Reliability and Accuracy of Expert Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice via Telepractice Platforms

Purpose This study assessed the reliability and accuracy of auditory-perceptual voice evaluations by experienced clinicians via telepractice platforms. Method Voice samples from 20 individuals were recorded after transmission via telepractice platforms. Twenty experienced clinicians (10 speech-language pathologists, 10 laryngologists) evaluated the samples for dysphonia percepts (overall severity, roughness, breathiness, and strain) using a modified Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice. Reliability was calculated as the mean of squared differences between repeated ratings (intrarater agreement), and between individual and group mean ratings (interrater agreement). Repeated measures analyses of variance were constructed to measure effects of transmission condition (e.g., original recording, WebEx, Zoom), dysphonia percept, and their interaction on intrarater agreement, interrater agreement, and average ratings. Significant effects were evaluated with post hoc Tukey's tests. Results There were significant effects of transmission condition, percept, and their interaction on average ratings, and a significant effect of percept on interrater agreement. Post hoc testing revealed statistically, but not clinically, significant differences in average roughness ratings across transmission conditions, and significant differences in interrater agreement for several percepts. Overall severity had the highest agreement and strain had the lowest. Conclusion Telepractice transmission does not substantially reduce reliability or accuracy of auditory-perceptual voice evaluations by experienced clinicians.

Accuracy of Acoustic Measures of Voice via Telepractice Videoconferencing Platforms

Purpose Telepractice improves patient access to clinical care for voice disorders. Acoustic assessment has the potential to provide critical, objective information during telepractice, yet its validity via telepractice is currently unknown. The current study investigated the accuracy of acoustic measures of voice in a variety of telepractice platforms. Method Twenty-nine voice samples from individuals with dysphonia were transmitted over six video conferencing platforms (Zoom with and without enhancements, Cisco WebEx, Microsoft Teams, Doxy.me, and VSee Messenger). Standard time-, spectral-, and cepstral-based acoustic measures were calculated. The effect of transmission condition on each acoustic measure was assessed using repeated-measures analyses of variance. For those acoustic measures for which transmission condition was a significant factor, linear regression analysis was performed on the difference between the original recording and each telepractice platform, with the overall severity of dysphonia, Internet speed, and ambient noise from the transmitter as predictors. Results Transmission condition was a statistically significant factor for all acoustic measures except for mean fundamental frequency ( f o ). Ambient noise from the transmitter was a significant predictor of differences between platforms and the original recordings for all acoustic measures except f o measures. All telepractice platforms affected acoustic measures in a statistically significantly manner, although the effects of platforms varied by measure. Conclusions Overall, measures of f o were the least impacted by telepractice transmission. Microsoft Teams had the least and Zoom (with enhancements) had the most pronounced effects on acoustic measures. These results provide valuable insight into the relative validity of acoustic measures of voice when collected via telepractice. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14794812

Investigation of dominant traveling 10-day wave components using long-term MERRA-2 database

The eastward- and westward-traveling 10-day waves with zonal wavenumbers up to 6 from surface to the middle mesosphere during the recent 12 years from 2007 to 2018 are deduced from MERRA-2 data. On the basis of climatology study, the westward-propagating wave with zonal wave number 1 (W1) and eastward-propagating waves with zonal wave numbers 1 (E1) and 2 (E2) are identified as the dominant traveling ones. They are all active at mid- and high-latitudes above the troposphere and display notable month-to-month variations. The W1 and E2 waves are strong in the NH from December to March and in the SH from June to October, respectively, while the E1 wave is active in the SH from August to October and also in the NH from December to February. Further case study on E1 and E2 waves shows that their latitude–altitude structures are dependent on the transmission condition of the background atmosphere. The presence of these two waves in the stratosphere and mesosphere might have originated from the downward-propagating wave excited in the mesosphere by the mean flow instability, the upward-propagating wave from the troposphere, and/or in situ excited wave in the stratosphere. The two eastward waves can exert strong zonal forcing on the mean flow in the stratosphere and mesosphere in specific periods. Compared with E2 wave, the dramatic forcing from the E1 waves is located in the poleward regions.

The principal transmission condition

<abstract><p>The paper treats pseudodifferential operators $ P = \operatorname{Op}(p(\xi)) $ with homogeneous complex symbol $ p(\xi) $ of order $ 2a &gt; 0 $, generalizing the fractional Laplacian $ (-\Delta)^a $ but lacking its symmetries, and taken to act on the halfspace ${\mathbb R}^n_+$. The operators are seen to satisfy a principal $ \mu $-transmission condition relative to ${\mathbb R}^n_+$, but generally not the full $ \mu $-transmission condition satisfied by $ (-\Delta)^a $ and related operators (with $ \mu = a $). However, $ P $ acts well on the so-called $ \mu $-transmission spaces over ${\mathbb R}^n_+$ (defined in earlier works), and when $ P $ moreover is strongly elliptic, these spaces are the solution spaces for the homogeneous Dirichlet problem for $ P $, leading to regularity results with a factor $ x_n^\mu $ (in a limited range of Sobolev spaces). The information is then shown to be sufficient to establish an integration by parts formula over ${\mathbb R}^n_+$ for $ P $ acting on such functions. The formulation in Sobolev spaces, and the results on strongly elliptic operators going beyond certain operators with real kernels, are new. Furthermore, large solutions with nonzero Dirichlet traces are described, and a halfways Green's formula is established, as new results for these operators. Since the principal $ \mu $-transmission condition has weaker requirements than the full $ \mu $-transmission condition assumed in earlier papers, new arguments were needed, relying on work of Vishik and Eskin instead of the Boutet de Monvel theory. The results cover the case of nonsymmetric operators with real kernel that were only partially treated in a preceding paper.</p></abstract>

Mathematical modelling of plasmonic strain sensors

We provide a mathematical analysis for a metasurface constructed of plasmonic nanoparticles mounted periodically on the surface of a microcapsule. We derive an effective transmission condition, which exhibits resonances depending on the inter-particle distance. When the microcapsule is deformed, the resonances are shifted. We fully characterize the dependence of these resonances on the deformation of the microcapsule, enabling the detection of strains at the microscale level. We present numerical simulations to validate our results.

X-ray interference fringes from a weakly bent plane-parallel crystal with negative strain gradient

Under the anomalous transmission condition in the Bragg mode, X-ray interference fringes were observed between two beams with different hyperbolic trajectories in a very weakly bent plane-parallel perfect crystal with negative strain gradient. The origin of the fringes was analysed based on the dynamical theory of diffraction for a distorted crystal. In the reflected beam from the entrance surface, the interference fringes were observed between once- and twice-reflected beams from the back surface. In the transmitted beam from the back surface, the interference fringes were observed between the direct beam and once-reflected beam from the entrance surface. In the emitted beam from the lateral surface, the interference fringes were observed between the beams after different numbers of reflections in the crystal. The multiply reflected beams were formed by a combined result of long propagation length along the beam direction with large divergence of the refracted beams when the strain gradient was negative. The period of these interference fringes was sensitive to very weak strain, of the order of 10−7.

An Efficient and Secured Framework for Mobile Cloud Computing

By and by days the market of PDA is creating at a quick. Everyone has a versatile, tablet, fablet (tablet with calling office). Flexible customer will accomplish 6.5 billion preceding the completion of 2012,6.9 billion preceding the completion of 2013.Together with a perilous improvement of the convenient applications and ascending of appropriated figuring thought, compact disseminated registering (MCC) has been familiar with be a potential development for adaptable organizations. MCC consolidates the disseminated figuring into the flexible condition and beats obstacles related to the execution (e.g., battery life, amassing, and information transmission), condition (e.g., heterogeneity, flexibility, and openness), and security (e.g., steadfastness and insurance) discussed in compact enlisting. This paper gives an information about adaptable disseminated figuring application security, issues . The issues, existing plans and procedures are discussed.