title: Reflections: An education of my own, or learning to be resistant.

authors: Barbour, Karen

subjects: first person narrative

abstract: A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of training as a dancer and being able to reflect and understand her experiences in dance education.

text: Reflections: An education of my own, or learning to be resistant. A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of training as a dancer and being able to reflect and understand her experiences in dance education.

year: 2000

title: The effectiveness of singing bowls music and progressive muscle relaxation on mood, sleep, and stress

authors: Hamilton, Kellianne

subjects: Singing Bowls

abstract: Mental health trends show increased symptoms of mental illness across the globe. To combat these increases, more low-cost and easily accessible interventions should be identified. The current study is a parallel cohort non-comparative study investigating the effectiveness of quartz crystal singing bowls (SB) music and progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) on mood, sleep, and stress in young adults. Over eight weeks participants received reminders to complete online sessions of either SB music or PMR. For the first four weeks participants received reminders to complete sessions three times a week. From weeks five – eight participants received a weekly reminder but could complete as many sessions as they wanted. Participants completed questionnaires assessing Mood and Sleep Quality at three timepoints (baseline, week four, and week eight). Participants completed pre and post intervention measures for Overall Feeling, Relaxation, and Stress once a week for the first four weeks. Of the 108 recruited participants, 62 (mean age SB = 20.11 years, PMR = 20.53 years) completed the interventions, questionnaires, and measures (32 in SB group, 30 in PMR group). Both the SB group and the PMR group showed improvement in Mood and Sleep Quality throughout the study. The SB group showed decreases in Total Mood Disturbance (TMD), Tension, Fatigue, and Depression, an increase in Vigour and improvement in Sleep Quality. The effects were greatest in the first four weeks for the SB group. The PMR group showed decreases in TMD, Tension, Anger, Fatigue, and Confusion, and improvement in Sleep Quality. Both the SB group and the PMR group showed acute increases in Overall Feeling and Relaxation and decreases in Stress after the interventions when compared to before the interventions. Overall, the current findings support the hypothesis that SB music and PMR have positive effects on mood, sleep, and stress in young adults.

text: The effectiveness of singing bowls music and progressive muscle relaxation on mood, sleep, and stress Mental health trends show increased symptoms of mental illness across the globe. To combat these increases, more low-cost and easily accessible interventions should be identified. The current study is a parallel cohort non-comparative study investigating the effectiveness of quartz crystal singing bowls (SB) music and progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) on mood, sleep, and stress in young adults. Over eight weeks participants received reminders to complete online sessions of either SB music or PMR. For the first four weeks participants received reminders to complete sessions three times a week. From weeks five – eight participants received a weekly reminder but could complete as many sessions as they wanted. Participants completed questionnaires assessing Mood and Sleep Quality at three timepoints (baseline, week four, and week eight). Participants completed pre and post intervention measures for Overall Feeling, Relaxation, and Stress once a week for the first four weeks. Of the 108 recruited participants, 62 (mean age SB = 20.11 years, PMR = 20.53 years) completed the interventions, questionnaires, and measures (32 in SB group, 30 in PMR group). Both the SB group and the PMR group showed improvement in Mood and Sleep Quality throughout the study. The SB group showed decreases in Total Mood Disturbance (TMD), Tension, Fatigue, and Depression, an increase in Vigour and improvement in Sleep Quality. The effects were greatest in the first four weeks for the SB group. The PMR group showed decreases in TMD, Tension, Anger, Fatigue, and Confusion, and improvement in Sleep Quality. Both the SB group and the PMR group showed acute increases in Overall Feeling and Relaxation and decreases in Stress after the interventions when compared to before the interventions. Overall, the current findings support the hypothesis that SB music and PMR have positive effects on mood, sleep, and stress in young adults.

year: 2025

title: Modelling loanword success a sociolinguistic quantitative study of Māori loanwords in New Zealand English

authors: Calude, Andreea S.

subjects: loanwords

abstract: Loanword use has dominated the literature on language contact and its salient nature continues to draw interest from linguists and non-linguists. Traditionally, loanwords were investigated by means of raw frequencies, which are at best uninformative and at worst misleading. Following a new wave of studies which look at loans from a quantitatively more informed standpoint, modelling “success” by taking into account frequency of the counterparts avail- able in the language adopting the loanwords, we propose a similar model of loan-use and demonstrate its benefits in a case study of loanwords from Māori into (New Zealand) English. Our model contributes to previous work in this area by combining both the success measure mentioned above with a rich range of linguistic characteristics of the loanwords (such as loan length and word class), as well as a similarly detailed group of sociolinguistic characteristics of the speakers using them (gender, age and ethnicity of both, speakers and addresses). Our model is unique in bringing together of all these factors at the same time. The findings presented here illustrate the benefit of a quantitatively balanced approach to modelling loanword use. Furthermore, they illustrate the complex interaction between linguistic and sociolinguistic factors in such lan- guage contact scenarios.

text: Modelling loanword success a sociolinguistic quantitative study of Māori loanwords in New Zealand English Loanword use has dominated the literature on language contact and its salient nature continues to draw interest from linguists and non-linguists. Traditionally, loanwords were investigated by means of raw frequencies, which are at best uninformative and at worst misleading. Following a new wave of studies which look at loans from a quantitatively more informed standpoint, modelling “success” by taking into account frequency of the counterparts avail- able in the language adopting the loanwords, we propose a similar model of loan-use and demonstrate its benefits in a case study of loanwords from Māori into (New Zealand) English. Our model contributes to previous work in this area by combining both the success measure mentioned above with a rich range of linguistic characteristics of the loanwords (such as loan length and word class), as well as a similarly detailed group of sociolinguistic characteristics of the speakers using them (gender, age and ethnicity of both, speakers and addresses). Our model is unique in bringing together of all these factors at the same time. The findings presented here illustrate the benefit of a quantitatively balanced approach to modelling loanword use. Furthermore, they illustrate the complex interaction between linguistic and sociolinguistic factors in such lan- guage contact scenarios.

year: 2017