Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dictionary learning from quadratic measurements in block sparse models

This paper introduces the problem of dictionary learning from quadratic measurements of block sparse observations. While existing literature considers dictionary learning directly from the measurements, the proposed approach shows that learning the dictionary from certain quadratic products of these measurements can offer unique advantages, especially with respect to the size of identified sparse support. The proposed results are valid under some assumptions on the structure of the unknown sparse coefficient matrix, which hold true in problems such as independent component analysis. Given an M × L observation matrix, it is shown that these assumptions can lead to the recovery of supports of size O(M2), along with the unknown dictionary, whereas existing literature in dictionary learning can only guarantee recovering sparse supports of size O(M)1.
Selenium improves the developmental ability and reduces the apoptosis in porcine parthenotes

Selenium is an essential trace element in conventional tissue culture media to guarantee adequate biosynthesis of selenoprotein in cellular antioxidant system to protect the cells from oxidative damage and apoptosis. This study investigated the effect of selenium, in the form of sodium selenite (SS), on developmental ability and quality of in vitro produced porcine parthenotes. For this, parthenogenetic presumptive diploid zygotes were produced by electroactivation and cultured in the absence or presence of SS at different concentrations (0, 2.5, 25, 250 ng/ml) in a serum‐free defined culture medium supplemented with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) or bovine serum albumin (BSA). Results showed that, development rate of 2–4 cell stage parthenotes to blastocyst and their cell number was increased while TUNEL index was decreased, in a dose‐dependent manner, when SS was supplemented to NCSU23 + PVA. Interestingly, the blastocyst rate and their quality approached to those cultured in NCSU23 + BSA (P < 0.05), thereby suggesting PVA + 25 ng/ml SS to be a partial replacement of BSA. In the presence of PVA, supplementation of SS at a concentration of 25 ng/ml did not improve the cleavage rate of in vitro matured oocytes but there was significant improvement in the blastocyst rate (45.4 ± 8.8% vs. 12.7 ± 4.8%), total nuclei number (42.1 ± 3.5 vs. 31.3 ± 2.9) and inner cell mass (ICM) rate (29.4 ± 1.5% vs. 21.3 ± 1.2%) and decrease in TUNEL index (5.6 ± 0.5 vs. 12.9 ± 1.3) compared to nonsupplemented controls. The SS supplementation also decreased the BAX:BCL‐xL transcript ratio, increased the expression of ERK1/2 and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and reduced the level of Caspase 3 proteins (P < 0.05). These data thus suggest that SS improves the development rate and quality of porcine parthenotes by preventing oxidative damage and apoptosis. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 74: 1386–1394, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Transcription of Clostridium thermocellum endoglucanase genes celF and celD

Transcripts of the Clostridium thermocellum endoglucanase genes celF and celD, encoding endoglucanases F and D, respectively, were characterized. The size of the mRNAs was about 2.35 kb for celF and 2.1 kb for celD, indicating monocistronic transcription of both genes. A unique 5' end, located 218 bp upstream from the initiation codon, was found for celF mRNA. No convincing homology could be identified between the sequence upstream from the celF 5' end and other procaryotic promoters. Two 5' ends, located 124 and 294 bp upstream from the initiation codon, were mapped for celD mRNA. The -10 and the -35 sequences preceding the ATG-distal 5' end of celD mRNA were homologous to the consensus sequence of Bacillus subtilis sigma 43 promoters. The sequence upstream from the ATG-proximal 5' end had some similarity with the -10 sequence of B. subtilis sigma 28 promoters. During growth on cellobiose, the 5' end of celD transcripts was found predominantly at the -124 site during the late exponential phase but almost exclusively at the -294 site during the early stationary phase. The kinetics of appearance of celA, celC, celD, and celF mRNA was followed by dot blot analysis. Transcripts of celA, celD, and celF were detected during late exponential and early stationary phase. In contrast, the celC transcript was detected almost exclusively during early stationary phase. Since growth was limited by the availability of cellobiose, the results suggest that the genes are regulated by a mechanism analogous to catabolite repression.
Les facteurs structurels et conjoncturels de la mobilité résidentielle depuis 20 ans

Les cinq dernieres enquetes Logement (1984-2002) confirment le role des facteurs qui expliquent habituellement la mobilite residentielle (âge, revenu, niveau de formation, structure familiale et caracteristiques du logement). Elles permettent egalement de preciser certaines analyses ou de corriger certaines idees recues. Parmi les caracteristiques du menage et du logement, l'importance de l'âge et du statut d'occupation se confirment. Les evenements familiaux s'averent des facteurs de mobilite residentielle plus determinants que ceux lies a l'emploi. Ces derniers ne jouent le role principal que dans le cas de la mobilite de longue distance, aux cotes du diplome, de l'âge, du revenu et de la taille du menage. La mobilite de courte distance, bien qu'en recul relatif, reste majoritaire. Les facteurs explicatifs de la mobilite ont pour la plupart peu change en vingt ans. Cependant, toutes choses egales par ailleurs, en 1984, les locataires HLM etaient plus mobiles que ceux du secteur prive, alors qu'en 2002, c'est la situation inverse. Enfin, la conjoncture economique d'ensemble et notamment l'etat du marche de l'emploi influencent fortement la mobilite residentielle, plus particulierement celle des locataires. En 2002, enfin, les evenements qui influent le plus sur la mobilite sont egalement les moins frequents : formation et separation des couples, changement d'etablissement et, en dernier lieu, naissance.
Volume and volatility in foreign exchange market microstructure: a Markov switching approach

This article has two aims. First, I revisit Khemiri (2009) and I find support to Lyons (1995) seminal dealer level specification with a still richer picture of the conditional volatility dynamics. For this reason, I develop an estimation procedure for a variety of Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) and Markov Switching Exponential GARCH (MSGARCH) models which provide a richer modelling of volatility dynamics and I find that the Markov Switching Exponential GARCH (MSEGARCH) model fits the intraday data better. In addition, the second aim of this article is to study the relationship between trading volume and volatility in the Foreign Exchange (FX) market microstructure by using a Markov switching approach that captures asymmetry and regime shifts in the Lyons (1995) dataset. In this context, the empirical results support the Mixture of Distribution Hypothesis (MDH) where I find a new result showing that that there is a positive correlation between volume and volatility of the Deutsche Mark (DM)/$ prices as well as a positive effect of order flow on returns. This confirms the role of order flow as a mean of transmission of information in the new microexchange rate economics.
Response strategies to the competition in the Chinese construction market

The Chinese construction market is composed of 31 local markets which differ from each other in various aspects such as competition intensity. Contractors moving from one market to another need to consider the competition strategies and make due response to new competition situation in order to survive. Nevertheless, the research into response strategies to competition situations has been limited. Effective response strategies can assist contractors to respond to different competition environments. Based on the data collected from major cities in China, five typical competition situations are identified and six strategies are found effective to guide contractors’ response to various competition situations. For instance, a closer cooperation between main contractors helps contractors respond effectively where safety accidents occur frequently in the market. The research findings present new perspectives of developing competitive strategies in the Chinese construction market and provide recommendations for adopting a conduct–performance approach for examining response strategies in other construction markets.
Heterogeneous multi-vehicle task assignment in a time-invariant drift field with obstacles

This paper studies the multi-vehicle task assignment problem where several dispersed vehicles need to visit a set of target locations in a time-invariant drift field with obstacles while trying to minimize the total travel time. The vehicles have different capabilities, and each kind of vehicles needs to visit a certain type of target locations; each target location might have the demand to be visited more than once by different kinds of vehicles. To find approximate solutions for such a challenging problem, we first design a path planning algorithm to minimize the time for a single vehicle to travel between two given locations through the drift field while avoiding obstacles. The path planning algorithm provides the travel cost matrix for the target assignment, and generates routes once the target locations are assigned to the vehicles. Then, we propose an auction-based distributed task assignment algorithm to assign the target locations to the vehicles using only local communication. Finally, numerical simulations show that the algorithm can lead to solutions close to the optimal.
Intrinsically Advantageous?: Reexamining the Production of Class Advantage in the Case of Home Mortgage Modification*

Social class confers a bundle of capabilities, practices, and beliefs that are conventionally assumed to be hierarchical, rigid, and self-perpetuating. However, this framework often belies the fact that these qualities needn’t be necessarily or exhaustively advantageous. In particular, social change may render obsolete class-linked characteristics that were advantageous in previous periods. Drawing on interviews with homeowners at risk of foreclosure and a yearlong ethnography of a housing counseling organization, I find that although the housing crisis of the “Great Recession” affected both working- and middle-class homeowners alike, the practices of working-class borrowers better positioned them to exploit a number of informational advantages in the rapidly changing mortgage modification setting. My findings are a departure from existing research that treats middle-class capabilities and practices as intrinsically advantageous.
Effect of Intermittent Drainage on Nitrous Oxide Emission and Global Warming Potential in Rice Paddy Soil

Water control is mainly one of the key factors that can affect nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions from soils. This study was undertaken to determine the effect of intermittent drainage compared to continuous flooding (conventional water regime) on N 2 O emission to global warming potential (GWP) with NPK (standard cultivation practice), NPK+Straw, and PK fertilizations. Nitrous oxide emission rates were collected twice a week using a closed chamber method. With continuous flooding, nitrogen (N) application increased N 2 O emission by 106.6% (0.64 kg ha -1 in NPK) with respect to the PK treatment (0.31 kg ha -1 ), and straw addition to NPK enhanced 148.3% of seasonal N 2 O flux (0.77 kg ha -1 in NPK+Straw). Although seasonal N 2 O emission slightly increased by 16.1-42.9% with intermittent irrigation, its seasonal CH 4 emission drastically reduced at 43.5-52.8% resulting in a lower GWP at 48.9-58.5% with respect to that of continuously flooded treatments (4.51 Mg CO 2 ha -1 , PK; 7.60 Mg CO 2 ha -1 , NPK; 14.55 Mg CO 2 ha -1 , NPK+Straw). Rice yield, at similar fertilization with the continuously-flooded rice field, was not affected by intermittent irrigation. Conclusively, intermittent irrigation can be very effective and a rational soil management strategy to mitigate GWP with considering rice productivity in a temperate paddy rice field like Korea.
Inflation and Relative Price Variability: Reinstating Parks' Results

This paper revisits Parks' seminal work on the time series relationship between inflation and relative price variability. The results reported show that a significant positive association is obtained allowing for an asymmetrical response of relative prices to episodes of positive and negative inflation. This finding is maintained after excluding oil shock years, extending Park's original sample to 1996, using an alternative data set and allowing for a higher degree of disaggregation.
Making Sense of Human–Elephant Conflict in Laikipia County, Kenya

This article proposes sensemaking theory to understand human–elephant interactions. The article draws on a case study of human–elephant interaction in Laikipia County, Kenya, to understand how farmers make sense of elephants in their crops. Drawing on eight interviews, the analysis showed that respondents rely on various environmental and social cues to perceive an elephant in their crop and select a plausible course of action. The article illustrates that actors’ degree of ecological embeddedness will influence their sensemaking processes and supports the argument for the inclusion of ecological materiality within sensemaking studies. The article also argues for further research into the interactions of humans and elephants, including the gender and institutional dimensions of farmers’ sensemaking processes.
An Analytic Model for the Optimal Number of Relay Stations in Two-Hop Relay Networks

The RS(Relay Station) has become an important radio resource in next generation wireless communication systems. The optimal number of RSs is one of the crucial issues in configuring a cost-effective RS-based network architecture. In this letter, we present an analytic model to describe the impact of the number of RSs on the channel capacity of two-hop relay network. From the mathematical analysis, the optimal number of RSs is obtained to satisfy QoS requirements of users considering various levels of MCS(Modulation and Coding Scheme). In addition to the mathematical analysis to determine the feasibility of the analytic model, we also examine its performance through a set of simulations. The simulation results show the validity of the proposed analytic model.
Effect of disconnection of generation units on the rate of change of frequency in distributed power systems

In this paper, variation in the Rate of Change of Frequency (RoCoF) in distributed frequency control caused by disconnection/re-connection of generation units is addressed. Distributed generation systems are always subject to irregular and unexpected income and outage of units because of their uncertainties in nature as well as their small capacities. It causes variation in the structure and consequently in the collective dynamics of distributed generators such as performance of voltage and frequency control systems. Using the eigenvalue perturbation analysis, all generation units are ranked based on the influence of their outage on the RoCoF in distributed generation system. It is also shown by simulations that the ranking is highly correlated with the degree centrality of each unit in scale-free communication networks as well as Watts-Strogatz networks with high rewiring probability, i.e. disconnection/reconnection of nodes with higher degrees in the data communication network of the distributed frequency control makes stronger effect on the RoCoF. Simulation results support all achievements.
Change in unconditional foreign exchange rate volatility: an analysis of the GBP and USD price of the Euro from 2002 to 2003

Unconditional foreign exchange rate variance is generally assumed to be constant in analysis of foreign exchange rates. It is noted that there is evidence of a change in unconditional foreign exchange rate variance during the two-year period surrounding the Iraq war, January 2002 to December 2003, for the GBP price of the Euro, although not for the USD price of the Euro. This has implications for the indiscriminate use of models that assume constant unconditional variance, such as the GARCH family of models, in the analysis of foreign exchange rates.
A System Dynamics Model of Cross-Chain Inventory Control for Cluster Supply Chain with Third-Party Logistics

Cluster supply chain is the network of supply chains based on localization and integration in industrial cluster. It is often that multiple linear supply chains in the same cluster are interactive and need to collaborate with each other. This paper considers the inventory collaboration control across two linear and two-echelon supply chains with a third party logistics provider （TPL）. Based on the theory of Automatic Pipeline, Inventory and Order Based Production Control System (APIOBPCS) and system dynamics, a VMI&TPL-APIOBPCS model is proposed to simulate the process of replenishment and dispatching when the TPL implements Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) to connect the two supply chains. The model provides an effective method to decrease the total inventory of two supply chains, make the production rate smoother and reduce the Bullwhip effect.
Five essays on performance and structural rigidities in European labour markets

This PhD thesis – made up of five empirical essays – looks into the role of structural rigidities in recent labour market performance in Europe from complementary angles and yields several results. First, the effect of institutions is complex owing to numerous interactions and their endogenous nature. Second, the level of labour utilisation in the EU15 is clearly lower than in the US, explaining two thirds of the EU15 gap in GDP per capita vis-a-vis the US. Labour underutilisation particularly affects the euro area but not the new member states. Third, robust evidence exists of a structural break in the employment behaviour in the late 1990s and early 2000s, which could be related to changes in the sectoral employment composition, the strong development of part-time jobs and lower labour tax rates. Fourth, part-time employment, used by firms as a “flexible” tool, has a countercyclical pattern. In the longer run, rising female participation and changes in legislation on part-time jobs are key institutional or structural drivers. Five, the wage distribution in Europe is compressed across occupations and across levels of education, particularly in continental and southern EU15 countries, which would induce job losses for low-educated people.
Ranking corporations based on sustainable and socially responsible practices. A data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach

This study ranks publicly listed corporations based on social and environmental (i.e. sustainable) achievements in relation to financial results, by using a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach with financial performance indicators (return on assets, return on equity and yearly stock return) as inputs and sustainability scores as outputs. The sustainability scores cover a wide range of sustainable practices and were provided by a specialized screening company. Our calculated DEA indices provide a measure of the commitment of firms towards sustainable practices. The main findings are that many companies are positioned well below best practice in their respective industries. Industry sectors that are less scrutinized by the public (e.g. banking) are found to be less competitive in terms of sustainable practices. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Decision Principles for Routing Strategies: Games against Nature and Demons

In this paper the authors firstly review general decision principles under uncertainty and apply them to route choice decisions. Risk-averse behaviour leads to the description of route choice a game. The difference between games against demons and nature are pointed out by distinguishing when disruptions on the chosen route might be related to the traveller’s behaviour or not. It is argued that in many cases the traveller has some (limited) information about the connection between attack likelihood and routing, meaning that pure games against demons are rare for practical applications. The paper therefore extends the game theoretic literature on route choice by formulating a generalised model. The model allows for games against multiple demons and consideration that some links might be safer than others. It is shown that games against nature and the Bell (2007) model can be derived as limiting cases. Results are illustrated with an example network.
Conservation and Diversity of HMW1 and HMW2 Adhesin Binding Domains among Invasive Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae Isolates

ABSTRACT The pathogenesis of nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) begins with adhesion to the rhinopharyngeal mucosa. In almost 80% of NTHi clinical isolates, the HMW proteins are the major adhesins. The prototype HMW1 and HMW2 proteins, identified in NTHi strain 12, exhibit different binding specificities. The two binding domains have been localized in regions of maximal sequence dissimilarity (40% identity, 58% similarity). Two areas within these binding domains have been found essential for full level adhesive activity (designated the core-binding domains). To investigate the conservation and diversity of the HMW1 and HMW2 core-binding domains among isolates, PCR and DNA sequencing were used. First, we separately amplified the hmw1A-like and hmw2A-like structural genes in nine invasive NTHi isolates, discovering two new hmwA alleles, whose sequences are herein reported. Then, the hmw1A-like and hmw2A-like PCR products were used as the template in nested PCR to produce amplicons encompassing the encoding sequences of the two core-binding domains. In-depth sequence analysis was then performed among sequences of each group, with the support of specific computer programs. Overall, extensive sequence diversity among isolates was highlighted. However, similarity plots showed patterns consisting of peaks of relatively high similarity alternating with strongly divergent regions. The phylogenetic tree clearly indicated the HMW1-like and HMW2-like core-binding domain sequences as two clusters. Distinct sets of conserved amino acid motifs were identified within each group of sequences using the MEME/MOTIFSEARCH tool. Since HMW adhesins could represent candidates for future vaccines, identification of specific patterns of conserved motifs in otherwise highly variable regions is of great interest.
Evidence for cooperative tandem binding of hnRNP C RRMs in mRNA processing

The human hnRNP C is a ubiquitous cellular protein involved in mRNA maturation. Recently, we have shown that this protein specifically recognizes uridine (U) pentamers through its single RNA recognition motif (RRM). However, a large fraction of natural RNA targets of hnRNP C consists of much longer contiguous uridine stretches. To understand how these extended sites are recognized, we studied the binding of the RRM to U-tracts of 8–11 bases. In vivo investigation of internal translation activation of unr (upstream of N-ras) mRNA indicates that the conservation of the entire hnRNP C binding site, UC(U)8, is required for hnRNP C-dependent IRES activation. The assays further suggest a synergistic interplay between hnRNP C monomers, dependent on the protein's ability to oligomerize. In vitro spectroscopic and thermodynamic analyses show that isolated RRMs bind to (U)11 oligomers as dimers. Structural modeling of a ternary double-RRM/RNA complex indicates additionally that two RRM copies can be accommodated on the canonical sequence UC(U)8. The proposed tandem RRM binding is in very good agreement with the transcriptome-wide recognition of extended U-tracts by full-length hnRNP C, which displays a cross-linking pattern consistent with a positively cooperative RRM dimer binding model.