Refining a Phase Vocoder for Vocal Modulation

Vocal harmonies are a highly sought-after effect in the music industry, as they allow singers to portray more emotion and meaning through their voices. The chords one hears when listening to nearly any modern song are constructed through common ratios of frequencies (e.g., the recipe for a major triad is 4:5:6). Currently, vocal melodies are only readily obtainable through a few methods, including backup singers, looper-effects systems, and post-process overdubbing. The issue with these is that there is currently no publicly-available code that allows solo-artists to modulate input audio to whatever chord structure is desired while maintaining the same duration and timbre in the successive layers. This thesis plans to address this issue using the phase vocoder method. If this modulation technique is successful, this could revolutionize the way vocalists perform. The introduction of real-time self harmonization would allow artists to have access to emphasized lyrical phrases and vocals without needing to hire and train backup vocalists. This phase vocoder would also allow for more vocal improvisation, as the individual would only need to know how to harmonize with themselves and would thus not be relying on interpreting how backup vocalists plan on moving the melody when creating more spontaneously

Congressional Authorization and Oversight of International Fishery Agreements under the Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976

This note will examine three aspects of governing international fishery agreements as they reflect on the nature of those powers: (1) congressional power to authorize the agreements, (2) the delegation of legislative authority, and (3) congressional oversight of the GIFA\u27s by use of the legislative veto

Thermal Inactivation of Bacillus anthracis Spores Using Rapid Resistive Heating

Bacillus anthracis (B.a.) is the causative agent of anthrax. B.a. spores pose a threat because have been used as a bioweapon throughout history and can survive harsh conditions for prolonged periods of time. Rapid resistive heating was used for the thermal inactivation of spores in order to determine B.a. spore viability, to include partial and complete thermal inactivation. This microbiological study sought to obtain a correlation between exposure time, temperature, and spore viability. This information is invaluable when modeling employment effects for agent defeat weapons to destroy B.a. stockpiles through thermal inactivation. Partial and complete thermal inactivation of the spores were found using rapid resistive heating at short duration exposure times from 0.258 to 7 seconds and temperatures ranging from 73.5 to 888C. Power supply pulses were created by applying varying voltages ranging from 9 to 200 Volts for 12 separate power supply input times ranging from 0.1 to 10 seconds. Higher temperatures were needed to thermally inactivate the B.a. spores as exposure times decreased

The Experiences of School Counselors with Court Involvement Related to Child Custody

Professional school counselors are often confronted with a myriad of legal and ethical challenges when working with students and their families. While school counselors are discouraged from becoming involved in child custody matters, many are unable to avoid the process for a variety of reasons. This qualitative phenomenological research inquiry explored professional school counselors\u27 experiences with court involvement in child custody matters and sought to understand how such experiences may have affected how they perceive their role in assisting children and families who are undergoing divorce, separation, or child custody disputes. A series of semi-structured interview questions and a written reflection were utilized with a random purposeful, convenience, and snowball sample of nine professional school counselors from a school division in Virginia. Findings suggest that experiencing court involvement for child custody matters presents various concerns for school counselors including uncomfortable feelings and interactions, personal and professional inconveniences, unpreparedness, and ethical dilemmas. These concerns subsequently impact the work of school counselors with children and families. Implications for school counselors, parents and guardians, legal personnel, counselor educators, supervisors, and professional associations are discussed

Latinx College Student Sense of Belonging: The Role of Campus Subcultures

This qualitative, multiple case study incorporated elements of a grounded theory approach to explore the role of involvement in a particular university subculture, Latinx Greek letter organizations, in how Latinx college students develop and make meaning of their sense of belonging within predominantly White institutions. The study was guided by the following questions: (1) How do Latinx college students involved in LGLOs at PWIs experience and develop a sense of belonging? (2) What role (if any) does involvement in Latinx fraternities and sororities play in how Latinx college students experience and develop a sense of belonging at PWIs? Participants included 14 Latinx college students involved in Latinx Greek letter organizations at two large, public universities in the Midwest. Data collection involved individual level and institutional level data. Individual level data were the primarily data source and included a demographic survey in addition to a set of three individual interviews using photo elicitation with each of the 14 participants. Institutional level data included institutional documents and statements as well as interviews with Greek Life staff members at participating institutions. An exploration of participants’ sense of belonging in microsystems, “the immediate, face-to-face setting in which the person exists” (Bronfenbrenner, 1997, p. 302), pointed to five primary characteristics of places of belonging: where I have a role or responsibility, where people look like me, where I am valued and cared for, where my racial identity and culture is recognized and valued, and where I share interests or values with others. These characteristics shaped the extent to which participants felt a sense of belonging within a given setting, which had a ripple effect on individuals’ sense of belonging in other contexts. The findings of this study underscored the significance of the role of belonging in campus subcultures for Latinx college students regardless of whether individuals also felt a sense of belonging within the university as a whole, thus highlighting the significance of micro- and macro- levels of belonging in the experiences of Latinx college students. This study offers implications for research and practice based on these findings

Collaborative Strategies that would Minimize Interruption in Work Output in a Human Resources Development Department during an Acquisition

The problem of this study was to identify collaborative strategies that would minimize interruption in work output in a Human Resources Development department during an acquisition

“Ye Sons of Mars”: British Representations of the Sudan Campaign in Print Culture, 1884-1899

From 1884 to 1885 the British were first engaged with the Mahdist forces of Sudan in an effort to first rescue the inhabitants of Khartuom, and later to rescue the rescuer Charles “Chinese” Gordon. The affair played out both in Parliament and the newspapers as journalists became the cheerleaders for Empire. My thesis focuses on Britain’s 1884-1890 Sudan Campaign through print culture using political debates, journalism, literature, memoirs, and art. I show how the activism of the press and the romanticism of the larger media reinforced ideas about imperialism and the British role within the Empire at large