bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Acoustic effects of loud speech across vowels and speakers
Authors: Koenig Laura L. , Fuchs Susanne
Published: May 2015

Although loud speech is widely agreed mainly to involve increased respiratory driving support leading to greater acoustic intensity, past work suggests that speakers may make laryngeal and supralaryngeal adjustments as well. For example, previous studies suggest that loud speech is accompanied by greater jaw displacements as well as formant frequency variation, especially in the form of higher first formants. Acoustic studies have generally not sampled widely across the vowel space, however. This study assessed how formants, f0, duration, and intensity varied across conversational and loud conditions, with a particular focus on formant frequencies. Eleven German-speaking women performed three speaking tasks: Reading, answering questions, and recounting a recipe. Target words included a range of high, low, tense, and lax vowels. Loudness variation was elicited naturalistically via changing interlocutor distance. Initial results from the reading and question-answer tasks suggest that formant frequencies vary on average in louder speech, particularly for F1, but the effects are speaker-dependent and may also differ between high vs. low and tense vs. lax vowels. These acoustic data will ultimately be combined with simultaneously recorded data on intraoral pressure, vocal-fold contact, and breathing kinematics to assess the range of speakers' strategies for achieving louder speech.
Diachronic change in perception of Korean sibilants
Authors: Schertz Jessamyn L. , Kang Yoonjung , Han Sungwoo , Kong Eunjong
Published: May 2015

The laryngeal contrast in the Seoul dialect of Korean is in a state of flux: the increasing importance of f0 (relative to VOT) in both perception and production of the three-way stop contrast in younger (vs. older) Seoul speakers has been well-documented. The current work turns to perception of the Korean sibilant series, comprised of a three-way affricate contrast, (fortis vs. lenis vs. aspirated, parallel to the stop contrast) and a phonologically ambiguous two-way fricative contrast (fortis vs. “nonfortis”). We map younger (mean 33 years old) and older (mean 66) Seoul listeners’ perceptual spaces for the sibilant class using a five-way forced-choice task, with stimuli manipulated to vary independently across multiple acoustic dimensions (consonantal spectral information, vocalic spectral information, frication duration, aspiration duration, and f0). Hierarchical classification tree analyses reveal systematic age-related differences in cue-weighting. While both age groups make use of a combination of spectral properties of both the consonant and vowel, temporal information, and f0 when categorizing the stimuli, f0 plays a greater role in predicting sibilant classification in younger as compared to older listeners. Furthermore, categorization patterns suggest that the sound change not only affects perception of the three-way laryngeal contrast, but also has implications for other phonological contrasts (e.g. affricate vs. fricative “manner” contrast).
/l/-darkness in Newfoundland English
Authors: Mackenzie Sara , De Decker Paul , Pierson Rosanna
Published: May 2015

This paper reports on the first acoustic study on the allophonic distribution of /l/ in Newfoundland, Canada, where Irish-settled varieties of English exhibit light variants in both coda and onset positions (Clarke 2010, Paddock 1982). This pattern is distinct from standard North American English which has a dark, or velarized form in coda position and light [l] in onsets (Halle & Mohanan 1985). Productions from 10 male and 13 female speakers from across the province were collected and spectrally analyzed using Praat 5.4 (Boersma & Weenink 2014). Darkness measurements (F2-F1 at the midpoint of each /l/) were calculated and within-subjects t-tests conducted to examine differences across onset and coda positions. Results show the standard North American pattern exists within our sample, with significantly darker /l/s in coda position. However, some speakers showed coda darkness values comparable to onset /l/s of those speakers with the allophonic variation. Others had darkness values comparable to coda realizations in all positions. These findings are discussed using a model of dialect contact that identifies how, despite the presence of the dominant North American pattern, some speakers of Newfoundland English maintain a several hundreds year old pattern which lacks allophonic variation across syllable positions.
Talker variation in the perception of speech in noise
Authors: Silbert Noah H. , Motlagh Zadeh Lina
Published: May 2015

Speech communication commonly occurs in the presence of noise. Research on the perception of speech in noise has largely focused on the perceptual availability of target phonetic information in the presence of various noise maskers (e.g., white noise, speech-shaped noise, temporally modulated noise, and multi-talker babble). Previous work has shown that a glimpsing model and a modified Articular Index model closely approximate overall accuracy of noise-masked speech perception (Cooke, 2006, JASA; Allen, 2005; JASA). Some recent work has focused on variation in confusion patterns across listeners (Silbert, 2012, JASA, 2014, Lab. Phon.) and on difference in perceptual error rates across and within consonant categories (Toscano & Allen, forthcoming, JSLHR). The present work focuses on listener and stimulus-talker variation in the identification of consonants. Eleven listeners identified numerous tokens of each of four consonants (t, d, s, z) in CV syllables produced by 20 talkers (10 male, 10 female) masked by 10-talker babble. Data plots and multilevel logistic regression model fits indicate substantial variation in talker-specific influences on identification accuracy as well as substantial interactions between talker and stimulus category. Analysis of perceptual confusion patterns via a multilevel, multidimensional Gaussian signal detection model will also be presented.
A language familiarity effect for talker identification in forward but not time-reversed speech
Authors: Dougherty Sara C. , Mclaughlin Deirdre E. , Perrachione Tyler K.
Published: May 2015

Listeners identify voices more accurately in their native language than an unfamiliar foreign language—a phenomenon known as the Language Familiarity Effect (LFE). The purpose of this study was to assess two hypotheses about the source of the LFE: 1) that the LFE depends on linguistic processing of speech, or 2) that it results from listeners' familiarity with language-specific but non-linguistic properties of speech acoustics. We trained native speakers of English (N = 16) and Mandarin (N = 16) to identify English and Mandarin voices. Stimuli consisted of unaltered recordings of ten sentences in those languages, as well as time-reversed versions of the same. Importantly, time-reversed speech preserves global acoustic properties of the stimuli while rendering them completely incomprehensible. Consistent with the LFE, participants identified voices in their native-language significantly more accurately than in the foreign language when listening to normal, forward speech. However, participants did not exhibit a corresponding LFE for the time-reversed speech stimuli: time-reversed native- and foreign-language voices were identified with equal accuracy. These findings support the hypothesis that processes involved in speech comprehension are the source of the LFE rather than differences in the non-linguistic analysis of speech acoustics.
Effects of reading ability on native and nonnative talker recognition
Authors: Kadam Minal , Orena Adriel J. , Theodore Rachel M. , Polka Linda
Published: May 2015

Recent findings suggest that phonological knowledge influences talker identification. Specifically, talker identification is improved for native compared to nonnative talkers, and adults with reading disability show impaired talker identification even for native talkers [Perrachione et al., Science, 333, 595 (2011)]. Here, we examine whether effects of reading ability on talker identification emerge among unimpaired readers. Monolingual English adults were assigned to either the high or low reading group based on standardized assessments of reading and reading sub-skills. All readers learned to identify the voices of four English talkers and four French talkers. Training consisted of a two-alternative forced choice task with feedback provided on every trial. After training, retention of learning was tested using a four-alternative forced choice task without feedback. The results to date suggest that the high reading group learned both the native and nonnative voices faster compared to the low reading group. Moreover, the high reading group showed increased retention of learning compared to the low reading group, but only for the nonnative voices. These results are consistent with recent findings demonstrating an effect of language proficiency on talker identification, and extend them to include a gradient role for native language phonological ability on nonnative talker identification.
Gender and age differences in vowel-related formant patterns: What happens if men, women, and children produce vowels on different and on similar F0?
Authors: Maurer Dieter , Suter Heidy , Friedrichs Daniel , Dellwo Volker
Published: May 2015

There is a broad consensus in the literature that vowel-specific formant patterns differ as a function of gender (men/women) or age (adults/children) due to different average vocal tract sizes. Although an additional influence of fundamental frequency F0 is discussed in corresponding normalization approaches, formant patterns relating to sounds of adults and children that exhibit the same F0, to sounds of adults with higher F0 than sounds of children, and to sounds of men with higher F0 than sounds of women are barely compared. Investigating vowels of men, women, and children producing sounds with varying F0, we observed (1) a possible decrease or even a disappearance of the expected speaker-group differences in the formant frequencies < 1.5 kHz if F0 of the utterances correspond for children, women, and men, and (2) a possible “inversion“ of the expected speaker-group differences < 1.5 kHz if F0 of the utterances of adults are higher than those of children, or F0 of men are higher than those of women. However, no corresponding relationship between F0 and the higher formants > 1.5 kHz was found. These observations call for a further examination of the role of F0 when interpreting speaker-group related differences in formant patterns.
Vowels or consonants: Which is more effective in distinguishing between self-identified gay and heterosexual male speakers of American English?
Authors: Tracy Erik C.
Published: May 2015

Previous research (Tracy & Satariano, 2011) investigated how listeners were able to distinguish between self-identified gay and heterosexual male speakers of American English. In one experiment, listeners heard greater and greater portions of utterances that followed a CVC pattern (/m/, /mæ/, and /mæs/), and their judgments significantly improved upon hearing the second phone. It was unclear if this result was due to the second phone being a vowel or because it was an additional phone. It was hypothesized that judgments would improve if listeners heard additional phones. Furthermore, listeners would primarily rely on vowels, and not consonants, to form their judgments. This hypothesis was tested in the present experiment. Listeners heard utterances that contained one, two, or three consonants, and one, two or three vowels. The results demonstrated that sexual orientation judgments improved if the utterances contained three phones compared to one phone. It was also discovered that the listeners were better able to distinguish between the gay and heterosexual speakers if the utterances contained vowels rather than consonants. Thus, the hypotheses were confirmed. While sexual orientation judgments improved if the utterances contained more phones, listeners were better able to distinguish between the speakers if the utterances contained vowels.
The role of social information in cognitive processing: Sex and sexuality
Authors: Wilbanks Eric
Published: May 2015

Exemplar models of cognitive linguistic processing hold that humans' robust memory faculty allows for the construction of “exemplars” or prototypes gained through statistical procedures applied to experiential memories of variation (Pierrehumbert, 2006). Since they are based upon experiential memories, exemplar clouds are sensitive to social information. As Mendoza-Denton et al. (2003) note, congruence between the variant and the center of the exemplar cloud often facilitates cognitive processing. Both speaker age (Walker and Hay, 2011) and speaker sex (Sumner and King, 2013) have been shown to affect semantic processing. Expanding upon these investigations, the current study examines a new social variable, sexuality. First, a lexical association task was carried out to construct a corpus of word-pairs whose semantic links differed for straight female, male, and gay male speakers. Then, the effect of congruence between speaker sexuality, gender, and semantic pair was investigated in a lexical decision task. Statistical analyses of reaction times illustrate significant increases in processing when congruence between speaker and associated pair is negative. Additionally, the effect of (in)congruence on semantic priming was greatest for the gay male speaker. These data demonstrate the saliency of sexuality information in lexical processing and semantic linking and argue for an expansion of the social categories relevant for Exemplar models of linguistic processing.
Phonetic convergence in multiple features
Authors: Sanker Chelsea
Published: May 2015

People's speech shifts during conversation and other interactions to become more similar to the speech of interlocutors in several linguistic characteristics. Most studies on this convergent shift analyze one or two phonetic features (e.g., Babel 2009, Nielsen 2011) or holistic perceptual similarity ratings (e.g., Goldinger 1998). This study focuses on analyzing how the amount of change in difference between speakers’ averages in one feature is correlated with that pair’s change in difference in other features. Convergence was compared for eight speech features over the course of partners’ interactions: F1, F2, vowel duration, pitch, amplitude, turn duration, duration of pauses within turns, and duration of pauses between turns. Among the 28 correlations between convergence in different features, there were only three correlations which reached significance: between within-turn pause duration and between-turn pause duration, between pitch and F2, and between pitch and turn duration, all of which can be attributed to feature correlation independent of change. The degree to which convergence is exhibited by a pair in each feature seems to be highly influenced by the individual speakers; there was a significant correlation in the convergent change within each feature between pairs including the same individual.
Source versus spectral cues in the perception of indexical features in speech
Authors: Jacewicz Ewa , Fox Robert A. , Ortega Hannah
Published: May 2015

Spoken language includes two different forms of information: linguistic (message related) and indexical (related to individual speaker characteristics). This study explores the nature of the acoustic cues that listeners may use to identify gender and dialect. Spontaneous utterances were produced by 40 speakers (20 male, 20 female) from two different regional dialects spoken in central Ohio (OH) and western North Carolina (NC). These utterances were equally divided into three sets of tokens. One set was unprocessed (except for amplitude equalization). A second set was low-pass filtered at 400 Hz, retaining prosodic information, but little content. A third set was processed through an 8-channel noise vocoder eliminating all harmonic information (simulating cochlear implant processing). These three stimulus sets (blocked and randomized) were played to 20 OH listeners who identified whether the token was produced by a man or a woman, from OH or NC. Gender identification rates were high (means > 89%) across all three conditions with clear > LP filtered > vocoded. The rates for dialect identification were significantly lower overall with the LP-filtered condition close to chance (58%). Discussion will center on listener use of acoustic features and perceptual sensitivity (d’) to gender and dialect.
The relationship between fundamental frequency and within-speaker vowel reduction
Authors: Kuo Christina , Weismer Gary , Behre Casey
Published: May 2015

The contribution(s) of fundamental frequency (F0) to vowel production has potential theoretical and clinical implications. The sufficient contrast hypothesis [Diehl et al., J. Phon. 24, 187–208 (1996)] suggests that a high F0 is associated with effects of spectral undersampling, and thus may require more exaggerated formant frequencies to maintain the perceptual distinctiveness of vowels. Nonetheless, studies on the interplay between F0 and vowel acoustics would appear inconclusive [Byrd, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 92, 593–596 (1992)] [Weirich & Simpson, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 134, 2965–2974 (2013)]. This study evaluated the sufficient contrast hypothesis as a within-speaker mechanism, with an overarching hypothesis that formant frequency exaggeration associated with spectral undersampling, if any, occurs within a given production system (i.e., speaker). To this end, formant frequencies of vowels and F0 were obtained for the same speaker across different speaking tasks. Within speaker, it was hypothesized that vowel formant frequencies as well as F0 change across tasks. More importantly, average F0 is hypothesized to be negatively correlated with the degree of vowel formant frequency reduction within-speaker across tasks. That is, a vowel system produced with a higher F0 would be less prone to reduction because the spectral peaks are better defined.
Numerically exact three-dimensional propagation
Authors: Abawi Ahmad T.
Published: May 2015

Solving propagation in a three-dimensional environment is one of the most challenging problems in computational physics. However, for cases where the environment possesses some kind of symmetry be it rotational or translational, the propagation problem can be simplified considerably. It can be shown that in problems where the environment is translationally invariant, the 3D wave equation can be Fourier transformed along the direction of translational symmetry to reduce it to a 2D equation for each spectral component. The 3D solution can be obtained by solving the 2D wave equation for each spectral component and performing the inverse Fourier transform. In this paper, we use the above technique to compute propagation in an ideal and a penetrable wedge. For the ideal wedge, the pressure-release boundary condition is applied to both boundaries and for the penetrable wedge, the pressure-release boundary condition is applied to the horizontal surface and the continuity of pressure and normal velocity is imposed on the sloped interface. To obtain a numerically exact solution, we use the virtual source technique to solve the 2D problem for each spectral component.
Coupled mode analysis of three-dimensional propagation over a cosine shaped hill
Authors: Ballard Megan S.
Published: May 2015

Three-dimensional propagation over an infinitely long cosine shaped hill is examined using an approximate normal mode/parabolic equation hybrid model that includes mode coupling in the out-going direction. The slope of the hill is relatively shallow, but it is significant enough to produce both mode-coupling and horizontal refraction effects. The modeling approach is described and the solution is compared to results obtained with a finite element method to evaluate the accuracy of the solution in light of assumptions made in formulating the model. Then, the calculated transmission loss is interpreted in terms of a modal decomposition of the field, and the solution from the hybrid model is compared to adiabatic and Nx2D solutions to assess the relative importance of horizontal refraction and mode-coupling effects. An analysis using a horizontal ray trace is presented to explain differences in the modal interference pattern observed between the 3D and Nx2D solutions. The detailed discussion provides a thorough explanation of the observed 3D propagation effects and demonstrates the usefulness of the approximate normal mode/parabolic equation hybrid model as a tool to understand measured transmission loss in complex environments. [Work supported by ONR.]
Modeling three dimensional scattering from rough ocean boundaries using finite elements
Authors: Isakson Marcia J. , Chotiros Nicholas P.
Published: May 2015

Scattering from three-dimensional rough interfaces can be estimated using approximations to the Helmholtz-Kirchhoff integral such as perturbation theory or the Kirchhoff approximation. However, these solutions are constrained to the boundary. Physical processes occurring beneath the boundary such as scattering from layers or volume inclusions require additional approximations. Finite element models can benchmark these approximations since scattering the entire volume is calculated. In this study, a three-dimensional finite element model of acoustic scattering from rough interfaces is developed and compared with boundary element solutions. This model is an improvement on the existing two-dimensional and longitudinally invariant models previously presented. The full three-dimensional nature of this solution allows realistic representations of layering and volume inclusions, including shells, air bubbles, and targets. [Work supported by ONR, Ocean Acoustics.]
Three-dimensional underwater sound propagation: Proposed benchmark problems
Authors: Lin Ying-Tsong , Isakson Marcia J.
Published: May 2015

A set of benchmark problems is suggested for testing the accuracy and efficiency of numerical solutions for three-dimensional (3D) underwater sound propagation. The physical causes of the 3D propagation conditions considered in this talk include out-of-plane reflections from medium boundaries and interfaces and horizontal refractions caused by changes of the index of refraction in the medium. Five different propagation scenarios are suggested: (1) sound propagation in a slope environment, (2) nonlinear internal wave waveguides, (3) submarine canyons, (4) seamounts, and (5) 3D waveguides with surface waves and/or seafloor sand waves. Both idealized and realistic environments will be considered. To allow theoretical closed-form solutions, the model environments will be simplified to create idealized problems, such as an impenetrable wedge/slope model and a semi-circular waveguide with impenetrable boundaries. For the problems which do not have closed-form solutions, different numerical solutions will be generated for comparisons. The numerical methods focused in this talk include 3D parabolic-equation, normal mode and finite element methods, and discussions on other numerical techniques, such as ray tracing, wavenumber integration, finite difference, and boundary element methods, will also be provided. [Work supported by the ONR.]
Time-domain broadband simulations of arbitrarily shaped three-dimensional elastic targets on water/sand interface
Authors: Shao Yu , An Myoung , Wang Shumin
Published: May 2015

Acoustic wave scattering from buried or proud elastic targets on ocean floor is important to a number of engineering problems. Existing simulation approaches are mainly based on frequency-domain finite-element method (FEM). Although accurate, it is inefficient for broadband acoustic signals for two main reasons. First, the computational cost is proportional to the number of frequency points of interests. Second, inversion of the resulting FEM matrix at each frequency point can be quite time-consuming as the number of unknown increases. The latter can be especially problematic at higher frequencies as the spatial resolution or element order increases. A staggered-grid finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is developed to overcome these problems. It simulates the time-domain signals directly in a leap-frog fashion without the needs of explicitly storing and inverting system matrices. The perfectly matched layers (PML) technique is applied to truncate the simulation domain and the total-field/scattered-field approach is employed to incorporate incident, scattered, and transmitted waves from the water/sand interface. Finally, the far-field scattered field is computed via the layered Green’s function from the near-field results. Several three-dimensional numerical examples are further provided to demonstrate its accuracy and efficiency.
Parameter dependence of normal modes for a coastal front model
Authors: DeCourcy Brendan J. , Lin Ying-Tsong , Lynch James F. , Siegmann William L.
Published: May 2015

A feature model for a shallow ocean front over a bottom with constant slope [Y.-T. Lin and J. F. Lynch, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 131, EL1–EL7 (2012)] is analyzed to determine the parameter dependence of three-dimensional normal mode solutions. The front is a curved interface between two isospeed regions in a coastal wedge. Relevant parameters are the front distance from the straight shoreline, bottom slope angle, sound speeds, and source frequency. The cross-slope wavenumbers are determined by a complicated dispersion relation involving Hankel functions, so a series of asymptotic approximations is applied to simplify the equation. The result is converted into a first-order differential equation for the wavenumber variation with respect to a selected parameter, and accurate and explicit solution expressions are obtained. These expressions permit convenient specification of how model parameters influence acoustic quantities such as modal phase speed. This approach is designed for application to other ocean feature models which contain large or small dimensionless combinations of parameters. The objectives are to help explain how acoustic metrics depend on environmental and geometrical parameters, and to assist in assessing results from integrated ocean-acoustics models. [Work supported by the ONR.]
The features of sound propagation through human lungs, revealed by transmission sounding with phase manipulated acoustic signal of 80–1000 Hz frequency band
Authors: Korenbaum Vladimir , Shiryaev Anton
Published: May 2015

The sound propagation in human lungs remains poor studied. We studied the phenomenon in a frequency range of 80–1000 Hz by means of sounding lungs with phase manipulated signal injected into mouth and right/left supraclavicular chest areas. The installation included the subwoofer (mouth) and the shaker (supraclavicular zone), both fed through the power amplifier from the sound card of laptop, and a system of accelerometer sensors, connected to PowerLab (ADInstruments). Transmitted signals were recorded above medial trachea and in eight medial/basal posterior chest positions of 11 volunteers. Distances emitter-sensor and sensor-sensor were measured by pelvimeter. Convolution technique was applied for signal processing. Two to three arrivals of the signal were measured above trachea for sounding through mouth. The second arrival is treated as a reflection through air lumen from distal bronchi level with the distance estimated as 23±5 cm (sound speed 200 m/s). Four to five arrivals with various median velocities were measured in posterior chest positions for sounding through mouth as well as both supraclavicular chest areas. The air-structural (air—tissue) and pure structural (tissue) transmission paths are identified for sounding through mouth. Meanwhile only pure structural transmission paths are supposed for chest sounding. [This study was supported by RFBR grant 13-08-00010.]
Novel use of ultrasound imaging to decode activity of forearm muscles for upper extremity prosthetic control
Authors: Akhlaghi Nima , Lahlou Mohamed , Monroe Brian J. , Chitnis Parag V. , Rangwala Huzefa , Kosecka Jana , Pancrazio Joseph J. , Sikdar Siddhartha
Published: May 2015

With the recent developments in the electro-mechanical design of upper extremity prosthetics, the need for more advanced control strategies for such prosthetics has increased. Current commercially available prostheses based on myoelectric control have limited functionality, which leads to many amputees abandoning use. Myoelectric control using surface electrodes has a number of limitations, such as low signal to noise ratio and lack of specificity for deep muscles. To address these limitations, and enable more intuitive dexterous control, we propose a new strategy for sensing muscle activity based on real-time ultrasound imaging. Ultrasound imaging of the forearm muscles was performed on six healthy volunteers and a transradial amputee using a Sonix RP system with a 5–14 MHz linear array transducer. Images were analyzed to map muscle activity based on the changes in the ultrasound echogenicity of the contracting muscles during different complex movements, and used to control a virtual prosthetic hand. Individual digit movement could be decoded with 97% accuracy, and 15 different complex grasps could be decoded with 87% accuracy. In a transradial amputee, we were able to differentiate between seven different movements. These preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility of using ultrasound imaging for control of upper extremity prostheses.
On the acoustics of Maya pyramids
Authors: Lubman David
Published: May 2015

On my first visit to the ancient Maya ceremonial city of Chichen Itza in 1998, I discovered an amazing sonic phenomenon at a limestone pyramid known as the temple of Kukulkan. This four-sided 30 m high pyramid resides in a large open plaza with no nearby structures to produce echoes. But clap your hands at the pyramid and you hear a brief chirped echo. This was unexpected. Normally, echoes are delayed replica of their stimuli (a single handclap in this case). Yet this echo sounds unlike the handclap. It is a downward-gliding and harmonic-rich chirp. I recorded the echo for later study. Surprises continued when sonograms of the chirped echo were compared with sonograms of the quetzal—a magnificent bird venerated by the Maya and other Mesoamericans. The match was near-perfect! Was this a bizarre coincidence or a stunning archaeoacoustic discovery overlooked by archaeologists? The mathematics of the physical phenomena and the psychophysics of the chirped echo are now understood. Cultural evidence for intentional acoustical design by ancient Mesoamericans is strongly indicated. It seems certain that chirped echoes were the rule at staircased pyramids throughout Mesoamerica. Chirps weaken and become inaudible as limestone staircases erode and become porous.
The Paul’s Cross sermons—Out of the cathedral and into the public square
Authors: Azevedo Matthew
Published: May 2015

Paul’s Cross, located in the northeastern yard of St. Paul’s Cathedral, was the site of public sermons which were integral to the social fabric of early modern London. These sermons brought together a wide swath of London’s population, “a great Congregation of thy Children... of all sorts... from the Lieutenant of thy Lieutenant, to the meanest sonne of thy sonne” in John Donne’s words, for an event which served as a conduit from the King, through the Church, and out to the people of England. Early modern sermons were not merely lectures, but were theatrical conversations between the preacher and his congregation in which each had an active role to play, staged for their entertainment value as well as to elevate the spirit and the mind. The Paul’s Cross Project attempts to understand this interplay between preacher and congregation in an open, public space through acoustical and visual modeling of St. Paul’s churchyard as it existed before the Great Fire of 1666. The acoustical modeling has resulted in an auralization of the sermon which allows listeners to directly experience what it might have been like to attend one of the Paul’s Cross sermons.
Recording studios—Optimized, contrived, and augmented spaces
Authors: Case Alexander U.
Published: May 2015

Multitrack production occurs around the globe in spaces from large to small. Their acoustic capability ranges from thoughtfully designed purpose-built spaces for recording to unmodified, re-purposed residential rooms, with everything in between. Yet recordings built entirely within a laptop-and-headphones production space have no problem sitting in shuffled playlists next to work from high end, world-class studios. Acoustic features—or lack thereof—are variously leveraged and overcome through recording craft and signal processing to adapt almost any production space to the sonic needs of the recording artist.
Tribute to Lou Sutherland
Authors: Kull Robert
Published: May 2015

This will be a brief tribute to Lou Sutherland who I first met in 1989. Although Lou Sutherland recognized that I had no acoustics background back then, he treated me with utmost respect and professionalism. Lou mentored, guided, and challenged me while I was program director for the Noise and Sonic Boom Impact Technology Advanced Development Program Office for the Air Force’s Armstrong Medical Research Laboratory. I sought his wisdom as I faced critical decisions for my Service’s research program. Over these past 25 years, we haven’t had many occasions to work together, but the times we have had were significant and I will always cherish them.
Understanding speech in noisy rooms: Continuing the Sutherland legacy
Authors: Nelson Peggy B.
Published: May 2015

Lou Sutherland has inspired us to continue to study the problems listeners experience when listening to signals in noisy rooms. We continue to follow his lead to learn more about the variability that adult and child listeners experience when listening in noise. Our current work allows adult listeners with hearing loss to self-adjust hearing aids in noisy rooms. Results suggest that hearing aid users vary significantly in the gain that they self-select for listening in noise. In general, as noise increases, most, but not all, listeners select less hearing aid gain. Overall, individual listeners varied greatly in their gain preferences even when hearing losses were very similar. These results suggest that we have much to learn about the processes of listening in complex environments. Variables will be discussed. The implications of this work suggest that a great deal is left unknown about performance in background noise. [Work supported by NIDCD R01 DC013267.]
Tongue movement pattern in speakers with dysarthria in production of “Ohio”
Authors: Lee Jimin
Published: May 2015

A different range of tongue motion during speech production has been assumed in speakers with dysarthria across different severity groups based on the previous findings in acoustic vowel space. To further confirm these findings, this study examined the tongue movement pattern in speakers with dysarthria during the production of “Ohio,” a target word that requires the consecutive production of multiple vowels. Ten speakers with dysarthria of varying severity participated in this study. Three dimensional electromagnetic articulography (Wave system) was utilized to identify tongue movement trajectory during the target word production. Each speaker produced three repetitions of the word “Ohio” in the carrier phrase “I say a__ again.” X, y, and z coordinate values from the tongue sensor (positioned approximately 25 mm from the tongue apex) were recorded. Statistical analyses showed that speakers with severe dysarthria produced a) less overall tongue movement, b) slower speed, c) less absolute tongue advancement-retraction and tongue height movement, and d) greater distance between starting /o/ and ending /o/ positions than speakers with mild dysarthria. Results are discussed with regard to the interpretation of tongue movement displacement and trajectory shape difference in speakers with dysarthria across different severity groups.
Vocal fatigue over a workday: A schoolteacher case study
Authors: Rollins Michael K. , Berardi Mark L. , Hunter Eric J. , Leishman Timothy W.
Published: May 2015

Due to the vocal demands in their workplace and other factors, schoolteachers appear to be especially susceptible to long-term voice problems. Because female schoolteachers appear to engender an even higher risk, this case study focused on speech measures of one female elementary schoolteacher who reported feeling hoarse. The teacher was recorded over the course of a typical school day. Certain speech traits in the teacher’s speech performance during elicitation tasks were evaluated by comparing changes from the beginning to the end of the school day. A strong correlation between the mean, standard deviation, skew, and kurtosis of long term average spectra (LTAS) and vocal fatigue was found, while other measures were found to be less consistent. The methods and findings will be discussed, and areas for further research suggested.
Speaking rate effects on phonemic boundary perception in cochlear implant users
Authors: Jaekel Brittany N. , Newman Rochelle S. , Goupell Matthew J.
Published: May 2015

Rate of speech can affect the durations of certain phonemes (Crystal & House, 1982), and listeners must normalize for speech rate to properly identify words (Miller, 1981). How speech rate affects perception of phonemic boundaries in users of cochlear implants (CIs) in comparison to normal-hearing (NH) listeners is unknown. The speech processing that occurs in these devices may obscure word and phoneme boundaries, providing less reliable durational information about the incoming speech signal. Less effective rate normalization in CI users could thus contribute to the degraded speech perception often observed in this population. Preliminary results with stop-consonant series show absolute differences between NH and CI listeners in the precise location of phonemic boundaries (with CI users’ boundaries typically occurring at shorter voice onset time durations), but not in the relative relationship of these boundaries as a function of speech rate. Data from NH listeners presented a CI simulation show effects of number of channels on both the location of phonemic boundaries and presence of rate normalization.
Effect of context on bimodal benefit for temporally interrupted sentences in simulated electric-acoustic stimulation
Authors: Oh Soo Hee , Donaldson Gail , Kong Ying-Yee
Published: May 2015

Previous research has demonstrated a clear effect of linguistic context on bimodal benefit for continuous speech, implicating an interaction between low-frequency acoustic cues and top-down linguistic processing (Kong et al., CIAP 2013). However, bimodal benefit appears to be reduced for phonemic restoration (Baskent, 2012 JARO), suggesting that low-frequency facilitation of top-down processing is weakened when the speech stream is interrupted. The present study examined top-down effects in temporally interrupted speech by comparing bimodal benefit for low- and high-context sentences. Young, normal-hearing listeners were presented with City University of New York (CUNY) or Institute of Electrical and Electronics and Engineers (IEEE) sentences that were gated with silence (5 Hz, 50% duty cycle). One ear received sentences that were noise-band vocoded (8, 12, or 16 channels for CUNY; 12, 16, or 32 channels for IEEE) and the other ear received low-pass (LP) speech or LP harmonic complexes (LPHCs). Findings demonstrated clear effects of context on bimodal benefit when LP speech was presented to the residual-hearing ear, however, the benefits observed were considerably smaller than those reported previously for continuous speech. Unlike previous findings for continuous speech, no bimodal benefits were observed when LPHCs were presented to the LP ear.
Effect of noise on foreign-accent adaptation
Authors: Ferracane Elisa , Blanco Cynthia P. , Cook Gabriela , Johnson Karen , Smiljanic Rajka
Published: May 2015

Previous work indicates that listeners are able to adapt quickly to changes in accent [Clarke & Garrett, 2004; Bradlow & Bent, 2008] and that adaptation is faster for familiar accents [Witteman et al., 2013; Blanco et al., 2014]. The present study examines how listeners adapt to more and less familiar accents presented in noise as compared to quiet, since noisy listening environments are more perceptually challenging [Vaden et al., 2013; Gilbert et al., 2014] but also more closely represent typical listening conditions. Native English listeners heard blocks of sentences produced by native- or foreign-accented talkers (Korean, Spanish) and responded to a visual probe. Listener accuracy and reaction times were compared across accent and speaker blocks. Results showed that, unlike in quiet, listeners were unable to adapt to the less-familiar Korean accent. Processing of the familiar Spanish accent was successful in noise and quiet. Adaptation in noise was furthermore correlated with talker intelligibility: less intelligible talkers elicited lower accuracy and slower response; in quiet, there was no talker effect. The results revealed that the ability to adapt to a novel foreign accent is disrupted, as the extra perceptual effort in noise prevents listeners from generalizing about systematic variability of foreign-accented features.
A novel high-resolution algorithm for separating ray paths interrupted by colorful noise
Authors: Jiang Longyu
Published: May 2015

Abstract: In the first step of ocean acoustic tomography, ray paths need to be identified with parameters which will be utilized in inversion process. Many second-order direction finding algorithms have been applied to identify ray paths in this context, such as beamforming, MUSIC algorithm. Because ray paths are produced by reflection and (or) refraction of emitted signal, they are fully correlated or coherent. Recently, the smoothing-MUSICAL algorithm, which is based on second-order statistics, has been developed to separate fully correlated or coherent signals and gained large improvement of separation ability in DOA-temporal domain. All the above methods work under the assumption of white Gaussian noise, however, in the real ocean environment there always exists colorful noise. In this paper, we propose a high-resolution algorithm based on four-order cumulants, which enables to separate fully correlated or coherent signals interrupted by colorful noise. Its performance has been illustrated by synthetic experiments and real experiments.
Scattering of plane acoustic waves at elastic particles with rough surfaces
Authors: Bjorno Leif
Published: May 2015

A comprehensive theoretical and numerical study of the influence of surface roughness of elastic particles in water on the scattering of ultrasonic waves has been carried out. For near spherical shape of the particles and with small rms-roughness heights, a perturbation method has been developed. In this method, the first-order perturbation contribution predicts the contribution to the incoherently scattered acoustic field due to surface roughness, and the second-order perturbation contribution predicts the change in the coherent field and will satisfy the requirement of energy conservation. The second-order perturbation contribution is evaluated by use of the form function concept, while the first-order perturbation to the total scattered acoustic field is evaluated by use of the scattering cross-section. As a function of the ka-value and for different rms-roughness heights a numerical study of the forward and backward scattering from rough, elastic particles has been carried out and a substantial roughness influence on the scattered field has been verified. Some experimental results from measurements of scattering from glass and cast iron spheres have given evidence to the numerical predictions.
Bubble nonlinear oscillation in sound field
Authors: Yang Desen , Jin Shiyuan , Shi Shengguo , Shi Jie , Zhang Haoyang
Published: May 2015

The complicated mechanism of gas bubble oscillation in sound field is quite fascinating. One simplified case is a single bubble motivated by specific finite-amplitude sound waves. Based on the modified Keller-Miksis model, a theoretical and numerical investigation of the regular and nonlinear radial oscillations of a gas bubble driven by different given finite-amplitude waves is presented. Some crucial control parameters of the bubble radial oscillations, including radius of gas bubble, acoustic frequency and acoustic pressure, are studied with multiple numerical analysis methods. Parameter regions which are benefit for power spectrum variation of the excitation forces are given, which can provide the foundation for potential engineering applications.
Experimental study of ultra shallow water acoustic wave propagation
Authors: Dmitriev Konstantin , Dorofeeva Alisa , Sergeev Sergei
Published: May 2015

The sound propagation in ultra shallow water was studied experimentally. The investigation was carried out in the nature pond approximately 300 × 20 m in size. Its depth was about 1 m. For such a pond critical frequency is about 700 Hz that is easy to emit and receive. The main purpose was to study the process of acoustic wave propagation in case of strong bottom influence and to restore some bottom parameters. The signal was radiated by the transducer and recorded by a set of point receivers located at different distances from the transducer. The signal was linear frequency modulated in 100 Hz–10 kHz band and was 10 s in duration. Its correlation with the recorded signal defines the pond response function. The modes representation was used. The group velocity frequency dependence was obtained by use of this method and it was very close to the theoretical one considering a soft bottom. The critical frequency also corresponded to the soft bottom model. The attenuation of sound was also studied in a wide frequency range including non-propagating mode. The results are very sensitive to the signal-to-noise ratio. It was shown that the used correlation method significantly improved the quality of obtained characteristics.
Jump Shrug Height and Landing Forces Across Various Loads
Authors: Suchomel Timothy J. , Taber Christopher B. , Wright Glenn A.
Published: May 2015

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect that load has on the mechanics of the jump shrug. Fifteen track and field and club/intramural athletes (age 21.7 ± 1.3 y, height 180.9 ± 6.6 cm, body mass 84.7 ± 13.2 kg, 1-repetition-maximum (1RM) hang power clean 109.1 ± 17.2 kg) performed repetitions of the jump shrug at 30%, 45%, 65%, and 80% of their 1RM hang power clean. Jump height, peak landing force, and potential energy of the system at jump-shrug apex were compared between loads using a series of 1-way repeated-measures ANOVAs. Statistical differences in jump height (P < .001), peak landing force (P = .012), and potential energy of the system (P < .001) existed; however, there were no statistically significant pairwise comparisons in peak landing force between loads (P > .05). The greatest magnitudes of jump height, peak landing force, and potential energy of the system at the apex of the jump shrug occurred at 30% 1RM hang power clean and decreased as the external load increased from 45% to 80% 1RM hang power clean. Relationships between peak landing force and potential energy of the system at jump-shrug apex indicate that the landing forces produced during the jump shrug may be due to the landing strategy used by the athletes, especially at lighter loads. Practitioners may prescribe heavier loads during the jump-shrug exercise without viewing landing force as a potential limitation.