Mice expressing aberrant sperm-specific protein PMIS2 produce normal-looking but fertilization-incompetent spermatozoa

Yamaguchi, R., Fujiharaa, Y., Ikawa, M., & Okabe, M. (2012). Mice expressing aberrant sperm-specific protein PMIS2 produce normal-looking but fertilization-incompetent spermatozoa. Molecular Biology of the Cell, 23(14), 2671-2679. doi:10.1091/mbc.E11-12-102

Artificial intelligence-assisted interpretation of systolic function by echocardiogram

Objective: Precise and reliable echocardiographic assessment of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is needed for clinical decision-making. Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) models have been developed to estimate LVEF accurately. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether an AI model could estimate an expert read of LVEF and reduce the interinstitutional variability of level 1 readers with the AI-LVEF displayed on the echocardiographic screen. Methods: This prospective, multicentre echocardiographic study was conducted by five cardiologists of level 1 echocardiographic skill (minimum level of competency to interpret images) from different hospitals. Protocol 1: Visual LVEFs for the 48 cases were measured without input from the AI-LVEF. Protocol 2: the 48 cases were again shown to all readers with inclusion of AI-LVEF data. To assess the concordance and accuracy with or without AI-LVEF, each visual LVEF measurement was compared with an average of the estimates by five expert readers as a reference. Results: A good correlation was found between AI-LVEF and reference LVEF (r=0.90, p<0.001) from the expert readers. For the classification LVEF, the area under the curve was 0.95 on heart failure with preserved EF and 0.96 on heart failure reduced EF. For the precision, the SD was reduced from 6.1±2.3 to 2.5±0.9 (p<0.001) with AI-LVEF. For the accuracy, the root-mean squared error was improved from 7.5±3.1 to 5.6±3.2 (p=0.004) with AI-LVEF. Conclusions: AI can assist with the interpretation of systolic function on an echocardiogram for level 1 readers from different institutions

Perioperative Management of Hemophilia A Using Recombinant Factor VIII in Patients Undergoing Major or Minor Surgery

Among the surgical treatments performed in patients with hemophilia, joint surgery for intra-articular bleeding is the most time-consuming. Previous reports describe the perioperative management of hemophiliacs undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting or of those undergoing cystectomy for treatment of hematuria. In the former study, the patient was elderly; in the latter study, the authors concluded that cystectomy in hemophiliacs is safe if monitored appropriately and that urinary diversion using the intestine should be avoided because anastomotic hemorrhaging may occur. In this study, we discuss coagulation factor replacement therapy for patient with hemophilia A undergoing major or minor surgery

Impedance-matched High-overtone Bulk Acoustic Resonator

A high-overtone bulk acoustic resonator (HBAR), in which a piezoelectric transducer is set on an acoustic cavity, has been attracting attention in both fundamental research and RF applications due to its scalability, high frequency, and high quality factor. The acoustic impedance matching in HBARs is crucial for efficient acoustic power transfer from the piezoelectric transducer to the cavity. However, impedance mismatch remains in most HBARs due to the metal layer insertion between the piezoelectric layer and cavity substrate. In this study, we fabricated a nearly impedance-matched high-quality HBAR using an epitaxial AlN piezoelectric layer directly grown on a conductive SiC cavity substrate with no metal layer insertion. The small impedance mismatch was verified from the variation in the free spectral range (FSR), which is comparable to the best value in previously reported HBARs. The experimentally obtained FSR spectra was greatly reproduced by using the Mason model. Broadband phonon cavity modes up to the K-band (26.5 GHz) were achieved by reducing the thickness of the AlN layer from 800 to 200 nm. The high figure of merit of $f\times\text{Q} \sim 1.3\times 10^{13}\ \textrm{Hz}$ at 10 GHz was also obtained. Our nearly impedance-matched high-quality HBAR will enable the development of RF applications, such as low-phase noise oscillators and acoustic filters, as well as research on high-frequency acoustic systems hybridized with electric, optical, and magnetic systems

酢酸摂取と運動が脂肪代謝と運動耐久性に及ぼす影響

Previously, we found that acetic acid had effects on lipid metabolism in skeletal muscles and has functions that work against obesity and obesity-linked type 2 diabetes through the activation of AMPactivated protein kinase (AMPK). During exercise, AMPK is activated in skeletal muscle according to exercise intensity and it increases fatty acid oxidation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interactive effects of chronic intake of acetic acid and exercise training on lipid metabolism and endurance performance. Six-week-old SD rats were randomly assigned to four groups: water-injected (rest-water), acetic acid-injected (rest-ace), exercise-trained after injection of water (water-ex), and exercise-trained after injection of acetic acid (ace-ex) for 4 weeks. Body weight (BW) in rest-ace and ace-ex groups was significantly lower than rest-water group. Exercise-training groups showed an increase of exercise capacity, by the addition of intake of acetic acid, lipid oxidation was promoted during exercise tolerance test. Skeletal muscle of rats treated with acetic acid and exercise training led to higher expressions of cytochrome c (cycs), and tended to stimulate expressions of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor coactivator 1-α (PGC1-α ) and MHC1 genes than those of rest-water group. Those results indicate that treatments both of exercise training and intake of acetic acid contribute to enhancement of lipid metabolism and improvement of exercise capacity.これまで我々は、酢酸の摂取が骨格筋内のAMP活性化プロテインキナーゼ（AMPK）の活性化を介して脂質代謝と肥満、肥満に関連した2型糖尿病の予防に効果があることを示唆してきた。AMPKは運動によって骨格筋で活性化し、脂肪酸酸化を促進する。この研究は、4週間の継続的な酢酸摂取と運動トレーニングが運動中の脂肪代謝と運動耐久性に及ぼす影響について調べることを目的とした。　6週齢のSD系雄ラットを安静期に水を摂取するrest-water群、酢酸を摂取するrest-ace群、運動前に水を摂取するwater-ex群、運動前に酢酸を摂取するace-ex群に無作為に分け実験を行った。酢酸を継続的に摂取すると水摂取に比較して腹腔内脂肪量の減少と体重増加の抑制がみられた。また継続的な酢酸摂取および運動トレーニングにより、耐久性運動下でのグルコース利用の抑制および脂肪酸酸化の促進が見られた。酢酸摂取および運動トレーニング群の腓腹筋では、MHCIおよびcytochrome c等の遅筋線維マーカー遺伝子が増加していた。継続的な酢酸摂取と運動トレーニングにより、脂肪代謝と運動耐久性の向上が示唆された