scholarly journals Classroom acoustics: Listening problems in children

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flavia Gheller ◽  
Elisa Lovo ◽  
Athena Arsie ◽  
Roberto Bovo
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Noisy Environments ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
Classroom Acoustics ◽  
Acoustic Quality ◽  
The Impact

The acoustic quality of classrooms is crucial for children’s listening skills and consequently for their learning. Listening abilities in kids are still developing, and an environment with inadequate acoustic characteristics may create additional problems in speech perception and phonetic recognition. Background noise or reverberation may cause auditory processing problems and greater cognitive effort. There are also other elements which can make difficulty in listening and understanding in noisy environments an even more serious problem, such as learning disabilities, mild to severe hearing loss or bilingualism. Therefore, it is important to improve the acoustic quality of the classrooms, taking into account the specific needs of children in terms of signal-to-noise ratio and reverberation time, in order to ensure a proper quality of listening. The aim of this work is to analyse, through the review of previous studies, the impact that the acoustic of classrooms has on children’s listening skills and learning activities.

Subjective Fatigue in Children and Adults

2018 ◽  
pp. 184-208
Author(s):  
Saransh Jain ◽  
Suma Raju
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Direct Link ◽  
Physical Fatigue ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Auditory Cognition ◽  
The Impact

Fatigue is a common yet poorly understood topic. The psychological, physiological, social, emotional, and cognitive wellbeing of a person may be affected due to fatigue. Despite a century of research in understanding the effect of fatigue on human systems, there is no concrete explanation as how fatigue affects the perception of speech. Fatigue impairs auditory cognition and the reduced cognitive abilities further increase mental and physical fatigue. Since cognition is markedly affected in individuals experiencing mental fatigue, its consequences are widespread. According to the top-down approach of auditory processing, there is a direct link between cognition and speech perception. Thus, in the present chapter, the influence of fatigue on perception is reviewed. It is noted that the impact of fatigue on cognition and quality of life is different for children and adults. Training in music, meditation, and exposure to more than one language are some of the measures that help to reduce the effect of fatigue and improve cognitive abilities in both children as well as in adults.

Analysis of the impact of measurement matrices in compressive sensing for medical images

2020 ◽  
pp. 591-600
Author(s):  
G. Kowsalya ◽  
H. A. Christinal ◽  
D. A. Chandy ◽  
S. Jebasingh ◽  
C. Bajaj
Keyword(s):  
Compressive Sensing ◽  
Sparse Representation ◽  
Medical Images ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Basis Pursuit ◽  
Measurement Matrix ◽  
Compressed Images ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Reconstruction Time

Compressive sensing of images is based on three key components namely sparse representation, construction of measurement matrix and reconstruction of images. The visual quality of reconstructed image is prime important in medical images. We apply Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) for sparse representation of medical images. This paper focuses on the analysis of measurement matrices on compressive sensing of MRI images. In this work, the Gaussian and Bernoulli type of random matrices are considered as measurement matrix. The compressed images are reconstructed using Basis Pursuit algorithm. Peak-signal-to noise ratio and reconstruction time are the metrics taken for evaluating the performance of measurement matrices towards compressive sensing of medical images.

Speech Recognition in Nonnative versus Native English-Speaking College Students in a Virtual Classroom

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (05) ◽  
pp. 404-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy Neave-DiToro ◽  
Adrienne Rubinstein ◽  
Arlene C. Neuman
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Speech Recognition ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Mixed Design ◽  
Signal To Noise ◽  
Classroom Acoustics ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Noise Ratio ◽  
The Impact

Background: Limited attention has been given to the effects of classroom acoustics at the college level. Many studies have reported that nonnative speakers of English are more likely to be affected by poor room acoustics than native speakers. An important question is how classroom acoustics affect speech perception of nonnative college students. Purpose: The combined effect of noise and reverberation on the speech recognition performance of college students who differ in age of English acquisition was evaluated under conditions simulating classrooms with reverberation times (RTs) close to ANSI recommended RTs. Research Design: A mixed design was used in this study. Study Sample: Thirty-six native and nonnative English-speaking college students with normal hearing, ages 18–28 yr, participated. Intervention: Two groups of nine native participants (native monolingual [NM] and native bilingual) and two groups of nine nonnative participants (nonnative early and nonnative late) were evaluated in noise under three reverberant conditions (0.03, 0.06, and 0.08 sec). Data Collection and Analysis: A virtual test paradigm was used, which represented a signal reaching a student at the back of a classroom. Speech recognition in noise was measured using the Bamford–Kowal–Bench Speech-in-Noise (BKB-SIN) test and signal-to-noise ratio required for correct repetition of 50% of the key words in the stimulus sentences (SNR-50) was obtained for each group in each reverberant condition. A mixed-design analysis of variance was used to determine statistical significance as a function of listener group and RT. Results: SNR-50 was significantly higher for nonnative listeners as compared to native listeners, and a more favorable SNR-50 was needed as RT increased. The most dramatic effect on SNR-50 was found in the group with later acquisition of English, whereas the impact of early introduction of a second language was subtler. At the ANSI standard’s maximum recommended RT (0.6 sec), all groups except the NM group exhibited a mild signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) loss. At the 0.8 sec RT, all groups exhibited a mild SNR loss. Conclusion: Acoustics in the classroom are an important consideration for nonnative speakers who are proficient in English and enrolled in college. To address the need for a clearer speech signal by nonnative students (and for all students), universities should follow ANSI recommendations, as well as minimize background noise in occupied classrooms. Behavioral/instructional strategies should be considered to address factors that cannot be compensated for through acoustic design.

scholarly journals Characteristics of Speech and Voice as Predictors of the Quality of Communication in Adults with Hypokinetic Dysarthria

2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivana Arsenic ◽  
Nadica Jovanovic Simic ◽  
Mirjana Petrovic Lazic ◽  
Ivana Sehovic ◽  
Bojana Drljan
Keyword(s):  
Spectral Analysis ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Voice Disorder ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
Hypokinetic Dysarthria ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Voice

Abstract Hypokinetic dysarthria is characterized by a speech that gradually becomes monotonous, poorly modulated, quiet and ultimately unintelligible. The goal of this research is to determine the acoustic characteristics of voice and speech in adults with hypokinetic dysarthria and the impact of the altered voice on the quality of communication. The sample consisted of 30 elderly respondents of both genders with Parkinson’s disease and hypokinetic dysarthria. In order to conduct a spectral analysis, the voice of patients was recorded while they were reading phonetically balanced text. The respondents conducted a self-assessment of the degree of their own handicap caused by voice disorder and impact of the voice handicap by completing the Voice Handicap Index (VHI). Statistically significant differences were determined in the position of some formants in respondents compared to the values of formants in typical speakers for the following vowels: F1 of the vowel /I/ and F2 of the vowels /E/, /I/, /O/ and /U/. By examining the relation between the score achieved on the VHI instrument and the value of formants, the only statistically significant correlation was achieved between the formant F1 of the vowel /A/ and functional and emotional subscale. By regression analysis used to determine the predictor of the quality of communication, it was confirmed that F1 of the vowel /A/ has a statistically significant contribution to the explanation of the score achieved on functional and emotional subscale, by explaining 15% of the functional subscale (Beta=−0,393 (11,30 – 47,37)) and 10% of the emotional subscale (Beta=−0,363 (−0,052 – 0,000)).

scholarly journals Listening Effort Informed Quality of Experience Evaluation

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pheobe Wenyi Sun ◽  
Andrew Hines
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Quality Of Experience ◽  
Perceived Quality ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
General Definition ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
The Impact

Perceived quality of experience for speech listening is influenced by cognitive processing and can affect a listener's comprehension, engagement and responsiveness. Quality of Experience (QoE) is a paradigm used within the media technology community to assess media quality by linking quantifiable media parameters to perceived quality. The established QoE framework provides a general definition of QoE, categories of possible quality influencing factors, and an identified QoE formation pathway. These assist researchers to implement experiments and to evaluate perceived quality for any applications. The QoE formation pathways in the current framework do not attempt to capture cognitive effort effects and the standard experimental assessments of QoE minimize the influence from cognitive processes. The impact of cognitive processes and how they can be captured within the QoE framework have not been systematically studied by the QoE research community. This article reviews research from the fields of audiology and cognitive science regarding how cognitive processes influence the quality of listening experience. The cognitive listening mechanism theories are compared with the QoE formation mechanism in terms of the quality contributing factors, experience formation pathways, and measures for experience. The review prompts a proposal to integrate mechanisms from audiology and cognitive science into the existing QoE framework in order to properly account for cognitive load in speech listening. The article concludes with a discussion regarding how an extended framework could facilitate measurement of QoE in broader and more realistic application scenarios where cognitive effort is a material consideration.

scholarly journals THE IMPACT OF CLASSROOM ACOUSTICS ON TODDLERS’ COMMUNICATION AND ACTIVE PARTICIPATION DURING TEACHING

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Panagiotis J. Stamatis ◽  
Afrodite V. Ntouka
Keyword(s):  
Classroom Climate ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Active Participation ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Classroom Acoustics ◽  
Quality Of Teaching ◽  
Data Collection Instrument ◽  
The Impact

<p>The present study aims at approaching a special issue from the field of communication literacy. Specifically, it intends to investigate the acoustics in kindergarten in regard to communication and active participation of toddlers during the teaching process. Within the theoretical framework of this study, there are approaches related to the main characteristics of classroom acoustics and their impact on toddlers’ communication, despite the lack of relevant studies on preschool education. After theoretical approaching the description of a study and its main stages follows, which are the method of the study including data collection instrument and sample. Actually, this is a case study based on a sample which consisted of toddlers and kindergarten teachers working with toddlers in municipal kindergartens. The results of the study reveal that classroom acoustics such as noise, eco, volume of teacher and/or children voice has an impact on toddlers’ communication and active participation during teaching as they strongly affect the quality of teaching and classroom climate as well.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0646/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

scholarly journals Deep Learning For Denoising Hi-C Chromosomal Contact Data

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Highsmith ◽  
Oluwatosin Oluwadare ◽  
Jianlin Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
3D Structure ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Yeast Genome ◽  
Chromosome Conformation ◽  
Contact Matrix ◽  
The Impact

AbstractMotivationThe three-dimensional (3D) organization of an organism’s genome and chromosomes plays a significant role in many biological processes. Currently, methods exist for modeling chromosomal 3D structure using contact matrices generated via chromosome conformation capture (3C) techniques such as Hi-C. However, the effectiveness of these methods is inherently bottlenecked by the quality of the Hi-C data, which may be corrupted by experimental noise. Consequently, it is valuable to develop methods for eliminating the impact of noise on the quality of reconstructed structures.ResultsWe develop unsupervised and semi-supervised deep learning algorithms (i.e. deep convolutional autoencoders) to denoise Hi-C contact matrix data and improve the quality of chromosome structure predictions. When applied to noisy synthetic contact matrices of the yeast genome, our network demonstrates consistent improvement across metrics for contact matrix similarity including: Pearson Correlation, Spearman Correlation and Signal-to-Noise Ratio. Positive improvement across these metrics is seen consistently across a wide space of parameters to both gaussian and poisson noise [email protected] and [email protected]

scholarly journals Effect of Tinnitus Habituation Therapy on Auditory Abilities

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Najlla Lopes de O. Burle ◽  
Luciana Macedo de Resende ◽  
Luciana Mendonça Alves ◽  
Vinícius Soares Garcia ◽  
Patricia Cotta Mancini
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Experimental Study ◽  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Treatment Option ◽  
Auditory Processing ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Perception ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Introduction Research with tinnitus patients presenting with hearing loss and normal hearing subjects have verified that tinnitus interferes with auditory processing. One treatment option for this symptom consists of tinnitus habituation therapy. Objective To determine the influence of tinnitus habituation therapy on auditory abilities, on the self-perception of tinnitus regarding loudness and discomfort, and its impact on the quality of life. Methods A quasi-experimental study was conducted with 19 individuals with tinnitus. Audiological tinnitus and auditory processing evaluations were performed. Subsequently, the volunteers underwent tinnitus habituation therapy for 6 months. Ultimately, all of the individuals were reevaluated. Results A statistically significant reduction in tinnitus self-perception was observed in relation to loudness, discomfort, and its impact on the quality of life (p = 0.001, 0.001, 0.023, respectively). However, the influence of tinnitus habituation therapy on auditory abilities was not verified. Conclusion Tinnitus habituation therapy was effective in reducing the self-perception of tinnitus loudness and discomfort, as well as the impact of the symptom on the quality of life. However, these factors did not improve the auditory processing skills in tinnitus patients.

scholarly journals The Impact of Temporally Coherent Visual Cues on Speech Perception in Complex Auditory Environments

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Yuan ◽  
Yasneli Lleo ◽  
Rebecca Daniel ◽  
Alexandra White ◽  
Yonghee Oh
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Auditory Signal ◽  
Amplitude Envelope ◽  
Noisy Environments ◽  
Condition Versus ◽  
Listening Environments ◽  
The Impact

Speech perception often takes place in noisy environments, where multiple auditory signals compete with one another. The addition of visual cues such as talkers’ faces or lip movements to an auditory signal can help improve the intelligibility of speech in those suboptimal listening environments. This is referred to as audiovisual benefits. The current study aimed to delineate the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions under which visual presentations of the acoustic amplitude envelopes have their most significant impact on speech perception. Seventeen adults with normal hearing were recruited. Participants were presented with spoken sentences in babble noise either in auditory-only or auditory-visual conditions with various SNRs at −7, −5, −3, −1, and 1 dB. The visual stimulus applied in this study was a sphere that varied in size syncing with the amplitude envelope of the target speech signals. Participants were asked to transcribe the sentences they heard. Results showed that a significant improvement in accuracy in the auditory-visual condition versus the audio-only condition was obtained at the SNRs of −3 and −1 dB, but no improvement was observed in other SNRs. These results showed that dynamic temporal visual information can benefit speech perception in noise, and the optimal facilitative effects of visual amplitude envelope can be observed under an intermediate SNR range.

scholarly journals Analysis of signal quality in FSO systems with PolSK modulation

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-186
Author(s):  
Jelena Todorovic ◽  
Branimir Jaksic ◽  
Petar Spalevic ◽  
Djoko Bandjur ◽  
Milos Bandjur
Keyword(s):  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Free Space Optical ◽  
Link Distance ◽  
Negative Exponential Distribution ◽  
Shift Keying ◽  
Negative Exponential ◽  
Atmospheric Channel ◽  
Polsk Modulation ◽  
The Impact

In this paper, the quality of the Polarization Shift Keying (PolSK) modulated signal in a Free Space Optical (FSO) system is analyzed. The atmospheric channel is statistically modeled with four different distributions, namely, the Gamma-Gamma distribution, Negative Exponential distribution, Kdistribution, and I-K distribution. For all four channel models, the Average Bit Error Rate (ABER) at the receiving side of the system is determined in an analytically closed form. The results are graphically presented and discussed in order to determine the impact of certain parameters on the ABER, i.e., the quality of the received signal in the PolSK modulated FSO system. These parameters are the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), the FSO link distance, the wavelength at which the signal is transmitted, and the atmospheric turbulence strength.

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