On the Effectiveness of ASR Representations in Real-world Noisy Speech Emotion Recognition

This paper proposes an efficient attempt to noisy speech emotion recognition (NSER). Conventional NSER approaches have proven effective in mitigating the impact of artificial noise sources, such as white Gaussian noise, but are limited to non-stationary noises in real-world environments due to their complexity and uncertainty. To overcome this limitation, we introduce a new method for NSER by adopting the automatic speech recognition (ASR) model as a noise-robust feature extractor to eliminate non-vocal information in noisy speech. We first obtain intermediate layer information from the ASR model as a feature representation for emotional speech and then apply this representation for the downstream NSER task. Our experimental results show that 1) the proposed method achieves better NSER performance compared with the conventional noise reduction method, 2) outperforms self-supervised learning approaches, and 3) even outperforms text-based approaches using ASR transcription or the ground truth transcription of noisy speech.Comment: Submitted to ICASSP 202

Long Timescale fMRI Neuronal Adaptation Effects in Human Amblyopic Cortex

An investigation of long timescale (5 minutes) fMRI neuronal adaptation effects, based on retinotopic mapping and spatial frequency stimuli, is presented in this paper. A hierarchical linear model was developed to quantify the adaptation effects in the visual cortex. The analysis of data involved studying the retinotopic mapping and spatial frequency adaptation effects in the amblyopic cortex. Our results suggest that, firstly, there are many cortical regions, including V1, where neuronal adaptation effects are reduced in the cortex in response to amblyopic eye stimulation. Secondly, our results show the regional contribution is different, and it seems to start from V1 and spread to the extracortex regions. Thirdly, our results show that there is greater adaptation to broadband retinotopic mapping as opposed to narrowband spatial frequency stimulation of the amblyopic eye, and we find significant correlation between fMRI response and the magnitude of the adaptation effect, suggesting that the reduced adaptation may be a consequence of the reduced response to different stimuli reported for amblyopic eyes

Altered nucleus basalis connectivity predicts treatment response in mild cognitive impairment

Purpose: To determine whether functional connectivity (FC) mapping of nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) cholinergic network (hereafter, NBM FC) could provide a biomarker of central cholinergic deficits with predictive potential for response to cholinesterase inhibitor (ChEI) treatment.Materials and Methods: The Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) was approved by the institutional review boards of all participating sites. All participants and their representatives gave written informed consent prior to data collection. NBM FC was examined in 33 healthy control participants, 102 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 33 patients with AD by using resting-state functional MRI data from the ADNI database. NBM FC was compared between groups before and after 6 months of ChEI treatment in MCI. Associations between baseline NBM FC and baseline cognitive performance as well as cognitive outcomes after treatment were investigated.Results: Compared with the healthy control group, NBM FC was decreased in patients with untreated MCI and increased in patients with AD treated with ChEI (corrected P ˂ .05). Global cognition (Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive subscale score) was associated with NBM FC (r = −0.349; P ˂ .001). NBM FC was higher 6 months after ChEI compared with before ChEI in treated MCI (corrected P ˂ .05), but did not change at 6 months in patients with untreated MCI (corrected P ˂ .05). Baseline NBM FC in MCI strongly predicted cognitive outcomes 6 months after ChEI (R2 = 0.458; P = .001).Conclusion: Functional dissociation of the nucleus basalis of Meynert from a cortical network may explain the cognitive deficits in dementia and allow for the selection of individuals who are more likely to respond to cholinesterase inhibitors at early disease stages

Ground-Based Polarimetric Remote Sensing of Dust Aerosol Properties in Chinese Deserts near Hexi Corridor

One-year observation of dust aerosol properties near Hexi Corridor was obtained from polarimetric measurements by ground-based sunphotometer in the county of Minqin in northwestern China from March 2012 to February 2013. We observed an annual mean AOD of 0.22±0.22 at 0.50 μm and Ångström exponents of 0.1–1.0 fitting a bimode normal distribution centered at 0.18 and 0.50, respectively. The effective radii of fine (0.13–0.17 μm) and coarse (2.49–3.49 μm) modes were found stable at all seasons together with the appearance of a third mode of particle radius at 0.4–1.0 μm when AOD was larger than 0.6. It is noticeable that the real (1.5–1.7) and imaginary (0.0005 to 0.09) parts of complex refractive indices were higher than other studies performed in other desert regions of China, while single scattering albedo was relatively lower (~0.84–0.89) at wavelengths of 0.44, 0.67, 0.87, and 1.02 μm. This is partially due to calcite or hematite in the soil in Minqin or the influence of anthropogenic aerosols containing carbon. Moreover, from our novel polarimetric measurement, the scattering phase function (F11) and degree of linear polarization for incident unpolarized light (-F12/F11) of dust aerosols were also obtained within this deserted area

Plant-frugivore network simplification under habitat fragmentation leaves a small core of interacting generalists

Habitat fragmentation impacts seed dispersal processes that are important in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. However, it is still unclear how habitat fragmentation affects frugivorous interactions due to the lack of high-quality data on plant-frugivore networks. Here we recorded 10,117 plant-frugivore interactions from 22 reservoir islands and six nearby mainland sites using the technology of arboreal camera trapping to assess the effects of island area and isolation on the diversity, structure, and stability of plant-frugivore networks. We found that network simplification under habitat fragmentation reduces the number of interactions involving specialized species and large-bodied frugivores. Small islands had more connected, less modular, and more nested networks that consisted mainly of small-bodied birds and abundant plants, as well as showed evidence of interaction release (i.e., dietary expansion of frugivores). Our results reveal the importance of preserving large forest remnants to support plant-frugivore interaction diversity and forest functionality.Fil: Li, Wande. East China Normal University; ChinaFil: Zhu, Chen. College Of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University; ChinaFil: Grass, Ingo. Universidad de Hohenheim; AlemaniaFil: Vazquez, Diego P.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas. Provincia de Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas; ArgentinaFil: Wang, Duorun. East China Normal University; ChinaFil: Zhao, Yuhao. East China Normal University; ChinaFil: Zeng, Di. East China Normal University; ChinaFil: Kang, Yi. East China Normal University; ChinaFil: Ding, Ping. No especifíca;Fil: Si, Xingfeng. East China Normal University; Chin

Patient-derived organoids as a platform for drug screening in metastatic colorectal cancer

Introduction: Most advanced colorectal cancers are aggressive, and there is a lack of effective methods for selecting appropriate anticancer regimens. Patient-derived organoids (PDOs) have emerged as preclinical platforms for modeling clinical responses to cancer therapy.Methods: In this study, we successfully constructed a living biobank with 42 organoids derived from primary and metastatic lesions of metastatic colorectal cancer patients. Tumor tissue was obtained from patients undergoing surgical resection of the primary or metastatic lesion and then used to establish PDOs. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and drug sensitivity assays were performed to analyze the properties of these organoids.Results: The mCRC organoids were successfully established with an 80% success rate. The PDOs maintained the genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity of their parental tumors. The IC50 values of5-fluorouracil (5-FU), oxaliplatin, and irinotecan (CPT11) were determined for mCRC organoids using drug sensitivity assays. The in vitro chemosensitivity data revealed the potential value of PDOs for clinical applications in predicting chemotherapy response and clinical outcomes in mCRC patients.Discussion: In summary, the PDO model is an effective platform for in vitro assessment of patient-specific drug sensitivity, which can guide personalized treatment decisions for patients with end-stage CRC

Action Real-Time Strategy Gaming Experience Related to Increased Attentional Resources: An Attentional Blink Study

Action real-time strategy gaming (ARSG) is a cognitively demanding task which requires attention, sensorimotor skills, team cooperation, and strategy-making abilities. A recent study found that ARSG experts had superior visual selective attention (VSA) for detecting the location of a moving object that could appear in one of 24 different peripheral locations (Qiu et al., 2018), suggesting that ARSG experience is related to improvements in the spatial component of VSA. However, the influence of ARSG experience on the temporal component of VSA—the detection of an item among a sequence of items presented consecutively and quickly at a single location—still remains understudied. Using behavioral and electrophysiological measures, this study examined whether ARSG experts had superior temporal VSA performance compared to non-experts in an attentional blink (AB) task, which is typically used to examine temporal VSA. The results showed that the experts outperformed the non-experts in their detection rates of targets. Furthermore, compared to the non-experts, the experts had faster information processing as indicated by earlier P3 peak latencies in an AB period, more attentional resources distributed to targets as indicated by stronger P3 amplitudes, and a more flexible deployment of attentional resources. These findings suggest that experts were less prone to the AB effect. Thus, long-term ARSG experience is related to improvements in temporal VSA. The current findings support the benefit of video gaming experience on the development of VSA

Land-use change interacts with island biogeography to alter bird community assembly

Anthropogenic activities have reshaped biodiversity on islands worldwide. However, it remains unclear how island attributes and land-use change interactively shape multiple facets of island biodiversity through community assembly processes. To answer this, we conducted bird surveys in various land-use types (mainly forest and farmland) using transects on 34 oceanic land-bridge islands in the largest archipelago of China. We found that bird species richness increases with island area and decreases with isolation, regardless of the intensity of land-use change. However, forest-dominated habitats exhibited lower richness than farmland-dominated habitats. Island bird assemblages generally comprised species that share more similar traits or evolutionary histories (i.e., functional and/or phylogenetic clustering) than expected if assemblages were randomly assembled. Contrary to our expectations, we observed that bird assemblages in forest-dominated habitats were more clustered on large and close islands, whereas assemblages in farmland-dominated habitats were more clustered on small islands. These contrasting results indicate that land-use change interacts with island biogeography to alter the community assembly of birds on inhabited islands. Our findings emphasize the importance of incorporating human-modified habitats when examining the community assembly of island biota, and further suggest that agricultural landscapes on large islands may play essential roles in protecting countryside island biodiversity

Air Quality over China

The strong economic growth in China in recent decades, together with meteorological factors, has resulted in serious air pollution problems, in particular over large industrialized areas with high population density. To reduce the concentrations of pollutants, air pollution control policies have been successfully implemented, resulting in the gradual decrease of air pollution in China during the last decade, as evidenced from both satellite and ground-based measurements. The aims of the Dragon 4 project “Air quality over China” were the determination of trends in the concentrations of aerosols and trace gases, quantification of emissions using a top-down approach and gain a better understanding of the sources, transport and underlying processes contributing to air pollution. This was achieved through (a) satellite observations of trace gases and aerosols to study the temporal and spatial variability of air pollutants; (b) derivation of trace gas emissions from satellite observations to study sources of air pollution and improve air quality modeling; and (c) study effects of haze on air quality. In these studies, the satellite observations are complemented with ground-based observations and modeling