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  1. Fulltext A magnetic resonance imaging study on the articulatory and acoustic speech parameters of Malay vowels
    Zourmand A, Mirhassani SM, Ting HN, Bux SI, Ng KH, Bilgen M, et al.
    Biomed Eng Online, 2014;13:103.
    PMID: 25060583 DOI: 10.1186/1475-925X-13-103
    The phonetic properties of six Malay vowels are investigated using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to visualize the vocal tract in order to obtain dynamic articulatory parameters during speech production. To resolve image blurring due to the tongue movement during the scanning process, a method based on active contour extraction is used to track tongue contours. The proposed method efficiently tracks tongue contours despite the partial blurring of MRI images. Consequently, the articulatory parameters that are effectively measured as tongue movement is observed, and the specific shape of the tongue and its position for all six uttered Malay vowels are determined.Speech rehabilitation procedure demands some kind of visual perceivable prototype of speech articulation. To investigate the validity of the measured articulatory parameters based on acoustic theory of speech production, an acoustic analysis based on the uttered vowels by subjects has been performed. As the acoustic speech and articulatory parameters of uttered speech were examined, a correlation between formant frequencies and articulatory parameters was observed. The experiments reported a positive correlation between the constriction location of the tongue body and the first formant frequency, as well as a negative correlation between the constriction location of the tongue tip and the second formant frequency. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is an effective tool for the dynamic study of speech production.
    Matched MeSH terms: Tongue/physiology
  2. Fulltext A bio-inspired herbal tea flavour assessment technique
    Zakaria NZ, Masnan MJ, Zakaria A, Shakaff AY
    Sensors (Basel), 2014;14(7):12233-55.
    PMID: 25010697 DOI: 10.3390/s140712233
    Herbal-based products are becoming a widespread production trend among manufacturers for the domestic and international markets. As the production increases to meet the market demand, it is very crucial for the manufacturer to ensure that their products have met specific criteria and fulfil the intended quality determined by the quality controller. One famous herbal-based product is herbal tea. This paper investigates bio-inspired flavour assessments in a data fusion framework involving an e-nose and e-tongue. The objectives are to attain good classification of different types and brands of herbal tea, classification of different flavour masking effects and finally classification of different concentrations of herbal tea. Two data fusion levels were employed in this research, low level data fusion and intermediate level data fusion. Four classification approaches; LDA, SVM, KNN and PNN were examined in search of the best classifier to achieve the research objectives. In order to evaluate the classifiers' performance, an error estimator based on k-fold cross validation and leave-one-out were applied. Classification based on GC-MS TIC data was also included as a comparison to the classification performance using fusion approaches. Generally, KNN outperformed the other classification techniques for the three flavour assessments in the low level data fusion and intermediate level data fusion. However, the classification results based on GC-MS TIC data are varied.
    Matched MeSH terms: Tongue/physiology*
  3. Bulbar signs in normal population
    Lim KS, Hew YC, Lau HK, Lim TS, Tan CT
    Can J Neurol Sci, 2009 Jan;36(1):60-4.
    PMID: 19294890
    BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There is lack of published data on bulbar signs among the healthy population. This study aims to determine the range of normality of bulbar signs particularly among the elderly.

    METHODS: Systemic examination of bulbar signs was carried out according to a predetermined protocol on a cohort of young and elderly healthy subjects.

    RESULTS: A total of 206 subjects were recruited in the study, 104 young adults with mean age of 20 years, and 102 elderly with mean age of 73 years. Uvula deviation was seen in 28 (26.9%) young subjects and 22 (21.6%) elderly. Irregular tongue border was seen in 17 subjects, unilateral in 4 subjects. Fourteen (6.8%) subjects had deviation on tongue protrusion. Occasional tremor of tongue on protrusion is common in both young and old. Persistent (severe) tongue tremor on protrusion was seen in 18.6% of the elderly, and 4.8% of the young. None of the subjects had tremor of tongue at rest. In gag reflex, absence of gagging response was common in elderly, seen in two thirds of the subjects on stimulation of the posterior pharyngeal wall. However, all the subjects had uvular movement. Habituation or suppression of gagging response was seen in close to 90% of young males.

    CONCLUSION: There is wide range of normality in bulbar signs in normal population, particularly among the elderly.

    Matched MeSH terms: Tongue/physiology*
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