Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bayesian compressive sensing for DOA estimation using the difference coarray

In this paper, we utilize Bayesian Compressive Sensing (BCS) for direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation based on the coarray. This enables estimation of more sources than the number of physical antennas. We adopt the covariance vectorization technique to construct the received signal vectors of coarrays for both fully and partially augmentable arrays. We then apply the single measurement vector BCS (SMV-BCS) for DOA estimation. Supporting simulation results for both sparse linear arrays and circular arrays demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of high resolution and estimation accuracy compared to the MUSIC and sparse signal reconstruction based methods.
RXTE observations of the dipping low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1624-49

We analyse ~ 360 ks of archival data from the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) of the 21 h orbital period dipping low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1624-49. We find that outside the dips the tracks in the colour-colour and hardness-intensity diagrams (CDs and HIDs) are reminiscent of those of atoll sources in the middle and upper parts of the banana branch. The tracks show secular shifts up to ~ 10%. We study the power spectrum of 4U 1624-49 as a function of the position in the CD. This is the first time power spectra of this source are presented. No quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) are found. The power spectra are dominated by very low frequency noise (VLFN), characteristic for atoll sources in the banana state, and band limited noise (BLN) which is not reliably detected but may, uncharacteristically, strengthen and increase in frequency with spectral hardness. The VLFN fits to a power law, which becomes steeper when the source moves to the harder part of the CD. We conclude that 4U 1624-49 is an atoll source which in our observations is in the upper banana branch. Combining this with the high (0.5-0.7 L_Edd) luminosity, the long-term flux stability of the source as seen with the RXTE All-Sky Monitor (ASM), and with the fact that it is an X-ray dip source, we conclude that 4U 1624-49 is most likely a GX atoll source such as GX 3+1 and GX 9+9, but seen edge on.
A hybrid CMV-H1 construct improves efficiency of PEI-delivered shRNA in the mouse brain

RNA-interference-driven loss of function in specific tissues in vivo should permit analysis of gene function in temporally and spatially defined contexts. However, delivery of efficient short hairpin RNA (shRNA) to target tissues in vivo remains problematic. Here, we demonstrate that efficiency of polyethylenimine (PEI)-delivered shRNA depends on the regulatory sequences used, both in vivo and in vitro. When tested in vivo, silencing of a luciferase target gene by shRNA produced from a hybrid construct composed of the CMV enhancer/promoter placed immediately upstream of an H1 promoter (50%) exceeds that obtained with the H1 promoter alone (20%). In contrast, in NIH 3T3 cells, the H1 promoter was more efficient than the hybrid construct (75 versus 60% inhibition of target gene expression, respectively). To test CMV-H1 shRNA efficiency against an endogenous gene in vivo, we used shRNA against thyroid hormone receptor α1 (TRα1). When vectorized in the mouse brain, the hybrid construct strongly derepressed CyclinD1-luciferase reporter gene expression, CyclinD1 being a negatively regulated thyroid hormone target gene. We conclude that promoter choice affects shRNA efficiency distinctly in different in vitro and in vivo situations and that a hybrid CMV-H1 construct is optimal for shRNA delivery in the mouse brain.
Curcumin Stimulates Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator Cl– Channel Activity*

Compounds that enhance either the function or biosynthetic processing of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) Cl– channel may be of value in developing new treatments for cystic fibrosis (CF). Previous studies suggested that the herbal extract curcumin might affect the processing of a common CF mutant, CFTR-ΔF508. Here, we tested the hypothesis that curcumin influences channel function. Curcumin increased CFTR channel activity in excised, inside-out membrane patches by reducing channel closed time and prolonging the time channels remained open. Stimulation was dose-dependent, reversible, and greater than that observed with genistein, another compound that stimulates CFTR. Curcumin-dependent stimulation required phosphorylated channels and the presence of ATP. We found that curcumin increased the activity of both wild-type and ΔF508 channels. Adding curcumin also increased Cl– transport in differentiated non-CF airway epithelia but not in CF epithelia. These results suggest that curcumin may directly stimulate CFTR Cl– channels.
Energy Efficiency in LTE-Advanced Networks with Relay Nodes

this document analyses the energy efficiency of two relaying schemes that represent a possible way to deploy a relay enhanced network: the two hop scheme and the multicast cooperative scheme. Results exist in literature that provide a model for the theoretical evaluation of the capacity improvement that these solutions can yield, however no analysis is available at present on the energy efficiency of these schemes. This work enhances the existing theoretical models for capacity evaluations, providing a first analysis from an energy efficiency point of view of these two approaches, considering a fully loaded network and the total emitted RF power of the transmitting nodes. Results are provided in terms of the Energy Consumption Index (ECI) of these schemes, a metric proposed in the EARTH project for the assessment of the energy consumption of network solutions. The ECI distribution is obtained and compared with the case of a network deployed without relay nodes, showing that besides the possible improvements in capacity, relays are also candidates as a valuable tool to reduce the energy consumption of a telecommunication network.
Occurrence of mcr-1 in Colistin-Resistant Salmonella enterica Isolates Recovered from Humans and Animals in Italy, 2012 to 2015

The first case of plasmid-mediated resistance to colistin due to the mcr-1 gene was reported in China in late 2015 ([1][1]). Soon after, the same gene was detected by a number of retrospective analyses ([2][2]). Resistance to colistin is generally believed to be related to its use in animal
Pipasic: similarity and expression correction for strain-level identification and quantification in metaproteomics

Motivation: Metaproteomic analysis allows studying the interplay of organisms or functional groups and has become increasingly popular also for diagnostic purposes. However, difficulties arise owing to the high sequence similarity between related organisms. Further, the state of conservation of proteins between species can be correlated with their expression level, which can lead to significant bias in results and interpretation. These challenges are similar but not identical to the challenges arising in the analysis of metagenomic samples and require specific solutions. Results: We introduce Pipasic (peptide intensity-weighted proteome abundance similarity correction) as a tool that corrects identification and spectral counting-based quantification results using peptide similarity estimation and expression level weighting within a non-negative lasso framework. Pipasic has distinct advantages over approaches only regarding unique peptides or aggregating results to the lowest common ancestor, as demonstrated on examples of viral diagnostics and an acid mine drainage dataset. Availability and implementation: Pipasic source code is freely available from https://sourceforge.net/projects/pipasic/. Contact: RenardB@rki.de Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online
Revisiting the Sense of Community Index : a confirmatory factor analysis

The Sense of Community Index (SCI) is one of the most commonly used measures of Psychological Sense of Community (PSOC). There is much discussion in the literature as to the validity of the scale as a measure not only of overall PSOC, but of the dimensions (Membership, Influence, Needs Fulfillment and Emotional Connection) theorized by McMillan and Chavis (1986) to underlie the construct. The current paper examines the factor structure of the SCI in a study (N = 219) that examines multiple community memberships, including neighborhood, student and interest group communities. Data was analyzed via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results showed that the SCI, in its original factor structure, did not adequately fit the data. The scale was revised, therefore, utilizing CFA indicators, to produce a new four-factor structure based on the same items. This revised model was tested and found to display adequate fit indices to the data in all three communities. The results of the study provide empirical support for retaining measures that encapsulate the four dimensions of PSOC.
Stretch‐Activated Whole‐Cell Currents in Smooth Muscle Cells from Mesenteric Resistance Artery of Guinea‐Pig

1 Stretch‐activated (SA) channels were studied in smooth muscle cells isolated from mesenteric resistance arteries using the whole‐cell patch‐clamp method. Membrane stretch was achieved by cell inflation after application of positive pressure through a patch electrode. 2 In the voltage‐clamp configuration, cell inflation increased and cell deflation decreased the membrane conductance. Conductance of the evoked current depended on the increase in cross‐sectional area of the cell. The current‐voltage relationship was linear between ‐80 and 0 mV, while further hyperpolarization showed a slight inward rectification. 3 The reversal potential of the SA current depended on the extracellular Na+ concentration, suggesting that the inward SA current was carried predominantly by Na+. The SA current was also carried by other cations, suggesting that the channel responsible for this current is a non‐selective cation channel. The permeability sequence of cations as assessed by reversal potential was as follows: K+≥ Cs+≥ Na+ > Li+. The channel was also permeable to Ca2+. 4 Extracellular Ca2+ and Gd3+ inhibited the SA current carried by monovalent cations in a concentration‐dependent manner with IC50 (concentration giving 50% of maximal inhibition) values of 0.9 mm and 14 μm, respectively. 5 In the current‐clamp configuration, membrane stretch depolarized the cell, and 100 μm Gd3+ inhibited the stretch‐induced depolarization. 6 The results suggest that SA cation channels exist in arterial smooth muscle cells. Activation of the channels may modify membrane potential and intracellular ionic environment, and promote stretch‐mediated cell responses.
Mask wearing detection algorithm based on improved Yolov7

Manual inspection of the mask is too time-consuming and laborious. In order to detect whether a mask is worn in a crowded public place, a mask-wearing detection method based on improved YOLOV7 is proposed, which uses Depth wise separable convolution instead of conventional convolution, in order to integrate the local feature information and the whole image information deeply, Dilated Convolution was used to improve the Pyramid Pooling Module (DC-PPM) , at last, the loss function of target location is optimized, which makes it not only have the ability of feature extraction to fuse the whole and local information, but also have the ability of not losing the detail information. The experimental results show that the detection accuracy and speed of the algorithm are 95.07% and 79 frames/s respectively, which are 3.4% and 14 frames/s higher than the original YOLOV7 algorithm, very good to meet the actual application needs.
Positive Semidefinite Metric Learning Using Boosting-like Algorithms

The success of many machine learning and pattern recognition methods relies heavily upon the identification of an appropriate distance metric on the input data. It is often beneficial to learn such a metric from the input training data, instead of using a default one such as the Euclidean distance. In this work, we propose a boosting-based technique, termed BOOSTMETRIC, for learning a quadratic Mahalanobis distance metric. Learning a valid Mahalanobis distance metric requires enforcing the constraint that the matrix parameter to the metric remains positive semidefinite. Semidefinite programming is often used to enforce this constraint, but does not scale well and is not easy to implement. BOOSTMETRIC is instead based on the observation that any positive semidefinite matrix can be decomposed into a linear combination of trace-one rank-one matrices. BOOSTMETRIC thus uses rank-one positive semidefinite matrices as weak learners within an efficient and scalable boosting-based learning process. The resulting methods are easy to implement, efficient, and can accommodate various types of constraints. We extend traditional boosting algorithms in that its weak learner is a positive semidefinite matrix with trace and rank being one rather than a classifier or regressor. Experiments on various data sets demonstrate that the proposed algorithms compare favorably to those state-of-the-art methods in terms of classification accuracy and running time.
Proto-TAI++: Exploring Perceptually Consistent Creation of Planar Shape Assemblies Through Multimodal Tangible Interactions

In this work, we explore the utility of tangible 3D interactions that allow for geometric and perceptual correspondence between a mid-air modality and the 3D elements it controls. To demonstrate our approach, we use a concrete application scenario through Proto-TAI++, a multi-modal system that allows for pen-based drawing of planar shapes and their subsequent mid-air assembly using a hand-held planar shaped proxy. The planarity of the proxy is a key element that physically embodies virtual planar shapes during 3D manipulation. We also investigate advanced operations such as shape patterning and blending by exploiting asymmetric bimanual interactions that augment mid-air motion with multi-touch gestures. We describe a three-stage user evaluation with our system wherein our goal is to (a) study the effectiveness of the planar proxy as a tangible 3D modality, (b) contrast key features of our approach with a GUI-based planar shape assembly system, and (c) evaluate user experience and performance in creative tasks using the Proto-TAI++ system. A video description of this work can be found in https://youtu.be/Kwi2M81ijwQ
Processing Delays Do Not Degrade Network Error-Correction Capacity in Directed Networks

This letter considers the network error-correction capacity in the presence of Byzantine attacks. Unlike prior papers, which assume no delay in any part of networks, we consider the effects of processing delays in the nodes. We prove that these processing delays have no impact on the network error-correction capacity region for any directed network.
Genetic Analysis of the Gdh and Bg Genes of Animal-Derived Giardia duodenalis Isolates in Northeastern China and Evaluation of Zoonotic Transmission Potential

Background Giardia duodenalis is a common intestinal parasite that infects humans and many other mammals, mainly distributing in some areas with poor sanitation. The proportion of the human giardiasis burden attributable to G. duodenalis of animal origin differs in different geographical areas. In Mainland China, genetic data of the gdh and bg genes of G. duodenalis from animals are only limited in dogs and cats. The aim of the study was to provide information on the genetic characterizations of animal-derived G. duodenalis isolates (from rabbits, sheep and cattle) at both loci in Heilongjiang Province, Northeastern China, and to assess the potential for zoonotic transmission. Methodology/Principal Findings 61 G. duodenalis isolates from animal feces (dairy and beef cattle, sheep and rabbits) in Heilongjiang Province were characterized at the gdh and bg loci in the present study. The gdh and bg gene sequences of sheep-derived G. duodenalis assemblage AI, and the gdh sequences of rabbit-derived G. duodenalis assemblage B had 100% similarity with those from humans, respectively. Novel subtypes of G. duodenalis were identified, with one and seven subtypes for assemblages A and E at the gdh locus, and two and three subtypes for assemblages B and E at the bg locus, respectively. Three pairs of the same bg sequences of assemblage E were observed in sheep and cattle. Conclusions/Significance This is the first description of genetic characterizations of the gdh and bg genes of G. duodenalis from rabbits, sheep and cattle in Mainland China. Homology analysis of assemblages AI and B implied the possibility of zoonotic transmission. The novel subtypes of assemblages of G. duodenalis may represent the endemic genetic characteristics of G. duodenalis in Heilongjiang Province, China.
Predicting human perception and ASR classification of word-final [t] by its acoustic sub-segmental properties

This paper presents a study on the acoustic sub-segmental properties of word-final /t/ in conversational standard Dutch and how these properties contribute to whether humans and an ASR system classify the /t/ as acoustically present or absent. In general, humans and the ASR system use the same cues (presence of a constriction, a burst, and alveolar friction), but the ASR system is also less sensitive to fine cues (weak bursts, smoothly starting friction) than human listeners and misled by the presence of glottal vibration. These data inform the further development of models of human and automatic speech processing. Index Terms: Sub-segmental Acoustic Properties, Automatic Transcription, Human speech Perception, Dutch
Visibility Is Not Equivalent to Confidence in a Low Contrast Orientation Discrimination Task

In several visual tasks, participants report that they feel confident about discrimination responses at a level of stimulation at which they would report not seeing the stimulus. How general and reliable is this effect? We compared subjective reports of discrimination confidence and subjective reports of visibility in an orientation discrimination task with varying stimulus contrast. Participants applied more liberal criteria for subjective reports of discrimination confidence than for visibility. While reports of discrimination confidence were more efficient in predicting trial accuracy than reports of visibility, only reports of visibility but not confidence were associated with stimulus contrast in incorrect trials. It is argued that the distinction between discrimination confidence and visibility can be reconciled with both the partial awareness hypothesis and higher order thought theory. We suggest that consciousness research would benefit from differentiating between subjective reports of visibility and confidence.
Mixed Mating System Are Regulated by Fecundity in Shorea curtisii (Dipterocarpaceae) as Revealed by Comparison under Different Pollen Limited Conditions

The maintenance of mixed mating was studied in Shorea curtisii, a dominant and widely distributed dipterocarp species in Southeast Asia. Paternity and hierarchical Bayesian analyses were used to estimate the parameters of pollen dispersal kernel, male fecundity and self-pollen affinity. We hypothesized that partial self incompatibility and/or inbreeding depression reduce the number of selfed seeds if the mother trees receive sufficient pollen, whereas reproductive assurance increases the numbers of selfed seeds under low amounts of pollen. Comparison of estimated parameters of self-pollen affinity between high density undisturbed and low density selectively logged forests indicated that self-pollen was selectively excluded from mating in the former, probably due to partial self incompatibility or inbreeding depression until seed maturation. By estimating the self-pollen affinity of each mother tree in both forests, mother trees with higher amount of self-pollen indicated significance of self-pollen affinity with negative estimated value. The exclusion of self-fertilization and/or inbreeding depression during seed maturation occurred in the mother trees with large female fecundity, whereas reproductive assurance increased self-fertilization in the mother trees with lower female fecundity.
Towards Time Limited Secure Agent Execution on Malicious Host: A Concept Paper

Absolute protection of mobile agents from attacks by malicious hosts is an open research problem. We propose a software based paradigm whereby an agent is protected from various static and dynamic attacks from a malicious host of an unknown hardware configuration, for a specific period of time. This time interval is computed by restricting the maximum resources that may be available to the adversary and the time complexity of the critical static and dynamic attacks that it may launch. We employ the technique of oblivious hashing (OH) using overlapped instructions, with pointer aliasing to thwart static analysis and instant code modifications. The host is required to obtain the aggregate OH value of the whole agent by executing it in an unobtrusive environment and to send it back to the agent originator within the specified time interval. To provide unobtrusive environment, we employ various x86 platform specific techniques and external timing analysis to thwart major dynamic attack tools like debuggers, virtual machines and emulators. The resulting increase in resilience to static and dynamic attacks compounds the difficulty of a malicious host to manipulate agent's execution, thus increasing the reliability of the agent system.
The Importance of Knowing Your Own Reputation

We experimentally investigate a ? nitely repeated public good game with varying partners. Within each period, participants are pairwise matched and contribute simultaneously. Participants are informed about contributions and each participant evaluates her partner’s contribution. At the beginning of the next period, participants are re-matched and, except for the two control treatments, receive information resulting from the previous period’s evaluations. There are three information treatments: Participants receive information either about their own evaluation or about their partner’s evaluation or both. Although participants condition their contributions on their partners’ evaluations, this information alone is insuf? cient to raise contributions. Only if participants also know their own evaluation, we do ? nd a signi? cant increase in contributions relative to the control treatments.
Segregation of LIPG, CETP, and GALNT2 Mutations in Caucasian Families with Extremely High HDL Cholesterol

To date, few mutations are described to underlie highly-elevated HDLc levels in families. Here we sequenced the coding regions and adjacent sequence of the LIPG, CETP, and GALNT2 genes in 171 unrelated Dutch Caucasian probands with HDLc≥90th percentile and analyzed segregation of mutations with lipid phenotypes in family members. In these probands, mutations were most frequent in LIPG (12.9%) followed by GALNT2 (2.3%) and CETP (0.6%). A total of 6 of 10 mutations in these three genes were novel (60.0%), and mutations segregated with elevated HDLc in families. Interestingly, the LIPG mutations N396S and R476W, which usually result in elevated HDLc, were unexpectedly found in 6 probands with low HDLc (i.e., ≤10th percentile). However, 5 of these probands also carried mutations in ABCA1, LCAT, or LPL. Finally, no CETP and GALNT2 mutations were found in 136 unrelated probands with low HDLc. Taken together, we show that rare coding and splicing mutations in LIPG, CETP, and GALNT2 are enriched in persons with hyperalphalipoproteinemia and segregate with elevated HDLc in families. Moreover, LIPG mutations do not overcome low HDLc in individuals with ABCA1 and possibly LCAT and LPL mutations, indicating that LIPG affects HDLc levels downstream of these proteins.