A Pedagogical Analysis and Performance of Selected Compositions for Piano by Vincent Persichetti

Vincent Persichetti composed in a wide range of contemporary musical idioms. He incorporated twentieth-century harmonies into traditional forms and into classical piano writing. This paper seeks to emphasize the advantages of his music for piano pedagogy. Chapter Two concentrates on the composer’s life, compositional style, contribution and rewards, and it includes a short list of piano compositions. Chapter Three examines and analyzes four selected pieces by Persichetti: Little Piano Book, Piano Sonata No. 9, Poems for Piano No. 2 “Soft is the Collied Night,” and Four Arabesques, Op. 141, No. 1 Affabile. The Poem, the Arabesque, and the miniatures in Little Piano Book are smaller pieces, intended for amateur and intermediate pianists. The Ninth Sonata is a more substantial composition for advanced pianists. These pieces provide a broad image of Persichetti’s piano compositions. This study of selected works by Persichetti shows that his music is excellent pedagogical material for piano students as well as outstanding music to be performed in the concert hall

Bipartite Matching with Linear Edge Weights

Consider a complete weighted bipartite graph G in which each left vertex u has two real numbers intercept and slope, each right vertex v has a real number quality, and the weight of any edge (u, v) is defined as the intercept of u plus the slope of u times the quality of v. Let m (resp., n) denote the number of left (resp., right) vertices, and assume that m geq n. We develop a fast algorithm for computing a maximum weight matching (MWM) of such a graph. Our algorithm begins by computing an MWM of the subgraph induced by the n right vertices and an arbitrary subset of n left vertices; this step is straightforward to perform in O(n log n) time. The remaining m - n left vertices are then inserted into the graph one at a time, in arbitrary order. As each left vertex is inserted, the MWM is updated. It is relatively straightforward to process each such insertion in O(n) time; our main technical contribution is to improve this time bound to O(sqrt{n} log^2 n). This result has an application related to unit-demand auctions. It is well known that the VCG mechanism yields a suitable solution (allocation and prices) for any unit-demand auction. The graph G may be viewed as encoding a special kind of unit-demand auction in which each left vertex u represents a unit-demand bid, each right vertex v represents an item, and the weight of an edge (u, v) represents the offer of bid u on item v. In this context, our fast insertion algorithm immediately provides an O(sqrt{n} log^2 n)-time algorithm for updating a VCG allocation when a new bid is received. We show how to generalize the insertion algorithm to update (an efficient representation of) the VCG prices within the same time bound

How Ontologies Can Help in an eMarketplace

Recently, ontologies have been developed in various business domains with the recent maturing of the Semantic Web technologies. However, ontology-related researches have largely focused on the facilitation of successful matchmaking but not much on traders’ requirement elicitation and potential negotiations in e-marketplaces. Because ontology provides the key knowledge about the inter-relationships among the issues and alternatives of the traders’ requirements, we show how to elicit trade requirements, alternatives, and tradeoff from an agreed ontology. This facilitates the whole business process of the e-marketplace, from matchmaking, recommendation, to negotiation. We further propose a novel methodology for the elicitation of dependencies among traders’ requirements for the formulation of an effective decision plan. As a result, traders can have a better cognition of their requirements and the overall operations of the e-marketplace can be streamlined

Viewpoint switching in multiview videos using SP-frames

The distinguishing feature of multiview video lies in the interactivity, which allows users to select their favourite viewpoint. It switches bitstream at a particular view when necessary instead of transmitting all the views. The new SP-frame in H.264 is originally developed for multiple bit-rate streaming with the support of seamless switching. The SP-frame can also be directly employed in the viewpoint switching of multiview videos. Notwithstanding the guarantee of seamless switching using SP-frames, the cost is the bulky size of secondary SP-frames. This induces a significant amount of additional space or bandwidth for storage or transmission, especially for the multiview scenario. For this reason, a new motion estimation and compensation technique operating in the quantized transform (QDCT) domain is designed for coding secondary SP-frame in this paper. Our proposed work aims at keeping the secondary SP-frames as small as possible without affecting the size of primary SP-frames by incorporating QDCT-domain motion estimation and compensation in the secondary SP-frame coding. Simulation results show that the size of secondary SP-frames can be reduced remarkably in viewpoint switching. Index Terms — Multiview, viewpoint switching, SP-frame, QDCT-domain, motion estimatio

Restoring Hong Kong's landscar in the Anderson Quarry : an analysis of civic engagement strategies

published_or_final_versionPolitics and Public AdministrationMasterMaster of Public Administratio

Simultaneous defocus integration during refractive development

purpose. To determine the effects of simultaneously presented myopic and hyperopic defocus on the refractive development of chicks. methods. A novel form of dual-power lens was designed. Normal chicks 7 to 8 days of age were fitted with a dual-power lens over one eye and a plano lens over the fellow (control) eye. Dual-power lenses of +20/?10, +10/?10, +5/?10, and plano/?10-D were tested, along with +10/?10-D lenses having differing ratios (50:50, 33:67, and 25:75) of surface area devoted to each power. Ocular refraction and axial ocular component dimensions were assessed after 6 days of lens wear, by retinoscopy and high-frequency ultrasound, respectively. In a separate experiment designed to test the effect of dual-power lens wear on the refractive development of myopic eyes, chicks were fitted with a dual-power +10/?10-D lens for 6 days, after myopia had been induced by 6 days of ?10-D lens wear. results. For each of the dual-power lenses tested, the refractive end point of the treated eye was found to lie between the two optical powers of the lens (but with the response weighted in favor of the effect of myopic defocus). Refractive development appeared to be modulated by the sign, dioptric magnitude, and relative contribution (relative contrast) of the imposed optical defocuses through an integrative mechanism. Chicks with myopia induced by ?10-D lens wear recovered when treated with a +10/?10-D dual-power lens. conclusions. The chick retina can discern both the sign and the magnitude of optical defocus. Chick eyes were able to integrate blur cues from simultaneously presented images focused either side of the photoreceptors and to modulate their refractive development accordingly. This implies that the complex nature of defocus in the visual environment may play a critical role in the pathogenesis of myopia. The results suggest a rational method for arresting or reversing the development of myopia, which may be useful in the treatment of human myopia if the primate retina is also capable of responding to simultaneously presented opposing defocus cues