Comparison of the Auditec and Rintelmann Recordings of the NU-6

1984 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Frank ◽  
Chie H. Craig

Word discrimination scores were obtained for 30 normally hearing listeners using Auditec and Rintelmann recordings of the NU-6 presented at 60 and 70 dB SPL in quiet and in a background of multitalker noise at signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios of +12, +6, 0, and -6 dB. This was done to obtain normative data and to determine whether these two recordings of the same word lists were equivalent at conversational levels in quiet and in a noisy background. The word discrimination scores for each recording in quiet and at each S/N ratio were not significantly different when presented at 60 and 70 dB SPL. However, the word discrimination scores were significantly poorer as the S/N ratio became more severe, and the scores obtained with the Auditec recording were significantly poorer than those obtained with the Rintelmann recording at each S/N ratio. These differences between word discrimination scores using the Auditec and Rintelmann recordings were primarily attributed to the recorded level of the test word and secondarily attributed to carrier phrase and talker differences.

1965 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Campbell

Criteria for the construction and evaluation of clinical speech discrimination test word lists are reviewed. Particular emphasis is placed on the need for such lists to be appropriate and homogeneous in both range and average level of word difficulty. Individual word difficulty data obtained from a clinical population with discrimination losses are presented for the recorded CID W-22 Auditory Test Series. These data permitted the rearrangement of the 200 W-22 words into eight 25-word lists which promise to be more homogeneous in average level of difficulty. However, the range of word difficulty, of both the original or reconstructed tests, falls short of the optimal distribution for a general-purpose speech discrimination test.


2005 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 631-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Anastasi ◽  
Alicia De Leon ◽  
Matthew G. Rhodes

Author(s):  
Jenny L. Pierce ◽  
Kristine Tanner ◽  
Ray M. Merrill ◽  
Lauren Shnowske ◽  
Nelson Roy

Purpose The primary aim of this study was to obtain high-quality acoustic normative data in natural field environments for female voices. A secondary aim was to examine acoustic measurement variability in field environments. Method This study employed a within-subject repeated-measures experimental design that included 45 young female adults with normal voices. Participants were stratified by age (18–23, 24–29, and 30–35 years). After initial evaluation and instruction, participants completed voice recordings during seven consecutive days using a standard protocol, including both connected speech and sustained vowels. Thirty-two cepstral-, spectral-, and time-based acoustic measures were acquired using Praat and the Analysis of Dysphonia in Speech and Voice. Results Among the 958 total recordings, greater than 90% satisfied inclusion criteria based on protocol compliance, peak clipping, and signal-to-noise ratio. Significant differences were observed for age ( p < .05). For 19 acoustic measures, values improved significantly as signal-to-noise ratio increased. Cepstral- and spectral-based measures demonstrated less measurement variability as compared with time-based measures. Conclusions With adequate training, field audio recordings represent a viable option for clinical voice management. The significant age effects observed in this study support the need for more specific criteria when collecting and applying normative data. Cepstral- and spectral-based measures demonstrated the least measurement variability. This study provides additional evidence for multiparameter acoustic voice measurement, specifically toward ecologically valid sampling in natural environments. Future studies should expand on these findings in other populations with normal and disordered voices.


1985 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl A. Runge ◽  
Holly Hosford-Dunn

Abbreviated CID W-22 lists were administered to large groups of normal and hearing-impaired listeners to test the hypothesis, that fewer, judiciously chosen items can be used to test word recognition without compromising test accuracy. Data were analyzed by comparing each subject's performance on half- and 10-word lists to full-list scores. Sensitivity and specificity for various sublists and for several pass/fail criteria were calculated. Results show that fewer than the traditional 50 items can be used in word recognition test procedures if the words are sufficiently difficult and strict passing criteria are employed. We recommend terminating testing after 10 words if no errors occur and after 25 words if there are no more than four errors. Otherwise, a full 50-item list should be administered.


Author(s):  
Robert M. Glaeser

It is well known that a large flux of electrons must pass through a specimen in order to obtain a high resolution image while a smaller particle flux is satisfactory for a low resolution image. The minimum particle flux that is required depends upon the contrast in the image and the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio at which the data are considered acceptable. For a given S/N associated with statistical fluxtuations, the relationship between contrast and “counting statistics” is s131_eqn1, where C = contrast; r2 is the area of a picture element corresponding to the resolution, r; N is the number of electrons incident per unit area of the specimen; f is the fraction of electrons that contribute to formation of the image, relative to the total number of electrons incident upon the object.


Author(s):  
David A. Grano ◽  
Kenneth H. Downing

The retrieval of high-resolution information from images of biological crystals depends, in part, on the use of the correct photographic emulsion. We have been investigating the information transfer properties of twelve emulsions with a view toward 1) characterizing the emulsions by a few, measurable quantities, and 2) identifying the “best” emulsion of those we have studied for use in any given experimental situation. Because our interests lie in the examination of crystalline specimens, we've chosen to evaluate an emulsion's signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as a function of spatial frequency and use this as our critereon for determining the best emulsion.The signal-to-noise ratio in frequency space depends on several factors. First, the signal depends on the speed of the emulsion and its modulation transfer function (MTF). By procedures outlined in, MTF's have been found for all the emulsions tested and can be fit by an analytic expression 1/(1+(S/S0)2). Figure 1 shows the experimental data and fitted curve for an emulsion with a better than average MTF. A single parameter, the spatial frequency at which the transfer falls to 50% (S0), characterizes this curve.


Author(s):  
W. Kunath ◽  
K. Weiss ◽  
E. Zeitler

Bright-field images taken with axial illumination show spurious high contrast patterns which obscure details smaller than 15 ° Hollow-cone illumination (HCI), however, reduces this disturbing granulation by statistical superposition and thus improves the signal-to-noise ratio. In this presentation we report on experiments aimed at selecting the proper amount of tilt and defocus for improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio by means of direct observation of the electron images on a TV monitor.Hollow-cone illumination is implemented in our microscope (single field condenser objective, Cs = .5 mm) by an electronic system which rotates the tilted beam about the optic axis. At low rates of revolution (one turn per second or so) a circular motion of the usual granulation in the image of a carbon support film can be observed on the TV monitor. The size of the granular structures and the radius of their orbits depend on both the conical tilt and defocus.


Author(s):  
David L. Wetzel ◽  
John A. Reffner ◽  
Gwyn P. Williams

Synchrotron radiation is 100 to 1000 times brighter than a thermal source such as a globar. It is not accompanied with thermal noise and it is highly directional and nondivergent. For these reasons, it is well suited for ultra-spatially resolved FT-IR microspectroscopy. In efforts to attain good spatial resolution in FT-IR microspectroscopy with a thermal source, a considerable fraction of the infrared beam focused onto the specimen is lost when projected remote apertures are used to achieve a small spot size. This is the case because of divergence in the beam from that source. Also the brightness is limited and it is necessary to compromise on the signal-to-noise or to expect a long acquisition time from coadding many scans. A synchrotron powered FT-IR Microspectrometer does not suffer from this effect. Since most of the unaperatured beam’s energy makes it through even a 12 × 12 μm aperture, that is a starting place for aperture dimension reduction.


Author(s):  
M. Unser ◽  
B.L. Trus ◽  
A.C. Steven

Since the resolution-limiting factor in electron microscopy of biological macromolecules is not instrumental, but is rather the preservation of structure, operational definitions of resolution have to be based on the mutual consistency of a set of like images. The traditional measure of resolution for crystalline specimens in terms of the extent of periodic reflections in their diffraction patterns is such a criterion. With the advent of correlation averaging techniques for lattice rectification and the analysis of non-crystalline specimens, a more general - and desirably, closely compatible - resolution criterion is needed. Two measures of resolution for correlation-averaged images have been described, namely the differential phase residual (DPR) and the Fourier ring correlation (FRC). However, the values that they give for resolution often differ substantially. Furthermore, neither method relates in a straightforward way to the long-standing resolution criterion for crystalline specimens.


Author(s):  
W. Baumeister ◽  
R. Rachel ◽  
R. Guckenberger ◽  
R. Hegerl

IntroductionCorrelation averaging (CAV) is meanwhile an established technique in image processing of two-dimensional crystals /1,2/. The basic idea is to detect the real positions of unit cells in a crystalline array by means of correlation functions and to average them by real space superposition of the aligned motifs. The signal-to-noise ratio improves in proportion to the number of motifs included in the average. Unlike filtering in the Fourier domain, CAV corrects for lateral displacements of the unit cells; thus it avoids the loss of resolution entailed by these distortions in the conventional approach. Here we report on some variants of the method, aimed at retrieving a maximum of information from images with very low signal-to-noise ratios (low dose microscopy of unstained or lightly stained specimens) while keeping the procedure economical.


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