Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Visualization System for Animating Vertebrate Animal Models

As computer graphics continue to progress, there is an increasingly large number of 3D models available on the internet. However, most of these models are static, with a rigid shape and fixed pose. Only a few models can be animated with restricted motion, which is generally produced by professional animators, or by using expensive motion capture equipment. Novice users generally have great difficulty trying to animate an arbitrarily static model without any motion data. In this paper, we propose an integrated animation system which aims to animate bipedal or quadrupedal 3D models. To achieve this, we began by developing a video-based motion database with several animal groups of biological classification. Each group consists of close genera and families which have similar features. In addition, for each group, there is an articulated standard skeleton with pre-designed cyclic motion patterns. Through a hierarchical graphical interface, users can select different motion pattern candidates from a biologically classified tree structure. The selected motion pattern is then applied to this model to automatically synthesize realistic bipedal or quadrupedal motion.
Introducing Snapshots to Database Pointer Transactions ∗

We present 2V-DBP-SNAP, an algorithm that allow hard real-time tasks in an embedded real-time control system to read a snapshot of a number of data elements in a real-time database. Furthermore, 2V-DBP-SNAP allows these data elements to be shared with soft real-time tasks, which access them using a database query language, and with other hard real-time tasks that use database pointers. 2V-DBP-SNAP allows temporal behavior and memory consumption to be accurately predicted. Introducing snapshot transactions is beneficial for embedded control-systems, such as for engine control in an automotive system, since a snapshot of the state of the environment can be collected, e.g., the state of all cylinders in the engine. 2VDBP-SNAP is lightweight and predictable, both with respect to computational and memory overhead, and is therefore highly suited for resource constrained systems.
Association between scanning laser polarimetry measurements using variable corneal polarization compensation and visual field sensitivity in glaucomatous eyes.

OBJECTIVE To compare the association between scanning laser polarimetry (SLP) retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) measurements and automated perimetry sensitivity using both SLP manufacturer-assumed fixed and subject-specific variable corneal polarization magnitude and corneal polarization axis values. METHODS An SLP was modified to enable the measurement of corneal polarization magnitude and corneal polarization axis so that compensation for corneal birefringence could be corrected on a subject-specific variable basis. Seventy-three eyes from the University of California, San Diego, Diagnostic Innovations in Glaucoma Study with early glaucoma or suspected glaucoma (abnormal Swedish Interactive Threshold Algorithm [SITA] or full-threshold automated perimetry results and/or glaucomatous-appearing optic disc by consensus grading of stereoscopic optic disc photographs) (mean [SD] SITA mean deviation, -2.74 [3.71] dB; range, 1.72 to -14.72 dB) were included. Subjects were imaged with SLP using the manufacturer-assumed fixed corneal compensation values and subject-specific variable corneal compensation values and tested with SITA automated perimetry. Scanning laser polarimetry and SITA data were obtained within 3 months of each other. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The relationship between regional SLP RNFL measurements (24 parameters) and corresponding regional SITA raw thresholds were evaluated using linear regression for both (fixed corneal compensation and variable corneal compensation) SLP configurations. RESULTS No fixed corneal compensation SLP measurements were significantly associated with corresponding SITA visual field zone sensitivities after corrections for multiple comparisons. Seven variable corneal compensation RNFL parameters (superior, inferior, or mean RNFL thickness measurements) were significantly associated with their corresponding visual field zones with R2 values ranging from 0.13 (ellipse average) to 0.20 (superior average). CONCLUSION Variable corneal compensation to correct for subject-specific corneal polarization magnitude and corneal polarization axis improves the relationship between SLP-measured RNFL thickness and visual function measured by SITA perimetry.
Age related changes in the complexity of surface EMG in biceps: A model based study

It has been observed that there is a loss of complexity in the human body as we age. This is more prominent in the muscle strength and activity. Surface Electromyogram (sEMG) reflects the strength of muscle contraction. This age related changes in sEMG have been associated with a reduction in the number of muscle fibers and a drop in the ratio of type II muscle fibers. In this study, we have modified our existing EMG model by populating lifelike parameters which is related to the changes in the muscle due to age. In order to verify and identify the reasons for these changes, experiments were conducted on subjects belonging to younger (20-29 years) and older (61-69) age groups. Fractal dimension of sEMG, a measure of complexity was computed for both experimental and simulated sEMG signal. Results show that there was significant change in the fractal dimension of sEMG and this change was observed in both experimental and simulated sEMG. This study has developed a model to observe the changes in the muscle activity as the age progress, which can be useful in analyzing the neuromuscular disorders due to age.
Musical activity and emotional competence – a twin study

The hypothesis was tested that musical activities may contribute to the prevention of alexithymia. We tested whether musical creative achievement and musical practice are associated with lower alexithymia. 8000 Swedish twins aged 27–54 were studied. Alexithymia was assessed using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20. Musical achievement was rated on a 7-graded scale. Participants estimated number of hours of music practice during different ages throughout life. A total life estimation of number of accumulated hours was made. They were also asked about ensemble playing. In addition, twin modelling was used to explore the genetic architecture of the relation between musical practice and alexithymia. Alexithymia was negatively associated with (i) musical creative achievement, (ii) having played a musical instrument as compared to never having played, and – for the subsample of participants that had played an instrument – (iii) total hours of musical training (r = -0.12 in men and -0.10 in women). Ensemble playing added significant variance. Twin modelling showed that alexithymia had a moderate heritability of 36% and that the association with musical practice could be explained by shared genetic influences. Associations between musical training and alexithymia remained significant when controlling for education, depression, and intelligence. Musical achievement and musical practice are associated with lower levels of alexithymia in both men and women. Musical engagement thus appears to be associated with higher emotional competence, although effect sizes are small. The association between musical training and alexithymia appears to be entirely genetically mediated, suggesting genetic pleiotropy.
Midwives' influenza vaccine uptake and their views on vaccination of pregnant women.

BACKGROUND Pregnant women in England are now offered seasonal influenza vaccine. Midwives could be influential in promoting this, but specific information on their views on the policy and their role in its implementation is lacking. METHODS London midwives were surveyed for their views on the new policy and their own vaccine uptake, using an anonymously self-completed semi-structured online survey via a convenience sampling approach. RESULTS In total, 266 midwives responded. Sixty-nine percent agreed with the policy of vaccinating all pregnant women. Seventy-six percent agreed that midwives should routinely advise pregnant women on vaccination, but only 25% felt adequately prepared for this role. Just 28% wished to be vaccinators, due to concerns about increased workload and inadequate training. Forty-three percent received seasonal influenza vaccine themselves. Major reasons for non-uptake were doubts about vaccine necessity (34%), safety (25%) and effectiveness (10%); and poor arrangements for vaccination (11%). Suggested strategies for improving their own uptake included better access to evidence of effectiveness (67%) and improved work-based vaccination (45%). CONCLUSIONS London midwives support influenza vaccination of pregnant women, but are more willing to give advice on, than to administer, the vaccine. Midwives' own influenza vaccine uptake could improve with more information and easier access to vaccination in their workplace.
A Modified EpiSC Culture Condition Containing a GSK3 Inhibitor Can Support Germline-Competent Pluripotency in Mice

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) can contribute to the tissues of chimeric animals, including the germline. By contrast, epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs) barely contribute to chimeras. These two types of cells are established and maintained under different culture conditions. Here, we show that a modified EpiSC culture condition containing the GSK3 inhibitor CHIR99021 can support a germline-competent pluripotent state that is intermediate between ESCs and EpiSCs. When ESCs were cultured under a modified condition containing bFGF, Activin A, and CHIR99021, they converted to intermediate pluripotent stem cells (INTPSCs). These INTPSCs were able to form teratomas in vivo and contribute to chimeras by blastocyst injection. We also induced formation of INTPSCs (iINTPSCs) from mouse embryonic fibroblasts by exogenous expression of four reprogramming factors, Oct3/4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc, under the INTPSC culture condition. These iINTPSCs contributed efficiently to chimeras, including the germline, by blastocyst injection. The INTPSCs exhibited several characteristic properties of both ESCs and EpiSCs. Our results suggest that the modified EpiSC culture condition can support growth of cells that meet the most stringent criteria for pluripotency, and that germline-competent pluripotency may depend on the activation state of Wnt signaling.
K-winner machines for pattern classification

The paper describes the K-winner machine (KWM) model for classification. KWM training uses unsupervised vector quantization and subsequent calibration to label data-space partitions. A K-winner classifier seeks the largest set of best-matching prototypes agreeing on a test pattern, and provides a local-level measure of confidence. A theoretical analysis characterizes the growth function of a K-winner classifier, and the result leads to tight bounds to generalization performance. The method proves suitable for high-dimensional multiclass problems with large amounts of data. Experimental results on both a synthetic and a real domain (NIST handwritten numerals) confirm the approach effectiveness and the consistency of the theoretical framework.
Video Event Detection: From Subvolume Localization To Spatio-Temporal Path Search.

Although sliding window-based approaches have been quite successful in detecting objects in images, it is not a trivial problem to extend them to detecting events in videos. We propose to search for spatio-temporal paths for video event detection. This new formulation can accurately detect and locate video events in cluttered and crowded scenes, and is robust to camera motions. It can also well handle the scale, shape, and intra-class variations of the event. Compared to event detection using spatio-temporal sliding windows, the spatio-temporal paths correspond to the event trajectories in the video space, thus can better handle events composed by moving objects. We prove that the proposed search algorithm can achieve the global optimal solution with the lowest complexity. Experiments are conducted on realistic video datasets with different event detection tasks, such as anomaly event detection, walking person detection, and running detection. Our proposed method is compatible to different types of video features or object detectors and robust to false and missed local detections. It significantly improves the overall detection and localization accuracy over the state-of-the-art methods.
Self Learning Network Traffic Classification

Network management is part of traffic engineering and security. The current solutions - Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) and statistical classification, rely on the availability of a training set. In case of these there is a cumbersome need to regularly update the signatures. Further their visibility is limited to classes the classifier has been trained for. Unsupervised algorithms have been envisioned as a an alternative to automatically identify classes of traffic. To address these issues Self Learning Network Traffic Classification is proposed. It uses unsupervised algorithms along with an adaptive seeding approach to automatically lets classes of traffic to emerge, making them identified and labelled. Unlike traditional classifiers, there is no need of a-priori knowledge of signatures nor a training set to extract the signatures. Instead, Self Learning Network Traffic Classification automatically groups flows into pure (or homogeneous) clusters using simple statistical features. This label assignment (which is still based on some manual intervention) ensures that class labels can be easily discovered. Furthermore, Self Learning Network Traffic Classification uses an iterative seeding approach which will boost its ability to cope with new protocols and applications. Unlike state-of-art classifiers, the biggest advantage of Self Learning Network Traffic Classification is its ability to discover new protocols and applications in an almost automated fashion.
Evaluation and modeling of power consumption of a heterogeneous dual-core processor

Embedded systems such as mobile phones widely adopt heterogeneous dual-core processors to improve the performance and reduce the cost and power consumption. Considering mobile devices that are usually battery-operated, one of the critical issues for such an embedded system is software design which must fully utilize the computation power and minimizes the power consumption. A number of power consumption models were proposed to facilitate designers to evaluate and diagnose the power consumption of the software. Unfortunately, previous studies only investigated single-core processors, but have not yet developed power consumption models for heterogeneous dual-core processors. In this paper, a power consumption model for the dual-core processor based on TI OMAP5912 is proposed for evaluating the power consumption of embedded software. This tool not only estimates the energy consumed by embedded software but also analyzes the energy distributions of the software on each processor core. With the aid of this tool, designers could diagnose the power consumption of dual-core embedded software efficiently and easily.
Synthesis, Spectral, and Biological Properties of Copper(II) Complexes of Thiosemicarbazones of Schiff Bases Derived from 4-Aminoantipyrine and Aromatic Aldehydes

We have synthesized a novel series of Schiff bases by condensation of 4-aminoantipyrine and various aromatic aldehydes followed by reaction with thiosemicarbazide. These thiosemicarbazones are potential ligands toward transition metal ions. The reaction of copper(II) salts with 4[N-(benzalidene)amino]antipyrinethiosemicarbazone (BAAPTS), 4[N-(4′-methoxybenzalidene) amino] antipyrinethiosemicarbozone (MBAAPTS), 4[N-(4′-dimethylamino benzalidene) amino] antipyrinethiosemicarbazone (DABAAPTS), and 4[N-(cinnamalidene) amino] antipyrinethiosemicarbazone (CAAPTS) resulted in the formation of solid complexes with the general composition CuX2 · (H2O)(L)(X = Cl, Br,NO3,NCS, or CH3COO; L = BAAPTS, MBAAPTS, DABAAPTS, or CAAPTS). These complexes were characterized through elemental analysis, molecular weight, electrical conductance, infrared, electronic spectra, and magnetic susceptibilities at room temperature. Copper(II) complexes with BAAPTS and MBAAPTS were screened for antibacterial and antifungal properties and have exhibited potential activity. Thermal stabilities of two representative complexes were also investigated.
Mass Production Cage for Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae)

ABSTRACT Mass production is an important component of any pest or vector control program that requires the release of large number of insects. As part of efforts to develop an area-wide program involving the sterile insect technique (SIT) for the control of mosquitoes, the Insect Pest Control Laboratory of the Food and Agriculture Organization—International Atomic Energy Agency (FAO—IAEA Joint Division) has developed a mass production cage (Aedes MPC) for brood stock colonies in a mass production system for Aedes albopictus (Skuse, 1895). A preliminary experiment using Plexiglas cages was carried out to estimate the impact of cage volume on egg productivity. Transparent Plexiglas cages of different dimensions but loaded with the same adult density were tested. Egg productivity (number of eggs laid per adult female) and adult survival were recorded and analyzed. According to the results, the optimal volume of 100 liters has been chosen to develop the Aedes MPC. The numbers of adults introduced into the Aedes MPC did not affect the egg production and adult survival in comparison with the Plexiglas cage experiment data, confirming the possible use of Aedes MPC for mass-rearing procedures. Finally, the modification of Aedes MPC and creation of a new prototype model of MPC (Anopheles MPC) to effectively contain Anopheles arabiensis (Patton, 1905) adults is discussed with major changes pioneered to oviposition devices and systems for automatic collection of the eggs.
Characterization of cerebral aneurysms for assessing risk of rupture by using patient-specific computational hemodynamics models.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Hemodynamic factors are thought to play an important role in the initiation, growth, and rupture of cerebral aneurysms. This report describes a pilot clinical study of the association between intra-aneurysmal hemodynamic characteristics from computational fluid dynamic models and the rupture of cerebral aneurysms. METHODS A total of 62 patient-specific models of cerebral aneurysms were constructed from 3D angiography images. Computational fluid dynamics simulations were performed under pulsatile flow conditions measured on a normal subject. The aneurysms were classified into different categories, depending on the complexity and stability of the flow pattern, the location and size of the flow impingement region, and the size of the inflow jet. The 62 models consisted of 25 ruptured and 34 unruptured aneurysms and 3 cases with unknown histories of hemorrhage. The hemodynamic features were analyzed for associations with history of rupture. RESULTS A large variety of flow patterns was observed: 72% of ruptured aneurysms had complex or unstable flow patterns, 80% had small impingement regions, and 76% had small jet sizes. By contrast, unruptured aneurysms accounted for 73%, 82%, and 75% of aneurysms with simple stable flow patterns, large impingement regions, and large jet sizes, respectively. Aneurysms with small impingement sizes were 6.3 times more likely to have experienced rupture than those with large impingement sizes (P = .01). CONCLUSIONS Image-based patient-specific numeric models can be constructed in an efficient manner that allows clinical studies of intra-aneurysmal hemodynamics. A simple flow characterization system was proposed, and interesting trends in the association between hemodynamic features and aneurysmal rupture were found. Simple stable patterns, large impingement regions, and jet sizes were more commonly seen with unruptured aneurysms. By contrast, ruptured aneurysms were more likely to have disturbed flow patterns, small impingement regions, and narrow jets.
Racial Group Affinity and Religious Giving: Evidence from Congregation-Level Panel Data

Abstract Since giving to religious organizations constitutes a substantial portion of total charitable giving, an understanding of the determinants of religious giving is a vital policy concern. Drawing on a novel congregation-level panel dataset, we examine whether religious giving is driven by preferences for racial group affinity, that is, loyalty to one’s own racial group. To address endogeneity concerns, we combine a fixed effects estimation framework with an instrumental variable approach. We find robust evidence consistent with the racial group affinity motive: a decrease in the percent of whites in the local community is ceteris paribus associated with a decrease in the total giving receipts collected by predominantly white congregations. The magnitude of this effect does not vary with the extent of racial residential segregation in the community. The effect, however, is driven by the congregations in urban (as opposed to rural) communities. We offer a possible explanation for this result.
Possible health impact of animal oestrogens in food

Oestrogens govern reproductive functions in vertebrates, and are present in all animal tissues. The theoretical maximum daily intake (TMDI) of oestradiol‐17β by consumption of cattle meat is calculated to be 4.3 ng. Following the use of oestradiol‐containing growth‐promoting agents, TMDI is increased by a factor of 4.6 to 20 ng oestradiol‐17β, assuming that single dosage and ‘good animal husbandry’ are observed. Pork and poultry probably contain similar amounts of oestrogens as untreated cattle. The mean concentration of oestradiol‐17β in whole milk is estimated at 6.4 pg/ml. Scarce data available on eggs report up to 200 pg/g oestradiol‐17β. The risk evaluation of oestrogenic growth‐promoting agents is limited by analytical uncertainties. Residues of oestradiol‐17α and the importance of oestrogen conjugates are widely unknown. The performance of mass spectrometry still needs to be improved for confirmation of oestrogen concentrations in most food. At present, the potential relevance of oestradiol acyl esters, the actual daily production rate of oestradiol in prepubertal children, and the role of oestradiol metabolites in cancer are obscure. The presence of different cytoplasmic oestrogen receptor subtypes and potential oestradiol effects in non‐reproductive functions require further examination.