• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.63-70
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• 2019

This study investigated individual variability of L2 learners' categorical judgments of L2 stops by exploring English learners' perceptual processing of two acoustic cues (voice onset time [VOT] and f0) and working memory capacity as sources of variation. As prior research has reported that English speakers' greater use of the redundant cue f0 was responsible for gradient processing of native stops, we examined whether the same processing characteristics would be observed in L2 learners' perception of Korean stops (/t/-/t^h/). 22 English learners of L2 Korean with a range of L2 proficiency participated in a visual analogue scaling task and demonstrated variable manners of judging the L2 Korean stops: Some were more gradient than others in performing the task. Correlation analysis revealed that L2 learners' categorical responses were modestly related to individuals' utilizations of a primary cue for the stop contrast (VOT for L1 English stops and f0 for L2 Korean stops), and were also related to better working memory capacity. Together, the current experimental evidence demonstrates adult L2 learners' top-down processing of stop consonants where linguistic and cognitive resources are devoted to a process of determining abstract phonemic identity.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.69-87
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• 2006

This study aims to describe the vowel system of present-day American English and to discuss some of its phonetic variations due to regional differences. Fifteen speakers of American English from various regions of the United States produced the monophthongs of English. The vowel duration and the frequencies of the first and the second formant were measured. The results indicate that the distinction between the vowels [c] and [a] has been merged in most parts of the U.S. except in some speakers from eastern and southeastern parts of the U.S., resulting in the general loss of phonemic distinction between the vowels. The phonemic merger of the two vowels can be interpreted as the result of the relatively small functional load of the [c]-[a] contrast, and the smaller back vowel space in comparison to the front vowel space. The study also shows that the F2 frequencies of the high back vowel [u] were extremely high in most of the speakers from the eastern region of the U.S., resulting in the overall reduction of their acoustic space for high vowels. From the viewpoint of the Adaptive Dispersion Theory proposed by Liljencrants & Lindblom (1972) and Lindblom (1986), the high back vowel [u] appeared to have been fronted in order to satisfy the economy of articulatory gesture to some extent without blurring any contrast between [i] and [u] in the high vowel region.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.16-22
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• 1994

In contrast to the machineries using rolling element bearings, systems with journal bearings generally operate in large scale and under severe loading condition such as steam generator turbines and internal combustion engines. Failure of the bearings in these machineries can result in the system breakdown. To avoid the time consuming repair and considerable economic loss, the detection of incipient failure in journal bearings becomes very important. In this experimental approach, acoustic emission monitoring is applied to the detection of incipient failure caused by several types of abnormal operating condition most probable in the journal bearing systems. It has been known that the intervention of foreign materials, insufficient lubrication and misassembly etc. are principal factors to cause bearing failure and distress. The experiment was conducted under such designed conditions as hard particles in the lubrication layer, insufficient lubrication, and metallic contact in the simulated journal bearing system. The results showed that acoustic emission could be an effective tool to detect the incipient failure in journal bearings.

• The Journal of Information Technology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.129-136
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• 2001

Most of the acoustic microscopes have been constructed acoustic image by simply measuring the amplitude of the reflected signal from the specimen. This method fails to produce images of good quality because the change in amplitude is not sensitive enough to specimen with fine variation. In this paper, we have been constructed the acoustic microscope system which has been able to measure simultaneously the amplitude and phase of the reflected ultrasonic signal. And also we have been constructed the amplitude and phase images for the 500 won coin as a sample and the alumium spacimen with internal round defect, and compared and analyzed these images. In expermental result, the phase image have shown better sensitive than the amplitude image and given better contrast for the micro height variation of specimen. It will be expected that the phase image can be used as an additional bit of information to improve ambiguituities in amplitude image on nondestructive testing for specimen with fine variation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.234-240
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• 1997

We studied the resolution enhancement of a novel scanning laser acoustic microscope (SLAM) using transverse waves. Mode conversion of the ultrasonic wave takes place at the liquid-solid interface and some energy of the insonifying longitudinal waves in the water will convert to transverse wave energy within the solid specimen. The resolution of SLAM depends on the size of detecting laser spot and the wavelength of the insonifying ultrasonic waves. Science the wavelength of the transverse wave is shorter than that of the longitudinal wave, we are able to achieve the high resolution by using transverse waves. In order to operate SLAM in the transverse wave mode, we made wedge for changing the incident angle. Our experimental results with model 2140 SLAM and an aluminum specimen showed higher contrast of the SLAM image in the transverse wave mode than that in the longitudinal wave mode.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.328-334
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• 2015

This paper describes an acoustic analysis of a Jing, Korean percussion instrument, according to different drive point and blow strength, and this analysis is focused on the softening and beat phenomena. Three kinds of blow strength (very strong, strong, and weak) and three locations of drive point (center, up, and right) are applied, and the spectrogram function built in Matlab is utilized to analyzing the softening and beat of target sounds. The stronger blow you drive to the center of the Jing, the more clearly softening is observed. Frequency shifting is increased proportionally to the blow strength and frequency and it is stand out on the harmonics in contrast with that of other partials. Beat of the Jing can be classified into the early beat and late beat. The beats by the outside driven Jing are distributed in wider frequency band than the beats by the center driven Jing. In addition, it is observed that the early beat is affected by few specific partials developed around harmonics for the center driven Jing.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.76-83
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• 2016

Migration image can be distorted due to reflected waves in the source and receiver wavefields when discontinuities of input velocity model exist in seismic imaging. To remove reflected waves coming from layer interfaces, it is a common practice to smooth the velocity model for migration. If the velocity model is smoothed, however, the subsurface image can be distorted because the velocity changes around interfaces. In this paper, we attempt to minimize the distortion by reducing reflection energy in the source and receiver wavefields through acoustic impedance homogenization. To make acoustic impedance constant, we define fake density model and use it for migration. When the acoustic impedance is constant over all layers, the reflection coefficient at normal incidence becomes zero and the minimized reflection energy results in the improvement of migration result. To verify our algorithm, we implement the reverse-time migration using cell-based finite-difference method. Through numerical examples, we can note that the migration image is improved at the layer interfaces with high velocity contrast, and it shows the marked improvement particularly in the shallow part.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.227-239
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• 2020

Despite proven effectiveness and accuracy in laboratories, the existing damage assessment based on guided ultrasonic waves (GUWs) or acoustic emission (AE) confronts challenges when extended to real-world structural health monitoring (SHM) for railway tracks. Central to the concerns are the extremely complex signal appearance due to highly dispersive and multimodal wave features, restriction on transducer installations, and severe contaminations of ambient noise. It remains a critical yet unsolved problem along with recent attempts to implement SHM in bourgeoning high-speed railway (HSR). By leveraging authors' continued endeavours, an SHM framework, based on actively generated diffuse ultrasonic waves (DUWs) and a benchmark-free condition contrast algorithm, has been developed and deployed via an all-in-one SHM system. Miniaturized lead zirconate titanate (PZT) wafers are utilized to generate and acquire DUWs in long-range railway tracks. Fatigue cracks in the tracks show unique contact behaviours under different conditions of external loads and further disturb DUW propagation. By contrast DUW propagation traits, fatigue cracks in railway tracks can be characterised quantitatively and the holistic health status of the tracks can be evaluated in a real-time manner. Compared with GUW- or AE-based methods, the DUW-driven inspection philosophy exhibits immunity to ambient noise and measurement uncertainty, less dependence on baseline signals, use of significantly reduced number of transducers, and high robustness in atrocious engineering conditions. Conformance tests are performed on HSR tracks, in which the evolution of fatigue damage is monitored continuously and quantitatively, demonstrating effectiveness, adaptability, reliability and robustness of DUW-driven SHM towards HSR applications.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.1
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• pp.201-211
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• 1997

Acoustically a naturally-spoken vowel is composed of five formants. However, the acoustic quality of a vowel is known to be mostly determined by $F_1\;and\;F_2$. The main purpose of this study was to examine how synthesized vowels with $F_1\;and\;F_2$ are perceived by Korean native speakers. In addion, we are interested in finding whether the synthesized vowels are perceived differently by standard Korean speakers and Kyungnam regional dialect speakers. In the experiment 9 Seoul standard Korean speakers and 9 Kyungnam dialect speakers heard 536 vowels synthesized in vowel space with $F_1\;by\;F_2$ and categorized them into one of 10 Korean vowels. The resultant vowel map showed that each Korean vowel occupies an unique area in the two-dimensional vowel space of $F_1\;by\;F_2$, and confirmed that $F_1\;and\;F_2$ play important roles in the perception of vowels. The results also showed that the Seoul speakers and the Kyungnam speakers perceive the synthesized vowels differently. For example, /e/ versus /$\varepsilon$/ contrast, /y/, and /$\phi$/ are perceived differently by the Seoul speakers, whereas they were perceptually confused by the Kyungnam speakers. These results might be due to the different vowel systems of the standard Korean and the Kyungnam regional dialect. While the latter uses a six-vowel system which has no /e/ vs /$/ contrast, /v/ vs /i/ contrast, /y/, and /$\phi$/, the former recognizes these as different vowels. This result suggests that the vowel system of differing dialect restricts the perception of the Korean vowels. Unexpectedly /i/ does not occupy any area in the vowel apace. This result suggests that /i/ cannot be synthesized without $F_3$.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.19-24
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• 2023

This study investigated acoustic (VOT) and articulatory characteristics of Korean velar stops in monosyllabic CV structures to examine how the three-way distinction is realized in the laryngeal and supralaryngeal domains and how the distinction is manifested in male versus female speakers' speech production. EMA data were collected from 22 speakers. In line with previous studies, male speakers preserved the three-way differentiation of velar stops (/k^*/</k/</k^h/) in terms of VOT while female speakers showed only a two-way distinction (/k^*/</k/=/k^h/). As for the kinematic characteristics, a clear three-way distinction was found only in male speakers' peak velocity measure in the C-to-V opening movement (/k^h/</k/</k^*/). For the other kinematic measures (i.e., articulatory closure duration, deceleration duration of the opening movement and the entire opening movement duration), male speakers showed only a two-way distinction between fortis and the other two stops. Female speakers did not show a three-way contrast in any kinematic measure. They showed a two-way distinction between lenis and the other two stops in C-to-V deceleration duration (/k^*/=/k^h/</k/), and a two-way distinction between fortis and lenis stops in the opening movement duration. An overall comparison of VOT and articulatory analyses revealed that the lenis-aspirated kinematic distinction is diminishing, driven by female speakers, in line with the loss of the lenis-aspirated distinction in VOT that could influence supralaryngeal articulation.