California’s Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau and the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Commission on Wednesday announced plans to launch new websites. The Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Commission announced that it will unveil its…

The federal Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs is holding a basic orientation course Aug. 21 for providers recently authorized to render medical treatment and evaluations for injured federal workers. The program will…

The West Virginia Supreme Court upheld the expansion of a worker’s claim to include additional conditions. Case: McKinney v. Little General Store Inc., No. 23-117, 08/01/2024, published. Facts: Marilyn McKinney worked for…

The National Council on Compensation Insurance filed a proposed Texas-specific experience rating plan. NCCI said the new edition of its Experience Rating Plan Manual for Workers’ Compensation and Employers Liability Insurance…

The U.S. Department of Energy picked a new company to administer workers’ compensation claims from the Hanford nuclear storage facility in Washington state, according to a report by the Tri-City…

"Work Comp Matters" - the central location for all your workers' compensation, employment and labor law matters. Steve Appell hosts this weekly podcast from sunny southern California - presenting some…

"Work Comp Matters" - the central location for all your workers' compensation, employment and labor law matters. Steve Appell hosts this weekly podcast from sunny southern California - presenting some…

"Work Comp Matters" - the central location for all your workers' compensation, employment and labor law matters. Steve Appell hosts this weekly podcast from sunny southern California - presenting some…

"Work Comp Matters" - the central location for all your workers' compensation, employment and labor law matters. Steve Appell hosts this weekly podcast from sunny southern California - presenting some…

A New York appellate court overturned a decision deducting the schedule loss of use for a worker’s prior shoulder injury from the schedule loss of use for a later arm…

The Industrial Commission of Arizona announced that Joanna Martelles was chosen to serve in the newly created position of Safety and Health Program manager. The new position will be tasked with…

The Arizona Industrial Commission announced that it's Medical Resource Office has added training opportunities for providers, payers and third-party administrators. The training course for providers is comprised of four, 30-minute webinars…

DALLAS, September 9, 2024 — While stroke is the fifth-leading overall cause of death in the United States, it disproportionately impacts Hispanic people. It is the third leading cause of death among Hispanic women and the fourth leading cause of death ...

DALLAS, Oct. 16, 2024 — The risk of heart disease increases with age for most people, however, for women that may be even more true. The menopause transition, those years leading up to and through menopause, is a time of increasing heart disease risk,...

DALLAS, September 5, 2024 — The American Heart Association, which is celebrating 100 years of lifesaving service as the world’s leading voluntary organization focused on heart and brain health, issued the following statement in response to the 2024...

DALLAS, October 11, 2024 — The American Heart Association has secured awards from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for projects that will increase education and awareness of heart valve disease. The awards, totaling $8.4 million ...

DALLAS, October 17, 2024 — Nancy Brown, chief executive of the American Heart Association, which is celebrating 100 years of lifesaving service as the world’s leading voluntary organization focused on heart and brain health, issued the following...

DALLAS, Tuesday, April 26, 2022 – Earlier today, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) released its final recommendations on low-dose aspirin therapy for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in adults: people who have a history ...

DALLAS, July 5, 2022 — The American Heart Association, the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health for all, announced its volunteer board leadership for fiscal year 2022-23. Raymond P. Vara, Jr., continues as the board ...

DALLAS, Monday, October 30, 2023 – The national Board of Directors of the American Heart Association last week voted to provide full support to the House of Cardiology’s consortium proposal to create a new American Board of Cardiovascular Medicine...

NEW YORK, 7 de noviembre de 2024 — La American Heart Association (la Asociación Americana del Corazón) y los New York Jets reunieron a representantes de 12 escuelas locales para realizar un entrenamiento de reanimación cardiopulmonar (RCP) y...

Today I have a really exciting update, sharing exactly what I've been working on for the past year. At my other website Design Cuts, we've just launched the most curated, high quality marketplace anywhere for designers just like you!

This week’s designer news includes CSS Printing Guide, Retrofitting Fluid Typography, CSS :has() Interactive Guide, Bootstrap 5 Modern Backgrounds, and much more.

View and Vote

The traditional view is that the brain is surrounded by three layers, the dura, arachnoid, and pia mater. Møllgård et al. found a fourth meningeal layer called the subarachnoid lymphatic-like membrane (SLYM). SLYM is immunophenotypically distinct from the other meningeal layers in the human and mouse brain and represents a tight barrier for solutes of more than 3 kilodaltons, effectively subdividing the subarachnoid space into two different compartments. SLYM is the host for a large population of myeloid cells, the number of which increases in response to inflammation and aging, so this layer represents an innate immune niche ideally positioned to surveil the cerebrospinal fluid.

A study conducted by Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital revealed that individuals experiencing a broad array of long COVID symptoms are twice as likely to have traces of SARS-CoV-2 proteins in their blood compared to those without symptoms of long COVID. The symptoms frequently associated with long COVID include fatigue, brain fog, muscle and joint pain, back pain, headaches, sleep issues, loss of smell or taste, and gastrointestinal problems.These findings were published in the journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection.

In addition to our Leveler, Denoiser, and Adaptive 'Hi-Pass' Filter, we now release the missing equalization feature with the new Auphonic AutoEQ.
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 - listen to the audio examples below to get an idea about what it does.

Screenshot of manually adjusted example settings for the equalizer plug-in 'Pro-Q3' by fabfilter.

What is Equalization and why is it difficult?

Equalization (EQ) in audio recording and reproduction is the process of adjusting the volume of different frequency bands within a signal.
The following vocal EQ cheat sheet, published by Producer Hive, will give you a small impression, of what can be influenced by equalizing:

Vocal EQ Cheat Sheet by Producer Hive.

On the other hand, it is very easy to ruin a good voice recording with manual heavy-handed equalization, resulting in voices, that sound very sharp or muddy or even like the speaker had a blocked nose.
Besides the skill and experience of an audio engineer, manual adjustments of frequencies also require a very good and linear studio playback device. For example, performing manual equalization with strongly bass-heavy speakers would most likely lead to a very sharp, unpleasant listening experience using treble-heavy headphones.

For singletrack productions with more than one speaker, equalizing is also a very complex and time-consuming process, as every voice has its unique frequency spectrum and needs its own equalization. One could separate speakers with cuts or create a track envelope to fade from one speaker to another, however, any solution is a very tedious job, if you do it by hand.

That is where the Auphonic AutoEQ comes in! All those steps are now available in just one click!

How does the Auphonic AutoEQ work?

The Auphonic Web Service analyzes your audio content and classifies the audio file into small and meaningful segments like music, silence, different speakers, etc. to process every single segment with the best matching algorithms.
All our features like the Adaptive Leveler, Dynamic Denoising, Adaptive 'Hi-Pass' Filtering, and now the new AutoEQ filter option are built on top of this basic processing.

Using Auphonic AutoEQ, spectral EQ profiles are created for each speaker separately and permanently changing over time. The aim of those time-dependent EQ profiles is to create a constant, pleasant sound in the output file even if there are slightly changing voices in the record, for example, due to modified speaker-microphone positions.

Audio Examples

Here are two short audio examples, which demonstrate some features of our AutoEQ.
We recommend listening with headphones so you can hear all the details.

Example 1. Female Speaker with Background Music

In the following example (BCB: The Voices of Bainbridge Island) of a female narrator speaking while background music is playing, you can easily recognize quite sharp 'sss' sounds in the female voice. This sharpness in the female voice is removed by the so-called De-essing feature of the Auphonic AutoEQ, while the background music is not changed.

Example 2. Dialog of Male and Female Speakers

The next example (BCB: The Voices of Bainbridge Island) shows how the AutoEQ optimizes a singletrack record containing two speakers with different voice characteristics. Our AutoEQ algorithms analyze each voice separately and calculate the matching frequency adjustments to optimize the voice of every single speaker.

AutoEQ Beta Integration in the Auphonic Web Service

To use the Auphonic AutoEQ, you just have to create a production or preset as you are used to, toggle “Advanced Parameters” on the top right in the section “Audio Algorithms” and select “Voice AutoEQ” within “Filtering”:

For a first test period, the AutoEQ will only be available for Beta and paying users, to incorporate your feedback and finalize an optimized version.
If you are a free user but want to try Auphonic AutoEQ: please just ask for access!

Practical Tips

For best results using Auphonic AutoEQ, however, it is still necessary, that your audio content is of sufficiently good quality, as no equalizer can make up frequencies that are not there in the first place. Audio files with low bitrates often lack important frequencies, that cannot be recovered by equalizing. AutoEQ is just a feature to boost or cut individual frequency bands, not a bandwidth extension. For more information about required audio quality, see the former blog post: Audio File Formats and Bitrates for Podcasts.

Another important topic is the definition of the 'best result'. Equalizing is a very subjective task, that differs a lot depending on every personal opinion. So Auphonic AutoEQ is set up to follow quite conservative rules of equalizing and rather apply subtle tweaks and remove obvious problems, than support personal preferences. This also means, your record will experience no significant changes from Auphonic AutoEQ if it sounds reasonably OK or pretty good already.

Conclusion

Auphonic audio post production algorithms keep getting better and better in leaps and bounds lately, offering you new Beta Features: Beta Auphonic Denoiser, Beta Auphonic Speech Recognition, and Beta Auphonic AutoEQ.
Right now we are fine-tuning all our current Beta Features with high intensity to release a new upgraded version of our Auphonic Web Service as soon as possible.
Please watch this channel for further updates – soon to come.

If you have any feedback for us or want to become a Beta user, you are very welcome to comment directly in our production interface or to contact us via email!

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.

We all know the problem: the content is perfectly prepared, and everything is in place, but the moment you hit the record button, your brain freezes, and what pops out of your mouth is a rain of “ums”, “uhs”, and “mhs” that no listener would enjoy.
Cleaning up a record like that by manually cutting out every single filler word is a painstaking task.

So we heard your requests to automate the filler word removing task, started implementing it, and are now very happy to release our new Automatic Filler Cutter feature. See our Audio Examples and Usage Instructions below.

What is removed?

While the definition of filler words is not the same, depending on who you ask, some words can be used as filler as well as content. For example, “like”, “well”, “you know”, etc. cannot be removed without the risk of removing also content and destroying sentences, even if those words are used as filler words in some cases.

Therefore, we decided to focus on the removal of the obvious fillers, namely any kind of “ums”, “uhs”, “mhs”, German “ähm”, “äh”, “öh”, French “euh”, “euhm” and similar.

Audio Examples

1. English Male Speaker

The first audio example is an excerpt from the interview “From Racing Failure to Red Bull Champion: The Untold Christian Horner Story”. Our algorithm found and removed a remarkable ten filler words in this 45-second snippet:

Screenshot of the Auphonic Audio Inspector: each pale red shaded area corresponds to a cut-out filler word.

2. Austrian-German Female Speaker

The following example is an interview with the Austrian Ex-Foreign Minister, Karin Kneissl, who uses seven filler words within 26 seconds:

Usage Instructions

To use the Auphonic Automatic Filler Cutter feature, you just have to create a production or preset as you are used to and select “Cut Fillers” for “Automatic Cutting” in the section “Audio Algorithms”:

When your production is done, all cut-out filler words will appear as pale red shaded areas in the Auphonic Audio Inspector on the production status page, as you can see in the upper screenshot of the Audio Inspector.

If you want to remove silent segments from your audio as well, please also enable our Automatic Silence Cutting feature.

NOTE: Our Automatic Cutting features (for filler and silence) are not available for video files!

Behind the Scenes

For the training of our Automatic Filler Cutter AI-Algorithm, we created datasets that contain manually labeled audio files, collected from 'real world' audio data. So far, we have labeled, trained, and tested the system with English, German, Spanish, and French data.

However, in the Auphonic Web Service, you can activate and test the Automatic Filler Word Cutter for all languages. We would be very happy to hear how the filler removal works out for completely different-sounding languages from, e.g., the Asian, African, or Slavic language families.

Please send us feedback on any problems or error patterns you discover! This will help us generate specific data for the training to improve the algorithm and eliminate your problems.

Conclusion

Automatic filler word cutting is a powerful tool for podcasters looking to enhance the quality of their content. It boosts clarity and professionalism, all while making your editing process more efficient. Some users, however, see a touch of authenticity in filler words within podcasts. So, we leave it up to you to enable or disable the Automatic Filler Cutter feature for your next Auphonic production, depending on your desired style.

We are currently working on filler word cutting optimizations for more languages, so watch our channels to get all the news on our upgrades!

If you have any feedback for us – how the filler cutter is working in your language, what you do or don't like, what you miss, what else you would want to remove from your audio besides silence and filler words, etc. – you are welcome to contact us via email or directly comment on our production interface!

We're excited to roll out an upgraded version of our Transcript Editor, focusing on enhancing your transcription workflow and making it more intuitive, especially for mobile users. This overhaul introduces several key improvements and features designed to streamline the transcription process.

Click here for a Live Demo

What's new?

Line by Line Editing

Your transcript is being rendered line by line. This allows for precise editing of every single timestamp. Depending on the speech recognition engine editing can be done on word or phrase level.
For optimal results, we suggest utilizing our Auphonic Whisper ASR engine.

A paragraph with 9 lines, every line represents a "subtitle line" (.vtt, .srt).

You can split or combine paragraphs and lines using the Enter and Backspace keys. Our new Playback Slider enables seamless scrolling through the text, while we highlight the currently selected word as you go. With the switchable Play on Click function you can start your playback from anywhere in the transcript.

Automatic Shownotes and Chapters

If you enable Automatic Shownotes and Chapters in the Production form, we include AI generated shownotes and chapters directly into the Transcript Editor. You can edit Chapter Times and Text directly within the Transcript Editor. Once you click Save (top right), any modifications made within the shownotes and chapters will also be saved back to the production.

Screenshot of Automatic Shownotes and Chapters withing the Transcript Editor.

You are also able to edit chapter times directly within the transcript editor. Please note that this only works within the Transcript section of the editor to ensure precise placement of chapters.

Screenshot of Edit Chapter Time.

Local History: Undo and Redo

Our Local History feature offers convenient undo and redo functionality. This means you can effortlessly revert changes or redo them as needed, providing you with greater control and flexibility during the editing process.

Edit Speakers

Our revamped Transcript Editor automatically assigns speakers in Multitrack Productions. You can use the Track Identifier in our production form to assign speakers and easily edit, remove, or add new ones within the Transcript Editor. So it's clear who says what at any time!

Screenshot of Edit Speaker.

Confidence Highlighting

Within the transcription areas of low confidence are highlighted with our Highlight Low Confidence feature. So you can check up on the AI and edit words it is not entirely confident about! It also shows you how confident the AI is about the specific area if you hover over it.

Offline Mode

This feature enables you to download and share the Transcript Editor for offline editing. This means you can share the *.html file with someone else for editing purposes. Simply use the Download Editor action to obtain an offline version of the Transcript Editor.

Export Transcript

You can export your transcript in all currently relevant formats (.srt, .vtt, .txt, .html, .pdf) and include them in your publishing process or video editing software.

Screenshot of Export Transcript.

Responsive Design

We want to make podcasting as easy as possible. The responsive design of our Transcript Editor allows for fast editing on mobile devices - so you can edit what you're saying anywhere, anytime!

Screenshot of Transcript Editor on a mobile device.

Why use it?

Apple Podcasts paved the way for all podcasts to feature transcripts, so users can read through what you are saying and look for specific parts of your talk they're interested in revisiting. That could be book recommendations, advertisements or one of your ideas you want to share with the world.

We're trying to make the transcription process as automated and easy for you as possible. Especially when using Multitrack Productions we strive to take all the work off of you and let the AI do its magic.

Additionally, we aim to simplify manual corrections wherever automated processes encounter challenges, ensuring that even these adjustments are as effortless as possible.

Try it now on auphonic.com!

Feedback

If you have feature requests or feedback for our new Transcript Editor, please let us know! You can also leave a comment in the feedback section on the status page of your specific production.
We're looking forward to hearing from you!

In this episode, Cal Newport shares his revolutionary approach to productivity from his new book, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout. Cal, a computer science professor at Georgetown and author of Deep Workand Digital Minimalism, explores how principles from historical figures like Newton, Galileo, and Jane Austen can help us thrive in today’s fast-paced world. We discuss his ‘lost art’ approach, debunk the myth of multitasking, and examine how technology impacts our focus and mental well-being. Some highlights we explore: How Newton’s work habits can be integrated into modern productivity practices. Why focusing on single tasks is more effective than multitasking. Advice on reducing social media’s impact to regain focus. Techniques from Cal’s new book to accomplish more without burning out. And more! Enjoy! FOLLOW CAL NEWPORT: twitter | youtube | website Listen to the Podcast Subscribe  

The post Cal Newport on The Dark Side of Modern Productivity first appeared on Chase Jarvis.

The post Cal Newport on The Dark Side of Modern Productivity appeared first on Chase Jarvis.

After many months — building your own sites is hard! — I am finally able to launch truth-and-beauty.net, my new portfolio site! It replaces the old moritz.stefaner.eu, which now lives at archive.stefaner.eu, as I was not able to (and probably won’t) migrate all old contents over. A few notes on technology – I knew I […]

Winterlichter Palmengarten Jan 2016

I just designed another elegant WordPress theme at Themify called Edmin. This theme comes 4 different skins and 7 layout options. It is suitable for general blog and photography sites. Check out the demo now.

I just wanted to announce a new WordPress theme that I designed called Elemin. It is minimal theme coded with Google font, CSS3, Javascript and HTML5. The design is completely fluid and responsive (using CSS3 Media Queries). This means the layout automatically adapts based on the user’s viewport. To see it in action, visit the […]

Check out my latest WordPress theme, ShopDock, an ecommerce theme that replicates the Ajax features as seen on IconDock. Not only does it look cool, but also provides a pleasant user experience. Buyer can easily add or remove items to the cart with a single mouse click. No more “back to shop” or page reloading every time […]

Check out this new Pinterest inspired theme I designed – Pinboard. It incorporated infinite scroll as seen on Pinterest site. The posts are auto loaded and stacked as soon you hit the bottom of the page. It is also responsive. Check the demo and resize your browser window to see how the layout adapts.

Below is the latest illustration, Redesign the Web Poster, that I did for Smashing Magazine’s poster design contest: Redesign the Web, Redesign the World. The work is done with Adobe Illustrator and then touched up with Photoshop.

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

What’s happening with WooCommerce in July 2024? Cart and Checkout upgrades, Buy Now, Pay Later, and more!

If, like me, you are a fan of all things mid-century modern, then you won’t want to miss Oakland’s newest Lakeshore addition, Bardo Lounge and Supper Club. Like a vintage trip with Don Draper back in time, you’ll enjoy all the little touches that make for a perfect night out for some excellent cocktails along …

Continue reading "Cocktails with Don Draper, Dinner and Drinks at Oakland’s New Mid-Century Modern, Bardo Lounge and Supper Club"

I had the pleasure to try FOB Kitchen last night, a hot new Telegraph Avenue Oakland Filipino menu in Oakland (Thanks cristina_thebaker!). 5179 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA 94609. You would not know it from the unassuming Temescal strip mall setting, but once inside you are treated to an amazing and flavorful Filipino menu from this …

Continue reading "FOB Kitchen, Great New Filipino Hot Spot in Oakland, California"

Brief The team at Community Presbyterian Church in Englewood, Florida came to us with an outdated website that they struggled...continue reading

The post New website design launched for Community Presbyterian Church, Englewood Florida first appeared on Website Design in Naples, Fort Myers Florida | Logo Design | Brian Joseph Studios.

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of launching a new, modern website for this wonderful non-profit organization in Naples, Florida. Members...continue reading

The post New Naples Website Launched : Bentley Village Foundation first appeared on Website Design in Naples, Fort Myers Florida | Logo Design | Brian Joseph Studios.

Last week we had the pleasure of launching a new website for Mark Hobert, a real estate agent in Naples...continue reading

The post New Naples Real Estate Website Design Launched – Mark Hobert first appeared on Website Design in Naples, Fort Myers Florida | Logo Design | Brian Joseph Studios.

Jobs Newcastle is two columns free wordpress theme with unique and glossy look, having the classic combination of  blue, grey and black. Features: XHTML 1.0 Transitional Widget Ready Adsense Ready Threaded comments support FeedBurner subscribe via email support Note: Jobs Newcastle Theme is Distribute by ElegantWPThemes.com Designed by Web Design Leeds and made free by [...]

Anybody who would be interested in a great new theme about beds and home furniture please drop me a line or comment on this post. Im just mulling over the idea got a good template in mind with a pic of a leather bed and nice mattress kind of a sleep blog theme. Should appeal [...]

By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams “We face a stark choice [between] radical, disruptive changes to our physical world or radical, disruptive changes to our political and economic systems to avoid those outcomes.” As people across the globe mobilize to demand … Continue reading →

By Andrea Germanos Common Dreams On the heels of clean fuel milestones in Germany and Portugal , a new report finds that the renewable energy industry employed over 8.1 million people worldwide in 2015. According to the International Renewable Energy … Continue reading →