STROBE-GnRHa pretreatment in frozen-embryo transfer cycles improves clinical outcomes for patients with persistent thin endometrium: A case-control study.

The well-prepared endometrium with appropriate thickness plays a critical role in successful embryo implantation. The thin endometrium is the main factor of frozen-embryo transfer (FET), resulting in the failure of implantation undergoing FET. Hormone treatment is suggested to improve endometrium thickness; however, among the larger numbers of cases, it cannot reach the sufficient thickness, which leads to a high cancelation rate of embryo transfer as well as waste high-quality embryos. Thus, it increases the burden to patients in both economic and psychological perspectives. We performed a retrospective observational study, which was composed with 2 cohorts, either with the conventional hormone replacement therapy (HRT) protocol or HRT with gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) pretreatment to prepare the endometrium before FET. The measurements of endometrium thickness, hormone level, transfer cycle cancelation rate, pregnancy rate, and implantation rate were retrieved from the medical records during the routine clinic visits until 1 month after embryo transfer. The comparisons between 2 cohorts were performed by t-test or Mann-Whitney U test depending on the different attributions of data. In total, 49 cycles were under HRT with GnRHa pretreatment and 84 cycles were under the conventional HRT protocol. HRT with GnRHa pretreatment group improved the endometrial thickness (8.13 ± 1.79 vs 7.51 ± 1.45, P = .031), decreased the transfer cancelation rate (P = .003), and increased clinical pregnancy rate and implantation rate significantly (both P = .001). Additionally, luteinizing hormone level in pretreatment group was consistently lower than conventional HRT group (P < .05). Our study revealed HRT with GnRHa pretreatment efficiently improved the endometrial thickness, therefore, decreased the FET cycle cancelation. It also elevated the embryo implantation rate and clinical pregnancy rate by improving endometrial receptivity

Enhanced Interfacial Electronic Transfer of BiVO4 Coupled with 2D g‐C3N4 for Visible‐light Photocatalytic Performance

A BiVO4/2D g‐C3N4 direct dual semiconductor photocatalytic system has been fabricated via electrostatic self‐assembly method of BiVO4 microparticle and g‐C3N4 nanosheet. According to experimental measurements and first‐principle calculations, the formation of built‐in electric field and the opposite band bending around the interface region in BiVO4/2D g‐C3N4 as well as the intimate contact between BiVO4 and 2D g‐C3N4 will lead to high separation efficiency of charge carriers. More importantly, the intensity of bulid‐in electric field is greatly enhanced due to the ultrathin nanosheet structure of 2D g‐C3N4. As a result, BiVO4/2D g‐C3N4 exhibits excellent photocatalytic performance with the 93.0% Rhodamine B (RhB) removal after 40 min visible light irradiation, and the photocatalytic reaction rate is about 22.7 and 10.3 times as high as that of BiVO4 and 2D g‐C3N4, respectively. In addition, BiVO4/2D g‐C3N4 also displays enhanced photocatalytic performance in the degradation of tetracycline (TC). It is expected that this work may provide insights into the understanding the significant role of built‐in electric field in heterostructure and fabricating highly efficient direct dual semiconductor systems

Influence of Cloud/Fog on Atmospheric VOCs in the Free Troposphere: A Case Study at Mount Tai in Eastern China

International audienceField measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were conducted in July of 2015 at Mount Tai, where 63 species of VOCs were measured using GC-MS. In this study, air samples were collected in two different weather conditions: cloud/fog and non-cloud/fog respectively and influences of the cloud/fog on VOCs species were analyzed. The sources of air masses were calculated by back trajectories with HYSPLIT model. Five main kinds of VOCs were analyzed and oxy-VOCs (OVOCs) had the largest contribution (67% on the cloudy/foggy days and 72% on the non-cloudy/foggy days) to total measured VOCs among all of the samples collected at Mount Tai. Acetone was the most abundant compound (18 ppb on the cloudy/foggy days and 15 ppb on the non-cloudy/foggy days) among the VOCs. The concentrations of VOCs collected in cloudy/foggy days were higher than those measured in non-cloudy/foggy days and indicated that cloudy/foggy days favoured the accumulation of atmospheric VOCs. However, the concentrations of most OVOCs in non-cloud/fog conditions were higher than those in cloud/fog conditions. Atmospheric photochemical reactions may partly account for this result. Air mass trajectory analysis shows that most air masses from heavily polluted areas results in the increase of atmospheric VOCs. OVOCs and aromatics provided the main contribution to ozone formation potential. Besides cloud and fog, VOC concentration is concerned with integrated factors including temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction

Highly efficient near-infrared quantum cutting in Ce3+/Yb3+ co-doped chalcohalide glasses

International audienceNear-infrared (NIR) quantum cutting involving the emission of two NIR photons for each visible photon absorbed is realized from Ce3+/Yb3+ codoped chalcohalide glasses. Excitation, emission and decay spectra are measured to prove the occurrence of energy transfer (ET) from Ce3+ to Yb3+. The maximum ET efficiency obtained is as high as 82%, and the possible mechanism of ET is discussed. The directly measured and calculated quantum yield (QY) of the Yb3+ emission upon the excitation of 5d level of Ce3+ is up to 119%

Third-order nonlinearity in Ge–Sb–Se glasses at mid-infrared wavelengths

International audienceThe optical properties of Ge–Sb–Se glasses have been extensively studied at telecom wavelengths in recent years. However, the understanding of nonlinearity in Ge–Sb–Se glasses at mid-infrared wavelengths still remains limited. In this work, a series of Ge20SbxSe80−x (x = 0, 5, 10) glasses were prepared by conventional melt–quenching method. The absorption spectra and the refractive index of glasses were recorded. The third order nonlinearity, n2, and nonlinear absorption coefficient were measured for Ge–Sb–Se glass samples at the wavelengths of 1550, 2000 and 2500 nm by Z-scan technique, respectively. With the increasing of Sb contents, the linear refractive index of glass increased. Among the three operating wavelengths, all the three glass samples have a highest n2 at 2000 nm. By using the figure of merit (FOM) to evaluate the studied three glasses, the Ge20Sb10Se70 glass shows the greatest potential for mid-IR all optical switching device

LIM-domain binding protein 2 was down-regulated by miRNA-96-5p inhibited the proliferation, invasion and metastasis of lung cancer H1299 cells

&nbsp; Objectives: Lung cancer was one of the most common malignancies around the world. It has great significance in to search for the mechanism of occurrence and development of lung cancer. LIM Domain Binding protein 2 (LDB2) belongs to the LIM-domain binding family, it can be used as a binding protein that combined with other transcription factors to form the transcription complex for regulating the expression of target genes. The expression of microRNA-96-5p (miR-96-5p) has been investigated in various tumors. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential role of LDB2 and miR-96-5p in lung cancer. Methods: Real-time quantitative PCR was applied to detect the expression of LDB2 and miR-96-5p. The proliferation, invasion, and metastasis of H1299 cells were analyzed by CCK8, transwell, and wound healing assay after LDB2 or miR-96-5p transfection. Luciferase activities assay and western blot were used to reveal the targeted regulation between LDB2 and miR-96-5p. Results: Here the authors found LDB2 was down-regulated in lung cancer tissues and negatively correlated with miR-96-5p expression, it could promote or inhibit the proliferation, invasion and metastasis of H1299 cells after LDB2 knockdown or overexpression and regulate the expression of cyclinD1, MMP9, Bcl-2, and Bax via ERK1/2 signaling pathway. Furthermore, miR-96-5p exerted its function by directly binding to 3′-UTR of LDB2 and regulating expression of LDB2. miR-96-5p could promote the proliferation, invasion, and metastasis of H1299 cells. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that LDB2 can act as a new regulator to inhibit cell proliferation, invasion, and metastasis via the ERK1/2 signaling pathway, and miR-96-5p may be a potential promising molecular by targeting LDB2 in lung cancer