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Biomedical subjects

Y Horii

Publications and source records attributed to Y Horii.

At least 253 records · Page 14Linked to original sources
PubMed1980

Performance of normal speakers on an index of velopharyngeal function.

The Zemlin Index of Palatopharyngeal Opening (ZIPPO) is a non-invasive method for evaluation of velopharyngeal function. The present study was undertaken to assess the performance of normal speakers during ZIPPO testing. One hundred measurements of vocal damping times were made for each of 15 young, adult women as they produced the vowel/i/into ZIPPO. The vocal damping times of some speakers were characterized by extensive variability, suggesting that additional work is needed to specify the sampling requird to derive adequate information about the ZIPPO. Although the clinical application of the ZIPPO was not determined in this project, the sound theoretical framework and ease of ZIPPO administration provide sufficient grounds to prompt needed research into its clinical application.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

An accelerometric approach to nasality measurement: a preliminary report.

This paper describes an index of nasal coupling called the Horii Oral-Nasal Coupling Index (HONC). HONC is the ratio of the nasal amplitude level to the vocal amplitude level derived from nose and neck accelerometers. The advantages of HONC and some preliminary results are discussed.

Acceleration↗
PubMed1979

Fundamental frequency perturbation observed in sustained phonation.

The middle segments of sustained phonations of /i/, produced by six male adults at fo's ranging from 98 to 298 Hz, were examined for cycle-to-cycle frequency perturbation. The voice samples were analyzed by a peak-picking fo analysis program (Horii, 1975). The results showed that, between 98 Hz and 210 Hz, mean jitter size decreased as the fo increased, whereas the corresponding jitter ratios remained relatively constant. Above about 210 Hz, mean jitter remained relatively constant and, consequently, the jitter ratio increased as fo increased. The problems of temporal resolution for vocal jitter studies, vowel-dependent jitter magnitude characteristics and various perturbation measures are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Vocal roughness and jitter characteristics of vowels produced by esophageal speakers.

Audiotape recordings of sustained vowels produced by nine esophageal speakers were subjected to acoustic and perceptual analysis. Results indicated that (1) the magnitude of vocal jitter present in the vowels was substantially larger than that observed in normal speakers and speakers with laryngeal/vocal disturbance, (2) listeners could reliably rate the severity of vocal roughness in the vowels, (3) voices of esophageal speakers were characterized by varying degrees of vocal roughness, and (4) mean fundamental frequency, mean jitter, or jitter ratio measures did not serve as useful predictors of the perceived severity of vocal roughness. These findings are interpreted to suggest that the mechanism esophageal speakers employ to regulate fundamental frequency is substantially different from that employed by normal speakers and that the identity of physical variables underlying the perception of roughness severity in naturally produced human speech is not well understood.

Acoustics↗
PubMed1978

Some airflow, volume, and duration characteristics of oral reading.

Inspiratory and expiratory airflow (oral + nasal), volume, and duration characteristics during oral reading were investigated for eight young adults. Flow signals, sensed through a facemask-pneumotachometer-pressure transducer system, were quantified and analyzed by a computer program. Results showed that the modification of volume and flow during oral reading was primarily related to the timing of inspiratory and expiratory phases and secondarily to the magnitude of oronasal air volume. Effects of linguistic constraints were observed in inspiratory behavior, within and between sentences. Connected utterances showed lower and more variable peak flows than those reported for isolated syllables or words.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Selected speech and fundamental frequency characteristics of patients with acromegaly.

Selected speech characteristics of patients with acromegaly, a relatively uncommon endocrine disorder resulting from excessive secretion of growth hormone, are described. In patients with acromegaly, increased quantities of circulating growth hormone may cause hypertrophy of multiple bodily structures, including components of the phonatory and articulatory apparatus. Speech recordings of 11 patients with acromegaly (six women and five men) were subjected to fundamental frequency and articulation analysis. Despite clinically apparent lingual hypertrophy in each of the patients studied, no speech articulation errors were found. In contrast, acromegaly appeared to produce a lowering of voice fundamental frequency (fo) characteristics in some, but not all, patients. Women exhibited more striking changes in fo than did men.

Acromegaly↗
PubMed1975

Some statistical characteristics of voice fundamental frequency.

Two experiments are reported in which the magnitude of sampling errors associated with estimates of the mean, median, and standard deviation of voice fundamental frequencies (fo) during oral reading is investigated as a function of sample size. In one experiment, voices are sampled with fixed time windows. In the other experiment, results of fo analysis are compared for single-sentence voice samples and paragraph voice samples. Overall shape of fo distributions as well as interrelationships among various distributional measures are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Intelligibility characteristics of superior esophageal speech presented under various levels of masking noise.

Broad-band masking of speech was used to assess the effects that broad-band masking noise had upon the recognition of consonants and vowels produced by esophageal speakers. Procedures were developed to compare the articulation functions of superior esophageal speech with those of normal speech under comparable levels of masking noise. Within the range of speech-to-noise ratios studied, articulation functions for vowels were essentially the same for esophageal and normal talkers (4% per dB). With respect to consonants, the intelligibility scores for esophageal speech were 12 to 14% lower than for normal speech under adverse noise conditions. Gains in the consonant articulation functions were 2.5%/dB and 4%/dB for normal and esophageal talkers, respectively. For adverse noise conditions, the lowered consonant scores for esophageal speakers were the result of poorer than normal intelligibility for liquid-glides and nasal and, secondarily, for stop consonants. Additional differences between the intelligibility characteristics of esophageal and normal speech were found in work-position and voicing features.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Acoustic features of pharyngeal /s/ fricatives produced by speakers with cleft palate.

Acoustic features of pharyngeal /s/ substitutions spoken by persons with cleft palate were measured using digital computer processing and analysis techniques. Average short-time spectral characteristics of pharyngeal /s/ sounds produced by four speakers with cleft palate were compared with spectral features of normally gestured /s/ sounds spoken by two normal speakers. The output spectral characterized by a set of distinctive acoustic properties that differed markedly from normal /s/ sounds gestured in the front of the mouth. One consistent feature of pharyngeal /s/'s was the presence of multiple spectral maxima. Pharyngealization of /s/ consonants gave rise to spectral outputs with energy maxima appropriate to high F1 values which were relatively close to F2, as well as to relatively strong, low frequency excitation of F2 speakers with cleft palate were, in general, comparable to those of /h/ fricatives spoken by speakers of Arabic.

Acoustics↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Effect of testosterone on the eosinophil response of C57BL/6 mice to infection with Brugia pahangi.

The kinetics of peripheral and bone marrow eosinophil responses of C57BL/6 mice against Brugia pahangi infection were compared between both sexes, and the effects of testosterone on these eosinophil responses were examined. At the early phase of infection (7 to 10 days), female mice showed significantly higher peripheral eosinophil response than did males, and on day 5, 7 and 10 postinfection bone marrow eosinophil responses were also high in females. Live infective larvae but not dead ones could induce these differential responses of eosinophils between sexes. Castration of male mice increased the peripheral and bone marrow eosinophil responses to the levels of female mice, whereas castration of female mice did not affect these responses. Furthermore, testosterone treatment at a pharmacological dose in female mice suppressed peripheral and bone marrow eosinophil responses at the early phase of infection. These results suggest that the male sex hormone, testosterone, but not the female sex hormone has a role in the down-regulation of the systemic eosinophil responses of C57BL/6 mice to infection with B. pahangi.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Distribution and enzyme histochemical characterisation of mast cells in cats.

Mast cells from 15 different cat organs were examined in terms of distribution and protease activity. The number of mast cells in each site was found to vary when visualised by metachromatic staining using Alcian Blue. Enzyme histochemical analysis revealed the existence of two subtypes of mast cells. These were categorised based on protease content, i.e. whether the mast cells contained chymase or tryptase. Tryptase-positive mast cells were clearly identifiable in every organ examined, whereas chymase-containing mast cells were predominantly observed in the ear (skin), tongue, spleen, and submucosa of the stomach and rectum. The chymase-reactive cells were not detected in the heart, or in the muscularis or serosa of the duodenum, jejunum, ileum or rectum. In addition, we suggest the existence of another subtype of mast cell containing both chymase and tryptase and localised within the ear (skin), tongue, spleen and submucosa of the rectum.

Alcian Blue↗