Thematic Interconnectivity as an Innate Musical Quality: An Investigation of Jandek's "European Jewel" Guitar Riffs

This dissertation is divided into two main areas. The first of these explores Jandek-related discourse and contextualizes the project. Also discussed is the interconnectivity that runs through the project through the self-citation of various lyrical, visual, and musical themes. The second main component of this dissertation explores one of these musical themes in detail: the guitar riffs heard in the “European Jewel” song-set and the transmigration/migration of the riff material used in the song to other non-“European Jewel” tracks. Jandek is often described in related discourse as an “outsider musician.” A significant point of discussion in the first area of this dissertation is the outsider music genre as it relates to Jandek. In part, this dissertation responds to an article by Martin James and Mitzi Waltz which was printed in the periodical Popular Music where it was suggested that the marketing of a musician as an outsider risks diminishing the “innate qualities” of the so-called outsider musicians’ works. While the outsider label is in itself problematic—this is discussed at length in Chapter Two—the analysis which comprises the second half of this dissertation delves into self-citation and thematic interconnection as innate qualities within the project. Explored at length in this dissertation are the guitar riffs of the Jandek song “European Jewel,” the closing track appearing on the artist’s debut album, Ready for the House (1978). The riffs are heard 37 times over the course of five different versions of the song. Elements of the riffs also appear in tracks that are not labeled as “European Jewel” variants. A larger structural form in which the song-set is situated has been observed. When heard outside of the “European Jewel” song-set the riffs appear in fragmented form. Continued use of the “European Jewel” riff material lasts until the album One Foot in the North (1991). Much attention has been given to the interconnection between certain visual and lyrical ideas present in the project by Jandek fans; however, Jandek has not been investigated at any great length in music scholarship, popular or otherwise. In part, this investigation contributes to the breadth of popular music scholarship by exploring this underrepresented act. It also delves into the sonic qualities which are intrinsic to Jandek. This type of sonic analysis is performed in order to separate Jandek’s sonic qualities from non-sonic discussions of the project. Finally, this dissertation poses the question of whether or not these qualities are of value to fans and scholars

Roles and Limitations for Assistant Language Teachers in Elementary School English Classes

There are currently almost 4000 foreign nationals working as Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET Program) as well as many others who are contracted outside of the JET Program. Previously, ALTs were engaged in team teaching with Japanese teachers of English in junior and senior high school. More recently, since English has been implemented at elementary school, ALTs often find themselves teaching at that level also. This has been a relatively new development and it is very important to realize that ALTs face unique challenges in elementary schools. Japanese teachers should be aware of the realities and limitations of the JET Program, especially when considering the elementary school context. This paper illuminates these limitations, describing the history of the JET Program before focusing on the current situation. Finally, some suggestions regarding the roles for Japanese homeroom teacher as well as ALTs are presented

The State of the JET Programme, Team Teaching and English Education in Japan.

Team teaching in English classrooms in Japan has now been widely practiced for over a decade in public Junior and Senior High Schools. Native speakers of English are paired with Japanese teachers so that students gain exposure to authentic English from Native speakers, and professional instruction and guidance from Japanese teachers. Although team teaching has lead to some difficulties, many reviews have been favourable and it would seem to support the goal of improving students\u27 communicative competence. Herein, the practice of team teaching will be reviewed and situated within the broad context of English language education in Japan. Though we have seen positive results there would appear to be limitations arising from other aspects of the curriculum

An Investigation of Task-based Language Teaching in Elementary School

Task-based Language Teaching has been popular for a number of years in English as a second or foreign language programs. This research investigates the effectiveness of tasks in elementary school Foreign Language Activities classes in Japan. First, classes were observed over a two-month period to investigate how often, and how tasks are employed currently in the elementary school setting. Then, the researchers taught two different groups of students, administering tasks to an experimental group and a non-task-based lesson to a control group to observe students’ attitudes towards Task-based Language Teaching. Observing English classes, it was found that tasks are frequently employed by teachers and are well-received by students. When the researchers gave a task-based lesson as compared to a non-task-based lesson, however, the results were mixed

Lessons From a Communicative Test for Young Learners

This research presents the results of an Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), conducted with fifth grade elementary school students. Following the test, learners completed a short questionnaire assessing affective factors, which correlated to test performance. The questionnaire also revealed that students had very positive feelings about the testing process, a finding which was corroborated by comments from homeroom teachers and general observations. Each learner was also rated by four individual raters, allowing us to investigate rater reliability. The assessment process illuminated challenges for communicative testing relating to rater reliability and test practicality, and benefits of communicative testing such as the potential for positive washback effect and improved test validity

Towards an Interactive Electromechanical Model of the Heart

International audienceIn this work, we develop an interactive framework for rehearsal and training in the context of cardiac catheter ablation, and for planning in the context of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT). To this end, an interactive and real-time electrophysiology model of the heart is developed to fit patient-specific data. The proposed interactive framework relies on two main contributions. An efficient implementation of cardiac electrophysiology is first proposed using latest GPU computing techniques. Second, a mechanical simulation is then coupled to the electrophysiological signals to produce realistic motion of the heart. We demonstrate that pathological mechanical and electrophysiological behaviour can be simulated

Segmentation and registration coupling from short-axis Cine MRI: application to infarct diagnosis

In pressInternational audienceEstimating regional deformation of the myocardium from Cine MRI has the potential to locate abnormal tissue. Regional deformation of the left ventricle is commonly estimated using either segmentation or 3D+t registration. Segmentation is often performed at each instant separately from the others. It can be tedious and does not guarantee temporal causality. On the other hand, extracting regional parameters through image registration is highly dependent on the initial segmenta-tion chosen to propagate the deformation fields and may not be consistent with the myocardial contours. In this paper, we propose an intermediate approach that couples segmentation and registration in order to improve temporal causality while removing the influence of the chosen initial segmentation. We propose to apply the deformation fields from image registration (sparse Bayesian registration) to every segmentation of the cardiac cycle and combine them for more robust regional measurements. As an illustration, we describe local deformation through the measurement of AHA regional volumes. Maximum regional volume change is extracted and compared across scar and non-scar regions defined from delayed enhancement MRI on 20 ST-elevation myocardial infarction patients. The proposed approach shows (i) more robustness in extracting regional volumes than direct segmentation or standard registration and (ii) better performance in detecting scar