257 research outputs found
PipeNet: Selective Modal Pipeline of Fusion Network for Multi-Modal Face Anti-Spoofing
Face anti-spoofing has become an increasingly important and critical security
feature for authentication systems, due to rampant and easily launchable
presentation attacks. Addressing the shortage of multi-modal face dataset,
CASIA recently released the largest up-to-date CASIA-SURF Cross-ethnicity Face
Anti-spoofing(CeFA) dataset, covering 3 ethnicities, 3 modalities, 1607
subjects, and 2D plus 3D attack types in four protocols, and focusing on the
challenge of improving the generalization capability of face anti-spoofing in
cross-ethnicity and multi-modal continuous data. In this paper, we propose a
novel pipeline-based multi-stream CNN architecture called PipeNet for
multi-modal face anti-spoofing. Unlike previous works, Selective Modal Pipeline
(SMP) is designed to enable a customized pipeline for each data modality to
take full advantage of multi-modal data. Limited Frame Vote (LFV) is designed
to ensure stable and accurate prediction for video classification. The proposed
method wins the third place in the final ranking of Chalearn Multi-modal
Cross-ethnicity Face Anti-spoofing Recognition Challenge@CVPR2020. Our final
submission achieves the Average Classification Error Rate (ACER) of 2.21 with
Standard Deviation of 1.26 on the test set.Comment: Accepted to appear in CVPR2020 WM
Gene Expression Divergence and Evolutionary Analysis of the Drosomycin Gene Family in Drosophila melanogaster
Drosomycin (Drs) encoding an inducible 44-residue antifungal peptide is clustered
with six additional genes, Dro1, Dro2, Dro3, Dro4, Dro5, and Dro6, forming a
multigene family on the 3L chromosome arm in Drosophila melanogaster. To get
further insight into the regulation of each member of the drosomycin gene family,
here we investigated gene expression patterns of this family by either microbe-free
injury or microbial challenges using real time RT-PCR. The results indicated that
among the seven drosomycin genes, Drs, Dro2, Dro3, Dro4, and Dro5 showed
constitutive expressions. Three out of five, Dro2, Dro3, and Dro5, were able to be
upregulated by simple injury. Interestingly, Drs is an only gene strongly upregulated
when Drosophila was infected with microbes. In contrast to these five genes, Dro1
and Dro6 were not transcribed at all in either noninfected or infected flies.
Furthermore, by 5′ rapid amplification of cDNA ends, two transcription start sites
were identified in Drs and Dro2, and one in Dro3, Dro4, and Dro5. In addition, NF-κB
binding sites were found in promoter regions of Drs, Dro2, Dro3, and Dro5, indicating
the importance of NF-κB binding sites for the inducibility of drosomycin genes. Based
on the analyses of flanking sequences of each gene in D. melanogaster and
phylogenetic relationship of drosomycins in D. melanogaster species-group, we
concluded that gene duplications were involved in the formation of the drosomycin
gene family. The possible evolutionary fates of drosomycin genes were discussed
according to the combining analysis of gene expression pattern, gene structure, and
functional divergence of these genes
Comparison of gene expression profiles in Bacillus megaterium treated tobacco leaves using microarray
The MP agent, prepared from Bacillus megaterium isolated from the soil near tobacco fields, can improve metabolic products, and hence the aroma, of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) leaf. To explore genes regulating metabolic responses in tobacco leaf, we used microarrays to analyze differentially expressed genes in tobacco leaves subjected to various treatments. The expressed genes were classified into six groups based on their expression profile. In total, 753 genes were significantly differentially expressed between microorganism-treated and water-treated samples. Gene ontology (GO) analyses showed that most of these genes were involved in metabolic and cellular processes. Some upregulated genes were related to the plant defense response, such as NtMMP1 and NtACRE231. Some genes were involved in metabolism responses, such as NtDXS. Semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR analysis of NtMMP1 and quantitative RT-PCR analysis of NtDXS showed that their expression levels increased after MP agent treatment, confirming the microarray results. We evaluated NtMMP1 and NtDXS in terms of their associations with Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways. Phylogenetic analyses of NtMMP1, NtACRE231, and NtDXS revealed their relationships with homologs in other species. These microarray data increase our understanding of the mechanisms by which MP agent induces a metabolic response in tobacco leavesKey words: Nicotiana tabacum, Microarray, MP agent, plant defense response, aroma
Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of serine proteases and homologs in the silkworm Bombyx mori
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Serine proteases (SPs) and serine proteases homologs (SPHs) are a large group of proteolytic enzymes, with important roles in a variety of physiological processes, such as cell signalling, defense and development. Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of serine proteases and their homologs in the silkworm might provide valuable information about their biological functions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, 51 SP genes and 92 SPH genes were systematically identified in the genome of the silkworm <it>Bombyx mori</it>. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that six gene families have been amplified species-specifically in the silkworm, and the members of them showed chromosomal distribution of tandem repeats. Microarray analysis suggests that many silkworm-specific genes, such as members of SP_fam12, 13, 14 and 15, show expression patterns that are specific to tissues or developmental stages. The roles of SPs and SPHs in resisting pathogens were investigated in silkworms when they were infected by <it>Escherichia coli</it>, <it>Bacillus bombysepticus</it>, <it>Batrytis bassiana </it>and <it>B. mori </it><it>nucleopolyhedrovirus</it>, respectively. Microarray experiment and real-time quantitative RT-PCR showed that 18 SP or SPH genes were significantly up-regulated after pathogen induction, suggesting that SP and SPH genes might participate in pathogenic microorganism resistance in <it>B. mori</it>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Silkworm SP and SPH genes were identified. Comparative genomics showed that SP and SPH genes belong to a large family, whose members are generated mainly by tandem repeat evolution. We found that silkworm has species-specific SP and SPH genes. Phylogenetic and microarray analyses provide an overview of the silkworm SP and SPHs, and facilitate future functional studies on these enzymes.</p
The Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Attention, Negative Affect and Stress in Healthy Adults
A growing number of empirical studies have revealed that diaphragmatic breathing may trigger body relaxation responses and benefit both physical and mental health. However, the specific benefits of diaphragmatic breathing on mental health remain largely unknown. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of diaphragmatic breathing on cognition, affect, and cortisol responses to stress. Forty participants were randomly assigned to either a breathing intervention group (BIG) or a control group (CG). The BIG received intensive training for 20 sessions, implemented over 8 weeks, employing a real-time feedback device, and an average respiratory rate of 4 breaths/min, while the CG did not receive this treatment. All participants completed pre- and post-tests of sustained attention and affect. Additionally, pre-test and post-test salivary cortisol concentrations were determined in both groups. The findings suggested that the BIG showed a significant decrease in negative affect after intervention, compared to baseline. In the diaphragmatic breathing condition, there was a significant interaction effect of group by time on sustained attention, whereby the BIG showed significantly increased sustained attention after training, compared to baseline. There was a significant interaction effect of group and time in the diaphragmatic breathing condition on cortisol levels, whereby the BIG had a significantly lower cortisol level after training, while the CG showed no significant change in cortisol levels. In conclusion, diaphragmatic breathing could improve sustained attention, affect, and cortisol levels. This study provided evidence demonstrating the effect of diaphragmatic breathing, a mind-body practice, on mental function, from a health psychology approach, which has important implications for health promotion in healthy individuals
The combined transduction of copper, zinc-superoxide dismutase and catalase mediated by cell-penetrating peptide, PEP-1, to protect myocardium from ischemia-reperfusion injury
Identification of optimum scopes of environmental factors for snails using spatial analysis techniques in Dongting Lake Region, China
BACKGROUND: Owing to the harmfulness and seriousness of Schistosomiasis japonica in China, the control and prevention of S. japonica transmission are imperative. As the unique intermediate host of this disease, Oncomelania hupensis plays an important role in the transmission. It has been reported that the snail population in Qiangliang Lake district, Dongting Lake Region has been naturally declining and is slowly becoming extinct. Considering the changes of environmental factors that may cause this phenomenon, we try to explore the relationship between circumstance elements and snails, and then search for the possible optimum scopes of environmental factors for snails. METHODS: Moisture content of soil, pH, temperature of soil and elevation were collected by corresponding apparatus in the study sites. The LISA statistic and GWR model were used to analyze the association between factors and mean snail density, and the values in high-high clustered areas and low-low clustered areas were extracted to find out the possible optimum ranges of these elements for snails. RESULTS: A total of 8,589 snail specimens were collected from 397 sampling sites in the study field. Besides the mean snail density, three environmental factors including water content, pH and temperature had high spatial autocorrelation. The spatial clustering suggested that the possible optimum scopes of moisture content, pH, temperature of the soil and elevation were 58.70 to 68.93%, 6.80 to 7.80, 22.73 to 24.23°C and 23.50 to 25.97 m, respectively. Moreover, the GWR model showed that the possible optimum ranges of these four factors were 36.58 to 61.08%, 6.541 to 6.89, 24.30 to 25.70°C and 23.50 to 29.44 m, respectively. CONCLUSION: The results indicated the association between snails and environmental factors was not linear but U-shaped. Considering the results of two analysis methods, the possible optimum scopes of moisture content, pH, temperature of the soil and elevation were 58.70% to 68.93%, 6.6 to 7.0, 22.73°C to 24.23°C, and 23.5 m to 26.0 m, respectively. The findings in this research will help in making an effective strategy to control snails and provide a method to analyze other factors
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