bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Knockout of serine-rich single-pass membrane protein 1 (Ssmem1) causes globozoospermia and sterility in male mice†
Authors: Nozawa Kaori , Zhang Qian , Miyata Haruhiko , Devlin Darius J , Yu Zhifeng , Oura Seiya , Koyano Takayuki , Matsuyama Makoto , Ikawa Masahito , Matzuk Martin M 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
Globozoospermia (sperm with an abnormally round head shape) and asthenozoospermia (defective sperm motility) are known causes of male infertility in human patients. Despite many studies, the molecular details of the globozoospermia etiology are still poorly understood. Serine-rich single-pass membrane protein 1 (Ssmem1) is a conserved testis-specific gene in mammals. In this study, we generated Ssmem1 knockout (KO) mice using the CRISPR/Cas9 system, demonstrated that Ssmem1 is essential for male fertility in mice, and found that SSMEM1 protein is expressed during spermatogenesis but not in mature sperm. The sterility of the Ssmem1 KO (null) mice is associated with globozoospermia and loss of sperm motility. To decipher the mechanism causing the phenotype, we analyzed testes with transmission electron microscopy and discovered that Ssmem1-disrupted spermatids have abnormal localization of Golgi at steps eight and nine of spermatid development. Immunofluorescence analysis with anti-Golgin-97 to label the trans-Golgi network, also showed delayed movement of the Golgi to the spermatid posterior region, which causes failure of sperm head shaping, disorganization of the cell organelles, and entrapped tails in the cytoplasmic droplet. In summary, SSMEM1 is crucial for intracellular Golgi movement to ensure proper spatiotemporal formation of the sperm head that is required for fertilization. These studies and the pathway in which SSMEM1 functions have implications for human male infertility and identifying potential targets for nonhormonal contraception.
Prss55 but not Prss51 is required for male fertility in mice†
Authors: Kobayashi Kiyonori , Endo Tsutomu , Matsumura Takafumi , Lu Yonggang , Yu Zhifeng , Matzuk Martin M , Ikawa Masahito 
Published: April 2020

AbstractMammalian spermatozoa are produced in the testis through spermatogenesis and matured in the epididymis to acquire fertilizing ability. Spermatozoa are ejaculated and migrate from the uterus to the oviducts to fuse with oocytes. Although over 2000 genes are expressed abundantly in mouse testes, the genes responsible for male fertility are not yet fully clarified. Here, we focused on two testis-enriched serine protease genes, Serine protease (Prss) 51 and Prss55, which overlap their gene loci partially in both mice and humans. To characterize their functions in male fertility, we first generated Prss51 and Prss55 double knockout (DKO) mice by CRISPR/Cas9 system and found that the DKO mice were sterile. DKO spermatozoa exhibit impaired migration from the uterus to the oviduct and impaired ability to bind the zona pellucida (ZP) of oocytes. Moreover, a sperm membrane protein, ADAM3 (a disintegrin and metalloprotease 3), which plays a role in sperm migration through uterotubal junction (UTJ) and sperm–ZP binding, disappeared in the DKO spermatozoa from the epididymis. We next generated single knockout (KO) mice lacking Prss51 and found that Prss51 KO mice are fertile. We also generated single KO mice lacking Prss55 and found that Prss55 KO mice phenocopy the DKO mice, demonstrating impaired sperm migration and sperm–ZP binding and a severe defect in fertility. We conclude that Prss55, but not Prss51, is required for male fertility in mice, by stabilizing ADAM3 protein for efficient sperm–UTJ migration and sperm–ZP binding. Our findings have implications for understanding additional genetic causes of the idiopathic male infertility and for the development of male or female contraceptives.
Inactivation of Wt1 causes pre-granulosa cell to steroidogenic cell transformation and defect of ovary development†
Authors: Cen Changhuo , Chen Min , Zhou Jingjing , Zhang Lianjun , Duo Shuguang , Jiang Lin , Hou Xiaohui , Gao Fei 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
Wt1 gene encodes a nuclear transcription factor which is specifically expressed in ovarian granulosa cells and testicular Sertoli cells. Our previous studies demonstrated that Wt1 is required for the lineage specification of supporting cells and inactivation of Wt1 results in Sertoli cells to Leydig-like cells transformation. To test whether Wt1 is also involved in lineage maintenance of granulosa cells during ovary development, Wt1 was specifically deleted in pre-granulosa cells using Foxl2-cre. We found that the female Wt1−/flox; Foxl2-cre mice were infertile with atrophic ovaries and no growing follicles with multiple layers of granulosa cells were observed. A large number of 3β-HSD-positive steroidogenic cells were detected in ovaries of Wt1−/flox; Foxl2-cre mice during embryonic stage and these cells were derived from Foxl2-expressing pre-granulosa cells. The quantitative results showed the expression of granulosa cell marker genes (Foxl2, Follistatin) was downregulated and steroidogenic cell marker genes (3β-HSD, Cyp11a1, Star and Sf1) was dramatically increased in Wt1−/flox; Foxl2-cre ovaries. We also found that the meiosis of germ cells in Wt1−/flox; Foxl2-cre ovaries was delayed but not arrested. This study demonstrates that Wt1 is required for lineage maintenance of granulosa cells and inactivation of Wt1 results in pre-granulosa cells to steroidogenic cells transformation which in turn causes the defect of ovary development.
Profile of RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2: A Preliminary Study From 56 COVID-19 Patients
Authors: Xiao Ai Tang , Tong Yi Xin , Zhang Sheng 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
A novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic threatens the world. Here, we first studied the dynamics profile of SARS-CoV-2 from 56 recovered patients with COVID-19. We found viral shedding occurred up to 6 weeks after onset of symptoms. A prolonged observation period is necessary for older patients.
Innovative approach to a functional mediastinal paraganglioma with anomalous coronary supply: a case report
Authors: Trêpa Maria , Silveira Inês , Amaral Cláudia , Luz André 
Published: April 2020

Abstract

Background
Mediastinal paragangliomas (PGs) are rare and particularly challenging neuroendocrine tumours. Clinical presentation is heterogeneous and tumour resection can be challenging due to bleeding and the risk of catecholamine surges in functional tumours.

Case Summary
A 36-year-old man with multiple cardiovascular risk factors was admitted with subacute heart failure. Investigations revealed a large non-metastatic functional mediastinal PG irrigated mainly by a left circumflex coronary anomalous feeder branch. The surgical risk was deemed very high due to patient comorbidities, tumour vascularization, and close relation to major thoracic structures. A multidisciplinary team decided to perform embolization of the anomalous coronary branch followed by peptide-receptor radionuclide therapy with 177-LuDOTATE aiming to decrease tumour size and perioperative risk. Follow-up studies showed a reduction in tumour vascularization, size, and hormonal production.

Discussion
The innovative strategy of combining embolization of the anomalous feeder branch with radionuclide therapy proved to be a promising approach.
Prevention of aortic dissection and aneurysm via an ALDH2-mediated switch in vascular smooth muscle cell phenotype
Authors: Yang Kehui , Ren Jun , Li Xin , Wang Zheng , Xue Li , Cui Sumei , Sang Wentao , Xu Tonghui , Zhang Jian , Yu Jieqiong , Liu Zhiping , Shang Haixia , Pang Jiaojiao , Huang Xiaoran , Chen Yuguo , Xu Feng 
Published: April 2020

Abstract

Aims
Aortic aneurysm/dissection (AAD) is a life-threatening disorder lacking effective pharmacotherapeutic remedies. Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) polymorphism is tied with various risk factors for AAD including hypertension, atherosclerosis, and hypercholesterolaemia although direct correlation between the two remains elusive.

Methods and results
Two independent case–control studies were conducted involving 307 AAD patients and 399 healthy controls in two geographically distinct areas in China. Our data revealed that subjects carrying mutant ALDH2 gene possessed a ∼50% reduced risk of AAD compared with wild-type (WT) alleles. Using 3-aminopropionitrile fumarate (BAPN)- and angiotensin II (Ang II)-induced AAD animal models, inhibition of ALDH2 was found to retard development of AAD. Mechanistically, ALDH2 inhibition ablated pathological vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) phenotypical switch through interaction with myocardin, a determinant of VSMC contractile phenotype. Using microarray and bioinformatics analyses, ALDH2 deficiency was found to down-regulate miR-31-5p, which further altered myocardin mRNA level. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function studies verified that miR-31-5p significantly repressed myocardin level and aggravated pathological VSMC phenotypical switch and AAD, an effect that was blunted by ALDH2 inhibition. We next noted that ALDH2 deficiency increased Max expression and decreased miR-31-5p level. Moreover, ALDH2 mutation or inhibition down-regulated levels of miR-31-5p while promoting myocardin downstream contractile genes in the face of Ang II in primary human VSMCs.

Conclusions
ALDH2 deficiency is associated with a lower risk of AAD in patients and mice, possibly via suppressing VSMC phenotypical switch in a miR-31-5p-myocardin-dependent manner. These findings favour a role for ALDH2 and miR-31-5p as novel targets for AAD therapy.
Longevity genes, cardiac ageing, and the pathogenesis of cardiomyopathy: implications for understanding the effects of current and future treatments for heart failure
Authors: Packer Milton 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
The two primary molecular regulators of lifespan are sirtuin-1 (SIRT1) and mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1). Each plays a central role in two highly interconnected pathways that modulate the balance between cellular growth and survival. The activation of SIRT1 [along with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator (PGC-1α) and adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK)] and the suppression of mTORC1 (along with its upstream regulator, Akt) act to prolong organismal longevity and retard cardiac ageing. Both activation of SIRT1/PGC-1α and inhibition of mTORC1 shifts the balance of cellular priorities so as to promote cardiomyocyte survival over growth, leading to cardioprotective effects in experimental models. These benefits may be related to direct actions to modulate oxidative stress, organellar function, proinflammatory pathways, and maladaptive hypertrophy. In addition, a primary shared benefit of both SIRT1/PGC-1α/AMPK activation and Akt/mTORC1 inhibition is the enhancement of autophagy, a lysosome-dependent degradative pathway, which clears the cytosol of dysfunctional organelles and misfolded proteins that drive the ageing process by increasing oxidative and endoplasmic reticulum stress. Autophagy underlies the ability of SIRT1/PGC-1α/AMPK activation and Akt/mTORC1 suppression to extend lifespan, mitigate cardiac ageing, alleviate cellular stress, and ameliorate the development and progression of cardiomyopathy; silencing of autophagy genes abolishes these benefits. Loss of SIRT1/PGC-1α/AMPK function or hyperactivation of Akt/mTORC1 is a consistent feature of experimental cardiomyopathy, and reversal of these abnormalities mitigates the development of heart failure. Interestingly, most treatments that have been shown to be clinically effective in the treatment of chronic heart failure with a reduced ejection fraction have been reported experimentally to exert favourable effects to activate SIRT1/PGC-1α/AMPK and/or suppress Akt/mTORC1, and thereby, to promote autophagic flux. Therefore, the impairment of autophagy resulting from derangements in longevity gene signalling is likely to represent a seminal event in the evolution and progression of cardiomyopathy.
Reaching the sustainable development goals through healthy environments: are we on track?
Authors: Racioppi F , Martuzzi M , Matić S , Braubach M , Morris G , Krzyżanowski M , Jarosińska D , Schmoll O , Adamonytė D 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015 opened new opportunities to work towards healthy environments through ‘whole of government’ and ‘whole of society’ approaches. It created a strong policy platform that acknowledges health as a result and an enabler of sustainable policies across all sectors of government. Five years into the process, an initial analysis of emerging trends indicates that, despite some encouraging developments in policy as well as overall progress in economy and technology, there remains a gap between rhetoric, ambition and reality. In particular, the monitoring system for environment and health-related sustainable development goals (SDGs) and targets requires further development; inequalities in environment and health persist and in some areas have increased; equity is not yet a central element of implementation and reporting on the achievement of the SDGs; and, most worrying of all, trends in key environmental indicators that are vital to the survival of the human species, such as those related to climate change and biodiversity, are still on an overall negative path. In summary, governments must significantly and rapidly increase action to secure the habitability and safety of planet Earth. The public health community assumes an unprecedented role in placing and maintaining health and equity at the heart of the political agenda. This demands new governance models conferring on the health sector a clear mandate and legitimacy to operate across sectors. It also requires enhancing capacities among health professionals to embrace this new level of complexity, understand the multiple links between sectoral policies and health, and successfully engage with other government sectors and stakeholders.
Like Parent, Like Child? Aging Anxiety Among Married Korean Baby Boomers
Authors: Kim Yijung K , Kim Kyungmin , Boerner Kathrin , Han Gyounghae 
Published: April 2020

AbstractObjectivesHow intergenerational relationships influence individuals’ views on aging remains understudied. This study investigated how multiple older family members’ health and financial challenges may shape middle-aged adults’ aging anxiety.MethodMarried Korean baby boomers (N = 1,389) from the Korean Baby Boomer Panel Study reported on their own aging anxiety and rated each of their living parents’ and in-laws’ health and financial conditions. Using structural equation modeling, we examined how parents’ and in-laws’ health and financial challenges are associated with one’s aging anxiety, and whether gender and frequency of intergenerational contact moderate the link. We expected worse health or financial conditions to be associated with higher levels of aging anxiety, and the effect to be more pronounced for women and those with more contact.ResultsA worse financial condition of the poorest parent/in-law was associated with higher levels of aging anxiety, while worse health condition of the unhealthiest parent/in-law was associated with lower levels of aging anxiety. The same results were found when we considered the sum of all living parents’ and in-laws’ financial and health conditions. Frequency of contact moderated the effect of the financial condition of the poorest parent/in-law, such that individuals reporting more contact with the poorest parent/in-law showed higher levels of aging anxiety than those with less contact. There was no moderating effect of gender.DiscussionThe findings highlight the role family ties play in shaping one’s aging anxiety. Interventions aimed at improving views on aging through intergenerational interactions should target the quality of the intergenerational experience.
Tensile-dominant fractures observed in hydraulic fracturing laboratory experiment using eagle ford shale
Authors: Naoi Makoto , Chen Youqing , Yamamoto Kazune , Morishige Yuya , Imakita Keiichi , Tsutumi Naofumi , Kawakata Hironori , Ishida Tsuyoshi , Tanaka Hiroyuki , Arima Yutaro , Kitamura Shigehiro , Hyodo Daisuke 
Published: April 2020

SUMMARYHydraulic fracturing plays a vital role in the development of unconventional energy resources, such as shale gas/oil and enhanced geothermal systems to increase the permeability of tight rocks. In this study, we conducted hydraulic fracturing experiments in a laboratory using carbonate-rich outcrop samples of Eagle Ford shale from the United States. We used a thermosetting acrylic resin containing a fluorescent compound as a fracturing fluid. Immediately after fracturing, the liquid resin penetrated in the fractured blocks was hardened by applying heat. Then, the crack was viewed under UV irradiation, where the fluorescent resin allowed the induced fracture to be clearly observed, indicating the formation of simple, thin bi-wing planar fractures. We observed the detailed structure of the fractures from microscopy of thin cross-sections, and found that their complexity and width varied with the distance from the wellbore. This likely reflects the change in the stress state around the tip of the growing fracture. The interaction between fractures and constituent grains/other inclusions (e.g. organic substances) seemed to increase the complexity of the fractures, which may contribute to the efficient production of shale gas/oil via hydraulic fracturing. We first detected acoustic emission (AE) signals several seconds before the peak fluid pressure was observed, and the active region gradually migrated along the microscopically observed fracture with increasing magnitude. Immediately after the peak pressure was observed, the fluid pressure dropped suddenly (breakdown) with large seismic waves that were probably radiated by dynamic propagation of the fracture; thereafter, the AE activity stopped. We applied moment tensor inversion for the obtained AE events by carefully correcting the AE sensor characteristics. Almost all of the solutions corresponded to tensile events that had a crack plane along the maximum compression axis, as would be expected based on the conventional theory of hydraulic fracturing. Such domination of tensile events has not been reported in previous studies based on laboratory/in situ experiments, where shear events were often dominant. The extreme domination of the tensile events in the present study is possibly a result of the use of rock samples without any significant pre-existing cracks. Our experiments revealed the fracturing behaviour and accompanying seismic activities of very tight rocks in detail, which will be helpful to our understanding of fracturing behaviour in shale gas/oil resource production.
Fast dictionary learning for noise attenuation of multidimensional seismic data
Authors: Chen Yangkang 
Published: April 2020

SUMMARY
The K-SVD algorithm has been successfully utilized for adaptively learning the sparse dictionary in 2-D seismic denoising. Because of the high computational cost of many singular value decompositions (SVDs) in the K-SVD algorithm, it is not applicable in practical situations, especially in 3-D or 5-D problems. In this paper, I extend the dictionary learning based denoising approach from 2-D to 3-D. To address the computational efficiency problem in K-SVD, I propose a fast dictionary learning approach based on the sequential generalized K-means (SGK) algorithm for denoising multidimensional seismic data. The SGK algorithm updates each dictionary atom by taking an arithmetic average of several training signals instead of calculating an SVD as used in K-SVD algorithm. I summarize the sparse dictionary learning algorithm using K-SVD, and introduce SGK algorithm together with its detailed mathematical implications. 3-D synthetic, 2-D and 3-D field data examples are used to demonstrate the performance of both K-SVD and SGK algorithms. It has been shown that SGK algorithm can significantly increase the computational efficiency while only slightly degrading the denoising performance.
Deblending of simultaneous source data using a structure-oriented space-varying median filter
Authors: Chen Yangkang , Zu Shaohuan , Wang Yufeng , Chen Xiaohong 
Published: April 2020

SUMMARY
In seismic data processing, the median filter is usually applied along the structural direction of seismic data in order to attenuate erratic or spike-like noise. The performance of a structure-oriented median filter highly depends on the accuracy of the estimated local slope from the noisy data. When local slope contains significant error, which is usually the case for noisy data, the structure-oriented median filter will still cause severe damages to useful energy. We propose a type of structure-oriented median filter that can effectively attenuate spike-like noise even when the local slope is not accurately estimated, which we call structure-oriented space-varying median filter. A structure-oriented space-varying median filter can adaptively squeeze and stretch the window length of the median filter when applied in the locally flattened dimension of an input seismic data in order to deal with the dipping events caused by inaccurate slope estimation. We show the key difference among different types of median filters in detail and demonstrate the principle of the structure-oriented space-varying median filter method. We apply the structure-oriented space-varying median filter method to remove the spike-like blending noise arising from the simultaneous source acquisition. Synthetic and real data examples show that structure-oriented space-varying median filter can significantly improve the signal preserving performance for curving events in the seismic data. The structure-oriented space-varying median filter can also be easily embedded into an iterative deblending procedure based on the shaping regularization framework and can help obtain much improved deblending performance.
Five-dimensional seismic data reconstruction using the optimally damped rank-reduction method
Authors: Chen Yangkang , Bai Min , Guan Zhe , Zhang Qingchen , Zhang Mi , Wang Hang 
Published: April 2020

SUMMARY
It is difficult to separate additive random noise from spatially coherent signal using a rank-reduction (RR) method that is based on the truncated singular value decomposition (TSVD) operation. This problem is due to the mixture of the signal and the noise subspaces after the TSVD operation. This drawback can be partially conquered using a damped RR (DRR) method, where the singular values corresponding to effective signals are adjusted via a carefully designed damping operator. The damping operator works most powerfully in the case of a small rank and a small damping factor. However, for complicated seismic data, e.g. multichannel reflection seismic data containing highly curved events, the rank should be large enough to preserve the details in the data, which makes the DRR method less effective. In this paper, we develop an optimal damping strategy for adjusting the singular values when a large rank parameter is selected so that the estimated signal can best approximate the exact signal. We first weight the singular values using optimally calculated weights. The weights are theoretically derived by solving an optimization problem that minimizes the Frobenius-norm difference between the approximated and the exact signal components. The damping operator is then derived based on the initial weighting operator to further reduce the residual noise after the optimal weighting. The resulted optimally damped rank-reduction method is nearly an adaptive method, i.e. insensitive to the rank parameter. We demonstrate the performance of the proposed method on a group of synthetic and real 5-D seismic data.