The present study explored the intensity level of authorial voice in relation to the quality of argumentative writing. 42 undergraduate learners of English as a foreign language (36 girls and 6 boys) spent 45 minutes to individually complete in-class position-taking writing tasks for three weeks. Their overall academic writing quality scores assigned based on portfolio assessment were studied i...

Introduction: Use of patient-based voice assessment scales is an appropriate method that is frequently used to demonstrate effectiveness of voice therapy. This study was aimed at determining the effectiveness ofvoice therapy among patients with secondary muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) and vocal mass lesions.   Materials and Methods: The study design was prospective, with within-participant repe...

This article examines the role of trade unions in the health service at workplace level under the Labour government’s modernisation agenda, and focuses on the shifting balance between forms of direct and indirect participation drawing on case studies of three acute hospital trusts. There has been a strong growth in forms of direct communication within the case study trusts and some increase in ...

Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the voice outcomes before and after the administration of voice therapy in patients who suffered an injury to the recurrent laryngeal nerve after undergoing thyroidectomy. Methods: The sample consisted of 26 patients (2 males and 24 females) aged between 18 and 80 years (m=55±12) who experienced injury to the recurrent laryngeal nerve fol...

When patients take an active role in their healthcare, the results may be better, safer care. That is the premise behind the Ontario Hospital Association's (OHA) "Your Health Care--Be Involved" campaign. Launched in September 2005 by the OHA's Patient Safety Support Service, the campaign encourages active two-way communication between patients and providers and highlights the important role of ...

This paper describes the process of building unit selection voices for our participation in the Blizzard Challenge 2009. Out of the three voices required (EH1: 15 hours UK English, EH2: 1 hour UK English subset and MH: 6000-utterance Mandarin Chinese) only the English ones were built. As far as the Hub Tasks is concerned, only the ES1 task was completed using voice conversion techniques. The Ev...

E-participation applications enable online participation of citizens and interested stakeholder groups in political debates and strategic decisionmaking. The tools, channels and devices through which online participation takes place require proper design to support citizens, politicians and other actors. To incorporate the needs of these actors into the functionalities of an eParticipation plat...