Adjuncts for ovarian stimulation: when do we adopt “orphan indications” for approved drugs?

Several drugs, shown to be safe for other uses, have proven to be highly effective adjuncts for ovarian stimulation. The authors evaluate these "orphan" indications and make recommendations so that more patients will benefit from their use.

The antral follicle count: practical recommendations for better standardization

To provide recommendations for the standardized use of the Antral follicle count (AFC) which is used to predict ovarian response to gonadotrophin stimulation during assisted reproductive technology treatment. However, the nature of the follicles that are visualized by ultrasound and the competence of the oocytes held within are largely unknown. In addition, there is considerable variability in the clinical definitions and technical methods used to count and measure antral follicles in both published studies and clinical practice.

Birth records from Swiss married couples analyzed over the past 35 years reveal an aging of first-time mothers by 5.1 years while the interpregnancy interval has shortened

Although the general trend for delaying childbearing is generally viewed as causing infertility, its consequences on the interpregnancy interval have been unknown. A study of birth records for Swiss married women from 1969 to 2006 revealed that the woman's age at first birth has increased from 25.0 to 30.1 years, whereas calculated theoretical interpregnancy intervals after the first and second child decreased from 23.2 to 13 and from 22.4 to 7.9 months, respectively.

Which spermatozoon should be eliminated in ICSI?

Conjoined twins after intracytoplasmic sperm injection and transfer of a single day 2 embryo: case report

To describe a case of conjoined twins after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and transfer of a single day 2 embryo.

A global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests

Les émissions de gaz à effet de serre ont significativement changé le climat mondial et continueront à le faire dans l'avenir. L'augmentation de la fréquence, la durée ou la sévérité des sécheresses et des canicules pourraient fondamentalement changer la composition, la structure et la biogéographie des forêts de nombreuses régions. Il en résulte un accroissement potentiel de la mortalité des arbres, associée aux stress physiologiques et aux interactions avec d'autres processus comme des explosions démographiques d'insectes et les incendies. Malgré ce risque, les prévisions actuelles de mortalité d'arbre sont basées sur des modèles qui manquent fonctionnellement de réalismes. Il n'y a eu à ce jour aucune tentative de suivi global de la mortalité forestière induite par le climat. Nous présentons dans cet article la première évaluation mondiale des mortalités récentes d'arbres attribuées aux stress thermiques et hydriques. / Greenhouse gas emissions have significantly altered global climate, and will continue to do so in the future. Increases in the frequency, duration, and/or severity of drought and heat stress associated with climate change could fundamentally alter the composition, structure, and biogeography of forests in many regions. Of particular concern are potential increases in tree mortality associated with climate-induced physiological stress and interactions with other climate-mediated processes such as insect outbreaks and wildfire. Despite this risk, existing projections of tree mortality are based on models that lack functionally realistic mortality mechanisms, and there has been no attempt to track observations of climate-driven tree mortality globally. Here we present the first global assessment of recent tree mortality attributed to drought and heat stress

Martingalized historical approach for option pricing

International audienceIn a discrete time option pricing framework, we compare the empirical performance of two pricing methodologies, namely the affine stochastic discount factor (SDF) and the empirical martingale correction methodologies. Using a CAC 40 options dataset, the differences are found to be small: the higher order moment correction involved in the SDF approach may not be that essential to reduce option pricing errors. This paper puts into evidence the fact that an appropriate modelling under the historical measure associated with an adequate correction (that we call here a ”martingale correction”) permits to provide option prices which are close to market ones

Searching a DNA databank with complex mixtures from two individuals

Screening of human gene promoter activities using transfected-cell arrays

Promoters are the best characterized transcriptional regulatory sequences in complex genomes because of their predictable location immediately upstream of transcription start sites. Despite a substantial body of literature describing transcriptional promoters, the identification of true start sites for all human transcripts is far from complete. The same is true of the key structural and functional elements responsible for promoter action in different cell types. In order to identify elements responsible for promoter activity, we applied transfected-cell array technology to functionally evaluate promoters for genes involved in inflammatory bowel disease. Seventy-four promoters were examined by reverse transfection of a promoter-fluorescent reporter constructs into a human embryonic kidney cell line (HEK293T). Sixteen (21.6%) promoters were found to be active in HEK293 T cells. Correlations between promoter activity and endogenous transcript level were calculated, and 75% of active promoters were found to be associated with transcriptional activity of their gene counterparts. These results provide experimental evidence of promoter activity, which may aid in understanding the regulation of gene expression. Moreover, this is the first large-scale functional study of regulatory sequences to use a high-throughput transfected-cell array technique.

An evaluation of family-centered care services and organization of visiting policies in Belgian intensive care units: A multicenter survey

Admission in an intensive care unit (ICU) is a major cause of psychologic stress for the patient and the entire family, and liberalization of visitation has been shown to have a beneficial impact. However, despite the data available, practice has not changed much to incorporate these findings.