Deep Cross-Modal Correlation Learning for Audio and Lyrics in Music Retrieval

Deep cross-modal learning has successfully demonstrated excellent performance in cross-modal multimedia retrieval, with the aim of learning joint representations between different data modalities. Unfortunately, little research focuses on cross-modal correlation learning where temporal structures of different data modalities such as audio and lyrics should be taken into account. Stemming from the characteristic of temporal structures of music in nature, we are motivated to learn the deep sequential correlation between audio and lyrics. In this work, we propose a deep cross-modal correlation learning architecture involving two-branch deep neural networks for audio modality and text modality (lyrics). Data in different modalities are converted to the same canonical space where inter modal canonical correlation analysis is utilized as an objective function to calculate the similarity of temporal structures. This is the first study that uses deep architectures for learning the temporal correlation between audio and lyrics. A pre-trained Doc2Vec model followed by fully-connected layers is used to represent lyrics. Two significant contributions are made in the audio branch, as follows: i) We propose an end-to-end network to learn cross-modal correlation between audio and lyrics, where feature extraction and correlation learning are simultaneously performed and joint representation is learned by considering temporal structures. ii) As for feature extraction, we further represent an audio signal by a short sequence of local summaries (VGG16 features) and apply a recurrent neural network to compute a compact feature that better learns temporal structures of music audio. Experimental results, using audio to retrieve lyrics or using lyrics to retrieve audio, verify the effectiveness of the proposed deep correlation learning architectures in cross-modal music retrieval

In vitro study on human cytomegalovirus affecting early pregnancy villous EVT's invasion function

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the most common pathogen in uterus during pregnancy, which may lead to some serious results such as miscarriage, stillbirth, cerebellar malformation, fetus developmental retardation, but its pathogenesis has not been fully explained. The hypofunction of extravillous cytotrophoblast (EVT) invasion is the essential pathologic base of some complications of pregnancy. c-erbB-2 is a kind of oncogene protein and closely linked with embryogenesis, tissue repair and regeneration. Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) is one of the key enzymes which affect EVT migration and invasion function. The expression level changes of c-erbB-2, MMP-2 and MMP-9 can reflect the changes of EVT invasion function.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To explore the influence of HCMV on the invasion function of EVT, we tested the protein expression level changes of c-erbB-2, MMP-2 and MMP-9 in villous explant cultured in vitro infected by HCMV, with the use of immunohistochemistry SP method and western blot. We confirmed that HCMV can reproduce and spread in early pregnancy villus; c-erbB-2 protein mainly expressed in normal early pregnancy villous syncytiotrophoblast (ST) remote plasma membrane and EVT, especially remote EVT cell membrane in villous stem cell column, little expressed in ST proximal end cell membrane and interstitial cells; MMP-2 protein primarily expressed in early pregnancy villous EVT endochylema and rarely in villous trophoblast (VT), ST and interstitial cells; MMP-9 protein largely expressed in early pregnancy villous mesenchyme, EVT and VT endochylema. Compared with control group, the three kinds of protein expression level in early pregnancy villus of virus group significantly decreased (P < 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>HCMV can infect villus in vitro and cause the decrease of early pregnancy villous EVT's invasion function.</p

Maternal and neonatal outcomes of pregnancy at 39 weeks and beyond with mild gestational diabetes mellitus

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to retrospectively analyze maternal and neonatal outcomes in pregnant women with mild gestational diabetes mellitus at 39 weeks compared to 40 weeks. Material and methods: Clinical data of 372 cases of mild gestational diabetes mellitus form First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University were analyzed retrospectively. There were 108 mild GDM patients that delivered at 40–40+6 weeks in our research group, and 264 patients that delivered in 39–39+6 weeks in the control group. Neonatal and maternal outcomes were compared between the two groups. Results: There was no difference between the two groups in the rate of cesarean section (42.6% vs. 45.5%, p = 0.614). The incidence of large for gestational age between the two groups was also not different (11.1% vs. 10.6%, p = 0.887). The rate of postpartum hemorrhage and shoulder dystocia of the two groups was not different either (p &gt; 0.05). There was no significant difference in the incidence of fetal distress, neonatal asphyxia, neonatal pathological jaundice, neonatal hypoglycemia, and neonatal respiratory distress syndrome in the two groups (p &gt; 0.05). Conclusions: There were no significant differences in adverse pregnancy outcomes and neonatal outcomes in women with mild gestational diabetes between deliveries at 39 and 40 weeks

A comparative analysis of DNA methylation across human embryonic stem cell lines

Abstract Background We performed a comparative analysis of the genome-wide DNA methylation profiles from three human embryonic stem cell (HESC) lines. It had previously been shown that HESC lines had significantly higher non-CG methylation than differentiated cells, and we therefore asked whether these sites were conserved across cell lines. Results We find that heavily methylated non-CG sites are strongly conserved, especially when found within the motif TACAG. They are enriched in splice sites and are more methylated than other non-CG sites in genes. We next studied the relationship between allele-specific expression and allele-specific methylation. By combining bisulfite sequencing and whole transcriptome shotgun sequencing (RNA-seq) data we identified 1,020 genes that show allele-specific expression, and 14% of CG sites genome-wide have allele-specific methylation. Finally, we asked whether the methylation state of transcription factor binding sites affects the binding of transcription factors. We identified variations in methylation levels at binding sites and found that for several transcription factors the correlation between the methylation at binding sites and gene expression is generally stronger than in the neighboring sequences. Conclusions These results suggest a possible but as yet unknown functional role for the highly methylated conserved non-CG sites in the regulation of HESCs. We also identified a novel set of genes that are likely transcriptionally regulated by methylation in an allele-specific manner. The analysis of transcription factor binding sites suggests that the methylation state of cis-regulatory elements impacts the ability of factors to bind and regulate transcription

Murine model for congenital CMV infection and hearing impairment

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is the leading cause of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), and SNHL is the most frequent sequela of congenital CMV infection. But the pathogenic mechanism remains unknown, and there is no ideal CMV intrauterine infection animal model to study the mechanisms by which SNHL develops.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We established the congenital murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) infection model by directly injecting the virus into the placenta on day 12.5 of gestation. Then, we observed the development and the MCMV congenital infection rate of the fetuses on the day they were born. Furthermore, we detected the auditory functions, the conditions of the MCMV infection, and the histological change of the inner ears of 28-day-old and 70-day-old offspring.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both the fetal loss rate and the teratism rate of offspring whose placentas were inoculated with MCMV increased, and their body length, head circumference, and weight decreased. The hearing level of offspring both decreased at both 28- and 70-days post birth; the 70-day-old mice developed lower hearing levels than did the 28-day old mice. No significant inflammatory changes in the cochleae of the mice were observed. MCMV DNA signals were mainly detected in the spiral ganglion neurons and the endolymph area, but not in the perilymph area. The number of neurons decreased, and their ultrastructures changed. Moreover, with age, the number of neurons dramatically decreased, and the ultrastructural lesions of neurons became much more severe.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results suggest that the direct injection of MCMV into the placenta may efficiently cause fetal infection and disturb the intrauterine development of the fetus, and placental inoculation itself has no obvious adverse effects on offspring. The reduction in the number of spiral ganglion neurons and the ultrastructural lesions of the neurons may be the major cause of congenital CMV infection-induced progressive SNHL.</p

Correlation between Internet Addiction Disorder and Mental Health of Junior Middle School Students in Chengdu

Objective: To study the prevalence and main influencing factors of Internet addiction among junior middle school students in Chengdu, and to provide scientific basis for the prevention and intervention of Internet addiction. Methods: From September to December 2017, 3,607 junior middle school students were randomly selected from 8 middle schools in Chengdu by stratified cluster sampling, and investigated by selfmade questionnaire. SPSS 19.0 software was used for χ 2 test and multiple linear regression analysis. Results: 174 of 3,607 junior middle school students in Chengdu were diagnosed with Internet addiction, and the detection rate of Internet addiction was 4.8%. There were significant differences in the scores of mental health, learning pressure, parent-child relationship and peer relationship between Internet addiction and non-internet addiction junior middle school students (P < 0.05). The results of multiple linear regression showed that family economic status, learning pressure, depression and anxiety were positively correlated with internet addiction, while parent-child relationship, peer relationship and social support were negatively correlated with Internet addiction (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). Conclusion: The detection rate of Internet addiction among junior middle school students in Chengdu is at a low level. Junior middle school students with low social support and high depression and anxiety have a higher risk of Internet addiction, which can be reduced by improving their mental health

A novel scoring schema for peptide identification by searching protein sequence databases using tandem mass spectrometry data

BACKGROUND: Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) is a powerful tool for protein identification. Although great efforts have been made in scoring the correlation between tandem mass spectra and an amino acid sequence database, improvements could be made in three aspects, including characterization ofpeaks in spectra, adoption of effective scoring functions and access to thereliability of matching between peptides and spectra. RESULTS: A novel scoring function is presented, along with criteria to estimate the performance confidence of the function. Through learning the typesof product ions and the probability of generating them, a hypothetic spectrum was generated for each candidate peptide. Then relative entropy was introduced to measure the similarity between the hypothetic and the observed spectra. Based on the extreme value distribution (EVD) theory, a threshold was chosen to distinguish a true peptide assignment from a random one. Tests on a public MS/MS dataset demonstrated that this method performs better than the well-known SEQUEST. CONCLUSION: A reliable identification of proteins from the spectra promises a more efficient application of tandem mass spectrometry to proteomes with high complexity

Preparation and ferroelectric properties of (124)-oriented SrBi4Ti4O15 ferroelectric thin film on (110)-oriented LaNiO3 electrode

A (124)-oriented SrBi4Ti4O15 (SBTi) ferroelectric thin film with high volume fraction of {\alpha}SBTi(124)=97% was obtained using a metal organic decomposition process on SiO2/Si substrate coated by (110)-oriented LaNiO3 (LNO) thin film. The remanent polarization and coercive field for (124)-oriented SBTi film are 12.1 {\mu}C/cm2 and 74 kV/cm, respectively. No evident fatigue of (124)-oriented SBTi thin film can be observed after 1{\times}10e9 switching cycles. Besides, the (124)-oriented SBTi film can be uniformly polarized over large areas using a piezoelectric-mode atomic force microscope. Considering that the annealing temperature was 650{\deg}C and the thickness of each deposited layer was merely 30 nm, a long-range epitaxial relationship between SBTi(124) and LNO(110) facets was proposed. The epitaxial relationship was demonstrated based on the crystal structures of SBTi and LNO.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, published in Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics (JMSE), 19 (2008), 1031-103