Search

BackgroundPolycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is an endocrine-related follicular developmental disorder that affects 50 %-70 % of reproductive-aged women diagnosed with ovulation-related infertility. Abnormal proliferation and apoptosis of granulosa cells (GCs) are thought to be the critical factors leading to abnormal maturation of follicles. It has been shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) exert a significant influence in the pathogenesis of PCOS; however, the relationship between miRNA, PCOS, and GC apoptosis is not entirely understood.MethodsTo clarify the effect of miR-194 in PCOS, CCK-8, Ki67 staining, AO/EB, and flow cytometry assays were used to assess cell growth, proliferation, and apoptosis in KGN cells, which were artificially stimulated to overexpress miR-194. Luciferase reporter assays and rescue experiments were used to elucidate the mechanism underlying miR-194 in PCOS.ResultsmiR-194 expression was significantly up-regulated in rat models of PCOS and the ovarian GCs of PCOS patients. miR-194 suppression promoted KGN cell growth and proliferation. miR-194 overexpression also induced cell apoptosis, while miR-194 downregulation had an opposite effect. Furthermore, up-regulating heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor (HB-EGF) expression rescued the pro-apoptotic effects of miR-194 upregulation on KGN cells.ConclusionsmiR-194 is increased in PCOS granulosa cell and may function as a novel biomarker and therapeutic target for KGN cells via HB-EGF regulation.

Along with the scaling of dimensions in quantum systems, transitions between the system's energy levels would become close in frequency, which are conventionally resolved by weak and lengthy pulses. Here, we extend and experimentally demonstrate analytically based swift quantum control techniques on a four-level trapped ion system, where we perform individual or simultaneous control over two pairs of spectrally nearby transitions with tailored time-varied drive, achieving operational fidelities ranging from 99.2(3)\% to 99.6(3)\%. Remarkably, we achieve approximately an order of magnitude speed up comparing with the case of weak square pulse for a general control. Therefore, our demonstration may be beneficial to a broad range of quantum systems with crowded spectrum, for spectroscopy, quantum information processing and quantum simulation., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

Quantum state transfer (QST) and entangled state generation (ESG) are important building blocks for modern quantum information processing. To achieve these tasks, convention wisdom is to consult the quantum adiabatic evolution, which is time-consuming, and thus is of low fidelity. Here, using the shortcut to adiabaticity technique, we propose a general method to realize high-fidelity fast QST and ESG in a cavity-coupled many qubits system via its dark pathways, which can be further designed for high-fidelity quantum tasks with different optimization purpose. Specifically, with a proper dark pathway, QST and ESG between any two qubits can be achieved without decoupling the others, which simplifies experimental demonstrations. Meanwhile, ESG among all qubits can also be realized in a single step. In addition, our scheme can be implemented in many quantum systems, and we illustrate its implementation on superconducting quantum circuits. Therefore, we propose a powerful strategy for selective quantum manipulation, which is promising in cavity coupled quantum systems and could find many convenient applications in quantum information processing., Accepted for publication in Frontiers of Physics

Several formulae for computing the direct coupling efficiencies from laser diodes to diffused channel waveguides, based on mathematic models for approximating the corresponding laser beams and the waveguiding modes, have been derived in this paper. Then, the authors utilize a simple shift-or-shrink (SOS) algorithm to seek their optimal coupling conditions, including the incident positions of the laser beams and the corresponding horizontal and vertical beam widths. The simulation results are presented and compared.

Fe43 M 5Cr15Mo14C15B6Y2 (M = Mn, Co, Ni, and Cu in at.%) bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are synthesized using the suction casting technique, and the glass-forming ability (GFA), microstructure, and thermal and magnetic properties of these glasses are extensively examined using X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimeter, and vibrating sample magnetometer techniques. Among the four BMG alloys, Fe43Ni5Cr15Mo14C15B6Y2 exhibits the lowest coercivity and the highest saturation magnetization, Curie temperature, effective magnetic moment, and GFA. By contrast, Fe43Mn5Cr15Mo14C15B6Y2 presents the poorest magnetic properties, such as the highest coercivity and the lowest saturation magnetization, Curie temperature, and effective magnetic moment. Fe43Cu5Cr15Mo14C15B6Y2 demonstrates the lowest thermal stability and GFA. The observed thermal, structural, and magnetic properties of these BMG alloys are discussed in terms of the kinetics of BMG synthesization and the formation of different ferromagnetic, ferrimagnetic, and antiferromagnetic phases.

A two-dimensional detonation in H2–O2 system is simulated by a high-resolution code based on the fifth-order weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme in the spatial discretization and the 3th-order additive Runge–Kutta schemes in the time discretization, by using a detailed chemical model. The effect of a concentration gradient on cellular detonation is investigated. The results show that with the increase of the concentration gradient, the cell instability of detonation increases and gives rise to the oscillation of average detonation velocity. After a long time, for the case of the lower gradient the detonation can be sustained, with the multi-head mode and single-head mode alternating, while for the higher gradient it propagates with a single-head mode.

Ad-hoc network without centralized infrastructure makes its security problem tricky. In this paper, we proposed a full distributed secret key management scheme to handle it. The main contribution of this paper is that we combined combined-RSA threshold scheme with elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) to construct a full distributed secret key management scheme. There are several advantages in our scheme comparing with traditional distributed secret key management key: First we transfer the secret share generation process from initiator to nodes which belong to this network so that ECC generation process and secret share generation process can be performed in parallel. Second, the establishment of secure communication between nodes is straightforward and efficient. Third the secret share generation process for new node non-interactive, furthermore secret share update process is also non-interactive. At last we also analyzed the strength of security of the scheme to show it can fulfill the security requirements of ad-hoc.

In order to explore the physiological mechanism of paraquat resistance in tall fleabane, a widespread weed in Taiwan where resistance to this herbicide has been observed since 1980, the role of the antioxidative system was assessed. The susceptible (S) and resistant (R) biotypes of tall fleabane were distinguished clearly by the relative distribution frequency of injury index caused by 78 µM paraquat. Although malondialdehyde, an indicator for peroxidation damage to the plant, in the the R-biotype was not changed, in the S-biotype malondialdehyde increased within 2 h after treatment of 50 µM paraquat. Analysis of several antioxidants and pertinent enzymes revealed that ascorbate peroxidase activity was decreased by paraquat treatment in the S-biotype; and a lower basal level of ascorbate was present in the S-biotype as well. The maintenance of a high ratio of reduced glutathione to total glutathione, coupled with a pronounced and rapid increase of glutathione reductase (GR) activity in the the R-biotype, suggests that an active reduced glutathione/oxidized glutathione (GSH/GSSG) cycle is critical to paraquat resistance of tall fleabane. The decisive contribution of a functional GSH/GSSG cycle to paraquat resistance through an enhancement of GR activity in this weed was further confirmed by an experiment of exogenous application of ascorbate.

To investigate the influence of male age on the pregnancy outcomes of in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET).We retrospectively analyzed 7,533 cycles of IVF-ET performed between January 1, 2009 and October 31, 2013. We divided the samples into three groups according to the female age (30, 30-34, and 35-38 yr), each again subdivided into six groups based on the male age (30, 30-32, 33-35, 36-38, 39-41, and ≥ 42 yr). We compared the rates of implantation, pregnancy, miscarriage, and live birth among different age groups.There were no statistically significant differences in basal E2, FSH, endometrium thickness on the day of hCG administration, number of oocytes retrieved, and days of embryo transfer among different male age groups (P0.05). The implantation rate showed an age-dependent decrease in the30, 30-32, 33-35, 36-38, 39-41, and ≥ 42 yr male groups, 41.1, 42.0, 39.5, 31.3, 40.7, and 48.6% among the women aged30 years (P0.05), 40.3, 36.4, 35.1, 35.3, 29.4, and 37.3% among the women aged 30-34 years (P0.05), and 48.2, 17.8, 25.3, 23.5, 22.1, and 23.8% among the women aged 35-38 years (P0.05). The miscarriage rate was significantly higher in the ≥ 39 yr than in the 30-32 and 33-35 yr male age groups among the women aged 30-34 years (P0.05), but showed no remarkable differences among the other male age groups in the women aged30 and 35-38 years (P0.05). No statistically significant differences were observed in the rates of pregnancy and live birth among different male age groups (P0.05).Male age has some influence on the rates of implantation and miscarriage but not on the rates of pregnancy and live birth in IVF-ET.

SUMMARY By means of the region‐time‐length (RTL) algorithm, which is widely used for investigating the precursory seismicity changes in China, Italy, Japan, Russia and Turkey, we examine the precursory seismic activity occurred prior to the 1999, M w = 7.6, Chi-Chi earthquake around its epicentre. Based on our calculation of the RTL values, the epicentral area has been found to strongly exhibit the signature of anomalous activity, associated with the seismic quiescence and activation, before the main shock. Also proposed in this study is a helpful method for determining two important parameters used in the RTL analysis, the characteristic time and distance. Such method will largely reduce the ambiguity in the original RTL algorithm.

There has been a considerable increase in the abuse of drugs during the past decade. Combing drug use with driving is very dangerous. More than 11% of drivers in a roadside survey tested positive for drugs, while 18% of drivers killed in accidents tested positive for drugs as reported in USA, 2007. Toward developing a rapid drug screening device, we use saliva as the sample, and combining the traditional immunoassays method with optical magnetic technology. There were several methods for magnetic nanoparticles detection, such as magnetic coils, SQUID, microscopic imaging, and Hall sensors. All of these methods were not suitable for our demands. By developing a novel optical scheme, we demonstrate high-sensitivity detection in saliva. Drugs of abuse are detected at sub-nano gram per milliliter levels in less than 120 seconds. Evanescent wave principle has been applied to sensitively monitor the presence of magnetic nanoparticles on the binding surface. Like the total internal reflection fluorescence microscope (TIRFM), evanescent optical field is generated at the plastic/fluid interface, which decays exponentially and penetrates into the fluid by only a sub-wavelength distance. By disturbance total internal reflection with magnetic nanoparticles, the optical intensity would be influenced. We then detected optical output by imaging the sensor surface onto a CCD camera. We tested four drugs tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), methamphetamine (MAMP), ketamine (KET), morphine (OPI), using this technology. 100 ng mL-1 sensitivity was achieved, and obvious evidence showed that this results could be improved in further researches.

The wear behavior of two coatings (Fe49.7Cr18Mn1.9Mo7.4W1.6B15.2C3.8Si2.4 and Fe40Cr23Mo14C15B6Y2) sprayed by high-velocity air fuel technology was investigated through nanoscratch tests under ramping loads. Compared with the substrate, the Fe-based amorphous coatings exhibit lower penetration depth, higher elastic recovery, and lower wear volume, indicating the excellent wear resistance of the coatings. This behavior is related to the high hardness and high hardness/elastic modulus ratio (H/E) of the Fe-based amorphous coatings. From the scanning electron microscopy images of the scratch grooves, it is found out that ploughing governs the wear behavior of the coatings and substrate. In addition, spalling wear easily occurs in the pore regions of the coatings.

The predictive value of anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) in Chinese women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment is data deficient. To determine the attributes of AMH in IVF, oocyte yield, cycle cancellation, and pregnancy outcomes were analyzed. All patients initiating their first IVF cycle with gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist treatment in our center from October 2013 through December 2014 were included, except patients diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome. Serum samples collected prior to IVF treatment were used to determine serum AMH levels. A total of 4017 continuous cycles were analyzed. The AMH level was positively correlated with the number of oocytes retrieved. Overall, AMH was significantly correlated with risk of cycle cancellation, poor ovarian response (POR, 3, or fewer oocytes retrieved) and high response (>15 oocytes), with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.83, 0.89, and 0.82 respectively. An AMH cutoff of 0.6 ng/mL had a sensitivity of 54.0% and a specificity of 90.0% for the prediction of cycle cancellation, and cutoff of 0.8 ng/mL with a sensitivity of 55.0% and a specificity of 94.0% for the prediction of POR. Compared with AMH >2.0 ng/mL, patients with AMH 2.00 ng/mL) showed no significant differences. Even with AMH≤0.4 ng/mL, 50.0% of all the patients achieved pregnancy and 34.8% of patients achieved live birth after transfer. Our results suggested that AMH is a fairly robust metric for the prediction of cycle cancellation and oocyte yield for Chinese women, but it is a relatively poor test for prediction of pregnancy outcomes. Patients with low levels of AMH still can achieve reasonable treatment outcomes and low AMH levels in isolation do not represent an appropriate marker for withholding fertility treatment.

Alcohol is estimated to be the major factor of vehiclerelated deaths in many counties. Setting-up random checking points with breathalyzer by police departments has several drawbacks: traffic interruption; time consuming; costly; only selected vehicles can be tested; human interaction required. In this paper, a new method based on TDLAS (Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy) for remote detection of alcohol concentration in vehicle has been promoted. The theory of TDLAS has been given, and the alcohol concentration in vehicle has been analyzed and estimated. The result shows that TDLAS technique can be applied in remote detection of alcohol concentration in vehicle, which will evidently eliminates the drawbacks of checking points using breathalyzer.