The Experts below are selected from a list of 231 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Mark Splaingard - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Optimizing smoke alarm signals: Testing the effectiveness of children's smoke alarms for sleeping adults.
Injury epidemiology, 2020Co-Authors: Gary A. Smith, Sandhya Kistamgari, Mark SplaingardAbstract:Being asleep is an important risk factor for death during a residential fire; however, the high-Frequency Tone smoke alarms in many homes will not adequately awaken children who are old enough to self-rescue. In a series of previous studies, we identified smoke alarm signals that effectively awaken children 5–12 years old and prompt their escape. Because it is impractical to have separate alarms for children and adults in a household, the purpose of this study is to test whether alarms that are effective in awakening children and prompting their escape are also effective among adults. Using a randomized, non-blinded, repeated measures design, 150 adults 20–49 years old were exposed during stage 4 sleep to four different smoke alarms. Statistical tests included the Kaplan-Meier estimator, generalized Wilcoxon test, and hazard ratios with Wald’s 95% confidence intervals. The median age of study subjects was 30.0 years and 67.3% were female. Almost all (n = 149) subjects awakened and performed the escape procedure to all four alarms; one individual did not awaken or escape to the high-Frequency Tone alarm. The median time-to-awaken was 2.0 s for the high-Frequency Tone alarm and 1.0 s for the other three alarms. The median time-to-escape for the high-Frequency Tone alarm was 12.0 s, compared with 10.0 s for the low-Frequency Tone alarm and 9.0 s each for the female and male voice alarms. All pairwise comparisons between the high-Frequency Tone alarm and each of the other three alarms were statistically significant for the probability functions for time-to-awaken and time-to-escape. There were no significant differences in these outcome measures between the latter three alarms, except for female voice versus low-Frequency Tone alarms for time-to-escape. All alarms performed well, demonstrating that smoke alarms developed for the unique developmental requirements of sleeping children are also effective among sleeping adults. Compared with a high-Frequency Tone alarm, use of these alarms may reduce residential fire-related injuries and deaths among children, while also successfully alerting adult members of the household.
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Comparison of the effectiveness of female voice, male voice, and hybrid voice-Tone smoke alarms for sleeping children.
Pediatric research, 2020Co-Authors: Gary A. Smith, Thitphalak Chounthirath, Mark SplaingardAbstract:BACKGROUND To test whether children awaken from slow wave sleep and perform an escape procedure better in response to a smoke alarm that uses a male voice, female voice, combination of a low-Frequency Tone plus a female voice (hybrid alarm), or high-Frequency Tone. METHODS Using a randomized, non-blinded, repeated-measures design, 188 children aged 5-12 years were exposed during stage 4 slow wave sleep to four smoke alarms. RESULTS Among study subjects, 84.6%, 87.2%, 88.8%, and 56.4% awakened and 84.0%, 86.7%, 88.8%, and 55.3% successfully performed the escape procedure within 5 min of alarm onset in response to the male voice, female voice, hybrid, and high-Frequency Tone alarms, respectively, while the median time-to-escape was 12.0, 12.0, 13.0, and 96.5 s for these four alarms, respectively. All pairwise comparisons between the high-Frequency Tone alarm and each of the other three alarms were statistically significant for the proportions of subjects who awakened or escaped and for time-to-awaken and time-to-escape. There were no significant differences in these outcome measures between the latter three alarms. CONCLUSIONS Use of the male or female voice or hybrid alarms in children's sleep areas may reduce residential fire-related injuries and deaths among children old enough to perform self-rescue. IMPACT The male voice, female voice, and hybrid alarms were each significantly more effective than a high-Frequency Tone alarm in awakening children aged 5-12 years from slow wave sleep and prompting their performance of an escape procedure. There were no significant differences in the effectiveness of the male voice, female voice, and hybrid alarms when compared with each other. Use of these alarms in children's sleep areas may reduce residential fire-related injuries and deaths among children old enough to perform self-rescue.
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Do Sleeping Children Respond Better to a Smoke Alarm That Uses Their Mother's Voice?
Academic pediatrics, 2019Co-Authors: Gary A. Smith, Thitphalak Chounthirath, Mark SplaingardAbstract:ABSTRACT Objective Being asleep at the time of a residential fire increases fire-related fatality risk. This study tested whether children awaken from slow wave sleep and perform an escape procedure better to a voice smoke alarm that uses their mother's voice compared with a female stranger's voice or a low-Frequency Tone alarm. Methods Using a randomized, non-blinded, repeated measures design, 176 children 5-12 years old were exposed during stage 4 slow wave sleep to four smoke alarm signals: 1) the voice of the child's mother, 2) the voice of a female stranger, 3) low-Frequency 500 Hz square wave Tone, and 4) conventional residential high-Frequency Tone. The alarms were assessed regarding their ability to awaken the children and prompt their performance of an escape procedure. Results Among the 176 subjects, 78.4%, 83.0%, 88.1%, and 49.4% awakened and 78.4%, 81.3%, 85.8%, and 48.3% successfully performed the escape procedure within 5 minutes of alarm onset in response to the mother's voice, stranger's voice, low-Frequency Tone, and high-Frequency Tone alarms, respectively; while the median time-to-escape was 23.0, 24.0, 41.5, and >300 seconds for these four alarms, respectively. Conclusions The two voice alarms and low-Frequency Tone alarm significantly out-performed the high-Frequency Tone alarm, with the low-Frequency Tone alarm and female stranger's voice alarm performing best. Compared with the voice of a female stranger, personalizing the alarm message with the voice of the child's mother did not increase alarm effectiveness. These findings provide important information for development of an effective and practical smoke alarm for children.
Philip L. Marston - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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meridional ray amplitudes for high Frequency backscattering from water filled tilted finite cylindrical shells
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1998Co-Authors: Scot F. Morse, Philip L. MarstonAbstract:Impulse response measurements have previously shown that the backscattering by moderately thick tilted finite cylindrical shells is enhanced when phase matching to a supersonic meridional leaky wave occurs [Morse et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 103, 785–794 (1998)]. Above the coincidence Frequency phase matching to the meridional a0 leaky Lamb wave occurs for a range of high tilt angles far from broadside incidence and yields large backscattering enhancements. The results of high‐Frequency Tone burst measurements for water‐filled shells are presented and compared with an approximate ray theory. In each case the peak backscattered amplitude for the initial meridional ray is several times larger than the reflection from a rigid sphere having the same radius as the cylinder. Amplitudes for the water‐filled shell are generally less than one‐half those for the corresponding hollow shell, but can still be understood using ray theory [P. L. Marston, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 102, 358–369 (1997)]. Multiple internal reflect...
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meridional and helical ray contributions to backscattering by tilted cylindrical shells high Frequency Tone burst and wide bandwidth measurements and interpretation
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1998Co-Authors: Scot F. Morse, Philip L. MarstonAbstract:When viewed in the Frequency‐angle domain, the backscattering by truncated thick cylindrical shells in water exhibit various ridges of high backscatter. These enhancements are associated with leaky waves excited on the shell and can be described in terms of meridional and helical rays. The enhancements are not present for a rigid scatterer of the same shape and may be important for interpreting high‐Frequency sonar echoes. Previous work [Morse et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. (to be published)] has shown that these enhancements are not limited to near broadside incidence but can extend to end‐on incidence in the coincidence Frequency region. Results of broadband and Tone burst measurements of these enhancements are presented. High‐Frequency Tone bursts may be used to separate the meridional ray enhancement from the generally weaker helical ray enhancement. The general angular width of the meridional ray enhancement may be explained using an approximate ray theory [Marston, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 102, 358–369 (1997)]. The amplitude of the backscattered meridional ray depends on the leaky wave reflection coefficient at the end of the cylinder which appears to be affected by mode conversion near mode thresholds. [Work sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.]
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Meridional ray amplitudes for high‐Frequency backscattering from water‐filled tilted finite cylindrical shells
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1998Co-Authors: Scot F. Morse, Philip L. MarstonAbstract:Impulse response measurements have previously shown that the backscattering by moderately thick tilted finite cylindrical shells is enhanced when phase matching to a supersonic meridional leaky wave occurs [Morse et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 103, 785–794 (1998)]. Above the coincidence Frequency phase matching to the meridional a0 leaky Lamb wave occurs for a range of high tilt angles far from broadside incidence and yields large backscattering enhancements. The results of high‐Frequency Tone burst measurements for water‐filled shells are presented and compared with an approximate ray theory. In each case the peak backscattered amplitude for the initial meridional ray is several times larger than the reflection from a rigid sphere having the same radius as the cylinder. Amplitudes for the water‐filled shell are generally less than one‐half those for the corresponding hollow shell, but can still be understood using ray theory [P. L. Marston, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 102, 358–369 (1997)]. Multiple internal reflect...
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Meridional and helical ray contributions to backscattering by tilted cylindrical shells: High‐Frequency Tone burst and wide bandwidth measurements and interpretation
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1998Co-Authors: Scot F. Morse, Philip L. MarstonAbstract:When viewed in the Frequency‐angle domain, the backscattering by truncated thick cylindrical shells in water exhibit various ridges of high backscatter. These enhancements are associated with leaky waves excited on the shell and can be described in terms of meridional and helical rays. The enhancements are not present for a rigid scatterer of the same shape and may be important for interpreting high‐Frequency sonar echoes. Previous work [Morse et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. (to be published)] has shown that these enhancements are not limited to near broadside incidence but can extend to end‐on incidence in the coincidence Frequency region. Results of broadband and Tone burst measurements of these enhancements are presented. High‐Frequency Tone bursts may be used to separate the meridional ray enhancement from the generally weaker helical ray enhancement. The general angular width of the meridional ray enhancement may be explained using an approximate ray theory [Marston, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 102, 358–369 (1997)]. The amplitude of the backscattered meridional ray depends on the leaky wave reflection coefficient at the end of the cylinder which appears to be affected by mode conversion near mode thresholds. [Work sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.]
Gary A. Smith - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Optimizing smoke alarm signals: Testing the effectiveness of children's smoke alarms for sleeping adults.
Injury epidemiology, 2020Co-Authors: Gary A. Smith, Sandhya Kistamgari, Mark SplaingardAbstract:Being asleep is an important risk factor for death during a residential fire; however, the high-Frequency Tone smoke alarms in many homes will not adequately awaken children who are old enough to self-rescue. In a series of previous studies, we identified smoke alarm signals that effectively awaken children 5–12 years old and prompt their escape. Because it is impractical to have separate alarms for children and adults in a household, the purpose of this study is to test whether alarms that are effective in awakening children and prompting their escape are also effective among adults. Using a randomized, non-blinded, repeated measures design, 150 adults 20–49 years old were exposed during stage 4 sleep to four different smoke alarms. Statistical tests included the Kaplan-Meier estimator, generalized Wilcoxon test, and hazard ratios with Wald’s 95% confidence intervals. The median age of study subjects was 30.0 years and 67.3% were female. Almost all (n = 149) subjects awakened and performed the escape procedure to all four alarms; one individual did not awaken or escape to the high-Frequency Tone alarm. The median time-to-awaken was 2.0 s for the high-Frequency Tone alarm and 1.0 s for the other three alarms. The median time-to-escape for the high-Frequency Tone alarm was 12.0 s, compared with 10.0 s for the low-Frequency Tone alarm and 9.0 s each for the female and male voice alarms. All pairwise comparisons between the high-Frequency Tone alarm and each of the other three alarms were statistically significant for the probability functions for time-to-awaken and time-to-escape. There were no significant differences in these outcome measures between the latter three alarms, except for female voice versus low-Frequency Tone alarms for time-to-escape. All alarms performed well, demonstrating that smoke alarms developed for the unique developmental requirements of sleeping children are also effective among sleeping adults. Compared with a high-Frequency Tone alarm, use of these alarms may reduce residential fire-related injuries and deaths among children, while also successfully alerting adult members of the household.
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Comparison of the effectiveness of female voice, male voice, and hybrid voice-Tone smoke alarms for sleeping children.
Pediatric research, 2020Co-Authors: Gary A. Smith, Thitphalak Chounthirath, Mark SplaingardAbstract:BACKGROUND To test whether children awaken from slow wave sleep and perform an escape procedure better in response to a smoke alarm that uses a male voice, female voice, combination of a low-Frequency Tone plus a female voice (hybrid alarm), or high-Frequency Tone. METHODS Using a randomized, non-blinded, repeated-measures design, 188 children aged 5-12 years were exposed during stage 4 slow wave sleep to four smoke alarms. RESULTS Among study subjects, 84.6%, 87.2%, 88.8%, and 56.4% awakened and 84.0%, 86.7%, 88.8%, and 55.3% successfully performed the escape procedure within 5 min of alarm onset in response to the male voice, female voice, hybrid, and high-Frequency Tone alarms, respectively, while the median time-to-escape was 12.0, 12.0, 13.0, and 96.5 s for these four alarms, respectively. All pairwise comparisons between the high-Frequency Tone alarm and each of the other three alarms were statistically significant for the proportions of subjects who awakened or escaped and for time-to-awaken and time-to-escape. There were no significant differences in these outcome measures between the latter three alarms. CONCLUSIONS Use of the male or female voice or hybrid alarms in children's sleep areas may reduce residential fire-related injuries and deaths among children old enough to perform self-rescue. IMPACT The male voice, female voice, and hybrid alarms were each significantly more effective than a high-Frequency Tone alarm in awakening children aged 5-12 years from slow wave sleep and prompting their performance of an escape procedure. There were no significant differences in the effectiveness of the male voice, female voice, and hybrid alarms when compared with each other. Use of these alarms in children's sleep areas may reduce residential fire-related injuries and deaths among children old enough to perform self-rescue.
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Do Sleeping Children Respond Better to a Smoke Alarm That Uses Their Mother's Voice?
Academic pediatrics, 2019Co-Authors: Gary A. Smith, Thitphalak Chounthirath, Mark SplaingardAbstract:ABSTRACT Objective Being asleep at the time of a residential fire increases fire-related fatality risk. This study tested whether children awaken from slow wave sleep and perform an escape procedure better to a voice smoke alarm that uses their mother's voice compared with a female stranger's voice or a low-Frequency Tone alarm. Methods Using a randomized, non-blinded, repeated measures design, 176 children 5-12 years old were exposed during stage 4 slow wave sleep to four smoke alarm signals: 1) the voice of the child's mother, 2) the voice of a female stranger, 3) low-Frequency 500 Hz square wave Tone, and 4) conventional residential high-Frequency Tone. The alarms were assessed regarding their ability to awaken the children and prompt their performance of an escape procedure. Results Among the 176 subjects, 78.4%, 83.0%, 88.1%, and 49.4% awakened and 78.4%, 81.3%, 85.8%, and 48.3% successfully performed the escape procedure within 5 minutes of alarm onset in response to the mother's voice, stranger's voice, low-Frequency Tone, and high-Frequency Tone alarms, respectively; while the median time-to-escape was 23.0, 24.0, 41.5, and >300 seconds for these four alarms, respectively. Conclusions The two voice alarms and low-Frequency Tone alarm significantly out-performed the high-Frequency Tone alarm, with the low-Frequency Tone alarm and female stranger's voice alarm performing best. Compared with the voice of a female stranger, personalizing the alarm message with the voice of the child's mother did not increase alarm effectiveness. These findings provide important information for development of an effective and practical smoke alarm for children.
Rickye S. Heffner - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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passive sound localization ability of the big brown bat eptesicus fuscus
Hearing Research, 1998Co-Authors: Gimseong Koay, Dara Kearns, Henry E. Heffner, Rickye S. HeffnerAbstract:The passive sound-localization ability (i.e. minimum audible angle) of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, was determined using a conditioned avoidance procedure in which the animals were trained to discriminate left sounds from right sounds. The mean threshold of three bats for a 100-ms broadband noise burst was 14°, a value that is about average for mammals. A similar threshold of 15° was obtained for one animal when it was retested with one of its own recorded echolocation calls as the stimulus. The two bats tested on pure-Tone localization were able to localize high-Frequency, but not low-Frequency Tones, even when a low-Frequency Tone was amplitude modulated, a result indicating that these bats are not able to use binaural time-difference cues for localization. Finally, given the width of the bat's field of best vision, as determined by a count of its ganglion-cell density, its sound-localization acuity is consistent with the hypothesis that the role of passive sound localization is to direct the eyes to the source of a sound.
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passive sound localization ability of the big brown bat eptesicus fuscus
Hearing Research, 1998Co-Authors: Gimseong Koay, Dara Kearns, Henry E. Heffner, Rickye S. HeffnerAbstract:The passive sound-localization ability (i.e. minimum audible angle) of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, was determined using a conditioned avoidance procedure in which the animals were trained to discriminate left sounds from right sounds. The mean threshold of three bats for a 100-ms broadband noise burst was 14°, a value that is about average for mammals. A similar threshold of 15° was obtained for one animal when it was retested with one of its own recorded echolocation calls as the stimulus. The two bats tested on pure-Tone localization were able to localize high-Frequency, but not low-Frequency Tones, even when a low-Frequency Tone was amplitude modulated, a result indicating that these bats are not able to use binaural time-difference cues for localization. Finally, given the width of the bat's field of best vision, as determined by a count of its ganglion-cell density, its sound-localization acuity is consistent with the hypothesis that the role of passive sound localization is to direct the eyes to the source of a sound.
Elzbieta Szelag - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Auditory perception of temporal order: A comparison between tonal language speakers with and without non-tonal language experience.
Acta neurobiologiae experimentalis, 2014Co-Authors: Yan Bao, Aneta Szymaszek, Yuan Fang, Taoxi Yang, Lingyan Wang, Elzbieta SzelagAbstract:It has been shown recently that temporal order perception is modulated by language environments. The present study focused on the specific question whether a secondary language experience influences temporal order perception by comparing the temporal order thresholds (TOTs) between Chinese subjects with and without a secondary non-tonal language (i.e.,English) experience. Besides monaurally presented paired clicks, binaurally presented two different types of Tone pairs were used in order to better capture a potential difference between tonal and non-tonal languages. The results showed a non-significant language effect on monaurally presented click TOTs, but a significant language effect for binaurally presented Tone TOTs. Compared to click performance, Chinese subjects without English proficiency demonstrated a significantly lower TOT only for close Frequency Tone pairs, while Chinese subjects with English proficiency demonstrated lower TOTs for both close Frequency and distant Frequency Tone pairs. These results confirm on the one hand a common and language independent temporal mechanism for perceiving the order of two monaurally presented stimuli, and indicate on the other hand specific mechanisms of neuronal plasticity for perceiving the order of Frequency-related auditory stimuli for tonal language speakers with or without a secondary non-tonal language experience.
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Temporal order perception of auditory stimuli is selectively modified by tonal and non-tonal language environments
Cognition, 2013Co-Authors: Yan Bao, Aneta Szymaszek, Xiaoying Wang, Anna Oron, Ernst Pöppel, Elzbieta SzelagAbstract:The close relationship between temporal perception and speech processing is well established. The present study focused on the specific question whether the speech environment could influence temporal order perception in subjects whose language backgrounds are distinctively different, i.e., Chinese (tonal language) vs. Polish (non-tonal language). Temporal order thresholds were measured for both monaurally presented clicks and binaurally presented Tone pairs. Whereas the click experiment showed similar order thresholds for the two language groups, the experiment with Tone pairs resulted in different observations: while Chinese demonstrated better performance in discriminating the temporal order of two "close Frequency" Tone pairs (600 Hz and 1200 Hz), Polish subjects showed a reversed pattern, i.e., better performance for "distant Frequency" Tone pairs (400 Hz and 3000 Hz). These results indicate on the one hand a common temporal mechanism for perceiving the order of two monaurally presented stimuli, and on the other hand neuronal plasticity for perceiving the order of Frequency-related auditory stimuli. We conclude that the auditory brain is modified with respect to temporal processing by long-term exposure to a tonal or a non-tonal language. As a consequence of such an exposure different cognitive modes of operation (analytic vs. holistic) are selected: the analytic mode is adopted for "distant Frequency" Tone pairs in Chinese and for "close Frequency" Tone pairs in Polish subjects, whereas the holistic mode is selected for "close Frequency" Tone pairs in Chinese and for "distant Frequency" Tone pairs in Polish subjects, reflecting a double dissociation of function.
