Student musicians' self- and task-theories of musical performance : the influence of primary genre affiliation

165 undergraduate music students studying in Scotland completed a 30-statement Q-sort to describe their self and task-theories of musical performance. Statements reflected the importance of effort, confidence, technical ability, significant others and luck/ chance in determining a successful performance. The Q-sorts were reduced to six underlying sorting patterns, or viewpoints. The relationship between sorting patterns and participants' primary genre affiliation was explored in order to identify whether self and task-theories were a function of genre affiliation. Some intuitive hypotheses of what performers of particular musical genres might think were supported by the data. However, results suggested that there was considerable diversity in self and task-theory of performance within each of the genre affiliation groups, which supports previous research. Other background factors, such as gender, years of playing, chronological age and type of institution, were not significant predictors of self or task-theory of musical performance

Ord om Ljud : Skriftställare om ljudmiljöer och ljud

Så vad kan det innebära att skriva om ljud och ljudmiljöer? Hur förvandlas eller tolkas ett medium av ett annat? Skriftställaren, akustikern, musikforskaren, litteraturvetaren, journalisten måste alla brottas med uppgiften att skriva om ljud. Ljudmiljöcentrum samlar i denna volym ett antal skriftställares tankar om ord om ljud.Medverkande: Anders Mildner, Johan Stenström, Annika J Lindskog, Louise Wassdahl, Mikael Strömberg och Ola Stockfelt.Förord av Mats Arvidso

The development and application of the emotional dimensions of a soundscape

People have emotional reactions to the built environment, and the sonic environment is one of the major contributing factors of people’s experiences of places. It is useful for decision makers such as planners, architects, engineers and designers to understand the link between the soundscapes of built environments, and their resultant emotional reactions within users of those environments. This understanding can allow these decision makers to make better informed decisions about built environment design, and achieve the desired positive emotional responses from users. The issue under question, and the subject of this paper, was to understand and define the emotional dimensions of a soundscape, and then to explore how the resultant dimensional space could have a practical application in decision making. Through data generated through the Positive Soundscapes Project, a Principal Component Analysis was conducted to decompose descriptors of the urban soundscape into two independent emotional dimensions. It was found that the two independent emotional dimensions of a soundscape relate to its “Calmness” and “Vibrancy”, and these could be positioned to describe a 2-Dimensional (2-D) perceptual space. Listening evaluations were then conducted to explore how perceptions of different types of urban soundscape could be plotted with the 2D emotional perceptual space, and to illustrate how (i) introducing design interventions can change the position of soundscapes within this space and (ii) how metrics such as dB(A) do not necessarily correlate with calmness and vibrancy scores. Through illustrative examples, we suggest how such a 2-D perceptual space might have a practical use in the planning process, primarily as a means for presenting users’ perceptions of soundscapes in a simple, visual, and easy to compare manner, and for setting targets for current and future soundscape design. We conclude with recommendations for further work required to fully develop these emotional dimensions and the 2-D perceptual space into a useful tool

Plasma interferon-alpha is associated with double-positivity for autoantibodies but is not a predictor of remission in early rheumatoid arthritis-a spin-off study of the NORD-STAR randomized clinical trial

BACKGROUND: The type I interferon (IFN) gene signature is present in a subgroup of patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Protein levels of IFNα have not been measured in RA and it is unknown whether they associate with clinical characteristics or treatment effect. METHODS: Patients with early untreated RA (n = 347) were randomized to methotrexate combined with prednisone, certolizumab-pegol, abatacept, or tocilizumab. Plasma IFNα protein levels were determined by single molecular array (Simoa) before and 24 weeks after treatment initiation and were related to demographic and clinical factors including clinical disease activity index, disease activity score in 28 joints, swollen and tender joint counts, and patient global assessment. RESULTS: IFNα protein positivity was found in 26% of the patients, and of these, 92% were double-positive for rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA). IFNα protein levels were reduced 24 weeks after treatment initiation, and the absolute change was similar irrespective of treatment. IFNα protein positivity was associated neither with disease activity nor with achievement of CDAI remission 24 weeks after randomization. CONCLUSION: IFNα protein positivity is present in a subgroup of patients with early RA and associates with double-positivity for autoantibodies but not with disease activity. Pre-treatment IFNα positivity did not predict remission in any of the treatment arms, suggesting that the IFNα system is distinct from the pathways of TNF, IL-6, and T-cell activation in early RA. A spin-off study of the NORD-STAR randomized clinical trial, NCT01491815 (ClinicalTrials), registered 12/08/2011, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01491815

Pitch features of environmental sounds

A number of soundscape studies have suggested the need for suitable parameters for soundscape measurement, in addition to the conventional acoustic parameters. This paper explores the applicability of pitch features that are often used in music analysis and their algorithms to environmental sounds. Based on the existing alternative pitch algorithms for simulating the perception of the auditory system and simplified algorithms for practical applications in the areas of music and speech, the applicable algorithms have been determined, considering common types of sound in everyday soundscapes. Considering a number of pitch parameters, including pitch value, pitch strength, and percentage of audible pitches over time, different pitch characteristics of various environmental sounds have been shown. Among the four sound categories, i.e. water, wind, birdsongs, and urban sounds, generally speaking, both water and wind sounds have low pitch values and pitch strengths; birdsongs have high pitch values and pitch strengths; and urban sounds have low pitch values and a relatively wide range of pitch strengths

Health impact of air pollution from shipping in the baltic sea : effects of different spatial resolutions in Sweden

In 2015, stricter regulations to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions and particulate air pollution from shipping were implemented in the Baltic Sea. We investigated the effects on population exposure to particles <2.5 µm (PM2.5) from shipping and estimated related morbidity and mortality in Sweden’s 21 counties at different spatial resolutions. We used a regional model to estimate exposure in Sweden and a city-scale model for Gothenburg. Effects of PM2.5 exposure on total mortality, ischemic heart disease, and stroke were estimated using exposure–response functions from the literature and combining them into disability-adjusted life years (DALYS). PM2.5 exposure from shipping in Gothenburg decreased by 7% (1.6 to 1.5 µg/m3 ) using the city-scale model, and 35% (0.5 to 0.3 µg/m3 ) using the regional model. Different population resolutions had no effects on population exposures. In the city-scale model, annual premature deaths due to shipping PM2.5 dropped from 97 with the high-sulfur scenario to 90 in the low-sulfur scenario, and in the regional model from 32 to 21. In Sweden, DALYs lost due to PM2.5 from Baltic Sea shipping decreased from approximately 5700 to 4200. In conclusion, sulfur emission restrictions for shipping had positive effects on health, but the model resolution affects estimations.Interreg Baltic Sea Region Program and Sahlgrenska University Hospital under the ALF agreement.http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerphpm2021School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH