bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A high-frequency ultrasound method for testing skin cancer margins ex vivo
Authors: Coffman Zachary A. , Carter Caitlin , Sanjinez Dolly A. , Wagner Garrett , Omer Robyn K. , Doyle Timothy E.
Published: November 2016

Mohs surgery is the standard surgical treatment for basal cell carcinoma and several melanomas. It involves resecting successive layers of the skin cancer and surrounding tissue (margins), analyzing the tissue in a pathology laboratory, and using the results to determine whether all of the cancer has been removed or whether another layer needs to be resected. Although resection of each layer only takes 5-10 minutes, procedure times for Mohs surgery are approximately 4 hours since the pathology analysis is very time consuming. A rapid specimen assessment technique for detecting skin cancer in surgical margins would therefore be of significant benefit to dermatology surgeons and their patients. A high-frequency ultrasound method has been developed to test Mohs surgical specimens without the need for direct immersion or transducer contact on the specimens. The ultrasound system uses a 50-MHz, narrow-beam (1.5 mm) pachymeter probe; a 50-MHz, broad-beam (6.25 mm) transducer; a high-frequency pulser-receiver; a 1-GHz digital oscilloscope; and an aluminum test stage to hold and scan the specimen. Pitch-catch and pulse-echo measurements are collected from each test position on the specimen to determine the position’s thickness and ultrasonic wave speed. Other parameters calculated from the data include attenuation and spectral peak density.
Modular arrays for transpinal ultrasound application
Authors: Qiao Shan , Coussios Constantin , Cleveland Robin
Published: November 2016

Lower back pain is one of the most common health problems in developed countries, and is normally caused by the degeneration of intervertebral discs. High intensity focused ultrasound can be used to mechanically fractionate degenerate disc tissue by inertial cavitation. Due to the complexity of the spine structure, delivering sufficient focused acoustic energy to the target zone without damaging surrounding tissue is challenging and further exacerbated by patient-to-patient variability. Here we propose the design of modular arrays, each consisting of 32 elements at 0.5 MHz, which can be configured to optimize delivery for a specific patient by the means of time-reversal using the patient geometry derived from CT scans. Initial tests were carried out in water and compared with simulations. Using four different configurations of four modules, focusing was accomplished using a needle hydrophone at the target location to determine the transmit phase for each element. In each of the four configurations a focal gain of approximately 35 was achieved and steering range of the focus was + /-30 mm in azimuth, + /-5mm in elevation. These results confirm that the numerical model accurately predicts the acoustic field of the modular array and can be used for treatment planning in a disc. [Work supported by EPSRC, UK.]
Vascular vector flow mapping for ultrasonic two-dimensional flow estimation
Authors: Asami Rei , Tanaka Tomohiko , Shimizu Motochika , Seki Yoshinori , Nishiyama Tomohide , Sakashita Hajime , Okada Takashi
Published: November 2016

Vector flow mapping (VFM) is an echocardiographic approach for visualizing two-dimensional cardiac flow dynamics by estimating the radial component of flow from the Doppler velocities and wall motion velocities using mass-conservation equations. Although VFM provides two-dimensional flow in a clinically suitable, fast, and easy manner, it is only applicable to bounded regions such as ventricles. In this study, the VFM algorithm is modified so that the velocities are estimated regardless of the flow geometry. The proposed method, vascular VFM, operates on the same principle as VFM but with additional boundary conditions created by using Doppler velocities measured at a different steering angle. The method was optimized and validated using a common carotid artery phantom and particle-image-velocimetry (PIV). The results indicated that the optimal angle of an additional Doppler beam ranged from 10 to 20 degrees. Under this optimal-beam-angle condition, the standard deviation (SD) of total vascular VFM error, normalized by maximum velocity, is reasonably small (8.1 to 16.3%). The error is predominantly from input Doppler velocities, which has error of up to 12.7%. When calculated with ideal inputs, the algorithm error ranges from 1.9 to 4.3%. These results indicate that vascular VFM algorithm estimates two-dimensional flow accurately in the non-bound region and may be clinically significant in cases such as arteriosclerosis diagnosis.
Measurement of volumetric heat capacity of biological tissues heated by ultrasound exposure
Authors: Sugiyama Mariko , Kanayama Hiroaki , Akiyama Iwaki
Published: November 2016

The authors have proposed a simple method of measuring volumetric heat capacity Cv from the small temperature rise of biological tissues heated by a short time ultrasound exposure. In this method, Cv is estimated by substituting the measured values of temperature rise speed and the acoustic parameters of specimen to the bio-heat transfer equation. The feasibility of the proposed method was studied by a block of porcine muscle as a specimen. In the experiments, it was heated by ultrasound exposure by the focusing concave transducer of diameter of 25 mm and focal length of 32.5 mm with a central hole of 2.0mm in diameter. The temperature rise was measured by a type K thermocouple which was inserted into the hole through the transducer. The measured value of temperature rise speed was 0.7°/s, by an ultrasonic exposure of 2 MHz in frequency and 8.0 W/cm2 in intensity. As a result, the value of Cv was measured as 3.6 J/°C•cm3 which was approximately agreed with the value of Cv of porcine muscle referred as 3.7 J/°C•cm3. [This study was supported by MEXT-Supported Program for the Strategic Research Foundation at Private Universities, 2013-2017.]
Intracellular Ca2+ increase in endothelial cells induced by shock wave irradiation
Authors: Takahashi Toru , Nakagawa Keiichi , Shigeru Tada , Tsukamoto Akira
Published: November 2016

Shock wave irradiations induce bioeffects including angiogenesis and bone healing. However, physical mechanisms underlying those bioeffects remain elusive. Extracorporeal shock wave treatment (ESWT) is one of well-known shock wave therapies. In ESWT, shock waves destroy kidney stones with cavitation and negative pressures. Energy flux density of shock waves in ESWT is around 0.1—1 mJ/mm2. In this study, shock waves with energy flux density of 0.001 mJ/mm2, around 1/100 of ESWT, were irradiated on endothelial cells. In those cells, intracellular Ca2+ increase, i.e. a typical physiological response, was observed. Along the intracellular Ca2+ increase, extracellular fluid flow was not present. As well, both plasma membrane permeabilization and cell detachment were not detected. On the other hand, actin cytoskeletons, which link extracellular substrates and cellular components, were suggested to involve in the intracellular Ca2+ increase. Thus, it was supposed that shock waves initiated intracellular Ca2+ increase by loading forces on actin cytoskeletons. Although some previous studies have suggested that extracellular fluid flow could involve in shock wave induced bioeffects, intracellular Ca2+ increase seems to rely on extracellular fluid flow.
Multimodal measurement of acoustic properties in cartilage tissue
Authors: Nitta Naotaka , Kaya Akio , Misawa Masaki , Hyodo Koji , Numano Tomokazu
Published: November 2016

In order to detect the disease and degeneration of cartilage early, evaluations of acoustic properties are expected, but the physical meaning should be clarified. On the other hand, we have proposed a multimodal method using ultrasound (US) and magnetic resonance (MR) images for in vivo SOS measurement. In this study, the method was applied for the tissue-engineered cartilage, and the SOS was compared with T1, T2, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), attenuation coefficient (ATT), and Young’s modulus (YM). All procedures were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of our institution. 12-week-old male rats were used, and five different types of tissue-engineered cartilage was subcutaneously implanted in the back of rat (n = 30). Under anesthesia, MR and US images including same cross-sections were acquired separately, by using a MR imager of 2 Tesla and a US device of 13 MHz. At this time, T1, T2, ADC were also measured. The SOS was determined by the thickness measurement using the MR image and the time-of-flight measurement using the US image. After that, the ATT and YM were measured by using the extracted samples of tissue-engineered cartilage. As a result, the SOS exhibits negative correlations with T1, T2, and ADC (R2 = 0.30, 0.93, 0.82), and positive correlations with ATT and YM (R2 = 0.98, 0.87). These results suggest the SOS of tissue-engineered cartilage strongly reflects the elasticity. Consequently, the physical meaning of SOS was clarified through the multimodal measurement.
A novel visualization method of bubble cavitation caused by infinitesimal amount of microbubbles
Authors: Koda Ren , Yamakoshi Yoshiki , Origasa Takumu , Nakajima Toshitaka , Nakajima Takahito
Published: November 2016

Microbubbles modified with targeting ligands have a potential in early diagnosis by ultrasound because the targeted-bubble has both a selective property for accumulation in diseased area and a high degree of echogenicity. However, conventional ultrasonic imaging methods, such as B-mode and ultrasound color Doppler method, do not have enough sensitivity for microbubbles when only very small amount of microbubbles exists in ROI. In order to detect infinitesimal amount of microbubbles, we proposed a novel visualization of bubble cavitation signal (BCS) induced by high intensity US irradiation. In this method, high intensity US (h-US) is irradiated to microbubble with a fixed time delay after introducing an imaging US (i-US) and BCS is detected by power Doppler imaging unit. Due to the time delay of two waves, BCS appears on power Doppler image as a vertical line image (T-image) whose intensity is modulated by the amplitude of BCS. By this method, BCS measurement which is free both for direct propagated h-US and Doppler signal caused by bubble motion can be achieved. We detected the infinitesimal amount of bubbles (Sonazoid) with the concentration of 8×10-8 μL/ml, which is 100 times lower than minimum detectable sensitivity of B-mode observation.
Design of a bullet beam pattern of an ultrasound transducer with shaded electrodes and a multifocal lens
Authors: Roh Yongrae , Jang Seongwon , Choi Euna , Park Yeonsue
Published: November 2016

Ultrasonic imaging transducer is required to compose a beam pattern of a low sidelobe level and a small beam width to achieve good image resolution. Normal ultrasound transducers have many channels along its azimuth, which allows easy formation of the sound beam. However, they have no control of the beam pattern along their elevation. In this work, a new method is proposed to manipulate the beam pattern by using an acoustic multifocal lens and shaded electrodes in the transducer. The shading technique splits an initially uniform electrode into several segments. For a given elevation width and frequency, the optimal pattern of the split electrodes was determined to achieve the lowest sidelobe level. The requirement to achieve a small beam width with a long focal region was satisfied by employing an acoustic lens of three multiple focuses. The geometry of the multifocal lens was also optimized. For the optimization, a new index was devised to evaluate the on-axis response: focal region ratio = focal region/minimum beam width. The larger was the focal region ratio, the better was the beam pattern. The validity of the design has been verified through fabricating and characterizing an experimental prototype of the transducer.
A mixed-order ambisonic scheme to improve performance for sound sources on the horizontal plane
Authors: Chang Jiho
Published: November 2016

This paper proposes a mixed-order ambisonic scheme called #P#L that improves performance in terms of estimation of the coefficient of spherical harmonics expansion, reconstruction of sound fields, and spatial resolution for sound sources located on the horizontal plane. Mixed-order ambisonics (MOA) selects appropriate components of spherical harmonics expansion instead of truncating up to a certain order as in higher-order ambisonics (HOA). Several schemes of MOA including the proposed scheme and HOA are compared each other in several ways. The results show that the proposed scheme has several advantages compared with the other MOA schemes. This scheme can be useful to further improve performance of microphone arrays if the number of the microphones is greater than what is required for HOA schemes or a non-uniform layout of microphones is used.
Data visualization methods
Authors: Silva Claudio
Published: November 2016

Future advances in science, engineering, and medicine depend on the ability to comprehend the vast amounts of data being produced and acquired. Data visualization is a key enabling technology in this endeavor: it helps people explore and explain data through software systems that provide a static or interactive visual representation. Despite the promise that visualization can serve as an effective enabler of advances in other disciplines, the application of visualization technology is non-trivial. The design of effective visualizations is a complex process that requires understanding of existing techniques and how they relate to human cognition. For a visualization to be insightful, it needs to be both effective and efficient. This requires a combination of design and science to reveal information that is otherwise obscured. In this talk, we will give a general background for data visualization, and present some work on interactive visualization techniques and tools for a variety of analysis purposes, including signal processing, some of which can be repurposed for the analysis of audio data.
Primitives in time series mining: Algorithms and applications
Authors: Mueen Abdullah A.
Published: November 2016

Time series patterns are waveforms with properties useful for various data mining tasks such as summarization, classification and anomaly detection. In this talk, I present three types of time series patterns: Motifs, Shapelets, and Discords. Motifs are repeating patterns that repeat in seemingly random time series data; Shapelets are small segments of long time series characterizing their sources; Discords are anomalous waveforms in long time series that do not repeat anywhere else. I briefly discuss efficient algorithms to discover these patterns and present cases in mining data from robots, humans and social media. Cases include activity classification using accelerometer data, correlated clusters in social media data, and anomaly in astronomical data.
Acoustic similarities among female voices
Authors: Keating Patricia , Kreiman Jody
Published: November 2016

Little is known about how to characterize normal variability in voice quality within and across utterances from normal speakers. Given a standard set of acoustic measures of voice, how similar are samples of 50 women’s voices? Fifty women, all native speakers of English, read 5 sentences twice on 3 days—30 sentences per speaker. The VoiceSauce analysis program estimated many acoustic parameters for the vowels and approximant consonants in each sentence, including F0, harmonic amplitude differences, harmonic-to-noise ratios, formant frequencies. Each sentence was then characterized by the mean and standard deviation of each measure. Linear discriminant analysis tested how well each speaker’s set of 30 sentences could be acoustically distinguished from all other speakers’ sentences. Initial work testing just 3 speakers from this sample found that the speakers could be completely discriminated (classified) by these measures, and largely discriminated by just 2 of them. Such a simple result is not expected for the larger sample of speakers. We will present results concerning how successfully speakers can be discriminated, how well different numbers of discriminant functions do, and which acoustic measures do the most work. Implications for recognition by listening will be discussed. [Work supported by NSF and NIH.]
Effect of level difference between left and right vocal folds on phonation: Physical experiment and theoretical study
Authors: Shimamura Ryo , Tokuda Isao T.
Published: November 2016

The vocal folds, which are constituted by muscles covered with a mucous membrane, generate a primary sound called the voice source, as airflow passes them. In some voice disorders, asymmetry between left and right vocal folds was observed. We focus on level difference, which is defined as the distance between the upper surfaces of the bilateral vocal folds in the inferior-superior direction and is caused by symptom of such disorders. Physical models of the vocal folds were utilized to study the effect of the level difference on the phonation threshold pressure. For three types of different self-oscillating synthetic models, our experiments reveal that the phonation threshold pressure increases significantly as the level difference is extended. Furthermore, based upon a small amplitude approximation of the vocal fold oscillations, a theoretical formula was derived for the phonation threshold pressure. Our theory was in good agreement with the experiments, especially when the phase difference between the left and right vocal folds is not too large. From these results, we conclude that the level difference affects voice production, therefor the effect of the vocal fold geometry needs to be taken into account for the observation of voice disorders.
Modeling uncertainty in spontaneous speech: Lexical and acoustic features
Authors: Romigh Griffin , Rothwell Clayton , Greenwell Brandon , Newman Meagan
Published: November 2016

Previously, spoken uncertainty has been analyzed using either lexical or acoustic features, but few, if any, studies have used both feature types in combination. Therefore, it is unknown to what extent these feature types provide redundant information. Additionally, prior research has focused on the study of acoustical features of only single words, and it is unclear if those results can generalize to perceived uncertainty in spontaneous speech. The current study elicited spontaneous speech through a team dialogue task in which two people worked together to locate street-level pictures of different houses on an overhead map. The communications were recorded, transcribed, broken into utterances, and presented to 10 individuals who rated each utterance on a 5-pt Likert scale from 1 (very uncertain) to 5 (very certain). A large number of acoustic and lexical features from the literature were calculated for each utterance. Random forest classification (Breiman, 2001) was used to select features and then investigate feature importance individually and also at the aggregate level of feature type. Results indicate that lexical features were much more important than acoustic features and suggest that previous findings using acoustic features might not generalize to spontaneous speech. Additional acoustic features are explored to improve performance.
Judgments of American English male talkers who are perceived to sound gay or heterosexual: Certain personality traits are associated with each group of talkers
Authors: Tracy Erik C.
Published: November 2016

Prior research (Campbell-Kibler, 2011; Gaudio, 1994) discovered that some personality traits (e.g., emotional and intelligent) are associated with gay male talkers and other traits (e.g., masculine and reserved) are associated with heterosexual male talkers. The present investigation examined additional traits listeners associated with four groups of talkers: gay talkers who were perceived as sounding gay, gay talkers who were perceived as sounding heterosexual, heterosexual talkers who were perceived as sounding gay, and heterosexual talkers who were perceived as sounding heterosexual (Tracy, Bainter, & Satariano, 2015). After hearing a spoken utterance, listeners rated talkers along eight traits: bored, confident, intelligent, mad, old, outgoing, sad, and stuck-up (Tracy & Charlton, 2016). During the experiment, the talkers’ self-identified and perceived sexual orientation were not referenced. The results demonstrated that the gay and heterosexual talkers who were perceived as sounding gay were rated as being significantly more confident, mad, stuck-up, and outgoing; the gay and heterosexual talkers who were perceived as sounding heterosexual were rated as being significantly more bored, sad, and older. There were no significant rating differences for intelligence. It was concluded that a talker’s perceived sexual orientation, rather than their self-identified sexual orientation, influenced which personality traits listeners associated with them.
Phonological structure of toasting practices in Japan
Authors: Sakamoto Yoko
Published: November 2016

The aim of this study was to investigate toasting practices in Japan from the point of view of phonological structure. In Japan, toasting practices means calls or songs to encourage someone to drink alcohol at one stroke. This habit has lasted for 30 years among university students and company young employees in Japan, although many campaigns have been held against toasting practices. The background of this habit may have complex factors, such as social, psychological, etc., but one of the factors may be in the calls and songs themselves. Thus, in the present study, calls of songs of toasting practices were collected as database, and the phonological structure (foot, syllable, mora, phoneme) and the tempo was analyzed. The result showed that the calls and songs of toasting practices in Japan are categorized into three groups; calls, parody songs and others (such as famous phrases), but these calls and songs have common phonological structure. They tend to have 4 morae 2 feet structures and combinations of Motherese syllable structures. The tempos of calls and songs were 120-140, which were the double speed of adult’s normal heartbeat. Thus, it has been concluded that toasting practices in Japan have regularity in phonological structure.
Development of a 3D impulse response interpretation algorithm
Authors: Cacavelos Federico N. , Bidondo Alejandro , Bonelli Toro Augusto
Published: November 2016

The development of software 3D interpretation impulse responses is presented. This tool allows to identify the spatial provenance for time windows of an impulse response recorded in a soundfield microphone. In this way, it is possible to discern between the direct sound and reflections both temporarily and spatially. To understand the basics of this method, a brief introduction to all concepts involved is presented. Alternatively, different types of procedures are shown for data evaluation. Finally, system applications are shown in controlled acoustical environments so evaluating the precision and the potential of this tool.
Sound enhancement system using selective binary filtering
Authors: Suzuki Tomomi , Nishino Takanori , Ishigiro Yoshio , Takeda Kazuya
Published: November 2016

Our proposed system allows users to selectively focus on particular sounds by choosing from various filtering options. Our goal is to develop a sound enhancement system which increases human auditory performance, especially through selective listening. To manage multiple filtering options numerically, we propose a series of listening patterns consisting of sets of binary indicators which show whether or not signals from a particular source will be presented to the listener. We then calculate the similarity of each pattern and order these patterns on the basis of their similarity. We conducted an experiment to evaluate our proposed method. Subjects listened to a sound recording using the various patterns in the order determined using the proposed method, as well as listening in an order determined using a comparative method. Subjects were asked to evaluate the naturalness of the transitions from pattern to pattern using each method, to select a listening pattern corresponding to one which was described to them, and to evaluate ease of use when searching for a desired listening pattern. Results support the feasibility of the proposed sound enhancement system. One issue which needs to be resolved is how to deal with complex environments with numerous sounds as possible targets.
Long range propagation and refraction of acoustic signals measured on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty hydroacoustic network in the Indian Ocean
Authors: Dall'Osto David R.
Published: November 2016

This paper investigates 3 days data collected on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty hydro-acoustic network in the Indian Ocean. This data includes that from March 8, 2014, the day the Malaysian airliner MH370 went missing—presumably crashing into the Indian Ocean as evidenced by found aircraft debris. This presentation focuses on the earthquakes and other anthropogenic and natural sounds recorded at South Station of Diego Garcia [7.662 S, 72.613 E] and Cape Leeuwin located ~5,000 km away off of SW Australia [34.981 S, 114.144 E]. These measurements show that “hydroacoustic blockage,” shadowing caused by a land mass located between the source and the receiving station, is incomplete and that acoustic signals can be detected on the far side of an island. The land mass significantly alters the time and frequency dependence of the signal, in comparison to an unblocked path. Acoustic models are used to investigate this propagation phenomena, and suggest capability for localizing sound sources using “blocked” stations. The presentation also includes analysis of a conspicuous signal, localized to an area in the West Indian Ocean. The source of this signal is unknown, although it originated shortly after the last satellite last transmission from the missing airliner.
Random matrix theory simulation of propagation through internal waves
Authors: Wage Kathleen E. , Van Uffelen Lora J.
Published: November 2016

Hegewisch and Tomsovic proposed using random matrix theory (RMT) to simulate the effect of internal wave scattering on long-range propagation in deep water [JASA, 2013]. They model mode propagation as the multiplication of a series of unitary propagator matrices whose statistics are derived using perturbation theory. A simplifying assumption facilitates the generation of broadband time series. One potential advantage of the RMT approach is that it requires fewer computations than a full wave simulation to produce a large set of statistical realizations of the received time series [Hegewisch & Tomosovic, Europhys. Lett. 2012]. Efficient simulation techniques are especially important for applications that require predictions of the timefront and/or its statistics at a large number of possible receiver ranges. For example, simulating data sets for acoustic gliders operating within a tomographic array is computationally intensive. While Hegewisch and Tomsovic illustrated the performance of their approach for one deep water simulation environment, they also highlighted the need for additional research. This talk investigates the feasibility of using RMT to efficiently simulate broadband time series for use in analysis of glider data. The underlying assumptions of the RMT approach will be assessed based on results of prior experimental work. [Work sponsored by ONR.]
Noise background levels and noise event tracking/characterization under the Arctic Ice Pack: Experiment, data analysis, and modeling
Authors: Williams Kevin , Boyd Michael L. , Soloway Alexander G. , Thorsos Eric I. , Kargl Steven G. , Odom Robert I.
Published: November 2016

In March of 2014 an Arctic Line Arrays System (ALAS) was deployed as part of an experiment in the Beaufort Sea. The background noise levels in the frequency range from 1 Hz to 25 kHz were measured. The goal was to have a 3d sparse array that would allow determination of the direction of sound sources out to 100s of km and both direction and range of sound sources out to 1-2 km from the center of the array. ALAS started recording data at 02:12 on March 10, 2014 (UTC). It recorded data almost continuously at a sample rate of 50 kHz until 11:04 on March 24, 2014. Background noise spectral levels are presented for low and high floe-drift conditions. Tracking/characterization results for ice cracking events, including the initiation of an open lead and a seismic event are presented. Results from simple modeling indicate that the signature of a lead formation may be a combination of both previously hypothesized physics and enhanced emissions near the ice plate critical frequency. The seismic T-wave arrival time indicates that a significant amount of energy coupled to T-wave energy somewhere along the path between the earthquake and ALAS.
Study for computation/measurement of underwater ship radiated noise toward marine environmental protection in Japan
Authors: Kamiirisa Hikaru , Sakamoto Nobuaki , Sakurada Akiko , kijima takahiro , tominaga yoshihito , umeda naoya
Published: November 2016

USRN has been a large interest among maritime industries in terms of mariners’ comfort as well as environmental protection. This paper presents the characteristics of the measured USRN in full scale as well as the near field propeller cavitation noise estimated by viscous computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. The USRN measurement was carried out according to the ISO standard protocol in deep water. The results show that the characteristics of USRN spectrum, differences of SPL in tonal noise depending on broadside and engine load are successfully captured for which the level of background noise is low enough to distinguish target noise and background noise. For the CFD simulation, two methodologies have been tested to predict frequencies and sound pressure level (SPL) of near field propeller cavitation noise, i.e., 1) direct estimation and 2) indirect estimation. The results are encouraging in that the present CFD simulation is capable of capturing sheet cavitation and resultant tonal noise. The estimation of broadband noise is still challenging by the present CFD simulation yet its application in conjunction with the semi-empirical formula is likely to be effective for predicting the upper bound level of broadband noise.
Response to playback test in the captive Amazonian manatees (Trichechus inunguis) in Brazil
Authors: Kikuchi Mumi , de Souza Diogo , da Silva Vera M.
Published: November 2016

Previous studies suggested that manatee calls were primarily for communication and not for navigational purposes. In this study, the vocal response of captive Amazonian manatees to playbacks of several acoustic stimuli was investigated. Experiments were conducted using nine captive Amazonian manatees at the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), Brazil, in 2014. All manatees, except one, are orphan calves rescued from the illegal hunting or incidental catch. They were kept in the outdoor pool with a group of 2-3 individuals, which are considered to be related. Manatees were exposed to five different playback stimuli: a recorded vocal from a related manatee, a recorded vocal from an unrelated manatee, a synthesized constant frequency based on the fundamental frequency of a related manatee vocal, a synthesized sound which entirely different from manatee vocal, and silence. A total of 58 playback sessions was conducted and 22,590 calls were recorded. While manatees showed inter-individual variability in the response to the playback stimuli, they tended to produce more vocalization during the playback of the related manatee vocal. They also tended to vocalize more to the playback of the constant frequency sound. Some individual showed strong reactions; touching or staying near the speaker during the experiment.
Time-frequency analysis of bird songs and neurobehavioral study of the “Catbird Dumetella carolinensis”
Authors: Badiey Babak
Published: November 2016

There is a commonality between the acquisition of spoken language in human infants and the acquisition of bird songs at the behavioral, neural, genetic, and cognitive levels. Similarities between how birds learn their language and how humans learn is believed to be fundamentally related to the way the brain works. Although the effects of the environment on hearing sensations, and hence the behaviors seems intuitive, it is not yet fully understood. In this paper, we use common digital recording systems to study bird songs in their natural habitat. Then by utilizing the principals of signal processing and spectral analysis individual syllabi are identified and studied for various songs. With the knowledge of the environment from direct measurement and the change in background noise level, the behavior of birds can be studied and documented. This technique was applied to recordings of Dumetella carolinensis (Gray Catbird) in the North East United States. It is shown that in spite of the natural instinct, the catbirds do not easily change their behavior at the onset of loud transient industrial sound. This may be related to the fact that the birds have already been exposed and have learned to live in noisy cosmopolitan environments.
Marine mammal passive acoustics applied to the monitoring of long-term trends in beaked whale abundance and to the derivation of a behavioral risk function for exposure to mid-frequency active sonar
Authors: Moretti David , Marques Tiago , Thomas Len , Watwood Stephanie , DiMarzio Nancy , Dolan Karin , Morrissey Ronald , Shaffer Jessica , Monteiro Joao F. , Jarvis Susan
Published: November 2016

Knowledge of Cuvier’s (Ziphius cavirostris) and Blainville’s (Mesoplodon densirostris) beaked whales’ distinct dive and vocal behavior has allowed for the development of multiple methods of passive acoustic abundance and density estimation (Marques et al., 2009, Moretti et al., 2010). These methods are being applied to multiple years of data to estimate long-term trends in abundance for Blainville’s beaked whales at the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) in the Bahamas and at the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in Hawaii, and for Cuvier’s beaked whales at the Southern California Offshore Range (SCORE). These passive acoustic beaked whale dive data were combined with sonar and Range ship-track data to derive a behavioral risk function for Blainville’s beaked whales at AUTEC, and are being extended to Cuvier’s beaked whales at SCORE and Blainville’s beaked whales at PMRF. The behavioral risk function maps the probability of beaked whale dive disruption as a function of the receive level of mid-frequency active sonar. The risk function and long-term trend analysis will help inform environmental policy going forward.
Prusten and the acoustic character of socializing tigers
Authors: Smith Adam , McGee JoAnn , Armstrong Douglas , Walsh Edward J.
Published: November 2016

Although tigers are generally solitary animals, acoustic communication among conspecifics plays an important role in their biology and behavior. This investigation was undertaken to extend understanding of prusten, one of the most common vocalizations produced by Panthera tigris. Prusten is a low-level, social vocalization uttered in close proximity of conspecifics. Calls were recorded from a group of nine captive adult tigers, representing the Amur (P. tigris altaica), Bengal (P. tigris tigris) and Malayan subspecies (P. tigris jacksoni). As described previously, the acoustic character of prusten consists of three to nine brief rhythmic pulses emitted at a mean rate of 11.5 pulses per second with a total mean duration of 0.5 seconds. Calls were generally low level, with a mean of 71 dB SPL re 20 μPa at 1 meter from the source. Spectral energy was broadband, extending from below 20 Hz to above 22 kHz, although low frequency energy dominated the call with mean peak and centroid frequencies of 130 and 987 Hz, respectively. A small subset of calls contained infrasonic energy. This study affirms and extends findings from previously published descriptions and is the first report of the production of infrasound in this low level, pulsatile vocalization. [Work supported in part by NSF Grant Award #0823417.]
Acoustic characteristics of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) mother and calf vocalizations in the Hawaiian wintering grounds
Authors: Chen Jessica , Pack Adam A. , Stimpert Alison K. , Au Whitlow W.
Published: November 2016

Humpback whale calves in the winter breeding grounds vocalize and the spectral characteristics of some of these vocalizations have been described, but sound levels of calf vocalizations have not been investigated. There is also a lack of general information on vocalizations from mothers. To address these issues, we deployed suction cup acoustic and movement recording tags on humpback whale calves, mothers and a lone post-yearling stage female on the Hawaiian breeding grounds to record vocalizations and percussive sounds. Deployments took place in waters off West Maui over four winter seasons. Tags were deployed on 7 humpback whale mothers, 6 calves, and one lone female for approximately 57 hours of recordings. Calling rates of tagged animals were relatively low compared to song, with individual’s means ranging from 0 to 16 vocalizations per hour. However, most calls occurred singly or in bouts, with long periods of silence before the next vocalization or set of vocalizations. These included sounds resembling non-calf social sounds as well as single song units, with durations up to 2 seconds and fundamental frequencies below 1.5 kHz. Our findings provide information that is critical to understanding vocal development in humpback whale calves and the sounds produced by adult females.
Temperature measurement using backscattered ultrasonic power for non-invasive thermometry during HIFU ablation
Authors: Melodelima David , Barrere Victor
Published: November 2016

The temperature dependence of ultrasonic tissue parameters has been reported extensively. In this work, the relationship between changes in ultrasound backscattered power and temperature during HIFU treatments was studied. An analytical model was developed based on attenuation, backscattered coefficient, velocity and thermal expansion to predict temperature changes. In vitro and in vivo tests were conducted in liver to confirm simulations. HIFU treatments were performed using a focused transducer working at 3 MHz. The radius of curvature and the diameter were both 70 mm. An ultrasound imaging probe working at 7.5 MHz was placed in the center of the HIFU transducer. Long exposure time (120 seconds) was used to observe smooth temperature increase from 37 to 70°C. Simulations predicted that backscattered power increased nearly logarithmically with temperature over the range from 37°C to 70°C. The model predicted a linear increase 10 dB. A linear increase 8 dB was measured in ultrasound backscattered power during experiments. The tissue temperature increase estimated using backscattered energy correlated well (r = 0.79) with temperature measurements performed using thermocouples. This linear relationship between changes in the backscattered energy and actual temperature was observed up to 70°C. Successful temperature estimation may allowed creating 2D temperature maps during HIFU treatments.
Dynamic contrast specific ultrasound tomography
Authors: Demi Libertario , van Sloun Ruud , Wijkstra Hessel , Mischi Massimo
Published: November 2016

Cumulative phase delay imaging (CPDI) is a modality recently introduced for contrast-specific ultrasound tomography. CPDI has already shown capable of imaging ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) when working at pressures (0.05≤MI≤0.2) and frequencies (2.5-3 MHz) of interest for clinical applications. However, its ability of capturing UCA-kinetics was never shown. To this end, we imaged the passage of UCA-boluses through a dedicated gelatin flow-phantom. Each bolus resulted from a 5-mL injection with a 240-μL/L SonoVue® dilution. For imaging, the ULA-OP ultrasound research platform and an Esaote LA332 linear-array probe were employed. A frequency of 2.5 MHz and mechanical index (MI) equal to 0.07 were used. CPDI and Harmonic Imaging (HI) were simultaneously applied to each bolus-passage (in tomographic and echo-mode, respectively) to compare the two methods. Features commonly used to quantify UCA-kinetics were evaluated and used for the comparison: full-width-half-maximum (FWHM), wash-in-time (WIT), arrival-time (AR), and peak-time (PT). The obtained median absolute differences were equal to 0.625s, 0.25s, 0.1875s, and 0.06s for FWHM, AT, WIT, and PT, respectively. These results are encouraging, and open the way for the development of dynamic contrast-specific ultrasound tomography, possibly adding important features to multi-parametric ultrasound tomography of the breast, and improving breast cancer localization.
Evaluation of nonlinear effects at the focus of a hemispherical acoustic source
Authors: Sapozhnikov Oleg A. , Rosnitskiy Pavel B. , Khokhlova Vera A.
Published: November 2016

Several theoretical models exist for simulating nonlinear generation of harmonics for weakly or moderately focused waves. Under these conditions, the acoustic field can be considered as a directed beam. In the case of hemispherical sources, this assumption is no longer valid, so development of different models is needed. Here, a theoretical approach is presented for evaluating the amplitude level of the second harmonic generated in hemispherically focused fields. The approach is based on the successive approximation method and includes several steps. First, the linear acoustic problem is solved for a hemispherical source using a spherical harmonics series expansion. Next, the volume sources for the second harmonic generation are calculated using the solution to the linear problem. Finally, these sources are used for obtaining an analytic solution for the second harmonic amplitude at the focus. The developed method was applied to study the acoustic field of the ExAblate 3000 clinical transducer that has a hemispherical shape of 30 cm diameter, operating frequency of 670 kHz, and acoustic power of several hundred watts. Calculations predict that nonlinear effects are weak even for the free-field focusing in water at acoustic power levels up to 1 kW. [Work supported by RSF 14-15-00665.]
A comparative study of Mandarin compound vowels produced by prelingually deafened children with cochlear implants and normal hearing peers
Authors: Yang Jing , Xu Li
Published: November 2016

The present study examined the dynamic features of compound vowels in native Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants (CIs). Fourteen prelingually deafened children with CIs (aged 2.9−8.3 years) and 14 age-matched, normal-hearing (NH) children produced monosyllables containing six Mandarin vowels (/aɪ/, /aʊ/, /uo/, /iɛ/, /iaʊ/, /ioʊ/). The frequency values of the first two formants were measured at nine equidistant time points (10-20-30-40-50-60-70-80-90%) over the course of vowel duration. All formant frequency values were normalized and then used to calculate vowel trajectory length, vowel section length, overall spectral rate of change, and vowel section rate of change. The results revealed that the CI children produced significantly longer durations for all six compound vowels. They clearly showed positional deviation from the NH children on vowels /aɪ/, /uo/ and /iɛ/. The CI children’s ability to produce formant movement for the compound vowels varied considerably. Some CI children produced relatively static formant trajectories for certain diphthongs whereas others produced certain vowels with greater formant movement than did the NH children. As a group, the CI children roughly followed the NH children on patterns of vowel dynamic spectral change, but they moved the articulators with a slower rate of change than did the NH children.
Effect of denture adhesives on enhancement pronunciation accuracy of denture wearers
Authors: Park Hyung Woo , Jee Sang hwi
Published: November 2016

People who have lost their natural teeth for any reason need to wear dentures (false teeth in other words) to eat and talk. And the teeth chewing role, and also has an important role in having the pronunciation. However, when people wear a denture, it causes some problems such as aesthetic or pronunciation. Among denture users, pronunciation errors may occur depending on how bonded and which location of false teeth inside of our mouth. In this paper, a comparative analysis on the bandwidth of formant frequency found in pronunciation errors is utilized in order to analyze pronunciation errors caused by different positions of dentures and thus evaluate the accuracy of pronunciation for each position. In the experiment result, that show the pronunciation accuracy enhancing around 5%, when using adhesives, who use denture correctly. And accuracy of pronunciation is evaluated differently depending on the position of dentures.
Ideal binary masking and the integration of spectro-temporal glimpses in cochlear implant simulations
Authors: Montazeri Vahid , Hossain Shaikat , Assmann Peter F.
Published: November 2016

Ideal binary masking (IdBM) can improve listeners’ speech recognition scores in the presence of background noise. It retains the time-frequency (T-F) regions where the target dominates the noise while discarding the remaining regions. Li and Loizou (J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 123, 1673-1682, 2008) suggested that IdBM is effective because the pattern of target-dominated T-F units (IdBM pattern) directs the listener’s attention to target glimpses. This study extends the above explanation and investigates listeners’ abilities to integrate target glimpses when the IdBM pattern is held constant. Speech-shaped noise maskers were added to IEEE target sentences at a signal-to-noise ratio of -5 dB and the mixture was processed with IdBM. The IdBM-processed mixture was then decomposed into the IdBM-processed target and masker. The IdBM-processed target/IdBM-processed masker power ratio (TMR) was then varied to produce an altered IdBM-processed mixture. These processed signals were either sent to an eight-channel tone-vocoder or kept intact, and were presented to normal hearing listeners. Results showed that IdBM benefit heavily depends on TMR, especially in the vocoder condition. Overall, the results suggest that IdBM benefit is mediated by listeners’ ability to integrate the target glimpses, despite the IdBM pattern being constant.
Support system for pronunciation instruction and practice in special education classes for language-disabled children enrolled in conventional schools
Authors: Masuda-Katsuse Ikuyo
Published: November 2016

We developed two types of support systems for pronunciation instruction and practice in special education classes for language-disabled children: a stand-alone system and a web application system. The aims of the systems were (1) to encourage students to practice the pronunciation they learned in their classes repeatedly and (2) to promote cooperation between teachers and the speech-language-hearing therapists (STs) who support the teachers. The teachers registered practice words and their probable error pronunciations into the system, taking into account individual pronunciation needs, and the students were encouraged to read these practice words aloud. Three speech evaluation methods were prepared: automatic speech recognition, phonemic discrimination between the correct and probable error pronunciation of a consonant period, and articulation tests from STs. The web application system simplified access to the students’ speech and exercise records for the STs. Practical field test results demonstrated that all of the teachers found that our system helped improve their students’ pronunciation, the STs felt that it simplified not only articulation tests, but also observation of the students’ pronunciation improvement process, and the STs and teachers believed that it would promote their mutual cooperation for more effective instruction.