Musicalising theatre, theatricalising music: Writing and performing intermediality in composed theatre

This investigation combined musicality and theatricality in the creation of four shows: Bear with Me, The Empty City, Gentlemen Songsters and Warmwaters. Led by creative practice, the research identified four polyvalences that characterise Composed Theatre, a transformational artistic domain which offers distinct challenges for performance makers. These include tensions and resolutions between compositional and theatrical thinking; music and words; setlist and script; and finally persona and character. The research finds that these interplays not only lend Composed Theatre its distinct qualities, but offer a potential set of balances to strike for writers, performers, composers and musicians who mix music and theatre in intermedial performance.

Business Innovation and Disruption in the Music Industry

Over the past fifteen years the music industry has experienced a disruptive process of digital transformation that has reshaped most aspects of the industry; in 2015 the contours of a “new music economy” have begun to emerge. The structure and mechanics of these evolutionary processes vary considerably between continents, and this book examines these processes within Europe, America and Asia. The contributors offer a range of theoretical perspectives, as well as empirical findings from the social sciences and business, as well as the media industries. They offer a holistic understanding of the forces shaping the new music economy, and shed some light on the impact of these forces on the ways in which music is created, aggregated and distributed, and on the economic and social consequences for industry producers and consumers.

Introduction to "Business innovation and disruption in the music industry"

Similar to most other creative industries, the evolution of the music industry is heavily shaped by media technologies. This was equally true in 1999, when the global recorded music industry had experienced two decades of continuous growth largely driven by the rapid transition from vinyl records to Compact Discs. The transition encouraged avid music listeners to purchase much of their music collections all over again in order to listen to their favourite music with ‘digital sound’. As a consequence of this successful product innovation, recorded music sales (unit measure) more than doubled between the early 1980s and the end of the 1990s. It was with this backdrop that the first peer-to-peer file sharing service was developed and released to the mainstream music market in 1999 by the college student Shawn Fanning. The service was named Napster and it marks the beginning of an era that is now a classic example of how an innovation is able to disrupt an entire industry and make large swathes of existing industry competences obsolete. File sharing services such as Napster, followed by a range of similar services in its path, reduced physical unit sales in the music industry to levels that had not been seen since the 1970s. The severe impact of the internet on physical sales shocked many music industry executives who spent much of the 2000s vigorously trying to reverse the decline and make the disruptive technologies go away. At the end, they learned that their efforts were to no avail and the impact on the music industry proved to be transformative, irreversible and, to many music industry professionals, also devastating. Thousands of people lost their livelihood, large and small music companies have folded or been forced into mergers or acquisitions. But as always during periods of disruption, the past 15 years have also been very innovative, spurring a plethora of new music business models. These new business models have mainly emerged outside the music industry and the innovators have been often been required to be both persuasive and persistent in order to get acceptance from the risk-averse and cash-poor music industry establishment. Apple was one such change agent that in 2003 was the first company to open up a functioning and legal market for online music. iTunes Music Store was the first online retail outlet that was able to offer the music catalogues from all the major music companies; it used an entirely novel pricing model, and it allowed consumers to de-bundle the music album and only buy the songs that they actually liked. Songs had previously been bundled by physical necessity as discs or cassettes, but with iTunes Music Store, the institutionalized album bundle slowly started to fall apart. The consequences had an immediate impact on music retailing and within just a few years, many brick and mortar record stores were forced out of business in markets across the world. The transformation also had disruptive consequences beyond music retailing and redefined music companies’ organizational structures, work processes and routines, as well as professional roles. iTunes Music Store in one sense was a disruptive innovation, but it was at the same time relatively incremental, since the major labels’ positions and power structures remained largely unscathed. The rights holders still controlled their intellectual properties and the structures that guided the royalties paid per song that was sold were predictable, transparent and in line with established music industry practices.

The thrill of victory: Women and sport shopping

This study explores a new shopper type, ‘Sport Shoppers’, who are unique in their actions, attitudes and behaviors. We present evidence that these shoppers exhibit behavior similar to that of competitive athletes in that they view bargain shopping as an achievement domain. Data were collected through open-ended surveys, in-depth interviews and closet inventories. Thematic analysis of transcripts was undertaken based on three achievement goal categories; task-oriented, ego-oriented and social approval-oriented. Achievement goal theory is employed to offer an explanation of the Sport Shoppers’ behaviors and motivations. We argue the Sport Shopper is an economically viable and important shopper for fashion retailers to target.

Adverse weather effects on bus ridership

This study focuses on the effects of weather on daily bus ridership in Brisbane, given the dominance of buses in that city. The weather pattern of Brisbane varies by season according to its subtropical climate characteristics. Bus operation is affected by inclement weather conditions, as buses share the road system with general traffic. Moreover, bus stops generally offer little, or sometimes no, protection from adverse weather. Hence, adverse weather conditions such as rain are thought to directly impact on daily travel behaviour patterns. There has been limited Australian research on the impact of weather on daily transit ridership. This study investigates the relationship between rainy days and daily bus ridership for the period 2010 to 2012. Overall, rainfall has a negative effect, with varying impacts on different transit groups. However, this analysis confirmed a positive relationship between consecutive rainy days (rain continuing for 3 or more days). A possible explanation could be that people switch their transport mode to bus to avoid high traffic congestion and higher accident potentiality on rainy days. Also, Brisbane’s segregated busway corridor works favourably towards this mode choice. The findings of our study enhance the fundamental understanding of traveller behaviour, particularly mode-choice behaviour, under adverse weather conditions.

Art museums and the global tourist: Experience centers in experiencescapes

Art museums are playing an important role is attracting cultural tourists to global cities and regions. Traditionally, art museums were primarily known for their didactic role. In a post-avant-garde era however museums are more focused on appealing to a broader clientele that want art to be novel and entertaining. Art museums have also come to play a greater role in gentrification projects and cultural precincts. This is because they are ideally suited for tourist-centric environments that offer a variety of immersive sensory experiences, and combine museums (often designed by star-architects), international hotels, restaurants, high-end shopping zones, and other leisure platforms. These "experiencescapes" include Port Maravilha urban waterfront development in Rio de Janiero, the Shanghai Bund, and the Broad project in Los Angeles. The Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart Australia is a boutique player in the global market for experiencescapes. It is smaller than many of its competitors and is situated in a remote part of the world, yet it has made an important contribution to Tasmania’s tourism industry.

Using smartphones for cycling safety: A survey of riders preferences and interest in new technologies

Cyclists are among the most vulnerable road users. Many recent interventions have aimed at improving their safety on the road, such as the minimum overtaking distance rule introduced in Queensland in 2014. Smartphones offer excellent opportunities for technical intervention for road safety at a limited cost. Indeed, they have a lot of available processing power and many embedded sensors that allow analysing a rider's (or driver's) motion, behaviour, and environment; this is especially relevant for cyclists, as they do not have the space or power allowance that can be found in most motor vehicles. The aim of the study presented in this paper is to assess cyclists’ support for a range of new smartphone-based safety technologies. The preliminary results for an online survey with cyclists recruited from Bicycle Queensland and Triathlon Queensland, with N=191, are presented. A number of innovative safety systems such as automatic logging of incidents without injuries, reporting of dangerous area via a website/app, automatic notification of emergency services in case of crash or fall, and advanced navigation apps were assessed. A significant part of the survey is dedicated to GoSafeCycle, a cooperative collision prevention app based on motion tracking and Wi-Fi communications developed at CARRS-Q. Results show a marked preference toward automatic detection and notification of emergencies (62-70% positive assessment) and GoSafeCycle (61.7% positive assessment), as well as reporting apps (59.1% positive assessment). Such findings are important in the context of current promotion of active transports and highlight the need for further development of system supported by the general public.

Narrative as a tool for critical reflective practice in the creative industries

This paper explores the efficacy of narrative in reflective practice across a range of creative disciplines. As practitioners within the creative industries the authors internalise experience and re-contextualise it as stories, designs, music videos, fiction and non-fiction films and dance. They are uniquely placed to examine narrative in critical reflection through the prism of their creative practice and in so doing offer insights into reconceptualising professional practice. The authors demonstrate how engagement with and reflection on and in their stories enables wider reflection. Their purpose in reflection is not just to learn from mistakes but to develop an epistemology of practice that enables them to apply rigorous academic inquiry to articulate their tacit professional knowledge and establish new methods for dealing with uncertainty in creative practice research.

Mosaic PPM1D mutations are associated with predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer

Improved sequencing technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for investigating the role of rare genetic variation in common disease. However, there are considerable challenges with respect to study design, data analysis and replication. Using pooled next-generation sequencing of 507 genes implicated in the repair of DNA in 1,150 samples, an analytical strategy focused on protein-truncating variants (PTVs) and a large-scale sequencing case-control replication experiment in 13,642 individuals, here we show that rare PTVs in the p53-inducible protein phosphatase PPM1D are associated with predisposition to breast cancer and ovarian cancer. PPM1D PTV mutations were present in 25 out of 7,781 cases versus 1 out of 5,861 controls (P = 1.12 × 10-5), including 18 mutations in 6,912 individuals with breast cancer (P = 2.42 × 10-4) and 12 mutations in 1,121 individuals with ovarian cancer (P = 3.10 × 10-9). Notably, all of the identified PPM1D PTVs were mosaic in lymphocyte DNA and clustered within a 370-base-pair region in the final exon of the gene, carboxy-terminal to the phosphatase catalytic domain. Functional studies demonstrate that the mutations result in enhanced suppression of p53 in response to ionizing radiation exposure, suggesting that the mutant alleles encode hyperactive PPM1D isoforms. Thus, although the mutations cause premature protein truncation, they do not result in the simple loss-of-function effect typically associated with this class of variant, but instead probably have a gain-of-function effect. Our results have implications for the detection and management of breast and ovarian cancer risk. More generally, these data provide new insights into the role of rare and of mosaic genetic variants in common conditions, and the use of sequencing in their identification.

“Success breeds success” or “Pride goes before a fall”? ☆: Teams and individuals in multi-contest tournaments

We study the impact of progress feedback on players' performance in multi-contest team tournaments, in which team members' efforts are not directly substitutable. In particular, we employ a real-effort laboratory experiment to understand, in a best-of-three tournament, how players' strategic mindsets change when they compete on a team compared to when they compete individually. Our data corroborate the theoretical predictions for teams: Neither a lead nor a lag in the first component contest affects a team's performance in the subsequent contests. In individual tournaments, however, contrary to the theoretical prediction, we observe that leaders perform worse—but laggards perform better—after learning the outcome of the first contest. Our findings offer the first empirical evidence from a controlled laboratory of the impact of progress feedback between team and individual tournaments, and contribute new insights on team incentives.

Genome-wide association study identifies eight loci associated with blood pressure

Elevated blood pressure is a common, heritable cause of cardiovascular disease worldwide. To date, identification of common genetic variants influencing blood pressure has proven challenging. We tested 2.5 million genotyped and imputed SNPs for association with systolic and diastolic blood pressure in 34,433 subjects of European ancestry from the Global BPgen consortium and followed up findings with direct genotyping (N 71,225 European ancestry, N 12,889 Indian Asian ancestry) and in silico comparison (CHARGE consortium, N = 29,136). We identified association between systolic or diastolic blood pressure and common variants in eight regions near the CYP17A1 (P = 7 × 10 24), CYP1A2 (P = 1 × 10 23), FGF5 (P = 1 × 10 21), SH2B3 (P = 3 × 10 18), MTHFR (P = 2 × 10 13), c10orf107 (P = 1 × 10 9), ZNF652 (P = 5 × 10 9) and PLCD3 (P = 1 × 10 8) genes. All variants associated with continuous blood pressure were associated with dichotomous hypertension. These associations between common variants and blood pressure and hypertension offer mechanistic insights into the regulation of blood pressure and may point to novel targets for interventions to prevent cardiovascular disease.

Climate change and forests in India

Forests play a critical role in addressing climate change concerns in the broader context of global change and sustainable development. Forests are linked to climate change in three ways. i) Forests are a source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: ii) Forests offer mitigation opportunities to stabilise GHG concentrations: iii) Forests are impacted by climate change. This paper reviews studies related to climate change and forests in India: first, the studies estimating carbon inventory for the Indian land use change and forestry sector (LUCF), then the different models and mitigation potential estimates for the LUCF sector in India. Finally it reviews the studies on the impact of climate change on forest ecosystems in India, identifying the implications for net primary productivity and bio-diversity. The paper highlights data, modelling and research gaps relevant to the GHG inventory, mitigation potential and vulnerability and impact assessments for the forest sector in India.

The case for “n«all”: Why the Big Data revolution will probably happen differently in the mining sector

Big Data and predictive analytics have received significant attention from the media and academic literature throughout the past few years, and it is likely that these emerging technologies will materially impact the mining sector. This short communication argues, however, that these technological forces will probably unfold differently in the mining industry than they have in many other sectors because of significant differences in the marginal cost of data capture and storage. To this end, we offer a brief overview of what Big Data and predictive analytics are, and explain how they are bringing about changes in a broad range of sectors. We discuss the “N=all” approach to data collection being promoted by many consultants and technology vendors in the marketplace but, by considering the economic and technical realities of data acquisition and storage, we then explain why a “n « all” data collection strategy probably makes more sense for the mining sector. Finally, towards shaping the industry’s policies with regards to technology-related investments in this area, we conclude by putting forward a conceptual model for leveraging Big Data tools and analytical techniques that is a more appropriate fit for the mining sector.

Delegation of access in an Information Accountability Framework for eHealth

Shared eHealth records systems offer promising benefits for improving healthcare through high availability of information and improved decision making; however, their uptake has been hindered by concerns over the privacy of patient information. To address these privacy concerns while balancing the requirements of healthcare professionals to have access to the information they need to provide appropriate care, the use of an Information Accountability Framework (IAF) has been proposed. For the IAF and so called Accountable-eHealth systems to become a reality, the framework must provide for a diverse range of users and use cases. The initial IAF model did not provide for more diverse use cases including the need for certain users to delegate access to another user in the system to act on their behalf while maintaining accountability. In this paper, we define the requirements for delegation of access in the IAF, how such access policies would be represented in the Framework, and implement and validate an expanded IAF model.

Fabrication and evaluation of 1 Ah silver/metal hydride cells

Silver/metal hydride (Ag/MH) cells of about 1 Ah capacity have been fabricated and their discharge characteristics at different rates of discharge, faradaic efficiency, cycle life and a.c. impedance have been evaluated. These cells comprise metal-hydride electrodes prepared by employing similar to 60 mu m powder of an AB(2)-Laves phase alloy of nominal composition Zr0.5Ti0.5V0.6Cr0.2Ni1.2 with PTFE binder on a nickel-mesh substrate as the negative plates and commercial-grade silver electrodes as the positive plates. The cells are positive limited and exhibit two distinct voltage plateaus characteristic of two-step reduction of AgO to Ag during their low rates of discharge between C/20 and C/10. This feature is, however, absent when the cells are discharged at C/5 rate. On charging the cells to 100% of their capacity, the faradaic efficiency is found to be 100%. The impedance of the Ag/MH cell is essentially due to the impedance of the silver electrodes, since MH electrodes offer negligible impedance. The cells may be subjected to a large number of charge-discharge cycles with little deterioration.