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Purpose: Empty follicle syndrome (EFS) is a complex reproductive disorder characterized by the repeated failure to aspirate oocytes from mature ovarian follicles during in vitro fertilization (IVF). In addition to some cases caused by iatrogenic problems and known genetic factors, there are still many unexplained aspects of EFS. Here, we aimed to assess the clinical and genetic characteristics of two EFS patients. Methods: We have characterized two primary infertility patients with EFS in a nonconsanguineous family from China. Both the patients presented similar clinical phenotypes, that is a few granulosa cells but no oocytes could be retrieved during repeated cycles with normal follicular development, E2 levels, and bioavailable hCG plasma levels. Abnormal oocytes were obtained once or twice between multiple IVF cycles. We performed Sanger sequencing of the LHCGR and ZP1~ZP4 genes in the patients, and further bioinformatics analysis was performed to identify pathogenic elements in the genes. Results: A novel mutation, c.181C>T (p.Arg61Cys), and a known mutation, c.1169_1176delTTTTCCCA (p.Ile390Thrfs*16), in the ZP1 gene were both identified in patient 2, but no mutations were identified in patient 1. The novel mutation inherited from her mother was absent in the control cohort and the ExAc database. The arginine residue is conserved at this position, and its replacement by cysteine was predicted to be deleterious. In another allele, a paternal frameshift mutation was predicted to introduce premature stop codons, resulting in the deletion of 234 amino acids from the C-terminus of the ZP1 protein. Conclusions: Our findings presented compound heterozygous mutations in ZP1 associated with EFS and abnormal oocytes and provided further new evidence for the genetic basis of EFS and support for the genetic diagnosis of infertile individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Carboniferous volcanic reservoirs in Junggar Basin contain rich hydrocarbon resources, implying a great exploration potential, so that they have become a key replacement target for "three-dimensional exploration". The study on the Carboniferous volcanic reservoirs and their hydrocarbon accumulation elements is significant for clarifying the orientation for exploration. In this paper, based on 37 reserves reports and 3 200 reservoir test data, the Carboniferous volcanic reservoirs in Junggar Basin were discussed from the prospective of lithology and lithofacies, physical properties, reservoir types, main controls on hydrocarbon accumulation, and hydrocarbon accumulation patterns. It is found that the Carboniferous in the basin is mostly in the multi-island ocean-volcanic island arc structural-sedimentary environment, so it is geologically eligible for forming in-situ volcanic reservoirs. The volcanic rocks are: (1) mostly distributed along deep and large faults, with the lithology and lithofacies controlled by volcanic architectures; (2) dominantly lava, followed by volcaniclastic lava and volcaniclastic rock; (3) distributed in the periphery of hydrocarbon-generating sag and within the source rocks horizontally, and concentrated in the weathering crust at the top longitudinally, possibly leading to reworked weathering crust reservoir; and (4) liable to form inner reservoirs. The volcanic reservoirs can be concluded into four hydrocarbon accumulation patterns, i.e., self-generating & self-storing in paleo-uplift and vertical migration, self-generating & self-storing in paleo-uplift and lateral migration, young-generating & old-storing in fault zone and vertical migration, and young-generating & old-storing in paleo-uplift and lateral migration. Future exploration will focus on the effective source rock development and hydrocarbon supply zones and the self-generating & self-storing and young-generating & old-storing patterns. The exploration prospects are determined to be the Ludong-Wucaiwan-Baijiahai slope belt and the southern slope belt of the Shaqi uplift (self-generating & self-storing pattern) in eastern Junggar, and the fault and nasal arch zone at the northwestern margin and the nasal arch zone (deep and large structure) in the Luxi area (young-generating & old-storing pattern) in western Junggar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Devonian cutinitic liptobiolith is a special cuticle-rich coal formed during the early stage of land plant evolution. In China, this special coal has previously only been reported in the Yangtze area, with the Luquan Devonian cutinitic liptobiolith of Yunnan Province being the most well-known. Recently, this type of coal was first discovered in the Bulonggoer Sag, to the northwest of the Junggar Basin, NW Xinjiang. Its geological age is regarded as the Givetian period of the late Middle Devonian, which is equivalent to the age of the Luquan Devonian coal. The cutinitic liptobiolith from NW Xinjiang has a distinct sheet-like texture resembling a stack of paper or leaf sheets in appearance, and so it is commonly called "paper coal" or "leaf coal". Ribbon-like cutinite (thick-walled type) is the most abundant maceral in the coal (>60% and up to 80%, on a mineral-free basis), followed by ribbon-like collotelinite. The NW Xinjiang and Luquan cutinitic liptobioliths share similar maceral compositions; while their coal-forming plants and depositional conditions are distinct. The NW Xinjiang cutinitic liptobiolith was deposited in a regional fluvial or flood plain condition, with lycopsids as the dominant coal-forming plants. In contrast, the Luquan cutinitic liptobiolith formed in a coastal-lagoon environment, with primitive ferns as the predominant coal-forming plants, followed by lycopsids. The saturated fractions of the NW Xinjiang and Luquan liptobioliths are mainly composed of tetracyclic diterpanes. However, the tetracyclic diterpane compositions in the NW Xinjiang cutinitic liptobiolith are distinct from those in the Luquan Devonian coal: The former is dominated by atisanes and the latter is mainly composed of phyllocladanes. Different coal-forming plants may have contributed to the distinct tetracyclic diterpane compositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of future climate change on streamflow of the Dongliao River Watershed located in Jilin Province, China have been evaluated quantitatively by using a general circulation model (HadCM3) coupled with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrological model. The model was calibrated and validated against the historical monitored data from 2005 to 2009. The streamflow was estimated by downscaling HadCM3 outputs to the daily mean temperature and precipitation series, derived for three 30-year time slices, 2020s, 2050s and 2080s. Results suggest that daily mean temperature increases with a changing rate of 0.435°C per decade, and precipitation decreases with a changing rate of 0.761 mm per decade. Compared with other seasons, the precipitation in summer shows significant downward trend, while a significant upward trend in autumn. The annual streamflow demonstrates a general downward trend with a decreasing rate of 0.405 m/s per decade. The streamflow shows significant downward and upward trends in summer and in autumn, respectively. The decreasing rate of streamflow in summer reaches 1.97 m/s per decade, which contributes primarily to the decrease of streamflow. The results of this work would be of great benifit to the design of economic and social development planning in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gravitational waves (GWs) from extra dimensions, very early universe, and some high-energy astrophysical processes might have at most six polarization states: tensor- and nontensor-mode gravitons. The peak regions or partial peak regions (of the amplitudes or energy densities) of some of such GWs are just distributed in the GHz or higher frequency band, which would be an optimal frequency band for the electromagnetic (EM) response to such high-frequency GWs (HFGWs). In this paper we investigate the EM response to the HFGWs, and for the first time we obtain the concrete form of analytic solutions of the perturbative EM fields caused by all six possible polarizations of the HFGWs in the background stable EM fields and in the proposed three dimensional synchro-resonance system (3DSR system), respectively. It is found that all such six polarizations may in principle show separability and detectability. Moreover, the detection frequency band ( ∼ 10 8 to 10 12 Hz or higher) of the signal photon fluxes by the 3DSR system and the observation frequency range ( ∼ 7 × 10 7 to 3 × 10 9 Hz) of the signals by the FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, China) have a certain overlapping property, and thus their coincidence experiments in the future for observations will have high complementarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]