Background
Preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) is an emerging technology that aims to identify euploid embryos for transfer, reducing the risk of embryonic chromosomal ...abnormalities. However, the clinical benefits of PGT-A in recurrent pregnancy failure (RPF) patients, particularly in young RPF patients, remains uncertain.
Objective and rationale
This meta-analysis aimed to determine whether RPF patients undergoing PGT-A had better clinical outcomes compared to those not undergoing PGT-A, thus assessing the value of PGT-A in clinical practice.
Search methods
We systematically searched PubMed, the Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Data, and VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals (VIP) from 2002 to 2022. Thirteen published studies involving 930 RPF patients screened using PGT-A and over 1,434 RPF patients screened without PGT-A were included in this meta-analysis. Clinical outcomes were evaluated based on embryo transfers after PGT-A (n=1,015) and without PGT-A (n=1,799).
Clinical outcomes
The PGT-A group demonstrated superior clinical outcomes compared to the
in vitro
fertilization (IVF)/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) group. The PGT-A group had a significantly higher implantation rate (IR) (RR=2.01, 95% CI: 1.73; 2.34), clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) (RR=1.53, 95% CI: 1.36; 1.71), ongoing pregnancy rate (OPR) (RR=1.76, 95% CI: 1.35; 2.29), live birth rate (LBR) (RR=1.75, 95% CI: 1.51; 2.03), and significantly lower clinical miscarriage rate (CMR) (RR=0.74, 95% CI: 0.54; 0.99). Subgroup analysis based on patient age (under 35 years and 35 years or older) showed that both PGT-A subgroups had significantly better CPR (P<0.01) and LBR (P<0.05) values compared to the IVF/ICSI groups.
Summary
This meta-analysis demonstrates that PGT-A in RPF patients, is associated with improved clinical outcomes, including higher IR, CPR, OPR, and LBR values, and lower CMR compared to the IVF/ICSI group. These findings support the positive clinical application of PGT-A in RPF patients.
Systematic Review Registration
http://INPLASY.com
, identifier INPLASY 202320118.
Aphids transmit CMV (cucumber mosaic virus) in a non-persistent manner. However, little is known about the mechanism of CMV transmission. In this study, an integrated analysis of the mRNA and protein ...was performed to identify important putative regulators involved in the transmission of CMV by aphids. At the level of transcription, a total of 20,550 genes (≥2-fold expression difference) were identified as being differentially expressed genes (DEGs) 24 h after healthy aphid transfer to infected tobacco plants using the RNA-seq approach. At the protein level, 744 proteins were classified as being differentially abundant between virus-treated and control
using iTRAQ (isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation) analysis. The combined mRNA and protein analysis enabled the identification of some viral putative regulators, such as cuticle proteins, ribosomal proteins, and cytochrome P450 enzymes. The results show that most of the key putative regulators were highly accumulated at the protein level. Based on those findings, we can speculate that the process by which aphids spread CMV is mainly related to post-translational regulation rather than transcription.
With the gradual maturity of driverless and automatic parking technologies, electric vehicle charging has been gradually developing in the direction of automation. However, the pose calculation of ...the charging port (CP) is an important part of realizing automatic charging, and it represents a problem that needs to be solved urgently. To address this problem, this paper proposes a set of efficient and accurate methods for determining the pose of an electric vehicle CP, which mainly includes the search and aiming phases. In the search phase, the feature circle algorithm is used to fit the ellipse information to obtain the pixel coordinates of the feature point. In the aiming phase, contour matching and logarithmic evaluation indicators are used in the cluster template matching algorithm (CTMA) proposed in this paper to obtain the matching position. Based on the image deformation rate and zoom rates, a matching template is established to realize the fast and accurate matching of textureless circular features and complex light fields. The EPnP algorithm is employed to obtain the pose information, and an AUBO-i5 robot is used to complete the charging gun insertion. The results show that the average CP positioning errors (
,
,
,
,
, and
) of the proposed algorithm are 0.65 mm, 0.84 mm, 1.24 mm, 1.11 degrees, 0.95 degrees, and 0.55 degrees. Further, the efficiency of the positioning method is improved by 510.4% and the comprehensive plug-in success rate is 95%. Therefore, the proposed CTMA in this paper can efficiently and accurately identify the CP while meeting the actual plug-in requirements.
Abstract
The traditional smart toilet comprehensive detection device proves unsatisfying on integration, intelligence, time and effort cost, and precision. In order to improve the detection accuracy ...and efficiency of smart toilets test, and overcome the poor integration of equipment and low intelligence, image processing technology is applied to the comprehensive performance detection equipment for smart toilets in this paper. Lenovo all-in-one computer is used as the upper computer to realize the collection and analysis of key data. Siemens PLC, as a lower-level computer, controls multiple temperature water tanks, frequency converters and pipeline valves, and collects and transmits data on temperature and cleaning power. Meanwhile, CCD camera is innovatively introduced to locate the seat temperature test points on the smart toilet. The test results show that the detection accuracy, efficiency and integration of the device are improved obviously.
The antagonistic effect of selenium (Se) against cadmium (Cd)-induced breast carcinogenesis was reported, but underlying mechanisms were unclear. The aim of this study was to identify the ...epigenetically regulated genes and biological pathways mediating the antagonistic effect. We exposed MCF-7 cells to Cd and Se alone or simultaneously. Cell proliferation was assessed by MTT assay, and differential epigenome (DNA methylation, microRNA, and long non-coding RNA) was obtained by microarrays. We cross-verified the epigenetic markers with differential transcriptome, and the ones modulated by Cd and Se in opposite directions were regarded to mediate the antagonistic effect. The epigenetically regulated genes were validated by using gene expression data in human breast tissues. We further assessed the biological functions of these validated genes. Our results showed that Se alleviated the proliferative effect of Cd on MCF-7 cell. A total of 10 epigenetically regulated genes were regarded to mediate the antagonistic effect, including
APBA2
,
KIAA0895
,
DHX35
,
CPEB3
,
SVIL
,
MYLK
,
ZFYVE28
,
ABLIM2
,
GRB10
, and
PCDH9.
Biological function analyses suggested that these epigenetically regulated genes were involved in multiple cancer-related pathways, such as focal adhesion and PI3K/Akt pathway. In conclusion, we provided evidence that Se antagonized the Cd-induced breast carcinogenesis via epigenetic modification and revealed the critical pathways.
The non-ketotic hyperglycemic chorea (NKHC) was a rare complication for patients with diabetes mellitus, but not been well studied. In the present research, we aimed to investigate the clinical and ...imaging characteristics of NKHC and explore the potential association.
We performed a case-control study with patients diagnosed as NKHC. The patients with group of NKHC were retrospectively recruited, while the matched group were set to screened patients with diabetes mellitus but no NKHC at a 1:3 ratio. The clinical and imaging data were collected for all the participants of the two groups. Firstly, Correlation analysis was conducted to test the difference of all the variables between the NKHC group and matched group. Then, the putative associated factors for NKHC were further identified.
Eleven men and 9 women with NKHC and 60 matched participants were analyzed. The mean age of the NKHC group was 68.5 ± 14.9 years. Participants with NKHC were more likely to have a higher glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level (13 ± 2.82 vs. 10.57 ± 2.71,
<0.001), and a higher frequency of renal dysfunction (estimated glomerular filtration rates <60 ml/min/1.73m
) (55% vs. 20%,
=0.005). Logistic regression analyses showed that both higher HbA1c and renal dysfunction were significantly correlated with NKHC.
A higher value of HbA1c and renal dysfunction may be associated with the occurrence of NKHC.
Increasing evidence indicates that mitochondrial fission imbalance plays an important role in delayed neuronal cell death. Our previous study found that photobiomodulation improved the motor function ...of rats with spinal cord injury. However, the precise mechanism remains unclear. To investigate the effect of photobiomodulation on mitochondrial fission imbalance after spinal cord injury, in this study, we treated rat models of spinal cord injury with 60-minute photobiomodulation (810 nm, 150 mW) every day for 14 consecutive days. Transmission electron microscopy results confirmed the swollen and fragmented alterations of mitochondrial morphology in neurons in acute (1 day) and subacute (7 and 14 days) phases. Photobiomodulation alleviated mitochondrial fission imbalance in spinal cord tissue in the subacute phase, reduced neuronal cell death, and improved rat posterior limb motor function in a time-dependent manner. These findings suggest that photobiomodulation targets neuronal mitochondria, alleviates mitochondrial fission imbalance-induced neuronal apoptosis, and thereby promotes the motor function recovery of rats with spinal cord injury.
Efficient preparation of W and GHZ states encoded in various degrees of freedom of quantum particles is vital in quantum information science. So far, most of the studies have focused on polarization ...encoded photonic W and GHZ states. In this paper, we focus on W- and GHZ-class entangled coherent states, and propose schemes to fuse small W- and GHZ-entangled coherent states into larger ones. Based on successive detuned interactions between optical modes and an ancilla atom, an (N+M−2)-mode entangled coherent W state can be probabilistically prepared from an N-mode and an M-mode entangled coherent W states. This fusion scheme applies to entangled coherent GHZ states too, and it can succeed in a deterministic way. The ancilla atom only interacts with a single optical mode, which avoids the problem of synchronizing many atoms in the previous cavity QED based fusion schemes. The detuning property of the interaction makes the current fusion scheme more feasible that the ones based on resonant atom–light interactions. In addition, the two levels of the ancilla atom for encoding quantum information are two degenerate ground states, and the excited state is adiabatically eliminated during the fusion process, so the atomic decay from excited states does not affect the quality of the fusion process.
•Large-scale entangled coherent W state is generated by fusing small-size ones.•The fusion mechanism is the detuned interaction between optical modes and an ancilla atom.•The fusion process applies to GHZ states too.•The probability for fusing GHZ states is unit.•The atomic decay does not affect the efficiency of the fusion scheme.
Purpose
Results of previous studies on the associations between Forkhead box A1 (FOXA1) expression in breast cancer tissues and the prognosis varied depending on the follow-up durations. The present ...study would investigate whether there is a time-varying effect of FOXA1 in breast cancer tissues on the prognosis.
Methods
FOXA1 expressions were evaluated in 1041 primary invasive breast tumors with tissue microarrays by immunohistochemistry. Cox models with restricted cubic splines and Kaplan–Meier survival analysis were used to examine the associations between FOXA1 and the prognosis. Flexible parametric models were applied to explore the time-varying effect of FOXA1.
Results
Overall, the association between FOXA1 expression and the prognosis was not significant but varied on the time of follow-up. Compared to FOXA1 ≤ 270 of H-score, the hazard ratios (
HR
s) of death for those with 271–285 of FOXA1 expression increased from 0.35 (95%
CI
0.14–0.86) at 6 months after diagnosis to 2.88 (95%
CI
1.35–6.15) at 120 months with a crossover at around 36 months. Similar patterns were also observed for FOXA1 > 285 of H-score and for progression free survival (PFS). Moreover, when allowed both FOXA1 and estrogen receptor (ER) to change over time in the model (considering that ER had a similar time-varying effect), these time-varying effects remained for FOXA1 on both overall survival (OS) (
P
< 0.01) and PFS (
P
= 0.01) but were attenuated for ER (
P
= 0.13 for OS).
Conclusions
This study revealed an independent time-varying effect of FOXA1 on breast cancer prognosis, which would provide an insight into the roles of FOXA1 as a marker of breast cancer prognosis and may help optimize the medication strategies.
We propose schemes for preparing W and GHZ photonic states entangled in polarization via quantum walks, where the trajectory exchanging of identical photons plus postselection induces the coupling ...between their polarization degrees of freedom. Being different from the polarization beam splitter-based approach, the indistinguishability of identical photons provides an alternative for coupling photons, which is more phase stable and may induce richer actions than the traditional polarization beam splitter on input photons. Our schemes demonstrate that this new coupling mechanism for photons is originated from the fact that trajectory-exchanging operation plus postselection can extract entangled states from the initially product states, and this new coupling mechanism may find considerable potential applications in both quantum communication and quantum computation.
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