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Objective To explore the specific mutations in mitochondrial genes of woman with unexplained complete early embryo development arrest in order to provide new data support for further elucidating the underlying mechanisms. Methods A case-control study was conducted on 46 infertile woman admitted to the Sixth Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital from May 2021 to November 2022. All of them underwent peripheral blood whole exome sequencing and mitochondrial gene mutation detection. Ten patients with complete embryo development arrest were finally subjected and assigned into the study group, and another 15 patients with 3 or more transplantable embryos were enrolled into the control group. No chromosomal abnormalities were observed in both male and female partners of all above cases. Baseline clinical data and embryo development data were collected and compared between the 2 groups of patients. Mitochondrial gene mutation sites and their associated genes were analyzed in the 2 groups, and functional annotation was performed for the specific mutation sites/genes. Results There were 5 specific mitochondrial mutation sites identified in the study group: MT-16172 (T>C), MT-12882 (C>T), MT-12406 (G>A), MT-10609 (T>C), and MT-16129 (G>A). All these mutation sites are located on the genes of the mitochondrial respiratory chain complex and mitochondrial regulatory genes. Conclusion Five specific mitochondrial mutation sites [MT-16172(T>C)、MT-12882(C>T)、MT-12406(G>A)、MT-10609(T>C)、MT-16129(G>A)] may be related to unexplained early embryo development arrest.

Muscles play an indispensable role in human life. Surface electromyography (sEMG), as a non-invasive method, is crucial for monitoring muscle status. It is characterized by its real-time, portable nature and is extensively utilized in sports and rehabilitation sciences. This study proposed a wireless acquisition system based on multi-channel sEMG for objective monitoring of grip force. The system consists of an sEMG acquisition module containing four-channel discrete terminals and a host computer receiver module, using Bluetooth wireless transmission. The system is portable, wearable, low-cost, and easy to operate. Leveraging the system, an experiment for grip force prediction was designed, employing the bald eagle search (BES) algorithm to enhance the Random Forest (RF) algorithm. This approach established a grip force prediction model based on dual-channel sEMG signals. As tested, the performance of acquisition terminal proceeded as follows: the gain was up to 1125 times, and the common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) remained high in the sEMG signal band range (96.94 dB (100 Hz), 84.12 dB (500 Hz)), while the performance of the grip force prediction algorithm had an R2 of 0.9215, an MAE of 1.0637, and an MSE of 1.7479. The proposed system demonstrates excellent performance in real-time signal acquisition and grip force prediction, proving to be an effective muscle status monitoring tool for rehabilitation, training, disease condition surveillance and scientific fitness applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-additive factors can significantly affect the crystallization pathways and hydrate phases of calcium oxalate. However, little is known about the mechanisms behind these phenomena. Our research investigated various factors affecting calcium oxalate crystallization in the absence of additives. We show that the formation of calcium oxalate hydrate phase in a supersaturated solution is inconsistent with thermodynamic stability. The metastable calcium oxalate trihydrate (COT) forms at lower concentrations (<1.25 mM), while the stable calcium oxalate monohydrate (COM) forms at intermediate concentrations, and the metastable calcium oxalate dihydrate (COD) forms at higher concentrations (>20 mM). The formation of the hydrate phase also depends on the method of mixing calcium and oxalate solutions. By utilizing an automatic titration apparatus, we show that the hydrate phase can be altered by adjusting either the titration rate of the calcium solution or the stirring speed. In addition, the calcium-to-oxalate ratio is important in determining the initial binding between calcium and oxalate ions. All these factors could be explained by the local concentration of calcium and oxalate upon mixing the solutions. The reduction of local concentration promotes the formation of COT. Thus, the hydrate phase is determined by a combination of thermodynamic and kinetic factors. These results significantly enhance our understanding of the crystallization pathway and hydrate phase selection of calcium oxalate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of ecological spur dikes and deep pool shoals can increase the diversity of water flow structures while also hastening the transport and transformation of pollutants. However, current research has paid little attention to the effects of the arrangement parameters on water purification capacity when the ecological spur dikes and deep pool shoals are combined. In this study, we investigated the purification capacity of ammonia nitrogen using the combination of spur dikes and deep pool shoals through laboratory flume experiments and numerical simulation. The laboratory flume experiments revealed that the combination of staggered spur dikes and the opposite side deep pool shoals provided the most effective purification. Secondly, in order to obtain the optimal arrangement parameters for the combination of ecological spur dikes and deep pool shoals more easily, the numerical model based on MIKE21 was validated using experimental results and applied to Section 2 of the Shiqiao River in Nanling County, Wuhu City, Anhui Province. The numerical simulation showed that the length of the spur dikes had the greatest impact on the purification effect, followed by the spacing of the spur dikes and the width of the deep pool shoals, the angle of the spur dikes, the spacing of the deep pool shoals, and the length of the deep pool shoals had the least effect. The optimal parameters for the combination of spur dikes and deep pool shoals are as follows: spur dike parameters: 60°(angle), 10 m(length), 17 m(spacing); deep pool shoal parameters: 60 m(length), 10 m(width), and 210 m(spacing). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]