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Background Recent studies have indicated that females with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have a lower morbidity, severe case rate, and mortality and better outcome than those of male individuals. However, the reasons remained to be addressed. Methods To find the factors that potentially protect females from COVID-19, we recruited all confirmed patients hospitalized at 3 branches of Tongji Hospital (N = 1902), and analyzed the correlation between menstrual status (n = 509, including 68 from Mobile Cabin Hospital), female hormones (n = 78), and cytokines related to immunity and inflammation (n = 263), and the severity/clinical outcomes in female patients <60 years of age. Results Nonmenopausal female patients had milder severity and better outcome compared with age-matched men (P <.01 for both). Menopausal patients had longer hospitalization times than nonmenopausal patients (hazard ratio [HR], 1.91 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 1.06–3.46]; P =.033). Both anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) and estradiol (E2) showed a negative correlation with severity of infection (adjusted HR, 0.146 [95% CI,.026–.824], P =.029 and 0.304 [95% CI,.092–1.001], P =.05, respectively). E2 levels were negatively correlated with interleukin (IL) 2R, IL-6, IL-8, and tumor necrosis factor alpha in the luteal phase (P =.033, P =.048, P =.054, and P =.023) and C3 in the follicular phase (P =.030). Conclusions Menopause is an independent risk factor for female COVID-19 patients. AMH and E2 are potential protective factors, negatively correlated with COVID-19 severity, among which E2 is attributed to its regulation of cytokines related to immunity and inflammation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mammalian oocytes go through a long and complex developmental process, while acquiring the competencies that are required for fertilization and embryogenesis. Recent studies revealed that the communication between oocytes and granulosa cells (GCs) is a critical process for female follicle development. In the current study, we aimed to study whether and how semaphorin 6C (Sema6c) regulated the cell junctions between oocytes and GCs in mice preantral follicles. The attenuation of SEMA6C expression by siRNA decreased the cell–cell junctions and accelerated follicle atresia in vitro. PI3K‐AKT pathway was activated when SEMA6C expression was downregulated. And the LY294002, a PI3K inhibitor, could reverse the effect of low SEMA6C expression on cell junctions in preantral follicles. Our findings revealed that Sema6c was involved in follicle development, and the suppression of SEMA6C led to cell junction defection by activating the PI3K/AKT pathway, which might also provide valuable information for understanding premature ovarian failure and ovarian aging. Mammalian oocytes go through a long and complex developmental process, while acquiring the competencies that are required for fertilization and embryogenesis.Our findings revealed that Sema6c was involved in follicle development, and the suppression of SEMA6C led to cell junction defection by activating the PI3K/AKT pathway, which might also provide valuable information for understanding premature ovarian failure and ovarian aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the quantum image filtering in spatial domain proposed by Yuan et al. (Int. J. Theor. Phys. 56(8), 2495–2511, 2017). Although the complexity of this algorithm is much better than the classical exhaustive algorithm, there may be a defect in it: the quantum multiplication was replaced by quantum addition. There are two shortcomings: 1) We should know exactly the value of the filter coefficients before each filtering behavior. 2) This method is only suitable for integer filter coefficients but not for decimal filter coefficients. In this paper, an improved version is proposed which takes full advantage of the quantum multiplication and can overcome these two shortcomings. The theoretical analysis indicates that the time complexity is the same as the previous algorithm. So this algorithm is also efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fiber-optic Fabry–Perot acoustic sensor system based on an improved wavelength tuning stabilization technique is presented. The stabilization is achieved by wavelength periodically tuning using a tunable distributed feedback laser. The performance of the developed sensor system was verified by tests. Experimental results demonstrate that the sensitivity, the dynamic range, and the min detectable sound pressure level (SPL) are 92 mV/Pa, 96 dB, and 7 dB-SPL at 1 kHz, respectively. The sensor is suitable for weak acoustic sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]