Abstract-Age progression is defined as aesthetically re-rendering the aging face at any future age for an individual face. In this work, we aim to automatically render aging faces in a personalized way. Basically, for each age group, we learn an aging dictionary to reveal its aging characteristics (e.g., wrinkles), where the dictionary bases corresponding to the same index yet from two neighboring aging dictionaries form a particular aging pattern cross these two age groups, and a linear combination of all these patterns expresses a particular personalized aging process. Moreover, two factors are taken into consideration in the dictionary learning process. First, beyond the aging dictionaries, each person may have extra personalized facial characteristics, e.g. mole, which are invariant in the aging process. Second, it is challenging or even impossible to collect faces of all age groups for a particular person, yet much easier and more practical to get face pairs from neighboring age groups. To this end, we propose a novel Bi-level Dictionary Learning based Personalized Age Progression (BDL-PAP) method. Here, bi-level dictionary learning is formulated to learn the aging dictionaries based on face pairs from neighboring age groups. Extensive experiments well demonstrate the advantages of the proposed BDL-PAP over other state-of-the-arts in term of personalized age progression, as well as the performance gain for cross-age face verification by synthesizing aging faces.

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Spherical assemblies with core/shell configurations are prepared through C-terminal amidated short peptide mediated self-association of platinum nanocrystals. The interactions between the peptides might drive the self-assembly of platinum nanocrystals and determine their surface properties. Thus, the nanosize assemblies collapse and spread on a hydrophilic surface, whereas maintaining their spherical shapes on a hydrophobic surface.Noble metal nanocrystals (NMNCs) possess fascinating properties, including catalytic, optical and electrical performance, and have been considered as superior building blocks for multifunctional materials. 1-4 It has been well known that many properties of the materials are dependent not only on the size, shape and composition of the building blocks, but also on their spatial conformations in the superarchitecture. 1-6 Recently, signicant progress has been made in assembling NMNCs into sophisticated superarchitectures, for example, threedimensional (3D) superspheres. 7-10 These superarchitectures have shown potential for fascinating applications in drug delivery, 11 bioimaging, 12 and catalysis. 9,13,14 In previous studies, sulfur-containing chemicals, e.g. thiols and thioethers, were mainly used as the cross-linking agents, and the assembly methodology involved organic solvents and complicated approaches, such as place-exchanging and exchanging-crosslinking. [15][16][17][18] In contrast, the self-assembly of NMNCs into well-dened functional superstructures through an easy, efficient and environment-friendly approach is still less reported, and the quest is continuously ongoing. 19 Herein, we present a type of 3D core/shell nanoassembly, easily formed by platinum nanocrystals (Pt NCs) using a short peptide as the cross-linking agent in an aqueous solution and demonstrate their selective wetting and spreading properties on a hydrophilic substrate, as shown in Scheme 1.Previously, a hepta-peptide with the sequence of NH 2 -TLHVSSY-COOH, named P7A, was found to stabilize ultra-small Pt NCs with a diameter of 1.7-3.5 nm in an aqueous solution by specically binding to their surfaces. 20-26 Our recent study revealed that the C-terminal carboxyl group of P7A is crucially important for stable dispersion of the Pt NCs in an aqueous solution, providing pH-dependent electrostatic repulsive intereactions. 27 Therefore, it will be interesting to screen such electrostatic repulsions through amidation of the carboxyl group. With an FMOC solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) strategy, we Scheme 1 Schematic of P7A-NH 2 mediated Pt NCs assembly into core/shell nanoassemblies with the ability of selectively wetting and spreading on the hydrophilic surface.

A new class of greenish-blue to blue emitting diphenylphosphoryl-substituted cationic cyclometalated Ir(iii) complexes (POF1–POF6) with different N^N ancillary ligands are reported.