• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.16-23
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects postural changes on respiratory muscles and acoustic parameters of the children with spastic cerebral palsy. Nine children with spastic cerebral palsy who required assistance when walking were selected. The ages of the children ranged from 6 to 9 years old. The phonation of the sustained vowel /a/ and the voice qualities of each child such as fundamental frequency($F_0$; Hz), pitch variation (Jitter; %), amplitude variation (Shimmer; %) and noise to harmonic ratio (NHR) were analyzed by Multi-Dimensional Voice Program (MDVP). The muscle activity of three major respiratory muscles: pectoralis major muscle, upper trapezius muscle and rectus abdorminalis muscle, were measured by examining the root mean square (RMS) of the surface EMG to investigate the impact of changes in the adjusted sitting posture of each subject. However, the RMS of pectoralis major muscle showed a significant differences (p<.05). Secondly, there were no significant differences in $F_0$, Jitter and Shimmer between pre and post posture change, but there was a significant difference in NHR (p<.05). The data were collected in each individual; once prior and once after the sitting posture change. The data were analyzed by Wilcoxon signed ranks-test using SPSS version 14.0 for Windows. The findings of this study were as follows; Firstly, the RMS of upper trapezius and rectus abdorminalis muscle were not significant different between pre and post sitting posture changes. From the result, it is concluded that changes in the adjusted sitting posture decreases the abnormal respiratory patterns in the children with spastic cerebral palsy which is characterized by the hyperactivity of the respiratory muscles in breathing. Also, there is increased on the voice qualities in children with spastic cerebral palsy.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.249-255
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• 2016

Since the elderly voices include a lot of noise caused by physiological changes in respiration, phonation, and resonance, the performance of the convergence health-care equipments such as speech recognition, synthesis, analysis program done by elderly voice is deteriorated. Therefore it is necessary to develop researches to operate health-care instruments with elderly voices. In this study, a voice activity detection using a symmetric higher-order differential energy function (SHODEO) was developed and was compared with auto-correlation function(ACF) and the average magnitude difference function(AMDF). It was confirmed to have a better performance than other methods in the voice interval detection. The voice activity detection will be applied to a voice interface for the elderly to improve the accessibility of the smart devices.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.270-278
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• 2019

This study was performed to compare the aerodynamic characteristics of young and elderly adult male patients with voice disorders during continuous speech. Aerodynamic measurements were obtained after 12 young male patients and 9 elderly male patients read a paragraph. The elderly group showed longer duration, lower airflow rate and air volume than the younger group, but the differences were not significant except phonation time. So, when interpreting the meaning of aerodynamic measures of elderly voice disorder patients in the aspects of airflow and air volume, it should take into account various conditions(e. g. reading materials, pulmonary functions) as well as age.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.957-963
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• 2007

In this paper, Nonlinear Autoregressive (NAR) method based on Least Square-Support Vector Regression (LS-SVR) is introduced and tested for nonlinear sustained vowel modeling. In the database of total 43 sustained vowel of Benign Vocal Fold Lesions having aperiodic waveform, this nonlinear synthesizer near perfectly reproduced chaotic sustained vowels, and also conserved the naturalness of sound such as jitter, compared to Linear Predictive Coding does not keep these naturalness. However, the results of some phonation are quite different from the original sounds. These results are assumed that single-band model can not afford to control and decompose the high frequency components. Therefore multi-band model with wavelet filterbank is adopted for substituting single band model. As a results, multi-band model results in improved stability. Finally, nonlinear sustained vowel modeling using NAR based on LS-SVR can successfully reconstruct synthesized sounds nearly similar to original voiced sounds.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.500-509
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• 2000

In general, the three major oral functions of edentulous patients-mastication, phonation, esthetics-can be rehabilitated by the complete dentures, and both the resin based complete denture and the metal based complete denture are commonly used by many clinicians today. For the sake of many advantages such as the excellent thermal conductivity, low volumetric change, high strength, low risk of fracture and the better patient's adaptation, the metal based complete dentures are indicated to the several cases. But, there are common failures of these type of dentures mainly by the fracture or the debonding between the resin structures and the metal frameworks which is caused by the discrepancies of the flexural strength and the coefficient of thermal expansion. This is aggravated by the water contamination of the interface when exposed to the oral environment and results in the failure of complete denture treatment. So, the purpose of this study is to compare the bond strength and the fracture patterns of the gold alloy based and the Co-Cr alloy based complete dentures using the PMMA resins and the 4-META adhesive resins. The results of this study were as follows. 1. Both to the PMMA resin and the 4-META resin, the flexural bond strength of gold alloy is lower than that of Co-Cr alloy(P<0.05) 2. To the Co-Cr alloy, the bond strength of the 4-META resin is significantly higher than that of PMMA resin(P<0.05). 3. The flexural strength of the group with the mechanical retention form is significantly higher than that of the group without retention form(P<0.05). 4. Comparing with the other groups, the fracture patterns of the group 3 are quite different from the group 1,2,5.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.201-219
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• 2003

Background: The perceptual assessment is generally performed by the voice specialist. The objective evaluation is performed in a voice laboratory. Research in voice laboratories has generated a variety of different objective tests and parameters. The perceptual evaluation is one of the most controversial topics in voice research. Review of literature reveals a wide variety of rating scales and reliability data fluctuating from study to study. Unfortunately, there is no widely accepted valid method for classifying voice disorders and assessing outcome after voice treatment. Objectives: The goals of this research were to identify important objective acoustic parameters of vocal quality, and to establish an objective and quantitative correlate of the perceived vocal quality. Materials and Methods : We evaluated the voice analyzed data from 122 dysphonic patients and 20 normal volunteers. A computerized speech lab. 4300B(CSL) was used to carry out the analysis of each voice sample. Results: Three dysphonia severity indices(DSI) were created using discriminant analysis. DSI is based on the weighted combination of the following selected set of acoustic parameters: absolute jitter(Jita in us), smoothed pitch period perturbation (sPPQ in %), amplitude perturbation quotient(APQ in %), soft phonation index(SPI), average fundamental frequency(Fo in Hz), lowest fundamental frequency(Flo in Hz), and smoothed amplitude perturbation quotient(sAPQ in %). The DSI, being the discriminating rule calculated by the logistic regression, consists of three equation based on statistically significant acoustic parameters. Three DSI were created to reflects best the degree of hoarseness as expressed by G from the GRBAS scale. The more positive this DSI is for a patient, the worse the vocal quality. The more it is negative, the better it is. The effect of sex is included implicitly in the DSI-1 and DSI-2, so that a separate DSI-1 and DSI-2 for males and females need not be used. The DSI is objective because no perceptual input is required for its calculation. Conculsion : This research demonstrates that the voice function values calculated from three different multivariate objective dysphonia severity indices are significantly associated with subjective voice assessments. These multivariate objective dysphonia severity indices may be appropriate for use in clinical trials and outcomes research on treatment effectiveness for voice disorders.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.121-139
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• 1999

Our experimental subject was a laryngectomee who had undergone total laryngectomy with $PROVOX^{(R)}$ insertion, and learned esophageal speech after the surgery, so he could produce both $PROVOX^{(R)}$ voice and esophageal voice. With this subject's production of $PROVOX^{(R)}$ and esophageal voice, we are to compare the acoustic and aerodynamic characteristics of the two voices, under the same physical conditions of the same person. As a result, the fundamental frequency of esophageal voice was 137.2 Hz, and that of $PROVOX^{(R)}$ was 97.5 Hz. $PROVOX^{(R)}$ voice showed lower jitter, shimmer and NHR than esophageal voice, which means that $PROVOX^{(R)}$ voice showed better voice quality than esophageal voice. In spectrographic analysis, the formation of formants and pseudoformants were more distinct in esophageal voice and several temporal aspects of acoutic features such as VOT and closure duration were more similar with normal voice in $PROVOX^{(R)}$ voice. During the sentence utterance, esophageal voice showed longer pause or silence duration than $PROVOX^{(R)}$ voice. Maximum phonation time and mean flow rate of $PROVOX^{(R)}$ voice were much longer and larger than esophageal voice, but mean and range of sound pressure level, subglottic pressure and voice efficiency were similar in the two voices. Glottal resistance of esophageal voice was much larger than $PROVOX^{(R)}$ voice which showed still larger glottal resistance than normal voice.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 1996

There are various defects caused by trauma or resection of maignant tumor in the orofacial region, which can be reconstructed with various regional and pararegional flaps. Among these defects, it is very difficult to reconstruct palatal and midfacial defects after maxillectomy and patients have problems in speaking and swallowing of food. Therefore it is very important for surgeons to reconstruct these defects functionally and esthetically and to return the patients to the normal social activity. These defects are usually obturated with prosthodontic appliances to assist the phonation and swallowing. But nowadays surgical reconstruction by various flaps was considered and performed for better rehabilitation. For this purpose the forehead flap, the nasolabial flap, the tongue flap, the sternocleidomastoideous flap, the temporal flap, the latissimus dorsi flap, the scapular flap etc. are used. We reconstructed small-sized plalatal defects with tongue flap, medium-sized palatal and maxillary defects after maxillectomy with temporal myofascial flap and large midfacial defects including eyeball exenteration with latissimus dorsi myocutaneous flaps. Here we are to report 5 cases of these flaps used for the reconstruction of palatal and midfacial defects and consider the versatility, reliability and limitation in use of these flaps.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.103-110
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• 2011

Idiopathic Parkinson's Disease patients' speech is hypokinetic dysarthria and their speech is possibly the consequence of impaired respiratory support. The purpose of this study was focused on the respiratory characteristics of speech breathing in de novo IPD who were not given prior vocal or anti-Parkinson treatment. A total of 40 subjects participated in the study: 20 de novo IPD patients between the ages of 50 and 80, and 20 normal subjects with similar age, height, and weight matches. Forced Expiratory Vital Capacity (FVC), Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 sec (FEV1) and $FEV_1$ as a percentage of FVC (FEV1/FVC) was measured with a PC-based spirometer (Cosmed). In addition, Maximum Phonation Time (MPT), Mean Airflow Rate (MFR), Subglottal Pressure (Psub) and the number of syllables produced per breath were measured with a Phonatory Aerodynamic System (Kay PENTAX). All subjects were asked to read a standardized Korean paragraph and the following measurements were obtained from the task. Results indicated no statistically significant differences in respiratory function (FEV1/FVC%) and aerodynamic function between the two groups, but the number of syllables per breath was significantly lower in the IPD patient group than in the normal group and it could be predicted by FVC and MFR. Therefore, the study shows that the MFR from the lungs during speech in de novo IPD patients is used inefficiently.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.81-89
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• 2020

Background: For children with cleft palates, surgeries at a young age are necessary to reduce feeding or phonation difficulties and reduce complications, especially respiratory tract infections and frequent sinusitis. We hypothesized that dexmedetomidine might prolong the postoperative analgesic duration when added to bupivacaine during nerve blocks. Methods: Eighty patients of 1-5 years old were arbitrarily assigned to two equal groups (forty patients each) to receive bilateral suprazygomatic maxillary nerve blocks. Group A received bilateral 0.2 mL/kg bupivacaine (0.125%; maximum volume 4 mL/side). Group B received bilateral 0.2 mL/kg bupivacaine (0.125%) + 0.5 ㎍/kg dexmedetomidine (maximum volume 4 mL/side). Results: The modified children's hospital of Eastern Ontario pain scale score was significantly lower in group B children after 8 hours of follow-up postoperatively (P < 0.001). Mean values of heart rate and blood pressure were significantly different between the groups, with lower mean values in group B (P < 0.001). Median time to the first analgesic demand in group A children was 10 hours (range 8-12 hr), and no patients needed analgesia in group B. The sedation score assessment was higher in children given dexmedetomidine (P = 0.03) during the first postoperative 30 minutes. Better parent satisfaction scores (5-point Likert scale) were recorded in group B and without serious adverse effects. Conclusions: Addition of dexmedetomidine 0.5 ㎍/kg to bupivacaine 0.125% has accentuated the analgesic efficacy of bilateral suprazygomatic maxillary nerve block in children undergoing primary cleft palate repair with less postoperative supplemental analgesia or untoward effects.