Dynamic game soundtrack generation in response to a continously varying emotional trajectory

Dynamic soundtracking presents various practical and aesthetic challenges to composers working with games. This paper presents an implementation of a system addressing some of these challenges with an affectively-driven music generation algorithm based on a second order Markov-model. The system can respond in real-time to emotional trajectories derived from 2-dimensions of affect on the circumplex model (arousal and valence), which are mapped to five musical parameters. A transition matrix is employed to vary the generated output in continuous response to the affective state intended by the gameplay.

Challenges in quantifying wind generation's contribution to securing peak demand

Wind generation's contribution to supporting peak electricity demand is one of the key questions in wind integration studies. Differently from conventional units, the available outputs of different wind farms cannot be approximated as being statistically independent, and hence near-zero wind output is possible across an entire power system. This paper will review the risk model structures currently used to assess wind's capacity value, along with discussion of the resulting data requirements. A central theme is the benefits from performing statistical estimation of the joint distribution for demand and available wind capacity, focusing attention on uncertainties due to limited histories of wind and demand data; examination of Great Britain data from the last 25 years shows that the data requirements are greater than generally thought. A discussion is therefore presented into how analysis of the types of weather system which have historically driven extreme electricity demands can help to deliver robust insights into wind's contribution to supporting demand, even in the face of such data limitations. The role of the form of the probability distribution for available conventional capacity in driving wind capacity credit results is also discussed.

My generation(s): cycles, branding and renewal in E4’s 'Skins'

In an era of fragmenting audience and diversified viewing platforms, youth television needs to move fast and make a lot of noise in order to capture and maintain the attention of the teenage viewer. British ensemble youth drama Skins (E4, 2007-2013) calls attention to itself with its high doses of drugs, chaotic parties and casual attitudes towards sexuality. It also moves quickly, shedding its cast every two seasons as they graduate from school, then renewing itself with a fresh generation of 16 year old characters - three cycles in total. This essay will explore the challenges of maintaining audience connections whilst resetting the narrative clock with each cycle. I suggest that the development of the Skins brand was key to the programme’s success. Branding is particularly important for an audience demographic who increasingly consume their television outside of broadcast flow and essential for a programme which renews its cast every two years. The Skins brand operate as a framework, as the central audience draw, have the strength to maintain audience connections when it ‘graduates’ those characters they identify with at the close of each cycle and starts again from scratch. This essay will explore how the Skins brand constructs a cohesive identity across its multiple generations, yet also consider how the cyclic form poses challenges for the programme’s representations and narratives. This cyclic form allows Skins to repeatedly reach out to a new audience who comes of age alongside each new generation and to reflect shifts in British youth culture. Thus Skins remains ever-youthful, seeking to maintain an at times painfully hip identity. Yet the programme has a somewhat schizophrenic identity, torn between its roots in British realist drama and surrealist comedy and an escapist aspirational glamour that shows the influence of US Teen TV. This combination results in a tendency towards a heightened melodrama at odds with Skins claims for authenticity - its much vaunted teenage advisors and young writers - with the cyclic structure serving to amplify the programme’s excessive tendencies. Each cycle wrestles with a need for continuity and familiarity - partly maintained through brand, aesthetic and setting - yet a desire for freshness and originality, to assert difference from what has gone before. I suggest that the inevitable need for each cycle to ‘top’ what has gone before results in a move away from character-based intimacy and the everyday to high-stakes drama and violence which sits uncomfortably within British youth television.

Generation and Evolution of Natal Pulses: Solitary Meanders in the Agulhas Current

Solitar y meanders of the Agulhas Current, so-called Natal pulses, may play an important role in the overall dynamics of this current system. Several hypotheses concer ning the triggering of these pulses are tested using sea sur face height and temperature data from satellites. The data show the for mation of pulses in the Natal Bight area at irregular inter vals ranging from 50 to 240 days. Moving downstream at speeds between 10 and 20 km day 2 1 they sometimes reach sizes of up to 300 km. They seem to play a role in the shedding of Agulhas rings that penetrate the South Atlantic. The inter mittent for mation of these solitar y meanders is argued to be most probably related to barotropic instability of the strongly baroclinic Agulhas Current in the Natal Bight. The vorticity structure of the obser ved basic flow is argued to be stable anywhere along its path. However , a proper perturbation of the jet in the Natal Bight area will allow barotropic instability , because the bottom slope there is considerably less steep than elsewhere along the South African east coast. Using satellite altimetr y these perturbations seem to be related to the inter mittent presence of offshore anticyclonic anomalies, both upstream and eastward of the Natal Bight.

Caffeic and chlorogenic acids in Ilex paraguariensis extracts are the main inhibitors of AGE generation by methylglyoxal in model proteins

The present study concentrates on the evaluation of the anti-glycation effect of some bioactive substances present in yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis): 5-caffeoylquinic acid, caffeic acid and a sapogenin (oleanolic acid). Bovine serum albumin and histones were incubated in the presence of methylglyoxal with or without the addition of 5-caffeoylquinic acid, caffeic acid and oleanolic acid. After the incubation period, advanced glycation end product (AGE) fluorescence spectra were performed and protein structural changes were evaluated by Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis. Chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid are the main substances responsible for the anti-glycation effect of mate tea. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Basement depths in the Parecis Basin (Amazon) with receiver functions from small local earthquakes in the Porto dos Gauchos seismic zone

Receiver functions from small local earthquakes were used to determine sediment thicknesses in Porto dos Gauchos seismic zone (PGSZ), Parecis basin, Amazonian craton, Brazil. The high velocity contrast between basement and sediments (P-wave velocities of 6.1 and 3.0 km/s, respectively) favors the generation of clear P-to-S converted phases (Ps) seen in the radial component, and also S-to-P conversions (Sp) seen in the vertical component. A reference 10 velocity model determined with shallow refraction experiment in PGSZ helped to convert Ps P time differences to basement depths at 15 stations deployed for aftershocks studies. The results of receiver function integrated with the shallow refraction reveal that the basement depths in the PGSZ increases from the basin border in the north up to about 600 m depth in the south. The basement topography, however, does not vary smoothly and a basement high with a steep topography was detected near the epicentral area. A 400 m elevation difference within 1.7 km distance suggests a possible border fault of a buried graben. This feature seems to be oriented roughly WSW-ENE and could indicate basement structures related to the seismicity of the Porto dos Gauchos Seismic Zone. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sediment-contact fish embryo toxicity assay with Danio rerio to assess particle-bound pollutants in the Tiete River Basin (Sao Paulo, Brazil)

The Tiete River and its tributary Pinheiros River receive a highly complex organic and inorganic pollutants load from sanitary sewage and industrial sources, as well as agricultural and agroindustrial activities. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the embryotoxic and teratogenic effects of sediments from selected locations in the Tiete River Basin by means of the sediment contact embryo toxicity assay with Danio rerio, in order to provide a comprehensive and realistic insight into the bioavailable hazard potential of these sediment samples. Lethal and sub-lethal effects were recorded, and high embryo toxicity could be found in the samples not only in the vicinity of the megacity Sao Paulo (Billings reservoir and Pinheiros River samples), but also downstream (in the reservoirs Barra Bonita, Promissao and Tres Irmaos). Results confirm that most toxicity is due to the discharges of the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo. However, they also indicate additional sources of pollutants along the river course, probably from industrial, agricultural and agroindustrial residues, which contribute to the degradation of each area. The sediment contact fish embryo test showed to be powerful tool to detect embryo toxicity in sediments, not only by being a sensitive method, but also for taking into account bioavailability. This test provides an ecological highly realistic and relevant exposure scenario, and should therefore be added in ecotoxicological sediment quality assessments. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Potentially bioavailable metals in sediment from a tropical polymictic environment-Rio Grande Reservoir, Brazil

Background, aim and scope Although many recent studies have focused on sediment potential toxicity, few of them were performed in tropical shallow aquatic environments. Those places can suffer short-time variations, especially due to water column circulations generated by changes in temperature and wind. Rio Grande reservoir is such an example; aside from that, it suffers various anthropogenic impacts, despite its multiple uses. Materials and methods This work presents the first screening step for understanding sediment quality from Rio Grande reservoir by comparing metal content using three different sediment quality guidelines. We also aimed at verifying any possible spatial heterogeneity. Results and discussion We found spatial heterogeneity varying according to the specific metal. Results showed a tendency for metals to remain as insoluble as metal sulfide (potentially not bioavailable), since sulfide was in excess and sediment physical-chemical characteristics contribute to sulfide maintenance (low redox potential, neutral pH, low dissolved oxygen, and high organic matter content). On the other hand, metal concentrations were much higher than suggested by Canadian guidelines and regional background values, especially Cu, which raises the risk of metal remobilization in cases of water circulation. Further study steps include the temporal evaluation of AVS/SEM, a battery of bioassays and the characterization of organic compounds.

Next Generation Sequencing of Pooled Samples Reveals New SNRNP200 Mutations Associated with Retinitis Pigmentosa

The gene SNRNP200 is composed of 45 exons and encodes a protein essential for pre-mRNA splicing, the 200 kDa helicase hBrr2. Two mutations in SNRNP200 have recently been associated with autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa (adRP), a retinal degenerative disease, in two families from China. In this work we analyzed the entire 35-Kb SNRNP200 genomic region in a cohort of 96 unrelated North American patients with adRP. To complete this large-scale sequencing project, we performed ultra high-throughput sequencing of pooled, untagged PCR products. We then validated the detected DNA changes by Sanger sequencing of individual samples from this cohort and from an additional one of 95 patients. One of the two previously known mutations (p.S1087L) was identified in 3 patients, while 4 new missense changes (p.R681C, p.R681H, p.V683L, p.Y689C) affecting highly conserved codons were identified in 6 unrelated individuals, indicating that the prevalence of SNRNP200-associated adRP is relatively high. We also took advantage of this research to evaluate the pool-and-sequence method, especially with respect to the generation of false positive and negative results. We conclude that, although this strategy can be adopted for rapid discovery of new disease-associated variants, it still requires extensive validation to be used in routine DNA screenings. (C) 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Angiotensin II induces superoxide generation via NAD(P)H oxidase activation in isolated rat pancreatic islets

Angiotensin II (Ang II) controls blood pressure, electrolyte balance, cell growth and vascular remodeling. Ang II activates NAD(P)H oxidase in several tissues with important function in the control of insulin secretion. Considering the concomitant occurrence of hypertension, insulin resistance and pancreatic B cell secretion impairment in the development of type II diabetes the aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of ANG II on NAD(P)H oxidase activation in isolated pancreatic islets. We found that ANGII-induced superoxide generation via NAD(P)H oxidase activation and increased protein and mRNA levels of NAD(P)H oxidase subunits (p47(PHOX) and gp91(PHOX)). (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.