X_System

The X_System makes the playing, writing, and learning of music – even when using unconventional tunings – more intuitive, more logical, more expressive, and better sounding. The X_System allows for: • different temperaments to be chosen at the flick of a switch; • tunings to be dynamically altered at the push of a lever; • the use of a special hexagonal button-field that allows for any given interval or chord always to have the same shape on that button-field; • consonant chords to have their consonance maximised, whatever the tuning actually chosen; • radical changes to be made to the timbral character of tones using a minimal number of controls; • a choice of keyboard mappings, which enable for the balance between number of intervals and octaves to be altered

Metrics for pitch collections

Models of the perceived distance between pairs of pitch collections are a core component of broader models of the perception of tonality as a whole. Numerous different distance measures have been proposed, including voice-leading, psychoacoustic, and pitch and interval class distances; but, so far, there has been no attempt to bind these different measures into a single mathematical framework, nor to incorporate the uncertain or probabilistic nature of pitch perception (whereby tones with similar frequencies may, or may not, be heard as having the same pitch). To achieve these aims, we embed pitch collections in novel multi-way expectation arrays, and show how metrics between such arrays can model the perceived dissimilarity of the pitch collections they embed. By modeling the uncertainties of human pitch perception, expectation arrays indicate the expected number of tones, ordered pairs of tones, ordered triples of tones and so forth, that are heard as having any given pitch, dyad of pitches, triad of pitches, and so forth. The pitches can be either absolute or relative (in which case the arrays are invariant with respect to transposition). We provide a number of examples that show how the metrics accord well with musical intuition, and suggest some ways in which this work may be developed

Oligoanalgesia in a rural emergency department

OBJECTIVE: Multiple studies conducted over many years have demonstrated that pain is poorly managed in the emergency department (ED). This phenomenon has been referred to in the medical literature as "oligoanalgesia." However, little is known about whether oligoanalgesia occurs in a rural ED. National Ambulatory Care Reporting System data from 2003 for a small rural hospital in Ontario showed patients were satisfied with the amount of pain medicine they received in the ED. We designed a study to replicate a published urban study that investigated the use of analgesia in isolated lower limb injuries. Our objective was to see if oligoanalgesia was also a problem in a rural ED. METHODS: In 2003 we conducted a retrospective chart review of patients who presented to the South Huron Hospital ED with isolated lower extremity injuries for which radiographs of the foot, ankle or both were obtained. Demographics of the ED patients with lower extremity injuries were quantified. Other parametres included whether or not patients received analgesia in the ED; how long it took to get assessed, treated and discharged; whether patients received any analgesia upon discharge; what type of analgesia they received; and whether it required a prescription. RESULTS: A total of 189 patients met inclusion criteria, with 35 fractures identified (18.5%). Sixty-three percent of patients were male. The average age was 32.6 years. The mean Canadian Emergency Department Triage and Acuity Scale level was 4.4. The mean time to physician assessment was 31.6 minutes. The mean length of time spent in the ED was 74 minutes. Over one-half of the patients received analgesia upon discharge from the ED whether or not they had a fracture. In addition, 73% of the people in the fracture group received analgesia requiring a prescription, versus only 46% in the nonfracture group. Narcotics were used more often in the fracture group than in the nonfracture group (26% v. 6%). CONCLUSION: The phenomenon of oligoanalgesia was not observed as often in our rural ED for isolated lower limb injuries, when compared with the published urban study

GRACE detection of seasonal variations in total water storage in southern Lao PDR

POSTER GEOINDO2015, International Conference, “Geology, Geotechnology and Mineral Resources of Indochina”, 23-24/11/2015, Khon Kaen, Thailand GRACE detection of seasonal variations in total water storage in southern Lao PDR Sinxay Vongphachanh1 and William Milne-Home1 1School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia Contact email: [email protected] Abstract In 2013, a new website domain for the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) was developed by the Australian National University. This website provides a Data Visualisation Tool (DVT) by which users can estimate the equivalent water height (EWH) from a user specified region (polygon) or point. However, this website does not explain clearly enough about the precision of areal and point data derived from the DVT. Therefore, this study investigated the GRACE data detection of the total water storage (TWS, expressed as EWH) fluctuation in wet and dry seasons in southern Lao PDR. A basin scale of about 25,000 km2 was utilised to investigate the GRACE detection of TWS changes in southern Lao PDR, one of the main target areas for agricultural development. The total water availability in this area is currently not yet known exactly. This study compares the values of GRACE EWH derived from an area of 25,000 km2 with EWH points and observed stream water level data of Mekong River at Pakse hydro-meteorology station, Champasack province. Additionally, this study also compares the values of GRACE EWH point derived from different soil types and different land-use types. The results suggest that the GRACE can detect the seasonal flux of EWH and the extreme flood events in southern Lao PDR. It can be concluded that GRACE data can be used to estimate the total groundwater storage, surface water storage and soil moisture in southern Lao PDR. The proportion of soil and land use types could have a high potential influence on the EWH values. Keywords: GRACE, Seasonal variations, Equivalent water height, Total Water Storage, Southern Lao PD

Evaluating railway track support stiffness from trackside measurements in the absence of wheel load data

It is generally accepted that track support stiffness is a major factor controlling rates of track geometry deterioration, particularly where the track support stiffness changes abruptly. There is, therefore, considerable potential benefit in being able to quantify and detect changes in the track support stiffness. In recent years, trackside techniques using various types of transducer have been developed to determine track deflections as trains pass. However, deducing the track support stiffness from these measurements requires assumptions to be made concerning train loading and track behaviour, and scope for different interpretations remains. For example, loads from moving trains vary dynamically and it is not usually feasible to measure their exact values at any given point along the track. This paper presents new methods of analysis, which can be applied to frequency spectra of track displacement, velocity or acceleration generated as trains pass to calculate the track support stiffness for trains of known axle intervals, without needing to know the actual loads applied. The approach is demonstrated with reference to theory and measured data from a range of field sites

Digital imaging tracing technology for print media

Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to [email protected], referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references.Issued also on microfiche from Lange Micrographics.This thesis examines and analyzes the existing state of digital technology use in print media and the attitudes of those using the technology to develop a technology that would help prevent the unethical manipulation of images in mass media. The ethical issues and credibility of digital imaging are examined as the basis for the need for a tracing technology. The tracing technology is not a prevention of digital manipulations, only a device that would allow photo editors and editors to view altered images and their original to determine what kind, and to what degree manipulations have been performed on the image

Role of Tem1 in Signalling Mitotic Exit in the Human Fungal Pathogen Candida albicans

The human pathogen Candida albicans is polymorphic, and its ability to switch growth forms is thought to play an important role in virulence. The primary research aim of this thesis was to understand the role the mitotic exit network plays in C. albicans with particular focus on the Tem1 GTPase protein. This aim was split into three specific goals; to study the role of Tem1 through the construction of a regulatable tem1 mutant, to understand the regulation of Tem1 through localisation and protein interaction studies, and to construct new molecular tools utilising the NAT1 positive selection marker in order to achieve two previous goals. In this thesis we demonstrated that TEM1 is an essential gene in C. albicans, and its essential function is signalled through the Cdc15 protein. Surprisingly, Tem1p depleted cells arrested as hyper-polarised filaments containing one or two nuclei and ultimately lost viability. These filaments formed from budding yeast cells, suggestive of a blockage late in the cell cycle. Ultimately the failure of these filaments to undergo cytokinesis was linked to a defect in septin ring dynamics and the formation of actomyosin ring. To understand the regulation of Tem1 we localised both the Tem1 and Lte1 proteins and found that Tem1 localised to spindle pole bodies in a cell-cycle dependent fashion by recruited at the onset of S phase. In contrast, the Lte1 homolog localised to the daughter cell cortex prior to release into the cytoplasm at the end of the cell cycle. A yeast 2-hybrid analysis of the MEN components demonstrated the potential of Bfa1/Bub2 and Tem1 to form a complex and the ability of Tem1 to homodimerise which may play a role in its self-activation. In order to carry out various aspects of this work we constructed a fully functional set of cassettes, including the constitutively active ENO1 promoter, V5-6xHIS epitope tag and various fluorescent protein genes fused to the NAT1 positive selection marker. When considered together, these results indicate that Tem1 is required for timely mitotic exit and cytokinesis in C. albicans, similar to S. cerevisiae, but the final output of the pathway must have diverged.Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Counci