Cochlear implants (CIs) provide coarse representations of pitch, which are adequate for speech but not for music. Despite increasing interest in music processing by CI users, the available information is fragmentary. The present experiment attempted to fill this void by conducting a comprehensive assessment of music processing in adult CI users. CI users (n =6) and normally hearing (NH) controls (n = 12) were tested on several tasks involving melody and rhythm perception, recognition of familiar music, and emotion of recognition in speech and music. CI performance was substantially poorer than NH performance and at chance levels on pitch processing tasks. Performance was highly variable, however, with one individual achieving NH performance levels on some tasks, probably because of low-frequency residual hearing in his unimplanted ear. Future research with a larger sample of CI users can shed light on factors associated with good and poor music processing in this population.

Cytokinins are plant hormones that affect the primary growth of shoots and roots. Application of the cytokinin N6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) to the shoot apical meristem of <i>Arabidopsis thaliana Landsberg erecta </i>(L.) Heynh induces aberrant flower development and a significant genetic response, and some of these phenotypes and expression patterns were carried to the next generation. Analysis of altered transcript levels with Affymetrix GeneChips® indicated significant changes in transcript levels of genes associated with shoot meristem activity, circadian rhythms, cytokinin metabolism, two-component systems, stress and defense responses, auxin regulation, ethylene and salicylic acid biosynthesis, and signal transduction. Specific genes were also mined from the data as potentially responsible for the BAP-induced aberrant floral phenotypes, increased floral organ number, buds in axils of sepals, and mosaic floral organs. Of particular note was a decrease in the transcript levels of CLAVATA1 (CLV1), a gene encoding a receptor kinase involved in organ differentiation and maintenance of shoot and floral meristems. Time course analysis by RT-PCR showed a decline and subsequent recovery of transcript levels of CLV1 and a coincident increase in WUSCHEL (WUS) transcript, consistent with the known suppression of WUS by CLV. WUS encodes a homeodomain protein associated with shoot meristem proliferation. The temporal coincidence of an increased floral organ phenotype with changes in transcript levels of CLV1 and WUS suggests that cytokinins regulate flower development by affecting the activity of genes controlling shoot meristem activity. Aberrant floral phenotypes in subsequent non-treated generations suggest epigenetic inheritance of some BAP-altered transcript patterns. Repressed expression of the majority of significant genes in the untreated T1 population suggests a mechanism of gene silencing, such as methylation, was involved in this epigenetic inheritance. Also, transcript levels of time-keeping genes, including CIRCADIAN CLOCK ASSOCIATED 1 / ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL, and associated genes with oscillating expression patterns, such as COLD-RESPONSIVE, were affected by BAP in treated plants and the subsequent generation, suggesting the capacity of cytokinins to affect the phase of the circadian clock. Hormonal regulation of heritably altered diurnal periodicity and environmental responses may provide a developmental and, therefore, evolutionary advantage to plants.

Cytokinins are plant hormones that affect the primary growth of shoots and roots. Application of the cytokinin N6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) to the shoot apical meristem of <i>Arabidopsis thaliana Landsberg erecta </i>(L.) Heynh induces aberrant flower development and a significant genetic response, and some of these phenotypes and expression patterns were carried to the next generation. Analysis of altered transcript levels with Affymetrix GeneChips® indicated significant changes in transcript levels of genes associated with shoot meristem activity, circadian rhythms, cytokinin metabolism, two-component systems, stress and defense responses, auxin regulation, ethylene and salicylic acid biosynthesis, and signal transduction. Specific genes were also mined from the data as potentially responsible for the BAP-induced aberrant floral phenotypes, increased floral organ number, buds in axils of sepals, and mosaic floral organs. Of particular note was a decrease in the transcript levels of CLAVATA1 (CLV1), a gene encoding a receptor kinase involved in organ differentiation and maintenance of shoot and floral meristems. Time course analysis by RT-PCR showed a decline and subsequent recovery of transcript levels of CLV1 and a coincident increase in WUSCHEL (WUS) transcript, consistent with the known suppression of WUS by CLV. WUS encodes a homeodomain protein associated with shoot meristem proliferation. The temporal coincidence of an increased floral organ phenotype with changes in transcript levels of CLV1 and WUS suggests that cytokinins regulate flower development by affecting the activity of genes controlling shoot meristem activity. Aberrant floral phenotypes in subsequent non-treated generations suggest epigenetic inheritance of some BAP-altered transcript patterns. Repressed expression of the majority of significant genes in the untreated T1 population suggests a mechanism of gene silencing, such as methylation, was involved in this epigenetic inheritance. Also, transcript levels of time-keeping genes, including CIRCADIAN CLOCK ASSOCIATED 1 / ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL, and associated genes with oscillating expression patterns, such as COLD-RESPONSIVE, were affected by BAP in treated plants and the subsequent generation, suggesting the capacity of cytokinins to affect the phase of the circadian clock. Hormonal regulation of heritably altered diurnal periodicity and environmental responses may provide a developmental and, therefore, evolutionary advantage to plants.

In recent years, the music has become more popular due to the evolution of the technology. Various kinds of music around us become more complexity and huge. This explosive growth in the music has generated the urgent need for new techniques and tools that can intelligently and automatically transform the music into useful information, and classify the music into correct music groups precisely. The rhythm query is the fundamental technique in music genre classification and content-based retrieval, which are crucial to multimedia applications. Recently, Christodoulakis et al. has proposed the CIRS algorithm that can be used to classify music duration sequences according to rhythms. In the CIRS algorithm, a rhythm is represented by a sequence of ¡§Quick¡¨ (Q) and ¡§Slow¡¨ (S) symbols, which corresponds to the (relative) duration of notes, such that S = 2Q. In order to classify music by rhythms, the CIRS algorithm locates the MaxCover which is the maximum-length substring of the music duration sequence, which can be covered (overlapping or consecutively) by the rhythm query continuously. During the matching step, one S symbol in the rhythm query can be regarded as two consecutive Q symbols in the duration sequence, but the two consecutive Q symbols in the rhythm query can not be combined as one S symbol in the duration sequence. This definition causes the difficulty for designing the algorithm. The CIRS algorithm contains four steps and repeat Steps 2, 3, and 4 to get local MaxCover for each different duration value of the music duration sequence. Finally, the global MaxCover is computed. We observe that it will generate unnecessary results repeatedly among Steps 2, 3, and 4. Therefore, in this thesis, to avoid repeatedly processing Steps 2, 3, and 4 for each different duration value, we propose the JMC (Jumping-by-MaxCover) algorithm which provides a pruning strategy to find the MaxCover incrementally, resulting in the reducing of the processing cost. In fact, we can make use of the relationship between the MaxCover MX founded by a different duration value X, and use the duration sequences cut by such a different duration value X to reduce the unnecessary process for the other different duration value Y , where Y < X. To make use of this property to reduce the processing time, we propose a cut-sequence structure and update it incrementally to compute the final global MaxCover. In this way, we can skip many steps and find the same answer of the CIRS algorithm. From our simulation results, we show that the running time of the JMC algorithm could be shorter than that of the CIRS algorithm. When the largest different duration value is uniformly distributed in the duration sequence, the running time can be reduced hugely, which is the best case of our proposed JMC algorithm.

Phonetic convergence (PC) is speech specific accommodation characterized by an increase in similarity in a dyad’s speech patterns due to an interaction. Previous research has demonstrated that PC occurs in dyads during various interactive tasks (e.g. map completion and picture matching) and in cross-linguistic conditions (e.g. dyads who speak the same or different native language) (Pardo, 2006; Kim et al., 2011). Studies suggest that speakers who are closer in linguistic distance (i.e. share the same native language) are more likely to converge than speakers who are far apart (i.e. speak different native languages) (Kim et al, 2011). However, Interdialectal conditions where speakers use different national dialects of the same language have been studied to a far lesser extent (Babel, 2010). Similarly, studies have examined both segmental and suprasegmental features that are susceptible to PC but rhythm has not been studied extensively (Krivokapic, 2013; Rao et al., 2011). Though initial studies postulated that PC is the result of either automatic or social processes, more current research suggests that a combination of both kinds of processes may be better able to account for PC (Goldinger, 1997; Shepard et al., 2001; Babel, 2009a). The current dissertation uses novel measures such as Interlocutor Similarity and EMS + centroid to implicate global properties of vowels and rhythm respectively as acoustic correlates of PC. Moreover, it finds that speakers showed both convergence and divergence in vowels and rhythm as moderated by their language background. Close interactions between native speakers of American English (AE) resulted in convergence whereas interdialectal interactions (between AE and Indian English speakers) and mixed language interactions (between native and non-native speakers of AE who are native speakers of SP) resulted in both convergence and divergence. The results from this study may shed light on how speakers attenuate the highly variable nature of speech by adapting speech patterns to aid intelligibility and information sharing (Shepard et al., 2001) and that this attenuation is moderated by social demands such as identity and cultural distinctiveness. / text

The liver maintains energy substrate homeostasis by synchronizing circadian or diurnal expression of metabolic genes with the feeding/fasting state. The activities of hepatic de novo lipogenic gene products peak during feeding, converting carbohydrates into fats that provide vital energy sources for peripheral tissues. Conversely, deregulated hepatic lipid synthesis leads to systemic metabolic dysfunction, establishing the importance of temporal regulation of fat synthesis/usage in metabolic homeostasis. Pharmacological activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor \(\delta / \beta (PPAR \delta / \beta)\)improves glucose handling and systemic insulin sensitivity. However, the mechanisms of hepatic \(PPAR\delta\) actions and the molecular pathways through which it is able to modulate global metabolic homeostasis remain unclear. Here we show that hepatic \(PPAR\delta\) controls the diurnal expression of lipogenic genes in the dark/feeding cycle. Adenovirus mediated liver restricted activation of \(PPAR\delta\) promotes glucose utilization in the liver and fat utilization in the muscle. Liver specific deletion of either \(PPAR\delta\) or the \(PPAR\delta\)-regulated lipogenic gene acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1 (ACC1) reduces muscle fatty acid uptake. Unbiased metabolite profiling identifies 1-stearoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (SOPC) as a serum lipid derived from the hepatic \(PPAR\delta\)-ACC1 activity that reduces postprandial lipid levels and increases muscle fatty acid uptake. These findings reveal a regulatory mechanism that coordinates lipid synthesis and utilization in the liver-muscle axis, providing mechanistic insights into the hepatic regulation of systemic energy substrates homeostasis.

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Temos aktualumas ir naujumas: Muzikos pažinimas neatsiejamas nuo muzikinio rašto pažinimo, nereikia net abejoti, kad muzikinio rašto mokėjimas tik padeda atlikti sudėtingesnes dainas ar kitus muzikos kūrinius, groti ar net kurti muziką patiems. Pažįstant muzikos raštą galima konkrečiai ,,apčiuopti’’ muziką, vizualiai pamatyti dainuojamą dainą ar net klausomą kūrinį (Z. Rinkevičius ,,Mokinių muzikinis ugdymas ’’ 1993, 116p) Tai labai svarbu žmogaus išsilavinimui, muzikinės kultūros požiūriu, nes muzikos meno nusimanymas teorijos klausimais praplečia muzikos pažinimo galimybes. Gyvename visuotinio literatūrinio raštingumo epochoje, priartėjome prie kompiuterinio raštingumo, o štai būtinyb�� pažinti natų raštą daug kam atrodo diskutuotina. Norint mokyklose pakelti dainavimo lygį, manyčiau, kad būtina spręsti šią aktualią muzikos rašto mokymo problemą, nes muzikos rašto pagalba daug greičiau ir sąmoningiau įsisavinami dainuojami kūriniai, lavinami muzikiniai gabumai. Problema: Bendrojo lavinimo mokykloje nuo I iki VIII klasės mokiniai supažindinami tik su minimaliais muzikos rašto pagrindais . Vyresniųjų klasių vadovėliuose muzikos raštui neskiriamas dėmesys, nors mokydamiesi muzikos rašto, mokiniai išmoksta analizuoti ritmus ir melodijas, gali savarankiškai groti ar dainuoti ir tuo kelti savo muzikinę kultūrą. Tyrimo tikslas: Atskleisti muzikos rašto mokymo mūsų mokyklose ypatybes. Pagrįsti, kad muzikos pažinimas neatsiejamas nuo muzikinio rašto... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Topicality and novelty of the theme : Music knowledge is associated with musical script knowledge. There is no doubt that profficiency in musical script helps not only to perform more complicated songs or other musical piece, but as well to play the instrument or even to creat the music themselves. If your know writing you are able to “feel” music, to see a singing song visually or even a listening piece (Z. Rinkevičius “Musical Education for Students” 1993, 116p). It is very important for man's education his outlook on musical culture, because knowing the musical recognition. We are living in a computer literate epoch but necessity to know music for most is discussing topic. If we want to improve a singing level in our schools, we have to solve this serious musical learning problem. Musical writing helps to develop musical skills and adopt the pieces quickly and perfectly. The problem: In secondary school students from I till VIII forms know only minimal skills of musical writing. There is not paying attention on musical writing in coursebooks for senior students although learning musical writing allow them to analize rhythms and melodies, they can play and sing freely and develop their musical skills. The aim of the research: Is to present some particularities of teaching musical writing in our schools, to explain that music is clasely related to musical writing. The subject of the research: Teaching musical writing. The hypothesis of the research: Musical writing has... [to full text]

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