George Allen - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by George Allen
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Faseb J 28 218 229, 2014
The study examined how the mitochondrial enzyme monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A), which produces hydro... more The study examined how the mitochondrial enzyme monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A), which produces hydrogen peroxide as a catalytic by-product, influences death and survival mechanisms. Targeted microRNA (miRNA) was used to stably knock down MAO-A mRNA, protein, and catalytic activity by 60 -70% in SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells. The effects of MAO-A knockdown (KD) on ATP, oxidative stress, electron transport chain, and survival following exposure to mitochondrial toxins were assessed. In control cells, complex I inhibition resulted in caspasemediated cell death linked with ROS production and reduced ATP, followed by up-regulation of MAO-A mRNA, protein, and enzyme activity levels.
One favored approach is an integrated assessment approach that recognizes interactions among diff... more One favored approach is an integrated assessment approach that recognizes interactions among different aspects of pollutants as well as multi-media chemistry and exposure pathways. shows the interrelated nature of many pollutants. This article examines several high priority air pollutants or pollutant classes in this context, and discusses key indicators for assessing the impact of those pollutants. Information gaps and measurement needs are also noted. The linkage from emissions to health and ecosystem impacts has several intermediate steps.
A rural, high elevation monitoring network of aerosol and visibility related parameters has been ... more A rural, high elevation monitoring network of aerosol and visibility related parameters has been recently deployed in the Northeast U.S. under the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Visibility Union (MANE-VU) regional haze planning organization (RPO). This network is designed to provide detailed characterization of transported pollution with both a visibility and fine particle focus. The initial network has three high-elevation (700-2500') sites with detailed PM and visibility-related measurements. The sites cover a wide geographic area from near the Ohio River valley to Acadia National Park, allowing an assessment of a range of aerosol types ("fresh" vs. aged secondary aerosols) and their precursor gases. Aerosol measurements are made yearround with highly time-resolved (1-2 h) methods, providing enhanced insight into regional aerosol generation and source characterization, and factors that drive short-term visibility. These data will also be used for aerosol model performance evaluation and development. Hourly parameters measured in this network include: PM2.5, sulfate, EC/OC, light scattering, trace SO2 and CO, ozone, surface meteorology, and visual scene images. IMPROVE third-day 24-hour integrated measurements for carbon, ions and PM2.5 are made at all sites. The network is a multi-year project, with routine operations being integrated into participating state agency's networks. The sites are located in a SW-NE line: Frostburg -western MD (near-source), Mohawk Mt. -northwest CT (mixed-source), and Acadia NP (far-source). This network is the first long-term deployment of the Thermo Electron continuous sulfate and Sunset Laboratories carbon analyzers at routine state agency monitoring sites; these methods are representative of the new breed of mature continuous speciation methods now available. This paper focuses on method descriptions, initial data, and operational issues from these two methods. A simple PM2.5 reconstruction using only sulfate and carbon is shown to be a useful diagnostic tool for instrument performance.
Background: Vascular access site infections in hemodialysis (HD) are common and are associated wi... more Background: Vascular access site infections in hemodialysis (HD) are common and are associated with high morbidity and mortality. Recognized independent risk factors include use of catheter for access, specific dialysis center, albumin level, urea reduction ratio, number of hospitalization during the previous 90 days, older age and history of previous infection. Methods: Chart review of all HD access infection cases, >16 years of age between 1/00 and 12/03. Cases were selected using ICD-9 codes. Controls were selected from among patients at an outpatient dialysis center who during the same period had no history of access infection. Results: We identified 115 admissions for 100 patients and 60 controls. Risk factors associated with infection included: 1-Tunneled catheter versus graft of fistula (OR: 9.62, p < 0.0001), 2- History of failed AV graft/fistula (OR: 6.46, p < 0.0001) 3- Simultaneous HD catheter and AV graft/fistula (OR: 12.43, p < 0.0001) 4- Female gender (OR: ...
Background: K. pneumoniae (KP) possessing the carbapenemase KPC have become prevalent in many med... more Background: K. pneumoniae (KP) possessing the carbapenemase KPC have become prevalent in many medical centers.Controlling their spread is essential for preserving the utility of carbapenem antibiotics. Methods: Carbapenem-resistant (CR) KP were endemic in a 10 bed medical-surgical ICU in a tertiary care medical center. From 2004-2005, admission and weekly stool surveillance cultures were screened for vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and CR A. baumannii (AB). Beginning in 2006, stool cultures were also screened for CR KP and P. aeruginosa (PA). Greater attention was also given to hand sanitization, cohorting patients and terminal cleaning. Antibiotic use in the ICU was calculated as defined daily doses. The review of infection control and microbiology records identified patients with clinical cultures yielding VRE and CR Gram-negative pathogens. Results were tabulated as patients with new positive clinical cultures per 1000 patient days per quarterly (three months) interval. Re...
THIS REPORT DESCRIBES EXPERIMENTS DESIGNED TO SHOW WHETHER STRESS-TIMED AND SYLLABLE-TIMED LANGUA... more THIS REPORT DESCRIBES EXPERIMENTS DESIGNED TO SHOW WHETHER STRESS-TIMED AND SYLLABLE-TIMED LANGUAGES CAN BE DISTINGUISHED BY THEIR ACOUSTIC PROSODIES OF PITCH AND LOUDNESS ALONE AND WHETHER THE TRADITIONAL RHYTHMIC CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES IS VALID. A PREVIOUS STUDY BY THE SAME AUTHOR IS DESCRIBED IN WHICH THE RHYTHMIC BEATS OF ENGLISH UTTERANCES WERE FOUND TO ASSOCIATE STRONGLY WITH THE ONSET OF THE NUCLEAR VOWELS OF THE STRESSED SYLLABLES OF THOSE UTTERANCES. AN EXPERIMENT IS DESCRIBED THAT, BY MEASURING CHANGES IN THE RELATIVE LOCATIONS OF RHYTHMIC BEATS IN ENGLISH UTTERANCES, WILL INDICATE THE NATURE AND DEGREE OF STRESS-TIMING IN ENGLISH. THIS REPORT IS PUBLISHED IN "STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE BEHAVIOR, PROGRESS REPORT V," SEPTEMBER 1, 1967, BY THE CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE BEHAVIOR, 220 EAST HURON STREET, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN 48108. IT WILL APPEAR IN "PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE ON LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE BEHAVIOR," E.M. ZALE, EDI...
RHYTHM IS ONE OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE PROSODIC LEVEL OF SPEECH. THE BASIC UNITS OF RHYTHM, UPON WH... more RHYTHM IS ONE OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE PROSODIC LEVEL OF SPEECH. THE BASIC UNITS OF RHYTHM, UPON WHICH ARE CARRIED MANY OTHER PROSODIC UNITS, ARE POINTS OR INTERVALS OF TIME. THE TIME INTERVALS BETWEEN SUCCESSIVE MAJOR STRESSES ARE HYPOTHESIZED TO REMAIN ROUGHLY EQUAL IN ENGLISH SPEECH, I.E., ENGLISH IS SAID TO BE A STRESS-TIMED LANGUAGE. IN ORDER TO MEASURE THESE TIME INTERVALS, HOWEVER, THEIR END POINTS, THE RHYTHMIC BEATS, MUST FIRST BE FOUND. NATIVE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH FEEL THE RHYTHM OF THEIR SPEECH INTUITIVELY AND CAN REACT CONSISTENTLY TO THE BEAT OF A STRESSED OR RHYTHMIC SYLLABLE. THE PRESENT WORK DETERMINED THE VALIDITY OF THIS RHYTHMIC INTUITION AND USED IT TO LOCATE THE SYLLABLE BEAT. OF THE TWO MEANS OF LOCATING THE SYLLABLE BEAT, (TAPPING TO THE BEAT WITH A FINGER, AND BY PLACING AN AUDIBLE CLICK ON THE BEAT), TAPPING SEEMED TO BE A MORE VALID RESPONSE. FROM THE FINDING OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN RHYTHMICALNESS-STRESS AND TAPPING BEHAVIOR, IT CAN BE CONCLUDED THAT RHYTHM EXIST...
Child Development
TINGLEY, BETH M., and ALLEN, GEORGE D. Development of Speech Timing Control in Children. CHILD DE... more TINGLEY, BETH M., and ALLEN, GEORGE D. Development of Speech Timing Control in Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1975, 46, 186-194. The purpose of this study was to deter-mine the extent to which (speech) motor timing control, as defined by a statistical ...
Journal of speech and hearing research
This study evaluated normally developing preschoolers' imitation of intonation contours model... more This study evaluated normally developing preschoolers' imitation of intonation contours modeled in a sentence elicitation task. Three intonation contours (declarative, interrogative, and monotone) were presented to 3- and 5-year-old children. Acoustic analyses using the Visi-Pitch and Apple IIe computer system, along with perceptual ratings, measured the extent to which preschoolers imitated a modeled intonation contour. The results indicated that, as a group, the children were perceived to imitate or partially imitate the preceding intonation contour modeled by the adult. The 5-year-old children imitated modeled contours more frequently than did the 3-year-old children. In contrast, the 3-year-old children primarily partially imitated the intonation contours. Further analysis revealed that between-group differences were due largely to accuracy in imitating the interrogative contour. These findings establish reference data on normal children and implicate the use of both acousti...
Journal of speech and hearing research
Many English-speaking children with specific language impairment have been found to be especially... more Many English-speaking children with specific language impairment have been found to be especially weak in their use of grammatical morphology. In a separate literature, many children meeting the same subject description have shown significant limitations on tasks involving the perception of rapid acoustic changes. In this study, we attempted to determine whether there were parallels between the grammatical morphological limitations of children with specific language impairment and their performance profiles across several perceptual contrasts. Because most English grammatical morphemes have shorter durations relative to adjacent morphemes in the speech stream, we hypothesized that children with specific language impairment would be especially weak in discriminating speech stimuli whose contrastive portions had shorter durations than the noncontrastive portions. Results from a group of eight children with specific language impairment with documented morphological difficulties confirm...
Publikationsansicht. 48023501. Phonological rhythm : definition and development (1978).Allen, Geo... more Publikationsansicht. 48023501. Phonological rhythm : definition and development (1978).Allen, George D. Abstract. Bibliography: p. 22-28. Typescript: "To appear in Child phonology: perception and production, eds.: Grace Yeni-Komshian, [et al.] ... ...
Journal of speech and hearing research, 1993
Technological advancement in the area of synthetic speech has made it increasingly difficult to d... more Technological advancement in the area of synthetic speech has made it increasingly difficult to distinguish quality of speech based solely on intelligibility scores obtained in benign laboratory conditions. Intelligibility scores obtained for natural speech and a high-quality text-to-speech system (DECtalk) are not substantially different. This study examined the perceived intelligibility and speech interference thresholds of DECtalk male and female voices and compared them with data obtained for natural speech. Results revealed that decreasing signal-to-noise levels had more deleterious effects on the perception of DECtalk male and female voices than on the perception of natural speech. Analysis of pattern of phoneme errors revealed that similar general patterns of errors tended to occur in DECtalk and in natural speech. The speech interference test did not demonstrate any significant difference between the DECtalk male and female voices. These results were supported by the absence...
Language and speech
Syllables in spoken languages have been argued to have an internal structure which may cluster th... more Syllables in spoken languages have been argued to have an internal structure which may cluster the consonants and vowels into subgroups. The most commonly used subgroups are the Onset (initial consonants) and Rhyme (vowel and remaining consonants), with the further possibility of dividing the Rhyme into Nucleus (the vowel and any on- or off-glides) and the Coda (the final consonants). Although linguistic debate continues about the exact formulation of such syllable models, the evidence is clear that listeners identify rhythmic beats at a particular point inside the syllable, namely at the release of the initial consonants into the following linguistically stressed vowels (referred to as the syllable peak, assumed to be part of the Nucleus). To determine whether such loci would be identified for syllables in American Sign Language, deaf native signers, hearing native signers, and hearing subjects unfamiliar with sign language were asked to tap to videotaped signed stimuli. Analysis o...
Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 2000
Studies of intonation in the hearing impaired (HI) are often concerned with either objective meas... more Studies of intonation in the hearing impaired (HI) are often concerned with either objective measures or listener perceptions. Less often has the focus been on how these two aspects of communication interrelate. This study examined the relationship between certain acoustic parameters and listeners' perceptions of intonation contours produced by HI children. Six severe-to-profound HI children and 6 normal-hearing (NH) children, ages 7;9 to 14;7, were individually tape recorded while reading 10 declarative sentences and 10 phonemically matched interrogative sentences within the context of a script. Each sentence ended with a carefully chosen disyllabic (target) word. Twelve adult listeners, inexperienced with the speech of the HI, listened to a randomized audio tape presentation of all of these productions and categorized each one as a statement, question, or other. Fundamental frequency (F0) and duration measurements were obtained for the target (final) word of each sentence, and intensity measures were recorded for each entire sentence. Acoustic analysis showed that all 6 of the NH children and 4 of the 6 HI children produced acoustically different intonation contours for declarative versus interrogative sentences. The HI children's productions were, in general, similar to the NH children, in that they used F0, duration, and intensity cues to mark the distinction. Their contrastive use of these acoustic cues, however, was less pronounced than for the NH children. Analysis of listener responses indicated that, although listeners were able to differentiate between some of the declarative and interrogative sentences produced by these 4 HI children, judgments corresponded with their intended type less often for the HI than for the NH children. (Judgments of NH children's utterances were 100% correct.) Multiple logistic regression of listeners' responses to the HI children's utterances showed that 4 acoustic measures, all derived from the sentence-final word, were significantly predictive: (1) sentence-final F0, (2) slope between the target word's initial and final F0, (3) duration of the target word, and (4) dB difference between the target word's 1st and 2nd syllables. Results were similar for the NH children's data, except that the ratio of the 2 syllables' durations was significant, rather than total word duration. These findings differ in several important ways from previously published data for HI children's intonation contours and suggest that many HI children have the ability to benefit substantially from training in the production of intonation.
Psychopharmacology, 2003
Medications combining hydrocodone bitartrate and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents appear mo... more Medications combining hydrocodone bitartrate and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents appear more beneficial than anti-inflammatory medications alone in treating pain and inflammation from acute soft tissue trauma, but opiate side effects may include sedation and impaired cognitive and motor performance. Performance on complex cognitive and motor tasks was evaluated in healthy subjects with exercise-induced muscle damage who were treated with a hydrocodone-ibuprofen combination, ibuprofen alone, or placebo. This double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, repeated-dose clinical trial compared the effects of hydrocodone bitartrate (7.5 mg) plus ibuprofen (200 mg), ibuprofen alone, and placebo on cognitive and motor function in 72 healthy college men. Muscle damage in the quadriceps of each subject's dominant leg was induced by an eccentric exercise protocol. Subjects took the study medication four times daily (every 4-6 h) for 5 days. Forty minutes after medication ingestion ...
Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 1989
Young children sometimes make use of unusual phonological patterns even when they already possess... more Young children sometimes make use of unusual phonological patterns even when they already possess the appropriate sound or a suitable substitute in their phonological systems. In this investigation, we attempted to determine whether in such instances unusual sound changes enable children to avoid potential homonymy with other words in their lexicons. Novel words were presented to children, half serving as potential homonyms, half as unlikely homonyms. The children's acquisition of these words was monitored. For a group of normally developing children, unusual sound changes were found to be more frequent in the words with the potential for homonymy. In contrast, a group of children with specific language impairment showed the same degree of unusual usage for both types of words. The findings suggest that children with specific language impairment are especially limited in their ability to capitalize on the phonetic regularities of the language.
International Symposium on Oilfield Scale, 2001
APA PsycNET Our Apologies! - The following features are not available with your current Browser c... more APA PsycNET Our Apologies! - The following features are not available with your current Browser configuration. - alerts user that their session is about to expire - display, print, save, export, and email selected records - get My ...
Faseb J 28 218 229, 2014
The study examined how the mitochondrial enzyme monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A), which produces hydro... more The study examined how the mitochondrial enzyme monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A), which produces hydrogen peroxide as a catalytic by-product, influences death and survival mechanisms. Targeted microRNA (miRNA) was used to stably knock down MAO-A mRNA, protein, and catalytic activity by 60 -70% in SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells. The effects of MAO-A knockdown (KD) on ATP, oxidative stress, electron transport chain, and survival following exposure to mitochondrial toxins were assessed. In control cells, complex I inhibition resulted in caspasemediated cell death linked with ROS production and reduced ATP, followed by up-regulation of MAO-A mRNA, protein, and enzyme activity levels.
One favored approach is an integrated assessment approach that recognizes interactions among diff... more One favored approach is an integrated assessment approach that recognizes interactions among different aspects of pollutants as well as multi-media chemistry and exposure pathways. shows the interrelated nature of many pollutants. This article examines several high priority air pollutants or pollutant classes in this context, and discusses key indicators for assessing the impact of those pollutants. Information gaps and measurement needs are also noted. The linkage from emissions to health and ecosystem impacts has several intermediate steps.
A rural, high elevation monitoring network of aerosol and visibility related parameters has been ... more A rural, high elevation monitoring network of aerosol and visibility related parameters has been recently deployed in the Northeast U.S. under the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Visibility Union (MANE-VU) regional haze planning organization (RPO). This network is designed to provide detailed characterization of transported pollution with both a visibility and fine particle focus. The initial network has three high-elevation (700-2500') sites with detailed PM and visibility-related measurements. The sites cover a wide geographic area from near the Ohio River valley to Acadia National Park, allowing an assessment of a range of aerosol types ("fresh" vs. aged secondary aerosols) and their precursor gases. Aerosol measurements are made yearround with highly time-resolved (1-2 h) methods, providing enhanced insight into regional aerosol generation and source characterization, and factors that drive short-term visibility. These data will also be used for aerosol model performance evaluation and development. Hourly parameters measured in this network include: PM2.5, sulfate, EC/OC, light scattering, trace SO2 and CO, ozone, surface meteorology, and visual scene images. IMPROVE third-day 24-hour integrated measurements for carbon, ions and PM2.5 are made at all sites. The network is a multi-year project, with routine operations being integrated into participating state agency's networks. The sites are located in a SW-NE line: Frostburg -western MD (near-source), Mohawk Mt. -northwest CT (mixed-source), and Acadia NP (far-source). This network is the first long-term deployment of the Thermo Electron continuous sulfate and Sunset Laboratories carbon analyzers at routine state agency monitoring sites; these methods are representative of the new breed of mature continuous speciation methods now available. This paper focuses on method descriptions, initial data, and operational issues from these two methods. A simple PM2.5 reconstruction using only sulfate and carbon is shown to be a useful diagnostic tool for instrument performance.
Background: Vascular access site infections in hemodialysis (HD) are common and are associated wi... more Background: Vascular access site infections in hemodialysis (HD) are common and are associated with high morbidity and mortality. Recognized independent risk factors include use of catheter for access, specific dialysis center, albumin level, urea reduction ratio, number of hospitalization during the previous 90 days, older age and history of previous infection. Methods: Chart review of all HD access infection cases, >16 years of age between 1/00 and 12/03. Cases were selected using ICD-9 codes. Controls were selected from among patients at an outpatient dialysis center who during the same period had no history of access infection. Results: We identified 115 admissions for 100 patients and 60 controls. Risk factors associated with infection included: 1-Tunneled catheter versus graft of fistula (OR: 9.62, p < 0.0001), 2- History of failed AV graft/fistula (OR: 6.46, p < 0.0001) 3- Simultaneous HD catheter and AV graft/fistula (OR: 12.43, p < 0.0001) 4- Female gender (OR: ...
Background: K. pneumoniae (KP) possessing the carbapenemase KPC have become prevalent in many med... more Background: K. pneumoniae (KP) possessing the carbapenemase KPC have become prevalent in many medical centers.Controlling their spread is essential for preserving the utility of carbapenem antibiotics. Methods: Carbapenem-resistant (CR) KP were endemic in a 10 bed medical-surgical ICU in a tertiary care medical center. From 2004-2005, admission and weekly stool surveillance cultures were screened for vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and CR A. baumannii (AB). Beginning in 2006, stool cultures were also screened for CR KP and P. aeruginosa (PA). Greater attention was also given to hand sanitization, cohorting patients and terminal cleaning. Antibiotic use in the ICU was calculated as defined daily doses. The review of infection control and microbiology records identified patients with clinical cultures yielding VRE and CR Gram-negative pathogens. Results were tabulated as patients with new positive clinical cultures per 1000 patient days per quarterly (three months) interval. Re...
THIS REPORT DESCRIBES EXPERIMENTS DESIGNED TO SHOW WHETHER STRESS-TIMED AND SYLLABLE-TIMED LANGUA... more THIS REPORT DESCRIBES EXPERIMENTS DESIGNED TO SHOW WHETHER STRESS-TIMED AND SYLLABLE-TIMED LANGUAGES CAN BE DISTINGUISHED BY THEIR ACOUSTIC PROSODIES OF PITCH AND LOUDNESS ALONE AND WHETHER THE TRADITIONAL RHYTHMIC CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES IS VALID. A PREVIOUS STUDY BY THE SAME AUTHOR IS DESCRIBED IN WHICH THE RHYTHMIC BEATS OF ENGLISH UTTERANCES WERE FOUND TO ASSOCIATE STRONGLY WITH THE ONSET OF THE NUCLEAR VOWELS OF THE STRESSED SYLLABLES OF THOSE UTTERANCES. AN EXPERIMENT IS DESCRIBED THAT, BY MEASURING CHANGES IN THE RELATIVE LOCATIONS OF RHYTHMIC BEATS IN ENGLISH UTTERANCES, WILL INDICATE THE NATURE AND DEGREE OF STRESS-TIMING IN ENGLISH. THIS REPORT IS PUBLISHED IN "STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE BEHAVIOR, PROGRESS REPORT V," SEPTEMBER 1, 1967, BY THE CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE BEHAVIOR, 220 EAST HURON STREET, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN 48108. IT WILL APPEAR IN "PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE ON LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE BEHAVIOR," E.M. ZALE, EDI...
RHYTHM IS ONE OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE PROSODIC LEVEL OF SPEECH. THE BASIC UNITS OF RHYTHM, UPON WH... more RHYTHM IS ONE OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE PROSODIC LEVEL OF SPEECH. THE BASIC UNITS OF RHYTHM, UPON WHICH ARE CARRIED MANY OTHER PROSODIC UNITS, ARE POINTS OR INTERVALS OF TIME. THE TIME INTERVALS BETWEEN SUCCESSIVE MAJOR STRESSES ARE HYPOTHESIZED TO REMAIN ROUGHLY EQUAL IN ENGLISH SPEECH, I.E., ENGLISH IS SAID TO BE A STRESS-TIMED LANGUAGE. IN ORDER TO MEASURE THESE TIME INTERVALS, HOWEVER, THEIR END POINTS, THE RHYTHMIC BEATS, MUST FIRST BE FOUND. NATIVE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH FEEL THE RHYTHM OF THEIR SPEECH INTUITIVELY AND CAN REACT CONSISTENTLY TO THE BEAT OF A STRESSED OR RHYTHMIC SYLLABLE. THE PRESENT WORK DETERMINED THE VALIDITY OF THIS RHYTHMIC INTUITION AND USED IT TO LOCATE THE SYLLABLE BEAT. OF THE TWO MEANS OF LOCATING THE SYLLABLE BEAT, (TAPPING TO THE BEAT WITH A FINGER, AND BY PLACING AN AUDIBLE CLICK ON THE BEAT), TAPPING SEEMED TO BE A MORE VALID RESPONSE. FROM THE FINDING OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN RHYTHMICALNESS-STRESS AND TAPPING BEHAVIOR, IT CAN BE CONCLUDED THAT RHYTHM EXIST...
Child Development
TINGLEY, BETH M., and ALLEN, GEORGE D. Development of Speech Timing Control in Children. CHILD DE... more TINGLEY, BETH M., and ALLEN, GEORGE D. Development of Speech Timing Control in Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1975, 46, 186-194. The purpose of this study was to deter-mine the extent to which (speech) motor timing control, as defined by a statistical ...
Journal of speech and hearing research
This study evaluated normally developing preschoolers' imitation of intonation contours model... more This study evaluated normally developing preschoolers' imitation of intonation contours modeled in a sentence elicitation task. Three intonation contours (declarative, interrogative, and monotone) were presented to 3- and 5-year-old children. Acoustic analyses using the Visi-Pitch and Apple IIe computer system, along with perceptual ratings, measured the extent to which preschoolers imitated a modeled intonation contour. The results indicated that, as a group, the children were perceived to imitate or partially imitate the preceding intonation contour modeled by the adult. The 5-year-old children imitated modeled contours more frequently than did the 3-year-old children. In contrast, the 3-year-old children primarily partially imitated the intonation contours. Further analysis revealed that between-group differences were due largely to accuracy in imitating the interrogative contour. These findings establish reference data on normal children and implicate the use of both acousti...
Journal of speech and hearing research
Many English-speaking children with specific language impairment have been found to be especially... more Many English-speaking children with specific language impairment have been found to be especially weak in their use of grammatical morphology. In a separate literature, many children meeting the same subject description have shown significant limitations on tasks involving the perception of rapid acoustic changes. In this study, we attempted to determine whether there were parallels between the grammatical morphological limitations of children with specific language impairment and their performance profiles across several perceptual contrasts. Because most English grammatical morphemes have shorter durations relative to adjacent morphemes in the speech stream, we hypothesized that children with specific language impairment would be especially weak in discriminating speech stimuli whose contrastive portions had shorter durations than the noncontrastive portions. Results from a group of eight children with specific language impairment with documented morphological difficulties confirm...
Publikationsansicht. 48023501. Phonological rhythm : definition and development (1978).Allen, Geo... more Publikationsansicht. 48023501. Phonological rhythm : definition and development (1978).Allen, George D. Abstract. Bibliography: p. 22-28. Typescript: "To appear in Child phonology: perception and production, eds.: Grace Yeni-Komshian, [et al.] ... ...
Journal of speech and hearing research, 1993
Technological advancement in the area of synthetic speech has made it increasingly difficult to d... more Technological advancement in the area of synthetic speech has made it increasingly difficult to distinguish quality of speech based solely on intelligibility scores obtained in benign laboratory conditions. Intelligibility scores obtained for natural speech and a high-quality text-to-speech system (DECtalk) are not substantially different. This study examined the perceived intelligibility and speech interference thresholds of DECtalk male and female voices and compared them with data obtained for natural speech. Results revealed that decreasing signal-to-noise levels had more deleterious effects on the perception of DECtalk male and female voices than on the perception of natural speech. Analysis of pattern of phoneme errors revealed that similar general patterns of errors tended to occur in DECtalk and in natural speech. The speech interference test did not demonstrate any significant difference between the DECtalk male and female voices. These results were supported by the absence...
Language and speech
Syllables in spoken languages have been argued to have an internal structure which may cluster th... more Syllables in spoken languages have been argued to have an internal structure which may cluster the consonants and vowels into subgroups. The most commonly used subgroups are the Onset (initial consonants) and Rhyme (vowel and remaining consonants), with the further possibility of dividing the Rhyme into Nucleus (the vowel and any on- or off-glides) and the Coda (the final consonants). Although linguistic debate continues about the exact formulation of such syllable models, the evidence is clear that listeners identify rhythmic beats at a particular point inside the syllable, namely at the release of the initial consonants into the following linguistically stressed vowels (referred to as the syllable peak, assumed to be part of the Nucleus). To determine whether such loci would be identified for syllables in American Sign Language, deaf native signers, hearing native signers, and hearing subjects unfamiliar with sign language were asked to tap to videotaped signed stimuli. Analysis o...
Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 2000
Studies of intonation in the hearing impaired (HI) are often concerned with either objective meas... more Studies of intonation in the hearing impaired (HI) are often concerned with either objective measures or listener perceptions. Less often has the focus been on how these two aspects of communication interrelate. This study examined the relationship between certain acoustic parameters and listeners' perceptions of intonation contours produced by HI children. Six severe-to-profound HI children and 6 normal-hearing (NH) children, ages 7;9 to 14;7, were individually tape recorded while reading 10 declarative sentences and 10 phonemically matched interrogative sentences within the context of a script. Each sentence ended with a carefully chosen disyllabic (target) word. Twelve adult listeners, inexperienced with the speech of the HI, listened to a randomized audio tape presentation of all of these productions and categorized each one as a statement, question, or other. Fundamental frequency (F0) and duration measurements were obtained for the target (final) word of each sentence, and intensity measures were recorded for each entire sentence. Acoustic analysis showed that all 6 of the NH children and 4 of the 6 HI children produced acoustically different intonation contours for declarative versus interrogative sentences. The HI children's productions were, in general, similar to the NH children, in that they used F0, duration, and intensity cues to mark the distinction. Their contrastive use of these acoustic cues, however, was less pronounced than for the NH children. Analysis of listener responses indicated that, although listeners were able to differentiate between some of the declarative and interrogative sentences produced by these 4 HI children, judgments corresponded with their intended type less often for the HI than for the NH children. (Judgments of NH children's utterances were 100% correct.) Multiple logistic regression of listeners' responses to the HI children's utterances showed that 4 acoustic measures, all derived from the sentence-final word, were significantly predictive: (1) sentence-final F0, (2) slope between the target word's initial and final F0, (3) duration of the target word, and (4) dB difference between the target word's 1st and 2nd syllables. Results were similar for the NH children's data, except that the ratio of the 2 syllables' durations was significant, rather than total word duration. These findings differ in several important ways from previously published data for HI children's intonation contours and suggest that many HI children have the ability to benefit substantially from training in the production of intonation.
Psychopharmacology, 2003
Medications combining hydrocodone bitartrate and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents appear mo... more Medications combining hydrocodone bitartrate and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents appear more beneficial than anti-inflammatory medications alone in treating pain and inflammation from acute soft tissue trauma, but opiate side effects may include sedation and impaired cognitive and motor performance. Performance on complex cognitive and motor tasks was evaluated in healthy subjects with exercise-induced muscle damage who were treated with a hydrocodone-ibuprofen combination, ibuprofen alone, or placebo. This double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, repeated-dose clinical trial compared the effects of hydrocodone bitartrate (7.5 mg) plus ibuprofen (200 mg), ibuprofen alone, and placebo on cognitive and motor function in 72 healthy college men. Muscle damage in the quadriceps of each subject's dominant leg was induced by an eccentric exercise protocol. Subjects took the study medication four times daily (every 4-6 h) for 5 days. Forty minutes after medication ingestion ...
Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 1989
Young children sometimes make use of unusual phonological patterns even when they already possess... more Young children sometimes make use of unusual phonological patterns even when they already possess the appropriate sound or a suitable substitute in their phonological systems. In this investigation, we attempted to determine whether in such instances unusual sound changes enable children to avoid potential homonymy with other words in their lexicons. Novel words were presented to children, half serving as potential homonyms, half as unlikely homonyms. The children's acquisition of these words was monitored. For a group of normally developing children, unusual sound changes were found to be more frequent in the words with the potential for homonymy. In contrast, a group of children with specific language impairment showed the same degree of unusual usage for both types of words. The findings suggest that children with specific language impairment are especially limited in their ability to capitalize on the phonetic regularities of the language.
International Symposium on Oilfield Scale, 2001