UR-48 Using Semantic Segmentation in a Convoluted Neural Network for Vocal Localization in Music

I. PROJECT OVERVIEW A. Research Question In this project, the question was asked: ”Is there an easier way to extract vocals from music?” Many other works are able to extract vocals with Deep Neural Networks using Multitask Learning, which are large and take a long time to train. To rival this, we wish to present a method to identify vocals with a Convolutional U-Network (U-Net) for Semantic Segmentation of audio files. B. Project Description This project differs from other works by identifying vocal locations by converting audio files in Short Time Fourier Transforms(STFT), and treating them as images in the UNet. By treating these as images, the U-Net is able to identify the location of ”vocal features” the same way a U-Net would identify desired features within an image. The object detection is what sets this project apart from similar works. Many of these other works treat each song as an audio signal with real and imaginary components which means these algorithms treat the issue as a signal processing problem. However, by looking at the STFT of the song as a graph, we are instead able to approach this as an image processing problem instead, which offers more tools within the realm of Deep Learning–such as Semantic Segmentation. II. EXPERIMENTATION A. Materials and Methods All Materials used were a form of software. Firstly, the UNetwork was created and ran in python on the CCSE Cluster for High Efficiency. A U-Network is a Convoluted Neural Network that has the ability to output images by Convoluting the original image to allow only the prominent features to be shown and Deconvoluting the Output to display these features in the original image resolution to be used for further processing. This gives the U-net it’s ”u” shape when drawn out. Secondly, the data created for the project were music files converted into Short Time Fourier Transforms(STFT) and processed as image files, where the input into the U-Network was an entire song’s STFT and the labeled data was the vocal audio file STFT for that same song. A Short-Time Fourier Transform can be considered the heatmap of the amplitudes of the song across frequency and time. B. Results The initial Results from the U-Network show a high level of accuracy for vocal location predictions. As the output from a U-Network is an image, these images are the initial song’s STFT with a mask applied to show the location of Vocal Waves. These trials have an accuracy greater than 80% which is a very good result this early in the processing. The vocals have been identified and located in this study, however the next step is to pull the vocals out and convert them back into a song wave. III. MARKETABILITY For the last 20 or so years, large record labels have been attempting to ”Remaster” old music, which is the process of digitizing old analog tracks of songs, mixing them on a new sound board, and releasing the remastered work at a marked up price. As recording methods, pre-computers, relied on tape, often times tracks were record over each other to save space on the real. When the song has this issue, a computer program has to pull out all of the pieces of the song so that the engineer can remaster it. This project shows the initial steps to a simpler audio extraction, where handling this issue as an image processing problem instead of a signal processing problem, we are able to create a more efficient Neural Network.Advisors(s): Dr. AledhariTopic(s): Artificial IntelligenceCS 426

Phytoplankton composition in the coastal Magnetic Island lagoon, Western Pacific Ocean (Australia)

1 - Coastal lagoons have traditionally been considered as transitional systems between continental and marine domains. The phytoplankton plays a key role in these aquatic environments, forming the base of the food web and having a substantial function in nutrient dynamics and in the carbon biogeochemical cycle.2 - Due to their short life cycle, planktonic algae respond quickly to environmental changes and they are thus a valuable indicator of water quality. It is essential to investigate the development of phytoplankton populations to understand the biological functioning and to detect changes in aquatic systems.3 - Phytoplankton studies in the Australian estuaries and lagoons are relatively scarce. This study has provided a broad perspective and preliminary information on taxonomic structure of phytoplankton guilds for the Magnetic Island Lagoon (Queensland, Australia). This work may provide valuable information of interest to later ecological studies.4 - In the whole sampling a total of 143 taxa were identified. In terms of species richness, diatoms (Bacillariophyceae, Coscinodiscophyceae, Fragilariophyceae) and dinoflagellates (Dinophyceae) were the most important groups. In taxonomic terms, diatoms were the major contributor to the phytoplankton composition (~ 70%) whereas Dinophyceae were moderately abundant (~23%). Diatoms are a very important component in estuarine and shallow coastal wetlands and they are increasingly being utilized as indicators of environmental change

Investigating staff’s attitudes and willingness to support men and women with mild intellectual disabilities on matters relating to their sexuality

Background: This study explored residential support staff’s attitudes towards sexuality in men and women with an intellectual disability (ID), and whether their attitudes were linked to a willingness to support service users with sexual matters. Method: The Attitudes to Sexuality Questionnaire - Individuals with an Intellectual Disability was used to gather data on 34 support staff’s attitudes. This was supplemented with additional questions on risk issues developed by the author. A semi-structured interview examined staff’s experiences of supporting sexual matters. Result: Liberal attitudes were held, no statistically significant differences were found on attitudes to men and women. Nonetheless, trends were found with more liberal views expressed about men than women on sexual rights and non-reproductive sexual behaviour. Most staff were willing to support the sexuality of service users. A positive association was found between staff’s attitudes and their willingness to support sexuality. Willingness was not associated with feelings of confidence or comfort in dealing with sexual matters. Conclusions: Sexuality is an integral aspect of quality of life. Understanding staff’s values and attitudes towards the sexuality of people with ID is important, as this population of people rely on staff for support on this sensitive topic. Assisting the sexuality of people with ID is a complex and emotive subject worthy of further investigation.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Analysis of CGF biomolecules, structure and cell population: Characterization of the stemness features of CGF cells and osteogenic potential

Concentrated Growth Factors (CGF) represent new autologous (blood-derived biomaterial), attracting growing interest in the field of regenerative medicine. In this study, the chemical, structural, and biological characterization of CGF was carried out. CGF molecular characterization was performed by GC/MS to quantify small metabolites and by ELISA to measure growth factors and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) release; structural CGF characterization was carried out by SEM analysis and immunohistochemistry; CGF has been cultured, and its primary cells were isolated for the identification of their surface markers by flow cytometry, Western blot, and real-time PCR; finally, the osteogenic differentiation of CGF primary cells was evaluated through matrix mineralization by alizarin red staining and through mRNA quantification of osteogenic differentiation markers by real-time PCR. We found that CGF has a complex inner structure capable of influencing the release of growth factors, metabolites, and cells. These cells, which could regulate the production and release of the CGF growth factors, show stem features and are able to differentiate into osteoblasts producing a mineralized matrix. These data, taken together, highlight interesting new perspectives for the use of CGF in regenerative medicine

Chemical and electrochemical synthesis of platinum black

We present electrochemical and chemical synthesis of platinum black at room temperature in aqueous and non-aqueous media. X-ray analysis established the purity and crystalline nature. The electron micrographs indicate that the nanostructures consist of platinum crystals that interconnect to form porous assemblies. Additionally, the electron micrographs of the platinum black thin layer, which was electrochemically deposited on different metallic and semiconductive substrates (aluminium, platinum, silver, gold, tin-cooper alloy, indium-tin-oxide, stainless steel, and copper), indicate that the substrate influences its porous features but not its absorbance characteristics. The platinum black exhibited a broad absorbance and low reflectance in the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared regions. These characteristics make this material suitable for use as a high-temperature resistant absorber layer for the fabrication of microelectronics

Determinants of barley grain yield in drought-prone Mediterranean environments

The determinants of barley grain yield in drought-prone Mediterranean environments have been studied in the Nure x Tremois (NT) population. A large set of yield and other morpho-physiological data were recorded in 118 doubled haploid (DH) lines of the population, in multi-environment field trials (18 site-year combination). Agrometeorological variables have been recorded and calculated at each site too. Four main periods of barley development were considered, vegetative, reproductive early and late grain filling phases, to dissect the effect on yield traits of the growth phases. Relationships between agrometeorological variables, grain yield (GY) and its main components (GN and GW) were also investigated by correlation. Results firstly gave a clear indication of the involvement of water consumption in determining GY and GW (r2=0.616, P=0.007 and r2=0.703, P=0.005, respectively) calculated from sowing to the early grain filling period, while GN showed its highest correlation with the total photothermal quotient (PQ) calculated for the same period (r2=0.646, P=0.013). With the only exception of total PQ calculated during the vegetative period, all significant correlations with GY were associated to water-dependent agrometeorological parameters. As a second result, the NT segregating population allowed us to weight the amount of interaction due to genotypes over environments or to environments in relation to genotypes by a GGE analysis; 47.67% of G+GE sum of squares was explained by the first two principal components. Then, the introduction of genomic information at major barley genes regulating the length of growth cycle allowed us to explain patterns of adaptation of different groups of NT lines according to the variants (alleles) harbored at venalization (Vrn-H1) in combination with earliness (Eam6) genes. The superiority of the lines carrying the Nure allele at Eam6 was confirmed by factorial ANOVA testing the four possible haplotypes obtained combining alternative alleles at Eam6 and Vrn-H1. Maximum yield potential and differentials among the NT genotypes was finally explored through Finlay-Wilkinson model to interpret grain yield of NT genotypes together with yield adaptability (Ya), as the regression coefficient bi; Ya ranged from 0.71 for NT77 to 1.20 for NT19. Lines simply harboring the Nure variants at the two genes behaved as highest yielding (3.04 t ha-1), and showed the highest yield adaptability (bi=1.05). The present study constitutes a starting point towards the introduction of genomic variables in agronomic models for barley grain yield in Mediterranean environments

gas phase vibrational spectroscopy of V3O6-8+

We present gas phase vibrational spectra of the trinuclear vanadium oxide cations V3O6+·He1–4, V3O7+·Ar0,1, and V3O8+·Ar0,2 between 350 and 1200 cm−1. Cluster structures are assigned based on a comparison of the experimental and simulated IR spectra. The latter are derived from B3LYP/TZVP calculations on energetically low-lying isomers identified in a rigorous search of the respective configurational space, using higher level calculations when necessary. V3O7+ has a cage-like structure of C3v symmetry. Removal or addition of an O-atom results in a substantial increase in the number of energetically low-lying structural isomers. V3O8+ also exhibits the cage motif, but with an O2 unit replacing one of the vanadyl oxygen atoms. A chain isomer is found to be most stable for V3O6+. The binding of the rare gas atoms to V3O6–8+ clusters is found to be strong, up to 55 kJ/mol for Ar, and markedly isomer-dependent, resulting in two interesting effects. First, for V3O7+·Ar and V3O8+·Ar an energetic reordering of the isomers compared to the bare ion is observed, making the ring motif the most stable one. Second, different isomers bind different number of rare gas atoms. We demonstrate how both effects can be exploited to isolate and assign the contributions from multiple isomers to the vibrational spectrum. The present results exemplify the structural variability of vanadium oxide clusters, in particular, the sensitivity of their structure on small perturbations in their environment

Carbohydrate-aromatic interactions: a computational and IR spectroscopic investigation of the complex, methyl alpha-L-fucopyranoside·toluene, isolated in the gas phase

a b s t r a c t A carbohydrate-aromatic complex, methyl a-L-fucopyranoside Á toluene, which provides a model for probing the physical basis of carbohydrate-protein 'stacking' interactions, has been created in a molecular beam and probed through IR ion dip spectroscopy in the CH and OH regions. The results are interpreted in the light of DFT calculations using the MO5-2X functional. They indicate the creation of stacked structures with the aromatic molecule bonded either to the upper or to the lower face of the pyranoside ring, through CH 3,4 -p (upper) or CH 1 -p (lower) interactions leading to binding energies 618 kJ mol À1

Variant of TYR and Autoimmunity Susceptibility Loci in Generalized Vitiligo.

BACKGROUND Generalized vitiligo is an autoimmune disease characterized by melanocyte loss, which results in patchy depigmentation of skin and hair, and is associated with an elevated risk of other autoimmune diseases. METHODS To identify generalized vitiligo susceptibility loci, we conducted a genomewide association study. We genotyped 579,146 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 1514 patients with generalized vitiligo who were of European-derived white (CEU) ancestry and compared the genotypes with publicly available control genotypes from 2813 CEU persons. We then tested 50 SNPs in two replication sets, one comprising 677 independent CEU patients and 1106 CEU controls and the other comprising 183 CEU simplex trios with generalized vitiligo and 332 CEU multiplex families. RESULTS We detected significant associations between generalized vitiligo and SNPs at several loci previously associated with other autoimmune diseases. These included genes encoding major-histocompatibility-complex class I molecules (P=9.05×10−23) and class II molecules (P=4.50×10−34), PTPN22 (P=1.31×10−7), LPP (P=1.01×10−11), IL2RA (P=2.78×10−9), UBASH3A (P=1.26×10−9), and C1QTNF6 (P=2.21×10−16). We also detected associations between generalized vitiligo and SNPs in two additional immune-related loci, RERE (P=7.07×10−15) and GZMB (P=3.44×10−8), and in a locus containing TYR (P=1.60×10−18), encoding tyrosinase. CONCLUSIONS We observed associations between generalized vitiligo and markers implicating multiple genes, some associated with other autoimmune diseases and one (TYR) that may mediate target-cell specificity and indicate a mutually exclusive relationship between susceptibility to vitiligo and susceptibility to melanoma