The reproductive microbiome is becoming increasingly recognised for its influence on fertility. While there has been much work to investigate the treatment of bacterial vaginosis and disordered ...microbiomes in optimizing outcomes in Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), the role of routinely prescribed probiotics is yet to be established. The therapeutic potential of probiotic therapy remains an exciting opportunity in ART and this review endeavours to summarise its evidence to date.
A systematic review of MEDLINE (Pubmed), Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), EMBASE, Web of Science and the Cochrane database was performed on 7th May 2019, and repeated on 26th August 2019. The search was built using the terms ‘subfertility;’ ‘probiotic therapy;’ ‘clinical pregnancy rate’ and ‘assisted reproductive outcomes.’ The primary outcome was change in clinical pregnancy rate. Secondary outcomes included improvements in male and female fertility parameters and microbial assessment.
The initial search found 882 articles, of which 26 full manuscripts were reviewed. Four articles were eligible for inclusion. Of the two studies that reported the primary outcome, only one study found probiotics increased the clinical pregnancy rate non-significantly (48.0%–58.8%, p = 0.47). It also found higher miscarriage rate (30 % vs 16.6 %, p = 0.47) in the group treated with probiotics. Both studies on males with oral probiotic found significantly improved sperm motility.
While benefit in sperm motility has been observed with male probiotic therapy, there is conflicting evidence on the efficacy of probiotic therapy for women undergoing assisted reproduction. High quality randomized studies are needed to definitively examine probiotic therapy and establish its benefit for couples undergoing assisted reproduction.
The impacts of New Hope, a program to increase parent employment and reduce poverty, were measured 5 years after parents were randomly assigned to program or control groups. New Hope had positive ...effects on children's school achievement, motivation, and social behavior, primarily for boys, across the age range 6-16. In comparison to impacts measured 2 years after program onset, effects on achievement were robust, but effects on social behavior were reduced. The program produced improvements in family income and use of organized child care and activity settings, suggesting possible pathways by which the New Hope package of policies influenced children's behavior.
SH2 domain containing phosphatase-2 (SHP-2) has an important regulatory role in a variety of cell types. However, little is known concerning its function in platelets. We show here that, in ...thrombin-stimulated human platelets, SHP-2 undergoes a time-dependent association with platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 (PECAM-1) and four low molecular weight phosphoproteins which are attenuated by the Src kinase inhibitor PP1. The low molecular weight proteins, which may be transmembrane proteins, are shown to bind exclusively to the N-terminal SH2 domain of SHP-2 and are therefore possible activators of the phosphatase. In addition, SHP-2 phosphatase activity is shown to be increased following thrombin stimulation or cross-linking of PECAM.
The version of religious naturalism sketched here is called naturism to distinguish it from conceptions of religious naturalism that make fundamental appeal to some idea of deity, deities, or the ...divine, however immanental, functional, nonontological, or purely valuational or existential such notions may be claimed to be. The focus of naturism is on nature itself as both metaphysically and religiously ultimate. Nature is sacred in its own right, not because of its derivation from some more–ultimate religious principle, state, being, beings, or order of being. Humans, their cultures, and their histories are conceived as integral parts of nature, manifestations of potentialities that lie within it and have been actualized by biological evolution. While there is no purpose of nature, the natural order contains beings capable of purposive behavior. With this purposive behavior, and the goals and ideals implicit in it, humans have the capacity to give significant direction to their ongoing cultural evolution and to discover and maintain their appropriate place within the community of creatures.
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