Relative distance perception of sound sources in critical listening environment via binaural reproduction

Accurate distance cues are important in the degree of realism provided by virtual audio systems. In the last decade there has been an increased interest in this research area. The main focus of this research project is to investigate the effect of different acoustic cues related to distance perception, such as Direct to Reverberant ratio (D/R), in the perception of the relative distance between sound sources in a virtual medium sized critical listening room. The virtual sources were generated by convolving a dry speech signal with modelled and measured BRIRs. The BRIRs were modelled using a direction related image source model for the early reflections and exponentially decaying noise for the reverb tail. In order to investigate relative distance perception and the factors that affect it, a pairwise comparison was conducted involving twenty- three subjects. Three different distances ranging between 1.0m and 3.0m were used in the comparison pairs. The main outcomes from the tests are: 1) Modelled and measured BRIRs provide relative distance cues equally well; 2) Direct-to-reverberant ratio is a significant relative distance cue, even when level between virtual sources is normalized; 3) Adding level differences between the sources does not have a significant effect on the perception of relative distance. However, it reduced the precedence of wrong relative distance judgments by 5%-15%; 4) Manipulation of early reflection time of arrival (TOA) does not appear to be a significant cue in distance perception. These findings are important in the field of virtual reality and computer gaming because they show that the relative distance of a virtual source can be manipulated simply by adjusting the direct-to-reverberant ratio of the BRIRs. It can thus be concluded that large BRIR databases and interpolation between BRIRs at different distances are not required for appropriate distance cues

The Spatial Form of Houses Built by Italian Migrants in Post WWII Brisbane, Australia

The literature reveals that despite the study of the relationship between human behavior, activities and built form has focused on physical spatial environments at any scale, ranging from built environment to built form, the investigation of micro-scale housing has been neglected in the past. Namely, regardless of the interest to this relationship, direct assessment of the extent to which migrants’ human behavior and activities influence and are also influenced by the spatial form of their houses is still rare in the field. This paper focuses on the exploration of the relationship between human behavior, activities and the spatial form of houses built by Italian migrants in post WWII Brisbane. The paper argues that the spatial form of migrants’ houses was influenced by two factors: the need to perform working and social activities dictated by culture as a way of life; urbanization patterns present in migrants’ native and host built environment

Comparative Analysis of Different Label-Free Mass Spectrometry Based Protein Abundance Estimates and Their Correlation with RNA-Seq Gene Expression Data

An increasing number of studies involve integrative analysis of gene and protein expression data taking advantage of new technologies such as next-generation transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) and highly sensitive mass spectrometry (MS) instrumentation. Thus, it becomes interesting to revisit the correlative analysis of gene and protein expression data using more recently generated data sets. Furthermore, within the proteomics community there is a substantial interest in comparing the performance of different label-free quantitative proteomic strategies. Gene expression data can be used as an indirect benchmark for such protein-level comparisons. In this work we use publicly available mouse data to perform a joint analysis of genomic and proteomic data obtained on the same organism. First, we perform a comparative analysis of different label-free protein quantification methods (intensity based and spectral count based and using various associated data normalization steps) using several software tools on the proteomic side. Similarly, we perform correlative analysis of gene expression data derived using microarray and RNA-Seq methods on the genomic side. We also investigate the correlation between gene and protein expression data, and various factors affecting the accuracy of quantitation at both levels. It is observed that spectral count based protein abundance metrics, which are easy to extract from any published data, are comparable to intensity based measures with respect to correlation with gene expression data. The results of this work should be useful for designing robust computational pipelines for extraction and joint analysis of gene and protein expression data in the context of integrative studies

Comparative Analysis of Different Label-Free Mass Spectrometry Based Protein Abundance Estimates and Their Correlation with RNA-Seq Gene Expression Data

An increasing number of studies involve integrative analysis of gene and protein expression data taking advantage of new technologies such as next-generation transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) and highly sensitive mass spectrometry (MS) instrumentation. Thus, it becomes interesting to revisit the correlative analysis of gene and protein expression data using more recently generated data sets. Furthermore, within the proteomics community there is a substantial interest in comparing the performance of different label-free quantitative proteomic strategies. Gene expression data can be used as an indirect benchmark for such protein-level comparisons. In this work we use publicly available mouse data to perform a joint analysis of genomic and proteomic data obtained on the same organism. First, we perform a comparative analysis of different label-free protein quantification methods (intensity based and spectral count based and using various associated data normalization steps) using several software tools on the proteomic side. Similarly, we perform correlative analysis of gene expression data derived using microarray and RNA-Seq methods on the genomic side. We also investigate the correlation between gene and protein expression data, and various factors affecting the accuracy of quantitation at both levels. It is observed that spectral count based protein abundance metrics, which are easy to extract from any published data, are comparable to intensity based measures with respect to correlation with gene expression data. The results of this work should be useful for designing robust computational pipelines for extraction and joint analysis of gene and protein expression data in the context of integrative studies

Comparative Analysis of Different Label-Free Mass Spectrometry Based Protein Abundance Estimates and Their Correlation with RNA-Seq Gene Expression Data

An increasing number of studies involve integrative analysis of gene and protein expression data taking advantage of new technologies such as next-generation transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) and highly sensitive mass spectrometry (MS) instrumentation. Thus, it becomes interesting to revisit the correlative analysis of gene and protein expression data using more recently generated data sets. Furthermore, within the proteomics community there is a substantial interest in comparing the performance of different label-free quantitative proteomic strategies. Gene expression data can be used as an indirect benchmark for such protein-level comparisons. In this work we use publicly available mouse data to perform a joint analysis of genomic and proteomic data obtained on the same organism. First, we perform a comparative analysis of different label-free protein quantification methods (intensity based and spectral count based and using various associated data normalization steps) using several software tools on the proteomic side. Similarly, we perform correlative analysis of gene expression data derived using microarray and RNA-Seq methods on the genomic side. We also investigate the correlation between gene and protein expression data, and various factors affecting the accuracy of quantitation at both levels. It is observed that spectral count based protein abundance metrics, which are easy to extract from any published data, are comparable to intensity based measures with respect to correlation with gene expression data. The results of this work should be useful for designing robust computational pipelines for extraction and joint analysis of gene and protein expression data in the context of integrative studies

Comparative Analysis of Different Label-Free Mass Spectrometry Based Protein Abundance Estimates and Their Correlation with RNA-Seq Gene Expression Data

An increasing number of studies involve integrative analysis of gene and protein expression data taking advantage of new technologies such as next-generation transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) and highly sensitive mass spectrometry (MS) instrumentation. Thus, it becomes interesting to revisit the correlative analysis of gene and protein expression data using more recently generated data sets. Furthermore, within the proteomics community there is a substantial interest in comparing the performance of different label-free quantitative proteomic strategies. Gene expression data can be used as an indirect benchmark for such protein-level comparisons. In this work we use publicly available mouse data to perform a joint analysis of genomic and proteomic data obtained on the same organism. First, we perform a comparative analysis of different label-free protein quantification methods (intensity based and spectral count based and using various associated data normalization steps) using several software tools on the proteomic side. Similarly, we perform correlative analysis of gene expression data derived using microarray and RNA-Seq methods on the genomic side. We also investigate the correlation between gene and protein expression data, and various factors affecting the accuracy of quantitation at both levels. It is observed that spectral count based protein abundance metrics, which are easy to extract from any published data, are comparable to intensity based measures with respect to correlation with gene expression data. The results of this work should be useful for designing robust computational pipelines for extraction and joint analysis of gene and protein expression data in the context of integrative studies

Comparative Analysis of Different Label-Free Mass Spectrometry Based Protein Abundance Estimates and Their Correlation with RNA-Seq Gene Expression Data

An increasing number of studies involve integrative analysis of gene and protein expression data taking advantage of new technologies such as next-generation transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) and highly sensitive mass spectrometry (MS) instrumentation. Thus, it becomes interesting to revisit the correlative analysis of gene and protein expression data using more recently generated data sets. Furthermore, within the proteomics community there is a substantial interest in comparing the performance of different label-free quantitative proteomic strategies. Gene expression data can be used as an indirect benchmark for such protein-level comparisons. In this work we use publicly available mouse data to perform a joint analysis of genomic and proteomic data obtained on the same organism. First, we perform a comparative analysis of different label-free protein quantification methods (intensity based and spectral count based and using various associated data normalization steps) using several software tools on the proteomic side. Similarly, we perform correlative analysis of gene expression data derived using microarray and RNA-Seq methods on the genomic side. We also investigate the correlation between gene and protein expression data, and various factors affecting the accuracy of quantitation at both levels. It is observed that spectral count based protein abundance metrics, which are easy to extract from any published data, are comparable to intensity based measures with respect to correlation with gene expression data. The results of this work should be useful for designing robust computational pipelines for extraction and joint analysis of gene and protein expression data in the context of integrative studies

MetaSee: An Interactive and Extendable Visualization Toolbox for Metagenomic Sample Analysis and Comparison

<div><p>The NGS (next generation sequencing)-based metagenomic data analysis is becoming the mainstream for the study of microbial communities. Faced with a large amount of data in metagenomic research, effective data visualization is important for scientists to effectively explore, interpret and manipulate such rich information. The visualization of the metagenomic data, especially multi-sample data, is one of the most critical challenges. The different data sample sources, sequencing approaches and heterogeneous data formats make robust and seamless data visualization difficult. Moreover, researchers have different focuses on metagenomic studies: taxonomical or functional, sample-centric or genome-centric, single sample or multiple samples, etc. However, current efforts in metagenomic data visualization cannot fulfill all of these needs, and it is extremely hard to organize all of these visualization effects in a systematic manner. An extendable, interactive visualization tool would be the method of choice to fulfill all of these visualization needs. In this paper, we have present MetaSee, an extendable toolbox that facilitates the interactive visualization of metagenomic samples of interests. The main components of MetaSee include: (I) a core visualization engine that is composed of different views for comparison of multiple samples: Global view, Phylogenetic view, Sample view and Taxa view, as well as link-out for more in-depth analysis; (II) front-end user interface with real metagenomic models that connect to the above core visualization engine and (III) open-source portal for the development of plug-ins for MetaSee. This integrative visualization tool not only provides the visualization effects, but also enables researchers to perform in-depth analysis of the metagenomic samples of interests. Moreover, its open-source portal allows for the design of plug-ins for MetaSee, which would facilitate the development of any additional visualization effects.</p></div

Overview of the visualization result of MetaSee and the Framework.

<p>(A) Left side bar for navigation, (B) Main window is the working area for visualization.</p

Screenshot of current metagenomic visualization effects.

<p>(A) The visualization result of MEGAN with taxonomy components of two metagenomic samples. (B) The visualization user interface of Strainer (The visualization of components of metagenomics in micro-perspective). The comparison between a component of a metagenome sample and a genome. (C) The visualization user interface of BLASTatla (The visualization of components of metagenomics in macro-perspective: The comparison among a component of metagenome and multiple genomes). (D) Contig and gene annotation visualization of IMG/M. (E) The visualization user interface of Krona. This is the user interface of comparison of four saliva microbiomes. (F) The metagenome visualization result of iTOL with default parameters.</p