When words matter: a cross-cultural perspective on lyrics and their relationship to musical emotions

Several studies have investigated emotional reactions to instrumental music. However, studies on the effect of lyrics on emotions are limited. Previous studies suggest that the importance of lyrics may vary cross-culturally. The aim of this study was twofold: to investigate the effects of lyrics on aroused emotions and psychological mechanisms with music and to explore whether these differ cross-culturally. Fifty participants from Portugal and Sweden listened to six musical stimuli based on two songs, one representing each culture. These were presented in three versions each: the original, an instrumental, and the instrumental version with lyrics on the screen. The Portuguese and Swedish participants differed notably: the presence of lyrics did not affect listeners’ happiness in neither group as predicted, but did increase sadness, albeit only in the Portuguese group. Lyrics also increased nostalgia for the Portuguese listeners as predicted and surprise-astonishment for the Swedish listeners. Regarding the mechanisms, lyrics increased the activation of episodic memory in both groups, and the activation of evaluative conditioning, contagion, and visual imagery in the Portuguese group. The present study indicates that lyrics have an effect on musical emotions and mechanisms which vary between groups of different cultural backgrounds.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Muscle Fatigue Analysis Using OpenSim

In this research, attempts are made to conduct concrete muscle fatigue analysis of arbitrary motions on OpenSim, a digital human modeling platform. A plug-in is written on the base of a muscle fatigue model, which makes it possible to calculate the decline of force-output capability of each muscle along time. The plug-in is tested on a three-dimensional, 29 degree-of-freedom human model. Motion data is obtained by motion capturing during an arbitrary running at a speed of 3.96 m/s. Ten muscles are selected for concrete analysis. As a result, the force-output capability of these muscles reduced to 60%-70% after 10 minutes' running, on a general basis. Erector spinae, which loses 39.2% of its maximal capability, is found to be more fatigue-exposed than the others. The influence of subject attributes (fatigability) is evaluated and discussed

Control of Proton-beam for Biological and Medical Irradiation in Tohoku University Cyclotron

開始ページ、終了ページ: 冊子体のページ付

2-(4-Oxo-3-phenyl-1,3-thiazolidin-2-ylidene)malononitrile

The authors would like to thank the American University in Cairo for providing financial support to complete this work.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Parameterization and prediction of nanoparticle transport in porous media : a reanalysis using artificial neural network

The continuing rapid expansion of industrial and consumer processes based on nanoparticles (NP) necessitates a robust model for delineating their fate and transport in groundwater. An ability to reliably specify the full parameter set for prediction of NP transport using continuum models is crucial. In this paper we report the reanalysis of a data set of 493 published column experiment outcomes together with their continuum modeling results. Experimental properties were parameterized into 20 factors which are commonly available. They were then used to predict five key continuum model parameters as well as the effluent concentration via artificial neural network (ANN)-based correlations. The Partial Derivatives (PaD) technique and Monte Carlo method were used for the analysis of sensitivities and model-produced uncertainties, respectively. The outcomes shed light on several controversial relationships between the parameters, e.g., it was revealed that the trend of math formula with average pore water velocity was positive. The resulting correlations, despite being developed based on a “black-box” technique (ANN), were able to explain the effects of theoretical parameters such as critical deposition concentration (CDC), even though these parameters were not explicitly considered in the model. Porous media heterogeneity was considered as a parameter for the first time and showed sensitivities higher than those of dispersivity. The model performance was validated well against subsets of the experimental data and was compared with current models. The robustness of the correlation matrices was not completely satisfactory, since they failed to predict the experimental breakthrough curves (BTCs) at extreme values of ionic strengths