Building the Field of Arts Engagement: Prospects and Challenges

The cultural sector in America is grappling with how to remain relevant to the rapidly changing society from which it draws its audiences and support. This is a demanding task -- adapting to rapid demographic and technological change is no less challenging for the cultural sector than for journalism, the music industry, publishing, or the taxi cab business today. But if the cultural sector does not take on this task, it risks marginalization. Cultural leaders therefore need to examine the mechanics of engagement in the arts in a concerted way, distill lessons from their successes and failures, and share those lessons -- in short, to build the field of arts engagement. To explore this topic, in 2015 Irvine commissioned AEA Consulting to undertake panel discussions, surveys, and bilateral interviews across the arts sector. This report contains observations and reflections by Adrian Ellis, Elizabeth Ellis, and their colleagues

The Arts in Arizona: A Discussion Document

Provides an assessment of contemporary issues facing arts institutions in Arizona and their impact on funding needs

Planning in a Cold Climate

Offers a diagnosis and tentative prognosis for cultural institutions in general and museums in particular in the current economic environment

Ground-water investigation at Mount Carmel, Illinois

"November 1994.""Prepared for the City of Mount Carmel.""Contract report 578.

Strain localization as a key to reconciling experimentally derived flow-law data with dynamic models of continental collision

Abstract. : Published strength profiles predict strength discontinuities within and/or at the base of continental crust during compression. We use finite element models to investigate the effect of strength discontinuities on continental collision dynamics. The style of deformation in model crust during continued subduction of underlying mantle lithosphere is controlled by: (1) experimental flow-law data; (2) the crustal geotherm; (3) strain localization by erosion; (4) strain-softening and other localization effects. In the absence of erosion and other factors causing strain localization, numerical models with typical geothermal gradients and frictional/ductile rheologies predict diffuse crustal deformation with whole-scale detachment of crust from mantle lithosphere. This prediction is at odds with earlier model studies that only considered frictional crustal rheologies and showed asymmetric, focused crustal deformation. Without localization, model deformation is not consistent with that observed in small collisional orogens such as the Swiss Alps. This suggests that strain localization by a combination of erosion and rheological effects such as strain softening must play a major role in focusing deformation, and that strength profiles derived under constant strain rates and uniform material properties cannot be used to infer crustal strength during collision dynamic

Ground-water investigation for the Village of Homer, Ogden Township, Champaign County, Illinois

"Prepared for the Village of Homer."Includes bibliographical references (p. 23)

The 2010 LabROSA Chord Recognition System

For the MIREX 2010 Audio Chord Extraction task, we submitted a total of four systems. Our base system is a trainable chord recognizer based on two-band chroma representations and using a Structured SVM classifier to replace the more familiar hidden Markov model. We submit two versions of this system, one which transposes all training data through all 12 possible chords to maximize the training data available for each chord (and hence improve generalization to rarely-seen chords and keys), and one which simply trains on the chords in their original transposition, leading to a smaller model and possible learning of key-specific features. We also submit two pre-trained models, based on these two frameworks, trained in-house on the 180 Beatles and 20 Queen tracks for which ground-truth chord labels have been made available

Asymptotically correct defect control software for boundary value ordinary differential equations

xii, 109 leaves : col. ill. ; 29 cm.Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-109).BVP_SOLVER II [Boisvert, Muir, Spiteri, 2013] is an efficient software package for the numerical solution of systems of boundary value ordinary differential equations. It employs discrete mono-implicit Runge-Kutta (MIRK) schemes to transform the ODEs into nonlinear systems which are solved by modified Newton iterations. Continuous MIRK interpolants then augment the discrete solutions from the nonlinear system, to obtain a continuous solution approximation across the problem domain. The code monitors solution quality through defect analysis and employs an adaptive mesh refinement strategy as a means of controlling the defect, which is the amount by which the computed solution fails to satisfy the ODEs. This thesis describes the development of new Hermite-Birkhoff interpolants and modifications to the BVP_SOLVER II software in order to implement a new defect estimation strategy called “Asymptotically Correct Maximum Defect Estimation”, based on the new interpolants. Numerical results which demonstrate the robustness and efficiency of the new strategy are presented

Observation of coherent delocalized phonon-like modes in DNA under physiological conditions

Underdamped terahertz-frequency delocalized phonon-like modes have long been suggested to play a role in the biological function of DNA. Such phonon modes involve the collective motion of many atoms and are prerequisite to understanding the molecular nature of macroscopic conformational changes and related biochemical phenomena. Initial predictions were based on simple theoretical models of DNA. However, such models do not take into account strong interactions with the surrounding water, which is likely to cause phonon modes to be heavily damped and localized. Here we apply state-of-the-art femtosecond optical Kerr effect spectroscopy, which is currently the only technique capable of taking low-frequency (GHz to THz) vibrational spectra in solution. We are able to demonstrate that phonon modes involving the hydrogen bond network between the strands exist in DNA at physiologically relevant conditions. In addition, the dynamics of the solvating water molecules is slowed down by about a factor of 20 compared with the bulk

The diversity of microbial aldo/keto reductases from Escherichia coli K12

The genome of Escherichia coli K12 contains 9 open reading frames encoding aldo/keto reductases (AKRs) that are differentially regulated and sequence diverse. A significant amount of data is available for the E. coli AKRs through the availability of gene knockouts and gene expression studies, which adds to the biochemical and kinetic data. This together with the availability of crystal structures for nearly half of the E. coli AKRs and homologues of several others provides an opportunity to look at the diversity of these representative bacterial AKRs. Based around the common AKR fold of (β/α)8 barrel with two additional α-helices, the E. coli AKRs have a loop structure that is more diverse than their mammalian counterparts, creating a variety of active site architectures. Nearly half of the AKRs are expected to be monomeric, but there are examples of dimeric, trimeric and octameric enzymes, as well as diversity in specificity for NAD as well as NADP as a cofactor. However in functional assignments and characterisation of enzyme activities there is a paucity of data when compared to the mammalian AKR enzymes