Sliced Wasserstein Generative Models

In generative modeling, the Wasserstein distance (WD) has emerged as a useful metric to measure the discrepancy between generated and real data distributions. Unfortunately, it is challenging to approximate the WD of high-dimensional distributions. In contrast, the sliced Wasserstein distance (SWD) factorizes high-dimensional distributions into their multiple one-dimensional marginal distributions and is thus easier to approximate. In this paper, we introduce novel approximations of the primal and dual SWD. Instead of using a large number of random projections, as it is done by conventional SWD approximation methods, we propose to approximate SWDs with a small number of parameterized orthogonal projections in an end-to-end deep learning fashion. As concrete applications of our SWD approximations, we design two types of differentiable SWD blocks to equip modern generative frameworks---Auto-Encoders (AE) and Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN). In the experiments, we not only show the superiority of the proposed generative models on standard image synthesis benchmarks, but also demonstrate the state-of-the-art performance on challenging high resolution image and video generation in an unsupervised manner.Comment: This paper is accepted by CVPR 2019, accidentally uploaded as a new submission (arXiv:1904.05408, which has been withdrawn). The code is available at this https URL https:// github.com/musikisomorphie/swd.gi

Spot keywords from very noisy and mixed speech

Most existing keyword spotting research focuses on conditions with slight or moderate noise. In this paper, we try to tackle a more challenging task: detecting keywords buried under strong interfering speech (10 times higher than the keyword in amplitude), and even worse, mixed with other keywords. We propose a novel Mix Training (MT) strategy that encourages the model to discover low-energy keywords from noisy and mixed speech. Experiments were conducted with a vanilla CNN and two EfficientNet (B0/B2) architectures. The results evaluated with the Google Speech Command dataset demonstrated that the proposed mix training approach is highly effective and outperforms standard data augmentation and mixup training.Comment: Interspeech 202

Distractor-aware Event-based Tracking

Event cameras, or dynamic vision sensors, have recently achieved success from fundamental vision tasks to high-level vision researches. Due to its ability to asynchronously capture light intensity changes, event camera has an inherent advantage to capture moving objects in challenging scenarios including objects under low light, high dynamic range, or fast moving objects. Thus event camera are natural for visual object tracking. However, the current event-based trackers derived from RGB trackers simply modify the input images to event frames and still follow conventional tracking pipeline that mainly focus on object texture for target distinction. As a result, the trackers may not be robust dealing with challenging scenarios such as moving cameras and cluttered foreground. In this paper, we propose a distractor-aware event-based tracker that introduces transformer modules into Siamese network architecture (named DANet). Specifically, our model is mainly composed of a motion-aware network and a target-aware network, which simultaneously exploits both motion cues and object contours from event data, so as to discover motion objects and identify the target object by removing dynamic distractors. Our DANet can be trained in an end-to-end manner without any post-processing and can run at over 80 FPS on a single V100. We conduct comprehensive experiments on two large event tracking datasets to validate the proposed model. We demonstrate that our tracker has superior performance against the state-of-the-art trackers in terms of both accuracy and efficiency

The mean staple length of wool fibre is associated with variation in the ovine keratin-associated protein 21-2 gene

Wool and hair fibres consist of a variety of proteins, including the keratin-associated proteins (KAPs). In this study, a putative ovine homologue of the human KAP21-2 gene (KRTAP21-2) was identified. It was located on chromosome 1 as a 201-bp open reading frame (ORF) in the ovine genome assembly from a Texel sheep (v.4 NC_019458.2: nt122932727 to 122932927). A polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) analysis of this ORF, and subsequent DNA sequencing, identified five sequences (named A-E). The putative amino acid sequences that would be produced, shared some identity with each other and with other KAPs, but they were most similar to ovine KAP21-1, and phylogenetically related to human KAP21-2. The location of the ovine KRTAP21-2 sequence was consistent with the location of human KRTAP21-2, and this suggests they represent different variant forms of ovine KRTAP21-2. Variation in this gene was investigated in 389 Merino (sire) × Southdown-cross (ewe) lambs. These were derived from four independent sire-lines. The sequence variation was found to be associated with variation in five wool traits: including mean staple length (MSL), mean fibre diameter (MFD), fibre diameter standard deviation (FDSD), prickle factor (PF), and greasy fleece weight (GFW). The most persistent effect of KRTAP21-2 variation was with variation in MSL; with the MSL of sheep of genotype AC being 12.5% greater than those of genotype CE. A similar effect was observed from individual variant absence/presence models. This suggests that KRTAP21-2 should be further investigated as a possible gene-marker for improving MSL

BMP4 inhibits myogenic differentiation of bone marrow–derived mesenchymal stromal cells in mdx mice

AbstractBackground aimsBone marrow–derived mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs) are a promising therapeutic option for treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Myogenic differentiation occurs in the skeletal muscle of the mdx mouse (a mouse model of DMD) after BMSC transplantation. The transcription factor bone morphogenic protein 4 (BMP4) plays a crucial role in growth regulation, differentiation and survival of many cell types, including BMSCs. We treated BMSCs with BMP4 or the BMP antagonist noggin to examine the effects of BMP signaling on the myogenic potential of BMSCs in mdx mice.MethodsWe added BMP4 or noggin to cultured BMSCs under myogenic differentiation conditions. We then injected BMP4- or noggin-treated BMSCs into the muscles of mdx mice to determine their myogenic potential.ResultsWe found that the expression levels of desmin and myosin heavy chain decreased after treating BMSCs with BMP4, whereas the expression levels of phosphorylated Smad, a downstream target of BMP4, were higher in these BMSCs than in the controls. Mdx mouse muscles injected with BMSCs pretreated with BMP4 showed decreased dystrophin expression and increased phosphorylated Smad levels compared with muscles injected with non-treated BMSCs. The opposite effects were seen after pretreatment with noggin, as expected.ConclusionsOur results identified BMP/Smad signaling as an essential negative regulator of promyogenic BMSC activity; inhibition of this pathway improved the efficiency of BMSC myogenic differentiation, which suggests that this pathway might serve as a target to regulate BMSC function for better myogenic differentiation during treatment of DMD and degenerative skeletal muscle diseases

Multi-omics revealed rumen microbiota metabolism and host immune regulation in Tibetan sheep of different ages

The rumen microbiota and metabolites play an important role in energy metabolism and immune regulation of the host. However, the regulatory mechanism of rumen microbiota and metabolite interactions with host on Tibetan sheep’s plateau adaptability is still unclear. We analyzed the ruminal microbiome and metabolome, host transcriptome and serum metabolome characteristics of Tibetan sheep at different ages. Biomarkers Butyrivibrio, Lachnospiraceae_XPB1014_group, Prevotella, and Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group were found in 4 months, 1.5 years, 3.5 years, and 6 years Tibetan sheep, respectively. The rumen microbial metabolites were mainly enriched in galactose metabolism, unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis and fatty acid degradation pathways, and had significant correlation with microbiota. These metabolites further interact with mRNA, and are co-enriched in arginine and proline metabolism, metabolism of xenobiotics by cytochrome P450, propanoate metabolism, starch and sucrose metabolism, gap junction pathway. Meanwhile, serum metabolites also have a similar function, such as chemical carcinogenesis − reactive oxygen species, limonene and pinene degradation, and cutin, suberine and wax biosynthesis, thus participating in the regulation of the body’s immune and energy-related metabolic processes. This study systematically revealed that rumen microbiota, metabolites, mRNA and serum metabolites of Tibetan sheep were involved in the regulation of fermentation metabolic function and immune level of Tibetan sheep at different ages, which provided a new perspective for plateau adaptability research of Tibetan sheep at different ages

Molecular differences in brain regional vulnerability to aging between males and females

BackgroundAging-related cognitive decline is associated with brain structural changes and synaptic loss. However, the molecular mechanisms of cognitive decline during normal aging remain elusive.ResultsUsing the GTEx transcriptomic data from 13 brain regions, we identified aging-associated molecular alterations and cell-type compositions in males and females. We further constructed gene co-expression networks and identified aging-associated modules and key regulators shared by both sexes or specific to males or females. A few brain regions such as the hippocampus and the hypothalamus show specific vulnerability in males, while the cerebellar hemisphere and the anterior cingulate cortex regions manifest greater vulnerability in females than in males. Immune response genes are positively correlated with age, whereas those involved in neurogenesis are negatively correlated with age. Aging-associated genes identified in the hippocampus and the frontal cortex are significantly enriched for gene signatures implicated in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathogenesis. In the hippocampus, a male-specific co-expression module is driven by key synaptic signaling regulators including VSNL1, INA, CHN1 and KCNH1; while in the cortex, a female-specific module is associated with neuron projection morphogenesis, which is driven by key regulators including SRPK2, REPS2 and FXYD1. In the cerebellar hemisphere, a myelination-associated module shared by males and females is driven by key regulators such as MOG, ENPP2, MYRF, ANLN, MAG and PLP1, which have been implicated in the development of AD and other neurodegenerative diseases.ConclusionsThis integrative network biology study systematically identifies molecular signatures and networks underlying brain regional vulnerability to aging in males and females. The findings pave the way for understanding the molecular mechanisms of gender differences in developing neurodegenerative diseases such as AD

Identification and characterization of circular RNAs in mammary gland tissue from sheep at peak lactation and during the nonlactating period

Circular RNAs are a class of noncoding RNA with a widespread occurrence in eukaryote tissues, and with some having been demonstrated to have clear biological function. In sheep, little is known about the role of circular RNAs in mammary gland tissue, and therefore an RNA sequencing approach was used to compare mammary gland tissue expression of circular RNAs in 9 Small Tail Han sheep at peak lactation, and subsequently when they were not lactating. These 9 sheep had their RNA pooled for analysis into 3 libraries from peak lactation and 3 from the nonlactating period. A total of 3,278 and 1,756 circular RNAs were identified in the peak lactation and nonlactating mammary gland tissues, respectively, and the expression and identity of 9 of them was confirmed using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis and DNA sequencing. The type, chromosomal location and length of the circular RNAs identified were ascertained. Forty upregulated and one downregulated circular RNAs were characterized in the mammary gland tissue at peak lactation compared with the nonlactating mammary gland tissue. Gene ontology enrichment analysis revealed that the parental genes of these differentially expressed circular RNAs were related to molecular function, binding, protein binding, ATP binding, and ion binding. Five differentially expression circular RNAs were selected for further analysis to predict their target microRNAs, and some microRNAs reportedly associated with the development of the mammary gland were found in the constructed circular RNA–microRNA network. This study reveals the expression profiles and characterization of circular RNAs at 2 key stages of mammary gland activity, thereby providing an improved understanding of the roles of circular RNAs in the mammary gland of sheep