The Enigma of Electability: How Do Voters Predict Who Can Win?

Ideological moderation is often assumed to inform a candidate\u27s electability. This article examines the effects of a voters’ perceptions of a candidate’s ideology on the voters’ belief in the candidate’s ability to win the election. Using data from the American National Election Survey from 2008 and 2016, the paper compares the effect of the perceived ideology of a candidate and individuals\u27 predictions about the candidate that will win. Opinions regarding Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Donald Trump are analyzed. The results suggest that for the Democratic candidates, voters who believed them to be more moderate or conservative were more likely to believe they would win than those who thought they were more liberal. However, the results suggested no similar relationship existed for the Republican candidates with no effect of ideological moderation on election outcome predictions

BLURRING THE LINES: AN INTEGRATED COMPOSITIONAL MODEL FOR DIGITAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT DESIGN

CIM14 9th Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicolog

Loop: A Circular Ferric Memory in Slow Decline

The author describes the manipulation of time and memory in LOOP, a tape-based sound installation started in 2004. Many of my artworks are hybrid assemblages of obsolete and contemporary technology. The use of the obsolete is most immediately apparent in LOOP, a long-running (2004-present) sound installation built out of a Fostex X-34 four track recorder and C90 cassette tape. The Fostex X-34 is in many ways unexceptional: its sound and build quality are adequate at best. Indeed, most notable is perhaps that, by the time of its release in April 2000, it was arguably already rendered obsolete by the rise of MiniDisc recorders and audio-capable home computers. Nevertheless, the X-34 fitted the modest budget of a Birmingham schoolboy, and I acquired a lightly used and moderately discounted ex-demo unit about three months after its launch. The accessibility of the cassette tape was also key: while its popularity had significantly diminished after its late 1980s peak, blank tapes remained readily locally available

Silver: made in Scotland

This exhibition catalogue celebrates the glittering tradition of silversmithing in Scotland over seven centuries. This lavishly illustrated book unearths the stories behind the makers, objects and owners of the most exemplary pieces of silver, past and present - from the ‘mazer’, or communal drinking cup, linked with Robert the Bruce to the unique silver teapot crafted for Billy Connolly! Hallmarks, guaranteeing the honesty of the metal and maker alike, have been used in Scotland since the sixteenth century. The 550th anniversary of Scottish hallmarking in 2008 was celebrated with the Silver: Made in Scotland exhibition in the National Museums Scotland which gathered together for the first time all the most important examples of marked Scottish silver and gold, most from our unrivalled collection. The exhibition and Silver: Made in Scotland exhibition catalogue are concerned not only with silver and gold vessels, from earliest surviving marked examples right up to pieces made today, but also with the people who made them and the people for whom they were made. Objects, historic records, paintings, illustrations and contemporary accounts were combined to create a dazzling exhibition and the Silver: Made in Scotland book distils the exhibition, making it a must for silver enthusiasts and collectors everywhere

MAMIC: a visual programming library for amalgamating Mathematics and Coding through Music

The role of computing within the National Curriculum framework has changed dramatically in recent times. Traditionally, the computing curriculum in schools focussed on software competency and proficiency in common but basic tasks such as word processing, delivered through the subject of Information Communication Technology (ICT). In other words, students became perfunctory but perhaps uninspired end users, closely tied to ubiquitous commercial packages such as Microsoft Office. However, in September 2014, then Education Secretary Michael Gove made significant changes to the National Curriculum that affected both primary and secondary education in the UK. This has consisted in essence of an enforced shift from the prior ICT model to one that, at least in theory, embraces coding as a fundamental tenet of computing (i.e. active creation rather than end use, closely related to Rushkoff’s notion of “programmed or be programmed” [7]) and promotes computational thinking more broadly [1]. For instance, Key Stage 1 now asks that students actively consider program structure and sequential design as well as demonstrate core competency [2]. The inclusion of computational thinking seems particularly prescient and important: if the ability to cheaply outsource the drudgery of basic software development (particularly to the far east) may mean that the ability to code is, in and of itself, becoming less important from a UK labour perspective, it could be argued that students able to adopt a computational mindset, may be better prepared to apply computing principles to a range of scenarios

The failure of radical treatments to cure cancer: can less deliver more?

All too often attempts to deliver improved cancer cure rates by increasing the dose of a particular treatment are not successful enough to justify the accompanying increase in toxicity and reduction in quality of life suffered by a significant number of patients. In part, this drive for using higher levels of treatment derives from the nature of the process for testing and incorporation of new protocols. Indeed, new treatment regimens must now consider the key role of immunity in cancer control, a component that has been largely ignored until very recently. The recognition that some drugs developed for cytotoxicity at higher doses can display alternative anticancer activities at lower doses including through modulation of immune responses is prompting a significant re-evaluation of treatment protocol development. Given that tumours are remarkably heterogeneous and with inherent genetic instability it is probably only the adaptive immune response with its flexibility and extensive repertoire that can rise to the challenge of effecting significant control and ultimately elimination of a patient's cancer. This article discusses some of the elements that have limited higher levels of treatment outcomes and where too much proved less effective. We explore observations that less can often be as effective, if not more effective especially with some chemotherapy regimens, and discuss how this can be exploited in combination with immunotherapies to deliver nontoxic improved tumour responses

Combining Biophysical and Price Simulations to Assess the Economics of Long-Term Crop Rotations

Biophysical simulation models (e.g. APSIM) using historical rainfall data are increasingly being used to provide yield and other data on crop rotations in various regions of Australia. However, to analyse the economics of these rotations it is desirable to incorporate the other main driver of profitability, price variation. Because the context was that APSIM was being used to simulate an existing trial site being monitored by a farmer group Gross Margin output was considered most appropriate. Long-run rotational gross margins were calculated for the various rotations with yields (and other physical outputs) derived from APSIM simulations over a period of 100+ years and prices simulated in @Risk based on subjective triangular price distributions elicited from farmers in the group. Rotations included chickpeas, cotton, lucerne, sorghum, wheat and different lengths of fallow. Output presented to the farmers included mean annual gross margins and distributions of gross margins presented as probability distributions, cumulative probability distributions and box and whisker plots. Cotton rotations were the most profitable but had greater declines in soil fertility and greater drainage out of the root zone.Crop Production/Industries,

Combining biophysical and price simulations to assess the economics of long-term crop rotations

Long-run rotational gross margins were calculated with yields derived from biophysical simulations in APSIM over a period of 100+ years and prices simulated in @Risk based on subjective triangular price distributions elicited from the Jimbour Plains farmer group. Rotations included chickpeas, cotton, lucerne, sorghum, wheat and different lengths of fallow. Output presented to the farmers included mean annual GMs and distributions of GMs with box and whisker plots found to be suitable. Mean-standard deviation and first and second-degree stochastic dominance efficiency measures were also calculated. Including lucerne in the rotations improved some sustainability indicators but reduced profitability.Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management,

Soundtrack as Auditory Interface: Exploring an Alternative to Audio Description for Theatre

Conference paper presented at Reproduced Sound 2017 - Sound Quality by Design, organised by the Institute of Acoustics in collaboration with ISCE, AES, ABTT, APRS. - 21-23 November 2017 at Nottingham UniversityTheatre conventionally relies heavily on the visual, for instance to convey narrative and context, and to set the scene. This reliance can significantly hinder the experience of blind and visually impaired people, and can in some cases exclude them entirely. Audio description for theatre attempts to make performances accessible for blind and visually impaired patrons by translating the visual aspects of a performance into a spoken commentary that fits between the gaps in actors’ dialogue. However, while 40% of UK theatres have offered at least one recent audio-described performance,1 its methods remain largely untested and potentially problematic. We describe the use of an ambiently diffused soundtrack as an alternative to audio description for theatre as part of a recent research project at the University of Wolverhampton. Informed by conceptualisations of the soundtrack posed by theorist-composers Michel Chion and Stephen Deutsch, our approach is to use an assemblage of informative and emotive sounds to provide a kind of auditory interface or "way in" to the performance. Crucially, the soundtrack evokes and implies but, contrary to audio-description, does not enforce a single rigid or fixed interpretation. Additionally, use of the house sound reinforcement system also removes the need for specialised and potentially othering personal equipment. The remainder of this paper provides background to the project and related work, outlines the theoretical basis of the project, discusses two trial performances and initial findings, and finally offers suggestions for future work.University of Wolverhampton Early Researcher Award Scheme (ERAS

Development and assessment of digital interfaces for performance

This project focuses on evaluation of current digital interfaces for performance. To identify the issues that make these not fit for purpose and to design, production and evaluate new digital interface methods for musical performance. This research also focuses on the use of these as formative assessment tools for this area.HEFC