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The article focuses on the appreciation of various art songs of Lori Laitman, an American composer. The song "The Metropolitan Tower and Other Songs" features music of Sara Teasdale such as "Mystery" and "The Years." The vocal phrases of "The Metropolitan Tower" are gently arched and the constant eighth note rhythm in the accompaniment indicating movement. The poetry of Emily Dickinson is also presented in Laitman's song such as "Days and Nights," "The Four Dickinson Songs," and "Between the Bliss and Me." The piano serves as rhythmic function in the Dickinson settings while the accompaniment are independent and varied in style and texture.

Background: To assign a course of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) (SPMS) may be difficult and the proportion of persons with SPMS varies between reports. An objective method for disease course classification may give a better estimation of the relative proportions of relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and SPMS and may identify situations where SPMS is under reported., Materials and Methods: Data were obtained for 61,900 MS patients from MS registries in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (UK), including date of birth, sex, SP conversion year, visits with an Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score, MS onset and diagnosis date, relapses, and disease-modifying treatment (DMT) use. We included RRMS or SPMS patients with at least one visit between January 2017 and December 2019 if ≥ 18 years of age. We applied three objective methods: A set of SPMS clinical trial inclusion criteria ("EXPAND criteria") modified for a real-world evidence setting, a modified version of the MSBase algorithm, and a decision tree-based algorithm recently published., Results: The clinically assigned proportion of SPMS varied from 8.7% (Czechia) to 34.3% (UK). Objective classifiers estimated the proportion of SPMS from 15.1% (Germany by the EXPAND criteria) to 58.0% (UK by the decision tree method). Due to different requirements of number of EDSS scores, classifiers varied in the proportion they were able to classify; from 18% (UK by the MSBase algorithm) to 100% (the decision tree algorithm for all registries). Objectively classified SPMS patients were older, converted to SPMS later, had higher EDSS at index date and higher EDSS at conversion. More objectively classified SPMS were on DMTs compared to the clinically assigned., Conclusion: SPMS appears to be systematically underdiagnosed in MS registries. Reclassified patients were more commonly on DMTs., Competing Interests: The authors declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Lars Forsberg has nothing to disclose. Tim Spelman has received compensation for serving on the scientific advisory board for Biogen and speaker honoraria from Novartis. Pernilla Klyve has nothing to disclose. Ali Manouchehrinia is supported by the Margaretha af Ugglas Foundation. Ryan Ramanujam has nothing to disclose. Elena Mouresan has nothing to disclose. Jiri Drahota has nothing to disclose. Dana Horakova was supported by the Czech Ministry of Education (project Cooperatio LF1, research area Neuroscience). She also received compensation for travel, speaker honoraria, and consultant fees from Biogen Idec, Novartis, Merck, Sanofi, Roche, and Teva, as well as support for research activities from Biogen Idec. Hanna Joensen has received honoraria for an advisory board from Biogen. Luigi Pontieri has nothing to disclose. Melinda Magyari has served on the scientific advisory board, served as a consultant for, received support for congress participation, and received speaker honoraria from Biogen, Sanofi, Roche, Novartis, Merck, Abbvie, and Alexion. The Danish MR Registry received research support from Biogen, Genzyme, Roche, Merck, and Novartis. David Ellenberger has nothing to disclose. Alexander Stahmann has no personal pecuniary interests to disclose, other than being the lead of the German MS Registry, which receives funding from a range of public and corporate sponsors, recently including The German Innovation Fund (G-BA), The German MS Trust, German MS Society, Biogen, Celgene (Bristol-Myers Squibb), Merck, Novartis, Roche, and Sanofi. None resulted in a conflict of interest. Jeff Rodgers has nothing to disclose. The UK MS Register is funded by the MS Society. James Witts has nothing to disclose. The UK MS Register is funded by the MS Society. Rod Middleton has nothing to disclose. The UK MS Register is funded by the MS Society. Richard Nicholas has received support from advisory boards from Roche and Biogen. He has grant support from the UK MS Society and Berkeley Foundation and is a vice chair of a NICE HTA committee. Vladimir Bezlyak is an employee of Novartis Pharma AG. Nicholas Adlard is an employee of Novartis Pharma AG. Thomas Hach is an employee of Novartis Pharma AG. Carol Lines is an employee of Novartis Pharma AG. Sandra Vukusic has received grants, personal fees, unrestricted research grants, and nonfinancial support from Biogen, BMS-Celgene, Genzyme, Janssen, Merck Serono, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi, and Teva. Merja Soilu-Hanninen has received congress fee covering and lecture and consultation fees by Biogen, Celgene, Merck, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi, and Teva. Anneke van der Walt served on advisory boards and receives unrestricted research grants from Novartis, Biogen, Merck, Alexion, NervGen, and Roche. She has received speaker's honoraria and travel support from Novartis, Roche, Biogen, and Merck. She receives grant support from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and MS Research Australia. Helmut Butzkueven's institution (Monash University) has received compensation for his services on scientific advisory boards and as a speaker from Biogen, Novartis, Roche, Merck, and UCB. He serves on steering committees for trials conducted by Biogen, Merck, and Novartis, and his institution has received research support from Roche, Merck, Novartis, and Biogen. Pietro Iaffaldano has received advisory board membership, speaker honoraria, and travel support from Almirall, Bayer Shering, Biogen, Genzyme, Merck, Novartis, Sanofi, Roche, Teva, and their local affiliates. Maria Trojano received advisory board membership, speaker honoraria, travel support and research grant from Almirall, Bayer Shering, Biogen, Genzyme, Merck, Novartis, Sanofi, Roche, Teva, and their local affiliates. Anna Glaser has received research support from Novartis. Jan Hillert has received honoraria for serving on advisory boards for Biogen, Celgene, Sanofi-Genzyme, Merck KGaA, Novartis, and Sandoz and speaker's fees from Biogen, Novartis, Merck KGaA, Teva, and Sanofi-Genzyme. He has served as PI for projects or received unrestricted research support from Biogen, Celgene, Merck KGaA, Novartis, Roche, and Sanofi-Genzyme. His MS research was funded by the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Brain foundation., (© The Author(s), 2023.)