A computerized airflow/air pressure analysis system, the Aerophone II Model 6800 (Kay Elemetrics Corp.), was used to assess the effects of age and gender on laryngeal aerodynamics. A sample of 56 male and 53 female normal speaking subjects was divided into six age groups (20-30; 31-40; 41-50; 51-60; 61-70 and ...

Noninvasive measures of vocal fold activity are useful for describing normal and disordered voice production. Measures of open and speed quotient from glottal airflow and electroglottographic (EGG) waveforms have been used to describe timing events associated with vocal fold vibration. To date, there has been little consistency in the measurement ...

This study was primarily motivated by the need to establish the correspondence between auditory abilities and laryngeal function. Just noticeable differences (JNDs) were obtained for the open quotient and speed quotient of the glottal flow waveform. The quotients were synthesized for both the glottal flow alone, and for the output ...

The spectrum of the embolic heart sounds (EHS) detected by precordial Doppler ultrasound has been previously characterized, but only on small volumes of venous air embolism (VAE). We sought to determine whether real-time wavelet analysis is useful in analyzing the signals of EHS and whether the embolic power of the ...

The aim of this study was to describe the aerodynamics related to velopharyngeal function during speech in bilabial, dental, and velar articulatory positions in Swedish speakers. Repeated syllables including voiceless stop consonants and sentences including combinations of voiceless stops and nasal consonants were uttered by 11 normal adults. Oropharyngeal pressure ...

Seventy-five adult patients with sleep related respiratory disorders were examined by polysomnography with simultaneous recordings of the intraluminal pressure of the upper airway and snoring sound. Obstructed sites in the upper airway during sleep were determined by comparing the amplitude of respiratory fluctuation of the pressures in the epipharynx, mesopharynx, ...

Responsive areas for velopharyngeal closure were examined by recording diaphragmatic and superior pharyngeal constrictor activities of anesthetized rabbits. Pressure stimulation was applied with a cotton applicator to the mucosae of three pharyngeal areas: the anterior (palatal) and posterior walls of the nasopharynx and the posterior wall of the oropharynx. The ...

An experiment with excised larynges was undertaken to investigate the interaction between acoustic pressures in a pseudotrachea and the amplitude of vibration of the vocal folds. Pressure was measured beneath the vocal folds at three specific moments of the vibratory cycle: (a) when the superior margin of the vocal folds ...

The valveless Nijdam prosthesis is a new voice prosthesis for laryngectomized patients using tracheoesophageal speech. An "umbrella-like hat" covers the esophageal side of the tracheoesophageal fistula and is deformed during speech by air pressure. To decrease pressure loss during speech, a good understanding of the mechanical behavior is essential. In ...

Estimates of subglottal pressure in six professional male country singers were obtained during the /p/ occlusion while the subjects spoke, sang a country tune, and sang the tune of the United States national anthem. The subglottal pressure values, which were very similar in both the speech-like and singing-mode syllables, usually ...

The Nijdam voice prosthesis is an indwelling valveless voice prosthesis for postlaryngectomy voice rehabilitation. The in vitro aerodynamic characteristics are reported to be comparable to that of the low-resistance Groningen voice prosthesis. Owing to the design of the prosthesis the airflow resistance depends on the shaft length of the voice ...

Phonation threshold pressure (PTP) is the minimum subglottal pressure required to initiate vocal fold oscillation. Although potentially useful clinically, PTP is difficult to estimate noninvasively because of limitations to vocal motor control near the threshold of soft phonation. Previous investigators observed, for example, that trained subjects were unable to produce ...

We have used the guinea pig isolated temporal bone preparation to investigate changes in the non-linear properties of the tone-evoked cochlear potentials during reversible step displacements of the basilar membrane towards either the scala tympani or the scala vestibuli. The position shifts were produced by changing the hydrostatic pressure in ...

Stress-induced structural damage is often accompanied by sound release. This behavior is known as acoustic emission (AE). We hypothesize that vascular injury such as that produced by balloon angioplasty is associated with AE. Postmortem human peripheral arterial specimens were randomly partitioned into test (n = 10) and control segments (n ...

The expression of "naming," "commanding," "angry," "frightened," "pleading," "astonished," "satisfied," "admiring," "scornful," and "sad" was with the word [saara] spoken by 12 subjects. Using the same connotations, the 120 utterances were categorized by 73 listeners. Most samples were agreed on by 50%-99% of the judges. Most samples of "astonished," "angry," ...

The speech respiratory system is configured in ways that tend to maximize its ability to respond to changes in the airway environment. Intraoral pressures remain at levels sufficient to generate reliably recognized consonant sounds even in the presence of structural deficits such as velopharyngeal inadequacy. Similar respiratory compensations occur when ...

The goals of this study were to characterize tongue surface displacement during production of bilabial stops and to refine current estimates of vocal-tract wall impedance using direct measurements of displacement in the vocal tract during closure. In addition, evidence was obtained to test the competing claims of passive and active ...

Reinke's edema (RE) has been associated typically with smoking and sometimes with vocal abuse, but aspects of the pathophysiology of RE remain unclear. To gain new insights into phonatory mechanisms associated with RE pathophysiology, we used an integrated battery of objective vocal function tests to analyze 20 patients (19 women) ...

Pressure-flow relationships were obtained for five excised canine larynges. Simultaneous recordings were made of average subglottal pressure, average air flow, and the electroglottograph at various levels of adduction and vocal fold lengths. The level of adduction was controlled by positioning the arytenoid cartilages via laterally imbedded three-prong attachments and by ...

This paper reports results of further experimentation on a previously developed physical model of the vocal-fold mucosa [Titze et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 97, 3080-3084 (1995)]. The effects of vocal-fold thickness, epithelial membrane thickness, and prephonatory glottal geometry on phonation threshold pressure were studied. Phonation threshold pressures in the ...

BACKGROUND: Exposure to noise in a critical care unit may trigger a response by the sympathetic nervous system, thereby increasing cardiovascular work in patients recovering from cardiac surgery. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of a music intervention given twice on the first postoperative day on noise annoyance, heart rate, and ...

Sound onsets are salient and behaviorally relevant, and most auditory neurons discharge spikes locked to such transients. The acoustic parameters of sound onsets that shape such onset responses are unknown. In this paper is analyzed the timing of spikes of single neurons in the primary auditory cortex of barbiturate-anesthetized cats ...

When making acoustic measurements in a human ear canal, it is often necessary to monitor the output of a sound source with a microphone positioned within a few millimeters of that sound source. This microphone will not only measure the pressure due to the propagated acoustic wave, which we wish ...

The traditional approach to evaluating swallowing disorders has focused on upper aerodigestive tract motor function. The evaluation of the sensory apparatus in the larynx and pharynx as part of the workup of dysphagia has heretofore not been addressed. The purpose of this work is to discuss a new, noninvasive method ...

The fourth heart sound (S4) is thought to be due to cardiohemic vibrations, powered by deceleration of transmitral blood flow, that occur when atrial systole leads to a disproportionately high rise in ventricular end-diastolic pressure (relative to diastasis), associated with an enhanced atrial systolic blood filling volume or a stiff ...

Loudness discomfort levels (LDLs) were measured in dB HL and SPL at discrete frequencies between 500 to 4000 Hz on 31 hearing-impaired ears using TDH-50P and ER-3A earphones. The results revealed no significant differences in the measured sound pressure level (SPL) between the two earphones at all test frequencies. However, ...

OBJECTIVE: To report on the essential performance characteristics of two brands of disposable air turbine handpiece and on aspects of their safety and convenience for clinical use. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Oralsafe and Feathertouch disposable handpieces were characterised using a variety of techniques in respect of the following: turbine rotor radius, ...

The effect of transglottal pressure on the fundamental frequency of phonation was investigated in 14 subjects (12 adults and 2 children). A sudden change in intra-oral pressure was produced during sustained phonation. The effects of this pressure change were not monotonic, even within the modal register (around the upper end ...

In studies to understand the mechanisms responsible for shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) cell injury, we observed that shock waves (SWs) are influenced by the shape of the specimen vial. Lytic injury to kidney cells treated in a Dornier HM3 lithotripter was higher (p < 0.0001) when SWs entered the vial ...

While investigating in utero sound levels during vibro-acoustic stimulation on the maternal abdomen it was noticed that noise level increased when the real-time ultrasonic scanner beam was directed at the sensing hydrophone. The noise was recorded and later analysed for frequency content and waveform. It appeared related to the scanning ...

Aerodynamic and temporal characteristics of velopharyngeal function were determined for 42 adult male and female speakers. All subjects produced the word "hamper" at self-determined loudness levels and rates of speaking. Measurements of intraoral air pressure, nasal airflow, and estimates of velopharyngeal orifice size were obtained during production of the /m/ ...

We were interested in the historical perspective that Arabidze et al. [1] brought to the subject of Korotkoff's auscultatory method of measuring blood pressure. The original description by the Reverend Stephen Hales performing the very first blood pressure measurement (which was actually published in 1733) does not make reference to ...

Waveform cross correlation and cepstrum analysis were used to demonstrate possible techniques to measure pulse intervals within sperm whale sonar clicks. The structure of sperm whale clicks takes the form of a series of decaying broadband pulses separated by a time interval that is a function of sound velocity in ...

The objective of the present work was to test and validate a noninvasive method based on spectral analysis of the second heart sound (S2) to estimate the pulmonary artery (PA) systolic pressure in 89 patients with a bioprosthetic heart valve. The technique was compared with continuous-wave Doppler estimation of PA ...

The assumption that the pressure difference between the cochlear windows is the stimulus that produces cochlear responses is tested experimentally in the ears of anesthetized cats. Cochlear potential is used as a measure of cochlear response. The sound pressures at the oval and round windows are individually controlled with both ...

The purpose of this study was to document changes in aerodynamic and glottographic aspects of vocal function in patients with Parkinson disease who received two forms of high effort treatment. Previous reports (Ramig, Countryman, Thompson, & Horii, 1995) have documented increased sound pressure level (SPL) following treatment that trained phonation ...

Acoustic radiation pressure exerted by an arbitrary acoustic wave in a three-dimensional lossy medium is calculated by extending an indirect approach developed by Chu and Apfel [B-T. Chu and R.E. Apfel, "Acoustic radiation pressure produced by a beam of sound," J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 72, 1673-1687 (1982)]. Without appealing to ...

Such observation was made possible by transmitting the image of a mobile ceramic ruling on the erupting maxillary second premolar to a video-microscope via a coaxial fibreoptic cable. The cable was inserted into a reference bar secured to the adjacent first molar and first premolar. The image of the ruling ...

A 2-year-old Holstein heifer with a swollen brisket, jugular vein distention, muffled heart sounds, tachycardia, and free gas bloat was examined. Thymic lymphosarcoma was suspected based on a negative agar gel immunodiffusion test for bovine leukemia virus, presence of atypical lymphocytes in pleural fluid, and detection of a mass in ...

To investigate the extent of noise exposure to which truck drivers are subjected, a comparison was made of the noise levels in the cabs of two different brands of trucks. Both brands were manufactured with identical engines. The equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure levels, maximum sound pressure levels, and percentage ...

Perceptual, acoustic, and aerodynamic measures of vocal function were examined, pre- and post-treatment, in nine patients who had received thyroplastic (type I) surgery for unilateral vocal fold paralysis. Following thyroplasty, the patients showed significant improvements in the following perceptual and acoustic measures of vocal function: perceived breathiness, maximum phonation time, ...

Many previous studies of laryngeal biomechanics using in vivo models have employed a constant air How source. Several authors have recently suggested that the lung-thorax system functions as a constant pressure source during phonation. This study describes an in vivo canine system designed to maintain a constant peak subglottic pressure ...

A feeding bottle equipped with micro-video-camera and pressure sensor was devised to show the inside of the mouth and record sucking pressure. Activities of the temporal (TM), masseter muscle (MM), orbicular muscle of the mouth (OM) and suprahyoid muscles (SM) of 25 healthy infants were examined. Tongue and jaw movements, ...

Twenty native Korean-speaking subjects heard 22 English word-initial consonants in three vowel contexts produced by three native English talkers. The subjects orthographically labeled each English consonant as the closest Korean consonant. They then judged how similar the English consonant was to the Korean consonant on a scale of 1 to ...

Anesthetized and artificially ventilated guinea pigs were exposed to broad-band noise of 95, 101, 106 or 115 dB SPL for 30 min and studied for 180 min after cessation of noise. The partial pressure of oxygen (pO2) in the perilymph, the cochlear blood flow (CoBF) and auditory-evoked potentials were continuously ...

The effects of botulinum toxin type A (BOTOX) injections on aerodynamic measures of phonation were examined in 30 patients with adductor spasmodic dysphonia. Patients received bilateral injections of 2.5 U of botulinum toxin type A in each thyroarytenoid muscle. Measures of air pressure, average airflow, coefficient of variation (CV) of ...

Intraoral air pressure was recorded during the production of the consonant cognate pairs /p/-/b, /t/-/d, and /s/-/z/ by eight esophageal speakers. These consonants were combined with the vowel /a/ to form CV, VCV, and VC syllables and produced under two experimental conditions: after the insufflation of air and without air ...

Fatigue and increased effort are common symptoms for people with movement disorders and dysarthria, but they are rarely quantified. In an attempt to develop a clinically useful and physiologically meaningful measure of fatigue, we used a task that involves sustaining a target effort level without visual feedback while squeezing a ...

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of speaking rate changes on the perception of English stop consonants by four groups of subjects: English and Spanish monolinguals, 'early' Spanish/English bilinguals who learned English in childhood, and 'late' bilinguals who learned English in adulthood. Subjects identified, and then ...

A modest assessment of noise was made in Calcutta Metro, India's first ever underground tube rail system, to examine if the range of noise levels present could endanger the hearing sensitivity of workers for the Metro. Sound measuring instruments of a sound level meter, an octave band analyzer, and a ...