scholarly journals Vocal quality assessment: methodological approach for a perceptive data analysis

Revista CEFAC ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 831-841 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Fabiana Bonfim de Lima Silva ◽  
Sandra Madureira ◽  
Luiz Carlos Rusilo ◽  
Zuleica Camargo

ABSTRACT Purpose: to present a methodological approach for interpreting perceptual judgments of vocal quality by a group of evaluators using the script Vocal Profile Analysis Scheme. Methods: a cross-sectional study based on 90 speech samples from 25 female teachers with voice disorders and/or laryngeal changes. Prior to the perceptual judgment, three perceptual tasks were performed to select samples to be presented to five evaluators using the Experiment script MFC 3.2 (software PRAAT). Next, a sequence of tests was applied, based on successive approaches of inter- and intra-evaluators’ behavior. Data were treated by statistical analysis (Cochran and Selenor tests). Results: with respect to the analysis of the evaluators' performance, it was possible to define those that presented the best results, in terms of reliability and proximity of analyses, as compared to the most experienced evaluator, excluding one. The results of the cluster analysis also allowed designing a voice quality profile of the group of speakers studied. Conclusions: the proposal of a methodological approach allowed defining evaluators whose judgments were based on phonetic knowledge, and drawing a vocal quality profile of the group of samples analyzed.

Revista CEFAC ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Vieira de Jesus ◽  
Aline Neves Pessoa Almeida ◽  
Zuleica Camargo

ABSTRACT Purpose: to relate ultrasound images with auditory-perceptual data on vocal quality settings in adult speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. Methods: the corpus consisted of speech samples (sentences contained in the instructional material of the Vocal Profile Analysis Scheme - VPAS-PB) from seven adult subjects of both genders, recorded simultaneously by acoustic and ultrasonographic means. Data analysis was based on auditory-perceptual judgments of vocal quality and ultrasound images generated by the AAA software. Results: vocal quality settings related to the position of the tongue body and the extension of the tongue and jaw found correspondences to the contours of ultrasound images of the tongue in selected key segments (oral vowels), especially those with greater degrees of manifestation. Conclusion: there were correspondences between vocal quality settings detected in the perceptual sphere and their respective tongue body and jaw ultrasound images.


2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine L. Lortie ◽  
Isabelle Deschamps ◽  
Matthieu J. Guitton ◽  
Pascale Tremblay

Purpose The factors that influence the evaluation of voice in adulthood, as well as the consequences of such evaluation on social interactions, are not well understood. Here, we examined the effect of listeners' age and the effect of talker age, sex, and smoking status on the auditory-perceptual evaluation of voice, voice-related psychosocial attributions, and perceived speech tempo. We also examined the voice dimensions affecting the propensity to engage in social interactions. Method Twenty-five younger (age 19–37 years) and 25 older (age 51–74 years) healthy adults participated in this cross-sectional study. Their task was to evaluate the voice of 80 talkers. Results Statistical analyses revealed limited effects of the age of the listener on voice evaluation. Specifically, older listeners provided relatively more favorable voice ratings than younger listeners, mainly in terms of roughness. In contrast, the age of the talker had a broader impact on voice evaluation, affecting auditory-perceptual evaluations, psychosocial attributions, and perceived speech tempo. Some of these talker differences were dependent upon the sex of the talker and his or her smoking status. Finally, the results also show that voice-related psychosocial attribution was more strongly associated with the propensity of the listener to engage in social interactions with a person than auditory-perceptual dimensions and perceived speech tempo, especially for the younger adults. Conclusions These results suggest that age has a broad influence on voice evaluation, with a stronger impact for talker age compared with listener age. While voice-related psychosocial attributions may be an important determinant of social interactions, perceived voice quality and speech tempo appear to be less influential. Supplemental Materials https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5844102


Author(s):  
Vilmantė Pakalniškienė ◽  
Roma Jusienė ◽  
Sandra B. Sebre ◽  
Jennifer Chun-Li Wu ◽  
Ilona Laurinaitytė

This study explored the profiles of elementary-school-aged children’s Internet use in relation to their emotional and behavioral problems. Participating in this cross-sectional study were 877 child–parent dyads from Latvia, Lithuania, and Taiwan. Children (8–10 years old) provided information on three variables: the amount of time they spent online, frequency of online activities, and knowledge of how to do things online. Latent profile analysis including these three variables provided a four-class solution for child Internet use. A comparison between Latvia, Lithuania, and Taiwan on the percentage of the sample distribution in each class showed that there was no difference between sites for the high class (high ratings on all three variables). The largest differences were for the low and average classes (low and average ratings on all three variables, namely, time online, frequency, and knowledge): the Lithuanian and Taiwanese samples were similar in that a higher percentage of each sample was in the low class, whereas the Latvian sample had children equally distributed between the low class and the average class. Analysis of the data from the entire sample for differences in parent-reported child behavioral difficulties suggested that children in the high class had an elevated level of behavioral problems and compulsive Internet use.


2019 ◽  
pp. 114-125
Author(s):  
Andi Makkulawu ◽  
Adji Prayitno Setiadi ◽  
Tri Budi Wahyuni Rahardjo ◽  
Eko Setiawan

Adherence with medication is one of the important factors in controlling blood glucose levels in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM), which in turn also determines the risk of diabetic complications. The profile and factors that influence adherence behaviour in the use of medication in elderly diabetic patients in Indonesia, especially in East Surabaya, are not yet known. The purpose of this study was to identify profiles and factors that influence the behavior of drug use adherence in elderly DM patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 32 Karang Werda or support groups for elderly in East Surabaya. Identification of the respondent’s level of adherence was carried out using the Adherence to Refill and Medication Scale (ARMS) questionnaire while the contributing factors towards adherence behaviour were identified using a published questionnaire. Both questionnaires have been validated in elderly people living in Surabaya. Result of adherence profile analysis was expressed in terms of percentage while determinant factors analysis was identified by using the highest mean among 14 sub-domains included in the questionnaire. In total, 281 elderly diabetic patients were recruited in this study. It was identified that 67.26% of the respondents were classified as non-adherence patients. The dominant factors that contribute to the behavior of medication adherence in elderly diabetic patients were social support, product-related factors, health workers, and emotional factors. Appropriate interventions to optimize the use of medications in elderly diabetic patients need to be identified and implemented according to the identified contributing factors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciana Martins da Rosa ◽  
Maria Eduarda Hames ◽  
Mirella Dias ◽  
Gisele Martins Miranda ◽  
Camila Beltrame Bagio ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Objective: to analyze the sociodemographic and clinical profile of women with gynecological cancer in brachytherapy. Method: a cross-sectional study including records of 1,930 visits of women in brachytherapy assisted between 2006-2016 in Santa Catarina (Brazil). Collection was performed in 2019, in an institutional bank, submitted to frequency measurements, chi-square test, 95% confidence intervals, significance level of 0.05. Results: women aged 40-59 years (47.2%), white (93.3%); with elementary school (65%); cervical cancer (78.5%); stages II-III (73.3%) figured prominently. In the comparison of staging proportions in the topography variable, a higher proportion of malignant neoplasm of cervix uteri unspecified in the grouped III-IV staging (84.6%). Conclusion: the profile analysis shows the need for screening and health education for prevention and/or early detection of gynecological cancers and training of nurses specialized in radiotherapy to care for women’s health.


2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1626-1632
Author(s):  
Madhukar Upadhyay ◽  
Rakesh Datta ◽  
Ajith Nilakantan ◽  
Sunil Goyal ◽  
Abhishek Gupta ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Surekha Palacherla ◽  
Bheemesh Naidu Mattam ◽  
Kodanda Ramu Burli ◽  
Sachidananda Moorthy

Background: Pharmacotherapeutics knowledge is important for rational drug therapy. Assessment of knowledge on emergency and non-emergency medical conditions in medical students will be helpful to   develop a methodological approach in building knowledge on patient care and in improving quality of medical education.Methods: It was a questionnaire based cross- sectional study conducted among undergraduate medical students in MIMS college after taking Institutional ethical committee permission. The students of final MBBS part-I and final MBBS part-II and house surgeons were given semi-structured questionnaires. It constitutes questions on awareness of pharmacotherapeutics of non-emergency (20) and emergency (8) medical conditions.Results: Received a total of 284 responses, of them 43.32%, 39.43% and 17.25% are from final MBBS part-I, final MBBS part-II and house surgeons respectively. 48.1% students agreed that undergraduate training sufficient to confidently give a safe prescription to the patient. The overall knowledge of the students in pharmacotherapeutics relating to certain non-emergency conditions is found to be 64.89% and relating to emergency conditions, it is 62.98%.Conclusions: Knowledge on emergency and non-emergency PT is moderate. Appropriate training programs are needed to improve this situation. Regular evaluative measures also help to overcome the present situation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Asmaa Abdel Hamid ◽  
Hend Soliman ◽  
Rasha Abdelhalim

Abstract Background Obesity is considered a health problem that affects many systems of the body among which the respiration and voice. The objective of the study was to analyze the impact of obesity in children on quality of their voice. Thirty obese children were included in this cross-sectional study and compared to 30 age- and sex-matched healthy children as a control group. Voice of cases and controls were assessed subjectively by auditory perceptual assessment and objectively by studying acoustic parameters using Computerized Speech Lab. Flexible laryngoscopy was done for cases with dysphonia. Results Dysphonia perceived in 60% of cases, voice analysis revealed increased jitter and noise to harmonic ratio with significant difference than controls. Conclusion The voice of children with morbid obesity reveals significant modifications pertaining to vocal characteristics in comparison to non-obese persons, so voice hygiene and voice therapy could be added to their therapy program as prophylactic or therapeutic management of voice disorder.


2018 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saengryeol Park ◽  
Nikos Ntoumanis ◽  
Sally A. M. Fenton ◽  
Andreas Stenling ◽  
Jet J. C. S. Veldhuijzen van Zanten ◽  
...  

This study sought to identify profiles of individual, social, and perceived neighborhood environmental correlates of physical activity (PA) and to explore differences between the identified profiles in PA. Residents of assisted living facilities ( N = 87, M age = 77.57 years) were recruited for the cross-sectional study. Participants reported their perceived support from important others for PA, basic psychological need satisfaction and motivation for PA, and perceived neighborhood environment around the assisted living facilities. Engagement in light PA and moderate-to-vigorous PA was measured by accelerometers over 1 week. We identified three profiles using latent profile analysis: ‘low self-determined and minimally supported', ‘moderately self-determined and supported', and ‘highly self-determined and supported'. Results showed participants in the highly self-determined and supported profile engaged in higher levels of light PA and moderate-to-vigorous PA than participants from other profiles. Findings showed perceptions of the neighborhood environment should be taken into account with motivation regarding PA.


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