Vaginally Administered PEGylated LIF Antagonist Blocked Embryo Implantation and Eliminated Non-Target Effects on Bone in Mice

Female-controlled contraception/HIV prevention is critical to address health issues associated with gender inequality. Therefore, a contraceptive which can be administered in tandem with a microbicide to inhibit sexually transmitted infections, is desirable. Uterine leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is obligatory for blastocyst implantation in mice and associated with infertility in women. We aimed to determine whether a PEGylated LIF inhibitor (PEGLA) was an effective contraceptive following vaginal delivery and to identify non-uterine targets of PEGLA in mice

From planning to practice: building the national network for the surveillance of severe maternal morbidity

Background: Improving maternal health is one of the Millennium Development Goals for 2015. Recently some progress has been achieved in reducing mortality. On the other hand, in developed regions, maternal death is a relatively rare event compared to the number of cases of morbidity; hence studying maternal morbidity has become more relevant. Electronic surveillance systems may improve research by facilitating complete data reporting and reducing the time required for data collection and analysis. Therefore the purpose of this study was to describe the methods used in elaborating and implementing the National Network for the Surveillance of Severe Maternal Morbidity in Brazil. Methods: The project consisted of a multicenter, cross-sectional study for the surveillance of severe maternal morbidity including near-miss, in Brazil. Results: Following the development of a conceptual framework, centers were selected for inclusion in the network, consensus meetings were held among the centers, an electronic data collection system was identified, specific software and hardware tools were developed, research material was prepared, and the implementation process was initiated and analyzed. Conclusion: The conceptual framework developed for this network was based on the experience acquired in various studies carried out in the area over recent years and encompasses maternal and perinatal health. It is innovative especially in the context of a developing country. The implementation of the project represents the first step towards this planned management. The system online elaborated for this surveillance network may be used in further studies in reproductive and perinatal health

Sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array for probing cosmology and fundamental physics with gamma-ray propagation

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), the new-generation ground-based observatory for $\gamma$-ray astronomy, provides unique capabilities to address significant open questions in astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics. We study some of the salient areas of $\gamma$-ray cosmology that can be explored as part of the Key Science Projects of CTA, through simulated observations of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and of their relativistic jets. Observations of AGN with CTA will enable a measurement of $\gamma$-ray absorption on the extragalactic background light with a statistical uncertainty below 15% up to a redshift $z=2$ and to constrain or detect $\gamma$-ray halos up to intergalactic-magnetic-field strengths of at least 0.3pG. Extragalactic observations with CTA also show promising potential to probe physics beyond the Standard Model. The best limits on Lorentz invariance violation from $\gamma$-ray astronomy will be improved by a factor of at least two to three. CTA will also probe the parameter space in which axion-like particles could constitute a significant fraction, if not all, of dark matter. We conclude on the synergies between CTA and other upcoming facilities that will foster the growth of $\gamma$-ray cosmology

Southern African Large Telescope Spectroscopy of BL Lacs for the CTA project

In the last two decades, very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy has reached maturity: over 200 sources have been detected, both Galactic and extragalactic, by ground-based experiments. At present, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) make up about 40% of the more than 200 sources detected at very high energies with ground-based telescopes, the majority of which are blazars, i.e. their jets are closely aligned with the line of sight to Earth and three quarters of which are classified as high-frequency peaked BL Lac objects. One challenge to studies of the cosmological evolution of BL Lacs is the difficulty of obtaining redshifts from their nearly featureless, continuum-dominated spectra. It is expected that a significant fraction of the AGN to be detected with the future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) observatory will have no spectroscopic redshifts, compromising the reliability of BL Lac population studies, particularly of their cosmic evolution. We started an effort in 2019 to measure the redshifts of a large fraction of the AGN that are likely to be detected with CTA, using the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). In this contribution, we present two results from an on-going SALT program focused on the determination of BL Lac object redshifts that will be relevant for the CTA observatory

Sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array for probing cosmology and fundamental physics with gamma-ray propagation

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), the new-generation ground-based observatory for γ astronomy, provides unique capabilities to address significant open questions in astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics. We study some of the salient areas of γ cosmology that can be explored as part of the Key Science Projects of CTA, through simulated observations of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and of their relativistic jets. Observations of AGN with CTA will enable a measurement of γ absorption on the extragalactic background light with a statistical uncertainty below 15% up to a redshift z=2 and to constrain or detect γ halos up to intergalactic-magnetic-field strengths of at least 0.3 pG . Extragalactic observations with CTA also show promising potential to probe physics beyond the Standard Model. The best limits on Lorentz invariance violation from γ astronomy will be improved by a factor of at least two to three. CTA will also probe the parameter space in which axion-like particles could constitute a significant fraction, if not all, of dark matter. We conclude on the synergies between CTA and other upcoming facilities that will foster the growth of γ cosmology.</p

Sperm chemorepulsion, a supplementary mechanism to regulate fertilization

Are human spermatozoa able of chemorepulsive behaviour? Capacitated human spermatozoa are able to be chemorepelled by synthetic Progesterone Receptor Ligands (sPRL, known as contraceptives) and zinc (a cation released by the oocyte upon fertilization). Moving cells can be oriented towards or against a molecular gradient, processes called chemoattraction and chemorepulsion, respectively, which have been described in unicellular organisms such as amoebas and bacteria, to organismic cells such macrophages and developmental cells. In the case of spermatozoa, chemoattraction may help the finding of an oocyte and has been widely studied in various invertebrate and mammalian species; however, chemorepulsion has not yet been verified in spermatozoa. This is an in vitro study involving human, rabbit and mouse spermatozoa which were used to perform 3-30 experiments per treatment. Human sperm samples were obtained by masturbation from healthy donors who gave written consent. Only those samples exhibiting normal semen parameters according to current WHO criteria were included in the study. Rabbit spermatozoa were obtained by artificial vagina whereas mice spermatozoa were obtained from epididymis. The sperm selection assay (SSA), originally designed to evaluate sperm chemoattraction towards progesterone (P), and a video-microscopy and computer motion analysis system were used to test sperm chemorepulsion. Additional kinetic parameters were also determined by video-microscopy and computer motion analysis. In some experiments, the level of induced acrosome-reacted spermatozoa was determined. Rabbit mating manipulation was achieved to perform the sperm-oocyte co-incubation assay. Sperm accumulation in the well containing 100 pg/ml of sPRL was lower than the culture medium negative control (P < 0.05). The percentage of sperm persistence against the well containing 100 pg/ml ulipristal acetate (UPA) (P = 0.001), and the percentage of sperm showing a repulsive pattern of movement (a linear trajectory followed by a transitional one after turning against the UPA), were higher than the culture medium negative control (P = 0.049). Sperm accumulation was diminished when spermatozoa where exposed to a homogeneous distribution of 100 pg/ml sPRL combined with a chemotactic gradient of progesterone (P), with respect to the culture medium negative control (P < 0.05). These results were reverted when non-capacitated spermatozoa were used to perform the same experimental settings. The accumulation of spermatozoa against 100 pg/ml sPRL was lower than the culture medium negative control also in rabbits and mice (P < 0.05). The relative number of rabbit spermatozoa arriving to the vicinity of the oocyte was diminished under the presence of 100 pg/ml UPA (P = 0.004). Sperm accumulation in the well containing zinc was decreased compared to the culture medium negative control (P < 0.05). A homogeneous distribution of zinc combined with a gradient of 10 pM P, was lower than the culture medium negative control (P = 0.016). The results were quite reproducible with two different methodologies (accumulation assay and video-microscopy combined with computer motion analysis), in three mammalian species. The experiments were performed in vitro. Even though a quite complete characterization of sperm chemorepulsion was provided, the molecular mechanism that governs sperm repulsion is currently under investigation. Since the chemorepelled spermatozoa are those physiologically ready to fertilize the oocyte, these findings may have both biological and clinical implications, preventing either polyspermy under natural conditions or fertilization under pharmacological treatment with sPRL32815601573Universidad Nacional de Cordoba (Argentina) PCC-UN

HIPERINSULINISMO FISIOPATOLOGIA Y MANIFESTACIONES CLINICAS EN OBSTETRICIA Y GINECOLOGIA

Se revisa la fisiopatología del hiperinsulinismo, los mecanismos celulares involucrados, sus manifestaciones clínicas más frecuentes en Obstetricia y Ginecología, reuniendo información dispersa en la literatura. El objetivo es comprender el nexo entre este trastorno y las patologías mencionadas, de modo de aplicar conducta preventiva, terapéutica y visualizar eventuales terapias futura

An Intelligent System for Patients’ Well-Being: A Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach

The coronavirus pandemic has intensified the strain on medical care processes, especially waiting lists for patients under medical management. In Chile, the pandemic has caused an increase of 52,000 people waiting for care. For this reason, a high-complexity hospital (HCH) in Chile devised a decision support system (DSS) based on multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM), which combines management criteria, such as critical events, with clinical variables that allow prioritizing the population of chronic patients on the waiting list. The tool includes four methodological contributions: (1) pattern recognition through the analysis of anonymous patient data that allows critical patients to be characterized; (2) a score of the critical events suffered by the patients; (3) a score based on clinical criteria; and (4) a dynamic–hybrid methodology for patient selection that links critical events with clinical criteria and with the risk levels of patients on the waiting list. The methodology allowed to (1) characterize the most critical patients and triple the evaluation of medical records; (2) save medical hours during the prioritization process; (3) reduce the risk levels of patients on the waiting list; and (4) reduce the critical events in the first month of implementation, which could have been caused by the DSS and medical decision-making. This strategy was effective (even during a pandemic period)

Uniject(R) as a delivery system for the once-a-month injectable contraceptive Cyclofem(R) in Brazil

This study assessed the administration of Cyclofem(R) using prefilled Uniject(R) devices. A total of 480 injections were administered divided equally between standard syringes and Uniject. the majority of women (82%) reported that they felt anxious prior to receiving the injection with Uniject. After injection, more than 80% expressed no anxiety about the appearance of uniject or about the technique of injection. A total of 96.3% of the participants reported slight to no pain with Uniject. in comparison to the standard syringe, 5.6% expressed having had more pain with Uniject. Ninety percent of the service providers reported that Uniject was easy to activate and inject and that it was reassuring for users to know that the syringe and needle had never been used previously. Only two service providers demonstrated difficulties in activating the device. No accidental punctures occurred during the manipulation, and incomplete emptying of the Uniject was not observed. in conclusion, Uniject is a good device for the administration of the injectable contraceptive Cyclofem. It is likely to be appropriate for the delivery oi other injectable contraceptives after the necessary stability tests have been performed.UNIV ESTADUAL CAMPINAS,CTR ASSISTENCIA INTEGRAL SAUDE MULHER,DEPT TOCOGINECOL,CAMPINAS,BRAZILCTR ASSISTENCIA INTEGRAL SAUDE MULHER,S BERNARDO CA,SP,BRAZILESCOLA PAULISTA MED,São Paulo,BRAZILMATERN ESCOLA VILA NOVA CACHOERINHA,São Paulo,BRAZILESCOLA PAULISTA MED,São Paulo,BRAZILWeb of Scienc