Analyzing Visual Mappings of Traditional and Alternative Music Notation

In this paper, we postulate that combining the domains of information visualization and music studies paves the ground for a more structured analysis of the design space of music notation, enabling the creation of alternative music notations that are tailored to different users and their tasks. Hence, we discuss the instantiation of a design and visualization pipeline for music notation that follows a structured approach, based on the fundamental concepts of information and data visualization. This enables practitioners and researchers of digital humanities and information visualization, alike, to conceptualize, create, and analyze novel music notation methods. Based on the analysis of relevant stakeholders and their usage of music notation as a mean of communication, we identify a set of relevant features typically encoded in different annotations and encodings, as used by interpreters, performers, and readers of music. We analyze the visual mappings of musical dimensions for varying notation methods to highlight gaps and frequent usages of encodings, visual channels, and Gestalt laws. This detailed analysis leads us to the conclusion that such an under-researched area in information visualization holds the potential for fundamental research. This paper discusses possible research opportunities, open challenges, and arguments that can be pursued in the process of analyzing, improving, or rethinking existing music notation systems and techniques.Comment: 5 pages including references, 3rd Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities, Vis4DH, IEEE Vis 201

Noether's Theorem for Fractional Optimal Control Problems

We begin by reporting on some recent results of the authors (Frederico and Torres, 2006), concerning the use of the fractional Euler-Lagrange notion to prove a Noether-like theorem for the problems of the calculus of variations with fractional derivatives. We then obtain, following the Lagrange multiplier technique used in (Agrawal, 2004), a new version of Noether's theorem to fractional optimal control systems.Comment: To be presented at FDA'06 - 2nd IFAC Workshop on Fractional Differentiation and its Applications, 19-21 July 2006, Porto, Portugal. Accepted (07-March-2006) for the Conference Proceeding

Decomposing the real line into Borel sets closed under addition

We consider decompositions of the real line into pairwise disjoint Borel pieces so that each piece is closed under addition. How many pieces can there be? We prove among others that the number of pieces is either at most 3 or uncountable, and we show that it is undecidable in $ZFC$ and even in the theory $ZFC + \mathfrak{c} = \omega_2$ if the number of pieces can be uncountable but less than the continuum. We also investigate various versions: what happens if we drop the Borelness requirement, if we replace addition by multiplication, if the pieces are subgroups, if we partition $(0,\infty)$, and so on

A case report of Parry Romberg Syndrome initially presenting as periodontitis

Parry Romberg Syndrome (PRS) is a rare disorder of progressive hemifacial atrophy, involving soft tissues, fat and occasionally bone. It can co-exist with presentations of Morphea. We describe an unusual case of persistent periodontal and alveolar destruction associated with PRS. A 56-year-old African female initially presented with persistent periodontal destruction, which showed minimal response to conventional periodontal treatment. After non-surgical treatment, surgical debridement followed by extraction of the two right maxillary incisor teeth was required to halt the periodontal destruction. Atrophy was not limited to the periodontal tissues. Multidisciplinary care and extensive investigations were required to diagnose PRS. Once the PRS has stabilised, adipose tissue transplants will be required to improve the facial appearance. We highlight the need for extensive investigations and a multidisciplinary approach to diagnose rare systemic causes for recalcitrant periodontal disease

Asynchronous spore germination in isogenic natural isolates of Saccharomyces paradoxus

Spores from wild yeast isolates often show great variation in the size of colonies they produce, for largely unknown reasons. Here we measure the colonies produced from single spores from six different wild Saccharomyces paradoxus strains. We found remarkable variation in spore colony sizes, even among spores that were genetically identical. Different strains had different amounts of variation in spore colony sizes, and variation was not affected by the number of preceding meioses, or by spore maturation time. We used time-lapse photography to show that wild strains also have high variation in spore germination timing, providing a likely mechanism for the variation in spore colony sizes. When some spores from a laboratory strain make small colonies, or no colonies, it usually indicates a genetic or meiotic fault. Here, we demonstrate that in wild strains spore colony size variation is normal. We discuss and assess potential adaptive and non-adaptive explanations for this variation

2017 Charlottesville Riots – Media Coverage Paper Media and Terrorism

This paper intended to dissect the similarities and differences of media coverage for a very significant recent event--the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right riots and anti-racism protests. A focal moment within this series of events is the car attack by perpetrator James Alex Fields Jr., a white-supremacist responsible for the death of one woman and countless other injuries. The analysis reflects the coverage of this event through the lens of MSNBC and Fox News, two politically contrasting domestic news sources. An emphasis on media framing, which is loosely how media is manipulated to make the consumer think about a certain topic in one way, helped categorize and describe the differences of these two sources. This discussion of multiple framing variables ultimately showed that these two sources captured a single event in very different ways. These discrepancies illuminate a significant contrast in perspectives of this violent and hateful event

Leitmann's direct method for fractional optimization problems

Based on a method introduced by Leitmann [Internat. J. Non-Linear Mech. {\bf 2} (1967), 55--59], we exhibit exact solutions for some fractional optimization problems of the calculus of variations and optimal control.Comment: Submitted June 16, 2009 and accepted March 15, 2010 for publication in Applied Mathematics and Computation

Fully 3D Monte Carlo image reconstruction in SPECT using functional regions

Image reconstruction in Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) is affected by physical effects such as photon attenuation, Compton scatter and detector response. These effects can be compensated for by modeling the corresponding spread of photons in 3D within the system matrix used for tomographic reconstruction. The fully 3D Monte Carlo (F3DMC) reconstruction technique consists in calculating this system matrix using Monte Carlo simulations. The inverse problem of tomographic reconstruction is then solved using conventional iterative algorithms such as maximum likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM). Although F3DMC has already shown promising results, its use is currently limited by two major issues: huge size of the fully 3D system matrix and long computation time required for calculating a robust and accurate system matrix. To address these two issues, we propose to calculate the F3DMC system matrix using a spatial sampling matching the functional regions to be reconstructed. In this approach, different regions of interest can be reconstructed with different spatial sampling. For instance, a single value is reconstructed for a functional region assumed to contain uniform activity. To assess the value of this approach, Monte Carlo simulations have been performed using GATE. Results suggest that F3DMC reconstruction using functional regions improves quantitative accuracy compared to the F3DMC reconstruction method proposed so far. In addition, it considerably reduces disk space requirement and duration of the simulations needed to estimate the system matrix. The concept of functional regions might therefore make F3DMC reconstruction practically feasible.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 3rd International Conference on maging Technologies in Biomedical Sciences : ITBS2005, Milos Island, Greece, 25-28 september 2005, submitted to NIM

Fractional Noether's theorem in the Riesz-Caputo sense

We prove a Noether's theorem for fractional variational problems with Riesz-Caputo derivatives. Both Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations are obtained. Illustrative examples in the fractional context of the calculus of variations and optimal control are given.Comment: Accepted (25/Jan/2010) for publication in Applied Mathematics and Computatio