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.     

A p-version finite element method for nonlinear elliptic variational inequalities in 2D

This article introduces and analyzes a p-version FEM for variational inequalities resulting from obstacle problems for some quasi-linear elliptic partial differential operators. We approximate the solution by controlling the obstacle condition in images of the Gauss–Lobatto points. We show existence and uniqueness for the discrete solution u _p from the p-version for the obstacle problem. We prove the convergence of u _p towards the solution with respect to the energy norm, and assuming some additional regularity for the solution we derive an a priori error estimate. In numerical experiments the p-version turns out to be superior to the h-version concerning the convergence rate and the number of unknowns needed to achieve a certain exactness of the approximation.     

Synthese und Struktur von γ-Halogenpropyl-octa(silasesquioxanen)

Synthesis and Structures of γ-Halopropyl-octa(silasesquioxanes) As a more rapid and versatile synthetic approach, we have studied the FeCl₃-catalyzed hydrolytic polycondensation of suited trichlorosilanes in a biphasic system which yields e.g. the new octa(silasesquioxane) (BrCH₂CH₂CH₂)₈Si₈O₁₂.     

Neutral strange particle exclusive production in charged current high-energy antineutrino interactions

The cross section of the quasi-elastic reactions \(\bar v_\mu p \to \mu ^ + \Lambda (\Sigma ^0 )\) in the energy range 5–100 GeV is determined from Fermilab 15′ bubble chamber antineutrino data. TheQ ² analysis of quasi-elastic Λ events yieldsM _A=1.0±0.3 GeV/c² for the axial mass value. With zero µΛ K ⁰ events observed, the 90% confidence level upper limit \(\sigma (\bar v_\mu p \to \mu ^ + \Lambda {\rm K}^0 )< 2.0 \cdot 10^{ - 40} cm^2 \) is obtained. At the same time, we found that the cross section of reaction \(\bar v_\mu p \to \mu ^ + \Lambda {\rm K}^0 + m\pi ^0 \) is equal to \(\left( {3.9\begin{array}{*{20}c} { + 1.6} \\ { - 1.3} \\ \end{array} } \right) \cdot 10^{ - 40} cm^2 \) .