Privacy with the use of face images is becoming a major concern in civilians' applications. Recent studies have exploited privacy protection methods by means of facial attributes editing or ...de-identifying face images. Altering attributes causes loss of information for facial analysis while most de-identification studies did not quantitatively evaluate how well facial attributes are preserved. Moreover, state-of-the-art face analysis utilized 3D information for better performance. Existing face privacy studies only focusing in 2D domain is a key limitation towards the compatibility of more advanced 3D face analysis. This paper presents the first study on the possibility of 3D face de-identification with preserving facial attributes. We systematically evaluate the performance of 2D/3D face/facial attribute recognition and develop 2D/3D de-identification methods with preserving facial attributes using Auto Encoder and Generative Adversarial Networks approaches. We present comprehensive and reproducible experimental results using a publicly available 3D face database with facial attribute annotations for benchmarking and further research. https://github.com/kevinhmcheng/3d-face-de-id
Entecavir (ETV) is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B in 2005. ETV monohydrate (ETV‐H) is used as drug substance in pharmaceutical industry. In this ...work, ETV‐H is prepared in pure water. The single crystal structure of ETV‐H is originally reported by Jiang and Liu in 2009 and shows a layered structure in ETV‐H crystal. Then ETV‐H is first studied by density functional theory method at B3LYP/6‐311+G(d,p) level. The optimized geometric parameters of ETV‐H agree well with the reported single crystal data and theoretical vibrational frequencies are consistent with experimental spectra. Molecular electronic potential and natural bond orbital results exhibit the molecular connection properties of the layered structure. The theoretical calculated dihedral angles between two ETV molecules are 177.6° and 176.8°, indicating that two ETV molecules are almost in the same plane. The theoretical calculated interlayer space is 16.4 Å, which is similar to the calculated interlayer space 16.7 Å using X‐ray diffraction result according to Bragg's law. These calculated results further illustrate the existence of the layered structure in ETV‐H crystal. This study may provide an idea for the future drug research.
The layered crystal structure of entecavir monohydrate (ETV‐H) is firstly studied using DFT at B3LYP/6‐311+G (d,p) level. The calculated vibrational frequencies are consistent with experimental spectra. The theoretical calculated interlayer space result, MEP and NBO results further illustrate the layered structure of ETV‐H.
Valvular heart disease (VHD) is a prevalent cardiac manifestation in antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) patients. However, risk factors and predictors for antiphospholipid antibody-associated VHD ...(aPL-VHD) remain vague. We aimed to assess the risk of developing aPL-VHD in aPL-positive patients, by establishing a clinical prediction model upon a cross-sectional cohort from APS-Shanghai database, including 383 APS patients and durable aPL carriers with transthoracic echocardiography investigation. The prevalence of aPL-VHD was 11.5%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified three independent risk factors for aPL-VHD: anti-β2GPI IgG (OR 5.970, P < 0.001), arterial thrombosis (OR 2.758, P = 0.007), and stratified estimated glomerular filtration rate levels (OR 0.534, P = 0.001). A prediction model for aPL-VHD, incorporating the three factors, was further developed, which demonstrated good discrimination with a C-index of 0.855 and 0.841 (after bootstrapping), and excellent calibration (P = 0.790). We provide a practical tool for assessing the risk of developing VHD among aPL-positive patients.
•The study investigated antiphospholipid antibody-associated valvular heart disease (aPL-VHD) in a large cross-sectional cohort, revealing a prevalence of 11.5% among 383 aPL-positive patients.•Arterial thrombosis, anti-β2GPI IgG, and kidney function were identified as independent risk factors for aPL-VHD development and were used to develop a risk prediction model.•The prediction model demonstrated good discrimination and calibration, providing clinicians with a practical tool for assessing individualized risk in aPL-positive patients.
SmFeO3 and SmFe0.9Mn0.1O3 single crystal samples grown with a floating zone technique have been investigated under static and pulsed high magnetic fields along all principal crystallographic axes. ...Comprehensive investigation on magnetization (behavior) show that the spin switch transition and spin reorientation transition among the Sm3+ and Fe3+/Mn3+ sublattices is highly anisotropic. Especially, with the applied magnetic field along a-axis, a field induced multi-step transition was observed in SmFeO3 around compensation temperature (TComp1 ~ 3.9 K), which was not observed in Mn doped SmFe0.9Mn0.1O3 (TComp2 ~ 9.3 K). The experimental results show that the Jahn-Teller (J-T) Mn3+ ions has an important effect on anisotropy and affects the spin-reorientation and high field magnetization behavior. The study provides a clear picture to show the dominate effects between rare earth ions and transition metal ions on the complicated magnetization behavior.
Chronic ocular graft-versus-host disease (oGVHD) is a common complication of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) and can lead to vision loss if not diagnosed and treated ...promptly. Currently, no approved drugs exist for oGVHD treatment. However, umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UCMSCs) have known immunoregulatory properties and have been employed in clinical trials for immune-mediated diseases. To address oGVHD, the application of UCMSCs to the ocular surface is a logical approach. Intravenous administration of UCMSCs poses risks, necessitating topical and local delivery. Retaining UCMSCs on the ocular surface remains a challenge. To overcome this, we invented mesenchymal stem cell-coating high oxygen-permeable hydrogel lenses combining UCMSCs and machinery to enable the long-term retention of UCMSCs on the ocular surface. Animal model experiments demonstrated that these lenses effectively retained UCMSCs, providing therapeutic benefits by decreasing corneal inflammation and damage, and inhibiting immune rejection and response, all crucial aspects in oGVHD treatment.
•A novel combination of umbilical UCMSCs and high oxygen-permeable hydrogel lenses•A non-invasive therapy to protect corneal from oGVHD•Enable long-term retention of UCMSCs on ocular surface for immunoregulation•Use animal corneal transplantation model to mimic rejection in clinical oGVHD
This study described MSCohi-O lenses, a novel combination of UCMSCs and high oxygen-permeable hydrogel lenses, to enable long-term retention of UCMSCs on ocular surface to exert immunoregulatory effects and etiologically treat corneal inflammation and damage caused by immune-related ocular diseases such as chronic oGVHD.
The robust layout of the fixture on the workpiece solves the problem of workpiece fixing well. Aiming at the problem of workpiece position error caused by fixture source error on workpiece surface, ...an improved simulated annealing algorithm based on dataset domain is adopted to reduce the workpiece position error caused by fixture locator deviation as much as possible. To find a better robust layout way, a point differentiation method is proposed to discretize continuous workpieces to obtain the dataset domain. Meanwhile, two objective functions considering curvature and non‐curvature are used to evaluate the placement scheme of locators. A point differentiation method is proposed to discretize continuous workpieces to obtain the dataset domains. Meanwhile, two objective functions considering curvature and non‐curvature are used to evaluate locator layout schemes. To improve the performance of the algorithm, an AHP‐based multi‐attribute decision‐making method is used to find a set of optimal parameters to configure the algorithm. The benchmark example and practical verification show that the locator obtained by the algorithm proposed is less discrete and denser, which solves the problem of fixture positioning very well, and the position error of the workpiece is effectively reduced.
Aiming at the problem of workpiece position error caused by fixture source error on workpiece surface, an improved simulated annealing algorithm based on dataset domain is adopted to reduce the workpiece position error caused by fixture locator deviation as much as possible. The results show that the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method have been verified.
Based on the gradual transformation from wild growth to artificial cultivation, the accurate authentication of licorice seeds contributes to the first committed step of its quality control and is ...pivotal to ensure the clinical efficacy of licorice. However, it is still challenging to obtain genetically stable licorice germplasm resources due to the multi-source, multi-heterozygous, polyploid, and hybrid characteristics of licorice seeds. Here, a new method for determining the heterozygosity of licorice seed mixture, based on the various sites, and finding the composition characteristics of licorice seed is preliminarily designed and proposed. Namely, high-throughput full-length multiple DNA barcodes(HFMD), based on ITS multi-copy variation exist, the full-length amplicons of ITS2, psbA-trnH and ITS are directly sequenced by rDNA through the next-generation sequence(NGS) and single-molecule real-time (SMRT) technologies. By comparing the three sequencing methods, our results proved that SMRT sequencing successfully identified the complete gradients of complex mixed samples with the best performance. Meanwhile, HFMD is a brilliant and feasible method for evaluating the heterozygosity of licorice seeds. It shows a perfect interpretation of DNA barcoding and can be applied in multi-base multi-heterozygous and polyploid species.
Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) utilizing programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) antibody is a promising treatment strategy in solid tumors. However, in fact, more than half of hepatocellular carcinoma ...(HCC) patients are unresponsive to PD-L1-based ICB treatment due to multiple immune evasion mechanisms such as the hyperactivation of inflammation pathway, excessive tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) infiltration, and insufficient infiltration of T cells. Herein, an inflammation-regulated nanodrug was designed to codeliver NF-κB inhibitor curcumin and PD-L1 antibody to reprogram the tumor microenvironment (TME) and activate antitumor immunity. The nanodrug accumulated in TME by an enhanced permeability and retention effect, where it left antibody to block PD-L1 on the membrane of tumor cells and TAMs due to pH-responsiveness. Simultaneously, a new curcumin-encapsulated nanodrug was generated, which was easily absorbed by either tumor cells or TAMs to inhibit the nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) signal and related immunosuppressive genes. The inflammation-regulated nanodrug possessed good biocompatibility. Simultaneously, it reprogrammed TME effectively and exhibited an effective anticancer effect in immunocompetent mice. Overall, this study provided a potent strategy to improve the efficiency of ICB-based treatment for HCC.
To overcome drug resistance caused by apoptosis deficiency in patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), there is a need to identify other means of triggering apoptosis-independent cancer ...cell death. We are the first to report that isogambogenic acid (iso-GNA) can induce apoptosis-independent autophagic cell death in human NSCLC cells. Several features of the iso-GNA-treated NSCLC cells indicated that iso-GNA induced autophagic cell death. First, there was no evidence of apoptosis or cleaved caspase 3 accumulation and activation. Second, iso-GNA treatment induced the formation of autophagic vacuoles, increased LC3 conversion, caused the appearance of autophagosomes and increased the expression of autophagy-related proteins. These findings provide evidence that iso-GNA induces autophagy in NSCLC cells. Third, iso-GNA-induced cell death was inhibited by autophagic inhibitors or by selective ablation of Atg7 and Beclin 1 genes. Furthermore, the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin increased iso-GNA-induced cell death by enhancing autophagy. Finally, a xenograft model provided additional evidence that iso-GNA exhibited anticancer effect through inducing autophagy-dependent cell death in NSCLC cells. Taken together, our results demonstrated that iso-GNA exhibited an anticancer effect by inducing autophagy-dependent cell death in NSCLC cells, which may be an effective chemotherapeutic agent that can be used against NSCLC in a clinical setting.
This study aims to explore the molecular mechanism by which HAS2-AS1 acts as a ceRNA to promote the invasion and migration of glioma cells, which will provide a novel potential target for the ...targeted therapy of glioma. Gene expression profiles and corresponding clinical data were accessed from the TCGA_LGG and TCGA_GBM databases and then differential analysis was conducted using the "edgeR" package. miRDB, miRTarBase and TargetScan databases were employed to predict target genes and sequentially a ceRNA network was constructed. Quantitative real-time PCR was performed to detect gene expression in glioma cells. Transwell assay was operated to assess cell migratory and invasive abilities. Western blot was conducted to evaluate the protein expression. Dual-luciferase reporter assay and RNA immunoprecipitation experiment were performed to validate the targeting relationship between genes. HAS2-AS1 was markedly upregulated in glioma, and the overall survival time of patients with high HAS2-AS1 expression was significantly shorter than that of patients with low one. Silencing HAS2-AS1 inhibited the migration and invasion of glioma cells, while overexpressing HAS2-AS1 produced opposite results. miR-137 was validated as a direct target of and negatively regulated by HAS2-AS1. Further exploration of the downstream target gene indicated that EZH2 competed with HAS2-AS1 to interact with miR-137. Suppressing miR-137 or up-regulating EZH2 reversed the impact of HAS2-AS1 knockdown on glioma cell invasion and migration. HAS2-AS1 regulates EZH2 by sponging miR-137 for the migratory and invasive abilities of glioma cells, which provides a new idea for exploring metastasis mechanism of glioma.
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