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‘Past’ masters, present beats: exponential sound staging as sample-based (re)mastering in contemporary hip hop practice
Get PDFPrevious research dealing with sample-based music production has favored notions of musical borrowing in sampling over the sonic rationale of the practice—that is, the appeal of past ‘sonic signatures’ to samplists and the processes involved in incorporating them within contemporary phonographic constructs. This appeal can be attributed not only to recording and mixing approaches, but also to mastering strategies. A more recent phenomenon in hip hop music production involves practitioners creating their own material for subsequent sampling and infusing it with convincing phonographic qualities, to satisfy a sample-based aesthetic that until recently has relied heavily on the past. In this sample-based context, the lesser attention given to the sonic ‘object’ calls for a focused investigation of the variables involved in the fusion of ‘past’ (or previously constructed) and present phonographic processes. This inquiry focuses on the merging of ‘staging’ illusions as a subset of such variables, questioning how full-range masters function as source content in sample-based engineering and production processes. The examination explores how hip hop producers negotiate the dimensions of ‘depth,’ ‘height,’ and ‘width’ imbued into masters when used as sampled sources, and the ways in which beat-makers stage previously-constructed mix architectures into newly-juxtaposed sonic illusions
A predictive model for creep deformation following vertebral compression fractures
Get PDFMany vertebral compression fractures continue to collapse over time, resulting in spinal deformity and chronic back pain. Currently, there is no adequate screening strategy to identify patients at risk of progressive vertebral collapse. This study developed a mathematical model to describe the quantitative relationship between initial bone damage and progressive (“creep”) deformation in human vertebrae. The model uses creep rate before damage, and the degree of vertebral bone damage, to predict creep rate of a fractured vertebra following bone damage. Mechanical testing data were obtained from 27 vertebral trabeculae samples, and 38 motion segments, from 26 human spines. These were analysed to evaluate bone damage intensity, and creep rates before and after damage, in order to estimate the model parameter, p, which represents how bone damage affects the change of creep rate after damage. Results of the model showed that p was 1.38 (R2 = 0.72, p 0.05). Further analyses revealed that p was not significantly influenced by cortical bone damage, endplate damage, disc degeneration, vertebral size, or vertebral areal bone mineral density (aBMD) (P > 0.05). The key determinant of creep deformation following vertebral compression fracture was the degree of trabecular bone damage. The proposed model could be used to identify the measures of bone damage on routine MR images that are associated with creep deformation so that a screening tool can be developed to predict progressive vertebral collapse following compression fracture
Mapping the territory of person-centred care: ordinary language and philosophical methodology
Get PDFFulford’s chapter discusses the conceptual challenges facing person-centred care and the role of philosophy in addressing these challenges. He is right that this role - to investigate underlying meanings and reveal assumptions - need not and should not be restricted to the search for definitions of key terminology. The methods of “ordinary language philosophy” enable us to understand the meanings of terms by systematically examining their use in context, with a view to mapping a term's “logical geography”. He makes effective use of this methodology to show that alternative accounts of what it means to be “person-centred” need not be contradictory and can indeed be fully complementary.
The approach of mapping the usage of the key terms is necessary if we are to understand the discourse, but it is by no means sufficient in gaining a coherent understanding of the meaning and value of PCC - let alone one that could provide the basis for its effective implementation. While it is true that distinct accounts can reveal different and compatible “aspects” of PCC, the language of PCC - like that of “evidence” and “ethics” - is not simply diverse, it is contested. Fulford argues that “genuine” PCC provides a proper balance between the “extremes” of paternalism and consumerism. This language is clearly normative, going beyond what he characterises as the “empirical” exercise of mapping usage. A broader inquiry, based on the distinction between philosophy as a body of theory and as dialogue, and incorporating a direct engagement with normative questions, is necessary if we are to address the challenges Fulford identifies.
The exercise of “mapping logical geography” reminds us that health discourse has no clear borders such that, by following its links to their logical limits, we will find ourselves inevitably in the midst of broader dialogues about the social nature of persons, the nature of value, agency and the basis for our obligations to one another
Person centered healthcare and clinical research: the necessity of an evolutionary hierarchy of knowing and doing
Get PDFEffective person-centred care requires recognition of the personhood not only of patients but of practitioners. This chapter explores the consequences of this recognition for major debates in medical epistemology, regarding clinical reasoning and the relationship between research and practice. For too long these debates have been dominated by false dichotomies - subjectivity versus objectivity, judgement versus evidence, reason versus emotion. Based on flawed understandings of such core concepts as “objectivity” and “engagement”, this distorted dissection of the subject-object relationship has served to depersonalise practice. The costs of this depersonalisation include over-regulation and micromanagement of healthcare processes by administrators and payers at the same time that information from clinical research remains under-utilized and the personhood of patients risks being ignored.
Science is a human practice, founded in a broader conception of human reasoning, ontologically dependent on human beings living and engaging with the world in social, emotional and ethical contexts. After looking at different conceptions of epistemic hierarchies and their uses in the analysis and evaluation of reasoning in a range of practice contexts, we propose a “nested hierarchy” that effectively turns upside-down the flawed evidence hierarchies that have helped to depersonalise care. T.S. Eliot’s “wisdom, knowledge, information” scheme (to which we add “data” below “information”) provides a model for a person-centred epistemic hierarchy. This crucial, person-centred inversion represents levels of awareness that characterise more or less developed thinking and judgement on the part of the particular practitioner
'Pride and Prejudice and Permutations'
No full textWith the exception of Shakespeare, few English writers have a greater claim to canonical status than Jane Austen. Always in print, frequently adapted, taught, studied, and referenced she is widely understood as a 'national treasure' of Britain’s literary heritage, and one of the most prominent features of our cultural landscape. Of her six published novels, Pride and Prejudice (1813) is undoubtedly the best known. Even for those who have not read the original, the essentials of its characters and story are often familiar through film and television adaptations as well as through other texts – Bridget Jones' Diary (1996, adapted 2001) for example – that use the novel as a foundation for their own narratives.
This chapter considers three recent novels that re-work Pride and Prejudice in very different ways. Jo Baker's Longbourn (2013) imagines events as seen from the perspective of the servants, constructing a parallel narrative for those figures who are only briefly glimpsed in Austen's account. Death Comes to Pemberley (2011) by P.D. James (itself adapted for television, 2013) takes the form of a murder mystery 'sequel' that uses more recent genre conventions to cast suspicion on a number of Austen’s characters. Finally, Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009) is a comic mash-up of text from the original with new material in which a plague of zombies afflicts Britain. Underpinning all three, very different, engagements with Pride and Prejudice is the extent to which a reader's working knowledge of the original is a virtual pre-condition for full enjoyment of the new works
The antidote: theorising recovery engaged theatre-making as a process of affective attunement and agonistic activism
No full textReflecting on The Antidote, created with performers in recovery from addiction, this paper theorises theatre-making practice that attends to being as formed through affective and emotive relation with others, including the non-human. It suggests that theatrical activity generates spaces, or liminal milieus, that facilitate new patterns of connection with others and, therefore, supports growth in recovery identity. Adapting Manning’s (Manning, Erin. 2013. Always More than One: Individuation’s Dance. Durham: Duke University Press) discussion of milieu, it examines how bodily attunement during theatre-making with people in recovery generated a recovery-engaged milieu. Acknowledging the antagonistic dimension of relation, it demonstrates how conflict and difference were embraced as a form of agonistic (Mouffe, Chantal. 2013. Agonistics: Thinking the World Politically. London: Verso) activism
A laboratory study to disentangle hydrological, mechanical and structural mechanisms of soil stabilization by plant mucilage between eroding and depositional zones of a slope
Get PDFBiological exudates, such as plant mucilage, can greatly stabilise soils but as the mechanical and hydrological drivers depend much on soil particle size composition, eroding and depositional areas of a slope may respond differently. Soils from an eroded midslope and a depositional footslope in an arable farm were amended with chia (Salvia hispanica) seed mucilage at concentrations of 0 g C kg−1, 0.46 g C kg−1 and 2.3 g C kg−1 mucilage, formed into cores, and then imparted with wetting and drying (WD) cycles. Mucilage increased the stability of these inherently stable soils from 80% to >98% water stable macroaggregates at 0WD cycles regardless of slope position. Aggregate stability was maintained after 5WD cycles by mucilage, whereas the stability of unamended soil dropped by 66.7% in the footslope and 30.1% in the midslope compared with 0 WD. Underlying physical stability properties were measured by tensile strength and penetration resistance for mechanical, water sorptivity and repellency for hydrological, and micro‐, meso‐, macro‐ and total porosity for structural properties. Almost every soil physical property measured changed less with WD cycles if mucilage was present. Compared to unamended soil, 2.3 g C kg−1 mucilage amendment decreased water sorptivity from 0.289 mm s‐1/2 to 0.122 mm s‐1/2 in the midslope and 0.230 mm s‐1/2 to 0.182 mm s‐1/2 in the footslope after 5 WD cycles. Aggregate stability, total porosity and water sorptivity were correlated. In the midslope, hydrology and penetration resistance were affected most, likely driven by mucilage deposition in the macropores of this more coarsely textured soil. In the footslope, the greater impact of mucilage on tensile strength was likely driven by buffering of macroporosity formation by WD cycles in this finer textured soil
Do stereotypes of mental and developmental disorders predict bystander intentions in cyberbullying? An application of the stereotype content model
Get PDFIt was investigated whether different types of mental or developmental disorders (MDD) would be rated differently in terms of stereotypic perceptions and behavioral tendencies and whether these effects of stereotypes on behaviors would be mediated via emotional responses in line with the stereotype content model (SCM). Furthermore, an experimental investigation sought to ascertain whether predictions about behavioral intentions of bystanders in a cyberbullying scenario towards a victim with MDD could be derived from the general behavioral tendencies as predicted by the SCM. Two-hundred-forty-eight undergraduate students (62% female) aged 18-35 (M=22.5) were randomly allocated to one of five conditions (anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, Asperger’s or control). Stereotypes, emotional and behavioral responses as well as bystander intentions were assessed. Results largely confirmed the general application of the SCM to MDD; however, this was not the case for bystander intentions in cyberbullying. Implications for the application of the SCM and methodological considerations are discussed
Status and Recommendations of Technological and Data-Driven Innovations in Cancer Care: Focus Group Study
Get PDFBackground:
The status of the data-driven management of cancer care as well as the challenges, opportunities, and recommendations aimed at accelerating the rate of progress in this field are topics of great interest. Two international workshops, one conducted in June 2019 in Cordoba, Spain, and one in October 2019 in Athens, Greece, were organized by four Horizon 2020 (H2020) European Union (EU)–funded projects: BOUNCE, CATCH ITN, DESIREE, and MyPal. The issues covered included patient engagement, knowledge and data-driven decision support systems, patient journey, rehabilitation, personalized diagnosis, trust, assessment of guidelines, and interoperability of information and communication technology (ICT) platforms. A series of recommendations was provided as the complex landscape of data-driven technical innovation in cancer care was portrayed.
Objective:
This study aims to provide information on the current state of the art of technology and data-driven innovations for the management of cancer care through the work of four EU H2020–funded projects.
Methods:
Two international workshops on ICT in the management of cancer care were held, and several topics were identified through discussion among the participants. A focus group was formulated after the second workshop, in which the status of technological and data-driven cancer management as well as the challenges, opportunities, and recommendations in this area were collected and analyzed.
Results:
Technical and data-driven innovations provide promising tools for the management of cancer care. However, several challenges must be successfully addressed, such as patient engagement, interoperability of ICT-based systems, knowledge management, and trust. This paper analyzes these challenges, which can be opportunities for further research and practical implementation and can provide practical recommendations for future work.
Conclusions:
Technology and data-driven innovations are becoming an integral part of cancer care management. In this process, specific challenges need to be addressed, such as increasing trust and engaging the whole stakeholder ecosystem, to fully benefit from these innovations
Feature distillation network for aspect-based sentiment analysis.
No full textA proliferation of user-generated content on the web is fueling research into sentiment analysis for improved extraction of human emotional information. Aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) is currently at the focus, which seeks to predict the sentiment of certain aspects in text. The primary challenge is to recognize the relevant contexts for different aspects. Most prior approaches combining recurrent neural networks and attention mechanisms inevitably introduce extraneous noise and diminish prediction accuracy. Furthermore, the sentiment of some context words varies with different aspects and cannot be inferred from themselves alone, which is another challenge that prevents attention mechanisms from performing properly. In this study, we propose a feature distillation network (FDN) for reducing noise and distilling aspect-relevant sentiment features. A novel double-gate mechanism is designed to implement the interactions between aspects and their corresponding contexts at a fine granularity. We introduce a contextual nonlinear projection layer before the double-gate mechanism to generate aspect-specific word representations, which enables the double-gate mechanism to accurately distinguish between sentiment features of the same context word that corresponds to the different aspects. Experiments show that the FDN achieves state-of-the-art performance and improves accuracy from 1.0 percent to 2.0 percent on all benchmarks for ABSA task