Fundamental Frequency Parameters Research Articles

Effect of Resonance Tube Technique on Oropharyngeal Geometry and Voice in Individuals with Parkinson's Disease

To verify the immediate effect of the flexible resonance tube vocal technique on the oropharyngeal geometry and vocal acoustic parameters of individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) and to study the correlation between oropharyngeal geometry and the intensity and fundamental frequency (f0) parameters of the voice. Forty individuals participated-20 with PD and 20 healthy individuals, with a mean age of 60.95 (± 5.69) years. There were 10 men and 10 women in each group. All underwent pharyngometric analysis of the vocal tract and voice acoustics parameters before and after use of the vocal technique with a flexible resonance tube. After the technique, there was a reduction in pharyngeal cavity volume only in females in the healthy group, a reduction in shimmer values in females in both groups and males in PD group and an improvement in noise parameters in females in the PD group. There was a negative correlation between vocal tract volume and intensity, between f0 and vocal tract volume, between f0 and oropharyngeal junction area, between f0 and oral cavity volume as well as a positive correlation between oral cavity length and f0. The vocal technique with the flexible resonance tube applied to individuals with PD improved the subjects' voice quality in the perceptual and acoustic voice parameters. Regarding the oropharyngeal geometry, it was possible to observe its correlation with the parameters of vocal intensity and frequency in the studied population.

Recognition of English spoken stressed syllables based on natural language processing and endpoint detection algorithm

The traditional stress evaluation method cannot describe the chaotic characteristics of speech signals well or cannot fully approximate the complex nonlinear relationship between features, so that the exact location of stress cannot be accurately determined. In order to improve the recognition of spoken English stressed syllables, this study established a word stress recognition model. The model can accurately recognize the stressed syllables in the words and calculate the fundamental frequency change trajectory of the language tones using the fundamental frequency scaling function. According to this trajectory and using the time domain fundamental frequency synchronization superposition algorithm to modify the fundamental frequency parameters in the DIVA model motion instruction, the spoken language learner can master the rhythm in the spoken language. In addition, this study sets up experiments to study the effects of the model. The results show that the stress recognition model established in this paper has good reliability and stability.

The Relationship Between Speech Perceptual Discrimination and Speech Production in Parkinson's Disease.

Purpose We recently demonstrated that individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) respond differentially to specific altered auditory feedback parameters during speech production. Participants with PD respond more robustly to pitch and less robustly to formant manipulations compared to control participants. In this study, we investigated whether differences in perceptual processing may in part underlie these compensatory differences in speech production. Methods Pitch and formant feedback manipulations were presented under 2 conditions: production and listening. In the production condition, 15 participants with PD and 15 age- and gender-matched healthy control participants judged whether their own speech output was manipulated in real time. During the listening task, participants judged whether paired tokens of their previously recorded speech samples were the same or different. Results Under listening, 1st formant manipulation discrimination was significantly reduced for the PD group compared to the control group. There was a trend toward better discrimination of pitch in the PD group, but the group difference was not significant. Under the production condition, the ability of participants with PD to identify pitch manipulations was greater than that of the controls. Conclusion The findings suggest perceptual processing differences associated with acoustic parameters of fundamental frequency and 1st formant perturbations in PD. These findings extend our previous results, indicating that different patterns of compensation to pitch and 1st formant shifts may reflect a combination of sensory and motor mechanisms that are differentially influenced by basal ganglia dysfunction.

Calentamiento vocal en locutores comerciales

IntroductionThe announcers are professionals of the voice that are characterized by presenting high vocal demand. The objective of this research was to measure the acoustic changes that could be attributed to a routine of vocal warm-up on the quality of the voice in commercial radio and television announcers in Chile. Material and methodThirteen commercial announcers were selected and a vocal warm-up routine was applied. The parameters of fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, noise, maximum time of phonation and articulatory agility were measured. All parameters were measured before and after the exercise routine. On the other hand, 6 experts voice therapist analyzed through a visual analog scale changes in the narrow band spectrograms of the emissions before and after the vocal warm-up routine. ResultsSignificant changes were found in the fundamental frequency and maximum phonation time. In the analysis of the spectrograms performed by the experts, in 11 cases there was improvement between the before and after the routine. In addition to the above, in 6 of these cases the changes were significant. ConclusionsThe vocal warm-up can be an effective tool for the care of the voice in commercial announcers.

Hybrid Framework for Speaker-Independent Emotion Conversion Using i-Vector PLDA and Neural Network

Expressive speech can be synthesized using acoustic feature modeling by mapping the spectral and fundamental frequency parameters between neutral speech and target emotions based on context. Speaker and text-independent emotion conversion are challenging modeling problems in this paradigm. In this paper, spectral mapping using an i-vector-based framework of fixed dimensions is proposed for the speaker-independent emotion conversion, considering the entire problem in the utterance domain, rather than the existing approaches using frame-level processing. The high dimensionality of i-vectors and reduced utterances for i-vector training necessitate the use of Probabilistic Linear Discriminant Analysis (PLDA) to derive the emotion dependent latent vector. The i-vector setup does not require parallel data or alignment procedures at any stage of training. $F_{0}$ training is conducted on a multilayer feed-forward neural network using limited aligned seed parallel data. The framework is tested on three different languages (datasets) viz. German (EmoDB), Telugu (IITKGP), and English (SAVEE). The proposed approach delivered superior performance compared to the baseline under both clean and noisy data conditions considered for analysis. Under clean data conditions, the proposed model was found to perform better than the baseline with a Mel Cepstral Distortion as low as 3.8 (fear), an $F_{0}$ -RMSE of 26.31 (happiness), and a Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) of 3.64 (anger) across datasets. Subjective testing provided a maximum CMOS of 4.10 (anger), 4.44 (fear), and 3.43 (happiness).

Investigating the common set of acoustic parameters in sexual orientation groups: A voice averaging approach.

While the perception of sexual orientation in voices often relies on stereotypes, it is unclear whether speech stereotypes and accurate perceptions of sexual orientation are each based on acoustic cues common to speakers of a given group. We ask if the stereotypical belief, that members of the same sexual orientation group share similar acoustic patterns, is accurate to some degree. To address this issue, we are the first to use a novel voice morphing technique to create voice averages from voices that represent extremes of a given sexual orientation group either in terms of actual or perceived sexual orientation. Importantly, averaging preserves only those acoustic cues shared by the original speakers. 144 German listeners judged the sexual orientation of twelve natural-sounding sentence stimuli, each representing an average of five original utterances. Half of the averages were based on targets’ self-ratings of sexual orientation: On a 7-point Kinsey-like scale, we selected targets who were most typical for a certain sexual orientation group according to their self-identifications. The other half were based on extreme ratings by others (i.e., on speech-related sexual-orientation stereotypes). Listeners judged sexual orientation from the voice averages with above-chance accuracy suggesting 1) that the perception of actual and stereotypical sexual orientation, respectively, are based on acoustic cues shared by speakers of the same group, and 2) that the stereotypical belief that members of the same sexual orientation group share similar acoustic patterns is accurate to some degree. Mean fundamental frequency and other common acoustic parameters showed systematic variation depending on speaker gender and sexual orientation. Effects of sexual orientation were more pronounced for stereotypical voice averages than for those based on speakers’ self-ratings, suggesting that sexual-orientation stereotypes exaggerate even those differences present in the most salient groups of speakers. Implications of our findings for stereotyping and discrimination are discussed.

Linear Free Vibration Analysis of Tapered Rectangular Cantilevered Timoshenko Beams using Energy Field Meth-od

Here in this paper we discuss about Energy field method. There are many methods to evaluate the natural frequency of the structures but in this research paper the authors developed a method called “Energy field method” which reduces computational efforts compared with the other methods and which is successfully applied for the Cantilever boundary condition of a tapered (rectangular cross section) Timoshenko beam and calculated the fundamental frequency parameter values and compared the results with existing literature. To confirm the precision, coherence and adaptability of the model these resultant values are also compared with modal structural analysis values in Ansys10 software.

A finite element approach for determining the dynamic behaviours of multiscale beams using the semi-continuum model

The dynamic mechanical behaviours of a multiscale beam with nanoscaled thickness are investigated. The thickness of the multiscale beam is divided to some discrete atomic layers, while the scales of length and width are within the classical continuum framework. Such a semi-continuum model is employed to measure the size dependence of the multiscale beam. Based on the governing equation of motion, the finite element expressions for transverse vibration are achieved through the weighted residual method. By using the Hermitian interpolation function, the structural mass matrix and stiffness matrix are obtained, and the system equation via finite element approach is got as well. Subsequently, the finite element analysis is carried out with one hundred equal length units. The results show that the natural frequencies of the multiscale beam are related to the relaxation coefficient of surface atoms. When the relaxation coefficient is more than 1, the fundamental frequency parameter is positively correlated with the number of atomic layers, while when the value is less than 1, it becomes negatively correlated. The lateral displacement and rotational angle of the first two modal functions are determined, and it is indicated that the phase of the angular variation is always half a period faster than the phase of the deflection variation.

Large Amplitude Free Vibration Analysis of Tapered Timoshenko Beams Using Coupled Displacement Field Method

Tapered beams are more efficient compared to uniform beams as they provide a better distribution of mass and strength and also meet special functional requirements in many engineering applications. In this paper, the linear and non-linear fundamental frequency parameter values of the tapered Timoshenko beams are evaluated by using the coupled displacement field (CDF) method and closed form expressions are derived in terms of frequency ratio as a function of slenderness ratio, taper ratio and maximum amplitude ratio for hinged-hinged and clamped-clamped beam boundary conditions. The effectiveness of the CDF method is brought out through the solution of the large amplitude free vibrations, in terms of fundamental frequency of tapered Timoshenko beams with axially immovable ends. The results obtained by the present CDF method are validated with the existing literature wherever possible.

Spectral Dynamic Analysis of Torsional Vibrations of Thin-Walled Open Section Beams Restrained Against Warping at One End and Transversely Restrained at the Other End

The present paper deals with spectral dynamic analysis of free torsional vibration of doubly symmetric thin-walled beams of open section. Spectral frequency equation is derived in this paper for the case of rotationally restrained doubly-symmetric thin-walled beam with one end rotationally restrained and transversely restrained at the other end. The resulting transcendental frequency equation with appropriate boundary conditions is derived and is solved for varying values of warping parameter and the rotational and transverse restraint parameter. The influence of rotational restraint parameter, transverse restraint parameter and warping parameter on the free torsional vibration frequencies is investigated in detail. A MATLAB computer program is developed to solve the spectral frequency equation derived in this paper. Numerical results for natural frequencies for various values of rotational and transverse restraint parameters for various values of warping parameter are obtained and presented in both tabular as well as graphical form showing the influence of these parameters on the first fundamental torsional frequency parameter.

Acoustic analysis of Parkinsonian speech in the early stage after subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation

Objective To investigate the early efficacy of deep brain stimulation (DBS) of subthalamic nucleus (STN) in the treatment of dysarthria in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods From May 2017 to November 2017, 10 PD patients treated with STN-DBS at Neurosurgery Department affiliated to Nanjing Medical University and 10 healthy volunteers (healthy control group) were recruited retrospectively. Ten PD patients without anti-Parkinson disease medication were recorded in a relatively quiet room at the states of 1 month after operation with stimulation-off, 1 month after operation with stimulation-on, and 3 months after stimulation-on. The speech signal was analyzed by Praat software and 3 fundamental frequency parameters were extracted which were the mean fundamental frequency, the range and standard deviation of fundamental frequency. The speech signals from the healthy control subjects were collected and analyzed at the same time. Results The speech fundamental frequency range (PD group: 15.5±4.8 St, control group: 22.5±5.6 St, t=-2.962, P=0. 008) and the standard deviation of fundamental frequency (PD group: 2.4±0.7 St, control group: 3.7±0.8 St, t=-4.017, P=0. 001) in PD group with stimulation-off 1 month post operation were significantly lower than those in healthy control group. There was no significant difference in any parameter of fundamental frequency of the PD patients between the state of 1 month after stimulation-on and the state of 1 month after operation (all P > 0.05). At 3 months after stimulation-on, the fundamental frequency range (19.23.8 St, P=0.017) and the fundamental frequency standard deviation (3.20.8 St, P=0.001) of the speech were significantly higher than those at 1 month after operation with stimulation-off, and those was not significant statistical different compared with controls (all P > 0.05). Conclusion Early stage of STN-DBS treatment could improve the phonological tone of PD patients and relieve the stiffness of laryngeal muscles and vocal cord. Key words: Parkinson disease; Dysarthria; Deep brain stimulation; Subthalamic nucleus; Acoustic analysis

Vibration analysis of rotating nanobeam systems using Eringen's two-phase local/nonlocal model

Due to the inability of differential form of nonlocal elastic theory in modelling cantilever beams and inaccurate results for some type of boundaries, in this study, a reliable investigation on transverse vibrational behavior of rotating cantilever size-dependent beams is presented. Governing higher order equations are written in the framework of Eringen's two-phase local/nonlocal model and solved using a modified generalized differential quadrature method. In order to indicate the influence of different material and scale parameters, a comprehensive parametric study is presented. It is shown that increasing the nonlocality term leads to lower natural frequency terms for cantilever nanobeams especially for the fundamental frequency parameter which differential nonlocal model is unable to track appropriately. Moreover, it is shown that rotating speed and hub radius have a remarkable effect in varying the mechanical behavior of rotating cantilever nanobeams. This study is a step forward in analyzing nanorotors, nanoturbines, nanoblades, etc.

Application of the first order shear deformation theory to the solution of free vibration problem for laminated conical shells

In this study the free vibration problem of laminated orthotropic conical shells (LOCSs) based on the modified version of first order shear deformation theory (FSDT) is investigated. Based on the physical and mathematical reasoning, the motion equations for LOCSs are derived and obtained formula for the frequency parameters using the Galerkin's method. In order to prove the validity of the formulas, the specific cases of this study were compared with the results of other studies in the literature. Finally, the influence of various parameters; stacking-sequence, shear stresses (SSs) and aspect ratio on the fundamental frequency parameters (FFPs) of LOCSs are examined.

A hybrid DQ-TLBO technique for maximizing first frequency of laminated composite skew plates

The differential quadrature (DQ) and teaching-learning based optimization (TLBO) methods are coupled to introduce a hybrid numerical method for maximizing fundamental natural frequency of laminated composite skew plates. The fiber(s) orientations are selected as design variable(s). The first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) is used to obtain the governing equations of the plate. The equations of motion and the related boundary conditions are discretized in space domain by employing the DQ method. The discretized equations are transferred from the time domain into the frequency domain to obtain the fundamental natural frequency. Then, the DQ solution is coupled with the TLBO method to find the maximum frequency of the plate and its related optimum stacking sequences of the laminate. Convergence and applicability of the proposed method are shown and the optimum fundamental frequency parameter of the plates with different skew angle, boundary conditions, number of layers and aspect ratio are obtained. The obtained results can be used as a benchmark for further studies.

The Analysis of Rich and Vast Alashan in Mongolia Long Tune Based on the Acoustic Characteristics

This article extracts the parameters of male's and female's Mongolia Long tune of "Rich and Vast Alashan", aims at analyzing fundamental frequency parameter, energy parameter, and some parameters of acoustic changes with the representative song. The conclusion of this article reveals the relationship between the expression of emotion and voice acoustic parameters in Mongolia art, investigates the physiological performance of Mongolia opera singing skills, and summarizes the different characteristics of Mongolia Long tune and the parameters relationship by analyzing the similarities and differences in characteristics of the male's and female's sound, for providing basis of more in-depth and systematic study, and providing technical guidance for the inheritance and protection of long tune.

Effect of aspect ratio on large amplitude free vibrations of simply supported and clamped rectangular Mindlin plates using coupled displacement field method

We propose a novel method, known as Coupled displacement field (CDF) method, an alternative to study large amplitude free vibration behavior of moderately thick rectangular plates. An admissible trial function was assumed for one of the variables, say, the total rotations (in both X, Y directions). The function for lateral displacement field is derived in terms of the total rotations with the help of coupling equations, where the two independent variables become dependent on one another. This method makes use of the energy formulation, where it contains only half the number of undetermined coefficients when compared with conventional Rayleigh-Ritz method. The vibration problem is simplified significantly due to the reduction in number of undetermined coefficients. The frequency-amplitude relationship for the moderately thick rectangular plates with various aspect ratios for all edges simply supported and clamped boundary conditions was obtained. Closed form expressions for linear and nonlinear fundamental frequency parameters were derived.

Emocijos: jų atpažinimas ir kai kurie akustiniai požymiai

Tyrimo tikslas – nustatyti svarbiausius fonetinius bazinių emocijų (liūdesio, džiaugsmo, nuostabos, baimė, bjaurėjimosi, pykčio) požymius, susijusius su pagrindiniu tonu, ir kaip šie požymiai koreliuoja su emocijų atpažinimu. Tam buvo atliktas audicinis tyrimas ir akustinė fonetinių požymių analizė. Audiciniame tyrime dalyvavo 42 infomantai, kurie turėjo atpažinti keturių profesionalių aktorių šešiomis pagrindinėmis emocijomis perskaitytas frazes. Rezultatai rodo, kad bendras emocijų atpažinimas yra neblogas (81 proc.). Geriausiai informantai atpažįsta liūdesį (96 proc.), gerai atskiriamas džiaugsmas (92 proc.), baimė (88 proc.), nuostaba (85 proc.), pyktis (82 proc.), prasčiausiai – bjaurėjimasis (47 proc.). Pastarąjį informantai buvo linkę laikyti liūdesiu ir džiaugsmu. Pyktis kai kada buvo palaikytas bjaurėjimusi ar džiaugsmu, nuostaba – džiaugsmu ir baime.Akustiniam tyrimui buvo pasirinkta įvertinti ir palyginti keturis pagrindinio tono dažnių (F0) rodiklius: pagrindinio tono dažnių vidurkį (MF0), standartinis nuokrypį (F0SD), maksimumą (F0max) ir diapazoną (F0 diapazonas). Siekiant nustatyti, kokie fonetiniai požymiai geriausiai apibūdina ir skiria emocijas, atlikta statistinė akustinių požymių analizė: vienfaktorinė daugiamatė dispersinė analizė (MANOVA) ir vienfaktorinė dispersinė analizė (ANOVA). Tiriamąją medžiagą sudarė tie patys įrašai, kurie buvo naudojami audiciniame eksperimente.Akustinės analizės rezultatai daugeliu atveju rodė tas pačias tendencijas kaip ir audicinio tyrimo – lengviausiai atpažįstamos tos emocijos, kurių akustiniai požymiai ryškiausi, artimos emocijos pasižymi panašiomis fonetinėmis ypatybėmis (pavyzdžiui, neigiamoms emocijoms būdingas žemas MF0, siauras diapazonas ir pan.). Džiaugsmas ir liūdesys buvo atpažįstami gerai, nes jų fonetiniai požymiai labiausiai skyrėsi (liūdesiui būdingi žemiausi pagrindinio tono dažnių įverčiai, džiaugsmui – aukščiausi). Emocijas, pasižyminčias panašiais F0 įverčiais, informantai buvo linkę painioti: bjaurėjimąsi su liūdesiu, nuostabą su džiaugsmu.

Pitch tracking of bird vocalizations and an automated process using YIN-bird

Pitch or fundamental frequency is an important feature of bird song, from which scientists can learn much about a population. To use pitch as a feature, researchers need confidence in their pitch extraction system. Pitch detection algorithms (PDAs) proven to work on human speech may not be suitable for all types of bird vocalizations. This paper discusses pitch estimation performance on a variety of common bird vocalizations. The presence of multiple partials or tones simultaneously, extended frequency sweeps through multiple octaves, and rapid pitch modulations are just some of the difficulties encountered when estimating the pitch of bird song. Carefully tuned parameters improve pitch tracking with YIN, but optimal parameters can change quickly even within one song. YIN is a PDA which estimates pitch of human speech very well. This paper presents YIN-bird, a modified version of YIN which exploits spectrogram properties to automatically set a minimum fundamental frequency parameter for YIN. Gross pitch e...

An analytic method for free and forced vibration analysis of stepped conical shells with arbitrary boundary conditions

An analytic method is presented for free and forced vibration analysis of stepped conical shells with general boundary conditions. The method is involved in dividing the stepped shells into segments according to the locations of discontinuities, such as thickness and semi-vertex angle. Combining Flügge shell theory with power series method, displacements and forces at cross-section of conical segments are expressed in terms of eight unknown coefficients. Meanwhile, by employing artificial springs to restrain edge displacements, arbitrary boundary conditions, including classic and elastic ones, can be analyzed. All separate segments are assembled together through displacement continuity conditions and equilibriums of forces at junctions of discontinuities. To test the validity of present method, comparisons of some stepped conical shells subjected to classic and elastic boundary conditions are firstly presented. The results of present method agree fairly well with those in literature and calculated by finite element method. Furthermore, influences of semi-vertex angle, elastic boundary conditions, discontinuity, excitation and damping are investigated. Parametric studies reveal that meridional and circumferential displacements have significant effects on fundamental and beam mode frequency parameters, and effects of the location of discontinuity and semi-vertex angle depend on boundary conditions and thickness ratios.

Large amplitude free vibrations of simply supported moderately thick rectangular plates using coupled displacement field method

In this paper a novel method known as Coupled Displacement Field Method was proposed to evaluate the large amplitude free vibration behavior of the moderately thick rectangular plates with simply supported boundary conditions. Here a single term trigonometric admissible displacement field was assumed for one of the variables, say the total rotations (in both <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>X</mml:mi></mml:math>, <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>Y</mml:mi></mml:math> directions). With the help of the coupling equations, the spatial variation for the lateral displacement field is derived in terms of the total rotations, where the two independent variables problem becomes one. The coupled displacement field method makes use of the energy formulation which contains half the number of unknown independent coefficients, in the case of a rectangular plate, when compared to the conventional Rayleigh-Ritz method. Closed form expressions for the linear and nonlinear fundamental frequency parameters for the all edges simply supported moderately thick rectangular plates are derived. The numerical results obtained from the present formulation are validated with those obtained from the existing literature for the given moderately thick plates.