bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Politique économique et résilience autoritaire en Algérie
Authors: Cavatorta Francesco , Tahchi Belgacem
Published: August 2019

Cet article examine la contradiction au coeur des États rentiers, partagés entre la nécessité de réformer radicalement une économie exclusivement dépendante du gaz et du pétrole, et les intentions velléitaires des élites en place de rester au pouvoir et d’être ainsi en mesure de bénéficier quasi exclusivement de cette rente. En s’appuyant sur le cas de l’Algérie, cet article réévalue la contribution encore cruciale (malgré les critiques qui lui sont adressées) de la théorie de l’État rentier afin d’expliquer les dynamiques politiques propre à la région, notamment en ce qui concerne la résilience autoritaire.
Régionalisme pragmatique en Amérique centrale
Authors: Parthenay Kevin S. , Dabène Olivier
Published: August 2019

Les régionalismes latino-américains font aujourd’hui face à une période de crise. Le Mercosur et l’Unasur sont paralysés, en grande partie du fait des crises que connaissent le Venezuela et le Brésil. La Communauté andine des nations subit par ailleurs la concurrence forte de l’Alliance du Pacifique et les effets de ses précédentes erreurs de gestion (financières et stratégiques). Face à ces situations mouvementées, principalement dues aux profonds changements que connaissent les scènes nationales, autant du fait d’alternances politiques que de crises politiques et/ou économiques, l’Amérique centrale et son projet régional apparaissent moins en prise aux aléas que connaît le sud du continent. Dans cet article, nous expliquons la nature et les récentes transformations du régionalisme en Amérique centrale.
L’économie informelle : un défi au rêve d’émergence des économies africaines ?
Authors: Berrou Jean-Philippe , Eekhout Thomas
Published: August 2019

Depuis le début des années 2000, le continent africain connaît un cycle de forte croissance économique, mais les transformations structurelles, gages d’émergence de ses économies, sont plus lentes. Les emplois de qualité demeurent rares, et l’informel reste la norme sur le marché du travail. L’hétérogénéité de cette économie informelle rend sa définition complexe et représente un obstacle à sa prise en compte par les politiques publiques. Objectifs de soutien et de modernisation des unités de production, et objectifs de formalisation et de mise en conformité avec un certain nombre de normes et de règlementations sont les deux faces complémentaires de toute politique économique visant à relever le défi de l’informalité dans un objectif d’émergence.
Music and the Myth of Wholeness
Authors: Hodgkinson Tim
Published: August 2019

A new theory of aesthetics and music, grounded in the collision between language and the body.

In this book, Tim Hodgkinson proposes a theory of aesthetics and music grounded in the boundary between nature and culture within the human being. His analysis discards the conventional idea of the human being as an integrated whole in favor of a rich and complex field in which incompatible kinds of information—biological and cultural—collide. It is only when we acknowledge the clash of body and language within human identity that we can understand how art brings forth the special form of subjectivity potentially present in aesthetic experiences.

As a young musician, Hodgkinson realized that music was, in some mysterious way, “of itself”—not isolated from life, but not entirely continuous with it, either. Drawing on his experiences as a musician, composer, and anthropologist, Hodgkinson shows how when we listen to music a new subjectivity comes to life in ourselves. The normal mode of agency is suspended, and the subjectivity inscribed in the music comes toward us as a formative “other” to engage with. But this is not our reproduction of the composer's own subjectivation; when we perform our listening of the music, we are sharing the formative risks taken by its maker. To examine this in practice, Hodgkinson looks at the work of three composers who have each claimed to stimulate a new way of listening: Pierre Schaeffer, John Cage, and Helmut Lachenmann.
Sympathy for the Traitor
Authors: Polizzotti Mark
Published: August 2019

An engaging and unabashedly opinionated examination of what translation is and isn't.

For some, translation is the poor cousin of literature, a necessary evil if not an outright travesty—summed up by the old Italian play on words, traduttore, traditore (translator, traitor). For others, translation is the royal road to cross-cultural understanding and literary enrichment. In this nuanced and provocative study, Mark Polizzotti attempts to reframe the debate along more fruitful lines. Eschewing both these easy polarities and the increasingly abstract discourse of translation theory, he brings the main questions into clearer focus: What is the ultimate goal of a translation? What does it mean to label a rendering “faithful”? (Faithful to what?) Is something inevitably lost in translation, and can something also be gained? Does translation matter, and if so, why? Unashamedly opinionated, both a manual and a manifesto, his book invites usto sympathize with the translator not as a “traitor” but as the author's creative partner.

Polizzotti, himself a translator of authors from Patrick Modiano to Gustave Flaubert, explores what translation is and what it isn't, and how it does or doesn't work. Translation, he writes, “skirts the boundaries between art and craft, originality and replication, altruism and commerce, genius and hack work.” In Sympathy for the Traitor, he shows us how to read not only translations but also the act of translation itself, treating it not as a problem to be solved but as an achievement to be celebrated—something, as Goethe put it, “impossible, necessary, and important.”
Modernizing America's Electricity Infrastructure
Authors: Willrich Mason
Published: August 2019

A comprehensive, coherent strategy for modernizing America's electricity infrastructure while ensuring affordable, reliable, secure, and environmentally sustainable electricity services.

America's aging electricity infrastructure is deteriorating rapidly even as the need for highly reliable electric service—driven by the explosion of digital technology—continues to rise. Largely missing from national discussions, however, is a coherent, comprehensive national strategy for modernizing this critical infrastructure. Energy expert Mason Willrich presents just such a strategy in this book, connecting the dots across electric utilities, independent suppliers, government bureaucracies, political jurisdictions, and academic disciplines. He explains the need for a coherent approach, offers a framework for analyzing policy options, and proposes a step-by-step strategy for modernizing electrical infrastructure, end-to-end, in a way that ensures the delivery of affordable, reliable, secure, and environmentally sustainable electricity services.

Willrich argues that an effective electrical infrastructure modernization strategy must incorporate flexibility, adaptability, and the capacity to coordinate policies at local, state, and federal levels. He reviews the history of America's electrification, from Edison's demonstration of the incandescent light bulb through the recent expansion of wind, solar, and energy efficiency as carbon-free energy resources. He describes the current ownership and operation of the electric industry and the complicated web of federal and state policies that govern it.
The Heart of the Brain
Authors: Leng Gareth
Published: August 2019

How hormonal signals in one small structure of the brain—the hypothalamus—govern our physiology and behavior.

As human beings, we prefer to think of ourselves as reasonable. But how much of what we do is really governed by reason? In this book, Gareth Leng considers the extent to which one small structure of the neuroendocrine brain—the hypothalamus—influences what we do, how we love, and who we are.

The hypothalamus contains a large variety of neurons. These communicate not only through neurotransmitters, but also through peptide signals that act as hormones within the brain. While neurotransmitter signals tend to be ephemeral and confined by anatomical connectivity, the hormone signals that hypothalamic neurons generate are potent, wide-reaching, and long-lasting. Leng explores the evolutionary origins of these remarkable neurons, and where the receptors for their hormone signals are found in the brain. By asking how the hypothalamic neurons and their receptors are regulated, he explores how the hypothalamus links our passions with our reason. The Heart of the Brain shows in an accessible way how this very small structure is very much at the heart of what makes us human.
Flint Fights Back
Authors: Pauli Benjamin J.
Published: August 2019

An account of the Flint water crisis shows that Flint's struggle for safe and affordable water is part of a broader struggle for democracy.

When Flint, Michigan, changed its source of municipal water from Lake Huron to the Flint River, Flint residents were repeatedly assured that the water was of the highest quality. At the switchover ceremony, the mayor and other officials performed a celebratory toast, declaring “Here's to Flint!” and downing glasses of freshly treated water. But as we now know, the water coming out of residents' taps harbored a variety of contaminants, including high levels of lead. In Flint Fights Back, Benjamin Pauli examines the water crisis and the political activism that it inspired, arguing that Flint's struggle for safe and affordable water was part of a broader struggle for democracy. Pauli connects Flint's water activism with the ongoing movement protesting the state of Michigan's policy of replacing elected officials in financially troubled cities like Flint and Detroit with appointed “emergency managers.”

Pauli distinguishes the political narrative of the water crisis from the historical and technical narratives, showing that Flint activists' emphasis on democracy helped them to overcome some of the limitations of standard environmental justice frameworks. He discusses the pro-democracy (anti–emergency manager) movement and traces the rise of the “water warriors”; describes the uncompromising activist culture that developed out of the experience of being dismissed and disparaged by officials; and examines the interplay of activism and scientific expertise. Finally, he explores efforts by activists to expand the struggle for water justice and to organize newly mobilized residents into a movement for a radically democratic Flint.

The open access edition of this book was made possible by generous funding from the MIT Libraries.
Affective Computing
Authors: Picard Rosalind W.
Published: August 2019

According to Rosalind Picard, if we want computers to be genuinely intelligent and to interact naturally with us, we must give computers the ability to recognize, understand, even to have and express emotions.

The latest scientific findings indicate that emotions play an essential role in decision making, perception, learning, and more—that is, they influence the very mechanisms of rational thinking. Not only too much, but too little emotion can impair decision making. According to Rosalind Picard, if we want computers to be genuinely intelligent and to interact naturally with us, we must give computers the ability to recognize, understand, even to have and express emotions.

Part 1 of this book provides the intellectual framework for affective computing. It includes background on human emotions, requirements for emotionally intelligent computers, applications of affective computing, and moral and social questions raised by the technology. Part 2 discusses the design and construction of affective computers. Although this material is more technical than that in Part 1, the author has kept it less technical than typical scientific publications in order to make it accessible to newcomers. Topics in Part 2 include signal-based representations of emotions, human affect recognition as a pattern recognition and learning problem, recent and ongoing efforts to build models of emotion for synthesizing emotions in computers, and the new application area of affective wearable computers.
Agroecology in Action
Authors: Warner Keith Douglass
Published: August 2019

American agriculture has doubled its use of pesticides since the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962. Agriculture is the nation's leading cause of non-point-source water pollution—runoffs of pesticides, nutrients, and sediments into streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans. In Agroecology in Action, Keith Douglass Warner describes agroecology, an emerging scientific response to agriculture's environmental crises, and offers detailed case studies of ways in which growers, scientists, agricultural organizations, and public agencies have developed innovative, ecologically based techniques to reduce reliance on agrochemicals. Agroecology in Action shows that agroecology can be put into action effectively only when networks of farmers, scientists, and other stakeholders learn together. Farmers and scientists and their organizations must work collaboratively to share knowledge—whether it is derived from farm, laboratory, or marketplace. This sort of partnership, writes Warner, has emerged as the primary strategy for finding alternatives to conventional agrochemical use. Warner describes successful agroecological initiatives in California, Iowa, Washington, and Wisconsin. California's vast and diverse specialty-crop agriculture has already produced 32 agricultural partnerships, and Warner pays particular attention to agroecological efforts in that state, including those under way in the pear, winegrape, and almond farming systems. The book shows how popular concern about the health and environmental impacts of pesticides has helped shape agricultural environmental policy, and how policy has in turn stimulated creative solutions from scientists, extension agents, and growers.
Algebraic Semantics of Imperative Programs
Authors: Goguen Joseph A. , Malcolm Grant
Published: August 2019

Algebraic Semantics of Imperative Programs presents a self-contained and novel "executable" introduction to formal reasoning about imperative programs. The authors' primary goal is to improve programming ability by improving intuition about what programs mean and how they run. The semantics of imperative programs is specified in a formal, implemented notation, the language OBJ; this makes the semantics highly rigorous yet simple, and provides support for the mechanical verification of program properties. OBJ was designed for algebraic semantics; its declarations introduce symbols for sorts and functions, its statements are equations, and its computations are equational proofs. Thus, an OBJ "program" is an equational theory, and every OBJ computation proves some theorem about such a theory. This means that an OBJ program used for defining the semantics of a program already has a precise mathematical meaning. Moreover, standard techniques for mechanizing equational reasoning can be used for verifying axioms that describe the effect of imperative programs on abstract machines. These axioms can then be used in mechanical proofs of properties of programs. Intended for advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students, Algebraic Semantics of Imperative Programs contains many examples and exercises in program verification, all of which can be done in OBJ.
Animal Beauty
Authors: Nüsslein-Volhard Christiane , Grützmacher Suse
Published: August 2019

An illustrated exploration of colors and patterns in the animal kingdom, what they communicate, and how they function in the social life of animals.

Are animals able to appreciate what humans refer to as “beauty”? The term scarcely ever appears nowadays in a scientific description of living things, but we humans may nonetheless find the colors, patterns, and songs of animals to be beautiful in apparently the same way that we see beauty in works of art. In Animal Beauty, Nobel Prize–winning biologist Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard describes how the colors and patterns displayed by animals arise, what they communicate, and how they function in the social life of animals. Watercolor drawings illustrate these amazing instances of animal beauty.

Darwin addressed the topic of ornament in his 1871 book The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, and did not hesitate to engage with criteria of beauty, convinced that animals experienced color and ornament as attractive and agreeable in the same way that we do, and that the role this played in mate choice pointed to a “sexual selection” distinct from natural selection. Nüsslein-Volhard examines key examples of ornament and sexual selection in the animal kingdom and lays the groundwork for biological aesthetics. Noting that color patterns have not been a research priority—perhaps because they appeared to be nonessential luxuries rather than functional necessities—Nüsslein-Volhard looks at recent scientific developments on the topic. In part because of Nüsslein-Volhard's own research on the zebrafish, it is now possible to decipher the molecular genetic mechanisms that lead to production of colors in animal skin and its appendages and control its pattern and distribution.
Digital Halftoning
Authors: Ulichney Robert
Published: August 2019

Digital Halftoning addresses the problem of developing algorithms that best match the specific parameters of any target display device. It is the first significant study of the process of producing quality images on practical computer displays.

Along with text and graphics, images are fast becoming a generic data type for general-purpose computer systems. This poses new problems for the systems designer, who must be able to preprocess digital image data for a wide variety of video and hard copy displays. Digital halftoning, the method by which the illusion of continuous-tone images are created through the arrangement of binary picture elements, is a key component of any preprocessing. Digital Halftoning addresses the problem of developing algorithms that best match the specific parameters of any target display device. It is the first significant study of the process of producing quality images on practical computer displays. To aid the systems designer, Ulichney devises the concept of blue noise—which has many desirable properties for halftoning—and suggests efficient algorithms for its use. He also introduces new metrics for analyzing the frequency content of periodic and aperiodic patterns for both rectangular and hexagonal grids, and presents a unique "aspect ratio immunity" argument in favor of hexagonal grids. Included are several carefully selected digitally-produced images.
Dynamical Cognitive Science
Authors: Ward Lawrence M.
Published: August 2019

An introduction to the application of dynamical systems science to the cognitive sciences.

Dynamical Cognitive Science makes available to the cognitive science community the analytical tools and techniques of dynamical systems science, adding the variables of change and time to the study of human cognition. The unifying theme is that human behavior is an "unfolding in time" whose study should be augmented by the application of time-sensitive tools from disciplines such as physics, mathematics, and economics, where change over time is of central importance.

The book provides a fast-paced, comprehensive introduction to the application of dynamical systems science to the cognitive sciences. Topics include linear and nonlinear time series analysis, chaos theory, complexity theory, relaxation oscillators, and metatheoretical issues of modeling and theory building. Tools and techniques are discussed in the context of their application to basic cognitive science problems, including perception, memory, psychophysics, judgment and decision making, and consciousness. The final chapter summarizes the contemporary study of consciousness and suggests how dynamical approaches to cognitive science can help to advance our understanding of this central concept.

Bradford Books imprint
Evolutionary Robotics
Authors: Nolfi Stefano , Floreano Dario
Published: August 2019

Evolutionary robotics is a new technique for the automatic creation of autonomous robots. Inspired by the Darwinian principle of selective reproduction of the fittest, it views robots as autonomous artificial organisms that develop their own skills in close interaction with the environment and without human intervention. Drawing heavily on biology and ethology, it uses the tools of neural networks, genetic algorithms, dynamic systems, and biomorphic engineering. The resulting robots share with simple biological systems the characteristics of robustness, simplicity, small size, flexibility, and modularity.In evolutionary robotics, an initial population of artificial chromosomes, each encoding the control system of a robot, is randomly created and put into the environment. Each robot is then free to act (move, look around, manipulate) according to its genetically specified controller while its performance on various tasks is automatically evaluated. The fittest robots then "reproduce" by swapping parts of their genetic material with small random mutations. The process is repeated until the "birth" of a robot that satisfies the performance criteria.

This book describes the basic concepts and methodologies of evolutionary robotics and the results achieved so far. An important feature is the clear presentation of a set of empirical experiments of increasing complexity. Software with a graphic interface, freely available on a Web page, will allow the reader to replicate and vary (in simulation and on real robots) most of the experiments.

Bradford Books imprint
Heterogeneous Agent Systems
Authors: Subrahmanian V. S. , Bonatti Piero Andrea , Dix Jürgen , Eiter Thomas Robert , Kraus Sarit , Ozcan Fatma , Ross Robert B.
Published: August 2019

After a discussion of the theory of software agents, this book presents IMPACT (Interactive Maryland Platform for Agents Collaborating Together), an experimental agent infrastructure that translates formal theories of agency into a functional multiagent system that can extend legacy software code and application-specific or legacy data structures.

Software agents are the latest advance in the trend toward smaller, modular pieces of code, where each module performs a well-defined, focused task or set of tasks. Programmed to interact with and provide services to other agents, including humans, software agents act autonomously with prescribed backgrounds, beliefs, and operations. Systems of agents can access and manipulate heterogeneously stored data such as that found on the Internet.

After a discussion of the theory of software agents, this book presents IMPACT (Interactive Maryland Platform for Agents Collaborating Together), an experimental agent infrastructure that translates formal theories of agency into a functional multiagent system that can extend legacy software code and application-specific or legacy data structures. The book describes three sample applications: a store, a self-correcting auto-pilot, and a supply chain.
In-Depth Understanding
Authors: Dyer Michael George
Published: August 2019

This book describes a theory of memory representation, organization, and processing for understanding complex narrative texts. The theory is implemented as a computer program called BORIS which reads and answers questions about divorce, legal disputes, personal favors, and the like. The system is unique in attempting to understand stories involving emotions and in being able to deduce adages and morals, in addition to answering fact and event based questions about the narratives it has read. BORIS also manages the interaction of many different knowledge sources such as goals, plans, scripts, physical objects, settings, interpersonal relationships, social roles, emotional reactions, and empathetic responses. The book makes several original technical contributions as well. In particular, it develops a class of knowledge constructs called Thematic Abstraction Units (TAUs) which share similarities with other representational systems such as Schank's Thematic Organization Packets and Lehnert's Plot Units. TAUs allow BORIS to represent situations which are more abstract than those captured by scripts, plans, and goals. They contain processing knowledge useful in dealing with the kinds of planning and expectation failures that characters often experience in narratives; and, they often serve as episodic memory structures, organizing events which involve similar kinds of planning failures and divergent domains. An appendix contains a detailed description of a demon-based parser, a kernel of the BORIS system, as well as the actual LISP code of a microversion of this parser and a number of exercises for expanding it into a full-fledged story-understander.

In-Depth Understanding is included in The MIT Press Artificial Intelligence Series.
Explorations in Parallel Distributed Processing - Macintosh version
Authors: McClelland James L. , Rumelhart David E. , Feldman Jerome , Hayes Patrick
Published: August 2019

Includes 2 diskettes (for the Macintosh)

Bradford Books imprint
Through the Rearview Mirror
Authors: Macnamara John , Macnamara Joyce
Published: August 2019

In this lively book, John Macnamara shows how a number of important thinkers through the ages have approached problems of mental representation and the acquisition of knowledge. He discusses the relevance of these approaches to modern cognitive psychology, focusing on central themes that he believes have strongly influenced modern psychology. This is not a neutral historical survey, but a vehicle for Macnamara's compelling and provocative arguments on the relevance and worth of certain aspects of psychological and philosophical thought.

The historical figures discussed are quite varied—from Plato to Thomas Jefferson to Sigmund Freud—and include numerous Christian philosophers such as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. The book assumes no previous background in the subject matter; Macnamara often simplifies abstract concepts via homespun examples (many using his beloved dog, Freddie). This is a quirky, engaging book, as well as the last work by a highly influential figure in cognitive psychology.

Bradford Books imprint
Warren's Abstract Machine
Authors: Aït-Kaci Hassan
Published: August 2019

This tutorial demystifies one of the most important yet poorly understood aspects of logic programming, the Warren Abstract Machine or WAM. The author's step-by-step construction of the WAM adds features in a gradual manner, clarifying the complex aspects of the design and providing the first detailed study of WAM since it was designed in 1983. Developed by David H. D. Warren, the WAM is an abstract (nonphysical) computer that aids in the compilation and implementation of the Prolog programming language and offers techniques for compiling and optimizing symbolic computing that can be generalized beyond Prolog. Although the benefits of the WAM design have been widely accepted, few have been able to penetrate the WAM. This lucid introduction defines separate abstract machines for each conceptually separate part of the design and refines them, finally stitching them together to make a WAM. An index presents all of the critical concepts used in the WAM. It is assumed that readers have a clear understanding of the operational semantics of Prolog, in particular, of unification and backtracking, but a brief summary of the necessary Prolog notions is provided.

Contents Introduction • Unification—Pure and Simple • Flat Resolution • Prolog • Optimizing the Design • Conclusion • Appendixes
Food Justice
Authors: Gottlieb Robert , Joshi Anupama
Published: August 2019

The story of how the emerging food justice movement is seeking to transform the American food system from seed to table.

In today's food system, farm workers face difficult and hazardous conditions, low-income neighborhoods lack supermarkets but abound in fast-food restaurants and liquor stores, food products emphasize convenience rather than wholesomeness, and the international reach of American fast-food franchises has been a major contributor to an epidemic of “globesity.” To combat these inequities and excesses, a movement for food justice has emerged in recent years seeking to transform the food system from seed to table. In Food Justice, Robert Gottlieb and Anupama Joshi tell the story of this emerging movement.

A food justice framework ensures that the benefits and risks of how food is grown and processed, transported, distributed, and consumed are shared equitably. Gottlieb and Joshi recount the history of food injustices and describe current efforts to change the system, including community gardens and farmer training in Holyoke, Massachusetts, youth empowerment through the Rethinkers in New Orleans, farm-to-school programs across the country, and the Los Angeles school system's elimination of sugary soft drinks from its cafeterias. And they tell how food activism has succeeded at the highest level: advocates waged a grassroots campaign that convinced the Obama White House to plant a vegetable garden. The first comprehensive inquiry into this emerging movement, Food Justice addresses the increasing disconnect between food and culture that has resulted from our highly industrialized food system.
After Access
Authors: Donner Jonathan
Published: August 2019

An expert considers the effects of a more mobile Internet on socioeconomic development and digital inclusion, examining both potentialities and constraints.

Almost anyone with a $40 mobile phone and a nearby cell tower can get online with an ease unimaginable just twenty years ago. An optimistic narrative has proclaimed the mobile phone as the device that will finally close the digital divide. Yet access and effective use are not the same thing, and the digital world does not run on mobile handsets alone. In After Access, Jonathan Donner examines the implications of the shift to a more mobile, more available Internet for the global South, particularly as it relates to efforts to promote socioeconomic development and broad-based inclusion in the global information society.

Drawing on his own research in South Africa and India, as well as the burgeoning literature from the ICT4D (Internet and Communication Technologies for Development) and mobile communication communities, Donner introduces the “After Access Lens,” a conceptual framework for understanding effective use of the Internet by those whose “digital repertoires” contain exclusively mobile devices. Donner argues that both the potentialities and constraints of the shift to a more mobile Internet are important considerations for scholars and practitioners interested in Internet use in the global South.
Kunstneriske dialoger i artistiske prosesser
Authors: Solset Berit Elisabeth Norbakken , Blix Hilde
Published: August 2019

Utforskning og utvidelse av fleksibilitet og begreper rundt klangdannelse hos en klassisk skolert sanger står sentralt i mitt forskningsprosjekt. Ved å utforske andre sangteknikker/tradisjoner er målet å utvide klangbegrepsapparatet og – ikke minst – langsomt utvide egen uttrykkspalett og eget klangrepertoar.

Artikkelen vil handle om verket Solsången (Karin Rehnqvist), som er skrevet for en sanger, to kvinnelige talestemmer og kammerorkester. Stykket bryter med det klassiske uttrykket, samtidig som det krever ekstreme ferdigheter og høy vokalteknisk kompetanse, siden det forener to verdener, den klassiske musikken og folkemusikken.

I og med at komponisten benytter seg av den tradisjonelle sangteknikken – kulning – blir utøveren av verket utfordret med hensyn til å finne ut av en ny stil, hvordan denne kombineres med den klassiske tradisjonen, og hvordan disse to ulike stilene kan berike uttrykket: både komposisjonens uttrykk og sitt eget kunstneriske uttrykk.

Prosjektets utforming preges av ekstreme ytterpunkter og utforskning av musikalske og vokaltekniske grenseland. I arbeidet jakter jeg på en større fleksibilitet, klanglig og med hensyn til lydbildeplassering, og en bevisst utforsking i kammermusikalske settinger. Et mål er å utfordre yttergrensene for hva man kan gjøre med stemmen, både uttrykksmessig, samspillmessig, romlig og vokalteknisk.

Som sanger er jeg opptatt av å smelte sammen klanger for å kunne skape interessante nye kammermusikalske uttrykk. Min opplevelse av Rehnqvists vokalverker er at de oppfordrer til en sammensmelting av instrumentaltimbre og sangstemmen, dermed gis stemmen en mer instrumental rolle. I ytterpunktene for hva stemmen kan makte ligger uttrykksmuligheter som gir en ekstra estetisk dimensjon til stemmen som instrument.

Ved å publisere denne live-artikkelen ønsker jeg å bidra til diskursen rundt den tradisjonelle rollen en klassisk sanger har hatt og i mange sammenhenger fortsatt har. Gjennom artikkelen vil jeg gi et innblikk i tilnærming til musikken, variasjoner innenfor stil, klangestetikk og plassering i lydbildet, og dessuten refleksjon rundt å bevege seg i grenseland. Ved å bidra til diskursen i vokalfeltet, forventer jeg at en slik artikkel vil være av interesse for både studenter og veiledere innenfor vokalmiljøet.

SE HELE VIDEOARTIKKELEN HER

DELER:

Introduksjon

The Quest

Bakgrunn

Dialog

Solsången – introduksjon/presentasjon

Metode

Analyse

Funn

Oppsummering
A real-world study on clinical predictors of relapse after hospitalized detoxification in a Chinese cohort with alcohol dependence
Authors: Tao Yu-Jie , Hu Li , He Ying , Cao Bing-Rong , Chen Juan , Ye Ying-Hua , Chen Ting , Yang Xia , Xu Jia-Jun , Li Jing , Meng Ya-Jing , Li Tao , Guo Wan-Jun
Published: August 2019

Background

The relapse rate of alcohol dependence (AD) after detoxification is high, but few studies have investigated the clinical predictors of relapse after hospitalized detoxification in real-world clinical practice, especially among Chinese patients.

Methods

This longitudinal cohort study followed up 122 AD patients who were discharged from January 1, 2016 to January 30, 2018 from their most recent hospitalization for detoxification. These patients were interviewed by telephone from May 20, 2017, to June 30, 2018, at least 6 months after discharge. During the interview, the relapse were assessed by using a revised Chinese version of the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test. Candidate predictors, such as therapeutic modalities during hospitalization and at discharge, medical history data related to alcohol use, and demographic information, were obtained from the medical records in the hospital information system.

Results

During the 6–24 months (with a median of 9 months) follow-up period, the relapse rate was 53.3%. Individuals with a college education level and those who had not been treated with the brief comprehensive cognitive-motivational-behavioural intervention (CCMBI) were more likely than their counterparts to relapse after hospitalized detoxification, and their adjusted HRs (95% CIs) were 1.85 (1.09, 3.16) and 2.00 (1.16, 3.46), respectively. The CCMBI use predicted a reduction in the relapse rate by approximately one-fifth.

Conclusion

Undergoing the CCMBI during detoxification hospitalization and having less than a college-level education could predict a reduced risk of AD relapse. These findings provide useful information both for further clinical research and for real-world practice.
Healthy eating promoting in a Brazilian sports-oriented school: a pilot study
Authors: Massarani Fábia Albernaz , Citelli Marta , Canella Daniela Silva , Koury Josely Correa
Published: August 2019

Background

Adolescents, particularly athletes, have high exposure to ultra-processed foods, which could be harmful to their health and physical performance. School environments are capable of improving eating patterns. Our study is aimed at capturing changes in students’ food consumption three years after they enrolled at an experimental school, considered a model of health promotion in Rio de Janeiro city. We also aimed to depict the promising nature of the healthy eating promotion program implemented in the school and share the learnings from its implementation.

Methods

Our pilot study was a follow-up on the implementation of a school garden, experimental kitchen activities, and health promotion classes. We evaluated 83 adolescent athletes’ food consumption twice during the study: at its beginning (2013) and end (2016), by administering a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) that inquired about the frequency of foods consumed in the past week. To evaluate how effectively the activities were established, integrated, and sustained in schools, the Garden Resources, Education, and Environment Nexus (GREEN) tool was used, and the school’s adherence to the school garden program was classified as high (scored 47 points out of 57).

Results

In 2013, 89 adolescents (mean ± SD 11.9 ± 0.4 years, 54% male) participated in the study, of which 83 continued until 2016 (14.8 ± 0.5 years, 55% male). In 2013, the mean frequency of raw salad and fruits consumption was 1.4 (CI [1.0–1.9]) and 4.3 (CI [3.8–4.9]) days per week, respectively. Three years later, the frequency of raw salad and fruits consumption was 2.2 (CI [1.6–2.7]) and 5.0 (4.5–5.5), respectively. Considering that five meals were offered at school (five days/week), it may be possible to assume that the program raised awareness on the importance of healthy eating.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that such integrated healthy eating promotion programs may improve adolescent athletes’ eating habits, by increasing the frequency of their consumption of unprocessed foods. This pilot study’s results inspired us to implement an expanded project at the municipal level. Since 2018, teachers who participated in this program are working with Rio de Janeiro’s Municipal Secretary of Education for Coordination of Curricular Projects. Some learnings from this pilot study on implementing the garden/experimental kitchen project in this school are being applied in 65 schools of the municipal network: joint activities must be fostered among students, teachers, and parents; healthy eating needs to be a respected value among adolescent athletes and become an example for parents and teachers.
The Addition of Minced Catfish (Pangasius sp.) as a Protein Source on Tortilla Chips by Preference Level
Authors: Dinnaryanti Astri , Rochima Emma , Dhahiyat Yayat , Rostini Iis
Published: August 2019

Aims: This research aims to determine the addition of minced catfish (Pangasius sp.) that was added to the most preferred tortilla chips by the panelist.

Place and Duration of Study: Fisheries Product Processing Laboratory, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences, Padjadjaran University in May-July 2018.

Methodology: The method used in this research was the experimental method with the five treatments, which were the addition of minced fish were 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% and involving 20 semi panelists as replication. The addition of minced were calculated based on the weight of corn flour. The observed parameters were yield, hedonic test (appearance, aroma, texture, taste) and chemical characteristics (protein and water content) in control and most preferred treatment. Data processing using Friedman and Bayes Test.

Results: The results showed that tortilla chips with the addition of 10% of minced  catfish was the most preferred tortilla chips by panelists with an average score of appearance, aroma, texture and taste are 7.00; 6.40; 6.70; and 7.60. The yield of tortilla chips is 75.77%. Chemical test results of protein content is 9.98% and water content is 2.28%.

Conclusion: Tortilla chips with the addition of 10% of minced catfish was tortilla chips which was most preferred by panelists.
Tonsillectomy in Adults: Analysis of Indications and Outcome in Sokoto, North Western Nigeria
Authors: Aliyu D. , Solomon J. H.
Published: August 2019

Background: Tonsillectomy is a well-established surgical procedure practiced commonly by otolaryngologist for removal of tonsils. Although being a relatively simple and common procedure, it is not without considerable complications. This study aimed to profile the indication and outcome of adult tonsillectomy in our region.

Method: This was a retrospective study of all adults who had tonsillectomy in the department of Otorhinolaryngology, Usman Danfodiyo Teaching Hospital, (UDUTH) Sokoto, over a seven-year period from 1st January 2011 to 31st December 2017. All information was carefully retrieved from each patient’s case file and from the operation register. The data retrieved was subsequently analysed.

Results: A total of 55 adults patients had tonsillectomy over the period of study. Age range was 18 to 45 years with a mean age of 26.3 years. There were 16 males (29.1%) and 39 females (70.9%) with a male to female ratio of 1:2.4.  Recurrent tonsillitis 28(50.9%) was the commonest indication; others include: post quinsy 13(23.6%), tonsillomegally 6(10.9%); suspected neoplasm 6(10.9%); recurrent otalgia secondary to tonsillomegally 2(3.6%) Five patients had unilateral tonsillectomy for suspected neoplasm while others had bilateral tonsillectomy. Cold dissection was used in 37 (67.2%) of the patients, while 18(32.7%)were by electro cautery (Bipolar diathermy).

The commonest post-operative complication was pain in all patients, followed by otalgia (29.1%) and secondary post tonsillectomy bleed in two patients. No patient had blood transfusion. Hospital average stay was 3 days.

Follow up was uneventful in 16 (29.1%) of patients while 4(7.3%) patients had squamous cell carcinoma and were refered to Oncologist. The remaining 35 patients were lost to follow up.

Conclusion: The commonest indication for Adult tonsillectomy is chronic recurrent tonsillitis. Histopathological analysis of every tonsil specimen is advocated.
In-vitro Antimicrobial Susceptibility and Phytochemical Constituents of Methanol Leaf Extract of Prosopis africana against Some Selected Microorganisms
Authors: Raji Abdulmumin Adam , Jummai Kassim Zainab , Busu Mohammed Shehu , Ya’aba Yakubu , Kolo Ibrahim
Published: August 2019

Introduction: The idea that certain plants had healing potential was known long before human beings discovered the existence of pathogens.

Methodology: The crude methanolic leaf extract of Prosopis africana was assayed for antimicrobial potency using Agar-well diffusion technique against Salmonella typhi, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Candida albicans. Qualitative phytochemical screening was also carried out.

Results: The results of the antimicrobial screening showed antimicrobial potency against the test isolates with various degrees of zone of inhibition which varied between 10 mm – 22 mm. The highest zone was reported against Klebsiella pneumoniae (22 mm), followed by Streptococcus pyogenes and Candida albicans (21 mm), Salmonella typhi (20 mm), MRSA (19 mm) and then Pseudomonas aeruginosa (18 mm). Chloramphenicol and Fluconazole are used as reference standard and their zones of inhibitions ranged from 26 mm – 29 mm. The Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of the extract ranged between 12.50 mg/mL – 50.00 mg/mL whilst the Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) and Minimum Fungicidal Concentration (MFC) of the extract were at 50.00 mg/mL. The result of phytochemical screening revealed the presence of carbohydrates, flavonoids, phenols/tannins, saponins, terpenes, steroids, cardiac glycosides and alkaloids as secondary metabolites.

Conclusion: The findings clearly showed that methanolic leaf extract of P. africana has proved its use in folklore as an alternative antimicrobial agent and further research can lead to isolation of a new lead of medical importance.
Ant-diabetic Effect of Two Medicinal Plants: Cataranthus roseus and Nauclea latifolium on Some Biochemical Indices of Streptozotocin Induced Diabetic Albino Wistar Rats
Authors: Ofem E. Eteng , Abam Kenyoh , Ekpo Grace , Ufot Savour , Enobong Joe , Ubana Eyong , Clement Tarnando
Published: August 2019

The study was carried out to investigate the anti-diabetic effects of two medicinal plants Cataranthus roseus (C.R) and Nauclea latifolium (N.L) on some biochemical indices of streptozotocin induced diabetic albino wistar rats.

Methods: Ethanolic leaf extracts of C.R. and N.L. were given at daily doses of 500 mg/kg body weight in two divided doses each for 14 days. Thirty albino wistar rats were divided into five (5) groups, consisting of 6 rats each viz: Group 1(normal control), Group 2 (diabetic control), Group 3 (insulin treated), Group 4 (received N.L) and Group 5 (received C.R.).

Results: The results of the phytochemical screening contain flavonoids, polyphenols, and alkaloids were found to be present in appreciable amount in N.L while saponins and tannins were found in traceable concentration. Fasting blood glucose levels showed significant decrease (P<0.05) in all the test groups compared to diabetic control and closely related to the insulin treated groups. A significant increase (P<0.05) was observed in (TG) and (TC) concentration of all treated groups compared to the diabetic control group. The concentration of HDL was significantly increased while there was also a significant decreased (P<0.05) in VLDL and LDL in the diabetic control group and insulin group when compared to the normal control group, except for C.R treated group that shows a significant decrease compared with the diabetic control group. Enzymes activities were increased in insulin and diabetic groups. A significant reduction (P<0.05) was observed with the treated group of C.R. and N.L compared to the normal control group. Also, observed was a decrease in albumin level in groups treated with the extracts. Marked reduction in total protein level was observed in groups treated with extracts and insulin, compared to the normal control group. Serum concentrations of Na+, K+, Cl- in diabetic control groups showed a significant increase (P<0.05) compared to the normal control group. K+ concentration was observed to be significantly decreased (P<0.05) in all groups treated with extract and insulin compared to the normal control group.

Conclusions: The results demonstrated that C. roseus and N. latifolium have anti-diabetic and antihepatotoxic properties and could be potential herbal remedy in treating and managing diabetic conditions.
The Oregon Medicaid Guideline on Smoking Abstinence Prior to Elective Surgery
Authors: Bailey Steffani R. , Huguet Nathalie , Tindle Hilary A.
Published: December 2024

This Viewpoint discusses learnings from implementation of an Oregon guideline requiring that Medicaid-insured patients abstain from cigarette smoking for at least 4 weeks before most elective surgeries.