Flexibility of expressive timing in repeated musical performances

Performances by soloists in the Western classical tradition are normally highly prepared, yet must sound fresh and spontaneous. How do musicians manage this? We tested the hypothesis that they achieve the necessary spontaneity by varying the musical gestures that express their interpretation of a piece. We examined the tempo arches produced by final slowing at the ends of phrases in performances of J. S. Bach’s No. 6 (Prelude) for solo cello (12 performances) and the Italian Concerto (Presto) for solo piano (eight performances). The performances were given by two experienced concert soloists during a short time period (3½ months for the Prelude, 2 weeks for the Presto) after completing their preparations for public performance. We measured the tempo of each bar or half-bar, and the stability of tempo across performances (difference of the tempo of each bar/half bar from each of the other performances). There were phrase arches for both tempo and stability with slower, less stable tempi at beginnings and ends of phrases and faster, more stable tempi mid-phrase. The effects of practice were complex. Tempo decreased overall with practice, while stability increased in some bars and decreased in others. One effect of practice may be to imbue well-learned, automatic motor sequences with freshness and spontaneity through cognitive control at phrase boundaries where slower tempi and decreased stability provide opportunities for slower cognitive processes to modulate rapid automatic motor sequences

Broad redshifted line as a signature of outflow

We formulate and solve the diffusion problem of line photon propagation in a bulk outflow from a compact object (black hole or neutron star) using a generic assumption regarding the distribution of line photons within the outflow. Thomson scattering of the line photons within the expanding flow leads to a decrease of their energy which is of first order in v/c, where v is the outflow velocity and c is the speed of light. We demonstrate that the emergent line profile is closely related to the time distribution of photons diffusing through the flow (the light curve) and consists of a broad redshifted feature. We analyzed the line profiles for the general case of outflow density distribution. We emphasize that the redshifted lines are intrinsic properties of the powerful outflow that are supposed to be in many compact objects.Comment: 16 pages, 1 black-white figure and 2 color figures; accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Probabilistically-robust nonlinear control of offshore structures

A controller design for offshore structures is discussed in this study. Stochastic simulation is considered for evaluation of the system's performance in the design stage. This way, nonlinear characteristics of the structural response and excitation are explicitly incorporated into the model assumed for the system. Model parameters that have some level of uncertainty are probabilistically described. In this context, the controller is designed for optimal reliability, quantified as the probability, based on the available information, that the performance will not exceed some acceptable bounds. This treatment leads to a robust-to-uncertainty design. The methodology is illustrated in an example involving the control of a Tension Leg Platform in a random sea environment. Multifold nonlinearities are taken into account for the evaluation of the platform's dynamic response and a probabilistic description is adopted for characterizing the random sea environment

A longitudinal study of the development of expressive timing

Tempo arches have often been reported in polished music performances, but their development during the learning of a new piece has not been studied. We examined the development of expressive timing at three levels of musical structure (piece, section, phrase) as an experienced concert soloist (the second author) prepared the Prelude from J. S. Bach’s Suite No. 6 for solo cello for public performance. We used mixed effect models to assess the development of expressive timing and the effects of the performance cues (PCs) that the cellist used as mental landmarks to guide her performance. Tempo arches appeared early in practice at all three levels of musical structure and changed over time in complex ways, first becoming more pronounced and more asymmetrical and then shrinking somewhat in later performances. Arches were also more pronounced in phrases that contained PCs, suggesting that PCs reminded the cellist where to “breathe” between phrases. The early development of tempo arches suggests that they were an automatic product of basic cognitive or motor processes. The complex trajectory of their later development appeared to be the result, at least in part, of a deliberate communicative strategy intended to draw listeners’ attention to some musical boundaries more than others

Microscopy with ultraviolet surface excitation for rapid slide-free histology.

Histologic examination of tissues is central to the diagnosis and management of neoplasms and many other diseases, and is a foundational technique for preclinical and basic research. However, commonly used bright-field microscopy requires prior preparation of micrometre-thick tissue sections mounted on glass slides, a process that can require hours or days, that contributes to cost, and that delays access to critical information. Here, we introduce a simple, non-destructive slide-free technique that within minutes provides high-resolution diagnostic histological images resembling those obtained from conventional haematoxylin-and-eosin-histology. The approach, which we named microscopy with ultraviolet surface excitation (MUSE), can also generate shape and colour-contrast information. MUSE relies on ~280-nm ultraviolet light to restrict the excitation of conventional fluorescent stains to tissue surfaces, and it has no significant effects on downstream molecular assays (including fluorescence in situ hybridization and RNA-seq). MUSE promises to improve the speed and efficiency of patient care in both state-of-the-art and low-resource settings, and to provide opportunities for rapid histology in research

New development: Directly elected mayors in Italy: creating a strong leader doesn’t mean creating strong leadership

More than 20 years after their introduction, directly elected mayors are key players in Italian urban governance. This article explains the main effects of this reform on local government systems and provides lessons for other countries considering directly elected mayors

Advances in Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging of Breast Lesions

A review is presented of recent advances in optical imaging and spectroscopy and the use of light for addressing breast cancer issues. Spectroscopic techniques offer the means to characterize tissue components and obtain functional information in real time. Three-dimensional optical imaging of the breast using various illumination and signal collection schemes in combination with image reconstruction algorithms may provide a new tool for cancer detection and monitoring of treatment

A-MAPS: Augmented MAPS Dataset with Rhythm and Key Annotations

The MAPS dataset is the most used benchmark dataset for automatic music transcription (AMT). We propose here an updated version of the ground truth, containing precise beat, time signature, and key signature annotations

Histone deacetylase adaptation in single ventricle heart disease and a young animal model of right ventricular hypertrophy.

BackgroundHistone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are promising therapeutics for various forms of cardiac diseases. The purpose of this study was to assess cardiac HDAC catalytic activity and expression in children with single ventricle (SV) heart disease of right ventricular morphology, as well as in a rodent model of right ventricular hypertrophy (RVH).MethodsHomogenates of right ventricle (RV) explants from non-failing controls and children born with a SV were assayed for HDAC catalytic activity and HDAC isoform expression. Postnatal 1-day-old rat pups were placed in hypoxic conditions, and echocardiographic analysis, gene expression, HDAC catalytic activity, and isoform expression studies of the RV were performed.ResultsClass I, IIa, and IIb HDAC catalytic activity and protein expression were elevated in the hearts of children born with a SV. Hypoxic neonatal rats demonstrated RVH, abnormal gene expression, elevated class I and class IIb HDAC catalytic activity, and protein expression in the RV compared with those in the control.ConclusionsThese data suggest that myocardial HDAC adaptations occur in the SV heart and could represent a novel therapeutic target. Although further characterization of the hypoxic neonatal rat is needed, this animal model may be suitable for preclinical investigations of pediatric RV disease and could serve as a useful model for future mechanistic studies

西村先生講話 第二回

Nexus file containing phased alleles from BDNF sequences of Sunda shelf Crocidura. This alignment was used to generate the gene trees in Figures S1 and S