Selection of young ewe lambs according to their antral follicular count: response to exogenous hormonal stimulation and fertility at first breeding season

Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH), Antral Follicular Count (AFC) and the response to exogenous hormonal stimulation have been used, in adults, as suitable markers to determine the ovarian reserve (1-4), to predict oocyte quality (5,6) and a wide variety of fertility indices (6-9). This investigation aims to evaluate if animals selected according to their High or Low AFC at an early prepubertal age show different responses, in the number of follicles and AMH plasma levels, to exogenous hormonal stimulation; to verify whether differences are maintained over time until puberty; and to observe possible variations on fertility at first breeding season

Semen molecular and cellular features: these parameters can reliably predict subsequent ART outcome in a goat model

Currently, the assessment of sperm function in a raw or processed semen sample is not able to reliably predict sperm ability to withstand freezing and thawing procedures and in vivo fertility and/or assisted reproductive biotechnologies (ART) outcome. The aim of the present study was to investigate which parameters among a battery of analyses could predict subsequent spermatozoa in vitro fertilization ability and hence blastocyst output in a goat model. Ejaculates were obtained by artificial vagina from 3 adult goats (Capra hircus) aged 2 years (A, B and C). In order to assess the predictive value of viability, computer assisted sperm analyzer (CASA) motility parameters and ATP intracellular concentration before and after thawing and of DNA integrity after thawing on subsequent embryo output after an in vitro fertility test, a logistic regression analysis was used. Individual differences in semen parameters were evident for semen viability after thawing and DNA integrity. Results of IVF test showed that spermatozoa collected from A and B lead to higher cleavage rates (0 < 0.01) and blastocysts output (p < 0.05) compared with C. Logistic regression analysis model explained a deviance of 72% (p < 0.0001), directly related with the mean percentage of rapid spermatozoa in fresh semen (p < 0.01), semen viability after thawing (p < 0.01), and with two of the three comet parameters considered, i.e tail DNA percentage and comet length (p < 0.0001). DNA integrity alone had a high predictive value on IVF outcome with frozen/thawed semen (deviance explained: 57%). The model proposed here represents one of the many possible ways to explain differences found in embryo output following IVF with different semen donors and may represent a useful tool to select the most suitable donors for semen cryopreservation

A prospective multicentre study on the treatment of cardiovascular risk factors and claudication symptoms in patients with peripheral artery disease (the IDOMENEO study)

BACKGROUND: The objective of this prospective multicenter cohort study was to characterise the use of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment for cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and intermittent claudication (IC) symptoms in clinical practice patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD), and to determine the care gap with international guidelines and evidence-based therapy.PATIENTS AND METHODS: From 2011 through 2013, participating centres enrolled consecutive patients with PAD of atherosclerotic, origin demonstrated by ultrasound, ankle brachial index (ABI) < 0.9 and symptoms of IC. A seven item grid was built for the assessment of care gap (percentage of patients eligible for a treatment who did not receive it). cerebrovascular disease or at least two CVD risk factors. Care gap was lower than 25 % for any method to stop smoking, lipid lowering agents, antiplatelet and/or anticoagulation therapy and any kind of exercise program; between 25% and 50% for ACE inhibitors/ angiotensin II antagonist therapy; between 50% and 75% for beta-blocker therapy; and higher than 75% for supervised exercise program and use of cilostazol. Patients with and without CADI cerebrovascular disease were differently treated with clopidogrel (27.3% and 4.8 %, p < 0.001), any antiplatelet/anticoagulant therapy (98.7% and 83.3 %, p <0.001) and beta-blockers (46.8% and 16.0%, p<0.001).RESULTS: All patients (232) presented at least one CVC risk factor, 90.2% at least two, and 91.5% had either established CAD orCONCLUSIONS: Many gaps with evidence-based recommendations are still present in the pattern of the use of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment for CVD risk factors and IC symptoms in clinical practice PAD patients

Patterns and determinants of use of pharmacological therapies for intermittent claudication in PAD outpatients: Results of the IDOMENEO study

BACKGROUND: Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) usually presents with intermittent claudication (IC). The aim of the present study was to assess, in clinical practice, the pattern of use of pharmacological therapies for IC in stable PAD outpatients. METHODS: A propensity analysis was performed using data from the IDOMENEO study, an observational prospective multicenter cohort study. The association between any pharmacological symptomatic IC therapy with different variables was investigated using generalized linear mixed models with pharmacological therapy as response variable and binomial error. RESULTS: Study population: 213 patients, male sex 147 (69.0%), mean age 70.0\ub18.6 years. Only 36.6% was under pharmacological treatment for IC, being cilostazol the most used medication (21.6%). Univariate analysis showed a probability of a patient of being assigned to any pharmacological symptomatic IC therapy of 67.0% when Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI) 0.6 (P=0.0048), and a propensity to avoid pharmacological treatment for patients with a high number of drugs to treat cardiovascular risk factors (probability of 55.2% for 4 drugs, P=0.0317). Multivariate analysis confirmed a higher probability of assigning treatment for ABI4 drugs: OR =0.13, P=0.0546). CONCLUSIONS: In clinical practice, only one third of stable outpatients with IC used symptomatic pharmacological therapy for IC. We found a propensity of clinicians to assign any symptomatic pharmacological IC therapy to patients with lower values of ABI and a propensity to avoid this kind of treatment in patients under polypharmacy

An original DoE-based tool for silicon photodetectors EoL estimation in space environments

In our previous works we have demonstrated that Design of Experiments (DoE) is an innovative methodology defining optimized irradiation test plan and particularly valuable for the space qualification of silicon photodetectors. In particular, it provided us with the degradation model of photocurrent, darkness current, and spectral responsivity of silicon based phototransistors arrays with respect to the Total Ionizing Dose (TID) and to the Displacement Damage Dose (DDD), over a wide range of space-mission profiles. In this paper, we will summarize at first main results obtained thanks to the DoE methodology. Then we present how we can easily obtain, by exploiting DoE collected data, End-of-Life predictions of such devices with a reduced number of experiments, with a small batch of devices, and in relatively short time

Implementation of a "Design of experiments" methodology for the prediction of phototransistor degradation in a space environment

A Design Of Experiments (DOE) methodology was suggested to define an optimized irradiation test plan. In this paper, the proposed test plan was used to model the degradation of the main performances (photo and dark current) of silicon based phototransistors arrays with respect to the Total Ionizing Dose (TID) and to the Displacement Damage Dose (DDD), over a wide range of space-kind environments. The expected performance degradation after an 18-year Low Earth Orbit (LEO) mission was calculated using this model. End-Of-Life (EOL) prediction results were compared to experimental ones obtained on devices irradiated with a proton beam degrader that simulates the 18 year LEO environment. The excellent agreement found between theoretical and experimental data makes this methodology particularly valuable for the space qualification of such devices