A gendered study of the working patterns of classical musicians: implications for practice

Despite an increase in participation at all levels of the music profession, women continue to experience less opportunities to forge careers in music and are less likely than men to apply for leadership positions. This paper presents results from a study in which 152 instrumental musicians reflected upon their professional practice and career aspirations. The study examined differences in the professional practice of male and female musicians, and found female musicians to be more likely to teach, and less likely to sustain performance positions due to the difficulties associated with managing family and other commitments whilst maintaining an uninterrupted career in music. It is proposed that educators have a crucial role to play in the development of curricula reflective of the realities of professional practice in a profession where interrupted careers can result in a loss of technical skills and outdated curricular and methodological knowledge

Characterization of the LIGO detectors during their sixth science run

In 2009-2010, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) operated together with international partners Virgo and GEO600 as a network to search for gravitational waves (GWs) of astrophysical origin. The sensitivity of these detectors was limited by a combination of noise sources inherent to the instrumental design and its environment, often localized in time or frequency, that couple into the GW readout. Here we review the performance of the LIGO instruments during this epoch, the work done to characterize the detectors and their data, and the effect that transient and continuous noise artefacts have on the sensitivity of LIGO to a variety of astrophysical sources