Chord Label Personalization through Deep Learning of Integrated Harmonic Interval-based Representations

The increasing accuracy of automatic chord estimation systems, the availability of vast amounts of heterogeneous reference annotations, and insights from annotator subjectivity research make chord label personalization increasingly important. Nevertheless, automatic chord estimation systems are historically exclusively trained and evaluated on a single reference annotation. We introduce a first approach to automatic chord label personalization by modeling subjectivity through deep learning of a harmonic interval-based chord label representation. After integrating these representations from multiple annotators, we can accurately personalize chord labels for individual annotators from a single model and the annotators' chord label vocabulary. Furthermore, we show that chord personalization using multiple reference annotations outperforms using a single reference annotation.Comment: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Deep Learning and Music, Anchorage, US, May, 2017 (arXiv:1706.08675v1 [cs.NE]

Effect of qualitative feed restriction on energy metabolism and nitrogen retention in sheep

Periodic restrictions in feed quality and quantity is an important phenomenon in regions where animal production should bridge the gap between periods of forage production separated by a dry season. Eighteen Swifter male lambs, weaned at the age of ca. three months, were used to quantify effects of feed quality restriction and realimentation on changes in energy and nitrogen metabolism. The diet consisted of grass straw (17 MJ of gross energy [GE] and 46 g crude protein [CP] per kg dry matter [DM]) on an ad libitum basis and 35 g/kg0.75/d mixed concentrates (16.5 MJ of GE and 173 g CP per kg DM). At the age of ca. 3.5 months the animals were randomly divided into six blocks, based on live weight, according to a randomized complete block design. Within each block, the animals were randomly assigned to two restricted treatments (R1 and R2) and an unrestricted control (C) treatment. Treatments R1 and R2 were subjected to feed quality restriction by withholding the concentrate for 3 and 4.5 months, respectively. A modified linear model was developed to study the effects of restriction and realimentation. The comparison between treatments was made by analyzing the data of the R1 and R2 animals as deviations from the control animal in each block. During the restriction period, restricted animals lost weight and showed negative energy (EB) and nitrogen balances (NB), whereas their intake of low quality roughage increased significantly. During the realimentation period (5 and 6 months for the R1 and R2 animal, respectively), the R1 and R2 animals grew significantly faster than the control animals. The realimented animals persisted in ingesting significantly more low quality roughage and their EB and NB were significantly greater that those of the control animals. The R2 animals needed a longer period of realimentation because of a longer period of restriction. The expression of compensatory growth was mainly related to a sustained higher grass straw (low quality roughage) intake during the realimentation periods, and a significantly greater efficiency of metabolizable energy intake. The maintenance requirement of realimented animals was significantly lower only during the initial stages of realimentation compared with the controls. It seemed as if a three months feed restriction period in weaned sheep was better than 4.5 months

Hyperacusis in tinnitus patients relates to enlarged subcortical and cortical responses to sound except at the tinnitus frequency

Hyperacusis, a hypersensitivity to sounds of mild to moderate intensity, has been related to increased neural gain along the auditory pathway. To date, there is still uncertainty on the neural correlates of hyperacusis. Since hyperacusis often co-occurs with hearing loss and tinnitus, the effects of the three conditions on cortical and subcortical structures are often hard to separate. In this fMRI study, two groups of hearing loss and tinnitus participants, with and without hyperacusis, were compared to specifically investigate the effect of the latter in a group that often reports hyperacusis. In 35 participants with hearing loss and tinnitus, with and without hyperacusis as indicated by a cut-off score of 22 on the Hyperacusis Questionnaire (HQ), subcortical and cortical responses to sound stimulation were investigated. In addition, the frequency tuning of cortical voxels was investigated in the primary auditory cortex. In cortical and subcortical auditory structures, sound-evoked activity was higher in the group with hyperacusis. This effect was not restricted to frequencies affected by hearing loss but extended to intact frequencies. The higher subcortical and cortical activity in response to sound thus appears to be a marker of hyperacusis. In contrast, the response to the tinnitus frequency was reduced in the group with hyperacusis. This increase in subcortical and cortical activity in hyperacusis can be related to an increase in neural gain along the auditory pathway, and the reduced response to the tinnitus frequency to differences in attentional resources allocated to the tinnitus sound. (c) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Purification and analytical characterization of an anti- CD4 monoclonal antibody for human therapy

A purification process for the monclonal anti-CD4 antibody MAX.16H5 was developed on an analytical scale using (NH&SO, precipitation, anion-exchange chromatography on MonoQ or Q-Sepharose, hydrophobic interaction chromatography on phenyl- Sepharose and gel filtration chromatography on Superdex 200. The purification schedule was scaled up and gram amounts of MAX.16H5 were produced on corresponding BioPilot columns. Studies of the identity, purity and possible contamination by a broad range of methods showed that the product was highly purified and free from contaminants such as mouse DNA, viruses, pyrogens and irritants. Overall, the analytical data confirm that the monoclonal antibody MAX.16H5 prepared by this protocol is suitable for human therapy

An extendable modular endoprosthetic system for bone tumour management in the leg

A modular endoprosthetic system has been developed at the Groningen University Hospital and the University of Twente. The system can bridge a defect resulting from the resection of a malignant bone tumour which has developed around the knee joint of a child. Since the other healthy leg continues to grow, the system includes an element whose length can be adjusted non-invasively by using an external magnetic field. In addition to this lengthening element, there are one hip and two knee components, connectors of various lengths, and fixation elements. The paper describes the elements of the modular endoprosthetic system. Tables are created by means of which the elemental composition of such an endoprosthesis can be determined for each individual patient

Antibioticagebruik deels afhankelijk van bedrijfsvoering

Het antibioticagebruik op bedrijven varieert in hoge mate. De verschillen blijken deels afhankelijk van de bedrijfsvoering. De melkveehouder met een wat groter quotum, lager celgetal en hogere gezondheidsstatus gebruikt meer. Dit is in feite de ‘succesvolle’ veehouder. Dit lijkt dus de groep om op te focussen

Macrostructural Changes of the Acoustic Radiation in Humans with Hearing Loss and Tinnitus Revealed with Fixel-Based Analysis

Age-related hearing loss is the most prevalent sensory impairment in the older adult population and is related to noise-induced damage or age-related deterioration of the peripheral auditory system. Hearing loss may affect the central auditory pathway in the brain, which is a continuation of the peripheral auditory system located in the ear. A debilitating symptom that frequently co-occurs with hearing loss is tinnitus. Strikingly, investigations into the impact of acquired hearing loss, with and without tinnitus, on the human central auditory pathway are sparse. This study used diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) to investigate changes in the largest central auditory tract, the acoustic radiation, related to hearing loss and tinnitus. Participants with hearing loss, with and without tinnitus, and a control group were included. Both conventional diffusion tensor analysis and higher-order fixel-based analysis were applied. The fixel-based analysis was used as a novel framework providing insight into the axonal density and macrostructural morphologic changes of the acoustic radiation in hearing loss and tinnitus. The results show tinnitus-related atrophy of the left acoustic radiation near the medial geniculate body. This finding may reflect a decrease in myelination of the auditory pathway, instigated by more profound peripheral deafferentation or reflecting a preexisting marker of tinnitus vulnerability. Furthermore, age was negatively correlated with the axonal density in the bilateral acoustic radiation. This loss of fiber density with age may contribute to poorer speech understanding observed in older adults. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Age-related hearing loss is the most prevalent sensory impairment in the older adult population. Older individuals are subject to the cumulative effects of aging and noise exposure on the auditory system. A debilitating symptom that frequently co-occurs with hearing loss is tinnitus: the perception of a phantom sound. In this large DWI-study, we provide evidence that in hearing loss, the additional presence of tinnitus is related to degradation of the acoustic radiation. Additionally, older age was related to axonal loss in the acoustic radiation. It appears that older adults have the aggravating circumstances of age, hearing loss, and tinnitus on central auditory processing, which may partly be because of the observed deterioration of the acoustic radiation with age