The Film Score Music of John Williams: A Guide to Selected Works for the Principal Percussionist

John Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. As one of the most well-known, awarded, and financially successful composers in US history, Williams has scored some of the most iconic films of all time. Of note, he has scored more than one hundred films, many of which were directed by Steven Spielberg. This study explores Williams’ writing for pitched and non-pitched percussion, particularly in his scores for E.T the Extra-Terrestrial, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Hook, The Cowboys Overture, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. John Williams’ film music is often scored for an extensive inventory of percussion instruments, frequently requiring five, six, or seven players to delineate and execute the music in its entirety. This study will analyze selected percussion parts orchestrated by John Williams for the purpose of realizing the music using a lesser number of performers. The task of mapping out the percussion music and providing a logistical system to aid the principal percussionist in assigning parts for selected John Williams film scores is an important one. In order to successfully execute these scores with a condensed number of performers, careful consideration must be given to the orchestration and instrumentation of each piece. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, for example, Williams employs a wide range of percussion instruments, including xylophone, glockenspiel, vibraphone, chimes, cymbals, triangle, bass drum, snare drum, and tambourine, among others. By analyzing the score, the principal percussionist can determine which instruments are essential for each section of the piece and assign those parts accordingly. Through this process of analysis and mapping, the principal percussionist can develop a logistical system for assigning parts that allows for the successful execution of these scores with a smaller number of performers. This can be particularly useful for smaller orchestras or ensembles which may not have the resources to hire large forces of percussionists for each performance. The job of the principal percussionist in interpreting John Williams’ film music requires careful attention to detail, a deep understanding of orchestration and instrumentation, and the ability to assign parts strategically to achieve the desired musical effect

Evolution of nesting habitats and metapleural glands in ants

The metapleural gland is a unique and complex structure located on the propodeum of ants. Given its function in immune defence against microbes, it has undoubtedly played an important role in the ecological success of ants by enforcing colony hygiene and preventing diseases. Although this gland has an important antimicrobial function, it has been lost several times. It has been proposed that these losses are due to a shift in nesting habit, i.e. ants living in trees can afford to loose the metapleural gland because this environment harbours fewer microbes. Here we test this idea, the 'Arboreality Hypothesis', by constructing a phylogeny for 48 formicine ant species using eight markers (nuclear and mitochondrial) and Bayesian tree building methods. Character mapping for the presence/absence of the gland and nesting habitat was carried out with SIMMAP including 1000 trees from the posterior distribution of the MCMC run. Our results show several independent losses and regains of the metapleural gland across the subfamily. We also find a significant correlation between the two traits, suggesting that the 'Arboreality Hypothesis' can indeed explain the pattern of presence/absence of the metapleural gland in this group of ants

Registration evaluation of dynamic breast MR images

The interpretation of dynamic contrast-enhanced breast MR images is predicated on the assumption of minimal voxel movement during the time course of the image acquisition. Misalignment of the dynamic image sequence as a result of movement during image acquisition can lead to potentially misleading diagnostic conclusions. In this paper a new methodology is presented for assessing the degree of in-plane (intra-slice) movement in a dynamic image sequence. The method is demonstrated on data from six subjects. The conclusion is that the method makes it possible to quantitatively qualify the accuracy of computed enhancement curves and more importantly to identify unacceptably poor registration

Mutual information-based binarisation of multiple images of an object: an application in medical imaging

A new method for image thresholding of two or more images that are acquired in different modalities or acquisition protocols is proposed. The method is based on measures from information theory and has no underlying free parameters nor does it require training or calibration. The method is based on finding an optimal set of global thresholds, one for each image, by maximising the mutual information above the thresholds while minimising the mutual information below the thresholds. Although some assumptions on the nature of images are made, no assumptions are made by the method on the intensity distributions or on the shape of the image histograms. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated both on synthetic images and medical images from clinical practice. It is then compared against three other thresholding method

Chimpanzee Rights: The Philosophers' Brief

In December 2013, the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) filed a petition for a common law writ of habeas corpus in the New York State Supreme Court on behalf of Tommy, a chimpanzee living alone in a cage in a shed in rural New York (Barlow, 2017). Under animal welfare laws, Tommy’s owners, the Laverys, were doing nothing illegal by keeping him in those conditions. Nonetheless, the NhRP argued that given the cognitive, social, and emotional capacities of chimpanzees, Tommy’s confinement constituted a profound wrong that demanded remedy by the courts. Soon thereafter, the NhRP filed habeas corpus petitions on behalf of Kiko, another chimpanzee housed alone in Niagara Falls, and Hercules and Leo, two chimpanzees held in research facilities at Stony Brook University. Thus began the legal struggle to move these chimpanzees from captivity to a sanctuary, an effort that has led the NhRP to argue in multiple courts before multiple judges. The central point of contention has been whether Tommy, Kiko, Hercules, and Leo have legal rights. To date, no judge has been willing to issue a writ of habeas corpus on their behalf. Such a ruling would mean that these chimpanzees have rights that confinement might violate. Instead, the judges have argued that chimpanzees cannot be bearers of legal rights because they are not, and cannot be persons. In this book we argue that chimpanzees are persons because they are autonomous

Effect of social structure and introduction history on genetic diversity and differentiation

Invasive species are a global threat to biodiversity, and understanding their history and biology is a major goal of invasion biology. Population-genetic approaches allow insights into these features, as population structure is shaped by factors such as invasion history (number, origin and age of introductions) and life-history traits (e.g., mating system, dispersal capability). We compared the relative importance of these factors by investigating two closely related ants, Tetramorium immigrans and Tetramorium tsushimae, that differ in their social structure and invasion history in North America. We used mitochondrial DNA sequences and microsatellite alleles to estimate the source and number of introduction events of the two species, and compared genetic structure among native and introduced populations. Genetic diversity of both species was strongly reduced in introduced populations, which also differed genetically from native populations. Genetic differentiation between ranges and the reduction in microsatellite diversity were more severe in the more recently introduced and supercolonial T. tsushimae. However, the loss of mitochondrial haplotype diversity was more pronounced in T. immigrans, which has single-queen colonies and was introduced earlier. Tetramorium immigrans was introduced at least twice from Western Europe to North America and once independently to South America. Its monogyny might have limited genetic diversity per introduction, but new mutations and successive introductions over a long time may have added to the gene pool in the introduced range. Polygyny in T. tsushimae probably facilitated the simultaneous introduction of several queens from a Japanese population to St. Louis, USA. In addition to identifying introduction pathways, our results reveal how social structure can influence the population-genetic consequences of founder events

Changes in viral load and HBsAg and HBeAg status with age in HBV chronic carriers in The Gambia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Little is known about changes in hepatitis B viral load (HBV DNA) in relation to age in Africa. The aim of this study is to determine the natural course of HBV chronic infection, particularly in relation to sequential changes in serum HBV DNA levels and hepatitis B surface (HBsAg) antigen/hepatitis e antigen (HBeAg) status by age.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study was conducted on 190 HBV chronic carriers, aged 1–19 years who were followed for 19 years. 160, 99 and 123 were traced at 5, 9 and 19 years later. All available samples were tested for HBsAg and HBeAg, whilst 170, 61, 63 and 81 were tested for HBV DNA at the baseline, and at 5, 9 and 19 years following recruitment.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In general HBeAg which correlated with high levels of HBV DNA was lost at a much faster rate than HBsAg. 86% of the carriers who were recruited at the age of 1–4 yrs lost HBeAg by the age of 19 years compared to 30% who lost HBsAg. HBeAg negative carriers had serum HBV DNA levels of < 10⁵copies per mL, HBV DNA positivity declined from 100% in 1–4 yrs old carriers at recruitment to 62.5%,60% and 88% at 5, 9 and 19 years respectively following recruitment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>After 19 years of follow up, the majority of HBV surface antigen carriers had lost HBeAg positivity and had low levels of viral replication. However small proportions (10–20%) retained HBeAg and continue to have high levels of viral replication.</p

Chaotic Sensing

We propose a sparse imaging methodology called Chaotic Sensing (ChaoS) that enables the use of limited yet deterministic linear measurements through fractal sampling. A novel fractal in the discrete Fourier transform is introduced that always results in the artefacts being turbulent in nature. These chaotic artefacts have characteristics that are image independent, facilitating their removal through dampening (via image denoising) and obtaining the maximum likelihood solution. In contrast with existing methods, such as compressed sensing, the fractal sampling is based on digital periodic lines that form the basis of discrete projected views of the image without requiring additional transform domains. This allows the creation of finite iterative reconstruction schemes in recovering an image from its fractal sampling that is also new to discrete tomography. As a result, ChaoS supports linear measurement and optimisation strategies, while remaining capable of recovering a theoretically exact representation of the image. We apply the method to simulated and experimental limited magnetic resonance (MR) imaging data, where restrictions imposed by MR physics typically favour linear measurements for reducing acquisition time

Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) for Papua New Guinea

Developing and least developed countries are particularly vulnerable to the impact of climate change and climate extremes, including drought. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), severe drought caused by the strong El Niño in 2015–2016 affected about 40% of the population, with almost half a million people impacted by food shortages. Recognizing the urgency of enhancing early warning systems to assist vulnerable countries with climate change adaptation, the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) international initiative has been established. In this chapter, the CREWS-PNG project is described. The CREWS-PNG project aims to develop an improved drought monitoring and early warning system, running operationally through a collaboration between PNG National Weather Services (NWS), the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and the World Meteorological Organization that will enable better strategic decision-making for agriculture, water management, health and other climate-sensitive sectors. It is shown that current dynamical climate models can provide skillful predictions of regional rainfall at least 3 months in advance. Dynamical climate model-based forecast products are disseminated through a range of Web-based information tools. It is demonstrated that seasonal climate prediction is an effective solution to assist governments and local communities with informed decision-making in adaptation to climate variability and change