Orchestration of music emotion recognition services - automating deployment, scaling and management

Every day, thousands of new songs are created and distributed over the internet. These ever-increasing databases introduced the need for automatic search and organization methods, that allow users to better filter and browse such collections. However, fundamental research in the MER field is very academic, with the typical work presenting results in the form classification metrics – how good the approach worked in the tested datasets and providing access to the data and methods. In order to overcome this problem, we built and deployed a platform to orchestrate a distributed, resilient, and scalable, music emotion recognition (MER) application using Kubernetes that can be easily expanded in the future. The solution developed is based on a proof of concept that explored the usage of containers and microservices in MER but had some gaps. We reengineered and expanded it, proposing a properly orchestrated, containerbased solution, and adopting a DevOps development culture with continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) that in an automated way, makes it easy for the different teams to focus on developing new blocks separately. At the application level, instead of analyzing the audio signal recurring to only three audio features, the system now combines a large number of audio and lyric (text) features, explores different parts of audio (vocals, accompaniment) in segments (e.g., 30-second segments instead of the full song) and uses properly trained machine learning (ML) classifiers, a contribution by Tiago António. At the orchestration level, it uses Kubernetes with Calico as the networking plugin, providing networking for the containers and pods and Rook with Ceph for the persistent block and file storage. To allow external traffic into the cluster, will use HAproxy as an external ingress controller on an external node, with BIRD providing BGP peering with Calico, allowing the communication between the pods and the external node. ArgoCD was selected as the continuous delivery tool, constantly syncing with a git repository, and thus maintaining the state of the cluster manifests up to date, which allows totally abstracting developers from the infrastructure. A monitoring stack combining Prometheus, Alertmanager and Grafana allows the constant monitoring of running iv applications and cluster status, collecting metrics that can help to understand the state of operations. The administration of the cluster can be carried out in a simplified way using Portainer. The continuous implementation pipelines run on GitHub Actions, integrating software and security tests and automatically build new versions of the containers based on tag releases and publish them on DockerHub. This implementation is fully cloud native and backed only by open source software

A survey of anatomical items relevant to the practice of rheumatology: upper extremity, head, neck, spine, and general concepts

[Abstract] This study aimed to identify the anatomical items of the upper extremity and spine that are potentially relevant to the practice of rheumatology. Ten rheumatologists interested in clinical anatomy who published, taught, and/or participated as active members of Clinical Anatomy Interest groups (six seniors, four juniors), participated in a one-round relevance Delphi exercise. An initial, 560-item list that included 45 (8.0 %) general concepts items; 138 (24.8 %) hand items; 100 (17.8 %) forearm and elbow items; 147 (26.2 %) shoulder items; and 130 (23.2 %) head, neck, and spine items was compiled by 5 of the participants. Each item was graded for importance with a Likert scale from 1 (not important) to 5 (very important). Thus, scores could range from 10 (1 × 10) to 50 (5 × 10). An item score of ≥40 was considered most relevant to competent practice as a rheumatologist. Mean item Likert scores ranged from 2.2 ± 0.5 to 4.6 ± 0.7. A total of 115 (20.5 %) of the 560 initial items reached relevance. Broken down by categories, this final relevant item list was composed by 7 (6.1 %) general concepts items; 32 (27.8 %) hand items; 20 (17.4 %) forearm and elbow items; 33 (28.7 %) shoulder items; and 23 (17.6 %) head, neck, and spine items. In this Delphi exercise, a group of practicing academic rheumatologists with an interest in clinical anatomy compiled a list of anatomical items that were deemed important to the practice of rheumatology. We suggest these items be considered curricular priorities when training rheumatology fellows in clinical anatomy skills and in programs of continuing rheumatology education

A survey of anatomical items relevant to the practice of rheumatology: pelvis, lower extremity, and gait

[Abstract] This study aimed to generate a minimum list of structural and functional anatomical items about the pelvis/hip, knee, ankle/foot, gait, and lower limb innervation, which are most relevant to the practice of rheumatology. To determine their perceived relevance to clinical practice, seven members of the Mexican Clinical Anatomy Task Force compiled an initial list of 470 anatomical items. Ten local and international experts according to a 0-10 Likert scale ranked these items. Of the original list, 101 (21.48%) items were considered relevant (global rate >40). These included 36/137 (26.27%) pelvis and hip items, 25/82 (30.48%) knee items, 22/168 (13.98%) ankle/foot items, 11/68 (16.17%) neurologic items, and 7/15 (46.66%) gait-related items. We propose that these 101 anatomical items of the lower extremity, when added to the 115 anatomic items of the upper extremity and spine we previously reported, may represent an approximation to the minimal anatomical knowledge central to the competent practice of rheumatology. The meager representation of ankle and foot items may reflect a lesser emphasis in these anatomical regions during rheumatologic training. Attention to these and related items during rheumatologic training and beyond may sharpen the rheumatologist's ability in the differential diagnosis of regional pain syndromes as well as strengthen an endangered art: the rheumatologic physical examination

Hla antigens in whipple's disease

The prevalence of HLA–A and B antigen loci in patients with Whipple's disease was determined from data obtained in a review of the literature and from personal communications. Data on the HLA–A and B locus typing of 30 patients were available (with the exception that 1 of the patients was not typed for the HLA–B locus), and for an additional 18 patients, HLA–B27 data were available. Of the 47 patients typed for B27, 13 (28%) were B27 positive. Twelve of the 48 patients had sacroiliitis, and 2 (17%) of them were B27 positive. These data suggest that Whipple's disease may be associated with HLA–B27, even in the absence of concomitant sacroiliitis.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/37778/1/1780300115_ftp.pd

Genetic Variants of APOL1 Are Major Determinants of Kidney Failure in People of African Ancestry With HIV

INTRODUCTION: Variants of the APOL1 gene are associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in people of African ancestry, although evidence for their impact in people with HIV are sparse. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study investigating the association between APOL1 renal risk alleles and kidney disease in people of African ancestry with HIV in the UK. The primary outcome was end-stage kidney disease (ESKD; estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] of 30 mg/mmol), and biopsy-proven HIV-associated nephropathy (HIVAN). Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate the associations between APOL1 high-risk genotypes (G1/G1, G1/G2, G2/G2) and kidney disease outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 2864 participants (mean age 48.1 [SD 10.3], 57.3% female) were genotyped, of whom, 354 (12.4%) had APOL1 high-risk genotypes, and 99 (3.5%) had ESKD. After adjusting for demographic, HIV, and renal risk factors, individuals with APOL1 high-risk genotypes were at increased odds of ESKD (odds ratio [OR] 10.58, 95% CI 6.22–17.99), renal impairment (OR 5.50, 95% CI 3.81–7.95), albuminuria (OR 3.34, 95% CI 2.00–5.56), and HIVAN (OR 30.16, 95% CI 12.48–72.88). An estimated 49% of ESKD was attributable to APOL1 high-risk genotypes. CONCLUSION: APOL1 high-risk genotypes were strongly associated with kidney disease in people of African ancestry with HIV and accounted for approximately half of ESKD cases in this cohort

Sickle Cell Trait and Kidney Disease in People of African Ancestry With HIV

Introduction: Sickle cell trait (SCT) has been associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in African Americans, although evidence for its impact in Africans and people with HIV is currently lacking. We conducted a cross-sectional study investigating the association between SCT and kidney disease in people of African ancestry with HIV in the UK. Methods: The primary outcome was estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) 50 mg/mmol), and albuminuria (albumin-to-creatinine ratio >3 mg/mmol). Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate the associations between SCT and kidney disease outcomes. Results: A total of 2895 participants (mean age 48.1 [SD 10.3], 57.2% female) were included, of whom 335 (11.6%) had SCT and 352 (12.2%) had eGFR <60 ml/min per 1.73 m2. After adjusting for demographic, HIV, and kidney risk factors including APOL1 high-risk genotype status, individuals with SCT were more likely to have eGFR <60 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (odds ratio 1.62 [95% CI 1.14–2.32]), eGFR <90 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (1.50 [1.14–1.97]), and albuminuria (1.50 [1.09–2.05]). Stratified by APOL1 status, significant associations between SCT and GFR <60 ml/min per 1.73 m2, eGFR <90 ml/min per 1.73 m2, proteinuria, and albuminuria were observed for those with APOL1 low-risk genotypes. Conclusion: Our results extend previously reported associations between SCT and kidney disease to people with HIV. In people of African ancestry with HIV, these associations were largely restricted to those with APOL1 low-risk genotypes