CREATING EFFECTIVE CHORAL CONDUCTORS: A COMPARISON OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOLS OF MUSIC STANDARDS WITH RESEARCH-BASED QUALITIES OF EFFECTIVE CHORAL CONDUCTORS

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which the 2016-2017 National Association of Schools of Music Handbook adequately promotes the instruction of research-based behaviors demonstrated to improve effectiveness in choral conducting. A review of the Bachelor of Music Education, Master of Music in Choral Conducting, and Master of Music Education degrees will be presented identifying which standards and expectations are currently being promoted by NASM. The seven areas of teacher behaviors identified by the research focusing on effectiveness in choral conducting will be introduced and compared with those NASM standards and expectations. Following the comparison, potential solutions for missing behaviors will be presented. Based on the research, less separation of specializations between research-oriented and practice-oriented curricula could provide the opportunity for a more comprehensive education. This may include instruction in educational methods for the MM in Choral Conducting and more practical application of teaching methods in the MME

Development and validation of a Food Preoccupation Questionnaire

Existing Food Preoccupation Questionnaires do not take account of food-related thoughts that have a positive emotional valence. We report on the development and validation of a questionnaire that provides independent assessments of thought frequency and emotional valence (positive, negative or neutral)

Restraint, disinhibition and food-related processing bias

This study examined associations between restraint, disinhibition and food-related processing bias (FPB, assessed by the emotional Stroop task) in males and females in the UK, Greece and Iran. Results showed high restraint was associated with higher FPB. However, high restrained current dieters showed lower FPB that high restrained non-dieters. There was no significant difference in FPB for those showing high versus low disinhibition. Results are discussed in relation to theories of incentive salience and current concerns

Exploring relationships between drought and epidemic cholera in Africa using generalised linear models

Background Temperature and precipitation are known to affect Vibrio cholerae outbreaks. Despite this, the impact of drought on outbreaks has been largely understudied. Africa is both drought and cholera prone and more research is needed in Africa to understand cholera dynamics in relation to drought. Methods Here, we analyse a range of environmental and socioeconomic covariates and fit generalised linear models to publicly available national data, to test for associations with several indices of drought and make cholera outbreak projections to 2070 under three scenarios of global change, reflecting varying trajectories of CO2 emissions, socio-economic development, and population growth. Results The best-fit model implies that drought is a significant risk factor for African cholera outbreaks, alongside positive effects of population, temperature and poverty and a negative effect of freshwater withdrawal. The projections show that following stringent emissions pathways and expanding sustainable development may reduce cholera outbreak occurrence in Africa, although these changes were spatially heterogeneous. Conclusions Despite an effect of drought in explaining recent cholera outbreaks, future projections highlighted the potential for sustainable development gains to offset drought-related impacts on cholera risk. Future work should build on this research investigating the impacts of drought on cholera on a finer spatial scale and potential non-linear relationships, especially in high-burden countries which saw little cholera change in the scenario analysis