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Introduction. PPA is a degenerative syndrome characterized by progressive, relatively isolated, loss of language function. The current consensus criteria for PPA identify three variants: the non-fluent/agrammatic variant of PPA (nfvPPA), the semantic variant of PPA (svPPA) and the logopenic variant of PPA (lvPPA) (Gorno-Tempini et al., 2011), each with a distinct profile of language impairment, distribution of atrophy and underlying pathology. The aim of this study is to compare the clinical presentation of the nfPPA and svPPA, in two Greek-speaking individuals with PPA, using a battery of neuropsychological tests, narrative analysis and acoustic measures. Greek is a highly inflected and stem-based language, underrepresented in the literature on PPA research. Participants. The first participant with the nfvPPA is a 61-year-old man with 6 years of formal education. The second participant with the semantic variant of PPA is a 73-year-old man with 9 years of education. Both participants were assessed five years post-onset. The first participant had a sum of boxes score of 9 on the FTLD-modified Clinical Dementia Rating, whereas the second one a score of 6. The control group consisted of 12 neurologically healthy adults, native Greek speakers, with a mean age of 68.08 (SD = 5.52) years and a mean of 13 (SD = 3.19) years of education. Procedure. Participants were evaluated using a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests. Quantitative production analysis (QPA) (Saffran, Berndt, & Schwartz, 1989) was used for the narrative analysis of a picture description and a story retell task. Acoustic analysis was performed in order to calculate temporal measures of participants’ speech. Statistical analysis. Performance of each subject was compared to that of the control sample using the Crawford and Howell’s method (Crawford, Garthwaite, & Porter, 2010). T values were also calculated to compare the scores of the two subjects with reference to the control sample (Crawford, Garthwaite, & Wood, 2010). Results. The participant with the nfvPPA performed worse than the participant with the svPPA on tasks of working memory (p = 0.025), syntactic comprehension (p = 0.014) and reading fluency for words (p < 0.001). Furthermore, he was slower in temporal measures of speech production (Table 1). The participant with the svPPA was more impaired in confrontation naming (p < 0.001), single word comprehension (p < 0.001) and object semantics (p = 0.001). The narrative production measures that differed significantly between the two participants were speech rate (slower for the nfvPPA participant, p = 0.007), average pause duration (longer for the nfvPPA participant, p < 0.001), false starts per min (more for the nfvPPA participant, p = 0.045), proportion of nouns (lower for the svPPA participant, p = 0.012) and closed class words (lower for the nfvPPA participant, p = 0.016). Discussion. The results confirm the distinctive features of both PPA variants: motor speech and syntactic processing difficulties in the case of the participant with the nfvPPA, anomia and a single word comprehension deficit in the case of the participant with the svPPA. Neuropsychological testing combined with narrative and acoustic analysis have enabled the documentation of speech and language deficits present in these cases of PPA and the comparison of the two participants.

Contains fulltext : 156142.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been associated with abnormalities in speech and behavioural mimicry. These abnormalities may contribute to the impairments in interpersonal functioning that are often seen in MDD patients. MDD has also been associated with disturbances in the brain serotonin system, but the extent to which serotonin regulates speech and behavioural mimicry remains unclear. In a randomized, double-blind, crossover study, we induced acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) in individuals with or without a family history of MDD. Five hours afterwards, participants engaged in two behavioural-mimicry experiments in which speech and behaviour were recorded. ATD reduced the time participants waited before speaking, which might indicate increased impulsivity. However, ATD did not significantly alter speech otherwise, nor did it affect mimicry. This suggests that a brief lowering of brain serotonin has limited effects on verbal and non-verbal social behaviour. The null findings may be due to low test sensitivity, but they otherwise suggest that low serotonin has little effect on social interaction quality in never-depressed individuals. It remains possible that recovered MDD patients are more strongly affected. 9 p.

Objective: Parkinson’s disease (PD), caused by basal ganglia dysfunction, is associated with motor disturbances including dysarthria. Stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus, a preferred treatment targeting basal ganglia function, improves features of the motor disorder, but has uncertain effects on speech. We studied speech during contrasting stimulation states to reveal subcortical effects on voice and articulation. Measures were made on selected samples of spontaneous and repeated speech. Methods: Persons with Parkinson’s disease (PWP) who had undergone bilateral deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (DBS-STN) provided spontaneous speech samples and then repeated portions of their monologue both on and off stimulation. Excerpts were presented in a listening protocol probing intelligibility. Also analysed were a continuous phrase repetition task and a second spontaneous speech sample. Fundamental frequency (F0), harmonic-to-noise ratio (HNR), jitter, shimmer and fluency were measured in these three speech samples performed with DBS stimulation on and off. Results: During subcortical stimulation, spontaneous excerpts were less intelligible than repeated excerpts. F0 and HNR were higher and shimmer was decreased in repetition and stimulation. Articulatory dysfluencies were increased for spontaneous speech and during stimulation in all three speech samples. Conclusion: Deep brain stimulation disrupts fluency and improves voice in spontaneous speech, reflecting an inverse influence of subcortical systems on articulatory posturing and laryngeal mechanisms. Better voice and less dysfluency in repetition may occur because an external model reduces the speech planning burden, as seen for gait and arm reach. These orthogonal results for fluency versus phonatory competence may account for ambivalent reports from dysarthric speakers and reveal the complexity of subcortical control of motor speech.

The present study presents an experiment to investigate 1) whether judged fluency correlates with judged accuracy of consecutive interpreting performance; and 2) whether and how judged fluency can be predicted on the basis of acoustic measures such as automatically calculated temporal measures of speech quality. In the experiment, ten raters judged six major quality measures related to accuracy and fluency of the consecutive interpreting performance (in this study from Chinese into English) recorded from seven BA trainees and five MA trainees based on the same recorded source speech. Six consecutive interpretations per participants were recorded, two of which were analyzed acoustically by means of the speech analysis tool PRAAT. The pauses detected by PRAAT and the disfluencies transcribed and labeled manually were automatically counted by the text analysis computer program of AWK, based on which 12 acoustic measures of fluency were calculated. The results show that 1) there is a strong positive correlation between judged accuracy and judged fluency in consecutive interpreting; 2) there are strong correlations between judged fluency and objective acoustic measures of fluency in consecutive interpreting; and 3) effective speech rate appears to be the best predictor of judged fluency in consecutive interpreting. The other important determinants of judged interpreting fluency are number of filled pauses, articulation rate, and mean length of pause. The results have practical implications for both developing an automatic assessment tool of fluency facilitating consecutive interpreting testing as well as for consecutive interpreting pedagogy.

La disfonía espasmódica es un desorden vocal severo caracterizado por una interrupción involuntaria de la fonación, denominada también distonía focal laríngea. En este estudio se presentan los resultados de una investigación sobre las características acústico-vocales de una población de pacientes con disfonías espasmódicas, y la comparación de las mismas con las de un grupo control (sujetos con el diagnóstico otorrinolaringológico de cuerdas vocales móviles, sin daños estructurales en la mucosa glótica, ni alteraciones neurológicas que involucren la dinámica cordal). Se analizó acústicamente la vocal /a/ investigándose: valor de la frecuencia fundamental, desviación estándar, rango diferencial entre frecuencia máxima y mínima, y número de quiebres fonatorios. Se utilizó para estas mediciones el Sistema de análisis acústico Praat (Boersma y Weenink, 2003). En los resultados no se encontraron diferencias significativas entre las medias de la Frecuencia Fundamental entre ambos grupos estudiados. La comparación de los promedios del desvío estándar de la Frecuencia Fundamental arrojó sin embargo diferencias significativas, así como la comparación de los promedios de los rangos entre frecuencia máxima y mínima. Respecto a la variable Quiebres Fonatorios, se calcularon solamente en el grupo de pacientes ya que ninguno de los sujetos del grupo control presentó interrupciones fonatorias en la emisión de la vocal. Cabe concluirse que la desviación estándar, el rango entre el valor máximo y mínimo de frecuencia fundamental y el número de interrupciones durante la emisión de vocal prolongada pueden utilizarse como indicadores de disfonía espasmódica. Spasmodic dysphonia is a severe voice disorder characterized by involuntary disruption of phonation, also called focal laryngeal dystonia. This study presents the results of an investigation into the acousticvocal characteristics of a population of patients with spasmodic dysphonia, and comparing them with those of a control group (patients with diagnosis of mobile vocal cords, without damage in the structure of the glottal mucosa or neurological disorders involving the movement of the vocal cords). The following parameters were investigated in the emission of the vowel /a /: mean pitch value, standard deviation, minimum pitch, maximum pitch and a number of phonatory breaks. The Praat acoustic analysis system was used for these measurements (Boersma and Weenink, 2003). Regarding results, no significant differences were found between patients and control group for the average measures of mean pitch in both sexes. Comparison of the standard deviation of mean pitch and the ranges between maximum and minimum pitch revealed significant differences between the group of patients and controls. The voice breaks were calculated only in the group of patients. No person in the control group had phonatory disruptions in the emission of the vowel. The standard deviation of mean pitch, the range between maximum and minimum pitch and the number of phonatory breaks during prolonged vowel can be used as indicators of spasmodic dysphonia.

Listening in a natural environment implies to consider complex sound fields (several sound sources, different spatial positions, reflections…) and a binaural listening configuration. As a consequence, differences in time, level and spectrum between the two at-ear signals are systematically induced by the direction-dependant physical filtering from the human head, torso and pinnae. Existing loudness models provide accurate predictions under simplified listening situations (ISO-532B (1975), DIN-45631 (1990), ANSI-S3.4 (2007)). These models have been designed to use monaural (only one ear) or diotic (same signal at the two ears) signals, equivalent to one sound source with a frontal incidence, in a free or diffuse field. However, the models fail to predict loudness when the interaural differences are large. The present document focuses on the loudness of stationary sound fields, made up of one or several, artificial or real sound sources, in a free field or in a real environment. New elements have been brought to light regarding how, in a dichotic listening situation, information is combined from the two ears to produce one unique binaural loudness percept (binaural gain, case of several sound sources, effect of interaural correlation,...). On the one hand, one hypothesis have been tested in order to try to explain the interindividual differences observed in binaural loudness summation ; the robustness and stability over time of these individual strategies have been highlighted. On the other hand, predictions from the three main psychophysical models of binaural loudness (ANSI-S3.4 (2007), Moore et Glasberg (2007), Sivonen et Ellermeier (2008)) have been compared with all of the subjective data (involving different levels of realism), which allowed us to define more accurately the domain of validity and performance of these models in highly dichotic listening situations., Dans un environnement naturel, le champ acoustique est complexe (plusieurs sources, différentes positions spatiales, acoustique du lieu,...) et l'écoute est binaurale. Le filtrage acoustique opéré par la tête, le buste et les pavillons de l'auditeur (dépendant de la direction) induit donc systématiquement des différences interaurales de temps, de niveau et de spectre. Des modèles de sonie existent et permettent de prédire la sonie des sons stationnaires dans des situations d'écoute simples (ISO-532B (1975), DIN-45631 (1990), ANSI-S3.4 (2007)). L'écoute doit être monaurale (une seule oreille) ou diotique (même son aux deux oreilles), correspondant à une source en incidence frontale en champ libre, ou en champ diffus. En revanche, ces modèles échouent pour prédire la sonie lorsque des différences interaurales importantes interviennent. La thèse s’est ainsi intéressée à la sonie des champs acoustiques stationnaires, impliquant une ou plusieurs sources, soit artificielles et spatialisées en champ libre, soit réelles dans une acoustique naturelle. De nouveaux éléments ont été apportés dans la compréhension dont l'information contenue dans les signaux reçus aux oreilles de l’auditeur est combinée pour former un unique percept de sonie binaurale dans les situations d’écoute dichotiques (gain de sommation binaural, cas de plusieurs sources, effet de la corrélation interaurale,…). D’une part, une hypothèse pour essayer d’expliquer les différences interindividuelles observées dans les stratégies de sommation binaurales a pu être testée ; la robustesse et la stabilité au cours du temps de ces stratégies individuelles a été mise en avant. D’autre part, trois principaux modèles psychophysiques de sonie binaurale (ANSI-S3.4 (2007), Moore et Glasberg (2007), Sivonen et Ellermeier (2008)) ont été testés sur l’ensemble des données expérimentales (impliquant différents niveaux de réalisme), permettant de préciser la performance et les domaines de validité respectifs de chacun de ces modèles dans des situations d’écoute fortement dichotiques.

In the sea, the acoustic detection of other battle engines is done by detecting mostly stationary signals. However, new types of detection systems are being developed, and are able to detect and to analyze transient signals. Therefore, the industrial conception process needs to be improved, so that the underwater vehicles transient noises can be taken in account. In order to do so, the mechanism of vibroacoustic transfer of transient sources of submerged structures has to be understood. The object of this thesis is then the study of the mechanism of vibration transfer and acoustic radiation of those structures when they are excited by transient sources. The shell radiation in the water, the wave diffraction by circumferential stiffeners and the resonant behavior of internal substructures are analyzed. The first chapter presents the bibliographical study of three themes: the study of transient phenomenon of submerged structures, the influence of heavy fluid coupling on vibroacoustic behavior of plates, and the different calculation methods in transient vibroacoustics. In the second chapter, we study the transient response of a submerged infinite plate excited by an impulsively point force. First, the calculations are done in the wavenumber-frequency domain. Then the spatio-temporal responses are obtained using inverse Fourier transforms. The discretization of wavenumber and frequency domains and the damping model are studied. The analysis of frequency and time responses of the plate vibration and the radiated pressure enable us to observe the influence of heavy fluid coupling. Besides the Mindlin-Timoshenko plate model is also used and the effect of rotation inertia and shear stress are studied. In the third chapter, these numerical results are confronted to experimental data, obtained experimentally. The studied structure is a rectangular plate lying on the surface of a water tank. Two different excitations are used: an impact hammer and the free fall of a steel ball. The study of the correlation between numerical and experimental results showed that some phenomena are observed in both cases. The influence of stiffeners on the acoustic radiation is the theme of the fourth chapter. An infinite plate which is periodically stiffened through one direction is considered. The effect of Bloch-Floquet waves on time response is studied. Numerical results are compared to measurements data obtained on an industrial submerged structure. In the fifth chapter, the effect of internal structures is analyzed by modelling an infinite plate coupled to a resonant system made of a beam and a rectangular finite plate. The inertance coupling method is used to obtain the coupling forces between the different substructures. Influence of inertance difference between the substructures is illustrated by the time signals., Dans le cadre de la lutte en mer, la détection acoustique des structures immergées s’effectue généralement sur des signaux stationnaires. Une nouvelle génération de sonars permet de détecter sur des signaux transitoires. Ceci implique de compléter le processus de conception des projets industriels qui ne tient compte d’exigences qu'en matière de bruits rayonnés en régime stationnaire. Il est donc nécessaire de comprendre les mécanismes de transfert des sources de bruit transitoires sur les structures immergées. Cette thèse s’inscrit dans ce cadre et consiste à étudier les mécanismes de transfert vibratoire et de rayonnement acoustique qui peuvent intervenir sur ces structures lorsque l’excitation est transitoire. L’analyse porte sur différents éléments de la chaine de transfert : le rayonnement dans l’eau du bordé, la diffraction des ondes par les raidisseurs, et le comportement résonnant des structures internes supportant les matériels. Le premier chapitre présente une analyse bibliographique autour de l’étude des phénomènes vibroacoustiques transitoires des structures immergées, de l’influence d’un fluide lourd sur le comportement vibroacoustique des plaques, et des méthodes de calcul vibroacoustiques en régime transitoire. Dans le second chapitre nous étudions la réponse transitoire d’une plaque infinie immergée soumise à une force impulsionnelle ponctuelle. La méthode de calcul s’appuie sur les calculs spectraux fréquences-nombre d’onde. Les réponses temporelles sont obtenues par transformées de Fourier inverses. L’analyse des spectres et des réponses temporelles de l’accélération vibratoire de la plaque et de la pression rayonnée, met en évidence l’influence de la présence du fluide. La prise en compte de l’inertie rotationnelle et du cisaillement à travers le modèle de plaque de Mindlin-Timoshenko est également étudiée. Ces résultats sont confrontés à une expérimentation présentée dans le troisième chapitre. La structure étudiée est une plaque rectangulaire posée horizontalement à la surface d’une cuve remplie d’eau. Deux types de sources transitoires sont utilisés : marteau de choc, lâché d’une bille. La comparaison des résultats numériques et expérimentaux montre que l’on retrouve certains phénomènes évoqués précédemment. L’effet des raidisseurs sur le rayonnement acoustique fait l’objet du quatrième chapitre. Une plaque raidie périodiquement dans une direction est considéré. L’influence des ondes de Bloch-Floquet sur la réponse temporelle est étudiée. Les résultats sont comparés à des mesures effectuées sur une barge d’essais. Dans le cinquième chapitre, l’effet des structures internes est étudié à partir d’un modèle de plaque couplé à un système résonnant constitué d’un assemblage poutre-plaque. La méthode des inertances est utilisée pour obtenir les forces de couplage entre les différents éléments. Les signaux temporels sont étudiés en fonction de l’importance de la rupture d’inertance entre la plaque et l’assemblage.

In the sea, the acoustic detection of other battle engines is done by detecting mostly stationary signals. However, new types of detection systems are being developed, and are able to detect and to analyze transient signals. Therefore, the industrial conception process needs to be improved, so that the underwater vehicles transient noises can be taken in account. In order to do so, the mechanism of vibroacoustic transfer of transient sources of submerged structures has to be understood. The object of this thesis is then the study of the mechanism of vibration transfer and acoustic radiation of those structures when they are excited by transient sources. The shell radiation in the water, the wave diffraction by circumferential stiffeners and the resonant behavior of internal substructures are analyzed. The first chapter presents the bibliographical study of three themes: the study of transient phenomenon of submerged structures, the influence of heavy fluid coupling on vibroacoustic behavior of plates, and the different calculation methods in transient vibroacoustics. In the second chapter, we study the transient response of a submerged infinite plate excited by an impulsively point force. First, the calculations are done in the wavenumber-frequency domain. Then the spatio-temporal responses are obtained using inverse Fourier transforms. The discretization of wavenumber and frequency domains and the damping model are studied. The analysis of frequency and time responses of the plate vibration and the radiated pressure enable us to observe the influence of heavy fluid coupling. Besides the Mindlin-Timoshenko plate model is also used and the effect of rotation inertia and shear stress are studied. In the third chapter, these numerical results are confronted to experimental data, obtained experimentally. The studied structure is a rectangular plate lying on the surface of a water tank. Two different excitations are used: an impact hammer and the free fall of a steel ball. The study of the correlation between numerical and experimental results showed that some phenomena are observed in both cases. The influence of stiffeners on the acoustic radiation is the theme of the fourth chapter. An infinite plate which is periodically stiffened through one direction is considered. The effect of Bloch-Floquet waves on time response is studied. Numerical results are compared to measurements data obtained on an industrial submerged structure. In the fifth chapter, the effect of internal structures is analyzed by modelling an infinite plate coupled to a resonant system made of a beam and a rectangular finite plate. The inertance coupling method is used to obtain the coupling forces between the different substructures. Influence of inertance difference between the substructures is illustrated by the time signals., Dans le cadre de la lutte en mer, la détection acoustique des structures immergées s’effectue généralement sur des signaux stationnaires. Une nouvelle génération de sonars permet de détecter sur des signaux transitoires. Ceci implique de compléter le processus de conception des projets industriels qui ne tient compte d’exigences qu'en matière de bruits rayonnés en régime stationnaire. Il est donc nécessaire de comprendre les mécanismes de transfert des sources de bruit transitoires sur les structures immergées. Cette thèse s’inscrit dans ce cadre et consiste à étudier les mécanismes de transfert vibratoire et de rayonnement acoustique qui peuvent intervenir sur ces structures lorsque l’excitation est transitoire. L’analyse porte sur différents éléments de la chaine de transfert : le rayonnement dans l’eau du bordé, la diffraction des ondes par les raidisseurs, et le comportement résonnant des structures internes supportant les matériels. Le premier chapitre présente une analyse bibliographique autour de l’étude des phénomènes vibroacoustiques transitoires des structures immergées, de l’influence d’un fluide lourd sur le comportement vibroacoustique des plaques, et des méthodes de calcul vibroacoustiques en régime transitoire. Dans le second chapitre nous étudions la réponse transitoire d’une plaque infinie immergée soumise à une force impulsionnelle ponctuelle. La méthode de calcul s’appuie sur les calculs spectraux fréquences-nombre d’onde. Les réponses temporelles sont obtenues par transformées de Fourier inverses. L’analyse des spectres et des réponses temporelles de l’accélération vibratoire de la plaque et de la pression rayonnée, met en évidence l’influence de la présence du fluide. La prise en compte de l’inertie rotationnelle et du cisaillement à travers le modèle de plaque de Mindlin-Timoshenko est également étudiée. Ces résultats sont confrontés à une expérimentation présentée dans le troisième chapitre. La structure étudiée est une plaque rectangulaire posée horizontalement à la surface d’une cuve remplie d’eau. Deux types de sources transitoires sont utilisés : marteau de choc, lâché d’une bille. La comparaison des résultats numériques et expérimentaux montre que l’on retrouve certains phénomènes évoqués précédemment. L’effet des raidisseurs sur le rayonnement acoustique fait l’objet du quatrième chapitre. Une plaque raidie périodiquement dans une direction est considéré. L’influence des ondes de Bloch-Floquet sur la réponse temporelle est étudiée. Les résultats sont comparés à des mesures effectuées sur une barge d’essais. Dans le cinquième chapitre, l’effet des structures internes est étudié à partir d’un modèle de plaque couplé à un système résonnant constitué d’un assemblage poutre-plaque. La méthode des inertances est utilisée pour obtenir les forces de couplage entre les différents éléments. Les signaux temporels sont étudiés en fonction de l’importance de la rupture d’inertance entre la plaque et l’assemblage.

A fundamental limitation of the inverse acoustic problem is determined by the size of the array and the microphone density. A solution to achieve large array and/or high microphone density is to scan the object of interest by moving sequentially a small prototype array, which is referred to as sequential measurements. In comparison to a large array and/or high microphone density array that can acquire simultaneously all the information of the spectral matrix, in particular all cross-spectra, sequential measurements can only acquire a block diagonal spectral matrix, while the cross-spectra between the sequential measurements remain unknown due to the missing phase relationships between consecutive positions. Nevertheless, these unknown cross-spectra are necessary for acoustic reconstruction. The object of this thesis is to recover the missing elements of the spectral matrix in the case that the acoustical field is highly coherent so as to implement the sequential measurements. Sparse eigenvalue spectrum are assumed to solve this problem, which lead to a structured low rank model and a weakly sparse eigenvalue spectrum model., Une limitation fondamentale du problème inverse acoustique est déterminée par la taille et la densité de l'antenne de microphones. Une solution pour atteindre une grande antenne et / ou à forte densité de microphones est de scanner l'objet d'intérêt en déplaçant séquentiellement une antenne de petites dimensions (mesures dites séquentielles). La différence entre des mesures séquentielle et une mesure simultanée en tous points est que dans ce dernier cas, l'intégralité de la matrice interpectrale peut être estimée, contrairement au cas des mesures séquentielles qui ne permettent l'estimation que d'une partie réduite de cette matrice; les éléments croisés (interspectres) entre deux points de mesures n'appartenant pas à la même séquence ne sont pas estimés. Néanmoins, ces données restent nécessaires pour la reconstruction acoustique. Dans l'approche classique, une ou plusieurs références sont utilisées pour retrouver les données manquantes. L'objet de cette thèse est de récupérer les éléments manquants de la matrice interspectrale sans capteurs de référence, dans le cas où le champ acoustique est suffisamment cohérent pour mettre en œuvre les mesures séquentielles. Deux modèles de spectre de valeurs propres parcimonieux sont proposés pour résoudre ce problème, le premier impose une valeur faible de rang, tandis que le second repose sur la minimisation de la norme nucléaire (recherche d'une solution faiblement parcimonieuse).

During the ODS steel (Oxide Dispersion Strengthened) synthesis, the first stage consists in an active milling between original materials, which are metallic powder and oxide to obtain reinforced micro/nanoscale dispersions. This process, known as mechanical alloying, could be realized by balls milling composed by a cylindrical tank rotating around its main axis, within which steel beads are introduced. The grinding results from different combinations of collisions between beads and powders on the tank walls, that lead to morphological grain powder evolution (grain size and shape). The first part of this thesis proposes an ultrasonic method to characterize the metallic powder. An experimental method, which consists in acoustic probing for measuring linear acoustic parameters (longitudinal wave velocity and elastic modulus) of a slab of powder sample, appears to be suitable to follow different mechanical alloying stages. A dependence of the acoustic parameters on the morphological characteristics of metallic powder (grain shape and grain size distribution) is shown with the same sample preparation and the same confining pressure. In the second part, optimization process by identification of ball milling optimal rotation speed is researched in a first step. Correlation between acoustic or vibration signals and bead motion versus rotation speed, shows that acoustic and vibration energy are good indicators that can be used to find the optimal rotation speed. In a second step, acoustic and vibration measures are used to follow grain material properties evolution during a grinding (for a period of 176hrs) and to identify powder clogging mechanism on a milling tank., Lors de la synthèse des aciers ODS, la première étape consiste à réaliser un broyage actif, appelé mécano-synthèse, entre les matériaux de départ qui sont la poudre métallique et les renforts d’oxyde. Ce procédé peut se réaliser au moyen d’un broyeur à boulets, constitué d’une cuve cylindrique à l’intérieur de laquelle des billes en acier sont introduites. Le broyage résulte des combinaisons de chocs entre billes, poudre et paroi de la cuve, ce qui conduit à une évolution de la de la taille, de leur forme et de leur polydispersité. La première partie de cette thèse s’est attachée à élaborer un moyen de caractérisation de la poudre par des mesures ultrasonores. Une méthode qui consiste à sonder un échantillon de poudre métallique pour la mesure des paramètres acoustiques s’est avérée être adaptée pour la qualification de la poudre métallique en cours de broyage. Une dépendance des paramètres acoustiques avec les caractéristiques morphologiques du milieu a également été mise en évidence pour des échantillons granulaires. Dans une deuxième partie, l’optimisation du procédé par l’identification de la vitesse optimale de rotation de la cuve est recherchée dans un premier temps. Une mise en parallèle des signaux acoustiques et vibratoires en fonction de la vitesse de rotation de la cuve avec le mouvement des billes, montre que les énergies acoustique et vibratoire sont des indicateurs pouvant conduire à la vitesse de rotation optimale. Puis, il est montré comment des mesures acoustiques et vibratoires durant un broyage permettent de caractériser l’évolution de la nature des poudres et d’identifier la présence de colmatage de la poudre sur les parois de la cuve.

A fundamental limitation of the inverse acoustic problem is determined by the size of the array and the microphone density. A solution to achieve large array and/or high microphone density is to scan the object of interest by moving sequentially a small prototype array, which is referred to as sequential measurements. In comparison to a large array and/or high microphone density array that can acquire simultaneously all the information of the spectral matrix, in particular all cross-spectra, sequential measurements can only acquire a block diagonal spectral matrix, while the cross-spectra between the sequential measurements remain unknown due to the missing phase relationships between consecutive positions. Nevertheless, these unknown cross-spectra are necessary for acoustic reconstruction. The object of this thesis is to recover the missing elements of the spectral matrix in the case that the acoustical field is highly coherent so as to implement the sequential measurements. Sparse eigenvalue spectrum are assumed to solve this problem, which lead to a structured low rank model and a weakly sparse eigenvalue spectrum model., Une limitation fondamentale du problème inverse acoustique est déterminée par la taille et la densité de l'antenne de microphones. Une solution pour atteindre une grande antenne et / ou à forte densité de microphones est de scanner l'objet d'intérêt en déplaçant séquentiellement une antenne de petites dimensions (mesures dites séquentielles). La différence entre des mesures séquentielle et une mesure simultanée en tous points est que dans ce dernier cas, l'intégralité de la matrice interpectrale peut être estimée, contrairement au cas des mesures séquentielles qui ne permettent l'estimation que d'une partie réduite de cette matrice; les éléments croisés (interspectres) entre deux points de mesures n'appartenant pas à la même séquence ne sont pas estimés. Néanmoins, ces données restent nécessaires pour la reconstruction acoustique. Dans l'approche classique, une ou plusieurs références sont utilisées pour retrouver les données manquantes. L'objet de cette thèse est de récupérer les éléments manquants de la matrice interspectrale sans capteurs de référence, dans le cas où le champ acoustique est suffisamment cohérent pour mettre en œuvre les mesures séquentielles. Deux modèles de spectre de valeurs propres parcimonieux sont proposés pour résoudre ce problème, le premier impose une valeur faible de rang, tandis que le second repose sur la minimisation de la norme nucléaire (recherche d'une solution faiblement parcimonieuse).

Pesquisas têm estabelecido que cada serviço deve estabelecer seus padrões normativos para a análise acústica. O objetivo do presente estudo é normatizar as medidas de freqüência fundamental (fo), jitter, shimmer e proporção harmônico-ruído (PHR) para adultos jovens com voz normal. MÉTODO: Participaram deste estudo 20 homens e 20 mulheres, de 20 a 45 anos de idade, sem sinais e sintomas de problemas vocais, produzindo as vogais sustentadas /a/ e /é/, analisadas pelo programa CSL- 4300 Kay-Elemetrics. RESULTADOS: Para as mulheres, respectivamente para a vogal /a/ e /é/ os valores médios foram: fo de 205,82Hz e 206,56Hz; jitter de 0,62% e 0,59%; shimmer de 0,22dB e 0,19dB; PHR de 10,9 dB e 11,04 dB. Para os homens, respectivamente para a vogal /a/ e /é/, os valores médios foram: fo de 119,84Hz e 118,92Hz; jitter de 0,49% e 0,5%; shimmer de 0,22 dB e 0,21 dB; PHR de 9,56 dB e 9,63dB. As medidas de fo e PHR foram significativamente maiores para as mulheres em comparação aos homens. CONCLUSÃO: As diferenças entre os nossos resultados e os dos outros autores confirmam a necessidade de se realizar a normatização para cada programa a ser utilizado. Studies have established that normative data is necessary for acoustic analysis. The aim of the present study is to standardize fundamental frequency measures (fo), jitter, shimmer and harmonic-noise ratio (HNR) for young adults with normal voice. METHOD: 20 males and 20 females, between 20 and 45 years, without signs and symptoms of vocal problems; CSL-4300 Kay-Elemetrics; vowels /a/ and /é/. RESULTS: for females, vowels /a/ and /é/ had average measures of: fo 205.82 Hz and 206.56 Hz; jitter of 0.62% and 0.59%; shimmer of 0.22 dB and 0.19 dB; PHR of 10.9 dB and 11.04 dB, respectively. For males, vowel /a/ and /é/ had average measures of: fo 119.84 Hz and 118.92 Hz; jitter of 0.49% and 0.5%; shimmer of 0.22 dB and 0.21 dB; HNR 9.56 dB and 9.63 dB, respectively. Both fo and NHR female measures were significantly higher than their male counterparts. CONCLUSION: our results differ from the literature; therefore, it is important to standardize the program in use.

Pesquisas têm estabelecido que cada serviço deve estabelecer seus padrões normativos para a análise acústica. O objetivo do presente estudo é normatizar as medidas de freqüência fundamental (fo), jitter, shimmer e proporção harmônico-ruído (PHR) para adultos jovens com voz normal. MÉTODO: Participaram deste estudo 20 homens e 20 mulheres, de 20 a 45 anos de idade, sem sinais e sintomas de problemas vocais, produzindo as vogais sustentadas /a/ e /é/, analisadas pelo programa CSL- 4300 Kay-Elemetrics. RESULTADOS: Para as mulheres, respectivamente para a vogal /a/ e /é/ os valores médios foram: fo de 205,82Hz e 206,56Hz; jitter de 0,62% e 0,59%; shimmer de 0,22dB e 0,19dB; PHR de 10,9 dB e 11,04 dB. Para os homens, respectivamente para a vogal /a/ e /é/, os valores médios foram: fo de 119,84Hz e 118,92Hz; jitter de 0,49% e 0,5%; shimmer de 0,22 dB e 0,21 dB; PHR de 9,56 dB e 9,63dB. As medidas de fo e PHR foram significativamente maiores para as mulheres em comparação aos homens. CONCLUSÃO: As diferenças entre os nossos resultados e os dos outros autores confirmam a necessidade de se realizar a normatização para cada programa a ser utilizado.Studies have established that normative data is necessary for acoustic analysis. The aim of the present study is to standardize fundamental frequency measures (fo), jitter, shimmer and harmonic-noise ratio (HNR) for young adults with normal voice. METHOD: 20 males and 20 females, between 20 and 45 years, without signs and symptoms of vocal problems; CSL-4300 Kay-Elemetrics; vowels /a/ and /é/. RESULTS: for females, vowels /a/ and /é/ had average measures of: fo 205.82 Hz and 206.56 Hz; jitter of 0.62% and 0.59%; shimmer of 0.22 dB and 0.19 dB; PHR of 10.9 dB and 11.04 dB, respectively. For males, vowel /a/ and /é/ had average measures of: fo 119.84 Hz and 118.92 Hz; jitter of 0.49% and 0.5%; shimmer of 0.22 dB and 0.21 dB; HNR 9.56 dB and 9.63 dB, respectively. Both fo and NHR female measures were significantly higher than their male counterparts. CONCLUSION: our results differ from the literature; therefore, it is important to standardize the program in use.

Introdução: A análise acústica da voz com o avanço da tecnologia digital surge como um exame complementar promissor para aumentar a precisão diagnóstica em laringologia. Objetivo: Normatização das medidas acústicas de freqüência fundamental, perturbação e ruído na voz normal de brasileiros dos sexos masculino e feminino. Forma de estudo: Clínico prospectivo. Material e Método: Pesquisa no período de março a agosto de 1997, no Ambulatório de Otorrinolaringologia do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto da Universidade de São Paulo, com 80 voluntários da cidade de Ribeirão Preto e região, sendo 40 do sexo masculino e 40 do feminino, selecionados por meio de triagem, foram realizadas gravações digitais dos fonemas /a/, /e/ e /i/, originando uma amostra de 240 sinais acústicos submetidos ao Programa de Análise Acústica da Voz, desenvolvido na Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos da Universidade de São Paulo com obtenção das medidas acústicas. Resultados: Foram obtidos valores médios em relação a sexo e fonemas das medidas de: Freqüência fundamental, Jitter (Directional Perturbation Factor, Perturbation Variation Index, Jitter Ratio, Jitter Factor, Period Perturbation Quotient), Shimmer (Directional Perturbation Factor, Amplitude Variation Index, Amplitude Perturbation Quotient), Spectral Noise Level, Harmonic-to-noise ratio, Harmonic-to-noise ratio cepstrum, Normalized Noise Energy e Breathiness ratio. Conclusão: A normatização das medidas acústicas é necessária para conhecer melhor a voz normal. Os valores obtidos são compatíveis em sua grande maioria com à literatura existente. Introduction: Acoustic analysis of the voice with advance of the digital technology increases as a promising complementary exam for raising the diagnostic precision in laringology. Aim: Standardization of the acoustic measurement of fundamental frequency, Perturbations and noise in the normal voice of male and female brazilians. Study design: Clinical prospective. Material and method: Research was carried out from March to August of 1997 in the Otorlaryngological Clinic of the Clinical Hospital of the Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto of the University of São Paulo, using 80 volunteers of the city of Ribeirão Preto and its region, consisting of 40 males and 40 females, and selected by means of a triage. Digital recordings of the vowels /a/, /e/, and /i/ were utilized, originating in a sample of 240 acoustic signals, and submitted to the Program of Acoustic Voice Analysis, with the São Carlos School of Engineering of the University of São Paulo securing the acoustic measurements. Results: Mean values in relationship to sex and phonemes were obtained in the measurements of: Fundamental Frequency, Jitter (Directional Perturbation Factor, Perturbation Variation Index, Jitter Ratio, Jitter Factor, Period Perturbation Quotient), Shimmer (Directional Perturbation Factor, Amplitude Variation Index, Amplitude Perturbation Quotient), Spectral Noise Level, Harmonic-to-noise ratio, Harmonic-to-noise ratio cepstrum, Normalized Noise Energy e Breathiness ratio. Conclusion: The normalization of acoustic measurements is necessary to better know the normal voice. The great majority of obtained values are compatible with existing literature.

Spasmodic dysphonia is a severe voice disorder characterized by involuntary disruption of phonation, also called focal laryngeal dystonia. This study presents the results of an investigation into the acousticvocal characteristics of a population of patients with spasmodic dysphonia, and comparing them with those of a control group (patients with diagnosis of mobile vocal cords, without damage in the structure of the glottal mucosa or neurological disorders involving the movement of the vocal cords). The following parameters were investigated in the emission of the vowel /a /: mean pitch value, standard deviation, minimum pitch, maximum pitch and a number of phonatory breaks. The Praat acoustic analysis system was used for these measurements (Boersma and Weenink, 2003). Regarding results, no significant differences were found between patients and control group for the average measures of mean pitch in both sexes. Comparison of the standard deviation of mean pitch and the ranges between maximum and minimum pitch revealed significant differences between the group of patients and controls. The voice breaks were calculated only in the group of patients. No person in the control group had phonatory disruptions in the emission of the vowel. The standard deviation of mean pitch, the range between maximum and minimum pitch and the number of phonatory breaks during prolonged vowel can be used as indicators of spasmodic dysphonia. La disfonía espasmódica es un desorden vocal severo caracterizado por una interrupción involuntaria de la fonación, denominada también distonía focal laríngea. En este estudio se presentan los resultados de una investigación sobre las características acústico-vocales de una población de pacientes con disfonías espasmódicas, y la comparación de las mismas con las de un grupo control (sujetos con el diagnóstico otorrinolaringológico de cuerdas vocales móviles, sin daños estructurales en la mucosa glótica, ni alteraciones neurológicas que involucren la dinámica cordal). Se analizó acústicamente la vocal /a/ investigándose: valor de la frecuencia fundamental, desviación estándar, rango diferencial entre frecuencia máxima y mínima, y número de quiebres fonatorios. Se utilizó para estas mediciones el Sistema de análisis acústico Praat (Boersma y Weenink, 2003). En los resultados no se encontraron diferencias significativas entre las medias de la Frecuencia Fundamental entre ambos grupos estudiados. La comparación de los promedios del desvío estándar de la Frecuencia Fundamental arrojó sin embargo diferencias significativas, así como la comparación de los promedios de los rangos entre frecuencia máxima y mínima. Respecto a la variable Quiebres Fonatorios, se calcularon solamente en el grupo de pacientes ya que ninguno de los sujetos del grupo control presentó interrupciones fonatorias en la emisión de la vocal. Cabe concluirse que la desviación estándar, el rango entre el valor máximo y mínimo de frecuencia fundamental y el número de interrupciones durante la emisión de vocal prolongada pueden utilizarse como indicadores de disfonía espasmódica.

With increasing development of new technologies (RTC, RNIS, GSM, VoIP), tele-communication services are becoming more and more diversified. To this end, telecommunication operators need to supervise in real-time the speech quality of the services they offer. Speech quality is usually evaluated from subjective experiments.. Nevertheless, such experiments are time consuming and do not allow any supervisory control. So, accurate objective models are useful to estimate the speech quality.This thesis proposes a non-intrusive model for diagnosing and evaluating speech quality using information available at the measurement point: the DESQHI model (Diagnostic and Evaluation of Speech Quality using Hybrid Indicators). It differs from existing models in terms in two main characteristics. The first one concerns the structure of the model. It is shown that speech quality can be represented as a multidimensional phenomenon incorporating three perceptual dimensions related to noisiness, speech codec and continuity. This multidimensional structure allows for a diagnostic of speech quality based on identifying the principal features affecting speech qual-ity. The second characteristic concerns the nature of indicators (signal-based and parametric) used to represent the three perceptual dimensions. Signal-based indicators use numeric information to represent the characteristics of the signal, for example, the loudness of the speech signal. Parametric indicators are obtained from the network statistics, for example, the percentage of packet loss, which gives information about the level of the discontinuity in the speech signal. This work proposes hybrid indicators (using both signal-based and parametric metrics). It is shown that they are better speech quality predictors than existing models, either parametric only (e.g. ITU-T Recommendation G.107, also known as the E-model) or signal-based only (e.g. ITU-T Recommendation P.563 model)., Les opérateurs de télécommunications ont besoin de superviser en temps réel la qualité vocale des services qu'ils proposent. La qualité vocale peut être évaluée par tests subjectifs auprès d'utilisateurs; mais ces méthodes sont très coûteuses et peu adaptées à la supervision. Des modèles objectifs sont ainsi proposés afin de prédire la qualité vocale à moindre coût. Cette thèse propose un modèle de diagnostic et d’évaluation utilisant les informations disponibles au point de mesure : le modèle DESQHI (Diagnostic and Speech Quality using Hybrid Indicators). Il se distingue des modèles existants par deux caractéristiques principales. La première concerne la structure du cœur du modèle. Il est montré que la qualité vocale peut être représentée comme un phénomène multidimensionnel faisant intervenir trois dimensions perceptives correspondant à bruyance, codage de la parole et continuité. Cette structure permet de diagnostiquer la qualité vocale en identifiant les principales causes perceptives de sa dégradation. La deuxième caractéristique concerne le type d’indicateur utilisé pour représenter ces dimensions perceptives, à savoir l’utilisation d’indicateurs basés sur le signal et paramétriques. Les indicateurs basés sur le signal utilisent les informations numériques pour représenter les caractéristiques du signal (par exemple le rapport signal sur bruit qui donne une estimation du niveau sonore du bruit de fond). Les indicateurs paramétriques sont issus des statistiques du réseau (par exemple le pourcentage de pertes de paquets qui fournit une indication sur le niveau de discontinuité du signal de parole). L’utilisation d’indicateurs hybrides utilisant à la fois les informations du signal numérique et les statistiques du réseau permet d’améliorer les performances globales de la prédiction de la qualité vocale, comparativement aux modèles uniquement basés sur le signal (p. ex. modèle P.563) et aux modèles utilisant les indicateurs paramétriques (p. ex. modèle E).

With increasing development of new technologies (RTC, RNIS, GSM, VoIP), tele-communication services are becoming more and more diversified. To this end, telecommunication operators need to supervise in real-time the speech quality of the services they offer. Speech quality is usually evaluated from subjective experiments.. Nevertheless, such experiments are time consuming and do not allow any supervisory control. So, accurate objective models are useful to estimate the speech quality.This thesis proposes a non-intrusive model for diagnosing and evaluating speech quality using information available at the measurement point: the DESQHI model (Diagnostic and Evaluation of Speech Quality using Hybrid Indicators). It differs from existing models in terms in two main characteristics. The first one concerns the structure of the model. It is shown that speech quality can be represented as a multidimensional phenomenon incorporating three perceptual dimensions related to noisiness, speech codec and continuity. This multidimensional structure allows for a diagnostic of speech quality based on identifying the principal features affecting speech qual-ity. The second characteristic concerns the nature of indicators (signal-based and parametric) used to represent the three perceptual dimensions. Signal-based indicators use numeric information to represent the characteristics of the signal, for example, the loudness of the speech signal. Parametric indicators are obtained from the network statistics, for example, the percentage of packet loss, which gives information about the level of the discontinuity in the speech signal. This work proposes hybrid indicators (using both signal-based and parametric metrics). It is shown that they are better speech quality predictors than existing models, either parametric only (e.g. ITU-T Recommendation G.107, also known as the E-model) or signal-based only (e.g. ITU-T Recommendation P.563 model)., Les opérateurs de télécommunications ont besoin de superviser en temps réel la qualité vocale des services qu'ils proposent. La qualité vocale peut être évaluée par tests subjectifs auprès d'utilisateurs; mais ces méthodes sont très coûteuses et peu adaptées à la supervision. Des modèles objectifs sont ainsi proposés afin de prédire la qualité vocale à moindre coût. Cette thèse propose un modèle de diagnostic et d’évaluation utilisant les informations disponibles au point de mesure : le modèle DESQHI (Diagnostic and Speech Quality using Hybrid Indicators). Il se distingue des modèles existants par deux caractéristiques principales. La première concerne la structure du cœur du modèle. Il est montré que la qualité vocale peut être représentée comme un phénomène multidimensionnel faisant intervenir trois dimensions perceptives correspondant à bruyance, codage de la parole et continuité. Cette structure permet de diagnostiquer la qualité vocale en identifiant les principales causes perceptives de sa dégradation. La deuxième caractéristique concerne le type d’indicateur utilisé pour représenter ces dimensions perceptives, à savoir l’utilisation d’indicateurs basés sur le signal et paramétriques. Les indicateurs basés sur le signal utilisent les informations numériques pour représenter les caractéristiques du signal (par exemple le rapport signal sur bruit qui donne une estimation du niveau sonore du bruit de fond). Les indicateurs paramétriques sont issus des statistiques du réseau (par exemple le pourcentage de pertes de paquets qui fournit une indication sur le niveau de discontinuité du signal de parole). L’utilisation d’indicateurs hybrides utilisant à la fois les informations du signal numérique et les statistiques du réseau permet d’améliorer les performances globales de la prédiction de la qualité vocale, comparativement aux modèles uniquement basés sur le signal (p. ex. modèle P.563) et aux modèles utilisant les indicateurs paramétriques (p. ex. modèle E).

Summary Studies have established that normative data is necessary for acoustic analysis. The aim of the present study is to standardize fundamental frequency measures (fo), jitter, shimmer and harmonic-noise ratio (HNR) for young adults with normal voice. Method 20 males and 20 females, between 20 and 45 years, without signs and symptoms of vocal problems; CSL-4300 Kay-Elemetrics; vowels /a/ and /e/. Results for females, vowels /a/ and /e/ had average measures of: fo 205.82 Hz and 206.56 Hz; jitter of 0.62% and 0.59%; shimmer of 0.22 dB and 0.19 dB; PHR of 10.9 dB and 11.04 dB, respectively. For males, vowel /a/ and /e/ had average measures of: fo 119.84 Hz and 118.92 Hz; jitter of 0.49% and 0.5%; shimmer of 0.22 dB and 0.21 dB; HNR 9.56 dB and 9.63 dB, respectively. Both fo and NHR female measures were significantly higher than their male counterparts. Conclusion our results differ from the literature; therefore, it is important to standardize the program in use.

A well-controlled recording in a studio is fundamental in most voice rehabilitation. However, this laboratory like recording method has been questioned because voice use in a natural environment may be quite different. In children's natural environment, high background noise levels are common and are an important factor contributing to voice problems. The primary noise source in day-care centers is the children themselves. The aim of the present study was to compare perceptual evaluations of voice quality and acoustic measures from a controlled recording with recordings of spontaneous speech in children's natural environment in a day-care setting. Eleven 5-year-old children were recorded three times during a day at the day care. The controlled speech material consisted of repeated sentences. Matching sentences were selected from the spontaneous speech. All sentences were repeated three times. Recordings were randomized and analyzed acoustically and perceptually. Statistic analyses showed that fundamental frequency was significantly higher in spontaneous speech (P