A contrast: The idiomatic development of the cello from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries as shown by the prelude and saraband of Johann Sebastian Bach\u27s Suite No. 2 in D minor for Unaccompanied Cello, BWY 1008 and Dmitri Shostakovich\u27s Sonata in D minor for Cello and Piano, OP. 40.

The idiomatic development of the cello from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries can be traced through its compositions. When Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello, BWV 1008, he wrote for a Baroque instrument that was considerably different from cello which had evolved at the time Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Sonata for Violoncello and Piano in D Minor. op. 40 in the twentieth century. The physical modifications to the instrument itself, most notably in the tension, created the timbre and brilliance of the modern cello. The unique qualities of the Suites are explored through the Prelude and Sarabande of the Suite II. No other composer prior to Bach had been able to compose such beautiful music with a single line, broken chords, and a few double stops. The Sonata for Violoncello and Piano in D Minor. op. 40 is a hallmark piece of the twentieth century duo sonata literature. It is a virtuoso piece with extre es in register, tempi, and harmony. Like Bach, Shostakovich conceived the cello in a novel way, and expanded the capabilities of the cello repertoire

Grip strength, forearm muscle fatigue and the response to handgrip exercise in rheumatoid arthritis

Weakness and subjective fatigue are common features of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, whether there is a true increase in the fatigability of rheumatoid skeletal muscle, in which fibre atrophy has been frequently reported, is unclear. Such factors may influence the ability to respond to exercise programmes. In this work, a reliable and sensitive technique for the objective measurement of forearm muscle fatigue during sustained grip was developed, using power spectral analysis of the surface myoelectric signal (SMES).The inter-relationships between grip force (hand function) and the activity and severity of the rheumatoid disease process with muscle fatigue (defined as the decline in the median frequency of the SMES with work, (MDFG)) and the initial median frequency of the SMES (IMF) were examined. It has been previously suggested that the IMF of the SMES may reflect the fibre type of the underlying muscle. The response to a 12-week progressive right hand grip strengthening programme in healthy females and those with RA was also evaluated. Potential predictors of outcome and the mechanisms of strength gain were examined. Forearm muscle fatigue in RA was not significantly greater than in healthy controls. However, higher levels of fatigue were associated with greater systemic disease activity and greater disease severity. The IMF of the SMES was shown to be stable over a wide range of grip forces for a given individual. It was significantly elevated in rheumatoid subjects, and showed a direct association with greater disease severity. Handgrip exercise was highly effective in improving hand function in females with RA. Strength gains were also demonstrated in healthy controls. Subjects with more severe disease and greater IMF of the SMES showed the greatest improvement in hand function. Greater systemic and local disease activity during the 12-week programme were limiting factors to improvement in grip. Local (right hand) disease activity remained stable or improved in the RA group overall, in spite of a trend towards deteriorating systemic and left handed disease activity. The two main potential mechanisms of strength gain (neural adaptation and gains in muscle mass) were assessed in both rheumatoid and healthy groups. The former was assessed by evaluation of the neuromuscular efficiency, derived from the relationship of the root mean square of the SMES at a given grip force. Gains in muscle mass were also assessed using this technique and by volumetric analysis of forearm musculature using magnetic resonance imaging. Although significant gains in muscle mass were demonstrated in the control group, no such gains were seen in the rheumatoid subjects. This indicates that neural adaptation was an effective method of strength gain in the rheumatoid group

Patients as researchers - innovative experiences in UK National Health Service research

Consumer involvement is an established priority in UK health and social care service development and research. To date, little has been published describing the process of consumer involvement and assessing ‘consumers’ contributions to research. This paper provides a practical account of the effective incorporation of consumers into a research team, and outlines the extent to which they can enhance the research cycle; from project development and conduct, through data analysis and interpretation, to dissemination. Salient points are illustrated using the example of their collaboration in a research project. Of particular note were consumers’ contributions to the development of an ethically enhanced, more robust project design, and enriched data interpretation, which may not have resulted had consumers not been an integral part of the research team

Sensory modality of input influences encoding of motion events in speech but not co-speech gestures

Visual and auditory channels have different affordances and this is mirrored in what information is available for linguistic encoding. The visual channel has high spatial acuity, whereas the auditory channel has better temporal acuity. These differences may lead to different conceptualizations of events and affect multimodal language production. Previous studies of motion events typically present visual input to elicit speech and gesture. The present study compared events presented as audio- only, visual-only, or multimodal (visual+audio) input and assessed speech and co-speech gesture for path and manner of motion in Turkish. Speakers with audio-only input mentioned path more and manner less in verbal descriptions, compared to speakers who had visual input. There was no difference in the type or frequency of gestures across conditions, and gestures were dominated by path-only gestures. This suggests that input modality influences speakers’ encoding of path and manner of motion events in speech, but not in co-speech gestures

Estimation of percentage points and the construction of tolerance limits

Estimation of percentage points and construction of tolerance limit

EXPLORATION, NORMALIZATION, AND GENOTYPE CALLS OF HIGH DENSITY OLIGONUCLEOTIDE SNP ARRAY DATA

In most microarray technologies, a number of critical steps are required to convert raw intensity measurements into the data relied upon by data analysts, biologists and clinicians. These data manipulations, referred to as preprocessing, can influence the quality of the ultimate measurements. In the last few years, the high-throughput measurement of gene expression is the most popular application of microarray technology. For this application, various groups have demonstrated that the use of modern statistical methodology can substantially improve accuracy and precision of gene expression measurements, relative to ad-hoc procedures introduced by designers and manufacturers of the technology. Currently, other applications of microarrays are becoming more and more popular. In this paper we describe a preprocessing methodology for a technology designed for the identification of DNA sequence variants in specific genes or regions of the human genome that are associated with phenotypes of interest such as disease. In particular we describe methodology useful for preprocessing Affymetrix SNP chips and obtaining genotype calls with the preprocessed data. We demonstrate how our procedure improves existing approaches using data from three relatively large studies including one in which large number independent calls are available. Software implementing these ideas are avialble from the Bioconductor oligo package

GENE SET ENRICHMENT ANALYSIS MADE SIMPLE

Among the many applications of microarray technology, one of the most popular is the identification of genes that are differentially expressed in two conditions. A common statistical approach is to quantify the interest of each gene with a p-value, adjust these p-values for multiple comparisons, chose an appropriate cut-off, and create a list of candidate genes. This approach has been criticized for ignoring biological knowledge regarding how genes work together. Recently a series of methods, that do incorporate biological knowledge, have been proposed. However, many of these methods seem overly complicated. Furthermore, the most popular method, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA), is based on a statistical test known for its lack of sensitivity. In this paper we compare the performance of a simple alternative to GSEA.We find that this simple solution clearly outperforms GSEA.We demonstrate this with eight different microarray datasets

Crypto collectibles, museum funding and openGLAM: Challenges, opportunities and the potential of non-fungible tokens (NFTs)

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) make it technically possible for digital assets to be owned and traded, introducing the concept of scarcity in the digital realm for the first time. Resulting from this technical development, this paper asks the question, do they provide an opportunity for fundraising for galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM), by selling ownership of digital copies of their collections? Although NFTs in their current format were first invented in 2017 as a means for game players to trade virtual goods, they reached the mainstream in 2021, when the auction house Christie’s held their first-ever sale exclusively for an NFT of a digital image, that was eventually sold for a record 69 million USD. The potential of NFTs to generate significant revenue for artists and museums by selling effectively a cryptographically signed copy of a digital image (similar to real-world limited editions, which are signed and numbered copies of a given artwork), has sparked the interest of the financially deprived museum and heritage sector with world-renowned institutions such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Hermitage Museum, having already employed NFTs in order to raise funds. Concerns surrounding the environmental impact of blockchain technology and the rise of malicious projects, exploiting previously digitised heritage content made available through OpenGLAM licensing, have attracted criticism over the speculative use of the technology. In this paper, we present the current state of affairs in relation to NFTs and the cultural heritage sector, identifying challenges, whilst highlighting opportunities that they create for revenue generation, in order to help address the ever-increasing financial challenges of galleries and museums