Differentiating the medial patterns of operatic adaptations: Macbeth

The processes that underlie the creation of operatic adaptations are similar to those of film adaptations, yet the language and discourse that is used in the two fields is considerably different. In opera, the adaptation is viewed as being the notated music score which contains the libretto. In film, however, discourse related to film adaptation tends to focus on the qualities of the production of the screenplay, not on the screenplay itself, viewing the film as being based on the source text instead of it being based on the screenplay. While these differences may be due to contractual issues – screenplays involving only one film production, operas involving as many stage productions as requested – and similar cultural values as those ascribed to composers also being ascribed to directors instead of the screenplay writers, it nevertheless provides a reason to consider the implications that the operatic adaptations have for the understanding of other media, including but not limited to screen-based media. This dissertation therefore argues for a reassessment of product creation processes as viewed by Adaptation Studies and Intermedial Studies through the differentiation of medial patterns of operas in intermedial and intramedial contexts. A four-phase model divided into conception, adaptation/composition, production, and reception is proposed that could realign adaptation research away from a predominantly qualitative approach that combines reception based on the aesthetics of a production, to combine quantitative and qualitative methods that also examine the text-types created by adapters. In doing so, research and education in English Studies would benefit from clearer theoretical foundations that do not mostly link a source text with the aesthetic qualities of the production, but with the textual links to the structural conventions of the medial form involved. It is proposed here that the concept of fidelity to a source text, if it must be used in research or in education, should be discussed in various forms: fidelity to the text of the source text (textual fidelity), fidelity to the structural conventions of the text-type/medium (medial fidelity), and the subjective fidelity of the aesthetics of a production (aesthetic fidelity). The splitting of the fidelity concept proposed in this research could advantage English Studies – and many other academic fields – by providing a deeper understanding related to the interpretations of a source text: do the interpretations of the source text occur in the written form in the text-type formed in the adaptation/composition phase or in the visual and/or auditory mediation of the text-type into a directed adaptation during the production phase? Has an interpretation of the text occurred through mediation of text by the adapter (e.g. screenwriter) or the director? The quantitative analysis in this research involved 75 adaptations of Macbeth in two groups of adaptations, directed and printed, and eleven categories of media, including eight operas. The analysis provided data regarding the percentage of text in each medial category and the number and type of alterations made to the text that form the patterns of each medium. Following the intermedial findings, intramedial analysis of all 14 available operatic adaptations of Macbeth was also undertaken, including three individual case studies and two comparative case studies on some lesser known Macbeth operas. The theoretical basis of the dissertation revolves around concepts by Linda Hutcheon in Adaptation Studies and Lars Elleström in Intermedial Studies. Evidence and observations from the intermedial and intramedial analyses and the case studies provide support for the extension of some of Hutcheon’s concepts (e.g. adaptation as process, and knowing and unknowing audiences) and raise issues that highlight some problematic areas of others, such as modes of engagement

Materials dependencies for dual-use technologies relevant to Europe's defence sector

In order to support the European Commission in the preparation of future initiatives fostering the sustainability of strategic supply chains, this study was commissioned to assess bottlenecks in the supply of materials needed for the development of technologies important to Europe's defence and civil industries. The study focuses on five dual-use technology areas, namely advanced batteries, fuel cells, robotics, unmanned vehicles and additive manufacturing (3D printing). The technologies are preselected on the basis of a previous study (EASME, 2017) that explored the dual-use potential of key enabling technologies in which Europe should strategically invest. In addition, this report examines how these technologies could address specific military needs and their differences in relation to civil needs and identified opportunities for future defence research areas that could potentially serve as a basis for the design of research initiatives to be funded under the future European Defence Fund. Moreover, potential opportunities for common policy actions are also identified, notably: to strengthen Europe's position in the selected technologies’ supply chains; to facilitate collaboration between stakeholders; to increase industry involvement with special emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises; to improve existent legislation; and increase synergies between civil and defence sectors in order to speed up progress in promising research areas.JRC.C.7-Knowledge for the Energy Unio

'Transcription' as Cultural Translation: Transforming horizons for the classical guitar ensemble

This thesis comprises a Dissertation and a Creative Project Portfolio of transcriptions, scores and recordings, for guitars in ensemble. This dissertation seeks to fill the lacuna between transcription theory and practice, investigating how the ‘spirit’ inherent in the source work is ‘translated’ into a new work. The theoretical foundation hinges on the anthropological concept of ‘cultural translation’, which developed out of the field of language translation. Cultural translation investigates how a text from one historical or cultural context can be relocated and received in another. Whilst early language translation theories were committed to the authority of the source text, cultural translation emerged as a paradigm that offered a broader understanding of the translation process. By extension, this paper interrogates the concept of music transcription in terms of the concept of cultural translation. In so doing, it explores the aesthetic choices made by the transcriber who creatively reshapes the identity of the original composition, placing the new transcription somewhere along a spectrum of transformation from the literal to the recomposed. My case studies investigate transcriptions from five classical guitar quartets between 1960 and 2010, namely: Los Romeros -the “Royal Family of the Guitar” (USA, 1960-present), the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (USA, 1980-present), the Sydney Guitar Quartet (Australia, 1980-1990), Guitar Trek (Australia, 1987-present) and the Tetra Guitar Quartet (UK, 1988-2013). Qualitative interviews with the key practitioners in each group reveal a range of philosophies and practices that challenged musical prejudices, augmented the repertoire, and enkindled new compositions - all of which transformed the horizons for the guitar quartet. Acts of translation have increasingly come to be understood as creative work where the transcriber, positioned between the source culture and the target culture, interprets the ‘spirit’ of the original work in ways that give voice to the ethos of the contemporary moment. The transcription philosophies and practices outlined in the dissertation inform the collection of transcriptions in my Creative Project Portfolio. This Portfolio offers a significant original contribution through expanding horizons for contemporary guitar ensemble repertoire

Ouachita Baptist University General Catalog 2008-2009

This is the Bulletin of Ouachita Baptist University with Announcements for the 2008-2009 school year in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/catalogs/1103/thumbnail.jp

Cochlear imaging in the era of cochlear implantation : from silence to sound

Cochlear implants (CIs) are a well accepted treatment for hearing impaired people. In pre- and postoperative assessment of CI-candidates imaging plays an important role to analyze anatomy, rule out pathology and determine intracochlear positioning and integrity of the implant. Developments in CI-design, differences in surgical approach and broadening of treatment indications have raised new questions to radiologists, which were the subject of several studies described in this thesis. For optimal, a-traumatic positioning of a CI precise information about the inner ear anatomy is mandatory. We describe the development, validation and application of a method for 3-dimensional medical image exploration of the inner ear. This renders a tool to obtain cochlear dimensions on clinical computer tomography (CT) images. This will be useful for patientspecific implantplanning. It also shows an anatomical substrate for cochlear trauma during insertion. For postoperative imaging we studied the value of multislice-CT for optimal visualization of the implant within the cochlea. Its role to evaluate operation technique and electrode design, to study frequency mapping and to assess cochlear trauma is discussed. Moreover an international consensus for an objective cochlear framework is presented, forming a common ground for clear and easy exchange of findings in scientific and clinical studies.AB, de Nationale Hoorstichting/Sponsor Bingo Loterij, Foundation Imago, Bontius Stichting inz. Doelfonds BeeldverwerkingUBL - phd migration 201

Design strategies for the exploration of product meaning in meaning-driven innovation

Design has been framed as a driver of innovation through product meaning, but it falls short when it comes to dedicated knowledge and methods directly applicable into design practices. Structured by Design Research Methodology (DRM) (Blessing and Chakrabarti 2009), this thesis combines exploratory research with practice-based design research. This thesis presents a literature review covering design studies, psychology, cognitive semantics, linguistics, marketing, innovation management and new product development. Together combined these have been used to develop a new framework of ‘product meaning’ consisting of 4 definitions: meaning as conceptualisation, as importance, as intention, and as representation. The framework has been used to demonstrate that different types of meaning are utilised throughout different stages of product development. Meaning as conceptualisation is identified as fundamental, and the most suitable, for design practice engaged in product meaning innovation. Three strategies of innovation of product meaning through product re-purposing are identified. Furthermore, from the field of cognitive science, theories and methods such as concept categorisation, thematic roles and conceptual blending are used as analysis tools for the selected 6 examples of innovative new meaning products. The structure of meaning innovations has been identified to consist of seven distinctive elements. Ten common characteristics of new meaning innovations are identified and, additionally, an exploratory method of current meanings of products is presented. Moreover, through engagement in practice-based design research a new meaning-driven design process has been developed. The findings from this research have been combined into a new design platform for an approach to meaning innovation and evaluated with experienced designers.</div

Removal Period Cherokee Households in Southwestern North Carolina: Material Perspectives on Ethnicity and Cultural Differentiation

Nineteenth century accounts of Cherokee Indian society consistently refer to the existence of two classes among the Cherokees: the acculturated mixed blood[s], who speak English and are considered the intelligent and wealthy class and the culturally conservative fullbloods, whom white observers denigrated as backward, indolent, and ignorant pagans. This perceived dichotomy reflected the poles of a socioeconomic and cultural continuum that developed as a result of the differential Westernization of Cherokee individuals and households during the post-Revolutionary War era. As these socioeconomic classes diverged, they developed as the primary axis of competition and conflict within Cherokee society. Because these groups were progressively distinguished by ancestry, language use, lifestyle, and ideology, they may be characterized as emergent ethnic groups subsumed within the Cherokee national polity. As identity-conscious groups in competition for economic resources and political power, the Cherokee-speaking fullblood majority and the English-speaking metis minority used various media, including material goods and property, to construct and maintain ethnic boundaries. This study examines documentary and archaeological evidence for the use of such material media by Cherokee families in southwestern North Carolina during the Removal period. (1835-1838) and seeks to define material patterning that distinguished the English-speaking metis minority from the Cherokee-speaking fullblood majority. Four independent primary datasets are successively analyzed and discussed to accomplish a synthetic overview of Cherokee wealthholding and material culture. Bioracial, linguistic, and certain aspects of economic variation within the study population are defined through examination of the 1835 War Department census of the Cherokee Nation east of the Mississippi. General trends of bioracial endogamy, community composition, and wealth distribution evident in the 1835 census indicate active ethnic differentiation within the Cherokee population of southwestern North Carolina. The population of the study area was ethnically and socioeconomically homogeneous, with a dominant component of monolingual Cherokee fullblood subsistence farmers who formed a distinctly conservative and materially impoverished aboriginal stratum of Cherokee society. Contrasted with this majority was a small group of Anglo-Cherokee households who exhibited high rates of English literacy and slaveholding, and who managed extensive market farms in the larger river and creek valleys in the southern portion of the study area A relatively small number of fullblood and AngloCherokee families were arrayed between these extremes, forming a heavily skewed socioeconomic continuum largely reflective of household ethnicity. The improved real properties of Cherokee households in southwestern North Carolina are documented by U.S. government property appraisals conducted in the winter of 1836-1837. These appraisals include narrative descriptions and dimensions of dwellings and other buildings, cultivated fields and other cleared or fenced land, fruit trees, ditches, wells, mills, and other facilities present on 684 properties. Hierarchical agglomerative (Ward\u27s method) cluster analysis is used to define types of properties based upon similarities in the values assigned to dwellings, nonresidential structures, and agricultural improvements by the federal appraisers. The resultant cluster solution is interpreted as a series of farmstead models that can be ranked from those more traditional in composition to those more closely resembling Western agrarian modes. These analyses indicate that Cherokee properties in the study area were remarkably homogeneous in composition; more than 85% of the Cherokee farmsteads in southwestern North Carolina consisted of twelve or fewer acres of cropland, small, cribbed log dwellings valued less than $32.00, and few outbuildings other than corn cribs and an occasional asi. Properties owned by a small number of Anglo-Cherokees families contrast sharply with this traditional farmstead mode, and reflect thorough incorporation and integration of Western agrarian material modes of life. The largest and most highly valued Cherokee properties included substantial, hewn log dwellings valued in excess of$70.00, 35 or more acres of cropland, and a wide array of ancillary domestic structures (e.g. kitchens, springhouses, smokehouses), farm buildings (e.g. stables, cribs, barns), and specialized facilities (e.g. stores, mills, blacksmith shops). These farms substantially resembled the typical holdings of Anglo-American middling farmers and small planters in the southern highlands, and the Cherokee owners of such properties occupied a socioeconomic status parallel to the upper middle class of the Anglo-American rural South. A relatively small sector of Anglo-Cherokee and fullblood Cherokee families maintained homes and farms that formed a continuum between these extremes. Contrastive modes of farmstead composition are interpreted as evidence for the operation of distinct Western and traditional systems of household economy and material lifeways. These distinct systems are largely, but not exclusively, correlated with the bioracial and linguistic affinities of Cherokee households, and contrastive farmstead composition is interpreted as evidence for ethnic differentiation among Cherokee households in southwestern North Carolina. Spoliation claims which Cherokees from the study area filed against the United States government following forced removal of 1838 document losses of clothing, furniture, household goods, cookware and tableware, agricultural equipment and other tools, livestock, and other material possessions by more than 400 Cherokee households from the study area. These data are initially explored through univariate comparisons of the distributions of major functional groups of chattel property among bioracial/linguistic subsets of the study population to determine differential patterns of ownership. Hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis is applied to classify individual household cases by inventory composition. The membership of these groups of households is then evaluated with respect to racial/ethnic affinity to determine whether ethnicity played a significant role in the formation of household assemblages. Analyses of the chattel properties data. reveal patterning similar to that of the real properties data, with a large, homogeneous group of relatively poor, predominantly fullblood families forming the basal economic stratum of Cherokee society contrasted with a small, predominantly English-speaking, group of wealthy Cherokees. A relatively small group of both fullblood and Anglo-Cherokee households span these extremes. These patterns are interpreted as evidence for a traditional-Western continuum in material lifestyles and economic modes; the poles of this continuum appear to represent the contrastive content of an ethnic dichotomy. Archaeological data present a collateral, yet independent gauge of variation in the material lifeways of Removal Period Cherokee households in the study area. To illustrate the differences in material culture that distinguish more Westernized from more traditionally oriented Cherokee households, artifact assemblages representing one Anglo-Cherokee metis occupation, and six fullblood Cherokee household occupations are compared and contrasted in terms of diversity, content, and relative composition. Archaeological assemblages recovered from surface and excavated contexts at these farmstead sites evince a high degree of interhousehold variation in scale and content; this variability is interpreted as evidence of differential acculturation and contrastive cultural orientations. Most of these assemblages are dominated by Qualla series ceramics and other goods reflective of indigenous traditions; these configurations suggest that many of the Cherokee inhabitants of southwestern North Carolina retained strong native identities expressed through continuity of traditional technologies. However, high frequencies of commercially manufactured goods associated with the metis household (the Christies) occupation also indicate substantially higher levels of material wealth and construction of a Westernized material lifestyle informed by AngloAmerican models. which commercial consumption was particularly prominent. These analyses illustrate the broad themes of variation in Cherokee material culture on the eve of the removal of 1838. The extremes of variation evident in these datasets are interpreted as evidence for differential Westernization of Cherokee households, and illustrate the material modes that conservative Cherokees and Westernized Anglo-Cherokees used to define and distinguish their communities of association as nascent ethnic groups struggling over the cultural identity and political fate of the Cherokee Nation