The Process of Listening to Music: How it Modulates Nervous System Activity and Affects Emotion

Music as a force, affects us from within us and can arouse us emotionally and physically. Music has been an important element in our culture since the beginning of time. Its power has been documented back to primitive times and has continued through early civilization, biblical times and now, to the twenty-first century. Recently, an emphasis on the music of Mozart has prompted researchers to look more closely at the power of music and examine its effect on human learning. Also, ongoing research is done on exactly how we hear and how we react to this powerful force. Energy becomes vibration, and vibration produces sound waves. These waves travel through the air and enter our ears. In the process of organizing these waves, tones and overtones into music, composers use a varied collection of musical tools which mold the raw materials of sound into the beauty of music. The elements of melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics and tempo combine to comprise a musical tapestry for the ear. The human ear is an intricate collection of delicate organelles that all work in concert in order for us to perceive and process sounds traveling through the air. Sounds become nerve impulses that travel via the cranial nerves and are processed in distinct sections of the brain. Several sections of the brain have to collaborate for music to be properly understood. Several of these areas are also associated with speech and memory. As music stimulates sections of the brain, neurotransmitters are released in response. These chemicals flood our brain causing an emotional reaction; an effect. They cause us to respond emotionally to what we hear. We may experience happiness, sadness, nostalgia or excitement. These strong feelings affect our immune systems, our psyche and our overall wellbeing. Music is a strong motivator and pervades all aspects of our lives. The impact influences all races, cultures and religion

Community College Students’ Perceptions About Listening to Music to Cope with Stress

The local problem addressed in this study was that students at a community college are experiencing stress levels that may impede their ability to learn. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine student perceptions of self-selected music listening as a strategy for learning under stress. The theory of emotional intelligence by Goleman was the conceptual framework that informed this study. The research questions focused on student perceptions of how music listening affects their ability to decrease stress while learning and increase learning effectiveness. The methodology for this study was a basic qualitative design. Eight students between ages 18 and 24 responded to semi-structured questions via Zoom. To be included in the study, students had to be enrolled at the college but not in any music classes. Three overarching themes were identified through in vivo coding. Traditional-age community college students use music listening to modulate physically, emotionally, and mentally and mitigate stress in order to learn. The resulting project was a three-day faculty development seminar aimed at informing faculty of the problem of student stress and how students use music listening to mitigate stress while learning and increase learning effectiveness. The study serves as an agent for positive social change by investigating student perceptions of music listening, learning, and stress to inform programming involving increasing retention and student success

Complete Break Up of Ortho Positronium (Ps)- Hydrogenic ion System

The dynamics of the complete breakup process in an Ortho Ps - He+ system including electron loss to the continuum (ELC) is studied where both the projectile and the target get ionized. The process is essentially a four body problem and the present model takes account of the two centre effect on the electron ejected from the Ps atom which is crucial for a proper description of the ELC phenomena. The calculations are performed in the framework of Coulomb Distorted Eikonal Approximation. The exchange effect between the target and the projectile electron is taken into account in a consistent manner. The proper asymptotic 3-body boundary condition for this ionization process is also satisfied in the present model. A distinct broad ELC peak is noted in the fully differential cross sections (5DCS) for the Ps electron corroborating qualitatively the experiment for the Ps - He system. Both the dynamics of the ELC from the Ps and the ejected electron from the target He+ in the FDCS are studied using coplanar geometry. Interesting features are noted in the FDCS for both the electrons belonging to the target and the projectile.Comment: 14 pages,7 figure

Regularizing Portfolio Optimization

The optimization of large portfolios displays an inherent instability to estimation error. This poses a fundamental problem, because solutions that are not stable under sample fluctuations may look optimal for a given sample, but are, in effect, very far from optimal with respect to the average risk. In this paper, we approach the problem from the point of view of statistical learning theory. The occurrence of the instability is intimately related to over-fitting which can be avoided using known regularization methods. We show how regularized portfolio optimization with the expected shortfall as a risk measure is related to support vector regression. The budget constraint dictates a modification. We present the resulting optimization problem and discuss the solution. The L2 norm of the weight vector is used as a regularizer, which corresponds to a diversification "pressure". This means that diversification, besides counteracting downward fluctuations in some assets by upward fluctuations in others, is also crucial because it improves the stability of the solution. The approach we provide here allows for the simultaneous treatment of optimization and diversification in one framework that enables the investor to trade-off between the two, depending on the size of the available data set

Current paradigm of the 18-kDa translocator protein (TSPO) as a molecular target for PET imaging in neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative diseases

Neuroinflammation is a process characterised by drastic changes in microglial morphology and by marked upregulation of the 18-kDa translocator protein (TSPO) on the mitochondria. The continual increase in incidence of neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative diseases poses a major health issue in many countries, requiring more innovative diagnostic and monitoring tools. TSPO expression may constitute a biomarker for brain inflammation that could be monitored by using TSPO tracers as neuroimaging agents. From medical imaging perspectives, this review focuses on the current concepts related to the TSPO, and discusses briefly on the status of its PET imaging related to neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative diseases in humans

Determining the neurotransmitter concentration profile at active synapses

Establishing the temporal and concentration profiles of neurotransmitters during synaptic release is an essential step towards understanding the basic properties of inter-neuronal communication in the central nervous system. A variety of ingenious attempts has been made to gain insights into this process, but the general inaccessibility of central synapses, intrinsic limitations of the techniques used, and natural variety of different synaptic environments have hindered a comprehensive description of this fundamental phenomenon. Here, we describe a number of experimental and theoretical findings that has been instrumental for advancing our knowledge of various features of neurotransmitter release, as well as newly developed tools that could overcome some limits of traditional pharmacological approaches and bring new impetus to the description of the complex mechanisms of synaptic transmission

Johnston Press and the Crisis in Ireland's Local Newspaper Industry, 2005-2014

Reflecting international trends, Ireland’s local newspaper industry has suffered steep circulation and advertising revenue falls since the late-2000s, and has struggled to reshape traditional business models for the digital era. In harsh trading conditions, local titles are operating on reduced editorial resources and are weakened in their capacity to fulfil their traditional watchdog and informed-citizenry functions. Perhaps no company better encapsulates the industry’s recent difficulties than UK media group Johnston Press. In 2005, it paid more than €200m to acquire fourteen local titles in Ireland, but nine years later sold them for just €8.5m. The article draws on this case-study to consider wider issues related to the corporatisation of local news provision, the sustainability of local news industries in small media markets such as Ireland’s, and the increasing disconnect between local journalism’s commodity value and its public good value

Bioclimatic rehabilitation of an open market place by a computational fluid dynamics simulation assessment

These days urban design of open spaces is strongly related to bioclimatic techniques and practices. It is here presented the procedure of a bioclimatic study by the use of simulation tools. The area of an open market place is characterized of decreased human thermal comfort conditions during summer time. The employment of computational fluid dynamics has contributed in the understanding of what interventions should be made at the open space in order to succeed the defined thermal related targets. Table of the proposed rehabilitation explains what the interventions would contribute in the improvement of the local environment.The authors greatly acknowledge the support of the Mayor of Eordaia Mrs Paraskevi Vrizidou during all simulation stages. ANSYS-CFD simulations were carried out in the framework of student instruction and demonstration of the Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace in Greece