The structural and functional organization of any biophysical system provides potentially important information on the underlying control structure. For speech, the anatomical and physiological components of the vocal tract and the apparent functional nature of speech motor actions suggest a characteristic control structure in which the. entire vocal tract can be viewed as the smallest function...

Down syndrome (DS) is the most common chromosomal abnormality among live-born infants. Respiratory tract infections are the most important cause of mortality in individuals with DS at all ages. In recent decades several studies have been performed to elucidate abnormalities of the immune system in DS. However, the influence of the immune system on the occurrence of respiratory tract infections ...

I investigated the microanatomy of distal urogenital system male Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) from a small sample (n = 6) collected in northern Arkansas February 2020. Specifically, my primary objectives were as follows: 1) to focus on histology paired Wolffian (urogenital) ducts caudally kidneys their merging with urodeum cloaca, 2) reveal structure seminal vesicles (sperm storage structu...

People infected by the HIV virus do not just have their immune system impaired; gastrointestinal tract has been recognized as one of most damaged sites infection, and treatment for it can enhance these patients’ quality life.

In this paper, vocal tract and orofacial motions are measured during speech production in order to demonstrate that vocal tract motion can be used to estimate its orofacial counterpart. The inversion, i.e. vocal tract behavior estimation from orofacial motion, is also possible, but to a smaller extent. The numerical results showed that vocal tract motion accounted for 96% of the total variance ...

The male reproductive system (Figure 1) consists of a series of glandular, muscular, and ciliated tubes and diverticula dedicated to the production, storage, nourishment, and activation of spermatozoa, and to their transport into the female reproductive tract. There are three products of the system: the germ cells, the seminal fluid that bathes them when they are emitted, and hormones that regu...

The diffuse chemosensory system (DCS) is well developed in the apparatuses of endodermal origin like gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The primary function of the GI tract is the extraction of nutrients from the diet. Therefore, the GI tract must possess an efficient surveillance system that continuously monitors the luminal contents for beneficial or harmful compounds. Recent studies have shown tha...

The recent breakthrough of technological innovation has contributed to a tangible advance in endoscopic imaging. Optical diagnosis is an indispensable diagnostic and therapeutic tool for gastrointestinal (GI) disease. Endocytoscopy opens the realm real-time microscopic evaluation GI tract, providing information about cellular subcellular changes during ongoing endoscopy, therapy potentially acc...

Magnetic resonance imaging was used to quantify the vocal tract morphology of 129 normal humans, aged 2-25 years. Morphometric data, including midsagittal vocal tract length, shape, and proportions, were collected using computer graphic techniques. There was a significant positive correlation between vocal tract length and body size (either height or weight). The data also reveal clear differen...

Perception of speaker identity is an important characteristic of the human auditory system. This paper describes a subjective test for the investigation of the relevance of four acoustic features in this process: vocal tract, pitch, duration, and energy. PSOLA based methods provide the framework for the transplantations of these acoustic features between two speakers. The test database consists...