Achieving accurate FTIR measurements on high performance bandpass filters

The sources of ordinate error in FTIR spectrometers are reviewed with reference to measuring small out-of-band features in the spectra of bandpass filters. Procedures for identifying instrumental artefacts are described. It is shown that features well below 0.01%T can be measured reliably

A review of potential contaminants in Australian livestock feeds and proposed guidance levels for feed

Contaminants of man-made and natural origin need to be managed in livestock feeds to protect the health of livestock and that of human consumers of livestock products. This requires access to information on the transfer from feed to food to inform risk profiles and assessments, and to guide management interventions such as regulation or Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point approaches. This paper reviews contaminants of known and potential concern in the production of livestock feeds in Australia and compares existing but differing state and national regulatory standards with international standards. The contaminants considered include man-made organic chemical contaminants (e.g. legacy pesticides), elemental contaminants (e.g. arsenic, cadmium, lead), phytotoxins (e.g. gossypol) and mycotoxins (e.g. aflatoxins). Reference is made to scientific literature and evaluations by regulators to propose maximum levels that can be used for guidance by those involved in managing contamination incidents or developing feed safety programs. © 2013 CSIRO

The Impact of Mindfulness Practice on Mental Health Service Providers-in-Training: An Examination of Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, Empathy, and Burnout

The current study used a true experimental design, with wait-list control, to determine if the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program would increase levels of mindfulness, self-awareness, and empathy, while decreasing levels of burnout among graduate level mental health service providers-in-training. Self-report measures were used to assess the dependent variables before the start of the MBSR program, at completion of the program, and four weeks after the MBSR program ended. Data from 16 total participants (8 in each group) were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVAs with a between-subjects factor. Results indicated that the MBSR program did not lead to an increase in levels of mindfulness, self-awareness, or empathy, or a decrease in burnout for the treatment group. Information regarding the nature of the stressors encountered by graduate level mental health service providers-in-training was obtained

The Impact of Distance Education on Therapy Services for Students with ASD: An SLP Perspective

The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused an abrupt change in the day-to-day lives of individuals across the world as adults were forced to work from home and children were forced into virtual school environments. For all students, this disruption in schedule and daily routine been hard, but especially those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Mumbardo-Adam et al., 2021). For many students with ASD, school is a place in which they receive many essential services and social interactions, such as speech therapy, that they may not receive other places. The purpose of this survey research was to understand the speech-language pathologist’s perceptions of the effects distance learning had on the quality and delivery of speech therapy services provided to students with ASD amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Results revealed that the 2020-2021 school-year provided SLPs across the country with a novel experience, that was unique for each individual. Current findings will be discussed and compared to previous research related to efficacy of distance learning

Perception of emotion in music in adults with cochlear implants

Music is an integral aspect of culture that is uniquely tied to our emotions. Previous studies have shown that hearing loss and cochlear implantation have deleterious effects on music and emotion perception, particularly cues related to pitch, melody, and mode. The purpose of this study is to examine acoustic cues that adults with cochlear implants and adults with normal hearing might use to perceive emotion in music (e.g., tempo and pitch range). One adult (ages 18-50 years) with a cochlear implant and 15 adults who have normal hearing were tested. The participants listened to a series of 40 melodies which varied along tempo and pitch range. Ten melodies conveyed sadness (small pitch range; slow tempo) and 10 conveyed happiness (large pitch range; fast tempo). The remaining 20 presented conflicting cues (small pitch range + fast tempo or large pitch range + slow tempo). We asked participants to rate the emotion of the musical excerpt on a 7-point Likert scale along three dimensions: happy-sad, pleasant-unpleasant, and engaged-unengaged. Results showed that adults with NH and CIs relied on tempo more than pitch range when perceiving emotion in music, but in two instances adults with NH took pitch range into account when rating. The results from this study will help shed light on how effectively cochlear implants convey musical emotions, and could eventually lead to improvements in music perception in listeners with hearing loss

The effect of AC magnetic fields on liquid-metal free surfaces in industrialMHD.

In this thesis we investigate free-surface instabilities which occur in various industrial processes involving liquid metal. Specifically, we examine a number of simple problems with a view to developing a plausible theoretical description based on MHD. Of particular interest is the behaviour of the free surface of a pool of liquid metal when it is submitted to an alternating magnetic field. The first problem we examine considers the effect of a low-frequency mag- netic field on a pool of liquid metal. An initially circular pool is deformed into radially oscillating starfish modes at certain critical magnetic field strengths. We study these azimuthal modes theoretically by investigating the behaviour of an isolated mode. We also consider the influence of geometry in our studies of a related problem invloving a rectangular strip of liquid metal. At certain critical magnetic field strengths, an elongated pool is deformed into transverse modes. Aside from complicated mode coupling, the behaviour of these trans- verse modes is similar to the starfish . Both the starfish and transverse modes are caused by a Mathieu-type subharmonic instability. We next consider the effect of a medium-frequency magnetic field on an initially circular pool of liquid metal. Experimentally we study the effect of a vertical alternating medium-frequency magnetic field on an initially circular pool. We observe two types of behaviour: slow radial oscillation of the pool perimeter and rotation of the pool about its centre. The physics of this problem are significantly more complicated than the starfish and strip problems. Accordingly a description in terms of the previous theory is not possible. The final problem we consider is the effect of a high-frequency magnetic field the surface of a conductor. Using a phase-field approach we consider two simple problems: the first is to calculate the rest shape of an infinite strip of liquid resting on a substrate in a vertical gravitational field; the second is to calculate the equilibrium shape of the cross-section of a column of a liquid conductor submitted to a high-frequency magnetic field whose field lines are parallel far from the conductor. Our numeric solutions compare well with previously known analytic solutions