Game Scoring: Towards a Broader Theory

“Game scoring,” that is, the act of composing music for and through gaming, is distinct from other types of scoring. To begin with, unlike other scoring activities, game scoring depends on — in fact, it arguably is — software programming. The game scorer’s choices are thus first-and-foremost limited by available gaming technology, and the “programmability” of their musical ideas given that technology, at any given historical moment. Moreover, game scores are unique in that they must allow for an unprecedented level of musical flexibility, given the high degree of user interactivity the video game medium enables and encourages. As such, game scoring necessarily constitutes an at least partially aleatoric compositional activity, the final score being determined as much through gameplay as traditional composition. This thesis demonstrates this through case studies of the Nintendo Entertainment System sound hardware configuration, and game scores, including the canonic score for Super Mario Bros. (1985)

Fleas

Fleas transmit disease and parasitic worms, and cause allergic dermatitis to humans and animals. There are about 2,000 different flea species in the world and at least 325 species in North America, all belonging to the order Siphonaptera. Fleas are not likely to be confused with other insects because adults are flattened dorsal-ventrally, or side-to-side

Rare Diatom Stauroneis schinzii (Brun) Cleve var. schinzii Microfossil Collected and Georeferenced in Alabama

The diatom Stauroneis schinzii (Brun) Cleve var. schinzii has an underreported record of its autecology, distribution, and natural history. While the species is found in Africa and South America, it is rare in North America and very few specimens have been collected and cataloged. As part of a landscape evolution study, we cored the sediments of an oxbow lake in the coastal plain of Alabama, USA, for diatom analysis. Among 40,608 individual diatoms sampled, we counted a single valve of S. s. var. schinzii, georeferenced its location, and recorded a micrograph. Based on the carbon dating of the sediment core, we conclude the diatom was not anthropogenically introduced from another continent

Book Reviews

Book Review 1Book Title: Ecotoxicology. The Study of Pollutants in Ecosystems. (Second edition)Book Author: F. MoriartyAcademic Press, 1988. 289 pages.Book Review 2Book Title: Ecology of Sandy ShoresBook Authors: A.C. Brown & A. McLachlanElsevier, 1990. 328 pages.Book Review 3Book Title: Ecology and Natural History of Tropical BeesBook Author: David W. RoubikCambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1989Book Review 4Book Title: The AntsBook Authors: Bert Hölldobler & Edward O. WilsonThe Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts,1990. 732 pages.Book Review 5Book Title: Social Insects: an evolutionary approach to castes and reproductionBook Author: Edited by W. EngelsSpringer Verlag, Berlin 1990. 265 pages.Book Review 6Book Title: Mathematical BiologyBook Author: J.D. MurraySpringer-Verlag, New York, 1989. 767 pages. Volume 19 in the Biomathematics series

An independently corroborated, diatom-inferred record of long-term drought cycles occurring over the last two millennia in New Mexico, USA

We investigated late Holocene (2000 YBP to present) drought in northern New Mexico, USA, using diatom valves sampled from a lake sediment core. Diatoms were analyzed with a combination of multivariate ordination and time series analysis to identify significant changes in community dynamics and corresponding significant bifurcations between periods of increased and decreased precipitation. This diatom-inferred precipitation regime was statistically corroborated against an independently derived tree ring record of precipitation in northern New Mexico. Also, both the tree ring and diatom records were tested for concordance with indirect radiocarbon solar intensity data and were both significantly cross-correlated with solar intensity. Periods of drought aligned with periods of decreased solar intensity during ~1400–1000 and ~600–200 YBP; periods of increased solar activity aligned with periods of increased precipitation during ~1000–600 YBP and ~200 YBP to present day. These results suggest that longer-term drought regimes in northern New Mexico may have been modulated by solar activity

Book Reviews

Book Review 1Book Title: Pheromones of Social BeesBook Author: John B. FreeChapman & Hall, 1987. 218 pp.Book Review 2Book Title: Insects - PlantsBook Authors: V. Labeyrie et alDr. W. Junk Publishers, The Hague, 1987. 459 pp.Book Review 3Book Title: The Ecology of Woodland Rodents: Bank voles and wood miceBook Authors: Edited by J.R. Flowerdew, J. Gurnell & J.H.W GippsThe Zoological Society of London. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1985. 418 pp.Book Review 4Book Title: Visual behavior in salamandersBook Author: Gerhard RothSpringer-Verlag, Berlin, 1987. 301 pp.Book Review 5Book Title: Digestive Physiology and Nutrition of MarsupialsBook Author: Ian D. HumeMonographs on Marsupial Biology. Cambridge University Press, 1982. 256 pp.Book Review 6Book Title: Neurobiology and Behavior of HoneybeesBook Authors: Edited by Randolf Menzel & Alison MercerSpringer-Verlag, 1987.334 pp.Book Review 7Book Title: Ecology and Productivity of an African Wetland SystemBook Author: G.A. EllenbroekDr W. Junk Publishers, Dordrecht, 1987. 267 pagesBook Review 8Book Title: Biological Surveys of Estuaries and Coasts Estuarine and Brackish Water Sciences Association HandbookBook Authors: Edited by J.M. Baker & W.J. WolffCambridge University Press, 1987. 449 pp.Book Review 9Book Title: Caste Differentiation in Social InsectsBook Authors: Edited by J.A.L. Watson, S.M. Okot-Kotber & C.H. NoirotPergamon Press, Oxford, 1985. 399 pp.Book Review 10Book Title: Sistematica, filogenia y biogeografia de la subfamilia Gibbiinae (Coleoptera, Ptinidae)Book Author: Xavier BellésTreballs del Museu de Zoologia, 1985, No.3, Barcelona. 94 pp.Book Review 11Book Title: A Biologist's Advanced MathematicsBook Author: D.R. CaustonAllen & Unwin, London 326 pp.Book Review 12 Book Title: Reproduction in Mammals: 5 Manipulating reproductionBook Authors: Edited by C.R. Austin & R.V. ShortCambridge University Press, London, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney. 235 pp.Book Review 13Book Title: Vertebrate Fetal MembranesBook Author: Harland W. MossmanMacmillan press, 1987. 383 pp.Book Review 14Book Title: Avian Physiology (Fourth edition)Book Author: Edited by P.O. SturkieSpringer-Verlag, New York, 1986. 516 pp

Adapting Conservation Easements to Climate Change

Perpetual conservation easements (CEs) are popular for restricting development and land use, but their fixed terms create challenges for adaptation to climate change. The increasing pace of environmental and social change demands adaptive conservation instruments. To examine the adaptive potential of CEs, we surveyed 269 CEs and interviewed 73 conservation organization employees. Although only 2% of CEs mentioned climate change, the majority of employees were concerned about climate change impacts. CEs share the fixed-boundary limits typical of protected areas with additional adaptation constraints due to permanent terms on private lands. CEs often have multiple, potentially conflicting purposes that protect against termination but complicate decisions about principled, conservation-oriented adaptation. Monitoring is critical for shaping adaptive responses, but only 35% of CEs allowed organizations to conduct ecological monitoring. In addition, CEs provided few requirements or incentives for active stewardship of private lands. We found four primary options for changing land use restrictions, each with advantages and risks: CE amendment, management plan revisions, approval of changes through discretionary consent, and updating laws or policies codified in the CE. Conservation organizations, funders, and the Internal Revenue Service should promote processes for principled adaptation in CE terms, provide more active stewardship of CE lands, and consider alternatives to the CE tool

Home is where the future is: The BrightFocus Foundation consensus panel on dementia care

IntroductionA national consensus panel was convened to develop recommendations on future directions for home‐based dementia care (HBDC).MethodsThe panel summarized advantages and challenges of shifting to HBDC as the nexus of care and developed consensus‐based recommendations.ResultsThe panel developed five core recommendations: (1) HBDC should be considered the nexus of new dementia models, from diagnosis to end of life in dementia; (2) new payment models are needed to support HBDC and reward integration of care; (3) a diverse new workforce that spans the care continuum should be prepared urgently; (4) new technologies to promote communication, monitoring/safety, and symptoms management must be tested, integrated, and deployed; and (5) targeted dissemination efforts for HBDC must be employed.DiscussionHBDC represents a promising paradigm shift to improve care for those living with dementia and their family caregivers: these recommendations provide a framework to chart a course forward for HBDC.HighlightsFive core BrightFocus Foundation panel recommendations:Home‐based dementia care should be considered the nexus of new long‐term care models.New payment models are needed to stimulate, reward, and support home care practices.A skilled new workforce spanning long‐term care needs to be developed and equipped.New technologies to promote best practices must be tested, integrated, and deployed.Value propositions and improved public health communication are needed.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152597/1/alzjjalz201710006.pd

The theory of the firm and its critics: a stocktaking and assessment

Includes bibliographical references."Prepared for Jean-Michel Glachant and Eric Brousseau, eds. New Institutional Economics: A Textbook, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.""This version: August 22, 2005."Since its emergence in the 1970s the modern economic or Coasian theory of the firm has been discussed and challenged by sociologists, heterodox economists, management scholars, and other critics. This chapter reviews and assesses these critiques, focusing on behavioral issues (bounded rationality and motivation), process (including path dependence and the selection argument), entrepreneurship, and the challenge from knowledge-based theories of the firm