Artful encounters with nature: Ecological and spiritual dimensions of music learning

This ethnographic dissertation offers an in-depth analysis of how contemporary music practitioners/educators interpret, appropriate, and practice the tradition of spiritual music both inside and outside Japan, focusing on how they reframe and embody what I identify as indigenous cultural values in today???s educational settings. I specifically examine the nature of the traditional practice that approaches the shakuhachi (a type of bamboo flute) in a holistic, organic manner: Practitioners of this tradition personally harvest the bamboo and fashion their instruments directly out of nature, taking great care to preserve and appreciate the nature inherent to each piece of bamboo. Their instruments are much less processed and closely resemble the natural state of each piece of bamboo. This type of organic activities through music???hardly introduced and practiced in the educational realm???are observed both inside and outside of Japan. The practice of shakuhachi related more directly to Capra???s vision of environmental ethics. Capra (1996) argues that the basic principles of teaching and learning should be congruent with the characteristics of ecosystems such as interdependence, sustainability, ecological cycles, energy flows, partnerships, flexibility, diversity, and co-evolution. The practice of shakuhachi making, for instance, is interdependent on the natural resources available in each place and cannot occur without a sustainable relationship with the land. Diversity of musical practice is brought about through the various shapes and sounds yielded by different bamboo pieces. The natural materials make it possible for practitioners to embody the flow of the earth energy (ki) through sound. Co-evolution is observed when practitioners yield to the distinctive characteristics of their individual pieces of bamboo as they are, assimilating themselves to them, instead of altering them in favor of functionality. They get used to each bamboo segment in time while developing a sense of attachment, devotion, and responsibility. The findings of this dissertation suggested that music learning is place-based and instrument making serves as a process of localizing and personalizing music learning. In order to articulate this integrative, interactive nature of music practice, this dissertation submitted an emerging notion of ???self-integration??? as a form of actualizing the body-mind, human-nature integration

The impact of microphysical uncertainty conditional on initial and boundary condition uncertainty under varying synoptic control

The relative impact of individual and combined uncertainties of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentration and the shape parameter of the cloud droplet size distribution (CDSD) in the presence of initial and boundary condition uncertainty (IBC) on convection forecasts is quantified using the convection-permitting model ICON-D2 (ICOsahedral Non-hydrostatic). We performed 180-member ensemble simulations for five real case studies representing different synoptic forcing situations over Germany and inspected the precipitation variability on different spatial and temporal scales. During weak synoptic control, the relative impact of combined microphysical uncertainty on daily area-averaged precipitation accounts for about one-third of the variability caused by operational IBC uncertainty. The effect of combined microphysical perturbations exceeds the impact of individual CCN or CDSD perturbations and is twice as large during weak control. The combination of IBC and microphysical uncertainty affects the extremes of daily spatially averaged rainfall of individual members by extending the tails of the forecast distribution by 5 % in weakly forced conditions. The responses are relatively insensitive in strong forcing situations. Visual inspection and objective analysis of the spatial variability in hourly rainfall rates reveal that IBC and microphysical uncertainties alter the spatial variability in precipitation forecasts differently. Microphysical perturbations slightly shift convective cells but affect precipitation intensities, while IBC perturbations scramble the location of convection during weak control. Cloud and rainwater contents are more sensitive to microphysical uncertainty than precipitation and less dependent on synoptic control

Impacts of combined microphysical and land-surface uncertainties on convective clouds and precipitation in different weather regimes

To reduce the underdispersion of precipitation in convective-scale ensemble prediction systems, we investigate the relevance of microphysical and land-surface uncertainties for convective-scale predictability. We use three different initial soil moisture fields and study the response of convective precipitation to varying cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations and different shape parameters of the cloud droplet size distribution (CDSD) by applying a novel combined-perturbation strategy. Using the new ICOsahedral Non-hydrostatic (ICON) model, we construct a 60-member ensemble for cases with summertime convection under weak and strong synoptic-scale forcing over central Europe. We find a systematic positive soil moisture–precipitation feedback for all cases, regardless of the type of synoptic forcing, and a stronger response of precipitation to different CCN concentrations and shape parameters for weak forcing than for strong forcing. While the days with weak forcing show a systematic decrease in precipitation with increasing aerosol loading, days with strong forcing also show nonsystematic responses for some values of the shape parameters. The large magnitudes of precipitation deviations compared to a reference simulation ranging between −23 % and +18 % demonstrate that the uncertainties investigated here and, in particular, their collective effect are highly relevant for quantitative precipitation forecasting of summertime convection in central Europe. A rainwater budget analysis is used to identify the dominating source and sink terms and their response to the uncertainties applied in this study. Results also show a dominating cold-rain process for all cases and a strong but mostly nonsystematic impact on the release of latent heat, which is considered to be the prime mechanism for the upscale growth of small errors affecting the predictability of convective systems. The combined ensemble spread when accounting for all three uncertainties lies in the same range as the ones from an operational convective-scale ensemble prediction system with 20 members determined in previous studies. This indicates that the combination of different perturbations used in our study may be suitable for ensemble forecasting and that this method should be evaluated against other sources of uncertainty

Importance of aerosols and shape of the cloud droplet size distribution for convective clouds and precipitation

The predictability of deep moist convection is subject to large uncertainties resulting from inaccurate initial and boundary data, the incomplete description of physical processes, or microphysical uncertainties. In this study, we investigate the response of convective clouds and precipitation over central Europe to varying cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations and different shape parameters of the cloud droplet size distribution (CDSD), both of which are not well constrained by observations. We systematically evaluate the relative impact of these uncertainties in realistic convection-resolving simulations for multiple cases with different synoptic controls using the new icosahedral non-hydrostatic ICON model. The results show a large systematic increase in total cloud water content with increasing CCN concentrations and narrower CDSDs, together with a reduction in the total rain water content. This is related to a suppressed warm-rain formation due to a less efficient collision–coalescence process. It is shown that the evaporation at lower levels is responsible for diminishing these impacts on surface precipitation, which lies between +13 % and −16 % compared to a reference run with continental aerosol assumption. In general, the precipitation response was larger for weakly forced cases. We also find that the overall timing of convection is not sensitive to the microphysical uncertainties applied, indicating that different rain intensities are responsible for changing precipitation totals at the ground. Furthermore, weaker rain intensities in the developing phase of convective clouds can allow for a higher convective instability at later times, which can lead to a turning point with larger rain intensities later on. The existence of such a turning point and its location in time can have a major impact on precipitation totals. In general, we find that an increase in the shape parameter can produce almost as large a variation in precipitation as a CCN increase from maritime to polluted conditions. The narrowing of the CDSD not only decreases the absolute values of autoconversion and accretion but also decreases the relative role of the warm-rain formation in general, independent of the prevailing weather regime. We further find that increasing CCN concentrations reduce the effective radius of cloud droplets in a stronger manner than larger shape parameters. The cloud optical depth, however, reveals a similarly large increase with larger shape parameters when changing the aerosol load from maritime to polluted. By the frequency of updrafts as a function of height, we show a negative aerosol effect on updraft strength, leading to an enervation of deep convection. These findings demonstrate that both the CCN assumptions and the CDSD shape parameter are important for quantitative precipitation forecasting and should be carefully chosen if double-moment schemes are used for modeling aerosol–cloud interactions

Anti-Dermatophagoides farinae type I and II IgE antibodies in allergic rhinitis

ABSTRACTSera from 27 patients with mite-sensitive allergic rhinitis, without atopic dermatitis and bronchial asthma, were examined for anti-Der f I and anti-Der f II IgE antibody contents by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Anti-Der f I and anti-Der f II IgE antibody levels were 14.78 ± 1.34 and 32.68 ± 0.88 ng/mL (mean ± SEM), respectively. The anti-Der f II IgE antibody was predominant over the anti-Der f I IgE antibody in these patients.In comparison with the results of a previous study the present study indicates that the ratio between serum anti-Der f I and II IgE antibodies in patients with allergic rhinitis indicated the same pattern as in that of patients with bronchial asthma, while the inverse was the case in patients with atopic dermatitis.These results indicate that immunological features and major allergen molecules could be different in different atopic diseases. At present it is not clear where this difference comes from, but the route of immunological sensitization (via respiratory tract vs via skin) might result in the difference

Downregulation and forced expression of EWS-Fli1 fusion gene results in changes in the expression of G 1 regulatory genes

Chromosomal translocation t(11;22)(q24:q12) is detected in approximately 90% of tumours of the Ewing family (ET). This translocation results in EWS-Fli1 gene fusion which produces a EWS-Fli1 fusion protein acting as an aberrant transcriptional activator. We previously reported that the inhibition of EWS-Fli1 expression caused the G 0/G 1 arrest of ET cells. We, therefore, hypothesized that EWS-Fli1 may affect the expression of G 1 regulatory genes. Downregulation of EWS-Fli1 fusion proteins was observed 48 hours after the treatment with EWS-Fli1 antisense oligonucleotides. The expressions of G 1 cyclins, cyclin D1 and cyclin E, were markedly decreased in parallel with the reduction of EWS-Fli1 fusion protein. On the other hand, the expression of p21 and p27, which are important cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors (CKIs) for G 1–S transition, was dramatically increased after the treatment with EWS-Fli1 antisense oligonucleotides. RT-PCR analysis showed that alteration of the expressions of the cyclins and CKIs occurred at the mRNA level. Furthermore, transfection of EWS-Fli1 cDNA to NIH3T3 caused transformation of the cells and induction of the expression of cyclin D1 and E. Clinical samples of ET also showed a high level of expression of cyclin D1 mRNA, whereas mRNAs for p21 and p27 were not detected in the samples. These findings strongly suggest that the G 1–S regulatory genes may be involved in downstream of EWS-Fli1 transcription factor, and that the unbalanced expression of G 1–S regulatory factors caused by EWS-Fli1 may lead to the tumorigenesis of ET. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www. bjcancer.co

ホヤの変態を制御するメカニズムの研究

筑波大学 (University of Tsukuba)201

An exhibition of paintings

My thesis exhibition consists of five paintings, each composed of one or more segments. My paintings deal primarily with space and utilize the walls, the floor, and the activation of the physical space in which the works are hung. Essentially most of traditional painting has dealt with visual illusion. The work usually occurred within framed borders or was usually done with the idea of framing in mind. My work, on the other hand, no longer remains bound within the frame or the framing edges. Instead, it moves into space. The paintings and the surrounding space must interact in order for the work to succeed