• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.115-121
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• 2014

This paper investigates the relationship between acoustic characteristics and voice handicap index for 29 males with esophageal speakers. Acoustic characteristics were measured by using a sustained vowel /a/ three times. The stable vocalization for 2 seconds was analyzed by MDVP program. Specifically, relationships between four VHI scores (total, functional, physical, and emotional) and three acoustic characteristics (jitter, shimmer, and NHR) were investigated using the Pearson correlation coefficient. As results, we found no relationship between NHR and VHI scores. However, both jitter and shimmer had statistically significant correlations with all four VHI scores. This research will contribute to establishing a baseline related to speech characteristics in voice rehabilitation with esophageal speakers. Further research could be done to examine the overall quality of life survey, which is widely used as a subjective measure about voice for patients with esophageal speakers.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.25-32
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• 2013

This research is aimed at finding the acoustic characteristics of different voice rehabilitation techniques, the electrolaryx (EL), standard esophageal (SE), and tracheoesophageal (TE), used on 17 patients with laryngectomees. The analysis of the voice qualities was achieved using MDVP. In order to compare the acoustic characteristics, patients were asked to produce the vowel /a/ sound. The acoustic analysis included fundamental frequency (f0), jitter, shimmer, and noise-to-harmonic ratio (NHR). The main acoustic results showed no significant statistical differences between the average measurements of SE and TE speakers. It was found that the current study showed the same tendency found in previous studies. There was also a significant difference between SE and EL speakers. On the other hand, there were no significant statistical differences between the average measurements of TE and EL speakers on all acoustic measurements. This research will contribute to establishing a baseline related to speech characteristics in voice rehabilitation for patients with laryngectomees. In future, the present findings and issues should be considered in the context of gender. Specifically, the number of women who are diagnosed with laryngeal cancer continues to rise and their acoustic characteristics may indeed differ from those of men.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.429-438
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• 2003

The effects of fiber orientation on acoustic emission(AE) characteristics have been studied for the unidirectional and satin-weave, continuous glass-fiber reinforced plastic(UD-GFRP and SW-GFRP) tensile specimens. Reflection and transmission optical microscopy was used for investigation of the damage zone of specimens. AE signals were classified as different types by using short time fourier transform(STFT) : AE signals with high intensity and high frequency band were due to fiber fracture, while weak AE signals with low frequency band were due to matrix and interfacial cracking. The feature in the rate of hit-events having high amplitudes showed a process of fiber breakages, which expressed the characteristic fracture processes of individual fiber-reinforced plastics with different fiber orientations and with different notching directions. As a consequence, the fracture behavior of the continuous GFRP could be monitored as nondestructive evaluation(NDE) through the AE technique.