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Theodor W. Adorno's “theory of the symphony” is modeled on Beethoven's heroic symphonies; these works form the basis for Adorno's arguments against the broadcast of symphonies on radio. A “radio symphony,” he claims, is not the same as the real thing and fails to deliver the true meaning of the music. The arguments are based on a peculiar configuration of space and time in the symphonies in which the temporal dimensions are so compressed that they form a spatial moment—an Augenblick that engulfs the listener in its metaphysical enclosures. Why should anyone believe such a peculiar theory? More important, does Beethoven's music have anything to say about it?

This ‘movement’ considers how Beethoven’s music articulates the freedom of the heroic subject and its inherent contradictions, particularly through the logic of the ‘blank’ or ‘zero’ sign and the formal concept of the ‘eternal moment’ (or what Adorno terms the Augenblick in Beethoven’s symphonic processes). It explores these notions through the analyses of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Eroica Symphpony.

This ‘movement’ considers how Beethoven’s music provides a critique and a lament of heroic freedom by turning the logic of the blank sign from its transcendant fullness to a gaping abyss. Under such conditions, how can music radiate hope? To explore possible answers, this movement uses the myth of Orpheus to frame the discussion, analaysing works such as the piano sonatas Opp 81a, 110, and 111 and the opera Fidelio. It closes by exploring the possibility of alternative freedom.

Beethoven’s music is often associated with freedom. Chua explores the nature of this relationship through an investigation of the philosophical context of Beethoven’s reception and hermeneutic readings of key works. Freedom is arguably the core value of modernity since late eighteenth-century; Beethoven’s music engages with its aspirations and dilemmas, providing a sonic ‘lens’ that enables us to focus on the aesthetic, philosophical, and theological ramifications of its claims of progress and autonomy and the formation of the self and its values. Taking his bearings from Adorno’s fragmentary reflections on Beethoven, Chua charts a journey from the heroic freedom associated with the Eroica Symphony to a freedom of vulnerability that opens itself to ‘otherness’. Chua’s analysis of the music demonstrates how various forms of freedom are embodied in the way time and space are manipulated in Beethoven’s works, providing an experience of a concept that Kant had famously declared inaccessible to sense. Beethoven’s music, then, does not simply mirror freedom; it is a philosophical and poetic engagement with the idea that is as relevant today as it was in the aftermath of the French Revolution.

This is a book in three movements. It could have been in three chapters, but that would have made the text seem inordinately long—even convoluted, as though its ideas were sprawling out of control. It’s a matter of managing expectations. ‘Chapters’ imply division; the longer they are, the greater the itch to divide. A ‘movement’, on the other hand, need not scratch this itch, allowing ideas to have long trajectories that can modulate wildly at different frequencies. What appears to sprawl in a chapter is more coherent in a movement. The three movements, then, capture the flow and form of the ideas in this book, each with its own tempo and dynamics....

A key signifier of freedom in Beethoven’s music is the “blank sign.” This sign assumes various forms. This article traces these blanks both musically and philosophically to explore how they work and what they mean. In particular, it focuses on Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy as a commentator on the composer’s own usage of this sign as a representation of freedom and progress.

Music has often been used to symbolize and express ontological experiences. This article explores a mode of nineteenth-century self-audition where music captures a glimpse of the freedom that lies at the core of the subject. This mode of listening has intensified with the development of modern technology and is still prevalent in constructing the identity of the self. The opera scene from the Shawshank Redemption not only is an example of this special effect, but provides a narrative of how music achieves this affect, creating an ideal and virtual self through sound technology.

This response aims to widen the implications suggested by Bernd Wannenwetsch by exploring how music may promote a listening that breaks out of a monad-like subject.

Beethoven's Promethean image has been reenforced in recent scholarship by the idea of the “heroic.” Although the escalation of the concept has been recognized as an act of selective hearing based on a handful of “heroic” works, Beethoven's Promethean identity is likely to remain because it embodies the ethical values of a particularly virulent strain of humanism; Beethoven is still employed today to mark the epochal events of human history—from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the atrocities of 9/11. However, the humanism this hero champions has been accused as a cause of the very inhumanity the music is suppose to erase. To offer an alternative is not difficult—there are many works by the composer that do not conform to the Promethean image; but the alternative would be meaningless if it were merely a matter of registering other topics or narratives without grounding the difference in a set of values that challenge the ethical force of the hero. This article sketches the possibility of such an alternative through the ethics of philosophers such as Emmanuel Lévinas and Theodor W. Adorno. It explores an-Other humanism in Beethoven both in the sense of an other Beethoven and a humanism founded on the Other.

The riot that greeted the Rite of Spring only found its analytical counterpart some 70 years after its premiere, with factions headed by Pieter van den Toorn, Richard Taruskin and Allen Forte. But the analytical tussle was hardly a genuine riot in as much the differing camps subscribed to a premise of authenticity in order to stabilise the work under a universal concept: the result was a Rite unified by theory. The scholars may have battled with each other, but the music was not allowed to have its own riot. This article suggests a more contingent analysis of the Rite, focussing on the rebellion of the particular against the universal. The point is not to champion an anarchic or barbaric reading of the music, which is often attributed to the work because of the ballet's violent content, but to open the possibility of a new order that arises from the rioting particular.

This paper covers the cutting of commercially-available ceramic tiles using a CO2 laser cutting machine, with the object of producing a laser beam machining (LBM) database that contains the essential parameter information for their successful processing. Various laser cutting parameters were investigated that would generate a cut in ceramic tile which required minimal post-treatment. The effects of various shield gases, of multi-pass cutting and of underwater cutting were also examined. © 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

This paper covers the cutting of commercially‐available ceramic tiles using a CO2 laser cutting machine, with the object of producing a laser beam machining database which contains the essential parameter information for their successful processing. Various laser cutting parameters were investigated that would generate a cut in ceramic tile which required minimal posttreatment. The effects of various shield gases, multipass cutting and underwater cutting were also examined.

This prospective study examined the durability and user acceptability of three types of operating glove for use in orthodontic practice. The glove types studied were a lightweight examination glove (Microtouch® Johnson and Johnson), a dedicated dental procedure glove (Biogel D®; Regent Hospital Products) and a non-latex, nitrile glove (N-Dex®; Best Manufacturing Europe N.V.). A water-leak test was used to examine 50 pairs of unused gloves of each type for manufacturing defects. Subsequently, six operators of varying experience were asked to use 20 pairs of each type of glove for fixed appliance treatment sessions and record their suitability for different clinical procedures. The used gloves were collected and tested in the laboratory for punctures. At the end of the study the six operators completed a detailed questionnaire recording their preferences for each glove type.

A persistent genital infection with an oncogene-type of human papillomavirus (HPV) is considered to be essential for the development of most cervical carcinomas. Therefore, HPV analysis has been proposed as a possible complementary cytological screening program. The authors have developed a technique to analyze archival Pap smears, which has enabled them to study the relation between persistent HPV infection and the development of cervical cancer.Nested polymerase chain reaction was used to demonstrate the presence of HPV DNA, and sequencing of the obtained amplimer was performed to establish HPV type. The authors analyzed a series of 88 smears taken 1.5 to 7 years prior to the diagnosis of an HPV-containing cervical carcinoma (12 invasive adenocarcinomas, 18 invasive squamous carcinomas, and 58 squamous carcinoma in situ), which were compared with age-matched controls with no tumor development.HPV DNA was present in a majority of the smears preceding a cancer, with an odds ratio of around 15 for all tumor groups. Infections with a persisting HPV type were demonstrated in most samples from a series of eight patients, from who multiple smears were available, covering the 7-year period preceding the cancer diagnosis.Persisting infection can be demonstrated in exfoliated cells many years before cancer is diagnosed. The results are complementary to those obtained with cytology, that is, HPV is detected also in those at-risk patients whose Pap smears are morphologically normal. However, the results are still insufficient to justify a general recommendation to use HPV testing for health control purposes.

Mobile right atrial thrombus is a rare echocardiographic diagnosis with important implications on further management. We report a case of 50-year-old woman with deep vein thrombosis of her left lower limb, who was found to have a large mobile serpiginous right atrial thrombus on both two-dimensional echocardiography (2DE) and transoesophageal echocardiography (TEE). She developed acute pulmonary embolism within thirty-six hours of diagnosis and subsequently underwent successful pulmonary embolectomy. This case demonstrates the usefulness of echocardiography as a non-invasive tool in the investigation of suspected pulmonary thromboembolism. The detection of right atrial thrombus mandates serious consideration for prompt surgical action.

Human tumour necrosis factor-beta (TNF-beta) was produced in eukaryotic cells using the insect baculovirus cloning and expression system. A novel insect signal sequence, the honey-bee (Apis mellifera) prepromelittin secretory sequence, was used to aid in the post-translational modifications, glycosylation and secretion of recombinant human TNF-beta. Human TNF-beta cDNA was cloned using the insect baculovirus vector pAcC4s. Expression of the human TNF-beta was regulated by the insect Autographa californica nuclear-polyhedrosis-virus polyhedrin promoter. The 5' end of the TNF-beta cDNA was fused to the honey-bee prepromelittin signal sequence on the baculovirus vector. Insect [Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9)] cells infected with the recombinant baculovirus secreted high levels of recombinant human TNF-beta into the culture medium. The amount of TNF-beta secreted by the Sf9 cells was estimated to be 28 micrograms of TNF-beta/ml of culture medium at 60-72 h post infection. The secreted human TNF-beta was a 22.5 kDa polypeptide which was glycosylated. Amino acid sequencing of the N-terminus of the recombinant human TNF-beta purified from the infected Sf9-cell culture confirmed that the secreted product was indeed human TNF-beta. This demonstrates that the honey-bee prepromelittin signal sequence was efficiently recognized and accurately cleaved in the Sf9 insect cells. The insect-derived TNF-beta exhibited a high cytotoxic activity similar to that of the native human TNF-beta when assessed by cytotoxic assays using murine L929 cells. Thus the insect baculovirus expression vector can be used for the production of abundant quantities of biologically active, glycosylated human TNF-beta protein.