Singing Actors and Dancing Singers

This article looks at two recent and widely recognized productions of Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (by choreographer Sasha Waltz, Berlin 2005, and theatre director Sebastian Nübling, Basel 2006) and discusses three main aspects: 1. Genre: coming from a Tanztheater (Waltz) and a Sprechtheater (Nübling) background, each director renegotiates conventions of the operatic genre and consciously evades expectations in pursuit of a new and challenging experience for both the performers and their audience. 2. Physicality: both productions place the performers' bodies at the forefront of the mise-en-scne they remap the singing, dancing, acting body by questioning conventions and expectations commonly found in the production and reception process. 3. Adaptation: both productions take unconventional liberties by adapting in a domain where notions of Werktreue (fidelity to the original work or score) still reign. Adopting ideas from Nicholas Cook and Mikhail Bakhtin, I will argue that the conceptual, musical and theatrical implications of both productions indicate a renegotiation of the social and performative relevance of operatic performance

Links between white matter microstructure and cortisol reactivity to stress in early childhood: evidence for moderation by parenting.

Activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (measured via cortisol reactivity) may be a biological marker of risk for depression and anxiety, possibly even early in development. However, the structural neural correlates of early cortisol reactivity are not well known, although these would potentially inform broader models of mechanisms of risk, especially if the early environment further shapes these relationships. Therefore, we examined links between white matter architecture and young girls\u27 cortisol reactivity and whether early caregiving moderated these links. We recruited 45 6-year-old girls based on whether they had previously shown high or low cortisol reactivity to a stress task at age 3. White matter integrity was assessed by calculating fractional anisotropy (FA) of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans. Parenting styles were measured via a standardized parent-child interaction task. Significant associations were found between FA in white matter regions adjacent to the left thalamus, the right anterior cingulate cortex, and the right superior frontal gyrus (all ps \u3c .001). Further, positive early caregiving moderated the effect of high cortisol reactivity on white matter FA (all ps ≤ .05), with high stress reactive girls who received greater parent positive affect showing white matter structure more similar to that of low stress reactive girls. Results show associations between white matter integrity of various limbic regions of the brain and early cortisol reactivity to stress and provide preliminary support for the notion that parenting may moderate associations

Parental depression and child cognitive vulnerability predict children\u27s cortisol reactivity

Risk for depression is expressed across multiple levels of analysis. For example, parental depression and cognitive vulnerability are known markers of depression risk, but no study has examined their interactive effects on children\u27s cortisol reactivity, a likely mediator of early depression risk. We examined relations across these different levels of vulnerability using cross-sectional and longitudinal methods in two community samples of children. Children were assessed for cognitive vulnerability using self-reports (Study 1; n = 244) and tasks tapping memory and attentional bias (Study 2; n = 205), and their parents were assessed for depression history using structured clinical interviews. In both samples, children participated in standardized stress tasks and cortisol reactivity was assessed. Cross-sectionally and longitudinally, parental depression history and child cognitive vulnerability interacted to predict children\u27s cortisol reactivity; associations between parent depression and elevated child cortisol activity were found when children also showed elevated depressotypic attributions as well as attentional and memory biases. Findings indicate that models of children\u27s emerging depression risk may benefit from the examination of the interactive effects of multiple sources of vulnerability across levels of analysis

Prognostic model to predict postoperative acute kidney injury in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery based on a national prospective observational cohort study.

Background: Acute illness, existing co-morbidities and surgical stress response can all contribute to postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery. The aim of this study was prospectively to develop a pragmatic prognostic model to stratify patients according to risk of developing AKI after major gastrointestinal surgery. Methods: This prospective multicentre cohort study included consecutive adults undergoing elective or emergency gastrointestinal resection, liver resection or stoma reversal in 2-week blocks over a continuous 3-month period. The primary outcome was the rate of AKI within 7 days of surgery. Bootstrap stability was used to select clinically plausible risk factors into the model. Internal model validation was carried out by bootstrap validation. Results: A total of 4544 patients were included across 173 centres in the UK and Ireland. The overall rate of AKI was 14·2 per cent (646 of 4544) and the 30-day mortality rate was 1·8 per cent (84 of 4544). Stage 1 AKI was significantly associated with 30-day mortality (unadjusted odds ratio 7·61, 95 per cent c.i. 4·49 to 12·90; P < 0·001), with increasing odds of death with each AKI stage. Six variables were selected for inclusion in the prognostic model: age, sex, ASA grade, preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate, planned open surgery and preoperative use of either an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker. Internal validation demonstrated good model discrimination (c-statistic 0·65). Discussion: Following major gastrointestinal surgery, AKI occurred in one in seven patients. This preoperative prognostic model identified patients at high risk of postoperative AKI. Validation in an independent data set is required to ensure generalizability

Stable or improved neurological manifestations during miglustat therapy in patients from the international disease registry for Niemann-Pick disease type C: an observational cohort study

Background: Niemann-Pick disease type C (NP-C) is a rare neurovisceral disease characterised by progressive neurological degeneration, where the rate of neurological disease progression varies depending on age at neurological onset. We report longitudinal data on functional disease progression and safety observations in patients in the international NPC Registry who received continuous treatment with miglustat. Methods: The NPC Registry is a prospective observational cohort of NP-C patients. Enrolled patients who received ≥1 year of continuous miglustat therapy (for ≥90 % of the observation period, with no single treatment interruption >28 days) were included in this analysis. Disability was measured using a scale rating the four domains, ambulation, manipulation, language and swallowing from 0 (normal) to 1 (worst). Neurological disease progression was analysed in all patients based on: 1) annual progression rates between enrolment and last follow up, and; 2) categorical analysis with patients categorised as 'improved/stable' if ≥3/4 domain scores were lower/unchanged, and as 'progressed' if <3 scores were lower/unchanged between enrolment and last follow-up visit. Results: In total, 283 patients were enrolled from 28 centers in 13 European countries, Canada and Australia between September 2009 and October 2013; 92 patients received continuous miglustat therapy. The mean (SD) miglustat exposure during the observation period (enrolment to last follow-up) was 2.0 (0.7) years. Among 84 evaluable patients, 9 (11 %) had early-infantile (<2 years), 27 (32 %) had late-infantile (2 to <6 years), 30 (36 %) had juvenile (6 to <15 years) and 18 (21 %) had adolescent/adult (≥15 years) onset of neurological manifestations. The mean (95%CI) composite disability score among all patients was 0.37 (0.32,0.42) at enrolment and 0.44 (0.38,0.50) at last follow-up visit, and the mean annual progression rate was 0.038 (0.018,0.059). Progression of composite disability scores appeared highest among patients with neurological onset during infancy or childhood and lowest in those with adolescent/adult-onset. Overall, 59/86 evaluable patients (69 %) were categorized as improved/stable and the proportion of improved/stable patients increased with age at neurological onset. Safety findings were consistent with previous data. Conclusions: Disability status was improved/stable in the majority of patients who received continuous miglustat therapy for an average period of 2 years

Singing Actors and Dancing Singers. Oscillations of genre, physical and vocal codes in two contemporary adaptations of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas

This article looks at two recent and widely recognized productions of Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (by choreographer Sasha Waltz, Berlin 2005, and theatre director Sebastian Nübling, Basel 2006) and discusses three main aspects: 1. Genre: coming from a Tanztheater (Waltz) and a Sprechtheater (Nübling) background, each director renegotiates conventions of the operatic genre and consciously evades expectations in pursuit of a new and challenging experience for both the performers and their audience. 2. Physicality: both productions place the performers' bodies at the forefront of the mise-en-scne they remap the singing, dancing, acting body by questioning conventions and expectations commonly found in the production and reception process. 3. Adaptation: both productions take unconventional liberties by adapting in a domain where notions of Werktreue (fidelity to the original work or score) still reign. Adopting ideas from Nicholas Cook and Mikhail Bakhtin, I will argue that the conceptual, musical and theatrical implications of both productions indicate a renegotiation of the social and performative relevance of operatic performance

Green Munia Estrilda formosa At Delhi India and Other Interesting Records for 1978

Volume: 77Start Page: 144End Page: 14