bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Music as Therapy: Towards an Integrated Experience
Authors: Pavlicevic Mercédès 
Published: December 2008

An integrated musical experience is an elusive event whose occurrence is acknowledged – consciously or unconsciously – by all human beings. It comprises numerous interactive factors, any of which can impede or facilitate the move towards musical integration.The implications exist that all human beings are inherently music-beings, that music is inherently therapeutic and that musical and self-integration are reciprocal. Thus changes in either will be reflected in the other, and when used in a specifically therapeutic way, music will promote self-integration. Acknowledging these implications broadens and enriches the concepts of healing, of teaching, and of music making, so that all who participate in these events can potentially be profoundly moved towards a more integrated creative experience.
A West African Folktale in the Classroom
Authors: Kwami Robert 
Published: December 2008

The author describes an investigation into the use of West African folklore in the school curriculum by means of an African folktale which became the basis for a project in the class music lessons. Starting with research into West African folklore, particularly children's stories and songs, in Ghana and Nigeria between 1979 and 1983, music was composed in a basically African style to go with an adaptation of one of the stories.The practical work in a London primary school investigated ways of minimising the apparent dichotomy between African and Western musics in the curriculum.
Two! Four! Six! Eight! How do we Appreciate? Music Appreciation – Perceiving it, Understanding it
Authors: Mehr Norman , Elrod Lu 
Published: December 2008

An accountable program of elementary classroom music must have an educational function. In other words, it must perform an educational service. This involves more than the singing of songs or the attempt to hold the interest of children with ‘fun’ activities.The educational assumption behind most elementary classroom music programs is that the children through their musical experiences in the classroom will somehow learn to ‘appreciate’ music. The term ‘appreciate’, however, is vague and means different things to different people. Does it mean that children will learn to love the music of the masters by listening to great music on recordings and being told stories about the meaning of the music and the lives of composers? Does appreciating music mean identifying instruments and labeling the form? Does it mean identifying the composer and the period of the music from hearing it? Does it mean naming a certain number of composers and a certain number of the works of each? Does it have anything to do with preference for and liking of the music of the masters?
Assessing Musical Performance
Authors: Elliott David 
Published: December 2008

The arts pose some particular problems in the field of assessment. In the study reported here, we examined some of the problems performance presents to assessors especially in the context of the GCSE examination, and with reference to the model for assessment given in the APU Report on Aesthetic Development.A small-scale experiment was devised with the aim of investigating the reliability and different perceptions of judges of musical performances. As well as assessment by professional musicians, we investigated self assessment and assessment by peer-group members. There was a generally high measure of agreement between judges, both in terms of their individual comments and the rank order they each devised. This suggests that there were some objective criteria at work in their assessments. Self-assessments proved very realistic, although those of the peer-group were slightly less so.
The Economic Accountability of Music Education
Authors: Oehrle Elizabeth 
Published: December 2008

Music education struggles to survive in countries such as England, United States and South Africa because of the lack of financial support, particularly during economic recessions. To counter this unfortunate situation, well-written books and articles have been appeared over the years, propounding the truth that the arts do have an essential place in the balanced education of children, but these well-founded and constructed arguments continually fall on deaf ears. During economic recessions government planners and educational authorities rationalise that they can afford to do away with the arts because these subjects make little or no difference to the economic welfare of the country.Information from the best-seller by Peters & Waterman, In Search of Excellence, reveals that the principle characteristics of the managers of excellent companies in the United States are characteristics that concern the creative process of thinking, creative aspects of personality, creative products and environmental conditions. These companies have a positive effect on the United States economy. As the aspect of education which is best equipped to nurture these characteristics is the arts, then it is reasonable to argue that we can not afford to ‘phase out’ music education.Because education in the United States, England and South Africa is closely linked to the economy, music educators in capitalist countries should begin to argue for the arts from an economic standpoint, as capitalistic societies are orientated primarily toward capital gain. Failing this, we shall have to argue for more fundamental changes in political and economic systems.
Tertiary Music Education in Australia
Authors: Silsbury Elizabeth 
Published: December 2008

During the Whitlam years, tertiary education burgeoned in Australia. Colleges of Advanced Education, most of them transformed Teachers' Colleges and unconvinced that their coaches would not turn out to be pumpkins after all, sprang up and/or expanded in city and country districts in all states. A national study carried out in 1977 showed that tertiary music and music education was everywhere healthy and in some places flourishing. In 1980 the Razor Gang went on a surgical rampage, perpetrating amalgamations in the name of economy on the GAEs, and forcing many of them into alliances as unwieldy as they were unholy. In 1987 a national review involving universities as well as GAEs was launched.Elizabeth Silsbury's article traces those changes, describes their effect on music and takes a punt on what might happen when the dust settles for the third time in less than 20 years.
Letters
Authors: Jones Harold 
Published: December 2008

Laura Campbell's article (Vol. 5, No. 3, November 1988) seems a little ambivalent. On the one hand she proposes a ‘method’ for harmonising chorales in the style of J. S. Bach; on the other she seems to suggest that this is not in any case an appropriate task for the student.By implication this raises once again the whole question of the value of ‘imitative’ work as an agent of musical education. Does it teach anything other than knowledge of the particular style involved and if not, does it matter? To take a style even more remote from everyday musical experience, that of Palestrina, I am sure that those of us who devoted a good deal of time to it as students did gain much useful practice in the writing of smooth vocal lines applicable in fields as distant from the idiom of Palestrina as the arrangement of modern light music. In the same way the budding composer can learn from Bach-style chorale harmonisation something of the way in which harmonic considerations interact with the writing of interesting vocal lines, and the compromises that have to be made in the process of fusing the two together. It is true that the principal benefit of this activity is knowledge of Bach's methods in chorale harmonisation, but the same is true of what is now known as ‘pastiche’ work in any idiom; the idea that one can learn a sort of all-purpose abstract harmonic language which can be applied mutatis mutandis to all tonal music from the Baroque to the late Romantic era has now fallen into disrepute. It is worth noting that Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Bruckner all considered it worth their while to work at Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum, a sort of archetypal ‘pastiche’ method. Figured bass, incidentally, is not primarily a method of teaching, but a shorthand performing notation.
An Approach to the Use of West African Musics in the Classroom Based on Age and Gender Classifications
Authors: Kwami Robert 
Published: December 2008

This article proposes age and gender as a way of classifying music; it raises awareness of the importance of age–gender classifications of West African musics; and introduces examples of West African musics.It is argued that the classifications could help in selecting musics for curricular use: they could be used as a framework to choose African musics for school curricula; while the musical examples may be of some use to teachers. Three curricular perspectives – musical, intercultural and multidisciplinary – are suggested, the first of which draws on African drumming procedures and creative work.
The Philosophical Foundations of Music Education: The Case of Primary Music Education in Australia
Authors: Temmerman Nita 
Published: December 2008

Primary music education programme development and implementation is founded on philosophical beliefs about the purpose of music education.Primary classroom teachers who ultimately have responsibility for development and implementation of the music education programme formulate their philosophical beliefs about the purpose of music education based on a multitude of variables. Whilst their own past music experiences and education assume significance in the formation of a music education philosophy, the primary music curriculum documents provided by education authorities constitute an important source for teachers' current philosophical opinion about the purpose of music education.Two philosophical arguments have thus far formed the basis of the purpose of music education in the history of the western world, namely, the intrinsic and extrinsic arguments. Primary music curriculum documents have also been based on one (or perhaps both), of these philosophical views about the purpose of music education.In this article a discussion of the philosophical foundations of music education, with special reference to primary music education in Australia, is presented. Five primary music curriculum documents will be looked at, and commentary given about the current philosophical status of Australian primary music education and the implications for programme development and implementation.
Constructive Creations
Authors: Rooke Marion 
Published: December 2008

The author, troubled by doubts about the value for pupils’ general education of violin teaching, sets about finding out, by interview and open discussion, what the problems are, for teachers and pupils alike; and having analysed them, sets herself the task of trying solve some of them.Encouraging pupils to compose music that will help them overcome their own technical difficulties is a fruitful start, and one that can lead to further developments of great promise for the future of music education. By evaluating the processes and outcomes of this creative work it is possible to throw light and understanding on learning and teaching processes in both violin playing and composition.
The Future of the Arts in Education? Alternative Strategies
Authors: Long Robert 
Published: December 2008

Much speculation exists as to the prospect Music and the Performing Arts face in the wake of the 1988 Education Act. Research shows that interaction and fusion, which exist between Music and the Performing Arts, intensify expressive character for young people, and generate more powerful and sustained responses, in comparison with single art forms.Results of experiments show the value of fused artefacts with significant implications for future Arts education, as regards both making and appraising.
Teaching Music through Individual Composition: A Music Course for Pupils aged Eleven to Eighteen
Authors: Dunn Rosemary 
Published: December 2008

In this article I expound my method of teaching the language of music to my pupils. I aim to enable them to express themselves through music, just as they are expected to use the tools of language for creative writing and art materials for original work.My class organisation and the syllabus by which my pupils learn to compose is explained in some detail for years seven to nine and in more general terms thereafter.I include examples of compositions, from Year Seven and from GCSE pupils. I hope I can encourage other teachers to adopt similar objectives and therefore reap similar rewards.
Music, Sense and Aesthetic Education
Authors: Radford Michael 
Published: December 2008

Musical sense is examined at two levels; in relation to human experiences or activity, and by virtue of its ‘form’. Reference in music to experience and activity is discussed in terms of its relationship to musical form. From an analysis of sense in language it is suggested that the social understandings of which music is a part are a source of sense. The origins of this social understanding are examined.How does this sensible quality come to have aesthetic significance? Music may achieve significance from the way in which it refers to experience. Music that achieves sense by virtue of form is examined in terms of the way that it relates to intellectual needs.
Does context or color improve object recognition in patients with low vision?
Authors: BOUCART MURIEL , DESPRETZ PASCAL , HLADIUK KATRINE , DESMETTRE THOMAS 
Published: December 2008

AbstractMost studies on people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) have been focused on investigations of low-level processes with simple stimuli like gratings, letters, and in perception of isolated faces or objects. We investigated the ability of people with low vision to analyze more complex stimuli like photographs of natural scenes. Fifteen participants with AMD and low vision (acuity on the better eye <20/200) and 11 normally sighted age-matched controls took part in the study. They were presented with photographs of either colored or achromatic gray level scenes in one condition and with photographs of natural scenes versus isolated objects extracted from these scenes in another condition. The photographs were centrally displayed for 300 ms. In both conditions, observers were instructed to press a key when they saw a predefined target (a face or an animal). The target was present in half of the trials. Color facilitated performance in people with low vision, while equivalent performance was found for colored and achromatic pictures in normally sighted participants. Isolated objects were categorized more accurately than objects in scenes in people with low vision. No difference was found for normally sighted observers. The results suggest that spatial properties that facilitate image segmentation (e.g., color and reduced crowding) help object perception in people with low vision.
Two types of cone bipolar cells express voltage-gated Na+ channels in the rat retina
Authors: CUI JINJUAN , PAN ZHUO-HUA 
Published: December 2008

AbstractTwo groups of retinal cone bipolar cells (CBCs) in rats were found to express voltage-gated Na+ channels. The axon terminals of the first group stratify in sublamina 2 of the inner plexiform layer (IPL) and partially overlap with the OFF-cholinergic band. This group was identified as type 3 CBCs. The axon terminals of the second group stratify in sublamina 3 of the IPL, slightly distal to the ON-cholinergic band. Cells of this second group resemble type 5 CBCs. In addition, we observed another group of ON-type CBCs with terminal stratification similar to that of the second group. However, this latter group did not show any Na+ current, instead exhibiting a large hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated cation current, suggesting the existence of two subclasses of physiologically distinct type 5 CBCs. Both groups of Na+-expressing bipolar cells were capable of generating a rapid tetrodotoxin-sensitive action potential as revealed by current injection. Multiple spike-like potentials were also observed in some of these cells. Results of this study provide valuable insights into the function of voltage-gated Na+ channels of retinal bipolar cells in retinal processing.
Correlation between Ground Level Ultra-Violet Radiation & Lower Atmospheric Aerosol Load
Authors: Yadav Shweta , Tandon Ankit 
Published: December 2008

AbstractUV radiation is known to affect many biological and chemical processes, and is largely detrimental to individual organisms. Specific concerns include increase in the incidence of skin cancer, ocular damage, and other health effects in humans and other animals; damage to terrestrial and oceanic vegetation; changes in the chemistry of the lower atmosphere e.g. photochemical smog formation. Present study was undertaken to monitor lower atmospheric aerosol load with Respirable Dust Sampler and ultraviolet radiation with UV-radiometer in the ambient environment of Delhi. PM10 (< 10 µm) and SPM (> 10 µm) samples collected for the period of the study (8 weeks, 2 samples per week, total 16 samples). Hourly UV Fluxes (UV-B & UV-A) were measured from four hours ahead to four hours following the solar noon (LAT 12:00hrs), alongside aerosol sampling twice in a week. Our study shows, lower-atmospheric load of finer particles (PM10) significantly cut-off both UV-A and UV-B fluxes reaching the earth surface. PM10 load shows a satisfactory negative correlation with UV-A and UV-B fluxes at ground level.
A haemagglutinin from the medicinal fungus Cordyceps militaris
Authors: Wong Jack H. , Wang Hexiang , Ng Tzi B. 
Published: December 2008

There are only a few reports on agglutinins from ascomycete and medicinal fungi. An HA (haemagglutinin), with an N-terminal amino acid sequence different from those of known lectins, was isolated in the present study from dried fruiting bodies of the medicinal ascomycete fungus Cordyceps militaris. The purification protocol consisted of affinity chromatography, ion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration. The haemagglutinating activity of the HA could not be inhibited by simple sugars or heparin, and was stable over the pH range 2–13 and up to 60°C. Chemical modification of tryptophan and tyrosine residues had no effect. The HA exhibited some antiproliferative activity towards hepatoma (HepG2) cells and inhibited HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (IC50=10 μM). However, it did not exhibit antifungal activity, mitogenic activity towards splenocytes, nitric oxide-inducing activity towards macrophages or RNase activity. The results of the present study add to the meagre information pertaining to agglutinins from ascomycete and medicinal mushrooms. It is revealed in this study that C. militaris HA differs from other ascomycete mushroom HAs in a variety of biochemical characteristics.
Intramyocellular lipid levels are associated with peripheral, but not hepatic, insulin sensitivity in normal healthy subjects
Authors: Salgin Burak , Sleigh Alison J. , Williams Rachel M. , Jackson Sarah J. , Bluck Les J. , Murgatroyd Peter R. , Humphreys Sandy M. , Harding Sally , Carpenter T. Adrian , Dunger David B. 
Published: December 2008

Increased levels of IMCL (intramyocellular lipid) have been shown to be associated with reduced steady-state glucose infusion rates during a hyperinsulinaemic–euglycaemic clamp (M-value). The aim of the present study was to explore how IMCL levels relate to the insulin-mediated suppression of endogenous glucose production [hepatic SI (insulin sensitivity)] and increase in glucose disposal (peripheral SI). In the present study, 11 healthy young adults (7 male, 4 female; aged 21–31 years) undertook, in random order, an hyperinsulinaemic–euglycaemic clamp combined with stable glucose isotope enrichment to measure peripheral and hepatic SI, a 1H-MRS (proton-magnetic resonance spectroscopy) scan to determine IMCL levels and a DXA (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) scan to assess body composition. IMCL levels (range, 3.2–10.7) were associated with whole-body fat mass (r=0.787, P=0.004), fat mass corrected for height (r=0.822, P=0.002) and percentage of central fat mass (r=0.694, P=0.02), but were not related to whole-body FFM (fat-free mass; r=−0.472, P=0.1). IMCL levels correlated closely with the M-value (r=−0.727, P=0.01) and FFM-corrected peripheral SI (r=−0.675, P=0.02), but were not related to hepatic SI adjusted for body weight (r=0.08, P=0.8). The results of the present study suggest that IMCL accumulation may be a sensitive marker for attenuations in peripheral, but not hepatic, SI in normal populations. Given the close relationship of IMCL levels to whole-body and central abdominal fat mass, relative increases in the flux of lipids from adipose tissue to the intramyocellular compartment may be an integral part of the mechanisms underlying reductions in SI.
NT‐proBNP is increased in healthy pregnancies compared to non‐pregnant controls
Authors: FRANZ MAXIMILIAN B. , FRANZ MAXIMILIAN B. , ANDREAS MARTIN , SCHIESSL BARBARA , ZEISLER HARALD , NEUBAUER ANNA , KASTL STEFAN P. , HESS GEORG , RHOMBERG FRANZISKA , ZDUNEK DIETMAR , MAURER GERALD , SCHLEMBACH DIETMAR , HEINZE GEORG , SZEKERES THOMAS , GOTTSAUNER‐WOLF MICHAEL 
Published: December 2008

AbstractSerum concentrations of the amino‐terminal pro‐B‐type natriuretic peptide (NT‐proBNP) may be used to monitor cardiac function during pregnancy but normal values are not established for this purpose. Therefore, we investigated NT‐proBNP in normotensive healthy pregnancies compared to a non‐pregnant control group. Serum NT‐proBNP was measured in 94 normotensive, healthy pregnant women (32±6 years) every five weeks beginning from 12th gestational week (GW) in a longitudinal study and compared to a non‐pregnant control group of 521 women (32±7 years). Pooled median serum NT‐proBNP levels (25th; 75th percentile) were significantly higher in pregnant women compared to non‐pregnant women (56 (33; 95) pg/ml vs. 38 (22; 62) pg/ml (p<0.001)). NT‐proBNP increased during pregnancy to 73 (51; 124) pg/ml in the 11+6 to 15+6 GW (p<0.001). However, NT‐proBNP levels from 23+0 GW towards term were comparable to non‐pregnant controls. NT‐proBNP is significantly elevated in healthy pregnancies until mid‐pregnancy. As preeclampsia and gestational hypertension are associated with increased NT‐proBNP, our results have to be considered in future diagnostic approaches using NT‐proBNP for these pathologic conditions.