Alla sinnen kan påverka vår matupplevelse och även hur vi upplever smak, men ett sinne som ofta glöms bort är hörseln. Olika ljud i omgivningen, men även matljuden i sig, har möjlighet att påverka hur vi upplever det vi äter. Hur vi upplever de olika matljuden kan ha en evolutionär bakgrund då krispiga ljud kan tala om för oss att maten är färsk eller innehåller mycket fett eller näringsämnen medan skrapande ljud och ljud av olika vätskor, såsom snörvlande påminner om sjukdom eller fara. På sistone har även fenomen som ASMR och streamande av ätande så kallat mukbang blivit populariserat där matljud lockar tittare. De ljud som är populära inom dessa genrer är dock ljud som kan bli triggande för personer med misofoni.     En enkätstudie utfördes med 100 deltagande respondenter varav 34 hade misofoni, 32 angav att de hade en nedsatt tolerans för olika ljud, 7 som inte visste (om de hade någon ljudöverkänslighet) och 27 som inte hade någon ljudöverkänslighet. Enkäten innefattade olika ljudklipp med matljud och ljud vid matbordet som respondenterna fick lyssna på samt fick olika frågor om hur de upplevde ljuden, ifall ljuden kunde påverka deras aptit, hur ljudkänsliga de är (via den så kallade noise sensitivity scale) samt vilka reaktioner som triggande ljud utlöser för personerna. I denna studie ställs frågan hur de olika grupperna skiljer sig åt gällande dessa frågor samt hur ljud upplevs och varför, samt om misofoni påverkar aptiten. Huruvida misofoni borde betraktas som en egen diagnos kommer att diskuteras.    Denna studie visar att personer med misofoni upplever matljud som signifikant värre än de utan någon ljudöverkänslighet. Ljudet av ett äpple som äts upplevs exempelvis som värre än ljudet av en gaffel skrapande mot en tallrik för personer med misofoni medan personer utan ljudöverkänslighet upplever skrapljudet som allra värst. Personer utan ljudöverkänslighet upplever ljudklippen i enkäten som betydligt mer aptithöjande än personer med misofoni. Studien visar även att personer med misofoni reagerar betydligt starkare på olika ljud i jämförelse med personer som svarat att de upplever att de har en nedsatt tolerans för olika ljud. / All our senses can affect our dining experience and how we perceive flavour. One of the senses that is often forgotten in the context of eating is our hearing. Different sounds in the environment, and even the sound of food itself, can affect the way we perceive our meal. How we experience the different sounds of food has an evolutionary background. Crispy sounds can tell us when something is fresh, has a high fat or nutrition content, while various liquid sounds such as snivelling or scraping noises remind us of sickness and danger. Recently phenomena such as ASMR and mukbang, online streaming of someone eating, has become popularized where food sounds attract many viewers. However the sounds that are popular within these genres are the sounds that can be triggering for people with misophonia.     Out of the 100 people surveyed 34 respondents reported that they had misophonia, 32 experienced increased noise sensitivity, 7 didn't know (if they had any increased noise sensitivity), and 27 were not noise sensitive. The survey consisted of different audio clips with food sounds and other sounds from the dinner table, as well as questions about how the respondents experienced the sounds, if the sounds affected their appetite, if they are sensitive to noise (according to the noise sensitivity scale) and what reactions occurred because of the triggering sounds. This study asks the question of how the different groups’ answers differentiate throughout these questions, how sound is perceived and why, and if misophonia has an effect on appetite. If misophonia should be considered as a separate diagnosis will be discussed.    This study shows that people with misophonia perceive sound of food as significantly worse than the people without noise sensitivity. For example, the sound of an apple being eaten is perceived as worse than the sound of a fork scraping against a plate for people with misophonia while people without noise sensitivity rate the scraping sound as the worst. People without sound sensitivity experience the audio clips as significantly more appetite enhancing than people with misophonia. This study also shows that people with misophonia respond significantly stronger to various sounds compared to the people with increased noise sensitivity.

Thesis (MScEng (Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / Pulmonary tuberculosis is a common and potentially deadly infectious disease, commonly affecting the respiratory area. Over one-third of the world’s population is infected with the tuberculosis bacterium. Since pulmonary tuberculosis damages the respiratory area, the sound properties of infected lungs differ from those of non-infected lungs. However, auscultation is often ruled out as a reliable diagnostic technique due to the random position and severity of damage to the lungs as well as requiring the personal and trained judgment of an experienced medical practitioner. This project investigates a possible improvement in the pulmonary diagnostic and treatment field by applying electronic and computer-aided sound analysis techniques to analyze respiratory actions beyond human audible judgment. Respiratory sounds of both healthy subjects and subjects who were infected with pulmonary tuberculosis were recorded from seven locations per lung on both the posterior and anterior chest walls, using self-designed hardware. Adaptive filtering signal and analysis techniques yielded a wide range of signal features. This included analysis for time, frequency and both wheeze and crackle adventitious respiratory sounds. Following the analysis, statistical methods identified the most attractive signal measurements capable of separating the recordings of healthy and unhealthy respiratory sounds. Selected signal features were used with neural network optimization to obtain a successful implementation for the semi-automated identification of healthy and unhealthy respiratory sounds originating from pulmonary tuberculosis, with a performance of over 80% for sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. The success of categorizing the recordings justifies the capabilities of the digital analysis of respiratory sounds and supports an argument for further research and refinement into the assessment of pulmonary tuberculosis by electronic auscultation. Further research is recommended, with improvements justified and highlighted in this report.

This thesis investigates the effect of incorporating various information visualisation techniques and non-speech sounds (i.e. auditory icons and earcons) in email browsing. This empirical work consisted of three experimental phases. The first experimental phase aimed at finding out the most usable visualisation techniques for presenting email information. This experiment involved the development of two experimental email visualisation approaches which were called LinearVis and MatrixVis. These approaches visualised email messages based on a dateline together with various types of email information such as the time and the senders. The findings of this experiment were used as a basis for the development of a further email visualisation approach which was called LinearVis II. This novel approach presented email data based on multi-coordinated views. The usability of messages retrieval in this approach was investigated and compared to a typical email client in the second experimental phase. Users were required to retrieve email messages in the two experiments with the provided relevant information such as the subject, status and priority. The third experimental phase aimed at exploring the usability of retrieving email messages by using other type of email data, particularly email threads. This experiment investigated the synergic use of graphical representations with non-speech sounds (Multimodal Metaphors), graphical representations and textual display to present email threads and to communicate contextual information about email threads. The findings of this empirical study demonstrated that there is a high potential for using information visualisation techniques and non-speech sounds (i.e. auditory icons and earcons) to improve the usability of email message retrieval. Furthermore, the thesis concludes with a set of empirically derived guidelines for the use of information visualisation techniques and non-speech sound to improve email browsing.

Bakalauro darbo tikslas išanalizuoti ketverių metų vaikų gebėjimą tarti kalbos garsus. Tyrimu siekiama išanalizuoti vaikų gebėjimą tarti kalbos garsus skiemenyse, žodžiuose, sakiniuose, sudėtingos skiemeninės struktūros žodžiuose. Analizuojant tyrimo duomenis, fiksuoti garsų tarimo trūkumai, jų gausos ir įvairovės. Tyrimo metodu buvo pasirinkta tarties tikrinimo kortelė. Tyrime dalyvavo 100 ketverių metų amžiaus vaikų. Jie buvo pasirinkti atsitiktinai. Tirti buvo tie, kurie tuo metu lankė darželį. Tyrimu nustatyta, kad dauguma keturmečių tardami įvairius kalbos vienetus susiduria su sunkumais. Tik trečdalis vaikų tardami atskirus garsus, skiemenis, žodžius, sakinius, sudėtingos skiemeninės struktūros žodžius nesusiduria su sunkumais, taria juos taisyklingai. Analizuojant garsų grupių tarimo trūkumus, nustatyta, kad santykis tarp vienos ir kelių garsų grupių tarimo trūkumų yra beveik vienodas. Sunkesnius garsus tiriamieji keičia kitais, praleidžia, papildomai įveda, iškraipo arba neišlaiko skiemeninės žodžio struktūros. Pastebėta, kad dažniausia tarimo trūkumų forma sigmatizmas ir rotacizmas. Rečiau pasitaikė kapacizmo, gamacizmo, jotacizmo atvejų. / The purpose of The Bachelor Thesis was to analyze the four – year – old children‘s ability to pronounce spesch sounds. The research deals with children's ability to pronounce speech sounds in syllables words, sentences and in words with a complex syllabic structure. Defects of the sounds pronunciation, their abundance and diversity were recorded when analyzing the survey data. Method of the research was pronunciation testing card. There were 100 four-year-old children in this research. Children, who attended kindergarten at the time, were selected at random. The results of research showed that most four-year-old children have difficulties with the pronunciation of various speech units. Only a third of the children do not face difficulties in pronunciation of individual speech sounds, syllables, words, sentences, words with a complex syllabic structure. They pronounce them correctly. Analysis of the sound’s groups pronunciation defects revealed that the ratio of the pronunciation between one and several groups of sounds is nearly equal. The respondents replaced more complicated sounds to others, elided, added extra, mangled or failed the syllabic structure of the words. It was noticed that the most common form of pronunciation defects were sigmatism and rhotacism. Cases of kapacism, gamacism, jotacism were rear.

Esta dissertação apresenta uma análise fonológica segmental da língua Urubu Ka\'apor, baseada em dados coletados no ano de 2008 e 2011, bem como os resultados obtidos com a análise acústica dos sons vocálicos presentes no inventário fonético da língua. Essa língua é falada no Estado do Maranhão (Brasil) descrita como pertencente à família linguística Tupi-Guarani - tronco Tupi (RODRIGUES, 1986). O povo Ka\'apor vive na Terra Indígena (T.I.) Alto Turiaçu e há uma estimativa de 1541 pessoas compondo a população Ka\'apor (IBGE,2010). Em relação à análise fonética proposta neste trabalho, o parâmetro acústico utilizado para a caracterização da qualidade vocálica foi os valores dos Formantes, que são as ressonâncias criadas no trato vocal, a partir dos pulsos de ar que passam pelas cordas vocais, provocando vibração. As frequências dos três primeiros formantes (F1, F2, F3) são suficientes para a identificação das vogais e, de modo geral, a maior parte delas pode ser corretamente identificada apenas com os dois primeiros formantes (LADEFOGED, 2001, p.33). Os dados utilizados nesta análise são itens lexicais gravados com colaboradores adultos, do sexo masculino. E para a medição dos valores dos formantes, utilizou-se o software Praat, no qual é possível visualizar, no espectrograma, os formantes das vogais e obter seus valores de frequência. A partir de tais valores, é possível analisar o movimento de dispersão das vogais, caracterizando o espaço acústico ocupado por cada série de segmento. Com isso, pretende-se que a análise acústica das vogais da língua Ka\'apor auxilie na descrição das características fonéticas desses sons, bem como na análise fonológica da língua (KAKUMASU, 1986; CALDAS, 2009; LOPES, 2009). A análise proposta neste trabalho confirma a existência das seguintes qualidades vocálicas [a, ã, ɛ, ɛ̃, i, ĩ, ɨ, ɔ, ɔ̃, u, ũ ] / This dissertation presents a segmental phonological analysis of the Urubu Ka\'apor language based on data collected in the years 2008 and 2011, as well as the results obtained with the acoustic analysis of vowel sounds present in the phonetic inventory of the language. This language is spoken in the state of Maranhão (Brazil) described as belonging to the Tupi-Guarani linguistic subfamily - Tupi family (RODRIGUES, 1986). The Ka\'apor people live in the Alto Turiaçu Indigenous Land. There are an estimated number of 1541 Ka\'apor people (IBGE, 2010). In relation to the phonetic analysis proposed in this work, the acoustic parameter used for the characterization of vowels quality was the values of the Formants, which are the resonances created in the vocal tract, from the air pulses that pass through the vocal cords, causing vibration. The frequencies of the first three formants (F1, F2, F3) are sufficient to identify the vowels and, in general, most of them can be correctly identified only with the first two formants (LADEFOGED, 2001, p.33). The data used in this analysis are lexical items recorded with adult male speakers. The Praat software was used for the measurement of the formant values. By this software it is possible visualize spectrogram\'s vowels, the formants of the vowels and to obtain their frequency values. From these values, it is possible to analyze the dispersion movement of the vowels, characterizing the acoustic space occupied by each segment series. Thus, it is intended that the acoustic analysis of Ka\'apor vowels helps in the description of the phonetic characteristics of these sounds, as well as in the phonological analysis of the language (KAKUMASU, 1986; CALDAS, 2009; LOPES, 2009). The analysis proposed in this work confirms the existence of the following vocalic qualities: [a, ã, ɛ, ɛ̃, i, ĩ, ɨ, ɔ, ɔ̃, u, ũ]

Research suggests that interacting with nature has positive psychological, physiological, and cognitive benefits. Views to nature, interacting with nature, and other visual nature stimuli have been widely studied. However, nature soundscapes have received less attention; and the limited research that has been published has mixed findings. The present study assessed whether nature soundscapes influenced performance on cognitive and affective assessments. Participants completed the Flanker task, the Stroop task, a Visual Search task, and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, while exposed to either nature sounds alone, nature sounds with outdoor views, or neither. No statistically significant differences in performance were found for any of the three conditions, on either the cognitive and affective assessments. These findings indicate that the relation between nature sounds and cognition is more complex than originally presumed, and potential future directions are discussed. / Graduate / 2020-04-11

O crescente interesse pela aprendizagem do português na modalidade brasileira (PB) tem levado muitas instituições nacionais a pesquisarem os diferentes modos de aquisição do português como língua materna e suas possíveis influências na aprendizagem de português como língua estrangeira, além de buscarem metodologias de ensino e prepararem profissionais, tornando-os capacitados para o ensino de Português a Falantes de Outras Línguas (PFOL). A experiência com alunos estrangeiros leva-nos a um constante questionamento a respeito do como fazer e quais as maiores dificuldades que o PB oferece a quem se interessa em aprendê-lo. Os sons do português na modalidade brasileira, particularmente os nasais, oclusivos, fricativos e laterais foram abordados neste trabalho, no qual se procurou realizar um estudo comparativo entre a ocorrência ou não destes nas línguas maternas dos informantes, a saber, espanhol falado nas Américas e inglês estadunidense e quais os possíveis obstáculos enfrentados por alunos dessas nacionalidades ao produzirem os sons do PB. Por meio da gravação de quatro informantes, denominados aqui sujeitos-aprendizes, analisamos quais sons oferecem dificuldades de produção e procuramos identificar em quais situações elas ocorrem. A metodologia escolhida foi a da gravação da leitura dos quatro informantes que, num primeiro momento, leram uma lista contendo 43 palavras e, numa segunda etapa de coleta de dados, leram um pequeno texto. As conclusões a que chegamos com a análise dos resultados obtidos levam-nos a ratificar a relevância da formação dos profissionais que atuam ou pretendem atuar no ensino de português para estrangeiros, além da necessidade premente de manuais didáticos que contemplem não somente as questões gramaticais e culturais da língua, mas também as questões fonéticofonológicas que caracterizam o PB. / The increasing interest on learning Brazilian Portuguese(BP) has moved many universities and other national institutions towards researches on different manners of Portuguese acquisition as first language (L1) and some possible influences on acquisition of Portuguese as a second language (L2), as well as a search for teaching strategies and for preparing teachers, making them capable to teach Portuguese as a Foreign Language. The experience with foreign students leads us to a frequent questioning about how to do (how to teach) and what may be the main difficulties offered by BP to those who want to learn it. The sounds of BP, particularly the nasals, fricatives, oclusives and liquids were studied, trying to do a comparative study between the occurence or not of them in the four subjects first language, i.e, Spanish spoken in America and English spoken in the United States and what could be predicted as obstacles to be faced by students who have these languages as their L1 when they produce the sounds of BP. We recorded 4 subjects, identified in this work as subject-learners and analyzed which are the sounds that may be difficult to produce, trying to identify in what situation they occur. As methodology, we chose to record the four subject-learners readings who, in a first moment, read a list of 43 words and, at a second phase of the data collection, read a short text. The conclusions we came up with when analyzing the data confirmed the relevancy of teachers well prepared to teach Portuguese as a foreign language, as well as teaching books that comprise not only grammar and cultural aspects of the BP but also phonetic-phonological aspects pertaining to BP.

O sons da cidade são objeto de reflexão recente. O final da década de 70 do século XXI é o período onde são identificadas obras fundadoras do estudo dos sons no e do espaço urbano na literatura vinculada às ciências sociais puras e aplicadas. Mesmo como objeto de reflexão recente e ainda pouco divulgado, os sons da cidade estão presentes em pesquisas, se não como foco central, como aspecto central da cidade e da vida na cidade. A presente dissertação propõe-se identificar a presença dos sons da cidade como temática de pesquisa no Planejamento Urbano e Regional (PUR) brasileiro através da busca de palavras-chave nos textos da área. São dois os momentos de análise: primeiro ao demarcar o alcance espaço temporal da pesquisa é lançado um olhar amplo ao PUR através do conjunto de trabalhos apresentados nas ultimas quatro edições dos encontros da ANPUR (X, XI, XII e XIII ENANPUR, ocorridos respectivamente nos anos 2003, 2005, 2007 e 2009) e das dissertações e teses defendidas no PROPUR/UFRGS desde a fundação do programa em 1970 até 2009. Em seqüência são tratados em profundidade os trabalhos apresentados no XIII ENANPUR (2009), evento onde se identificou a maior recorrência de palavras-chave com potencial associativo a temáticas sons da cidade. Esta análise permite inferir que os sons são tema cada vez mais freqüentes na área PUR, sendo que se destacam como formas de tratar os sons a apresentação destes como elementos constitutivos da experiência urbana, como práticas cotidianas, e como aspectos enunciados por serem apreendidos como um problema. / The sounds of the city are subject of recent discussion. The 70th decade of the XXI Century is the period where the founders works in the study of sounds and of urban space are identified in literature linked to the social sciences, both pure and applied. Even being object of recent reflection and still little known, the sounds of the city takes themselves present in researches, if not as a central focus, as a constituent aspect of the town and the life in this place. This dissertation aims to identify the presence of the city sounds as theme of research in the Brazilian field of Urban and Regional Planning thru keywords searching in the studies of this area. The moments of analysis were two: former, to demarcate the temporal scope, was launched a broad look at PUR covering both dissertations and theses presented in Post-Graduation Program on Urban and Regional Planning (PROPUR/UFRGS) from the foundation of this program in 1970 until 2009, and the set of papers presented in the last four editions of the meetings of National Association of Post-Graduation in Urban and Regional Planning - ANPUR (X, XI, XII and XIII ENANPUR, that occurred respectively in the years 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009).In sequence were treated in depth the papers presented at the XIII ENANPUR (2009), because the biggest recurrence of keywords with associative potential with the research theme named sounds of the city was identified in this event. This analysis allows us to infer that the sounds are increasingly frequent topic in the PUR area, being identified as ways of dealing with the sounds the presentation of them as a constitutive part of the urban experience, as everyday practices, and as a aspect that is enounce because is apprehended as a problem.

Because the voltage amplitude of a heart beat is small compared to the amplitude of exponential noise, pacemakers have difficulty registering the responding heart beat immediately after a pacing pulse. This thesis investigates use of digital filters, an inverse filter and a lowpass filter, to eliminate the effects of exponential noise following a pace pulse. The goal was to create a filter which makes recognition of a haversine wave less dependent on natural subsidence of exponential noise. Research included the design of heart system, pacemaker, pulse generation, and D sensor system simulations. The simulation model includes the following components: \ • Signal source, A MA TLAB generated combination of a haversine signal, exponential noise, and myopotential noise. The haversine signal is a test signal used to simulate the QRS complex which is normally recorded on an ECG trace as a representa tion of heart function. The amplitude is approximately 10 mV. Simulated myopotential noise represents a uniformly distributed random noise which is generated by skeletal muscle tissue. The myopotential noise has a frequency spectrum extending from 70 to 1000Hz. The amplitude varies from 2 to 5 mV. Simulated exponential noise represents the depolarization effects of a pacing pulse as seen at the active cardiac lead. The amplitude is about -1 volt, large in comparison with the haversine signal. • AID converter, A combination of sample & hold and quantizer functions translate the analog signal into a digital signal. Additionally, random noise is created during quantization. • Digital filters, An inverse filter removes the exponential noise, and a lowpass filter removes myopotential noise. • Threshold level detector, A function which detects the strength and amplitude of the output signal was created for robustness and as a data sampling device. The simulation program is written for operation in a DOS environment. The program generates a haversine signal, myopotential noise (random noise), and exponential noise. The signals are amplified and sent to an AID converter stage. The resultant digital signal is sent to a series of digital filters, where exponential noise is removed by an inverse digital filter, and myopotential noise is removed by the Chebyshev type I lowpass digital filter. The output signal is "detected" if its waveform exceeds the noise threshold level. To determine what kind of digital filter would remove exponential noise, the spectrum of exponential noise relative to a haversine signal was examined. The spectrum of the exponential noise is continuous because the pace pulse is considered a non-periodic signal (assuming the haversine signal occurs immediately after a pace pulse). The spectrum of the haversine is also continuous, existing at every value of frequency co. The spectrum of the haversine is overlapped by the spectrum of and amplitude of the exponential, which is several orders of magnitude larger. The exponential cannot be removed by conventional filters. Therefore, an inverse filter approach is used to remove exponential noise. The transfer function of the inverse filter of the model has only zeros. This type of filter is called FIR, all-zero, non recursive, or moving average. Tests were run using the model to investigate the behavior of the inverse filter. It was found that the haversine signal could be clearly detected within a 5% change in the time constant of the exponential noise. Between 5% and 15% of change in the time constant, the filtered exponential amplitude swamps the haversine signal. The sensitivity of the inverse filter was also studied: when using a fixed exponential time constant but changing the location of the transfer function, the effect of the exponential noise on the haversine is minimal when zeros are located between 0.75 and 0.85 of the unit circle. After the source signal passes the inverse filter, the signal consists only of the haversine signal, myopotential noise, and some random noise introduced during quantization. To remove these noises, a Chebyshev type I lowpass filter is used.

Spotted seatrout, Cynoscion nebulosus, spawning locations as well as associated environmental variables were determined for Tampa Bay, Florida during the 2004 spawning season using a mobile hydrophone survey. Hydrophones, a type of underwater microphone, can be used to detect and record spawning sounds of soniferous fishes. During their spawning season in Tampa Bay which generally occurs between March and September, mature male spotted seatrout generate sounds associated with courtship in the crepuscular and evening periods by vibrating sonic muscles against the swim bladder. Active spawning sites can be located using hydrophones to find these calling males. Using a random stratified sampling method, 760 stations within Tampa Bay (46 % of the sampling universe) were sampled over the 2004 spawning season. Only 8% of sampled stations had large aggregations of spotted seatrout. Spawning, determined by the sound produced by large aggregations, was detected throughout the bay except for Hillsborough Bay and was most common in the lower bay and eastern region of the middle bay. Presence of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), proximity to shoreline, as well as high dissolved oxygen values and shallow depth were positively correlated with spawning areas. Courtship calls of sand seatrout, Cynoscion arenarius, and silver perch, Bairdiella chrysoura were also detected during the survey as they share an overlapping spawning season with spotted seatrout. Aggregations of all three species rarely occurred simultaneously. Sand seatrout and silver perch used different habitats within Tampa Bay to spawn and spawned with a much greater frequency than spotted seatrout. Courtship calls of spotted seatrout were analyzed both by ear and by received sound level to determine if signal processing could be used to assess courtship sound recordings. However, there was no clear relationship between the two methods.