Evaluation of content-based acoustic features for musical genre classification

In this thesis, we evaluate content-based acoustic features for musical genre classification. Effectiveness of various acoustic features are compared using a k-nearest neighbor (KNN) classifier. By utilizing the combinations of acoustic features, an average classification accuracy of $89\%$ for GTZAN database is achieved, which is comparable to prior work. A statistical test, McNemar's test, is applied to support the idea that musical genre is intrinsically related to content-based acoustic features. Especially for some genres, we are able to identify the particular associated acoustic property. In addition, by comparing our KNN results to a psychoacoustic listening experiment, we associate various human perceptual dimensions with low-level acoustic features

Zinc-finger domains of the transcriptional repressor KLF15 bind multiple sites in rhodopsin and IRBP promoters including the CRS-1 and G-rich repressor elements

BACKGROUND: In the retina, many of the genes that encode components of the visual transduction cascade and retinoid recycling are exclusively expressed in photoreceptor cells and show highly stereotyped temporal and spatial expression patterns. Multiple transcriptional activators of photoreceptor-specific genes have been identified, but little is known about negative regulation of gene expression in the retina. We recently identified KLF15, a member of the Sp/Krüppel-like Factor family of zinc-finger containing transcription factors, as an in vitro repressor of the promoters of the photoreceptor-specific genes rhodopsin and IRBP/Rbp3. To gain further insight into the mechanism of KLF15-mediated regulation of gene expression, we have characterized the binding characteristics and specificity of KLF15's DNA binding domains and defined the KLF15 binding sites in the rhodopsin and IRBP promoters. RESULTS: In EMSA and DNAseI footprinting assays, a KLF15-GST fusion protein containing the C-terminal zinc-finger domains (123 amino acids) showed zinc-dependent and sequence-specific binding to a 9 bp consensus sequence containing a core CG/TCCCC. Both the bovine rhodopsin and IRBP promoters contained multiple KLF15 binding sites that included the previously identified CRS-1 and G-rich repressor elements. KLF15 binding sites were highly conserved between the bovine, human, chimp and dog rhodopsin promoters, but less conserved in rodents. KLF15 reduced luciferase expression by bRho130-luc (containing 4 KLF15 sites) and repressed promoter activation by CRX (cone rod homeobox) and/or NRL (neural retina leucine zipper), although the magnitude of the reduction was smaller than previously reported for a longer bRho225-luc (containing 6 KFL15 sites). CONCLUSION: KLF15 binds to multiple 9 bp consensus sites in the Rhodospin and IRBP promoters including the CRS-1 and G-rich repressor elements. Based on the known expression pattern of KLF15 in non-photoreceptor cells, we hypothesize an in vivo role for KLF15 in repressing photoreceptor-specific gene expression in the inner retina

3D pointing gesture recognition for human-robot interaction

In this paper, a pointing gesture recognition method is proposed for human-robot interaction. The pointing direction of the human partner is obtained by extracting the joint coordinates and computing through vector calculations. 3D to 2D mapping is implemented to build a top-view 2D map with respect to the actual ground circumstance. Using this method, robot is able to interpret the human partner’s 3D pointing gesture based on the coordinate information of his/her shoulder and hand. Besides this, speed control of robot can be achieved by adjusting the position of the human partner’s hand relative to the head. The recognition performance and viability of the system are tested through quantitative experiments

Mask-Attention-Free Transformer for 3D Instance Segmentation

Recently, transformer-based methods have dominated 3D instance segmentation, where mask attention is commonly involved. Specifically, object queries are guided by the initial instance masks in the first cross-attention, and then iteratively refine themselves in a similar manner. However, we observe that the mask-attention pipeline usually leads to slow convergence due to low-recall initial instance masks. Therefore, we abandon the mask attention design and resort to an auxiliary center regression task instead. Through center regression, we effectively overcome the low-recall issue and perform cross-attention by imposing positional prior. To reach this goal, we develop a series of position-aware designs. First, we learn a spatial distribution of 3D locations as the initial position queries. They spread over the 3D space densely, and thus can easily capture the objects in a scene with a high recall. Moreover, we present relative position encoding for the cross-attention and iterative refinement for more accurate position queries. Experiments show that our approach converges 4x faster than existing work, sets a new state of the art on ScanNetv2 3D instance segmentation benchmark, and also demonstrates superior performance across various datasets. Code and models are available at https://github.com/dvlab-research/Mask-Attention-Free-Transformer.Comment: Accepted to ICCV 2023. Code and models are available at https://github.com/dvlab-research/Mask-Attention-Free-Transforme

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

A new principle toward robust matching in human-like stereovision

Visual signals are the upmost important source for robots, vehicles or machines to achieve human-like intelligence. Human beings heavily depend on binocular vision to understand the dynamically changing world. Similarly, intelligent robots or machines must also have the innate capabilities of perceiving knowledge from visual signals. Until today, one of the biggest challenges faced by intelligent robots or machines is the matching in stereovision. In this paper, we present the details of a new principle toward achieving a robust matching solution which leverages on the use and integration of top-down image sampling strategy, hybrid feature extraction, and Restricted Coulomb Energy (RCE) neural network for incremental learning (i.e., cognition) as well as robust match-maker (i.e., recognition). A preliminary version of the proposed solution has been implemented and tested with data from Maritime RobotX Challenge. The contribution of this paper is to attract more research interest and effort toward this new direction which may eventually lead to the development of robust solutions expected by future stereovision systems in intelligent robots, vehicles, and machines.Ministry of Defence (MINDEF)Published versionThis research was funded by the Future Systems and Technology Directorate, Ministry of Defense, Singapore, grant number PA9022201473

Interracial Rommates: 'Hard'ling Issues of Race vs. Personality

This paper explores interracial roommate relations by looking at how it influences students' overall college experiences. It focuses on how these students are affected emotionally, the levels of contact they assume with their roommate, and how their academic performance is affected. The main questions that we asked are: 1) Have you been affected academically by having a roommate of a different race? 2) Did you experience any emotional affects? 3) What is the amount of time that you and your roommate spend in the room together? 4) Does your interracial roommate's emotion or mood affect you? 5) How much does the race of your roommate affect your study habits? We have come to believe that interracial roommate relations have no significant effect on students' overall college experience. As our research has shown, the college experience is more affected by the roommates' individual personalities rather than any type of racial discomforts the students may possess

DataSharing_Dryad

Data from: One-shot dilation versus serial dilation technique for access in percutaneous nephrolithotomy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Improving the performance of upconversion nanoprobe-based lateral flow immunoassays by supramolecular self-assembly core/shell strategies

Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) have been used as probes in lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs), because the probe provides an excellent signal-to-noise ratio by eliminating background-fluorescence from biological samples. However, the low photoluminescence efficiency, unfavorable hydrophilic modification and poor antibody conjugation are insurmountable challenges for the application of UCNPs to LFIAs. In this work, we have made a breakthrough by integrating friendly ligand-exchange and supramolecular self-assembly strategies. It is demonstrated that the Cucurbit[7]uril-based hydrophilic modification strategy can improve the photoluminescence of UCNPs by two-fold and significantly improves the stability of the UCNPs. More importantly, the supramolecular self-assembly strategy, which is 10 times more efficient than the carboxyl-amino reaction for antibody conjugation. The UCNPs were successfully applied to sandwich and competitive LFIAs for the sensitive detection of a pathogenic bacteria (Escherichia coli O157:H7) and micro-molecule (danofloxacin). In comparison with existing methods, we demonstrate that this novel method could enhance the sensitivity by 40 times, expand the detection range by one order of magnitude, and reduce the costs by 20 %-40%. This new method not only inherits the excellent matrix tolerance of UCNPs for the detection of bio-samples but also improves the performance of LFIAs with regards to their sensitivity, quantitative range, and cost

Data from: One-shot dilation versus serial dilation technique for access in percutaneous nephrolithotomy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: The purpose of this study was to systematically review the outcomes of the use of one-shot dilation (OSD) and serial tract dilation for percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL). Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted. The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) included in the study were identified from EMBASE, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. The last search was performed on April 30, 2018. Summary effects were calculated as risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) or mean differences (MDs) with 95% CIs. The endpoints included access time, fluoroscopy time, successful dilation rate, stone-free rate, postoperative decrease in hemoglobin levels, transfusion rate, complication rate, and length of postoperative hospital stay. Results: A total of 7 RCTs were included in the study, with clinical data reported for 697 patients. The overall access time was approximately 110 seconds shorter in the OSD group than in the serial dilation group (MD, -110.14; 95% CI, -161.99 to -58.30; P<0.0001). The fluoroscopy time was shorter with OSD in all RCTs. In addition, the decrease in postoperative hemoglobin levels was approximately 0.23 g/dl less in patients in the OSD group than in those in the serial dilation group (MD, -0.23; 95% CI, -0.39 to -0.07; P=0.004). No relationship was found between the successful dilation rate, stone-free rate, transfusion rate, or complication rate and the method of tract dilation. Conclusion: OSD is a safe and efficacious tract dilation technique that can reduce the access time, fluoroscopy time, and postoperative decrease in hemoglobin level. No difference was found in the successful dilation rate, stone-free rate, transfusion rate, or rate of complications between the OSD and serial dilation groups. The difference in the length of postoperative hospital stay was uncertain. OSD may be a better method of tract creation for PCNL