Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Building and animating user-specific volumetric face rigs

Currently, the two main approaches to realistic facial animation are 1) blendshape models and 2) physics-based simulation. Blendshapes are fast and directly controllable, but it is not easy to incorporate features such as dynamics, collision resolution, or incompressibility of the flesh. Physics-based methods can deliver these effects automatically, but modeling of muscles, bones, and other anatomical features of the face is difficult, and direct control over the resulting shape is lost. We propose a method that combines the benefits of blendshapes with the advantages of physics-based simulation. We acquire 3D scans of a given actor with various facial expressions and compute a set of volumetric blendshapes that are compatible with physics-based simulation, while accurately matching the input scans. Furthermore, our volumetric blendshapes are driven by the same weights as traditional blendshapes, which many users are familiar with. Our final facial rig is capable of delivering physics-based effects such as dynamics and secondary motion, collision response, and volume preservation without the burden of detailed anatomical modeling.
Justifying Counterproductive Work Behaviors and an Integrity‐Based Conditional Reasoning Test: Back to the Drawing Board?

Conditional reasoning tests (CRT) were proposed as an innovative approach to implicitly measure the rationalizations toward counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) often associated with overt integrity tests. The authors first set out to map a typology of justification mechanisms for general CWB, and to then validate a new integrity‐based CRT in both honest and faking testing conditions. Unfortunately, while demonstrating encouraging construct and criterion validity in the honest testing condition, the test was less resistant to faking than originally anticipated, and ceased to be valid in the faking condition. Overall, the results provide theoretical insight toward understanding how employees justify CWB, but raise concerns regarding the potential operational limitations of at least some CRTs.
Experiments on confidence calibration and decision making

This thesis reports on three experiments studying subjects' confidence about performance on a task and how it relates to decision-making under uncertainty. Chapter 1 introduces the thesis providing an overview of the common themes and methods underlying this research. Chapter 2 reports the first experiment, investigating the relationship between risk attitudes and confidence judgements. We measure confidence in two different ways, with an incentivized elicitation tool and with unincentivized self-reports. Using our incentivised tool we find that, in the absence of controls for risk attitudes, subjects tend to be underconfident about their own performance. When we filter out the effects of risk attitudes we find that underconfidence is reduced, but not eliminated. We also identify an interesting link between self-reported confidence and risk attitudes in that experimental subjects with less concave utility functions and more elevated probability weighting functions tend to report higher confidence levels. Chapter 3 reports the second experiment, investigating the role of information in experimental market entry games. We look at whether individual over-entry to simple and under-entry to difficult markets disappears when subjects make entry decisions in groups or are given statistical information about performance of previous subjects. We find that individuals and groups are both susceptible to the same type of biases in entry and both fail to learn from repetition and feedback. We find that individuals learn to de-bias their entry decisions in the second half of the experiment when given explicit information about the performance of others. Chapter 4 reports an experiment investigating "snowballing of confidence" in hierarchical tournaments. We analyse how high/low scorers of a group in one stage of the tournament change their confidence levels in the next stage when they are re-grouped with other high/low scorers. We find that all subjects start the tournament assigning an equal chance to being high or low scorers in their groups. As they proceed through the stages, low scorers become more underconfident whereas high scorers become more overconfident about their relative performances. We also identify an interesting difference in the perceptions of the task between high and low scorers that is linked to self-serving causal attribution biases previously found in the psychology literature. Chapter 5 summarizes the findings of this dissertation and concludes.
DISFLUENCIES IN SWITCHBOARD

Disfluencies (“um,” repeats, self-repairs) are prevalent in spontaneous speech, and are relevant to both human speech communication and speech processing by machine. Although disfluencies have commonly been viewed as ‘noisy’ events, results from a large descriptive study indicate that disfluencies show regularities in a number of dimensions [9]. This paper reports selected results on Switchboard and two comparison corpora of spontaneous speech. Results illustrate the systematic distribution of disfluencies, and highlight differences as well as universals across corpora and speakers.
Doppler velocimetry in the fetus with a single umbilical artery.

OBJECTIVE To study Doppler velocimetry in fetuses with a single umbilical artery (SUA) as compared to normal. STUDY DESIGN Private and clinic patients were referred to a perinatal center: 45 with SUA and 124 randomly selected fetuses with a three-vessel cord were studied from 18 to 41 weeks' gestation. Color Doppler flow and energy were utilized to evaluate the umbilical arteries at the fetal abdominal wall as well as the course around the bladder. In addition to Doppler velocimetry, an anatomic survey, estimated fetal weight (EFW) and amniotic fluid index (AFI) were assessed at each examination. RESULTS Doppler velocimetry in SUA demonstrated indices in the normal range but lower than in normal cords from 26 weeks until near term. Anatomic anomalies were found in 8.9% of SUA as compared to 4.8% for three-vessel cords. Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) was seen in four cases of SUA and none in the control group. EFW and AFI for both groups were virtually identical. CONCLUSION SUA cords theoretically carry a normal blood volume, and the decreased resistance to flow and larger arterial diameter allow this to occur. Anomalies and IUGR are elevated in infants with SUA. Overall, EFW and AFI were the same in both groups of patients.
State Space Collapse in Many-Server Diffusion Limits of Parallel Server Systems

We consider a class of queueing systems that consist of server pools in parallel and multiple customer classes. Customer service times are assumed to be exponentially distributed. We study the asymptotic behavior of these queueing systems in a heavy traffic regime that is known as the Halfin-Whitt many-server asymptotic regime. Our main contribution is a general framework for establishing state space collapse results in this regime for parallel server systems. In our work, state space collapse refers to a decrease in the dimension of the processes tracking the number of customers in each class waiting for service and the number of customers in each class being served by various server pools. We define and introduce a “state space collapse” function, which governs the exact details of the state space collapse. We show that a state space collapse result holds in many-server heavy traffic if a corresponding deterministic hydrodynamic model satisfies a similar state space collapse condition. Unlike the single-server heavy traffic setting for multiclass queueing network, our hydrodynamic model is different from the standard fluid model for many-server queues. Our methodology is similar in spirit to that in Bramson [Bramson, M. 1998. State space collapse with application to heavy traffic limits for multiclass queueing networks. Queueing Systems30 89--148. ], which focuses on the single-server heavy traffic regime. We illustrate the applications of our results by establishing state space collapse results in many-server diffusion limits for V-model systems under static-buffer-priority policy and the threshold policy proposed in the literature.
The challenge of achieving national cholesterol goals in patients with diabetes.

OBJECTIVE This study analyzed lipid results from a large community-based population of patients with diabetes to assess the feasibility of attaining the standard and new optional LDL-based lipid goals using currently available lipid-lowering medications. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Ambulatory patients with diabetes who were interviewed as part of the Vermont Diabetes Information System trial with a reported LDL were analyzed. Patients were categorized into high-risk and very-high-risk cardiovascular status. For patients not at the LDL goal, the required changes in therapy to achieve the goal were assessed. RESULTS Of the entire cohort, 49.4% (321 of 650) had LDL <100 mg/dl. According to the National Cholesterol Education Program, 29.4% (191 of 650) of patients were very high risk and have an optional LDL goal of <70 mg/dl. Only 15.7% (30 of 191) of very-high-risk patients had an LDL <70 mg/dl. Based on our analysis of high-risk patients, 17 of 459 (3.7%) would require more than two lipid-lowering drugs to achieve an LDL <100 mg/dl. In the very-high-risk group, we estimate that 26.2% (50 of 191) of patients will not reach LDL <70 mg/dl with two lipid-lowering medications. CONCLUSIONS In many patients with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, it will be difficult to attain an LDL goal of <70 mg/dl. Approximately 25% of patients will require more than two lipid-lowering drugs at maximal doses to attain this goal, assuming 100% tolerance of lipid-lowering medications.
Job Stress and Job Satisfaction Among Jail Staff: Exploring Gendered Effects

Despite increased representation in correctional work settings, women still encounter obstacles in this male-dominated occupation—obstacles that have the potential to affect their levels of job stress and job satisfaction. Although gender-based differences in job stress and job satisfaction have been analyzed in several prison settings, much less work has been conducted in the often neglected correctional arena of jails. The current study fills this empirical void by examining jail staff at a large county correctional system in Orlando, Florida. Ordinary least squares regression analysis indicated that different facets of the work environment differentially affected the job stress and job satisfaction of 419 women and 493 men working in a large urban jail system. Specifically, role ambiguity, perceived dangerousness, coworker relations, input into decision making, and administrative support had larger effects on job stress for women compared to men. For job satisfaction, the only workplace variable to have a gendered effect was administrative support, which also had a greater effect for women than men. The findings reveal gender-related differences, especially in terms of job stress.
DNA methylation is required for the control of stem cell differentiation in the small intestine

There is a tight correlation between the epigenetic status of genes and expression changes during differentiation. Sheaffer et al. used acute deletion of Dnmt1 to reduce DNA methylation maintenance in the intestinal epithelium. This caused crypt expansion and decreased differentiation. DNA methylation was dynamic at enhancers during the rapid transition from stem to differentiated epithelial cells. These findings reveal that the loss of DNA methylation at intestinal stem cell gene enhancers causes inappropriate gene expression and delayed differentiation.
Volunteer engagement and intention to quit from a self‐determination theory perspective

Drawing on self-determination theory, the current study investigates the mediation process of satisfaction with the 3 basic needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, relatedness) between autonomous motivation and volunteers’ turnover intention and work engagement. A study of 349 Romanian volunteers reveals an interesting dichotomy. For work engagement, the positive effect of autonomy and competence needs satisfaction appears to have been partially mediated by autonomous motivation. Turnover intention, however, was directly influenced by the degree of autonomy and competence needs satisfaction. Moreover, satisfaction of the relatedness need had no effect on the 2 outcome variables when controlling for satisfaction of autonomy and competence needs. Implications and possible explanations are suggested.
Characteristic brain magnetic resonance imaging abnormalities in central nervous system aquaporin-4 autoimmunity

Background: Although neuromyelitis optica has been traditionally regarded as a disease without brain involvement, brain abnormalities are not uncommon in patients with neuromyelitis optica-related disorders. Methods: We aimed to characterize the brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) abnormalities in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder patients who are seropositive for anti-aquaporin-4 autoantibody (AQP4 Ab). Of 236 consecutive patients with inflammatory demyelinating central nervous system diseases, we retrospectively analyzed MRI characteristics of 78 patients who were seropositive for AQP4 Ab. Results: For an average observational period of 6.3 years, 62 patients (79%) had brain lesions on MRI. Twenty-four patients (31%) had brain MRI abnormalities at the onset of disease, and 35 (45%) had symptomatic brain involvement. Characteristic brain MRI abnormalities were classified into five categories: (1) lesions involving corticospinal tracts (e.g. posterior limb of internal capsule and cerebral peduncle (44%); (2) extensive hemispheric lesions likely due to vasogenic edema (29%); (3) periependymal lesions surrounding aqueduct and the third and fourth ventricles (22%); (4) periependymal lesions surrounding lateral ventricles (40%); and (5) medullary lesions, often contiguous with cervical lesions (31%). Fifty-four patients (69%) showed at least one kind of brain abnormality among the five characteristic MRI lesions. Ten patients showed gadolinium-enhancing lesions, which were characterized by multiple patchy enhancing patterns with blurred margins. Conclusions: In central nervous system AQP4 autoimmunity, brain MRI abnormalities were more common than is generally appreciated and were characterized by their unique localization and configuration.
Phenotype and Life Chances Among Chicanos

Data from a national Chicano survey with nearly 1000 respondents were examined to test the hypothesis that because of internal (intragroup) and external (intergroup) discrimination, both past and present, Mexican Americans with a European physical appearance will have more enhanced life chances as measured by higher socioeconomic status than Mexican Americans with an indigenous Native American physical appearance. Two variables, skin color and physical features, were combined into a composite variable of observed phenotype. When observed phenotype was correlated with indicators of socioeconomic status, the hypothesis was largely confirmed.
Communicating shapes by words and gestures

Abstract If it is true that gestures can have an important function in the communication of pictorial information then it would be expected that people from high gesture cultures would be relatively disadvantaged if in such communication the use of gestures was inhibited. Previous research has failed to demonstrate this effect. However, that research is open to methodological criticisms. In particular, by allowing subjects to draw a diagram from the description being given by another person at the same time as the description was proceeding rather than when the description was complete, previous researchers have made it possible for subjects to obtain high accuracy by treating the task as one of eye-hand co-ordination. In this study, it is demonstrated that subjects from the Italian culture perform significantly better than subjects from the Australian culture when difficult diagrammatic material is being communicated and subjects may commence their drawings only when the diagram is complete. The failure .
Approximation of Points on Low-Dimensional Manifolds Via Random Linear Projections

This paper considers the approximate reconstruction of points, x \in R^D, which are close to a given compact d-dimensional submanifold, M, of R^D using a small number of linear measurements of x. In particular, it is shown that a number of measurements of x which is independent of the extrinsic dimension D suffices for highly accurate reconstruction of a given x with high probability. Furthermore, it is also proven that all vectors, x, which are sufficiently close to M can be reconstructed with uniform approximation guarantees when the number of linear measurements of x depends logarithmically on D. Finally, the proofs of these facts are constructive: A practical algorithm for manifold-based signal recovery is presented in the process of proving the two main results mentioned above.
An international online survey of the practices and perceptions of higher education professors with respect to the assessment of learning in the classroom

In a context where public action must demonstrate its effectiveness and efficiency, and where the links between teaching and the quality of learning are regularly highlighted, it seems relevant to identify the trends and logic that govern university professors’ decisions with respect to the modes of learning assessment favoured within the framework of their delivery of teaching services. Moreover, given that university teaching practices are changing rapidly due to the introduction of different views of the learning process, one might conclude that the same holds for assessment practices. Through our research work, we led to the development of a trilingual (English, French and Spanish) online survey devoted to an international investigation into the classroom assessment practices of higher education teachers. This survey proposes an online platform that will allow institutions of higher learning to document some of their current practices and to compare observed trends with what is happening elsewhere, in accordance with differing missions and traditions. These research notes are thus intended to describe the survey itself and to show how the questionnaire and individual items were structured, in addition to providing an overview of treatments within and between institutions that followed the testing.
Dynamics of skeletal muscle oxygenation during sequential bouts of moderate exercise

In rat muscle, faster dynamics of microvascular PO2 (approximately blood flow to O2 uptake ratio) after prior contractions that did not alter blood [lactate] have been considered to be a consequence of faster kinetics. However, in humans, prior exercise below the lactate threshold does not affect the pulmonary kinetics. To clarify this apparent discrepancy, we examined the effects of prior moderate exercise on the kinetics of muscle oxygenation (deoxyhaemoglobin, [HHb]α ) and pulmonary in humans. Eight subjects performed two bouts (6 min each) of moderate‐intensity cycling separated by 6 min of baseline pedalling. Muscle (vastus lateralis) oxygenation was evaluated by near‐infrared spectroscopy and was measured breath‐by‐breath. The time constant (τ) of the primary component of was not significantly affected by prior exercise (21.5 ± 9.2 versus 25.6 ± 9.7 s; Bout 1 versus 2, P= 0.49). The time delay (TD) of [HHb] decreased (11.6 ± 2.6 versus 7.7 ± 1.5 s; Bout 1 versus 2, P < 0.05) and τ[HHb] increased (7.0 ± 3.5 versus 10.2 ± 4.6 s; Bout 1 versus 2, P < 0.05), while the mean response time (TD +τ) did not change (18.6 ± 2.7 versus 17.9 ± 3.9 s) after prior moderate exercise. Thus, prior moderate exercise resulted in shorter onset and slower rate of increase in [HHb] during subsequent exercise. These data suggest that prior exercise altered the dynamic interaction between and following the onset of exercise.
The effect of mass screening in iceland, 1965–74, on the incidence and mortality of cervical carcinoma

A clinic for early detection of cancer of the uterine cervix has been in operation in Iceland since 1964, aimed until recently at the age‐group 25–59. More than 85% of women in this age group have been screened at least once. Mortality from cancer of the cervix had been rising in Iceland, and continued to rise during the first few years of operation of the screening clinic. Since 1970, however, a more than two‐fold reduction in mortality has been observed among women aged 25–59. There has been a similar decrease in incidence of tumours of stages II, III and IV. Both deaths and advanced tumours are largely confined to women who have never been screened. Alternative explanations are considered, but the only tenable explanation of the reduction in mortality is that it is a consequence of the introduction of a comprehensive screening programme.
Can prenatal detection of Down syndrome be improved by enhancing obstetricians’ skills of performing adequate foetal cardiac examination at the primary level?a

Abstract Aims: To evaluate the prevalence of congenital heart defects (CHDs) in live-born infants with Down syndrome (DS) and to investigate whether these CHDs might be detected during routine second trimester ultrasound screening performed at the primary level. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 66 cases of DS in live-born infants. The infants with DS underwent a detailed echocardiographic examination to evaluate cardiac morphological characteristics and function. Results: Thirty-six live-born DS infants (54.5%) had associated CHDs. According to the apical four-chamber view at the first postnatal echocardiographic examination, we estimated that 20 (55.6%) of the 36 patients with associated CHDs should have been identified during the routine second-trimester prenatal scan [17 infants with complete atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD), two with partial AVSD, and one with non-restrictive perimembranous ventricular septal defect] if the results had been correctly interpreted. An additional seven patients with associated CHDs should have been identified if the evaluation of both outflow tracts had been included into the screening protocol. Conclusion: Our data suggest that the prenatal DS detection rate can be significantly increased by improving obstetricians’ skills of performing adequate foetal cardiac examination as part of the routine 18- to 23-week ultrasound examination at the primary level.
Multi-institutional retrospective analysis of learning curves on dosimetry and operation time before and after introduction of intraoperatively built custom-linked seeds in prostate brachytherapy

This multi-institutional retrospective analysis examined learning curves for dosimetric parameters and operation time after introduction of intraoperatively built custom-linked (IBCL) seeds. Data from consecutive patients treated with seed implantation before and after introduction of IBCL seeds (loose seed, n = 428; IBCL seed, n = 426) were collected from 13 centers. Dose–volume histogram parameters, operation times, and seed migration rates were compared before and after introduction of IBCL seeds. At the 1-month CT analysis, no significant differences were seen in dose to 90% of prostate volume between before and after IBCL seed introduction. No learning curve for dosimetry was seen. Prostate and rectal volume receiving at least 150% of prescription dose (V150 and RV150) were higher in the loose-seed group than in the IBCL-seed group. Operation time was extended by up to 10 min when IBCL seeds were used, although there was a short learning curve of about five patients. The percentage of patients with seed migration in the IBCL-seed group was one-tenth that in the loose-seed group. Our study revealed no dosimetric demerits, no learning curve for dosimetry, and a slightly extended operation time for IBCL seeds. A significant reduction in the rate of seed migration was identified in the IBCL-seed group.