AimsThe Symphony Project is designed to identify which groups of the South Somerset population in England would most benefit from greater integration across primary, community, acute and social care settings.MethodsWe analysed linked health and social care data for the entire South Somerset population for the financial year 2012/2013. The data captured acute, primary, community, mental health and social care utilisation and costs; demographic characteristics; and indicators of morbidity for each individual. We employed generalized linear models to analyse variation in annual health and social care costs for all 114,874 members of the South Somerset population and for 1458 individuals with three or more selected chronic conditions.ResultsWe found that multi-morbidity, not age, was the key driver of health and social care costs. Moreover, the number of chronic conditions is as useful as information about specific conditions at predicting costs. We are able to explain 7% of the variation in total annual costs for population as a whole, and 14% of the variation for those with three or more conditions. We are best able to explain primary care costs, but explanatory power is poor for mental health and social care costs.ConclusionsThe linked dataset makes it possible to understand existing patterns of health and social care utilisation and to analyse variation in annual costs, for the whole population and for sub-groups, in total and by setting. This has made it possible to identify who would most benefit from improved integrated care and to calculate capitated budgets to support financial integration.

This study looks at the influence of musical aptitude on learners' pronunciation abilities in a foreign language. While there have been many studies that have claimed a link between the two (Slevc & Miyake 2006, Milovanov 2010, etc.), some studies suggest that this link may not be as strong as initially thought (Jackendoff, 2009, etc.). This study examines the pronunciation abilities of Japanese University students of similar English level and varying musical aptitude, but conducts more in depth statistical analysis than previous studies by comparing specific musical abilities, such as pitch, loudness, rhythm, tone and timing, with specific problematic pronunciation points, the English sounds /r/, /l/, /v/, [θ] and [ð]. The results of our experimentation indicated a statistically significant correlation between musical timing aptitude and the ability to pronounce r and l sounds, but no other significant correlations, indicating that perhaps only specific musical abilities have influence on specific aspects of pronunciation.