Effect of 4-nonylphenol on the sperm dynamic parameters, morphology and fertilization rate of Bufo raddei

4-Nonylphenol (NP) is a compound that causes endocrine disruption and affects sperm quality of mammals and fish. However, the effects of NP on the sperm and fertilization rate of amphibians remain unknown. This study investigates the in vivo and in vitro effects of NP on the sperm dynamic parameters and fertilization rate of Bufo raddei during the period of amplexus and fertilization, and proposes the induction of these effects. In in vivo assay, male B. raddei were exposed to 3 concentrations of NP (50, 200, or 400 μg/l) or alcohol (0.04‰, control) for 1-3 days. The results suggested that effects on NP on the sperm dynamic parameters, sperm integrity and fertilization rate were not significant (p>0.05). In in vitro assay, the sperm of B. raddei was directly exposed to NP. Based on the results, NP significantly affected the sperm dynamic parameters and integrity (p<0.05). Meanwhile, the sperm reactive oxygen species (ROS) level in the sperm increased significantly (p<0.05), and a negative correlation was recorded between sperm motility and its corresponding ROS level (R=−0.90). Besides, fertilization rate was significantly reduced compared with that of control (p<0.01). The sperm membrane was impaired as well. However, a risk that NP can disrupt the reproduction behavior of B. raddei exists, and the ROS induced by NP and NP itself would be associated with the reduction of fertilization.Keywords: 4-Nonylphenol, Bufo raddei, sperm, morphology, fertilizatio

Bias-Polarity-Dependent Direct and Inverted Marcus Charge Transport Affecting Rectification in a Redox-Active Molecular Junction

This paper describes the transition from the normal to inverted Marcus region in solid-state tunnel junctions consisting of self-assembled monolayers of benzotetrathiafulvalene (BTTF), and how this transition determines the performance of a molecular diode. Temperature-dependent normalized differential conductance analyses indicate the participation of the HOMO (highest occupied molecular orbital) at large negative bias, which follows typical thermally activated hopping behavior associated with the normal Marcus regime. In contrast, hopping involving the HOMO dominates the mechanism of charge transport at positive bias, yet it is nearly activationless indicating the junction operates in the inverted Marcus region. Thus, within the same junction it is possible to switch between Marcus and inverted Marcus regimes by changing the bias polarity. Consequently, the current only decreases with decreasing temperature at negative bias when hopping is “frozen out,” but not at positive bias resulting in a 30-fold increase in the molecular rectification efficiency. These results indicate that the charge transport in the inverted Marcus region is readily accessible in junctions with redox molecules in the weak coupling regime and control over different hopping regimes can be used to improve junction performance.Y.H., C.N., M.S.M., and S.K.K. contributed equally to this work. The authors acknowledge the Ministry of Education (MOE) for supporting this research under award no. MOE2019-T2-1-137. Prime Minister's Office, Singapore under its Medium sized centre program is also acknowledged for supporting this research. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the Australian Synchrotron (ANSTO) soft X-ray spectroscopy beamline where the SAM characterization was conducted. C.N. and E.d.B. acknowledge support from the US National Science Foundation (grant no. ECCS#1916874). D.Q. acknowledges the support of the Australian Research Council (Grant No. FT160100207). Authors also acknowledge the Marie-Sklodowska-Curie project ITN iSwitch (GA-642196), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (project FANCY CTQ2016-80030-R, GENESIS PID2019-111682RB-I00 and Severo Ochoa programme for Centers of excellence in R&D (SEV-2015-0496)). J.C. is a research director of the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS).Peer reviewe

High Performance Analytics in Complex Event Processing

Complex Event Processing (CEP) is the technical choice for high performance analytics in time-critical decision-making applications. Although current CEP systems support sequence pattern detection on continuous event streams, they do not support the computation of aggregated values over the matched sequences of a query pattern. Instead, aggregation is typically applied as a post processing step after CEP pattern detection, leading to an extremely inefficient solution for sequence aggregation. Meanwhile, the state-of-art aggregation techniques over traditional stream data are not directly applicable in the context of the sequence-semantics of CEP. In this paper, we propose an approach, called A-Seq, that successfully pushes the aggregation computation into the sequence pattern detection process. A-Seq succeeds to compute aggregation online by dynamically recording compact partial sequence aggregation without ever constructing the to-be-aggregated matched sequences. Techniques are devised to tackle all the key CEP- specific challenges for aggregation, including sliding window semantics, event purging, as well as sequence negation. For scalability, we further introduce the Chop-Connect methodology, that enables sequence aggregation sharing among queries with arbitrary substring relationships. Lastly, our cost-driven optimizer selects a shared execution plan for effectively processing a workload of CEP aggregation queries. Our experimental study using real data sets demonstrates over four orders of magnitude efficiency improvement for a wide range of tested scenarios of our proposed A-Seq approach compared to the state-of-art solutions, thus achieving high-performance CEP aggregation analytics

Research on Speech Emotion Recognition Method Based A-CapsNet

Speech emotion recognition is a crucial work direction in speech recognition. To increase the performance of speech emotion detection, researchers have worked relentlessly to improve data augmentation, feature extraction, and pattern formation. To address the concerns of limited speech data resources and model training overfitting, A-CapsNet, a neural network model based on data augmentation methodologies, is proposed in this research. In order to solve the issue of data scarcity and achieve the goal of data augmentation, the noise from the Noisex-92 database is first combined with four different data division methods (emotion-independent random-division, emotion-dependent random-division, emotion-independent cross-validation and emotion-dependent cross-validation methods, abbreviated as EIRD, EDRD, EICV and EDCV, respectively). The database EMODB is then used to analyze and compare the performance of the model proposed in this paper under different signal-to-noise ratios, and the results show that the proposed model and data augmentation are effective

Data mining techniques for detecting signals of adverse drug reaction of cardiac therapy drugs based on Jinan adverse event reporting system database: a retrospective study

Objective Cardiac therapy drugs are widely used in the treatment of heart disease. However, the concern regarding adverse events (AEs) of cardiac therapy drugs have been rising. This study aimed to analyse cardiac therapy drug-related AEs using the Jinan adverse event reporting system (JAERS) database mining and conduct a comprehensive evaluation to provide safe medication information for patients.Design Retrospective observational study.Setting In this study, cardiac therapy drug-related AEs were detected using the JAERS database from January 2000 to March 2022.Methods Reports of cardiac therapy drug-related AEs were extracted from JAERS database, and the basic information of patients, reports and common AEs were analysed. Four disproportionality analysis methods, proportional reporting ratio (PRR), reporting odds ratio (ROR), Bayesian Confidence Propagation Neural Network (BCPNN), Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), were used to detect cardiac therapy drug-related signals. We further checked whether the detected signals exist on drug labels in China and two developed countries, the USA and Japan.Results In total, 168 314 AEs were reported, of which 4788 were associated with cardiac therapy drugs. Using the PRR, ROR, MHRA and BCPNN method, we detected 52 signals, 52 signals, 33 signals and 43 signals, respectively. Among the 52 signals, 14 were not included on the drug labels of China. One (isosorbide mononitrate—head bilges) was not included on the drug labels of the three countries.Conclusion We identified 14 new cardiac therapy drug signals that did not appear on drug labels in China and 1 new signal that did not appear on drug labels in 3 counties. A causal link between cardiac therapy drugs and AEs should be evaluated in further studies

Capture ELISA and in vitro cell binding assay for the detection of antibodies to human papillomavirus type 6b virus-like particles in patients with anogenital warts

To investigate human papillomavirus (HPV) virus-like particle (VLP)-specific antibody responses among anogenital warts patients, a VLP-based capture ELISA was established. Twenty-six percent (35/134) of control subjects and 50.0% (39/78) of patients with current anogenital warts showed IgG seropositivity to HPV 6b VLPs. HPV 6b VLP-specific antibody responses recognised native VLPs only, and had no cross-reaction with HPV type 16 VLPs. No differences in reactivity were observed between L1 and L1 + L2 VLPs, suggesting that L2 contributes little to the total immunogenicity of the papillomavirus virion. A VLP-cell binding assay was also established. Some sera from patients with anogenital warts specifically inhibited VLP binding to the surface of epithelial cells, suggesting that these antibodies might be functionally neutralising. These data show that serological responses to HPV 6b VLPs were induced among some but not all patients with anogenital warts, and give a proportional estimate of infection in the community

Dynamic Molecular Switches Drive Negative Memristance Mimicking Synaptic Behavior

To realize molecular scale electrical operations beyond the von Neumann bottleneck, new types of multi-functional switches are needed that mimic self-learning or neuromorphic computing by dynamically toggling between multiple operations that depend on their past. Here we report a molecule that switches from high to low conductance states with massive negative memristive behavior that depends on the drive speed and the number of past switching events. This dynamic molecular switch emulates synaptic behavior and Pavlovian learning and can provide all of the fundamental logic gates because of its time-domain and voltage-dependent plasticity. This multi-functional switch represents molecular scale hardware operable in solid-state devices opening a pathway to dynamic complex electrical operations encoded within a single ultra-compact component

Leptin Promotes Angiogenesis via Pericyte STAT3 Pathway upon Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Angiogenesis is a vital endogenous brain self-repair processes for neurological recovery after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Increasing evidence suggests that leptin potentiates angiogenesis and plays a beneficial role in stroke. However, the proangiogenic effect of leptin on ICH has not been adequately explored. Moreover, leptin triggers post-ICH angiogenesis through pericyte, an important component of forming new blood vessels, which remains unclear. Here, we reported that exogenous leptin infusion dose-dependent promoted vascular endothelial cells survival and proliferation at chronic stage of ICH mice. Additionally, leptin robustly ameliorated pericytes loss, enhanced pericytes proliferation and migration in ICH mice in vivo, and in ICH human brain microvascular pericytes (HBVPC) in vitro. Notably, we showed that pericytes-derived pro-angiogenic factors were responsible for enhancing the survival, proliferation and tube formation followed leptin treatment in human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HCMEC/D3)/HBVPC co-culture models. Importantly, considerable improvements in neurobehavioral function and hostile microenvironment were observed in leptin treatment ICH mice, indicating that better vascular functionality post ICH improves outcome. Mechanistically, this study unveiled that leptin boost post-ICH angiogenesis potentially through modulation of leptin receptor (leptinR)/Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling pathway in pericyte. Thus, leptin may be a lucrative option for the treatment of ICH

Electric-field-driven dual-functional molecular switches in tunnel junctions

To avoid crosstalk and suppress leakage currents in resistive random access memories (RRAMs), a resistive switch and a current rectifier (diode) are usually combined in series in a one diode–one resistor (1D–1R) RRAM. However, this complicates the design of next-generation RRAM, increases the footprint of devices and increases the operating voltage as the potential drops over two consecutive junctions1. Here, we report a molecular tunnel junction based on molecules that provide an unprecedented dual functionality of diode and variable resistor, resulting in a molecular-scale 1D–1R RRAM with a current rectification ratio of 2.5 × 104 and resistive on/off ratio of 6.7 × 103, and a low drive voltage of 0.89 V. The switching relies on dimerization of redox units, resulting in hybridization of molecular orbitals accompanied by directional ion migration. This electric-field-driven molecular switch operating in the tunnelling regime enables a class of molecular devices where multiple electronic functions are preprogrammed inside a single molecular layer with a thickness of only 2 nm