Periocular in the Wild Embedding Learning with Cross-Modal Consistent Knowledge Distillation

Periocular biometric, or peripheral area of ocular, is a collaborative alternative to face, especially if a face is occluded or masked. In practice, sole periocular biometric captures least salient facial features, thereby suffering from intra-class compactness and inter-class dispersion issues particularly in the wild environment. To address these problems, we transfer useful information from face to support periocular modality by means of knowledge distillation (KD) for embedding learning. However, applying typical KD techniques to heterogeneous modalities directly is suboptimal. We put forward in this paper a deep face-to-periocular distillation networks, coined as cross-modal consistent knowledge distillation (CM-CKD) henceforward. The three key ingredients of CM-CKD are (1) shared-weight networks, (2) consistent batch normalization, and (3) a bidirectional consistency distillation for face and periocular through an effectual CKD loss. To be more specific, we leverage face modality for periocular embedding learning, but only periocular images are targeted for identification or verification tasks. Extensive experiments on six constrained and unconstrained periocular datasets disclose that the CM-CKD-learned periocular embeddings extend identification and verification performance by 50% in terms of relative performance gain computed based upon face and periocular baselines. The experiments also reveal that the CM-CKD-learned periocular features enjoy better subject-wise cluster separation, thereby refining the overall accuracy performance.Comment: 30 page

Nectar, humidity, honey bees (Apis mellifera) and varroa in summer: a theoretical thermofluid analysis of the fate of water vapour from honey ripening and its implications on the control of Varroa destructor

This theoretical thermofluid analysis investigates the relationships between honey production rate, nectar concentration and the parameters of entrance size, nest thermal conductance, brood nest humidity and the temperatures needed for nectar to honey conversion. It quantifies and shows that nest humidity is positively related to the amount, and water content of the nectar being desiccated into honey and negatively with respect to nest thermal conductance and entrance size. It is highly likely that honeybees, in temperate climates and in their natural home, with much smaller thermal conductance and entrance, can achieve higher humidities more easily and more frequently than in man-made hives. As a consequence, it is possible that Varroa destructor, a parasite implicated in the spread of pathogenic viruses and colony collapse, which loses fecundity at absolute humidities of 4.3 kPa (approx. 30 gm−3) and above, is impacted by the more frequent occurrence of higher humidities in these low conductance, small entrance nests. This study provides the theoretical basis for new avenues of research into the control of varroa, via the modification of beekeeping practices to help maintain higher hive humidities

Cellular uptake of magnetic nanoparticle is mediated through energy-dependent endocytosis in A549 cells

Biocompatible silica-overcoated magnetic nanoparticles containing an organic fluorescence dye, rhodamine B isothiocyanate (RITC), within a silica shell [50 nm size, MNP@SiO2(RITC)s] were synthesized. For future application of the MNP@SiO2(RITC)s into diverse areas of research such as drug or gene delivery, bioimaging, and biosensors, detailed information of the cellular uptake process of the nanoparticles is essential. Thus, this study was performed to elucidate the precise mechanism by which the lung cancer cells uptake the magnetic nanoparticles. Lung cells were chosen for this study because inhalation is the most likely route of exposure and lung cancer cells were also found to uptake magnetic nanoparticles rapidly in preliminary experiments. The lung cells were pretreated with different metabolic inhibitors. Our results revealed that low temperature disturbed the uptake of magnetic nanoparticles into the cells. Metabolic inhibitors also prevented the delivery of the materials into cells. Use of TEM clearly demonstrated that uptake of the nanoparticles was mediated through endosomes. Taken together, our results demonstrate that magnetic nanoparticles can be internalized into the cells through an energy-dependent endosomal-lysosomal mechanism

Current challenges in software solutions for mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics

This work was in part supported by the PRIME-XS project, grant agreement number 262067, funded by the European Union seventh Framework Programme; The Netherlands Proteomics Centre, embedded in The Netherlands Genomics Initiative; The Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre; and the Centre for Biomedical Genetics (to S.C., B.B. and A.J.R.H); by NIH grants NCRR RR001614 and RR019934 (to the UCSF Mass Spectrometry Facility, director: A.L. Burlingame, P.B.); and by grants from the MRC, CR-UK, BBSRC and Barts and the London Charity (to P.C.

Genome-Wide Gene Expression Analysis in Cancer Cells Reveals 3D Growth to Affect ECM and Processes Associated with Cell Adhesion but Not DNA Repair

Cell morphology determines cell behavior, signal transduction, protein-protein interaction, and responsiveness to external stimuli. In cancer, these functions profoundly contribute to resistance mechanisms to radio- and chemotherapy. With regard to this aspect, this study compared the genome wide gene expression in exponentially growing cell lines from different tumor entities, lung carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, under more physiological three-dimensional (3D) versus monolayer cell culture conditions. Whole genome cDNA microarray analysis was accomplished using the Affymetrix HG U133 Plus 2.0 gene chip. Significance analysis of microarray (SAM) and t-test analysis revealed significant changes in gene expression profiles of 3D relative to 2D cell culture conditions. These changes affected the extracellular matrix and were mainly associated with biological processes like tissue development, cell adhesion, immune system and defense response in contrast to terms related to DNA repair, which lacked significant alterations. Selected genes were verified by semi-quantitative RT-PCR and Western blotting. Additionally, we show that 3D growth mediates a significant increase in tumor cell radio- and chemoresistance relative to 2D. Our findings show significant gene expression differences between 3D and 2D cell culture systems and indicate that cellular responsiveness to external stress such as ionizing radiation and chemotherapeutics is essentially influenced by differential expression of genes involved in the regulation of integrin signaling, cell shape and cell-cell contact

Essential versus accessory aspects of cell death: recommendations of the NCCD 2015

Cells exposed to extreme physicochemical or mechanical stimuli die in an uncontrollable manner, as a result of their immediate structural breakdown. Such an unavoidable variant of cellular demise is generally referred to as ‘accidental cell death’ (ACD). In most settings, however, cell death is initiated by a genetically encoded apparatus, correlating with the fact that its course can be altered by pharmacologic or genetic interventions. ‘Regulated cell death’ (RCD) can occur as part of physiologic programs or can be activated once adaptive responses to perturbations of the extracellular or intracellular microenvironment fail. The biochemical phenomena that accompany RCD may be harnessed to classify it into a few subtypes, which often (but not always) exhibit stereotyped morphologic features. Nonetheless, efficiently inhibiting the processes that are commonly thought to cause RCD, such as the activation of executioner caspases in the course of apoptosis, does not exert true cytoprotective effects in the mammalian system, but simply alters the kinetics of cellular demise as it shifts its morphologic and biochemical correlates. Conversely, bona fide cytoprotection can be achieved by inhibiting the transduction of lethal signals in the early phases of the process, when adaptive responses are still operational. Thus, the mechanisms that truly execute RCD may be less understood, less inhibitable and perhaps more homogeneous than previously thought. Here, the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death formulates a set of recommendations to help scientists and researchers to discriminate between essential and accessory aspects of cell death

The role of facemasks and hand hygiene in the prevention of influenza transmission in households: results from a cluster randomised trial; Berlin, Germany, 2009-2011

Background: Previous controlled studies on the effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) - namely the use of facemasks and intensified hand hygiene - in preventing household transmission of influenza have not produced definitive results. We aimed to investigate efficacy, acceptability, and tolerability of NPI in households with influenza index patients. Methods: We conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial during the pandemic season 2009/10 and the ensuing influenza season 2010/11. We included households with an influenza positive index case in the absence of further respiratory illness within the preceding 14 days. Study arms were wearing a facemask and practicing intensified hand hygiene (MH group), wearing facemasks only (M group) and none of the two (control group). Main outcome measure was laboratory confirmed influenza infection in a household contact. We used daily questionnaires to examine adherence and tolerability of the interventions. Results: We recruited 84 households (30 control, 26 M and 28 MH households) with 82, 69 and 67 household contacts, respectively. In 2009/10 all 41 index cases had a influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 infection, in 2010/11 24 had an A (H1N1) pdm09 and 20 had a B infection. The total secondary attack rate was 16% (35/218). In intention-totreat analysis there was no statistically significant effect of the M and MH interventions on secondary infections. When analysing only households where intervention was implemented within 36 h after symptom onset of the index case, secondary infection in the pooled M and MH groups was significantly lower compared to the control group (adjusted odds ratio 0.16, 95% CI, 0.03-0.92). In a per-protocol analysis odds ratios were significantly reduced among participants of the M group (adjusted odds ratio, 0.30, 95% CI, 0.10-0.94). With the exception of MH index cases in 2010/11 adherence was good for adults and children, contacts and index cases. Conclusions: Results suggest that household transmission of influenza can be reduced by the use of NPI, such as facemasks and intensified hand hygiene, when implemented early and used diligently. Concerns about acceptability and tolerability of the interventions should not be a reason against their recommendation

Ctr2 Links Copper Homeostasis to Polysaccharide Capsule Formation and Phagocytosis Inhibition in the Human Fungal Pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans

Cryptococcus neoformans is a human opportunistic fungal pathogen responsible for ∼1/3 of HIV/AIDS deaths worldwide. This budding yeast expresses a polysaccharide capsule necessary for virulence. Capsule production inhibits phagocytosis by macrophages. Here we describe results that link copper homeostasis to capsule production and the inhibition of phagocytosis. Specifically, using Agrobacterium-mediated insertional mutagenesis, we identified an insertion in the promoter region of the putative copper transporter-encoding gene CTR2 that results in reduced expression of CTR2 and increased phagocytosis by murine RAW264.7 macrophages. The mutant also displayed sensitivity to copper starvation and defects in polysaccharide capsule production and melanization. These defects were all reversed by genetic correction of the promoter insertion by homologous targeting. Several melanization-defective mutants identified previously, those in the RIM20, RIM101, and VPS25 genes, also display sensitivity to copper starvation, reduced capsule production and increased phagocytosis. Together these results indicate a previously undescribed link between copper homeostasis to polysaccharide capsule production and phagocytosis inhibition in Cryptococcus neoformans