From Communism To Democracy: Choral Music Education In Czechoslovakia (1948 – 1992) And The Czech Republic (1993 – 2011) as Experienced by Four Prominent Czech Musicians

The Czech Republic has experienced a rich history of singing over many centuries that helped to promote a spirit of national and ethnic identity, culture, and pride. Singing has long been valued because it helped bond people together during difficult times, including during the years of communism. In this thesis, I provide a brief historical overview of music education in the Czech Lands (now Czech Republic) to show how choral music education, as a central part of the curriculum for centuries in this territory, influenced the development of Czech nationalism. The main focus is on choral music education practices and perceptions during the dramatic political changes that occurred during and after communist domination in the latter half of the twentieth century until 2011. The collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the growing dissatisfaction of the population with the economic and political situation in the country resulted in the Velvet Revolution led by unarmed students marching and singing in the streets, which ultimately led to the end of communist rule in Czechoslovakia. This thesis provides an historical and narrative account of the education system and more specifically, choral music education. The study draws heavily on the personal testimonies of four prominent Czech choral music educators who lived and worked during the communist regime, and through the transition to democracy and now during the capitalist economic system. These individuals were interviewed for their personal and professional knowledge of, and insights into, social, political, or economic factors that influenced choral music education in the Czech Lands. The conclusion of this dissertation is not that communism or democracy is necessarily better for Czech choral music education. With the onset of democracy, globalization, technological advances, and goals of individualism and capitalism, people have access to other, far more powerful and far-reaching means to communicate—not just locally, but globally. Singing no longer holds a pivotal & central place, and radical changes in structures are necessary if the choral art is to regain its former prominence. Attention to teacher education practices, and innovative pedagogies & repertoire that educate singing teachers to empower their students will be required to ensure there is quality choral music education in generations to come

The adjoint sensitivity method of global electromagnetic induction for CHAMP magnetic data

An existing time-domain spectral-finite element approach for the forward modelling of electromagnetic induction vector data as measured by the CHAMP satellite is, in this paper, supplemented by a new method of computing the sensitivity of the CHAMP electromagnetic induction data to the Earth's mantle electrical conductivity, which we term the adjoint sensitivity method. The forward and adjoint initial boundary-value problems, both solved in the time domain, are identical, except for the specification of prescribed boundary conditions. The respective boundary-value data at the satellite's altitude are the X magnetic component measured by the CHAMP vector magnetometer along the satellite track for the forward method and the difference between the measured and predicted Z magnetic component for the adjoint method. The squares of these differences summed up over all CHAMP tracks determine the misfit. The sensitivities of the CHAMP data, that is the partial derivatives of the misfit with respect to mantle conductivity parameters, are then obtained by the scalar product of the forward and adjoint solutions, multiplied by the gradient of the conductivity and integrated over all CHAMP tracks. Such exactly determined sensitivities are checked against numerical differentiation of the misfit, and good agreement is obtained. The attractiveness of the adjoint method lies in the fact that the adjoint sensitivities are calculated for the price of only an additional forward calculation, regardless of the number of conductivity parameters. However, since the adjoint solution proceeds backwards in time, the forward solution must be stored at each time step, leading to memory requirements that are linear with respect to the number of steps undertaken. Having determined the sensitivities, we apply the conjugate gradient method to infer 1-D and 2-D conductivity structures of the Earth based on the CHAMP residual time series (after the subtraction of static field and secular variations as described by the CHAOS model) for the year 2001. We show that this time series is capable of resolving both 1-D and 2-D structures in the upper mantle and the upper part of the lower mantle, while it is not sufficiently long to reliably resolve the conductivity structure in the lower part of the lower mantl

The adjoint sensitivity method of global electromagnetic induction for CHAMP magnetic data

An existing time-domain spectral-finite element approach for the forward modelling of electromagnetic induction vector data as measured by the CHAMP satellite is, in this paper, supplemented by a new method of computing the sensitivity of the CHAMP electromagnetic induction data to the Earth's mantle electrical conductivity, which we term the adjoint sensitivity method. The forward and adjoint initial boundary-value problems, both solved in the time domain, are identical, except for the specification of prescribed boundary conditions. The respective boundary-value data at the satellite's altitude are the X magnetic component measured by the CHAMP vector magnetometer along the satellite track for the forward method and the difference between the measured and predicted Z magnetic component for the adjoint method. The squares of these differences summed up over all CHAMP tracks determine the misfit. The sensitivities of the CHAMP data, that is the partial derivatives of the misfit with respect to mantle conductivity parameters, are then obtained by the scalar product of the forward and adjoint solutions, multiplied by the gradient of the conductivity and integrated over all CHAMP tracks. Such exactly determined sensitivities are checked against numerical differentiation of the misfit, and good agreement is obtained. The attractiveness of the adjoint method lies in the fact that the adjoint sensitivities are calculated for the price of only an additional forward calculation, regardless of the number of conductivity parameters. However, since the adjoint solution proceeds backwards in time, the forward solution must be stored at each time step, leading to memory requirements that are linear with respect to the number of steps undertaken. Having determined the sensitivities, we apply the conjugate gradient method to infer 1-D and 2-D conductivity structures of the Earth based on the CHAMP residual time series (after the subtraction of static field and secular variations as described by the CHAOS model) for the year 2001. We show that this time series is capable of resolving both 1-D and 2-D structures in the upper mantle and the upper part of the lower mantle, while it is not sufficiently long to reliably resolve the conductivity structure in the lower part of the lower mantl

Beyond Yamato’s Territorial Power:Northern Kyushu as One of the Centres of Power in Japan during the Yayoi and Kofun Periods

This paper aims to challenge the traditional understanding that the Northern Kyushu region was a peripheral player in the binary opposition to the central region of Kinai in the formative stages of the Japanese state. Based on a variety of archaeological and textual data and taking into consideration the historical circumstances of Japan’s relation to the continent, it is argued that the norther part of Kyushu indisputably played a key role in the history of the Japanese state. Given its strategically beneficial geographic position within the Japanese archipelago, it is claimed that in the Yayoi and Kofun periods the region of Northern Kyushu was, in terms of long-term development of social, economic,technological and power status, on par with the region of Kinai which was the base of the Yamato polity – future ruler of all Japan

Global 3-D electromagnetic forward modelling: a benchmark study

Global electromagnetic (EM) induction studies have been the focus of increasing attention during the past few years. A primary stimulus for this interest has been increased quality, coverage and variety of the newly available data sets especially from recent low-Earth-orbiting satellite missions. The combination of traditional ground-based data with satellite-borne measurements presents intriguing opportunity to attack the most challenging problem of deep EM studies: the recovery of 3-D variations of electrical conductivity in the Earth's mantle. But the reliable inference of deep-Earth electrical properties depends on the accuracy and efficiency of the underlying forward modelling solutions used to model 3-D electromagnetic induction in a heterogeneous sphere. Several 3-D forward solvers have been proposed over the last decade, which are based on staggered-grid finite difference, integral equation, finite element and spherical harmonic-finite element approaches. However, there has been no systematic intercomparison amongst the solvers. The goal of this paper is to conduct such a study in order to explore the relative merits of the different approaches when confronted with a set of synthetic models designed to probe the numerical accuracy of each. The results of the intercomparison are presented along with performance metrics to help assess the computational costs associated with each solutio

The adjoint sensitivity method of global electromagnetic induction for CHAMP magnetic data

ISSN:0956-540XISSN:1365-246

Round-shape gold nanoparticles: effect of particle size and concentration on Arabidopsis thaliana root growth

Abstract Nowadays, due to a wide range of applications of nanoparticles (NPs) in many industrial areas, accumulations of those entities in environment pose a great risk. Owing to their inertness, noble metal NPs may remain in contaminated soils nearly unchanged for long time. Within this context, size-, shape-, and concentration-dependent uptake of particles by plants belongs to unexplored area. In this work, we present water solutions of biologically friendly synthesized spherical AuNPs with pretty narrow size distribution in size range from 10 to 18 nm. Their thorough characterization by atomic absorption spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy-equipped inductively coupled plasma, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and TEM methods was followed by the study of their effect on the growth of Arabidopsis thaliana (primary and lateral roots), in particle size- and concentration-dependent manner. Due to strictly round-shape form of AuNPs and absence of particle agglomeration, DLS-derived size and size distribution were in good concordance with those obtained from TEM. The length and number of A. thaliana lateral roots were significantly affected by all types of AuNPs. Smallest AuNPs at highest concentration inhibited length of primary roots and, in contrast, enhanced hair root growth

Global 3-D electromagnetic forward modelling: a benchmark study

ISSN:0956-540XISSN:1365-246