Clinical Factors Associated with Sperm DNA Fragmentation in Male Patients with Infertility

Objective. The clinical factors associated with sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) were investigated in male patients with infertility. Materials and Methods. Fifty-four ejaculates from infertile Japanese males were used. Thirty-three and twenty-one were from the patients with varicoceles and idiopathic causes of infertility, respectively. We performed blood tests, including the serum sex hormone levels, and conventional and computer-assisted semen analyses. The sperm nuclear vacuolization (SNV) was evaluated using a high-magnification microscope. The SDF was evaluated using the sperm chromatin dispersion test (SCDt) to determine the SDF index (SDFI). The SDFI was compared with semen parameters and other clinical variables, including lifestyle factors. Results. The SDFI was 41.3 ± 22.2% (mean ± standard deviation) and did not depend on the cause of infertility. Chronic alcohol use increased the SDFI to 49.6 ± 23.3% compared with 33.9 ± 18.0% in nondrinkers. The SDFI was related to adverse conventional semen parameters and sperm motion characteristics and correlated with the serum FSH level. The SNV showed a tendency to increase with the SDFI. The multivariate analysis revealed that the sperm progressive motility and chronic alcohol use were significant predictors of the SDF. Conclusion. The SCDt should be offered to chronic alcohol users and those with decreased sperm progressive motility

Anestesia para cesariana em paciente com ausência unilateral isolada de artéria pulmonar

ResumoJustificativa e objetivosA ausência congênita unilateral de uma artéria pulmonar (ACAP) é uma anomalia rara. Embora existam vários relatos sobre pacientes grávidas com ACAP, não há relatos de casos que descrevam anestesia para cesariana em pacientes com ACAP.Relato de casoApresentamos uma paciente com ACAP que foi submetida a duas cesarianas, aos 24 e 26 anos, sob raquianestesia para a cirurgia e analgesia epidural para a dor no pós‐operatório. Nas duas cesarianas, a raquianestesia e a analgesia epidural possibilitaram o manejo bem‐sucedido da anestesia, sem a ocorrência de qualquer hipertensão pulmonar ou insuficiência cardíaca direita.ConclusãoRaquianestesia combinada com analgesia epidural é um método anestésico útil para cesarianas em pacientes com ACAP.AbstractBackground and objectivesCongenital unilateral absence of a pulmonary artery (UAPA) is a rare anomaly. Although there are several reports regarding pregnancy in patients with unilateral absence of a pulmonary artery, there are no case reports describing anesthesia for Cesarean section in a patient with unilateral absence of a pulmonary artery.Case reportWe present a patient with unilateral absence of a pulmonary artery who underwent Cesarean sections twice at the ages of 24 and 26 years under spinal anesthesia for surgery and epidural analgesia for postoperative pain relief. Both times, spinal anesthesia and epidural analgesia enabled successful anesthesia management without the development of either pulmonary hypertension or right heart failure.ConclusionSpinal anesthesia combined with epidural analgesia is a useful anesthetic method for a Cesarean section in patients with unilateral absence of a pulmonary artery

Increase of Pro-opiomelanocortin mRNA Prior to Tyrosinase, Tyrosinase-Related Protein 1, Dopachrome Tautomerase, Pmel-17/gp100, and P-Protein mRNA in Human Skin After Ultraviolet B Irradiation

In ultraviolet-induced tanning, the protein levels of various gene products critical for pigmentation (including tyrosinase and tyrosinase-related protein-1) are increased in response to ultraviolet B irradiation, but changes in mRNA levels of these factors have not been investigated in vivo. We have established an in situ hybridization technique to investigate mRNA levels of pro-opiomelanocortin, tyrosinase, tyrosinase-related protein-1, dopachrome tautomerase, P-protein, Pmel-17/gp100, and microphthalmia-associated transcription factor, and have analyzed the changes in mRNA levels in the ultraviolet B-exposed skin in vivo. The right or left forearm of each volunteer was irradiated with ultraviolet B, and skin biopsies were obtained at 2 and 5 d postirradiation. mRNA level of pro- opiomelanocortin was increased 2 d after ultraviolet B irradiation, and returned to a near-basal level after 5 d, whereas the mRNA levels of tyrosinase, tyrosinase-related protein-1, dopachrome tautomerase, P-protein, and Pmel-17/gp100 showed some or no increase at 2 d, but were significantly increased 5 d after ultraviolet B irradiation. Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor mRNA was slightly increased on days 2 and 5 after ultraviolet B irradiation. Our results suggest that the mechanism of the tanning response of human skin may involve the transcriptional regulation of certain pigmentary genes, and that pro-opiomelanocortin-derived melanocortins such as α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone and adrenocorticotropic hormone may play a part in regulating these genes in vivo

Model checking of embedded assembly program based on simulation

金沢大学理工研究域電子情報学系Embedded systems have been widely used. In addition, embedded systems have been gradually complicated. It is important to ensure the safety for embedded software by software model checking. We have developed a verification system for verifying embedded assembly programs. It generates exact Kripke structure by exhaustively and dynamically simulating assembly programs, and simultaneously verify it by model checking. In addition, we have introduced undefined values to reduce the number of states in order to avoid the state space explosion. Copyright © 2017 The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers.発行後6か月より出版社

Simulation of SIMS for monomer and dimer of lignin under the assumption of thermal decomposition using QMD method,

金沢大学理工研究域物質化学系The thermal decomposition of the monomer and dimer of lignin has been simulated by a quantum molecular dynamics (DMD) method. In the calculation, we controlled the total energy of the system using Nóse-Hoover thermostats in the total energy range of 0.69-0.95 eV, and the sampling position data with a time step of 0.5 fs were carried out up to 3000 (1.5 ps) or 5000 (2.5 ps) steps in ab initio and semiempirical MO methods, respectively. We obtained the thermally decomposed fragments with positive, neutral and negative charges from SCF MO calculation at each data of the last MD step, and simulated the fragment distribution of the monomer and dimer lignins from the last step in 30-40 runs. Simulated mass numbers of positively and negatively charged fragments for lignin monomer and dimer showed considerably good accordance with the experimental results in TOF-SIMS observed by Saito and co-workers. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Improvement of dynamic characteristics of manipulator driven by a gas-liquid phase-change actuator using an antagonistic drive

The goal of this research is to improve the dynamic characteristics of a manipulator composed of pneumatic artificial rubber muscles driven by gas-liquid phase change. Pneumatic actuators, such as pneumatic artificial rubber muscle (PARM) or rubber bellows, have been widely used in many industrial and research fields. They have merits of being compact and lightweight. However, the large size of the compressor driving the actuator is a problem. To overcome this, the authors researched soft actuators driven by the gas-liquid phase change (GLPC) of fluorocarbon. Fluorocarbon (C5F11NO) is a substance with a relatively low boiling point (50 °C) and a low heat of evaporation (104.65 kJ/kg). The heat of evaporation of water is 2260 kJ/kg. This paper presents the overview of an actuator driven by GLPC. Then, fabrication of a manipulator using the GLPC driven PARM, and details of experiments conducted to determine manipulator characteristics are given. To improve the dynamic characteristics of the manipulator, a force control method using the antagonistic drive of two PARMs is proposed, and experiments are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method

Transitional pulsatile flows with stenosis in a two-dimensional channel

Although blood flows are mostly laminar, transition to turbulence and flow separations are observed at curved vessels, bifurcations, or constrictions. It is known that wall-shear stress plays an important role in the development of atherosclerosis as well as in arteriovenous grafts. In order to help understand the behavior of flow separation and transition to turbulence in post-stenotic blood flows, an experimental study of transitional pulsatile flow with stenosis was carried out using time-resolved particle image velocimetry and a microelectromechanical systems wall-shear stress sensor at the mean Reynolds number of 1750 with the Womersley number of 6.15. At the start of the pulsatile cycle, a strong shear layer develops from the tip of the stenosis, increasing the flow separation region. The flow at the throat of the stenosis is always laminar due to acceleration, which quickly becomes turbulent through a shear-layer instability under a strong adverse pressure gradient. At the same time, a recirculation region appears over the wall opposite to the stenosis, moving downstream in sync with the movement of the reattachment point. These flow behaviors observed in a two-dimensional channel flow are very similar to the results obtained previously in a pipe flow. We also found that the behavior in a pulsating channel flow during the acceleration phase of both 25% and 50% stenosis cases is similar to that of the steady flow, including the location and size of post-stenotic flow separation regions. This is because the peak Reynolds number of the pulsatile flow is similar to that of the steady flow that is investigated. The transition to turbulence is more dominant for the 50% stenosis as compared to the 25% stenosis, as the wavelet spectra show a greater broadening of turbulence energy. With an increase in stenosis to 75%, the accelerating flow is directed toward the opposite wall, creating a wall jet. The shear layer from the stenosis bifurcates as a result of this, one moving with the flow separation region toward the upper wall and the other with the wall jet toward the bottom wall. Low wall-shear stress fluctuations are found at two post-stenotic locations in the channel flow – one immediately downstream of the stenosis over the top wall (stenosis side) inside the flow separation region, and the other in the recirculation region on the bottom wall (opposite side of the stenosis)

Half-Metallic Exchange Bias Ferromagnetic/Antiferromagnetic Interfaces in Transition-Metal Chalcogenides

科研費報告書収録論文(課題番号:16310081/研究代表者:白井正文/ナノ磁性材料におけるスピン構造とそのダイナミクスに関する理論研究