Analytical solution and numerical verification for a pressure-relief method of circular tunnel

This paper presents an elastic analytical solution to a circular tunnel with releasing slots at high stress areas near the hole by using a conformal mapping method and the complex variable theory. Compared to the original stress distribution around the circular hole, the releasing effect on elastic stresses is evaluated. After grooving slots, low stress area is generated where the high stress concentration is located. This is agreeable with what was predicted by the finite difference FLAC2D . Besides, displacements are obtained along the periphery of the released hole and are in accordance with those of FLAC2D . In addition to the intersection of the mapping contour, the influences of the sampling points distribution, series number in mapping function, and slot shape are discussed. It is inevitable that the mapping accuracies for the slot and the circle cannot be satisfied at the same time The mapping effect on the circle has to be considered primarily since the stress distribution around the circle is much more significant than the tunnel stability. The analytical solution can be available and fast method of estimating the releasing effect of the application on the tunnel without rock parameters

Construction of BiOIO₃/AgIO₃ Z‑Scheme Photocatalysts for the Efficient Removal of Persistent Organic Pollutants under Natural Sunlight Illumination

The efficient removal of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in natural waters is vital for human survival and sustainable development. Photocatalytic degradation is a feasible and cost-effective strategy to completely disintegrate POPs at room temperature. Herein, we develop a series of direct Z-scheme BiOIO3/AgIO3 hybrid photocatalysts via a facile deposition–precipitation method. Under natural sunlight irradiation, the light intensity of which is ∼40 mW/cm2, a considerable rate constant of 0.185 min–1 for photodecomposing 40 mg/L MO is obtained over 0.5 g/L Bi@Ag-5 composite photocatalyst powder, about 92.5 and 5.3 times higher than those of pristine AgIO3 and BiOIO3. The photoactivity of Bi@Ag-5 for photodecomposing MO under natural sunlight illumination surpasses most of the reported photocatalysts under Xe lamp illumination. After natural sunlight irradiation for 20 min, 95% of MO, 82% of phenol, 78% of 2,4-DCP, 54% of ofloxacin, and 88% of tetracycline hydrochloride can be photodecomposed over Bi@Ag-5. Relative to the commercial photocatalyst TiO2 (P25), Bi@Ag-5 exhibits greatly higher photoactivity for the treatment of MO–phenol–tetracycline hydrochloride mixture pollutants in the scale-up experiment of 500 mL of solution, decreasing COD, TOC, and chromaticity value by 52, 19, and 76%, respectively, after natural sunlight irradiation for 40 min. The photodegradation process and mechanism of MO have been systematically investigated and proposed. This work provides an archetype for designing efficient photocatalysts to remove POPs

Genetic variants in meiotic program initiation pathway genes are associated with spermatogenic impairment in a Han Chinese population.

The meiotic program initiation pathway genes (CYP26B1, NANOS1 and STRA8) have been proposed to play key roles in spermatogenesis.To elucidate the exact role of the genetic variants of the meiosis initiation genes in spermatogenesis, we genotyped the potential functional genetic variants of CYP26B1, NANOS1 and STRA8 genes, and evaluated their effects on spermatogenesis in our study population.In this study, all subjects were volunteers from the affiliated hospitals of Nanjing Medical University between March 2004 and July 2009 (NJMU Infertile Study). Total 719 idiopathic infertile cases were recruited and divided into three groups according to WHO semen parameters: 201 azoospermia patients (no sperm in the ejaculate even after centrifugation), 155 oligozoospermia patients (sperm counts <20×10(6)/ml) and 363 infertility/normozoospermia subjects (sperm counts >20×10(6)/ml). The control group consisted of 383 subjects with normal semen parameters, all of which had fathered at least one child without assisted reproductive technologies.Eight single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in CYP26B1, NANOS1 and STRA8 genes were determined by TaqMan allelic discrimination assay in 719 idiopathic infertile men and 383 healthy controls.The genetic variant rs10269148 of STRA8 gene showed higher risk of spermatogenic impairment in the groups of abnormospermia (including azoospermia subgroup and oligozoospermia subgroup) and azoospermia than the controls with odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals of 2.52 (1.29-4.94) and 2.92 (1.41-6.06), respectively (P = 0.006, 0.002 respective). Notably, larger sample size studies and in vivo or in vitro functional studies are needed to substantiate the biological roles of these variants.Our results provided epidemiological evidence supporting the involvement of genetic polymorphisms of the meiotic program initiation genes in modifying the risk of azoospermia and oligozoospermia in a Han-Chinese population

Genetic profiling of rat gliomas and cardiac schwannomas from life-time radiofrequency radiation exposure study using a targeted next-generation sequencing gene panel.

The cancer hazard associated with lifetime exposure to radiofrequency radiation (RFR) was examined in Sprague Dawley (SD) rats at the Ramazzini Institute (RI), Italy. There were increased incidences of gliomas and cardiac schwannomas. The translational relevance of these rare rat tumors for human disease is poorly understood. We examined the genetic alterations in RFR-derived rat tumors through molecular characterization of important cancer genes relevant for human gliomagenesis. A targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) panel was designed for rats based on the top 23 orthologous human glioma-related genes. Single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) and small insertion and deletions (indels) were characterized in the rat gliomas and cardiac schwannomas. Translational relevance of these genetic alterations in rat tumors to human disease was determined through comparison with the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) database. These data suggest that rat gliomas resulting from life-time exposure to RFR histologically resemble low grade human gliomas but surprisingly no mutations were detected in rat gliomas that had homology to the human IDH1 p.R132 or IDH2 p.R172 suggesting that rat gliomas are primarily wild-type for IDH hotspot mutations implicated in human gliomas. The rat gliomas appear to share some genetic alterations with IDH1 wildtype human gliomas and rat cardiac schwannomas also harbor mutations in some of the queried cancer genes. These data demonstrate that targeted NGS panels based on tumor specific orthologous human cancer driver genes are an important tool to examine the translational relevance of rodent tumors resulting from chronic/life-time rodent bioassays

Evaluation of Five Candidate Genes from GWAS for Association with Oligozoospermia in a Han Chinese Population

<div><p>Background</p><p>Oligozoospermia is one of the severe forms of idiopathic male infertility. However, its pathology is largely unknown, and few genetic factors have been defined. Our previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) has identified four risk loci for non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA).</p><p>Objective</p><p>To investigate the potentially functional genetic variants (including not only common variants, but also less-common and rare variants) of these loci on spermatogenic impairment, especially oligozoospermia.</p><p>Design, Setting, and Participants</p><p>A total of 784 individuals with oligozoospermia and 592 healthy controls were recruited to this study from March 2004 and January 2011.</p><p>Measurements</p><p>We conducted a two-stage study to explore the association between oligozoospermia and new makers near NOA risk loci. In the first stage, we used next generation sequencing (NGS) in 96 oligozoospermia cases and 96 healthy controls to screen oligozoospermia-susceptible genetic variants. Next, we validated these variants in a large cohort containing 688 cases and 496 controls by SNPscan for high-throughput Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) genotyping.</p><p>Results and Limitations</p><p>Totally, we observed seven oligozoospermia associated variants (rs3791185 and rs2232015 in <i>PRMT6</i>, rs146039840 and rs11046992 in <i>Sox5</i>, rs1129332 in <i>PEX10</i>, rs3197744 in <i>SIRPA</i>, rs1048055 in <i>SIRPG</i>) in the first stage. In the validation stage, rs3197744 in <i>SIRPA</i> and rs11046992 in <i>Sox5</i> were associated with increased risk of oligozoospermia with an odds ratio (OR) of 4.62 (<i>P</i>  =  0.005, 95%CI 1.58-13.4) and 1.82 (<i>P</i>  =  0.005, 95%CI 1.01-1.64), respectively. Further investigation in larger populations and functional characterizations are needed to validate our findings.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Our study provides evidence of independent oligozoospermia risk alleles driven by variants in the potentially functional regions of genes discovered by GWAS. Our findings suggest that integrating sequence data with large-scale genotyping will serve as an effective strategy for discovering risk alleles in the future.</p></div

The distributions of selected variables among cases and control subjects.

a<p>Independent-samples T-test for comparing the mean of the age, BMI and Pack-years of smoking between the cases and controls.</p>b<p>Two-sided chi-squared test for either selected variable distributions between cases and controls.</p>*<p>p<0.05 for two-sided chi-squared test for either selected characteristics distributions or allele frequencies between control and case group.</p

Prediction of the binding of microRNA to the 3’ UTR of <i>SIRPA</i> with the substitution of rs3197744 G>T.

<p>(A) the original binding of -miR-4277 to the 3’ UTR of <i>SIRPA</i> (B) the substitution of rs3197744 G>T may increase the binding sites of miR-148b-5p, miR-148a-5p, miR-506-5p etc.</p

Association of seven identified genetic variations in solexa sequence with oligozoospermia in a Chinese population.

<p>MAF, minor allele frequency;</p>a<p>ORs and <i>P</i> were obtained from multivariate logistic regression analysis;</p>b<p><i>P</i>-value was survived after Bonferroni correction.</p

Associations of selected meiotic program initiation pathway gene polymorphisms and the risk of idiopathic male infertility.

<p>SNPs, single-nucleotide polymorphisms; OR, odds ratios; CI, confidence interval.</p>a<p>Subjects consisted of proven fertility men with semen volume ≥2 ml, sperm counts ≥20×10⁶/ml and sperm motility ≥50% motile sperm.</p>b<p>Subjects consisted of idiopathic infertile men with sperm counts <20×10⁶/ml.</p>c<p>Subjects consisted of idiopathic infertile men with sperm counts = 0/ml.</p>d<p>Subjects consisted of idiopathic infertile men with sperm counts from 0.1 to 20×10⁶/ml.</p>e<p>Subjects consisted of idiopathic infertile men with sperm counts ≥20×10⁶/ml.</p>f<p>ORs were obtained from multivariate logistic regression analysis.</p>g<p>Two-sided χ2 test for genotype distributions between cases and controls.</p