Contraception Versus Sterilization

The World Health Organization reported that 40% of the pregnancies in the world in 1977 were unplanned and 20% were unwanted; in the United States in 1978 there were 1,300,000 teenage pregnancies, of which one million ended in abortions. To prevent these unwanted pregnancies and also to abolish the cost in terms of money, time and lives, conception control is very important. Contraception is as old as the human race. In ancient times Chinese women swallowed live tadpoles three days after their menses for this purpose. North African women mixed gunpowder solution and foam from a camel’s mouth and drank the resulting potion. Egyptian women inserted pessaries made of crocodile dung to achieve contraception. Greek women in the second century made a vaginal plug that contained oil, honey, cedar gum and fig pulp; others ate the uterus of female mules. As recently as the 17th century, European brides were instructed to sit on their fingers while riding in coaches or to place roasted walnuts in their bosoms, one for every barren year desired. Obviously, an unwanted child was of as much concern to the ancients as it is to modern women

Deep Transcriptomic Profiling of M1 Macrophages Lacking Trpc3

In previous studies using mice with macrophage-specific loss of TRPC3 we found a significant, selective effect of TRPC3 on the biology of M1, or inflammatory macrophages. Whereas activation of some components of the unfolded protein response and the pro-apoptotic mediators CamkII and Stat1 was impaired in Trpc3-deficient M1 cells, gathering insight about other molecular signatures within macrophages that might be affected by Trpc3 expression requires an alternative approach. In the present study we conducted RNA-seq analysis to interrogate the transcriptome of M1 macrophages derived from mice with macrophage-specific loss of TRPC3 and their littermate controls. We identified 160 significantly differentially expressed genes between the two groups, of which 62 were upregulated and 98 downregulated in control vs. Trpc3-deficient M1 macrophages. Gene ontology analysis revealed enrichment in processes associated to cellular movement and lipid signaling, whereas the enriched Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways included networks for calcium signaling and cell adhesion molecules, among others. This is the first deep transcriptomic analysis of macrophages in the context of Trpc3 deficiency and the data presented constitutes a unique resource to further explore functions of TRPC3 in macrophage biology.Fil: Kumarasamy, Sivarajan. University of Toledo; Estados UnidosFil: Solanki, Sumeet. University of Toledo; Estados UnidosFil: Atolagbe, Oluwatomisin T.. University of Toledo; Estados UnidosFil: Joe, Bina. University of Toledo; Estados UnidosFil: Birnbaumer, Lutz. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires". Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas; ArgentinaFil: Vazquez, Guillermo. University of Toledo; Estados Unido

An Improving Performance of Data Mining Using Intelligent Agent System Methods

Our objective of this paper is how we can utilize intelligent techniques in data mining to take decisions which we can use very much in Data Analytics, Credit Card fraud detection and other applications. The author describes that we can develop intelligent software which combines intelligent techniques and data mining and provides solutions for business analysis. Nowadays, Intelligent Agents are widely used in Data Mining because of their flexibility, modularity and general applicability to a wide range of problems. Technological developments in distributed computing, robotics and the emergence of object-orientation have given rise to such technologies to model distributed problem solving. Techniques such as pattern recognition, machine learning, and neural networks have received much attention. Other techniques in Intelligent Agents such as knowledge acquisition, knowledge representation, and search, are relevant to the various process steps in DM. The aim of intelligence is to discover mechanisms of adaptation in a changing environment with utilisation of intelligence, for instance in the ability to exclude unlikely solutions. Intelligence methods have extensive application in different fields such as software, medicine, games and transportation. This paper deals with interdisciplinary issues ndash; interconnection of intelligence and data mining. The main goal of this paper is to point out the intelligence techniques that can be utilised in data mining application and to provide an overview of research undertaken in this field

Does access to finance facilitates the firm's ability to export? Experience from Asia-Pacific countries

Financial development plays an important role in the structure of the trade balance and promoting economic development. Trade literature suggests that differences in economies' endowments of labour, land, physical capital and technology explain the dynamics and patterns of international trade flows. More recent literature argues that it is the heterogeneity in productivity of firms which mainly accounts for the decision and survival in the international markets. Given the growing importance of Global Value Chains and Regional Production Networks in the emerging economies, financial development is essential to support credit facilities for the traders and provide hassle free transactions. In this context, this study attempts to examine the impact of access to finance on firms' export decisions in the Asia-Pacific countries. In particular, we have studied whether financial development and institutional quality that support financial access promote international trade. The study found that access to finance plays a significant role in promoting firm's ability to export. Unlike institutional quality, financial development indicators positively interact with access to finance to promote firm's ability to export. The study also found that infrastructure bottlenecks negatively affect firms' export decisions

Switching to second-line antiretroviral therapy in resource-limited settings: comparison of programmes with and without viral load monitoring.

In high-income countries, viral load is routinely measured to detect failure of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and guide switching to second-line ART. Viral load monitoring is not generally available in resource-limited settings. We examined switching from nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI)-based first-line regimens to protease inhibitor-based regimens in Africa, South America and Asia