A preparation guide to horn excerpts from the concert band literature

Each academic year, hundreds of students receive performance degrees from the nation's universities and conservatories. A growing number of students who complete such degrees choose to pursue performance opportunities offered by the military organizations. While the inclusion of orchestral excerpts has been a staple of wind pedagogy for decades, band literature has not been given the same attention. This author believes the inclusion of band excerpt study would improve the level of preparedness for auditions and performance in these professional ensembles. No source exists containing information on the preparation of horn excerpts with which to study the style and literature of the concert band. Although the audition lists differ slightly for each of the premier military bands, the twenty-seven compositions included in this document are recognized as staples of the literature, considered to be works of substantive and high artistic merit, distinguished by historical importance, or are contemporary works which have been well-received. The information collected for each of the works includes biographical information for the composer, a brief history of the composition, suggestions for preparation including technical and stylistic elements, and a selected discography. Audition announcements for the premier organizations are separate from the Armed Forces band recruitment program. These groups often advertise their openings in respective professional journals published by organizations such as the International Trumpet Guild, International Horn Society, International Trombone Association, and the International Tuba and Euphonium Association, as well as union magazines, including the International Musician. Requirements often include performance of a standard concerto and works from the excerpt list (orchestral and band), as well as sight-reading and ensemble playing. In some cases, such as the Navy Band, fifty percent of the audition is based on the candidate's sight-reading ability, an area that consists of transcriptions of standard orchestral literature and original compositions for band. Reading/performance sessions with the ensemble can vary from the full concert band to smaller chamber ensembles (brass quintets, woodwind quintets, and horn sections). Well-prepared candidates should be equally comfortable with the orchestral and band literature

Long-term impact of four different strategies for delivering an on-line curriculum about herbs and other dietary supplements

BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown that internet education can lead to short-term improvements in clinicians' knowledge, confidence and communication practices. We wished to better understand the duration of these improvements and whether different curriculum delivery strategies differed in affecting these improvements. METHODS: As previously described, we conducted a randomized control trial comparing four different strategies for delivering an e-curriculum about herbs and other dietary supplements (HDS) to clinicians. The four strategies were delivering the curriculum by: a) email over 10 weeks; b) email within one week; c) web-site over 10 weeks; d) web-site within one week. Participants were surveyed at baseline, immediately after the course and 6–10 months after completing the course (long-term). Long-term outcomes focused on clinicians' knowledge, confidence and communication practices. RESULTS: Of the 780 clinicians who completed the course, 385 (49%) completed the long-term survey. Completers and non-completers of the long-term survey had similar demographics and professional characteristics at baseline. There were statistically significant improvements from baseline to long-term follow-up in knowledge, confidence and communication practices; these improvements did not differ by curriculum delivery strategy. Knowledge scores improved from 67.7 ± 10.3 at baseline to 78.8 ± 12.3 at long-term follow-up (P < 0.001). Confidence scores improved from 53.7 ± 17.8 at baseline to 66.9 ± 12.0 at long term follow-up (P < 0.001); communication scores improved from 2.6 ± 1.9 at baseline to 3.6 ± 2.1 (P < 0.001) at long-term follow-up. CONCLUSION: This e- curriculum led to significant and sustained improvements in clinicians' expertise about HDS regardless of the delivery strategy. Future studies should compare the impact of required vs. elective courses and self-reported vs. objective measures of behavior change

Alternate Metabolic Programs Define Regional Variation of Relevant Biological Features in Renal Cell Carcinoma Progression

ccRCC has recently been redefined as a highly heterogeneous disease. In addition to genetic heterogeneity, the tumor displays risk variability for developing metastatic disease, therefore underscoring the urgent need for tissue-based prognostic strategies applicable to the clinical setting. We’ve recently employed the novel positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance (PET/MR) image modality to enrich our understanding of how tumor heterogeneity can relate to gene expression and tumor biology to assist in defining individualized treatment plans

Genomic Relationships, Novel Loci, and Pleiotropic Mechanisms across Eight Psychiatric Disorders

Genetic influences on psychiatric disorders transcend diagnostic boundaries, suggesting substantial pleiotropy of contributing loci. However, the nature and mechanisms of these pleiotropic effects remain unclear. We performed analyses of 232,964 cases and 494,162 controls from genome-wide studies of anorexia nervosa, attention-deficit/hyper-activity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and Tourette syndrome. Genetic correlation analyses revealed a meaningful structure within the eight disorders, identifying three groups of inter-related disorders. Meta-analysis across these eight disorders detected 109 loci associated with at least two psychiatric disorders, including 23 loci with pleiotropic effects on four or more disorders and 11 loci with antagonistic effects on multiple disorders. The pleiotropic loci are located within genes that show heightened expression in the brain throughout the lifespan, beginning prenatally in the second trimester, and play prominent roles in neurodevelopmental processes. These findings have important implications for psychiatric nosology, drug development, and risk prediction.Peer reviewe

AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening: a 318-target study

: High throughput screening (HTS) is routinely used to identify bioactive small molecules. This requires physical compounds, which limits coverage of accessible chemical space. Computational approaches combined with vast on-demand chemical libraries can access far greater chemical space, provided that the predictive accuracy is sufficient to identify useful molecules. Through the largest and most diverse virtual HTS campaign reported to date, comprising 318 individual projects, we demonstrate that our AtomNet® convolutional neural network successfully finds novel hits across every major therapeutic area and protein class. We address historical limitations of computational screening by demonstrating success for target proteins without known binders, high-quality X-ray crystal structures, or manual cherry-picking of compounds. We show that the molecules selected by the AtomNet® model are novel drug-like scaffolds rather than minor modifications to known bioactive compounds. Our empirical results suggest that computational methods can substantially replace HTS as the first step of small-molecule drug discovery

Alternate Metabolic Programs Define Regional Variation of Relevant Biological Features in Renal Cell Carcinoma Progression

PURPOSE: ccRCC has recently been redefined as a highly heterogeneous disease. In addition to genetic heterogeneity, the tumor displays risk variability for developing metastatic disease, therefore underscoring the urgent need for tissue-based prognostic strategies applicable to the clinical setting. We’ve recently employed the novel positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance (PET/MR) image modality to enrich our understanding of how tumor heterogeneity can relate to gene expression and tumor biology to assist in defining individualized treatment plans. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: ccRCC patients underwent PET/MR imaging, and these images subsequently used to identify areas of varied intensity for sampling. Samples from eight patients were subjected to histological, immunohistochemical, and microarray analysis. RESULTS: Tumor subsamples displayed a range of heterogeneity for common features of HIF expression and microvessel density, as well as for features closely linked to metabolic processes, such as GLUT1 and FBP1. In addition, gene signatures linked with disease risk (ccA and ccB) also demonstrated variable heterogeneity, with most tumors displaying a dominant panel of features across the sampled regions. Intriguingly, the ccA and ccB-classified samples corresponded with metabolic features and functional imaging levels. These correlations further linked a variety of metabolic pathways (i.e. the pentose phosphate and mTOR pathways) with the more aggressive, and glucose avid ccB subtype. CONCLUSIONS: Higher tumor dependency on exogenous glucose accompanies the development of features associated with the poor risk ccB subgroup. Linking these panels of features may provide the opportunity to create functional maps to enable enhanced visualization of the heterogeneous biological processes of an individual’s disease