Biophily: Five Musical Episodes for the Revolutionary Educator

Biophily: Five Musical Episodes for the Revolutionary Educator is a composition meant to reflect, through music, some of the key concepts and ideas of authors like Paulo Freire, William Ayers, Neil Postman, and Charles Weingartner in their works that we covered in Social Foundations. Each piece aims to deconstruct poor teaching habits and practices, and musically express a better way to go about education

Towards a More Inclusive Music Education: Experiences of LGBTQQIAA Students in Music Teacher Education Programs Across Pennsylvania

During the past decade, the field of music education has seen an increase in the amount of scholarship surrounding LGBTQ studies in music teaching and learning. For example, the University of Illinois hosted three symposia for the field of music education dedicated to LGBTQ studies (2010, 2012, 2016), and proceedings from these symposia were published in three separate issues of the of the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education (2011, 2014, 2016). Other notable scholarship has been published in Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education (Gould 2005); the Music Educators Journal (Bergonzi, 2009; Carter, 2011; McBride, 2016); the Journal of Research in Music Education (Carter, 2013; Nicholas, 2013); and UPDATE: Applications of Research in Music Education (Garrett, 2012). (excerpt

Interaction, Identity & Social Class

Social class is a longstanding locus of sociological inquiry. Prior research has investigated the phenomenon in an array of domains through a myriad of methodologies and theoretical perspectives. The heterogeneity that is posed by previous studies empirically and theoretically, however, is predicated upon a homogenous set of epistemological and ontological assumptions. This has resulted in a number of programmatic, enduring omissions. Most notably, research has neglected how social class is conceptualised and made relevant by members in forms of talk-in-interaction. Aligning with the commitments of Ethnomethodology (EM), and using Conversation Analysis (CA) and Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) specifically, this thesis addresses this lacuna. Data are composed of ordinary, naturalistic forms of talk-in-interaction conducted synchronously in the English language over the last half-century (n=959). The empirical contributions of this research concern the ontological affordances, formulative possibilities and praxiological functions of two families of interactional practices that occasion the relevance of classed identities recurrently – namely, “membership categorisations” and “place references”. Chapter 4 addresses the former, canvassing the agentic, ontological and intersubjective dimensions of linguistically classed membership categories. Chapter 5 introduces the latter as a resource used to actuate classed identities in a designedly referential and metonymic faculty. Chapter 6 then recovers the activity of “accounting” for which both practices are employed across action-types; specifically, “assessments”, “complaints” and “teases”. The central objective of this thesis thus concerns the “respecification” of social class as a “members’ phenomenon”; one that is made relevant within ordinary instances of talk-in-interaction through a stable set of interactional practices in order to accomplish a diverse range of practical tasks. The thesis concludes with a review of several candidate lines of analysis for future EM/(M)CA inquiry that are anticipated by the findings of this research uniquely

Interaction, Identity & Social Class

Social class is a longstanding locus of sociological inquiry. Prior research has investigated the phenomenon in an array of domains through a myriad of methodologies and theoretical perspectives. The heterogeneity that is posed by previous studies empirically and theoretically, however, is predicated upon a homogenous set of epistemological and ontological assumptions. This has resulted in a number of programmatic, enduring omissions. Most notably, research has neglected how social class is conceptualised and made relevant by members in forms of talk-in-interaction. Aligning with the commitments of Ethnomethodology (EM), and using Conversation Analysis (CA) and Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) specifically, this thesis addresses this lacuna. Data are composed of ordinary, naturalistic forms of talk-in-interaction conducted synchronously in the English language over the last half-century (n=959). The empirical contributions of this research concern the ontological affordances, formulative possibilities and praxiological functions of two families of interactional practices that occasion the relevance of classed identities recurrently – namely, “membership categorisations” and “place references”. Chapter 4 addresses the former, canvassing the agentic, ontological and intersubjective dimensions of linguistically classed membership categories. Chapter 5 introduces the latter as a resource used to actuate classed identities in a designedly referential and metonymic faculty. Chapter 6 then recovers the activity of “accounting” for which both practices are employed across action-types; specifically, “assessments”, “complaints” and “teases”. The central objective of this thesis thus concerns the “respecification” of social class as a “members’ phenomenon”; one that is made relevant within ordinary instances of talk-in-interaction through a stable set of interactional practices in order to accomplish a diverse range of practical tasks. The thesis concludes with a review of several candidate lines of analysis for future EM/(M)CA inquiry that are anticipated by the findings of this research uniquely

Technology capital transfer

It is widely believed that an important factor underlying the rapid growth in China is increased foreign direct investment (FDI) and the transfer of foreign technology capital, which is accumulated know-how from investment in research and development (R&D), brands, and organizations that is not specific to a plant. In this paper, we study two channels through which FDI can contribute to upgrading of the stock of technology capital: knowledge spillovers and appropriation. Knowledge spillovers lead to new ideas that do not directly compete or devalue the foreign affiliate’s stock. Appropriation, on the other hand, implies a redistribution of property rights over patents and trademarks; the gain to domestic companies comes at a loss to the multinational company (MNC). In this paper we build these sources of technology capital transfer into the framework developed by McGrattan and Prescott (2009, 2010) and introduce an endogenously-chosen intensity margin for operating technology capital in order to capture the trade-offs MNCs face when expanding their markets internationally. We show that economic outcomes differ dramatically depending on the source of greater openness and the channel with which technology capital transfer is operative.

Healthcare professionals’ assertions and women's responses during labour: A conversation analytic study of data from One born every minute

© 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd Objective Communication during labour is consequential for women's experience yet analyses of situated labour-ward interaction are rare. This study demonstrates the value of explicating the interactional practices used to initiate ‘decisions’ during labour. Methods Interactions between 26 labouring women, their birth partners and HCPs were transcribed from the British television programme, One Born Every Minute. Conversation analysis was used to examine how decisions were initiated and accomplished in interaction. Findings HCPs initiate decision-making using interactional practices that vary the ‘optionality’ afforded labouring women in the responsive turn. Our focus here is on the minimisation of optionality through ‘assertions’. An ‘assertive’ turn-design (e.g. ‘we need to…’) conveys strong expectation of agreement. HCPs assert decisions in contexts of risk but also in contexts of routine activities. Labouring women tend to acquiesce to assertions. Conclusion The expectation of agreement set up by an assertive initiating turn can reduce women's opportunities to participate in shared decision-making (SDM). Practice implications When decisions are asserted by HCPs there is a possible dissonance between the tenets of SDM in British health policy and what occurs in situ. This highlights an educational need for HCPs in how best to afford labouring women more optionality, particularly in low-risk contexts

Evolutionary History and Attenuation of Myxoma Virus on Two Continents

The attenuation of myxoma virus (MYXV) following its introduction as a biological control into the European rabbit populations of Australia and Europe is the canonical study of the evolution of virulence. However, the evolutionary genetics of this profound change in host-pathogen relationship is unknown. We describe the genome-scale evolution of MYXV covering a range of virulence grades sampled over 49 years from the parallel Australian and European epidemics, including the high-virulence progenitor strains released in the early 1950s. MYXV evolved rapidly over the sampling period, exhibiting one of the highest nucleotide substitution rates ever reported for a double-stranded DNA virus, and indicative of a relatively high mutation rate and/or a continually changing selective environment. Our comparative sequence data reveal that changes in virulence involved multiple genes, likely losses of gene function due to insertion-deletion events, and no mutations common to specific virulence grades. Hence, despite the similarity in selection pressures there are multiple genetic routes to attain either highly virulent or attenuated phenotypes in MYXV, resulting in convergence for phenotype but not genotype. © 2012 Kerr et al

Long intervals of stasis punctuated by bursts of positive selection in the seasonal evolution of influenza A virus

BACKGROUND: The interpandemic evolution of the influenza A virus hemagglutinin (HA) protein is commonly considered a paragon of rapid evolutionary change under positive selection in which amino acid replacements are fixed by virtue of their effect on antigenicity, enabling the virus to evade immune surveillance. RESULTS: We performed phylogenetic analyses of the recently obtained large and relatively unbiased samples of the HA sequences from 1995–2005 isolates of the H3N2 and H1N1 subtypes of influenza A virus. Unexpectedly, it was found that the evolution of H3N2 HA includes long intervals of generally neutral sequence evolution without apparent substantial antigenic change ("stasis" periods) that are characterized by an excess of synonymous over nonsynonymous substitutions per site, lack of association of amino acid replacements with epitope regions, and slow extinction of coexisting virus lineages. These long periods of stasis are punctuated by shorter intervals of rapid evolution under positive selection during which new dominant lineages quickly displace previously coexisting ones. The preponderance of positive selection during intervals of rapid evolution is supported by the dramatic excess of amino acid replacements in the epitope regions of HA compared to replacements in the rest of the HA molecule. In contrast, the stasis intervals showed a much more uniform distribution of replacements over the HA molecule, with a statistically significant difference in the rate of synonymous over nonsynonymous substitution in the epitope regions between the two modes of evolution. A number of parallel amino acid replacements – the same amino acid substitution occurring independently in different lineages – were also detected in H3N2 HA. These parallel mutations were, largely, associated with periods of rapid fitness change, indicating that there are major limitations on evolutionary pathways during antigenic change. The finding that stasis is the prevailing modality of H3N2 evolution suggests that antigenic changes that lead to an increase in fitness typically result from epistatic interactions between several amino acid substitutions in the HA and, perhaps, other viral proteins. The strains that become dominant due to increased fitness emerge from low frequency strains thanks to the last amino acid replacement that completes the set of replacements required to produce a significant antigenic change; no subset of substitutions results in a biologically significant antigenic change and corresponding fitness increase. In contrast to H3N2, no clear intervals of evolution under positive selection were detected for the H1N1 HA during the same time span. Thus, the ascendancy of H1N1 in some seasons is, most likely, caused by the drop in the relative fitness of the previously prevailing H3N2 lineages as the fraction of susceptible hosts decreases during the stasis intervals. CONCLUSION: We show that the common view of the evolution of influenza virus as a rapid, positive selection-driven process is, at best, incomplete. Rather, the interpandemic evolution of influenza appears to consist of extended intervals of stasis, which are characterized by neutral sequence evolution, punctuated by shorter intervals of rapid fitness increase when evolutionary change is driven by positive selection. These observations have implications for influenza surveillance and vaccine formulation; in particular, the possibility exists that parallel amino acid replacements could serve as a predictor of new dominant strains. REVIEWERS: Ron Fouchier (nominated by Andrey Rzhetsky), David Krakauer, Christopher Le

The Magnitude of Rapid Weight Loss and Rapid Weight Gain in Combat Sport Athletes Preparing for Competition: A Systematic Review

Combat sport athletes typically engage in a process called making weight, characterized by rapid weight loss (RWL) and subsequent rapid weight gain (RWG) in the days preceding competition. These practices differ across each sport, but no systematic comparison of the size of the changes in body mass exists. The aim was to determine the magnitude of RWL and RWG in combat sport athletes preparing for competition. The review protocol was preregistered with PROSPERO (CRD42017055279). In eligible studies, athletes prepared habitually with a RWL period ≤7 days preceding competition. An electronic search of EBSCOhost (CINAHL Plus, MEDLINE, and SPORTDiscus) and PubMed Central was performed up to July 2018. Sixteen full-text studies (total 4,432 participants; 156 females and 4,276 males) were included, providing data from five combat sports (boxing, judo, mixed martial arts, taekwondo, and wrestling). Three studies reported RWL and 14 studies reported RWG. Duration permitted for RWG ranged 3–32 hr. The largest changes in body mass occurred in two separate mixed martial arts cohorts (RWL: 7.4 ± 1.1 kg [∼10%] and RWG: 7.4 ± 2.8 kg [11.7% ± 4.7%]). The magnitude of RWG appears to be influenced by the type of sport, competition structure, and recovery duration permitted. A cause for concern is the lack of objective data quantifying the magnitude of RWL. There is insufficient evidence to substantiate the use of RWG as a proxy for RWL, and little data are available in females. By engaging in RWG, athletes are able to exploit the rules to compete up to three weight categories higher than at the official weigh-in