Emotional distress in infertile women and failure of assisted reproductive technologies: meta-analysis of prospective psychosocial studies

Objective To examine whether pretreatment emotional distress in women is associated with achievement of pregnancy after a cycle of assisted reproductive technology

Dynamic effects of credit shocks in a data-rich environment

We examine the dynamic effects of credit shocks using a large data set of U.S. economic and financial indicators in a structural factor model. The identified credit shocks, interpreted as unexpected deteriorations of credit market conditions, immediately increase credit spreads, decrease rates on Treasury securities, and cause large and persistent downturns in the activity of many economic sectors. Such shocks are found to have important effects on real activity measures, aggregate prices, leading indicators, and credit spreads. Our identification procedure does not require any timing restrictions between the financial and macroeconomic factors and yields interpretable estimated factors

Leveraging palaeoproteomics to address conservation and restoration agendas

Summary Archaeological and paleontological records offer tremendous yet often untapped potential for examining long-term biodiversity trends and the impact of climate change and human activity on ecosystems. Yet, zooarchaeological and fossil remains suffer various limitations, including that they are often highly fragmented and morphologically unidentifiable, preventing them from being optimally leveraged for addressing fundamental research questions in archaeology, paleontology, and conservation paleobiology. Here, we explore the potential of palaeoproteomics—the study of ancient proteins—to serve as a critical tool for creating richer, more informative datasets about biodiversity change that can be leveraged to generate more realistic, constructive, and effective conservation and restoration strategies into the future.What is the scope for conservation palaeoproteomics? Assessing species richness Establishing ecological baselines Detecting shifts in species abundance and geographic range Disentangling human-environment interactions Tracking the introduction of non-native species Identifying illicitly traded material Prioritizing species for conservation The future of conservation palaeoproteomics Limitations of the stud

The Effects of Resistance Training Frequency On Muscle Hypertrophy And Strength In Healthy Trained Individuals: Literature Review

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of increased resistance training frequency on strength and hypertrophy in trained individuals. Six Studies were deemed eligible based on the inclusion exclusion criteria. The inclusion criteria for this review were healthy trained individuals. “Trained” refers to over one year of resistance training experience. Exclusion Criteria were study’s that examined either untrained or obese individuals as participants. The evidence indicates a dose-response trend in frequency. Resistance training each muscle group twice a week may be superior compared to once per week. Further more, resistance training each muscle group three times a week may enhance hypertrophy and strength adaptations even more compared to either once or twice a week. Recovery of the muscle may be reached in approximately 72 hours or 3 days. Mechanisms that may correlate to this phenomenon could be related to the more frequent elevations in muscle protein synthesis and physiological anabolic hormones. These results may help develop more specific guidelines in programming for intermediate to advanced athletes as well as lead way to more research on acute training variable manipulation

Inclusive 2H(3He,t) reaction at 2 GeV

The inclusive 2H(3He,t) reaction has been studied at 2 GeV for energy transfers up to 500 MeV and scattering angles from 0.25 up to 4 degrees. Data are well reproduced by a model based on a coupled-channel approach for describing the NN and N Delta systems. The effect of final state interaction is important in the low energy part of the spectra. In the delta region, the cross-section is very sensitive to the effects of Delta-N interaction and Delta N - NN process. The latter has also a large influence well below the pion threshold. The calculation underestimates the experimental cross-section between the quasi-elastic and the delta peaks; this is possibly due to projectile excitation or purely mesonic exchange currents.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in EPJ

Rehabilitation for cognitive impairments after cerebral malaria in African children: strategies and limitations

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72221/1/j.1365-3156.2006.01685.x.pd

Single-step production of autologous bovine platelet concentrate for clinical applications in cattle.

Platelet concentrate (PC) is an alternative therapy to treat mastitis in dairy cattle and is an alternative treatment for reproduction problems such as endometritis. Unfortunately, double-centrifugation processing methods described are time-consuming, require specialized laboratory equipment, and are usually done in a heterologous way, which risks herd health. To overcome this limitation, we evaluated single-step bovine PC processing methods readily applicable to a farm setting using an autologous conditioned plasma (ACP) production system. We investigated the hematologic findings, cytokines, and growth factors of the obtained PC samples. Autologous conditioned plasma was prepared using whole blood (WB) from 4 cows (group 1) using single-step centrifugation and 16 different processing methods. The 2 protocols that yielded the highest ratio of platelet to white blood cell (WBC) concentration were ACP-1 [720 × g (2,200 rpm), 5 min] and ACP-2 [929 × g (2,500 rpm), 3 min]. They were subsequently reproduced and compared using WB from 8 cows (group 2). Hematologic findings were quantified, IL-1β (cytokine) and growth factors [platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), transforming growth factor (TGF)-β, bovine fibroblast growth factor (b-FGF)] were measured, and enrichment factors were compared between samples and processing methods. Hematological characteristics and platelet enrichment varied markedly among tested protocols and all were statistically different from WB. Protocol ACP-2 resulted in significantly greater platelet enrichment (mean 169% of WB) than ACP-1 (125% of WB). We found no significant difference between the 2 ACP preparation protocols with regard to leukocyte reduction (7.53-9.75% WBC compared with WB) or growth factor enrichment (124-125% PDGF, 95-100% TGF-β, 102-104% b-FGF, and 56-74% IL-1β compared with WB). In conclusion, both ACP protocols yielded a platelet concentration shown to promote healing for clinical applications in cattle, and the ACP-2 protocol resulted in a greater degree of platelet enrichment. Therefore, this protocol could be used for ACP production for clinical applications in cattle

The Relationship between Visual-Spatial and Auditory-Verbal Working Memory Span in Senegalese and Ugandan Children

BACKGROUND: Using the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) Conant et al. (1999) observed that visual and auditory working memory (WM) span were independent in both younger and older children from DR Congo, but related in older American children and in Lao children. The present study evaluated whether visual and auditory WM span were independent in Ugandan and Senegalese children. METHOD: In a linear regression analysis we used visual (Spatial Memory, Hand Movements) and auditory (Number Recall) WM along with education and physical development (weight/height) as predictors. The predicted variable in this analysis was Word Order, which is a verbal memory task that has both visual and auditory memory components. RESULTS: Both the younger (<8.5 yrs) and older (>8.5 yrs) Ugandan children had auditory memory span (Number Recall) that was strongly predictive of Word Order performance. For both the younger and older groups of Senegalese children, only visual WM span (Spatial Memory) was strongly predictive of Word Order. Number Recall was not significantly predictive of Word Order in either age group. CONCLUSIONS: It is possible that greater literacy from more schooling for the Ugandan age groups mediated their greater degree of interdependence between auditory and verbal WM. Our findings support those of Conant et al., who observed in their cross-cultural comparisons that stronger education seemed to enhance the dominance of the phonological-auditory processing loop for WM