AniPortraitGAN: Animatable 3D Portrait Generation from 2D Image Collections

Previous animatable 3D-aware GANs for human generation have primarily focused on either the human head or full body. However, head-only videos are relatively uncommon in real life, and full body generation typically does not deal with facial expression control and still has challenges in generating high-quality results. Towards applicable video avatars, we present an animatable 3D-aware GAN that generates portrait images with controllable facial expression, head pose, and shoulder movements. It is a generative model trained on unstructured 2D image collections without using 3D or video data. For the new task, we base our method on the generative radiance manifold representation and equip it with learnable facial and head-shoulder deformations. A dual-camera rendering and adversarial learning scheme is proposed to improve the quality of the generated faces, which is critical for portrait images. A pose deformation processing network is developed to generate plausible deformations for challenging regions such as long hair. Experiments show that our method, trained on unstructured 2D images, can generate diverse and high-quality 3D portraits with desired control over different properties.Comment: SIGGRAPH Asia 2023. Project Page: https://yuewuhkust.github.io/AniPortraitGAN

Synthesis of Ti 2

As an effective and novel rapid sintering technology with the advantages of fast heating speed and short sintering time, SPS has been applied to the research and development of various materials. After sintering at 1325°C, Ti5Sn3 and Sn occurred as impurities accompanying the synthesis of Ti2SnC with a raw powder mixture of Ti/Sn/C = 2/1/1 (molar ratio). But by addition of 0.2 molar Al, and further optimization of sintering parameters at 1400°C for 10 min, almost fully pure Ti2SnC was obtained with a clear layered microstructure. The reaction mechanism analysis suggests that this beneficial effect of Al could be attributed to the suppression of decomposition of Ti2SnC by formation of Ti2SnxAl1−xC solid solution at a high sintering temperature. The present study reports a novel route to synthesize Ti2SnC by PL-SPS with a self-designed graphite die, and Al was also proposed as a sintering aid to remove impurities

Distortion of thin-walled structure fabricated by selective laser melting based on assumption of constraining force-induced distortion

Metal additive manufacturing has shown great potential in aerospace, medical, and automobile industries; however, distortion of metal part has been an obstacle in widespread application of metal additive manufacturing. The mechanism of thin-walled structure distortion remains unrevealed. In this study, the origin of distortion of thin-walled structure was discussed, based on the previously proposed assumption of constraining force-induced distortion. The relation between the microstructure and macro-distortion has been linked via the constraining force. The influence of scan directions and structure sizes on the distortion was also studied, and the approaches to decrease the thin-walled structure were discussed. Use of the alternant scan strategy has been validated as an effective approach if the structure sizes cannot be adjusted

A Novel Cross-layer Communication Protocol for Vehicular Sensor Networks

Communication protocols in Vehicular Sensor Networks (VSNs) in urban areas play an important role in intelligent transport systems applications. Many cross layer communication protocols studies are originated from topology-based algorithms, which is not suitable for the frequently-changing computational scenario. In addition, the influence factors that have been considered for VSNs routing are not enough. With these aspects in mind, this paper proposes a multi-factor cross layer position-based routing (MCLPR) protocol for VSNs to improve reliability and efficiency in message delivery. Considering the complex intersection environment, the algorithm for vehicles selection at intersections (called AVSI) is further proposed, in which comprehensive factors are taken into account including the position and direction of vehicle, the vehicle density, the signal-to-noise-plus-interference ratio (SNIR), as well as the frame error rate (FER) in MAC layer. Meanwhile, the dynamic HELLO STREAM broadcasting system with the various vehicle speeds is proposed to increase the decisions accuracy. Experimental results in Network Simulator 3 (NS-3) show the advantage of MCLPR protocol over traditional state-of the-art algorithms in terms of packet delivery ratio (PDR), overhead and the mean end-to-end delay

An integrated software for virus community sequencing data analysis

BACKGROUND: A virus community is the spectrum of viral strains populating an infected host, which plays a key role in pathogenesis and therapy response in viral infectious diseases. However automatic and dedicated pipeline for interpreting virus community sequencing data has not been developed yet.RESULTS: We developed Quasispecies Analysis Package (QAP), an integrated software platform to address the problems associated with making biological interpretations from massive viral population sequencing data. QAP provides quantitative insight into virus ecology by first introducing the definition "virus OTU" and supports a wide range of viral community analyses and results visualizations. Various forms of QAP were developed in consideration of broader users, including a command line, a graphical user interface and a web server. Utilities of QAP were thoroughly evaluated with high-throughput sequencing data from hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, influenza virus and human immunodeficiency virus, and the results showed highly accurate viral quasispecies characteristics related to biological phenotypes.CONCLUSIONS: QAP provides a complete solution for virus community high throughput sequencing data analysis, and it would facilitate the easy analysis of virus quasispecies in clinical applications.</p

Finite element analysis of mechanical behavior, permeability of irregular porous scaffolds and lattice-based porous scaffolds

In view of the low elastic modulus of the porous structure, it has attracted extensive attention in the field of artificial tissue implants for bone tissue engineering, and it has become important to find a porous structure suitable for human bone tissue. In this study, we constructed three type regular porous structure (cube, diamond, rhombohedral dodecahedron) and an irregular porous structure based on Voronoi tessellation. Firstly, the structural characteristics of porous structures were studied. After permeation simulation and compression simulation, we found that the structural characteristics (porosity, pore size, specific surface area) of four porous structures have a strong positive correlation with permeability. With the increase of porosity, the effective elastic modulus of the four porous structures decreases gradually. When the porosity is 80%, the effective elastic modulus and permeability of the four porous structures can basically meet the requirements of human bone implants. Irregular porous scaffolds exhibit relatively limited anisotropy in terms of mechanical properties and permeability. In view of the similarity between the structure and the human bone, the irregular porous structure exhibits superior development and application potential compared to the regular porous structure