We have developed a dense reference genetic map of Lupinus angustifolius (2n = 40) based on a set of 106 publicly available recombinant inbred lines derived from a cross between domesticated and wild parental lines. The map comprised 1090 loci in 20 linkage groups and three small clusters, drawing together data from several previous mapping publications plus almost 200 new markers, of which 63 were gene-based markers. A total of 171 mainly gene-based, sequence-tagged site loci served as bridging points for comparing the Lu. angustifolius genome with the genome sequence of the model legume, Lotus japonicus via BLASTn homology searching. Comparative analysis indicated that the genomes of Lu. angustifolius and Lo. japonicus are highly diverged structurally but with significant regions of conserved synteny including the region of the Lu. angustifolius genome containing the pod-shatter resistance gene, lentus. We discuss the potential of synteny analysis for identifying candidate genes for domestication traits in Lu. angustifolius and in improving our understanding of Fabaceae genome evolution.

On bowed string instruments such as violin or cello, the quality of sound depends mostly on the performer’s bowing technique, which determines the interaction between the bow hair and the string. An accomplished string player has numerous ways of shaping the spectrum of a desired sound. This research investigates the combination of bowing gestures necessary for production of a rich tone. In particular, bowing control parameters such as bow force, bow velocity, and bow–bridge distance captured by a dedicated sensing system are analyzed and compared against audio features. Using audio and gesture measurements of six advanced cellists recorded on two different instruments of a luthier class, we characterize a sound palette and respective bowing control patterns of each player in performed music excerpts and scales. We especially focus on how performers adjust their bowing technique to control the timber of an instrument on which they have never practiced before. Observed differences between the players on the measured audio features show consistency with the bowing parameters adapted for balancing the timbral changes due to instrument, string, and fingering position. To perceptually evaluate the recorded samples, expert musicians were asked to rank the players in terms of sound quality and tone richness.

In this paper, we compare timbre features of various cello performers playing the same instrument in solo cello recordings. Using an automatic feature extraction framework, we investigate the differences in sound quality of the players. The motivation for this study comes from the fact that the performer's influence on acoustical characteristics is rarely considered when analysing audio recordings of various instruments. While even a trained musician cannot entirely change the way an instrument sounds, he is still able to modulate its sound properties obtaining a variety of individual sound colours according to his playing skills and musical expressiveness. This phenomenon, known amongst musicians as "player timbre", enables to differentiate one player from another when they perform an identical piece of music on the same instrument. To address this problem, we analyse sets of spectral features extracted from cello recordings of five players and model timbre characteristics of each performer. The proposed features include harmonic and noise (residual) spectra, Mel-frequency spectra and Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs). Classifiers such as k-Nearest Neighbours (k-NN) and Linear Discrimination Analysis (LDA) trained on these models are able to distinguish the five performers with high accuracy.

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