Communicating through notation: Michael Finnissy’s Second String Quartet from composition to performance

This article looks behind the scenes at the notational and interpretative issues arising from the compositional and rehearsal processes embodied in the Second String Quartet by Michael Finnissy, written for the Kreutzer Quartet in 2006-07. The relationship between the individual parts and corporate whole, as represented by the score, or quasi-score, or even the absence of a score, has been of central importance in all of Finnissy’s quartet music to date. Recorded evidence from the rehearsal of the piece is evaluated from both ‘insider’and ‘outsider’ perspectives to demonstrate the extent to which players need to devise new interpretative strategies in response to the specific demands of the notation. Examination of composer-performer interactions reveals how the limits of notation can provide creative tension and imaginative interpretation that contribute to a developing contemporary performance practice

Creative layers and continuities: a case study of Nicole Lizée and the Kronos Quartet

This study examines the creative layers and continuities evident within the composition and rehearsal processes of Nicole Lizée’s Golden Age of the Radiophonic Workshop (Fibre-Optic Flowers), written for the Kronos Quartet in 2012. Lizée’s compositional approach to the historic and the new, and the mechanical and the human, are interpreted through Simon Emmerson’s three themes of combination, transformation, and control, and his three “impulses within composition” that combine live and acousmatic soundworlds – integration, antithesis, and co-existence. These concepts also help to articulate the way the players engage with the physical, psychological, and expressive demands of the piece. Discussions arising from the Kronos Quartet rehearsing the piece with the composer reveal how extensions are made to the performers’ mind and body experiences when they are required both to initiate and integrate sounds emanating from unfamiliar, analogue machines into their acoustic, yet amplified soundworld. Creative layers and continuities are seen to evolve from compositional experimentation and from composer–performer and co-performer dialogues in rehearsal in the BBC Maida Vale studio prior to the world premiere at a BBC Prom concert on 24 July 2012

A modified version of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II for cognitive matching of infants with and without Down syndrome

Background Many measures of infants' early cognitive development, including the BSID-II (The Bayley Scales of Infant Development), mix together test items that assess a number of different developmental domains including language, attention, motor functioning and social abilities, and some items contribute to the assessment of more than one domain. Consequently, the scales may lead to under- or over-estimates of cognitive abilities in some clinical samples and may not be the best measure to use for matching purposes. Method To address this issue we created a modified form of the BSID-II (the BSID-M) to provide a ‘purer’ assessment of the general cognitive capacities in infants with Down syndrome (DS) from 6 to 18 months of age. We excluded a number of items that implicated language, motor, attentional and social functioning from the original measure. This modified form was administered to 17 infants with Down syndrome when 6, 12 and 18 months old and to 41 typically developing infants at 4, 7 and 10 months old. Results The results suggested that the modified form continued to provide a meaningful and stable measure of cognitive functioning and revealed that DS infants may score marginally higher in terms of general cognitive abilities when using this modified form than they might when using the standard BSID-II scales. Conclusions This modified form may be useful for researchers who need a ‘purer’ measure with which to match infants with DS and other infants with intellectual disabilities on cognitive functioning

Why Do Cascade Sizes Follow a Power-Law?

We introduce random directed acyclic graph and use it to model the information diffusion network. Subsequently, we analyze the cascade generation model (CGM) introduced by Leskovec et al. [19]. Until now only empirical studies of this model were done. In this paper, we present the first theoretical proof that the sizes of cascades generated by the CGM follow the power-law distribution, which is consistent with multiple empirical analysis of the large social networks. We compared the assumptions of our model with the Twitter social network and tested the goodness of approximation.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, accepted to WWW 201

Silicon: a benefit or a detriment to plant physiology for Creeping bent (Agrostis stolonifera L.), Sheep's fescue (Festuca ovina L.) and Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.)?

Silicon shows alleviatory effects in many previous studies involving abiotic and biotic stress factors. A germination trial for the optimum concentration of ERA-3 initially showed an optimum dilution factor of 2,500:1 (Distilled water: ERA-3). Over one hundred individuals of each species of Agrostis stolonifera L., Festuca ovina L. and Lolium Perenne L. were all grown for eight weeks in closed hydroponic systems, in warmed greenhouse conditions (15°C). When solely tested, the effects on all three species showed contrasting results to what was expected. In all three selected species, silicon significantly reduced the shoot area, and photosynthetic efficiency (measured as Fv/Fm ratio) as well as reduced tillering. However, predictions of organism density (mass unit-2) and pH condition were true, with increased density when silicon was added and acidic and neutral-alkaline for non-silicon and silicon treatments respectively were seen. Further research needs to be conducted on this product, concerning the cellular level characteristics and effects that the ERA-3 silicon has upon grass physiology. The decrease in organism growth and health suggest that the silicon used has toxicity effects. Highlights: ERA-3 silicon did not promote shoot growth or maintain shoot photosynthetic efficiency. ERA-3 silicon caused reduced number of tillers in all three sample species. ERA-3 creates a more alkaline environment, needing a non-reacting pH buffer to adjust pH. Further research is necessary into cellular level physiology effects of ERA-3 silicon

A continuous model for microtubule dynamics with catastrophe, rescue and nucleation processes

Microtubules are a major component of the cytoskeleton distinguished by highly dynamic behavior both in vitro and in vivo. We propose a general mathematical model that accounts for the growth, catastrophe, rescue and nucleation processes in the polymerization of microtubules from tubulin dimers. Our model is an extension of various mathematical models developed earlier formulated in order to capture and unify the various aspects of tubulin polymerization including the dynamic instability, growth of microtubules to saturation, time-localized periods of nucleation and depolymerization as well as synchronized oscillations exhibited by microtubules under various experimental conditions. Our model, while attempting to use a minimal number of adjustable parameters, covers a broad range of behaviors and has predictive features discussed in the paper. We have analyzed the resultant behaviors of the microtubules changing each of the parameter values at a time and observing the emergence of various dynamical regimes.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figure

Analysis of a microscopic stochastic model of microtubule dynamic instability

A novel theoretical model of dynamic instability of a system of linear (1D) microtubules (MTs) in a bounded domain is introduced for studying the role of a cell edge in vivo and analyzing the effect of competition for a limited amount of tubulin. The model differs from earlier models in that the evolution of MTs is based on the rates of single unit (e.g., a heterodimer per protofilament) transformations, in contrast to postulating effective rates/frequencies of larger-scale changes, extracted, e.g., from the length history plots of MTs. Spontaneous GTP hydrolysis with finite rate after polymerization is assumed, and theoretical estimates of an effective catastrophe frequency as well as other parameters characterizing MT length distributions and cap size are derived. We implement a simple cap model which does not include vectorial hydrolysis. We demonstrate that our theoretical predictions, such as steady state concentration of free tubulin, and parameters of MT length distributions, are in agreement with the numerical simulations. The present model establishes a quantitative link between microscopic parameters governing the dynamics of MTs and macroscopic characteristics of MTs in a closed system. Lastly, we use a computational Monte Carlo model to provide an explanation for non-exponential MT length distributions observed in experiments. In particular, we show that appearance of such non-exponential distributions in the experiments can occur because the true steady state has not been reached, and/or due to the presence of a cell edge.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

Standardized Infant NeuroDevelopmental Assessment developmental and socio-emotional scales:reliability and predictive value in an at-risk population

AIM: To assess the reliability and predictive validity of the developmental and socio-emotional scales of the Standardized Infant NeuroDevelopmental Assessment (SINDA). METHOD: To assess reliability, two sets of three assessors forming eight assessor-pairs independently rated the developmental and socio-emotional scales of 60 infants. To evaluate predictive validity, 223 infants (gestational age 30wks [range 23-41wks]; 117 males, 106 females) attending a non-academic outpatient clinic were assessed by different assessors with SINDA's neurological, developmental, and socio-emotional scales. Atypical neurodevelopmental outcome at a corrected age of 24 months or older implied a Bayley Mental or Psychomotor Developmental Index score of less than 70 or neurological disorder (including cerebral palsy). Behavioural and emotional disorders were classified according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision. Predictive values were calculated from SINDA (2-12mo corrected age, median 7mo) and typical versus atypical outcome, and for intellectual disability only (Mental Developmental Index <70). RESULTS: Assessors highly agreed on the developmental and socio-emotional assessments (developmental scores: Spearman's rank correlation coefficient ρ=0.972; single socio-emotional behaviour items: Cohen's κ=0.783-0.896). At 24 months or older, 65 children had atypical outcome. Atypical neurological scores predicted atypical outcome (sensitivity 83%, specificity 96%); atypical developmental scores predicted intellectual disability (sensitivity 77%, specificity 92%). Atypical emotionality and atypical self-regulation were associated with behavioural and emotional disorders. INTERPRETATION: SINDA's three scales are reliable, and have a satisfactory predictive validity for atypical developmental outcome at 24 months or older in a non-academic outpatient setting. SINDA's developmental scale has promising predictive validity for intellectual disability. SINDA's socio-emotional scale is a tool for caregiver counselling. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: Standardized Infant NeuroDevelopmental Assessment (SINDA)'s developmental and socio-emotional scales have excellent interrater reliability. Replication of the satisfactory validity of SINDA's neurological scale for atypical outcome