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Human skeleton data have been widely explored in action recognition and the human–computer interface recently, thanks to off-the-shelf motion sensors and cameras. With the widespread usage of deep models on human skeleton data, their vulnerabilities under adversarial attacks have raised increasing security concerns. Although there are several works focusing on attack strategies, fewer efforts are put into defense against adversaries in skeleton-based action recognition, which is nontrivial. In addition, labels required in adversarial learning are another pain in adversarial training-based defense. This paper proposes a robust model agnostic adversarial contrastive learning framework for this task. First, we introduce an adversarial contrastive learning framework for skeleton-based action recognition (ACL-SAR). Second, the nature of cross-view skeleton data enables cross-view adversarial contrastive learning (CV-ACL-SAR) as a further improvement. Third, adversarial attack and defense strategies are investigated, including alternate instance-wise attacks and options in adversarial training. To validate the effectiveness of our method, we conducted extensive experiments on the NTU-RGB+D and HDM05 datasets. The results show that our defense strategies are not only robust to various adversarial attacks but can also maintain generalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ovarian endometrioma (OE), also known as "chocolate cysts," is a cystic mass that develops in the ovaries due to endometriosis and is a common gynecological condition characterized by the growth of endometrial tissue outside the uterus, leading to symptoms such as dysmenorrhea, pelvic pain, and infertility. However, the precise molecular and cellular mechanisms driving this pathophysiology remain largely unknown, posing challenges for diagnosis and treatment. Here, we employed integrated single-cell transcriptomic profiling of over 52,000 individual cells from endometrial tissues of OE patients and healthy donors and identified twelve major cell populations. We identified notable alterations in cell type-specific proportions and molecular signatures associated with OE. Notably, the activation of IGFBP5+ macrophages with pro-inflammatory properties, NK cell exhaustion, and aberrant proliferation of IQCG+ and KLF2+ epithelium are key features and may be the potential mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of OE. Collectively, our data contribute to a better understanding of OE at the single cell level and may pave the way for the development of novel therapeutic strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frataxin (FXN) is required for iron-sulfur cluster biogenesis, and its loss causes the early-onset neurodegenerative disease Friedreich ataxia (FRDA). Loss of FXN is a susceptibility factor in the development of diabetes, a common metabolic complication after myocardial hypertrophy in patients with FRDA. The underlying mechanism of FXN deficient-induced hyperglycemia in FRDA is, however, poorly understood. In this study, we confirmed that the FXN deficiency mouse model YG8R develops insulin resistance in elder individuals by disturbing lipid metabolic homeostasis in adipose tissues. Evaluation of lipolysis, lipogenesis, and fatty acid β-oxidation showed that lipolysis is most severely affected in white adipose tissues. Consistently, FXN deficiency significantly decreased expression of lipolytic genes encoding adipose triglyceride lipase (Atgl) and hormone-sensitive lipase (Hsl) resulting in adipocyte enlargement and inflammation. Lipolysis induction by fasting or cold exposure remarkably upregulated FXN expression, though FXN deficiency lessened the competency of lipolysis compared with the control or wild type mice. Moreover, we found that the impairment of lipolysis was present at a young age, a few months earlier than hyperglycemia and insulin resistance. Forskolin, an activator of lipolysis, or pioglitazone, an agonist of PPARγ, improved insulin sensitivity in FXN-deficient adipocytes or mice. We uncovered the interplay between FXN expression and lipolysis and found that impairment of lipolysis, particularly the white adipocytes, is an early event, likely, as a primary cause for insulin resistance in FRDA patients at later age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adverse skin reactions caused by ionizing radiation are collectively called radiation dermatitis (RD), and the use of nanomedicine is an attractive approach to this condition. Therefore, we designed and large-scale synthesized fullerenols that showed free radical scavenging ability in vitro. Next, we pretreated X-ray-exposed cells with fullerenols. The results showed that pretreatment with fullerenols significantly scavenged intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced and enhanced the antioxidant capacity, protecting skin cells from X-ray-induced DNA damage and apoptosis. Moreover, we induced RD in mice by applying 30 Gy of X-ray irradiation, followed by treatment with fullerenols. We found that after treatment, the RD scores dropped, and the histological results systematically demonstrated that topically applied fullerenols could reduce radiation-induced skin epidermal thickening, collagen deposition and skin appendage damage and promote hair regeneration after 35 days. Compared with Trolamine cream, a typical RD drug, fullerenols showed superior radiation protection. Overall, the in vitro and in vivo experiments proved that fullerenols agents against RD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the impact of embryonic exposure to phenanthrene (Phe), a typical tricyclic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, on cardiac development in next generation, fertilized zebrafish embryos were exposed to 0.05, 0.5, 5 and 50 nM Phe for 96 h, and then transferred to clear water and raised to adulthood. The cardiac development in F1 larvae generated by adult females or males mated with unexposed zebrafish was assessed. Malformation and dysfunction of the heart, such as increased heart rate, arrhythmia, enlarged heart and abnormal contraction, were shown in both paternal and maternal F1 larvae. A greater impact on the distance between the sinus venosus and bulbus arteriosus was exhibited in maternal F1 larvae, while paternal F1 larvae displayed a more severe impact on heart rate and arrhythmia. The transcription of genes related to cardiac development was disturbed in F1 larvae. DNA methylation levels in the promoter of some genes were associated with their transcription. The expression of acetylated histone H3K9Ac and H3K14Ac in maternal F1 larvae was no significantly changed, but was significantly downregulated in paternal F1 larvae, which might be associated with the downregulated transcription of tbx5. These results indicate that exposure to Phe during embryogenesis adversely affects cardiac development in F1 generation, and the effects and toxic mechanisms showed sex-linked hereditary differences, highlighting the risk of Phe exposure in early life to heart health in next generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, the use of gold complex for photocatalyzed transformations has gained great attention. Within a number of photocatalzed reactions, the mode of energy transfer (EnT) is gradually disclosed, which opens a creative window for gold chemistry. This highlight covers several recent achievements of gold photocatalysis involving EnT process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing masks in public areas has become an effective way to slow the spread of disease. However, it also brings some challenges to applications in daily life as half of the face is occluded. Therefore, the idea of removing masks by face inpainting appeared. Face inpainting has achieved promising performance but always fails to guarantee high-fidelity. In this paper, we present a novel mask removal inpainting network based on face attributes known in advance including nose, chubby, makeup, gender, mouth, beard and young, aiming to ensure the repaired face image is closer to ground truth. To achieve this, a dual pipeline network based on GANs has been proposed, one of which is a reconstructive path used in training that utilizes missing regions in ground truth to get prior distribution, while the other is a generative path for predicting information in the masked region. To establish the process of mask removal, we build a synthetic facial occlusion that mimics the real mask. Experiments show that our method not only generates faces more similarly aligned with real attributes, but also ensures semantic and structural rationality compared with state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, biochar (BC), activated carbon (AC), and graphene oxide (GO) were thiol-functionalized using 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (3-MPTS) (named as BCS, ACS, and GOS, respectively). BCS, ACS, and GOS were synthesized mainly via the interaction between hydrolyzed 3-MPTS and surface oxygen-containing functional groups (e.g., –OH, O–C=O, and C=O) and π-π interaction. The materials before and after modification were characterized and tested for mercury removal, including sorption kinetics and isotherms, the effects of adsorbent dosage, initial pH, and ionic strength. Pseudo-second-order sorption kinetic model (R2 = 0.992~1.000) and Langmuir sorption isotherm model (R2 = 0.964~0.998) fitted well with the sorption data of mercury. GOS had the most –SH groups with the largest adsorption capacity for Hg2+ and CH3Hg+ (449.6 and 127.5 mg/g), followed by ACS (235.7 and 86.7 mg/g) and BCS (175.6 and 30.3 mg/g), which were much larger than GO (96.7 and 4.9 mg/g), AC (81.1 and 24.6 mg/g), and BC (95.6 and 9.4 mg/g). GOS and ACS showed stable mercury adsorption properties at a wide pH range (2~9) and ionic strength (0.01~0.1 mol/L). Mercury maybe removed by ligand exchange, surface complexation, and electrostatic attraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ba2Mg2Al6Si9O30 (BMAS):Ce3+, Tb3+ phosphor powder was synthesized by a high-temperature solid-state method. The excitation spectra of BMAS:Ce3+, Tb3+ phosphors showed a strong and broad absorption band, which ranged from 220 nm to 380 nm. With the excitation of 350 nm, the characteristic emission peaks centered at 544 nm of Tb3+ and at 420 nm of Ce3+ were observed. With increased Ce3+ concentration from 0.01 to 0.13, energy-transfer efficiency increased from 3.26% to 76.59%. Adjustment of the Ce3+ to Tb3+ ratio can induce the emission peak of the samples to change from blue to green. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of Eu-doped KBaY(BO) phosphors was synthesized through a conventional solid-state reaction method. X-ray power diffraction and photoluminescence spectra were used to characterize the phosphors. The KBaY(BO):Eu phosphor showed an intense orange-red emission at 591 nm and red emission at 610 nm under near-UV (392 nm) and blue-light (463 nm) excitation. These results suggest that KBaY(BO):Eu phosphors are suitable for near-UV or blue-light excitation. Compared with Eu single-doped samples, Eu and Bi co-doped samples possess a peak value of 310 nm, which implies the energy transfer between Bi and Eu. Moreover, the energy-transfer mechanism between Eu and Bi in KBaY(BO) was explored, and the mechanism was found to be a dipole-quadrupole interaction. The emission peak intensities of the KBaY(BO):Eu phosphor at 591 and 610 nm are significantly enhanced with the co-activator Bi ion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ce/Tb/Mn-codoped SrZnY(PO) (SZYP) white-emitting phosphors have been synthesized via solid-state reaction technology. The overlapping spectra between the excitation bands of Mn and Tb ions and the emission band of Ce suggest that Ce → Mn and Ce → Tb energy transfer occurs. The emission hues exhibited by Ce/Tb- and Ce/Mn-codoped phosphors could be modulated from bluish to greenish region and from bluish to reddish region by simply adjusting the relative content of Ce/Tb and Ce/Mn, respectively. SZYP:Ce,Tb,Mn samples exhibited three dominant bands at 410 nm, 545 nm, and 600 nm, attributable to electronic transitions of Ce, Tb, and Mn ions, respectively. Thus, color-tunable emission was achieved by accurately modulating the concentrations of Ce, Tb, and Mn ions. SZYP:0.05Ce,0.11Mn,0.11Tb was found to be an ideal white-light-emitting phosphor with color coordinates of (0.34, 0.33) and correlated color temperature of about 5144.83 K. The results indicate that Ce/Tb/Mn -tridoped SZYP phosphors are potential single-component white-emitting candidates for application in ultraviolet- and white-light-emitting diodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Color-tunable phosphors NaBaMgPO:Ce, xMn (NBMP:Ce, Mn) have been synthesized via traditional solid-state method. X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectra, photoluminescence spectroscopy and decay curves are used to characterize the samples. By adjusting the ratio of Ce to Mn in NBMP, red-emitting phosphor can be obtained upon excitation at 279 nm. When monitoring at 608 nm, a broad strong excitation band from 220 to 350 nm is observed. The quantum efficiency of NBMP:0.05Ce, 0.15Mn is determined to be 78.9 %. Moreover, chromaticity coordinates of the samples are investigated. The results indicate phosphors NBMP:Ce, Mn could have promising performance in display or lighting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]