Text, Orality, and Performance in Newar Devotional Music

Dāphā bhajan is a style of devotional song performance practised by Newar men in the towns of the Kathmandu Valley. Although it is now primarily the farming community who maintain it, it originated in the court culture of the Newar kings in the 17th and 18th centuries, and reflects the interests of aristocratic society at that time in devotional literature and music theory. Texts of dāphā songs include compositions attributed to the kings themselves, in old Newari and Maithili, and poetry by Indian authors including Vidyāpati, Nāmdev, Kabīr, Sūrdās and Jayadeva. Transmission to the farming community, among whom literacy and knowledge of the languages concerned were limited, has shifted the balance of attention away from the texts themselves towards the processes of musical performance. As in some other South Asian singing traditions, the generation of intensity through music overwhelms the text, which loses its centrality, its form and even its meaning. The manuscript songbook from which a group sings can no longer be regarded as the vehicle of a written tradition: it is but one element in an oral performance tradition

Housing, income support and mental health: Points of disconnection

There exists a disconnection between evolving policies in the policy arenas of mental health, housing, and income support in Canada. One of the complexities associated with analysing the intersection of these policies is that federal, provincial, and municipal level policies are involved. Canada is one of the few developed countries without a national mental health policy and because of the federal policy reforms of the 1970s, the provincial governments now oversee the process of deinstitutionalization from the hospital to the community level. During this same period the availability of affordable housing has decreased as responsibility for social housing has been transfered from the federal government to the provincial and/or municipal levels of government. Canada also stands alone in terms of being a developed nation without national housing policy instead what is considered "affordable" housing is partially dependant upon individuals' personal economic resources. As well, over the past decade rates of income supports have also been reduced. Psychiatric survivors have long been identified as being at risk for homelessness, with the disconnection existing between housing, income and mental health policies and the lack of a national policy in any of these policies areas further contributing to this risk

Synthesis of a Vocal Sound from the 3,000 year old Mummy, Nesyamun ‘True of Voice’

The sound of a 3,000 year old mummified individual has been accurately reproduced as a vowel-like sound based on measurements of the precise dimensions of his extant vocal tract following Computed Tomography (CT) scanning, enabling the creation of a 3-D printed vocal tract. By using the Vocal Tract Organ, which provides a user-controllable artificial larynx sound source, a vowel sound is synthesised which compares favourably with vowels of modern individuals

Economic pressure, parent personality and child development : an interactionist analysis

That positive personality characteristics in the youth age of the G2 would predict less economic stresses in the adult age. At the same time, these positive personality traits were expected to stop the negative family processes that are likely to hinder a competent development in G3. The findings were consistent with the selection aspect in the interactionist model. The model also said beforehand that economic stress and other family-related stress processes influenced the development of G3 over the earlier G2 personality. The socialization aspect in the interactionist model thus also received support. However,The findings were consistent with this social selection. The model also predicted that of the G1 personality. This social causation of the interactionist model also received support. (Author\u27s abstract) The findings suggest that the relationship between the individual and the individual is the same. This social causation of the interactionist model also received support. (Author\u27s abstract) The findings suggest that the relationship between the individual and the individual is the same. This social causation of the interactionist model also received support. (Author\u27s abstract) The findings suggest that the relationship between the individual and the individual is the same

Economic pressure, parent personality and child development: an interactionist analysis

"Der gegenwärtige ökonomische Abschwung in den USA und auf der ganzen Welt hat wieder die Aufmerksamkeit auf die Prozesse gelenkt, durch die Familien und Kinder durch ökonomische Härten belastet sind. Diese Studie betrachtet die Reaktionen auf ökonomische Härten in einer Stichprobe von Erwachsenen, die zum ersten Mal vor 20 Jahren befragt wurden, als sie noch Jugendliche waren. Insgesamt 271 der ursprünglichen G2 Jugendlichen (Durchschnittsalter M = 25.6 Jahre) nahmen an dieser Studie zusammen mit ihren kleinen Kindern (G3, Durchschnittsalter M = 2.31 Jahre zum ersten Erhebungszeitpunkt) und, in 81% der Fälle, zusammen mit dem anderen Elternteil des Kindes. Die Datenanalysen folgten einem interaktionistischen Modell und gingen davon aus, dass positive Persönlichkeitseigenschaften im Jugendalter der G2 weniger ökonomische Belastungen im Erwachsenenalter vorhersagen würden. Gleichzeitig wurde erwartet, dass diese positiven Persönlichkeitseigenschaften die negativen Familienprozesse aufhalten würden, die eine kompetente Entwicklung in G3 wahrscheinlich behindern. Die Befunde waren mit dem Selektionsaspekt im interaktionistischen Modell konsistent. Das Model sagte darüber hinaus vorher, dass ökonomischen Belastungen und andere familienbezogene Stressprozesse die Entwicklung von G3 über die frühere G2 Persönlichkeit beeinflussten. Der Sozialisationsaspekt im interaktionistischen Modell erhielt also auch Unterstützung. Die Befunde sprechen dafür, dass die Beziehung zwischen den ökonomischen Bedingungen und der Entwicklung von Kindern einen dynamischen Prozess aus Selektion und Sozialisation darstellt, der über Zeit und über Generationen zum Tragen kommt." (Autorenreferat)"The current economic downturn in the U.S. and around the world has refocused attention on the processes through which families and children are affected by economic hardship. This study examines the response to economic pressure of a cohort of youth first studied 20 years ago as adolescents and now grown to adulthood. A total of 271 of the original G2 adolescents (M age = 25.6 years) participated in the study with their young child (G3, M age = 2.31 years at the first time of assessment) and the child's other parent in 81% of the cases. Data analyses were guided by the interactionist model which proposed that positive G2 personality attributes during adolescence would predict lower economic pressure during adulthood and would diminish the negative family processes related to economic pressure expected to disrupt competent G3 development. The findings were consistent with this social selection aspect of the interactionist model. The model also predicted that economic pressure and other aspects of the related family stress process would affect G3 development net of earlier G2 personality. This social causation aspect of the interactionist model also received support. The findings suggest that the relationship between economic conditions and child development reflect a dynamic process of selection and causation that plays out over time and generations." (author's abstract

Sleep quality is associated with emotion experience and adaptive regulation of positive emotion: An experience sampling study

Poor sleep patterns have been strongly linked to disrupted emotional experiences. Emotion regulation, defined as the capacity to manage one's own emotional responses, comprises strategies to increase, maintain, or decrease the intensity, duration, and trajectory of positive and negative emotions. Poor sleep has been identified as a risk factor for emotional dysregulation, but most of the focus has been on negative emotion regulation. We therefore asked whether natural variations in sleep are associated with the experience and regulation of both positive and negative emotion. Young adults, aged between 18–24 years (N = 101), completed 7 days of ecological momentary assessments using a smartphone application. Duration and quality of the previous night's sleep was reported each morning. Levels of positive and negative emotions, and strategies used to regulate emotions, were measured at pseudorandom timepoints four times a day. Multilevel modelling indicated that higher self-reported sleep quality was significantly associated with increased intensity and duration of positive emotion, and decreased intensity of negative emotion. There were no statistically significant associations between sleep duration and emotion intensity or duration. Sleep quality, and not sleep duration, was also associated with the reported use of positive emotion regulation strategies. For negative emotion regulation strategy use, we found no associations with sleep quality or duration. Naturally occurring fluctuations in daily sleep quality may be important for the experience and regulation of positive emotion in young adults. These findings emphasise the need to examine both positive and negative emotion, and emotion regulation to understand the links between sleep and mood

Variability and change in the west Antarctic Peninsula marine system: Research priorities and opportunities

The west Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) region has undergone significant changes in temperature and seasonal ice dynamics since the mid-twentieth century, with strong impacts on the regional ecosystem, ocean chemistry and hydrographic properties. Changes to these long-term trends of warming and sea ice decline have been observed in the 21st century, but their consequences for ocean physics, chemistry and the ecology of the high-productivity shelf ecosystem are yet to be fully established. The WAP shelf is important for regional krill stocks and higher trophic levels, whilst the degree of variability and change in the physical environment and documented biological and biogeochemical responses make this a model system for how climate and sea ice changes might restructure high-latitude ecosystems. Although this region is arguably the best-measured and best-understood shelf region around Antarctica, significant gaps remain in spatial and temporal data capable of resolving the atmosphere-ice-ocean-ecosystem feedbacks that control the dynamics and evolution of this complex polar system. Here we summarise the current state of knowledge regarding the key mechanisms and interactions regulating the physical, biogeochemical and biological processes at work, the ways in which the shelf environment is changing, and the ecosystem response to the changes underway. We outline the overarching cross-disciplinary priorities for future research, as well as the most important discipline-specific objectives. Underpinning these priorities and objectives is the need to better define the causes, magnitude and timescales of variability and change at all levels of the system. A combination of traditional and innovative approaches will be critical to addressing these priorities and developing a co-ordinated observing system for the WAP shelf, which is required to detect and elucidate change into the future

Diets of European polecat Mustela putorius in Great Britain during fifty years of population recovery

Following nineteenth-century declines, polecats Mustela putorius are recolonising Great Britain. Polecat diet relates to two potential risks to recovery. First, rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus, which are important prey for polecats, have experienced extreme population fluctuations, with near extirpation due to myxomatosis in the 1950s, recovery in 1960s–1990s and declines in 1990s–2010s. Second, polecats are secondarily exposed to anticoagulant rodenticides by eating contaminated rodents, and the frequency of polecat exposure to rodenticides is increasing. We analysed stomach contents from 99 polecats collected in 2012–2016 and compared results with earlier studies. Lagomorphs were the most abundant prey (66% frequency of occurrence, 95% confidence interval 53–74%), followed by other mammals (12%, 4–18%), amphibians (10%, 3–16%) and birds (7%, 1–13%). Diet varied seasonally; lagomorph occurrence was highest in spring and summer and lowest in autumn. Dietary niche breadth was greater in the 1960s, when rabbits were scarce, than in other decades, but did not differ between the 1990s and 2010s, indicating that diets have not diversified with recent rabbit declines. This may be because rabbit abundance is not yet low enough to cause dietary diversification or because polecats were collected in areas where rabbits were still abundant. Rodents did not increase in diet between the 1990s and 2010s and still occur with < 10% frequency, indicating that rodents need not contribute much to diet to expose polecats to rodenticides. This potentially limits the effectiveness of management actions designed to minimise polecat exposure to contaminated rodent prey