Minimal music: roles and approaches of teachers engaging students with a contemporary art music through composing activities

Since it arose in the 1960s, the minimalist aesthetic has increasingly influenced composers of art and popular music around the world and, in turn, minimalist composers have drawn on the compositional ideas of Western popular music and several non-Western musics. Educationally, minimal music offers much potential for music in the classroom as it embodies a number of musical characteristics known to, and preferred by, students aged 9-18 years at primary, secondary and first year tertiary level. Socially, it offers teachers an opportunity to engage students, through composing activities, with contemporary society. The study aims, firstly, to analyse compositions by students aged 9, 12, 15 and 18 years and their teachers, seeking pastiche development of, and compositional expansion beyond, the musical concepts presented in a resource booklet of projects, The Pulse Music Album. Secondly, this study aims to investigate how nineteen participating teachers in three countries engage their students with minimalist composing activities stimulated through the resource booklet. The study attempts to determine why teachers adopt their particular roles and strategies by examining music qualifications, preferences and experience, teaching perspectives and teaching environments. It also seeks to identify reasons why one group of teachers submitted pieces which were pastiches of those presented in the projects and another group submitted compositions which moved well beyond pastiche into an expansion of these same musical concepts and argues for this as evidence of dialogue with contemporary society. Conclusions drawn from the findings note that while there are many commonalities between the backgrounds and approaches of both groups of teachers, there are clearly observed differences. These differences suggest approaches to classroom composition for consideration by practising classroom teachers, in-service instructors and teacher training institutions

The epidemiology and prevention of pertussis in Australia

Pertussis (whooping cough) remains an important public health problem in Australia. Although mortality and morbidity from pertussis declined dramatically following the introduction of mass vaccination programs in 1953, the level of morbidity remains unacceptably high for a vaccine-preventable disease. Aims and methods The primary aims of this thesis were (i) to ascertain the epidemiology of pertussis in Australia between 1993 and 2000 by analysing and interpreting sources of routinely collected data on pertussis; and (ii) to examine the effectiveness of vaccination against pertussis in a number of ways. Data from three primary national sources (notifications of disease, hospitalisations for pertussis and death certificates) were used to examine the burden from pertussis in Australia over these eight years. Analyses included the age distribution of cases, temporal and geographic trends, comparisons of notification and hospitalisation data, and the impact of differences in the method of diagnosis of notified cases between years and age groups. In addition to analyses at the national level using data from the national databases, further detailed analyses were undertaken at the State level for New South Wales (NSW), the most populous Australian State. Pertussis vaccine coverage was estimated using data from the recently established Australian Childhood Immunisation Register (ACIR); these data were also used to track the transition from whole-cell to acellular pertussis vaccines. The different types of studies used to evaluate vaccine effectiveness were reviewed, and a method suitable for ongoing estimation of vaccine effectiveness in Australia was developed. This was then applied to the NSW data, to determine the effectiveness of pertussis vaccination in this State. Main findings The annual notification rate for pertussis in Australia ranged from 23–59 per 100 000 population over the eight years. Infants had the highest notification and hospitalisation rates in Australia — they accounted for 5 percent of notifications, 61 percent of hospitalisations and 100 percent of deaths. Age-specific notification and hospitalisation rates in children aged less than two years strongly suggested a protective effect of vaccination, with the greatest reduction in rate coinciding with eligibility to receive a second dose of pertussis vaccine at four months of age. Notification rates among 5–9 year olds progressively decreased in successive age cohorts, consistent with an effect of the introduction in 1994 of a pertussis vaccine booster for preschool-aged children. Although adults (persons aged 15 years or more) accounted for half the notifications, they had the lowest notification rate. The highest numbers of pertussis notifications were in 1997, when most jurisdictions experienced an epidemic. Notification and hospitalisation rates varied across the States and Territories and also across smaller geographic regions in NSW. Areas and years with high notification rates tended to also have high hospitalisation rates, suggesting that trends in notifications reflected trends in incidence. The number of infant hospitalisations in NSW between July 1993 and June 1999 exceeded the number of notifications by 32 percent, highlighting the extent of under-notification. Overall, and particularly amongst those aged more than 12 months, the majority of cases notified in NSW were based on the results of serological tests. The proportion diagnosed by culture of the organism was greatest in infants; the proportion diagnosed by serological tests increased with age. There was no evidence that the use of serology had increased since 1994 in NSW, hence changes in notification rates after this time are unlikely to be attributable to increased use of serological diagnosis. ACIR records indicated that in December 2000, 92 percent of one-year-old children had received three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine and 90 percent of two-year-olds had received four doses. Vaccine coverage varied by jurisdiction. Since 1997, there was an increased use of DTP vaccines containing acellular pertussis components with a corresponding decrease in the use of vaccines containing whole-cell components. In 2000, almost all DTP vaccines administered contained acellular pertussis components. The results of the vaccine effectiveness study showed that pertussis vaccination was highly effective at preventing pertussis in NSW children, as measured by notified cases. Vaccine effectiveness was highest (91 percent) in the youngest age group ((8–23 months) and lowest (78percent) in the oldest age group (9–13 years). The screening method has not previously been used to estimate pertussis vaccine effectiveness in Australia. Conclusions This thesis demonstrates the value of integrating varied data sources in estimating the disease burden from pertussis. The data presented here show that the disease burden is substantial in all age groups, despite high levels of vaccine coverage in infants and children. This problem of disease control does not appear to be due to lack of vaccine effectiveness, but there is evidence of waning immunity over time. The analyses presented here form a basis for the ongoing monitoring of trends in pertussis epidemiology following the replacement of whole-cell by acellular pertussis vaccines, and will assist consideration of the need for additional booster doses in adolescents and adults

A Lie algebra that can be written as a sum of two nilpotent subalgebras, is solvable

This is an old paper put here for archeological purposes. It is proved that a finite-dimensional Lie algebra over a field of characteristic p>5, that can be written as a vector space (not necessarily direct) sum of two nilpotent subalgebras, is solvable. The same result (but covering also the cases of low characteristics) was established independently by V. Panyukov (Russ. Math. Surv. 45 (1990), N4, 181-182), and the homological methods utilized in the proof were developed later in arXiv:math/0204004. Many inaccuracies in the English translation are corrected, otherwise the text is identical to the published version.Comment: v2: minor change

Yield-related salinity tolerance traits identified in a nested association mapping (NAM) population of wild barley

Producing sufficient food for nine billion people by 2050 will be constrained by soil salinity, especially in irrigated systems. To improve crop yield, greater understanding of the genetic control of traits contributing to salinity tolerance in the field is needed. Here, we exploit natural variation in exotic germplasm by taking a genome-wide association approach to a new nested association mapping population of barley called HEB-25. The large population (1,336 genotypes) allowed cross-validation of loci, which, along with two years of phenotypic data collected from plants irrigated with fresh and saline water, improved statistical power. We dissect the genetic architecture of flowering time under high salinity and we present genes putatively affecting this trait and salinity tolerance. In addition, we identify a locus on chromosome 2H where, under saline conditions, lines homozygous for the wild allele yielded 30% more than did lines homozygous for the Barke allele. Introgressing this wild allele into elite cultivars could markedly improve yield under saline conditions.Stephanie Saade, Andreas Maurer, Mohammed Shahid, Helena Oakey, Sandra M. Schmöckel, Sónia Negrão, Klaus Pillen and Mark Teste

Australian Veterinary History Record No. 47

Australian Veterinary Associatio

"It pains me because as a woman you have to breastfeed your baby": decision-making about infant feeding among African women living with HIV in the UK

OBJECTIVES: UK guidance advises HIV-positive women to abstain from breast feeding. Although this eliminates the risk of postnatal vertical transmission of HIV, the impact of replacement feeding on mothers is often overlooked. This qualitative study examines, for the first time in the UK, decision-making about infant feeding among African women living with HIV. METHODS: Between 2010 and 2011, we conducted semistructured interviews with 23 HIV-positive African women who were pregnant or had recently given birth. We recruited participants from three HIV antenatal clinics in London. RESULTS: Women highlighted the cultural importance of breast feeding in African communities and the social pressure to breast feed, also describing fears that replacement feeding would signify their HIV status. Participants had significant concerns about physical and psychological effects of replacement feeding on their child and felt their identity as good mothers was compromised by not breast feeding. However, almost all chose to refrain from breast feeding, driven by the desire to minimise vertical transmission risk. Participants' resilience was strengthened by financial assistance with replacement feeding, examples of healthy formula-fed children and support from partners, family, peers and professionals. CONCLUSIONS: The decision to avoid breast feeding came at considerable emotional cost to participants. Professionals should be aware of the difficulties encountered by HIV-positive women in refraining from breast feeding, especially those from migrant African communities where breast feeding is culturally normative. Appropriate financial and emotional support increases women's capacity to adhere to their infant-feeding decisions and may reduce the emotional impact

Neuromuscular imaging in inherited muscle diseases

Driven by increasing numbers of newly identified genetic defects and new insights into the field of inherited muscle diseases, neuromuscular imaging in general and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in particular are increasingly being used to characterise the severity and pattern of muscle involvement. Although muscle biopsy is still the gold standard for the establishment of the definitive diagnosis, muscular imaging is an important diagnostic tool for the detection and quantification of dystrophic changes during the clinical workup of patients with hereditary muscle diseases. MRI is frequently used to describe muscle involvement patterns, which aids in narrowing of the differential diagnosis and distinguishing between dystrophic and non-dystrophic diseases. Recent work has demonstrated the usefulness of muscle imaging for the detection of specific congenital myopathies, mainly for the identification of the underlying genetic defect in core and centronuclear myopathies. Muscle imaging demonstrates characteristic patterns, which can be helpful for the differentiation of individual limb girdle muscular dystrophies. The aim of this review is to give a comprehensive overview of current methods and applications as well as future perspectives in the field of neuromuscular imaging in inherited muscle diseases. We also provide diagnostic algorithms that might guide us through the differential diagnosis in hereditary myopathies

The impact of African ethnicity and migration on pregnancy in women living with HIV in the UK: design and methods

Background The number of reported pregnancies in women with diagnosed HIV in the UK increased from 80 in 1990 to over 1400 in 2010; the majority were among women born in sub-Saharan Africa. There is a paucity of research on how social adversity impacts upon pregnancy in HIV positive women in the UK; furthermore, little is known about important outcomes such as treatment uptake and return for follow-up after pregnancy. The aim of this study was to examine pregnancy in African women living with HIV in the UK. Methods and design This was a two phase mixed methods study. The first phase involved analysis of data on approximately 12,000 pregnancies occurring between 2000 and 2010 reported to the UK’s National Study of HIV in Pregnancy and Childhood (NSHPC). The second phase was based in London and comprised: (i) semi-structured interviews with 23 pregnant African women living with HIV, 4 health care professionals and 2 voluntary sector workers; (ii) approximately 90 hours of ethnographic fieldwork in an HIV charity; and (iii) approximately 40 hours of ethnographic fieldwork in a Pentecostal church. Discussion We have developed an innovative methodology utilising epidemiological and anthropological methods to explore pregnancy in African women living with HIV in the UK. The data collected in this mixed methods study are currently being analysed and will facilitate the development of appropriate services for this group