A Pilot Survey of Vocal Health in Young Singers

The objective of this study was to determine the incidence of vocal problems in young choir singers and to correlate vocal problems with demographic and behavioral information. A questionnaire addressing vocal habits and hygiene was offered to 571 young choir singers, up to 25 years of age, who sing at least weekly; 129 (22.6%) responded. More than one-half of the respondents had experienced vocal difficulty, particularly older adolescents. Detrimental behaviors and circumstances surveyed were not reflective of the incidence of vocal difficulty, except for morning hoarseness, chronic fatigue, insomnia, and female gender after puberty. Voice care professionals should be aware that self-reported voice difficulties are common among young choral singers, especially postpubescent girls, and children with symptoms consistent with reflux (morning hoarseness) and emotional stress (insomnia). Laryngologists should communicate with choral conductors and singing teachers to enhance early identification and treatment of children with voice complaints, and to develop choral educational strategies that help decrease their incidence.     

Spectroscopic investigation of 4f correlations in CeAg; comparison between LDA and many-body descriptions

High resolution photoemission and bremsstrahlung isochromat spectroscopy experiments have been carried out on CeAg and LaAg. From a comparison between these two compounds, we extract the cerium 4f spectral function, we compare it with band structure calculations and with many-body model simulations based on the single-impurity Anderson Hamiltonian. We show that the localized 4f charge estimated from previous band structure calculations cannot be identified with the 4f occupation number deduced from the Anderson model.     

Rißbildung,Nachgiebigkeit und Bruch in Polycarbonat und Polyäthylenterephthalat bei tiefen Temperaturen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Metal-benzene and metal-CO bond energies in neutral and ionic C6H6Cr(CO)3 studied by threshold photoelectron-photoion coincidence spectroscopy and density functional theory

photoelectron-photoion coincidence spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations have been used to investigate the dissociation kinetics of the benzene chromium tricarbonyl ion, BzCr(CO)3+ (Bz = C6H6). The dissociation of the BzCr(CO)3+ ion proceeds by the sequential loss of three CO and benzene ligands. The first and third CO and the benzene loss reactions were associated with metastable precursor ions (lifetimes in the microsecond range). By simulating the resulting asymmetric time-of-flight peak shapes and breakdown diagram, the 0 K appearance energies of the four product ions were determined to be 8.33 +/- 0.05, 8.93 +/- 0.05, 9.97 +/- 0.06, and 11.71 +/- 0.06 eV, respectively. Combined with the ionization energy of BzCr(CO)3, 7.30 +/- 0.05 eV, the three successive Cr-CO bond energies in the BzCr(CO)3+ were found to alternate, with values of 1.03 +/- 0.05, 0.60 +/- 0.05, and 1.04 +/- 0.05 eV, respectively, and the Bz-Cr bond energy in BzCr+ is 1.74 +/- 0.05 eV, a trend confirmed by the density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Using the heats of formation of the fully dissociated products, C6H6, Cr+, and CO, the 298 K heats of formation the ionic BzCr(CO)n+ (n = 03) species were determined. By scaling the DFT calculated bond energies for the neutral molecules, the heats of formation of the neutral BzCr(CO)n (n = 03) were also obtained.     

A field theoretical approach to calculate electronic Born-Oppenheimer coupling terms

In this paper we suggest to consider the spatial distribution of the Born-Oppenheimer nonadiabatic coupling terms as fields which are created by sources, located at degeneracy points, and which can be derived using the ordinary mathematical tools of field theory. It is shown that the curl-divergence equations as formed within a given Hilbert space [M. Baer, Chem. Phys. Lett. 35, 112 (1975)] can be converted into a set of inhomogeneous coupled Poisson equations which are solved for a given set of boundary conditions. The method is applied to the three-state Hilbert subspace of the H(3) system. The numerical results are compared with ab initio calculations for which a very encouraging fit is found.     

Sequential ortho effects: characterization of novel [M - 35]+ fragment ions in the mass spectra of 2-alkyl-4, 6-dinitrophenols

High-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), hybrid tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) (EBqQ), and photoelectron-photoion coincidence (PEPICO) experiments were conducted to examine a possible ortho-ortho effect resulting in a novel [M - 35]⁺ fragment ion in 2-alkyl-4, 6-dinitrophenols. For compounds having ethyl or larger alkyl substituents, [M35]⁺ was observed only when [M - 18]⁺ ions were present, with the ortho nitro group being involved in the reaction to [M- 35]⁺. For [M - 18]⁺ and [M - 35]⁺, HRMS results were consistent with losses of H₂O and H₂O + OH, respectively, whereas MS/MS results indicated a sequential reaction due to metastable dissociations. The appearance energy determined by PEPICO for [M - 35]⁺ was found to be greater than the appearance energy for [M - 18]⁺, thus supporting a sequential reaction. 69–75).