miMic: The microphone as a pencil

miMic, a sonic analogue of paper and pencil is proposed: An augmented microphone for vocal and gestural sonic sketching. Vocalizations are classified and interpreted as instances of sound models, which the user can play with by vocal and gestural control. The physical device is based on a modified microphone, with embedded inertial sensors and buttons. Sound models can be selected by vocal imitations that are automatically classified, and each model is mapped to vocal and gestural features for real-time control. With miMic, the sound designer can explore a vast sonic space and quickly produce expressive sonic sketches, which may be turned into sound prototypes by further adjustment of model parameters

Sketching sonic interactions by imitation-driven sound synthesis

Sketching is at the core of every design activity. In visual design, pencil and paper are the preferred tools to produce sketches for their simplicity and immediacy. Analogue tools for sonic sketching do not exist yet, although voice and gesture are embodied abilities commonly exploited to communicate sound concepts. The EU project SkAT-VG aims to support vocal sketching with computeraided technologies that can be easily accessed, understood and controlled through vocal and gestural imitations. This imitation-driven sound synthesis approach is meant to overcome the ephemerality and timbral limitations of human voice and gesture, allowing to produce more refined sonic sketches and to think about sound in a more designerly way. This paper presents two main outcomes of the project: The Sound Design Toolkit, a palette of basic sound synthesis models grounded on ecological perception and physical description of sound-producing phenomena, and SkAT-Studio, a visual framework based on sound design workflows organized in stages of input, analysis, mapping, synthesis, and output. The integration of these two software packages provides an environment in which sound designers can go from concepts, through exploration and mocking-up, to prototyping in sonic interaction design, taking advantage of all the possibilities of- fered by vocal and gestural imitations in every step of the process

To “Sketch-a-Scratch”

A surface can be harsh and raspy, or smooth and silky, and everything in between. We are used to sense these features with our fingertips as well as with our eyes and ears: the exploration of a surface is a multisensory experience. Tools, too, are often employed in the interaction with surfaces, since they augment our manipulation capabilities. “Sketch-a-Scratch” is a tool for the multisensory exploration and sketching of surface textures. The user’s actions drive a physical sound model of real materials’ response to interactions such as scraping, rubbing or rolling. Moreover, different input signals can be converted into 2D visual surface profiles, thus enabling to experience them visually, aurally and haptically

The true story of Yeti, the "abominable" heterochromatic gene of drosophila melanogaster

The Drosophila Yeti gene (CG40218) was originally identified by recessive lethal mutation and subsequently mapped to the deep pericentromeric heterochromatin of chromosome 2. Functional studies have shown that Yeti encodes a 241 amino acid protein called YETI belonging to the evolutionarily conserved family of Bucentaur (BCNT) proteins and exhibiting a widespread distribution in animals and plants. Later studies have demonstrated that YETI protein: (i) is able to bind both subunits of the microtubule-based motor kinesin-I; (ii) is required for proper chromosome organization in both mitosis and meiosis divisions; and more recently (iii) is a new subunit of dTip60 chromatin remodeling complex. To date, other functions of YETI counterparts in chicken (CENtromere Protein 29, CENP-29), mouse (Cranio Protein 27, CP27), zebrafish and human (CranioFacial Development Protein 1, CFDP1) have been reported in literature, but the fully understanding of the multifaceted molecular function of this protein family remains still unclear. In this review we comprehensively highlight recent work and provide a more extensive hypothesis suggesting a broader range of YETI protein functions in different cellular processes

Adaptive models and heavy tails

This paper proposes a novel and flexible framework to estimate autoregressive models with time-varying parameters. Our setup nests various adaptive algorithms that are commonly used in the macroeconometric literature, such as learning-expectations and forgetting-factor algorithms. These are generalized along several directions: specifically, we allow for both Student-t distributed innovations as well as time-varying volatility. Meaningful restrictions are imposed to the model parameters, so as to attain local stationarity and bounded mean values. The model is applied to the analysis of inflation dynamics. Allowing for heavy-tails leads to a significant improvement in terms of fit and forecast. Moreover, it proves to be crucial in order to obtain well-calibrated density forecasts

Derivatization Does Not Influence Antimicrobial and Antifungal Activities of Applanoxidic Acids and Sterols from Ganoderma spp.

Abstract Applanoxidic acids and sterols, isolated from Ganoderma spp., were acetylated and/or methylated. The antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus and the antifungal activity against Candida albicans and Trichophyton mentagrophytes of the derivatives were investigated by a microdilution method, and compared with those of the natural products. Both natural and modified compounds exhibited comparable antibacterial and antifungal activities in a range of 1.0 to > 2.0 mg/ml minimal inhibitory concentratio

Cooperative sound design: a protocol analysis

Formal protocol analysis and linkographic representations are well-established approaches in design cognition studies, in the visual domain. We introduce the method and tools in the auditory domain, by analysing a case of collaborative sound design. We show how they can provide relevant qualitative and quantitative information about the efficiency of the creative process

The Sound Design Toolkit

The Sound Design Toolkit is a collection of physically informed sound synthesis models, specifically designed for practice and research in Sonic Interaction Design. The collection is based on a hierarchical, perceptually founded taxonomy of everyday sound events, and implemented by procedural audio algorithms which emphasize the role of sound as a process rather than a product. The models are intuitive to control \u2013 and the resulting sounds easy to predict \u2013 as they rely on basic everyday listening experience. Physical descriptions of sound events are intentionally simplified to emphasize the most perceptually relevant timbral features, and to reduce computational requirements as well