Flexibility of expressive timing in repeated musical performances

Performances by soloists in the Western classical tradition are normally highly prepared, yet must sound fresh and spontaneous. How do musicians manage this? We tested the hypothesis that they achieve the necessary spontaneity by varying the musical gestures that express their interpretation of a piece. We examined the tempo arches produced by final slowing at the ends of phrases in performances of J. S. Bach’s No. 6 (Prelude) for solo cello (12 performances) and the Italian Concerto (Presto) for solo piano (eight performances). The performances were given by two experienced concert soloists during a short time period (3½ months for the Prelude, 2 weeks for the Presto) after completing their preparations for public performance. We measured the tempo of each bar or half-bar, and the stability of tempo across performances (difference of the tempo of each bar/half bar from each of the other performances). There were phrase arches for both tempo and stability with slower, less stable tempi at beginnings and ends of phrases and faster, more stable tempi mid-phrase. The effects of practice were complex. Tempo decreased overall with practice, while stability increased in some bars and decreased in others. One effect of practice may be to imbue well-learned, automatic motor sequences with freshness and spontaneity through cognitive control at phrase boundaries where slower tempi and decreased stability provide opportunities for slower cognitive processes to modulate rapid automatic motor sequences

Ventilator-associated pneumonia prevention: one good turn does not always deserve another

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A longitudinal study of the development of expressive timing

Tempo arches have often been reported in polished music performances, but their development during the learning of a new piece has not been studied. We examined the development of expressive timing at three levels of musical structure (piece, section, phrase) as an experienced concert soloist (the second author) prepared the Prelude from J. S. Bach’s Suite No. 6 for solo cello for public performance. We used mixed effect models to assess the development of expressive timing and the effects of the performance cues (PCs) that the cellist used as mental landmarks to guide her performance. Tempo arches appeared early in practice at all three levels of musical structure and changed over time in complex ways, first becoming more pronounced and more asymmetrical and then shrinking somewhat in later performances. Arches were also more pronounced in phrases that contained PCs, suggesting that PCs reminded the cellist where to “breathe” between phrases. The early development of tempo arches suggests that they were an automatic product of basic cognitive or motor processes. The complex trajectory of their later development appeared to be the result, at least in part, of a deliberate communicative strategy intended to draw listeners’ attention to some musical boundaries more than others

Confinement of spinless particles by Coulomb potentials in two-dimensional space-time

The problem of confinement of spinless particles in 1+1 dimensions is approached with a linear potential by considering a mixing of Lorentz vector and scalar couplings. Analytical bound-states solutions are obtained when the scalar coupling is of sufficient intensity compared to the vector coupling.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figure

On The Distribution Of Siphonops Paulensis Boettger, 1892 (gymnophiona: Siphonopidae): Four New Brazilian State Records

Siphonops paulensis Boettger, 1892 is a Neotropical siphonopid caecilian widely distributed in South America. Herein, we fill knowledge gaps in the distribution of S. paulensis mostly in northeastern Brazil, including four new state records. © 2016 Check List and Authors.12

UMA ESTRANHA NO ESPELHO: FEMINILIDADE, IMAGEM CORPORAL E ENVELHECIMENTO NA CONTEMPORANEIDADE

Este artigo analisa as novas formas de subjetivação na contemporaneidade, em que o sujeito parece reduzir-se à sua imagem corporal, problematizando o processo de envelhecimento: os sinais do tempo vividos no corpo estão sendo interpretados, invariavelmente, como desqualificantes e sendo tomados como injúria, desgraça e doença. Um expressivo número de mulheres nesta faixa etária se submete hoje a in tervenções cirúrgicas de rejuvenescimento cujo objetivo é recuperar um corpo que existiu no passado, um corpo de antes. A discussão é direcionada ao efeito do culto à aparência na auto-representação que essas mulheres têm de si e no valor da imagem corporal no processo de identificação feminina

Non-destructive assay employing 2D and 3D digital radiographic imaging acquired with thermal neutrons and reactor-produced radioisotopes

The inner structure of some objects can only be visualized by using suitable techniques, when safety reasons or expensive costs preclude the application of invasive procedures. The kind of agent rendering an object partially transparent, unveiling thus its features, depends upon the object size and composition. As a rough rule of thumb, light materials are transparent to gamma and X-rays while the heavy ones are transparent to neutrons. When, after traversing an object, they hit a proper 2-D detector, a radiograph is produced representing a convoluted cross section, called projection, of that object. Taking a large number of such projections for different object attitudes, it is possible to obtain a 3-D tomography of the object as a map of attenuation coefficients. This procedure however, besides a time-consuming task, requires specially tailored equipment and software, not always available or affordable. Yet, in some circumstances it is feasible to replace the 3-D tomography by a stereoscopy, allowing one to visualize the spatial configuration of the object under analysis. In this work, 2-Dand 3-D radiographic images have been acquired using thermal neutrons and reactor-produced radioisotopes and proper imaging plates as detectors. The stereographic vision has been achieved by taking two radiographs of the same object at different angles, from the detector point of view. After a treatment to render them red-white and green-white they were properly merged to yield a single image capable to be watched with red-green glasses. All the image treatment and rendering has been performed with the software ImageJ

Panorama espaço - temporal de fatores de mudança economica, scoial e ambiental na Amazônia: estudo de caso Flona Tapajós.

Políticas públicas voltadas para integrar a Amazônia a outras regiões do Brasil na década de 1970 incluíram a instalação de portos, hidrelétricas e abertura de rodovias como a Transamazônica (BR 230) Cuiabá-Santarém (BR 163) e Belém - Brasília (BR 316), desencadeando um processo intenso de transformações na paisagem, principalmente pelo desflorestamento. Porém, neste mesmo período, também foram delimitadas áreas legalmente protegidas na região, como foi o caso da Floresta Nacional do Tapajós, criada em 1974. O objetivo do trabalho foi avaliar temporal e espacialmente forçantes promotoras de alterações na paisagem. Para tanto, foram utilizados dados secundários analíticos disponíveis em bases do IBGE, bem como informações espaciais disponibilizadas por órgãos públicos em âmbito federal, estadual e municipal. Variáveis topoclimáticas foram utilizadas nas avaliações da dinâmica espaço-temporal com auxílio de análises geoestísticas e modelagem. Os resultados reforçaram o modelo de ocupação denominado "espinha de peixe", tendo as rodovias como eixo de antropização e do aumento progressivo da pressão em Áreas Protegidas. Ao avaliar os cenários para 2030, observa-se os efeitos aos longo dos rios, a oeste do estado do Pará, pelas instalação de portos para escoamento da produção em mercado nacional e internacional

Fatores estruturais e desempenho industrial: as regiões sul, sudeste e nordeste do Brasil em camparação

In this article the author analyses in a comparative way, the industrial sector of the most important brazilian regions by estimating a gross profit function. This estimation permits to identify some regional structural particularities. On the other hand,it was possible to find some explicatory elements about the economic performance differential. His conclusions point out a tendency to a regional convergence of productivity and wages, and a better economic performance in the southern and northeastern regions. This tendency is associated to technological factors, to the scale of production and to agglomeration economies. However, the recent restruturation of the brazilian industry, aiming to become more competitive at an international level, indicate a possible spatial reconcentration which means a possible return to a divergent behavior of those economic indicators.Neste trabalho o autor analisa, comparativamente, a indústria das principais regiões brasileiras, por meio da estimativa de uma função excedente, permitindo-se identificar particularidades estruturais regionais, alem de serem fomecidoselementos explicativos sobre o diferencial de desempenho. Suas conclusões apontam parauma tendência a convergência regional da produtividade e dos salários, e um melhor desempenho do Sul e do Nordeste, tendência esta associada a tecnologia, a escala de produçao e as economias de aglomeração. No entanto, a recente reestruturagao da indústria brasileira, tendo em vista tomar-se mais competitiva em nível intemacional, vem dando sinais de uma possível reconcentração espacial, com retomo a divergência dos indicadores econõmicos em questao