Warriors and musicians: notes from the Colonna family archive

The Colonna family was one of the most important in sixteenth-century Rome yet its music patronage activities at that time have largely escaped the attention of musicologists. Marc'Antonio II Colonna, perhaps best known for his leadership at the Battle of Lepanto, was connected to a number of musicians, several of whom were (or had been) military men. The archive contains a number of autograph letters from musicians, including three letters from Giulio Cesare Brancaccio, warrior and bass singer, of which two place him in Rome in 1574 as Richard Wistreich surmised, and an interesting letter from composer Sebastian Raval to Marc'Antonio's son, Cardinal Ascanio Colonna, mentioning planned publications and recommending a young (and unfortunately unidentified) harpsichord player

The sound of whiteness: early music vocal performance practice in Britain

American Musicological Society annual meeting, San Francisco, 10 Nov. 2011Critics love to tout the pure sound of early music. Think Emma Kirkby. Coupling head voice with minimal vibrato evokes sexual purity and innocence (Yri), or disembodied angels (Grieg). As the term ‘white tone’ suggests, purity is connected with race and historically it also indicated class. It is a neutral sound, lacking ‘grain’ (Barthes), against which others are measured. The dominant vocal sound of women early music singers thus carries intersecting gender, class and racial connotations. This paper examines early music vocal ensemble performing practice in Britain since the 1950s in relation to race. It focuses on the interplay of difference and sameness through the discourse of purity and the practice of blending. I argue that aspects of the practice and its reception are rooted in unmarked whiteness. Britain’s early music movement introduced a new sound world through repertoire, historically-informed techniques and experimentation with multicultural musics. To mixed reception, Musica Reservata used folk and world instruments and vocal techniques. As John Potter noted, the choral-scholar sound of the Early Music Consort of London eclipsed Jantina Noorman’s ‘holler’ (Brown); the Anglican a capella sound became the quintessential sound of British early music vocal ensembles. Class and gender axes of difference within the practice are well documented but there is an elephant in the room: whiteness. Like Victorian voice culture the balanced, blended sound (achieved with modified Received Pronunciation and matched enunciation) minimizes difference, maximizes sameness, promotes assimilation, and reflects the relative homogeneity of the ensembles that initially defined the sound. In effect, it is the sound of an elite whiteness, one that contrasts with diverse singing traditions (e.g. Gaelic psalm singing, shape note singing, musical theatre and pop singing).The paper ends by taking on the attempt at multiculturalism that now permeates the British early music movement. Although originating in anti-racism, rather than decentering whiteness, such fusion might serve to highlight it without dismantling power structures embedded in the sound. British early music practice may not be ready to be an equal multicultural partner until it addresses the `waves of sameness’ (Deleuze and Guattari) in the early music vocal sound

Structural Analysis and Stochastic Modelling Suggest a Mechanism for Calmodulin Trapping by CaMKII

Activation of CaMKII by calmodulin and the subsequent maintenance of constitutive activity through autophosphorylation at threonine residue 286 (Thr286) are thought to play a major role in synaptic plasticity. One of the effects of autophosphorylation at Thr286 is to increase the apparent affinity of CaMKII for calmodulin, a phenomenon known as “calmodulin trapping”. It has previously been suggested that two binding sites for calmodulin exist on CaMKII, with high and low affinities, respectively. We built structural models of calmodulin bound to both of these sites. Molecular dynamics simulation showed that while binding of calmodulin to the supposed low-affinity binding site on CaMKII is compatible with closing (and hence, inactivation) of the kinase, and could even favour it, binding to the high-affinity site is not. Stochastic simulations of a biochemical model showed that the existence of two such binding sites, one of them accessible only in the active, open conformation, would be sufficient to explain calmodulin trapping by CaMKII. We can explain the effect of CaMKII autophosphorylation at Thr286 on calmodulin trapping: It stabilises the active state and therefore makes the high-affinity binding site accessible. Crucially, a model with only one binding site where calmodulin binding and CaMKII inactivation are strictly mutually exclusive cannot reproduce calmodulin trapping. One of the predictions of our study is that calmodulin binding in itself is not sufficient for CaMKII activation, although high-affinity binding of calmodulin is

Combining Forces on Campus: The Four C\u27s of Faculty Liaison

Now, more than ever, academic librarians across Ontario are expected to connect, collaborate, create and cooperate with faculty on their campuses. Learn how librarians at The University of Western Ontario (The D.B. Weldon Library) are building campus connections with faculty in the Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences by putting into practice The Four C’s

Culture of urine specimens by use of chromID CPS Elite medium can expedite Escherichia coli identification and reduce hands-on time in the clinical laboratory

Urine is one of the most common specimen types submitted to the clinical microbiology laboratory; the use of chromogenic agar is one method by which the laboratory might expedite culture results and reduce hands-on time and materials required for urine culture analysis. The objective of our study was to compare chromID CPS Elite (bioMérieux), a chromogenic medium, to conventional primary culture medium for evaluation of urine specimens. Remnant urine specimens (n = 200) were inoculated into conventional media and into chromID CPS Elite agar (chromID). The time to identification and consumables used were documented for both methods. Clinically significant pathogen(s) were recovered from 51 cultures using conventional media, with Escherichia coli being the most frequently recovered organism (n = 22). The rate of exact uropathogen agreement between conventional and chromogenic media was 82%, while overall categorical agreement was 83.5% The time interval between plating and final organism identification was decreased with chromID agar versus conventional media for E. coli (mean of 24.4 h versus 27.1 h, P < 0.001). Using chromID, clinically significant cultures required less hands-on time per culture (mean of 1 min and 2 s [1:02 min]) compared to conventional media (mean of 1:31 min). In addition, fewer consumables (2.4 versus 3.3 sticks and swabs) and rapid biochemical tests (1.0 versus 1.9) were necessary using chromID versus conventional media. Notably, antimicrobial susceptibility testing demonstrated good overall agreement (97.4%) between the chromID and conventional media for all antibiotics tested. chromID CPS Elite is accurate for uropathogen identification, reduces consumable usage, and may expedite the identification of E. coli in clinical specimens

The role of information in the migration experience of young Polish women in the UK

Since the expansion of the European Union in 2004 to include Poland as a member, there has been a substantial increase in the number of migrants moving from Poland to the UK, and there are now almost one million Poles living in the UK. These migrants are generally young and highly educated, and are moving to the UK for reasons of economic improvement and self-fulfilment. Furthermore, many are women migrating independently, which is an emerging trend in migration in general. While the information behaviour of migrants has been studied, this work has tended to focus on certain populations, such as refugees. Less research has been done to examine the information behaviour of economic migrants, particularly within an EU context, which becomes more timely with the UK’s decision to leave the EU. This thesis therefore investigates the role of information in the migration experience of young Polish women in the UK. This study takes an interpretivist, constructionist perspective, with a broadly ethnographic approach to data collection and analysis. An exploratory study was undertaken to contextualise the research and refine the methodology, involving expert interviews, pilot interviews with Polish women, and analysis of a previous study of recent Polish migration to the UK. In the main study, twenty-one participants were interviewed using a semi-structured interview technique and mental mapping. Data was analysed thematically. The study provides insights into the information behaviour and experience of young Polish women migrating to the UK. It contextualises these findings against previous research within migration in the field of information science, and presents a conceptual model of the underlying factors shaping the relationship between migration and information behaviour. It also contributes to the use of visual methods in information behaviour research, and delivers practical recommendations for migrational individuals and those working with them

An experimental investigation of potassium permanganate treatment of pooled DNAPL.

In situ chemical oxidation using potassium permanganate (KMnO4) is an innovative technology applied in the remediation of dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPL) from contaminated groundwater and soil. Experiments were designed to examine important processes that occur during oxidation of pooled DNAPL treated by KMnO4. All experiments were conducted in a two-dimensional tank that contained a single DNAPL pool of either perchloroethylene (PCE) or trichloroethylene (TCE) in a homogeneous porous media. Visual observations and chemical analysis of reactants and products were completed to establish and quantify important oxidation processes. Experimental results showed the effectiveness of KMnO4 treatment and removal of pooled DNAPL to be dependent upon several factors. Extensive manganese dioxide (MnO2) precipitation occurred around the DNAPL pool that potentially reduced the effectiveness of treatment. Significant production of carbon dioxide (CO2) caused de-saturation of the porous media containing the DNAPL. Subsequent reduction of KMnO4 flow into this area resulted in a reduction in treatment efficiency. Mobilization of DNAPL pools due to CO2 degassing was also observed in all experiments. Movement of CO2 gas carrying DNAPL vapour was identified as an important mass transport mechanism.Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2000 .M357. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0589. Adviser: S. Reitsma. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2000

Feasibility study of simultaneous physical examination and dynamic MR imaging of medial collateral ligament knee injuries in a 1.5-T large-bore magnet

Objective: To determine the feasibility of evaluating medial knee joint laxity with dynamic magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and simultaneous physical joint examination in a large-bore 1.5-T system. Materials and Methods: The study included 10 patients (5 women, 5 men; mean age 35years) with clinically diagnosed and categorized acute injuries of the medial collateral ligament (MCL). Intermittent valgus stress was applied separately to both the affected and the contralateral knee joint during dynamic MR imaging with a two-dimensional fast low-angle shot sequence. The width of the medial joint space and the opening angle between the femoral condyles and the tibial plateau were measured. Results obtained from dynamic MR imaging of the affected knee were compared with morphological MCL changes on static MRI, to kinematics of the contralateral side and to the clinical grading of MCL injuries. Results: On clinical examination, all patients had grade 2 MCL injuries except one, who had a grade 1 lesion. Using morphological MRI criteria, 9 grade II and 1 grade III injuries were seen. Mean medial joint space width and opening angles of all affected knees were 2.8mm and 2.7° respectively, compared with 1.7mm and 2.1° on the contralateral side. The Wilcoxon signed rank test indicated that the differences in width (P = 0.005) and opening angle (P = 0.037) between the affected and contralateral knees were significant. Conclusion: Dynamic MR imaging and simultaneous physical joint examination is feasible. Our results suggest that this technique might enable the imaging documentation of medial ligamentous knee instabilit

Cultivating Racial Solidarity Among Mathematics Education Scholars of Color to Resist White Supremacy

In this paper, we propose a racial solidarity praxis in mathematics education grounded in Black-, Latinx-, and Indigenous-led scholarship and their respective communities’ joining efforts to combat White supremacy. Increased solidarity across racial groups in mathematics education could illuminate new ways of nourishing and affirming Indigenous, Latinx, and Black students’ racial identities and cultural strengths. We leverage four frameworks: (1) Whiteness as property (a tenet of Critical race theory) and (2) Tribal Critical Race Theory; (3) Latino Critical Theory; and (4) pedagogy of solidarity, to conceptualize the interdependence required for solidarity work and to expose how White supremacy is maintained overtly and covertly in mathematics curriculum, policies and practices. This study outlines the nuances across each community of scholars, drawing on their strengths to combat oppressive educational structures for students. The authors conclude in solidarity, focusing on the ways our communities have sought to challenge White supremacy and deficit framings of our students, families, and communities. Our hope in bringing these bodies of literature together is to invite others within (and outside of) the field of mathematics education to co-imagine how we might engage our work synergistically. It is through a collectivizing of efforts that we imagine a racial solidarity praxis that begins to erode the power of White supremacy in math education because of the unique and unassimilable strengths and priorities of each community engaged

A multi-proxy approach to identifying short-lived marine incursions in the Early Carboniferous

This study is a contribution to the TW:eed Project (Tetrapod World: early evolution and diversification), which examines the rebuilding of Carboniferous ecosystems following a mass extinction at the end of the Devonian. The project focuses on the Tournaisian Ballagan Formation of Scotland and the Borders, which contains rare fish and tetrapod material. The Ballagan Formation is characterised by sandstones, dolomitic cementstones, paleosols, siltstones and gypsum deposits. The depositional environment ranges from fluvial, alluvial-plain to marginal-marine environments, with fluvial, floodplain and lacustrine deposition dominant