Becoming the Synthi-Fou: Stockhausen and the new keyboardism

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Karlheinz Stockhausen embraced the potential of electronic music to generate new timbres and acoustic typologies early in his career. After first experimenting with magnetic tape in works such as Gesang der Jünglinge (1955) and Kontakte (1958–60), he later embraced other synthesis technologies for the production of large-scale spatial electro-acoustic works such as Sirius (1970) and Oktophonie (1990–91). His interest in technological advances in sound design and sound diffusion also managed to penetrate his highly evolved Klavierstücke

Hearing a shakkei: The semiotics of the audible in a Japanese stroll garden

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Though there has been some interest in the semiotics of Japanese gardens (Casalis 1983; van Tonder and Lyons 2005) as pure visual articulations of landscape elements, attention to what Schafer (1977) and Truax (2001) identify as a garden's soundscape has been lacking. This paper investigates the gardening technique of shakkei (borrowed scenery) in the Tokyo garden Kyu Furukawa Teien. Utilizing the terminology of Schafer and Truax, I construct a Greimas square to interrogate the semiotic function of the shakkei in light of traditional Japanese uses of Chinese geomancy, and to further investigate the garden's synthesis of landscape and soundscape elements

Effects of tauopathy on the morphological properties of fan and stellate cells in the entorhinal cortex of the P301S mutant mouse model

Neurodegenerative diseases generally correlate with age; as the US population’s average age increases, neurodegenerative ailments will contribute a greater burden on the health care system. One of the most prevalent, Alzheimer’s disease, is known to associate with tau proteins with evidence suggestive that abnormal function may initiate neurodegeneration. The entorhinal cortex is one of the earliest regions found to exhibit neuronal atrophy in Alzheimer’s disease. This study analyzed two major neuron types in the entorhinal cortex, fan cells and stellate cells, using the P301S mouse model for tauopathy. Laser-scanning confocal microscopy and software were used to reconstruct and analyze dendrite morphology between the two neuron types. Our results found that stellate cells of transgenic mice exhibited dendritic atrophy, with decreases in morphological parameters such as dendritic length, dendritic complexity, and number of primary dendrites in comparison to wild-type stellate cells. On the other hand, fan cells of transgenic mice did not show decreases in these parameters. Instead, fan cells of transgenic mice showed increases in surface area and volume in a convex hull model, as well as an increase in total Sholl radius from soma in comparison to wild type fan cells. These results suggest that neurons may respond differently to tauopathic stress. Additionally, noting distinct morphological differences between wild type fan cells and stellate cells, such as stellate cells having greater spine density and basal dendritic extensions, our data hints that morphological characteristics may predict susceptibility to pathogenic effects of tau

Recruitment and facilitation in Pinus hartwegii, a Mexican alpine treeline ecotone, with potential responses to climate warming

Alpine treelines in Mexico are represented by high-elevation forests dominated by P. hartwegii Ldl. To address the degree to which the presence of suitable microsite facilitators are factors for successful recruitment within the treeline ecotone of P. hartwegii and modulate their responses to climate warming, year of natural tree establishment, number of trees recruited, and the presence of shelter elements at different exposures of Monte Tlaloc (in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic System) were recorded. For tree recruitment and microsite facilitation we recorded each tree and the type of potentially protective elements that may improve microsite conditions within a total of 32 circular plots (r = 18 m) in the alpine treeline ecotone (above 4000 m). Temperatures for Monte Tlaloc at 4000 m were estimated using the thermal gradient for the study area, and standard dendrochronological methods and a regression model were used to date tree recruitment. Vector generalized linear models show that maximum growing season temperatures have significantly influenced the temporal pattern of tree recruitment in this system over the past 50 years, but this influence was mediated by the presence (or absence) of specific shelter elements (shrubs, soil depressions, rocks or bare soil) within a specific treeline ecotone exposure, also shaping the spatial pattern of tree recruitment. The response of the treeline ecotone to climate warming at local scales is qualitatively modified by the presence of microscale features, requiring sufficient soil moisture to be available on the site of recruitment

Assessing Alternative Methods For Monitoring Populus tremuloides Following Restoration Treatments

A variety of alternative sampling methods, commonly known as “Distance Methods”, were tested to determine if they could be a better choice for monitoring Populus tremuloides (quaking aspen) regeneration following aspen restoration treatments. These methods were evaluated based on their ability to accurately and efficiently estimate three common aspen stand characteristics used to gauge aspen restoration treatment effectiveness: aspen regeneration density, browse pressure, and height class distribution. Distance Method accuracy and efficiency were compared to a standard fixed-radius plot sampling method in four treated aspen stands in western Wyoming. None of the Distance Methods fulfilled all of the requirements, which were to accurately estimate all of the above stand characteristics more efficiently than fixed-radius plots. However, two Distance Methods were found to accurately estimate aspen regeneration density and browse pressure more efficiently than fixed-radius plots in all four sampled stands: one variation of Corrected Point Distance (Batcheler, 1973) and one variation of Angle Order (Morisita, 1957). The results suggest that these two Distance Methods would require less sampling time than the standard fixed-radius plots sampling method to accurately estimate many of the same stand characteristics and therefore they may be a better choice for monitoring aspen regeneration. To strengthen these conclusions, these two Distance Methods should be tested further in additional field trials

Of Human Sacrifice and Barbarity: A Case Study of the Late Archaic Tumulus XVII at Istros

This article consists of a close examination of one of four Late Archaic-era tumular monuments that were excavated in the mid-1950s in the Northern Necropolis of the Pontic Greek settlement of Istros. The exploration of this monument, Tumulus XVII (circa 550-525 BCE), yielded several features that were immediately compared with heroic cremation burials as described in epic poetry (particularly the funeral of Patroklos in Homer’s Iliad). Most striking among these features were the remains of three human sacrificial victims. Despite the early connection drawn with Homeric epic, for the next three decades Tumulus XVII was classified as a non-Greek (Thracian) monument, principally due to the presence of human sacrifice. That is, human sacrifice was regarded as too primitive and thus foreign to the more ‘advanced’ Greek culture. For this reason, the evidence from Istros has not figured prominently in synthetic studies of Greek human sacrifice. Yet, the growing body of research into Greek and indigenous settlements and cemeteries in the western Black Sea, along with the more recent discovery of a bound and ritually decapitated man alongside Pyre A at Orthi Petra (circa 700 BCE; Eleutherna, Crete), has occasioned a reconsideration of the original barbarian characterization of Tumulus XVII. The funerary rituals and resulting tumular monument rather appear to have been developed by an elite subset of the Greek colonial community as a means to distinguish and elevate themselves among the ever-growing population of the city. While epic may have lent general inspiration and significance to the particular rituals performed, a more immediate model for the tumular form may have been taken from the ‘heroon’ (late 7th cent. BCE) in the necropolis of the nearby Greek settlement of Orgame. Although the precise circumstances surrounding the funerary human sacrifices elude us, this short-lived ritual phenomenon seems rather to have been introduced to the region by Greek settlers