The hospital sound environment is complex. Emergency Departments (EDs), in particular, have proven to be hectic work environments populated with diverse sound sources. Medical equipment, alarms, and communication events generate noise that can interfere with staff concentration and communication. In this study, sound measurements and analyses were conducted in six hospitals total: three civilian hospitals in Atlanta, Georgia and Dublin, Ohio, as well as three Washington, DC-area hospitals in the Military Health System (MHS). The equivalent, minimum, and maximum sound pressure levels were recorded over twenty-four hours in several locations in each ED, with shorter 15-30 minute measurements performed in other areas. Acoustic descriptors, such as spectral content, level distributions, and speech intelligibility were examined. The perception of these acoustic qualities by hospital staff was also evaluated through subjective surveys. It was found that noise levels in both work areas and patient rooms were excessive. Additionally, speech intelligibility measurements and survey results show that background noise presents a significant obstacle in effective communication between staff members and patients. Compared to previous studies, this study looks at a wider range of acoustic metrics and the corresponding perceptions of staff in order to form a more precise and accurate depiction of the ED sound environment.

There is a lot of research made on second language (L2) learning (Jesney, 2004). However the relationship between foreign accent, intelligibility and acoustics within pronunciation tutoring is quite an unresearched area (Thorén, 2008). The aim of the study was to analyze how a course in Swedish pronunciation affected foreign accent, intelligibility and acoustics among L2-learners of Swedish. A total of 41 people participated in the study: 16 L2-learners, 4 native Swedish speakers consisting a control group and 21 perceptual assessors with Swedish as native language. The L2-learners foreign accent and intelligibility were rated by the listeners before and after a course in Swedish pronunciation on an eight-point Likert-scale. The listeners also answered a questionnaire on factors potentially affecting the ratings. The acoustic measurements were made on ten words that were read aloud consisting of long and short allophones of five Swedish vowels. Formants, vowel duration and fundamental frequency were measured for the three closest and the three furthest from native pronunciation rated L2-learners. The results indicate that a class in Swedish pronunciation significantly decreased the L2-learners foreign accent. A strong correlation between the foreign accent and intelligibility ratings was found. Despite a strong correlation, no significant improvement concerning intelligibility could be established. The only factor that affected the intelligibility ratings were the assessor’s geographic affiliation. People from the western part of Sweden rated the intelligibility as less intelligible than raters from the eastern part of Sweden. The results from some of the acoustic measurements corresponded with the assessors ratings of foreign accent and intelligibility. The L2-learner rated as closest to native pronunciation was also the one with acousticly measured results close to the reference values regarding vowel duration (Elert, 1964; Gårding et al, 1974; Kügler, 2007; Thorén, i.d.) and fundamental frequency (Pegoraro Krook, 1988). The conclusion is that Swedish pronunciation tutoring should be focused on exercises that increase intelligibility because exercises that improve the foreign accent not necessarily increase the intelligibility. / Det finns en hel del forskning kring andraspråksinlärning (Jesney, 2004). Dock är förhållandet mellan brytning, förståelighet och akustiska variabler ett område som inte är lika väl beforskat inom uttalsundervisning i svenska (Thorén, 2008). Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka hur en kurs i svenskt uttal påverkade brytning, förståelighet och akustiskt mätbara parametrar hos personer med svenska som andraspråk. Totalt medverkade 41 personer i studien varav 16 stycken var andraspråkstalare, 4 stycken var kontrollpersoner och resterande 21 var modersmålstalare av svenska som agerade lyssnarbedömare. Lyssnarbedömarnas skattningar baserades på två inspelningar av andraspråkstalarnas spontantal före och efter en kurs i svenskt uttal. Bedömningen gjordes på en åttagradig Likert-skala gällande grad av brytning samt förståelighet. Bedömarna fick även fylla i ett frågeformulär gällande vilka faktorer som potentiellt kunde påverka skattningen av brytning och förståelighet. De akustiska mätningarna gjordes på tio upplästa ord innehållande fem av svenskans vokaler. Formanter, vokalduration samt grundtonsfrekvens undersöktes hos sex andraspråkstalare, där de tre närmst respektive tre längst ifrån ett modersmålslikt svenskt uttal analyserades. Resultaten i föreliggande studie visade att kursen i svenskt uttal signifikant minskade andraspråkstalarnas brytning. Det fanns dessutom en tydlig korrelation mellan brytning- och förståelighetsskattningarna. Trots detta kunde ingen signifikant förbättring gällande kursdeltagarnas förståelighet påvisas. Den enda faktor som visade sig påverka förståelighetsskattningarna var bedömarnas geografiska tillhörighet där personer från västra Sverige bedömde förståeligheten som sämre jämfört med personer från östra Sverige. Resultaten från några av de akustiska mätningarna överensstämde med bedömarnas uppfattning av kursdeltagarnas grad av brytning och förståelighet. Det betydde att den som skattats närmast ett modersmålslikt svenskt uttal av lyssnarbedömarna också låg närmast referensvärdena vid den akustiska analysen gällande vokalduration (Elert, 1964; Gårding et al, 1974; Kügler, 2007; Thorén, i.d.) och grundtonsfrekvens (Pegoraro Krook, 1988). Slutsatsen i denna studie är att uttalsundervisning i svenska bör fokuseras på övningar som förbättrar förståelighet då övningar som förbättrar brytning inte nödvändigtvis gynnar förståeligheten.

This thesis investigates the use of an auxiliary sensor, the GEMS device, for improving the quality of noisy speech and designing noise preprocessors to MELP speech coders. Use of auxiliary sensors for noise-robust ASR applications is also investigated to develop speech enhancement algorithms that use acoustic-phonetic properties of the speech signal. A Bayesian risk minimization framework is developed that can incorporate the acoustic-phonetic properties of speech sounds and knowledge of human auditory perception into the speech enhancement framework. Two noise suppression systems are presented using the ideas developed in the mathematical framework. In the first system, an aharmonic comb filter is proposed for voiced speech where low-energy frequencies are severely suppressed while high-energy frequencies are suppressed mildly. The proposed system outperformed an MMSE estimator in subjective listening tests and DRT intelligibility test for MELP-coded noisy speech. The effect of aharmonic comb filtering on the linear predictive coding (LPC) parameters is analyzed using a missing data approach. Suppressing the low-energy frequencies without any modification of the high-energy frequencies is shown to improve the LPC spectrum using the Itakura-Saito distance measure. The second system combines the aharmonic comb filter with the acoustic-phonetic properties of speech to improve the intelligibility of the MELP-coded noisy speech. Noisy speech signal is segmented into broad level sound classes using a multi-sensor automatic segmentation/classification tool, and each sound class is enhanced differently based on its acoustic-phonetic properties. The proposed system is shown to outperform both the MELPe noise preprocessor and the aharmonic comb filter in intelligibility tests when used in concatenation with the MELP coder. Since the second noise suppression system uses an automatic segmentation/classification algorithm, exploiting the GEMS signal in an automatic segmentation/classification task is also addressed using an ASR approach. Current ASR engines can segment and classify speech utterances in a single pass; however, they are sensitive to ambient noise. Features that are extracted from the GEMS signal can be fused with the noisy MFCC features to improve the noise-robustness of the ASR system. In the first phase, a voicing feature is extracted from the clean speech signal and fused with the MFCC features. The actual GEMS signal could not be used in this phase because of insufficient sensor data to train the ASR system. Tests are done using the Aurora2 noisy digits database. The speech-based voicing feature is found to be effective at around 10 dB but, below 10 dB, the effectiveness rapidly drops with decreasing SNR because of the severe distortions in the speech-based features at these SNRs. Hence, a novel system is proposed that treats the MFCC features in a speech frame as missing data if the global SNR is below 10 dB and the speech frame is unvoiced. If the global SNR is above 10 dB of the speech frame is voiced, both MFCC features and voicing feature are used. The proposed system is shown to outperform some of the popular noise-robust techniques at all SNRs. In the second phase, a new isolated monosyllable database is prepared that contains both speech and GEMS data. ASR experiments conducted for clean speech showed that the GEMS-based feature, when fused with the MFCC features, decreases the performance. The reason for this unexpected result is found to be partly related to some of the GEMS data that is severely noisy. The non-acoustic sensor noise exists in all GEMS data but the severe noise happens rarely. A missing data technique is proposed to alleviate the effects of severely noisy sensor data. The GEMS-based feature is treated as missing data when it is detected to be severely noisy. The combined features are shown to outperform the MFCC features for clean speech when the missing data technique is applied.

Thesis (Au.D.)--James Madison University, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references.

This master’s thesis considers the Official Report of the Swedish Government Transpersoner i Sverige (SOU 2017:92), and its ambitions to increase intelligibility for trans people. Using a discourse-theoretical framework, I study the report’s production of meaning regarding power, norms and knowledge. In my analysis, the constitution of meaning leads to the establishment, in the report, of a specific understanding of intelligibility and of how intelligibility for trans people can and should be increased. Further, I note that ‘knowledge’, in the report, is positioned as beyond power and mobilized to counter the defined problems of unintelligibility. In particular, the report promotes measurable knowledge as the means by which to amend problems concerning lacking descriptions of trans people’s situation. Using Spade (2015) and Butler (1997), I elaborate on the positioning of the state with respect to the report’s project of increasing intelligibility, and show that state power is naturalized. The main conclusion of the thesis is that several of the report’s suggestions serve to legitimize state regulation of gendered subjectivity, specifically with respect to legal genders and their utilization in measurement and surveillance.

Abstract: This paper is based on a qualitative investigation concerning the effect of errors on the intelligibility of learner texts and whether there are some errors that can be considered graver than others. The investigation was based on five student texts that were collected at an upper secondary school in the Swedish province of Värmland. The texts were sent to five native speaker evaluators in Britain and the United States of America. The errors represented were categorized as followed: substance, grammar, word choice, transfer errors and other errors.The results indicate that errors concerning substance, word choice, other errors and grammar were not considered grave. Concerning the grammatical errors, there were only a small number of cases that were considered grave. Therefore, the conclusion was drawn that grammatical errors do not affect the intelligibility of any of the five texts. However, the results from the investigation show that transfer errors, i.e. when the writer has transferred characteristics from the first language to the target language, were considered affecting the intelligibility to a larger extent than errors belonging to the other categories.

Esse estudo teve como objetivo propor e avaliar a eficácia de um Programa Fonoaudiológico para Formação de Locutores de Rádio (PFFLR), aplicado aos alunos de um Curso Profissionalizante de Radialista – Setor Locução. O Programa Fonoaudiológico para Formação de Locutores de Rádio foi estruturado em 7 módulos com duração de 7 aulas semanais. Esse Programa foi fundamentado na estimulação de 11 aspectos, os quais foram trabalhados seqüencialmente. Os participantes foram divididos em dois grupos, pareados quanto ao sexo e idade. O grupo de pesquisa foi constituído por 35 adultos, alunos do curso de locução e o grupo controle por 35 adultos, que espontaneamente se disponibilizaram a participar da pesquisa. Foram realizadas três análises, sendo: análise objetiva da voz, através da extração da freqüência fundamental, análise perceptivo-auditiva do uso vocal e análise objetiva da velocidade de fala na leitura. Os resultados indicaram que os grupos diferenciaram-se quanto ao uso vocal e à velocidade de fala na leitura. Em relação à análise do uso vocal, os grupos diferenciaram-se para os parâmetros de qualidade vocal, loudness, ressonância, coordenação pneumofonoarticulatória, articulação, modulação e ritmo de leitura. Quanto à análise da velocidade de fala, os grupos diferenciaram-se tanto para o número de palavras/minuto como de sílabas/minuto. Em relação à análise objetiva da voz, para o grupo de pesquisa houve diferenças entre o pré e pós-aplicação do PFFLR, com redução da freqüência fundamental. Os resultados indicam que o PFFLR foi eficaz na sua proposta, e os parâmetros onde houve melhoras são aqueles específicos para a boa locução. / The purpose of the present study was to propose and evaluate the effectiveness of the Speech Pathology Program for the preparation of radio speakers, with was used with students of the professional course for broadcaster-radio speakers. The speech pathology program for the preparation of radio speakers was structured 7 modules with the duration for 7 weekly lectures. The program was based on the simulation of 11 aspects, wich were presented in a sequential mode. The participants were divided in 2 groups and paired accvornding to age and gender. The research group consisted of 35 adults, stuidents of the radio sp[eakers course, and the control consisted of 35 adults who volunteerd to take part in the research. Three of analysis were mode: (1) na objective analysis of voice through the extraction of the fundamental frequency; (2) a perpective-auditory analyses of the vocal use; and (3) na objetive analysis of the speech rate during reading. The results indicated that the groups differed from each other in relation to the vocal use the speech rate during. Regarding the vocal use, the groups were differnt for tha parameters the vocal quality, loudness, resonance, coordination between breathing ans speaking, articulation, modulation and reading rhythm. Regarding the analysis of the speech rate, the groups were different for the number of words and syllabes per minute. As for the objetive analysis of voice, the research group presented in their pre and post program application perfomances, with the reduction of the fundamental frequency. The results indicate that the speech pathology program for the preparation of radio speakers was effective in the proposition. The parameters in wich improvements were observed are those specific for a good locution.

As habilidades comunicativas de crianças portadoras de deficiência auditiva (DA) pré-lingual, submetidas à cirurgia do implante coclear (IC) desenvolvem-se ao longo dos anos de uso do dispositivo. O objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar o desempenho alcançado por adolescentes e jovens adultos com, no mínimo, dez anos de experiência com o IC, em relação à audição e à inteligibilidade de fala e, considerando o tipo de DA, o tempo de privação sensorial auditiva e o tipo de dispositivo. Participaram deste estudo, 61 adolescentes e jovens adultos portadores de DA pré-lingual, que receberam diferentes tipos de IC em média, aos 3 anos e 10 meses de idade. Reconhecimento da lista de palavras dissílabas, Teste Hint adaptativo e reconhecimento das sentenças Hint no silêncio e no ruído foram os procedimentos utilizados para avaliar o desempenho de audição. A inteligibilidade da fala dos participantes foi avaliada por dois julgadores sem experiência com deficientes auditivos, usando o método de transcrição e a escala de inteligibilidade de 5 pontos. Após 10 anos de experiência com o IC, 53 participantes (86,9%) alcançaram habilidade de reconhecimento auditivo em conjunto aberto. Os resultados médios obtidos na lista de palavras dissílabas foram de 49,4%; teste Hint adaptativo, a média dos resultados no silêncio foi igual a 54,7dB e, no ruído, 10,7 dB e; os valores médios de porcentagem nas sentenças Hint no silêncio 54% e no ruído, 33,3%. Quanto à inteligibilidade de fala dos participantes, a média de acertos no método de transcrição foi igual a 76,2%. Na escala de inteligibilidade, a pontuação média correspondeu a 3,3 pontos. Melhores desempenhos de audição no silêncio e no ruído foram correlacionados ao menor tempo de privação sensorial auditiva. Foi observada correlação entre o tipo de dispositivo utilizado e: o desempenho de audição no ruído e o desempenho de inteligibilidade da fala. Usuários do dispositivo Nucleus 24 e Med-El apresentaram melhor desempenho de audição e de inteligibilidade de fala do que os usuários Nucleus 22. Mais de 10 anos após a cirurgia de IC, 82% das crianças implantadas com as primeiras gerações do dispositivo eletrônico desenvolveram habilidade de reconhecimento auditivo no ruído e 90,1% alcançaram fala inteligível. O desempenho de audição e de inteligibilidade de fala dos participantes foi influenciado pelo tempo de privação sensorial auditiva e pelo tipo de dispositivo eletrônico. Considerando os critérios contemporâneos de indicação cirúrgica em associação as novas estratégias de codificação de fala disponíveis nos dispositivos eletrônicos da atualidade, resultados promissores são esperados para a nova geração de crianças submetidas ao IC / The communication skills of prelingually deafened children, underwent cochlear implant (CI) surgery, develop over the years of device use. The aim of this work was to study the performance achieved by teenagers and young adults with at least ten years of IC experience with regard to speech perception and speech intelligibility and, considering the type of hearing loss, duration of deafness, and type of device. Participated of this study, 61 teenagers and young adults prelingually deafened, who received different types of CI, on average at 3 years and 10 months of age. Recognition of two-syllable word list, test Hint and recognition of Hint sentence in quiet and noise were the procedures used to evaluate the hearing performance. The speech intelligibility of the participants was evaluated by two judges, using the writedown intelligibility method and a 5-points intelligibility rating-scale. After 10 years of experience with CI, 53 participants (86,9%) achieved open-set speech recognition. The average results obtained in the two-syllable word list were 49, 4%; in the test Hint in quiet, the average results were 54,7 dB in quiet and 10,7 dB in noise and; the mean percentage of Hint sentences in quiet was 54% and in noise, 33,3%. Regarding the speech intelligibility of the participants, the average write-down intelligibility score was 76,2% and the average rating-scale intelligibility score was 3,3 points. Better speech performances in quiet and in noise were correlated with shorter duration of deafness. Correlation was found between the type of device and: the speech perception in noise and the speech intelligibility. Nucleus 24 and Med-El device users performed better than Nucleus 22 users with regard to speech perception in noise and speech intelligibility. More than 10 years after the CI surgery, 82% of children implanted with the first generation of the electronic device developed speech recognition in noise and 90,1% achieved intelligible speech. Speech perception and speech intelligibility of the participants, both were influenced by duration of deafness and type of electronic device. Considering the contemporary criteria of surgical indication in association with the new speech coding strategies available, promising results were expected for the new generation of children underwent to CI

The onset of a progressive, fatal illness such as Motor Neuron Disease (MND) inevitably results in physical and communication disabilities that impinge on the individuals’ ability to remain functionally independent. The loss of speech as a result of dysarthria, a motor speech disorder, is one of the most profound changes that the person with MND will experience. The decline in the individuals’ speech intelligibility, that negatively influences communication effectiveness, implies that in 80% of cases alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) strategies are required to support the daily communication needs of individuals with MND. The dyadic nature of chronic illness implies that multiple aspects of one of the most important adult relationships, marriage, will be affected. Roles and responsibilities performed by each member of the couple will continually change as the disease progresses. The emotional trauma of adjusting to the unavoidable alteration in their relationship elicits strong emotions such as guilt, anger and frustration. Communication is one of the most constructive ways of dealing with these emotions. The ability of spouses to convey their innermost thoughts, feelings and intimacy through communicative interaction is vitally important in marital communication. The aim of this study was to compare how persons with MND and their spouses perceive changes in their marital communication in relation to the deteriorating speech of persons with MND. Fourteen couples divided into two participant groups, persons with MND and spouses, participated in this non-experimental correlational research study. Data was collected during three visits at six-monthly intervals over a 12 month period. At each of these visits both participant groups completed a variety of objective and subjective measures, of which twenty percent were interrated by independent raters. Results confirmed the inevitable decline in speech intelligibility of persons with MND across the disease progression. The persons with MND did not report a change in their perception of marital communication although their spouses indicated a statistically significant decrease between the first and last visits. Interestingly, there was no statistically significant relationship between the deteriorating speech of persons with MND and the couples’ perception of marital communication, confirming that marital communication was not influenced by decreased speech intelligibility. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / unrestricted

Cochlear implantation of prelingually deafened adults is a contentious issue and information about the outcomes of late-implanted prelingually deafened (LIPD) adults is still largely undocumented. The question this study set out to answer, is what impact a late cochlear implantation has on the communication-related outcomes, both self-reported and objectively measured, of prelingually deafened adults. Consequently, this investigation determined the auditory, language, speech-intelligibility and quality of life outcomes of a group of LIPD adults. A combined qualitative and quantitative cross-sectional research approach was utilized for this multiple case study investigation. A semi-structured interview, audiological test battery and communication assessments were conducted using seven LIPD adults of a well-established cochlear implant program in South Africa. The results of the study indicated that the LIPD adults’ objectively assessed auditory, language and speech intelligibility outcomes are poorer than would be expected from good cochlear implant users, but the self-reported outcomes indicated that they experienced the cochlear implant as worthwhile and positive. The findings of this study provide more in-depth information regarding the communication-related outcomes of this population, and this information may be used by audiologists and speech-language therapists during counselling of prelingually deafened candidates to ensure appropriate expectations. Copyright / Dissertation (MCommunication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / Unrestricted