RGI-Net: 3D Room Geometry Inference from Room Impulse Responses in the Absence of First-order Echoes

Room geometry is important prior information for implementing realistic 3D audio rendering. For this reason, various room geometry inference (RGI) methods have been developed by utilizing the time of arrival (TOA) or time difference of arrival (TDOA) information in room impulse responses. However, the conventional RGI technique poses several assumptions, such as convex room shapes, the number of walls known in priori, and the visibility of first-order reflections. In this work, we introduce the deep neural network (DNN), RGI-Net, which can estimate room geometries without the aforementioned assumptions. RGI-Net learns and exploits complex relationships between high-order reflections in room impulse responses (RIRs) and, thus, can estimate room shapes even when the shape is non-convex or first-order reflections are missing in the RIRs. The network takes RIRs measured from a compact audio device equipped with a circular microphone array and a single loudspeaker, which greatly improves its practical applicability. RGI-Net includes the evaluation network that separately evaluates the presence probability of walls, so the geometry inference is possible without prior knowledge of the number of walls.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 3 table

Preclinical Efficacy Examination on Healing Practices and Experiences of Users for Pillows and Mattresses of Loess Ball Bio-products

AbstractIn Korea, loess has been known as a healthy material traditionally, and in everyday life it has been used in various fields. Korean loess ball has unique electrical and magnetic properties indispensable to survival of human being such as living-light of far-infrared radiation which has been applied to various bio-products. However, the medical investigation of its efficacy for such bio-products has remained insufficient. The purpose of this paper is to check not only chemico-physical data but also medical data on the medical efficacy for the various healing practices and effects shown in users of these products. The Korean loess ball was manufactured by several powder processes at low temperature such as aging, mild grinding, separation, granulation, and drying. The healing effects for the bio-products of the loess ball were confirmed based on the statistical analysis of user's experience for healing practices evaluated by Somatoscope microscope observations of the movement of red blood cells in living blood, the infrared thermography diagnostic equipment, the comparison of Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging, DITI photos, the survey of literature review on the loess healing including the Donguibogam edited by Jun Heo. In conclusion, when slept on loess ball bio-products such as pillows or mattresses, the congestion of red cells in the blood of the human body is relieved and the blood circulation in blood vessel is smoothly improved. The wave resonance actions of far-infrared rays radiated from the loess ball bio-products enforce the receptor and intracellular enzymes to act the interaction of a variety of pain and stress and to bring a healthy condition. Further study for clarifying medical healing mechanisms of bio-products through the clinical test in both the oriental and western hospital is requested and the upgrade of present bio-products becomes obvious

CropCat: Data Augmentation for Smoothing the Feature Distribution of EEG Signals

Brain-computer interface (BCI) is a communication system between humans and computers reflecting human intention without using a physical control device. Since deep learning is robust in extracting features from data, research on decoding electroencephalograms by applying deep learning has progressed in the BCI domain. However, the application of deep learning in the BCI domain has issues with a lack of data and overconfidence. To solve these issues, we proposed a novel data augmentation method, CropCat. CropCat consists of two versions, CropCat-spatial and CropCat-temporal. We designed our method by concatenating the cropped data after cropping the data, which have different labels in spatial and temporal axes. In addition, we adjusted the label based on the ratio of cropped length. As a result, the generated data from our proposed method assisted in revising the ambiguous decision boundary into apparent caused by a lack of data. Due to the effectiveness of the proposed method, the performance of the four EEG signal decoding models is improved in two motor imagery public datasets compared to when the proposed method is not applied. Hence, we demonstrate that generated data by CropCat smooths the feature distribution of EEG signals when training the model.Comment: 4 pages, 1 tabl

Citizen Engagement in Smart City Planning: The Case of Living Labs in South Korea

The smart city is recognized as a new city model for inclusive urban planning. Many local governments are making smart city plans to develop new policies that manage urban issues in South Korea. They identify issues through citizen surveys and decide which issues should be managed with priority. Some governments test developed policies based on citizen engagement. Most local governments use the living labs to encourage citizen engagement in smart city plans since these are public spaces where planners engage citizens to develop innovative and inclusive ideas. This study conducted a content analysis of smart city plans of local government. We analyzed the various approaches to the living lab and examined the stage of the planning process it is utilized in. Additionally, we identified the barrier to the living lab by interviewing people who participated in the smart city plan. According to the analysis, a barrier to citizen engagement exists in smart city plans; most citizen engagement is only used when planners develop ideas for setting visions and goals. It implies that citizen engagement occurs at a limited level in smart city plans and may cause planning to be less inclusive. We suggest that citizen engagement should be considered in the whole planning process to improve the inclusiveness of smart city plans and encourage sustainable citizen engagement

Differences in the Fatty Acid Profile, Morphology, and Tetraacetylphytosphingosine-Forming Capability Between Wild-Type and Mutant Wickerhamomyces ciferrii

One tetraacetylphytosphingosine (TAPS)-producing Wickerhamomyces ciferrii mutant was obtained by exposing wild-type W. ciferrii to γ-ray irradiation. The mutant named 736 produced up to 9.1 g/L of TAPS (218.7 mg-TAPS/g-DCW) during batch fermentation in comparison with 1.7 g/L of TAPS (52.2 mg-TAPS/g-DCW) for the wild type. The highest production, 17.7 g/L of TAPS (259.6 mg-TAPS/g-DCW), was obtained during fed-batch fermentation by mutant 736. Fatty acid (FA) analysis revealed an altered cellular FA profile of mutant 736: decrease in C16:0 and C16:1 FA levels, and increase in C18:1 and C18:2 FA levels. Although a significant change in the cellular FA profile was observed, scanning electron micrographs showed that morphology of wild-type and mutant 736 cells was similar. Genetic alteration analysis of eight TAPS biosynthesis-related genes revealed that there are no mutations in these genes in mutant 736; however, mRNA expression analysis indicated 30% higher mRNA expression of TCS10 among the eight genes in mutant 736 than that in the wild-type. Collectively, these results imply that the enhancement of TAPS biosynthesis in mutant 736 may be a consequence of system-level genetic and physiological alterations of a complicated metabolic network. Reverse metabolic engineering based on system-level omics analysis of mutant 736 can make the mutant more suitable for commercial production of TAPS

Intravenous Vitamin C administration reduces fatigue in office workers: a double-blind randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Studies of the efficacy of vitamin C treatment for fatigue have yielded inconsistent results. One of the reasons for this inconsistency could be the difference in delivery routes. Therefore, we planned a clinical trial with intravenous vitamin C administration.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We evaluated the effect of intravenous vitamin C on fatigue in office workers. A group of 141 healthy volunteers, aged 20 to 49 years participated in this randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trial. The trial group received 10 grams of vitamin C with normal saline intravenously, while the placebo group received normal saline only. Since vitamin C is a well-known antioxidant, oxidative stress was measured. Fatigue score, oxidative stress, and plasma vitamin C levels were measured before intervention, and again two hours and one day after intervention. Adverse events were monitored.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The fatigue scores measured at two hours after intervention and one day after intervention were significantly different between the two groups (p = 0.004); fatigue scores decreased in the vitamin C group after two hours and remained lower for one day. Trial also led to higher plasma vitamin C levels and lower oxidative stress compared to the placebo group (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, respectively). When data analysis was refined by dividing each group into high-baseline and low-baseline subgroups, it was observed that fatigue was reduced in the lower baseline vitamin C level group after two hours and after one day (p = 0.004). The same did not hold for the higher baseline group (p = 0.206).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Thus, intravenous vitamin C reduced fatigue at two hours, and the effect persisted for one day. There were no significant differences in adverse events between two groups. High dose intravenous vitamin C proved to be safe and effective against fatigue in this study.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>The clinical trial registration of this trial is <url>http://ClinicalTrials.gov</url><a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00633581">NCT00633581</a>.</p