–The research described in this Acoustics Lay Language Paper may not have yet been peer reviewed–
Imagine being in a voice lesson, and as you try to hit a high note, your voice coach says, “suppress your tongue” or “pretend your tongue doesn’t exist!” What does this mean, and why do singers do this?
One vocal technique used by professional singers is to sing in different vocal registers. Generally, a man’s natural speaking voice and the voice people use to sing lower notes is called the chest voice—you can feel a vibration in your chest if you place your hand over it as you vocalize. When moving to higher notes, singers shift to their head voice, where vibrations feel stronger in the head. However, what role does the tongue play in this transition? Do all singers, including amateurs, naturally adjust their tongue when switching registers, or is this adjustment a learned skill?
Figure 1: Approximate location of feeling/sensation for chest and head voice.
We are interested in vowels and the pitch range during the passaggio, which is the shift or transition point between different vocal registers. The voice is very unstable and prone to audible cracking during the passaggio, and singers are trained to navigate it smoothly. We also know that different vowels are produced in different locations in the mouth and possess different qualities. One way that singers successfully navigate the passaggio is by altering the vowel through slight adjustments to tongue shape. To study this, we utilized ultrasound imaging to monitor the position and shape of the tongue while participants with varying levels of vocal training sang vowels across their pitch range, similar to a vocal warm-up.
Video 1: Example of ultrasound recording
The results indicated that, in head voice, the tongue is generally positioned higher in the mouth than in chest voice. Unsurprisingly, this difference is more pronounced for certain vowels than for others.
Figure 2: Tongue position in chest and head voice for front and back vowel groups. Overlapping shades indicate that there is virtually no difference.
Singers’ tongues are also shaped by training. Recall the voice coach’s advice to lower your jaw and tongue while singing—this technique is employed to create more space in the mouth to enhance resonance and vocal projection. Indeed, trained singers generally have a lower overall tongue position.
As professional singers’ transitions between registers sound more seamless, we speculated that trained singers would exhibit smaller differences in tongue position between registers than untrained singers, who have less developed tongue control. In fact, it turns out that the opposite is true: the tongue behaves differently in chest voice and head voice, but only for individuals with vocal training.
Figure 3: Tongue position in chest and head voice for singers with different levels of training.
In summary, our research suggests that tongue adjustments for register shifts may be a learned technique. The manner in which singers adjust their tongues for different vowels and vocal registers could be an essential component in achieving a seamless transition between registers, as well as in the effective use of various vocal qualities. Understanding the interactions among vowels, registers, and the tongue provides insight into the mechanisms of human vocal production and voice pedagogy.
Department of Radiology; Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, United States
Popular version of 5aBAb8 – Towards real-time decompression sickness mitigation using wearable capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer arrays
Presented at the 186th ASA Meeting
Read the abstract at https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0027683
–The research described in this Acoustics Lay Language Paper may not have yet been peer reviewed–
Scuba diving is a fun recreational activity but carries the risk of decompression sickness (DCS), commonly known as ‘the bends’. This condition occurs when divers ascend too quickly, causing gas that has accumulated in their bodies to expand rapidly into larger bubbles—similar to the fizz when a soda can is opened.
To prevent this, divers will follow specific safety protocols that limit how fast they rise to the surface and stop at predetermined depths to allow bubbles in their body to dissipate. However, these are general guidelines that do not account for every person in every situation. This limitation can make it harder to prevent DCS effectively in all individuals without unnecessarily lengthening the time to ascend for a large portion of divers. Traditionally, these bubbles have only been detected with ultrasound technology after the diver has surfaced, so it is a challenge to predict DCS before it occurs (Figure 1b&c). Early identification of these bubbles could allow for the development of personalized underwater instructions to bring divers back to the surface and minimize the risk of DCS.
To address this challenge, our team is creating a wearable ultrasound device that divers can use underwater.
Ultrasound works by sending sound waves into the body and then receiving the echoes that bounce back. Bubbles reflect these sound waves strongly, making them visible in ultrasound images (Figure 1d). Unlike traditional ultrasound systems that are too large and not suited for underwater use, our innovative device will be compact and efficient, designed specifically for real-time bubble monitoring while diving.
Currently, our research involves testing this technology and optimizing imaging parameters in controlled environments like hyperbaric chambers. These are specialized rooms where underwater conditions can be replicated by increasing the inside pressure. We recently collected the first ultrasound scans of human divers during a hyperbaric chamber dive with a research ultrasound system, and next we plan to use it with our first prototype. With this data, we hope to find changes in the images that indicate where bubbles are forming. In the future, we plan to start testing our custom ultrasound tool on divers, which will be a big step towards continuously monitoring divers underwater, and eventually personalized DCS prevention.
Figure 1. (a) Scuba diver underwater. (b) Post-dive monitoring for bubbles using ultrasound. (c) Typical ultrasound system (developed using Biorender). (d) Bubbles detected in ultrasound images as bright spots in heart. Images courtesy of JC, unless otherwise noted.
Chemical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, 382355, India
Sameer V. Dalvi – sameervd@iitgn.ac.in
Chemical Engineering Department,
Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar
Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382355
India
Popular version of 4pBAa3 – Ultrasound Responsive Multi-Layered Emulsions for Drug Delivery
Presented at the 186th ASA Meeting
Read the abstract at https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0027523
–The research described in this Acoustics Lay Language Paper may not have yet been peer reviewed–
What are popping droplets? Imagine you are making popcorn in a pot. Each little popcorn seed consists of a tiny bit of water. When you heat the seeds, the water inside them gets hot and turns into steam. This makes the seed pop and turn into a popcorn. Similarly, think of each popcorn seed as a droplet. The special liquid used to create popping droplets is called perfluoropentane (PFP), which is similar to the water inside the corn seed. PFP can boil at low temperatures and turn into a bubble, which makes it perfect for crafting these special droplets.
Vaporizable/Popping droplets hold great promise in the fields of both diagnosis and therapy. By using sound waves to vaporize PFP present in the droplets, medicine (drugs) can be delivered efficiently to specific areas in the body, such as tumors, while minimizing impacts on healthy tissues. This targeted approach has the potential to improve the safety and effectiveness of therapy, ultimately benefiting patients.
Figure 1. Vaporizable/popping droplets with perfluoropentane (PFP) in the core with successive layers of water and oil
What do we propose? Researchers have been exploring complex structures like double emulsions to load drugs onto droplets (just like filling a backpack with books), especially those that are water-soluble. Building on this, our study introduces multi-layered droplets featuring a vaporizable core (Fig.1). This design enables the incorporation of both water-soluble and insoluble drugs into separate layers within the same droplet. To better visualize this, imagine a club sandwich with layers of bread stacked on top of each other, each layer containing a different filling. Alternatively, picture an onion with multiple stacked layers that can be peeled off one by one. Similarly, multi-layered droplets comprise stacked layers, each capable of holding various substances, such as drugs or therapeutic agents.
To explore the features of the multi-layered droplets further, we carried out two separate studies. First, we estimated the peak negative pressure of the sound wave at which the PFP in the droplets vaporize. This is similar to how water boils at 100°C (212°F) under standard atmospheric pressure, but at low/negative pressure (like under a vacuum), water can boil at low temperatures. Sound waves are known to induce both positive and negative pressure changes. During instances of negative pressure, the pressure drops below the atmospheric pressure, creating a vacuum-like effect. This decrease in pressure can trigger the vaporization of the perfluoropentane (PFP) in the droplets at room temperatures.
Secondly, we loaded a water-insoluble drug, curcumin, which is an anti-inflammatory drug, in the oil layer and estimated the amount of drug loading (just like counting number of books in the backpack).
Figure 2. Relationship between Mean Grayscale (mean brightness) and soundwave pressure for droplet vaporization
Figure 2 depicts the relationship between the increase in mean grayscale (just like the increase in bright areas or brightness of a black-and-white picture) and the peak negative pressure of the sound wave. Based on our study, the peak negative pressure at which the PFP in the droplets was found to vaporize was 6.7 MPa. Furthermore, the loading for curcumin was estimated to be 0.87 ± 0.1 milligrams (mg), which indicates a higher drug loading capacity in multi-layered droplets.
These studies are essential because they help us determine two critical things. The first one allows us to figure out the exact sound wave pressure needed to make the droplets pop. This is useful for the controlled release of drugs in targeted areas. The second study tells us how much drug these droplets can hold, which is helpful in designing drug delivery systems.
Together, these studies enhance our understanding of multi-layered droplets and pave the way for a new targeted therapy, where popping droplets serve as vehicles for delivering drugs or therapeutic agents to specific locations upon activation by sound waves.
Jian-yu Lu – jian-yu.lu@ieee.org
X (Twitter): @Jianyu_lu
Instagram: @jianyu.lu01
Department of Bioengineering, College of Engineering, The University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio, 43606, United States
Popular version of 1pBAb4 – Reconstruction methods for super-resolution imaging with PSF modulation
Presented at the 186 ASA Meeting
Read the abstract at https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0026777
–The research described in this Acoustics Lay Language Paper may not have yet been peer reviewed–
Imaging is an important fundamental tool to advance science, engineering, and medicine, and is indispensable in our daily life. Here we have a few examples: Acoustical and optical microscopes have helped to advance biology. Ultrasound imaging, X-ray radiography, X-ray computerized tomography (X-ray CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), gamma camera, single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT), and positron emission tomography (PET) have been routinely used for medical diagnoses. Electron and scanning tunneling microscopes have revealed structures in nanometer or atomic scale, where one nanometer is one billionth of a meter. And photography, including the cameras in cell phones, is in our everyday life.
Despite the importance of imaging, it was first recognized by Ernest Abbe in 1873 that there is a fundamental limit known as the diffraction limit for resolution in wave-based imaging systems due to the diffraction of waves. This effects acoustical, optical, and electromagnetic waves, and so on.
Recently (see Lu, IEEE TUFFC, January 2024), the researcher developed a general method to overcome such a long-standing diffraction limit. This method is not only applicable to wave-based imaging systems such as ultrasound, optical, electromagnetic, radar, and sonar; it is in principle also applicable to other linear shift-invariant (LSI) imaging systems such as X-ray radiography, X-ray CT, MRI, gamma camera, SPECT, and PET since it increases image resolution by introducing high spatial frequencies through modulating the point-spread function (PSF) of an LSI imaging system. The modulation can be induced remotely from outside of an object to be imaged, or can be small particles introduced into or on the surface of the object and manipulated remotely. The LSI system can be understood with a geometric distortion corrected optical camera in the photography, where the photo of a person will be the same or invariant in terms of the size and shape if the person only shifts his/her position in the direction that is perpendicular to the camera optical axis within the camera field of view.
Figure 1 below demonstrates the efficacy of the method using an acoustical wave. The method was used to image a passive object (in the first row) through a pulse-echo imaging or to image wave source distributions (in the second row) with a receiver. The best images obtainable under the Abbe’s diffraction limit are in the second column, and the super-resolution (better than the diffraction limit) images obtained with the new method are in the last column. The super-resolution images had a resolution that was close to 1/3 of the wavelength used from a distance with an f-number (focal distance divided by the diameter of the transducer) close to 2.
Because the method developed is based on the convolution theory of an LSI system and many practical imaging systems are LSI, the method opens an avenue for various new applications in science, engineering, and medicine. With a proper choice of a modulator and imaging system, nanoscale imaging with resolution similar to that of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) is possible even with visible or infrared light.
Wearable Ultrasound Monitor Can Aid Rehabilitation from Injury #Acoustics23
A new approach to ultrasound imaging can provide real-time insights into muscle dynamics.
SYDNEY, Dec. 5, 2023 – Millions suffer from musculoskeletal injuries every year, and the recovery process can often be long and difficult. Patients typically undergo rehabilitation, slowly rebuilding muscle strength as their injuries heal. Medical professionals routinely evaluate a patient’s progress via a series of tasks and exercises. However, because of the dynamic nature of these exercises, obtaining a clear picture of real-time muscle function is extremely challenging.
Parag Chitnis of George Mason University led a team that developed a wearable ultrasound system that can produce clinically relevant information about muscle function during dynamic physical activity. He will present his work Dec. 5 at 5:00 p.m. Australian Eastern Daylight Time, as part of Acoustics 2023 running Dec. 4-8 at the International Convention Centre Sydney
A wearable ultrasound monitor can provide insight into dynamic muscle movement during activities like jumping. Credit: Parag Chitnis
Many medical technologies can give doctors a window into the inner workings of a patient’s body, but few can be used while that patient is moving. A wearable ultrasound monitor can move with the patient and provide an unprecedented level of insight into body dynamics.
“For instance, when an individual is performing a specific exercise for rehabilitation, our devices can be used to ensure that the target muscle is actually being activated and used correctly,” said Chitnis. “Other applications include providing athletes with insights into their physical fitness and performance, assessing and guiding recovery of motor function in stroke patients, and assessing balance and stability in elderly populations during routine everyday tasks.”
Designing a wearable ultrasound device took much more than simply strapping an existing ultrasound monitor to a patient. Chitnis and his team reinvented ultrasound technology nearly from scratch to produce the results they needed.
“We had to completely change the paradigm of ultrasound imaging,” said Chitnis. “Traditionally, ultrasound systems transmit short-duration pulses, and the echo signals are used to make clinically usefully images. Our systems use a patented approach that relies on transmission of long-duration chirps, which allows us to perform ultrasound sensing using the same components one might find in their car radio.”
This modified approach allowed the team to design a simpler, cheaper system that could be miniaturized and powered by batteries. This let them design an ultrasound monitor with a small, portable form factor that could be attached to a patient.
Soon, Chitnis hopes to further improve his device and develop software tools to more quickly interpret and analyze the ultrasound signals.
The Acoustical Society of America is joining the Australian Acoustical Society to co-host Acoustics 2023 Sydney. This collaborative event will incorporate the Western Pacific Acoustics Conference and the Pacific Rim Underwater Acoustics Conference.
ASA PRESS ROOM In the coming weeks, ASA’s Press Room will be updated with newsworthy stories and the press conference schedule at https://acoustics.org/asa-press-room/.
LAY LANGUAGE PAPERS ASA will also share dozens of lay language papers about topics covered at the conference. Lay language papers are summaries (300-500 words) of presentations written by scientists for a general audience. They will be accompanied by photos, audio, and video. Learn more at https://acoustics.org/lay-language-papers/.
PRESS REGISTRATION ASA will grant free registration to credentialed and professional freelance journalists. If you are a reporter and would like to attend the meeting or virtual press conferences, contact AIP Media Services at media@aip.org. For urgent requests, AIP staff can also help with setting up interviews and obtaining images, sound clips, or background information.
ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (the world’s leading journal on acoustics), JASA Express Letters, Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, Acoustics Today magazine, books, and standards on acoustics. The society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. See https://acousticalsociety.org/.
ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY The Australian Acoustical Society (AAS) is the peak technical society for individuals working in acoustics in Australia. The AAS aims to promote and advance the science and practice of acoustics in all its branches to the wider community and provide support to acousticians. Its diverse membership is made up from academia, consultancies, industry, equipment manufacturers and retailers, and all levels of Government. The Society supports research and provides regular forums for those who practice or study acoustics across a wide range of fields The principal activities of the Society are technical meetings held by each State Division, annual conferences which are held by the State Divisions and the ASNZ in rotation, and publication of the journal Acoustics Australia. https://www.acoustics.org.au/
Figure 1: Approximate location of feeling/sensation for chest and head voice.
Figure 1: Approximate location of feeling/sensation for chest and head voice.
Figure 2: Tongue position in chest and head voice for front and back vowel groups. Overlapping shades indicate that there is virtually no difference.
Figure 2: Tongue position in chest and head voice for front and back vowel groups. Overlapping shades indicate that there is virtually no difference.
Figure 3: Tongue position in chest and head voice for singers with different levels of training.
Figure 3: Tongue position in chest and head voice for singers with different levels of training.
Figure 1. (a) Scuba diver underwater. (b) Post-dive monitoring for bubbles using ultrasound. (c) Typical ultrasound system (developed using Biorender). (d) Bubbles detected in ultrasound images as bright spots in heart. Images courtesy of JC, unless otherwise noted.
Figure 1. Vaporizable/popping droplets with perfluoropentane (PFP) in the core with successive layers of water and oil
Figure 2. Relationship between Mean Grayscale (mean brightness) and soundwave pressure for droplet vaporization
