141 research outputs found
HFORD: High-Fidelity and Occlusion-Robust De-identification for Face Privacy Protection
With the popularity of smart devices and the development of computer vision
technology, concerns about face privacy protection are growing. The face
de-identification technique is a practical way to solve the identity protection
problem. The existing facial de-identification methods have revealed several
problems, including the impact on the realism of anonymized results when faced
with occlusions and the inability to maintain identity-irrelevant details in
anonymized results. We present a High-Fidelity and Occlusion-Robust
De-identification (HFORD) method to deal with these issues. This approach can
disentangle identities and attributes while preserving image-specific details
such as background, facial features (e.g., wrinkles), and lighting, even in
occluded scenes. To disentangle the latent codes in the GAN inversion space, we
introduce an Identity Disentanglement Module (IDM). This module selects the
latent codes that are closely related to the identity. It further separates the
latent codes into identity-related codes and attribute-related codes, enabling
the network to preserve attributes while only modifying the identity. To ensure
the preservation of image details and enhance the network's robustness to
occlusions, we propose an Attribute Retention Module (ARM). This module
adaptively preserves identity-irrelevant details and facial occlusions and
blends them into the generated results in a modulated manner. Extensive
experiments show that our method has higher quality, better detail fidelity,
and stronger occlusion robustness than other face de-identification methods
Diff-Privacy: Diffusion-based Face Privacy Protection
Privacy protection has become a top priority as the proliferation of AI
techniques has led to widespread collection and misuse of personal data.
Anonymization and visual identity information hiding are two important facial
privacy protection tasks that aim to remove identification characteristics from
facial images at the human perception level. However, they have a significant
difference in that the former aims to prevent the machine from recognizing
correctly, while the latter needs to ensure the accuracy of machine
recognition. Therefore, it is difficult to train a model to complete these two
tasks simultaneously. In this paper, we unify the task of anonymization and
visual identity information hiding and propose a novel face privacy protection
method based on diffusion models, dubbed Diff-Privacy. Specifically, we train
our proposed multi-scale image inversion module (MSI) to obtain a set of SDM
format conditional embeddings of the original image. Based on the conditional
embeddings, we design corresponding embedding scheduling strategies and
construct different energy functions during the denoising process to achieve
anonymization and visual identity information hiding. Extensive experiments
have been conducted to validate the effectiveness of our proposed framework in
protecting facial privacy.Comment: 17page
CatVersion: Concatenating Embeddings for Diffusion-Based Text-to-Image Personalization
We propose CatVersion, an inversion-based method that learns the personalized
concept through a handful of examples. Subsequently, users can utilize text
prompts to generate images that embody the personalized concept, thereby
achieving text-to-image personalization. In contrast to existing approaches
that emphasize word embedding learning or parameter fine-tuning for the
diffusion model, which potentially causes concept dilution or overfitting, our
method concatenates embeddings on the feature-dense space of the text encoder
in the diffusion model to learn the gap between the personalized concept and
its base class, aiming to maximize the preservation of prior knowledge in
diffusion models while restoring the personalized concepts. To this end, we
first dissect the text encoder's integration in the image generation process to
identify the feature-dense space of the encoder. Afterward, we concatenate
embeddings on the Keys and Values in this space to learn the gap between the
personalized concept and its base class. In this way, the concatenated
embeddings ultimately manifest as a residual on the original attention output.
To more accurately and unbiasedly quantify the results of personalized image
generation, we improve the CLIP image alignment score based on masks.
Qualitatively and quantitatively, CatVersion helps to restore personalization
concepts more faithfully and enables more robust editing.Comment: For the project page, please visit
https://royzhao926.github.io/CatVersion-page
All-to-key Attention for Arbitrary Style Transfer
Attention-based arbitrary style transfer studies have shown promising
performance in synthesizing vivid local style details. They typically use the
all-to-all attention mechanism -- each position of content features is fully
matched to all positions of style features. However, all-to-all attention tends
to generate distorted style patterns and has quadratic complexity, limiting the
effectiveness and efficiency of arbitrary style transfer. In this paper, we
propose a novel all-to-key attention mechanism -- each position of content
features is matched to stable key positions of style features -- that is more
in line with the characteristics of style transfer. Specifically, it integrates
two newly proposed attention forms: distributed and progressive attention.
Distributed attention assigns attention to key style representations that
depict the style distribution of local regions; Progressive attention pays
attention from coarse-grained regions to fine-grained key positions. The
resultant module, dubbed StyA2K, shows extraordinary performance in preserving
the semantic structure and rendering consistent style patterns. Qualitative and
quantitative comparisons with state-of-the-art methods demonstrate the superior
performance of our approach
Plasma-assisted conversion of CO2 in a dielectric barrier discharge reactor: understanding the effect of packing materials
Plasma-catalytic removal of formaldehyde over Cu-Ce catalysts in a dielectric barrier discharge reactor
Post-plasma catalytic removal of methanol over Mn-Ce catalysts in an atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge
Ultrafast Spin-To-Charge Conversion at the Surface of Topological Insulator Thin Films
Strong spin-orbit coupling, resulting in the formation of
spin-momentum-locked surface states, endows topological insulators with
superior spin-to-charge conversion characteristics, though the dynamics that
govern it have remained elusive. Here, we present an all-optical method that
enables unprecedented tracking of the ultrafast dynamics of spin-to-charge
conversion in a prototypical topological insulator BiSe/ferromagnetic
Co heterostructure, down to the sub-picosecond timescale. Compared to pure
BiSe or Co, we observe a giant terahertz emission in the
heterostructure than originates from spin-to-charge conversion, in which the
topological surface states play a crucial role. We identify a 0.12-picosecond
timescale that sets a technological speed limit of spin-to-charge conversion
processes in topological insulators. In addition, we show that the
spin-to-charge conversion efficiency is temperature independent in BiSe
as expected from the nature of the surface states, paving the way for designing
next-generation high-speed opto-spintronic devices based on topological
insulators at room temperature.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure
Plasma Oxidation of H2S over Non-stoichiometric LaxMnO3 Perovskite Catalysts in a Dielectric Barrier Discharge Reactor
In this work, plasma-catalytic removal of H2S over LaxMnO3 (x = 0.90, 0.95, 1, 1.05 and 1.10) has been studied in a coaxial dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor. The non-stoichiometric effect of the LaxMnO3 catalysts on the removal of H2S and sulfur balance in the plasma-catalytic process has been investigated as a function of specific energy density (SED). The integration of the plasma with the LaxMnO3 catalysts significantly enhanced the reaction performance compared to the process using plasma alone. The highest H2S removal of 96.4% and sulfur balance of 90.5% were achieved over the La0.90MnO3 catalyst, while the major products included SO2 and SO3. The missing sulfur could be ascribed to the sulfur deposited on the catalyst surfaces. The non-stoichiometric LaxMnO3 catalyst exhibited larger specific surface areas and smaller crystallite sizes compared to the LaMnO3 catalyst. The non-stoichiometric effect changed their redox properties as the decreased La/Mn ratio favored the transformation of Mn3+ to Mn4+, which contributed to the generation of oxygen vacancies on the catalyst surfaces. The XPS and H2-TPR results confirmed that the Mn-rich catalysts showed the higher relative concentration of surface adsorbed oxygen (Oads) and lower reduction temperature compared to LaMnO3 catalyst. The reaction performance of the plasma-catalytic oxidation of H2S is closely related to the relative concentration of Oads formed on the catalyst surfaces and the reducibility of the catalysts
Alternative splicing event associated with immunological features in bladder cancer
Bladder cancer (BLCA) is the most prevalent urinary tumor with few treatments. Alternative splicing (AS) is closely related to tumor development and tumor immune microenvironment. However, the comprehensive analysis of AS and prognosis and immunological features in BLCA is still lacking. In this study, we downloaded RNA-Seq data and clinical information from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, and AS events were acquired from the TCGA Splice-seq. A total of eight prognostic AS events (C19orf57|47943|ES, ANK3|11845|AP, AK9|77203|AT, GRIK2|77096|AT, DYM|45472|ES, PTGER3|3415|AT, ACTG1|44120|RI, and TRMU|62711|AA) were identified by univariate analysis and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis to construct a risk score model. The Kaplan–Meier analysis revealed that the high-risk group had a worse prognosis compared with the low-risk group. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves (AUCs) for this risk score model in 1, 3, and 5 years were 0.698, 0.742, and 0.772, respectively. One of the prognostic AS event-related genes, TRMU, was differentially expressed between tumor and normal tissues in BLCA. The single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) and CIBERSORT algorithm showed that both the risk score model and TRMU were significantly associated with tumor immune microenvironment and immune status (immune cells, immune-related pathway, and immune checkpoint) in BLCA patients. The TIMER database confirmed the relationship between the expression of TRMU and immune cells and checkpoint genes. Furthermore, Cytoscape software 3.8.0 was used to construct the regulatory network between AS and splicing factors (SFs). Our study demonstrated that AS events were powerful biomarkers to predict the prognosis and immune status in BLCA, which may be potential therapeutic targets in BLCA
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