The Structure of Plato's Dialogues and Greek Music Theory: A Response to J. B. Kennedy

J. B. Kennedy recently proposed a radical new interpretation of the Platonic dialogues, arguing that their stichometric structure is based in a Greek twelve-tone musical scale. We explore to what extent such an interpretation might be borne out historically by Greek music-theoretical traditions: the concept of scale, the significance of number 12 (on which Kennedy's theory is anchored), conceptual differences between Harmonicists and Pythagoreans, and the applicability of Kennedy's scale within the context of Plato's thought. While the statistical correlations Kennedy notes are intriguing, their foundation in Greek music-theoretical traditions proves problematic.Musi

IMPROVING DATA QUALITY WITH FOUR SHORT SENTENCES: HOW AN HONOR CODE CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE DURING DATA COLLECTION

Careless responders have a large impact on a study by causing issues such as Type II errors (failing to reject a false null hypothesis), which then waste researchers’ time and money. Research on careless responding has focused primarily on detecting and removing careless responders rather than on reducing careless responding before data collection begins. The purpose of the present study was to test the use of honor codes with or without the presentation of a picture of watchful eyes to increase self-awareness thereby reducing careless responding. Participants (N = 305) were randomly assigned to one of five honor code conditions (control condition, read-only condition, type condition, read-and-eyes condition, or type-and-eyes condition) and then completed a number of personality measures. Participant’s responses were screened for careless responding. I found that when participant’s only read an honor code without a picture of watchful eyes on the screen, they were significantly more likely to engage in careless responding than were people in the control condition. There was no significant difference in careless responding in the control condition compared to the other three conditions (type condition, read-and-eyes condition, or type-and-eyes condition). This finding indicates that participants being presented only with an honor code, and no other cues of moral behavior, might lead to psychological reactance (i.e., participants perceiving their freedom or control was threatened). This psychological reactance was likely due to participants feeling coerced to respond honestly by the honor code rather than participants responding honestly on their own accord. Additionally, there were no differences on participant’s responses across conditions on a number of personality measures that may be sensitive to increased self-awareness. A number of exploratory analyses were also conducted to further examine psychological reactance. The present study provides answers and possible directions to a number of useful questions that could improve data quality and reduce potential negative effects of honor codes under certain circumstances

Portfolio of Compositions

No abstract available

Tibet and the British Raj, 1904-47: The influence of the Indian political department officers.

Following Colonel Younghusband's Mission to Lhasa in 1903-04, officers selected by the Indian Political Department were stationed in Tibet under the command of the Political Officer Sikkim. This study examines aspects of the character, role and influence of these officers, whom I collectively term the 'Tibet cadre', and demonstrates that the cadre maintained a distinct collective identity and ethos, which was reflected in their approach to Anglo-Tibetan policies, and in the image of Tibet which resulted from the Anglo-Tibetan encounter. British India's northern frontier was the location for powerful imperial mythologies, such as the "Great Game", which were a part of cadre identity. Conditions on the frontier were believed to suit a particular type of individual, and officers of that type, capable of upholding British prestige while gaining an empathy with Tibet and Tibetans, were favoured for cadre service. A similar type of character was sought among the local intermediaries, the most successful of whom were given cadre postings. As frontiersmen following the traditions of Younghusband, their 'founding father', the cadre promoted 'forward' policies, designed to counter the perceived Russian threat to British India by extending British influence over the Himalayas. But Whitehall refused to support these policies to avoid damaging relations with China and other powers who regarded Tibet as part of China. The increased control exerted by central government over the imperial periphery in this period meant that, although the Tibet cadre did succeed in their primary aim of establishing British representation in Lhasa, they were unable to exert a dominant influence on policy-making either in Whitehall or in Lhasa. The cadre largely controlled the flow of information from Tibet, and they contributed a great deal to the construction of an image of Tibet, particularly through the books they wrote. But although individual officers such as Sir Charles Bell developed a deep understanding of Tibet, this did not fully emerge in the final image, which had passed through layers of censorship designed to ensure that the image served British interests

Clinical and surgical management of holocervical spinal cord ependymomas.

Background:Spinal ependymomas are rare tumors of the central nervous system, and those spanning the entire cervical spine are atypical. Here, we present two unusual cases of holocervical (C1-C7) spinal ependymomas. Case Description:Two patients, a 32-year-old female and a 24-year-old male presented with neck pain, motor, and sensory deficits. Sagittal MRI confirmed hypointense lesions on T1 and hyperintense regions on T2 spanning the entire cervical spine. These were accompanied by cystic cavities extending caudally into the thoracic spine and rostrally to the cervicomedullary junction. Both patients underwent gross total resection of these lesions and sustained excellent recoveries. Conclusion:Two holocervical cord intramedullary ependymomas were safely and effectively surgically resected without incurring significant perioperative morbidity

Pleiotropy of FRIGIDA enhances the potential for multivariate adaptation.

An evolutionary response to selection requires genetic variation; however, even if it exists, then the genetic details of the variation can constrain adaptation. In the simplest case, unlinked loci and uncorrelated phenotypes respond directly to multivariate selection and permit unrestricted paths to adaptive peaks. By contrast, 'antagonistic' pleiotropic loci may constrain adaptation by affecting variation of many traits and limiting the direction of trait correlations to vectors that are not favoured by selection. However, certain pleiotropic configurations may improve the conditions for adaptive evolution. Here, we present evidence that the Arabidopsis thaliana gene FRI (FRIGIDA) exhibits 'adaptive' pleiotropy, producing trait correlations along an axis that results in two adaptive strategies. Derived, low expression FRI alleles confer a 'drought escape' strategy owing to fast growth, low water use efficiency and early flowering. By contrast, a dehydration avoidance strategy is conferred by the ancestral phenotype of late flowering, slow growth and efficient water use during photosynthesis. The dehydration avoidant phenotype was recovered when genotypes with null FRI alleles were transformed with functional alleles. Our findings indicate that the well-documented effects of FRI on phenology result from differences in physiology, not only a simple developmental switch