• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.199-203
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• 1997

In the treatment of spasmodic dysphonia, local injection of botulinum toxin A has been reported to be successful. The treatment of adductor type spasmodic dysphonia with botulinum toxin type A injection using a flexible nasopharyngoscope was conducted in 29 patients and using a telearyngoscope in 31 patients. These patients were given toxins in the vocal fold(s), unilaterally or bilaterally, under flexible nasopharyngoscopic guidance with sclerosing needle or telelaryngoscopic guidance with 23 gauge scalp needle attached by laryngeal forceps. Before the above procedure, laryngeal anesthesia was done with 2% pontocain instillation. Among the 60 patients, 59 patients were given the toxin successfully. Telephone interview were made at 2weeks and then at 4 weeks post injection. Among 29 patients using a flexible nasopharyngoscope, 75.8% and among 31 patients using a telelaryngoscope, 90.0% reported that the patients' symptom was improved. The functional status of the patient's disorder was classified into four grades. The mean pre-injection grade fir the patients using flexible nasopharyngoscope and telelaryngoscope was 1.6 and 2.1 respectively. And it was lowered to 0.7 and 1.1 respectively after the injection. The result was similar(p<0.05). As a self assessment method, the patients were asked to rate their voice on a scale of 100. In this study, the mean pre-injection score was 44 and 40 respectively. And it was improved to 77.7 and 69.8 respectively after the injection. The result was similar(p<0.05). In conclusion, botulinum toxin injection using a flexible nasopharyngoscope is also an effective method for the treatment of adductor type spasmodic dysphonia as using a telelaryngoscope.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.32-37
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• 2017

Background and Objectives : This study evaluated the efficacy of combination therapy of proton pump inhibitor (PPI) and steroid inhaler (SI), with or without botulinum toxin injection (BTX) for contact granuloma. Subjects and Methods : Fourteen contact granuloma patients were enrolled in this study. Combination therapy of PPI and SI were used for the first line treatment. When combination therapy was not effective, BTX was performed as the second method. Treatment results were recorded as responsible or non-responsible. Farwell grade, size, history of voice abuse, gender, and reflux finding score (RFS) were compared between responsible group and non-responsible group. Results : Initial response rate was 28.6% after treatment of PPI and SI. BTX was performed on three un-responsible patients. After BTX injection, three patients had complete remission of granuloma. Final response rate was 50.0%. Un-responsible group had significantly higher RFS than responsible group. Conclusion : The efficacy of PPI and SI was limited for contact granuloma in this study. Botulium toxin injection was recommended in early phase when PPI and SI did not effective for contact granuloma. Prospective studies evaluating the effects of PPI and SI are warranted.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.427-433
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• 1999

The purpose of the study is to develop an improved pitch extraction method that can be used in a variety of speech applications such as high-puality compression and vocoding, and recognition and synthesis of speech. To do so, we develop a new electroglottograph (EGG) measurement system that is based on the four modulation-demodulation type spot electrodes for detecting the EGG signals. Then, the glottal closure instant(GCI) is determined from the EGG signals on a real-time basis. We can obtain the pitch contour using the information on the GCI. It turns out that the new pitch contour algorithm (PCA) operates more reliably as compared to the conventional speech-only-based algorithm. In addition, we study the speech source models and glottal vibratory patterns for Koreans by measuring and analyzing the diversified vibration patterns of the vocal from the EGG signals.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.2363-2374
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• 2016

Communication occurs through verbal elements, which usually involve language, as well as non-verbal elements such as facial expressions, eye contact, and gestures. In particular, among these non-verbal elements, gestures are symbolic representations of physical, vocal, and emotional behaviors. This means that gestures can be signals toward a target or expressions of internal psychological processes, rather than simply movements of the body or hands. Moreover, gestures with such properties have been the focus of much research for a new interface in the NUI/NUX field. In this paper, we propose a method for recognizing the number of fingers and detecting the hand region based on the depth information and geometric features of the hand for application to an NUI/NUX. The hand region is detected by using depth information provided by the Kinect system, and the number of fingers is identified by comparing the distance between the contour and the center of the hand region. The contour is detected using the Suzuki85 algorithm, and the number of fingers is calculated by detecting the finger tips in a location at the maximum distance to compare the distances between three consecutive dots in the contour and the center point of the hand. The average recognition rate for the number of fingers is 98.6%, and the execution time is 0.065 ms for the algorithm used in the proposed method. Although this method is fast and its complexity is low, it shows a higher recognition rate and faster recognition speed than other methods. As an application example of the proposed method, this paper explains a Secret Door that recognizes a password by recognizing the number of fingers held up by a user.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.99-103
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• 2014

A laryngeal web is connective tissue covered with epithelium stretching between both sides of the true vocal cords. Laryngeal webs were first reported by Fleischmann in 1882, and they cause upper airway obstruction and abnormalities of phonation. Congenital webs result from an arrest of reabsorption of the epithelium of the larynx at the tenth week of the fetus. The most common site of webbing is the anterior commissural glottic area, followed by other glottic areas and rarely subglottic or supraglottic areas. We have experienced two cases of congenital laryngeal webs. The webs were operated in two different methods. The first was excised under magnified vision through a laryngoscope, with a silastic keel secured between the raw surfaces of the separated mucosa. In the second case, the deepithelialized surfaces were exposed for a certain time length to mitomycin C to prevent postoperative webbing. We, hereby, report our experience of the diagnosis and management of two cases of a rare entity known as the congenital laryngeal web, and discuss the results with relevant studies.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.957-963
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• 2007

In this paper, Nonlinear Autoregressive (NAR) method based on Least Square-Support Vector Regression (LS-SVR) is introduced and tested for nonlinear sustained vowel modeling. In the database of total 43 sustained vowel of Benign Vocal Fold Lesions having aperiodic waveform, this nonlinear synthesizer near perfectly reproduced chaotic sustained vowels, and also conserved the naturalness of sound such as jitter, compared to Linear Predictive Coding does not keep these naturalness. However, the results of some phonation are quite different from the original sounds. These results are assumed that single-band model can not afford to control and decompose the high frequency components. Therefore multi-band model with wavelet filterbank is adopted for substituting single band model. As a results, multi-band model results in improved stability. Finally, nonlinear sustained vowel modeling using NAR based on LS-SVR can successfully reconstruct synthesized sounds nearly similar to original voiced sounds.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.235-243
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• 2012

This paper studies characteristics and causes of sound, and many others by distinguishing passivity and activity of the cases of a dog vocalizing human's words. As a result of the previous cases of vocalization of human's words, the dog was able to understand characteristics of a host's voice and imitate the sound using his own vocal organs. This is the case of passive vocalization accompanied by temporary voice imitation without a function of communication. On the contrary, as a consequence of the recently reported case in which a dog vocalizes such words as "Um-ma" and "Nu-na-ya," it shows the vocalization pattern clearly distinguished from the prior cases. The given dog repeatedly vocalizes pertaining words in an active manner according to circumstances and plays a role of fundamental communication and interaction with its host. The reason why the dog can vocalize the man's words actively is determined to be that the dog has a high level of intelligence and intimacy with its host, that people react actively to its pertaining pronunciation, and so forth. The following results can be used for the study that investigates animals' sound with vocalization possibility and language learning feasibility.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.103-110
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• 2011

Idiopathic Parkinson's Disease patients' speech is hypokinetic dysarthria and their speech is possibly the consequence of impaired respiratory support. The purpose of this study was focused on the respiratory characteristics of speech breathing in de novo IPD who were not given prior vocal or anti-Parkinson treatment. A total of 40 subjects participated in the study: 20 de novo IPD patients between the ages of 50 and 80, and 20 normal subjects with similar age, height, and weight matches. Forced Expiratory Vital Capacity (FVC), Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 sec (FEV1) and $FEV_1$ as a percentage of FVC (FEV1/FVC) was measured with a PC-based spirometer (Cosmed). In addition, Maximum Phonation Time (MPT), Mean Airflow Rate (MFR), Subglottal Pressure (Psub) and the number of syllables produced per breath were measured with a Phonatory Aerodynamic System (Kay PENTAX). All subjects were asked to read a standardized Korean paragraph and the following measurements were obtained from the task. Results indicated no statistically significant differences in respiratory function (FEV1/FVC%) and aerodynamic function between the two groups, but the number of syllables per breath was significantly lower in the IPD patient group than in the normal group and it could be predicted by FVC and MFR. Therefore, the study shows that the MFR from the lungs during speech in de novo IPD patients is used inefficiently.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.75-82
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• 2010

Many previous studies based on respiratory characteristics of Idiopathic Parkinson's Diseases (IPD) patients have not controlled related factors appropriately. Accordingly, these studies produced discordant results. Furthermore, there is currently a lack of studies that can provide precise explanations on the characteristics of respiration and phonation. This study included a total of 40 subjects: 20 mixed gender de novo IPD patients ranging in age from 50 to 80 (Hoehn & Yahr stage 1~3), and 20 normal subjects with similar matches for age and gender. All participants were controlled based on their gender, age, height, weight, vocal fold function, cognitive abilities, and depression factors. K-MMSE (Korean-Mini Mental State Examination), nVHI-10 (new Voice Handicap Index), and KGDS (Korean Form of Geriatric Depression Scale) were evaluated to select this study subjects. In order to compare respiratory functions between the two groups, FVC, FEV1, and FEV1/FVC were measured using microQuark, a PC-based spirometer. CSL was used by measure MPT and PAS was used to measure MFR. To investigate the characteristics of phonation ability, CSL was used to measure jitter and shimmer, while PAS was used to measure Psub. In order to compare the respiratory function averages and phonation ability between the two groups, statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS (version 12.0). The results of this study showed that most de novo IPD patients were included in the normal average range of respiratory and phonatory ability. But the respiratory and phonatory ability of de novo IPD patients showed lower tendency as compared with the normal group. When the average of respiratory and phonatory ability among the gender was compared, the difference of males was greater than the difference of females.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.714-718
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• 1993

Tracheobronchopathia osteoplastica(TPO) is a rare disorder characterized by submucosal cartilaginous or bony projections into the tracheobronchial lumen with sparing of the posterior membranous portion of tracheobronchial tree. The etiology of TPO is still unknown. A 44-year-old male was admitted to Seoul Paik Hospital Inje University due to left chest pain for 10 days. On the past history he had sufferred from symptoms of bronchitis for several months. He showed radiologically massive pleural effusion in left lung field. Pleural biopsy revealed chronic pleuritis with hemorrhage. Bronchoscopic findings showed multiple intraluminal portruding nodule from just below the vocal cord to carina and both main bronchi. Pathology of bronchoscopic biopsy showed abnormal proliferation of atypical bony and carilagious nodules in the tracheal submucosa. We experianced a case of tracheobronchopathia osteoplastica involving the trachea and main bronchus in 44-year old male, associated with massive pleural effusion. This report is a case of TPO with review of literature.