April 2024 JASA Cover

The April cover of JASA is now available! Check it out:

The cover image comes from “Shear wave speeds in a nearly incompressible fibrous material with two unequal fiber families,” by Shuaihu Wang, Ruth J. Okamoto, Matthew D. J. McGarry, and Philip V. Bayly. JASA Coordinating Editor for Biomedical Acoustics Guillaume Haiat says he selected this figure for the cover because it “allow[s] an original visualization of the acoustic field in a fibrous anisotropic soft tissue, which is a common situation that had never been investigated. The decay of the acoustic field is clear and its heterogeneity is quantified.”

Some other research was also highlighted on the April JASA cover:

All the articles from the cover are free to read for a month after the cover is released, so be sure to check them out! You can find the whole issue at https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jasa/issue/155/4.

March JASA cover

New Across Acoustics Episode: Deep Faking Room Impulse Responses

It’s not always feasible to measure the sound field generated by an acoustic source; instead, scientists have to model to come up with a best guess for the missing pieces of the sound field. In this episode, we talk to Efren Fernandez-Grande and Xenofon Karakonstantis (Technical University of Denmark) about their new machine learning method to reconstruct sound fields.

Like the episode? Check out the related article!

March 2024 JASA Cover

The March cover of JASA is now available! Check it out:

The cover image was inspired by “Register transitions in an in vivo canine model as a function of intrinsic laryngeal muscle stimulation, fundamental frequency, and sound pressure level,” by Patrick Schlegel, David A. Berry, Clare Moffatt, Zhaoyan Zhang, and Dinesh K. Chhetri. The article reports on a study using an animal model to find the possible origin of voice breaks in the high tenor voice, as when an opera singer hits a high note.

Some other research was also highlighted on the March JASA cover:

All the articles from the cover are free to read for a month after the cover is released, so be sure to check them out! You can find the whole issue at https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jasa/issue/155/3.

March JASA cover

April 1, 2024 JASA Cover

You’ve probably noticed that on the first of the month, we release the cover of JASA from the previous month. This time, the ASA staff cats wanted to mix it up and give you a sneak peak of the April first JASA Cat cover. JASA Cat Vol. M30W, No. 1 features images of ASA staff cats that you may have seen previously promoting the Across Acoustics podcast episode, Ultrasonic Hearing in Cats.

Some other purrposed research could also be featured on the JASA Cat cover:

  • From Cat Signal Processing, “Machine learning models to classify cat yowl”
  • From Cat Communication, “Cats do not experience auditory masking with regards to rustling treat bags”
  • From Underwater Cat Acoustics, “Passive acoustic monitoring of cats being given baths against their wills”
  • From Structural Cat Acoustics & Vibration, “Acoustic resonance of water glasses knocked off of tables”

None of these articles actually exist, so instead, check out the very real March volume of JASA at https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jasa/issue/155/3. Happy April Fool’s Day! Looking for some cat themed acoustics research? Check out these very real ASA publications:

  • Ultrasonic Hearing in Cats and Other Terrestrial Mammals by M. Charlotte Kruger, Carina J. Sabourin, Alexandra T. Levine, and Stephen G. Lomber in Acoustics Today: https://doi.org/10.1121/AT.2021.17.1.18
  • Computation of acoustic pressure fields produced in feline brains by high-intensity focused ultrasound by Nazanin Omidi, Charles C. Church, Cecille Labuda in POMA: https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0000355
  • Discrimination of individual tigers (Panthera tigris) from long distance roars by An Ji, Michael T. Johnson, Edward J. Walsh, JoAnn McGee, Douglas L. Armstrong in JASA: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4789936
  • A noninvasive ultrasound device to treat urinary stones in pet cats by Adam Maxwell, Ga Won Kim, Elizabeth Lynch, Brian MacConaghy, Jody, Michael Borofsky, Michael R. Bailey, an Acoustics Lay Language Paper: https://wp.me/paqHd5-1z6
February JASA cover

Take acoustics out to the ball game!

Happy MLB Opening Day, baseball fans! To kick off the latest season, we’d like to highlight some literature about the acoustics of the humble baseball bat. The sounds a baseball bat makes connecting with a ball can vary so much in frequency that a person with enough bats on hand can create a makeshift musical instrument! In fact, Daniel Russell from The Pennsylvania State University did just that. Check out this video of him playing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” on a piano made of baseball bats:

This video comes from Russell’s article in the Winter 2017 issue of Acoustics Today, Acoustics and Vibration of Baseball and Softball Bats.” It turns out sound and vibration feedback are incredibly helpful to players and can influence their perception of their performance. The article talks all about the physics of baseball bats and how the sounds they make when hit by a ball. You can also hear Russell talk about the acoustics of baseball bats in detail on an episode of Across Acoustics.

Russell realized that sports are a useful tool for teaching acoustics concepts. In the JASA article, “Acoustic testing and modeling: An advanced undergraduate laboratory,” he and coauthor Daniel O. Ludwigsen wrote about an instructional module in which students study the vibrational characteristics of baseball bats and other sports equipment.

The crack of the bat that heralds a home run seems even more exciting now, doesn’t it?