Female infertility impacts the quality of life and well-being of affected individuals and couples. Female reproductive diseases, such as primary ovarian insufficiency, polycystic ovary syndrome, ...endometriosis, fallopian tube obstruction, and Asherman syndrome, can induce infertility. In recent years, translational medicine has developed rapidly, and clinical researchers are focusing on the treatment of female infertility using novel approaches. Owing to the advantages of convenient samples, abundant sources, and avoidable ethical issues, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can be applied widely in the clinic. This paper reviews recent advances in using four types of MSCs, bone marrow stromal cells, adipose-derived stem cells, menstrual blood mesenchymal stem cells, and umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells. Each of these have been used for the treatment of ovarian and uterine diseases, and provide new approaches for the treatment of female infertility.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Cervical cancer is the third most common malignancy in women worldwide. It remains a leading cause of cancer-related death for women in developing countries. In order to contribute to the treatment ...of the cervical cancer, in our work, we try to find a few key genes resulting in the cervical cancer. Employing functions of several bioinformatics tools, we selected 143 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with the cervical cancer. The results of bioinformatics analysis show that these DEGs play important roles in the development of cervical cancer. Through comparing two differential co-expression networks (DCNs) at two different states, we found a common sub-network and two differential sub-networks as well as some hub genes in three sub-networks. Moreover, some of the hub genes have been reported to be related to the cervical cancer. Those hub genes were analyzed from Gene Ontology function enrichment, pathway enrichment and protein binding three aspects. The results can help us understand the development of the cervical cancer and guide further experiments about the cervical cancer.
We extend the SU(3)c×SU(2)L×U(1)Y standard model by a U(1)Y′ gauge symmetry. Three right-handed neutrinos are introduced to cancel the gauge anomaly. One Higgs singlet is responsible for ...spontaneously breaking the U(1)Y′ symmetry while the standard model Higgs doublet does not carry any U(1)Y′ charges. The down-type quarks, up-type quarks, charged leptons and neutral neutrinos obtain their Dirac masses through four types of dimension-5 operators constructed by the fermion doublets and singlets with the Higgs doublet and singlet. This effective theory is realized in three renormalizable contexts with heavy fermion singlets, scalar doublets and fermion doublets. The heavy fermion singlets and doublets for generating the neutrino masses also accommodate a successful Dirac leptogenesis to explain the baryon asymmetry in the universe.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Important tasks in cavity quantum electrodynamics include the generation and control of quantum states of spatially separated particles distributed in different cavities. An interesting question in ...this context is how to prepare entanglement among particles located in different cavities, which are important for large-scale quantum information processing. We here consider a multi-cavity system where cavities are coupled to a superconducting (SC) qubit and each cavity hosts many SC qubits. We show that all intra-cavity SC qubits plus the coupler SC qubit can be prepared in an entangled Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state, by using a single operation and without the need of measurements. The GHZ state is created without exciting the cavity modes; thus greatly suppressing the decoherence caused by the cavity-photon decay and the effect of unwanted inter-cavity crosstalk on the operation. We also introduce two simple methods for entangling the intra-cavity SC qubits in a GHZ state. As an example, our numerical simulations show that it is feasible, with current circuit-QED technology, to prepare high-fidelity GHZ states, for up to nine SC qubits by using SC qubits distributed in two cavities. This proposal can in principle be used to implement a GHZ state for an arbitrary number of SC qubits distributed in multiple cavities. The proposal is quite general and can be applied to a wide range of physical systems, with the intra-cavity qubits being either atoms, NV centers, quantum dots, or various SC qubits.
Increasing evidence supports reciprocal communication between the enteric and the central nervous system in disease, termed the 'gut-brain axis'. Recent findings suggest a connection between IBD and ...development of Parkinson's disease. The role of IBD in dementia, another insidious neurodegenerative disorder, has not been explored.
Using the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database, we performed comparative analysis of 1742 patients with IBD ≥45 years old against 17 420 controls to assess dementia risk following IBD diagnosis. Controls were matched on bases of sex, access to healthcare, income and dementia-related comorbidities. All individuals were followed for dementia diagnosis for up to 16 years. Subanalyses included the relationship between sex, ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), and dementia risk.
Overall incidence of dementia among patients with IBD was significantly elevated (5.5% vs 1.4% among controls). Patients with IBD were diagnosed with dementia at 76.24 years old on average, compared with 83.45 among controls. The HR of developing dementia among patients with IBD was 2.54 (95% CI 1.91 to 3.37). Among dementia types, the risk of developing Alzheimer's dementia demonstrated the greatest increase. Dementia risk did not differ between sex differences nor UC versus CD.
This population-based cohort study demonstrates significant association between IBD and subsequent development of dementia. Dementia was diagnosed at an earlier age among patients with IBD, and disease risk appeared to increase with IBD chronicity. These findings highlight the need for future research to elucidate the relationship between IBD and dementia.
The membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of a cell forms contacts directly with mitochondria whereby the contact is referred to as the mitochondrion-associated ER membrane or the MAM. Here we ...found that the MAM regulates cellular survival via an MAM-residing ER chaperone the sigma-1 receptor (Sig-1R) in that the Sig-1R chaperones the ER stress sensor IRE1 to facilitate inter-organelle signaling for survival. IRE1 is found in this study to be enriched at the MAM in CHO cells. We found that IRE1 is stabilized at the MAM by Sig-1Rs when cells are under ER stress. Sig-1Rs stabilize IRE1 and thus allow for conformationally correct IRE1 to dimerize into the long-lasting, activated endonuclease. The IRE1 at the MAM also responds to reactive oxygen species derived from mitochondria. Therefore, the ER-mitochondrion interface serves as an important subcellular entity in the regulation of cellular survival by enhancing the stress-responding signaling between mitochondria, ER, and nucleus.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Many germ cells are eliminated during development, long before oogenesis or spermatogenesis. In mouse fetal testes, the majority of germ cell apoptosis coincides with the onset of male ...differentiation, suggesting coordination of these processes. We studied fetal germ-cell fates and discovered that both apoptosis and differentiation initiate in clonally related clusters. Lineage tracing confirmed that germ cells die as clones independent of intercellular bridges, suggesting that shared intrinsic properties are apoptotic determinants. We identified transcriptional heterogeneity among fetal germ cells that included an apoptosis-susceptible population characterized by failure to differentiate, whereas successful differentiation to prospermatogonia occurred through the expression of epigenetically regulated genes, including LINE1. Our results indicate that the fetal germ-cell fate is based on discrete cell-heritable identities. Elevated DNA methylation in the apoptosis-susceptible subpopulation supports our hypothesis that earlier errors in germ-cell epigenetic reprogramming derail differentiation in cellular progeny, leading to fetal apoptotic selection that ultimately improves the gamete quality.
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FZAB, GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
•Spatial distribution of drought onset time decreased with an increase in regional wetness in China.•Drought onset speed was higher in the southern humid region than that in the northern ...region.•Drought onset was accelerated after 1994, particularly in regions with precipitation range from 300 mm to 600 mm.•The greater the warming magnitude, the wetter the region, the faster the drought onset.•Increased water deficiency was the main reason for the accelerating drought onset.
This study investigated the effects of warming on the drought onset in China using meteorological data and soil moisture data from 1980 to 2020. The variation characteristics of drought onset time and onset speed were analyzed systematically. The differences in drought onset time and onset speed during the period 1995–2020 and the period 1980–1994 were compared, and possible impact factors were analyzed. Results indicated that the spatial distribution of drought onset time decreased with an increase in regional wetness in China. In arid regions, onset time at 73 % of sites was over 35 days, and about 13 % was among 60–90 days. In semi-arid and sub-humid regions, the onset time was 25–40 days, and in humid regions, it was 20–30 days. After 1994, namely the significant temperature rise period, the onset time has remarkably shortened in parts of the southern Northeast, North China, the eastern Northwest, the western Southwest, the middle of Tibet, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the coastal region of South China. The shortening was most obvious in sub-humid regions. The greater the warming magnitude, the wetter the region, the faster the drought onset speed. Drought onset speed (γ) was higher in the southern humid region than that in the northern region, and γ for southern Northeast China, northern North China, and eastern Northwest China was higher than that for the rest of North China. After 1994, drought onset speed was accelerated in most regions, especially in the semi-arid and sub-humid regions with precipitation in the range of 300–600 mm. Under the combined effect of increased evapotranspiration and reduced precipitation, the region has been the hot spot with increased drought speed after obvious warming in China.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Sleep quality is important to health and life quality. Lack of sleep can lead to a variety of health issues and reduce in daytime function. Recent study by Fultz et al. also indicated that sleep is ...crucial to brain metabolism. Delta power in sleep EEG often indicates good sleep quality while alpha power usually indicates sleep interruptions and poor sleep quality. Essential oil has been speculated to improve sleep quality. Previous studies also suggest essential oil aroma may affect human brain activity when applied awake. However, those studies were often not blinded, which makes the effectiveness and mechanism of aroma a heavily debated topic. In this study, we aim to explore the effect of essential oil aroma on human sleep quality and sleep EEG in a single-blinded setup. The aroma was released when the participants are asleep, which kept the influence of psychological expectation to the minimum. We recruited nine young, healthy participants with regular lifestyle and no sleep problem. All participants reported better sleep quality and more daytime vigorous after exposing to lavender aroma in sleep. We also observed that upon lavender aroma releases, alpha wave in wake stage was reduced while delta wave in slow-wave sleep (SWS) was increased. Lastly, we found that lavender oil promote occurrence of SWS. Overall, our study results show that essential oil aroma can be used to promote both subjective and objective sleep quality in healthy human subjects. This makes aroma intervention a potential solution for poor sleep quality and insomnia.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Vertical deformation can be revealed by various techniques such as precise leveling, satellite imagery, and extensometry. Despite considerable effort, recording detailed subsurface deformation using ...traditional extensometers remains challenging when attempting to detect localized deformation. Here we introduce distributed fiber optic sensing based on Brillouin scattering as a geophysical exploration method for imaging distributed profiles of vertical deformation. By examining fiber optic cable‐soil interaction we found a threshold in confining pressure to achieve a strong cable‐soil coupling, thus validating data collected from a borehole‐embedded fiber optic cable deployed in Shengze, southern Yangtze Delta, China. Clear‐cut strain profiles acquired from November 2014 to December 2016 allowed us to pinpoint where compaction or rebound was actively occurring and examine strain responses at various locations along the entire cable length. We suggest that distributed fiber optic sensing can complement with extensometry and remote sensing techniques for improved monitoring of vertical deformation.
Plain Language Summary
Recording detailed subsurface deformation using traditional methods (e.g., extensometers) is sometimes difficult due to limited measuring points. This dilemma may be overcome by using the emerging distributed fiber optic sensing technology, which transforms common telecommunication fiber optic cables into sensors capable of making distributed strain measurements. We report the use of this technology for monitoring distributions of vertical deformation resulting from groundwater ion in Shengze, southern Yangtze Delta, China. An evaluation of the performance of a borehole‐embedded fiber optic cable helps us to validate the in situ strain data. The advantage of using this technology for vertical deformation sensing is the ability to locate any strata undergoing compaction or rebound and look at strain responses at any depth of interest. Moreover, recording subsurface changes in this fashion may also be useful in other geophysical and engineering applications that require refined monitoring of the media.
Key Points
Distributed fiber optic sensing with Brillouin scattering provides a clear subsurface strain profile using a single fiber optic cable
We find a threshold in confining pressure to achieve a strong fiber optic cable‐soil coupling
Distributed fiber optic sensing can complement with existing techniques for improved monitoring of vertical deformation
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
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