bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The vocal development of a girl who sings but does not speak
Authors: Mogharbel Christliebe El , Sommer Grit , Deutsch Werner , Wenglorz Markus , Laufs Ingo 
Published: March 2011

Background in music psychology The development of singing involves not only the acquisition of melodies and words but also precise attunement to the timing structure and melodic features given by the social environment, which leads to a considerable conventionalization of performance. Background in linguistics In the course of language development, children adapt their phonetic output to the sound patterns of the target language. In singing songs, the rendition of the lyrics naturally leans on these native language sound patterns, even if the semantic content of the lyrics plays little role. Aims We report a long-term study of a child with infantile autism and severe mental handicap who sings songs but has no language. The only aspect of speech she produces is the phonetic realization of the songs she sings. This exceptional case in which musical development is dissociated from language development bears relevance to the question of the interrelationship of singing and speaking. Method The material consists of two hours of audio data or 269 reproductions of familiar songs extracted from a long-term video documentation of the single case covering the period from age 3–15. Based on phonetic and musical transcriptions, the girl's musical abilities were qualitatively assessed by expert rating. Her phonetic repertoire was quantitatively assessed. Her vocal production (phonetic and musical) was examined longitudinally with respect to its approximation to the original songs. Results At three years the autistic girl displays precocious musical competence in singing, which, however, does not grow further from this initial level. Musical creativity and expressiveness grow to a peak in middle childhood and then decline again in adolescence. The girl's phonetic inventory of sounds is highly restricted and shows no progression, but her articulation grows more and more deliberate and, within her bounds, nearer to the original words. The non-verbal girl apparently has a mental representation of the lyrics. Conclusion Musical competence, creativity and expressiveness in singing can reach a high level even in the total absence of language, and by singing, some residual language-like capacity like articulatory control may be enhanced.
The use of experience-sampling methods to monitor musical imagery in everyday life
Authors: Bailes Freya A. 
Published: March 2011

Little is known about the prevalence or nature of the everyday experience of imagining music in the “mind's ear”. An obstacle has been the reliance on indirect, retrospective reporting. Musical imagery research to date has been limited to the experimenter-centred environment of laboratory studies. This paper considers the use of Experience-Sampling Methods (ESM) to explore musical imagery as it occurs in everyday life. A pilot study applied ESM to determine when musical imagery might occur and how it is experienced. Eleven music students were cued to fill out an experience-sampling form (ESF) at random times throughout a seven-day period. Likert scale items probed the strength of imagery for different musical dimensions, while more general questions explored respondents' current activities, interaction with others and mood. Participants reported hearing externally sounded music for 47% of these episodes and imagining music for 35%. A high rate of return and the depth of information provided by respondents suggest that ESM techniques are an effective way of exploring musical imagery in ecologically valid conditions. It is argued that this method could be used to explore mental imagery for music in a wider population. Refined sampling techniques may offer a way to test specific hypotheses concerning characteristics of everyday imagery for music. Exploring auditory imagery in naturalistic as well as laboratory settings may lead to a clearer understanding of the influence of context on our mental imagery of music.
Similarity relations in listening to music: How do they come into play?
Authors: Deliège Irène 
Published: March 2011

In this essay, similarity relations in the perception of music are studied on the basis of two different standpoints. The first is said to be external and studies comparisons between distinct and autonomous musical entities, i.e. different works or different interpretations. The second is internal and looks at similarity relations, which the listener identifies in the same work or part of a work, and in the same interpretation. This last procedure is developed in different directions. We show the importance of the similarity factor: (i) in the actual composition process as the composer seeks unity and coherence in his or her piece; (ii) in folk music; (iii) as an essential element for the listener who strives to understand the piece as he listens to it in real time. This last point is of fundamental importance for the study of cognition in general i.e. the implicit or explicit role of similarity in perception processes. Concrete examples of the main theoretical points described here can be identified in the course of the different phases of the cue extraction model that I developed recently, i.e. segmentation, categorization, schematization, imprint formation (Deliège, 1989, 1991). The SIMILARITY/DIFFERENCE axis is a central element in the structure of the model. The empirical approaches used in experimenting with the different phases of the model are analyzed in this two-fold perspective. From the very beginning, this was the aim of a series of procedures that aimed at showing the implicit or explicit aspects of the processes that musician and non-musician participants use during the experimental listening process. An overall view of the results obtained confirms that the assumptions were correct.
Intensity changes and perceived similarity: Inter-parametric analogies
Authors: Eitan Zohar , Granot Roni Y. 
Published: March 2011

Music theorists and psychologists have described diverse musical processes in terms of changes (increase or decrease) in “intensity”. This paper examines the hypothesis that analogous intensity changes in different musical parameters can be perceived as similar, and discusses implications of such perception for music analysis. In the experiment reported, participants rated the degree to which members of pairs of musical stimuli were similar in character to a “standard” — a crescendo on a repeated tone. One member of each pair presented an “increase” in a specific musical parameter, while the other presented a “decrease” (e.g., pitch ascent vs. descent). Parameters investigated included melodic direction and attack rate and their combinations, pitch interval size, motivic pace, and harmonic tension. For most parameters, the intensifying figure was rated as closer to the standard (itself intensifying) than its abating counterpart. Perceived similarity was strongest between figures presenting intensification in dynamics (crescendo) and pitch direction (ascent), while similarity between intensification in dynamics and tempo (accelerando) was weaker, and perceived mainly by musically-trained subjects. Similarity between dynamic change and harmonic progression was perceived only when the latter involved manipulation of dissonance, and dynamic intensification and increase in pitch interval size were perceived as similar only for ascending intervals. Importantly, the combined effect of melodic direction and attack rate on similarity perception was additive, rather than interactive, though the effect of melodic direction was significantly stronger. This result supports models of “integrated intensity contours” (Berry, 1976; Todd, 1994), but suggests different weighting for different musical parameters. In sum, results indicate that listeners can perceive intensity contours in different parameters as analogous, and thus suggest that intensity contours may serve as musical “gestures”, regardless of the specific parameters depicting them. The implications of these results to music analysis are discussed with regard to motivic structure, thematic prototypicality, and structural functions of intensity contours.
The singing lesson. Phenomenology of the non-verbal dynamics appearing in studying the Instrument-voix
Authors: Vitale Alessia Rita 
Published: March 2011

The novelty of this approach lies in studying singing from the point of view the multifunctionality and polyvalence of the voice in all the typically plural dimensions that contribute to making it a unique instrument, the only instrument embodied/ incarnated in its interpreter, both material and transcendent. An “object” both external and internal, both the most intersubjective and the most personal — to the point of requiring “someone other than oneself” to help one take one's distance from it to study it — the voice has the faculty of bringing together simultaneously the polar opposites of Being. With a methodology at the crossroads of the human sciences, this study forms part of a broader systematic investigation I engaged in concerning the detailed analysis of the singing lesson and the comparison of its specific psycho-dynamic processes with those involved in the learning of other musical instruments. I deal with the role and influence that non-verbal/non-vocal languages assume in the teaching and learning about the voice in its singing dimension when it is used with the value of a musical instrument. This is what I refer to as the “instrument-voix”. The notion of gesture is of pivotal importance in non-verbal language, and this notion is twofold in nature: it involves the problematic of Time, which (itself) necessarily involves that of Memories. Dealt with here will be the influence of nonverbal languages upon mnesic activities.
A content-based music retrieval engine: JMIR-Mozart
Authors: Ala-Härkönen Väinö , Brunberg Jussi , Lemström Kjell , Mikkilä Niko 
Published: March 2011

The rapid increase of storage capacity has brought along large-scale multimedia databases. To access such databases, content-based retrieval methods are needed in order to avoid the burden of handcraft involved in building a query system working on metadata. The burgeoning demand for such methods can be seen, for instance, in the number of researchers working on developing tools and algorithms to this end. In this paper, we present a prototypic, client-server query engine for content-based music retrieval (CBAAR). Our main aim is to help researchers working in the field so that they could have a retrieval platform where to embed and test their novel tools and algorithms without the burden of building a whole system from scratch. We give an overview to the platform: the architectural solutions, the communication protocols and user interface design. As for an example, we have embedded in this platform some music similarity and transcription algorithms developed in the C-BRAHMS research group, and thus achieved a complete retrieval system that can be queried on our website. We describe these algorithms in brief and discuss the performance of the retrieval system. The platform is released to public under the GNU General Public License, allowing anyone interested to freely use and modify the software.
What's your music? Subjective theories of music-creating artists
Authors: Holtz Peter 
Published: March 2011

In an interview study with 17 music-creating artists (composers of contemporary “classical” music, electronic music, musicals, movie scores, and jazz musicians) from Southern Germany, three types of music-creating artists could be discerned: the avant-gardists, the neo-romantics, and the self-disclosing artists. These types represent social groups that are prone to typical intergroup conflicts. The different types of music-creating artists adhere to different aesthetic ideals: the avant-gardists emphasize the abstract beauty of musical structures and try to develop their music from within the music itself, the neo-romantics view music as the true language of the heart and try to express something through their music, and the self-disclosing artists feel the drive to express their feelings and sensations by means of music. As a consequence, different dimensions of musical communication are pivotal: formal aspects, the relationship between the musician and the listener, and self-disclosure. The three types of music-creating artists resemble the types of composers analyzed by Julius Bahle in the 1930s ( e.g. Bahle, 1930). Regarding their modus operandi, the musicians differ on a continuum between a purely rational creative work and the creation of music in an unconscious outburst of inspiration. Nevertheless, most musicians experience an alternation between phases of intuitive inspiration and phases of deliberate rational construction during the creative process. Therefore, a typology of musicians based on their modus operandi seems unhelpful.
Patient reported outcomes in benign multiple sclerosis
Authors: Hviid Line E , Healy Brian C , Rintell David J , Chitnis Tanuja , Weiner Howard L , Glanz Bonnie I 
Published: March 2011

Background: Benign MS patients have a mild course of disease and show no or minimal accumulation of disability over time. Little is known about the patient reported outcomes (PROs) in benign MS. Objective: The objective of the study was to compare PROs in benign MS patients and patients with similar disease duration or disability status, and to investigate how the definition of benign MS affected this outcome. Methods: Two groups of Benign MS patients (disease duration ≥15 years, Expanded Disability Status Scale [EDSS] score ≤1.5 [Benign-1.5], or ≤3.0 [Benign-3]) were compared with four other MS groups: disease duration ≥15 years, EDSS score >3.0 (Late-MS); disease duration <15 years, and EDSS score ≤1.5 (Low-EDSS-1.5), or ≤3.0 (Low-EDSS-3); disease duration ≤5 years (Early-MS). PROs included measures of QOL, fatigue, depression, and social support. Cognitive function was also assessed. Results: Both benign groups had better PROs than Late MS patients on all measures ( p < 0.05). QOL, depression, and fatigue were significantly different between Benign-1.5 and Early-MS groups ( p < 0.01). Benign-1.5 had higher mental health QOL than Low EDSS-1.5, but was otherwise similar. Benign-3 patients had worse depression than Early-MS ( p < 0.01), and worse cognition compared with Low-EDSS-3 ( p = 0.033). Benign-1.5 had higher QOL and lower fatigue ( p < 0.005) than Benign-2-3, and showed a marginally significant difference in cognitive functioning ( p = 0.055). Conclusions: Patients with benign MS had better PROs than other groups of MS patients, suggesting that both disease duration and disability influence PROs. The study also showed a difference in PROs based on the way benign MS was defined.
Multiple sclerosis: BAFF and CXCL13 in cerebrospinal fluid
Authors: Ragheb Samia , Li Yanfeng , Simon Kirk , VanHaerents Stephen , Galimberti Daniela , De Riz Milena , Fenoglio Chiara , Scarpini Elio , Lisak Robert 
Published: March 2011

Background: There is increasing evidence of B-cell involvement in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS). B-cell activating factor (BAFF) has an essential role in B-cell homeostasis. The chemokine CXCL13 has an important role in the formation and maintenance of B-cell follicles. Objective: To measure BAFF and CXCL13 levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with MS compared to patients with other neurological diseases. Methods: Cytokine/chemokine levels were measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: In MS patients, BAFF levels were highest in patients with secondary progressive disease, and were higher during relapse in patients with relapsing–remitting and secondary progressive disease. CXCL13 levels were also higher during relapse. There was a positive correlation between CXCL13 and the IgG index, and an inverse correlation between BAFF and the IgG index. The implications of this finding are discussed. Conclusion: During relapse, we found various positive correlations between BAFF, CXCL13 and the cytokines IL-6 and IL-10. These findings show that molecules that are essential for B-cell recruitment, survival, maturation and function may be working in concert to affect B-cell homeostasis in MS and contribute to the pathophysiology of the disease.
Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke is associated with increased risk for multiple sclerosis
Authors: Hedström AK , Bäärnhielm M , Olsson T , Alfredsson L 
Published: March 2011

Background: Tobacco smoking has consistently been associated with increased risk for multiple sclerosis. However, data has been inconsistent regarding the influence of passive smoking. Objective: The aim was to estimate the influence of passive smoking on the risk for multiple sclerosis. Methods: A population-based case–control study using incident cases of multiple sclerosis was performed in Sweden, and the study population was restricted to subjects who had never smoked (695 cases, 1635 controls). The incidence of multiple sclerosis among never-smokers who had been exposed to passive smoking was compared with that of never-smokers who had never been exposed by calculating the odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval employing logistic regression. Results: The risk for multiple sclerosis was increased among never-smokers who had been exposed to passive smoking (OR 1.3, 95% CI 1.1–1.6) compared to never-smokers who had never been exposed. The risk increased with increasing duration of exposure ( p = 0.003). Conclusions: Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke is associated with an increased risk for multiple sclerosis. Since smoking, but not usage of oral tobacco in the form of moist snuff, is associated with increased risk for multiple sclerosis, we consider that the critical effects of passive smoking may be the result of irritations in the lungs. Hence, further studies would be valuable in order to clarify whether other forms of lung irritation, such as air pollution, contribute to the triggering of multiple sclerosis.
Cerebral acetylcholinesterase activity is not decreased in MS patients with cognitive impairment
Authors: Virta Jere R , Laatu Sari , Parkkola Riitta , Oikonen Vesa , Rinne Juha O , Ruutiainen Juhani 
Published: March 2011

Background: Neuropsychological studies have extensively described the presence of cognitive dysfunction in MS patients. One possible pharmacological treatment of the impairment could be based on acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs), which have shown efficacy in alleviating cognitive impairment in many other disorders. The findings on the efficacy of AChEI medication in MS associated cognitive symptoms are preliminary and no studies concerning cerebral acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity in these patients have been published. Objective: The objective of the study was to examine cerebral AChE activity in cognitively deteriorated MS patients. Cerebral AChE activity of 10 MS patients with secondary progressive disease and marked cognitive impairment, and 10 healthy controls, was studied with positron emission tomography using tracer 11C-MP4A. Methods: The cognitive profile of the patients was assessed with CERAD (Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease). Results: No differences in cortical AChE activity between MS patients and controls were seen. Conclusions: In the patient group regional AChE activities had inverse correlations with Word learning and MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination) scores. In the group of cognitively deteriorated MS patients no change in cerebral AChE activity, compared with controls, was observed, but within the patient group more pronounced cognitive symptoms were associated with higher cerebral AChE activity.
Integrative prognostic risk score in acute myeloid leukemia with normal karyotype
Authors: Damm Frederik , Heuser Michael , Morgan Michael , Wagner Katharina , Görlich Kerstin , Großhennig Anika , Hamwi Iyas , Thol Felicitas , Surdziel Ewa , Fiedler Walter , Lübbert Michael , Kanz Lothar , Reuter Christoph , Heil Gerhard , Delwel Ruud , Löwenberg Bob , Valk Peter J. M. , Krauter Jürgen , Ganser Arnold 
Published: March 2011

Abstract
To integrate available clinical and molecular information for cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia (CN-AML) patients into one risk score, 275 CN-AML patients from multicenter treatment trials AML SHG Hannover 0199 and 0295 and 131 patients from HOVON/SAKK protocols as external controls were evaluated for mutations/polymorphisms in NPM1, FLT3, CEBPA, MLL, NRAS, IDH1/2, and WT1. Transcript levels were quantified for BAALC, ERG, EVI1, ID1, MN1, PRAME, and WT1. Integrative prognostic risk score (IPRS) was modeled in 181 patients based on age, white blood cell count, mutation status of NPM1, FLT3-ITD, CEBPA, single nucleotide polymorphism rs16754, and expression levels of BAALC, ERG, MN1, and WT1 to represent low, intermediate, and high risk of death. Complete remission (P = .005), relapse-free survival (RFS, P < .001), and overall survival (OS, P < .001) were significantly different for the 3 risk groups. In 2 independent validation cohorts of 94 and 131 patients, the IPRS predicted different OS (P < .001) and RFS (P < .001). High-risk patients with related donors had longer OS (P = .016) and RFS (P = .026) compared with patients without related donors. In contrast, intermediate-risk group patients with related donors had shorter OS (P = .003) and RFS (P = .05). Donor availability had no impact on outcome of patients in the low-risk group. Thus, the IPRS may improve consolidation treatment stratification in CN-AML patients. Study registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT00209833.
Molecular and neurological characterizations of three Saudi families with lipoid proteinosis
Authors: Salih Mustafa A , Abu-Amero Khaled K , Alrasheed Saleh , Alorainy Ibrahim A , Liu Lu , McGrath John A , Van Maldergem Lionel , Al-Faky Yasser H , AlSuhaibani Adel H , Oystreck Darren T , Bosley Thomas M 
Published: March 2011

AbstractBackgroundLipoid proteinosis is a rare autosomal recessive disease characterized by cutaneous and mucosal lesions and hoarseness appearing in early childhood. It is caused by homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations in theECM1gene. The disease is largely uncharacterized in Arab population and the mutation(s) spectrum in the Arab population is largely unknown. We report the neurologic and neuroradiologic characteristics andECM1gene mutations of seven individuals with lipoid proteinosis (LP) from three unrelated consanguineous families.MethodsClinical, neurologic, and neuro-ophthalmologic examinations; skin histopathology; brain CT and MRI; and sequencing of the fullECM1gene.ResultsAll seven affected individuals had skin scarring and hoarseness from early childhood. The two children in Family 1 had worse skin involvement and worse hoarseness than affected children of Families 2 and 3. Both children in Family 1 were modestly mentally retarded, and one had typical calcifications of the amygdalae on CT scan. Affected individuals in Families 2 and 3 had no grossneurologic, neurodevelopmental, or neuroimaging abnormalities. Skin histopathology was compatible with LP in all three families. Sequencing the full coding region ofECM1gene revealed two novel mutationsin Family 1 (c.1300-1301delAA) and Family 2 (p.Cys269Tyr) and in Family 3 a previously described 1163 bp deletion starting 34 bp into intron 8.ConclusionsThese individuals illustrate the neurologic spectrum of LP, including variable mental retardation, personality changes, and mesial temporal calcificationand imply that significant neurologic involvement may be somewhat less common than previously thought. The cause of neurologic abnormalities was not clear from either neuroimaging or from what is known aboutECM1function. The severity of dermatologic abnormalities and hoarseness generally correlated with neurologic abnormalities, with Family 1 being somewhat more affected in all spheres than the other two families. Nevertheless, phenotype-genotype correlation was not obvious, possibly because of difficulty quantifying the neurologic phenotype and because of genetic complexity.