Lipoma Removal Surgery in White-Rumped Shama (Kittacincla malabarica macraoura)

Lipoma in birds is a benign tumor of adipose cells that often occurs in the subcutaneous area. White-rumped shama, more than three years old, was rushed to the puskesmas with symptoms of decreased activity and singing ability. The results of the examination were two round, multi-focal masses, firmly demarcated, yellowish in color with a soft, chewy consistency measuring ± 4 x 2 x 1 cm on the chest and ± 1 x 1 x 1 cm. in the abdominal area, firmly attached to the subcutaneous layer since six months ago, and getting bigger. The feathers around the mass are shed and vascularized on the surface of the mass. Surgery was performed because the mass suspected of being a tumor growing rapidly and causing pain. It was fasted two hours before surgery and the anesthetic used was a combination of ketamine HCl and xylazine. Postoperative therapy using the antibiotic enrofloxacin, ketoprofen analgesics, 0.9% NaCl fluid therapy and topical antibiotic gentamicin ointment. The tumor that has been successfully removed is yellowish in color with several areas of hyperemia and an oily surface. The results of histopathological examination characterized by the presence of adipose cells that appeared to proliferate well confirmed that the tumor was a lipoma.

The Melody of Speech: What the Melodic Perception of Speech Reveals about Language Performance and Musical Abilities

Research has shown that melody not only plays a crucial role in music but also in language acquisition processes. Evidence has been provided that melody helps in retrieving, remembering, and memorizing new language material, while relatively little is known about whether individuals who perceive speech as more melodic than others also benefit in the acquisition of oral languages. In this investigation, we wanted to show which impact the subjective melodic perception of speech has on the pronunciation of unfamiliar foreign languages. We tested 86 participants for how melodic they perceived five unfamiliar languages, for their ability to repeat and pronounce the respective five languages, for their musical abilities, and for their short-term memory (STM). The results revealed that 59 percent of the variance in the language pronunciation tasks could be explained by five predictors: the number of foreign languages spoken, short-term memory capacity, tonal aptitude, melodic singing ability, and how melodic the languages appeared to the participants. Group comparisons showed that individuals who perceived languages as more melodic performed significantly better in all language tasks than those who did not. However, even though we expected musical measures to be related to the melodic perception of foreign languages, we could only detect some correlations to rhythmical and tonal musical aptitude. Overall, the findings of this investigation add a new dimension to language research, which shows that individuals who perceive natural languages to be more melodic than others also retrieve and pronounce utterances more accurately.

Development of Children’s Singing Voice

"The purpose of this paper is to present which are the most common children’ singing voice production problems and to demonstrate what role it is the posture, articulation, breathing, movements, imaginations and vocal warm-ups in correction of children’s vocal production problems. The research methods used included observations and self-studies. 100 school children participated in this study. This research identified five key vocal production problems: 1. singing exclusively in the chest register; 2. “compressed” singing voice; 3. “too airy” or “veiled” voice; 4. “skinny” voice; 5. out-of-tune singing. The reasons for and the characteristics of several different kinds of vocal production issues and several remedial exercises for them are described in this paper. Keywords: children, development, singing ability, singing voice, vocal problems "

Establishing the Reliability and Validity of Web-based Singing Research

In this study, the robustness of an online tool for objectively assessing singing ability was examined by: (1) determining the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the tool; (2) comparing the task performance of web-based participants (n = 285) with a group (n = 52) completing the tool in a controlled laboratory setting, and then determining the convergent validity between settings, and (3) comparing participants’ task performance with previous research using similar singing tasks and populations. Results indicated that the online singing tool exhibited high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = .92), and moderate-to-high test-retest reliabilities (.65–.80) across an average 4.5-year-span. Task performance for web- and laboratory-based participants (n = 82) matched on age, sex, and music training were not significantly different. Moderate-to-large correlations (|r| =.31–.59) were found between self-rated singing ability and the various singing tasks, supporting convergent validity. Finally, task performance of the web-based sample was not significantly different to previously reported findings. Overall the findings support the robustness of the online tool for objectively measuring singing pitch accuracy beyond a controlled laboratory environment and its potential application in large-scale investigations of singing and music ability.

Singing abilities and phonological awareness in 9- to 12-year-old children

Music and language seem to be associated strongly in the early years of development. We do not know at which time point in development this association weakens. Therefore, this longitudinal study investigated whether singing abilities (song reproduction) are associated with phonological awareness in secondary school children. Furthermore, we tested whether singing ability can predict the development of phonological awareness over a time course of two years in 9- to 12-year-old children. We found that song learning abilities were significantly correlated with phonological awareness scores at all three test waves across the two-year duration of the study. Beyond that, it was possible to predict phonological awareness over time with singing abilities. The model that – in addition to the time of the test wave - only employed song learning abilities and IQ as predictors showed the best fit to the data and represents a parsimonious explanatory model of the development of phonological awareness in 9- to 12-year old children and its relationship with singing ability.

A Longitudinal Ageing Analysis of Vocal Parameters of Singing Voice of Female Playback Singer

Age-related changes to the vocal structure affect the singing ability of the singer. We present a longitudinal study of vocal ageing of a female professional playback singer having more than six decades of singing span (covering singer age from 19 to 80 years). The ageing analysis is performed on six vocal parameters like – fundamental frequency (F0), vibrato, formants and spectral features like spectral roll-off and centroid. Statistical variations in these vocal parameters over the entire singing span of the singer are discussed in the paper. Significant effects noted with the ageing voice were - decrease in F0, decreased vocal range, reduction in vibrato rate, increase in vibrato extent, decrease in F2 & F4 formants and rapid change in the spectral features. This investigation also studied the effect of ageing on singing voice quality through the measurement of singing power ratio (SPR). Increase in SPR measures was observed with ageing voice. The study of impact of vocal ageing with longitudinal data on singer identification (SID) is scare. The SID experimentation performed with 350 cappella songs covering entire singing span of the singer, showed a clear impact that change in acoustical parameters with ageing affected the performance of singer identification systems.

Short Communication: Duration and volume of crowing of Pelung chickens of West Java, Indonesia

Asmara IY, Garnida D, Partasasmita R. 2020. Short Communication: Duration and volume of crowing of Pelung chickens of West Java, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 21: 748-752. Pelung are long crowing chickens originally from West Java Province, Indonesia. The chickens are raised as singing birds due to their beautiful crowing capability. Nowadays, the chickens are distributed not only in West Java, Indonesia but also in other provinces in Indonesia because of the existence of Pelung contests. The contests evaluate singing ability of Pelung chickens and are important promotion media for the birds. In contests, crowing characteristics such as duration and intensity are important factors to determine the quality of chickens. Some factors such as age, body weight, and body morphometrics are assumed to influence crowing characteristics. The study was aimed to determine crowing duration and volume in Pelung roosters, as well as correlations of age, body weight and body morphometrics with crowing characteristics. A survey was performed to collect data involving 73 birds in two areas in West Java Province. The research locations are Cianjur and Sukabumi Districts. The results showed that roosters in all areas have similar crowing durations, while their crowing intensities are varied. The study also found that age and body weight, as well as some body-morphometries, have strong correlations with crowing characteristics. The research provides empirical evidence of factors determining vocal performance of Pelung chickens. However, more samples from different areas are required to support these findings. In addition, research on management systems, health status and participation of chickens in rehearsal is needed in the future.

Short Communication: Phenotypic diversity of male pelung chickens in West Java Province, Indonesia

Asmara IY, Garnida D, Setiawan I, Partasasmita R. 2019. Short Communication: Phenotypic diversity of male pelung chickens in West Java Province, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 20: 2243-2248. Pelung chickens are indigenous chickens from Cianjur District, West Java Province, Indonesia. The male chickens have long and beautiful crowing and have a distinct body figure compared to other indigenous chickens. Chicken contests are conducted regularly as media to show singing ability and body performance of Pelung chickens. Pelung chickens raised in different areas may have different phenotypic characteristics due to keeper preferences. Also, the phenotypic characteristics of the winners of chicken contests may influence keepers to select their chickens. The objective of this study was to determine the phenotypic characteristics of male Pelung Chickens in different areas in West Java, Indonesia. Comb type, as well as the color of eye, beak, skin, plumage, and shank, were recorded in the study. Data were collected through a survey involving 160 male birds in four different districts in West Java Province including Cianjur, Sukabumi, Bandung and Garut Districts. Key informant interview was carried out to support quantitative data. The results showed a limited variation of phenotypic characteristics among male Pelung chickens. Comb type, as well as skin and plumage colors, are criteria to select male Pelung chickens. Phenotypic characteristics of contest winners are also a reference for Pelung keepers in breeding selection.