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A phonellescopic investigation of the pitch characteristics of 11-, 13-, and 15-year-old females was made. Data descriptive of the incidence, extent, and upper and lower limits of phenomena known as frequency breaks (voice breaks) are presented. These data are discussed and compared with similar data from other studies of males and females of various ages. A second phase of the study indicated that frequency breaks are not perceived as a pitch phenomenon as has been assumed, but may be associated with the perception of "rough" vocal quality. These results are discussed in relation to vocal fry and harshness.

Most research on tyre wear has been carried out to determine the relative wear properties of different tread compounds and carcase constructions. This report describes tests which have been carried out to assess the effect of road surface characteristics on tyre wear. The work was prompted by the current trend towards harsher and rougher surfaces for improving wet-road skidding resistance. Two techniques for wearing tyres in a controlled manner were used: a fifth-wheel method in which the wheel was forced to run at a fixed slip angle and a method in which a vehicle was made to execute figure-of-eight manoeuvres thus wearing the test tyre which was fitted to a front wheel. The test surfaces were those on the Road Research Laboratory track which cover a wide range of texture and skidding resistance. Measurement of weight loss of the tyre was used to assess the wear. Increase in roughness of the surfaces was found to have a relatively small effect on wear, the major factor being surface harshness.

As part of an investigation into the causes of the harshness of certain wools, an apparatus was devised by means of which the ease or extent to which wool can be compressed is measured. Four samples of yarn differing in harshness have been tested with this apparatus. The same samples were also tested by a method described by Winson. The results show that when the wools are placed in order of decreasing harshness, they are also in order of increasing compressibility; the softer the wool the more easily it is compressed.Measurements have been made at 50% and at 60% relative humidity.

Reductions of the cost increments of northern development depend to a large extent on the manufacture of machines and equipment with northern specifications designed for operation under low temperatures. Existing definitions of the northern regions of the USSR are not suitable for this purpose. An engineering-geographic regionalization of the USSR is therefore proposed, defining the area of application of specially designed northern machines on the basis of a harshness scale that relates climatic harshness to its effect on machines. The key threshold values on this harshness scale are 4.6, above which ordinary structural steel loses strength and is subject to harshness-related ruptures; 5.3, above which ordinary structural steel becomes brittle and is affected by a fifty-fold increase of ruptures; and 7.9, above which ordinary steel can no longer perform.

The harsh cold climate type is broken down into four subtypes (low, medium, high, and very high harshness) on the basis of four harshness indicators: number of days with mean daily temperatures of less than—15°C; number of days with mean daily temperatures of less than—30°C; mean absolute annual temperature minimum; mean January temperature. Work is under way on further refinement of the classification, breaking down the subtypes into climate varieties based on secondary harshness factors such as wind speed, sudden temperature change, and relative humidity. The indicators in this classification were chosen because they are considered significant for the operation and cold resistance of machines in the northern regions of the Soviet Union.

Seventy-eight subjects, identified as possessing voice quality aberrations for six months, constituted four experimental groups: breathiness, harshness, hoarseness, and nasality. A control group included 38 subjects. The four experimental groups were compared with the control group according to personality characteristics and peer evaluations. The results of these comparisons indicated that there was no relationship between voice quality aberration and either personality characteristics or peer evaluations.

Speech samples of 50 adult male speakers were presented to 22 listeners, who estimated the age of each speaker and rated the adequacy, hoarseness, harshness, and breathiness of his voice. Five of the speakers were patients with cancer of the vocal folds, and five were individually matched normal speakers. It was found that the judgments of age, adequacy, and voice quality were reliable and that they differentiated the pathological and normal speakers. The relationships among chronological age and the judgments of age, adequacy, and voice quality were examined.

One of the biggest problems facing those who seek to exploit the natural riches of the north is the attraction and retention of a labour force. This problem is sometimes more intractable even than those posed more directly by the remoteness of the locality and the harshness of the environment. No easy or simple solution has been found, but it may be of interest to record some of the recent steps taken by the Soviet Government towards its solution.

Less than half of a series of 168 patients with multiple sclerosis presented significant speech deviations. The most frequent speech deviations observed were impaired loudness control and harshness; less frequently occurring deviations were defective articulation, restricted use of vocal variations for emphasis, poor pitch control, hypernasality, inappropriate pitch level, and breathiness. “Scanning speech” was not a prominent characteristic. Speech deviations were not solely attributable to cerebellar involvement. Their incidence was positively related to severity of neurologic involvement, becoming more prominent as additional motor systems were implicated.

The pavement surface texture classification method presented in this paper is based on the concept that the pavement surface is a geometrical structure which can be expressed by six parameters: height, width, angularity, distribution, harshness of projections above the matrix from which they arise and harshness of the matrix itself.

THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES AND PRINCIPLES THAT MAKE UP THE PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RADIAL PLY TIRE ARE EXAMINED. HARSHNESS, TREAD WEAR, SKID AND TRACTION ARE DISCUSSED AS ARE STABILITY, PUNCTURE RESISTANCE, STANDING HEIGHT, AND POWER CONSUMPTION. ALSO DISCUSSED IS THE NECESSITY FOR VIEWING TIRE PERFORMANCE ONLY IN RESPECT TO A PARTICULAR VEHICLE. /RRL/FESA/A/

The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in mean fundamental frequency between vocal fry and harshness. Ten adult males recorded a standard passage in their normal voices and then in vocal fry. A second group of 10 males whose voices had been clinically diagnosed as harsh recorded the passage in their usual harsh voice. The Fundamental Frequency Indicator and the phonellegraph were used to obtain fundamental frequency data from these recordings. A mean fundamental frequency of 36.4 Hz with a range of 30.9 to 43.7 Hz was found for vocal fry; the mean of the harsh voices was 122.1 Hz within a range of 103.7 to 180.0 Hz. Normal fundamental frequencies ranged from 98.4 to 125.1 Hz with a mean of 110.6 Hz. The major finding was that vocal fry can be differentiated from clinical harshness and normal phonation on the basis of mean fundamental frequency. A secondary finding was that clinical harshness and normal phonation could not be so differentiated.

Ten adult males with voices diagnosed clinically as harsh, and ten adult males with normal voice quality, but speaking in vocal fry, recorded a standard passage and sustained vocalizations of the vowel /α/. The recordings were judged by three groups of ten listeners each: (1) individuals trained in making auditory psychophysical judgments, (2) speech pathologists, and (3) untrained listeners. The results uniformly indicate that clinical harshness and vocal fry are distinct perceptual entities.

Contrary to modern prejudices, historical tunings for fixed‐pitch instruments like organs and harpsichords do not reflect fumbling efforts of our forebears to attain that acme of uniform mistuning known as equal temperament. Keyboard tuning theory has its share and then some of numerological nonsence—e. g., the “tuning/temperament” (viz., rational/irrational) distinction, pointless in view of expressed or implied tolerances—but the harshness of equal‐tempered thirds is a quite palpable consequence of the procrustean approach which earlier experts eschewed. Smooth triads in a restricted subset of key signatures were achieved by just and meantone tunings; however, even within the constraint of the 12‐note octave there are unequal but “correct” temperaments enabling use of all 24 major and minor signatures, with progression of tonalities. Furthermore, in the computer age the 12‐note limitation can be transcended without requiring performers to face a keyboard monstrosity. The 53‐note octave offers virtually just intonation in every key, with the choice of pure major thirds for harmonic, or Pythagorean ditones for melodic, purposes. The steps are 22.6 cents, roughly midway between the syntonic and ditonic commas in size. Selection of the appropriate step for each scale degree in any key could be automatic. Nor would a 53‐division piano necessarily have more strings than present ones. A typology of tunings, based on Barbour's survey, graphically illustrates the tradeoffs by which at different times various of the competing desiderata have been maximized.

The speech of deaf children differs from that of normal children in many ways. There are articulatory errors such as omission of consonants, insertion of adventitious sounds (typically between syllables and in consonant clusters), substitutions of one phoneme for another, moderate distortions in which the intended phoneme is still recognizable, and severe distortions in which there is no recognizable phoneme. In addition to articulatory errors involving individual phonemes, there are suprasegmental errors such as incorrect rhythm, stress, intonation, phrasing, and errors involving other prosodic features. There are also problems of voice quality such as excessive harshness, breathiness, nasality, and problems of pitch, i.e., average pitch too high, too low, or excessively variable. Acoustic measurements correlate reasonably well with these perceptual observations. On average, the fundamental frequency contours of deaf children tend to be higher than for normal children of the same age and sex, but there a...

IN his interesting letter Mr. Gray has put forward the theory that dissonances, which he assumes to be constant in harshness whatever their contexts, may be masked or softened by the pleasure of the musical experience of their anticipated resolution, when heard by a man whose training enables him to make that anticipation.

Response curves of loudspeakers have irregularities, mostly not visible in the case of a loudspeaker of good quality and measured with normal equipment. By enlarging the ordinate scale these small peaks and dips of ±2 db become visible, but with the design of a cone it is considered that these irregularities are more or less inevitable and not so serious. This opinion is strengthened because by listening tests with a variable audio‐frequency nothing abnormal can be detected. It is also impossible to measure any distortion in the region of these peaks and dips. By introducing short and sharp bursts of sine waves, however, all sorts of spurious oscillations between the bursts are visible on a cathode‐ray tube. The amplitude of these phenomena depends on the internal damping of the diaphragm, the choice of the fiber, and the degree of beating of the pulp. The purpose of this paper is to raise the following question: Is this phenomenon the cause of the apparent harshness, etc., when listening to high‐level high‐note reproduction?

Speech samples of five patients with laryngeal cancer involving the vocal folds and five matched normal speakers were analyzed with respect to: (1) distribution of fundamental frequency; (2) perturbations in successive glottal periods; (3) maximum rate of change of fundamental frequency; and (4) perturbations in fundamental frequency occurring during the production of specific consonants (vocal‐tract constrictions). The pathological speakers exhibited a more restricted distribution of fundamental frequency than the normal speakers. However, the other measures did not appear to differentiate the two groups of speakers. The results of listening tests, in which the same speech samples were rated with respect to hoarseness, harshness, and breathiness, are also discussed.

The author explores aspects of the constructive mens rea found in the Criminal Code, primarily as these relate to accomplices to murder. By examining both basic principles of criminal liability in Canada and the rationale of constructive mens rea, the author seeks to expose the harshness of the current rules, which, when applied to accomplices, tend to compound constructive mens rea provisions. In result, the author proposes that the law adopt a 'rule against multiple fictions', designed to preclude that compounding.

Low‐pitched tones with many harmonics as typically generated by musical synthesizers often sound rough or harsh. A theory of the quality of musical tones is proposed which relates harshness to the spacing of harmonics relative to the critical bandwidths of the ear. If the harmonics are sufficiently closely spaced so that more than one strong harmonic falls within a critical band, the tone quality will be characterized as harsh. The lower the frequency of a tone, the closer the spacing of its harmonics and, hence, the greater its tendency to be harsh. Such a tone can be smoothed by attenuating selected harmonics so as to leave only one prominent harmonic in each critical band. Tones with controlled harmonic amplitudes were synthesized by both digital and analog devices and evaluated with listening tests. The frequency range from 500 to 1500 Hz seems most critical in the generation of harshness. Attenuation of selected harmonics by 12 dB is optimum for smoothing tones. Greater attenuation produces a too hol...