New World Approach

Tech music: Divisi Strings replaces sheet music with iPads for everything fromGaga to Etta

Will play for iPad. Divisi Strings uses technology to deliver seamlessperformances.
At Rienzi's Punch Party: The 18th Century Imbiber, listeners were intrigued bythe string quartet's setup.
Photo by © Michelle Watson/CatchLightGroup.com
Without iPads and music, the additional investmen was upwards of $800.

It's the perfect techie-toy for Internet consumption. The iPad is the preferred tablet of choice for pre-slumber browsing, leafing through the Sunday edition of the New York Times or watching a chick flick in the comfort, and privacy, of your own bathtub.

But for Divisi Strings, which has dominated Houston's market for event music, Apple's marvel is its answer to the age-old problem of filing, organizing and playing from endless pages of sheet music for the myriad of events during which the ensemble performs every week.

The string quartet showed off its 21st-century approach at Rienzi's Punch Party: The 18th Century Imbiber Thursday night. Playing through selections by Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Usher, Journey, Katy Perry, The Beatles and Etta James, the group affixed a lovely, chic and sophisticated milieu to the exploration of historic libations and 18th-century sustenance. The audience was intrigued.

Look ma, no hands!

The ensemble outfitted each musician with an AirTurn Page Turner (on sale at TheGigEasy starting at $124.95). The Bluetooth-equipped foot pedal allows absolute control. One foot-switch turns pages forward, another backwards. The matching iPad stand completes the sleek setup.

Aside from electronic sheet music and iPads, Divisi invested upwards of $800, which included forScore 3 music reader for iPad, an app which stores thousands of pages in just about 1.5 pounds.

"We started using this technology last month and it has helped us keep many pieces and songs organized," violinst Tony Sanville says. "It has also created a new visual aspect and a technological element that is very intriguing to people. They want to know exactly how it all works."

The members prepare a playlist ahead of time. Without any physical page turns, the musicians can deliver a seamless performance with little or no silence between pieces or songs. For the listener, it means more music and less waiting.

"It really revolutionizes not only the way the patrons view you but also what the ensemble is capable of doing," Shelli Mathews, Divisi Strings' founder and manager, says. "With Ampd Quartet (our pop music ensemble), most of what we play is based on open forum requests. We hated saying, 'Oh, Man! We didn’t bring that one.' Now, everything is just a click away."

"My iPad — because I am the leader — is the hub so I personally have about 3,500 selections," Mathews continues. "In a pinch, we are able to Bluetooth selections to each other’s iPad. So if someone is missing something, I can send it over to them within seconds."

There's only one issue. Remembering to charge the iPads.

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brain scientists at work

Rice University scientists invent new algorithm to fight Alzheimer's

Vicky Yao and Qiliang Lai of Rice University work on a laptop.

Photo courtesy of Rice University

Vicky Yao, an assistant professor of computer science and member of the Ken Kennedy Institute at Rice University, and Qiliang Lai, a Rice postdoctoral researcher

A new breakthrough from researchers at Rice University could unlock the genetic components that determine several human diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Alzheimer's disease affected 57 million people worldwide in 2021, and cases in the United States are expected to double in the next couple of decades. Despite its prevalence and widespread attention of the condition, the full mechanisms are still poorly understood. One hurdle has been identifying which brain cells are linked to the disease.

For years, it was thought that the cells most linked with Alzheimer's pathology via DNA evidence were microglia, infection-fighting cells in the brain. However, this did not match with actual studies of Alzheimer's patients' brains. It's the memory-making cells in the human brain that are implicated in the pathology.

To prove this link, researchers at Rice alongside Boston University developed a computational algorithm called “Single-cell Expression Integration System for Mapping genetically implicated Cell types," or SEISMIC. It allows researchers to zero in on specific neurons linked to Alzheimer's, the first of its kind. Qiliang Lai, a Rice doctoral student and the lead author of a paper on the discovery published in Nature Communications, believes that this is an important step in the fight against Alzheimer's.

“As we age, some brain cells naturally slow down, but in dementia ⎯ a memory-loss disease ⎯ specific brain cells actually die and can’t be replaced,” said Lai. “The fact that it is memory-making brain cells dying and not infection-fighting brain cells raises this confusing puzzle where DNA evidence and brain evidence don’t match up.”

Studying Alzheimer's has been hampered by the limitations of computational analysis. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) map small differences in the DNA of Alzheimer's patients. The genetic signal in these studies would often over-emphasize the presence of infection fighting cells, essentially making the activity of those cells too "loud" statistically to identify other factors. Combined with greater specificity in brain regional activity, SEISMIC reduces the data chatter to grant a clearer picture of the genetic component of Alzheimer's.

“We built our seismic algorithm to analyze genetic information and match it precisely to specific types of brain cells,” Lai said. “This enables us to create a more detailed picture of which cell types are affected by which genetic programs.”

Though the algorithm is not in and of itself likely to lead to a cure or treatment for Alzheimer's any time soon, the researchers say that SEISMIC is already performing significantly better than existing tools at identifying important disease-relevant cellular signals more clearly.

“We think this work could help reconcile some contradicting patterns in the data pertaining to Alzheimer’s research,” said Vicky Yao, assistant professor of computer science and a member of the Ken Kennedy Institute at Rice. “Beyond that, the method will likely be broadly valuable to help us better understand which cell types are relevant in different complex diseases.”

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