It Happened All at Once: Switching Regressions, Gravity Models and Food Safety

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Fukushima and beyond: teaching trauma survivors

Increasingly, many English learners come to the classroom with a history of trauma, which can impact on learning and behaviour. In this paper I examine posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and English language learning within the context of the triple disaster in Tohoku in 2011. Now, after more than 5 years, Japan is still dealing with the psychological effects of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster. This paper is aimed at raising awareness of traumatised learners and providing practical solutions for creating a learning environment in which all students can flourish. 心的外傷の既往歴を持つ英語学習者が次第に多くなりつつあるが、このことは学びや学習態度に影響を及ぼす可能性が ある。本論文は、2011年に発生した東日本大震災における心的外傷後ストレス障害（PTSD）をもつ学習者による英語学 習を分 析する。すでに5年以上経った後も、日本は地震、津波、および原子力事故による心理的影響に依然として直面している。本論 文は、心的外傷を持つ学習者に対する認識を高め、あらゆる学習者が活躍できる学習環境の整備に向けた現実的な解決策 を提供することを目的とする

The Expansion of the International Shoe Doctrine

Shaffer v. Heitner, 433 U.S. 186 (1977). In Shaffer v. Heitner, the Supreme Court joins judicial and scholarly advocates in the destruction of the distinction between in personam and in rem jurisdiction. Traditionally, the presence of the person or the res formed the basis of the court\u27s power over the dispute. While in rem and quasi in rem actions have continued to be established in this manner, in personam jurisdiction incorporates additional considerations of due process in determining the extent of a court\u27s power. Shaffer adopts this standard for all other types of actions as well, thereby limiting a distressing trend in some courts to stretch in rem and quasi in rem jurisdiction to its constitutional limits. Following Shaffer, jurisdiction in all types of actions, whether in personam, in rem, or quasi in rem, will be measured by considerations of fair play and substantial justice, a concept set out in the landmark case International Shoe v. Washington. For in rem and quasi in rem actions, it will no longer be sufficient merely to find property within a court\u27s jurisdiction. Instead, the court must determine whether it would be equitable for the non-resident owner of the property to be subject to the court\u27s power

Trauma-informed teaching of adults

Having immersed myself in trauma-informed teaching of adults learning English as an Additional Language (EAL) for the past five years, I am often tempted to say that the practice is obvious and common sense. However, recently I was again reminded that treating students like humans, that valuing and respecting their identities and backgrounds, is not obvious and common sense for everyone. If it were, small acts of kindness would probably not be so gratefully received

VOCAL BIOMARKERS OF CLINICAL DEPRESSION: WORKING TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED MODEL OF DEPRESSION AND SPEECH

Speech output has long been considered a sensitive marker of a person’s mental state. It has been previously examined as a possible biomarker for diagnosis and treatment response for certain mental health conditions, including clinical depression. To date, it has been difficult to draw robust conclusions from past results due to diversity in samples, speech material, investigated parameters, and analytical methods. Within this exploratory study of speech in clinically depressed individuals, articulatory and phonatory behaviours are examined in relation to psychomotor symptom profiles and overall symptom severity. A systematic review provided context from the existing body of knowledge on the effects of depression on speech, and provided context for experimental setup within this body of work. Examinations of vowel space, monophthong, and diphthong productions as well as a multivariate acoustic analysis of other speech parameters (e.g., F0 range, perturbation measures, composite measures, etc.) are undertaken with the goal of creating a working model of the effects of depression on speech. Initial results demonstrate that overall vowel space area was not different between depressed and healthy speakers, but on closer inspection, this was due to more specific deficits seen in depressed patients along the first formant (F1) axis. Speakers with depression were more likely to produce centralised vowels along F1, as compared to F2—and this was more pronounced for low-front vowels, which are more complex given the degree of tongue-jaw coupling required for production. This pattern was seen in both monophthong and diphthong productions. Other articulatory and phonatory measures were inspected in a factor analysis as well, suggesting additional vocal biomarkers for consideration in diagnosis and treatment assessment of depression—including aperiodicity measures (e.g., higher shimmer and jitter), changes in spectral slope and tilt, and additive noise measures such as increased harmonics-to-noise ratio. Intonation was also affected by diagnostic status, but only for specific speech tasks. These results suggest that laryngeal and articulatory control is reduced by depression. Findings support the clinical utility of combining Ellgring and Scherer’s (1996) psychomotor retardation and social-emotional hypotheses to explain the effects of depression on speech, which suggest observed changes are due to a combination of cognitive, psycho-physiological and motoric mechanisms. Ultimately, depressive speech is able to be modelled along a continuum of hypo- to hyper-speech, where depressed individuals are able to assess communicative situations, assess speech requirements, and then engage in the minimum amount of motoric output necessary to convey their message. As speakers fluctuate with depressive symptoms throughout the course of their disorder, they move along the hypo-hyper-speech continuum and their speech is impacted accordingly. Recommendations for future clinical investigations of the effects of depression on speech are also presented, including suggestions for recording and reporting standards. Results contribute towards cross-disciplinary research into speech analysis between the fields of psychiatry, computer science, and speech science