DrumGAN: Synthesis of Drum Sounds With Timbral Feature Conditioning Using Generative Adversarial Networks

Synthetic creation of drum sounds (e.g., in drum machines) is commonly performed using analog or digital synthesis, allowing a musician to sculpt the desired timbre modifying various parameters. Typically, such parameters control low-level features of the sound and often have no musical meaning or perceptual correspondence. With the rise of Deep Learning, data-driven processing of audio emerges as an alternative to traditional signal processing. This new paradigm allows controlling the synthesis process through learned high-level features or by conditioning a model on musically relevant information. In this paper, we apply a Generative Adversarial Network to the task of audio synthesis of drum sounds. By conditioning the model on perceptual features computed with a publicly available feature-extractor, intuitive control is gained over the generation process. The experiments are carried out on a large collection of kick, snare, and cymbal sounds. We show that, compared to a specific prior work based on a U-Net architecture, our approach considerably improves the quality of the generated drum samples, and that the conditional input indeed shapes the perceptual characteristics of the sounds. Also, we provide audio examples and release the code used in our experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables, accepted in Proc. of the 21st International Society for Music Information Retrieval (ISMIR2020

Occurrence of testicular microlithiasis in androgen insensitive hypogonadal mice

<b>Background</b>: Testicular microliths are calcifications found within the seminiferous tubules. In humans, testicular microlithiasis (TM) has an unknown etiology but may be significantly associated with testicular germ cell tumors. Factors inducing microlith development may also, therefore, act as susceptibility factors for malignant testicular conditions. Studies to identify the mechanisms of microlith development have been hampered by the lack of suitable animal models for TM.<BR/> <b>Methods</b>: This was an observational study of the testicular phenotype of different mouse models. The mouse models were: cryptorchid mice, mice lacking androgen receptors (ARs) on the Sertoli cells (SCARKO), mice with a ubiquitous loss of androgen ARs (ARKO), hypogonadal (hpg) mice which lack circulating gonadotrophins, and hpg mice crossed with SCARKO (hpg.SCARKO) and ARKO (hpg.ARKO) mice.<BR/> <b>Results</b>: Microscopic TM was seen in 94% of hpg.ARKO mice (n=16) and the mean number of microliths per testis was 81 +/- 54. Occasional small microliths were seen in 36% (n=11) of hpg testes (mean 2 +/- 0.5 per testis) and 30% (n=10) of hpg.SCARKO testes (mean 8 +/- 6 per testis). No microliths were seen in cryptorchid, ARKO or SCARKO mice. There was no significant effect of FSH or androgen on TM in hpg.ARKO mice.<BR/> <b>Conclusions</b>: We have identified a mouse model of TM and show that lack of endocrine stimulation is a cause of TM. Importantly, this model will provide a means with which to identify the mechanisms of TM development and the underlying changes in protein and gene expression

In vitro Susceptibility and Evaluation of Techniques for Understanding the Mode of Action of a Promising Non-antibiotic Citrus Fruit Extract Against Several Pathogens

Copyright © 2019 de Nova, Carvajal, Prieto and Rubio. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.[EN] The screening for alternatives to antibiotics is an urgent need for the pharmaceutical industry. One of these alternatives seems to be the citrus fruit extracts, which are showing a significant antibacterial activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. One of these citrus extracts, named BIOCITRO®, is assessed in this study to elucidate its bacteriostatic and bactericidal effect and its mode of action on the important pathogens Campylobacter coli, C. jejuni, Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica ssp. enterica, Clostridium difficile, C. perfringens, and Staphylococcus aureus. For most of the strains tested of these bacteria the product was bactericidal as well as bacteriostatic at the same concentration, and the minimum bactericidal concentrations ranged from 16 to 256 μg/mL. Regarding the mode of action, important changes in the permeability, structure, composition and morphology of the bacterial envelope were evidenced using flow cytometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The main effect of the product was found over carbohydrates and polysaccharides, inducing the release of microvesicles by the cells in addition to other specific effects. During the study, the techniques used were evaluated to clarify their contribution to the knowledge of the mode of action of the product. The survival test elucidated whether the modifications displayed using other techniques affected the viability of the cells or on the contrary, the cells remained viable even with evident changes in their structure, composition or morphology. Flow cytometry showed that for some strains the proportion of cells detected with altered membrane permeability were higher than the number of non-viable cells, and therefore the damage did not affect the viability of some cells. On the contrary, some cells observed using scanning electron microscopy with no apparent damage, were demonstrated non-viable using the survival test, making this technique indispensable in studies of the mode of action of antimicrobials to make a correct interpretation of the data from other techniques.SIThe research was partly financed by PROBENA (2015/00119/001), the company commercializing BIOCITRO® in the EU, but without any influence over the experimental procedures neither results

Attitudes of Germans towards distributive issues in the German health system

Social health care systems are inevitably confronted with the scarcity of resources and the resulting distributional challenges. Since prioritization implies distributional effects, decisions on respective rules should take citizens’ preferences into account. Thus, knowledge about citizens’ attitudes and preferences regarding different distributional issues implied by the type of financing health care is necessary to judge the public acceptance of a health system. In this study we concentrate on two distributive issues in the German health system: First, we analyse the acceptance of prioritizing decisions concerning the treatment of certain patient groups, in this case patients who all need a heart operation. Here we focus on the fact that a patient is strong smoker or a non-smoker, the criteria of age or the fact that a patient has or does not have young children. Second, we investigate Germans’ opinions towards income dependent health services. The results reveal strong effects of individuals’ attitudes regarding general aspects of the health system on priorities, e.g. that individuals behaving health demanding should not be preferred. In addition, experiences of limited access to health services are found to have a strong influence on citizens’ attitudes, too. Finally, decisions about different prioritization criteria are found to be not independent.

Destete hiper-precoz y crecimiento post-destete de gazapos de chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera)

En la chinchilla la duración promedio de la lactancia es de 60 días. La evidencia experimental disponible acerca de la factibilidad de acortarla indica que ni el destete anticipado (42 días) ni el destete precoz (32 días) afectan negativamente el crecimiento post-destete de los gazapos. El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar el efecto del destete hiper-precoz (25 días de edad) sobre la ganancia diaria de peso de los gazapos en el post-destete inmediato, en función de su peso corporal previo a la separación de la madre, con el fin de determinar la factibilidad de extremar aún más esta estrategia de manejo. Se evaluaron en total 21 gazapos pertenecientes a camadas de dos individuos, los que fueron separados de sus madres a los 25 días de edad. Los gazapos se discriminaron en tres categorías de acuerdo a su peso individual al destete: gazapos con pesos corporales menores al percentil 33 (grupo liviano); gazapos con pesos comprendidos entre los percentiles 33 y 66 (grupo intermedio) y gazapos con pesos corporales mayores al percentil 66 (grupo pesado). Los resultados indican que, independientemente del peso del gazapo al momento de ser separado de su madre, el destete a los 25 días de vida es una práctica factible de ser aplicada en los criaderos comerciales de chinchillas en tanto la misma no repercute negativamente sobre el crecimiento posterior de las crías a la vez que cumple con el objetivo de permitir que la hembra interrumpa su anestro lactacional y se reincorpore antes al ciclo reproductivo, contribuyendo de esta manera a disminuir el período inter-parto

p-SMAD2/3 and DICER promote pre-miR-21 processing during pressure overload-associated myocardial remodeling

AbstractTransforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) induces miR-21 expression which contributes to fibrotic events in the left ventricle (LV) under pressure overload. SMAD effectors of TGF-β signaling interact with DROSHA to promote primary miR-21 processing into precursor miR-21 (pre-miR-21). We hypothesize that p-SMAD-2 and -3 also interact with DICER1 to regulate the processing of pre-miR-21 to mature miR-21 in cardiac fibroblasts under experimental and clinical pressure overload. The subjects of the study were mice undergoing transverse aortic constriction (TAC) and patients with aortic stenosis (AS). In vitro, NIH-3T3 fibroblasts transfected with pre-miR-21 responded to TGF-β1 stimulation by overexpressing miR-21. Overexpression and silencing of SMAD2/3 resulted in higher and lower production of mature miR-21, respectively. DICER1 co-precipitated along with SMAD2/3 and both proteins were up-regulated in the LV from TAC-mice. Pre-miR-21 was isolated bound to the DICER1 maturation complex. Immunofluorescence analysis revealed co-localization of p-SMAD2/3 and DICER1 in NIH-3T3 and mouse cardiac fibroblasts. DICER1-p-SMAD2/3 protein–protein interaction was confirmed by in situ proximity ligation assay. Myocardial up-regulation of DICER1 constituted a response to pressure overload in TAC-mice. DICER mRNA levels correlated directly with those of TGF-β1, SMAD2 and SMAD3. In the LV from AS patients, DICER mRNA was up-regulated and its transcript levels correlated directly with TGF-β1, SMAD2, and SMAD3. Our results support that p-SMAD2/3 interacts with DICER1 to promote pre-miR-21 processing to mature miR-21. This new TGFβ-dependent regulatory mechanism is involved in miR-21 overexpression in cultured fibroblasts, and in the pressure overloaded LV of mice and human patients

Analysis of the interaction of vinyl and carbonyl silanes with carbon nanofiber surfaces

Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) have been treated with vinyltryethoxy silane (VTS) and 3-metacryloxypropyltrimethoxy silane (MPS). CNF–silane interactions have been analyzed by means of TGA, FTIR-ATR, TEM, HRTEM, SEM and nitrogen adsorption. For similar silane concentration solutions TG analysis has shown that VTS and MPS form one and three silane monolayers, respectively. This has also been corroborated by the presence of an FTIR-ATR band at 1250 cm−1 assigned to Si–O–Si bonds of silica layers. For low silane concentrations, the vinyl group of VTS is bonded to the graphene CNF surface mainly through π–π interactions. However, MPS interacts through the carbonyl group with hydroxyl groups of graphene defect sheets existing probably in micropores. Silanol–CNF hydroxyl interactions are also expected at these silane concentrations. For high silane concentration, when the silica layer is formed, both silanes present vinyl free and carbonyl free groups, as observed by the 1370 and 1686 cm−1 FTIR-ATR bands, respectively. Nitrogen adsorption has shown that while VTS is adsorbed mainly on the defect free graphene surface, MPS is adsorbed on the micropores and, therefore on the hydroxyl defect graphene sites. These results are finally correlated with the dispersion stability of both silanes on water and styrene solutions

Dynamic growth pattern of chinchilla (<i>Chinchilla lanigera</i>) kits during lactation

Se evaluó la aptitud de la función lineal y de la función exponencial creciente para describir el comportamiento dinámico del peso corporal de gazapos de chinchilla durante la lactancia. Los valores observados de las variancias residuales y de los coeficientes de determinación asignaron una leve ventaja al modelo lineal. La función lineal subestimó el peso al nacimiento mientras que la función exponencial lo sobreestimó sin diferenciarse en la magnitud de las diferencias de uno u otro signo entre los valores estimados y observados. La utilización del modelo lineal para caracterizar el crecimiento de gazapos machos proveniente de camadas con uno, dos o tres crías, entre el nacimiento y el destete a los 43 días de edad, permitió constatar que el aumento del tamaño de la camada de uno a dos gazapos, si bien disminuye ligeramente el peso inicial y la tasa de crecimiento predestete, no presenta un efecto detrimental de trascendencia sobre el crecimiento en dicha etapa. Por el contrario, la presencia de un tercer gazapo reduce de manera notoria tanto el peso inicial de los miembros de la camada como su aumento medio diario de peso hasta el destete. De acuerdo con lo relevado en este estudio resultaría más conveniente plantear como objetivo aumentar el número de pariciones por año, por ejemplo mediante un manejo adecuado del fotoperíodo, que aumentar el tamaño de la camada al parto por encima de dos gazapos.The ability of linear and exponential functions to describe the dynamic behavior of body weight of chinchilla kits during lactation was evaluated. Residual variance and coefficient of determination average values derived from each model assigned to linear function a slight advantage. While the linear function underestimated birth weight the exponential model overestimated it showing both models differences of similar magnitude between estimated and observed values. The use of the linear model to characterize the dynamic growth of male kits belonging to litters with one, two or three pups, between birth and weaning at 43 days of age, allowed to confirm that increasing litter size from one to two pups slightly decreases their initial body weight and their growth rate during lactation, without a detrimental effect on overall pre-weaning growth. By contrast, the presence of a third kit in the litter markedly reduces both initial body weight and daily body weight gain from birth to weaning. According to data surveyed in this study increasing the number of parturitions per female per year, for example through an appropriate management of photoperiod, would be more useful than increasing litter size at birth above two kits to increase the overall efficiency of the system.Facultad de Ciencias Veterinaria