1,147 research outputs found
Luteal Phase Ovarian Stimulation May Improve Oocyte Retrieval and Oocyte Quality in Poor Ovarian Responders Undergoing In Vitro Fertilization: Preliminary Results from a Single-Center Prospective Pilot Study
No full textIntroduction: Luteal phase ovarian stimulation
(LPOS) has been proven a feasible protocol for
infertile patients. High progesterone level in the
luteal phase could physiologically inhibit premature
luteinizing hormone surge, from which
poor ovarian responders (PORs) could obtain
benefits. Therefore, we aimed to compare clinical
outcomes between LPOS and follicular phase
ovarian stimulation (FPOS) protocol in PORs
undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Methods: This prospective pilot study was performed
at one tertiary center from January 2016
to October 2017. A total of 60 PORs who met
Bologna criteria and undergoing IVF were
enrolled. Thirty PORs were allocated to the
LPOS group and 30 PORs were allocated to the
FPOS group. Basic characteristics, cycle characteristics,
and pregnancy outcomes were compared
between the two groups.
Results: The length of stimulation was significantly
longer in the LPOS group than in the
FPOS group. The numbers of retrieved oocytes,
metaphase II oocytes, fertilized oocytes, and
day-3 embryos were significantly higher in the
LPOS group than in the FPOS group. Conversely,
we could not find any significant difference for clinical pregnancy rate, ongoing
pregnancy rate, abortion rate, and cancellation
rate. The multivariate analysis showed that only
LPOS (p = 0.007) was significantly associated
the possibility to retrieve three or more oocytes,
whereas basal follicle-stimulating hormone
(FSH)\8 IU/l (p = 0.103) and antral follicle
count (AFC) C 3 (p = 0.143) did not significantly
affect this event.
Conclusion: LPOS allows improved oocyte
retrieval and oocyte quality in PORs with
respect to FPOS, despite comparable pregnancy
outcomes. LPOS may be considered a feasible
option for oocytes accumulation in PORs.
Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier,
NCT0323883
The genetic basis of ankylosing spondylitis: new insights into disease pathogenesis
No full textFlorence WL Tsui,1,2 Hing Wo Tsui,1 Ali Akram,1,3 Nigil Haroon,1–3 Robert D Inman1–3 1Genetics and Development Division, Toronto Western Research Institute, University Health Network, 2Department of Immunology, 3Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada Abstract: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a complex disease involving multiple risk factors, both genetic and environmental. AS patients are predominantly young men, and the disease is characterized by inflammation and ankylosis, mainly at the cartilage–bone interface and enthesis. HLA-B27 has been known to be the major AS-susceptibility gene for more than 40 years. Despite advances made in the past few years, progress in the search for non-human leukocyte antigen susceptibility genes has been hampered by the heterogeneity of the disease. Compared to other complex diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), fewer susceptibility loci have been identified in AS. Furthermore, non-major histocompatibility-complex susceptibility loci discovered, such as ERAP1 and IL23R, are likely contributors to joint inflammation. Identification and confirmation of functional variants remains a significant challenge of investigations involving genome-wide association studies (GWAS). It remains unclear why none of the AS-susceptibility genes identified in GWAS appear to be directly involved in the ankylosing process. Numerous reviews have recently been published on the genetics of AS. Therefore, aside from a brief summary of what AS GWAS has successfully achieved thus far, this review will focus on directions that could address unanswered questions raised by GWAS. Keywords: ankylosing spondylitis, genome-wide association studies, risk loci, ankylosis, joint and gut inflammation, clinical subset
Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) supplementation improves in vitro fertilization outcomes of poor ovarian responders, especially in women with low serum concentration of DHEA-S: a retrospective cohort study
Full text linkBackground: Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is now widely used as an adjuvant for in vitro fertilization (IVF)
cycles in poor ovarian responders (PORs). Several studies showed that DHEA supplementation could improve IVF
outcomes of PORs. However, most of the PORs do not respond to DHEA clinically. Therefore, the aim of this study
is to confirm the beneficial effects of DHEA on IVF outcomes of PORs and to investigate which subgroups of PORs
can best benefit from DHEA supplementation.
Methods: This retrospective cohort study was performed between January 2015 and December 2017. A total of
151 PORs who fulfilled the Bologna criteria and underwent IVF cycles with the gonadotropin-releasing hormone
antagonist protocol were identified. The study group (n = 67) received 90 mg of DHEA daily for an average of
3 months before the IVF cycles. The control group (n = 84) underwent the IVF cycles without DHEA pretreatment.
The basic and cycle characteristics and IVF outcomes between the two groups were compared using independent
t-tests, Chi-Square tests and binary logistic regression.
Results: The study and control groups did not show significant differences in terms of basic characteristics. The study
group demonstrated a significantly greater number of retrieved oocytes, metaphase II oocytes, fertilized oocytes, day 3
embryos and top-quality embryos at day 3 and a higher clinical pregnancy rate, ongoing pregnancy rate and live birth
rate than those measures in the control group. The multivariate analysis revealed that DHEA supplementation was
positively associated with clinical pregnancy rate (OR = 4.93, 95% CI 1.68–14.43, p = 0.004). Additionally, in the study
group, the multivariate analysis showed that serum dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S) levels < 180 μg/dl were
significantly associated with a rate of retrieved oocytes > 3 (OR = 5.92, 95% CI 1.48–23.26, p = 0.012).
Conclusions: DHEA supplementation improves IVF outcomes of PORs. In PORs with DHEA pretreatment, women with
lower DHEA-S level may have greater possibility of attaining more than 3 oocytes
Gluon fusion and bb¯ corrections to HW+W−/HZZ production in the POWHEG-BOX
No full textAbstractThe study of the Higgs boson properties is one of the most important tasks to be accomplished in the next years, at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and at future colliders such as the Future Circular Collider in hadron–hadron mode (FCC-hh), the potential 100 TeV follow-up of the LHC machine. In this view the precise study of the Higgs couplings to weak gauge bosons is crucial and requires as much information as possible. After the recent calculation of the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the production cross sections and differential distributions of a Standard Model Higgs boson in association with a pair of weak bosons, matched with parton shower in the POWHEG-BOX framework, we present the gluon fusion correction gg→HW+W−(HZZ) to the process pp→HW+W−(HZZ). This correction can be sizeable and amounts to +3% (+10%) in the HW+W− process and +5% (+18%) in the HZZ process at the LHC (FCC-hh). We also present the first study of the impact of the bottom-quark initiated channels bb¯→HW+W−/HZZ and find that they induce a significant +18% correction in the HW+W− channel at the FCC-hh. We present results on total cross sections and distributions at the LHC and at the FCC-hh
KrakenOnMem: A Memristor-Augmented HW/SW Framework for Taxonomic Profiling
No full textState-of-the-art taxonomic profilers that comprise the first step in larger-context metagenomic studies have proven to be computationally intensive, i.e., while accurate, they come at the cost of high latency and energy consumption. Table Lookup operation is a primary bottleneck of today's profilers. In this paper, we first propose TL-PIM, a hardware accelerator based on the processing-in-memory (PIM) paradigm to accelerate Table Lookup. TL-PIM leverages the in-memory compute capability of emerging memory technologies along with intelligent data mapping. Then, we integrate TL-PIM into Kraken2, a state-of-the-art metagenomic profiler, and build an HW/SW co-designed profiler, called KrakenOnMem. Results from a silicon-based prototype of our emerging memory validate the design and required operations on a smaller scale. Our large-scale calibrated simulations show that KrakenOnMem can provide an average of 61.3% speedup compared to original Kraken2 for end-to-end profiling. Additionally, our design improves the energy consumption by orders of magnitude compared to the original Kraken2 while incurring a negligible area overhead. Computer EngineeringElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer ScienceQuantum & Computer Engineerin
The Insulator Protein SU(HW) Fine-Tunes Nuclear Lamina Interactions of the Drosophila Genome
No full textSpecific interactions of the genome with the nuclear lamina (NL) are thought to assist chromosome folding inside the nucleus and to contribute to the regulation of gene expression. High-resolution mapping has recently identified hundreds of large, sharply defined lamina-associated domains (LADs) in the human genome, and suggested that the insulator protein CTCF may help to demarcate these domains. Here, we report the detailed structure of LADs in Drosophila cells, and investigate the putative roles of five insulator proteins in LAD organization. We found that the Drosophila genome is also organized in discrete LADs, which are about five times smaller than human LADs but contain on average a similar number of genes. Systematic comparison to new and published insulator binding maps shows that only SU(HW) binds preferentially at LAD borders and at specific positions inside LADs, while GAF, CTCF, BEAF-32 and DWG are mostly absent from these regions. By knockdown and overexpression studies we demonstrate that SU(HW) weakens genome – NL interactions through a local antagonistic effect, but we did not obtain evidence that it is essential for border formation. Our results provide insights into the evolution of LAD organization and identify SU(HW) as a fine-tuner of genome – NL interactions.BiotechnologyApplied Science
Understanding a time reversal process in Lamb wave propagation
No full textThis study investigates the time reversal process (TRP) of Lamb wave signals which are transmitted and received by piezoelectric transducers bonded on plate-like structures. A number of previous studies have paid attention to spatial and temporal refocusing capability of an original excitation through the TRP in highly dispersive and complex media. However, when the TRP is applied to Lamb waves in a homogeneous regular waveguide, the refocusing capability is limited due to permanent residual side bands even if the duration of the time reversed signal increases. Based on the reciprocity of elastodynamics and linear piezoelectricity, theoretical interpretation is conducted for the main and residual side bands of the reconstructed signal in the time domain. In particular, the interpretation includes the temporal effect of velocity and amplitude dispersions, the existence of multi-modes, and the reflections from boundaries during the TRP. Then, numerical and experimental tests are conducted to validate the theoretical findings of this paper. Practical issues for the successful implementation of the TRP of Lamb waves are briefly addressed as well. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work was supported by Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD, Basic Research
Promotion Fund) (KRF-2008-331-D00590), in which main calculations were performed by using the supercomputing
resource of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI), and the Radiation Technology Program under
Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (M20703000015-07N0300-
01510). The second author would like to acknowledge the graduate fellowship program from Samsung Scholarship in Seoul,
Korea
Wave-front Behaviour of the Pulsed EM Field – Complexity and Implications
No full textThe pulsed electromagnetic (EM) field radiated by a gap-fed, long slot in a perfectly conducting thin sheet located in between dielectric and free-space subdomains is examined. A phenomenological interpretation of the so-called head wave (HW) constituent is proposed, this fostering the understanding of the complex EM behaviour at, and immediately behind, the HW wave-front. The EM field is also examined numerically for identifying features that may lead the way towards inferring a causal counterpart of the leaky-wave propagation.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Tera-Hertz SensingElectrical Engineering Educatio
Extended pancreas donor program - the EXPAND study rationale and study protocol
Full text linkBACKGROUND:
Simultaneous pancreas kidney transplantation (SPK), pancreas transplantation alone (PTA) or pancreas transplantation after kidney (PAK) are the only curative treatment options for patients with type 1 (juvenile) diabetes mellitus with or without impaired renal function. Unfortunately, transplant waiting lists for this indication are increasing because the current organ acceptability criteria are restrictive; morbidity and mortality significantly increase with time on the waitlist. Currently, only pancreas organs from donors younger than 50 years of age and with a body mass index (BMI) less than 30 are allocated for transplantation in the Eurotransplant (ET) area. To address this issue we designed a study to increase the available donor pool for these patients.
METHODS/DESIGN:
This study is a prospective, multicenter (20 German centers), single blinded, non-randomized, two armed trial comparing outcome after SPK, PTA or PAK between organs with the currently allowed donor criteria versus selected organs from donors with extended criteria. Extended donor criteria are defined as organs procured from donors with a BMI of 30 to 34 or a donor age between 50 and 60 years. Immunosuppression is generally standardized using induction therapy with Myfortic, tacrolimus and low dose steroids. In principle, all patients on the waitlist for primary SPK, PTA or PAK are eligible for the clinical trial when they consent to possibly receiving an extended donor criteria organ. Patients receiving an organ meeting the current standard criteria for pancreas allocation (control arm) are compared to those receiving extended criteria organ (study arm); patients are blinded for a follow-up period of one year. The combined primary endpoint is survival of the pancreas allograft and pancreas allograft function after three months, as an early relevant outcome parameter for pancreas transplantation.
DISCUSSION:
The EXPAND Study has been initiated to investigate the hypothesis that locally allocated extended criteria organs can be transplanted with similar results compared to the currently allowed standard ET organ allocation. If our study shows a favorable comparison to standard organ allocation criteria, the morbidity and mortality for patients waiting for transplantation could be reduced in the future.
TRIAL REGISTRATION:
Trial registered at: NCT0138400
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