Brain activation during string playing

This chapter attempts to integrate data from both functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) to elucidate the activation of the cortical areas in musical performance for both execution and imagination of music during string playing. In both fMRI and EEG experiments, playing the music was compared with imagining the music. This allowed separation of the areas mainly involved in motor execution from those involved in imagining, planning, and working memory, thus differentiating musical from purely motor areas.

Search for microscopic black holes and string balls in final states with leptons and jets with the ATLAS detector at √s = 8 TeV

A search for an excess of events with multiple high transverse momentum objects including charged leptons and jets is presented, using 20.3 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012 at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 8TeV. No excess of events beyond Standard Model expectations is observed. Using extra-dimensional models for black hole and string ball production and decay, exclusion contours are determined as a function of the mass threshold for production and the fundamental gravity scale for two, four and six extra dimensions. For six extra dimensions, mass thresholds of 4.8–6.2TeV are excluded at 95% confidence level, depending on the fundamental gravity scale and model assumptions. Upper limits on the fiducial cross-sections for non-Standard Model production of these final states are set.

The Madrid Symphony Orchestra with its Conductor Mr Arbós

Signatur des Originals: S 36/F11969

View of the Orchestra and Performers in Westminster Abbey, during the Commemoration of Handel.

Signatur des Originals: S 36/G02675

The effect of acoustic screens on orchestra musicians

La Directiva 2003/10/CE del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo, del 6 de febrero de 2003, específica con arreglo al apartado 1 del artículo 16 de la Directiva 89/391/CEE las disposiciones mínimas de seguridad y de salud relativas a la exposición de los trabajadores a los riesgos derivados de los agentes físicos (ruido). En la industria musical, y en concreto en los músicos de orquesta, una exposición de más de ocho horas al día a un nivel de presión sonora de 80dB(A) o más es algo muy común. Esta situación puede causar a los trabajadores daños auditivos como la hiperacusia, hipoacusia, tinitus o ruptura de la membrana basilar entre otros. Esto significa que deben tomarse medidas para implementar las regulaciones de la forma más razonable posible para que la interpretación del músico, la dinámica y el concepto musical que se quiere transmitir al público se vea lo menos afectada posible. Para reducir la carga auditiva de los músicos de orquesta frente a fuertes impactos sonoros provenientes de los instrumentos vecinos, se está investigando sobre el uso de unos paneles acústicos que colocados en puntos estratégicos de la orquesta pueden llegar a reducir el impacto sonoro sobre el oído hasta 20dB. Los instrumentos de viento metal y de percusión son los responsables de la mayor emisión de presión sonora. Para proteger el oído de los músicos frente a estos impactos, se colocan los paneles en forma de barrera entre dichos instrumentos y los músicos colocados frente a ellos. De esta forma se protege el oído de los músicos más afectados. Para ver el efecto práctico que producen estos paneles en un conjunto orquestal, se realizan varias grabaciones en los ensayos y conciertos de varias orquestas. Los micrófonos se sitúan a la altura del oído y a una distancia de no más de 10cm de la oreja de varios de los músicos más afectados y de los músicos responsables de la fuerte emisión sonora. De este modo se puede hacer una comparación de los niveles de presión sonora que percibe cada músico y evaluar las diferencias de nivel existentes entre ambos. Así mismo se utilizan configuraciones variables de los paneles para comparar las diferencias de presión sonora que existen entre las distintas posibilidades de colocarlos y decidir así sobre la mejor ubicación y configuración de los mismos. A continuación, una vez obtenidos las muestras de audio y los diferentes archivos de datos medidos con un analizador de audio en distintas posiciones de la orquesta, todo ello se calibra y analiza utilizando un programa desarrollado en Matlab, para evaluar el efecto de los paneles sobre la percepción auditiva de los músicos, haciendo especial hincapié en el análisis de las diferencias de nivel de presión sonora (SPL). Mediante el cálculo de la envolvente de las diferencias de nivel, se evalúa de un modo estadístico el efecto de atenuación de los paneles acústicos en los músicos de orquesta. El método está basado en la probabilidad estadística de varias muestras musicales ya que al tratarse de música tocada en directo, la dinámica y la sincronización entre los músicos varía según el momento en que se toque. Estos factores junto con el hecho de que la partitura de cada músico es diferente dificulta la comparación entre dos señales grabadas en diferentes puntos de la orquesta. Se necesita por lo tanto de varias muestras musicales para evaluar el efecto de atenuación de los paneles en las distintas configuraciones mencionadas anteriormente. El estudio completo del efecto de los paneles como entorno que influye en los músicos de orquesta cuando están sobre el escenario, tiene como objetivo la mejora de sus condiciones de trabajo. Abstract For several years, the European Union has been adopting many laws and regulations to protect and give more security to people who are exposed to some risk in their job. Being exposed to a loud sound pressure level during many hours in the job runs the risk of hearing damage. Particularly in the field of music, the ear is the most important working tool. Not taking care of the ear can cause some damage such as hearing loss, tinnitus, hyperacusis, diplacusis, etc. This could have an impact on the efficiency and satisfaction of the musicians when they are playing, which could also cause stress problems. Orchestra musicians, as many other workers in this sector, are usually exposed to a sound level of 80dB(A) or more during more than eight hours per day. It means that they must satisfy the law and their legal obligations to avoid health problems proceeding from their job. Putting into practice the new regulations is a challenge for orchestras. They must make sure that the repertoire, with its dynamic, balance and feeling, is not affected by the reduction of sound levels imposed by the law. This study tries to investigate the benefits and disadvantages of using shields as a hearing protector during rehearsals and orchestral concerts.

Protective anti-tumor immunity induced by vaccination with recombinant adenoviruses encoding multiple tumor-associated cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitopes in a string-of-beads fashion

Vaccines harboring genes that encode functional oncoproteins are intrinsically hazardous, as their application may lead to introduction of these genes into normal cells and thereby to tumorigenesis. On the other hand, oncoproteins are especially attractive targets for immunotherapy of cancer, as their expression is generally required for tumor growth, making the arisal of tumor variants lacking these antigens unlikely. Using murine tumor models, we investigated the efficacy of polyepitope recombinant adenovirus (rAd) vaccines, which encode only the immunogenic T cell epitopes derived from several oncogenes, for the induction of protective anti-tumor immunity. We chose to employ rAd, as these are safe vectors that do not induce the side effects associated with, for example, vaccinia virus vaccines. A single polyepitope rAd was shown to give rise to presentation of both H-2 and human leukocyte antigen-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes. Moreover, vaccination with a rAd encoding H-2-restricted CTL epitopes, derived from human adenovirus type 5 early region 1 and human papilloma virus type 16-induced tumors, elicited strong tumor-reactive CTL and protected the vaccinated animals against an otherwise lethal challenge with either of these tumors. The protection induced was superior compared with that obtained by vaccination with irradiated tumor cells. Thus, vaccination with polyepitope rAd is a powerful approach for the induction of protective anti-tumor immunity that allows simultaneous immunization against multiple tumor-associated T cell epitopes, restricted by various major histocompatibility complex haplotypes.

Cysteine String Protein Functions Directly in Regulated Exocytosis

Cysteine string protein (Csp) is essential for neurotransmitter release in Drosophila. It has been suggested that Csp functions by regulating the activity of presynaptic Ca2+ channels, thus controlling exocytosis. We have examined the effect of overexpressing Csp1 in PC12 cells, a neuroendocrine cell line. PC12 cell clones overexpressing Csp1 did not show any changes in morphology, granule number or distribution, or in the levels of other key exocytotic proteins. This overexpression did not affect intracellular Ca2+ signals after depolarization, suggesting that Csp1 has no gross effect on Ca2+ channel activity in PC12 cells. In contrast, we show that Csp1 overexpression enhances the extent of exocytosis from permeabilized cells in response to Ca2+ or GTPγS in the absence of Ca2+. Because secretion from permeabilized cells is not influenced by Ca2+ channel activity, this represents the first demonstration that Csp has a direct role in regulated exocytosis.

Quantisation of the bosonic string

In this work we review the basic principles of the theory of the relativistic bosonic string through the study of the action functionals of Nambu-Goto and Polyakov and the techniques required for their canonical, light-cone, and path-integral quantisation. For this purpose, we briefly review the main properties of the gauge symmetries and conformal field theory involved in the techniques studied.