Sing it loud
Tis the season, the holiday season, for an onslaught of conversation, karaoke and other activities that swell voices 鈥� risking injury to vocal cords. A Finnish research team has explored whether water-infused smoke would be an effective healthcare tool for people who vocalise too dryly. They explain, in the Journal of Voice, that 鈥渞egardless of the reason, vocal fold dehydration impairs the oscillation of the vocal fold tissue鈥�.
The team used a waterpipe (the kind of device sometimes known as a hookah or shisha) to apply 鈥渁 superficial hydration treatment in voice production in healthy young women鈥�. The treatment, they report, 鈥渟eems to be efficient鈥�.
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Their analysis centred on phonation, which means making the various sounds that, when combined, become human speech. The women, 36 in number, were all 鈥渇irst-year students in the Degree Programme of Logopedics at Tampere University鈥�, Finland. Logopedics is the study and treatment of speech problems.
This work explicitly builds on insights gained two decades ago by researchers at the University of Hong Kong. They, too, published in the Journal of Voice 鈥� a study called .
The team studied 鈥渢he performance of 20 young amateur singers (10 males and 10 females, aged between 20-25 years)- during continuous karaoke singing鈥�. Half of the singers were given water to drink and were permitted short 鈥渧ocal rests at regular intervals during singing鈥�. The other half 鈥渟ang continuously without taking any water or rest鈥�.
The researchers found that while those given water and rests sang for 鈥渟ignificantly longer鈥� than their counterparts, 鈥渢he voice quality, as measured by perceptual and acoustic measures, and vocal function, as measured by phonetogram, did not show any significant changes during singing in the subjects who were given water and rest during the singing鈥�.
One implication from that intensive Hong Kong experiment: most karaoke singers manage to keep the quality of their singing fairly constant, no matter what.
Kinetic excitement
Does the word 鈥渒inetics鈥� intrigue you? The term usually pertains to chemistry or physics. Chemists say kinetics when they discuss the rates at which chemical reactions happen (as in the new study ).
Physicists say kinetics when they analyse the motions of physical objects (as in the study ).
But the word 鈥渒inetics鈥� recently popped up in a most unexpected context. A medical team deployed that term in a way that seems novel and puzzling.
鈥淭he word 鈥榢inetics鈥� made me think,鈥� Kees Moeliker 鈥� director of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam, the Netherlands 鈥� tells Feedback. He points us to a report, in The Lancet, called .
The report, from Piti茅-Salp锚tri猫re Hospital in Paris, tells of two men who were infected with monkeypox and apparently passed the disease to a companion. First, we are told the context: 鈥淭he men reported co-sleeping with their dog. They had been careful to prevent their dog from contact with other pets or humans from the onset of their own symptoms (ie, 13 days before the dog started to present cutaneous manifestations).鈥�
Then the word 鈥渒inetics鈥� takes centre stage, in this dramatic passage: 鈥淭o the best of our knowledge, the kinetics of symptom onset in both patients and, subsequently, in their dog suggest human-to-dog transmission of monkeypox virus.鈥�
Greenwashing
Sometimes, the same single word, even if it is dry as lint, can suggest insights about technology. Jennifer Davis writes in about a study called .
An international research team (hailing from Lithuania, Russia, Germany and Egypt) explains that its work is 鈥渢he first research developed to investigate potential applications of dryer lint in the energy recovery field using a pyrolysis process鈥�. The team asserts that 鈥渄ryer lint produced while drying clothes is an urban waste鈥�.
The researchers make and 鈥� in an exploratory way 鈥� test a simple solution: collect the lint from clothes dryers and burn it to produce a hitherto-neglected 鈥渟ustainable source of renewable energy鈥�.
Perspiration inspiration
Analogous efficiencies are on tap, so to speak, even for the habitually naked. A team based in France and the US explains how this could be in a study called .
This is an idea that works 鈥� if it works 鈥� not just when excitement is high and the juices are flowing. The researchers assure us that 鈥渢he wearable device can store energy and deliver high-power pulses long after the perspiration stopped鈥�. (A technical concession for the persnickety reader: Habitually naked except for a wearable biosupercapacitor.)
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