204,137 research outputs found
External validation of anti-Müllerian hormone based prediction of live birth in assisted conception
No full text<p>Background - Chronological age and oocyte yield are independent determinants of live birth in assisted conception. Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) is strongly associated with oocyte yield after controlled ovarian stimulation. We have previously assessed the ability of AMH and age to independently predict live birth in an Italian assisted conception cohort. Herein we report the external validation of the nomogram in 822 UK first in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles.</p>
<p>Methods - Retrospective cohort consisting of 822 patients undergoing their first IVF treatment cycle at Glasgow Centre for Reproductive Medicine. Analyses were restricted to women aged between 25 and 42 years of age. All women had an AMH measured prior to commencing their first IVF cycle. The performance of the model was assessed; discrimination by the area under the receiver operator curve (ROCAUC) and model calibration by the predicted probability versus observed probability.</p>
<p>Results - Live births occurred in 29.4% of the cohort. The observed and predicted outcomes showed no evidence of miscalibration (p = 0.188). The ROCAUC was 0.64 (95% CI: 0.60, 0.68), suggesting moderate and similar discrimination to the original model. The ROCAUC for a continuous model of age and AMH was 0.65 (95% CI 0.61, 0.69), suggesting that the original categories of AMH were appropriate.</p>
<p>Conclusions - We confirm by external validation that AMH and age are independent predictors of live birth. Although the confidence intervals for each category are wide, our results support the assessment of AMH in larger cohorts with detailed baseline phenotyping for live birth prediction.</p>
The Live(d) Curriculum: Life Feeling Itself
No full textThe article focuses on the ideas and meanings that emerge for the author as she experiences the death of her father. Here, through a series of vignettes which expose curricula as live(d) by herself, her father, and others, the author explores multiple conceptions of the live(d) curriculum. As a result, ideas and meanings of (in)visibility, last(ing) rituals, and life feeling itself surface and in significant ways occasion the author’s new awareness and deeper understanding of the live(d) curriculum
3D-LIVE: D3.4: Final prototype of the 3D-LIVE platform
No full textThe 3D-LIVE platform has been co-designed with end-users in an iterative way. 3D-LIVE partners have continuously worked on improving the components of this platform and their interoperability. We are presenting in this document the final version of the platform that was experimented with end users. Basically the platform can be described as follows: Indoor users and outdoor users are running a set of technologies allowing them to be tele-immersed in one shared virtual environment. There are three main groups of components for both indoor and outdoor setups which are Acquisition, User Applications and Rendering. In the acquisition group, sensors track the activity of the users and transmit it to the user applications in order to generate a consistent representation of the user in the game. Once processed into the virtual scene, applications are capable of rendering it to different rendering devices depending on the setup. Those will be common devices like computer displays, Smartphones as well as immersive devices such as CAVE or Head Mounted Displays or smart goggles. The user applications, running on different platforms (Smartphones or computers) communicate through a server like an online multiplayer game. External data exchange has finally been set up in order to monitor two types of data through two different tools. One tool handles weather information aggregation and queries (including Environment Observation Service and Environment Reconstruction Service). The second tool, called ExperiMonitor, handles experimental data, collecting and monitoring measurements from the different user applications.<br/
LIVESTOCK FUTURES MARKETS AND RATIONAL PRICE FORMATION: EVIDENCE FOR LIVE CATTLE AND LIVE HOGS
No full textThe efficiency of livestock futures markets continues to receive attention, particularly with regard to their forward pricing or forecasting ability. The purpose of this paper is to present a more general theory that encompasses the forward pricing concept. It is argued that futures contract prices for competitively produced nonstorable commodities, such as live cattle and live hogs, follow a rational formation process. Futures contract prices reflect expected market conditions when contracts are sufficiently close to the delivery month that the supply of the underlying commodity cannot be changed. However, prior to the period when future supplies are relatively fixed, futures contract prices should adjust to reflect the competitive equilibrium, where output price equals average costs of production. Presented evidence suggests that live cattle and live hog futures markets support the rational price formation hypothesis: prices for distant contracts reflect average costs of feeding. Implications for risk management strategies are considered.Demand and Price Analysis, Livestock Production/Industries,
Network Awareness of P2P Live Streaming Applications
No full textEarly P2P-TV systems have already attracted millions of users, and many new commercial solutions are entering this market. Little information is however available about how these systems work. In this paper we present large scale sets of experiments to compare three of the most successful P2P-TV systems, namely PPLive, SopCast and TVAnts. Our goal is to assess what level of "network awareness" has been embedded in the applications, i.e., what parameters mainly drive the peer selection and data exchange. By using a general framework that can be extended to other systems and metrics, we show that all applications largely base their choices on the peer bandwidth, i.e., they prefer high-bandwidth users, which is rather intuitive. Moreover, TVAnts and PPLive exhibits also a preference to exchange data among peers in the same autonomous system the peer belongs to. However, no evidence about preference versus peers in the same subnet or that are closer to the considered peer emerges. We believe that next-generation P2P live streaming applications definitively need to improve the level of network-awareness, so to better localize the traffic in the network and thus increase their network-friendliness as wel
NITRIC OXIDE-INDUCED MODIFICATION OF PROTEIN THIOLATE CLUSTERS AS DETERMINED BY SPECTRAL FLUORESCENCE RESONANCE ENERGY TRANSFER IN LIVE ENDOTHELIAL CELLS
No full textLow-molecular-weight S-nitrosothiols are found in many tissues and recognized to affect a diverse array of signaling pathways via decomposition to ⋅NO or exchange of their -NO function with thiol containing proteins (transnitrosation). We used spectral laser scanning confocal imaging to visualize the effects of D- and L- stereoisomers of S-nitrosocysteine ethyl ester (SNCEE) on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based reporters that are targets for the following NO-related modifications: (a) S-nitrosation, via the cysteine-rich, metal binding protein, metallothionein (FRET-MT); and (b) nitrosyl-heme-Fe- guanosine 3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate (cygnet-2) in live cells. Conformational changes consistent with S-nitrosation of FRET-MT were specific to L-SNCEE. In addition, they were reversed by dithiothreitol (DTT) but unaffected by exogenous oxyhemoglobin (HbO₂). In contrast, D- and L-SNCEE had comparable effects on cygnet-2, likely via activation of soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) by ⋅NO as they were sensitive to the sGC inhibitor, 1H-[1,2,4]-oxadiazolo[4,3-α] quinoxalin-1 (ODQ) and exogenous oxyhemoglobin. These data demonstrate the utility of spectral laser scanning confocal imaging in revealing subtle aspects of NO signal transduction in live cells. Stereoselective transnitrosation of MT suggests that the structure of L-SNCEE confers access to critical cysteine(s) in the protein. Such stereo-selectivity underscores the specificity of post-translational modification as a component of NO signaling
MeSH term explosion and author rank improve expert recommendations
No full textInformation overload is an often-cited phenomenon that reduces the productivity, efficiency and efficacy of scientists. One challenge for scientists is to find appropriate collaborators in their research. The literature describes various solutions to the problem of expertise location, but most current approaches do not appear to be very suitable for expert recommendations in biomedical research. In this study, we present the development and initial evaluation of a vector space model-based algorithm to calculate researcher similarity using four inputs: 1) MeSH terms of publications; 2) MeSH terms and author rank; 3) exploded MeSH terms; and 4) exploded MeSH terms and author rank. We developed and evaluated the algorithm using a data set of 17,525 authors and their 22,542 papers. On average, our algorithms correctly predicted 2.5 of the top 5/10 coauthors of individual scientists. Exploded MeSH and author rank outperformed all other algorithms in accuracy, followed closely by MeSH and author rank. Our results show that the accuracy of MeSH term-based matching can be enhanced with other metadata such as author rank
Phytophthora ramorum infection of coast live oak leaves in Californian forests and its capacity to sporulate in vitro
No full textCoast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) is a known host for Phytophthora ramorum, the casual agent of sudden oak death in California, with symptoms expressed as necrotic stem cankers. In the forest, leaves on two saplings in California were found to be infected with P. ramorum and these were associated with infected bay laurel (Umbellularia californica) trees. Coast live oak leaves supported sporulation and produced chlamydospores in vitro. This is the first report to identify foliage of coast live oak as a source of infection of P. ramorum in the forest and its confirmation in in vitro inoculations
FACTORS AFFECTING LIVE CATTLE BASIS
No full textCattle producers and beef packers need to understand basis determinants as they develop price expectations and make pricing, hedging, and forward contracting decisions. This study empirically estimated factors explaining variability in monthly fed cattle basis. The five main results regarding live cattle basis are 1) corn price is an important determinant, 2) a change in the value of the Choice-to-Select spread positively affects basis, 3) changes in the levels of captive supplies have no significant statistical or economic impact on basis 4) the June 1995 live cattle futures contract did not impact basis, and 5) both market fundamentals and seasonal components are important basis determinants.basis, fed cattle, cattle prices, Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing,
Did Producer Hedging Opportunities in the Live Hog Contract Decline?
No full textThe paper assesses the usefulness of selective hedging strategies when combined with forecast techniques in the live hog contract. The use of routine futures and options hedging is not attractive relative to a cash-only strategy. However, forecasting and hedging can contribute to price risk management improvement for risk-averse producers. Consistent with previous research, the results indicate that the live hog contract continues to offer producers attractive pricing opportunities. The findings suggests that the success of the new lean value carcass contract may depend on its ability to attract trading volume from outside the traditional production sector.hedging, forecasting, risk management, live hog futures, lean hog futures
- …
