John McDonough

Boston

Writer and Editor at Freelance

Prof @HarvardHSPH, author of “Inside National Health Reform,” blogger; formerly a senior advisor on national health reform & Mass. state rep

Articles

In Memoriam: Lou Donaldson, 1926-2024

Nov 11, 2024 | downbeat.com | John McDonough

By John McDonough I Nov. 12, 2024 Alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson, the final surviving member of the original Art Blakey quintet that in 1954 introduced “hard bop” into the growing jazz lineage of classification, died on Nov. 9 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, eight days after his 98th birthday. He had planned to attend a 98th birthday celebration at Dizzy’s Club in New York, but cancelled due to an onset of pneumonia shortly before, presumably the cause of his death.
In Memoriam: Quincy Jones, 1933-2024

Nov 3, 2024 | downbeat.com | John McDonough

By John McDonough I Nov. 4, 2024 Quincy Delight Jones Jr., musician, bandleader, composer and producer, died in his home in Bel Air, California Sunday. He was 91. No cause was given in a statement from his publicist, Arnold Robinson, who said Mr. Jones died peacefully in his sleep. There are many ways of achieving great success and wealth in music. Jones’ path to that pinnacle was as unique as it was unexpected and open ended.
Bill Holman: Journey in Swing Time

Oct 7, 2024 | downbeat.com | John McDonough

By John McDonough I Oct. 8, 2024 Chronology aligned the timeline of Bill Holman’s music education with a remarkable precision, positioning him to intersect with a destiny that in 1998 led critic Gary Giddins to pronounce him perhaps “the premier living jazz orchestrator.” When he died on May 6 in Olive, California, two weeks and a day short of his 97th birthday, his career had clocked nearly a century of big band history from ballroom jitterbugs to classroom academics.
Jazz Historian, Journalist Dan Morgenstern Dies at 94

Sep 9, 2024 | downbeat.com | John McDonough

By John McDonough I Sep. 10, 2024 Jazz journalist, historian, and 2007 NEA Jazz Master Dan Morgenstern, whose decades of writing and other activities in support of the music earned him the long-standing respect of the jazz circle, died on Sept. 7 at the age of 94 from heart failure.
A Faer Point

Jul 17, 2024 | themj.co.uk | Roger Russell |John McDonough |Simon T Kaye |Martin Ford

A Faer Point After a tumultuous couple of weeks in the world of politics both in the UK and USA, Faerfield colleagues have been reflecting on the potential impact of the change of government in the UK.
Vibrational resonance in an asymmetric system modeled by an electronic circuit: Effect of the buffers

Jul 12, 2024 | pubs.aip.org | Thomas Varley |John McDonough |Djolieu Funaye |Djuidjé Kenmoé

Vibrational resonance (VR) has been extensively studied in symmetric circuits, but research on this phenomenon in asymmetric electronic circuits is understudied. The current study aims to model a novel asymmetric electronic circuit and investigate the occurrence of VR in the circuit. This oscillator shows changes according to four control parameters, with the aid of two buffers.
Pre-asymptotic analysis of Lévy flights

Jul 12, 2024 | pubs.aip.org | Basque Country |Thomas Varley |John McDonough |A. Longhena

We study the properties of Lévy flights with index at elapsed times smaller than those required for reaching the diffusive limit, and we focus on the bulk of the walkers’ distribution rather than on its tails.
Model adaptive phase space reconstruction

Jul 10, 2024 | pubs.aip.org | Thomas Varley |John McDonough |A. Longhena |Hauke Kraemer

Phase space reconstruction (PSR) methods allow for the analysis of low-dimensional data with methods from dynamical systems theory, but their application to prediction models, such as those from machine learning (ML), is limited. Therefore, we here present a model adaptive phase space reconstruction (MAPSR) method that unifies the process of PSR with the modeling of the dynamical system. MAPSR is a differentiable PSR based on time-delay embedding and enables ML methods for modeling.
Identification method for a fractional-order system in terms of equivalent dynamic properties

Jul 9, 2024 | pubs.aip.org | Thomas Varley |A. Longhena |John McDonough

In this paper, we introduce an efficient method for identifying fractional dynamic systems using extended sparse regression and cross-validation techniques. The former identifies equations that fit the data with varying candidate functions, while the latter determines the optimal equation with the fewest terms yet ensuring accuracy. The identified optimal equation is expected to share the same dynamic properties as the original fractional system.
A few-shot identification method for stochastic dynamical systems based on residual multipeaks adaptive sampling

Jul 9, 2024 | pubs.aip.org | Thomas Varley |A. Longhena |John McDonough

Neural networks are popular data-driven modeling tools that come with high data collection costs. This paper proposes a residual-based multipeaks adaptive sampling (RMAS) algorithm, which can reduce the demand for a large number of samples in the identification of stochastic dynamical systems. Compared to classical residual-based sampling algorithms, the RMAS algorithm achieves higher system identification accuracy without relying on any hyperparameters.