This simple combination of Photoshop filters creates a pencil sketch effect that quickly converts a photograph into a realistic drawing. The result features a mix of rough sketch lines and shading, along with a subtle paper texture which makes the effect much more believable. Choose between a traditional graphic pencil appearance, or toggle off the […]

The post Photoshop Pencil Sketch Effect Tutorial appeared first on Spoon Graphics.

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Experiencing three or more concussions is linked with worsened brain function in later life, according to major new research. The study – the largest of its kind - also found having just one moderate-to-severe concussion, or traumatic brain injury (TBI), can have a long-term impact on brain function, including memory.

A study involving more than 1,500 found that an earlier return to school benefited children ages 8 to 18, who had less severe symptoms two weeks after their concussion compared with kids who stayed home longer.

Female athletes are more susceptible to sport-related concussions (SRCs) and experience worse outcomes compared with male athletes. Although numerous studies on SRC have compared the outcomes of concussions in male and female athletes after injury, research pertaining to why female athletes have worse outcomes is limited.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease associated with a history of repetitive head impacts (RHI). To better understand the strength of evidence underlying the possible causal relationship between RHI and CTE, we examined the medical literature through the Bradford Hill criteria for causation.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative tauopathy associated with repetitive head impacts. These findings implicate cumulative head impact intensity in CTE pathogenesis.

In this case series of 152 contact sport athletes younger than 30 years at the time of death, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) was found in 63 (41.4%), with nearly all having mild CTE (stages I and II). 

This morning I spent some time investigating feed readers and services to replace Google Reader. A lot of internet users have been since Google announced Reader is going away this summer. It’s easy to pull up a list of possible alternatives, but ultimately I found it necessary to just dig in and try them out […]

The post My experience looking for an RSS service to replace Google Reader appeared first on WPCandy.

IT WAS GETTING late the night of Sept. 12, and Dr. Julian Bailes had settled in to watch a little football. The renowned neurosurgeon and concussions expert tuned in just as Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained yet another head injury. There was Tagovailoa, lying on the ground with his arms outstretched and his fingers curled into the fencing response, an involuntary position that occurs after a brain injury. To Bailes, it looked almost like a replay from a previous Thursday night game, Sept. 29, 2022, with Tagovailoa on his back, his fingers splayed in front of his face in another automatic response to a concussion.

A quick shake of the head after a hard hit could signal that a person has a concussion, a new study suggests, based on the experiences of young athletes. It’s an easily recognizable movement that could help significantly reduce the number of concussions that go undiagnosed if added to official evaluation guidelines, according to researchers from Mass General Brigham and the Concussion Legacy Foundation.

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is rejecting calls to retire after the third official concussion of his NFL career. 

North Carolina State quarterback Grayson McCall is retiring from football, he announced Wednesday after sustaining a head injury during a game earlier this month. "Brain specialists, my family, and I have come to the conclusion that it is in my best interest to hang the cleats up," he continued. "I have done everything I can to continue, but this is where the good Lord has called me to serve in a different space."

A high school senior from Bangor, Maine, has decided that when the time comes, he will donate his brain to science. Fionn Parker-Cummings is the youngest person to donate his brain to the University of Pittsburgh National Sports Brain Bank. Researchers will check in with him every year for the rest of his life. Parker-Cummings said he hopes the contribution will advance traumatic brain injury research to protect players like NFL quarterbacks Drake Maye and Tua Tagovailoa, who have recently suffered concussions.

If professional athletes are meant to be real-life superheroes, Miami Dolphins star Tua Tagovailoa looked remarkably mortal on September 12. With his team down 31-10 in the third quarter against the Buffalo Bills, the quarterback spotted a gap at the line of scrimmage and decided to scramble for a first down. When he encountered Bills' defender Damar Hamlin, Tagovailoa lowered his head and ran straight into him. Tagovailoa stayed down injured after the play. He had suffered the third concussion of his NFL career, on top of the one he was diagnosed with during his time in the collegiate ranks.

Web design tools and resources, both free and premium, are designed to help you take full advantage of your creativity. Thereby enhance your ability to create stunning websites. There is a huge variety of products and services to choose from. They are ranging from complete platforms to specialized software applications. Just like design frameworks, wireframing […]

It’s hard to get teenagers to do anything they fear will make them feel “other,” but a TBI support group will help during recovery.

We are proud to announce that we recently joined the NVIDIA Inception Program, which will help to speed up our deep learning development process and therefore offer the best possible audio processing tools to our users.

What is NVIDIA Inception

NVIDIA is a global leader in hardware and software for Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Their NVIDIA Inception Program will enable us to leverage NVIDIA's cutting-edge technology by accessing more diverse cloud and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) product offerings, which are used in most Machine Learning and Deep Learning model training instances worldwide. This will allow us to streamline AI development and deployment and train bigger machine-learning models to test and evaluate algorithms faster. The program will also offer us the opportunity to collaborate with industry-leading experts and other AI-driven organizations, among other things.

Our Deep Learning Development Process

For our development process, more GPU capacity means a great saving of time and therewith of course a saving of costs. As an example, one training cycle of our dynamic denoiser model takes almost a week trained with GPUs, however the same training cycle trained with CPUs would take several months.

To illustrate, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) can be compared to a race car, which is very fast but can only transfer a small number of packages, while a GPU in this comparison is a big truck, which can transfer a huge number of packages more slowly. Deep learning algorithms require for training very large datasets consisting of thousands of files, therefore our 'trucks', the GPUs, are the best hardware to choose processing multiple computations simultaneously.

The more GPU capacity we can use, the faster we get results for our tested algorithms, and the faster we know which way we should follow to offer our users the best possible audio processing tools.
Unfortunately, the world is right in the middle of a Global Chip Shortage, so the latest GPUs are very hard to get and super expensive to purchase – unless you have a partnership with a GPU manufacturer.

Conclusion

We are happy to join such a renowned program and look forward to the updates to our product that we will be able to implement and potentially a greater industry transformation.

You can read our full press release here: AuphonicNVIDIAInceptionPressRelease (pdf)

To start a new decade of automatic audio post production with Auphonic, we are happy to launch a few updates:

New Website Design

Opening the new homepage today, you might have noticed that our website looked different from what you had been used to before. Keeping our customers’ feedback from last year in mind, we designed a new vision for Auphonic.

Our new website features a refreshed look with an improved, more engaging, and functional user experience. Moreover, a more straightforward, intuitive, and accessible navigation will give you a seamless workflow and a comfortable exploration of Auphonic’s features.
We hope it will be easier to explore the diversity of applications that Auphonic has. In the end, however, as before, you will have the same full functionality of Auphonic available to you and some extra features if you are using our paid packages or subscriptions.

Take a look yourself: New Auphonic Landing Page

Free Access to our Advanced and Beta Algorithms

In the past, only paying Auphonic users had access to the advanced algorithm parameters, to multitrack advanced audio algorithms, and to our Dynamic Denoising and AutoEQ beta models.

We now enabled all advanced algorithms for free users, and you can use them for 2 hours of audio free each month!

Using the Dynamic Denoiser, you can define whether Auphonic should remove only static or also fast-changing noises and if we should keep or eliminate music. For even greater speech intelligibility control, it is possible to manually adjust the amount of denoising to strike the perfect balance between clarity and ambiance.

The AutoEQ automatically analyzes and optimizes the frequency spectrum of a voice recording to remove sibilance (De-Esser) and to create a clear, warm, and pleasant sound.
The equalization of multi-speaker audio can be complex and time-consuming, as each voice requires its own unique frequency spectrum equalization. Our AutoEQ simplifies this process by creating separate, time-dependent EQ profiles for each speaker, ensuring a consistent and pleasant sound output despite any changes in the voices during the recording.

Our advanced algorithm parameters help you to meet all common audio specifications of platforms like Netflix, Audible, podcasts, broadcasters (EBU R128, ATSC A/85, radio and mobile, commercials) in one click. You can define a set of target parameters (integrated loudness, true peak level, dialog normalization, MaxLRA, MaxM, MaxS), like -16 LUFS for podcasts, and we will produce the audio accordingly.
In addition, they offer more control for multitrack productions and for the Adaptive Leveler.

We would like to give away free hours for new Auphonic users, to try out our free advanced algorithms. Please use this URL to register your new Auphonic account. the code is valid till end of March 2023 and will give you 5 extra production hours for the next month. Happy content creation!

More Audio Examples

There is no better way to experience Auphonic than hearing the difference our post production tool makes when applied to different types of audio and content.
We are happy to share that our new features page now contains some new audio examples you can listen to explore our web tool, and we will add even more examples in the next weeks.

Cutting audio can be a rather tedious task. It requires a decent amount of time and is quite repetitive. Often silence segments, like speech breaks or breathing pauses, make cutting audio necessary in the first place.

Photo by Daniel Schludi on Unsplash

We introduce our new automatic silence cutting feature! It will make your life easier by saving you the time you would normally require to cut silence segments in your recordings.

Why do you need to cut silence segments?

Silence segments occur in your audio recordings naturally. They can be due to short speech breaks or breathing pauses. It's also possible, that at the beginning of a recording equipment needs to be re-adjusted, which also may result in a few seconds of silence.

Usually, listeners do not want to hear silence segments. The reason is easy: silence is redundant filler content. Hence, silence segments need to be cut to achieve a high-quality listening experience. Locating the segments and cutting them manually is tedious though and takes a decent amount of time for longer recordings.

This is why we developed and released our own automatic silence cutting feature.

How do we cut silence for you?

Our automatic silence cutting algorithm detects and cuts silence segments reliably. All you need to do is to enable the algorithm in your production - no further settings are required! This is the easiest possible way for you to cut silence in an audio file.

How to enable silence cutting for your production.

In our audio processing system, silence cutting is a multi-stage algorithm. We use our sophisticated voice activity detection algorithms to detect what is useful content and what is silence. Then we cut the silence parts and crossfade the remaining audio segments to make sure no audio artifacts are introduced. When cutting we ensure that intended speech breaks, e.g. between two sentences, remain untouched.

When we cut any audio, we make sure that chapter marks and speech recognition transcripts are adapted accordingly. Additionally, when exporting to other external services we make sure the cut tracks are exported and correctly labeled.

Audio Examples

Let's listen to two audio examples.

Example 1 (Singletrack production)

Here we have a singletrack production with three silence segments. The segments are located at the beginning of recording, between the first and the second "Hi" as well as at the end. Each silence segment is cut down to a length which still sounds natural, but does not annoy the listener.

The breathing onsets, which happen straight before voice kicks in again, are not cut. This makes sure that the character of the recording remains natural.

For this example, we also activated our new AutoEQ feature to remove pops in the audio.

Here is also a screenshot of how the result looks in our audio player. The gray areas show where our audio processing system cut the silence.

The result of example 01, as displayed by our Audio Inspector.

Thx to the Feel Free to Deviate podcast for providing this recording.

Example 2 (Multitrack production)

Let's also look at silence cutting in a multitrack production. This small excerpt of the TVEye podcast contains a music track and three speaker tracks. Before the intro music kicks in, there are a few seconds of silence.

The few seconds of silence at the beginning of the file are cut. After that, no further cuts are applied though to make sure the background music remains intact.

This is how the result of example 02 looks in our Audio Inspector.

Silence Cutting in our Audio Inspector

As you may have seen already in the examples, the cut segments are displayed as checked grey areas in the Audio Inspector. This is how they will be displayed by default.

Cut segments are displayed as checked gray areas by default.

During playback, the Audio Inspector will automatically skip these cut segments on the master track and play the silence segments if you activate the input track. This way, you can check each segment that was cut.

It's also possible to hide the cut segments. The following picture shows you how to do that.

You can also hide cut segments.

First, you must click onto the "?" icon in the bottom right corner to show the Audio Inspector options. Then you must toggle the "Silence Cut Region" switch. After that, the cut regions are not displayed anymore, and also won't be played back on the input track anymore.

If you click onto "Show Stats", you can activate the audio processing statistics. These statistics show you how much of your audio was cut, as well as the resulting track length after the cuts were applied.

The processing statistics tell you more about how much audio was cut.

Conclusion

With our automatic silence cutting feature, we went one step further towards the perfect audio assistant. Audio editing has been a tedious-but-necessary task for a long time, but with our automatic silence cutting feature, we just made it easier for you!

Feel free to send us your feedback - how do you like our new feature? Also, make sure to follow us, as we will release more automatic cutting algorithms for you in the future!

In a world that often emphasizes grand gestures and monumental achievements, it’s easy to overlook the profound impact of small actions. Yet, it’s these minuscule steps that are the true catalysts for change and progress in our lives. “Tiny Experiments.” I keep these words on a Post-It note on my monitor, a daily reminder that the key to unlocking my potential and propelling myself towards my desired future lies in the willingness to take small, manageable actions. Now, you might be skeptical. What can you really accomplish in just a few minutes? The answer is—a lot more than you think. Examples of Tiny Experiments Here are some of the tiny experiments I’ve integrated into my routine: A Ten-Minute Run: It’s short, yes, but it boosts my energy and clears my mind, making me more productive. One Strategic Email: Something as simple as sending an email can advance my projects, like moving forward with an upcoming TV series. Fifty Pushups: This quick burst of physical activity increases my physical stamina and mental toughness. Ten-Minute Meditation: Helps me center my thoughts and combat the stresses of daily life. A Five-Minute Call: Reconnecting with a friend or family member, like my mom, nurtures...

The post Tiny Experiments: How Little Moments Influence Your Life first appeared on Chase Jarvis.

The post Tiny Experiments: How Little Moments Influence Your Life appeared first on Chase Jarvis.

Does this scenario sound familiar? You’ve poured countless hours into creating something amazing—perhaps a product, website, artwork, or work presentation. With anticipation, you release it to the world, sharing it with your intended audience. Then… silence. No response, no engagement. It’s as if no one cares. Frustrated, you might find yourself enviously eyeing other creators, wondering how they manage to gain traction while your equally impressive work struggles for attention. You review your process, searching for mistakes, but find none. After all, you followed advice from experts, books, and industry gurus. You meticulously planned, designed, and executed your strategy. Moreover, you promoted extensively, creating accounts on every social platform and using all the right hashtags—yet still, crickets. So what’s the missing piece? Why are others succeeding where you’re not?While it’s tempting to blame factors like bigger budgets or larger teams, these aren’t the real culprits. Although such resources can be helpful, the true key to gaining traction is simpler: building an audience.Fortunately, I’m here to help. Let’s explore five crucial steps to effectively build and grow your audience: 1. Balance Creation and Promotion As creators, we often focus solely on producing content. However, to make a real impact, it’s essential...

The post Build Your Audience with These 5 Key Strategies first appeared on Chase Jarvis.

The post Build Your Audience with These 5 Key Strategies appeared first on Chase Jarvis.

Focus on mastering your craft rather than chasing followers. Real influence comes from consistently creating meaningful work and engaging with your community.

The post Stop Chasing Followers: Why Real Influence Comes from Mastery first appeared on Chase Jarvis.

The post Stop Chasing Followers: Why Real Influence Comes from Mastery appeared first on Chase Jarvis.

If you’re ready to break free from fear and unlock your creative potential, you’re in the right place. Recently, I hosted an epic 5.5-hour live event that brought together some of the brightest minds in creativity, innovation, and personal growth. If you couldn’t join us live, don’t worry—you can still catch the entire event right here. Inside the 5.5 Hour Experience One of the core themes of the event was how fear often holds us back. We explored the idea that “avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.” In other words, playing it safe might just be the riskiest thing we do. I dove deep into how we can stop letting fear dictate our decisions and shared strategies to help you push past that resistance to achieve your best work. But it didn’t stop there. We were also joined by a series of amazing guests including Gary Vaynerchuck, Austin Kleon, Jasmine Star, Adrian Grenier, IN-Q, Stephan Moccio…and Seth Godin joined us LIVE to kick it all off. Seth, a multiple-time bestselling author and marketing genius, launched us into an incredible conversation about creativity, risk-taking, and finding meaning in our work. As Seth shared, embracing uncertainty...

The post Rewatch the 5.5 Hour Never Play It Safe Book Launch Event first appeared on Chase Jarvis.

The post Rewatch the 5.5 Hour Never Play It Safe Book Launch Event appeared first on Chase Jarvis.

In today’s fast-paced digital marketplace, the way customers experience your product can make or break your business. But what exactly is Product Experience Management, and why is it so crucial for your business’s success? Let’s explore this essential aspect of [...]

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The post What is Product Experience Management & Why Is It Crucial for Your Business? first appeared on CSS Reset.

Digital trading services have transformed the investment landscape for stocks, commodities, and other financial instruments. But do you know what’s true and what’s not about these services? Let’s dive into the common misconceptions surrounding digital trading and distinguish between myth [...]

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The post What Are the Common Misconceptions about Digital Trading Services? first appeared on CSS Reset.

The logistics industry has experienced a meaningful changeover with the appearance of the Internet of Things (IoT). By enabling real-time data collection and analysis, IoT has supplied new visibility into logistics operations. This raised visibility is key for keeping up [...]

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The post The Internet of Things in Logistics: Real-Time Data for Enhanced Visibility first appeared on CSS Reset.

The world of online casinos is now more competitive than ever before. This forces online casinos to push the limits of technology and come up with unique designs focused on improving the user experience.

Since most of such platforms offer similar [...]

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The post How CSS Enhances User Experience in Online Gaming first appeared on CSS Reset.

Building financial tools has never been more accessible. With the rise of web technologies, developers can create powerful market analyzers that are quick, responsive, and packed with features that were previously only available to large trading platforms. Here, we outline [...]

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The post Leveraging Automated Market Analyzers: A Developer’s Guide to Building Financial Tools with Web Technologies first appeared on CSS Reset.

The Australian government is making a significant update to the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT), reflecting its ongoing commitment to maintaining fair wages and conditions for skilled migrants. From 1 July 2024, the TSMIT will increase from $70,000 to $73,150. This change is part of the broader initiatives announced during the Jobs and Skills […]

The post Important Changes to the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT) Effective from 1 July 2024 appeared first on Australian Visa Experts.

On Wednesday 12 June 2024, the Minister for Home Affairs the Hon. Clare O’Neil MP announced changes that will stop certain visa holders being able to make further visa applications onshore. These changes will come into effect on 1 July 2024. The focus of these changes rests on student and other temporary visa holders. As […]

The post Minister for Home Affairs announces changes to onshore visa applications to stop ‘visa hopping’ appeared first on Australian Visa Experts.

Découverte du plus grand hôtel des Seychelles, situé dans un domaine immense pour un séjour avec des activités variés. Membre de la gamme des hôtels Constance avec une forte réputation, cet établissement est adapté pour les familles et les couples avec le luxe de choisir entre deux plages et cinq restaurants. Plus de détails en […]

Today, I am happy to announce version 6.0 of the Hybrid Core development framework. It has been a long time … Continue reading Hybrid Core 6.0 Now Live, ThemeHybrid.com Community Relaunch →

Whether you're a project manager or a startup business owner, most of you lack the time or the in-house experts to help with product design. Product design ...

The emergence of AI software in the field of architecture and design has sparked a significant shift in how professionals approach their work. With advancem ...

From a mere, individual concept idea discovered in a random online pic to an ordinary shot taken with a camera, there’s hardly anything that software like P ...

Stock photography business has become trend. It could be seen from the number of stock photography providers or so called microstock agencies in the internet which is increasing. The number affects the effort of every microstock agency to survive and get much buyers as possible. As a result, we can see so many microstock agencies […]

I will be speaking at Future of Web Design (FOWD) conference in New York City upcoming November 15 – 17, 2010. This will be my second time speaking at FOWD. I’ve been attending FOWD in the past several years and they get better and better. So, I’m very excited to have this opportunity to speak […]

I’m excited to announce that I’m invited to speak at Mad in Spain on June 3rd, 2011. Organized by Domestika, Mad in Spain is one of the largest design conferences in Spain. This year is going to be their 6th anniversary. I will presenting a talk on applying art in modern web design. After the […]

Yahoo has announced a new upcoming Marketplace for licensing images on Flickr. Short on details for now, but certainly full of potential.

Earn while you sleep: Realistic passive income ideas you can pursue part time! Ditch the 9-5 with the right idea, hard work, & these essential tools.

Find the best WordPress ecommerce plugins. Compare top options: Are they worth the cost? Proven tools for a profitable online store.

If you haven’t used Adobe’s brand-new Enhance feature yet, I urge you to give it...

The post Create Better Images with Enhance and Super Resolution appeared first on Alphatracks.

Understanding Flange Focal Distance. What is Flange Focal Distance? The simple textbook answer is FFD...

The post Understanding Flange Focal Distance and Lens Adapters appeared first on Alphatracks.