The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of visual stimuli on music listening skills in pre-service elementary teachers. Visual Stimuli in this study refers to the presentation of arts elements in selected visually projected images of paintings. Music listening skills are defined as those skills needed to identify and interpret musical excerpts. A Pretest-Posttest Control-group Design was used in this study. Subjects were pre-service elementary general educators enrolled in a large southern university (N=93). Students from intact classes were randomly placed into either the experimental group or the control group. The treatment consisted of six music listening lessons over a two-week period with each group receiving the identical teaching protocol with the exception of the use of paintings with the experimental group. Listening instruction emphasized the identification of melodic contour, instrumentation, texture, rhythm and expressive elements of the compositions. The Teacher Music Listening Skills Test (TMLST) was constructed by the investigator and administered before and after the treatment. The TMLST was designed to assess music listening skills in adult non-musicians. Results indicate that the group receiving visual stimuli in the form of paintings scored significantly higher on listening skills (pandlt;.01) than the control group which received no visual stimuli in the form of visually projected images of paintings. There was an instruction effect on both preference and familiarity of the musical pieces for both the control group and the experimental group.

Instrumental variables have been used for a long time in the econometrics literature for the identification of the causal effect of one random variable, B, on another, C, in the presence of unobserved confounders. In the classical continuous linear model, the causal effect can be point identified by studying the regression of C on A and B on A, where A is the instrument. An instrument is an instance of a supplementary variable which is not of interest in itself but aids identification of causal effects. The method of instrumental variables is extended here to generalised linear models, for which only bounds on the causal effect can be computed. For the discrete instrumental variable model, bounds have been derived in the literature for the causal effect of B on C in terms of the joint distribution of (A,B,C). Using an approach based on convex polytopes, bounds are computed here in terms of the pairwise (A,B) and (A,C) distributions, in direct analogy to the classic use but without the linearity assumption. The bounding technique is also adapted to instrumental models with stronger and weaker assumptions. The computation produces constraints which can be used to invalidate the model. In the literature, constraints of this type are usually tested by checking whether the relative frequencies satisfy them. This is unsatisfactory from a statistical point of view as it ignores the sampling uncertainty of the data. Given the constraints for a model, a proper likelihood analysis is conducted to develop a significance test for the validity of the instrumental model and a bootstrap algorithm for computing confidence intervals for the causal effect. Applications are presented to illustrate the methods and the advantage of a rigorous statistical approach. The use of covariates and intermediate variables for improving the efficiency of causal estimators is also discussed.

The central argument of this thesis is that, contrary to what is generally believed, Critical Theory (CT) – as understood by the Frankfurt School (FS) – does exist and is developed in Spain influenced by and parallel to the Frankfurt School’s own research during the second half of the twentieth century. Hence, the aim of this research is to provide evidence of the existence in Spain of thought developed in line with Frankfurtian CT. To this end, we shall explore the thought developed by three leading Spanish thinkers: José Luis López Aranguren, María Zambrano Alarcón, and Jesús Aguirre y Ortiz de Zárate. This will be done from the perspective of two pivotal currents of thought arising from Germany: neo- Marxism and Heideggerian thought. By doing so, not only will this research draw attention to the much overlooked issue of CT in Spain, but it will also help to re-contextualize Spanish thought of the second half of the twentieth century in the broader sociological and philosophical discussions which were taking place in post-war Europe and the United States. To this end, the thesis has been structured in two parts. The aim of the first part is to provide an introduction as well as a methodological and historical contextualization which will establish the framework for the rest of the thesis. In the second part, I will carry out an interdisciplinary comparative study analysing which aspects of the thought of these Spanish thinkers converge with the thought of the FS, and which differ from them. Attention will also be paid to the socio-political atmosphere they are immersed in, so as to find out how it contributes to shape their thought.

Software systems form an essential part of Western society,serving as tools to uphold institutions, processes andservices. It is understandable, therefore, that the mostfundamental aspects of programs are their function and utility.But they are not, however, the only things programmers areconcerned with when writing them. On the contrary, programmers also discuss about many otheraspects of software, including the beauty of code. Theydistinguish between different programming styles and expresstheir personal preferences, often by way of admiring andvilifying other people's code. Programmers' identification withaesthetic preferences may give rise to vanity, to disagreementsso entrenched that they deserve the name of 'holy wars' and toother similar phenomena. This thesis describes and analyses these phenomena, whichultimately originate in the human faculty to create andappreciate nuances, to become attached to them and to engage indisputes because of them - even infields as standardised ascomputer programming. Its aim is to expose the aesthetics ofcode, and in doing so, to discuss the symbolic aspects ofinstrumental action at large. Keywords:aesthetics, code, instrumental action,internet discussion fora, programming, symbolic action / <p>NR 20140805</p>

Concertino for Tuba, Winds, and Percussion is a work for solo tuba and an ensemble consisting of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, bass clarinet, bassoon, four horns, two trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, and three percussionists. The percussionists play small, medium, and large suspended cymbals, triangle, tam tam, metal wind chimes, five tom toms, snare drum, tenor drum, bass drum, two sets of two timbales, five temple blocks, maracas, glockenspiel, vibraphone, chimes, xylophone, marimba, and five timpani. The three movements of the work follow the arrangement of the standard concerto format (fast-slow-fast). The lengths of the movements are approximately four minutes and fifteen seconds, two minutes and twenty-five seconds, and four minutes and ten seconds respectively. The total duration of Concertino is about eleven minutes.

This single movement work is written for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 3 clarinets in Bb, bass clarinet in Bb, 2 bassoons, alto saxophone in Eb, 2 horns in F, 2 trumpets in Bb, trombone, euphonium, tuba, contra bass, and 3 percussion. The approximate length is eight minutes. Both traditional and proportional systems of notation are employed. The entire piece is freely chromatic with some implications of whole tone and other nondiatonic scales. The harmonies are tertian yet have no functional tonal basis. Changing meters with asymmetrical divisions are used in all sections except C and E, which have time indications (in seconds) for each measure with subdivisions to aid the conductor. There are seven major formal divisions: A B transition C retransition A' D E.

Introduction -- The structure of Bartók's music: Basic tonal principles, Formal principles, Harmony -- Analysis of the Fugues: The subject, The answer, The countersubject, Overall organization of the Fugues -- Conclusion.

Physical exercise has repeatedly been shown to trigger positive effects on brain function including improved learning, memory, and executive functions. In addition, corresponding physiological changes have been observed, such as increased neurotrophic factors, changes in neurotransmitter concentrations, and increased dendritic spines. However, these changes have not been well described outside of the hippocampus, including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and have not been directly compared at different points of development. Because the prefrontal cortex is one of the last brain areas to fully mature, considering the age at which intervention, such as exercise, takes place is particularly important. Additionally, in human studies the data suggest that exercise has the most profound effects on prefrontal-mediated cognitive functions, while there is considerably less evidence on how exercise affects these functions in animals. The experiments presented here draw upon several well-established methodologies to explore the behavioral and physiological changes due to exercise that take place during adulthood compared to adolescence, as well as the role of mPFC sub regions in instrumental extinction and renewal. To that end, these experiments employ conditioning paradigms using appetitive lever-pressing to assess renewal of extinguished instrumental responding following exercise or pharmacological manipulations. Additionally, because there are multiple reports suggesting that early experiences can affect prefrontal neuronal morphology, dendritic length, complexity, and spine density was examined in young or adult male rats that had access to a locked (no exercise) or unlocked (exercise) running wheel for two weeks. Furthermore, norepinephrine transporter (NET) protein expression in the mPFC was examined by Western blot. Collectively, these experiments suggest that exercise in developing, but not adult rats, reduces the expression of instrumental renewal. The precise role of the mPFC and its sub-regions (i.e., prelimbic (PL) and infralimbic (IL)) in instrumental renewal was examined, providing evidence that the behavioral consequences of physical exercise may be due to modifications not only restricted to the mPFC, but also that exercise may have preferential effects on sub-regions, or change the balance of activation. The finding that when juvenile rats exercised they showed less ABA renewal than non-exercisers, paired with the reduction of ABA renewal when the PL was inactivated (and indeed, almost an identical reduction in the two experiments) points to the deduction that exercise is affecting the PL, perhaps more so than the IL or other mPFC regions.

Parents are best able to identify their own support needs, and professionals can assist parents in receiving supports to assist with these needs. There has been an increase of children diagnosed with autism, which has resulted in a major concern for education professionals. Teachers, therapists, and medical personnel are better able to assist families of children with autism in obtaining supports because they are able to view the family and child objectively and are not emotionally tied to the situation. The focus of this study was to identify the forms of social support that mothers and fathers of children recently diagnosed with autism perceive as being important. Twenty couples (father-mother dyads) of children between the ages of three to five and diagnosed no more than a year and a half with autism participated in this study. Before the study began a social validation process with professionals and parents of children with autism was used to validate the usefulness of the 16 support items. Once the validation was complete, twenty families completed a Q-sort with the items, which allowed for a ranking from "most" to "least" important. Results indicated that both fathers and mothers ranked "information on how I can help my child" as the most important support and "help with transportation" as the least important support. Overall, fathers' preferred instrumental (goods, services, financial assistance, and information) types of supports, such as, "financial help for expenses." Mothers' preferred emotional (someone to talk to about problems, feelings, and attitudes) types of supports, such as, "contact with other parent(s) who experienced the same situation." T-tests, correlations, and a factor analysis were performed to analyze the data. Significant correlations were from on five support items. "Involvement with a church or strong religious beliefs", "special equipment to help meet my child's needs", "financial help for expenses", "participation in an organized parent support group", and "information on how I can help my child" were significant at the.05 level. From the findings, implications for professionals who work with families of children with autism and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Orientador: Marcos Fernandes Pupo Nogueira / Banca: Edilson Vicente de Lima / Banca: Monica Isabel Lucas / Banca: Paulo Augusto Castagna / Banca: Lutero Rodrigues da Silva / Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar aspectos estruturais em peças polifônicas de Adrian Willaert, visando identificar possíveis relações entre sua obra vocal e instrumental, nominadamente os gêneros moteto e ricercare. Entre os diversos aspectos estruturais que serviram como base de comparação, a cadência foi eleita como elemento comum predominante e mensurável, por seus padrões de ocorrência e tipologia associados à uma classificação relativamente bem estabelecida por Bernhard Meier. Alguns tipos cadenciais pouco comuns foram identificados em peças de Willaert, em especial a cláusula melódica cantizans fuggita, que contudo não poderia ser atribuída ao próprio compositor sem uma investigação sobre sua possível ocorrência em obras de compositores influentes pregressos, como Josquin. Tal observação implicou no estudo de fontes primárias pregressas a Willaert, no intuito de identificar, de um lado, aspectos que corroboraram o desenvolvimento da música instrumental a partir de modelos vocais ao longo dos séculos XV e XVI e, de outro, possíveis influências relacionadas ao uso de tipos cadenciais incomuns. Foi desenvolvido um modelo de plano cadencial expandido na medida em que as peças foram analisadas, contemplando também um método de análise motívica que estimulou o exame de escopo deste método analítico convergente em uma peça de Clemens non Papa, compositor contemporâneo mas pouco relacionado ao círculo de Willaert. Como conseqüência desta pesquisa, foi possível identificar ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / The goal of this work was the study of structural aspects in polyphonic pieces by Adrian Willaert, aiming to identify possible relations between his vocal and instrumental works, namely the moteto and ricercare genres. Among the various structural aspects that served as a basis for comparison, cadence was chosen as a measurable and predominant common element, by patterns of occurrence and typology associated with a relatively well-established classification by Bernhard Meier. Some unusual cadential species were identified in Willaert's pieces, specially the melodic clausula cantizans fuggita, which however could not be attributed to the composer without an investigation on its possible occurrence in works by influential composers such as Josquin. This modification implied in the study of primary sources previous to Willaert, in order to identify, on the one hand, aspects that corroborated the development of the instrumental music from vocal models during the fifteenth- and sixteenth-centuries and, on the other hand, possible influences related to the use of these unusual cadential species. An expanded cadential plan model was developed as the pieces were being analyzed, including a method of motivic analysis that prompted the scope examination of this converging analytical method in a piece by Clemens non Papa, a contemporary but unrelated composer to Willaert's circle. As a consequence of this research, it was possible to identify a cadential structure nominated 'staggered cadence' as a ultimate means of potential articulation, besides some structural groupings coupled with the basic cadential pattern cantizans-tenorizans, here nominated as 'C/T-cadence'. / Doutor