The application of improvisational music therapy in autism

This article presents the model of improvisational music therapy and its use with people with autism. Firstly, the author provides a brief definition of some theoretical ideas and the clinical characteristics of improvisational music therapy, a relatively new treatment which is becoming more wide-spread on a global level. Particular reference is made to the possibilities which music offers in the creation of relational experiences, and the role of time, rhythm and repetition as regulatory elements both in music and in intersubjective relationships. Following this, the efficacy of improvisational music therapy with people with autism is discussed, with regard to research in the field of neuroscience (specifically, the Mirror Neuron System) and the impact of a multimodal stimulus such as music making. The final section outlines the results of the international research project RCT TIME-A, in which improvisational music therapy was used with children with autism. The literature analysis shows that music therapy has significant effects and contributes to improvements in several aspects of the autistic disorder, such as autistic mannerisms, social awareness and social affect. We can consider these results as the beginning of a pathway towards validating improvisation music therapy as a treatment for children with autism.

A NEW HYPOTHESIS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION AND TUNING OF BABYLONIAN MUSICAL SCALES

One of the most significant recent developments in musicology has been the transcription and interpretation of certain musical cuneiform texts dating from the second millennium BC. It has been established that Old Babylonian music was diatonic and probably based on seven heptachords, corresponding to the first seven tones of the ancient Greek octave species. However, there remains a problem: there is some ambiguity in the texts about whether the scales should be rising or falling, and their nomenclature changing according to which direction is chosen. This article suggests a possible resolution of the difficulty. On the assumption that Old Babylonian theoreticians might have quantified their scales, the article arithmetizes the tuning procedures of the two main cuneiform tuning texts together, as a single process, and thereby also demonstrates the plausibility of the hypothesis that the idealized model for Babylonian tuning would be likely to have been Just tuning rather than Pythagorean tuning, as has been generally assumed.

Coupling Analysis of Tourism Development and Rural Revitalization in Yannanfei Tea Field Resort of Guangdong Province

By deconstructing the dimensions of rural tourism and rural revitalization and constructing a coupled conceptual model,a coupled evaluation model is constructed.Yannanfei Tea Field Resort in Guangdong is taken as a research case for empirical analysis,to explore the coupled development trend of the two.The results show that①the tourism development of Guangdong Yannanfei Tea Field Resort has a good synergistic relationship with rural revitalization.The two complement and promote each other,and rural tourism has significantly promoted the development of rural revitalization.②The coupling development of tourism development and rural revitalization in Guangdong Yannanfei Tea Field Resort is divided into coupling imbalance period and coupling coordination period.The results indicate that the coordination between the two has not yet reached a level of good coordination and high-quality coordination.It is recommended that the resort should fully utilize the opportunity of rural revitalization strategy,increase investment in rural tourism,promote the transformation and upgrading of the resort,impel the integration of tea and tourism,and develop new business model of tea-tourism rural vacation.

Effect of vocal respiratory training on respiratory function and respiratory neural plasticity in patients with cervical spinal cord injury:a randomized controlled trial

In previous studies,researchers have used singing to treat respiratory function in patients with spinal cord injury.However,few studies have examined the way in which vocal training affects respiratory neural plasticity in patients with spinal cord injury.Vocal respiratory training(VRT)is a type of vocal muscle-related treatment that is often a component of music therapy(MT)and focuses on strengthening respiratory muscles and improving lung function.In this randomized controlled study,we analyzed the therapeutic effects of VRT on respiratory dysfunction at 3 months after cervical spinal cord injury.Of an initial group of 37 patients,26 completed the music therapy intervention,which comprised five 30-minute sessions per week for 12 weeks.The intervention group(n=13)received VRT training delivered by professional certified music therapists.The control group(n=13)received respiratory physical therapy delivered by professional physical therapists.Compared with the control group,we observed a substantial increase in respiratory function in the intervention group after the 12-week intervention.Further,the nerve fiber bundles in the respiratory center in the medulla exhibited a trend towards increased diversification,with an increased number,path length,thickness,and density of nerve fiber bundles.These findings provide strong evidence for the effect of music therapeutic VRT on neural plasticity.This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of China Rehabilitation Research Center(approval No.2020-013-1)on April 1,2020,and was registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry(registration No.Chi CTR2000037871)on September 2,2020.

Acoustic detection of unknown bird species and individuals

Computational bioacoustics is a relatively young research area,yet it has increasingly received attention over the last decade because it can be used in a wide range of appli-cations in a cost-effective manner.This work focuses on the problem of detecting the novel bird calls and songs associated with various species and individual birds.To this end,variational autoencoders,consisting of deep encoding-decoding networks,are employed.The encoder encompasses a series of convolutional layers leading to a smooth high-level abstraction of log-Mel spectrograms that characterise bird vocalisations.The decoder operates on this latent representation to generate each respective original observation.Novel species/individual detection is carried out by monitoring and thresholding the expected reconstruction probability.We thoroughly evaluate the pro-posed method on two different data sets,including the vocalisations of 11 North American bird species and 16 Athene noctua individuals.

Wireless Acoustic Sensor Networks and Edge Computing for Rapid Acoustic Monitoring

Passive acoustic monitoring is emerging as a promising solution to the urgent, global need for new biodiversity assessment methods. The ecological relevance of the soundscape is increasingly recognised, and the affordability of robust hardware for remote audio recording is stimulating international interest in the potential for acoustic methods for biodiversity monitoring.The scale of the data involved requires automated methods,however, the development of acoustic sensor networks capable of sampling the soundscape across time and space and relaying the data to an accessible storage location remains a significant technical challenge, with power management at its core. Recording and transmitting large quantities of audio data is power intensive,hampering long-term deployment in remote, off-grid locations of key ecological interest. Rather than transmitting heavy audio data, in this paper, we propose a low-cost and energy efficient wireless acoustic sensor network integrated with edge computing structure for remote acoustic monitoring and in situ analysis.Recording and computation of acoustic indices are carried out directly on edge devices built from low noise primo condenser microphones and Teensy microcontrollers, using internal FFT hardware support. Resultant indices are transmitted over a ZigBee-based wireless mesh network to a destination server.Benchmark tests of audio quality, indices computation and power consumption demonstrate acoustic equivalence and significant power savings over current solutions.

The scope and potential of music therapy in stroke rehabilitation

There is a growing interest in the use of music therapy in neurological rehabilitation. Of all the major neurological illnesses, stroke rehabilitation has been observed to have some of the strongest potential for music therapy’s beneficial effect. The current burden of stroke has raised the need to embrace novel,cost-effective, rehabilitation designs that will enhance the existing physical, occupation, and speech therapies. Music therapy addresses a broad spectrum of motor, speech, and cognitive deficits, as well as behavioral and emotional issues. Several music therapy designs have focused on gait, cognitive, and speech rehabilitation, but most of the existing randomized controlled trials based on these interventions have a high risk of bias and are statistically insignificant. More randomized controlled trials with greater number of participants are required to strengthen the current data. Fostering an open and informed dialogue between patients, healthcare providers, and music therapists may help increase quality of life, dispel fallacies, and guide patients to specific musical interventions.

Merging Drama with Medical Education: Simulation in Learning Breaking Bad News Pre- and Post-Study

Objective: Using simulation in medical education was introduced in the 17th century, applying different techniques. The introduction of using simulated patients (SP) was also of great importance in both learning and evaluation processes. Aims: This current study aims at assessing medical students’ perception about the use of well-trained drama students from the school of Arts in simulated session of breaking bad news encounter. Study Design: This is a per- and post-test study. Methods: 112 students were asked to fill a pre-validated questionnaire, who trained from January 2017 till the end of July 2017 pre- and post-exposure to simulated clinical encounter, where one well trained senior drama student played the role of patient, one student played the doctor who would break the bad news (BBN), debriefing before the encounter, and discussion after took place. Another validated questionnaire was distributed after the encounter, to assess the students’ experience. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 20. Results: Scores of all questions showed statistically significant improvement after the simulation session (p-value Conclusion: Simulation encounter, using drama students who are well-trained in human grief reaction, making BBN learning more positive and effective, merging two faculties improved the learning experience of both medical and Drama students.

When a 17-Year-Old Girl Is Diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: A Case Study from the Swedish Health Care System—A Parent Perspective

This case study presents different strategies that were explored by the patient’s mother (who is a researcher in music and medicine) when her 17-year-old daughter was diagnosed with ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). ME is not widely recognized in the Global as well as the Swedish population at large, and within healthcare, there are no standardized recommended treatments, partly due to the lack of published evidence-based studies. This case study aims to provide insights into how the Swedish healthcare system works, how different clinics and hospitals within it operate and interconnect;and how these contribute to health outcomes after 15 months of treatment.

High-intensity laser-driven secondary radiation sources using the ZEUS 45 TW laser system at the Institute of Plasma Physics and Lasers of the Hellenic Mediterranean University Research Centre

The rapid development of high-intensity laser-generated particle and photon secondary sources has attracted widespread interest during the last 20 years not only due to fundamental science research but also because of the important applications of this developing technology.For instance,the generation of relativistic particle beams,betatron-type coherent X-ray radiation and high harmonic generation have attracted interest from various fields of science and technology owing to their diverse applications in biomedical,material science,energy,space,and security applications.In the field of biomedical applications in particular,laser-driven particle beams as well as laser-driven X-ray sources are a promising field of study.This article looks at the research being performed at the Institute of Plasma Physics and Lasers(IPPL)of the Hellenic Mediterranean University Research Centre.The recent installation of the ZEUS 45 TW laser system developed at IPPL offers unique opportunities for research in laser-driven particle and X-ray sources.This article provides information about the facility and describes initial experiments performed for establishing the baseline platforms for secondary plasma sources.

Hydrodynamic computational modelling and simulations of collisional shock waves in gas jet targets

We study the optimization of collisionless shock acceleration of ions based on hydrodynamic modelling and simulations of collisional shock waves in gaseous targets.The models correspond to the specifications required for experiments with the CO2 laser at the Accelerator Test Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Vulcan Petawatt system at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.In both cases,a laser prepulse is simulated to interact with hydrogen gas jet targets.It is demonstrated that by controlling the pulse energy,the deposition position and the backing pressure,a blast wave suitable for generating nearly monoenergetic ion beams can be formed.Depending on the energy absorbed and the deposition position,an optimal temporal window can be determined for the acceleration considering both the necessary overdense state of plasma and the required short scale lengths for monoenergetic ion beam production.

Addressing the need for personalizing music therapy in integrative oncology

Music therapy is an integrative oncology practice that has been rapidly emerging,over the past two decades,as a field of its own,clinically and academically.The randomized controlled trials that evaluate the clinical impact of music therapy are growing in number,and at the same time,there has been progress in understanding the neurobiological mechanisms that underly the beneficial effects of music therapy.Cultural background and autobiographical memories may uniquely influence music perception and cognition.It is vital to personalize music therapy because music preferences are unique;one size does not fit all.Cognitive music science studies and clinical music therapy trials that study individualized music choices will serve as a vital step forward in providing patient-directed personalized integrative cancer care.The field of music therapy is advancing,and its ability to improve a patient’s quality of life can be understood only through robust,personalized,evidence-based initiatives that focus on research,advocacy,education,and delivery of care.

A computational study on the optical shaping of gas targets via blast wave collisions for magnetic vortex acceleration

This research work emphasizes the capability of delivering optically shaped targets through the interaction of nanosecond laser pulses with high-density gas-jet profiles,and explores proton acceleration in the near-critical density regime via magnetic vortex acceleration(MVA).Multiple blast waves(BWs)are generated by laser pulses that compress the gas-jet into near-critical steep gradient slabs of a few micrometres thickness.Geometrical alternatives for delivering the laser pulses into the gas target are explored to efficiently control the characteristics of the density profile.The shock front collisions of the generated BWs are computationally studied by 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations.The efficiency of the proposed target shaping method for MVA is demonstrated for TW-class lasers by a particle-in-cell simulation.