SynthTab: Leveraging Synthesized Data for Guitar Tablature Transcription

Guitar tablature is a form of music notation widely used among guitarists. It captures not only the musical content of a piece, but also its implementation and ornamentation on the instrument. Guitar Tablature Transcription (GTT) is an important task with broad applications in music education and entertainment. Existing datasets are limited in size and scope, causing state-of-the-art GTT models trained on such datasets to suffer from overfitting and to fail in generalization across datasets. To address this issue, we developed a methodology for synthesizing SynthTab, a large-scale guitar tablature transcription dataset using multiple commercial acoustic and electric guitar plugins. This dataset is built on tablatures from DadaGP, which offers a vast collection and the degree of specificity we wish to transcribe. The proposed synthesis pipeline produces audio which faithfully adheres to the original fingerings, styles, and techniques specified in the tablature with diverse timbre. Experiments show that pre-training state-of-the-art GTT model on SynthTab improves transcription accuracy in same-dataset tests. More importantly, it significantly mitigates overfitting problems of GTT models in cross-dataset evaluation.Comment: Submitted to ICASSP202

The complete reference genome for grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) genetics and breeding

Grapevine is one of the most economically important crops worldwide. However, the previous versions of the grapevine reference genome consisted of thousands of fragments with missing centromeres and telomeres, which limited the accessibility of the repetitive sequences, the centromeric and telomeric regions, and the inheritance of important agronomic traits in these regions. Here, we assembled a telomere-to-telomere (T2T) gap-free reference genome for the pinot noir cultivar (PN40024) using the PacBio HiFi long reads. The T2T reference genome (PN_T2T) was 69 Mb longer with 9026 more genes identified than the 12X.v2 version (Canaguier et al., 2017). We annotated 67% repetitive sequences, 19 centromeres and 36 telomeres, and incorporated gene annotations of previous versions into the PN_T2T. We detected a total of 377 gene clusters, which showed associations with complex traits, such as aroma and disease resistance. Even though the PN40024 sample had been selfed for nine generations, we still found nine genomic hotspots of heterozygous sites associated with biological processes, such as the oxidation-reduction process and protein phosphorylation. The fully annotated complete reference genome, therefore, provides important resources for grapevine genetics and breeding.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Fund for Excellent Young Scientists Fund Program (Overseas) to Yongfeng Zhou, the National Key Research and Development Program of China(grant2019YFA0906200), the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program (CAAS-ZDRW202101), the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (grant KQTD2016113010482651), the BMBF funded de.NBI Cloud within the German Network for Bioinformatics Infrastructure (de.NBI). We thank Bianca Frommer, Marie Lahaye, David Navarro-Payá, Marcela K. Tello-Ruiz and Kapeel Chougule for their help in analyzing the RNA-Seq data and in running the gene annotation pipeline. This study is also based upon work from COST Action CA17111 INTEGRAPE and form COST Innovators Grant IG17111 GRAPEDIA, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).ViticultureT2Tgap-fregene clustercentromeretelomerePublishe

Community Attributes Predict the Relationship between Habitat Invasibility and Land Use Types in an Agricultural and Forest Landscape

Finding ecosystem or community level indicators for habitat invasibility may provide natural resource managers with environmentally friendly measures to control alien plant invasion; yet, ecosystem invasibility remains understudied. Here, we investigated alien plant invasion into various ecosystems representing different land use types in a subtropical peri-urban area of south China. Four invasive alien species were found from five out of the six ecosystems. Lower plant diversity in both the overstory and understory was consistently associated with more severe alien plant invasion to the ecosystems. The highest total abundance and plot occurrence of the invasive plants were found in the agroforestry ecosystem representing the highest disturbance. At plot scale, an increase in invasion severity was associated with a significant decrease in overstory stem density, species richness, and diversity, but with a significant increase in overstory plant dominance. The understory community attributes in response to the increase in invasion severity followed similar patterns, except that the stem density increased with invasion severity. Higher canopy openness and thus lower leaf area index and greater understory radiation were associated with higher invasion severity of invasive plants to the understory habitat. For predicting total abundance of the invasive species, the most important variable is land use type, while for the abundance of Lantana camara and Mikania micrantha, the most important predictor variable is overstory Berger–Parker index and canopy openness, respectively. Canopy structure and understory gap light regimes were among the most important factors determining the abundance of the worst invasive plant Mikania micrantha. Our results demonstrate that land use types with varying disturbance regimes determine the spatial heterogeneity in plant diversity and community structure, which predicts alien plant invasion and habitat invasibility; and that the severity of alien plant invasion in turn is a good indicator of habitat disturbance across the ecosystems

Differences in Abnormal Water Metabolism between SD Rats and KM Mice Intoxicated by Microcystin-RR

The effects of microcystin-RR (MC-RR) on water metabolism were studied on Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats and KunMing (KM) mice. In the single dose toxicity test, polydipsia, polyuria, hematuria and proteinuria were found in group of rats receiving a MC-RR dose of 574.7 μg/kg, and could be relieved by dexamethasone (DXM). Gradient damage was observed in kidney and liver in rats with gradient MC-RR doses of 574.7, 287.3, and 143.7 μg/kg. No significant water metabolic changes or kidney injuries were observed in mice treated with MC-RR doses of 210.0, 105.0, and 52.5 μg/kg. In the continuous exposure test, in which mice were administrated with 140.0, 70.0, and 35.0 μg/kg MC-RR for 28 days, mice in the 140.0 μg/kg group presented increasing polydipsia, polyuria, and liver damage. However, no anatomic or histological changes, including related serological and urinary indices, were found in the kidney. In summary, abnormal water metabolism can be induced by MC-RR in rats through kidney injury in single dose exposure; the kidney of SD rats is more sensitive to MC-RR than that of KM mouse; and polydipsia and polyuria in mice exposed to MC-RR for 28 days occurred but could not be attributed to kidney damage

An empirical study on the types of consumers and their preferences for E-waste recycling with a points system

Improper disposal of electronical waste (e-waste) causes harm to both public health and the environment, and how to effectively recycle and reduce electronical waste has become a common concern around the world. This study focuses on the design of the points system to encourage consumer participation in e-waste recycling programs. Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model, a semi-experimental design method was applied to influence consumer cognition and behavioral intention through information provision in survey design. Two surveys were conducted in two years apart to understand the temporal trend of consumer types and their preferences for the design of e-waste recycling points program. By comparing consumer types before and after the introduction of the points system, the research concludes that the points system has a positive impact on consumers\u27 environmental consciousness and recycling intention. The results show that consumers generally have a strong sense of environmental protection after the introduction of the recycling points system, and that different consumer types differ significantly on subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, recycling motivation, points incentives, points redemption and recycling behavioral intentions. This suggests that the design of the points system can not only promote consumers\u27 environmental awareness but also stimulate consumers to actively participate in e-waste recycling. Finally, several policy recommendations are discussed to help apply the points system to the empirical design of e-waste recycling programs

Surface Charge Dissipation Characteristics of Al₂O₃/Silicone Rubber Composites With Different Weight Percentages

To identify a nanocomposite material capable of mitigating surface charge accumulation issues in silicone rubber composite insulators, this paper investigated the surface charge dissipation characteristics of micron-sized Al2O3/silicone rubber composites with different weight percentages under positive dc voltage. Furthermore, this paper investigated the influence of the uncharged and charged silicone rubber on the surface flashover voltage under positive dc voltage. The result show that the addition of micron-sized Al2O3 particles effectively ameliorates the severity of surface charge accumulation. In comparison to pure silicone rubber, the reduction in maximum surface charge density and average surface charge density of different weight percentage Al2O3/silicone rubber composites ranges from 18.60% to 50.60% and from 33.26% to 57.53%, respectively. When there is no surface charge on the silicone rubber surface, the addition of micron-sized Al2O3 particles at different weight percentages results in a decrease in positive dc surface flashover voltage. Conversely, when a positive surface charge is applied to the silicone rubber surface, the greatest reduction in positive dc surface flashover voltage occurs in pure silicone rubber. Furthermore, the positive DC flashover voltage of pure silicone rubber can recover to 86.53% of its value without applied surface charge at a decay time of 60 minutes. In contrast, the addition of micron-sized Al2O3 particles at different weight percentages diminishes the impact of surface charge on the surface flashover voltage, allowing it to recover to 92.03% to 94.18% of its value without applied surface charge

A multiphysics model of the compactly-assembled industrial alkaline water electrolysis cell

Electrolysis occupies a dominant position in the long-term application of hydrogen energy, as it can use the power surplus directly from renewable energies to produce hydrogen. Alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) is a mature and reliable technology standing out from other types of electrolysis because of its simplicity and low cost. Several multiphysics processes inside the AWE cell, such as the electrochemical, thermal, and fluidic processes. Developing the multiphysics model to quantify the relationship between these physics fields is essential for cell design. This paper establishes a three-dimensional numerical model to consider the quantitative relationship between the electrochemical process and fluidic process inside the cell of industrial AWE. The model considers the structural design of industrial AWE equipment, revealing that the shunting current effect introduced by the structure design cannot be ignored in the model. The simulation results present that the multiphysics model considering the bubble effect can estimate the current–voltage (I-V) characteristic curve more accurately with a relative error smaller than 5%, especially at a current density higher than 2500 A/m2. The model established is supposed to advance the development of water electrolysis models and guide the electrolyzer design of industrial AWE cell.</p

Free ammonia shock treatment eliminates nitrite-oxidizing bacterial activity for mainstream biofilm nitritation process

Nitritation (NH → NO ) is a critical step to provide nitrite for the followed anammox in a two-stage nitrogen removal system. In the mainstream line of wastewater treatment plants, the nitritation has not been applied to date, because of the significant difficulties in the suppression of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB), especially in biofilm systems. This study aims to systematically assess the effect of free ammonia (FA) shock treatment on the mainstream biofilm nitritation process through an integration of laboratory reactor operation, microbial community analysis, incubation tests, and kinetic model evaluation. In a laboratory nitrifying moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) fed with domestic-strength synthetic wastewater, it was shown that with the exposure of carrier-biofilms containing ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) Nitrosomonas and NOB Nitrospira to a high-level of FA (1068 mg NH-N/L) over two days, a much higher residual AOB level was retained in the biofilm in comparison to NOB. The higher residual AOB on biofilm led to much faster recovery of AOB over NOB after the shock treatment, when normal operation resumed with the dissolved oxygen (DO) controlled at around 0.2 mg/L. The faster recovery of AOB than NOB subsequently gave rise to a stable, high nitrite accumulation ratio (nearly 100%) over a long period (two months). Collectively, these results suggest that FA shock treatment in conjunction with limited DO control is effective in eliminating NOB for mainstream biofilm nitritation process. The chemical cost would be marginal given the intermittent nature of the FA shock strategy and the readily available ammonium in the anaerobic sludge digestion liquor

Non-small cell lung cancer targeted nanoparticles with reduced side effects fabricated by flash nanoprecipitation

Abstract Background Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) have been highlighted for the therapy of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), due to their capability of efficiently blocking signal pathway of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) which causes the inhibition and apoptosis of NSCLC cells. However, EGFR-TKIs have poor aqueous solubility and severe side effects arising from the difficulty in control of biodistribution. In this study, folate-functionalized nanoparticles (FA-NPs) are designed and fabricated to load EGFR-TKI through flash nanoprecipitation (FNP) strategy, which could enhance the tumor-targeting drug delivery and reduced drug accumulation and side effects to normal tissues. Results Herein, the EGFR-TKI loaded FA-NPs are constructed by FNP, with FA decorated dextran-b-polylactide as polymeric stabilizer and gefitinib as TKI. The fast mixing and co-precipitation in FNP provide FA-NPs with well-defined particle size, narrow size distribution and high drug loading content. The FA-NPs exhibit efficient uptake and cytotoxicity in HCC827 NSCLC cells, and reduced uptake and cytotoxicity in normal cells comparing with free gefitinib. In vivo evaluation of gefitinib-loaded FA-NPs confirms the selective drug delivery and accumulation, leading to enhanced inhibition on NSCLC tumor and simultaneously diminished side effects to normal tissues. Conclusion The facile design of FA-NPs by FNP and their achieved performance in vitro and in vivo evaluations offer new therapeutic opportunities for treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. Graphical Abstrac