'Disease is unrhythmical': jazz, health, and disability in 1920s America.

PubMed

Johnson, Russell L

2011-01-01

The 1920s in the United States are commonly remembered as the Jazz Age. Although historians have focused on the African American origins of the music, another theme was also prominent in the public discourse surrounding jazz: disability. Critics saw jazz and its associated dances as defective, causing both mental and physical impairments in their devotees. In other words, jazz music and dance were disabled and disabling. Proponents of jazz responded in kind, asserting that jazz did not cause impairments, it cured them; similarly, jazz was not defective music or dance, but a revitalisation of the art forms. On the one hand, these reactions might have been expected, given the long history of belief in a relationship between music and health. However, the importance of health issues such as eugenics and rehabilitation in the 1920s also clearly influenced the responses of opinion leaders, politicians, academics, music professionals, and others to jazz music and dance.

Birth of the School: Discursive Methodologies in Jazz Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whyton, Tony

2006-01-01

Over recent years, jazz as an academic discipline has grown in volume and stature--indeed, jazz studies now plays a significant role in a number of higher education music programmes within the university and conservatoire sector. The proliferation of jazz education programmes has, inevitably, brought about the publication of specific pedagogical…

Creativity and personality in classical, jazz and folk musicians.

PubMed

Benedek, Mathias; Borovnjak, Barbara; Neubauer, Aljoscha C; Kruse-Weber, Silke

2014-06-01

The music genre of jazz is commonly associated with creativity. However, this association has hardly been formally tested. Therefore, this study aimed at examining whether jazz musicians actually differ in creativity and personality from musicians of other music genres. We compared students of classical music, jazz music, and folk music with respect to their musical activities, psychometric creativity and different aspects of personality. In line with expectations, jazz musicians are more frequently engaged in extracurricular musical activities, and also complete a higher number of creative musical achievements. Additionally, jazz musicians show higher ideational creativity as measured by divergent thinking tasks, and tend to be more open to new experiences than classical musicians. This study provides first empirical evidence that jazz musicians show particularly high creativity with respect to domain-specific musical accomplishments but also in terms of domain-general indicators of divergent thinking ability that may be relevant for musical improvisation. The findings are further discussed with respect to differences in formal and informal learning approaches between music genres.

Creativity and personality in classical, jazz and folk musicians

PubMed Central

Benedek, Mathias; Borovnjak, Barbara; Neubauer, Aljoscha C.; Kruse-Weber, Silke

2014-01-01

The music genre of jazz is commonly associated with creativity. However, this association has hardly been formally tested. Therefore, this study aimed at examining whether jazz musicians actually differ in creativity and personality from musicians of other music genres. We compared students of classical music, jazz music, and folk music with respect to their musical activities, psychometric creativity and different aspects of personality. In line with expectations, jazz musicians are more frequently engaged in extracurricular musical activities, and also complete a higher number of creative musical achievements. Additionally, jazz musicians show higher ideational creativity as measured by divergent thinking tasks, and tend to be more open to new experiences than classical musicians. This study provides first empirical evidence that jazz musicians show particularly high creativity with respect to domain-specific musical accomplishments but also in terms of domain-general indicators of divergent thinking ability that may be relevant for musical improvisation. The findings are further discussed with respect to differences in formal and informal learning approaches between music genres. PMID:24895472

The Battle for Legitimacy: "Jazz" Versus Academia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, David

1973-01-01

Jazz is black music; black man gave this music to the world, and every advancement and major innovation of this music has come from him. This is perhaps the reason that has hindered the unbiased acceptance of jazz into academia. (Author/RJ)

Jazz: The Serious Music of Black Americans.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrison, Daphne Duval

1978-01-01

Racism has been a major factor in determining the role and stature of jazz and the musicians who play it. Jazz has been denied its artistic due because it emerged from Black people who have been systematically denied their social and civil rights. (Author/GC)

High notes: the role of drugs in the making of Jazz.

PubMed

Singer, Merrill; Mirhej, Greg

2006-01-01

This paper examines the role played by illicit drugs, especially marijuana and heroin, in the historic development and evolution of Jazz in the United States during the twentieth century. In addition to an assessment of the extent of drug use and kinds of drugs used by Jazz musicians and singers, the impact and costs of drug use on the lives of people in Jazz, and the changing patterns of drug use during several eras of Jazz production, the paper contextualizes drug use among Jazz performers and societal response to it in light of prevailing ethnic inequalities and critical medical anthropological theory.

Development and Validation of a Rating Scale for Wind Jazz Improvisation Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Derek T.

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to construct and validate a rating scale for collegiate wind jazz improvisation performance. The 14-item Wind Jazz Improvisation Evaluation Scale (WJIES) was constructed and refined through a facet-rational approach to scale development. Five wind jazz students and one professional jazz educator were asked to record…

Understanding the Experiences of Women in Jazz: A Suggested Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wehr, Erin L.

2016-01-01

Jazz has long been recognized as a male-dominated field, with females traditionally having only limited acceptance, often in the roles of singer and pianist. Researchers have explored sources of the gender imbalance in the field of jazz and jazz education, but there is no theory or framework to organize such findings. This directed content…

What Research Reveals about School Jazz Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

West, Chad

2015-01-01

Though jazz has been a part of many school music programs for more than 40 years, relatively little research on jazz education exists. Despite this scarcity, a comprehensive examination of the extant literature could serve to inform practice and guide future studies. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to analyze and synthesize the extant…

Middle Level Leadership... and All That Jazz!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kinney, Patti; Tomlin, Dru

2013-01-01

Much like a Jazz group, successful middle level schools are also founded on elements of improvisation, collaboration, teamwork, and responsive communication. Just as the director of the jazz group must have a solid foundation of music theory, the skills to bring out the best in the players, and an attitude that allows others to shine, those who…

New Styles, New Technologies, New Possibilities in Jazz.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuzmich, John, Jr.

1989-01-01

Focuses on the growth of jazz-related ensembles and jazz education. Covers trends that parallel technological developments including electronic keyboards, Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) systems, the computer, computer assisted instruction, interactive video, and the compact disc. Urges teachers to update their knowledge and experience…

Psychosocial stressors and the short life spans of legendary jazz musicians.

PubMed

Patalano, F

2000-04-01

Mean age at death of 168 legendary jazz musicians and 100 renowned classical musicians were compared to examine whether psychosocial stressors such as severe substance abuse, haphazard working conditions, lack of acceptance of jazz as an art form in the United States, marital and family discord, and a vagabond life style may have contributed to shortened life spans for the jazz musicians. Analysis indicated that the jazz musicians died at an earlier age (57.2 yr.) than the classical musicians (73.3 yr.).

Instrumental Jazz Improvisation Development: Characteristics of Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced Improvisers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palmer, C. Michael

2016-01-01

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the role aural imitation ability, jazz theory knowledge, and personal background variables play in the development of jazz improvisation achievement. Participants (N = 70) included 26 high school and 44 college instrumentalists with varying degrees of jazz improvisation experience. Data were…

Psychosocial stressors in the lives of great jazz musicians.

PubMed

Patalano, F

1997-02-01

Brief biographical information on four great jazz tenor saxophone players of the past is presented to illustrate the similar psychosocial stressors these men seemed to experience, namely, severe substance abuse, haphazard working conditions, lack of acceptance of their art form in the United States, marital and family discord, and a vagabond life style. Ages at death of 80 great jazz musicians may indicate that the stressful life style of jazz musicians may be reflected in a shortened life span, but a control group is needed.

Charting Future Directions for Research in Jazz Pedagogy: Implications of the Literature

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watson, Kevin E.

2010-01-01

This paper surveys and evaluates extant empirical research in jazz pedagogy. Investigations in the following areas are addressed: (a) variables that predict achievement in jazz improvisation; (b) content analyses of published instructional materials; (c) effectiveness of pedagogical methods; (d) construction and evaluation of jazz improvisation…

Use Jazz to Teach Your String Students Improvisation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caputo, Charles R.

2006-01-01

Standards 3 and 9 of the National Standards for Music Education charge teachers to teach improvisation as well as music of diverse cultures. Jazz is a musical style that is perfect to cover both content areas. Until now, however, jazz repertoire and improvisation have not played a major role in the education of string students. One reason is that…

Memorization by a Jazz Musician: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Noice, Helga; Jeffrey, John; Noice, Tony; Chaffin, Roger

2008-01-01

To investigate the memory strategies of jazz musicians, we videotaped an experienced jazz pianist as he learned a new bebop piece. He had not previously heard a recording of the selection, nor had he seen the written music. The pianist provided detailed reports of the musical structure and the types of cues he used as landmarks to guide his…

Jazz Leader Helps a Band Take Giant Steps

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelderman, Eric

2008-01-01

This article profiles Neil Slater, the longtime leader of the jazz program at the University of North Texas who encouraged both musical perfection and artistic freedom among his star pupils. Standards are high at North Texas, which has become a Camelot where aspiring jazz musicians have come to hone their skills since 1947, when it offered one of…

The Occupational Aspirations and Expectations of College Students Majoring in Jazz Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Devroop, Karendra

2012-01-01

This study was designed to investigate the occupational aspirations and occupational expectations of college students majoring in jazz studies in the United States. Participants included the population of jazz studies majors (N = 211) at a large mid-southern university known for its prestigious and internationally recognized jazz program. A…

Jazz musicians reveal role of expectancy in human creativity.

PubMed

Przysinda, Emily; Zeng, Tima; Maves, Kellyn; Arkin, Cameron; Loui, Psyche

2017-12-01

Creativity has been defined as the ability to produce work that is novel, high in quality, and appropriate to an audience. While the nature of the creative process is under debate, many believe that creativity relies on real-time combinations of known neural and cognitive processes. One useful model of creativity comes from musical improvisation, such as in jazz, in which musicians spontaneously create novel sound sequences. Here we use jazz musicians to test the hypothesis that individuals with training in musical improvisation, which entails creative generation of musical ideas, might process expectancy differently. We compare jazz improvisers, non-improvising musicians, and non-musicians in the domain-general task of divergent thinking, as well as the musical task of preference ratings for chord progressions that vary in expectation while EEGs were recorded. Behavioral results showed for the first time that jazz musicians preferred unexpected chord progressions. ERP results showed that unexpected stimuli elicited larger early and mid-latency ERP responses (ERAN and P3b), followed by smaller long-latency responses (Late Positivity Potential) in jazz musicians. The amplitudes of these ERP components were significantly correlated with behavioral measures of fluency and originality on the divergent thinking task. Together, results highlight the role of expectancy in creativity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Impact attenuation properties of jazz shoes alter lower limb joint stiffness during jump landings.

PubMed

Fong Yan, Alycia; Smith, Richard M; Hiller, Claire E; Sinclair, Peter J

2017-05-01

To quantify the impact attenuation properties of the jazz shoes, and to investigate the in-vivo effect of four jazz shoe designs on lower limb joint stiffness during a dance-specific jump. Repeated measures. A custom-built mechanical shoe tester similar to that used by athletic shoe companies was used to vertically impact the forefoot and heel region of four different jazz shoe designs. Additionally, dancers performed eight sautés in second position in bare feet and the shoe conditions. Force platforms and 3D-motion capture were used to analyse the joint stiffness of the midfoot, ankle, knee and hip during the jump landings. Mechanical testing of the jazz shoes revealed significant differences in impact attenuation characteristics among each of the jazz shoe designs. Gross knee and midfoot joint stiffness were significantly affected by the jazz shoe designs in the dancers' jump landings. The tested jazz shoe designs altered the impact attenuating capacity of jump landing technique in dancers. The cushioned jazz shoes are recommended particularly for injured dancers to reduce impact on the lower limb. Jazz shoe design should consider the impact attenuation properties of the forefoot region, due to the toe-strike landing technique in dance movement. Copyright © 2016 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Jazz Researchers: Riding the Dissonance of Pedagogy and Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lozenski, Brian D.

2016-01-01

Drawing from a two-year ethnographic study, this article establishes jazz as an epistemological metaphor for critical participatory action research. The author juxtaposes the tensions inherent in jazz music and critical participatory research methodologies to provide a framework for understanding how dissonance can become a productive element for…

Generating Ideas in Jazz Improvisation: Where Theory Meets Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hargreaves, Wendy

2012-01-01

Idea generation is an integral component of jazz improvising. This article merges theoretical origins and practical experiences through the examination of two seminal works from Pressing and Sudnow. A comparative analysis yields three common sources with distinct characteristics. The greater body of jazz literature supports this potential link…

Will Jazz Survive? Thoughts on the State of the Great American Art.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benjamin, Playthell

1983-01-01

Jazz is undoubtedly the great North American contribution to art, yet this art form is undermined by the White music elite which chooses instead to support institutions that perpetuate European music. When jazz is given attention in the mass media, both its Black origins and the great Black jazz artists are largely ignored. (GC)

Freedom of Expression and Rhetorical Art: The Problems of Avant-Garde Jazz.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Francesconi, Robert

Although the success of black jazz has been limited by its lack of recognition in the white-controlled music industry, its rhetorical development as an expression of black consciousness can be traced from the bebop of the 1940s and early 1950s, through the hard bop and free jazz of the 1960s, to the jazz orientation of the disco circuit in the…

Reading "Gatsby"/Performing "Jazz": On Narrative Voice, Race, and Resistance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rogers, Theresa

1998-01-01

Describes an experiment in pairing the novels "The Great Gatsby" (F. Scott Fitzgerald) and "Jazz" (Toni Morrison) in a teacher preparation class. Relates that the students (all European American) initially resisted "Jazz" and accepted "Gatsby" as a timeless classic. Includes responses about another Toni…

Correlated microtiming deviations in jazz and rock music.

PubMed

Sogorski, Mathias; Geisel, Theo; Priesemann, Viola

2018-01-01

Musical rhythms performed by humans typically show temporal fluctuations. While they have been characterized in simple rhythmic tasks, it is an open question what is the nature of temporal fluctuations, when several musicians perform music jointly in all its natural complexity. To study such fluctuations in over 100 original jazz and rock/pop recordings played with and without metronome we developed a semi-automated workflow allowing the extraction of cymbal beat onsets with millisecond precision. Analyzing the inter-beat interval (IBI) time series revealed evidence for two long-range correlated processes characterized by power laws in the IBI power spectral densities. One process dominates on short timescales (t < 8 beats) and reflects microtiming variability in the generation of single beats. The other dominates on longer timescales and reflects slow tempo variations. Whereas the latter did not show differences between musical genres (jazz vs. rock/pop), the process on short timescales showed higher variability for jazz recordings, indicating that jazz makes stronger use of microtiming fluctuations within a measure than rock/pop. Our results elucidate principles of rhythmic performance and can inspire algorithms for artificial music generation. By studying microtiming fluctuations in original music recordings, we bridge the gap between minimalistic tapping paradigms and expressive rhythmic performances.

Correlated microtiming deviations in jazz and rock music

PubMed Central

Sogorski, Mathias; Geisel, Theo

2018-01-01

Musical rhythms performed by humans typically show temporal fluctuations. While they have been characterized in simple rhythmic tasks, it is an open question what is the nature of temporal fluctuations, when several musicians perform music jointly in all its natural complexity. To study such fluctuations in over 100 original jazz and rock/pop recordings played with and without metronome we developed a semi-automated workflow allowing the extraction of cymbal beat onsets with millisecond precision. Analyzing the inter-beat interval (IBI) time series revealed evidence for two long-range correlated processes characterized by power laws in the IBI power spectral densities. One process dominates on short timescales (t < 8 beats) and reflects microtiming variability in the generation of single beats. The other dominates on longer timescales and reflects slow tempo variations. Whereas the latter did not show differences between musical genres (jazz vs. rock/pop), the process on short timescales showed higher variability for jazz recordings, indicating that jazz makes stronger use of microtiming fluctuations within a measure than rock/pop. Our results elucidate principles of rhythmic performance and can inspire algorithms for artificial music generation. By studying microtiming fluctuations in original music recordings, we bridge the gap between minimalistic tapping paradigms and expressive rhythmic performances. PMID:29364920

Jazz Up Your Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lim, Janine

2010-01-01

In this article, the author describes the Jazz Workshop, a unique blend of collaboration and constructivist learning using videoconferencing and Web 2.0 tools. Each summer it draws about 400 participants--mostly teachers, technology facilitators, teacher librarians, and videoconferencing coordinators--who convene in 20 locations across three…

Development of a Rubric for Collegiate Jazz Improvisation Performance Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Kendall Ryan

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a jazz improvisation rubric for the evaluation of collegiate jazz improvisation. To create this measure, research objectives were devised to investigate the aurally-observed performer-controlled components of improvisation, which aurally-observed components should be evaluated in an improvisatory…

Jazz Style and Articulation: How to Get Your Band or Choir to Swing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tolson, Jerry

2012-01-01

The interpretation of jazz style is crucial to the element of swing in any jazz ensemble performance. Today, many charts for both large and small instrumental and vocal jazz ensembles are well marked with articulations and expression markings. However, in some cases, there is nothing to guide the musician. This article addresses some common jazz…

Relationships among Selected Practice Behaviours and Achievement in Jazz Improvisation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watson, Kevin E.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the practice strategies that collegiate music majors chose to employ in preparing for a jazz improvisation performance, and the relationships among selected practice behaviours and achievement in instrumental jazz improvisation. Participants for the study (N = 62) were enrolled as music majors…

Jazz and the 'art' of medicine: improvisation in the medical encounter.

PubMed

Haidet, Paul

2007-01-01

Improvisation is an important aspect of patient-physician communication. It is also a defining feature of jazz music performance. This essay uses examples from jazz to illustrate principles of improvisation that relate to an individual communication act (ie, building space into one's communication), a physician's communicative style (ie, developing one's voice), and the communicative process of the medical encounter (ie, achieving ensemble). At all 3 levels, the traditions of jazz improvisation can inform efforts to research and teach medical interviewing by fostering a contextualized view of patient-physician communication.

Form Analysis for Jazz Arrangers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, John C.

1980-01-01

The author discusses the importance of the study of the contour of form and of a review of how music elements affect contour when studying jazz composition. When this has been mastered, students can begin the study of style. (Author/KC)

Gender and Participation in High School and College Instrumental Jazz Ensembles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKeage, Kathleen M.

2004-01-01

This study is an examination of the relationship between gender and participation in high school and college instrumental jazz ensembles. Student demographic and attitudinal information was collected using the researcher-designed Instrumental Jazz Participation Survey (IJPS). Undergraduate college band students (N = 628) representing 15 programs…

Stealing Knowledge in a Landscape of Learning: Conceptualizations of Jazz Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bjerstedt, Sven

2016-01-01

Theoretical approaches to learning in practice-based jazz improvisation contexts include situated learning and ecological perspectives. This article focuses on how interest-driven, self-sustaining jazz learning activities can be matched against the concepts of stolen knowledge (Brown & Duguid, 1996) and landscape of learning (Bjerstedt, 2014).…

SmAll That Jazz

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bluemel, Dina

2007-01-01

This article describes how Viktor Schreckengost's work had been a learning experience for the students of Grant Elementary School. Viktor's most famous work, "Jazz Bowl," was the focus of the author's curriculum. Viktor created this punch bowl for Eleanor Roosevelt in the 1930s. The bowl was so popular that a series of them were produced. The…

Jazz: A Beginner's Guide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poliniak, Susan

2011-01-01

Introducing jazz music to elementary and middle school students can open a multitude of creative doors--provided that teachers know how and where to start. This article presents a sample of what Christine Nowmos teaches to her kindergarten-through-fourth-grade classrooms over the course of two months. During January and February each year, she has…

Listeners' and Performers' Shared Understanding of Jazz Improvisations.

PubMed

Schober, Michael F; Spiro, Neta

2016-01-01

This study explores the extent to which a large set of musically experienced listeners share understanding with a performing saxophone-piano duo, and with each other, of what happened in three improvisations on a jazz standard. In an online survey, 239 participants listened to audio recordings of three improvisations and rated their agreement with 24 specific statements that the performers and a jazz-expert commenting listener had made about them. Listeners endorsed statements that the performers had agreed upon significantly more than they endorsed statements that the performers had disagreed upon, even though the statements gave no indication of performers' levels of agreement. The findings show some support for a more-experienced-listeners-understand-more-like-performers hypothesis: Listeners with more jazz experience and with experience playing the performers' instruments endorsed the performers' statements more than did listeners with less jazz experience and experience on different instruments. The findings also strongly support a listeners-as-outsiders hypothesis: Listeners' ratings of the 24 statements were far more likely to cluster with the commenting listener's ratings than with either performer's. But the pattern was not universal; particular listeners even with similar musical backgrounds could interpret the same improvisations radically differently. The evidence demonstrates that it is possible for performers' interpretations to be shared with very few listeners, and that listeners' interpretations about what happened in a musical performance can be far more different from performers' interpretations than performers or other listeners might assume.

Listeners' and Performers' Shared Understanding of Jazz Improvisations

PubMed Central

Schober, Michael F.; Spiro, Neta

2016-01-01

This study explores the extent to which a large set of musically experienced listeners share understanding with a performing saxophone-piano duo, and with each other, of what happened in three improvisations on a jazz standard. In an online survey, 239 participants listened to audio recordings of three improvisations and rated their agreement with 24 specific statements that the performers and a jazz-expert commenting listener had made about them. Listeners endorsed statements that the performers had agreed upon significantly more than they endorsed statements that the performers had disagreed upon, even though the statements gave no indication of performers' levels of agreement. The findings show some support for a more-experienced-listeners-understand-more-like-performers hypothesis: Listeners with more jazz experience and with experience playing the performers' instruments endorsed the performers' statements more than did listeners with less jazz experience and experience on different instruments. The findings also strongly support a listeners-as-outsiders hypothesis: Listeners' ratings of the 24 statements were far more likely to cluster with the commenting listener's ratings than with either performer's. But the pattern was not universal; particular listeners even with similar musical backgrounds could interpret the same improvisations radically differently. The evidence demonstrates that it is possible for performers' interpretations to be shared with very few listeners, and that listeners' interpretations about what happened in a musical performance can be far more different from performers' interpretations than performers or other listeners might assume. PMID:27853438

The Exceptional Art of Hank Mobley's 1955-1970 Jazz Compositions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Russell M.

2009-01-01

Hank Mobley had profound influence on the East coast style of jazz. As a composer, he was a major contributor to the development of the specific style of East Coast jazz known as hard bop. Between the years of 1955 and 1970, Hank Mobley recorded one hundred-forty two original compositions. Due to the lack of published transcriptions and analyses…

Jazz and the ‘Art’ of Medicine: Improvisation in the Medical Encounter

PubMed Central

Haidet, Paul

2007-01-01

Improvisation is an important aspect of patient-physician communication. It is also a defining feature of jazz music performance. This essay uses examples from jazz to illustrate principles of improvisation that relate to an individual communication act (ie, building space into one’s communication), a physician’s communicative style (ie, developing one’s voice), and the communicative process of the medical encounter (ie, achieving ensemble). At all 3 levels, the traditions of jazz improvisation can inform efforts to research and teach medical interviewing by fostering a contextualized view of patient-physician communication. PMID:17389542

How to Stage a Jazz Festival.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marantz, Bart

1982-01-01

Describes how to organize a successful college jazz festival. The author discusses how to find funding, the importance of getting good musical clinicians and star attractions, and the use of media to promote the festival. (AM)

Playing off the beat: Applying the jazz paradigm to psychotherapy.

PubMed

Johnson, David Read

2018-02-01

A jazz paradigm is applied to traditional psychotherapy practice, illuminating the links between psychotherapy and the Romantic aesthetic tradition, primarily in the centrality of concepts such as attunement. Modernist disruptions of realism during the early 20 th century, such as jazz, elaborated dissonant and improvisational artistic impulses that brought new vitality to their art forms. The psychotherapeutic relationship also has potential avenues for multilevel and discrepant communication that open possibilities of freedom. However, the limitations imposed by the single channel nature of comprehended language, compared with the capacity of artistic media to express multiple sensory information simultaneously, remain the most significant obstacle to dimensionalizing the psychotherapeutic dialogue. Psychotherapy may have much to gain from embracing some of the concepts underlying the jazz aesthetic. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Valuing Cultural Context and Style: Strategies for Teaching Traditional Jazz Dance from the Inside Out

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hubbard, Karen W.

2008-01-01

This article presents an approach to teaching that acknowledges the history and style of authentic jazz dance; also known as traditional jazz dance. Described for students on the first class-day as "...your great-grandparents' jazz..." the course is an introduction to the stylistic characteristics of an indigenous U.S. form evolved primarily from…

Humanizing the Deities of Jazz

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jeppesen, Scott

2017-01-01

As musicians, we have been taught to idolize certain figures in music history. These individuals are considered untouchable, unassailable, and unquestionably brilliant. This practice is increasingly evident in jazz. Figures like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis have all undergone a virtual apotheosis. While there is…

The effect of modified jazz dance on balance, cognition, and mood in older adults.

PubMed

Alpert, Patricia T; Miller, Sally K; Wallmann, Harvey; Havey, Richard; Cross, Chad; Chevalia, Theresa; Gillis, Carrie B; Kodandapari, Keshavan

2009-02-01

The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the impact of jazz dance class instruction on balance, cognition, and mood (specifically depression) in 13 healthy, community-dwelling, English-speaking older women with a mean age of 68. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires (Folstein Mini Mental Status Examination [MMSE] and Geriatric Depression Scale [GDS]), and the sensory organization test (SOT) for balance measurements (using the NeuroCom Smart Balance Master) was performed at three time periods in the study: time 1: between week 1 and week 2 of jazz class (baseline), time 2: between week 8 and week 9 of jazz class (midpoint), and time 3: after week 15 of jazz class (final measurement). Differences in mean MMSE and GDS scores over time were not significant; however, SOT scores showed an increasing trend (p < .001). Data analysis using analysis of variance with repeated measures showed that balance measures improved throughout the duration of the study (F(2,10)= 19.68, p < .001). Post hoc analyses using paired t tests with a Bonferroni correction indicated that significant increases in balance occurred from time 1 to time 2 and from time 2 to time 3. These preliminary pilot study findings suggest that jazz dance does not impact cognition or mood but may improve balance in older women. This finding may have significant implications for fall prevention in the postmenopausal population. Because falls are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in older adults of both genders, research is needed to evaluate both the impact of jazz dance on balance in older men and jazz dance as a fall prevention strategy in aging adults. Additionally, longitudinal research with a larger sample size is needed to test the effectiveness of jazz dance as a strategy for improving balance, cognition, and mood.

Forty lives in the bebop business: mental health in a group of eminent jazz musicians.

PubMed

Wills, Geoffrey I

2003-09-01

Above-average levels of psychopathology have been demonstrated convincingly in groups of outstanding individuals working in the arts. Currently, jazz musicians have not been studied in this regard. To investigate any evidence of psychopathology in a group of eminent jazz musicians. Biographical material relating to 40 eminent American modern jazz musicians was reviewed and an attempt was made to formulate diagnoses using DSM-IV. Evidence was provided of levels of psychopathology in the sample of jazz musicians similar to those found in other previously investigated creative groups, with the exception of substance related problems. An interesting connection between creativity and sensation-seeking was highlighted. The link between psychopathology and creativity in the arts was given further weight. Future studies of jazz musicians using larger samples and making comparison with groups from different eras of music would give greater clarification to this area.

Landscapes of Musical Metaphor and Musical Learning: The Example of Jazz Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bjerstedt, Sven

2015-01-01

Theoretical approaches to learning in practice-based jazz improvisation contexts include situated learning and ecological perspectives. This article focuses on how interest-driven, self-sustaining jazz learning activities can be matched against the results of a recent Swedish investigation based on extensive qualitative interviews with jazz…

Exploring the 12-Key Approach: Perceptions and Experiences of Improvising Jazz Vocalists

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hargreaves, Wendy

2016-01-01

The 12-key approach is considered a foundational practice strategy for jazz instrumentalists. Its relevance to vocalists, however, seems less clear. This article investigates improvising jazz vocalists' perceptions and experiences of using the 12-key approach as distinguished from instrumentalists'. It uses data from a two-phase, mixed methods…

Learning Pre-Played Solos: Self-Regulated Learning Strategies in Jazz/Improvised Music

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nielsen, Siw G.

2015-01-01

This article reports on the self-regulated learning strategies of two advanced students in jazz/improvised music education when learning pre-played solos over well-known jazz tunes. The students were enrolled in a well-established performance degree programme in a music conservatoire, and videotaped their own individual practice sessions. In…

The artificial zinc finger coding gene 'Jazz' binds the utrophin promoter and activates transcription.

PubMed

Corbi, N; Libri, V; Fanciulli, M; Tinsley, J M; Davies, K E; Passananti, C

2000-06-01

Up-regulation of utrophin gene expression is recognized as a plausible therapeutic approach in the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). We have designed and engineered new zinc finger-based transcription factors capable of binding and activating transcription from the promoter of the dystrophin-related gene, utrophin. Using the recognition 'code' that proposes specific rules between zinc finger primary structure and potential DNA binding sites, we engineered a new gene named 'Jazz' that encodes for a three-zinc finger peptide. Jazz belongs to the Cys2-His2 zinc finger type and was engineered to target the nine base pair DNA sequence: 5'-GCT-GCT-GCG-3', present in the promoter region of both the human and mouse utrophin gene. The entire zinc finger alpha-helix region, containing the amino acid positions that are crucial for DNA binding, was specifically chosen on the basis of the contacts more frequently represented in the available list of the 'code'. Here we demonstrate that Jazz protein binds specifically to the double-stranded DNA target, with a dissociation constant of about 32 nM. Band shift and super-shift experiments confirmed the high affinity and specificity of Jazz protein for its DNA target. Moreover, we show that chimeric proteins, named Gal4-Jazz and Sp1-Jazz, are able to drive the transcription of a test gene from the human utrophin promoter.

Putting It Together: Integrating Jazz Education in the Elementary General Music Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferguson, Laura

2004-01-01

American schools have great secondary performance programs, and many of these programs do wonderful things with jazz education. As wonderful as these programs are, only a small percentage of secondary school students join them, and usually the percentage of students participating in the jazz components of these programs is even smaller. As many…

Jazz and substance abuse: road to creative genius or pathway to premature death.

PubMed

Tolson, Gerald H Jerry; Cuyjet, Michael J

2007-01-01

Jazz music and jazz musicians have often been linked for better or worse to the world of addictive substances. Many talented jazz musicians either had their careers sidetracked or prematurely ended due to their addiction to drugs and/or alcohol. The rigors of nightly performances, travel, and for many musicians a disapproving society exacted a toll that impacted the creativity of many artists of the genre. The fact that drug and alcohol use had a significant impact on the performance levels of numerous jazz musicians in the 1940's and 1950's has been much discussed, but more study of that impact is warranted. While recent research has provided new information regarding this challenging topic, there is still much to learn. Indeed, a number of questions for inquiry may be posed. Among those questions are the following: Was the work of these jazz artists truly inspired? Would their creative output have been enhanced had they not been addicted to substances? What was the impact of the addictive substances on their ability to function as creative artists and is there evidence to refute or verify that impact? Are there identifiable traits in certain artists that allowed them to be creative in spite of their addictions? This examination presents an evaluation of the evidence of the link between creativity and substance abuse especially as it relates to selected jazz artists during this time period and how they remained creative and actually prospered in their careers in spite of addictions to controlled substances.

Jazzing up the Psychological Contract

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hartley, Nell Tabor

2010-01-01

Helping students and practitioners to understand and utilize the Psychological Contract is often a difficult task. Unlike fault-finding research, this paper presents the PC as a positive, vibrant and valuable tool. In an effort to make the concept less elusive, the paper draws upon the metaphor of jazz. The metaphor is an accepted tool of…

Using Jazz as a Metaphor to Teach Improvisational Communication Skills

PubMed Central

Jarecke, Jodi; Yang, Chengwu; Teal, Cayla R.; Street, Richard L.; Stuckey, Heather

2017-01-01

Metaphor helps humans understand complex concepts by “mapping” them onto accessible concepts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of using jazz as a metaphor to teach senior medical students improvisational communication skills, and to understand student learning experiences. The authors designed a month-long course that used jazz to teach improvisational communication. A sample of fourth-year medical students (N = 30) completed the course between 2011 and 2014. Evaluation consisted of quantitative and qualitative data collected pre- and post-course, with comparison to a concurrent control group on some measures. Measures included: (a) Student self-reports of knowledge and ability performing communicative tasks; (b) blinded standardized patient assessment of students’ adaptability and quality of listening; and (c) qualitative course evaluation data and open-ended interviews with course students. Compared to control students, course students demonstrated statistically significant and educationally meaningful gains in adaptability and listening behaviors. Students’ course experiences suggested that the jazz components led to high engagement and creativity, and provided a model to guide application of improvisational concepts to their own communication behaviors. Metaphor proved to be a powerful tool in this study, partly through enabling increased reflection and decreased resistance to behaviors that, on the surface, tended to run counter to generally accepted norms. The use of jazz as a metaphor to teach improvisational communication warrants further refinement and investigation. PMID:28777345

Using Jazz as a Metaphor to Teach Improvisational Communication Skills.

PubMed

Haidet, Paul; Jarecke, Jodi; Yang, Chengwu; Teal, Cayla R; Street, Richard L; Stuckey, Heather

2017-08-04

Metaphor helps humans understand complex concepts by "mapping" them onto accessible concepts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of using jazz as a metaphor to teach senior medical students improvisational communication skills, and to understand student learning experiences. The authors designed a month-long course that used jazz to teach improvisational communication. A sample of fourth-year medical students ( N = 30) completed the course between 2011 and 2014. Evaluation consisted of quantitative and qualitative data collected pre- and post-course, with comparison to a concurrent control group on some measures. Measures included: (a) Student self-reports of knowledge and ability performing communicative tasks; (b) blinded standardized patient assessment of students' adaptability and quality of listening; and (c) qualitative course evaluation data and open-ended interviews with course students. Compared to control students, course students demonstrated statistically significant and educationally meaningful gains in adaptability and listening behaviors. Students' course experiences suggested that the jazz components led to high engagement and creativity, and provided a model to guide application of improvisational concepts to their own communication behaviors. Metaphor proved to be a powerful tool in this study, partly through enabling increased reflection and decreased resistance to behaviors that, on the surface, tended to run counter to generally accepted norms. The use of jazz as a metaphor to teach improvisational communication warrants further refinement and investigation.

"Cooking" Lessons for Rhythmic Skills: Jazz Piano.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gray, Jerry

1983-01-01

Jazz improvising basics can be broken down into four major areas: learning to feel rhythm; learning to hear sounds; imagining rhythm and sound combinations; and acquiring an effective technique to express these combinations. (RM)

Sharing the Gift of Jazz: An Interview with Willie L. Hill Jr.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howe, Brad

2011-01-01

This article presents an interview with Willie L. Hill Jr., founder and director of the Society for Jazz Education. Currently a professor of music education at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the director of the UMass Fine Arts Center, Hill has served as director of education for the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. He is a past…

"Play It Again, Billy, but This Time with More Mistakes": Divergent Improvisation Activities for the Jazz Ensemble

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Healy, Daniel J.

2014-01-01

The jazz ensemble represents an important performance opportunity in many school music programs. Due to the cultural history of jazz as an improvisatory art form, school jazz ensemble directors must address methods of teaching improvisation concepts to young students. Progress has been made in the field of prescribed improvisation activities and…

African Retentions in Blues and Jazz.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meadows, Eddie S.

1979-01-01

The perseverance of African musical characteristics among American Blacks is an historic reality. African retentions have been recorded in Black music of the antebellum period. Various African scales and rhythms permeate Black American music today as evidenced in the retentions found in blues and jazz. (RLV)

The artificial gene Jazz, a transcriptional regulator of utrophin, corrects the dystrophic pathology in mdx mice.

PubMed

Di Certo, Maria Grazia; Corbi, Nicoletta; Strimpakos, Georgios; Onori, Annalisa; Luvisetto, Siro; Severini, Cinzia; Guglielmotti, Angelo; Batassa, Enrico Maria; Pisani, Cinzia; Floridi, Aristide; Benassi, Barbara; Fanciulli, Maurizio; Magrelli, Armando; Mattei, Elisabetta; Passananti, Claudio

2010-03-01

The absence of the cytoskeletal protein dystrophin results in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The utrophin protein is the best candidate for dystrophin replacement in DMD patients. To obtain therapeutic levels of utrophin expression in dystrophic muscle, we developed an alternative strategy based on the use of artificial zinc finger transcription factors (ZF ATFs). The ZF ATF 'Jazz' was recently engineered and tested in vivo by generating a transgenic mouse specifically expressing Jazz at the muscular level. To validate the ZF ATF technology for DMD treatment we generated a second mouse model by crossing Jazz-transgenic mice with dystrophin-deficient mdx mice. Here, we show that the artificial Jazz protein restores sarcolemmal integrity and prevents the development of the dystrophic disease in mdx mice. This exclusive animal model establishes the notion that utrophin-based therapy for DMD can be efficiently developed using ZF ATF technology and candidates Jazz as a novel therapeutic molecule for DMD therapy.

Novel adeno-associated viral vector delivering the utrophin gene regulator jazz counteracts dystrophic pathology in mdx mice.

PubMed

Strimpakos, Georgios; Corbi, Nicoletta; Pisani, Cinzia; Di Certo, Maria Grazia; Onori, Annalisa; Luvisetto, Siro; Severini, Cinzia; Gabanella, Francesca; Monaco, Lucia; Mattei, Elisabetta; Passananti, Claudio

2014-09-01

Over-expression of the dystrophin-related gene utrophin represents a promising therapeutic strategy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The strategy is based on the ability of utrophin to functionally replace defective dystrophin. We developed the artificial zinc finger transcription factor "Jazz" that up-regulates both the human and mouse utrophin promoter. We observed a significant recovery of muscle strength in dystrophic Jazz-transgenic mdx mice. Here we demonstrate the efficacy of an experimental gene therapy based on the systemic delivery of Jazz gene in mdx mice by adeno-associated virus (AAV). AAV serotype 8 was chosen on the basis of its high affinity for skeletal muscle. Muscle-specific expression of the therapeutic Jazz gene was enhanced by adding the muscle α-actin promoter to the AAV vector (mAAV). Injection of mAAV8-Jazz viral preparations into mdx mice resulted in muscle-specific Jazz expression coupled with up-regulation of the utrophin gene. We show a significant recovery from the dystrophic phenotype in mAAV8-Jazz-treated mdx mice. Histological and physiological analysis revealed a reduction of fiber necrosis and inflammatory cell infiltration associated with functional recovery in muscle contractile force. The combination of ZF-ATF technology with the AAV delivery can open a new avenue to obtain a therapeutic strategy for treatment of DMD. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A Facet-Factorial Approach towards the Development and Validation of a Jazz Rhythm Section Performance Rating Scale

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wesolowski, Brian C.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable rating scale to assess jazz rhythm sections in the context of jazz big band performance. The research questions that guided this study included: (a) what central factors contribute to the assessment of a jazz rhythm section? (b) what items should be used to describe and assess a jazz…

Moral Outrage and Musical Corruption: White Educators' Responses to the "Jazz Problem"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hardesty, Jacob

2016-01-01

More than a musical genre, jazz in the 1920s was viewed by critics and supporters alike as a type of lifestyle, one that frequently led to drinking, dancing, and "petting." Much to the horror of older generations, white young people were particularly drawn to jazz and its "hot rhythms." Secondary school teachers and…

Canons in Harmony, or Canons in Conflict: A Cultural Perspective on the Curriculum and Pedagogy of Jazz Improvization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prouty, Kenneth E.

2004-01-01

This essay examines how jazz educators construct methods for teaching the art of improvisation in institutionalized jazz studies programs. Unlike previous studies of the processes and philosophies of jazz instruction, I examine such processes from a cultural standpoint, to identify why certain methods might be favored over others. Specifically,…

Rituals of creativity: tradition, modernity, and the "acoustic unconscious" in a U.S. collegiate jazz music program.

PubMed

Wilf, Eitan

2012-01-01

In this article, I seek to complicate the distinction between imitation and creativity, which has played a dominant role in the modern imaginary and anthropological theory. I focus on a U.S. collegiate jazz music program, in which jazz educators use advanced sound technologies to reestablish immersive interaction with the sounds of past jazz masters against the backdrop of the disappearance of performance venues for jazz. I analyze a key pedagogical practice in the course of which students produce precise replications of the recorded improvisations of past jazz masters and then play them in synchrony with the recordings. Through such synchronous iconization, students inhabit and reenact the creativity epitomized by these recordings. I argue that such a practice, which I call a “ritual of creativity,” suggests a coconstitutive relationship between imitation and creativity, which has intensified under modernity because of the availability of new technologies of digital reproduction.

The Value of Clinical Jazz: Teaching Critical Reflection on, in, and Toward Action.

PubMed

Casapulla, Sharon; Longenecker, Randall; Beverly, Elizabeth A

2016-05-01

Clinical Jazz is a small-group strategy in medical education designed to develop interpersonal skills and improve doctor-patient and interprofessional relationships. The purpose of this study was to explore medical students' and faculty facilitators' perceived value of Clinical Jazz. We conducted a modified Nominal Group Process with participating medical students (n=21), faculty facilitators (n=5), and research team members (n=3). Students and faculty facilitators independently answered the question, "What do you value about Clinical Jazz?" We then conducted content and thematic analyses on the resulting data. Three themes emerged during analysis: (1) students and faculty appreciated the opportunity to learn and practice a thoughtful and structured process for problem solving, (2) students and faculty valued the safety of the group process in sharing a diversity of perspectives on topics in medicine, and (3) students and faculty acknowledged the importance of addressing real and challenging problems that are rarely addressed in formal lectures and other planned small-group settings. Clinical Jazz provides students and faculty with the opportunity to address the hidden and/or informal curriculum in medical education, while providing a safe space and time to solve important clinical and interprofessional problems.

An Approach to Improvisation Pedagogy in Post-Secondary Jazz Programmes Based on Negative Dialectics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Louth, Joseph Paul

2012-01-01

This article argues that an approach to jazz improvisation pedagogy based on negative dialectics may provide a viable solution to the threat of codification of the jazz language as a result of the academisation of improvisation studies at the post-secondary level. Some tentative means of incorporating such an approach into the design of university…

Researching Group Assessment: Jazz in the Conservatoire

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barratt, Elisabeth; Moore, Hilary

2005-01-01

This article presents the results of research into methods and scorings for jazz assessment in Trinity College of Music, London, focusing on the possibility of introducing group assessment. It considers the advantages of group assessment methods, contrasting these with the more traditional approach, firmly established in conservatoires, of…

Calculations of lattice vibrational mode lifetimes using Jazz: a Python wrapper for LAMMPS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Y.; Wang, H.; Daw, M. S.

2015-06-01

Jazz is a new python wrapper for LAMMPS [1], implemented to calculate the lifetimes of vibrational normal modes based on forces as calculated for any interatomic potential available in that package. The anharmonic character of the normal modes is analyzed via the Monte Carlo-based moments approximation as is described in Gao and Daw [2]. It is distributed as open-source software and can be downloaded from the website http://jazz.sourceforge.net/.

High-Speed Imaging Analysis of Register Transitions in Classically and Jazz-Trained Male Voices.

PubMed

Dippold, Sebastian; Voigt, Daniel; Richter, Bernhard; Echternach, Matthias

2015-01-01

Little data are available concerning register functions in different styles of singing such as classically or jazz-trained voices. Differences between registers seem to be much more audible in jazz singing than classical singing, and so we hypothesized that classically trained singers exhibit a smoother register transition, stemming from more regular vocal fold oscillation patterns. High-speed digital imaging (HSDI) was used for 19 male singers (10 jazz-trained singers, 9 classically trained) who performed a glissando from modal to falsetto register across the register transition. Vocal fold oscillation patterns were analyzed in terms of different parameters of regularity such as relative average perturbation (RAP), correlation dimension (D2) and shimmer. HSDI observations showed more regular vocal fold oscillation patterns during the register transition for the classically trained singers. Additionally, the RAP and D2 values were generally lower and more consistent for the classically trained singers compared to the jazz singers. However, intergroup comparisons showed no statistically significant differences. Some of our results may support the hypothesis that classically trained singers exhibit a smoother register transition from modal to falsetto register. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Novel Adeno-Associated Viral Vector Delivering the Utrophin Gene Regulator Jazz Counteracts Dystrophic Pathology in mdx Mice

PubMed Central

Strimpakos, Georgios; Corbi, Nicoletta; Pisani, Cinzia; Di Certo, Maria Grazia; Onori, Annalisa; Luvisetto, Siro; Severini, Cinzia; Gabanella, Francesca; Monaco, Lucia; Mattei, Elisabetta; Passananti, Claudio

2014-01-01

Over-expression of the dystrophin-related gene utrophin represents a promising therapeutic strategy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The strategy is based on the ability of utrophin to functionally replace defective dystrophin. We developed the artificial zinc finger transcription factor “Jazz” that up-regulates both the human and mouse utrophin promoter. We observed a significant recovery of muscle strength in dystrophic Jazz-transgenic mdx mice. Here we demonstrate the efficacy of an experimental gene therapy based on the systemic delivery of Jazz gene in mdx mice by adeno-associated virus (AAV). AAV serotype 8 was chosen on the basis of its high affinity for skeletal muscle. Muscle-specific expression of the therapeutic Jazz gene was enhanced by adding the muscle α-actin promoter to the AAV vector (mAAV). Injection of mAAV8-Jazz viral preparations into mdx mice resulted in muscle-specific Jazz expression coupled with up-regulation of the utrophin gene. We show a significant recovery from the dystrophic phenotype in mAAV8-Jazz-treated mdx mice. Histological and physiological analysis revealed a reduction of fiber necrosis and inflammatory cell infiltration associated with functional recovery in muscle contractile force. The combination of ZF-ATF technology with the AAV delivery can open a new avenue to obtain a therapeutic strategy for treatment of DMD. J. Cell. Physiol. 229: 1283–1291, 2014. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of Cellular Physiology Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. PMID:24469912

Vocal Improvisation and Creative Thinking by Australian and American University Jazz Singers: A Factor Analytic Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ward-Steinman, Patrice Madura

2008-01-01

In this study, the author investigated factors underlying vocal improvisation achievement and relationships with the singers' musical background. Participants were 102 college students in Australia and the United States who performed 3 jazz improvisations and 1 free improvisation. Jazz improvisations were rated on rhythmic, tonal, and creative…

The Real Jazz Journalism: "New York Times" Coverage of an Emerging Art Form (1921-1929).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Luther G.

As jazz music found its way onto the public agenda between 1921 and 1929 the "New York Times" became a major forum for the controversy surrounding the new music form. Although jazz was played mostly by black musicians, this fact was seldom reflected in the newspaper's stories, and the specter of racism loomed just beneath the surface of…

BioJazz: in silico evolution of cellular networks with unbounded complexity using rule-based modeling.

PubMed

Feng, Song; Ollivier, Julien F; Swain, Peter S; Soyer, Orkun S

2015-10-30

Systems biologists aim to decipher the structure and dynamics of signaling and regulatory networks underpinning cellular responses; synthetic biologists can use this insight to alter existing networks or engineer de novo ones. Both tasks will benefit from an understanding of which structural and dynamic features of networks can emerge from evolutionary processes, through which intermediary steps these arise, and whether they embody general design principles. As natural evolution at the level of network dynamics is difficult to study, in silico evolution of network models can provide important insights. However, current tools used for in silico evolution of network dynamics are limited to ad hoc computer simulations and models. Here we introduce BioJazz, an extendable, user-friendly tool for simulating the evolution of dynamic biochemical networks. Unlike previous tools for in silico evolution, BioJazz allows for the evolution of cellular networks with unbounded complexity by combining rule-based modeling with an encoding of networks that is akin to a genome. We show that BioJazz can be used to implement biologically realistic selective pressures and allows exploration of the space of network architectures and dynamics that implement prescribed physiological functions. BioJazz is provided as an open-source tool to facilitate its further development and use. Source code and user manuals are available at: http://oss-lab.github.io/biojazz and http://osslab.lifesci.warwick.ac.uk/BioJazz.aspx. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

The Tight-interlocked Rhythm Section: Production and Perception of Synchronisation in Jazz Trio Performance.

PubMed

Hofmann, Alex; Wesolowski, Brian C; Goebl, Werner

2017-01-01

This study investigates the production and perception of timing, synchronisation and dynamics in jazz trio performances. In a production experiment, six trio combinations of one saxophonist, two bassists, and three drummers were recorded while they performed three popular jazz songs. Onset timing and dynamics of each performer were extracted and analysed. Results showed that the tempo was significantly influenced by the timing of the drummers and all performers showed higher temporal precision on the backbeats. The drummers demonstrated individual swing-ratios, accentuations of beats and intrapersonal asynchronies between simultaneous hi-hat and ride cymbal onsets, which resulted in a hi-hat played 2-26 ms ahead of the pulse of the music. In a subsequent perception test, participants ([Formula: see text]) rated 12 excerpts of the jazz recordings. They selected their preferred version from a pool of stimuli containing the original version, but also manipulations with artificially increased or reduced asynchronies. Stimuli with reduced asynchronies smaller than 19 ms were preferred by the listeners over the original or the fully quantised timing. This suggests that listeners endorse a 'tight-interlocked' jazz rhythm section, with asynchronies smaller than the perceptual threshold (temporal masking), but with natural timing variabilities that makes it distinguishable from a computer-generated playback.

The Tight-interlocked Rhythm Section: Production and Perception of Synchronisation in Jazz Trio Performance

PubMed Central

Hofmann, Alex; Wesolowski, Brian C.; Goebl, Werner

2017-01-01

Abstract This study investigates the production and perception of timing, synchronisation and dynamics in jazz trio performances. In a production experiment, six trio combinations of one saxophonist, two bassists, and three drummers were recorded while they performed three popular jazz songs. Onset timing and dynamics of each performer were extracted and analysed. Results showed that the tempo was significantly influenced by the timing of the drummers and all performers showed higher temporal precision on the backbeats. The drummers demonstrated individual swing-ratios, accentuations of beats and intrapersonal asynchronies between simultaneous hi-hat and ride cymbal onsets, which resulted in a hi-hat played 2–26 ms ahead of the pulse of the music. In a subsequent perception test, participants () rated 12 excerpts of the jazz recordings. They selected their preferred version from a pool of stimuli containing the original version, but also manipulations with artificially increased or reduced asynchronies. Stimuli with reduced asynchronies smaller than 19 ms were preferred by the listeners over the original or the fully quantised timing. This suggests that listeners endorse a ‘tight-interlocked’ jazz rhythm section, with asynchronies smaller than the perceptual threshold (temporal masking), but with natural timing variabilities that makes it distinguishable from a computer-generated playback. PMID:29238387

A Survey of Florida High School Instrumental Music Programs: Rationale for the Inclusion of Jazz Ensemble Experience in Music Teacher Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hinkle, Jonathan R.

2011-01-01

During the past 60 years, jazz music has slowly become recognized as a genre worthy of study in high school music programs throughout the United States. Only a few researchers have analyzed large samples of jazz-related instruction in instrumental music programs, and of these studies no data were collected to investigate the inclusion of jazz in…

Descriptions of Improvisational Thinking by Developing Jazz Improvisers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norgaard, Martin

2017-01-01

Research investigating improvisational skill development in adolescent learners is scant. In this study interviews with developing jazz improvisers are used to characterize the skill-building process. The findings were considered in light of two views of skill learning. In one view, students progress through several discrete levels, while in a…

A Pilot Study of Using Jazz Warm Up Exercises in Primary School Choir in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Jason Chi Wai; Lee, Han Wai

2013-01-01

This pilot study is to examine whether it is valuable to implement jazz choral practice in Hong Kong primary school setting. The findings can serve as a reference to explore the possibilities of promoting jazz education in Asian countries or in China. The participants were 70 public primary school students from grade 2 to 5 in Hong Kong. All…

The Five Improvisation "Brains": A Pedagogical Model for Jazz Improvisation at High School and the Undergraduate Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monk, Augusto

2012-01-01

The learning of jazz improvisation is often treated as the incorporation of stylistic vocabulary and development of technical dexterity. Although this methodology is effective, considering other aspects of jazz improvisation can make the learning process a more holistic and less technical endeavour. My experience teaching improvisation has led me…

A Proposed Model of Jazz Theory Knowledge Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ciorba, Charles R.; Russell, Brian E.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to test a hypothesized model that proposes a causal relationship between motivation and academic achievement on the acquisition of jazz theory knowledge. A reliability analysis of the latent variables ranged from 0.92 to 0.94. Confirmatory factor analyses of the motivation (standardized root mean square residual…

Auditory risk assessment of college music students in jazz band-based instructional activity.

PubMed

Gopal, Kamakshi V; Chesky, Kris; Beschoner, Elizabeth A; Nelson, Paul D; Stewart, Bradley J

2013-01-01

It is well-known that musicians are at risk for music-induced hearing loss, however, systematic evaluation of music exposure and its effects on the auditory system are still difficult to assess. The purpose of the study was to determine if college students in jazz band-based instructional activity are exposed to loud classroom noise and consequently exhibit acute but significant changes in basic auditory measures compared to non-music students in regular classroom sessions. For this we (1) measured and compared personal exposure levels of college students (n = 14) participating in a routine 50 min jazz ensemble-based instructional activity (experimental) to personal exposure levels of non-music students (n = 11) participating in a 50-min regular classroom activity (control), and (2) measured and compared pre- to post-auditory changes associated with these two types of classroom exposures. Results showed that the L eq (equivalent continuous noise level) generated during the 50 min jazz ensemble-based instructional activity ranged from 95 dBA to 105.8 dBA with a mean of 99.5 ± 2.5 dBA. In the regular classroom, the L eq ranged from 46.4 dBA to 67.4 dBA with a mean of 49.9 ± 10.6 dBA. Additionally, significant differences were observed in pre to post-auditory measures between the two groups. The experimental group showed a significant temporary threshold shift bilaterally at 4000 Hz (P < 0.05), and a significant decrease in the amplitude of transient-evoked otoacoustic emission response in both ears (P < 0.05) after exposure to the jazz ensemble-based instructional activity. No significant changes were found in the control group between pre- and post-exposure measures. This study quantified the noise exposure in jazz band-based practice sessions and its effects on basic auditory measures. Temporary, yet significant, auditory changes seen in music students place them at risk for hearing loss compared to their non-music cohorts.

Exposure to music and noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) among professional pop/rock/jazz musicians.

PubMed

Halevi-Katz, Dana N; Yaakobi, Erez; Putter-Katz, Hanna

2015-01-01

Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) has been extensively studied in industrial work environments. With the advent of new technologies, loud music has been increasingly affecting listeners outside of the industrial setting. Most research on the effects of music and hearing loss has focused on classical musicians. The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between the amount of experience a professional pop/rock/jazz musician has and objective and subjective variables of the musician's hearing loss. This study also examined professional pop/rock/jazz musicians' use of hearing protection devices in relation to the extent of their exposure to amplified music. Forty-four pop/rock/jazz musicians were interviewed using the Pop/Rock/Jazz Musician's Questionnaire (PRJMQ) in order to obtain self-reported symptoms of tinnitus and hyperacusis. Forty-two of the subjects were also tested for air-conduction hearing thresholds in the frequency range of 1-8 kHz. Results show that the extent of professional pop/rock/jazz musicians' exposure to amplified music was related to both objective and subjective variables of hearing loss: Greater musical experience was positively linked to higher hearing thresholds in the frequency range of 3-6 kHz and to the subjective symptom of tinnitus. Weekly hours playing were found to have a greater effect on hearing loss in comparison to years playing. Use of hearing protection was not linked to the extent of exposure to amplified music. It is recommended that further research be conducted with a larger sample, in order to gain a greater understanding of the detrimental effects of hours playing versus years playing.

Exposure to music and noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) among professional pop/rock/jazz musicians

PubMed Central

Halevi-Katz, Dana N.; Yaakobi, Erez; Putter-Katz, Hanna

2015-01-01

Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) has been extensively studied in industrial work environments. With the advent of new technologies, loud music has been increasingly affecting listeners outside of the industrial setting. Most research on the effects of music and hearing loss has focused on classical musicians. The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between the amount of experience a professional pop/rock/jazz musician has and objective and subjective variables of the musician's hearing loss. This study also examined professional pop/rock/jazz musicians’ use of hearing protection devices in relation to the extent of their exposure to amplified music. Forty-four pop/rock/jazz musicians were interviewed using the Pop/Rock/Jazz Musician's Questionnaire (PRJMQ) in order to obtain self-reported symptoms of tinnitus and hyperacusis. Forty-two of the subjects were also tested for air-conduction hearing thresholds in the frequency range of 1-8 kHz. Results show that the extent of professional pop/rock/jazz musicians’ exposure to amplified music was related to both objective and subjective variables of hearing loss: Greater musical experience was positively linked to higher hearing thresholds in the frequency range of 3-6 kHz and to the subjective symptom of tinnitus. Weekly hours playing were found to have a greater effect on hearing loss in comparison to years playing. Use of hearing protection was not linked to the extent of exposure to amplified music. It is recommended that further research be conducted with a larger sample, in order to gain a greater understanding of the detrimental effects of hours playing versus years playing. PMID:25913555

Jazz in America: Who's Listening? NEA Draft Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeVeaux, Scott, Comp.

This research report examines the data collected in The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) for 1992, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. The study also provides a context for interpreting the data with a comparison to a similar survey of 1982. Jazz was defined as the respondents saw fit. Findings of the survey include:…

Migration, Trauma, PTSD: A Gender Study in Morrison's Jazz

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Motlagh, Leila Tafreshi; Yahya, Wan Roselezam Wan

2014-01-01

Toni Morrison is an acknowledged master of trauma literature, however trauma theory and a gender response to trauma remain largely unaccounted for her migration literature, specifically "Jazz" (1992). In her novel, two migrant women are affected by the same trauma, a crime of passion. But they choose different reactions and coping…

Jazz Musicians as Academic Leaders: Improvisation in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kleinschmidt, Robert A.

2011-01-01

Jazz musicians are unique individuals who seek to perform from a transcendental state in which tacit knowledge, teamwork, and communication blend to produce an effective performance. Academic leaders are also unique individuals who rely on communication to generate a sense of inclusion within a complex organization that at times epitomizes…

Descriptions of Improvisational Thinking by Artist-Level Jazz Musicians

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norgaard, Martin

2011-01-01

Thought processes of seven artist-level jazz musicians, each of whom recorded an improvised solo, were investigated. Immediately after completing their improvisations, participants listened to recordings of their playing and looked at the notation of their solos as they described in a directed interview the thinking processes that led to the…

Ethnic Dance. The Origins of Jazz. A Curriculum Design for Dance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hubbard, Karen W.

1988-01-01

The article describes the development, organization, goals, and activities of a course designed to trace the evolution of jazz dance and tie this dynamic dance form to the cultural experiences of African-Americans. (CB)

Jazz improvisers' shared understanding: a case study.

PubMed

Schober, Michael F; Spiro, Neta

2014-01-01

To what extent and in what arenas do collaborating musicians need to understand what they are doing in the same way? Two experienced jazz musicians who had never previously played together played three improvisations on a jazz standard ("It Could Happen to You") on either side of a visual barrier. They were then immediately interviewed separately about the performances, their musical intentions, and their judgments of their partner's musical intentions, both from memory and prompted with the audiorecordings of the performances. Statements from both (audiorecorded) interviews as well as statements from an expert listener were extracted and anonymized. Two months later, the performers listened to the recordings and rated the extent to which they endorsed each statement. Performers endorsed statements they themselves had generated more often than statements by their performing partner and the expert listener; their overall level of agreement with each other was greater than chance but moderate to low, with disagreements about the quality of one of the performances and about who was responsible for it. The quality of the performances combined with the disparities in agreement suggest that, at least in this case study, fully shared understanding of what happened is not essential for successful improvisation. The fact that the performers endorsed an expert listener's statements more than their partner's argues against a simple notion that performers' interpretations are always privileged relative to an outsider's.

Informal in Formal: The Relationship of Informal and Formal Learning in Popular and Jazz Music Master Workshops in Conservatoires

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Virkkula, Esa

2016-01-01

The present article will examine informal learning in popular and jazz music education in Finland and evaluate it as a part of formal upper secondary vocational musicians' training, which is typically teacher directed. It is not necessarily the best model of working in popular and jazz music learning, which has traditionally benefitted from…

Reflections on Freirean Pedagogy in a Jazz Combo Lab

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shevock, Daniel J.

2015-01-01

Paulo Freire was an important figure in adult education whose pedagogy has been used in music education. In this act of praxis (reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it), I share an autoethnography of my teaching of a university-level small ensemble jazz class. The purpose of this autoethnography was to examine my teaching…

Exploring an Industry-Based Jazz Education Performance Training Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kerr, Derrin; Knight, Bruce Allen

2010-01-01

The Central Queensland Conservatorium of Music (CQCM) has maintained a partnership with Hamilton Island Enterprises (HIE) since 2002. As a part of this partnership, the Bachelor of Music (jazz & popular) students visit Hamilton Island (HI), an island resort located off the Australian east coast, four to six times annually to engage in 3 to 10…

Auditory Profiles of Classical, Jazz, and Rock Musicians: Genre-Specific Sensitivity to Musical Sound Features.

PubMed

Tervaniemi, Mari; Janhunen, Lauri; Kruck, Stefanie; Putkinen, Vesa; Huotilainen, Minna

2015-01-01

When compared with individuals without explicit training in music, adult musicians have facilitated neural functions in several modalities. They also display structural changes in various brain areas, these changes corresponding to the intensity and duration of their musical training. Previous studies have focused on investigating musicians with training in Western classical music. However, musicians involved in different musical genres may display highly differentiated auditory profiles according to the demands set by their genre, i.e., varying importance of different musical sound features. This hypothesis was tested in a novel melody paradigm including deviants in tuning, timbre, rhythm, melody transpositions, and melody contour. Using this paradigm while the participants were watching a silent video and instructed to ignore the sounds, we compared classical, jazz, and rock musicians' and non-musicians' accuracy of neural encoding of the melody. In all groups of participants, all deviants elicited an MMN response, which is a cortical index of deviance discrimination. The strength of the MMN and the subsequent attentional P3a responses reflected the importance of various sound features in each music genre: these automatic brain responses were selectively enhanced to deviants in tuning (classical musicians), timing (classical and jazz musicians), transposition (jazz musicians), and melody contour (jazz and rock musicians). Taken together, these results indicate that musicians with different training history have highly specialized cortical reactivity to sounds which violate the neural template for melody content.

Auditory Profiles of Classical, Jazz, and Rock Musicians: Genre-Specific Sensitivity to Musical Sound Features

PubMed Central

Tervaniemi, Mari; Janhunen, Lauri; Kruck, Stefanie; Putkinen, Vesa; Huotilainen, Minna

2016-01-01

When compared with individuals without explicit training in music, adult musicians have facilitated neural functions in several modalities. They also display structural changes in various brain areas, these changes corresponding to the intensity and duration of their musical training. Previous studies have focused on investigating musicians with training in Western classical music. However, musicians involved in different musical genres may display highly differentiated auditory profiles according to the demands set by their genre, i.e., varying importance of different musical sound features. This hypothesis was tested in a novel melody paradigm including deviants in tuning, timbre, rhythm, melody transpositions, and melody contour. Using this paradigm while the participants were watching a silent video and instructed to ignore the sounds, we compared classical, jazz, and rock musicians' and non-musicians' accuracy of neural encoding of the melody. In all groups of participants, all deviants elicited an MMN response, which is a cortical index of deviance discrimination. The strength of the MMN and the subsequent attentional P3a responses reflected the importance of various sound features in each music genre: these automatic brain responses were selectively enhanced to deviants in tuning (classical musicians), timing (classical and jazz musicians), transposition (jazz musicians), and melody contour (jazz and rock musicians). Taken together, these results indicate that musicians with different training history have highly specialized cortical reactivity to sounds which violate the neural template for melody content. PMID:26779055

A Comparative Analysis of Method Books for Class Jazz Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watson, Kevin E.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare instructional topics and teaching approaches included in selected class method books for jazz pedagogy through content analysis methodology. Frequency counts for the number of pages devoted to each defined instructional content category were compiled and percentages of pages allotted to each…

Effects of jazz on postoperative pain and stress in patients undergoing elective hysterectomy.

PubMed

Rafer, Lorenzo; Austin, Flower; Frey, Jessica; Mulvey, Christie; Vaida, Sonia; Prozesky, Jansie

2015-01-01

Anesthesiologists use various medications to provide surgical patients with pain relief in the postoperative period. Other modalities, such as music, could be used in conjunction with opioids and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to decrease pain and lower heart rate and blood pressure. Our hypothesis was that patients listening to jazz in a postanesthesia care unit (PACU) would have lower heart rates and blood pressures and reduced pain and anxiety. The study objective was to determine if listening to jazz music in the PACU, when compared to wearing noise-canceling headphones with no music playing, would decrease heart rate, blood pressure, pain, or anxiety in patients undergoing a hysterectomy. The research design was a prospective, randomized study. The study was conducted in the PACU at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, PA, USA. A total of 56 patients, aged 18-75 y, who were categorized as status 1 or 2 according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Physical Status Classification System, and who were undergoing elective laparoscopic or abdominal hysterectomies, were enrolled in the study. Patients were randomly assigned either to listen to jazz music where the beats per min (BPM) was <100 (experimental group, n = 28) or to wear noise-canceling headphones (control group, n = 28) for 30 min while in the PACU after their surgery. Heart rate was the primary outcome, and secondary outcomes included systolic and diastolic blood pressure, an anxiety score, and a pain score. All outcome measures were initially recorded at baseline upon the patient's arrival in the PACU. Heart rate and blood pressure were recorded postoperatively every 5 min for the initial 30 min that a patient was in the PACU. Pain was checked every 10 min during the 30-min period; anxiety was checked at 30 min. Heart rates of patients in the noise-cancellation group were significantly lower when compared with baseline (P < .05), at all time points. For

Jazz improvisers' shared understanding: a case study

PubMed Central

Schober, Michael F.; Spiro, Neta

2014-01-01

To what extent and in what arenas do collaborating musicians need to understand what they are doing in the same way? Two experienced jazz musicians who had never previously played together played three improvisations on a jazz standard (“It Could Happen to You”) on either side of a visual barrier. They were then immediately interviewed separately about the performances, their musical intentions, and their judgments of their partner's musical intentions, both from memory and prompted with the audiorecordings of the performances. Statements from both (audiorecorded) interviews as well as statements from an expert listener were extracted and anonymized. Two months later, the performers listened to the recordings and rated the extent to which they endorsed each statement. Performers endorsed statements they themselves had generated more often than statements by their performing partner and the expert listener; their overall level of agreement with each other was greater than chance but moderate to low, with disagreements about the quality of one of the performances and about who was responsible for it. The quality of the performances combined with the disparities in agreement suggest that, at least in this case study, fully shared understanding of what happened is not essential for successful improvisation. The fact that the performers endorsed an expert listener's statements more than their partner's argues against a simple notion that performers' interpretations are always privileged relative to an outsider's. PMID:25152740

'Don't play the butter notes': jazz in medical education.

PubMed

Bradner, Melissa; Harper, Darryl V; Ryan, Mark H; Vanderbilt, Allison A

2016-01-01

Jazz has influenced world music and culture globally - attesting to its universal truths of surviving, enduring, and triumphing over tragedy. This begs the question, what can we glean in medical education from this philosophy of jazz mentoring? Despite our training to understand disease and illness in branching logic diagrams, the human experience of illness is still best understood when told as a story. Stories like music have tempos, pauses, and silences. Often they are not linear but wrap around the past, future, and back to the present, frustrating the novice and the experienced clinician in documenting the history of present illness. The first mentoring lesson Hancock discusses is from a time he felt stuck with his playing - his sound was routine. Miles Davis told him in a low husky murmur, 'Don't play the butter notes'. In medical education, 'don't play the butter notes' suggests not undervaluing the metacognition and reflective aspects of medical training that need to be fostered during the early years of clinical teaching years.

An Analysis of Vocal Jazz Repertoire by Three Selected Publishing Companies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, Wilbur R., Jr.

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to analyze SATB (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) vocal jazz octavos (N = 150) from three publishers in an effort to (a) identify the most prolific arrangers/composers, (b) cite improvisation opportunities, (c) document publisher improvisation markings, (d) indicate repeated titles, (e) identify most popular styles, and…

It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got Musicality: A Music-First Method for Teaching Historically Rooted Jazz Dance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liebhard, Erinn

2015-01-01

This article proposes a method for teaching jazz dance technique according to music concepts and prioritizing deep embodiment of music. This method addresses what can be seen as a disconnect between current practices and historical understanding in jazz dance today, a gap that can be bridged with education empowering students to make innovative…

Assessment of hearing and hearing disorders in rock/jazz musicians.

PubMed

Kähärit, Kim; Zachau, Gunilla; Eklöf, Mats; Sandsjö, Leif; Möller, Claes

2003-07-01

The aim of this study was to assess hearing and hearing disorders among rock/jazz musicians. One hundred and thirty-nine (43 women and 96 men) musicians participated. The results are based on pure-tone audiometry and questionnaire responses. According to our definition of hearing loss, tinnitus, hyperacusis, distortion and/or diplacusis as hearing disorders, we found disorders in 74%, of the rock/jazz musicians studied. Hearing loss, tinnitus and hyperacusis were most common, and the latter two were found significantly more frequently than in different reference populations. The women showed bilateral, significantly better hearing thresholds at 3-6 kHz than the men. Hyperacusis, and the combination of both hyperacusis and tinnitus, were found to be significantly more frequent among women than among men. Hearing loss and tinnitus were significantly more common among men than among women. It is important to evaluate all kinds of hearing problems (other than hearing loss) in musicians, since they represent an occupational group especially dependent on optimal, functional hearing. On the basis of our results, we suggest that hearing problems such as tinnitus, hyperacusis, distortion and/or diplacusis should, in addition to hearing loss, be defined as hearing disorders.

Musical Preferences as a Function of Stimulus Complexity of Piano Jazz

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gordon, Josh; Gridley, Mark C.

2013-01-01

Seven excerpts of modern jazz piano improvisations were selected to represent a range of perceived complexities. Audio recordings of the excerpts were played for 27 listeners who were asked to indicate their level of enjoyment on 7-point scales. Indications of enjoyment followed an inverted-U when plotted against perceived complexity of the music.…

Students Engaging in Diversity: Blogging to Learn the History of Jazz

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stewart, Anissa Ryan; Reid, Jacqueline Marie; Stewart, Jeffrey C.

2014-01-01

This study examined discursive choices made by the instructor of a Black Studies course in constructing what counted as blogging and the history of jazz; how students showed evidence of meeting the course requirements, and how particular students engaged with issues of race and diversity in their blogs. The instructor required blogging to enable…

On Being and Becoming a Jazz Musician: Perceptions of Young Scottish Musicians

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Black, Pauline

2017-01-01

This paper examines what goes on in an improvising jazz combo in a secondary school in Scotland, where teaching follows Rogoff's three-stage sociocultural process, moving from an initial apprenticeship model through one of guided participation to one of participatory appropriation. Using a case study research design and interpretative…

An Aural Learning Project: Assimilating Jazz Education Methods for Traditional Applied Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gamso, Nancy M.

2011-01-01

The Aural Learning Project (ALP) was developed to incorporate jazz method components into the author's classical practice and her applied woodwind lesson curriculum. The primary objective was to place a more focused pedagogical emphasis on listening and hearing than is traditionally used in the classical applied curriculum. The components of the…

Jazz drummers recruit language-specific areas for the processing of rhythmic structure.

PubMed

Herdener, Marcus; Humbel, Thierry; Esposito, Fabrizio; Habermeyer, Benedikt; Cattapan-Ludewig, Katja; Seifritz, Erich

2014-03-01

Rhythm is a central characteristic of music and speech, the most important domains of human communication using acoustic signals. Here, we investigated how rhythmical patterns in music are processed in the human brain, and, in addition, evaluated the impact of musical training on rhythm processing. Using fMRI, we found that deviations from a rule-based regular rhythmic structure activated the left planum temporale together with Broca's area and its right-hemispheric homolog across subjects, that is, a network also crucially involved in the processing of harmonic structure in music and the syntactic analysis of language. Comparing the BOLD responses to rhythmic variations between professional jazz drummers and musical laypersons, we found that only highly trained rhythmic experts show additional activity in left-hemispheric supramarginal gyrus, a higher-order region involved in processing of linguistic syntax. This suggests an additional functional recruitment of brain areas usually dedicated to complex linguistic syntax processing for the analysis of rhythmical patterns only in professional jazz drummers, who are especially trained to use rhythmical cues for communication.

Neurological problems of jazz legends.

PubMed

Pearl, Phillip L

2009-08-01

A variety of neurological problems have affected the lives of giants in the jazz genre. Cole Porter courageously remained prolific after severe leg injuries secondary to an equestrian accident, until he succumbed to osteomyelitis, amputations, depression, and phantom limb pain. George Gershwin resisted explanations for uncinate seizures and personality change and herniated from a right temporal lobe brain tumor, which was a benign cystic glioma. Thelonious Monk had erratic moods, reflected in his pianism, and was ultimately mute and withdrawn, succumbing to cerebrovascular events. Charlie Parker dealt with mood lability and drug dependence, the latter emanating from analgesics following an accident, and ultimately lived as hard as he played his famous bebop saxophone lines and arpeggios. Charles Mingus hummed his last compositions into a tape recorder as he died with motor neuron disease. Bud Powell had severe posttraumatic headaches after being struck by a police stick defending Thelonious Monk during a Harlem club raid.

Automatic Assessment of Acoustic Parameters of the Singing Voice: Application to Professional Western Operatic and Jazz Singers.

PubMed

Manfredi, Claudia; Barbagallo, Davide; Baracca, Giovanna; Orlandi, Silvia; Bandini, Andrea; Dejonckere, Philippe H

2015-07-01

The obvious perceptual differences between various singing styles like Western operatic and jazz rely on specific dissimilarities in vocal technique. The present study focuses on differences in vibrato acoustics and in singer's formant as analyzed by a novel software tool, named BioVoice, based on robust high-resolution and adaptive techniques that have proven its validity on synthetic voice signals. A total of 48 professional singers were investigated (29 females; 19 males; 29 Western operatic; and 19 jazz). They were asked to sing "a cappella," but with artistic expression, a well-known musical phrase from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, in their own style: either operatic or jazz. A specific sustained note was extracted for detailed vibrato analysis. Beside rate (s(-1)) and extent (cents), duration (seconds) and regularity were computed. Two new concepts are introduced: vibrato jitter and vibrato shimmer, by analogy with the traditional jitter and shimmer of voice signals. For the singer's formant, on the same sustained tone, the ratio of the acoustic energy in formants 1-2 to the energy in formants 3, 4, and 5 was automatically computed, providing a quality ratio (QR). Vibrato rates did not differ among groups. Extent was significantly larger in operatic singers, particularly females. Vibrato jitter and vibrato shimmer were significantly smaller in operatic singers. Duration of vibrato was also significantly longer in operatic singers. QR was significantly lower in male operatic singers. Some vibrato characteristics (extent, regularity, and duration) very clearly differentiate the Western operatic singing style from the jazz singing style. The singer's formant is typical of male operatic singers. The new software tool is well suited to provide useful feedback in a pedagogical context. Copyright © 2015 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Vocal Jazz Ensemble: Systemic Interactions in the Creation of Three University Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Letson, Stephanie Austin

2010-01-01

This study examined the experiences of three vocal jazz ensemble directors who influenced the field through their successful programs at the university level. These directors, Dr. Gene Aitken, Professor Larry Lapin, and Dr. Stephen Zegree, were chosen because of their national reputations as well as their program's longevity and success. The…

The Cultural-Rhetorical Role of Free Jazz: Forging an Identity in the Sixties.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Francesconi, Robert

The free jazz movement of the 1960s provided a rhetorical parallel in music to the verbal messages of black power and black nationalism. The use of Third World musical patterns represented an attempt to reinforce the revolutions in perceptions that black Americans held of themselves, their cultural heritage, and relationships to the rest of the…

Learning and remembering strategies of novice and advanced jazz dancers for skill level appropriate dance routines.

PubMed

Poon, P P; Rodgers, W M

2000-06-01

This study examined the influence of the challenge level of to-be-learned stimulus on learning strategies in novice and advanced dancers. In Study 1, skill-level appropriate dance routines were developed for novice and advanced jazz dancers. In Study 2, 8 novice and 9 advanced female jazz dancers attempted to learn and remember the two routines in mixed model factorial design, with one between-participants factor: skill level (novice or advanced) and two within-participants factors: routine (easy or difficult) and performance (immediate or delayed). Participants were interviewed regarding the strategies used to learn and remember the routines. Results indicated that advanced performers used atypical learning strategies for insufficiently challenging stimuli, which may reflect characteristics of the stimuli rather than the performer. The qualitative data indicate a clear preference of novice and advanced performers for spatial compatibility of stimuli and response.

Differences between Male and Female Students' Confidence, Anxiety, and Attitude toward Learning Jazz Improvisation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wehr-Flowers, Erin

2006-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the gender differences in the social-psychological constructs of confidence, anxiety, and attitude as they relate to jazz improvisation participation. Three subscales of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Survey (1976) were modified for this task, and surveys (N = 332) were given to students of…

A Machine Learning Approach to Discover Rules for Expressive Performance Actions in Jazz Guitar Music.

PubMed

Giraldo, Sergio I; Ramirez, Rafael

2016-01-01

Expert musicians introduce expression in their performances by manipulating sound properties such as timing, energy, pitch, and timbre. Here, we present a data driven computational approach to induce expressive performance rule models for note duration, onset, energy, and ornamentation transformations in jazz guitar music. We extract high-level features from a set of 16 commercial audio recordings (and corresponding music scores) of jazz guitarist Grant Green in order to characterize the expression in the pieces. We apply machine learning techniques to the resulting features to learn expressive performance rule models. We (1) quantitatively evaluate the accuracy of the induced models, (2) analyse the relative importance of the considered musical features, (3) discuss some of the learnt expressive performance rules in the context of previous work, and (4) assess their generailty. The accuracies of the induced predictive models is significantly above base-line levels indicating that the audio performances and the musical features extracted contain sufficient information to automatically learn informative expressive performance patterns. Feature analysis shows that the most important musical features for predicting expressive transformations are note duration, pitch, metrical strength, phrase position, Narmour structure, and tempo and key of the piece. Similarities and differences between the induced expressive rules and the rules reported in the literature were found. Differences may be due to the fact that most previously studied performance data has consisted of classical music recordings. Finally, the rules' performer specificity/generality is assessed by applying the induced rules to performances of the same pieces performed by two other professional jazz guitar players. Results show a consistency in the ornamentation patterns between Grant Green and the other two musicians, which may be interpreted as a good indicator for generality of the ornamentation rules.

A Machine Learning Approach to Discover Rules for Expressive Performance Actions in Jazz Guitar Music

PubMed Central

Giraldo, Sergio I.; Ramirez, Rafael

2016-01-01

Expert musicians introduce expression in their performances by manipulating sound properties such as timing, energy, pitch, and timbre. Here, we present a data driven computational approach to induce expressive performance rule models for note duration, onset, energy, and ornamentation transformations in jazz guitar music. We extract high-level features from a set of 16 commercial audio recordings (and corresponding music scores) of jazz guitarist Grant Green in order to characterize the expression in the pieces. We apply machine learning techniques to the resulting features to learn expressive performance rule models. We (1) quantitatively evaluate the accuracy of the induced models, (2) analyse the relative importance of the considered musical features, (3) discuss some of the learnt expressive performance rules in the context of previous work, and (4) assess their generailty. The accuracies of the induced predictive models is significantly above base-line levels indicating that the audio performances and the musical features extracted contain sufficient information to automatically learn informative expressive performance patterns. Feature analysis shows that the most important musical features for predicting expressive transformations are note duration, pitch, metrical strength, phrase position, Narmour structure, and tempo and key of the piece. Similarities and differences between the induced expressive rules and the rules reported in the literature were found. Differences may be due to the fact that most previously studied performance data has consisted of classical music recordings. Finally, the rules' performer specificity/generality is assessed by applying the induced rules to performances of the same pieces performed by two other professional jazz guitar players. Results show a consistency in the ornamentation patterns between Grant Green and the other two musicians, which may be interpreted as a good indicator for generality of the ornamentation rules

The Effects of Aural versus Notated Instructional Materials on Achievement and Self-Efficacy in Jazz Improvisation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watson, Kevin E.

2010-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of aural versus notated pedagogical materials on achievement and self-efficacy in instrumental jazz improvisation performance. A secondary purpose of this study was to investigate how achievement and self-efficacy may be related to selected experience variables. The sample for the…

Novel activation domain derived from Che-1 cofactor coupled with the artificial protein Jazz drives utrophin upregulation.

PubMed

Desantis, Agata; Onori, Annalisa; Di Certo, Maria Grazia; Mattei, Elisabetta; Fanciulli, Maurizio; Passananti, Claudio; Corbi, Nicoletta

2009-02-01

Our aim is to upregulate the expression level of the dystrophin related gene utrophin in Duchenne muscular dystrophy, thus complementing the lack of dystrophin functions. To this end, we have engineered synthetic zinc finger based transcription factors. We have previously shown that the artificial three-zinc finger protein named Jazz fused with the Vp16 activation domain, is able to bind utrophin promoter A and to increase the endogenous level of utrophin in transgenic mice. Here, we report on an innovative artificial protein, named CJ7, that consists of Jazz DNA binding domain fused to a novel activation domain derived from the regulatory multivalent adaptor protein Che-1/AATF. This transcriptional activation domain is 100 amino acids in size and it is very powerful as compared to the Vp16 activation domain. We show that CJ7 protein efficiently promotes transcription and accumulation of the acetylated form of histone H3 on the genomic utrophin promoter locus.

Creating in the Collective: Dialogue, Collaboration, and the Search for Understanding in the Jazz Small Group

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Branker, Anthony Daniel John

2010-01-01

What would happen if college students involved in jazz small group performance were given the opportunity to be musically independent and self-directed while working in their own collaborative space? What sorts of things would they experience? What kind of learning space would they create for themselves? The purpose of this study was to…

Describing different styles of singing: a comparison of a female singer's voice source in "Classical", "Pop", "Jazz" and "Blues".

PubMed

Thalén, M; Sundberg, J

2001-01-01

The voice is apparently used in quite different manners in different styles of singing. Some of these differences concern the voice source, which varies considerably with loudness, pitch, and mode of phonation. We attempt to describe voice source differences between Classical, Pop, Jazz and Blues styles of singing as produced in a triad melody pattern by a professional female singer in soft, middle and loud phonation. An expert panel was asked to identify these triads as examples of either Classical, Pop, Jazz or Blues. The voice source was analysed by inverse filtering. Subglottal pressure Ps, closed quotient QClosed, glottal compliance (ratio between the air volume contained in a voice pulse and Ps), and the level difference between the two lowest source spectrum partials were analysed in the styles and in four modes of phonation: breathy, flow, neutral, and pressed. The same expert panel rated the degree of pressedness in the entire material. Averages across pitch were calculated for each mode and style and related to their total range of variation in the subject. The glottogram data showed a high correlation with the ratings of pressedness. Based on these correlations a pressedness factor was computed from the glottogram data. A phonation map was constructed with the axes representing mean adduction factor and mean Ps, respectively. In this map Classical was similar to flow phonation, Pop and Jazz to neutral and flow phonation, and Blues to pressed phonation.

Using the Jazz Metaphor to Enhance Student Learning and Skill Development in the Marketing Research Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mills, Michael Kenneth

2010-01-01

The marketing research course is often a very challenging one both for students and instructors. This article discusses how the jazz metaphor can aid the instructor in both facilitating students' learning of the more basic as well as the more specific skills that make up the course, in addition to contributing more to student enjoyment of the…

Difficulties in the neuroscience of creativity: jazz improvisation and the scientific method.

PubMed

McPherson, Malinda; Limb, Charles J

2013-11-01

Creativity is a fundamental and remarkable human capacity, yet the scientific study of creativity has been limited by the difficulty of reconciling the scientific method and creative processes. We outline several hurdles and considerations that should be addressed when studying the cognitive neuroscience of creativity and suggest that jazz improvisation may be one of the most useful experimental models for the study of spontaneous creativity. More broadly, we argue that studying creativity in a way that is both scientifically and ecologically valid requires collaboration between neuroscientists and artists. © 2013 New York Academy of Sciences.

The Youth Worker as Jazz Improviser: Foregrounding Education "In the Moment" within the Professional Development of Youth Workers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, Pete

2014-01-01

This paper argues for the foregrounding of improvisation and education "in the moment" within youth workers' professional development. Devised in collaboration with third-year Youth and Community Work students and lecturers at a university in Birmingham, this participatory action research project drew on work of jazz ethnomusicologists…

Neurosyphilis in Anglo-American Composers and Jazz Musicians.

PubMed

Breitenfeld, Darko; Kust, Davor; Breitenfeld, Tomislav; Prpić, Marin; Lucijanić, Marko; Zibar, Davor; Hostić, Vedran; Franceschi, Maja; Bolanča, Ante

2017-09-01

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted, systemic disease caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum. The most common mechanism of transmission is sexual intercourse. Although there are several hypotheses, the exact origin of the disease remains unknown. Newly published evidence suggests that the hypothesis supporting the theory of the American origin of the disease is the valid one. Among 1500 analyzed pathographies of composers and musicians, data on ten Anglo-American composers and jazz musicians having suffered from neurosyphilis (tertiary stage of the disease) were extracted for this report. In this group of Anglo-American composers and musicians, most of them died from progressive paralysis while still in the creative phase of life. Additionally, diagnoses of eleven other famous neurosyphilitic composers, as well as basic biographic data on ten less known composers that died from neurosyphilis-progressive paralysis are also briefly mentioned. In conclusion, neurosyphilis can cause serious neurological damage, as well as permanent disability or death, preventing further work and skill improvement.

Analysing the Effects of an Industry-Based Jazz Education Performance Training Programme on the Development of Adjunct-Professional Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kerr, Derrin; Knight, Bruce Allen

2011-01-01

Since 2002, The Central Queensland Conservatorium of Music (CQCM) has maintained a partnership with Hamilton Island Enterprises (HIE). Within this partnership the Bachelor of Music (Jazz & Popular) students visit Hamilton Island (HI), an island resort located off the Australian east coast, 4-6 times annually to engage in 3-10 days of…

The effect of a senior jazz dance class on static balance in healthy women over 50 years of age: a pilot study.

PubMed

Wallmann, Harvey W; Gillis, Carrie B; Alpert, Patricia T; Miller, Sally K

2009-01-01

The purpose of this pilot study is to assess the impact of a senior jazz dance class on static balance for healthy women over 50 years of age using the NeuroCom Smart Balance Master System (Balance Master). A total of 12 healthy women aged 54-88 years completed a 15-week jazz dance class which they attended 1 time per week for 90 min per class. Balance data were collected using the Sensory Organization Test (SOT) at baseline (pre), at 7 weeks (mid), and after 15 weeks (post). An equilibrium score measuring postural sway was calculated for each of six different conditions. The composite equilibrium score (all six conditions integrated to 1 score) was used as an overall measure of balance. Repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were used to compare the means of each participant's SOT composite equilibrium score in addition to the equilibrium score for each individual condition (1-6) across the 3 time points (pre, mid, post). There was a statistically significant difference among the means, p < .0005. Pairwise (Bonferroni) post hoc analyses revealed the following statistically significant findings for SOT composite equilibrium scores for the pre (67.33 + 10.43), mid (75.25 + 6.97), and post (79.00 + 4.97) measurements: premid (p = .008); prepost (p < .0005); midpost (p = .033). In addition, correlational statistics were used to determine any relationship between SOT scores and age. Results indicated that administration of a 15-week jazz dance class 1 time per week was beneficial in improving static balance as measured by the Balance Master SOT.

Musical genre-dependent behavioural and EEG signatures of action planning. A comparison between classical and jazz pianists.

PubMed

Bianco, R; Novembre, G; Keller, P E; Villringer, A; Sammler, D

2018-04-01

It is well established that musical training induces sensorimotor plasticity. However, there are remarkable differences in how musicians train for proficient stage performance. The present EEG study outlines for the first time clear-cut neurobiological differences between classical and jazz musicians at high and low levels of action planning, revealing genre-specific cognitive strategies adopted in production. Pianists imitated chord progressions without sound that were manipulated in terms of harmony and context length to assess high-level planning of sequence-structure, and in terms of the manner of playing to assess low-level parameter specification of single acts. Jazz pianists revised incongruent harmonies faster as revealed by an earlier reprogramming negativity and beta power decrease, hence neutralising response costs, albeit at the expense of a higher number of manner errors. Classical pianists in turn experienced more conflict during incongruent harmony, as shown by theta power increase, but were more ready to implement the required manner of playing, as indicated by higher accuracy and beta power decrease. These findings demonstrate that specific demands and action focus of training lead to differential weighting of hierarchical action planning. This suggests different enduring markers impressed in the brain when a musician practices one or the other style. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Prevalence, risk factors, and effects of performance-related medical disorders (PRMD) among tertiary-trained jazz pianists in Australia and the United States.

PubMed

Wood, Graham C

2014-03-01

This study explores performance-related medical disorders (PRMD) among a sample of tertiary-trained jazz pianists. Participants included both Australian and US pianists (n=214), including current and former tertiary students, professional pianists, and teachers. This mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) exploratory and descriptive study used survey and case studies to provide baseline data for further research. Students reported a past and present period prevalence of 63% for pain and 41% for PRMD (injury attributed to practice or performance) with the forearm being the body part most affected, usually by fatigue. Diagnosis and treatment were reported as often unsatisfactory mainly due to lack of knowledge of PRMD by teachers and by professional health providers, and also to limited access to specialist PRMD services where these exist. Although teacher knowledge of PRMD is quite low, students still seek advice primarily from their teachers. The current study highlights a need to address the issue of PRMD among jazz pianists and their teachers more strategically, both in its prevention and in diagnosis and treatment.

Anodal tDCS to Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Facilitates Performance for Novice Jazz Improvisers but Hinders Experts.

PubMed

Rosen, David S; Erickson, Brian; Kim, Youngmoo E; Mirman, Daniel; Hamilton, Roy H; Kounios, John

2016-01-01

Research on creative cognition reveals a fundamental disagreement about the nature of creative thought, specifically, whether it is primarily based on automatic, associative (Type-1) or executive, controlled (Type-2) processes. We hypothesized that Type-1 and Type-2 processes make differential contributions to creative production that depend on domain expertise. We tested this hypothesis with jazz pianists whose expertise was indexed by the number of public performances given. Previous fMRI studies of musical improvisation have reported that domain expertise is characterized by deactivation of the right-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (r-DLPFC), a brain area associated with Type-2 executive processing. We used anodal, cathodal, and sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied over r-DLPFC with the reference electrode on the contralateral mastoid (1.5 mA for 15 min, except for sham) to modulate the quality of the pianists' performances while they improvised over chords with drum and bass accompaniment. Jazz experts rated each improvisation for creativity, esthetic appeal, and technical proficiency. There was no main effect of anodal or cathodal stimulation on ratings compared to sham; however, a significant interaction between anodal tDCS and expertise emerged such that stimulation benefitted musicians with less experience but hindered those with more experience. We interpret these results as evidence for a dual-process model of creativity in which novices and experts differentially engage Type-1 and Type-2 processes during creative production.

Anodal tDCS to Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Facilitates Performance for Novice Jazz Improvisers but Hinders Experts

PubMed Central

Rosen, David S.; Erickson, Brian; Kim, Youngmoo E.; Mirman, Daniel; Hamilton, Roy H.; Kounios, John

2016-01-01

Research on creative cognition reveals a fundamental disagreement about the nature of creative thought, specifically, whether it is primarily based on automatic, associative (Type-1) or executive, controlled (Type-2) processes. We hypothesized that Type-1 and Type-2 processes make differential contributions to creative production that depend on domain expertise. We tested this hypothesis with jazz pianists whose expertise was indexed by the number of public performances given. Previous fMRI studies of musical improvisation have reported that domain expertise is characterized by deactivation of the right-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (r-DLPFC), a brain area associated with Type-2 executive processing. We used anodal, cathodal, and sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied over r-DLPFC with the reference electrode on the contralateral mastoid (1.5 mA for 15 min, except for sham) to modulate the quality of the pianists' performances while they improvised over chords with drum and bass accompaniment. Jazz experts rated each improvisation for creativity, esthetic appeal, and technical proficiency. There was no main effect of anodal or cathodal stimulation on ratings compared to sham; however, a significant interaction between anodal tDCS and expertise emerged such that stimulation benefitted musicians with less experience but hindered those with more experience. We interpret these results as evidence for a dual-process model of creativity in which novices and experts differentially engage Type-1 and Type-2 processes during creative production. PMID:27899889

Jazz, guitar, and neurosurgery: the Pat Martino case report.

PubMed

Galarza, Marcelo; Isaac, Claire; Pellicer, Olga; Mayes, Andrew; Broks, Paul; Montaldi, Daniela; Denby, Christine; Simeone, Frederick

2014-01-01

We present the case of a professional jazz guitarist with temporal lobe epilepsy secondary to an arteriovenous cerebral malformation. The patient underwent a left temporal lobectomy in 1980. After surgery, he presented with severe retrograde amnesia and complete loss of musical interest and capabilities. The patient's musical abilities recovered over time, and he regained his previous virtuoso status. In 2007, his medical history, neuropsychologic functions, and structural magnetic resonance imaging study were examined and revealed a remarkable degree of recovery of memory and musical abilities in the context of extensive temporal lobe resection. The neuropsychologic findings and neuroanatomic features of the magnetic resonance imaging study were analyzed to try to understand the high degree of recovery of both long-term memory and musical processing abilities in this musician. This case reveals the possibility of an unusual degree of cerebral plasticity and reorganization. Additionally, it emphasizes the question of musical virtuosity. This report shows that the musical capabilities of professional musicians, in specific cases, can completely recover even when much of the left temporal lobe has been removed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Real-time implementation of an interactive jazz accompaniment system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deshpande, Nikhil

Modern computational algorithms and digital signal processing (DSP) are able to combine with human performers without forced or predetermined structure in order to create dynamic and real-time accompaniment systems. With modern computing power and intelligent algorithm layout and design, it is possible to achieve more detailed auditory analysis of live music. Using this information, computer code can follow and predict how a human's musical performance evolves, and use this to react in a musical manner. This project builds a real-time accompaniment system to perform together with live musicians, with a focus on live jazz performance and improvisation. The system utilizes a new polyphonic pitch detector and embeds it in an Ableton Live system - combined with Max for Live - to perform elements of audio analysis, generation, and triggering. The system also relies on tension curves and information rate calculations from the Creative Artificially Intuitive and Reasoning Agent (CAIRA) system to help understand and predict human improvisation. These metrics are vital to the core system and allow for extrapolated audio analysis. The system is able to react dynamically to a human performer, and can successfully accompany the human as an entire rhythm section.

Neural substrates of spontaneous musical performance: an FMRI study of jazz improvisation.

PubMed

Limb, Charles J; Braun, Allen R

2008-02-27

To investigate the neural substrates that underlie spontaneous musical performance, we examined improvisation in professional jazz pianists using functional MRI. By employing two paradigms that differed widely in musical complexity, we found that improvisation (compared to production of over-learned musical sequences) was consistently characterized by a dissociated pattern of activity in the prefrontal cortex: extensive deactivation of dorsolateral prefrontal and lateral orbital regions with focal activation of the medial prefrontal (frontal polar) cortex. Such a pattern may reflect a combination of psychological processes required for spontaneous improvisation, in which internally motivated, stimulus-independent behaviors unfold in the absence of central processes that typically mediate self-monitoring and conscious volitional control of ongoing performance. Changes in prefrontal activity during improvisation were accompanied by widespread activation of neocortical sensorimotor areas (that mediate the organization and execution of musical performance) as well as deactivation of limbic structures (that regulate motivation and emotional tone). This distributed neural pattern may provide a cognitive context that enables the emergence of spontaneous creative activity.

Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz Improvisation

PubMed Central

Limb, Charles J.; Braun, Allen R.

2008-01-01

To investigate the neural substrates that underlie spontaneous musical performance, we examined improvisation in professional jazz pianists using functional MRI. By employing two paradigms that differed widely in musical complexity, we found that improvisation (compared to production of over-learned musical sequences) was consistently characterized by a dissociated pattern of activity in the prefrontal cortex: extensive deactivation of dorsolateral prefrontal and lateral orbital regions with focal activation of the medial prefrontal (frontal polar) cortex. Such a pattern may reflect a combination of psychological processes required for spontaneous improvisation, in which internally motivated, stimulus-independent behaviors unfold in the absence of central processes that typically mediate self-monitoring and conscious volitional control of ongoing performance. Changes in prefrontal activity during improvisation were accompanied by widespread activation of neocortical sensorimotor areas (that mediate the organization and execution of musical performance) as well as deactivation of limbic structures (that regulate motivation and emotional tone). This distributed neural pattern may provide a cognitive context that enables the emergence of spontaneous creative activity. PMID:18301756

A jazz-based approach for optimal setting of pressure reducing valves in water distribution networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Paola, Francesco; Galdiero, Enzo; Giugni, Maurizio

2016-05-01

This study presents a model for valve setting in water distribution networks (WDNs), with the aim of reducing the level of leakage. The approach is based on the harmony search (HS) optimization algorithm. The HS mimics a jazz improvisation process able to find the best solutions, in this case corresponding to valve settings in a WDN. The model also interfaces with the improved version of a popular hydraulic simulator, EPANET 2.0, to check the hydraulic constraints and to evaluate the performances of the solutions. Penalties are introduced in the objective function in case of violation of the hydraulic constraints. The model is applied to two case studies, and the obtained results in terms of pressure reductions are comparable with those of competitive metaheuristic algorithms (e.g. genetic algorithms). The results demonstrate the suitability of the HS algorithm for water network management and optimization.

Recent developments using TowerJazz SiGe BiCMOS platform for mmWave and THz applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kar-Roy, Arjun; Howard, David; Preisler, Edward J.; Racanelli, Marco

2013-05-01

In this paper, we report on the highest speed 240GHz/340GHz FT/FMAX NPN which is now available for product designs in the SBC18H4 process variant of TowerJazz's mature 0.18μm SBC18 silicon germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS technology platform. NFMIN of ~2dB at 50GHz has been obtained with these NPNs. We also describe the integration of earlier generation NPNs with FT/FMAX of 240GHz/280GHz into SBC13H3, a 0.13μm SiGe BiCMOS technology platform. Next, we detail the integration of the deep silicon via (DSV), through silicon via (TSV), high-resistivity substrate, sub-field stitching and hybrid-stitching capability into the 0.18μm SBC18 technology platform to enable higher performance and highly integrated product designs. The integration of SBC18H3 into a thick-film SOI substrate, with essentially unchanged FT and FMAX, is also described. We also report on recent circuit demonstrations using the SBC18H3 platform: (1) a 4-element phased-array 70-100GHz broadband transmit and receive chip with flat saturated power greater than 5dBm and conversion gain of 33dB; (2) a fully integrated W-band 9-element phase-controllable array with responsivity of 800MV/W and receiver NETD is 0.45K with 20ms integration time; (3) a 16-element 4x4 phased-array transmitter with scanning in both the E- and H-planes with maximum EIRP of 23-25 dBm at 100-110GHz; (4) a power efficient 200GHz VCO with -7.25dBm output power and tuning range of 3.5%; and (5) a 320GHz 16-element imaging receiver array with responsivity of 18KV/W at 315GHz, a 3dB bandwidth of 25GHz and a low NEP of 34pW/Hz1/2. Wafer-scale large-die implementation of the phased-arrays and mmWave imagers using stitching in TowerJazz SBC18 process are also discussed.

The perception of musical spontaneity in improvised and imitated jazz performances.

PubMed

Engel, Annerose; Keller, Peter E

2011-01-01

The ability to evaluate spontaneity in human behavior is called upon in the esthetic appreciation of dramatic arts and music. The current study addresses the behavioral and brain mechanisms that mediate the perception of spontaneity in music performance. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, 22 jazz musicians listened to piano melodies and judged whether they were improvised or imitated. Judgment accuracy (mean 55%; range 44-65%), which was low but above chance, was positively correlated with musical experience and empathy. Analysis of listeners' hemodynamic responses revealed that amygdala activation was stronger for improvisations than imitations. This activation correlated with the variability of performance timing and intensity (loudness) in the melodies, suggesting that the amygdala is involved in the detection of behavioral uncertainty. An analysis based on the subjective classification of melodies according to listeners' judgments revealed that a network including the pre-supplementary motor area, frontal operculum, and anterior insula was most strongly activated for melodies judged to be improvised. This may reflect the increased engagement of an action simulation network when melodic predictions are rendered challenging due to perceived instability in the performer's actions. Taken together, our results suggest that, while certain brain regions in skilled individuals may be generally sensitive to objective cues to spontaneity in human behavior, the ability to evaluate spontaneity accurately depends upon whether an individual's action-related experience and perspective taking skills enable faithful internal simulation of the given behavior.

The Perception of Musical Spontaneity in Improvised and Imitated Jazz Performances

PubMed Central

Engel, Annerose; Keller, Peter E.

2011-01-01

The ability to evaluate spontaneity in human behavior is called upon in the esthetic appreciation of dramatic arts and music. The current study addresses the behavioral and brain mechanisms that mediate the perception of spontaneity in music performance. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, 22 jazz musicians listened to piano melodies and judged whether they were improvised or imitated. Judgment accuracy (mean 55%; range 44–65%), which was low but above chance, was positively correlated with musical experience and empathy. Analysis of listeners’ hemodynamic responses revealed that amygdala activation was stronger for improvisations than imitations. This activation correlated with the variability of performance timing and intensity (loudness) in the melodies, suggesting that the amygdala is involved in the detection of behavioral uncertainty. An analysis based on the subjective classification of melodies according to listeners’ judgments revealed that a network including the pre-supplementary motor area, frontal operculum, and anterior insula was most strongly activated for melodies judged to be improvised. This may reflect the increased engagement of an action simulation network when melodic predictions are rendered challenging due to perceived instability in the performer's actions. Taken together, our results suggest that, while certain brain regions in skilled individuals may be generally sensitive to objective cues to spontaneity in human behavior, the ability to evaluate spontaneity accurately depends upon whether an individual's action-related experience and perspective taking skills enable faithful internal simulation of the given behavior. PMID:21738518

Beam test results of a monolithic pixel sensor in the 0.18 μm tower-jazz technology with high resistivity epitaxial layer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mattiazzo, S.; Aimo, I.; Baudot, J.; Bedda, C.; La Rocca, P.; Perez, A.; Riggi, F.; Spiriti, E.

2015-10-01

The ALICE experiment at CERN will undergo a major upgrade in the second Long LHC Shutdown in the years 2018-2019; this upgrade includes the full replacement of the Inner Tracking System (ITS), deploying seven layers of Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS). For the development of the new ALICE ITS, the Tower-Jazz 0.18 μm CMOS imaging sensor process has been chosen as it is possible to use full CMOS in the pixel and different silicon wafers (including high resistivity epitaxial layers). A large test campaign has been carried out on several small prototype chips, designed to optimize the pixel sensor layout and the front-end electronics. Results match the target requirements both in terms of performance and of radiation hardness. Following this development, the first full scale chips have been designed, submitted and are currently under test, with promising results. A telescope composed of 4 planes of Mimosa-28 and 2 planes of Mimosa-18 chips is under development at the DAFNE Beam Test Facility (BTF) at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (LNF) in Italy with the final goal to perform a comparative test of the full scale prototypes. The telescope has been recently used to test a Mimosa-22THRb chip (a monolithic pixel sensor built in the 0.18 μm Tower-Jazz process) and we foresee to perform tests on the full scale chips for the ALICE ITS upgrade at the beginning of 2015. In this contribution we will describe some first measurements of spatial resolution, fake hit rate and detection efficiency of the Mimosa-22THRb chip obtained at the BTF facility in June 2014 with an electron beam of 500 MeV.

Emotional Intent Modulates The Neural Substrates Of Creativity: An fMRI Study of Emotionally Targeted Improvisation in Jazz Musicians

PubMed Central

McPherson, Malinda J.; Barrett, Frederick S.; Lopez-Gonzalez, Monica; Jiradejvong, Patpong; Limb, Charles J.

2016-01-01

Emotion is a primary motivator for creative behaviors, yet the interaction between the neural systems involved in creativity and those involved in emotion has not been studied. In the current study, we addressed this gap by using fMRI to examine piano improvisation in response to emotional cues. We showed twelve professional jazz pianists photographs of an actress representing a positive, negative or ambiguous emotion. Using a non-ferromagnetic thirty-five key keyboard, the pianists improvised music that they felt represented the emotion expressed in the photographs. Here we show that activity in prefrontal and other brain networks involved in creativity is highly modulated by emotional context. Furthermore, emotional intent directly modulated functional connectivity of limbic and paralimbic areas such as the amygdala and insula. These findings suggest that emotion and creativity are tightly linked, and that the neural mechanisms underlying creativity may depend on emotional state. PMID:26725925

Emotional Intent Modulates The Neural Substrates Of Creativity: An fMRI Study of Emotionally Targeted Improvisation in Jazz Musicians.

PubMed

McPherson, Malinda J; Barrett, Frederick S; Lopez-Gonzalez, Monica; Jiradejvong, Patpong; Limb, Charles J

2016-01-04

Emotion is a primary motivator for creative behaviors, yet the interaction between the neural systems involved in creativity and those involved in emotion has not been studied. In the current study, we addressed this gap by using fMRI to examine piano improvisation in response to emotional cues. We showed twelve professional jazz pianists photographs of an actress representing a positive, negative or ambiguous emotion. Using a non-ferromagnetic thirty-five key keyboard, the pianists improvised music that they felt represented the emotion expressed in the photographs. Here we show that activity in prefrontal and other brain networks involved in creativity is highly modulated by emotional context. Furthermore, emotional intent directly modulated functional connectivity of limbic and paralimbic areas such as the amygdala and insula. These findings suggest that emotion and creativity are tightly linked, and that the neural mechanisms underlying creativity may depend on emotional state.

Radiation hardness and timing studies of a monolithic TowerJazz pixel design for the new ATLAS Inner Tracker

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riegel, C.; Backhaus, M.; Van Hoorne, J. W.; Kugathasan, T.; Musa, L.; Pernegger, H.; Riedler, P.; Schaefer, D.; Snoeys, W.; Wagner, W.

2017-01-01

A part of the upcoming HL-LHC upgrade of the ATLAS Detector is the construction of a new Inner Tracker. This upgrade opens new possibilities, but also presents challenges in terms of occupancy and radiation tolerance. For the pixel detector inside the inner tracker, hybrid modules containing passive silicon sensors and connected readout chips are presently used, but require expensive assembly techniques like fine-pitch bump bonding. Silicon devices fabricated in standard commercial CMOS technologies, which include part or all of the readout chain, are also investigated offering a reduced cost as they are cheaper per unit area than traditional silicon detectors. If they contain the full readout chain, as for a fully monolithic approach, there is no need for the expensive flip-chip assembly, resulting in a further cost reduction and material savings. In the outer pixel layers of the ATLAS Inner Tracker, the pixel sensors must withstand non-ionising energy losses of up to 1015 n/cm2 and offer a timing resolution of 25 ns or less. This paper presents test results obtained on a monolithic test chip, the TowerJazz 180nm Investigator, towards these specifications. The presented program of radiation hardness and timing studies has been launched to investigate this technology's potential for the new ATLAS Inner Tracker.

The Rhetorical Dimensions of Black Music Past and Present.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, David N.

Examination of lyrics of the blues and jazz forms of black music indicates their importance as communication. Contemporary styles can be divided into five overlapping categories: (1) "mainstream," the post-"bebop" style and soul jazz; (2) jazz influenced by other ethnic music; (3) the avant-garde jazz, which is often…

The influence of music and stress on musicians' hearing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kähäri, Kim; Zachau, Gunilla; Eklöf, Mats; Möller, Claes

2004-10-01

Hearing and hearing disorders among classical and rock/jazz musicians was investigated. Pure tone audiometry was done in 140 classical and 139 rock/jazz musicians. The rock/jazz musicians answered a questionnaire concerning hearing disorders and psychosocial exposure. All results were compared to age appropriate reference materials. Hearing thresholds showed a notch configuration in both classical and rock/jazz musicians indicating the inclusion of high sound levels but an overall well-preserved hearing thresholds. Female musicians had significantly better hearing thresholds in the high-frequency area than males. Rock/jazz musicians showed slight worse hearing thresholds as compared to classical musicians. When assessing hearing disorders, a large number of rock/jazz musicians suffered from different hearing disorders (74%). Hearing loss, tinnitus and hyperacusis were the most common disorders and were significantly more frequent in comparison with different reference populations. Among classical musicians, no extended negative progress of the pure tone hearing threshold values was found in spite of the continued 16 years of musical noise exposure. In rock/jazz musicians, there was no relationships between psychosocial factors at work and hearing disorders. The rock/jazz musicians reported low stress and high degree of energy. On the average, the rock/jazz musicians reported higher control, lower stress and higher energy than a reference material of white-collar workers.

What About Their Performance Do Free Jazz Improvisers Agree Upon? A Case Study

PubMed Central

Pras, Amandine; Schober, Michael F.; Spiro, Neta

2017-01-01

When musicians improvise freely together—not following any sort of script, predetermined harmonic structure, or “referent”—to what extent do they understand what they are doing in the same way as each other? And to what extent is their understanding privileged relative to outside listeners with similar levels of performing experience in free improvisation? In this exploratory case study, a saxophonist and a pianist of international renown who knew each other's work but who had never performed together before were recorded while improvising freely for 40 min. Immediately afterwards the performers were interviewed separately about the just-completed improvisation, first from memory and then while listening to two 5 min excerpts of the recording in order to prompt specific and detailed commentary. Two commenting listeners from the same performance community (a saxophonist and drummer) listened to, and were interviewed about, these excerpts. Some months later, all four participants rated the extent to which they endorsed 302 statements that had been extracted from the four interviews and anonymized. The findings demonstrate that these free jazz improvisers characterized the improvisation quite differently, selecting different moments to comment about and with little overlap in the content of their characterizations. The performers were not more likely to endorse statements by their performing partner than by a commenting listener from the same performance community, and their patterns of agreement with each other (endorsing or dissenting with statements) across multiple ratings—their interrater reliability as measured with Cohen's kappa—was only moderate, and not consistently higher than their agreement with the commenting listeners. These performers were more likely to endorse statements about performers' thoughts and actions than statements about the music itself, and more likely to endorse evaluatively positive than negative statements. But these kinds

What About Their Performance Do Free Jazz Improvisers Agree Upon? A Case Study.

PubMed

Pras, Amandine; Schober, Michael F; Spiro, Neta

2017-01-01

When musicians improvise freely together-not following any sort of script, predetermined harmonic structure, or "referent"-to what extent do they understand what they are doing in the same way as each other? And to what extent is their understanding privileged relative to outside listeners with similar levels of performing experience in free improvisation? In this exploratory case study, a saxophonist and a pianist of international renown who knew each other's work but who had never performed together before were recorded while improvising freely for 40 min. Immediately afterwards the performers were interviewed separately about the just-completed improvisation, first from memory and then while listening to two 5 min excerpts of the recording in order to prompt specific and detailed commentary. Two commenting listeners from the same performance community (a saxophonist and drummer) listened to, and were interviewed about, these excerpts. Some months later, all four participants rated the extent to which they endorsed 302 statements that had been extracted from the four interviews and anonymized. The findings demonstrate that these free jazz improvisers characterized the improvisation quite differently, selecting different moments to comment about and with little overlap in the content of their characterizations. The performers were not more likely to endorse statements by their performing partner than by a commenting listener from the same performance community, and their patterns of agreement with each other (endorsing or dissenting with statements) across multiple ratings-their interrater reliability as measured with Cohen's kappa-was only moderate, and not consistently higher than their agreement with the commenting listeners. These performers were more likely to endorse statements about performers' thoughts and actions than statements about the music itself, and more likely to endorse evaluatively positive than negative statements. But these kinds of statements

Giving The Duke His Due.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roach, Ronald

1999-01-01

The centennial year of Edward K. "Duke" Ellington's birth has inspired many American colleges and universities to convene tribute concerts and conferences. However, few schools offer majors in jazz-related studies; those that do often maintain strict separation between jazz and classical music instruction. Many in the jazz-education…

Breaking Sound Barriers: New Perspectives on Effective Big Band Development and Rehearsal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greig, Jeremy; Lowe, Geoffrey

2014-01-01

Jazz big band is a common extra-curricular musical activity in Western Australian secondary schools. Jazz big band offers important fundamentals that can help expand a student's musical understanding. However, the teaching of conventions associated with big band jazz has often been haphazard and can be daunting and frightening, especially for…

Monolithic pixel development in TowerJazz 180 nm CMOS for the outer pixel layers in the ATLAS experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berdalovic, I.; Bates, R.; Buttar, C.; Cardella, R.; Egidos Plaja, N.; Hemperek, T.; Hiti, B.; van Hoorne, J. W.; Kugathasan, T.; Mandic, I.; Maneuski, D.; Marin Tobon, C. A.; Moustakas, K.; Musa, L.; Pernegger, H.; Riedler, P.; Riegel, C.; Schaefer, D.; Schioppa, E. J.; Sharma, A.; Snoeys, W.; Solans Sanchez, C.; Wang, T.; Wermes, N.

2018-01-01

The upgrade of the ATLAS tracking detector (ITk) for the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider at CERN requires the development of novel radiation hard silicon sensor technologies. Latest developments in CMOS sensor processing offer the possibility of combining high-resistivity substrates with on-chip high-voltage biasing to achieve a large depleted active sensor volume. We have characterised depleted monolithic active pixel sensors (DMAPS), which were produced in a novel modified imaging process implemented in the TowerJazz 180 nm CMOS process in the framework of the monolithic sensor development for the ALICE experiment. Sensors fabricated in this modified process feature full depletion of the sensitive layer, a sensor capacitance of only a few fF and radiation tolerance up to 1015 neq/cm2. This paper summarises the measurements of charge collection properties in beam tests and in the laboratory using radioactive sources and edge TCT. The results of these measurements show significantly improved radiation hardness obtained for sensors manufactured using the modified process. This has opened the way to the design of two large scale demonstrators for the ATLAS ITk. To achieve a design compatible with the requirements of the outer pixel layers of the tracker, a charge sensitive front-end taking 500 nA from a 1.8 V supply is combined with a fast digital readout architecture. The low-power front-end with a 25 ns time resolution exploits the low sensor capacitance to reduce noise and analogue power, while the implemented readout architectures minimise power by reducing the digital activity.

Prostate Cancer Research Training Program

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-05-01

ach Friday and Saturda y night from 6:30 to 9:3 0 pm on the downtown Pedestrian Mall. Iowa City Jazz Festival – A free, three -day jazz concert...featuring lo cal, regional, and national jazz groups during the July 4 th celebration. The festiva l will be held on the Pentacrest on the campus of

Gaining Independence: An Interview with Jamey Aebersold

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howey, Brad

2010-01-01

Jamey Aebersold is an internationally known saxophonist and authority on jazz education and improvisation. His series of jazz play-along book and CD sets are valuable tools for music teachers, and his weeklong summer jazz workshops--now in their thirty-third year at the University of Louisville in Kentucky and thirty-seventh year overall--have had…

Collaborative Undergraduate HBCU Student Summer Training Program Award

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-01

festival will be held on the Pentacrest on the campus of the University of Iowa. Thursday Night Concerts in Coralville – These musical concerts...Saturday Night Concert Series – Free musical concerts held each Friday and Saturday night from 6:30 to 9:30 pm on the downtown Pedestrian Mall...Iowa City Jazz Festival – A free, three-day jazz concert featuring local, regional, and national jazz groups during the July 4th celebration. The

Prostate Cancer Research Training Program

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-05-01

These include, but are not limited to, the following: Friday and Saturday Night Concert Series – Free musical concerts held each Friday and...Saturday night from 6:30 to 9:30 pm on the downtown Pedestrian Mall. Iowa City Jazz Festival – A free, three-day jazz concert featuring local...regional, and national jazz groups during the July 4th celebration. The festival will be held on the Pentacrest on the campus of the University of Iowa

Collaborative Undergraduate HBCU Student Summer Training Program Award

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-06-01

to, the following: Friday and Saturday Night Concert Series – Free musical concerts held each Friday and Saturday night from 6:30 to 9:30 pm on...the downtown Pedestrian Mall. Iowa City Jazz Festival – A free, three-day jazz concert featuring local, regional, and national jazz groups during...the July 4th celebration. The festival will be held on the Pentacrest on the campus of the University of Iowa. Thursday Night Concerts in Coralville

Prostate Cancer Research Training Program

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-04-01

Concert Series – Free musical concerts held each Friday and Saturday night from 6:30 to 9:30 pm on the downtown Pedestrian Mall. Iowa City Jazz... Festival – A free, three-day jazz concert featuring local, regional, and national jazz groups during the July 4th celebration. The festival will be...held on the Pentacrest on the campus of the University of Iowa. Thursday Night Concerts in Coralville – These musical concerts, held in Morrison Park

Summer Prostate Cancer Research Training Program

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-07-01

Series – Free musical concerts held each Friday and Saturday night from 6:30 to 9:30 pm on the downtown Pedestrian Mall. Iowa City Jazz Festival ...A free, three-day jazz concert featuring local, regional, and national jazz groups during the July 4th celebration. The festival will be held on...the Pentacrest on the campus of the University of Iowa. Thursday Night Concerts in Coralville – These musical concerts, held in Morrison Park in the

Prostate Cancer Research Training Program

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-05-01

These include, but are not limited to, the following: Friday and Saturday Night Concert Series – Free musical concerts held each Friday and Saturday...night from 6:30 to 9:30 pm on the downtown Pedestrian Mall. Iowa City Jazz Festival – A free, three-day jazz concert featuring local, regional, and...national jazz groups during the July 4th celebration. The festival will be held on the Pentacrest on the campus of the University of Iowa

75 FR 32075 - African-American Music Appreciation Month, 2010

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-07

... shores of Africa and the islands of the Caribbean to the jazz clubs of New Orleans and the music halls of... improvisational innovations of jazz, the simple truth of the blues, the rhythms of rock and roll, and the urban...

37 CFR 202.16 - Preregistration of copyrights.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... comedy, soft rock, heavy metal, gospel, rap, hip-hop, blues, jazz), the titles of the musical... lyrics, if any, the genre of the work (for example, classical, pop, musical comedy, soft rock, heavy metal, gospel, rap, hip-hop, blues, jazz), the performer, principal recording location, record label...

37 CFR 202.16 - Preregistration of copyrights.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... comedy, soft rock, heavy metal, gospel, rap, hip-hop, blues, jazz), the titles of the musical... lyrics, if any, the genre of the work (for example, classical, pop, musical comedy, soft rock, heavy metal, gospel, rap, hip-hop, blues, jazz), the performer, principal recording location, record label...

37 CFR 202.16 - Preregistration of copyrights.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... comedy, soft rock, heavy metal, gospel, rap, hip-hop, blues, jazz), the titles of the musical... lyrics, if any, the genre of the work (for example, classical, pop, musical comedy, soft rock, heavy metal, gospel, rap, hip-hop, blues, jazz), the performer, principal recording location, record label...

Using Remote Sensing Technology, Web Casts, and Participation in a Valuable Research Project to Jazz Teachers and Excite Students About Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benko, T. M.; Czajkowski, K. P.; Struble, J.; Zhao, L.

2002-12-01

Scientific education of primary and secondary school children has become a topic of concern in Ohio and throughout the United States. So with that in mind, how do you get students excited about learning science? One route is to inform and jazz teachers about current technology! The University of Toledo has hosted three one-week, NASA and OhioView sponsored professional development institutes entitled, Observing Earth from Space, for teachers from grades K-12 during July 2000, 2001, and 2002. Sixty-seven teachers from the Upper Midwest and Kansas with Earth Science, Social Studies, and Physics backgrounds attended. Each participant acquired new ideas, plenty of educational materials, and posters of satellite imagery. The teachers received basic training in remote sensing, global positioning systems, digital elevation models, and weather observing techniques and learned about useful remote sensing applications. This instruction was conducted through: 1) presentations given by research scientists, 2) integration of the learned content into authentic, hands-on lesson plans, and 3) participation in a learning adventure, where their students collected real-time earth science data at their respective schools while university research scientists gathered corresponding satellite imagery. The students observations were submitted via a simple Web interface: www.remotesensing.utoledo.edu. One of the very exciting platforms used to communicate with the teachers and students throughout the school year were live Web Casts sponsored by NASA Glenn Research Center. The students data have successfully assisted in the validation of cloud/snow remote sensing algorithms, and next year the students observations will include various surface temperature readings. The participation in a cutting-edge technology workshop and in an important global climate change research project, applicable in the classroom, has added another worthwhile dimension to the learning process and career awareness

Scale-Adaptive Group Optimization for Social Activity Planning

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-05-22

1) interest in the activity topic or content, and (2) social tightness with other attendees [5,8]. For example, if a person who appreciates jazz ...music has complimentary tickets for a jazz concert in Rose Theatre, she is inclined to invite her friends or friends of friends who are also jazzists

Effects of Style, Tempo, and Performing Medium on Children's Music Preference.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LeBlanc, Albert

1981-01-01

Fifth-graders listened to a tape incorporating fast and slow vocal and instrumental excerpts within the generic styles of rock/pop, country, older jazz, newer jazz, art music, and band music. A preference hierarchy emerged favoring the popular styles. Across pooled styles, faster tempos and instrumentals were slightly preferred. (Author/SJL)

Max Roach's Adventures in Higher Music Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hentoff, Nat

1980-01-01

Max Roach and the author discuss Roach's efforts to gain recognition of the complexity and importance of American musical forms, particularly jazz, by American university music departments. In addition, Roach describes his approach to marketing his music, an approach which avoids the economic exploitation often suffered by American jazz musicians.…

Afro-American Music and Dance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Floyd, Samuel A., Jr.

1989-01-01

Outlines the concurrent development of Black music and Black dance in the United States, and describes the interaction of the two genres throughout their mutually dependent evolutions. Traces the histories of the dances of African American culture, known collectively as "jazz dance," in relation to ragtime, jazz, and the blues. (AF)

Utrophin Up-Regulation by an Artificial Transcription Factor in Transgenic Mice

PubMed Central

Mattei, Elisabetta; Corbi, Nicoletta; Di Certo, Maria Grazia; Strimpakos, Georgios; Severini, Cinzia; Onori, Annalisa; Desantis, Agata; Libri, Valentina; Buontempo, Serena; Floridi, Aristide; Fanciulli, Maurizio; Baban, Dilair; Davies, Kay E.; Passananti, Claudio

2007-01-01

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a severe muscle degenerative disease, due to absence of dystrophin. There is currently no effective treatment for DMD. Our aim is to up-regulate the expression level of the dystrophin related gene utrophin in DMD, complementing in this way the lack of dystrophin functions. To this end we designed and engineered several synthetic zinc finger based transcription factors. In particular, we have previously shown that the artificial three zinc finger protein named Jazz, fused with the appropriate effector domain, is able to drive the transcription of a test gene from the utrophin promoter “A”. Here we report on the characterization of Vp16-Jazz-transgenic mice that specifically over-express the utrophin gene at the muscular level. A Chromatin Immunoprecipitation assay (ChIP) demonstrated the effective access/binding of the Jazz protein to active chromatin in mouse muscle and Vp16-Jazz was shown to be able to up-regulate endogenous utrophin gene expression by immunohistochemistry, western blot analyses and real-time PCR. To our knowledge, this is the first example of a transgenic mouse expressing an artificial gene coding for a zinc finger based transcription factor. The achievement of Vp16-Jazz transgenic mice validates the strategy of transcriptional targeting of endogenous genes and could represent an exclusive animal model for use in drug discovery and therapeutics. PMID:17712422

Summary Record of the GFF Community of Interest on the Practice and Organization of Intelligence Ottawa Roundtable: What Can the Cognitive and Behavioural Sciences Contribute to Intelligence Analysis? Towards a Collaborative Agenda for the Future

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-01-01

Discussion..................................... 14 5 Dinner Lecture: What Can Jazz Contribute to Intelligence Analysis...trade-offs. The implications of low integrative complexity include a limited information search, rigid following of established plans, black -white...also scientists can be of help. DRDC Toronto CR 2010-012 17 5 Dinner Lecture: What Can Jazz Contribute to Intelligence Analysis

With All Strings Attached: Composer William C. Banfield Notes the Clash of Artistry and Commerce while Weaving Together a World of Music

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamilton, Kendra

2004-01-01

William Banfield is a composer with nine symphonies to his credit, as well as countless smaller scale works--concerti, chamber works, operas, choral and jazz works--that have been performed all over the nation. He has also performed with highly acclaimed jazz performers such as Patrice Rushen, Earl Klugh, Najee, Nelson Rangell and many others. He…

Cool Jazz.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Speck, Lawrence W.

2001-01-01

Describes the distinctive architectural style of a new dormitory at New Orleans' Tulane University, where architects had to deal with a difficult site, a tightly defined program, a venerable institution, and a colorful locale. Includes nine photographs, floor-plans and sectional drawings. (GR)

The sound of music: differentiating musicians using a fast, musical multi-feature mismatch negativity paradigm.

PubMed

Vuust, Peter; Brattico, Elvira; Seppänen, Miia; Näätänen, Risto; Tervaniemi, Mari

2012-06-01

Musicians' skills in auditory processing depend highly on instrument, performance practice, and on level of expertise. Yet, it is not known though whether the style/genre of music might shape auditory processing in the brains of musicians. Here, we aimed at tackling the role of musical style/genre on modulating neural and behavioral responses to changes in musical features. Using a novel, fast and musical sounding multi-feature paradigm, we measured the mismatch negativity (MMN), a pre-attentive brain response, to six types of musical feature change in musicians playing three distinct styles of music (classical, jazz, rock/pop) and in non-musicians. Jazz and classical musicians scored higher in the musical aptitude test than band musicians and non-musicians, especially with regards to tonal abilities. These results were extended by the MMN findings: jazz musicians had larger MMN-amplitude than all other experimental groups across the six different sound features, indicating a greater overall sensitivity to auditory outliers. In particular, we found enhanced processing of pith and sliding up to pitches in jazz musicians only. Furthermore, we observed a more frontal MMN to pitch and location compared to the other deviants in jazz musicians and left lateralization of the MMN to timbre in classical musicians. These findings indicate that the characteristics of the style/genre of music played by musicians influence their perceptual skills and the brain processing of sound features embedded in a musical context. Musicians' brain is hence shaped by the type of training, musical style/genre, and listening experiences. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Riffing on the universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cox, Trevor

2016-05-01

Music and physics might seem like polar opposites, one having great emotional potency and the other being a cerebral subject of equations, theories and deductions. Both, however, benefit from improvisers - people who stand on the shoulders of giants, taking earlier triumphs and building on them to create something new. For me, analogies like these, which draw parallels between physicists and jazz musicians, are the most fascinating revelations in Stephon Alexander's book The Jazz of Physics.

Musical Interests and Talent: Twin Jazz Musicians and Twin Studies/Twin Research: Loss of a Preterm Multiple; Conjoined Twin Conception; Depression in Fathers of Twins; Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome/Twin News: High-Achieving Twins; Twin Children of a Tennis Star; Conjoined Twin Separation; Twin Delivery to a Giant Panda.

PubMed

Segal, Nancy L

2017-12-01

Findings from twin studies of musical interests and talent are reviewed as a backdrop to the lives and careers of twin jazz musicians, Peter and Will Anderson. The Anderson twins exemplify many aspects of twin research, namely their matched musical abilities, shared musical interests, and common career. This overview is followed by reviews of studies and case reports of bereavement in families who have lost a preterm multiple birth infant, the conception of conjoined twins following in vitro fertilization (IVF), depression in fathers of twins, and twin-to-twin transfusion incidence in monochorionic-diamniotic IVF twin pairs. Twins highlighted in the media include high-achieving identical female twins with nearly identical academic standing, tennis star Roger Federer's two sets of identical twin children, surgical separation of craniopagus conjoined twins, and the rare delivery of twins to a 23-year-old giant panda.

Astronomy Education with Movement and Music

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morrow, C. A.

2006-08-01

This paper will address the development of two multi-sensory approaches to astronomy education: 1) Kinesthetic Astronomy - an innovative series of lessons for 6th grade through adult learners that teach basic astronomical concepts through choreographed bodily movements; and 2) AstroJazz - a novel planetarium or auditorium-based public education program that blends live jazz music with astronomical imagery and dramatic insights into the wonders of our universe. The paper will discuss results from field testing these approaches.

Practiced musical style shapes auditory skills.

PubMed

Vuust, Peter; Brattico, Elvira; Seppänen, Miia; Näätänen, Risto; Tervaniemi, Mari

2012-04-01

Musicians' processing of sounds depends highly on instrument, performance practice, and level of expertise. Here, we measured the mismatch negativity (MMN), a preattentive brain response, to six types of musical feature change in musicians playing three distinct styles of music (classical, jazz, and rock/pop) and in nonmusicians using a novel, fast, and musical sounding multifeature MMN paradigm. We found MMN to all six deviants, showing that MMN paradigms can be adapted to resemble a musical context. Furthermore, we found that jazz musicians had larger MMN amplitude than all other experimental groups across all sound features, indicating greater overall sensitivity to auditory outliers. Furthermore, we observed a tendency toward shorter latency of the MMN to all feature changes in jazz musicians compared to band musicians. These findings indicate that the characteristics of the style of music played by musicians influence their perceptual skills and the brain processing of sound features embedded in music. © 2012 New York Academy of Sciences.

Food approach conditioning and discrimination learning using sound cues in benthic sharks.

PubMed

Vila Pouca, Catarina; Brown, Culum

2018-07-01

The marine environment is filled with biotic and abiotic sounds. Some of these sounds predict important events that influence fitness while others are unimportant. Individuals can learn specific sound cues and 'soundscapes' and use them for vital activities such as foraging, predator avoidance, communication and orientation. Most research with sounds in elasmobranchs has focused on hearing thresholds and attractiveness to sound sources, but very little is known about their abilities to learn about sounds, especially in benthic species. Here we investigated if juvenile Port Jackson sharks could learn to associate a musical stimulus with a food reward, discriminate between two distinct musical stimuli, and whether individual personality traits were linked to cognitive performance. Five out of eight sharks were successfully conditioned to associate a jazz song with a food reward delivered in a specific corner of the tank. We observed repeatable individual differences in activity and boldness in all eight sharks, but these personality traits were not linked to the learning performance assays we examined. These sharks were later trained in a discrimination task, where they had to distinguish between the same jazz and a novel classical music song, and swim to opposite corners of the tank according to the stimulus played. The sharks' performance to the jazz stimulus declined to chance levels in the discrimination task. Interestingly, some sharks developed a strong side bias to the right, which in some cases was not the correct side for the jazz stimulus.

Determining the end of a musical turn: Effects of tonal cues.

PubMed

Hadley, Lauren V; Sturt, Patrick; Moran, Nikki; Pickering, Martin J

2018-01-01

Successful duetting requires that musicians coordinate their performance with their partners. In the case of turn-taking in improvised performance they need to be able to predict their partner's turn-end in order to accurately time their own entries. Here we investigate the cues used for accurate turn-end prediction in musical improvisations, focusing on the role of tonal structure. In a response-time task, participants more accurately determined the endings of (tonal) jazz than (non-tonal) free improvisation turns. Moreover, for the jazz improvisations, removing low frequency information (<2100Hz) - and hence obscuring the pitch relationships conveying tonality - reduced response accuracy, but removing high frequency information (>2100Hz) had no effect. Neither form of filtering affected response accuracy in the free improvisation condition. We therefore argue that tonal cues aided prediction accuracy for the jazz improvisations compared to the free improvisations. We compare our results with those from related speech research (De Ruiter et al., 2006), to draw comparisons between the structural function of tonality and linguistic syntax. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Musical creativity and the brain.

PubMed

López-González, Mónica; Limb, Charles J

2012-01-01

On the spot, as great jazz performers expertly improvise solo passages, they make immediate decisions about which musical phrases to invent and to play. Researchers, like authors Mónica López-González and Dana Foundation grantee Charles J. Limb, are now using brain imaging to study the neural underpinnings of spontaneous artistic creativity, from jazz riffs to freestyle rap. So far, they have found that brain areas deactivated during improvisation are also at rest during dreaming and meditation, while activated areas include those controlling language and sensorimotor skills. Even with relatively few completed studies, researchers have concluded that musical creativity clearly cannot be tied to just one brain area or process.

"If You Have to Ask, You'll Never Know": Effects of Specialised Stylistic Expertise on Predictive Processing of Music.

PubMed

Hansen, Niels Chr; Vuust, Peter; Pearce, Marcus

2016-01-01

Musical expertise entails meticulous stylistic specialisation and enculturation. Even so, research on musical training effects has focused on generalised comparisons between musicians and non-musicians, and cross-cultural work addressing specialised expertise has traded cultural specificity and sensitivity for other methodological limitations. This study aimed to experimentally dissociate the effects of specialised stylistic training and general musical expertise on the perception of melodies. Non-musicians and professional musicians specialising in classical music or jazz listened to sampled renditions of saxophone solos improvised by Charlie Parker in the bebop style. Ratings of explicit uncertainty and expectedness for different continuations of each melodic excerpt were collected. An information-theoretic model of expectation enabled selection of stimuli affording highly certain continuations in the bebop style, but highly uncertain continuations in the context of general tonal expectations, and vice versa. The results showed that expert musicians have acquired probabilistic characteristics of music influencing their experience of expectedness and predictive uncertainty. While classical musicians had internalised key aspects of the bebop style implicitly, only jazz musicians' explicit uncertainty ratings reflected the computational estimates, and jazz-specific expertise modulated the relationship between explicit and inferred uncertainty data. In spite of this, there was no evidence that non-musicians and classical musicians used a stylistically irrelevant cognitive model of general tonal music providing support for the theory of cognitive firewalls between stylistic models in predictive processing of music.

What Is ALS?

MedlinePlus

... Sesame Street” creator Jon Stone, boxing champion Ezzard Charles, NBA Hall of Fame basketball player George Yardley, ... photographer Eddie Adams, entertainer Dennis Day, jazz musician Charles Mingus, former vice president of the United States ...

76 FR 32851 - African-American Music Appreciation Month, 2011

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-07

..., and brought hope to slaves toiling in fields. The soulfulness of jazz and storytelling in the blues... its enduring power to bring life to the narrative of our Nation. NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA...

American Idol's Randy Jackson He doesn't miss a beat controlling his diabetes

MedlinePlus

... Jackson is a well-known name in the music world. He has played bass guitar with such musical legends as jazz violinist Jean Luc Ponty, the pop-rock band Journey, and many others. And he's produced ...

"If You Have to Ask, You'll Never Know": Effects of Specialised Stylistic Expertise on Predictive Processing of Music

PubMed Central

Vuust, Peter; Pearce, Marcus

2016-01-01

Musical expertise entails meticulous stylistic specialisation and enculturation. Even so, research on musical training effects has focused on generalised comparisons between musicians and non-musicians, and cross-cultural work addressing specialised expertise has traded cultural specificity and sensitivity for other methodological limitations. This study aimed to experimentally dissociate the effects of specialised stylistic training and general musical expertise on the perception of melodies. Non-musicians and professional musicians specialising in classical music or jazz listened to sampled renditions of saxophone solos improvised by Charlie Parker in the bebop style. Ratings of explicit uncertainty and expectedness for different continuations of each melodic excerpt were collected. An information-theoretic model of expectation enabled selection of stimuli affording highly certain continuations in the bebop style, but highly uncertain continuations in the context of general tonal expectations, and vice versa. The results showed that expert musicians have acquired probabilistic characteristics of music influencing their experience of expectedness and predictive uncertainty. While classical musicians had internalised key aspects of the bebop style implicitly, only jazz musicians’ explicit uncertainty ratings reflected the computational estimates, and jazz-specific expertise modulated the relationship between explicit and inferred uncertainty data. In spite of this, there was no evidence that non-musicians and classical musicians used a stylistically irrelevant cognitive model of general tonal music providing support for the theory of cognitive firewalls between stylistic models in predictive processing of music. PMID:27732612

Black Musicians Leading the Way.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Music Educators Journal, 1982

1982-01-01

Describes the careers and musical achievements of Blacks who were forerunners in jazz, blues, gospel, music, spirituals, band music, classical music, ragtime, and opera. The list was compiled to provide teachers with historical background information for "Black History Month." (AM)

Phone-ominal Composition: A Startup Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goins, Wayne E.

2003-01-01

Describes a strategy called phone-ominal composition for teaching students in fifth through twelve grades about jazz and musical composition. Explains that the students use their phone number to create the composition. Provides examples of this technique and guidelines. (CMK)

The Sign of Silence: Negotiating Musical Identities in an Improvising Ensemble

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Graeme B.; MacDonald, Raymond A. R.

2012-01-01

Group musical improvisation, as a spontaneous process of collaborative creativity effected through non-verbal social interaction, is a unique psychological phenomenon and universal capacity. Existing studies focus on improvisation among professional jazz musicians, often using qualitative methods. However, improvisation transcends genres and…

Creating New Meanings in Leading Learning. Proceedings [of the] National Conference on Alternative and External Degree Programs for Adults (22nd, Pittsburgh, PA, October 9-12, 2002).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

American Council on Education, Washington, DC.

These proceedings are comprised of 25 presentations divided into 5 "tracks." Section I, Diversity and Social Justice, has "Free to Learn with Body and Soul Jazz Divas, Beat Poets, and Street Preachers" (Ferrante, Belcastro); "Clashing Cultures in Our Classrooms" (Gabrich, Rothenberger); "Encouraging Adults in…

Oomycetes, effectors, and all that jazz.

PubMed

Bozkurt, Tolga O; Schornack, Sebastian; Banfield, Mark J; Kamoun, Sophien

2012-08-01

Plant pathogenic oomycetes secrete a diverse repertoire of effector proteins that modulate host innate immunity and enable parasitic infection. Understanding how effectors evolve, translocate and traffic inside host cells, and perturb host processes are major themes in the study of oomycete-plant interactions. The last year has seen important progress in the study of oomycete effectors with, notably, the elucidation of the 3D structures of five RXLR effectors, and novel insights into how cytoplasmic effectors subvert host cells. In this review, we discuss these and other recent advances and highlight the most important open questions in oomycete effector biology. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Aesthetics of Surrender: Levinas and the Disruption of Agency in Moral Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chinnery, Ann

2003-01-01

Uses jazz improvisation as a metaphor to focus on three interrelated aspects of ethical responsibility according to Emmanuel Lavinas's theories: (1) passivity; (2) heteronomy; and (3) inescapability. Discusses some ways in which reframing responsibility and subjectivity along this line might offer new possibilities for conceiving subjectivity and…

Investigating Musical Performance: Commonality and Diversity among Classical and Non-Classical Musicians

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Creech, Andrea; Papageorgi, Ioulia; Duffy, Celia; Morton, Frances; Hadden, Elizabeth; Potter, John; De Bezenac, Christophe; Whyton, Tony; Himonides, Evangelos; Welch, Graham

2008-01-01

The research project "Investigating Musical Performance: Comparative Studies in Advanced Musical Learning" was devised to investigate how classical, popular, jazz and Scottish traditional musicians deepen and develop their learning about performance in undergraduate, postgraduate and wider music community contexts. The aim of this paper is to…

SOI-CMOS Process for Monolithic, Radiation-Tolerant, Science-Grade Imagers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Williams, George; Lee, Adam

In Phase I, Voxtel worked with Jazz and Sandia to document and simulate the processes necessary to implement a DH-BSI SOI CMOS imaging process. The development is based upon mature SOI CMOS process at both fabs, with the addition of only a few custom processing steps for integration and electrical interconnection of the fully-depleted photodetectors. In Phase I, Voxtel also characterized the Sandia process, including the CMOS7 design rules, and we developed the outline of a process option that included a “BOX etch”, that will permit a “detector in handle” SOI CMOS process to be developed The process flows weremore » developed in cooperation with both Jazz and Sandia process engineers, along with detailed TCAD modeling and testing of the photodiode array architectures. In addition, Voxtel tested the radiation performance of the Jazz’s CA18HJ process, using standard and circular-enclosed transistors.« less

Jamming and Learning: Analysing Changing Collective Practice of Changing Participation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brinck, Lars

2017-01-01

This article reports a long-term ethnographic study on jamming and learning from an entwined artistic and educational perspective. The study investigates aspects of learning during a professional band's jamming and recording eight groove-jazz frameworks and a series of subsequent concerts with pre-academy students "sitting in." Fieldwork…

No Pain, No Gain? Motivation and Self-Regulation in Music Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Bezenac, Christophe; Swindells, Rachel

2009-01-01

This paper explores the issue of motivation in music learning in higher education by contextualising data collected as part of the "Investigating-Musical-Performance" research project (Welch, et al., 2006-2008). The discussion begins with findings which suggest that popular, jazz and folk musicians experience more pleasure in musical…

Music Style Preferences of Young Students in Hong Kong.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fung, C. Victor; Lee, Ming; Chung, Shun-Wai Esther

2000-01-01

Investigates the effect of grade level, gender, and musical style (Western art, jazz, rock, Cantonese popular, and Chinese Sizhu) on the preference responses of 3,715 Hong Kong students aged 6 to 15. Reveals grade level and music style had significant effects and preferences leaned toward Cantonese popular. (CMK)

Dance: A Guide for Idaho Public Schools. Grades K-12.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Idaho State Dept. of Education, Boise. Div. of Instructional Improvement.

The guide presents a rationale, objectives, activities, and resource lists for incorporating dance into elementary and secondary curricula. Dance gives students an opportunity for creativity and self-expression, even if they are physically or mentally handicapped. Types of dance include creative, folk, square, ballet, modern, jazz, tap, and…

Live from Your Neighborhood: A National Study of Outdoor Arts Festivals. Volume Two: Seven Case Studies. Research Report #51

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenstein, Carole

2010-01-01

This report complements a national survey of outdoor arts festivals (see "Live from Your Neighborhood: A National Study of Outdoor Arts Festivals, Volume One: Summary Report") by focusing on seven case study festivals: Houston International Festival; Piccolo Spoleto; Lowell Folk Festival; Santa Fe Indian Market; Chicago Jazz Festival;…

Paul Winter, Sun Singer...He Talks about Outdoor Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Breslav, Marc

1984-01-01

Interviews Paul Winter, well-known musical emissary for the Earth and its wildlife among the environmental community. Incorporating voices of wolves, whales, and other creatures as accompanists to an uncategorizable blend of symphonic, jazz, African and Latin musical traditions, Winter's sound involves listeners in a guided experience of…

New Research Center in Chicago Strives to Preserve and Promote the Legacy of Black Music.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paul, Angus

1987-01-01

Facilitating, stimulating, and disseminating scholarship on blues, gospel, Creole, jazz, and other kinds of black music are the goals of the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College in Chicago. The paucity of black scholars, developing a "union catalog," and the need for reference books are discussed. (MLW)

An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of How Professional Dance Teachers Implement Psychological Skills Training in Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klockare, Ellinor; Gustafsson, Henrik; Nordin-Bates, Sanna M.

2011-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine how dance teachers work with psychological skills with their students in class. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six female professional teachers in jazz, ballet and contemporary dance. The interview transcripts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith 1996). Results…

An Investigation Into the Effects of Background Music in a Dramatic Television Presentation on University Students' Perception and Retention of Cognitive Content.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rink, Otho P.

To investigate the effects of background music on perception and retention of a dramatic television presentation's cognitive content, 107 English literature students were randomly assigned to one of five background treatments for a play. Four of the videotaped presentations included background music; Shostakovich's Symphony No. 6; Japanese jazz;…

A Musing on Schuller's "Musings"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Asia, Daniel

2013-01-01

For many years Gunther Schuller was at the center of the classical music world, as a player, composer, conductor, writer, record producer, polemicist and publisher for new music and jazz, educator, and president of New England Conservatory. His book, entitled, "Musings: The Musical Worlds of Gunther Schuller: A Collection of His…

Communities of Practice in the Conservatory: Learning with a Professional Musician

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Virkkula, Esa

2016-01-01

This article examines the sociocultural learning of popular and jazz music in communities of practice as part of secondary vocational music education in a Finnish conservatory. The research is based on performance workshops which were implemented as a joint effort between professional musicians and music students. These workshops are suggested as…

Teaching Improvisation and the Pedagogical History of the Jimmy Giuffre 3

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnston, Peter

2013-01-01

Improvisation pedagogy has presented a challenge to music educators since jazz courses began being offered in North American universities in the 1950s, a development which has raised important pedagogical questions ranging from 'Can improvisation be taught?' to "Should it be taught?" Following on the increase in academic…

The Influence of Music Learning Cultures on the Construction of Teaching-Learning Conceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Casas-Mas, Amalia; Pozo, Juan Ignacio; Montero, Ignacio

2014-01-01

Current research in music education tends to put the emphasis on learning processes outside formal academic contexts, both to rethink and to renew academic educational formats. Our aim is to observe and describe three music learning cultures simultaneously, including formal, non-formal and informal settings: Classical, Jazz and Flamenco,…

Reconceiving the Standards and the School Music Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reimer, Bennett

2004-01-01

Music offerings in United States schools have remained largely the same for well over half a century. Basic program consists of general music classes up to and sometimes through middle school and elective performance opportunities in upper elementary grades through high school, primarily focused on band (including jazz groups), orchestra, and…

The Effect of Overtly Categorizing Music on Preference for Popular Music Styles.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brittin, Ruth V.

1991-01-01

Presents results of a study that explored the effect of overt categorization on musical preference. Found no difference in choices of nonmusic majors when choices were structured as stipulated, unstipulated, or free form categories. Finds musical experience and gender affected preferences for pop and jazz, but not for rock music. (DK)

Free Speech Yearbook 1979.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kane, Peter E., Ed.

The seven articles in this collection deal with theoretical and practical freedom of speech issues. Topics covered are: the United States Supreme Court, motion picture censorship, and the color line; judicial decision making; the established scientific community's suppression of the ideas of Immanuel Velikovsky; the problems of avant-garde jazz,…

75 FR 2163 - National Endowment for the Arts; Arts Advisory Panel

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-01-14

... (ending times are approximate): American Masterpieces/Chamber Music (application review): January 20-21... January 21st, will be closed. American Masterpieces/Chamber Music (application review): January 22, 2010 in Room 714. This meeting, from 9 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., will be closed. Music/NEA Jazz Masters (review...

Effect of Age, Country, and Gender on Music Listening Preferences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LeBlanc, Albert; Jin, Young Chang; Stamou, Lelouda; McCrary, Jan

1999-01-01

Examines the music listening preferences of 2,042 students from Greece, South Korea, and the United States using a survey that listed selections from art music, traditional jazz, and rock music. Finds that age, gender, and country all exerted influence, but the variables did not perform the same way in each country. (CMK)

Relations between Study and Employment: Music Graduates in Puerto Rico

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Latorre, Ileana S.; Lorenzo, Oswaldo

2013-01-01

Higher education programs in Puerto Rico include undergraduate degrees in music, music education, composition, popular music, jazz and Caribbean music, and, most recently, a master’s degree in music education. However, little is known about what music graduates do after concluding college. Do they work in music-related areas? Are they satisfied…

Growing Mathematical Understanding through Collective Image Making, Collective Image Having, and Collective Property Noticing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Lyndon C.; Towers, Jo

2015-01-01

In the research reported in this paper, we develop a theoretical perspective to describe and account for the growth of collective mathematical understanding. We discuss collective processes in mathematics, drawing in particular on theoretical work in the domains of improvisational jazz and theatre. Using examples of data from a study of elementary…

School Music Advocates Go Straight to Video: Online Services like SchoolTube Offer Far-Reaching Possibilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Block, Debbie Galante

2009-01-01

A few years ago, Bill Pendziwiatr of Crestwood School District in Pennsylvania helped create a video documenting six local music programs, including snippets of rehearsals and performances by choirs, traditional bands, jazz and rock ensembles, orchestras, even a clapping class. His goal was to distribute the video all over the state so that…

Air and Space Museum Apollo 40th Celebration

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-07-19

Jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall gives an introduction prior to her performance at the Apollo 40th anniversary celebration held at the National Air and Space Museum, Monday, July 20, 2009 in Washington. Ms. Krall's piano was staged right next to the Apollo 11 Command Capsule. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

3 CFR 8571 - Proclamation 8571 of October 1, 2010. National Arts and Humanities Month, 2010

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... children with an education that inspires as it informs. Exposing our students to disciplines in music... host a White House Music Series, Dance Series, and Poetry Jam. We have been honored to bring students, workshops, and performers to “the People’s House;” to highlight jazz, country, Latin, and classical music...

Culture Shock: A Teacher's Guide To Accompany the Four-Part PBS Series Premiering January 2000.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jaffee, Cyrisse, Ed.; Sharma, Amina, Ed.

This teacher's guide accompanies the four videos ("Born to Trouble: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"; "The Shock of the Nude: Manet's Olympia"; "Hollywood Censored: Movies, Morality and the Production Code"; and "The Devil's Music: 1920s Jazz") of the PBS "Culture Shock" series. The guide suggests that the videos could be used in the…

Community College Humanities Review, 1995.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seabrook, John H., Ed.

1995-01-01

This annual volume of the Community College Humanities Review (CCHR) presents a wide range of articles dealing with humanities--from Lloyd Kaplan's attempts to set the record straight (by presenting a more accurate appraisal and a truer perspective of Dave Brubeck's outstanding contribution to the course of jazz) to Walter Krieglstein's…

The Secret Talents of Fundraisers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pulley, John

2010-01-01

A significant but unknown number of performing artists have redirected their creativity and passion into development. They are ballet and contemporary dancers, jazz and orchestral musicians, actors and comedians, opera divas and gospel belters. None of them set out to become fundraisers. Yet here they are, and they partly credit their success in…

Race, Ethnicity and Participation in the Arts: Patterns of Participation by Black, Hispanic and White Americans in Selected Activities from the 1982 and 1985 Surveys of Public Participation in the Arts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DiMaggio, Paul; Ostrower, Francie

This report utilizes data from the 1982 and 1985 Surveys of Public Participation in the Arts to describe differences in patterns of participation in selected arts related activities by Black, Hispanic, and White respondents. Arts participation by Whites is greatest for all selected activities, except for Black attendance at jazz music activities.…

Academic Value of Non-Academics: The Case for Keeping Extracurriculars

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kronholz, June

2012-01-01

With school districts struggling to keep their noses above choppy budget waters and voters howling about taxes, should schools be funding Ping-Pong and trading-card clubs? Swim teams, moot court, powder puff football? Latino unions, gay-straight alliances, the Future Business Leaders of America, the French Honors Society, the jazz band, the…

Beyond Beethoven and the Boyz: Women's Music in Relation to History and Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, Britain; Harrassowitz, Christiane

2004-01-01

The typical music history or appreciation class teaches students to analyze musical elements and think generally about the aesthetics of historical periods but rarely encourages them to consider why the overwhelming majority of the composers discussed are white, European, middle- and upper-class men. Courses on popular music often discuss jazz and…

Rediscovering Major N. Clark Smith.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buckner, Reginald T.

1985-01-01

Historians of American music education have yet to recognize a Black music educator as important and worthy of observation. This article discusses a candidate--Major Nathaniel Clark Smith, a little-known Black music educator, composer of more than a hundred works, businessman, humanitarian, and teacher of numerous big-name jazz musicians. (RM)

"Please, Give Me Space": Findings and Implications from an Evaluation of the GLOMUS Intercultural Music Camp, Ghana 2011

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hebert, David G.; Saether, Eva

2014-01-01

Folk music programmes have been a major feature of higher education music departments across the Nordic region for several decades. Still, programmes that offer the opportunity to deeply study non-European music (other than jazz) are very rare in most of Europe, and programmes in music "education" that offer such opportunities at…

Duke Ellington: The Man and His Music.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

George, Luvenia A.

1999-01-01

Provides a chronology of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington's career divided into four periods (Sound and Style, Creative Explosion, Beyond Jazz, and The Last Decade). Offers a synopsis of his musical development, listing compositions written during each phase. Includes a list of resources and a sample lesson for "Koko" by Duke Ellington. (CMK)

Shifting Authenticities in Scandinavian Music Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dyndahl, Petter; Nielsen, Siw Graabraek

2014-01-01

There has been an ongoing tendency, taking place in the Scandinavian countries from the late 1970s onwards, to expand the repertoires and resources of music as an educational matter, an academic field, as well as an area for support and funding from cultural authorities, organisations and institutions. Here, popular music, jazz, folk music and…

Locally Engaged Education Institutions: Four Principles for Engaging the Urban Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

See, Geoffrey K.

2010-01-01

Urban life comes with diverse social, environmental, health care, and education problems. However, for many of the people seeking better economic, social, and education opportunities, the big city still holds a special allure. Jazz singer Frank Sinatra sings in "New York, New York" that he wants to "wake up in a city that never…

From Norway to the USA: "Anitra's Dance."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDowell, Carol J.

2003-01-01

Describes an art lesson for middle school students that can be adapted for upper elementary or high school students. Explains that students compare two versions of the song "Anitra's Dance," a classical version by Edvard Grieg and a jazz version by Duke Ellington. States the lesson uses the Discipline-Based Music Education approach. (CMK)

Translations on Eastern Europe Political, Sociological, and Military Affairs No. 1564

DTIC Science & Technology

1978-07-18

to all this, he has enough knowledge from his high school studies and passes the written exams in mathematics and the Russian language, and does well...activities or technical hobbies. You can find in the’ school a brass band, a cymbal band, a violin quintet, 60-member choir and a jazz ballet--and

Teaching New Orleans: A Cultural Immersion and Service Learning Travel Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luquet, Wade J.

2009-01-01

This article describes a travel course to New Orleans that allows students the opportunity to study a unique culture in the United States. Students in the course are able to study how the culture developed through its immigration patterns, its food, its architecture, and the development of jazz. Since the flooding following Hurricane Katrina, a…

The Adjective Check List and Musical Creativity.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Patnoe, Shelley

A study was conducted to determine whether a stable set of core characteristics found to be associated with creativity in samples of creative adults would also distinguish a group of professional jazz musicians selected for excellence of improvisational ability. A second purpose of the study was to see whether such differences found between groups…

Keyboard Improvisation: A Phenomenological Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kingscott, John; Durrant, Colin

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the phenomenon of musical improvisation within two contrasting musical genres--jazz piano and liturgical and concert organ. While improvisation is well documented in both genres, there is little literature relating the two forms and, in particular, the process of improvisation. The aim of this study is to…

Symbolic Interactionism in Music Education: Eight Strategies for Collaborative Improvisation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monk, Augusto

2013-01-01

Learning improvisation in music is often treated as the process of gaining skills to spontaneously perform within the conventions of a style. Alternatively, learning improvisation can offer musicians a place to explore sound as it happens in free improvisation. Within the school setting, the former approach is commonly used in the jazz programs,…

Artful Stories: The Teacher, the Student, and the Muse. Black Studies and Critical Thinking. Volume 22

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dowdy, Joanne Kilgour

2012-01-01

These are the stories of four arts practitioners from Trinidad and Tobago--a lighting designer, a dancer, a jazz musician and a choreographer--who have made names for themselves internationally. The book centers on their role as educators in their fields; their unique and individual journeys exemplify the classic role artists have (always) played…

Arts Education in America: What the Declines Mean for Arts Participation. Based on the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. Research Report #52

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rabkin, Nick; Hedberg, E. C.

2011-01-01

The Surveys of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPAs), conducted for the National Endowment for the Arts, have shown a steady decline in the rates of adult attendance at most "benchmark" arts events--specifically, classical music and jazz concerts, musical and non-musical plays, opera, and ballet performances--as well as declines in other forms…

Introducing Improvisational Skills Through Rhythm Tap: Whether Used in a Dance Class or in a Physical Education Dance Unit, These Simple Exercises Will Overcome Students' Inhibitions and Encourage Their Creative Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

West, Colleen N.

2005-01-01

Rhythm tap is sweeping the nation as an outlet for self-expression. Also known as "jazz tap" or "percussive tap," this art form's dominant focus is musicality, improvisation, simple-to-complex rhythms, and new styles. It reaches beyond technique and serves as an outlet for self-expression, independence, and spontaneity. Rhythm tap incorporates an…

EUROPT Workshop on Advances in Continuous Optimization (8th) Held in Aveiro, Portugal, on July 9-10, 2010

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-07-01

we invited two groups of mu- sicians to present their art. At the beginning of the Dinner we could listen some classic and jazz music played by trio...of saxophone, guitar and bass- guitar (art director– João Figueiredo, http://www.myspace.com/jfigueiredo). And at the end, a student musical band from

Challenges Facing Guitar Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrison, Eli

2010-01-01

The guitar is an extremely versatile instrument. It can produce complex chords and arpeggiated textures as readily as single-note melodies. In the twentieth century alone, it has appeared in a wide range of genres; classical, jazz, blues, rock, and bossa nova compose a partial list. The guitar is also a difficult instrument. Inconsistencies across…

Genre Identification of Very Brief Musical Excerpts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mace, Sandra T.; Wagoner, Cynthia L.; Teachout, David J.; Hodges, Donald A.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine how well individuals were able to identify different music genres from very brief excerpts and whether musical training, gender and preference played a role in genre identification. Listeners were asked to identify genre from classical, jazz, country, metal, and rap/hip hop excerpts that were 125, 250, 500,…

Embodied Subjectivities: Nine Young Women Talking Dance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Flynn, Gabrielle; Pryor, Zoe; Gray, Tonia

2013-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to examine nine Australian young women's embodied experiences of dance. The young women were all amateur dancers involved in weekly jazz, tap, and ballet dance classes at the same dance studio. In this paper, embodiment is defined as multidimensional (Burkitt 1999). The authors explore the ways the corporeal and the…

A Century of Women's Bands in America

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sullivan, Jill M.

2008-01-01

Today, concert, jazz, and marching bands thrive in most communities as part of the schools in the United States, and many teachers and students of these groups are women. According to data collected by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, girls outnumbered boys in instrumental ensembles in the years 1990,…

The Meaning of Freedom of Speech: First Amendment Freedoms from Wilson to FDR. Contributions in American History No. 15.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Paul L.

Using the Jazz Age as his frame of reference, the author analyzes the role of dissent and its suppression in American life. The crisis in civil liberties which began with a wartime restriction of freedom of speech in 1918 evoked a counteraction from concerned citizens during the 1920s. Their efforts were vindicated in 1931 when a…

Performance Careers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McAuliffe, Jason; And Others

1977-01-01

The field of music performance offers as many opportunities as there are individuals willing to attempt a breakthrough. Yet, this is one of the most difficult careers to succeed in. Here are eight varied articles on being a pop/rock/jazz instrumentalist or vocalist, a classical music instrumentalist or vocalist, a studio musician, a conductor, a…

Harlem. ArtsEdge Curricula, Lessons and Activities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC.

This curriculum unit for Grades 3-4 (adaptable for higher or lower grades) introduces students to Harlem, starting with black migration from Africa and from the American South to the North, to the Harlem Renaissance (including jazz musicians, visual artists, writers, and poets), and on to aspects of daily Harlem life (then and now), such as family…

78 FR 40961 - Safety Zones; Annual Events in the Captain of the Port Detroit Zone

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-09

... events: (1) Bay-Rama Fishfly Festival Fireworks, New Baltimore, MI. The safety zone listed in 33 CFR 165... Festival Fireworks, Lexington, MI. The safety zone listed in 33 CFR 165.941(a)(42) will be enforced from 10.... until 11:00 p.m. on July 20, 2013. (14) Detroit International Jazz Festival Fireworks, Detroit, MI. The...

Street Corner Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holiday, D. Alexander

The language of Black America is rich and diverse in its utterance, whether through music (Jazz, Blues, Soul, Gospel, and Rap), through street corner "shuckin''n jivin'," or through writing. This language is used as a means of survival, of getting from one day to the next. Blacks have developed a system of taking the fewest words and…

The Mirrored Selves (Thanks Duke): Practicing Professional Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldberg, Merryl

This paper is about practice--practicing that takes place on a weekly basis among a group of artists who work on a day-to-day basis with elementary school teachers. The paper concerns itself with the complexity of "vague and misty overtones" witnessed as reflections in a mirror, according to one jazz musician, and with the nature of risk…

Low Latency Audio Video: Potentials for Collaborative Music Making through Distance Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riley, Holly; MacLeod, Rebecca B.; Libera, Matthew

2016-01-01

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the potential of LOw LAtency (LOLA), a low latency audio visual technology designed to allow simultaneous music performance, as a distance learning tool for musical styles in which synchronous playing is an integral aspect of the learning process (e.g., jazz, folk styles). The secondary purpose was…

A Brave New Campus--Marysville Getchell High School Campus 2011 MacConnell Award Winner

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yurko, Amy

2011-01-01

I'll never forget my amazement when my favorite jazz vocalist, also my teacher, revealed that even as a veteran musician, she still gets nervous on the stage. "Nervous energy encourages me to take chances" she said, emphasizing that taking chances is key to the musical improvisation for which she is known to this day. I enjoy finding…

Advocating for Arts in the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bauerlein, Mark

2010-01-01

This article contends that every chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts must advocate for arts education. The arts need a voice in power, say people in the field, someone in the corridors of influence to argue the benefits of teaching the nation's students about classical and jazz music, ballet, and sculpture. With No Child Left Behind…

Landing on the Wrong Note: The Price We Paid for "Brown." 2004 DeWitt Wallace-"Reader's Digest" Distinguished Lecture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ladson-Billings, Gloria

2004-01-01

The first part of the title of this lecture is taken from Ajay Heble's (2000) book "Landing on the Wrong Note: Jazz, Dissonance, and Critical Practice." The author chose this musical image to convey the problem of good intentions gone awry. No musician plans to play the wrong note. The plaintiffs, litigators, Supreme Court Justices, and civil…

Lessons: Katrina and Beginning Anew

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirylo, James D.

2005-01-01

New Orleans, fondly known in better days for its spectacular cuisine, cool jazz, and good times, was the leading story on television news broadcasts the world over when a massive hurricane came. As Katrina took its destructive path, culminating in the devastating rupture of ill-prepared levee systems, the world was riveted by stories about the…

Music: Guide to Classroom Use in Intermediate Grades.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

WETA - TV, Washington, DC.

This field-tested guide is intended to help 4th, 5th, and 6th grade teachers introduce students to different musical concepts through a series of ten 30 minute television programs. Produced by WETA-TV, Washington D.C., the fast paced, humorous programs expose students to many musical styles including vocal and instrumental jazz, bluegrass and pop,…

Blue Note

ScienceCinema

Murray Gibson

2017-12-09

Argonne's Murray Gibson is a physicist whose life's work includes finding patterns among atoms. The love of distinguishing patterns also drives Gibson as a musician and Blues enthusiast."Blue" notes are very harmonic notes that are missing from the equal temperament scale.The techniques of piano blues and jazz represent the melding of African and Western music into something totally new and exciting.

Creating Dynamic Websites Using jQuery

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller-Francisco, Emily

2010-01-01

As e-resource systems and web coordinator for Southern Oregon University, the author is deeply involved with the university library's website. In the latest revision of this website, the author knew she needed to jazz it up a little. With screen real estate on the main page at a premium, the author hoped to use a tabbed box and an accordion-style…

Air and Space Museum Apollo 40th Celebration

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-07-19

Jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall performs at the Apollo 40th anniversary celebration held at the National Air and Space Museum, Monday, July 20, 2009 in Washington. Diana Krall talked about her love of space flight and showed off her temporary tattoo that honors Canadian Astronaut Bob Thirsk who is currently onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Air and Space Museum Apollo 40th Celebration

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-07-19

Jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall performs at the Apollo 40th anniversary celebration held at the National Air and Space Museum, Monday, July 20, 2009 in Washington. Diana Krall talked about her love of space flight and showed off her temporary tattoo that honors Canadian Astronaut Bob Thirsk who is currently onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Carla Cioffi)

Educational Greenfield: A Critical Policy Analysis of Plans to Transform New Orleans Public Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Torregano, Michelle Early; Shannon, Patrick

2009-01-01

New Orleans is known as a unique city. It is the birthplace of jazz, delicious food, and a "gumbo" of warm friendly people. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina roared ashore, leaving death and destruction in her wake. New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin recognized that rebuilding the city of New Orleans would be a daunting task; one that he…

The Five-String Banjo in the Music Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Kenneth H.

2011-01-01

The banjo is an instrument of unique image and sound. It has a long history in North America from its arrival on slave ships from North Africa to its contemporary use in jazz and popular music. Adding the instrument to the general music classroom can open new realms of timbre and new avenues of exploration into the instruments of cultures around…

Blue Note

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Murray Gibson

2007-04-27

Argonne's Murray Gibson is a physicist whose life's work includes finding patterns among atoms. The love of distinguishing patterns also drives Gibson as a musician and Blues enthusiast."Blue" notes are very harmonic notes that are missing from the equal temperament scale.The techniques of piano blues and jazz represent the melding of African and Western music into something totally new and exciting.

Courage and Power: Dancing in Senegal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moss, Suzan

2002-01-01

This article explores continuing professional development. I teach in a community college where 93% of the students are black and Latino. I am a Caucasian teacher, and my background is primarily modern and jazz dance. In recent years I have been studying African and Latin dance forms, so that I can address the deep hunger my students have to learn…

Developing Distance Music Education in Arctic Scandinavia: Electric Guitar Teaching and Master Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brandstrom, Sture; Wiklund, Christer; Lundstrom, Erik

2012-01-01

The purpose of this article was to present the project Vi r Music, with a focus on electric guitar teaching (Case 1) and master classes (Case 2). What were the benefits and shortcomings in the two cases and how did online teaching differ from face-to-face teaching? A guitar teacher with a specialisation in jazz music introduced distance teaching…

The Song Remains the Same: A Replication and Extension of the MUSIC Model.

PubMed

Rentfrow, Peter J; Goldberg, Lewis R; Stillwell, David J; Kosinski, Michal; Gosling, Samuel D; Levitin, Daniel J

2012-12-01

There is overwhelming anecdotal and empirical evidence for individual differences in musical preferences. However, little is known about what drives those preferences. Are people drawn to particular musical genres (e.g., rap, jazz) or to certain musical properties (e.g., lively, loud)? Recent findings suggest that musical preferences can be conceptualized in terms of five orthogonal dimensions: Mellow, Unpretentious, Sophisticated, Intense, and Contemporary (conveniently, MUSIC). The aim of the present research is to replicate and extend that work by empirically examining the hypothesis that musical preferences are based on preferences for particular musical properties and psychological attributes as opposed to musical genres. Findings from Study 1 replicated the five-factor MUSIC structure using musical excerpts from a variety of genres and subgenres and revealed musical attributes that differentiate each factor. Results from Studies 2 and 3 show that the MUSIC structure is recoverable using musical pieces from only the jazz and rock genres, respectively. Taken together, the current work provides strong evidence that preferences for music are determined by specific musical attributes and that the MUSIC model is a robust framework for conceptualizing and measuring such preferences.

The Song Remains the Same: A Replication and Extension of the MUSIC Model

PubMed Central

Rentfrow, Peter J.; Goldberg, Lewis R.; Stillwell, David J.; Kosinski, Michal; Gosling, Samuel D.; Levitin, Daniel J.

2012-01-01

There is overwhelming anecdotal and empirical evidence for individual differences in musical preferences. However, little is known about what drives those preferences. Are people drawn to particular musical genres (e.g., rap, jazz) or to certain musical properties (e.g., lively, loud)? Recent findings suggest that musical preferences can be conceptualized in terms of five orthogonal dimensions: Mellow, Unpretentious, Sophisticated, Intense, and Contemporary (conveniently, MUSIC). The aim of the present research is to replicate and extend that work by empirically examining the hypothesis that musical preferences are based on preferences for particular musical properties and psychological attributes as opposed to musical genres. Findings from Study 1 replicated the five-factor MUSIC structure using musical excerpts from a variety of genres and subgenres and revealed musical attributes that differentiate each factor. Results from Studies 2 and 3 show that the MUSIC structure is recoverable using musical pieces from only the jazz and rock genres, respectively. Taken together, the current work provides strong evidence that preferences for music are determined by specific musical attributes and that the MUSIC model is a robust framework for conceptualizing and measuring such preferences. PMID:24825945

270GHz SiGe BiCMOS manufacturing process platform for mmWave applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kar-Roy, Arjun; Preisler, Edward J.; Talor, George; Yan, Zhixin; Booth, Roger; Zheng, Jie; Chaudhry, Samir; Howard, David; Racanelli, Marco

2011-11-01

TowerJazz has been offering the high volume commercial SiGe BiCMOS process technology platform, SBC18, for more than a decade. In this paper, we describe the TowerJazz SBC18H3 SiGe BiCMOS process which integrates a production ready 240GHz FT / 270 GHz FMAX SiGe HBT on a 1.8V/3.3V dual gate oxide CMOS process in the SBC18 technology platform. The high-speed NPNs in SBC18H3 process have demonstrated NFMIN of ~2dB at 40GHz, a BVceo of 1.6V and a dc current gain of 1200. This state-of-the-art process also comes with P-I-N diodes with high isolation and low insertion losses, Schottky diodes capable of exceeding cut-off frequencies of 1THz, high density stacked MIM capacitors, MOS and high performance junction varactors characterized up to 50GHz, thick upper metal layers for inductors, and various resistors such as low value and high value unsilicided poly resistors, metal and nwell resistors. Applications of the SBC18H3 platform for millimeter-wave products for automotive radars, phased array radars and Wband imaging are presented.

The Effects of Category Generalizations and Instance Similarity on Schema Abstraction.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-10-07

reading; musical ’a-ite: classical, jazz, rock, disco, folk, country; sport: volleyball, basketball. bowling, squash, racquetball, handball . The space...Psychology 1845 Elena Ave., Fourth Floor 33 Kirkland Street Redondo Beach , CA 90277 Cambridge, MA 02138 1 Dr. Donald A Norman Mr. Marlin Kroger Dept. of...So. California Department of Computer Science Behavioral Technology Labs Rutgers University 1845 S. Elena Ave. ew Brunswick, NJ 08903 Redondo Beach

A Love Supreme--Riffing on the Standards: Placing Ideas at the Center of High Stakes Schooling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kohl, Herbert

2006-01-01

The Fake Book is a square spiral bound Xeroxed book, about 7" by 7", maybe 250 pages long. It's all music--the notes, usually in C or B minor, of hundreds of standard tunes, jazz, pop, and every once in a while, classical. The Fake Book and all of its variants provide an evolving canon of tunes that defines a set of common standards for…

Red, White, and the Blues Part 3 of 4: The New Beat of the Blues: R&B

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cassinos-Carr, Cathy

2004-01-01

When rhythm & blues--or, as it is more commonly called, R&B, was first born, it did not even have a name. Prior to 1949, all black popular music, including jazz, blues, and gospel, was known as "race music." But by the end of the 1940s, the music had become so successful that it gained a new-found respect--and Billboard magazine, realizing that…

The Effects of Varying Ratios of Physical and Mental Practice, and Task Difficulty on Performance of a Tonal Pattern

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cahn, Dan

2008-01-01

Sixty undergraduate students who had completed at least one semester of jazz improvisation were assigned to either: (a) physical practice (PP); (b) mental practice (MP); (c) combined 66 percent PP and 33 percent MP (66%PP:33%MP); and (d) combined 33 percent PP and 66 percent MP (33%PP:66%MP) groups. Subjects were to perform a 3-1-7-5 tonal pattern…

Antiplatelet therapy: aspirin resistance and all that jazz!

PubMed

Divani, Afshin A; Zantek, Nicole D; Borhani-Haghighi, Afshin; Rao, Gundu H R

2013-01-01

Platelets play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, thrombosis, and stroke. Aspirin used alone or in combination with other antiplatelet drugs has been shown to offer significant benefit to patients at high risk of vascular events. Resistance to the action of aspirin may decrease this benefit. Aspirin resistance has been defined by clinical and/or laboratory criteria; however, detection by laboratory methods prior to experiencing a clinical event will likely provide the greatest opportunity for intervention. Numerous laboratory methods with different cutoff points have been used to evaluate the resistance. Noncompliance with aspirin treatment has also confounded studies. A single assay is currently insufficient to establish resistance. Combinations of results to confirm compliance and platelet inhibition may identify "at-risk" individuals who truly have aspirin resistance. The most effective strategy for managing patients with aspirin resistance is unknown; however, studies are currently underway to address this issue.

Major Robert Lawrence Memorial Tribute

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

During an Astronauts Memorial Foundation tribute honoring U.S. Air Foce Maj. Robert Lawrence, vocalist Marva King sings with the Winston Scott “Cosmic Jazz Ensemble.” Selected in 1967 for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program, Lawrence was the first African-American astronaut. He lost his life in a training accident 50 years ago. The ceremony took place in the Center for Space Education at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

The Structure of Musical Preferences: A Five-Factor Model

PubMed Central

Rentfrow, Peter J.; Goldberg, Lewis R.; Levitin, Daniel J.

2011-01-01

Music is a cross-cultural universal, a ubiquitous activity found in every known human culture. Individuals demonstrate manifestly different preferences in music, and yet relatively little is known about the underlying structure of those preferences. Here, we introduce a model of musical preferences based on listeners’ affective reactions to excerpts of music from a wide variety of musical genres. The findings from three independent studies converged to suggest that there exists a latent five-factor structure underlying music preferences that is genre-free, and reflects primarily emotional/affective responses to music. We have interpreted and labeled these factors as: 1) a Mellow factor comprising smooth and relaxing styles; 2) an Urban factor defined largely by rhythmic and percussive music, such as is found in rap, funk, and acid jazz; 3) a Sophisticated factor that includes classical, operatic, world, and jazz; 4) an Intense factor defined by loud, forceful, and energetic music; and 5) a Campestral factor comprising a variety of different styles of direct, and rootsy music such as is often found in country and singer-songwriter genres. The findings from a fourth study suggest that preferences for the MUSIC factors are affected by both the social and auditory characteristics of the music. PMID:21299309

Background music genre can modulate flavor pleasantness and overall impression of food stimuli.

PubMed

Fiegel, Alexandra; Meullenet, Jean-François; Harrington, Robert J; Humble, Rachel; Seo, Han-Seok

2014-05-01

This study aimed to determine whether background music genre can alter food perception and acceptance, but also to determine how the effect of background music can vary as a function of type of food (emotional versus non-emotional foods) and source of music performer (single versus multiple performers). The music piece was edited into four genres: classical, jazz, hip-hop, and rock, by either a single or multiple performers. Following consumption of emotional (milk chocolate) or non-emotional food (bell peppers) with the four musical stimuli, participants were asked to rate sensory perception and impression of food stimuli. Participants liked food stimuli significantly more while listening to the jazz stimulus than the hip-hop stimulus. Further, the influence of background music on overall impression was present in the emotional food, but not in the non-emotional food. In addition, flavor pleasantness and overall impression of food stimuli differed between music genres arranged by a single performer, but not between those by multiple performers. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that music genre can alter flavor pleasantness and overall impression of food stimuli. Furthermore, the influence of music genre on food acceptance varies as a function of the type of served food and the source of music performer. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The structure of musical preferences: a five-factor model.

PubMed

Rentfrow, Peter J; Goldberg, Lewis R; Levitin, Daniel J

2011-06-01

Music is a cross-cultural universal, a ubiquitous activity found in every known human culture. Individuals demonstrate manifestly different preferences in music, and yet relatively little is known about the underlying structure of those preferences. Here, we introduce a model of musical preferences based on listeners' affective reactions to excerpts of music from a wide variety of musical genres. The findings from 3 independent studies converged to suggest that there exists a latent 5-factor structure underlying music preferences that is genre free and reflects primarily emotional/affective responses to music. We have interpreted and labeled these factors as (a) a Mellow factor comprising smooth and relaxing styles; (b) an Unpretentious factor comprising a variety of different styles of sincere and rootsy music such as is often found in country and singer-songwriter genres; (c) a Sophisticated factor that includes classical, operatic, world, and jazz; (d) an Intense factor defined by loud, forceful, and energetic music; and (e) a Contemporary factor defined largely by rhythmic and percussive music, such as is found in rap, funk, and acid jazz. The findings from a fourth study suggest that preferences for the MUSIC factors are affected by both the social and the auditory characteristics of the music. 2011 APA, all rights reserved

Common Runners/Walkers Foot Injuries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDaniel, Larry W.; Ihlers, Matt; Haar, Calin; Jackson, Allen; Gaudet, Laura

2010-01-01

This is my 35th year of running most days a year. That was correct most days a year not a week. Running is my first priority each day. Developing a routine will assist those who want exercise to become a habit. After I awake I drink a glass of water and a cup of coffee then my dog "Jazz" and I hit the streets for a 3-4 mile run. Later in…

Clausewitz on Kosovo

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-12-16

George Bush issued his “Christmas warning” to Miloševic.34 When the violence escalated, Washington dispatched Ambassador Richard Holbrooke to negotiate a...concede this is impossible. Richard Holbrooke said, “diplomacy, like jazz, is the constant improvisation on a theme.”102 Helmuth von Moltke wrote...Peter D. Feaver and Richard H. Kohn, “The Gap: Soldiers, Civilians, and their Mutual Misunderstanding,” The National Interest no. 61 (fall 2000): 29-37

Air and Space Museum Apollo 40th Celebration

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-07-19

Jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall holds a montage given to her by the STS-125 space shuttle crew along with Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong at the Apollo 40th anniversary celebration held at the National Air and Space Museum, Monday, July 20, 2009 in Washington. From left, Michael J. Massimino, Michael T. Good, Gregory C. Johnson, Andrew J. Feustel, Krall, Scott D. Altman, Neil Armstrong, John M. Grunsfeld and Megan McArthur. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Control Improvisation with Application to Music

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-11-04

Control Improvisation with Application to Music Alexandre Donze Sophie Libkind Sanjit A. Seshia David Wessel Electrical Engineering and Computer...to Music 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER 5e. TASK NUMBER 5f. WORK UNIT NUMBER 7...domain of music . More speci cally, we consider the scenario of generating a monophonic Jazz melody (solo) on a given song harmonization. The music is

Resisting Best-Practice in Australian Practice-Based Jazz Doctorates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coady, Christopher; Webb, Michael

2017-01-01

Recent research on practice-based doctorates in Australia has revealed an institutional preference for "theorised" research approaches aimed at situating studies of practice within established academic paradigms. In this article we examine how the aim of communicating with artistic peers steers the research design and the production of…

Everything I Know about Teaching I Learned from Jazz

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luquet, Wade

2015-01-01

The instant availability of information has changed the paradigm of teaching. Whereas at one time teaching and learning was information being passed, memorized, and repeated, students can now find their own knowledge. Learning now consists of using information in creative ways and requires a shift in how students are taught. This is quite similar…

Landmark lecture on cardiology: the quest for the ultimate team in health care - what we can learn from musicians about leadership, innovation, and teambuilding?

PubMed

Penny, Daniel J

2017-12-01

The importance of teamwork is being increasingly recognised in healthcare. Nonetheless, it is equally recognised that teamwork is difficult. In this article, I explore whether we can learn lessons from musicians, orchestras, and conductors as we build our teams. The evolution of the role of the conductor provides useful lessons on leadership and the evolving role of the members of the orchestra on how team members can contribute to a shared outcome. The uncertainty of jazz provides useful lessons for innovation in an increasingly turbulent healthcare environment.

Acoustic and phonatory characterization of the Fado voice.

PubMed

Mendes, Ana P; Rodrigues, Aira F; Guerreiro, David Michael

2013-09-01

Fado is a Portuguese musical genre, instrumentally accompanied by a Portuguese and an acoustic guitar. Fado singers' voice is perceptually characterized by a low pitch, hoarse, and strained voice. The present research study sketches the acoustic and phonatory profile of the Fado singers' voice. Fifteen Fado singers produced spoken and sung phonatory tasks. For the spoken voice measures, the maximum phonation time and s/z ratio of Fado singers were near the inefficient physiological threshold. Fundamental frequency was higher than that found in nonsingers and lower than that found in Western Classical singers. Jitter and shimmer mean values were higher compared with nonsingers. Harmonic-to-noise ratio (HNR) was similar to the mean values for nonsingers. For the sung voice, jitter was higher compared with Country, Musical Theater, Soul, Jazz, and Western Classical singers and lower than Pop singers. Shimmer mean values were lower than Country, Musical Theater, Pop, Soul, and Jazz singers and higher than Western Classical singers. HNR was similar for Western Classical singers. Maximum phonational frequency range of Fado singers indicated that male and female subjects had a lower range compared with Western Classical singers. Additionally, Fado singers produced vibrato, but singer's formant was rarely produced. These sung voice characteristics could be related with life habits, less/lack of singing training, or could be just a Fado voice characteristic. Copyright © 2013 The Voice Foundation. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Creativity and improvisation as therapeutic tools within music therapy.

PubMed

Tomaino, Concetta M

2013-11-01

The neuroscience of creativity and music improvisation is a fascinating topic and one with strong implications for clinical music therapy. Music therapists are trained to use musical improvisation as a means to bring their clients into deeper therapeutic relationship as well as free up any inhibitions or limitations that may block recovery. Could recent fMRI studies of jazz musicians showing areas of brain activation during music improvisation provide a new framework to understand underlying mechanisms at work with neurologically impaired individuals? © 2013 New York Academy of Sciences.

Amino Acid Jazz: Amplifying Biochemistry Concepts with Content-Rich Music

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crowther, Gregory J.; Davis, Katie

2013-01-01

Music is not typically used in teaching high school- and college-level chemistry. This may be attributable to instructors' perceptions of educational music as being solely for memorization, their uncertainty about how to incorporate music effectively, or because of a limited number of suitable songs in which the music and words reinforce each…

From Symphony to Jazz: The Concept of Strategy in Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bell, Les

1998-01-01

Considers derivation of the strategy concept and its deployment as a managerial planning technique. Examines the related growth of school development planning, exploring ways it might be considered strategic. Using strategy in organizations is no longer either possible or appropriate. Proposes an alternative planning basis derived from marginal…

Jazz Aesthetics and the Democratic Imperative in Education: A Dialogue

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mirón, Luis; Goines, Victor; Boselovic, Joseph L.

2015-01-01

What appeared decades ago as solely a European model--Thatcherism--is now a global trend with no apparent end in sight. Neoliberalism in the public sector, and within the educational sphere particularly, pervades within a larger pattern of hegemonic ideologies. In sum, market forces and global capitalism make it quite difficult for public…

Perception of 'Back-Channeling' Nonverbal Feedback in Musical Duo Improvisation.

PubMed

Moran, Nikki; Hadley, Lauren V; Bader, Maria; Keller, Peter E

2015-01-01

In witnessing face-to-face conversation, observers perceive authentic communication according to the social contingency of nonverbal feedback cues ('back-channeling') by non-speaking interactors. The current study investigated the generality of this function by focusing on nonverbal communication in musical improvisation. A perceptual experiment was conducted to test whether observers can reliably identify genuine versus fake (mismatched) duos from musicians' nonverbal cues, and how this judgement is affected by observers' musical background and rhythm perception skill. Twenty-four musicians were recruited to perform duo improvisations, which included solo episodes, in two styles: standard jazz (where rhythm is based on a regular pulse) or free improvisation (where rhythm is non-pulsed). The improvisations were recorded using a motion capture system to generate 16 ten-second point-light displays (with audio) of the soloist and the silent non-soloing musician ('back-channeler'). Sixteen further displays were created by splicing soloists with back-channelers from different duos. Participants (N = 60) with various musical backgrounds were asked to rate the point-light displays as either real or fake. Results indicated that participants were sensitive to the real/fake distinction in the free improvisation condition independently of musical experience. Individual differences in rhythm perception skill did not account for performance in the free condition, but were positively correlated with accuracy in the standard jazz condition. These findings suggest that the perception of back-channeling in free improvisation is not dependent on music-specific skills but is a general ability. The findings invite further study of the links between interpersonal dynamics in conversation and musical interaction.

Music Inspired by Astronomy: A Selected Listing for the International Year of Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fraknoi, A.

2008-11-01

Part of the aim of the International Year of Astronomy is to show the connections between astronomy and other areas of human culture. Such connections are easily found in music, where astronomical ideas have found a wide range of expression. This is not a comprehensive listing, but a sampling of some of the pieces that are available on CD's, and that may be of particular interest to educators and astronomy enthusiasts. To qualify for the list, a piece (or the composer's vision for it) has to include some real science and not just an astronomical term in the title or in a few lyrics. For example, we do not list The Planets, by Gustav Holst, since it treats the astrological view of the planets. And we regret that Philip Glass' opera Galileo is not available on CD and therefore cannot be listed. Nor do we include the thousands of popular songs that use the moon or the stars for an easy rhyme or a quick romantic image. And, while many jazz pieces have astronomy in the title, it is often hard to know just how the piece and the astronomy go together; so we've sadly omitted jazz too. For those with old-fashioned ears, like the author, we note that no warranty is made that all these pieces are easy to listen to, but each takes some key idea from astronomy and makes music out of it. A more comprehensive discussion can be found in my article in Astronomy Education Review: http://aer.noao.edu/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=193

Major Robert Lawrence Memorial Tribute

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

During an Astronauts Memorial Foundation tribute honoring U.S. Air Foce Maj. Robert Lawrence, The Winston Scott “Cosmic Jazz Ensemble” performed. Participants are, from the left, former NASA astronaut Winston Scott playing trumpet, Al Dodds on bass, Stan Soloko playing drums, vocalist Shyrl “Lady Tandy” Johnson, and Ron Teixeira playing piano. Selected in 1967 for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program, Lawrence was the first African-American astronaut. He lost his life in a training accident 50 years ago. The ceremony took place in the Center for Space Education at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

Noch ein "Geheimnis des Jazz": Saying "Oja" to Afro-German Studies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Divers, Greg

1995-01-01

Introduces classroom materials with which African American students who are studying German can identify. The article shows that contemporary German poetry and the work of African American poets in German translation offer many possibilities for exercises that speak directly to African American students at all levels. (25 references) (Author/CK)

X-ray micro-computer tomographic method to visualize the microstructure of different apple cultivars.

PubMed

Ting, Valentina J L; Silcock, Patrick; Bremer, Phil J; Biasioli, Franco

2013-11-01

Apples are appreciated for their texture with firmness acting as an indicator of quality. During prolonged storage, apples can soften and their texture can become undesirably mealy. Using an X-ray microcomputer tomography (μ-CT) scanner, the porosity (ratio of intercellular space [IS] to total volume) and the structural arrangement of the parenchyma tissue of 4 apple cultivars (Braeburn, Fuji, Golden Delicious, Jazz) stored under similar conditions for 100 d were visualized via the development of 2D and 3D images. The texture of the apples was also measured using a puncture test. The morphometric and textural measurements revealed that firm Jazz apples (flesh firmness: 29.84N) had a lower porosity (17%) compared to soft Golden Delicious apples (flesh firmness: 14.16N; porosity: 29.8%). In general, firm apples had a higher dry matter (%) and a lower porosity (%), while the reverse was true for softer apples. However, this was not an absolute trend as cultivar specific differences in the microstructural organization and consequent mechanical strength of the parenchyma tissue also influenced firmness. For example, although Fuji apples were firm (28.42N), they had a high porosity (29.3%) due to the presence of numerous small and compact IS. In comparison, soft Golden Delicious apples had a high porosity (29.8%) due to the presence of large, interconnected IS. Imaging technologies have the potential to provide a pictorial or graphical database showing the size range distribution of IS corresponding to different parenchyma tissue types and how they relate to apple texture and eating quality. © 2013 Institute of Food Technologists®

Perception of ‘Back-Channeling’ Nonverbal Feedback in Musical Duo Improvisation

PubMed Central

Moran, Nikki; Hadley, Lauren V.; Bader, Maria; Keller, Peter E.

2015-01-01

In witnessing face-to-face conversation, observers perceive authentic communication according to the social contingency of nonverbal feedback cues (‘back-channeling’) by non-speaking interactors. The current study investigated the generality of this function by focusing on nonverbal communication in musical improvisation. A perceptual experiment was conducted to test whether observers can reliably identify genuine versus fake (mismatched) duos from musicians’ nonverbal cues, and how this judgement is affected by observers’ musical background and rhythm perception skill. Twenty-four musicians were recruited to perform duo improvisations, which included solo episodes, in two styles: standard jazz (where rhythm is based on a regular pulse) or free improvisation (where rhythm is non-pulsed). The improvisations were recorded using a motion capture system to generate 16 ten-second point-light displays (with audio) of the soloist and the silent non-soloing musician (‘back-channeler’). Sixteen further displays were created by splicing soloists with back-channelers from different duos. Participants (N = 60) with various musical backgrounds were asked to rate the point-light displays as either real or fake. Results indicated that participants were sensitive to the real/fake distinction in the free improvisation condition independently of musical experience. Individual differences in rhythm perception skill did not account for performance in the free condition, but were positively correlated with accuracy in the standard jazz condition. These findings suggest that the perception of back-channeling in free improvisation is not dependent on music-specific skills but is a general ability. The findings invite further study of the links between interpersonal dynamics in conversation and musical interaction. PMID:26086593

Front end optimization for the monolithic active pixel sensor of the ALICE Inner Tracking System upgrade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, D.; Aglieri Rinella, G.; Cavicchioli, C.; Chanlek, N.; Collu, A.; Degerli, Y.; Dorokhov, A.; Flouzat, C.; Gajanana, D.; Gao, C.; Guilloux, F.; Hillemanns, H.; Hristozkov, S.; Junique, A.; Keil, M.; Kofarago, M.; Kugathasan, T.; Kwon, Y.; Lattuca, A.; Mager, M.; Sielewicz, K. M.; Marin Tobon, C. A.; Marras, D.; Martinengo, P.; Mazza, G.; Mugnier, H.; Musa, L.; Pham, T. H.; Puggioni, C.; Reidt, F.; Riedler, P.; Rousset, J.; Siddhanta, S.; Snoeys, W.; Song, M.; Usai, G.; Van Hoorne, J. W.; Yang, P.

2016-02-01

ALICE plans to replace its Inner Tracking System during the second long shut down of the LHC in 2019 with a new 10 m2 tracker constructed entirely with monolithic active pixel sensors. The TowerJazz 180 nm CMOS imaging Sensor process has been selected to produce the sensor as it offers a deep pwell allowing full CMOS in-pixel circuitry and different starting materials. First full-scale prototypes have been fabricated and tested. Radiation tolerance has also been verified. In this paper the development of the charge sensitive front end and in particular its optimization for uniformity of charge threshold and time response will be presented.

Note: Characterization and test of a high input impedance RF amplifier for series nanowire detector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wan, Chao; Pei, Yufeng; Jiang, Zhou; Kang, Lin; Wu, Peiheng

2016-09-01

We designed a high input impedance RF amplifier based on Tower Jazz's 0.18 μm SiGe BiCMOS process for series nanowire detector. The characterization of its gain and input impedance with a vector network analyzer is described in detail for its specificity. The actual 15 dB gain should be the measured value subtracts 6 dB, which is easy to be ignored. Its input impedance can be equivalent to 6.7 kΩ ∥ 3.4 pF though fitting the measurement, whose accuracy is verified. The process of measurement provides a good reference to characterize the similar special amplifier with unmatched impedance.

Class Position and Musical Tastes: A Sing-Off between the Cultural Omnivorism and Bourdieusian Homology Frameworks.

PubMed

Veenstra, Gerry

2015-05-01

The longstanding debate between the homology and omnivorism approaches to the class bases of cultural tastes and practices rages on in cultural sociology. The homology thesis claims that class positions throughout the class hierarchy are accompanied by specified cultural tastes and specialized modes of appreciating them while the cultural omnivorism thesis contends that elites are (increasingly) characterized by a breadth of cultural tastes of any and all kinds. This study tests the applicability of these theses to musical tastes in Canada through the application of multiple correspondence analysis, latent class analysis, and logistic regression modeling to original telephone survey data (n = 1,595) from Toronto and Vancouver. I find that musical omnivorism, an appreciation for diverse musical styles, is not dispersed along class lines. Instead I find a homology between class position and musical tastes that designates blues, choral, classical, jazz, musical theater, opera, pop, reggae, rock, and world/international as relatively highbrow and country, disco, easy listening, golden oldies, heavy metal, and rap as relatively lowbrow. Of the highbrow tastes, all but jazz are disliked by lower class people, and of the lowbrow tastes, country, easy listening, and golden oldies are concurrently disliked by higher class people. Consistent with the homology thesis, it appears that class position is aligned with specific musical likes and dislikes. Le vieux débat entre les approches de l'homologie et de l'omnivorisme aux bases des classes des goûts et des pratiques culturels fait rage dans la sociologie culturelle. La thèse de l'homologie prétend que les positions des classes à travers la hiérarchie des classes sont accompagnées par des goûts culturels spécifiés et des modes spécialisés permettant leur appréciation. La thèse de l'omnivorisme culturel, en revanche, soutient que les élites sont (de plus en plus) caractérisées par un éventail de go

Blood glucose meters employing dynamic electrochemistry are stable against hematocrit interference in a laboratory setting.

PubMed

Pfützner, Andreas; Musholt, Petra B; Schipper, Christina; Demircik, Filiz; Hengesbach, Carina; Flacke, Frank; Sieber, Jochen; Forst, Thomas

2013-11-01

Hematocrit (HCT) is known to be a confounding factor that interferes with many blood glucose (BG) measurement technologies, resulting in wrong readings. Dynamic electrochemistry has been identified as one possible way to correct for these potential deviations. The purpose of this laboratory investigation was to assess the HCT stability of four BG meters known to employ dynamic electrochemistry (BGStar and iBGStar, Sanofi; Wavesense Jazz, AgaMatrix; Wellion Linus, MedTrust) in comparison with three other devices (GlucoDock, Medisana; OneTouch Verio Pro, LifeScan; FreeStyle Freedom InsuLinx, Abbott-Medisense). Venous heparinized blood was immediately aliquoted after draw and manipulated to contain three different BG concentrations (60-90, 130-160, and 280-320 mg/dl) and five different HCT levels (25%, 35%, 45%, 55%, and 60%). After careful oxygenation to normal blood oxygen pressure, each of the resulting 15 different samples was measured six times with three devices and three strip lots of each meter. The YSI Stat 2300 served as laboratory reference method. Stability to HCT influence was assumed when less than 10% difference occurred between the highest and lowest mean glucose deviations in relation to HCT concentrations [hematocrit interference factor (HIF)]. Five of the investigated self-test meters showed a stable performance with the different HCT levels tested in this investigation: BGStar (HIF 4.6%), iBGStar (6.6%), Wavesense Jazz (4.1%), Wellion Linus (8.5%), and OneTouch Verio Pro (6.2%). The two other meters were influenced by HCT (FreeStyle InsuLinx 17.8%; GlucoDock 46.5%). In this study, meters employing dynamic electrochemistry, as used in the BGStar and iBGStar devices, were shown to correct for potential HCT influence on the meter results. Dynamic electrochemistry appears to be an effective way to handle this interfering condition. © 2013 Diabetes Technology Society.

Blood Glucose Meters Employing Dynamic Electrochemistry Are Stable against Hematocrit Interference in a Laboratory Setting

PubMed Central

Pfützner, Andreas; Musholt, Petra B.; Schipper, Christina; Demircik, Filiz; Hengesbach, Carina; Flacke, Frank; Sieber, Jochen; Forst, Thomas

2013-01-01

Background Hematocrit (HCT) is known to be a confounding factor that interferes with many blood glucose (BG) measurement technologies, resulting in wrong readings. Dynamic electrochemistry has been identified as one possible way to correct for these potential deviations. The purpose of this laboratory investigation was to assess the HCT stability of four BG meters known to employ dynamic electrochemistry (BGStar and iBGStar, Sanofi; Wavesense Jazz, AgaMatrix; Wellion Linus, MedTrust) in comparison with three other devices (GlucoDock, Medisana; OneTouch Verio Pro, LifeScan; FreeStyle Freedom InsuLinx, Abbott-Medisense). Methods Venous heparinized blood was immediately aliquoted after draw and manipulated to contain three different BG concentrations (60–90, 130–160, and 280–320 mg/dl) and five different HCT levels (25%, 35%, 45%, 55%, and 60%). After careful oxygenation to normal blood oxygen pressure, each of the resulting 15 different samples was measured six times with three devices and three strip lots of each meter. The YSI Stat 2300 served as laboratory reference method. Stability to HCT influence was assumed when less than 10% difference occurred between the highest and lowest mean glucose deviations in relation to HCT concentrations [hematocrit interference factor (HIF)]. Results Five of the investigated self-test meters showed a stable performance with the different HCT levels tested in this investigation: BGStar (HIF 4.6%), iBGStar (6.6%), Wavesense Jazz (4.1%), Wellion Linus (8.5%), and OneTouch Verio Pro (6.2%). The two other meters were influenced by HCT (FreeStyle InsuLinx 17.8%; GlucoDock 46.5%). Conclusions In this study, meters employing dynamic electrochemistry, as used in the BGStar and iBGStar devices, were shown to correct for potential HCT influence on the meter results. Dynamic electrochemistry appears to be an effective way to handle this interfering condition. PMID:24351179

Music and the mind: the magical power of sound.

PubMed

Paulson, Steve; Bharucha, Jamshed; Iyer, Vijay; Limb, Charles; Tomaino, Concetta

2013-11-01

Music has been a wonderful tool to investigate the interconnection between brain science, psychology, and human experience. Moderated by Steve Paulson, executive producer and host of To the Best of Our Knowledge, cognitive neuroscientist and musician Jamshed Bharucha, music therapy pioneer Concetta Tomaino, jazz pianist Vijay Iyer, and physician musician Charles Limb discuss the neurological basis of creativity and aesthetic judgment and the capacity of music to elicit specific emotions and to heal the body. The following is an edited transcript of the discussion that occurred December 12, 2012, 7:00-8:15 PM, at the New York Academy of Sciences in New York City. © 2013 New York Academy of Sciences.

Heidegger and Jazz: Musical Propositions of Truth and the Essence of Creativity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thwaites, Trevor

2013-01-01

Creativity is inextricably linked to the ontology of being; as the history of philosophy frequently shows, it encompasses both the need to transform and be transformed. In this essay I examine the notion of "being creative" on the way to opening up our relationship to the essence of creativity, taking Heidegger's interpretation of…

Heidegger and Jazz: Musical Propositions of Truth and the Essence of Creativity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thwaites, Trevor

2013-01-01

Creativity is inextricably linked to the ontology of being; as the history of philosophy frequently shows, it encompasses both the need to transform and be transformed. In this essay I examine the notion of "being creative" on the way to opening up our relationship to the essence of creativity, taking Heidegger's interpretation of…

Interactive Whiteboards and All That Jazz: Analysing Classroom Activity with Interactive Technologies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tanner, Howard; Beauchamp, Gary; Jones, Sonia; Kennewell, Steve

2010-01-01

The term "orchestration", has been used to describe the teacher's role in activity settings incorporating interactive technologies. This musical analogy suggests pre-planned manipulation of events to generate "performance" leading to learning. However, in two recent projects we have observed how effective teaching and learning…

More Like Jazz than Classical: Reciprocal Interactions among Educational Researchers and Respondents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dance, L. Janelle; Gutierrez, Rochelle; Hermes, Mary

2010-01-01

In this article, educational scholars L. Janelle Dance, Rochelle Gutierrez, and Mary Hermes share insights from their lived experience as qualitative researchers trying to work in collaboration with diverse populations. They refer to these insights as "improvisations on conventional qualitative methods," reminding readers that their…

Afro-American Innovation and the Folk Tradition in Jazz: Their Historical Significance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kofsky, Frank

1979-01-01

This paper illustrates the ways in which the social environment can confer advantages on Black youth with respect to the playing of Afro-American music. The significance of mechanisms that Blacks have elaborated to maintain certain aspects of their culture for the writing of Black history is also explored. (Author/EB)

A resolution congratulating the Newport Jazz Festival on its 60th anniversary.

THOMAS, 113th Congress

Sen. Reed, Jack [D-RI

2014-07-22

Senate - 07/22/2014 Submitted in the Senate, considered, and agreed to without amendment and with a preamble by Unanimous Consent. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status Agreed to in SenateHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Universality in the tail of musical note rank distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beltrán del Río, M.; Cocho, G.; Naumis, G. G.

2008-09-01

Although power laws have been used to fit rank distributions in many different contexts, they usually fail at the tails. Languages as sequences of symbols have been a popular subject for ranking distributions, and for this purpose, music can be treated as such. Here we show that more than 1800 musical compositions are very well fitted by the first kind two parameter beta distribution, which arises in the ranking of multiplicative stochastic processes. The parameters a and b are obtained for classical, jazz and rock music, revealing interesting features. Specially, we have obtained a clear trend in the values of the parameters for major and minor tonal modes. Finally, we discuss the distribution of notes for each octave and its connection with the ranking of the notes.

Music preferences and personality among Japanese university students.

PubMed

Brown, R A

2012-01-01

Little research has been conducted outside of the European-North American cultural area concerning the personality-based determinants of musical genre preferences The present research investigated the personality profiles and general music genre preferences of 268 Japanese college students. Six dimensions and 24 facets of personality, and 12 music genres, were assessed. Results indicated that, consistent with much previous research, openness (to experience) and particularly the facet of "aesthetic appreciation" were associated with a preference for "reflective" music (jazz, classical, opera, gospel, enka), while one extraversion facet (sociability) was associated with the preference for pop music. Other personality dimensions were less consistently associated with musical preferences, pointing to cultural differences and the need to assess both personality and music genres at more specific levels.

Retrospective dream components and musical preferences.

PubMed

Kroth, Jerry; Lamas, Jasmin; Pisca, Nicholas; Bourret, Kristy; Kollath, Miranda

2008-08-01

Retrospective dream components endorsed on the KJP Dream Inventory were correlated with those on the Short Test of Musical Preference for 68 graduate students in counseling psychology (11 men). Among 40 correlations, 6 were significant between preferences for Heavy Metal and Dissociative avoidance dreams (.32), Dreaming that you are dreaming (.40), Dreaming that you have fallen unconscious or asleep (.41), Recurring pleasantness (.31), and Awakening abruptly from a dream (-.31); between preferences for Rap/Hip-Hop and Sexual dreams (.27); and between preferences for Jazz and Recurring pleasantness in dreams (.33). Subjects preferring Classical music reported a higher incidence of Dreams of flying (.33) and rated higher Discontentedness in dreams (-.26). The meaning of these low values awaits research based on personality inventories and full dream reports.

Cultural differences in music chosen for pain relief.

PubMed

Good, M; Picot, B L; Salem, S G; Chin, C C; Picot, S F; Lane, D

2000-09-01

Nurses use music therapeutically but often assume that all patients will equally appreciate the same type of music. Cultural differences in music preferences are compared across five pain studies. Music preferences for pain relief are described as the most frequently chosen type of music for each culture. Findings indicate that in four studies, musical choices were related to cultural background (p = .002 to .049). Although the majority in each group chose among the other types of music, Caucasians most frequently chose orchestra music, African Americans chose jazz, and Taiwanese chose harp music. For culturally congruent care, nurses should become aware of cultural differences in music preference and provide culturally specific selections among other music expected to have a therapeutic effect.

Cinderella vs Statistics: The Silent Movie Heroine as a Jazz Age Working Girl.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Higashi, Sumiko

The portrayal of the working girl in the silent films of the 1920s ignored the fact that in reality women worked to help support their families, to be financially independent, or to supplement their family's income. A study of movie heroines from that era reveals that these characterizations reinforce the image of the traditionally dependent woman…

Shaping Interpersonal Learning in the Jazz Improvisation Lesson: Observing a Dynamic Systems Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Bruin, Leon Rene

2018-01-01

Music institutions predominantly utilize the one-to-one lesson in developing and supporting music students' learning of skill and knowledge. This article explores the effect that interpersonal interaction plays in shaping pedagogical applications between teacher and student. Observing the learning of improvisation within this individualized social…

Email and All that Jazz: Training Staff to Use Electronic Communication Tools Professionally

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephens, Karen

2008-01-01

There are many benefits of e-mails. Through e-mail, a person can relay specific details to any number of "need to know" persons at the press of a "send" key at any time of day, without playing endless phone tag or waking someone up on the wrong side of the time zone. A person can also get "newsy" information out fast and save printing money, too.…

Charged particle detection performances of CMOS pixel sensors produced in a 0.18 μm process with a high resistivity epitaxial layer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Senyukov, S.; Baudot, J.; Besson, A.; Claus, G.; Cousin, L.; Dorokhov, A.; Dulinski, W.; Goffe, M.; Hu-Guo, C.; Winter, M.

2013-12-01

The apparatus of the ALICE experiment at CERN will be upgraded in 2017/18 during the second long shutdown of the LHC (LS2). A major motivation for this upgrade is to extend the physics reach for charmed and beauty particles down to low transverse momenta. This requires a substantial improvement of the spatial resolution and the data rate capability of the ALICE Inner Tracking System (ITS). To achieve this goal, the new ITS will be equipped with 50 μm thin CMOS Pixel Sensors (CPS) covering either the three innermost layers or all the 7 layers of the detector. The CPS being developed for the ITS upgrade at IPHC (Strasbourg) is derived from the MIMOSA 28 sensor realised for the STAR-PXL at RHIC in a 0.35 μm CMOS process. In order to satisfy the ITS upgrade requirements in terms of readout speed and radiation tolerance, a CMOS process with a reduced feature size and a high resistivity epitaxial layer should be exploited. In this respect, the charged particle detection performance and radiation hardness of the TowerJazz 0.18 μm CMOS process were studied with the help of the first prototype chip MIMOSA 32. The beam tests performed with negative pions of 120 GeV/c at the CERN-SPS allowed to measure a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the non-irradiated chip in the range between 22 and 32 depending on the pixel design. The chip irradiated with the combined dose of 1 MRad and 1013neq /cm2 was observed to yield an SNR ranging between 11 and 23 for coolant temperatures varying from 15 °C to 30 °C. These SNR values were measured to result in particle detection efficiencies above 99.5% and 98% before and after irradiation, respectively. These satisfactory results allow to validate the TowerJazz 0.18 μm CMOS process for the ALICE ITS upgrade.

Dance is the new metal: adolescent music preferences and substance use across Europe.

PubMed

ter Bogt, Tom F M; Gabhainn, Saoirse Nic; Simons-Morton, Bruce G; Ferreira, Mafalda; Hublet, Anne; Godeau, E; Kuntsche, E; Richter, Matthias

2012-01-01

This study examined relationships between music preferences and substance use (tobacco, alcohol, cannabis) among 18,103 fifteen-year-olds from 10 European countries. In 2005-2006, across Europe, preferences for mainstream Pop (pop chart music) and Highbrow (classical music and jazz) were negatively associated with substance use, while preferences for Dance (house/trance and techno/hardhouse) were associated positively with substance use. In three countries, links were identified between liking Rock (rock, heavy metal punk/hardcore, and gothic) and substance use; associations between Urban (hip-hop and R&B) and substance use were mixed. No substantial gender differences emerged in these patterns, and controlling for relevant covariates did not attenuate the predictive value of substance use. The findings are consistent with the conclusion that music is a robust marker of adolescent substance use.

[Physiological aspects of music and longevity].

PubMed

Dymnikowa, M

The article provides an overview of the results of studies on the effect of music on the function of various physiological systems of the organism including the nervous, cardiovascular and endocrine systems, also on the effect of Mozart's music and the later mature Baroque music. Particular attention is paid to information on the influence of different kinds of music (classical, jazz and rock), of the nature and of the degree of musical activity (listeners, amateurs and professional performers) on cognitive and behavioral function, on health status, life expectancy and longevity. Structural acoustical attributes of music defining its treatment effect, are described with the comparison of aspects of rock music and of classical music. The article also considers the prospects for using of music in the treatment and prevention of age-associated diseases.

Contagious rhythm: infectious diseases of 20th century musicians.

PubMed

Sartin, Jeffrey S

2010-07-01

Infectious diseases have led to illness and death for many famous musicians, from the classical period to the rock 'n' roll era. By the 20th century, as public health improved and orchestral composers began living more settled lives, infections among American and European musicians became less prominent. By mid-century, however, seminal jazz musicians famously pursued lifestyles characterized by drug and alcohol abuse. Among the consequences of this risky lifestyle were tuberculosis, syphilis, and chronic viral hepatitis. More contemporary rock musicians have experienced an epidemic of hepatitis C infection and HIV/AIDS related to intravenous drug use and promiscuity. Musical innovation is thus often accompanied by diseases of neglect and overindulgence, particularly infectious illnesses, although risky behavior and associated infectious illnesses tend to decrease as the style matures.

Contagious Rhythm: Infectious Diseases of 20th Century Musicians

PubMed Central

Sartin, Jeffrey S.

2010-01-01

Infectious diseases have led to illness and death for many famous musicians, from the classical period to the rock ’n’ roll era. By the 20th century, as public health improved and orchestral composers began living more settled lives, infections among American and European musicians became less prominent. By mid-century, however, seminal jazz musicians famously pursued lifestyles characterized by drug and alcohol abuse. Among the consequences of this risky lifestyle were tuberculosis, syphilis, and chronic viral hepatitis. More contemporary rock musicians have experienced an epidemic of hepatitis C infection and HIV/AIDS related to intravenous drug use and promiscuity. Musical innovation is thus often accompanied by diseases of neglect and overindulgence, particularly infectious illnesses, although risky behavior and associated infectious illnesses tend to decrease as the style matures. PMID:20660936

Acoustical components of the Orpheum Theatre renovation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Conant, David A.

2002-05-01

The before and after acoustically-important listening conditions and measurements are described for a $14.2 million restoration and renovation of this 1,400-seat grand 1929 Movie Palace-at one time the tallest building in Phoenix. Great care was taken to restore all the acoustically good parts of the original design and to subtly modify the acoustically-troublesome parts (including severely focusing dome and sidewalls) so they looked the same but performed properly. A beautiful playhouse was achieved in 1997 with fine, fixed acoustics and conventional audio reinforcement, a surrounding Italian village, plenty of gilt, moving clouds and sunsets overhead. Today, the venue successfully hosts shows from performance art to ballet to jazz. It was not intended (acoustically) to serve classical music but does so on occasion.

Tales from the Jazz ASH: highlights from the 2013 American Society of Haematology meeting.

PubMed

Mazzarella, Luca

2014-01-01

The 55th annual ASH meeting was held in pleasant New Orleans and was the largest in its history, with 22,495 participants coming from 113 nations. A 'bench-to-bedside and back' attitude characterises haematology probably more than any other discipline in medicine and, as usual, this was reflected in the extremely wide breadth of the topics covered, including the last results from clinical trials and cutting-edge advancements in basic science. This year, the balance was arguably skewed: few truly clinical practice-changing results were presented. On the other hand, a great number of basic and translational studies significantly increased our understanding of the biology of numerous malignancies and heralded the coming of age of disruptive technologies. Namely, above all, next generation sequencing and T cell engineering-based cell therapy.

Neural substrates of interactive musical improvisation: an FMRI study of 'trading fours' in jazz.

PubMed

Donnay, Gabriel F; Rankin, Summer K; Lopez-Gonzalez, Monica; Jiradejvong, Patpong; Limb, Charles J

2014-01-01

Interactive generative musical performance provides a suitable model for communication because, like natural linguistic discourse, it involves an exchange of ideas that is unpredictable, collaborative, and emergent. Here we show that interactive improvisation between two musicians is characterized by activation of perisylvian language areas linked to processing of syntactic elements in music, including inferior frontal gyrus and posterior superior temporal gyrus, and deactivation of angular gyrus and supramarginal gyrus, brain structures directly implicated in semantic processing of language. These findings support the hypothesis that musical discourse engages language areas of the brain specialized for processing of syntax but in a manner that is not contingent upon semantic processing. Therefore, we argue that neural regions for syntactic processing are not domain-specific for language but instead may be domain-general for communication.

Different amplitude and time distribution of the sound of light and classical music

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Diodati, P.; Piazza, S.

2000-08-01

Several pieces of different musical kinds were studied measuring $N(A)$, the output amplitude of a peak detector driven by the electric signal arriving to the loudspeaker. Fixed a suitable threshold $\\bar{A}$, we considered $N(A)$, the number of times that $A(t)>\\bar{A}$, each of them we named event and $N(t)$, the distribution of times $t$ between two consecutive events. Some $N(A)$ and $N(t)$ distributions are displayed in the reported logarithmic plots, showing that jazz, pop, rock and other popular rhythms have noise-distribution, while classical pieces of music are characterized by more complex statistics. We pointed out the extraordinary case of the aria ``\\textit{La calunnia \\`{e} un venticello}'', where the words describe an avalanche or seismic process, calumny, and the rossinian music shows $N(A)$ and $N(t)$ distribution typical of earthquakes.

Dance Is the New Metal: Adolescent Music Preferences and Substance Use Across Europe

PubMed Central

ter Bogt, Tom F.M.; Gabhainn, Saoirse Nic; Simons-Morton, Bruce G.; Ferreira, Mafalda; Hublet, Anne; Godeau, Emmanuelle; Kuntsche, Emmanuel; Richter, Matthias

2014-01-01

This study examined relationships between music preferences and substance use (tobacco, alcohol, cannabis) among 18,103 fifteen-year-olds from 10 European countries. In 2005–2006, across Europe, preferences for mainstream Pop (pop chart music) and High-brow (classical music and jazz) were negatively associated with substance use, while preferences for Dance (house/trance and techno/hardhouse) were associated positively with substance use. In three countries, links were identified between liking Rock (rock, heavy metal punk/hardcore, and gothic) and substance use; associations between Urban (hip-hop and R&B) and substance use were mixed. No substantial gender differences emerged in these patterns, and controlling for relevant covariates did not attenuate the predictive value of substance use. The findings are consistent with the conclusion that music is a robust marker of adolescent substance use. PMID:22217067

Early adolescent music preferences and minor delinquency.

PubMed

Ter Bogt, Tom F M; Keijsers, Loes; Meeus, Wim H J

2013-02-01

To test Music Marker Theory (MMT) positing that early adolescents' preferences for nonmainstream types of popular music indicate concurrent and later minor delinquency. MMT was tested in a 4-year longitudinal study (n = 309). The results showed that early fans of different types of rock (eg, rock, heavy metal, gothic, punk), African American music (rhythm and blues, hip-hop), and electronic dance music (trance, techno/hardhouse) showed elevated minor delinquency concurrently and longitudinally. Preferring conventional pop (chart pop) or highbrow music (classic music, jazz), in contrast, was not related to or was negatively related to minor delinquency. Early music preferences emerged as more powerful indicators of later delinquency rather than early delinquency, indicating that music choice is a strong marker of later problem behavior. The mechanisms through which music preferences are linked to minor delinquency are discussed within the framework of MMT.

Socioeconomic Distinction, Cultural Tastes, and Cigarette Smoking*

PubMed Central

Pampel, Fred C.

2011-01-01

Objectives The inverse relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and smoking is typically seen in terms of the greater economic and social resources of advantaged groups, but it may also relate to cultural resources. This study aims to test theories of symbolic distinction by examining relationships between smoking and ostensibly unrelated cultural preferences. Methods Using the 1993 General Social Survey, ordinal logistic regression models, and a three-category dependent variable (never, former, and current smoker), the analysis estimates relationships of musical likes and dislikes with smoking while controlling for SES and social strain. Results Preferences for classical music are associated with lower smoking, while preferences for bluegrass, jazz, and heavy metal music are associated with higher smoking. Conclusions The results suggest that SES groups may use smoking, like other cultural tastes, to distinguish their lifestyles from those of others. PMID:21874073

Perturbation and Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis of Different Singing Styles

PubMed Central

Butte, Caitlin J.; Zhang, Yu; Song, Huangqiang; Jiang, Jack J.

2012-01-01

Summary Previous research has used perturbation analysis methods to study the singing voice. Using perturbation and nonlinear dynamic analysis (NDA) methods in conjunction may provide more accurate information on the singing voice and may distinguish vocal usage in different styles. Acoustic samples from different styles of singing were compared using nonlinear dynamic and perturbation measures. Twenty-six songs from different musical styles were obtained from an online music database (Rhapsody, RealNetworks, Inc., Seattle, WA). One-second samples were selected from each song for analysis. Perturbation analyses of jitter, shimmer, and signal-to-noise ratio and NDA of correlation dimension (D2) were performed on samples from each singing style. Percent jitter and shimmer median values were low normal for country (0.32% and 3.82%), musical theater (MT) (0.280% and 2.80%), jazz (0.440% and 2.34%), and soul (0.430% and 6.42%). The popular style had slightly higher median jitter and shimmer values (1.13% and 6.78%) than other singing styles, although this was not statistically significant. The opera singing style had median jitter of 0.520%, and yielded significantly high shimmer (P = 0.001) of 7.72%. All six singing styles were measured reliably using NDA, indicating that operatic singing is notably more chaotic than other singing styles. Median correlation dimension values were low to normal, compared to healthy voices, in country (median D2 = 2.14), jazz (median D2 = 2.24), pop (median D2 = 2.60), MT (median D2 = 2.73), and soul (mean D2 = 3.26). Correlation dimension was significantly higher in opera (P < 0.001) with median D2 = 6.19. In this study, acoustic analysis in opera singing gave significantly high values for shimmer and D2, suggesting that it is more irregular than other singing styles; a previously unknown quality of opera singing. Perturbation analysis also suggested significant differences in vocal output in different singing styles. This preliminary

On application of image analysis and natural language processing for music search

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gwardys, Grzegorz

2013-10-01

In this paper, I investigate a problem of finding most similar music tracks using, popular in Natural Language Processing, techniques like: TF-IDF and LDA. I de ned document as music track. Each music track is transformed to spectrogram, thanks that, I can use well known techniques to get words from images. I used SURF operation to detect characteristic points and novel approach for their description. The standard kmeans was used for clusterization. Clusterization is here identical with dictionary making, so after that I can transform spectrograms to text documents and perform TF-IDF and LDA. At the final, I can make a query in an obtained vector space. The research was done on 16 music tracks for training and 336 for testing, that are splitted in four categories: Hiphop, Jazz, Metal and Pop. Although used technique is completely unsupervised, results are satisfactory and encouraging to further research.

The CMOS integration of a power inverter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mannarino, Eric Francis

Due to their falling costs, the use of renewable energy systems is expanding around the world. These systems require the conversion of DC power into grid-synchronous AC power. Currently, the inverters that carry out this task are built using discrete transistors. TowerJazz Semiconductor Corp. has created a commercial CMOS process that allows for blocking voltages of up to 700 V, effectively removing the barrier to integrating power inverters onto a single chip. This thesis explores this process using two topologies. The first is a cell-based switched-capacitor topology first presented by Ke Zou. The second is a novel topology that explores the advantage of using a bused input-output system, as in digital electronics. Simulations run on both topologies confirm the high-efficiency demonstrated in Zou’s process as well as the advantage the bus-based system has in output voltage levels.

The Physics of the Blues

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gibson, J. Murray

2009-03-01

In looking at the commonalities between music and science, one sees that the musician's palette is based on the principles of physics. The pitch of a musical note is determined by the frequency of the sound wave. The scales that musicians use to create and play music can be viewed as a set of rules. What makes music interesting is how musicians develop those rules and create ambiguity with them. I will discuss the evolution of western musical scales in this context. As a particular example, ``Blue'' notes are very harmonic notes that are missing from the equal temperament scale. The techniques of piano blues and jazz represent the melding of African and Western music into something totally new and exciting. Live keyboard demonstrations will be used. Beyond any redeeming entertainment value the talk will emphasize the serious connections between science and art in music. Nevertheless tips will be accepted.

KSC-98pc633

NASA Image and Video Library

1998-04-17

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- David Dickinson, the acting director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Public Affairs Office at Kennedy Space Center, accepts a copy of Bulgarian singer Dyana Dafova's latest compact disc (CD) from her on behalf of NASA. The 525-foot tall Vehicle Assembly Building, where Space Shuttle orbiters are mated to their external tank/solid rocket booster stacks, looms in the background. Dyana is touring the United States to promote her CD, entitled "Sounds of the Earth," and was an invited guest of NASA for the launch of Columbia on STS-90, the Neurolab mission, earlier in the day. Columbia lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at 2:19 p.m. EDT. Dyana characterized the music on her CD as a new sound, incorporating jazz and new age classics, sung in a newly created language comprised of Bulgarian, English, Sanskrit, Aramski and Hebrew

Bulgarian singer Dyana presents PA Director Dickinson with her new CD on STS-90 launch day

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1998-01-01

David Dickinson, the acting director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Public Affairs Office at Kennedy Space Center, accepts a copy of Bulgarian singer Dyana Dafova's latest compact disc (CD) from her on behalf of NASA. The 525-foot tall Vehicle Assembly Building, where Space Shuttle orbiters are mated to their external tank/solid rocket booster stacks, looms in the background. Dyana is touring the United States to promote her CD, entitled 'Sounds of the Earth,' and was an invited guest of NASA for the launch of Columbia on STS-90, the Neurolab mission, earlier in the day. Columbia lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at 2:19 p.m. EDT. Dyana characterized the music on her CD as a new sound, incorporating jazz and new age classics, sung in a newly created language comprised of Bulgarian, English, Sanskrit, Aramski and Hebrew.

Femoral neuropathy due to patellar dislocation in a theatrical and jazz dancer: a case report.

PubMed

Shin, Chris S; Davis, Brian A

2005-06-01

This case report describes a teenage female, high-level modern dancer who suffered multiple left patellar dislocations. Her history is atypical in that after her fifth dislocation, her recovery was hindered secondary to persistent weakness and atrophy of her quadriceps out of proportion to disuse alone. Electrodiagnostic studies and magnetic resonance imaging showed evidence of a subacute femoral neuropathy correlating chronologically with her most recent patellar dislocation. This case suggests that further diagnostic study may be warranted in patients with persistent quadriceps weakness or atrophy after a patellar dislocation, because this may suggest the presence of a femoral neuropathy. This is important because the strength training goals and precautions differ in disuse atrophy and a neuropathy. We believe this is the first reported case of a femoral neuropathy associated with the mechanism of a patellar dislocation.

Writing about Music: The Selection and Arrangement of Notation in Jazz Students' Written Texts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Jodie L.

2018-01-01

Music notation is intrinsic in the composition and performance of Western art music and also in its analysis and research. The process of writing about music remains underexplored, in particular how excerpts of music notation are selected and arranged in a written text, and how that text describes and contextualises the excerpts. This article…

The Cross-Canada Quintet presents variations on music: movements in the keys of H, P and E.

PubMed

Schrewe, Brett; Bates, Joanna; Watling, Christopher; Ellaway, Rachel H; Pratt, Dan

2016-12-01

Whether it is rock playing in the background during a surgery, cool jazz that wafts from our office computer speakers as we write up our clinical notes, or the soaring of a symphony on the radio that inspires that perfect flourish to an article, music is woven throughout much of our clinical and academic lives. For the five of us, however, music alternates between the background and foreground in our lives as health professions educators. Music balances the working day, illuminates our research, and reconciles the utility of our training with the originality of our practice. We invite you to discover the interplays, dissonances and harmonies inspired by and reflected in this leitmotif. Pull up a chair, sit back, put on one of your own favourite pieces and explore these ideas as we riff and rhapsodise on variations on this theme. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the Study of Medical Education.

Music preferences of mechanically ventilated patients participating in a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Heiderscheit, Annie; Breckenridge, Stephanie J; Chlan, Linda L; Savik, Kay

2014-01-01

Mechanical ventilation (MV) is a life-saving measure and supportive modality utilized to treat patients experiencing respiratory failure. Patients experience pain, discomfort, and anxiety as a result of being mechanically ventilated. Music listening is a non-pharmacological intervention used to manage these psychophysiological symptoms associated with mechanical ventilation. The purpose of this secondary analysis was to examine music preferences of 107 MV patients enrolled in a randomized clinical trial that implemented a patient-directed music listening protocol to help manage the psychophysiological symptom of anxiety. Music data presented includes the music genres and instrumentation patients identified as their preferred music. Genres preferred include: classical, jazz, rock, country, and oldies. Instrumentation preferred include: piano, voice, guitar, music with nature sounds, and orchestral music. Analysis of three patients' preferred music received throughout the course of the study is illustrated to demonstrate the complexity of assessing MV patients and the need for an ongoing assessment process.

Modeling source-filter interaction in belting and high-pitched operatic male singing

PubMed Central

Titze, Ingo R.; Worley, Albert S.

2009-01-01

Nonlinear source-filter theory is applied to explain some acoustic differences between two contrasting male singing productions at high pitches: operatic style versus jazz belt or theater belt. Several stylized vocal tract shapes (caricatures) are discussed that form the bases of these styles. It is hypothesized that operatic singing uses vowels that are modified toward an inverted megaphone mouth shape for transitioning into the high-pitch range. This allows all the harmonics except the fundamental to be “lifted” over the first formant. Belting, on the other hand, uses vowels that are consistently modified toward the megaphone (trumpet-like) mouth shape. Both the fundamental and the second harmonic are then kept below the first formant. The vocal tract shapes provide collective reinforcement to multiple harmonics in the form of inertive supraglottal reactance and compliant subglottal reactance. Examples of lip openings from four well-known artists are used to infer vocal tract area functions and the corresponding reactances. PMID:19739766

The Moses, mega-Moses, and Armstrong illusions: integrating language comprehension and semantic memory.

PubMed

Shafto, M; MacKay, D G

2000-09-01

This study develops a new theory of the Moses illusion, observed in responses to general knowledge questions such as, "How many animals of each kind did Moses take on the Ark?" People often respond "two" rather than "zero" despite knowing that Noah, not Moses, launched the Ark. Our theory predicted two additional types of conceptual error demonstrated here: the Armstrong and mega-Moses illusions. The Armstrong illusion involved questions resembling, "What was the famous line uttered by Louis Armstrong when he first set foot on the moon?" People usually comprehend such questions as valid, despite knowing that Louis Armstrong was a jazz musician who never visited the moon. This Armstrong illusion was not due to misperceiving the critical words (Louis Armstrong), and occurred as frequently as the Moses illusion (with critical words embedded in identical sentential contexts), but less frequently than the mega-Moses illusion caused when Moses and Armstrong factors were combined.

Water and the conservation movement

USGS Publications Warehouse

Leopold, Luna Bergere

1958-01-01

Every age has its unique touchstone, its hallmark. The Nineties were thought gay. The Twenties had jazz and John Held, Jr. The Thirties had breadlines, dust bowls, the forgotten man. And each recent period has been studded with so many flashy gems, both paste and genuine, that no hallmark would alone be enough to label it.Of the present age, one of the nameplates will carry the word "Conservation." The first time a museum visitor walks by that label he will probably stop, push back the plexiglas globe of his space helmet and say to himself, "I never thought that conservation was a keynote of the Fifties." But I imagine he might agree as the pathetic truth of that label dawned on his tired body, accustomed to canned entertainment, synthetic flavors, and fighting the afternoon traffic of the jet lanes. I can imagine him musing: "Conservation, the hallmark of the Fifties. Somebody about that time said about something or other, 'too little and too late.'"

MAPS development for the ALICE ITS upgrade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, P.; Aglieri, G.; Cavicchioli, C.; Chalmet, P. L.; Chanlek, N.; Collu, A.; Gao, C.; Hillemanns, H.; Junique, A.; Kofarago, M.; Keil, M.; Kugathasan, T.; Kim, D.; Kim, J.; Lattuca, A.; Marin Tobon, C. A.; Marras, D.; Mager, M.; Martinengo, P.; Mazza, G.; Mugnier, H.; Musa, L.; Puggioni, C.; Rousset, J.; Reidt, F.; Riedler, P.; Snoeys, W.; Siddhanta, S.; Usai, G.; van Hoorne, J. W.; Yi, J.

2015-03-01

Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) offer the possibility to build pixel detectors and tracking layers with high spatial resolution and low material budget in commercial CMOS processes. Significant progress has been made in the field of MAPS in recent years, and they are now considered for the upgrades of the LHC experiments. This contribution will focus on MAPS detectors developed for the ALICE Inner Tracking System (ITS) upgrade and manufactured in the TowerJazz 180 nm CMOS imaging sensor process on wafers with a high resistivity epitaxial layer. Several sensor chip prototypes have been developed and produced to optimise both charge collection and readout circuitry. The chips have been characterised using electrical measurements, radioactive sources and particle beams. The tests indicate that the sensors satisfy the ALICE requirements and first prototypes with the final size of 1.5 × 3 cm2 have been produced in the first half of 2014. This contribution summarises the characterisation measurements and presents first results from the full-scale chips.

Is it the music? Peer substance use as a mediator of the link between music preferences and adolescent substance use.

PubMed

Mulder, Juul; Ter Bogt, Tom F M; Raaijmakers, Quinten A W; Nic Gabhainn, Saoirse; Monshouwer, Karin; Vollebergh, Wilma A M

2010-06-01

Both music preferences and the substance use behavior of peers are important elements in explaining adolescent substance use. The extent to which music preference and peer use overlap in explaining adolescent substance use remains to be determined. A nationally representative sample of 7324 Dutch school-going adolescents (aged 12-16) provided data on music preferences, substance use behaviors and perceived number of peers using substances. Factor analyses showed that preferences for eight music genres factored into four styles: Pop (chart music, Dutch pop), Adult (classical music, jazz), Urban (rap/hiphop, soul/R&B) and Hard (punk/hardcore, techno/hardhouse); substance use was indicated by smoking, drinking, and cannabis use. Structural equation modeling revealed that the relationship between music preference and substance use was either wholly or partially mediated by perceived peer use. Music can model substance use and fans of different types of music may select friends with use patterns that reinforce their own substance use inclinations.

How prior preferences determine decision-making frames and biases in the human brain

PubMed Central

Lopez-Persem, Alizée; Domenech, Philippe; Pessiglione, Mathias

2016-01-01

Understanding how option values are compared when making a choice is a key objective for decision neuroscience. In natural situations, agents may have a priori on their preferences that create default policies and shape the neural comparison process. We asked participants to make choices between items belonging to different categories (e.g., jazz vs. rock music). Behavioral data confirmed that the items taken from the preferred category were chosen more often and more rapidly, which qualified them as default options. FMRI data showed that baseline activity in classical brain valuation regions, such as the ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (vmPFC), reflected the strength of prior preferences. In addition, evoked activity in the same regions scaled with the default option value, irrespective of the eventual choice. We therefore suggest that in the brain valuation system, choices are framed as comparisons between default and alternative options, which might save some resource but induce a decision bias. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.20317.001 PMID:27864918

Application research of CO2 laser cutting natural stone plates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Lixiu; Song, Jijiang

2009-08-01

Now, the processing of natural stone plates is the high performance sawing machine primarily,many researchers deeply studied the processing characters in the sawing process and the strength characters during the processing. In order to realize the profiled-processing and pattern- carving of the natural stone, It lays a solid foundation for the laser cutting and the pattern-carving technology of natural stone plate. The working principle, type and characteristics of laser cutting are briefly described. The paper selects 6 kinds stone plates of natural taken as experimental sample,the experimental sample was China Shanxi Black, Old Spain Golden Yellow, New Spain Golden Yellow, Jazz White, Maple Leaf Red, Cream White respectively. Use high power CO2 laser cutting system,the stone plates cutting experiment of 6 kinds different hardness, the best working speed are obtained,The experimental results indicate that: The laser cutting speed has no correlation with the ingredient content of stone plate.

Music preferences of mechanically ventilated patients participating in a randomized controlled trial

PubMed Central

Heiderscheit, Annie; Breckenridge, Stephanie J.; Chlan, Linda L.; Savik, Kay

2014-01-01

Mechanical ventilation (MV) is a life-saving measure and supportive modality utilized to treat patients experiencing respiratory failure. Patients experience pain, discomfort, and anxiety as a result of being mechanically ventilated. Music listening is a non-pharmacological intervention used to manage these psychophysiological symptoms associated with mechanical ventilation. The purpose of this secondary analysis was to examine music preferences of 107 MV patients enrolled in a randomized clinical trial that implemented a patient-directed music listening protocol to help manage the psychophysiological symptom of anxiety. Music data presented includes the music genres and instrumentation patients identified as their preferred music. Genres preferred include: classical, jazz, rock, country, and oldies. Instrumentation preferred include: piano, voice, guitar, music with nature sounds, and orchestral music. Analysis of three patients’ preferred music received throughout the course of the study is illustrated to demonstrate the complexity of assessing MV patients and the need for an ongoing assessment process. PMID:25574992

Use of simulated data sets to evaluate the fidelity of metagenomic processing methods

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mavromatis, K; Ivanova, N; Barry, Kerrie

2007-01-01

Metagenomics is a rapidly emerging field of research for studying microbial communities. To evaluate methods presently used to process metagenomic sequences, we constructed three simulated data sets of varying complexity by combining sequencing reads randomly selected from 113 isolate genomes. These data sets were designed to model real metagenomes in terms of complexity and phylogenetic composition. We assembled sampled reads using three commonly used genome assemblers (Phrap, Arachne and JAZZ), and predicted genes using two popular gene-finding pipelines (fgenesb and CRITICA/GLIMMER). The phylogenetic origins of the assembled contigs were predicted using one sequence similarity-based ( blast hit distribution) and twomore » sequence composition-based (PhyloPythia, oligonucleotide frequencies) binning methods. We explored the effects of the simulated community structure and method combinations on the fidelity of each processing step by comparison to the corresponding isolate genomes. The simulated data sets are available online to facilitate standardized benchmarking of tools for metagenomic analysis.« less

Use of simulated data sets to evaluate the fidelity of Metagenomicprocessing methods

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mavromatis, Konstantinos; Ivanova, Natalia; Barry, Kerri

2006-12-01

Metagenomics is a rapidly emerging field of research for studying microbial communities. To evaluate methods presently used to process metagenomic sequences, we constructed three simulated data sets of varying complexity by combining sequencing reads randomly selected from 113 isolate genomes. These data sets were designed to model real metagenomes in terms of complexity and phylogenetic composition. We assembled sampled reads using three commonly used genome assemblers (Phrap, Arachne and JAZZ), and predicted genes using two popular gene finding pipelines (fgenesb and CRITICA/GLIMMER). The phylogenetic origins of the assembled contigs were predicted using one sequence similarity--based (blast hit distribution) and twomore » sequence composition--based (PhyloPythia, oligonucleotide frequencies) binning methods. We explored the effects of the simulated community structure and method combinations on the fidelity of each processing step by comparison to the corresponding isolate genomes. The simulated data sets are available online to facilitate standardized benchmarking of tools for metagenomic analysis.« less

Some (Still) Like It Hot: Re-Envisioning Transdisciplinarity and Collaboration in First Year Composition and Jazz

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petrosino, Krista Laurel

2012-01-01

Many of the previous ways of understanding disciplinary knowledge outside of discipline-specific contexts, most frequently metaphors and tropes, are useful when working within abstract, theorized concepts, but do not fare well when a practical application such as collaboration, and specifically transdisciplinary collaboration, is the goal. Rather,…

Neural Substrates of Interactive Musical Improvisation: An fMRI Study of ‘Trading Fours’ in Jazz

PubMed Central

Donnay, Gabriel F.; Rankin, Summer K.; Lopez-Gonzalez, Monica; Jiradejvong, Patpong; Limb, Charles J.

2014-01-01

Interactive generative musical performance provides a suitable model for communication because, like natural linguistic discourse, it involves an exchange of ideas that is unpredictable, collaborative, and emergent. Here we show that interactive improvisation between two musicians is characterized by activation of perisylvian language areas linked to processing of syntactic elements in music, including inferior frontal gyrus and posterior superior temporal gyrus, and deactivation of angular gyrus and supramarginal gyrus, brain structures directly implicated in semantic processing of language. These findings support the hypothesis that musical discourse engages language areas of the brain specialized for processing of syntax but in a manner that is not contingent upon semantic processing. Therefore, we argue that neural regions for syntactic processing are not domain-specific for language but instead may be domain-general for communication. PMID:24586366

Defining the spectral and amplitude domain of music---a window into audio

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nam, Myoung W.

In terms of 'visualizing music', this thesis presents the first critical measurements for the selected musical instruments (piano, violin, cello, flute, piccolo, drums, double bass, electric bass, and electric guitar) seeking to describe their place in the spectral and amplitude domain. All data presented as a part of this research were measured with Z-weighting (un-weighted) from 12.5Hz to 20kHz along the frequency axis, in 1/3 octave bands, evaluated statistically and in equivalent sound level. Measuring musical performances can be a very subjective process. Therefore, this research proceeded under some strategically chosen conditions and limitations. The measurements were made with each musician playing at several different intensities of musical performance. Chosen musical genres were classical, pop and jazz for the selected musical instruments. To obtain data representative of real world conditions, musical instrument measurements were made mostly in professional recording studios by professional players. The results seek to define the spectral and amplitude domain occupied by these instruments when playing typical works.

Temporal modulations in speech and music.

PubMed

Ding, Nai; Patel, Aniruddh D; Chen, Lin; Butler, Henry; Luo, Cheng; Poeppel, David

2017-10-01

Speech and music have structured rhythms. Here we discuss a major acoustic correlate of spoken and musical rhythms, the slow (0.25-32Hz) temporal modulations in sound intensity and compare the modulation properties of speech and music. We analyze these modulations using over 25h of speech and over 39h of recordings of Western music. We show that the speech modulation spectrum is highly consistent across 9 languages (including languages with typologically different rhythmic characteristics). A different, but similarly consistent modulation spectrum is observed for music, including classical music played by single instruments of different types, symphonic, jazz, and rock. The temporal modulations of speech and music show broad but well-separated peaks around 5 and 2Hz, respectively. These acoustically dominant time scales may be intrinsic features of speech and music, a possibility which should be investigated using more culturally diverse samples in each domain. Distinct modulation timescales for speech and music could facilitate their perceptual analysis and its neural processing. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of CMOS pixel sensors for the upgrade of the ALICE Inner Tracking System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Molnar, L.

2014-12-01

The ALICE Collaboration is preparing a major upgrade of the current detector, planned for installation during the second long LHC shutdown in the years 2018-19, in order to enhance its low-momentum vertexing and tracking capability, and exploit the planned increase of the LHC luminosity with Pb beams. One of the cornerstones of the ALICE upgrade strategy is to replace the current Inner Tracking System in its entirety with a new, high resolution, low-material ITS detector. The new ITS will consist of seven concentric layers equipped with Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) implemented using the 0.18 μm CMOS technology of TowerJazz. In this contribution, the main key features of the ITS upgrade will be illustrated with emphasis on the functionality of the pixel chip. The ongoing developments on the readout architectures, which have been implemented in several fabricated prototypes, will be discussed. The operational features of these prototypes as well as the results of the characterisation tests before and after irradiation will also be presented.

Radiation hard analog circuits for ALICE ITS upgrade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gajanana, D.; Gromov, V.; Kuijer, P.; Kugathasan, T.; Snoeys, W.

2016-03-01

The ALICE experiment is planning to upgrade the ITS (Inner Tracking System) [1] detector during the LS2 shutdown. The present ITS will be fully replaced with a new one entirely based on CMOS monolithic pixel sensor chips fabricated in TowerJazz CMOS 0.18 μ m imaging technology. The large (3 cm × 1.5 cm = 4.5 cm2) ALPIDE (ALICE PIxel DEtector) sensor chip contains about 500 Kpixels, and will be used to cover a 10 m2 area with 12.5 Gpixels distributed over seven cylindrical layers. The ALPOSE chip was designed as a test chip for the various building blocks foreseen in the ALPIDE [2] pixel chip from CERN. The building blocks include: bandgap and Temperature sensor in four different flavours, and LDOs for powering schemes. One flavour of bandgap and temperature sensor will be included in the ALPIDE chip. Power consumption numbers have dropped very significantly making the use of LDOs less interesting, but in this paper all blocks are presented including measurement results before and after irradiation with neutrons to characterize robustness against displacement damage.

Social selection and peer influence in an online social network

PubMed Central

Lewis, Kevin; Gonzalez, Marco; Kaufman, Jason

2012-01-01

Disentangling the effects of selection and influence is one of social science's greatest unsolved puzzles: Do people befriend others who are similar to them, or do they become more similar to their friends over time? Recent advances in stochastic actor-based modeling, combined with self-reported data on a popular online social network site, allow us to address this question with a greater degree of precision than has heretofore been possible. Using data on the Facebook activity of a cohort of college students over 4 years, we find that students who share certain tastes in music and in movies, but not in books, are significantly likely to befriend one another. Meanwhile, we find little evidence for the diffusion of tastes among Facebook friends—except for tastes in classical/jazz music. These findings shed light on the mechanisms responsible for observed network homogeneity; provide a statistically rigorous assessment of the coevolution of cultural tastes and social relationships; and suggest important qualifications to our understanding of both homophily and contagion as generic social processes. PMID:22184242

Connecting to create: expertise in musical improvisation is associated with increased functional connectivity between premotor and prefrontal areas.

PubMed

Pinho, Ana Luísa; de Manzano, Örjan; Fransson, Peter; Eriksson, Helene; Ullén, Fredrik

2014-04-30

Musicians have been used extensively to study neural correlates of long-term practice, but no studies have investigated the specific effects of training musical creativity. Here, we used human functional MRI to measure brain activity during improvisation in a sample of 39 professional pianists with varying backgrounds in classical and jazz piano playing. We found total hours of improvisation experience to be negatively associated with activity in frontoparietal executive cortical areas. In contrast, improvisation training was positively associated with functional connectivity of the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, dorsal premotor cortices, and presupplementary areas. The effects were significant when controlling for hours of classical piano practice and age. These results indicate that even neural mechanisms involved in creative behaviors, which require a flexible online generation of novel and meaningful output, can be automated by training. Second, improvisational musical training can influence functional brain properties at a network level. We show that the greater functional connectivity seen in experienced improvisers may reflect a more efficient exchange of information within associative networks of importance for musical creativity.

Connecting to Create: Expertise in Musical Improvisation Is Associated with Increased Functional Connectivity between Premotor and Prefrontal Areas

PubMed Central

Pinho, Ana Luísa; de Manzano, Örjan; Fransson, Peter; Eriksson, Helene

2014-01-01

Musicians have been used extensively to study neural correlates of long-term practice, but no studies have investigated the specific effects of training musical creativity. Here, we used human functional MRI to measure brain activity during improvisation in a sample of 39 professional pianists with varying backgrounds in classical and jazz piano playing. We found total hours of improvisation experience to be negatively associated with activity in frontoparietal executive cortical areas. In contrast, improvisation training was positively associated with functional connectivity of the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, dorsal premotor cortices, and presupplementary areas. The effects were significant when controlling for hours of classical piano practice and age. These results indicate that even neural mechanisms involved in creative behaviors, which require a flexible online generation of novel and meaningful output, can be automated by training. Second, improvisational musical training can influence functional brain properties at a network level. We show that the greater functional connectivity seen in experienced improvisers may reflect a more efficient exchange of information within associative networks of importance for musical creativity. PMID:24790186

Pedagogical applications of cognitive research on musical improvisation.

PubMed

Biasutti, Michele

2015-01-01

This paper presents a model for the implementation of educational activities involving musical improvisation that is based on a review of the literature on the psychology of music. Psychology of music is a complex field of research in which quantitative and qualitative methods have been employed involving participants ranging from novices to expert performers. The cognitive research has been analyzed to propose a pedagogical approach to the development of processes rather than products that focus on an expert's use of improvisation. The intention is to delineate a reflective approach that goes beyond the mere instruction of some current practices of teaching improvisation in jazz pedagogy. The review highlights that improvisation is a complex, multidimensional act that involves creative and performance behaviors in real-time in addition to processes such as sensory and perceptual encoding, motor control, performance monitoring, and memory storage and recall. Educational applications for the following processes are outlined: anticipation, use of repertoire, emotive communication, feedback, and flow. These characteristics are discussed in relation to the design of a pedagogical approach to musical improvisation based on reflection and metacognition development.

Social selection and peer influence in an online social network.

PubMed

Lewis, Kevin; Gonzalez, Marco; Kaufman, Jason

2012-01-03

Disentangling the effects of selection and influence is one of social science's greatest unsolved puzzles: Do people befriend others who are similar to them, or do they become more similar to their friends over time? Recent advances in stochastic actor-based modeling, combined with self-reported data on a popular online social network site, allow us to address this question with a greater degree of precision than has heretofore been possible. Using data on the Facebook activity of a cohort of college students over 4 years, we find that students who share certain tastes in music and in movies, but not in books, are significantly likely to befriend one another. Meanwhile, we find little evidence for the diffusion of tastes among Facebook friends-except for tastes in classical/jazz music. These findings shed light on the mechanisms responsible for observed network homogeneity; provide a statistically rigorous assessment of the coevolution of cultural tastes and social relationships; and suggest important qualifications to our understanding of both homophily and contagion as generic social processes.

Masking effects of speech and music: does the masker's hierarchical structure matter?

PubMed

Shi, Lu-Feng; Law, Yvonne

2010-04-01

Speech and music are time-varying signals organized by parallel hierarchical rules. Through a series of four experiments, this study compared the masking effects of single-talker speech and instrumental music on speech perception while manipulating the complexity of hierarchical and temporal structures of the maskers. Listeners' word recognition was found to be similar between hierarchically intact and disrupted speech or classical music maskers (Experiment 1). When sentences served as the signal, significantly greater masking effects were observed with disrupted than intact speech or classical music maskers (Experiment 2), although not with jazz or serial music maskers, which differed from the classical music masker in their hierarchical structures (Experiment 3). Removing the classical music masker's temporal dynamics or partially restoring it affected listeners' sentence recognition; yet, differences in performance between intact and disrupted maskers remained robust (Experiment 4). Hence, the effect of structural expectancy was largely present across maskers when comparing them before and after their hierarchical structure was purposefully disrupted. This effect seemed to lend support to the auditory stream segregation theory.

Estimating perceived phonatory pressedness in singing from flow glottograms.

PubMed

Sundberg, Johan; Thalén, Margareta; Alku, Paavo; Vilkman, Erkki

2004-03-01

The normalized amplitude quotient (NAQ), defined as the ratio between the peak-to-peak amplitude of the flow pulse and the negative peak amplitude of the differentiated flow glottogram and normalized with respect to period time, has been shown to be related to glottal adduction. Glottal adduction, in turn, affects mode of phonation and hence perceived phonatory pressedness. The relationship between NAQ and perceived phonatory pressedness was analyzed in a material collected from a professional female singer and singing teacher who sang a triad pattern in breathy, flow, neutral, and pressed phonation in three different loudness conditions (soft, middle, loud). In addition, she also sang the same triad pattern in four different styles of singing, classical, pop, jazz, and blues, in the same three loudness conditions. A panel of experts rated the degree of perceived phonatory press along visual analogue scales. Comparing the obtained mean rated pressedness ratings with the mean NAQ values for the various triads showed that about 73% of the variation in perceived pressedness could be accounted for by variations of NAQ.

Creativity as a distinct trainable mental state: An EEG study of musical improvisation.

PubMed

Lopata, Joel A; Nowicki, Elizabeth A; Joanisse, Marc F

2017-05-01

Alpha-band EEG was used to index how creative mental states relate to the creation of artistic works in skilled musicians. We contrasted differences in frontal upper alpha-band activity between tasks with high and low creativity demands by recording EEGs while skilled musicians listened to, played back, and improvised jazz melodies. Neural responses were compared for skilled musicians with training in musical improvisation versus those who had no formal improvisation training. Consistent with our hypotheses, individuals showed increased frontal upper alpha-band activity during more creative tasks (i.e., improvisation) compared to during less creative tasks (i.e., rote playback). Moreover, this effect was greatest for musicians with formal improvisation training. The strength of this effect also appeared to modulate the quality of these improvisations, as evidenced by significant correlations between upper alpha EEG power and objective post-hoc ratings of individuals' performances. These findings support a conceptualization of creativity as a distinct mental state and suggest spontaneous processing capacity is better nurtured through formal institutional training than informal. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Not your grandfather's concert hall

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cooper, Russell; Malenka, Richard; Griffith, Charles; Friedlander, Steven

2004-05-01

The opening of Judy and Arthur Zankel Hall on 12 September 2003, restores Andrew Carnegie's original 1891 concept of having three outstanding auditoriums of different sizes under one roof, and creates a 21st-century venue for music performance and education. With concerts ranging from early music to avant-garde multimedia productions, from jazz to world music, and from solo recitals to chamber music, Zankel Hall expands the breadth and depth of Carnegie Hall's offerings. It allows for the integration of programming across three halls with minifestivals tailored both to the size and strengths of each hall and to the artists and music to be performed. The new flexible space also provides Carnegie Hall with an education center equipped with advanced communications technology. This paper discusses the unique program planned for this facility and how the architects, theatre consultants, and acousticians developed a design that fulfilled the client's expectations and coordinated the construction of the facility under the floor of the main Isaac Stern Auditorium without having to cancel a single performance.

Jazz it Up! A Variety of Techniques, Exercises, and Games Can Improve Students' Rhythm, Articulation, and Improvisation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perlmutter, Adam

2013-01-01

ensembles for performance. Sometimes the race to the stage can result in suboptimal playing, a rhythm section that does not quite gel, or soloists who "blow and hope"--that is, fail to put in the appropriate amount of thought before and during their…

A comparison between the first-fit settings of two multichannel digital signal-processing strategies: music quality ratings and speech-in-noise scores.

PubMed

Higgins, Paul; Searchfield, Grant; Coad, Gavin

2012-06-01

The aim of this study was to determine which level-dependent hearing aid digital signal-processing strategy (DSP) participants preferred when listening to music and/or performing a speech-in-noise task. Two receiver-in-the-ear hearing aids were compared: one using 32-channel adaptive dynamic range optimization (ADRO) and the other wide dynamic range compression (WDRC) incorporating dual fast (4 channel) and slow (15 channel) processing. The manufacturers' first-fit settings based on participants' audiograms were used in both cases. Results were obtained from 18 participants on a quick speech-in-noise (QuickSIN; Killion, Niquette, Gudmundsen, Revit, & Banerjee, 2004) task and for 3 music listening conditions (classical, jazz, and rock). Participants preferred the quality of music and performed better at the QuickSIN task using the hearing aids with ADRO processing. A potential reason for the better performance of the ADRO hearing aids was less fluctuation in output with change in sound dynamics. ADRO processing has advantages for both music quality and speech recognition in noise over the multichannel WDRC processing that was used in the study. Further evaluations of which DSP aspects contribute to listener preference are required.

Soprano and source: A laryngographic analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bateman, Laura Anne

2005-04-01

Popular music in the 21st century uses a particular singing quality for female voice that is quite different from the trained classical singing quality. Classical quality has been the subject of a vast body of research, whereas research that deals with non-classical qualities is limited. In order to learn more about these issues, the author chose to do research on singing qualities using a variety of standard voice quality tests. This paper looks at voice qualities found in various different styles of singing: Classical, Belt, Legit, R&B, Jazz, Country, and Pop. The data was elicited from a professional soprano and the voice qualities reflect industry standards. The data set for this paper is limited to samples using the vowel [i]. Laryngographic (LGG) data was generated simultaneously with the audio samples. This paper will focus on the results of the LGG analysis; however, an audio analysis was also performed using Spectrogram, LPC, and FFT. Data from the LGG is used to calculate the contact quotient, speed quotient, and ascending slope. The LGG waveform is also visually assessed. The LGG analysis gives insights into the source vibration for the different singing styles.

Reducing Risk of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in Collegiate Music Ensembles Using Ambient Technology.

PubMed

Powell, Jason; Chesky, Kris

2017-09-01

Student musicians are at risk for noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) as they develop skills and perform during instructional activities. Studies using longitudinal dosimeter data show that pedagogical procedures and instructor behaviors are highly predictive of NIHL risk, thus implying the need for innovative approaches to increase instructor competency in managing instructional activities without interfering with artistic and academic freedom. Ambient information systems, an emerging trend in human-computer interaction that infuses psychological behavioral theories into technologies, can help construct informative risk-regulating systems. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of introducing an ambient information system into the ensemble setting. The system used two ambient displays and a counterbalanced within-subjects treatment study design with six jazz ensemble instructors to determine if the system could induce a behavior change that alters trends in measures resulting from dosimeter data. This study assessed efficacy using time series analysis to determine changes in eight statistical measures of behavior over a 9-wk period. Analysis showed that the system was effective, as all instructors showed changes in a combination of measures. This study is in an important step in developing non-interfering technology to reduce NIHL among academic musicians.

Monolithic active pixel sensor development for the upgrade of the ALICE inner tracking system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aglieri, G.; Cavicchioli, C.; Chalmet, P. L.; Chanlek, N.; Collu, A.; Giubilato, P.; Hillemanns, H.; Junique, A.; Keil, M.; Kim, D.; Kim, J.; Kugathasan, T.; Lattuca, A.; Mager, M.; Marin Tobon, C. A.; Marras, D.; Martinengo, P.; Mattiazzo, S.; Mazza, G.; Mugnier, H.; Musa, L.; Pantano, D.; Puggioni, C.; Rousset, J.; Reidt, F.; Riedler, P.; Siddhanta, S.; Snoeys, W.; Usai, G.; van Hoorne, J. W.; Yang, P.; Yi, J.

2013-12-01

ALICE plans an upgrade of its Inner Tracking System for 2018. The development of a monolithic active pixel sensor for this upgrade is described. The TowerJazz 180 nm CMOS imaging sensor process has been chosen as it is possible to use full CMOS in the pixel due to the offering of a deep pwell and also to use different starting materials. The ALPIDE development is an alternative to approaches based on a rolling shutter architecture, and aims to reduce power consumption and integration time by an order of magnitude below the ALICE specifications, which would be quite beneficial in terms of material budget and background. The approach is based on an in-pixel binary front-end combined with a hit-driven architecture. Several prototypes have already been designed, submitted for fabrication and some of them tested with X-ray sources and particles in a beam. Analog power consumption has been limited by optimizing the Q/C of the sensor using Explorer chips. Promising but preliminary first results have also been obtained with a prototype ALPIDE. Radiation tolerance up to the ALICE requirements has also been verified.

SiGe BiCMOS manufacturing platform for mmWave applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kar-Roy, Arjun; Howard, David; Preisler, Edward; Racanelli, Marco; Chaudhry, Samir; Blaschke, Volker

2010-10-01

TowerJazz offers high volume manufacturable commercial SiGe BiCMOS technology platforms to address the mmWave market. In this paper, first, the SiGe BiCMOS process technology platforms such as SBC18 and SBC13 are described. These manufacturing platforms integrate 200 GHz fT/fMAX SiGe NPN with deep trench isolation into 0.18μm and 0.13μm node CMOS processes along with high density 5.6fF/μm2 stacked MIM capacitors, high value polysilicon resistors, high-Q metal resistors, lateral PNP transistors, and triple well isolation using deep n-well for mixed-signal integration, and, multiple varactors and compact high-Q inductors for RF needs. Second, design enablement tools that maximize performance and lowers costs and time to market such as scalable PSP and HICUM models, statistical and Xsigma models, reliability modeling tools, process control model tools, inductor toolbox and transmission line models are described. Finally, demonstrations in silicon for mmWave applications in the areas of optical networking, mobile broadband, phased array radar, collision avoidance radar and W-band imaging are listed.

Charge collection and non-ionizing radiation tolerance of CMOS pixel sensors using a 0.18 μm CMOS process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Ying; Zhu, Hongbo; Zhang, Liang; Fu, Min

2016-09-01

The proposed Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) will be primarily aimed for precision measurements of the discovered Higgs boson. Its innermost vertex detector, which will play a critical role in heavy-flavor tagging, must be constructed with fine-pitched silicon pixel sensors with low power consumption and fast readout. CMOS pixel sensor (CPS), as one of the most promising candidate technologies, has already demonstrated its excellent performance in several high energy physics experiments. Therefore it has been considered for R&D for the CEPC vertex detector. In this paper, we present the preliminary studies to improve the collected signal charge over the equivalent input capacitance ratio (Q / C), which will be crucial to reduce the analog power consumption. We have performed detailed 3D device simulation and evaluated potential impacts from diode geometry, epitaxial layer properties and non-ionizing radiation damage. We have proposed a new approach to improve the treatment of the boundary conditions in simulation. Along with the TCAD simulation, we have designed the exploratory prototype utilizing the TowerJazz 0.18 μm CMOS imaging sensor process and we will verify the simulation results with future measurements.

Pedagogical applications of cognitive research on musical improvisation

PubMed Central

Biasutti, Michele

2015-01-01

This paper presents a model for the implementation of educational activities involving musical improvisation that is based on a review of the literature on the psychology of music. Psychology of music is a complex field of research in which quantitative and qualitative methods have been employed involving participants ranging from novices to expert performers. The cognitive research has been analyzed to propose a pedagogical approach to the development of processes rather than products that focus on an expert’s use of improvisation. The intention is to delineate a reflective approach that goes beyond the mere instruction of some current practices of teaching improvisation in jazz pedagogy. The review highlights that improvisation is a complex, multidimensional act that involves creative and performance behaviors in real-time in addition to processes such as sensory and perceptual encoding, motor control, performance monitoring, and memory storage and recall. Educational applications for the following processes are outlined: anticipation, use of repertoire, emotive communication, feedback, and flow. These characteristics are discussed in relation to the design of a pedagogical approach to musical improvisation based on reflection and metacognition development. PMID:26029147

The role of emotion in musical improvisation: an analysis of structural features.

PubMed

McPherson, Malinda J; Lopez-Gonzalez, Monica; Rankin, Summer K; Limb, Charles J

2014-01-01

One of the primary functions of music is to convey emotion, yet how music accomplishes this task remains unclear. For example, simple correlations between mode (major vs. minor) and emotion (happy vs. sad) do not adequately explain the enormous range, subtlety or complexity of musically induced emotions. In this study, we examined the structural features of unconstrained musical improvisations generated by jazz pianists in response to emotional cues. We hypothesized that musicians would not utilize any universal rules to convey emotions, but would instead combine heterogeneous musical elements together in order to depict positive and negative emotions. Our findings demonstrate a lack of simple correspondence between emotions and musical features of spontaneous musical improvisation. While improvisations in response to positive emotional cues were more likely to be in major keys, have faster tempos, faster key press velocities and more staccato notes when compared to negative improvisations, there was a wide distribution for each emotion with components that directly violated these primary associations. The finding that musicians often combine disparate features together in order to convey emotion during improvisation suggests that structural diversity may be an essential feature of the ability of music to express a wide range of emotion.

Microbial bebop: creating music from complex dynamics in microbial ecology.

PubMed

Larsen, Peter; Gilbert, Jack

2013-01-01

In order for society to make effective policy decisions on complex and far-reaching subjects, such as appropriate responses to global climate change, scientists must effectively communicate complex results to the non-scientifically specialized public. However, there are few ways however to transform highly complicated scientific data into formats that are engaging to the general community. Taking inspiration from patterns observed in nature and from some of the principles of jazz bebop improvisation, we have generated Microbial Bebop, a method by which microbial environmental data are transformed into music. Microbial Bebop uses meter, pitch, duration, and harmony to highlight the relationships between multiple data types in complex biological datasets. We use a comprehensive microbial ecology, time course dataset collected at the L4 marine monitoring station in the Western English Channel as an example of microbial ecological data that can be transformed into music. Four compositions were generated (www.bio.anl.gov/MicrobialBebop.htm.) from L4 Station data using Microbial Bebop. Each composition, though deriving from the same dataset, is created to highlight different relationships between environmental conditions and microbial community structure. The approach presented here can be applied to a wide variety of complex biological datasets.

Depleted fully monolithic CMOS pixel detectors using a column based readout architecture for the ATLAS Inner Tracker upgrade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, T.; Barbero, M.; Berdalovic, I.; Bespin, C.; Bhat, S.; Breugnon, P.; Caicedo, I.; Cardella, R.; Chen, Z.; Degerli, Y.; Egidos, N.; Godiot, S.; Guilloux, F.; Hemperek, T.; Hirono, T.; Krüger, H.; Kugathasan, T.; Hügging, F.; Marin Tobon, C. A.; Moustakas, K.; Pangaud, P.; Schwemling, P.; Pernegger, H.; Pohl, D.-L.; Rozanov, A.; Rymaszewski, P.; Snoeys, W.; Wermes, N.

2018-03-01

Depleted monolithic active pixel sensors (DMAPS), which exploit high voltage and/or high resistivity add-ons of modern CMOS technologies to achieve substantial depletion in the sensing volume, have proven to have high radiation tolerance towards the requirements of ATLAS in the high-luminosity LHC era. DMAPS integrating fast readout architectures are currently being developed as promising candidates for the outer pixel layers of the future ATLAS Inner Tracker, which will be installed during the phase II upgrade of ATLAS around year 2025. In this work, two DMAPS prototype designs, named LF-Monopix and TJ-Monopix, are presented. LF-Monopix was fabricated in the LFoundry 150 nm CMOS technology, and TJ-Monopix has been designed in the TowerJazz 180 nm CMOS technology. Both chips employ the same readout architecture, i.e. the column drain architecture, whereas different sensor implementation concepts are pursued. The paper makes a joint description of the two prototypes, so that their technical differences and challenges can be addressed in direct comparison. First measurement results for LF-Monopix will also be shown, demonstrating for the first time a fully functional fast readout DMAPS prototype implemented in the LFoundry technology.

Effect of input compression and input frequency response on music perception in cochlear implant users.

PubMed

Halliwell, Emily R; Jones, Linor L; Fraser, Matthew; Lockley, Morag; Hill-Feltham, Penelope; McKay, Colette M

2015-06-01

A study was conducted to determine whether modifications to input compression and input frequency response characteristics can improve music-listening satisfaction in cochlear implant users. Experiment 1 compared three pre-processed versions of music and speech stimuli in a laboratory setting: original, compressed, and flattened frequency response. Music excerpts comprised three music genres (classical, country, and jazz), and a running speech excerpt was compared. Experiment 2 implemented a flattened input frequency response in the speech processor program. In a take-home trial, participants compared unaltered and flattened frequency responses. Ten and twelve adult Nucleus Freedom cochlear implant users participated in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. Experiment 1 revealed a significant preference for music stimuli with a flattened frequency response compared to both original and compressed stimuli, whereas there was a significant preference for the original (rising) frequency response for speech stimuli. Experiment 2 revealed no significant mean preference for the flattened frequency response, with 9 of 11 subjects preferring the rising frequency response. Input compression did not alter music enjoyment. Comparison of the two experiments indicated that individual frequency response preferences may depend on the genre or familiarity, and particularly whether the music contained lyrics.

Hits to the left, flops to the right: different emotions during listening to music are reflected in cortical lateralisation patterns.

PubMed

Altenmüller, Eckart; Schürmann, Kristian; Lim, Vanessa K; Parlitz, Dietrich

2002-01-01

In order to investigate the neurobiological mechanisms accompanying emotional valence judgements during listening to complex auditory stimuli, cortical direct current (dc)-electroencephalography (EEG) activation patterns were recorded from 16 right-handed students. Students listened to 160 short sequences taken from the repertoires of jazz, rock-pop, classical music and environmental sounds (each n=40). Emotional valence of the perceived stimuli were rated on a 5-step scale after each sequence. Brain activation patterns during listening revealed widespread bilateral fronto-temporal activation, but a highly significant lateralisation effect: positive emotional attributions were accompanied by an increase in left temporal activation, negative by a more bilateral pattern with preponderance of the right fronto-temporal cortex. Female participants demonstrated greater valence-related differences than males. No differences related to the four stimulus categories could be detected, suggesting that the actual auditory brain activation patterns were more determined by their affective emotional valence than by differences in acoustical "fine" structure. The results are consistent with a model of hemispheric specialisation concerning perceived positive or negative emotions proposed by Heilman [Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 9 (1997) 439].

More with less: A comparative kinematical analysis of Django Reinhardt's adaptations to hand injury.

PubMed

Wininger, Michael; Williams, David J

2015-06-01

At the age of 18 years, jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) sustained significant burns to his left-hand ring and little fingers; yet, subsequently, he relearned to play and achieved international fame, despite his injuries. Archive film footage and novel motion analysis software were used to compare movements of Django's fretting hand with that of six other guitarists of the same genre. Django employed greater abduction of index and middle fingers (-9.11 ± 6.52° vs -5.78 ± 2.41°; p < 0.001) and more parallel alignment of fingers to the guitar neck (157.7 ± 3.37° vs 150.59 ± 2.67°; p < 0.001) compared to controls. In response to debilitating hand injury, Django developed quantifiable compensatory adaptation of function of his remaining functional fingers by developing an original playing technique. Hand function following injury may be optimized by maximizing latent degrees of freedom in remaining digits, rather than through extensive surgical reconstruction or complex prostheses. Further study of adaptation strategies may inform prosthesis design. © The International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics 2014.

Story of the patent intitulated (in translation from the French), ``Feature of wind instrument permitting the generation of special effects in real time.''

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Causse, Rene

2005-09-01

This presentation will focus on the history of a patent taken out in 1996 by my colleagues F. Laloe, A. Ducoureau, F. Terrier, and myself (France Tlcom patent). This patent is related to a system that allows the wind instrument's pitch to be controlled by means of a mechanical device comprising a foot pedal for the musician and a cable connected to the embouchure of the instrument. There is no predefined semitone or quarter-tone position. The system extends the current musical range and performance capabilities of the instrument chosen for a realization, a clarinet, by inserting in the instrument an additional length. It is possible to change not only the pitch of tones but also to soften their timbre, producing a tone similar to that of early instruments. This type of special effect is well suited to contemporary, jazz, and popular music. The device is adapted to any type of clarinet and the principle can conceivably be extended to other wind instruments. In this presentation, the device and its derivatives shall be described, and its musical applications illustrated by sound examples. A critical approach to the different levels of reading of the patent will be presented.

Hierarchical temporal structure in music, speech and animal vocalizations: jazz is like a conversation, humpbacks sing like hermit thrushes.

PubMed

Kello, Christopher T; Bella, Simone Dalla; Médé, Butovens; Balasubramaniam, Ramesh

2017-10-01

Humans talk, sing and play music. Some species of birds and whales sing long and complex songs. All these behaviours and sounds exhibit hierarchical structure-syllables and notes are positioned within words and musical phrases, words and motives in sentences and musical phrases, and so on. We developed a new method to measure and compare hierarchical temporal structures in speech, song and music. The method identifies temporal events as peaks in the sound amplitude envelope, and quantifies event clustering across a range of timescales using Allan factor (AF) variance. AF variances were analysed and compared for over 200 different recordings from more than 16 different categories of signals, including recordings of speech in different contexts and languages, musical compositions and performances from different genres. Non-human vocalizations from two bird species and two types of marine mammals were also analysed for comparison. The resulting patterns of AF variance across timescales were distinct to each of four natural categories of complex sound: speech, popular music, classical music and complex animal vocalizations. Comparisons within and across categories indicated that nested clustering in longer timescales was more prominent when prosodic variation was greater, and when sounds came from interactions among individuals, including interactions between speakers, musicians, and even killer whales. Nested clustering also was more prominent for music compared with speech, and reflected beat structure for popular music and self-similarity across timescales for classical music. In summary, hierarchical temporal structures reflect the behavioural and social processes underlying complex vocalizations and musical performances. © 2017 The Author(s).

Reversing the gaze: constructing European race discourse as modern witchcraft practice.

PubMed

Perkinson, James W

2004-01-01

In keeping with the challenge of (African American) historian of religions Charles Long to develop a mode of postcolonial encounter that is a process of mutual hermeneusis, I am proposing in this article to think "race" in terms of "indigenous ritual." At the very least it is an effort to relativize the western scientific paradigm and the universalizing humanities discourses that have nestled close to that paradigm. It is not an attempt to repudiate such an episteme but, rather-to borrow a jazz term-to "swing" it, to put it in antiphonal and improvisational circulation. More specifically, this article will trace a thought experiment, probing the historical emergence of white supremacist practice as a kind of modernist embodiment of "witchcraft discourse," which functions-in the institutional grammar it has left on deposit in contemporary social practice and the "intention to consume" (the substance of others) that it "rationalizes"-very much like the "primitive superstitions" it seeks to name and repudiate in positing its own rationalizing superiority. In such an enterprise, witchcraft, I am arguing, can be "good to think with" as a mode of communicative action, signifying with a kind of "boomerang effect" in the intercultural space of rupture between the West and the rest.

Effect of midsole thickness of dance shoes on dynamic postural stability.

PubMed

Wyon, Matthew A; Cloak, Ross; Lucas, Josephine; Clarke, Frances

2013-12-01

Landing from jumps is one of the main causes of injury within dance. A number of studies have reported a negative effect of shoe midsole thickness on lower limb kinematics during running due to the reduction in afferent sensory outputs from the foot's epithelium. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of varying midsole thicknesses in dance shoes on dynamic postural stability during a single-leg landing. Twenty-eight female undergraduate dance participants volunteered for the study. They carried out three trials under four conditions: barefoot and in ballet flats (2 mm midsole thickness), jazz shoes (7 mm), and dance sneakers (30 mm). The task consisted of a single-leg forward jump over a hurdle at 50% of their maximal vertical jump height, landing on a force platform, and balancing for 3 seconds. The stability indices for vertical stability (VSI), anterior-posterior stability (APSI), medial-lateral stability (MLSI), and dynamic postural stability (DPSI) were calculated using Wikstrom's revised method. Significant differences were reported between the midsole thicknesses for both DPSI and VSI (p<0.01). No statistical differences were noted for the indices SPSI or MLSI. The present data agree with the running studies in that increased midsole thickness has a negative influence on landing stability.

Scaling and application of commercial, feature-rich, modular mixed-signal technology platforms for large format ROICs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kar-Roy, Arjun; Racanelli, Marco; Howard, David; Miyagi, Glenn; Bowler, Mark; Jordan, Scott; Zhang, Tao; Krieger, William

2010-04-01

Today's modular, mixed-signal CMOS process platforms are excellent choices for manufacturing of highly integrated, large-format read out integrated circuits (ROICs). Platform features, that can be used for both cooled and un-cooled ROIC applications, can include (1) quality passives such as 4fFμm2 stacked MIM capacitors for linearity and higher density capacitance per pixel, 1kOhm high-value poly-silicon resistors, 2.8μm thick metals for efficient power distribution and reduced I-R drop; (2) analog active devices such as low noise single gate 3.3V, and 1.8V/3.3V or 1.8V/5V dual gate configurations, 40V LDMOS FETs, and NPN and PNP devices, deep n-well for substrate isolation for analog blocks and digital logic; (3) tools to assist the circuit designer such as models for cryogenic temperatures, CAD assistance for metal density uniformity determination, statistical, X-sigma and PCM-based models for corner validation and to simulate design sensitivity, and (4) sub-field stitching for large die. The TowerJazz platform of technology for 0.50μm, 0.25μm and 0.18μm CMOS nodes, with features as described above, is described in detail in this paper.

Game-powered machine learning

PubMed Central

Barrington, Luke; Turnbull, Douglas; Lanckriet, Gert

2012-01-01

Searching for relevant content in a massive amount of multimedia information is facilitated by accurately annotating each image, video, or song with a large number of relevant semantic keywords, or tags. We introduce game-powered machine learning, an integrated approach to annotating multimedia content that combines the effectiveness of human computation, through online games, with the scalability of machine learning. We investigate this framework for labeling music. First, a socially-oriented music annotation game called Herd It collects reliable music annotations based on the “wisdom of the crowds.” Second, these annotated examples are used to train a supervised machine learning system. Third, the machine learning system actively directs the annotation games to collect new data that will most benefit future model iterations. Once trained, the system can automatically annotate a corpus of music much larger than what could be labeled using human computation alone. Automatically annotated songs can be retrieved based on their semantic relevance to text-based queries (e.g., “funky jazz with saxophone,” “spooky electronica,” etc.). Based on the results presented in this paper, we find that actively coupling annotation games with machine learning provides a reliable and scalable approach to making searchable massive amounts of multimedia data. PMID:22460786

Shared periodic performer movements coordinate interactions in duo improvisations

PubMed Central

Jakubowski, Kelly; Moran, Nikki; Keller, Peter E.

2018-01-01

Human interaction involves the exchange of temporally coordinated, multimodal cues. Our work focused on interaction in the visual domain, using music performance as a case for analysis due to its temporally diverse and hierarchical structures. We made use of two improvising duo datasets—(i) performances of a jazz standard with a regular pulse and (ii) non-pulsed, free improvizations—to investigate whether human judgements of moments of interaction between co-performers are influenced by body movement coordination at multiple timescales. Bouts of interaction in the performances were manually annotated by experts and the performers’ movements were quantified using computer vision techniques. The annotated interaction bouts were then predicted using several quantitative movement and audio features. Over 80% of the interaction bouts were successfully predicted by a broadband measure of the energy of the cross-wavelet transform of the co-performers’ movements in non-pulsed duos. A more complex model, with multiple predictors that captured more specific, interacting features of the movements, was needed to explain a significant amount of variance in the pulsed duos. The methods developed here have key implications for future work on measuring visual coordination in musical ensemble performances, and can be easily adapted to other musical contexts, ensemble types and traditions. PMID:29515867

Neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the experience of flow.

PubMed

Dietrich, Arne

2004-12-01

Recent theoretical and empirical work in cognitive science and neuroscience is brought into contact with the concept of the flow experience. After a brief exposition of brain function, the explicit-implicit distinction is applied to the effortless information processing that is so characteristic of the flow state. The explicit system is associated with the higher cognitive functions of the frontal lobe and medial temporal lobe structures and has evolved to increase cognitive flexibility. In contrast, the implicit system is associated with the skill-based knowledge supported primarily by the basal ganglia and has the advantage of being more efficient. From the analysis of this flexibility/efficiency trade-off emerges a thesis that identifies the flow state as a period during which a highly practiced skill that is represented in the implicit system's knowledge base is implemented without interference from the explicit system. It is proposed that a necessary prerequisite to the experience of flow is a state of transient hypofrontality that enables the temporary suppression of the analytical and meta-conscious capacities of the explicit system. Examining sensory-motor integration skills that seem to typify flow such as athletic performance, writing, and free-jazz improvisation, the new framework clarifies how this concept relates to creativity and opens new avenues of research.

Game-powered machine learning.

PubMed

Barrington, Luke; Turnbull, Douglas; Lanckriet, Gert

2012-04-24

Searching for relevant content in a massive amount of multimedia information is facilitated by accurately annotating each image, video, or song with a large number of relevant semantic keywords, or tags. We introduce game-powered machine learning, an integrated approach to annotating multimedia content that combines the effectiveness of human computation, through online games, with the scalability of machine learning. We investigate this framework for labeling music. First, a socially-oriented music annotation game called Herd It collects reliable music annotations based on the "wisdom of the crowds." Second, these annotated examples are used to train a supervised machine learning system. Third, the machine learning system actively directs the annotation games to collect new data that will most benefit future model iterations. Once trained, the system can automatically annotate a corpus of music much larger than what could be labeled using human computation alone. Automatically annotated songs can be retrieved based on their semantic relevance to text-based queries (e.g., "funky jazz with saxophone," "spooky electronica," etc.). Based on the results presented in this paper, we find that actively coupling annotation games with machine learning provides a reliable and scalable approach to making searchable massive amounts of multimedia data.

Shared periodic performer movements coordinate interactions in duo improvisations.

PubMed

Eerola, Tuomas; Jakubowski, Kelly; Moran, Nikki; Keller, Peter E; Clayton, Martin

2018-02-01

Human interaction involves the exchange of temporally coordinated, multimodal cues. Our work focused on interaction in the visual domain, using music performance as a case for analysis due to its temporally diverse and hierarchical structures. We made use of two improvising duo datasets-(i) performances of a jazz standard with a regular pulse and (ii) non-pulsed, free improvizations-to investigate whether human judgements of moments of interaction between co-performers are influenced by body movement coordination at multiple timescales. Bouts of interaction in the performances were manually annotated by experts and the performers' movements were quantified using computer vision techniques. The annotated interaction bouts were then predicted using several quantitative movement and audio features. Over 80% of the interaction bouts were successfully predicted by a broadband measure of the energy of the cross-wavelet transform of the co-performers' movements in non-pulsed duos. A more complex model, with multiple predictors that captured more specific, interacting features of the movements, was needed to explain a significant amount of variance in the pulsed duos. The methods developed here have key implications for future work on measuring visual coordination in musical ensemble performances, and can be easily adapted to other musical contexts, ensemble types and traditions.

The neuroscience of musical improvisation.

PubMed

Beaty, Roger E

2015-04-01

Researchers have recently begun to examine the neural basis of musical improvisation, one of the most complex forms of creative behavior. The emerging field of improvisation neuroscience has implications not only for the study of artistic expertise, but also for understanding the neural underpinnings of domain-general processes such as motor control and language production. This review synthesizes functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI) studies of musical improvisation, including vocal and instrumental improvisation, with samples of jazz pianists, classical musicians, freestyle rap artists, and non-musicians. A network of prefrontal brain regions commonly linked to improvisatory behavior is highlighted, including the pre-supplementary motor area, medial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and dorsal premotor cortex. Activation of premotor and lateral prefrontal regions suggests that a seemingly unconstrained behavior may actually benefit from motor planning and cognitive control. Yet activation of cortical midline regions points to a role of spontaneous cognition characteristic of the default network. Together, such results may reflect cooperation between large-scale brain networks associated with cognitive control and spontaneous thought. The improvisation literature is integrated with Pressing's theoretical model, and discussed within the broader context of research on the brain basis of creative cognition. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Role of Emotion in Musical Improvisation: An Analysis of Structural Features

PubMed Central

McPherson, Malinda J.; Lopez-Gonzalez, Monica; Rankin, Summer K.; Limb, Charles J.

2014-01-01

One of the primary functions of music is to convey emotion, yet how music accomplishes this task remains unclear. For example, simple correlations between mode (major vs. minor) and emotion (happy vs. sad) do not adequately explain the enormous range, subtlety or complexity of musically induced emotions. In this study, we examined the structural features of unconstrained musical improvisations generated by jazz pianists in response to emotional cues. We hypothesized that musicians would not utilize any universal rules to convey emotions, but would instead combine heterogeneous musical elements together in order to depict positive and negative emotions. Our findings demonstrate a lack of simple correspondence between emotions and musical features of spontaneous musical improvisation. While improvisations in response to positive emotional cues were more likely to be in major keys, have faster tempos, faster key press velocities and more staccato notes when compared to negative improvisations, there was a wide distribution for each emotion with components that directly violated these primary associations. The finding that musicians often combine disparate features together in order to convey emotion during improvisation suggests that structural diversity may be an essential feature of the ability of music to express a wide range of emotion. PMID:25144200

Dance-related injuries in children and adolescents treated in US emergency departments in 1991-2007.

PubMed

Roberts, Kristin J; Nelson, Nicolas G; McKenzie, Lara

2013-02-01

Dancing is one of the most physically strenuous activities on the musculoskeletal system. As other literature has previously described, the types, sites, and rates of dance-related injuries are similar to those suffered by athletes in traditional sports. A retrospective analysis was conducted with data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System from 1991-2007. Sample weights were used to calculate national estimates of dance-related injuries. Trend significance of the numbers and age-adjusted rates of dance-related injuries over time was analyzed using linear regression. An estimated 113,084 children and adolescents 3-19 years of age were treated in US emergency departments for dance-related injuries. Classical dance (ballet, jazz, tap, modern) accounted for 55.0% of dance-related injuries. Adolescents 15-19 years of age constituted 40.4% of the dance-related injury cases. The majority of injuries (58.1%) occurred to the lower extremities. Sprains or strains were the most common injury (52.4%) and falls were the most common mechanism of injury (44.8%). Dance-related injuries have distinct injury patterns and mechanisms of injury. Injury patterns differ by types of dance and by age. Further research is needed to identify injury prevention strategies specific to these age groups.

Interactive Whiteboards and All that Jazz: The Contribution of Musical Metaphors to the Analysis of Classroom Activity with Interactive Technologies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beauchamp, Gary; Kennewell, Steve; Tanner, Howard; Jones, Sonia

2010-01-01

The teacher's role has often been described as one of "orchestration", and this musical analogy is a powerful one in characterising the manipulation of features in the classroom setting in order to generate activity or "performance" which leads to learning. However, a classical view of orchestration would fail to recognise the extent to which…

It ain't What You Say, but the Way that You Say It: Jazz Articulation for Horns in the Big Band

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gudmundson, Jon

2006-01-01

A big-band horn section can play the correct rhythms, pitches, and dynamics with good tone and still be unintelligible. If the horns articulate together, however, the improvement will be dramatic. They will much more successfully convey the meaning of the music, and they will sound like a section rather than four or five individuals. In this…

Bringing Astronomy Directly to New Audiences (50,000 People) at Outdoor Concerts and Music Festivals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lubowich, D.

2014-07-01

My NASA-funded Music and Astronomy Under the Stars (MAUS) has brought astronomy to 50,000 music lovers at the National Mall (co-sponsor OSTP); Central Park Jazz, Newport Folk, Ravinia, or Tanglewood music festivals; and classical, folk, pop/rock, opera, Caribbean, or county-western concerts in parks assisted by astronomy clubs (55 events since 2009). Yo-Yo-Ma, the Chicago and Boston Symphony Orchestras, Ravi Coltrane, Esperanza Spalding, Phish, Blood Sweat and Tears, Deep Purple, Tony Orlando, and Wilco performed at these events. MAUS combines solar, optical, and radio telescope observations; large posters/banners (From the Earth to the Universe; Visions of the Universe); videos; hands-on activities (Night Sky Network; Harvard-Smithsonian CfA); imaging with a cell phone mount; and hand-outs (info on science museums, astronomy clubs, and citizen science) before and after the concerts or at intermission. MAUS reached underserved groups and attracted large enthusiastic crowds. Many young children participated in this family learning experience-often the first time they looked through a telescope. Outcomes: While < 50% of the participants took part in a science museum or activity in the past year (survey result), they found MAUS enjoyable and understandable; learned about astronomy; wanted to learn more; and increased their interest in science (ave. rating 3.6/4). Taking science directly to people is effective in promoting science education!

Another ``new'' metric for outdoor amphitheater criteria

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berens, Robert S.

2005-09-01

Since the late 1960s, when amplified musical performances began being held there, Atlanta's open-air Chastain Park Amphitheater has been the source of enormous friction between the City, the venue's owner, and the wealthy, politically-connected residential community abutting the Park. To identify the characteristics of concert event sound to which neighbors are particularly sensitive, sound levels were monitored during 17 concerts, ranging from quiet jazz and classical performances to rock-and-roll and hip-hop. Community sound levels were monitored at 25 locations, including nine where measurements were made simultaneously inside and outside homes. The study team confirmed that low-frequency sound was the one feature of concert-related sound that community residents identified as most problematic, but that only a relatively small proportion of the Chastain concerts resulted in any significant community annoyance. After assessing the spectral characteristics of the most troublesome concerts, a new compliance metric has been proposed to address low-frequency annoyance issues: a two-tiered exceedence threshold, based on 1-minute LEQ levels in the 63 Hz octave band measured at the rear of the amphitheater, with a concert-event ``exceedence'' defined to be either a 1-minute LEQ(63 Hz) level greater than 95 dB or more than ten 1-minute LEQ(63 Hz) levels greater than 90 dB.

Effect of mechanical forces on finger nail curvature: an analysis of the effect of occupation on finger nails.

PubMed

Sano, Hitomi; Shionoya, Kaori; Ogawa, Rei

2014-04-01

We studied the relationship between mechanical force and nail curvature. The effect of different frequencies and strengths of mechanical force on nail curvature was assessed. In Study 1, 63 carpenters and 63 office workers were enrolled, and the configurations of their thumb nails were assessed by measuring the curve index (defined as nail height/width) and pinch strength. In Study 2, nail curvature and pinch strength of jazz bassists, who characteristically do not use the right fourth and fifth fingers but use the left fifth finger a lot, were compared. In Study 3, the thumb nail curvature and pinch strength of the dominant and nondominant sides of the 126 participants from Study 1 were compared. Study 1: Carpenters had a significantly lower mean thumb nail curve index and higher mean pinch strength. Study 2: The nails of the unused right fourth and fifth fingers were much more curved than the nails of the frequently used left fourth and fifth fingers. The pinch strength of the right fifth finger was much weaker than the pinch strength of the left fifth finger. Study 3: The dominant side had a significantly lower nail curve index and higher pinch strength. The frequency and strength of mechanical forces on finger nails significantly affect nail appearance. © 2014 by the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, Inc. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Lessons Learned on Stage: How Improv Can Improve Science Communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wong, G. J.; Kohn, C.; McPeek, M. A.; Serrell, N.

2014-12-01

A challenge facing STEM graduate students is the daunting task of communicating their research to a non-specialist audience. Strategies that work well in lab group meetings, such as using acronyms and jargon, do not work in the real world. Ideally, scientists should directly connect with any audience, responding spontaneously and actively, distilling their messages into conversational morsels that resonate with that audience. Scientists should listen. This presentation highlights a 10-week, interdisciplinary graduate course at Dartmouth College that teaches methods for communicating science with clarity, vividness, and emotion. The course was developed in partnership with Stony Brook University's Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, and emphasizes story-telling, two-way communication, active listening, and so much more. Effective message development and communication skills - spontaneity, authenticity, and connectivity - are honed through improvisational theater exercises. One might ask, "why improv?" As a co-developer/co-instructor of this graduate course and a Ph.D. candidate in Earth Sciences, my response is, "why not improv?" Improv is acting without a script. It is also underground rap battles, baking from scratch, and playing jazz flute. Improv is Macguyver. Improv is not any one particular thing so much as it is a process through which we do things. Improv can teach us a lot: how to play, how to feel comfortable and present even while flailing, and how to truly listen.

The effect of background music on the perception of personality and demographics.

PubMed

Lastinger, Daniel L

2011-01-01

This study seeks to discover stereotypes people may have about different music genres and if these stereotypes are projected onto an individual. Also, the study investigates if music therapy students are more or less biased than non-music majors in this regard. Subjects (N=388) were comprised of student members of the American Music Therapy Association (N=182) and students from a college in the southeastern United States who were not music majors (N=206). Subjects were asked to listen to a recording and complete a short survey. Subjects assigned to the control condition heard only a person reading a script. Subjects assigned to one of the four experimental conditions heard the same recording mixed with background music and ambient crowd noise, intended to simulate a live performance. Subjects were asked to rate the person in the recording on personality descriptors and predict demographic information in the survey. Many of the survey responses were significantly affected by the genre of music. For example, it was shown that when in the presence of rap or country music, all subjects rated the personality of the person in the recording significantly more negative than when in the presence of classical, jazz, or no music. There were no significant differences between the groups for any variable or condition when comparing survey responses between college students and AMTA student members.

Readout of the upgraded ALICE-ITS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Szczepankiewicz, A.; ALICE Collaboration

2016-07-01

The ALICE experiment will undergo a major upgrade during the second long shutdown of the CERN LHC. As part of this program, the present Inner Tracking System (ITS), which employs different layers of hybrid pixels, silicon drift and strip detectors, will be replaced by a completely new tracker composed of seven layers of monolithic active pixel sensors. The upgraded ITS will have more than twelve billion pixels in total, producing 300 Gbit/s of data when tracking 50 kHz Pb-Pb events. Two families of pixel chips realized with the TowerJazz CMOS imaging process have been developed as candidate sensors: the ALPIDE, which uses a proprietary readout and sparsification mechanism and the MISTRAL-O, based on a proven rolling shutter architecture. Both chips can operate in continuous mode, with the ALPIDE also supporting triggered operations. As the communication IP blocks are shared among the two chip families, it has been possible to develop a common Readout Electronics. All the sensor components (analog stages, state machines, buffers, FIFOs, etc.) have been modelled in a system level simulation, which has been extensively used to optimize both the sensor and the whole readout chain design in an iterative process. This contribution covers the progress of the R&D efforts and the overall expected performance of the ALICE-ITS readout system.

Mixed-signal 0.18μm CMOS and SiGe BiCMOS foundry technologies for ROIC applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kar-Roy, Arjun; Howard, David; Racanelli, Marco; Scott, Mike; Hurwitz, Paul; Zwingman, Robert; Chaudhry, Samir; Jordan, Scott

2010-10-01

Today's readout integrated-circuits (ROICs) require a high level of integration of high performance analog and low power digital logic. TowerJazz offers a commercial 0.18μm CMOS technology platform for mixed-signal, RF, and high performance analog applications which can be used for ROIC applications. The commercial CA18HD dual gate oxide 1.8V/3.3V and CA18HA dual gate oxide 1.8V/5V RF/mixed signal processes, consisting of six layers of metallization, have high density stacked linear MIM capacitors, high-value resistors, triple-well isolation and thick top aluminum metal. The CA18HA process also has scalable drain extended LDMOS devices, up to 40V Vds, for high-voltage sensor applications, and high-performance bipolars for low noise requirements in ROICs. Also discussed are the available features of the commercial SBC18 SiGe BiCMOS platform with SiGe NPNs operating up to 200/200GHz (fT/fMAX frequencies in manufacturing and demonstrated to 270 GHz fT, for reduced noise and integrated RF capabilities which could be used in ROICs. Implementation of these technologies in a thick film SOI process for integrated RF switch and power management and the availability of high fT vertical PNPs to enable complementary BiCMOS (CBiCMOS), for RF enabled ROICs, are also described in this paper.

Commercially developed mixed-signal CMOS process features for application in advanced ROICs in 0.18μm technology node

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kar-Roy, Arjun; Hurwitz, Paul; Mann, Richard; Qamar, Yasir; Chaudhry, Samir; Zwingman, Robert; Howard, David; Racanelli, Marco

2012-06-01

Increasingly complex specifications for next-generation focal plane arrays (FPAs) require smaller pixels, larger array sizes, reduced power consumption and lower cost. We have previously reported on the favorable features available in the commercially available TowerJazz CA18 0.18μm mixed-signal CMOS technology platform for advanced read-out integrated circuit (ROIC) applications. In his paper, new devices in development for commercial purposes and which may have applications in advanced ROICs are reported. First, results of buried-channel 3.3V field effect transistors (FETs) are detailed. The buried-channel pFETs show flicker (1/f) noise reductions of ~5X in comparison to surface-channel pFETs along with a significant reduction of the body constant parameter. The buried-channel nFETs show ~2X reduction of 1/f noise versus surface-channel nFETs. Additional reduced threshold voltage nFETs and pFETs are also described. Second, a high-density capacitor solution with a four-stacked linear (metal-insulator-metal) MIM capacitor having capacitance density of 8fF/μm2 is reported. Additional stacking with MOS capacitor in a 5V tolerant process results in >50fC/μm2 charge density. Finally, one-time programmable (OTP) and multi-time programmable (MTP) non-volatile memory options in the CA18 technology platform are outlined.

Music in the operating theatre: opinions of staff and patients of a Nigerian teaching hospital.

PubMed

Makama, J G; Ameh, E A; Eguma, S A

2010-12-01

The role of music during surgery has been studied, including its effect on theatre staff, users and patients. However, little attention has been paid to its application especially in our environment. It was a prospective study, involving theatre staff, users, and patients. Their opinions on acceptability and the role of music in operating theatre were determined. Information was obtained by questionnaire. There were 162 respondents; age range 25 to 76 years (median age 39). There were 109 (67.2%) males and 53 (32.7%) female. One hundred and forty five (89.5%) respondents agree that music should be played in the operating theatre. One fifty eight, (97.5%) considered low tone of music to be most appropriate in the theatre while 3(1.9%), and 1(0.6%) considered moderate and high tone respectively to be most appropriate. One hundred and sixteen, (71.6%) preferred jazz music while 19(11.7%) reggae, 11(6.8%) African music, 13 (8.0%) others (not specify), 2 (1.2%) classical, and 1(0.6%) Irish folk. The majority of the respondents were aware of the role of music in terms of its anxiolytic effect, reduction of stress and enhancement of performance when familiar music is played. Music in the operating theatre has immeasurable effects. It can prevent distraction, minimize annoyance, reduce stress and diminish the anxiety of patients, staff and users.

Characterisation of a novel reverse-biased PPD CMOS image sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stefanov, K. D.; Clarke, A. S.; Ivory, J.; Holland, A. D.

2017-11-01

A new pinned photodiode (PPD) CMOS image sensor (CIS) has been developed and characterised. The sensor can be fully depleted by means of reverse bias applied to the substrate, and the principle of operation is applicable to very thick sensitive volumes. Additional n-type implants under the pixel p-wells, called Deep Depletion Extension (DDE), have been added in order to eliminate the large parasitic substrate current that would otherwise be present in a normal device. The first prototype has been manufactured on a 18 μm thick, 1000 Ω .cm epitaxial silicon wafers using 180 nm PPD image sensor process at TowerJazz Semiconductor. The chip contains arrays of 10 μm and 5.4 μm pixels, with variations of the shape, size and the depth of the DDE implant. Back-side illuminated (BSI) devices were manufactured in collaboration with Teledyne e2v, and characterised together with the front-side illuminated (FSI) variants. The presented results show that the devices could be reverse-biased without parasitic leakage currents, in good agreement with simulations. The new 10 μm pixels in both BSI and FSI variants exhibit nearly identical photo response to the reference non-modified pixels, as characterised with the photon transfer curve. Different techniques were used to measure the depletion depth in FSI and BSI chips, and the results are consistent with the expected full depletion.

Finding the Kool Mixx: how Brown & Williamson used music marketing to sell cigarettes.

PubMed

Hafez, Navid; Ling, Pamela M

2006-10-01

To describe the history of Kool's music-themed promotions and analyse the role that music played in the promotion of the brand. Analysis of previously secret tobacco industry documents, legal documents, and promotional materials. Brown & Williamson started Kool sponsorship of musical events in 1975 with Kool Jazz concerts. Music was considered to be an effective marketing tool because: (1) music helped consumers make emotional connections with the brand; (2) music concerts were effective for targeted marketing; (3) music tied together an integrated marketing campaign; and (4) music had potential to appeal widely to a young audience. Brown & Williamson's first music campaigns successfully targeted young African-American male audiences. Subsequent campaigns were less effective, exploring different types of music to achieve a broader young adult appeal. This case study suggests Brown & Williamson used music most successfully for targeted marketing, but they failed to develop a wider audience using music because their attempts lacked consistency with the Kool brand's established identity. The 2004 "Kool Mixx" campaign both returned to Brown & Williamson's historic practice targeting young African-American males, and also exploited a musical genre with much more potential to bring Kool more universal appeal, as hip-hop music is increasingly popular among diverse audiences. Tobacco control efforts led by African-American community activists to oppose these marketing strategies should continue; expanding these coalitions to include the hip-hop community may further increase their effectiveness.

Design of a multi-axis implantable MEMS sensor for intraosseous bone stress monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alfaro, Fernando; Weiss, Lee; Campbell, Phil; Miller, Mark; Fedder, Gary K.

2009-08-01

The capability to assess the biomechanical properties of living bone is important for basic research as well as the clinical management of skeletal trauma and disease. Even though radiodensitometric imaging is commonly used to infer bone quality, bone strength does not necessarily correlate well with these non-invasive measurements. This paper reports on the design, fabrication and initial testing of an implantable ultra-miniature multi-axis sensor for directly measuring bone stresses at a micro-scale. The device, which is fabricated with CMOS-MEMS processes, is intended to be permanently implanted within open fractures, or embedded in bone grafts, or placed on implants at the interfaces between bone and prosthetics. The stress sensor comprises an array of piezoresistive pixels to detect a stress tensor at the interfacial area between the MEMS chip and bone, with a resolution to 100 Pa, in 1 s averaging. The sensor system design and manufacture is also compatible with the integration of wireless RF telemetry, for power and data retrieval, all within a 3 mm × 3 mm × 0.3 mm footprint. The piezoresistive elements are integrated within a textured surface to enhance sensor integration with bone. Finite element analysis led to a sensor design for normal and shear stress detection. A wired sensor was fabricated in the Jazz 0.35 µm BiCMOS process and then embedded in mock bone material to characterize its response to tensile and bending loads up to 250 kPa.

Music in the cath lab: who should select it?

PubMed

Goertz, Wolfram; Dominick, Klaus; Heussen, Nicole; vom Dahl, Juergen

2011-05-01

The ALMUT study wants to evaluate the anxiolytic effects of different music styles and no music in 200 patients undergoing cardiac catheterization and to assess if there is a difference if patients select one of these therapies or are randomized to one of them. The anxiolytic and analgesic effects of music have been described in previous trials. Some authors have suggested to evaluate whether patient-selected music is more effective than the music selected by the physician in reducing anxiety and stress levels. After randomization 100 patients (group A) were allowed to choose between classical music, relaxing modern music, smooth jazz, and no music. One hundred patients (group B) were randomized directly to one of these therapies (n = 25 each). Complete data were available for 197 patients (65 ± 10 years; 134 male). Using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) all patients in group B who listened to music showed a significantly higher decrease of their anxiety level (STAI-State difference pre-post of 16.8 ± 10.2) compared to group A (13.3 ± 11.1; p = 0.0176). Patients without music (6.2 ± 6.7) had a significantly weaker reduction of anxiety compared to all music-listeners (14.9 ± 10.7, p < 0.0001). The positive effects of music in the cath lab support previous reports. Surprisingly, the hypothesis that the patient's choice of preferred music might yield higher benefits than a randomized assignment could be dismissed.

Investigation of HV/HR-CMOS technology for the ATLAS Phase-II Strip Tracker Upgrade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fadeyev, V.; Galloway, Z.; Grabas, H.; Grillo, A. A.; Liang, Z.; Martinez-Mckinney, F.; Seiden, A.; Volk, J.; Affolder, A.; Buckland, M.; Meng, L.; Arndt, K.; Bortoletto, D.; Huffman, T.; John, J.; McMahon, S.; Nickerson, R.; Phillips, P.; Plackett, R.; Shipsey, I.; Vigani, L.; Bates, R.; Blue, A.; Buttar, C.; Kanisauskas, K.; Maneuski, D.; Benoit, M.; Di Bello, F.; Caragiulo, P.; Dragone, A.; Grenier, P.; Kenney, C.; Rubbo, F.; Segal, J.; Su, D.; Tamma, C.; Das, D.; Dopke, J.; Turchetta, R.; Wilson, F.; Worm, S.; Ehrler, F.; Peric, I.; Gregor, I. M.; Stanitzki, M.; Hoeferkamp, M.; Seidel, S.; Hommels, L. B. A.; Kramberger, G.; Mandić, I.; Mikuž, M.; Muenstermann, D.; Wang, R.; Zhang, J.; Warren, M.; Song, W.; Xiu, Q.; Zhu, H.

2016-09-01

ATLAS has formed strip CMOS project to study the use of CMOS MAPS devices as silicon strip sensors for the Phase-II Strip Tracker Upgrade. This choice of sensors promises several advantages over the conventional baseline design, such as better resolution, less material in the tracking volume, and faster construction speed. At the same time, many design features of the sensors are driven by the requirement of minimizing the impact on the rest of the detector. Hence the target devices feature long pixels which are grouped to form a virtual strip with binary-encoded z position. The key performance aspects are radiation hardness compatibility with HL-LHC environment, as well as extraction of the full hit position with full-reticle readout architecture. To date, several test chips have been submitted using two different CMOS technologies. The AMS 350 nm is a high voltage CMOS process (HV-CMOS), that features the sensor bias of up to 120 V. The TowerJazz 180 nm high resistivity CMOS process (HR-CMOS) uses a high resistivity epitaxial layer to provide the depletion region on top of the substrate. We have evaluated passive pixel performance, and charge collection projections. The results strongly support the radiation tolerance of these devices to radiation dose of the HL-LHC in the strip tracker region. We also describe design features for the next chip submission that are motivated by our technology evaluation.

Low-power priority Address-Encoder and Reset-Decoder data-driven readout for Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors for tracker system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, P.; Aglieri, G.; Cavicchioli, C.; Chalmet, P. L.; Chanlek, N.; Collu, A.; Gao, C.; Hillemanns, H.; Junique, A.; Kofarago, M.; Keil, M.; Kugathasan, T.; Kim, D.; Kim, J.; Lattuca, A.; Marin Tobon, C. A.; Marras, D.; Mager, M.; Martinengo, P.; Mazza, G.; Mugnier, H.; Musa, L.; Puggioni, C.; Rousset, J.; Reidt, F.; Riedler, P.; Snoeys, W.; Siddhanta, S.; Usai, G.; van Hoorne, J. W.; Yi, J.

2015-06-01

Active Pixel Sensors used in High Energy Particle Physics require low power consumption to reduce the detector material budget, low integration time to reduce the possibilities of pile-up and fast readout to improve the detector data capability. To satisfy these requirements, a novel Address-Encoder and Reset-Decoder (AERD) asynchronous circuit for a fast readout of a pixel matrix has been developed. The AERD data-driven readout architecture operates the address encoding and reset decoding based on an arbitration tree, and allows us to readout only the hit pixels. Compared to the traditional readout structure of the rolling shutter scheme in Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS), AERD can achieve a low readout time and a low power consumption especially for low hit occupancies. The readout is controlled at the chip periphery with a signal synchronous with the clock, allows a good digital and analogue signal separation in the matrix and a reduction of the power consumption. The AERD circuit has been implemented in the TowerJazz 180 nm CMOS Imaging Sensor (CIS) process with full complementary CMOS logic in the pixel. It works at 10 MHz with a matrix height of 15 mm. The energy consumed to read out one pixel is around 72 pJ. A scheme to boost the readout speed to 40 MHz is also discussed. The sensor chip equipped with AERD has been produced and characterised. Test results including electrical beam measurement are presented.

Finding the Kool Mixx: how Brown & Williamson used music marketing to sell cigarettes

PubMed Central

Hafez, Navid; Ling, Pamela M

2006-01-01

Objective To describe the history of Kool's music‐themed promotions and analyse the role that music played in the promotion of the brand. Methods Analysis of previously secret tobacco industry documents, legal documents, and promotional materials. Results Brown & Williamson started Kool sponsorship of musical events in 1975 with Kool Jazz concerts. Music was considered to be an effective marketing tool because: (1) music helped consumers make emotional connections with the brand; (2) music concerts were effective for targeted marketing; (3) music tied together an integrated marketing campaign; and (4) music had potential to appeal widely to a young audience. Brown & Williamson's first music campaigns successfully targeted young African‐American male audiences. Subsequent campaigns were less effective, exploring different types of music to achieve a broader young adult appeal. Conclusions This case study suggests Brown & Williamson used music most successfully for targeted marketing, but they failed to develop a wider audience using music because their attempts lacked consistency with the Kool brand's established identity. The 2004 “Kool Mixx” campaign both returned to Brown & Williamson's historic practice targeting young African‐American males, and also exploited a musical genre with much more potential to bring Kool more universal appeal, as hip‐hop music is increasingly popular among diverse audiences. Tobacco control efforts led by African‐American community activists to oppose these marketing strategies should continue; expanding these coalitions to include the hip‐hop community may further increase their effectiveness. PMID:16998169

Life Expectancy and Cause of Death in Popular Musicians: Is the Popular Musician Lifestyle the Road to Ruin?

PubMed

Kenny, Dianna T; Asher, Anthony

2016-03-01

Does a combination of lifestyle pressures and personality, as reflected in genre, lead to the early death of popular musicians? We explored overall mortality, cause of death, and changes in patterns of death over time and by music genre membership in popular musicians who died between 1950 and 2014. The death records of 13,195 popular musicians were coded for age and year of death, cause of death, gender, and music genre. Musician death statistics were compared with age-matched deaths in the US population using actuarial methods. Although the common perception is of a glamorous, free-wheeling lifestyle for this occupational group, the figures tell a very different story. Results showed that popular musicians have shortened life expectancy compared with comparable general populations. Results showed excess mortality from violent deaths (suicide, homicide, accidental death, including vehicular deaths and drug overdoses) and liver disease for each age group studied compared with population mortality patterns. These excess deaths were highest for the under-25-year age group and reduced chronologically thereafter. Overall mortality rates were twice as high compared with the population when averaged over the whole age range. Mortality impacts differed by music genre. In particular, excess suicides and liver-related disease were observed in country, metal, and rock musicians; excess homicides were observed in 6 of the 14 genres, in particular hip hop and rap musicians. For accidental death, actual deaths significantly exceeded expected deaths for country, folk, jazz, metal, pop, punk, and rock.

You'll change more than I will: Adults' predictions about their own and others' future preferences.

PubMed

Renoult, Louis; Kopp, Leia; Davidson, Patrick S R; Taler, Vanessa; Atance, Cristina M

2016-01-01

It has been argued that adults underestimate the extent to which their preferences will change over time. We sought to determine whether such mispredictions are the result of a difficulty imagining that one's own current and future preferences may differ or whether it also characterizes our predictions about the future preferences of others. We used a perspective-taking task in which we asked young people how much they liked stereotypically young-person items (e.g., Top 40 music, adventure vacations) and stereotypically old-person items (e.g., jazz, playing bridge) now, and how much they would like them in the distant future (i.e., when they are 70 years old). Participants also made these same predictions for a generic same-age, same-sex peer. In a third condition, participants predicted how much a generic older (i.e., age 70) same-sex adult would like items from both categories today. Participants predicted less change between their own current and future preferences than between the current and future preferences of a peer. However, participants estimated that, compared to a current older adult today, their peer would like stereotypically young items more in the future and stereotypically old items less. The fact that peers' distant-future estimated preferences were different from the ones they made for "current" older adults suggests that even though underestimation of change of preferences over time is attenuated when thinking about others, a bias still exists.

Mortality in American Hip-Hop and Rap Recording Artists, 1987-2014.

PubMed

Lawson, Carl J

2015-12-01

The deaths of American hip-hop and rap recording artists often receive considerable media attention. However, these artists' deaths have not been examined as a distinct group like the deaths of rock, classical, jazz, and pop music artists. This is a seminal epidemiological analysis on the deaths of an understudied group, American hip-hop and rap music recording artists. Media reports were analyzed of the deaths of American hip-hop and rap music recording artists that occurred from January 1, 1987 to December 31, 2014. The decedents' age, sex, race, cause of death, stage names, and city and state of death were recorded for analysis. The most commonly reported cause of death was homicide. The 280 deaths were categorized as homicide (55%), unintentional injury (13%), cardiovascular (7%), undetermined/undisclosed (7%), cancer (6%), other (5%), suicide (4%), and infectious disease (3%). The mean reported age at death was 30 yrs (range 15-75) and the median was 29 yrs; 97% were male and 92% were black. All but one of the homicides were committed with firearms. Homicide was the most commonly reported cause of death. Public health focus and guidance for hip-hop and rap recording artists should mirror that for African-American men and adolescent males ages 15-54 yrs, for whom the leading causes of death are homicide, unintentional injury, and heart disease. Given the preponderance of homicide deaths in this analysis, premature mortality reduction efforts should focus on violence prevention and conflict mitigation.

Case histories in pharmaceutical risk management.

PubMed

McCormick, Cynthia G; Henningfield, Jack E; Haddox, J David; Varughese, Sajan; Lindholm, Anders; Rosen, Susan; Wissel, Janne; Waxman, Deborah; Carter, Lawrence P; Seeger, Vickie; Johnson, Rolley E

2009-12-01

The development and implementation of programs in the U.S. to minimize risks and assess unintended consequences of new medications has been increasingly required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since the mid 1990s. This paper provides four case histories of risk management and post-marketing surveillance programs utilized recently to address problems associated with possible abuse, dependence and diversion. The pharmaceutical sponsors of each of these drugs were invited to present their programs and followed a similar template for their summaries that are included in this article. The drugs and presenting companies were OxyContin, an analgesic marketed by Purdue Pharma L.P., Daytrana and Vyvanse, ADHD medications marketed by Shire Pharmaceuticals, Xyrem for narcolepsy marketed by Jazz Pharmaceuticals, and Subutex and Suboxone for opioid dependence marketed by Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals Inc. These case histories and subsequent discussions provide invaluable real-world examples and illustrate both the promise of risk management programs in providing a path to market and/or for keeping on the market drugs with serious potential risks. They also illustrate the limitations of such programs in actually controlling unintended consequences, as well as the challenge of finding the right balance of reducing risks without posing undue barriers to patient access. These experiences are highly relevant as the FDA increasingly requires pharmaceutical sponsors to develop and implement the more formalized and enforceable versions of the risk management term Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS).

Outcome of pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoblastic lymphoma with hypersensitivity to pegaspargase treated with PEGylated Erwinia asparaginase, pegcrisantaspase: A report from the Children's Oncology Group

PubMed Central

Rau, Rachel E.; Dreyer, ZoAnn; Choi, Mi Rim; Liang, Wei; Skowronski, Roman; Allamneni, Krishna P.; Devidas, Meenakshi; Raetz, Elizabeth A.; Adamson, Peter C.; Blaney, Susan M.; Loh, Mignon L; Hunger, Stephen P.

2018-01-01

Background Erwinia asparaginase is a Food and Drug Administration approved agent for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) for patients who develop hypersensitivity to Escherichia coli derived asparaginases. Erwinia asparaginase is efficacious, but has a short half-life, requiring six doses to replace one dose of the most commonly used first-line asparaginase, pegaspargase, a polyethylene glycol (PEG) conjugated E. coli asparaginase. Pegcristantaspase, a recombinant PEGylated Erwinia asparaginase with improved pharmacokinetics, was developed for patients with hypersensitivity to pegaspargase. Here, we report a series of patients treated on a pediatric phase 2 trial of pegcrisantaspase. Procedure Pediatric patients with ALL or lymphoblastic lymphoma and hypersensitivity to pegaspargase enrolled on Children's Oncology Group trial AALL1421 (Jazz 13-011) and received intravenous pegcrisantaspase. Serum asparaginase activity (SAA) was monitored before and after dosing; immunogenicity assays were performed for antiasparaginase and anti-PEG antibodies and complement activation was evaluated. Results Three of the four treated patients experienced hypersensitivity to pegcrisantaspase manifested as clinical hypersensitivity reactions or rapid clearance of SAA. Immunogenicity assays demonstrated the presence of anti-PEG immunoglobulin G antibodies in all three hypersensitive patients, indicating a PEG-mediated immune response. Conclusions This small series of patients, nonetheless, provides data, suggesting preexisting immunogenicity against the PEG moiety of pegaspargase and poses the question as to whether PEGylation may be an effective strategy to optimize Erwinia asparaginase administration. Further study of larger cohorts is needed to determine the incidence of preexisting antibodies against PEG-mediated hypersensitivity to pegaspargase. PMID:29090524

The evolution of the danger theory

PubMed Central

Matzinger, Polly

2016-01-01

Polly Matzinger, now Chief of the Ghost Laboratory and the section on T-cell Tolerance and Memory at the NIH, has previously worked as a bartender, carpenter, jazz musician, playboy bunny and dog trainer. She completed her PhD at the University of California, San Diego (USA) and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge (UK). She has worried for years that the dominant model of immunity does not explain a wealth of accumulated data and has recently suggested an alternative, the danger model, which suggests that the immune system is far less concerned with things that are foreign than with those that do damage. This model, whose two major tenets Matzinger admits were thought up in a bath and on a field while herding sheep, has very few assumptions and yet “explains most of what the immune system seems to do right, as well as most of what it appears to do wrong”, covering such areas as transplantation, autoimmunity and the immunobiology of tumors. The model has been the subject of a BBC Horizon film and has featured in two other films about immunity and countless articles in both the scientific and the lay press. In her spare time, Matzinger trains border collies for competitive shepherding trials and, in her own words, “composes songs that are not really worth listening to, and worries about the next major question in the immune system”, namely “once it decides to respond, how does the immune system know what kind of response to make?” PMID:22607177

Self-Reported Injury and Management in a Liberal Arts College Dance Department.

PubMed

DiPasquale, Sarah; Becker, Nicole; Green, Sarah; Sauers, Kim

2015-12-01

Dancers often view injuries as a necessary sacrifice for participating in their art form. The purpose of this research was to determine the frequency and patterns of injury in a non-conservatory, liberal arts dance environment. These data may enable dance departments to provide more effective health resources. Dancers registered in technique courses in a liberal arts dance department (including ballet, modern, tap, and jazz) completed an injury questionnaire immediately following the occurrence of any dance-related injury over the course of one semester. Out of 168 students registered in the department, 46 injuries were reported throughout the semester. The greatest rate of injury was in September and December with 0.95 and 0.65 injuries reported per day, respectively. 89.1% of participants indicated that they would use a direct-access, on-campus physical therapist or athletic trainer if available, though 45.7% of injured participants indicated that they would seek treatment off campus. Dancers in a liberal arts collegiate program may train at a higher intensity during the semester than summer break, which likely accounts for the high incidence of injury in September. Of those injured, most planned on self-treating, but none planned on missing class. Pre-semester screening and post-semester cross-training education should be implemented in liberal arts dance programs to help decrease the rate of injury seen when returning to dance following prolonged time off from dancing. Additionally, direct access to physical therapy or athletic training treatment would likely be utilized by these students if available.

Design and characterization of novel monolithic pixel sensors for the ALICE ITS upgrade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cavicchioli, C.; Chalmet, P. L.; Giubilato, P.; Hillemanns, H.; Junique, A.; Kugathasan, T.; Mager, M.; Marin Tobon, C. A.; Martinengo, P.; Mattiazzo, S.; Mugnier, H.; Musa, L.; Pantano, D.; Rousset, J.; Reidt, F.; Riedler, P.; Snoeys, W.; Van Hoorne, J. W.; Yang, P.

2014-11-01

Within the R&D activities for the upgrade of the ALICE Inner Tracking System (ITS), Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) are being developed and studied, due to their lower material budget ( 0.3 %X0 in total for each inner layer) and higher granularity ( 20 μm × 20 μm pixels) with respect to the present pixel detector. This paper presents the design and characterization results of the Explorer0 chip, manufactured in the TowerJazz 180 nm CMOS Imaging Sensor process, based on a wafer with high-resistivity (ρ > 1 kΩ cm) and 18 μm thick epitaxial layer. The chip is organized in two sub-matrices with different pixel pitches (20 μm and 30 μm), each of them containing several pixel designs. The collection electrode size and shape, as well as the distance between the electrode and the surrounding electronics, are varied; the chip also offers the possibility to decouple the charge integration time from the readout time, and to change the sensor bias. The charge collection properties of the different pixel variants implemented in Explorer0 have been studied using a 55Fe X-ray source and 1-5 GeV/c electrons and positrons. The sensor capacitance has been estimated, and the effect of the sensor bias has also been examined in detail. A second version of the Explorer0 chip (called Explorer1) has been submitted for production in March 2013, together with a novel circuit with in-pixel discrimination and a sparsified readout. Results from these submissions are also presented.

Facilitators, barriers, and components of a culturally tailored afterschool physical activity program in preadolescent African American girls and their mothers.

PubMed

Alhassan, Sofiya; Greever, Cory; Nwaokelemeh, Ogechi; Mendoza, Albert; Barr-Anderson, Daheia J

2014-01-01

Traditional physical activity (PA) programs have not been effective in increasing PA in African American girls. Currently, there is limited information regarding the components of PA programs that drive participation in African American girls. The purpose of our investigation was to describe the facilitators, barriers, and components of a culturally tailored afterschool PA program that will potentially inspire the participation of African American mother-daughter dyads. Six focus groups (n=12 mother-daughter dyads; daughters, 7-10 yrs in age) were conducted between March and May 2012. Focus group semi-structured interviews were transcribed, coded, and systematically analyzed using NVivo. Mothers reported a preference for non-traditional (dancing, household chores) types of PA. While daughters preferred to participate in both dance-based and traditional types (walking, riding bikes) of PA. Participants felt that the use of a culturally tailored dance program would be appealing because it highlights the cultural and historical legacy of the African American culture. Mothers wanted programs that would allow them time to spend with their daughters. Top three dance styles that mothers wanted to participate in were African, hip-hop, and Salsa/samba, while daughters reported that they would enjoy participating in hip-hop, African, and jazz. The most common responses given for resources needed for participating in a culturally tailored afterschool dance program were the location of the program, transportation, and childcare for siblings. Our investigation highlights some cultural factors related to facilitators and barriers of PA that should be addressed in designing PA studies for African American girls and their mothers.

Nonnegative matrix factorization with the Itakura-Saito divergence: with application to music analysis.

PubMed

Févotte, Cédric; Bertin, Nancy; Durrieu, Jean-Louis

2009-03-01

This letter presents theoretical, algorithmic, and experimental results about nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) with the Itakura-Saito (IS) divergence. We describe how IS-NMF is underlaid by a well-defined statistical model of superimposed gaussian components and is equivalent to maximum likelihood estimation of variance parameters. This setting can accommodate regularization constraints on the factors through Bayesian priors. In particular, inverse-gamma and gamma Markov chain priors are considered in this work. Estimation can be carried out using a space-alternating generalized expectation-maximization (SAGE) algorithm; this leads to a novel type of NMF algorithm, whose convergence to a stationary point of the IS cost function is guaranteed. We also discuss the links between the IS divergence and other cost functions used in NMF, in particular, the Euclidean distance and the generalized Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence. As such, we describe how IS-NMF can also be performed using a gradient multiplicative algorithm (a standard algorithm structure in NMF) whose convergence is observed in practice, though not proven. Finally, we report a furnished experimental comparative study of Euclidean-NMF, KL-NMF, and IS-NMF algorithms applied to the power spectrogram of a short piano sequence recorded in real conditions, with various initializations and model orders. Then we show how IS-NMF can successfully be employed for denoising and upmix (mono to stereo conversion) of an original piece of early jazz music. These experiments indicate that IS-NMF correctly captures the semantics of audio and is better suited to the representation of music signals than NMF with the usual Euclidean and KL costs.

Effects of bandwidth, compression speed, and gain at high frequencies on preferences for amplified music.

PubMed

Moore, Brian C J

2012-09-01

This article reviews a series of studies on the factors influencing sound quality preferences, mostly for jazz and classical music stimuli. The data were obtained using ratings of individual stimuli or using the method of paired comparisons. For normal-hearing participants, the highest ratings of sound quality were obtained when the reproduction bandwidth was wide (55 to 16000 Hz) and ripples in the frequency response were small (less than ± 5 dB). For hearing-impaired participants listening via a simulated five-channel compression hearing aid with gains set using the CAM2 fitting method, preferences for upper cutoff frequency varied across participants: Some preferred a 7.5- or 10-kHz upper cutoff frequency over a 5-kHz cutoff frequency, and some showed the opposite preference. Preferences for a higher upper cutoff frequency were associated with a shallow high-frequency slope of the audiogram. A subsequent study comparing the CAM2 and NAL-NL2 fitting methods, with gains slightly reduced for participants who were not experienced hearing aid users, showed a consistent preference for CAM2. Since the two methods differ mainly in the gain applied for frequencies above 4 kHz (CAM2 recommending higher gain than NAL-NL2), these results suggest that extending the upper cutoff frequency is beneficial. A system for reducing "overshoot" effects produced by compression gave small but significant benefits for sound quality of a percussion instrument (xylophone). For a high-input level (80 dB SPL), slow compression was preferred over fast compression.

First tests of a novel radiation hard CMOS sensor process for Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pernegger, H.; Bates, R.; Buttar, C.; Dalla, M.; van Hoorne, J. W.; Kugathasan, T.; Maneuski, D.; Musa, L.; Riedler, P.; Riegel, C.; Sbarra, C.; Schaefer, D.; Schioppa, E. J.; Snoeys, W.

2017-06-01

The upgrade of the ATLAS [1] tracking detector for the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN requires novel radiation hard silicon sensor technologies. Significant effort has been put into the development of monolithic CMOS sensors but it has been a challenge to combine a low capacitance of the sensing node with full depletion of the sensitive layer. Low capacitance brings low analog power. Depletion of the sensitive layer causes the signal charge to be collected by drift sufficiently fast to separate hits from consecutive bunch crossings (25 ns at the LHC) and to avoid losing the charge by trapping. This paper focuses on the characterization of charge collection properties and detection efficiency of prototype sensors originally designed in the framework of the ALICE Inner Tracking System (ITS) upgrade [2]. The prototypes are fabricated both in the standard TowerJazz 180nm CMOS imager process [3] and in an innovative modification of this process developed in collaboration with the foundry, aimed to fully deplete the sensitive epitaxial layer and enhance the tolerance to non-ionizing energy loss. Sensors fabricated in standard and modified process variants were characterized using radioactive sources, focused X-ray beam and test beams before and after irradiation. Contrary to sensors manufactured in the standard process, sensors from the modified process remain fully functional even after a dose of 1015neq/cm2, which is the the expected NIEL radiation fluence for the outer pixel layers in the future ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk) [4].

Laryngoscopic and spectral analysis of laryngeal and pharyngeal configuration in non-classical singing styles.

PubMed

Guzman, Marco; Lanas, Andres; Olavarria, Christian; Azocar, Maria Josefina; Muñoz, Daniel; Madrid, Sofia; Monsalve, Sebastian; Martinez, Francisca; Vargas, Sindy; Cortez, Pedro; Mayerhoff, Ross M

2015-01-01

The present study aimed to assess three different singing styles (pop, rock, and jazz) with laryngoscopic, acoustic, and perceptual analysis in healthy singers at different loudness levels. Special emphasis was given to the degree of anterior-posterior (A-P) laryngeal compression, medial laryngeal compression, vertical laryngeal position (VLP), and pharyngeal compression. Prospective study. Twelve female trained singers with at least 5 years of voice training and absence of any voice pathology were included. Flexible and rigid laryngeal endoscopic examinations were performed. Voice recording was also carried out. Four blinded judges were asked to assess laryngoscopic and auditory perceptual variables using a visual analog scale. All laryngoscopic parameters showed significant differences for all singing styles. Rock showed the greatest degree for all of them. Overall A-P laryngeal compression scores demonstrated significantly higher values than overall medial compression and VLP. High loudness level produced the highest degree of A-P compression, medial compression, pharyngeal compression, and the lowest VLP for all singing styles. Additionally, rock demonstrated the highest values for alpha ratio (less steep spectral slope), L1-L0 ratio (more glottal adduction), and Leq (more vocal intensity). Statistically significant differences between the three loudness levels were also found for these acoustic parameters. Rock singing seems to be the style with the highest degree of both laryngeal and pharyngeal activity in healthy singers. Although, supraglottic activity during singing could be labeled as hyperfunctional vocal behavior, it may not necessarily be harmful, but a strategy to avoid vocal fold damage. Copyright © 2015 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Science and Improv: Saying "YES" to Creative Collaboration and Scintillating Communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wong, G. J.

2015-12-01

Communicating research results to a non-specialist audience can be challenging. Strategies that work well in lab group meetings, such as using acronyms and jargon, may fall flat with 7th graders or Congressional staffers. Empowering real-world audiences with our stories helps raise awareness and inform decision-making, whether it's related to family food purchases or national policy. Ideally, we scientists, engineers and researchers directly connect with our audiences, responding spontaneously and actively, distilling our messages into conversational morsels that resonate with them. One tool that I have found useful is deeply rooted in the "tao" of improvisational theater. Why improv? Improv is dancing as if no one is watching, baking from scratch, and playing jazz flute. Improv is Iron Chef, MacGyver with a license to thrill, or the game-winning play. Research is inspired improvisation. And improv can teach us a lot about how to play, how to feel comfortable and present even while flailing, and how to truly listen. Effective science communicators listen. In fact, therein lies the power of "yes …", a building block of improvisational theater. "Yes …" is both collaborative ("yes, and …") and innovative ("yes, because …"), and investment in an attitude of saying "yes …" demonstrates an intent to listen. Improv is not any one specific thing so much as a process by which we do things. Skills that strengthen communication, such as spontaneity, authenticity and connectivity, are honed through philosophies inherent in improv. This presentation highlights improv-based activities that enhance science communication with purpose, vividness, and emotion.

What Do We Need to Protect, at All Costs, During the 21st Century? Reflections From a Curated, Interactive Co-Created Intellectual Jazz Performance.

PubMed

Jadad, Alejandro R; Davis, Dave

2016-01-01

The question that forms the title of this article, "What do we need to protect, at all costs, during the 21st century?," speaks to the sizable changes in health care systems and settings that surround the continuing professional development (CPD) provider, and the need to establish a core set of principles and practices as the field moves forward from both theoretical and practical aspects. It also provided the focus for one of the five keynote lectures presented during the 2016 World Congress on Continuing Professional Development. As the planners of this keynote session, we sought to evoke answers to the question, not from the speaker, but from the audience itself, a process enabled by a highly engaging presentation style and powered by interactive digital technologies. Further, we believed that the session would not directly lead to suggestions to improve the theory and practice of CPD, but rather to create the biopsychosocial context-a sort of platform-on which such discussions can occur.

Musical preference correlates closely to professional roles and specialties in operating room: A multicenter cross-sectional cohort study with 672 participants.

PubMed

Yamasaki, Alisa; Mise, Yoshihiro; Mise, Yoko; Lee, Jeffrey E; Aloia, Thomas A; Katz, Matthew H; Chang, George J; Lillemoe, Keith D; Raut, Chandrajit P; Conrad, Claudius

2016-05-01

It is unclear whether music preferences and perceptions in the operating room (OR) differ by demographic and professional factors and how an improved understanding of these potential differences can be leveraged to enhance team dynamics and the OR work environment. Currently, there is limited knowledge regarding the impact of music on OR team concentration and communication. This study was a multicenter, cross-sectional study of 282 preoperative patients and 390 providers-attending physicians, residents, and nurses in anesthesiology and surgery. Patient and provider responses were measured using a newly developed questionnaire. Patients who highly enjoyed music felt music alleviated stress and enhanced concentration and communication and favored use of music in the OR. The genres favored most by patients were rock music (32%), classical music (28%), and top 40 hits (26%). All providers reported a high frequency of use of music during the operation. Nurses and residents were more likely than attendings to report high enjoyment of music in the OR (P < .02). Surgeons and anesthesiologists had high median scores for enjoyment of music and low median scores for music as distraction. Anesthesiologists preferred classical and jazz/blues at lower volumes compared with surgeons, who favored top 40 music at higher noise pressure levels. Patients and providers perceived music to improve provider concentration and team communication; nurses held the most positive views. Musical preferences and perceptions of the effect of music in the OR differ by both professional status and specialty and provide insight into broader team dynamics that could be leveraged potentially to optimize the OR environment. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Peer Learning in Instrumental Practicing

PubMed Central

Nielsen, Siw G.; Johansen, Guro G.; Jørgensen, Harald

2018-01-01

In higher music education (HME), the notion of “private teaching, private learning” has a long tradition, where the learning part rests on the student's individual practicing between instrumental lessons. However, recent research suggests that collaborative learning among peers is beneficial in several aspects, such as sense of belonging, motivation and self-efficacy. This is consistent with the concept of vicarious learning. In this study, we conducted a survey among bachelor music students in church music, performance or music education programs enrolled in a music academy (N = 96), where parts of the questionnaire addressed peer learning and peer's influence on the students's instrumental practicing, and the degree of satisfaction with their practicing. These issues were seen in relation to gender, musical genre and study program. Overall, the students reported engaging in peer learning related to their instrumental practicing, to various degrees. This involved discussing practicing matters with peers, and practicing together with peers. However, student's reports of their views on peer learning, show that they perceive it more beneficial than the amount of time reported doing it would indicate. No significant gender differences were found, but students within improvised music/jazz engaged the most in peer learning, and church music students the least. Neither the degree of engaging in peer learning nor reported influence from peers correlated significantly with the degree of satisfaction. We discuss whether a general dissatisfaction is caused by being in a competitive learning environment combined with a privatized culture for learning. Finally, we suggest that collaborative forums for instrumental practicing within HME institutions can function as constructive and supportive arenas to enhance students learning and inner motivation. PMID:29599738

Art as an indicator of male fitness: does prenatal testosterone influence artistic ability?

PubMed

Crocchiola, Danae

2014-05-28

In his groundbreaking research, Geoffrey Miller (1999) suggests that artistic and creative displays are male-predominant behaviors and can be considered to be the result of an evolutionary advantage. The outcomes of several surveys conducted on jazz and rock musicians, contemporary painters, English writers (Miller, 1999), and scientists (Kanazawa, 2000) seem to be consistent with the Millerian hypothesis, showing a predominance of men carrying out these activities, with an output peak corresponding to the most fertile male period and a progressive decline in late maturity. One way to evaluate the sex-related hypothesis of artistic and cultural displays, considered as sexual indicators of male fitness, is to focus on sexually dimorphic traits. One of them, within our species, is the 2nd to 4th digit length (2D:4D), which is a marker for prenatal testosterone levels. This study combines the Millerian theories on sexual dimorphism in cultural displays with the digit ratio, using it as an indicator of androgen exposure in utero. If androgenic levels are positively correlated with artistic exhibition, both female and male artists should show low 2D:4D ratios. In this experiment we tested the association between 2D:4D and artistic ability by comparing the digit ratios of 50 artists (25 men and 25 women) to the digit ratios of 50 non-artists (25 men and 25 women). Both male and female artists had significantly lower 2D:4D ratios (indicating high testosterone) than male and female controls. These results support the hypothesis that art may represent a sexually selected, typically masculine behavior that advertises the carrier's good genes within a courtship context.

ALPIDE, the Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor for the ALICE ITS upgrade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mager, M.; ALICE Collaboration

2016-07-01

A new 10 m2 inner tracking system based on seven concentric layers of Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors will be installed in the ALICE experiment during the second long shutdown of LHC in 2019-2020. The monolithic pixel sensors will be fabricated in the 180 nm CMOS Imaging Sensor process of TowerJazz. The ALPIDE design takes full advantage of a particular process feature, the deep p-well, which allows for full CMOS circuitry within the pixel matrix, while at the same time retaining the full charge collection efficiency. Together with the small feature size and the availability of six metal layers, this allowed a continuously active low-power front-end to be placed into each pixel and an in-matrix sparsification circuit to be used that sends only the addresses of hit pixels to the periphery. This approach led to a power consumption of less than 40 mWcm-2, a spatial resolution of around 5 μm, a peaking time of around 2 μs, while being radiation hard to some 1013 1 MeVneq /cm2, fulfilling or exceeding the ALICE requirements. Over the last years of R & D, several prototype circuits have been used to verify radiation hardness, and to optimize pixel geometry and in-pixel front-end circuitry. The positive results led to a submission of full-scale (3 cm×1.5 cm) sensor prototypes in 2014. They are being characterized in a comprehensive campaign that also involves several irradiation and beam tests. A summary of the results obtained and prospects towards the final sensor to instrument the ALICE Inner Tracking System are given.

Facilitators, barriers, and components of a culturally-tailored afterschool physical activity program in preadolescent African-American girls and their mothers

PubMed Central

Alhassan, Sofiya; Greever, Cory; Nwaokelemeh, Ogechi; Mendoza, Albert; Barr-Anderson, Daheia J.

2013-01-01

Objectives Traditional physical activity (PA) programs have not been effective in increasing PA in African-American girls. Currently, there is limited information regarding the components of PA programs that drive participation in African-American girls. The purpose of this investigation was to describe the facilitators, barriers, and components of a culturally-tailored afterschool PA program that will potentially inspire the participation of African-American mother-daughter dyads. Methods Six focus groups (n=12 mother-daughter dyads; daughters, 7–10 yrs in age) were conducted between March and May 2012. Focus group semi-structured interviews were transcribed, coded, and systematically analyzed using NVivo. Results Mothers reported a preference for non-traditional (dancing, household chores) types of PA. While daughters preferred to participate in both dance-based and traditional types (walking, riding bikes) of PA. Participants felt that the use of a culturally-tailored dance program would be appealing because it highlights the cultural and historical legacy of the African-American culture. Mothers wanted programs that would allow them time to spend with their daughters. Top three dance styles that mothers wanted to participate in were African, Hip-hop, and Salsa/samba. While, daughters reported that they would enjoy participating in Hip-hop, African, and Jazz. The most common responses given for resources needed for participating in a culturally-tailored afterschool dance program were the location of the program, transportation, and childcare for siblings. Conclusions The present investigation highlights some cultural factors related to facilitators and barriers of PA that should be addressed in designing PA studies for African-American girls and their mothers. PMID:24620442

Rain in the U.S. Midwest

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2007-01-01

The powerful storms that moved across the U.S. Midwest during the first week of May 2007 brought wind, hail, tornadoes, and drenching rain. This image shows rainfall totals over parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska between May 1 and May 8, based in part on measurements made by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. More than 400 millimeters (15.7 inches) of rain fell over some regions, corresponding with locations where the National Weather Service reported severe weather. A wide swath of red and orange (between 240 and 400 millimeters of rain) arcs in a clockwise direction from western Oklahoma, through central Kansas, and into southeastern Nebraska. The reddish-orange bull's-eye over southeastern Louisiana is evidence of the torrential rains that pounded visitors to the annual New Orleans Jazz Festival. South-central Texas' Edward Plateau was soaked with more than 240 millimeters of rain during the period, as well. From May 4 to May 8, the National Weather Service received approximately 683 reports of severe weather, 140 of which were reports of tornadoes, including the massive F5 tornado that devastated the city of Greensburg, Kansas. Beyond the damaging winds and tornadoes, the torrential rain triggered extensive flooding throughout the Central Plains. On the evening of May 7, flood warnings were in effect from South Dakota to southern Texas, and by May 8, the Hydrologic Information Center reported moderate to major flooding at 53 stream gauge sites in South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, and Arkansas. The floods could be as severe as the 1993 flood, one of the costliest floods in U.S. history, reported the Associated Press.

The neurochemistry and social flow of singing: bonding and oxytocin

PubMed Central

Keeler, Jason R.; Roth, Edward A.; Neuser, Brittany L.; Spitsbergen, John M.; Waters, Daniel J. M.; Vianney, John-Mary

2015-01-01

Music is used in healthcare to promote physical and psychological well-being. As clinical applications of music continue to expand, there is a growing need to understand the biological mechanisms by which music influences health. Here we explore the neurochemistry and social flow of group singing. Four participants from a vocal jazz ensemble were conveniently sampled to sing together in two separate performances: pre-composed and improvised. Concentrations of plasma oxytocin and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) were measured before and after each singing condition to assess levels of social affiliation, engagement and arousal. A validated assessment of flow state was administered after each singing condition to assess participants' absorption in the task. The feasibility of the research methods were assessed and initial neurochemical data was generated on group singing. Mean scores of the flow state scale indicated that participants experienced flow in both the pre-composed (M = 37.06) and improvised singing conditions (M = 34.25), with no significant difference between conditions. ACTH concentrations decreased in both conditions, significantly so in the pre-composed singing condition, which may have contributed to the social flow experience. Mean plasma oxytocin levels increased only in response to improvised singing, with no significant difference between improvised and pre-composed singing conditions observed. The results indicate that group singing reduces stress and arousal, as measured by ACTH, and induces social flow in participants. The effects of pre-composed and improvised group singing on oxytocin are less clear. Higher levels of plasma oxytocin in the improvised condition may perhaps be attributed to the social effects of improvising musically with others. Further research with a larger sample size is warranted. PMID:26441614

Dance Class Structure Affects Youth Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior: A Study of Seven Dance Types.

PubMed

Lopez Castillo, Maria A; Carlson, Jordan A; Cain, Kelli L; Bonilla, Edith A; Chuang, Emmeline; Elder, John P; Sallis, James F

2015-01-01

The study aims were to determine: (a) how class structure varies by dance type, (b) how moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary behavior vary by dance class segments, and (c) how class structure relates to total MVPA in dance classes. Participants were 291 boys and girls ages 5 to 18 years old enrolled in 58 dance classes at 21 dance studios in Southern California. MVPA and sedentary behavior were assessed with accelerometry, with data aggregated to 15-s epochs. Percent and minutes of MVPA and sedentary behavior during dance class segments and percent of class time and minutes spent in each segment were calculated using Freedson age-specific cut points. Differences in MVPA (Freedson 3 Metabolic Equivalents of Tasks age-specific cut points) and sedentary behavior ( < 100 counts/min) were examined using mixed-effects linear regression. The length of each class segment was fairly consistent across dance types, with the exception that in ballet, more time was spent in technique as compared with private jazz/hip-hop classes and Latin-flamenco and less time was spent in routine/practice as compared with Latin-salsa/ballet folklorico. Segment type accounted for 17% of the variance in the proportion of the segment spent in MVPA. The proportion of the segment in MVPA was higher for routine/practice (44.2%) than for technique (34.7%). The proportion of the segment in sedentary behavior was lowest for routine/practice (22.8%). The structure of dance lessons can impact youths' physical activity. Working with instructors to increase time in routine/practice during dance classes could contribute to physical activity promotion in youth.

Keypress-Based Musical Preference Is Both Individual and Lawful

PubMed Central

Livengood, Sherri L.; Sheppard, John P.; Kim, Byoung W.; Malthouse, Edward C.; Bourne, Janet E.; Barlow, Anne E.; Lee, Myung J.; Marin, Veronica; O'Connor, Kailyn P.; Csernansky, John G.; Block, Martin P.; Blood, Anne J.; Breiter, Hans C.

2017-01-01

Musical preference is highly individualized and is an area of active study to develop methods for its quantification. Recently, preference-based behavior, associated with activity in brain reward circuitry, has been shown to follow lawful, quantifiable patterns, despite broad variation across individuals. These patterns, observed using a keypress paradigm with visual stimuli, form the basis for relative preference theory (RPT). Here, we sought to determine if such patterns extend to non-visual domains (i.e., audition) and dynamic stimuli, potentially providing a method to supplement psychometric, physiological, and neuroimaging approaches to preference quantification. For this study, we adapted our keypress paradigm to two sets of stimuli consisting of seventeenth to twenty-first century western art music (Classical) and twentieth to twenty-first century jazz and popular music (Popular). We studied a pilot sample and then a separate primary experimental sample with this paradigm, and used iterative mathematical modeling to determine if RPT relationships were observed with high R2 fits. We further assessed the extent of heterogeneity in the rank ordering of keypress-based responses across subjects. As expected, individual rank orderings of preferences were quite heterogeneous, yet we observed mathematical patterns fitting these data similar to those observed previously with visual stimuli. These patterns in music preference were recurrent across two cohorts and two stimulus sets, and scaled between individual and group data, adhering to the requirements for lawfulness. Our findings suggest a general neuroscience framework that predicts human approach/avoidance behavior, while also allowing for individual differences and the broad diversity of human choices; the resulting framework may offer novel approaches to advancing music neuroscience, or its applications to medicine and recommendation systems. PMID:28512395

Keypress-Based Musical Preference Is Both Individual and Lawful.

PubMed

Livengood, Sherri L; Sheppard, John P; Kim, Byoung W; Malthouse, Edward C; Bourne, Janet E; Barlow, Anne E; Lee, Myung J; Marin, Veronica; O'Connor, Kailyn P; Csernansky, John G; Block, Martin P; Blood, Anne J; Breiter, Hans C

2017-01-01

Musical preference is highly individualized and is an area of active study to develop methods for its quantification. Recently, preference-based behavior, associated with activity in brain reward circuitry, has been shown to follow lawful, quantifiable patterns, despite broad variation across individuals. These patterns, observed using a keypress paradigm with visual stimuli, form the basis for relative preference theory (RPT). Here, we sought to determine if such patterns extend to non-visual domains (i.e., audition) and dynamic stimuli, potentially providing a method to supplement psychometric, physiological, and neuroimaging approaches to preference quantification. For this study, we adapted our keypress paradigm to two sets of stimuli consisting of seventeenth to twenty-first century western art music (Classical) and twentieth to twenty-first century jazz and popular music (Popular). We studied a pilot sample and then a separate primary experimental sample with this paradigm, and used iterative mathematical modeling to determine if RPT relationships were observed with high R 2 fits. We further assessed the extent of heterogeneity in the rank ordering of keypress-based responses across subjects. As expected, individual rank orderings of preferences were quite heterogeneous, yet we observed mathematical patterns fitting these data similar to those observed previously with visual stimuli. These patterns in music preference were recurrent across two cohorts and two stimulus sets, and scaled between individual and group data, adhering to the requirements for lawfulness. Our findings suggest a general neuroscience framework that predicts human approach/avoidance behavior, while also allowing for individual differences and the broad diversity of human choices; the resulting framework may offer novel approaches to advancing music neuroscience, or its applications to medicine and recommendation systems.

Musical Preferences are Linked to Cognitive Styles.

PubMed

Greenberg, David M; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Stillwell, David J; Kosinski, Michal; Rentfrow, Peter J

2015-01-01

Why do we like the music we do? Research has shown that musical preferences and personality are linked, yet little is known about other influences on preferences such as cognitive styles. To address this gap, we investigated how individual differences in musical preferences are explained by the empathizing-systemizing (E-S) theory. Study 1 examined the links between empathy and musical preferences across four samples. By reporting their preferential reactions to musical stimuli, samples 1 and 2 (Ns = 2,178 and 891) indicated their preferences for music from 26 different genres, and samples 3 and 4 (Ns = 747 and 320) indicated their preferences for music from only a single genre (rock or jazz). Results across samples showed that empathy levels are linked to preferences even within genres and account for significant proportions of variance in preferences over and above personality traits for various music-preference dimensions. Study 2 (N = 353) replicated and extended these findings by investigating how musical preferences are differentiated by E-S cognitive styles (i.e., 'brain types'). Those who are type E (bias towards empathizing) preferred music on the Mellow dimension (R&B/soul, adult contemporary, soft rock genres) compared to type S (bias towards systemizing) who preferred music on the Intense dimension (punk, heavy metal, and hard rock). Analyses of fine-grained psychological and sonic attributes in the music revealed that type E individuals preferred music that featured low arousal (gentle, warm, and sensual attributes), negative valence (depressing and sad), and emotional depth (poetic, relaxing, and thoughtful), while type S preferred music that featured high arousal (strong, tense, and thrilling), and aspects of positive valence (animated) and cerebral depth (complexity). The application of these findings for clinicians, interventions, and those on the autism spectrum (largely type S or extreme type S) are discussed.

Correlation of Changes in Patient-Reported Quality of Life With Physician-Rated Global Impression of Change in Patients With Narcolepsy Participating in a Clinical Trial of Sodium Oxybate: A Post Hoc Analysis.

PubMed

Bogan, Richard K; Black, Jed; Swick, Todd; Mamelak, Mortimer; Kovacevic-Ristanovic, Ruzica; Villa, Kathleen F; Mori, Fannie; Montplaisir, Jacques

2017-12-01

Narcolepsy patients report lower health-related quality of life (HRQoL) than the general population, as measured by the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36). This analysis evaluated whether changes in SF-36 correlated with physician-rated Clinical Global Impression of Change (CGI-C). Data were from 209 of 228 narcolepsy patients participating in an 8-week clinical trial of sodium oxybate. Changes from baseline for SF-36 subscales (Physical Functioning, Role Physical, Bodily Pain, General Health, Vitality, Social Functioning, Role Emotional, and Mental Health) and the summary scores were evaluated for correlation with CGI-C overall and by treatment group. Correlations were calculated using the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r). Correlations described an inverse relationship in scores, but a direct relationship in improvement; lower CGI-C scores (i.e., better) were associated with higher SF-36 subscale scores (i.e., improved HRQoL). Moderate and significant correlations were observed for Vitality (r = -0.464; P < 0.0001) and Role Physical (r = -0.310; P < 0.0001) subscales, but weak correlations were observed with other subscales including summary scores. Correlations were stronger at higher sodium oxybate doses for most SF-36 subscales. Some aspects of HRQoL, measured by the SF-36, may be associated with narcolepsy. In particular, Vitality (indicative of energy and tiredness) and Role Physical (impact of physical function on daily roles) moderately correlated with overall change in status observed by clinicians. However, lack of strong correlations between SF-36 and CGI-C indicates differences in patient and clinician perspectives of disease, and suggest a need for broader assessment of the impact of narcolepsy and its treatment on patients. Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

Musical Preferences are Linked to Cognitive Styles

PubMed Central

Greenberg, David M.; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Stillwell, David J.; Kosinski, Michal; Rentfrow, Peter J.

2015-01-01

Why do we like the music we do? Research has shown that musical preferences and personality are linked, yet little is known about other influences on preferences such as cognitive styles. To address this gap, we investigated how individual differences in musical preferences are explained by the empathizing-systemizing (E-S) theory. Study 1 examined the links between empathy and musical preferences across four samples. By reporting their preferential reactions to musical stimuli, samples 1 and 2 (Ns = 2,178 and 891) indicated their preferences for music from 26 different genres, and samples 3 and 4 (Ns = 747 and 320) indicated their preferences for music from only a single genre (rock or jazz). Results across samples showed that empathy levels are linked to preferences even within genres and account for significant proportions of variance in preferences over and above personality traits for various music-preference dimensions. Study 2 (N = 353) replicated and extended these findings by investigating how musical preferences are differentiated by E-S cognitive styles (i.e., ‘brain types’). Those who are type E (bias towards empathizing) preferred music on the Mellow dimension (R&B/soul, adult contemporary, soft rock genres) compared to type S (bias towards systemizing) who preferred music on the Intense dimension (punk, heavy metal, and hard rock). Analyses of fine-grained psychological and sonic attributes in the music revealed that type E individuals preferred music that featured low arousal (gentle, warm, and sensual attributes), negative valence (depressing and sad), and emotional depth (poetic, relaxing, and thoughtful), while type S preferred music that featured high arousal (strong, tense, and thrilling), and aspects of positive valence (animated) and cerebral depth (complexity). The application of these findings for clinicians, interventions, and those on the autism spectrum (largely type S or extreme type S) are discussed. PMID:26200656

Measuring the representational space of music with fMRI: a case study with Sting.

PubMed

Levitin, Daniel J; Grafton, Scott T

2016-12-01

Functional brain imaging has revealed much about the neuroanatomical substrates of higher cognition, including music, language, learning, and memory. The technique lends itself to studying of groups of individuals. In contrast, the nature of expert performance is typically studied through the examination of exceptional individuals using behavioral case studies and retrospective biography. Here, we combined fMRI and the study of an individual who is a world-class expert musician and composer in order to better understand the neural underpinnings of his music perception and cognition, in particular, his mental representations for music. We used state of the art multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) and representational dissimilarity analysis (RDA) in a fixed set of brain regions to test three exploratory hypotheses with the musician Sting: (1) Composing would recruit neutral structures that are both unique and distinguishable from other creative acts, such as composing prose or visual art; (2) listening and imagining music would recruit similar neural regions, indicating that musical memory shares anatomical substrates with music listening; (3) the MVPA and RDA results would help us to map the representational space for music, revealing which musical pieces and genres are perceived to be similar in the musician's mental models for music. Our hypotheses were confirmed. The act of composing, and even of imagining elements of the composed piece separately, such as melody and rhythm, activated a similar cluster of brain regions, and were distinct from prose and visual art. Listened and imagined music showed high similarity, and in addition, notable similarity/dissimilarity patterns emerged among the various pieces used as stimuli: Muzak and Top 100/Pop songs were far from all other musical styles in Mahalanobis distance (Euclidean representational space), whereas jazz, R&B, tango and rock were comparatively close. Closer inspection revealed principaled explanations for the

A Joyful Noise: The Vocal Health of Worship Leaders and Contemporary Christian Singers.

PubMed

Neto, Leon; Meyer, David

2017-03-01

Contemporary commercial music (CCM) is a term that encompasses many styles of music. A growing subset of CCM is contemporary Christian music, a genre that has outpaced other popular styles such as Latin, jazz, and classical music. Contemporary Christian singers (CCSs) and worship leaders (WLs) are a subset of CCM musicians that face unique vocal demands and risks. They typically lack professional training and often perform in acoustically disadvantageous venues with substandard sound reinforcement systems. The vocal needs and risks of these singers are not well understood, and because of this, their training and care may be suboptimal. The aim of the present study was to investigate the vocal health of this growing population and their awareness of standard vocal hygiene principles. An online questionnaire was designed and administered to participants in the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia. A total of 614 participants responded to the questionnaire, which is made available in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. Many participants reported vocal symptoms such as vocal fatigue (n = 213; 34.7%), tickling or choking sensation (n = 149; 24.3%), loss of upper range (n = 172; 28%), and complete loss of voice (n = 25; 4.1%). One third of the participants (n = 210; 34%) indicated that they do not warm up their voices before performances and over half of the participants (n = 319; 52%) have no formal vocal training. Results suggest that this population demonstrates low awareness of vocal hygiene principles, frequently experience difficulty with their voices, and may face elevated risk of vocal pathology. Future studies of this population may confirm the vocal risks that our preliminary findings suggest. Copyright © 2017 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Outreach for Families and Girls- Astronomy at Outdoor Concerts and at Super Bowl or Halloween Star Parties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lubowich, Donald A.

2011-05-01

Bring telescope to where the people are! Music and Astronomy Under the Stars (MAUS) is a NASA-funded as astronomy outreach program at community parks and music festivals (1000 - 25,000 people/event). While there have been many astronomy outreach activities and telescope observations at sidewalks and parks, this program targets a different audience - music lovers who are attending concerts in community parks or festivals. These music lovers who may not have visited science museums, planetariums, or star parties are exposed to telescope observations and astronomy information with no additional travel costs. MAUS includes solar observing, telescope observations including a live imaging system, an astronomical video, astronomy banners/posters, and hands-on activities. MAUS increased awareness, engagement, and interest in astronomy at classical, pop, rock, and ethnic music concerts. Since 2009 over 50,000 people have participated in these outreach activities including a significant number of families and young girls. In addition to concerts in local Long Island parks, there were MUAS events at Tanglewood (summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra), Jazz in Central Park, and Astronomy Night on the National Mall (co-sponsored by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy). In 2011 MUAS will be expanded to include Ravinia (summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra), the Newport Folk Festival, and the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts (site of the 1969 Woodstock festival). According to our survey results, music lovers became more informed about astronomy. Expanding Hofstra University's successful outreach programs, I propose the creation of a National Halloween Stars event targeting children and a National Super Bowl Star Party targeting girls, women, and the 2/3 of Americans who do not watch the Super Bowl. This can be combined with astronomers or amateur astronomers bringing telescopes to Super Bowl parties for football fans to stargaze during

Effects of a Resistance Training Intervention on Strength, Power, and Performance in Adolescent Dancers.

PubMed

Dowse, Rebecca A; McGuigan, Mike R; Harrison, Craig

2017-11-01

Dowse, RA, McGuigan, MR, and Harrison, C. Effects of a resistance training intervention on strength, power, and performance in adolescent dancers. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2017-The aim of this study was to determine whether a 9-week resistance training program could have a significant effect on maximum lower-body strength and power, dynamic balance, and dance performance in adolescent dancers. Twelve competitive adolescent female dancers trained in jazz, ballet, and contemporary were recruited from local dance schools and assigned to a resistance training group (dance experience 9.2 ± 2.4 years; age 14.2 ± 1.9 years; height 155.6 ± 9.1 cm; and mass 48.9 ± 13.8 kg). Anthropometry (height, seated height, mass, and skinfolds), subjective dancing performance, dynamic balance (eyes open [EO] and eyes closed), maximum lower-body strength (isometric midthigh pull), and power (vertical countermovement jump, squat jump, and single-leg countermovement jump) were assessed before and after the 9-week intervention period. Posttesting identified a significant improvement EO overall stability (p = 0.003; effect size [ES] = 0.88), EO anterior-posterior stability (p = 0.003; ES = 0.92), peak force (p < 0.001; ES = 0.61), peak power (p = 0.021; ES = 0.22), and subjective dancing performance (p = 0.008; ES = 0.76). These results were accompanied by a trivial but significant change in mass (p = 0.023; ES = 0.09) that was attributed to growth and no significant change in body fat or the sum of skinfolds. This study demonstrated that resistance training can have a significant effect on dynamic balance, maximum lower-body strength, and power without adversely affecting artistic or esthetic components. The results suggest that incorporating resistance training may enhance strength and power adaptations and manage growth-related changes in adolescent dancers.

The joy of heartfelt music: An examination of emotional and physiological responses.

PubMed

Lynar, Emily; Cvejic, Erin; Schubert, Emery; Vollmer-Conna, Ute

2017-10-01

Music-listening can be a powerful therapeutic tool for mood rehabilitation, yet quality evidence for its validity as a singular treatment is scarce. Specifically, the relationship between music-induced mood improvement and meaningful physiological change, as well as the influence of music- and person-related covariates on these outcomes are yet to be comprehensively explored. Ninety-four healthy participants completed questionnaires probing demographics, personal information, and musical background. Participants listened to two prescribed musical pieces (one classical, one jazz), an "uplifting" piece of their own choice, and an acoustic control stimulus (white noise) in randomised order. Physiological responses (heart rate, respiration, galvanic skin response) were recorded throughout. After each piece, participants rated their subjective responses on a series of Likert scales. Subjectively, the self-selected pieces induced the most joy, and the classical piece was perceived as most relaxing, consistent with the arousal ratings proposed by a music selection panel. These two stimuli led to the greatest overall improvement in composite emotional state from baseline. Psycho-physiologically, self-selected pieces often elicited a "eustress" response ("positive arousal"), whereas classical music was associated with the highest heart rate variability. Very few person-related covariates appeared to affect responses, and music-related covariates (besides self-selection) appeared arbitrary. These data provide strong evidence that optimal music for therapy varies between individuals. Our findings additionally suggest that the self-selected music was most effective for inducing a joyous state; while low arousal classical music was most likely to shift the participant into a state of relaxation. Therapy should attempt to find the most effective and "heartfelt" music for each listener, according to therapeutic goals. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dancers' Perceived and Actual Knowledge of Anatomy.

PubMed

Kotler, Dana H; Lynch, Meaghan; Cushman, Daniel; Hu, Jason; Garner, Jocelyn

2017-06-15

Dancers are highly susceptible to musculoskeletal injuries and frequently require interaction with medical professionals. While many dancers have a finely tuned awareness of their bodies, their knowledge of the fundamentals of human anatomy is not uniform. There is a paucity of literature on the benefits of human anatomy education in dancers, though it seems intuitive that there should be a relationship. The purpose of this study was to assess dancers' perceived and actual knowledge of basic musculoskeletal anatomy and its relationship to function. Adult dancers at the undergraduate, pre-professional, and professional levels were surveyed through an anonymous online questionnaire. Questions included demographic information, dance techniques studied, anatomy training, and injury history. Subjects rated their perceived knowledge of anatomy and were tested with 15 multiple-choice questions on basic musculoskeletal anatomy. Four hundred seventy-five surveys were completed. Ordinal regression showed a correlation of perceived to actual knowledge of anatomy (p < 0.001). Factors that correlated with increases in both perceived and actual knowledge of anatomy included having taken an anatomy course of any type (p < 0.001) and increased age (p ≤ 0.001). Years of dance training and professional dancer status both significantly correlated with increased knowledge of anatomy (p < 0.001) but not perceived knowledge. Chi-square analysis showed that dancers with training in either modern or jazz dance had a significantly higher perceived, but not actual, knowledge when compared to those without training in those styles of dance (p < 0.001 and p = 0.011, respectively). In conclusion, dancers generally scored well on questions pertaining to basic musculoskeletal anatomy, and their perception correlated with their actual knowledge of anatomy. Factors that contribute to dancers' knowledge of anatomy include age, years of experience, professional dancer status, and anatomy training.

Selections from the ABC 2013 Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana. Part II: All That Favorite Assignment Jazz--Message Packaging and Delivery, Job Interviews, and On-the-Job Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whalen, D. Joel

2014-01-01

This article, the second in a two-part series, catalogs teaching innovations presented at the 2013 Association for Business Communication Annual Convention, New Orleans. They were presented during the My Favorite Assignment session. The 11 Favorite Assignments featured here offer the reader a variety of learning experiences, including…

Music and Astronomy Under The Stars after 4 years and 50,000 People

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lubowich, Donald A.

2013-01-01

Since 2009 my NASA-funded Music and Astronomy Under the Stars (MAUS) program has brought astronomy to 50,000 music lovers at the National Mall (co-sponsor OSTP); Central Park Jazz, Newport Folk, Ravinia, or Tanglewood music festivals; and classical, folk, pop/rock, opera, Caribbean, or county-western concerts in parks assisted by astronomy clubs (55 events; 28parks). MAUS combines solar, optical, and radio telescope observations; live image projection; large posters/banners (From the Earth to the Universe and Visions of the Universe); videos; and hands-on activities (Night Sky Network; Harvard-Smithsonian CfA); imaging with a cell phone mount; and hand-outs(with info on science museums, astronomy clubs, and citizen science before and after the concerts or at intermission. Yo-Yo-Ma, the Chicago and Boston Symphony Orchestras, the McCoy Tyner Quartet, Ravi Coltrane, Esperanza Spalding, the Stanley Clarke Band, Phish, Blood Sweat and Tears, Deep Purple, Patti Smith, Tony Orlando, and Ronan Tynan performed at these concerts. MAUS reached underserved groups and attracted large enthusiastic crowds. Many young children participated in this family learning experience-often the first time they looked through a telescope. Lessons learned: plan early; create partnerships with parks and astronomy clubs; test equipment; have backup equipment; create professional displays; select the best location to obtain a largest number of participants; use media/www sites to promote the events; use many telescopes for multipletargets; project a live image or video; select equipment that is easy to use, store, set-up, and take down; use hands-on astronomy activities; position the displays for maximum visibility (they became teachable moments); and have educator hand-outs. While < 50% of the participants attended a science museum or took part in astronomy programs in the previous year (based on our survey), they found MAUS enjoyable and understandable; learned about astronomy; wanted to learn

Astronomy Outreach for Large, Unique, and Unusual Audiences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lubowich, Donald

2015-08-01

My successful outreach program venues include: outdoor concerts and festivals; the US National Mall; churches, synagogues, seminaries, or clergy conferences; the Ronald McDonald Houses of Long Island and Chicago; the Winthrop U. Hospital Children’s Medical Center the Fresh Air Fund summer camps (low-income and special needs); a Halloween star party (costumed kids look through telescopes); a Super Bowl Star Party (targeting women); Science Festivals (World, NYC; Princeton U.; the USA Science and Engineering Festival); and the NYC Columbus Day Parade. Information was also provided about local science museums, citizen science projects, astronomy educational sites, and astronomy clubs to encourage lifelong learning. In 2010 I created Astronomy Festival on the National Mall (co-sponsored by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy) with the participation of astronomy clubs, scientific institutions and with Tyco Brahe, Johannes Kepler, and Caroline Herschel making guest appearances. My programs include solar, optical, and radio telescope observations, hands-on activities, a live image projection system; large outdoor posters and banners; videos; hands-on activities, and edible astronomy demonstrations.My NASA-funded Music and Astronomy Under the Stars (MAUS) program (60 events 2009 - 2013) reached 50,000 music lovers at local parks and the Central Park Jazz, Newport Folk, Ravinia, or Tanglewood Music Festivals with classical, folk, pop/rock, opera, Caribbean, or county-western concerts assisted by astronomy clubs. Yo-Yo-Ma, the Chicago and Boston Symphony Orchestras, Ravi Coltrane, Esperanza Spalding, Phish, Blood Sweat and Tears, Deep Purple, Tony Orlando, and Wilco performed at these events. MAUS reached underserved groups and attracted large crowds. Young kids participated in this family learning experience - often the first time they looked through a telescope. While < 50% of the participants took part in a science activity in the past year, they

How Create an Astronomy Outreach Program to Bring Astronomy to Thousands of People at Outdoor Concerts Astronomy Festivals, or Tourist Sites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lubowich, Donald

2015-08-01

I describe how to create an astronomy program for thousands of people at outdoor concerts based on my $308,000 NASA-funded Music and Astronomy Under the Stars (MAUS) program (60 events 2009 - 2013), and the Astronomy Festival on the National Mall (AFNM, 10,000 people/yr).MAUS reached 50,000 music lovers at local parks and at the Central Park Jazz, Newport Folk, Ravinia, or Tanglewood Music Festivals with classical, folk, pop/rock, opera, Caribbean, or county-western concerts assisted by astronomy clubs. Yo-Yo-Ma, the Chicago and Boston Symphony Orchestras, Ravi Coltrane, Esperanza Spalding, Phish, Blood Sweat and Tears, Deep Purple, Tony Orlando, and Wilco performed at these events. AFNM was started in 2010 with co-sponsorship by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. MAUS and AFMN combine solar, optical, and radio telescope observations; large posters/banners; hands-on activities, imaging with a cell phone mount; citizen science activities; hand-outs; and teacher info packet. Representatives from scientific institutions participated. Tyco Brahe, Johannes Kepler, and Caroline Herschel made guest appearances.MAUS reached underserved groups and attracted large crowds. Young kids participated in this family learning experience-often the first time they looked through a telescope. While < 50% of the participants took part in a science activity in the past year, they found MAUS enjoyable and understandable; learned about astronomy; wanted to learn more; and increased their interest in science (ave. rating 3.6/4). MAUS is effective in promoting science education!Lessons learned: plan early; create partnerships with parks, concert organizers, and astronomy clubs; test equipment; have backup equipment; create professional displays; select the best location to obtain a largest number of participants; use social media/www sites to promote the events; use many telescopes for multiple targets; project a live image or video; select equipment that is easy to

The Effectiveness of Dance Interventions to Improve Older Adults' Health: A Systematic Literature Review.

PubMed

Hwang, Phoebe Woei-Ni; Braun, Kathryn L

2015-01-01

Physical inactivity is commonly observed among individuals aged ≥ 60 y. Identified barriers to sedentary older adults beginning activity include low self-efficacy, pre-existing medical conditions, physical limitations, time constraints, and culture. Dancing has the potential to be an attractive physical activity that can be adjusted to fit a target population's age, physical limitations, and culture. This review examined the benefits to physical health of dance interventions among older adults. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a systematic search using the PubMed database was conducted. Eighteen studies met the inclusion and exclusion criteria and were analyzed for type of intervention, the study's design, participants' demographics, and outcomes, including attrition. The 18 articles reported on studies conducted in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Of the styles of dancing, 6 studies used ballroom, 5 used contemporary, 4 used cultural, 1 used pop, and 2 used jazz. Two studies targeted older adults with pre-existing medical conditions. The average age of participants ranged from 52-87 y. Researchers used a variety of measures to assess effectiveness: (1) 3 of 5 (60%) that used measures to assess flexibility showed significant positive results; (2) 23 of 28 (82%) that used measures of muscular strength and endurance showed significant positive changes; (3) 8 of 9 (89%) that used measures of balance showed significant positive changes; (4) 8 of 10 (80%) that used measures of cognitive ability showed significant positive changes; and (5) the one that measured cardiovascular endurance showed significant positive changes. Only 6 studies reported participation, and they found low attrition. The findings suggest that dance, regardless of its style, can significantly improve muscular strength and endurance, balance, and other aspects of functional fitness in older adults. Future

The Effectiveness of Dance Interventions to Improve Older Adults’ Health: A Systematic Literature Review

PubMed Central

Hwang, Phoebe Woei-Ni; Braun, Kathryn L.

2017-01-01

Background Physical inactivity is commonly observed among individuals aged ≥60 y. Identified barriers to sedentary older adults beginning activity include low self-efficacy, pre-existing medical conditions, physical limitations, time constraints, and culture. Dancing has the potential to be an attractive physical activity that can be adjusted to fit a target populations age, physical limitations, and culture. Objectives This review examined the benefits to physical health of dance interventions among older adults. Methods Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a systematic search using the PubMed database was conducted. Eighteen studies met the inclusion and exclusion criteria and were analyzed for type of intervention, the study’s design, participants’ demographics, and outcomes, including attrition. Results The 18 articles reported on studies conducted in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Of the styles of dancing, 6 studies used ballroom, 5 used contemporary, 4 used cultural, 1 used pop, and 2 used jazz. Two studies targeted older adults with pre-existing medical conditions. The average age of participants ranged from 52–87 y. Researchers used a variety of measures to assess effectiveness; (1) 3 of 5 (60%) that used measures to assess flexibility showed significant positive results; (2) 23 of 28 (82%) that used measures of muscular strength and endurance showed significant positive changes; (3) 8 of 9 (89%) that used measures of balance showed significant positive changes; (4) 8 of 10 (80%) that used measures of cognitive ability showed significant positive changes; and (5) the one that measured cardiovascular endurance showed significant positive changes. Only 6 studies reported participation, and they found low attrition. Conclusions The findings suggest that dance, regardless of its style, can significantly improve muscular strength and endurance, balance, and other aspects of

Looking at Op Art from a computational viewpoint.

PubMed

Zanker, Johannes M

2004-01-01

Arts history tells an exciting story about repeated attempts to represent features that are crucial for the understanding of our environment and which, at the same time, go beyond the inherently two-dimensional nature of a flat painting surface: depth and motion. In the twentieth century, Op artists such as Bridget Riley began to experiment with simple black and white patterns that do not represent motion in an artistic way but actually create vivid dynamic illusions in static pictures. The cause of motion illusions in such paintings is still a matter of debate. The role of involuntary eye movements in this phenomenon is studied here with a computational approach. The possible consequences of shifting the retinal image of synthetic wave gratings, dubbed as 'riloids', were analysed by a two-dimensional array of motion detectors (2DMD model), which generates response maps representing the spatial distribution of motion signals generated by such a stimulus. For a two-frame sequence reflecting a saccadic displacement, these motion signal maps contain extended patches in which local directions change only little. These directions, however, do not usually precisely correspond to the direction of pattern displacement that can be expected from the geometry of the curved gratings as an instance of the so-called 'aperture problem'. The patchy structure of the simulated motion detector response to the displacement of riloids resembles the motion illusion, which is not perceived as a coherent shift of the whole pattern but as a wobbling and jazzing of ill-defined regions. Although other explanations are not excluded, this might support the view that the puzzle of Op Art motion illusions could potentially have an almost trivial solution in terms of small involuntary eye movement leading to image shifts that are picked up by well-known motion detectors in the early visual system. This view can have further consequences for our understanding of how the human visual system usually

Contact dermatitis and other skin conditions in instrumental musicians.

PubMed

Gambichler, Thilo; Boms, Stefanie; Freitag, Marcus

2004-04-16

, though the prevalence of instrument-related skin conditions in other musician groups (e.g., jazz and rock musicians) is also of interest. The practicing clinician should be aware of the special dermatologic problems unique to the musical instrumentalist. Moreover awareness among musicians needs to be raised, as proper technique and conditioning may help to prevent affection of performance and occupational impairment.

Bringing Astronomy Directly to People Who Do Not Come to Star Parties, Science Museums, or Science Festivals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lubowich, Donald A.

2013-01-01

My successful programs have included telescope observations, hands-on activities, and edible astronomy demonstrations for: outdoor concerts or music festivals; the National Mall; churches, synagogues, seminaries, or clergy conferences; the Ronald McDonald House of Long Island (New Hyde Park, NY), the Winthrop University Hospital Children’s Medical Center (Mineola, NY); the Fresh Air Fund summer camps; a Halloween star party with costumed kids looking through telescopes; a Super Bowl Star Party; the World Science Festival (NYC); the Princeton University Science and Engineering Expo; the USA Science and Engineering Festival; and the NYC Columbus Day Parade. These outreach activities have reached thousands of people including many young girls. Information was also provided about local science museums, citizen science projects, astronomy educational sites, and astronomy clubs to encourage learning after these events. In 2010 I created Astronomy Night on the National Mall (co-sponsored the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy) with the participation of astronomy clubs, Chandra X-Ray Center, STScI, NASA, NOAO, NSF and the National Air and Space Museum. Since 2009 my NASA-funded Music and Astronomy Under the Stars (MAUS) program has brought astronomy to 50,000 music lovers who attended the Central Park Jazz, Newport Folk, Tanglewood, or Ravinia music festivals or classical, folk, rock, pop, opera, or county-western concerts in local parks assisted by astronomy clubs. MAUS is an evening, nighttime, and cloudy weather traveling astronomy program combining solar, optical, and radio telescope observations; a live image projection system; large outdoor posters and banners; videos; and hands-on activities before and after the concerts or at intermission. Yo-Yo-Ma and the Chicago Symphony or Boston Symphony Orchestras, the McCoy Tyner Quartet with Ravi Coltrane, Esperanza Spalding, the Stanley Clarke Band, Phish, Blood Sweat and Tears, Deep Purple, Patti Smith

ALPIDE: the Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor for the ALICE ITS upgrade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Šuljić, M.

2016-11-01

The upgrade of the ALICE vertex detector, the Inner Tracking System (ITS), is scheduled to be installed during the next long shutdown period (2019-2020) of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) . The current ITS will be replaced by seven concentric layers of Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) with total active surface of ~10 m2, thus making ALICE the first LHC experiment implementing MAPS detector technology on a large scale. The ALPIDE chip, based on TowerJazz 180 nm CMOS Imaging Process, is being developed for this purpose. A particular process feature, the deep p-well, is exploited so the full CMOS logic can be implemented over the active sensor area without impinging on the deposited charge collection. ALPIDE is implemented on silicon wafers with a high resistivity epitaxial layer. A single chip measures 15 mm by 30 mm and contains half a million pixels distributed in 512 rows and 1024 columns. In-pixel circuitry features amplification, shaping, discrimination and multi-event buffering. The readout is hit driven i.e. only addresses of hit pixels are sent to the periphery. The upgrade of the ITS presents two different sets of requirements for sensors of the inner and of the outer layers due to the significantly different track density, radiation level and active detector surface. The ALPIDE chip fulfils the stringent requirements in both cases. The detection efficiency is higher than 99%, fake-hit probability is orders of magnitude lower than the required 10-6 and spatial resolution within the required 5 μm. This performance is to be maintained even after a total ionising does (TID) of 2.7 Mrad and a non-ionising energy loss (NIEL) fluence of 1.7 × 1013 1 MeV neq/cm2, which is above what is expected during the detector lifetime. Readout rate of 100 kHz is provided and the power density of ALPIDE is less than 40 mW/cm2. This contribution will provide a summary of the ALPIDE features and main test results.

Contact dermatitis and other skin conditions in instrumental musicians

PubMed Central

Gambichler, Thilo; Boms, Stefanie; Freitag, Marcus

2004-01-01

exclusively been performed on orchestra musicians, though the prevalence of instrument-related skin conditions in other musician groups (e.g., jazz and rock musicians) is also of interest. The practicing clinician should be aware of the special dermatologic problems unique to the musical instrumentalist. Moreover awareness among musicians needs to be raised, as proper technique and conditioning may help to prevent affection of performance and occupational impairment. PMID:15090069

A Useful Study Aid or Jazzed-Up Novelty? Some Are Calling Test-Prep Software on Cell Phones a Democratizing Equalizer, Others Say It Increases the Gap between the Haves and the Have-Nots

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lum, Lydia

2005-01-01

Carl Washburn wondered how to push his teen-age son into studying for the SAT. After all, it's well-known that prepared students tend to score higher than those who aren't. Then Washburn realized his son's cell phone could prove a compatible study buddy. So he and others at his company developed a cell phone application that offers sample SAT…

Determination of preferred parameters for multichannel compression using individually fitted simulated hearing AIDS and paired comparisons.

PubMed

Moore, Brian C J; Füllgrabe, Christian; Stone, Michael A

2011-01-01

To determine preferred parameters of multichannel compression using individually fitted simulated hearing aids and a method of paired comparisons. Fourteen participants with mild to moderate hearing loss listened via a simulated five-channel compression hearing aid fitted using the CAMEQ2-HF method to pairs of speech sounds (a male talker and a female talker) and musical sounds (a percussion instrument, orchestral classical music, and a jazz trio) presented sequentially and indicated which sound of the pair was preferred and by how much. The sounds in each pair were derived from the same token and differed along a single dimension in the type of processing applied. For the speech sounds, participants judged either pleasantness or clarity; in the latter case, the speech was presented in noise at a 2-dB signal-to-noise ratio. For musical sounds, they judged pleasantness. The parameters explored were time delay of the audio signal relative to the gain control signal (the alignment delay), compression speed (attack and release times), bandwidth (5, 7.5, or 10 kHz), and gain at high frequencies relative to that prescribed by CAMEQ2-HF. Pleasantness increased with increasing alignment delay only for the percussive musical sound. Clarity was not affected by alignment delay. There was a trend for pleasantness to decrease slightly with increasing bandwidth, but this was significant only for female speech with fast compression. Judged clarity was significantly higher for the 7.5- and 10-kHz bandwidths than for the 5-kHz bandwidth for both slow and fast compression and for both talker genders. Compression speed had little effect on pleasantness for 50- or 65-dB SPL input levels, but slow compression was generally judged as slightly more pleasant than fast compression for an 80-dB SPL input level. Clarity was higher for slow than for fast compression for input levels of 80 and 65 dB SPL but not for a level of 50 dB SPL. Preferences for pleasantness were approximately equal

An interview with Mark G. Hans.

PubMed

Hans, Mark G; Nojima, Matilde da Cunha Gonçalves

2014-01-01

Dental Medicine and residents in the Department of Orthodontics at CWRU. Part of his clinical practice at the university is devoted to the treatment of craniofacial anomalies and to special needs patients. Prof. Mark Hans has been wisely conducting the Joint Cephalometric Experts Group (JCEG) since 2008, held at the School of Dental Medicine (CWRU). He coordinates a team composed of American, Asian, Brazilian and European researchers and clinicians, working on the transition from 2D cephalometrics to 3D cone beam imaging as well as 3D models for diagnosis, treatment planning and assessment of orthodontic outcomes. Dr. Hans travels to different countries to give lectures on his fields of interest. Besides, he still maintains a clinical orthodontic practice at his private office. In every respect, Dr. Hans coordinates all activities with particular skill and performance. Married to Susan, they have two sons Thomas and Jack, and one daughter Sarah, and he enjoys playing jazz guitar for family and friends.

An interview with Mark G. Hans

PubMed Central

Bolognese, Ana Maria; Palomo, Juan Martin; Miyashita, Kunihiko; Nojima, Lincoln Issamu; Nojima, Matilde da Cunha Gonçalves

2014-01-01

Medicine and residents in the Department of Orthodontics at CWRU. Part of his clinical practice at the university is devoted to the treatment of craniofacial anomalies and to special needs patients. Prof. Mark Hans has been wisely conducting the Joint Cephalometric Experts Group (JCEG) since 2008, held at the School of Dental Medicine (CWRU). He coordinates a team composed of American, Asian, Brazilian and European researchers and clinicians, working on the transition from 2D cephalometrics to 3D cone beam imaging as well as 3D models for diagnosis, treatment planning and assessment of orthodontic outcomes. Dr. Hans travels to different countries to give lectures on his fields of interest. Besides, he still maintains a clinical orthodontic practice at his private office. In every respect, Dr. Hans coordinates all activities with particular skill and performance. Married to Susan, they have two sons, Thomas and Jack and one daughter, Sarah and he enjoys playing jazz guitar for family and friends. Matilde da Cunha Gonçalves Nojima PMID:25162563

BOOK REVIEW: Introduction to Black Hole Physics Introduction to Black Hole Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanaka, Takahiro

2012-07-01

expected in the near future. Such hot topics are presented in Section 10: 'Black Holes and All That Jazz'. I would also consider the historical overview of the research on black holes given in Section 1 to be very interesting. Overall, I strongly recognised the intention of the authors not to go into too much detail; in this sense, I would say that the book has the aspect of a showcase of the frontiers of black hole physics. There are many topics which are very interesting but mathematically a little complicated; however, those subjects are appropriately treated so that the reader will not be overloaded with mathematical complexity. For example, in the discussion of black hole perturbation, only scalar field perturbation is discussed. The authors might have discussed gravitational wave perturbation, but this is much more complicated and the essential physics is mostly included in the simplest example of the scalar field. If I were one of the authors, I would consider adding more detailed explanations about several such advanced topics. However, the authors well know that such a challenge just presents a barrier to young students who are going to read this book, and really it is only an introduction to this interesting research field. This style might be the result of the long experience from the lectures over 30 years: the explanations of the subjects that the authors describe in detail are very carefully presented, avoiding logical gaps. In the preface, the authors state that they tried hard to answer students' questions as much as possible; I think that the authors' method in this respect is very successful.

Dancing for Healthy Aging: Functional and Metabolic Perspectives.

PubMed

Rodrigues-Krause, Josianne; Krause, Mauricio; Reischak-Oliveira, Alvaro

2018-02-10

); (3) aerobic dance with no partner required, which mixes aerobic moves with dance moves; (4) dance therapies, whichare special dance programs including emotional and physical aspects; and (5) classical dances, which are dances with a unique tradition and technique, such as ballet or jazz dance. Outcome Measures • Studies needed to have evaluated functional and/or metabolic outcomes. Functional outcomes included (1) static and/or dynamic balance, (2) gait ability, (3) upper and/or lower muscle strength or power, (4) cardiorespiratory fitness, (5) flexibility, (6) risk of falls, and (7) quality of life. Metabolic outcomes included (1) lipid and glycemic profile; (2) systolic and diastolic blood pressure; (3) body composition; and (4) other specific cardiovascular risk factors or inflammatory or oxidative stress markers. Results • The research team retrieved 1042 articles, with 88 full texts assessed for eligibility, and 50 articles included in the analysis. Of the analyzed studies, 22 were RCTs evaluating dancing vs controls, and 3 were RCTs evaluating dancing vs other exercise. Regarding the participants of the reviewed studies: (1) 31 evaluated healthy individuals, (2) 7 evaluated patients suffering from Parkinson's disease, (3) 4 evaluated postmenopausal women, (4) 2 evaluated obese women, (5) 2 evaluated patients with chronic heart failure, (6) 1 evaluated frail older adults, (7) 1 evaluated individuals with visual impairments, (8) 1 evaluated persons with metabolic syndrome, and (9) 1 evaluated individuals with severe pain in the lower extremities. Regarding the interventions, most interventions were 12 wk long, 3 ×/wk, for 60 min each session. The dance styles most used were ballroom and cultural dances. Regarding the outcomes, functional and metabolic benefits were described in most of the included studies. Balance was the functional outcome most often assessed. Conclusions • Any dance style can induce positive functional adaptations in older adults

'Thinking on my feet': an improvisation course to enhance students' confidence and responsiveness in the medical interview.

PubMed

Shochet, Robert; King, Julie; Levine, Rachel; Clever, Sarah; Wright, Scott

2013-02-01

accreditation and expert panel consensus guidelines have stressed the importance and framed the structure for best communication practices. Exemplary curricula for teaching medical trainees in core communication strategies to use with patients have been published; many emphasise patient-centred and/or relationshipcentred strategies. Simulated patient technologies with video review can allow learners to practise their skills through both self-assessment and feedback from others. However, despite these newer learning resources, frameworks and behavioural checklists, learners naïve to clinical patient encounters must still learn how to function and adapt within the interpersonal communicative space that is created by the learner and patient. At its core, this is an iterative, spontaneous process created by the dyad and yielding, from moment to moment, to unique and unanticipated outcomes. Thus, repetitive practice will improve confidence but may miss the mark in learning the essential skills of intuitive and improvised interpersonal responsiveness. One could argue that existing approaches in teaching medical learners communication skills may promote rigid and stereotyped responses. Haidet proposes that there are significant parallels between the patient-physician dialogue (when a physician attempts to learn details about a patient and their illness) and improvisational jazz. 11 He contends that effective clinicians who are committed to relationship-centred practice depart from overarching principles of biomedical inquiry when necessary to respond spontaneously and without script to the particular circumstances of each encounter. It is believed that successful doctor-patient relationships are founded upon trusting and open communication, as well as genuine respect that can be shown by a willingness to listen or respond to the issues raised by patients. 12 The nature of the comprehensive care in family medicine makes it likely that GPs will regularly be surprised by concerns raised

Historical perspectives on music as a cause of disease.

PubMed

Kennaway, James

2015-01-01

The relationship between music and medicine is generally understood in the benign context of music therapy, but, as this chapter shows, there is a long parallel history of medical theories that suggest that music can cause real physical and mental illness. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the idea of music as an expression of universal harmony was challenged by a more mechanistic model of nervous stimulation. By the 1790s, there was a substantial discourse on the dangers of musical overstimulation to health in medicine, literature, and etiquette books. During the nineteenth century, the sense of music as a pathogenic stimulant gained in influence. It was often linked to fears about sexuality, female gynecological health, and theories of hypnosis and degeneration. In the twentieth century, the debate on the medical perils of the wrong kinds of music became overtly politicized in Germany and the Soviet Union. Likewise, the opponents of jazz, particularly in the United States, often turned to medicine to fend off its supposed social, moral, and physical consequences. The Cold War saw an extensive discourse on the idea of musical "brainwashing," that rumbled on into the 1990s. Today, regular media panics about pathological music are mirrored by alarming evidence of the deliberate use of music to harm listeners in the context of the so-called War on Terror. Can music make you ill? Music therapy is a common if perhaps rather neglected part of medicine, but its diametric opposite, the notion that music might lead to real mental and physical illness, may seem improbable. In fact, over the last two hundred years, there have been many times when as much was written about the medical dangers of music as about its potential benefits. Since the eighteenth century, fears about music's effects on the nerves and the mind have created a remarkably extensive discourse on pathological music based on a view of both music and the causation of disease as matters of

Obituary: Malcolm Raff (1940-2010)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shuch, H.

2011-12-01

astronomy department, Mal put his nascent computer science skills to work, first at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, then in the aerospace industry, and later at a string of cutting-edge biotechnology companies (some of which he had helped to co-found). He became a recognized leader not only in database manipulation, but also in digital image processing on a grand scale, leading to his playing a pivotal role in the Human Genome Project. At Applied Biosystems in the early 1980s, Mal conceived and implemented the original digital signal processing algorithms and graphics for the world's first automated DNA sequencer, modifying data acquisition and analysis techniques to permit DNA mapping. I once asked Mal how he made the unlikely transition from astrophysics to genetic engineering. "It's all the same process," he replied. "The techniques that I once applied to imaging the very far and distant, I now use to analyze the very small and near." When the NASA SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) program was cancelled by the US Congress in 1993, Mal was one of the first radio amateurs to devote his skills and energies to helping privatize the research. A charter member of the non-profit SETI League, Mal chaired that organization's Strategic Planning Committee and participated actively in its annual symposia and technical workshops. His SETI activities (plus reruns of classic Star Trek episodes) motivated Mal to contemplate extraterrestrial life. Around the time the SETI League was founded, he chanced to take up scuba diving. The reefs off the coast of Central America, he commented, are probably as close as he would ever come to experiencing what life might be like on an alien planet. Upon his retirement, Mal pursued his passion for music, first as a benefactor to the Jazzschool in Berkeley, then as a student of Brazilian jazz and vibraphone (an instrument he had always admired and wanted to learn), and ultimately as a gifted vibe player, as well as founder and leader of

[Impact of music therapy on anxiety and depression for patients with Alzheimer's disease and on the burden felt by the main caregiver (feasibility study)].

PubMed

Guetin, S; Portet, F; Picot, M-C; Defez, C; Pose, C; Blayac, J-P; Touchon, J

2009-02-01

The impact of music therapy on dementia care for patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is well-recognized. Music alters the different components of the disease through sensory, cognitive, emotional, behavioral and social impacts. The academic aspect of music therapy in this area was based on the fact that music can alter the various components of the overall evolution of this disease. We found around 10 case studies presenting various results from receptive music therapy sessions on patients with Alzheimer's disease. The results of these studies point out the interest of music therapy in the multidisciplinary care of Alzheimer's disease and its related syndromes. It has been deemed useful for significantly reducing the medication given to AD patients. A music therapy protocol, specifically tailored to the patient's needs has been shown to significantly reduce anxiety, depression and aggressiveness in patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease. This technique has also demonstrated its impact on helping AD patients recall their previous life experience. To demonstrate the feasibility and to evaluate the impact of music therapy on anxiety and depression at the early to moderate stage of Alzheimer's disease and on the main caregiver burden. Five outpatients suffering from early stage of Alzheimer's disease (MMS: 18-26) were prospectively included. They were living in Montpellier with a reliable caregiver. A weekly receptive music therapy session was delivered to patients over a 10-week period, according to the U method standardized protocol. This technique was based on the recommendations made by Gardner and Good relating to the importance given to an individualized choice of music. Instrumental tracks were selected from various music styles (classic, jazz, world music...) and were tailored to the patient's requirements. This individual session was always followed by an interview with the music therapist in order to allow the patient to express the emotions felt

PREFACE Quantum Groups, Quantum Foundations and Quantum Information: a Festschrift for Tony Sudbery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weigert, Stefan

2010-11-01

me? and why is my world so classical?'. Tony was a teacher of the old school. His lectures were inspiring and fun. He believed that the personal element is central to understanding and inspiration, shown by his whole-hearted commitment to small group teaching. Tony's experience of teaching quantum physics to mathematicians is reflected in his widely known text on quantum mechanics for mathematicians entitled Quantum Mechanics and the Particles of Nature (Cambridge 1986). In 1994, Tony succeeded John Fountain as Head of Department. The 1990s had been a difficult decade for universities in Britain but John had managed to keep the Department on a sound footing, providing foundations which enabled Tony to develop a growth strategy and realise new opportunities when they arose. Despite these challenges Tony was not to be distracted from his scientific work but started to make his significant contributions to quantum information science. Tony's interests extend beyond mathematics, physics and philosophy: to science fiction, music (both classical and jazz) and theatre - he exercised his thespian talents in his lectures and as a member of the York Shakespeare Project. And his lively mind is matched by a lively body: Tony still plays a mean game of squash and of tennis, and his enthusiastic and acrobatic dancing is most remarkable - it would be no surprise if he were to appear on the popular British TV show 'Strictly Come Dancing'. A man of many parts... On behalf of all contributors to the Festschrift it remains for us to wish Tony many productive and happy years to come in this new phase of his life that he himself characterises with the word 'freedom' (and that surely doesn't match the definition of 'retirement'). There is no doubt that he will utilise this newly-gained freedom to continue to inspire and challenge his fellow scientists with his inquisitive mind and cheerful spirit. York, October 2010 Paul Busch, Maurice Dodson and Atsushi Higuchi Stefan Weigert (editor)