Primary Rhetoric and the Structure of a Passacaglia

The art of the musician is much like that of the orator. Both are charged with the delivery of a sonic medium over the unfolding course of time. Furthermore, both the orator and musician must be attentive to disposition of their audience if they are to communicate effectively. Since the genesis of the discipline of rhetoric in Sicily in 5th Century BC, the musician has been invoked as a model for the rhetorician. Over time, musical theorists and composers extoled the rhetorical methods of such figures as Cicero and Quintilian, regarding them as a model for creating music. This interest in rhetoric among musicians of the German Baroque culminated in a movement known as musica poetica. Simultaneous with the development of musica poetica was the emergence of a musical genre known as the passacaglia, which is a series of variations founded upon an ostinato in the bass. While this genre started out as an improvised folk tradition, it was quickly cultivated into a refined musical genre. Unlike many musical genres or forms, the passacaglia is not formally marked by contrasting sections such as a ritornello and episode. Rather, it is defined by the unwavering presence of a single melodic idea in a single key. As such, this genre holds the dangerous possibility of monotony. However, I argue that a skilled composer, equipped with a keen sense of proportion and the tools of oratory rhetoric, can produce a highly engaging composition in this genre. In applying the principles of rhetoric to music, it is important to distinguish between primary rhetoric, which concerns itself with the structure of a persuasive discourse, and secondary rhetoric, which is oriented toward small-scale poetic gestures or figures of speech. I argue that a fruitful application of rhetorical principles to music should be focused on primary rhetoric and that subsequent considerations of secondary rhetoric are of interest only insofar as they contribute to the broader narrative of primary rhetoric. Bach’s Passacaglia in C Minor, BWV 582, serves as an apt exemplar for musico-rhetorical analysis. In this document, I propose an analysis that divides the work into separate, composite sections that correspond to Quintilian’s five-part structure for an oration

Influence of chemical disorder on atomic structure in high-entropy diborides

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed on a set of high-entropy metal diborides composed of five equimolar transition metals in the layered hexagonal AlB2 structure. Atomic structure data was explored and related to that of experimentally synthesized bulk samples of this new class of ultra-high temperature ceramics. Charge disorder and lattice distortions of the relaxed structures were measured and compared between compositions. Interactions between near-neighbor atom pairs were analyzed to explore the effects of constituent elements on the local atomic structure. The high-entropy compositions allow for the incorporation of Mo into the AlB2 structure where it is typically not stable, as well as allowing for Cr concentrations well above the low solubility limit in conventional early transition metal diborides. The presence of these group six elements in certain compositions creates large lattice distortions within a stable single phase structure. Atom pair interactions were further explored by the introduction of vacancies in the structure. Vacancy formation energies were calculated by DFT methods for lattice sites with varying chemical coordination. Preferential vacancy configurations were examined as well as possible effects of atom pair interactions on short-range ordering of elements. Unexpected diffusion behavior observed in high temperature oxidation experiments was explored as it relates to vacancy configurations and vacancy mediated self-diffusion in high-entropy diborides. This work is supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research MURI program (grant No. N00014-15- 1-2863)

Fenytoiinin, karbamatsepiinin ja valproiinihapon farmakokinetiikan ongelmakohtia : Kättä pidempää epilepsiapotilaita hoitavalle kliinikolle

English summaryPeer reviewe

PERSONALIZED MEDICINE: The Challenge for the Health Care System and the Community

Objectives To determine those performance indicators that have the greatest influence on classifying outcome at the elite level of mixed martial arts (MMA). A secondary objective was to establish the efficacy of decision tree analysis in explaining the characteristics of victory when compared to alternate statistical methods. Design Cross-sectional observational. Methods Eleven raw performance indicators from male Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts (n = 234) from July 2014 to December 2014 were screened for analysis. Each raw performance indicator was also converted to a rate-dependent measure to be scaled to fight duration. Further, three additional performance indicators were calculated from the dataset and included in the analysis. Cohen\u27s d effect sizes were employed to determine the magnitude of the differences between Wins and Losses, while decision tree (chi-square automatic interaction detector (CHAID)) and discriminant function analyses (DFA) were used to classify outcome (Win and Loss). Results Effect size comparisons revealed differences between Wins and Losses across a number of performance indicators. Decision tree (raw: 71.8%; rate-scaled: 76.3%) and DFA (raw: 71.4%; rate-scaled 71.2%) achieved similar classification accuracies. Grappling and accuracy performance indicators were the most influential in explaining outcome. The decision tree models also revealed multiple combinations of performance indicators leading to victory. Conclusions The decision tree analyses suggest that grappling activity and technique accuracy are of particular importance in achieving victory in elite-level MMA competition. The DFA results supported the importance of these performance indicators. Decision tree induction represents an intuitive and slightly more accurate approach to explaining bout outcome in this sport when compared to DFA

High-entropy metal diborides: a new class of ultra-high temperature ceramics

Several equimolar, five-component, metal diborides were fabricated via high-energy ball milling and spark plasma sintering [Scientific Reports 6:37946 (2016)] or conventional pressure-less sintering. Most compositions synthesized, e.g., (Hf0.2Zr0.2Ta0.2Nb0.2Ti0.2)B2, (Hf0.2Zr0.2Ta0.2Mo0.2Ti0.2)B2 and several others, processed single solid-solution phases of the hexagonal AlB2 structure, while a few other compositions yielded two or more boride phases. These materials represent a new type of ultra-high temperature ceramic (UHTC) as well as a new class of high-entropy materials that possess a non-cubic (hexagonal) and layered (quasi-2D) crystal structure (Fig. 1). Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Measurements and simulations of the phonon thermal conductivity of entropy stabilized alloys

The phonon thermal conductivity of solids is intimately related to any changes in atomic scale periodicity. As a classic example, the phonon thermal conductivity of alloys can be greatly reduces as compared to that of the corresponding non-alloy parent materials. However, the improved mechanical properties and environmental stability of alloyed materials makes these multi-atom solids ideal for a wide variety of applications. In this sense, entropy stabilized oxides and high entropy diborides are promising new materials that have potential to withstand extreme environments consisting of high temperatures and pressures. In these novel materials, thermal characterization is essential for understanding and predicting performance at elevated temperatures, as the presence of multi atomic species (5+ different atoms) in these solid solutions could lead to drastically modified phonon scattering rates and thermal conductivities. In this talk, we present recent measurements and molecular dynamics simulations on multiple atom alloys, including entropy stabilized oxides and high entropy diborides. We use time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR), and optical pump-probe technique, to measure the thermal conductivity of these various systems. We also demonstrate the ability to extend TDTR measurements to temperatures above 1000 deg. C. The TDTR measurements show drastic reductions in the thermal conductivity of these crystalline solid solution materials, approaching values of the amorphous phases. These reductions in thermal conductivity can not be explained by phonon-mass scattering alone. Thus, to investigate the nature of the reduction in thermal conductivity of these multi-atom solid solutions, we turn to classical molecular dynamics simulations. In agreement with the Klemens’ perturbation theory, the thermal conductivity reduction due to mass scattering alone is found to reach a critical point, whereby adding more impurity atoms in the solid solution does not reduce the thermal conductivity. A further decrease in thermal conductivity requires a change in local strain-field, which together with mass defect scattering can lead to ultralow thermal conductivities in solid solutions, which surpasses the theoretical minimum limit of the corresponding amorphous phases. These simulations qualitatively agree well with our experimental measurements, and add insight into the nature of phonon scattering in entropy stabilized materials. This work is supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research MURI program (grant No. N00014-15-1-2863)

Phonon scattering mechanisms contributing to the low thermal conductivities of entropy stabilized oxides and high entropy carbides

The phonon thermal conductivity of solids is intimately related to any changes in atomic scale periodicity. As a classic example, the phonon thermal conductivity of alloys can be greatly reduced as compared to that of the corresponding non-alloy parent materials. However, the improved mechanical properties and environmental stability of alloyed materials makes these multi-atom solids ideal for a wide variety of applications. In this sense, entropy stabilized oxides and high entropy carbides are promising new materials that have potential to withstand extreme environments consisting of high temperatures and pressures. In these novel materials, thermal characterization is essential for understanding and predicting performance at elevated temperatures, as the presence of multi atomic species (5+ different atoms) in these solid solutions could lead to drastically modified phonon scattering rates and thermal conductivities. In this talk, we present recent measurements and molecular dynamics simulations on multiple atom alloys, including entropy stabilized oxides and high entropy diborides. We use time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR), and optical pump-probe technique, to measure the thermal conductivity of these various systems. We also demonstrate the ability to extend TDTR measurements to temperatures above 1000 deg. C. The TDTR measurements show drastic reductions in the thermal conductivity of these crystalline solid solution materials, approaching values of the amorphous phases. These reductions in thermal conductivity can not be explained by phonon-mass scattering alone. Thus, to investigate the nature of the reduction in thermal conductivity of these multi-atom solid solutions, we turn to classical molecular dynamics simulations. In agreement with the Klemens’ perturbation theory, the thermal conductivity reduction due to mass scattering alone is found to reach a critical point, whereby adding more impurity atoms in the solid solution does not reduce the thermal conductivity. A further decrease in thermal conductivity requires a change in local strain-field, which together with mass defect scattering can lead to ultralow thermal conductivities in solid solutions, which surpasses the theoretical minimum limit of the corresponding amorphous phases. These simulations qualitatively agree well with our experimental measurements, and add insight into the nature of phonon scattering in entropy stabilized materials. This work is supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research MURI program (grant No. N00014-15-1-2863

Chronic Diseases in North-West Tanzania and Southern Uganda. Public Perceptions of Terminologies, Aetiologies, Symptoms and Preferred Management

Research outputs produced to support a quantitative population survey, quantitative health facility survey, focus groups and in-depth interviews performed by the projec

Genome-wide association and Mendelian randomisation analysis provide insights into the pathogenesis of heart failure

Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. A small proportion of HF cases are attributable to monogenic cardiomyopathies and existing genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have yielded only limited insights, leaving the observed heritability of HF largely unexplained. We report results from a GWAS meta-analysis of HF comprising 47,309 cases and 930,014 controls. Twelve independent variants at 11 genomic loci are associated with HF, all of which demonstrate one or more associations with coronary artery disease (CAD), atrial fibrillation, or reduced left ventricular function, suggesting shared genetic aetiology. Functional analysis of non-CAD-associated loci implicate genes involved in cardiac development (MYOZ1, SYNPO2L), protein homoeostasis (BAG3), and cellular senescence (CDKN1A). Mendelian randomisation analysis supports causal roles for several HF risk factors, and demonstrates CAD-independent effects for atrial fibrillation, body mass index, and hypertension. These findings extend our knowledge of the pathways underlying HF and may inform new therapeutic strategies