A Social and Historical Perspective of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus

ABSTRACT

This study sought to understand the various roles music played for gay men who were members of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, the world's first gay men's chorus. Specifically, it answers the following questions: What is the demographic profile of the chorus members? How has the chorus shaped or reflected social issues; how has the chorus shaped or reflected political issues; how has the music evolved over time?; How was the chorus impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic? Historical information for this study was gathered through eight interviews of original and long-time choral members as well as the current artistic director. Interviews were conducted in San Francisco at the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus office, and additional data were derived from programs of previous choral concerts, two questionnaires (Internalized Homophobia Scale and Gay Chorus Questionnaire), and observations of choral rehearsals and concerts. As a follow-up to a previous study documenting the formation of the chorus in 1978–1982, this study historically documents the chorus's evolution from 1983 through 2003, emphasizing the chorus's impact on social and political issues, the musicality of the chorus, and the impact of HIV/AIDS on the chorus.     

文化遗产数字化与互动性推广模式——基于新媒介载体的文化产业开发

文化遗产的数字化不仅可以有效保护与传承文化,还可以与新媒介结合进行互动式推广。利用数字技术、网络技术、移动通信技术等新媒介推广文化的模式有:富媒体虚拟场景展示、IGA软性推广、虚拟真实互动等。通过这些方式可实现新媒介与文化遗产推广推介的结合、虚拟场景与真实景观的结合、线上互动与线下互动的结合。通过互动性推广,辐射大众、涵盖小众,并影响多目标人群的参与与关注。     

The Common Assessment Framework form 9 years on: a creative process

Legislation within England states that local authorities should provide services for all those families in need. However, research has identified that regardless of the introduction of strategies to identify need and enhance family support, ongoing barriers to services adhere. Taking a social constructionist approach, this study explored professionals' experiences of the use of the Common Assessment Framework form. Data were collected in four different local authorities in two phases. Forty‐one professionals from a variety of agencies took part in semi‐structured interviews. Data were analyzed thematically. Findings demonstrate that the professionals experienced difficulties in working through the Common Assessment Framework process, for example, in completing the form and engaging families. This situation led to the more experienced and knowledgeable professionals utilising creative ways to successfully navigate the ‘referral process’. Such creative working practices included the terminology used to complete the form and how the process was ‘sold’ to parents, so that they could be in a better position to engage parents and complete the Common Assessment Framework form. Because of this, more experienced professionals seem to be able to accelerate the referral process in order to access much needed support services for children and young people.     

Therapeutic Assessment with Children in Family Therapy

Therapeutic Assessment with Children (TA‐C) is a brief semi‐structured intervention in which psychological assessment is used to help families with children and adolescents to change. In this paper we introduce the TA‐C model, describe its semi‐structured format and exemplify how it can be applied by family therapists.     

The bumpy road to ‘becoming’: capturing the stories that teenage mothers told about their journey into motherhood

Understanding the experience of women who become mothers during their teenage years is central to ensuring that the support that is offered is appropriate to meet their needs. This paper reports on a small part of a larger ethnographic study that captured the lived experience of young mothers who were between the ages of 16 and 19 years that potentially typifies and illuminates the experiences of young women who become mothers in their teenage years. By collecting data from narrative interviews as well as participant and non‐participant observations over an extended period of time it was possible to identify how the young women experienced a range of difficulties as they made their transition into motherhood. Drawing on the findings, this paper argues that this transition for teenage mothers can be significantly different from the experience of older mothers, and it identifies the importance of appropriate support to mediate the challenges that they face. Understanding the young women's journey to ‘becoming’ is critical when planning services because if their experience of support is negative, it can lead to increased levels of maternal stress and reluctance to engage with support services.     

音乐文化的民族性与世界性

对很多人来讲,民间、民族音乐是一个对应民族文化与原生文化环境,既亲近又遥远的精神世界;一个奇异、欢乐、充满天真而又迷人的人天合一、浪漫自由的与生活合一的精神时空;在其简易、不易、变易的历史长河中,实用与审美并存,显示出质朴天真、充满活力的精神特质,千百年来陪伴着各民族同胞在自然之苦的生态环境中挣扎、平衡、和谐、生发;承载着生活与精神的协调,表现着人们的文化心理、民族性格和审美理想;在生活中鼓舞着生存和创造的勇气与力量,也给人们带来圆满的笑声、意趣和希望。     

情绪缓解方法探析：聆听脑波音乐

随着社会发展速度加快，人们负担的精神压力也越来越重，在目前的治疗基础上，研究新的更为有效的治疗方法刻不容缓。联合脑电信号和功能核磁共振信号，根据两种生理信号和音乐都具有无标度性的特点来建立对应关系，生成脑波音乐。这种脑波音乐包含有人体自身的生理信息，通过实验验证其更贴近作曲家创作的音乐。我们让具有焦虑症状的大学生聆听脑波音乐，结果表明聆听脑波音乐能一定程度上起到舒缓情绪的作用。     

On Pitman's measure of closeness of k-records

Pitman closeness of both the upper and lower k-record statistics to the population quantiles of a location–scale family of distributions is studied. For the population median, the Pitman-closest k-record is also determined. In the case of symmetric distributions, the Pitman closeness probabilities of k-record statistics are shown to be distribution-free, and explicit expressions are also derived for these probabilities. Exact expressions are derived for the required probabilities for uniform and exponential distributions. Numerical results are given for these families and also the Pitman-closest k-record is determined.     

The Poisson-X family of distributions

ABSTRACT

Recently, Risti? and Nadarajah [A new lifetime distribution. J Stat Comput Simul. 2014;84:135–150] introduced the Poisson generated family of distributions and investigated the properties of a special case named the exponentiated-exponential Poisson distribution. In this paper, we study general mathematical properties of the Poisson-X family in the context of the T-X family of distributions pioneered by Alzaatreh et al. [A new method for generating families of continuous distributions. Metron. 2013;71:63–79], which include quantile, shapes of the density and hazard rate functions, asymptotics and Shannon entropy. We obtain a useful linear representation of the family density and explicit expressions for the ordinary and incomplete moments, mean deviations and generating function. One special lifetime model called the Poisson power-Cauchy is defined and some of its properties are investigated. This model can have flexible hazard rate shapes such as increasing, decreasing, bathtub and upside-down bathtub. The method of maximum likelihood is used to estimate the model parameters. We illustrate the flexibility of the new distribution by means of three applications to real life data sets.     

Effects of testosterone replacement therapy withdrawal and re-treatment in hypogonadal elderly men upon obesity,voiding function and prostate safety parameters

Whether testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is a lifelong treatment for men with hypogonadism remains unknown. We investigated long-term TRT and TRT withdrawal on obesity and prostate-related parameters. Two hundred and sixty-two hypogonadal patients (mean age 59.5) received testosterone undecanoate in 12-week intervals for a maximum of 11 years. One hundred and forty-seven men had TRT interrupted for a mean of 16.9 months and resumed thereafter (Group A). The remaining 115 patients were treated continuously (Group B). Prostate volume, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), residual voiding volume, bladder wall thickness, C-reactive protein (CRP), aging male symptoms (AMS), International Index of erectile function – erectile function (IIEF-EF) and International Prostate Symptoms Scores (IPSS) were measured over the study period with anthropometric parameters of obesity, including weight, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference. Prior to interruption, TRT resulted in improvements in residual voiding volume, bladder wall thickness, CRP, AMS, IIEF-EF, IPSS and obesity parameters while PSA and prostate volume increased. TRT interruption reduced total testosterone to hypogonadal levels in Group A and resulted in worsening of obesity parameters, AMS, IPSS, residual voiding volume and bladder wall thickness, IIEF-EF and PSA while CRP and prostate volume were unchanged until treatment resumed whereby these effects were reversed. TRT interruption results in worsening of symptoms. Hypogonadism may require lifelong TRT.