Abstract
Folk music is a fundamental immaterial heritage that promotes cultural identity. However, it lacks a substantial body of open access materials, and its promotion has been disconnected from the education curriculum. In this context, facilitated access to annotated high-quality folk music content can promote better educational tools and enhance cultural heritage literacy. Based on this, we advance and detail three main contributions: 1) a standardized model to musically annotate Iberian folk music; 2) a new database, named I-Folk, with annotated files following the proposed model; and 3) tools for navigating and retrieving folk music contents from the database. A particular emphasis is given to the educational application of the proposed model, contents, and tools in education. Ultimately, we strive for the promotion of Iberian folk music to the educators' community.

Abstract
Introduction:The lack of engagement and the shortage of motivation and drive, also referred to as apathy, negatively impacts the effectiveness and adherence to treatment and the general well-being of people with neurocognitive disorders (NCDs), such as dementia. Methodology:The hypothesis raised states that the engagement of people with dementia during their non-invasive treatments for NCDs is affected by the noisy source levels and negative auditory stimuli present within environmental treatment settings. An online survey was conducted with the study objectives to assess 1) the engagement levels of dementia patients while interacting with others at home versus in therapy facilities, 2) the emotions perceived when interacting with people at home compared to therapy sessions, 3) the perceived loudness of the environment at home versus in therapy facilities, and 4) which source sounds negatively impact the patients at home and during therapy sessions. A purposive sampling (n=62) targeting relatives, friends, and caregivers of dementia patients was conducted via online community forums in the DACH region. Moreover, a recording session was conducted in a psychotherapist’s office to verify the answer tothe questionnaire on the noise sources perceived in therapy facilities. Results and Discussion:The raised hypothesis that disruptive auditory stimuli and noise levels influence the engagement levels of demented individuals during treatment is confirmed as the engagement is affected by the perceived noise disruptions when comparing perceived noise levels and engagement at home to those in treatment facilities.Significant statistical results were found between the lower engagement of demented individuals when interacting with people during therapy sessions compared to higher engagement in-home interactions. Furthermore, negatively perceived sound sources can be found in both therapy facilities and home settings. The noise sound sources identified, such as human voices, household appliances and household noises, while recording inthe psychotherapist’s office align with the questionnaire responses received on this topic. The findings indicate that the perceived heightened noise levels in therapy facilities stand in correlation with the lowered engagement rate perceived during the therapy session compared to the lower noise level and higher engagement encountered when demented individuals interact at home. Conclusion:If the identified noise elements are masked or replaced by other auditory stimuli that promote a soothing soundscape, the original disturbances encountered during therapy and the lack of engagement can possibly be minimized. Further studies need to be conducted in the prototyping of a noise intervention tool to analyze the impact on lack of engagement through noise disturbances.Keywords. Noise, Engagement, Dementia, Therapy, Apathy.INTRODUCTIONNeurocognitive disorders (NCDs) are a steadily rising global public health concern. In 2020, around 50 million people worldwide lived with major NCDs, specifically dementia, with nearly 10 million new cases per year1NCDs can be found in many diseases, including Alzheimer, Parkinson, Huntington, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob (Reith, 2018). The causes of NCDs are typically associated with advanced age. Still, it can occur from incidents such as traumatic brain injuries, infections, thyroid problems, damage to the blood vessels, and other causes (Kane et al., 2017), increasingly affecting a wide range of people and age groups. Successful treatment methods are limited and can be split into two main categories, invasive and non-invasive methods.Invasive treatment methods are surgical procedures, such as Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), a neurosurgical procedure in which a neurotransmitter is placed in the brain to send electrical 1World Health Organization, Dementia [website] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dementia(accessed 12 April 2021)

Abstract
In this paper, we advance a multimodal optimization music mashup creation model for loop recombination at scale. The motivation to pursue such a model is to 1) tackle current scalability limitations in state-of-the-art (brute force) models while enforcing the 2) compatibility, i.e., recombination quality, of audio loops, and 3) a pool of diverse solutions that can accommodate personal user preferences or promote different musical styles. To this end, we adopt the Artificial Immune System (AIS) opt-aiNet algorithm to efficiently compute a population of compatible and diverse mashups from loop recombinations. Optimal mashups result from local minima in a feature space that objectively represents harmonic and rhythmic compatibility. We implemented our model as a prototype application named Mixmash-AIS, and conducted an objective evaluation that tackles three dimensions: loop recombination compatibility, mashups diversity, and computational model efficiency. The conducted evaluation compares the proposed system to a standard genetic algorithm (GA) and a brute force (BF) approach. While the GA stands as the most efficient algorithm, its poor results in terms of compatibility reinforce the primacy of the AIS opt-aiNet in efficiently finding optimal compatible loop mashups. Furthermore, the AIS opt-aiNet showed to promote a diverse mashup population, outperforming both GA or BF approaches. © 2021 Owner/Author.

Abstract

Abstract
Rhythmic similarity, a fundamental task within Music Information Retrieval, has recently been applied in creative music contexts to retrieve musical audio or guide audio-content transformations. However, there is still very little knowledge of the typical rhythmic similarity values between overlapping musical structures per instrument, genre, and time scales, which we denote as rhythmic compatibility. This research provides the first steps towards the understanding of rhythmic compatibility from the systematic analysis of MedleyDB, a large multi-track musical database composed and performed by artists. We apply computational methods to compare database stems using representative rhythmic similarity metrics - Rhythmic Histogram (RH) and Beat Spectrum (BS) - per genre and instrumental families and to understand whether RH and BS are prone to discriminate genres at different time scales. Our results suggest that 1) rhythmic compatibility values lie between [.002,.354] (RH) and [.1,.881] (BS), 2) RH outperforms BS in discriminating genres, and 3) different time scale in RH and BS impose significant differences in rhythmic compatibility. © 2021 ACM.

Abstract
Sound design has been a fundamental component of audiovisual storytelling in linear media. However, with recent technological developments and the shift towards non-linear and immersive media, things are rapidly changing. More sensory information is available and, at the same time, the user is gaining agency upon the narrative, being offered the possibility of navigating or making other decisions. These new characteristics of immersive environments bring new challenges to storytelling in interactive narratives and require new strategies and techniques for audiovisual narrative progression. Can technology offer an immersive environment where the user has the sensation of agency, of choice, where her actions are not mediated by evident controls but subliminally induced in a way that it is ensured that a narrative is being followed? Can sound be a subliminal element that induces attentional focus on the most relevant elements for the narrative, inducing storytelling and biasing search in an immersive non-linear audiovisual environment? Herein, we present a literature review that has been guided by this prospect. With these questions in view, we present our exploration process in finding possible answers and potential solution paths. We point out that consistency, in terms of coherency across sensory modalities and emotional matching may be a critical aspect. Finally, we consider that this review may open up new paths for experimental studies that could, in the future, provide new strategies in the practice of sound design in the context of non-linear media.