Earliest Record Research Articles

Familiar and unfamiliar

This batch of recordings consists of albums almost entirely devoted to frequently performed and well-known works by the most beloved composers of the Western canon. The success of any new album featuring classical ‘masterworks’ depends to a large degree on whether the performers have something new or unusual to say about the repertory. This will ultimately determine whether the recording will be of interest to music lovers whose access to these works includes recordings both historical and contemporary by the most lionized performers of the past 100 years. The album Johannes Brahms: Viola sonatas op.120, Violin sonata op.108 (Pennine Records, issued 2020) featuring violinist/violist David Milsom and pianist Jonathan Gooing represents a valuable addition to the recorded catalogue. Milsom, an important scholar in the field of 19th-century performance practice, proposes in his liner notes that the album is ‘a creative interface between [the] relatively new research and performance field of “romantic” practices, and the use of modern instruments’. In recent years the combined study of historical texts and early recordings has led to new insights into the performance practices of the 19th century, specifically regarding the use of tempo modification, portamento and arpeggiation. Milsom’s scholarship—alongside that of Clive Brown, Anna Scott and others—has been instrumental in developing these ideas in the context of performing Brahms’s music. Putting such scholarship into practice involves not just academic rigour but also adventurous and creative music-making of the kind which was pervasive in Brahms’s own musical circles.

Old music, new titillations

Bringing an early music recording to fruition today is as difficult as it ever has been. The financial obstacles are significant of course. But finding repertory that would clearly benefit from a new release is also not as easy as it once was. What can today’s artists offer, in a discography that becomes denser by the month? Some possible answers are supplied in the discs under review here. In some cases, a spark of programming genius has set off an hour of musical fireworks. In others, it is inspired ornamentation and improvisation that enlivens even the sturdiest stalwarts of the canon. The latter is certainly true of Le Poème Harmonique’s recording, Anamorfosi (Alpha 438, issued 2019). Vincent Dumestre’s elaborate conceit for the project is that his chosen 17th-century repertory, when combined with appropriate ornamentation, improvisation or contrafact text, achieves an effect similar to anamorphosis, where a distorted visual subject can only be fully understood from the correct perspective. Whether or not this metaphor resonates with the listener, the music-making on this disc is of a high quality, and the sound has been beautifully captured. There is a great deal of value both in the unusual works recorded here, and in the well-known pieces presented in unfamiliar interpretations.

“Have nou godenai day”

Abstract “Have a good day” and its variant “have a nice day” are among our most common forms of modern leave-taking. Although these expressions may seem modern, they can be traced back to a twelfth century English romance, entitled King Horn, and can also be found in a number of other mediaeval works. Linguists typically treat the expression as token politeness that does not warrant detailed analysis. However, an examination of the mediaeval works containing the expression shows that, from its earliest recording, it appears in unexpected contexts and can carry deeper meaning. Rather than being merely a phatic phrase, the expression has long been used as a meaningful rhetorical device. This diachronic study explores the expression “have a good day” from its earliest occurrence to modern times and shows its potential to move beyond phatic use.

Smears, Laughs, and Barnyard Hokum: Early Jazz Trombone and the Problem of Novelty

Smears, Laughs, and Barnyard Hokum: Early Jazz Trombone and the Problem of Novelty

Preoperative MRI for postoperative seizure prediction: a radiomics study of dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor and a systematic review.

In this systematic review the authors aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and superiority of radiomics in detecting tiny epilepsy lesions and to conduct original research in the use of radiomics for preliminary prediction of postoperative seizures in patients with dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor (DNET). The PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched from the earliest record, January 1, 2018, to December 29, 2021, for reports of the detection of epilepsy using radiomics, and the resulting articles were carefully checked according to the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. The authors then conducted original research by evaluating MR images in 18 patients, who were then separated into two groups, the epilepsy recurrence group (ERG) and the epilepsy nonrecurrence group. The tumor region and the edema region were segmented manually by 3D Slicer. The radiomics data were extracted from MR images by using "Slicer Radiomics" running on Mac OS X. Tumor regions were observed with T1-weighted imaging, and edema with FLAIR imaging. Radiomics features with significant differences were selected through comparison according to epilepsy relapses performed with the Mann-Whitney U-test. The edema and tumor regions were also compared within groups to identify their distinctive features. Radiomics features were tested to verify their ability to predict recurrence epilepsy by receiver operating characteristic curve. This systematic review located 9 original articles related to epilepsy and radiomics published from 2018 to 2021. The reported studies demonstrated that radiomics is useful for detecting tiny epilepsy lesions. Among the radiomics features used, the predictive ability of the area under the curve was more than 0.8. The heterogeneity of the peritumoral edema region was found to be higher in the ERG. Satellite lesions in the peritumoral edema region of DNET patients may cause epilepsy recurrence, and radiomics is an emerging method to detect and evaluate these epilepsy-associated lesions.

The Art of Mbira: Musical Inheritance and LegacyMbira's Restless Dance: An Archive of Improvisation, Vols. 1 & 2

The Art of Mbira: Musical Inheritance and LegacyMbira's Restless Dance: An Archive of Improvisation, Vols. 1 & 2

Deep-UV Raman Spectroscopy of Carbonaceous Precambrian Microfossils: Insights into the Search for Past Life on Mars.

The current strategy for detecting evidence of ancient life on Mars-a primary goal of NASA's ongoing Mars 2020 mission-is based largely on knowledge of Precambrian life and of its preservation in Earth's early rock record. The fossil record of primitive microorganisms consists mainly of stromatolites and other microbially influenced sedimentary structures, which occasionally preserve microfossils or other geochemical traces of life. Raman spectroscopy is an invaluable tool for identifying such signs of life and is routinely performed on Precambrian microfossils to help establish their organic composition, degree of thermal maturity, and biogenicity. The Mars 2020 rover, Perseverance, is equipped with a deep-ultraviolet (UV) Raman spectrometer as part of the SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) instrument, which will be used in part to characterize the preservation of organic matter in the ancient sedimentary rocks of Jezero crater and therein search for possible biosignatures. To determine the deep-UV Raman spectra characteristic of ancient microbial fossils, this study analyzes individual microfossils from 14 Precambrian cherts using deep-UV (244 nm) Raman spectroscopy. Spectra obtained were measured and calibrated relative to a graphitic standard and categorized according to the morphology and depositional environment of the fossil analyzed and its Raman-indicated thermal maturity. All acquired spectra of the fossil kerogens include a considerably Raman-enhanced and prominent first-order Raman G-band (∼1600 cm^-1), whereas its commonly associated D-band (∼1350 cm^-1) is restricted to specimens of lower thermal maturity (below greenschist facies) that thus have the less altered biosignature indicative of relatively well-preserved organic matter. If comparably preserved, similar characteristics would be expected to be exhibited by microfossils or ancient organic matter in rock samples collected and cached on Mars in preparation for future sample return to Earth.

Visualizing Dunhuang: The Lo Archive Photographs of the Mogao and Yulin Caves

Visualizing Dunhuang: The Lo Archive Photographs of the Mogao and Yulin Caves

How does brain structure and function on MRI differ in children with autism spectrum disorder, developmental coordination disorder, and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder?

The purpose of this study was to systematically review the neural similarities and differences in brain structure and function, measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), in children with neurodevelopmental disorders that commonly co-occur to understand if and how they have shared neuronal characteristics. Using systematic review methodology, the following databases were comprehensively searched: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, CENTRAL, PsycINFO, and ProQuest from the earliest record up to December 2021. Inclusion criteria were (1) peer-reviewed studies, case reports, or theses; (2) children under 18 years of age with at least one of the following neurodevelopmental disorders: autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention hyperactivity deficit disorder (ADHD), developmental coordination disorder (DCD), and their co-occurrence; and (3) studies based on MRI modalities (i.e., structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging [DTI], and resting-state fMRI). Thirty-one studies that met the inclusion criteria were included for quality assessment by two independent reviewers using the Appraisal tool for Cross-Sectional Studies (AXIS). Studies compared brain structure and function of children with DCD and ADHD (n = 6), DCD and ASD (n = 1), ASD and ADHD (n = 17), and various combinations of these co-occurring conditions (n = 7). Structural neuroimaging (n = 15) was the most commonly reported modality, followed by resting-state (n = 8), DTI (n = 5), and multimodalities (n = 3). Evidence indicated that the neural correlates of the co-occurring conditions were more widespread and distinct compared to a single diagnosis. The majority of findings (77%) suggested that each neurodevelopmental disorder had more distinct neural correlates than shared neural features, suggesting that each disorder is distinct despite commonly co-occurring with each other. As the number of papers examining the co-occurrence of ASD, DCD, and/or ADHD was limited and most findings were not corrected for multiple comparisons, these results must be interpreted with caution.

In Search of Mercian Law

There are five extant English law codes from the sixth to the ninth century but, despite Mercia's having been an independent polity in the period, none are Mercian. Three seventh century Kentish royal law codes survive in a single twelfth century manuscript and two West-Saxon law codes survive elsewhere. The early English legal record is, therefore, thin and there are no extant law codes from the major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia, or Mercia. As such, this article discusses possible answers to two questions: what Mercian law was and whether a Mercian law code ever existed.
 

Comparative anatomy of the passerine carpometacarpus helps illuminate the early fossil record of crown Passeriformes.

The hyper-diverse clade Passeriformes (crown group passerines) comprises over half of extant bird diversity, yet disproportionately few studies have targeted passerine comparative anatomy on a broad phylogenetic scale. This general lack of research attention hinders efforts to interpret the passerine fossil record and obscures patterns of morphological evolution across one of the most diverse clades of extant vertebrates. Numerous potentially important crown passeriform fossils have proven challenging to place phylogenetically, due in part to a paucity of phylogenetically informative characters from across the passerine skeleton. Here, we present a detailed analysis of the morphology of extant passerine carpometacarpi, which are relatively abundant components of the passerine fossil record. We sampled >70% of extant family-level passerine clades (132 extant species) as well as several fossils from the Oligocene of Europe and scored them for 54 phylogenetically informative carpometacarpus characters optimised on a recently published phylogenomic scaffold. We document a considerable amount of previously undescribed morphological variation among passerine carpometacarpi, and, despite high levels of homoplasy, our results support the presence of representatives of both crown Passeri and crown Tyranni in Europe during the Oligocene.

Trends in reconstructed monthly, seasonal and annual flows for Irish catchments (1900–2016)

Trends in reconstructed monthly, seasonal and annual flows for Irish catchments (1900–2016)

A pre-Hispanic canoe or Wampo burial in Northwestern Patagonia, Argentina.

The burial of Individual 3 at the Newen Antug site, a young adult woman, with a pottery grave offering characteristic of the Late Pottery period and dated to 880 years BP, is an indirect burial in a wooden structure. The form and design comprise a wooden wampo or small canoe, or a symbolic representation of one, a metaphor in current and historical Mapuche society for the voyage to the final abode of the dead, located beyond a water body which must be crossed in a boat. This is the first find of a burial in a canoe structure in Argentinian Patagonia, and the most southern example on the whole continent. It is also the earliest record in Argentina of pottery of the Red on White Bichrome tradition used as a grave offering, extending the repertoire of characteristics shared between the two slopes of the Andes mountains during the pottery periods, including ritual as well as material aspects.

An alternative interpretation of small-bodied turtles from the “Middle Purbeck” of England as a new species of compsemydid turtle

A series of small-sized fossil turtles were collected from Beckles’ Pit, Durlston Bay, Dorset, United Kingdom in 1856 from a sediment package referable to the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) Purbeck Group. The two primary accounts that previously documented these turtles concluded that they represent the juveniles of the coeval early pleurosternid Pleurosternon bullockii. A brief, third account, however, suggested that these may represent a new species of compsemydid turtle. We here highlight a series of discrete morphological characters that consistently distinguish the small-bodied turtles from Beckles’ Pit from large-bodied Pleurosternon bullockii, in particular the arrangement of the bones and scutes along the anterior margin of the shell. As these characters are otherwise used to diagnose new species of turtles, in particular compsemydids, and to establish the phylogeny of fossil turtles, we side with the latter interpretation and name a new taxon of early compsemydid, Tongemys enigmaticagen. et sp. nov. The early record of compsemydid is restricted to the Early Cretaceous of Europe, but is extremely fragmentary. We suggest that this may be a bias towards the collection and identification of small turtle remains, but also that a re-study of Early Cretaceous continental turtle faunas is likely to yield further material.

Reassessing the polyphase Neoproterozoic evolution of the Punta del Este Terrane, Dom Feliciano Belt, Uruguay

Some recent models challenge the position and extension of the assumed oceanic basins formed through the break-up of Rodinia, and the tectonic processes involved in the Gondwana assembly, making the investigation of the Early Neoproterozoic record of great relevance. Within the South-American Atlantic margin, the Punta del Este Terrane (PET) of the Dom Feliciano Belt (DFB) comprises a unique Tonian to Ediacaran record, and has a strategic position to reconstruct spatio-temporal relationships with the southern African orogenic belts. Novel zircon U–Pb and Lu–Hf data from the PET basement orthogneisses display Tonian magmatic ages (805–760 Ma) and Hf isotopic signatures indicative of mainly crustal/metasedimentary sources, (Nd TDM ages: 2.2–1.9 Ga, and εHf(t): − 12 to − 4). The basement paragneisses yielded late Paleoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic U–Pb ages, but dominantly positive εHf(t) values. The presented results confirm the correlation of the PET with the Coastal Terrane of the Kaoko Belt, and discard the idea of the Nico Pérez Terrane as a source. Detrital zircon U–Pb and Lu–Hf data from the Rocha Formation yielded a main peak at ca. 660 Ma, with the Neoproterozoic grains showing a εHf(t) between + 1 and + 14. The deposition age of the Rocha Formation is constrained by the youngest detrital zircon age peak (660 Ma), and the beginning of the deposition of the Sierra de Aguirre Formation (580 Ma). The data indicate common sources with the Marmora Terrane, and it is thus proposed that the Rocha Formation belongs to the Gariep Belt, and it was juxtaposed during the Ediacaran to the DFB.

New occurrences of caryophylliid and fungiacyathid scleractinian corals from the Santa Marta and Snow Hill Island formations (Upper Cretaceous, Antarctica)

Scleractinian corals have been reported in the Antarctic Cretaceous since the beginning of the 20th century, but few studies have described the taxonomy of these specimens. Here we describe three new occurrences of coral from the James Ross Basin based on specimens collected in 2016. We identified Dasmosmilia? sp. and Heterocyathus filkorni sp. nov. in the Alpha Member of the Santa Marta Formation on James Ross Island (upper Santonian to lower Campanian) and Fungiacyathus deltoidophorus and a poorly-preserved and unidentifiable scleractinian coral from the Karlsen Cliffs Member of Snow Hill Island Formation (lower Maastrichtian). Heterocyathus filkorni sp. nov. represents the earliest occurrence of this genus in the Southern Hemisphere and is consistent with the hypothesis that a marine exchange between Europe and Antarctica was occurring in the Late Cretaceous. If confirmed, the Dasmosmilia described here represent their earliest record from the Antarctic Cretaceous.

Presenting the Studio on Record Covers: Changing the Understanding of Swedish Jazz Records

ABSTRACT This article analyzes early Swedish jazz record covers to understand how producers and users comprehended the jazz record as a medium. It employs Jonathan Sterne’s definition of a medium as a social agreement about use. The article shows how, following the transition from shellac to vinyl records in Sweden in the 1950s, record covers reinterpreted the understanding of the jazz record. From seeing a record as a mediation of live music, users and producers started to see the record as an artifact that resulted from artistic work that had taken place in a recording studio.

High resolution C-isotopic data from microbialites in the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction in South China

Globally, Late Permian to Early Triassic carbonate rocks record several pronounced positive and negative C-isotope excursions, indicating a dramatic reorganization of the global carbon cycle. These C-isotopic anomalies provide important constraints on environmental changes that occurred during the end-Permian extinction and the subsequent delayed biotic recovery. In this study, we present high-resolution carbonate C-isotopic data (δ13Ccarb) spanning the Permian-Triassic transition at Dajiang, South China. Our results reveal a general decrease in δ13Ccarb of ∼3.3‰ during the microbialite formation which was followed by an increase. C-isotopic chemostratigraphic correlation between the Dajiang section and the Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) at Meishan suggest a hiatus of several thousands of years between the pre-extinction skeletal limestones and the microbialite deposition in the aftermath of the end-Permian extinction in South China. We suggest that multiple sources of 13C-depleted dissolved carbon are required to explain the negative δ13Ccarb excursions as well as the δ13Ccarb differences among microbialites deposited in various paleogeographic locations. Our study shows that carbon cycles during the formation of microbialite may have been more complex than previously thought, and cessation of microbialite formation may have been controlled by both global and local environmental changes.

Zircon geochronology and Hf–O isotopes of the Nulliak supracrustal assemblage (Saglek Block–Canada): Constraints on deposition age and setting, metamorphic age and environments of zircon crystallization

The Archean Saglek Block, North Atlantic craton, is one of the oldest crustal segments preserved on Earth. This area records two granulite facies metamorphic events: one in the late-Eoarchean at ca. 3.7 Ga and one in the Neoarchean, at ca. 2.75 Ga. Here, we report the results of combined U–Pb/Hf/O in-situ isotope analyses of detrital and metamorphic zircon domains from two meta-sedimentary samples, one psammitic, and one pelitic. Both samples are components of the oldest supracrustal assemblage of the Saglek Block: the Eoarchean Nulliak supracrustal assemblage. The isotopic data presented in this study: (i) confirm deposition age of the Nulliak supracrustal assemblage before ca. 3.65 Ga, (ii) indicate local provenance of the detrital zircon, (iii) suggest deposition of the sedimentary protoliths in a convergent setting, such as an arc, (iv) crystallization of the oldest zircon during the early Eoarchean in a protolith derived from a depleted mantle component, (v) involvement of material that experienced prolonged low temperature alteration during the late Eoarchean granulite facies metamorphism and (vi) selective metamorphic overprinting during the Neoarchean granulite facies metamorphism.The new zircon U–Pb/Hf/O isotope data presented here in conjunction with previously published analyses suggest that a depleted mantle domain existed in the early Archean, as reflected in the positive εHf signature of zircon from the Saglek Block. Yet, such positive Hf isotope deviations are not the norm, but rather the exception in the preserved early Earth zircon record. In addition, mildly elevated zircon δ18O values, i.e. those ≥ 5.9 ‰, are as common in the early Archean as they are in the late-Archean zircon record, implying that crustal reworking was an active and efficient process all through the Archean. Hence, no significant variation in the nature of the reworking and broader geodynamic processes occurred during this period of time.

Bariatric surgery and the neurohormonal switch: Early insulin resistance recordings after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy.

Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is a bariatric operation with a safe risk profile. It has been proven to successfully reduce weight, decrease insulin resistance (IR), and ameliorate diabetes mellitus. The aim of this study was to determine if there is an early improvement in IR after LSG and its association with weight loss.This was a prospective observational study of 32 patients who underwent LSG at a single center over a 3-year period. Serum insulin and fasting glucose levels were recorded preoperatively, on day 1 postoperatively, and 3 weeks after LSG. IR levels were calculated using the Homeostasis Model Assessment 2 Version 2.23. IR levels were compared along with the overall weight loss, via body mass index. β-cell function was the secondary outcome.IR significantly improved the day after surgery with a statistically significant mean difference of 0.89 units (P = .043) and significantly more so 3 weeks postoperatively, with a mean difference of 4.32 units (P < .0005). β-cell function reduced 3 weeks postoperatively, with a mean difference of 23.95 %β (P = .025), while body mass index significantly reduced, with a mean difference of 4.32 kg/m2 (P < .0005).Early improvement of IR was observed on postoperative day 1 after LSG before any weight loss. This raises the possibility of an undetermined, underlying neurohormonal switch that improves IR. Further investigation is needed to determine this mechanism, as it may lead to an improvement in the medical management of diabetes mellitus.