The human acrosome reaction

We developed tests of sperm-oocyte interaction:sperm-zona binding,zona-induced acrosome reaction,sperm-zona penetration and sperm-oolemma binding,using oocytes which failed to fertilise in clinical in vitro fertilization(IVF).Although oocyte defects contribute to failure of sperm oocyte interaction,rarely are all oocytes from one wom-an affected.Low or zero fertilization in standard IVFwas usually caused by sperm abnormalities.Poor sperm-zona pel-lucida binding was frequently associated with failure of standard IVF and obvious defects of sperm motility or morpholo-gy.The size and shape of the acrosome is particularly important for sperm binding to the oocyte.The proportion ofacrosome intact sperm in the insemination medium was related to the IVF rote.Inducing the acrosome reaction with acalcium ionophore reduced sperm-zona binding.Blocking acrosome dispersal with an acrosin inhibitor prevented sperm-zona penetration.Sperm-zona penetration was even more highly related to IVF rates than was sperm-zona binding.Some patients had low or zero fertilization rates with standard IVF but normal sperm by conventional tests and normalsperm-zona binding.Few of their sperm underwent the acrosome reaction on the surface of the zona and none penetrat-ed the zona.In contrast,fertilization and pregnancy rates were high with intmcytoplasmic sperm injection.We call thiscondition defective zona pellucida induced acrosome reaction.Discovery of the nature of the abnormalities in the signaltmnsduction and effector pathways of the human zona pellucida induced acrosome reaction should result in simpler testsand treatments for the patients and also provide new leads for contraceptive development.

Future Physics Programme of BESⅢ

There has recently been a dramatic renewal of interest in hadron spectroscopy and charm physics. This renaissance has been driven in part by the discovery of a plethora of charmonium-like XYZ states at BESⅢ and B factories, and the observation of an intriguing proton-antiproton threshold enhancement and the possibly related X(1835) meson state at BESⅢ, as well as the threshold measurements of charm mesons and charm baryons. We present a detailed survey of the important topics in tau-charm physics and hadron physics that can be further explored at BESⅢ during the remaining operation period of BEPCⅡ. This survey will help in the optimization of the data-taking plan over the coming years, and provides physics motivation for the possible upgrade of BEPCⅡ to higher luminosity.

Observation of e^+e^-→D_s^+■^((*)0)K^- and study of the P-wave D_s mesons

Studies of e^+e~→D_s^+■^((*)0)K^-and the P-wave charmed-strange mesons are performed based on an e^+e^-collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 567 pb^(-1) collected with the BESIII detector at s^(1/2)=4.600 GeV. The processes of e^+e^-→D_s^+■^(*0)K^- and D_s^+■~0K^- are observed for the first time and are found to be dominated by the modes D_s^+D_(s1)(2536)^-and D_s^+D_(s2)~*(2573)^-, respectively. The Born cross sections are measured to be σ~B(e^+e^-→D_s^+■^(*0)K^-) =(10.1±2.3±0.8) pb and σ~B(e^+e^-→D_s^+■~0K^-) =(19.4±2.3± 1.6) pb, and the products of Born cross section and the decay branching fraction are measured to be σ~B(e^+e^-→D_s^+D_(s1)(2536)^-+c.c.)·B(D_(s1)(2536)^-→■^(*0)K^-)=(7.5±1.8±0.7) pb and σ~B(e^+e^-→D_s^+D_(s2)~*(2573)^-+ c.c.)·B(D_(s2)~*(2573)^-→■~0 K^-)=(19.7 ± 2.9 ±2.0) pb. For the D_(s1)(2536)^-and D_(s2)~*(2573)^-mesons, the masses and widths are measured to be M(D_(s1)(2536)^-)=(2537.7±0.5 ±3.1) MeV/c2, Γ(D_(s1)(2536)^-) =(1.7 ±1.2 ±0.6)MeV, and M(D_(s2)~*(2573)^-)=(2570.7±2.0 ±1.7) MeV/c^2, Γ(D_(s2)~*(2573)^-)=(17.2 ±3.6 ±1.1) MeV. The spin-parity of the D_(s2)~*(2573)^-meson is determined to be J^p= 2^+. In addition, the processes e^+e^-→D_s^+■^((*)0)K^-are searched for using the data samples taken at four(two) center-of-mass energies between 4.416(4.527) and 4.575 GeV, and upper limits at the 90% confidence level on the cross sections are determined.

Evidence for the decays of ∧_c^+→∑^+η and ∑^+η’

We study the hadronic decays of ∧c+ to the final states ∑+η and ∑+η’,using an e+e-annihilation data sample of 567 pb-1 taken at a center-of-mass energy of 4.6 GeV with the BESIII detector at the BEPCⅡ collider.We find evidence for the decays ∧c+→∑+η and ∑+η’ with statistical significance of 2.5σ and 3.2σ,respectively.Normalizing to the reference decays ∧c+→∑+π0 and ∑+ω,we obtain the ratios of the branching fractions■and ■to be 0.35±0.16±0.02 and 0.86±0.34±0.04,respectively.The upper limits at the 90% confidence level are set to be■and■.Using BESIII measurements of the branching fractions of the reference decays,we determine B（∧c+→∑+η）=（0.41±0.19±0.05）%（<0.68%）and B（∧c+→∑+η’）=（1.34±0.53 ±0.19）%（<1.9%）.Here,the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic.The obtained branching fraction of ∧c+→∑+η is consistent with the previous measurement,and the branching fraction of ∧c+→∑+η’ is measured for the first time.