Toward a music theater vocal pedagogy for emerging adult female singers

Thesis (D.M.A.)--Boston UniversityThe purpose of this study was to develop a case of contemporary belting pedagogy for emerging adult, female singers. Informants for the case included Jeannette LoVetri and Lisa Popeil, two well-respected pedagogues in both contemporary commercial and classical styles of singing. Data were collected through interviews with the pedagogues and observations of their teaching. The pedagogues' practices confirmed findings from prior research that three facets of singing differentiated contemporary belt singing from classical singing: (a) increased subglottal pressure coupled with increased closed quotient; (b) thyroarytenoid-dominant vocal production; and (c) resonance strategies involving a narrowed pharynx or oral cavity. LoVetri and Popeil characterized pedagogy for emerging adult singers as similar to pedagogy for classical singing in that it ought to be built on breath support and avoidance of vocal fold pressing. Further, the pedagogues recommended utilizing repertoire with moderate demands. However, they emphasized beginning with resonance strategies such as widening the mouth and lowering the velum. To teach emerging adult female singers, vocal music educators must: (a) be able to model appropriate music theater sounds for their students, (b) understand the shows and repertoire of music theater, (c) assign developmentally appropriate music theater literature to individual students; (d) expose students to a variety of musical styles, and (e) impart a functional understanding of voice science related to music theater vocal pedagogy in a way that emerging adult singers can understand. Emerging adult students should commit to performing in a healthy and sustainable way, and voice teachers should be a primary resource for reliable information about vocal health. Beyond this foundational pedagogy, teachers who prepare emerging adults for a career in music theater must ensure that their students receive significant training in acting and dance in addition to singing. Teachers must also help such students gain understanding of the casting process and their own casting strengths. Finally, because music theater is such a challenging industry, teachers should encourage their students to develop skills related to music theater so that they can earn a living, and teachers should highlight the importance of strong emotional, psychological, and financial support systems

Use of cultured fibroblasts to study effects of hormones and growth factors and to compare growth of cells to animal growth

Fibroblasts in culture have been extensively used to study the effects of growth factors on growth of mammalian cells. They can be easily cultured and maintained for long periods of time. The objectives of these studies were to determine if viable fibroblasts could be obtained from skin of cattle and pigs, if serum, hormones or growth factors influenced the growth of these cells and if fibroblast growth was indicative of donor animal performance;A technique for acquiring a skin biopsy from ear tissue is detailed. Fibroblasts were observed to grow from this tissue explant and the cells responded to the presence of one or ten percent serum by increasing uptake of thymidine and leucine compared with cells in serum-free medium;The growth response of bovine fibroblasts to dexamethasone, estradiol, growth hormone, insulin or thyroxine additions in serum-free or medium containing 1% serum was examined. None of these hormones appeared to be a primary determinant of fibroblast growth, as measured by thymidine and leucine incorporation;Growth response of bovine fibroblasts to epidermal growth factor and insulin-like growth factor-I and combinations of hormones with growth factors was also studied. These peptides increased thymidine and leucine incorporation in the presence of one percent serum. Addition of hormones with growth factors did not dramatically improve growth;Growth of cattle and swine was compared with growth of their cells in culture. Samples were collected from newborn calves to aged cows and pigs from birth to five months of age. The potential for animal growth was expressed in cultured fibroblasts but the measurements of growth of the cells did not always predict live weight at a future point in time. As age of animals increased and growth rate relative to body weight decreased, outgrowth from the explant decreased, resulting in a negative linear relationship between outgrowth of cells from the explant and age

Adjective Intensification as a Means of Characterization:Portraying In-Group Membership and Britishness in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

This paper examines the use of intensifiers on the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer in order to establish the ways in which they can be used for characterization. We found that the male and female characters used intensifiers differently (similarly to what is found in natural speech), but also that intensifier choice was related to changes in social networks for several of the female characters on the show (so and totally). Furthermore, intensifiers were also used to distinguish the British characters on the show from the American ones (extremely, terribly, and bloody). By comparing our results to findings for other television shows (Friends) and for natural speech, we were able to establish the extent to which the show makes use of (then) innovative linguistic features for characterization. These findings underline the extent to which scriptwriters and/or actors were able to use linguistic features to index specific types of character

Maturation-Dependent Response of the Piglet Brain to Scaled Cortical Impact

Object. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between maturational stage and the brain\u27s response to mechanical trauma in a gyrencephalic model of focal brain injury. Age-dependent differences in injury response might explain certain unique clinical syndromes seen in infants and young children and would determine whether specific therapies might be particularly effective or even counterproductive at different ages. Methods. To deliver proportionally identical injury inputs to animals of different ages, the authors have developed a piglet model of focal contusion injury by using specific volumes of rapid cortical displacement that are precisely scaled to changes in size and dimensions of the growing brain. Using this model, the histological response to a scaled focal cortical impact was compared at 7 days after injury in piglets that were 5 days, 1 month, and 4 months of age at the time of trauma. Despite comparable injury inputs and stable physiological parameters, the percentage of hemisphere injured differed significantly among ages, with the youngest animals sustaining the smallest lesions (0.8%, 8.4%, and 21.5%, for 5-day-, 1-month-, and 4-month-old animals, respectively, p = 0.0018). Conclusions. These results demonstrate that, for this particular focal injury type and severity, vulnerability to mechanical trauma increases progressively during maturation. Because of its developmental and morphological similarity to the human brain, the piglet brain provides distinct advantages in modeling age-specific responses to mechanical trauma. Differences in pathways leading to cell death or repair may be relevant to designing therapies appropriate for patients of different ages

Differential effects of insulin-like growth factor binding proteins-1, -2, -3, and -6 on cultured growth plate chondrocytes

Differential effects of insulin-like growth factor binding proteins-1, -2, -3, and -6 on cultured growth plate chondrocytes.BackgroundIn children with chronic renal failure (CRF), impairment of longitudinal growth is in part due to excess amounts of circulating high-affinity insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (IGFBPs) that might decrease or prevent insulin-like growth factor (IGF) binding to its signaling receptor. However, it appears from the clinical studies that various IGFBPs may have contrasting effects on longitudinal growth. Because of the potential importance of the IGFBPs as modulators of longitudinal growth in pediatric CRF, the aim of the present study was to investigate the biological effects of IGFBP-1, -2, -3, and -6 on cultured growth plate chondrocytes that express the type 1 IGF receptor.MethodsThe effects of exogenous IGFBPs on IGF-independent and IGF-dependent proliferation of rat growth plate chondrocytes in primary culture were investigated. Proliferation was assessed by colony formation of agarose-stabilized long-term suspension cultures and by the [3H]thymidine assay. The effects of IGFBPs on IGF-I binding and the binding of IGFBPs to chondrocytes were assessed by binding studies with radiolabeled proteins in monolayer culture.ResultsIntact IGFBP-1, IGFBP-2 and IGFBP-6 inhibited in equimolar concentration the IGF-I- and IGF-II-stimulated DNA synthesis and cell proliferation, whereas the biological activity of IGFBP-3 was complex. It had an IGF-independent antiproliferative effect and also inhibited IGF-dependent chondrocyte proliferation under coincubation conditions, whereas under preincubation conditions IGFBP-3 enhanced IGF-I-responsiveness. Studies on the mechanism by which IGFBP-3 potentiated IGF activity demonstrated that under preincubation conditions IGFBP-3 is capable to associate with the cell membrane and to facilitate IGF-I cell surface binding.ConclusionsIntact IGFBP-1, IGFBP-2 and IGFBP-6 act exclusively as growth inhibitors on IGF-dependent proliferation of growth plate chondrocytes. IGFBP-3, however, can either inhibit IGF-independent and IGF-dependent cell proliferation, or enhance IGF responsiveness of chondrocytes dependent on the temporal relationship to the IGF exposure

Human Disturbance Influences Reproductive Success and Growth Rate in California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus)

The environment is currently undergoing changes at both global (e.g., climate change) and local (e.g., tourism, pollution, habitat modification) scales that have the capacity to affect the viability of animal and plant populations. Many of these changes, such as human disturbance, have an anthropogenic origin and therefore may be mitigated by management action. To do so requires an understanding of the impact of human activities and changing environmental conditions on population dynamics. We investigated the influence of human activity on important life history parameters (reproductive rate, and body condition, and growth rate of neonate pups) for California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) in the Gulf of California, Mexico. Increased human presence was associated with lower reproductive rates, which translated into reduced long-term population growth rates and suggested that human activities are a disturbance that could lead to population declines. We also observed higher body growth rates in pups with increased exposure to humans. Increased growth rates in pups may reflect a density dependent response to declining reproductive rates (e.g., decreased competition for resources). Our results highlight the potentially complex changes in life history parameters that may result from human disturbance, and their implication for population dynamics. We recommend careful monitoring of human activities in the Gulf of California and emphasize the importance of management strategies that explicitly consider the potential impact of human activities such as ecotourism on vertebrate populations

The HIV-1 late domain-2 S40A polymorphism in antiretroviral (or ART)-exposed individuals influences protease inhibitor susceptibility.

BackgroundThe p6 region of the HIV-1 structural precursor polyprotein, Gag, contains two motifs, P7TAP11 and L35YPLXSL41, designated as late (L) domain-1 and -2, respectively. These motifs bind the ESCRT-I factor Tsg101 and the ESCRT adaptor Alix, respectively, and are critical for efficient budding of virus particles from the plasma membrane. L domain-2 is thought to be functionally redundant to PTAP. To identify possible other functions of L domain-2, we examined this motif in dominant viruses that emerged in a group of 14 women who had detectable levels of HIV-1 in both plasma and genital tract despite a history of current or previous antiretroviral therapy.ResultsRemarkably, variants possessing mutations or rare polymorphisms in the highly conserved L domain-2 were identified in seven of these women. A mutation in a conserved residue (S40A) that does not reduce Gag interaction with Alix and therefore did not reduce budding efficiency was further investigated. This mutation causes a simultaneous change in the Pol reading frame but exhibits little deficiency in Gag processing and virion maturation. Whether introduced into the HIV-1 NL4-3 strain genome or a model protease (PR) precursor, S40A reduced production of mature PR. This same mutation also led to high level detection of two extended forms of PR that were fairly stable compared to the WT in the presence of IDV at various concentrations; one of the extended forms was effective in trans processing even at micromolar IDV.ConclusionsOur results indicate that L domain-2, considered redundant in vitro, can undergo mutations in vivo that significantly alter PR function. These may contribute fitness benefits in both the absence and presence of PR inhibitor

On the use of log-transformation vs. nonlinear regression for analyzing biological power-laws

Power-law relationships are among the most well-studied functional relationships in biology. Recently the common practice of fitting power-laws using linear regression on log-transformed data (LR) has been criticized, calling into question the conclusions of hundreds of studies. It has been suggested that nonlinear regression (NLR) is preferable, but no rigorous comparison of these two methods has been conducted. Using Monte Carlo simulations we demonstrate that the error distribution determines which method performs better, with LR better characterizing data with multiplicative lognormal error and NLR better characterizing data with additive, homoscedastic, normal error. Analysis of 471 biological power-laws shows that both forms of error occur in nature. While previous analyses based on log-transformation appear to be generally valid, future analyses should choose methods based on a combination of biological plausibility and analysis of the error distribution. We provide detailed guidelines and associated computer code for doing so, including a model averaging approach for cases where the error structure is uncertain

Care pathways in persistent orofacial pain: qualitative evidence from the DEEP study

Persistent orofacial pain is relatively common and known to have an adverse effect on quality of life. Previous studies suggest that the current care pathway may be problematic, but it is not well understood which health services patients access and what their experience is. The aim of this study was to explore care pathways and their impact from the perspective of patients. Qualitative interviews were conducted with a maximum variation sample of patients recruited from primary (community based) and secondary (specialist hospital based) care in the United Kingdom. Questions focused on the stages in their pathway and the impact of the care that they had received. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim, and analysis followed principles of the constant comparative method. NVivo 10 was used to help organize and analyze data. Twenty-two patients were interviewed at baseline, and 18 took part in a second interview at 12 mo. Three main themes emerged from the data: the “fluidity of the care pathway,” in which patients described moving among health care providers in attempts to have their pain diagnosed and managed, occurring alongside a “failure to progress,” where despite multiple appointments, patients described frustration at delays in obtaining a diagnosis and effective treatment for their pain. Throughout their care pathways, patients described the “effects of unmanaged pain,” where the longer the pain went unmanaged, the greater its potential to negatively affect their lives. Findings of this study suggest that the current care pathway is inefficient and fails to meet patient needs. Future work needs to focus on working with stakeholder groups to redesign patient-centered care pathways