235 research outputs found
Thinning and drilling laser-assisted hatching in thawed embryo transfer : A randomized controlled trial
Objective: In frozen and thawed embryos, the zona pellucida (ZP) can be damaged due to hardening. Laser-assisted hatching (LAH) of embryos can increase the pregnancy rate. This study compared thinning and drilling of the ZP before frozen embryo transfer (FET). Methods: Patients were randomly allocated into two groups for LAH using thinning or drilling on day 2 after thawing. Twenty-five percent of the ZP circumference and 50% of the ZP thickness was removed in the thinning group, and a hole 40 μm in diameter was made in the drilling group. Results: A total of 171 in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection FET cycles, including 85 cycles with drilling LAH and 86 cycles with thinning LAH, were carried out. The thinning group had a similar β-human chorionic gonadotropin-positive rate (38.4% vs. 29.4%), implantation rate (16.5% vs. 14.4%), clinical pregnancy rate (36.0% vs. 25.9%), miscarriage rate (5.8% vs. 2.4%), ongoing pregnancy rate (30.2% vs. 23.5%), and multiple pregnancy rate (7.0% vs. 10.6%) to the drilling LAH group. There were no significant differences in pregnancy outcomes between subgroups defined based on age (older or younger than 35 years) or ZP thickness (greater or less than 17 μm) according to the LAH method. Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that partial ZP thinning or drilling resulted in similar outcomes in implantation and pregnancy rates using thawed embryos, irrespective of women's age or ZP thickness. © 2018. The Korean Society for Reproductive Medicine.Peer reviewe
Hematological parameters of red tilapia (Oreochromis sp.) fed lemongrass essential oil (Cymbopogon citratus) after challenge with Streptococcus agalactiae
The study involved feeding lemongrass essential oil (LEO) supplements to red tilapia (Oreochromis sp.) at concentrations including Control - 0 mg, T1 – 200 mg, T2 – 300 mg, and T3 – 400 mg per kg of feed. The research investigated changes in hematological (HCT, Hb, RBC, WBC & thrombocytes) and erythrocyte’s morphological (major/minor axis; perimeter, and area of erythrocyte) parameters before infection, 5- and 10-days post-infection (DPI). According to analytical findings, a diet containing LEO enhanced the synthesis of both erythrocytes and leukocytes in the peripheral blood of red tilapia after 20 days of being used. Therefore, the indicators of this group of fish showed better performance than those that did not use LEO supplement five days after bacterial infection. Fish fed 200 mg/kg of LEO after being challenged with S. agalactiae for ten days showed an improved effect on red blood cell production. White blood cells decreased at all concentrations because of citral’s immunomodulatory properties
Ferromagnetic order in U(Rh,Co)Ge
We report the variation of ferromagnetic order in the pseudo-ternary
compounds URh_{1-x}Co_{x}Ge (0 \leq x \leq 1). Magnetization and transport data
taken on polycrystalline samples show that the Curie temperature T_{C}
gradually increases with increasing Co content from a value of 9.5 K for URhGe
to a maximum value of 20 K for x = 0.6 and then steadily decreases to 3 K for
UCoGe. The magnetic interaction strength varies smoothly across the series. For
all samples the electrical resistivity for T < T_{C} follows the behaviour \rho
= \rho_{0} + AT^2. The A coefficient is dominated by scattering at spin waves
and is strongly enhanced for x = 0 and 1.Comment: 12 pages (4 figures), submitted to SS
JOSÉ SOLÍS E INOCENCIA GARCÍA [Material gráfico]
ÁLBUM FAMILIAR CASA DE COLÓNCopia digital. Madrid : Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. Subdirección General de Coordinación Bibliotecaria, 201
Efficient and precise CRISPR/Cas9-mediated MECP2 modifications in human-induced pluripotent stem cells
Patients with Rett syndrome (RTT) have severe mental and physical disabilities. The majority of RTT patients carry a heterozygous mutation in methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MECP2), an X-linked gene encoding an epigenetic factor crucial for normal nerve cell function. No curative therapy for RTT syndrome exists, and cellular mechanisms are incompletely understood. Here, we developed a CRISPR/Cas9-mediated system that targets and corrects the disease relevant regions of the MECP2 exon 4 coding sequence. We achieved homologous recombination (HR) efficiencies of 20% to 30% in human cell lines and iPSCs. Furthermore, we successfully introduced a MECP2(R270X) mutation into the MECP2 gene in human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Consequently, using CRISPR/Cas9, we were able to repair such mutations with high efficiency in human mutant iPSCs. In summary, we provide a new strategy for MECP2 gene targeting that can be potentially translated into gene therapy or for iPSCs-based disease modeling of RTT syndrome
Rainfall variability and internal migration: the importance of agriculture linkage and gender inequality
This paper investigates the extent to which exposure to climate volatility can in-fluence individual migration decisions in Vietnam, based on the historical rainfall data from 70 weather stations in Vietnam and the Vietnam Access to Resources House-hold Survey. Utilizing the exogenous variation in the rainfall deviation from the local norms within an individual fixed-effects framework, we uncover the negative associa-tion between rainfall and the probability of individual migration. Individual migration probability drops by 7.5 percentage points when the amount of rainfall relative to the long-run local average doubles. This reduction could potentially be driven by individ-uals who work in the agricultural sector and are less likely to migrate as more rainfall could increase their agricultural incomes. Furthermore, our heterogeneity analyses sug-gest that rainfall shocks could perpetuate gender inequality in Vietnam since women cannot cope with climatic shocks through migration. Policy-makers could shift their focus on flood control and water management in affected areas, where people’s liveli-hoods depend on agriculture, to efficiently address issues related to climate-induced internal migration
Unbounded violation of tripartite Bell inequalities
We prove that there are tripartite quantum states (constructed from random
unitaries) that can lead to arbitrarily large violations of Bell inequalities
for dichotomic observables. As a consequence these states can withstand an
arbitrary amount of white noise before they admit a description within a local
hidden variable model. This is in sharp contrast with the bipartite case, where
all violations are bounded by Grothendieck's constant. We will discuss the
possibility of determining the Hilbert space dimension from the obtained
violation and comment on implications for communication complexity theory.
Moreover, we show that the violation obtained from generalized GHZ states is
always bounded so that, in contrast to many other contexts, GHZ states do in
this case not lead to extremal quantum correlations. The results are based on
tools from the theories of operator spaces and tensor norms which we exploit to
prove the existence of bounded but not completely bounded trilinear forms from
commutative C*-algebras.Comment: Substantial changes in the presentation to make the paper more
accessible for a non-specialized reade
Cold atmospheric plasma-activated composite hydrogel for an enhanced and on-demand delivery of antimicrobials
We present the concept of a versatile drug-loaded composite hydrogel that can be activated using an argon-based cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) jet to deliver both a drug and CAP-generated molecules, concomitantly, in a tissue target. To demonstrate this concept, we utilized the antibiotic gentamicin that is encapsulated in sodium polyacrylate (PAA) particles, which are dispersed within a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogel matrix. The final product is a gentamicin-PAA-PVA composite hydrogel suitable for an on-demand triggered release using CAP. We show that by activating using CAP, we can effectively release gentamicin from the hydrogel and also eradicate the bacteria effectively, both in the planktonic state and within a biofilm. Besides gentamicin, we also successfully demonstrate the applicability of the CAP-activated composite hydrogel loaded with other antimicrobial agents such as cetrimide and silver. This concept of a composite hydrogel is potentially adaptable to a range of therapeutics (such as antimicrobials, anticancer agents, and nanoparticles) and activatable using any dielectric barrier discharge CAP device
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