Voice source, formant frequencies and vocal tract shape in overtone singing. A case study.

In overtone singing a singer produces two pitches simultaneously, a low-pitched, continuous drone plus a melody played on the higher, flutelike and strongly enhanced overtones of the drone. The purpose of this study was to analyse underlying acoustical, phonatory and articulatory phenomena. The voice source was analyzed by inverse filtering the sound, the articulation from a dynamic MRI video of the vocal tract profile, and the lip opening from a frontal-view video recording.

Strain out a gnat and swallow a camel? - vision and driving in the Nordic countries.

Purpose: This study describes the present legislation for visual requirements for driving in the Nordic countries in relation to the European Driving License Directive.

Methods: Information about the formal legislation was gathered from each countries legal text. Further information about the implementation and common practices were achieved from national authorities in vision and driving.

Amaurosis fugax - delay between symptoms and surgery by specialty.

Purpose: To describe the time course of management of patients with amaurosis fugax and analyze differences in management by different specialties.

Methods: Patients diagnosed with amaurosis fugax and subjected to carotid ultrasound in 2004-2010 at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden (n=302) were included in this retrospective cohort study, and data were collected from medical records.

Results: The prevalence of significant carotid stenosis was 18.

Visual pathway impairment by pituitary adenomas: quantitative diagnostics by diffusion tensor imaging.

OBJECTIVE Despite ample experience in surgical treatment of pituitary adenomas, little is known about objective indices that may reveal risk of visual impairment caused by tumor growth that leads to compression of the anterior visual pathways. This study aimed to explore diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) as a means for objective assessment of injury to the anterior visual pathways caused by pituitary adenomas. METHODS Twenty-three patients with pituitary adenomas, scheduled for transsphenoidal tumor resection, and 20 healthy control subjects were included in the study.

Amaurosis fugax: risk factors and prevalence of significant carotid stenosis.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe clinical characteristics and prevalence of carotid stenosis in patients with amaurosis fugax (AF).

Method: Patients diagnosed with AF and subjected to carotid ultrasound in 2004-2010 in Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg (n=302), were included, and data were retrospectively collected from medical records.

Results: The prevalence of significant carotid stenosis was 18.

A qualitative study of women's feelings about future childbirth: dread and delight.

Introduction: There is extensive knowledge about expectations of and thoughts about childbirth among women who have not given birth. When it comes to women who have given birth to at least 1 child, on the other hand, knowledge about their expectations for a future birth is limited. The purpose of this study is thus to describe the emotions of this group concerning future childbirth.

DNA analysis in Disaster Victim Identification.

DNA profiling and matching is one of the primary methods to identify missing persons in a disaster, as defined by the Interpol Disaster Victim Identification Guide. The process to identify a victim by DNA includes: the collection of the best possible ante-mortem (AM) samples, the choice of post-mortem (PM) samples, DNA-analysis, matching and statistical weighting of the genetic relationship or match. Each disaster has its own scenario, and each scenario defines its own methods for identification of the deceased.

Using X-chromosomal markers in relationship testing: calculation of likelihood ratios taking both linkage and linkage disequilibrium into account.

X-chromosomal markers in forensic genetics have become more widely used during recent years, particularly for relationship testing. Linkage and linkage disequilibrium (LD) must typically be accounted for when using close X-chromosomal markers. Thus, when producing the weight-of-evidence, given by a DNA-analysis with markers that are linked, the normally used product rule is invalid.

Autosomal SNP typing of forensic samples with the GenPlex™ HID System: results of a collaborative study.

The GenPlex™ HID System (Applied Biosystems - AB) offers typing of 48 of the 52 SNPforID SNPs and amelogenin. Previous studies have shown a high reproducibility of the GenPlex™ HID System using 250-500pg DNA of good quality. An international exercise was performed by 14 laboratories (9 in Europe and 5 in the US) in order to test the robustness and reliability of the GenPlex™ HID System on forensic samples.

The use of commercial alcohol products to sterilize bones prior to DNA sampling.

In disaster situations it is not always possible to maintain an adequate supply of standard equipment and sterilizing solutions. We have compared bone samples from cadavers cleaned in commercial white alcohol to samples from the same individuals cleaned with 95% surgical spirit. We have found that it is possible to use a commercial, white spirit to clean specimens taken from human cadavers femoral diaphysis collected for DNA analysis.

Do 'Dominant Frequencies' explain the listener's response to formant and spectrum shape variations?

Psychoacoustic experimentation shows that formant frequency shifts can give rise to more significant changes in phonetic vowel timber than differences in overall level, bandwidth, spectral tilt, and formant amplitudes. Carlson and Granström's perceptual and computational findings suggest that, in addition to spectral representations, the human ear uses temporal information on formant periodicities ('Dominant Frequencies') in building vowel timber percepts. The availability of such temporal coding in the cat's auditory nerve fibers has been demonstrated in numerous physiological investigations undertaken during recent decades.

A duration-dependent account of coarticulation for hyper- and hypoarticulation.

Previous studies investigating anticipatory coarticulation in emphatically stressed CV sequences and during fast speaking rates reported that three factors contributed to the overall extent of the documented coarticulation. These factors were: (1) vowel identity, (2) vowel space expansion (emphasis) or reduction (fast rate), and a hypothesized (3) 'deeper' and 'shallower' stop closure contact in emphatic and faster speech, respectively. The objective of the current research was to conceptually and quantitatively unify these two studies.

Laryngeal mechanisms in speech: The contributions of Jan Gauffin.

Jan Gauffin was an early user of fiber optics which allowed him to discover that laryngeal structures above the glottal level are involved in speech. His research led him to postulate three independently controlled mechanisms: fundamental frequency control, glottal adduction/abduction, and laryngealization, the latter derived from the protective closure function. He argued that phonetic theory must be revised to account for the main phonation types of the world's languages.

The effect of speaking rate on consonant vowel coarticulation.

In 2007 Lindblom et al. introduced a methodological tool to disentangle consonant-vowel (CV) coarticulation attributable to emphatic stress apart from the vowel expansion effects known to accompany the prosodic overlay. After empirically accounting for the altered vowel positions, they reported small but consistent increases in F2 transition onsets in emphatically produced CVs that could not be attributed to vowel context influences, and that differed across stop place.

Analysis of linkage and linkage disequilibrium for eight X-STR markers.

X-chromosomal short tandem repeats (X-STR) have proven to be informative and useful in complex relationship testing. The main feature of X-STR markers, compared to autosomal forensic markers, is that all loci are located on the same chromosome. Thus, linkage and linkage disequilibrium may occur.

The role of optical coherence tomography in the detection of pituitary adenoma.

Purpose:  To analyse retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) thickness in eyes with compression of the optic chiasm by a pituitary adenoma. RNFL thickness was analysed with optical coherence tomography (OCT) and compared to visual field measurements using high-pass resolution perimetry (HRP).

Methods: Sixteen eyes from eight patients with pituitary adenoma were studied.