bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Pengaruh Penambahan Infusa Daun Pandan Wangi	(Pandanus amaryllifolius) dalam Air Minum terhadap Organ Hati, Jantung, Limpa dan Usus
Authors: Sihombing Sarah Nadia , Malvin Toni , Fati Nelzi , Nilawati Nilawati
Published: December 2024

Latar Belakang: Daun pandan wangi (Pandanus amaryllifolius) memiliki kandungan senyawa bioaktif seperti alkaloid, flavonoid, dan tanin yang memiliki sifat antioksidan, antimikroba, dan anti-inflamasi. Tujuan: Tujuan penelitian adalah untuk mengetahui pengaruh penambahan infusa daun pandan wangi dalam air minum terhadap persentase hati, jantung, limpa, panjang usus dan berat usus broiler. Metode: Penelitian ini menggunakan 100 ekor broiler strain cobb umur satu hari tanpa pemisahan jenis kelamin yang dibagi secara acak menjadi 20 unit percobaan. Masing- masing unit percobaan terdiri dari 5 ekor. Ayam dipelihara selama 4 minggu, dan pengumpulan data dilakukan pada minggu ke 4 saat panen. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode Rancangan Acak Lengkap (RAL) dengan 4 perlakuan infusa daun pandan wangi dalam air minum dan dengan 5 ulangan. Masing-masing perlakuan yaitu: P0: tanpa penambahan infusa daun pandan wangi, P1: penambahan infusa daun pandan wangi 1% dalam air minum, P2: penambahan infusa daun pandan wangi 2% dalam air minum, dan P3: penambahan infusa daun pandan wangi 3% dalam air minum. Hasil: Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa perlakuan penambahan infusa daun pandan wangi dalam air minum berpengaruh nyata terhadap bobot limpa (P<0,05). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa perlakuan penambahan infusa daun pandan wangi dalam air minum tidak berpengaruh nyata (P>0,05) terhadap bobot hati, jantung, panjang usus dan bobot usus broiler. Kesimpulan: Berdasarkan hasil penelitian dan pembahasan dapat disimpulkan bahwa respon fisiologis broiler pemberian infusa daun pandan wangi dalam air minum berpengaruh nyata terhadap bobot limpa (P<0,05), tetapi berpengaruh tidak nyata terhadap bobot hati, jantung, bobot usus dan panjang usus (P>0,05).  Penambahan infusa daun pandan wangi sampai 3% dalam air minum dapat ditolerir terhadap bobot hati, jantung, usus dan panjang usus broiler.
Ivan Bunin’s Early Works (1883–1902): Poetics, Textual Criticism, Commentary
Authors:   A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Morozov Sergey N.
Published: December 2024

The present volume contains articles written on the basis of papers delivered at the IWL RAS conference dedicated to the 90th anniversary of awarding of the Nobel Prize to Ivan Bunin and the 70th anniversary of the death of the writer. The materials presented in this volume form an important stage in the preparation of the first volumes of the academic Complete Works and Letters of Ivan Bunin.
The Article “E.A. Baratynsky: On the Occasion of the Centenary of His Birth” (1900) by Ivan Bunin: the Choice of the Main Text
Authors:   A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Bakuntsev Anton V.
Published: December 2024

The research is devoted to the literary-critical article by Ivan Bunin “E.A. Baratynsky: On the Occasion of the Centenary of His Birth”, written with a didactic purpose and published in 1900 in the Moscow journal “Vestnik Vospitania”. The present paper considers Bunin’s article from the historical-biographical, literary and textual points of view. The author of the research notes the similarity of the article about E.A. Baratynsky with the youthful literary-critical texts of Bunin and at the same time its difference from the later Bunin’s articles devoted to the life and works of N.V. Uspensky, T.G. Shevchenko, I.S. Nikitin, Ya.P. Polonsky, A.M. Zhemchuzhnikov, and also reveals its lexical, stylistic, compositional, factual shortcomings. Based on the textual analysis of the printed text and the autograph of the Bunin’s article, the author of the research concludes that there are three variants of it: initial, middle and final. The first two variants are recorded in the autograph, which is an incomplete draft manuscript with three layers of author’s edits, the third variant is presented in the form of a journal publication. The latter, due to its completeness, ac- cording to the author of the research, should be chosen as the main text of the article under consideration for its inclusion in the future Ivan Bunin’s Complete Works and Letters.
Short Stories of the 1890–1900s by Ivan Bunin: the Artist Beginning Shaping His Style
Authors:   Chelyabinsk State University, Belousova Elena G.
Published: December 2024

The article considers the short stories of the 1890–1900s as the beginning of shaping his style by Bunin. The work defines the principle of Bunin’s style which is the principle of “related antithesis”. Based on the worldview of the author, this principle implies the mutual attraction of poles which are sharply outlined and enlarged in their opposition. The short stories of the 1890s witness only the early tendency to relate oppositions: they do not have high expressiveness and possess only surface mechanisms of approach (various repeats), which results in an accidental adjacency of different objects and phenomena. The short stories of the 1900s make the style principle of Bunin more definite and persistent. The author changes his striving to show the integrity and qualitative diversity of the world for a creative focus on the dialectical unity of sharply outlined oppositions, putting emphasis on their immediate convergence. The ways and devices of the “related antithesis” principle are becoming more various and can be found on different levels of structure: the artistic time continuum and place, the syntax of short stories and the author’s discourse, of course. Now by the increased number of oxymorons the author aims for a sharp convergence of opposite poles in one point. The work concludes that the early prose of Ivan Bunin shows how the “related antithesis” principle is becoming the basic style device providing the aesthetic integrity of his artistic mode.
The Universal Meaning of Childhood in the Early Lyrics of Ivan Bunin
Authors:   Northern (Arctic) Federal University in Severodvinsk, Shestakova Elena Yu.
Published: December 2024

The purpose of the present article is to reveal the universal meaning of childhood in the early lyrics of Ivan Bunin. The novelty of the study lies in the attempt to describe the world-modeling constants of Bunin’s poetic model of the world, to consider the comprehensive nature of ideas about childhood in the author’s poems. The theme of memory becomes the leading one in Bunin’s poetic heritage, addressed to childhood. Memories of childhood are associated with images of home, family, and the idea of continuity of generations. Bunin’s poetry about childhood is filled with an elegiac tone and longing for a bygone childhood. The child hero has the ability to perceive the world around him as harmonious and beautiful. The world of childhood appears as a fairy tale, a dream, which is due to the peculiarities of the child’s worldview. Memories of childhood in Bunin’s poetry are accompanied by motifs of sleep, silence, images of the sun, light, stars, birch, and golden rye. The child feels unity with the surrounding natural world and eternity. Biblical associations and Christian motifs play an important role: the likening of a child to an angel, the comparison of a mother with a guardian angel, the appearance of the image of the Mother of God, symbolizing the connection between the Divine and earthly love of a mother for a child. The world of the child and the world of God are in close contact. The depiction of the “golden world” of childhood does not exclude the theme of childhood suffering. The image of Bunin’s world is deep and complex, it combines different time periods (past and present), experiences and sensations (joy and grief, happiness and suffering).
Once More on Prose and Poetry in Ivan Bunin’s Artistic World
Authors:   A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvinyatina Tatiana M.
Published: December 2024

This article examines the philosophical bases of the two chief elements in Ivan Bunin’s creative writing — poetry and prose: their deep origins and mutual influence and reinforcement in his artistic consciousness. Bunin’s self-identification as a poet informs all his works, poetry or prose. The reason for this apparently paradoxical imbalance between the two literary poles lies in the overall lyrical source of the poet-writer’s artistic explorations, as well as in his characteristic perception of the world as a poetic sphere, in which every phenomenon and every moment finds a reflection (repetition, echo) in the author’s personal experience. The article traces the network of dichotomies, through which the opposition and unity of the poetic and prosaic sides of Bunin’s individual worldview and artistic philosophy are formed: for his prose — linearity, questioning, solitude, despair and an attempt to go beyond the limits of earthly existence, for his poetry — sphericality, answering, universality, consolation and thankfulness for the world’s variety and abundance. This network of oppositions emerges already in the earliest period of Bunin’s work.
Books in the Book. The Role and Image of Books in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Novel The Idiot
Authors:   A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Kasatkina Tatyana A. , Corbella Caterina ,   A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Magaril-Il’iaeva Tatiana G. ,   A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Podosokorsky Nikolay N. ,   A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Published: December 2024

The most characteristic feature of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s artistic world is that virtually all the major characters in his works read, discuss, translate, interpret and analyze, buy and sell, give, borrow and lend to each other, and write various books themselves. At the same time, the mention of a book in Dostoevsky’s texts is never accidental or random, but inevitably introduces an additional dimension to the main stories, which can thus expand and deepen in an extraordinary way, incorporating the complexly interpreted meanings of the book that was mentioned, as well as its genre form, ranging from the everyday and historical anecdote, the feuilleton, the magazine and newspaper article, to the evangelical parable and the apocalyptic prophecy. However, even against the background of Dostoevsky’s oeuvre, the novel The Idiot stands out in terms of the number of books it contains. The collective monograph offered to our readers is devoted to exploring the reasons and purposes, the modes and nature of the presence of such an abundance of artistic, historical and sacred books in the writer’s most mystical novel, demonstrating how the books included in it influence its poetics, ethics, aesthetics and metaphysics. For readers who love Dostoevsky, as well as for philologists, philosophers, and theologians.
Sonic Relations as Bulging Spheres
Authors: Sandra Lori Petersen
Published: December 2024

In multistory housing, sounds occasionally penetrate the walls and floors separating apartments. It may seem like this is a one-way flow of acoustic waves moving through built material from one inhabitant to another. In this article, I show that acoustic waves passing among apartments often move in more ways than just through built material. I propose a conceptualization of the auditory connection between neighbors as sonic relations that consist not only of concrete sounds but also of a range of abstract emotional layers, elements of personal histories, and interpersonal conflicts. Through an exploration of the accounts of two neighbors living in an early 20th-century building in Copenhagen, I show how the sonic relation between them can be understood as interfering in the domestic-personal spheres that shape both of them.
What is the Affect of a Merry Genre? The Sonic Organization of Slovenian Folk Pop as a (Non)Balkan Sound
Authors: Robert Bobnič, Natalija Majsova, and Jasmina Šepetavc
Published: December 2024

This article examines Slovenian folk pop: an allegedly “national Slovenian” musical genre and sound. We analyze the political discourses, sonic organization, and affect of Slovenian folk pop, applying the theoretical perspectives of cultural studies, sonic studies, and affect studies, to decouple the affect of Slovenian folk pop from spontaneously ideological associations with the nation and its borders. We advocate for a layered analytical lens accounting for the sonic and sociocultural dimensions of music, concluding that analyses of modern, (seemingly) locally-specific genres, should consider how and to what ends affect is territorialized and inscribed into the framework of the nation.
Voice as Instrument: Performance Poets in Conversation
Authors: JillR
Published: December 2024

This videoed conversation with two young spoken word artists, Ryan Sinclair and Sipho Ndlovu, took place in Autumn 2022 and explored their motivations to pursue what many would view currently as a precarious career in the creative and cultural industries. The project was prompted by findings from a doctoral research study undertaken by Jill Robinson in collaboration with Beatfreeks, a youth engagement organisation founded in Birmingham by Anisa Morridadi in 2013. It uses creative practices to build young people’s confidence and competences and open up opportunities for them to disrupt the unequal power relationship between them and policymakers.

There was no ‘dry run’ for the recording as Jill wanted Ryan and Sipho to speak in the moment and not come with well-prepared responses to questions provided in advance; hence the pauses and stops and starts on the recording as each of them take time to reflect before answering. Inter alia, they consider how their own experiences of growing up in Birmingham have shaped their interest in music and spoken word and how these have enabled them to make their own and other young people's voices not only to be heard but listened to by those with decision-making powers over their daily lives

Ryan and Sipho will perform their poetry as part of the launch event for this special issue on 10 March 2023. Details will be made available shortly.
Music City Excesses: Phenomenological Thresholds and Nashville Noise Regulations
Authors: Michael Butera
Published: December 2024

In this essay I will be exploring phenomenological connections between private and public interpretations of urban sound. First, I will briefly outline a theory of perceptual excess wherein the listener is unable to interpret sounds according to intentional auditory categories. I argue that listeners respond through various acoustic techniques that intentionally change the way spaces sound, reforming acoustic orders. I will explore this in the case of Nashville, Tennessee’s urban noise ordinances. Its constructed identity as ‘Music City’ requires strategic maintenance to ensure that certain sounds are given priority (institutionalize live music) while others are suppressed (pre-recorded music) or marginalized (busking). The specificity of these laws indicates a capitalist cultural nostalgia as well as a fundamental preference for perceptual stability for residents, tourists, and lawmakers alike. A common logic is drawn between the subject as a phenomenological individual and the subject as a listening/governing state. The ability to predict and control which sounds will be heard, to sustain a certain acoustic order, highlights the problem of the listener’s perceptual stability in the context of urban noise and silence.
On Listening Keynote Speech at the 2011 World Forum for Acoustic Ecology in Corfu, Greece
Authors: R. Murray Schafer
Published: December 2024

This is a video recording of the keynote speech R. Murray Schafer gave at the 2011 World Forum for Acoustic Ecology in Corfu, Greece. The recording is made by Kenya DuBois Williams.
Sound Art / Street Life: Tracing the social and political effects of sound installations in London
Authors: Christabel Stirling
Published: December 2024

This article draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in London (2013-14) to address the social and political effects of installation and place-based sound-works. I begin by reviewing a number of theoretical approaches to the city, using my own and others’ ethnographic accounts of London to problematize some of the affirmative conceptualizations of the city being propagated by non-representational theories and cultural geographers. In so doing, I provide the theoretical and contextual substratum for my ensuing discussion of the sound-works, and offer an initial view on why physical urban public space remains crucial to progressive politics. I then examine the sonic re-arrangement of public space in three site-specific sound installations. Through ethnographic analysis of the social dynamics summoned into being by each sound-work, and the “multiple mediations” that animated such dynamics (Born 2005), I offer interpretations as to whether, and if so how, the sound installations might be enlisted as part of a process oriented towards mobilizing democratic designs.
Tuned In and Hands On: Sound Designers Beyond Technical Expertise
Authors: Isabelle Delmotte
Published: December 2024

The term sound designer is a relatively new addition to the professional roles in a film sound crew. Its use can be traced to the 1970s when the dismantlement of some major Hollywood studios gave space for more experimental approaches to film making. A study on acoustic ecologies and cinema sound allowed for creative and altruistic collaborations with some Australian cinema professionals. Subsequent face-to-face interviews and correspondence with the participants to the study pointed to the humanity and concerns at play behind the screen. It is apparent that the capacity of sound designer cannot be pigeonholed: it oscillates according to the demands of a film production and depends on its director’s and financial backers' sonic awareness. Amongst professional sound makers themselves exists a lack of consensus on the role and importance of the position of sound designer. The author proposes a way to lessen professional ambiguity and increase public recognition of atmospheric cinema sound. Invoking atmospheric sound at the inception of an audio-visual narrative could reward its makers and audiences in unsuspected ways. To acknowledge sound designers as architects of sensations and, by the same token, include viscerality and affect as creative elements of film production, could lead to a different appreciation of our lives in sound.
Editorial: Designing Our Sonic Lives
Authors: Vincent Meelberg
Published: December 2024

Long ago, the mice held a council to discuss how to outwit their common enemy, the Cat. The mice knew that the Cat was sly and that she always approached them quietly, and they were frightened by these sudden encounters. After long discussions, one young and enthusiastic mouse raised his hand and proposed: “All we need is a sign that the Cat is around,” and continued, “Let’s fasten a bell round the neck of the Cat. This way, we’ll be warned by the jingling sound and have enough time to reach our holes before the Cat reaches us.” This proposal was met with cheers, until an old skeptical mouse asked, “But, who is to bell the Cat?”
AUDITORY SITUATIONS: NOTES FROM NOWHERE
Authors: Budhaditya Chattopadhyay
Published: December 2024

As an increasingly migratory being, a wandering listener interacts with various places he/she traverses in fleeting and transitory ways, considering them as spatio-temporally evolving but gradually disorienting auditory situations. Instead of locating the source identities of sounds, the listener may relate to these situations through thought processes generated by means of a subjective perception of the various sonic phenomena occurring at these places. This essay describes an on-going project, “Doors of Nothingness,” that frames and textualizes streams of thought triggered by presence in certain immersive but evanescent auditory situations. Essentially personal and contemplative in nature, the project refers to the pervasive interaction that takes place between the constantly migrating man and his contextual sonic environment beyond sound’s immediately accessible meaning. In the context of describing the project and its methodology, this essay intends to develop a discourse on sound’s problematic relationship to locating its source, arguing that situational sonic phenomena activate thought processes that transcend mere epistemic comprehension of the source identity and involve subjectivity, contemplation, poetics, and the mood of the nomadic listener.
Experimental Music in Singapore
Authors: Darren Moore
Published: December 2024

The experimental music scene in Singapore emerged in 1990s and grew out of the underground rock music scene of the 1980s. In this sense, the experimental scene has a shared history with the development of popular music in Singapore that occurred concurrently with Western popular music movements. Over the past 20 years, the scene has gained momentum and developed into a small, yet vibrant community. Similar underground experimental music scenes have also emerged throughout South-East Asia, e.g., in Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Yogyakarta, Jakarta and other major centers, which has led to an increase in experimental musical activity in the region.
Editorial: Sound Studies and Politics
Authors: Vincent Meelberg
Published: December 2024

Editorial: Sound Studies and Politics
Historically Informed Soundscape: Mediating Past and Present
Authors: D. Linda Pearse
Published: December 2024

Imagine for a moment that we engage with early-music manuscripts only through inspection of the musical text, without any attempt to perform it. Imagine again that musicians who perform early music made no attempt to engage with the historical context and performance practice of the past. It is mind-boggling to consider what we would miss if we did not make these attempts through performative artistic research. Can we engage with auditory culture over time by using methods from early-music performance practice to create soundscape? Will the process and product of creating a historically informed soundscape provoke new conversations and generate a new type of knowledge to engage both scholars of auditory culture and audiences? We want to complement scholarly narratives that seek to better understand the sounds of the past beyond music itself by borrowing methods and models from early-music performance and adapting them to create historically informed soundscape.
Managing the Sonic Environment: Ambient Noise, Creativity and the Regime of Ubiquitous Work
Authors: Artur Szarecki
Published: December 2024

In contemporary neoliberal capitalism, sound is increasingly employed to modulate the affective tonalities of environments and, as a result, attune bodies to everyday habitual regimes of conduct. In this paper, I argue that comprehending this new mode of sonic governance requires going beyond cultural theories that approach politics in terms of a symbolic struggle over meaning. Instead, I attempt to analyze Coffitivity – a web service that transmits recordings of ambient noise from coffee shops in order to boost the creative capabilities of workers – according to posthegemonic theory, positing it as a sonic apparatus designed to modulate the affective environment in such a way as to habituate the distributed multitude into a regime of ubiquitous work. Consequently, I claim that posthegemonic analysis can provide insights into the potential of sound to immanently modulate the field of embodied interactions, thereby contributing to the development of new techniques of power in contemporary neoliberal capitalism.
The Relationality of the Adhaan: A Reading of the Islamic Call to Prayer Through Adriana Cavarero’s Philosophy of Vocal Expression
Authors: Lutfi Othman
Published: December 2024

The Call to Prayer, the Adhaan, is one of the most instantly recognizable Islamic sounds that we might hear in our soundscape today. For Muslims, the Adhaan is a specific call to notify the Islamic community that the time for prayer has arrived. For those who are not trained to respond to it religiously, the experience of listening to the Adhaan can trigger the formation of different interpretations, sometimes in hostile ways, from its original intent. This paper looks at the Adhaan from the perspective of sound and suggests that the voice of the Mu’adhin, who calls for prayer, carries with it the possibility to be perceived in manifold ways. Through the sound of the human voice and its pervasive nature, the Adhaan carries its original message, fusing it with new meanings, and announces it in a way unique to the voice. Guided by philosopher Ariana Cavarero’s conception of the voice and referencing situations in The United States of America where the Adhaan was at the center of controversy, this paper approaches the Adhaan with a focus on the sound of the voice and the relations that it fosters both intentionally and unintentionally.
The Secret Theatre Revisited: Eavesdropping on Locative Media Performances
Authors: Pieter Verstraete
Published: December 2024

With the proliferation of the iPod and related audio mobile technologies in our daily experiences, Shuhei Hosokawa’s “The Walkman Effect” (1984) gains new significance. While exploring the locative aspects of these technologies for media art, I elaborate on Hosokawa’s idea of a “secret theatre” by paralleling it to some compelling concepts in audio (culture) studies, such as Michael Bull’s “auditized looking,” Elisabeth Weis’ “écouterism,” Denis Hollier/Jean Paul Sartre’s “auditory gaze,” and Steven Connor’s “modern auditory I.” As case studies, I focus on three performative audio walks that all took place in train stations around 2012-2013: Janet Cardiff’s Alter Bahnhof, Dries Verhoeven’s Niemandsland, and Judith Hoffland’s Like Me. Each in their own right reconfigures the urban experience by means of locative features and interactive relations with their environments. These art works help to see Hosokawa’s “secret theatre” in a new light of highly individualized yet relational aesthetic experiences that open our ears and eyes to an outside social context and reality rather than shut them off.
“Step by Step” Reading and Re-writing Urban Space Through the Footstep
Authors: Elena Biserna
Published: December 2024

This paper explores the materiality of sound by focusing on the interaction between the walker and urban space established by the most “basic” form of soundmaking on the move – the sound of our footsteps. It considers the presence of footprints and empreintes in the contemporary arts and surveys a series of projects by artists and composers – Peter Ablinger, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, katrinem, Dennis Oppenheim, and Jessica Thompson – highlighting the interplay between body and site established through the footsteps. By drawing on an interdisciplinary body of literature on city walking and on sound studies, I consider the step as the fundamental bodily contact with the environment while walking as well as a sound signal that generates a sense of presence, activates the surroundings, and locates us in space. Therefore, I interpret the footstep as a primary auditory event, allowing us to “read and rewrite” (Augoyard 2007) urban soundscapes, to explore and perceive – but also to reshape and participate in – acoustic spaces, establishing a material, embodied, situated, and mutual relationship with our context.
Editorial: Aiming for an Impossibility?
Authors: Vincent Meelberg
Published: December 2024

If writing about music is like dancing about architecture, theorizing about sound must be like running about interior design. It would be useless, a hopeless endeavor that would not lead to any insight into the phenomenon under analysis. Nevertheless, stubborn as we are, we are convinced that it is possible, and even necessary, to attempt to articulate, through language as well as through other means, sound and sonic encounters in all their diversities.
The City of Noise: an Approach to the Multiple Senses of Sound in Buenos Aires
Authors: Facundo Petit de Murat and Martina Di Tullio
Published: December 2024

In this article we propose a historical approach to noise in Buenos Aires during the first half of the twentieth century. During this period, Buenos Aires consolidated itself materially and symbolically as a modern city. Through the study of historical documents, we identified different meanings of noise in relation to progress, health, culture, silence, space, and time. The main argument is that, at first, social imaginary associated noise to progress; however, this view rapidly changed in the search for an ideal of relative silence. In this process, some specific sonic practices started being classified as uncivilized. In this sense, the modern imaginary? delineates the boundaries of what is acoustically tolerable; this produces human subjects perceived as morally inferior, whose practices must be legally regulated. This is the context for the emergence of devices aimed at controlling and mitigating urban noise: legal norms and measuring systems that intend to regulate – albeit inefficiently – the sonic habitus.
Sound and Politics. Shaping Current Artistic Practices in Latin America
Authors: Lukas Kühne
Published: December 2024

In some ways, the current political landscape of Latin America seems to mirror the condition of the world today. However, the impact achieved by the collective creativity of the pueblo, its communitarian understanding and acting, should never be underestimated. Nevertheless, Latin America does not seem to shy away from complexity or change. Without wanting to idealize, this trait can also be seen to work within arte sonoro's current artistic practices and manifestations. These subjective observations are based on my 15 years of work as an artist, curator and academic at the State University UdelaR (Universidad de la República) in Montevideo with a focus on arte sonoro in Uruguay.
Remaking Pittsburgh: Permaculture soundscapes
Authors: Jeremy Woodruff
Published: December 2024

In this essay I confront how sound art might make a contribution to groups practicing progressive ecology in a city as well as how that pursuit can enrich a sonic practice. As a result of research in permaculture gardening (a philosophy of ecological landscape design started in the late 70s) and ethnomusicology (especially on gamelan), I reimagined my creative process. I investigate whether it is possible with permaculture's philosophy to compose social connections, both in the imagination of sound and in the artwork's actual dissemination. I see how these structures impact the work's reception and the Hazelwood Food Forest (HFF) in Pittsburgh where the piece was developed. In this essay on my installation Gongburgh: Steeltown Forests I describe what my composition contributed and how that urban garden ensured a rich listening experience alongside other sound sources, including gamelan and steel factories. Gongburgh is an experiment in sustainable music making: in return for a (monetary) donation to the HFF on my website, listeners may download the forty-minute long composition that uses sound from the garden. In this way I promote the garden, but in return hope for repayment in organic food from the HFF as a form of worktrade. The sound of work in an urban garden versus that in a steel factory, in combination with gamelan music brings out novel similarities and differences between the sounds and, in turn, between ideas inherent in their social organization. This opens up political questions for both the garden and an anonymous listener. Further speculation on connections between specific permaculture principles and sound art emerge in a brief discussion of another one of my sound works, Phonosynthesis.
Peirce and sound design practice
Authors: Leo Murray
Published: December 2024

The semiotic model described by CS Peirce has been adapted to film and media generally, and more recently to sound and music analysis but seldom has it been applied to the actual practice of sound design. This paper argues that the model provides not only a comprehensive and powerful tool for the analysis of sound but may also be used as a tool to examine and inform the practice of sound design and production.

By focussing particularly on Peirce’s later model of semiotics, which clarifies and reframes the definitions of some of the principal elements of his system, its utility in application to the analysis of sound is greatly enhanced. It provides an appropriate and flexible conceptual framework which can be applied to the processes involved in creating elements of the soundtrack – the practice of sound design – and a means to understand how the sounds themselves, and in conjunction with the image, can be used to create meaning for the audience.
Noise and Silence: The Contemporary Sound Sculptures of Adam Basanta
Authors: Shauna Jean Doherty
Published: December 2024

This article examines the radical and destabilizing potential of noise and silence, expressed by Canadian artist Adam Basanta’s sound sculpture practice. The author’s analysis is undertaken through a comparison of Basanta’s works to those of foundational sound artists, John Cage and Steve Reich, as well as contemporary sound sculpture practitioners, Robert Pugliese, Konrad Smoleński, Michael Sailstorfer, and Nikita Gale. Dominant themes of noise, silence, and feedback recur in the referenced artists’ practices, demonstrating a shared interest in the dynamics of sonic power.
Plasma Proteomic Signatures of Adiposity Are Associated With Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Type 2 Diabetes Risk in a Multiethnic Asian Population
Authors: Lim Charlie G.Y. , Ozkan Bige , Liang Yujian , Chen Jingsha , Yao Jiali , Khaing Nang Ei Ei , Rooney Mary R. , Ndumele Chiadi E. , Tai E Shyong , Coresh Josef , Sim Xueling , van Dam Rob M.
Published: December 2024

The biomarkers connecting obesity and cardiometabolic diseases are not fully understood. We aimed to 1) evaluate the associations between BMI, waist circumference (WC), and ∼5,000 plasma proteins (SomaScan V4), 2) identify protein signatures of BMI and WC, and 3) evaluate the associations between the protein signatures and cardiometabolic health, including metabolically unhealthy obesity and type 2 diabetes incidence in the Singapore Multi-Ethnic Cohort Phase 1 (MEC1). Among 410 BMI-associated and 385 WC-associated proteins, we identified protein signatures of BMI and WC and validated them in an independent data set across two time points and externally in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. The BMI and WC protein signatures were highly correlated with total and visceral body fat, respectively. Furthermore, the protein signatures were significantly associated with cardiometabolic risk factors and metabolically unhealthy obesity. In prospective analyses, the protein signatures were strongly associated with type 2 diabetes risk in MEC1 (odds ratio per SD increment in WC protein signature 2.84; 95% CI 2.47–3.25) and ARIC (hazard ratio 1.98; 95% CI 1.88–2.08). Our protein signatures have potential uses in the monitoring of metabolically unhealthy obesity.

Article Highlights

We evaluated the associations between ∼5,000 plasma proteins and BMI and waist circumference (WC) in a multiethnic Asian population. We identified 410 proteins associated with BMI and 385 proteins associated with WC and derived protein signatures of BMI and WC, which we validated externally in a U.S. cohort. Both the BMI and WC protein signatures were strongly associated with cardiometabolic risk factors, metabolically unhealthy obesity, and risk of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes. Our protein signatures have potential uses in monitoring metabolically unhealthy obesity.
Blocking Adipocyte YY1 Decouples Thermogenesis From Beneficial Metabolism by Promoting Spermidine Production
Authors: Qiu Chen , Lu Yu , Wu Suyang , Guo Wenli , Ni Jiahao , Song Jiyuan , Liu Zichao , Chang Xiaoai , Wang Kai , Sun Peng , Zhang Qian , Yang Shufang , Li Kai
Published: December 2024

The accumulation of mitochondria in thermogenic adipose tissue (i.e., brown and beige fat) increases energy expenditure, which can aid in alleviating obesity and metabolic disorders. However, recent studies have shown that knocking out key proteins required to maintain mitochondrial function inhibits the energy expenditure in thermogenic fat, and yet the knockout (KO) mice are unexpectedly protected from developing obesity or metabolic disorders when fed a high-fat diet (HFD). In the current study, nonbiased sequencing-based screening revealed the importance of Yin Yang 1 (YY1) in the transcription of electron transport chain genes and the enhancement of mitochondrial function in thermogenic adipose tissue. Specifically, YY1 adipocyte-null (YAKO) mice showed lower energy expenditure and were intolerant to cold stress. Interestingly, YAKO mice showed alleviation of HFD-induced metabolic disorders, which can be attributed to a suppression of adipose tissue inflammation. Metabolomic analysis revealed that blocking YY1 directed glucose metabolism toward lactate, enhanced the uptake of glutamine, and promoted the production of anti-inflammatory spermidine. Conversely, blocking spermidine production in YAKO mice reversed their resistance to HFD-induced disorders. Thus, although blocking adipocyte YY1 impairs the thermogenesis, it promotes spermidine production, alleviates adipose tissue inflammation, and therefore leads to an uncoupling of adipose tissue energy expenditure from HFD-induced metabolic disorders.

Article Highlights

Chromatin open atlas profiling in white, beige, and brown adipocytes identified Yin Yang 1 (YY1) as a key transcription factor governing electron transport chain gene expression and mitochondrial function in thermogenic adipocytes. Knocking out adipocyte YY1 leads to impaired thermogenesis under cold stress while protecting the mice from diet-induced obesity and metabolic disorders. YY1-null adipocytes undergo metabolic reprogramming, with increased glutamine use and spermidine generation that combat adipose tissue inflammation and insulin resistance, resulting in an uncoupling of thermogenic capacity and metabolic benefits.
Blocking adipocyte YY1 decouples thermogenesis from beneficial metabolism by promoting spermidine production
Authors: Qiu Chen , Lu Yu , Wu Suyang , Guo Wenli , Ni Jiahao , Song Jiyuan , Liu Zichao , Chang Xiaoai , Wang Kai , Sun Peng , Zhang Qian , Yang Shufang , Li Kai
Published: December 2024

The accumulation of mitochondria in thermogenic adipose tissue (i.e., brown and beige fat) increases energy expenditure, which can aid in alleviating obesity and metabolic disorders. However, recent studies have shown that knocking out key proteins required to maintain mitochondrial function inhibits the energy expenditure in thermogenic fat, and yet the knockout mice are unexpectedly protected from developing obesity or metabolic disorders when fed a high-fat diet (HFD). In the present study, non-biased sequencing-based screening revealed the importance of YY1 in the transcription of electron transport chain genes and the enhancement of mitochondrial function in thermogenic adipose tissue. Specifically, adipocyte YY1 null (YAKO) mice showed lower energy expenditure and were intolerant to cold stress. Interestingly, YAKO mice showed alleviation of HFD-induced metabolic disorders, which can be attributed to a suppression of adipose tissue inflammation. Metabolomic analysis revealed that blocking YY1 directed glucose metabolism toward lactate, enhanced the uptake of glutamine, and promoted the production of anti-inflammatory spermidine. Conversely, blocking spermidine production in YAKO mice reversed their resistance to HFD-induced disorders. Thus, although blocking adipocyte YY1 impairs the thermogenesis, it promotes spermidine production and alleviates adipose tissue inflammation, therefore leads to an uncoupling of adipose tissue energy expenditure from HFD-induced metabolic disorders.
Plasma proteomic signatures of adiposity are associated with cardiovascular risk factors and type 2 diabetes risk in a multi-ethnic Asian population
Authors: G.Y. Lim Charlie , Ozkan Bige , Liang Yujian , Chen Jingsha , Yao Jiali , Ei Ei Khaing Nang , R. Rooney Mary , E. Ndumele Chiadi , Shyong Tai E , Coresh Josef , Sim Xueling , M. van Dam Rob
Published: December 2024

The biomarkers connecting obesity and cardiometabolic diseases are not fully understood. We aimed to (i) evaluate the associations between body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and ~5,000 plasma proteins (SomaScan v4), (ii) identify protein signatures of BMI and WC, and (iii) evaluate the associations between the protein signatures and cardiometabolic health including metabolically unhealthy obesity and type 2 diabetes incidence in the Singapore Multi-Ethnic Cohort (MEC1). Among 410 BMI-associated and 385 WC-associated proteins, we identified protein signatures of BMI and WC and validated them in an independent dataset across two timepoints and externally in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. The BMI- and WC-protein signatures were highly correlated with total and visceral body fat, respectively. Furthermore, the protein signatures were significantly associated with cardiometabolic risk factors and metabolically unhealthy obesity. In prospective analyses, the protein signatures were strongly associated with type 2 diabetes risk in MEC1 (odds ratio per SD increment in WC-protein signature = 2.84, 95% CI 2.47 to 3.25) and ARIC (hazard ratio = 1.98, 95% CI 1.88 to 2.08). Our protein signatures have potential uses for the monitoring of metabolically unhealthy obesity.
Rural Households’ Preference and Consumption Patterns of African Breadfruit in Osun State, Nigeria: Implication for Food Security
Authors: AA* Afolabi , IA Abulude , OK Ojo , JP Odekuoye
Published: December 2024

The study assessed the acceptance, frequency of consumption and mode of consuming African breadfruit among rural
households in Osun State, Nigeria. Specifically, it examines the socio-economic characteristics of the rural household; examines
rural households’ frequency and mode of consumption of African breadfruit; and determines the attitude of rural households
towards the production and consumption of African breadfruit in the study area. A multi-stage sampling procedure was
adopted to select 288 respondents and a structural interview schedule was used to collect data for the study. Data collected
was analysed using appropriate descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency count, and percentages and inferential statistics
such as chi-square and correlation analysis. The results revealed that the mean age was 47.8 ± 1.32 years; the majority
(62.2%) of the respondents were male. Also, the majority (85.4%) of the respondents were Yoruba, 12.2 percent were Igbo,
and 2.4 percent were Hausa. The mean years of formal schooling was 9.7 ± 4.67 years. The mean average monthly income was
₦41,759 ± 19,461. Similarly, the findings indicated that boiling of breadfruit ranked first (mean =3.11) as the most preferred
mode of consumption while puree ranked least (mean = 0.22) as the least preferred mode of consuming African breadfruit.
The findings also indicated that the rural household had an indifferent attitude towards the production and consumption
of African breadfruit. There was a significant relationship between level of education (r = 0.202), years of formal schooling
(r =- 0.165) and cosmopoliteness (r = 0.172) and acceptance of African breadfruit in the study area at p ≤ 0.01. Also, there
was a positive and significant relationship between rural households’ attitudes towards the production and consumption of
African breadfruit and acceptance of African breadfruit (r = 0.219, p ≤0.01). The study concluded that African breadfruit has
the potential to increase the health status of the inhabitants in the study area if well consumed, it can benefit the nation and
possibly enhance food security among the Nigerian populace. The study recommended among others that agricultural and
rural development stakeholders should help in the organisation of the rural households through training, seminars and so on
about the importance of African breadfruit thereby promoting its acceptance.
Fire and Blood: The Dynamic Reconstruction of a Double Murder with Different Attempts to Conceal the Corpses
Authors: Berloco Tommaso
Published: December 2024

This case report describes the forensic investigations performed after the discovery of two bodies under suspicious
circumstances. The first body was almost completely burned and therefore unrecognizable, while the second one had been
concealed inside a dwelling and showed craniofacial injuries by a blunt force trauma. Numerous bloodstains and bloody
stones were found at the crime scene which were carefully photographed and inventoried. Their analysis allowed an initial
reconstruction of the dynamics of the events, suggesting a double murder with two different attempts to conceal the bodies.
Forensic investigations were conducted on the remains using traditional forensic methods (necropsy, fingerprinting, histology)
along with modern radiological (virtopsy) and toxicological exams. The results made it possible to determine the causes,
means, and time of death, as well as a detailed reconstruction of the dynamics of murder and concealment of the bodies.
Thus, the uniqueness of this case lies in demonstrating how the combined use of various forensic sciences can significantly
contribute to judicial investigations. Moreover, it highlights the importance of the most modern techniques in solving complex
cases such as the one described in this article, especially in view of the extremely different methods used to conceal the two
bodies right after death.
Beyond Borders: The Art and Science of Detecting Travel Document Forgeries
Authors: Weeraratna Thanuja
Published: December 2024

The incorporation of security features into travel documents is a key measure to prevent illegal migration. Some of these
security features include watermarks, advanced printing techniques, holograms, security threads, and stamp impressions.
Any alteration of these features typically results in imperfections that can reveal a forgery.
One common method for producing counterfeit documents is scanning and printing using desktop printers. However, each
printing technique has unique characteristics that are difficult to replicate with standard desktop printers, especially when
it comes to micro-text and the color transitions in rainbow printing. Forged documents often include digitally created stamp
impressions, which lack the physical qualities of genuine stamps made with rubber or ink-based stamps.
In cases involving polycarbonate residence permit cards, forgers may attempt to replace the original owner’s photo with that
of an imposter by physically removing and substituting it. However, this tampering often leaves visible evidence, which helps
identify the document as counterfeit.
About the Role of Observers in Quantum Mechanics
Authors: Koutandos Spiros
Published: December 2024

In this paper we discuss about the role of observers in our four dimensional universe of the events taking place. Time is the
thread which connects the fabric of our world and we believe it to be flowing from a fifth dimension. Observers in quantum
mechanics resemble human observers and it seems nature has been built around our existence.
The Influence of Aberrations on the Accuracy of Astrometry and Photometry
Authors: Khlamov Sergii
Published: December 2024

Aberrations in optical systems pose critical challenges to the precision of astrometric and photometric measurements,
directly impacting our ability to accurately determine the positions and brightness of celestial objects. There are different
aberration types including spherical aberration, coma, diffraction rays, motion blur, astigmatism, flare light, field curvature,
vignetting, and chromatic aberration. They cause distortions in the recorded images, affecting the accuracy and reliability of
measurements in both astrometry and photometry. This review aims to offer insights into both the theoretical and practical
aspects of aberration control, providing a foundation for future advancements in precision astrometry and photometry,
essential for understanding the Universe with unprecedented accuracy