Sound Production Research Articles

Form function of sulcus acusticus of the sagittal otolith in seven Sciaenidae (Acanthuriformes) species using geometric morphometrics (southwestern Atlantic).

The morphology of otoliths determines the function they perform, and it is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Knowing those relationships is necessary to understand the role of hearing in fish. The objectives of this work were: exploring the shape of the sulcus of the sagittal otolith in seven species of Sciaenidae, in relation to sound production, and analyzing whether the shape and size of the sulcus can be used as a phylogenetic character. For this purpose, geometric morphometry analysis was carried out using landmarks data. It was found that there is an influence of size on the shape of the sulcus, and significant differences were found between the shapes of the sulcus (permutational multivariate analysis of variance). Three general shapes of the sulcus were identified (using principal component analysis, canonical variate analysis, and clustering): (1) in species that produce sounds at dominant frequencies <350 Hz, the deformation of the sulcus showed a tendency towards circularity of the ostium; (2) in those species that produce sounds at frequencies >350 Hz, the ostium showed a flattened ovoid shape, and the cauda increased its length; (3) the species that do not produce sounds, did not show any modifications, relative to the form of consensus. Despite finding sister species that presented similar sulcus shapes in the phylogeny, the results did not confirm that this can be used as a phylogenetic character. This work discusses whether the combined effects of phylogenetic legacy and natural functional selection have led to convergent evolution for the sulcus form. The differences presented by the sulcus of species that occupy the same clade, could indicate that there is a displacement of characters. The sagittal otolith and the sensory macula associated with the sulcus acusticus are highly plastic structures that are subject to strong evolutionary pressure in relation to environmental and behavioral factors, resulting in great variability in shapes that can be associated with a specific character. The variation in the shape of the sulcus would allow the analysed species to coexist in the same coastal soundscapes, without losing their particular hearing needs, even in case of overlapping their spatial and temporal distribution areas.

SONGS AS MEDIA TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN UNDERSTANDING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION (THE CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH OF EIGHT GRADERS AT SMP MUHAMMADIYAH 07 MEDAN

&lt;p&gt;Pronunciation is the production of speech sounds for communication. For many students, the English speech sounds are confusing. There are many differences of pronunciation between English and Indonesian. Therefore, there are many students of Junior High School especially students of SMP Muhammadiyah 07 Medan that pronounce English words incorrectly. This study was conducted under the consideration that pronouncing English words plays an important role. Most of the students may have problems to pronounce part since English is not our native language, although they get an English subject in their school and they can‟t master the English pronunciation well. The research was carried out through Classroom Action Research (CAR) and the sample of the research is the VIII-1 grader students of SMP Muhammadiyah 07 Medan. In collecting data, this research uses questionnaire, observation sheet, diary notes, test and photography. The students‟ achievement in the post test II &amp;amp; I is higher than that of the pre test with the mean score 82,70 &amp;gt; 76,09 &amp;gt; 69,83. In doing this study, the writer used an oral test method or sound of production. The action was done through teaching learning process. All of the teaching learning process were presented by the help of songs. After the treatment by using songs in each cycle, the students‟ achievement in pronouncing English words improved. It proven by the percentage of students‟ who get score up to 75 in pre-test and post-test I and post-test II. It was 20% students in pre-test, 44% students in post-test I, and 88% in post-test II. Based on this study, it was found that the use of songs in teaching English was effective and very beneficial to improve the students‟ pronunciation.&lt;/p&gt;

Temporal acoustic properties of the sibilant fricative /s/ for the differential diagnosis of dysarthria and apraxia of speech in Spanish speakers

ABSTRACT Dysarthria and Apraxia of Speech (AoS) are motor speech disorders in which neurological lesions differentially affect motor control, possibly leading to noticeable differences in articulation and consequently sound production. Among the sounds requiring greater motor capacity because of its articulatory complexity is the voiceless alveolar sibilant fricative /s/. The aim of this study was to identify acoustic variables able to distinguish between dysarthria and AoS, and between these disorders and normal speech in Spanish speakers. The production of this fricative was acoustically examined in 28 individuals with motor neurological disorders (20 with dysarthria, 8 with AoS) and in 28 neurologically healthy persons. Participants repeated 12 monosyllabic words containing the fricative plus one of the five Spanish vowels. The variables measured were absolute durations of the fricative, vowel, and fricative+vowel sequence, along with the vowel-to-fricative duration ratio. Findings indicate that duration of the fricative can distinguish between controls and speakers with dysarthria, but not between controls and speakers with AoS. Measures related to vowel duration served to distinguish between speakers with dysarthria and speakers with AoS and between each of them and controls. Further, speakers with dysarthria and those with AoS differed from each other and from controls in terms of articulatory variability; speakers with dysarthria showing most variability. In the latter participants, articulatory variability was higher for unrounded segments, vowels and fricatives, while in speakers with AoS this variability was higher for rounded segments. These observations are discussed within a framework of motor control models.

Synergism between production and soil health through crop diversification, organic amendments and crop protection in wheat‐based systems

Abstract One of the critical challenges in agriculture is enhancing yield without compromising its foundation, a healthy environment and, particularly, soils. Hence, there is an urgent need to identify management practices that simultaneously support soil health and production and help achieve environmentally sound production systems. To investigate how management influences production and soil health under realistic agronomic conditions, we conducted an on‐farm study involving 60 wheat fields managed conventionally, under no‐till or organically. We assessed 68 variables defining management, production and soil health properties. We examined how management systems and individual practices describing crop diversification, fertiliser inputs, agrochemical use and soil disturbance influenced production—quantity and quality—and soil health focusing on aspects ranging from soil organic matter over soil structure to microbial abundance and diversity. Our on‐farm comparison showed marked differences between soil health and production in the current system: organic management resulted in the best overall soil health (+47%) but the most significant yield gap (−34%) compared to conventional management. No‐till systems were generally intermediate, exhibiting a smaller yield gap (−17%) and only a marginally improved level of soil health (+5%) compared to conventional management. Yet, the overlap between management systems in production and soil health properties was considerably large. Our results further highlight the importance of soil health for productivity by revealing positive associations between crop yield and soil health properties, particularly under conventional management, whereas factors such as weed pressure were more dominant in organic systems. None of the three systems showed advantages in supporting production‐soil health‐based multifunctionality. In contrast, a cross‐system analysis suggests that multifunctional agroecosystems could be achieved through a combination of crop diversification and organic amendments with effective crop protection. Synthesis and applications: Our on‐farm study implies that current trade‐offs in managing production and soil health could be overcome through more balanced systems incorporating conventional and alternative approaches. Such multifunctionality supporting systems could unlock synergies between vital ecosystem services and help achieve productive yet environmentally sound agriculture supported by healthy soils.

Sounds from the Balconies: Aural Resistance against Covid-19 Pandemic in Italy and India

This article attempts to make a comparative study between the balcony performances, which primarily involved the production of sounds (both musical and non-musical), held during the onset of the Covid pandemic in Italy and India to boost public morale and influence community solidarity. This article examines how Indians and Italians generated aural resistance against the pandemic through this novel method of sonic production to cancel the silence of death with the sounds of life, and how a community feeling and a sense of unity were injected through the sounds. This article juxtaposes the Italian and the Indian experiences of musical resistance against the pandemic, revealing similar patterns of response existing between them, by highlighting the multifaceted sides of the balcony performances that celebrated life over death and destruction, which ideationally and phenomenologically connected the two countries separated by geographical distances. Besides, it also discusses the impact and aftermath of the aforementioned performances to highlight different social, cultural, and political modalities generated by them.

Morphology and phylogenetic significance of a newly discovered sound production mechanism in Passandridae (Coleoptera: Cucujoidea)

Morphology and phylogenetic significance of a newly discovered sound production mechanism in Passandridae (Coleoptera: Cucujoidea)

THE FORMATION OF THE CHINESE CLASSICAL GUITAR SCHOOL

The article examines the history of the classical guitar performing school in China, closely related to the name of the leading guitar teacher Chen Zhi. In addition, the author makes an attempt to reveal the national identity of the Chinese performing tradition; it is associated, fi rst of all, with a special attitude to sound and sound production coming from the national culture of performing on the pipa and liuqin. In the Chinese guitar school, a special place belongs to the extremely popular guitarist Xuefei Yang today. In addition to her actual performance merits, she holds a prominent place among the popularisers of Chinese music in the international audience.

Unmuted: The racial politics of silent classrooms

Instructional resources often assume that students learn best when they have access to a quiet environment. This article interrogates silence’s presumed objectivity and innocuousness as the sonic backdrop for schooling. I argue that norms and expectations around silence in schools in the United States (US) inscribe a sonic color line. Such standards codify white, middle-class ways of sounding as an indicator of rationality. Simultaneously, they construct other ways of being sonically, particularly those traditionally associated with Black cultural norms, as generally unfit for school. The sanctioning of silent comportment in schools likely affects the academic achievement and sense of belonging of students whose sonic cultures differ from the schools’. I illustrate my argument with examples from classroom management resources published between 2001 and 2021. While silence’s role in constructing raced, gendered, and classed subjectivities prevails across school subjects, I focus specifically on materials for music educators. This school subject emphasizes sound production and reception, which makes its resources particularly explicit about sound management. I conducted a close reading of the materials informed by Foucault’s (1980, 1978/1991) approach to the analysis of discourses, paying close attention to how silence-related norms and expectations shape students’ academic and ontological horizons. By mapping out silence’s role in producing a racial color line, this article underscores the central role that anti-Blackness continues to play in US schools nearly 70 years after school segregation was ruled unconstitutional.

Cranial asymmetry in odontocetes: a facilitator of sonic exploration?

Directional cranial asymmetry is an intriguing condition that has evolved in all odontocetes which has mostly been associated with sound production for echolocation. In this study, we investigated how cranial asymmetry varies across odontocete species both in terms of quality (i.e., shape), and quantity (magnitude of deviation from symmetry). We investigated 72 species across all ten families of Odontoceti using two-dimensional geometric morphometrics. The average asymmetric shape was largely consistent across odontocetes – the rostral tip, maxillae, antorbital notches and braincase, as well as the suture crest between the frontal and interparietal bones were displaced to the right, whereas the nasal septum and premaxillae showed leftward shifts, in concert with an enlargement of the right premaxilla and maxilla. A clear phylogenetic signal related to asymmetric shape variation was identified across odontocetes using squared-change parsimony. The magnitude of asymmetry was widely variable across Odontoceti, with greatest asymmetry in Kogiidae, Monodontidae and Globicephalinae, followed by Physeteridae, Platanistidae and Lipotidae, while the asymmetry was lowest in Lissodelphininae, Phocoenidae, Iniidae and Pontoporiidae. Ziphiidae presented a wide spectrum of asymmetry. Generalized linear models explaining magnitude of asymmetry found associations with click source level while accounting for cranial size. Using phylogenetic generalized least squares, we reconfirm that source level and centroid size significantly predict the level of cranial asymmetry, with more asymmetric marine taxa generally consisting of bigger species emitting higher output sonar signal, i.e. louder sounds. Both characteristics theoretically support foraging at depth, the former by allowing extended diving and the latter being adaptive for prey detection at longer distances. Thus, cranial asymmetry seems to be an evolutionary pathway that allows odontocetes to devote more space for sound-generating structures associated with echolocation and thus increases biosonar search range and foraging efficiency beyond simple phylogenetic scaling predictions.

Return of Sound Production as a Biomarker of Bottlenose Dolphin Emergence from Anesthesia.

(1) Background: When a human or animal is recovering from general anesthesia, their medical team uses several behavioral and physiological parameters to assess their emergence from the unconscious state to complete wakefulness. However, the return of auditory and acoustic behaviors indicative of the complete return of consciousness in humans can be difficult to assess in a completely aquatic non-human mammal. Dolphins produce sound using the nasal system while using both passive auditory and active biological sonar (echolocation) to navigate and interrogate their environment. The sounds generated by dolphins, such as whistles and clicks, however, can be difficult to hear when the animal is submerged. (2) Methods: We implemented a system to audibly and visually (i.e., using spectrograms) monitor the underwater acoustic behavior of dolphins recovering from anesthesia. (3) Results: Eleven of the twelve recorded dolphins began echolocating within 92 min (Mean = 00:43:41 HH:MM:SS) following spontaneous respirations. In all cases, the dolphins echolocated prior to whistling (Mean = 04:57:47). The return of echolocation was significantly correlated to the return of the righting reflex (Mean = 1:13:44), a commonly used behavioral indicator of dolphin emergence. (4) Conclusions: We suggest that acoustic monitoring for the onset of click production may be a useful supplement to the established medical and behavioral biomarkers of restoring consciousness following anesthesia in bottlenose dolphins.

Influence of the number of carded non-woven layers on mechanical and acoustic performance

Acoustic absorption consists basically of the transformation of mechanical energy into thermal energy, carried out through the interaction of the fibers with the sound wave through the breaking of such waves and their meeting with the surface of the fibers. Among the various materials that may be employed to this end, the use of non-woven fabrics has stood out. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of the number of carded non-woven web layers on the mechanical and sound absorption capacity. For this purpose, three groups of non-woven fabrics were produced with different numbers of web layers (24, 40, and 58 layers) of equal thickness and density, composed of a mixture of polyester fibers. Standard test procedures were used to measure the physical properties of the non-woven fabrics, the linear density of the fibers used as raw material, the tensile strength, and air permeability and to assess the sound absorption capacity. In addition, to identify a balance point between sound absorption and equipment productivity, the relationship between the acoustic performance of the non-woven fabrics produced and their production speed was evaluated. The greater the number of web layers is, the higher the absorption coefficient of the non-woven. However, the variation was not significant when the various sound absorption frequencies were observed. In this regard, developing a non-woven fabric with fewer layers was more productive and cost-effective without losing technical performance.

The Impact of Telehealth on the Efficacy of Sound Production Treatment.

This investigation was designed to systematically examine the acquisition, maintenance, and response generalization effects of Sound Production Treatment (SPT) delivered via telehealth in comparison to existing in-person outcomes for SPT. A multiple-baseline design across behaviors and participants was used with two individuals with chronic apraxia of speech (AOS) and aphasia. Accuracy of target speech sounds in treated and untreated words within phrases served as the dependent variable. Both participants demonstrated positive gains for treatment and generalization items. Participant 1 demonstrated gains for both sets of treatment items with the application of treatment, but production accuracy at 2 and 6 weeks posttreatment was inconsistent. Participant 2 demonstrated large gains for both sets of treatment items with good maintenance at 2 and 6 weeks posttreatment. Effect sizes for both participants were similar to the traditional (in-person) SPT effect size benchmarks. The positive outcomes from this study indicate that individuals with AOS can benefit from SPT delivered via telehealth. These findings warrant further research examining the effects of SPT through telehealth and should include individuals with AOS with varying severity. This investigation serves as the first telehealth study to systematically examine treatment outcomes for SPT.

Preliteracy Skills Mediate the Relation Between Early Speech Sound Production and Subsequent Reading Outcomes.

Learning to read is a complex, multifaceted process that relies on several speech and language-related subskills. Individual differences in word reading outcomes are indicated among children with inaccurate speech sound productions, with some of these children developing later reading difficulties. There are inconsistent reports as to whether phonological deficits and/or weaknesses in oral language explain these subsequent reading difficulties. Thus, it remains unclear how variability in speech production accuracy in early childhood may impact reading development. Therefore, the present longitudinal study seeks to clarify the relation between speech sound production accuracy in kindergarten and subsequent reading outcomes with a focus on additional potential mediating factors. Speech accuracy, core preliteracy skills (phonological awareness, rapid naming, and letter-name knowledge), and additional potential mediators (phonological memory and oral language abilities) were characterized at the start of formal reading instruction. Word reading, decoding, reading fluency, and comprehension were assessed at the end of second grade. Mediation analyses were conducted to examine factors that mediate the relation between speech accuracy in kindergarten and subsequent reading outcomes. Initial associations between early speech sound production accuracy and subsequent reading outcomes were indicated; however, mediation effects of preliteracy skills (phonological awareness and letter-name knowledge) were identified for word reading, decoding, and reading fluency outcomes. For reading comprehension, mediation effects of preliteracy and vocabulary skills were observed. The relation between speech sound production accuracy and subsequent word reading, decoding, reading fluency, and comprehension was observed to be mediated by preliteracy skills, specifically phonological awareness and letter-name knowledge. For reading comprehension only, vocabulary knowledge were of additional importance. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23671491.

A personal account of work on anatomy, physiology, and behavior of fish sound production

My research has been devoted to neuromuscular control of sound production in toadfish, catfish, and other species along with an occasional foray into hearing. Toadfish utilize a heart shaped swim bladder and superfast muscles with small fibers and an unusual ultrastructure. Both sonic motor neurons and muscle fibers increase in size and number for multiple years, and large muscle fibers fragment and likely divide, maintaining energetic efficiency. Toadfish sonic muscles drive the swim bladder directly (a forced response), and the sound waveform parallels bladder movement. The forced response differs from traditional interpretations of swim bladders as underwater resonant bubbles. High water content in the swim bladder wall inhibits resonance by viscous damping at shallow but likely less effectively at deeper depths, suggesting both notions might apply. Catfish produce sounds with their pectoral spines by rubbing a ridged surface on the dorsal process against a rough surface on the cleithrum: a series of quick jerks produce sounds via a slip-stick mechanism. Recent discoveries on other species reveal novel adaptations for sound production and suggestions are made for future work.

Implicit and explicit schemes for energy-stable simulation of string vibrations with collisions: Refinement, analysis, and comparison

Collisions play an important role in the sound production mechanism of musical string instruments. Impactive contact modelling must therefore be incorporated in energy-stable time-stepping schemes for simulation and sound synthesis. Recently, explicit and linearly implicit schemes based on energy quadratisation have emerged as a means of numerical modelling of nonlinear string vibrations that avoids the need for iterative solvers, which significantly enhances the applicability to real-time sound synthesis. However when applied to modelling collisions, spurious oscillations and artefacts have been reported, which can be linked to the one-sided nature of the contact force. To investigate whether and how these limitations can be avoided, this paper proposes refined numerical scheme variants for both lumped and distributed contact configurations, and assesses their accuracy and efficiency. For reference, two nonlinearly implicit schemes are also included in the comparisons. Guaranteed correctness of the sign of the numerical contact force is proven for several of the scheme variants. Numerical experiments across three case studies indicate that each of the proposed schemes converges towards the exact solution, and that for sufficiently small time steps, explicit schemes generally perform well compared to implicit schemes.

The sound production of Aplodinotus grunniens in the presence of boat sounds.

Archived soundscape data from Lake Champlain, New York, were used to examine the effect of anthropogenic sounds produced by recreational boating on freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens) soniferous behavior. Drum progressed from sporadic calling during the day to calls that increasingly overlapped culminating in a chorus in the late afternoon and evening. The response of drum to boat noise appeared to differ among these states, perhaps reflecting differences in the underlying behaviors. In response to boat noise, freshwater drum spawning choruses occurred later in the day, thus avoiding the noisiest periods. The peak frequency and knock rate of calls also increased in the presence of boat noise. Of the acoustical adjustments observed, the most strongly shown were those which increased the likelihood of signal reception, suggesting a Lombard effect response. Therefore, these data suggest freshwater drum have plasticity in their acoustical behavior, potentially shifting chorusing time, and altering sound characteristics to optimize communication in the presence of anthropogenic noise. However, additional work is needed to further clarify the response of freshwater drum to anthropogenic noise.

Tongue strength and endurance among typically developing children and children with idiopathic speech sound disorders in the United Arab Emirates.

Tongue strength and endurance in adults have been extensively studied, but data on these parameters in young children remain largely unavailable. This study aimed to collect normative objective tongue strength and endurance data from a pediatric population in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and to examine the effects of age and sex on these parameters. This normative study included a total of 65 typically developing (TD; n = 36) children and children with idiopathic speech sound disorders (ISSDs; n = 29). The participants were assigned to four age groups (range: 3-8 years) and stratified by sex. Data on their tongue strength and endurance were collected using the Iowa Oral Performance Instrument. Tongue strength scores and endurance time increased with age in both the TD and ISSD groups. Sex had no statistically significant effects on tongue strength or endurance in either group. Furthermore, tongue strength and endurance time scores were higher in the TD group than in the ISSD group. The data obtained in this study would add important normative data to the database of standardized measurements for maximal strength and endurance scores in the pediatric population of the UAE. Future research is encouraged to collect additional data that can help healthcare professionals objectively evaluate children with feeding, swallowing, and speech sound production difficulties.

Enhancing Audio Signal Quality and Learning Experience with Integrated Covariance Weiner Filtering in College Music Education

In recent years, computer music technology has become increasingly prevalent in college music education, offering new possibilities for creative expression and pedagogical approaches. This paper concentrated on the music education in the colleges with the application of integrated time and frequency filtering (ITFF) with Kalman integrated covariance Weiner filtering in college music education. The ITFF technique combines time and frequency domain analysis to enhance the quality and clarity of audio signals. By integrating the Kalman integrated covariance Weiner filtering, the ITFF method provides robust noise reduction and improved signal representation. This integrated approach enables music educators to effectively analyze and manipulate audio signals in real-time, fostering a more immersive and engaging learning environment for students. The findings of this study highlight the benefits and potential applications of ITFF with Kalman-integrated covariance Weiner filtering in college music education, including audio signal enhancement, sound synthesis, and interactive performance systems. The integration of computer music technology with advanced filtering techniques presents new opportunities for exploring sound, composition, and music production within an educational context.

Visual Inferential Elements in EFL Learning in Mbujimayi

The paper focuses on some inferential elements in EFL learning in Mbujimayi. More specifically, the study points out differences occurring in English sound production of /t/, /dʒ/, /ʒ/, /ð/, /v/, and /θ/ by Ciluba speaking learners. After discussing the findings obtained from observation and questionnaire, it has been discovered that the learners’ prior linguistic knowledge justifies the errors they make in this regard, the linguistic patterns of the target language being unfamiliar to them. To remedy the issue, we suggest three things: (1) attention, implying that the teacher should work to make the learners recognize words so that they can be aware of them as useful language items. (2) Retrieval, standing for the process indicating that a word may be noticed by the learners and understood in the textual input to the task. (3) Generation, which implies requiring of the learners to use the wanted item in new contexts.

Prevalence of Sleep Bruxism and Respiratory Disorders in Schoolchildren Aged 8 - 11 Years in Kerman, Iran: Pre-COVID Pandemic Phase

Background: Bruxism is a parafunctional oral activity defined as excessive teeth grinding or jaw clenching. This disorder causes damage to the teeth and deforms them. Objectives: This is the first phase of the sleep bruxism and respiratory disorders assessment study in Kerman, Iran, which evaluated respiratory disorders and sleep bruxism in schoolchildren aged 8 - 11 years between 2018 - 2019. Methods: A total of 573 primary school students aged 8 - 11 years were recruited for this cross-sectional study in Kerman between 2018 - 2019. The subjects were chosen randomly from 20 schools located throughout the city. Following permission from officials, 30 students from each school were admitted to the study randomly. The parents were invited to fill out a checklist that included a history of respiratory and sleep problems and signs of bruxism or abnormal jaw movements. Additionally, an examination was performed, and the symptoms of bruxism, such as tooth wear and restoration fractures, were documented. Results: The parents of 573 children were recruited to the study. The prevalence of bruxism and respiratory diseases was observed to be 20.6% (n = 118) and 26.5% (n = 152), respectively. The children with sound production had 2.3 times higher odds of bruxism prevalence than those without sound production (P = 0.004). However, children with temporomandibular joint and paranasal sinus sensitivity had 4.5 (P = 0.001) and 3.8 (P = 0.001) times higher odds, respectively. Additionally, the odds of bruxism prevalence were 1.4 times higher in children with respiratory disorders than those without (P = 0.001). Conclusions: Bruxism was common in children who had a respiratory disorder. Given the potential impact of bruxism on children’s dental health, it is important to pay special attention to the health status of children with respiratory disorders.