The Effectiveness of a Voice Treatment Approach for Teachers With Self-Reported Voice Problems

SUMMARY: Teachers are considered the professional group most at risk of developing voice-problems, but limited treatment effectiveness evidence exists. We studied prospectively the effectiveness of a 6-week combined treatment approach using vocal function exercises (VFEs) and vocal hygiene (VH) education with 20 teachers with self-reported voice problems. Twenty subjects were randomly assigned to a no-treatment control (n = 11) and a treatment group (n = 9). Fibreoptic endoscopic evaluation was carried out on all subjects before randomization. Two self-report voice outcome measures were used: the Voice-Related Quality of Life (VRQOL) and the Voice Symptom Severity Scale (VoiSS). A Voice Care Knowledge Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), developed specifically for the study, was also used to evaluate change in selected voice knowledge areas. A Student unpaired t test revealed a statistically significant (P < 0.05) improvement in the treatment group as measured by the VoiSS. There was not a significant improvement in the treatment group as measured by the V-RQOL. The difference in voice care knowledge areas was also significant for the treatment group (P < 0.05). This study suggests that a voice treatment approach of VFEs and VH education improved self-reported voice symptoms and voice care knowledge in a group of teachers.     

Facets of the balanced (acyclic) induced subgraph polytope

A signed graph is a graph whose edges are labelled positive or negative. A signed graph is said to be balanced if the set of negative edges form a cut. The balanced induced subgraph polytopeP(G) of a graphG is the convex hull of the incidence vectors of all node sets that induce balanced subgraphs ofG. In this paper we exhibit various (rank) facet defining inequalities. We describe several methods with which new facet defining inequalities ofP(G) can be constructed from known ones. Finding a maximum weighted balanced induced subgraph of a series parallel graph is a polynomial problem. We show that for this class of graphsP(G) may have complicated facet defining inequalities. We derive analogous results for the polytope of acyclic induced subgraphs.Research supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; the second author has also been supported by C.P. Rail.     

Optical properties of frustrated cholesteric liquid crystals in planar cell

ABSTRACT

We investigated the alignment director of a frustrated cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) confined in a planar cell. Three cells with different confinement ratio (c?=?d/p) (where p is the pitch and d is the cell thickness) are prepared. Under an electric field, the CLC planar texture is transformed into a cholesteric fingerprint (CF). The results showed that CF contrast depends on c. When c?≈?2, CLC stripes are formed by a periodic CF, with a period equal to the CLC pitch. The CF is developed and slowly extended to the whole cell surface along the rubbing direction and the contrast of the grating stripes keeps unchangeable. Yet, the CLC finger borders have a different light intensity. However, when c?≈?1, the CF contrast increases with time. When c?θ between the polarizer and the CFs.     

Chromatographic analysis,antimicrobial and insecticidal activities of the essential oil of Phlomis floccosa D. Don.

The present study was conducted to investigate for the first time the chemical composition and insecticidal and antimicrobial properties of Phlomis floccosa D. Don. essential oil isolated by hydro‐distillation of its aerial parts. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the essential oil on the basis of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC/FID and GC/MS) revealed the presence of 59 organic volatiles representing 86.9% of the total constituents. The major compounds were germacrene‐D (19.7%) followed by β‐caryophyllene (15.5%), caryophyllene oxide (8.3%), hexadecenoic acid (7.9%) and carvacrol (6.1%). The broth microdilution method was conducted to test the antimicrobial activity of the essential oil against five pathogens: Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enterica, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and the yeast Candida albicans. The oil of P. floccosa D. Don. shows promising activity against the Gram‐positive bacteria S. aureus and B. subtilis and the yeast C. albicans (minimum inhibitory concentration = 625 μg.mL^?1). The effectiveness of the essential oil was assessed on both Tribolium confusum and Sitophilus zeamais pest insects and it was more pronounced against T. confusum, showing a moderate mortality of 47.5%.     

Polarization dependence of electroluminescence from closely-stacked and columnar quantum dots

Quantum dots (QDs) have a potential for application in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), due to their high saturation power related to the low differential gain, fast gain recovery and wide gain spectrum compared to quantum wells. Besides all advantages, QDs realized by Stranski-Krastanov growth mode have a flat shape which leads to a gain anisotropy and a related transverse magnetic (TM) and -electric (TE) polarization dependence as compared to bulk material. This has so far prevented their applications in SOAs. It has been suggested that control of optical polarization anisotropy of the QD can be obtained through QD shape engineering, in closely stacked or columnar QDs (CQDs). To this aim, we have fabricated and tested SOA structures based on closely-stacked and columnar QDs. Closely-stacked InAs QDs with 4, 6 and 10 nm GaAs spacer showed a minor improvement in the ratio of TM and TE integrated electroluminescence (EL) over standard QDs along with a strong reduction in efficiency. In contrast, a large improvement was obtained in CQDs, depending on the number of stacked submonolayers which can be attributed to the more symmetric shape of columnar QDs. A relatively small spectral separation (ΔE ~ 21 meV) between TE- and TM-EL peaks has been observed showing that heavy- and light hole-like states, respectively are energetically close in these QDs. These results indicate that columnar QDs have a significant potential for polarization-independent QD SOA.     

Semicrossed products generated by two commuting automorphisms

In this paper, we study the semicrossed product of a finite dimensional C∗-algebra for two types of -actions, and identify them with matrix algebras of analytic functions in two variables. We look at the connections with semicrossed by -actions.     

Transport processes in NaCl single crystals doped with a trivalent cation; solubility,association and migration of Y3+

The self-diffusion coefficient of ²²Na⁺ and the ionic conductivity are measured as a function of temperature in NaCl single crystals doped with labelled yttrium ions, as well as the diffusion coefficient of ⁸⁸Y³⁺. We give the theoretical equations for the transport processes in the alkali halides doped with a trivalent cation; These are derived from the theory of the crystals doped with divalent cations. Solubility of YCl₃ in NaCl is accurately determined through a radioactive technique. The free enthalpy of solubility of free Y³⁺ is: (2.91?13 kT) eV. A good fit of the whole set of data is obtained by treating the association between Y³⁺ ions and vacancies by the single equation $\text{K}{}_2\text{= 12}\text{exp}\text{(-9.5)}\text{exp}\text{(}\text{1.17}\text{kT}\text{)}$. The jump frequency of Y³⁺ is $\text{w}{}_2\text{= 1.37 × 10}{}^{13}\text{exp}\text{(-}\text{0.98}\text{kT}\text{)}\text{sec}{}^{-1}$. The results are compared to those characterising the divalent foreign cations.     

Dimensionally Scaled Miscible Displacements in Heterogeneous Permeable Media

Understanding and predicting the performance of solvent drives and remediation of contaminated aquifers in heterogeneous reservoirs is of great importance to the petroleum and environmental industries. In this paper, a general method to scale flow through heterogeneous reservoirs is presented for a miscible displacement of oil by a solvent. Results show that scaling miscible displacements in a two-dimensional, heterogeneous, anisotropic vertical cross section requires the matching of 13 dimensionless scaling groups. These groups were derived using a general procedure of inspectional analysis. A detailed numerical sensitivity study was performed to reveal the relationship between the scaling groups and the fractional oil recovery of miscible displacements in heterogeneous reservoirs. This relationship was then mapped using an artificial neural network, which can be used as a quick prediction tool for the fractional oil recovery for any combinations of the scaling groups, thus eliminating the need for the expensive fine-mesh simulations. These results have potential applications in modeling miscible displacements and in the scaling of laboratory displacements to field conditions.     

Blow-up of the maximal solution to 3D Boussinesq system in Lei-Lin-Gevrey spaces

For arbitrary initial data in Lei-Lin-Gevrey spaces, we investigate the blow-up phenomena in finite time to the local unique solution of the three-dimensional Boussinesq system. We determine the blow-up profile explicitly as a function of time, and we identify the low frequencies part as a solely responsible of this phenomena. Frequencies decomposition, functional spaces interpolation, and Leray theory are used.