests the possibility of underlying causal relationships that are considerably more complicated—and more general—than a simple dependency on PA skills. In more practical matters, the talk will also describe a collection of computer exercises that were developed to provide students with drill in phonetic transcription.
An application of Bayesian inference techniques to compare three competing sandy sediment models
Authors: Bonomo Anthony L. , Isakson Marcia J.
Published: November 2017

Many competing geoacoustic models exist to represent sandy sediments. In this work, Bayesian inference is employed to compare the sensitivity of the physical input parameters of three competing models: the viscous grain shearing model of Buckingham, the Biot-Stoll model, and the extended Biot model of Chotiros, using previously taken wave speed and attenuation laboratory measurements. Bayesian model selection techniques are then employed to assess the degree to which the predictions of these models can be used to explain the observed data. Since all three geoacoustic models require a large number of input parameters and many of these input parameters are difficult to measure, a main goal of this work is to use Bayesian techniques to determine which parameters can be resolved via inversion and what kinds of data are required for parameter resolution. [Work supported by ONR, Ocean Acoustics.]
In situ and laboratory acoustic attenuation measured in the sediments of the southern Yellow Sea
Authors: Meng Xiangmei , Wang Jingqiang , Hua Qingfeng , Li Guanbao , Kan Guangming
Published: November 2017

Acoustic attenuation directly determines sound propagation distance in seafloor sediments. Moreover, by studying the attenuation law of sound propagation in sediments, much information about sediment properties can be obtained. In June 2009 and June 2010, in situ measurements of acoustic attenuation at 30 kHz were made in the sediments of the southern Yellow Sea. Meanwhile, sediment cores were collected and laboratory measurements of acoustic attenuation between 25 and 250 kHz and physical properties were conducted. We compared in situ and laboratory attenuation measured in the sediments and analyzed the differences. The frequency dependence of acoustic attenuation of silt, silty clay, and clay is discussed on the basis of laboratory measurements. Combining with sediment physical properties, we analyzed the acoustic attenuation mechanism of silt, silty clay, and clay.
Laboratory measurements of sound speed and attenuation dispersion in calcareous sediments from coral reefs
Authors: Wang Jingqiang , Liu Baohua , Kan Guangming , Li Guanbao , Meng Xiangmei
Published: November 2017

The calcareous sediment is an important type seafloor sediment exist in coral reef island sea areas. The acoustic properties of calcareous sediment are significant for modeling sound propagation and underwater reverberation. In order to analyze the frequency dependence of sound speed and attenuation in calcareous sediments, the sediments were firstly screened and remodeled in plexiglass tubes in laboratory, and the sound speed and attenuation were measured at the frequency range of 27–247 kHz. The grain sizes of sediment samples were <0.075 mm, 0.075-0.5 mm, 0.5-1 mm, 1–2 mm, and 2–4 mm, respectively. The sound speeds of different grain-size sample were 1564.83–1607.36 m/s, 1564.82–1607.36 m/s, 1527.76–1553.69 m/s, 1529.40–1594.72 m/s, and 1541.87–1596.51 m/s, respectively. The attenuation were 24.94–206.35 dB/m, 20.78–208.75 dB/m, 9.66–271.94 dB/m, 12.33–310.36 dB/m, and 12.60–293.60 dB/m, respectively. The sound speeds and attenuation were found to increase remarkable with frequency. The fine grained sediments have higher sound speed than the coarser sediments, which due to the higher bulk density and lower porosity of fine grained sediments. The dispersion gradients of sound speed and attenuation in coarser sediments were more remarkable than that in fine-grained sediments, which may due to the higher tortuosity of coarser sediments.
The McKinney-Anderson paper and its impact on sediment acoustics
Authors: Chotiros Nicholas P. , Bonomo Anthony L.
Published: November 2017

The earliest comprehensive, in-situ measurements of the acoustic backscattering strength of the seabed as a function of frequency, grazing angle and sediment type were made by McKinney and Anderson, and published in the society’s journal in 1964. It was a landmark paper and laid the groundwork for subsequent measurements and models. It is widely referenced in books and papers where seabed scattering and sonar performance prediction are concerned. Scattering strength and sediment classification, usually quantified in terms of the mean grain diameter, were thought to be closely connected. In the laboratory, using pristine samples of sorted sand, this connection was clearly demonstrated, but in situ it was overwhelmed by other factors, such as uneven size distributions, biological activity and roughness. The underlying nature of the seabed is also reflected in the scattering strength. For the same roughness, density and sound speed, the solid/fluid model consistently overestimates the scattering strength because it cannot account for the relative motion between grains and pore water. Thus, recent advances in poroelastic modeling can shed new light on the measurements of McKinney and Anderson. [Work supported by ONR, Ocean Acoustics Program.]
McKinney Fellowship in acoustics at ARL:UT
Authors: Spratt Kyle S. , Hamilton Mark F.
Published: November 2017

The McKinney Fellowship in Acoustics is a graduate research fellowship awarded to one student per year by Applied Research Laboratories at The University of Texas at Austin (ARL:UT). Created in 2006 and named after former lab director Chester M. McKinney, the fellowship is meant to foster quality research in acoustics while maintaining the strong connection between ARL:UT and the Graduate Program in Acoustics in the Cockrell School of Engineering. The fellowship provides up to three years of tuition and fees as well as a graduate research assistantship and travel expenses for the purpose of performing work toward a master’s or doctoral degree on a topic related to the acoustics research and development performed at ARL:UT. In this talk, the implementation of the McKinney Fellowship program will be given, as well as an overview of the research that has been done by the 10 McKinney Fellows of the past decade. The first author, a past McKinney Fellow, will also offer some personal perspective on the program.
Virtual reality meets architectural acoustics
Authors: Vorlaender Michael
Published: November 2017

Computer programs for simulation and auralization of sound fields in rooms and of sound transmission in buildings became standard tools for architectural design and consulting. Another field of rapid progress is Virtual Reality—the combination of real-time signal processing with user interaction and multimodal human-machine interfaces. In this contribution, the development of simulation tools in architectural acoustics and further work aiming at real-time Acoustic Virtual Reality systems are reviewed and discussed with emphasis on the challenges and interdisciplinary solutions involving architectural acoustics as well as signal processing and psychoacoustics.
From acoustic microscopy to quantum computing
Authors: Rugar Daniel
Published: November 2017

Receiving the 1981 Hunt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship helped launch a fulfilling scientific journey that still continues today. The fellowship enabled me to continue my work on gigahertz frequency acoustic microscopy at Stanford University under Professor Calvin Quate. During my fellowship I succeeded in building a microscope that focused 3 GHz acoustic waves into liquid helium at temperatures below 100 mK. Amazingly, the system actually worked, and imaging resolution below 100 mm was achieved! From this experience I developed a fascination for nanoscale imaging techniques that has guided my Research career. After leaving Stanford I joined IBM Research where I have worked on scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), magnetic force microscopy (MFM) and, most recently, two different approaches to nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging (nanoMRI). My scientific evolution continues: I now manage a research group focused on superconducting quantum computing devices. Although my scientific journey has taken me far from the world of acoustics, I credit the Hunt Fellowship for giving me a key early opportunity for scientific exploration.
1983–1984 Hunt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Bergen, Norway
Authors: Hamilton Mark F.
Published: November 2017

The 1983–1984 Hunt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Acoustics took me to the Mathematics Institute at University of Bergen in Norway. My acoustics education began at Columbia University with an undergraduate acoustics course from Cyril Harris, who encouraged me to pursue a Ph.D. degree in Acoustics at Pennsylvania State University. My doctoral advisor at Penn State, Francis Fenlon, introduced me to nonlinear acoustics. Frank succumbed to cancer at age 41, and David Blackstock invited me to Applied Research Laboratories at University of Texas at Austin to complete my Ph.D. degree in his nonlinear acoustics group while remaining a Penn State student. At Texas I encountered another two leaders in nonlinear acoustics, Jacqueline and Sigve Tjøtta on leave from University of Bergen, who invited me to spend my Hunt Fellowship year with them in Norway. I thus had the good fortune to be instructed and mentored by pioneers who approached nonlinear acoustics from three different perspectives: engineering (Fenlon), physics (Blackstock), and mathematics (the Tjøttas). In this way, the Hunt Fellowship contributed substantively to rounding out my postgraduate education both academically and culturally. Following a second postdoctoral year at Texas I accepted a faculty appointment in Mechanical Engineering that continues to this day.