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RESUME: La réalisation des voyelles nasales constitue l'un des traits les plus saillants de la phonologie des variétés méridionales, ces voyelles étant généralement réalisées comme des voyelles orales ou partiellement nasalisées suivies d'un appendice nasal. S'il existe un certain nombre d'études qui ont documenté la variation sociale, certains paramètres linguistiques ou encore l'influence du substrat occitan dans la genèse de ces voyelles dans le Midi, les dynamiques à l'œuvre dans le nivellement de ces voyelles vers des réalisations plus proches du français septentrional sont encore assez mal comprises. À partir d'une étude statistique détaillée basée sur un corpus de 22 locuteurs enregistrés à Marseille, le principal centre urbain de la moitié sud de la France, nous montrons l'importance de plusieurs facteurs socio-situationnels (tâche, âge, sexe et positionnement attitudinal vis-à-vis de l'accent méridional), ainsi que de plusieurs facteurs linguistiques (timbre de la voyelle, position dans le mot, contexte droit et fréquence lexicale du mot hôte). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The percentage of wildfires that are ignited by an undetermined origin is substantial in Europe and Mediterranean France. Forest fire experts have recognized the significance of fires with an unknown ignition source since documentation and research of fire causes are important for creating appropriate fire policies and prevention strategies. The use of machine learning in wildfire science has increased considerably and is driven by the increasing availability of large and high-quality datasets. However, the absence of comprehensive fire-cause data hinders the utility of existing fire databases. This study trains and applies a machine-learning based model to classify the cause of fire ignition based on several environmental and anthropogenic features in Southern France using an eXplainable Artificial Intelligence framework. The results demonstrate that the source of unknown caused wildfires can be predicted at various levels of accuracy/natural fires have the highest accuracy (F1-score 0.87) compared to human-caused fires such as accidental (F1-score 0.74) and arson (F1-score 0.64). Factors related to spatiotemporal properties as well as topographic characteristics are considered the most important features in determining the classification of unknown caused fires for the specific area.

Accompaniment production is one of the most important elements in music work, and chord arrangement is the key link of accompaniment production, which usually requires more musical talent and profound music theory knowledge to be competent. In this article, the machine learning model is used to replace manual accompaniment chords' arrangement, and an automatic computer means is provided to complete and assist accompaniment chords' arrangement. Also, through music feature extraction, automatic chord label construction, and model construction and training, the whole system finally has the ability of automatic accompaniment chord arrangement for the main melody. Based on the research of automatic chord label construction method and the characteristics of MIDI data format, a chord analysis method based on interval difference is proposed to construct chord labels of the whole track and realize the construction of automatic chord labels. In this study, the hidden Markov model is constructed according to the chord types, in which the input features are the improved theme PCP features proposed in this paper, and the input labels are the label data set constructed by the automated method proposed in this paper. After the training is completed, the PCP features of the theme to be predicted and improved are input to generate the accompaniment chords of the final arrangement. Through PCP features and template-matching model, the system designed in this paper improves the matching accuracy of the generated chords compared with that generated by the traditional method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the discovery of a population of the exotic North African Water Frog Pelophylax saharicus around the Etang de Berre, on the Mediterranean coast of France, about 25 km north-west of Marseille. The animals had been originally identified as P. perezi or P. kl. grafi by a combination of acoustic and morphological characters and their true identity was not revealed until three samples from one locality were included in a large-scale genomic work dedicated to the genus Pelophylax. Mitochondrial barcoding of the samples from other areas around Etang de Berre did not detect any native P. perezi or P. kl. grafi and confirmed that P. saharicus has spread to several localities, does reproduce and has been present since 2011 at least. We suggest that dedicated field work is needed as soon as possible to (i) map the extant of P. saharicus 's distribution around the Etang de Berre, (ii) establish if populations of the native P. perezi – kl. grafi system still persist around the Etang de Berre or not and (iii) check if P. saharicus has spread to neighboring areas or not. Depending on the answers to these three questions, local conservationists will need to evaluate the feasibility and relevance of any action to control the spread of this new invasive species and attempt to eradicate it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Massif Central in France could potentially harbor numerous ancient endemic lineages owing to its long history of continuous geological stability. Several endemic earthworm species inhabit the area, with Allolobophora (Gatesona) chaetophora, Helodrilus (Acystodrilus) and Avelona ligra showing hints of a common evolutionary origin. However, the phylogenetic relationships and taxonomic status of the species remain to be studied through integrative molecular and morphological methods. To this end, eight species including most of the known species and subspecies of All. (Gatesona), Helodrilus (Acystodrilus) musicus, and Avelona ligra were sequenced for a set of five molecular markers. The species were grouped on the basis of the molecular findings in a phylogenetic framework. All. (Gatesona) was included within the same clade as Helodrilus (Acystodrilus) and Avelona, separated from Allolobophora sensu stricto, supporting its status as a good genus. Branch lengths and average pairwise genetic distances suggested the subspecies of All. (Gatesona) chaetophora examined should be considered species-level taxa. Thus, a generic diagnosis for Gatesona stat. nov. is provided, along with redescriptions of Gatesona chaetophora comb. nov., Gatesona rutena comb. nov. stat. nov., Gatesona lablacherensis comb. nov. stat. nov. and Gatesona serninensis comb. nov. stat. nov. The study findings highlight the need for further sampling of earthworm diversity in the Massif Central (and Southern France), in addition to an increased focus on the Eastern European species of Helodrilus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preventive excavation in the ancient Forum Iulii city (Fréjus, southern France) in 2013 revealed a housing block where a very well preserved charred wooden floor was discovered. It was laid in a house dating back to the first half of the 1st century AD and used as the floor of a room decorated with painted plaster. It was destroyed by fire around 70 AD. The ligneous species used for its construction (Aleppo pine, Scots pine, beech and fir) were characterized by anthracological analysis. Numerous traces of xylophagous insects and lignivorous fungi were observed. Their identification, their number and their distribution in the floor open on to very interesting new interpretations for both anthracologists and archaeologists as regards the condition of timber, the original source of the infestation, and the historical record of the building. This study is a direct and unprecedented application of a key for identifying traces of wood-boring insects in charred remains from the Roman period. Field samples were tested during the excavation of Camelin block, and microscope observation protocols were adapted to entomo-archaeology during anthraco-analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music is a fundamental human construct, and harmony provides the building blocks of musical language. Using the Kunstderfuge corpus of classical music, we analyze the historical evolution of the richness of harmonic vocabulary of 76 classical composers, covering almost 6 centuries. Such corpus comprises about 9500 pieces, resulting in more than 5 million tokens of music codewords. The fulfilment of Heaps' law for the relation between the size of the harmonic vocabulary of a composer (in codeword types) and the total length of his works (in codeword tokens), with an exponent around 0.35, allows us to define a relative measure of vocabulary richness that has a transparent interpretation. When coupled with the considered corpus, this measure allows us to quantify harmony richness across centuries, unveiling a clear increasing linear trend. In this way, we are able to rank the composers in terms of richness of vocabulary, in the same way as for other related metrics, such as entropy. We find that the latter is particularly highly correlated with our measure of richness. Our approach is not specific for music and can be applied to other systems built by tokens of different types, as for instance natural language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving knowledge on the epidemiology and analysing the prognostic factors of severity for injuries caused by fighting bulls in Spain, Portugal and southern France. Observational retrospective study including 1239 patients with a reported history of bull horn injuries between January 2012 and November 2019 in Spain, Portugal or southern France. A multiple logistic regression test was used to analyse the prognostic factors of severity and mortality rate of these lesions. The mean accident rate was 9.13% and the mortality rate was 0.48%. The most frequent mechanism of trauma was goring, and the commonest locations of the lesions were thigh and groin. Vascular lesion was found in 20% of thigh/groin gorings. Prognostic factors of severity were vascular lesion, head trauma, fracture, goring injuries and age of the animal. The most reliable prognostic factors of mortality were vascular lesion and goring in the back. Lesions caused by fighting bulls are common in the bullfighting events held in Spain, Portugal and southern France. Although the mortality rate is low, there is a higher morbidity rate, which is conditioned by vascular lesion. All medical teams should include a surgeon experienced in vascular surgery and an anaesthesiologist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Transition toward quality wine production in the Midi region of southern France reflects wider norms in French quality agro-food production and regulation but also departs from it. • Diverse practices and policies comprising a move toward more sustainable wine production in the Midi are highly relevant to the shift to quality wine making but are not synonymous with it. • The Midi shift to quality wine production involves a dynamic re-articulation of independent and cooperative modes of vinification and includes important changes to cooperative practices and governance. • Cooperative growers have been slower than independent growers in the uptake of more sustainable agronomic practices, owing in large measure to economic and logistical challenges. • In-depth profile of three ethnographic subjects highlights ways that individuals negotiate and give shape to broad changes in the Midi winescape but also the ways these individuals make choices constrained by broader social, institutional and environmental context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The fight against flooding is a priority and tends to put aside other concerns. • Especially as demographic and urban pressure is strong. • Local actors confuse certain legal requirements with the dismantling of bitumen infrastructure. • Cultural and organisational changes are needed. • Participatory approaches could help win wider support. Urban pavements, which help to maintain clean and secure streets, generate large amounts of runoff that aggravate flooding and degrade the quality of surface water. In the context of ecological and climatic crisis, they also contribute to the creation of heat islands in cities, as well as hindering biodiversity. So greening cities must be encouraged. Our article highlights the case of Montpellier – Mediterranean Metropolis (Montpellier 3M, Southern France), which is undergoing one of the highest rates of demographic and urban growth in France. It asks questions around the impact of increased construction on the quality of water in small and fragile coastal catchment areas by the Mediterranean. It also examines local collective action in an attempt to identify the brakes and levers on greening initiatives for the effective management of runoff water, encouraged by legislation: de-paving, setting up rain gardens and returning to permeable urban soils. We use empirical material collected during sociological research in addition to hydrological and chemical measurements. Our aim was to elucidate the perspectives of a wide range of stakeholders, since an understanding of these is crucial in adapting blue-green infrastructure to the local context so that it is both efficient and accepted as a legitimate solution. Our examination suggests ways to think democratically about the dismantling of bitumen road paving to slow down urban water flows and thus improve the habitability of Southern European cities in a context of climatic and ecological crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New mosasaurid remains (Squamata) were collected from various Santonian localities in the Sougraigne area (Aude Department, southern France). Cranial bones, some vertebrae, two scapulae and a phalanx are assigned to the plioplatecarpine Platecarpus cf. tympaniticus , while pelvic bones, two vertebrae and a femur (?) are referred to Tylosaurus sp. Tooth marks made by sharks, teleosts or mosasaurids are observed on the mosasaurid vertebrae. These Santonian (86.3–83.6 Ma) Platecarpus occurrences, known since almost one century, are the oldest from Europe. This deposit also yielded some elasmobranch teeth, belonging to taxa such as Squalicorax kaupi , Cretoxyrhina mantelli , Cretolamna sp. and Polyacrodus brabanticus. A review of plioplatecarpine palaeobiogeographical distribution through Late Cretaceous suggests that it follows that of other mosasaurid clades, reaching a worldwide distribution by Maastrichtian time, probably favored by marine routes largely opened at this time. • New mosasaurid remains from the Santonian of Sougraigne (France) belonging to Platecarpus and Tylosaurus are described. • These taxa, as well as the presence of sharks (mainly Squalicorax kaupi) indicate an open nearshore marine environment. • A review of plioplatecarpine palaeobiogeographical distribution indicates a worldwide distribution by Maastrichtian time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molecular studies are often essential to infer phylogenetic relationships and biogeography in troglobiotic taxa, frequently characterised by convergent adaptations and cryptic species. Genetic analysis is a particularly useful tool in Dinaric karst, where palaeogeographic history complicates the interpretation of the evolutionary history of cave organisms. In this paper we estimate phylogenetic relationships in an entirely troglobiotic group of perceivable cirolanid isopods, inhabiting Dinarides and other Mediterranean regions, by a DNA-based approach, with a particular attention to the genus Sphaeromides. The originally more extensive genus Sphaeromides appears limited to S. raymondi in Southern France, while we suggest restoring the genus and name Trogloaega for the Dinaric taxa, previously attributed to Sphaeromides. The name and taxon Trogloaega have never been scientifically invalidated, just ignored. Results indicated that S. virei, formerly divided into three subspecies, consists of two or three distinct species, now named T. virei, T. mediodalmatina and T. montenigrina, the latter molecularly closer to T. mediodalmatina. The genus Trogloaega is genetically distant from Sphaeromides. Sphaeromides bureschi from Balkans (Bulgaria, Serbia) appeared closer to Trogloaega than to Sphaeromides. Our results contribute to the awareness that the isopod morphology is characterised by high level of homoplasy and molecular phylogenetic analyses are essential in identifying taxonomic units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of this article is an eight-page manuscript preserved in the Cairo Genizah (Ms. Cambridge T-S K14.14), which we identified as a fragment of a mid-15th century copy of Abraham Avigdor’s Hebrew translation of Gerard de Solo’s Practica super nono Almansoris. Besides the edition and translation of the fragment, we discuss the historical and textual background of Abraham Avigdor’s work. A special focus of the article lies in the extensive use of Latin and, in particular, Old Occitan medical terminology in Avigdor’s text, as evidenced in the fragment. This issue is discussed against the background of the Jewish-Christian contact and collaboration that took place in the medical centers of Southern France during the 14th century [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Malaria is a potentially lethal parasitic disease due to infection by Plasmodium parasites, transmitted by Anopheles mosquito vectors. Various preventative measures may be recommended for travellers who visit endemic areas. The diagnosis is generally evoked in the context of a febrile patient returning from an endemic zone. Nevertheless, symptoms and clinical signs may be difficult to interpret, and fatal cases may only be diagnosed retrospectively with laboratory techniques, specific pathological features and patient history. The present work reports a case of fatal cerebral malaria diagnosed post-mortem, along with the techniques that allowed identification of the causative agent. Case presentation: A 29 year-old male was found dead in his rental home during a vacation in Southern France. In the absence of explainable cause, an autopsy was performed, which did not retrieve major lesions. In the context of frequent business-related travels in tropical Africa, several samples were adressed for parasitological examination. Microscopy techniques, along with immunochromatographic and molecular biology assays, led to post-mortem diagnosis of fatal cerebral malaria. It was discovered in retrospect that the patient had not used preventative measures against malaria when travelling in endemic zones, and had not been provided with proper travel medicine counseling prior to his travel. Conclusion: A vast proportion of imported malaria cases reported in France concerns patients who did not use preventive measures, such as bed nets, repellents or chemoprophylaxis. Given the wide availability of prevention tools in developed countries, and the important number of declared imported malaria cases, there is no doubt traveller awareness still needs to be raised. Moreover, healthcare professionals should always question travel history in febrile patients. The authors advocate for recurrent information campaigns for travellers, and physician training for a better prevention and diagnosis of malaria cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an extension of Iannis Xenakis's Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis (DSS) called Diffusion Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis (DDSS). This extension solves a diffusion equation whose solutions can be used to map particle positions to amplitude values of several breakpoints in a waveform, following traditional concepts of DSS by directly shaping the waveform of a sound. One significant difference between DSS and DDSS is that the latter includes a drift in the Brownian trajectories that each breakpoint experiences through time. Diffusion Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis can also be used in other ways, such as to control the amplitude values of an oscillator bank using additive synthesis, shaping in this case the spectrum, not the waveform. This second modality goes against Xenakis's original desire to depart from classical Fourier synthesis. The results of spectral analyses of the DDSS waveform approach, implemented using the software environment Max, are discussed and compared with the results of a simplified version of DSS to which, despite the similarity in the overall form of the frequency spectrum, noticeable differences are found. In addition to the Max implementation of the basic DDSS algorithm, a MIDI-controlled synthesizer is also presented here. With DDSS we introduce a real physical process, in this case diffusion, into traditional stochastic synthesis. This sort of sonification can suggest models of sound synthesis that are more complex and grounded in physical concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Female migrant workers (FMWs) across media and cultural spheres, humanitarian forums and academia are often represented as passive and parochial 'Third World' victims with little to no agency over their lives and bodies. In cinema, migrant agency persists in being circumscribed within hegemonic scripts of gender-specific moralities and the neoliberal ethic of individual capability and economic value. Hierarchies and biases are resultantly constructed among these underprivileged, racialized female subjects, as affirmative recognition is conferred to those considered deserving of commiseration and those who do not. This paper surveys a range of films that have emerged from South East Asia alongside current debates on the feminization of labour migration, and traces the shifting representations of agency among precarious migrant women to examine the complex relation between agency and recognition. It draws on Joel Fendelman and Patrick Daly's Remittance (2015) and Midi Z's The Road to Mandalay (2016) and their appraisal of migrant agency to examine alternative potentialities for agency to be recognized and reimagined in various contexts of patriarchal dominance, racial inequality and capital control beyond formulaic representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative evaluation of piano performance is of interests in many fields, including music education and computational performance rendering. Previous studies utilized features extracted from audio or musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) files but did not address the difference between hands (DBH), which might be an important aspect of high-quality performance. Therefore, we investigated DBH as an important factor determining performance proficiency. To this end, 34 experts and 34 amateurs were recruited to play two excerpts on a Yamaha Disklavier. Each performance was recorded in MIDI, and handcrafted features were extracted separately for the right hand (RH) and left hand (LH). These were conventional MIDI features representing temporal and dynamic attributes of each note and computed as absolute values (e. g., MIDI velocity) or ratios between performance and corresponding scores (e. g., ratio of duration or inter-onset interval (IOI)). These note-based features were rearranged into additional features representing DBH by simple subtraction between features of both hands. Statistical analyses showed that DBH was more significant in experts than in amateurs across features. Regarding temporal features, experts pressed keys longer and faster with the RH than did amateurs. Regarding dynamic features, RH exhibited both greater values and a smoother change along melodic intonations in experts that in amateurs. Further experiments using principal component analysis (PCA) and support vector machine (SVM) verified that hand-difference features can successfully differentiate experts from amateurs according to performance proficiency. Moreover, existing note-based raw feature values (Basic features) and DBH features were tested repeatedly via 10-fold cross-validation, suggesting that adding DBH features to Basic features improved F1 scores to 93.6% (by 3.5%) over Basic features. Our results suggest that differently controlling both hands simultaneously is an important skill for pianists; therefore, DBH features should be considered in the quantitative evaluation of piano performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[vstplugin~] is a cross-platform Pure Data external for hosting VST 2 and VST 3 plugins that has been developed at the IEM in Graz. The external provides an extensive set of features which span several topics, such as channel layout, plugin search, real-time safety, GUI editor, parameter automation, preset management, MIDI events, transport and timing, bridging and sandboxing, multithreading and offline processing. We show the development process and discuss previous work in this area. We also cover the history of the VST technology, explain the differences between the VST 2 and VST 3 SDK and offer insight into their inner workings. Finally, we discuss possible improvements and extensions for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have developed the dynamical model of a clumpy torus in an active galactic nucleus (AGN) and compared to recent The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observations. We present N -body simulations of a torus in the field of a supermassive black hole (SMBH), made of up to N  = 105 gravitationally interacting clouds. As initial conditions, we choose random distributions of the orbital elements of the clouds with a cut-off in the inclination to mimic the presence of wind cones produced at the early AGN stage. When the torus reaches an equilibrium, it has a doughnut shape. We discuss the presence of box orbits. We have then constructed the velocity and velocity dispersion maps using the resulting distributions of the clouds at equilibrium. The effects of torus inclination and cloud sizes are duly analysed. We discuss the obscuration effects of the clouds using a ray tracing simulation matching the model maps to ALMA resolution. By comparing the model with the observational maps of NGC 1068, we find that the SMBH mass is |$M_\text{smbh}=5\times 10^6 \, \mathrm{M}_\odot$| for the range of the torus inclination angles 45°–60°. We also construct the velocity dispersion maps for NGC 1326 and NGC 1672. They show that the peaks in the ALMA dispersion maps are related to the emission of the torus throat. Finally, we obtain the temperature distribution maps with parameters that correspond to our model velocity maps for NGC 1068. They show stratification in temperature distribution with the shape of the high-temperature region as in the VLTI/MIDI map. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excavation work carried out at Istres and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (Provence, Southern France), in the framework of preventive archaeology, uncovered evidence of ancient gardens (13/14th–17th centuries), equipped with lined wells. Significant numbers of waterlogged remains of fruit species as well as legumes and condiments provided information on the availability of "healthy" foods to complement and diversify the daily diet of urban dwellers, largely dependent on bread. Other herbaceous plants reflecting the background environment of this agriculture-arboriculture production are also identified (weeds, ruderals, plants from meadows and other humid habitats etc.). The archaeobotanical assemblage identified in both sites also includes Ricinus communis, a highly toxic plant. As far as we know this is the first time Ricinus seeds are recorded by archaeobotany in Europe. The likely significance of this discovery is discussed taking into account the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental contexts of the findings and the known history of this plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a theoretical framework of the circular shift network coding system through the study of nonmultiple clustered interval music performance style conversion and the analysis of music conversion by using circular shift topology, and a series of basic research results of circular shift network coding is obtained under this framework. It reveals the essential connection between scalar network coding based on finite domain and cyclic shift network coding, designs a solution construction algorithm for cyclic shift network coding under multicast network, and portrays the multicast capacity of cyclic shift network coding. It overcomes the problem that the piano roll-curtain representation cannot distinguish between a single long note and multiple consecutive notes of the same pitch, describes musical information more comprehensively, extracts musical implicit style from the note matrix based on autoencoder, and better eliminates the potential influence of musical content on musical performance style. A two-way recurrent neural network based on the gated recurrent unit is used to extract a sequence of note feature vectors of different styles, and a one-dimensional convolutional neural network is used to predict the intensity of the extracted note feature vector sequence for a specific style, which better learns the intensity variation of different styles of MIDI music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many indices are used to monitor drought events. However, different indices have different data requirements and applications. Hence, evaluating their applicability will help to characterize drought events and refine the development of effective drought indices. We constructed different drought indices based on multisource remote sensing data and comprehensively evaluated and compared their applicability for drought monitoring throughout China. The characteristics of drought events in 2009 and 2011 were compared using various drought indices. The different time scales of the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) and the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) were used to evaluate remote sensing drought indices in different regions. Single drought indices, including the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), the Temperature Condition Index (TCI) derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, the Precipitation Condition Index (PCI) derived from Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) data, and the TCI and Soil Moisture Condition Index (SMCI) derived from Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) data, as well as combined drought indices, including the Microwave Integrated Drought Index (MIDI), Optimized Vegetation Drought Index (OVDI), Optimized Meteorological Drought Index (OMDI), Scale Drought Conditions Index (SDCI), and Synthesized Drought Index (SDI), were analyzed and compared to evaluate their applicability. The results showed that different drought indices have specific characteristics under different land use types in China. The VCI and TCI can better monitor long-term drought conditions, but they have a weak correlation with the in situ drought index in forestland and grassland areas. The correlation of SPI-1 with the PCI is higher than that with other single indices, which indicates that the PCI is a good short-term drought index. The SMCI has a better correlation with the short-term in situ drought index, but it is not conducive to drought monitoring in areas such as densely forested land and grassland. The correlations of the in situ drought index with the combined drought indices (the MIDI, OVDI, OMDI, SDCI, and SDI) are better than those with the single drought indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melody generation from lyrics has been a challenging research issue in the field of artificial intelligence and music, which enables us to learn and discover latent relationships between interesting lyrics and accompanying melodies. Unfortunately, the limited availability of a paired lyrics-melody dataset with alignment information has hindered the research progress. To address this problem, we create a large dataset consisting of 12,197 MIDI songs each with paired lyrics and melody alignment through leveraging different music sources where alignment relationship between syllables and music attributes is extracted. Most importantly, we propose a novel deep generativemodel, conditional Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM)-Generative Adversarial Network for melody generation from lyrics, which contains a deep LSTM generator and a deep LSTM discriminator both conditioned on lyrics. In particular, lyrics-conditioned melody and alignment relationship between syllables of given lyrics and notes of predicted melody are generated simultaneously. Extensive experimental results have proved the effectiveness of our proposed lyrics-to-melody generative model, where plausible and tuneful sequences can be inferred from lyrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies Midi Z's The Road to Mandalay (2016) as a cinematic representation of Deleuze's 'minor literature'. I argue that the film gives rise to collective utterances against social and economic hegemony, particularly in its portrayal of Burmese immigrant characters who, as Agamben's 'bare life', are subject to the violence underlying the biopower of neo-liberalism. A diasporic Burmese Chinese, Midi Z adopts the convention of cinema verité and fictionalizes the social reality of the migrant Burmese community. The Road to Mandalay articulates the pathos of those who are deprived of civil rights and who, in their negotiation with the exploitation of global capitalism, manage to survive in an interstitial space. The article unpacks the way the film allegorizes such a struggle in moments of surrealist and transcendental visions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major problems in the U.S. and global cotton production is the damage caused by the reniform nematode, Rotylenchulus reniformis. Amplification of DNA from single nematodes for further molecular analysis can be challenging sometimes. In this research, two whole-genome amplification (WGA) methods were evaluated for their efficiencies in DNA amplification from a single reniform nematode. The WGA was carried out using both REPLI-g Mini and Midi kits, and the GenomePlex single cell whole-genome amplification kit. Sequence analysis produced 4 Mb and 12 Mb of genomic sequences for the reniform nematode using REPLI-g and SIGMA libraries. These sequences were assembled into 28,784 and 24,508 contigs, respectively, for REPLI-g and SIGMA libraries. The highest repeats in both libraries were of low complexity, and the lowest for the REPLI-g library were for satellites and for the SIGMA library, RTE/BOV-B. The same kind of repeats were observed for both libraries; however, the SIGMA library had four other repeat elements (Penelope (long interspersed nucleotide element (LINE)), RTE/BOV-B (LINE), PiggyBac, and Mirage/P-element/Transib), which were not seen in the REPLI-g library. DNA transposons were also found in both libraries. Both reniform nematode 18S rRNA variants (RN_VAR1 and RN_VAR2) could easily be identified in both libraries. This research has therefore demonstrated the ability of using both WGA methods, in amplification of gDNA isolated from single reniform nematodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In terrestrial snails, thermal selection acts on shell coloration. However, the biological relevance of small differences in the intensity of shell pigmentation and the associated thermodynamic, physiological, and evolutionary consequences for snail diversity within the course of environmental warming are still insufficiently understood. To relate temperature‐driven internal heating, protein and membrane integrity impairment, escape behavior, place of residence selection, water loss, and mortality, we used experimentally warmed open‐top chambers and field observations with a total of >11,000 naturally or experimentally colored individuals of the highly polymorphic species Theba pisana (O.F. MÜLLER, 1774). We show that solar radiation in their natural Mediterranean habitat in Southern France poses intensifying thermal stress on increasingly pigmented snails that cannot be compensated for by behavioral responses. Individuals of all morphs acted neither jointly nor actively competed in climbing behavior, but acted similarly regardless of neighbor pigmentation intensity. Consequently, dark morphs progressively suffered from high internal temperatures, oxidative stress, and a breakdown of the chaperone system. Concomitant with increasing water loss, mortality increased with more intense pigmentation under simulated global warming conditions. In parallel with an increase in mean ambient temperature of 1.34°C over the past 30 years, the mortality rate of pigmented individuals in the field is, currently, about 50% higher than that of white morphs. A further increase of 1.12°C, as experimentally simulated in our study, would elevate this rate by another 26%. For 34 T. pisana populations from locations that are up to 2.7°C warmer than our experimental site, we show that both the frequency of pigmented morphs and overall pigmentation intensity decrease with an increase in average summer temperatures. We therefore predict a continuing strong decline in the frequency of pigmented morphs and a decrease in overall pigmentation intensity with ongoing global change in areas with strong solar radiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fatty acid composition of bacterial isolates remains stable under standardized culture conditions, which makes it a useful taxonomic marker. The present study aims to characterize the diversity and quantity of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) profiles of cultivable bacterial isolates collected along the southwest coast of India. Based on the similarity indices (range > 0.3–0.7) of the FAME profiles, the isolates were aggregated into 10 families, 11 genera and 19 species of cultured isolates. The following classes of bacteria were found: Bacilli, Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria and Actinobacteria, which also included a few pathogens such as Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus and Bacillus sp. The hydroxyl FAMEs 2-hydroxydodecanoic acid (C12:0 2OH), 2-hydroxypentadecanoic acid (C15:0 2OH),3-hydroxy 14-methylpentadecanoic acid (C16:0iso 3OH), 3 hydroxy hexadecenoic acid (C16:0 3OH) and 3-hydroxy 15-methylhexadecanoic acid (C17:0iso 3OH), as well as the unsaturated FAMEs (11Z)-11-hexadecenoic acid (C16:1 ɷ5c), were exclusively associated with the isolates from Mangalore samples. Similarly, FAMEs 2-hydroxydecanoic acid (C10:0 2OH), 9-methyldecanoic acid (C11:0iso), undecanoic acid (C11:0), tridecanoic acid (C13:0), 10-methylhexadecanoic acid (C16:0 10-CH3) and (7Z)-7-hexadecenoic acid (C16:1 ɷ9c) occurred only in the isolates from Trivandrum samples. However, the isolates from Goa did not possess a signature FAME profile. The reproducibility of the GC-MIDI bacterial identification system was evaluated using 16S rRNA gene sequencing techniques for selected isolates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present work, a methodology is proposed to reassess the magnitude assigned to historical earthquakes thanks to a Bayesian updating approach. The initial information used to estimate the magnitude in the catalogue is supplemented by new data. The data is obtained with a combination of in situ observations and fragility characteristics of historical buildings. It is shown that no damage or low damage of buildings can be used to reduce the uncertainty on historical earthquakes. The methodology is applied to a case study in Southern France, the 1889 La-Tour-duPin earthquake. With the data and model considered, a small effect for the updating is obtained with an average value for the magnitude Mw going from 4.4 to 4.39 and an uncertainty errMw going from 0.42 to 0.41. The impact of the choice of parameters of the Ground Motion Model (GMM) for this study is investigated. Indeed, collecting more information on the site in order to reduce uncertainty and using site-specific GMM could improve the accuracy of the estimations in future applications of the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of different crop load levels on apple trees' yield and physiological characteristics, emphasizing the relationship between stem water potential and crop load and the link between trunk diameter growth and crop load. It was conducted in 2014 at Station Expérimentale Fruits et Légumes (SUDEXPE-CEHM) in Southern France. The 'JoyaTM' apple on Pajam-1 rootstock was used as the plant material. Trees were subjected to hand thinning to obtain four final crop load levels as high (100%; 10 fruit/cm2 of branch cross-sectional area (BCSA)), medium-high (75%; 7.5 fruit/cm2 of BCSA), medium-low (50%; 5 fruit/cm2 of BCSA) and low (25%; 2.5 fruit/cm2 of BCSA). The four crop load levels were set up in a randomized block design with four replications, and each plot was formed of five uniform trees. Stem water potential was weakly affected by crop load but was mainly driven by vapor pressure deficit. The maximum daily trunk diameter, by and large, reduced while crop load level increased. The increase in crop load level was negatively related to fruit size, acidity and soluble solids content. Crop load did not affect bitter pit incidence. However, in parallel to the increasing crop load level, cumulative yield, yield efficiency and water productivity increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new method for musical steganography for the MIDI format is presented. The MIDI standard is a user-friendly music technology protocol that is frequently deployed by composers of different levels of ambition. There is to the author's knowledge no fully implemented and rigorously specified, publicly available method for MIDI steganography. The goal of this study, however, is to investigate how a novel MIDI steganography algorithm can be implemented by manipulation of the velocity attribute subject to restrictions of capacity and security. Many of today's MIDI steganography methods—less rigorously described in the literature—fail to be resilient to steganalysis. Traces (such as artefacts in the MIDI code which would not occur by the mere generation of MIDI music: MIDI file size inflation, radical changes in mean absolute error or peak signal-to-noise ratio of certain kinds of MIDI events or even audible effects in the stego MIDI file) that could catch the eye of a scrutinizing steganalyst are side-effects of many current methods described in the literature. This steganalysis resilience is an imperative property of the steganography method. However, by restricting the carrier MIDI files to classical organ and harpsichord pieces, the problem of velocities following the mood of the music can be avoided. The proposed method, called Velody 2, is found to be on par with or better than the cutting edge alternative methods regarding capacity and inflation while still possessing a better resilience against steganalysis. An audibility test was conducted to check that there are no signs of audible traces in the stego MIDI files. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of urban areas in the introduction of alien plant species, and their subsequent spread in the countryside, has long been identified. However, it was mainly considered indirectly due to the lack of data on the frequency of planting of alien species and their early stages of colonization. In this study, we took advantage of the spectacular flowering of the pampa grass (Cortaderia selloana), a tall ornamental plant, visible from afar, to study the spatial dynamics of planted and naturalized stands (i.e. those resulting from seed dispersal) over 600 km2 and over an 11-year period. Using distance sampling methods, we detected 216 and 241 planted stands in 2002 and 2013, respectively. In 2002, we also detected 853 naturalized stands, closely associated with anthropogenic habitats around urban areas. Such spatial association could have represented the initial stages of a spread from urban areas to natural habitats. However, 11 years later, this very close association between naturalized stands and urban areas has not weakened, suggesting a persistent pattern. In both 2002 and 2013, less than 15% of naturalized individuals grew up in natural habitats, almost all limited to the edges of reed beds where they did not threaten local biodiversity. Our study shows that the massive introduction of an alien plant into urban areas, and its subsequent massive naturalization, does not necessarily means its spread to natural habitats. On the contrary, it can remain closely associated with anthropogenic habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenotypic changes that occurred during the domestication and diversification of grapevine are well known, particularly changes in seed morphology, but the functional causes and consequences behind these variations are poorly understood. Wild and domesticate grapes differ, among others, in the form of their pips: wild grapes produce roundish pips with short stalks and cultivated varieties have more elongated pips with longer stalks. Such variations of form are of first importance for archaeobotany since the pip form is, most often, the only remaining information in archaeological settings. This study aims to enlighten archaeobotanical record and grapevine pip development by better understanding how size and shape (co)variates between pip and berry in both wild and domesticated Vitis vinifera. The covariation of berry size, number of seeds per berry ("piposity"), pip size and pip shape were explored on 49 grapevine accessions sampled among Euro-Mediterranean traditional cultivars and wild grapevines. We show that for wild grapevine, the higher the piposity, the bigger the berry and the more elongated the pip. For both wild and domesticated grapevine, the longer is the pip, the more it has a "domesticated" shape. Consequences for archaeobotanical studies are tested and discussed, and these covariations allowed the inference of berry dimensions from archaeological pips from a Southern France Roman site. This systematic exploration sheds light on new aspects of pip-berry relationship, in both size and shape, on grapevine eco-evo-devo changes during domestication, and invites to explore further the functional ecology of grapevine pip and berry and notably the impact of cultivation practices and human selection on grapevine morphology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LightSound was originally developed as a tool for the blind and visually impaired (BVI) community to experience events, like solar eclipses, live. LightSound is a handheld device, built with Arduino components, that converts light into sound via a light sensor and MIDI board. It has an audio jack to output sound and can connect to a computer to record data via Python scripts. The software and instructions for assembly and use are open source and available online in English and Spanish. Through an IAU100 Special Project Grant, 21 LightSounds were distributed to schools, research centres and museums across Argentina and Chile that hosted events for the July 2019 solar eclipse. These events, which reached tens of thousands of people, were accessible to BVI observers with the help of the LightSound. The devices will also be used for the December 2020 South American eclipse. We discuss the highlights of the project and our future plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) are the most common congenital malformations. The objective of our study was to evaluate the prenatal screening accuracy of congenital heart disease (CHD) in Southern France and to evaluate the impact of a prenatal diagnosis on pregnancies outcomes and neonatal outcomes. We performed a bicentric, retrospective observational study in the southern region over 4 years was conducted between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2017. All foetuses and children under one year of age with CHD monitored in the UTHs (University Teaching Hospitals) in Marseille and Nice were included. CHD cases were divided into 3 groups: group 1, those with no possible options for anatomical repair; group 2, those with anatomical repair possibilities but that may require neonatal cardiologic management; and group 3, those with anatomical repair possibilities that do not require an emergency neonatal procedure. Among the 249070 deliveries during the study period, 677 CHD cases were included in the study. The overall prenatal screening rate was 71.5%. The screening rates were 97.8%, 63.6%, and 65.9% for groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Among group 2 CHD cases, 80% of the transpositions of the great arteries, 56% of the aortic coarctations, and 20% of the total anomalous pulmonary venous returns were detected during the prenatal period. A genetic anomaly was found in 16% of CHD cases. The overall mortality rate was 11.3% with a higher death rate in cases of prenatal screening (17.2% versus 2.1%; p < 0.001). However, when focusing only on children who died of CHD, prenatal screening did not create an impact (56.6% versus 100%, p = 0,140). Our data showed that the prenatal screening rate of CHD appears satisfactory in Southern France. Nevertheless, it could be improved for some CHD. This study did not find any benefit in terms of mortality from prenatal screening for CHD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumption by animals remains one of the key points to assess the effectiveness of grazing impacts in woodland for increasing understorey plant diversity. To limit the spread of the brambles and restore understorey plant diversity on an artificial embankment an original system of clearings connected by paths was created by mechanically crushing brambles and allowing them to be grazed by rustic goats. The analysis of the indices of consumption of bramble under GIS has been used to provide an estimation of the volume ingested and an estimation of the effectiveness of the goats. The impacts of three different managements (goat grazing, brush clearing and grazing, clearing and exclusion of grazing) and control without management were then tested during a three-year period. The monitoring of the vegetation on permanent plots provided evidence that goat grazing significantly increased in the short term the species-richness and heterogeneity of herbaceous plants communities, in complement with prior clearing. Thus, the objectives of the managers to open up the area and reduce the bramble cover were achieved, but the prior introduction of goats and the installation of mobile enclosures would be advisable in order to ensure the sustainability of these measures on plant diversity in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In agroforestry systems, the canopy of maturing trees progressively reduces the radiation available for the crop. Tree management practices such as pollarding can be used to restore the crop light availability. We monitored durum wheat, barley and pea yields during three consecutive years in an alley‐cropping agroforestry system with hybrid walnut trees in Southern France. Trees have been pruned regularly to 4 m since planting (in 1995), and a section of 50 trees was pollarded at 4 m height for the first time in 2013. We measured the yields and yields components in the two different tree management systems and in a sole crop control. The non‐pollarded trees reduced significantly the incident light (around 80% of the global radiation left in average) and both wheat (68% of the control) and pea (69% of the control), but not barley mean yields. In pollards inter‐row, the average incident light was 98% of the total radiation the first year and the wheat yield 89% of the control. But 3 years after pollarding, the incident light was 79% of the total radiation and the pea yield was only 67% of the control. Pollarding had a transient positive impact on crop yield; after 3 years, pollards were more competitive for light than control trees. Pollarding may also reduce the belowground trees competition, but slightly, as the crop vegetative growth occurs when the trees are leafless. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Maures–Tanneron Massif and the Corsica–Sardinia Block are two segments of the southern European Variscan belt that separated during the Late Oligocene–Miocene due to the opening of the Western Mediterranean basin. Correlation between the two regions, based mainly on petrologic similarities, is still debated. However, there are no detailed structural and petrochronological constraints on their potential relationships. In northern Sardinia there is well-documented evidence for a dextral transpressive shear zone that initiated after the first stage of frontal collision. In the Maures–Tanneron Massif, despite recognition of an important episode of transpressive deformation, it is still unclear which structures were active during this tectonic regime. We investigate in detail the kinematic of flow, finite strain and the timing of the deformation of the Cavalaire "Fault" (CF), a major ductile shear zone in the Maures–Tanneron Massif. In contrast to previous models, we argue that the CF is a transpressive shear zone characterized by a prevalent component of pure shear, while in-situ monazite geochronology reveals that the CF is initiated at ~ 323 Ma. The new data presented here, based on a multidisciplinary approach document, for the first time, the vorticity of the flow, finite strain and timing of this sector of the East Variscan Shear Zone, a regional-scale shear zone that characterized the Southern European Variscan belt during the late Carboniferous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Low-Magnification Dental Microwear Analysis (LMDA) has been widely applied to reconstruct the palaeodiet of wild ungulates. Quantitative observations of the microscopic scratches and pits on the surfaces of the dental enamel of these species allow to distinguish different diets. LMDA has more recently also served to shed light on the palaeodiets of domestic ungulates such as caprines. This technique, however, has not been widely applied to domestic ungulates from extant and archaeological material. In fact, the findings of a recent experimental study indicate that the quantification of pits and scratches affecting the dental enamel of two groups of ewes do not allow to discriminate between feeding in rangeland and grassland areas. The current study therefore explores the potential of a number of different qualitative observations (e.g. presence/absence of surface damage or furrows) to identify the diet of the aforementioned group of ewes. Despite the fact that the results are prone to intraobserver error, they nonetheless indicate that certain variables can serve to discern palaeodiets. The model gleaned from the extant ewes was then applied to archaeological material of caprines from La Ramasse and Lattara, two Iron Age sites in southeastern France. The preliminary results indicate disparities of the type of dental microwear of caprines from one site to another, differences that could derive from different feeding patterns stemming from dissimilar environmental conditions or different strategies employed by herders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southern France, like the rest of the world, is facing the emergence of diseases affecting plants, animals and humans, of which causative agents (viruses, parasites, bacteria) are transmitted by arthropod vectors. Global changes are accelerating the emergence and spread of these diseases. After presenting some examples related to vectors of yellow fever and dengue viruses (Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus), Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (Hyalomma marginatum), Bluetongue (Culicoides sp.), and the phytopathogen Xylella fastidiosa (Hemiptera spp.), we will discuss what are the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that make an arthropod a vector in a given place and at a given time. We also propose some thoughts regarding these emergences, possible scenarios for their evolution and some recommendations for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The beginning of the Middle Palaeolithic in Western Europe is traditionally associated with the emergence of new, more complex and standardised debitage technologies, such as Levallois technology. These changes occurred in the archaeological record between MIS 9 and MIS 6. This paper aims to evaluate the processes of technical change at work in Southern France, tracking innovations and persistent behaviours and potential shifts, to describe the process of transition and compare the Southeast and Southwest of France. We revised several major sites from Ardèche and Dordogne through the technological analysis of seven lithic assemblages in areas rich in good-quality raw materials, mostly flint. Technological analysis shows common features in lithic strategies and industries that can all be attributed to the Early Middle Palaeolithic. The features are a diversity of debitage methods and spatiotemporal management of the chaînes opératoires (ramification and artefact mobility). At the same time, algorithmic methods (Système par Surface de Débitage Alternées: SSDA) continue to be used, in the same way as large cutting tools (LCTs), although they are rare (pebble tools, bifaces and ‘mixed matrices’). These LCTs are persistent technologies from the Acheulean technocomplex. Gradual mosaic-type changes in the lithic record are particularly well demonstrated through the sequence of Orgnac 3, where a local onset of Levallois technologies appears to occur. Both in the Southeast and Southwest of France, the Lower to Middle Palaeolithic transition records gradual and asynchronous behavioural changes as early as MIS 9 to MIS 6. These shifts are not only due to increased hominin cognition. Abilities of human groups to adapt to diversified environments and regional cultural processes may also have played a key role. Several lithic technocomplexes coexisted between MIS 9 and 6 in these two areas and although differences in local strategies are obvious, similar trajectories towards MP behaviour can be detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past years, several approaches have been developed to create algorithmic music composers. Most existing solutions focus on composing music that appears theoretically correct or interesting to the listener. However, few methods have targeted sentiment-based music composition: generating music that expresses human emotions. The few existing methods are restricted in the spectrum of emotions they can express (usually to two dimensions: valence and arousal) as well as the level of sophistication of the music they compose (usually monophonic, following translation-based, predefined templates or heuristic textures). In this paper, we introduce a new algorithmic framework for autonomous music sentiment-based expression and composition, titled MUSEC, that perceives an extensible set of six primary human emotions (e.g., anger, fear, joy, love, sadness, and surprise) expressed by a MIDI musical file and then composes (creates) new polyphonic (pseudo) thematic, and diversified musical pieces that express these emotions. Unlike existing solutions, MUSEC is: (i) a hybrid crossover between supervised learning (SL, to learn sentiments from music) and evolutionary computation (for music composition, MC), where SL serves at the fitness function of MC to compose music that expresses target sentiments, (ii) extensible in the panel of emotions it can convey, producing pieces that reflect a target crisp sentiment (e.g., love) or a collection of fuzzy sentiments (e.g., 65% happy, 20% sad, and 15% angry), compared with crisp-only or two-dimensional (valence/arousal) sentiment models used in existing solutions, (iii) adopts the evolutionary-developmental model, using an extensive set of specially designed music-theoretic mutation operators (trille, staccato, repeat, compress, etc.), stochastically orchestrated to add atomic (individual chord-level) and thematic (chord pattern-level) variability to the composed polyphonic pieces, compared with traditional evolutionary solutions producing monophonic and non-thematic music. We conducted a large battery of tests to evaluate MUSEC's effectiveness and efficiency in both sentiment analysis and composition. It was trained on a specially constructed set of 120 MIDI pieces, including 70 sentiment-annotated pieces: the first significant dataset of sentiment-labeled MIDI music made available online as a benchmark for future research in this area. Results are encouraging and highlight the potential of our approach in different application domains, ranging over music information retrieval, music composition, assistive music therapy, and emotional intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to develop a mobile application ‘Beat Processing Device (BPD)’ to record and quantify the data for the performance accuracy of rhythm production. BPD has been developed in three phases. First, we reviewed studies that used rhythm as main intervention strategy to improve cognitive functioning of older adults, and derived four basic rhythm idioms. Second, we developed an iOS-based mobile application, optimized the device, the instrument tone, and the measurement variables through preliminary test. Lastly, we tested the mobile application by comparing the performance data obtained from MIDI and BPD from 60 older adults. The device was shown to be reliable and consistent with other mode of measurement and analysis. Conclusively, BPD can be a useful tool for assessing rhythm production ability in the course of cognitive skills training [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coelacanths are iconic fishes represented today by a single marine genus. The group was a little bit more diversified in the Mesozoic, with representatives in marine and continental environments in the Late Cretaceous. Here we describe isolated skull bones of the last know freshwater coelacanths found in several fossil sites from the Early Campanian to the Early Maastrichtian of Southern France (in the Departments of Aude, Bouches-du-Rhône, Hérault, and Var). The sample does not allow distinguishing different species, and all material is referred to Axelrodichthys megadromos Cavin, Valentin, Garcia originally described from the locality of Ventabren in Southern France. A reconstruction of the skull is proposed. Previously unrecognized features are described, including parts of the postparietal portion of the skull, of the suspensorium and of the mandible. The new data confirm the assignation of the species to the mawsoniids, and more specifically to Axelrodichthys. A cladistic analysis scoring new character states provides a similar topology than a previous analysis, i.e. A. megadromos is placed in a polytomy with Axelrodichthys araripensis and Lualabaea lerichei, two species from the Early Cretaceous of Brazil and from the Late Jurassic of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, respectively. A. megadromos appears to have been restricted to freshwater environments, to the contrary of oldest Western Gondwanan representatives of the family that were able to live in brackish and marine waters. A. megadromos is the last representative of the mawsoniids and its occurrence in Europe is probably the result of a dispersal event from Western Gondwana that happened somewhen in the Cretaceous. Based on the available data, the mawsoniids went extinct in the mid-Maastrichthian, i.e. before the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. But it is possible that the fossil record of this family, which has been only recently recognized in Late Cretaceous European deposits, will geographically and stratigraphically widen with further discoveries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A khipu is an artifact used in the ancient Inca Empire and previous Andean societies to process and transmit statistical and narrative information. It is known as one of the first textile computers, a tangible interface encrypted in knots and strings made of cotton and wool. This system was widely used until the Spanish colonization that banned and destroyed many of the existing khipus. This article presents the creation process of the Electronic_Khipu_, a new interface for musical expression. It takes the form of a MIDI controller, inspired by the original Incan device. The Khipu has been converted into an instrument for interaction and experimental sound generation by weaving knots with conductive rubber cords, thereby encoding musical compositions. The article goes on to document the implementation of the electronic instrument and evaluate its use in live performances. The research also explores the work of significant artists in this conceptual line who, from a decolonial perspective, have transformed and incorporated the khipu into different contemporary expressions of electronic sound art. These works, along with the practical example cited with the Electronic_Khipu_, suggest alternative practices of tangible live coding, computer music, and data sonification. Creative work with sound continues a legacy, almost lost in colonization, of the ancestral practice of weaving knots as code. In addition, some ideas will be presented to enhance the instrument's performance in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]