Musical expeditions of the Venda

The Venda tribe, who live in the Northern Transvaal on the middle Limpopo River, mostly on the south bank in the region north of Louis Trichardt, are noted for their Reed-flute ensembles. Professor Kirby has given us a detailed description of them. The ensemble consists of a set of from nineteen to twenty-six stopped bamboo pipes: they are end-blown, and as each produces only one note, a separate player is needed for every pipe. The pipes are each tuned to a different pitch and together yield a heptatonic scale covering from about two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half octaves, according to the number of pipes in the set

Música, cultura e experiência

.A “música” é um sistema modelar primáriodo pensamento humano e uma parte da infra-estrutura da vida humana. O fazer “musical”é um tipo especial de ação social que pode terimportantes conseqüências para outros tiposde ação social. A música não é apenas reflexiva,mas também gerativa, tanto como sistema cul-tural quanto como capacidade humana. Umaimportante tarefa da musicologia é descobrircomo as pessoas produzem sentido da “músi-ca”, numa variedade de situações sociais e emdiferentes contextos culturais, distinguindoentre as capacidades humanas inatas utilizadaspelos indivíduos nesse processo e as convençõessociais que guiam suas ações

Music in Uganda

I visited many parts of Uganda, with the exception of West Nile, and almost everywhere I was struck by the vitality of musical traditions. Even the music played on Western instruments was usually African in idiom. There is, however, an urgent need to co-ordinate research into Ugandan music; to ensure that efficient methods and high standards of scholarship are maintained; to centralize research materials, so that they are readily available to students; and above all to utilize to the full the talents and enthusiasm of the many Ugandans who have already begun to investigate their own music

Patterns of Nsenga Kalimba music

The recordings on which this analysis is based, were made between July 24th and August 7th, 1961, in the Petauke District of the Eastern Province of Northern Rhodesia. Some of them appear on Side 1 of Volume II in the series of three long-playing records, Music from Petauke, published by Ethnic Folkways Library, New York. Dr. Raymond Apthorpe, in his capacity as Research Sociologist of the Rhodes- Livingstone Institute, Lusaka, had already done several months fieldwork amongst the Nsenga, when he suggested to the acting director of the Institute, Mr. C.M.N. White, M.B.E., that I should be invited to make a brief, but concentrated, study of Nsenga music. I am most grateful to all those who have made this study possible, and especially to the Council of the University of the Witwatersrand, whose Research Committee made a most generous grant to enable me to have a Nagra IIIC Portable Tape Recorder, and to cover some of the costs of preparing this analysis. Above all, I should like to thank the Nsenga musicians who responded patiently and graciously to my enquiries about their art

Problems of pitch, pattern and harmony in the ocarina music of the Venda

This paper aims both to describe some features of Venda ocarina music and to relate these findings to a problem of method in ethno-musicology

Investigating the cancer stem cell hypothesis in canine tumours

The cancer stem cell hypothesis has recently re-emerged as a compelling paradigm for the development and progression of neoplastic disease. The hypothesis proposes that a specific subset of “cancer stem cells” (CSC), believed to share many features with normal stem cells, is exclusively responsible for maintaining tumour growth and driving progression. If the CSC hypothesis applies, it may require re-evaluation of the clinical approach to neoplasia. Spontaneous cancer in the domestic dog represents a significant welfare problem, with dogs developing many tumours strongly reminiscent of those affecting humans. This study sought to investigate whether cells with characteristics of CSC are identifiable in canine cancer. Assays to identify, isolate and characterise CSC were adapted to the canine system, and cancer cell lines and spontaneous tumours of diverse origin evaluated for the presence of candidate populations. Whilst analysis of surface expression patterns did not identify specific subpopulations within canine cancer cell lines, these were detectable in cells derived directly from primary tumours. Assays for stem cellassociated drug resistance mechanisms could also be used to identify subsets of putative canine CSC. Formation of “tumourspheres” by canine cancer cell lines was found to be highly density-dependent, so a potentially unreliable method of isolating CSC. Expression of the cell surface glycoprotein CD44 was associated with cellular proliferation status, although it may not represent a stable canine CSC marker. The NFκB survival pathway, associated with apoptosis resistance of some putative CSC, was constitutively active in canine cancer cell lines; suppression using specific inhibitors could reduce cell viability, indicating that this may represent a rational therapeutic target. Overall, these studies demonstrated that CSC assays may be adapted to the canine model system, although they require rigorous interrogation to distinguish apparent CSC attributes from basic biological properties. Cell lines have provided a stable background upon which to optimise assays, but appear less likely to demonstrate discrete CSC subpopulations. Putative CSC subsets may be more readily identifiable within heterogeneous primary tumour cells. The application of some of these adapted assays within a clinical setting may enable further characterisation of individual patients’ tumours, and inform therapeutic regimes for improved treatment outcomes

The ice-breaker effect: Singing mediates fast social bonding

It has been proposed that singing evolved to facilitate social cohesion. However, it remains unclear whether bonding arises out of properties intrinsic to singing or whether any social engagement can have a similar effect. Furthermore, previous research has used one-off singing sessions without exploring the emergence of social bonding over time. In this semi-naturalistic study, we followed newly formed singing and non-singing (crafts or creative writing) adult education classes over seven months. Participants rated their closeness to their group and their affect, and were given a proxy measure of endorphin release, before and after their class, at three timepoints (months 1, 3 and 7). We show that although singers and non-singers felt equally connected by timepoint 3, singers experienced much faster bonding: singers demonstrated a significantly greater increase in closeness at timepoint 1, but the more gradual increase shown by non-singers caught up over time. This represents the first evidence for an ‘ice-breaker effect’ of singing in promoting fast cohesion between unfamiliar individuals, which bypasses the need for personal knowledge of group members gained through prolonged interaction. We argue that singing may have evolved to quickly bond large human groups of relative strangers, potentially through encouraging willingness to coordinate by enhancing positive affect

Feline mammary carcinoma stem cells are tumorigenic, radioresistant, chemoresistant and defective in activation of the ATM/p53 DNA damage pathway

AbstractCancer stem cells were identified in a feline mammary carcinoma cell line by demonstrating expression of CD133 and utilising the tumour sphere assay. A population of cells was identified that had an invasive, mesenchymal phenotype, expressed markers of pluripotency and enhanced tumour formation in the NOD-SCID mouse and chick embryo models. This population of feline mammary carcinoma stem cells was resistant to chemotherapy and radiation, possibly due to aberrant activation of the ATM/p53 DNA damage pathway. Epithelial–mesenchymal transition was a feature of the invasive phenotype. These data demonstrate that cancer stem cells are a feature of mammary cancer in cats