Enhanced Recognition of Vocal Emotions in Individuals With Naturally Good Musical Abilities

Music training is widely assumed to enhance several nonmusical abilities, including speech perception, executive functions, reading, and emotion recognition. This assumption is based primarily on cross-sectional comparisons between musicians and nonmusicians. It remains unclear, however, whether training itself is necessary to explain the musician advantages, or whether factors such as innate predispositions and informal musical experience could produce similar effects. Here, we sought to clarify this issue by examining the association between music training, music perception abilities and vocal emotion recognition. The sample (N = 169) comprised musically trained and untrained listeners who varied widely in their musical skills, as assessed through self-report and performance-based measures. The emotion recognition tasks required listeners to categorize emotions in nonverbal vocalizations (e.g., laughter, crying) and in speech prosody. Music training was associated positively with emotion recognition across tasks, but the effect was small. We also found a positive association between music perception abilities and emotion recognition in the entire sample, even with music training held constant. In fact, untrained participants with good musical abilities were as good as highly trained musicians at recognizing vocal emotions. Moreover, the association between music training and emotion recognition was fully mediated by auditory and music perception skills. Thus, in the absence of formal music training, individuals who were “naturally” musical showed musician-like performance at recognizing vocal emotions. These findings highlight an important role for factors other than music training (e.g., predispositions and informal musical experience) in associations between musical and nonmusical domains. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved

Study On The Optimization Of TheTextile Coloristic Performance Of The Bleaching Process Using Pad-Steam

Information concerning the critical variables of the bleaching process (transformation of a raw fabric into bleached) by pad-steam is scarce, since it is considered a recent process in the textile industry. One hundred percent fine cotton fabrics present great difficulties in the standardization of bleaching across different production batches, which is even more complex when the fabric composition provided by the supplier is unknown. Thus, one carried out an evaluation of the variables that influence color yield in the bleaching process by pad-steam. The conditions used consisted of the reintroduction of the process of desizing by pad-batch, as well as washing and bleaching by pad-steam. The other variable changed was the chemical recipes (desizing and bleaching). As result of this research, the variables which most influenced color performance were the degree of whiteness (Berger) and the pH of extraction. Hence, a change in the production process for this type of 100% fine cotton is required. In this work, a statistical control was performed on the characteristics of the product obtained, which compared results before and during the study. The suggestions for improvement, some of which have already been implemented, are also presented. The results were then compared, enabling one to observe a significant improvement.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cost reduction and quality improvements in the printing industry

Competitiveness has been the key factor for the survival of the companies. The economic crisis that marked the beginning of this millennium forced the total readjustment of processes and operations which, in some cases, gave origin to deep changes in the organizations. In addition, concerns and consequent environmental constraints have begun to increase. Printing industry was strongly influenced by these factors. This study aims to reduce the use of toxic products and general costs in offset printing process, as well as promote a productivity increase in the printing industry. Because this kind of industry is largely influenced by weather conditions, historical data was collected, allowing to reach the balance between the printing consumables usage and working methodologies, leading to implementing important improvements. At the end of the study, it was possible to observe very good results, increasing the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and the Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) and reducing the Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) relatively to the equipment. The biggest achievement was the massive reduction of the isopropyl alcohol consumption in the offset printing process, increasing the air quality at the facilities, reducing the costs and most of the problems during the printing process.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Prenatal diagnosis of idic(9)

Tetrasomy of the short arm of chromosome 9 is a rare chromosome imbalance that may result from a supernumerary isochromosome 9 with the most recurrent breakpoints being 9p10, 9q12 and 9q13. On ultrasound, it usually presents with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), abnormal facial profile and ventriculomegaly. However, few reports establish a correlation between fetal features and the size of isochromosome or the presence of isodicentric 9. We report the clinical case of a 32-year-old pregnant woman, G2P1, underwent amniocentesis at 13 weeks of gestation with fetal increased nuchal translucency (7mm). The fetus also presented IUGR, cystic higroma, generalized subcutaneous edema, cardiac malformations, facial anomalies and fetal death. The karyotype was performed by standard in situ methods. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was performed using centromeric probe CEP9. Conventional cytogenetic and FISH analyses revealed a supernumerary chromosome idic(9)(q12) in all cells examined. After counseling the couple opted for termination of pregnancy. The post-mortem analysis revealed a single umbilical arteria, IUGR, cystic higroma, facial dysmorphism with cleft lip and palate, hypertelorism and low set ears. These findings are in accordance with other reports. Nevertheless, the hypertelorism is not commonly described and such an early detection of a cardiac anomaly is uncommon. Additionaly the fetal death occurred early than in the most cases described in literature. Although breakpoint position effect on the severity on the phenotype is not consensual it has proposed that cases presenting with breakpoints on p10, on q12 or on q13 show a similar phenotype. However, cardiac defects seem more frequent on cases in which the abnormality includes 9q material. This work aims to contribute to a better karyotype-phenotype correlation in cases with tetrasomy 9p and isodicentric chromosomes idic(9)

Insulin therapy modulates mitochondrial dynamics and biogenesis, autophagy and tau protein phosphorylation in the brain of type 1 diabetic rats

AbstractThe main purpose of this study was to examine whether streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type 1 diabetes (T1D) and insulin (INS) treatment affect mitochondrial function, fission/fusion and biogenesis, autophagy and tau protein phosphorylation in cerebral cortex from diabetic rats treated or not with INS. No significant alterations were observed in mitochondrial function as well as pyruvate levels, despite the significant increase in glucose levels observed in INS-treated diabetic rats. A significant increase in DRP1 protein phosphorylated at Ser616 residue was observed in the brain cortex of STZ rats. Also an increase in NRF2 protein levels and in the number of copies of mtDNA were observed in STZ diabetic rats, these alterations being normalized by INS. A slight decrease in LC3-II levels was observed in INS-treated rats when compared to STZ diabetic animals. An increase in tau protein phosphorylation at Ser396 residue was observed in STZ diabetic rats while INS treatment partially reversed that effect. Accordingly, a modest reduction in the activation of GSK3β and a significant increase in the activity of phosphatase 2A were found in INS-treated rats when compared to STZ diabetic animals. No significant alterations were observed in caspases 9 and 3 activity and synaptophysin and PSD95 levels. Altogether our results show that mitochondrial alterations induced by T1D seem to involve compensation mechanisms since no significant changes in mitochondrial function and synaptic integrity were observed in diabetic animals. In addition, INS treatment is able to normalize the alterations induced by T1D supporting the importance of INS signaling in the brain

Demand and supply of outdoor tourism activities in Northern Portugal: a survey-based approach

This paper focuses on the North of Portugal, as a diversified region with unique natural resources, to create information regarding both resources and equipment and business dynamics; the evolution of tourism supply and demand.This research is a part of a project title “TURNOUT: Desenvolvimento do Turismo Outdoor da Região Norte de Portugal”, with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032289; funded by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) (through the Operational Programme ‘Innovation and competitiveness’) and by the Portuguese Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology (FCT), of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. This work is, also, funded by National Funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology under the project UIDB/04752/2020. The SABI database was made available by the Applied Management Research Unit (UNIAG), according to the protocol between UNIAG and COFACE.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Monitoring of outdoor tourism demand

The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) was used in order to understand the tourism competitiveness of the different sub-regions that make up the North Region of Portugal. This index is a measure which helps to analyse market concentration and at the same time determines the competitiveness of the market.Project “TURNOUT: Desenvolvimento do Turismo Outdoor da Região Norte de Portugal”, with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032289 and funded by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). This work is, also, funded by National Funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology under the project UIDB/04752/2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Density functional method for nonequilibrium electron transport

We describe an ab initio method for calculating the electronic structure, electronic transport, and forces acting on the atoms, for atomic scale systems connected to semi-infinite electrodes and with an applied voltage bias. Our method is based on the density functional theory (DFT) as implemented in the well tested Siesta approach (which uses non-local norm-conserving pseudopotentials to describe the effect of the core electrons, and linear combination of finite-range numerical atomic orbitals to describe the valence states). We fully deal with the atomistic structure of the whole system, treating both the contact and the electrodes on the same footing. The effect of the finite bias (including selfconsistency and the solution of the electrostatic problem) is taken into account using nonequilibrium Green's functions. We relate the nonequilibrium Green's function expressions to the more transparent scheme involving the scattering states. As an illustration, the method is applied to three systems where we are able to compare our results to earlier ab initio DFT calculations or experiments, and we point out differences between this method and existing schemes. The systems considered are: (1) single atom carbon wires connected to aluminum electrodes with extended or finite cross section, (2) single atom gold wires, and finally (3) large carbon nanotube systems with point defects.Comment: 18 pages, 23 figure

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters