Bel Canto to Punk and Back: Lessons for the Vocal Cross-Training Singer and Teacher

Most singing studied and taught before the 20th century was based on western European classical forms. The continual development of opera and its increase in popularity caused singers to adjust vocally as orchestras grew in size and theaters became larger. As a result, the pedagogy of classical vocal styles has been studied, developed and described in print for hundreds of years. With the invention of both recorded and amplified sound however, new styles of singing emerged, allowing singers to be heard without the need to project over large orchestras in huge spaces. These new singing styles, developed for the most part in the United States, created a need for new pedagogical approaches. In the late 1980s a group of teachers emerged, looking to develop and legitimize the singing of popular styles. Over the last thirty to thirty-five years, strides in voice science have facilitated these teachers and their students and brought the teaching of CCM, or contemporary commercial music into the mainstream. Tremendous advances in the field of vocal pedagogy have given the profession an opportunity to approach teaching voice in a different way. It is time to recognize that students can be taught multiple styles healthily, enabling them to become more flexible and marketable performers. The key is the functionality and flexibility obtained with the proper techniques of cross-training. This study examines the written interviews of eight pedagogues teaching multiple styles and the method of vocal cross-training. Each is asked questions regarding his or her formal education, techniques employed and observations made of both students and colleagues using this method. The resulting answers provide evidence that vocal cross- training strengthens voices to create multiple sounds and enables singers to perform in numerous styles. Unfortunately, their responses also illustrate the prejudice and skepticism that still exists among colleagues, barring the way to progress. That said, this study reveals that a world can be imagined where all types of singers are accepted into traditional conservatories, music programs and private studios, regardless of the styles they sing. University programs can expand and grow their curricula beyond the traditional western classical modes and accept all singers and styles as worthy and healthy

Acceptabilité sociale des communautés autochtones : de la jurisprudence à la réalité pour comprendre l'importance de la gouvernance

Le droit autochtone a nettement progressé depuis les années soixante-dix. Bien que les décisions rendues par la Cour suprême du Canada ont entraîné des progrès majeurs dans la société, plusieurs principes découlant de ces jugements sont demeurés peu définis. Cela a occasionné des incompréhensions et des controverses chez plusieurs parties prenantes. Ainsi, malgré les avancées constitutionnelles et les négociations d'ententes, un écart demeure présent entre la reconnaissance et la mise en œuvre des droits autochtones sur le terrain. Parallèlement, le concept d'acceptabilité sociale prend de l'expansion au Québec. Les gouvernements considèrent davantage ce principe dans les prises de décision relatives aux projets d'exploitation des ressources naturelles à forts impacts sur l'environnement et le milieu social. L'objectif général de cet essai est d'évaluer l'influence de trois modes de gouvernance en gestion des ressources naturelles sur l'acceptabilité sociale des communautés autochtones. Pour ce faire, des objectifs spécifiques ont permis de définir le concept de l'acceptabilité sociale, de présenter les facteurs qui ont une influence sur celui-ci et d'analyser les évènements et les jugements marquants du droit autochtone. Ensuite, la relation historique avec les gouvernements, les modes de gouvernance et de gestion des ressources naturelles ainsi que l'autonomie gouvernementale des nations crie, innue et mi'gmaq ont été décrits. Ces nations ont été retenues, car elles sont soit signataires d'un traité, en processus de signer un futur traité ou sans traité. Puis, trois cas d'acceptabilité sociale impliquant ces dernières ont été analysés. Ils portent sur trois domaines environnementaux différents soient les aires protégées, les mines et le milieu aquatique. Une entrevue réalisée avec une experte du milieu halieutique en contexte autochtone a permis de soulever des éléments vécus sur le terrain qui peuvent influencer l'acceptabilité sociale des Autochtones. Partant de ces sous-objectifs, une analyse comparative démontre que chaque mode de gouvernance amène des points positifs et négatifs en matière d'acceptabilité sociale. La signature d'un traité moderne obtient de meilleurs résultats, néanmoins, chaque communauté est en mesure de déterminer quel mode répond le mieux à ses besoins et ses aspirations. Ultimement, des recommandations ont été formulées sur une échelle de court à long terme. Elles s'adressent principalement aux autorités gouvernementales et visent à encourager la collaboration avec les communautés autochtones et à changer le paradigme du développement des ressources naturelles. Le tout dans le but de reconnaitre véritablement les droits des peuples autochtones et de favoriser l'acceptabilité sociale de ceux-ci dans un contexte de gestion des ressources naturelles

Ni normales ni anormales : vida cotidiana y personas con discapacidad, un estudio de caso en Bogotá

Sociólogo (a)Pregrad

Using design experiments to conduct research on mathematics professional development

In this paper, we propose that the emerging transformation of mathematics professional development from a practice-based to a research field would benefit from stronger connections to research on learning. In particular, we contend that design experiments represent a premier emerging methodology to study learning, and we argue that a better understanding of teacher learning through the use of design experiments in mathematics professional development can lead to improvement of mathematics professional development as both an area of practice and a field of research

A review on data fusion in multimodal learning analytics and educational data mining

The new educational models such as smart learning environments use of digital and context-aware devices to facilitate the learning process. In this new educational scenario, a huge quantity of multimodal students' data from a variety of different sources can be captured, fused, and analyze. It offers to researchers and educators a unique opportunity of being able to discover new knowledge to better understand the learning process and to intervene if necessary. However, it is necessary to apply correctly data fusion approaches and techniques in order to combine various sources of multimodal learning analytics (MLA). These sources or modalities in MLA include audio, video, electrodermal activity data, eye-tracking, user logs, and click-stream data, but also learning artifacts and more natural human signals such as gestures, gaze, speech, or writing. This survey introduces data fusion in learning analytics (LA) and educational data mining (EDM) and how these data fusion techniques have been applied in smart learning. It shows the current state of the art by reviewing the main publications, the main type of fused educational data, and the data fusion approaches and techniques used in EDM/LA, as well as the main open problems, trends, and challenges in this specific research area

The Spirit Is within Us! Ritual Practices of Latin American Pentecostals in Barcelona

Wilson Muñoz-Henríquez obtained funding by the UNESCO/Japan Young Researchers' Fellowship Programme, UNESCO-France and the Government of Japan, and the scholarship program Becas Chile N◦ 72150364, ANID-Chile.In recent years, Christian Pentecostalism has been one of the most successful religious movements in the province of Barcelona, while the high level of immigration from Latin America has clearly been an influential factor in its development. Yet, despite the fact that Pentecostalism has played a prominent role in religious diversification in Catalonia, it has been the subject of very few studies. This paper seeks to address this gap in research and shed light on an area of fundamental importance to the movement: its ritual dimension. Drawing on ethnographic information from the Iglesia Evangélica el Vallès (Canovelles), we describe and analyze the principal channels of communication with the sacred established by the Latin American Pentecostals. In our conclusions, we show that the communicative practices developed during worship are oriented toward manifesting the presence of the Holy Spirit, leading to the emergence of ritual condensation around this symbolic force. For this purpose, practices such as "praise", the "laying on of hands" and "speaking in tongues" establish sequential and progressive communication with the Holy Spirit throughout the process of worship, culminating in mimetic communication

Extensions of discrete classical orthogonal polynomials beyond the orthogonality

It is well known that the family of Hahn polynomials $\{h_n^{\alpha,\beta}(x;N)\}_{n\ge 0}$ is orthogonal with respect to a certain weight function up to $N$. In this paper we present a factorization for Hahn polynomials for a degree higher than $N$ and we prove that these polynomials can be characterized by a $\Delta$-Sobolev orthogonality. We also present an analogous result for dual-Hahn, Krawtchouk, and Racah polynomials and give the limit relations between them for all n\in \XX N_0. Furthermore, in order to get this results for the Krawtchouk polynomials we will get a more general property of orthogonality for Meixner polynomials.Comment: 2 figures, 20 page

Authentication using volatile composition : a proof-of-concept study on the volatile profiles of fourteen queensland ciders

Although relatively small, the Australian cider industry has experienced significant growth in recent years. One of the current challenges in the industry is the lack of research specific to Australian ciders. Establishing baseline volatile organic compound (VOC) profiles of Australian cider is paramount to developing a better understanding of the industry. This understanding may ultimately be utilized for both the categorization and authentication of existing ciders, and the targeted modification of cider volatiles for the development and improvement of cider quality. This study utilized gas chromatography, coupled with mass spectrometry, to identify key VOCs present in 14 ciders sourced from four different manufacturers in Queensland, Australia. A total of 40 VOCs were identified across the ciders, with significant variation depending on the flavor and manufacturer. Principal component analysis indicated that the ciders were well-separated based on the manufacturer, supporting the prospect of using the volatile composition to discriminate between cider manufacturers. Furthermore, hierarchical cluster analysis highlighted the commonalities and differences in cider composition between different manufacturers, which may be indicative of the varying ingredients and manufacturing processes used to create the ciders. Future studies profiling the volatile composition of larger numbers of Australian ciders are recommended to support the use of this analytical technique for authentication purposes. Likewise, exploration of the relationship between specific processes and VOCs is recommended to fortify an understanding of how to optimize cider production to improve consumer satisfaction. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Future directions for HIV service delivery research: Research gaps identified through WHO guideline development

Nathan Ford and co-authors discuss the systematic identification of research gaps in improving HIV service delivery

Relief of chronic pain associated with increase in midline frontal theta power

INTRODUCTION: There is a need to identify objective cortical electrophysiological correlates for pain relief that could potentially contribute to a better pain management. However, the field of developing brain biomarkers for pain relief is still largely underexplored. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to investigate cortical electrophysiological correlates associated with relief from chronic pain. Those features of pain relief could serve as potential targets for novel therapeutic interventions to treat pain. METHODS: In 12 patients with chronic pain in the upper or lower extremity undergoing a clinically indicated nerve block procedure, brain activity was recorded by means of electroencephalogram before and 30 minutes after the nerve block procedure. To determine the specific cortical electrophysiological correlates of relief from chronic pain, 12 healthy participants undergoing cold-pressor test to induce experimental acute pain were used as a control group. The data were analyzed to characterize power spectral density patterns of pain relief and identify their source generators at cortical level. RESULTS: Chronic pain relief was associated with significant delta, theta, and alpha power increase at the frontal area. However, only midfrontal theta power increase showed significant positive correlation with magnitude of reduction in pain intensity. The sources of theta power rebound were located in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and midline frontal cortex. Furthermore, theta power increase in the midline frontal cortex was significantly higher with chronic vs acute pain relief. CONCLUSION: These findings may provide basis for targeting chronic pain relief via modulation of the midline frontal theta oscillations