In-store music and aroma influences on shopper behavior and satisfaction

Retail markets are increasingly competitive and retailers continuously look to differentiate their retail offering. One way to differentiate is by providing a pleasant and exciting shopping ambience. This paper experimentally tests the effects of music (volume high or low) and aroma (vanilla scent present/absent) on young fashion shoppers in a real retail setting. Results show that volume of music and the presence of a vanilla aroma both have a significant impact on shoppers' emotions and satisfaction levels. Additional analysis reveals that the arousal induced by music and aroma results in increased pleasure levels, which in turn positively influences shopper behaviors, including time and money spend, approach behavior, and satisfaction with the shopping experience. Direct effects of arousal on behaviors as well as an interaction effect between music and aroma on pleasure and time spent in the store are also present. The paper contributes to the better understanding of shoppers' emotions and shopper behaviors in response to in-store atmospherics and offers retailers practical insights into how to create competitive advantage by customizing the atmosphere in their stores.

Promoting African music and enhancing intercultural understanding in teacher education

Australia is a culturally diverse nation. The Arts provide a pathway that contributes to the rich tapestry of its people. Tertiary music educators have the responsibility to provide opportunities to effectively prepare and engage pre-service teachers in becoming culturally responsive. The authors discuss the importance and need to include guest music educators as culture bearers when preparing pre-service teachers to teach multicultural music. Drawing on data from student questionnaires, author participant observation and reflective practice in 2014, the findings highlight the experiences and practical engagement of an African music workshop in teacher education courses. Generalisations cannot be made, however, the findings revealed the need, importance and benefits of incorporating guest music educators as culture bearers who have the knowledge, skills and understandings to contribute to multicultural music education. This experience may be similar to other educational settings and it is hoped that the findings may provide a platform for further dialogue in other teaching and learning areas.

Digital shimmer: popular music and the intimate nexus between fan and star

Conception of ‘star performance’ through popular music is stratified which generates diverse and often contradictory forms of thought. For example, stars and celebrities plausibly act as a ‘culture medium’ in which, through imagination, one’s identity is assembled, realised or constructed. What to become and how to be are questions we individually and collectively contend with throughout our lives to varying degrees (Maslow, 1954; 1968). Predominant use of digital technologies has seen the delivery of sound much altered. Music, be it Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata or Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast, once sourced via analogue legacy devices such as ‘old-school’ tape cassette or vinyl record is now a series of zero and one digits. Advocates argue that the key benefit of digitalisation is the ability to compress data because sound generates large files of information. The discourse of digitalisation begs the question of how a series of ones and zeros, albeit in a plethora of configurations, registers with listening bodies and affects ‘the sublime’. It is without doubt that some musical experiences afford indescribable, unlocatable sensation—even enchantment (as defined by Bennett, 2001: 5 and called forth by Redmond: 2014: 126). Such musical experiences might be in the presence of the performer or in their absence such as in the case of recorded music. In this context, any sense of ’real’ space and place is less definitive allowing for ‘special encounters’ to be imagined and felt. For these reasons, music and all that the use of the word might convey, the proposed notion of phaino-ken here, acts as the lens through which to examine the meaning and value of celebrity and star embodiment.

Stillness and movement: a bodily approach to photography

My paper will address both Duration and temporality of the ‘still’ imageand Sensorial and bodily experience of photography through a discussion of a recent body of work ‘Fly Rhythm’, a series of photographs and video works exhibited in a gallery context.By acknowledging the inter-relationship between the body and the camera my project seeks to challenge a perceived separation between performance and photography. Fly Rhythm was conceived through a performative somatic process. Through using a custom made camera I was able to negotiate time and space to create a visual drawing of movement and stillness together in photography. The resultant images are discussed as a notation of body movement – a record of bodily history enabled through a self imposed discipline of learning to read light.I initially constructed a human size camera to understand how photography works. Spending time inside observing the way light moves and affects the formation of sight is also a way of embodying the act of photography. I responded by making a bespoke camera that enabled light to be captured during extended periods while moving. My project is dependent upon a self-imposed discipline of intuiting light’s strength and erratic changes, a skill developed by making analogue prints while inside a camera obscura. Once I had developed an ability to read light’s changes and gain an understanding of camera mechanics I made durational recordings moving through the landscape on Bruny Island Tasmania and industrial sites in Melbourne, photographs exhibited as part of Fly Rhythm. I will discuss these prints in context with the idea that light is a conduit through which past and present fuse together in a bodily act of photographing and processing images.I will explore durational aspects of photography by discussing light’s relative motion while taking photographs without using the viewfinder or composing images in the traditional way. Rather, the camera at the end of my arm is directed through how I read light therefore a choreography notated in the prints – a kind of body signatureMy practice enables a new the way of seeing, in a spontaneous hand held process creating a sense of embodiment. By analyzing process my paper will consider how the body together with analogue and 21st century digital technology coalesce cross-disciplinary practice combining visual art, performance and photographic disciplines.I also explored limitations of digital light in contrast with ‘natural’ light by a making a gamut of dissolving colour determined by the software based on two pixels. Projected into the ambient light ‘Glide’ is an 11minute durational work installed at the Substation Contemporary Art Space in Melbourne Australia.

In the heat of the moment: audience real time response to live music and dance performance

Coughing and Clapping: Investigating Audience Experience explores the processes and experiences of attending live music events from the initial decision to attend through to audience responses and memories of a performance after it has happened. The book brings together international researchers who consider the experience of being an audience member from a range of theoretical and empirical perspectives. Whether enjoying a drink at a jazz gig, tweeting at a pop concert or suppressing a cough at a classical recital, audience experience is affected by motivation, performance quality, social atmosphere and group and personal identity. Drawing on the implications of these experiences and attitudes, the authors consider the question of what makes an audience, and argue convincingly for the practical and academic value of that question.

Reproductive migration of fish and movement in a series of reservoirs in the Upper Parana River basin, Brazil

AbstractThis study evaluates the effectiveness of two fish passes at two hydropower dams (Canoas I and II) in the Upper Parana basin, which form part of a cascade of three reservoirs. Fish from 12 migratory species (3089 specimens) were captured during their ascending, reproductive migration and were tagged with hydrostatic tags. The recapture data (294 specimens over two consecutive years) showed that there is a strong tendency for the maintenance of ascending migration through reservoirs with fish passes but with differences in migratory activity within the same species. No eggs, larvae or juveniles of these species were found in samples collected over 5 years in the reservoirs above the fish passes. These data suggest that fish passes have contributed to the restoration of the migratory routes of adult fish but that in the absence of suitable spawning or nursery habitats for these species; they probably act as ecological traps and do not contribute to the recruitment of the species.

Use of music and play in pediatric nursing care in the hospital context

Objective. To identify and analyze scientific publications on the use of music and play in pediatric nursing care in the hospital context. Method. In this bibliographic study, papers were sought that were published in Portuguese or English between 2004 and 2009 and included the descriptors: hospitalized child, childhood, child recreation, nursing team, nursing, pediatric nursing, alternatives therapies, music, music therapy, play and playthings, play therapy, playing. For the review, the bibliographic databases used were MEDLINE, ScIELO and LILACS. Results. Seventeen publications were obtained, among which: 59% adopted a quantitative method; mainly nursing developed the activities (88%); per type of article, reviews on the theme and assessments of clinical changes associated with the use of music and play were frequent (59% and 18%, respectively); and the utility of this kind of therapies in nursing care is acknowledged (94%). Conclusion. Play and music are useful therapies that can be used in nursing care for pediatric patients.

Phylodynamics and movement of Phycodnaviruses among aquatic environments

Phycodnaviruses have a significant role in modulating the dynamics of phytoplankton, thereby influencing community structure and succession, nutrient cycles and potentially atmospheric composition because phytoplankton fix about half the carbon dioxide (CO2) on the planet, and some algae release dimethylsulphoniopropionate when lysed by viruses. Despite their ecological importance and widespread distribution, relatively little is known about the evolutionary history, phylogenetic relationships and phylodynamics of the Phycodnaviruses from freshwater environments. Herein we provide novel data on Phycodnaviruses from the largest river system on earth-the Amazon Basin-that were compared with samples from different aquatic systems from several places around the world. Based on phylogenetic inference using DNA polymerase (pol) sequences we show the presence of distinct populations of Phycodnaviridae. Preliminary coarse-grained phylodynamics and phylogeographic inferences revealed a complex dynamics characterized by long-term fluctuations in viral population sizes, with a remarkable worldwide reduction of the effective population around 400 thousand years before the present (KYBP), followed by a recovery near to the present time. Moreover, we present evidence for significant viral gene flow between freshwater environments, but crucially almost none between freshwater and marine environments. The ISME Journal (2012) 6, 237-247; doi: 10.1038/ismej.2011.93; published online 28 July 2011

A quantitative approach to evolution of music and philosophy

The development of new statistical and computational methods is increasingly making it possible to bridge the gap between hard sciences and humanities. In this study, we propose an approach based on a quantitative evaluation of attributes of objects in fields of humanities, from which concepts such as dialectics and opposition are formally defined mathematically. As case studies, we analyzed the temporal evolution of classical music and philosophy by obtaining data for 8 features characterizing the corresponding fields for 7 well-known composers and philosophers, which were treated with multivariate statistics and pattern recognition methods. A bootstrap method was applied to avoid statistical bias caused by the small sample data set, with which hundreds of artificial composers and philosophers were generated, influenced by the 7 names originally chosen. Upon defining indices for opposition, skewness and counter-dialectics, we confirmed the intuitive analysis of historians in that classical music evolved according to a master apprentice tradition, while in philosophy changes were driven by opposition. Though these case studies were meant only to show the possibility of treating phenomena in humanities quantitatively, including a quantitative measure of concepts such as dialectics and opposition, the results are encouraging for further application of the approach presented here to many other areas, since it is entirely generic.