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Psychological resilience is the ability to use personal qualities to withstand pressure, consisting of the interaction between the individual and the environment over time. It is essential when operating in extreme environments which are typically characterised by a complex combination of stressors with increased elements of risk and adversity. Psychological resilience has never been investigated “live” (e.g., in the moment) throughout the duration of an extreme endurance challenge, despite anecdotal accounts of the need for resilience to successfully function in such environments. The aim of the study was to explore psychological resilience with challenge team members (n = 4, mean age = 46.0 years) involved in a 25-day extreme endurance challenge. The object of the challenge was to ‘TAB’ (Tactical Advance to Battle, fast marching with weighted packs) 100 peaks in the UK in 25 days and complete long-distance bike rides between base camps. A mixed-methods approach with a focus on qualitative methods was utilised. Specifically, individual reflective video diaries (n = 47) and focus groups (n = 4) were completed and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). At the same time, the 10-item Connor Davidson Resilience Scale was employed to measure resilience, which highlighted the individualised and dynamic nature of resilience. Two superordinate themes were identified from the video diaries and focus groups, namely, the identification of the stressors within extreme environments and strategies to maintain functioning. Stressors were split into subordinate themes of significant and every day, and collectively, they created a cluster effect which contributed to pressure associated with operating in these environments. Challenge team members employed various strategies to maintain functioning, including using a challenge mindset to positively appraise pressure as a challenging learning experience. Further research should continue to develop an understanding of how participants completing challenges within extreme environments utilise and develop personal qualities to maintain functioning.

Background: The literature on professionals’ perceptions of dignity at the end-of-life (EOL) shows that there is a need for studies set in different cultural contexts. Lithuania represents one of these little-studied contexts. The aim of this study is to understand professionals’ attitudes, experiences, and suggestions concerning EOL dignity to provide knowledge upon which efforts to improve EOL care can be grounded. The research questions are “How do Lithuanian health care professionals understand the essence of dignity at the end-of-life of terminally ill patients?” and “How do they believe that dignity at the EOL can be enhanced?”. Materials and Methods: The study was exploratory and descriptive. It employed an interpretive phenomenological method to understand the essence of the phenomenon. Lightly structured interviews were conducted with professionals who had EOL experience, primarily with elderly and late middle-aged patients. from medicine, nursing, social work, and spiritual services. The interviews were primarily conducted by audiovisual means due to pandemic restrictions. Using a constant comparative method, the research team systematically codified text and developed themes by consensus after numerous analytic data iterations. Results: Four primary themes about EOL dignity were identified: Physical Comfort, Place of Care and Death, Effects of Death as a Taboo Topic, and Social Relations and Communication. A fifth, overarching theme, Being Heard, included elements of the primary themes and was identified as a key component or essence of dignity at the EOL. Conclusions: Patient dignity is both a human right and a constitutional right in Lithuania, but in many settings, it remains an aspiration rather than a reality. Being Heard is embedded in internationally recognized patient-centered models of EOL care. Hearing and acknowledging individuals who are dying is a specific skill, especially with elderly patients. Building the question “Is this patient being heard?” into practice protocols and conventions would be a step toward enhancing dignity at the EOL.

Compares Keynes’s pessimistic view that the future is radically uncertain with Karl Popper’s similar but more optimistic view that the future is “open”. The implications for politics and economics.

ObjectiveTo describe medical applicants’ experiences of education and their views on changes to medical school admissions, including the awarding of calculated grades, following the 2020 closure of schools and universities, and the cancellation of public examinations in the United Kingdom due to the COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic. To understand how applicants from diverse social backgrounds might differ in these regards.DesignCross-sectional questionnaire study forming part of the longitudinal United Kingdom Medical Applicant Cohort Study (UKMACS).SettingUnited Kingdom medical school admissions.Participants2887 participants (68% female; 64% with at least one degree-educated parent; 63% with at least one parent in the highest socioeconomic group) completed an online questionnaire between 8thand 22ndApril 2020. To be invited to complete the questionnaire, participants had to have registered to take the University Clinical Admissions Test (UCAT) in 2019 and to have agreed to be invited to take part in the study, or they needed to have completed one or more previous UKMACS questionnaires. They also need to have been seriously considering applying to study medicine in the UK for entry in 2020 between May and October 2019, and be resident in the UK or Islands/Crown Dependencies.Main outcome measuresViews on calculated grades, views on potential changes to medical school admissions and teaching in 2020 and 2021, reported experiences of education following the closure of educational institutions in March 2020.ResultsRespondents had concerns about the calculated grades that will replace A-level examinations, especially female applicants and applicants from Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds who felt teachers would find it difficult to grade and rank students accurately, as well as those from non-selective state schools and those living in deprived areas who had some concerns about the grade standardisation process. Calculated grades were not considered fair enough by a majority to use in the acceptance or rejection of medical offer-holders, but several measures - including interview and aptitude test scores - were considered fair enough to use in combination. Respondents from non-selective state (public) schools reported less use of and less access to educational resources compared to their counterparts at private/selective schools. In particular they reported less online teaching in real time, and reported spending less time studying during the lockdown.ConclusionsThe coronavirus pandemic will have significant and long term impacts on the selection, education and performance of our future medical workforce. It is important that the views and experiences of medical applicants from diverse backgrounds are taken into consideration in decisions affecting their futures and the future of the profession.

Functionally Graded Additive Manufacturing (FGAM) is a layer-by-layer fabrication process that involves gradationally varying the material organisation within a component to achieve an intended function. FGAM establishes a radical shift from contour modelling to performance modelling by having the performance-driven functionality built directly into the material. FGAM can strategically control the density and porosity of the composition or can combine distinct materials to produce a seamless monolithic structure. This paper presents a state-of-art conceptual understanding of FGAM, covering an overview of current techniques that can enable the production of FGAM parts as well as identify current technological limitations and challenges. The possible strategies for overcoming those barriers are presented and recommendations on future design opportunities are discussed.

The Munda languages of South Asia exhibit sound symbolism in their use of mimetic reduplication, to which they devote a surprisingly large percentage of their lexicons, typically upwards of ten percent. We present an extensive empirical typology of mimetic reduplication in seven Munda languages: Ho, Kera Mundari, Kharia, Mundari, Remo (Bondo), Santali, and Sora (Savara). Munda Mimetic forms can depict sensory qualities of sound, space, movement, texture, smell, taste, temperature, feelings, and sensations. The typology of mimetic reduplication in Munda varies across syntactic class, semantic domain and phonological form. This can shed light on the breadth of diverse structures in Munda languages, and may also be extrapolated to other languages and other examinations of reduplication and/or mimesis. This work provides a wealth of data to researchers of mimesis and reduplication, challenging the definition of what it means for forms to be sound-symbolic or reduplicated. Resume: Les langues Munda de l’Asie du Sud presentent un symbolisme sonore dans leur utilisation de la reduplication mimetique, qui constitue un pourcentage tres eleve – typiquement plus de dix pour cent – de leur lexique. Nous presentons ici une typologie empirique abondante de la reduplication mimetique dans sept langues Munda: le Ho, le Kera Munari, le Kharia, le Mundari, Le Remo (Bondo), le Santali, et le Sora (Savara). Les formes mimetiques des langues Munda peuvent representer les qualites sensorielles du son, de l’espace, du mouvement, de la texture, de l’odorat, du gout, de la temperature, des sentiments et des sensations. La typologie de la reduplication mimetique Munda varie selon la categorie syntaxique, le domaine semantique et la forme phonologique. Cela peut eclairer la diversite des structures dans les langues Munda, et peut egalement s’appliquer a d’autres langues et a d’autres etudes de la reduplication ou de la mimesis. Ce travail fournit aux chercheurs d’abondantes donnees de mimesis et de reduplication, et complique la definition de ce que cela signifie quand on dit que les formes sont symboliques de maniere sonore, ou encore redupliquees.

In response to student demand for additional anatomy lab instructional time outside of typical teaching hours, a peer-based anatomy tutoring program was implemented at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Peer tutoring is a well-studied form of supplemental instruction, and is known to benefit students and tutors alike. This study aims to address the effect of tutoring on the tutors themselves, specifically in the context of the gross anatomy laboratory. A one-time 12-question survey was distributed to all students who acted as tutors over a three-year period (n = 57), asking them to reflect on their experiences as tutors. Specifically, we aimed to address their thoughts on their career plans and academic achievement as they relate to their experience as tutors, as well as their opinions on effective tutoring techniques. Based on a 100% response rate, 85.7% of tutors reported being “very interested” in incorporating a teaching component to their career, and 73.7% of respondents reported that their experience tutoring influenced this plan. In contrast to an expectation that tutors would skew their residency choices toward anatomy-focused specialties, the distribution of tutors’ anticipated specialty choices actually reflected the overall distribution of the class. The tutors believed their experience tutoring improved their academic and clinical performance. The overwhelming majority reported believing that their experience as a tutor improved their USMLE Step 1 score (90.2%, n = 46). Sixty-one percent (n = 31) reported feeling that the experience as a tutor helped with their clerkship evaluations. Finally, the most effective tutoring techniques were quizzing the students directly and using the tutors’ own notes and study materials from the prior year. This study supports the finding that tutoring provides a significant beneficial effect on the tutors based on their own perceptions, and further studies obtaining quantitative data on academic achievement and clinical performance of the tutors will be beneficial.

Recent efforts to increase workplace readiness in university students have largely centred on undergraduates, with comparatively few strategies or studies focusing on higher research degree candidates. In the discipline of music, a wide diversity of possible career paths combined with rapidly changing career opportunities makes workplace readiness a moving target. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data from semi-structured interviews, dialogue forums, an online survey and pre-existing literature, this paper explores perceptions of higher degree research (HDR) music students about their work readiness, and critically examines these perceptions against graduate capabilities frameworks. It recommends ways to better prepare HDR music students for life beyond their studies, advocating in particular a more collaborative model of research education than is currently the norm. The findings may help improve the student experience and graduate outcomes among HDR students, both in music and more broadly.

Kuhn's perception of paradigms changed over time, and eventually he considered the exemplar to be a defining feature of specialised scientific communities, the sole arbiters of scientific progress, who possess a shared lexicon, more or less incommensurable to non-members. The ensuing debate as to whether or not paradigms, including the new mobilities paradigm (NMP), are found in the social science is summarised, and claims it is of special relevance to tourism studies are examined. Authenticity has indeed been a key concept, but the 'discourse of authenticity' has not dominated tourism studies, and Western and Asian scholars, despite a slow start, are now increasingly and successfully applying Western social science concepts to Asian (especially Chinese) tourism without recourse to a 'Non-Western' or 'Asian' paradigm. However, while 'mobilities' is not a paradigm, the NMP is a useful perspective that is commensurable with different theoretical approaches to tourism and other forms of travel.

There are limited studies with conflicting results examining textbook use and student performance at the university level. To learn more, we surveyed instructors and over one thousand students in 12 undergraduate introductory science courses. The majority (77%) of the students reported reading the textbook either “often” (>75% of the assigned reading) or “sometimes” (25%–75% of the assigned reading). Those who read “often” had better final marks those who read “sometimes,” but surprisingly, those who reported “rarely” reading the textbook did as well as those who read “often.” Perceptions of the usefulness of the textbook were generally more favorable in courses in which some marks were based solely on the readings. We conclude that there appears to be different types of learners: some may need to read the textbook “often” to do well, while others do not.

In response to a previously published paper on tourist rights by McCabe and Diekmann, it is argued that the distinction between social and mass tourism is blurred, that the ability to travel rests on existing power structures, and that rights to travel are highly contested. It is suggested, too, that it is necessary to consider the rights of residents in destination areas, that in travelling to destinations tourists also have obligations, and that there are times when the rights of tourists and the rights of residents (and of the state at the destination) may conflict. It is thus necessary to ask what obligations tourists incur, how they should be enforced, and by whom.

We measured the personality type of the students in a large introductory physics course of mostly life science students using the True Colors instrument. We found large correlations of personality type with performance on the precourse Force Concept Inventory (FCI), both term tests, the postcourse FCI, and the final examination. We also saw correlations with the normalized gain on the FCI. The personality profile of the students in this course is very different from the profile of the physics faculty and graduate students, and also very different from the profile of students taking the introductory physics course intended for physics majors and specialists.

ispartof: Progress in preventive medicine pages:1-2 status: published

This chapter examines how theories of identity construction can usefully inform choral praxis. It starts with an outline of key concepts in theories of identity and how they can help us understand the processes by which choirs inculcate their members into their particular choral culture. It then examines three areas particularly salient for the choral leader. The first is the phenomenon of “non-singers”: how they emerge as a by-product of western cultural discourses, and what can be done to rehabilitate them. The second is the interpenetration of social and musical identity categories: how elements we may think of as “purely” musical are constructed in terms of wider social categories, including the habitus of the cultural environment, and the implications for how we frame the choral techniques we use. The third is the relationship between individual and group: how an ensemble establishes a corporate, supra-personal identity, and ways to facilitate this.

The past decade has seen an intensification of the external measurement of both the quality and the quantity of research, in Australia, and other parts of the Western world. This has led to a growing interest in the ways in which institutions develop a research environment that maximises research activity, particularly in the areas of research outputs and doctoral completions. Traditional modes of research supervision have come under increasing scrutiny, with many identifying the need for doctoral students to utilise a wide range of resources, including the supervisor/supervisors. Despite recent attention in the literature, established models of supervisory practice appear to be the default model in the majority of cases. This paper therefore reports on aspects of a larger project into the learning–teaching transactions in music higher degrees. The project interrogated the nature of research higher degree pedagogy from the perspective of candidates and supervisors. The data for the paper were gathered thr...

This article seeks to interrogate aspects of assessment practices in musical theatre. Practices in the training of musical theatre students are rarely a source for reflection, and this project sought to unveil some of the processes of learning, teaching and assessment in a new musical theatre degree. The larger project on which this article is based sought to develop and evaluate assessment protocols that assisted in facilitating practices with a stronger alignment with the professional realities of musical theatre. The data for this research consists of perceptions of students and their lecturers in relation to the implementation of a continuous assessment regime in a musical theatre degree in Australia. The assessment process is designed to provide students with regular commentary about their progress. In addition to end-of-semester exams, weekly marks are awarded for approximately twenty sub-activities within the broad areas of acting, dance, performance project, singing and speech. In addition, this means of assessment is located within a degree structure that employs a sliding scale across three years: students are assessed through formative assessment in the early years, and summative in the later years of the degree. Through individual interviews with staff and students, the efficacy of this assessment process was documented. Staff members who worked with students in the programme were interviewed to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of such an approach. Students were interviewed to determine whether they believed it assisted them in both their learning and in achieving goals during and beyond the degree. An action research cycle was initiated and the findings demonstrate a relative degree of agreement between expectations of participants in the course and the proposed outcomes at the end of the degree. These findings, combined with artefacts from the programme and previously reported student perceptions, are presented as a model that may provide the potential for replication in other training programmes that seek to prepare students for the realities of a career in the creative and performing arts.

In the United Kingdom, domestic mass tourism began in the mid- nineteenth century during a period of peace and increased prosperity. It was facilitated by the railways, that enabled the rapid movement of people in bulk, and later by mass production of the motor car. Similarly, international mass tourism emerged in Europe and North America after the second World War, with stability, increasing prosperity, and advances in air transport. Similar socio-economic and political conditions led first to mass domestic tourism and then international tourism in Japan and China, and in both the state played an explicit and supportive part in tourism development. In all cases, mass tourism increasingly attracted academic attention, as seen most recently in the explosion of studies (in English and Chinese) of inbound and outbound Chinese tourism. There have been calls for a new ‘paradigm’ to analyse the development of Asian (most notably Chinese) tourism, which raise crucial questions as to whether or not ‘science,’ ‘paradigms’ and tourism studies can or should be tailored to study mass tourism because of its increased importance in East Asia.

This article seeks to redefine the relationship between Boileau’s Dialogue des heros de roman and Madeleine de Scudery’s Clelie. While Boileau wishes to use his text to erase Scudery from memory, a close reading of the Dialogue and its Lucianic model reveals Scudery’s influence on Boileau’s wit. Indeed, the character of Amilcar from Clelie embodies the spirit of Lucianic satire that Boileau hopes to use against Scudery. Ultimately, Boileau is indebted to a form of enjouement that is inscribed within and popularized by Clelie, and it is this debt that Boileau tries unsuccessfully to make his reader forget in his Dialogue.

This article reports on a case study of three directors of large ensembles within a large conservatoire and the ways in which they attempted to scaffold their students into professional music careers. The core aim in this article is to respond to the question “What is the role and function of the ensemble experience on the training of the professional musician?” The study reported on here formed part of a larger project into ensemble assessment practices. However as the study progressed, it became clear that each director perceived that their responsibilities to their students extended well beyond the institutional imperatives of reporting on progress and assessment practices. The sub-questions that relate to this aspect of the study therefore included: “What is the rationale for activities within the ensemble?” “How does the ensemble director facilitate and enable this learning experience?” and “What activities does the director see as intrinsic to the overall ensemble experience?” Using a case study approach, the ensembles involved were observed and their directors were interviewed. Artifacts were also used to support the data generated. These included course outlines, detailed rehearsal expectations and other university prerequisites. The data are presented as narrative accounts of each director. While Directors centered their practices on short-term rehearsal and performance outcomes, they were also keenly aware of the need for students to develop generic musicianship skills and to ensure the development of self-management strategies for life after the conservatoire.

Until 1770 England had a huge road network making use of medieval bridges. Now, only about 100 major medieval bridges survive. Although no accurate survey has yet been undertaken, it is estimated that over 80% of the major medieval bridges were demolished during the period 1770–1830. The paper looks at the reasons for this widespread demolition programme. The pattern of demolition was varied: over some rivers most medieval bridges were replaced; over others, many remain. Apart from a poor state of repair, the main reason for demolition was that they were inadequate for new wheeled transport. However, many bridges could have been repaired and widened, as some indeed were. Many were demolished because of a shift in attitudes – a desire for modern, fashionable structures. Only in the 1870s did the option to preserve and restore old bridges start to gain popularity and few ancient bridges have been demolished since that time. This study of the post-medieval history of ancient bridges provides valuable insights and background knowledge for civil engineers dealing with old bridges.

We have studied the types of student teams that are most effective for collaborative learning in a large freshman university physics course. We compared teams in which the students were all of roughly equal ability to teams with a mix of student abilities, we compared teams with three members to teams with four members, and we examined teams with only one female student and the rest of the students male. We measured team effectiveness by the gains on the Force Concept Inventory and by performance on the final examination. None of the factors that we examined had significant impact on student learning. We also investigated student satisfaction as measured by responses to an anonymous evaluation at the end of the term, and found small but statistically significant differences depending on how the nine teams in the group were constructed.

Participation in an ensemble is a significant aspect of tertiary music experience. Learning and assessment practices within ensembles have rarely been investigated in Australia and the perceptions of staff and students as to how they learn and are assessed within ensembles remain largely unexplored. This paper reports on part of a larger project that investigated learning and assessment practices within ensembles at an Australian Conservatorium of Music. Ensembles contribute to approximately 25% of student work in each semester, and the assessment contributes to a final grade for the semester. Using a case study methodology, four music ensembles were studied. The data generated were coded into themes including assessment practices and processes; collaborative learning practices; the development of the professional musician; and communication and transparency between participants and the institution. Findings revealed that both staff and student participants in this study perceived ensemble participation to be valuable to the development of a professional musician, but that assessment procedures did not always support this goal. Institutional demands were found to be an inhibiting factor in the assessment of ensembles, and both students and teachers had problems with current assessment procedures, resulting in confusion and lack of transparency about how ensembles are assessed. Approaches to the development of the professional musician became a dominant discussion point and a substantial finding of the research. By examining dominant and subjugated knowledge in this domain, institutional power relations were interrogated, existing practices were challenged, and assessment practices rethought.

Tourism is a growing economic sector in the South Pacific providing the region with great potential for economic development. Vanuatu and its neighbouring Small Island Developing States and Territories experience a high vulnerability to climate change impacts. The tourism sector in Vanuatu is particularly vulnerable, and it needs to develop and implement effective adaptation strategies to reduce climate change risks. Policies play an important role by providing the platform on which adaptation can occur and resilience be built. This study examines the policy environment in Vanuatu for its conduciveness to climate change adaptation. It identifies the types of adaptation processes (explicit or implicit) and types of adaptation measures (technical, business management, behavioural, policy, and research and education) and critically analyses the current tourism-related policies for their effectiveness in assisting the sector to address climate change. It is found that the majority of policies identified deal with climate change through implicit adaptation processes and mainly through the use of policy and research and education measures. The authors argue that in order to strengthen the resilience of the tourism industry, the Government of Vanuatu needs to develop and implement explicit climate change adaptation policies for the tourism sector.

Eco labeling is one of the most important measures to encourage sustainable consumer behavior. However problems are identified in the consumer's ability to perceive and understand eco labels. The concept of information individualization was suggested to engage consumers by tailoring eco information that appeals to their preferences. In this paper we describe the design of a prototype based on the conceptual framework of eco information individualization. Using enabling technologies such as smartphone with NFC function, the proposed device will embed personal visual data (i.e. landscape photo retrieved from the user's Facebook page) into an individualized eco label. It is believed that the photo would provoke the user into reflecting on their experience and increase their attention to eco labels. We suggest a framework that evaluates the effectiveness of the device, and discuss some related issues of qualitative and quantitative research approaches.

Fibre supercapacitors were designed and manufactured using a dip-coating method. Their electrochemical properties were characterized using a VersaSTAT 3 workstation. Chinese ink with a fine dispersion of carbon and binder was coated as the electrode material. The specific capacitance per unit length of a copper fibre supercapacitor with the length of 41 cm reached 34.5 mF/cm. When this fibre supercapacitor was bent on rods with a diameter of 10.5 cm, the specific capacitance per length was 93% of the original value (without bending). It showed that these fibre supercapacitors have good flexibility and energy storage capacity. Furthermore, the fibre supercapacitor in the fabric showed the same capacitance before and after weaving. The European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement no. [281063].

Highly time-resolved measurements of PM2.5, its major constituents, particle size distributions (9 nm to 20 μ m), CO, NO/NO2, and O3, and meteorological parameters were made from February through November 2002, at the Baltimore Supersite at Ponca St. using commercial and prototype semi-continuous instruments. The average PM2.5 mass concentration during the study period was 16.9 μ g/m3 and a total of 29 PM2.5 pollution episodes, each in which 24-h averaged PM2.5 mass concentrations exceeded 30.0 μ g/m3 for one or more days, were observed. Herein, 6 of the worst episodes are discussed. During these events, PM2.5 excursions were often largely due to elevations in the concentration of one or two of the major species. In addition, numerous short-term excursions were observed and were generally attributable to local sources. Those in OC, EC, nitrate, CO, and NOx levels were often observed in the morning traffic hours, particularly before breakdown of nocturnal inversions. Moreover, fresh accumulation aerosols f...

Literature indicates that Smart Clothing applications, the next generation of clothing and electronic products, have been struggling to enter the mass market because the consumers' latent needs have not been recognised. Moreover, the design direction of Smart Clothes remains unclear and unfocused. Nevertheless, a clear design direction is necessary for all product development.Therefore, this research aims to identify the design directions of the emerging Smart Clothes industry by conducting a questionnaire survey and focus groups with its major design contributors. The results reveal that the current strategy of embedding a wide range of electronic functions in a garment is not suitable. This is primarily because it does not match the users' requirements, purchasing criteria and lifestyle. The results highlight the respondents' preference for personal healthcare and sportswear applications that suit their lifestyle, are aesthetically attractive, and provide a practical function.

(2002). Comic Discontinuity in the Memoires of Saint-Simon. Seventeenth-Century French Studies: Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 271-276.

Singing is ubiquitous throughout nearly all world cultures, for many reasons and in a variety of settings. We sing alone and together for joy, love, enlightenment or entertainment; out of grief, or hate, or for emotional and spiritual succour in a musical manifestation of the human spirit. For some singers, training in singing is an inevitable outcome of the desire to represent these sung emotions in the most sublime and flawless manner possible. In European cultures from Christianity onward there exists a documented culture of church singing, stemming from even earlier worship singing of the Jewish faith and other cultures. These cultures undoubtedly had an oral transmission of singing training in the ancient master/apprentice tradition. From the time singing became more public, professional and highly regarded, the need for singing training arose in response to the desire for greater excellence in the performative art. Those cultures in which the history of singing training is written down bring much to bear in the processes of training the modern singer. The aim of this book is not to provide a history of singing training throughout every world culture: it would be disingenuous of us to even try. Instead this volume celebrates the art of singing teaching today across a range of musical styles and cultures, through inquiry in such areas as scientific investigation, cultural research and practitioner expertise. Although we will not be documenting the full history of singing training, the purpose of this chapter is to contextualise the chapters to follow, and therefore a declaration of the ‘state of play’ is necessary before launching into the volume overall. We begin with an acknowledgement of the medieval European Guilds and the European conservatoire environment before we examine the most relevant and recent documentation regarding singing training. We then conclude the chapter by introducing our contributors.

As we noted at the beginning of the volume, the vocal mechanism has not changed since the documentation of singing pedagogy began 500 years ago. The diversity in musical styles and the pace at which technology has advanced has certainly changed, but we remain relatively uninformed about the origins of singing and the ways in which environment, culture and society interact to influence vocal production and interpretation. In this volume, we have sought to provide an avenue through which practitioners, early career and experienced researchers have attempted to improve the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of diverse music styles. We have also sought to find ways to apply this new pedagogical knowledge for the benefit of our students in the future.

1. Prelude: Positioning Singing Pedagogy in the 21st Century by Jessica O'Bryan and Scott Harrison.- PART I: OVERVIEW 2. Singing Pedagogy in the 21st Century: A Look Toward the Future by Scott McCoy.- 3. Habits of the Mind, Hand and Heart: Approaches to Classical Singing Training by Jessica O'Bryan.- 4. Teaching Popular Music Styles by Kim Chandler.- 5. A Brief Overview of Approaches to Teaching the Music Theatre Song by Jeannette LoVetri with Mary Saunders-Barton and Edrie Means Weekly.- PART II: SINGING, THE BODY AND THE MIND 6. Vocal Health and Singing Pedagogy: Considerations from Biology and Motor Learning by Douglas F. Roth and Katherine Verdolini Abbott.- 7. The Role of the Speech and Language Therapist - Speech Pathologist - in the Modern Singing Studio by Ron Morris.- 8. The Extra-Normal Voice: EVT in Singing by Michael Edward Edgerton.- 9. Registers Defined through Visual Feedback by Donald Gray Miller.- 10. Body Mapping: Enhancing Voice Performance through Somatic Pedagogy by Heather J. Buchanan.- 11. Vocal Pedagogy and the Feldenkrais Method by Stephen Grant.- 12. Perception, Evaluation and Communication of Singing Voices by Helen F Mitchell.- 13. The Teacher-Student Relationship in One-to-one Singing Lessons: An Investigation of Personality and Adult Attachment by Sofia Serra-Dawa.- 14. Negotiating an 'Opera Singer Identity' by Jane Oakland.- PART III: APPROACHES TO STYLE 15. Style and Ornamentation in Classical and Bel Canto Arias by Martha Elliott.- 16. Handel and the Voice Practitioner: Perspectives on Performance Practice and Higher Education Pedagogy by Paul McMahon.- 17. Contemporary Vocal Artistry in Popular Culture Musics: Perceptions, Observations and Lived Experiences by Diane Hughes.- 18. Pathways for Teaching Vocal Jazz Improvisation by Wendy Hargreaves.- 19. Voice in Worship: The Contemporary Worship Singer by Daniel K. Robinson.- 20. Take my Hand: Teaching the Gospel Singer in the Applied Voice Studio by Trineice Robinson-Martin.- PART IV: THE TRAINING GROUND 21. The Conservatorium Environment: Reflections on the Tertiary Vocal Setting Past and Present by Margaret Schindler.- 22. More Than Just Style: A Profile of Professional Contemporary Gig Singers by Irene Bartlett.- 23. Developing a Tertiary Course in Music Theatre by Paul Sabey.- 24. Training the Singing Researcher by Scott Harrison.- POSTLUDE 25. The Future of Singing Pedagogy by Scott Harrison and Jessica O'Bryan

This paper reports on the first test of the Product Ideas Tree diagram (PIT): a structured method aimed to help Eco-innovation. The PIT diagram structures ideas output from chaotic idea generating sessions. This study compared four ways of conducting an Eco-innovation workshop. The results show that structured methods help Eco-innovation by improving the constructive communication between the participants. Further development of the PIT diagram promises to contribute several new approaches to sustainable product and process design.

The term “empowerment” has been widely adopted in social work and other areas of contemporary culture, yet its meanings are not clearly agreed upon. This article discusses the various uses of this term in both the social-work and mental-health literature. These conceptualizations are then compared with the results of a small qualitative study, in which practitioners from the Deep South discussed their understandings of the meaning of empowerment. Central to their ideas about empowerment were a set of paradoxes and redundancies with other constructs, especially self-determination. Although the concept of empowerment had heuristic value, it was most relevant for work with individuals, rather than larger social forces. While this is in contrast to the broader use of this term in the theoretical literature, it is consistent with other literature about practitioners' views of this vaguely defined term.

Regina Scheyvens’ lead paper contains much of value, but there are problems with her critique of pro-poor tourism (PPT). The preamble, though, is acceptable: tourism obviously makes a major contribution to the economies of many less developed countries (LDCs), but this is the standard defence for most kinds of tourism. Equally evidently, the most strident advocates of tourism’s povertyalleviating qualities often come from (national and international) non-government organizations (NGOs), donors and aid agencies, though sometimes with academic support (Jamieson 2003). Noticeably, though, any necessary association of PPT with community-based tourism (CBT) has been specifically denied by PPT advocates, some of whom suggest that CBT is singularly unsuccessful in alleviating poverty (Goodwin 2006; Mitchell and Muckosy 2008). The ‘promise of PPT,’ then, is something of a misnomer, and many of the ensuing criticisms are most appropriately directed at development organizations and self-interested industry players who might be described as PPT’s fellowtravellers. In other respects, too, to take the ‘harsh realities’ in turn, the critique is flawed. First, is international tourism founded on inequalities? Unfortunately, this writer is misquoted as supporting this assertion; instead, it was argued that wealth disparities in destination societies ‘are often highlighted by international tourism’ (Harrison 2001a: 252), which is very different. In fact, most international tourism is within developed areas, where resident and tourist are more or less of equal status In LDCs, disparities in wealth are often more pronounced, but they invariably pre-existed tourism and (as in the Caribbean) enabled those with financial and cultural capital to advance the new industry (Harrison 2001b: 28-33). To deduce from this that there is somehow a logical connection between international tourism and wealth discrepancies in destination areas, and that international tourism is founded on inequalities, is inappropriate.

From 1991 through 1998, during the turmoil of independence and transition to a democracy and free-market economy, the authors established the first social work education programme in Lithuania and assisted Lithuanian professionals to assume responsibility for the programme. This article supplies an initial general and conceptual narrative and analyses some of the factors that influenced the development of the programme and a practice model to address conditions in Lithuania.

This paper reviews and comments upon Graham Dann's recent book, The Language of Tourism: a Socialinguistic Perspective . Is the language of tourism little more than the langyage of advertising, or has it a specific syntax and grammar of its own? And how do tourists read this language, and does the internet prove to be more effective than the brochure? These are some of the issues touched upon in this discursive paper.

This chapter investigates the ways in which an Australian conservatorium has established and maintained an artistic research culture over the last decade. In doing so, the authors firstly review the international literature in terms of the current thinking about practice-centred environments, both in terms of academic research and research training as a sub-set of this. The chapter then examines the authors’ local conservatorium context as a case study to focus on staff research activity together with a review of higher degree research programs and resources. The data gathered incorporates materials drawn from the Australian federal government’s Excellence in Research for Australia exercise together with data from local research students, graduates, academic supervisors and administrators. Arising insights offer implications for this evolving artistic research culture and the on-going interplay between staff, student and federal government agendas.

The ageing population of the UK is providing a large market opportunity for inclusive products and services. Yet older people are often excluded from using new technology due to inadequate consideration of their needs during the design process. This study focused specifically on including older people (aged 50-80) in the testing of a novel heating control interface under development. Recent studies have used two scalar methods to assess self-confidence; building upon this a technical self-confidence questionnaire was developed and completed by participants prior to attempting a usability task using the prototype. This study found that high technical self-confidence was inversely correlated to successful task performance. The participants who rated themselves as most technically self-confident were not successful in completing the task. Whereas, participants that rated themselves less confident had greater success completing the task. In general older people reported high levels of technical self-confidence and they were found to be willing to engage with the technical prototype. This highlights the high expectations of the older users group to be able to effectively engage with new technological systems. Designers should aim to instil further confidence amongst older users and provide systems that both support and include older people.

International tourism is often alleged to cause or exacerbate female prostitution, and tourism in Swaziland is said to have been based on ‘the export of vice’. However, prostitution was considered a ‘problem’ in that country decades before the tourist industry developed and juvenile ‘immorality’ was investigated in two important reports in 1956 and 1970. Prostitution was primarily associated with westernization and modernity, especially with migrant labour to the mines of the Republic of South Africa, with the growth of the cash economy and with the development of urban centres. As tourism developed, prostitution shifted from mining areas to hotels but, in so far as tourists of different types became clients of prostitutes, such relationships were but one form of behaviour banned in the Republic of South Africa and there is little evidence that Swazi tourism is based to a significant extent on prostitution of any kind.

The rise of new of modes of worship in the last 50 years has challenged the roles played by both males and females in the liturgical environment. Since the second Vatican Council of the 1960s, men and women have been afforded new opportunities for engagement. This chapter interrogates the role of the contemporary worship singer, specifically focusing on the changes to have taken place since the 1960s in relation to the role, function and performance activities of men in this environment. While historical comparisons are made with the more traditional music making in western churches (i.e. choir boys and choral scholars), the major focus of the chapter is on the way in which male contemporary worship singers have sought to embrace the new possibilities available in liturgy. Through the voices of men involved, the chapter offers insights into the changes and the current status of the male cotemporary worship singer.

Australia is a diverse nation with a varied array of examples of men engaging with music. Like many other Western cultures, Australian men and boys still exhibit reticence to participate in choral programs, but embrace opportunities to sing in musical theatre and pop music. This chapter seeks to investigate this diversity, providing an overview of participation in these disparate forms of engagement and interrogating the reasons for participation, and in some cases non-participation, in certain musical styles. It highlights the many positive experiences of men making music through six case studies, each of which presents individual and contextualised exemplars. The chapter concludes by drawing together the threads from the literature and cases to provide tangible outcomes for improving the involvement of men in singing in Australia.

The contrast-to-noise (CNR) is optimized over the weights and energy threshold settings of energy bins in a photon counting detector using "delta-pulse" model simulations. Comparison is made to single-bin photon counting and energy integration detectors. The CNR 2 for iodine imaging is about a factor of 2.5X higher for a perfect, photon counting detector compared to energy integration. Monte Carlo simulations are used to determine the impact of pile-up and other factors that degrade the spectral performance. The benefits of multi-bin photon counting vanish at about 40-60% tail fraction and 20-30 keV RMS noise. Because of pile-up, the CNR 2 benefit also decreases as the incident count rate approaches the maximum periodic rate (MPR). However the impact of pile-up is less for a three-bin detector than for a two-bin detector when the multiple bins are weighted optimally.

This is the pre-print version of the Article. This Article is also referred to as: "Assessing the 'Design Exclusion' of Heating Controls at a Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Housing Development". - Copyright @ 2011 Taylor & Francis Space heating accounts for almost 60% of the energy delivered to housing which in turn accounts for nearly 27% of the total UK's carbon emissions. This study was conducted to investigate the influence of heating control design on the degree of ‘user exclusion’. This was calculated using the Design Exclusion Calculator, developed by the Engineering Design Centre at the University of Cambridge. To elucidate the capability requirements of the system, a detailed hierarchical task analysis was produced, due to the complexity of the overall task. The Exclusion Calculation found that the current design placed excessive demands upon the capabilities of at least 9.5% of the UK population over 16 years old, particularly in terms of ‘vision’, ‘thinking’ and ‘dexterity’ requirements. This increased to 20.7% for users over 60 years old. The method does not account for the level of numeracy and literacy and so the true exclusion may be higher. Usability testing was conducted to help validate the results which indicated that 66% of users at a low-carbon housing development could not programme their controls as desired. Therefore, more detailed analysis of the cognitive demands placed upon the users is required to understand where problems within the programming process occur. Further research focusing on this cognitive interaction will work towards a solution that may allow users to behave easily in a more sustainable manner.

Since November 1989, Bulgaria's tourism industry has been subjected to severe stress. Travel patterns in the former USSR and the Eastern bloc were crucially altered and tourism demand for this region has dramatically declined. In addition, political change within Bulgaria led to a period of stalemate and then to a program of political and economic reform which, while increasing in momentum, has left the bulk of state assets, including those in tourism, in state hands. The position of the Bulgarian tourism industry in mid-1992 is assessed and problems for its future planning and development are discussed.

Motivation – Choice architecture (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008) is a phrase of the moment among politicians and economists seeking to influence public behaviour, but the relevance of the concept to designers has received little attention. This paper places choice architecture within the context of Design with Intent—design intended to influence user behaviour. Research approach – The concepts are introduced and choice architecture is deconstructed. Findings/Design – Affordances and Simon’s behavioural model (1955) help understand choice architecture in more detail. Research limitations/Implications – This is only a very brief, limited foray into what choice architecture is. Originality/Value – User behaviour can be a major determinant of product efficiency: user decisions can contribute significantly to environmental impacts. Understanding the reasons behind them, a range of design techniques can be identified to help users towards more efficient interactions. Take away message – The intended outcome is a useful design method for helping users use things more efficiently.