Singing Without Text

A close look at texting practices in several 15th-c. MSS supports recent scholarship concerning the performance practice of textless lines in polyphonic music. I-Fn, MSS Banco Rari 230 and 337 supply partial text for lower voices in a manner that suggests that textless vocalization of much or all of the lower parts was a common practice in Northern Italy. Similar texting practices in E-E, MS V.III.24 and GB-Ob, MS Canonici misc.213 indicate a similar practice in Venice and Burgundy

How one Learned to Ornament in Late Sixteenth-Century Italy

Several of the sixteenth-century ornamentation manuals state that they are self-sufficient tutors; that instrumentalists and vocalists could learn the skill without further assistance from a teacher. While this may have been possible for one type of ornamentation, it did not hold true for the newer, dramatic, Neapolitan style of ornamentation that was heavily based on rhetorical models, and which needed careful guidance from an experienced teacher (Author)

Performance Practice before 1600. Edited By Howard M. Brown and Stanley Sadie

McGee discusses and reviews Brown and Sadie\u27s 1989 book

Ornamental Neumes and Early Notation

RILM abstract: A comparison of the ornamental neumes in the earliest notation with theoretical statements about their execution shows a close relationship between the shape of the neumes and the intended sound. This suggests that one of the primary purposes of the earliest notation was to transmit information about the performance of vocal gestures and nuances that were unfamiliar to the northern Europeans

Low-Mach-number turbulence in interstellar gas revealed by radio polarization gradients

The interstellar medium of the Milky Way is multi-phase, magnetized and turbulent. Turbulence in the interstellar medium produces a global cascade of random gas motions, spanning scales ranging from 100 parsecs to 1000 kilometres. Fundamental parameters of interstellar turbulence such as the sonic Mach number (the speed of sound) have been difficult to determine because observations have lacked the sensitivity and resolution to directly image the small-scale structure associated with turbulent motion. Observations of linear polarization and Faraday rotation in radio emission from the Milky Way have identified unusual polarized structures that often have no counterparts in the total radiation intensity or at other wavelengths, and whose physical significance has been unclear. Here we report that the gradient of the Stokes vector (Q,U), where Q and U are parameters describing the polarization state of radiation, provides an image of magnetized turbulence in diffuse ionized gas, manifested as a complex filamentary web of discontinuities in gas density and magnetic field. Through comparison with simulations, we demonstrate that turbulence in the warm ionized medium has a relatively low sonic Mach number, M_s <~ 2. The development of statistical tools for the analysis of polarization gradients will allow accurate determinations of the Mach number, Reynolds number and magnetic field strength in interstellar turbulence over a wide range of conditions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, published in Nature on 13 Oct 201

Smells like school spirit: The organizational factors affecting targeted student and teacher outcomes

Teacher burnout and stress have been studied at length in the education literature, but industrial-organizational psychologists may have a fresh perspective to offer in regard to understanding and solving the problems that negatively impact the public education system. This study aims to identify the root causes underlying the constructs of stress and burnout through the examination of working conditions that impact teacher absenteeism, turnover, and health outcomes. Additionally, this study will analyze the various predictors of student outcomes, including yearly test scores, absenteeism, and disciplinary referral rates. We will begin by conducting focus groups of teachers from laboratory schools and comparable public schools to gather qualitative data to inform our hypotheses. In the next phase, we will create a tailored survey that thoroughly assesses the working conditions that we hypothesize to be connected to our outcome variables. This survey will be dispersed to teachers state-wide, and from the results, we hope to create a comprehensive model that connects various environmental conditions to student and teacher outcomes and propose interventions

Analysis of ancestry heterozygosity suggests that hybrid incompatibilities in threespine stickleback are environment dependent

Hybrid incompatibilities occur when interactions between opposite ancestry alleles at different loci reduce the fitness of hybrids. Most work on incompatibilities has focused on those that are “intrinsic,” meaning they affect viability and sterility in the laboratory. Theory predicts that ecological selection can also underlie hybrid incompatibilities, but tests of this hypothesis using sequence data are scarce. In this article, we compiled genetic data for F(2) hybrid crosses between divergent populations of threespine stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus L.) that were born and raised in either the field (seminatural experimental ponds) or the laboratory (aquaria). Because selection against incompatibilities results in elevated ancestry heterozygosity, we tested the prediction that ancestry heterozygosity will be higher in pond-raised fish compared to those raised in aquaria. We found that ancestry heterozygosity was elevated by approximately 3% in crosses raised in ponds compared to those raised in aquaria. Additional analyses support a phenotypic basis for incompatibility and suggest that environment-specific single-locus heterozygote advantage is not the cause of selection on ancestry heterozygosity. Our study provides evidence that, in stickleback, a coarse—albeit indirect—signal of environment-dependent hybrid incompatibility is reliably detectable and suggests that extrinsic incompatibilities can evolve before intrinsic incompatibilities

Walk on the Low Side: LOFAR explores the low-frequency radio emission of GASP jellyfish galaxies

Jellyfish galaxies, characterized by long filaments of stripped interstellar medium extending from their disks, are the prime laboratories to study the outcomes of ram pressure stripping. At radio wavelengths, they often show unilateral emission extending beyond the stellar disk, and an excess of radio luminosity with respect to that expected from their current star formation rate. We present new 144 MHz images provided by the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey for a sample of six galaxies from the GASP survey. These galaxies are characterized by a high global luminosity at 144 MHz ($6-27\times10^{22}$ W Hz$^{-1}$), in excess compared to their ongoing star formation rate. The comparison of radio and H$\alpha$ images smoothed with a Gaussian beam corresponding to $\sim$10 kpc reveals a sub-linear spatial correlation between the two emissions with an average slope $k=0.50$. In their stellar disk we measure $k=0.77$, which is close to the radio-to-star formation linear relation. We speculate that, as a consequence of the ram pressure, in these jellyfish galaxies the cosmic rays transport is more efficient than in normal galaxies. Radio tails typically have higher radio-to-H$\alpha$ ratios than the disks, thus we suggest that the radio emission is boosted by the electrons stripped from the disks. In all galaxies, the star formation rate has decreased by a factor $\leq10$ within the last $\sim10^8$ yr. The observed radio emission is consistent with the past star formation, so we propose that this recent decline may be the cause of their radio luminosity-to-star formation rate excess.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication on ApJ on 24/08/202

A cluster-randomised controlled trial to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a childhood obesity prevention programme delivered through schools, targeting 6-7 year old children: the WAVES study protocol.

BACKGROUND: There is some evidence that school-based interventions are effective in preventing childhood obesity. However, longer term outcomes, equity of effects and cost-effectiveness of interventions have not been assessed. The aim of this trial is to assess the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a multi-component intervention programme targeting the school and family environment through primary schools, in preventing obesity in 6-7 year old children, compared to usual practice. METHODS: This cluster randomised controlled trial is set in 54 primary schools within the West Midlands, UK, including a multi-ethnic, socioeconomically diverse population of children aged 6-7 years. The 12-month intervention consists of healthy diet and physical activity promotion. These include: activities to increase time spent doing physical activity within the school day, participation in the 'Villa Vitality' programme (a programme that is delivered by an iconic sporting institution (Aston Villa Football Club), which provides interactive learning opportunities for physical activity and healthy eating), healthy cooking skills workshops in school time for parents and children, and provision of information to families signposting local leisure opportunities. The primary (clinical) outcome is the difference in body mass index (BMI) z-scores between arms at 3 and 18 months post-intervention completion. Cost per Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) will also be assessed. The sample size estimate (1000 children split across 50 schools at follow-up) is based on 90% power to detect differences in BMI z-score of 0.25 (estimated ICC ≤ 0.04), assuming a correlation between baseline and follow-up BMI z-score of 0.9. Treatment effects will be examined using mixed model ANCOVA. Primary analysis will adjust for baseline BMI z-score, and secondary analysis will adjust for pre-specified baseline school and child level covariates. DISCUSSION: The West Midlands ActiVe lifestyle and healthy Eating in School children (WAVES) study is the first trial that will examine the cost-effectiveness and long term outcomes of a childhood obesity prevention programme in a multi-ethnic population, with a sufficient sample size to detect clinically important differences in adiposity. The intervention was developed using the Medical Research Council framework for complex interventions, and outcomes are measured objectively, together with a comprehensive process evaluation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN97000586 (registered May 2010)

Differences in genotype and virulence among four multidrug-resistant <i>Streptococcus pneumoniae</i> isolates belonging to the PMEN1 clone

We report on the comparative genomics and characterization of the virulence phenotypes of four &lt;i&gt;S. pneumoniae&lt;/i&gt; strains that belong to the multidrug resistant clone PMEN1 (Spain&lt;sup&gt;23F&lt;/sup&gt; ST81). Strains SV35-T23 and SV36-T3 were recovered in 1996 from the nasopharynx of patients at an AIDS hospice in New York. Strain SV36-T3 expressed capsule type 3 which is unusual for this clone and represents the product of an in vivo capsular switch event. A third PMEN1 isolate - PN4595-T23 - was recovered in 1996 from the nasopharynx of a child attending day care in Portugal, and a fourth strain - ATCC700669 - was originally isolated from a patient with pneumococcal disease in Spain in 1984. We compared the genomes among four PMEN1 strains and 47 previously sequenced pneumococcal isolates for gene possession differences and allelic variations within core genes. In contrast to the 47 strains - representing a variety of clonal types - the four PMEN1 strains grouped closely together, demonstrating high genomic conservation within this lineage relative to the rest of the species. In the four PMEN1 strains allelic and gene possession differences were clustered into 18 genomic regions including the capsule, the blp bacteriocins, erythromycin resistance, the MM1-2008 prophage and multiple cell wall anchored proteins. In spite of their genomic similarity, the high resolution chinchilla model was able to detect variations in virulence properties of the PMEN1 strains highlighting how small genic or allelic variation can lead to significant changes in pathogenicity and making this set of strains ideal for the identification of novel virulence determinant