Vortex

Vortex is a two-movement piece for 14-player chamber ensemble of approximately 12 minutes in duration. It is scored for Flute/Piccolo, Oboe, Clarinet in B-flat, Horn in F, Trumpet in B-flat, Trombone, Percussion, Drum Set, Piano, and Strings.Musi

Violence Against Women Act: History and Federal Funding

[Excerpt] The Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 (VAWA 2005) (P.L. 109-162) was enacted on January 5, 2006. Among other things, VAWA 2005 reauthorized existing VAWA programs and created many new programs. The act encourages collaboration among law enforcement, judicial personnel, and public and private service providers to victims of domestic and sexual violence; increases public awareness of domestic violence; addresses the special needs of victims of domestic and sexual violence, including the elderly, disabled, children, youth, and individuals of ethnic and racial communities; authorizes long-term and transitional housing for victims; makes some provisions gender-neutral; and requires studies and reports on the effectiveness of approaches used for certain grants in combating violence. VAWA programs are funded through annual appropriations for both the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Health and Human Services (HHS). President Barack Obama released his FY2011 budget on February 2, 2011, requesting funding of $649.36 million for violence against women programs. For programs administered by DOJ, the President requests$457.00 million, of which $187.50 million is for Services-Training-Officers-Prosecutors (STOP) formula grants and$25.00 million is for Transitional Housing Assistance grants. The FY2011 funding request for programs administered by HHS is $192.36 million, of which$140.00 million is for Family Violence Prevention/Grants for Battered Women’s Shelters and $5.00 million is for the National Domestic Violence Hotline. The Obama Administration requests FY2011 funding of$500,000 each for two new efforts to address sexual and domestic violence and stalking in Indian Country: (1) Indian Country—Sexual Assault Clearinghouse and (2) Indian Country—Regional Summits. On December 16, 2009, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 (P.L. 111-117; H.R. 3288) was enacted, providing total FY2010 funding of $625.91 million for violence against women programs, of which$444.50 million is for VAWA programs administered by DOJ and $181.41 million is for domestic violence programs under the Department of Health and Human Services. The original VAWA, enacted in 1994 as Title IV of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (P.L. 103-322), established within DOJ and HHS formula and discretionary grant programs for state, local, and Indian tribal governments. The Violence Against Women Act of 2000 (VAWA 2000; P.L. 106-386), reauthorized many VAWA programs, set new funding levels, and created new grant programs to address sexual assaults on campuses and assist victims of domestic abuse. The Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-36) and the PROTECT Act (P.L. 108-21) authorized funding of both HHS and DOJ transitional housing assistance programs for victims of domestic violence. This report will be updated to reflect legislative activity

A software vision to enable the holistic design of low carbon buildings

The need to reduce the energy used by buildings and the resultant carbon emissions is changing how they are designed, look and work. This position paper outlines the urgent need for new software that integrates thermal simulation with building information modelling. A vision for the software is presented

Interactive intelligence: behaviour-based AI, musical HCI and the Turing Test

The field of behaviour-based artificial intelligence (AI), with its roots in the robotics research of Rodney Brooks, is not predominantly tied to linguistic interaction in the sense of the classic Turing test (or, "imitation game"). Yet, it is worth noting, both are centred on a behavioural model of intelligence. Similarly, there is no intrinsic connection between musical AI and the language-based Turing test, though there have been many attempts to forge connections between them. Nonetheless, there are aspects of musical AI and the Turing test that can be considered in the context of non-language-based interactive environments–-in particular, when dealing with real-time musical AI, especially interactive improvisation software. This paper draws out the threads of intentional agency and human indistinguishability from Turing’s original 1950 characterisation of AI. On the basis of this distinction, it considers different approaches to musical AI. In doing so, it highlights possibilities for non-hierarchical interplay between human and computer agents

Zero and low carbon buildings: A driver for change in working practices and the use of computer modelling and visualization

Buildings account for significant carbon dioxide emissions, both in construction and operation. Governments around the world are setting targets and legislating to reduce the carbon emissions related to the built environment. Challenges presented by increasingly rigorous standards for construction projects will mean a paradigm shift in how new buildings are designed and managed. This will lead to the need for computational modelling and visualization of buildings and their energy performance throughout the life-cycle of the building. This paper briefly outline how the UK government is planning to reduce carbon emissions for new buildings. It discusses the challenges faced by the architectural, construction and building management professions in adjusting to the proposed requirements for low or zero carbon buildings. It then outlines how software tools, including the use of visualization tools, could develop to support the designer, contractor and user

Developing and evaluating a hybrid wind instrument

A hybrid wind instrument generates self-sustained sounds via a real-time interaction between a computed excitation model (such as the physical model of human lips interacting with a mouthpiece) and a real acoustic resonator. Attempts to produce a hybrid instrument have so far fallen short, in terms of both the accuracy and the variation in the sound produced. The principal reason for the failings of previous hybrid instruments is the actuator which, controlled by the excitation model, introduces a fluctuating component into the air flow injected into the resonator. In the present paper, the possibility of using a loudspeaker to supply the calculated excitation signal is evaluated. A theoretical study has facilitated the modeling of the loudspeaker-resonator system and the design of a feedback and feedforward filter to successfully compensate for the presence of the loudspeaker. The resulting self-sustained sounds are evaluated by a mapping of their sound descriptors to the input parameters of the physical model of the embouchure, both for sustained and attack sounds. Results are compared with simulations. The largely coherent functioning confirms the usefulness of the device in both musical and research contexts

Software engineering challenges: Achieving zero carbon buildings by 2019

The planet Earth is warming up. There is an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Buildings account for almost 50% of UK carbon dioxide emissions. [1] The UK Government have set out a programme to make all new buildings zero carbon by 2019. This will require a paradigm shift in how buildings are designed, with an increased reliance on computational modelling of building performance early in the design process. This paper outlines how architects have traditionally worked, the available software and how it is used. It discusses the challenges faced by building designers in achieving zero carbon buildings and then outlines how software tools might develop to meet not only the zero carbon challenge but also take the concept further to help design sustainable buildings

Time to rewrite your autobiography?

Autobiographical memory is the “diary that we all carry about” said Oscar Wilde. Autobiographical memory defines us. And because autobiographical memory is the foundation on which we build our identity, we like to believe that our memories are accurate, comprehensive and robust. Anything else would challenge our sense of self. But over the previous decade, psychological scientists have shown that autobiographical memory can be inexact, sketchy and frail. Various suggestive techniques can encourage people to generate memories of whole events that never happened. And these illusory memories are often held with great confidence, emotion, clarity, and vividness—but they are not real. In this article, we discuss research showing that suggestion can create false memories and change our autobiography

A new LMC K-band distance from precision measurements of nearby red clump stars

High-precision (sigma < 0.01) new JHK observations of 226 of the brightest and nearest red clump stars in the solar neighbourhood are used to determine distance moduli for the LMC. The resulting K- and H-band values of 18.47\pm0.02 and 18.49\pm0.06 imply that any correction to the K-band Cepheid PL relation due to metallicity differences between Cepheids in the LMC and in the solar neighborhood must be quite small.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure