Vocal repertoire and group-specific signature in the Smooth-billed Ani, Crotophaga ani Linnaeus, 1758 (Cuculiformes, Aves)

Vocal plasticity reflects the ability of animals to vary vocalizations according to context (vocal repertoire) as well as to develop vocal convergence (vocal group signature) in the interaction of members in social groups. This feature has been largely reported for oscine, psittacine and trochilid birds, but little has been investigated in birds that present innate vocalization. The smooth-billed ani (Crotophaga ani) is a social bird that lives in groups between two and twenty individuals, and which presents innate vocalization. Here we analyzed the vocal repertoire of this species during group activities, and further investigated the existence of a vocal group signature. The study was conducted in the Southeast of Brazil between May 2017 and April 2018. Two groups of smooth-billed anis were followed, Guararema and Charqueada groups, and their vocalizations were recorded and contextualized as to the performed behavior. The vocal repertoire was analyzed for its composition, context and acoustic variables. The acoustic parameters maximum peak frequency, maximum fundamental frequency, minimum frequency, maximum frequency and duration were analyzed. To verify the vocal signature of the group, we tested whether there was variation in the acoustic parameters between the monitored groups. We recorded ten vocalizations that constituted the vocal repertoire of the Smooth-billed Ani, five of which (“Ahnee”, “Whine”, “Pre-flight”, “Flight” and “Vigil”) were issued by the two groups and five exclusive to the Charqueada group. There were significant differences in the acoustic parameters for “Flight” and “Vigil” vocalizations between the groups, suggesting vocal group signature for these sounds. We established that the Smooth-billed Ani has a diverse vocal repertoire, with variations also occurring between groups of the same population. Moreover, we found evidence of vocal group signature in vocalizations used in the context of cohesion, defense and territory maintenance.

Acoustic Measures of Brazilian Transgender Women's Voices: A Case–Control Study

Objective: This study aims to compare the acoustic vocal analysis results of a group of transgender women relative to those of cisgender women.Methods: Thirty transgender women between the ages of 19 and 52 years old participated in the study. The control group was composed of 31 cisgender women between the ages of 20 and 48 years old. A standardized questionnaire was administered to collect general patient data to better characterize the participants. The vowel /a/ sounds of all participants were collected and analyzed by the Multi-Dimensional Voice Program advanced system.Results: Statistically significant differences between cisgender and transgender women were found on 14 measures: fundamental frequency, maximum fundamental frequency, minimum fundamental frequency, standard deviation of fundamental frequency, absolute jitter, percentage or relative jitter, fundamental frequency relative average perturbation, fundamental frequency perturbation quotient, smoothed fundamental frequency perturbation quotient, fundamental frequency variation, absolute shimmer, relative shimmer, voice turbulence index (lower values in the cases), and soft phonation index (higher values in the cases). The mean fundamental frequency value was 159.046 Hz for the cases and 192.435 Hz for the controls.Conclusion: Through glottal adaptations, the group of transgender women managed to feminize their voices, presenting voices that were less aperiodic and softer than those of cisgender women.

Evidence of anthropogenic impacts on global drought frequency, duration, and intensity

Most climate change detection and attribution studies have focused on mean or extreme temperature or precipitation, neglecting to explore long-term changes in drought characteristics. Here we provide evidence that anthropogenic forcing has impacted interrelated meteorological drought characteristics. Using SPI and SPEI indices generated from an ensemble of 9 CMIP6 models (using 3 realizations per model), we show that the presence of anthropogenic forcing has increased the drought frequency, maximum drought duration, and maximum drought intensity experienced in large parts of the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Using individual greenhouse gas and anthropogenic aerosol forcings, we also highlight that regional balances between the two major forcings have contributed to the drying patterns detected in our results. Overall, we provide a comprehensive characterization of the influence of anthropogenic forcing on drought characteristics, providing important perspectives on the role of forcings in driving changes in drought events.

Vibration Analysis and Parameter Optimization of the Longitudinal Axial Flow Threshing Cylinder

The longitudinal axial flow threshing cylinder of the full feeding rice combine harvester is widely used in China and works with violent vibration. To explore the source of the excitation affecting the vibration and to reduce the vibration, a finite element modal analysis and multipoint input and multipoint output (MIMO) modal test were performed to solve the natural vibration characteristics. By analyzing the excitation frequency, we concluded that the main reason for the resonance was the coupling between the rotation frequency of the threshing cylinder and the first natural frequency. To avoid the influence of resonance and realize a lightweight design, we proposed a combination of size optimization and topology optimization. The second rotation orthogonal combination test was designed to analyze the first natural frequency, maximum stress, and maximum deformation of the threshing cylinder, and the threshing cylinder was reconstructed as a central symmetrical structure to balance the rotational inertia force. The field experiment results showed that the amplitudes of the optimized threshing cylinder were significantly lower than those of the original threshing cylinder. This study provides ideas for solving the vibration characteristics of rotating parts and provides an important reference for the design of vibration reduction and weight reduction of key parts in the field of agricultural machinery.

Economics of Rice Production among Beneficiaries of Anchor Borrowers Programme in Gerie Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Nigeria

This study examined the economics of rice production among beneficiaries of the anchor borrowers programme (ABP) in Gerie LGA of Adamawa State, Nigeria. Multistage random sampling was employed to select respondents for the study. Structured questionnaires were the instruments used for data collection. A sample of 85 farmers was used for the study. Percentages, means, frequency, maximum, minimum, budgetary techniques and stochastic frontier production function were the analytical tools employed. The results of the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents revealed that the majority (76%) of the farmers was headed by males; most (72.8%) were within the age range of 30 – 49 years and majority (90%) were married. Results from the budgetary techniques showed that the gross margin per hectare was ₦75,087.4 indicating production of rice among the farmers is profitable since the gross margin estimated has a positive value. The result also showed that mean economic efficiency (EE) recorded was 0.67 (67%), with maximum of 0.94 (94%) and a minimum EE of 0.34 (34%) indicating that the respondents are not fully economically efficient in rice production in the study area. The major constraints faced by rice farmers in the study area were identified among others to be inadequate credit, limited farm size and high cost of transportation. Finally, it was recommended among others that policies geared towards investment in credit, land tenue and means of transportation towards achieving effective production should be formulated.

Doppler Shift Effect at The Communication Systems with 10 GHz around Building

This research described the Doppler shift effect for the communication systems. The mobile station moves with various velocities around the building’s environment. Doppler’s shift influences the communication systems. The frequency communication was used 10 GHz and its influenced by atmospheric attenuation. This research consisted of propagation with LOS and NLOS conditions, mobile station velocity variation, height buildings variation, and transmitter power variation. This research described frequency maximum at Doppler shift, coherence time, and signal to noise ratio. More increase Doppler shift of coherence time caused signal noise ratio to decrease.

Description and comparison of Philippine hornbill (Bucerotidae) vocalizations

The role of vocalisation for the Philippine hornbills' ecology and speciation and their implication in understanding speciation is not well understood. We described and compared recorded calls of seven hornbill taxa in captivity namely Mindanao Wrinkled hornbill (Rhabdotorrhinus leucocephalus), Rufous-headed hornbill (Rhabdotorrhinus waldeni), Luzon Rufous hornbill (Buceros hydrocorax hydrocorax), Samar Rufous hornbill (Buceros hydrocorax semigaleatus), Mindanao Rufous hornbill (Buceros hydrocorax mindanensis), Mindanao Tarictic hornbill (Penelopides affinis), Samar Tarictic hornbill (Penelopides samarensis), Visayan Tarictic hornbill (Penelopides panini) and Luzon Tarictic hornbill (Penelopides manillae), as well as comparison with the non-native Papuan hornbill (Rhyticeros plicatus). Vocalisation analysis included call duration, minimum frequency, maximum frequency, bandwidth and peak frequency. For each species in the sample, the mean and standard deviation were used to calculate the Cohen’s d statistic by using an effect size calculator. Results showed that the effect size for minimum frequency was small for P. panini vs. P. samarensis and B. hydrocorax vs. B. h. mindanensis. However, bandwidth, duration, minimum frequency, maximum frequency and peak frequency have large effect sizes for the rest of the allopatric species pairs. Hornbills' conspicuous resonating calls are sufficiently quantifiable for bioacoustic analysis and may provide new insights for their taxonomic review.

Pattern Classification of Hand Movement Tremor in MS Patients with DBS ON and OFF

Background: Hand tremor is one of the consequences of MS disease degrading quality of patient’s life. Recently DBS is used as a prominent treatment to reduce this effect. Evaluation of this approach has significant importance because of the prevalence rate of disease.Objective: The purpose of this study was the nonlinear analysis of tremor signal in order to evaluate the quantitative effect of DBS on reducing MS tremor and differentiating between them using pattern recognition algorithms.Material and Methods:In this paper, nine features were extracted from the tremor signal. Through statistical analysis, the significance level of each feature was examined. Finally, tremor signals were categorized by SVM, weighted KNN and NN classifiers. The performance of methods was compared with an ROC graph.Results:The results have demonstrated that dominant frequency, maximum amplitude and energy of the first IMF, deviation of the direct path, sample entropy and fuzzy entropy have the potential to create a significant difference between the tremor signals. The classification accuracy rate of tremor signals in three groups for Weighted KNN, NN and SVM with Gaussian and Quadratic kernels resulted in 95.1%, 93.2%, 91.3% and 88.3%, respectively.conclusion: Generally, nonlinear and nonstationary analyses have a high potential for a quantitative and objective measure of MS tremor. Weighted KNN has shown the best performance of classification with the accuracy of more than 95%. It has been indicated that DBS has a positive influence on reducing the MS tremor. Therefore, DBS can be used in the objective improvement of tremor in MS patients.

Comparative Analysis of Acoustic Propagation Parameters of Natural Sounds ofAnopheles gambiae s.sandOdorrana tormotaSignificant in Mosquito Startle

Acoustics of varied frequency ranges generated naturally by animals or artificially by electronic devices have shown startle effect to insects. It has been shown that mosquitoes use the reactive near-field in antennae communication with negative phonotaxis in maleAedes diantaeusevoked by low frequency acoustic signals of a carrier frequency 140–200 Hz. Also, studies with the 35-60 kHzOdorrana tormotasound recorded a 46 % repellence in femaleAnopheles gambiae, the malaria vectors. Declining malaria morbidity and mortality is attributed to current vector and pathogen interventions. However, the rate of decline in malaria morbidity and mortality is impeded by buildup of resistance in pathogens and vectors to chemicals. This study therefore characterised animal sounds essential for further investigation in the control of malaria through mosquito startle. The research determined, analysed and compared the acoustic propagation parameters of the recorded natural sounds of the maleAnopheles gambiae, femaleAnopheles gambiaeandOdorrana tormotausing Avisoft SASLAB Pro and Raven Pro 1.5. All sounds were observed to have frequency modulation with harmonics stretching to ultrasonic levels. Uniquesly, the sound ofO. tormotashowed constant frequency modulation. The pupae ofA. gambiaewere reared in vials quarter filled with water and covered with a net at 60-80 % humidity, 25±2 °C temperature and equal light-darkness hour cycle at Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) entomology laboratories. The parameters showed a significant deference in fundamental frequency (maximum entire), Peak amplitude (maximum), peak amplitude (mean), Peak amplitude (mean entire) and peak amplitude (maximum entire) of the sound of maleA. gambiaeandO. tormota(p < 0.05). The maximum frequency (minimum entire) of both sexes ofA. gambiaewas equal (1.90 kHz) with variability being observed in maximum frequency (end), maximum frequency (maximum), maximum frequency (mean), maximum frequency (maximum entire) and maximum frequency (mean entire). Frequency (maximum). A paired samples t-test comparison of the maximum frequency (mean), maximum frequency (maximum), maximum frequency (end), maximum frequency (maximum entire) and maximum frequency (mean entire) of the sound of the femaleA. gambiaeand maleA. gambiaeindicated no significant difference between the sounds (p > 0.05). The maximum frequency (mean) of the sounds of both sexes ofA. gambiaecorrelated highly negative (r = −0.658). The bandwidth (end), bandwidth (maximum), bandwidth (maximum entire), peak amplitude (mean) and bandwidth (mean entire) of the sound of the male compared with femaleA. gambiaediffered significantly. The signal power for the non-pulsate sounds of the maleA. gambiaeremained almost constant at 80 dB from 10 kHz to 65 kHz beyond which the acoustic energy declining to 45 dB. Also, the sounds of the femaleA. gambiaedid not exhibit any spikes in power but remained steady at 85 dB from 10 kHz up to 60 kHz beyond which the acoustic energy declined to 50 dB. The signal power of the pulsate sound ofO. tormotawas 89 dB. The propagation parameters of the male mosquito and O. tormota compared favourably indicating its potential in the startle of the female mosquito.The author summaryPhilip Amuyunzu Mang’are is a PhD. Physics student in Egerton University. He has authored many papers and books. He is currently a Lecturer of Physics (Electronics), Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology. He is a member of the Biophysical Society and the current President of Biophysical society (Kenya). Prof. Ndiritu F. Gichuki, is a Professor of Physics Egerton University. Currently he is the Registrar Academic Affairs in Chuka University. His vast experience has seen him supervise many postgraduate students who have taken key positions in the society. Prof. Samwel Rotich is a Profesor of Physics in Moi University specialising in Electronics. He has a wide experience in Physics and Biophysics. He is a registered member of the Biophysical Society and the Patron of Biophysical Society Kenya Chapter. He has published many papers and supervised many postgraduate students. Dr. Makatiani Kubochi is a Lecturer in Moi University with vast experience in entomology. She has published many papers and supervised many postgraduate students. Dr. Rapando Bernard Wakhu is a renown theoretical Physicist with experience in acoustics and Fourier analysis based in Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology. He has supervised many postgraduate students and published many papers.

Atmospheric oscillations provide simultaneous measurement of neutron star mass and radius

ABSTRACT Neutron stars with near-Eddington observable luminosities were shown to harbour levitating atmospheres, suspended above their surfaces. We report a new method to simultaneously measure the mass and radius of a neutron star based on oscillations of such atmospheres. In this paper, we present an analytic derivation of a family of relativistic, oscillatory, spherically symmetric eigenmodes of the optically and geometrically thin levitating atmospheres, including the damping effects induced by the radiation drag. We discover characteristic maxima in the frequencies of the damped oscillations and show that from a measurement of the frequency maximum and of the luminosity one can determine the mass and radius of the neutron star. In addition to the stellar parameters, observation of the variation of the oscillation frequencies with flux would allow us to estimate the stellar luminosity and therefore the distance to the source with an accuracy of a few per cent. We also show that the ratio of any two undamped eigenfrequencies depends only on the adiabatic index of the atmosphere, while for the damped eigenfrequencies, this ratio varies with the luminosity. The damping coefficient is independent of the mode number of the oscillations. Signatures of the dynamics of such atmospheres will be reflected in the source’s X-ray light curves.