Issues in the development of pitch labelling skill

Pitch discrimination skills are important for general musicianship. The ability to name musical notes or produce orally any named note without the benefit of a known reference is called Absolute Pitch (AP) and is comparatively rare. Relative Pitch (RP) is the ability to name notes when a known reference is available. AP has historically been regarded as being innate. This paper will examine the notion that pitch discrimination skill is based on knowledge constructed through a suite of experiences. That is, it is learnt. In particular, it will be argued that early experiences promote the development of AP. Second it will argue that AP and RP represent different types of knowledge, and that this knowledge emerges from different experiences. AP is a unique research phenomenon because it spans the fields of cognition and perception, in that it links verbal labels with physiological sensations, and because of its rarity. It may provide a vantage for investigating the nature/nurture of musicianship; expertise; knowledge structure development; and the role of knowledge in perception. The study of AP may inform educational practice and curriculum design both in music and cross-curriculur. This paper will report an initial investigation into the similarities and differences between the musical experiences of AP possessors and the manifestation of their AP skill. Interview and questionnaire data will be used for the development and proposal of a preliminary model for AP development.

Simultaneous determination of three synthetic glucocorticoids by differential pulse stripping voltammetry with the aid of chemometrics

A novel voltammetric method for simultaneous determination of the glucocorticoid residues prednisone, prednisolone, and dexamethasone was developed. All three compounds were reduced at a mercury electrode in a Britton-Robinson buffer (pH 3.78), and well-defined voltammetric waves were observed. However, the voltammograms of these three compounds overlapped seriously and showed nonlinear character, and thus, it was difficult to analyze the compounds individually in their mixtures. In this work, two chemometrics methods, principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS), were applied to resolve the overlapped voltammograms, and the calibration models were established for simultaneous determination of these compounds. Under the optimum experimental conditions, the limits of detection (LOD) were 5.6, 8.3, and 16.8 µg l-1 for prednisone, prednisolone, and dexamethasone, respectively. The proposed method was also applied for the determination of these glucocorticoid residues in the rabbit plasma and human urine samples with satisfactory results.

Towards automatic power line detection for a UAV surveillance system using pulse coupled neural filter and an improved Hough transform

Spatial information captured from optical remote sensors on board unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has great potential in automatic surveillance of electrical infrastructure. For an automatic vision-based power line inspection system, detecting power lines from a cluttered background is one of the most important and challenging tasks. In this paper, a novel method is proposed, specifically for power line detection from aerial images. A pulse coupled neural filter is developed to remove background noise and generate an edge map prior to the Hough transform being employed to detect straight lines. An improved Hough transform is used by performing knowledge-based line clustering in Hough space to refine the detection results. The experiment on real image data captured from a UAV platform demonstrates that the proposed approach is effective for automatic power line detection.

Changes in intraocular pressure and ocular pulse amplitude with accommodation

Aims: To investigate the change that occurs in intraocular pressure (IOP) and ocular pulse amplitude (OPA) with accommodation in young adult myopes and emmetropes. Methods: Fifteen progressing myopic and 17 emmetropic young adult subjects had their IOP and OPA measured using the Pascal dynamic contour tonometer. Measurements were taken initially with accommodation relaxed, and then following 2 min of near fixation (accommodative demand 3 D). Baseline measurements of axial length and corneal thickness were also collected prior to the IOP measures. Results: IOP significantly decreased with accommodation in both the myopic and emmetropic subjects (mean change 1.861.1 mm Hg, p<0.0001). There was no significant difference (p>0.05) between myopes and emmetropes in terms of baseline IOP or the magnitude of change in IOP with accommodation. OPA also decreased significantly with accommodation (mean change for all subjects 0.560.5, p<0.0001). The myopic subjects (baseline OPA 2.060.7 mm Hg) exhibited a significantly lower baseline OPA (p¼0.004) than the emmetropes (baseline OPA 3.261.3 mm Hg),and a significantly lower magnitude of change in OPA with accommodation. Conclusion: IOP decreases significantly with accommodation, and changes similarly in progressing myopic and emmetropic subjects. However, differences found between progressing myopes and emmetropes in the mean OPA levels and the decrease in OPA associated with accommodation suggested some changes in IOP dynamics associated with myopia.

Product labelling can confer sustained increases in expected and actual satiety

Expected satiety has been shown to play a key role in decisions around meal size. Recently it has become clear that these expectations can also influence the satiety that is experienced after a food has been consumed. As such, increasing the expected and actual satiety a food product confers without increasing its caloric content is of importance. In this study we sought to determine whether this could be achieved via product labelling. Female participants (N=75) were given a 223-kcal yoghurt smoothie for lunch. In separate conditions the smoothie was labelled as a diet brand, a highly-satiating brand, or an ‘own brand’ control. Expected satiety was assessed using rating scales and a computer-based ‘method of adjustment’, both prior to consuming the smoothie and 24 hours later. Hunger and fullness were assessed at baseline, immediately after consuming the smoothie, and for a further three hours. Despite the fact that all participants consumed the same food, the smoothie branded as highly-satiating was consistently expected to deliver more satiety than the other ‘brands’; this difference was sustained 24 hours after consumption. Furthermore, post-consumption and over three hours, participants consuming this smoothie reported significantly less hunger and significantly greater fullness. These findings demonstrate that the satiety that a product confers depends in part on information that is present around the time of consumption. We suspect that this process is mediated by changes to expected satiety. These effects may potentially be utilised in the development of successful weight-management products.

Evaluation cortical bone elasticity in response to pulse power excitation using ultrasonic technique

This paper presents the ultrasonic velocity measurement method which investigates the possible effects of high voltage high frequency pulsed power on cortical bone material elasticity. Before applying a pulsed power signal on a live bone, it is essential to determine the safe parameters of pulsed power applied on bone non-destructively. Therefore, the possible changes in cortical bone material elasticity due to a specified pulsed power excitation have been investigated. A controllable positive buck-boost converter with adjustable output voltage and frequency has been used to generate high voltage pulses (500V magnitude at 10 KHz frequency). To determine bone elasticity, an ultrasonic velocity measurement has been conducted on two groups of control (unexposed to pulse power but in the same environmental condition) and cortical bone samples exposed to pulsed power. Young’s modulus of cortical bone samples have been determined and compared before and after applying the pulsed power signal. After applying the high voltage pulses, no significant variation in elastic property of cortical bone specimens was found compared to the control. The result shows that pulsed power with nominated parameters can be applied on cortical bone tissue without any considerable negative effect on elasticity of bone material.

Sensitivity of the NMR density matrix to pulse sequence parameters : a simplified analytic approach

We present a formalism for the analysis of sensitivity of nuclear magnetic resonance pulse sequences to variations of pulse sequence parameters, such as radiofrequency pulses, gradient pulses or evolution delays. The formalism enables the calculation of compact, analytic expressions for the derivatives of the density matrix and the observed signal with respect to the parameters varied. The analysis is based on two constructs computed in the course of modified density-matrix simulations: the error interrogation operators and error commutators. The approach presented is consequently named the Error Commutator Formalism (ECF). It is used to evaluate the sensitivity of the density matrix to parameter variation based on the simulations carried out for the ideal parameters, obviating the need for finite-difference calculations of signal errors. The ECF analysis therefore carries a computational cost comparable to a single density-matrix or product-operator simulation. Its application is illustrated using a number of examples from basic NMR spectroscopy. We show that the strength of the ECF is its ability to provide analytic insights into the propagation of errors through pulse sequences and the behaviour of signal errors under phase cycling. Furthermore, the approach is algorithmic and easily amenable to implementation in the form of a programming code. It is envisaged that it could be incorporated into standard NMR product-operator simulation packages.