Sampling, the practice of reusing recorded music or sounds from another source in a new work, is common in popular music genres like hip-hop and rap. Numerous services have emerged that allow users to identify connections between samples and the songs that incorporate them, with the goal of enhancing music discovery. Designing a system that can perform the same task automatically is challenging, as samples are commonly altered with audio effects like pitch- and time-stretching and may only be seconds long. Progress on this task has been minimal and is further blocked by the limited availability of training data. Here, we show that a convolutional neural network trained on an artificial dataset can identify real-world samples in commercial hip-hop music. We extract vocal, harmonic, and percussive elements from several databases of non-commercial music recordings using audio source separation, and train the model to fingerprint a subset of these elements in transformed versions of the original audio. We optimize the model using a joint classification and metric learning loss and show that it achieves 13% greater precision on real-world instances of sampling than a fingerprinting system using acoustic landmarks, and that it can recognize samples that have been both pitch shifted and time stretched. We also show that, for half of the commercial music recordings we tested, our model is capable of locating the position of a sample to within five seconds.

In medical imaging, scans often reveal objects with varied contrasts but consistent internal intensities or textures. This characteristic enables the use of low-frequency approximations for tasks such as segmentation and deformation field estimation. Yet, integrating this concept into neural network architectures for medical image analysis remains underexplored. In this paper, we propose the Slicer Network, a novel architecture designed to leverage these traits. Comprising an encoder utilizing models like vision transformers for feature extraction and a slicer employing a learnable bilateral grid, the Slicer Network strategically refines and upsamples feature maps via a splatting-blurring-slicing process. This introduces an edge-preserving low-frequency approximation for the network outcome, effectively enlarging the effective receptive field. The enhancement not only reduces computational complexity but also boosts overall performance. Experiments across different medical imaging applications, including unsupervised and keypoints-based image registration and lesion segmentation, have verified the Slicer Network's improved accuracy and efficiency.

Christof Koch is a neuroscientist distinguished by his rock-solid scientific work and romantic yearning to understand consciousness. He recently closed an essay by wondering: "What is it about the brain, the most complex piece of active matter in the known universe, that turns its activity into the feeling of life itself?" No coincidence with that phrasing--The Feeling of Life Itself is his latest book. He argues that consciousness is produced by the brain but that it's also more widespread in nature than we might suppose. His essay described new experimental work, from Stanford neuroscientist Kieran Fox and his colleagues, that explored the effects of electrically stimulating the brain, which revealed an ordering principle.

The MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing announced its first two named professorships, beginning July 1, to Frédo Durand and Samuel Madden in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). These named positions recognize the outstanding achievements and future potential of their academic careers. "I'm thrilled to acknowledge Frédo and Sam for their outstanding contributions in research and education. These named professorships recognize them for their extraordinary achievements," says Daniel Huttenlocher, dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. Frédo Durand, a professor of computer science and engineering in EECS, has been named the inaugural Amar Bose Professor of Computing.

While most consumers may find Internet of Things (IoT) devices like Google's Nest or Ring's doorbells new and exciting technology, the manufacturing world has embraced the IoT to optimize discrete and process manufacturing operations for decades. The industrial IoT (IIoT), which started as remote sensing of things like temperature and pressure, has today matured into a way of linking operational systems that control production with the wider world of applications outside of the control room like ERP platforms and supply chain management systems. "The major benefits of the industrial IoT is to bring more visibility to existing processes," said report author Jaques Durand, director of Standards and Engineering at Fujitsu North America and a member of the Industrial Internet Consortium Steering Committee. People want to understand what's going on." Getting to an advanced state of IIoT usage can be difficult without understanding the mistakes to avoid along the way. That's why the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), has spent the last six years developing and deploying testbeds for manufacturers to use when evaluating different IIoT technologies, platforms, designs, products, architectures, and use cases. Based on the results of these testbed proofs-of-concept (POC), today the IIC released a white paper, A Compilation of Testbed Results: Toward Best Practices for Developing and Deploying IIoT Solutions, detailing the best practices companies should adopt to ensure successful IIoT deployments. "The IoT problem that each company is facing or each organization is facing is different," Durand said. "Even if they use the same technologies, which is not granted, they are facing very different conditions and priorities in real-world conditions.

Identity access management is at a crossroads. Organizations want to modernize legacy identity infrastructure by implementing a more flexible, mobile-ready identity management system without disrupting security. At identity and security conference Identiverse, the gap between legacy systems and contemporary identity access management systems was apparent among guests and during the main keynote, given by Andre Durand, CEO and founder at Ping Identity in Denver. Ping Identity was a conference sponsor. In this Q&A, Durand talks about common challenges associated with identity access management, what artificial intelligence can bring to identity management and how managing identity within a workforce has changed as end users become more mobile.

The University of Arizona College of Humanities is exploring the intersection of technology and humanities, focusing on the vital role of human context and perspective in guiding digital innovations such as big data, artificial intelligence and robotics. Launching this week, the Dorrance Lecture Series brings together faculty, students and outside guests to examine the relationship between so-called disruptive technologies and human cultures. The first symposium, "Humanities Innovators in a Tech World," is Thursday and Friday in the Integrated Learning Center, Room 120, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. "As technological advances bring us closer to a digital future, the humanities become more important than ever in helping to understand what makes us human, especially as those same technological advances bring greater connectivity to all people across the globe," says Alain-Philippe Durand, dean of the College of Humanities. In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the fusion of technologies is blurring the differences between the physical, digital and biological. Advances such as artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning, genetic algorithms, collaborative commerce, additive manufacturing, spatial computing and genetic engineering will impact the future, in ways both predictable and unpredictable.

Even if you're not particularly interested in video games, you'll probably have heard of Assassin's Creed. They're a series of historically themed action games that take place in digital recreations of places such as Revolution-era Paris, medieval Jerusalem and 1860s London. Playing Assassin's Creed involves climbing up ancient buildings and mingling with the residents of cities of the past, meeting (and occasionally assassinating) historical figures as a member of an ancient, clandestine brotherhood working against the Templars. The games have been around since 2007 and have made an awful lot of money for their publisher, Ubisoft. The company employs a team of hundreds of artists, historians, writers, coders, sound designers and more to create these virtual places.

A 30-meter hidden chamber was discovered buried deep within the Great Pyramid of Khufu by a team of scientists. The discovery published on Nov. 2 in journal Nature has drawn massive attention in the past couple of days, and has taken archeologists and historians across the world by surprise. However, for fans of popular game franchise "Assassins Creed" it was old news. The game, which was released on Oct. 27 before the discovery was made, already had the void included as part of an in-game quest to explore Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza. The discovery is the first significant one made about the ancient tombs since the 19th century.

With the final war of the Roman Republic brewing, the period has proven hugely influential in fine art, theatre and film, from Shakespeare to Hollywood. But later this year it may be subject to its most rigorous investigation yet: a video game. Out at the end of October, Assassin's Creed: Origins, follows the story of Bayek, a military officer looking to protect his people as Julius Caesar's Roman army threatens invasion. The game is set to feature a vast open-world recreation of ancient Egypt, featuring several cities as well as stretches of wilderness and ocean. As with all titles in the series, historical events and figures are set to figure, but this time, the gargantuan project isn't just about the game – Ubisoft has more ambitious plans for its rich simulation.