Tommy, lad!: song

https://digitalcommons.ithaca.edu/sheetmusic/1136/thumbnail.jp

Tommy, lad!

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/6047/thumbnail.jp

Shifted Trajectories

A work inspired by the Stephen Lawrence Gallery, featuring metallic sounds of coins, foil and bells shifting, contorting and transforming to new spaces. Composed between 1st – 8th December 2021, whilst Composer in Residence at the Stephen Lawrence Gallery, part of the SOUND/IMAGE ’21 Exhibition. Shifted Trajectories was composed during an IKO residency funded by the Arts Council England grant, Developing your Creative Practice

Sonic immersion: reaching new audiences through sound

This PhD thesis is a practice-based effort to respond to the homogenisation of acousmatic audiences to niche cliques of practitioners. It consists of a portfolio of nine acousmatic compositions in stereophonic and multichannel formats and a written commentary. Two of the compositions form part of a larger collaborative work/project (Sound Sculptures (section 4.4) and Ancestor 1 (section 4.5)). The commentary discusses the creative and compositional processes behind the acousmatic works, building upon a variety of approaches to engaging wider audiences with the medium of sound. Through exploring various approaches to audience engagement, audience development and collaboration (with other artists, art forms and organisations), this practice-based research explores how an electroacoustic composer may reach new and existing audiences. This has led to a variety of dissemination outcomes including performances, site-specific works, installations and workshops. All compositions have been composed in the electroacoustic studios at the University of Birmingham using Reaper, GRM Tools, Ableton Live, The Ambisonic Toolkit, IEM Plug-in Suite, O3A Core (Blue Ripple Sound), SoundMagic Spectral (Michael Norris), SoundHack and RX 8 (Izotope). The multichannel works (8 and 16 channels) have been decoded using ATK plugins for binaural listening purposes

Impact of food, alcohol and pH on modified-release hydrocortisone developed to treat congenital adrenal hyperplasia.

BACKGROUND: We developed a modified-release hydrocortisone, Chronocort®, to replace the cortisol rhythm in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Food, alcohol and pH affect drug absorption and it is important to assess their impact when replicating a physiological rhythm. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: In vitro dissolution to study impact of alcohol and pH on Chronocort®. A Phase 1, three-period, cross over study in 18 volunteers to assess the impact of food on Chronocort® and to compare bioavailability to immediate-release hydrocortisone. RESULTS: In vitro dissolution of Chronocort® was not affected by gastrointestinal pH up to 6.0 nor by an alcohol content up to 20 % v/v. Food delayed and reduced the rate of absorption of Chronocort® as reflected by a longer Tmax (fed vs fasted: 6.75 hrs vs 4.5 hrs, p=0005) and lower Cmax (549.49 vs 708.46, nmol/L, ratio 77% with CI 71 - 85). Cortisol exposure was similar in fed and fasted state: Geo LSmean ratio (CI) AUC0 t for fed/fasted was 108.33% (102.30 - 114.72%). Cortisol exposure was higher for Chronocort® compared to immediate-release hydrocortisone: Geo LSmean ratios (CI) 118.83% (111.58 - 126.54%); however, derived free cortisol showed cortisol exposure CIs were within 80.0 125.0 %: Geo LSmean ratio (CI) for AUC0 t 112.73% (105.33 - 120.65%). CONCLUSIONS: Gastric pH ≤ 6.0 and alcohol do not effect hydrocortisone release from Chronocort®. Food delays Chronocort® absorption but cortisol exposure is similar in the fasted and fed state and exposure as assessed by free cortisol is similar between Chronocort® and immediate-release hydrocortisone

Art of sound: creativity in film sound and electroacoustic music

Bringing together a diverse group of world leading professionals across Post-Production Film Sound and Electroacoustic Music, Art of Sound explores the creative principles that underpin how sonic practitioners act to compose, tell stories, make us feel, and communicate via sound. Revealing new understandings through analysis of interdisciplinary exchanges and interviews, this book investigates questions of aesthetics, perception, and interpretation, unveiling opportunities for a greater appreciation of the artistry in sound practice which underpins both experimental electronic music and the world’s leading film and television productions. It argues that we can better understand and appreciate the creative act if we regard it as a constantly unfolding process of inspiration, material action, and reflection. In contrast to traditional notions, which imagine outputs as developed to reflect a preconceived creative vision, our approach recognises that the output is always emerging as the practitioner flows with their materials in search of their solution, constantly negotiating the rich networks of potential. This enables us to better celebrate the reality of the creative process, de-centring technologies and universal rules, and potentially opening up the ways in which we think about sonic practices to embrace more diverse ideas and approaches. Art of Sound provides insight into the latest developments and approaches to sound and image practice for composers, filmmakers, directors, scholars, producers, sound designers, sound editors, sound mixers, and students who are interested in understanding the creative potential of sound

Walk with me

Walk with Me is an immersive, interactive sound walk, which combines an original binaural composition with rural walking to transform the grief experience for bereaved adults. A composition to recreate feelings of release, connection and sense of journeying. Drawing upon rituals in India, Ireland and West Africa using music and self-expression to process emotions, and aiming to confront the culture surrounding death in Britain. The transformation of the experience of grief through words and composition to inspire formative contemplations on life and death

Measure Transformer Semantics for Bayesian Machine Learning

The Bayesian approach to machine learning amounts to computing posterior distributions of random variables from a probabilistic model of how the variables are related (that is, a prior distribution) and a set of observations of variables. There is a trend in machine learning towards expressing Bayesian models as probabilistic programs. As a foundation for this kind of programming, we propose a core functional calculus with primitives for sampling prior distributions and observing variables. We define measure-transformer combinators inspired by theorems in measure theory, and use these to give a rigorous semantics to our core calculus. The original features of our semantics include its support for discrete, continuous, and hybrid measures, and, in particular, for observations of zero-probability events. We compile our core language to a small imperative language that is processed by an existing inference engine for factor graphs, which are data structures that enable many efficient inference algorithms. This allows efficient approximate inference of posterior marginal distributions, treating thousands of observations per second for large instances of realistic models.Comment: An abridged version of this paper appears in the proceedings of the 20th European Symposium on Programming (ESOP'11), part of ETAPS 201

1000 Families Study, a UK multiwave cohort investigating the well-being of families of children with intellectual disabilities : cohort profile

Purpose: The 1000 Families Study is a large, UK-based, cohort of families of children with intellectual disability (ID). The main use of the cohort data will be to describe and explore correlates of the well-being of families of children with ID, including parents and siblings, using cross-sectional and (eventually) longitudinal analyses. The present cohort profile intends to describe the achieved cohort. Participants: Over 1000 families of UK children with ID aged between 4 and 15 years 11 months (total n=1184) have been recruited. The mean age of the cohort was 9.01 years old. The cohort includes more boys (61.8%) than girls (27.0%; missing 11.1%). Parents reported that 45.5% (n=539) of the children have autism. Most respondents were a female primary caregiver (84.9%), and 78.0% were the biological mother of the cohort child with ID. The largest ethnic group for primary caregivers was White British (78.5%), over half were married and living with their partner (53.3%) and 39.3% were educated to degree level. Findings: to date Data were collected on family, parental and child well-being, as well as demographic information. Wave 1 data collection took place between November 2015 and January 2017, primarily through online questionnaires. Telephone interviews were also completed by 644 primary caregivers. Future plans: Wave 2 data collection is ongoing and the research team will continue following up these families in subsequent waves, subject to funding availability. Results will be used to inform policy and practice on family and child well-being in families of children with ID. As this cohort profile aims to describe the cohort, future publications will explore relevant research questions and report key findings related to family well-being

Tickets for the Afterlife

Sound Design for Website / App Platform Tickets for the Afterlife aims to introduce people to planning end of life wishes. Through visual communication, interaction and personal decision making. It uses artistic research methods that position diverse rituals and potential futures as options to be chosen within the digital experience/ website. It also uses the library's collections of books as a way of giving people personalised recommendations for further inquiry. The Tickets for the Afterlife website was creatively directed by Dr Stacey Pitsillides with graphic designer Elena Demireva, web developer’s Parvin Asadzadeh Birjandi & Tom Hegarty and sound designer Emma Margetson. Content research and co-design with Dr Claire Nally and the Death Positive Library team. Together this team have investigated the role of Death Positive Libraries during the pandemic through author/Filmmaker Q&A’s, death cafes and A Grief Spoon Room with the Loss Project. This project has been funded by the Wellcome Trust, Carnegie UK, and The Wolfson Foundation and has recently been awarded the Health and Wellbeing Award from Libraries Connected, an organisation which promotes and represents libraries as important resources at the heart of communities. Presented online and at Redbridge Central Library, Newcastle City Library and Kirklees Libraries between 27th October - 19th November 2021