Beauty3DFaceNet:Deep geometry and texture fusion for 3D facial attractiveness prediction

We present Beauty3DFaceNet, the first deep convolutional neural network to predict attractiveness on 3D faces with both geometry and texture information. The proposed network can learn discriminative and complementary 2D and 3D facial features, allowing accurate attractiveness prediction for 3D faces. The main component of our network is a fusion module that fuses geometric features and texture features. We further employ a novel sampling strategy for our network based on a prior of facial landmarks, which improves the performance of learning aesthetic features from a face point cloud. Comparing to previous work, our approach takes full advantage of 3D geometry and 2D texture and does not rely on handcrafted features based on highly accurate facial characteristics such as feature points. To facilitate 3D facial attractiveness research, we also construct the first 3D face dataset ShadowFace3D, which contains 6,000 high-quality 3D faces with attractiveness labeled by human annotators. Extensive quantitative and qualitative evaluations show that Beauty3DFaceNet achieves a significant correlation with the average human ratings. This validates that a deep learning network can effectively learn and predict 3D facial attractiveness.</p

Flexible thin-film acoustic wave devices with off-axis bending characteristics for multisensing applications

Flexible surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices have recently attracted tremendous attention for their widespread applications in sensing and microfluidics. However, for these applications, the SAW devices often need to be bent into off-axis deformations between the acoustic-wave propagation direction and bending direction. Currently there are few studies on this topic, and the bending mechanisms under off-axis bending deformations have remained unexplored for multi-sensing applications. Herein, we fabricated aluminum nitride (AlN) flexible SAW devices by using high quality AlN films deposited on flexible glass substrates and systematically investigated their complex deformation behaviors. A theoretical model was firstly developed using coupling wave equations and boundary condition method to analyze the device’s characteristics with bending and off-axis deformation under elastic strains. The relationships between frequency shifts of the SAW device with bending strain and off-axis angle were obtained which showed the identical results with those from the theoretical calculations. Finally, we performed proof-of-concept demonstrations of multi-sensing applications by monitoring human wrist movements at various off-axis angles and detecting UV light intensities on a curved surface, thus paving the ways for versatile flexible electronics applications

Salidroside alleviates UVB-induced skin damage by inhibiting keratinocytes pyroptosis via the AQP3/ROS/GSDMD-N signaling pathway

Background: Salidroside (SAL) is the main component of Renus Rhodiola, Studies have shown that it has anti-inflammation, reduces oxidative stress and anti-aging effect. However, its efficacy and mechanism of protecting skin barrier function have not been studied. Purpose: This study demonstrated that whether and how SAL alleviate UVB-induced skin damage and repair skin barrier. Materials and methods: UVB was used to induce photodamage in HaCaT cell line in vitro. MTT assay was used to detect the protective effect of SAL on UVB induced light damage of HaCaT cells, flow cytometry was used to detect the apoptosis and ROS level of HaCaT cells, the related kits were used to detect the relevant indicators of oxidative stress in cells, WB was used to detect protein expression in cells, and AQP3 in HaCaT cell line was overexpressed for further exploration of the way SAL plays its role. BALB/c mice with back hair removed were treated with SAL for 7 days, and the mice were irradiated with UVB every day from the third day. GPSkin was used to detect Trans Epidermal Water Loss (TEWL), hydration and barrier score of mouse skin. HE staining was used to observe the pathological changes of skin lesion, IHC was used to detect the expression of AQP3 and NLRP3, and WB was used to detect the expression of proteins related to pyroptosis. Results: SAL significantly alleviates UVB-induced photodamage by inhibiting the activation of AQP3/ROS/GSDMD-N in damaged skin tissues and keratinocytes, both in vitro and in vivo. This leads to a reduction in skin lesions and levels of IL-18 and IL-1β in cellular supernatants, thereby relieving UVB-induced oxidative stress and downregulation of necroptosis-related proteins (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Thus, our studies demonstrate that SAL can reduce UVB-induced photo damage by down regulating the expression of AQP3 to reduce the transport of H2O2 into keratinocytes. Thus attenuate oxidative stress and NLRP3 dependent cell pyroptosis. Therefore, SAL, could serve as a potential AQP3 inhibitor to alleviate skin photo damage

A NRF2 inhibitor selectively sensitizes KEAP1 mutant tumor cells to cisplatin and gefitinib by restoring NRF2-inhibitory function of KEAP1 mutants

Summary: NRF2 (nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2) is a master regulator of protective responses in healthy tissues. However, when it is active in tumor cells, it can result in drug resistance. KEAP1, the endogenous NRF2 inhibitor, binds NRF2 and redirects it to proteasomal degradation, so the KEAP1/NRF2 interaction is critical for maintaining NRF2 at a basal level. A number of clinically relevant KEAP1 mutations were shown to disrupt this critical KEAP1/NRF2 interaction, leading to elevated NRF2 levels and drug resistance. Here, we describe a small-molecule NRF2 inhibitor, R16, that selectively binds KEAP1 mutants and restores their NRF2-inhibitory function by repairing the disrupted KEAP1/NRF2 interactions. R16 substantially sensitizes KEAP1-mutated tumor cells to cisplatin and gefitinib, but does not do so for wild-type KEAP1 cells, and sensitizes KEAP1 G333C-mutated xenograft to cisplatin. We developed a BRET2-based biosensor system to detect the KEAP1/NRF2 interaction and classify KEAP1 mutations. This strategy would identify drug-resistant KEAP1 somatic mutations in clinical molecular profiling of tumors

Table_2_Comparative transcriptomics analyses of chemosensory genes of antenna in male red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii.XLSX

The red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, is a globally invasive species and has caused huge damage to aquaculture, biodiversity, and ecology worldwide. Antenna-expressed receptors are important for P. clarkii to detect chemosensory cues for mate attraction. In this study, we tested the behavior of male P. clarkii to the conditioned water from female P. clarkii during the mating and non-mating periods, and performed RNA sequencing to investigate the chemosensory-related genes of the antenna of male P. clarkii. The results of the behavioral assay have shown that for the female-conditioned water, male P. clarkii within the mating period can be significantly attracted, but not during the non-mating period. This suggested that the expressions of chemosensory-related genes in the antenna of male P. clarkii may change significantly with mating seasonal variation. Antenna transcriptomes found that a total of 59,218 unigenes with an average length of 1,056.41 bp, and 4,889 differentially expressed unigenes (DEGs), among which 2,128 were upregulated, while 2,761 were downregulated were obtained. A total of 12 upregulated and nine downregulated DEGs were associated with chemical reception, including four ionotropic receptors (IRs) or ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs), eight G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), five transient receptor potential channels (TRP channels), one sodium–calcium exchanger, one isomerase, and two uncharacterized proteins (chemosensory proteins-like, CSPs). CSPs were preliminarily classified as pheromone receptors in the antenna of male P. clarkii. Furthermore, the calcium transduction-related pathways may play an important role in the sex pheromone reception of the male P. clarkii’s antenna. The results of quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-qPCR) showed that the trends of expression of eight selected unigenes were consistent with RNA-Seq results. Our results provide more comprehensive data for chemical communication mechanisms after P. clarkii enter the mating period and eventually would develop better control strategies in further.</p

Data_Sheet_1_Comparative transcriptomics analyses of chemosensory genes of antenna in male red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii.docx

The red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, is a globally invasive species and has caused huge damage to aquaculture, biodiversity, and ecology worldwide. Antenna-expressed receptors are important for P. clarkii to detect chemosensory cues for mate attraction. In this study, we tested the behavior of male P. clarkii to the conditioned water from female P. clarkii during the mating and non-mating periods, and performed RNA sequencing to investigate the chemosensory-related genes of the antenna of male P. clarkii. The results of the behavioral assay have shown that for the female-conditioned water, male P. clarkii within the mating period can be significantly attracted, but not during the non-mating period. This suggested that the expressions of chemosensory-related genes in the antenna of male P. clarkii may change significantly with mating seasonal variation. Antenna transcriptomes found that a total of 59,218 unigenes with an average length of 1,056.41 bp, and 4,889 differentially expressed unigenes (DEGs), among which 2,128 were upregulated, while 2,761 were downregulated were obtained. A total of 12 upregulated and nine downregulated DEGs were associated with chemical reception, including four ionotropic receptors (IRs) or ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs), eight G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), five transient receptor potential channels (TRP channels), one sodium–calcium exchanger, one isomerase, and two uncharacterized proteins (chemosensory proteins-like, CSPs). CSPs were preliminarily classified as pheromone receptors in the antenna of male P. clarkii. Furthermore, the calcium transduction-related pathways may play an important role in the sex pheromone reception of the male P. clarkii’s antenna. The results of quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-qPCR) showed that the trends of expression of eight selected unigenes were consistent with RNA-Seq results. Our results provide more comprehensive data for chemical communication mechanisms after P. clarkii enter the mating period and eventually would develop better control strategies in further.</p