RESUMEN
Because voice signals result from vocal fold vibration, perceptually meaningful vibratory measures should quantify those aspects of vibration that correspond to differences in voice quality. In this study, glottal area waveforms were extracted from high-speed videoendoscopy of the vocal folds. Principal component analysis was applied to these waveforms to investigate the factors that vary with voice quality. Results showed that the first principal component derived from tokens without glottal gaps was significantly (p < 0.01) associated with the open quotient (OQ). The alternating-current (AC) measure had a significant effect (p < 0.01) on the first principal component among tokens exhibiting glottal gaps. A measure AC/OQ, defined as the ratio of AC to OQ, was proposed to combine both amplitude and temporal characteristics of the glottal area waveform for both complete and incomplete glottal closures. Analyses of "glide" phonations in which quality varied continuously from breathy to pressed showed that the AC/OQ measure was able to characterize the corresponding continuum of glottal area waveform variation, regardless of the presence or absence of glottal gaps.
Asunto(s)
Glotis/anatomía & histología , Glotis/fisiología , Fonación , Acústica del Lenguaje , Calidad de la Voz , Fenómenos Biomecánicos , Femenino , Humanos , Laringoscopía , Modelos Lineales , Masculino , Análisis de Componente Principal , Factores de Tiempo , Vibración , Grabación en Video , Pliegues Vocales/anatomía & histología , Pliegues Vocales/fisiologíaRESUMEN
Increases in open quotient are widely assumed to cause changes in the amplitude of the first harmonic relative to the second (H1*-H2*), which in turn correspond to increases in perceived vocal breathiness. Empirical support for these assumptions is rather limited, and reported relationships among these three descriptive levels have been variable. This study examined the empirical relationship among H1*-H2*, the glottal open quotient (OQ), and glottal area waveform skewness, measured synchronously from audio recordings and high-speed video images of the larynges of six phonetically knowledgeable, vocally healthy speakers who varied fundamental frequency and voice qualities quasi-orthogonally. Across speakers and voice qualities, OQ, the asymmetry coefficient, and fundamental frequency accounted for an average of 74% of the variance in H1*-H2*. However, analyses of individual speakers showed large differences in the strategies used to produce the same intended voice qualities. Thus, H1*-H2* can be predicted with good overall accuracy, but its relationship to phonatory characteristics appears to be speaker dependent.
Asunto(s)
Glotis/fisiología , Fonación , Fonética , Acústica del Lenguaje , Calidad de la Voz , Fenómenos Biomecánicos , Femenino , Glotis/anatomía & histología , Humanos , Laringoscopía , Modelos Lineales , Masculino , Medición de la Producción del Habla , Factores de Tiempo , Grabación en VideoRESUMEN
The effects of age, sex, and vocal tract configuration on the glottal excitation signal in speech are only partially understood, yet understanding these effects is important for both recognition and synthesis of speech as well as for medical purposes. In this paper, three acoustic measures related to the voice source are analyzed for five vowels from 3145 CVC utterances spoken by 335 talkers (8-39 years old) from the CID database [Miller et al., Proceedings of ICASSP, 1996, Vol. 2, pp. 849-852]. The measures are: the fundamental frequency (F0), the difference between the "corrected" (denoted by an asterisk) first two spectral harmonic magnitudes, H1* - H2* (related to the open quotient), and the difference between the "corrected" magnitudes of the first spectral harmonic and that of the third formant peak, H1* - A3* (related to source spectral tilt). The correction refers to compensating for the influence of formant frequencies on spectral magnitude estimation. Experimental results show that the three acoustic measures are dependent to varying degrees on age and vowel. Age dependencies are more prominent for male talkers, while vowel dependencies are more prominent for female talkers suggesting a greater vocal tract-source interaction. All talkers show a dependency of F0 on sex and on F3, and of H1* - A3* on vowel type. For low-pitched talkers (F0 < or = 175 Hz), H1* - H2* is positively correlated with F0 while for high-pitched talkers, H1* - H2* is dependent on F1 or vowel height. For high-pitched talkers there were no significant sex dependencies of H1* - H2* and H1* - A3*. The statistical significance of these results is shown.
Asunto(s)
Envejecimiento/fisiología , Fonética , Acústica del Lenguaje , Voz/fisiología , Adolescente , Adulto , Factores de Edad , Niño , Femenino , Humanos , Laringe/fisiología , Masculino , Modelos Biológicos , Fonación , Calidad de la VozRESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to compare the histological and biomechanical characteristics of self-tapping and self-drilling microscrew implants. METHODS: 112 microscrew implants (56 self-drilling and 56 self-tapping) were placed into the tibia of 28 rabbits. The implants were loaded immediately with no force, light (100 gm), or heavy force (200 gm) with nickel-titanium coil springs. The animals were sacrificed at 3- and 5-weeks after placement and histologic and histomorphometric analysis were performed under a microscope. RESULTS: All microscrew implants stayed firm throughout the experiment. There was no significant difference between self-drilling and self-tapping microscrew implants both in peak insertion and removal torques. Histologic examinations showed there were more defects in the self-tapping than the self-drilling microscrew implants, and newly formed immature bone was increased at the interface in the self-tapping 5-week group. There was proliferation of bone towards the outer surface of the implant and/or toward the marrow space in the self-drilling group. Histologically, self-drilling microscrew implants provided more bone contact initially but the two methods became similar at 5 weeks. CONCLUSION: These results indicate the two methods can be used for microscrew implant placement, but when using self-tapping microscrew implants, it seems better to use light force in the early stages.