Effects of different gonadotropin preparations in GnRH antagonist protocol for patients with polycystic ovary syndrome during IVF/ICSI: a retrospective cohort study

PurposeTo compare the effects of recombinant FSH alfa (rFSH-alfa), rFSH-beta, highly purified human menopausal gonadotropin (HP-hMG) and urinary FSH (uFSH) in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome who have undertaken the GnRH antagonist protocol during IVF/ICSI treatment.MethodA single-center retrospective cohort study including women with PCOS who received the GnRH antagonist protocol from January 2019 to July 2022 was conducted. Patients were divided into rFSH-alfa group, HP-hMG group, uFSH group, and rFSH-beta group, and the number of oocytes retrieved, clinical pregnancy rate of the fresh cycle (primary outcomes), embryo quality, and severe OHSS rate (secondary outcomes) were compared.ResultsNo statistical differences were found among the four groups in fresh cycle clinical pregnancy rate (p=0.426), nor in the subgroup analyses. The HP-hMG group had a smaller number of oocytes retrieved and a higher high-quality D3 embryo rate than the three FSH groups (p<0.05). No statistical differences were found among the four groups in the severe OHSS rate (p=0.083).ConclusionFor women with PCOS undergoing the GnRH antagonist protocol, the clinical pregnancy rates of fresh IVF/ICSI-ET cycle are similar for all four types of Gn. With a lower risk of OHSS and a similar number of high-quality and available embryos, HP-hMG may have an advantage in the PCOS population

Multiband superconductivity and a deep gap minimum evidenced by specific heat in KCa2_2(Fe1−x_{1-x}Nix_x)4_4As4_4F2_2

Specific heat can explore low-energy quasiparticle excitations of superconductors, so it is a powerful tool for bulk measurement on the superconducting gap structure and pairing symmetry. Here, we report an in-depth investigation on the specific heat of the multiband superconductors KCa$_2$(Fe$_{1-x}$Ni$_x$)$_4$As$_4$F$_2$ ($x$ = 0, 0.05, 0.13) single crystals and the overdoped non-superconducting one with $x$ = 0.17. For the samples with $x$ = 0 and $x$ = 0.05, the magnetic field induced specific heat coefficient $\Delta\gamma(H)$ in the low temperature limit increases rapidly below 2 T, then it rises slowly above 2 T. Using the non-superconducting sample with $x$ = 0.17 as a reference, and applying a mixed model that combines Debye and Einstein modes, the specific heat of phonon background for various superconducting samples can be fitted and the detailed information of the electronic specific heat is obtained. Through comparative analyses, it is found that the energy gap structure including two $s$-wave gaps and an extended $s$-wave gap with large anisotropy can reasonably describe the electronic specific heat data. According to these results, we suggest that at least one anisotropic superconducting gap with a deep gap minimum should exist in this multiband system. With the doping of Ni, the $T_c$ of the sample decreases along with the decrease of the large $s$-wave gap, but the extended $s$-wave gap increases due to the enlarged electron pockets via adding more electrons. Despite these changes, the general properties of the gap structure remain unchanged versus doping Ni. In addition, the calculation of condensation energy of the parent and doped samples shows the rough consistency with the correlation of $U_0 \propto {T_c}^n$ with $n$ = 3-4, which is beyond the understanding of the BCS theory

The Orbitofrontal Cortex Gray Matter Is Associated With the Interaction Between Insomnia and Depression

Insomnia and depression are highly comorbid symptoms in both primary insomnia (PI) and major depressive disorder (MDD). In the current study, we aimed at exploring both the homogeneous and heterogeneous brain structure alteration in PI and MDD patients. Sixty-five MDD patients and 67 matched PI patients were recruited and underwent a structural MRI scan. The subjects were sub-divided into four groups, namely MDD patients with higher or lower insomnia, and PI patients with higher or lower severe depression. A general linear model was employed to explore the changes in cortical thickness and volume as a result of depression or insomnia, and their interaction. In addition, partial correlation analysis was conducted to detect the clinical significance of the altered brain structural regions. A main effect of depression on cortical thickness was seen in the superior parietal lobe, middle cingulate cortex, and parahippocampal gyrus, while a main effect of insomnia on cortical thickness was found in the posterior cingulate cortex. Importantly, the interaction between depression and insomnia was associated with decreased gray matter volume in the right orbitofrontal cortex, i.e., patients with co-occurring depression and insomnia showed smaller brain volume in the right orbitofrontal cortex when compared to patients with lower insomnia/depression. These findings highlighted the role of the orbitofrontal cortex in the neuropathology of the comorbidity of insomnia and depression. Our findings provide new insights into the understanding of the brain mechanism underlying comorbidity of insomnia and depression

Sciences for The 2.5-meter Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST)

The Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST) is a dedicated photometric survey facility under construction jointly by the University of Science and Technology of China and Purple Mountain Observatory. It is equipped with a primary mirror of 2.5m in diameter, an active optical system, and a mosaic CCD camera of 0.73 Gpix on the main focus plane to achieve high-quality imaging over a field of view of 6.5 square degrees. The installation of WFST in the Lenghu observing site is planned to happen in the summer of 2023, and the operation is scheduled to commence within three months afterward. WFST will scan the northern sky in four optical bands (u, g, r, and i) at cadences from hourly/daily to semi-weekly in the deep high-cadence survey (DHS) and the wide field survey (WFS) programs, respectively. WFS reaches a depth of 22.27, 23.32, 22.84, and 22.31 in AB magnitudes in a nominal 30-second exposure in the four bands during a photometric night, respectively, enabling us to search tremendous amount of transients in the low-z universe and systematically investigate the variability of Galactic and extragalactic objects. Intranight 90s exposures as deep as 23 and 24 mag in u and g bands via DHS provide a unique opportunity to facilitate explorations of energetic transients in demand for high sensitivity, including the electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational-wave events detected by the second/third-generation GW detectors, supernovae within a few hours of their explosions, tidal disruption events and luminous fast optical transients even beyond a redshift of 1. Meanwhile, the final 6-year co-added images, anticipated to reach g about 25.5 mag in WFS or even deeper by 1.5 mag in DHS, will be of significant value to general Galactic and extragalactic sciences. The highly uniform legacy surveys of WFST will also serve as an indispensable complement to those of LSST which monitors the southern sky.Comment: 46 pages, submitted to SCMP

The BioMart community portal: an innovative alternative to large, centralized data repositories.

The BioMart Community Portal (www.biomart.org) is a community-driven effort to provide a unified interface to biomedical databases that are distributed worldwide. The portal provides access to numerous database projects supported by 30 scientific organizations. It includes over 800 different biological datasets spanning genomics, proteomics, model organisms, cancer data, ontology information and more. All resources available through the portal are independently administered and funded by their host organizations. The BioMart data federation technology provides a unified interface to all the available data. The latest version of the portal comes with many new databases that have been created by our ever-growing community. It also comes with better support and extensibility for data analysis and visualization tools. A new addition to our toolbox, the enrichment analysis tool is now accessible through graphical and web service interface. The BioMart community portal averages over one million requests per day. Building on this level of service and the wealth of information that has become available, the BioMart Community Portal has introduced a new, more scalable and cheaper alternative to the large data stores maintained by specialized organizations

Ten Bamboo Studio Decorative Writing Papers

The outline of a hand is depicted holding a calligraphy brush. To the right is Chinese text

Efficient Traffic Flow Guidance Feedback Strategy Considering Drivers’ Disobedience in ITS

Some research claims that the cultural features of people may have a major impact on driving behavior and can play a serious role in the driving safety. Indeed, unlike machines that follow the instructions strictly, drivers have their own will and may disobey; they sometimes do things completely opposite to the instructions given by the central vehicle system. On the other side, it is proven that the traffic flow guidance feedback strategy has a significant effect on improving road traffic flow capacity. This paper deals with traffic flow dynamics while real-time information is integrated. Drivers’ obedience rate to the instructions provided by an intelligent transportation system (ITS) is also considered. In addition, we implemented the process of pre-filtering the drivers for better managing the traffic, to the best of our knowledge; thus this process is not considered in the related literature. We introduced a dynamic weighted vehicle density feedback strategy (DWVDFS) with SUMO software 19.386-16 for determining whether traffic congestion happens or not. The simulation model considers three-route scenarios with one entrance and one exit. The added value of the proposed pre-filtering process and DWVDFS is also evaluated

Has China's Economy Become More Stable and Inertial? Nonlinear Investigations Based on Structural Break and Duration Dependent Regime Switching Models

In this study we use both the structural break model and duration dependent transition model to study the characteristics of China's GDP growth from 1953 to 2009. The empirical results show that China's economic growth had become more stable since the economic reform in the end of the 1970s, and had transformed from a "low growth rate, high volatility" state to a "high growth rate, low volatility" state. In contrast to other transitional countries, China's structural break did not happen immediately, but rather it experienced a long transition period (1977-1992) which shows that China's economic development has a strong "growth inertia".Structural break, Duration dependent transition, Growth inertia