Search Results (19)

This paper examines the practice of ‘Bible Noise’, a group which I led at a Church of England evangelical church that explored creative ways of reading aloud the Bible through sound art practice. Biblical engagement is central to evangelicals and I wanted to expand biblical engagement by using sonic performances through the use of our voices, thereby facilitating a more bodily encounter with scripture. ‘Noise’ in the group name alludes to the disruption that sound can generate and also alludes to the ‘noise’ of multivocality, since the Bible has many voices in it from authors, narrative characters, editors, compilers, translators, interpreters and so on. The ‘noise’ is also a disruption of the visual primacy of our current culture. Bible Noise explores ways in which different voices can be brought in to enrich our aural engagement with scripture by exploring five different ‘pieces’ or readings of scripture. In doing so it establishes a communal idea of scripture where the different voices within scripture can be heard, paying attention to their particularities. Listening to these voices and our own embodied enactment of them can enrich and deepen our perception and engagement of scripture by appreciating the chorus of voices that is the Bible, the collection of texts that forms a core of British evangelical practice and belief. Full article

Hypothalamic hamartomas (HH) are infrequent, non-neoplastic malformations of the hypothalamus with heterogeneous clinical features, with symptoms including gelastic seizures, central precocious puberty, and cognitive or behavioral deficits. This narrative review synthesizes current knowledge regarding the etiology, clinical manifestations, diagnostic advances, and therapeutic approaches for HH. Genetic insights highlight the role of postzygotic mosaicism and dysregulated Sonic Hedgehog signaling in HH development, emphasizing their relevance in potential therapeutic strategies. Diagnostic modalities such as MRI, PET, and SEEG are pivotal in identifying and characterizing HHs, enabling precise treatment planning. Therapeutic interventions span pharmacological, surgical, and neuromodulatory approaches. While surgical approaches, such as transcallosal resection or stereotactic radiosurgery, can offer considerable seizure control, newer modalities, such as laser interstitial laser thermal therapy (LITT) as well as stereotactic radiofrequency thermocoagulation, prioritize minimizing both cognitive and behavioral sequelae. The use of pharmacologic management and neuromodulation provides adjuvant benefits, specifically in drug-resistant epilepsy; despite progress, limitations still remain, including variability of outcomes and not enough long-term studies. This review underscores the need for multidisciplinary care and advanced research to optimize outcomes and improve the quality of life for patients with HH. Full article

This paper discusses the renewal of the conception of film sound and music following the technological advances of the late 1970s. It analyses the ways in which film sound and music freed themselves from traditional uses and became elements to be designed creatively. The soundtrack composed by Vangelis for Blade Runner (1982) is exceptional in this regard: produced in parallel to the editing of the film, it forged an intimate connection between sound and image. Through the method of reduced listening put forward by Michel Chion in Audio-Vision (2019), this paper scrutinizes the specific ways in which sound shapes the perception of the image and narrative in Blade Runner. The first part of this paper analyses how sounds come to replace music to characterize moods and atmospheres. Ambient sounds create a concrete, sonically dense diegetic world, while music is associated with an abstract, extra-diegetic world where spectators are designated judges. This contrast is thematically relevant and delineates the struggle between humans and replicants; sound and music are used for their metaphorical implications rather than in an effort for realism. The second part discusses the agency of characters through the sonorousness of their voices and bodies. Intonations, pronunciation, and acousmatic sounds anchor characters’ natures as humans or replicants to their bodies. Yet, these bodies are revealed to be mere vessels awaiting definition; in the third part, we explore how sound is used to craft synaesthetic depictions of characters, revealing their existence beyond the human/replicant divide. Full article

This narrative review aims to examine the therapeutic potential and mechanism of action of plant extracts in preventing and treating alopecia (baldness). We searched and selected research papers on plant extracts related to hair loss, hair growth, or hair regrowth, and comprehensively compared the therapeutic efficacies, phytochemical components, and modulatory targets of plant extracts. These studies showed that various plant extracts increased the survival and proliferation of dermal papilla cells in vitro, enhanced cell proliferation and hair growth in hair follicles ex vivo, and promoted hair growth or regrowth in animal models in vivo. The hair growth-promoting efficacy of several plant extracts was verified in clinical trials. Some phenolic compounds, terpenes and terpenoids, sulfur-containing compounds, and fatty acids were identified as active compounds contained in plant extracts. The pharmacological effects of plant extracts and their active compounds were associated with the promotion of cell survival, cell proliferation, or cell cycle progression, and the upregulation of several growth factors, such as IGF-1, VEGF, HGF, and KGF (FGF-7), leading to the induction and extension of the anagen phase in the hair cycle. Those effects were also associated with the alleviation of oxidative stress, inflammatory response, cellular senescence, or apoptosis, and the downregulation of male hormones and their receptors, preventing the entry into the telogen phase in the hair cycle. Several active plant extracts and phytochemicals stimulated the signaling pathways mediated by protein kinase B (PKB, also called AKT), extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK), Wingless and Int-1 (WNT), or sonic hedgehog (SHH), while suppressing other cell signaling pathways mediated by transforming growth factor (TGF)-β or bone morphogenetic protein (BMP). Thus, well-selected plant extracts and their active compounds can have beneficial effects on hair health. It is proposed that the discovery of phytochemicals targeting the aforementioned cellular events and cell signaling pathways will facilitate the development of new targeted therapies for alopecia. Full article

It has been a century since the Great Kanto earthquake and 78 years since WWII, both of which were catastrophic events in Japan’s history. Preserving memories of urban disasters is essential for preventing future tragedies, and while survivors’ testimonies hold great power, their numbers dwindle over time. However, trees which bear the scars of disaster can also serve as valuable storytellers. This study investigates earthquake and war-damaged trees, including 11 Gingo trees, 1 Chinquapin, and 1 Japanese nutmeg tree, located at the Yushima Seido Temple in Tokyo, and highlights their importance in preserving memories. The trees were measured using a sonic tomography tree internal diagnosis device, resulting in a total of 41 cross-sections that captured their conditions in images. The results indicated an ideal measurement method for trees located on slopes, as well as identifying a new type of classification shape for measurement cross-sections. The results of this research should primarily be of benefit to tree owners, but it is hoped that the benefits can also extend to a wider audience by increasing awareness about the significance of trees with unique urban historical narratives, aiding the preservation of urban green space, aiding in disaster preparedness, and promoting the role of such tress in peace education. Full article

A sound-studies-centered reading of Victor Daly’s Not Only War: A Story of Two Great Conflicts (1932) and Toni Morrison’s Sula (1973) sheds light on the sonic realities of WWI, both before and after, for Black soldiers. Both novels, set during and after WWI, utilize music to subvert the codified system of Jim Crow through sonic resistance. The term generative entropy offers a theoretical intervention in the field of sound studies to enable a better understanding and identification of the emphasis both novels place on narrative possibility rooted in sonic and physical spaces of ambiguity. Full article

In 1969, blues guitarist Earl Hooker released Two Bugs and a Roach, solidifying him as a pioneer of the wah-wah technique. Before the wah-wah pedal, however, there was Charles W. Chesnutt’s Conjure Stories, a collection of frame narratives that recollect plantation life “befo’ de wah”. In this essay, I insist the slide, slip, and compressions of Hooker’s wah-wah voicings find resonance in Chesnutt’s own linguistic play, through which the sonics of Julius’ sociolect texture the text towards speculative spellings, grammars, and meanings that query the logics of white, Enlightenment rationality and its hegemonic conceptions of space, time, value, and subjecthood. In listening to the tales’ resonances with the “wah”, I suggest Chesnutt articulates the “ill-legibility” of plantation existence and its echoes into and out from the present, as evidenced by Hooker’s own disproportionate susceptibility to and lifelong struggle with tuberculosis. In doing so, Julius’ storytelling makes legible modes of survival that attune to how Black bodies persist via the (un)sound logics of illness, slavery, and sonority. Overall, I argue Chesnutt amplifies modes of existence that emerge from the distinct spatio-temporality of the plantation, thus re-forming with and through the ills of slavery and persisting against rational legibility, capital production, and normativity. Full article

This narrative historical review examines the wide range of approaches that has been trialled/suggested in order to reduce the consumption of salt. While sodium is an essential micronutrient, there is widespread evidence that high levels of consumption are leading to various negative health outcomes. This review summarises the evidence relating to the various approaches that have been put forward to date to help reduce salt consumption over the years, while also highlighting a number of important questions that remains for future research. Solutions to reducing salt consumption include everything from the gradual reduction in salt in foods through to the reduction in the number/size of holes in saltshakers (what one might consider a behavioural nudge). Physico-chemical solutions have included salt replacers, such as monosodium glutamate (MSG) through to the asymmetric distribution of salt in processed (e.g., layered) foods. A wide range of sensory approaches to modulating expected and perceived saltiness have also been suggested, including the use of salty aromas, as well as suggesting the use of colour cues, sonic seasoning, and even textural primes. It is currently unclear whether different salty aromas can be combined to increase odour-induced taste enhancement (OITE) effectiveness. In the years ahead, it will be interesting to assess how long such solutions remain effective, as well as whether different solutions can be combined to help reduce salt consumption without having to compromise on taste/flavour Full article

Shock Waves (SW) are acoustic disturbances that propagate through a medium carrying the energy. These specific sonic pulses are composed of two phases—high positive pressure, a rise time < 10 ns, and a tensile wave. Originally Shock Waves were introduced to clinical practice as a part of the lithotripsy therapy focused on disrupting calcific deposits in the body. Since that time, shock wave therapy (SWT) has gone far beyond the original application related to the destruction of kidney stones. In this narrative Review, we present basic clinical applications of the SWT along with the potential therapeutic application in clinical practice. Full article

Within southern hip-hop, minimal credit has been given to the Black women who have curated sonic and performance narratives within the southern region. Many southern hip-hop scholars and journalists have centralized the accomplishments and masculinities of southern male rap performances. Here, dirty south feminism works to explore how agency, location, and Black women’s rap (lyrics and rhyme) and dance (twerking) performances in southern hip-hop are established under a contemporary hip-hop womanist framework. I critique the history of southern hip-hop culture by decentralizing male-dominated and hyper-masculine southern hip-hop identities. Second, I extend hip-hop feminist/womanist scholarship that includes tangible reflections of Black womanhood that emerge out of the South to see how these narratives reshape and re-inform representations of Black women and girls within southern hip-hop culture. I use dirty south feminism to include geographical understandings of southern Black women who have grown up in the South and been sexually shamed, objectified and pushed to the margins in southern hip-hop history. I seek to explore the following questions: How does the performance of Black women’s presence in hip-hop dance localize the South to help expand narratives within dirty south hip-hop? How can the “dirty south” as a geographical place within hip-hop be a guide to disrupt a conservative hip-hop South through a hip-hop womanist lens? Full article

This essay explores David Bowie’s so-called “Berlin Triptych”: Low, “Heroes”, and Lodger. The essay takes issue with previous interpretations that have claimed that the albums do not form a “triptych” of any meaningful kind, and that this pretentious term was only applied ex post facto as a marketing strategy. At the heart of my argument is the concept and experience of migration. In the mid-1970s David Bowie was living in Los Angeles at a highpoint of fame and acclaim. His life, however, was also an increasingly hellish nightmare of delusion, paranoia, and cocaine psychosis. In order to save his music, and his life, the singer decamped to Europe. For the next several years he lived an itinerant life with Berlin at its centre. The experience of displacement, and a series of encounters that this displacement facilitated (with the European new wave and a longer tradition of avant-garde modernism), led to both a reshuffling of the self and a radical new sound. The “triptych” tells the story of this progression, both narratively and sonically. Full article

This paper studies complex narratives connecting the Hindu deity Krishna, his melodious flute, and the porous, sonic human body in the popular devotional sect, Bengal Vaishnavism. From the devotee–lover responding to Krishna’s flute call outside, envying the flute’s privileged position on Krishna’s lips, to becoming the deity’s flute through yogic breath–sound fusions—texts abound with nuanced relations of equivalence and differentiation among the devotee–flute–god. Based primarily on readings of Hindu religious texts, and fieldwork in Bengal among makers/players of the bamboo flute, the paper analyses theological constructions correlating body–flute–divinity. Lying at the confluence of yogic, tantric, and devotional thought, the striking conceptual problem about the flute in Bengal Vaishnavism is: are the body, flute and divinity distinct or the same? I argue that the flute’s descriptions in both classical Sanskrit texts and popular oral lore and performances draw together ostensibly opposed religious paradigms of Yoga (oneness with divinity) and passionate devotion/bhakti (difference): its fine, airy feeling fusing with the body’s inner breathing self, and sweet melody producing a subservient temperament towards the lover–god outside. Flute sounds embody the peculiar dialectic of difference-and-identity among devotee–flute–god, much like the flute–lip-lock itself, bringing to affective life the Bengal Vaishnava philosophical foundation of achintya-bhed-abhed (inconceivability between principles of separation and indistinction). Full article

“Smart city”, driven by digital technology is not only a technological but also a social, cultural and political project. A socially and culturally significant new urban ideal is born. This research paper is based on the narrative that the city appears as a palimpsest of interventions of all natures. History and shared memory, composition and superimposition, coherence and divergence are fundamental for its evolution. It is thus evident that ”Smart city” as a rather new urban ideal, but also as a disruptive innovation process, cannot be conceived nor implemented all at once; it must follow analogous processes of buildup and stratification. On the other hand, sounds are part of cities, of their sensory landscape, of their identity. They are one of the urban markers, along with the visual landscape. In this context, the paper focuses on the sound identity of the inner-city areas of the Mediterranean metropolis, posing the following research question: What are the transformations that “Smart city” can cause to the sound identity of a city? In dense urban fabric with high-rise buildings, high rates of exploitation, frequent transgressions of the legal construction and least free space in private plots, what can be the prospects of using “smart transport”, for enriching the city with positive soundscapes, thus improving its environmental quality? Following the metaphor of urban and acoustic palimpsest, we examine narratives of replacement of conventional cars with autonomous vehicles (AVs) and of private cars with car-pooling systems. The article concludes that spatialized intelligence can substantially and positively transform the sound identity of the Mediterranean metropolis and be the spearhead for an increase in bio-cultural sonic diversity. At least during the era when the city still appears as a palimpsest of interpositions, evoking the historic time. Full article

PlugSonic is a suite of web- and mobile-based applications for the curation and experience of 3D interactive soundscapes and sonic narratives in the cultural heritage context. It was developed as part of the PLUGGY EU project (Pluggable Social Platform for Heritage Awareness and Participation) and consists of two main applications: PlugSonic Sample, to edit and apply audio effects, and PlugSonic Soundscape, to create and experience 3D soundscapes for headphones playback. The audio processing within PlugSonic is based on the Web Audio API and the 3D Tune-In Toolkit, while the mobile exploration of soundscapes in a physical space is obtained using Apple’s ARKit. The main goal of PlugSonic is technology democratisation; PlugSonic users—whether cultural institutions or citizens—are all given the instruments needed to create, process and experience 3D soundscapes and sonic narratives; without the need for specific devices, external tools (software and/or hardware), specialised knowledge or custom development. The aims of this paper are to present the design and development choices, the user involvement processes as well as a final evaluation conducted with inexperienced users on three tasks (creation, curation and experience), demonstrating how PlugSonic is indeed a simple, effective, yet powerful tool. Full article