Telomere Length and Male Fertility

Over the past decade, telomeres have attracted increasing attention due to the role they play in human fertility. However, conflicting results have been reported on the possible association between sperm telomere length (STL) and leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and the quality of the sperm parameters. The aim of this study was to run a comprehensive study to investigate the role of STL and LTL in male spermatogenesis and infertility. Moreover, the association between the sperm parameters and 11 candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), identified in the literature for their association with telomere length (TL), was investigated. We observed no associations between sperm parameters and STL nor LTL. For the individual SNPs, we observed five statistically significant associations with sperm parameters: considering a p < 0.05. Namely, ACYP2˗rs11125529 and decreased sperm motility (p = 0.03); PXK˗rs6772228 with a lower sperm count (p = 0.02); NAF1˗rs7675998 with increased probability of having abnormal acrosomes (p = 0.03) and abnormal flagellum (p = 0.04); ZNF208˗rs8105767 and reduction of sperms with normal heads (p = 0.009). This study suggests a moderate involvement of telomere length in male fertility; however, in our analyses four SNPs were weakly associated with sperm variables, suggesting the SNPs to be pleiotropic and involved in other regulatory mechanisms independent of telomere homeostasis, but involved in the spermatogenic process.     

Targeted editing of intronic-splicing silencer enhancement of SMN2 Exon 7 inclusion by CRISPR/Case 9

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive hereditary neuromuscular disease. Exon 7 and 8 of survival of motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene or only exon 7 homology deletion leads to the failure to produce a full-length SMN gene. The copy number of SMN2 gene with high homology of SMN1 affects the degree of disease and was the target gene for targeting therapy, in which splicing silencer in intron 7 was the key to suppress the inclusion of exon 7. In this study, we projected to use CRISPR/Case 9 for the targeted editing of intronic-splicing silencer (ISS) sequence to promote the inclusion of SMN2 exon 7 and increase the production of SMN2 full-length (FL) gene expression. It happens that there was a protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) at one end of the ISS sequence according to the design of sgRNA. The recombinant vector of sgRNA HSMN2 CRISPR/Case 9 was constructed and transfected into HEK293 cells. Sequencing results showed that the ISS sequence could be edited accurately and targeting in the predicted direction, in which deleting small fragments, inserting small amounts and mutation. Quantitative analysis of RT-PCR products by restriction enzyme of DdeI digestion showed that the FL of SMN2 increased by 8% (P < 0.05). In the primary cultured chondrocytes of SMA mice, in which sgRNA HSMN2 CRISPR/Case9 recombinant vector transfection could increase the SMN2 FL gene by 23% (P < 0.05) and significantly improve SMN protein levels (P < 0.05). CRISPR/Case 9 is an effective tool for gene editing and therapy of hereditary diseases, but it is rarely reported in the treatment of SMA diseases. This study shows that CRISPR/Case 9 was first used for the precision target of ISS sequence editing, which can effectively promote the production of SMN2 FL gene expressions, in which there was an important clinical reference value.     

自重湿陷性黄土地基预钻孔浸水处理的可靠度设计方法

为解决传统预浸水法存在的浸水时间长、浸水处理范围难以确定等不足,基于土体中水分运移规律,依据可靠度理论、极限状态设计方法及复合 Poisson 过程原理,提出一种消除黄土湿陷性的处理浸水方法——预钻孔浸水法。给出了利用预钻孔浸水法对自重湿陷性黄土地基进行浸水时,水平向及竖直向浸水影响范围的确定模型;在此基础上结合达西定律给出了浸水孔设计参数如孔深、孔间距及浸水孔个数的确定方法。结合铜川某工程,设计进行了现场预钻孔浸水试验,对该方法的合理性进行了验证,并通过现场钻探、现场勘探、室内湿陷性试验等方法对该方法的处理效果进行了评价。该浸水方法具有浸水时间短、浸水影响范围可根据浸水孔布设进行控制等优点,且浸水处理效果良好,完全符合施工要求。     

Birth traits of Holstein calves compared with Holstein,Jersey, Montbéliarde,Normande, and Viking Red-sired crossbred calves

Holstein (HO) calves, 3-breed crossbred calves of Montbéliarde, Viking Red, and HO (MVH), and 3-breed crossbred calves of Normande, Jersey, and Viking Red (NJV) were compared for gestation length (GL), calf weight at birth (CW), calving difficulty (CD), and stillbirth (SB) in 2 research herds at the University of Minnesota. Calves were born from January 2009 to December 2019. For the St. Paul and Morris herds, HO calves (n = 1,121) were compared with MVH calves (n = 1,393) from primiparous and multiparous cows. For the single herd analysis at Morris, HO calves (n = 476), MVH calves (n = 922), and NJV calves (n = 405) were compared from primiparous and multiparous cows. Primiparous and multiparous births were analyzed separately because multiparous cows had multiple births, and CD and SB are likely different traits for primiparous and multiparous cows. Statistical analysis of GL, CW, CD, and SB included fixed effects of sex of calf, herd, breed group of calf, and year-season of calving. For the St. Paul and Morris herds, HO calves from primiparous (278 d) and multiparous (279 d) HO cows had shorter GL compared with MVH calves from primiparous (280 d) and multiparous (282 d) crossbred cows. The HO calves (39.4 and 43.2 kg, respectively) from primiparous and multiparous HO cows had lower CW compared with MVH calves (40.3 and 44.3 kg, respectively) from primiparous and multiparous crossbred cows. Calving difficulty and SB were not different for HO and MVH calves from primiparous and multiparous cows. For the single herd analysis at Morris, HO calves (278 and 279 d, respectively) from primiparous and multiparous HO cows had shorter GL compared with MVH calves (281 and 282 d, respectively) and NJV calves (282 and 282 d, respectively) from primiparous and multiparous crossbred cows. The CW of HO calves (38.6 and 42.0 kg, respectively) from primiparous and multiparous HO cows was lower compared with MVH calves (39.7 and 42.9 kg, respectively), but higher compared with NJV calves (35.1 and 38.0 kg, respectively) from primiparous and multiparous crossbred cows. Calving difficulty and SB did not differ for HO, MVH, and NJV calves from primiparous and multiparous cows. The longer GL for crossbred calves and higher CW for MVH calves did not increase CD and SB for primiparous and multiparous cows. Dairy producers may implement 3-breed rotational crossbreeding systems that include the HO, Jersey, Normande, Montbéliarde, and Viking Red breeds, and some breeds may increase GL and CW without an increase in CD and SB.     

A Fusion Kalman Filter and UFIR Estimator Using the Influence Function Method

In this paper, the Kalman filter (KF) and the unbiased finite impulse response (UFIR) filter are fused in the discrete-time state-space to improve robustness against uncertainties. To avoid the problem where fusion filters may give up some advantages of UFIR filters by fusing based on noise statistics, we attempt to find a way to fuse without using noise statistics. The fusion filtering algorithm is derived using the influence function that provides a quantified measure for disturbances on the resulting filtering outputs and is termed as an influence finite impulse response (IFIR) filter. The main advantage of the proposed method is that the noise statistics of process noise and measurement noise are no longer required in the fusion process, showing that a critical feature of the UFIR filter is inherited. One numerical example and a practice-oriented case are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. It is shown that the IFIR filter has adaptive performance and can automatically switch from the Kalman estimate to the UFIR estimates according to operating conditions. Moreover, the proposed method can reduce the effects of optimal horizon length on the UFIR estimate and can give the state estimates of best accuracy among all the compared methods.      

Influence of thermal runaway in styrene–acrylonitrile bulk copolymerization revealed by computational fluid dynamics modeling

The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and kinetic-based moment methods coupled approach is adopted to simulate the bulk copolymerization of styrene–acrylonitrile (SAN) in a stirred tank reactor. Numerical simulations are carried out to investigate the impacts of impeller speed, monomer ratio, initiator ratio, and initial reaction temperature on the copolymerization process and product properties. Particularly, the Chaos theory is selected as a criterion for evaluating the occurrence of the thermal runaway. The Flory's and Stockmayer's distributions are employed to calculate chain length distribution and copolymer composition distribution of copolymer. The simulation results highlight that the appearance of thermal runaway can be postponed by properly increasing the rotation speed, decreasing the initiator loadings, initial acrylonitrile contents and initial reactor temperature. Furthermore, significant differences exist in the product properties that predicted by the ideal and non-ideal models, which demonstrates that the temperature heterogeneity plays a crucial role in SAN copolymerization. This study could offer references for the safe operation and design of polymerization processes.     

二次侧非能动余热排出系统流动不稳定性研究

二次侧非能动余热排出（ASP）系统是压水堆核电厂应对全厂断电事故的重要措施之一。为研究ASP系统的运行特性，设计建造了ASP系统试验装置（ASPTF）。在ASPTF上开展了ASP系统运行稳定性影响试验，并对试验结果进行了理论分析。试验研究与理论分析结果表明：低压低功率下ASP系统中出现流动不稳定性；增加蒸汽管线或回水管线阻力系数可抑制ASP系统出现流动不稳定性；降低加热功率时ASP系统更易出现流动不稳定性；主泵运行状态影响ASP系统的输入功率进而影响系统的流动不稳定性。     

食物营养对运动员身体形态的影响研究

目的建立食物营养与运动员营养生化指标和身体形态之间的对应关系,探讨饮食模式可能对运动员身体机能的影响。方法以166名国家注册运动员为研究对象,采用SIMCA-P13+构建运动员饮食模式的OPLS-DA模型,并采用SPSS17.0统计分析软件对调研结果进行分析。结果总能量和脂肪、蛋白质和碳水化合物摄入分别对体脂百分数、体脂含量和体重指数成正相关的影响;微量元素的摄入会影响体脂百分数、增加体脂含量和体重指数;除缬氨酸、苏氨酸、蛋氨酸+胱氨酸外,组氨酸、异亮氨酸、亮氨酸和赖氨酸对运动员身体形态的影响都相似,即异亮氨酸、亮氨酸和赖氨酸的摄入会降低体脂百分数,但是都会增加体脂含量和体重指数;而组氨酸的摄入则会同时降低体脂百分数、体脂含量和体重指数。谷类及相关制品、高糖淀粉类、含糖饮料类和蔬菜类的摄入而增加体脂百分数、体脂含量和体重指数;高糖淀粉类和水果类的摄入而增加体脂百分数、体脂含量,并降低体重指数;畜肉类、禽肉类和蛋类的摄入而减小体脂百分数、体脂含量,并增加体重指数;水产类、豆类和奶类的摄入会减小体脂百分数,并体重指数。结论优秀运动员具有自身相对稳定的饮食模式表现出个体差异性;营养摄入模式不同表现出对运动员的身体机能指标有一定的关联,通过模型识别技术表明营养摄入对运动员身体形态有重要的影响,可通过食物营养与运动员营养生化指标和身体形态之间的对应关系加以控制。     

载荷影响下的机电阻抗协整结构损伤识别方法

高频机电阻抗(electromechanical impedance, 简称EMI)方法利用粘贴在结构表面的压电传感器(piezoelectric transducer, 简称PZT)进行主动激励，通过连续监测和分析PZT机电导纳信号的变化评估结构的健康状态；然而EMI方法容易受到环境工况变化的影响，导致结构损伤的误报。针对此问题，采用时间序列协整方法处理及消除结构工作载荷对阻抗谱特征信号的影响。该方法是基于结构动荷载作用下PZT阻抗谱导纳信号的非平稳特征，将动荷载影响下的阻抗谱非平稳时间序列经线性组合变换成平稳时间序列，根据得到的协整余量序列有效判断结构的健康状态。为验证该方法的有效性，开展了动应力影响下铝梁结构的螺栓松动损伤识别实验。结果表明，协整消除了动态应力对EMI方法的影响，当铝梁内存在持续变化的应力时，仍可以准确识别螺栓松动。机电阻抗协整方法能够消除结构健康监测中荷载作用的影响，及时准确地进行结构损伤识别。