Loud Voice Research Articles

Black women’s bodies as reformers from the dungeons: The Reformation and womanism

While it cannot be denied that the 16th-century Reformation, which challenged papal authority and questioned the Catholic Church’s ability to define Christian moral practice in a just manner, indeed came with deep and lasting political changes, it remained a male-dominated discourse. The Reformation was arguably patriarchal and points to a patriarchal culture of subordination and oppression of women that prevailed then and is still pertinent in the church and all spheres of society today. The absence of Elmina and the silenced yet loud voices and cries from the female dungeons below a Dutch Reformed Church in the upper levels of the castle in the retelling of the narrative of the Reformation leaves much to be desired and has a bearing on how black women perceive the Reformation 500 years later. The article thus problematises the Reformation through the heuristic eyes of Elmina Castle in Ghana as the genesis of the ‘dungeoning’ of black women justified by faith. The article argues that black women are reformers from the dungeons following the historical experience of reformation and the Reformed faith as racist and sexist, among other ills experienced by blacks in the Global South, with black women literally kept in the dungeons below a Reformed Church building as they were in Elmina with a biblical inscription, Psalm 138, on the threshold of its main door. This article thus points to irreconcilable contradictions maintained by the Reformed faith that continues to bury black women in the ‘dungeons’ even today. The enfleshment of black bodies in the dungeons of the Elmina Castle underneath a Reformed Church building is seen as the historical and heuristic starting point of engaging Reformed faith from a womanist perspective.

Tracking embodied carbon flows in the Belt and Road regions

In the past few decades, economic globalization has driven rapid growth of cross-border trade and a new international division of labor, leading to increasing inter- country embodied carbon flows. Multi-region input-output (MRIO) analysis is used to identify embodied carbon flows between major world regions, including seven regions along the Belt and Road (BR), and the spatial distribution of production- and consumption-based carbon intensities. The results show that current embodied carbon flows are virtually all from BR regions to developed countries, with more than 95% of world net embodied carbon exports coming from BR regions. Consumption in the United States and European Union countries induce about 30% of the carbon emissions in most BR regions, indicating that the former bear a high proportion of consumers’ responsibility for the carbon emitted in the latter. For this reason, measuring environmental responsibilities from consumption rather than a production- based perspective is more equitable, while developing countries should be given a louder voice in the construction through dialogue and cooperation, in part in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, of an inclusive global climate governance system.

Acoustic Analysis of Voice in School Teachers

The term 'voice' is the acoustic energy generated from the vocal tract that are characterized by their dependence on vocal fold vibratory pattern. Teachers as professional voice users are afflicted with dysphonia and are discouraged with their jobs and seek alternative employment. Loud speaking and voice straining may lead to vocal fatigue and vocal fold tissue damage. The objective of the study is to assess the quality of voice of school teachers before and after teaching practice. Sixty teachers from various schools, volunteered to participate in this study. Acoustic analysis Doctor Speech Tiger Electronics, USA was used to assess the voice quality of the school teachers before and after teaching practice. The data were collected and analyzed using Doctor Speech Tiger Electronics, USA. Analysis was performed in terms of perturbation (jitter and shimmer), fundamental frequency, harmonic to noise ratio and maximum phonation time. We found statistically significant difference in all the four parameters except the Jitter value. The fundamental frequency and shimmer value has significantly increased (P<0.001) and (P=0.002) respectively after teaching practice. Unlikely, there was significant decrease in harmonic to noise ratio value (P<0.001) and maximum phonation time value (P<0.01) after teaching practice. Vocal abuse, overuse, or misuse in teaching practice over a long period of time can result in inadequate phonatory pattern due to vocal fold tissue damage, which ultimately results in vocal nodules or polyps. So voice evaluation is particularly important for professional voice users and for the people who are concerned about their quality of voice.

Prevalence of and Risk Factors for Self-reported Voice Problems Among Hindu Temple Priests

Hindu priests (purohits/purohits/) perform religious services, rites, and prayers primarily at the temples, during which there is a continuous recitation of shlokas, ʃlokas, and mantras/mæntrəs/ in a loud voice. Hence, the voice is the primary component of priests' profession and earning for livelihood. The present study was conducted to explore the prevalence and possible risk factors, and the impact of voice problems (VPs) in Hindu temple priests. This cross-sectional survey was conducted by distributing the self-reporting questionnaires to 140 Hindu temple priests in and around the Udupi/uɖupi/ and Mangaluru/maŋgalu:ru/ districts of Karnataka state, India, between January and April 2016. The Hindu temple priests were found to have high career (43%) and point (19%) prevalence rates of VP. The length of work experience as a priest (>10years), modification of voice during chanting, speaking or chanting in the presence of throat infection, and experiencing dry mouth and throat were some of the risk factors found to have a significant association with high prevalence of self-reported VPs in priests. Around 43% of the priests missed their work at least 2-3 days because of VP. Overall, the results of this study reveal a high prevalence of self-reported VPs in Hindu priests and suggest that VPs are associated with different risk factors. Further studies are needed to focus on understanding the impact of VPs and to develop awareness about preventive vocal measures in this population.

Peningkatan Kemampuan Bercerita melalui Media Rotasia pada Anak Didik Kelompok A1 TK Pamekar Budi Desa Candisari Kecamatan Mranggen Kabupaten Demak Semester 1 Tahun Pelajaran 2016/2017

Age 4 - 6 years is the golden age in the development of child's life. At this age, all the potential ability of children can be developed optimally. One of the abilities that need to be developed is the child's ability to understand and express expressive language (basic competence 3-11-4.11) with an image telling indicator. Researchers found that the ability of children in telling the picture has not grown in line with expectations is 15 children there are only 3 children who can tell the appropriate language, 5 children who dare to appear in front and 4 children with a loud enough voice. Seeing these conditions, researchers tried to improve it by using media rotasia. The research was conducted at TK Pamekar Budi Desa Candisari Mranggen District for 3 months from August to October 2016 and using 2 cycles. The aspects studied in this improvement activity is the courage of children telling stories in front of the class, the suitability of the story with the picture and the volume of the child's voice when telling a story. Cycle I, researchers make improvements with the media rotation to tell stories with the title "Share it Fun" and "Queuing". During the learning obtained the findings that children are still a little difficult to operate media rotasia. In Cycle I, there is an increase in the students' learning spirit. The ability of students also increased rapidly. In the aspect of courage, there was an increase to 9 children (60%), story aspect 8 children (53%) and sound aspect to 6 children (40%). Looking at the results obtained in Cycle I and it has not reached the established success indicator that is as much as 80% then the researchers proceed to the improvement of learning Cycle II. In Cycle II this is obtained a satisfactory result. Children are accustomed to using media rotasia. Children are also more excited, this is seen during the learning process takes place, children are eager to appear in front and tell stories. The increase that occurred in Cycle II was as follows in the aspect of courage increased to 15 children (100%), story aspect 14 children (93%) and sound aspect to 14 children (93%). Looking at the results obtained in Cycle II and it has reached the established success indicator that is as much as 80% then the follower researchers proceed to the next cycle.

The relation between choir size and choir dynamics

If six distinct levels of choir dynamics ( pp p mp mf f ff ) are to be achieved over two octaves of fundamental frequency in a choir section, how distinct are these levels? The just noticeable difference for sound level in a free field environment is 1-2 dB, while a doubling of loudness requires a 10 phon increase (10 dB SL increase at 1000 Hz). Most singers cannot double their vocal loudness 5 times. Generally the dynamic levels are 3–6 dB apart, depending on the individual voice range profiles of the singers. Overall choir size has no effect on dynamic range, unless the size is varied dynamically by not all singers singing all the time. A few loud voices dominate ff if everyone sings. To achieve an effective choir pp, only a few voices who can sustain very soft notes should sing. The dynamic range can be significantly limited when choral blend for loudness is imposed on a non-homogeneous group of singers.

Becoming stronger by becoming weaker: the hunger strike as a mode of doing politics

Drawing on Judith Butler’s work and a series of studies associated with actor–network theory (ANT), this paper engages with political agency through the concept of performativity. Based on the empirical analysis of a hunger strike that took place in Brussels in 2012 and involved 23 illegal immigrants, we aim to achieve three things. First, we foreground physical bodies as political entities caught up in multiple modes of doing politics. Second, we show how such modes relate to one another, reinforcing citizenship, activism and party politics as specific performances of agency associated with liberal democracy. Finally, we argue that the Brussels hunger strike also challenges these performances by failing to meet certain expectations about what it is to be political/act politically. As the European refugee crisis is generating louder and louder voices, hunger strikes sensitise us to modes of doing that work by becoming passive, silent, weak and vulnerable. Such processes, we suggest, expand the standard repertoire of modes of doing and may refigure our understanding of the interaction between transnational and liberal democratic politics—in International Relations, ANT and beyond.

Using Three Op Amp Simple AM/FM Radio Circuit

After nearly a year of probation, the type of AM radio repeater circuit in general can be retrieved in a number of local radio stations; the installation is convenient, the output has a loud voice, and bass is rich, which make it indeed a good choice for beginners’ homemade radio circuit. Beginners can give radio principle about double harvest theory and practice. The whole circuit fabrication costs low. The AM circuit is successful, plus USB, TF playing blocks, FM module circuit without external antenna, and the antenna is surrounded by a large box inside a circle around the wire. The two buttons use to control move, and changing frequencies is very convenient. We usually put the electromagnetic spider web test on the radio and put it all over the country.

Coping with Laryngeal Diseases Related to Reflux — Possible Exacerbation of Reflux-related Voice Disorders by Habitual Loud Voice Phonation —

Coping with Laryngeal Diseases Related to Reflux — Possible Exacerbation of Reflux-related Voice Disorders by Habitual Loud Voice Phonation —

Riding the equality wave: Generalising public support for a more inclusive society

Although debate on social inclusion issues continues to be polarising, with loud voices eschewing or espousing ‘political correctness’ and the need for social change, there are recent indications both in Australia and around the world that citizens are demanding greater equality and opportunities for all. Certainly, the public vote for marriage equality signalled much positivity in Australia in response to the strength of the vote and the total number who participated. Indeed, the need to legislate for wider human rights protections was raised in the subsequent political jostling that preceded the enactment of marriage equality legislation (Gribbin, 2017). That this led to more discussion of whether a Bill of Rights (or similar) was needed for Australians was most unexpected. Furthermore, issues relating to gender equality and equal pay in Australia continue to gain more traction, assisted in part by some recent, well publicised cases (for example, Stuart, 2017). Internationally, the social movement to end sexual abuse and harassment, following the exposure of high profile cases in the entertainment industry, politics, and sport, has become a juggernaut. The leaking of information detailing secretive off-shore, tax avoidance arrangements of the world’s elite and multinational companies, as most recently reflected in the widespread reporting of ‘Paradise papers’ (for example, Garside, 2017) provides further support for the idea that there is growing intolerance of inequalities and power imbalances. To highlight these issues in isolation, however, masks the true complexity and scale of the efforts required to affect real change and the numerous challenges that still need to be addressed, both in Australia and across the world. Notable examples include the failure to recognise the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’ to progress recognition of first Australians, and the treatment of refugee and asylum seekers internationally. Despite some evidence indicating there are structural determinants of more inclusive attitudes at the population level, for instance, cognitive ability, social status and education (for example, Perales, 2017; Schoon, Cheng, Gale, Batty, & Deary, 2010), the challenge for researchers and practitioners alike is how do we build on, expand and generalise inclusive behaviours, policy, and practices for the advancement of other social justice issues?

An Exploration for the Motives behind Enhancing Senior Banker’s Level of Organizational Resilience: A Holistic Case Study

Abstract Objective: the present paper aims to explore the main motives behind Cairo bank’s attempts to raise its senior bankers’ level of organizational resilience. Methodology: after gathering and investigating all relevant literature about organizational resilience, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 of the senior bankers who work at Cairo bank at 6 October city, Giza, Egypt. All interviews were conducted in the Arabic language. Findings: the findings of this study show that senior bankers at Cairo bank, like many other Egyptian classes, struggle in a state of uncertainty and consider it the main motive behind their bank’s attempt to raise their resilience level. The pressure of stakeholders is, to a large extent, present, and there is a thought that fulfilling different societal obligations is a source for economic gains and accordingly, stakeholders’ pressure is a second motive behind raising employees’ organizational resilience. Furthermore, organizational culture adaptability and the tendency to responsively act in line with unpredicted events is a third motive. Finally, senior bankers’ loud voice in calling for continuous grants for education and training has come to be the fourth motive. Value added: the paper is considered the first to qualitatively investigate organizational resilience in Egypt. Recommendations: The researchers are of the view that the development of every departmental agenda for needed resilience is a priority for improving organizational capacity. Moreover, reformulating the bank’s values, operations and activities should also be considered to create a harmony between the external threats and the internal duties. Furthermore, there should be also an orientation to redefine the concept of “uncertainty” from time to time to include socio-political and socio-economic types of risk.

Go your Gait! Artistic Research about Walking and Listening ( breakout presentation )

The liveliness of a city is reflected in the activities of its inhabitants: how, when and where they move around in it. Most big modern cities are perfectly designed for motorized traffic but not for pedestrians. Walking is the most individual form of locomotion in terms of its direction and speed. Sidewalks, pedestrian areas, traffic-free roads and squares are the public spaces most preferred by those navigating a city on foot, marking its pavement and paths with the pulses of their steps. A gait is a person's most distinctly individual pattern of movement. Audible in the sound of footsteps, our rhythm emerges from the regularity with which we place one foot after the other. An individuality which we reproduce almost exclusively in public, where one person's step rhythm joins in polyrhythm with that of another. The interesting thing about getting to know a city on foot is that you never leave the large, perceptible urban setting and the slow pace of movement enables a high level of attention for sensory impressions – ideal conditions for exploring a city from an aural point of view. Our cities are full of machines, infrastructure systems and motorized traffic sounds. Wherever they start to dominate the urban soundscape, people can’t hear their own footsteps or start to communicate to each other in a loud voice. High level background noises steal the depth of auditory space and space looses its audible richness. This changes human behavior. For over 12 years, I’m investigating the walkability of cities and its associated spatial perception, through my work series go your gait! I am particularly interested in the extent to which we are able to find spaces for walking in our urban surroundings, why and how we use them and how conscious we are of the environmental influences. Two aspects of my artistic research are here emphasized: Observing a site (Platzstudien – Place Studies, https://vimeo.com/55447227), and personally experiencing space while walking, particularly the interplay between sound event (footstep) and surrounding architecture, influenced by the permanently changing interactions. (my gait!, SchuhzuGehör_path of awareness: Marseille https://vimeo.com/160306600, Tehran https://vimeo.com/184479324, Berlin https://vimeo.com/189225717).

Auden at Work ed. by Bonnie Costello and Rachel Galvin

Auden at Work ed. by Bonnie Costello and Rachel Galvin

Participation without representation: Moroccans abroad at a time of unstable authoritarian rule

ABSTRACTHow do authoritarian regimes adapt to the challenges that population movement poses? This article identifies a kind of control mechanism that, despite not being authoritarian in essence, may represent an asset for authoritarian regimes in search of new control tools in a global age. The analysis of an authoritarian regime’s use of new sophisticated techniques of ‘participation’ demonstrates how the creation of a participatory institution can work as a mechanism that offers participation while denying representation. By outlining the political dynamics that took place between the Moroccan authoritarian regime and its population abroad during the 2011 constitutional reform process, this article shows how the creation of a participatory institution, the Council for the Moroccan Community Abroad, provided the regime with a powerful and effective tool of control over Moroccans abroad. More specifically, it demonstrates how, paradoxically, the creation of an emigration-related consultative institution has hindered the possibility of Moroccans abroad to achieve meaningful political participation. The Moroccan case study demonstrates that an authoritarian regime in a global age can successfully convert a loud horizontal voice from abroad into a not very loud vertical one through a ‘participation’ process.

Acoustic factors affecting the dynamic range of a choir.

Based on the assumption that individual sound intensities of singers are incoherent and add linearly to produce a combined choir intensity, a model of a voice range profile of a choir is produced. It is shown that this model predicts six distinct levels of choir dynamics (pp p mp mf f ff) over two octaves of fundamental frequency in a choir section. The levels are 3-6 dB apart, depending on the individual voice range profiles of the singers. Overall choir size has no effect on dynamic range, unless the size is varied dynamically by not all singers singing all the time. For a non-homogeneousn group of singers, a few loud voices dominate ff if everyone sings, while pp is not achieved effectively without suppressing all voices that cannot sing soft. Furthermore, the dynamic range can be significantly limited when choral blend for loudness is imposed on a non-homogeneous choir.

Estimating Vocal Effort from the Aerodynamics of Labial Fricatives: A Feasibility Study

Vocal effort in loud voice is produced with increased subglottal pressure during vowels and increased supraglottal pressure during consonants. In the paper, our main objective is to check whether it was supported by a parallel increase in the airflow resistance of the laryngeal articulator and of the supralaryngeal articulator, here the lips. For this comparison, our choice fell on the fricative consonants, as their production allows perfectly synchronous air pressure and airflow measurements. Also, the calculation of the real instantaneous aerodynamic resistance is possible with fricatives-as it is with vowels-whereas it is not possible with plosives. The present feasibility study on a healthy subject is based on direct subglottal and intraoral pressures and airflow measured for /f/ or /v/ and from the contiguous vowel produced in VCVCV nonsense words at different levels of intensity. The results support that the airflow resistances at the lips and that at the larynx are quite parallel. The airflow resistance at the lips during labial fricative production could provide a good picture of the laryngeal resistance during the production of continuous speech. This suggests clinical applications using both noninvasive inferred measurements of subglottal pressure variation and direct noninferred airflow measurements from more natural speech production tasks.

Loudness counts: Interactions between loudness, number magnitude, and space.

ATOM (a theory of magnitude) suggests that magnitude information of different formats (numbers, space, and time) is processed within a generalized magnitude network. In this study we investigated whether loudness, as a possible indicator of intensity and magnitude, interacts with the processing of numbers. Small and large numbers, spoken in a quiet and a loud voice, were simultaneously presented to the left and right ear (Experiments 1a and 1b). Participants judged whether the number presented to the left or right ear was louder or larger. Responses were faster when the smaller number was spoken in a quiet voice, and the larger number in a loud voice. Thus, task-irrelevant numerical information influenced the processing of loudness and vice versa. This bi-directional link was also confirmed by classical SNARC paradigms (spatial-numerical association of response codes; Experiments 2a-2c) when participants again judged the magnitude or loudness of separately presented stimuli. In contrast, no loudness-number association was found in a parity judgment task. Regular SNARC effects were found in the magnitude and parity judgment task, but not in the loudness judgment task. Instead, in the latter task, response side was associated with loudness. Possible explanations for these results are discussed.

Acoustic Perturbation Measures Improve with Increasing Vocal Intensity in Individuals With and Without Voice Disorders

In vocally healthy children and adults, speaking voice loudness differences can significantly confound acoustic perturbation measurements. This study examines the effects of voice sound pressure level (SPL) on jitter, shimmer, and harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR) in adults with voice disorders and a control group with normal vocal status. This is a matched case-control study. We assessed 58 adult female voice patients matched according to approximate age and occupation with 58 vocally healthy women. Diagnoses included vocal fold nodules (n = 39, 67.2%), polyps (n = 5, 8.6%), and muscle tension dysphonia (n = 14, 24.1%). All participants sustained the vowel /a/ at soft, comfortable, and loud phonation levels. Acoustic voice SPL, jitter, shimmer, and HNR were computed using Praat. The effects of loudness condition, voice SPL, pathology, differential diagnosis, age, and professional voice use level on acoustic perturbation measures were assessed using linear mixed models and Wilcoxon signed rank tests. In both patient and normative control groups, increasing voice SPL correlated significantly (P < 0.001) with decreased jitter and shimmer, and increased HNR. Voice pathology and differential diagnosis were not linked to systematically higher jitter and shimmer. HNR levels, however, were statistically higher in the patient group than in the control group at comfortable phonation levels. Professional voice use level had a significant effect (P < 0.05) on jitter, shimmer, and HNR. The clinical value of acoustic jitter, shimmer, and HNR may be limited if speaking voice SPL and professional voice use level effects are not controlled for. Future studies are warranted to investigate whether perturbation measures are useful clinical outcome metrics when controlling for these effects.

Action-Oriented Responses to Sexual Harassment in Egypt

Action-Oriented Responses to Sexual Harassment in Egypt

The Effect of Loud Voice and Clear Speech on the Use of Vocal Fry in Women

Objective: This study investigated the effects of clear speech and loud voice on the use of vocal fry in women. Methods: Twenty healthy-voiced young women who used a moderate amount of vocal fry when reading aloud in conversational-style speech (defined as a minimum of three occurrences per sentence) also read the same stimuli in loud voice and clear speech. The occurrence of vocal fry was assessed in the three speaking styles. Intensity and fundamental frequency levels in each condition were obtained to help interpret the findings. Results: A statistically significant reduction in the use of vocal fry was found in loud and clear conditions compared to conversational style. However, a significantly greater reduction in use of vocal fry was obtained in clear speech than in loud voice. The increased intensity and mean F0 in loud and clear speech only partially explain the decrease in use of vocal fry. Conclusion: Women who use vocal fry in typical speech may persist in its use when speaking more loudly, although not when speaking more clearly. Apparently, different phonatory strategies are used for the two speaking styles. Further research is needed to clarify the laryngeal dynamics of clear speech.