How do courts contribute to policy integration? A comparative study of policy integration processes in Colombia, Ecuador, and Guatemala.

With Supreme and Constitutional courts or tribunals playing an increasingly significant role in shaping extractive policies in Latin America, scholars should turn their attention to the impacts of judicial decisions on policy processes. This phenomenon is of considerable interest to scholars of policy integration, as constitutional interpretations by the courts have the potential to reframe policy issues and address the effects of policy fragmentation. In this paper, we investigate the influence of high courts on the creation of integrative spaces that seek to convey a commitment to guaranteeing constitutional rights.

First description of a giant manta ray fetus Mobula birostris (Walbaum 1792) from Tumbes, Peru (Southeast Pacific).

The population of Mobula birostris ("giant manta ray") found in the waters of northern Peru and Ecuador is believed to be the largest in the world (Harding Beirwagen, 2009). This species is considered to be the largest within the group of manta rays, as they attains at least 670 cm disc width (reported to 910 cm) (White et al., 2006) and there is a record of an individual weighing 2000 kg (Kunjipalu Boopendranath, 1981).

Prevalence of premature urinary luteinizing hormone surges in women with regular menstrual cycles and its effect on implantation of frozen-thawed embryos.

Objective: To determine the frequency and effect of premature luteinizing hormone (LH) surges on pregnancy rates in women with regular menstrual cycles.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Assisted Reproductive Technology Program at private medical college.

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for heritable neoplasia.

Unlabelled: Especially applicable for heritable neoplasia, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is possible for any Mendelian disorder whose gene has been localized, whether the molecular basis is known or not.

Methods And Results: PGD requires DNA from gametes (oocytes) or embryos before 6 days postconception, when implantation occurs. Approaches include 1) polar body biopsy, 2) blastomere biopsy (aspiration of one or two cells from the six- to eight-cell embryos at 2 or 3 days), and 3) trophectoderm biopsy, which allows recovery of 20 or more cells (20-50) from 125- to 150-cell, 5- to 6-day blastocysts.

Algorithm to predict assisted reproductive technology pregnancy outcome reveals minimal embryo synergy.

A mathematical model was developed to calculate the implantation probability for individual embryos based on the pregnancy outcome of in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) cases with multiple embryos transferred. This model was used to calculate implantation probabilities of embryos of 31 morphological types using the outcome of 1,200 IVF/ICSI cases. The algorithm was validated by comparing the calculated pregnancy probability and multiple pregnancy probability with the actual outcome of 281 separate IVF/ICSI cases.