Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rig retargeting for 3D animation

This paper presents a new approach to facilitate reuse and remixing in character animation. It demonstrates a method for automatically adapting existing skeletons to different characters. While the method can be applied to simple skeletons, it also proposes a new approach that is applicable to high quality animation as it is able to deal with complex skeletons that include control bones (those that drive deforming bones). Given a character mesh and a skeleton, the method adapts the skeleton to the character by matching topology graphs between the two. It proposes specific multiresolution and symmetry approaches as well as a simple yet effective shape descriptor. Together, these provide a robust retargeting that can also be tuned between the original skeleton shape and the mesh shape with intuitive weights. Furthermore, the method can be used for partial retargeting to directly attach skeleton parts to specific limbs. Finally, it is efficient as our prototype implementation generally takes less than 30 seconds to adapt a skeleton to a character.
ERK 1/2 signaling pathway is involved in nicotine‐mediated neuroprotection in spinal cord neurons

Evidence indicates that agonists of neuronal nicotinic receptors (nAChRs), including nicotine, can induce neuroprotective and anti‐apoptotic effects in the CNS. To study these mechanisms, the present study focused on nicotine‐mediated modulation of the extracellular regulated kinase 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) pathway in cultured spinal cord neurons. Exposure to nicotine (0.1–10 µM) for as short as 1 min markedly upregulated levels of phosphorylated ERK1/2 (pERK1/2) and increased total ERK1/2 activity. Inhibition studies with mecamylamine and α‐bungarotoxin revealed that these effects were mediated by the α7 nicotinic receptor. In addition, pre‐exposure to U0126, a specific inhibitor of the ERK1/2 signaling, prevented nicotine‐mediated anti‐apoptotic effects. To indicate if treatment with nicotine also can activate ERK1/2 in vivo, a moderate spinal cord injury (SCI) was induced in rats using a weight‐drop device and nicotine was injected 2 h post‐trauma. Consistent with in vitro data, nicotine increased levels of pERK1/2 in this animal model of spinal cord trauma. Results of the present study indicate that the ERK1/2 pathway is involved in anti‐apoptotic effects of nicotine in spinal cord neurons and may be involved in therapeutic effects of nicotine in spinal cord trauma. J. Cell. Biochem. 100: 279–292, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Recombinant Growth Differentiation Factor-9 (GDF-9) Enhances Growth and Differentiation of Cultured Early Ovarian Follicles.

Transgenic mice with deletion of the GDF-9 (growth differentiation factor-9) gene are characterized by the arrest of ovarian follicle development at the primary stage. Based on the hypothesis that GDF-9 is important for early follicle development, we isolated rat GDF-9 complementary DNA (cDNA) and generated recombinant GDF-9 protein to study its physiological role. Using bacteria-derived GDF-9-glutathione S-transferase (GST) fusion protein, specific antibodies to the mature form of GDF-9 was generated. Immunohistochemical staining of ovarian sections indicated the localization of GDF-9 protein in the oocyte of primary, secondary and preantral follicles, whereas immunoblotting demonstrated the secretion of GDF-9 by mammalian cells transfected with GDF-9 cDNAs. Recombinant GDF-9 was shown to be an N-glycosylated protein capable of stimulating early follicle development. Growth of preantral follicles isolated from immature rats was enhanced by treatment with either GDF-9 or FSH whereas the combined treatment.
Cloning and characterization of bacteriophage-like DNA from Haemophilus somnus homologous to phages P2 and HP1

In an attempt to identify and characterize components of a heme uptake system of Haemophilus somnus, an Escherichia coli cosmid library of H. somnus genomic DNA was screened for the ability to bind hemin (Hmb+). The Hmb+ phenotype was associated with a 7,814-bp HindIII fragment of H. somnus DNA that was subcloned and sequenced. Thirteen open reading frames (orfs) were identified, all transcribed in one direction, and transposon mutagenesis identified orf7 as the gene associated with the Hmb+ phenotype. Orf7 (178 amino acids) has extensive homology with the lysozymes of bacteriophages P-A2, P21, P22, PZA, phi-29, phi-vML3, T4, or HP1. The orf7 gene complemented the lytic function of the K gene of phage P2 and the R gene of phage lambda. A lysozyme assay using supernatants from whole-cell lysates of E. coli cultures harboring plasmid pRAP501 or pGCH2 (both of which express the orf7 gene product) exhibited significant levels of lysozyme activity. The orf6 gene upstream of orf7 has the dual start motif common to the holins encoded by lambdoid S genes, and the orf6 gene product has significant homology to the holins of phages HP1 and P21. When expressed from a tac promoter, the orf6 gene product caused immediate cell death without lysis, while cultures expressing the orf7 gene product grew at normal rates but lysed immediately after the addition of chloroform. Based on this data, we concluded that the Hmb+ phenotype was an artifact resulting from the expression of cloned lysis genes which were detrimental to the E. coli host. The DNA flanking the cloned lysis genes contains orfs that are similar to structural and DNA packaging genes of phage P2. Polyclonal antiserum against Orf2, which is homologous to the major capsid precursor protein (gpN) of phage P2, detected a 40,000-M(r) protein expressed from pRAP401 but did not detect Orf2 in H. somnus, lysates. The phage-like DNA was detected in the serum-susceptible preputial strains HS-124P and HS-127P but was absent from the serum-resistant preputial strains HS-20P and HS-22P. Elucidation of a potential role for this cryptic prophage in the H. somnus life cycle requires more study.
Peak-Efficiency Detection and Peak-Efficiency Tracking Algorithm for Switched-Mode DC–DC Power Converters

In this paper, the system allowing to detect the peak-efficiency point of the periodically switching MOS power transistor is presented. The use of this system concerns namely the integrated dc-dc converters, charge pumps, class-E amplifiers, or isolated MOSFET power switches. Information about the peak-efficiency point position can be used to modify the power-switch operating conditions, which allows us to obtain the maximal available power-efficiency for a given operating point. The algorithm of the peak-efficiency tracking is developed here on the example of integrated 3.2 MHz step-down (buck) 5-A dc-dc converter. In this example, sizes of NMOS and PMOS power transistors are adjusted “on the fly,” in order to obtain the highest possible efficiency. In particular, power efficiency is optimized for the output current IOUT, battery and output voltages VBAT and VOUT, switching frequency fSW, temperature, and process variations. The principle of the method relies on the balancing of the Joule heat energy dissipated on the resistive elements, and energy dissipated during the charging process of the transistors' driving capacitances. As the result of the peak-efficiency tracking algorithm, the flat efficiency curve is obtained in a wide current range.
Impact of Channel Estimation Error on the Performance of Amplify-and-Forward Two-Way Relaying

In this paper, the impact of channel-state information (CSI) estimation error on the performance of an amplify-and-forward two-way multiple relay network has been investigated. In contrast to the existing literature, which assumes perfect self-interference cancellation, we consider imperfect self-interference cancellation at both sources that exchange information through multiple relays, and maximal-ratio combining is then applied to improve the decision statistics under imperfect signal detection. We derive the effective signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) subject to noisy channel estimation, and based on this SNR, the system outage probability is given. In addition, we derive the closed-form expression of the average system bit error rate (BER) and the asymptotic expressions for both outage probability and BER. Furthermore, instead of employing all relays, we examine the impact of imperfect CSI on a single relay selection (RS) scheme. To mitigate the negative impact of imperfect CSI, we show that power allocation (PA), by minimizing either the outage probability or the BER, can suitably be cast as the geometric-programming problem. Numerical results validate the correctness of the derived expressions and show that the adaptive-PA scheme outperforms the equal-PA scheme under the aggregated effect of imperfect CSI.
Endothelial Function and Serum Concentration of Toxic Metals in Frequent Consumers of Fish

Background Endothelial dysfunction is involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Consumption of fish is associated with reduced cardiovascular risk, but there is paucity of data concerning its effect on endothelial function. Furthermore, investigation of the effects of fish consumption on health must take into account the ingestion of contaminants, including transition metals and some metalloids, which may have unfavorable effects on health, including those on the cardiovascular system. We investigated the association between fish consumption, endothelial function (flow mediated dilation of the brachial artery), and serum concentration of some toxic metals in apparently healthy people. Methods Twenty-nine high fish consumers (at least 3 portions a week) were compared with 25 low fish consumers (less than 1 portion a week). All participants were free of diabetes, cardiovascular or other systemic diseases. Serum metal (antimonium, arsenic, mercury, lead, cobalt, copper, zinc, selenium, strontium) concentrations were measured in subgroups of 24 high fish consumers and 19 low fish consumers. Results Both groups exhibited similar habitual dietary patterns, age and anthropometric characteristics. The high fish consumers had higher flow mediated dilation (9.7±1.8 vs. 7.3±1.9%; P<0.001), but also higher serum concentrations of mercury (5.87±2.69 vs. 1.65±1.10 mcg/L; P<0.001) and arsenic (6.04±3.25 vs. 2.30±1.58 mcg/L; P<0.001). The fasting plasma glucose concentrations were significantly correlated with both mercury (r = 0.39; P = 0.01) and arsenic concentrations (r = 0.55; P<0.001). Conclusions Habitual consumption of high amounts of fish is associated with better endothelial function despite higher serum concentrations of mercury and arsenic.
Elementary Teacher Candidates' Conceptions of the Nature of Science and Science Teaching.

This study attempted to explore the relationship between elementary teacher candidates' conceptions of the nature of science and their consequent conceptions of teaching science. In order to measure patterns and trends in how elementary teacher candidates define the nature of science and the teaching of science, an open-ended qualitative questionnaire and follow-up interviews were administered to 47 elementary teacher candidates prior to and after the completion of a science methods course. Results indicated that few of the candidates had considered their ideas about the nature of science. In general, answers represented views of school science rather than science as practiced by scientists. Responses also indicated that the tea:lher candidates had developed their conception by what they had learnyd in past science classes or in textbooks and not from personal involvement and experience with the practice of science. After participating in the methods course, three-fourths of the teacher candidates described the nature of science as the process of discovery and saw science concepts as relative and subject to personal construction of meaning. Moreover, the candidates recognized that learning is an active process and is a construction of individual understanding and that their role should be to facilitate personal construction. Contains 53 references. (JRH) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ***********************************************************************
HLA-A ,-B ,-DRB 1 alleles and haplotypes frequencies in Moroccan patients with leukemia Fréquences des allèles et des haplotypes HLA-A ,-B et-DRB 1 chez des patients marocains atteints de leucémie

Maria Kabbaj Mounia Oudghiri Abdellah Naya Hamid Naamane Joumana El Turk Siham Bennani Mohamed Hassar 1 Laboratoire d’immunohistocompatibilité, Institut Pasteur, Casablanca, Maroc <mariakabbaj@gmail.com> 2 Laboratoire de physiologie et de génétique moléculaire, Département de biologie, Faculté des Sciences Ain Chock, Université Hassan II, Casablanca, Maroc 3 Laboratoire de microbiologie et de biologie moléculaire, Centre national pour la recherche scientifique et technique, Rabat, Maroc
A case study in JML-based software validation

This paper reports on a testing case study applied to a small Java application, partially specified in JML. It illustrates that JML can easily be integrated with classical testing tools based on combinatorial techniques and random generation. It also reveals difficulties to reuse, in a testing context, JML annotations written for a proof process.
A review of methods for evaluation of maturity models for process improvement

Maturity models are widely used in process improvement. The users of a maturity model should be confident that the weak points of the assessed processes can be found, and that the most valuable changes are introduced. Therefore, the evaluation of maturity models is an important activity. In this paper, a mapping study of the literature on the evaluation of maturity models is presented. Two databases are searched resulting in a set of relevant papers. The identified papers can be classified according to six categories, namely the maturity model under evaluation, type of evaluation, relation of the evaluators/authors to the maturity model, level of objectivity, main purpose of the paper, and size of study. Further, a framework of different evaluations of maturity models is developed, and the relevant papers are mapped to the framework. Finally, the relevant research on the evaluation of the maturity models in the Capability Maturity Model family is discussed in more detail. The result of this mapping study is a clear overview of how the evaluation of maturity models has been done, and some discussions are provided for further research on the evaluation of commonly used or newly developed maturity models. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Distributed location aware web crawling

Distributed crawling has shown that it can overcome important limitations of the today's crawling paradigm. However, the optimal benefits of this approach are usually limited to the sites hosting the crawler. In this work, we propose a location-aware method, called IPMicra, that utilizes an IP address hierarchy, and allows crawling of links in a near optimal location aware manner.
Detecting and tolerating data corruptions due to device driver defects

Critical systems widely depend on operating systems to perform their mission. Device drivers are a critical and defect-prone part of operating systems. Software defects in device drivers often cause corruption of data that may lead to data losses, that are a significant source of costs for large enterprise systems. This paper describes an ongoing research that aims at mitigating the impact of data corruption due to device driver defects on the availability and the integrity of data. We discuss a methodology for run-time detection and the tolerance of protocol violations in device drivers and then we present a preliminary activity that we are currently performing.
Quality of Human-Computer Interaction : Self-Explanatory User Interfaces by Model-Driven Engineering

En Interaction Homme-Machine, la qualite est une utopie : malgre toutes les precautions prises en conception, il existe toujours des utilisateurs et des situations d'usage pour lesquels l'Interface Homme-Machine (IHM) est imparfaite. Cette these explore l'auto-explication des IHM pour ameliorer la qualite percue par les utilisateurs. L'approche s'inscrit dans une Ingenierie Dirigee par les Modeles. Elle consiste a embarquer a l'execution les modeles de conception pour dynamiquement augmenter l'IHM d'un ensemble de questions et de reponses. Les questions peuvent etre relatives a l'utilisation de l'IHM (par exemple, "A quoi sert ce bouton ? ", "Pourquoi telle action n'est pas possible ? ) et a sa justification (par exemple, "Pourquoi les items ne sont-ils pas ranges par ordre alphabetique ? "). Cette these propose une infrastructure logicielle UsiExplain basee sur les meta-modeles UsiXML. L'evaluation sur un cas d'etude d'achat de voitures montre que l'approche est pertinente pour les questions d'utilisation de l'IHM. Elle ouvre des perspectives en justification de conception.
Recommending mentors to software project newcomers

Open Source Software projects success depends on the continuous influx of newcomers and their contributions. Newcomers play an important role as they are the potential future developers, but they face difficulties and obstacles when initiating their interaction with a project, resulting in a high amount of withdrawals. This paper presents a recommendation system aiming to support newcomers finding the most appropriate project member to mentor them in a technical task. The proposed system uses temporal and social aspects of developer's behavior, in addition to recent contextual information to recommend the most suitable mentor at the moment.
A unified approach for SoC testing using test data compression and TAM optimization

We integrate for the first time test access mechanism (TAM) optimization and test data compression into a single test methodology. We show how an integrated test architecture based on TAMs and test data decoders can be designed The proposed approach offers considerable savings in test data volume and testing time. Two case studies using the integrated test architecture are presented.
Cerebral White Matter

Lesions of the cerebral white matter (WM) result in focal neurobehavioral syndromes, neuropsychiatric phenomena, and dementia. The cerebral WM contains fiber pathways that convey axons linking cerebral cortical areas with each other and with subcortical structures, facilitating the distributed neural circuits that subserve sensorimotor function, intellect, and emotion. Recent neuroanatomical investigations reveal that these neural circuits are topographically linked by five groupings of fiber tracts emanating from every neocortical area: (1) cortico‐cortical association fibers; (2) corticostriatal fibers; (3) commissural fibers; and cortico‐subcortical pathways to (4) thalamus and (5) pontocerebellar system, brain stem, and/or spinal cord. Lesions of association fibers prevent communication between cortical areas engaged in different domains of behavior. Lesions of subcortical structures or projection/striatal fibers disrupt the contribution of subcortical nodes to behavior. Disconnection syndromes thus result from lesions of the cerebral cortex, subcortical structures, and WM tracts that link the nodes that make up the distributed circuits. The nature and the severity of the clinical manifestations of WM lesions are determined, in large part, by the location of the pathology: discrete neurological and neuropsychiatric symptoms result from focal WM lesions, whereas cognitive impairment across multiple domains—WM dementia—occurs in the setting of diffuse WM disease. We present a detailed review of the conditions affecting WM that produce these neurobehavioral syndromes, and consider the pathophysiology, clinical effects, and broad significance of the effects of aging and vascular compromise on cerebral WM, in an attempt to help further the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of these disorders.
IGF binding protein 3 exerts its ligand-independent action by antagonizing BMP in zebrafish embryos

IGFBP3 is a multi-functional protein that has IGF-dependent and IGF-independent actions in cultured cells. Here we show that the IGF binding domain (IBD), nuclear localization signal (NLS) and transactivation domain (TA) are conserved and functional in zebrafish Igfbp3. The in vivo roles of these domains were investigated by expression of Igfbp3 and its mutants in zebrafish embryos. Igfbp3, and its NLS and TA mutants had equally strong dorsalizing effects. Human IGFBP3 had similar dorsalizing effects in zebrafish embryos. The activities of IBD and IBD+NLS mutants were lower, but they still caused dorsalization. Thus, the IGF-independent action of Igfbp3 is not related to NLS or TA in this in vivo model. We next tested the hypothesis that Igfbp3 exerts its IGF-independent action by affecting Bmp signaling. Co-expression of Igfbp3 with Bmp2b abolished Bmp2b-induced gene expression and inhibited its ventralizing activity. Biochemical assays and in vitro experiments revealed that IGFBP3 bound BMP2 and inhibited BMP2-induced Smad signaling in cultured human cells. In vivo expression of Igfbp3 increased chordin expression in zebrafish embryos by alleviating the negative regulation of Bmp2. The elevated level of Chordin acted together with Igfbp3 to inhibit the actions of Bmp2. Knockdown of Igfbp3 enhanced the ventralized phenotype caused by chordin knockdown. These results suggest that Igfbp3 exerts its IGF-independent actions by antagonizing Bmp signaling and that this mechanism is conserved.
Postoperative analgesic effects of either a constant rate infusion of fentanyl, lidocaine, ketamine, dexmedetomidine, or the combination lidocaine-ketamine-dexmedetomidine after ovariohysterectomy in dogs.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the postoperative analgesic effects of a constant rate infusion (CRI) of either fentanyl (FENT), lidocaine (LIDO), ketamine (KET), dexmedetomidine (DEX), or the combination lidocaine-ketamine-dexmedetomidine (LKD) in dogs. STUDY DESIGN Randomized, prospective, blinded, clinical study. ANIMALS Fifty-four dogs. METHODS Anesthesia was induced with propofol and maintained with isoflurane. Treatments were intravenous (IV) administration of a bolus at start of anesthesia, followed by an IV CRI until the end of anesthesia, then a CRI at a decreased dose for a further 4 hours: CONTROL/BUT (butorphanol 0.4 mg kg(-1), infusion rate of saline 0.9% 2 mLkg(-1) hour(-1)); FENT (5 μg kg(-1), 10 μg kg(-1) hour(-1), then 2.5 μg kg(-1) hour(-1)); KET (1 mgkg(-1) , 40 μg kg(-1) minute(-1), then 10 μg kg(-1) minute(-1) ; LIDO (2 mg kg(-1), 100 μg kg(-1) minute(-1), then 25 μg kg(-1) minute(-1)); DEX (1 μgkg(-1), 3 μg kg(-1) hour(-1), then 1 μg kg(-1) hour(-1)); or a combination of LKD at the aforementioned doses. Postoperative analgesia was evaluated using the Glasgow composite pain scale, University of Melbourne pain scale, and numerical rating scale. Rescue analgesia was morphine and carprofen. Data were analyzed using Friedman or Kruskal-Wallis test with appropriate post-hoc testing (p < 0.05). RESULTS Animals requiring rescue analgesia included CONTROL/BUT (n = 8), KET (n = 3), DEX (n = 2), and LIDO (n = 2); significantly higher in CONTROL/BUT than other groups. No dogs in LKD and FENT groups received rescue analgesia. CONTROL/BUT pain scores were significantly higher at 1 hour than FENT, DEX and LKD, but not than KET or LIDO. Fentanyl and LKD sedation scores were higher than CONTROL/BUT at 1 hour. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE LKD and FENT resulted in adequate postoperative analgesia. LIDO, CONTROL/BUT, KET and DEX may not be effective for treatment of postoperative pain in dogs undergoing ovariohysterectomy.