Wittgenstein on Practice and the Myth of the Giving

This is the text of The Lindley Lecture for 1995, given by Susan Hurley (1954-2007), an American philosopher

Cape Verdean Funana: Voice of the Badius

What is funana? The short answer is that it is a musical genre from the Cape Verde Islands. A more thorough answer to this question could take many forms depending on who you are and what your relationship to the music is. My goal has been to understand, . identify, and describe funana I s essential features from many different angles based on what I have learned about it from Cape Verdeans, books, films, recordings, and from- my own observations. I have arranged this paper into sections that represent three different views of funana. The first focuses on funana in southern New England: I describe an occasion when funana was performed and present some ideas and general information about Cape Verdean music culture in New England and elsewhere. This section was researched through a combination of participant-observation fieldwork in the Cape Verdean night clubs in New Bedford and the Providence area, interviews with the Cape Verdean musician, Norberto Tavares, and through the study of written sources on cape Verde

Batuko and Funana: Musical Traditions of Santiago, Republic of Cape Verde

Batuko and Funana: Musical Traditions of Santiago, Cape Verde Islands is primarily based on an ethnographic survey emphasizing music and culture I conducted with a people of African descent living in Santiago, one of the Cape Verdean islands. This group of people is informally referred to as the Badius. I undertook the field research for the project in Cape Verde in June and July, 1991 and from October 1992 through August 1993. Before, between, and after those trips I did additional field research with people from Santiago living in the extensive Cape Verdean communities of Southern New England. In this research, I focused on the traditional Badiu genres batuko and funana. Batuko is a music and dance genre performed by women\u27s groups in Santiago. One woman (or occasionally a man) leads the ensemble in a song with a calland- response structure. The women accompany themselves by beating duple and triple rhythms on rolled-up cloths held between their mid-thighs. The combined effect of the patterns produces a composite polyrhythm which is characteristic of batuko. As the group sings, one or more individuals dance in the center of the circle

A Faculty and Guest Recital

https://athenacommons.muw.edu/music-facrecitals/1000/thumbnail.jp

The Quit Benefits Model: a Markov model for assessing the health benefits and health care cost savings of quitting smoking

BACKGROUND: In response to the lack of comprehensive information about the health and economic benefits of quitting smoking for Australians, we developed the Quit Benefits Model (QBM). METHODS: The QBM is a Markov model, programmed in TreeAge, that assesses the consequences of quitting in terms of cases avoided of the four most common smoking-associated diseases, deaths avoided, and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and health care costs saved (in Australian dollars, A$). Quitting outcomes can be assessed for males and females in 14 five year age-groups from 15–19 to 80–84 years. Exponential models, based on data from large case-control and cohort studies, were developed to estimate the decline over time after quitting in the risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), stroke, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and death. Australian data for the year 2001 were sourced for disease incidence and mortality and health care costs. Utility of life estimates were sourced from an international registry and a meta analysis. In this paper, outcomes are reported for simulated subjects followed up for ten years after quitting smoking. Life-years, QALYs and costs were estimated with 0$408,000 in health care costs associated with AMI, COPD, lung cancer and stroke, and a corresponding saving of A$328,000 for every 1,000 female quitters. The average saving per 1,000 random quitters is A$373,000. Overall 40 of these quitters will be spared a diagnosis of AMI, COPD, lung cancer and stroke in the first ten years following quitting, with an estimated saving of 47 life-years and 75 QALYs. Sensitivity analyses indicated that QBM predictions were robust to variations of ± 10% in parameter estimates. CONCLUSION: The QBM can answer many of the questions posed by Australian policy-makers and health program funders about the benefits of quitting, and is a useful tool to evaluate tobacco control programs. It can easily be re-programmed with updated information or a set of epidemiologic data from another country

Cape Verdeans in the Atlantic: the formation of Kriolu music and dance styles on ship and in port

Working from the premise that Cape Verde is a member of the Black Atlantic musical family whose styles flowed freely from port to port, this study has delved deeper into the styles and time frames that figured into the mix, verifying that periods of intense transatlantic port activity correspond to the emergence of new genres. Cape Verde’s musical history might be viewed as a sandbar on the beach that is continually reshaped and born a new by waves of musical influences circling between the continents. The ideas of individual Cape Verdeans ultimately created the music, of course, and a comparative approach is not meant to lessen those musicians’ importance, or detract from the beauty and perfection of Cape Verde’s greatest treasure. The footprints of transatlantic connections in Cape Verdean musical styles can be found in its rhythms, instruments, vocabularies, scores, and ship route patterns. People create styles, and musical communication happens on the personal level - through sailors sharing a tune at sea, through encounters in harbor dancehalls, and through ideas brought back home. Generations of seafarers found safe harbor in Cape Verde, carrying music round and round the Atlantic, and this process is still shaping the local forms, although the travel is now by jet, and the exchanges are often over the worldwide web. While some details about musical communities on the high seas may be lost to us, there is still information to be gained about Cape Verdean musical forms through a study of the multi-directional movements of musicians, artifacts, repertoires, and ideas around the Atlantic rim

Cost-effectiveness of ranibizumab for neovascular age-related macular degeneration

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Intravitreal ranibizumab prevents vision loss and improves visual acuity in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration, but it is expensive, and efficacy beyond 2 years is uncertain.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We assessed the cost-effectiveness of ranibizumab compared with no ranibizumab over 10 years, using randomized trial efficacy data for the first 2 years, post-trial efficacy assumptions, and ranibizumab acquisition costs ranging from the wholesale price ($1,950 per dose) to the price of bevazicumab ($50), a similar molecule which may be equally efficacious. We used a computer simulation model to estimate the probability of blindness, the number of quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), direct costs (in 2004 U.S. dollars), and cost-effectiveness ratios for a 67-year old woman. Costs and QALYs were discounted at 3% per year.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The probability of blindness over 10 years was reduced from 56% to 34% if ranibizumab was efficacious for only 2 years, 27% if efficacy was maintained for a further 2 years only (base-case scenario), and 17% if visual acuity at 4 years was then sustained. It was cost-saving under all price assumptions, when caregiver costs were included. When caregiver costs were excluded, the cost per QALY for the base-case ranged from $5,600, assuming the bevazicumab price, to$91,900 assuming the wholesale ranibizumab price. The cost per QALY was < $50,000 when the cost of ranibizumab was less than$1000.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>From a societal perspective, ranibizumab was cost-saving. From a health care funder's perspective, ranibizumab was an efficient treatment when it cost less than $1000 per dose.</p

Cost-effectiveness of smoking cessation to prevent age-related macular degeneration

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Tobacco smoking is a risk factor for age-related macular degeneration, but studies of ex-smokers suggest quitting can reduce the risk.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We fitted a function predicting the decline in risk of macular degeneration after quitting to data from 7 studies involving 1,488 patients. We assessed the cost-effectiveness of smoking cessation in terms of its impact on macular degeneration-related outcomes for 1,000 randomly selected U.S. smokers. We used a computer simulation model to predict the incidence of macular degeneration and blindness, the number of quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and direct costs (in 2004 U.S. dollars) until age 85 years. Cost-effectiveness ratios were based on the cost of the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program. Costs and QALYs were discounted at 3% per year.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>If 1,000 smokers quit, our model predicted 48 fewer cases of macular degeneration, 12 fewer cases of blindness, and a gain of 1,600 QALYs. Macular degeneration-related costs would decrease by $2.5 million if the costs of caregivers for people with vision loss were included, or by$1.1 million if caregiver costs were excluded. At a cost of $1,400 per quitter, smoking cessation was cost-saving when caregiver costs were included, and cost about$200 per QALY gained when caregiver costs were excluded. Sensitivity analyses had a negligible impact. The cost per quitter would have to exceed $77,000 for the cost per QALY for smoking cessation to reach$50,000, a threshold above which interventions are sometimes viewed as not cost-effective.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Smoking cessation is unequivocally cost-effective in terms of its impact on age-related macular degeneration outcomes alone.</p