Astragalus membranaceus augment sperm parameters in male mice associated with cAMP-responsive element modulator and activator of CREM in testis

AbstractAstragalus membranaceus BUNGE (AM; 黃芪 huáng qí) has been widely used as a medicinal herb for different kinds of diseases. AM treatment in vitro enhance sperm motility and ameliorates testicular toxicity, it has demonstrated the ability as a potential treatment for male infertility. In order to gain further insights on the molecular understanding of how AM enhances spermatogenesis, this study investigated whether AM has an affect on sperm parameters associated with cAMP response element modulator (CREM) and activator of CREM in testis (ACT) expression. Five-week-old male ICR mice were divided into four groups; control group and three different concentrations of AM treated groups. Each group was treated for 5 days a week for 5 weeks. Testis samples were collected for real time quantitative PCR and western blot analysis. Epididymis was taken out and used for sperm analysis using the computer assisted semen analysis (CASA) system. To facilitate expression of genes required for spermatogenesis, it is controlled by fine-tuning of CREM and its coactivator, ACT. AM treatment promotes CREM and ACT mRNA expression and also protein expression compared to control. AM enhances sperm values such as sperm count and motility compared to control. Overall, the study highlights, the ability of AM to increases CREM and ACT expression to facilitate sperm development and semen quality

Temperature-dependent evolutions of excitonic superfluid plasma frequency in a srong excitonic insulator candidate, Ta2_2NiSe5_5

We investigate an interesting anisotropic van der Waals material, Ta$_{2}$NiSe$_{5}$, using optical spectroscopy. Ta$_{2}$NiSe$_{5}$ has been known as one of the few excitonic insulators proposed over 50 years ago. Ta$_{2}$NiSe$_{5}$ has quasi-one dimensional chains along the $a$-axis. We have obtained anisotropic optical properties of a single crystal Ta$_{2}$NiSe$_{5}$ along the $a$- and $c$-axes. The measured $a$- and $c$-axis optical conductivities exhibit large anisotropic electronic and phononic properties. With regard to the $a$-axis optical conductivity, a sharp peak near 3050 cm$^{-1}$ at 9 K, with a well-defined optical gap ($\Delta^{EI} \simeq$ 1800 cm$^{-1}$) and a strong temperature-dependence, is observed. With an increase in temperature, this peak broadens and the optical energy gap closes around $\sim$325 K($T_c^{EI}$). The spectral weight redistribution with respect to the frequency and temperature indicates that the normalized optical energy gap ($\Delta^{EI}(T)/\Delta^{EI}(0)$) is $1-(T/T_c^{EI})^2$. The temperature-dependent superfluid plasma frequency of the excitonic condensation in Ta$_{2}$NiSe$_{5}$ has been determined from measured optical data. Our findings may be useful for future research on excitonic insulators.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure

On-Line Cursive Korean Character Recognition by using Curvature Models

A cursive Korean character consists of several Korean alphabets where connection is present within and among the alphabets. Recognition of Korean characters can be carried out by splitting each character into smaller primitives. Small line segments can be used as the primitives. But this approach requires too much processing time, for there can be many candidate references to be matched to one input character and each reference usually consists of too many primitives. In this paper, we propose an approach using structural curvature models to overcome the difficulties of using small line segments. These models are obtained by segmenting the input character at the points showing sudden change in direction, excessive rotation, etc. By doing this, rather larger and structural curve segments can be used as the basic primitives to be matched resulting in the savings of processing time and better recognition rat

The Fruit Hull of Gleditsia sinensis

Lung cancer has substantial mortality worldwide, and chemotherapy is a routine regimen for the treatment of patients with lung cancer, despite undesirable effects such as drug resistance and chemotoxicity. Here, given a possible antitumor effect of the fruit hull of Gleditsia sinensis (FGS), we tested whether FGS enhances the effectiveness of cis-diammine dichloridoplatinum (II) (CDDP), a chemotherapeutic drug. We found that CDDP, when administered with FGS, significantly decreased the viability and increased the apoptosis and cell cycle arrest of Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) cells, which were associated with the increase of p21 and decreases of cyclin D1 and CDK4. Concordantly, when combined with FGS, CDDP significantly reduced the volume and weight of tumors derived from LLC subcutaneously injected into C57BL/6 mice, with concomitant increases of phosphor-p53 and p21 in tumor tissue. Together, these results show that FGS could enhance the antitumor activity of CDDP, suggesting that FGS can be used as a complementary measure to enhance the efficacy of a chemotherapeutic agent such as CDDP

Comparison of the Clinical Outcomes of Open Surgery Versus Arthroscopic Surgery for Chronic Refractory Lateral Epicondylitis of the Elbow

Numerous surgical options have been introduced for the treatment of chronic refractory lateral epicondylitis of the elbow, but it remains unclear which option is superior. The clinical outcomes of an open surgery group and an arthroscopic surgery group were evaluated, and the results of the 2 procedures were compared. From among patients with lateral epicondylitis refractory to 6 months of conservative treatment, 68 patients satisfying study criteria were recruited. Open surgery was performed in 34 cases (group 1), and arthroscopic surgery was performed in 34 cases (group 2). Compared with preoperatively, the 2 groups had significantly improved values for grip strength, range of motion, and Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand score at 12 months postoperatively. Group 1 had significantly greater improvements in grip strength and visual analog scale pain score compared with group 2 (P=.048 vs P=.006). Group 2 had significantly greater (P=.045) improvement in pronation compared with group 1. Group 2 returned to work sooner than group 1. On the questionnaire regarding satisfaction with surgery 24 months postoperatively, 4 patients (12%) in group 2 reported dissatisfaction compared with no patients in group 1. Open surgery and arthroscopic surgery both yielded good clinical results. Nonetheless, for patients requiring muscle strength or having severe pain at work, open surgery would be more effective

On Stein's Identity and Near-Optimal Estimation in High-dimensional Index Models

We consider estimating the parametric components of semi-parametric multiple index models in a high-dimensional and non-Gaussian setting. Such models form a rich class of non-linear models with applications to signal processing, machine learning and statistics. Our estimators leverage the score function based first and second-order Stein's identities and do not require the covariates to satisfy Gaussian or elliptical symmetry assumptions common in the literature. Moreover, to handle score functions and responses that are heavy-tailed, our estimators are constructed via carefully thresholding their empirical counterparts. We show that our estimator achieves near-optimal statistical rate of convergence in several settings. We supplement our theoretical results via simulation experiments that confirm the theory