An Introduction To Bach Studies

This volume is a guide to the resources and materials of Bach scholarship, both for the nonspecialist wondering where to begin in the enormous literature on J. S. Bach, and for the Bach specialist looking for a convenient and up-to-date survey of the field. It describes the tools of Bach research and how to use them, and suggests how to get started in Bach research by describing the principal areas of research and citing the essential literature on each piece and topic. The authors emphasize the issues that have engaged Bach scholars for generations, focusing on particularly important writings on recent literature on overviews, collections of essays and handbooks and on writings in English. Subjects covered include bibliographic tools of Bach research and sources of literature Bach\u27s family Bach biographies places Bach lived and worked Bach\u27s teaching the liturgy Bach source studies and the transmission of his music repertory and editions genres and individual vocal and instrumental works performance practice the reception and analysis of Bach\u27s music and many others. The book also offers explanations of important and potentially confusing topics in Bach research, such as the organization of the annual cantata cycles, pitch standards, the history of the Berlin libraries, the structure of the critical commentary volumes in the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, and so on. This book opens up the rich world of Bach scholarship to students, teachers, performers, and listener

Effect of isobaric breathing gas shifts from air to heliox mixtures on resolution of air bubbles in lipid and aqueous tissues of recompressed rats

Deep tissue isobaric counterdiffusion that may cause unwanted bubble formation or transient bubble growth has been referred to in theoretical models and demonstrated by intravascular gas formation in animals, when changing inert breathing gas from nitrogen to helium after hyperbaric air breathing. We visually followed the in vivo resolution of extravascular air bubbles injected at 101 kPa into nitrogen supersaturated rat tissues: adipose, spinal white matter, skeletal muscle or tail tendon. Bubbles were observed during isobaric breathing-gas shifts from air to normoxic (80:20) heliox mixture while at 285 kPa or following immediate recompression to either 285 or 405 kPa, breathing 80:20 and 50:50 heliox mixtures. During the isobaric shifts, some bubbles in adipose tissue grew marginally for 10–30 min, subsequently they shrank and disappeared at a rate similar to or faster than during air breathing. No such bubble growth was observed in spinal white matter, skeletal muscle or tendon. In spinal white matter, an immediate breathing gas shift after the hyperbaric air exposure from air to both (80:20) and (50:50) heliox, coincident with recompression to either 285 or 405 kPa, caused consistent shrinkage of all air bubbles, until they disappeared from view. Deep tissue isobaric counterdiffusion may cause some air bubbles to grow transiently in adipose tissue. The effect is marginal and of no clinical consequence. Bubble disappearance rate is faster with heliox breathing mixtures as compared to air. We see no reason for reservations in the use of heliox breathing during treatment of air-diving-induced decompression sickness

Compact Optical Temporal Processors

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Optical signal processing can be done with time-lens devices. A temporal processor based on chirp-z transformers is suggested. This configuration is more compact than a conventional 4-f temporal processor. On the basis of implementation aspects of such a temporal processor, we did a performance analysis. This analysis leads to the conclusion that an ultrafast optical temporal processor can be implemented

Visit-to-visit variability of lipid measurements as predictors of cardiovascular events.

BACKGROUND:Higher visit-to-visit variability in risk factors such as blood pressure and low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol are associated with an increase in cardiovascular (CV) events. OBJECTIVE:The purpose of this study was to determine whether variability in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglyceride levels predicted coronary and CV events in a clinical trial population with known coronary disease. METHODS:We assessed intraindividual variability in fasting high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol, triglyceride, and LDL-cholesterol measurements among 9572 patients in the Treating to New Targets trial and correlated the results with coronary events over a median follow-up of 4.9 years. RESULTS:In the fully adjusted Cox model, 1 standard deviation of average successive variability, defined as the average absolute difference between successive values, was associated with an increased risk of a coronary event for HDL-cholesterol (hazard ratio [HR] 1.16, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.11-1.21, P < .0001), for triglycerides (HR 1.09, 95% CI 1.04-1.15, P = .0005), and for LDL-cholesterol (HR 1.14, 95% CI 1.09-1.19, P < .0001). Similar results were found for the 3 other measures of variability, standard deviation, coefficient of variability, and variability independent of the mean. Similar results were seen for CV events, stroke, and nonfatal myocardial infarction. Higher variability in triglyceride and LDL-cholesterol, but not HDL-cholesterol, was predictive of incident diabetes. The correlation among the variability of the 3 lipid measurements was weak. CONCLUSION:Visit-to-visit variability in fasting measurements of HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL-cholesterol are predictive of coronary events, CV events, and for triglyceride and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol variability, incident diabetes. The mechanisms accounting for these associations remain to be determined

Longitudinal associations between psychotic experiences and disordered eating behaviours in adolescence: a UK population-based study

BACKGROUND: Psychotic experiences might represent non-specific markers of poor mental health in adolescence. However, only a few predominantly cross-sectional studies have tested their association with disordered eating behaviours in adolescent and adult populations. The aim of this study was to explore the association between psychotic experiences at age 13 years, and disordered eating behaviours and body-mass index (BMI) at age 18 years. METHODS: We used data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a longitudinal birth cohort based in Avon (England, UK) including mothers with an expected delivery date between April 1, 1991, and Dec 31, 1992, and their children. Psychotic experiences (such as delusions and hallucinations) and BMI were measured at clinical assessments when children were nearly aged 13 years, and data on disordered eating behaviours (ie, presence of binge eating, purging, fasting, or excessive exercise for weight loss; any of these behaviours [included to increase statistical power]; and number of behaviours [included to investigate severity]) were obtained via a postal questionnaire that used adapted questions from the Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance System questionnaire at approximately age 18 years. For each outcome, we ran a univariable model and four multivariable models (logistic, linear [for BMI], or negative binomial [for the number of behaviours] regression), progressively adjusting for child and maternal sociodemographic, physical, and mental health characteristics (including child's sex, and maternal age, marital status, and highest academic qualification); autistic traits at age 7 years (measured with the Social and Communication Disorder Checklist); baseline BMI at age 13 years, and depressive symptoms at baseline (ie, at age 13 years when psychotic experiences were measured: childs' symptoms measured with the Moods and feelings Questionnaire, and maternal symptoms measured at 32 weeks' gestation with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale). We imputed missing outcome and covariate data. FINDINGS: Our sample included 6361 children, of whom 734 (12%) reported psychotic experiences at age 13 years. In univariable models, psychotic experiences were associated with greater odds of reporting any disordered eating behaviours (odds ratio [OR] 1·92, 95% CI 1·46–2·52; p<0·0001), and more severe symptoms (as measured by the number of disordered eating behaviours: 0·58, 0·32–0·84; p<0·0001) at age 18 years. These associations were slightly attenuated by adjustment for maternal and child characteristics (any disordered eating behaviours OR 1·82, 95% CI 1·35–2·44, p<0·0001; number of disordered eating behaviours 0·49, 95% CI 0·23–0·75, p<0·00001), autistic traits at age 7 years (any disordered eating behaviours OR 1·80, 95% CI 1·34–2·41, p<0·0001; number of disordered eating behaviours 0·48, 95% CI 0·22–0·74, p<0·00001), and BMI (any disordered-eating behaviours OR 1·83, 95% CI 1·36–2·46, p<0·0001; number of disordered-eating behaviours 0·32, 95% CI 0·06–0·57, p<0·00001) Adjusting for baseline depressive symptoms attenuated, but not removed, these associations (any disordered eating OR 1·50, 95% CI 1·10–2·03, p=0·010; more severe symptoms 0·32, 0·06–0·57, p=0·017). Psychotic experiences were also associated with greater binge eating, purging, and fasting behaviours, although some associations weakened after controlling for depressive symptoms. We noted no associations between psychotic experiences and excessive exercise or BMI in any of the models. INTERPRETATION: Our findings suggested that psychotic experiences are markers of increased risk for several disordered eating behaviours in late adolescence, possibly by indicating more severe psychopathology in early adolescence. More research investigating shared risk factors for psychotic experiences and eating disorders is warranted to elucidate shared and specific causal pathways. FUNDING: Wellcome Trust, the Royal Society, University College London Hospitals National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre, UK Medical Research Council, and the University of Bristol

Leibniz, Acosmism, and Incompossibility

Leibniz claims that God acts in the best possible way, and that this includes creating exactly one world. But worlds are aggregates, and aggregates have a low degree of reality or metaphysical perfection, perhaps none at all. This is Leibniz’s tendency toward acosmism, or the view that there this no such thing as creation-as-a-whole. Many interpreters reconcile Leibniz’s acosmist tendency with the high value of worlds by proposing that God sums the value of each substance created, so that the best world is just the world with the most substances. I call this way of determining the value of a world the Additive Theory of Value (ATV), and argue that it leads to the current and insoluble form of the problem of incompossibility. To avoid the problem, I read “possible worlds” in “God chooses the best of all possible worlds” as referring to God’s ideas of worlds. These ideas, though built up from essences, are themselves unities and so well suited to be the value bearers that Leibniz’s theodicy requires. They have their own value, thanks to their unity, and that unity is not preserved when more essences are added