Ovarian dysgenesis associated with an unbalanced X;6 translocation: first characterisation of reproductive anatomy and cytogenetic evaluation in partial trisomy 6 with breakpoints at Xq22 and 6p23.

The aim of this study was to describe the clinical and laboratory findings associated with a previously unreported unbalanced X;6 translocation. Physical examination, reproductive history and cytogenetic techniques were used to characterise a novel chromosomal anomaly associated with gonadal dysgenesis. A healthy non-dysmorphic 23 year-old phenotypic female with primary amenorrhea and infertility presented for reproductive endocrinology evaluation. No discrete ovarian tissue was identified on transvaginal ultrasound, although the uterus appeared essentially normal. BMI was 19 kg/m2. Serum FSH and oestradiol were 111 mIU/ml and 15 pmol/l, respectively. TSH, prolactin and all infectious serologies were all normal. The karyotype of 46,X,der(X)t(X;6)(q22;p23) was determined following cytogenetic analysis of peripheral blood lymphocytes via fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) with whole chromosome paint for chromosome 6, and a separate FISH analysis using a 6p subtelomeric probe. The patient was continued on hormone replacement therapy and underwent genetic counselling; the patient subsequently enrolled as a recipient in an anonymous donor oocyte IVF treatment. Translocations involving autosomes and chromosome X are rare. While female carriers of balanced X;autosome translocations are generally phenotypically normal, the impact of unbalanced X;autosome translocations can be severe. This is the first known report of an unbalanced translocation involving X;6. This abnormality was associated with ovarian dysgenesis, but an otherwise normal female phenotype. From this investigation, the observed developmental impact of the unbalanced translocation with breakpoints at Xq22 and 6p23 appears to be limited to ovarian failure

The evolution of health policy guidelines for assisted reproduction in the Republic of Ireland, 2004-2009

This analysis reports on Irish regulatory policies for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) from 2004-2009, in the context of membership changes within the Medical Council of Ireland. To achieve this, the current (2009) edition of the Guide to Professional Conduct & Ethics was compared with the immediately preceding version (2004). The statutory composition of the Medical Council from 2004-2009 was also studied. Content analysis of the two editions identified the following differences: 1) The 2004 guide states that IVF "should only be used after thorough investigation has failed to reveal a treatable cause of the infertility", while the 2009 guide indicates IVF "should only be used after thorough investigation has shown that no other treatment is likely to be effective"; 2) The 2004 stipulation stating that fertilized ovum (embryo) "must be used for normal implantation and must not be deliberately destroyed" is absent from the 2009 guidelines; 3) The option to donate "unused fertilised ova" (embryos) is omitted from the 2009 guidelines; 4) The 2009 guidelines state that ART should be offered only by "suitably qualified professionals, in appropriate facilities, and according to the international best practice"; 5) The 2009 guidelines introduce criteria that donations as part of a donor programme should be "altruistic and non-commercial". These last two points represent original regulatory efforts not appearing in the 2004 edition. The Medical Practitioners Act 2007 reduced the number of physicians on the Medical Council to 6 (of 25) members. The ethical guidelines from 2004 preceded this change, while the reconstituted Medical Council published the 2009 version. Between 2004 and 2009, substantial modifications in reproductive health policy were incorporated into the Medical Council's ethical guidelines. The absence of controlling Irish legislation means that patients and IVF providers in Ireland must rely upon these guidelines by default. Our critique traces the evolution of public policy on IVF during a time when the membership of the Medical Council changed radically; reduced physician contribution to decision-making was associated with diminished protection for IVF-derived embryos in Ireland. Considerable uncertainty on IVF practice in Ireland remains

Formation of ultra-compact X-ray binaries through circum-binary disk-driven mass transfer

The formation of ultra-compact X-ray binaries (UCXBs) has not been well understood. Previous works show that ultra-short orbital periods ($<1$ hr) may be reached through mass transfer driven by magnetic braking in normal low/intermediate-mass X-ray binaries (L/IMXBs) only for an extremely small range of initial binary parameters, which makes it difficult to account for the rather large population of UCXBs. In this paper we report the calculated results on mass transfer processes in L/IMXBs with a circum-binary disk. We show that when the orbital angular momentum loss due to a circum-binary disk is included, ultra-short orbital periods could be reached for a relatively wide range of initial binary parameters. The results of our binary models suggest an alternative formation channel for UCXBs.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

The bifurcation periods in low-mass X-ray binaries: the effect of magnetic braking and mass loss

The bifurcation period in low-mass X-ray binaries is the initial orbital pe- riod which separates the formation of converging systems (which evolve with decreasing orbital periods until the donor becomes degenerate) from the diverging systems (which evolve with increasing orbital periods until the donor star loses its envelope and a wide detached binary is formed). We calculate systematically the bifurcation periods of binary systems with a 1.4M_\sun neutron star and a 0.5-2M_\sun donor star, taking into account different kinds of magnetic braking and mass loss mechanisms. Our results show that the saturated magnetic braking can considerably decrease the values of bifurcation period compared to the traditional magnetic braking, while the influence of mass loss mechanisms on bifurcation periods is quite weak. We also develop a semi-analytical method to compute the bifurcation period, the result of which agrees well with the numerical method in the leading order.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted to be published in Ap

Overview of the Massive Young Star-Forming Complex Study in Infrared and X-ray (MYStIX) project

The Massive Young Star-Forming Complex Study in Infrared and X-ray (MYStIX) seeks to characterize 20 OB-dominated young clusters and their environs at distances d ≤ 4 kpc using imaging detectors on the Chandra X-ray Observatory, Spitzer Space Telescope, and the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope. The observational goals are to construct catalogs of star-forming complex stellar members with well-defined criteria and maps of nebular gas (particularly of hot X-ray-emitting plasma) and dust. A catalog of MYStIX Probable Complex Members with several hundred OB stars and 31,784 low-mass pre-main sequence stars is assembled. This sample and related data products will be used to seek new empirical constraints on theoretical models of cluster formation and dynamics, mass segregation, OB star formation, star formation triggering on the periphery of H II regions, and the survivability of protoplanetary disks in H II regions. This paper gives an introduction and overview of the project, covering the data analysis methodology and application to two star-forming regions: NGC 2264 and the Trifid Nebula. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.We thank J. Forbrich and P. Teixeira (Univ. Vienna) for useful discussion about NGC 2264. The MYStIX project is supported at Penn State by NASA grant NNX09AC74G, NSF grant AST-0908038, and theChandra ACIS Team contract SV4- 74018 (PIs: G. Garmire & L. Townsley), issued by the Chandra X-ray Center, which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for and on behalf of NASA under contract NAS8-03060. M. S. Povich was supported by an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship under award AST-0901646. This research made use of data products from the Chandra Data Archive and the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (California Institute of Technology) under a contract with NASA. The United Kingdom Infrared Telescope is operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre on behalf of the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the U.K. This work is based in part on data obtained as part of the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey and in part on data obtained in UKIRT Director’s Discretionary Time. This research used data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. The HAWK-I near-infrared observations were collected with the High Acuity Wide-field K-band Imager instrument on the ESO 8 m Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory, Chile, under ESO programme 60.A-9284(K). This research has also made use of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Bibliographic Services, the SIMBAD database operated at the Centre de Donnees ´ Astronomique de Strasbourg, and SAOImage DS9 software developed by Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Comparing counselling alone versus counselling supplemented with guided use of a well-being app for university students experiencing anxiety or depression (CASELOAD): protocol for a feasibility trial.

BACKGROUND: University counselling services face a unique challenge to offer short-term therapeutic support to students presenting with complex mental health needs and in a setting which suits the academic timetable. The recent availability of mobile phone applications (apps) offers an opportunity to supplement face-to-face therapy and has the potential to reach a wider audience, maintain engagement between therapy sessions, and enhance therapeutic outcomes. The present study, entitled Counselling plus Apps for Students Experiencing Levels of Anxiety or Depression (CASELOAD), aims to explore the feasibility of supplementing counselling with guided use of a well-being app. METHODS/DESIGN: Forty help-seeking university students (aged 18 years and over) with symptoms of moderate anxiety or depression will be recruited from a University Counselling Service (UCS) in the United Kingdom (UK). Participants will be recruited via counsellors who provide the initial clinical assessment and who determine treatment allocation to one of two treatments on the basis of client-treatment fit. The two conditions comprise (1) counselling alone (treatment as usual/TAU) or (2) counselling supplemented with guided use of a well-being app (enhanced intervention). Trained counsellors will deliver up to six counselling sessions in each treatment arm across a 6-month period, and the session frequency will be decided by client-counsellor discussion. Assessments will occur at baseline, every counselling session, post-intervention (3 months after consent) and follow-up (6 months after consent). Assessments will include clinical measures of anxiety, depression, psychological functioning, specific mental health concerns (e.g. academic distress and substance misuse), resilience and therapeutic alliance. The usage, acceptability, feasibility and potential implications of combining counselling with guided use of the well-being app will be assessed through audio recordings of counselling sessions, telephone interviews with participants, focus groups with counsellors and counsellor notes. DISCUSSION: This study will inform the design of a randomised pilot trial and a definitive trial which aim to improve therapy engagement, reduce dropout and enhance clinical outcomes of student counselling. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN55102899

The Effect of a Brief Mindfulness Intervention on Memory for Positively and Negatively Valenced Stimuli

A core component of mindfulness is non-judgmental observation of internal and external stimuli. The present study investigated the effect of mindfulness on memory for emotional stimuli. Participants were exposed to a brief mindfulness intervention and subsequently performed a verbal learning test consisting of positive, neutral, and negative words. Control participants received no intervention and directly performed the verbal learning test. After 20 min, participants recalled as many words as possible. Participants in the mindfulness condition remembered a significantly lower proportion of negative words compared to control participants. No differences between both groups were observed for the proportion of remembered positive words. These findings suggest that memory processes may be a potential mechanism underlying the link between mindfulness and subjective well-being

International Veterinary Epilepsy Task Force consensus proposal: Medical treatment of canine epilepsy in Europe

In Europe, the number of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) licensed for dogs has grown considerably over the last years. Nevertheless, the same questions remain, which include, 1) when to start treatment, 2) which drug is best used initially, 3) which adjunctive AED can be advised if treatment with the initial drug is unsatisfactory, and 4) when treatment changes should be considered. In this consensus proposal, an overview is given on the aim of AED treatment, when to start long-term treatment in canine epilepsy and which veterinary AEDs are currently in use for dogs. The consensus proposal for drug treatment protocols, 1) is based on current published evidence-based literature, 2) considers the current legal framework of the cascade regulation for the prescription of veterinary drugs in Europe, and 3) reflects the authors’ experience. With this paper it is aimed to provide a consensus for the management of canine idiopathic epilepsy. Furthermore, for the management of structural epilepsy AEDs are inevitable in addition to treating the underlying cause, if possible

Effects of pretreatments of Napier Grass with deionized water, sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide on pyrolysis oil characteristics

The depletion of fossil fuel reserves has led to increasing interest in liquid bio-fuel from renewable biomass. Biomass is a complex organic material consisting of different degrees of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, extractives and minerals. Some of the mineral elements tend to retard conversions, yield and selectivity during pyrolysis processing. This study is focused on the extraction of mineral retardants from Napier grass using deionized water, dilute sodium hydroxide and sulfuric acid and subsequent pyrolysis in a fixed bed reactor. The raw biomass was characterized before and after each pretreatment following standard procedure. Pyrolysis study was conducted in a fixed bed reactor at 600 o�C, 30 �C/min and 30 mL/min N2 flow. Pyrolysis oil (bio-oil) collected was analyzed using standard analytic techniques. The bio-oil yield and characteristics from each pretreated sample were compared with oil from the non-pretreated sample. Bio-oil yield from the raw sample was 32.06 wt% compared to 38.71, 33.28 and 29.27 wt% oil yield recorded from the sample pretreated with sulfuric acid, deionized water and sodium hydroxide respectively. GC–MS analysis of the oil samples revealed that the oil from all the pretreated biomass had more value added chemicals and less ketones and aldehydes. Pretreatment with neutral solvent generated valuable leachate, showed significant impact on the ash extraction, pyrolysis oil yield, and its composition and therefore can be regarded as more appropriate for thermochemical conversion of Napier grass