Risk factors associated with monozygotic twinning in offspring conceived by assisted reproductive technology.

Study Question: What are the factors influencing the occurrence of monozygotic (MZ) twins in offspring conceived by assisted reproductive technology (ART)?

Summary Answer: Parental ages, the transfer of fresh versus frozen embryos, and the grade of blastocysts are all related to MZ twinning in ART offspring.

What Is Known Already: Offspring conceived by ART have significantly increased risk of MZ twins, which may be due to the characteristics of the infertile population. The objective of this study was to explore the incidence of monozygotic (MZ) twins after ART and to clarify the risk factors for MZ twinning.

Effects of ovarian stimulation protocols on outcomes of assisted reproductive technology in adenomyosis women: a retrospective cohort study.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of different ovarian stimulation protocols on in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) outcomes in infertile women with adenomyosis.

Methods: We carried out a retrospective cohort study among infertile women with adenomyosis receiving IVF/ICSI treatment, including 257 fresh embryo transfer (ET) cycles and 305 frozen embryo transfer (FET) cycles. In fresh ET cycles, ultra-long, long, short, and antagonist protocols were adopted.

Systematical assessment of digit ratio in a female masculinization disease: polycystic ovary syndrome.

Background: In recent years, the right ratio of 2nd and 4th digit length (2D:4D) is regarded as an anatomical marker of prenatal testosterone exposure. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a female masculinized disease and is determined by prenatal testosterone exposure. Whether the ratio in the right hand of PCOS women is reduced or not compared with non-PCOS women is under debate.

The Nutritional Intervention Improves the Metabolic Profile of Overweight and Obese PCOS Along with the Differences in Gut Microbiota.

Previous studies had shown that the gut microbiota of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) patients had significant differences from those of healthy individuals, which may play an important role in the pathogenesis of PCOS. Lifestyle intervention, such as nutritional intervention, could improve the metabolic profiles and PCOS-like phenotypes of PCOS patients. Meanwhile, nutritional intervention could rapidly alter and reshape the distribution of gut microbiota in individuals.

Development and validation of a CT-based radiomics nomogram for preoperative prediction of tumor histologic grade in gastric adenocarcinoma.

Objectives: To develop and validate a radiomics nomogram for preoperative prediction of tumor histologic grade in gastric adenocarcinoma (GA).

Methods: This retrospective study enrolled 592 patients with clinicopathologically confirmed GA (low-grade: n=154; high-grade: n=438) from January 2008 to March 2018 who were divided into training (n=450) and validation (n=142) sets according to the time of computed tomography (CT) examination. Radiomic features were extracted from the portal venous phase CT images.

Radiomic Nomogram for Pretreatment Prediction of Pathologic Complete Response to Neoadjuvant Therapy in Breast Cancer: Predictive Value of Staging Contrast-enhanced CT.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to predict pathologic complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant therapy in breast cancer using radiomics based on pretreatment staging contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT).

Patients And Methods: A total of 215 patients were retrospectively analyzed. Based on the intratumoral and peritumoral regions of CECT images, radiomic features were extracted and selected, respectively, to develop an intratumoral signature and a peritumoral signature with logistic regression in a training dataset (138 patients from November 2015 to October 2017).

A CT-based radiomics nomogram for prediction of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 status in patients with gastric cancer.

Objective: To develop and validate a computed tomography (CT)-based radiomics nomogram for predicting human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status in patients with gastric cancer.

Methods: This retrospective study included 134 patients with gastric cancer (HER2-negative: n=87; HER2-positive: n=47) from April 2013 to March 2018, who were then randomly divided into training (n=94) and validation (n=40) cohorts. Radiomics features were obtained from the CT images showing gastric cancer.

Deep Learning Features Improve the Performance of a Radiomics Signature for Predicting KRAS Status in Patients with Colorectal Cancer.

Rationale And Objectives: We assess the performance of a model combining a deep convolutional neural network and a hand-crafted radiomics signature for predicting KRAS status in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC).

Materials And Methods: The primary cohort consisted of 279 patients with clinicopathologically confirmed CRC between April 2011 and April 2015. Portal venous phase computed tomographic images were analyzed to extract traditional hand-crafted radiomics features as well as deep learning features.

CT-based Radiomics Signature to Discriminate High-grade From Low-grade Colorectal Adenocarcinoma.

Rationale And Objectives: To develop and validate a computed tomography-based radiomics signature for preoperatively discriminating high-grade from low-grade colorectal adenocarcinoma (CRAC).

Materials And Methods: This retrospective study was approved by our institutional review board, and the informed consent requirement was waived. This study enrolled 366 patients with CRAC (training dataset: n = 222, validation dataset: n = 144) from January 2008 to August 2015.

Foraging responses of sheep to plant spatial micro-patterns can cause diverse associational effects of focal plant at individual and population levels.

Multiple-scale foraging decisions by large herbivores can cause associational effects of focal plant individuals neighboured with different species. Spatial micro-patterns between the focal plant and its neighbouring species within patches can affect herbivore foraging selectivity at within- and between-patch scales, which may consequently lead to associational plant effects occurring at both plant individual and population levels. However, these associational effects have not been explored together in the plant-herbivore interaction studies.

Spatially complex neighboring relationships among grassland plant species as an effective mechanism of defense against herbivory.

Close spatial relationships between plant species are often important for defense against herbivory. The associational plant defense may have important implications for plant community structure, species diversity, and species coexistence. An increasing number of studies have focused on associational plant defense against herbivory at the scale of the individual plant and its nearest neighbors.