Visual Realism Assessment for Face-swap Videos

Deep-learning based face-swap videos, also known as deep fakes, are becoming more and more realistic and deceiving. The malicious usage of these face-swap videos has caused wide concerns. The research community has been focusing on the automatic detection of these fake videos, but the assessment of their visual realism, as perceived by human eyes, is still an unexplored dimension. Visual realism assessment, or VRA, is essential for assessing the potential impact that may be brought by a specific face-swap video, and it is also important as a quality assessment metric to compare different face-swap methods. In this paper, we make a small step towards this new VRA direction by building a benchmark for evaluating the effectiveness of different automatic VRA models, which range from using traditional hand-crafted features to different kinds of deep-learning features. The evaluations are based on a recent competition dataset named DFGC 2022, which contains 1400 diverse face-swap videos that are annotated with Mean Opinion Scores (MOS) on visual realism. Comprehensive experiment results using 11 models and 3 protocols are shown and discussed. We demonstrate the feasibility of devising effective VRA models for assessing face-swap videos and methods. The particular usefulness of existing deepfake detection features for VRA is also noted. The code can be found at https://github.com/XianyunSun/VRA.git.Comment: Accepted by ICIG 202

The Zn(II)2Cys6-Type Transcription Factor ADA-6 Regulates Conidiation, Sexual Development, and Oxidative Stress Response in Neurospora crassa

Conidiation and sexual development are critical for reproduction, dispersal and better-adapted survival in many filamentous fungi. The Neurospora crassa gene ada-6 encodes a Zn(II)2Cys6-type transcription factor, whose deletion resulted in reduced conidial production and female sterility. In this study, we confirmed the positive contribution of ada-6 to conidiation and sexual development by detailed phenotypic characterization of its deletion mutant and the complemented mutant. To understand the regulatory mechanisms of ADA-6 in conidiation and sexual development, transcriptomic profiles generated by RNA-seq from the Δada-6 mutant and wild type during conidiation and sexual development were compared. During conidial development, differential expressed genes (DEGs) between the Δada-6 mutant and wild type are mainly involved in oxidation-reduction process and single-organism metabolic process. Several conidiation related genes are positively regulated by ADA-6, including genes that positively regulate conidiation (fluffy and acon-3), and genes preferentially expressed during conidial development (eas, con-6, con-8, con-10, con-13, pcp-1, and NCU9357), as the expression of these genes were lower in the Δada-6 mutant compared to wild type during conidial development. Phenotypic observation of deletion mutants for other genes with unknown function down-regulated by ada-6 deletion revealed that deletion mutants for four genes (NCU00929, NCU05260, NCU00116, and NCU04813) produced less conidia than wild type. Deletion of ada-6 resulted in female sterility, which might be due to that ADA-6 affects oxidation-reduction process and transmembrane transport process, and positively regulates the transcription of pre-2, poi-2, and NCU05832, three key genes participating in sexual development. In both conidiation and the sexual development process, ADA-6 regulates the transcription of cat-3 and other genes participating in reactive oxygen species production according to RNA-seq data, indicating a role of ADA-6 in oxidative stress response. This was further confirmed by the results that deletion of ada-6 led to hypersensitivity to oxidants H2O2 and menadione. Together, these results proved that ADA-6, as a global regulator, plays a crucial role in conidiation, sexual development, and oxidative stress response of N. crassa

Abnormal Ergosterol Biosynthesis Activates Transcriptional Responses to Antifungal Azoles

Fungi transcriptionally upregulate expression of azole efflux pumps and ergosterol biosynthesis pathway genes when exposed to antifungal agents that target ergosterol biosynthesis. To date, these transcriptional responses have been shown to be dependent on the presence of the azoles and/or depletion of ergosterol. Using an inducible promoter to regulate Neurospora crassa erg11, which encodes the major azole target, sterol 14α-demethylase, we were able to demonstrate that the CDR4 azole efflux pump can be transcriptionally activated by ergosterol biosynthesis inhibition even in the absence of azoles. By analyzing ergosterol deficient mutants, we demonstrate that the transcriptional responses by cdr4 and, unexpectedly, genes encoding ergosterol biosynthesis enzymes (erg genes) that are responsive to azoles, are not dependent on ergosterol depletion. Nonetheless, deletion of erg2, which encodes C-8 sterol isomerase, also induced expression of cdr4. Deletion of erg2 also induced the expression of erg24, the gene encoding C-14 sterol reductase, but not other tested erg genes which were responsive to erg11 inactivation. This indicates that inhibition of specific steps of ergosterol biosynthesis can result in different transcriptional responses, which is further supported by our results obtained using different ergosterol biosynthesis inhibitors. Together with the sterol profiles, these results suggest that the transcriptional responses by cdr4 and erg genes are associated with accumulation of specific sterol intermediate(s). This was further supported by the fact that when the erg2 mutant was treated with ketoconazole, upstream inhibition overrode the effects by downstream inhibition on ergosterol biosynthesis pathway. Even though cdr4 expression is associated with the accumulation of sterol intermediates, intra- and extracellular sterol analysis by HPLC-MS indicated that the transcriptional induction of cdr4 did not result in efflux of the accumulated intermediate(s). This study demonstrates, by detailed genetic and chemical analysis, that transcriptional responses by a major efflux pump and genes of the ergosterol biosynthesis pathway to ergosterol biosynthesis inhibitors can be independent of the presence of the drugs and are linked with the accumulation of ergosterol intermediate(s)

Acoustic Shooting and Bounce Ray Method for Calculating Echoes of Complex Underwater Targets

The acoustic scattering characteristics of a target are of great significance to the design of underwater acoustic detection systems. With the improvement in underwater weapon detection ability, the precision and accuracy of underwater target echo characteristic simulations are required to be higher and higher. The traditional underwater target simulation based on bright spot can no longer meet the needs of an underwater acoustic detection system for targeting fine feature recognition. This paper proposes a calculation using the fine complex underwater target echo bounce beam line method, in addition to the establishment of a bandwidth signal time domain calculation model and the integral dimension reduction to accelerate the algorithm on the basis of thorough target subspace division, combined with the geometrical acoustics method (GA) and physical acoustics (PA) for the pipeline space beam propagation tracking and aperture sound field to solve and realize the acoustic scattering characteristic calculation of a complex underwater target. Finally, the proposed method was verified by the Benchmark standard submarine. The accuracy and computational efficiency of the PA acceleration method are given, and the integrity of the target information calculated by the method is verified by acoustic ISAR imaging analysis. The simulation results show that the pipeline method of bouncing an acoustic beam is suitable for the simulation of complex underwater, target-wide band fine echoes

Acoustic Shooting and Bounce Ray Method for Calculating Echoes of Complex Underwater Targets

The acoustic scattering characteristics of a target are of great significance to the design of underwater acoustic detection systems. With the improvement in underwater weapon detection ability, the precision and accuracy of underwater target echo characteristic simulations are required to be higher and higher. The traditional underwater target simulation based on bright spot can no longer meet the needs of an underwater acoustic detection system for targeting fine feature recognition. This paper proposes a calculation using the fine complex underwater target echo bounce beam line method, in addition to the establishment of a bandwidth signal time domain calculation model and the integral dimension reduction to accelerate the algorithm on the basis of thorough target subspace division, combined with the geometrical acoustics method (GA) and physical acoustics (PA) for the pipeline space beam propagation tracking and aperture sound field to solve and realize the acoustic scattering characteristic calculation of a complex underwater target. Finally, the proposed method was verified by the Benchmark standard submarine. The accuracy and computational efficiency of the PA acceleration method are given, and the integrity of the target information calculated by the method is verified by acoustic ISAR imaging analysis. The simulation results show that the pipeline method of bouncing an acoustic beam is suitable for the simulation of complex underwater, target-wide band fine echoes

GPU-Accelerated Target Strength Prediction Based on Multiresolution Shooting and Bouncing Ray Method

The application of the traditional planar acoustics method is limited due to the low accuracy when computing the echo characteristics of underwater targets. Based on the concept of the shooting and bouncing ray which considers multiple reflections on the basic of the geometrics optics principle, this paper presents a more efficient GPU-accelerated multiresolution grid algorithm in the shooting and bouncing ray method (SBR) to quickly predict the target strength value of complex underwater targets. The procedure of the virtual aperture plane generation, ray tracing, scattered sound field integral and subdividing the divergent ray tubes are all implemented on the GPU. Particularly, stackless KD-tree traversal is adopted to effectively improve the ray-tracing efficiency. Experiments on the rigid sphere, cylinder and corner reflector model verify the accuracy of GPU-based multiresolution SBR. Besides, the GPU-based SBR is more than 750 times faster than the CPU version because of its tremendous computing capability. Further, the proposed accelerated GPU-based multiresolution SBR improves runtime performance at least 2.4 times that of the single resolution GPU-based SBR

The complete mitochondrial genome of Batocera rubus Linnaeus, 1785 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)

Batocera rubus severely impacts on the health of banyan trees. In this study, the whole mitochondrial genome for B. rubus was found to be 16,158 bp with a GC content of 23.9%, including 39.1% A, 37.0% T, 14.8% C, and 9.1% G. This genome contains 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNAs, and two rRNAs. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that B. rubus is close to Batocera celebiana. This study provides valuable information that can help improve the classification and phylogeny of B. rubus and facilitate further evolutionary studies

The Hsp90 co-chaperones Sti1, Aha1, and P23 regulate adaptive responses to antifungal azoles

Heat Shock Protein 90 (Hsp90) is essential for tumor progression in humans and drug resistance in fungi. However, the roles of its many co-chaperones in antifungal resistance are unknown. In this study, by susceptibility test of Neurospora crassa mutants lacking each of 18 Hsp90/Calcineurin system member genes (including 8 Hsp90 co-chaperone genes) to antifungal drugs and other stresses, we demonstrate that the Hsp90 co-chaperones Sti1 (Hop1 in yeast), Aha1, and P23 (Sba1 in yeast) were required for the basal resistance to antifungal azoles and heat stress. Deletion of any of them resulted in hypersensitivity to azoles and heat. Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis showed that the toxic sterols eburicol and 14α-methyl-3,6-diol were significantly accumulated in the sti1 and p23 deletion mutants after ketoconazole treatment, which has been shown before to led to cell membrane stress. At the transcriptional level, Aha1, Sti1, and P23 positively regulate responses to ketoconazole stress by erg11 and erg6, key genes in the ergosterol biosynthetic pathway. Aha1, Sti1, and P23 are highly conserved in fungi, and sti1 and p23 deletion also increased the susceptibility to azoles in Fusarium verticillioides. These results indicate that Hsp90-cochaperones Aha1, Sti1, and P23 are critical for the basal azole resistance and could be potential targets for developing new antifungal agents