There is a lot of research made on second language (L2) learning (Jesney, 2004). However the relationship between foreign accent, intelligibility and acoustics within pronunciation tutoring is quite an unresearched area (Thorén, 2008). The aim of the study was to analyze how a course in Swedish pronunciation affected foreign accent, intelligibility and acoustics among L2-learners of Swedish. A total of 41 people participated in the study: 16 L2-learners, 4 native Swedish speakers consisting a control group and 21 perceptual assessors with Swedish as native language. The L2-learners foreign accent and intelligibility were rated by the listeners before and after a course in Swedish pronunciation on an eight-point Likert-scale.

Fissurer och odislocerade frakturer hos häst kan ibland vara svåra att upptäcka utan avancerad bilddiagnostik. Det är dock viktigt att diagnostisera dem i tid för att hindra att skadorna förvärras. Röntgen, datortomografi, magnetresonanstomografi och scintigrafi kan ge bra information men metoderna är relativt dyra, inte alltid tillgängliga, innebär en del säkerhetsrisker och kräver erfarna tolkare. Ultraljud är en mobil metod som anses ofarlig men dagens teknik är inte så användbar för att undersöka skelett. Inom industrin har nya ultraljudsmetoder utvecklats som tar hänsyn till olinjära egenskaper hos ljudvågorna.

Vid analys av fluider med akustisk spektroskopi finns ett behov av att finna multivariata metoder för att utifrån akustiska spektra prediktera storheter såsom viskositet och densitet. Användning av artificiella neurala nätverk och bayesiska nätverk för detta syfte utreds genom teoretiska och praktiska undersökningar. Förbehandling och uppdelning av data samt en handfull linjära och olinjära multivariata analysmetoder beskrivs och implementeras. Prediktionsfelen för de olika metoderna jämförs och PLS (Partial Least Squares) framstår som den starkaste kandidaten för att prediktera de sökta storheterna..

This report discusses a method to detect divers in harbour environments usingpassive acoustic detection. The goal was to achieve as high detection as possiblewithout having too high false alarm rate. A short execution time was also desirable.By using the characteristic of an inhalation a band-pass filter was applied to the signalto improve the signal to noise ratio. After the filtering an energy estimation of thesignal was made. This energy estimation was later used in a frequency analysis, whichcould tell us if there were enough energy in the frequencies that correspond to adivers breathing frequency.

This degree project handles acoustic measurements of the heat pump EcoAir 107, made by Enertech CTC AB. The sound from the three sound sources of the heat pump, fan, compressor and four way valve, have been measured to find out how they affect the total sound level of the product.Measures to attenuate the sound level have been developed and tested. By comparing these with the sound of the heat pump, in its original state, we have found out the measures which have best effects.The best attenuating measures came to be: taped openings and holes around the compressor space, isolating the top and the bottom of the whole construction, support of the fan bottom part and shielding of the sound source with a screen at a distance of 110 mmThese measures have been tested together and an average attenuation of the total sound level with 3,9 dB have been accomplished. In the front of the fan where the continuous sound is the strongest, the attenuation was 4,7 dB.This project is meant to be used as a guide by Enertech CTC AB:s during their future developing process..

Syftet var att undersöka om exponering inför emotionella röster påverkar muskelanspänning och hjärtats slagfrekvens samt om det finns en samvariation mellan storlek eller längd på muskelanspänning vid aversiv emotionell input och grad av alexitymi. 24 studenter lyssnade på arga, glada och neutrala röster samtidigt som muskelanspänning mättes med EMG och hjärtats slagfrekvens med EKG. Grad av alexitymi mättes med Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20. Resultaten visade att arg eller glad röststimuli gav större muskelanspänningen än neutralröststimuli. Ingen skillnad i muskelanspänning fanns mellan arg eller glad röst.

Denna rapport är ett inledande steg mot att förbättra arbetsmiljön för svetsare vid påsvetsning med Uddcomb Metoden i massakokare. Syftet med rapporten är att analysera problemet med värme och dålig luft samt förklara hur och varför problemet uppstår. I arbetet ingår även att ta fram olika lösningar för att slutligen hitta ett komplett system för ventilation och kylning. Den föreslagna lösningen består av ett integrerat kylsystem och ett koncept med mindre fläktar, kallade torpeder, som monteras på arbetsplanen vilka driver ut varm och smutsig luft snabbare ur kokaren. Den föreslagna lösningen utreds även ur ett ekonomiskt perspektiv.

This thesis investigates techniques for stealth hydroacoustic communication using spread spectrum. The Swedish naval defense organisations have a vision that all their units should be able to communicate with each other, even between underwater vehicles. But the properties of water makes it a complex channel to use for wireless communications. Radiomagnetic waves have very limited range in water, therefore acoustic waves are used. In this report the basics of wireless communication systems are described including source coding, channel coding, modulation techniques as well as different techniques for spread spectrum.

Syfte: Rapportens syfte är att kartlägga om upplevelsen av ett rum kan förändras beroende på om och vilka ljud som spelas upp i rummet. Metod: I samband med en ljudinstallation på Plattan vid Malmö Högskola har rörelsemönster och beteende för Plattans besökare observerats. Dessutom har flera besökare besvarat en enkät. Resultat: Inga eventuella förändringar i rörelsemönstret eller beteendet för Plattans besökare kan ses som en konsekvens av ljudinstallationen. Det finns inte heller någon skillnad i enkätsvaren beroende på installationen. Slutsats: Resultatet ses som en konsekvens av bristfälliga forskningsmetoder. I rapportens slutsats bildas hypotesen att en installerad ljuddesign inte är en tillräcklig åtgärd i den undersökta typen av miljö.

The report aim to increase awareness of factors that have a major role whenremodelling an apartment building from the 1950s to offices.The thesis can be used for future projects when remodelling apartments to offices.The report can provide ideas and inspirations on how this can be done in aneffective way, ie . A way that does not require rebuilding the supporting structure,but only non bearing walls. The thesis also gives insight on the parts that will needto be supplemented from Boverket?s requirements in terms of accessibility,acoustic and fire requirements.The methods used in this thesis are literature studies, case study and sketch work.In the literature studies, the primary sources were Boverkets byggregler BBR, andArbetsmiljöverkets föreskrift AFS 2009:2 but other literature were also used. Theprimary items were chosen from the literature studies and they were furtheranalysed in the sketch work.

The Nasometer is a non-invasive acoustic measuring instrument that quantifies the ratio ofnasal resonance in speech. It can be used as a complement to perceptual judgment of speech impediments, for example, in patients with cleft palate and velopharyngeal insufficiency. Inorder to determine if a nasalance score is abnormal, it must be compared to norm data. The main purpose of the study was to collect reference nasalance scores in children between fourand five years of age in Linköping. An additional objective was to compare the results tonorm data collected in Umeå.

Title: Kvarteret Tvättstugan, an apartment building with massive wood construction. A thesis about acoustic and fire requirements and a comparison of energy and moisture aspects. Earlier restrictions in the Swedish legislation have resulted that only a small percentage of the apartment buildings that have been built are designed with a massive wood construction. It has been allowed to build unrestricted with wood since 1994 as long as the function of requirements are fulfilled. This change in the rules together with the great environmental benefits of wood has led to that more companies choose to build apartment buildings with wood. One of these companies is Folkhem Production AB.

A number of studies have been made to examine several aspects of voice production in individuals with different types of hearing impairments. Most of the studies were made to explore the impact that hearing aids have for people with severe or congenital hearing impairment. So far it has been confirmed that there are changes regarding voice production in these individuals. A group that has not been investigated regarding voice production to a larger extent are hearing aid users with an acquired hearing impairment. In the present study the voice production of seven individuals, four men and three women, with a moderate acquired hearing impairment is examined.

This thesis presents a system which has been implemented to satisfy a need in theresearch on how speech planning interacts with syntactic and prosodic structure inspontaneous speech. The long-term purpose of the research is to provide models forautomatic parsing of spontaneous speech and for psycholinguistical modelling of speechproduction. Identification of inhalation pauses is an important step in the developmentof automatic methods for spontaneous speech parsing.Identification of inhalation pauses is considered to be a keyword-spotting speechrecognition problem. Hybrid HMM(Hidden Markov Models)/ANN(Artificial NeuralNetworks) approach is applied to this problem. Method gets 90,8% in Recall, 66,4% inPrecision and 76,7% in F-score.

The earmould acoustics affect the amplification that the hearing aid is programmed to give to its user. It is therefore important that the choices made for the earmould are correctly done. One choice is regarding the shape of the soundbore that affects the frequency response of the hearing aid above a certain cut-off frequency. The purpose of this project was to measure the frequency response when altering the shape of the soundbore in the earmould. Additionally, the aim was to examine how the frequency response is affected when the shape of the soundbore is not set or is not possible to set in the software when programming the hearing aid.