A Mandarin Chinese Reading Passage for Eliciting Significant Vocal Range Variations

Purpose There is a lack of standardized Mandarin reading text material that could potentially elicit significant variations in fundamental frequency (F0) and in vocal intensity for clinical voice evaluation. In this study, a phonetically balanced “Three Bears Passage” was developed based on the classical “Goldilocks” story for this purpose. The hypothesis was that the vocal range (F0 range and Intensity range) elicited while reading aloud the passage could be similar to that of the voice range profile (VRP) obtained with sustained vowel production and significantly different from that while reading an existing standard Mandarin passage. Method One hundred twenty young adults (60 men and 60 women, aged 25.22 ± 3.74 years) without vocal pathologies and vocal training participated in the study. Vocal range data, including F0-related measures and intensity-related measures, were obtained with Praat in order to construct VRPs for the sustained /a/ and to construct speech range profiles for passage reading. Results F0 range and intensity range for the new passage were significantly larger than those for the existing Mandarin passage for both male and female participants. In particular, the F0 range for the passage was not significantly different from that of the VRP for male participants. Conclusions These findings suggested that the new passage could allow individuals without vocal training to demonstrate a large vocal range in both F0 and vocal intensity, in a passage reading setting in a relatively short time. Further studies should be pursued with the passage to investigate the vocal range and vocal potential of individuals with voice disorders.

Synthetic speech prosody of digital assistents and their functions in the modern world

The article is devoted to the speech prosody analysis of digital assistants and their functions in the modern world. Peculiarities of their functioning in different spheres, in particular in educational, are considered and as well as tasks which they perform. Synthetic speech prosody is investigated on the example of voice assistants which speak in a female, male and genderless voice. Characteristics of melody (melodic scales and terminal tones), FF and intensity range, tempo and pause features, voice quality were taken into account. In the course of comparative study some identical and distinctive features of assistants’ speech were singled out. The results of the experiment demonstrate variability of prosodic parameters, used by digital assistants. Voice differentiation and different degrees of expressiveness depend on the sphere of application, users’ preferences and communication context.

Analysis of Spatial Distribution and Prognostic Value of Different Pan Cytokeratin Immunostaining Intensities in Breast Tumor Tissue Sections

Cancer risk prognosis could improve patient survival through early personalized treatment decisions. This is the first systematic analysis of the spatial and prognostic distribution of different pan cytokeratin immunostaining intensities in breast tumors. The prognostic model included 102 breast carcinoma patients, with distant metastasis occurrence as the endpoint. We segmented the full intensity range (0–255) of pan cytokeratin digitized immunostaining into seven discrete narrow grey level ranges: 0–130, 130–160, 160–180, 180–200, 200–220, 220–240, and 240–255. These images were subsequently examined by 33 major (GLCM), fractal and first-order statistics computational analysis features. Interestingly, while moderate intensities were strongly associated with metastasis outcome, high intensities of pan cytokeratin immunostaining provided no prognostic value even after an exhaustive computational analysis. The intense pan cytokeratin immunostaining was also relatively rare, suggesting the low differentiation state of epithelial cells. The observed variability in immunostaining intensities highlighted the intratumoral heterogeneity of the malignant cells and its association with a poor disease outcome. The prognostic importance of the moderate intensity range established by complex computational morphology analyses was supported by simple measurements of its immunostaining area which was associated with favorable disease outcome. This study reveals intratumoral heterogeneity of the pan cytokeratin immunostaining together with the prognostic evaluation and spatial distribution of its discrete intensities.

Finite element analysis on the effect of martensitic transformation and plastic deformation on the stress concentration factor in a thin notched superelastic NiTi ribbon

The severe nonlinear behavior caused by the martensitic transformation (MT) and subsequent plastic deformation (PD) of detwinned martensite leads to a complex local stress redistribution at the location of stress risers of superelastic shape memory alloy (SMA) components. Nevertheless, in the literature, the simple linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) equations are widely used in the evaluation of the fracture response of superelastic components which has resulted in obvious conflicts between the conclusions regarding the effect of MT on the fracture parameters, i.e. stress intensity factor (SIF) and material toughness. Furthermore, the linear elasticity method is frequently used in the literature to calculate the stress intensity range ([Formula: see text]) when the fatigue crack growth rate dependence on [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]) is being evaluated. Moreover, the PD followed by MT is poorly considered in the fracture mechanics of SMAs. This paper presents a numerical investigation on the role of both MT and PD, as well as the notch acuity, on the evolution of notch-tip stresses and strains and stress concentration factor ([Formula: see text]) upon the incremental application of the macroscopic tensile load on a thin NiTi notched superelastic ribbon, to mimic the effects of MT and PD on the SIF of superelastic parts. It is revealed that MT results in drastic deviations of the notch-tip stress, as well as the stress concentration factor ([Formula: see text]), from that obtained in LEFM. Due to the heterogeneous evolution of MT, the trend of the deviations is not regular and unique upon monotonic external loading. Accordingly, the results represent the ineffectiveness of the LEFM method in the evolution of the stress concentration factor (hence, the SIF) and toughness in monotonic loading, as well as the stress intensity range ([Formula: see text]) under fatigue loading in SMA components.

Intensiivsus, rõhk ja välde eesti keeles

Uurimuses vaadeldakse, kas ja millised intensiivsuse parameetrid eristavad eesti keeles (a) lauserõhutut, lauserõhulist ja emfaatilise lauserõhuga sõna, (b) sõnarõhulist ja -rõhutut silpi ning (c) kolme väldet, ning kas võimalikud korrelatsioonid on sõltu matud põhitoonist. Intensiivsuse parameetritest on vaatluse all sõnarõhulise silbi intensiivsuse tase, intensiivsuse ulatus sõnas ja intensiivsuse kontuur rõhulises silbis. Uurimuse tulemusena leiti, et lause tasandi tingimusi ‒ lauserõhutut, lauserõhulist ja emfaatilise lauserõhuga sõna ‒ eristab üksteisest rõhulise silbi intensiivsuse tase, mis on tugevalt seotud rõhulise silbi põhitoonitasemega. Sõna tasandi tingimusi ‒ sõna rõhulist silpi ja välteastmeid ‒ eristavad intensiivsuse parameetrid seevastu on põhitoonist sõltumatumad. Sõnarõhulist silpi eristab rõhutust kõrgem intensiivsuse tase, ning välteastmeid eristavad intensiivsuse ulatus sõnas ja intensiivsusekontuur rõhulises silbis. Abstract. Heete Sahkai and Meelis Mihkla: Intensity, stress, and quantity in Estonian. The study examines the correlations of overall intensity with a) deaccented, accented and emphatically accented words; b) stressed and unstressed syllables; and c) short, long and overlong word quantities. The study considers three intensity parameters: the intensity level and the intensity contour of the stressed syllable, and the intensity range of the word. The authors ask whether and which of these parameters correlate with the examined categories, and whether the possible correlations are independent of fundamental frequency. The study finds that the phrase level categories – deaccented, accented, and emphatically accented words – are distinguished by the intensity level of the stressed syllable, which correlates strongly with F0. The intensity parameters that correlate with the word level categories are more independent of F0. The stressed syllable is distinguished from the unstressed syllable by a higher intensity level. The three quantity degrees are distinguished by the intensity range of the word and the intensity contour in the stressed syllable. Keywords: Estonian, word quantity, word stress, phrasal stress, emphasis, acoustic correlates, intensity, fundamental frequency