5,800 research outputs found
Indie encounters: exploring indie music socialising in China
Indie music, a genre deeply rooted in rock and punk music, is renowned for its independence from major commercial record labels. It has emerged as a choice for music consumers seeking alternatives to mainstream popular music, catering to a niche music preference. The minority nature of indie music not only provides its lovers with a profound space for individual expression and a sense of collective belonging but also introduces other challenges into their social lives. Recently, the field of music sociology has proposed a more diverse perspective to observe and analyse the intricate role of music for individuals and society. In this context, regarding Chinese indie music lovers with niche music preferences, how their indie music practices integrate into their social lives and how they navigate their niche music tastes have become worthwhile topics of exploration.
Drawing on interviews with 31 Chinese indie music lovers and extensive online ethnography, this thesis investigates how Chinese indie music lovers comprehend and engage with indie music, and how the power of indie music shapes them and their social behaviours.
I employ the theoretical framework of ‘music in action’ (Hennion, 2001; DeNora, 2011, 2016) and symbolic interactionism (Mead, 1934; Goffman, 1959; Blumer, 1969) to examine the dynamic and multifaceted roles of indie music in the social lives of Chinese indie music lovers. I develop a concept of ‘music socialising’ to delve into several key aspects of music lovers’ social practices. I contend that through various forms of musical activities such as music selection, live music attendance, and digital practices, indie music lovers exhibit strategic and reflexive characteristics in their music practices. These practices actively contribute to constructing and maintaining self and identity, negotiating social ties, and forming and mediating collectivity within a broader social landscape. It is through these processes that the music practices of Chinese indie music lovers are endowed with meanings, thereby shaping their social reality. This thesis presents a rich and nuanced picture of the social experiences of Chinese indie music lovers, uncovering the transformative power of their indie music practices. It presents a compelling argument for the significance of music as a social agency, highlighting the complex interactions between music, individuals, and society. By bridging theoretical insights with rich empirical data, this thesis contributes to our understanding of the socio-cultural dimensions of music, offering fresh perspectives on the role of indie music in contemporary Chinese society
Dual-wavelength DFB laser array based on sidewall grating and lateral modulation of the grating coupling coefficient
A monolithic dual-wavelength DFB laser array based on sidewall gratings and a novel modulation of the grating coupling coefficient is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. The grating coupling coefficient distribution along the cavity is modulated by changing the alignment between the gratings on the two sidewalls. The frequency difference between the two lasing modes can be modulated by changing the cavity length and grating recess depth. A series of microwave signals in the range of 50 GHz to 59 GHz is observed after beating the two optical lines in a photodetector. The measured optical linewidths are 250 kHz and 850 kHz when the cavity length is 1200 μm and 1000 μm, respectively
A Critical Review Of Post-Secondary Education Writing During A 21st Century Education Revolution
Educational materials are effective instruments which provide information and report new discoveries uncovered by researchers in specific areas of academia. Higher education, like other education institutions, rely on instructional materials to inform its practice of educating adult learners. In post-secondary education, developmental English programs are tasked with meeting the needs of dynamic populations, thus there is a continuous need for research in this area to support its changing landscape. However, the majority of scholarly thought in this area centers on K-12 reading and writing. This paucity presents a phenomenon to the post-secondary community. This research study uses a qualitative content analysis to examine peer-reviewed journals from 2003-2017, developmental online websites, and a government issued document directed toward reforming post-secondary developmental education programs. These highly relevant sources aid educators in discovering informational support to apply best practices for student success. Developmental education serves the purpose of addressing literacy gaps for students transitioning to college-level work. The findings here illuminate the dearth of material offered to developmental educators. This study suggests the field of literacy research is fragmented and highlights an apparent blind spot in scholarly literature with regard to English writing instruction. This poses a quandary for post-secondary literacy researchers in the 21st century and establishes the necessity for the literacy research community to commit future scholarship toward equipping college educators teaching writing instruction to underprepared adult learners
Acousto-Optic Modulation in Ambient Air
Control over intensity, shape, direction and phase of coherent light is a
cornerstone of 20 photonics. Modern laser optics, however, frequently demands
parameter regimes where either the wavelength or the optical power restricts
control e.g. due to absorption or damage. Limitations are imposed by the
properties of solid media, upon which most photonic control schemes rely. We
propose to circumvent these limitations using gas media tailored by
high-intensity ultrasound waves. We demonstrate a first implementation of this
approach by modulating ultrashort laser 25 pulses using ultrasound waves in
ambient air, entirely omitting transmissive solid media. At peak powers of 20
GW exceeding the limits of solid-based acousto-optical modulation by about
three orders of magnitude, we reach a diffraction efficiency greater than 50%
while preserving excellent beam quality. Our results open a route towards
versatile gas-phase Sono-Photonic methods, i.e. gas-based photonic systems
controlled by sonic waves.Comment: 20 pages, including 11 pages of main text and 9 pages of
supplementary text, 3 figures, 3 supplemtary figures, 1 supplementary tabl
Auditable and performant Byzantine consensus for permissioned ledgers
Permissioned ledgers allow users to execute transactions against a data store, and retain proof of their execution in a replicated ledger. Each replica verifies the transactions’ execution and ensures that, in perpetuity, a committed transaction cannot be removed from the ledger. Unfortunately, this is not guaranteed by today’s permissioned ledgers, which can be re-written if an arbitrary number of replicas collude. In addition, the transaction throughput of permissioned ledgers is low, hampering real-world deployments, by not taking advantage of multi-core CPUs and hardware accelerators.
This thesis explores how permissioned ledgers and their consensus protocols can be made auditable in perpetuity; even when all replicas collude and re-write the ledger. It also addresses how Byzantine consensus protocols can be changed to increase the execution throughput of complex transactions. This thesis makes the following contributions:
1. Always auditable Byzantine consensus protocols. We present a permissioned ledger system that can assign blame to individual replicas regardless of how many of them misbehave. This is achieved by signing and storing consensus protocol messages in the ledger and providing clients with signed, universally-verifiable receipts.
2. Performant transaction execution with hardware accelerators. Next, we describe a cloud-based ML inference service that provides strong integrity guarantees, while staying compatible with current inference APIs. We change the Byzantine consensus protocol to execute machine learning (ML) inference computation on GPUs to optimize throughput and latency of ML inference computation.
3. Parallel transactions execution on multi-core CPUs. Finally, we introduce a permissioned ledger that executes transactions, in parallel, on multi-core CPUs. We separate the execution of transactions between the primary and secondary replicas. The primary replica executes transactions on multiple CPU cores and creates a dependency graph of the transactions that the backup replicas utilize to execute transactions in parallel.Open Acces
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