The public performance: impact to music learning in conservatoire tradition

Paper presented at the Conference “The Reflective Conservatoire – 2nd International Conference: Building Connections”. Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Barbican Conference Centre, London. 28 February – 3 March 2009ABSTRACT: In specialist music schools public performances tend to be given a more evaluative role. Students seem to be expected to get those occasions ready to show off their skills, their performance proficiency, the newly learned repertoire. Teachers tend also to look to public performance as an adequate way to measure students' progress, and as a privileged way for identifying students' potential to become performers. In this presentation it is proposed a formative use of public performance. As a tool for instrumental teachers, public performances may help students to develop motivation, acquire and develop performance skills, and to spend more time practising.RESUMO: As apresentações públicas em audições e concertos nas escolas de música do ensino especializado tendem a ser encaradas como boas oportunidades para medir o desenvolvimento técnico dos alunos, apresentar o novo repertório aprendido. É usual ver nestas apresentações uma forma de identificar quem terá maior potencial para prosseguir estudos musicais a um nível mais elevado. O que é proposta nesta apresentação é uma nova perspectiva sobre estas apresentações públicas: uma perspectiva formativa. Assim, propõe-se encarar as apresentações públicas como ferramenta ao dispôr do professor, ferramenta essa que pode permitir o desenvolvimento de motivação nos alunos, a aquisição e desenvolvimento de competências performativas, e contribuir para um incremento do estudo do instrumento por parte dos alunos

Papel da motivação na aprendizagem de um instrumento

Este artigo pretende fazer realçar o papel da motivação num contexto específico: a aprendizagem de um instrumento numa escola de ensino especializado. Dada a complexidade dos processos e das competências envolvidas na aprendizagem instrumental é essencial que os professores desenvolvam uma atitude pedagógica que leve os alunos a sentir-se motivados. As teorias da motivação já são objecto de estudo há largas décadas, mas apenas recentemente tem sido estudado o impacto dessas teorias para a aprendizagem musical. Assim, partindo de algumas investigações recentes, serão referidas algumas sugestões pedagógicas práticas a usar, com o propósito de levar os alunos a sentir-se motivados durante todo o processo de aprendizagem

Chorea: A Journey through History

The original descriptions of chorea date from the Middle Ages, when an epidemic of “dancing mania” swept throughout Europe. The condition was initially considered a curse sent by a saint, but was named “Saint Vitus’s dance” because afflicted individuals were cured if they touched churches storing Saint Vitus’s relics. Paracelsus coined the term chorea Sancti Viti and recognized different forms of chorea (imaginativa, lasciva, and naturalis). In the 17th century, Thomas Sydenham provided an accurate description of what he termed chorea minor. He also described rheumatic fever but did not associate it with chorea. It was only in 1850 that See established a relationship between chorea and rheumatic disease. A connection with cardiac involvement was soon recognized and in 1866 Roger postulated that chorea, arthritis, and heart disease had a common cause. The last quarter of the 19th century is marked by the works of Jean‐Martin Charcot, Silas Weir Mitchell, William Osler, and William Richard Gowers, all of paramount importance in the refinement of the definition of chorea, its causes, and differential diagnosis. In 1841, Charles Oscar Waters gave a concise account of a syndrome, likely to be Huntington’s disease (HD), later described further by George Huntington and named after him. In 1955, the Venezuelan physician Americo Negrette published a book describing communities in the State of Zulia in Venezuela, with unusual numbers of individuals with chorea. Negrette’s works culminated in the creation of the Venezuela project and the subsequent discovery of seminal findings in HD. We review the historical facts and outstanding physicians that mark both HD and Sydenham’s chorea’s history in various sections

Inequality, a scourge of the XXI century

Social and economic inequality is a plague of the XXI Century. It is continuously widening, as the wealth of a relatively small group increases and, therefore, the rest of the world shares a shrinking fraction of resources. This situation has been predicted and denounced by economists and econophysicists. The latter ones have widely used models of market dynamics which consider that wealth distribution is the result of wealth exchanges among economic agents. A simple analogy relates the wealth in a society with the kinetic energy of the molecules in a gas, and the trade between agents to the energy exchange between the molecules during collisions. However, while in physical systems, thanks to the equipartition of energy, the gas eventually arrives at an equilibrium state, in many exchange models the economic system never equilibrates. Instead, it moves toward a "condensed" state, where one or a few agents concentrate all the wealth of the society and the rest of agents shares zero or a very small fraction of the total wealth. Here we discuss two ways of avoiding the "condensed" state. On one hand, we consider a regulatory policy that favors the poorest agent in the exchanges, thus increasing the probability that the wealth goes from the richest to the poorest agent. On the other hand, we study a tax system and its effects on wealth distribution. We compare the redistribution processes and conclude that complete control of the inequalities can be attained with simple regulations or interventions

Estimation of fuel consumption in a hybrid electric refuse collector vehicle using a real drive cycle

Postprint (published version

Vandermonde-subspace Frequency Division Multiplexing for Two-Tiered Cognitive Radio Networks

Vandermonde-subspace frequency division multiplexing (VFDM) is an overlay spectrum sharing technique for cognitive radio. VFDM makes use of a precoder based on a Vandermonde structure to transmit information over a secondary system, while keeping an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based primary system interference-free. To do so, VFDM exploits frequency selectivity and the use of cyclic prefixes by the primary system. Herein, a global view of VFDM is presented, including also practical aspects such as linear receivers and the impact of channel estimation. We show that VFDM provides a spectral efficiency increase of up to 1 bps/Hz over cognitive radio systems based on unused band detection. We also present some key design parameters for its future implementation and a feasible channel estimation protocol. Finally we show that, even when some of the theoretical assumptions are relaxed, VFDM provides non-negligible rates while protecting the primary system.Comment: 9 pages, accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Communication

The role of top tier advisors : some unpuzzling evidence

Academics and practitioners around the world are daily involved in the discussion of the role of financial advisors. There is puzzling evidence regarding the role of top tier advisors in the capture of abnormal returns in domestic US acquisitions. Our work is an important step forward in solving the puzzle. We find evidence that (1) hiring a top tier investment bank is relevant on public cross border transactions (2) and that the tier of the advisor has little relevance when the acquirer is an experienced investor. This is a strong indication that top tier advisors do matter when their advice is most needed

Optimization of a pilot-scale acidogenic reactor using industrial food waste

Food wastes are essentially the organic material discarded, lost or degraded during the process of food processing or consumption and represent almost a third of all food produced. The present work aims to optimise the valorisation of food wastes in order to produce bioplastics which is an interesting way to valorise this waste. The polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are biopolymers naturally produced by microorganisms that is considered an important alternative to conventional fossil-based plastics since they have similar properties. However, PHA production costs still high, mainly due to the use of pure cultures and costly substrates. The use of mixed microbial cultures and low-cost renewable feedstocks contribute to lower the PHA production costs. This process is divided in three steps: substrate acidogenic fermentation, culture selection and polymer accumulation. Acidogenic fermentation convert the food waste into volatile fatty acids that are used as substrate for the selection phase. Here, PHA accumulating bacteria are cultivated under selective conditions and accumulation is used for those selected bacteria producing the maximum PHA possible. The following work focus on the first step, i.e. studying the impact of optimal operation conditions in terms of pH and dissolved hydrogen concentrations at acidogenic stage on fermentation products profiles. The variation of those profiles induces changes in the final bioplastic which ultimately could lead to new strategies to control the process in order of targeting a bioplastic with specific physical/thermal characteristic.Os resíduos alimentares são essencialmente o material orgânico descartado, perdido ou degradado durante o processo de produção ou consumo de alimentos e representa quase um terço de todos os alimentos produzidos. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo otimizar a valorização de resíduos alimentares, a fim de produzir bioplásticos, sendo esta uma interessante forma de valorizar esses resíduos. Os poli-hidroxialcanoatos (PHA) são biopolímeros produzidos naturalmente por microrganismos e são considerados uma alternativa importante aos plásticos convencionais de origem fóssil, pois possuem propriedades semelhantes. No entanto, os custos de produção de PHA ainda são altos, principalmente devido ao uso de culturas puras e substratos caros. O uso de culturas microbianas mistas e matérias-primas renováveis de baixo custo contribui para reduzir os custos de produção de PHA. Esse processo é dividido em três etapas: fermentação acidogénea do substrato, seleção da cultura e acumulação de polímero. A fermentação acidogénea converte os resíduos alimentares em ácidos gordos voláteis que são usados como substrato na fase de seleção da cultura. Aqui, as bactérias acumuladoras de PHA são produzidas em condições seletivas e a acumulação é usada para as bactérias selecionadas para produzir o máximo de PHA possível. O presente trabalho é focado na primeira etapa estudando o impacto das condições ideais de operação em termos de pH e concentrações de hidrogénio dissolvido nos perfis de produtos de fermentação. A variação desses perfis induz mudanças no bioplástico final, o que pode levar a novas estratégias para controlar o processo, a fim de atingir um bioplástico com características físicas / térmicas específicas