Vocal Expression In Schizophrenia: Examining The Role Of Vocal Accommodation In Clinical Ratings Of Speech

Diminished vocal expressivity, defined in terms of a diminution in speech production and intonation/emphasis, is a chronic symptom in schizophrenia. On interview-based measures of vocal deficits, clinicians typically rate patients with schizophrenia 4 to 6 SDs below their non-patient peers. However, recent studies utilizing objective computerized measures have failed to observe vocal expressivity deficits that approach this level. It may be that vocal deficits can only be understood within the boundaries of dyadic exchanges during interview-based assessments. Vocal accommodation, or the degree to which vocal characteristics (i.e., mean F0) between interlocutors synchronize over time, has been linked to enhanced social affiliation and may useful for understanding this discrepancy in the literature. The current study sought to leverage computerized technologies to determine whether vocal accommodation during structured clinical interviews unduly influences clinical ratings of vocal expression in schizophrenia. Overall, both controls (n = 30) and patients with schizophrenia (n = 57) exhibited vocal accommodation of mean F0 with their respective partners during a clinical interview, though at varying degrees. Contrary to expectations, vocal accommodation during a clinical interview did not significantly predict clinical ratings of vocal deficits in schizophrenia. The current findings extend the literature on communicative and social skills in schizophrenia. Implications and directions for future research are discussed

Next-to-next-to-leading-order epsilon expansion for a Fermi gas at infinite scattering length

We extend previous work on applying the epsilon-expansion to universal properties of a cold, dilute Fermi gas in the unitary regime of infinite scattering length. We compute the ratio xi = mu/epsilon_F of chemical potential to ideal gas Fermi energy to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in epsilon=4-d, where d is the number of spatial dimensions. We also explore the nature of corrections from the order after NNLO.Comment: 28 pages, 14 figure

The effect of limited cognitive resources on communication disturbances in serious mental illness

Semantically incoherent speech is a pernicious clinical feature of serious mental illness (SMI). The precise mechanisms underlying this deficit remain unclear. Prior studies have found that arousal of negative emotion exaggerates the severity of these communication disturbances; this has been coined "affective reactivity". Recent research suggests that "cognitive reactivity" may also occur, namely reflecting reduced "on-line" cognitive resources in SMI. We tested the hypothesis that communication disturbances manifest as a function of limited cognitive resources in SMI above and beyond that associated with state affectivity. We also investigated individual differences in symptoms, cognitive ability, and trait affect that may be related to cognitive reactivity. We compared individuals with SMI (n=52) to nonpsychiatric controls (n=27) on a behavioral-based coding of communication disturbances during separate baseline and experimentally-manipulated high cognitive-load dual tasks. Controlling for state affective reactivity, a significant interaction was observed such that communication disturbances decreased in the SMI group under high cognitive-load. Furthermore, a reduction in communication disturbances was related to lower trait and state positive affectivity in the SMI group. Contrary to our expectations, limited cognitive resources temporarily relieved language dysfunction. Implications, particularly with respect to interventions, are discussed

A voltage electrical distance application for power system load shedding considering the primary and secondary generator controls

This paper proposes a method for determining location and calculating the minimum amount of power load needed to shed in order to recover the frequency back to the allowable range. Based on the consideration of the primary control of the turbine governor and the reserve power of the generators for secondary control, the minimum amount of load shedding was calculated in order to recover the frequency of the power system. Computation and analysis of the voltage electrical distance between the outage generator and the loads to prioritize distribution of the amount power load shedding at load bus positions. The nearer the load bus from the outage generator is, the higher the amount of load shedding will shed and vice versa. With this technique, a large amount of load shedding could be avoided, hence, saved from economic losses, and customer service interruption. The effectiveness of the proposed method tested on the IEEE 37 bus 9 generators power system standard has demonstrated the effectiveness of this method

Aquaculture in the mountains of the northern Lao PDR and northern Vietnam

This article features the current status of aquaculture in the mountains of the northern Lao PDR and northern Vietnam

Composition, volume, and aspect ratio dependence of the strain distribution, band lineups and electron effective masses in self-assembled pyramidal In1-xGaxAs/GaAs and SixGe1-x/Si quantum dots

We present a systematic investigation of the strain distribution of self-assembled pyramidal In1-xGaxAs/GaAs and SixGe1-x/Si quantum dots for the case of growth on a (001) substrate. The dependence of the biaxial and hydrostatic components of the strain on the quantum dot volume, aspect ratio, composition, and percentage of alloying x is studied using a method based on a Green's function technique. The dependence of the carriers' confining potentials and the electronic effective mass on the same parameters is then calculated in the framework of eight-band k .p theory. The results for which comparable published data are available are in good agreement with the theoretical values for strain profiles, confining potentials, and electronic effective mass. © 2002 American Institute of Physics