86 research outputs found

    Zur Epidemiologie arthropodenĂŒbertragener Virosen der Honigbiene, Apis mellifera, in Bayern

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    102 klinisch auffĂ€llige und 35 symptomlose Bienenvölker aus 19 bayerischen Landkreisen sowie 70 Proben des Ektoparasiten Varroa destructor wurden mittels RT-PCR auf das Vorkommen von Black queen cell virus (BQCV), Deformed wing virus (DWV) und Kashmir bee virus (KBV) untersucht. In 90.5 % der Bienenproben wurde mindestens eines der Viren nachgewiesen, wobei klinisch auffĂ€llige Völker hoch signifikant hĂ€ufiger betroffen waren als symptomlose Völker (96 % vs. 74.3 %; p<0.01). WĂ€hrend KBV nicht in den Bienen nachgewiesen werden konnte, fanden sich BQCV- und DWV-Infektionen in jeweils 66.4 % der Proben. 42.3 % der Völker zeigten Doppelinfektionen mit BQCV und DWV. 131 der Bienenvölker wurden zusĂ€tzlich lichtmikroskopisch auf eine Infektion mit Mikrosporidien untersucht. Dabei wurden bei 14.5 % der Proben Mikrosporidiensporen nachgewiesen. 2.3 % der Proben zeigten leichte, 4.6 % mittelgradige und 7.6 % hohe Befallsgrade. Mit Hilfe einer Nosema apis-spezifischen PCR und einer universellen Mikrosporidien-PCR wurde in neun Proben eine Infektion mit Nosema apis und in neun weiteren Proben eine Infektion mit Nosema ceranae nachgewiesen. Eine Infektion von Bienen mit Viren war nicht mit einer Mikrosporidieninfektion korreliert. In den von den Bienen gewonnenen und getrennt davon untersuchten Varroa-Milben fand sich bei 94.3 % DWV, 20 % BQCV und 14.3 % KBV. 94.3 % aller Milbenproben wiesen mindestens ein Virus auf, 22.8 % zeigten eine Doppelinfektion und 5.7 % eine Infektion mit drei Bienenviren. Der hier gezeigte Nachweis von KBV in den Landkreisen Amberg, Landshut, Erding, MĂŒhldorf am Inn, Rosenheim und OberallgĂ€u ist die erste Beschreibung fĂŒr ein Vorkommen von KBV in Bayern. Die Ergebnisse dieser Untersuchung stĂŒtzen die These nach einer ursĂ€chlichen Beteiligung von arthropodenĂŒbertragenen Bienenviren an den periodisch auftretenden Massenverlusten von Bienenvölkern in Bayern

    The pattern of juvenile idiopathic arthritis; a retrospective Egyptian study

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    Background: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common autoimmune musculoskeletal disease in children. The spectrum of patients’ profile of JIA showed many similarities and differences among different populations. Therefore, our study aimed to analyze the clinical data, laboratory data, treatment protocols and patient’s outcomes of JIA among Egyptian population.Methods: We checked and analyzed medical files of children with JIA followed up at pediatric rheumatology clinic between 2004-2010 at Alexandria Main Children Hospital.Results: Our study included data about 63 Egyptian JIA patients (33 males and 30 females), with a mean age of 7.3±3.1 years (range 3-16 years). We found that oligoarticular subtype was the predominant (41.2%) among cases followed by polyarticular (35%) then systemic onset type in (23.8%). Most of the patients lived in rural areas (57.1%). Clinically, knee joints (74.6%) were the most affected joints while pallor (42.9%) was main extra-articular manifestations (42.2%) among all subtypes. Uveitis (6.3%) manifested among oligoarticular and polyarticular subtypes only. Rheumatoid factor and anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) were positive among 69.8% and 20.6% of the studied cases respectively. Remission rate was 47.6% and occurred mostly in oligoarticular subtype. Also, the regimen of combination of two drugs showed the highest remission rate (39.8%).Conclusion: The pattern of JIA among Egyptian children showed predominance of oligoarticular subtype specially at rural areas which differed from Western and Gulf  countries pattern.Keywords: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis, oligoarticular, Rheumatoid factor, morning stiffnes

    Rhizostoma optimization algorithm and its application in different real-world optimization problems

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    In last decade, numerous meta-heuristic algorithms have been proposed for dealing the complexity and difficulty of numerical optimization problems in the realworld which is growing continuously recently, but only a few algorithms have caught researchers’ attention. In this study, a new swarm-based meta-heuristic algorithm called Rhizostoma optimization algorithm (ROA) is proposed for solving the optimization problems based on simulating the social movement of Rhizostoma octopus (barrel jellyfish) in the ocean. ROA is intended to mitigate the two optimization problems of trapping in local optima and slow convergence. ROA is proposed with three different movement strategies (simulated annealing (SA), fast simulated annealing (FSA), and Levy walk (LW)) and tested with 23 standard mathematical benchmark functions, two classical engineering problems, and various real-world datasets including three widely used datasets to predict the students’ performance. Comparing the ROA algorithm with the latest meta-heuristic optimization algorithms and a recent published research proves that ROA is a very competitive algorithm with a high ability in optimization performance with respect to local optima avoidance, the speed of convergence and the exploration/exploitation balance rate, as it is effectively applicable for performing optimization tasks

    Cracking-assisted Fabrication of Nanoscale Patterns for Micro/Nanotechnological Applications

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    Cracks are frequently observed in daily life, but they are rarely welcome and are considered as a material failure mode. Interestingly, cracks cause critical problems in various micro/nanofabrication processes such as colloidal assembly, thin film deposition, and even standard photolithography because they are hard to avoid or control. However, increasing attention has been given recently to control and use cracks as a facile, low-cost strategy for producing highly ordered nanopatterns. Specifically, cracking is the breakage of molecular bonds and occurs simultaneously over a large area, enabling fabrication of nanoscale patterns at both high resolution and high throughput, which are difficult to obtain simultaneously using conventional nanofabrication techniques. In this review, we discuss various cracking-assisted nanofabrication techniques, referred to as crack lithography, and summarize the fabrication principles, procedures, and characteristics of the crack patterns such as their position, direction, and dimensions. First, we categorize crack lithography techniques into three technical development levels according to the directional freedom of the crack patterns: randomly oriented, unidirectional, or multidirectional. Then, we describe a wide range of novel practical devices fabricated by crack lithography, including bioassay platforms, nanofluidic devices, nanowire sensors, and even biomimetic mechanosensors.ope

    International Conference Terminology : Arabic

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    Pour pouvoir mettre à jour un glossaire de terminologie de conférence trilingue arabe, anglais et français, ce mémoire tente de répondre à trois questions fondamentales : le glossaire est-il exhaustif, correct et bien adapté à l'objectif poursuivi? Pour répondre à cette question, la conception de recherche est passée en revue puis la méthodologie de recherche en trois étapes est adoptée. Les différents types de glossaires sont examinés et le lien entre glossaire et interprétation de conférence. Le statut de l'arabe dans les organisations internationales (l'ONU) est également expliqué. Les contraintes sont identifiées et les leçons retenues sont partagées

    Examining the Role of Patent Quality in Large-Scale "Patent War" Litigation - A Historical Comparison and Proposal for a Restorative U.S. Patent System

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    Although the U.S. Patent System has been essential to spurring innovation, it has wavered in its efficiency and effectiveness at doing so. This research first makes historical comparison and analysis of the Apple and Wright landmark patent war cases to illustrate that, irrespective of timing, benefits of a patent system rest heavily on how well it defines and maintains “patent quality.” Much of the challenge in maintaining such quality relates to the subjective and often uncertain nature of invention criteria such as “non-obviousness.” As shown by recent trends, decreased patent quality leads to greater uncertainty about patent validity, which in turn invites more litigation. This work proposes that, in order to improve constancy on patent quality, the U.S. patent office should consider returning to original strategies envisioned by the Founders of the United States as described by a patent-registration system that emphasizes utility and public review in governing the patent granting process. Modern information technology can now be applied to effectively restore this original framework envisioned for patent quality control systems

    Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs): study of recovery kinetics and potential role in restoration of male fertility after cytotoxic treatment

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    Gonadotoxic therapies including radiotherapy and chemotherapy used to treat cancers are extremely damaging to germinal epithelium inducing transient or permanent azoospermia. Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) are the foundation of spermatogenesis. They represent the basis of a male fertility restoration strategy after treatment. This work presented herein addressed two critical aspects in this strategy; markers to identify and isolate human SSCs, and the kinetics of SSC recovery after chemotherapy. In chapter 2, the expression of various rodent SSC markers by undifferentiated human spermatogonia, which include SSCs, was examined by immunohistochemistry, and CD9 expression was detected in the basal compartment of human seminiferous tubules. After immunological sorting, human CD9 positive male gem cells showed 3 to 4-folds enrichment when transplanted into immune-deficient nude mice testes, confirming that CD9 is expressed on human putative human SSCs and can be used to enrich for this population. In chapter 3, I studied the contribution of SSC recovery to fertility recovery after chemotherapy in a mouse model, and provided functional evidence that the restoration kinetics of male fertility follows those of the SSC population after damage. I also addressed the question whether there is a critical SSC number to confer fertility and suggested a 30% of original SSC population as a threshold of the SSC population size required for the onset of male fertility restoration. Though the study did not identify a faithful physiological parameter related to male reproduction (sperm count, testis weight, testosterone level, Glial cell-derived neurotropic factor (GDNF) transcripts level in testes), which would allow for monitoring the degree of SSC recovery in a non-invasive manner, yet it paved the way for future efforts to predict the timing of male fertility restoration after chemotherapy. In conclusion, this work identified a new marker for human putative SSCs and proved it to be effective to enrich for this cell population. In addition, it provided functional evidence that restoration of male fertility results from that of SSC and identified for the first time a threshold level of SSC population size permitting recovery.Les thĂ©rapies gonadotoxiques y compris la radiothĂ©rapie et de la chimiothĂ©rapie utilisĂ©es pour traiter les cancers sont extrĂȘmement dommageable pour l' Ă©pithĂ©lium germinal, induisant l'azoospermie transitoire ou permanente. Les cellules souches germinales (CSG) sont Ă  la base de la spermatogenĂšse. Elles reprĂ©sentent la base d'une stratĂ©gie de restauration de la fertilitĂ© masculine aprĂšs traitement. Ce travail a portĂ© sur deux aspects essentiels de cette stratĂ©gie; identifier des marqueurs pour isoler les CSG humains, et Ă©tudier la cinĂ©tique de la rĂ©cupĂ©ration des CSG aprĂšs une chimiothĂ©rapie. Dans le chapitre 2, l'expression de diffĂ©rents marqueurs des CSG de rongeurs a Ă©tĂ© examinĂ©e dans les CSG humaine par immunohistochimie, et l'expression de CD9 a Ă©tĂ© dĂ©tectĂ©e dans le compartiment basal des tubes sĂ©minifĂšres de l'homme. AprĂšs un triage cellulaire immunologique, les cellules CD9 positives ont montrĂ© un enrichissement de trois Ă  quatre lorsqu'elles sont transplantĂ©es dans les testicules des souris nude immunodĂ©ficientes, confirmant que CD9 est exprimĂ© sur les CSG mĂąles et peut ĂȘtre utilisĂ© pour enrichir cette population.Dans le chapitre 3, j'ai Ă©tudiĂ© la corrĂ©lation entre la cinĂ©tique de rĂ©cupĂ©ration des CSG et la restauration de la fertilitĂ© aprĂšs une chimiothĂ©rapie chez un modĂšle de souris, et fourni une preuve fonctionnelle que la restauration de la fertilitĂ© masculine est parallĂšle Ă  celui de la population CGS aprĂšs l'insulte. J'ai Ă©galement abordĂ© la question de savoir si il y a un nombre critique de CSG pour rĂ©cupĂ©rer la fertilitĂ©. Mes rĂ©sultats suggĂšrent que 30% de la population d'origine CSG doit ĂȘtre seuil pour supporter la restauration de la fertilitĂ© masculine. Bien que l'Ă©tude n'a pas identifiĂ© un paramĂštre physiologique mesurable indicateur de la capacitĂ© reproductive des mĂąles pour l'apparition de la restauration de la fertilitĂ© masculine (nombre de spermatozoĂŻdes, poids des testicules, niveau de testostĂ©rone, niveau de transcription du facteur neurotrope dĂ©rivĂ© des cellules gliales (GDNF) dans les testicules), qui permettrait de surveiller le degrĂ© de rĂ©cupĂ©ration de la CSG, mais il a ouvert la voie Ă  de futurs efforts. En conclusion, ce travail a identifiĂ© un nouveau marqueur des CSG humaines et il s'est avĂ©rĂ© ĂȘtre efficace pour enrichir cette population cellulaire. En outre, il a fourni des preuves que la restauration fonctionnelle de la fertilitĂ© masculine est le rĂ©sultat de la rĂ©cupĂ©ration des CSG, et a identifiĂ© pour la premiĂšre fois un seuil de taille de la population CSG permettant la rĂ©cupĂ©ration de fertilitĂ© masculine

    Future Aspects in Human Cryopreservation

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    The capability to preserve human oocytes, blastocysts, ovarian tissue and spermatozoa is an important tool in human assisted reproductive techniques. This preservation allows patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy to preserve their fertility, and helps to attain all benefits from the costly ovarian superovulation therapies prior to ART. The primary goal in establishing an appropriate freezing protocol is to do as little damage as possible while exposing specimens to nonphysiologic ultra low temperatures. Nowadays two techniques are used in cryopreservation: the slow cooling method and the more recent rapid procedure  of vitrification. Vitrification is simple, requires no expensive programmable freezing equipment, efficient and cost effective way to improve cumulative pregnancy rates per cycle. Oocytes, blastocysts, ovarian tissue and spermatozoa could be suitable for vitrification and thus cryopreservation. Vitrification proved to be the future of cryopreservation and important progresses are achieved everyday in this active domain in a trial to set the optimal protocol for cryopreservation of different types of gametes, embryos and tissue

    The Overlooked Role of Obesity in Infertility

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    Being either underweight or overweight can affect a woman's fertility. Irregular menstrual cycles, reduced spontaneous and assisted fertility and an increased risk of miscarriage are risks associated with obesity that are often overlooked. Excessive weight and central distribution of body fat are both related to an increased risk of normogonadotrophic anovulation. Weight loss can re-establish ovulation in obese anovulatory patients or improve their response to ovulation induction. However, even a small amount of weight loss (5%) may improve fertility. Men who are overweight or obese have significantly lower sperm counts than men of normal weight

    Spin-orbit effects in the optical model analysis of deuteron and proton elastic scattering

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