The Future of University Presses

The future of university presses is an open-ended topic, and I don\u27t pretend to be a crystal ball gazer, so I will focus my remarks more directly on trends and issues that are currently preoccupying my university press colleagues, developments that will have a strong influence on what our future is likely to be

Neuronal remodeling on the evolutionary timescale

Despite its remarkable capacity to undergo change at timescales ranging from a fraction of a second to a lifetime, there are many aspects of the nervous system that can be modified only at the enormously longer evolutionary timescale. A new study in BMC Biology using nematodes illustrates such evolutionary neuronal remodeling

Joint rhythmic tapping elicits distinct emotions depending on tap timing and prior musical training.

Music plays a significant role in human life. It is a form of art and entertainment and a powerful medium for interpersonal interaction. The experience of listening to music is often emotional. Previous research has elucidated many of the mechanisms that effect an emotional response in the listener. In contrast, much less is known about how joint musical engagement impacts emotions. Here we focus on synchronized rhythmic interaction, a fundamental feature of musical engagement. There are theoretical reasons for hypothesizing that synchronized interaction should elicit positive affect among interacting individuals, although empirical studies performed with adults have found little consistent evidence for such an effect. We revisited this question, studying children instead of adults, and used an implicit measure of experienced affect to compare children's responses to synchronized versus asynchronized joint tapping. Unlike previous studies, we distinguished between musically trained and untrained participants, because a background of musical training may be associated with altered emotional sensitivities to rhythmic interaction. We found a striking difference in emotional responses to synchronized versus asynchronized tapping, which strongly depended on musical training background. The untrained children responded to synchrony with more positive affect and less negative affect when compared to asynchrony, in line with theoretical predictions. In contrast, the musically trained children showed low positive affect following both synchrony and asynchrony and more negative affect in response to synchrony rather than asynchrony. These results suggest a possible emotional dissociation between synchronized and asynchronized interpersonal rhythmic interaction that may be influenced by musical training background. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).John Templeton Foundatio

Long-term musical group interaction has a positive influence on empathy in children

Musical group interaction (MGI) is a complex social setting requiring certain cognitive skills that may also elicit shared psychological states. We argue that many MGI-specific features may also be important for emotional empathy, the ability to experience another person’s emotional state. We thus hypothesized that long-term repeated participation in MGI could help enhance a capacity for emotional empathy even outside of the musical context, through a familiarization with and refinement of MGI empathy-promoting musical components (EPMCs). We tested this hypothesis by designing an MGI programme for primary school children consisting of interactive musical games implementing various EPMCs. We ran the programme for an entire school year and compared the emotional empathy of MGI children to control children using existing and novel measures of empathy before and after the programme. Our results support our hypothesis: MGI children showed higher emotional empathy scores after the study compared to its beginning, and higher scores than control children at the end of the study. These findings shed new light on the emotional processes involved in musical interaction and highlight the remarkable potential of MGI for promoting positive social-emotional capacities such as empathy.This research was supported by an Overseas Research Studentship (ORS) award, Cambridge Overseas Trust award, AVI Fellowship and Kenneth Lindsay (Anglo-Israel Association) scholarship awarded to Tal-Chen Rabinowitch

Interactions between vaccinia virus and sensitized macrophages in vitro

The action of peritoneal exudate cells (PEC) from normal and vaccinia virus infected mice on infectious vaccinia virus particles was investigatedin vitro. PEC from immune mice showed a significantly higher infectivity titre reduction (virus clearance, VC) than normal cells. This effect could be clearly attributed to the macrophage. Vaccinia virus multiplied in PEC from normal animals while there was no virus propagation in cells from immunized mice. The release of adsorbed or engulfed virus was reduced significantly in PEC from immunized animals. Anti-vaccinia-antibodies seem to activate normal macrophages to increased virus clearance. This stimulating effect was demonstrable only in the IgG fraction of the antiserum. The activity of macrophages from mice injected three times over a period of 14 days with vaccinia virus could be entirely blocked with anti-mouse-IgG, while PEC from mice injected one time six days previously were not inhibited

Mutarotational Kinetics and Glass Transition of Lactose

We report for the first time real time in situ and quantitative measurements of the mutarotation reaction of lactose in the solid state. The experiments have been performed by 13C NMR. We show that mutarotation is initiated on heating the amorphous state, and reaches chemical equilibrium close above the glass transition temperature Tg. We do not observe this transformation when starting from stable crystalline states. The final ratio of and anomers is 1:1, which suggests that the energy profile of the mutarotation reaction pathway in the solid state is actually different from the mechanism proposed for aqueous solution. This chemical equipartition is reached before the crystallization into the corresponding 1:1 molecular compound. These new data clearly illustrate the interrelation between the chemical molecular properties, the physical state of the material, and the relaxational dynamics of the glass

The varying social dynamics in orally transmitted and notated vs. improvised musical performance

Musical performance can be viewed as an intricate form of social behavior. Accordingly, the rich diversity of existing musical styles and traditions may reflect distinct modes of social interaction. To gain a better understanding of the relations between musical style and social dynamics, we have formulated a framework for dissecting different genres of musical performance according to key social criteria. In particular, we contemplate on the continuum ranging from strictly orally transmitted and notated to fully improvised music, and its relation to general compliance with social norms and structure, borrowing key concepts from tight-loose theory, a powerful paradigm for studying societal behaviors and tendencies. We apply this approach to analyze four distinct prominent musical genres, providing a detailed mapping between musical style and social dynamics. This work highlights important factors that link between musical performance and social interaction, and will enable future experimental unraveling of social aspects of musical performance as expressed by different musical styles and practices