Beyond Sonata Deformation: Liszt's Symphonic Poem Tasso and the Concept of Two-Dimensional Sonata Form

The idea that musical form in Liszt's orchestral music is mainly program-driven has loomed large in twentieth-century musicology. It undoubtedly originates with Liszt himself. In his seminal 1855 essay Berlioz und seine Harold-Symphonie- a thinly disguised apology for his own symphonic poems- Liszt defends the formal innovations in contemporaneous orchestral music by invoking its programmatic nature. Over the last few decades, it has become generally accepted that Liszt did not refrain from recycling traditional patterns of formal organization for the expression of these "new ideas", perhaps more than he was aware. For the Lisztian symphonic poem- and maybe for large-scale single-moment instrumental music form the second half of the nineteenth century in general- the increased degree of formal complexity typical of two-dimensional sonata form compensates for the absence of an explicit multi-movement design. It the characteristics of the sonata form, and the complexity they engender, that allowed these works to engage in a dialogue with the tradition of the multi-movement symphony

The Diderot meteorite: The second chassignite

The Diderot meteorite is a dunite discovered in Sahara. The martian origin is unambiguous and Diderot shares strong petrographical similarities with Chassigny

γ-H2AX foci as in vivo effect biomarker in children emphasize the importance to minimize x-ray doses in paediatric CT imaging

Objectives: Investigation of DNA damage induced by CT x-rays in paediatric patients versus patient dose in a multicentre setting. Methods: From 51 paediatric patients (median age, 3.8 years) who underwent an abdomen or chest CT examination in one of the five participating radiology departments, blood samples were taken before and shortly after the examination. DNA damage was estimated by scoring gamma-H2AX foci in peripheral blood T lymphocytes. Patient-specific organ and tissue doses were calculated with a validated Monte Carlo program. Individual lifetime attributable risks (LAR) for cancer incidence and mortality were estimated according to the BEIR VII risk models. Results: Despite the low CT doses, a median increase of 0.13 gamma-H2AX foci/cell was observed. Plotting the induced gamma-H2AX foci versus blood dose indicated a low-dose hypersensitivity, supported also by an in vitro dose-response study. Differences in dose levels between radiology centres were reflected in differences in DNA damage. LAR of cancer mortality for the paediatric chest CT and abdomen CT cohort was 0.08 and 0.13% respectively. Conclusion: CT x-rays induce DNA damage in paediatric patients even at low doses and the level of DNA damage is reduced by application of more effective CT dose reduction techniques and paediatric protocols

Sub Millimeter Analysis of Specificity of SE, GE, and ASE BOLD Responses in the Human Visual Cortex

Sub-millimeter spatial resolution applications are becoming of increasing interest in fMRI. Several animal and human studies have successfully mapped high resolution functional organizations. However, it is not known which fMRI technique (which depends on field strength), maximizes contrast to noise as well as specificity to capillaries for sub-millimeter functional mapping. In this work we examine this problem by comparing functional maps, at 0.5mm in plane resolution, of gradient echo BOLD, spin echo BOLD, and asymmetric echo BOLD in human visual cortex at 7 Tesla

Morphology and Three-Dimensional Inhalation Flow in Human Airways in Healthy and Diseased Subjects

University of Minnesota M.S. thesis.September 2017. Major: Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics. Advisor: Filippo Coletti. 1 computer file (PDF); vi, 53 pages.We investigate experimentally the relation between anatomical structure and respiratory function in healthy and diseased airways. Computed Tomography (CT) scans of human lungs are analyzed from the data base of a large multi-institution clinical study on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Through segmentation, the 3D volumes of the airways are determined at total lung capacity. A geometric analysis provides data on the morphometry of the airways, including the length and diameter of branches, the child-to-parent diameter ratio, and branching angles. While several geometric parameters are confirmed to match past studies for healthy subjects, previously unreported trends are reported on the length of branches. Specifically, in most dichotomous airway bifurcation, the branch of smaller diameter tends to be significantly longer than the one of larger diameter. Additionally, the branch diameter tends to be smaller in diseased airways than in healthy airways up to the 7th generation of bronchial branching. 3D fractal analysis is also performed on the airway volume. Fractal dimensions of 1.89 and 1.83 are found for healthy non-smokers and declining COPD subjects, respectively, furthering the belief that COPD (and lung disease in general) significantly affects the morphometry of the airways already in early stages of the disease. To investigate the inspiratory flow, 3D flow models of the airways are generated using Computer Aided Design (CAD) software and 3D printed. Using Magnetic Resonance Velocimetry (MRV), 3-component 3D flow fields are acquired for steady inhalation at Reynolds number Re ~ 2000 defined at the trachea. Analysis of the flow data reveals that diseased subjects may experience greater secondary flow strength in their conducting airways, especially in deeper generations

Biodiversity analysis of metaproteomics samples with Unipept: a comprehensive tutorial

Metaproteomics has become a crucial omics technology for studying microbiomes. In this area, the Unipept ecosystem, accessible at https://unipept.ugent.be, has emerged as an invaluable resource for analyzing metaproteomic data. It offers in-depth insights into both taxonomic distributions and functional characteristics of complex ecosystems. This tutorial explains essential concepts like Lowest Common Ancestor (LCA) determination and the handling of peptides with missed cleavages. It also provides a detailed, step-by-step guide on using the Unipept Web application and Unipept Desktop for thorough metaproteomics analyses. By integrating theoretical principles with practical methodologies, this tutorial empowers researchers with the essential knowledge and tools needed to fully utilize metaproteomics in their microbiome studies