Finding What You Need, and Knowing What You Can Find: Digital Tools for Palaeographers in Musicology and Beyond

This chapter examines three projects that provide musicologists with a range of resources for managing and exploring their materials: DIAMM (Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music), CMME (Computerized Mensural Music Editing) and the software Gamera. Since 1998, DIAMM has been enhancing research of scholars worldwide by providing them with the best possible quality of digital images. In some cases these images are now the only access that scholars are permitted, since the original documents are lost or considered too fragile for further handling. For many sources, however, simply creating a very high-resolution image is not enough: sources are often damaged by age, misuse (usually Medieval ‘vandalism’), or poor conservation. To deal with damaged materials the project has developed methods of digital restoration using mainstream commercial software, which has revealed lost data in a wide variety of sources. The project also uses light sources ranging from ultraviolet to infrared in order to obtain better readings of erasures or material lost by heat or water damage. The ethics of digital restoration are discussed, as well as the concerns of the document holders. CMME and a database of musical sources and editions, provides scholars with a tool for making fluid editions and diplomatic transcriptions: without the need for a single fixed visual form on a printed page, a computerized edition system can utilize one editor’s transcription to create any number of visual forms and variant versions. Gamera, a toolkit for building document image recognition systems created by Ichiro Fujinaga is a broad recognition engine that grew out of music recognition, which can be adapted and developed to perform a number of tasks on both music and non-musical materials. Its application to several projects is discussed

Photoemission Spectroscopy

Contains a summary of research.Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAB07-76-C-1400

Photoemission Spectroscopy

Contains reports on two research projects.Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAG29-78-C-0020

Decoupling Graphene from SiC(0001) via Oxidation

When epitaxial graphene layers are formed on SiC(0001), the first carbon layer (known as the "buffer layer"), while relatively easy to synthesize, does not have the desirable electrical properties of graphene. The conductivity is poor due to a disruption of the graphene pi-bands by covalent bonding to the SiC substrate. Here we show that it is possible to restore the graphene pi-bands by inserting a thin oxide layer between the buffer layer and SiC substrate using a low temperature, CMOS-compatible process that does not damage the graphene layer

The role of the N-glycolyl modification in Mycobacterial peptidoglycan synthesis and survival

Mycobacteria are acid fast bacilli responsible for the wide spread global diseases tuberculosis and leprosy. The increased persistence of multidrug resistant (MDR) mycobacterial strains has led to the focus on discovery of new and under-utilised cellular targets such as the cell wall. Peptidoglycan, the principle structural component of the bacterial cell wall is a heteropolymer comprised of alternating monosaccharides cross-linked by pentapeptide chains. The cell wall of mycobacteria are inherently resistant to antimicrobials and aid in evasion from host immune detection due to modifications to its composition. The hydroxylase enzyme NamH has been documented to play a role in the N-glycolylation of peptidoglycan monosaccharides, utilizing molecular oxygen during aerobic growth to convert N-acetylto N-glycolyl groups. This modification is found predominantly in Actinobacteria, except Mycobacterium leprae due to genomic reduction. The percentage incorporation of Nacetylated and N-glycolylated saccharides is dependent upon the environment and functional characterisation of the impact of each modification is vital to achieving a greater understanding into mycobacterial response to a range of factors including dormancy, resuscitation and intracellular propagation. The investigations described in this thesis concern the susceptibility of a M. smegmatis DnamH strain, the cell wall of which contains solely N-acetylated cell wall components towards: (a) selected hydrolytic enzymes, as a model of the survival of phagocytosed mycobacteria within the harsh conditions of the phagolysosome and; (b) new and existing antimicrobials commonly used as therapies against infection. The absence of the Nglycolylated sugar within the peptidoglycan cell wall led to consistently observed increases in susceptibility to a range of hydrolytic enzymes and antimicrobials, especially those which target the formation of peptidoglycan. Mycobacterial Mur ligases demonstrated increased catalytic bias towards N-glycolylated substrates to increase their inclusion into the wide peptidoglycan sacculus. Investigations were expanded to characterize the impact of newly discovered known cell wall active compounds against the peptidoglycan biosynthesis machinery

A Comparative Study of the Writing Component of the Language Arts Curricula in Japan and in California\u27s Secondary Schools

Digitized thesi

“All They Did Was Change the Name”: Evaluating Reforms to Solitary Confinement

In the last decade, the United States has seen a wave of efforts to greatly reduce or eliminate the use of solitary confinement. In the light of growing international recognition that such treatment amounts to torture, these efforts are certainly encouraging and have contributed to a reduction of the number of people held in long-term isolation. But it is worthwhile to examine the extent of these reforms and what solitary confinement now looks like in states that have implemented such changes. A robust literature exists on the harms of solitary confinement and ideas for reforming or eliminating its use. This paper adds to the literature by evaluating the success of such efforts, several years into this wave, now that there is more data available. It examines two states that have presented themselves as success stories, Massachusetts and Colorado, where the correctional agencies purport to have eliminated long-term solitary confinement. Although its use has been greatly reduced, it persists for some number of incarcerated people—prompting the question of why these agencies are not more forthright about their progress. This paper uses these two states to illustrate larger trends and concludes by suggesting ways that advocates can ensure that their efforts are maximally successful as the trend of eliminating solitary confinement hopefully continues. It contributes to the scholarship evaluating how our democracy’s branches—judicial, executive, and legislative—can provide meaningful restraints on correctional agencies’ actions in order to protect the people in their custody