Studying Music is Difficult and Important: Challenges of Music Knowledge Representation

* Music is an art, so many musicians try to use its elements in interesting and original ways, not standardized and ordinary ways. (cf. Collins 2006) * Music is a performing art, so we have both performances and symbolic representations (both scores and transcriptions of performances). * Much music, especially Western, has synchronization requirements of a complexity equalled in no presentation of information for human consumption -- art form or other -- we are aware of. * Music involves many different instruments, often in groups. No other art form we know of has anything like this, and it opens up the possibility of versions of a given work for other ensembles or at other levels of technical demands. * Music is often combined with text. * Music is extremely popular, so, for many works, numerous versions actually exist. For all these reasons, music is uniquely difficult, and uniquely valuable, to deal with -- especially by computer. To support the argument, we give examples in the form of conventional Western music notation that either violate -- in several cases, blatantly -- the supposed rules of music notation, or that bring up difficult issues of music representation (see Byrd 1994 and Byrd 2009). We also give examples in audio form from some unpublished work of ours to point out the astounding range of what is considered music by one culture or another. References Byrd, Donald (1994). Music Notation Software and Intelligence. Computer Music Journal 18(1), pp. 17-20; available (in scanned form) at http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/donbyrd/Papers/MusNotSoftware+Intelligence.pdf . Byrd, Donald (2009). Gallery of Interesting Music Notation. Available at http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/donbyrd/InterestingMusicNotation.html . Collins, Nick (2006, Winter). Composing to Subvert Content Retrieval Engines. ICMA Array, Winter 2006, pp. 37-41

Late childhood interpersonal callousness and conduct problem trajectories interact to predict adult psychopathy

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135659/1/jcpp12598_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135659/2/jcpp12598.pd

Counseling Children and Adolescents: A Call to Action

The ACA 2014 Code of Ethics clearly states the mandate for counselor competence in C.2.a. It is noted that “Counselor practice only within the boundaries of their competence, based on their education, training, supervised experience, state and national credentials, and appropriate professional experience” (p. 8). Given the importance of competencies, ethical standards, and the emphasis on best practice, the paucity of these factors in regard to training and supervision for counselors working with child and adolescent populations is concerning. This article offers a conceptualization of the culture of childhood leading to the need for cultural competency. It outlines information specific to counselors working with a child and adolescent population and is a call to action for the field of counseling

Raising a Small Flock of Sheep in Ohio

PDF pages: 1

The solution structure of the N-terminal domain of hepatocyte growth factor reveals a potential heparin-binding site

AbstractBackground: Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a multipotent growth factor that transduces a wide range of biological signals, including mitogenesis, motogenesis, and morphogenesis. The N-terminal (N) domain of HGF, containing a hairpin-loop region, is important for receptor binding and the potent biological activities of HGF. The N domain is also the primary binding site for heparin or heparan sulfate, which enhances receptor/ligand oligomerization and modulates receptor-dependent mitogenesis. The rational design of artificial modulators of HGF signaling requires a detailed understanding of the structures of HGF and its receptor, as well as the role of heparin proteoglycan; this study represents the first step towards that goal.Results: We report here a high-resolution solution structure of the N domain of HGF. This first structure of HGF reveals a novel folding topology with a distinct pattern of charge distribution and indicates a possible heparin-binding site.Conclusions: The hairpin-loop region of the N domain plays a major role in stabilizing the structure and contributes to a putative heparin-binding site, which explains why it is required for biological functions. These results suggest several basic and/or polar residues that may be important for use in further mutational studies of heparin binding

DANGO (Doings and Goings On) - Vol. 22 | Issue 11

ACU Department of Engineering and Physics Summer Research Newsletterhttps://digitalcommons.acu.edu/dango/1010/thumbnail.jp

Identification and Dynamics of a Heparin-Binding Site in Hepatocyte Growth Factor †

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a heparin-binding, multipotent growth factor that transduces a wide range of biological signals, including mitogenesis, motogenesis, and morphogenesis. Heparin or closely related heparan sulfate has profound effects on HGF signaling. A heparin-binding site in the N-terminal (N) domain of HGF was proposed on the basis of the clustering of surface positive charges [Zhou, H., Mazzulla, M. J., Kaufman, J. D., Stahl, S. J., Wingfield, P. T., Rubin, J. S., Bottaro, D. P., and Byrd, R. A. (1998) Structure 6, 109-116]. In the present study, we confirmed this binding site in a heparin titration experiment monitored by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and we estimated the apparent dissociation constant (K(d)) of the heparin-protein complex by NMR and fluorescence techniques. The primary heparin-binding site is composed of Lys60, Lys62, and Arg73, with additional contributions from the adjacent Arg76, Lys78, and N-terminal basic residues. The K(d) of binding is in the micromolar range. A heparin disaccharide analogue, sucrose octasulfate, binds with similar affinity to the N domain and to a naturally occurring HGF isoform, NK1, at nearly the same region as in heparin binding. (15)N relaxation data indicate structural flexibility on a microsecond-to-millisecond time scale around the primary binding site in the N domain. This flexibility appears to be dramatically reduced by ligand binding. On the basis of the NK1 crystal structure, we propose a model in which heparin binds to the two primary binding sites and the N-terminal regions of the N domains and stabilizes an NK1 dimer

Structural basis for RNA recognition by NusB and NusE in the initiation of transcription antitermination

Processive transcription antitermination requires the assembly of the complete antitermination complex, which is initiated by the formation of the ternary NusB–NusE–BoxA RNA complex. We have elucidated the crystal structure of this complex, demonstrating that the BoxA RNA is composed of 8 nt that are recognized by the NusB–NusE heterodimer. Functional biologic and biophysical data support the structural observations and establish the relative significance of key protein–protein and protein–RNA interactions. Further crystallographic investigation of a NusB–NusE–dsRNA complex reveals a heretofore unobserved dsRNA binding site contiguous with the BoxA binding site. We propose that the observed dsRNA represents BoxB RNA, as both single-stranded BoxA and double-stranded BoxB components are present in the classical lambda antitermination site. Combining these data with known interactions amongst antitermination factors suggests a specific model for the assembly of the complete antitermination complex

Emotional Reactions to Pain Predict Psychological Distress in Adult Patients with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD)

Differentiating somatic from emotional influences on the experience of chronic pain has been of interest to clinicians and researchers for many years. Although prior research has not well specified these pathways at the anatomical level, some evidence, both theoretical and empirical, suggest that emotional reactions influence the experience of disease and non-disease-related pains. Other studies suggest that treatments directed at negative emotional responses reduce suffering associated with pain. The current study was conducted to explore the influence of emotional reactions to pain as a predictor of psychological distress in a sample of adult Blacks with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). Using cross-sectional survey data, we evaluated whether negative emotional reactions to the experience of pain were predictive of psychological distress after controlling for the somatic dimension of pain and age in n = 67 Black patients with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). Results showed that greater negative emotion associated with pain predicted Somatization (p < .01), Anxiety (p < .05), Phobic Anxiety (p < .05), and Psychoticism (p < .05). Increased negative emotion associated with pain was also predictive of the General Symptoms Index (p < .05) and the Positive Symptoms Total from the SCL-90-R (p < .01). We believe the current study demonstrates that negative emotional reactions to the experience of pain in adults with SCD are predictive of psychological distress above and beyond the influences of age and the direct nociceptive experience. We also believe these data to be valuable in conceptualizing the allocation of treatment resources toward a proactive approach with early identification of patients who are responding poorly for the purpose of potentially reducing later psychopathology. A deeper understanding of the ways that subpopulations cope with chronic disease-related pain may produce models that can be ultimately generalized to the consumers of the majority of healthcare resources

Enter Mercury, Sleeping: Delivering Prayers on the Early Modern Stage

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from CUP via the DOI in this recor