Search results for: musical tension

Authors: Olupemi E. Oludare

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This paper discusses the thematic structure of Yoruba popular music of Southwest Nigeria. It examines the use of themes and variations in early and contemporary Juju music. The work is an outcome of a research developed by the author in his doctoral studies at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, with the aim of analyzing the thematic and motivic developments in Yoruba popular genres. Observations, interviews, live recordings and CDs were used as methods for eliciting information. Field recordings and CDs of selected musical samples were also transcribed and notated. The research established the prevalent use of string of themes by Juju musicians as a compositional technique in moving from one musical section to another, as they communicate the verbal messages in their song. These themes consisting of the popular ‘call and response’ form found in most African music, analogous to the western ‘subject and answer’ style of the fugue or sonata form, although without the tonic–dominant relations. Due to the short and repetitive form of African melodies and rhythms, a theme is restated as a variation, where its rhythmic and melodic motifs are stylistically developed and repeated, but still retaining its recognizable core musical structure. The findings of this study showed that Juju musicians generally often employ a thematic plan where new themes are used to arrange the songs into sections, and each theme is developed into variations in order to further expand the music, eliminate monotony, and create musical aesthetics, serving as hallmark of its musical identity. The study established the musical and extra-musical attributes of the genre, while recommending further research towards analyzing the various compositional techniques employed in African popular genres.

Keywords: compositional techniques, popular music, theme and variation, thematic development

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Authors: Yoshie Asahara, Hidekuni Takao

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Non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NPPV), a type of ventilation therapy, is a treatment in which a mask is attached to the patient's face and delivers gas into the mask to support breathing. The NPPV mask uses a strap, which is necessary to attach and secure the mask in the appropriate facial position, but the tensile strength of the strap is adjusted by the sensation of the hands. The strap uniformity and fine-tuning strap tension are judged by the skill of the operator and the amount felt by the finger. In the future, additional strap operation and adjustment methods will be required to meet the needs for reducing the burden on the patient’s face. In this study, we fabricated a mechanism that can measure, adjust and fix the tension of the straps. A small amount of strap tension can be adjusted by rotating the shaft. This makes it possible to control the slight strap tension that is difficult to grasp with the sense of the operator's hand. In addition, this mechanism allows the operator to control the strap while controlling the movement of the mask body. This leads to the establishment of a suitable mask fitting method for each patient. The developed mechanism enables the operation and fine reproducible adjustment of the strap tension and the mask balance, reducing the burden on the face.

Keywords: balance of the mask strap, fine adjustment, film sensor, mask fitting technique, mask strap tension

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Authors: Emilia A. Campayo-Munoz, Alberto Cabedo-Mas

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Music students have to face the challenges of musical practice -such as discipline in study, competitiveness, or performance anxiety- that require good emotional management to enable successful performance. However, few rigorous implementations focused on studying the influence of emotional skills in student's musical performance. Responding to this gap in the literature, this study aims to explore the relationship between emotional skills and musical performance in the context of elementary music education in conservatoires. Given the individual nature of the instrumental studies and the difficult availability of teachers to be trained in emotional education, it was decided to conduct a multiple case study in a Spanish music conservatoire. Author 1 carried out the implementation of the research with three 10-year-old students who were selected from her piano class. All of them attended the third year of their piano studies. The research processes consisted of the implementation of a set of specific and cross-sectional activities designed 'ad hoc' to be articulated in the subjects of individual instrument -piano- and ensemble in parallel to the contents of musical nature. The CE-360º questionnaire was used to measure different aspects of the students' emotional skills from a multi-angle perspective, each of the questionnaires being responded by oneself, three teachers and three peers, before and after the implementation. The data from the questionnaire were compared with the grades that the students obtained during the first and last quarter of the school year in the attended subjects. Acknowledging the complexity of emotional development, the results indicate possible relations between emotional skills and musical performance in music education in conservatoires. The results show that for the cases explored; there exists a relationship between emotional skills and musical performance. Although generalizations cannot be made, this study reinforces the need to further explore emotional development in instrumental teaching and suggest the importance of inviting teachers to reflect on the pedagogical practices extended in the conservatoires and to develop and implement those that promote the work of the students' emotions.

Keywords: conservatoires, emotional skills, music education, musical performance

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Authors: Yagya Raj Pandeya, Joonwhoan Lee

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The dynamic behavior of music and video makes it difficult to evaluate musical instrument playing in a video by computer system. Any television or film video clip with music information are rich sources for analyzing musical instruments using modern machine learning technologies. In this research, we integrate the audio and video information sources using convolutional neural network (CNN) and pass network learned features through recurrent neural network (RNN) to preserve the dynamic behaviors of audio and video. We use different pre-trained CNN for music and video feature extraction and then fine tune each model. The music network use 2D convolutional network and video network use 3D convolution (C3D). Finally, we concatenate each music and video feature by preserving the time varying features. The long short term memory (LSTM) network is used for long-term dynamic feature characterization and then use late fusion with generalized mean. The proposed network performs better performance to recognize the musical instrument using audio-video multimodal neural network.

Keywords: multimodal, 3D convolution, music-video feature extraction, generalized mean

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Authors: Cheuk Wing Lee, Kit Lun Yick, Sun Pui Ng, Joanne Yip

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Daily activities and exercise may result in large displacements of the breasts, which lead to breast pain and discomfort. Therefore, a proper bra design and fit can help to control excessive breast motion to prevent the over-stretching of the connective tissues. Nevertheless, bra fit problems, such as excessively high tension of the shoulder straps and a tight underband could have substantially negative effects on the wear comfort and health of the wearer. The purpose of this study is to, therefore, examine the effects of bra band tension on breast displacement. Usually, human wear trials are carried out, but there are inconsistencies during testing. Therefore, a soft manikin torso is used to examine breast displacement at walking speeds of 2.30 km/h and 4.08 km/h. The breast displacement itself is determined by using a VICON motion capture system. The 3D geometric changes of the underwire bra band tension and the corresponding control of breast movement are also analyzed by using a 3D handheld scanner along with Rapidform software. The results indicate that an appropriate bra band tension can help to reduce breast displacement and provide a comfortable angle for the underwire. The findings can be used by designers and bra engineers as a reference source to advance bra design and development.

Keywords: bra band, bra features, breast displacement, underwire angle

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Authors: Olupemi E. Oludare

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This paper investigates the creative practice engaged in Juju music, a Nigerian Neo-traditional genre of the Yoruba, and its influence on the consciousness of societal praxis. It takes a musical and cultural perspective, as representational indices of how the people’s religious, social, educational, and political consciousness is expressed in their music. The study adopts the historical cum descriptive design in its methodology, tracing the historical development of Juju music, the appropriation of musical and cultural materials in its creative process, and a descriptive analysis of its musical practice, in order to substantiate the role and function of Juju music and its musicians in the political, philosophical, and social consciousness of Nigeria’s pre- and post-independence epoch. Data were collected through oral interviews of selected Juju practitioners, stakeholders, and enthusiasts. It also employed the use of discography of Juju musicians. This paper discusses musical factors such as form, melodic and rhythmic patterns, and thematic materials, while highlighting cultural factors such as linguistic elements, with textual analysis, as a conscious avenue of expression. The study revealed that Juju musicians composed their music by engaging both indigenous and foreign musical materials, as a means of creative practice for musical entertainment, while expressing the people’s consciousness of their beliefs, values, and socio-political issues, hence the music functioning as a vehicle for social commentaries. The popularization and commercialization of Juju music brought the musicians national and international accolades, subsequently attracting contributions from contemporary musicians, which led to innovations of new brands, such as ‘Afro-Juju’, ‘Gospel-Juju’, ‘Hip-Hop-Juju’, etc., albeit retaining the basic musical elements of its progenitor, as a conscious music for socio-cultural functions. This study concludes that Juju music and its musicians remain germane in the musical scene of the nation’s social, educational, and political terrain, especially in the current Nigerian democratic climate. This paper recommends the promotion and patronage of the Juju music in its original form, to prevent its decline in current times, since it serves as an enrichment of national identity both in Nigeria, and Internationally.

Keywords: appropriation, consciousness, creative practice, national identity, neo-traditional

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Authors: Abdul Walid Ali

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The trend of publishing political musicals in Istana Budaya has been popular since 2007 when Malaysia celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence. Istana Budaya has at least one musical of any politician since then. Normally, the politicians are former Prime Ministers and renowned ministers prior to Malaysia's independence in 1957. The first performance in Istana Budaya which represented a politician as a theme was Muzikal Cheng Lock (2007) followed by Muzikal Tun Abdul Razak (2009), Muzikal Tun Mahathir (2010), and Muzikal Tun Mahathir 2 (2011). In 2012, Lawak Ke Der has changed the trend with comic performance and put an end to politician musical. Tun Siti Hasmah the Musical (2012) is not listed in the research because she did not hold any position as a minister. This qualitative research focuses on musicals of political figures as a theme. Some factors of making this type of performance are analyzed based on Istana Budaya’s decisions during that time in Malaysia between 2007 and 2011. This research aims to document these musical themed performances in Istana Budaya for further research in the future. Political performances are listed and analyzed from 2007 to 2012 based on reports and previous research. The declination of audiences in 2012 and a new theme in theatre performances in Istana Budaya are important factors for the downfall of the political theatres' theme.

Keywords: musical, politician, Istana Budaya, theatre

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Authors: James Waide

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In music, subject typically denotes the initial idea to which the entire composition refers—a concept congruous with Aristotle's notion of subject as primary substance, in the sense of an irreducible this particular. Gioseffo Zarlino, who established subject (soggetto) as a musical term, insisted the composer as “rediscovering” the subject within their music in order to “[bring] it to perfection” and, furthermore, that if the composer had not rediscovered the subject already, then one would simply take the first part of the composition to be the subject. Meanwhile, Žižek reads the Hegelian subject (as negativity set against positive object) through Lacanian Psychoanalysis (in which the subject is a kind of fictive entity of the clinic: a mere appearance which sits atop the objects of analysis) in the concept of Absolute Recoil. For Žižek, subject exists retroactively in Absolute Recoil from object, meaning subject is a void which only has meaning because of the object it is seen through. Following the work of theorists such as Adorno and Althusser, one can understand the ideological construction of such a subject. It may be argued that in Zarlino, musical subject can be similarly read as retroactively constructed, either by the composer or the listener. Furthermore, in recent work, Samuel Wilson identifies different kinds of subjects in music which can be psychoanalytically examined, including the fictive subject: a purely musical entity raised to the level of psychoanalytic subject. On which basis if, as Adorno insisted, 'authentic' music constitutes 'cognition without concepts', where and what is this subject without concept?.

Keywords: absolute recoil, critical theory, ideology, music analysis, psychoanalysis, retroactivity, subject

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Authors: Olatunbosun Samuel Adekogbe

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This paper addresses the question of musical signification, revolving around nature and its natural divides; the paper tends to examine the roles of the dispositional apparatus of listeners to react to sounding environments through music as coordinated sound that focuses on the powerful strain between vibrational occurrences of sound and potentials of being structured. This paper sets out to examine music as a simple conventional design that does not allude to something beyond music and sound as a vehicle to communicate through production, perception, translation, and reaction with regard to melodic and semiotic functions of sounds. This paper adopts the application of questionnaire and evolutionary approach methods to probe musical adaptation, reproduction, and natural selection as the basis for explaining specific human behavioural responses to musical sense-making beyond the above-sketched dichotomies, with a major focus on the transition from acoustic-emotional sensibilities to musical meaning in the selected soundscapes. It was observed that music has emancipated itself from the level of mere acoustic processing of sounds to a functional description in terms of allowing music users to share experiences and interact with the soundscaping environment. The paper, therefore, concludes that the audience as music participants and listeners in the selected soundscapes have been conceived as adaptive devices in the paradigm shift, which can build up new semiotic linkages with the sounding environments in southwestern Nigeria.

Keywords: semiotics, sound, music, soundscape, environment

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Authors: Sefik Can Karakaya, Ibrahim Demir

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In this study, the relationship between musical preferences and personality traits has been investigated in terms of Spotify audio analysis features. The aim of this paper is to build such a classifier capable of segmenting people into their Myers-Briggs Type Index (MBTI) personality type based on their Spotify playlists. Music takes an important place in the lives of people all over the world and online music streaming platforms make it easier to reach musical contents. In this context, the motivation to build such a classifier is allowing people to gain access to their MBTI personality type and perhaps for more reliably and more quickly. For this purpose, logistic regression and deep neural networks have been selected for classifier and their performances are compared. In conclusion, it has been found that musical preferences differ statistically between personality traits, and evaluated models are able to distinguish personality types based on given musical data structure with over %60 accuracy rate.

Keywords: myers-briggs type indicator, music psychology, Spotify, behavioural user profiling, deep neural networks, logistic regression

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Authors: Nguyen Lan, Le Tan Kien, Nguyen Pham Gia Bao

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The cable-stayed bridge belongs to the combined system, in which the cables is a major strutual element. Cable-stayed bridges with large spans are often arranged with structural health monitoring systems to collect data for bridge health diagnosis. Cables tension monitoring is a structural monitoring content. It is common to measure cable tension by a direct force sensor or cable vibration accelerometer sensor, thereby inferring the indirect cable tension through the cable vibration frequency. To translate cable-stayed vibration acceleration data to real-time tension requires some necessary calculations and programming. This paper introduces the algorithm, labview program that converts cable-stayed vibration acceleration data to real-time tension. The research results are applied to the monitoring system of Tran Thi Ly cable-stayed bridge and Song Hieu cable-stayed bridge in Vietnam.

Keywords: cable-stayed bridge, cable fore, structural heath monitoring (SHM), fast fourie transformed (FFT), real time, vibrations

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Authors: Weigao. Wu, Stefano. Utili

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Based on the kinematic approach of limit analysis, a full set of upper bound solutions for the stability of homogeneous rock slopes subjected to tension cracks are obtained. The generalized Hoek-Brown failure criterion is employed to describe the non-linear strength envelope of rocks. In this paper, critical failure mechanisms are determined for cracks of known depth but unspecified location, cracks of known location but unknown depth, and cracks of unspecified location and depth. It is shown that there is a nearly up to 50% drop in terms of the stability factors for the rock slopes intersected by a tension crack compared with intact ones. Tables and charts of solutions in dimensionless forms are presented for ease of use by practitioners.

Keywords: Hoek-Brown failure criterion, limit analysis, rock slope, tension cracks

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Authors: Lorena Mihelac, Janez Povh

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In 2017, we conducted a research study using data consisting of 160 musical excerpts from different musical styles, to analyze the impact of entropy of the harmony on the acceptability of music. In measuring the entropy of harmony, we were interested in unigrams (individual chords in the harmonic progression) and bigrams (the connection of two adjacent chords). In this study, it has been found that 53 musical excerpts out from 160 were evaluated by participants as very complex, although the entropy of the harmonic progression (unigrams and bigrams) was calculated as low. We have explained this by particularities of chord progression, which impact the listener's feeling of complexity and acceptability. We have evaluated the same data twice with new participants in 2018 and with the same participants for the third time in 2019. These three evaluations have shown that the same 53 musical excerpts, found to be difficult and complex in the study conducted in 2017, are exhibiting a high feeling of complexity again. It was proposed that the content of these musical excerpts, defined as “irregular,” is not meeting the listener's expectancy and the basic perceptual principles, creating a higher feeling of difficulty and complexity. As the “irregularities” in these 53 musical excerpts seem to be perceived by the participants without being aware of it, affecting the pleasantness and the feeling of complexity, they have been defined as “subliminal irregularities” and the 53 musical excerpts as “irregular.” In our recent study (2019) of the same data (used in previous research works), we have proposed a new measure of the complexity of harmony, “regularity,” based on the irregularities in the harmonic progression and other plausible particularities in the musical structure found in previous studies. We have in this study also proposed a list of 10 different particularities for which we were assuming that they are impacting the participant’s perception of complexity in harmony. These ten particularities have been tested in this paper, by extending the analysis in our 53 irregular musical excerpts from harmony to melody. In the examining of melody, we have used the computational model “Information Dynamics of Music” (IDyOM) and two information-theoretic measures: entropy - the uncertainty of the prediction before the next event is heard, and information content - the unexpectedness of an event in a sequence. In order to describe the features of melody in these musical examples, we have used four different viewpoints: pitch, interval, duration, scale degree. The results have shown that the texture of melody (e.g., multiple voices, homorhythmic structure) and structure of melody (e.g., huge interval leaps, syncopated rhythm, implied harmony in compound melodies) in these musical excerpts are impacting the participant’s perception of complexity. High information content values were found in compound melodies in which implied harmonies seem to have suggested additional harmonies, affecting the participant’s perception of the chord progression in harmony by creating a sense of an ambiguous musical structure.

Keywords: entropy and information content, harmony, subliminal (ir)regularity, IDyOM

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Authors: Leonardo Ko

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In an era marked by rapid technological innovation, the classical instrument industry nonetheless has not seen significant change. Is this a matter of stubborn traditionalism, or do old, conventional instruments really sound better? Because of the widespread use of 3-D printing, it seems feasible to produce modern, 3-D printed instruments that adhere to the basic conventions of standard construction. This study aimed to design and create a practical, effective 3-D printed acoustic violin. A cost-benefit analysis of materials and design is presented in addition to a report on sound tests in which a pool of professional musicians compared the traditional violin to its synthetic counterpart with regard to acoustic properties. With a low-cost yet functional instrument, musicians of all levels would be able to afford instruments with much greater ease; the present study thus hopes to contribute to efforts to increase the accessibility of classical music education.

Keywords: acoustic musical instrument, classical musical education, low-cost, 3-D printing

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Authors: Piotr Podlipniak

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Social consolidation has often been indicated as an adaptive function of music which led to the evolution of music faculty. According to many scholars this function is possible thanks to musical rhythm that enables sensorimotor synchronization to a musical beat. The ability to synchronize to music allows performing music collectively which enhances social cohesion. However, the collective performance of music consists also in spectral synchronization that depends on musical pitch structure. Similarly to rhythmic synchronization, spectral synchronization is a result of ‘brain states alignment’ between people who collectively listen to or perform music. In order to successfully synchronize pitches performers have to adequately expect the pitch structure. The most common form of music which predominates among all human societies is tonal music. In fact tonality understood in the broadest sense as such an organization of musical pitches in which some pitch is more important than others is the only kind of musical pitch structure that has been observed in all currently known musical cultures. The perception of such a musical pitch structure elicits specific emotional reactions which are often described as tensions and relaxations. These facts provoke some important questions. What is the evolutionary reason that people use pitch structure as a form of vocal communication? Why different pitch structures elicit different emotional states independent of extra-musical context? It is proposed in the current presentation that in the course of evolution pitch structure became a human specific tool of communication the function of which is to induce emotional states such as uncertainty and cohesion. By the means of eliciting these emotions during collective music performance people are able to unconsciously give cues concerning social acceptance. This is probably one of the reasons why in all cultures people collectively perform tonal music. It is also suggested that tonal pitch structure had been invented socially before it became an evolutionary innovation of Homo sapiens. It means that a predisposition to tonally organize pitches evolved by the means of ‘Baldwin effect’ – a process in which natural selection transforms the learned response of an organism into the instinctive response. The hypothetical evolutionary scenario of the emergence of tonal pitch structure will be proposed. In this scenario social forces such as a need for closer cooperation play the crucial role.

Keywords: emotion, evolution, tonality, social consolidation

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Authors: Monika Benedek

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Improvisation is an integral part of music education programmes worldwide since teachers recognize that improvisation helps to broaden stylistic knowledge, develops creativity and various musical skills, in particular, aural skills, and also motivates to learn music theory. In Hungary, where Kodály concept is a core element of music teacher education, improvisation has been relatively neglected subject in both primary school and classical music school curricula. Therefore, improvisation was an important theme of a one-year-long research project carried out at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. The project aimed to develop the music teacher training programme, and among others, focused on testing how improvisation could be used as a teaching tool to improve students’ musical reading and writing skills and creative musical skills. Teacher-researchers first tested various teaching approaches of improvisation with numerous teaching modules in music lessons at public schools and music schools. Data were collected from videos of lessons and from teachers’ reflective notes. After analysing data and developing teaching modules, all modules were tested again in a pilot course in 30 contact lessons for music teachers. Teachers gave written feedback of the pilot programme, tested two modules by their choice in their own teaching and wrote reflecting comments about their experiences in applying teaching modules of improvisation. The overall results indicated that improvisation could be an innovative approach to teaching various musical subjects, in particular, solfege, music theory, and instrument, either in individual or in group instruction. Improvisation, especially with the application of relative solmisation and singing, appeared to have been a beneficial tool to develop various musicianship skills of students and teachers, in particular, the aural, musical reading and writing skills, and creative musical skills. Furthermore, improvisation seemed to have been a motivating teaching tool to learn music theory by creating a bridge between various musical styles. This paper reports on the results of the research project.

Keywords: improvisation, Kodály concept, music school, public school, teacher training

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Authors: Anna Kula, Raja K. Mishra, Marek Niewczas

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Deformation behavior of Mg-Gd solid solutions have been studied by a combination of measurements of mechanical response, texture and dislocation substructure. Increase in Gd content strongly influences the work-hardening behavior and flow characteristics in tension and compression. Adiabatic instabilities have been observed in all alloys at 4K under both tension and compression. The frequency and the amplitude of adiabatic stress oscillations increase with Gd content. Profuse mechanical twinning has been observed under compression, resulting in a texture dominated by basal component parallel to the compression axis. Under tension, twining is less active and the texture evolution is affected mostly by slip. Increasing Gd concentration leads to the reduction of the tension and compression asymmetry due to weakening of the texture and stabilizing more homogenous twinning and slip, involving basal and non-basal slip systems.

Keywords: Mg-Gd alloys, mechanical properties, work hardening, twinning

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Authors: Qinggui Wu, Xinming Cao, Guyue Guo, Jiajun Ding

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In efforts to study the shear ductility of regional confined concrete beam, 5 reinforced concrete beams were tested to examine its shear performance. These beams has the same shear span ratio, concrete strength, different ratios of tension reinforcement and shapes of stirrup. The purpose of the test is studying the effects of stirrup shape and tension reinforcement ratio on failure mode and shear ductility. The test shows that the regional confined part can be used as an independent part and the rest of the beam is good to work together so that the ductility of the beam is more one time higher than that of the normal confined concrete beam. The related laws of the effect of tension reinforcement ratio and stirrup shapes on beam’s shear ductility are founded.

Keywords: ratio of tension reinforcement, stirrup shapes, shear ductility, failure mode

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Authors: Dhanya Nair, Nicholas Mirchandani

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Musical haptic systems can enhance a listener’s musical experience while providing an alternative platform for the hearing impaired to experience music. Current music tactile technologies focus on representing tactile metronomes to synchronize performers or encoding musical notes into distinguishable (albeit distracting) tactile patterns. There is growing interest in the development of musical haptic systems to augment the auditory experience, although the haptic-music relationship is still not well understood. This paper represents a tactile music interface that provides vibrations to multiple fingertips in synchronicity with auditory music. Like an audio equalizer, different frequency bands are filtered out, and the power in each frequency band is computed and converted to a corresponding vibrational strength. These vibrations are felt on different fingertips, each corresponding to a different frequency band. Songs with music from different spectrums, as classified by their energy and valence, were used to test the effectiveness of the system and to understand the relationship between music and tactile sensations. Three participants were trained on one song categorized as sad (low energy and low valence score) and one song categorized as happy (high energy and high valence score). They were trained both with and without auditory feedback (listening to the song while experiencing the tactile music on their fingertips and then experiencing the vibrations alone without the music). The participants were then tested on three songs from both categories, without any auditory feedback, and were asked to classify the tactile vibrations they felt into either category. The participants were blinded to the songs being tested and were not provided any feedback on the accuracy of their classification. These participants were able to classify the music with 100% accuracy. Although the songs tested were on two opposite spectrums (sad/happy), the preliminary results show the potential of utilizing a vibrotactile equalizer, like the one presented, for augmenting musical experience while furthering the current understanding of music tactile relationship.

Keywords: haptic music relationship, tactile equalizer, tactile music, vibrations and mood

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Authors: Tania Lisboa, Angela Voyajolu, Adam Ockelford

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The positive impact of music on the development of children with autism is widely acknowledged: music offers a unique channel for communication, wellbeing and self-regulation, as well as access to culture and a means of creative engagement. Yet, no coherent program exists for parents, carers and teachers to follow with their children in the early years, when the need for interventions is often most acute. Hence, research and the development of resources is urgently required. Autism is a project with children on the autism spectrum. The project aims at promoting the participants’ engagement with music through involvement in specially-designed musical activities with parents and carers. The main goal of the research is to verify the effectiveness of newly designed resources and strategies, which are based on the Sounds of Intent in the Early Years (SoI-EY) framework of musical development. This is a pilot study, comprising case studies of five children with autism in the early years. The data comprises semi-structured interviews, observations of videos, and feedback from parents on resources. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was chosen to analyze the interviews. The video data was coded in relation to the SoI-EY framework. The feedback from parents was used to evaluate the resources (i.e. musical activity cards). The participants’ wider development was also assessed through selected elements of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), a national assessment framework used in England: specifically, communication, language and social-emotional development. Five families of children on the autism spectrum (aged between 4-8 years) participated in the pilot. The research team visited each family 4 times over a 3-month period, during which the children were observed, and musical activities were suggested based on the child’s assessed level of musical development. Parents then trialed the activities, providing feedback and gathering further video observations of their child’s musical engagement between visits. The results of one case study will be featured in this paper, in which the evidence suggests that specifically tailored musical activity may promote communication and social engagement for a child with language difficulties on the autism spectrum. The resources were appropriate for the children’s involvement in musical activities. Findings suggest that non-specialist musical engagement with family and carers can be a powerful means to foster communication. The case study featured in this paper illustrates this with a child of limited verbal ability. There is a need for further research and development of resources that can be made available to all those working with children on the autism spectrum.

Keywords: autism, development, music education, resources

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Authors: Shilpa K. Nandwani, Mousumi Chakraborty, Smita Gupta

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When selecting surfactants for surfactant flooding during enhanced oil recovery, the most important criteria is that the surfactant system should reduce the interfacial tension between water and oil to ultralow values. In the present study, a mixture of ionic liquid surfactant and commercially available binding agent sodium tosylate has been used as a surfactant mixture. Presence of wormlike micelles indicates the possibility of achieving ultralow interfacial tension. Surface tension measurements of the mixed surfactant system have been studied. The emulsion size distribution of the mixed surfactant system at varying salinities has been studied. It has been found that at high salinities the viscoelastic surfactant system loses their efficacy and degenerate. Hence the given system may find application in low salinity reservoirs, providing good mobility to the flood during tertiary oil recovery process.

Keywords: ionic liquis, interfacial tension, Na-tosylate, viscoelastic surfactants

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Authors: Lorenzo Bonoldi, Gianluca Memoli, Abdelhalim Azbaid El Ouahabi

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In this paper, a series of ring-shaped attenuators utilizing Helmholtz and quarter wavelength resonators in variable, fixed, and combined configurations have been manufactured using a 3D printer. We illustrate possible uses by incorporating such devices into musical instruments (e.g. in acoustic guitar sound holes) and audio speakers with a view to controlling such devices tonal emissions without electronic equalization systems. Numerical investigations into the transmission loss values of these ring-shaped attenuators using finite element method simulations (COMSOL Multiphysics) have been presented in the frequency range of 100– 1000 Hz. We compare such results for each attenuator model with experimental measurements using different driving sources such as white noise, a maximum-length sequence (MLS), square and sine sweep pulses, and point scans in the frequency domain. Finally, we present a preliminary discussion on the comparison of numerical and experimental results.

Keywords: equaliser, metamaterials, musical, instruments

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Authors: Nutthan Inkhong, Sutthiphong Ruangchante

Abstract:

Chiang Rai province is located at the northern border of Thailand. Most of the geography there is the northern continental highlands, and the population has many types of inhabitants, including Thai people, immigrants and ethnic groups such as Akha, Lahu, Lisu, Yao, etc. Most of these ethnic groups migrated from neighbouring countries such as Myanmar, Laos, China, etc. and settled in the mountains. Each ethnic group has their unique traditions, culture, and ways of life, including the musical culture that the ancestors of each ethnic group brought with them. In the present, the Akha have the largest population in the region and still live together in numerous villages in many districts. Thus, Akha musical culture still appears in the community traditions and cultural events of Chiang Rai province regularly. This article presents the situations of Akha musical culture in the present and the predictions for the future. The study method involves the analysis of music information and the related social contexts, which were collected from the fieldwork of ethnomusicological methodology by in-depth interviews, observations, audio and visual recordings, and related documents. The results found that the important persons who are related with Akha musical culture include (1) a musical instrument maker (lives in Mae Chan district) who produces various Akha musical instruments, including gourd mouth organs, Akha drums, two-way flutes, three-hole flutes, Jew’s harps (the sound of teenage love), buffalo horns (the sound symbol of hunting) and bird call instruments (the imitation of bird sounds), (2) a folk philosopher (lives in Mae Pha Luang district) who can teach music to the new generation of Akha people as well as lecture and demonstrate music to academics and tourists, and (3) a community leader (lives in Mae Chan district) who conserves Akha performances, singing and music through various activities of the students in an informal school. Because of the changes to the social contexts and ways of life of the Akha people, such as the educational system, religion, social media, etc., including the popularity of both Thai and international popular music among the new generation of Akha people, changes to and the fading away of Akha musical culture in the future may likely occur. Therefore, the conservation and inheritance of Akha music is an issue that should be resolved quickly. This primary study leads to the next step of the ethnomusicological work and plays a part in preventing or reducing the problems impacting Akha musical culture survival by the recording of Akha music in all of its dimensions, such as producing musical instruments, playing musical instruments, analysis of tuning systems, recording Akha music as musical notation using symbols, researching related social contexts, etc. and the transcription of this information to create lessons that can be returned to the Akha community.

Keywords: Akha music, Chiang Rai, ethnic music in Thailand, ethnomusicology

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Authors: Jairo Vega, Fabian Chamba, Jordy Urgiles

Abstract:

In this work, the implementation of a Matlabcontrolled Musical Tesla Coil and external audio signals was presented. First, the audio signal was obtained from a mobile device and processed in Matlab to modify it, adding noise or other desired effects. Then, the processed signal was passed through a preamplifier to increase its amplitude to a level suitable for further amplification through a power amplifier, which was part of the current driver circuit of the Tesla coil. To get the Tesla coil to generate music, a circuit capable of modulating and generating the audio signal by manipulating electrical discharges was used. To visualize and listen to these discharges, a small Faraday cage was built to attenuate the external electric fields. Finally, the implementation of the musical Tesla coil was concluded. However, it was observed that the audio signal volume was very low, and the components used heated up quickly. Due to these limitations, it was determined that the project could not be connected to power for long periods of time.

Keywords: Tesla coil, plasma, electrical signals, GNU Radio

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Authors: Jacob Hume

Abstract:

The maturation of nineteenth-century Western Europe brought with it a flourishing of chromaticism in its music. Accompanying such chromaticism came structures idiosyncratic in nature: triadic, but not in a diatonic sense; carefully voice-led, but not in a Classical sense. This work outlines a method through which the Minimalist program in generative musical grammar, adapted from its linguistic counterpart, may be economically extended from its Western functional-harmonic roots to account for such structures in a manner that preserves both their origins in the Classical idiom as well as their apparent departure from those origins. Following a derivation of this extended framework, a detailed Minimalist analysis of a passage from Brahms’s Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102, well-known in Neo-Riemannian scholarship for its simultaneously close relationship to diatonic conventions and unresponsiveness to their conventional models of analysis, is offered to exemplify it. The Minimalist paradigm is therefore witnessed in this setting to act as a liaison between two oft-juxtaposed methods of analysis. Alongside what is, to the author’s best knowledge, a introduction of ‘musical minimalist syntax tree diagrams’ for the hierarchical depiction of music-linguistic structure, this lends to the provided framework practical musical utility beyond its principled cognitive-scientific foundation inherited from the Minimalist program at large. Additional analyses of passages from Bruckner, Prokofiev, and Ozzy Osbourne are also performed, wherein in each case, the analyses from ‘Classical Minimalism’ and the proposed framework are shown to agree (so that the proposed framework indeed subsumes its predecessor) until a diatonic snag encountered in the former’s analysis is elegantly and intuitively averted by the latter. The author believes this contribution to the burgeoning field of musical Minimalist grammar to be a fruitful one, facilitating the application of generative-linguistic analysis to an expanded musical corpus and establishing a possible gateway toward the future generalization of Minimalism to new harmonic contexts.

Keywords: generative linguistics, minimalist musico linguistics, neo-riemannian theory, Schenkein analysis

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Authors: Fabiana Ribeiro, Ana Moreno, Antonio Oliveira, Patricia Oliveira-Silva

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Music is present in our daily lives, and to our knowledge music is often used to change the emotions in the listeners. For this reason, the objective of this study was to explore and synthesize results examining the use and effects of music on emotion regulation in children, adults, and elderly, and clarify if the music is effective across ages to promote emotion regulation. A literature search was conducted using ISI Web of Knowledge, Pubmed, PsycINFO, and Scopus, inclusion criteria comprised children, adolescents, young, and old adults, including health population. Articles applying musical intervention, specifically musical listening, and assessing the emotion regulation directly through reports or neurophysiological measures were included in this review. Results showed age differences in the function of musical listening; initially, adolescents revealed age increments in emotional listening compared to children, and young adults in comparison to older adults, in which the first use music aiming to emotion regulation and social connection, while older adults also utilize music as emotion regulation searching for personal growth. Moreover, some of the studies showed that personal characteristics also would determine the efficiency of the emotion regulation strategy. In conclusion, it was observed that music could beneficiate all ages investigated, however, this review detected a necessity to develop adequate paradigms to explore the use of music for emotion regulation.

Keywords: music, emotion, regulation, musical listening

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Authors: Badeji Adebayo John

Abstract:

Technology has immense contribution in every aspect of human endeavor; it has not only made work easier but also provided exhilarating impression in the mind of the people. Theatre is not exempted from the multifaceted influence of technology on phenomenon. Therefore, theatre performances have experienced the excellence of technology in the contemporary era such that audiences have unforgettable experiences after seeing theatre performances. Some of these technological advancements that have amplified the aesthetics of performances in the theatre are techno-scenery (3D mapping) and lighting. In view of this, the objective of this study is to explore how techno-scenery and lighting technologies were used to communicate messages in the performance of Queen Moremi the Musical. In so doing, Participant-Observation Method and Content Analysis are adopted. Berlo’s model of communication is also employed to explain the communicative aesthetics of these theatre technologies in the performance. Techno-scenery and lighting are communication media modifier that facilitates audiences’ comprehension of the messages in the performance of Queen Moremi the Musical. They also create clear motion pictures of the setting which the performers cannot communicate in their acting, dances and singing, to ease the audiences’ decoding of messages that the performers are sending to the audience. Therefore, consistent incorporation of these technologies to theatre performances will facilitate easy flow of communication in-between the performers who are the sender, the message which is the performance and the audience who are the receiver.

Keywords: communication, aesthetics, techno-scenery, lighting, musical

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Authors: Ezzaddin Rashid Hussein

Abstract:

This research investigates the viability of mango seed extract (MSE) using a surfactant to improve oil recovery (EOR). This research examines MSE-based surfactant solutions and compares them to more traditional synthetic surfactants in terms of phase behaviour and interfacial tension. The phase behaviour and interfacial tension of five samples of surfactant solutions with different concentrations were measured. Samples 1 (2.0 g) and 1 (1.5 g) performed closest to the critical micelle concentration (CMC) and displayed the greatest decrease in surface tension, according to the results. In addition, the measurement of IFT, contact angle, and pH, as well as comparison with prior research, highlights the potential environmental benefits of MSMEs as an eco-friendly alternative. It is recommended that additional research be conducted to assess their stability and behaviour under reservoir conditions. Overall, mango seed extract demonstrates promise as a natural and sustainable surfactant for enhancing oil recovery, paving the way for eco-friendly enhanced oil recovery techniques.

Keywords: oil and gas, mango seed powder, surfactants, enhanced oil recovery, interfacial tension IFT, wettability, contacts angle, phase behavior, pH

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Authors: Behnaz Sohani, Ifeoluwa Joshua Adigun, Amir Rahmani, Khaled Goher

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This paper provides initial results on the efficacy of the designed ergonomic-oriented neck support to mitigate and alleviate tension neck syndrome musculoskeletal disorder. This is done using both simulations and measurements. Tension Neck Syndrome Musculoskeletal Disorder (TNS MSD) causes discomfort in the muscles around the neck and shoulder. TNS MSD is one of the leading causes of early retirement. This research focuses on the design of an adaptive neck supporter by integrating a soft actuator massager to help deliver a soothing massage. The massager and adaptive neck supporter prototype were validated by finite element analysis prior to fabrication to envisage the feasibility of the design concept. Then a prototype for the massager was fabricated and tested for concept validation. Future work will be focused on fabricating the full-scale prototype and upgrading and optimizing the design concept for the adaptive neck supporter.

Keywords: adaptive neck supporter, tension neck syndrome, musculoskeletal disorder, soft actuator massager, soft robotics

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Authors: Reuben Newell, Edward Archer, Alistair McIlhagger, Calvin Ralph

Abstract:

Modern industry has developed a need for innovative 3D composite materials due to their attractive material properties. Composite materials are composed of a fibre reinforcement encased in a polymer matrix. The fibre reinforcement consists of warp, weft and binder yarns or tows woven together into a preform. The mechanical performance of composite material is largely controlled by the properties of the preform. As a result, the bulk of recent textile research has been focused on the design of high-strength preform architectures. Studies looking at optimisation of the weaving process have largely been neglected. It has been reported that yarns experience varying levels of damage during weaving, resulting in filament breakage and ultimately compromised composite mechanical performance. The weaving parameters involved in causing this yarn damage are not fully understood. Recent studies indicate that poor yarn tension control may be an influencing factor. As tension is increased, the yarn-to-yarn and yarn-to-weaving-equipment interactions are heightened, maximising damage. The correlation between yarn tension variation and weaving damage severity has never been adequately researched or quantified. A novel study is needed which accesses the influence of tension variation on the mechanical properties of woven yarns. This study has looked to quantify the variation of yarn tension throughout weaving and sought to link the impact of tension to weaving damage. Multiple yarns were randomly selected, and their tension was measured across the creel and shedding stages of weaving, using a hand-held tension meter. Sections of the same yarn were subsequently cut from the loom machine and tensile tested. A comparison study was made between the tensile strength of pristine and tensioned yarns to determine the induced weaving damage. Yarns from bobbins at the rear of the creel were under the least amount of tension (0.5-2.0N) compared to yarns positioned at the front of the creel (1.5-3.5N). This increase in tension has been linked to the sharp turn in the yarn path between bobbins at the front of the creel and creel I-board. Creel yarns under the lower tension suffered a 3% loss of tensile strength, compared to 7% for the greater tensioned yarns. During shedding, the tension on the yarns was higher than in the creel. The upper shed yarns were exposed to a decreased tension (3.0-4.5N) compared to the lower shed yarns (4.0-5.5N). Shed yarns under the lower tension suffered a 10% loss of tensile strength, compared to 14% for the greater tensioned yarns. Interestingly, the most severely damaged yarn was exposed to both the largest creel and shedding tensions. This study confirms for the first time that yarns under a greater level of tension suffer an increased amount of weaving damage. Significant variation of yarn tension has been identified across the creel and shedding stages of weaving. This leads to a variance of mechanical properties across the woven preform and ultimately the final composite part. The outcome from this study highlights the need for optimised yarn tension control during preform manufacture to minimize yarn-induced weaving damage.

Keywords: optimisation of preform manufacture, tensile testing of damaged tows, variation of yarn weaving tension, weaving damage

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