Factors in human recognition of timbre lexicons generated by data clustering

Since the development of sound recording technologies, the palette of sound timbres available for music creation was extended way beyond traditional musical instruments. The organization and categorization of timbre has been a common endeavor. The availability of large databases of sound clips provides an opportunity for obtaining datadriven timbre categorizations via content-based clustering. In this article we describe an experiment aimed at understanding what factors influence the process of learning a given clustering of sound samples. We clustered a large database of short sound clips, and analyzed the success of participants in assigning sounds to the “correct” clusters after listening to a few examples of each. The results of the experiment suggest a number of relevant factors related both to the strategies followed by users and to the quality measures of the clustering solution, which can guide the design of creative applications based on audio clip clustering

Performing Audiences: Composition Strategies for Network Music using Mobile Phones

With the development of web audio standards, it has quickly become technically easy to develop and deploy software for inviting audiences to participate in musical performances using their mobile phones. Thus, a new audience-centric musical genre has emerged, which aligns with artistic manifestations where there is an explicit inclusion of the public (e.g. participatory art, cinema or theatre). Previous research has focused on analysing this new genre from historical, social organisation and technical perspectives. This follow-up paper contributes with reflections on technical and aesthetic aspects of composing within this audience-centric approach. We propose a set of 13 composition dimensions that deal with the role of the performer, the role of the audience, the location of sound and the type of feedback, among others. From a reflective approach, four participatory pieces developed by the authors are analysed using the proposed dimensions. Finally, we discuss a set of recommendations and challenges for the composers-developers of this new and promising musical genre. This paper concludes discussing the implications of this research for the NIME community

Hyperconnected Action Painting

This performance invites the audience to participate in an immersive experience using their mobile devices. The aim is at capturing their actions on a digital painting inspired by Jackson Pollock’s action painting technique. The audience is connected to a wireless network and a Web Audio application that recognizes a number of gestures through the mobile accelerometer sensor, which trigger different sounds. Gestures will be recognized and mapped to a digital canvas. A set of loudspeakers will complement the audience’s actions with ambient sounds. The performance explores audio spatialization using both loudspeakers and mobile phone speakers, that combined with the digital painting provides an immersive audiovisual experience. The final digital canvas will be available online as a memory of the performance

Women with early maltreatment experience show increased resting-state functional connectivity in the theory of mind (ToM) network

Background: Experience of childhood maltreatment significantly increases the risk for the development of psychopathology and is associated with impairments in socio-cognitive skills including theory-of-mind (ToM). In turn, neural alterations in ToM processing might then influence future interpersonal interaction and social-emotional understanding. Objective: To assess resting-state activity in the theory-of-mind network in traumatized and non-traumatized persons. Methods: Thirty-five women with a history of childhood maltreatment and 31 unaffected women completed a resting-state scan and a ToM localizer task. The peak coordinates from the localizer were used as the seed regions for the resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) analyses (temporo-parietal junction, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, middle temporal gyrus and precuneus). Results: Child abuse was associated with increased RSFC between various ToM regions including the precuneus and the brainstem suggesting altered hierarchical processing in ToM regions. Number of types of abuse was driving the effect for the temporo-parietal junction and the brainstem, while the severity of abuse was linked to increased RSFC between the middle temporal gyrus and the frontal cortex. Post-hoc analyses of brainstem regions indicated the involvement of the serotonergic system (dorsal raphe). Conclusions: The data indicate a lasting impact of childhood maltreatment on the neural networks involved in social information processing that are integral to understanding others' emotional states. Indeed, such altered neural networks may account for some of the interpersonal difficulties victims of childhood maltreatment experience

Loop-aware Audio Recording for the Web

Music loops are audio recordings used as basic building blocks in many types of music. The use of pre-recorded loops facilitates engagement into music creation to users regardless of their background in music theory. Using online loop databases also affords simple collaboration and exchange. Hence, music loops are particularly attractive for web audio applications. However, traditional musical audio recording typically relies on complex DAW software. Recording loops usually requires consideration of musical meter and tempo, and withstanding metronome sounds. In this paper, we propose loop-aware audio recording as a use case for web audio technologies. Our approach supports hands-free, low-stress recording of music loops in web- enabled devices. The system is able to detect repetitions in an incoming audio stream. Based on this information, it segments and ranks the repeated fragments, presenting the list to the user. We provide an example implementation, and evaluate the use of the different MIR libraries available in the web audio platform for the proposed task

Global Value Chains and the Great Recession: Evidence from Italian and German Firms

During the last two decades, profound changes in the international division of labour among firms have occurred, with impressive growth in outsourcing, off-shoring of some stages of production and the globalization of intermediates goods markets. This new model of the international division of labour has both initiated an increasing variety of relationships among producers and spurred the development of Global Value Chains. According to some recent research, Global Value Chains have been one of the main transmission mechanisms of the Great Trade Collapse that severely and simultaneously hit all OECD countries in 2009. Pervasive as it has been, it also appears that the impact of the crisis on firms involved in Global Value Chains has been highly heterogeneous. Our paper intends to contribute to this very recent and ongoing debate, providing a description of the effects of the crisis from a perspective that is both countrycomparative, Germany and Italy being the countries taken into consideration, and on firm level, as we pay particular attention to the positioning of the firms along Global Value Chains, i.e., whether intermediate or final firms- and to their strategies. Three are the main conclusions: i) intermediate firms were hit by the crisis more than final firms; ii) among intermediate firms, the ones that carried out innovation activities in the previous period (before 2008) were somewhat sheltered by the effect of crisis; iii) firms ’ positioning in GVCs and their strategies may help to explain the Italy-Germany performance gap

Characterization of vehicle-to-vehicle channels in various scenarios

Projecte final de carrera fet en col.laboració amb FTW i Technische Universität WienEnglish: In this thesis we will characterize the vehicle-to-vehicle channel in various scenarios based in risk situations. We estimate diferent channel parameters as the time-varying root mean square (rms) delay and Doppler spreads, as well as the stationarity time. Also, we present a new approach for the identiï¬ cation of scattering objects. We move one step forward from the method used until now, where the identiï¬ cation was done visually based on the power delay proï¬ le and video material recorded in the measurement campaigns. We propose to use the local scattering function (LSF), which brings the Doppler domain into play. The LSF is a multitaper estimate of the 2 dimensional power spectral density in delay and Doppler. Each peak of the LSF is composed by several multipath components (MPCs) coming from the same scattering object. Our approach consists of two steps: detection of the relevant peaks, and assignment of MPCs to the scattering objects. We do that by using a clustering algorithm. We apply the method to a set of vehicular radio channel measurements and extract the time-varying cluster parameters. The clusters have ellipsoidal shape with their longer axes in the Doppler domain. The ï¬ rst detected cluster presents different properties than the rest of the clusters, being larger, constant in time, and more static in the delay-Doppler plane. By identifying properly only the relevant scattering objects, vehicular channel models can be written in simpler ways than current approaches, such as the geometry- based stochastic channel model, very well suited for modeling the vehicular channel

Case report of ruptured ovarian ectopic pregnancy

Ectopic pregnancy occurs very rarely with an incidence of 1.5% to 2% in all pregnancies and more commonly, in young highly fertile multiparous women using intrauterine device. Here, we presented a case of young multiparous lady who presented with irregular bleeding since the last 2 months. Ultrasound was done which showed a large right sided ovarian mass with free fluid in the abdomen. She was taken up for exploratory laparotomy followed by right oophorectomy after a verbal and written consent in view of ruptured corpus luteal cyst/ruptured ovarian ectopic pregnancy. Intraoperatively, a large right ruptured ovarian ectopic pregnancy was seen, which was also confirmed on histopathological examination.