Portfolio of compositions (and accompanying commentary)

The first half of this commentary/thesis will explore changing perceptions of the musical work and the creative process. Ultimately, it will seek to identify and expose the myth of what we might call the ‘tyrannical composer’. That is to say, a suspicion of what is implied hierarchically by the figure of the composer and the consequences this has on critical thought, scholarship, performance and the public perception of music, new and old. By drawing upon recent research in, among other things, semiotics and mediation theory, I seek to reimagine the traditional composer-performer-audience relationship as something far more democratic and linear than is often given credit. Discussions typically reserved for overtly challenging and ‘experimental’ genres of music can here be reframed and proposed as a defence of related but contrasting styles of acoustic avant-garde composition. The above argument will be supported in the second chapter by a selection of case studies drawing upon my own portfolio of compositions. Analysis of some of these works will ask questions about composer authority and agency and draw upon my practical experience as composer of the works in question. The composer will ultimately be understood not as a dictator-like figure and privileged arbiter of the ‘musical work’, but as a democratically motivated creative agent, dialectically and collaboratively involved in the mediation and reception of the performed work

Portfolio of compositions (and accompanying commentary)

The first half of this commentary/thesis will explore changing perceptions of the musical work and the creative process. Ultimately, it will seek to identify and expose the myth of what we might call the ‘tyrannical composer’. That is to say, a suspicion of what is implied hierarchically by the figure of the composer and the consequences this has on critical thought, scholarship, performance and the public perception of music, new and old. By drawing upon recent research in, among other things, semiotics and mediation theory, I seek to reimagine the traditional composer-performer-audience relationship as something far more democratic and linear than is often given credit. Discussions typically reserved for overtly challenging and ‘experimental’ genres of music can here be reframed and proposed as a defence of related but contrasting styles of acoustic avant-garde composition. The above argument will be supported in the second chapter by a selection of case studies drawing upon my own portfolio of compositions. Analysis of some of these works will ask questions about composer authority and agency and draw upon my practical experience as composer of the works in question. The composer will ultimately be understood not as a dictator-like figure and privileged arbiter of the ‘musical work’, but as a democratically motivated creative agent, dialectically and collaboratively involved in the mediation and reception of the performed work

Associating Emergency Medical Services personnel's workload, trauma exposure, and health with the cortisol, endocannabinoid, and N-acylethanolamine concentrations in their hair

In their line of duty, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel are exposed to chronically stressful working conditions and recurrent traumatic events, which increase their risk for detrimental health outcomes. Here, we investigated whether this risk is due to altered regulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the endocannabinoid system. Therefore, 1 cm hair strands were collected from a cohort of 72 German EMS personnel in order to measure concentrations of cortisol, endocannabinoids [i.e., anandamide (AEA), 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG)], and N-acylethanolamines [i.e., stearoylethanolamide (SEA), oleoylethanolamide (OEA), and palmitoylethanolamide (PEA)]. Rank correlation analyses were conducted to test associations of cortisol, endocannabinoid, and N-acylethanolamine concentrations with the EMS personnel's workload, lifetime trauma exposure, and mental and physical health problems. We found a negative correlation between cortisol and 2-AG concentrations in hair. Higher hair cortisol was associated with higher workload. Reported traumatic stress during childhood and later in life as well as more severe depressive and physical stress symptoms were associated with elevated 2-AG, SEA, OEA, and PEA concentrations. Future longitudinal research needs to address the prospect of tracing biomolecular markers of glucocorticoid, endocannabinoid, and N-acylethanolamine activity as a predicting value of the long-term course of mental and physical well-being

Plasma concentrations of endocannabinoids and related primary Fatty Acid amides in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Endocannabinoids (ECs) and related N-acyl-ethanolamides (NAEs) play important roles in stress response regulation, anxiety and traumatic memories. In view of the evidence that circulating EC levels are elevated under acute mild stressful conditions in humans, we hypothesized that individuals with traumatic stress exposure and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder characterized by the inappropriate persistence and uncontrolled retrieval of traumatic memories, show measurable alterations in plasma EC and NAE concentrations. We determined plasma concentrations of the ECs anandamide (ANA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) and the NAEs palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), oleoylethanolamide (OEA), stearoylethanolamine (SEA), and N-oleoyldopamine (OLDA) by HPLC-MS-MS in patients with PTSD (n = 10), trauma-exposed individuals without evidence of PTSD (n = 9) and in healthy control subjects (n = 29). PTSD was diagnosed according to DSM-IV criteria by administering the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), which also assesses traumatic events. Individuals with PTSD showed significantly higher plasma concentrations of ANA (0.48±0.11 vs. 0.36±0.14 ng/ml, p = 0.01), 2-AG (8.93±3.20 vs. 6.26±2.10 ng/ml, p<0.01), OEA (5.90±2.10 vs. 3.88±1.85 ng/ml, p<0.01), SEA (2.70±3.37 vs. 0.83±0.47, ng/ml, p<0.05) and significantly lower plasma levels of OLDA (0.12±0.05 vs. 0.45±0.59 ng/ml, p<0.05) than healthy controls. Moreover, PTSD patients had higher 2-AG plasma levels (8.93±3.20 vs. 6.01±1.32 ng/ml, p = 0.03) and also higher plasma concentrations of PEA (4.06±1.87 vs. 2.63±1.34 ng/ml, p<0.05) than trauma-exposed individuals without evidence of PTSD. CAPS scores in trauma-exposed individuals with and without PTSD (n = 19) correlated positively with PEA (r = 0.55, p = 0.02) and negatively with OLDA plasma levels (r = -0.68, p<0.01). CAPS subscores for intrusions (r = -0.65, p<0.01), avoidance (r = -0.60, p<0.01) and hyperarousal (r = -0.66, p<0.01) were all negatively related to OLDA plasma concentrations. PTSD appears to be associated with changes in plasma EC/NAE concentrations. This may have pathophysiological and diagnostic consequences but will need to be reproduced in larger cohorts

Cognitive change is more positively associated with an active lifestyle than with training interventions in older adults at risk of dementia: a controlled interventional clinical trial

Background: While observational studies show that an active lifestyle including cognitive, physical, and social activities is associated with a reduced risk of cognitive decline and dementia, experimental evidence from corresponding training interventions is more inconsistent with less pronounced effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare training- and lifestyle-related changes in cognition. This is the first study investigating these associations within the same time period and sample. Methods: Fifty-four older adults at risk of dementia were assigned to 10 weeks of physical training, cognitive training, or a matched wait-list control condition. Lifestyle was operationalized as the variety of self-reported cognitive, physical, and social activities before study participation. Cognitive performance was assessed with an extensive test battery prior to and after the intervention period as well as at a 3-month follow-up. Composite cognition measures were obtained by means of a principal component analysis. Training- and lifestyle-related changes in cognition were analyzed using linear mixed effects models. The strength of their association was compared with paired t-tests. Results: Neither training intervention improved global cognition in comparison to the control group (p = .08). In contrast, self-reported lifestyle was positively associated with benefits in global cognition (p < .001) and specifically in memory (p < .001). Moreover, the association of an active lifestyle with cognitive change was significantly stronger than the benefits of the training interventions with respect to global cognition (ps < .001) and memory (ps < .001). Conclusions: The associations of an active lifestyle with cognitive change over time in a dementia risk group were stronger than the effects of short-term, specific training interventions. An active lifestyle may differ from training interventions in dosage and variety of activities as well as intrinsic motivation and enjoyment. These factors might be crucial for designing novel interventions, which are more efficient than currently available training interventions

Serum profile changes in postpartum women with a history of childhood maltreatment: a combined metabolite and lipid fingerprinting study

Koenig AM, Karabatsiakis A, Stoll T, et al. Serum profile changes in postpartum women with a history of childhood maltreatment: a combined metabolite and lipid fingerprinting study. Scientific Reports. 2018;8(1): 3468

Emotion Regulation in Rescue Workers: Differential Relationship With Perceived Work-Related Stress and Stress-Related Symptoms

Rescue workers are exposed to enduring emotional distress, as they are confronted with (potentially) traumatic mission events and chronic work-related stress. Thus, regulating negative emotions seems to be crucial to withstand the work-related strain. This cross-sectional study investigated the influence of six emotion regulation strategies (i.e., rumination, suppression, avoidance, reappraisal, acceptance, and problem solving) on perceived work-related stress and stress-related depressive, post-traumatic, and somatic symptoms in a representative sample of 102 German rescue workers. Multiple regression analyses identified rumination and suppression to be associated with more work-related stress and stress-related symptoms. Acceptance was linked to fewer symptoms and, rather unexpectedly, avoidance was linked to less work-related stress. No effects were observed for reappraisal and problem solving. Our findings confirm the dysfunctional role of rumination and suppression for the mental and physical health of high-risk populations and advance the debate on the context-specific efficacy of emotion regulation strategies

The Association of Childhood Maltreatment With Lipid Peroxidation and DNA Damage in Postpartum Women

Childhood maltreatment (CM) is associated with an increased risk for the development of psychiatric and somatic disorders in later life. A potential link could be oxidative stress, which is defined as the imbalance between the amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the neutralizing capacity of anti-oxidative defense systems. However, the findings linking CM with oxidative stress have been inconsistent so far. In this study, we aimed to further explore this association by investigating biological markers of DNA and lipid damage due to oxidation in a comprehensive approach over two study cohorts of postpartum women (study cohort I and study cohort II). The severity of CM experiences (maltreatment load) was assessed in both studies using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. In study cohort I (N = 30), we investigated whether CM was associated with higher levels of structural DNA damage in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) by two methods that are highly sensitive for detecting nuclear DNA strand breaks (comet assay and γH2AX staining). In study cohort II (N = 117), we then assessed in a larger cohort, that was specifically controlled for potential confounders for oxidative stress measurements, two established serum and plasma biomarkers of oxidative stress, one representing oxidative DNA and RNA damage (8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine and 8-hydroxyguanosine; 8-OH(d)G) and the other representing lipid peroxidation (8-isoprostane). In study cohort I, the analyses revealed no significant main effects of maltreatment load on cellular measures of nuclear DNA damage. The analyses of peripheral oxidative stress biomarkers in study cohort II revealed a significant main effect of maltreatment load on free 8-isoprostane plasma levels, but not on total 8-isprostane plasma levels and 8-OH(d)G serum levels. Taken together, by combining different methods and two study cohorts, we found no indications for higher oxidative DNA damages with higher maltreatment load in postpartum women. Further research is needed to investigate whether this increase in free 8-isoprostane is a marker for oxidative stress or whether it is instead functionally involved in ROS-related signaling pathways that potentially regulate inflammatory processes following a history of CM

Atypical maternal interaction is associated with elevated levels of hair cortisol in children

The quality of maternal caregiving is an important factor in the healthy development of a child. One consequence of prolonged insensitive and atypical maternal interaction behavior (e.g., withdrawing from interactions with the child and role-reversal, i.e., the takeover of the parental role or parts of it by the child) in mother-child-dyads can cause alteration of the child's stress response system. Higher salivary cortisol concentrations were reported in infants and toddlers directly after negative interactions with their parents. However, no study to date has examined the association between atypical maternal interaction behavior and hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) in infants. Here, we studied the association of maternal interaction behavior with HCC of the child. Mother-child dyads (N = 112) participated in the longitudinal study My Childhood—Your Childhood. The AMBIANCE scale and its subscales were used to assess atypical maternal interaction behavior during the Strange Situation Procedure. Chronic stress levels in the child were assessed by HCC of 3 cm hair strands at the age of 12 months. Maternal educational level (operationalized in highest education level) served as a control variable. Robust multiple linear regression analyses revealed that role/boundary confusion was associated with HCC, i.e., the higher atypical interaction behavior of the mother the higher the HCC in the children. By measuring hair cortisol in this study, it is possible to determine the average long-term activity of the child's stress response system.Thus, atypical maternal interaction behavior could be a risk factor for persistent stress in children, contributing to a higher risk for negative health outcomes in later life. The results of this study highlight the importance of early intervention programs that focus on the relationship between mother and child