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- All Subjects: Music
- Genre: Academic theses
- Creators: Arizona State University
Description
As clarinet compositions created by Taiwanese composers have not been widely discussed and published in academia, this research paper examines three unaccompanied clarinet works by three Taiwanese composers: Ballade by Hsiao-Wen Tseng, Chin Thoughts III by Ling-Huei Tsai, and Pointe de Flame by Chia-Lin Pan, all commissioned by the author in 2007. This research also includes a compact disc with recordings of these works, aiming to document the creativity of Taiwanese composers. This research paper examines these three commissioned works by analyzing their overall musical styles, notations, formal structures, rhythmical and melodic materials, unconventional clarinet techniques as well as the influence of Chinese musical elements. The analysis reveals the distinctive characteristic of each piece. Moreover, the author provides composers' insights and performance guides to help interested readers practice these pieces. To further understand how the composers create these pieces by drawing upon different life experiences, the paper also includes information about their backgrounds, program notes, lists of compositions, and music examples for reference. The author found that collaborating with these composers helped to establish a closer composer-performer relationship in interpreting the music. It is hoped that this compact disc recording will help make Taiwanese composers' clarinet works more accessible to a wider audience. Moreover, this research paper hopes to generate more interest in performing and appreciating music composed by Taiwanese composers.
ContributorsChuang, Yenting (Author) / Spring, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Schuring, Martin (Committee member) / Campbell, Andrew (Committee member) / Jiang, Danwen (Committee member) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This document highlights the increased involvement of “ college boys ” or “ white college boys ” - better-educated middle-class white and light-skinned persons - in steelbands in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Following an introductory overview of the demography of Trinidad and Tobago, the history of Carnival, and the interregnum of the temporary instruments used between the ban of indigenous drums in the 1880s and the invention of the steelpan at the end of the 1930s, this document will examine the history and membership of these college boy bands, with particular emphasis on the Hit Paraders. Two factors that highlight the vital role played by these college boy steelbands are discussed: commercial sponsorship of bands, and support that bands received from the People's National Movement Party. A detailed timeline of steelpan invention and innovations is also included.
ContributorsDeLamater, Elizabeth (Author) / Smith, Jeffery B (Thesis advisor) / Sunkett, Mark (Committee member) / Bush, Jeff (Committee member) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Committee member) / Solís, Ted (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
In an effort to begin validating the large number of discovered candidate biomarkers, proteomics is beginning to shift from shotgun proteomic experiments towards targeted proteomic approaches that provide solutions to automation and economic concerns. Such approaches to validate biomarkers necessitate the mass spectrometric analysis of hundreds to thousands of human samples. As this takes place, a serendipitous opportunity has become evident. By the virtue that as one narrows the focus towards "single" protein targets (instead of entire proteomes) using pan-antibody-based enrichment techniques, a discovery science has emerged, so to speak. This is due to the largely unknown context in which "single" proteins exist in blood (i.e. polymorphisms, transcript variants, and posttranslational modifications) and hence, targeted proteomics has applications for established biomarkers. Furthermore, besides protein heterogeneity accounting for interferences with conventional immunometric platforms, it is becoming evident that this formerly hidden dimension of structural information also contains rich-pathobiological information. Consequently, targeted proteomics studies that aim to ascertain a protein's genuine presentation within disease- stratified populations and serve as a stepping-stone within a biomarker translational pipeline are of clinical interest. Roughly 128 million Americans are pre-diabetic, diabetic, and/or have kidney disease and public and private spending for treating these diseases is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. In an effort to create new solutions for the early detection and management of these conditions, described herein is the design, development, and translation of mass spectrometric immunoassays targeted towards diabetes and kidney disease. Population proteomics experiments were performed for the following clinically relevant proteins: insulin, C-peptide, RANTES, and parathyroid hormone. At least thirty-eight protein isoforms were detected. Besides the numerous disease correlations confronted within the disease-stratified cohorts, certain isoforms also appeared to be causally related to the underlying pathophysiology and/or have therapeutic implications. Technical advancements include multiplexed isoform quantification as well a "dual- extraction" methodology for eliminating non-specific proteins while simultaneously validating isoforms. Industrial efforts towards widespread clinical adoption are also described. Consequently, this work lays a foundation for the translation of mass spectrometric immunoassays into the clinical arena and simultaneously presents the most recent advancements concerning the mass spectrometric immunoassay approach.
ContributorsOran, Paul (Author) / Nelson, Randall (Thesis advisor) / Hayes, Mark (Thesis advisor) / Ros, Alexandra (Committee member) / Williams, Peter (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Conformational changes in biomolecules often take place on longer timescales than are easily accessible with unbiased molecular dynamics simulations, necessitating the use of enhanced sampling techniques, such as adaptive umbrella sampling. In this technique, the conformational free energy is calculated in terms of a designated set of reaction coordinates. At the same time, estimates of this free energy are subtracted from the potential energy in order to remove free energy barriers and cause conformational changes to take place more rapidly. This dissertation presents applications of adaptive umbrella sampling to a variety of biomolecular systems. The first study investigated the effects of glycosylation in GalNAc2-MM1, an analog of glycosylated macrophage activating factor. It was found that glycosylation destabilizes the protein by increasing the solvent exposure of hydrophobic residues. The second study examined the role of bound calcium ions in promoting the isomerization of a cis peptide bond in the collagen-binding domain of Clostridium histolyticum collagenase. This study determined that the bound calcium ions reduced the barrier to the isomerization of this peptide bond as well as stabilizing the cis conformation thermodynamically, and identified some of the reasons for this. The third study represents the application of GAMUS (Gaussian mixture adaptive umbrella sampling) to on the conformational dynamics of the fluorescent dye Cy3 attached to the 5' end of DNA, and made predictions concerning the affinity of Cy3 for different base pairs, which were subsequently verified experimentally. Finally, the adaptive umbrella sampling method is extended to make use of the roll angle between adjacent base pairs as a reaction coordinate in order to examine the bending both of free DNA and of DNA bound to the archaeal protein Sac7d. It is found that when DNA bends significantly, cations from the surrounding solution congregate on the concave side, which increases the flexibility of the DNA by screening the repulsion between phosphate backbones. The flexibility of DNA on short length scales is compared to the worm-like chain model, and the contribution of cooperativity in DNA bending to protein-DNA binding is assessed.
ContributorsSpiriti, Justin Matthew (Author) / van der Vaart, Arjan (Thesis advisor) / Chizmeshya, Andrew (Thesis advisor) / Matyushov, Dmitry (Committee member) / Fromme, Petra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Studies have demonstrated that anthocyanins can function as antioxidants, reduce inflammation, and improve dyslipidemia. Tart cherries are anthocyanin-rich, making them particularly attractive as a functional food to improve cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. There have been few published studies to date examining the impact of tart cherries on biomarkers of dyslipidemia and inflammation, particularly in overweight and obese individuals at high risk for these conditions. This study evaluated the effect of consuming 100% tart cherry juice daily on blood lipids including total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), calculated very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C), triglycerides (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and the CVD risk ratios, as well as the inflammatory biomarkers interleukin 6 (IL-6), interleukin 10 (IL-10), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), C-reactive protein (CRP), monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) following a 4-week period. Based on the high anthocyanin content of tart cherries, it was hypothesized that the lipid and inflammatory profiles would be significantly improved following the intervention. A total of 26 men and women completed this 4-week randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. Participants were randomized to drink either 8 ounces of placebo beverage or tart cherry juice daily for 4 weeks. Following a 4-week washout period, the alternate beverage was consumed. Ultimately, this investigation demonstrated no statistically significant alterations in any of the lipid or inflammatory biomarkers when analyzed across time and between interventions (p > 0.05). As expected, glucose and insulin parameters remained stable over the duration of the study, as well as self-reported physical activity level, total calorie consumption, and macronutrient intake. However, trans-fat was reported to be significantly higher during the cherry arm of the study as compared to the placebo arm (p < 0.05), potentially confounding other results. Although the results of this study were equivocal, it is feasible that a higher dose, longer treatment duration, or more susceptible target population may be required to elicit significant effects. Consequently, further investigation is necessary to clarify this research.
ContributorsColes, Katie (Author) / Martin, Keith R. (Thesis advisor) / Traustadottir, Tinna (Committee member) / Vega-Lopez, Sonia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
A potential new class of cancer chemotherapeutic agents has been synthesized by varying the 2 position of a benzimidazole based extended amidine. Compounds 6-amino-2-chloromethyl-4-imino-1-(2-methansulfonoxyethyl)-5-methyl-1H-benzimidazole-7-one (1A) and 6-amino-2-hydroxypropyl-4-imino-1-(2-methansulfonoxyethyl)-5-methyl-1H-benzimidazole-7-one (1B) were assayed at the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Developmental Therapeutic Program (DTP) and found to be cytotoxic at sub-micromolar concentrations, and have shown between a 100 and a 1000-fold increase in specificity towards lung, colon, CNS, and melanoma cell lines. These ATP mimics have been found to correlate with sequestosome 1 (SQSTM1), a protein implicated in drug resistance and cell survival in various cancer cell lines. Using the DTP COMPARE algorithm, compounds 1A and 1B were shown to correlate to each other at 77%, but failed to correlate with other benzimidazole based extended amidines previously synthesized in this laboratory suggesting they operate through a different biological mechanism.
ContributorsDarzi, Evan (Author) / Skibo, Edward (Thesis advisor) / Gould, Ian (Committee member) / Francisco, Wilson (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Geography, and the social sciences more broadly, have long operated within what is arguably a paradigm of the visual. Expanding the reach of geographical consideration into the realm of the aural, though in no way leaving behind the visual, opens the discipline to new areas of human and cultural geography invisible in ocular-centric approaches. At its broadest level, my argument in this dissertation is that music can no longer be simply an object of geographical research. Re-conceptualized and re-theorized in a geographical context to take into account its very real, active, and more-than-representational presence in social life, music provides actual routes to geographic knowledge of the world. I start by constructing a theoretical framework and methodological approach for studying music beyond representation. Based on these theoretical and methodological arguments, I present four narratives that unfold at the intersections of race and music in the northeast Brazilian city of Salvador. From the favelas of Rio de Janeiro to the troubled neighborhood of the Pelourinho, from the manic tempos of samba to the laid back grooves of samba-reggae, and in the year-round competition between the oppressive forces of ordinary time and the fleeting possibility of carnival, music emerges as a creative societal force with affects and effects far beyond the realm of representation. Together, these narratives exemplify the importance of expanding geographical considerations beyond a strictly visual framework. These narratives contribute to the musicalization of the discipline of geography.
ContributorsFinn, John C (Author) / McHugh, Kevin (Thesis advisor) / Lukinbeal, Christopher (Committee member) / Bolin, Bob (Committee member) / Price, Patricia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Christopher Caliendo is a guitarist/composer who has written for a variety of performance mediums. His works been performed on international concert stages and recorded for film and television media. His compositions have garnered him the Henry Mancini Award for Film Composition, the Artin Arslanian Scholarship for Humanities, and the Peabody Grant for Scholarship. He has also received two commissions from the Vatican in 1992 and 1995. In 1988, he received an Emmy nomination for his work with the television series Paradise. The purpose of this project is to present a study of selected clarinet works by Christopher Caliendo: The Tango Concerto No. 1 is a three-movement work that Caliendo arranged for clarinet and piano in 2010, The Little Gypsy was written for solo clarinet, and Jal, Ven a mis Brazos, Amanacer, La Milonga, Acariciame, Amor Perdido, Caliente, Impulso, and Passione comprise a series of nine guitar/clarinet duos that were composed or arranged between 2009 and 2010. The document is comprised of a brief description of the career and compositions of Christopher Caliendo, a performer's guide to the selected works, a track listing for the performance recording, and a list of Caliendo's other clarinet and chamber music compositions that are intended for the concert stage. It is the hope of the author that this project can generate more interest in Christopher Caliendo's clarinet repertoire throughout the clarinet community.
ContributorsQuamo, Jeff (Author) / Spring, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Gardner, Joshua (Thesis advisor) / Kocour, Michael (Committee member) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Committee member) / Schuring, Martin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The bleomycins are a family of glycopeptide-derived antibiotics isolated from various Streptomyces species and have been the subject of much attention from the scientific community as a consequence of their antitumor activity. Bleomycin clinically and is an integral part of a number of combination chemotherapy regimens. It has previously been shown that bleomycin has the ability to selectively target tumor cells over their non-malignant counterparts. Pyrimidoblamic acid, the N-terminal metal ion binding domain of bleomycin is known to be the moiety that is responsible for O2 activation and the subsequent chemistry leading to DNA strand scission and overall antitumor activity. Chapter 1 describes bleomycin and related DNA targeting antitumor agents as well as the specific structural domains of bleomycin. Various structural analogues of pyrimidoblamic acid were synthesized and subsequently incorporated into their corresponding full deglycoBLM A6 derivatives by utilizing a solid support. Their activity was measured using a pSP64 DNA plasmid relaxation assay and is summarized in Chapter 2. The specifics of bleomycin—DNA interaction and kinetics were studied via surface plasmon resonance and are presented in Chapter 3. By utilizing carefully selected 64-nucleotide DNA hairpins with variable 16-mer regions whose sequences showed strong binding in past selection studies, a kinetic profile was obtained for several BLMs for the first time since bleomycin was discovered in 1966. The disaccharide moiety of bleomycin has been previously shown to be a specific tumor cell targeting element comprised of L-gulose-D-mannose, especially between MCF-7 (breast cancer cells) and MCF-10A ("normal" breast cells). This phenomenon was further investigated via fluorescence microscopy using multiple cancerous cell lines with matched "normal" counterparts and is fully described in Chapter 4.
ContributorsBozeman, Trevor C (Author) / Hecht, Sidney M. (Thesis advisor) / Chaput, John (Committee member) / Gould, Ian (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This study investigates ways in which music teachers make personal sense of their professional selves and their perceptions of their places within the broader landscape of music education relative to other types of music teachers in school and community settings. A social phenomenological framework based on the writing of Alfred Schutz was used to examine how participants constructed a sense of self in their social worlds and how they both shaped and were shaped by their social worlds. Eight music teachers participated in this study and represented differing types of music teaching careers, including: public school general music teaching and ensemble directing; independent studio teaching and teaching artistry; studio lessons, classes, and ensembles at community music centers; church ensemble directing; and other combinations of music teaching jobs throughout school and community settings. Data were collected from in-depth interviews, observations of the music teachers in their various teaching roles, and artifacts related to their music teaching positions. Research questions included: Who do the participants conceive of themselves to be as music professionals and music teachers; How do they construct and enact their professional selves, including their teaching selves; How is their construction of professional self, including teaching self, supported and sustained by interactions in their social worlds; and, What implications does this have for the music profession as a whole? After developing a professional portrait of each participant, analysis revealed an overall sense of professional self and various degrees of three role-taking selves: performing, teaching, and musical. Analysis also considered sense of self in relation to social worlds, including consociates, contemporaries, predecessors, and successors, and the extent to which performing, teaching, and musical selves were balanced, harmonized, or reconciled for each participant. Social worlds proved influential in terms of participants' support for sense of self. Participants who enacted the most harmonized, reconciled senses of self appeared to have a professional self that was grounded in a strong sense of musical self, enabling them to think and act flexibly. Participants whose professional selves were dominated by a strong sense of teaching or performing self seemed confined by the structures of their social world particular to teaching or performing, lacked a sense of musical self, and were less able to think and act flexibly. Findings suggest that active construction of consociate relationships throughout varied social worlds can support a balanced, reconciled conception of self, which informs teaching practice and furthers the ability to act in entrepreneurial ways.
ContributorsBucura, Elizabeth (Author) / Stauffer, Sandra (Thesis advisor) / Landes, Heather (Committee member) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Schmidt, Margaret (Committee member) / Sullivan, Jill (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013