La inteligibilidad vocal en las personas con laringectomía que se comunican con erigmofonía / The vocal intelligibilityin people withlaryngectomythat communicate with erygmophony

Las personas a las que se le ha realizado una laringectomía total y extirpado completamente su laringe ven alteradas en grado variable las funciones propias de ese órgano: esfinteriana, respiratoria y vocal. Respecto a esta última y su producto final: la voz, la pérdida es completa, por lo que es necesario rehabilitar dicha función para que la persona pueda comunicarse. El objetivo de este trabajo es valorar la inteligibilidad vocal de las personas laringectomizadas que hayan sido rehabilitadas con erigmofonía. Material y métodos: diseño prospectivo en 17 personas laringectomizadas que utilizan la voz erigmofónica para comunicarse. Se estudiaron con el VHI-30, espectrograma de banda estrecha, evaluación perceptual (GRABS y CAPE-V) y, de forma novedosa, valorando la inteligibilidad vocal a través de la lectura y reconocimiento de palabras bisílabas. Resultados: el VHI-30 muestra que las personas laringectomizadas perciben su voz como una limitación leve y moderada. El espectrograma presenta diferencias sustanciales entre la voz erigmofónica y la voz laríngea fisiológica. La evaluación perceptual indica una afectación moderada/severa en GRABS y media/grave en CAPE-V. En la inteligibilidad verbal predominan los valores medios-bajos (88 por ciento), pero hay pacientes con valores altos (12 por ciento). No se han encontrado relaciones estadísticamente significativas entre el VHI-30, la evaluación perceptual y la inteligibilidad verbal. Conclusiones: la valoración de la inteligibilidad de la voz erigmofónica proporciona al rehabilitador datos útiles y de fácil adquisición sobre la capacidad comunicativa de las personas con laringectomía total, que permiten complementar otros procedimientos de valoración objetiva (espectrograma) y subjetiva (VHI-30, GRABS y CAPE-V)

People who have had a total laryngectomy and have completely extirpated their larynx have, in a variable degree, altered the functions of this organ: sphincter, respiratory, and vocal. Regarding the latter and its final product: the voice, the loss is complete, so it is necessary to rehabilitate this function so that the person can communicate. The aim of this work is to evaluate the vocal intelligibility of laryngectomized individuals who have been rehabilitated with erygmophony. Material and method: prospective design in 17 laryngectomized individuals that use the erygmophonic voice to communicate. They were studied with VHI-30, narrow band spectrogram, perceptual evaluation (GRABS and CAPE-V) and, in a novel way, assessing the vocal intelligibility through the reading and recognition of bisyllabic words. Results: VHI-30 shows that laryngectomized individuals perceive their voice as a mild and moderate limitation. The spectrogram shows substantial differences between the erygmophonic voice and the laryngeal physiological voice. Perceptual evaluation indicates moderate/severe affectation in GRABS and medium/severe involvement in CAPE-V. In the verbal intelligibility, the medium-low values (88 percent) are predominant, but there are patients with high values (12 percent). No statistically significant relationships were found between VHI-30, perceptual evaluation, and verbal intelligibility. Conclusions: the evaluation of the intelligibility of the erygmophonic voice provides the rehabilitator with useful and easy-to-read data on the communicative capacity of persons with total laryngectomy, complementing other objective (spectrogram) and subjective assessment procedures (VHI-30, GRABS and CAPE-V)

Differentiation of Adductor-Type Spasmodic Dysphonia from Muscle Tension Dysphonia Using Spectrogram

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Adductor type spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD) is neurogenic disorder and focal laryngeal dystonia, while muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) is caused by functional voice disorder. Both ADSD and MTD may be associated with excessive supraglottic contraction and compensation, resulting in a strained voice quality with spastic voice breaks. The aim of this study was to determine the utility of spectrogram analysis in the differentiation of ADSD from MTD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 2015 through 2017, 17 patients of ADSD and 20 of MTD, underwent acoustic recording and phonatory function studies, were enrolled. Jitter (frequency perturbation), Shimmer (amplitude perturbation) were obtained using MDVP (Multi-dimensional Voice Program) and GRBAS scale was used for perceptual evaluation. The two speech therapist evaluated a wide band (11,250 Hz) spectrogram by blind test using 4 scales (0–3 point) for four spectral findings, abrupt voice breaks, irregular wide spaced vertical striations, well defined formants and high frequency spectral noise. RESULTS: Jitter, Shimmer and GRBAS were not found different between two groups with no significant correlation (p>0.05). Abrupt voice breaks and irregular wide spaced vertical striations of ADSD were significantly higher than those of MTD with strong correlation (p < 0.01). High frequency spectral noise of MTD were higher than those of ADSD with strong correlation (p < 0.01). Well defined formants were not found different between two groups. CONCLUSION: The wide band spectrograms provided visual perceptual information can differentiate ADSD from MTD. Spectrogram analysis is a useful diagnostic tool for differentiating ADSD from MTD where perceptual analysis and clinical evaluation alone are insufficient.

Effect of intensified electrocardiogram identification by using spectrogram for the enhancing of monitoring and nursing capacity / 中国医学装备

Objective:To explore the effect of intensified electrocardiogram (ECG) identification by using spectrogram for the monitoring and nursing ability of nurses who worked in department of cardiology.Methods: Monitoring and nursing capacity of 120 nurses of cardiology who had been trained on the intensified ECG identification by using spectrogram were researched by retrospective analysis. The 120 nurses were divided into control group (60 cases) and intervention group (60 cases) as the random number table. The nurses of control group only received routine training of ECG identification, while the nurses of intervention group received the training of using spectrogram for ECG identification on basic routine training of control group. A series of indicators, including the scores of ECG comprehensive application ability, identification ability of abnormal electrocardiogram, and the number of the identified abnormal malignance ECG and successfully treated patients, between the two groups were compared and analyzed.Results: After the training, the scores of basic theory, abilities of description and recording, and analysis ability in field operation of the intervention group were significantly higher than those of the control group, respectively (t=11.896,t=8.596,t=8.283,P<0.05). The identified ability including room speed, atrial flutter, ventricular flutter and other abnormal ECG of intervention group were significantly better than these of control group, respectively (x2=18.836,x2=17.698,x2=16.773,P<0.05). Besides, the discovery rate of abnormal malignance ECG (73.3%) and the successful rate of treatment (100.0%)of intervention group were significantly higher than that (31.7% and 81.7%) of control group, respectively (x2=19.184,x2=10.484,P<0.05). Conclusion:The training of intensified ECG identification by using spectrogram for nurse of cardiology can effectively enhance the capacities of identification for ECG and comprehensive application for nurses, and can faster confirm the situation of patient, and can contribute to achieve precision diagnosis for doctors.

The InfIuence of the Suffix VoweI on the Duration of VoiceIess Fricative S in Mandarin Chinese / 听力学及言语疾病杂志

Objective To find out the influence of different suffix vowel(abbreviation:SV) on the duration of/s/(a voiceless fricative) with acoustic detection method. Methods Two men and two women who were fluent in Mandarin Chinese were recruited in this study. The words included /s/and the suffix vowel /a/,/u/or/i/.The CSL4150 software from Kay Co. was used to analyze the words. Then we compared the durations of/s/when the suffix vowel was /a/,/i/and/u/,respectively. The influence of difference suffix vowel on the duration was exam_ined, and gender effects were also studied on the duration. ResuIts As a voiceless fricative, when the suffix vowel was /a/,the duration for males was 200. 2, and 276. 8 ms for females, respectively. When the suffix vowel was /i/, the duration for males was 218. 2, and 326. 5 ms for females, respectively. When the suffix vowel was /u/,the dura_tion for males was 214. 5, and 302. 9 ms for females, respectively. ConcIusion When the suffix vowel is different, the duration of stop, resistance and in number is different, and also affected by gender.

Characteristics of Adduct Spasmodic Dysphonia and Muscle Tension Dysphonia Using Spectrogram / 대한이비인후과학회지

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Adduct spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD) is a neurogenic and focal laryngeal dystonia resulting in a strained voice quality with spastic voice breaks. While muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) is caused by functional voice disorders, its symptoms are similar to those of ADSD. Because the approaches of treatment for ADSD and MTD are radically different, accurate evaluations are necessary for precise diagnosis. A spectrogram analysis for differentiating ADSD from MTD provides differentiations on four spectral findings (abrupt voice breaks, irregular wide-spaced vertical striations, well-defined formants and high-frequency spectral noise). The aim of this study was to evaluate if the spectrogram could provide detailed information on the visual characteristics that distinguish ADSD and MTD. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: 11 female patients of ADSD and 13 female patients of MTD who were diagnosed by laryngoscope and stroboscope from 2009 through 2012 were selected for this study. The speech samples of subjects were obtained using Computerized Speech Lab. The two speech therapists evaluated a wide-band (300 Hz) spectrogram by blind test using 4 scales (0-3 point) for four spectral findings. RESULTS: Abrupt voice breaks and irregular wide-spaced vertical striations of ADSD were significantly higher than those of MTD. Well-defined formants and high-frequency spectral noise were not found significantly different between two groups. CONCLUSION: The spectrograms provided visual perceptual information needed to differentiate ADSD from MTD. Voice therapy to reduce hypertension could be considered for patients of ADSD with excessive formants and noise. If spectrogram analysis were used along with other assessments, it would be more useful in distinguishing ADSD from MTD.

Voice fingerprinting: A very important tool against crime.

In the recent world of technology, there are many methods to determine the individuality of a person. One of them is the voice – unique individual characteristic. Each person‘s voice is different because the anatomy of the vocal cords, vocal cavity, oral and nasal cavities is specific to the individual. Comparison of two recorded speech by means of spectrogram or voice prints for the purpose of identification is called as Voice fingerprinting. Forensic voice analysis has been used in a wide range of criminal cases such as murder, rape, drug dealing, bomb threats and terrorism. Investigator has two complementary ways of making identification through voice analysis. First, he or she will listen to the evidence sample and the sample taken from the suspect, comparing accent, speech habits, breath patterns and inflections. Then a comparison of the corresponding voiceprints is made. In this paper we discussed about the history of sound spectrogram, basic method of recording the voice & comparison, its utility in the solution of crime & admissibility in the court of law.

The characteristic noisy sound of the mongolian word used by hearing field / Монголын Анагаах Ухаан

Introduction:According to studies range by the World Health Organization in 2010, 278 million people are deaf or hearing impairment, out of which 24% use an hearing aid and one out of every 10 people has been treated with surgical method and 9 people’s hearing loss has been restored using acoustic treatment method.Purpose:Our purpose is to define noisy vowels of Mongolian word, which will be used for configuration of hearing aid, thereby improve hearing ability.The objectives1. Analyze spectrogram for noisy sound of Mongolian word and define frequency and level of noisy words.2. Define average difference of listening level of the noisy sounds of Mongolian language using “Listening field of Mongolian word”Materials and method:We did the spectrogram for noisy sounds of the Mongolian word using voices of 62 people including male and female children as well as adults. Also, we analyzed frequency energy of all vowels noted in the 60-65 dB computer, via the “PRAAT” software, which defines analysis of speech in phonetics and studied listening level of the strong vowels using listening sphere of word.Result:During our studies, we selected the vowels [a], [e], [u], [o] [a], [ʊ], [ɔ], [i] and defined spectrogram and energy concentration (formant) of each vowel to define the vowels with the highest energy, and further found out that distance difference of the spectrogram of each vowel and frequency between vowels as 300-780 Hz. On the other hand, difference between spectrogram of each strong sound such as [sh], [s], [v], [z], [dj], [kh] has been defines as 340-2800 dB.When we observed the words with strong sound in the listening field of Mongolian words, which were 3- 5 dB lower than the clearer words.Conclusion:1. According to spectrogram, noisy sound [sh], [s], [z], [dj] has frequency of 3300Hz-3500Hz, which is noisier and resulted in poor acoustic listening ability. Further, we found out that Distant difference of vowels of Mongolian language [a], [e], [o] and consonants [m], [n] is far, accordingly, acoustic listening ability has been good, on the other hand, distant difference of vowels of Mongolian word [ʊ], [ɔ], [u] is near or close, accordingly, acoustic listening ability has been not well.2. Level of distinquishment of the noisy sounds of Mongolian word has been lower by 3.6+ 0.8Db to 5.2+1.2Db at levels of clear sound to feedback.

Method for automatic detection of wheezing in lung sounds

The present report describes the development of a technique for automatic wheezing recognition in digitally recorded lung sounds. This method is based on the extraction and processing of spectral information from the respiratory cycle and the use of these data for user feedback and automatic recognition. The respiratory cycle is first pre-processed, in order to normalize its spectral information, and its spectrogram is then computed. After this procedure, the spectrogram image is processed by a two-dimensional convolution filter and a half-threshold in order to increase the contrast and isolate its highest amplitude components, respectively. Thus, in order to generate more compressed data to automatic recognition, the spectral projection from the processed spectrogram is computed and stored as an array. The higher magnitude values of the array and its respective spectral values are then located and used as inputs to a multi-layer perceptron artificial neural network, which results an automatic indication about the presence of wheezes. For validation of the methodology, lung sounds recorded from three different repositories were used. The results show that the proposed technique achieves 84.82% accuracy in the detection of wheezing for an isolated respiratory cycle and 92.86% accuracy for the detection of wheezes when detection is carried out using groups of respiratory cycles obtained from the same person. Also, the system presents the original recorded sound and the post-processed spectrogram image for the user to draw his own conclusions from the data.

Influences of Various Extraction Methods on Content and ChemicalComponents of Volatile Oil from Lignum Santali / 广州中医药大学学报

Objective To observe the influences of ether soaking method, solven t refluxing method and steam distilling method on the content and chemical compo nents of volatile oil from Lignum Santali. Methods Gas chromatograph_mass sp ectrogram (GC_MS) analysis was adopted. Results The content of santalol in t he oi l from Lignum Santali extracted by ether soaking was a little higher than that i n the volatile oil extracted by steam distilling, and their chemical components are similar. The total content of volatile oil extracted by solvent refluxing me thod was 3.35%, much higher than that by steam distilling metho d. GC_MS analysis showed the content of santalol and other chemical components a re similar by the two methods. Conclusion Ether soaking method can be used f or the qualitative analysis of volatile oil from Lignum Santali. Extraction of s antalum oil by steam distilling method is incomplete.

Symptomatic Palatal Tremor Associated with Cerebellar Hemorrhage: A Case Report

Palatal tremor is a rare disorder characterized by involuntary rhythmic movements of the soft palate. Palatal tremor is devided into symptomatic palatal tremor(SPT) and essential palatal tremor(EPT) on the basis of clinical features. SPT is associated with brain stem or cerebellar disease, whereas the EPT has no known etiology. Reverberant neural activity in the region of the brain stem or cerebellum within the Guillain-Mollaret triangle is believed to underlie SPT. We present a case of SPT associated with cerebellar lesion. Electromyographic recording from the levator veli palatini muscle and voice spectrogram analysis showed abnormal bursting activity time locked to the palatal movements. Botulinum toxin was injected into the levator veli palatini muscle to reduce the voice tremor. The pathology and management of this condition is briefly discussed.

THE COMPARISON OF BONE FORMATION, MINERALIZATION AND CRYSTAL STRUCTURE BETWEEN THE INDUCED BONE AND SELF FEMORA IN RATS / 西安交通大学学报(医学版)

By using undecalcified bone sections, accompanied by tetracycline double labeling and analysis of infrared spectrogram, the bone formation, mineralization and crystal feature of induced ectopic bone and self femora in rats were compared. The results showed that from the 21th day to the 26th day as well as from the 26th day to the 30th day of the experiment, the rate of induced bone formation, mineralization was more active than that of the self femora: on the 30th day, in the induced bone, the count of bone cell was much more, the volume of bone cell was much larger too; but the crystal structure of induced bone was indentical with that of self femora. The molecular formula was Ca_5[(OH)/(PO_4CO_3OH)_3].