Non score-dependency: Theory and assessment

Untrained listeners demonstrate implicit knowledge of syntactic patterns and principles. Untrained generative music ability, for example singing, humming, and whistling, is a largely unconscious or intuitive application of these patterns and principles. From the viewpoint of embodied cognition, listening to music should evoke an internal representation or motor image which, together with the perception of organized music, should form the basis of musical cognition. Indeed, that is what listeners demonstrate when they sing, hum, or whistle familiar and unfamiliar tunes or when they vocally or orally improvise continuations to interrupted phrases. Research on vocal improvisation using continuations sung to an interrupted musical phrase, has shown that one’s cultural background influences the music generated. That should be the case for instrumentalists as well: when they play familiar or unfamiliar tunes by ear in different keys (transposition) or when they improvise variations, accompaniments, or continuations to interrupted phrases, the music they generate should reflect the same cognitive structures as their oral improvisations. This study is attempting to validate a test of (non) scoredependency that will enable assessment of the music student’s implicit knowledge of these structures during performance on the principal instrument

Maladaptive bias for extrahippocampal navigation strategies in aging humans.

Efficient spatial navigation requires not only accurate spatial knowledge but also the selection of appropriate strategies. Using a novel paradigm that allowed us to distinguish between beacon, associative cue, and place strategies, we investigated the effects of cognitive aging on the selection and adoption of navigation strategies in humans. Participants were required to rejoin a previously learned route encountered from an unfamiliar direction. Successful performance required the use of an allocentric place strategy, which was increasingly observed in young participants over six experimental sessions. In contrast, older participants, who were able to recall the route when approaching intersections from the same direction as during encoding, failed to use the correct place strategy when approaching intersections from novel directions. Instead, they continuously used a beacon strategy and showed no evidence of changing their behavior across the six sessions. Given that this bias was already apparent in the first experimental session, the inability to adopt the correct place strategy is not related to an inability to switch from a firmly established response strategy to an allocentric place strategy. Rather, and in line with previous research, age-related deficits in allocentric processing result in shifts in preferred navigation strategies and an overall bias for response strategies. The specific preference for a beacon strategy is discussed in the context of a possible dissociation between beacon-based and associative-cue-based response learning in the striatum, with the latter being more sensitive to age-related changes

Panel Data Unit Roots Tests: The Role of Serial Correlation and the Time Dimension

We investigate the influence of residual serial correlation and of the time dimension on statistical inference for a unit root in dynamic longitudinal data, known as panel data in econometrics. To this end, we introduce two test statistics based on method of moments estimators. The first is based on the generalised method of moments estimators, while the second is based on the instrumental variables estimator. Analytical results for the IV based test in a simplified setting show that (i) large time dimension panel unit root tests will suffer from serious size distortions in finite samples, even for samples that would normally be considered large in practice, and (ii) negative serial correlation in the error terms of the panel reduces the power of the unit root tests, possibly up to a point where the test becomes biased. However, near the unit root the test is shown to have power against a wide range of alternatives. These findings are confirmed in a more general set-up through a series of Monte Carlo experiments.Dynamic longitudinal (panel) data, Generalized method of moments, Instrumental variables, Unit roots, Moving average errors

A correlational study of areal surface texture parameters on some typical machined surfaces

A number of areal surface texture parameters have been adopted by standards bodies, namely ISO 25178-2, in which forty-one parameters within six groups are defined. The selection of the suitable areal parameters becomes an issue for a designer. The study of correlation among parameters is one of the ways to find the most suitable parameters for a specification. This paper presents a Spearman’s correlation study of areal surface texture parameters on some typical machined surfaces. Sixty surfaces, produced by nineteen machining methods, have been assessed by the use of an optical instrument; the operators adhered to ISO 25178-3; and parameters defined by ISO 25178-2. The correlation results are classified by using five correlation levels. It details the correlations between different groups of parameters, together with the correlation of parameters within the same group. The results are presented in Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient matrix and charts. A three-layer parameters tree is then proposed to help engineer in the selection of parameters

Star and cluster formation in extreme environments

Current empirical evidence on the star-formation processes in the extreme, high-pressure environments induced by galaxy encounters (mostly based on high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope observations) strongly suggests that star CLUSTER formation is an important and perhaps even the dominant mode of star formation in such starburst events. The sizes, luminosities, and mass estimates of the young massive star clusters (YMCs) are entirely consistent with what is expected for young Milky Way-type globular clusters (GCs). Recent evidence lends support to the scenario that GCs, which were once thought to be the oldest building blocks of galaxies, are still forming today. Here, I present a novel empirical approach to assess the shape of the initial-to-current YMC mass functions, and hence their possible survival chances for a Hubble time.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX with Kluwer style files included; to appear in: "Starbursts - from 30 Doradus to Lyman break galaxies" (Cambridge UK, September 2004; talk summary), Astrophysics & Space Science Library, eds. de Grijs R., Gonzalez Delgado R.M., Kluwer: Dordrech

CCD and photon-counting photometric observations of asteroids carried out at Padova and Catania observatories

We present the results of observational campaigns of asteroids performed at Asiago Station of Padova Astronomical Observatory and at M.G. Fracastoro Station of Catania Astrophysical Observatory, as part of the large research programme on Solar System minor bodies undertaken since 1979 at the Physics and Astronomy Department of Catania University. Photometric observations of six Main-Belt asteroids (27 Euterpe, 173 Ino, 182 Elsa, 539 Pamina, 849 Ara, and 984 Gretia), one Hungaria (1727 Mette), and two Near-Earth Objects (3199 Nefertiti and 2004 UE) are reported. The first determination of the synodic rotational period of 2004 UE was obtained. For 182 Elsa and 1727 Mette the derived synodic period of 80.23+/-0.08 h and 2.981+/-0.001 h, respectively, represents a significant improvement on the previously published values. For 182 Elsa the first determination of the H-G magnitude relation is also presented.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Planetary and Space Scienc

Manipulating Synchronous Optical Signals with a Double Λ\Lambda Atomic Ensemble

We analyze a double $\Lambda$ atomic configuration interacting with two signal beams and two control beams. Because of the quantum interference between the two $\Lambda$ channels, the four fields are phase-matched in electromagnetically induced transparency. Our numerical simulation shows that this system is able to manipulate synchronous optical signals, such as generation of optical twin signals, data correction, signal transfer and amplification in the atomic storage.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure