bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Herpesvirus Infections and Risk of Frailty and Mortality in Older Women: Women's Health and Aging Studies
Authors: Wang George C. , Han Christina , Detrick Barbara , Casolaro Vincenzo , Levine David M. , Fried Linda P. , Walston Jeremy D.
Published: May 2016

Objectives

To examine the relationship between herpesvirus infections and mortality and incident frailty risks in community‐dwelling older women.

Design

Nested prospective cohort study.

Setting

Women's Health and Aging Studies I and II.

Participants

Community‐dwelling older women aged 70 to 79 (n = 633).

Measurements

Baseline serum antibody (immunoglobulin G) levels against four herpesviruses (herpes simplex virus types 1 (HSV‐1) and 2 (HSV‐2), varicella‐zoster virus (VZV), 7 Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV)), 3‐year incident frailty rates, and 5‐year mortality.

Results

Women seropositive for HSV‐1 and HSV‐2, but not VZV and EBV, had higher risk of 3‐year incident frailty (HSV‐1: hazard ratio (HR) = 1.90, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.96–3.74; HSV‐2: HR = 2.10, 95% CI = 1.05–4.37) and 5‐year mortality (HR = 1.73, 95% CI = 0.93–3.20; HR = 1.80, 95% CI = 0.94–3.44, respectively) than seronegative women. Incremental increases in serum HSV‐1 and HSV‐2 antibody levels were associated with incrementally higher risks of incident frailty and mortality. After adjustment for potential confounders, only higher serum HSV‐2 antibody level was independently predictive of higher risk of mortality in older women (for each unit increase in antibody index, HR = 1.47, 95% CI = 1.05–2.07).

Conclusion

HSV‐1 and HSV‐2 antibody levels are not independently associated with risk of incident frailty in older women. Only HSV‐2 antibody level is independently predictive of 5‐year mortality risk, with each incremental increase in the antibody level adding further risk.
Effect of Ownership on Hospice Service Use: 2005–2011
Authors: Stevenson David G. , Grabowski David C. , Keating Nancy L. , Huskamp Haiden A.
Published: May 2016

Objectives

To assess differences in populations and service use according to hospice ownership, chain status, and agency size.

Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting

United States.

Participants

Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 and older enrolled in hospice during 2005 to 2011 N = 5,405,526).

Measurements

Hospice use according to ownership category (for‐profit nonchain and chain, not‐for‐profit nonchain and chain, government) and agency size (0–50, 51–200, 201–400, ≥401 individuals discharged each year). Mean length of use, stays of 3 days or fewer, stays ending with live discharge, and decedents receiving no general inpatient care (GIP)‐ or continuous home care (CHC)‐level hospice in the last 7 days of life.

Results

After adjusting for individual and geographic differences, for‐profit nonchain and chain agencies had longer mean length of use (84.5 and 91.2 days, respectively) than other agency types (66.3–72.5 days), higher rates of live discharge (21.0% and 20.2% vs 14.6–15.9%), and lower proportions of stays of 3 days or fewer (13.9% and 14.7% vs 16.6–17.5%) (all P < .001). The proportion of decedents not receiving GIP‐ or CHC‐level care before death was highest in for‐profit chains (75.9%) and lowest in not‐for‐profit nonchains (63.2%). Smaller agencies had longer mean length of use, higher live discharge rates, lower rates of stays of 3 days or fewer, and higher rates of individuals receiving no GIP‐ or CHC‐level care. There were considerable differences in patient traits and unadjusted service use between the nation's largest chains.

Conclusion

In addition to for‐profit and not‐for‐profit hospice agencies differing according to important dimensions, there is substantial heterogeneity within these ownership categories, highlighting the need to consider factors such as agency size and chain affiliation in understanding variations in Medicare beneficiaries’ hospice care.
Predictors of obstructive sleep apnoea‐hypopnea severity and oral appliance therapy efficacy by using lateral cephalometric analysis
Authors: Sakamoto Y. , Yanamoto S. , Rokutanda S. , Naruse T. , Imayama N. , Hashimoto M. , Nakamura A. , Yoshida N. , Tanoue N. , Ayuse T. , Yoshimine H. , Umeda M.
Published: May 2016

Obstructive sleep apnoea‐hypopnea (OSAH) is a common disorder characterised by repetitive complete or partial closure of the upper airway during sleep, which results in sleep fragmentation and oxygen desaturation. There is growing interest in the use of oral appliances (OAs) to treat OSAH. The purpose of this study was to clarify the cephalometric factors that are associated with OSAH severity and that predict the outcome of OA therapy. Two hundred nine patients with OSAH were recruited and analysed retrospectively. They had a polysomnographically documented apnoea‐hypopnea index (AHI) of more than five respiratory events per hour. Lateral skull radiographs were used for cephalometric analysis. Only 67 of the 209 recruited patients underwent a second polysomnography (PSG) to evaluate the efficacy of OA therapy. In all recruited patients, the angle formed by the subspinal point (A) to the nasion (N) to the supramental point (B) (i.e. ANB angle) and the distance between the mandibular plane and hyoid bone (MP‐H) were predictive factors of OSAH severity. In only 67 patients underwent PSG with an OA, the mean rate of decrease in the AHI was 47·8 ± 29·1%. OA therapy effectively treated OSAH in some patients with a very severe form of OSAH. However, patients who had a high position of the hyoid bone had a poor response to OA therapy. This study suggested that cephalometric analysis is useful for predicting OSAH severity and OA therapy efficacy.
The prevalence of celiac disease in patients with geographic tongue
Authors: Cigic Livia , Galic Tea , Kero Darko , Simunic Miroslav , Medvedec Mikic Ivana , Kalibovic Govorko Danijela , Biocina Lukenda Dolores
Published: May 2016

Background

Geographic tongue (GT) is a benign inflammatory condition usually involving the dorsal surface and lateral borders of the tongue. Numerous etiological factors of GT have been suggested, including immunological factors; genetic; atopic or allergic predisposition; emotional stress; and hormonal disturbances. GT may also coexist as one of the possible manifestations of celiac disease (CD). Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of CD, positive serologic tests for CD screening, and HLA‐DQ presence in patients with GT.

Methods

Tissue transglutaminase antibodies (anti‐tTG), antibodies against gliadin (AGA), and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing were assessed for 60 GT patients and 60 healthy control subjects. The duodenal biopsy was performed in patients with positive serologic tests.

Results

We found that 9 (15%) GT patients were positive for IgA tTG, and in those patients histological changes consistent with CD were confirmed by duodenal biopsy. Only two of them reported the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms. There were statistically significant differences between the GT patients and control group for immunoglobulin (Ig) A tTG (P = 0.03), IgG tTG (P = 0.04), IgA AGA (P = 0.04), and IgG AGA (P = 0.02).

Conclusion

The results of our study demonstrated the increased prevalence of CD in patients with GT. Therefore, the clinical oral examination should be considered a diagnostic tool, especially in atypical or silent forms of CD, since it may contribute to provide an early diagnosis.
Strategic Anticipation of En Banc Review in the U.S. Courts of Appeals
Authors: Hinkle Rachael K.
Published: May 2016

The quest for empirical evidence of strategic judicial behavior has produced mixed results. This study finds such evidence in the decisions made while crafting an opinion. Central to any opinion is which precedents are cited and whether their scope is limited (negative treatment) or expanded (positive treatment). I look for evidence of strategic anticipation of en banc review in these decisions using an original dataset of published search and seizure cases from the U.S. Courts of Appeals from 1953 to 2010. A panel is less likely to negatively treat a precedent with which the full circuit is more closely aligned. Circuit preferences also have an effect on citation itself, but only when the panel is at least moderately aligned with a precedent. Moreover, the panel's own ideology is only a significant predictor of citation when the full circuit is favorably disposed toward a particular precedent.
Religious Evil: The Basic Issues
Authors: Kodaj Daniel
Published: May 2016

Religious evil is evil apparently caused or justified by religious beliefs or institutions. Religious evil is a significant issue both in applied ethics and in the philosophy of religion; in the latter area, it grounds a distinctive atheistic argument from evil. The two aspects of religious evil are interrelated in the sense that one's solution to the atheistic argument from religious evil predisposes one to specific approaches to the ethical problem of religious evil. The paper surveys the relevant literature and potential theistic defenses.
Analytic validation of commercially available immunoassays for the measurement of serum cobalamin and folate concentrations in pigs
Authors: Grützner Niels , Knabe Darrel , Lawhorn Bruce D. , Dominguez Brandon , Kauffold Johannes , Suchodolski Jan S. , Steiner Jörg M.
Published: May 2016

Background

Cobalamin (vitamin B12) and folate (vitamin B9) are important for the amino acid metabolism and nucleic acid synthesis. Immunoassays for the measurement of both vitamins in serum are routinely used in people, cats, and dogs, serving as indicators for clinical disorders including cobalamin and/or folate deficiency, small intestinal dysbiosis, or inadequate dietary supply of these vitamins. The analysis of these analytes may also be clinically useful in pigs.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to analytically validate immunoassays for the measurement of cobalamin and folate concentrations in porcine serum, and to determine serum cobalamin and folate concentrations in healthy newborn pigs pre‐ and postweaning.

Methods

Assay validation for both vitamins included the determination of linearity, accuracy, and intra‐ and inter‐assay variability using serum samples from 10 pigs. Also, serum cobalamin and folate concentrations were compared in piglets between pre‐ and postweaning.

Results

For both vitamins, observed‐to‐expected ratios for linearity and accuracy were 93.2 ± 14.3% and 100.3 ± 8.1% (mean ± standard deviation), respectively. Intra‐ and inter‐assay coefficients of variation for serum were ≤ 8.7% and ≤12.5%, respectively. Significantly higher serum cobalamin and lower folate concentrations were observed in piglets at the time of weaning than at postweaning (P < .0061; P < .0001, respectively).

Conclusions

Both immunoassays are linear, accurate, precise, and reproducible for measurement of porcine serum cobalamin and folate concentrations. Piglets differing in age by only 12 days had significantly different serum cobalamin and folate concentrations. The implications of differing serum cobalamin and folate concentrations in pigs at different stages of life should be further investigated.
Consonance preferences are not universal: Indifference to dissonance among native Amazonians
Authors: McDermott Josh , Schultz Alan , Undurraga Eduardo , Godoy Ricardo
Published: May 2016

In Western cultures, some combinations of musical notes are consonant (pleasant) and others are dissonant (unpleasant). Although the aesthetic contrast between consonance and dissonance is commonly thought to have biological roots, and thus to be universally present in humans, a definitive test has remained elusive. Here we report experiments with the Tsimane’—a native Amazonian society with minimal exposure to Western culture—and comparison populations elsewhere in Bolivia and the USA that varied in exposure to Western music. Participants rated the pleasantness of sounds. Despite exhibiting Western-like preferences for several other aesthetic contrasts, and Western-like discrimination abilities, the Tsimane’ rated consonant and dissonant chords and vocal harmonies as equally pleasant. In contrast, Bolivian city- and town-dwellers exhibited significant preferences for consonance, albeit to a lesser degree than U.S. residents. The results indicate that consonance preferences dramatically vary across cultures, and can be fully absent in some cases. The observed variation in preferences is plausibly determined by exposure to Western music, suggesting that culture plays a dominant role in shaping aesthetic responses to consonance.
Introduction to the Technical Committee on Physical Acoustics
Authors: Gladden Josh R.
Published: May 2016

The Technical Committee on Physical Acoustics (TCPA) of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) includes scientists and engineers with an interest in the underlying physics of acoustical phenomenon. What unifies the members of TCPA is the approach to answering a particular question. The types of phenomena of interest to the physical acoustics community are fundamental acoustic wave propagation, including transmission, reflection, refraction, interference, diffraction, scattering, absorption, and dispersion of sound covering the entire frequency range from infrasound to ultrasound. There is also interest in the use of acoustics to study physical properties of matter, and to produce changes in these properties. TCPA currently has about 575 members with a primary interest in physical acoustics with 75–125 typically attending open TCPA meetings.
An overview of research in underwater acoustics
Authors: Thode Aaron
Published: May 2016

Underwater acoustics (UW) studies underwater sound generation, propagation, and detection over scales ranging from millimeters to megameters, and often has overlapping interests with AB, AO, and SP. This talk will sample several topics of interest to the UW technical committee, including recent studies in propagation, inversion, and scattering, using both active and passive techniques. A long-term trend has been the discovery of how both deterministic and random components of the underwater acoustic field can be used to invert for surface, water column, sediment, and biological properties, which in turn provides parametrizations for improved “forward” modeling.
Signal processing: Ubiquitous in acoustics
Authors: Preisig James
Published: May 2016

The bat sends out a pulse of sound, hears the reflection off of an insect, and moves in for a meal. Similarly, a whale locates its prey with the reflections of sound. Both bats and whales also use reflected sounds to navigate and avoid obstacles. Humans hear speech and infer the message being send by the speaker. The listener to music gets the artistic message being sent by the composer and musician. Man made sounds in the ocean are used to communicate, locate objects, and monitor environmental conditions. The reflection of an ultrasound pulse off of a beating heart gives information to the doctor about the health of a fetus. These are but a few of the examples where “signal processing,” by a machine, human and/or animal pulls information from a received acoustic signal. Signal processing is an important component of the activities and research conducted by the members of many technical committees in the ASA. The members of the Signal Processing in Acoustics Technical Committee, through theoretical development, implementation, and analysis study algorithms and acoustic signals in areas that span the society. This talk will present an overview of a few of these activities.
Introduction to the structural acoustics and vibration technical committee
Authors: Phillips James E.
Published: May 2016

The Structural Acoustics and Vibration Technical Committee (SAVTC) includes the study of motions and interactions of mechanical systems with their environments and the methods of their measurement, analysis, and control. This talk will provide a broad overview of the many research areas of interest to SAVTC. A few topics will be explored in more depth to provide background on some of the more common analysis methods used by members of the technical committee.
How to submit and chair a special session
Authors: Scanlon Michael V.
Published: May 2016

Organizing and chairing a special session at an Acoustical Society of America meeting is easy. The hardest part is raising your hand for the first time at a Technical Committee (TC) to promote a topic of interest to you and your peers. There are many reasons why proposing a focused Special Session can benefit the ASA membership and you. This presentation will describe the steps you need to take to propose a special topic, arrange for the session to be listed in the Call for Papers, and how to organize your session. You will understand how to contact specific subject matter experts to give invited presentations, and how to describe your topic to encourage other authors to contribute papers. This presentation will be especially helpful for students and first time meeting attendees, and will hopefully motivate more early-career members to attend TC meetings, volunteer to Chair upcoming special sessions, and increase interaction with subject matter experts in that particular area.
Ellipsoidal perfectly matched layers for acoustics
Authors: Bunting Greg , Prakash Arun , Dohrmann Clark , Walsh Timothy F.
Published: May 2016

In this talk, we present a novel ellipsoidal formulation and massively parallel implementation of a perfectly matched layer (PML) for acoustics and structural acoustics. Perfectly matched layers and infinite elements are commonly used for finite element simulations of acoustic waves on unbounded domains. PML is a more recent technology that is gaining popularity due to ease of implementation and effectiveness as an absorbing boundary condition. In this study, we extend well-known curvilinear formulations for PML to ellipsoidal domains, thus allowing for a minimal volume encapsulation of the structure of interest. We discuss the issues involved in parallelization and compare the performance of PML against infinite elements on a set of representative acoustic problems on exterior domains. We examine the conditioning of the linear systems generated by the two techniques by examining the number of Krylov-iterations needed for convergence to a fixed solver tolerance. We also examine the scalability of the methods in terms of the number of Helmholtz solver iterations as the number of PML layers and infinite element order are increased. [Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL850000.]
The sound of an elastic airfoil in the wake of a vortex generator
Authors: Manela Avshalom
Published: May 2016

The acoustic signature of an acoustically compact tandem airfoil setup in high-Reynolds number flow is investigated. The upstream airfoil is rigid and is actuated at its leading edge with small-amplitude sinusoidal pitching motion. The downstream airfoil is taken passive and elastic, with its motion forced by the vortex-street excitation of the upstream airfoil. The near-field description is obtained via potential thin-airfoil theory. It is then applied as a source term into the Powell-Howe acoustic analogy, to yield the far-field dipole radiation of the system. To assess the effect of downstream-airfoil elasticity, results are compared with calculations for a non-elastic setup, where the downstream airfoil is rigid and fixed. Depending on separation distance between airfoils, airfoil-motion and airfoil-wake dynamics shift between in-phase (synchronized) and counter-phase behaviors. Downstream airfoil elasticity acts to either amplify or suppress sound, through the direct contribution of elastic-airfoil motion to the total signal. Resonance-type motion of the elastic airfoil is found when the upstream airfoil is actuated at the least stable eigenfrequency of the downstream structure. This, again, results in system sound amplification or suppression, depending on separation distance between airfoils. With increasing actuation frequency, the acoustic signal becomes dominated by the direct contribution of upstream airfoil motion, whereas the relative contribution of the elastic airfoil to the total signature turns negligible.
Nonlinear damage detection and localization via an innovative metamaterial-based sensor
Authors: Miniaci Marco , Krushynska Anastasiia , Bosia Federico , Gliozzi Antonio , Scalerandi Marco , Morvan Bruno , Pugno Nicola
Published: May 2016

In recent years, acoustic metamaterials have attracted increasing scientific interest for very diverse technological applications ranging from sound abatement to ultrasonic imaging, mainly due to their ability to act as band-stop filters. At the same time, the concept of chaotic cavities has been recently proposed as an efficient tool to enhance the quality of nonlinear signal analysis, particularly in the ultrasonic/acoustic case. The goal of the present work is to merge the two concepts to propose a metamaterial-based device that can be used as a natural and selective linear filter for the detection of signals resulting from the propagation of elastic waves in nonlinear solids, e.g., in the presence of damage, and as a detector for the damage itself in time reversal experiments. Numerical simulations and experimental measurements based on scanning laser Doppler vibrometer demonstrate the feasibility of the approach and the potential of the device in providing improved signal to noise ratios and enhanced focusing on scatterer locations.
Is perceptual learning influenced by inherent variability of phonetic category?
Authors: Kataoka Reiko , Koo Hahn
Published: May 2016

A body of research has shown the effect of lexically guided perceptual learning (e.g., Norris et al., 2003), whereby listeners modify phonetic category boundaries after being exposed to critical words that contain segments that are phonetically ambiguous and serve as new exemplars of a target phonetic category. It has been shown that several factors constrain the extent of learning, and one recent study (Stevens et al., 2007) suggests that inherently variable phonetic categories might resist retuning. To test this idea, we examined modifiability of two vowel categories, [i] and [u], the latter of which has a wider range of variability than the former due to contextual variation as well as ongoing sound change. Our listeners heard exposure stimuli that were ambiguous between [i] and [u], embedded in lexical frames that yield real words only if the vowel is /i/ (/i/-words) or /u/ (/u/-words), during lexical decision tasks. Each listener’s category boundary between [i]-[u] was measured Pre- and Post-exposure. Our results show that listeners tend to shift boundaries more for [i] than [u], suggesting a way that listeners balance between flexibility and stability in speech perception.
Phonemic category formation and suppressed sensitivity to extraneous acoustic cues
Authors: Matthews John , Kawasaki Takako , Tanaka Kuniyoshi
Published: May 2016

L2 learners are known to be sensitive to acoustic cues beyond the bare minimum required to distinguish target language phonemic contrasts. This paper examines changes in this sensitivity to such extraneous details in the acoustic signal following extended exposure to L2 input. Our Category Activation Threshold Model (CATM) posits that the acquisition of new phonological categories brings about inhibitory mechanisms that actively suppress the processing of acoustic cues not needed for phonemic distinction. To assess the use of acoustic detail at different levels of proficiency, we administered a similarity judgment task to two groups of Japanese learners of English: university students with no study-abroad experience (NoSA: n = 22), and students with 3–12 months experience living and studying in an English-speaking country (SA: n = 18). SA participants judged the acoustic distance between pairs with one native and one non-native segment, /s/~/θ/, /z/~/ð/, to be greater than NoSA participants did. However, the SA group rated the acoustic difference between two utterances of the same stimulus item containing non-native /f/ or /v/ to be smaller than the No-SA group did. This result accords with the CATM, exhibiting the inhibitory effects of category formation.
Acoustic reduction, context, and inter-stimulus interval in cross-modal priming
Authors: Brenner Daniel , Tucker Benjamin V.
Published: May 2016

Work such as Tucker (2011) and van de Ven et al. (2011) show that reduced acoustic contrasts can impede lexical access for a listener. Tucker (2011) also found preliminary evidence of a nonlinear (U-shaped) relationship between the degree of intensity dip in stops and lexical decision response times. The present talk summarizes results from a cross-modal identity priming experiment designed to explore this potential nonlinearity further. Utilizing three different inter-stimulus-intervals, trials were presented in which conversational words with variously reduced intervocalic stops served as auditory primes. Visual targets included the same word as the prime, words with a large degree of phonological overlap, and unrelated controls, as well as phonologically overlapping and non-overlapping pseudowords. Additionally, the auditory primes were presented with three degrees of surrounding context: isolation (the word only), phonetic context (including the vowels in neighboring syllables, providing primarily speech-rate information), or complete utterances. This talk explores the resulting picture of the relationship between reduction, context, and inter-stimulus-intervals to processing demand as evidenced in the response latencies. We then discuss the implications for models of perception and spoken word recognition.
Vowel discrimination asymmetry: The influence of token variability and lexical characteristics
Authors: Garcia Paula , Nishi Kanae
Published: May 2016

Listeners are more sensitive to changes in vowel quality when a peripheral vowel rather than a central vowel serves as deviant in an oddball paradigm (asymmetry in vowel discrimination). Schwartz et al. (2005) hypothesized that formant focalization in peripheral vowels make them perceptually more salient than central ones. Interestingly, however, a neurophysiological study (García and Froud, 2014) suggested that lexical familiarity may play a role in this perceptual asymmetry. This study investigated whether or not the asymmetry in vowel discrimination is mediated by the lexical characteristics of the stimulus words. Using an oddball paradigm, mismatch negativity (MMN) responses were elicited from adult monolingual American English listeners using naturally-produced American English vowel contrast /ɑ/-/ʌ/ in a real-word pair (Dock/Duck) and a non-word pair (Dop/Dupp). Listeners heard the pairs in two sessions. It was hypothesized that the MMN responses would be observed only when the peripheral vowel /ɑ/ in real words serves as deviant. Preliminary results suggest that MMN responses were observed for /ɑ/ but not for /ʌ/ regardless of the lexical status of the stimulus words. The implications of findings will be discussed in terms of the effects of lexical status of stimulus words and token variability in vowel discrimination.
Methodology and technology for the polymodal allophonic speech transcription
Authors: Czyzewski Andrzej , Ciszewski Tomasz E. , Kostek Bozena
Published: May 2016

A method for automatic audiovisual transcription of speech employing: acoustic, electromagnetical articulography and visual speech representations is developed. It adopts a combining of audio and visual modalities, which provide a synergy effect in terms of speech recognition accuracy. To establish a robust solution, basic research concerning the relation between the allophonic variation of speech, i.e., the changes in the articulatory setting of speech organs for the same phoneme produced in different phonetic environments and the objective signal parameters (both audio and video) is carried out. The method is sensitive to minute allophonic detail as well as to accentual differences. It is shown that by using the analysis of video signals together with the acoustic signal, speech transcription can be performed more accurately and robustly than by using the acoustic modality alone. In particular, various features extracted from the visual signal are tested for their abilities to encode allophonic variations in pronunciation. New methods for modeling the accentual and allophonic variation of speech are developed. [Research sponsored by the Polish National Science Centre, Dec. No. 2015/17/B/ST6/01874.]
Localization of sources on the ground with airborne acoustic platforms in a refractive, turbulent atmosphere
Authors: Ostashev Vladimir E. , Wilson D. K. , Cheinet Sylvain , Reiff Christian , Collier Sandra L. , Noble Jonn , Ligon David
Published: May 2016

Acoustic sensors are being employed on airborne platforms for localization of sources on the ground. In this presentation, the impact of atmospheric turbulence and refraction of sound signals due to the vertical profiles of temperature and wind velocity on source localization are overviewed. The variance of the angle of arrival of sound signals in a turbulent atmosphere is analyzed. A theory is presented which accounts for refraction corrections in source localization with elevated sensor arrays. The theory expresses the horizontal, azimuthal, and elevation refraction corrections in terms of the vertical profiles of temperature and wind velocity and the sensors’ coordinates. The theory is applied to the results of a comprehensive experiment in source localization with an aerostat-mounted acoustic sensor array at Yuma Proving Ground (YPG). Long term atmospheric data sets from weather modeling systems are used for a climatological assessment of the refraction corrections and localization errors. Due to reciprocity in sound propagation, the results presented are also pertinent to localization of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with ground-based acoustic sensors.
What’s that sound? Probe tones and poltergeists: Two case studies in diagnosing noise sources
Authors: Cunefare Kenneth A.
Published: May 2016

Case #1: Following construction of a new hospital building within a larger campus, residents began to complain about droning noises in the surrounding neighborhood. Blame was laid on HVAC chillers and an MRI chiller installed on exposed roof-tops of the building. However, there were numerous other chillers on buildings on the campus that were not blamed; a test using probe tones eliminated the hospital building as the source impacting the community. Case #2: A homeowner complained of intermittent groaning and moaning noises in the home (poltergeist-like). Interviews revealed that the noises occurred essentially randomly; while the homeowner correlated occurrences to whether or not it had recently rained, the correlation was weak. Additionally, the homeowner had found that opening a water tap would cause the sound to fade away; this was suggestive, but since the sound faded away in a short time even without opening the valve, it was not definitive. Complicating the diagnosis was the intermittency of the noise (weeks could pass between events), and its short duration. A faulty GFI threw a red-herring into the mix, but ultimately the problem was solved by replacing the household water pressure regulator.
Shining a light on the neural signature of effortful listening
Authors: Wiggins Ian M. , Wijayasiri Pramudi , Hartley Douglas
Published: May 2016

This study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate a possible neural correlate of effortful listening. Hearing-impaired individuals report more listening effort than their normally hearing peers, with negative consequences in daily life (e.g., increased absenteeism from work). Listening effort may reflect neuro-cognitive processing underlying the recovery of meaning from a degraded auditory signal. Indeed, evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) suggests that the processing of degraded speech is associated with increased activation in cortical areas outside the main auditory regions within the temporal lobe. However, acoustic scanner noise presents a serious methodological challenge in fMRI. This challenge can potentially be overcome using fNIRS, a silent, non-invasive brain-imaging technique based on optical measurements. In the current study, we used fNIRS to confirm the finding that attentive listening to degraded (noise-vocoded) speech leads to increased activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG), compared to a clear-speech control condition. In contrast, robust activation in the auditory cortices was unaffected by speech clarity or attentional focus. Our results support the suggestion that the LIFG plays a role in compensating for degradation to the speech signal. Furthermore, fNIRS may hold promise as a flexible tool to examine the neural processes underlying effortful listening.
On the alternative objective functions for minimum variance distortionless response technique in order to restore the original source
Authors: Tzeng Yuling , Too Gee-Pinn J.
Published: May 2016

Minimum Variance Distortionless Response (MVDR) technique is one of the signal processing ways for noise reduction. Its principle is to minimize the output power of the signal. This study simulated an underwater acoustic field using ray acoustic method. The acoustic field consists of a signal source, multiple noise sources and a line array hydrophones. The signal source is ship-radiated noise. The simulated combining signals received by the hydrophone array are used to restore the original signal source by MVDR technique. The study discusses the different objective functions given in MVDR in order to restore the original source. Then, the results are compared in computing time, effectiveness and adaptability. The results indicate that MVDR can be used to restore the original signal source with very high correlation coefficient up to 90% between the original signal and the restored one.
Non-native speakers’ acoustic variability in producing American English tense and lax vowels
Authors: Smith Bruce L. , Hayes-Harb Rachel
Published: May 2016

The primary goal of the present study was to compare native (L1) and non-native (L2) speakers’ vowel productions to determine whether the L2 subjects showed similar or greater within-subject (i.e., token-to-token) variability relative to the L1 talkers when producing American English vowels. We were particularly interested in whether L2 subjects whose vowels were more native-like would be less variable in their productions and whether L2 talkers’ whose vowels were less native-like would be more variable in their productions. First and second formants of the tense and lax vowel pairs / i—ɪ /, / e—ɛ /, and / u—ʊ / were measured and Coefficient of Variation was calculated for 10 native speakers of American English and 30 non-native speakers of English from three different language backgrounds (viz., 10 Mandarin speakers, 10 Korean speakers, and 10 Spanish speakers). Overall, the L2 subjects’ vowel formant patterns were found to be comparable to those of L1 speakers approximately half of the time. Whether the L2 talkers’ American English vowel formants were native-like or not, however, they seldom showed greater within-subject variability than the native speakers.
Photoacoustic imaging of muscle oxygenation during exercise
Authors: Baker Clayton A. , Rasheed Nashaat , Chitnis Parag V. , Sikdar Siddhartha
Published: May 2016

Monitoring muscle hemodynamics and oxygenation is important for studying muscle function and fatigue. Current state-of-the-art for noninvasive oximetry is near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), which provides relative oxygen saturation (SO2) with good sensitivity but has poor spatial resolution and sensing depth, and does not provide anatomical context. In this study, we demonstrated the utility of a dual-modality imaging system that could generate co-registered ultrasound (US) and photoacoustic (PA) images for real-time, functional imaging of human muscle. The system consisted of a wavelength-tunable pulsed laser (Opotek) integrated with a research ultrasound system (Verasonics). US images provided anatomical context and the PA images acquired at 690 nm and 830 nm were processed to estimate SO2 during a sustained isometric contraction and return to rest using a protocol approved by our Institutional Review Board. PA-based SO2 was compared to measurements acquired from a commercially available NIRS oximeter under the same conditions. Preliminary results showed good qualitative agreement between SO2 dynamics observed via PA-based approach and NIRS, with contraction coinciding with an exponential decay in SO2, and relaxation with a return to original levels. This in vivo study demonstrated the feasibility of PA imaging for measuring temporally and spatially resolved muscle oxygenation during functional tasks.
Vibration analysis of acoustic guitar string employing high-speed video cameras
Authors: Kostek Bozena , Szczuko Piotr , Kotus Jozef , Szczodrak Maciej , Czyzewski Andrzej
Published: May 2016

A method of analysis and visualization of displacements of an acoustic guitar string is presented. Vibrations of the strings are recorded using high-speed cameras. The optical system used for the recording is applied in order to make it possible to observe the vibrations along the string. Images recorded with high-speed cameras are analyzed using digital signal processing algorithms in order to track the shape of deflections and displacement of strings, with a high spatial resolution, and to convert the acquired video data into an acoustic signal. The acoustic signal derived from the visual analysis is then compared with a reference signal which was recorded simultaneously using a measurement microphone. The research experiments are aimed principally at studying the phenomena related to energy transfer of vibrating strings to the body of the instrument. [This research study was supported by the grant, funded by the Polish National Science Centre, decision number DEC-2012/05/B/ST7/02151.]
Experimental demonstration of mitigating flame-sustained thermoacoustic oscillations by using an electrical heater
Authors: Zhao Dan , Li Xinyan
Published: May 2016

In this work, experimental investigation is conducted to mitigate flame-sustained thermoacoustic instability occurred in a conventional Rijke-type and bifurcating thermoacoustic systems by using an electrical heater. A premixed methane-burned flame is confined in the bottom part of the Rijke-type and bifurcating thermoacoustic systems to produce self-sustained thermoacoustic oscillations. As the electrical heater is placed downstream of the flame, it acts like a sound absorber and can even completely stabilize the unstable thermoacoustic system. The damping performance of the heater depends strongly on its axial location and output power. To further validate our findings, experimental investigation of mitigating thermoacoustic oscillations in a bifurcating unstable system by using a heater is performed. It has a mother tube with a premixed methane-burned flame confined. The mother tube splits into two bifurcating branches with an angle of α. A temperature-controllable electrical heater (TCH) is enclosed in one of the bifurcating branches. It is shown that the bifurcating system is associated with thermoacoustic oscillations at around 190 Hz with a sound pressure level of 130 dB. However, when the heater placing at 15 cm away from the open end is actuated, sound pressure level is found to be reduced by approximately 50 dB.
Production and perception of the advanced tongue root vowel system in Ethiopian Komo
Authors: Olejarczuk Paul , Otero Manuel A. , Baese-Berk Melissa M.
Published: May 2016

Komo [xom] is an endangered and under-documented language spoken along the Ethio-Sudanese border. This paper presents the results of the first phonetic investigation of the Komo vowel system and reports on a related perception experiment carried out in the field. Our first aim is to provide an acoustic description of the Advanced Tongue Root (ATR) feature in Komo, which is contrastive in the high vowels and allophonic in the non-high vowels. To this end, we present acoustic measurements of 2, 688 vowel tokens produced by 16 speakers. Our second aim is to examine the influence of Komo's typologically unique vowel harmony system on listeners' perception of the [ATR] feature. Komo ATR harmony displays two competing processes triggered by the high vowels (Otero, 2015): [ + ATR] spreads leftward to non-high vowels (e.g., /CaCi/ → [CəCi]), while [-ATR] spreads rightward to high vowels (e.g., /CɪCi/ → [CɪCɪ]). Sixteen Komo listeners and 16 native English-speaking controls performed an AX task with disyllabic (pseudo)words featuring context vowels and [±ATR] vowel continua. Patterns in the results suggest that (a) Komo listeners (but not controls) were influenced by the [ATR] value of the context, and (b) targets of [ + ATR] harmony were processed differently from targets of [-ATR] harmony.
Preliminary acoustic descriptions of the pharyngeals and sosterior plosives of Northern Haida
Authors: Telfer Corey , Lachler Jordan
Published: May 2016

Haida is a highly endangered language spoken on the archipelago of Haida Gwaii, off the coast of British Columbia, as well as in communities in Southeast Alaska. Like many languages of the Northwest Coast, Haida plosives include three manners of articulation: voiceless aspirated, voiceless unaspirated, and ejective. Analysis of recordings indicates that the Voice Onset Time of the posterior aspirated and ejective stops is nearly identical. It appears that these speech sounds differ primarily in their acoustic intensities, and a new measure called Burst Intensity Slope is proposed to quantify this difference. In addition, the Northern dialect has been described as including pharyngeal speech sounds (e.g., Krauss 1979, Enrico 1991); however, only one small acoustic study has been conducted to verify this (Bessell 1993). Using recordings of a small number of speakers, this paper aims to document the different types of pharyngeals using acoustic measurements. Of special interest is the pharyngeal plosive of Massett Haida, which often includes what appears to be concomitant aryepiglottal trilling (“growl voice”). This will be investigated by comparing the number of zero-count crossings with those of other types of plosives and vowels produced by the same speakers.
Acoustic characteristics of vowels in two Totonacan languages
Authors: Puderbaugh Rebekka
Published: May 2016

This study examines the acoustics of vowels from two Totonacan languages, Upper Necaxa Totonac (UNT) and Huehuetla Tepehua (HT). Both languages have five-vowel systems consisting of the qualities /aeiou/ as well as phonemic quantity distinctions (short, long), and lexical stress. In addition, UNT makes use of contrastive phonation on vowels, while HT vowels may be produced with allophonically non-modal phonation when adjacent to glottalic segments and glottal stops. Data from four speakers (two female and two male) of each language are reported. Acoustic measures are based on multiple repetitions of each vowel in a variety of lexical items, elicited within a frame sentence. Measurements are taken from stressed vowels surrounded by obstruents wherever possible. A variety of analyses are undertaken. Traditional visualizations of the vowel spaces of male and female speakers using normalized F1-F2 plots are combined with comparisons of dynamic formant trajectories across the time course of vowel production. Vowel duration is compared across short and long vowel categories of all five qualities in both languages. The relationship of fundamental frequency to vowel identity and phonation type is investigated.
Measuring contact area in synthetic vocal fold replicas using electrical resistance
Authors: Syndergaard Kyle L. , Warner Stephen , Dushku Shelby , Thomson Scott L.
Published: May 2016

Synthetic vocal fold replicas are a useful tool for studying human voice production. These replicas are often studied using high-speed imaging, but additional analysis procedures are desired that are lower cost, less data intensive, and more conducive to long-term vibration monitoring. Consequently, this work explores the use of electrical resistance to measure vocal fold contact area across the glottis of a synthetic vocal fold replica. The concept is based on electroglottography (EGG), a clinical tool for measuring vocal fold contact area in vivo. When a small current is passed through the vocal folds, the resistance across the folds varies inversely with the contact area between the folds. This change in resistance thus makes it possible to estimate the degree of glottal closure during vocal fold vibration. For this research, a method of enabling silicone vocal fold replicas to conduct electricity without compromising the sensitive material viscoelastic properties has been developed. The concept will be demonstrated and relationships between contact area and resistance in both static and vibrating (self-oscillating) replicas will be presented.
Testing a conceptual model of vocal tremor: Respiratory and laryngeal contributions to acoustic modulation
Authors: LeBaron Jordon , Barkmeier-Kraemer Julie
Published: May 2016

Vocal tremor is a voice disorder characterized by rhythmic modulation of fundamental frequency (f0) and sound pressure level (SPL) during sustained phonation. To date, contributions of oscillating speech structures to the acoustic modulations of vocal tremor are absent in the literature and are important for treatment purposes. The purpose of this study was to prospectively test the contributions of laryngeal and respiratory structure oscillations to acoustic modulation using singers to simulate vocal tremor. Laryngeal oscillation during production of natural vibrato was hypothesized to associate with f0 modulation, whereas respiratory system oscillation during respiratory accented voicing was hypothesized to associate with SPL modulation. Ten female singers were recruited between 40 and 65 years of age without voice problems and meeting inclusion criteria for expertise necessary to produce natural vibrato and respiratory accented voicing during sustained phonation. Simultaneous endoscopic views of the larynx, respiratory kinematic, and acoustic signals were recorded during three trials of sustained /i/ during natural vibrato, or respiratory accented voicing. The rate and magnitude of kinematic movements of the chest wall and larynx are currently being compared to rate and magnitude of acoustic modulation. Preliminary qualitative evaluation of data supports hypothesized contributions of speech structures to acoustic modulation patterns.
Characterizing nonlinear systems with memory while combating and reducing the curse of dimensionality using new Volterra Expansion Technique
Authors: Nuttall Albert H. , Hughes Derke R. , Katz Richard A. , Koch Robert M.
Published: May 2016

A generalized model for characterizing nonlinear systems was originally proposed by Italian mathematician and physicist Vito Volterra (1860-1940). A further developed by American mathematician and MIT Professor Norbert Wiener (1894–1964) and published in 1958. After direct involvement with Norbert Wiener publication, Albert H. Nuttall has recently made new inroads along with his coauthors in applying the Wiener-Volterra model. A general description of a nonlinear system to the second order is termed the Nuttall-Wiener-Volterra model (NWV) after its co-founders. In this formulation, two measurement waveforms on the system are required in order to characterize a specified nonlinear system under consideration: an excitation input, x(t) (the transmitted signal) and a response output, z(t) (the received signal). Given these two measurement waveforms for a given system, a kernel response, h= [h0,h1,h2,h3] between the two measurement points, is computed via a least squares approach that optimizes modeled kernel values by performing a best fit between a measured response z(t) and a modeled response y(t). New procedures developed by A. Nuttall are invoked to significantly diminish the exponential growth of the computed number of kernel coefficients with respect to third order and higher orders to combat and reasonably reduce the curse of dimensionality.