Loudness, Rhythm and Environment: Analytical Issues in Extreme Metal Music

Extreme metal music, with its consummate loudness and distortion, and intransigent culture of transgressiveness, resists analysis. This dissertation embraces extreme metal’s liveliness and channels it toward a broad cultural and musical analysis, exploring avenues of loudness, rhythm and ecocriticism. The study of extreme metal opens a window on liminal auralities, allowing the listener to encounter the thresholds of listening and the sheer physicality of sound. These aspects of the extreme metal listening experience open up a broader range of issues: the effects of loudness on the body and mind, the convergent mental and physical experiences of rhythmic complexity, and the sounding out of the often troubled relationship between humans and the natural world. Built as a series of case studies grounded in moments of sonic experience, the dissertation unearths issues essential to the analysis of extreme metal music and relevant to sonic practice more generally. The introductory chapter situates extreme metal in its current context, examining both the genre’s increasing institutionalization and the turbulent aspects of its history. Chapter 1 contemplates the embodied experience of extremely loud, low frequencies via an auto-ethnographic reading of a performance by the band Sunn O))). The second case study discusses the rhythmic practices of the band Meshuggah, discovering how unexpected beginnings, rotated riffs, and shifting metrical frameworks animate multiple sites of listening pleasure. Via the divergent work of the bands Botanist and Panopticon, the final chapter studies the range of possibilities for musical environmentalism, demonstrating how extreme metal can engage both apocalyptic and nostalgic modes of ecocriticism

SLIDES: Details of the Regulatory Framework: Air Quality Regulation of Oil and Gas Development

Presenter: Olivia D. Lucas, Esq., Counsel, Faegre Baker Daniels 22 slide

Pituitary-adrenal axis in Prader Willi syndrome

Purpose: Prader Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare genetic condition that has concurrent endocrinological insufficiencies. The presence of growth hormone deficiency has been well documented, but adrenal insufficiency (AI) is not widely reported. A review was conducted to investigate its prevalence and relevance in PWS in both adults and children. Methodology: A literature review was performed with the search terms “Prader-Willi syndrome” and “adrenal insufficiency”. Results: The review found studies disagree on the prevalence and method of investigation of AI in PWS. Case studies demonstrate that patients with PWS are at risk of premature death, often secondary to respiratory infections. The possibility that this may be the result of the inability to mount an effective cortisol response has been studied, with some evidence confirming AI in PWS patients. Most reports agreed AI is present in PWS, however, Farholt et al. showed no HPA axis dysfunction in adults, suggesting that perhaps it is rare in adults, and children should be the focus of further studies. Conclusion: AI is present in some patients with PWS. Further research is required to ensure optimal treatment can be implemented and to prevent premature deaths related to adrenal insufficiency. Clinicians should have a low threshold for testing the adrenal axis and considering treatment for adrenal insufficiency in PWS patients

Disease-induced resource constraints can trigger explosive epidemics

Advances in mathematical epidemiology have led to a better understanding of the risks posed by epidemic spreading and informed strategies to contain disease spread. However, a challenge that has been overlooked is that, as a disease becomes more prevalent, it can limit the availability of the capital needed to effectively treat those who have fallen ill. Here we use a simple mathematical model to gain insight into the dynamics of an epidemic when the recovery of sick individuals depends on the availability of healing resources that are generated by the healthy population. We find that epidemics spiral out of control into "explosive" spread if the cost of recovery is above a critical cost. This can occur even when the disease would die out without the resource constraint. The onset of explosive epidemics is very sudden, exhibiting a discontinuous transition under very general assumptions. We find analytical expressions for the critical cost and the size of the explosive jump in infection levels in terms of the parameters that characterize the spreading process. Our model and results apply beyond epidemics to contagion dynamics that self-induce constraints on recovery, thereby amplifying the spreading process.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure

Loudness, Rhythm and Environment: Analytical Issues in Extreme Metal Music

Extreme metal music, with its consummate loudness and distortion, and intransigent culture of transgressiveness, resists analysis. This dissertation embraces extreme metal’s liveliness and channels it toward a broad cultural and musical analysis, exploring avenues of loudness, rhythm and ecocriticism. The study of extreme metal opens a window on liminal auralities, allowing the listener to encounter the thresholds of listening and the sheer physicality of sound. These aspects of the extreme metal listening experience open up a broader range of issues: the effects of loudness on the body and mind, the convergent mental and physical experiences of rhythmic complexity, and the sounding out of the often troubled relationship between humans and the natural world. Built as a series of case studies grounded in moments of sonic experience, the dissertation unearths issues essential to the analysis of extreme metal music and relevant to sonic practice more generally. The introductory chapter situates extreme metal in its current context, examining both the genre’s increasing institutionalization and the turbulent aspects of its history. Chapter 1 contemplates the embodied experience of extremely loud, low frequencies via an auto-ethnographic reading of a performance by the band Sunn O))). The second case study discusses the rhythmic practices of the band Meshuggah, discovering how unexpected beginnings, rotated riffs, and shifting metrical frameworks animate multiple sites of listening pleasure. Via the divergent work of the bands Botanist and Panopticon, the final chapter studies the range of possibilities for musical environmentalism, demonstrating how extreme metal can engage both apocalyptic and nostalgic modes of ecocriticism. Extreme metal challenges music theory to grapple with what is lost in the act of analysis and to find better ways of tackling the liveliness of musical experience – an issue by no means exclusive to extreme metal. The demands of approaching such an insistently loud, distorted musical practice press the theorist to develop language that expands analytical practice toward greater inclusion of embodied experiences, and to detect how multiple sites of listening pleasure converge and intertwine.Musi

Study of rice husk continuous torrefaction as a pretreatment for fast pyrolysis

Rice husk (RH) is one of the most available biomasses in southern Brazil. One possible solution is to carry out the fast pyrolysis of RH. To improve the quality of liquid products biomass can be torrefied before being pyrolyzed. The influence of torrefaction on the physical and chemical properties of pyrolysis products was explored. Both torrefaction and pyrolysis reactions were performed in a fluidized bed reactor in a continuous mode. Sample with torrefaction and pyrolysis at 500 ◦C presented the highest biochar yield (44.2 wt.%). The torrefaction step produced a lower yield of bio-oil. In contrast, the highest bio-oil yield (43.6 wt.%) was achieved in the sample without torrefaction at 500 ◦C. The increase in temperature to 750 ◦C provided a specific area of 16.7 m2 /kg for biochar. The highest value of HHV for bio-oil, 28 MJ/kg, was obtained via direct pyrolysis at 750 ◦C, which also led to the lowest water content of 5.9 wt%. According to the NMR analysis, the torrefaction liquid (TL) presented a high quantity of water and alcohols in its composition (92.5 %)

Study of Protein Adsorption During Sterile Filtration of Protein Formulations by ILC

Protein adsorption is usually regarded as the main reason for filter fouling in sterile filtration of protein formulations. To achieve a better insight into this phenomenon, protein adsorption was studied during filtration of stabilized bovine serum albumin (BSA) and γ‐globulin formulations through 0.2-µm microfilter membranes by inverse liquid chromatography (ILC). Adsorption processes can be studied with this method by measurement of breakthrough curves. The change of the concentration in the fluid phase is measured with high accuracy by an inline UV-detector. © 2020 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinhei

Tuning and disrupting the brain—modulating the McGurk illusion with electrical stimulation

In the so-called McGurk illusion, when the synchronized presentation of the visual stimulus /ga/ is paired with the auditory stimulus /ba/, people in general hear it as /da/. Multisensory integration processing underlying this illusion seems to occur within the Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS). Herein, we present evidence demonstrating that bilateral cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of this area can decrease the McGurk illusion-type responses. Additionally, we show that the manipulation of this audio-visual integrated output occurs irrespective of the number of eye-fixations on the mouth of the speaker. Bilateral anodal tDCS of the Parietal Cortex also modulates the illusion, but in the opposite manner, inducing more illusion-type responses. This is the first demonstration of using non-invasive brain stimulation to modulate multisensory speech perception in an illusory context (i.e., both increasing and decreasing illusion-type responses to a verbal audio-visual integration task). These findings provide clear evidence that both the superior temporal and parietal areas contribute to multisensory integration processing related to speech perception. Specifically, STS seems fundamental for the temporal synchronization and integration of auditory and visual inputs. For its part, posterior parietal cortex (PPC) may adjust the arrival of incoming audio and visual information to STS thereby enhancing their interaction in this latter area