The role of metrical structure in tonal knowledge acquisition

Experienced listeners possess a working knowledge of pitch structure in Western music, such as scale, key, harmony, and tonality, which develops gradually throughout childhood. It is commonly assumed that tonal representations are acquired through exposure to the statistics of music, but few studies have investigated potential learning mechanisms directly. In Western tonal music, tonally stable pitches not only have a higher overall frequency of occurrence, but they may occur more frequently at strong than weak metrical positions, providing two potential avenues for tonal learning. Two experiments employed an artificial grammar learning paradigm to examine tonal learning mechanisms. During a familiarization phase, we exposed nonmusician adult listeners to a long (whole tone scale) sequence with certain distributional properties. In a subsequent test phase we examined listeners\u27 learning using grammaticality or probe tone judgments. In the grammaticality task, participants indicated which of two short test sequences conformed to the familiarization sequence. In the probe tone task, participants provided fit ratings for individual probe tones following short reminder sequences. Experiment 1 examined learning from overall frequency of occurrence. Grammaticality judgments were significantly above chance (Exp. 1a), and probe tone ratings were predicted by frequency of occurrence (Exp. 1b). In Experiment 2 we presented a familiarization sequence containing one sub-set of pitches that occurred more frequently on strong than on weak metrical positions and another sub-set that did the opposite. Overall frequency of occurrence was balanced between both sub-sets. Grammaticality judgments were again above chance (Exp. 2a) and probe tone ratings were higher for pitches occurring on strong metrical positions (Exp. 2b). These findings implicate metrical structure in tonal knowledge acquisition

FTC vs. Toysmart

Last summer, Toysmart agreed to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission concerning use of its customer information database. Under the terms of the settlement, the defunct Internet toy retailer was permitted to sell customer information without either providing its former customers notice or giving them an opportunity to block the sale or use of their personal information. This issue ignited a privacy-rights maelstrom, but ended anti-climatically for Toysmart; in January, Buena Vista Internet Group, a Disney subsidiary and 60% majority shareholder of Toysmart, agreed to compensate the company\u27s creditors $50,000 for the privilege of destroying the database. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Carol Kenner approved this plan, subject to the limitation that Toysmart attorneys must retain the list and destroy it (rather than physically transfer it to Buena Vista) when all creditor claims are satisfied

The attitudes of The New Republic toward American entrance into the first and second World wars.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

Climate Change in the Latino Mind

This report focuses on a critical demographic in the United States – Latinos. Currently 17% of the U.S. population (more than 58 million people) and the second-largest racial/ethnic group in the nation, Latinos are a fast-growing demographic projected to reach 24% of the population by 2065, while non-Latino whites will decrease from 62% of the current population to 46% in 2065. A 2017 nationally representative survey of 2,054 English and Spanish-speaking Latinos investigates their current climate change knowledge, risk perceptions, policy support, behaviors, motivations, and barriers to political action

Hemispheric asymmetry in the perception of musical pitch structure

Both the left and right hemispheres contribute to the perception of pitch structure in music. Music researchers have attempted to explain the observed asymmetries in the perception of musical pitch structure by characterizing the dominant processing style of each hemisphere. However, no existing characterizations have been able to account for all of the empirical findings. To better explain existing empirical findings, this dissertation characterizes the left hemisphere as dominant in temporal pitch processing (i.e. with respect to the sequential ordering of pitches) and the right hemisphere as dominant in non-temporal pitch processing (i.e. without respect to the sequential ordering of pitches). Four listening experiments were performed utilizing the monaural listening paradigm to investigate hemispheric differences in the processing of temporal and non-temporal pitch structures. None of the experiments provided strong evidence of right hemisphere dominance for non-temporal pitch processing, but Experiments 2 and 4 found evidence in support of left hemisphere dominance for temporal pitch processing. The results of Experiment 2 suggest that the left hemisphere differentiates the stability of pitches in a set by forming temporal expectations for specific, in-set pitches. The results of Experiment 4 suggest that the left hemisphere is dominant for processing the sequential order of pitches. These studies indicate that the left hemisphere plays a more prominent role in temporal pitch processing than has been previously suggested

Hybridization between previously isolated ancestors may explain the persistence of exactly two ancient lineages in the genome of the oyster parasite Perkinsus marinus

AbstractTheory predicts that neutral genetic variation accumulates within populations to a level determined by gains through mutation and losses by genetic drift. This balance results in a characteristic distribution of allelic variation with the maximum allelic difference determined by effective population size. Here, we report a striking departure from these expectations in the form of allelic dimorphism, observed at the majority of seven loci examined in Perkinsus marinus, an important oyster parasite that causes Dermo disease. DNA sequences were collected from five loci flanking microsatellite repeats and two loci coding for superoxide dismutase enzymes that may mediate the parasite’s interaction with its host. Based on 474 sequences, sampled across 5000km of the eastern United States coastline, no more than two alleles were observed at each locus (discounting singletons). Depending on the locus, the common allele ranged in overall frequency from 72% to 92%. At each locus the two alleles differed substantially (3.8% sequence difference, on average), and the among-locus variance in divergences was not sufficient to reject a simultaneous origin for all dimorphisms using approximate Bayesian methods. Dimorphic alleles were estimated to have diverged from a common ancestral allele at least 0.9 million years ago. Across these seven loci, only five other alleles were ever observed, always as singletons and differing from the dimorphic alleles by no more than two nucleotides. Free recombination could potentially have shuffled these dimorphisms into as many as 243 multilocus combinations, but the existence of only ten combinations among all samples strongly supports low recombination frequencies and is consistent with the observed absence of intragenic recombination. We consider several demographic and evolutionary hypotheses to explain these patterns. Few can be conclusively rejected with the present data, but we advance a recent hybridization of ancient divergent lineages scenario as the most parsimonious

Ceramic microforming process

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 1998.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-113).A forming process for creating MEMS and mesoscale ceramic parts with micron scale features has been developed. This micromolding process takes advantage of clean room compatible techniques to create silicon etchings, which are used to create a silicone transfer mold. The silicone molds are used to make numerous sacrificial mold into which ceramic slurry is cast. The wax molds are sacrificed leaving green ceramic parts which are fired to produce the final component. The process was found to reproduce features as small as 2 gm with a tolerance of ± 0.8 pm over about a 100 pm length scale. The production of several parts are examined, demonstrating the ability to make stand alone MEMS and mesoscale parts with complex geometries. A non-ceramic application involving precise particle arrangement is also discussed. Observations regarding part quality, defect formation, yield issues, and process enhancement are made, along with a characterization of the dimensional stability of the process. The costs associated with processing silicon molds are also compared to competing processing techniques. This technique has generated excellent results and has potential to become a major forming tool to fill the materials selection gap in MEMS and mesoscale component design.by Matthew E. Rosenthal.S.M

Developing a Recursive Evaluation Plan of a Complex Interprofessional Healthcare Education Initiative

Background: A university interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional practice (IPP) initiative is a complex undertaking: incorporating multiple system levels (administration, faculty, students, patients), integrating many theoretical perspectives, and coordinating a host of individual IPE research projects. Guidance for evaluating such an IPE initiative is lacking.Methods and Findings: We describe five key challenges to evaluating the effectiveness of such an initiative, and the processes and tools we have developed to meet those challenges. We draw from recent developments in evaluation science to theoretically ground our description. Additionally, we share concrete tools we have developed in the process. By tacking between theoretical and concrete aspects of our efforts, we hope to both provide ideas for other IPE initiatives, as well as provide a basis for future research comparing cases (complex university IPE initiatives).Conclusions: While all complex IPE university initiatives are unique, we suspect that they share many common evaluation challenges. By framing these common practical challenges as common theoretical challenges, we seek to offer a description of our concrete case as well as a basis for future comparison of similar initiatives

National Leadership Index 2009: A National Study of Confidence in Leadership

The National Study of Confidence in Leadership is a social science research program examining the attitudes of the American public toward the nation’s leadership. The study includes the National Leadership Index 2009, a multidimensional measure of the public’s confidence in leadership within different sectors of society.Center for Public Leadershi

National Leadership Index 2007: A National Study of Confidence in Leadership

The National Study of Confidence in Leadership is a social science research program examining the attitudes of the American public toward the nation’s leadership. The study includes the National Leadership Index 2007, a multidimensional measure of the public’s confidence in leadership within different sectors of society.US News & World Report, Center for Public Leadershi