Quality assurance in forensic science: the UK situation

 The contribution to the debate on the quality of forensic science in the UK by various bodies including government, professional and accreditation organisations, is discussed. The practical steps that have been taken over many years to improve quality and to ensure that there are well-documented systems in place are considered. These include laboratory quality systems, proficiency testing and the training of forensic scientists. Received: 6 November 1996 Accepted: 12 December 1996     

Development of an Auditory-Perceptual Rating Instrument for the Operatic Singing Voice

Although considerable progress has been made in the development of acoustic and physiological measures of operatic singing voice, there is still no widely accepted objective tool for the evaluation of its multidimensional features. Auditory-perceptual evaluation, therefore, remains an important evaluation method for singing pedagogues, voice scientists, and clinicians who work with opera singers. Few investigators, however, have attempted to develop standard auditory-perceptual tools for evaluation of the operatic voice. This study aimed to pilot test a new auditory-perceptual rating instrument for operatic singing voice. Nine expert teachers of operatic singing used the instrument to rate the singing voices of 21 professional opera chorus artists from a national opera company. The findings showed that the instrument has good face validity, that it can be legitimately treated as a psychometrically sound scale, and that raters can use the scale consistently, both between and within judges. This new instrument, therefore, has the potential to allow opera singers, their teachers, voice care clinicians, and researchers to evaluate the important auditory-perceptual features of operatic voice quality.     

Operational research and ethics: A literature review

Any human activity raises ethical questions, questions about ‘good’ and ‘right’ ways to act and to live; or to put it differently, questions of values and responsibility. From its inception operational research (OR) has engaged with such questions in terms of professional behavior, the handling of preferences in OR, the societal role of OR, the process of OR intervention and the content of OR analysis. As a result, analytical methods and processes have been developed to help clients explore the ethical dimension of their decisions. The paper reviews the literature published in selected OR journals (Management Science; Operations Research; Interfaces; the European Journal of Operational Research; the Journal of the Operations Research Society; Omega; International Transactions in Operational Research; the Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis), organizing it along the lines of OR’s core competences. The review identifies a number of significant research programmes that are well established and are being energetically pursued; the research findings are being applied to a wide range of important issues. Ethical questions lie at the heart of the great governmental and commercial issues of the day: economic growth and instability; inequality and injustice; environmental degradation and sustainability. They also lie at the heart of the more mundane decisions of day-to-day OR. ‘Ethics’ therefore provides a useful focus for OR both in terms of raising the awareness of all concerned and in providing a theme for research. As a result of the review some research questions are suggested. There is much of interest, much to do.     

Learning trajectories in teacher education: Supporting teachers’ understandings of students’ mathematical thinking

Recent work by researchers has focused on synthesizing and elaborating knowledge of students’ thinking on particular concepts as core progressions called learning trajectories. Although useful at the level of curriculum development, assessment design, and the articulation of standards, evidence is only beginning to emerge to suggest how learning trajectories can be utilized in teacher education. Our paper reports on two studies investigating practicing and prospective elementary teachers’ uses of a learning trajectory to make sense of students’ thinking about a foundational idea of rational number reasoning. Findings suggest that a mathematics learning trajectory supports teachers in creating models of students’ thinking and in restructuring teachers’ own understandings of mathematics and students’ reasoning.     

从中俄联合国际理科专业认证谈化学专业建设

Under the current situation of "Double First-rate" construction and "Double Twenty Thousand" plan for higher education, professional certification has become a prerequisite for first-class specialty. The chemistry major of East China University of Science and Technology completed the Sino-Russian joint international professional accreditation in 2018, and obtained the highest level, the level Ⅲ certification. In this article, we will start from five aspects including fitness, achievement, satisfaction, support, and assurance, to talk about our understanding of the construction in science major and professional certification.     

Vocal Evaluation in Teachers With or Without Symptoms

The aim of this study was to perform voice evaluation in teachers with and without vocal symptoms, identifying etiologic factors of dysphonia, voice symptoms, vocal qualities, and laryngeal lesions. Eighty teachers were divided into two groups: GI (without or sporadic symptoms, 40) and GII (with frequent vocal symptoms, 40). They answered a specific questionnaire, and were subject to a perceptual vocal assessment (maximum phonation time, glottal attack, resonance, coordination of breathing and voicing, pitch, and loudness), GIRBAS scale, and to videolaryngoscopy. Females were predominant in both groups, and the age range was from 36 to 50 years. Elementary teachers predominated, working in classes with 31-40 students. Voice symptoms and alterations in the perceptual vocal analysis and in the GIRBAS scale were more frequent in GII. In 46 teachers (GI-16; GII-30), videolaryngoscopy exams were abnormal with the vocal nodules being the most frequent lesions. These results indicate that a teacher's voice is compromised, and requires more attention including control of environmental factors and associated diseases, preventive vocal hygiene, periodic laryngeal examinations, and access to adequate specialist treatment.     

Open and covered singing as studied by means of fiberoptics, inverse filtering, and spectral analysis

Covering the voice near the passaggio is a technique mainly used in male classic Western singing. The purpose is said to be to smooth the register transition and avoid register breaks. The physiological and acoustical differences between open and covered singing near the so-called passaggio were investigated by means of fiberoptics, inverse filtering, and spectral analysis. The study corroborated previous findings that covering physiologically means a widening and lengthening of the pharynx. Acoustically, covering implies a change of formant frequencies, and an elevated sound pressure level of the lowest source spectrum partial, i.e., the fundamental, resulting from an increased transglottal air flow. The findings indicate that covered singing also is associated with larynx lowering. Covered singing near the passaggio shows similarities to so-called phonation, and is probably preferable from the point of view of vocal hygiene.