Automatic music transcription for sitar music analysis

The automatic transcription for non-Western music presents unique challenges, particularly because the result is often imperfect. How to improve automatic music transcription (AMT) for computational musicology research are open questions. In this paper, we report a novel AMT method and a set of analysis strategies for sitar recordings. With a detailed introduction of the proposed harmonic multi-layered cepstrum (HMLC) and combined frequency-periodicity (CFP) signal representations, we also provide the tonal, temporal and structural analysis based on the AMT result. Our proposed AMT method produces improved results, and we further demonstrate the advantages of using this AMT method in musicological analysis.</p

Ethnic Background and Genetic Variation in the Evaluation of Cancer Risk: A Systematic Review

<div><p>The clinical use of genetic variation in the evaluation of cancer risk is expanding, and thus understanding how determinants of cancer susceptibility identified in one population can be applied to another is of growing importance. However there is considerable debate on the relevance of ethnic background in clinical genetics, reflecting both the significance and complexity of genetic heritage. We address this via a systematic review of reported associations with cancer risk for 82 markers in 68 studies across six different cancer types, comparing association results between ethnic groups and examining linkage disequilibrium between risk alleles and nearby genetic loci. We find that the relevance of ethnic background depends on the question. If asked whether the association of variants with disease risk is conserved across ethnic boundaries, we find that the answer is yes, the majority of markers show insignificant variability in association with cancer risk across ethnic groups. However if the question is whether a significant association between a variant and cancer risk is likely to reproduce, the answer is no, most markers do not validate in an ethnic group other than the discovery cohort’s ancestry. This lack of reproducibility is not attributable to studies being inadequately populated due to low allele frequency in other ethnic groups. Instead, differences in local genomic structure between ethnic groups are associated with the strength of association with cancer risk and therefore confound interpretation of the implied physiologic association tracked by the disease allele. This suggest that a biological association for cancer risk alleles may be broadly consistent across ethnic boundaries, but reproduction of a clinical study in another ethnic group is uncommon, in part due to confounding genomic architecture. As clinical studies are increasingly performed globally this has important implications for how cancer risk stratifiers should be studied and employed.</p></div

Relationship between linkage disequilibrium and cancer susceptibility.

<p>Agreement between odds ratios was compared with a z test of the difference; z = δOR/SE (δOR). LD agreement was assessed with a one-way permutation test based on Monte-Carlo resampling on the r² values between the relevant SNP and all available SNPs within 50 kb on either side of the loci. Two sided P values are shown.</p

Heterogeneity of OR among ethnic groups.

<p>Tarone’s Test for was used to assess heterogeneity of the odds ratios between ethnic groups. The fraction of SNP’s showing significant variability is tabulated.</p

Search strategy and study design A) Literature search strategy.

<p>B) Associations between markers and cancer risk were compared between ethnic groups. Among the 86 SNPs assessed in this study, 123 pairwise comparisons of association results between ethnic groups were made. The association results were assessed to determine if each ethnic group was sufficiently populated to find significant results found in other groups. Where differences were found between groups, linkage disequilibrium analysis was performed. The Breslow-Day test for heterogeneity with Tarone’s adjustment was used on all studies with sufficient data. *Both groups had significant results, but with opposite signs.</p

Forest plot of odds ratios.

<p>The results within liver, gastric, lung and prostate cancer are shown. OR’s from European populations are shown in black, Asian in red, African in green, and other groups in blue. Though considerably heterogeneity is apparent, the association with risk for a marker in one ethnic group appears to predict the direction of the association in the other ethnic groups, as supported by the test for heterogeneity. Similar plots for breast and colon cancer are given in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0097522#pone.0097522.s001" target="_blank">Figure S1</a> and <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0097522#pone.0097522.s002" target="_blank">S2</a>, respectively.</p

Using ethnic variation to nominate better candidate markers.

<p>Black triangles represent a SNP which exhibited significant association with risk in one population and non-significant association in a different ethnic group. Gray triangles are SNPs that are tightly linked to this marker in the population with a significant association but more loosely linked in the non-significant population. White triangles are SNPs very close to this new candidate region with a measured association with outcome. The OR’s shown below the black marker are from this study, those under the gray and white markers from the referenced studies. Significant results are marked with asterisks. A) rs1137101 failed to validate in a European breast cancer population, however the nearby rs3828034 has a higher OR that nears significance <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0097522#pone.0097522-Hunter1" target="_blank">[46]</a>. B) rs6983267 failed to replicate in studies of European (US) populations, however the nearby rs7837328 has a more consistent association <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0097522#pone.0097522-Kupfer1" target="_blank">[47]</a>–<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0097522#pone.0097522-Berndt1" target="_blank">[49]</a>. The odds ratio for rs6983267 as reported in this study (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0097522#pone.0097522.s005" target="_blank">Table S2</a>) is based on the ancestral allele, which is also the rare allele in European populations, the odds ratio for the nearby SNPs were reported in relation to the most common allele, therefore for consistency we have also given the OR for rs6983267 in this figure in relation to the common allele.</p

Concordance of association with cancer susceptibility.

<p>All pairwise comparisons between ethnic groups for each SNP are shown. A reference population was chosen for each SNP as the ethnic group with the largest population giving a significant result, when no significance was found the largest population was used. s, reported association with risk was significant; ns, not significant; na, not applicable; nd, not determined. *Reference population and validation population do not agree on directionality of association.</p

Ordovician sedimentation and bimodal volcanism in the Southern Qiangtang terrane of northern Tibet: Implications for the evolution of the northern Gondwana margin

<p>This article reports our new interpretations of the depositional environment and provenance of the Dawashan Formation in the Longmuco–Shuanghu–Lancangjiang suture zone (LSLSZ), in the Southern Qiangtang terrane of northern Tibet, in order to gain a better understanding of the Ordovician tectonic evolution of the northern margin of Gondwana. The Dawashan Formation is dominated by greywacke and shale, with interlayered bimodal volcanic rocks that were deposited in a bathyal to abyssal marine basin. The detrital zircons in the greywacke of the Dawashan Formation have peak ages of 550, 988, 1640, and 2500 Ma, indicating a northern Gondwana margin provenance. The bimodal metavolcanic rocks from the Dawashan Formation are dominated by metarhyolite with subordinate metabasalt. The results of zircon LA-ICP-MS U–Pb dating indicate that the metarhyolite formed between 470 and 455 Ma. The metavolcanic samples are bimodal (SiO₂ = 45.27–55.05 and 66.09–74.59 wt.%). In comparison, the metabasalt has a wide range of MgO concentrations and Mg^# values, contains variable Cr and low Ni concentrations, is depleted in Rb, Ba, and Sr, and is enriched in TiO₂, Th, U, Nb, and Ta. Geochemical diagrams show that the metabasalt erupted in an intra-plate environment. The metarhyolites have high SiO₂, Th, and U concentrations, low concentrations of MgO, P₂O₅, Nb, Sr, and Ti, and negative Eu anomalies. The metarhyolites yield negative zircon <i>ε</i>_Hf(<i>t</i>) values (–2.08 to – 4.50) and T^C_DM model ages of 1436–1567 Ma. The metarhyolites formed from magma derived from the partial melting of old continental crust. These data indicate that the Dawashan Formation records Middle–Upper Ordovician bathyal to abyssal turbidite deposition in a deep-water rift basin at the northern margin of Gondwana.</p

Table_1_Increased risk of dementia among people with a history of fractures: a systematic review and meta-analysis of population-based studies.DOCX

BackgroundEmerging evidence suggests that there may be an association between a history of fractures and dementia risk, but the epidemiological findings are inconsistent. We, therefore, conducted a meta-analysis to systematically assess the risk of dementia among people with a history of fractures.MethodsWe comprehensively searched four electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane Library) for relevant literature published from inception to 10 January 2023. Longitudinal observational studies that investigated the association between any type of fracture occurrence and the subsequent risk of dementia were included for qualitative and quantitative analysis. Risk estimates were pooled using fixed-effects or random-effects models according to the level of heterogeneity. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used to evaluate the risk of bias in the included studies.ResultsA total of seven population-based studies involving 3,658,108 participants (136,179 with a history of fractures) were eventually included. Pooled results showed a significant association between fracture and subsequent risk of dementia [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.28, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.11–1.48] in cohort studies. Patients with fractures at different sites showed a similar trend toward increased risk of subsequent dementia. No gender, age, region, duration of follow-up, study quality, or study design specificity were observed. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the current results are robust. No publication bias existed. The results were similar in the cohort study with the standardized incidence ratio (SIR) as the statistical measure (SIR = 1.58, 95% CI: 1.25–2.00) and in the case-control study (OR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.18–1.61). Of note, the causal relationship between fracture and dementia was not demonstrated in this meta-analysis.ConclusionPeople with a history of fractures are at increased risk of developing dementia. Enhanced screening and preventive management of dementia in people with a history of fractures may be beneficial.</p