Exogenous gonadotropins have little impact on follicular but considerable effect on serum cytokine concentrations – a comparison between Natural Cycle and stimulated IVF using a multiplexed assay platform

Introduction: Throughout follicular growth and subsequent corpus luteum formation the leukocyte number increases and follicular vascularisation changes. These processes are enhanced under exogenous stimulation with gonadotropins. Cytokines released by leukocytes contribute to further recruitment and vascularisation of the follicle, and they play an important role in regulating ovarian steroidogenesis by influencing theca and granulosa–lutein cell function. Changes in cytokine and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) concentrations in the ovary as a consequence of gonadotropin stimulation may negatively influence oocyte quality. In this project we have compared the intrafollicular production of inflammatory cytokines and growth factors between natural IVF cycles (NC) and classical, gonadotropin-stimulated IVF cycles (gsIVF). Material and Methods: Serum on the day of oocyte retrieval and follicular fluid (FF) were collected in 37 NC and 39 gsIVF cycles. Thirteen women within this population underwent one NC and one gsIVF cycle each. A total of 14 cytokines from Bio-Plex panels I and II were determined in matched serum and FF samples using Luminex xMAP technology on the Bio-Plex(R) platform, using the serum protocol. Results: Tumour necrosis factor-alpha, RANTES, eotaxin and interferon-gamma-induced protein-10 levels were lower in FF than in serum, and thus not further investigated. Interleukin (IL)-6, -8, -10, -15, -18, monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), VEGF and leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) showed higher median concentrations in FF than in serum, indicating possible ovarian production. Moreover, most of these showed higher evels in the gsIVF than in the NC groups in the serum, but not in the follicular fluid. IL-8 was reduced in gsIVF cycles. Conclusion: The fact that serum but not FF levels of the studied cytokines were higher in the stimulated than in the natural cycles can be attributed to the increased number of active follicles present after controlled ovarian stimulation

Achievable Information Rates in C-band Nonlinear Coherent Optical Communication Systems

Information rates of C-band Nyquist-spaced optical fiber communication systems with erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) and distributed Raman amplification (DRA) schemes were discussed. Results indicate that the nonlinearity compensation performance depends on transmission distances and modulation formats

Control of an Underactuated Double-Pendulum Overhead Crane using Improved Model Reference Command Shaping: Design, Simulation and Experiment

This paper presents a new control scheme based on model reference command shaping (MRCS) for an overhead crane, with double-pendulum mechanism effects. The approach has an advantage in achieving an accurate trolley positioning, with low hook and payload oscillations, under various desired trolley positions and parameter uncertainties, without the requirement for measurement or estimation of system parameters. These are challenging in practice. The previously developed MRCS algorithm is improved in order to reduce its design complexity, as well as to ensure that it can be augmented with a feedback controller so that a concurrent controller tuning can be realised. The combined MRCS and feedback controller is used to achieve both, precise trolley positioning, and low hook and payload oscillations. To evaluate the effectiveness and the robustness of the approach, simulations and experiments using a nonlinear model and a laboratory double-pendulum crane are carried out. Under various desired positions and parameter uncertainties that involve varying the cable lengths (payload hoisting) and the payload mass variations, the superiority of the proposed approach is confirmed by achieving higher hook and payload oscillation reductions when compared with a recently proposed feedback controller. In addition, the desired trolley positions are achieved with smoother responses

Ethylene signaling under stressful environments: analyzing collaborative knowledge

Ethylene is a gaseous plant growth hormone that regulates various plant developmental processes, ranging from seed germination to senescence. The mechanisms underlying ethylene biosynthesis and signaling involve multistep mechanisms representing different control levels to regulate its production and response. Ethylene is an established phytohormone that displays various signaling processes under environmental stress in plants. Such environmental stresses trigger ethylene biosynthesis/action, which influences the growth and development of plants and opens new windows for future crop improvement. This review summarizes the current understanding of how environmental stress influences plants’ ethylene biosynthesis, signaling, and response. The review focuses on (a) ethylene biosynthesis and signaling in plants, (b) the influence of environmental stress on ethylene biosynthesis, (c) regulation of ethylene signaling for stress acclimation, (d) potential mechanisms underlying the ethylene-mediated stress tolerance in plants, and (e) summarizing ethylene formation under stress and its mechanism of action

An Automated Machine-Learning Approach for Road Pothole Detection Using Smartphone Sensor Data.

Road surface monitoring and maintenance are essential for driving comfort, transport safety and preserving infrastructure integrity. Traditional road condition monitoring is regularly conducted by specially designed instrumented vehicles, which requires time and money and is only able to cover a limited proportion of the road network. In light of the ubiquitous use of smartphones, this paper proposes an automatic pothole detection system utilizing the built-in vibration sensors and global positioning system receivers in smartphones. We collected road condition data in a city using dedicated vehicles and smartphones with a purpose-built mobile application designed for this study. A series of processing methods were applied to the collected data, and features from different frequency domains were extracted, along with various machine-learning classifiers. The results indicated that features from the time and frequency domains outperformed other features for identifying potholes. Among the classifiers tested, the Random Forest method exhibited the best classification performance for potholes, with a precision of 88.5% and recall of 75%. Finally, we validated the proposed method using datasets generated from different road types and examined its universality and robustness

Stringy KLT relations, global symmetries, and E_7(7) violation

We study consequences of the Kawai-Lewellen-Tye (KLT) relations applied to tree amplitudes in toroidal compactifications of string theory to four dimensions. The closed string tree amplitudes with massless external states respect a global SU(4)xSU(4) symmetry, which is enhanced to the SU(8) R-symmetry of N=8 supergravity in the field theory limit. Our analysis focuses on two aspects: (i) We provide a detailed account of the simplest SU(8)-violating amplitudes. We classify these processes and derive explicit superamplitudes for all local 5- and 6-point operators with SU(4)xSU(4) symmetry at order alpha'^3. Their origin is the dilatonic operator exp(-6 phi) R^4 in the closed-string effective action. (ii) We expand the 6-point closed string tree amplitudes to order alpha'^3 and use two different methods to isolate the SU(8)-singlet contribution from exp(-6 phi) R^4. This allows us to extract the matrix elements of the unique SU(8)-invariant supersymmetrization of R^4. Their single-soft scalar limits are non-vanishing. This demonstrates that the N=8 supergravity candidate counterterm R^4 is incompatible with continuous E_7(7) symmetry. From the soft scalar limits, we reconstruct to quadratic order the SU(8)-invariant function of scalars that multiplies R^4, and show that it satisfies the Laplace eigenvalue equation derived recently from supersymmetry and duality constraints.Comment: 23 pages, published versio

Screening and assessment tools for gaming disorder: A comprehensive systematic review

The inclusion of gaming disorder (GD) as an official diagnosis in the ICD-11 was a significant milestone for the field. However, the optimal measurement approaches for GD are currently unclear. This comprehensive systematic review aimed to identify and evaluate all available English-language GD tools and their corresponding evidence. A search of PsychINFO, PsychArticles, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar identified 32 tools employed in 320 studies (N = 462,249 participants). The evaluation framework examined tools in relation to: (1) conceptual and practical considerations; (2) alignment with DSM-5 and ICD-11 criteria; (3) type and quantity of studies and samples; and (4) psychometric properties. The evaluation showed that GD instrumentation has proliferated, with 2.5 tools, on average, published annually since 2013. Coverage of DSM-5 and ICD-11 criteria was inconsistent, especially for the criterion of continued use despite harm. Tools converge on the importance of screening for impaired control over gaming and functional impairment. Overall, no single tool was found to be clearly superior, but the AICA-Sgaming, GAS-7, IGDT-10, IGDS9-SF, and Lemmens IGD-9 scales had greater evidential support for their psychometric properties. The GD field would benefit from a standard international tool to identify gaming-related harms across the spectrum of maladaptive gaming behaviors.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Accelerating Bayesian hierarchical clustering of time series data with a randomised algorithm

We live in an era of abundant data. This has necessitated the development of new and innovative statistical algorithms to get the most from experimental data. For example, faster algorithms make practical the analysis of larger genomic data sets, allowing us to extend the utility of cutting-edge statistical methods. We present a randomised algorithm that accelerates the clustering of time series data using the Bayesian Hierarchical Clustering (BHC) statistical method. BHC is a general method for clustering any discretely sampled time series data. In this paper we focus on a particular application to microarray gene expression data. We define and analyse the randomised algorithm, before presenting results on both synthetic and real biological data sets. We show that the randomised algorithm leads to substantial gains in speed with minimal loss in clustering quality. The randomised time series BHC algorithm is available as part of the R package BHC, which is available for download from Bioconductor (version 2.10 and above) via http://bioconductor.org/packages/2.10/bioc/html/BHC.html. We have also made available a set of R scripts which can be used to reproduce the analyses carried out in this paper. These are available from the following URL. https://sites.google.com/site/randomisedbhc/

Synthesis of electroneutralized amphiphilic copolymers with peptide dendrons for intramuscular gene delivery

Intramuscular gene delivery materials are of great importance in plasmid-based gene therapy system, but there is limited information so far on how to design and synthesize them. A previous study showed that the peptide dendron-based triblock copolymer with its components arranged in a reversed biomembrane architecture could significantly increase intramuscular gene delivery and expression. Herein, we wonder whether copolymers with biomembrane-mimicking arrangement may have similar function on intramuscular gene delivery. Meanwhile, it is of great significance to uncover the influence of electric charge and molecular structure on the function of the copolymers. To address the issues, amphiphilic triblock copolymers arranged in hydrophilic-hydrophobic-hydrophilic structure were constructed despite the paradoxical characteristics and difficulties in synthesizing such hydrophilic but electroneutral molecules. The as-prepared two copolymers, dendronG2(l-lysine-OH)-poly propylene glycol2k(PPG2k)-dendronG2(l-lysine-OH) (rL2PL2) and dendronG3(l-lysine-OH)-PPG2k-dendronG3(l-lysine-OH) (rL3PL3), were in similar structure but had different hydrophilic components and surface charges, thus leading to different capabilities in gene delivery and expression in skeletal muscle. rL2PL2 was more efficient than Pluronic L64 and rL3PL3 when mediating luciferase, β-galactosidase, and fluorescent protein expressions. Furthermore, rL2PL2-mediated growth-hormone-releasing hormone expression could significantly induce mouse body weight increase in the first 21 days after injection. In addition, both rL2PL2 and rL3PL3 showed good in vivo biosafety in local and systemic administration. Altogether, rL2PL2-mediated gene expression in skeletal muscle exhibited applicable potential for gene therapy. The study revealed that the molecular structure and electric charge were critical factors governing the function of the copolymers for intramuscular gene delivery. It can be concluded that, combined with the previous study, both structural arrangements either reverse or similar to the biomembrane are effective in designing such copolymers. It also provides an innovative way in designing and synthesizing new electroneutralized triblock copolymers, which could be used safely and efficiently for intramuscular gene delivery