Electric Horizons: Advancing the Wind Band in Art Music

It goes without saying that the Symphony Orchestra holds a higher degree of artistic value than the Wind Ensemble in the professional musical world. Given the small body of repertory available to the band, it is clear also to see that the body of symphony-quality concert pieces is proportionately minute. A primary purpose of this research project, then, is the examination of those strong symphonies or symphony-like works for winds, deconstruct their successes and failures, and attempt to write another, symphonic-scaled work for the ensemble. The secondary purpose, given the recent popularity of large ensemble works combined with electronic augmentation, is to see if the near limitless possibilities of recorded sound (made flexible by DJ controller software) can help catapult the wind ensemble into the next age of orchestration and musical merit. Composers studied include David Maslanka, Paul Hindemith, Olivier Messiaen, Michael Colgrass, Karel Husa, and Steven Bryant. The final piece composed in synthesis of the results of this project is a thirty minute Chain-Symphony for small Wind Ensemble and DJ

The DJ and the Orchestra: Fusing Art Music and Popular Music

This project focused on the technique of integrating aspects of modern electronic DJ music into the traditional, acoustic-instrument dominated symphony orchestra. In particular, it looked at the work of the current composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Mason Bates. The resulting technical and stylistic discoveries were then integrated, by myself, into an original composition using this fusion of old and new: a Concerto for Baritone Saxophone, Orchestra, and DJ. It should be noted, however, that I omitted the actual use of turntables from the DJ setup, instead focusing more on DJs use of sampling and recalling audio files in real time. For this piece, that capacity is achieved by use of the Maschine controller from Native Instruments, as well as Ableton Live 8 software

A study of the vibration responses of shells and plates to fluctuating pressure environments

Vibration responses of cylindrical shells and plates to acoustic excitatio

The Impact of Nanomaterial Functionalization and Core Chemical Composition on Toxicity to Daphnia Magna

Nanomaterials (NMs) are being developed for a variety of industrial, biomedical, and environmental applications. Initially these materials consisted of simple metal oxides or carbon based NMs. More recently NMs have become increasingly complex consisting of multiple transition metals and surfaces functionalized with polymers, surfactants and ligands that have the ability to alter their physiochemical properties and enhance performance. As manufactured NM production increases, so does the concern about their release into the environment and potentially harmful effects. The focus of toxicology has largely been on first generation materials and we have comparatively less information about the potential impacts of complex NMs. In order to create environmentally friendly nanotechnologies, the properties that govern NM toxicity need to be better elucidated. In addition, understanding mechanisms for toxicity and impacts to molecular and apical endpoints will greatly aid in the rapid assessment and design of current and future nanotechnologies. In this dissertation my central hypothesis is: altering the core chemical composition and surface functionalization impacts the toxicity of nanomaterials to Daphnia magna. To determine whether to accept or refute this hypothesis I used the environmentally relevant model organism, Daphnia magna, and chemically tailored NMs. My results indicated that acute and chronic impacts to Daphnia upon exposure to functionalized gold NMs are strongly dependent on initial surface charge and the ligand used in the functionalization process; depending on the ligand, negative impacts are explained by the ligand choice, however with others the NM-ligand combination are required for a negative impact indicating a nanospecific effect. Positively charged gold NMs functionalized with polyallylamine hydrochloride are more toxic than negatively charged particles functionalized with citrate or mercaptopropionic acid, impacting daphnid reproduction and mortality at low part per billion concentrations. Gene expression results from Daphnia acutely and chronically exposed to these same materials show that each NM-ligand combination has a unique molecular fingerprint and that for most of the genes I explored the NM-ligand combination induces similar responses in the Daphnia as its respective ligand. Lastly, my studies demonstrate that altering the core chemical composition of complex NMs to decrease toxicity. In addition, this study indicated a nanospecific impact, as the dissolved metals found in solution could not reproduce the chronic endpoint impacts and daphnid gene expression response. Collectively, this work assisted in the development of fundamental knowledge for the factors that regulate NM toxicity and identified novel molecular pathways and responses triggered by specific alterations to complex NM surface and core properties

A case control study of risk factors associated with CRE/CRO and ESBL

Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem that affects public health. Antibiotic resistance is prominent at large medical centers with complicated medical care and need for prolonged use of broad spectrum antibiotics. Multi-drug resistant Gram negative rods (GNR-MDRO) are a group of bacteria that pose a particular threat, as they cause life-threatening infections with limited options for treatment. This is a case-control study that aims at answering questions regarding MDRO origin and risk factors. We are including in this study three types of MDRO; Extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBL) (used as the control), Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobactericiae (CRE) and other Carbapenem-Resistant Organisms (CRO) such as lactose non-ferments (mostly Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter). Factors such as indwelling urinary or intravenous catheter upon admission, tracheostomy/ventilator, and chronic wound were found to be significant in a univariate analysis, however, only chronic wound presence (OR: 5.58; 95% CI: 1.87-16.63) and history of tracheostomy/ventilator (OR: 27.06; 95% CI: 3.20-229.15) were significant after entry into a multivariable logistic regression model, meaning that the presence of a chronic wound and/or history of tracheostomy/ventilator is associated with MDRO colonization, specifically CRE/CRO. Hospitals should practice extra care with patients with a chronic wound and/or with a history of a tracheostomy or being on a mechanical ventilator. These patients should be screened for CRE/CRO both upon admission and during their hospital stay in order to provide optimal prevention of CRE colonization and spread

Behavior and chronic toxicity of two differently stabilized silver nanoparticles to Daphnia magna

While differences in silver nanoparticle (AgNP) colloidal stability, surface potential, or acute aquatic toxicity for differently stabilized AgNP have often been reported, these have rarely been studied in long-term ecotoxicity tests. In the current study, we investigated the chronic toxicity of AgNP to Daphnia magna over a 21-day period with two different stabilizers (citrate and detergent), representative for charge and sterical stabilizers, respectively. This was coupled with a series of short-term experiments, such as mass balance and uptake/depuration testing, to investigate the behavior of both types of AgNP during a typical media exchange period in the D. magna test for chronic toxicity. As expected, the sterically stabilized AgNP were more stable in the test medium, also in the presence of food; however, a higher uptake of silver after 24 h exposure of the charge stabilized AgNP was found compared to the detergent-stabilized AgNP (0.046 ± 0.006 μg Ag μg DW−1 and 0.023 ± 0.005 μg Ag μg DW−1, respectively). In accordance with this, the higher reproductive effects and mortality were found for the charge-stabilized than for the sterically-stabilized silver nanoparticles in 21-d tests for chronic toxicity. LOEC was 19.2 μg Ag L−1 for both endpoints for citrate-coated AgNP and >27.5 μg Ag L−1 (highest tested concentration for detergent-stabilized AgNP). This indicates a link between uptake and toxicity. The inclusion of additional short-term experiments on uptake and depuration is recommended when longer-term chronic experiments with nanoparticles are conducted

Introducción a los dispositivos FPGA : Análisis y ejemplos de diseño

El siguiente proyecto tuvo como finalidad el estudio en general de los dispositivos lógicos programables por hardware, en particular de los de tipo FPGA (Arreglo de Compuertas Programables por el Usuario); para luego realizar dos implementaciones de circuitos lógicos en ellos.;El objetivo de éste proyecto fue el de proporcionar a la cátedra de 'Introducción a los Sistemas Lógicos y Digitales' de la Facultad de Ingeniería de la UNLP, de un kit para ejemplificar una aplicación que conduzca al diseño a base de un dispositivo lógico programable del tipo FPGA (Arreglo de Compuertas Programables por el Usuario).Facultad de Ingenierí