Immediate effects of the semi-occluded bubble mask technique using VocalFeel® device as vocal warm-up in singers.

Objective: The present study aims at investigating the immediate effects of the Semi-Occluded Bubble Mask Technique (SOBM) performed with the device VocalFeel® as a vocal warm-up in a group of professional singers.

Study Design: A randomized controlled study was carried out.

Methods: Forty-four vocally healthy professional singers were randomly divided into two groups on recruitment: an experimental group and a control group.

Classifying zones of suitability for manual drilling using textural and hydraulic parameters of shallow aquifers: a case study in northwestern Senegal.

A method is proposed that uses analysis of borehole stratigraphic logs for the characterization of shallow aquifers and for the assessment of areas suitable for manual drilling. The model is based on available borehole-log parameters: depth to hard rock, depth to water, thickness of laterite and hydraulic transmissivity of the shallow aquifer. The model is applied to a study area in northwestern Senegal.

Estill Voice Training and voice quality control in contemporary commercial singing: an exploratory study.

Estill Voice Training (EVT) is a widely known programme for developing vocal skills based on partitioning the process of vocal production in order to reach control of specific structures in the vocal mechanism. The present retrospective small-scale exploratory study aims at reporting preliminary data about the efficacy of EVT - in terms of voice quality control on a specific vocal exercise - in contemporary commercial singers with a Certificate of Figure Proficiency (CFP). Thirty-five contemporary commercial singers (professional or semi-professional pop and rock singers) with no vocal complaints were recruited.

Voice Quality After a Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract Exercise With a Ventilation Mask in Contemporary Commercial Singers: Acoustic Analysis and Self-Assessments.

Objective: The current study aimed at investigating the immediate effects of a semi-occluded vocal tract exercise with a ventilation mask in a group of contemporary commercial singers.

Study Design: A randomized controlled study was carried out.

Methods: Thirty professional or semi-professional singers with no voice complaints were randomly divided into two groups on recruitment: an experimental group and a control group.

Is the perception of dysphonia severity language-dependent? A comparison of French and Italian voice assessments.

In this cross-language study, six Italian and six French voice experts evaluated perceptually the speech of 27 Italian and 40 French patients with dysphonia to determine if there were differences based on native language. French and Italian voice specialists agreed substantially in their evaluations of the overall grade of dysphonia and moderately concerning roughness and breathiness. No statistically significant effects were found related to the language of the speakers with the exception of breathiness, a finding that was interpreted as being due to different voice pathologies in the patient groups.