A Record of Historical Temperature Change from 1893 to 2021, Southwest Ohio, United States of America

A local record of historical temperature change from 1893 to 2021 was established for a region centered in southwest Ohio, United States. Temperature records were examined from 8 weather stations located in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, all within a radius of 50 miles (approximately 80 km) from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Results indicate that annual minimum temperatures increased by approximately 0.11 °F (0.060 °C) per decade between 1893 to 2021, with a total increase of 1.4 °F (0.78 °C) over the 128-year study period ( p < 2 × 10-16, R2 = 0.74). Spring and summer minimum temperatures increased by 2.0 °F (1.1 °C) and 1.5 °F (0.83 °C) respectively, whereas fall and winter minimum temperatures increased by 1.1 °F (0.63 °C) and 0.77 °F (0.43 °C), respectively. Annual maximum temperatures increased by approximately 0.071 °F (0.039 °C) per decade, resulting in a total increase of 0.90 °F (0.50 °C) over the study period ( p < 2 × 10-16, R2 = 0.74). The largest observed increase in maximum temperatures occurred during the spring (1.7 °F; 0.94 °C), with fall (1.6 °F; 0.88 °C), and winter (1.6 °F; 0.88 °C) maximum temperatures increasing similarly. No change was observed in summer maximum temperatures. Historical temperature trends in the region studied broadly match state and regional temperature compilations for the lower Midwest, with greater warming occurring during spring and negligible warming in summer. This analysis indicates local datasets complement regional climate compilations and models, as well as help to identify geographic variation in temperature trends critical for assessing local vulnerabilities and informing regional mitigation strategies for climate change

Crystals of Sound: Applying the Physics of Phase Transitions to Musical Intonation

We explore a physics-based model describing systems of musical intonation. Under the assumption that tuning systems seek to balance minimization of dissonance with maximization of compositional variety, we can use the same methods that are used to describe how transitions between the phases of matter are governed by a balance between minimizing energy and maximizing entropy. In both cases, a parameter – temperature – controls the balance between these factors. We show that as the temperature is raised from low to high, our model generates tuning systems that closely resemble those used throughout the history of Western music, from just intonation, to meantone temperaments, to equal temperament. We demonstrate how our model reflects the way in which tuning systems evolved along with trends in composition by comparing the results of our model vs. temperature to a corpus of 9620 pieces vs. year of composition from 1568-1968. By changing parameters in the model, we also find that other tuning systems, such as 31-tone temperaments, emerge. These results provide a new lens for understanding tuning systems, and a new approach for generating novel systems of intonation

Access Intimacy and Humanness in CART Captioning Relationships

This article engages with the nuanced experience of auditory disability and Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) captioning by exploring how access to the soundscape as provided by a human captioner creates a unique intimacy –and unique, often unintended benefits—for disability access. Bringing together the concepts of access intimacy, contact zones, and disability theory, this article focuses on personal experiences as a hard of hearing (HoH), disabled individual and investigates the formation of access intimacy within a formal accommodation structure. Through reflective autoethnography, this article (re)defines access intimacy as a learned skill that can result from formal academic partnerships. First, the article will define and explore CART captioning as a specific site where the human interactions necessitated by this specific accommodation create opportunities to expand out conversations of access and accommodation. Next, it will analyze the author's personal experiences with CART captioning through the lens of access intimacy, expanding on how this intimacy can be developed through institutional relationships. The article ends with a personal vignette with the goal of illustrating this access intimacy –and the additional access conferred through this intimacy

Aesthetics, Modalities, Evolution, and Creativity: Commentary on Friedman et al. (2024)

This commentary situates Friedman et al. (2024) – and by extension, Clemente et al. (2021) – within a broader research context. Both papers raise important issues, but neither study’s result can be considered definitive. The operationalization and assessment of aesthetic constructs across many investigations should reflect the inherent diversity of human artmaking, yielding a structured sense of the conditions under which modality-specific versus modality-general representations predominate in aesthetic or evaluative cognition. Additionally, I note that this research enterprise touches on two sets of issues, which are simultaneously central to an understanding of the nature of human artistry, yet which remain under-represented in contemporary research. One concerns the murky evolutionary origin of our human artistic capacity, including the role of cross-modal processing and its role in aesthetic cognition. The second involves the first-person deployment of this capacity in creative problem solving, rather than in a merely receptive mode. Both speak to the importance of understanding inherent structure and constraints on human aesthetics and creativity

Texture and Sonata Form in Classical String Quartets: A Corpus Study

How does musical texture relate to large-scale form in classical string quartets? Are certain textural strategies associated with sections or formal functions in a sonata movement? Some music theorists have argued that contrapuntal textures are more common in developments and transitions. In their view, these medial sections would use polyphony to foster a sense of looseness, instability, and momentum. Our study tested these claims by examining a pre-existing corpus of string quartet movements in sonata form by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven. We measured texture in terms of average onset synchrony, where lower onset synchrony represents greater rhythmic and textural independence among parts. Although average onset synchrony was lower in developments, compared to expositions, for most pieces in the corpus (65.22%), there was a significant interaction between section and composer, and post hoc analysis indicated that this difference in onset synchrony was significant only for Beethoven. Within expositions, transitions did not tend to have lower onset synchrony, and there was no significant effect for subsection. However, there was a significant main effect for composer here. Overall, these results imply that textural strategies in classical sonata form are complex and may vary from piece to piece and from composer to composer

Reexamining the Association between Aesthetic Sensitivity to Musical and Visual Complexity

In a provocative recent study, Clemente et al. (2021) found that individual differences in aesthetic sensitivity to stimulus complexity in the musical domain were uncorrelated with those in the visual domain. This ostensibly contradicts existing theory and research pointing to a link between idiographic preferences for musical and visual complexity. However, a review of their methodology reveals that Clemente et al. (2021) inadvertently introduced confounds in the temporal dynamics of their experimental stimuli as well as in their operational definitions of complexity in each domain. To address these confounds, we conceptually replicated part of their procedure using musical and visual stimuli that were either very closely matched in their temporal dynamics and/or for which complexity was operationalized more similarly. With these modifications, reliable positive correlations indeed emerged between aesthetic sensitivities to complexity across domains, providing renewed evidence for cross-modal correspondence in evaluative responses to musical sounds and visual images

Commentary on Friedman et al. (2024): A General Preference for Complexity?

It is typically assumed in the empirical aesthetics literature that generalizable abstract stimulus attributes like familiarity, fluency, and complexity drive preferences. This general nature means that they can, at least in principle, apply to any stimulus regardless of its characteristics and sensory modality. However, most studies in this tradition are restricted to group-level trends and particular stimulus properties. Therefore, they say nothing about amodal or general preferences for particular levels of such abstract attributes independently from their characterization at the individual level. Moreover, the hypothesis of a general, amodal preference for attributes like complexity was not empirically supported and only scarcely tested until we provided empirical evidence against it in our Clemente et al. (2021) study. In their quest for empirical evidence in favor of a preference for complexity across the auditory and visual modalities, Friedman et al. (2024) made two central claims: First, they found it surprising that aesthetic sensitivity for visual and musical complexity did not correlate in our study. Second, they expressed concerns about the comparability of the musical and visual stimuli we used. In this commentary, I show how these claims and the premises on which they rely are debatable and how the results of Friedman et al. (2024) support our conclusion that stimulus information rather than abstract attributes like complexity drive evaluative judgments such as liking

Sibling Relationships and Developmental Disability Services: From Coerced Care to Entitlement

This article critically assesses the systems that structure unpaid care work for people with intellectual disabilities, with a focus on the role of siblings. We provide a preliminary analysis of this current trend in unpaid care work in the province of Ontario, Canada, addressing practices that are a) built upon a devaluation of people with intellectual disabilities, and that b) deny them choice in who provides them care. We combine existing evidence with relevant survey data to assess the risks associated with what we characterize as coercive care, as well as the many tensions that arise between self-advocacy and family-led advocacy initiatives. We interrogate the assumption that the role of siblings, and women in particular, is to take over unpaid care roles from parents. We also suggest how the current socioeconomic context of many individuals and families can limit opportunities for adopting potential solutions and propose practical avenues for future research. Throughout our analysis, we centre questions of agency and self-direction, pointing to the clash of values and inequitable outcomes that makes dominant support arrangements untenable. We conclude by drawing an ideal scenario of the publicly funded supports and services to which people with intellectual disabilities should be entitled and outline the many implications attached to this proposed model

Ohio Journal of Public Health Vol. 6, Issue 2 (October 2024): Full Issue

No abstract available

Species and Speciation in the Termite-Cultivated Fungus Termitomyces.

Termitomyces is a genus of basidiomycete fungi cultivated by termites of the subfamily Macrotermitinae. This symbiosis originated in central Africa, and subsequently, the fungus-growing termites have colonized almost the entire African continent including Madagascar as well as significant parts of Asia. Around 40 species of Termitomyces have been described based on morphology of the sexual fruit bodies, which are associated with some 330 species of fungus-growing termites distributed over 11 genera. However, the total number of fungal species may be higher as not all species regularly produce mushrooms, and morphological variation does not seem to be a reliable criterion for species delimitation in this group. In this study we estimated the total number of species based on ITS-barcode criteria and assessed host specificity and geographic differentiation to infer patterns of speciation. We estimated the total number of phylogenetic species using two methods of DNA sequence-based species delimitation; Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD) and the Generalized Mixed Yule Coalescent (GMYC) model on a large dataset of over 1,500 ITS sequences from laboratory cultures, fungarium specimens and the public database NCBI Genbank. This resulted in an estimated 87 species hypotheses using ABGD and 94 species hypotheses using the GMYC model. A phylogenetic reconstruction was performed on representative sequences of the 87 species hypotheses identified by ABGD (the most conservative estimate) constrained by a well-supported phylogeny based on whole-genome data to address host specificity and geographical differentiation. Five main clades were recovered which generally were associated with species of one or two host genera, except for samples collected from the genera Microtermes and Ancistrotermes, which formed two separate non-sister clades. We did not find any evidence for long-term host fidelity as would be expected for species with strict uniparental vertical symbiont transmission. We found strict geographic separation between African and Asian species of Termitomyces and infer a minimum of seven inter-continental migrations. We show that epigeous fruiting of the T. microcarpus group has a single evolutionary origin in Africa and that fruiting in species of this group likely is induced by the fungus rather than by the host-termite species. In contrast, fruiting in the symbionts of some species of Microtermes and Macrotermes may be suppressed by the host-termite species, since mushrooms of certain fungal species are found when those species are associated with some termite-host genera, but never when associated with other host genera. We discuss some examples of incongruence between morphological and phylogenetic species concepts and give suggestions to improve the taxonomy of the genus Termitomyces