How Psychological Stress Affects Emotional Prosody

We explored how experimentally induced psychological stress affects the production and recognition of vocal emotions. In Study 1a, we demonstrate that sentences spoken by stressed speakers are judged by naive listeners as sounding more stressed than sentences uttered by non-stressed speakers. In Study 1b, negative emotions produced by stressed speakers are generally less well recognized than the same emotions produced by non-stressed speakers. Multiple mediation analyses suggest this poorer recognition of negative stimuli was due to a mismatch between the variation of volume voiced by speakers and the range of volume expected by listeners. Together, this suggests that the stress level of the speaker affects judgments made by the receiver. In Study 2, we demonstrate that participants who were induced with a feeling of stress before carrying out an emotional prosody recognition task performed worse than non-stressed participants. Overall, findings suggest detrimental effects of induced stress on interpersonal sensitivity

Histology of the Pharyngeal Constrictor Muscle in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome and Non-Syndromic Children with Velopharyngeal Insufficiency

Plastic surgeons aim to correct velopharyngeal insufficiency manifest by hypernasal speech with a velopharyngoplasty. The functional outcome has been reported to be worse in patients with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome than in patients without the syndrome. A possible explanation is the hypotonia that is often present as part of the syndrome. To confirm a myogenic component of the etiology of velopharyngeal insufficiency in children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, specimens of the pharyngeal constrictor muscle were taken from children with and without the syndrome. Histologic properties were compared between the groups. Specimens from the two groups did not differ regarding the presence of increased perimysial or endomysial space, fiber grouping by size or type, internalized nuclei, the percentage type I fibers, or the diameters of type I and type II fibers. In conclusion, a myogenic component of the etiology of velopharyngeal insufficiency in children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome could not be confirmed

Monitoring Energy Consumption in Belgian Glasshouse Horticulture

Rosana G. Moreira, Editor-in-Chief; Texas A&M UniversityThis is a Technical article from International Commission of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR, Commission Internationale du Genie Rural) E-Journal Volume 1 (1999): L. De Cock and D. Van Lierde. Monitoring Energy Consumption in Belgian Glasshouse Horticulture

Traitement intégré d'effluents industriels difficilement biodégradables par procédés membranaires combinés à différentes techniques destructives

Afin de réduire les coûts et d'améliorer l'efficacité de traitement, les procédés de traitements d'effluents industriels combinent fréquemment différentes techniques de recyclage et d'épuration. Dans cette optique, l'association de techniques électrochimiques, biologiques et de filtration tangentielle contribue à l'amélioration du traitement d'eaux usées industrielles chargées en composés non-biodégradables. Ces composés récalcitrants peuvent être concentrés par filtration tangentielle (MF, UF, NF) en vue d'être valorisés ou traités ultérieurement. Les procédés électrochimiques permettent, quant à eux, une destruction des composés organiques récalcitrants. L'intégration des techniques électrochimiques et de filtration tangentielle au niveau d'une station d'épuration classique améliore son fonctionnement tout en offrant la perspective d'une valorisation interne ou externe des effluents