Cover Art, Schmover Art: Vogue Picture Records (SCRC Behind the Scenes)

This entry provides a brief background on the Vogue Picture Records, and images of a few of the records

Impact of antibiotic treatments on the expression of the R plasmid tra genes and on the host innate immune activity during pRAS1 bearing Aeromonas hydrophila infection in zebrafish (Danio rerio)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The transfer of R plasmids between bacteria has been well studied under laboratory conditions and the transfer frequency has been found to vary between plasmids and under various physical conditions. For the first time, we here study the expression of the selected plasmid mobility genes <it>traD, virB11 </it>and <it>virD4 </it>in the 45 kb <it>IncU </it>plasmid, pRAS1, conferring resistance to tetracycline, trimethoprim and sulphonamide, using an <it>in vivo </it>zebrafish infection- treatment model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Three days after oral infection of adult zebrafish with <it>Aeromonas hydrophila </it>harboring pRAS1, elevated expression of pro-inflammatory cytokine (TNF α, IL-1β and IL-8) and complement C3 genes in the intestine coincided with disease symptoms. Tetracycline, trimethoprim and an ineffective concentration of flumequine given 48 h prior to sampling, strongly increased expression of plasmid mobility genes, whereas an effective dosage of flumequine resulted in lower levels of mRNA copies of these genes relative to placebo treatment. Following effective treatment with flumequine, and ineffective treatments with a low concentration of flumequine, with trimethoprim or with sulphonamide, the intestinal expression of immune genes was strongly induced compared to placebo treated control fish.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Treatment of zebrafish infected with an antibiotic resistant (Tc^R, Tm^R, Su^R) <it>A. hydrophila </it>with ineffective concentrations of flumequine or the ineffective antimicrobials tetracycline and trimethoprim strongly induced expression of genes mediating conjugative transfer of the R-plasmid pRAS1. Simultaneously, there was a strong induction of selected inflammatory and immune response genes, which was again evident in fish subjected to ineffective treatment protocols. Our findings point to the essential role of therapeutic practices in escalation or control of antibiotic resistance transfer, and suggest that antibiotic substances, even in sub-inhibitory concentrations, may stimulate innate defenses against bacterial infections.</p

A vital task. How can nurses prevent suicide among people admitted to a psychiatric institution?

Bacheloroppgave 2019Nærmere en million mennesker dør som følge av selvmord årlig på verdensbasis. Psykiske lidelser er en av de største risikofaktorene for selvmord og mange av de som er selvmordstruet er innlagt på psykiatrisk institusjon. Oppgavens funn viser at til tross for innleggelse, skjer selvmordsforsøk tilnærmet daglig på psykiatriske institusjoner. Ved bruk av faglitteratur og egne erfaringer skal jeg i lys av sykepleieteoretiker Joyce Travelbee svare på hvordan sykepleier kan forebygge selvmord i møte med mennesker innlagt på psykiatrisk institusjon. I oppgaven fremkommer det hvilke risikofaktorer man kan møte i mennesker som er selvmordstruet. Videre vil oppgaven gi innblikk i selvmordsprossesen samt de etiske forhold relatert til dette sårbare temaet. Resultatene er tydelige; relasjonsbygging, håpet, sykepleierens holdninger og kunnskap er fire elementer som er sentrale i det forebyggende arbeidet. Som sykepleiere må vi våge å gå i møte med det selvmordstruende mennesket

Barnehagelærerens møte med barns undring i barnehagen

I denne bacheloroppgaven ønsker jeg å se på barns undring og hvordan barnehagelærerne forstår barns undring i barnehagen. Jeg ønsker å finne ut hvilket forhold informantene har til undring og hvordan de arbeider med temaet barns undring i barnehagen. Bakgrunnen for dette temaet er at jeg har stor interesse for barns undring og barnas egen tankeprosess der jeg selv ønsker å få en dypere forståelse av fenomenet undring, og hvordan det jobbes med i barnehagen.publishedVersio

Research on Real-time Voice Adaptation with Speech Features as Interpreted Objectives

In the field of speech processing, Voice Adaptation (VA), a technique for translating a spoken message from a source voice into a target voice while retaining the prosodic information, has seen serious attempts since 1980s. In order to successfully swap the spoken message between voices, the human voice which is a very complex and variable set of information must be comparable between two speakers uttering the same phrase. To do this, early research saw the use of probabilistic methods such as Gaussian Mixture Models, pitch shifting and complex mathematical models to represent a human’s physical traits such as gender, weight, vocal tract, tongue and more. In order to train the model, many speech samples, often from multiple sources were used just to be able to utter a few letters or words. In the 2010s the emergence of Deep Neural Networks (DNN) saw many uses, one being voice adaptation. While results were better than classical methods, DNN is a complex procedure that require a lot of data and time to process it in order to create a model. The more it trains, the better the model becomes; thus, it is not ideal for dynamic environments where information must be changed or added quickly. While historically, adaptation quality and amount has improved, it is still rated near the average mark quality-wise when objective evaluations are performed, and the technology is not mature enough to see serious real-world use. One area of use that is especially interesting is online in video games. In a setting where it’s commonplace to mask oneself with a new name and visual avatar, except for the voice, this is a perfect area to introduce a lightweight working VA method into.We propose a new design for training and performing VA that takes advantage of evolutionary computing to find the ideal match for a comparing function. Rather than considering language, grammar, and physique, we consider the voice as a collection of sounds a person can make. This is determined by phonemes, which vary by language, but in essence are a set of determined sounds that are used to pronounce any word for the current language. Thus, if we can collect these phonemes in conjunction with varying parameters, it should be possible to puzzle together a desired output based on the structure of the input sound. First, a short recording is made based on a manuscript reading which is designed to make the voice subject utter as many phonemes and word-combinations as possible. This audio is split into tiny fragments referred to as frames. Each frame is put through a stylized form of quantization which is a normalization stage. The processed frame represents an abstraction of the original acoustic information, which can make it easier to compare similar utterances. At the same time, other temporal and spectral features are extracted, and a selection of most crucial features are encoded into two separate color objects with RGBA-channels to group the temporal and spectral features. This information along with where they link to in the original audio is stored as a voice profile. During the actual adaptation, similar splitting and quantization are performed on the source speaker’s voice. Their color-encoded frames are used in a multi-objective optimization problem which while solving an objective function evolves over generations to present an increasingly more ideal set of target solutions. The objective function is a hybrid of a native benchmark problem and a custom function which measures the distance, or likeness between two colors, namely the source color and a target color obtained from the voice profile. Technically this is a 2-objective evaluation, but due to how the various features are encoded into color channels and the color likeness is measured, 6 objectives are being evaluated at once. When the evolution is stopped, we can with confidence select one of the solutions as an ideal target frame and put it through final adjustments before outputted. We evaluate this research using standard objective evaluation methods such as Mean Opinion Score (MOS) and ABX, MUltiple Stimuli with Hidden Reference and Anchor (MUSHRA) to evaluate the sound quality and consistency, and Single Ease Question (SEQ) to survey the interest in VA for games as well as benchmarking the performance. We see that the latest proposed iteration that has many vocal features encoded into colors for the multi-objective optimization problem achieves better quality and the training time is remarkable compared to traditional DNN.To conclude, the proposed VA system proves that it smaller amounts of speech data is sufficient in order to create a working VA as long as it is obtained through predetermined parameters such as speech intensity and phoneme content, and that multi-objective optimization problems can contribute to finding a more ideal target frame than arbitrary rules and subjective assumptions, which makes this suitable to see use in an interactive, real-time software such as games where anyone can attempt to use it.博士(理学)法政大学 (Hosei University

Real-time Voice Adaptation with Abstract Normalization and Sound-indexed Based Search

This paper proposes a two-step system to conduct real-time voice adaptation in the field of speech processing. The first step includes recording and pre-processing to form a voice profile. Secondly is real-time input of the voice and adapting the input into a target voice. Concerning the fact that individual voices’ structure are habitually varying, this paper suggests a method for converting them into a comparable format. The new method is called abstract normalization which cuts the voice data into smaller sounds. From the sounds are generated an abstracted, simplified version of the data using a level of abstraction along with parameter fitting. The normalized data is used to generate a sound-index which consists of a sequence hash that represents the current object in a simpler fashion. The indices are used to compare different sounds/voices for adaptation. This effectively transforms the speech-related challenges into a search problem rather than a biometric one. To assess the approach, voice profile data are compared against each other as a method to verify the sound-index. Lastly a real-time voice input using alternating levels of abstraction is run against a voice profile created with Norwegian words. The degree of adaptation success is measured in percentage, and experimental results show that while accuracy is not yet excellent, the concept was validated

Creep behavior of a γ′-strengthened Co-base alloy with zero γ/γ′-lattice misfit at 800 °C, 196 MPa

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Deformation and structural behavior of an experimental γ′-strengthened Co-base alloy during creep at 800 °C and 196 MPa have been investigated. The characteristic features of this alloy are zero γ/γ′-lattice misfit and a fine γ/γ′-microstructure. In the initial condition, the γ′-precipitates in this alloy are small (size of about 100 nm), have polyhedral morphology, and are separated by the very narrow γ-channels (width of about 10 nm). The tests performed up to about 1% creep strain (about 500 h creep time) gave creep curves with a slow constant strain rate and without an apparent transient creep, typical for superalloys with nonzero misfit. In this initial stage of creep, entering of the narrow γ-channels by dislocations is blocked by a strong Orowan force. The micromechanism of creep was identified as an octahedral glide of 〈011〉 superdislocations simultaneously in two phases, γ and γ′. The γ/γ′-microstructure with zero misfit shows no rafting but rapidly coarsens isotropically. It is concluded that zero misfit is beneficial at the initial stages of the creep but is unfavourable for long-term creep because of the continuous microstructural coarsening

Three Rs Approaches in the Production and Quality Control of Fish Vaccines

The workshop on Three Rs Approaches in the Production and Quality Control of Fish Vaccines aimed a) to identify animal tests currently stipulated for the production and quality control of fish vaccines and to highlight animal welfare concerns associated with these tests; b) to identify viable options to replace, reduce, and refine animal use for fish vaccine testing; and c) to discuss the way forward and set out how the Three Rs may be implemented without jeopardizing the quality of the vaccines. The workshop participants -- experts from academia, regulatory authorities, a scientific animal welfare organization, and the fish vaccine industry -- agreed that efforts should be undertaken to replace the vaccination challenge batch potency testing with tests based on antigen quantification or antibody response tests. Regulatory requirements of questionable scientific value and relevance for the quality of fish vaccines, such as the re-testing of batches produced outside Europe, or the double-dose batch safety test, should be re-considered. As an immediate measure the design of the current animal tests should be evaluated and modified in the light of refinement and reduction, for example, the number of unprotected control fish in vaccination-challenge tests should be reduced to the minimum

Veterinary Medicine Needs New Green Antimicrobial Drugs

Given that: (1) the worldwide consumption of antimicrobial drugs (AMDs) used in food-producing animals will increase over the coming decades; (2) the prudent use of AMDs will not suffice to stem the rise in human antimicrobial resistance (AMR) of animal origin; (3) alternatives to AMD use are not available or not implementable, there is an urgent need to develop novel AMDs for food-producing animals. This is not for animal health reasons, but to break the link between human and animal resistomes. In this review we establish the feasibility of developing for veterinary medicine new AMDs, termed green antibiotics, having minimal ecological impact on the animal commensal and environmental microbiomes.We first explain why animal and human commensal microbiota comprise a turnstile exchange, between the human and animal resistomes. We then outline the ideal physico-chemical, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of a veterinary green antibiotic and conclude that they can be developed through a rational screening of currently used AMD classes. The ideal drug will be hydrophilic, of relatively low potency, slow clearance and small volume of distribution. It should be eliminated principally by the kidney as inactive metabolite(s). For oral administration, bioavailability can be enhanced by developing lipophilic pro-drugs. For parenteral administration, slow-release formulations of existing eco-friendly AMDs with a short elimination half-life can be developed. These new eco-friendly veterinary AMDs can be developed from currently used drug classes to provide alternative agents to those currently used in veterinary medicine and mitigate animal contributions to the human AMR problem