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Extraction of singing voice from music is one of the ongoing research topics in the field of speech recognition and audio analysis. In particular, this topic finds many applications in the music field, such as in determining music structure, lyrics recognition, and singer recognition. Although many studies have been conducted for the separation of voice from the background, there has been less study on singing voice in particular. In this study, efforts were made to design a new methodology to improve the separation of vocal and non-vocal components in audio clips using REPET [14]. In the newly designed method, we tried to rectify the issues encountered in the REPET method, while designing an improved repeating mask which is used to extract the non-vocal component in audio. The main reason why the REPET method was preferred over previous methods for this study is its independent nature. More specifically, the majority of existing methods for the separation of singing voice from music were constructed explicitly based on one or more assumptions.

M.Ed. / Man lives in a specific reality which directs a distinctive appeal towards him so that reality becomes accessible to him. Perception enables the composition of total impressions to form meaningful detail. Man's consciousness to achieve cannot perform if there is no mention of perception. This finding contains special significance for education, since it now becomes the task of the educator to build specimen structures for perception so that the developing character of perception is reflected in it. To make effective use of media in a class situation, general perception principles must be reflected in it, namely, that perception is relative, selective and organised, and are influenced by expectations. In the past, human communication was performed mainly verbally and through the written word, however, with media, new variations of communication and learning have become possible. It is, nevertheless, important to remember that the use of specific media should always be a method to achieve a field goal. Symbols and symbol systems are the most important characteristic of media that can make a contribution to education and learning. On account of different symbol systems exploited by modern media, the preceptor is enabled to perceive the environment in different ways and other cognitive processes are then involved with perception.

The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a need and a market for the production of video-taped employee training films specifically geared to subjects unique to club management. Data was collected by telephonic inquiries to the major commercial film houses affiliated with the production of hospitality training films, by inquiry with all nationally organized club management associations, and routine queries with professionals in the field on the subject matter. The hypothesis is upheld by the research and the study goes further to suggest an answer to this need by production of training films.

This qualitative research study explores the use of television as text in adult literacy as a means of bridging orality and literacy. The reason for selecting television as an educational tool was to provide equal access to stories for both non-readers and readers of print, and the 22 research participants were required to complete a survey and participate in four 2-hour workshops, and a taped interview. During the workshops, participants learned to actively engage with the texts that were edited stories from the Canadian television series North of 60. The researcher included reading strategies to encourage the participants' interaction with the texts as active "readers" (see Fiske, 1987; Buckingham, 1993; Bianculli, 1992) and brainstorming to increase their vocabulary prior to writing reflective responses. First, how television as text influences an adult literacy student's ability to transfer information from oral texts into print texts is analyzed. The findings indicate that television allows non-readers, reluctant readers, and delayed readers of English to learn literary terms and conventions that apply to print stories and practise four domains of language acquisition - listening, speaking, reading, and writing. A selection of each participant's written responses to the stories and interview fragments have been analyzed. Whenever possible, the selection is based on a participant's favorite story or personal connection to a character. Second, the effect of brainstorming on written responses has been examined. This technique is a pre-writing strategy the researcher used not only to assist the participants in recording vocabulary relevant to the story, but also to provide opportunities for sharing ideas in the construction of meaning. Based on data collected during the interviews, individuals with short-term memory problems indicate that repetition of vocabulary through brainstorming, note-taking, and discussion reinforces memory retention, and second language learners gain knowledge of pronunciation by hearing and rehearsing vocabulary from the stories. Third, factors contributing to the participants' reflective oral and written responses to the television stories have been analyzed. The main factors contributing to reflective thinking and writing involve the research pedagogy and the development of reflective skills through practice. The researcher's reflective methodology combines phenomenology, critical ethnography, and emancipatory practice from the diverse perspectives of van Manen (1990), Haig- Brown and Archibald (1996), and Freire (1974,1994,1997,1998) who have informed this study together with other researchers in the respective fields. This method situates the research participants and the researcher in a partnership in which everyone contributes through dialogue to the learning process. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

A novel framework based on cluster co-occurrence and graph theory for structure discovery is applied to audio to find new types of audio objects which enable the compression of an input signal. These new objects differ from those found in current object coding schemes as their shape is not restricted by any a priori psychoacoustic knowledge. The framework is novel from an application perspective, as it marks the first time that graph theory is applied to audio, and with regards to theoretical developments, as it involves new extensions to the areas of unsupervised learning algorithms and frequent subgraph mining methods. Tests are performed using a corpus of audio files spanning a wide range of sounds. Results show that the framework discovers new types of audio objects which yield average respective overall and relative compression gains of 15.90% and 23.53% while maintaining a very good average audio quality with imperceptible changes.

Two non-traditional picture related methods of instruction were developed for this study: a picture-oriented method and an altered-pictures method. They were designed to determine whether either method was more effective than traditional content area instruction in helping students to remember and understand social studies text. In addition to the immediate effects on text comprehension and recall, the delayed effects of these two pictorial methods were examined. Also investigated were the effects of individual imagery ability and gender on a student's potential to profit from such methods. The teachers giving conventional instruction focused students' attention on the text passages only, although pictures did accompany the text. In the picture-oriented method of instruction teachers directed attention to both pictures and text, developing picture/text integration. Finally, teachers using the altered-pictures method of instruction discussed the meaning of mnemonically recodable elements which had been added to the pictures. In both the grade 8 and 11 samples the two experimental groups outperformed the conventional groups on measures of immediate and delayed recall. For the grade 8 sample, it was found that the altered-pictures method of instruction resulted in superior recall compared not only to that level of recall produced by the conventional method but also to that produced by the other experimental method (picture-oriented). In addition, when considering immediate with delayed performance two weeks after instruction, the grade 11 students who received the altered-pictures instruction outperformed the conventional group. For both grade samples, an additional finding was that males outperformed females in their overall recall (both immediate and delayed measures) regardless of imagery ability or type of instruction received. At both grade levels, no particular type of instruction was of benefit to one gender more than to the other, and students of high or low imagery ability were able to profit similarly from all forms of instruction. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

During sound reinforcement of small venues the low bass frequencies are one of the hardest things to control. Due to the limitations of sightlines, space and time consumption to optimize and integrate subwoofer arrays, alternative configurations might be desirable for a specific type of event. Five configurations are tested, one conventional stereo configuration and four non-conventional subwoofer configurations. An experiment with measurements was performed. The four nonconventional configurations are compared to the stereo reference, to see if they have any advantages over a more conventional approach that can be utilized in sound reinforcement of small venues. It is concluded that the each non-conventional configuration has its advantages and disadvantages to the stereo reference that can be desirable for some scenarios.

The video game industry is experiencing tremendous growth and developing games that stand out against the competition requires ever increasing production budgets. Graphics have been a selling point for video games for a long time, resulting in huge technical advancements in visuals. Audio has received more attention during the recent years, both in terms of sound-design and technical developments. This study compared two alternatives for spatializing audio over headphones in a game setting, while also comparing them against a more traditional stereo output. A commercial game was used to provide the game setting and participants rated the three different outputs based on three attributes and described their experience using Microsoft Product Reaction Cards. No statistically significant differences were found between the three outputs in any of the six rated attributes when doing a paired t-test or a Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test. Further analysis of frequency content, participants’ comments and Microsoft Product Reaction Cards were done to find out what sets the spatializing alternatives and stereo apart from each other.

Social (public speaking) anxiety disorder is the most prevalent of all anxiety disorders, and it often impairs social and occupational functioning. Intervention studies indicate that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an efficacious treatment for social anxiety. However, access to therapists skilled in CBT for social anxiety is often difficult. In order to respond to the problem of access, the use of videoconferencing for mental health care has developed. No published study has investigated the efficacy of CBT for social anxiety when provided via videoconferencing. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to determine the efficacy of CBT for social anxiety when provided via videoconferencing. A single-case replication design was employed that included a baseline period of 3 weeks, followed by 12 weeks of . treatment, 1-week post-intervention period, and 3-month follow-up. Five participants completed treatment. It was hypothesized that participants would reduce their social anxiety symptoms (i.e., decrease anxiety during speech task, increase duration of speech task, and decrease public speaking anxiety) assessed on standardized measures of social anxiety. Exploratory analyses of changes in self-monitored social anxiety, negative cognitions (public self-consciousness, fear of negative evaluation, internal attributions), working alliance, client satisfaction with treatment, and client comfort with videoconferencing were also performed. Analyses included visual and statistical significance, as well as clinical significance (i.e., endstate functioning, social phobia diagnostic status). The results indicated that two of three hypotheses were supported (i.e., anxiety during speech task reduced and duration of speech task increased over time). At 3-month follow-up, treatment gains were maintained or improved further; 3 participants no longer met the DSM-IV-TR criteria for social anxiety disorder, and 4 participants met criteria for moderate or high level of endstate functioning (i.e., clinical significance). Exploratory analyses revealed that self-monitored social anxiety decreased for 3 of 5 participants, and that a decrease in negative cognitions was associated with a decrease in social anxiety. Working alliance ratings remained high throughout treatment. Satisfaction with videoconferencing decreased over treatment for the participant who did not improve. Generally, comfort with videoconferencing increased over time. The results offer preliminary support for further research about the efficacy of the intervention. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate