Cochlear implants are a recognised treatment for severe and profound hearing losses, and can greatly improve speech discrimination in a quiet listening environment. However, poor specificity of neural excitation resulting from wide current spread within the cochlea leads to inadequate complex pitch perception, affecting speech discrimination in noisy environments and music perception. Tripolar is a stimulation mode with a greater degree of current focusing than the monopolar mode currently used in the clinic. The overall aim of the experiments in this thesis was to evaluate the potential of tripolar stimulation mode to improve complex pitch perception compared to monopolar stimulation mode in a group of Advanced Bionics cochlear implant listeners. First, the place specificity of tripolar and monopolar stimulation was compared using a psychophysical forward masking task with a dual-electrode masking stimulus to limit off-site listening. An overall improvement in the place specificity of tripolar compared to monopolar stimulation indicated that current focusing may provide more independent transmission of temporal information from different electrode places. This conclusion was unaffected by the degree of residual masking which, although measurable, was similar in both modes. Second, the effect of current focusing on delivery of independent temporal patterns was evaluated, specifically whether transmission of fine temporal information about interpulse intervals was improved using tripolar over monopolar stimulation. No advantage was found for current focusing in the delivery of temporal patterns on either a single electrode site, or across-electrodes. Third, the effect of mode on complex pitch perception was investigated by comparing a tripolar with a monopolar listening program. Results showed no improvement in pitch ranking ability from current focusing using sung vowel stimuli, and further suggested that a cue related to the centroid of excitation was providing a stronger cue to pitch than the temporal modulations available in both modes in this group. In conclusion, tripolar stimulation, on average, improved place specificity using forward masking, but not temporal cues to pitch using the methods chosen to evaluate this. Furthermore, current focusing did not improve the ability to rank sung vowels based on pitch over monopolar mode. Current focusing, therefore, was not found to enhance perception of complex harmonic pitch in this group. However, a degree of inter-participant variability in amount of benefit from current focusing observed in this series of experiments suggests that it may be useful for some cochlear implant listeners if a predictive measure of benefit were developed.

The perception of musical intervals by musicians can be envisaged as being accomplished in one of two ways. Most musicians appear to have only one method for identifying musical intervals: they directly evaluate the musical interval between two notes. Musicians with absolute pitch (AP) appear to have two methods available for identifying intervals: they can either directly evaluate the musical interval, or they can first identify the two pitches, and then infer the musical interval between them. This study investigated the perception of sequential musical intervals by two groups of musicians, one group with AP and the other without AP. In the first of four experiments, most subjects in both groups were able to name accurately standard sequential musical intervals based on the equal-tempered scale. In the second experiment, most subjects in the AP group were able accurately and consistently to name notes of the equal-tempered scale, whereas subjects without AP were not able to name them consistently or accurately. In the third experiment, subjects with AP identified, with varying degrees of accuracy and consistency, single notes spaced in 20-cent increments over a 9.4 semitone range, using the standard musical note names. This experiment also demonstrated that not all subjects had the same internal pitch reference. In the final and major experiment, subjects identified sequential musical intervals ranging in 20-cent steps from 260 to 540 cents, using the standard musical interval names. Subjects, both with and without AP, appeared to identify the intervals by directly evaluating the musical interval between the two notes, rather than first identifying the two pitches and then inferring the musical interval. One subject in the AP group showed a strong tendency to use the latter method, but only in certain contexts, the reason for which remains unexplained. Although more research is needed for stronger conclusions to be drawn, it appears that most musicians with AP do not use this ability in the identification of sequential musical intervals, relying instead on their sense of relative pitch. / Medicine, Faculty of / Audiology and Speech Sciences, School of / Graduate

Introduction: Bantu languages, such as Tswana, are tone languages which use syllabic tone variation to convey word meaning. Vocal pathologies may affect vocal fold control that is required to vary syllabic tone. A person with a voice disorder could therefore be misperceived due to inability to effectively vary tone. Aim: To develop and validate a Tswana minimal pair word list for the assessment of tone production and tone perception, and to determine whether a voice disorder in a first language (L1) Tswana-speaker influences the accuracy of tone perception by typical L1 Tswana-speaking individuals. Method: A word list of 45 Tswana words, with accompanying pictures and sentences were compiled and validated by means of three pilot studies. Based on the results of the pilot studies the word list was narrowed down to 16 minimal pairs. Data were collected from a control group (9 typical L1 Tswana-speaking individuals) and an experimental group (5 L1 Tswana-speaking individuals with voice disorders). Participants from both groups produced the target words and a recording of each word production was judged by a listeners’ panel of five typical L1 Tswana-speaking judges. Results: Typical L1 Tswana listeners did not achieve 100% accuracy in a tone perception task. The mean scores of the control speakers ranged between 71% and 98%. The experimental group participants’ scores were lower although not significantly lower (p=0.109), ranging between 61% and 90%, compared to the scores of the control group. The experimental participant, who obtained the lowest mean score (61%), presented with a severe primary organic voice disorder. Conclusion: Not all typical speakers were able to produce word-level tone variation that makes word identification possible in a single-word context. Although no significant difference was found between the results of the two groups, indications are that a voice disorder could negatively impact syllabic tone variation. / Dissertation (MCommunication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / MCommunication Pathology / Unrestricted

The diploma thesis Detection of Alcohol in Speech Signal first describes the effect of alcohol on the human body. The second part deals with ways to obtain parameters that describe the speech signal. The third part provides a brief overview of previous case studies and patents focused on the detection of alcohol in the speech signal. The fourth part presents the collected own database of voice recordings and developed software application for the analysis of intoxicated speech. The final part describes the measured changes in speech signal parameters that indicate alcohol intoxication.

This diploma thesis is focused on the analysis of the retention effect on the pitch green roof from the selection of different roof sets. Measurements of retention proparties were performed on four semi-scale testing elements. Monitored period was evaluated during initial growing cycle on extensive, biodiverse and icelandic green roof in comparison with roofing tile surface. The theoretical part describes effective water retention management, historical and present development in the Czech Republic and closed European countries of green roofs.

Chronic fatigue affects athletes' abilities to maintain force and power capabilities over the course of a season. The ability for sport scientists and coaches to monitor and manage fatigue is beneficial for all sports, especially those with lengthy seasons. Although methods of monitoring and managing fatigue have been suggested for various sports, there is currently limited research examining methods of monitoring fatigue in baseball over the course of a season. To effectively maintain peak performance, potential methods for monitoring and managing fatigue in baseball players need to be discussed.

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This paper presents a game theoretical solution to the difficult challenge of optimal pitch sequencing. We model the batter/pitcher matchup as a zero-sum game and determine the equilibrium strategy for both the pitcher and batter. We conclude that the Stackelberg equilibrium and our newly defined decision point equilibrium serve as effective pitch sequencing strategies.

Data Analytics and technology have changed baseball as we know it. From the increase in defensive shifts to teams using cameras in the outfield to steal signs, teams will try anything to win. One way to gain an edge in baseball is to figure out what pitches a pitcher will pitch. Pitch prediction is a popular task to try to accomplish with all the data that baseball provides. Most methods involve using situational data like the ball and strike count. In this paper, we try a different method of predicting pitch type by only looking at the pitcher's pose in the set position. We do this to find a pitcher's tell or "tip". In baseball, if a pitcher is tipping their pitches, they are doing something that gives away what they will pitch. This could be because the pitcher changes the grip on the ball only for some pitches or something as small as a different flex in their wrist. Professional baseball players will study pitchers before they pitch the ball to try to pick up on these tips. If a tip is found, the batters have a significant advantage over the pitcher. Our paper uses pose estimation and object detection to predict the pitch type based on the pitcher's set position before throwing the ball. Given a successful model, we can extract the important features or the potential tip from the data. Then, we can try to predict the pitches ourselves like a batter. We tested this method on three pitchers: Tyler Glasnow, Yu Darvish, and Stephen Strasburg. Our results demonstrate that when we predict pitch type at a 70\% accuracy, we can reasonably extract useful features. However, finding a useful tip from these features still requires manual observation.

This study examines two important factors for the conception Auditory Streaming defined by Bregman, pitch and localization. By removing one or two of these factors as possible identifiers to separate sound sources, the importance of each of them and the combined effect of reducing both of them will be studied. Stimuli with combinations of two-syllable words were presented simultaneously in speakers to subjects and the number of correct identifications was measured. In one category of stimuli speech melody was removed and replaced with a monotonous pitch, equal for all words. One category had all words presented from one speaker only. Significant effect regarding the success of identification was found for both investigated factors as well as for interaction them in between. The study shows that removal of differences in pitch or spatial origin between voices lessens our ability to identify the word content. The results go well in line with earlier studies and common theories, the Cocktail party effect among others. / Validerat; 20111115 (anonymous)