The purpose of this study was to see how meaningful and practically challenging a combined and structured arts therapy approach can be for an island-style counselling scenario. The overarching rationale with this particular arts therapy approach was to enable the client to gain self-insight by means of constructing a holistic view of present concerns and aspirations by capturing them in personal, functional and professional-looking artefacts conveying relevant self-messages. The client self-generated the content of each exercise, according to a manual and strategic interventions, and was guided by the counsellor in the user-friendly application of the arts. Apart from the unique combination of arts therapies in this study, another factor that may contribute to counselling practice is the attempt to make use of video as a non-threatening integrating medium. Throughout the process, the client made rehearsed video appearances to consolidate personal gains. At the end of the counselling process, the respondent enjoyed an “objective” screening of the process and he left with the personal constructs, a video tape and a CD-Rom application of the recorded process. The literature study reveals the numerous techniques, exercises and most common combinations spread across the domain of the 26 expressive modalities that were scrutinised to gain insight into this vast field. The empirical process revealed that it is possible to utilise the arts therapy approach meaningfully to enable a client to build a “visual narrative”. To optmise the potential this approach holds, the environment facilitating the process needs to be adequately equipped and the counsellor needs to be skilled in the application of particular electronic media or, alternatively, a group of experts need to co-operate. / Dissertation (MEd (Learning Support, Guidance and Counselling))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Southern right whale vocalisations recorded in Walker Bay, South Africa, between June and November 1999, were analysed to investigate the acoustic repertoire, the relationship between calling behaviour and whale presence, the proportions of vocal and silent whales, and of recorded calls from unseen whales, and the evidence for vocal individuality. This marks the first study of right whale vocalisation in South African waters. A simple matrix system with the axes acoustic contour and onset frequency described twelve call types. Analysis of call use over time indicated that some calls, as well as broadband gunshots, clustered strongly in bouts of differing lengths, and that their relative use varied over the season; the repertoire and its classification was compared with other accounts of right whale vocalisation [chapter one]. A generalised linear model explained the variation in the overall call rate in terms of the numbers of whales present, month and wind direction. The overall call rate, for each month and in all wind conditions, rose with increasing whale numbers to a plateau at between ten and fifteen whales, and then declined as whale numbers rose further, suggesting that the social motivation for vocalising was progressively reversed. An inverse linear relationship between call rate per whale and whale abundance was clearly demonstrated over the whole season, indicating that call rates were unreliable as an indicator of whale numbers [chapter two]. A dual-axis, three-element hydrophone array suspended at 5m from floating buoys was designed to assign whale vocalisations to calling whales. The array was calibrated with an overall mean error of 3°. Bearings to calling whales were calculated using correlelograms, and compared with the observed positions of whales. On average 31% of low up (upwardly inflected) calls and 11% of medium and high down (downwardly inflected) calls came from whales not sighted from the boat; up to just under half of the whales sighted from the boat were silent. This indicates the importance of integrating visual and acoustic data when estimating whale numbers [chapter three]. In characterising individuality in vocalisations, we used cluster analysis of acoustic properties of whale calls to derive the Euclidean distances (a measure of similarity) between each possible pair of calls within a continuous recording session. Calls clearly from different whales (distant call pairs) were more dissimilar than calls possibly from one whale (‘close’ call pairs), lending support to the hypothesis of vocal individuality. The similarity between ‘close’ up calls was greatest when the calls were within 0.5 minutes of each other, and declined progressively, up to a separation of 6.5 minutes, as the likelihood of both calls being from one whale declined, indicating individual bout-calling. Medium and high down (downwardly inflected) calls, associated with surface active groups (SAGs), and thought by other researchers to be produced by the focal female, were more similar within any given SAG than when compared across SAGs. This evidence strongly suggests that southern right whales produce individually distinctive vocalisations [chapter four]. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Zoology and Entomology / unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to develop digitally recorded speech audiometry materials in the Japanese language to evaluate Speech Reception Threshold (SRT) and speech discrimination. Trisyllabic words were used to evaluate the SRT and bisyllabic words were used for speech discrimination. Words were recorded by one native female talker and one native male talker who were judged as having standard Japanese dialects. Twenty native Japanese speakers between the ages of 20 and 32 were used as subjects to evaluate 69 trisyllabic words across 13 different intensity levels. The 25 trisyllabic words with the steepest psychometric function (%/dB) were selected for inclusion in the final CD. The final trisyllabic words were digitally adjusted so that the threshold of each word was equal to the mean PTA (3.42 dB HL) of all the subjects. The mean psychometric function (%/dB) at 50% for the trisyllabic words was 9.6 %/dB for the male talker and 7.7 %/dB for the female talker. The same 20 subjects were also used to evaluate 240 bisyllabic words across 10 different intensity levels. A logistic regression was used to obtain regression slopes for each of the 240 words. The 200 bisyllabic words with the steepest slope were selected for inclusion in the final CD. Four lists of 50 words each and eight half-lists of 25 words each were created from the selected bisyllabic words. A chi-square statistic revealed no significant differences among the lists or half-lists. The mean psychometric function at 50% for the bisyllabic lists and half-lists was 5.9 %/dB for the male talker and 5.2 %/dB for the female talker.

The development of digitally recorded speech audiometry materials in Mandarin Chinese has been limited to date. High quality materials proliferate in the English language and have been developed for other languages such as Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, Polish, and Russian. The aims of this study were to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and equate words and word lists in Mandarin Chinese to use for speech reception threshold testing and for speech discrimination testing. The words that were evaluated were chosen from a Chinese frequency usage dictionary. One native male and one native female talker recorded the words onto a compact disc. These words were then evaluated on 20 normally-hearing subjects, all of whom were natives of mainland China. Following the tests, the words and word lists were analyzed using logistic regression. For speech reception threshold testing, 24 Mandarin Chinese trisyllabic words with steep psychometric function slopes were selected. Their intensities were adjusted to match the mean subject pure-tone average of 3.0 dB HL. The mean slopes for these selected male and female trisyllabic words were 11.3 %/dB and 12.1 %/dB, respectively. For the speech discrimination testing, the 200 bisyllabic words with the steepest logistic regression slopes were divided among four psychometrically equivalent lists of 50 words each and eight half-lists of 25 words each. The intensity of each word list was digitally adjusted so that the threshold of each list was equal to the midpoint between the mean thresholds of the male and female half-lists. All lists were homogeneous with respect to audibility and psychometric function slope. Digital recordings of the psychometrically equivalent word lists are included on a compact disc.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate an updated list of digitally recorded Speech Recognition Threshold (SRT) materials for test-retest reliability. Chipman (2003) identified 33 psychometrically equated spondaic words that are frequently occurring in English today. These digitally recorded words were used to determine the SRT of 40 participants using the American Speech-Language Hearing Association guidelines. The participants were between the ages of 19 and 83 years and presented with hearing impairment ranging from normal to severe. The individual's pure-tone averages classified 16 participants with normal hearing to slight loss, 12 participants with mild loss, and 12 participants with moderate to severe hearing loss. The speech materials were presented to participants in one randomly selected ear. The SRT was measured for the same ear in both the test and retest conditions. The average SRT for the test condition was 22.7 dB HL and 22.8 dB HL in the retest condition with an improvement of 0.1 dB for retest but no significant difference was identified. Using a modified variance equation to determine test-retest reliability resulted in a 0.98, indicating almost perfect reliability. Therefore the test-retest reliability was determined to be exceptional for the new SRT words.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how assessment processes in secondary school Physical Education and Health (PEH) are manifested in PEH teachers’ concrete grading based on the new Swedish curriculum from 2011. Three major questions are formulated: Which difficulties and possibilities do PEH teachers experience during assessment based on the new curriculum? How do they motivate their grades? Which dilemmas do they describe in connection with their grading? The curriculum theories by Bernstein and Swedish theorist Linde were chosen as theoretical framework. Furthermore, a hermeneutic perspective was applied in order to interpret and analyse the results from video recorded interviews. The results show that the new curriculum and syllabus are described as more structured and more interconnected than the previous ones. The new grading scale, the explicit syllabus and the fact that teachers have to offer a wider spectrum of activities are described as strengths. Grades are meticulously documented since this is a way to justify the grades both for the pupils and their parents. Almost all participating teachers in the study use matrices to document their assessments. Theoretical knowledge has gradually become more important in PEH, for example Health is mainly assessed based on theoretical assignments. However, the constant assessment has become so comprehensive that the PEH teachers fear that the joy of being active will decline. The difficulties experienced in relation to the new curriculum are, to a large extent, focused on the new grading scale and the description of what is required to obtain a certain grade. Teachers are hesitant as to the meaning of expressions like “to a certain degree”, “relatively well” and “well”. They feel insecure in their assessment, for example how to handle the proportions between different capabilities. It is obvious that further in-service training is necessary in order to obtain more equivalent grades. The requirements for each step of the grading scale must be clarified.

Alors qu’un ensemble de discours sociaux et académiques s’intéressent aux conséquences de la numérisation sur la valeur de la musique, YouTube, le site de publication de vidéos fondé par trois anciens employés de PayPal et aujourd’hui propriété de Google, est progressivement devenu le premier dispositif d’écoute en ligne en France. A partir de l’analyse d’archives du Web et d’une veille intermédiatique, cette thèse s’intéresse à ce qu’une entreprise venue de l’économie des techniques « fait » à la culture musicale, en tenant compte de l’évolution régulière de ses formes et de ses promesses. Une première partie s’intéresse aux effets de force et de flou dans la médiatisation de YouTube et de son rapport avec la musique. Une seconde partie analyse l’incidence de la musique dans sa construction comme innovation. Une troisième partie identifie la façon dont l’entreprise a investi la musique comme une ressource stratégique privilégiée, tout en orientant à son tour l’appropriation et à la publication de musique autour de références à la popularité et à la créativité. Une quatrième partie analyse la construction d’un marché de la musique appuyé sur un contrôle technique et juridique des œuvres et sur le financement par la publicité, pour en montrer les tensions internes. La thèse conclut à l’intrication des discours sur la transformation de la culture avec les logiques de changement permanent des acteurs du capitalisme médiatique. En regard, elle défend une micropolitique des formats techniques, médiatiques et esthétiques. / While music digitization has become a major theme of public discourse and academic research, YouTube, a video publication website founded by three ex-employees of PayPal and now the property of Google, is today recognized as the first media used for music listening in France. Through an analysis of digital archives of the Web and the compilation of media sources, this thesis analyzes what a company coming from technology « does » to musical culture, taking into account the regular change of its forms and its promises. A first chapter deals with the effects of power and blurriness in the mediatization of YouTube and its relationship to music. A second chapter analyzes the way music shaped YouTube, proposing a genealogy of relationships between music and media apparatus, linking the invention of recorded music, the standardization of online listening software and the « musicalization » of YouTube. A third chapter discusses music as an opportunity. We identify how the company invested in music as a key strategic ressource, while shaping the practice of music gathering and publication around values of popularity and creativity. A fourth chapter concerns the construction of a market for music built upon the technological and juridical control of the works versions and the financing by advertising, interrogating the limits of this model. We conclude by showing the intricacy of discourse about the transformation of musical culture with the logics of permanent change from the actors of media capitalism. From this point, we defend the necessity of studying the micropolitics of formats.

Record companies are suffering due to a downturn in recorded music sales. Innovative firms have developed digital music services that offer recorded music products to customers in new ways, yet sales are not what they used to be. Web 2.0 technologies have changed the customer’s tastes, expectations, and desires. Thus, a deeper understanding of the new “digital customer” is needed in order to better offer services in a way that he or she prefers most.

<p>Record companies are suffering due to a downturn in recorded music sales. Innovative firms have developed digital music services that offer recorded music products to customers in new ways, yet sales are not what they used to be. Web 2.0 technologies have changed the customer’s tastes, expectations, and desires. Thus, a deeper understanding of the new “digital customer” is needed in order to better offer services in a way that he or she prefers most.</p>

In this paper we analyze development problems and tendencies of virtual education. Separately it’s emphasized the situation with distance education (DE) in Lithuania. The structure, principles and facilities of LieDM network are briefly described. In the first part of the paper main attention is paid to the technological aspect. Examples of different methodologies are overviewed as well as existing norms and standards. In detail we overview the requirements of recorded video presentations and solutions using different media formats and software products. In the second part the specific situation of DE application in Klaipeda University is analyzed. We make the requirement specification and the description of application area. Finally we make a design of the virtual learning management system using procedures of system engineering.