This thesis is a comparative study of Pai and Swati. The Pai language is spoken in the easten1 parts of the Mpumalanga Province of the Republic of South Africa. The study concentrates on the correspondences and differences of the speech sounds of these two languages and reference is also made to the morphology. The previous comprehensive work on Pai was by Ziervogel (1956) where he classified the Pai language as one of the three dialects of Eastern Sotho. He also considered the Swati elements present in Pai to be merely borrowings. The present investigation into the history of the Pai people indicates that Pai may have had links with languages other than those belonging to the Sotho group and, from the evidence, an Nguni connection has become a distinct possibility. The speech sounds of Pai are described in detail in chapter two and corresponding speech sounds in Swati are included. The vowels of both languages receive special attention because Pai apparently has a seven-vowel system and Swati a five-vowel system. The corresponding consonants in these two languages soon points towards a relationship that is based on more than just borrowed items. In chapter three the Ur-Bantu sounds of Meinhof and their reflexes in Swati and Pai are described and compared. The wide variety of attestations in Pai and the instability of some phonemes are indicative of a language that has been subjected to many outside influences and that is at the moment in a state of flux. In chapter four some aspects of the morphology are described in order to highlight the peculiar characteristics of Pai as an individual language. The relationship with Swati is again emphasized by the findings in this chapter. A statistical analysis of the speech sounds of Pai and Swati in chapter five indicates that an Nguni core of sounds exists that is shared by both these languages. A re-classification of Pai within the language context of that area may therefore be necessary. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

Thesis (MScEng (Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / This thesis is concerned with the testing of an “auscultation jacket” as a means of recording heart sounds and electrocardiography (ECG) data from patients. A classification system based on Neural Networks, that is able to discriminate between normal and abnormal heart sounds and murmurs, has also been developed . The classification system uses the recorded data as training and testing data. This classification system is proposed to serve as an aid to physicians in diagnosing patients with cardiac abnormalities. Seventeen normal participants and 14 participants that suffer from valve-related heart disease have been recorded with the jacket. The “auscultation jacket” shows great promise as a wearable health monitoring aid for application in rural areas and in the telemedicine industry. The Neural Network classification system is able to differentiate between normal and abnormal heart sounds with a sensitivity of 85.7% and a specificity of 94.1%.

Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates the feasibility of the laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) for use in the autonomous auscultation of the human heart. As a non-contact measurement device, the LDV could become a very versatile biomedical sensor. LDV, stethoscope, piezoelectric accelerometer (PA) and electrocardiogram (ECG) signals were simultaneously recorded from 20 volunteers at Tygerberg Hospital. Of the 20 volunteers, 17 were confirmed to have cardiovascular disease. 3 patients with normal heart sounds were recorded for control data. The recorded data was successfully denoised using soft threshold wavelet denoising and ensemble empirical mode decomposition. The LDV was compared to the PA in common biomedical applications and found to be equally accurate. The heart sound cycles for each participant were segmented using a combination of ECG data and a simplicity curve. Frequency domain features were extracted from each heart cycle and input into a k-nearest neighbours classifier. It was concluded that the LDV can form part of an autonomous, non-contact auscultation system. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek die haalbaarheid daarvan om die laser Doppler vibrasiemeter (LDV) vir die outonome beluistering van die menslike hart te gebruik. As 'n kontaklose meettoestel kan die LDV werklik 'n veelsydige biomediese sensor word. Twintig vrywilligers by die Tygerberg Hospitaal se LDV-, stetoskoop-, piësoelektriese versnellingsmeter (PV)- en elektrokardiogram (EKG) seine is gelyktydig opgeneem. Uit die 20 vrywilligers was daar 17 bevestigde gevalle van kardiovaskulêre siektes. Die data van drie pasiënte met normale hartklanke is as kontroledata opgeneem. Geraas is suksesvol uit die opgeneemde data verwyder deur 'n kombinasie van sagtedrempelgolf en saamgestelde empiriese modus ontladingstegnieke. Die LDV was vergelyk met die PV vir algemene biomediese gebruike en daar was gevind dat dit vergelykbare akkuraatheid het. Die hartklanksiklusse van elke deelnemer is gesegmenteer deur EKG data en 'n eenvoudskromme te kombineer. Frekwensiegebiedskenmerke is uit elke hartsiklus onttrek en in 'n k-naastebuurpunt klassifiseerder ingevoer. Daar is tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat die LDV deel van 'n outonome, kontaklose beluisteringstelsel kan uitmaak.

La version intégrale de ce mémoire est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU). / L’hypothèse d’une influence réciproque entre l’environnement et notre perception sonore représente la base de ma recherche musicale. Villusions est un projet acousmatique qui puise sa source dans l’analyse introspective de cette complexe relation, plus précisément entre les sons du quotidien et l’oreille curieuse d’un voyageur éternel. Les parties les plus intimement liées à mes expériences personnelles de la ville de Montréal et ses banlieues représentent donc le théâtre de cette exploration assidue; les illusions correspondent à trois pièces acousmatiques inspirées par ce contexte de réciprocité. Dans l’ensemble des œuvres présentées, les moments musicaux s’alternent, s’intègrent et se confondent aux éléments sonores naturels qui en constituent souvent la racine génératrice. Ces matériaux ont été développés suivant trois axes principaux : d’abord l’axe des mouvements, associés aux moyens de transport et aux centres névralgiques à travers lesquels se répandent les impulsions de la ville; ensuite l’axe des voix qui témoigne de sa multiethnicité, de sa lymphe vitale; finalement, l’axe de l’alternance des saisons comme prétexte sonore lié au contexte temporel. Des sources sonores instrumentales, dérivées des tablâ et de la harpe, trouvent également leur place dans le projet, en lui donnant une empreinte à la fois rythmique et harmonique. La composante spatiale doit être considérée comme un élément incontournable du discours musical de Villusions. Sa construction octophonique porte sur l’équilibre, délicat et illusoirement immersif, généré par des trajectoires dessinées sur la même ligne temporelle que celle des évènements musicaux, suivant des stratégies intégrées directement dans le processus compositionnel. / This musical research is based on the theory of interaction between the environment and our sound perception. Villusions is an acousmatic project that emerged from the introspective analysis of this complex relationship, in particular between daily sounds and the curious ear of an eternal traveller. Thus, the parts most closely related to my personal experiences in the city (“ville”) of Montréal and its suburbs are where this diligent exploration took place; the illusions are three acousmatic pieces inspired by this context of reciprocity. In the works presented, musical moments alternate, integrate with each other, and merge with the natural sound elements that often constitute the originating roots. This material was developed with three main focuses: firstly, movement, associated with modes of transportation and the nerve centres through which beats the city’s pulse; secondly, the voices that express its multi ethnicity, its vital lymph; and, lastly, the changing of the seasons as an acoustic proxy related to the temporal context. Instrumental sound sources, derived from the tablâ and the harp, are also used in the project, lending both a rhythmic and a harmonic feel. The spatial component should be seen as an essential element of the musical discourse of Villusions. Its octophonic construction features the delicate and deceptively immersive balance created by trajectories drawn on the same timeline as those of the musical events, using techniques directly integrated into the compositional process.

Notre travail de recherche a pour objectif d’éclairer le parcours logique dissimulé derrière les compositions pour le théâtre de Salvatore Sciarrino, afin de réduire la distance entre l’artiste e le destinataire de ses œuvres. Nous avons réfléchi dans un premier temps aux conditions culturelles qui ont joué un rôle important et décisif dans la création du compositeur pour ensuite nous pencher sur l’observation, l’analyse et la compréhension de son premier essai d’esthétique : Le figure della musica da Beethoven a oggi. L’analyse des formes musicales individuées et formalisées par Sciarrino s’est révélée conséquente pour :a. mettre en évidence la forma mentis du compositeur et les innombrables aspects de sa personnalité ;b. déceler l’ensemble de normes et de lois qui sont à la base de son langage organique.Sans nous engager dans le domaine sémantique de la musique, nous avons néanmoins réfléchi avec Sciarrino sur le langage musical et sur la question de sa communication. La recherche du compositeur se présente en fait comme un cas particulier de création d’un langage conçu pour le domaine artistique en général et non pas exclusivement pour le domaine musical.Afin de retracer les aspects les plus singuliers de son travail artistique, nous avons mis l’accent sur l’un des concepts fondamentaux de son enseignement : la musique découle entièrement de la réalité sonore qui nous entoure et qui en constitue l’essence. L’événement sonore, conçu en tant qu’organisme vivant, renvoie à l’idée de Sciarrino d’une écoute écologique, qui traduit la faculté de transformation des sons naturels dans le langage musical, à travers une écoute en perspective.Le découpage dramatique et dramaturgique mis en œuvre par le compositeur propose à l’auditeur et à l’interprète de sa musique un véritable travail de perception, à la fois du texte et de la musique, et les plonge dans un monde caractérisé par l’incertitude et l’imperceptibilité. D’où l’originalité de sa recherche musicale et de ses projets dramaturgiques, qui n’ont pas pour objectif de faire coïncider la réalité visuelle avec la réalité sonore, mais de l’évoquer à travers des sons imperceptibles, à la limite du silence. / The goal of this research is to shed light on the logical trail that is hidden behind Sciarrino’s compositions for theater; it will help us reduce the distance between the artist and the recipient of his works. At first, we will ponder the cultural circumstances, which played an important and decisive part in the composer’s artistic creations. Then, we will devote time to observe, analyze and understand his first writing on aesthetics : Les figure della musica da Beethoven a oggi.The analysis of the unique musical forms created by Sciarrino will prove useful as we :a. reveal the forma mentis of the composer and the innumerable aspects of his personality ;b. trace his organic language back to the system of norms and laws from which it originates.Without involving ourselves in the category of musical semantics, we will nonetheless consider musical language and its levels of communication. In fact, Sciarrino’s research appears as the special instance of a language that is being created for the artistic world in general and not exclusively for the musical world.In order to recount the most singular aspects of his artistic work, we will focus on one of the fundamental concepts of his teachings : that music derives entirely from the sonic reality, which surrounds us and which therefore constitutes its essence.The sonic event, conceived as a living organism, refers to the idea of ecological listening. It is the faculty of transforming natural sounds within a musical language, by listening in perspective.The dramatic and dramaturgic division put in place by Sciarrino offers the listener and the performer of his music a study on perception, of both text and music, and immerges them in a world characterized by uncertainty and imperceptibility. Hence the originality of his musical research and dramaturgic project, which goal is not to make the visual reality coincide with the sonic reality, but to evoke the former with imperceptible sounds, ones that border on silence.

The topic of the thesis is econaratology in conjunction with folk songs, which is subject to the laws of nature and forms a sort of mind set of the of nature life. Singing songs is an integral part of the narrative approach, narrative is complemented by tones and melodies for better memorization. The theoretical part defines the terms: narration, econaratology and folk song. I am interested in what place there the narrative approach in environmental education takes and what are its benefits. I allude to the use of narrative and folk songs as a means of education in practice. The aim of the thesis is based on research findings to determine the extent to which children are able to follow recordings of sound recording recognize and identify vocalizations of domestic or wild animals and industrial sounds of outside world. The research findings are utilized qualitative research, supplemented in some parts of quantitative research. Research tools are the individual interviews over the audio material, which I apply in preschool children. Keywords: narration, econaratology, folk song, nature sounds, folk traditions, research.

S’il est aujourd’hui communément admis que la perception de la parole s’effectue d’une manière plus optimale en mode audiovisuel qu’en mode auditif seul (Benoît, Mohamadi et Kandel, 1994, Schwartz, Berthommier et Savariaux, 2004), la nature des informations visuelles dont il est le plus souvent question est la mimo-gestuelle articulatoire fournie par le locuteur en face à face. Cependant, dans une situation d’enseignement d’une langue étrangère, un autre type d’aide visuelle intervient généralement : la forme écrite des éléments oraux. Pourtant en didactique des langues étrangères, la question du passage à l’écrit est loin d’être consensuelle et certains didacticiens se prononcent en faveur d’un entraînement intensif de la prononciation au tout début de l’apprentissage, avant que l’apprenant ne soit confronté au code écrit (Lauret, 2007). Notre hypothèse est que la dimension facilitante de la forme écrite pour certains publics ne doit pas être négligée, même en début d’apprentissage. Notre recherche se fonde sur des expérimentations menées auprès d’apprenants hindiphones. Tenant compte des spécificités de ce public, nous pensons que l’écrit peut, dans certains cas, faciliter sa réception orale des sons du français en début d’apprentissage, condition nécessaire et préalable à leur production (Renard, 1979). Les tests que nous avons conçus obligent les apprenants à recentrer leur attention sur la graphie de sons (les voyelles nasales [ɑ̃] et [ɔ̃]) dès le début de leur apprentissage au moyen de diverses focalisations visuelles écrites (Fort, Spinelli, Savariaux et Kandel, 2010). Les propositions didactiques que nous formulons à la suite reposent sur la suite logique perception – (transcription graphique) — production même si cette présente étude se centre sur l’évaluation de la perception des sons. / It is commonly admitted today that speech perception is more performing in an audiovisual context than in a visual one (Benoît, Mohamadi and Kandel, 1994, Schwartz, Berthommier and Savariaux, 2004). Visual information in this situation often consists of the speaker’s articulatory and facial gestures provided by the face-to-face interaction. However, when learning a foreign language, another type of visual help is generally available to identify oral forms: their written forms. And yet, in the field of didactics of foreign languages, the issue of the oral-written transition is far from being consensual and some didacticians favour training the pronunciation skills of the learner at the beginning of the learning process, before he is confronted to the written code (Lauret, 2007). Our hypothesis is that the facilitating effect of written forms should not be neglected, even at the beginning of a foreign language learning process. Our research is based on the case of Hindi speakers. Taking into consideration the specificities of this population, we think that written information can, in some cases, facilitate the oral reception of French sounds in the beginning of the learning process, which would be a preliminary condition to their production (Renard, 1979). We have conceived a series of test, forcing the Hindi speaking learners to refocus their attention on the nasal vowels [ɑ̃] and [ɔ̃]’s written form from the beginning of the learning process, using different forms of visual written focuses (Fort, Spinelli, Savariaux and Kandel, 2010). Our didactic proposal relies on the following process: perception – (written form transcription) – production, even though the present study is centred on the evaluation of speech perception.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado / Background: There are no internationally validated questionnaires to investigate the prevalence of infant wheezing. This study was undertaken to validate a questionnaire for the International Study on the Prevalence of Wheezing in Infants (Estudio Internacional de Sibilancias en Lactantes, EISL). Material and Methods: Construct and criterion validity were tested for the question 'Has your baby had wheezing or whistling in the chest during his/her first 12 months of life?'. Construct validity (i.e. the ability of parents and doctors to refer to the same symptoms with the same words) was tested in a sample of 50 wheezing and 50 non-wheezy infants 12-15 months of age in each of 10 centres from 6 different Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking countries. Criterion validity (i.e. the ability of parents to correctly detect the symptom in the general population) was evaluated in 2 samples (Santiago, Chile and Cartagena, Spain) of 50 wheezing and 50 non-wheezing infants (according to parents) of the same age, randomly selected from the general population, who were later blindly diagnosed by a paediatric pulmonologist. Results: Construct validity was very high (κ test: 0.98-1) in all centres. According to Youden's index, criterion validity was good both in Cartagena (75.5%) and in Santiago (67.0%). Adding questions about asthma medication did not improve diagnosis accuracy. Conclusions: The EISL questionnaire significantly distinguished wheezy infants from healthy ones. This questionnaire has a strong validity and can be employed in large international multicentre studies on wheezing during infancy. / Revisión por pares

Neuronal activity of monolingual and bilinguals to environmental sounds and words that are semantically related to them were studied using the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of event-related potentials. MMN was expected to reflect the language selection process in bilinguals on the bases of semantics and phonology. In this regard, as lexical stimuli, interlingual homophones ‘car’ and ‘kar’ (snow) were presented together with semantically related environmental sounds in a passive auditory oddball paradigm. The lexical stimuli were recorded by a native English speaker. Three Turkish-English late bilinguals and one native English speaker participated in the study. An early MMN was elicited in both groups with a distribution over the fronto-central and central areas across the scalp with highest peak amplitude at -2.5 with a 113 ms latency. This response indicates that participants of the study were sensitive to the acoustic changes in two different types of stimuli. The further investigation of the interplay between environmental sounds and semantics displayed no conclusive result due to lack of data. Finally, the brain responses gathered from the bilinguals were not enough to draw a conclusion. Whether the bilinguals were sensitive to the sub-phonemic cues in the presented auditory lexical stimuli or not were inconclusive. / Neuronal aktivitet av en- och tvåspråkiga till miljöljud och ord som är semantiskt relaterade till dem studerades med hjälp av Mismatch Negativity (MMN) komponent av event-relaterade potentialer. MMN förväntades spegla språkvalsprocessen i tvåspråkiga baserad på semantik och fonologi. I detta avseende presenterades interlingual-homofoner ’car’ (bil) och ’kar’ (snö) som lexikala stimuli tillsammans med semantiskt besläktade miljöljud i ett passivt auditivt oddball paradigm. De lexikala stimuli spelades in av en modersmålstalare av engelska. Tre turkiska-engelska sena tvåspråkiga och en modersmålstalare av engelska deltog i studien. En tidig MMN framkallades i båda grupperna med en fördelning över de främre central- och centrala områdena över skalp med amplitud vid -2,5 med 113 ms latens. Detta indikerar att deltagarna var sensitiva till de akustiska förändringarna mellan de två olika typerna av stimuli. Den vidare undersökningen av samspelet mellan miljöljud och semantik visade inget avgörande resultat. Dessutom, var det också ett inkonklusivt resultat som handlade om att huruvida tvåspråkiga deltagarna använde subfonemiska signalerna i de presenterade auditiva lexikala stimuli eller inte.

L’âge moyen de la population française et européenne augmente, cette constatation apporte de nouveaux enjeux techniques et sociétaux, les personnes âgées étant les personnes les plus fragiles et les plus vulnérables, notamment du point de vue des accidents domestiques et en particulier des chutes. C’est pourquoi de nombreux projets d’aide aux personnes âgées : techniques, universitaires et commerciaux ont vu le jour ces dernières années. Ce travail de thèse a été effectué sous convention Cifre, conjointement entre l’entreprise KRG Corporate et le laboratoire BMBI (Biomécanique et Bio-ingénierie) de l’UTC (Université de technologie de Compiègne). Elle a pour objet de proposer un capteur de reconnaissance de sons et des activités de la vie courante, dans le but d’étoffer et d’améliorer le système de télé-assistance déjà commercialisé par la société. Plusieurs méthodes de reconnaissance de parole ou de reconnaissance du locuteur ont déjà été éprouvées dans le domaine de la reconnaissance de sons, entre autres les techniques : GMM (Modèle de mélange gaussien–Gaussian Mixture Model), SVM-GSL (Machine à vecteurs de support, GMM-super-vecteur à noyau linéaire – Support vector machine GMM Supervector Linear kernel) et HMM (Modèle de Markov caché – Hidden Markov Model). De la même manière, nous nous sommes proposés d’utiliser les i-vecteurs pour la reconnaissance de sons. Les i-vecteurs sont utilisés notamment en reconnaissance de locuteur, et ont révolutionné ce domaine récemment. Puis nous avons élargi notre spectre, et utilisé l’apprentissage profond (Deep Learning) qui donne actuellement de très bon résultats en classification tous domaines confondus. Nous les avons tout d’abord utilisés en renfort des i-vecteurs, puis nous les avons utilisés comme système de classification exclusif. Les méthodes précédemment évoquées ont également été testées en conditions bruités puis réelles. Ces différentes expérimentations nous ont permis d’obtenir des taux de reconnaissance très satisfaisants, les réseaux de neurones en renfort des i-vecteurs et les réseaux de neurones seuls étant les systèmes ayant la meilleure précision, avec une amélioration très significative par rapport aux différents systèmes issus de la reconnaissance de parole et de locuteur. / The average age of the French and European population is increasing; this observation brings new technical and societal challenges. Older people are the most fragile and vulnerable, especially in terms of domestic accidents and specifically falls. This is why many elderly people care projects : technical, academic and commercial have seen the light of day in recent years. This thesis work wasc arried out under Cifre agreement, jointly between the company KRG Corporate and the BMBI laboratory (Biomechanics and Bioengineering) of the UTC (Université of Technologie of Compiègne). Its purpose is to offer a sensor for sound recognition and everyday activities, with the aim of expanding and improving the tele-assistance system already marketed by the company. Several speech recognition or speaker recognition methods have already been proven in the field of sound recognition, including GMM (Modèle de mélange gaussien – Gaussian Mixture Model), SVM-GSL (Machine à vecteurs de support, GMM-super-vecteur à noyau linéaire – Support vector machine GMM Supervector Linear kernel) and HMM (Modèle de Markov caché – Hidden Markov Model). In the same way, we proposed to use i-vectors for sound recognition. I-Vectors are used in particular in speaker recognition, and have revolutionized this field recently. Then we broadened our spectrum, and used Deep Learning, which currently gives very good results in classification across all domains. We first used them to reinforce the i-vectors, then we used them as our exclusive classification system. The methods mentioned above were also tested under noisy and then real conditions. These different experiments gaves us very satisfactory recognition rates, with neural networks as reinforcement for i-vectors and neural networks alone being the most accurate systems, with a very significant improvement compared to the various speech and speaker recognition systems.