Singing Actors and Dancing Singers

This article looks at two recent and widely recognized productions of Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (by choreographer Sasha Waltz, Berlin 2005, and theatre director Sebastian Nübling, Basel 2006) and discusses three main aspects: 1. Genre: coming from a Tanztheater (Waltz) and a Sprechtheater (Nübling) background, each director renegotiates conventions of the operatic genre and consciously evades expectations in pursuit of a new and challenging experience for both the performers and their audience. 2. Physicality: both productions place the performers' bodies at the forefront of the mise-en-scne they remap the singing, dancing, acting body by questioning conventions and expectations commonly found in the production and reception process. 3. Adaptation: both productions take unconventional liberties by adapting in a domain where notions of Werktreue (fidelity to the original work or score) still reign. Adopting ideas from Nicholas Cook and Mikhail Bakhtin, I will argue that the conceptual, musical and theatrical implications of both productions indicate a renegotiation of the social and performative relevance of operatic performance

Risk factors for race-day fatality, distal limb fracture and epistaxis in Thoroughbreds racing on all-weather surfaces in Great Britain (2000 to 2013)

The incidence of race-day injuries in Great Britain (GB) is higher on all-weather (AW) surfaces than on turf. However, to date no studies have focused on identifying risk factors for injury specific to AW racing. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to determine risk factors for fatality, distal limb fracture (DLF) and episodes of epistaxis in flat racing Thoroughbreds racing on AW surfaces in GB. Data included all flat racing starts on AW surfaces (n = 258,193) and race-day veterinary events recorded between 2000 and 2013. Information on additional course-level variables was gathered during face-to-face interviews with racecourse clerks. Horse-, race- and course-level risk factors for each outcome were assessed using mixed-effects multivariable logistic regression including horse as a random effect. A classification tree method was used to identify potential interaction terms for inclusion in the models. During the study period, there were 233 fatalities resulting in a fatality incidence of 0.90 per 1000 starts; 245 DLF with a resultant DLF incidence of 0.95 per 1000 starts and 410 episodes of epistaxis resulting in an epistaxis incidence of 1.59 per 1000 starts. Risk factors varied for each outcome, although some factors were similar across models including the going, racing intensity, horse age, age at first race start, horse and trainer performance variables. Generally, older horses and those that had started racing at an older age were at higher risk of an adverse outcome, albeit with an interaction between the two variables in the fatality model. Faster going increased the odds of epistaxis and DLF but not fatality. Increasing race distance increased the odds of fatality but reduced the odds of epistaxis. Epistaxis was associated with type of AW surface (Fibresand versus Polytrack®), but DLF and fatality were not. This study provides further evidence of the association between the risk of race-day injuries and fatalities and current age, age at first start, race distance, going and horse performance. These findings provide the racing industry with information to develop strategies to reduce the occurrence of race-day events on AW surfaces

Direct Visualization of Antigen-specific CD8+T Cells during the Primary Immune Response to Epstein-Barr Virus In Vivo

Primary infection with virus can stimulate a vigorous cytotoxic T cell response. The magnitude of the antigen-specific component versus the bystander component of a primary T cell response remains controversial. In this study, we have used tetrameric major histocompatibility complex–peptide complexes to directly visualize antigen-specific cluster of differentration (CD)8+ T cells during the primary immune response to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection in humans. We show that massive expansion of activated, antigen-specific T cells occurs during the primary response to this virus. In one individual, T cells specific for a single EBV epitope comprised 44% of the total CD8+ T cells within peripheral blood. The majority of the antigen-specific cells had an activated/memory phenotype, with expression of human histocompatibility leukocyte antigen (HLA) DR, CD38, and CD45RO, downregulation of CD62 leukocyte (CD62L), and low levels of expression of CD45RA. After recovery from AIM, the frequency of antigen-specific T cells fell in most donors studied, although populations of antigen-specific cells continued to be easily detectable for at least 3 yr

Competing orders in a magnetic field: spin and charge order in the cuprate superconductors

We describe two-dimensional quantum spin fluctuations in a superconducting Abrikosov flux lattice induced by a magnetic field applied to a doped Mott insulator. Complete numerical solutions of a self-consistent large N theory provide detailed information on the phase diagram and on the spatial structure of the dynamic spin spectrum. Our results apply to phases with and without long-range spin density wave order and to the magnetic quantum critical point separating these phases. We discuss the relationship of our results to a number of recent neutron scattering measurements on the cuprate superconductors in the presence of an applied field. We compute the pinning of static charge order by the vortex cores in the `spin gap' phase where the spin order remains dynamically fluctuating, and argue that these results apply to recent scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) measurements. We show that with a single typical set of values for the coupling constants, our model describes the field dependence of the elastic neutron scattering intensities, the absence of satellite Bragg peaks associated with the vortex lattice in existing neutron scattering observations, and the spatial extent of charge order in STM observations. We mention implications of our theory for NMR experiments. We also present a theoretical discussion of more exotic states that can be built out of the spin and charge order parameters, including spin nematics and phases with `exciton fractionalization'.Comment: 36 pages, 33 figures; for a popular introduction, see http://onsager.physics.yale.edu/superflow.html; (v2) Added reference to new work of Chen and Ting; (v3) reorganized presentation for improved clarity, and added new appendix on microscopic origin; (v4) final published version with minor change

Measurement of double beta decay of 100Mo to excited states in the NEMO 3 experiment

The double beta decay of 100Mo to the 0^+_1 and 2^+_1 excited states of 100Ru is studied using the NEMO 3 data. After the analysis of 8024 h of data the half-life for the two-neutrino double beta decay of 100Mo to the excited 0^+_1 state is measured to be T^(2nu)_1/2 = [5.7^{+1.3}_{-0.9}(stat)+/-0.8(syst)]x 10^20 y. The signal-to-background ratio is equal to 3. Information about energy and angular distributions of emitted electrons is also obtained. No evidence for neutrinoless double beta decay to the excited 0^+_1 state has been found. The corresponding half-life limit is T^(0nu)_1/2(0^+ --> 0^+_1) > 8.9 x 10^22 y (at 90% C.L.). The search for the double beta decay to the 2^+_1 excited state has allowed the determination of limits on the half-life for the two neutrino mode T^(2nu)_1/2(0^+ --> 2^+_1) > 1.1 x 10^21 y (at 90% C.L.) and for the neutrinoless mode T^(0nu)_1/2(0^+ --> 2^+_1) > 1.6 x 10^23 y (at 90% C.L.).Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables, submitted to Nucl. Phy

Synovial and systemic pharmacokinetics (PK) of triamcinolone acetonide (TA) following intra-articular (IA) injection of an extended-release microsphere-based formulation (FX006) or standard crystalline suspension in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA)

Objective: Intra-articular (IA) corticosteroids relieve osteoarthritis (OA) pain, but rapid absorption into systemic circulation may limit efficacy and produce untoward effects. We compared the pharmacokinetics of IA triamcinolone acetonide (TA) delivered as an extended-release, microsphere-based formulation (FX006) vs a crystalline suspension (TAcs) in knee OA patients. Method: This Phase 2 open-label study sequentially enrolled 81 patients who received a single IA injection of FX006 (5 mL, 32mg delivered dose, N=63) or TAcs (1 mL, 40mg, N=18). Synovial fluid (SF) aspiration was attempted in each patient at baseline and one post-IA-injection visit (FX006: Week1, Week6, Week12, Week16 or Week20; TAcs: Week6). Blood was collected at baseline and multiple post-injection times. TA concentrations (validated LC-MS/MS, geometric means), pharmacokinetics (non-compartmental analysis models), and adverse events (AEs) were assessed. Results: SF TA concentrations following FX006 were quantifiable through Week12 (pg/mL: 231,328.9 at Week1; 3590.0 at Week6; 290.6 at Week12); post-TAcs, only 2 of 8 patients had quantifiable SF TA at Week6 (7.7 pg/mL). Following FX006, plasma TA gradually increased to peak (836.4 pg/mL) over 24 hours and slowly declined to <110 pg/mL over Weeks12-20; following TAcs, plasma TA peaked at 4 hours (9,628.8 pg/mL), decreased to 4,991.1 pg/mL at 24 hours, and was 149.4 pg/mL at Week6, the last post-treatment time point assessed. AEs were similar between groups. Conclusion: In knee OA patients, microsphere-based TA delivery via a single IA injection prolonged SF joint residency, diminished peak plasma levels, and thus reduced systemic TA exposure relative to TAcs

Global maps of soil temperature.

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km <sup>2</sup> resolution for 0-5 and 5-15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e. offset) between in situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km <sup>2</sup> pixels (summarized from 8519 unique temperature sensors) across all the world's major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (-0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications

Singing Actors and Dancing Singers. Oscillations of genre, physical and vocal codes in two contemporary adaptations of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas

This article looks at two recent and widely recognized productions of Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (by choreographer Sasha Waltz, Berlin 2005, and theatre director Sebastian Nübling, Basel 2006) and discusses three main aspects: 1. Genre: coming from a Tanztheater (Waltz) and a Sprechtheater (Nübling) background, each director renegotiates conventions of the operatic genre and consciously evades expectations in pursuit of a new and challenging experience for both the performers and their audience. 2. Physicality: both productions place the performers' bodies at the forefront of the mise-en-scne they remap the singing, dancing, acting body by questioning conventions and expectations commonly found in the production and reception process. 3. Adaptation: both productions take unconventional liberties by adapting in a domain where notions of Werktreue (fidelity to the original work or score) still reign. Adopting ideas from Nicholas Cook and Mikhail Bakhtin, I will argue that the conceptual, musical and theatrical implications of both productions indicate a renegotiation of the social and performative relevance of operatic performance