The impact of luteal phase support on endometrial estrogen and progesterone receptor expression: a randomized control trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To assess the impact of luteal phase support on the expression of estrogen receptor (ER) alpha and progesterone receptors B (PR-B) on the endometrium of oocyte donors undergoing controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A prospective, randomized study was conducted in women undergoing controlled ovarian hyperstimulation for oocyte donation. Participants were randomized to receive no luteal support, vaginal progesterone alone, or vaginal progesterone plus orally administered 17 Beta estradiol. Endometrial biopsies were obtained at 4 time points in the luteal phase and evaluated by tissue microarray for expression of ER alpha and PR-B.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>One-hundred and eight endometrial tissue samples were obtained from 12 patients. No differences were found in expression of ER alpha and PR-B among all the specimens with the exception of one sample value.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The administration of progesterone during the luteal phase of COH for oocyte donor cycles, either with or without estrogen, does not significantly affect the endometrial expression of ER alpha and PR.</p

CALIFA : a diameter-selected sample for an integral field spectroscopy galaxy survey

JMA acknowledges support from the European Research Council Starting Grant (SEDmorph; P.I. V. Wild).We describe and discuss the selection procedure and statistical properties of the galaxy sample used by the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey, a public legacy survey of 600 galaxies using integral field spectroscopy. The CALIFA "mother sample" was selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7 photometric catalogue to include all galaxies with an r-band isophotal major axis between 45 '' and 79 : 2 '' and with a redshift 0 : 005 M-r > -23 : 1 and over a stellar mass range between 10(9.7) and 10(11.4) M-circle dot. In particular, within these ranges, the diameter selection does not lead to any significant bias against - or in favour of - intrinsically large or small galaxies. Only below luminosities of M-r = -19 (or stellar masses <10(9.7) M-circle dot) is there a prevalence of galaxies with larger isophotal sizes, especially of nearly edge-on late-type galaxies, but such galaxies form <10% of the full sample. We estimate volume-corrected distribution functions in luminosities and sizes and show that these are statistically fully compatible with estimates from the full SDSS when accounting for large-scale structure. For full characterization of the sample, we also present a number of value-added quantities determined for the galaxies in the CALIFA sample. These include consistent multi-band photometry based on growth curve analyses; stellar masses; distances and quantities derived from these; morphological classifications; and an overview of available multi-wavelength photometric measurements. We also explore different ways of characterizing the environments of CALIFA galaxies, finding that the sample covers environmental conditions from the field to genuine clusters. We finally consider the expected incidence of active galactic nuclei among CALIFA galaxies given the existing pre-CALIFA data, finding that the final observed CALIFA sample will contain approximately 30 Sey2 galaxies.Peer reviewe

Shape of the oxygen abundance profiles in CALIFA face-on spiral galaxies

Astronomy & Astrophysics 587 (2016): A70 reproduced with permission from Astronomy & AstrophysicsWe measured the gas abundance profiles in a sample of 122 face-on spiral galaxies observed by the CALIFA survey and included all spaxels whose line emission was consistent with star formation. This type of analysis allowed us to improve the statistics with respect to previous studies, and to properly estimate the oxygen distribution across the entire disc to a distance of up to 3-4 disc effective radii (re). We confirm the results obtained from classical H ii region analysis. In addition to the general negative gradient, an outer flattening can be observed in the oxygen abundance radial profile. An inner drop is also found in some cases. There is a common abundance gradient between 0.5 and 2.0 re of αO/H =-0.075 dex/re with a scatter of σ = 0.016 dex/re when normalising the distances to the disc effective radius. By performing a set of Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests, we determined that this slope is independent of other galaxy properties, such as morphology, absolute magnitude, and the presence or absence of bars. In particular, barred galaxies do not seem to display shallower gradients, as predicted by numerical simulations. Interestingly, we find that most of thegalaxies in the sample with reliable oxygen abundance values beyond ~2 effective radii (57 galaxies) present a flattening of the abundance gradient in these outer regions. This flattening is not associated with any morphological feature, which suggests that it is a common property of disc galaxies. Finally, we detect a drop or truncation of the abundance in the inner regions of 27 galaxies in the sample; this is only visible for the most massive galaxiesWe acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) via grant AYA2012-31935, and from the “Junta de Andalucía” local government through the FQM-108 project. We also acknowledge support to the ConaCyt funding program 180125. Y.A. acknowledges fi- nantial support from the Ramón y Cajal programme (RyC-2011-09461). Y.A. and A.I.D. acknowledge support from the project AYA2013-47742-C4-3-P from the Spanish MINECO, as well as the “Study of Emission-Line Galaxies with Integral-Field Spectroscopy” (SELGIFS) programme, funded by the EU (FP7- PEOPLE-2013-IRSES-612701). Support for L.G. is provided by the Ministry of Economy, Development, and Tourism’s Millennium Science Initiative through grant IC120009, awarded to The Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, MAS. LG acknowledges support by CONICYT through FONDECYT grant 3140566. R.M.G.D. acknowledges support from the Spanish grant AYA2014-57490-P, and from the “Junta de Andalucía” P12-FQM2828 project. RAM thanks the Spanish program of International Campus of Excellence Moncloa (CEI). IM and A.d.O. acknowledge support from the Spanish MINECO grant AYA2013-42227P. JMA acknowledges support from the European Research Council Starting Grant (SEDmorph, P.I. V. Wild). Support for MM has been provided by DGICYT grant AYA2013-47742-C4-4-P. PSB acknowledges support from the Ramón y Cajal programme, grant ATA2010-21322-C03-02 from the Spanish MINECO. CJW acknowledges support through the Marie Curie Career Grant Integration 30391

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Desarrollo tecnológico en ingeniería automotriz

El proceso de investigación y desarrollo tecnológico está directamente relacionado con una adecuada metodología de procesos industriales, que cada vez son más exigentes en competitividad, eficiencia energética y de normativas ambientales. Este libro contempla resultados de un proceso de investigación y desarrollo de nuevas técnicas aplicadas en el campo de la Ingeniería Automotriz desde cuatro aristas: eficiencia energética y contaminación ambiental, planificación del transporte, ingeniería del mantenimiento aplicada al transporte y desagregación tecnológica. Este libro conmemora 20 años de formación universitaria salesiana en el sector de transporte y recoge las experiencias y resultados obtenidos asociados con el desarrollo tecnológico en ingeniería automotriz. Para lograr este objetivo, se ha convocado a la comunidad científica, académica y profesionales de la industria automotriz a participar en la publicación. Cada capítulo fue sometido a revisión, evaluación y aprobación por un comité científico altamente calificado, proveniente de seis países: Colombia, Ecuador, España, Guinea Ecuatorial, México y Venezuela. Este trabajo ha sido posible gracias al gran apoyo de la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (UPS sede Cuenca), Ecuador y Universidad de Los Andes (ULA)

Determination of quantum numbers for several excited charmed mesons observed in B- -> D*(+)pi(-) pi(-) decays

A four-body amplitude analysis of the B − → D * + π − π − decay is performed, where fractions and relative phases of the various resonances contributing to the decay are measured. Several quasi-model-independent analyses are performed aimed at searching for the presence of new states and establishing the quantum numbers of previously observed charmed meson resonances. In particular the resonance parameters and quantum numbers are determined for the D 1 ( 2420 ) , D 1 ( 2430 ) , D 0 ( 2550 ) , D ∗ 1 ( 2600 ) , D 2 ( 2740 ) and D ∗ 3 ( 2750 ) states. The mixing between the D 1 ( 2420 ) and D 1 ( 2430 ) resonances is studied and the mixing parameters are measured. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.7     fb − 1 , collected in proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13 TeV with the LHCb detector

Updated measurement of decay-time-dependent CP asymmetries in D-0 -> K+ K- and D-0 -> pi(+)pi(-) decays

A search for decay-time-dependent charge-parity (CP) asymmetry in D0 \u2192 K+ K 12 and D0 \u2192 \u3c0+ \u3c0 12 decays is performed at the LHCb experiment using proton-proton collision data recorded at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb^ 121. The D0 mesons are required to originate from semileptonic decays of b hadrons, such that the charge of the muon identifies the flavor of the neutral D meson at production. The asymmetries in the effective decay widths of D0 and anti-D0 mesons are determined to be A_\u393(K+ K 12) = ( 124.3 \ub1 3.6 \ub1 0.5) 7 10^ 124 and A_\u393(\u3c0+ \u3c0 12) = (2.2 \ub1 7.0 \ub1 0.8) 7 10^ 124 , where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. The results are consistent with CP symmetry and, when combined with previous LHCb results, yield A_\u393(K+ K 12) = ( 124.4 \ub1 2.3 \ub1 0.6) 7 10^ 124 and A_\u393(\u3c0+ \u3c0 12) = (2.5 \ub1 4.3 \ub1 0.7) 7 10^ 124

Updated measurement of decay-time-dependent CP asymmetries in D-0 -> K+ K- and D-0 -> pi(+)pi(-) decays

A search for decay-time-dependent charge-parity (CP) asymmetry in D-0 -> K+ K- and D-0 -> pi(+)pi(-) eff decays is performed at the LHCb experiment using proton-proton collision data recorded at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb(-1). The D-0 mesons are required to originate from semileptonic decays of b hadrons, such that the charge of the muon identifies the flavor of the neutral D meson at production. The asymmetries in the effective decay widths of D-0 and (D) over bar (0) mesons are determined to be A(Gamma)(K+ K-) = (-4.3 +/- 3.6 +/- 0.5) x 10(-4) and A(Gamma) (K+ K- ) = (2.2 +/- 7.0 +/- 0.8) x 10(-4), where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. The results are consistent with CP symmetry and, when combined with previous LHCb results, yield A(Gamma) (K+ K-) = (-4.4 +/- 2.3 +/- 0.6) x 10(-4) and A(Gamma) (pi(+)pi(-))= (2.5 +/- 4.3 +/- 0.7) x 10(-4)

Early mobilisation in critically ill COVID-19 patients: a subanalysis of the ESICM-initiated UNITE-COVID observational study

Background Early mobilisation (EM) is an intervention that may improve the outcome of critically ill patients. There is limited data on EM in COVID-19 patients and its use during the first pandemic wave. Methods This is a pre-planned subanalysis of the ESICM UNITE-COVID, an international multicenter observational study involving critically ill COVID-19 patients in the ICU between February 15th and May 15th, 2020. We analysed variables associated with the initiation of EM (within 72 h of ICU admission) and explored the impact of EM on mortality, ICU and hospital length of stay, as well as discharge location. Statistical analyses were done using (generalised) linear mixed-effect models and ANOVAs. Results Mobilisation data from 4190 patients from 280 ICUs in 45 countries were analysed. 1114 (26.6%) of these patients received mobilisation within 72 h after ICU admission; 3076 (73.4%) did not. In our analysis of factors associated with EM, mechanical ventilation at admission (OR 0.29; 95% CI 0.25, 0.35; p = 0.001), higher age (OR 0.99; 95% CI 0.98, 1.00; p ≤ 0.001), pre-existing asthma (OR 0.84; 95% CI 0.73, 0.98; p = 0.028), and pre-existing kidney disease (OR 0.84; 95% CI 0.71, 0.99; p = 0.036) were negatively associated with the initiation of EM. EM was associated with a higher chance of being discharged home (OR 1.31; 95% CI 1.08, 1.58; p = 0.007) but was not associated with length of stay in ICU (adj. difference 0.91 days; 95% CI − 0.47, 1.37, p = 0.34) and hospital (adj. difference 1.4 days; 95% CI − 0.62, 2.35, p = 0.24) or mortality (OR 0.88; 95% CI 0.7, 1.09, p = 0.24) when adjusted for covariates. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that a quarter of COVID-19 patients received EM. There was no association found between EM in COVID-19 patients' ICU and hospital length of stay or mortality. However, EM in COVID-19 patients was associated with increased odds of being discharged home rather than to a care facility. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04836065 (retrospectively registered April 8th 2021)