Content-based Controls For Music Large Language Modeling

Recent years have witnessed a rapid growth of large-scale language models in the domain of music audio. Such models enable end-to-end generation of higher-quality music, and some allow conditioned generation using text descriptions. However, the control power of text controls on music is intrinsically limited, as they can only describe music indirectly through meta-data (such as singers and instruments) or high-level representations (such as genre and emotion). We aim to further equip the models with direct and content-based controls on innate music languages such as pitch, chords and drum track. To this end, we contribute Coco-Mulla, a content-based control method for music large language modeling. It uses a parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT) method tailored for Transformer-based audio models. Experiments show that our approach achieved high-quality music generation with low-resource semi-supervised learning, tuning with less than 4% parameters compared to the original model and training on a small dataset with fewer than 300 songs. Moreover, our approach enables effective content-based controls, and we illustrate the control power via chords and rhythms, two of the most salient features of music audio. Furthermore, we show that by combining content-based controls and text descriptions, our system achieves flexible music variation generation and style transfer. Our source codes and demos are available online

In vitro evaluation of bond strength and sealing ability of a new low-shrinkage, methacrylate resin-based root canal sealer

Background/PurposeThe aim of this study was to evaluate a new low-shrinkage, methacrylate resin-based root canal sealer (LSRCS) to determine its bond strength in radicular dentin and sealing ability.MethodsExtracted single-root teeth were randomly divided into three experimental groups (n=20) for obturation with Gutta-percha (GP)/AH Plus, Resilon/Epiphany, or Resilon/LSRCS. One-half of each experimental group was analyzed by the push-out test, using sections perpendicular to the long axis divided into 1mm serial slices and a universal testing machine to detect the loading force. The other half was analyzed by the dye penetration test using 2% methylene blue solution (pH=7) and measuring dye leakage under a stereomicroscope.ResultsThe push-out test revealed significant differences (p<0.05) in bond strength produced by the three sealers; the GP/AH Plus group showed the highest bond strength, followed by Resilon/LSRCS and Resilon/Epiphany. According to the microleakage data, GP/AH Plus showed the least dye penetration, which was significantly less than Resilon/Epiphany and Resilon/LSRCS. There was no difference in apical leakage between Resilon/Epiphany and Resilon/LSRCS.ConclusionThe newly developed LSRCS, although not superior to AH Plus in bond strength or sealing ability, possesses monoblock potential and application prospects

PRIOR: Prototype Representation Joint Learning from Medical Images and Reports

Contrastive learning based vision-language joint pre-training has emerged as a successful representation learning strategy. In this paper, we present a prototype representation learning framework incorporating both global and local alignment between medical images and reports. In contrast to standard global multi-modality alignment methods, we employ a local alignment module for fine-grained representation. Furthermore, a cross-modality conditional reconstruction module is designed to interchange information across modalities in the training phase by reconstructing masked images and reports. For reconstructing long reports, a sentence-wise prototype memory bank is constructed, enabling the network to focus on low-level localized visual and high-level clinical linguistic features. Additionally, a non-auto-regressive generation paradigm is proposed for reconstructing non-sequential reports. Experimental results on five downstream tasks, including supervised classification, zero-shot classification, image-to-text retrieval, semantic segmentation, and object detection, show the proposed method outperforms other state-of-the-art methods across multiple datasets and under different dataset size settings. The code is available at https://github.com/QtacierP/PRIOR.Comment: Accepted by ICCV 202

Pretreatment plasma fibrinogen level as a prognostic biomarker for patients with lung cancer

Many researchers have shown that pretreatment plasma fibrinogen levels are closely correlated with the prognosis of patients with lung cancer (LC). In this study, we thus performed a meta-analysis to systematically assess the prognostic value of pretreatment plasma fibrinogen levels in LC patients. A computerized systematic search in PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) was performed up to March 15, 2018. Studies with available data on the prognostic value of plasma fibrinogen in LC patients were eligible for inclusion. The pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and odd ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to evaluate the correlation between pretreatment plasma fibrinogen levels and prognosis as well as clinicopathological characteristics. A total of 17 studies with 6,460 LC patients were included in this meta-analysis. A higher pretreatment plasma fibrinogen level was significantly associated with worse overall survival (OS) (HR: 1.57; 95% CI: 1.39-1.77; p=0.001), disease-free survival (DFS) (HR: 1.53; 95% CI: 1.33-1.76; p=0.003), and progression-free survival (PFS) (HR: 3.14; 95% CI: 2.15-4.59; po0.001). Furthermore, our subgroup and sensitivity analyses demonstrated that the pooled HR for OS was robust and reliable. In addition, we also found that a higher fibrinogen level predicted advanced TNM stage (III-IV) (OR=2.18, 95% CI: 1.79-2.66; po0.001) and a higher incidence of lymph node metastasis (OR=1.74, 95% CI: 1.44-2.10; p=0.02). Our study suggested that higher pretreatment plasma fibrinogen levels predict worse prognoses in LC patients

A Prospective Case-Control Study of Radial Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy for Spastic Plantar Flexor Muscles in Very Young Children With Cerebral Palsy

To assess the effects of radial extracorporeal shock wave therapy (rESWT) on plantar flexor muscle spasticity and gross motor function in very young patients with cerebral palsy (CP).The design was case-control study (level of evidence 3).The setting was the Department of Pediatric Neurology and Neurorehabilitation, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.Those with a diagnosis of CP and spastic plantar flexor muscles were recruited between April 2014 and April 2015.According to the parents' decision, patients received 1 ESWT session per week for 3 months, with 1500 radial shock waves per ESWT session and leg with positive energy flux density of 0.03mJ/mm(2), combined with traditional conservative therapy (rESWT group) or traditional conservative therapy alone (control group).The Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) (primary outcome measure) and passive range of motion (pROM) measurements were collected at baseline (BL), 1 month (M1), and 3 months (M3) after BL. The Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM)-88 was collected at BL and M3.Sixty-six patients completed the final review at 3 months and were included in the study. Subjects ranged in age from 12 to 60 months (mean age 27.013.6 months;median age 22.0 months;33.3% female). For the rESWT group (n=34), mean MAS grades at BL, M1, and M3 were 2.6, 1.9, and 1.5 on the left side and 1.9, 1.7, and 1.2 on the right side. For the control group (n=32), mean MAS grades at BL, M1, and M3 were 2.5, 2.4, and 2.1 on the left side and 1.8, 1.8, and 1.5 on the right side. The within-subject effects timexside and timextreatment were statistically significant (P<0.01). Similar results were found for the improvement of mean pROM. GMFM-88 improved from BL to M3, but showed no statistically significant difference between the groups. There were no significant complications.This study demonstrates that the combination of rESWT and traditional conservative therapy is more effective than traditional conservative therapy alone in the treatment of spasticity in very young patients with CP

The Capsid Protein of \u3ci\u3eTurnip Crinkle Virus\u3c/i\u3e Overcomes Two Separate Defense Barriers to Facilitate Systemic Movement of the Virus in \u3ci\u3eArabidopsis\u3c/i\u3e

The capsid protein (CP) of Turnip crinkle virus (TCV) is a multifunctional protein needed for virus assembly, suppression of RNA silencing-based antiviral defense, and long-distance movement in infected plants. In this report, we have examined genetic requirements for the different functions of TCV CP and evaluated the interdependence of these functions. A series of TCV mutants containing alterations in the CP coding region were generated. These alterations range from single-amino-acid substitutions and domain truncations to knockouts of CP translation. The latter category also contained two constructs in which the CP coding region was replaced by either the cDNA of a silencing suppressor of a different virus or that of green fluorescent protein. These mutants were used to infect Arabidopsis plants with diminished antiviral silencing capability (dcl2 dcl3 dcl4 plants). There was a strong correlation between the ability of mutants to reach systemic leaves and the silencing suppressor activity of mutant CP. Virus particles were not essential for entry of the viral genome into vascular bundles in the inoculated leaves in the absence of antiviral silencing. However, virus particles were necessary for egress of the viral genome from the vasculature of systemic leaves. Our experiments demonstrate that TCV CP not only allows the viral genome to access the systemic movement channel through silencing suppression but also ensures its smooth egress by way of assembled virus particles. These results illustrate that efficient long-distance movement of TCV requires both functions afforded by the CP

The Capsid Protein of \u3ci\u3eTurnip Crinkle Virus\u3c/i\u3e Overcomes Two Separate Defense Barriers to Facilitate Systemic Movement of the Virus in \u3ci\u3eArabidopsis\u3c/i\u3e

The capsid protein (CP) of Turnip crinkle virus (TCV) is a multifunctional protein needed for virus assembly, suppression of RNA silencing-based antiviral defense, and long-distance movement in infected plants. In this report, we have examined genetic requirements for the different functions of TCV CP and evaluated the interdependence of these functions. A series of TCV mutants containing alterations in the CP coding region were generated. These alterations range from single-amino-acid substitutions and domain truncations to knockouts of CP translation. The latter category also contained two constructs in which the CP coding region was replaced by either the cDNA of a silencing suppressor of a different virus or that of green fluorescent protein. These mutants were used to infect Arabidopsis plants with diminished antiviral silencing capability (dcl2 dcl3 dcl4 plants). There was a strong correlation between the ability of mutants to reach systemic leaves and the silencing suppressor activity of mutant CP. Virus particles were not essential for entry of the viral genome into vascular bundles in the inoculated leaves in the absence of antiviral silencing. However, virus particles were necessary for egress of the viral genome from the vasculature of systemic leaves. Our experiments demonstrate that TCV CP not only allows the viral genome to access the systemic movement channel through silencing suppression but also ensures its smooth egress by way of assembled virus particles. These results illustrate that efficient long-distance movement of TCV requires both functions afforded by the CP

Induction and Recovery of the Viable but Nonculturable State of Hop-Resistance Lactobacillus brevis

Lactobacillus brevis is a major hop-resistance bacterium which poses significant challenge for the brewing industry, mainly due to the difficulty or incapability in detection by routine culturing methodology and its beer spoilage ability.This study aimed at investigating the VBNC state of a hop-resistance strain, L. brevis BM-LB13908. The culturable, total and viable numbers of L. brevis cells were calculated by MRS agar plate counting, acridine orange direct count (AODC) method and Live/Dead BacLight bacterial viability kit with fluorescence microscope. VBNC formation was induced by 189 ± 5.7 days under low-temperature storage or 27 ± 1.2 subcultures by continuous passage in beer, and VBNC cells induced by both strategies were recovered by adding catalase. In addition, insignificant difference in beer-spoilage ability was found in 3 states of L. brevis, including logarithmic growing, VBNC and recovered cells. This is the first study on the formation of VBNC state for L. brevis and beer-spoilage ability of both VBNC and recovered cells, which indicate L. brevis strain could cause beer spoilage without being detected by routine methodologies. The results derived from this study may support further study on L. brevis and other hop-resistance bacteria, and guidance on beer spoilage prevention and control, such as improvement for brewers on the microbiological quality control by using the improved culture method with catalase supplementation