Creating a rubato layer cake: performing and producing overdubs with expressive timing on a classical recording for 'solo' piano

This paper reports on some of the outcomes from a larger UK Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project on Classical Music ‘Hyper-Production’ And Practice As Research – a project that sought to create radical reinterpretations of the classical repertoire through record production. In this example, the two authors of this paper, Emilie Capulet and Simon Zagorski-Thomas, were acting as pianist and producer respectively with a third researcher, Andrew Bourbon, working as engineer. The world of classical music has, in the vast majority of cases, sought to emulate the sound of the concert hall on recordings. In this case study from our project, a pianist and a record producer (both also academics) sought to explore the creative possibilities of transferring techniques from popular music to the production of classical recordings. Through the use of Actor Network Theory (Latour 2005; Law 2007; Callon 1986) as a method of analysis and Practice As Research (see for example Borgdorff 2006) as a mode of experimentation, we examined how both performer and producer explored the conceptualisation and practice of creating recorded music. The pre-production and recording sessions were either filmed or recorded and excerpts from these were used to examine the development of various performance techniques through this process of experimentation and discussion. For example, on pieces involving rubato, we explored a variety of techniques for synchronising multiple overdubbed performances where individual lines or parts from a piece for solo piano were staged or processed differently to others. This involved experiments working ‘by ear’, working with a guide track and with click tracks constructed in a variety of ways, and ‘by sight’, working with a video of the guide performer’s hands. The article begins with a description of the theoretical background to the study, examining the creative possibilities of this approach, discusses the ramifications that this has for performers, discusses the practical problems and then draws some conclusions and suggests some possible future work

Oestrogen, an evolutionary conserved regulator of T cell differentiation and immune tolerance in jawed vertebrates?

In teleosts, as in mammals, the immune system is tightly regulated by sexual steroid hormones, such as oestrogens. We investigated the effects of 17β-oestradiol on the expression of several genes related to T cell development and resulting T cell subpopulations in sea bass, Dicentrarchus labrax, for a primary lymphoid organ, the thymus, and two secondary lymphoid organs, the head-kidney and the spleen. In parallel, the oxidative burst capacity was assessed in leucocytes of the secondary lymphoid organs. Apoptosis- and proliferation-related genes, indicative of B and T cell clonal selection and lymphoid progenitor activity, were not affected by elevated oestrogen-levels. Sex-related oestrogen-responsiveness in T cell and antigen-presenting cell markers was observed, the expression of which was differentially induced by oestrogen-exposure in the three lymphoid organs. Remarkably, in the spleen, oestrogen increased regulatory T cell-related gene expression was associated with a decrease in oxidative burst capacity. To the best of our knowledge, this study indicates for the first time that physiological levels of oestrogen are likely to promote immune tolerance by modulating thymic function (i.e., T cell development and output) and peripheral T cells in teleosts, similar to previously reported oestrogenic effects in mammals.CCMAR/Multi/04326/2013; ANRfinanced project ETaT(ANR-15-CE32-0014); FR CNRS 3730 SCALE scholarshipinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Geopolitics and Renewable Energy: A Study on the Implications of the Energy Transition

This thesis investigates the potential geopolitical implications of the transition to renewable energy for the USA, EU, Russia, and China, addressing the question: "To what extent can the transition to renewable energy be described as a 'game changer' in geopolitics?". Utilizing a document analysis approach, the study reviews relevant theoretical frameworks and literature on the geopolitics of renewable energy, examining themes of winners-losers, direct-indirect influences, and conflict-peace. In addition, the thesis offers an analysis of Scholten et al. (2020) work on the six clusters of implications related to the geopolitics of renewables. The conclusion reveals that in the long-term, the transition to renewable energy may be considered a "game-changer" in geopolitics, particularly in energy geopolitics. The USA and the EU are likely to emerge as winners, while Russia may become a loser due to its heavy reliance on fossil fuel exports. China, with its commitment to renewables and clean technology manufacturing, may also emerge as a winner. The transition is poised to reshape global power structures, creating new sources of conflict and challenges. However, the continued dependence on fossil fuels in the short to medium term tempers the immediate impact of renewable energy on global geopolitical dynamics

Simulated annealing: a review and a new scheme

International audienceFinding the global minimum of a nonconvex optimization problem is a notoriously hard task appearing in numerous applications, from signal processing to machine learning. Simulated annealing (SA) is a family of stochastic optimization methods where an artificial temperature controls the exploration of the search space while preserving convergence to the global minima. SA is efficient, easy to implement, and theoretically sound, but suffers from a slow convergence rate. The purpose of this work is twofold. First, we provide a comprehensive overview on SA and its accelerated variants. Second, we propose a novel SA scheme called curious simulated annealing, combining the assets of two recent acceleration strategies. Theoretical guarantees of this algorithm are provided. Its performance with respect to existing methods is illustrated on practical examples

The dynamics of gene expression changes in a mouse model of oral tumorigenesis may help refine prevention and treatment strategies in patients with oral cancer.

A better understanding of the dynamics of molecular changes occurring during the early stages of oral tumorigenesis may help refine prevention and treatment strategies. We generated genome-wide expression profiles of microdissected normal mucosa, hyperplasia, dysplasia and tumors derived from the 4-NQO mouse model of oral tumorigenesis. Genes differentially expressed between tumor and normal mucosa defined the "tumor gene set" (TGS), including 4 non-overlapping gene subsets that characterize the dynamics of gene expression changes through different stages of disease progression. The majority of gene expression changes occurred early or progressively. The relevance of these mouse gene sets to human disease was tested in multiple datasets including the TCGA and the Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer project. The TGS was able to discriminate oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) from normal oral mucosa in 3 independent datasets. The OSCC samples enriched in the mouse TGS displayed high frequency of CASP8 mutations, 11q13.3 amplifications and low frequency of PIK3CA mutations. Early changes observed in the 4-NQO model were associated with a trend toward a shorter oral cancer-free survival in patients with oral preneoplasia that was not seen in multivariate analysis. Progressive changes observed in the 4-NQO model were associated with an increased sensitivity to 4 different MEK inhibitors in a panel of 51 squamous cell carcinoma cell lines of the areodigestive tract. In conclusion, the dynamics of molecular changes in the 4-NQO model reveal that MEK inhibition may be relevant to prevention and treatment of a specific molecularly-defined subgroup of OSCC

Fragmentation de grains de sable. Suivi par émission acoustique et bilans de population.

6 pagesDevenue très courante dans le domaine du contrôle non destructif, l'étude des ondes acoustiques est beaucoup moins utilisée pour suivre l'évolution de certains phénomènes. Pourtant elle peut se révéler utile, notamment pour caractériser les phénomènes intervenant lors de la compression des poudres. L'analyse de l'émission acoustique (E.A.) au cours de la compression de plusieurs poudres pharmaceutiques telles que l'aspirine, l'amidon, le saccharose et le kétoprofène a permis de mieux cerner les phénomènes qui se produisent pendant la formation du comprimé [1,2]. Les ondes acoustiques émises par la poudre dépendent des phénomènes se produisant pendant la compression, tels que le réarrangement granulaire, la fragmentation et la déformation plastique des grains. Serris [1,2] a également remarqué que l'intensité de l'émission acoustique est fonction de la poudre. L'émission d'ondes acoustiques peut alors être considérée comme une caractéristique intrinsèque d'une poudre

Adaptive importance sampling for heavy-tailed distributions via α\alpha-divergence minimization

Adaptive importance sampling (AIS) algorithms are widely used to approximate expectations with respect to complicated target probability distributions. When the target has heavy tails, existing AIS algorithms can provide inconsistent estimators or exhibit slow convergence, as they often neglect the target's tail behaviour. To avoid this pitfall, we propose an AIS algorithm that approximates the target by Student-t proposal distributions. We adapt location and scale parameters by matching the escort moments - which are defined even for heavy-tailed distributions - of the target and the proposal. These updates minimize the $\alpha$-divergence between the target and the proposal, thereby connecting with variational inference. We then show that the $\alpha$-divergence can be approximated by a generalized notion of effective sample size and leverage this new perspective to adapt the tail parameter with Bayesian optimization. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach through applications to synthetic targets and a Bayesian Student-t regression task on a real example with clinical trial data

Influence of temperature on the compaction of an organic powder and the mechanical strength of tablets.

International audienceThe purpose of this work consists in following the dependence of physical properties on the temperature during the compaction of an organic component. A special thermo-regulated die has been developed to realize uniaxial compression at different constant temperatures. This study has shown that a temperature change modifies the microstructures and the mechanical behaviour of the tablets. The measurement of the tablet porosity during the compression cycle allows us to conclude that temperature influences mainly the phenomena occurring during the isobaric stage of the compression cycle and not the ones during the pressure increase. On the other hand, during the pressure increase, the acoustical activity of the powder is reduced when temperature increases. The tensile strength of tablets realized at different temperatures was also studied and shows a maximum around 60°C that can be explained by the SEM analysis of the microstructure of the tablets