Government subsidy for infertility treatment: Impact on quality of life for infertile women undergoing in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer.

Background: Infertility and the economic burden of treatment can impose considerable psychosocial stress with negative consequences for the quality of life for all involved. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of government subsidies for infertility treatment on the quality of life among infertile women undergoing in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer.

Methods: Infertile women undergoing in intro fertilization-embryo transfer were recruited from the Assisted Reproductive Technology Center at National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Taiwan, between 2019 and 2022.

Effect of atosiban on in vitro fertilization pregnancy outcome among women with endometriosis in presence or absence of adenomyosis.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the effect of atosiban on in vitro fertilization (IVF) pregnancy outcome among women with both endometriosis and adenomyosis, and compared it to that of patients with endometriosis but without adenomyosis and that of patients with tubal factor only.

Materials And Methods: 106 infertile women (176 embryo transfers) from a medical center in Taiwan were included in the analysis, where 34 (54), 34 (66), and 38 (56) cases (embryo transfers) were endometriosis without adenomyosis, endometriosis with adenomyosis, and tubal infertility factor only, respectively. Adenomyosis morphologies were classified using an ultrasound-based classification system.

Building nomogram plots for predicting urinary tract infections in children less than three years of age.

Background And Purpose: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common bacterial infection in young children. This study aimed to formulate nomogram plots for clinicians to predict UTIs in children aged <3 years by evaluating the risk factors for UTIs in these children.

Methods: This retrospective study was conducted at a tertiary medical center from December 2017 to November 2020.

Evaluating response-adaptive randomization procedures for recurrent events and terminal event data using a composite endpoint.

Recurrent event and terminal event data commonly arise in clinical and observational studies. To evaluate the efficacy of a treatment effect for both types of events, a composite endpoint has been used as a possible assessment, particularly when faced with high costs and a longer follow-up study. To model recurrent event processes complicated by the existence of a terminal event, joint frailty modeling has been typically employed.

High-integrity human intervention in ecosystems: Tracking self-organization modes.

Humans play major roles in shaping and transforming the ecology of Earth. Unlike natural drivers of ecosystem change, which are erratic and unpredictable, human intervention in ecosystems generally involves planning and management, but often results in detrimental outcomes. Using model studies and aerial-image analysis, we argue that the design of a successful human intervention form calls for the identification of the self-organization modes that drive ecosystem change, and for studying their dynamics.

Association of ambient air pollution with cardiovascular disease risks in people with type 2 diabetes: a Bayesian spatial survival analysis.

Background: Evidence is limited on excess risks of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) associated with ambient air pollution in diabetic populations. Survival analyses without considering the spatial structure and possible spatial correlations in health and environmental data may affect the precision of estimation of adverse environmental pollution effects. We assessed the association between air pollution and CVDs in type 2 diabetes through a Bayesian spatial survival approach.

Atosiban and Pregnancy Outcomes Following In Vitro Fertilization Treatment for Infertile Women Requiring One, Two, or More Embryo Transfer Cycles: A Longitudinal Cohort Study.

We assessed the effect of atosiban on pregnancy outcomes following in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment among infertile women requiring different numbers of embryo transfer (ET) cycles (i.e., one, two, and more than two ET cycles).

Cortical Excitability by Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as Biomarkers for Seizure Controllability in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.

Objective: To investigate whether indicators of cortical excitability are good biomarkers of seizure controllability in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).

Materials And Methods: Three groups of subjects were recruited: those with poorly controlled (PC) TLE (N = 41), well-controlled (WC) TLE (N = 71), and healthy controls (N = 44). Short- and long-latency recovery curves were obtained by paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Bivariate Poisson models with varying offsets: an application to the paired mitochondrial DNA dataset.

To assess the effect of chemotherapy on mitochondrial genome mutations in cancer survivors and their offspring, a study sequenced the full mitochondrial genome and determined the mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmic (mtDNA) mutation rate. To build a model for counts of heteroplasmic mutations in mothers and their offspring, bivariate Poisson regression was used to examine the relationship between mutation count and clinical information while accounting for the paired correlation. However, if the sequencing depth is not adequate, a limited fraction of the mtDNA will be available for variant calling.

Reversing desertification as a spatial resonance problem.

An important environmental application of pattern control by periodic spatial forcing is the restoration of vegetation patterns in water-limited ecosystems that went through desertification. Vegetation restoration is often based on periodic landscape modulations that intercept overland water flow and form favorable conditions for vegetation growth. Viewing this method as a spatial resonance problem, we show that plain realizations of this method, assuming a complete vegetation response to the imposed modulation pattern, suffer from poor resilience to rainfall variability.

Multiplicative jump processes and applications to leaching of salt and contaminants in the soil.

We consider simple systems driven multiplicatively by white shot noise, which appear in the modeling of the dynamics of soil nutrients and contaminants. The dynamics of these systems is analyzed in two ways: solving a hierarchy of linear ordinary differential equations for the moments, which gives a time scale of convergence of the stationary probability density function; and characterizing the crossing properties, such as the mean first-passage time and the mean frequency of level crossing. These results are readily applicable to the study of geophysical systems, such as the problem of accumulation of salt in the root zone, i.

Spatial forcing of pattern-forming systems that lack inversion symmetry.

The entrainment of periodic patterns to spatially periodic parametric forcing is studied. Using a weak nonlinear analysis of a simple pattern formation model we study the resonant responses of one-dimensional systems that lack inversion symmetry. Focusing on the first three n:1 resonances, in which the system adjusts its wavenumber to one nth of the forcing wavenumber, we delineate commonalities and differences among the resonances.

Competing resonances in spatially forced pattern-forming systems.

Spatial periodic forcing can entrain a pattern-forming system in the same way as temporal periodic forcing can entrain an oscillator. The forcing can lock the pattern's wave number to a fraction of the forcing wave number within tonguelike domains in the forcing parameter plane, it can increase the pattern's amplitude, and it can also create patterns below their onset. We derive these results using a multiple-scale analysis of a spatially forced Swift-Hohenberg equation in one spatial dimension.

A core metabolic enzyme mediates resistance to phosphine gas.

Phosphine is a small redox-active gas that is used to protect global grain reserves, which are threatened by the emergence of phosphine resistance in pest insects. We find that polymorphisms responsible for genetic resistance cluster around the redox-active catalytic disulfide or the dimerization interface of dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (DLD) in insects (Rhyzopertha dominica and Tribolium castaneum) and nematodes (Caenorhabditis elegans). DLD is a core metabolic enzyme representing a new class of resistance factor for a redox-active metabolic toxin.

Spatial periodic forcing can displace patterns it is intended to control.

Spatial periodic forcing of pattern-forming systems is an important, but lightly studied, method of controlling patterns. It can be used to control the amplitude and wave number of one-dimensional periodic patterns, to stabilize unstable patterns, and to induce them below instability onset. We show that, although in one spatial dimension the forcing acts to reinforce the patterns, in two dimensions it acts to destabilize or displace them by inducing two-dimensional rectangular and oblique patterns.

The rph2 gene is responsible for high level resistance to phosphine in independent field strains of Rhyzopertha dominica.

The lesser grain borer Rhyzopertha dominica (F.) is one of the most destructive insect pests of stored grain. This pest has been controlled successfully by fumigation with phosphine for the last several decades, though strong resistance to phosphine in many countries has raised concern about the long term usefulness of this control method.

The rph1 gene is a common contributor to the evolution of phosphine resistance in independent field isolates of Rhyzopertha dominica.

Phosphine is the only economically viable fumigant for routine control of insect pests of stored food products, but its continued use is now threatened by the world-wide emergence of high-level resistance in key pest species. Phosphine has a unique mode of action relative to well-characterised contact pesticides. Similarly, the selective pressures that lead to resistance against field sprays differ dramatically from those encountered during fumigation.

Dual-mode spiral vortices.

We show that spiral vortices in oscillatory systems can lose stability to secondary modes to form dual-mode spiral vortices. The secondary modes grow at the vortex core where the oscillation amplitude vanishes but are nonlinearly damped by the oscillatory mode away from the core. Gradients of the oscillation phase, induced by the hosted secondary mode, can lead to additional hosting events that culminate in periodic core oscillations or in a novel form of spatiotemporal chaos.