Vulnerabilities of Unattended Face Verification Systems to Facial Components-based Presentation Attacks: An Empirical Study

As face presentation attacks (PAs) are realistic threats for unattended face verification systems, face presentation attack detection (PAD) has been intensively investigated in past years, and the recent advances in face PAD have significantly reduced the success rate of such attacks. In this article, an empirical study on a novel and effective face impostor PA is made. In the proposed PA, a facial artifact is created by using the most vulnerable facial components, which are optimally selected based on the vulnerability analysis of different facial components to impostor PAs. An attacker can launch a face PA by presenting a facial artifact on his or her own real face. With a collected PA database containing various types of artifacts and presentation attack instruments (PAIs), the experimental results and analysis show that the proposed PA poses a more serious threat to face verification and PAD systems compared with the print, replay, and mask PAs. Moreover, the generalization ability of the proposed PA and the vulnerability analysis with regard to commercial systems are also investigated by evaluating unknown face verification and real-world PAD systems. It provides a new paradigm for the study of face PAs.

From crisis to normal science, and back again: Coming full “Kuhn cycle” in the career of Warren B. Hamilton

ABSTRACT In this paper, I use Thomas S. Kuhn’s model of scientific change to frame a brief, broad-brushed biographical sketch of the career of Warren B. Hamilton. I argue that Hamilton’s career can usefully be interpreted as encompassing a full “Kuhn cycle,” from a period of crisis in his early work, to one of normal science in midcareer, and back to something resembling crisis in his later research. Hamilton entered the field around mid-twentieth century when earth science can plausibly be described as being in a period of crisis. The then dominant fixist paradigm was facing an increasing number of difficulties, an alternative mobilist paradigm was being developed, and Hamilton played an important role in its development. The formulation of plate tectonics in the 1960s saw the overthrow of the fixist paradigm. This inaugurated a new phase of normal science as scientists worked within the new paradigm, refining it and applying it to different regions and various geological phenomena. Hamilton’s midcareer work fits largely into this category. Later, as the details of the plate-tectonic model became articulated more fully, and several of what Hamilton perceived as weakly supported conjectures became incorporated into the paradigm, problems began again to accumulate, and earth science, in Hamilton’s estimation, entered a new period of crisis. Radically new frameworks were now required, and Hamilton’s later work was dedicated principally to developing and articulating these frameworks and to criticizing mainstream views.

Augmented EPR effect post IRFA to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of arsenic loaded ZIF-8 nanoparticles on residual HCC progression

Background Insufficient radiofrequency ablation (IRFA) can promote the local recurrence and distal metastasis of residual hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which makes clinical treatment extremely challenging. In this study, the malignant transition of residual tumors after IRFA was explored. Then, arsenic-loaded zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 nanoparticles (As@ZIF-8 NPs) were constructed, and their therapeutic effect on residual tumors was studied. Results Our data showed that IRFA can dramatically promote the proliferation, induce the metastasis, activate the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) and accelerate the angiogenesis of residual tumors. Interestingly, we found, for the first time, that extensive angiogenesis after IRFA can augment the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect and enhance the enrichment of ZIF-8 nanocarriers in residual tumors. Encouraged by this unique finding, we successfully prepared As@ZIF-8 NPs with good biocompatibility and confirmed that they were more effective than free arsenic trioxide (ATO) in sublethal heat-induced cell proliferation suppression, apoptosis induction, cell migration and invasion inhibition, and EMT reversal in vitro. Furthermore, compared with free ATO, As@ZIF-8 NPs exhibited remarkably increased therapeutic effects by repressing residual tumor growth and metastasis in vivo. Conclusions This work provides a new paradigm for the treatment of residual HCC after IRFA. Graphical Abstract

Tissue fibroblasts are a critical source of prostacyclin and anti-thrombotic

Prostacyclin is an anti-thrombotic hormone long considered to be derived from the vascular endothelium. However, the role of non-vascular sources for prostacyclin synthesis has not been systematically evaluated due to a lack of tools. Here we used cell-specific knockout mice and human tissues to show that lung, and other tissues, are powerful producers of prostacyclin independent of their vascular components. Instead, in mice and humans, lung prostacyclin synthesis is associated with fibroblasts. The fibroblast-derived prostaglandins enter the circulation and provide systemic anti-thrombotic protection. These observations define a new paradigm in prostacyclin biology in which fibroblast/non-vascular-derived prostacyclin works in parallel with prostaglandins produced by the endothelium to control cardiovascular health. These results may explain how local diseases of the lung and elsewhere result in cardiovascular risk.

Improving the Customs Regulation Framework in the Eurasian Economic Union in the Context of Sustainable Economic Development

The formation of a customs administration framework based on the digital economy in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) requires the application of fundamentally new technologies. The successful implementation of digital technologies in the information space of the EAEU presupposes the solution of a number of problems associated with the ensuring the implementation of the concept of sustainable development of the EEU member states in the new economic reality and transition to a new paradigm of customs administration based on the digitalization of the processes of regulation of foreign economic activity. Based on this paradigm, we set the following tasks: to identify trends and substantiate the need for digitalization of the customs administration mechanism in the Eurasian Economic Union based on the use of new technologies; to reveal the meaningful features of digital technologies that are promising for the development of the mechanism of customs administration of the EAEU; consider the applied aspects of the latest information technologies used in the course of EAEU customs administration system digitalization; and assess the prospects for their use, analyze the prospects of organizational, legal and managerial support of this process in the EAEU at the supranational and national levels. The article concludes that within the framework of the digital transformation of the EAEU, new opportunities are opening up for the customs regulation framework, based on the introduction of technologies for analyzing large amounts of data, immersive technologies, blockchain, the use of innovative methods for obtaining and processing customs information (satellite tracking, radio frequency identification), and the introduction of artificial intelligence technologies in customs control processes.