Vibraphone performance continues to be an expanding field of music. Earliest accounts of the presence of the vibraphone and vibraphone players can be found in American Vaudeville from the early 1900s; then found shortly thereafter in jazz bands as early as the 1930s, and on the classical concert stage beginning in 1949. Three Pieces for Vibraphone, Opus 27, composed by James Beale in 1959, is the first solo concert piece written exclusively for the instrument. Since 1959, there have been over 690 pieces written for solo concert vibraphone, which stands as evidence of the popularity of both the instrument and the genre of solo concert literature. Christopher Deane has contributed to solo vibraphone repertoire with works that are regarded as staples in the genre. Deane's compositions for vibraphone consistently expand the technical and musical potential of the instrument. Performance of Deane's vibraphone works requires a performer to utilize grips and specific performance techniques that are departures from standard performance practices. Many of the performance techniques needed to successfully execute these pieces are not routinely found in either percussion pedagogy courses or performance ensemble situations. As a result, most percussionists are not familiar with these techniques and will require additional assistance, instruction, or demonstrations. The impetus of this document is to present explanations and solutions for performance areas that require extended performance techniques, to offer recommendations on the creation, choosing, and manipulating of special implements, and to propose varied choices related to artistic interpretation of three of Deane's vibraphone pieces: Mourning Dove Sonnet (1983), The Apocryphal Still Life (1996), and Dis Qui Etude (2004).

The flute music of Anna Bon di Venezia (1738–ca. 1767) belongs to the group of long-overlooked compositions by women composers throughout history worthy of rediscovery. This dissertation includes a discussion of Bon's life and music, as well as the artistic, historical, and theoretical significance of her compositions. It also presents biographical research on Bon, including Michaela Krucsay's dissertation, which provides new evidence of Bon's birth date, which had been uncertain up until 2015. Bon's Sonata in F Major for flute and basso continuo is analyzed to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the work. A table is provided explaining specific ornaments and articulations added to the performance edition. In addition, this dissertation includes analyses of sonatas by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788) and Johann Joachim Quantz (1697–1773) to contextualize Bon's sonatas within the standard flute repertoire. This dissertation expands the music scholarship on this distinguished composer and performer and provides a historically informed performance edition of the Sonata in F Major, op. 1, no. 2, for flute and piano, to serve as a model to modern flutists for historically informed performances of Bon's entire opus 1.

Still life arise from interactions related to a particular situation, location and experience. They are composed of objects that are located on a given place, of my own and borrowed or donated by my "partners". Reflect the time memory. They are a physical reminder of the experience. Still Life is manipulated, staged, composed of various artifacts that are symbolic bearer of facts that preceded them, Images may affect the perception of emotions associated with the concept of beauty, transience, decay, evoking a feeling of emptiness, to reflect the time - an irreversible momentum. Photos show a banal, everyday objects, often so obvious and neglected, What remains for us ... What remains ... What goes around ... What is gone ... Similar scenarios acquire different meanings, finding what is already absent,

I have been dealing with the themes of prefabricated houses and housing estates until recently. I was especially interested in their aesthetics. Order, grid and certain regularity and repeatability. At the same time, I was always interested in his social connotations, mainly because I live in these places. Gradually I became more interested in topics related to my own home. So I moved from the general themes to my own experience. But what is my home? Home is a place of utmost importance in our society. Home is made up of people, family. People have it associated with many rituals that accompany their lives often without actually being considered for them. Thanks to these rituals, we manage, among other things, the everyday influx of positive and negative influences of the surroundings and deal with them in various ways. Morning coffee, brushing your teeth, lighting a candle, wiping dust, filling a bath, scattering water on flowers, etc. Balance is the key to everything we do. And I would like to analyze, document and process these home and personal rituals in this work. The final thesis will consist of a free series of paintings with possible interventions and overlaps into video or installation, etc.

In The Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois theorized that black peoples were viewed behind a metaphorical “veil” that consisted of three interrelated aspects: the skin as an indication of African Americans’ difference from their white counterparts, white people’s lack of capacity to see African Americans as Americans, and African Americans’ lack of capacity to see themselves outside of the labels white America has given them. This, according to Du Bois, resulted in the gift and curse of “double consciousness,” the feeling that one’s identity is divided. As African Americans fought for socio-political equality, the reconciliation of these halves became essential in creating a new identity in America by creating a distinct voice in the age of modernity. Intellectuals and artists of the Harlem Renaissance began to create new art forms with progressive messages that strove to uplift the race and ultimately lift the veil. William Grant Still (1895–1978), an American composer of African descent, accomplished this goal in his opera Blue Steel (1934) by changing how blackness—defined here as characteristics attributed to and intended to indicate the otherness of people of African or African-American descent—was portrayed on the operatic stage. Still exemplifies what Houston A. Baker called “mastery of form” by presenting double consciousness in the interactions of three characters, Blue Steel, Venable, and Neola, in order to offer a new and complex reading of blackness.

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Nel presente lavoro di tesi sono riportati i risultati di un innovativo progetto di ricerca longitudinale nell'ambito della psicobiologia. I recenti progressi nel campo dell'epigenetica sono stati applicati allo studio delle conseguenze di esperienze avverse precoci sullo sviluppo socio-emozionale in bambini nati fortemente pretermine. La nascita pretermine costituisce un fattore di rischio per lo sviluppo socio-emozionale, in parte per l'esposizione ad eventi stressanti (es.: dolore neonatale) durante l'ospedalizzazione in terapia intensiva neonatale (TIN). L'epigenetica si riferisce a processi biochimici altamente sensibili alle esperienze ambientali e che alterano la funzione di trascrizione di specifici geni, senza modificare la struttura della sequenza di DNA. Il candidato ha sviluppato un razionale clinicamente rilevante per la ricerca epigenetica comportamentale della prematurità. Inoltre il progetto di ricerca ha dimostrato che il livello di esposizione a procedure dolorose si associa a esiti avversi sul piano temperamentale e della risposta allo stress a tre mesi e che tale associazione è mediata da alterazioni epigenetiche a livello del gene che codifica per il trasportatore della serotonina. Le implicazioni teoriche, cliniche ed etiche di questi risultati sono trattate nella sezione conclusiva. Il progetto di epigenetica comportamentale della prematurità fornisce una nuova prospettiva teorica ed empirica sul tema dell’interazione tra genetica ed ambiente. / In the present work, the candidate reports the results of an innovative longitudinal research project in the field of psychobiology. The recent epigenetic progresses have been applied to the study of the consequences of early adverse event exposures on the socio-emotional development of very preterm infants. Preterm birth is a major concern for socio-emotional development, partly due to the exposure to adverse stressful stimulations (i.e., skin-breaking procedures) during the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) stay. Epigenetics refers to biochemical processes which are sensitive to environmental cues and which alter the transcriptional activity of specific genes without changing the DNA structure. The candidate has developed a clinically relevant rationale for preterm behavioral epigenetics (PBE). The research project has demonstrated that the early exposure to high levels of skin-breaking procedures during NICU stay associate with non-optimal temperamental profile and stress regulation at 3 months of age. This association was mediated by epigenetic modifications (DNA methylation) of the stress-related gene encoding for serotonin transporter. The theoretical, clinical and ethical implications of these findings are discussed further in the final section of the thesis. The PBE project provides a new framework for the issue of the interconnections between nature and nurture.

The purpose of the study was to determine the causes, of the increased perinatal mortality, identify and describe other factors contributing to the increased perinatal mortality rate in a rural healthcare facility situated in Sekhukhune district in Limpopo province, and to formulate the recommendations that will reduce the perinatal mortality rate based on the results. A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional and retrospective design was conducted. The study population was one hundred and sixty two (162) records of babies who died in the perinatal facility from the 1st January 2015 to the 31st December 2015 with a gestational age of about 28 weeks or more. No sampling was done, but a census was used. The sample comprised of one hundred and sixty two (162) of all the records related to perinatal mortality. Data were collected from patients’ records by using a checklist. Analysis of the data was performed by the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 14 computer software. Frequency tables and pie graphs were used to present the data. The results indicated that 75.3% (n=122) of the records were associated with health personnel as a factor contributing to perinatal mortality. Furthermore, preterm cases accounted for 45.1% (n=73) and prematurity accounted for 37.0% (n=60) of the cases of perinatal mortality. Therefore, preterm births and prematurity are risk factors that should be managed immediately after birth, and all babies should be managed prior to being transferred to the other healthcare institutions. The recommendations are that the education of patients about early antenatal visit, signs of labour and danger signs during pregnancy and training of healthcare workers on record-keeping have to be done on a continuous basis. Managers should conduct quality improvement programmes, benchmarking and implement maternal and neonatal guidelines in the clinical area throughout pregnancy. / Health Studies / M. P. H. (Health Studies)

En dépit des taux élevés de mortalité infantile dans les populations du passé, les sujets décédés en période périnatale ont longtemps été délaissés dans les travaux anthropologiques et paléoanthropologiques. Alors que les analyses biologiques portant sur les individus adultes intègrent l’étude de la variabilité comme une composante majeure, rares sont celles permettant de replacer un individu décédé en période périnatale dans le cadre de la variabilité individuelle ou populationnelle de cette classe d’âge. Le présent travail se propose ainsi d’investir le sujet de la diversité métrique et non-métrique des sujets décédés entre 22 et 48 semaines d’aménorrhée à partir de l’étude biologique de 116 sujets de trois collections archéologiques (une kerma et deux médiévales et modernes) et d’une collection actuelle virtuelle comportant 364 individus. Un premier axe de recherche caractérise la variabilité des corpus dans ses composantes intra-individuelles, inter-individuelles, populationnelles, ainsi que du point de vue des corrélations à l’âge au décès. Un second axe de recherche vise à identifier des caractères permettant d’estimer l’état de morbidité et de vitalité à la naissance de l’individu, donnée déterminante pour le statut du sujet dans la société. Pour le premier axe, l’étude révèle des différences de conformation selon l’âge au décès et les groupes populationnels, de même que l’existence d’asymétries directionnelles et fluctuantes. Les résultats vont ensuite dans le sens d’une forte proximité biologique pour le groupe kerma, traduisant potentiellement une certaine endogamie, au contraire du groupe médiéval et moderne dont la diversité plus importante pourrait refléter des facteurs socio-géographiques ou séculaires. Le second axe de recherche a permis de souligner que la mécano-sensibilité des régions d’insertion musculaire apparaît comme un nouveau paramètre à considérer pour discerner les sujets ayant survécu à la naissance. L’étude de la collection kerma livre également la première identification en contexte archéologique d’un critère de morbidité spécifique, la côte surnuméraire cervicale. Enfin, le croisement des analyses biologiques et des données archéologiques de la nécropole 8B-51 de l’île de Saï, permet d’appréhender et de discuter les traitements funéraires dévolus à la classe d’âge périnatale au Kerma classique. / Despite the high rates of child mortality in past populations, subjects deceased in perinatal period were often neglected in bioarchaeological and paleoanthropology studies. Unlike biological analysis on adults, investigations on newborns rarely include individual or populational variability comparisons as a major component. In the present work, we will focus on metrical and non-metrical diversity of subject deceased between 22 and 48 amenorrhea weeks, based on the biological study of 116 subjects from three archaeological collections (one kerma and two medieval and modern) and one current virtual collection with 364 individuals. The first research axis characterizes the intra-individual, inter-individual and populational variability, and differences by age at death in both samples. The second line of research aims to identify criteria making it possible to estimate individual morbidity and live birth on dry bones, informations that are needed to understand the child’s position in society. Biological studies reveal for the first research axis shape differences by age at death and populations, as well as the existence of directional and fluctuating asymmetries. Results provide evidences of strong biological proximity in the kerma group, potentially indicating of endogamy. On the contrary, the diversity of the medieval and modern group appears broader and could reflect socio-geographical factors or secular trends. The second line of research reveals the mechanical sensitivity of muscular insertions as a key parameter for tracking of live-born subjects. The study of the kerma collection provides the first archaeological identification of the supernumerary cervical rib, detected as a morbidity criterion in perinatal period. Lastly, crossing of biological and archaeological data on the 8B-51 necropolis provides an interpretative framework for funerary treatments dedicated to the perinatal age group in Classic Kerma.

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