Perusing the Stacks: Cataloging Music

This week and last I have been learning about some of the basics of cataloging. While the cataloging of books is often fairly straight forward, such is not case with music. There are some extra, important bits of information that make a big difference in cataloging and finding musical works. [excerpt

Life in the Fishbowl

I was never quite certain what went on in those offices behind the glass windows on the second floor of Musselman Library, but two weeks into my Fortenbaugh Music Librarian Internship I am beginning to get an idea. After talking with some of the staff that work in the fishbowl I have gotten a glimpse at some of the goings on behind the scenes of the librarian. If you’ve ever wondered how all these books and resources came to be or how in the world you are able to find a single thing in this place (maybe with some assistance), well, I can tell you it is not the work of little library fairies. [excerpt

Gender Roots: Conceptualizing Honor Killing and Interpretations of Women\u27s Gender in Muslim Society

The phenomenon of “honor” killing is one that has formed out of deeply rooted concepts of sexuality and gender roles in Muslim societies. These conceptions have been implemented into everyday life and social infrastructure and have created, in some places, a generally accepted power dynamic that subjugates women and generates conceptualizations about women’s sexuality and their assumed obedience. In recent decades the gender constructions of, predominantly, the Middle East and of other Muslim populations have captured the attention of Western thinkers, especially with regards to feminist thought. The Western gaze has produced a number of responses, some of which have reinforced and even strengthened imbalanced gender hierarchies as a means of rejecting Western engagement. The idea of “honor” means something different within the context of Muslim cultures and is not one necessarily accessible to outsiders. The practice of “honor” killing found in some Muslim communities is built on a foundation of gender ideologies that have predominated since pre-modern Muslim society and it is driven by the need to hold onto traditional values

An oscillatory interference model of grid cell firing

We expand upon our proposal that the oscillatory interference mechanism proposed for the phase precession effect in place cells underlies the grid-like firing pattern of dorsomedial entorhinal grid cells (O'Keefe and Burgess (2005) Hippocampus 15:853-866). The original one-dimensional interference model is generalized to an appropriate two-dimensional mechanism. Specifically, dendritic subunits of layer 11 medial entorhinal stellate cells provide multiple linear interference patterns along different directions, with their product determining the firing of the cell. Connection of appropriate speed- and direction- dependent inputs onto dendritic subunits could result from an unsupervised learning rule which maximizes postsynaptic firing (e.g. competitive learning). These inputs cause the intrinsic oscillation of subunit membrane potential to. increase above theta frequency by an amount proportional to the animal's speed of running in the "preferred" direction. The phase difference between this oscillation and a somatic input at theta-frequency essentially integrates velocity so that the interference of the two oscillations reflects distance traveled in the preferred direction. The overall grid pattern is maintained in environmental location by phase reset of the grid cell by place cells receiving sensory input from the environment, and environmental boundaries in particular. We also outline possible variations on the basic model, including the generation of grid-like firing via the interaction of multiple cells rather than via multiple dendritic subunits. Predictions of the interference model are given for the frequency composition of EEG power spectra and temporal autocorrelograms of grid cell firing as functions of the speed and direction of running and the novelty of the environment. (C) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc