Plausible 3D Face Wrinkle Generation Using Variational Autoencoders.

Realistic 3D facial modeling and animation have been increasingly used in many graphics, animation, and virtual reality applications. However, generating realistic fine-scale wrinkles on 3D faces, in particular, on animated 3D faces, is still a challenging problem that is far away from being resolved. In this article we propose an end-to-end system to automatically augment coarse-scale 3D faces with synthesized fine-scale geometric wrinkles. By formulating the wrinkle generation problem as a supervised generation task, we implicitly model the continuous space of face wrinkles via a compact generative model, such that plausible face wrinkles can be generated through effective sampling and interpolation in the space. We also introduce a complete pipeline to transfer the synthesized wrinkles between faces with different shapes and topologies. Through many experiments, we demonstrate our method can robustly synthesize plausible fine-scale wrinkles on a variety of coarse-scale 3D faces with different shapes and expressions.

Low crystalline 1T-MoS2@S-doped carbon hollow spheres as an anode material for Lithium-ion battery.

A low crystalline 1T-MoS2@S-doped carbon (MoS2@SC) composite was successfully synthesized via a facile hydrothermal process. The composite is comprised by few-layer 1T-MoS2 nanosheets covered by an amorphous carbon layer with an expanded interlayer d-spacing of 1.01 nm. This structure is conducive to the fast transport of lithium-ions and volume accommodation during the charge-discharge process when the composite is applied as an anode material for LIBs. Additionally, the high conductivity and layered structure of 1T-MoS2 also facilitate fast of ion/electron transport, contributing to the improvement of the electrochemical properties. Therefore, this material demonstrated a high rate performance and excellent cycling stability, with the capacities of 847 and 622 mA h g-1 achieved at the current densities of 0.2 A g-1 and 2 A g-1, respectively. Even at a larger current density of 2 A g-1, MoS2@SC delivered a high reversible capacity of 659 mA h g-1 with an average capacity loss of 0.006% per cycle after 500 cycles.

A Survey on How Ocular Surface Demodex Infestation Interactively Associates with Diabetes Mellitus and Dry Eye Disease.

PURPOSE: Prevention of ocular surface (OS) Demodex infestation plays an important role in OS hygiene and variety of factors may be associated with it, in which diabetes mellitus (DM) or dry eye disease (DED) has caught the attention of most scholars. However, there has been no research on whether there was a potential interaction between DM and DED in the process of OS Demodex infestation. This cross-sectional study was implemented in Zhujiang Hospital of Southern Medical University. METHODS: Ophthalmologic interviews, questionnaires, and examinations were conducted. Factors including general information, DM status, dry eye condition, etc. were collected to study the correlation of DM and DED on OS Demodex infestation. RESULTS: After statistical analysis, we found that both DM (P < 0.001) and DED (P = 0.013 < 0.05) are closely associated with OS Demodex infestation. Compared with DED, DM has higher priority association with OS Demodex infestation, and patients with both diseases have a significant higher risk of OS Demodex infestation (R = 0.197, P < 0.001). Meanwhile, age (R = 0.299, P < 0.001) and hypertension (P < 0.05) were also correlated with OS Demodex infestation. CONCLUSION: This study provides a new evidence-based basis for clinical prevention and management of OS Demodex infestation.

Nanocomposite of ultra-small MoO2 embedded in nitrogen-doped carbon: In situ derivation from an organic molybdenum complex and its superior Li-Ion storage performance.

MoO2 is a promising anode material for lithium-ion batteries, however, the lithiation of bulk MoO2 is usually limited to addition-type reaction at room temperature, and the conversion reaction is hindered because of the sluggish kinetics. Herein, a nanocomposite of MoO2 embedded in nitrogen-doped carbon (MoO2/NC) is synthesized through the in situ thermolysis of an organic molybdenum complex MoO2(acac)(phen) (acac = acetylacetone, phen = 1,10-Phenanthroline). Owing to the fact that [MoO2]2+ can be strongly chelated by phen, the molybdenum source in the MoO2(acac)(phen) precursor is highly dispersed, leading to the formation of ultra-small MoO2 nanoparticles in the nanocomposite, which can facilitate the conversion reaction. Moreover, the NC matrix can guarantee a high electrical conductivity and effectively accommodate the volume changes triggered by the conversion reaction. Consequently, the MoO2/NC nanocomposite exhibits outstanding electrochemical properties, including large reversible capacity of 950 mA h g-1 at 0.1 A g-1, high-rate capability of 605 mA h g-1 at 2 A g-1, and excellent cycling stability over 500 cycles as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries.

Remdesivir for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 causing COVID-19: An evaluation of the evidence.

The novel coronavirus infection that initially found at the end of 2019 has attracted great attention. So far, the number of infectious cases has increased globally to more than 100 thousand and the outbreak has been defined as a pandemic situation, but there are still no "specific drug" available. Relevant reports have pointed out the novel coronavirus has 80% homology with SARS. In the difficulty where new synthesized drug cannot be applied immediately to patients, "conventional drug in new use" becomes a feasible solution. The first medication experience of the recovered patients in the US has led remdesivir to be the "specific drug". China has also taken immediate action to put remdesivir into clinical trials with the purpose of applying it into clinical therapeutics for Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). We started from the structure, immunogenicity, and pathogenesis of coronavirus infections of the novel coronavirus. Further, we analyzed the pharmacological actions and previous trials of remdesivir to identify the feasibility of conducting experiments on COVID-19.

Epitaxial Growth of Rectangle Shape MoS2 with Highly Aligned Orientation on Twofold Symmetry a-Plane Sapphire.

Research on transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) has been accelerated by the development of large-scale synthesis based on chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth. However, in most cases, CVD-grown TMDs are composed of randomly oriented grains, and thus contain many distorted grain boundaries (GBs), which seriously degrade their electrical and photoelectrical properties. Here, the epitaxial growth of highly aligned MoS2 grains is reported on a twofold symmetry a-plane sapphire substrate. The obtained MoS2 grains have an unusual rectangle shape with perfect orientation alignment along the [1-100] crystallographic direction of a-plane sapphire. It is found that the growth temperature plays a key role in its orientation alignment and morphology evolution, and high temperature is beneficial to the initial MoS2 seeds rotate to the favorable orientation configurations. In addition, the photoluminescence quenching of the well-aligned MoS2 grains indicates a strong MoS2 -substrate interaction which induces the anisotropic growth of MoS2 , and thus brings the formation of rectangle shape grains. Moreover, the well-aligned MoS2 grains splice together without GB formation, and thus that has negligible effect on its electrical transport properties. The progress achieved in this work could promote the controlled synthesis of large-area TMDs single crystal film and the scalable fabrication of high-performance electronic devices.

Comparative portrayal of ocular surface microbe with and without dry eye.

rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing was performed in the conjunctival swab samples to investigate the composition of the OS bacterial community in DE (n=35) and NDE (n=54) and compared the composition of MGD (n=25) and NMGD (n=10) among DE subjects. Deep sequencing of OS 16S rDNA from DE (n=35) and NDE (n=54) demonstrated great a difference in alpha and beta diversity between the OS bacterial flora (P < 0.05). The similar OS microbial structures were shown at the phylum and genus levels by bioinformatics analysis between them, and in LEfSe (linear discriminant analysis effect size) analysis, Bacteroidia and Bacteroidetes were enriched in DE, while Pseudomonas was plentiful in NDE (linear discriminant analysis [LDA] > 4.0). Among the DE group, there was no significant difference in α and ß diversity between MGD and NMGD (P > 0.05). Surprisingly, Bacilli was the dominant microbe in MGD, and Bacteroidetes was the superior bacteria in NMGD among DE subjects (LDA > 4.0). Different diversity of OS bacteria composition between DE and NDE and the altered diversity of OS bacteria may play an important role in DE. Moreover, the lower dominance of OS bacteria in DE may be associated with the occurrence and development of DE. Although there was no significant difference in alpha and beta analysis, the OS dominant microbe between MGD and NMGD among DE was different.

How Ocular Surface Microbiota Debuts in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

High glucose represents a good environment for bacterial growth on the skin, on the ocular surface (OS) and in the tears of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients, affecting the conjunctival bacterial community. This study aimed to investigate the OS bacterial flora of T2DM patients and healthy subjects using 16S rRNA sequencing-based bacterial identification. Among 23 healthy subjects (CON) and 31 T2DM patients, 54 eyes were examined to investigate the OS bacterial community. Factors potentially affecting the microbial growth were controlled. Results showed the OS microbiota presented higher diversity in the T2DM group than in the CON group. Bioinformatic analysis showed a lower abundance of Proteobacteria and a higher abundance of Bacteroidetes at the phyla level as well as a significantly increased abundance of Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas at the genus level in the T2DM group. The difference in OS microbiota at taxonomic level was associated with Ocular Surface Disease Index and course of T2DM. These findings indicate the OS flora in T2DM patients is significantly different from that in healthy subjects, which may be closely associated with OS discomfort and course of T2DM.

Selectively reduction of tobacco specific nitrosamines in cigarette smoke by use of nanostructural titanates.

In this study, titanate nanosheets, nanotubes, and nanowires, were synthesized by hydrothermal treatment anatase TiO2 in different temperatures. The obtained products are characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron micrograph (TEM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) nitrogen sorption-desorption measurement. Then, the nanostructural titanates were used as additives for selectively reducing tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TNSAs) in mainstream cigarette smoke (CS) for the first time. These nanomaterials exhibited high reduction ability of TSNAs which was related to their intrinsic properties. The N-NO functional group of TSNAs with a negative charge would react with H(+) on the surface of nanomaterials via chemical absorption and can be retained on the surface of the titanates. Among these materials, titanate nanowires (TNW) captured more TNSAs owing to their network structure, which resulted in the selective reduction ratio of TSNAs being improved significantly. Thus, TNW is a useful additive for selectively reducing the TSNAs in CS without changing the cigarette flavor.

Significant reduction of harmful compounds in tobacco smoke by the use of titanate nanosheets and nanotubes.

Titanate nanosheets and nanotubes have first been introduced into cigarette filter, a great range of harmful compounds including tar, nicotine, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, selected carbonyls and phenolic compounds can be reduced efficiently.

A new anode material made of Zn2Ti3O8 nanowires: synthesis and electrochemical properties.

Ternary oxide Zn(2)Ti(3)O(8) nanowires were first synthesized and used as the anode material in a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which displayed a very reversible charge-discharge capacity and excellent cycling stability.

Brookite-type TiO(2) nanotubes.

Brookite-type TiO(2) nanotubes with crystalline multilayer walls have been synthesized for the first time via a simple hydrothermal route.