Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pregnancy Rate after Embryo Transfer on Day 5 and Day 6 in IVF. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Study Question: The question: is there any difference in pregnancy rate between embryo transfer day 5 and day 6 in IVF? What Is Known Already? Blastocyst transfer is increasingly popular in assisted reproductive technology (ART) centers today. Very few articles concentrate on comparing Day 5 and Day 6 embryo transfer with conflict results. Objective, Study Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis of published controlled studies. Searches conducted from 2001-2020 on PubMed. Medline, EMBASE, and ISI Web of Science Electronic database is used to collect data, using the following search terms: blastocyst, Day 5, Day 6, embryo transfer (E.T.) and pregnancy rate. Materials, Setting, Methods: A total of 6 full-text articles preselected from 211 references, based on title and abstract. Two independent reviewers performed data selection and extraction according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis statement (PRISMA). This systematic review was conducted according to (PICO) standard. Random-effect meta-analysis performed on all data (overall analysis). Results and the Role of Chance: Data from 6 relevant articles were extracted and integrated into the meta-analysis that reported clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) as an outcome in 5640 cycles, 2274 cycle had embryo transfer at day 6 and the control was 3366 cycle had embryo transfer day 5 showed a significantly higher clinical pregnancy rate following Day 5 embryo transfer compared with Day 6 embryo transfer with odd ratio and 95% confidence limit 0.73 (0.66 - 0.82) p value < 0.000. Sensitivity analysis led to similar results and conclusions. Limitations, Reasons for Caution: The validity of meta-analysis results depends mainly on the quality and the number of published studies available. Indeed, this meta-analysis included no randomized controlled trial (RCT). Wider Implications of the Findings: In regards to the results of this original meta-analysis, ART practitioners should preferably transfer D5 rather than D6 blastocysts. Further RCTs are needed to address the question of whether D6 embryos should be transported.
A Survey of Fast-Recovery Mechanisms in Packet-Switched Networks

In order to meet their stringent dependability requirements, most modern packet-switched communication networks support fast-recovery mechanisms in the data plane. While reactions to failures in the data plane can be significantly faster compared to control plane mechanisms, implementing fast recovery in the data plane is challenging, and has recently received much attention in the literature. This survey presents a systematic, tutorial-like overview of packet-based fast-recovery mechanisms in the data plane, focusing on concepts but structured around different networking technologies, from traditional link-layer and IP-based mechanisms, over BGP and MPLS to emerging software-defined networks and programmable data planes. We examine the evolution of fast-recovery standards and mechanisms over time, and identify and discuss the fundamental principles and algorithms underlying different mechanisms. We then present a taxonomy of the state of the art, summarize the main lessons learned, and propose a few concrete future directions.
Does higher education equip graduate students with the employability skills employers require? The perceptions of employers in Ghana

ABSTRACT Recent changes in the labour market and higher education sector have placed graduates’ employability on the agenda of researchers, policymakers and employers in both advanced and developing economies. Yet, the question of whether higher education equips graduate students with the employability skills employers require remains under-studied particularly in a developing country like Ghana. Using survey data and employing a paired t-test analyses, our findings reveal that whilst the employers perceive graduate students to possess various critical skills which match industry demands, the graduate students fall short in these critical skills. The differences were statistically significant indicating that there are still gaps between what higher education is offering its students and what industry requires from graduates at the entry-level. Based on the findings, implications for theory, policy, and practice are discussed.
A prospective study of direct trocar entry versus veress needle entry for laparoscopic surgery

Background: The aim of this study was to compare the outcomes of direct trocar entry without prior pneumoperitoneum at umbilical level (DTI) versus veress needle entry for laparoscopic surgeries in terms of injury to abdominal viscera, safety, need for reinsertion of trocar and the time taken from skin incision to the insertion of camera. Methods: The present study was a prospective study conducted at the Department of General Surgery at Dr. M.K. Shah Medical College & Research Centre & Smt S.M.S. Multispeciality Hospital, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. (Faimer School Id: F0006702), a tertiary care hospital, from January 2020 till January 2021. Total of 100 cases were included in the study. All the cases who underwent abdominal laparoscopic surgery during this time duration were taken into account. The patients were divided into two groups bases upon the surgical units in which they were admitted as Group A in which traditional technique of veress needle entry was used for access, and Group B in which direct trocar entry without prior pneumoperitoneum was used. These two groups were compared in terms of the demographic profile, duration of procedure, risk of injuries, safety and various complications which were encountered during the procedure. Results: Patients in both the groups had similar demographic characteristics. The mean duration of the procedure was significantly shorter in group B (1.74 ± 0.6min) than in group A (4.06 ± 1.2min). No major complications in both groups were encountered. Minor complications were significantly less in group B than in group A. Conclusion: From our study we conclude with the opinion that direct trocar entry is as safe as prior insufflation of abdomen with the veress needle in a laparoscopic procedure. It is a time saving procedure, reduces the number of blind procedures and eliminates the complications of veress needle entry.
Biocidal Potential of Plants Extracts Against Wood-Degrading Microbes and Their In-Vitro Application on Wood: As Promising Wood Natural Preservatives

Background: Besides the increasing demand of wooden articles, there is a burning issue of microbial attack which affects the aesthetics of wood. Thus it is a current concern to protect the wooden articles from both fungal and bacterial attack by using toxin free preservatives. Results: Powder of Calotropis procera (leaves), Curcuma zedoaria (rhizome) and Swertia chirata (whole plant) was extracted with solvents like methanol, ethanol and chloroform and then the qualitative phytochemical screening was carried out, which exhibited the presence of different secondary metabolites. These extracts were also evaluated against wood degrading microbes (Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus niger) isolated from decaying wood. Our study demonstrated that the ethanol extract of S. chairata showed highest bactericidal potential against E.coli (19.0mm) and A. flavus (19.33mm). This study also revealed that S. chirata exhibited strongest biocidal spectrum of action followed by C. procera and C. zedaira. It was observed that laminated veneer treated with ethanol extract of S. chirata showed strong bactericidal potential against E.coli (82.67mm). On the other hand Syzygium cumini wood treated with ethanol extract of C. zedoaria exhibited high antibacterial potential against P. aeruginosa (58.0mm). The active plant extracts showed MIC's ranged from 3.6 to 6.0 mg/ml and MBC/MFC of 4.8 and 8.4 mg/ml. Conclusion: The results demonstrated the potential effects of selected plant extracts as a natural preservative that can protect wood from bacterial and fungal deterioration. The extracts can be applied to prevent furniture deterioration and raw wood protection.
Development and Validation of a Novel Framework to Study the Neural Basis of Spatial Learning and Navigation in Rodents

The ability of an organism to navigate towards remembered locations requires an internal representation of space. This representation can be referenced against either external cues (landmark-based navigation) or internal vestibular and proprioceptive cues (path integration). While it has been shown that the hippocampus is essential for spatial cognition, the precise neurobiological underpinnings of our ability to navigate to locations stored in spatial memory is not well understood. Recent electrophysiological and behavioural evidence suggests hilar mossy cells may play a functionally significant role in spatial cognition. However, spatial mazes previously described in the literature are confounded by stress or otherwise incompatible with capturing mossy cell involvement in spatial learning. Here I developed the Hidden Food Maze (HFM), in which mice learn to find a food reward in a large circular arena that requires no experimenter handling. I show that the HFM produces reliable learning curves in C57Bl/6 mice and that a robust learning criterion can be established. Notably, I found that mice rely predominantly on path integration when only distal visual cues are available in the HFM task. Preliminary results suggest that intra-maze cues are available, mice use them for their initial orientation and then appear to use path integration after cue identification. For my Master’s Thesis, I will describe results from only experiments with distal visual cues. I conclude that the Hidden Food Maze provides a naturalistic assessment of spatial learning in mice, in a format that is amenable for in vivo electrophysiological and imaging approaches from awake and behaving animals and thus provides a powerful and flexible means to investigate the neural bases of navigation.
Urban‐induced modifications to the diurnal cycle of rainfall over a tropical city

There is still no consensus on the mechanisms that modify precipitation over and around cities, especially for those located in the tropics where convective processes primarily drive rainfall. Here we contribute to the ongoing discussion about the urban‐associated precipitation by investigating the urban effect on the diurnal cycle of rainfall over Singapore. We use the urban version of the numerical weather prediction system of the Meteorological Service Singapore (hereafter called uSINGV) at a 300 m horizontal resolution to simulate the rainfall conditions over Singapore and its surroundings during the inter‐monsoon period between 2010 and 2014. Two simulations with different land surface conditions are conducted: one with urban areas (i.e. present conditions) and one without urban areas. uSINGV is shown to perform well for rainfall when compared to observations. Comparison between simulations reveals that the urban area is responsible for the formation of a rainfall “hot spot” over Singapore and Johor Bahru, located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, and the urban effect is accountable for 20–30% of total rainfall during late afternoons and evenings, highlighting a strong urban effect on localized rainfall over a tropical city. Enhancement of convection due to the urban heat island effect, increased frictional convergence due to buildings' drag, the seaward shift of the sea‐breeze front, and the increased inflow of boundary‐layer moisture by the stronger sea breeze are suggested as most probable reasons for the increased rainfall in the urban area.
Influence of air exposure duration and a-Si capping layer thickness on the performance of p-BaSi2/n-Si heterojunction solar cells

Fabrication of p-BaSi2(20nm)/n-Si heterojunction solar cells was performed with different a-Si capping layer thicknesses (da-Si) and varying air exposure durations (tair) prior to the formation of a 70-nm-thick indium-tin-oxide electrode. The conversion efficiencies (η) reached approximately 4.7% regardless of tair (varying from 12–150 h) for solar cells with da-Si = 5 nm. In contrast, η increased from 5.3 to 6.6% with increasing tair for those with da-Si = 2 nm, in contrast to our prediction. For this sample, the reverse saturation current density (J0) and diode ideality factor decreased with tair, resulting in the enhancement of η. The effects of the variation of da-Si (0.7, 2, 3, and 5 nm) upon the solar cell performance were examined while keeping tair = 150 h. The η reached a maximum of 9.0% when da-Si was 3 nm, wherein the open-circuit voltage and fill factor also reached a maximum. The series resistance, shunt resistance, and J0 exhibited a tendency to decrease as da-Si increased. These results dem.
An Efficient Anti-Interference Imaging Technology for Marine Radar

Marine radar plays a significant role in ship navigation. However, when contending with interference among cosailing navigation radars, the echo data may be unintentionally corrupted, and it becomes challenging to obtain high-quality imagery using current radar imaging methods. To overcome this problem, an efficient anti-interference imaging framework is presented in this article based on the theory of nonuniform sampling. First, a beam-recursive anti-interference method based on the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) estimation is proposed to compensate for the shortcoming of the traditional interference rejection method. Second, a nonuniform sampling model is established to well model the echo data with missing samples, which facilitates reconstructing the marine radar imagery from the missing echo data. Finally, a fast super-resolution method based on the dimension-reduction iterative adaptive approach (DRIAA) is proposed to reconstruct the distribution of sea-surface targets at a much lower computational complexity. Simulated and experimental results demonstrate that our anti-interference imaging framework can provide radar imagery with higher quality and lower computational complexity than the existing radar imaging methods in the presence of unintentional interference.
Timing of onset of symptom for COVID-19 from publicly reported confirmed cases in Uganda

Introduction incubation period for COVID-19, 2-14 (average 5-6) days. Timing of onset of COVID-19 signs and symptoms amongst cases in Uganda is however not known. Methods we utilized data on real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) confirmed cases to investigate symptom onset timing, from 21st March to 4th September 2020. Since timing of COVID-19 symptom onset is highly likely to be an interval rather than a point estimate, we generated 3-tertile categories: 1st, 2nd and 3rd tertile denoting symptom presentation within 3, 4 to 6 and at least 7 days. We considered all signs and symptoms in the database and analysed using Chi-square test and multinomial logistic regression, controlling for age and sex. Results we analysed a total of 420 symptomatic case-patients; 72.0% were males, median age of 33 years. Common symptoms were cough (47.6%), running nose (46.2%), fever (27.4%), headache (26.4%) and sore throat (20.5%). We utilized 293 cases with clinical symptom onset date recorded. Most of the patients, 37.5%, presented symptom within 3 days, 31.4% had symptoms in the 2nd and 31.4% in 3rd tertile, denoting 4 to 6 days and at least 7 days after exposure. Running nose (RRR=0.45, 95%CI: 0.24-0.84) and chest pain (RRR=0.64, 95%CI: 0.09-0.72) were more likely to occur in 3rd tertile than 1st or 2nd tertile. Cases aged ≥20 years were less likely to have symptoms in the 1st and 2nd tertile compared to ≤20 years (p<0.05). Conclusion our study provides empirical evidence for epidemiological characterization of cases by signs and symptoms which complements current proposals for the length of active monitoring of persons exposed to SARS-CoV-2.
Who Owns a Child? Conflict of Culture and Human Right in the Dissolution of Customary Law Marriage in Nigeria

ABSTRACT Using a descriptive design, this study examined the award of child custody in 15 cases of divorce between 2002 and 2016 in a customary court in Southwest Nigeria. Most of the cases were initiated by women on grounds of the negligence of children and wife and domestic violence. Despite this, the custody of children was awarded to the men in almost all cases. The findings of this study provide useful evidence to guide intervention and reform of customary and family laws to ensure greater gender equality in the award of child custody in customary courts in Nigeria.
Deep Learning-Based Hardness Prediction of Novel Refractory High-Entropy Alloys with Experimental Validation

Hardness is an essential property in the design of refractory high entropy alloys (RHEAs). This study shows how a neural network (NN) model can be used to predict the hardness of a RHEA, for the first time. We predicted the hardness of several alloys, including the novel C0.1Cr3Mo11. 9Nb20Re15Ta30W20 using the NN model. The hardness predicted from the NN model was consistent with the available experimental results. The NN model prediction of C0.1Cr3Mo11. 9Nb20Re15Ta30W20 was verified by experimentally synthesizing and investigating its microstructure properties and hardness. This model provides an alternative route to determine the Vickers hardness of RHEAs.
Performance of turbulence and cavitation models in prediction of incipient and developed cavitation

The aim of this article is to assess the impact of turbulence and cavitation models on the prediction of diesel injector nozzle flow. Two nozzles are examined, an enlarged one, operating at incipient cavitation, and an industrial injector tip, operating at developed cavitation. The turbulence model employed includes the re-normalization group k–ε, realizable k–ε and k–ω shear stress transport Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes models; linear pressure–strain Reynolds stress model and the wall adapting local eddy viscosity large eddy simulation model. The results indicate that all Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes and the Reynolds stress turbulence models have failed to predict cavitation inception due to their limitation to resolve adequately the low pressure existing inside vortex cores, which is responsible for cavitation development in this particular flow configuration. Moreover, Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes models failed to predict unsteady cavitation phenomena in the industrial injector. However, the wall adapting local eddy viscosity large eddy simulation model was able to predict incipient and developed cavitation, while also capturing the shear layer instability, vortex shedding and cavitating vortex formation. Furthermore, the performance of two cavitation methodologies is discussed within the large eddy simulation framework. In particular, a barotropic model and a mixture model based on the asymptotic Rayleigh–Plesset equation of bubble dynamics have been tested. The results indicate that although the solved equations and phase change formulation are different in these models, the predicted cavitation and flow field were very similar at incipient cavitation conditions. At developed cavitation conditions, standard cavitation models may predict unrealistically high liquid tension, so modifications may be essential. It is also concluded that accurate turbulence representation is crucial for cavitation in nozzle flows.
Combined Raman Spectroscopy and Digital Holographic Microscopy for Sperm Cell Quality Analysis

The diagnosis of male infertility is vastly complex. To date, morphology, motility, and concentration have been used as key parameters to establish the sperm normality and achieve pregnancy both in natural and in assisted fecundation. However, spermatozoa from infertile men could present a variety of alterations, such as DNA fragmentation, alterations of chromatin structure, and aneuploidy, which have been demonstrated to decrease reproductive capacity of men. Therefore, the ability to see detailed relationships between morphology and physiology in selected spermatozoa with submicrometric resolution in a nondestructive and noninvasive way and within a functional correlated context could be extremely important for the intracytoplasmic sperm injection procedure. In this review, we describe label-free optical spectroscopy and imaging techniques, based on the combination of Raman spectroscopy/imaging with holographic imaging, which are able to noninvasively measure the (bio)chemistry and morphology of sperm cells. We discuss the benefits and limitation of the proposed photonic techniques, with particular emphasis on applications in detection/characterization of sperm cell morphological defects and photodamage, and the identification/sorting of X- and Y-bearing bovine spermatozoa.
AROMATIC HYDROCARBON LEVELS AND PM2.5 CHARACTERIZATION IN ROME URBAN AREA: PRELIMINARY RESULTS

The preliminary results of aromatic hydrocarbon (AR) levels and PM2.5 physico-chemical characterization in Rome urban air throughout the 2014 are reported. A gas chromatograph was used for continuous measurements of AR concentrations with 30 minute time intervals. PM2.5 was collected by PM swam Dual Channel. Metal content was determined by ICP-MS. Single particle characterization was performed by Scanning Electron Microscopy equipped with a thin window system for X-ray microanalysis by energy dispersion spectrometry. X-ray microanalysis data were used to classify the particles into clusters of similar chemical composition. Results showed variations in seasonal AR levels, higher concentrations in winter and lower in summer. Toluene was the most abundant compound, followed by m,p xylene and benzene. The compounds showed similar correlations in winter and summer. According to T/B ratio and meteorological analysis, AR levels were under the influence of vehicular sources. Seasonal variation of different inter-species ratios showed a decreasing trend from winter to summer and an increase from August to December. ICP-MS analysis revealed Fe, Al and Zn as the most abundant elements, decreasing from March to July (except Zn). PM2.5 single particle characterization detected four particle clusters: C-rich particles, metal particles, sulphates and soil dust. C-rich particles were constituted of a large number of spherule aggregates carrying trace of S, Na and K. Metal particles are the second significant component, including Fe, Pb, Cu, Zn, Ni and Ti. Further studies must be performed to better understand the processes of transformation that undergo the carbonaceous particles in the atmosphere.
Calibratability of Aperture Arrays Using Self-Holography

Calibration of the receive path gains of antenna arrays is normally done using the array covariance matrix, implying a computational load and data volume that scales with the square of the number of receive paths in the array, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. This may become prohibitive for very large arrays and arrays with limited computing resources. Alternatively, self-holography (SH) solves the gains using the correlations between a reference signal and the antenna signals, resulting in a linear scaling with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. The drawback of SH is that it assumes that the reference signal is free of interference. In reality, this will rarely be the case, and the presence of interference will reduce the accuracy of the gain estimates. In this article, we analyze the mathematical model underlying SH, and we extract an analytical expression for the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) that can be used to relate the accuracy of the gain estimates to the level of interference in the reference signal. We conclude this article by applying SH to three practical examples that are representative of the aforementioned extreme calibration scenarios. The practical results are in line with our theoretical findings, which confirms that we have successfully derived accurate assessment criteria.