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The ability to perceptually modify drum recording parameters in a post-recording process would be of great benefit to engineers limited by time or equipment. In this work, a data-driven approach to post-recording modification of the dampening and microphone positioning parameters commonly associated with snare drum capture is proposed. The system consists of a deep encoder that analyzes audio input and predicts optimal parameters of one or more third-party audio effects, which are then used to process the audio and produce the desired transformed output audio. Furthermore, two novel audio effects are specifically developed to take advantage of the multiple parameter learning abilities of the system. Perceptual quality of transformations is assessed through a subjective listening test, and an object evaluation is used to measure system performance. Results demonstrate a capacity to emulate snare dampening; however, attempts were not successful for emulating microphone position changes.

Krystyna Jaracz,1 Barbara Grabowska-Fudala,1 Paweł Kleka,2 Maciej Tomczak,3 Anna Smelkowska,1 Aleksandra Pawlicka,4 Krystyna Górna5 1Department of Neurological Nursing, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, Poland; 2Faculty of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland; 3Department of Psychology, Poznan University of Physical Education, Poznań, Poland; 4Independent Researcher, Bydgoszcz, Poland; 5Department of Psychiatric Nursing, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, PolandCorrespondence: Krystyna Jaracz, Department of Neurological Nursing, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, Poland, Tel + 48 618612267, Email jaracz@ump.edu.plPurpose: Most stroke patients require long-term care of their family members. Excessive care burden entails several negative consequences; therefore, the severity of the burden should be periodically assessed. For this purpose, valid multidimensional measures are needed. Our study, which is a part of a larger research project, aims to translate and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Polish Caregiver Burden Scale (CBS) in relation to construct validity and internal consistency in caregivers of the patients after stroke.Patients and Methods: The sample of this cross-sectional observational study consisted of 366 informal caregivers to consecutive first-ever stroke survivors. The five-factor Polish CBS and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were administered during the home visits at three to six months after patients’ hospitalisation. Exploratory (EFA), confirmatory (CFA) factor analyses and a net analysis were performed to investigate the internal structure and a factorial construct validity of the CBS. Correlation analyses between the CBS and the HADS were carried out to examine convergent validity. Cronbach’s alpha and item-total correlation were applied to assess internal consistency.Re

Eutrophication is one of the most important anthropogenic pressures impacting coastal seas. In Europe, several legislations and management measures have been implemented to halt nutrient overloading in marine ecosystems. This study evaluates the impact of freshwater nutrient control measures on higher trophic levels (HTL) in European marine ecosystems following descriptors and criteria as defined by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). We used a novel pan-European marine modeling ensemble of fourteen HTL models, covering almost all the EU seas, under two nutrient management scenarios. Results from our projections suggest that the proposed nutrient reduction measures may not have a significant impact on the structure and function of European marine ecosystems. Among the assessed criteria, the spawning stock biomass of commercially important fish stocks and the biomass of small pelagic fishes would be the most impacted, albeit with values lower than 2.5%. For the other criteria/indicators, such as species diversity and trophic level indicators, the impact was lower. The Black Sea and the North-East Atlantic were the most negatively impacted regions, while the Baltic Sea was the only region showing signs of improvement. Coastal and shelf areas were more sensitive to environmental changes than large regional and sub-regional ecosystems that also include open seas. This is the first pan-European multi-model comparison study used to assess the impacts of land-based measures on marine and coastal European ecosystems through a set of selected ecological indicators. Since anthropogenic pressures are expanding apace in the marine environment and policy makers need to use rapid and effective policy measures for fast-changing environments, this modeling framework is an essential asset in supporting and guiding EU policy needs and decisions.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are an important tool for management and conservation and play an increasingly recognised role in societal and human well-being. However, the assessment of MPAs often lacks a simultaneous consideration of ecological and socio-economic outcomes, and this can lead to misconceptions on the effectiveness of MPAs. In this perspective, we present a transdisciplinary approach based on the Delphi method for mapping and evaluating Marine Protected Areas for their ability to protect biodiversity while providing Ecosystem Services (ES) and related human well-being benefits - i.e., the ecosystem outputs from which people benefit. We highlight the need to include the human dimensions of marine protection in such assessments, given that the effectiveness of MPAs over time is conditional on the social, cultural and institutional contexts in which MPAs evolve. Our approach supports Ecosystem-Based Management and highlights the importance of MPAs in achieving restoration, conservation, and sustainable development objectives in relation to EU Directives such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive (MSPD), and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

Neural audio synthesizers exploit deep learning as an alternative to traditional synthesizers that generate audio from hand-designed components such as oscillators and wavetables. For a neural audio synthesizer to be applicable to music creation, meaningful control over the output is essential. This paper provides an overview of an unsupervised approach to deriving useful feature controls learned by a generative model. A system for generation and transformation of drum samples using a style-based generative adversarial network (GAN) is proposed. The system provides functional control of audio style features, based on principal component analysis (PCA) applied to the intermediate latent space. Additionally, we propose the use of an encoder trained to invert input drums back to the latent space of the pre-trained GAN. We experiment with three modes of control and provide audio results on a supporting website.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are an important tool for management and conservation and play an increasingly recognised role in societal and human well-being. However, the assessment of MPAs often lacks a simultaneous consideration of ecological and socio-economic outcomes, and this can lead to misconceptions on the effectiveness of MPAs. In this perspective, we present a transdisciplinary approach based on the Delphi method for mapping and evaluating Marine Protected Areas for their ability to protect biodiversity while providing Ecosystem Services (ES) and related human well-being benefits – i.e., the ecosystem outputs from which people benefit. We highlight the need to include the human dimensions of marine protection in such assessments, given that the effectiveness of MPAs over time is conditional on the social, cultural and institutional contexts in which MPAs evolve. Our approach supports Ecosystem-Based Management and highlights the importance of MPAs in achieving restoration, conservation, and sustainable development objectives in relation to EU Directives such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive (MSPD), and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)

Eutrophication is one of the most important anthropogenic pressures impacting coastal seas. In Europe, several legislations and management measures have been implemented to halt nutrient overloading in marine ecosystems. This study evaluates the impact of freshwater nutrient control measures on higher trophic levels (HTL) in European marine ecosystems following descriptors and criteria as defined by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). We used a novel pan-European marine modeling ensemble of fourteen HTL models, covering almost all the EU seas, under two nutrient management scenarios. Results from our projections suggest that the proposed nutrient reduction measures may not have a significant impact on the structure and function of European marine ecosystems. Among the assessed criteria, the spawning stock biomass of commercially important fish stocks and the biomass of small pelagic fishes would be the most impacted, albeit with values lower than 2.5%. For the other criteria/indicators, such as species diversity and trophic level indicators, the impact was lower. The Black Sea and the North-East Atlantic were the most negatively impacted regions, while the Baltic Sea was the only region showing signs of improvement. Coastal and shelf areas were more sensitive to environmental changes than large regional and sub-regional ecosystems that also include open seas. This is the first pan-European multi-model comparison study used to assess the impacts of land-based measures on marine and coastal European ecosystems through a set of selected ecological indicators. Since anthropogenic pressures are expanding apace in the marine environment and policy makers need to use rapid and effective policy measures for fast-changing environments, this modeling framework is an essential asset in supporting and guiding EU policy needs and decisions

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Identifying key indicator species, their life cycle dynamics and the multiple driving forces they are affected by is an important step in ecosystem-based management. Similarly important is understanding how environmental changes and trophic interactions shape future trajectories of key species with potential implications for ecosystem state and service provision. We here present a statistical modeling framework to assess and quantify cumulative effects on the long-term dynamics of the copepod Pseudocalanus acuspes, a key species in the Baltic Sea. Our model integrates linear and non-linear responses to changes in life stage density, climate and predation pressure as well as stochastic processes. We use the integrated life cycle model to simulate copepod dynamics under a combination of stressor scenarios and to identify conditions under which population responses are potentially mitigated or magnified. Our novel modeling approach reliably captures the historical P. acuspes population dynamics and allows us to identify females in spring and younger copepodites in summer as stages most sensitive to direct and indirect effects of the main environmental stressors, salinity and temperature. Our model simulations furthermore demonstrate that population responses to stressors are dampened through density effects. Multiple stressor interactions were mostly additive except when acting on the same life stage. Here, negative synergistic and positive dampening effects lead to a lower total population size than expected under additive interactions. As a consequence, we found that a favorable increase of oxygen and phosphate conditions together with a reduction in predation pressure by 50% each could counteract the negative effect of a 25% decrease in salinity by only 6%. Ultimately, our simulations suggest that P. acuspes will most certainly decline under a potential freshening of the Baltic Sea and increasing temperatures, which is conditional on the extent of the assumed climat