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Since the outbreak of COVID-19, many efforts have been made to utilize the respiratory sounds and coughs collected by smartphones for training Machine Learning models to classify and distinguish COVID-19 sounds from healthy ones. Embedding those models into mobile applications or Internet of things devices can make effective COVID-19 pre-screening tools afforded by anyone anywhere. Most of the previous researchers trained their classifiers with respiratory sounds such as breathing or coughs, and they achieved promising results. We claim that using special voice patterns besides other respiratory sounds can achieve better performance. In this study, we used the Coswara dataset where each user has recorded 9 different types of sounds as cough, breathing, and speech labeled with COVID-19 status. A combination of models trained on different sounds can diagnose COVID-19 more accurately than a single model trained on cough or breathing only. Our results show that using simple binary classifiers can achieve an AUC of 96.4% and an accuracy of 96% by averaging the predictions of multiple models trained and evaluated separately on different sound types. Finally, this study aims to draw attention to the importance of the human voice alongside other respiratory sounds for the sound-based COVID-19 diagnosis.

The objective of this study is to provide a framework to aid physicians in identifying early respiratory ailments as well as provide a means of monitoring medication compliancy for both the patient and physicians. To aid physicians identify abnormal sounds during auscultations such as crackle, this work proposes a multimedia approach in the form of audio display (AD) to enhance crackle sounds produced in respiration. This work utilize a two step AD approach in which the crackle sound is first separated from the rest of the vesicular sound and then either sonified or audified. To aid in monitoring use of medication this work proposes an environmental sound analysis (ESA) framework to autonomously quantify adherence to medication. This work employed traditional audio features to extract meaningful discriminatory information to identify the inhaler sounds from the environment with the aid of maximum relevance and minimum redundancy algorithm and the hidden markov model.

Introduction Since the outbreak began in January 2020, Covid-19 has affected more than 161 million people worldwide and resulted in about 3.3 million deaths. Despite efforts to detect human infection with the virus as early as possible, the confirmatory test still requires the analysis of sputum or blood with estimated results available within approximately 30 minutes; this may potentially be followed by clinical referral if the patient shows signs of aggravated pneumonia. This work aims to implement a soft collar as a sound device dedicated to the objective evaluation of the pathophysiological state resulting from dysphonia of laryngeal origin or respiratory failure of inflammatory origin, in particular caused by Covid-19. Methods In this study, we exploit the vibrations of waves generated by the vocal and respiratory system of 30 people. A biocompatible acoustic sensor embedded in a soft collar around the neck collects these waves. The collar is also equipped with thermal sensors and a cross-data analysis module in both the temporal and frequency domains (STFT). The optimal coupling conditions and the electrical and dimensional characteristics of the sensors were defined based on a mathematical approach using a matrix formalism. Results The characteristics of the signals in the time domain combined with the quantities obtained from the STFT offer multidimensional information and a decision support tool for determining a pathophysiological state representative of the symptoms explored. The device, tested on 30 people, was able to differentiate patients with mild symptoms from those who had developed acute signs of respiratory failure on a severity scale of 1 to 10. Conclusion With the health constraints imposed by the effects of Covid-19, the heavy organization to be implemented resulting from the flow of diagnostics, tests and clinical management, it was urgent to develop innovative and safe biomedical technologies. This passive listening technique will contribute to the non-invasive assessment and dynamic observation of lesions. Moreover, it merits further examination to provide support for medical operators to improve clinical management. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12195-021-00712-w.

Objective: LVADs are surgically implanted mechanical pumps that improve survival rates of individuals with advanced heart failure. LVAD therapy is associated with high morbidity, which can be partially attributed to challenges with detecting LVAD complications before adverse events occur. Current methods used to monitor for complications with LVAD support require frequent clinical assessments at specialized LVAD centers. Analysis of recorded precordial sounds may enable real-time, remote monitoring of device and cardiac function for early detection of LVAD complications. The dominance of LVAD sounds in the precordium limits the utility of routine cardiac auscultation of LVAD recipients. In this work, we develop a signal processing pipeline to mitigate sounds generated by the LVAD. Methods: We collected in vivo precordial sounds from 17 LVAD recipients, and contemporaneous echocardiograms from 12 of these individuals, to validate heart valve closure timings. Results: We characterized various acoustic signatures of heart sounds extracted from in vivo recordings, and report preliminary findings linking fundamental heart sound characteristics and level of LVAD support. Conclusion: Mitigation of LVAD sounds from precordial sound recordings of LVAD recipients enables analysis of intrinsic heart sounds. Significance: These findings provide proof-of-concept evidence of the clinical utility of heart sound analysis for bedside and remote monitoring of LVAD recipients.

Respiratory diseases are leading causes of death and disability in the world. The recent COVID-19 pandemic is also affecting the respiratory system. Detecting and diagnosing respiratory diseases requires both medical professionals and the clinical environment. Most of the techniques used up to date were also invasive or expensive. Some research groups are developing hardware devices and techniques to make possible a non-invasive or even remote respiratory sound acquisition. These sounds are then processed and analysed for clinical, scientific, or educational purposes. We present the literature review of non-invasive sound acquisition devices and techniques. The results are about a huge number of digital tools, like microphones, wearables, or Internet of Thing devices, that can be used in this scope. Some interesting applications have been found. Some devices make easier the sound acquisition in a clinic environment, but others make possible daily monitoring outside that ambient. We aim to use some of these devices and include the non-invasive recorded respiratory sounds in a Digital Twin system for personalized health. Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades PGC2018-102145-B-C21 Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades PGC2018-102145-B-C22

Sound localization in daily life is one of the important functions of binaural hearing. Bilateral bone conduction devices (BCDs), middle ear implants, and cartilage conduction hearing aids have been often applied for patients with conductive hearing loss (CHL) or mixed hearing loss, for example, resulting from bilateral microtia and aural atresia. In this review, factors affecting the accuracy of sound localization with bilateral BCDs, middle ear implants, and cartilage conduction hearing aids were classified into four categories: (1) types of device, (2) experimental conditions, (3) participants, and (4) pathways from the stimulus sound to both cochleae. Recent studies within the past 10 years on sound localization and lateralization by BCDs, middle ear implants, and cartilage conduction hearing aids were discussed. Most studies showed benefits for sound localization or lateralization with bilateral devices. However, the judgment accuracy was generally lower than that for normal hearing, and the localization errors tended to be larger than for normal hearing. Moreover, it should be noted that the degree of accuracy in sound localization by bilateral BCDs varied considerably among patients. Further research on sound localization is necessary to analyze the complicated mechanism of bone conduction, including suprathreshold air conduction with bilateral devices.

We model acoustic perception in AI agents efficiently within complex scenes with many sound events. The key idea is to employ perceptual parameters that capture how each sound event propagates through the scene to the agent's location. This naturally conforms virtual perception to human. We propose a simplified auditory masking model that limits localization capability in the presence of distracting sounds. We show that anisotropic reflections as well as the initial sound serve as useful localization cues. Our system is simple, fast, and modular and obtains natural results in our tests, letting agents navigate through passageways and portals by sound alone, and anticipate or track occluded but audible targets. Source code is provided.

Articular cartilage defects are common and can result in substantial pain and disability, prompting operative intervention, which commonly includes chondral debridement. Controlled defect preparation up to but not beyond the calcified cartilage layer is key to clinical success, but this remains technically challenging. We present a technique highlighting the substantial decrease in curette stroke volume and associated shift to a lower pitch when achieving satisfactory open cartilage defect debridement. These audiologic cues correlate well with histologic accuracy of debridement. Therefore, quantifiable pitch and volume changes serve as valuable technical cues for precise defect preparation at the time of joint preservation surgery. Classifications I: knee, II: cartilage., Technique Video Video 1 Surgical video demonstrating the technical use of pitch and volume changes during chondral defect preparation in joint preservation surgery.

The present paper investigates a portable eustachian-tube-function testing device by sonotubometry based on pure-tone sound transmission via the eustachian tube (ET). The measured results obtained by the proposed method were validated through comparison with the existing testing technique based on broadband sound inspection. The measurement results for the ET opening time (Topen) and the sound pressure difference in the ear canal between open and closed ETs (ΔL) obtained using pure-tone sounds with tonal frequency components of 7.0 and 9.5 kHz generally agreed with the results obtained by the existing technique with broadband testing sound.

People tend to store important information on air-gapped devices and believe that the information is safe. But in recent years, more and more methods have been proposed to exfiltrate information from an air-gapped system. The methods of breaking through air-gapped can be divided into electromagnetic, thermal, acoustic and optical covert channels. Acoustic covert channels are studied by many researchers and no researchers have focused on real-time communication using inaudible sound. In this paper we propose BAT, a novel real-time bidirectional communication system. By using sounds, BAT enables unobtrusive speaker-microphone data communication without affecting the primary audio-hearing experience of users. We first design a real-time covert communication system using inaudible frequencies. It can be implemented on off-the-shelf smartphones. Compared with other methods, our method is completely using inaudible frequencies and real-time covert communication is realized. Experiments show that BAT can achieve high decoding rate and better imperceptibility in various environments. The designed program BAT is highly practical.

This study aimed to describe the sound frequency of snoring in relation to the site of upper airway vibration among snorers.383 snores from 40 participants who complained of snoring were digitally recorded during natural and induced sleep using a level III polysomnography monitor with a built-in microphone. During drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE), the real-time site of upper airway obstruction was assessed, and the sound frequency of snoring was recorded synchronously.The mean peak of snoring frequency for unilevel palatal, oropharynx and epiglottis obstruction were 522.5, 482.4 and 300.0 Hz, respectively. Most participants showed multilevel obstruction at the palate and oropharynx, in which the mean for bi-peak snoring frequency were 402.90 Hz and 1086.96 Hz, respectively. Severity of OSA was significantly associated with multilevel obstruction.There was a significant association between the snoring sound frequency and site of unilevel obstruction. Palatal or oropharyngeal obstruction produced sound at mid-frequency range, while the epiglottis produced a low frequency range. Multilevel obstruction documented a bi-peak snoring frequency.Tipi di tracciato spettrografico nel russamento in relazione al sito ostruttivo.Questo studio mira a descrivere la frequenza del suono del russamento in relazione al sito di ostruzione delle vie aeree superiori.È stata ottenuta la registrazione di 383 russamenti da 40 partecipanti affetti da russamento cronico. Il russamento è stato registrato digitalmente durante il sonno naturale e indotto, utilizzando un monitor per polisonnografia di livello III con microfono incorporato. Durante la sleep endoscopy a sonno indotto farmacologicamente (DISE), è stato valutato il sito, in tempo reale, dell’ostruzione delle vie aeree superiori, registrando contestualmente la frequenza del russamento.Il picco medio della frequenza del russamento per l’ostruzione ad un singolo livello, palatale, orofaringeo o epiglottico, era rispettivamente di 522,5, 482,4 e 300,0 Hz. La maggior parte dei partecipanti ha mostrato un’ostruzione a più livelli (palato e orofaringe), in cui la media per la frequenza del russamento a due picchi era rispettivamente di 402,90 Hz e 1086,96 Hz. La gravità dell’OSA era significativamente associata all’ostruzione multilivello.È risultata un’associazione significativa tra la frequenza del suono del russamento e il sito di ostruzione ad un singolo livello. L’ostruzione palatale o orofaringea produceva un suono a una gamma di frequenze medie, mentre l’epiglottide produceva una gamma di basse frequenze. L’ostruzione multilivello ha documentato una frequenza di russamento bi-picco.

There have been various studies on the effects of emotional visual processing on subsequent non-emotional auditory stimuli. A previous study with EEG has shown that responses to deviant sounds presented after presenting negative pictures collected more attentional resources than those for neutral pictures. To investigate such a compelling between emotional and cognitive processing, this study aimed to examined pupillary responses to an auditory stimulus after a positive, negative, or neutral emotional state was elicited by an emotional image. An emotional image was followed by a beep sound that was either repetitive or unexpected, and the pupillary dilation was measured. As a result, we found that the early component of the pupillary response to the beep sound was larger for negative and positive emotional states than the neutral emotional state, whereas the late component was larger for the positive emotional state than the negative and neutral emotional states. In addition, the peak latency of the pupillary response was earlier for negative than neutral or positive images. Further, to compensate for the disadvantage of low-temporal resolution of the pupillary data, the pupillary responses were deconvoluted and used in the analysis. The deconvolution analysis of pupillary responses confirmed that the responses to beep sound were more likely to be modulated by the emotional state rather than being influenced by the short presentation interval between the images and sounds. These findings suggested that pupil size index modulations in the compelling situation between emotional and cognitive processing.

Background and Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate the replacement of external sound processors and to help understand the economic burden experienced from cochlear implant users.Subjects and Method Among the 500 cases of cochlear implant surgery from 1992 to 2019, 336 cases from 311 patients who had used a cochlear implant for more than 1 year were enrolled. The period of cochlear implant use, replacement of the sound processor, the number, method, and reason of replacements were examined.Results One hundred sixty cases (47.62%) replaced the sound processor at least once. There were a total of 213 replacements made in 160 cases. The most common reason for replacing the sound processors was because it could not be repaired (71 replacements, 33.33%), with their period of use being an average of 12 years. The most common replacement method of the sound processors was by purchasing with medical insurance benefits (100 replacements, 46.95%), with the usage period being an average of 11 years and 4 months.Conclusion Cochlear implant users replaced the sound processor for various reasons and the period of using one sound processor was relatively short. About half of all replacement cases were made by applying for medical insurance benefits. Others purchased directly through a sales company and paid a relatively high cost. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the medical insurance for external sound processor of cochlear implants to include exchange times considering the economic burden of cochlear implant users.

Chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) are common across the world. In many countries, there is a shortage of medical professionals and hence there is a need to develop artificial intelligence-based automatic diagnostic tools that can help to diagnose pulmonary diseases by computing the lung sounds. This paper presents an automatic classification method using machine learning to diagnose multiple pulmonary diseases from lung sounds. A comprehensive database of lung sounds was collected and labelled by doctors which was used in a deep learning network. The proposed system involves a neural network model because of its high accuracy to diagnose lung sounds like wheezing sound which can be helpful to diagnose asthma patients. To improve the accuracy of diagnosis in a noisy environment and increase the robustness, the proposed method has used data augmentation techniques for training and multi-classification of lung sounds and has achieved 94.24% accuracy. The proposed model can be ported to any computing devices like computers, single board computing processors, android handheld devices, etc., to make a stand-alone diagnostic tool that may be of help in remote primary health care centres. The proposed method is non-invasive, efficient, robust and has low time complexity making it suitable for real-time applications to diagnose pulmonary diseases.

Neuroscientific and clinical studies on auditory perception often use headphones to limit sound interference. In these conditions, sounds are perceived as internalized because they lack the sound-attributes that normally occur with a sound produced from a point in space around the listener. Without the spatial attention mechanisms that occur with localized sounds, auditory functional assessments could thus be underestimated. We hypothesize that adding virtually externalization and localization cues to sounds through headphones enhance sound discrimination in both healthy participants and patients with a disorder of consciousness (DOC). Hd-EEG was analyzed in 14 healthy participants and 18 patients while they listened to self-relevant and irrelevant stimuli in two forms: diotic (classic sound presentation with an “internalized” feeling) and convolved with a binaural room impulse response (to create an “externalized” feeling). Convolution enhanced the brains’ discriminative response as well as the processing of irrelevant sounds itself, in both healthy participants and DOC patients. For the healthy participants, these effects could be associated with enhanced activation of both the dorsal (where/how) and ventral (what) auditory streams, suggesting that spatial attributes support speech discrimination. Thus, virtually spatialized sounds might “call attention to the outside world” and improve the sensitivity of assessment of brain function in DOC patients.

In the last month of 2019, a new virus emerged in China, spreading rapidly and affecting the whole world. This virus, which is called corona, is the most contagious type of virus that humanity has ever encountered. The virus has caused a huge crisis worldwide as it leads to severe infections and eventually death in humans. On March 11, 2020, it was announced by the World Health Organization that a COVID-19 outbreak has occurred. Computer-aided digital technologies, which eliminate many problems and provide convenience in people's lives, did not leave humanity alone in this regard and rushed to provide a solution for this unfortunate event. One of the important aspects in which computer-aided digital technologies can be effective is the diagnosis of the disease. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), which is a standard and precise technique for diagnosing the disease, is an expensive and time-consuming method. Moreover, its availability is not the same all over the world. For this reason, it can be very attractive and important to distinguish the COVID-19 disease from a cold or flu through a cough sound analysis via smartphones which have entered into the lives of many people in recent years. In this study, we proposed a machine learning-based system to distinguish patients with COVID-19 from non-COVID-19 patients by analyzing only a single cough sound. Two different data sets were used, one accessible for the public and the other available on request. After combining the data sets, the features were obtained from the cough sounds using the mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) method, and then, they were classified with seven different machine learning classifiers. To determine the optimum values of hyperparameters for MFCCs and classifiers, the leave-one-out cross-validation (LOO-CV) strategy was implemented. Based on the results, the k-nearest neighbors classifier based on the Euclidean distance (kNN Euclidean) with the accuracy rate, sensitivity of COVID-19, sensitivity of non-COVID-19, F-measure, and area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.9833, 1.0000, 0.9720, 0.9799, and 0.9860, respectively, is more successful than other classifiers. Finally, the best and most effective features were determined for each classifier using the sequential forward selection (SFS) method. According to the results, the proposed system is excellent compared with similar studies in the literature and can be easily used in smartphones and facilitate the diagnosis of COVID-19 patients. In addition, since the used data set includes reflex and unconscious coughs, the results showed that conscious or unconscious coughing has no effect on the diagnosis of COVID-19 patients based on the cough sound. WOS:000679622400001 2-s2.0-85111474081 PubMed: 34345119

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link. Three visual world experiments investigated the activation of linguistic knowledge during the processing of nonlinguistic auditory stimuli. In Experiment 1, participants heard spoken words such as “car” or environmental sounds such as a sound produced by a car while viewing visual arrays with objects such as a car (target), card (phonologically related competitor) and box (unrelated distractor). Interleaved throughout, participants heard both spoken words and environmental sounds. In Experiment 2 and 3, in order to assess contextual constraints on processing, participants only heard environmental sounds while viewing similar visual arrays (targets were included in the former but not the latter). When participants heard environmental sounds interleaved among spoken words (Experiment 1), they fixated competitors significantly more than distractors during both types of auditory stimuli, suggesting that both engage linguistic systems and representations; however, when participants only heard environmental sounds (Experiment 2 and 3), phonological competition was not observed. These results suggest that the activation of linguistic knowledge by environmental sounds is context dependent rather than automatic, differing from spoken words. Implications for theories addressing the mapping of auditory stimuli onto conceptual knowledge are discussed.

Background:The pathology underlying exploding head syndrome, a parasomnia causing a loud sound/sense of explosion, is not well understood. Kappa rhythm is a type of electroencephalogram alpha band activity with maximum potential between contralateral temporal electrodes We report a case of preceding kappa activity before exploding head syndrome attacks., Case report:A 57-year-old woman complained of explosive sounds for 2 months; a loud sound would transpire every day before sleep onset. She was diagnosed with exploding head syndrome. During polysomnography and the multiple sleep latency test, the exploding head syndrome attacks occurred six times. A kappa wave with activity disappearing a few seconds before most exploding head syndrome attacks was observed. The alpha band power in T3-T4 derivation gradually waxed followed by termination around the attacks., Conclusion:This case demonstrated that the dynamics of kappa activity precede exploding head syndrome attacks. Finding ways to modulate electroencephalogram oscillation could elucidate their causality and lead to therapeutic intervention.

Gestural expressiveness plays a fundamental role in the interaction with people, environments, animals, things, and so on. Thus, several emerging application domains would exploit the interpretation of movements to support their critical designing processes. To this end, new forms to express the people’s perceptions could help their interpretation, like in the case of music. In this paper, we investigate the user’s perception associated with the interpretation of sounds by highlighting how sounds can be exploited for helping users in adapting to a specific environment. We present a novel algorithm for mapping human movements into MIDI music. The algorithm has been implemented in a system that integrates a module for real-time tracking of movements through a sample based synthesizer using different types of filters to modulate frequencies. The system has been evaluated through a user study, in which several users have participated in a room experience, yielding significant results about their perceptions with respect to the environment they were immersed.

O útero materno permite ao feto repouso e sono profundo, sendo que imerso nesta estrutura, o feto já registra algumas experiências, as quais permitem que tenham lembranças deste período após o nascimento. O objetivo do estudo foi descrever o comportamento do recém-nascido, internado Unidade de Terapia Intensiva Neonatal (UTIN), quando exposto ao som uterino. Trata-se de um estudo quase-experimental, com 7 Recém-Nascidos (RNs) de 29 a 38 semanas, internados nesta unidade, no período de setembro a outubro de 2019. Os participantes foram expostos ao som uterino por 15 minutos ininterruptos dentro da incubadora, com Leq abaixo de 60,0 dBA. Como elementos do estudo foram avaliadas a Frequência Respiratória, Frequência Cardíaca, Saturação de Oxigênio. Também foi utilizado a escala da dor no recém-nascido e no lactente - Neonatal Infant Pain Scale (NIPS), além da avaliação dos estados de sono e vigília adaptada de Brazelton, antes e após a exposição do som uterino. Resultados: Identificou-se que após a exposição ao som uterino os RNs apresentaram redução da Frequência Respiratória (FR) e Frequência Cardíaca (FC). A escala da dor apresentou significância estatística p

Bone conduction is an efficient pathway of sound transmission which can be harnessed to provide hearing amplification. Bone conduction hearing devices may be indicated when ear canal pathology precludes the use of a conventional hearing aid, as well as in cases of single-sided deafness. Several different technologies exist which transmit sound via bone conduction. Here, we will review the physiology of bone conduction, the indications for bone conduction amplification, and the specifics of currently available devices.

Purposes: To evaluate the instant auditory benefit of an adhesive bone conduction hearing aid (ADHEAR) on children with bilateral congenital microtia, especially the sound localization ability under unilateral and bilateral fitting. Methods: Twelve patients with bilateral congenital microtia aged from 6 to 17 were included in this study. Pure tone threshold under sound field, speech recognition threshold in quiet and sound localization abilities were tested and compared before and after wearing the device. The pure tone threshold test was additionally repeated for two different wearing method – adhesive or fixed with softband; the sound localization test was repeated for both unilateral and bilateral fitting. Correlation analysis was then conducted to find the influencing factors of sound localization improvement. Results: Significant auditory improvement were found: the average pure tone threshold (PTA) reduced by 24.8 (adhesive) and 27.3 dB HL (softband), with no significant difference between the two wearing methods. The speech recognition threshold also improved by 29.0 dB. As for sound localization abilities, no significant improvement was found under unilateral fitting; but half (6 of 12) of the patients were notably benefited from bilateral fitting. The improvement was found to be strong correlated with the patients’ unaided sound localization ability – those with poorer localization abilities tends to benefit more. Moreover, it was found that the sound localization improvement was also negatively related with the malformation degrees of the patients’ head. Summary: ADHEAR affords significant auditory benefits for children with bilateral congenital microtia, in terms of sound and speech perception. The sound localization abilities could be partly improved instantly by bilateral fitting, and the improvement is related with factors such as adaption and skull malformations.

Unlike sonographic examinations, sonic fetal heartbeat monitoring has received relatively little attention from scholars in the social sciences. Using the case of fetal heartbeat monitoring as part of midwifery prenatal care in Germany, this contribution introduces music as an analytical tool for exploring the aesthetic dimensions of obstetrical surveillance practices. Based on ethnographic stories, three orchestrations are compared in which three different instruments help audiences to listen to what becomes fetal heartbeat music and to qualify fetal and pregnant lives in relation to each other. In the Doppler-based orchestration, audible heartbeat music is taken as a sign of a child in need of parental love and care cultivated to listen. The Pinard horn makes esoteric fetal music that can be appreciated by the midwife as a skilled instrumentalist alone and helps to enact a child hidden in the belly. The cardiotocograph brings about soothing music and a reassuring relationship with a child but also durable scripts of juridical beauty. This material-semiotic analysis amplifies how well-being is shaped in midwifery prenatal care practices.

Cochlear implantation (CI) is a safe technique to give hearing sensation to a person with hearing impairment. The present study aimed to compare the two surgical approaches of CI, mastoidectomy and veria, for their effects on saccular function assessed using cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP).Multiple group time series design.The study included 63 children (3-8 years old) who underwent CI using veria technique (The post-implant results revealed the absence of cVEMP in nearly 40% of the participants. The amplitudes were significantly lower at the time of the switch-on and at the 4-months follow-up period (The saccular responses are better preserved with the mastoidectomy technique than the veria technique for CI surgery.

Background and Aim Objective measurements are not available for determining bowel sounds. The present study sought to evaluate the efficacy of a novel bowel sound monitoring system for perioperative use in patients undergoing gastric surgery. Methods The study enrolled 14 patients who underwent surgery for gastric cancer at Kochi Medical School from 2017 to 2018. Preoperative and postoperative bowel sounds were recorded using a newly developed real‐time analysis system in the operating theater and recovery room. Clinical information and bowel sound count data were obtained to compare preoperative and postoperative measures. Results The median preoperative and postoperative bowel sound counts across all patients were 1.4 and 2.5 counts per minute (cpm), respectively. In patients who underwent laparoscopic gastrectomy, the postoperative bowel sound count was significantly higher than that recorded preoperatively (2.3 vs. 1.6 cpm, P = 0.005). The findings also revealed a significant negative correlation between postoperative bowel sound count and operation time (r = −0.714, P = 0.003). Conclusions The real‐time bowel sound analysis system tested herein presents a promising diagnostic tool to quantitatively evaluate bowel movements associated with surgery. Our results suggested a need for shorter operation times for gastric procedures with respect to peristalsis recovery and supported the use of minimally invasive surgery., We prospectively evaluated bowel sound counts using newly developed analysis system in patients who underwent gastric surgery. A real‐time bowel sound analysis system is promising as a diagnostic tool to quantitatively evaluate bowel movement. In this study, analysis of bowel sounds in patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery suggested a need for shorter operation times from the aspect of peristalsis recovery and supporting the use of minimally invasive surgery.

Though mobile applications ubiquitously feature sound, consumers often engage with mobile devices with the audio disabled. This research seeks to address whether mobile app developers should simply accept this reality or if they would be better served by striving to have consumers enable audio. Specifically, we examine the impact of the presence of sounds embedded within mobile applications on downstream behavioral intentions. Critically, such intentional product sounds (i.e., sounds that are deliberately embedded in a product; Van Egmond, 2008) are shown to influence perceptions of social surrogacy (i.e., the imagined presence of others). Across five studies, we provide evidence that the use of intentional sounds in mobile applications increases evaluations of the app and leads to higher app adoption intentions, willingness-to-pay, and likelihood to recommend the app to others. Further, we offer support for the mediating role of social surrogacy in driving the effects of intentional sounds on consumer outcomes.

A speech disorder that occurs due to deformities of speech organs, especially articulators, is called dysglosia. The congenital deformities of speech organs of people around us result in various difficulties in communicating due to inaccuracies or inconsistencies in articulating words. One of the methods in the field of speech therapy being able to to overcome the problems including the abnormalities in sound resonance is Cul-de-sac (Nose Pinching) method. This study aimed to determine the effect of the application of the Cul-de-sac (Nose Pinching) method in increasing the awareness of Dysglosia clients about the differences in sound resonance in the nasal cavity and oral cavity when producing consonants and reducing nasal air emissions when producing consonant sibilant apicoalveolar / s. / at the Cleft Center Bandung. The research method used is single subject experiment. Data were collected through interviews with the client's parents, direct observation of the client, tests, and a document study of the client's medical record. After 15 sessions of therapy using the method, the client's ability had improved for about 65% and he was successfully able to pronounce the consonant of / s / in the presence of a nasal air emission between 1-2 cm. Therefore, based on the results it can be concluded that the Cul-de-sac (Nose Pinching) method has influenced as much as 65% of nasal air emission reduction.

Several input interfaces that employ eye-blinking detection have been proposed. These input interfaces can detect operating intentions indicated by eye-blink actions. In this study, we propose a new blink input interface with the aim of increasing the classifiable blink types in addition to the regular voluntary blink. The proposed interface employs a sound feedback that facilitates multiple candidate selection. The feedback sound represents each input candidate and is generated while switching over time. This interface enables the user to input their operating intentions by controlling the timing of eye opening. We developed a prototype with the proposed interface and evaluated the system. The results indicated that a total classification rate of 96.5% is achieved for four types of voluntary blinks with 10 subjects. This classification rate is in accordance that of our previous report for two types of voluntary blinks. Thus, we concluded that our proposed method is reliable.

Patients may experience nausea or vomiting after operations because of the temporary inhibitory effect of volatile and intravenous anesthetics on intestinal peristalsis. Therefore, understanding how to evaluate the state of postoperative intestinal recovery is necessary. Previous studies have detailed several approaches, but due to their subjectivity and need for experienced evaluators, they are limited in value. This paper presents a smart postoperative recovery assessment system that automatically monitors bowel sounds. An algorithm was developed to automatically detect bowel movement through sound and extract the characteristics thereof. Postoperative intestinal recovery was accurately reflected in these bowel sound characteristics, and patient recovery status was effectively evaluated through a neural network technique. The proposed system may facilitate the clinical evaluation of postoperative intestinal recovery in the future.

In the field of sound recognition, the research and study of sound event detection are still active, with the vast majority of the papers focusing mostly on the domain of speech and music. This paper presents and discusses a framework for a study room event detection system. Feature extraction techniques are utilized and discussed to obtain the parametric type representation for the analysis of the sound for intelligent homes machine listening systems specifically for study room. The conduct of sound analysis within the category of the sounds the least accurate was the door knock, but the accuracy of 95.00%, currently in the field is acknowledged as good, making the parameters fit for detecting surrounding sounds. The performance of the CNN in detecting environmental sounds was analyzed using the parameters that were defined, with an overall accuracy of 96.8%. The result was promising for machine learning that detects sounds that can be applied as technology for an innovative learning environment.

Background: The 1st peak frequency of the hammering sound in total hip arthroplasty may serve as an evaluation index to prevent intraoperative fracture. Fixation of the stem and femur cannot be acquired unless the 1st peak frequency of hammering the stem into the femur stabilizes, and fixation can be judged as acquired when the 1st peak frequency becomes constant. To investigate whether the environmental sound in the operating room can be differentiated from the hammering sound of total hip arthroplasty, the 1st peak frequency of the hammering sound when impacting the stem into the femur with a hammer was identified. Method: The hammering sound of impacting the stem into a biomechanical test material through an impactor was analyzed using a fast Fourier transform analyzer. Environmental sound in the operating room was simulated and the 1st peak frequency of the sound on collision between the operator’s voice and the surgical instrument was measured. The 1st peak frequency of hammering sound was compared between patients indicated for total hip arthroplasty and healthy individuals to investigate whether there is a difference due to bone quality. Results: The natural frequency of the impactor was 3.41 ± 0.05 kHz, and the 1st peak frequency of the femur, stem, and impactor was 2.43 ± 1.45 kHz. The 1st peak frequency of hammering sound on simulated femur in patients indicated for total hip arthroplasty was 2.98 ± 0.73 kHz and that in healthy individuals was 2.15 ± 0.32 kHz. This suggested that the hammering sound in total hip arthroplasty-indicated patients overlaps with the frequency of the collision sound of surgical instruments. Conclusion: To develop a system to prevent intraoperative fracture, countermeasures, such as noise canceling, are necessary to prevent false detection of hammering sounds.

Considered to be one of the first instruments, the horn pipe was used in every culture and geography as an instrument that communicated with gods. The sound of this instrument, which consists of emptying a horn, is obtained by blowing through a pointed tip or a hole on the side. These pipes differ from all other instruments by making frightening, disturbing, animalistic sounds. This instrument, which was generally called nefir in the Islamic period, remained in the background with the preference of metal pipes, but it came to the fore again with the widespread use of Sufi schools. In the Turkish-Islamic tradition, the Nefir, who was consecrated in almost all sects, especially the Bektashis, was especially identified with the traveling dervishes. Although it has a limited performance, it is seen that the material, shape and sound properties of the nefir are effective in its blessing as a ritual instrument. These three factors explain the spiritual and inherent qualities of the nefir as well as the material and apparent characteristics. In this context, the material relationship of the nefir with material, shape and sound, Adam, Israfel and Ali; It is possible to read it as a spiritual formula in the form of beginning, end and eternal. In this study, only horn nefir was evaluated, and it was aimed to reveal the iconographic evolution of this instrument, which is one of the important phenomena of Turkish-Islamic Sufi thought, developed around its material, shape and sound features. In this context, written sources and legends have been evaluated, along with some examples of nefir that have survived to the present day, miniature, engraving, drawings and photographs were used as visual material. Keywords: horn, dragon, Ali, Zulfikar, Adam, Israfel, metamorphosis, transformation.

High-resolution digital audio is believed to produce a better listening experience than the standard quality audio, such as compact disks (CDs) and digital versatile disks (DVDs). One common belief is that high-resolution digital audio is superior due to the higher frequency (> 22 kHz) of its sound components, a characteristic unique to this audio. This study examined whether sounds with high-frequency components were processed differently from similar sounds without these components in the auditory cortex. Mismatch negativity (MMN), an electrocortical index of auditory deviance detection in sensory memory, was recorded in young adults with normal hearing (N = 38) using two types of white noise bursts: original sound and digitally filtered sound from which high-frequency components were removed. The two sounds did not produce any MMN response and could not be discriminated behaviourally. In conclusion, even if high-resolution audio is superior to the standard format, the difference is apparently not detectable at the cortical level.

A model of a single reed instrument is studied in which the reed is described as an Euler-Bernoulli beam, and the air flow through the instrument is calculated using the Navier-Stokes equations. The hypothetical instrument resembles a clarinet, but is smaller than a real clarinet to keep the numerical modeling feasible on available supercomputers. This article explores the conditions under which the frequency of the reed oscillations and the emitted sound are determined by the resonant frequency of the bore of the instrument. The effect of the contact between the reed and the player's lips is also studied, and quantitative results for the air density and pressure in the mouthpiece and throughout the instrument bore are also presented.

Perceptual systems have finite memory resources and must store incoming signals in compressed formats. To explore whether representations of a sound's pitch might derive from this need for compression, we compared discrimination of harmonic and inharmonic sounds across delays. In contrast to inharmonic spectra, harmonic spectra can be summarized, and thus compressed, using their fundamental frequency (f0). Participants heard two sounds and judged which was higher. Despite being comparable for sounds presented back-to-back, discrimination was better for harmonic than inharmonic stimuli when sounds were separated in time, implicating memory representations unique to harmonic sounds. Patterns of individual differences (correlations between thresholds in different conditions) indicated that listeners use different representations depending on the time delay between sounds, directly comparing the spectra of temporally adjacent sounds, but transitioning to comparing f0s across delays. The need to store sound in memory appears to determine reliance on f0-based pitch and may explain its importance in music, in which listeners must extract relationships between notes separated in time.

Background: Caesarean section is the commonest opera-tion performed by the gynecologists and due to the risks and benefits of ERC and VBAC, cases selection and counseling are of out most importance. Aim of Study: To evaluate inter method and inter observer reliability of 2D versus 3D trans abdominal sonography for lower uterine segment measurement. Method: The study enrolled 100 pregnant women under going elective lower uterine segment caesarean section, all sonographic examination was performed by an ultrasound Voluson E6 BT16 Transducer for 2D and 3D trans abdominal sonography, inner myometrial thickness and full thickness will be measured at the thinnest portion and perpendicular to the contour of the lower uterine segment, then measurement intra operatively using graduated sound. Results: Lower uterine segment inner and full diameter measurements were strongly and directly correlated by both 2D and 3D ultrasonography which means the 3D method of assessment added no more value. Both 2D and 3D method of assessment were correlated to a lower uterine segment meas-urement intra operatively with a comparable correlation factor. Conclusion: Multiple caesarean section patients had a significant lower value of lower uterine segment thickness by all means of measurements.

Systolic clicks are high-pitched sharp sounds. They are classified as ejection and nonejection clicks. Ejections clicks commonly occur at the aortic and pulmonary valve, while nonejection clicks occur at the mitral and tricuspid valve. Opening snap is an additional sound heard in the diastole. It is described as an early diastolic, high-pitched sound, which is associated with opening of the mitral and/or tricuspid valve. Pericardial knock is a high-pitched early diastolic sound, which is characteristic of constrictive pericarditis. The opening and closing of prosthetic valves produce sounds which may vary in intensity and timing according to the type and design of the valve, patient’s rhythm, and hemodynamic status.

In almost every natural environment, sounds are reflected by nearby objects, producing many delayed and distorted copies of the original sound, known as reverberation. Our brains usually cope well with reverberation, allowing us to recognize sound sources regardless of their environments. In contrast, reverberation can cause severe difficulties for speech recognition algorithms and hearing-impaired people. The present study examines how the auditory system copes with reverberation. We trained a linear model to recover a rich set of natural, anechoic sounds from their simulated reverberant counterparts. The model neurons achieved this by extending the inhibitory component of their receptive filters for more reverberant spaces, and did so in a frequency-dependent manner. These predicted effects were observed in the responses of auditory cortical neurons of ferrets in the same simulated reverberant environments. Together, these results suggest that auditory cortical neurons adapt to reverberation by adjusting their filtering properties in a manner consistent with dereverberation.

Cardiac Auscultation is widely used in the diagnosis of congenital heart disease (CHD) due to its non-invasive and cost-effective procedure. Heart sound analysis can provide effective auxiliary diagnosis information and aid in automatically screening patients. However, there are different signal spectrum characteristics in different auscultation locations, and there are no unified standards in the selection of auscultation locations during the heart sound analysis. This paper addresses the problem of auscultation locations and the selection of spectrum characteristics in the heart sound identification of CHD patients. 385 cases of normal and CHD heart sound signals were used to extract three groups of representative spectral features: Power Spectral Density (PSD), Mel-Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients (MFCCs) and Instantaneous Frequency Cumulative(IFC) from five different auscultation locations which are Aortic area(A), Pulmonic area(P), Tricuspid area(T), Mitral area(M), and Second aortic valve area(E). Significance detections based on p-value and Gaussian kernel support vector machine (SVM) were used to test these spectrum characteristics in five auscultation locations. The results show that the spectrum energy and the difference of auscultation areas concentrated within the frequency range of 20-150Hz. There is no statistical significance in terms of the spectrum characteristics of CHD in area A (p>0.05) compared with the statistical significance in other auscultation areas (p

Introduction. One of the most important social tasks is the protection and strengthening of people's health. In the modern world, there is a tendency towards an aging population that leads to an overall increase in disease and mortality. This situation is also directly associated with the deterioration of the oral health status of the population that leads to an increase in the number of patients with dentition defects. Especially marked morphological, functional and aesthetic changes in the maxillofacial region are due to anodontia. In dental practice, anodontia is usually corrected with complete removable dentures, and production of correct speech sounds is one of the main tasks when manufacturing and placing complete removable dentures. The purpose of this study was to investigate the peculiarities of the speech adaptation in patients wearing full removable dentures. Materials and methods. 2 groups of patients were created: the group A included patients having no dentition defects, and the group B, which involved patients with complete secondary adentia. The studies were carried out using the method of sound computer spectrography before prosthetic correction, immediately after the fixation of a complete removable denture, after in 3, 7, 30 days. Results and discussion. The method of sound computer spectrography enabled us to record the sound speech production in Ukrainian language by patients before prosthetic correction and during adaptation to the complete removable denture. The obtained graphs demonstrate qualitative differences between the sound production by the individuals having no dentition defects (control) and by the patients with complete secondary adentia. The graphs also demonstrate certain dynamic patterns of acoustic processes during the first 30 days of wearing the complete removable denture. Conclusion. Thus, the complete anodontia significantly reduces the force and clearness of most vowels. At the beginning of wearing the complete removable denture, usually in 3 days, the force of sounds [o], [u] and the sound frequency of [a], [o] are restored. Following the temporary deviation from the norm, the frequency and force of vowels are usually restored in 30 days.

Background/Purpose: Root dentin is vulnerable to a higher risk of demineralization than coronal enamel. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of miswak extract on the dentinal tubules of sound root dentin. Materials and Methods: Twenty bovine root dentin blocks, approximately 2 mm × 3 mm × 3 mm (width × length × depth) in dimensions, were prepared from freshly extracted sound bovine incisors. The sample was divided into two groups: control and miswak group. The control group had sound root dentin block and the miswak test group was treated with miswak extract 20% for 24 h. The two groups of all specimens were subjected to ultrasonication for 10 min. Scanning electron microscope images were analyzed for surface typography. Results: Fifty percent of the control group had surface particles (SPs), while the other 50% had no SPs. For the dentinal tubules, all (100%) the control group had a mixture of opened and partially opened dentinal tubules. On the other hand, for the miswak group, all (100%) the sample had SPs and blocked dentinal tubules. Conclusion: Miswak showed total blocking of the dentinal tubules compared to the control group. This might indicate that miswak has a role in reducing dentinal hypersensitivity of exposed root dentin.

Swim bladders in sciaenid fishes function in hearing in some and sound production in almost all species. Sciaenid swim bladders vary from simple carrot-shaped to two-chambered to possessing various diverticula. Diverticula that terminate close to the ears improve hearing. Other unusual diverticula heading in a caudal direction have not been studied. The fresh-water Asian species Boesemania microlepis has an unusual swim bladder with a slightly restricted anterior region and 6 long-slender caudally-directed diverticula bilaterally. We hypothesized that these diverticula modify sound spectra. Evening advertisement calls consist of a series of multicycle tonal pulses, but the fundamental frequency and first several harmonics are missing or attenuated, and peak frequencies are high, varying between

The purpose of this study was to measure the auditory evoked potentials for speech and non-speech sounds with similar spectral distributions.We developed two types of sounds, comprising naturally spoken vowels (natural speech sounds) and complex synthesized sounds (synthesized sounds). Natural speech sounds consisted of 5 Japanese vowels. Synthesized sounds consisted of a fundamental frequency and its second to fifteenth harmonics equivalent to those of natural speech sounds. The synthesized sound was filtered to have a similar spectral distribution to that of each natural speech sound. These sounds were low-pass filtered at 2000 Hz. The auditory evoked potential elicited by the natural speech sound /o/ and synthesized counterpart for /o/ were measured in 10 right-handed healthy adults with normal hearing.The natural speech sounds were significantly highly recognized as speech compared to the synthesized sounds (74.4% v.s. 13.8%, p 0.01). The natural speech and synthesized sounds for the vowel /o/ contrasted strongly for speech perception (96.9% vs. 9.4%, p0.01). However, the vowel /i/ and its counterpart were barely recognized as speech (4.7 v.s. 3.1%, p = 1.00). The N1 peak amplitudes and latencies evoked by the natural speech sound /o/ were not different from those evoked by the synthesized sound (p = 0.58 and p = 0.28, respectively). The P2 amplitudes evoked by the natural speech sound /o/ were not different from those evoked by the synthesized sound (p = 0.51). The P2 latencies evoked by the natural speech sound /o/ were significantly shorter than those evoked by the synthesized sound (p0.01). This modulation was not observed in a control study using the vowel /i/ and its counterpart (p = 0.29).The early P2 observed may reflect central auditory processing of the 'speechness' of complex sounds.

The current case study focuses on a brain-injured patient for whom a second, right-side cochlear implant (CI) was implanted four years after the patient was unable to obtain sound percept with the ...

This study aims to investigate spine sounds from a perspective that would make their use for diagnostic purposes of any spinal pathology possible. People with spine problems can be determined using joint sounds collected from the involved area of the spinal columns of subjects. In our sound dataset, it is observed that a ‘click’ sound is detected in individuals who are suffering from low back pain. Recorded joint sounds are classified using automatic speech recognition algorithm. mel-frequency cepstrum coefficients (MFCC) are extracted from the sound signals as feature vectors. MFCC’s are classified using an artificial neural networks, which is currently the state-of-the-art speech recognition tool. The algorithm has a high success rate of detecting ‘click’ sounds in a given sound signal and it can perfectly identify and differentiate healthy individuals from unhealthy subjects in our data set. Spine sounds have the potential of serving as a reliable marker of the spine health.

Cough is a common symptom presenting in asthmatic children. In this investigation, an audio-based classification model is presented that can differentiate between healthy and asthmatic children, based on the combination of cough and vocalised /ɑ:/ sounds. A Gaussian mixture model using mel-frequency cepstral coefficients and constant-Q cepstral coefficients was trained. When comparing the predicted labels with the clinician's diagnosis, this cough sound model reaches an overall accuracy of 95.3%. The vocalised /ɑ:/ model reaches an accuracy of 72.2%, which is still significant because the dataset contains only 333 /ɑ:/ sounds versus 2029 cough sounds.

Probing of human lungs using pulse compression techniques in the low-frequency range of 80–1000 Hz established the fact of preferential sound conduction of longitudinal rather than shear waves to the chest surface via lung parenchyma at propagation velocities from 100 to 15 m/s. Probing via the mouth for the first two to three arrivals revealed a significant difference in the effective angles of incidence of the probe signal wave front onto the chest surface, confirming previously formulated ideas about air-structural and structural mechanisms of sound transmission from the bronchial tree lumen to the chest wall. When probing from the surface of the body from the supraclavicular region, two low-velocity arrivals (15–50 m/s) are observed, the effective vertical angles of incidence of which indicate structural sound conduction from a point source formed by the stamp of a vibrator. Probing with a vibrator from the chest surface in the high-frequency range of 10–19 kHz revealed low-velocity arrivals propagating at 50–150 m/s, interpreted as resulting from the propagation of a longitudinal sound wave through lung parenchyma, and high-velocity arrivals propagating at 150–1000 m/s, related to propagation of a longitudinal wave through dense thoracic tissues. The dependence of the amplitude ratio of the peaks of low- and high-velocity arrivals on air filling the parenchyma was revealed. The low-velocity propagation of longitudinal sound waves in both frequency ranges is hypothetically explained with a model of an “effective” waterlike medium with air microbubbles.

A method is proposed for noninvasive assessment of the pulmonary artery pressure based on separation of the aortic and pulmonary components of the second heart sound S2 and determining the delay time between them. The algorithm for separating the aortic and pulmonary components is based on the Wigner–Ville transform. Analysis of the phonocardiograms of 96 patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH) recorded by doctors of the Scientific Research Center of Cardiology using an original set of equipment was carried out. In 53 patients with PH, it was possible to separate S2 signals into components and determine the delays between them. We construct the dependence of delays between the components on pulmonary artery pressure (PAP), measured by right heart catheterization (RHC). For seven patients with PH, the obtained dependences were used to predict the PAP value from the measured time delay. For five patients, the determination coefficient for the predicted PAP values was 0.83, which indicates a fairly good correlation with measurements by the RHC method.

Being able to pick out particular sounds, such as speech, against a background of other sounds represents one of the key tasks performed by the auditory system. Understanding how this happens is important because speech recognition in noise is particularly challenging for older listeners and for people with hearing impairments. Central to this ability is the capacity of neurons to adapt to the statistics of sounds reaching the ears, which helps to generate noise-tolerant representations of sounds in the brain. In more complex auditory scenes, such as a cocktail party — where the background noise comprises other voices, sound features associated with each source have to be grouped together and segregated from those belonging to other sources. This depends on precise temporal coding and modulation of cortical response properties when attending to a particular speaker in a multi-talker environment. Furthermore, the neural processing underlying auditory scene analysis is shaped by experience over multiple timescales.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the benefit of Bonebridge devices in patients with single-sided deafness.MethodFive patients with single-sided deafness who were implanted with Bonebridge devices were recruited in a single-centre study. Participants’ speech perception and horizontal sound localisation abilities were assessed at 6 and 12 months post-operatively. Speech intelligibility in noisy environments was measured in three different testing conditions (speech and noise presented from the front, speech and noise presented from the front and contralateral (normal ear) side separately, and speech presented from the ipsilateral (implanted Bonebridge) side and noise from the contralateral side). Sound localisation was evaluated in Bonebridge-aided and Bonebridge-unaided conditions at different stimuli levels (65, 70 and 75 dB SPL).ResultsAll participants showed a better capacity for speech intelligibility in quiet environments with the Bonebridge device. The speech recognition threshold with the Bonebridge device was significantly decreased at both short- and long-term follow up in the speech presented from the ipsilateral (implanted Bonebridge) side and noise from the contralateral side condition (p < 0.05). Additionally, participants maintained similar levels of sound localisation between the Bonebridge-aided and unaided conditions (p > 0.05). However, the accuracy of localisation showed some improvement at 70 dB SPL and 75 dB SPL post-operatively.ConclusionThe Bonebridge device provides the benefit of improved speech perception performance in patients with single-sided deafness. Sound localisation abilities were neither improved nor worsened with Bonebridge implantation at the follow-up assessments.