Facial expression is an important channel for human nonverbal communication. This paper presents a novel and effective approach to automatic 3D/4D facial expression recognition based on the muscular ...movement model (MMM). In contrast to most of existing methods, the MMM deals with such an issue in the viewpoint of anatomy. It first automatically segments the input 3D face (frame) by localizing the corresponding points within each muscular region of the reference using iterative closest normal point. A set of features with multiple differential quantities, including coordinate, normal, values, are then extracted to describe the geometry deformation of each segmented region. Meanwhile, we analyze the importance of these muscular areas, and a score level fusion strategy is exploited to optimize their weights by the genetic algorithm in the learning step. The support vector machine and the hidden Markov model are finally used to predict the expression label in 3D and 4D, respectively. The experiments are conducted on the BU-3DFE and BU-4DFE databases, and the results achieved clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
The olfactory working memory capacity (OWMC) paradigm is able to detect cognitive deficits in 5XFAD mice (an animal model of Alzheimer's disease TG) as early as 3 months of age, while other ...behavioral paradigms detect cognitive deficits only at 4–5 months of age. Therefore, we aimed to demonstrate that the OWMC paradigm is more sensitive and consistent in the early detection of declines in cognitive function than other commonly used behavioral paradigms. The prefrontal cortex (PFC), retrosplenial cortex (RSC), subiculum (SUB), and amygdala (AMY) of 5XFAD mice were harvested and subjected to immunostaining to detect the expression of β‐amyloid (Aβ). Additionally, we compared the performance of 3‐month‐old male 5XFAD mice on common behavioral paradigms for assessing cognitive function (i.e., the open field OF test, novel object recognition NOR test, novel object location NOL test, Y‐maze, and Morris water maze MWM) with that on the OWMC task. In the testing phase of the OWMC task, we varied the delay periods to evaluate the working memory capacity (WMC) of wild‐type (WT) mice. Significant amyloid plaque deposition was observed in the PFC, RSC, SUB, and AMY of 3‐month‐old male 5XFAD mice. However, aside from the OWMC task, the other behavioral tests failed to detect cognitive deficits in 5XFAD mice. Additionally, to demonstrate the efficacy of the OWMC task in assessing WMC, we varied the retention delay periods; we found that the WMC of WT mice decreased with longer delay periods. The OWMC task is a sensitive and robust behavioral assay for detecting changes in cognitive function.
The OWMC task is a sensitive and robust behavioral assay for detecting changes in cognitive function.
Carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are abundant and heterogeneous stromal cells in tumor microenvironment that are critically involved in cancer progression. Here, we demonstrate that two ...cell-surface molecules, CD10 and GPR77, specifically define a CAF subset correlated with chemoresistance and poor survival in multiple cohorts of breast and lung cancer patients. CD10+GPR77+ CAFs promote tumor formation and chemoresistance by providing a survival niche for cancer stem cells (CSCs). Mechanistically, CD10+GPR77+ CAFs are driven by persistent NF-κB activation via p65 phosphorylation and acetylation, which is maintained by complement signaling via GPR77, a C5a receptor. Furthermore, CD10+GPR77+ CAFs promote successful engraftment of patient-derived xenografts (PDXs), and targeting these CAFs with a neutralizing anti-GPR77 antibody abolishes tumor formation and restores tumor chemosensitivity. Our study reveals a functional CAF subset that can be defined and isolated by specific cell-surface markers and suggests that targeting the CD10+GPR77+ CAF subset could be an effective therapeutic strategy against CSC-driven solid tumors.
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•CD10 and GPR77 define a new CAF subset•CD10+GPR77+ CAFs sustain cancer stemness and promote tumor chemoresistance•Complement signaling maintains NF-κB activation•Targeting CD10+GPR77+ CAFs restores chemosensitivity
CD10 and GPR77 identify a cancer stemness-sustaining cancer-associated fibroblast subset.
Recent investigations on human vision discover that the retinal image is a landscape or a geometric surface, consisting of features such as ridges and summits. However, most of existing popular local ...image descriptors in the literature, e.g., scale invariant feature transform (SIFT), histogram of oriented gradient (HOG), DAISY, local binary Patterns (LBP), and gradient location and orientation histogram, only employ the first-order gradient information related to the slope and the elasticity, i.e., length, area, and so on of a surface, and thereby partially characterize the geometric properties of a landscape. In this paper, we introduce a novel and powerful local image descriptor that extracts the histograms of second-order gradients (HSOGs) to capture the curvature related geometric properties of the neural landscape, i.e., cliffs, ridges, summits, valleys, basins, and so on. We conduct comprehensive experiments on three different applications, including the problem of local image matching, visual object categorization, and scene classification. The experimental results clearly evidence the discriminative power of HSOG as compared with its first-order gradient-based counterparts, e.g., SIFT, HOG, DAISY, and center-symmetric LBP, and the complementarity in terms of image representation, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed local descriptor.
The two underlying requirements of face age progression, i.e. aging accuracy and identity permanence, are not well studied in the literature. In this paper, we present a novel generative adversarial ...network based approach. It separately models the constraints for the intrinsic subject-specific characteristics and the age-specific facial changes with respect to the elapsed time, ensuring that the generated faces present desired aging effects while simultaneously keeping personalized properties stable. Further, to generate more lifelike facial details, high-level age-specific features conveyed by the synthesized face are estimated by a pyramidal adversarial discriminator at multiple scales, which simulates the aging effects in a finer manner. The proposed method is applicable to diverse face samples in the presence of variations in pose, expression, makeup, etc., and remarkably vivid aging effects are achieved. Both visual fidelity and quantitative evaluations show that the approach advances the state-of-the-art.
How two subgenomes in allo-tetraploids adapt to coexistence and coordinate through structure and expression evolution requires extensive studies. In the present study, we report an improved genome ...assembly of allo-tetraploid common carp, an updated genome annotation of allo-tetraploid goldfish and the chromosome-scale assemblies of a progenitor-like diploid Puntius tetrazona and an outgroup diploid Paracanthobrama guichenoti. Parallel subgenome structure evolution in the allo-tetraploids was featured with equivalent chromosome components, higher protein identities, similar transposon divergence and contents, homoeologous exchanges, better synteny level, strong sequence compensation and symmetric purifying selection. Furthermore, we observed subgenome expression divergence processes in the allo-tetraploids, including inter-/intrasubgenome trans-splicing events, expression dominance, decreased expression levels, dosage compensation, stronger expression correlation, dynamic functionalization and balancing of differential expression. The potential disorders introduced by different progenitors in the allo-tetraploids were hypothesized to be alleviated by increasing structural homogeneity and performing versatile expression processes. Resequencing three common carp strains revealed two major ecotypes and uncovered candidate genes relevant to growth and survival rate.
Methodological quality (risk of bias) assessment is an important step before study initiation usage. Therefore, accurately judging study type is the first priority, and the choosing proper tool is ...also important. In this review, we introduced methodological quality assessment tools for randomized controlled trial (including individual and cluster), animal study, non-randomized interventional studies (including follow-up study, controlled before-and-after study, before-after/ pre-post study, uncontrolled longitudinal study, interrupted time series study), cohort study, case-control study, cross-sectional study (including analytical and descriptive), observational case series and case reports, comparative effectiveness research, diagnostic study, health economic evaluation, prediction study (including predictor finding study, prediction model impact study, prognostic prediction model study), qualitative study, outcome measurement instruments (including patient - reported outcome measure development, content validity, structural validity, internal consistency, cross-cultural validity/ measurement invariance, reliability, measurement error, criterion validity, hypotheses testing for construct validity, and responsiveness), systematic review and meta-analysis, and clinical practice guideline. The readers of our review can distinguish the types of medical studies and choose appropriate tools. In one word, comprehensively mastering relevant knowledge and implementing more practices are basic requirements for correctly assessing the methodological quality.
Face aging simulation has received rising investigations nowadays, whereas it still remains a challenge to generate convincing and natural age-progressed face images. In this paper, we present a ...novel approach to such an issue using hidden factor analysis joint sparse representation. In contrast to the majority of tasks in the literature that integrally handle the facial texture, the proposed aging approach separately models the person-specific facial properties that tend to be stable in a relatively long period and the age-specific clues that gradually change over time. It then transforms the age component to a target age group via sparse reconstruction, yielding aging effects, which is finally combined with the identity component to achieve the aged face. Experiments are carried out on three face aging databases, and the results achieved clearly demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method in rendering a face with aging effects. In addition, a series of evaluations prove its validity with respect to identity preservation and aging effect generation.
Dietary intake is an important route of human exposure to chlorinated paraffins (CPs). Cup instant noodles are widely popular food and millions packet of instant noodles are consumed every year. To ...investigate the levels, congener groups, and health risk of SCCPs and MCCPs in each component of cup instant noodles, samples of nine common brands were collected and analyzed by comprehensive two dimensional gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. The mean concentrations in the noodles were 1.2 × 103 ng/g wet weight (ww) (SCCPs) and 1.2 × 102 ng/g ww (MCCPs), the mean concentrations in the seasoning were 1.4 × 103 ng/g ww (SCCPs) and 1.3 × 102 ng/g ww (MCCPs), and the mean concentrations in the soup were 5.6 × 102 ng/L (SCCPs) and 5.4 × 102 ng/L (MCCPs). The SCCP to MCCP ratio were similar in the soup and soup container, which means CPs in the soup might be migrated from the soup container. Seasoning and noodles from the same brands have similar congener profiles of SCCPs and MCCPs, which may be raised from the manufacturing process or food packaging materials. The dominant SCCP congener groups were C10–11Cl6–7 in noodles and seasoning, and C10,13Cl6–7 in soup. The dominant MCCP congener groups were C14–15Cl6–7 in noodles and seasoning, and C14–15Cl6–7 in soup. A preliminary health risk assessment indicated that the current intakes of SCCPs and MCCPs through cup instant noodles in China did not pose a significant risk to human health.
•The order of SCCP concentrations in matched samples was soup < noodles < seasoning.•SCCP concentrations were much higher than those of MCCPs in noodles and seasoning.•Seasoning and noodles from the same brands might have the same CP sources.•SCCPs and MCCPs in cup instant noodles do not pose significant human health risks.
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