Search Results (8)

This study explores the feasibility of introducing Gregorian chant into contemporary Chinese Methodist worship in Malaysia. Using ethnographic methods including participant observation, interviews, and focus groups, this article documents a pilot study conducted at Sing Ang Tong Methodist Church in Sibu, Sarawak, where seven singers learned and performed the communion chant Gustate et videte. Three different transcription editions were created to bridge the gap between medieval square notation and modern Western notation, which is more familiar to the participants. The chant was translated into Chinese alongside the original Latin text. The majority preferred the quaver-crotchet notation edition and supported performing the chant in both Latin and Chinese to balance authenticity with accessibility. Participants found the modal melodic structure and free rhythm challenging initially but developed appreciation for the chant’s meditative qualities. The performance during Holy Communion services in October 2022 received mixed congregational responses, with many describing it as creating a “calm and prayerful atmosphere” while some expressed discomfort with the unfamiliar musical style. The study demonstrates that Gregorian chant can be successfully integrated into Chinese Methodist worship contexts, particularly during solemn liturgical occasions, when approached with appropriate liturgical sensitivity and cultural adaptation. Full article

This article presents an in-depth examination of the technical and cultural dimensions of singing practices within the traditional music of sub-Saharan Africa. Utilizing an extensive body of theoretical and ethnomusicological research, comparative transcription, and culturally situated observation, it presents a comprehensive framework for understanding the significance of the human voice in various performance contexts. The study revolves around a tripartite model—auditory clarity, ambiguous auditory clarity, and occlusion—that delineates the varying levels of audibility of vocal lines amidst intricate instrumental arrangements. The article examines case studies from West, East, and Southern Africa, highlighting essential vocal techniques such as straight tone, nasal resonance, ululation, and controlled (or delayed) vibrato. It underscores the complex interplay between language, melody, and rhythm in tonal languages. The analysis delves into the influence of sound reinforcement technologies on vocal presence and cultural authenticity, positing that PA systems have the capacity to either enhance or disrupt the equilibrium between traditional aesthetics and modern requirements. This research is firmly rooted in a blend of African and Western theoretical frameworks, drawing upon the contributions of Nketia, Agawu, Chernoff, and Kubik. It proposes a nuanced methodology that integrates technical analysis with cultural significance. It posits that singing in African traditional music transcends mere expression, serving as a vessel for collective memory, identity, and the socio-musical framework. The article concludes by emphasizing the enduring strength and flexibility of African vocal traditions, illustrating their capacity for evolution while preserving fundamental communicative and artistic values. Full article

DNA gyrase is a bacterial type IIA topoisomerase that can create temporary double-stranded DNA breaks to regulate DNA topology and an archetypical target of antibiotics. The widely used quinolone class of drugs use a water–metal ion bridge in interacting with the GyrA subunit of DNA gyrase. Zoliflodacin sits in the same pocket as quinolones but interacts with the GyrB subunit and also stabilizes lethal double-stranded DNA breaks. Gepotidacin has been observed to sit on the twofold axis of the complex, midway between the two four-base-pair separated DNA-cleavage sites and has been observed to stabilize singe-stranded DNA breaks. Here, we use information from three crystal structures of complexes of Staphlococcus aureus DNA gyrase (one with a precursor of gepotidacin and one with the progenitor of zoliflodacin) to propose a simple single moving metal-ion-catalyzed DNA-cleavage mechanism. Our model explains why the catalytic tyrosine is in the tyrosinate (negatively charged) form for DNA cleavage. Movement of a single catalytic metal-ion (Mg²⁺ or Mn²⁺) guides water-mediated protonation and cleavage of the scissile phosphate, which is then accepted by the catalytic tyrosinate. Type IIA topoisomerases need to be able to rapidly cut the DNA when it becomes positively supercoiled (in front of replication forks and transcription bubbles) and we propose that the original purpose of the small Greek Key domain, common to all type IIA topoisomerases, was to allow access of the catalytic metal to the DNA-cleavage site. Although the proposed mechanism is consistent with published data, it is not proven and other mechanisms have been proposed. Finally, how such mechanisms can be experimentally distinguished is considered. Full article

Music transcription is the process of transforming recorded sound of musical performances into symbolic representations such as sheet music or MIDI files. Extensive research and development have been carried out in the field of music transcription and technology. This comprehensive review paper surveys the diverse methodologies, techniques, and advancements that have shaped the landscape of music transcription. The paper outlines the significance of music transcription in preserving, analyzing, and disseminating musical compositions across various genres and cultures. It also provides a historical perspective by tracing the evolution of music transcription from traditional manual methods to modern automated approaches. It also highlights the challenges in transcription posed by complex singing techniques, variations in instrumentation, ambiguity in pitch, tempo changes, rhythm, and dynamics. The review also categorizes four different types of transcription techniques, frame-level, note-level, stream-level, and notation-level, discussing their strengths and limitations. It also encompasses the various research domains of music transcription from general melody extraction to vocal melody, note-level monophonic to polyphonic vocal transcription, single-instrument to multi-instrument transcription, and multi-pitch estimation. The survey further covers a broad spectrum of music transcription applications in music production and creation. It also reviews state-of-the-art open-source as well as commercial music transcription tools for pitch estimation, onset and offset detection, general melody detection, and vocal melody detection. In addition, it also encompasses the currently available python libraries that can be used for music transcription. Furthermore, the review highlights the various open-source benchmark datasets for different areas of music transcription. It also provides a wide range of references supporting the historical context, theoretical frameworks, and foundational concepts to help readers understand the background of music transcription and the context of our paper. Full article

Synchronisation of a voice recording with the corresponding text is a common task in speech and music processing, and is used in many practical applications (automatic subtitling, audio indexing, etc.). A common approach derives a mid-level feature from the audio and finds its alignment to the text by means of maximizing a similarity measure via Dynamic Time Warping (DTW). Recently, a Connectionist Temporal Classification (CTC) approach was proposed that directly emits character probabilities and uses those to find the optimal text-to-voice alignment. While this method yields promising results, the memory complexity of the optimal alignment search remains quadratic in input lengths, limiting its application to relatively short recordings. In this work, we describe how recent improvements brought to the textbook DTW algorithm can be adapted to the CTC context to achieve linear memory complexity. We then detail our overall solution and demonstrate that it can align text to several hours of audio with a mean alignment error of 50 ms for speech, and 120 ms for singing voice, which corresponds to a median alignment error that is below 50 ms for both voice types. Finally, we evaluate its robustness to transcription errors and different languages. Full article

Singing voice detection or vocal detection is a classification task that determines whether there is a singing voice in a given audio segment. This process is a crucial preprocessing step that can be used to improve the performance of other tasks such as automatic lyrics alignment, singing melody transcription, singing voice separation, vocal melody extraction, and many more. This paper presents a survey on the techniques of singing voice detection with a deep focus on state-of-the-art algorithms such as convolutional LSTM and GRU-RNN. It illustrates a comparison between existing methods for singing voice detection, mainly based on the Jamendo and RWC datasets. Long-term recurrent convolutional networks have reached impressive results on public datasets. The main goal of the present paper is to investigate both classical and state-of-the-art approaches to singing voice detection. Full article

Automatic singing transcription and analysis from polyphonic music records are essential in a number of indexing techniques for computational auditory scenes. To obtain a note-level sequence in this work, we divide the singing transcription task into two subtasks: melody extraction and note transcription. We construct a salience function in terms of harmonic and rhythmic similarity and a measurement of spectral balance. Central to our proposed method is the measurement of melody contours, which are calculated using edge searching based on their continuity properties. We calculate the mean contour salience by separating melody analysis from the adjacent breakpoint connective strength matrix, and we select the final melody contour to determine MIDI notes. This unique method, combining audio signals with image edge analysis, provides a more interpretable analysis platform for continuous singing signals. Experimental analysis using Music Information Retrieval Evaluation Exchange (MIREX) datasets shows that our technique achieves promising results both for audio melody extraction and polyphonic singing transcription. Full article

Significant transcriptional heterogeneity is an inherent property of complex tissues such as tumors and healing wounds. Traditional methods of high-throughput analysis rely on pooling gene expression data from hundreds of thousands of cells and reporting a population-wide average that is unable to capture differences within distinct cell subsets. Recent advances in microfluidic technology have permitted the development of large-scale single cell analytic methods that overcome this limitation. The increased granularity afforded by such approaches allows us to answer the critical question of whether expansion in cell culture significantly alters the transcriptional characteristics of cells isolated from primary tissue. Here we examine an established population of human adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) using a novel, microfluidic-based method for high-throughput transcriptional interrogation, coupled with advanced bioinformatic analysis, to evaluate the dynamics of single cell gene expression among primary, passage 0, and passage 1 stem cells. We find significant differences in the transcriptional profiles of cells from each group, as well as a considerable shift in subpopulation dynamics as those subgroups better able to adhere and proliferate under these culture conditions gradually emerge as dominant. Taken together, these findings reinforce the importance of using primary or very early passage cells in future studies. Full article