Observing plasticity of the auditory system: Volumetric decreases along with increased functional connectivity in aspiring professional musicians

Playing music relies on several sensory systems and the motor system, and poses strong demands on control processes, hence, offering an excellent model to study how experience can mold brain structure and function. Although most studies on neural correlates of music expertise rely on cross-sectional comparisons, here we compared within-person changes over time in aspiring professionals intensely preparing for an entrance exam at a University of the Arts to skilled amateur musicians not preparing for a music exam. In the group of aspiring professionals, we observed gray-matter volume decrements in left planum polare, posterior insula, and left inferior frontal orbital gyrus over a period of about 6 months that were absent among the amateur musicians. At the same time, the left planum polare, the largest cluster of structural change, showed increasing functional connectivity with left and right auditory cortex, left precentral gyrus, left supplementary motor cortex, left and right postcentral gyrus, and left cingulate cortex, all regions previously identified to relate to music expertise. In line with the expansion–renormalization pattern of brain plasticity (Wenger et al., 2017a. Expansion and renormalization of human brain structure during skill acquisition. Trends Cogn Sci. 21:930–939.), the aspiring professionals might have been in the selection and refinement period of plastic change

Reliability of quantitative multiparameter maps is high for magnetization transfer and proton density but attenuated for R1 and R2* in healthy young adults

We investigate the reliability of individual differences of four quantities measured by magnetic resonance imaging-based multiparameter mapping (MPM): magnetization transfer saturation (MT), proton density (PD), longitudinal relaxation rate (R1 ), and effective transverse relaxation rate (R2 *). Four MPM datasets, two on each of two consecutive days, were acquired in healthy young adults. On Day 1, no repositioning occurred and on Day 2, participants were repositioned between MPM datasets. Using intraclass correlation effect decomposition (ICED), we assessed the contributions of session-specific, day-specific, and residual sources of measurement error. For whole-brain gray and white matter, all four MPM parameters showed high reproducibility and high reliability, as indexed by the coefficient of variation (CoV) and the intraclass correlation (ICC). However, MT, PD, R1 , and R2 * differed markedly in the extent to which reliability varied across brain regions. MT and PD showed high reliability in almost all regions. In contrast, R1 and R2 * showed low reliability in some regions outside the basal ganglia, such that the sum of the measurement error estimates in our structural equation model was higher than estimates of between-person differences. In addition, in this sample of healthy young adults, the four MPM parameters showed very little variability over four measurements but differed in how well they could assess between-person differences. We conclude that R1 and R2 * might carry only limited person-specific information in some regions of the brain in healthy young adults, and, by implication, might be of restricted utility for studying associations to between-person differences in behavior in those regions

Twisted mass fermions: neutral pion masses from disconnected contributions

Twisted mass fermions allow light quarks to be explored but with the consequence that there are mass splittings, such as between the neutral and charged pion. Using a direct calculation of the connected neutral pion correlator and stochastic methods to evaluate the disconnected correlations, we determine the neutral pion mass. We explore the dependence on lattice spacing and quark mass in quenched QCD. For dynamical QCD, we determine the sign of the splitting which is linked, via chiral PT, to the nature of the phase transition at small quark mass.Comment: 6 pages, poster (hadron spectrum and quark masses) at Lattice 2005,Dublin, July 25-3

Mediation, translation and local ecologies: understanding the impact of policy levers on FE colleges

This article reports the views of managers and tutors on the role of policy ‘levers’ on teaching, learning, and inclusion in colleges of Further Education (FE) in our research project, ‘The impact of policy on learning and inclusion in the Learning and Skills Sector (LSS)’.i Using data from five research visits conducted over two years in eight FE learning sites, we explore the processes by which colleges ‘mediate’ and ‘translate’ national policy levers and how this affects their ability to respond to local need. The paper tentatively develops three related concepts/metaphors to explain the complexity of the policy/college interface – ‘the process of mediation’, ‘acts of translation’ and ‘local ecologies’. We found that policy levers interacted with a complex set of national, local and institutional factors as colleges responded to pressures from the external environment and turned these into internal plans, systems and practices. We conclude by suggesting that national policy-makers, who design national policy levers, may not be fully aware of these complexities and we make the case for the benefits of greater local control over policy levers, where these interactions are better understood

Area minimizing discs in metric spaces

We solve the classical problem of Plateau in the setting of proper metric spaces. Precisely, we prove that among all disc-type surfaces with prescribed Jordan boundary in a proper metric space there exists an area minimizing disc which moreover has a quasi-conformal parametrization. If the space supports a local quadratic isoperimetric inequality for curves we prove that such a solution is locally Hölder continuous in the interior and continuous up to the boundary. Our results generalize corresponding results of Douglas Radò and Morrey from the setting of Euclidean space and Riemannian manifolds to that of proper metric spaces

Geometric Algorithm for Abelian-Gauge Models

Motivated by the sign problem in several systems, we have developed a geometric simulation algorithm based on the strong coupling expansion which can be applied to abelian pure gauge models. We have studied the algorithm in the U(1) model in 3 and 4 dimensions, and seen that it is practical and is similarly efficient to the standard heat-bath algorithm, but without the ergodicity problems which comes from the presence of vortices. We have also applied the algorithm to the Ising gauge model at the critical point, and we find hints of a better asymptotic behaviour of the autocorrelation time, which therefore suggests the possibility of a smaller dynamical critical exponent with respect to the standard heat-bath algorithm.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figure

Introduction to the Conceptualisation of Environmental Citizenship for Twenty-First-Century Education

The EU’s growth strategy (Europe 2020) and the European vision for green, circular and low-carbon economy in line with the EU 2050 (EU-roadmap 2050) give par- ticular attention to citizens’ participation and engagement and therefore to Environmental Citizenship. Environmental Citizenship has been an influential con- cept in many different arenas such as economy, policy, philosophy, corporation management and marketing, which could also be better exploited and established in the field of education. Environmental Citizenship is recognized as an important aspect in addressing global environmental problems such as climate change (Stern 2011; Ockwell et al. 2009) whilst providing support to pro-environmental organisa- tions and individuals, contributing also to public pressure for political action (sign- ing petitions, writing to politicians and newspapers). Many varied definitions of Environmental Citizenship can be found within the literature. Some of them are quite similar, and important overlaps can be observed; however, others can be quite different with contradictions in their philosophy and approach. According to Dobson (2010), Environmental Citizenship refers to pro-environmental behaviour, in public and in private, driven by a belief in fairness of the distribution of environmental goods, in participation and in the co-creation of sustainability policy. It is about the active participation of citizens in moving towards sustainability. Education and especially environmental discourses in science education have a lot to contribute in adopting and promoting Environmental Citizenship. However, the conceptualisation of Environmental Citizenship in educational context remains an imperative need. The under-explored (until now) potential for pro-environmental behaviour change through Environmental Citizenship should be further emphasised (Dobson 2010) and can contribute greatly to a more sustainable world.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio