Comparison of Singer's Formant, Speaker's Ring, and LTA Spectrum Among Classical Singers and Untrained Normal Speakers

Many studies have described and analyzed the singer's formant. A similar phenomenon produced by trained speakers led some authors to examine the speaker's ring. If we consider these phenomena as resonance effects associated with vocal tract adjustments and training, can we hypothesize that trained singers can carry over their singing formant ability into speech, also obtaining a speaker's ring? Can we find similar differences for energy distribution in continuous speech? Forty classically trained singers and forty untrained normal speakers performed an all-voiced reading task and produced a sample of a sustained spoken vowel /a/. The singers were also requested to perform a sustained sung vowel /a/ at a comfortable pitch. The reading was analyzed by the long-term average spectrum (LTAS) method. The sustained vowels were analyzed through power spectrum analysis. The data suggest that singers show more energy concentration in the singer's formant/speaker's ring region in both sung and spoken vowels. The singers' spoken vowel energy in the speaker's ring area was found to be significantly larger than that of the untrained speakers. The LTAS showed similar findings suggesting that those differences also occur in continuous speech. This finding supports the value of further research on the effect of singing training on the resonance of the speaking voice.     

Efficiency of Site-Specific Clicked Laccase–Carbon Nanotubes Biocathodes towards O2 Reduction

A maximization of a direct electron transfer (DET) between redox enzymes and electrodes can be obtained through the oriented immobilization of enzymes onto an electroactive surface. Here, a strategy for obtaining carbon nanotube (CNTs) based electrodes covalently modified with perfectly control-oriented fungal laccases is presented. Modelizations of the laccase-CNT interaction and of electron conduction pathways serve as a guide in choosing grafting positions. Homogeneous populations of alkyne-modified laccases are obtained through the reductive amination of a unique surface-accessible lysine residue selectively engineered near either one or the other of the two copper centers in enzyme variants. Immobilization of the site-specific alkynated enzymes is achieved by copper-catalyzed click reaction on azido-modified CNTs. A highly efficient reduction of O₂ at low overpotential and catalytic current densities over −3 mA cm⁻² are obtained by minimizing the distance from the electrode surface to the trinuclear cluster.     

Enumeration of lactic acid bacteria: lacuna and improvement areas highlighted by proficiency testing

Accreditation and Quality Assurance - During the 2011 to 2018 food microbiology proficiency testing (PT) schemes organized by REQUASUD, a systematic analytical issue was detected. For the...     

Polyesters from Macrolactones Using Commercial Lipase NS 88011 and Novozym 435 as Biocatalysts

The demand for environmentally friendly products allied with the depletion of natural resources has increased the search for sustainable materials in chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Polyesters are among the most widely used biodegradable polymers in biomedical applications. In this work, aliphatic polyesters (from globalide and ω-pentadecalactone) were synthesized using a new commercial biocatalyst, the low-cost immobilized NS 88011 lipase (lipase B from Candida antarctica immobilized on a hydrophobic support). Results were compared with those obtained under the same conditions using a traditional, but more expensive, commercial biocatalyst, Novozym 435 (lipase B from C. antarctica immobilized on Lewatit VP OC). When NS 88011 was used in the polymerization of globalide, longer reaction times (240 min)—when compared to Novozym 435—were required to obtain high yields (80–90 wt%). However, higher molecular weights were achieved. When poly(ω-pentadecalactone) was synthesized, high yields and molecular weights (130,000 g mol^?1) were obtained and the enzyme concentration showed strong influence on the polyester properties. This is the first report describing NS 88011 in polymer synthesis. The use of this cheaper enzymatic preparation can provide an alternative for polyester synthesis via enzymatic ring-opening polymerization.     

Sol gel synthesis of 3-n-propyl(4-aminomethyl)pyridinium silsesquioxane chloride and the enhanced electrocatalytic activity of LbL films

Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology - A silsesquioxane based on a silica matrix and 4-(aminomethyl)pyridine group was successfully synthesized using the sol–gel process with the...     

Removal of the phosphate group in mechanism-based inhibitors of inositol monophosphatase leads to unusual inhibitory activity

Inositol monophosphatase is widely held to be the therapeutic target for inhibition by lithium ion in the treatment of bipolar disorder. In a continued effort to improve the bioavailability of alternative inhibitors, we have designed and tested two new series of compounds; phosphonates and product-like mimics. Phosphonate substrate mimics were competitive inhibitors of reduced potency as compared to phosphate based inhibitors. Product mimics however, showed various inhibitory modes of action. The 6-butylamino derivative 6p was an uncompetitive inhibitor when acting alone (K(i)= 0.3 mM) but displayed non-competitive inhibition in the presence of inorganic phosphate. This compound represents a new lead in the search for a viable replacement for lithium ion therapy.     

Decay of a large-amplitude bubble of a disoriented chiral condensate

The time evolution of a large-amplitude bubble of a disoriented chiral condensate (DCC) is studied. It is found that the evolution of such objects may have a relatively long predecay stage. A simple explanation of such a delay is proposed for the case of the DCC bubble decay. This delay is associated with the existence of approximate multisoliton solutions to the relevant radial sine-Gordon equation in (3+1) dimensions at a large bubble radius.     

Collisions of domain walls in a supersymmetric model

A collision of two parallel domain walls in a supersymmetric model is analyzed by using both the effective-Lagrangian approximation and a numerical solution to the equations of motion for the scalar components of the superfields involved. Two cases—that where a configuration belonging to the type of two parallel walls is saturated in the sense of Bogomol’nyi, Prasad, and Sommerfeld (BPS) and that where such a configuration is not BPS-saturated—are considered individually. For the first case, it is shown that, at low initial velocities, a collision of the walls is virtually an elastic reflection somewhat delayed in time. It is also demonstrated that, in this case, it is possible to introduce a collective variable that has the meaning of an internal parameter of the configuration and which can be treated as a dynamical (time-dependent) variable and to describe the dynamics of the system in terms of an effective Lagrangian. For the second case, it is found that, for collisions, there is a critical value of v _cr≈0.9120 for the initial velocity v _i. For v _i<v _cr, the reflection of the walls occurs, the vacuum between the walls remaining unchanged. For v _i>v _cr, the collision process is accompanied by a change in the vacuum state between the walls.     

Thermo-oxidative evaluation of new cardol derivatives as antioxidants for mineral oils

In this study, the thermo-oxidative stability of two new phosphorylated derivatives of cardol, a compound from the cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) industry waste CNSL (cashew nutshell liquid), were evaluated. The antioxidant capacity of these new molecules upon two mineral oils, NH10 and NH20 were also studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TG/DTG), observing the onset and offset temperatures variation. The results showed that both MP and DP Cardol increased considerably the onset and offset temperatures of NH10 and NH20 oils.