Genre and/as Distinction: The Mars Volta and the Symbolic Boundaries of Progressive Rock

In the early 2000’s, The Mars Volta’s popularity among prog(ressive) rock fandom was, in many ways, a conundrum. Unlike 1970s prog rock that drew heavily on Western classical music, TMV members Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala routinely insisted on the integral importance of salsa music to their style and asserted an ambivalent relationship to classic prog rock. This thesis builds on existing scholarship on cultural omnivorousness to assert that an increase in omnivorous musical tastes since prog rock’s inception in the 1970s not only explains The Mars Volta’s affiliation with the genre in the early 2000s, but also explains their mixed reception within a divided prog rock fanbase. Contrary to existing scholarship that suggests that the omnivore had largely supplanted the highbrow snob, this study suggests that the snob persisted in the prog rock fanbase during progressive rock’s resurgence (ca. 1997-2012), as distinguished by their assertion of the superiority of prog rock through discourses of musical complexity adapted from classical music. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theorization of the “fields of cultural production" and research in musical border studies (especially that of Alejandro L. Madrid), this thesis studies the social distinctions that occur both within (between the snobs and the omnivores), as well beyond the genre of progressive rock (between prog rock and other genres). Building on Jack Hamilton’s work on race in rock music, it suggests that progressive rock originated in the 1970s as a genre in which “authenticity” was coded as white, European, heteronormative, masculine, and middle- to upper-class, which informed prog snobs’ claims to cultural superiority. By the late 1990s, however, omnivorous listening practices had become the dominant mode of appreciating progressive rock, and the principle of snobbish exclusion lost ground to a concern for cultural diversity, identifiable by performed omnivorousness. Online fan forums and reviews that discuss The Mars Volta demonstrate that the snobs and omnivores struggled for dominance during the prog resurgence. While the omnivores understood sonic and visual signifiers of Rodriguez-Lopez’s and Bixler-Zavala’s Puerto Rican and Chicano heritage (respectively) as social progress within the historically non-diverse context of progressive rock, the snobs understood these signifiers as noise. Both positions have the effect of essentializing The Mars Volta’s identities, which are better understood fluidly through the descriptor “border kids.” This thesis concludes that, while the struggles between the snobs and omnivores result in symbolic boundaries at the intersection of race, class, gender expression, and geographic origin both within and beyond progressive rock, these struggles also contributed to the resurgence of progressive rock as a stable field and genre.Master of Art

Interventions in measles outbreaks: the potential reduction in cases associated with school suspension and vaccination interventions

Background: Measles is resurgent in the US, with more cases in 2019 than any year since 1992. Many of the cases were concentrated in three outbreaks in New York and Washington states, where local governments enacted intervention strategies in an attempt to limit the spread of measles. Regulations differed by location, suggesting guidance on the optimal interventions may be beneficial. Methods: We simulate the daily interactions of the populations of six metropolitan areas of Texas, US, using an agent-based model. The real-life vaccination rates of each school in these metropolitan areas are applied to simulated equivalents. A single case of measles is introduced to the population and the resulting number of cases counted. A range of public health interventions, focused on suspending unvaccinated students and mandatory vaccinations, were simulated during measles outbreaks and the reduction in the number of measles cases, relative to no intervention, recorded. Interventions were simulated only in schools with measles cases and in all schools in each metropolitan area. Results: Suspending unvaccinated students from school was associated with the greatest reduction in measles cases. In a plausible worst-case outbreak scenario, the number of cases is forecast to reduce by 68-96%. Interventions targeting all schools in a metropolitan area is not found to be associated with fewer measles cases than only targeting schools with measles cases, at 2018 vaccination rates. Targeting all schools also increases the cumulative number of school days missed by suspended students by a factor of 10-100, depending on the metropolitan area, compared to targeting only schools with measles cases. If vaccination rates drop 5% in the schools which are under-vaccinated in 2018, metropolitan area-wide interventions are forecast to be associated with fewer cases than school-specific interventions. Conclusions: Interventions that are quickly implemented and widely followed may reduce the size of measles outbreaks by up 96%. If vaccination rates continue to fall in Texas, metropolitan area-wide interventions should be considered in the event of an outbreak

Effects of mosapride on motility of the small intestine and caecum in normal horses after jejunocaecostomy

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the prokinetic effects of mosapride with non-invasive assessment of myoelectrical activity in the small intestine and caecum of healthy horses after jejunocaecostomy. Six horses underwent celiotomy and jejunocaecostomy, and were treated with mosapride (treated group) at 1.5 mg/kg per osos once daily for 5 days after surgery. The other six horses did not receive treatment and were used as controls (non-treated group). The electrointestinography (EIG) maximum amplitude was used to measure intestinal motility. Motility significantly decreased following surgery. In the treated group, the EIG maximum amplitude of the small intestine was significantly higher than in the controls from day 6~31 after treatment. These findings clearly indicate that mosapride could overcome the decline of intestinal motility after jejunocaecostomy in normal horses