MyPortrait: Morphable Prior-Guided Personalized Portrait Generation

Generating realistic talking faces is an interesting and long-standing topic in the field of computer vision. Although significant progress has been made, it is still challenging to generate high-quality dynamic faces with personalized details. This is mainly due to the inability of the general model to represent personalized details and the generalization problem to unseen controllable parameters. In this work, we propose Myportrait, a simple, general, and flexible framework for neural portrait generation. We incorporate personalized prior in a monocular video and morphable prior in 3D face morphable space for generating personalized details under novel controllable parameters. Our proposed framework supports both video-driven and audio-driven face animation given a monocular video of a single person. Distinguished by whether the test data is sent to training or not, our method provides a real-time online version and a high-quality offline version. Comprehensive experiments in various metrics demonstrate the superior performance of our method over the state-of-the-art methods. The code will be publicly available

Association between triglyceride glucose index and H-type hypertension in postmenopausal women

BackgroundRecent studies have reported better predictive performance of triglyceride glucose (TyG) index for cardiovascular events in women, however, whether this association persists in postmenopausal women is inconclusive. We investigated the association between TyG index and H-type hypertension (HHT) in postmenopausal women.Methods1,301 eligible women with hypertension were included in this cross-sectional study. Concomitant homocysteine levels >10 μmol/L were defined as H-type hypertension. The TyG index was calculated as ln [triglycerides (mg/dl) × fasting glucose (mg/dl)/2]. Multivariable logistic regression models and restricted cubic spline models were used to assess the association between TyG index and H-type hypertension in postmenopausal women, and subgroup analyses were performed for potential confounders.ResultsOf the 1,301 hypertensive patients, 634 (48.7%) participants had H-type hypertension. In each adjusted model, TyG index was significantly associated with the risk of H-type hypertension. each 1-unit increase in TyG index was associated with an increased risk of H-type hypertension in all participants (OR = 1.6; 95% CI, 1.3–2.0; P < 0.001), and there was a linear relationship between TyG index and H-type hypertension (P for linear trend < 0.001).ConclusionTyG index is positively associated with H-type hypertension in postmenopausal women, suggesting that TyG index may be a promising marker for H-type hypertension. By controlling lipid levels and blood glucose levels, it may help prevent H-type hypertension in postmenopausal women

Association between body fat percentage and H-type hypertension in postmenopausal women

BackgroundPrevious studies have explored the relationship between body fat percentage (BFP) and hypertension or homocysteine. However, evidence on the constancy of the association remains inconclusive in postmenopausal women. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between BFP and H-type hypertension in postmenopausal women.MethodsThis cross-sectional study included 1,597 eligible female patients with hypertension. Homocysteine levels ≥10 mmol/L were defined as H-type hypertension. BFP was calculated by measuring patients' physical parameters. Subjects were divided into 4 groups according to quartiles of BFP (Q1: 33.4% or lower, Q2: 33.4–36.1%, Q3: 36.1–39.1%, Q4: >39.1%). We used restricted cubic spline regression models and logistic regression analysis to assess the relationship between BFP and H-type hypertension. Additional subgroup analysis was performed for this study.ResultsAmong 1,597 hypertensive patients, 955 (59.8%) participants had H-type hypertension. There were significant differences between the two groups in age, BMI, educational background, marital status, exercise status, drinking history, WC, TG, LDL, Scr, BUN, and eGFR (P < 0.05). The prevalence of H-type hypertension in the Q1 to Q4 groups was 24.9, 25.1, 24.9, and 25.1%, respectively. After adjusting for relevant factors, we found that the risk of H-type hypertension in the Q4 group had a significantly higher than the Q1 group (OR = 3.2, 95% CI: 1.3–7.5).ConclusionBFP was positively associated with the risk of H-type hypertension in postmenopausal women. Postmenopausal women should control body fat to prevent hypertension

Disturbance observer design for nonlinear systems represented by input-output models

A new approach to the design of nonlinear disturbance observers for a class of nonlinear systems described by inputoutput differential equations is presented in this paper. In contrast with established forms of nonlinear disturbance observers, the most important feature of this new type of disturbance observer is that only measurement of the output variable is required, rather than the state variables. An inverse simulation model is first constructed based on knowledge of the structure and parameters of a conventional model of the system. The disturbance can then be estimated by comparing the output of the inverse model and the input of the original nonlinear system. Mathematical analysis demonstrates the convergence of this new form of nonlinear disturbance observer. The approach has been applied to disturbance estimation for a linear system and a new form of linear disturbance observer has been developed. The differences between the proposed linear disturbance observer and the conventional form of frequency-domain disturbance observer are discussed through a numerical example. Finally, the nonlinear disturbance observer design method is illustrated through an application involving a simulation of a jacketed continuous stirred tank reactor syste

NEW LATE JURASSIC PALEOMAGNETIC RESULTS FROM SHARILYN FORMATION, SOUTHERN MONGOLIA, AMURIA BLOCK, AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR THE TECTONIC EVOLUTION OF THE MONGOL–OKHOTSK SUTURE

The Amuria block occupies the eastern part of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt between the Siberia craton and the North China block (NCB) and bears important information to understand the evolution of the MongolOkhotsk suture and the amalgamation of East Asia. However, the paleomagnetic database of Amuria remains very poor.The Amuria block occupies the eastern part of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt between the Siberia craton and the North China block (NCB) and bears important information to understand the evolution of the MongolOkhotsk suture and the amalgamation of East Asia

Direct yaw-moment control of electric vehicles based on adaptive sliding mode

The direct yaw-moment control (DYC) system consisting of an upper controller and a lower controller is developed on the basis of sliding mode theory and adaptive control technique. First, the two-degree of freedom (2-DOF) model is utilized to calculate the ideal yaw rate. Then, the seven-degree of freedom (7-DOF) electric vehicle model is given to design the upper controller by employing first-order sliding mode (FOSM) method, which is constructed to guarantee the actual yaw rate to approach the ideal value and gain the additional yaw moment. On this basis, an adaptive first-order sliding mode (AFOSM) controller is designed to enhance the system robustness against probable modelling error and parametric uncertainties. In order to mitigate the chattering issue present in the FOSM controller, a novel adaptive super-twisting sliding mode (ASTSM) controller is proposed for the design of DYC. Furthermore, the lower controller converting the additional yaw moment into driving or braking torque acting on each wheel is also developed. Finally, The simulation results indicate that the proposed DYC system can improve the electric vehicle driving stability effectively

Mitochondrial GTP metabolism controls reproductive aging in C. elegans

Healthy mitochondria are critical for reproduction. During aging, both reproductive fitness and mitochondrial homeostasis decline. Mitochondrial metabolism and dynamics are key factors in supporting mitochondrial homeostasis. However, how they are coupled to control reproductive health remains unclear. We report that mitochondrial GTP (mtGTP) metabolism acts through mitochondrial dynamics factors to regulate reproductive aging. We discovered that germline-only inactivation of GTP-but not ATP-specific succinyl-CoA synthetase (SCS) promotes reproductive longevity in Caenorhabditis elegans. We further identified an age-associated increase in mitochondrial clustering surrounding oocyte nuclei, which is attenuated by GTP-specific SCS inactivation. Germline-only induction of mitochondrial fission factors sufficiently promotes mitochondrial dispersion and reproductive longevity. Moreover, we discovered that bacterial inputs affect mtGTP levels and dynamics factors to modulate reproductive aging. These results demonstrate the significance of mtGTP metabolism in regulating oocyte mitochondrial homeostasis and reproductive longevity and identify mitochondrial fission induction as an effective strategy to improve reproductive health

Taking the pulse of COVID-19: A spatiotemporal perspective

The sudden outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) swept across the world in early 2020, triggering the lockdowns of several billion people across many countries, including China, Spain, India, the U.K., Italy, France, Germany, and most states of the U.S. The transmission of the virus accelerated rapidly with the most confirmed cases in the U.S., and New York City became an epicenter of the pandemic by the end of March. In response to this national and global emergency, the NSF Spatiotemporal Innovation Center brought together a taskforce of international researchers and assembled implemented strategies to rapidly respond to this crisis, for supporting research, saving lives, and protecting the health of global citizens. This perspective paper presents our collective view on the global health emergency and our effort in collecting, analyzing, and sharing relevant data on global policy and government responses, geospatial indicators of the outbreak and evolving forecasts; in developing research capabilities and mitigation measures with global scientists, promoting collaborative research on outbreak dynamics, and reflecting on the dynamic responses from human societies.Comment: 27 pages, 18 figures. International Journal of Digital Earth (2020

Global stabilisation of a class of generalised cascaded systems by homogeneous method

This paper considers the problem of global stabilisation of a class of generalised cascaded systems. By using the extended adding a power integrator technique, a global controller is first constructed for the driving subsystem. Then based on the homogeneous properties and polynomial assumption, it is shown that the stabilisation of the driving subsystem implies the stabilisation of the overall cascaded system. Meanwhile, by properly choosing some control parameters, the global finite-time stability of the closed-loop cascaded system is also established. The proposed control method has several new features. First, the nonlinear cascaded systems considered in the paper are more general than the conventional ones, since the powers in the nominal part of the driving subsystem are not required to be restricted to ratios of positive odd numbers. Second, the proposed method has some flexible parameters which provide the possibility for designing continuously differentiable controllers for cascaded systems, while the existing designed controllers for such kind of cascaded systems are only continuous. Third, the homogenous and polynomial conditions adopted for the driven subsystem are easier to verify when compared with the matching conditions that are widely used previously. Furthermore, the efficiency of the proposed control method is validated by its application to finite-time tracking control of non-holonomic wheeled mobile robot

Nonsmooth attitude stabilization of a flexible spacecraft

A flexible spacecraft is a kind of complex systems consisting of rigid bodies and flexible appendages. The attitude maneuvering or external disturbances will unavoidably lead to a continuous vibration of flexible appendages. It is known that the finite-time control technique offers better convergence and disturbance rejection properties. To achieve the high-accuracy attitude stabilization, a nonsmooth attitude-stabilizing control strategy based on the finite-time control technique is investigated for flexible spacecrafts in this paper. The rigorous mathematical stability analysis of the overall closed-loop system is made by means of cascaded systems theory. The novelty of the paper is that the relation between the convergence region of states and the control parameters can be obtained, which indicates that the steady-state error can be preestimated when the control parameters are determined. Simulation results show that not only can the attitude be stabilized precisely, but the elastic vibration of flexible appendages can be suppressed effectively as well