A Deeper Analysis of Volumetric Relightable Faces.

Portrait viewpoint and illumination editing is an important problem with several applications in VR/AR, movies, and photography. Comprehensive knowledge of geometry and illumination is critical for obtaining photorealistic results. Current methods are unable to explicitly model in 3D while handling both viewpoint and illumination editing from a single image. In this paper, we propose VoRF, a novel approach that can take even a single portrait image as input and relight human heads under novel illuminations that can be viewed from arbitrary viewpoints. VoRF represents a human head as a continuous volumetric field and learns a prior model of human heads using a coordinate-based MLP with individual latent spaces for identity and illumination. The prior model is learned in an auto-decoder manner over a diverse class of head shapes and appearances, allowing VoRF to generalize to novel test identities from a single input image. Additionally, VoRF has a reflectance MLP that uses the intermediate features of the prior model for rendering One-Light-at-A-Time (OLAT) images under novel views. We synthesize novel illuminations by combining these OLAT images with target environment maps. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations demonstrate the effectiveness of VoRF for relighting and novel view synthesis, even when applied to unseen subjects under uncontrolled illumination. This work is an extension of Rao et al. (VoRF: Volumetric Relightable Faces 2022). We provide extensive evaluation and ablative studies of our model and also provide an application, where any face can be relighted using textual input.

Casson nanoliquid film flow over an unsteady moving surface with time-varying stretching velocity.

Present study explains about unsteady Casson nanoliquid film flow over a surface moving with velocity [Formula: see text]. The governing momentum equation is reduced to ODE by using corresponding similarity transformation, which is then tackled by employing numerical technique. The problem is analysed for both two-dimensional film flow and axisymmetric film flow. The exact solution is derived which satisfies the governing equation. It is noted that solution exists only for a specified scale of the moving surface parameter [Formula: see text]. ie., [Formula: see text] for two-dimensional flow and [Formula: see text] for axisymmetric flow. The velocity increases first and reaches the maximum velocity and then decreases to the boundary condition. Streamlines are also analysed for both axisymmetric and two-dimensional flow patterns by considering the stretching ([Formula: see text]) and shrinking wall conditions ([Formula: see text]). Study has been made for large values of wall moving parameter [Formula: see text]. The aim of this investigation is to analyse the Casson nanoliquid film flow which finds applications in industries like coating of sheet or wire, laboratories, painting, many more.

Hydroxyapatite Reinforced Polyvinyl Alcohol/Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone Based Hydrogel for Cartilage Replacement.

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone (PVP) hydrogels are desirable biomaterials for soft tissue repair and replacement. However, the bio-inertness and poor cell adhesive potency of the PVA and PVP hinder the wide range of biomedical applications. In the present work, PVA and PVP were blended with a one-dimensional hydroxyapatite nanorod (HNr), and PVA/PVP/HNr composite hydrogel was synthesized by the freeze-thaw process. The developed hydrogels were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The bio-ceramic nanohydroxyapatite content was optimized, and it was found that reinforcement improves mechanical strength as well as bioactivity. The compression strength values are 2.47 ± 0.73 MPa for the composite having 2 wt% of nanohydroxyapatite. The storage modulus was much higher than the loss modulus, which signifies the elastic dominancy similar to cartilage. Besides, the antimicrobial activity of nanohydroxyapatite reinforced PVA hydrogel towards bacterial species, Escherichia coli (E. Coli), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) was satisfactory, and the in vitro biocompatibility response towards Human Mesenchymal stem cells(hMSC) after 72 h of culture confirms nanohydroxyapatite reinforced PVA/PVP hydrogels are the promising alternatives for next-generation cartilage substitutes.

A study of self-perception and communication success as perceived by adolescents with cochlear implants and their significant others.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this prospective, cross-sectional study were to compare self-perception and communication-success ratings of adolescents with cochlear implant (AWCI) and their caregivers (C-AWCI) and to explore associations with age at CI, implant age, and chronological age. METHOD: Fourteen CI centers across India participated. The Think About it Quiz (TAIQ), Self Assessment of Communication-Adolescent (SAC-A), and Significant Other Assessment of Communication-Adolescent (SOAC-A) were translated into five languages. Data were collected from 173 AWCI aged 10;0-19;6 years and an associated caregiver for each participant. RESULTS: On the TAIQ, self-ratings by AWCI were significantly lower than the ratings by C-AWCI. Peer acceptance correlated with athletic competence for both groups. For the SAC-A versus SOAC-A, there was no significant difference between AWCI and C-AWCI ratings. Except for a negative correlation between peer-acceptance and chronological age for caregiver ratings, no other associations were found between any other ratings and age at CI, implant age, and chronological age. CONCLUSIONS: Caregiver judgments of their adolescents with CI were not in equal agreement with self-ratings by the adolescents across various aspects of performance. Caregivers appeared to underestimate the self-perception issues faced by adolescents with CI but had excellent agreement with their adolescents' self-rating of communication success. The inclusion of activities to improve children's participation in sports could possibly improve peer acceptance.

6-Chloro-3-[(di-methyl-amino)-methyl-idene]thio-chroman-4-one.

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C12H12ClNOS, contains three independent mol-ecules, with the thio-chroman ring adopting a sofa conformation in each one. The crystal structure features C-H⋯O inter-actions; one of the O atoms accepts three such bonds. Together, the hydrogen bonds give rise to a molecular tape propagating in [010].

2-Amino-4-methyl-4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-1-benzothiophene-3-carbonitrile.

In the title compound, C(10)H(12)N(2)S, the thio-phene ring is essentially planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.0290 Å). The two C atoms of the cyclo-hexene ring (at positions 6 and 7) are disordered over two sets of sites in a 0.810 (5):0.190 (5) ratio. The cyclo-hexene rings in both the major and minor occupancy conformers adopt a half-chair conformation. In the crystal, there are two types of N-H⋯N inter-action. One of these results in centrosymmetric head-to-head dimers corresponding to an R(2) (2)(12) graph-set motif and the other forms a 20-membered macrocyclic ring involving six mol-ecules.

4-Imino-2,7-dimethyl-5,6,7,8-tetra-hydro-4H-1-benzothieno[2,3-d]pyrimidin-3-amine.

In the title compound, C(12)H(16)N(4)S, the fused benzothio-phene and the pyrimidine rings are coplanar [dihedral angle = 1.61 (6)°]. Three C atoms of the cyclohexene ring (at positions 3, 6 and 7) are disordered over two sites with an occupancy ratio of 0.702 (8):0.298 (8). The cyclo-hexene ring in both the major and minor components adopts a half-chair conformation. The crystal structure is stabilized by N-H⋯N and C-H⋯N inter-actions, resulting in the formation of inversion dimers with R(2) (2)(10) and R(2) (2)(12) graph-set motifs.

Synthesis, hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activities of novel thiazolidinedione derivatives containing thiazole/triazole/oxadiazole ring.

Novel thiazolidinedione derivatives were synthesized by incorporating pharmacologically significant heterocycles viz, substituted thiazole, triazole, and oxadiazole moieties linked to the central phenyl ring via heteroatomlinkage with one/two carbon spacer as the structural analogs of Pioglitazone by employing multistep synthetic protocols. Structures of all the newly synthesized intermediates and target molecules were established by analytical and spectral data. These newly synthesized compounds were screened for their invivo hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activities in male wistar rats. Some of the synthesized compounds demonstrated good activity.

Effect of curcumin and quercetin on lysosomal enzyme activities in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Diabetes causes impairment of various enzyme activities in the physiological system, including lysosomal enzymes. The effect of feeding curcumin, quercetin and aminoguanidine on lysosomal enzyme activities viz., N-acetyl-ß-d-glucosaminidase, ß-d-glucuronidase, ß-d-galactosidase and acid phosphatase were studied in different tissues of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. METHOD: Rats were divided into four control groups and four diabetic groups. Experimental groups were fed with diet supplemented with curcumin (0.5%) or quercetin (0.1%) or aminoguanidine (0.05%). Lysosomal enzyme activities were determined in various tissues. RESULTS: The specific activity of N-acetyl-ß-d-glucosaminidase in liver of diabetic rats was decreased when compared to control rats and was ameliorated with curcumin and quercetin treatment by 67% and 78%, respectively. On the other hand, ß-d-glucuronidase activity was higher in the brain of diabetic rats (0.90 ± 0.04 nmol/mg protein/min), when compared to control rats (0.45 ± 0.02 nmol/mg protein/min) and was decreased in curcumin (0.75 ± 0.05 nmol/mg protein/min) and quercetin (0.74 ± 0.11 nmol/mg protein/min) treated rats. ß-d-galactosidase activity in spleen of curcumin and quercetin fed diabetic group rats was ameliorated by 68% and 58%, respectively, in comparison to diabetic rats. Acid phosphatase activity in diabetic rats decreased in testis when compared to control. CONCLUSION: Curcumin and quercetin feeding modulated lysosomal enzyme activities in different tissues during diabetes and the effect was comparable to well-known anti-glycative agent - aminoguanidine.

Benzothieno[3,2-e][1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-c]pyrimidines: synthesis, characterization, antimicrobial activity, and incorporation into solid lipid nanoparticles.

Fused triazolothienopyrimidines were prepared from the corresponding 2-amino-4,5,6,7-tetrahydrobenzo[b]thiophene-3-carbonitrile. These precursors were intern prepared by employing the Gewald's reaction. All the newly synthesized compounds were characterized by spectral and analytical data. Title compounds displayed promising antibacterial and antifungal activities. Compound 3h which exhibited good antimicrobial activity was incorporated into SLN and characterized for particle size, entrapment efficiency (EE%), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and in-vitro release studies. It showed narrow particle size distribution with high entrapment efficiency. In-vitro release study of compound loaded SLNs in phosphate buffer of pH 7.4, exhibited a biphasic pattern with an initial burst and prolonged release over 24 h.