Objective
To investigate the clinical outcome and endocrinological characteristics of progestin‐primed ovarian stimulation (PPOS) using 4 versus 10 mg of medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) per day in ...infertile women with normal ovary reserve.
Design
A randomised parallel controlled trial.
Setting
Tertiary‐care academic medical centre.
Participants
A cohort of 300 infertile women undergoing in vitro fertilisation (IVF)/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment.
Methods
Human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG; 225 iu per day) and MPA (group A, 10 mg per day; group B, 4 mg per day) were started simultaneously from cycle day 3 onwards. Ovulation was co‐triggered by human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG; 1000 iu) and gonadotropin‐releasing hormone agonist (GnRH agonist; 0.1 mg) when dominant follicles matured. Viable embryos were cryopreserved for later frozen embryo transfer (FET) in both groups.
Main outcome measures
The primary outcome measure was the number of oocytes retrieved. Secondary outcomes included the incidence of a premature surge in luteinising hormone (LH), the number of viable embryos, and clinical pregnancy outcomes.
Results
The number of oocytes retrieved and viable embryos were similar between two groups (9.8 ± 6.3 versus 9.6 ± 5.9; 4.2 ± 2.6 versus 3.7 ± 3.0; P > 0.05). No significant difference was found in clinical pregnancy rate (58.0 versus 48.7%) and live birth rate per participant (48.7 versus 42.0%; P > 0.05). No premature LH surge and ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) occurred in either group.
Conclusions
Progestin‐primed ovarian stimulation (PPOS) using 4 or 10 mg of MPA per day was comparable in terms of the number of oocytes retrieved and pregnancy outcome after FET. The administration of 4 mg of MPA per day was sufficient to prevent an untimely LH rise in women undergoing IVF/ICSI treatment.
Tweetable
An RCT confirmed similar pregnancy outcome in P‐primed ovarian stimulation with a daily dose of 4 or 10 mg MPA.
Tweetable
An RCT confirmed similar pregnancy outcome in P‐primed ovarian stimulation with a daily dose of 4 or 10 mg MPA.
Background: Over the past two decades, China has enjoyed impressive economic development, and her citizens have experienced many remarked changes in their lifestyle. These changes are often ...associated with an increase in obesity and chronic disease. Methods: In this meta-analysis, based on nationally representative data, we studied the current prevalence of obesity and the trends in obesity, mortality and morbidity in China. Results: Between 1992 and 2002, the prevalence of overweight and obesity increased in all gender and age groups and in all geographic areas. Using the World Health Organization body mass index cut points, the combined prevalence of overweight and obesity increased from 14.6 to 21.8%. The Chinese obesity standard shows an increase from 20.0 to 29.9%. The annual increase rate was highest in men aged 18-44 years and women aged 45-59 years (approximately 1.6 and 1.0% points, respectively). In general, male subjects, urban residents, and high-income groups had a greater increase. With the increase in overweight and obesity, obesity-, and diet-related chronic diseases (e.g., hypertension, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and type 2 diabetes) also increased over the past decade and became a more important preventable cause of death. Hypertension increased from 14.4% in 1991 to 18.8% in 2002 in adults; in older adults aged 35-74 years, it increased from 19.7 to 28.6%. Between 1993 and 2003, the prevalence of CVD increased from 31.4 to 50.0%; diabetes increased from 1.9 to 5.6%. During 1990-2003, although total mortality rate (per 100 000) decreased, overall the mortality rate and contribution (as percentages) to total death of obesity-related chronic disease increased, in particular, in rural areas. Mortality rate (per 100 000) of CVD increased from 128 to 145 and its contribution to total death, 27 to 32%, in rural areas; the figures decreased slightly in urban areas. The mortality rate of 'nutrition, endocrinology and metabolism-related disease' (NEMD) increased in both rural and urban areas between 1990 and 2000, 8.0 to 10.6 and 4.9 to 5.3, respectively. The current prevalence of hypertension, dyslipidaemia, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes among Chinese adults is approximately 20, 20, 15, and 3%, respectively. Conclusion: The prevalence of overweight and obesity and obesity-related chronic diseases have increased in China in the past decade. Our findings provide useful information for the projection of future trends and the formulation of national strategies and programmes that can address the challenges of the growing obesity and chronic disease epidemic.
Lagged oceanic and atmospheric climate indices are potentially useful predictors of seasonal rainfall totals. A rigorous Bayesian joint probability modeling approach is applied to find the ...cross-validation predictive densities of gridded Australian seasonal rainfall totals using lagged climate indices as predictors over the period of 1950–2009. The evidence supporting the use of each climate index as a predictor of seasonal rainfall is quantified by the pseudo-Bayes factor based on cross-validation predictive densities. The evidence strongly supports the use of climate indices from the Pacific region with weaker, but positive, evidence for the use of climate indices from the Indian region and the extratropical region. The spatial structure and seasonal variation of the evidence for each climate index is mapped and compared. Spatially, the strongest supporting evidence is found for forecasting in northern and eastern Australia. Seasonally, the strongest evidence is found from August–October to November–January and the weakest evidence is found from March–May to May–July. In some regions and seasons, there is little evidence supporting the use of climate indices for forecasting seasonal rainfall. Climate indices derived from sea surface temperature anomalies in the Pacific region show stronger persistence in the relationship with Australian seasonal rainfall totals than climate indices derived from sea surface temperature anomalies in the Indian region. Climate indices derived from atmospheric variables are also strongly supported, provided they represent the large-scale circulation. Many climate indices are found to show similar supporting evidence for forecasting Australian seasonal rainfall, leading to the prospect of combining climate indices in multiple predictor models and/or model averaging.
Abstract
We have carried out a detailed study of polarimetric individual pulse emission from the pulsar J1701−3726 (B1658−37), observed at 1369 MHz using the Parkes 64 m radio telescope. The ...single-pulse sequences reveal the presence of the three major emission phenomena of pulse nulling, mode changing, and subpulse drifting. Trimodal distribution of the pulse energy is present, implying one population of nulls and two others of emission in the phase window. The mean flux density of the normal mode is almost two times that of the abnormal mode. Our data show that, for PSR J1701−3726, 64% of the time was spent in the normal mode and 12% was in the abnormal mode. The single pulses show the presence of two distinct periodic modulations using a fluctuation spectral analysis. About 24% of the nulls are found to create alternating bunches of nulls and bursts in a quasiperiodic manner with a longer periodicity of 48 ± 4 rotational periods. Additionally, the pulsar presents a steady even–odd modulated feature with a stationary longitude within the pulse window. The ramifications for constraining the viewing geometry and understanding the radio emission mechanisms are discussed.
The origin of the deformation in metallic glasses is attributed to rearrangements of atoms in some structurally weak spots behaving as flow units, which are associated with free volumes. In the ...present study, Xe-ion beam is used to manipulate the free-volume fraction, and influence on the mechanical behavior of a Zr-based metallic glass. The irradiation at low dosages can change the structure by increasing the free volume, and by homogenising the distribution of free volume. The increase in the free-volume fraction is equivalent to the increase in the deformation temperature, thus resulting in the decrease in the yield strength. The analysis of stochastic strain burst size in the metallic glass irradiated at different dosages indicates that the strain burst depends on the yield strength and homogeneity of the glassy phase. The results of this study highlight the fact that the quantitative manipulation of the homogeneity and the amount of free volumes can be achieved through low-dose ion irradiation, which can modify the mechanical behavior of metallic glasses.
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Aim
Brown and beige adipose tissues dissipate energy in the form of heat via mitochondrial uncoupling protein 1, defending against hypothermia and potentially obesity. The latter has prompted renewed ...interest in understanding the processes involved in browning to realize the potential therapeutic benefits. To characterize the temporal profile of cold‐induced changes and browning of brown and white adipose tissues in mice.
Methods
Male C57BL/6J mice were singly housed in conventional cages under cold exposure (4 °C) for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 days. Food intake and body weight were measured daily. Interscapular brown adipose tissue (iBAT), inguinal subcutaneous (sWAT) and epididymal white adipose tissue (eWAT) were harvested for histological, immunohistochemical, gene and protein expression analysis.
Results
Upon cold exposure, food intake increased, whilst body weight and adipocyte size were found to be transiently reduced. iBAT mass was found to be increased, whilst sWAT and eWAT were found to be transiently decreased. A combination of morphological, genetic (Ucp‐1, Pgc‐1α and Elov13) and biochemical (UCP‐1, PPARγ and aP2) analyses demonstrated the depot‐specific remodelling in response to cold exposure.
Conclusion
Our results demonstrate the differential responses to cold‐induced changes across discrete BAT and WAT depots and support the notion that the effects of short‐term cold exposure are achieved by expansion, activation and increasing thermogenic capacity of iBAT, as well as browning of sWAT and, to a lesser extent, eWAT.
ABSTRACT Laboratory experiments have been carried out to model the magnetic reconnection process in a solar flare with powerful lasers. Relativistic electrons with energy up to megaelectronvolts are ...detected along the magnetic separatrices bounding the reconnection outflow, which exhibit a kappa-like distribution with an effective temperature of ∼109 K. The acceleration of non-thermal electrons is found to be more efficient in the case with a guide magnetic field (a component of a magnetic field along the reconnection-induced electric field) than in the case without a guide field. Hardening of the spectrum at energies ≥500 keV is observed in both cases, which remarkably resembles the hardening of hard X-ray and γ-ray spectra observed in many solar flares. This supports a recent proposal that the hardening in the hard X-ray and γ-ray emissions of solar flares is due to a hardening of the source-electron spectrum. We also performed numerical simulations that help examine behaviors of electrons in the reconnection process with the electromagnetic field configurations occurring in the experiments. The trajectories of non-thermal electrons observed in the experiments were well duplicated in the simulations. Our numerical simulations generally reproduce the electron energy spectrum as well, except for the hardening of the electron spectrum. This suggests that other mechanisms such as shock or turbulence may play an important role in the production of the observed energetic electrons.
Additive layer manufacturing (ALM), using gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) as heat source, is a promising technology in producing Inconel 625 components due to significant cost savings, high ...deposition rate and convenience of processing. With the purpose of revealing how microstructure and mechanical properties are affected by the location within the manufactured wall component, the present study has been carried out. The manufactured Inconel 625 consists of cellular grains without secondary dendrites in the near-substrate region, columnar dendrites structure oriented upwards in the layer bands, followed by the transition from directional dendrites to equiaxed grain in the top region. With the increase in deposited height, segregation behavior of alloying elements Nb and Mo constantly strengthens with maximal evolution in the top region. The primary dendrite arm spacing has a well coherence with the content of Laves phase. The microhardness and tensile strength show obvious variation in different regions. The microhardness and tensile strength of near-substrate region are superior to that of layer bands and top region. The results are further explained in detail through the weld pool behavior and temperature field measurement.
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