Tongue–Palate Contact Pressure, Oral Air Pressure, and Acoustics of Clear Speech

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 826-839 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Searl ◽  
Paul M. Evitts

Purpose The authors compared articulatory contact pressure (ACP), oral air pressure (Po), and speech acoustics for conversational versus clear speech. They also assessed the relationship of these measures to listener perception. Method Twelve adults with normal speech produced monosyllables in a phrase using conversational and clear speech. Target phonemes were /t, d, s, z, l, n/. ACP was measured at a point of articulatory contact; Po was sensed by a catheter open in the posterior oral cavity. Results ACP was increased to a greater extent in clear speech for /t, d, z/. Po was increased to a greater extent for /t, d/. Acoustic changes also occurred in terms of segment durations, speaking rate, and CV dB ratio. Regression analysis indicated that segment duration was the strongest predictor of listener ratings of speech clarity, followed by an index of articulatory effort and speaking rate. Conclusion Articulatory effort, as indexed by ACP, Po, and CV dB ratio, was increased to varying degrees depending on the consonant. Greatest changes occurred for /t, d/. Durational measures at both the segment and the phrase level were also important for predicting listener ratings of speech clarity.

2019 ◽  
Vol 944 ◽  
pp. 127-134
Author(s):  
Guang Bao Mi ◽  
Xu Huang ◽  
Jing Xia Cao ◽  
Bao Wang ◽  
Chun Xiao Cao

The effects of the contact pressure Pfric and the oxygen concentration c0 on the ignition resistance of Ti-6Al-4V were studied by friction in oxygen-enriched atmosphere. The relationship of Pfric-c0 was built to quantitatively describe the ignition resistance, the combustion microstructures were investigated by XRD, SEM and EDS. Further, the principle of improving the ignition resistance was proposed. It indicates that the relationship of Pfric-c0 obeys parabolic law. The c0 decreases by 4% when the Pfric increases from 0.1MPa to 0.25MPa, manifesting that the ignition resistance depends on c0 strongly (or equivalent flow pressure Peq). The ignition resistance of Ti-6Al-4V is 42.9% of that of TB12. When Peq varies from 0.1~0.5MPa, the critical ignition temperature Т* is approximate to 568~461K. Violent sparks form during frictional ignition. The low ignition resistance of Ti-6Al-4V probably results from not only the composite oxides of TiO2, Al2O3 and V2O5 generating during ignition which could not prevent the rapid interaction between Ti and O, but also the Al and V elements in the heat-affected zone which could not stop or slow the massive diffusion of O towards the alloy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (10) ◽  
pp. 3851-3859
Author(s):  
Jean C. Krause ◽  
Athina Panagos Panagiotopoulos

Purpose Talkers typically use a slow speaking rate when producing clear speech, a speaking style that has been widely shown to improve intelligibility over conversational speech in difficult communication environments. With training, however, talkers can learn to produce a form of clear speech at normal speaking rates that provides young listeners with normal hearing much of the same intelligibility benefit. The purpose of this study was to determine if older listeners with normal hearing can also obtain an intelligibility benefit from clear speech at normal rates. Method Eight older listeners (55–68 years of age) with normal hearing were presented with nonsense sentences from 4 talkers in a background of speech-shaped noise (signal-to-noise ratio = 0 dB). Intelligibility (percent correct key words) was evaluated for conversational and clear speech produced at 2 speaking rates (normal and slow), for a total of 4 conditions: conv/normal, conv/slow, clear/normal, and clear/slow. Results As expected, the clear/slow speaking condition provided a large and robust intelligibility advantage (23 points) over conv/normal speech. The conv/slow condition provided almost as much benefit on average (21 points) but was highly variable across talkers. Notably, the clear/normal speaking condition provided the same size intelligibility advantage (14 points), previously reported for young listeners with normal hearing ( Krause & Braida, 2002 ), thus extending the benefit of clear speech at normal speaking rates to older normal-hearing listeners. Conclusions Applications based on clear/normal speech (e.g., signal processing approaches for hearing aids) have the potential to provide comparable intelligibility improvements to older and younger listeners alike.


1982 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 574-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Klich

This experiment was designed to investigate the relationships of listener ratings of breathiness to vowel duration, speaking rate, and the relative energy in three frequency ranges (100–500, 1500–2500, and 3500–4500 Hz) in vowel spectra. The effects of vowel SPL also were considered. Listeners used a seven-point equal-appearing interval scale to rate a sentence spoken by each of 10 young adult females in each of four voice qualities: normal speech, mildly breathy, severely breathy, and whisper. Significant Pearson correlations to the ratings were found only for mean SPL and the relative energy in the 100–500 and 3500–4500 Hz ranges. After the effects of mean SPL were accounted for in partial correlation and multiple regression analyses, all vowel parameters were related significantly to the mean ratings. The partial correlations for vowel duration were as high as those for the three frequency ranges. Vowel duration may be as important as spectral characteristics of vowels when breathiness is judged from samples of connected discourse.


Paleobiology ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 6 (02) ◽  
pp. 146-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Oliver

The Mesozoic-Cenozoic coral Order Scleractinia has been suggested to have originated or evolved (1) by direct descent from the Paleozoic Order Rugosa or (2) by the development of a skeleton in members of one of the anemone groups that probably have existed throughout Phanerozoic time. In spite of much work on the subject, advocates of the direct descent hypothesis have failed to find convincing evidence of this relationship. Critical points are:(1) Rugosan septal insertion is serial; Scleractinian insertion is cyclic; no intermediate stages have been demonstrated. Apparent intermediates are Scleractinia having bilateral cyclic insertion or teratological Rugosa.(2) There is convincing evidence that the skeletons of many Rugosa were calcitic and none are known to be or to have been aragonitic. In contrast, the skeletons of all living Scleractinia are aragonitic and there is evidence that fossil Scleractinia were aragonitic also. The mineralogic difference is almost certainly due to intrinsic biologic factors.(3) No early Triassic corals of either group are known. This fact is not compelling (by itself) but is important in connection with points 1 and 2, because, given direct descent, both changes took place during this only stage in the history of the two groups in which there are no known corals.


Author(s):  
D. F. Blake ◽  
L. F. Allard ◽  
D. R. Peacor

Echinodermata is a phylum of marine invertebrates which has been extant since Cambrian time (c.a. 500 m.y. before the present). Modern examples of echinoderms include sea urchins, sea stars, and sea lilies (crinoids). The endoskeletons of echinoderms are composed of plates or ossicles (Fig. 1) which are with few exceptions, porous, single crystals of high-magnesian calcite. Despite their single crystal nature, fracture surfaces do not exhibit the near-perfect {10.4} cleavage characteristic of inorganic calcite. This paradoxical mix of biogenic and inorganic features has prompted much recent work on echinoderm skeletal crystallography. Furthermore, fossil echinoderm hard parts comprise a volumetrically significant portion of some marine limestones sequences. The ultrastructural and microchemical characterization of modern skeletal material should lend insight into: 1). The nature of the biogenic processes involved, for example, the relationship of Mg heterogeneity to morphological and structural features in modern echinoderm material, and 2). The nature of the diagenetic changes undergone by their ancient, fossilized counterparts. In this study, high resolution TEM (HRTEM), high voltage TEM (HVTEM), and STEM microanalysis are used to characterize tha ultrastructural and microchemical composition of skeletal elements of the modern crinoid Neocrinus blakei.


Author(s):  
Leon Dmochowski

Electron microscopy has proved to be an invaluable discipline in studies on the relationship of viruses to the origin of leukemia, sarcoma, and other types of tumors in animals and man. The successful cell-free transmission of leukemia and sarcoma in mice, rats, hamsters, and cats, interpreted as due to a virus or viruses, was proved to be due to a virus on the basis of electron microscope studies. These studies demonstrated that all the types of neoplasia in animals of the species examined are produced by a virus of certain characteristic morphological properties similar, if not identical, in the mode of development in all types of neoplasia in animals, as shown in Fig. 1.


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