Life Sciences Commons^™

Machine Kinship: The Impossible Duet, Diana Sanchez

Masters Theses

Machine Kinship: The impossible duet What does it mean to vanish from earth when you are the last of your kind? In 1987 the Kauai OO was recorded singing his final song. It was meant to be a duet, but as the last of his kind his song hangs in the air, unanswered. The other half of the duet is forever lost. Built to sing at dawn, birds must wake up earlier to hear each other before human chaos interferes. So here, it is always almost sunrise. As a parallel past-future response, the last birdsong was fed into a machine …

Elsewhere: In Defense Of Daydreaming, Alex Braden

MFA in Visual Art

Much like music, organic life is an absurd, improbable, and serendipitous instance. I set circular, electric, acoustic, and magnetic forces in motion and allow them to coalesce freely in the hopes of synthesizing unexpected moments of beauty, connection, and harmony.

The Color Of Sound: An Insight On Chromesthesia, Lupe Rodriguez

Honors Capstones

Many people can see with their eyes, but there are some people who can see through sound. Chromesthesia is when sound involuntarily evokes an experience of color through shapes and movement. The goal of this project is to show what this experience is like and give people an opportunity to experience it in a way themselves.

The Color of Sound Website Prototype

Phonotactic Tuning In Female Cricket Acheta Domesticus, Jessica Rim

Honors Theses

Phonotactic behavior of female cricket Acheta domesticus has been shown to vary among individuals. While some females are finely tuned to calls with syllable periods in the natural range of conspecific males, others respond phonotactically to a wider range of syllable periods and therefore lack the ability to discriminate between attractive and unattractive calls. When females are exposed to males but prevented from mating, their ability to discriminate attractive calls is reduced, suggesting that factors other than mating alter phonotactic behavior.

This study evaluated the effect of male exposure on females’ phonotactic tuning and responsiveness in relation to underlying neural …

Law Library Blog (December 2021): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Mantra In Meditation: The Effect Of Sound On Relaxation, Philisha Abrahim

Senior Theses and Projects

The use of mantra as a tool for meditation is an ancient practice. It is a spiritually rooted discipline, thought to release various types of energy when producing sounds. The study expanded upon previous research, which analyzed the physiological effects of sound in meditation, to examine the “OM” sound and its effect on brainwaves and skin temperature. Participants were asked to complete four meditations: a baseline, silent, guided, and “OM” meditation. Study 1 included a sample population of 30 participants with no restriction on meditation experience. Study 2, with a sample population of 15, included participants with at minimum one …

You Can Judge A Bearer By Its Bark: Dogs Use Sound To Size Up Conspecifics, Zachary Silver

CrissCross

A variety of mammalian species use vocalizations to perceive the size of conspecifics. This ability may be an evolutionary adaptation shared by many mammalian species allowing them to detect the presence of a threat when visual resources are scarce or unavailable. Specifically, some mammals demonstrate prolonged attention to manipulated calls that suggest a larger conspecific compared to those suggesting a smaller conspecific. In humans this behavioral effect depends on the observer’s size—perceptions of ‘big’ or ‘small’ may differ between individuals. We explored whether this generalizes to other species by manipulating formant dispersion of dogs’ own barks to create synthetic barks …

Seismic Surveys And Marine Turtles: An Underestimated Global Threat?, Sarah E. Nelms, Wendy Dow Piniak, Caroline R. Weir, Brendan J. Godley

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Seismic surveys are widely used in marine geophysical oil and gas exploration, employing airguns to produce sound-waves capable of penetrating the sea floor. In recent years, concerns have been raised over the biological impacts of this activity, particularly for marine mammals. While exploration occurs in the waters of at least fifty countries where marine turtles are present, the degree of threat posed by seismic surveys is almost entirely unknown. To investigate this issue, a mixed-methods approach involving a systematic review, policy comparison and stakeholder analysis was employed and recommendations for future research were identified. This study found that turtles have …

Fish Sound Production In The Presence Of Harmful Algal Blooms In The Eastern Gulf Of Mexico, Carrie C. Wall, Chad Lembke, Chuanmin Hu, David A. Mann

Marine Science Faculty Publications

This paper presents the first known research to examine sound production by fishes during harmful algal blooms (HABs). Most fish sound production is species-specific and repetitive, enabling passive acoustic monitoring to identify the distribution and behavior of soniferous species. Autonomous gliders that collect passive acoustic data and environmental data concurrently can be used to establish the oceanographic conditions surrounding sound-producing organisms. Three passive acoustic glider missions were conducted off west-central Florida in October 2011, and September and October 2012. The deployment period for two missions was dictated by the presence of red tide events with the glider path specifically set …

Get Into The Groove: The Role Of Sound In Generating A Sense Of Belonging In Street Parades, Michelle Duffy, Gordon R. Waitt, Christopher R. Gibson

Gordon Waitt

Research undertaken in a range of fields has sought to understand the significance of sound and the processes of listening in making sense of social worlds. This inherently interdisciplinary pursuit has particularly emerged in sociology cultural geography, cultural studies, musicology and music therapy. Yet, a great deal is still not known about the interplays between music, sounds, spaces, bodies and our sense of self

Get Into The Groove: The Role Of Sound In Generating A Sense Of Belonging In Street Parades, Michelle Duffy, Gordon R. Waitt, Christopher R. Gibson

Chris Gibson

Research undertaken in a range of fields has sought to understand the significance of sound and the processes of listening in making sense of social worlds. This inherently interdisciplinary pursuit has particularly emerged in sociology cultural geography, cultural studies, musicology and music therapy. Yet, a great deal is still not known about the interplays between music, sounds, spaces, bodies and our sense of self

Underwater Hearing In The Loggerhead Turtle (Caretta Caretta): A Comparison Of Behavioral And Auditory Evoked Potential Audiograms, Kelly Martin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Methods for collecting behavioral audiograms are often time consuming and require trained, captive subjects. It is more practical to measure hearing sensitivity using electrophysiological methods, such as auditory evoked potential (AEP) testing, in which electrodes measure action potentials in response to acoustic stimuli. These data can be collected in a matter of hours. However, results should be verified through behavioral testing. Current knowledge of marine turtle auditory abilities is based on a few electrophysiological tests. The purpose of this study was to collect and compare behavioral and auditory evoked potential audiograms in a captive adult loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta …

Perception Of Emotion In Sounded And Imagined Music, Brian L. Lucas, Emery Schubert, Andrea R. Halpern

Faculty Journal Articles

WE STUDIED THE EMOTIONAL RESPONSES BY MUSICIANS to familiar classical music excerpts both when the music was sounded, and when it was imagined.We used continuous response methodology to record response profiles for the dimensions of valence and arousal simultaneously and then on the single dimension of emotionality. The response profiles were compared using cross-correlation analysis, and an analysis of responses to musical feature turning points, which isolate instances of change in musical features thought to influence valence and arousal responses. We found strong similarity between the use of an emotionality arousal scale across the stimuli, regardless of condition (imagined …

The Acoustic Mechanics Of Stick–Slip Friction In The California Spiny Lobster (Panulirus Interruptus), Sheila Patek, J. E. Baio

Sheila Patek

The dynamic interplay between static and sliding friction is fundamental to many animal movements. One interesting example of stick–slip friction is found in the sound-producing apparatus of many spiny lobster species (Palinuridae). The acoustic movements of the spiny lobster's plectrum over the file are generated by stick–slip friction between the two surfaces. We examined the microscopic anatomy, kinematics, acoustics and frictional properties of the California spiny lobster (Panulirus interruptus) toward the goal of quantitatively characterizing the frictional and acoustic mechanics of this system. Using synchronous high-speed video and sound recordings, we tested whether plectrum kinematics are correlated with acoustic signal …

Get Into The Groove: The Role Of Sound In Generating A Sense Of Belonging In Street Parades, Michelle Duffy, Gordon R. Waitt, Christopher R. Gibson

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Research undertaken in a range of fields has sought to understand the significance of sound and the processes of listening in making sense of social worlds. This inherently interdisciplinary pursuit has particularly emerged in sociology cultural geography, cultural studies, musicology and music therapy. Yet, a great deal is still not known about the interplays between music, sounds, spaces, bodies and our sense of self

Vocal Tract Function In Birdsong Production: Experimental Manipulation Of Beak Movements, Jeffrey Podos, W. J. Hoese, N. C. Boetticher, S. Nowicki

Jeffrey Podos

Kinematic analyses have demonstrated that the extent to which a songbird's beak is open when singing correlates with the acoustic frequencies of the sounds produced, suggesting that beak movements function to modulate the acoustic properties of the vocal tract during song production. If motions of the beak are necessary for normal song production, then disrupting the ability of a bird to perform these movements should alter the acoustic properties of its song. We tested this prediction by comparing songs produced normally by white-throated sparrows and swamp sparrows with songs produced when the beak was temporarily immobilized. We also observed how …

Ec91-734 Noise ... Sound Without Value (Tractor Sound Levels, 1970-1990), Rollin D. Schnieder

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

Oh, for the peace and quiet of the country. Surely you have heard this statement. How true this was in years gone by. Now, however, the country environment is often filled with the noise of thumping cylinders, and turning gears in modern tractors — noises previously associated with cities have moved into rural areas.

What do the words sound and noise mean? Some people refer to sound as something pleasant. For example, a number of tones placed together might result in a beautiful symphony. However, if these notes are played too loudly or off key, they might be referred to …

Investigations Of The Potential Effects Of Underwater Noise From Petroleum Industry Activities On Feeding Humpback Whale Behavior, Charles Malme, Paul Miles, Peter Tyack, Christopher Clark, James Bird

James E Bird

This report presents the results of an investigation of the potential effects of underwater noise from petroleum industry activities on the behavior of feeding humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). The objective of the study was to determine the nature and degree of any observed behavioral response to controlled sound exposure levels from industrial noise sources. The noise sources used were a single 100 cu. in. air gun and playback of sounds from selected petroleum industry activities. The playback sounds were obtained from tape recordings of drillship, drilling platform, production platform, semi-submersible drilling rig, and helicopter overflight noise. The work was performed …

Investigations Of The Potential Effects Of Underwater Noise From Petroleum Industry Activities On Migrating Gray Whale Behavior. Phase Ii: January 1984 Migration, Charles Malme, Paul Miles, Christopher Clark, Peter Tyack, James Bird

James E Bird

The applied research discussed in detail in this report supplements the work performed during the 1983 southbound and northbound migrations of the gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus, in the Monterey, California region. The objective of both phases has been to determine the degree of behavioral response of migrating gray whales to acoustic stimuli associated with oil and gas exploration and development activities. The results of that earlier work were presented in Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. Report No. 5366* This companion document extends the 1983 research effort, adding to the statistical data base through measurements of behavioral response of the January …

An Analysis Of Sound Communication In The Water Vole, Microtus Richardsoni (Rodentia: Microtinae), Dane R. Tang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Adult members of the species Microtus richardsoni were used to study the importance of acoustic communication in these voles. Tests were run with single individuals and nonbreeding pairs of voles to obtain recordings and sonagraphs of sounds emitted during exploration of a new cage, agonistic encounters, encounters with a potential predator and in response to miscellaneous aversive stimuli. Of the four groups of tests conducted, sounds were used by M. richardsoni during the last three. The results of this study showed that the water vole emitted ten different call types or sounds. These sounds were separated by similarity into Group …