Survey of University-Based Music Programs in Canada

This study provides a compact overview of university-based music programs in Canada based on information gleaned from surveys of institutional members of the Canadian University Music Society (CUMS)—universities, colleges, and conservatories. The surveys took place between 2005 and 2009. The current report focuses on the metrics of enrolment and staffing, and goes on to provide basic data on graduate and undergraduate programs. It is a first step in sharing information that can facilitate informed advocacy in support of music in higher education both within and beyond individual institutions.Cet article fournit une vue d’ensemble des programmes musicaux universitaires au Canada. Il s’appuie sur des informations récoltées au cours des études réalisées par des membres de la Société de musique des Universités Canadiennes (SMUC)—universités, collèges et conservatoires. Ces études ont été effectuées entre 2005 et 2009. Le présent rapport se concentre sur les statistiques concernant les inscriptions des étudiants et le personnel enseignant, et procure des données fondamentales sur différents programmes de premier et deuxième cycles. C’est un premier pas dans le partage de l’information qui pourra faciliter un plaidoyer avisé afin de promouvoir l’éducation musicale au niveau des études supérieures à la fois au sein et au-delà des institutions

An investigation of the thermal radiation properties of certain spacecraft materials Final report

Thermal radiation analysis for anodized aluminum - anodizing process evaluation for optimum properties under space conditions for spacecraft temperature contro

Singing in later life: the anatomy of a community choir

Previous research has highlighted the individual and social benefits of participation in arts activities for physical, psychological and social well-being. However, less is known about the transformative community aspects of the arts and very few studies have investigated arts participation over a substantial period. This article reports a case study of an older people’s choir over a 4-year period, involving interviews, focus groups, observations and a World Café participatory discussion. In support of previous literature, choir members highlighted many individual and interpersonal benefits of being part of the choir. They also emphasised the importance of developing social relationships within a supportive community, and the importance of musical achievement was central to the ongoing development of the choir. Our analysis identified five main themes: personal investment and reward; inclusive community; always evolving yet fundamentally unchanged; a desire to connect; and leadership and organisation. Considering these with reference to Seligman’s PERMA framework from positive psychology, it is apparent that social relationships, meaning and accomplishment are particularly emphasised as reasons why older people find singing in a community choir so beneficial for well-being. Sustainability is a major concern, and factors such as an expert music leader to support this are identified

A kapwa-infused paradigm in teaching Catholic theology/catechesis in a multireligious classroom in the Philippines

The increasing religious diversity in educational space has raised a legitimate question on how Catholic theology/ catechesis must be taught in Philippine Catholic universities given the institutional mandate to educate students “into the faith of the Church through teaching of Christian doctrine in an organic and systematic way” (Wuerl, 2013, 1). On this note, the paper makes reference to “centered plural- ism” (CP), a positional posture espoused by Georgetown University in dealing with this predicament. In an attempt to (re) appropriate CP into local context, there is a need to explore the Filipino conception of self/others as enveloped within the indigenous concept of kapwa. Hereon, the paper finds that CP is not just feasibly suitable in local context but with kapwa's more inclusive description of the relationship of self and others, a CP‐based teaching paradigm in theology/ catechesis is a promising project in the educational scene of the Philippines

The Spirit Moving over the Great Deep

My reflection is about the Holy Spirit, about that Spirit of gentleness and restlessness who moves over the waters of the Great Deep, stirring up the thirsts of the world, and calling us to join her, as Christians and religious, to slake those thirsts. A first part will reflect on the Spirit who stirs up those thirsts. A second part will outline several of those thirsts. A third part will reflect on how the Spirit calls Christians to join her mission of slaking those thirsts, and a fourth and final part will suggest that we as religious women and men can play a particular part in that thirst-slaking mission of the Spirit. Keywords: Holy Spirit, Christian Spirituality, Mission of the Church, Mission of the Spirit, Missiolog

A Century of Catholic Mission Roman Catholic Missiology 1910 to the Present

A Century of Catholic Mission surveys the complex and rich history and theology of Roman Catholic Mission in the one hundred years since the 1910 Edinburgh World Mission Conference. Essays written by an international team of Catholic mission scholars focus on Catholic Mission in every region of the world, summarize church teaching on mission before and after the watershed event of the Second Vatican Council, and reflect on a wide variety of theological issues.https://scholar.csl.edu/edinburghcentenary/1000/thumbnail.jp

Categorizing Blog Spam

The internet has matured into the focal point of our era. Its ecosystem is vast, complex, and in many regards unaccounted for. One of the most prevalent aspects of the internet is spam. Similar to the rest of the internet, spam has evolved from simply meaning ‘unwanted emails’ to a blanket term that encompasses any unsolicited or illegitimate content that appears in the wide range of media that exists on the internet. Many forms of spam permeate the internet, and spam architects continue to develop tools and methods to avoid detection. On the other side, cyber security engineers continue to develop more sophisticated detection tools to curb the harmful effects that come with spam. This virtual arms race has no end in sight. Most efforts thus far have been toward accurately detecting spam from ham, and rightfully so since initial detection is essential. However, research is lacking in understanding the current ecosystem of spam, spam campaigns, and the behavior of the botnets that drive the majority of spam traffic. This thesis focuses on characterizing spam, particularly the spam that appears in forums, where the spam is delivered by bots posing as legitimate users. Forum spam is used primarily to push advertisements or to boost other websites’ perceived popularity by including HTTP links in the content of the post. We conduct an experiment to collect a sample of the blog posts and network activity of the spambots that exist in the internet. We then present a corpora available to conduct analysis on and proceed with our own analysis. We cluster associated groups of users and IP addresses into entities, which we accept as a model of the underlying botnets that interact with our honeypots. We use Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) to determine that creating semantic-based models of botnets are sufficient for distinguishing them from one another. We also find that the syntactic structure of posts has little variation from botnet to botnet. Finally we confirm that to a large degree botnet behavior and content hold across different domains

God of Mercy, People of Mercy

Portia"™s well known speech in Shakespeare"™s The Merchant of Venice"”probably quoted a lot in this Year of Mercy"”startled me when I read it once again as I searched for words in literature to speak to you about mercy in a Year of Mercy. I was startled, because I found in these beautiful, powerful words the entire outline of what I want to share in this presentation about Mercy and Mission. God"™s mercy, Shakespeare says, is an attribute of God as such. God is a God of Mercy, and human beings are most like God when they are merciful themselves, especially "œseasoning" justice with mercy. Without God"™s mercy, if God dealt "œwith us according to our sins" (Ps 103:10), none of us would see salvation. Keywords: God of Mercy, Mission, People of Mercy, Merc

Merging Perspectives: The Open-ended Nature of Britten’s Parable Art and the Cantata Misericordium Op. 69

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was a pacifist who expressed his beliefs in many works throughout his career. His most important pacifist composition, the War Requiem (1961), inserted anti-war poetry by Wilfred Owen between the movements of the Latin Requiem Mass. The Cantata Misericordium, scored for mixed chorus, tenor, and baritone soloists, is a musical telling of the biblical story of the Parable of the Good Samaritan with its universal message of brotherly love and compassion. The Cantata, commissioned for the centenary of the Red Cross in 1963, is Britten’s first vocal work composed after the War Requiem. While much has been written about the War Requiem, no one has examined the open-ended nature of the message of the Cantata Misericordium Op. 69. I will support the position of an open-ended nature of the message of tolerance within the framework of the Cantata Misericordium in three stages of discussion: First, I propose to present a comparison of Patrick Wilkinson’s Latin libretto with the original biblical story, exploring reasons for the differences. The most significant departure from the simple biblical narrative is the expanded text assigned to the voice of the chorus, who pass judgment on the actions of the Priest and Levite, and at the close of the Cantata deliver the message of tolerance. Second, I propose to examine the manifestation of queer identity in the allegorical language and formal musical detail of the work. Philip Brett has shown how pacifism and homosexuality were closely linked in Britten’s own life as equally deviant in British society. In the story of the Cantata, queer subtexts can be located in the characters of the social outcast (the Traveller) and the compassionate stranger (the Samaritan) who refuses to conform to social expectations. Themes of isolation and conflicting perspectives are also expressed through tonal ambiguity, both within motivic units and in the large-scale tonal plan. Third, I propose to explore Britten’s use of the parable format as a didactic tool for the delivery of the open-ended message of the parable. I will draw upon the work of the English musicologist, Philip Rupprecht, who uses speech-act theory to analyze the rhetorical effects of dramatic music. In particular, I will discuss the representation of different characters in solo and chorus voices, in order to examine how the parable works on the listening audience