A loss-of-function variant in SSFA2 causes male infertility with globozoospermia and failed oocyte activation

Globozoospermia (OMIM: 102530) is a rare type of teratozoospermia ( A; p.R1224Q) in the patient. This variant significantly reduced the protein expression of SSFA2. Immunofluorescence staining showed posi- tive SSFA2 expression in the acrosome of human sperm. Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry/mass spectrom- etry (LC–MS/MS) and Coimmunoprecipitation (Co-IP) analyses identified that GSTM3 and Actin interact with SSFA2. Further investigation revealed that for the patient, regular intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment had a poor prognosis. However, Artificial oocyte activation (AOA) by a calcium ionophore (A23187) after ICSI successfully rescued the oocyte activation failure for the patient with the SSFA2 variant, and the couple achieved a live birth. This study revealed that SSFA2 plays an important role in acrosome formation, and the homozygous c.3671G > A loss-of-function variant in SSFA2 caused globozoospermia. SSFA2 may represent a new gene in the genetic diagnosis of globozoospermia, especially the successful outcome of AOA-ICSI treatment for couples, which has potential value for clinicians in their treatment regimen selections

Modification of the Peck Formula for a Double-Track Shield Tunnel under Expressway Subgrade

In practice, asymmetric formation disturbance occurs due to the sequence of excavation though parallel double-track tunnel is a typical symmetrical engineering. Based on a shield tunneling project of a section of the Suzhou Rail Transit under the subgrade of the Shanghai–Nanjing Expressway, a finite element model was established to obtain a numerical solution that was validated by the measured data to guarantee reliability. According to the construction characteristics of the shield method, two correction coefficients—namely the soil loss rate correction coefficient α and the settlement trough width correction coefficient β—were introduced. A modified Peck formula suitable for the preceding tunnel and the subsequent tunnel was proposed. The applicability of the modified Peck formula was verified by another similar project. The results showed that the numerical solution can better reflect the actual settlement of the highway subgrade under shield tunneling. The results calculated by the classic Peck formula had a large error in comparison with the measured data. The modified empirical formula could more accurately predict the settlement of the expressway subgrade caused by the shield method when α1 = 0.38 and β1 = 2.08 for the preceding tunnel and α2 = 0.29 and β2 = 1.99 for the subsequent tunnel

Conversational Model Adaptation via KL Divergence Regularization

In this study we formulate the problem of conversational model adaptation, where we aim to build a generative conversational model for a target domain based on a limited amount of dialogue data from this target domain and some existing dialogue models from related source domains. This model facilitates the fast building of a chatbot platform, where a new vertical chatbot with only a small number of conversation data can be supported by other related mature chatbots. Previous studies on model adaptation and transfer learning mostly focus on classification and recommendation problems, however, how these models work for conversation generation are still unexplored. To this end, we leverage a KL divergence (KLD) regularization to adapt the existing conversational models. Specifically, it employs the KLD to measure the distance between source and target domain. Adding KLD as a regularization to the objective function allows the proposed method to utilize the information from source domains effectively. We also evaluate the performance of this adaptation model for the online chatbots in Wechat platform of public accounts using both the BLEU metric and human judgement. The experiments empirically show that the proposed method visibly improves these evaluation metrics

Modification of the Peck Formula for a Double-Track Shield Tunnel under Expressway Subgrade

In practice, asymmetric formation disturbance occurs due to the sequence of excavation though parallel double-track tunnel is a typical symmetrical engineering. Based on a shield tunneling project of a section of the Suzhou Rail Transit under the subgrade of the Shanghai–Nanjing Expressway, a finite element model was established to obtain a numerical solution that was validated by the measured data to guarantee reliability. According to the construction characteristics of the shield method, two correction coefficients—namely the soil loss rate correction coefficient α and the settlement trough width correction coefficient β—were introduced. A modified Peck formula suitable for the preceding tunnel and the subsequent tunnel was proposed. The applicability of the modified Peck formula was verified by another similar project. The results showed that the numerical solution can better reflect the actual settlement of the highway subgrade under shield tunneling. The results calculated by the classic Peck formula had a large error in comparison with the measured data. The modified empirical formula could more accurately predict the settlement of the expressway subgrade caused by the shield method when α1 = 0.38 and β1 = 2.08 for the preceding tunnel and α2 = 0.29 and β2 = 1.99 for the subsequent tunnel

A study of the resonance characteristics of a staggered rock slope under the tri-dimension earthquake wave

The resonance induced by an earthquake often causes more serious damage to the slope and directly affects its seismic performance. To study the resonance characteristics of a staggered rock slope, a 3D numerical model of the slope is established by using the finite element software ANSYS, and the effect of staggered space on the natural frequency of the slope is analyzed. The resonance response laws of different locations on the slope surface and the effect of the earthquake frequency on the stress of the slope are discussed by the harmonic response analysis. The results show that (1) the larger the slope slip distance is, the smaller the fundamental frequency is, and the resonance phenomena may occur under different staggered distances. The horizontal resonance displacement of the slope surface is larger than the vertical one. The front slope has a larger peak displacement and lower resonant frequency compared with those of the back slope. (2) Both the low and high-order natural frequencies can be excited to cause resonance, but the displacement of the high-order resonance is relatively small. The horizontal displacement peak of the front slope and back slope is in the order: top > middle > foot, while that of the side slope is in the order: middle > top > foot. Under high-frequency loading, the dynamic response of the slope at the lower part may be greater than that at the upper part. (3) The shear failure of the slope toe is the main damage in slope resonance. The location of the maximum shear and tensile stress is related to the range of loading frequency. The front slope is more prone to damage. Ground motions with low frequency have a greater influence on the front slope, while high frequency ground motions have the opposite effect. The results can be used as reference to determine the key reinforcement position of a staggered slope in the seismic fortification

Effects of nano-alumina on Portland concrete at low temperatures (5 ℃)

The purpose of this research is to solve the problem of concrete performance deterioration caused by low temperatures in cold regions. Based on the theoretical method of improving the performance of concrete with nanomaterials, the effect of nano-alumina (NA) on the properties of concrete under low- temperature curing is studied from the macro and micro scales. Through the compressive strength test, it is found that low-temperature curing reduces the compressive strength of concrete by more than 15%. Additionally, the incorporation of NA can make up for the adverse effects of low temperatures. Nevertheless, with the increase in the amount of inclusion, the compensation effect is decreasing, and 1% is the optimal amount of NA in concrete. Microscopic test methods such as mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are used to explore the improvement mechanism of NA on concrete. The test results show that under low-temperature curing conditions, NA can still reduce the total porosity of the mortar in concrete, promote the hydration reaction of cement, consume more calcium hydroxide, generate more calcium silicate hydrate, thereby optimizing the microstructure and improving the performance of the concrete. In the future, the results and methodology of this study will provide guidance and reference for the scientific construction of concrete engineering in cold region environments