An Anatomy of the World for voice and six instrumentalists, on texts by John Donne

The musical piece An Anatomy of the World, on texts extracted from John Donne's First Anniversary(1611), is discussed in this accompanying essay, with an emphasis on technical-analyticalterms, but also with a history of its composition. The choice of the text and a variety of compositionalissues and concerns, link the analysis of An Anatomy to the previous musical output of theauthor, such as the expansion of a primordial melody into a complete piece, and the handling ofduration-proportions between sections following concepts like the Golden Section.The analysis follows chronologically the unfolding of the piece, and is divided into two mainsections, according to two enunciations of the text by the singer. Important melodies, contrapuntalsections, and other sources of musical material and discourse, are quoted as figures to point outrelevant details, while always keeping a constant and consistent reference to the actual score ofthe piece. General threads developing throughout the piece are identified and characterized, andthe relationship between the text and the music, not always obvious, is addressed from severalstandpoints

Liszt's "Bagatelle Without Tonality:" Analytical Perspectives

The present text is an analysis of Franz Liszt's Bagatelle without tonality, the first self-proclaimedatonal piece ever written. The main analytical techniques used as a startingpoint are derived from 'paradigmatic' and 'reductive' analysis, both applied freely accordingto the features of the piece. A review of Robert Morgan's analysis of the piece inhis 1976 article 'Dissonant Prolongation' prompts an alternative reduction. The role andlimitations of this analytical technique, the potential for creating misleading analogieswith tonal music, and its general adequateness for the piece are discussed.Also visited is the technique of tonal composition that eighteenth- and nineteenthcenturies theorists coined as Mehrdeutigkeit-'multiple meaning'-because of David C.Berry's thesis that the Bagatelle is a continuous outgrowth of it. With an independentreview of this technique, and of the theory around it, Berry's thesis is refuted as a possible technical account of the piece.Finally, by a reflection on the possible compositional process in the creation of theBagatelle, I maintain the thesis that Liszt had no precompositional design of any kind:on the one hand, abandoning tonality in this piece meant abandoning the relationshipbetween tonic and dominant altogether, not replacing them with something else; on theother, there is no sign of a general preconceived planning on the part of Liszt in the image of what twentieth-century atonality would experiment with, or of what many of therelationships revealed by analysis could suggest.Fulfilling the composition requirements of the Ph.D. degree in Composition and Theory,my Concerto for Violin and Orchestra follows the essay from page 60 on

Temporal disorder in up-down symmetric systems

The effect of temporal disorder on systems with up-down Z2 symmetry is studied. In particular, we analyze two well-known families of phase transitions: the Ising and the generalized voter universality classes, and scrutinize the consequences of placing them under fluctuating global conditions. We observe that variability of the control parameter induces in both classes "Temporal Griffiths Phases" (TGP). These recently-uncovered phases are analogous to standard Griffiths Phases appearing in systems with quenched spatial disorder, but where the roles of space and time are exchanged. TGPs are characterized by broad regions in parameter space in which (i) mean first-passage times scale algebraically with system size, and (ii) the system response (e.g. susceptibility) diverges. Our results confirm that TGPs are quite robust and ubiquitous in the presence of temporal disorder. Possible applications of our results to examples in ecology are discussed

Design/Lift: An Extra Concrete Beam in a Park

According to the Department of Transportation, a commercial truck can drive at a maximum speed of sixty miles per-hour while carrying a sixty-foot-long precast concrete beam on a state highway. The beam in question is headed to a town of 1,800 people to be installed as part of a student-driven, faculty led Public Works project in Webster, South Dakota. Design/Lift focuses on the choreography of lifting and positioning a large piece of concrete on a public site. The beam sits in a yard, unapproved to span highway bridges, but potentially ready to engage the public in unexpected ways. The project in this poster is part of three-year long collaboration that connects architecture students at South Dakota State University with local communities and building industry leaders. During the third year of this project, two sets of fifteen undergraduate students worked on one-to-one mock ups, participated in city council meetings, and discussed design ideas at community gatherings. Through close collaboration with structural engineers and precast concrete manufacturers, students worked on the construction of a public space at the entry to a new athletic field. Students and faculty designed the installation of the beam by working with local laborers and engineers to understand the transportation and airborne movement of a 42,000-pound piece of concrete, which was expected to rest on two columns cantilevering at least 10 feet on both ends. After choreographing the beam’s installation with certified 300-ton crane operators, students designed and fabricated a series of steel/wood “seating saddles” that connect the beam to a series of walking paths. The beam is a gallery wall, a long bench, a marker, and an unfinished monument. It appears to be a ruin that anticipates the construction of other things. It is in the process of becoming a mural for school children and the site of the annual chili cook-off. It is ready to bare any load that can balance on its slender profile. Design/Lift is part of the legacy of design/build pedagogy, presenting students and faculty with opportunities for on-going engagement with local expert labor

Synchronic and Diachronic Labor: Deconstructing Eladio Dieste’s Ruled Surfaces

Eladio Dieste was a Uruguayan engineer whose practice prioritized the choreography of on-site labor during the second half of the twentieth century. Dieste’s structural innovations in reinforced masonry are admired for their geometric audacity, material economy, and experiential effects. This paper discusses the work and pedagogy from an ongoing architecture class called Dieste Building Shop. The course is a combination of history/theory seminar and building technology class, which focuses on the deconstruction and construction of one of Dieste’s innovations, ruled surface brick walls – double curvature surfaces defined by a series of vertical lines. One of the most underexamined aspects of Dieste’s oeuvre is its link to physical labor. This scholarly blind spot is the foundation of the labor-based pedagogy defined in Synchronic and Diachronic Labor. This type of pedagogy can establish diverse, socio- cultural networks that are intrinsic to technical knowledge. The intellectual distance between architecture and physical labor is a fundamental part of these overlooked technical histories. The effects of this historical schism are explained through the distinction between synchronic and diachronic conceptions of time and its impact on labor

Data Fusion based on Game Theory for Speaker Diarization

A novel algorithm based on bimatrix game theory has been developed to improve the accuracy and reliability of a speaker diarization system. This algorithm fuses the output data of two open-source speaker diarization programs, LIUM and SHoUT, taking advantage of the best properties of each one. The performance of this new system has been tested by means of audio streams from several movies. From preliminary results on fragments of five movies, improvements of 63% in false alarms and missed speech mistakes have been achieved with respect to LIUM and SHoUT systems working alone. Moreover, we also improve in a 20% the number of recognized speakers, getting close to the real number of speakers in the audio strea

The development of an analytical tool for integrating 'the voice of the consumer' in new product development

The development of new products and how the process is organised and managed within the firm is a key area in management research due to the high failure rate of new products and the consequent waste of limited resources. Developing new products and being innovative requires companies to have deep understanding of the consumer, the market and the environment but most importantly to effectively apply this knowledge in the development of new products that meet consumer's expectations. This paper aims at developing an innovative framework to incorporate the 'voice of consumer' at early stages of the new product development (NPD) process. To that end, the paper will consider the practical implementation of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) in the development of new food products. QFD is considered as the most complete and comprehensive methodology for planning the goals of a stream of processes in order to align them with customer's requirements. QFD forces the design team to place customer needs in first place and ensures that this customer focus is kept through the NPD process. In doing so, QFD reduces two types of risks: first, the non- correspondence between product specifications and the wants of a predetermined target consumer group; and second, the risk that final products do not comply with product specifications. To date, QFD has been partially applied in the food area with only a handful of studies venturing in this research area.quality function deployment, new product development, voice of consumer., Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis,

Analysis of Consumer Perceptions on Quality and Food Safety in the Spanish Beef Market: A Future Application in New Product Development

During the last years, the research of food quality perception and food safety have been issue of greater attention due to the intense existing debate on aspects related to ethical considerations relative to the new agricultural production techniques, animal welfare concerns, food scares and crises and their impact in consumer's confidence, that have brought numerous questions about quality and food safety. With the Total Food Quality Model as a point of departure, this study proposes an analysis of quality perception and food safety related to beef in Spain. The objective of this paper is to focus on the focus group technique and the qualitative research, using NVivo software for the handling, analysing and interpretation of qualitative data. Results indicate the more significant factors for habits of purchase, place of shopping, quality and food safety perception, role and confidence on brands and willingness to pay for certified beef. Some of the outcomes are supported by the quantitative research results, which is currently in progress.focus groups, NVivo software, quality perception, food choice and food safety, Consumer/Household Economics, Q13,

Measuring the size of the shadow economy using a dynamic general equilibrium model with trends: a new dataset

We provide estimates of the size and dollar value of shadow economy for a set of countries between 1950 and 2015, following the methodology of Solis-Garcia and Xie (2018)