Low Voice Research Articles

Different voice part perceptions in polyphonic and homophonic musical textures

Separate voice part perception has been shown in polyphonic music. However, it remains unclear whether this segregation of voice parts is specific to polyphony or also occurs in homophonic music. This study compared voice part perceptions in polyphony and homophony using a redundant signals effect (RSE) paradigm. The RSE means that reaction times are shorter for two simultaneously presented signals than for one of these signals. At the final position of the four-voice homophonic and polyphonic sequences, notes in two voice parts were altered to out-of-key notes independently or simultaneously. Participants ( N = 208) responded to any deviant tones while withholding responses to non-deviant tones. All combinations of deviant voice parts (i.e., soprano–bass, tenor–bass, and alto–tenor) elicited RSEs in polyphonic and homophonic sequences, suggesting separate voice part perception, irrespective of musical texture. However, evidence of the coactivation of separate perceptual modules was obtained only for polyphonic sequences. Deviants in higher voice parts were detected faster and more accurately than those in lower voice parts in both musical textures. These results indicate that voice parts are perceived separately, with a bias toward higher voice parts in both musical textures, but voice parts are more segregated in polyphony.

A Clear Midnight by Simon Sargon: The Joy of Walt Whitman’s Poetry

Abstract: This article introduces the compositional work of Jewish-American composer Simon Sargon (1938–2022) to a wider audience while also reflecting on the impact of Walt Whitman on American literature through a comprehensive analysis of Sargon’s chamber work for low voice, horn, and piano, A Clear Midnight Composed in 1994.

STUDI KASUS: COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR THERAPY UNTUK MENGURANGI KECENDERUNGAN KECEMASAN SOSIAL PADA SISWA SEKOLAH DASAR

Excessive feelings of fear characterize students with social anxiety and worry and avoidance of social situations, especially in the school environment. Students quickly feel nervous and anxious when they are in a crowded environment or public place, such as avoiding appearing in front of the class, not daring to refuse or reprimand others, speaking in a low voice, not daring to answer or ask questions, not looking the other person in the eye, and being afraid. Others poorly view them. This case study involves a fifth-grade elementary school (Sekolah Dasar/SD) student who has experienced social anxiety for the past year. The subject feels uncomfortable in crowded places and has negative thoughts about other people's views of him. Assessment is carried out by observation, interviews, psychological tests (WISC, CSCT, graphic), and the Liebowitz social anxiety scale. The intervention provided to reduce social anxiety in subjects used a cognitive-behavioral approach, namely, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, carried out for nine sessions. The intervention results showed that the subjects could identify irrational thoughts and change them to be more rational, decreasing anxiety levels when appearing in front of the class and interacting with other people in the class and school environment according to the predetermined intervention targets.

The effect of sexual orientation on voice acoustic properties.

Previous research has investigated sexual orientation differences in the acoustic properties of individuals' voices, often theorizing that homosexuals of both sexes would have voice properties mirroring those of heterosexuals of the opposite sex. Findings were mixed, but many of these studies have methodological limitations including small sample sizes, use of recited passages instead of natural speech, or grouping bisexual and homosexual participants together for analyses. To address these shortcomings, the present study examined a wide range of acoustic properties in the natural voices of 142 men and 175 women of varying sexual orientations, with sexual orientation treated as a continuous variable throughout. Homosexual men had less breathy voices (as indicated by a lower harmonics-to-noise ratio) and, contrary to our prediction, a lower voice pitch and narrower pitch range than heterosexual men. Homosexual women had lower F4 formant frequency (vocal tract resonance or so-called overtone) in overall vowel production, and rougher voices (measured via jitter and spectral tilt) than heterosexual women. For those sexual orientation differences that were statistically significant, bisexuals were in-between heterosexuals and homosexuals. No sexual orientation differences were found in formants F1-F3, cepstral peak prominence, shimmer, or speech rate in either sex. Recommendations for future "natural voice" investigations are outlined.

Cepstral Analysis of Voice in Patients With Temporomandibular Disorders.

This study aimed to assess the voice quality of patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) compared with healthy subjects using cepstral analysis and investigate the relationship between the TMD severity and the values of cepstral analysis. Subjects who met the inclusion criteria completed a general health questionnaire and the Fonseca Anamnestic Index. Patients who had TMDs with FAI were subjected to an examination based on the Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders. The final sample included 65 subjects, 31 TMDs patients (with a mean age ± standard deviation of 36.64 ± 13.67 years), and 34 healthy individuals in the control group (with a mean age ± standard deviation of 30.35 ± 7.78 years). Cepstral Peak Prominence (CPP) and Smoothened Cepstral Peak Prominence (CPPS) of a sustained vowel and connected speech were computed using Praat software. TMD patients indicated lower cepstral values and lower voice quality compared to the control group. Significant differences were found between TMD and control groups for all cepstral parameters (P < .001) and cepstral measurements showed a moderate to strong negative correlation with TMD severity (P < .001, rho = -0.57 to -0.88). The outcomes of the present study indicate that cepstral analysis can accurately distinguish the reduced voice quality of TMD patients from normal voice.

Quality of Life in Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis Patients after Vocal Fold Surgery: An In-Depth Exploration.

This study explores the quality of life among patients with recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) after vocal fold surgery as measured by the outcome scores of the Voice Handicap Index (VHI) and the Distress Thermometer and Problem List in Patients with Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis (DT&amp;PL). Differences in quality of life were explored within the independent variables age, surgical frequency, weeks since last vocal fold operation, gender, HPV type, surgical location, vaccination with Gardasil©, and a patient's request to speak with a speech-language pathologist. A single-center, observational cohort study was conducted using VHI and DT&amp;PL scores and demographic and clinical data obtained from patient files. Inclusion criteria were a confirmed HPV type, age 18 years or older, the ability to fill in both questionnaires in Dutch, and having undergone at least one surgical procedure to remove laryngeal papilloma. Relationships of the independent variables with VHI and Distress Thermometer (DT) scores were explored using univariable and multivariable regressions and linear regression models. Of 271 RRP patients, 100 met the inclusion criteria and responded to requests to fill in both questionnaires with a minimum of 12 weeks after their last operation. Our study showed a statistically significant negative relationship between age and VHI scores (p = 0.02) in the univariable, and multiple linear regressions (p = 0.01), indicating that patients experienced fewer self-perceived functional voice disabilities with each increase in age. A parallel negative relationship is seen between the variables age (p = 0.03) and DT scores. Our results showed a statistically significant positive relationship between the number of vocal fold surgeries and DT scores (p = 0.03). The results of this study show a significant relationship between age, surgical frequency, and quality of life in patients with RRP. Older patients have lower Voice Handicap Index (VHI) and Distress Thermometer (DT) scores, indicating fewer self-perceived voice and disease-related quality of life problems. Conversely, a rise in surgical frequency is significantly associated with higher DT scores, reflecting greater disease-related distress.

Lee Silverman voice treatment versus NHS speech and language therapy versus control for dysarthria in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD COMM): pragmatic, UK based, multicentre, three arm, parallel group, unblinded, randomised controlled trial

ObjectivesTo assess the clinical effectiveness of two speech and language therapy approaches versus no speech and language therapy for dysarthria in people with Parkinson’s disease.DesignPragmatic, UK based, multicentre, three arm,...

Voice quality in patients with temporomandibular disorders

ABSTRACT Objectives This study assessed the voice quality in TMD patients compared to healthy individuals using the Dysphonia Severity Index (DSI) and evaluated the correlation between the DSI and TMD severity. Methods Patients who had TMD with Fonseca’s anamnestic index were subjected to an examination based on the Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (DC/TMD). A sample of 35 patients with TMD and 36 healthy subjects were included in the study. Results There were significant differences in the DSI score and its components between healthy subjects and TMD patients (p < .001). A significant correlation was found between the DSI scores and TMD severity (Spearman’s rho: −0.90, p < .001). Conclusion Patients with TMD demonstrated lower DSI scores and lower voice quality compared to healthy subjects.

Linguistic based emotion analysis using softmax over time attention mechanism.

Recognizing the real emotion of humans is considered the most essential task for any customer feedback or medical applications. There are many methods available to recognize the type of emotion from speech signal by extracting frequency, pitch, and other dominant features. These features are used to train various models to auto-detect various human emotions. We cannot completely rely on the features of speech signals to detect the emotion, for instance, a customer is angry but still, he is speaking at a low voice (frequency components) which will eventually lead to wrong predictions. Even a video-based emotion detection system can be fooled by false facial expressions for various emotions. To rectify this issue, we need to make a parallel model that will train on textual data and make predictions based on the words present in the text. The model will then classify the type of emotions using more comprehensive information, thus making it a more robust model. To address this issue, we have tested four text-based classification models to classify the emotions of a customer. We examined the text-based models and compared their results which showed that the modified Encoder decoder model with attention mechanism trained on textual data achieved an accuracy of 93.5%. This research highlights the pressing need for more robust emotion recognition systems and underscores the potential of transfer models with attention mechanisms to significantly improve feedback management processes and the medical applications.

Ukrainian Thoughts and Feelings based on One Year War Content Analysis

In the age of remarkable technological innovations such as AI, quantum computing, IoT, and blockchain, one could argue that the world is becoming an increasingly connected, advanced, enlightened, and peaceful place. Nevertheless, paradoxically, conflicts and wars are still born deeply rooted in complex strategic, historical, and economic dynamics, and continue to arise finding a direct representation in both physical and digital battlefields through powerful and dynamic environments like social media. This environment enabled unprecedented connectivity and ideas, thoughts, ideologies, and experiences exchange shaping the narrative, amplifying ideas, feelings, and experiences while directly addressing the underlying causes, dynamics, and implications of conflicts and war through a multifaceted and multi-nuanced approach. The outbreak and ongoing war in Ukraine took the international community off guard representing a significant turning point in the contemporary era that received immediately intensive global attention, united global humanitarian, and strategic efforts to support and help the ones in need, and reflected its geopolitical and economic global complexities, dynamics, and implications. At the same time, a high degree of disinformation and misinformation exists surrounding different aspects about this war e.g., actions taken, and impact produced on civilians, which contributes to creating an altered perspective of reality. While different conventional media and social media outlets together with research, governmental, and practitioner efforts revealed and reflected on the nature, major incidents, and their known impact on civilians and civilian objects as well as military personnel and military objects, yet limited attention and a lower voice is given through dedicated studies to thoughts and emotions of Ukrainian users in unconventional social media platforms like Telegram. This represents the knowledge gap tackled in this research by building a set of Machine Learning-based solutions for analysing the discourses and sentiments of Ukrainian users using the Design Science Research methodology in a Data Science research approach. From this analysis, reflection is provided to important days and incidents experienced by Ukrainian population since February 2022 in the first year of war.

Adherence to Voice Therapy Among Patients with Dysphonia: The Impact of Cultural Background

Voice therapy (VT), a cornerstone in dysphonia treatment, relies on patient adherence for efficacy. Despite its positive outcomes, adherence rates remain consistently low. This study investigates the impact of cultural background on adherence to VT. This is a retrospective cohort study that included all adult patients referred to our institution's Speech and Hearing unit, in 2018 for VT related to dysphonia. The study group included a distinct adult minority group (Bedouin Arabs) which was compared to a control group. Adherence rates, demographic factors, and therapy outcomes were analyzed. A total of 137 adult patients with dysphonia (20 in the study group and 117 in the control group) were included. There were no significant differences in adherence rates between the study and control groups (75% vs 74.3%, P=1), with an overall nonadherence rate of 74.4%. The median leg of time for VT was 239days, and the median number of visits was 3.0. Logistic regression analysis, adjusting for age and visits, indicated lower odds of dysphonia improvement in the study group (odds ratios [OR]: 0.12, P=0.05). However, visits showed a significant positive impact on improvement (OR: 2.58, P<0.001). While cultural background does not impact adherence rate, it is associated with different attendance patterns and lower voice outcomes following VT. Future efforts should concentrate on investigating aspects of adherence such as home exercises, accessibility of treatment, and the frequency of follow-up sessions to facilitate customized interventions for specific populations.

Having a Say in Patient Care: Factors Associated with High and Low Voice among Home Care Workers

ObjectivesTo identify factors associated with high and low “voice”—or level of input in patient care decisions—among home care workers (HCWs), an often marginalized workforce that provides care in the home to older adults and those with chronic conditions. DesignWe conducted a secondary analysis of data from a cross-sectional survey assessing experiences of HCWs in caring for adults with heart failure. The survey measured HCWs’ voice using a validated, 5-item instrument. Setting and ParticipantsThe survey was conducted virtually from June 2020 to July 2021 in partnership with the 1199 Service Employees International Union (1199SEIU) Training and Employment Funds, a union labor management fund. English- or Spanish-speaking HCWs employed by a certified or licensed home care agency in New York, NY, were eligible. MethodsHCW voice was the main outcome of interest, which we assessed by tertiles (low, medium, and high, with medium as the referent group). Using multinominal logistic regression, we calculated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs for the relationship between participant characteristics and low and high levels of voice. ResultsThe 261 HCWs had a mean age of 48.4 years (SD 11.9), 96.6% were female, and 44.2% identified as Hispanic. A total of 38.7% had low voice, 37.9% had medium voice, and 23.4% had high voice. In the adjusted model, factors associated with low voice included Spanish as a primary language (OR 3.71, P = .001), depersonalization-related burnout (OR 1.14, P = .04), and knowing which doctor to call (OR 0.19, P < .001). Factors associated with high voice included Spanish as a primary language (OR 2.61, P = .04) and job satisfaction (OR 1.22, P = .001). Conclusions and ImplicationsOrganizational factors such as team communication practices—including among non-English speakers—may play an important role in HCW voice. Improving HCW voice may help retain HCWs in the workforce, but future research is needed to evaluate this.

The role of loudness in vocal intimidation.

Across many species, a major function of vocal communication is to convey formidability, with low voice frequencies traditionally considered the main vehicle for projecting large size and aggression. Vocal loudness is often ignored, yet it might explain some puzzling exceptions to this frequency code. Here we demonstrate, through acoustic analyses of over 3,000 human vocalizations and four perceptual experiments, that vocalizers produce low frequencies when attempting to sound large, but loudness is prioritized for displays of strength and aggression. Our results show that, although being loud is effective for signaling strength and aggression, it poses a physiological trade-off with low frequencies because a loud voice is achieved by elevating pitch and opening the mouth wide into a-like vowels. This may explain why aggressive vocalizations are often high-pitched and why open vowels are considered "large" in sound symbolism despite their high first formant. Callers often compensate by adding vocal harshness (nonlinear vocal phenomena) to undesirably high-pitched loud vocalizations, but a combination of low and loud remains an honest predictor of both perceived and actual physical formidability. The proposed notion of a loudness-frequency trade-off thus adds a new dimension to the widely accepted frequency code and requires a fundamental rethinking of the evolutionary forces shaping the form of acoustic signals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

«НАПРЯЖЕННОЕ» ЗВУЧАНИЕ В ОБРЯДНОСТИ И МАГИИ (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ КУЛЬТУРНО-ЯЗЫКОВОЙ ТРАДИЦИИ КОСТРОМСКОЙ ОБЛАСТИ)

This article is devoted to studying Russian folk rituals, magic practices and beliefs, in which the sound component (namely “tense” sounds, too loud or, vice versa, too low voice, special intonation or tempo, etc.) plays a significant role; it also identifies vocabulary “serving” for these situations, features of communication acts and “tense” sound functions. Cultural and linguistic traditions of Kostroma region was selected for the research. Field records made in 1975–2003 by the Toponymical expedition of the Ural University were taken as the material for analysis; some other written sources containing local dialects were also involved. The analysis conducted allows concluding that “tense” ritual or magical speech is described mainly using words from the following families of the verbs klikat’ (to shriek), krichat’ (to scream), vopit’ (to yell), revet’ (to cry), vyt’ (to howl), sheptat’ (to whisper). After getting into the ritual field, words with initial “household” semantics obtain special features, which is reflected in their lexical meaning and syntax properties. “Tense” sounds are typical for some family rituals (funeral and prayer for the dead, bachelorette party the day before the wedding, after-wedding viyunishnik (ritual of celebration of a newly wedded couple)) and rituals associated with some calendar dates, such as Egoriev den’ (George’s Day in Spring), Velikiy Chetverg (Holy Thursday), Krestopoklonnaya nedelya (the Adoration of the Holy Cross); it can also be used during verbal magic and sorcery. The identified functions of this sound production method are as follows: emotive, social, apotropeitive, producing, malicious and healing.

About the unusual name “drone” in the Udmurt language of the 18th century

The relevance of the proposed topic is due to the insufficient identification and description of the vocabulary of fauna, as one of the most archaic layers in the vocabulary of almost all FinnoUgric languages. The purpose of this study is to trace the history of the written fixation of the word var-bozgo ‘drone’ in the Udmurt language, starting from its first appearance in the earliest written monuments of the 18th century and ending with the main lexicographic works of the modern period, to consider the lexical-semantic formation of a complex name and determine by possibilities of its etymology. Achieving this goal seems possible by solving problems related to identifying and describing this entomological term in comparison with data from other related and unrelated languages. The research material is handwritten and published written monuments of the 18th-19th centuries, the most important lexicographic works on the Udmurt language of the modern period, as well as possible parallels of these words from contacting related and unrelated languages. The descriptive method is mainly used, as well as some elements of semantic and comparative etymological analysis. The name var-bozgo ‘drone’ is unique - it has no typological parallels, it is recorded only in one written source - the handwritten grammar of M. Myshkin, compiled in the second half of the 18th century. To develop the question, further fixation of individual components of this complex word in the Udmurt language, which function with high and low frequency, is provided. As a result of the study, an expansion of the lexical and semantic content of the word bozgo was discovered during the development of the language. Etymological analysis made it possible to identify the origin of the constituent elements of the entomological term: var ‘servant, slave’ has parallels in many Finno-Permian languages and is an original Udmurt word of the Finno-Permian period of development of the base language; and the origin of the component bozgo ‘zhuk; dung beetle’ is associated with the expressive-figurative word boz ( boz-boz ), expressing the sound image of a buzzing or low voice, to which the unproductive nominal formant -go was added during the period of independent formation of the Udmurt language.

현대 대중가요에 나타난 읊조림(吟詠)의 전통

The dictionary meaning of “eupjorhim” is “reciting poetry in a low voice while appreciating its meaning,” which corresponds to “吟” or “詠” in Chinese characters. However, “eupjorhim” is now widely used to mean “in a way that does not sing loudly” and “to sing songs that have a limited range of voices” as if individuals were referring to themselves. This thesis attempts to consider the way of “eupjorhim” in modern Korean popular songs, search for its origins in our traditional poetry, summarize its characteristics, and analyze the characteristics that can be deemed to have inherited the tradition of reforestation in modern Korean popular songs.&#x0D; The analysis showed that the meaning of “eupjorhim” in traditional poetry can be summarized by the following three aspects. ① The melody: Although it is less present than in singing, it exhibits pitch and rhythm contrarily to simple reading. ② The lyrics: It is does not aim to appreciate tune-like singing, but to convey meaning. ③ The singing style: It can be performed by ordinary people as well as experts. Furthermore, it is not an other-centered performance to impress the listener, but a self-centered performance method that values one's own enjoyment. Considering various examples in modern K-pop, “eupjorhim” inherits the context of traditional poetry regarding ① melody within a narrow range, ② song that is more lyrics-oriented than melody, and ③ a calm singing method as if talking to oneself.&#x0D; “Eupjorhim” is meaningful in that it not only reminds us that modern popular songs deeply lean on both foreign influences and the inherent traditions that exist in us, but also makes us realize various ways of singing and, ultimately, leads us to reconsider “What Is Song?”

Development of an Industrial Safety System Based on Voice Assistant

Currently, there are limitations in the human–machine interfaces (HMIs) used in industry, either due to the characteristics of users’ cognitive abilities or interfaces, which hinder communication and interaction between humans and equipment. For this reason, this work presents an alternative interaction model based on a voice assistant, Alexa, which promotes more natural, intuitive, direct, and understandable communication. The purpose of this work is the development of an industrial safety system for a controlled electric motor based on Alexa voice assistant, which allows the monitoring of its operating parameters, such as phase current, housing temperature, and rotor vibration, as well as making it possible to control ignition and shut down and change the rotation of the motor with a prior password, as a safety measure. Commercial smart devices and Arduino-compatible modules were used to achieve this, providing them with the Internet of Things (IoT) feature. In addition, several software platforms, such as Blynk, Tuya Smart, Node Red, and Voiceflow, are used to perform data transmission, device management, and programming of the Alexa skill, oriented to the execution of the security and run system. This shows the potential capacity of voice assistants in the industry to deliver information more naturally to humans and obtain optimal notifications. However, problems were evidenced, such as the influence of noise in the environment when communicating with the assistant, the vocalization of words, low voice tones, and accents typical of the language, that will increase the security level of the system and prevent potential identity theft.

MELODY OF AN ORAL RELIGIOUS SERMON

The article is devoted to the study of the melodic organization of the texts of Anglican and Lutheran sermons, which are an integral part of services in the respective churches. Examining the compositional features of the texts of the researched sermons made it possible to identify four compositional parts that are necessarily present in both types of sermons (topic manifestation, citation, interpretation, conclusion), each of which is characterized by relative semantic and structural independence and pursues a specific pragmatic task. The research material, consisting of oral English and German sermons, was subjected to perceptual, auditory and instrumental analysis. A complex auditory and instrumental analysis of the melodic characteristics of preachers’ speech allows us to conclude that there is unity not only in the pragmatic tasks of preachers in the two most common Protestant trends, but also in the prosodic features of the texts of oral sermons. Integral melodic parameters include the use of emphatic phrasal stress on informative and/or emotionally significant parts of phrases in supraphrasal units, the distribution of maximums of the fundamental frequency over the compositional parts of the text, the width of the frequency range of phrases, which is achieved not only at the expense of high indicators of maxima fundamental frequency in sermon phrases, but also due to lowering the lower limit of fundamental frequency values. Distinctive features include the use of different pitch levels in peculiar parts of the text: in the initial part of the Anglican sermon, there is a predominance of low pitch level, while in the Lutheran sermon, the low voice level is the most used in the final part of the sermon. On the basis of the identified integral prosodic means involved in the organisation of the analysed texts, it is possible to state that Anglican and Lutheran sermons belong to the same type of preaching discourse.

Gender Role Attitudes Influence Vocal Masculine Preferences Among Gay Men in China.

Gender role attitudes refer to attitudes toward the appropriate roles, rights, and responsibilities of men and women in society. Evidence indicates that individuals with traditional gender role attitudes tend to prefer mates with sex-typical opposite-sex characteristics in heterosexual men and women. This study examined whether gender role attitudes were associated with vocal masculinity preference in gay men in China. Five hundred and sixty-seven participants aged between 16 and 49 years completed the vocal masculinity preference (voice pitch and vocal tract length; VTLs) and gender role attitudes scale. The results indicated that gay men generally preferred masculine voices (lower voice pitch and longer VTLs) and gender role attitudes were positively correlated with preferences for masculine cues in the voices of men. While individuals indicating an affinity with traditional gender roles exhibited stronger preferences for feminine voices, which were inconsistent with the present hypotheses. The results help us understand the role of traditional gender beliefs in the mate preferences of gay men in China. Furthermore, based on the results, understanding one's gender-role attitudes can help cultivate more diversified criteria for mate selection and facilitate gay men in better choosing suitable mates. Future longitudinal studies should examine the relationship between gender role attitudes and masculine preference changes over time. Whether this relationship differs in the different sexual roles of gay men should also be explored.

Anaphylaxis to oral misoprostol in a term pregnant patient who is non-allergic to vaginal misoprostol-a case report

Misoprostol (PGE1) is a drug that is very commonly used in obstetrics for labour induction. Apart from its side effect of causing congenital malformations in offspring of users who have unsuccessfully used it as an abortifacient, it is considered a safe drug with few side effects. We here report a severe hypersensitivity reaction to misoprostol in a 33-year-old term pregnant patient who is non-allergic to vaginal misoprostol. The patient developed anaphylactic features like swelling of lips, low voice due to laryngeal oedema, and bradycardia. Prompt administration of adrenaline and emergent caesarean section allowed for the safe delivery of the neonate. When inducing labour, quick identification and treatment of anaphylaxis and hypersensitivity reactions are necessary to prevent maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality.