Respiration in operatic singing: Intention to communicate

Professional operatic singing can be performed technically for practice and rehearsal, or with heightened emotion through intention to communicate with an audience. Previous studies of respiration in operatic singing have not taken into account the professional performer's ability to differentiate at will between rehearsal and performance modes of singing. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the differences between singing 'with intention to communicate' (as if performing) and singing 'technically' (as if in rehearsal). The hypothesis is that this specified change of condition would change the respiratory patterns employed by the singers. Estimation of respiratory patterns was obtained using magnetometers. Performance singing was labelled 'IC' (intention to communicate). Rehearsal singing was labelled 'T' (technical) and also included 'TL' (technical loud) and 'TS' (technical soft). Each of the five singers performed two tasks (a free choice aria in Italian, and a set song). Only intra-subject analysis was used. One thousand and one breaths were analysed. These were then matched, so that only complete musical phrases (sung six times by the same singer) were compared with each other. Seven hundred and sixty-two matched phrases were analysed in this way. Measured variables were initiation lung volume (ILV), termination lung volume (TLV), the amount of lung volume expired (LVE), %VC released per second (Flow), the expiratory time (Te), and inspiratory time (Ti). Sound pressure level (SPL) was measured. This study also examined the ability of experienced listeners to distinguish between the T and IC performances from DAT recordings. Findings show that in comparison with T singing, IC singing used more air, with a greater percentage of vital capacity expired per second, but without a simple association with sound pressure level or expiratory time. Listeners were able to distinguish IC from T performances, demonstrating a perceived difference in the quality of the vocal output. These results demonstrate that performance intention to communicate, compared to rehearsal, results in a measurable difference in respiratory parameters, and therefore needs to be specified in future research

Spatial and seasonal relationships between Pacific harbor seals (Phoca vitulina richardii) and their prey, at multiple scales

Knowing where pinnipeds forage is vital to managing and protecting their populations, and for assessing potential interactions with fisheries. We assessed the spatial relationship between the seasonal distribution of Pacific harbor seals (Phoca vitulina richardii) outfitted with satellite transmitters and the seasonal distributions of potential harbor seal prey species in San Francisco Bay, California. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated between the number of harbor seal locations in an area of the San Francisco Bay and the abundance of specific prey species in the same area. The influence of scale on the analyses was assessed by varying the scale of analysis from 1 to 10 km. There was consistency in the prey species targeted by harbor seals year-round, although there were seasonal differences between the most important prey species. The highest correlations between harbor seals and their prey were found for seasonally abundant benthic species, located within about 10 km of the primary haul-out site. Probable foraging habitat for harbor seals was identified, based on areas with high abundances of prey species that were strongly correlated with harbor seal distribution. With comparable local data inputs, this approach has potential application to pinniped management in other areas, and to decisions about the location of marine reserves designed to protect these species

The Northern Limit of Trees in Labrador: A Discussion

We have found that the northernmost trees in Labrador occur at Napaktok Bay on the Labrador cost, as suggested by early explorers, rather than along either Nakvak Brook, Saklek Fiord, or the Hebron Fiord area as suggested by most modern workers

Patient preference as a predictor of outcomes in a pilot trial of person-centred counselling versus low-intensity cognitive behavioural therapy for persistent sub-threshold and mild depression

The aim of this analysis was to explore whether pre-treatment intervention preferences were related to outcomes for patients with persistent sub-threshold and mild depression who received one of two treatment types. Thirty-six patients took part in a two-arm, parallel group, pilot randomized controlled trial that compared short term (3 month and 6 month) outcomes of person-centred counselling (PCC) compared with low-intensity, CBT-based guided self-help (LICBT). Patient preferences for the two interventions were assessed at baseline assessment, and analysed as two independent linear variables (pro-PCC, pro-LICBT). Eight out of 30 interactions between baseline treatment preferences and treatment type were found to be significant at the p < .05 level. All were in the predicted direction, with patients who showed a stronger preference for a treatment achieving better outcomes in that treatment compared with the alternative. However, pro-LICBT was a stronger predictor of outcomes than pro-PCC. The findings provide preliminary support that treatment preferences should be taken into account when providing interventions for patients with persistent sub-threshold and mild depression. It is recommended that further research analyses preferences for different treatment types as independent variables, and examines preferences for format of treatment (e.g. guided self-help vs. face-to-face)

Comparison of Teachers' Perceptions of Organizational Climate of Elementary Schools Administered by Black and White Principals

Educational Administratio

Simultaneous Assessment of Speech Identification and Spatial Discrimination: A Potential Testing Approach for Bilateral Cochlear Implant Users?

With increasing numbers of children and adults receiving bilateral cochlear implants, there is an urgent need for assessment tools that enable testing of binaural hearing abilities. Current test batteries are either limited in scope or are of an impractical duration for routine testing. Here, we report a behavioral test that enables combined testing of speech identification and spatial discrimination in noise. In this task, multitalker babble was presented from all speakers, and pairs of speech tokens were sequentially presented from two adjacent speakers. Listeners were required to identify both words from a closed set of four possibilities and to determine whether the second token was presented to the left or right of the first. In Experiment 1, normal-hearing adult listeners were tested at 15° intervals throughout the frontal hemifield. Listeners showed highest spatial discrimination performance in and around the frontal midline, with a decline at more eccentric locations. In contrast, speech identification abilities were least accurate near the midline and showed an improvement in performance at more lateral locations. In Experiment 2, normal-hearing listeners were assessed using a restricted range of speaker locations designed to match those found in clinical testing environments. Here, speakers were separated by 15° around the midline and 30° at more lateral locations. This resulted in a similar pattern of behavioral results as in Experiment 1. We conclude, this test offers the potential to assess both spatial discrimination and the ability to use spatial information for unmasking in clinical populations

Sports injury and illness epidemiology - Great Britain Olympic Team (TeamGB) surveillance during the Sochi 2014 winter Olympic games.

Background: sports injury and illness surveillance is thefirst step in injury and illness prevention, and is importantfor the protection of both athlete health and performancein major competitions.Aim: to identify the prevalence, severity nature andcauses of athlete injuries and illnesses in the Great BritainOlympic Team (TeamGB) during the Sochi 2014 WinterOlympic Games.Methods: the observational prospective cohort studyfollowed the Great Britain Injury/Illness performanceproject surveillance methodology and obtained information on injuries and illnesses that occurred during the games between 30 January and 23 February 2014 in TeamGB athletes (n=56).Results; among the 56 TeamGB athletes, there were 27injuries and 11 illnesses during the Olympic Gamesperiod. This equated to 39% sustaining at least one injuryand 18% at least one illness, with an incidence of 48.2injuries and 19.6 illnesses per 100 athletes, respectively.Of all injuries and illnesses, 9% and 7%, respectively,resulted in time loss. The risk of sustaining an injury washighest for freestyle skiing, skeleton and snowboarding;and lowest for curling, biathlon and Alpine skiing (withno reported injuries); with the lower limb being the mostcommonly injured location. Respiratory system illnesseswere most frequently reported overall, and older femaleathletes were the ones most affected by illness.Conclusions: the risk of injury was double the risk ofillness for TeamGB athletes. Overall, the rate of time-lossissues was low. Methodological considerations areimportant when interpreting data, and preventionstrategies should focus on those issues causing thegreatest risk, in terms of prevalence and severity, toathlete health and performance