The Gamelan in the Catholic Liturgy in Yogyakarta

This paper is a brief overview of the use of the gamelan together with the polyphonic choir in the Roman rite of Holy Mass. Through the examination ofrepertoires, interviews and active participation in rehearsals and Masses, thiswork illustrates the types of compositions of liturgical music for gamelan aswell as the way these compositions are used. Particular attention is addressedto some key-concepts of traditional gamelan music, such as gending, benthuk,laras, pathet, garap. It will be apparent that these concepts are adapted, firstlyto integrate the gamelan with a vocal element, the choir (which is based on awestern tradition) and secondly, to meet the needs of the rite of Holy Mass.Although indirectly, this paper also represents a paradigm of “Inculturation”,which describes a process distinct from “Enculturation”. The term“Inculturation” must be intended as “the incarnation of the Gospel in nativecultures and also the introduction of these cultures into the life of the Church”,so defined by the Pope John Paul II in the encyclical Slavorum Apostoli, 2ndJune 1985, VI-21. Instead, with the term “Enculturation” we intend the processby which an individual learns the traditional content of a culture andassimilates its practices and values. Thus, the two words represent twodifferent processes of assimilation of culture

combinatorial principle in the use of drum kendhang formulae in gamelan music of yogyakarta from prescriptive models to the interpretation of a composition the case of kendhang pinatut

In this paper, I address the question to the use of drums (kendhang) in the traditional Gamelan music of Yogyakarta, by presenting some prescriptive models (or formulas). I illustrate how, the use of different prescriptive models in a composition follow what I labeled as "Combinatorial Principle". In order to describe the essential elements of this principle, I will analyze the modalities of interaction between a very flexible drum formula (known as pinatut) and three other prescriptive models for drum within some exemplary pieces of traditional Gamelan music. The concept of combinatorial principle illustrated in these pages, on the one hand explains the way of interaction between the drum's rhythmic formulas and their capacity to influence the choices made by the entire orchestra during a performance; on the other hand, through this principle we are able to trace a path that attempts to understand the "deep structures" that are the basics of making music in Gamelan tout court. Through the perspective of the combinatorial principle it is possible to analyze the prescriptive models and techniques of many other instruments of the Gamelan of central Java

Hallmarks of Parkinson’s disease progression determined by temporal evolution of speech attractors in the reconstructed phase-space

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most widespread neurodegenerative diseases worldwide, affected by a number of alterations, among which speech impairments that, interestingly, manifests up to 10 years before other major evidences (e.g. motor impairments). In this regard, we investigated the feasibility of a model based on the temporal evolution of speech attractors in the reconstructed phase space to identify hallmarks of PD identification and progression. To this end, the adopted dataset was made of vocal emissions of 46 de-novo and 54 mid-advanced People with PD, plus 113 healthy counterpart. A statistical analysis was applied to test the identified hallmarks effectiveness for diagnostic support, monitoring, and staging of the disease. According to the obtained results, the adopted approach of considering the temporal evolution of speech attractors in the reconstructed phase-space results effective to discriminate among the three groups of pathological or healthy voice

Automatic Detection of Myotonia using a Sensory Glove with Resistive Flex Sensors and Machine Learning Techniques

This paper deals with the automatic detection of Myotonia from a task based on the sudden opening of the hand. Data have been gathered from 44 subjects, divided into 17 controls and 27 myotonic patients, by measuring a 2-point articulation of each finger thanks to a calibrated sensory glove equipped with a Resistive Flex Sensor (RFS). RFS gloves are proven to be reliable in the analysis of motion for myotonic patients, which is a relevant task for the monitoring of the disease and subsequent treatment. With the focus on a healthy VS pathological comparison, customized features were extracted, and several classifications entailing motion data from single fingers, single articulations and aggregations were prepared. The pipeline employed a Correlation-based feature selector followed by a SVM classifier. Results prove that it’s possible to detect Myotonia, with aggregated data from four fingers and upper/lower articulations providing the most promising accuracies (91.1%

Catharine H. Roehrig, Renee Dreyfus y Cathleen A. Keller (eds.), Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of New York Series– New Heaven and London, Yale University Press, 2005, pp. xv + 340. Con mapas, planos, fotos a color y en blanco y negro, apéndice y glosario. U$S 65,00. ISBN 0-300-11139-8

Una mujer al frente del reino egipcio, aunque peculiar, no fue ni el primer caso ni el más conocido -al menos para los lectores modernos- de la historia egipcia. Pero si de reinas se trata el nombre de Cleopatra VII es el que viene a nuestra memoria antes que cualquier otro. Sin embargo, Hatshepsut fue aún más influyente que aquélla. Evidencia de esto es la “explosión de creatividad artística” de su tiempo, en su templo funerario Djeser Djeseru, al oeste de Tebas, en Deir el-Bahari. El estilo innovador y la variedad de recursos son una muestra, a su vez, de los contactos con las zonas vecinas: Nubia, el Mediterráneo Oriental y el Egeo. Sin embargo, Hatshepsut desapareció de la memoria histórica egipcia, de manera tan efectiva que sólo nos quedan vagas referencias a su gobierno. Es por ello que su “reputación en la historia” es ciertamente pobre, y podemos rastrearla por intermedio de Manetón, quien la menciona bajo otro nombre –Ahmesis–. Aún hoy resulta controversial indagar sobre varios aspectos de su reinado, dado que las referencias sobre ellos son vagas y confusas. Después de presentarnos a Hatshepsut, el libro ofrece a lo largo de seis capítulos diversos aspectos de este gobierno bajo la lupa de renombrados especialistas. Todo ello confluye en un catálogo que reúne discusiones académicas junto al despliegue del estilo artístico que caracterizó al reinado de Hatshepsut..

Harmonic Distortion Aspects in Upper Limb Swings during Gait in Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is responsible for a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms, including relevant motor impairments generally rated by clinical experts. In recent years, motor measurements gathered by technology-based systems have been used more and more to provide objective data. In particular, wearable devices have been adopted to evidence differences in the gait capabilities between PD patients and healthy people. Within this frame, despite the key role that the upper limbs’ swing plays during walking, no studies have been focused on their harmonic content, to which this work is devoted. To this end, we measured, by means of IMU sensors, the walking capabilities of groups of PD patients (both de novo and under-chronic-dopaminergic-treatment patients when in an off-therapy state) and their healthy counterparts. The collected data were FFT transformed, and the frequency content was analyzed. According to the results obtained, PD determines upper limb rigidity objectively evidenced and correlated to lower harmonic contents

The "Lazio Network" experience. The first Italian regional research group on the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) program. A collective database with 1200 patients in 2016-2017

AIM: Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) guidelines represent one of the most important steps forward in colorectal surgery in the last ten years. Despite the well-known and demonstrated positive impact on the clinical outcomes that this pathway provides, a cultural revolution in patient management is needed. This is not easy to obtain, especially in small and peripheral centers. In Italy, the diffusion of minimally invasive surgery and "fast-track" perioperative management of the patient is rapidly spreading, even in the central and southern regions. However, in these regions, the percentage of laparoscopic colorectal procedures is dramatically less than in the north of Italy. In this context, the idea of a research group based in Rome focused on the development and spreading of ERAS protocols in the Lazio Region was developed.METHODS: A research group, based in Rome, was founded in December 2016 to evaluate the diffusion of the ERAS program over the main colorectal centers of the region. This "Lazio Network" began with a group of surgeons and anesthesiologists from 5 hospitals. After one and half years, the project now includes 17 hospitals in the region. A multicenter database was created, including consecutive patients who underwent laparoscopic colorectal resection following the ERAS program in the participating centers between January 2016 and December 2017.RESULTS: Data for more than 1200 patients were collected over the observed period. The rate of minimally invasive surgery was higher compared to the regional rate (90% vs. 30%), adherence to the ERAS pathway was around 60% of the items per patient. A clinical study will result from this database. The objective is to evaluate the mean number of ERAS items applied, the most common and uncommon items applied and the influence of this application on the clinical outcomes.CONCLUSIONS: The adoption of the ERAS program is rapidly increasing even in central Italian regions, even though the total rate of minimally invasive surgery procedures still low. Benefits in terms of clinical outcomes will be evaluated from the analysis of a multi-center database of patients treated between January 2016 and December 2017, including more than 1200 patients