Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatial dispersion constrained NMF for monaural source separation

Single-channel source separation is an approach to decomposing a single-channel recording into its sources without understanding how the sources are mixed. This work develops a sparse regularized nonnegative matrix factorization scheme with spatial dispersion penalty (SpaSNMF). To preserve spatial locality structured information on the basis for sound source separation, intra-sample structure constraints that are learnt from the input data are utilized. Based on the hypothesis that adjacent spectrogram points should not be dispersed in basis spectra, this framework is provided for supervised source separation. To improve the separation performance, group sparse penalties are simultaneously constructed. A multiple-update-rule optimization scheme was used to solve the objective function of the proposed SpaSNMF. Experiments on single-channel source separation reveal that the proposed method provides more robust basis factors and achieves better results than standard NMF and its extensions.
The Notch Intracellular Domain Can Function as a Coactivator for LEF-1

ABSTRACT Notch signaling commences with two ligand-mediated proteolysis events that release the Notch intracellular domain, NICD, from the plasma membrane. NICD then translocates into the nucleus and interacts with the DNA binding protein CSL to activate transcription. We found that NICD expression also potentiates activity of the transcription factor LEF-1. NICD stimulation of LEF-1 activity was context dependent and occurred on a subset of promoters distinct from those activated by β-catenin. Importantly, the effect of NICD does not appear to be mediated through canonical components of the Wnt signaling pathway or downstream components of the Notch pathway. In vitro assays show a weak association between the C-terminal transactivation domain of NICD and the high-mobility group domain of LEF-1, suggesting that the two proteins interact in vivo. Our data therefore describe a new nuclear target of Notch signaling and a new coactivator for LEF-1.
Nanoparticle-mediated delivery of shRNA.VEGF-a plasmids regresses corneal neovascularization.

PURPOSE To determine the efficacy of a plasmid containing a small hairpin RNA expression cassette (pSEC.shRNA) against VEGF-A-loaded poly(lactic co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles (PLGA NPs) in the sustained regression of murine corneal neovascularization. METHODS PLGA nanoparticles were loaded with pSEC.shRNA. VEGF-A plasmids using the double emulsion-solvent evaporation method. KNV was induced in BALB/c mice by mechanical-alkali injury. Four weeks after induction of KNV, the mice were randomly divided to receive one of four treatments intrastromally: pSEC.shRNA. VEGF-A PLGA NPs (2 μg plasmid); naked pSEC.shRNA. VEGF-A plasmid only (2 μg plasmid); control blank PLGA NPs (equivalent dry weight of NPs); and vehicle. Two and five days after intervention, corneas were harvested to determine VEGF-A gene and protein expression using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and ELISA, respectively. Four weeks after intervention, corneas were photographed, mice sacrificed, and the corneal whole mounts were immunostained for CD31 (panendothelial cell marker). Immunofluorescence microscopy was performed and the neovascular area was quantitated. RESULTS VEGF-A mRNA (49.6 ± 12.4 vs. 82.9 ± 6.0%, P < 0.01) and protein (4.0 ± 5.2 vs. 20.0 ± 7.5 ρg VEGF-A/mg total protein, P < 0.05) expression were significantly reduced in pSEC.shRNA. VEGF-A PLGA NP-treated corneas as compared with control blank NP. The pSEC.shRNA. VEGF-A PLGA NP-treated corneas showed significant regression in the mean fractional areas of KNV (0.125 ± 0.042; 12.5%, P <0.01) compared with both naked plasmid only (0.283 ± 0.004; 28.3%) and control (blank NPs = 0.555 ± 0.072, 55.5%) at 4 weeks post-treatment. CONCLUSIONS The pSEC.shRNA. VEGF-A-loaded PLGA NPs are an effective, nonviral, nontoxic, and sustainable form of gene therapy for the regression of murine KNV.
Direct modulation of protein level in Arabidopsis.

Dear Editor, The general way to probe functions of a protein in vivo is to perturb its level and then observe subsequent phenotypic changes.In plants,modulation of protein level is mainly carried out at DNA or RNA level,which is indirect and thus affected by stability of the target protein.Thus,experimental approaches to perturb protein level directly are needed,but still limited in plants.In mammalian cells,a technique to modulate protein level directly has been developed.Engineered destabilizing domain (DD) of the human FKBP12 protein can confer instability to other proteins when fused to it.A small synthetic molecule ligand Shield 1 (Shld1) can bind DD and shield it from degradation.The level of DD fused protein can be controlled by adjusting Shld1 concentration (Banaszynski et a1.,2006). The DD-Shld1 system was further successfully applied in several other species,such as parasites Plasmodium falciparum (Armstrong and Goldberg,2007) and Toxoplasma gondii (Herm-G(o)tz et al.,2007).
Exploiting application locality to design fast, low power, low complexity neural classifiers

The paper provides a design methodology for embedded classifiers particularly effective in those applications characterised by a temporal locality of the inputs. By exploiting application locality we reduce computational complexity and cache misses (hence speeding up the execution) as well as power consumption. A gated-parallel neural classifier has been found to be a particularly suitable structure since only one sub-classifier is active at time, the others being switched off. Results from industrial applications show that the suggested design methodology provides an accuracy comparable with more traditional classifiers yet yielding a significant complexity and execution time reduction.
Enriched Event Streams: A General Dataset for Empirical Studies on In-IDE Activities of Software Developers

Developers have been the subject of many empirical studies over the years. To assist developers in their everyday work, an understanding of their activities is necessary, especially how they develop source code. Unfortunately, conducting such studies is very expensive and researchers often resort to studying artifacts after the fact. To pave the road for future empirical studies on developer activities, we built FeedBaG, a general-purpose interaction tracker for Visual Studio that monitors development activities. The observations are stored in enriched event streams that encode a holistic picture of the in-IDE development process. Enriched event streams capture all commands invoked in the IDE with additional context information, such as the test being run or the accompanying fine-grained code edits. We used FeedBaG to collect enriched event streams from 81 developers. Over 1,527 days, we collected more than 11M events that correspond to 15K hours of working time.
High UV-B Exposures in the Continental USA: Towards Realistic Short-term Exposure Regimes for Plant-effects Research

Abstract Understanding the biological effects of acute ultraviolet-B (UV-B) exposure requires understanding the typical intensity and duration of such exposures. The occurrence of high hourly biologically effective UV-B (UV-BBE) exposures was evaluated using two response functions (1971 and 2003) for the 1997–2002 summer growing seasons (May–August) at five locations across the continental United States. The frequency of occurrence of the upper 5% of all seasonal UV-BBE hourly exposures of 1 h to 4 h duration in 1 day and repeating the same exposure over consecutive days was evaluated. High hourly UV-BBE exposures occurred most frequently during June and July. There was a 30% frequency of occurrence of a day during the growing season with 2 h of hourly exposure in the upper 5% of UV-BBE (1971) values across any of the five locations studied. The frequency of occurrence of 2 h of UV-BBE (2003) exposure in the uppermost 5% of all observed hourly values was 14%. An approach and specific experimental square-wave enhancement exposure regimes that are consistent with the range of actual exposures and total ozone column (TOC) during the May through August period are provided. A 2 day high UV-B event with 2 h of high UV-BBE occurred at least 10% of all days in the growing season, representing a reasonable short-term high-exposure regime. Different exposure statistics and resulting enhancement regimes would likely result if only June and July were included in the analysis.
Adhesive Systems as an Alternative Material for Color Masking of White Spot Lesions: Do They Work?

PURPOSE To evaluate the color masking effect of infiltration treatment of artificial white spot lesions (AWSL) using a dedicated resin in comparison to different adhesive systems. MATERIALS AND METHODS Enamel/dentin specimens were obtained from bovine incisors and baseline color was assessed using a reflectance spectrophotometer, according to the CIE L*a*b* system. AWSL were produced using a buffered acid solution and a new color evaluation was performed. The specimens were divided into 8 groups: control: artificial saliva changed daily for 7 days; IC: infiltrating resin Icon; EC: EquiaCoat; FU: Futurabond U; SBU: Single Bond U; SBMP: Scotchbond MP; OB: OptibondFL; BF: Bioforty. After the treatments, the color was evaluated again and the values for the parameters ΔL (change in lightness), Δa (change in chroma), Δb (change in hue), and ΔE (general color difference) were calculated in relation to baseline. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and Tukey's tests. RESULTS After treatment, ANOVA showed significant differences for all parameters (p = 0.001). Tukey's test showed the greatest lightness reduction (ΔL) for the IC group, followed by EC, FU, and SBU. The SBMP, OB, and BF groups were similar to the control. For Δb values, all groups showed differences in relation to the control, with no differences between them. In relation to ΔE, all groups showed differences in relation to the control (ΔE = 5.24), with no significant differences between them. ΔE values after application of all resinous materials were lower than the threshold of 3.7, indicating effective color masking. CONCLUSIONS The Icon infiltrant produced a greater lightness reduction of white lesions (ΔL). For general color difference (ΔE), all the resinous materials tested were able to color mask artificial AWSL.
Towards Genetically Evolved Dynamic Control for Quadruped Locomotion

A genetic algorithm is used to search for the rhythmical control of eight joints in a quadruped robot. The search is used to find a fixed number of Fourier coefficients for each joint. Each set of coefficients is considered to be a controller for the robot, and it is evaluated using a simulator of the dynamics of the walking pattern generated by the controller. The fitness of a controller is higher if it generates more stable and faster walking. Effective controllers are further evaluated using a purpose-built robot that is physically modeled in the simulator. We present initial results from this simulation system, and show good correspondence between the simulator-generated dynamics and the movement of the robot under control of the same set of coefficients. The results presented here suggest that stable limit cycles may exist in the dynamics of quadruped walking.
An Electric Vehicle Load Management Application of the Mixed Strategist Dynamics and the Maximum Entropy Principle

An application of an evolutionary game dynamics called mixed strategist dynamics (MSD), for the decentralized load scheduling of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), is proposed in this paper. Following an analogy with the maximum entropy principle (MEP) for tuning parameters of discrete probability distributions, entropy of the total load distribution and the local load distributions are considered as objectives of the scheduling approach, and a tradeoff among them is defined by the electric vehicle owners' convenience. While entropy maximization for the local load distributions contributes to preserve the batteries' states of health, entropy maximization for the total load distribution reduces the undesirable peak effects over the transformer loading. The problem is formulated such that final states of charge are assured depending on time constraints defined by the owners. Furthermore, mixed strategies in the MSD are defined such that they represent the vertices of the convex set of feasible load profiles which results from the constraints imposed by owners and chargers. The synergy of several PEVs is modeled as an application of the MSD in a multipopulation scenario, where the interaction among populations follows another evolutionary game dynamics called best reply (BR) dynamics. The performance of the proposed approach is tested on real data measured on a distribution transformer from the SOREA utility grid company in the region of Savoie, France.
Phylogeography of the canyon treefrog, Hyla arenicolor (Cope) based on mitochondrial DNA sequence data

Patterns of phylogeography and gene flow were examined in the canyon treefrog, Hyla arenicolor. A total of 973 bp of mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence data were obtained for 65 individuals from 53 populations, yielding 50 unique haplotypes. Interpopulation sequence variation ranged from 0 to 13.7%. Phylogenetic analysis revealed three deeply divergent mtDNA lineages. These three Clades were mapped onto geography and found to represent completely concordant, nonoverlapping, geographical regions. Levels of sequence divergence between the three Clades were equal to or greater than published levels of divergence found in other vertebrate species and genera. Furthermore, one Clade of H. arenicolor was found to be more closely related to the outgroup H. eximia than to other H. arenicolor, suggesting that the taxonomy of this species may require revision.
Être chômeur à Paris, São Paulo, Tokyo

La condition de chomeur est marquee par l'obligation de recherche d'emploi, mais cette definition internationale dissimule des realites heterogenes. L'objectif de ce livre est d’explorer la diversite des significations du chomage : comment les chomeurs vivent-ils et interpretent-ils leur situation a Paris, a Sao Paulo et a Tokyo ? Le chomage a-t-il le meme sens partout ? L’ouvrage retrace les manieres dont le chomage est vecu par des hommes et des femmes de milieux sociaux et d’âges differents dans ces trois metropoles. Cette demarche comparative permet de reperer plusieurs echelles de variation : internationale, avec un univers de significations commun aux chomeurs des trois pays ; nationale, avec l’affirmation de modeles de reference specifiques a chaque territoire ; transnationale, avec des experiences qui se recoupent selon le sexe, l’âge et la categorie sociale, quel que soit le pays. Fruit d’enquetes par entretiens biographiques approfondis et d’une methode inedite de comparaison internationale, ce livre renouvelle les connaissances sur le chomage d’une facon aussi originale que passionnante.
A Geography-Specific Approach to Estimating the Distributional Impact of Highway Tolls: An Application to the Puget Sound Region of Washington State

ABSTRACT: This study contributes to the debate about tolls’ equity impacts by examining the potential economic costs of tolling for low-income and non-low-income households. Using data from the Puget Sound metropolitan region in Washington State and geographic information systems methods to map driving routes from home to work, we examine car ownership and transportation patterns among low-income and non-low-income households. We follow standard practice of estimating tolls’ potential impact only on households with workers who would drive on tolled and nontolled facilities. We then redo the analysis including broader groups of households. We find that the degree of regressivity is quite sensitive to the set of households included in the analysis. The results suggest that distributional analyses of tolls should estimate impacts on all households in the relevant region in addition to impacts on just users of roads that are currently tolled or likely to be tolled.
Adipocyte reporter assays: application for identification of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of mangosteen xanthones.

SCOPE Three fluorescence biosensors were developed based on a 3T3-L1 preadipocyte line that stably expressed Nfkb-RE/GFP, Fabp4-P/CFP, and Nrf2-P/YFP fluorescent reporters. We hypothesized that nutraceuticals' inflammatory, adipogenic, and antioxidant status will be identified based on the change in fluorescence in reporter adipocytes. We validated these assays with activators of NFκB, FABP4-regulating peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma, NFR2 and, thereafter, tested known and unknown properties of mangostines (MGs), the xanthone metabolites in mangosteen fruit. METHODS AND RESULTS We validated inflammatory and adipogenic properties of α-MG using an Nfkb-RE/GFP biosensor assay. Next, we identified unique properties of γ-MG, a minor MG xanthone. γ-MG suppressed adipogenesis and expression of adiponectin, but inhibited the Nfkb-RE/GFP reporter and secretion of inflammatory monocyte chemotactic protein 1 as compared to the control adipocytes. We found that the inhibition of adipogenesis and Nfkb-mediated inflammation depends on a dose-dependent reduction of Nrf2 promoter activity by α-MG. The Nrf2 inhibition resulted in the reduced Pparg expression. α-MG did not directly influence Pparg activity in Fabp4-P/CFP adipocytes. CONCLUSION α-MG-mediated antioxidant response via Nrf2 is a mechanism preventing adipogenesis and inflammation in adipocytes. Combined application of high-throughput biosensors could provide an effective platform for the identification of nutraceuticals and the mechanism of their actions in adipocytes and, potentially, in obese patients.
Amphetamine use is associated with increased HIV incidence among men who have sex with men in San Francisco

We examined the association between amphetamine use and HIV incidence for 2991 men who have sex with men (MSM) who tested anonymously for HIV in San Francisco. HIV incidence among 290 amphetamine users was 6.3% per year (95% CI 1.9–10.6%), compared with 2.1% per year (95% CI 1.3–2.9%) among 2701 non-users (RR 3.0, 95% CI 1.4–6.5). HIV prevention programmes in San Francisco should include efforts to reduce amphetamine use and associated high-risk sexual behaviors.
Trust and Economic Growth

Economists increasingly pay attention to social capital as an important determinant of macroeconomic growth performance. At the same time, there is discussion regarding the robustness of the results of empirical growth studies. In a seminal paper, Knack and Keefer (1997) assess the effect of trust on growth. This paper analyses the robustness of their results along several dimensions, acknowledging the complexity of therobustness concept. Our findings show that the robustness of the relationship between trust and growth in terms of both the size and the significance of the estimated effect, is highly dependent on the set of conditioning variables. An answer to the question whether there is an economic payoff of trust - and if so, how large this payoff actually is - is therefore difficult to provide on the basis of cross sectional empirical growth studies.
Design of Wavelength Cross-Connects Based on Permutations among Fibers

A wavelength cross-connect (WXC) is an optical cross-connect with external stage of wavelength converters. It is a crucial element in a wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) network. A new type of WXC, namely wavelength-exchanging cross-connect (WEX), was recently proposed. Because WEX can simultaneously perform switching and wavelength converting, it has low hardware complexity. To achieve switching nonblocking, the designs of current WXCs (including WEXs) are based on full-permutation switching, which provides any permutation of input signals at the output of the cross-connect. This may result in routing of various wavelengths originating from a fiber to a particular fiber; and they may also perform wavelength converting. Such permutations may not be necessary in a WDM network. We propose a novel concept to design WEXs, which is based on the permutations among output fibers, but not among output ports. This leads to the reduction of the number of permutations, as well as the complexity of WEXs. In designing such WEXs, we propose the following method: (i) using a permutation matrix to describe the operation of a 2×2 element in a WEX; and (ii) applying a permutation matrix product rule to simplify the architecture of the WEX.
Living and Conducting: Coating Individual Bacterial Cells with In Situ Formed Polypyrrole.

Coating individual bacterial cells with conjugated polymers to endow them with more functionalities is highly desirable. Here, we developed an in situ polymerization method to coat polypyrrole on the surface of individual Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, Escherichia coli, Ochrobacterium anthropic or Streptococcus thermophilus. All of these as-coated cells from different bacterial species displayed enhanced conductivities without affecting viability, suggesting the generality of our coating method. Because of their excellent conductivity, we employed polypyrrole-coated Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 as an anode in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) and found that not only direct contact-based extracellular electron transfer is dramatically enhanced, but also the viability of bacterial cells in MFCs is improved. Our results indicate that coating individual bacteria with conjugated polymers could be a promising strategy to enhance their performance or enrich them with more functionalities.