Pygmalion Music Festival as Alternative Media? A Critical Analysis of the Intersection of Independence and Corporatization

This study of Pygmalion Music Festival utilizes a theoretical framework of alternative media theory to analyze the festival\u27s position in independent and corporate music festival and concert production. Pygmalion Music Festival is a mid-sized independently owned and operated music festival held annually in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. This research investigates the progression of independent ( or indie ) music culture, how the industry has gradually become co-opted by the corporate music industry, and how Pygmalion Music Festival is situated within the indie/corporate binary. This binary is not black and white, rather an intersection that creates a blurred area between the two. Indie artists and the independent music festival scene have become increasingly assimilated according to the demands of investors and profiteers within our capitalist system. An independent or indie artist in music has traditionally been known as the artist\u27s separation from a major record label. By using alternative media theory as a theoretical framework to analyze Pygmalion, it illuminates how blurred the term indie has become in relation its corporate counterpart. The festival provides a case study that stands outside the corporate-owned music festival and concert production monopoly, yet is dependent upon funding via sponsorship, ticket sales, and the use of inexpensive temporary labor. This research also provides an analysis of indie music culture and the perpetuation of class position and privilege, how indie culture has become increasingly commodified by the capitalist system, and how a festival of this size can also resist cooption by the corporate industry. Analyzing Pygmalion provides insight into the current state of the music industry, contributing a nuanced viewpoint of the progression of indie, the intersection of the indie and corporate culture, and how alternative media theory both problematizes and supports the practices of Pygmalion Music Festival simultaneously

Pygmalion Music Festival as Alternative Media? A Critical Analysis of the Intersection of Independence and Corporatization

This study of Pygmalion Music Festival utilizes a theoretical framework of alternative media theory to analyze the festival\u27s position in independent and corporate music festival and concert production. Pygmalion Music Festival is a mid-sized independently owned and operated music festival held annually in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. This research investigates the progression of independent ( or indie ) music culture, how the industry has gradually become co-opted by the corporate music industry, and how Pygmalion Music Festival is situated within the indie/corporate binary. This binary is not black and white, rather an intersection that creates a blurred area between the two. Indie artists and the independent music festival scene have become increasingly assimilated according to the demands of investors and profiteers within our capitalist system. An independent or indie artist in music has traditionally been known as the artist\u27s separation from a major record label. By using alternative media theory as a theoretical framework to analyze Pygmalion, it illuminates how blurred the term indie has become in relation its corporate counterpart. The festival provides a case study that stands outside the corporate-owned music festival and concert production monopoly, yet is dependent upon funding via sponsorship, ticket sales, and the use of inexpensive temporary labor. This research also provides an analysis of indie music culture and the perpetuation of class position and privilege, how indie culture has become increasingly commodified by the capitalist system, and how a festival of this size can also resist cooption by the corporate industry. Analyzing Pygmalion provides insight into the current state of the music industry, contributing a nuanced viewpoint of the progression of indie, the intersection of the indie and corporate culture, and how alternative media theory both problematizes and supports the practices of Pygmalion Music Festival simultaneously

Sediment transport and contaminant behavior in the Buffalo River, New York: Implications for river management

The lower 9 km of the Buffalo River that flows into the eastern end of Lake Erie has been designated by the International Joint Commission as a Great Lakes area of concern (AoC) because of poor water quality, degraded riparian and river habitat, and contaminated sediments—impairments related to a long history of contamination from the industrial legacy of the past century. As a designated AoC, attention is presently focused on sediment remediation, an endeavor requiring an assessment of the relationship between sediment transport processes and sediment contaminant concentrations. In 1990 a pilot sediment trend analysis (STA) revealed an upriver return of sediments from the mouth of the Buffalo River as far as 5 km inland. A complete STA conducted in 2004 confirmed the upriver transport regime. Examination of river discharge and Lake Erie water levels demonstrated that lake seiches occur at far greater frequencies than river discharges of a magnitude capable of transporting sediment. Thus the river is behaving in a similar manner to an estuary with seiche rather than tidal waves responsible for driving fine-grained sediments in an inland direction. The dynamic behavior of the sediments as determined by STA correlated well with the expected contaminant levels contained in the sediments of the main river channel. The findings are used to establish a conceptual understanding of the river that requires extreme river flows to transport sediments to its mouth, after which sediments recently deposited from plumes discharging into Lake Erie are re-entrained and transported upriver by seiche activity. Such an understanding is of considerable importance in sediment remediation as contaminants are also in a constant state of recycling both up and down the lower 5 km of the Buffalo River

Neuronal and psychological underpinnings of pathological gambling

Like in the case of drugs, gambling hijacks reward circuits in a brain which is not prepared to receive such intense stimulation. Dopamine is normally released in response to reward and uncertainty in order to allow animals to stay alive in their environment – where rewards are relatively unpredictable. In this case, behavior is regulated by environmental feedbacks, leading animals to persevere or to give up. In contrast, drugs provide a direct, intense pharmacological stimulation of the dopamine system that operates independently of environmental feedbacks, and hence causes “motivational runaways”. With respect to gambling, the confined environment experienced by gamblers favors the emergence of excitatory conditioned cues, so that positive feedbacks take over negative feedbacks. Although drugs and gambling may act differently, their abnormal activation of reward circuitry generates an underestimation of negative consequences and promotes the development of addictive/compulsive behavior. In Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease, dopamine-related therapies may disrupt these feedbacks on dopamine signalling, potentially leading to various addictions, including pathological gambling. The goal of this Research Topic is to further our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the development of pathological gambling. This eBook contains a cross-disciplinary collection of research and review articles, ranging in scope from animal behavioral models to human imaging studies

Medicaid spending burden among beneficiaries with treatment-resistant depression.

AIM: To evaluate Medicaid spending and healthcare resource utilization (HRU) in treatment-resistant depression (TRD). MATERIALS & METHODS: TRD beneficiaries were identified from Medicaid claims databases (January 2010-March 2017) and matched 1:1 with major depressive disorder (MDD) beneficiaries without TRD (non-TRD-MDD) and randomly selected patients without MDD (non-MDD). Differences in HRU and per-patient-per-year costs were reported in incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and cost differences (CDs), respectively. RESULTS: TRD beneficiaries had higher HRU than 1:1 matched non-TRD-MDD (e.g., inpatient visits: IRR = 1.41) and non-MDD beneficiaries (N = 14,710 per cohort; e.g., inpatient visits: IRR = 3.42, p \u3c 0.01). TRD beneficiaries incurred greater costs versus non-TRD-MDD (CD = US$4382) and non-MDD beneficiaries (CD = US$8294; p \u3c 0.05). CONCLUSION: TRD is associated with higher HRU and costs versus non-TRD-MDD and non-MDD. TRD poses a significant burden to Medicaid

Investigating The Extent That An Integrative Learning Module Broadens The Perception Of First-Year Students About The Engineering Profession

Engineers today need both engineering knowledge and social science knowledge to solve complex problems. However, most people have a traditional view of engineering as a field dominated by math and science foci, with little social consequence. This study examined and compared perceptions about engineering from Freshmen taking three different First Year introductory courses. Researchers used data from students’ responses in the Draw-an-Engineer-Test, an engineering problem analysis assessment, and interviews. The Treatment Group were students in an introductory engineering course in which they received instruction using an integrative learning module entitled, the “Water Module”, based on interdisciplinary learning theory. Control Group 1 were students in a “Traditional Engineering” course, and Control Group 2 were students taking a “Non-Engineering” course. Results indicate that students in the Treatment Group developed a better understanding of engineering and its social impact on society versus the two Control Groups. We suggest that integrative and interdisciplinary learning modules are effective for broadening students’ perspectives on engineering and its role in society

Ultrafast deactivation of bilirubin: dark intermediates and two-photon isomerization

Bilirubin is a neurotoxic product responsible for neonatal jaundice, which is generally treated by phototherapy. The photoreaction involves ultrafast internal conversion via an elusive intermediate and Z–E isomerization with minor yield (less than 3% in solution). The structure of the intermediate remains unclear. Here, the combination of UV-vis and mid-IR ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy reports a comprehensive picture of the mechanism and provides essential structural information about the intermediate species. Thus, spectral dynamics during the earliest ps unveils a wavepacket travelling from the Franck–Condon region to the crossing point with a dark state. The latter shows a tighter molecular skeleton than the ground state and decays with 15 ps time constant. Remarkably, the relative contribution of a non-decaying component increases linearly with pump energy, suggesting that Z–E isomerization could also be triggered by two-photon excitation. Implications for the photochemistry of protein-bound open tetrapyrroles are discussedJLPL thanks the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) for funding through the grant CTQ2010-17026 (FEDER Funds) and the ‘‘Ramón y Cajal’’ Program 2009, as well as the Xunta de Galicia (Spain) for grants EM2012/091, GPC2013/052 and R2014/051. CCB thanks the Spanish Ministry of Education for a FPU doctoral grantS

Doping-dependent electronic structure of cuprates studied using angle-scanned photoemission

Full k-maps of the electronic structure near the Fermi level of differently doped cuprates measured with angle-scanned photoelectron spectroscopy are presented. The valence band maximum of the antiferromagnetic insulator Sr2CuO2Cl2, which is taken as a representative of an undoped cuprate, and the Fermi surfaces of overdoped, optimally doped and underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ high-temperature superconductors are mapped in the normal state. The results confirm the existence of large Luttinger Fermi surfaces at high doping with a Fermi surface volume proportional to (1+x), where x is the hole concentration. At very low doping, however, we find that this assumption based on Luttinger's theorem is not fulfilled. This implies a change in the topology of the Fermi surface. Furthermore the intensity of the shadow bands observed on the Fermi surface of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ as a function of the doping is discussed

Hydrologic indicators of hot spots and hot moments of mercury methylation potential along river corridors

The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Science Foundation: EAR-1226741 (to M.B.S.) and EAR-1225630 (to J.D.B.), and from the REG Trust (to M.B.S.).The biogeochemical cycling of metals and other contaminants in river-floodplain corridors is controlled by microbial activity responding to dynamic redox conditions. Riverine flooding thus has the potential to affect speciation of redox-sensitive metals such as mercury (Hg). Therefore, inundation history over a period of decades potentially holds information on past production of bioavailable Hg. We investigate this within a Northern California river system with a legacy of landscape-scale 19th century hydraulic gold mining. We combine hydraulic modeling, Hg measurements in sediment and biota, and first-order calculations of mercury transformation to assess the potential role of river floodplains in producing monomethylmercury (MMHg), a neurotoxin which accumulates in local and migratory food webs. We identify frequently inundated floodplain areas, as well as floodplain areas inundated for long periods. We quantify the probability of MMHg production potential (MPP) associated with hydrology in each sector of the river system as a function of the spatial patterns of overbank inundation and drainage, which affect long-term redox history of contaminated sediments. Our findings identify river floodplains as periodic, temporary, yet potentially important, loci of biogeochemical transformation in which contaminants may undergo change during limited periods of the hydrologic record. We suggest that inundation is an important driver of MPP in river corridors and that the entire flow history must be analyzed retrospectively in terms of inundation magnitude and frequency in order to accurately assess biogeochemical risks, rather than merely highlighting the largest floods or low-flow periods. MMHg bioaccumulation within the aquatic food web in this system may pose a major risk to humans and waterfowl that eat migratory salmonids, which are being encouraged to come up these rivers to spawn. There is a long-term pattern of MPP under the current flow regime that is likely to be accentuated by increasingly common large floods with extended duration.PostprintPeer reviewe

Characteristics and Applications of Biochars Derived from Wastewater Solids

Pyrolysis is a thermochemical decomposition process that can be used to generate pyrolysis gas (py-gas), bio-oil, and biochar as well as energy from biomass. Biomass from agricultural waste and other plant-based materials has been the predominant pyrolysis research focus. Water resource recovery facilities also produce biomass, referred to as wastewater solids, that could be a viable pyrolysis feedstock. Water resource recovery facilities are central collection and production sites for wastewater solids. While the utilization of biochar from a variety of biomass types has been extensively studied, the utilization of wastewater biochars has not been reviewed in detail. This review compares the characteristics of wastewater biochars to more conventional biochars and reviews specific applications of wastewater biochar. Wastewater biochar is a potential candidate to sorb nutrients or organic contaminants from contaminated wastewater streams. While biochar has been used as a beneficial soil amendment for agricultural applications, specific research on wastewater biochar is lacking and represents a critical knowledge gap. Based on the studies reviewed, if biochar is applied to land it will contain less organic micropollutant mass than conventional wastewater solids, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are not likely to be a concern if pyrolysis is conducted above 700 °C. Wastewater biochar is likely to serve as a better catalyst to convert bio-oil to py-gas than other conventional biochars because of the inherently higher metal (e.g., Ca and Fe) content. The use of wastewater biochar alone as a fuel is also discussed. Finally, an integrated wastewater treatment process that produces and uses wastewater biochar for a variety of food, energy, and water (FEW) applications is proposed