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Studies have shown that thyroid autoimmunity (TAI) is associated with increased risks of adverse pregnancy outcomes. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between TAI and embryo quality in euthyroid women undergoing in vitro fertilization or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI).This retrospective cohort study included euthyroid infertile women with and without TAI (defined as a serum thyroperoxidase concentration ≥ 34 IU/mL or thyroglobulin concentration ≥ 115.0 IU/mL) who underwent their first complete IVF/ICSI treatment cycles at a tertiary referral center between April 2016 and February 2022. Embryo quality measurements and clinical outcomes were compared between women with (TAI-positive) and without TAI (TAI-negative). The high-quality cleavage embryo rate and cumulative live birth rate (cLBR) were the primary outcomes.A total of 499 TAI-positive and 2,945 TAI-negative women were included in this study, and their mean (standard deviation) ages were 31.6 (4.5) and 30.9 (4.4) years, respectively (p = 0.001). The overall analysis showed no significant differences between TAI-negative and TAI-positive women in the high-quality cleavage embryo rate (n/N: 11,139/22,553 vs. 1,971/3,820; adjusted rate: 52.8% vs. 51.6%, p = 0.66) and cLBR (1,917/2,945 vs. 327/499; 53.4% vs. 56.2%, p = 0.31). Moreover, no significant differences were observed between TAI-negative and TAI-positive women in the rates of oocyte retrieval (35,078/51,978 vs. 5,853/8,628; 69.1% vs. 67.4%; p = 0.65), fertilization (23,067/34,197 vs. 3,902/5,728; 61.1% vs. 62.2%, p = 0.34), embryo utilization (18,233/22,553 vs. 3,156/3,820; 80.2% vs. 80.8%, p = 0.61), blastocyst formation (7,051/13,721 vs. 1,192/2,330; 48.5% vs. 48.4%, p = 0.97) and high-quality blastocysts (4,819/13,721 vs. 799/2,330; 29.9% vs. 29.4%, p = 0.73). Furthermore, no significant differences were observed between TAI-negative and TAI-positive women in the clinical pregnancy rate (1,524/2,808 vs. 248/482; 46.7% vs. 44.6%, p = 0.40), early pregnancy loss rate (156/1,524 vs. 23/248; 13.5% vs. 11.5%, p = 0.44) and live birth rate (1,338/2,808 vs. 218/482; 37.4% vs. 36.0%, p = 0.55) of the first transfer cycle.This study demonstrated that TAI in women was not associated with embryo quality or the cLBR following IVF/ICSI. Future large prospective studies are warranted to confirm these findings.

Context Our previous study showed that paternal subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) had a detrimental effect on the clinical outcomes of assisted reproductive technologies. However, it remains to be determined whether paternal SCH affects sperm DNA integrity. Objective To investigate the association between SCH and sperm DNA fragmentation in men seeking infertility care. Methods This cross-sectional study included 4983 men with euthyroidism and 418 men with SCH seeking infertility treatment in a tertiary care academic medical center between January 2017 and December 2021. The outcome measures were the absolute DNA fragmentation index (DFI) and the risk of abnormal DFI (defined as DFI ≥ 25% or ≥ 30%). Results The mean (SD) age of men with euthyroidism and men with SCH was 34.20 (5.97) and 35.35 (6.48) years, respectively (P Conclusion SCH was significantly associated with an increased risk of an abnormal DFI.

Gear system is usually lubricated to generate an oil film to avoid dry contact at the mesh interface. As the oil film separates the engaging gear teeth, its effect on the transmission error (TE) is opposite to the teeth elasticity. How to consider the combined influence of the oil film and the tooth elasticity on the TE, and further on the dynamic performance of gears, is still not revealed completely. In this paper, a new mesh stiffness (MS) involving the effect from the oil film and the tooth elasticity is defined, and a nonlinear dynamic model of a spur gear system with developed MS and drive-side and back-side contact is proposed. The effect of the oil film on the dynamic responses of the gear pair is revealed by comparing the received results with that from the dry contact situation and the experiment. It is indicated that the oil film will affect the effective MS and dynamic transmission error (DTE) of the gear system, especially under the situation with the light load. For a tip relived gear pair, the dynamic load sharing ratio (DLSR) between teeth pairs changes significantly when the lubrication is considered.

Planet bearings have remained as the challenging components for health monitoring and diagnostics in the planetary transmission systems of helicopters and wind turbines, due to their intricate kinematic mechanisms, strong modulations, and heavy interferences from gear vibrations. To address intelligent diagnostics of planet bearings, this article presents a data-driven dictionary design–based sparse classification (DDD-SC) approach. DDD-SC is free of detecting the weak frequency features and can achieve reliable fault recognition performances for planet bearings without establishing any explicit classifiers. In the first step, DDD-SC implements the data-driven dictionary design with an overlapping segmentation strategy, which leverages the self-similarity features of planet bearing data and constructs the category-specific dictionaries with strong representation power. In the second step, DDD-SC implements the sparsity-based intelligent diagnosis with the sparse representation–based classification criterion and differentiates various planet bearing health states based on minimal sparse reconstruction errors. The effectiveness and superiority of DDD-SC for intelligent planet bearing fault diagnosis have been demonstrated with an experimental planetary transmission system. The extensive diagnosis results show that DDD-SC can achieve the highest diagnosis accuracy, strongest anti-noise performance, and lowest computation costs in comparison with three classical sparse representation–based classification and two advanced deep learning methods.

Manufacturing errors widely exist in and deteriorate the dynamic property of planetary gear train (PGT). To solve this problem, the ring gear is often designed with a thin rim to compensate for the effects of manufacturing errors via the elastic deflections of the rim. Existing dynamic models of the PGT only consider the effects of either the elasticity of the rim of the ring gear or the manufacturing errors. The coupling effects of manufacturing errors and the flexible ring gear are ignored. To understand the dynamic behaviors of the PGT better, a dynamic model of the PGT coupled with typical manufacturing error and flexible ring gear is developed in this study. The tooth contact analysis of the ring-planet mesh, which is calculated based on the potential energy method and uniformly curved Timoshenko beam theory, is studied using the influence coefficient method. A numerical algorithm is proposed to solve the integrated dynamic equations of the PGT. Calculated results show that the dynamic features of the PGT are complex, and the load sharing characteristic is improved when the flexible ring gear is incorporated.

Background: Maternal subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is a risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, it is still unclear whether SCH affects male fertility. The aim of this study was to ...

BackgroundThrough this prospective study, we aimed to explore the change of molecular modification after the transient scrotal hyperthermia on human sperm.MethodsTen healthy subjects selected with strict screening criteria underwent testicular warming in a 43 °C water bath for 30 min a day for 10 consecutive days. Semen samples were collected 2 weeks before the first heat treatment and 6 weeks after the first heat treatment. Proteins from the samples were labeled with isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation and analyzed by two-dimensional liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry.ResultsIn contrast to the control, of the 3446 proteins identified, 61 proteins were deregulated: 28 were up-regulated and 33 were down-regulated. Approximately 95% of the differentially expressed proteins were found to participate in spermatogenesis, fertilization, or other aspects of reproduction. In particular, the expression of sperm motility and energy metabolism-related proteins AKAP4, SPESP1, ODF1, ODF2, GAPDHS, and ACTRT2, validated by western blotting of the proteins obtained from human and mouse samples, tended to be reduced under scrotal hyperthermia.ConclusionsThe results indicated that the proteins AKAP4, ODF1, ODF2, GAPDHS, SPESP1, and ACTRT2, play an important role in the heat-induced reversible reduction in sperm concentration and motility and have the potential to be the biomarkers and clinical targets for scrotal heat treatment induced male infertility.

Background: OHSS (ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome) is a life-threatening complication and most common adverse effect of fertility treatmentObjectives: To investigate associated risk factors of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) in stimulated ovarian cycles with assisted reproductive technology, may provide guidance for clinicians on how to prevent OHSS. Methods: A Logistic regression analysis was conducted in 336 patients who had completed IVF-ICSI/ET cycles between April 2019 and April 2020 in the first affiliated hospital of kunming medical university. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves for OHSS were calculated for each predictor using cut-off values. Area under the curve (AUC) analysis and logistic regression models were performed to compare the performance of laboratory biomarkers. Results: According to clinical diagnosis, 61 cycles developed OHSS of 336 cycles, with an incidence of 18.15%. Patients were graded according to their clinical symptoms and severity, including 27 cycles of moderate OHSS (8.04%) and 8 cycles of severe OHSS (2.38%). The cut-off value of AMH, E2 on HCG day, egg retrieved to predict moderate and severe OHSS were 7.495ng/ml, 4828pg/ml and 19.5 in GnRH-a Prolonged Protocol, with sensitivities of 77.0%, 67.2%, 80.3%, and specificity of 68.0%, 70.9%, 81.5% respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) values of AMH, E2 on HCG day, Number of oocytes retrieved to predict moderate and severe OHSS were 0.754, 0.738, 0.876, respectively. And the AUC value of combined index to predict moderate and severe OHSS was 0.898, achieved the highest AUC with 85.2% sensitivity and 83.6% specificity. Conclusions:AMH, E2 day of HCG and number of eggs obtained have a good predictive effect on the occurrence of OHSS, and the predictive ability is further improved after the combination of the three indicators.

BACKGROUND Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) and thyroid autoimmunity (TAI) are associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes such as pregnancy loss and preterm birth. However, the ability of levothyroxine (LT4) supplementation to attenuate the risks of these outcomes remains controversial. OBJECTIVE AND RATIONALE This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to determine the effect of LT4 supplementation on pregnancy loss rate (PLR) and preterm birth rate (PBR) among pregnant women with SCH and TAI. SEARCH METHODS A systematic literature search of the PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and Cochrane Controlled Trials Register databases and Clinicaltrials.gov was performed to identify all relevant English studies published up to April 2018. The following terms were used for the search: [subclinical hypothyroidism OR thyroid autoimmunity OR thyroperoxidase antibody (TPO-Ab) OR thyroglobulin antibodies (Tg-Ab)] AND (levothyroxine OR euthyrox) AND [pregnancy outcome OR miscarriage OR abortion OR pregnancy loss OR preterm birth OR premature delivery OR early labo(u)r]. The reference lists of the relevant publications were also manually searched for related studies. Published manuscripts were included if they reported data on pregnancy loss, preterm birth or both. We separately analysed the pooled effects of LT4 supplementation on PLR and PBR in women with SCH and TAI. OUTCOMES Overall, 13 eligible studies including 7970 women were included in the meta-analysis. Eight and five of these studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and retrospective studies, respectively. The pooled results indicated that LT4 supplementation significantly decreased the PLR [relative risk (RR) = 0.56, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.42-0.75, I2 = 1%, 12 studies] and PBR (RR = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.51-0.91, I2 = 21%, eight studies) in women with SCH and/or TAI. We further found that LT4 supplementation significantly decreased the risk of pregnancy loss (RR = 0.43, 95% CI: 0.26-0.72, P = 0.001, I2 = 0%) but not of preterm birth (RR = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.41-1.12, P = 0.13, I2 = 0%) in women with SCH. Furthermore, LT4 supplementation significantly decreased the risks of both pregnancy loss (RR = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.45-0.89, P = 0.009, I2 = 0%) and preterm birth (RR = 0.68 95% CI: 0.48-0.98, P = 0.04, I2 = 46%) in women with TAI. These results were consistent when only RCTs were included in the analysis. Further, in women with SCH, LT4 supplementation reduced the risk of pregnancy loss in pregnancies achieved by assisted reproduction (RR = 0.27, 95% CI: 0.14-0.52, P < 0.001, I2 = 14%) but not in naturally conceived pregnancies (RR = 0.60, 95% CI: 0.28-1.30, P = 0.13, I2 = 0%). By contrast, in women with TAI, LT4 supplementation reduced the risks of both pregnancy loss (RR = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.39-0.96, P = 0.03, I2 = 0%) and preterm birth (RR = 0.49, 95% CI: 0.30-0.79, P = 0.003, I2 = 0%) in naturally conceived pregnancies but not in pregnancies achieved by assisted reproduction (RR = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.40-1.15, P = 0.15, I2 = 0% for pregnancy loss and RR = 1.20, 95% CI: 0.68-2.13, P = 0.53, I2 not applicable for preterm birth). WIDER IMPLICATIONS This meta-analysis confirmed the beneficial effects of LT4 supplementation, namely the reduced risks of pregnancy loss and preterm birth, among pregnant women with SCH and/or TAI. The different effects of LT4 supplementation on naturally conceived pregnancies and pregnancies achieved by assisted reproduction in women with SCH and/or TAI suggest that these women should be managed separately. Due to the limited number of studies included in this meta-analysis, especially in the subgroup analysis, further large RCTs and fundamental studies are warranted to confirm the conclusions and better clarify the molecular mechanism underlying these associations.

Is humanin present in the human ovary and follicular fluid? What relationship exists between humanin concentration in the follicular fluid and ovarian reserve and clinical outcomes after IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)?Follicular fluid samples were collected from 179 patients undergoing their first IVF or ICSI cycle during oocyte retrieval. Ovarian tissues were collected from two patients undergoing surgery for ovarian cysts. Ovarian humanin localization was analysed using immunofluorescence staining. Expression of humanin in granulosa cells was confirmed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis. Follicular fluid humanin levels were evaluated with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Relationships between follicular fluid humanin levels and ovarian reserve markers and clinical outcomes were analysed.Strong humanin expression was found in the granulosa cells, oocytes and stromal cells of the ovary. Agarose gel electrophoresis of RT-PCR products showed rich humanin mRNA expression in human granulosa cells (119 bp). Follicular fluid humanin concentrations ranged from 86.40 to 417.60 pg/ml. They significantly correlated with FSH (r = -0.21; P0.01), LH (r = -0.18; P = 0.02), antral follicle count (r = 0.27; P0.01), anti-Müllerian hormone (r = 0.24; P = 0.03) and inhibin B (r = 0.46; P0.01) levels. Patients were subdivided into four groups according to follicular fluid humanin concentration quartiles (Q1-Q4). Patients in Q4 were more likely to achieve a pregnancy than Q1 (OR = 3.60; 95% CI 1.09 to 11.84).Humanin concentration in the follicular fluid was positively associated with ovarian reserve and clinical pregnancy rate.

This paper presents methods for the 2019 PHM Conference Data Challenge developed by the team named "Angler". This Challenge aims to estimate the fatigue crack length of a type of aluminum structure using ultrasonic signals at the current load cycle and to predict the crack length at multiple future load cycles (multiple-step-ahead prediction) as accurately as possible. For estimating crack length, four crack-sensitive features are extracted from ultrasonic signals, namely, the first peak value, root mean square value, logarithm of kurtosis, and correlation coefficient. An ensemble linear regression model is presented to map these features and their second-order interactions with the crack length. The Best Subset Selection method is employed to select the optimal features. For predicting crack length, variations of the Paris’ law are derived to describe the relationships between the crack length and the number of load cycles. The material parameters and stress range of Paris’ law are learned using the Genetic Algorithm. These parameters will be updated based on the previous-step predicted crack length. After that, the crack length corresponding to a future load cycle number for either the constant amplitude load case or variable amplitude load case is predicted. The presented methods achieved a score of 16.14 based on the score-calculation rule provided by the Data Challenge committees, and was ranked third best among all participating teams.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the most common endocrine disorder in women of reproductive age, is characterized by hyperandrogenism and insulin resistance (IR); however, the pathogenesis of local ovarian IR in PCOS remains largely unclear. Humanin, a mitochondria-derived peptide, has been reported to be associated with IR. Our previous study confirmed that humanin is expressed in multiple cell types in the ovary and is present in follicular fluid. However, it remains unknown whether humanin participates in the pathogenesis of local ovarian IR or whether humanin supplementation can improve IR in PCOS patients. In this study, we compared humanin concentrations in follicular fluid from PCOS patients with and without IR. We further investigated the effect of humanin analogue (HNG) supplementation on IR in a rat model of dehydroepiandrosterone-induced PCOS. Humanin concentrations in the follicular fluid were found to be significantly lower in PCOS patients with IR than in those without IR. HNG supplementation attenuated both the increases in the levels of fasting plasma glucose and fasting insulin in rats with PCOS and the decreases in phosphorylation of IRS1, PI3K, AKT, and GLUT4 proteins in the granulosa cells of these rats. Combined supplementation with HNG and insulin significantly improved glucose consumption in normal and humanin-siRNA-transfected COV434 cells. In conclusion, downregulated humanin in the ovaries may be involved in the pathogenesis of IR in PCOS, and exogenous supplementation with HNG improved local ovarian IR through modulation of the IRS1/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway in a rat model. This finding supports the potential future use of HNG as a therapeutic drug for PCOS.

Rotating machinery like wind turbines often operates under varying speed conditions. Measuring speed signals is critical for vibration-based condition monitoring of rotating machines. However, in real applications, sometimes it is difficult to install speed sensors to collect speed signals due to physical space and/or cost restrictions. Considering vibration signals are widely collected for condition monitoring, this paper proposes a virtual rotating speed meter which can extract the rotating speed of a rotating machine from its vibration signals. The proposed virtual speed meter is a framework of deep neural network in nature, which takes the vibration signal as the input, and directly outputs the corresponding speed signal. The training of this neural network is based on transfer learning across two machines: a source machine and a target machine. The source machine has massive historically measured vibration and speed signals available, while the target machine only has vibration available. The virtual speed meter is firstly trained with historical vibration signals and speed signals of the source machine, and then fine-tuned to fit a target machine to extract its speed from its vibration signals. Limited speed labels of the target machine for transfer learning are estimated using a reported signal processing method named Path Optimization. Case studies on two experimental datasets validate the effectiveness of the proposed virtual rotating speed meter.

Many researchers have developed analytical methods to evaluate gear meshing stiffness. Some of these methods ignored the effect of the gear body while others used a simplified model to consider its effect. Until now, a detailed investigation of gear body-induced tooth deflections has been rare, especially for the double-tooth-pair meshing period. In this study, we present a detailed investigation of gear body-induced tooth deflections. To be specific, we will discuss how to accurately evaluate gear body-induced tooth deflections using the finite element analysis, and what are the effect of parameters such as loading and gear parameters on gear body-induced tooth deflections. Then, an improved solution is developed for evaluating the body-induced tooth deflection. In the single-tooth-pair meshing period, the improved formula is developed based on a popular formula proposed by Sainsot and Velex. This is achieved by optimizing the coefficients used in their formula to make the formula more accurate to evaluate gear body-induced tooth deflections. Meanwhile, we introduce a new term called affiliated body stiffness to evaluate the body-induced tooth deflections in the double-tooth-pair meshing period. The improved method can give higher accuracy in evaluating gear body-induced tooth deflections of spur gears with a pressure angle of 20&deg

Autophagy and apoptosis are two major modes of cell death. A balanced interplay between both is vital for phagocytic clearance of apoptotic testicular cells. Here, generating a SD rats model-treated with cadmium (Cd) to mimic environmental exposure on human, we show that autophagy and apoptosis present synchronous change trends in Cd-induced testicular injury/self-recovery. Further, the cross-talk of autophagy and apoptosis is investigated in four testicular cell lines (GC-1/GC-2/TM3/TM4 cells) respectively. Results reveal that Cd-exposure for five consecutive weeks induces reproductive toxicity in male rats. After one cycle of spermatogenesis within 8 weeks without Cd, toxic effects are ameliorated significantly. In vitro, we find that PI3K inhibitor 3-MA regulates apoptosis by inhibiting autophagy with mTOR-independent pathway in Cd-treated testicular cells. Conclusively, cross-talk between autophagy and apoptosis regulates testicular injury/recovery induced by Cd via PI3K with mTOR-independent pathway.

BACKGROUND Cold-inducible RNA-binding protein (CIRBP) is associated with cell stress. However, its upstream regulatory factors are still largely unknown. OBJECTIVES This study investigated whether CIRBP expression was regulated by transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) during the process of heat-induced testicular damage. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ten male adult ICR mice were allocated to heat treatment (scrotal hyperthermia at 43 °C for 30 min, n = 5) and control group (n = 5); CIRBP and TGF-β1, TGF-β2, and TGF-β3 expression levels in the testis in mRNA and protein were analyzed. Then, we conducted in vivo and in vitro studies to investigate the regulatory effects of TGF-β on CIRBP. In the in vivo study, male adult ICR mice were subjected to testicular hyperthermia followed by a local testicular injection of TGF-β antagonist (non-selective TGF-β I/II receptor inhibitor, 5 μg or 10 μg). In the in vitro study, GC2-spd cells were cultured under 43 °C for 30 min or with different TGF-β isoforms (10 ng/mL), and CIRBP expression levels in the testis and GC2-spd cells were analyzed 24 and 48 h, respectively, after treatment. RESULTS As a result, heat treatment significantly downregulated the relative CIRBP mRNA and protein expression (p = 0.006 and 0.011), and significantly upregulated TGF-β2 and TGF-β3 expression levels (p = 0.022 and 0.04, for mRNA, and p = 0.001 for both protein levels). Local testicular injection of 10 μg TGF-β antagonist significantly attenuated heat-induced histological damage to the testes and CIRBP downregulation (p = 0.038). Furthermore, TGF-β2 and TGF-β3 significantly downregulated CIRBP mRNA and protein expression in GC2-spd cells (all p

The aim of our study was to evaluate the effects of ozonised olive oil (OOO) on human sperm in vitro.Human sperm was incubated with OOO for 20 s in vitro. The lowest concentration that completely immobilised all the sperm in 20 s without subsequent recovery of motility was recorded as the minimum effective concentration (MEC). The effects of OOO at MEC on human sperm viability, mitochondrial and acrosomal status, DNA integrity and transmission electron microscopy were observed.Our findings demonstrate that OOO dose-dependently inhibits sperm motility. The MEC of OOO for 100% sperm immobilisation in 20 s was 6 μg/ml. Further experiments showed that sperm ultrastructure, function and DNA integrity were significantly affected after treatment with 6 μg/ml OOO in vitro.OOO has spermicidal potential and may be explored as a promising vaginal contraceptive agent.

// Meng Rao 1, * , Zhengyan Zeng 2, * , Li Tang 1 , Guiping Cheng 3 , Wei Xia 3 and Changhong Zhu 3 1 Department of Reproduction and Genetics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China 2 Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China 3 Family Planning Research Institute, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Meng Rao, email: rm3816205@163.com Keywords: heat stress; spermatogenesis; microRNA; next-generation sequencing; apoptosis Received: October 07, 2017 Accepted: November 16, 2017 Published: December 04, 2017 ABSTRACT This study aimed to investigate the role of microRNA (miRNA) in heat stress-induced spermatogenic impairment. Testes from 15 adult ICR mice subjected to testicular hyperthermia at 43°C for 30 min and from 15 control mice were collected and pooled into 3 samples. Isolated RNA from these samples was subjected to small RNA high-throughput sequencing, and differentially expressed miRNAs were identified and validated using RT-PCR. The identified miRNAs were further subjected to Gene Ontology and KEGG analyses, which revealed significant enrichment for pathways potentially involved in heat stress-induced spermatogenic impairment. Additionally, a correlation analysis of the relative levels of validated miRNAs with germ cell apoptosis was performed. Of the 11 miRNAs identified as differentially expressed, 8 were validated as consistent with sequencing data. Further analyses suggested that the target genes of those miRNAs were involved in various pathways (e.g., ribosomal, HIF-1, MAPK) that may be critical to heat stress-induced testicular damage. Some identified miRNAs, including miR-449a-3p, miR-92a-1-5p, miR-423-3p, and miR-128-3p, correlated closely with germ cell apoptosis. The study results reveal a detailed miRNA profile of heat stress-induced testicular damage and highlight new and potentially important candidate targets in the process of male infertility.

Gear eccentricities are one of the practical types of the manufacturing errors that affect the dynamic performance of a planetary gear train (PGT). Previous research about the effects of the gear eccentricities is abundant, and many of them focus on the parallel shaft gear set. However, almost none of them have considered the influence of the gear eccentricities on the mesh stiffness. In fact, the existence of the gear eccentricities can change the center distance and the mesh positions of a meshing gear pair, which will directly affect the mesh stiffness. Situation can be even more complex for the PGT with either sun gear eccentricities or planet gear eccentricities or both of them. Based on that, a new dynamic model of a PGT with gear eccentricities is established. The planar motions of the PGT and the mesh stiffness are integrated and solved simultaneously where the mesh stiffness is determined by the actual mesh positions of the meshing gear pair. The mesh stiffness is calculated by the energy potential method. The time-varying center distance caused by the gear eccentricities is also considered, which can result in the change of line of action, pressure angle, contact ratio and mesh positions. The influence of gear eccentricities on the dynamic performance of a 4-planet PGT is studied. Some useful results are derived at last.

There has been no previous population-based study reporting the prevalence and risk factors of male lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) among men in mainland China. This cross-sectional study was conducted from 2013 to 2014 in three representative provinces of China: Guangdong, Hubei and Jiangsu. 3250 individuals participated in the interviews, which involved a questionnaire covering sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle, dietary patterns and the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS). Blood was collected for lipids, glucose, insulin and reproductive hormone tests. The incidences of LUTS and its obstructive and irritative symptoms were calculated. Risk factors for LUTS were identified using multivariable logistic regression analysis. The prevalence of moderate to severe LUTS and its obstructive and irritative symptoms was 14.3%, 13.1% and 16.1%, respectively, and increased with age. The prevalence in Guangdong was much lower than that in Hubei and Jiangsu in different ages. Increased fasting plasma glucose and decreased HDL-C levels were associated with an increased risk of moderate to severe LUTS (OR = 1.30, 95% CI: 1.02–1.65 and OR = 2.06, 95% CI: 1.08–3.94, respectively). Free testosterone < 0.22 ng/ml decreased the risk of moderate to severe LUTS and obstructive and irritative symptoms by about 20–30%. An inadequate daily intake of vegetables, fruit and water significantly increased the risk of LUTS by 1.3–to 2.0 times. In conclusion, the prevalence of LUTS in Chinese men is high and increases with age. Dietary patterns may be critical for the development of LUTS. Thus, dietary modifications could be a useful strategy for preventing the development of LUTS.

This study aimed to examine the cellular and molecular events that occur in rhesus monkey testes after scrotal hyperthermia. Eight male adult rhesus monkeys were subjected to scrotal hyperthermia at 43°C for 30 min daily for 6 consecutive days. Sperm concentration, reproductive hormones, and testis histology were examined before hyperthermia (day 0), and at 8, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 days after the initiation of hyperthermia. iTRAQ-based proteomic analysis was conducted on testicular tissues collected on days 0, 8, and 60 to identify differentially expressed proteins at the early and recovery stages of testicular damage. The sperm concentration was significantly decreased at days 30 and 45 after treatment (p < 0.01) and recovered to baseline at day 60. When compared with day 0, 101 and 24 differentially expressed proteins were identified at days 8 and 60 after heat treatment, respectively. The molecular functions of the differentially expressed proteins at day 8 were mainly nucleic acid binding, unfolded protein binding, nucleotide binding, and nucleoside phosphate binding. Spliceosome was enriched as the most significant pathway at day 8. CIRBP, PSIP1, Sam68, and Decorin were validated and found to be consistent with the proteomic data, indicating the reliability of the proteomic profiles identified in this study. In summary, we suggest that the proteins identified in this study may play important roles in heat-induced spermatogenic impairment. Some of these proteins, such as CIRBP, PSIP1, Sam68, and Decorin, may be early molecular targets responsible for spermatogenesis suppression induced by heat treatment.

Jing Yang,1,* Shifu Hu,1,* Meng Rao,1 Lixia Hu,2 Hui Lei,1 Yanqing Wu,1 Yingying Wang,1 Dandan Ke,1 Wei Xia,1,3 Chang-hong Zhu1,3 1Family Planning Research Institute, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 2Department of Histology and Embryology, Preclinical Medicine College, Xinxiang Medical University, Henan Province, Xinxiang, 3Reproductive Medicine Center, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally tothis work Abstract: Numerous studies have reported the accumulation of copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) in organs and the corresponding damage, although whether Cu NPs can be translocated to the ovaries and their ovarian toxicity are still unknown. In this study, three groups of female rats were injected with 3.12, 6.25, or 12.5mg/kg Cu NPs for 14 consecutive days. The pathological changes, hormone levels, apoptosis and apoptotic proteins, oxidative stress, and gene expression characteristics in the ovaries were then investigated. The results demonstrated that the CuNPs exhibited obvious accumulation in the rat ovaries, leading to ovarian injury, an imbalance of sex hormones, and ovarian cell apoptosis. Cu NP exposure activated caspase3, caspase8, caspase 9, and tBid, decreased the protein levels of Bcl-2, increased the expression levels of the proteins Bax and cytochrome c, and promoted malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation and superoxide dismutase (SOD) reduction. Furthermore, gene microarray analysis showed that CuNPs (12.5mg/kg/d) caused 321 differentially expressed genes. Of these, 180 and 141 genes were upregulated and downregulated, respectively. Hsd17b1, Hsd3b1, Hsd3b6, and Hsd3b were involved in steroid and hormone metabolism, whereas Mt3 and Cebpb were associated with apoptosis. Overall, these findings provide strong evidence that Cu NPs trigger both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways and regulate key ovarian genes in oxidative stress-mediated ovarian dysfunction. Keywords: Cu NPs, apoptosis, oxidative stress, microarray

The p38αMAPK signaling pathway plays a critical role in female reproduction, but an understanding of its expression in rats remains elusive. This study was carried out to investigate the temporal and spatial expression of p38αMAPK and p-p38αMAPK. Ovarian tissue samples were collected from 2-, 4-, 8-, 12-, 16-, 20- and 30-day-old female rats. Western blotting was used to examine the relative expression of p38αMAPK and p-p38αMAPK in ovarian tissue, and subcellular localization was examined using immunohistochemistry of the rat ovaries at different ages of postpartum. The immunohistochemical results showed that p38αMAPK and p-p38αMAPK were widely expressed in the rat ovaries, mainly localized in the follicle cells and granulosa cells. The expression of p38αMAPK was relatively stable for the different stages of oocytes, whereas the expression of p-p38αMAPK gradually increased. At different stages of granulosa cells, the expression of p38αMAPK was also relatively stable, and the p-p38αMAPK expression showed an upward trend during follicular development. Western blotting revealed that the expression of p38αMAPK in the ovaries was relatively stable, where as p-p38αMAPK expression initially exhibited an increasing trend and subsequently decreased, with a maximum at day 20. The expression patterns of p38αMAPK and p-p38αMAPK in the rat ovaries indicate their possible involvement in folliculogenesis. Taken together, the stage- and cell-specific expression of p-p38αMAPK in rat ovaries indicated that p-p38αMAPK might play a vital role during rat follicular development.

Objective To investigate the relationship between ischemic time and thrombus types in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Methods Eighty-two STEMI patients undergone emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary thrombus aspiration (CTA) from Sep. 2012 to Apr. 2016 were included and divided into 3 groups according to the ischemic time: ≤4 hours (n=36), 4-7 hours (n=30) and >7 hours (n=16). Visible aspirated thrombi were collected and separated into erythrocyte-rich type, platelet/fibrin-rich type and combined type thrombi by HE dying. The percentage difference of the 3 types thrombi was compared among the 3 groups. Results The percentage of platelet/fibrinrich type, erythrocyte-rich type and combined type thrombi in the 3 groups were as follows: in ≤4h group: 61.1%(22/36), 8.3%(3/36) and 30.6%(11/36), P=0.019; in 4-7h group: 23.3%(7/30), 10.0%(3/30) and 66.7%(20/30), P=0.012; and in >7h group: 43.8%(7/16), 12.5%(2/16) and 43.8%(7/16), P=0.913. For platelet/fibrin-rich type thrombi, the percentages in 3 periods were 61.1%(22/36), 19.4%(7/36) and 19.4%(7/36), P=0.009; For combined type thrombi, the percentages in 3 periods were 28.9%(11/38), 52.6%(20/38) and 18.4%(7/38), P=0.013; For erythrocyte-rich type thrombi, the percentages in 3 periods were 37.5%(3/8), 37.5%(3/8) and 25.0%(2/8), P=0.895. Conclusions The types of intracoronary aspirated thrombi differ from various periods. Ischemia time may be an important predicted factor. DOI: 10.11855/j.issn.0577-7402.2017.02.11

Objective To examine the influence of gender difference on the reperfusion delay in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Methods A total of consecutive 325 patients with STEMI were analyzed admitted in the 306 Hospital of PLA from Jan. 2011 to Dec. 2015. Patients were divided into two groups: male group (n=268) and female group (n=57). The clinical data and the time intervals including symptom onset to first medical contact (So-to-FMC), transfer delay (FMC-to-D), FMC to balloon dilatation (FMC-to-B), activation delay and door to balloon (D-to-B) time were compared between different gender groups, and the prognosis was observed. Results The overall median of pre-hospital delay was 125 minutes. The median of pre-hospital delay time (male 119.5min vs. female 160.0min) and So-to-FMC time (male 69.5min vs. female 100.0min) were longer in female than in male patients, but no statistical difference existed (P>0.05) between the two groups in pre-hospital delay, So-to-FMC, FMC-to-B, D-to-B and total ischemia time. Compared with male patients, female patients were more likely to have additional comorbidities, such as hypertension and diabetes mellitus, and lower rate of smoking (P0.05). Conclusion The influence of gender on reperfusion delay is gradually weakening. DOI: 10.11855/j.issn.0577-7402.2017.02.10

It has been observed that there is an increased incidence of total fertilization failure (TFF) and a low fertilization rate (LFR,25 %) during conventional in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments involving men with poor sperm motility. These men also exhibit a high sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI), which has adverse effects on various IVF outcomes. However, the relationship between a high DFI and an increased TFF or LFR during IVF cycles has not been elucidated. Here, we aimed to investigate the association between the sperm DFI and TFF or LFR in IVF cycles involving men with mild-to-moderate asthenozoospermia and normozoospermia.This retrospective study included 116 men diagnosed as mild-to-moderate asthenozoospermia, and 407 men with normozoospermia. The sperm DFI was assessed using the sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD) test.Men in the asthenozoospermia group had a significantly higher incidence of cycles with a TFF or LFR (9.5 % vs 2.7 %, P = 0.01), and these were associated significantly with an increased DFI (P0.01). After adjustment for confounding factors, a TFF or LFR was to correlate significantly with the DFI (odds ratio: 1.188; 95 % confidence interval, 1.035-1.363; P = 0.014). Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.772. No similar relationships between the DFI and IVF outcomes were observed in the normozoospermia group.For men with mild-to-moderate asthenozoospermia, a high sperm DFI is associated with a decreased fertilization rate and an increased risk of a TFF or LFR. Additional prospectively-designed studies are warranted to confirm our results.

Background: Overt thyroid diseases have been identified as risk factors for female infertility. However, it remains largely unclear whether subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH), a very common thyroid d...

A limited number of studies have explored whether the role of circulating proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) in the pathogenesis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is sex specific. The purpose of the present study was to examine sex differences in plasma PCSK9 in Chinese patients with AMI. In this study, a total of 281 records from patients presenting with AMI were analyzed.We compared hospital data and plasma PCSK9 levels by sex difference for inpatients presenting with AMI. After 1 year of follow-up, major adverse cardiac events(MACE) were recorded. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to calculate hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals. We found that, compared with male groups, PCSK9 levels were higher in female patients not only for overall patients with AMI but also for patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) (median: 273.6 [215.6–366.8] vs. 325.1 [247.5–445.3] ng/ml, P = 0.0136; 273.4 [215.6–369.7] vs. 317.1 [249.6–450.1], P = 0.0275, respectively). The cumulative incidence of cardiac death and 1-year MACE were significantly higher in the female group compared with male group (10% vs. 2.74%, P = 0.025; 15% vs. 4.11%, P = 0.0054, respectively). On multivariate Cox regression analysis, female sex, total triglyceride, glycosylated hemoglobin A, and homocysteic acid were independent risk factors of 1-year MACE. There was no significant correlation between PCSK9 and 1-year MACE in total AMI patients. In conclusion, PCSK9 levels and 1-year MACE were higher in women with AMI than in men with AMI, however, female sex but not PCSK9 were significant correlated with the 1-year MACE. The clinical implications of this finding are worthy of further investigations and must be confirmed in larger cohorts.

Although the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) decreased in the last decade worldwide, the number of deaths due to HIV/AIDS and communicable diseases including syphilis, hepatitis, and tuberculosis had dramatically increased in developing countries. Education and behavior are incredibly important factors to prevent these diseases’ spread. This study highlights the range of differences in knowledge, attitude, and behavior of 434 sexually active medical students towards HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Because the surveyed population constitutes the forefront of healthcare providers and was originated from different area of the world, this is the first time a study sought to investigate the behavioral attitude of this group of population irrespective of the three levels of their academic and professional knowledge. Several factors including sociodemographic characteristics, sexual behavior, HIV/AIDS, and STIs related patterns play a key role in medical student attitude and behavior towards people infected with HIV/AIDS and STIs. Our findings add consistent value in prior studies which aimed to stop new infections and also imply further investigations on the management of the studied infections by medical students. The present study arouses much interest among participants and provides evidence of reinforcing medical students’ education on HIV/AIDS and STIs.