An Introduction to Survey Research

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an easy-to-understand overview of several important concepts for selecting and creating survey instruments for dissertations and other types of doctoral research. This chapter includes information on instrument selection, survey validation, and survey instrument creation. A review of survey scale types and important definitions and concepts related to survey research is included. A sample conceptual framework that can be used to link research questions, relevant literature, and survey questions is also provided.

Music

2The defining feature of music as a cognitive function is tonality (scale structure), since rhythmic structure is a shared feature with dance and poetry. In this chapter, the author develops a 4T (tonality/timing/texture/text) model of music, which views music as a suite of coordinative features in which rhythm provides time slots for interpersonal coordination and scale structure provides pitch slots for coordination. An important topic for the study of music’s evolution is its connection with both speech and language. Music and speech share a significant number of prosodic properties. However, a unique feature of music that is not found in speech is the process by which scale types are able to convey emotional meanings. Such scale/emotion associations allow music to modulate the interpretive meaning of narrative artforms, such as film, dance, and written texts (i.e. songs).

Aebersold’s Mediated Play-A-Long Pedagogy and the Invention of the Beginning Jazz Improvisation Student

In this historical study, I present the emergence and evolution of Jamey Aebersold’s Play-A-Long volumes and their key role in bringing jazz improvisation to formal music education. Drawing on oral histories and using a framework from sound studies, I present chord-scales and pattern playing as Deweyan conceptual technologies that assist beginners in developing a mature technique. I recount how Aebersold learned these as a student of David Baker at Indiana University, then applied the idea through teaching improvisation with the Dorian mode over Davis’s “So What.” In 1967 Aebersold published volume 1, and the Play-A-Long evolved into a system over a dozen years as subsequent volumes included new scale types, like the blues scale; added idiomatic patterns; incorporated his new Scale Syllabus; and licensed standard repertoire. I then describe how these technologies imply the “soloist as such”: a generic model of learning improvisation as a process of learning tunes and tasks from simple to complex around a core unity of theory and performance. This model in particular addressed beginning improvisation and the slogan “Anyone Can Improvise.” Finally, I consider criticisms of the model, note that the chord-scale approach is Black music theory, and suggest future research.

Cortex cis-regulatory switches establish scale colour identity and pattern diversity in Heliconius

In Heliconius butterflies, wing colour pattern diversity and scale types are controlled by a few genes of large effect that regulate colour pattern switches between morphs and species across a large mimetic radiation. One of these genes, cortex, has been repeatedly associated with colour pattern evolution in butterflies. Here we carried out CRISPR knockouts in multiple Heliconius species and show that cortex is a major determinant of scale cell identity. Chromatin accessibility profiling and introgression scans identified cis-regulatory regions associated with discrete phenotypic switches. CRISPR perturbation of these regions in black hindwing genotypes recreated a yellow bar, revealing their spatially limited activity. In the H. melpomene/timareta lineage, the candidate CRE from yellow-barred phenotype morphs is interrupted by a transposable element, suggesting that cis-regulatory structural variation underlies these mimetic adaptations. Our work shows that cortex functionally controls scale colour fate and that its cis-regulatory regions control a phenotypic switch in a modular and pattern-specific fashion.

Gut Microbiome of a Multiethnic Community Possessed No Predominant Microbiota

With increasing globalisation, various diets from around the world are readily available in global cities. This study aimed to verify if multiethnic dietary habits destabilised the gut microbiome in response to frequent changes, leading to readily colonisation of exogenous microbes. This may have health implications. We profiled Singapore young adults of different ethnicities for dietary habits, faecal type, gut microbiome and cytokine levels. Subjects were challenged with Lactobacillus casei, and corresponding changes in microbiome and cytokines were evaluated. Here, we found that the majority of young adults had normal stool types (73% Bristol Scale Types 3 and 4) and faecal microbiome categorised into three clusters, irrespective of race and gender. Cluster 1 was dominated by Bacteroides, Cluster 2 by Prevotella, while Cluster 3 showed a marginal increase in Blautia, Ruminococaceae and Ruminococcus, without a predominant microbiota. These youngsters in the three faecal microbiome clusters preferred Western high sugary beverages, Southeast Asian plant-rich diet and Asian/Western diets in rotation, respectively. Multiethnic dietary habits (Cluster 3) led to a gut microbiome without predominant microbiota yet demonstrated colonisation resistance to Lactobacillus. Although Bacteroides and Prevotella are reported to be health-promoting but also risk factors for some illnesses, Singapore-style dietary rotation habits may alleviate Bacteroides and Prevotella associated ill effects. Different immunological outcome was observed during consumption of the lactobacilli among the three microbiome clusters.

Host Selectivity of Nerocila Orbignyi (Guerin-Meneville, 1832) (Isopoda, Cymothoidae) with a Record of a New Host from the Sea of Marmara (Turkey)

Nerocila orbignyi (Isopoda, Cymothoidae) is reported for the first time on Mugil cephalus Linnaeus, 1758 (Pisces, Mugilidae) from Bandırma Bay (the Sea of Marmara, Turkey) during 2020. This paper aims to present the morphological characters of male of N. orbignyi from Turkey. Hosts infested with N. orbignyi are commented according to taxonomical status (order, families), ecological behaviours (habitat selections, feeding habits, school-solitary), morphological characters (scale types) according to current records. It may be said that N. orbignyi has been reported more frequently on fish belonging to the Perciformes order and Mugilidae and Sparidae families. It may also be said that this parasite selects also the fishes with carnivorous, demersal, schools, and migratory character.

Coloration principles of the Great purple emperor butterfly (Sasakia charonda)

The dorsal wings of male Sasakia charonda butterflies display a striking blue iridescent coloration, which is accentuated by white, orange-yellow and red spots, as well as by brown margins. The ventral wings also have a variegated, but more subdued, pattern. We investigated the optical basis of the various colors of intact wings as well as isolated wing scales by applying light and electron microscopy, imaging scatterometry and (micro)spectrophotometry. The prominent blue iridescence is due to scales with tightly packed, multilayered ridges that contain melanin pigment. The scales in the brown wing margins also contain melanin. Pigments extracted from the orange-yellow and red spots indicate the presence of 3-OH-kynurenine and ommochrome pigment. The scales in the white spots also have multilayered ridges but lack pigment. The lower lamina of the scales plays a so-far undervalued but often crucial role. Its thin-film properties color the majority of the ventral wing scales, which are unpigmented and have large windows. The lower lamina acting as a thin-film reflector generally contributes to the reflectance of the various scale types.

Taxonomic Reassignment of Pseudohaptolina Birgeri comb. nov. (Haptophyta)

The haptophyte genus Pseudohaptolina (formerly Chrysochromulina clade B1-3) currently harbors two species: Pseudohaptolina arctica and Pseudohap-tolina sorokinii. In addition, Chrysochromulina birgeri is expected to belong to this genus due to its morphological similarity to P. sorokinii, but has not yet been genetically characterized. A strain belonging to Pseudohaptolina was brought into culture from Arctic waters, characterized by 18S and 28S rRNA gene sequencing as well as optical and transmission electron microscopy, and deposited in the Roscoff Culture Collection with the code RCC5270. Molecular and morphological data from RCC5270 were compared with those from previously described Pseudohaptolina and Pseudohaptolina-like species. Strain RCC5270 showed strong phylogenetic affinity to P. sorokinii, but TEM observations showed that RCC5270 possesses three types of organic body scale, rather than two as originally described in P. sorokinii. We found that the occurrence of three scale types is likely to have been overlooked in the original descriptions of both P. sorokinii and C. birgeri. We also found that environmental metabarcodes identical to the sequence of RCC5270 were abundant in the location from which C. birgeri was initially described (Gulf of Finland). We conclude that P. sorokinii and C. birgeri are conspecific and P. sorokinii is therefore synonymous with C. birgeri. Based on its phylogenetic placement and nomenclatural priority we propose the new combination Pseudohaptolina birgeri and emend the description of this species.

Design of an Ultra-High Bypass Ratio Fan Stage for a Research Turbojet Engine

At the Department of Aeronautics, Naval Architecture and Railway Vehicles of Budapest University of Technology and Economics there is a versatile micro turbojet test bench based on TS-21 turbostarter engine. Besides research and developement purposes it offers a more practical study and experience for the aerospace engineering students. In this study the authors have accomplished a theoretical design of an additional fan stage to the original TS-21 engine. Based on the results of this study a decision can be made, whether the modification of the present device is worth or not. For supplementing this decision, a complex feasability study was carried out from a simple one-dimensional flow analysis through computational fluid dynamics and stress analysis of the mechanical parts. If the designed equipment will be manufactured, the resulting turbofan engine can be used to model large scale types for various research and educational purposes.

The Prevalence of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms among Overweight/Obese and Non-Overweight/Non-Obese Children/Adolescents in China: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

With the dramatic growth of the Chinese economy, the number of children/adolescents with being overweight/having obesity is increasing, which has a certain impact on their psychology, such as depression and anxiety symptoms. Our purpose was to conduct a meta-analysis to assess the prevalence and odds ratios of depression and anxiety symptoms among overweight/obese children/adolescents and non-overweight/obese children/adolescents in China. As of July 2018, the three most comprehensive computerized academic databases in China have been systematically screened, namely China national knowledge infrastructure (CNKI) databases, Wanfang databases and Vip databases. The same operations are performed in PubMed and Web of Science (SCIE) databases without language restrictions. Case-control studies on prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms in overweight/obese children/adolescents in China were analyzed. Study selection and evaluation were performed independently by three authors. Unweighted prevalence, pooled random-effects estimates of odds ratio (OR), and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were all calculated. A total of 11 eligible studies involving 17,894 subjects were included. The prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms in overweight/obese children/adolescents was significantly higher than that in non-overweight/non-obese children/adolescents (depression: 21.73% vs. 17.96%, OR = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.14, 1.87, p = 0.003; anxiety: 39.80% vs. 13.99%, OR = 1.47, 95% CI: 1.21, 1.79, p < 0.001). Subgroup analyses conducted according to scale types showed that scale types have certain significance to evaluate the relationship between depression symptoms and overweight/obesity. The OR of depression symptoms between overweight/obese children/adolescents and non-overweight/non-obese children/adolescents was greatest on the Middle School Student Mental Health Scale (MSSMHS) was 2.06 (95% CI: 1.41, 3.02, I2 = 0.00%), Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was 1.03 (95% CI: 0.84, 1.25, I2 = 0.00%), and Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) was 1.21 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.42, I2 = 0.00%). We concluded that the prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms in overweight/obese children/adolescents in China is higher than that in the non-overweight/obese children/adolescents. The results of the study indicate that the prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms among overweight/obese children/adolescents in Chinese medical institutions should receive more attention. Physical exercise and psychological interventions should be strengthened to prevent psychological problems. However, because of some clear limitations (no clinical interview and few studies), these results should be interpreted with caution.