Afro No-Clash : composing syncretic African/Western music : eleven compositions and the frameworks for their systematic analysis

This PhD consists of an artistic work (an album of music) and an exegesis. The album contains eleven works for a variety of ensembles, including an eight-piece pop fusion group, a string quartet, an eleven-piece a cappella ensemble, a five-piece contemporary classical ensemble and a six-piece percussion ensemble. Each of these works embraces a blend of African and Western techniques and aesthetics. These works are the result of a compositional praxis which is closely integrated with a theoretical framework that I develop in the exegesis. The purpose of the exegesis is to provide a framework from which to understand the compositions. Perspectives such as postcolonialism are immediately engaged because of the fact that two distinct world cultures are referenced by these compositions. Similarly, the musical aesthetics of the two source cultures are examined because I need to understand the ways that the value systems are expressed in musical terms, and how they might interact in cross-cultural composition. Examination of the literature reveals that there has been a trend in recent decades towards cultural analysis of cross-cultural music but very little work has been done on the technical analysis of such works (Utz 2003). A preliminary list of issues is developed from a survey of ten relevant composers’ works and these issues are categorised into three analytic dimensions: the contextual (cultural), aesthetic and technical. African “musics” and musical cultures are discussed with regard to issues of Western interpretation (Agawu 2003) and appropriate representation, social and cultural preferences and aesthetic values. Likewise Western musical culture is examined in order to understand its colonial impact, its stylistic consistency and ideas that have emerged about aesthetic preferences and the interpretation of meaning (Cone 1972; Kivy 2001). Four frameworks are developed to address each of these analytical dimensions. The first deals with cultural identity and the appropriation of musical ideas, the second with the sensitivity of certain materials. The third framework enables the examination of the aesthetic preferences for each of the cultures involved and the fourth framework provides a taxonomy and vocabulary of terms for use in analysis of the structural and other technical features of cross-cultural Western/African musics. These four frameworks are applied to the eleven compositions that I have completed for this project. I identify distinct approaches to appropriation, aesthetic preferences, the predominance of rhythmic structure and the performative embodiment and narrative transformational processes in my compositions. I conclude by categorising the technical and stylistic preferences embodied in my work, and identifying possible future directions for my compositions and the development of the analytical frameworks

A method for assessing measurement precision and stability of optical probes

The current strategy for measuring non-specular metre-scale surfaces – for instance segmented freeform optics post-grinding – in the mid- frequency bandwidths (S-filter), involves the use of contact probe based systems where measurement precision is a limiting factor. Equivalent non-contact optical probes claim accuracies up to an order of magnitude higher and could therefore improve current measurement systems. Chromatic confocal probes measure the distance to a surface using the principle of axial chromatic dispersion. The stability of a CHRocodile SE 300 μm probe was shown to be 200 ± 20 nm over an eight hour measurement period. A probe holder should be designed with a low thermal expansion material in order to thermally insulate the probe measurement for further investigation. The accuracy of the probe was assessed at the extremes of its measurement range. The maximum deviation over a 5 μm displacement was measured to be 85 nm. The entire measuring range should be investigated

A3I visibility modeling project

The Army-NASA Aircrew Aircraft Integration program is supporting a joint project to build a visibility computer-aided design (CAD) tool. CAD has become an essential tool in modern engineering applications. CAD tools are used to create engineering drawings and to evaluate potential designs before they are physically realized. The visibility CAD tool will provide the design engineer with a tool to aid in the location and specification of windows, displays, and control in crewstations. In an aircraft cockpit the location of instruments and the emissive and reflective characteristics of the surfaces must be determined to assure adequate aircrew performance. The visibility CAD tool will allow the designer to ask and answer many of these questions in the context of a three-dimensional graphical representation of the cockpit. The graphic representation of the cockpit is a geometrically valid model of the cockpit design. A graphic model of a pilot, called the pilot manikin, can be placed naturalistically in the cockpit model. The visibility tool has the capability of mapping the cockpit surfaces and other objects modeled in this graphic design space onto the simulated pilot's retinas for a given visual fixation

Sequence organization of feline leukemis virus DNA in infected cells

A restriction site map has been deduced of unintegrated and integrated FeLV viral DNA found in human RD cells after experimental infection with the Gardner-Arnstein strain of FeLV. Restriction fragments were ordered by single and double enzyme digests followed by Southern transfer (1) and hybridization with 32P-labeled viral cDNA probes. The restriction map was oriented with respect to the 5' and 3' ends of viral RNA by using a 3' specific hybridization probe. The major form of unintegrated viral DNA found was a 8.7 kb linear DNA molecule bearing a 450 bp direct long terminal redundancy (LTR) derived from both 5' and 3' viral RNA sequences. Minor, circular forms, 8.7 kb and 8.2 kb in length were also detected, the larger one probably containing two adjacent copies of the LTR and the smaller one containing one copy of the LTR. Integrated copies of FeLV are colinear with the unintegrated linear form and contain the KpnI and SmaI sites found in each LTR

The Perception of Globally Coherent Motion

How do human observers perceive a coherent pattern of motion from a disparate set of local motion measures? Our research has examined how ambiguous motion signals along straight contours are spatially integrated to obtain a globally coherent perception of motion. Observers viewed displays containing a large number of apertures, with each aperture containing one or more contours whose orientations and velocities could be independently specified. The total pattern of the contour trajectories across the individual apertures was manipulated to produce globally coherent motions, such as rotations, expansions, or translations. For displays containing only straight contours extending to the circumferences of the apertures, observers' reports of global motion direction were biased whenever the sampling of contour orientations was asymmetric relative to the direction of motion. Performance was improved by the presence of identifiable features, such as line ends or crossings, whose trajectories could be tracked over time. The reports of our observers were consistent with a pooling process involving a vector average of measures of the component of velocity normal to contour orientation, rather than with the predictions of the intersection-of-constraints analysis in velocity space.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (90-0175, 89-0016); National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research (BNS-8908426

Magnetic collimation of protostellar winds into bipolar outflows

Researchers describe self-consistent 2-D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of the collimation of an isotropic protostellar wind into bipolar outflows by magnetic stresses in the ambient medium. A variety of ambient field strengths, wind luminosities, and density profiles were studied. Collimation occurs when the energy of the magnetic field swept up by the expanding bubble approaches the bubble thermal energy. Measured axial and radial expansion rates are in good agreement with the analytical predictions of Konigl (1982)

Recipes for Change validation report: Guatemalan Rice and Beans recipe

The main climate risks to rice cultivation in Guatemala are: (i) increased average and extreme temperatures, (ii) an intensification of climatic variability, and (iii) continued or enhanced incidence of extreme weather events, primarily heavy rainfall and drought. The key adaptation measures for managing the foreseen impacts of climate change within the region upon cultivation of key grains such as rice include: (i) improved cropping practices, (ii) improved water resource management and (iii) identification of future suitable areas for basic grains cultivation. CCAFS validates the climate threats and solutions highlighted in the IFAD statements below. IFAD-identified climate threats to rice: Increased temperatures Changes in growing seasons Increased incidence of extreme weather events ASAP solutions: Improved farm management encourages more sustainable practices with yields maintained or even increased Better crop storage to protect against extreme weather Improved water storage to overcome changes in growing seasons