Video Game Audio

Game sound is the last step in game production industries which plays an important role to enhance the sense of immersion or emotional involvement in most recent games. This feeling can be enhanced by adding ambience and interactive music with the correct transitions. Apart from providing sound materials, the role of a sound designer is to create smooth musical transitions for complex interactive events. Nowadays, the trend of game engines that can implement a real time transformation in acoustical and sound parameters has been increased [6,7,12]. Designing nonlinear sounds for video games can be challenging, especially when sound diversity for interactive scenes and characters is viable. This assignment has been scheduled to be complete individually. Although most of the audio materials have been created by author, some of the music and sound effects have been downloaded from online sources. The asset list and time schedule has been printed in appendices A and B

Final Proposal for Digital Audio Systems, DESC9115, 2018

Time Warp is a fantastic plugin that converts your digital audio workstation (DAW) to a powerful time stretcher system. The function offers a reliable algorithm based on Filter Bank (sum of sinusoids in frequency domain), the technique that can implement high-fidelity time scaling on a variety of sound sources such as synchronizing the audio with video content and tempo adjustment of the music

Sonification of Real-Time Physiological Data for Meditation Practice

Translating biophysical data to meaningful audible pieces has been under investigation in plants, animals and humans [2]. For example, the electrical signal resulting from changing the galvanic response of human skin (GSR) [3] by a physical or emotional stimulus can be used for mapping the parameters of a musical piece [6]. In a similar manner, the temperature change created by the human breath can be translated to audible signals. On this basis a scenario has been developed for a real-time sonification of breathing patterns and GSR data to create an audible reflection of the unconscious mind. This instrument can be a practical device to enhance the power of self-control in meditation practice as mapping the user’s psychophysical signals to musical notes can be a powerful way to control stress by enhancing mindfulness about internal layers of psychological patterns [1]

STI Measurement in The Car

In modern car industries, the intelligibility of sound inside the cabin of vehicles has been known as a factor of comfort [6]. One of the known objective methods for evaluating speech intelligibility inside cars is the speech transmission index STI which is the main subject of this report. The measurement aim is to predict the STI in a running car as a factor of speed (background noise). For this purpose, a series of audio- acoustical measurements have been conducted inside a five-door car (Mazda) based on the European standard IEC 60268-16 [4]. As the harshness of background noise in different speeds, compartment reverberation time and speech level are accounted for in the STI calculation, the resulting data can be interoperated as the quality of sound in the car [6]. Further investigations have been done for better understanding the effect of source spectrum and direction on the transmission index and finally the direct measurement method in aarae has been compared with a similar method in Arta (Audio Measurement and Analysis Software) in the room space

Exploring bycatch diversity of organisms in whole genome sequencing of Erebidae moths (Lepidoptera)

Models estimate that up to 80% of all butterfly and moth species host vertically transmitted endosymbiotic microorganisms, which can affect the host fitness, metabolism, reproduction, population dynamics, and genetic diversity, among others. The supporting empirical data are however currently highly biased towards the generally more colourful butterflies, and include less information about moths. Additionally, studies of symbiotic partners of Lepidoptera predominantly focus on the common bacterium Wolbachia pipientis, while infections by other inherited microbial partners have more rarely been investigated. Here, we mine the whole genome sequence data of 47 species of Erebidae moths, with the aims to both inform on the diversity of symbionts potentially associated with this Lepidoptera group, and discuss the potential of metagenomic approaches to inform on host associated microbiome diversity. Based on the result of Kraken2 and MetaPhlAn2 analyses, we found clear evidence of the presence of Wolbachia in four species. Our result also suggests the presence of three other bacterial symbionts (Burkholderia spp., Sodalis spp. and Arsenophonus spp.) in three other moth species. Additionally, we recovered genomic material from bracovirus in about half of our samples. The detection of the latter, usually found in mutualistic association to braconid parasitoid wasps, may inform on host-parasite interactions that take place in the natural habitat of the Erebidae moths, suggesting either contamination with material from species of the host community network, or horizontal transfer of members of the microbiome between interacting species.Peer reviewe

The (non) accuracy of mitochondrial genomes for family-level phylogenetics in Erebidae (Lepidoptera)

The use of molecular data to study the evolutionary history of organisms has revolutionized the field of systematics. Now with the appearance of high throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies, more and more genetic sequence data are available. One of the important sources of genetic data for phylogenetic analyses has been mitochondrial DNA. The limitations of mitochondrial DNA for the study of phylogenetic relationships have been thoroughly explored in the age of single locus phylogenetic studies. Now with the appearance of genomic scale data, increasing number of mitochondrial genomes are available, leading to an increasing number of mitophylogenomic studies. Here, we assemble 47 mitochondrial genomes using whole genome Illumina short reads from representatives of the family Erebidae (Lepidoptera), in order to evaluate the accuracy of mitochondrial genome application in resolving deep phylogenetic relationships. We find that mitogenomes are inadequate for resolving subfamily-level relationships in Erebidae, but given good taxon sampling, we see its potential in resolving lower level phylogenetic relationships.Peer reviewe

A new species of the genus Capoeta Valenciennes, 1842 from the Caspian Sea basin in Iran (Teleostei, Cyprinidae)

A new species of algae-scraping cyprinid of the genus Capoeta Valenciennes, 1842 is described from the Kheyroud River, located in the southern part of the Caspian Sea basin in Iran. The species differs from other members of this genus by a combination of the following characters: one pair of barbels; predorsal length equal to postdorsal length; maxillary barbel slightly smaller than eye¿s horizontal diameter and reach to posterior margin of orbit; intranasal length slightly shorter than snout length; lateral line with 46¿54 scales; 7¿9 scales between dorsal-fin origin and lateral line, and 6¿7 scales between anal-fin origin and lateral line.This research was funded by Tehran University and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (project number CGL2016-75262-P).Peer Reviewe

A comprehensive molecular phylogeny of Geometridae (Lepidoptera) with a focus on enigmatic small subfamilies

Our study aims to investigate the relationships of the major lineages within the moth family Geometridae, with a focus on the poorly studied Oenochrominae-Desmobathrinae complex, and to translate some of the results into a coherent subfamilial and tribal level classification for the family. We analyzed a molecular dataset of 1,206 Geometroidea terminal taxa from all biogeographical regions comprising up to 11 molecular markers that includes one mitochondria) (COI) and 10 protein-coding nuclear gene regions (wingless, ArgK, MDH, RpS5, GAPDH, IDH, Ca-ATPase, Nex9, EF-1 alpha, CAD). The molecular data set was analyzed using maximum likelihood as implemented in IQ-TREE and RAxML. We found high support for the subfamilies Larentiinae, Geometrinae and Ennominae in their traditional scopes. Sterrhinae becomes monophyletic only if Ergavia Walker, Ametris Hubner and Macrotes Westwood, which are currently placed in Oenochrominae, are formally transferred to Sterrhinae. Desmobathrinae and Oenochrominae are found to be polyphyletic. The concepts of Oenochrominae and Desmobathrinae required major revision and, after appropriate rearrangements, these groups also form monophyletic subfamily-level entities. Oenochrominae s.str. as originally conceived by Guenee is phylogenetically distant from Epidesmia and its close relatives. The latter is hereby described as the subfamily Epidesmiinae Murillo-Ramos, Sihvonen & Brehm, subfam. nov. Epidesmiinae are a lineage of "slender-bodied Oenochrominae" that include the genera Ecphyas Turner, Systatica Turner, Adeixis Warren, Dichromodes Guenee, Phrixocomes Turner, Abraxaphantes Warren, Epidesmia Duncan & Westwood and Phrataria Walker. Archiearinae are monophyletic when Dirce and Acalyphes are formally transferred to Ennominae. We also found that many tribes were para- or polyphyletic and therefore propose tens of taxonomic changes at the tribe and subfamily levels. Archaeobalbini stat. rev. Viidalepp (Geometrinae) is raised from synonymy with Pseudoterpnini Warren to tribal rank. Chlorodontoperini Murillo-Ramos, Sihvonen & Brehm, trib. nov. and Drepanogynini Murillo-Ramos, Sihvonen & Brehm, trib. nov. are described as new tribes in Geometrinae and Ennominae, respectively.Peer reviewe

Individual major audio production project

The main sound design ideas for the provided short episode of Cosmos War of the Planets, directed by Alfonso Brescia (1978), have been developed based on the existing visual cues to reflect realistic acoustics by creating mysteries sound effects and music

Studio 405 – Wilkinson Building

Studio 405 is located on the southern part of level 4 of the Wilkinson building (Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning of the University of Sydney). This six-level building is constructed of a reinforced concrete frame and level 4 with 1866 m^2 is about 15.5% of the total building floor area. This level consists of Studio 405 and several other offices and facilities. The main entrance of Studio 405 is in lobby 400 which is accessible from either staircase 400A or the elevator. The total volume of the Studio is 2025 m^3 (H=3.6m from floor to floor) and its usable volume is 1599m^3 (H=2.8m from floor to the false ceiling). The net usable area of Studio 405 is about 569m^2. The studio is connected to fire exit stairs 430 & 440 from the west and south sides. The studio has a high angle view (H~19m) to Maze Crescent Roade from the southern and eastern windows and limited view to City Road from the southwestern windows. The shape of the Studio is similar to an irregular pentagon with three right angles. A smaller scaled, identical polygon structure (windows area = 62 m^2) is located at the center of the studio. Skylight Dome for capturing daylight energy for the surrounding zones is located directly above the central structure. Glass windows constitute the majority of the south-eastern to north walls (100 m^2) but 30% of these windows are internally shaded by the false ceiling. 17 awning windows conduct the prevalent south eastern and northern winds into the building. The southwestern part of the Studio is connected to the outside courtyard through several windows (12.5m^2) including three awning windows which are the only openings toward prevalent western winds. A narrow window (8.5m^2) is placed on the studio’s southern wall and awning windows on this wall are not usable (locked). All windows are made of aluminum frames and glazed with 6mm tinted glass. The window to wall ratio for tall walls with windows is 0.34. The studio’s floor is covered with a dark carpet and the main area has been partitioned into several adjustable zones. Each partition consists of two or three blocks (1.7*0.6*2m). These blocks are wooden shelves and their back sides are covered with PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) felt panels with 1cm thickness. Students can place their belongings in the shelves and pin sheets on the PET panels. These panels can also absorb sound energy. In addition, the southern walls are all covered with the same material. The false ceiling acoustic panels are made of compressed straws. Fluorescent lights and other facilities such as fire sensors, wifi boosters and air conditioning vents have been installed on the false ceiling and other related electro-mechanical systems and ducts have been installed behind the false ceiling. The artificial illumination of the studio is provided with a total number of 260 (252 *38 W + 8 * 20W) florescent lamps. Studio 405 is used for a variety of functions. The division of the space into factions makes it suitable for use as classrooms where lessons, presentations, seminars and workshops are carried out. Currently, 100 white portable study tables are in use in the studio which provide a total of 162m^2 of desktop space for up to 150 users. The flexible arrangement of furniture allows for groups to use this space for meetings and discussions. There is no computer room in this studio and students use their own devices. There are 9 portable large screen monitors and a sun emulator for educational purposes