Academic literature on the topic 'Mean pitch'

Abstract There are several types of exterior ballistic models used to calculate projectile’s flight trajectories. The most complex 6 degree of freedom rigid body model has many disadvantages to using it to create firing tables or rapid calculations in fire control systems. Some of ballistic phenomena can be simplified by empirical equations without significant loss of accuracy. This approach allowed to create standard NATO ballistic model for spin stabilized projectiles named Modified Point of Mass Model (PM Model). For fin (aerodynamically) stabilized projectiles like mortar projectiles simple Point of Mass Model is commonly used. The PM Model excludes many flight phenomena in calculations. In this paper authors show the mean pitch theory as an approximation of the natural fin stabilised projectile pitch during flight. The theory allows for simple improvement of accuracy of the trajectories calculation. In order to validate the theory data obtained from shooting of supersonic mortar projectiles were used. The comparison of accuracy between simple PM Model and PM Model including mean pitch theory were shown. Results were also compared with the angle of response theory.

Abstract Background Voice, a unique characteristic of each individual, is an outcome of the configuration and function of various components of the vocal tract. Pitch and loudness, being integral parts of voice, vary with changes in factors such as muscle tension, subglottal pressure, and position. Chin down is often the recommended voice therapy for lowering pitch. But there is no literature available as to by how much does it actually change the mean pitch and intensity. The present study was undertaken to understand the effect on the vocal mean pitch and intensity when head position is changed to chin-down position. Methods Thirty women aged 18 to 25 years were included in this preliminary study. Individuals having any history of voice disorder were excluded. Voice samples were collected using clinical microphone and acoustically analyzed using the Praat software. The participants were instructed to phonate and count numbers in neutral position and chin down position. Results It was observed that there was no change in the acoustic or perceptual measure of pitch with change in the head position. However, there was a significant reduction in the intensity for phonation task in the chin-down position. Conclusion Speech language pathologists need to provide chin down as a facilitative technique for lowering larynx along with other voice therapies which are proved to effectively lower pitch.

1. The temporal discharge patterns of auditory nerve fibers in Dial-anesthetized cats were studied in response to periodic complex acoustic waveforms that evoke pitches at their fundamental frequencies. Single-formant vowels, amplitude-modulated (AM) and quasi-frequency-modulated tones. AM noise, click trains, and other complex tones were utilized. Distributions of intervals between successive spikes ("1st-order intervals") and between both successive and nonsuccessive spikes ("all-order intervals") were computed from spike trains. Intervals from many fibers were pooled to estimate interspike interval distributions for the entire auditory nerve. Properties of these "pooled interspike interval distributions," such as the positions of interval peaks and their relative heights, were examined for correspondence to the psychophysical data on pitch frequency and pitch salience. 2. For a diverse set of complex stimuli and levels, the most frequent all-order interspike interval present in the pooled distribution corresponded to the pitch heard in psychophysical experiments. Pitch estimates based on pooled interval distributions (30-85 fibers, 100 stimulus presentations per fiber) were highly accurate (within 1%) for harmonic stimuli that produce strong pitches at 60 dB SPL. 3. Although the most frequent intervals in pooled all-order interval distributions were very stable with respect to sound intensity level (40, 60, and 80 dB total SPL), this was not necessarily the case for first-order interval distributions. Because the low pitches of complex tones are largely invariant with respect to level, pitches estimated from all-order interval distributions correspond better to perception. 4. Spectrally diverse stimuli that evoke similar low pitches produce pooled interval distributions with similar most-frequent intervals. This suggests that the pitch equivalence of these different stimuli could result from central auditory processing mechanisms that analyze interspike interval patterns. 5. Complex stimuli that evoke strong or "salient" pitches produce pooled interval distributions with high peak-to-mean ratios. Those stimuli that evoke weak pitches produce pooled interval distributions with low peak-to-mean ratios. 6. Pooled interspike interval distributions for stimuli consisting of low-frequency components generally resembled the short-time auto-correlation function of stimulus waveforms. Pooled interval distributions for stimuli consisting of high-frequency components resembled the short-time autocorrelation function of the waveform envelope. 7. Interval distributions in populations of neurons constitute a general, distributed means of encoding, transmitting, and representing information. Existence of a central processor capable of analyzing these interval patterns could provide a unified explanation for many different aspects of pitch perception.

Despite the accumulating body of research in sociophonetics exploring gay men’s pitch characteristics (i.e., mean vocal pitch and pitch range), previous studies usually investigate a uniform concept of ‘gay men’s speech’ by comparing heterosexual and gay men’s pitch properties. However, results were contesting and inconsistent across various studies regarding the pitch properties (pitch ranges or mean voice pitch) of gay men. Instead of treating gay men’s speech as a unified speaking style, this paper investigates the multiplicity of gay speaking styles by exploring the intra-group pitch variations among 20 pairs of Chinese gay couples in their self-shot videos. Specifically, the present study compares the pitch properties, including the mean vocal pitch, pitch range, and pitch variability, between those Chinese gay men who selfposition as ‘lao gong’ (husband) and those who self-identify as ‘lao po’ (wife) in their love vlogs (video blogs). These videos normally last from 5 to 10 minutes on a Chinese online video sharing platform - ‘Bilibili.’ After dividing these gay couples’ utterances into intonational phrases, I used the speech analysis software named Praat to measure the average pitch, pitch range (the maximum pitch value minus minimum pitch value), and pitch variability (the standard deviation of pitch values) on each intonational phrase. Compared with those ‘gay husbands,’ results showed that those ‘gay wives’ would speak with higherpitched voices (p < 0.05), wider pitch ranges (p < 0.0001), and more variable pitch values (p < 0.0001). When locating the discourse functions of these pitch characteristics in their vlogs, I argue that those ‘gay wives’ frequently utilize the so-called ‘pitch dynamism’ to construct an expressive and cute ‘wife’ persona in intimate discourse.

Abstract Prior research showed a relationship between reading skills and pitch perception, however the exact nature remained unclear. By means of reading tests and a pitch perception test, we examined the relation between reading abilities and local and global pitch perception for 92 native Dutch children (mean age = 9.47) and 61 non-native Dutch children (mean age = 9.61). Additionally, for the latter group we examined the role of working memory. In line with prior research with poor readers in a language with a rather transparent orthography by Ziegler, Pech-Georgel, George and Foxton (2012), a relationship is found between reading skills and the ability to detect local changes in pitch, rather than global changes in the melody. Additionally, at least for beginning readers of Dutch as a second language, there is a strong effect of working memory on the relation between reading skills and pitch perception.

Background: In general, tinnitus pitch has been observed to be variable across time for most patients experiencing tinnitus. Some tinnitus therapies relate to the dominant tinnitus pitch in order to adjust therapeutic interventions. As studies focusing on tinnitus pitch rarely conduct consecutive pitch matching in therapeutic settings, little is known about the course and variability of tinnitus pitch during therapeutic interventions. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the variability and development of tinnitus pitch in the course of therapeutic interventions. Tinnitus pitch was suspected to be highly variable. Research design: The researchers conducted a descriptive, retrospective analysis of data. Study Sample: A total of 175 adult patients experiencing chronic tinnitus served as participants. All patients had received a neuro-music therapy according to the “Heidelberg Model of Music Therapy for Chronic Tinnitus.” Data Collection and Analysis: During therapeutic interventions lasting for 5 consecutive days, the individual tinnitus frequency was assessed daily by means of a tinnitus pitch–matching procedure. The extent of variability in tinnitus pitch was calculated by mean ratios of frequencies between subsequent tinnitus measurements. Analysis of variance of repeated measures and post hoc paired samples t-tests were used for comparison of means in tinnitus frequencies, and the test-retest reliability of measurements was obtained by the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. Results: Tinnitus pitch displayed a variability of approximately 3/5 to 4/5 octaves per day. Overall, the mean frequency declined in the course of the therapy. Detailed analysis revealed three groups of patients with diverging tinnitus progression. The test-retest reliability between assessments turned out to be robust (r = 0.74 or higher). Conclusions: Considerable variation in tinnitus pitch was found. Consequently, a frequent rechecking of tinnitus frequency is suggested during frequency-specific acoustic stimulation in order to train appropriate frequency bands.

Individuals verbally express meaning not only through speech sounds and words but also prosodically through the pitch, loudness, and tempo of their voice. Through a quantitative analysis, this exploratory study examined the prosodic elements of mean pitch, pitch variability, and pitch range in a sample of 450 voice-overs and throws from 90 male and female broadcast reporters and anchors from larger markets across the United States. Findings indicate that compared to typical speakers in the general population, male broadcasters actually speak with an elevated mean pitch, more pitch variability, and use more range. However, female broadcasters were found to speak at slightly lower mean pitch levels when compared to other female speakers in the general population (but like males with more variability and range). It is hoped that this study will serve as a starting point in moving broadcast vocal coaching from that of just an art to a bit more of a science.

Functional changes in voice production, including pitch elevation, may help male-to-female transsexuals assume a new gender identity. To date, there has been a paucity of objective data on the effectiveness of pitch-raising methods. Acoustic data were gathered with regard to preoperative and postoperative changes in pitch, pitch range, and perturbation in 20 patients after cricothyroid approximation. Subjective data were gathered by means of a mailed questionnaire. The mean follow-up time was 22 months. The speaking fundamental frequency was raised by half an octave without any significant changes in perturbation. The lower and upper limits of pitch range both increased by an average of 4 semitones. There was some decline over time of the lower pitch range toward preoperative levels, but the upper pitch range remained elevated. The majority of the patients were satisfied with the results of surgery and felt their voices to be more feminine.

Reports that infants imitate the vocal pitch characteristics of adult caregivers (e.g. Lewis, 1936/1951) include Lieberman's (1967; Lieberman, Ryalls & Rabson, 1982) claim that infants differentially adjust their vocal pitch or fundamental frequency (f0) towards that of their caregivers, resulting in higher mean pitch when interacting with mothers than when interacting with fathers. However, a recent cross-sectional study of infants at ages 0;8 to 0;9 and 1;0 failed to find evidence of differential pitch adjustment toward male and female caregivers (Siegel, Cooper, Morgan & Brennesie-Sarshad, 1990). A more sensitive test of Lieberman's claims would be to use a longitudinal design, with spontaneous recording sessions repeated over many months. The current study presents data from a longitudinal case study of an infant recorded at ages 0;3, 0;7, 0;10, 1;3 and 1;5 interacting with each of her parents in spontaneous play sessions and in isolated play. The infant in our study did not demonstrate significant adjustment of her vocal pitch in the direction of either parent. However, we did find evidence for consistent adjustment by the parents, in accord with the literature on infant-directed speech and mother–infant dyadic interactions, which suggest that the parents adjusted their behaviour to suit the infant more than vice versa.

This thesis addresses several shortcomings on the current state of the art methodologies in music information retrieval (MIR). In particular, it proposes several computational approaches to automatically analyze and describe music scores and audio recordings of Ottoman-Turkish makam music (OTMM). The main contributions of the thesis are the music corpus that has been created to carry out the research and the audio-score alignment methodology developed for the analysis of the corpus. In addition, several novel computational analysis methodologies are presented in the context of common MIR tasks of relevance for OTMM. Some example tasks are predominant melody extraction, tonic identification, tempo estimation, makam recognition, tuning analysis, structural analysis and melodic progression analysis. These methodologies become a part of a complete system called Dunya-makam for the exploration of large corpora of OTMM. The thesis starts by presenting the created CompMusic Ottoman- Turkish makam music corpus. The corpus includes 2200 music scores, more than 6500 audio recordings, and accompanying metadata. The data has been collected, annotated and curated with the help of music experts. Using criteria such as completeness, coverage and quality, we validate the corpus and show its research potential. In fact, our corpus is the largest and most representative resource of OTMM that can be used for computational research. Several test datasets have also been created from the corpus to develop and evaluate the specific methodologies proposed for different computational tasks addressed in the thesis. The part focusing on the analysis of music scores is centered on phrase and section level structural analysis. Phrase boundaries are automatically identified using an existing state-of-the-art segmentation methodology. Section boundaries are extracted using heuristics specific to the formatting of the music scores. Subsequently, a novel method based on graph analysis is used to establish similarities across these structural elements in terms of melody and lyrics, and to label the relations semiotically. The audio analysis section of the thesis reviews the state-of-the-art for analysing the melodic aspects of performances of OTMM. It proposes adaptations of existing predominant melody extraction methods tailored to OTMM. It also presents improvements over pitch-distribution-based tonic identification and makam recognition methodologies. The audio-score alignment methodology is the core of the thesis. It addresses the culture-specific challenges posed by the musical characteristics, music theory related representations and oral praxis of OTMM. Based on several techniques such as subsequence dynamic time warping, Hough transform and variable-length Markov models, the audio-score alignment methodology is designed to handle the structural differences between music scores and audio recordings. The method is robust to the presence of non-notated melodic expressions, tempo deviations within the music performances, and differences in tonic and tuning. The methodology utilizes the outputs of the score and audio analysis, and links the audio and the symbolic data. In addition, the alignment methodology is used to obtain score-informed description of audio recordings. The scoreinformed audio analysis not only simplifies the audio feature extraction steps that would require sophisticated audio processing approaches, but also substantially improves the performance compared with results obtained from the state-of-the-art methods solely relying on audio data. The analysis methodologies presented in the thesis are applied to the CompMusic Ottoman-Turkish makam music corpus and integrated into a web application aimed at culture-aware music discovery. Some of the methodologies have already been applied to other music traditions such as Hindustani, Carnatic and Greek music. Following open research best practices, all the created data, software tools and analysis results are openly available. The methodologies, the tools and the corpus itself provide vast opportunities for future research in many fields such as music information retrieval, computational musicology and music education.
Esta tesis aborda varias limitaciones de las metodologías más avanzadas en el campo de recuperación de información musical (MIR por sus siglas en inglés). En particular, propone varios métodos computacionales para el análisis y la descripción automáticas de partituras y grabaciones de audio de música de makam turco-otomana (MMTO). Las principales contribuciones de la tesis son el corpus de música que ha sido creado para el desarrollo de la investigación y la metodología para alineamiento de audio y partitura desarrollada para el análisis del corpus. Además, se presentan varias metodologías nuevas para análisis computacional en el contexto de las tareas comunes de MIR que son relevantes para MMTO. Algunas de estas tareas son, por ejemplo, extracción de la melodía predominante, identificación de la tónica, estimación de tempo, reconocimiento de makam, análisis de afinación, análisis estructural y análisis de progresión melódica. Estas metodologías constituyen las partes de un sistema completo para la exploración de grandes corpus de MMTO llamado Dunya-makam. La tesis comienza presentando el corpus de música de makam turcootomana de CompMusic. El corpus incluye 2200 partituras, más de 6500 grabaciones de audio, y los metadatos correspondientes. Los datos han sido recopilados, anotados y revisados con la ayuda de expertos. Utilizando criterios como compleción, cobertura y calidad, validamos el corpus y mostramos su potencial para investigación. De hecho, nuestro corpus constituye el recurso de mayor tamaño y representatividad disponible para la investigación computacional de MMTO. Varios conjuntos de datos para experimentación han sido igualmente creados a partir del corpus, con el fin de desarrollar y evaluar las metodologías específicas propuestas para las diferentes tareas computacionales abordadas en la tesis. La parte dedicada al análisis de las partituras se centra en el análisis estructural a nivel de sección y de frase. Los márgenes de frase son identificados automáticamente usando uno de los métodos de segmentación existentes más avanzados. Los márgenes de sección son extraídos usando una heurística específica al formato de las partituras. A continuación, se emplea un método de nueva creación basado en análisis gráfico para establecer similitudes a través de estos elementos estructurales en cuanto a melodía y letra, así como para etiquetar relaciones semióticamente. La sección de análisis de audio de la tesis repasa el estado de la cuestión en cuanto a análisis de los aspectos melódicos en grabaciones de MMTO. Se proponen modificaciones de métodos existentes para extracción de melodía predominante para ajustarlas a MMTO. También se presentan mejoras de metodologías tanto para identificación de tónica basadas en distribución de alturas, como para reconocimiento de makam. La metodología para alineación de audio y partitura constituye el grueso de la tesis. Aborda los retos específicos de esta cultura según vienen determinados por las características musicales, las representaciones relacionadas con la teoría musical y la praxis oral de MMTO. Basada en varias técnicas tales como deformaciones dinámicas de tiempo subsecuentes, transformada de Hough y modelos de Markov de longitud variable, la metodología de alineamiento de audio y partitura está diseñada para tratar las diferencias estructurales entre partituras y grabaciones de audio. El método es robusto a la presencia de expresiones melódicas no anotadas, desviaciones de tiempo en las grabaciones, y diferencias de tónica y afinación. La metodología utiliza los resultados del análisis de partitura y audio para enlazar el audio y los datos simbólicos. Además, la metodología de alineación se usa para obtener una descripción informada por partitura de las grabaciones de audio. El análisis de audio informado por partitura no sólo simplifica los pasos para la extracción de características de audio que de otro modo requerirían sofisticados métodos de procesado de audio, sino que también mejora sustancialmente su rendimiento en comparación con los resultados obtenidos por los métodos más avanzados basados únicamente en datos de audio. Las metodologías analíticas presentadas en la tesis son aplicadas al corpus de música de makam turco-otomana de CompMusic e integradas en una aplicación web dedicada al descubrimiento culturalmente específico de música. Algunas de las metodologías ya han sido aplicadas a otras tradiciones musicales, como música indostaní, carnática y griega. Siguiendo las mejores prácticas de investigación en abierto, todos los datos creados, las herramientas de software y los resultados de análisis está disponibles públicamente. Las metodologías, las herramientas y el corpus en sí mismo ofrecen grandes oportunidades para investigaciones futuras en muchos campos tales como recuperación de información musical, musicología computacional y educación musical.
Aquesta tesi adreça diverses deficiències en l’estat actual de les metodologies d’extracció d’informació de música (Music Information Retrieval o MIR). En particular, la tesi proposa diverses estratègies per analitzar i descriure automàticament partitures musicals i enregistraments d’actuacions musicals de música Makam Turca Otomana (OTMM en les seves sigles en anglès). Les contribucions principals de la tesi són els corpus musicals que s’han creat en el context de la tesi per tal de dur a terme la recerca i la metodologia de alineament d’àudio amb la partitura que s’ha desenvolupat per tal d’analitzar els corpus. A més la tesi presenta diverses noves metodologies d’anàlisi computacional d’OTMM per a les tasques més habituals en MIR. Alguns exemples d’aquestes tasques són la extracció de la melodia principal, la identificació del to musical, l’estimació de tempo, el reconeixement de Makam, l’anàlisi de la afinació, l’anàlisi de la estructura musical i l’anàlisi de la progressió melòdica. Aquest seguit de metodologies formen part del sistema Dunya-makam per a la exploració de grans corpus musicals d’OTMM. En primer lloc, la tesi presenta el corpus CompMusic Ottoman- Turkish makam music. Aquest inclou 2200 partitures musicals, més de 6500 enregistraments d’àudio i metadata complementària. Les dades han sigut recopilades i anotades amb ajuda d’experts en aquest repertori musical. El corpus ha estat validat en termes de d’exhaustivitat, cobertura i qualitat i mostrem aquí el seu potencial per a la recerca. De fet, aquest corpus és el la font més gran i representativa de OTMM que pot ser utilitzada per recerca computacional. També s’han desenvolupat diversos subconjunts de dades per al desenvolupament i evaluació de les metodologies específiques proposades per a les diverses tasques computacionals que es presenten en aquest tesi. La secció de la tesi que tracta de l’anàlisi de partitures musicals se centra en l’anàlisi estructural a nivell de secció i de frase musical. Els límits temporals de les frases musicals s’identifiquen automàticament gràcies a un metodologia de segmentació d’última generació. Els límits de les seccions s’extreuen utilitzant un seguit de regles heurístiques determinades pel format de les partitures musicals. Posteriorment s’utilitza un nou mètode basat en anàlisi gràfic per establir semblances entre aquest elements estructurals en termes de melodia i text. També s’utilitza aquest mètode per etiquetar les relacions semiòtiques existents. La següent secció de la tesi tracta sobre anàlisi d’àudio i en particular revisa les tecnologies d’avantguardia d’anàlisi dels aspectes melòdics en OTMM. S’hi proposen adaptacions dels mètodes d’extracció de melodia existents que s’ajusten a OTMM. També s’hi presenten millores en metodologies de reconeixement de makam i en identificació de tònica basats en distribució de to. La metodologia d’alineament d’àudio amb partitura és el nucli de la tesi. Aquesta aborda els reptes culturalment específics imposats per les característiques musicals, les representacions de la teoria musical i la pràctica oral particulars de l’OTMM. Utilitzant diverses tècniques tal i com Dynamic Time Warping, Hough Transform o models de Markov de durada variable, la metodologia d’alineament esta dissenyada per enfrontar les diferències estructurals entre partitures musicals i enregistraments d’àudio. El mètode és robust inclús en presència d’expressions musicals no anotades en la partitura, desviacions de tempo ocorregudes en les actuacions musicals i diferències de tònica i afinació. La metodologia aprofita els resultats de l’anàlisi de la partitura i l’àudio per enllaçar la informació simbòlica amb l’àudio. A més, la tècnica d’alineament s’utilitza per obtenir descripcions de l’àudio fonamentades en la partitura. L’anàlisi de l’àudio fonamentat en la partitura no només simplifica les fases d’extracció de característiques d’àudio que requeririen de mètodes de processament d’àudio sofisticats, sinó que a més millora substancialment els resultats comparat amb altres mètodes d´ultima generació que només depenen de contingut d’àudio. Les metodologies d’anàlisi presentades s’han utilitzat per analitzar el corpus CompMusic Ottoman-Turkish makam music i s’han integrat en una aplicació web destinada al descobriment musical de tradicions culturals específiques. Algunes de les metodologies ja han sigut també aplicades a altres tradicions musicals com la Hindustani, la Carnàtica i la Grega. Seguint els preceptes de la investigació oberta totes les dades creades, eines computacionals i resultats dels anàlisis estan disponibles obertament. Tant les metodologies, les eines i el corpus en si mateix proporcionen àmplies oportunitats per recerques futures en diversos camps de recerca tal i com la musicologia computacional, la extracció d’informació musical i la educació musical. Traducció d’anglès a català per Oriol Romaní Picas.

碩士
南臺科技大學
資訊管理系
104
As the slow pitch softball becomes a popular sport in Taiwan, more people participate in the activities. Relevant institutions should design the activity with certain value in match with participants' expectation to achieve the maximum benefit. The research was investigative in nature and the value system for the Slow Pitch Softball Association in Tainan was explored by the qualitative method, with the aims to: 1) Means-end Chain analysis of qualitative method to investigate the value system of Slow Pitch Softball Association in Tainan for activity participants; 2) Establish a complete HVM to understand the correlation among properties, outcome, and values, in terms of course of experience forming for participants; 3) Perform an in-depth study of participants to provide an actual recommendation for direction of future development of the National Slow Pitch Softball Association. The interview result in the research, after content analysis and classification, was prepared into the Hierarchical Value Maps (HVM), and two major correlation pathways between participants were acquired. Participants generally believed that "improvement to inter-personal relationship" and "improvement to life quality" were the two primary core values of the sport slow pitch softball. Therefore, as a suggestion, it is recommended: 1) Organize national activities or communicative exchange among slow pitch softball teams of different levels to achieve the objective of elevating inter-personal relationship for participants; 2) Add more activities to elevate fitness to keep participants in optimal health status to improve personal life quality.

This chapter considers how the lyrics and music of Cole Porter songs might be thought of in relation to one another in essentially musical and poetic structural terms. The goal is to describe what the lyrics and the music sound like together rather than what they mean or express together. The analysis focuses on three songs: “Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye, ” “You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To,” and “You'd Be So Easy to Love.” These three songs and others suggest that Porter entirely confounds the notion of a song as a setting of a text and that his songs compel us to think of words and music in terms of one another and on an equal footing. This sharply subordinates any notion of the music “expressing” the meaning of the words, and thus throws analysis back onto those features of music and words that are shared—things like rhythm, pitch, syntax, and sound in the sense that creates assonance and rhyme. In these terms, Porter's songs, while being cast often in some variation of a conventional form, have their own dramatic shapes and in sometimes quite intricate ways lead the listener along a purposeful progression from beginning to middle to end.

This chapter examines some puzzling reflections by Ludwig Wittgenstein on the possibility of understanding concepts of the colours of things different from those already familiar to us. It begins with a discussion of Wittgenstein’s statement: ‘Someone who has perfect pitch can learn a language-game that I cannot learn’. In particular, it considers how Wittgenstein draws a connection between perfect pitch and concepts of colours and invites us to imagine people who speak of colours intermediate between red and yellow by means of fractions in a kind of binary notation representing different proportions of the colours at each end of the range from red to yellow. The chapter also analyses Wittgenstein’s views on whether the number system and the colour system ‘reside in our nature or in the nature of things’.

A Blaze of Light in Every Word presents a conceptual model for analyzing vocal delivery in popular song recordings focused on three overlapping areas of inquiry: pitch, prosody, and quality. The domain of pitch, which refers to listeners’ perceptions of frequency, considers range, tessitura, intonation, and registration. Prosody, the pacing and flow of delivery, comprises phrasing, metric placement, motility, embellishment, and consonantal articulation. Qualitative elements include timbre, phonation, onset, resonance, clarity, paralinguistic effects, and loudness. Intersecting all three domains is the area of technological mediation, which considers how external technologies, such as layering, overdubbing, pitch modification, recording transmission, compression, reverb, spatial placement, delay, and other electronic effects, impact voice in recorded music. Though the book focuses primarily on the sonic and material aspects of vocal delivery, it situates these aspects among broader cultural, philosophical, and anthropological approaches to voice with the goal to better understand the relationship between sonic content and its signification. Drawing upon transcription and spectrographic analysis as the primary means of representation, as well as modes of analysis, this book features in-depth analyses of a wide array of popular song recordings spanning genres from indie rock to hip-hop to death metal, develops analytical tools for understanding how individual dimensions make singing voices both complex and unique, and synthesizes how multiple aspects interact to better understand the multidimensionality of singing voices.

What does it mean to be musical? What kind of musicality are people born with, and how does it develop in such diverse ways? The fact that the ability to perform and appreciate music varies so substantially from person to person raises questions about the nature of musical capacity and its acquisition. “Human musicality” first considers one of its central aspects—pitch perception—and outlines the difference between relative and absolute pitch. It then examines the stages of development across which people acquire musical skills and the effects of musical training. It also discusses individual differences in musical abilities and behaviors, including musical savants, amusia, and musical anhedonia.

Who or what is the “Woman Fantastic,” and what does it mean to engage critically with this figure in today’s American media landscape? Just positing this question offers the beginnings of an answer. As the contrast between “women” and “woman” suggests, the Woman Fantastic is a gendered textual and cultural construction. Hence, “she” is entirely fantastic—less projection, stereotype, or imago than symbol, sign, or trope, an always already artificial creation. Within the realm of the popular, “she” is a sales pitch, the offer of a model or mask through which the feminine and/or female can be reified. Woman always denies the emperor has no clothes, and in this way Woman is always fantastic....

Most existing systems of speaker recognition use “state of the art” acoustic features. However, many times one can only recognize a speaker by his or her prosodic features, especially by the accent. For this reason, the authors investigate some pertinent prosodic features that can be associated with other classic acoustic features, in order to improve the recognition accuracy. The authors have developed a new prosodic model using a modified LVQ (Learning Vector Quantization) algorithm, which is called MLVQ (Modified LVQ). This model is composed of three reduced prosodic features: the mean of the pitch, original duration, and low-frequency energy. Since these features are heterogeneous, a new optimized metric has been proposed that is called Optimized Distance for Heterogeneous Features (ODHEF). Tests of speaker identification are done on Arabic corpus because the NIST evaluations showed that speaker verification scores depend on the spoken language and that some of the worst scores were got for the Arabic language. Experimental results show good performances of the new prosodic approach.

The essay explores the development of informal fan groups in the context of the late Soviet Union. It argues that despite being influenced by Western fandom, the countercultural potential of its actions led to specifically Soviet meanings of fandom. With a constant influx of images of fan practices around the world since the 1960s, a minority of young Muscovites had begun to imitate these since the early 1970s. The developing fan movement, however, combined violent behavior with a sense of cultural superiority. To belong to an almost global fan movement meant to trump fans from other Soviet republics that had not yet introduced such practices. The big movements in Moscow especially elevated themselves above others—thereby reproducing earlier hierarchies of the multinational Soviet Union.

In the previous chapter, positioning was examined from a historical perspective, recognizing that in many parts of the world, such data are not just useful, they are frequently the only data available. But in many areas, the case for extending the limits of the continental shelf will be dependent on the acquisition of new data, and for the most part, this will mean the use of satellite navigation systems. Therefore, this chapter deals in some detail with current and future satellite navigation and positioning systems. The first generation of satellite navigation systems used the principle of the Doppler shift of transmissions from satellites to provide measurements of a user's position. The Doppler shift of an emitted signal is related to the relative velocity between the source of the signal and the point at which it is received. The apparent frequency of the received signal is increased when the emitter is moving toward the receiver, and decreased when it is moving away. This phenomenon can often be observed in everyday situations, such as when a vehicle drives past a pedestrian. The pitch of the sound from the vehicle appears to drop as it passes the pedestrian, due to the transition from increased to decreased frequency of the sound. In satellite Doppler systems, measurements of the Doppler shift of signals from the satellites are combined with knowledge of the satellite's position and velocity (its ephemeris), to give an indication of the receiver's position. TRANSIT was the first operational satellite navigation system (see chapter 7). Data-processing techniques were developed which allowed a receiver to be located with respect to another at a known location, to an accuracy of the order of 1 m. TRANSIT ceased operation as a position and timing system at the end of 1996. A similar system to TRANSIT was developed by the Soviet Navy in 1965. The system, known as TSIKADA, is still operational today (2000). Since satellite Doppler systems rely on the accumulation of measurements over a period of time to provide a useful measure of a receiver's position, they could not be used as true real-time satellite navigation systems (see chapter 7).

Living on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., I often encounter that classic cocktail party question, “And what do you do?” When I say I'm a freelance writer, people tend to respond in one of two ways. Some lean forward, suck in their breath, and marvel at how romantic and free my days must be. Others cluck, tilt their heads, and mutter that life must sure get bleak, scratching out a living on words. The truth lies somewhere between. Among freelancing's perks, flexibility ranks high. I might write about bio-defense one day and mental health the next. I might work in the library, on the porch—or, yes, in my gym clothes. My time is my own. The price for this luxury? Responsibility. Freelances are entrepreneurs. It's our job to find work, negotiate that work, and handle all the business details, from taxes, insurance, and retirement accounts to business cards and printer paper. If you're starting—or nurturing—a freelance science writing career, here are some practical tips to consider along the way. From cloning and stem cells to space exploration, food, and the environment, the visibility of science in society is strong. That's good news for freelances. Don't limit yourself to a handful of poorly paying publications, when you might be growing and learning (not to mention earning a better living) by diversifying. Today's successful freelances often go beyond writing straight magazine articles to writing trade books or projects for nonprofits, Web Sites, corporations, government agencies, and public relations agencies. As you diversify, hunt for one or more anchor clients—those who will hire you repeatedly. Also, consider following the tried-and-true technique of trading up. If you need experience, there's nothing wrong with freelancing for a city paper or tiny nonprofit (not big money-makers). Afterward, you can build on that experience—returning to those clients, while also using your clips to pitch other, bigger projects elsewhere. Diversifying doesn't mean you have to write everything. What if you have a passion for one field, in particular—say, physics? Just as staff writers cover a beat, some freelances feel most comfortable specializing in something they can learn top to bottom.

The lamprey has two principal behavioral states—a quiescent state, when it is attached to the substrate with its sucker mouth; and an active state, when it locomotes. It is capable of several forms of locomotion, but it actively stabilizes its body orientation in space only during the main form, fast forward swimming. During fast forward swimming, orientation of the lamprey in the sagittal (pitch) and transversal (roll) planes is stabilized in relation to the gravity vector by means of the postural control systems driven by vestibular input. Any deviations from the stabilized orientation are reflected in vestibular signals, which cause corrective motor responses. In the pitch and yaw planes, the corrections occur due to the body bending in the corresponding plane. In the roll plane, the corrections occur due to a change in the direction of locomotor body undulations, from lateral to oblique.

Incompressible flows passing through two circular cylinders in side-by-side arrangement are investigated numerically. The calculations are carried out with pitch ratios from 1.1 to 2.0 at Reynolds number of 1000. The flow and temperature fields, flow interference, and the local and the mean Nusselt numbers are studied in this research. It is observed that for the pitch ratios in the range of 2.0 and 1.5, the emerging jet between cylinders deflects and one wide and one narrow wakes behind the cylinders are formed. The gap flow velocity increases as the pitch ratio decreases and consequently increases the mean Nusselt number of the cylinders. As the pitch ratio decreases and is less than 1.5, the jet deflection is more severe and the gap flow velocity starts to decrease slowly, which results in reducing the mean Nusselt number of the cylinders. Due to the rapid reduction of the narrow wake size, the mean Nusselt number of the cylinder with narrow wake shows an uprising tendency for the decreasing pitch ratio less than 1.2.

This paper outlines a procedure that can be used to identify the parameters in the coupled heave-pitch equations using the measured heave and pitch responses of a ship in a random sea. Equations for the mean values of heave and pitch motions are obtained using the concept of random decrement. In this paper we show how measured records of heave and pitch motions in random seas can be used to identify the parameters in the mean values equations of these motions. The technique described in the paper uses neural networks to identify these parameters. Preliminary results show that this approach is promising. Studies for the refinement and validation of the approach are currently underway at Memorial University.

This paper takes the presented concept of sandglass-type floating body as the research object. The shape of new sandglass-type floating body has extended oblique characteristic, which may result in special performance and the problem of pitch (or roll) motion. From the experimental tests, it can be found that its pitch natural frequency is small and the second order slowly varying pitch motion in irregular wave is significant, which may cause an unintentional interaction between the pitch and surge motions. Additionally, the floating body with small-waterplane-area and low metacentric height may have obvious mean pitch angle with wind moment under harsh sea condition. To solve the above two problems, numerical simulations have been conducted with two sea conditions. Lastly, based on the existing technique, the problems are solved and the positioning accuracy can be satisfied well for the harsher sea condition.

Model tests were conducted on three generic floating wind turbine systems in 2011, and reported in a series of papers at OMAE 2012. These tests were conducted at the MARIN facility in the Netherlands, by a consortium of universities, government research organizations and industry. As part of the testing program, decay tests in platform pitch were conducted with and without wind. It was found that for spar and semi-submersible type structures, resonant pitch motion was damped due to wind in storm sea conditions. The nonlinear decay motion of a floating wind turbine platform is modeled using a one degree-of-freedom nonlinear oscillation equation about a mean offset angle. Attention is paid to the turbine thrust coefficient and its variability with respect to oncoming flow speed, which in turn is affected by the structure pitch motion. The equation of motion reveals that the mean offset position has an important role in the stiffness, damping and consequently the natural period of pitch motion. Several important dimensionless parameters are introduced. The paper discusses a simple thrust model for an offshore wind turbine based on rudiments of blade element theory. Using the simplified thrust coefficient formulation, the increase in platform pitch damping due to wind is formulated. Experimental data reported from prior tests described above show good agreement with the theoretical model.

Two classes of transition modes are examined. The first class involves rotor start-up and shut-down in turbulent winds with rapidly varying mean wind speeds. In the start-up mode, coupling can occur between the mean and cyclic pitch control systems which leads to large peaks in blade flatwise moments. These peaks can substantially increase overall fatigue damage. They can be reduced by controlling blade pitch solely with the closed loop control system. Allowing the rotor to freely rotate at wind speeds below start-up eliminates blade moment peaks in the transition to low speed operation, with the result that closed loop control further increases blade fatigue life. These control alterations reduce power fluctuations but appear to have no significant effect on overall energy capture. Blade pitch control in the shutdown transition mode is restricted solely to mean pitch angle and no control coupling problems are encountered. The second class of transition modes studied is operation from below to above rated wind speed. This transition was previously idealized as an abrupt change from variable to constant rotor speed operation with mean blade pitch angle increased rapidly to hold mean power constant up to rotor shut down. This causes a very sharp peaking of mean moment at rated wind speed which increases blade fatigue damage. This peaking is reduced by smoothing the controlled variation of mean blade pitch angle over a range of wind speeds from below to above rated. As a result, rotor blade fatigue life is substantially increased, and energy capture is somewhat reduced in both open and closed loop operation. Thus there is a trade-off between energy capture and fatigue life which is examined. The comparative effects on blade fatigue life and weight of turbulence induced and 1P gravity loads are examined for large scale rotor blades. The bending strength of each blade in the out-of-plane and in-plane directions at the critical root location was assumed to be the same for full span pitch control requiring a cylindrical cross-section at the root. It is indicated that turbulence induced fatigue damage dominates over that due to gravity for rotor radii up to about 40m and near 2 MW rated power, depending on the number of rotor blades. This open loop result is unaltered in closed loop operation if blade weight is reduced to maintain the same fatigue life. Tradeoffs between rotor blade weight and energy capture in open and closed loop control operation are examined.

This paper discusses flow measurement results both upstream and downstream of a transonic annular turbine nozzle with a nonuniform pitch. The downstream measurements are performed in the plane, where the leading edge of the rotor is located in the gas turbine. The experiments were performed using total pressure probes and static wall pressure taps. This type of nonuniformity creates a different behavior of the flow field both upstream and downstream of the blades. The effects on the wakes and on the inviscid flow are discussed separately. The mean velocities show a strong sensitivity to the changes of the pitch, which is identified as a potential flow effect by using a simple vortex model.

This paper is concerned with the stabilization of skid steer wheeled vehicles. This type of vehicle is often characterized by a short wheelbase and without any suspension other than that of the wheels, and is therefore liable to rotational pitch oscillations. The objective of this paper is twofold. Firstly, the abovementioned oscillation phenomena are examined with a view to improve the understanding of its dependency on weight distribution, and traction characteristics of tire-surface contact. Secondly, a number of control strategies that dampens the oscillatory nature of the vehicle are derived and evaluated. The basic idea of the control strategy is to keep the angular pitch velocity at zero by increasing the motor torque when the vehicle is tilting forward and decreasing the motor torque when the vehicle is tilting backwards. The basic control design objective being to achieve the lowest possible mean square tracking error without letting the mean square input exceed its maximally permissible value. The results are experimentally evaluated by means of a small-scale vehicle.

An experimental investigation on a linear turbine cascade has been carried out to study the effects induced by incidence angle and pitch-chord ratio variations on the three-dimensional turbulent flow downstream of the cascade. Previous mean flow measurements have shown how these parameters influence the energy losses and the secondary velocity field. Now detailed hot wire measurements have been performed on a plane located at 22 per cent of an axial chord downstream of the trailing edge, in order to determine the distribution of all the six Reynolds stress tensor components, for three incidence conditions (i = −30, 0, +30 deg) and for three pitch-chord ratios (s/c = 0.58, 0.72, 0.87). Significant changes of the turbulent flow structure, interesting magnitude and distribution of the Reynolds stress components, have been observed for all the considered test conditions. The analysis of the results shows the correlation between the mean flow features and the turbulent quantities and the relationship between the energy loss production and the blade loading variation. The presented data are also suitable for assessing the behaviour of turbulence models in complex 3D flows, on design and off-design conditions.

Starting from data on the ‘Paestum’ or ‘Poseidonia’ aulos established by Paul andBarbara Reichlin-Moser and Stelios Psaroudakēs, the ‘Pydna’ aulos, and comparable finds ofearly, mainly six-hole one-hole-shift, doublepipe fragments, possible musical interpretations ofthis important instrument type of the early Classical Period are considered. Probable pitchesand intervals are assessed by means of well-tested software and confirmed experimentally;the required double reeds of a much longer type than known from later periods are shownto be substantiated by iconographic and literary testimony. The harmonic analysis of theinstruments proposes the notion of a rudimentary tetrachordal structure, with equallydivided tetrachords, which is both plausible in terms of music-ethnological parallels and thedevelopment of ancient musical theory. Some of the studied instruments appear to adhereto an early pitch standard, seemingly coinciding with the typical cithara octave. Criticalevaluation of literary sources finally leads to a cautious interpretation as ‘Lydian’ instruments.

It is important to understand human kinematics and muscle activation patterns in emergency maneuvers for the design of safety systems and for the further development of human models. The objective of this study was to quantify kinematic behavior and muscle activation in simulated steering tests in several realistic conditions. In total 108 tests were performed with 10 volunteers undergoing purely lateral maneuvers at 5 m/s2 deceleration or simulated lane change maneuvers at 5 m/s2 peak acceleration and peak yaw velocity of 25 °/s. Test subjects were seated on a rigid seat and restrained by a 4-point belt with retractor. Driver subjects were instructed to be relaxed or braced and to hold the steering wheel while passenger subjects were instructed to put their hands on their thighs. Subjects were instrumented with photo markers that were tracked with 3D high-speed stereo cameras and with electromyography (EMG) electrodes on 8 muscles. Corridors of head displacement, pitch and roll and displacement of T1, shoulder, elbow, hand and knee were created representing mean response and standard deviation of all subjects. In lane change tests for the passenger configuration significant differences were observed in mean peak of head left lateral displacement between the relaxed and the braced volunteers, i.e. 171 mm (σ=58, n=21) versus 121 mm (σ=46, n=17), respectively. Sitting in a relaxed position led to significantly lower muscle activity of the neck muscles. It was concluded that significantly more upper body motion and lower muscle activity was observed for relaxed subjects than for braced subjects.