bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Protocolo de reabilitação acelerada precoce versus conservadora retardada após reconstrução do ligamento cruzado anterior: Um ensaio prospectivo randomizado
Authors: Patra Saroj Kumar , Nanda Saurav Narayan , Patro Bishnu Prasad , Sahu Nabin Kumar , Mohnaty Chitta Ranjan , Jain Mantu
Published: June 2022

Objetivo Comparar a eficácia dos protocolos de reabilitação acelerada precoce e de reabilitação conservadora retardada após reconstrução artroscópica do ligamento cruzado anterior, em termos da escala do International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC), da dor (segundo a Escala Visual Analógica), da frouxidão e da rigidez no pós-operatório de um ano para determinar o melhor desfecho.

Materiais e Métodos Um total de 80 participantes foram divididos em dois grupos (grupo da acelerada precoce e grupo da conservadora retardada), que foram analisados pelos testes do Qui-quadrado de Pearson e da soma dos postos de Wilcoxon.

Resultados A frouxidão do joelho no pós-operatório de 1 ano foi significativamente mais alta (p = 0,039) no grupo da acelerada precoce do que no grupo da conservadora retardada. Em termos de dor pós-operatória (pela Escala Visual Analógica) e pontuações no IKDC, ambos os grupos apresentaram resultados similares. A amplitude de movimento pós-operatória foi melhor no grupo da acelerada precoce, mas isso não foi estatisticamente significativo (p = 0,36).

Conclusão O protocolo de reabilitação acelerada precoce foi associado com uma frouxidão significativa do joelho em um ano de pós-operatório em comparação com o protocolo de reabilitação conservadora retardada.
Synthesis and Characterization of Related Substances of Torasemide
Authors: Chen Jiong , Ming Wei , Fan De-Hua , Gu Shuang-Xi
Published: June 2022

Torasemide, a pyridine-3-sulfonylurea derivative, is a high-efficiency loop diuretic. During the process development of torasemide, five process-related substances, which have been specified in the pharmacopeia, would be produced. In this study, all these related substances, including compounds A–E, were synthesized via simple procedures and subsequently characterized by 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), 13C NMR, and mass spectrometry. Particularly, a simple synthetic method for compound A has not been found in previous literature. It is worth noting that other related substances could be prepared from compound B in one or two steps. The availability of these related substances could allow for quality control in the process of torasemide.
Plasmonic reactivity of halogen thiophenols on gold nanoparticles studied by SERS and XPS
Authors: Schürmann Robin , Dutta Anushree , Ebel Kenny , Tapio Kosti , Milosavljević Aleksandar R. , Bald Ilko
Published: June 2022

Localized surface plasmon resonances on noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) can efficiently drive reactions of adsorbed ligand molecules and provide versatile opportunities in chemical synthesis. The driving forces of these reactions are typically elevated temperatures, hot charge carriers, or enhanced electric fields. In the present work, dehalogenation of halogenated thiophenols on the surface of AuNPs has been studied by surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) as a function of the photon energy to track the kinetics and identify reaction products. Reaction rates are found to be surprisingly similar for different halothiophenols studied here, although the bond dissociation energies of the C–X bonds differ significantly. Complementary information about the electronic properties at the AuNP surface, namely, work-function and valence band states, has been determined by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of isolated AuNPs in the gas-phase. In this way, it is revealed how the electronic properties are altered by the adsorption of the ligand molecules, and we conclude that the reaction rates are mainly determined by the plasmonic properties of the AuNPs. SERS spectra reveal differences in the reaction product formation for different halogen species, and, on this basis, the possible reaction mechanisms are discussed to approach an understanding of opportunities and limitations in the design of catalytical systems with plasmonic NPs.
Experimental study on pressure evolution of detonation waves penetrating into water
Authors: Hou Zi-wei , Li Ning , Huang Xiao-long , Li Can , Lv Hai-cheng , Kang Yang , Weng Chun-sheng
Published: June 2022

Propagation of detonation waves crossing the gas–liquid interface is a basic phenomenon worth studying for underwater detonation engines. In this work, the pressure evolution of detonation waves penetrating into water is theoretically and experimentally investigated. The one-dimensional shock wave theory is adopted to solve the pressure–velocity relations of the reflected and transmitted shock wave in different mediums. Experiments under different filling pressure are performed based on a two-phase shock tube system. Theoretical results show that the range of pressure rise ratios between the detonation and transmitted wave is 2.40–2.50. Its trend is determined by the total atoms number of fuel under low filling pressure, but dominated by the ratio of C/H atoms under high filling pressure. Experimental results demonstrate that pressure rise ratios are in good agreement with the theoretical values. There are similar attenuation laws (decay to 50% in 0.3 ms) for subsequent pressure development after those two waves. Under the interface effect, the transmitted wave is stretched and the pressure zone becomes wider. The difference of acoustic impedance between two phases leads to wave property changes at the interface and exit. These changes result in the reciprocating cavitation zones and reformed shock waves in the water, greatly influencing the water pressure.
The normal derivative lemma and surrounding issues
Authors: Apushkinskaya D. E. , Nazarov A. I.
Published: June 2022

In this survey we describe the history and current state of one of the key areas in the qualitative theory of elliptic partial differential equations related to the strong maximum principle and the boundary point principle (normal derivative lemma).

Bibliography: 234 titles.
Observation of the freshwater invasive, Yellow flag iris (Iris pseudacorus L.) reproducing in marine habitat, isolated from perennial freshwater inputs
Authors: Thomson Hanna M. , Shackelford Nancy , Gerwing Travis G.
Published: June 2022

Yellow flag iris (Iris pseudacorus L.) is a highly invasive aquatic plant that is primarily known to occupy freshwater habitats. We report the observation of multiple patches of reproductively mature I. pseudacorus persisting in coastal habitats devoid of consistent sources of freshwater.
Noise enhanced stability of an active particle in a spatial metastable potential driven by cross-correlated noises
Authors: Jia Zheng-Lin , Yang Chun-Yan , Ma Bao-Yu , Chen Ying
Published: June 2022

We investigate the escape dynamics of an active Brownian particle (ABP) in a spatial cubic potential subject to the cross-correlated multiplicative noise and additive noise. Based on the Schweitzer–Ebeling–Tilch model, the effects of noise strength, cross-correlation intensity between noises, damping coefficient and potential amplitude on the mean escape time (MET) from a metastable potential state are analyzed. The results indicate that the MET exhibits a non-monotonic behavior with a maximum as a function of the intensities of the multiplicative and additive noises, identifying the occurrence of the noise enhanced stability (NES) effects induced by the multiplicative noise and by the additive noise. The increase of the cross-correlation strength always enhances the NES effect induced by the additive noise, regardless of the cross-correlation between noises is positive or negative. However, the positive and negative cross-correlation play an opposite role on the NES effect induced by the multiplicative noise. Moreover, the NES effects induced by the additive and multiplicative noises can be enhanced by the increase of the damping coefficient and the potential amplitude. A physical mechanism for the NES effect of the ABP can be understood as the fact that a certain amount of noise can stabilize the sojourn of the ABP in a limit cycle. Our results demonstrate that the cross-correlation between noises may provide a possible strategy for controlling the stability of active particle systems.
Diffusion in a partially absorbing medium with position and occupation time resetting
Authors: Bressloff Paul C
Published: June 2022

In this paper we consider diffusion in a domain Ω containing a partially absorbing targetMwith position and occupation time resetting. The occupation timeAtis a Brownian functional that determines the amount of time that the particle spends inMover the time interval [0,t]. We assume that there exists some internal stateUtof the particle at timetwhich is modified whenever the particle is diffusing withinM. The stateUtis taken to be a monotonically increasing function ofAt, and absorption occurs as soon asUtcrosses some fixed threshold. We first show how to analyze threshold absorption in terms of the joint probability density or generalized propagatorP(x,a,t|x0) for the pair (Xt,At) in the case of a non-absorbing substrateM, whereXtis the particle position at timetandx0is the initial position. We then introduce a generalized stochastic resetting protocol in which both the positionXtand the internal stateUtare reset to their initial values,Xt→x0andUt→0, at a Poisson rater. The latter is mathematically equivalent to resetting the occupation time,At→ 0. Since resetting is governed by a renewal process, the survival probability with resetting can be expressed in terms of the survival probability without resetting, which means that the statistics of absorption can be determined by calculating the double Laplace transform ofP(x,a,t|x0) with respect totanda. In order to develop the basic theory, we focus on one-dimensional diffusion withMgiven by a finite or semi-infinite interval, and explore how the mean first passage time with resetting depends on various model parameters. We also compare the threshold mechanism with the classical case of a constant absorption rate.
Effects of nitrogen and phosphorus on chlorophyll a in lakes of China: a meta-analysis
Authors: Yu Guanghui , Zhang Shanhong , Qin Wei , Guo Yu , Zhao Ran , Liu Chunhong , Wang Chengguo , Li Daoliang , Wang Yang
Published: June 2022

Whether or not chlorophyll a (Chla) is limited by nitrogen (N) or phosphorus (P), or both, remains highly debated. In part this is due to the lack of a robust statistical rarely considered using a statistical method in studies of peer-review research of lakes. Individual studies only used the use of the relationship between Chla and nutrients to judge the effects of N and P, ignoring the spatial heterogeneity of the ecological environment. Here, we evaluated the effects of nitrogen and phosphorus on Chla via a meta-analysis. The dataset consists of 1024 observations from 34 lakes in China. The results show that Chla is one of the most important indicators of water eutrophication, both nutrients were related Chla trophic state, and that TP plays an important role over TN, especially in the hypereutrophic Chla conditions. With the increase of TN/TP, Chla concentration is decreased, which may be the co-limited of TN and TP. These three values largely explained the increment of eutrophication Chla, although the relative effects differed across nutrients, with changes in the TN total contributing 5.2% of the increment in Chla, while the TP change contributed 272.0% of the increment in Chla. At spatial scales, logarithm-transformed response ratio (

ln
R
R

) of Chla indicated that the lake shifts from N limitation (64.0% > 28.0%) in oligo-mesotrophic to P limitation (170.0% > 99.0%) in eutrophic and co-limitation (66.0% and 46.0%) by N & P in hypereutrophic. These results demonstrate that TP reduction can mitigate eutrophication in most large lakes but a dual TN and TP reduction may be needed in eutrophic lakes, especially in hypereutrophic states. This study highlights the differential effects of the three factors concentration, which may offer important implications for better management of the response of the eutrophication lakes to nutrients (N and P) in the future.
Nasal nitric oxide is decreased in acute mild COVID-19 and related to viral load
Authors: Tamminen Pekka J , Kerimov Dominik M , Viskari Hanna , Aittoniemi Janne , Syrjänen Jaana , Lehtimäki Lauri
Published: June 2022

Gaseous nitric oxide levels from the lungs (FeNO) and from the nose (nNO) have been demonstrated to react to acute infection or influenza vaccination. There are no published data on nNO levels during acute COVID-19, but normal levels of FeNO have been reported in one study. Our aim was to assess if acute mild COVID-19 alters nasal or bronchial NO output at the time of acute infection and at a two-month follow up, and if this is related to symptoms or viral load. This study included 82 subjects with mild acute airway infection who did not need hospitalization: 43 cases (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-positive for SARS-CoV-2 in routine testing from nasopharynx) and 39 age- (±5 years) and gender-matched controls (RT-PCR-negative for SARS-CoV-2). During acute infection, the cases had lower nNO compared to controls (158 [104–206] vs. 232 [203–279] nl min−1; p < 0.001), but after two months, there was no significant difference between the groups (230 [179–290] vs. 268 [222–320] nl min−1; p = 0.162). There was no difference in FeNO between the groups at either of the visits. Nasal NO correlated with the cycle threshold (Ct) value of the nasopharyngeal RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 (Spearman’s r
s = 0.550; p < 0.001), that is, nNO was lower with a higher viral load. Nasal NO output was decreased in acute COVID-19 in relation to higher viral load, suggesting that the type and intensity of inflammatory response affects the release of NO from airway mucosa. In these subjects without significant lower airway involvement, there were no clinically relevant findings regarding FeNO.
Strategically designed SPEEK nanofibrous scaffold with tailored delivery of resveratrol for skin wound regeneration
Authors: Ekambaram Rajalakshmi , Saravanan Saisupriyalakshmi , Dharmalingam Sangeetha
Published: June 2022

Electro-spinnable polymeric materials can easily form two-dimensional (2D) nanofibrous scaffolds improving biochemical functionalities specially in the area of skin wound healing and nanomedicine, but it has been hard to achieve this on a highly mechanically stable biopolymer, Poly ether ether ketone (PEEK), due to its intrinsic hydrophobicity and chemical inertness. Herein, we demonstrated a novel nanomedicine healing system consisting of sulphonated poly ether ether ketone combined with resveratrol (SPEEK + RSV), which could act as an effective 2D nano bio-material in vitro and in vivo, without observable cytotoxicity. The fabricated nanocomposites exhibited enriched skin cell proliferation and adhesion as confirmed from the results of MTT, cell adhesion and live-dead assay. Results of SEM analysis showed a uniform nano-sized distribution with adequate pore size and porosity % facilitating a desired breathable environment at the wound site. The results of FT-IR, tensile studies and TGA analyses confirmed the presence of appropriate bonds and improved mechanical stability of the RSV incorporated nanofibrous scaffold. Results of anti-microbial analysis portrayed good potentiality of the fabricated nanofibers in treating wounds colonized with bacterial infections. Controlled drug release of resveratrol established the bio-compatibility of the nanofibers in skin wound regeneration. In vivo analysis assessed in female Wistar rats enabled complete wound closure with 100% wound contraction within 16 days. Results of histopathology analysis through H-E and MT staining presented the re-surfing of the wound environment with regeneration of epithelium, granulation tissue and collagen. Thus, the fabricated 2D nanofibrous scaffold incorporated with pharmaceutical RSV bio-medicine perceptively mimicked skin ECM convincingly aiding the progression of skin wound regeneration mechanism.
Emulating atmospheric turbulence effects on a micro-mirror array: assessing the DMD for use with free-space-to-fibre optical connections
Authors: Benton David M , Ellis Andrew D , Li Yiming , Hu Zhouyi
Published: June 2022

Emulated atmospheric turbulence effects constructed from a set of 22 Zernike modes have been written upon a DMD micromirror array operating as a binary amplitude spatial light modulator. Sequences of aberrated frames with controlled amounts of turbulence have been produced and can be operated at controlled rates that can exceed 1 kHz rates which can be seen in strong turbulence. In this case 400 Hz was chosen and the scintillation levels observed for the same turbulence sequence with single, few and multi-mode fibres at a receiver. Resulting scintillation levels are consistent with standard turbulence models. Increased received intensity and reduced scintillation was observed with larger core fibres and related to aberration-induced focal spot size. Correlation between the received intensity variation and the amplitude variations for individual Zernike modes demonstrates specifically the effect of atmospheric induced beam wander when focusing into a receive fibre. The DMD is thus shown to be able to generate both the necessary frequency content and range of scintillation required for atmospheric emulation.
Numerical reconstruction of curves from their Jacobians
Authors: Agostini Daniele , Özlüm Çelik Türkü , Eken Demir
Published: June 2022

We approach the Torelli problem of reconstructing a curve from its Jacobian from a computational point of view. Following Dubrovin, we design machinery to solve this problem effectively, which builds on methods in numerical algebraic geometry. We verify this method via numerical experiments with curves up to genus 7.
Emergence of wandering stable components
Authors: Berger Pierre , Biebler Sébastien
Published: June 2022

We prove the existence of a locally dense set of real polynomial automorphisms of

C

2

\mathbb C^2

displaying a wandering Fatou component; in particular this solves the problem of their existence, reported by Bedford and Smillie in 1991. These Fatou components have non-empty real trace and their statistical behavior is historic with high emergence. The proof is based on a geometric model for parameter families of surface real mappings. At a dense set of parameters, we show that the dynamics of the model displays a historic, high emergent, stable domain. We show that this model can be embedded into families of Hénon maps of explicit degree and also in an open and dense set of

5
5

-parameter

C
r

C^r

-families of surface diffeomorphisms in the Newhouse domain, for every

2
≤
r
≤
∞

2\le r\le \infty

and

r
=
ω

r=\omega

. This implies a complement of the work of Kiriki and Soma [Adv. Math. 306 (2017), pp. 524–588], a proof of the last Taken’s problem in the

C

∞

C^{\infty }

and

C
ω

C^\omega

-case. The main difficulty is that here perturbations are done only along finite-dimensional parameter families. The proof is based on the multi-renormalization introduced by Berger [Zoology in the Hénon family: twin babies and Milnor’s swallows, 2018].
Zeros of random polynomials and their higher derivatives
Authors: Byun Sung-Soo , Lee Jaehun , Reddy Tulasi
Published: June 2022

We consider zeros of higher derivatives of various random polynomials and show that their limiting empirical measures agree with those of roots of corresponding random polynomials. Examples of random polynomials include those whose roots are given by i.i.d. random variables and those whose zeros are nearly all deterministic except for a fixed number of random roots. As an application, we show that such a phenomenon holds for the random polynomials whose roots follow the distribution of the 2D Coulomb gas ensemble.
PScL-DDCFPred: an ensemble deep learning-based approach for characterizing multiclass subcellular localization of human proteins from bioimage data
Authors: Ullah Matee , Hadi Fazal , Song Jiangning , Yu Dong-Jun
Published: June 2022

Motivation

Characterization of protein subcellular localization has become an important and long-standing task in bioinformatics and computational biology, which provides valuable information for elucidating various cellular functions of proteins and guiding drug design.

Results

Here, we develop a novel bioimage-based computational approach, termed PScL-DDCFPred, to accurately predict protein subcellular localizations in human tissues. PScL-DDCFPred first extracts multiview image features, including global and local features, as base or pure features; next, it applies a new integrative feature selection method based on stepwise discriminant analysis and generalized discriminant analysis to identify the optimal feature sets from the extracted pure features; Finally, a classifier based on deep neural network (DNN) and deep-cascade forest (DCF) is established. Stringent 10-fold cross-validation tests on the new protein subcellular localization training dataset, constructed from the human protein atlas databank, illustrates that PScL-DDCFPred achieves a better performance than several existing state-of-the-art methods. Moreover, the independent test set further illustrates the generalization capability and superiority of PScL-DDCFPred over existing predictors. In-depth analysis shows that the excellent performance of PScL-DDCFPred can be attributed to three critical factors, namely the effective combination of the DNN and DCF models, complementarity of global and local features, and use of the optimal feature sets selected by the integrative feature selection algorithm.

Availability and implementation

https://github.com/csbio-njust-edu/PScL-DDCFPred.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Mirage 2.0: fast and memory-efficient reconstruction of gene-content evolution considering heterogeneous evolutionary patterns among gene families
Authors: Fukunaga Tsukasa , Iwasaki Wataru
Published: June 2022

We present Mirage 2.0, which accurately estimates gene-content evolutionary history by considering heterogeneous evolutionary patterns among gene families. Notably, we introduce a deterministic pattern mixture model, which makes Mirage substantially faster and more memory-efficient to be applicable to large datasets with thousands of genomes.

Availability and implementation

The source code is freely available at https://github.com/fukunagatsu/Mirage.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
HSMotifDiscover: identification of motifs in sequences composed of non-single-letter elements
Authors: Singh Vinod Kumar , Misra Rohan , Almo Steven C , Steidl Ulrich G , Bülow Hannes E , Zheng Deyou
Published: June 2022

The functional sub-string(s) of a biopolymer sequence defines the specificity of its interaction with other biomolecules and is often referred to as motifs. Computational algorithms and software have been broadly developed for finding such motifs in sequences in which the individual elements are single characters, such as those in DNA and protein sequences. However, there are more complex scenarios where the motifs exist in non-single-letter contexts, e.g. preferred patterns of chemical modifications on proteins, DNAs, RNAs or polysaccharides. To search for those motifs, we describe a new method that converts the modified sequence elements to representative single-letter codes and then uses a modified Gibbs-sampling algorithm to define the position specific scoring matrix representing the motif(s). As a proof of principle, we describe the implementation and application of an R package for discovering heparan sulfate (HS) motifs in glycan sequences, which are important in regulating protein–protein interactions. This software can be valuable for analyzing high-throughput glycoprotein binding data using microarrays with HS oligosaccharides or other biological polymers.

Availability and implementation

HSMotifDiscover is freely available as an open source R package released under an MIT license at https://github.com/bioinfoDZ/HSMotifDiscover and also available in the form of an app at https://hsmotifdiscover.shinyapps.io/HSMotifDiscover_ShinyApp/.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
O-023 A randomized control trial on the effect of intrauterine HCG flushing on reproductive outcomes
Authors: Gedela D R , Mantravadi K , Sundari S
Published: June 2022

Study question

Can Intra Uterine Flushing with Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) optimize embryo implantation and reproductive outcomes in Assisted Reproductive Technique(ART) cycles?

Summary answer

Uterine flushing with hCG does not seem to enhance embryo implantation and optimize reproductive outcomes

What is known already

Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) hormone has shown to play an important role in embryo implantation. Role of hCG flushing to uterine cavity has been proposed as one of the interventions to optimize embryo implantation, but its efficiency has been debatable.

Study design, size, duration

This study is a Randomised Control trial (RCT) with prior approval from Institution Ethical Review Board(IEC Ref. No. ECR/1312/inst/tg/2019). Study duration between November 2020-November 2021 at a private clinic. Women undergoing In-Vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles were randomised to no hCG flush group (n = 80) and hCG flush group (n = 100). Women >37yrs age and BMI >30 or having some uterine pathology or willing for Pre-Implantation Genetic Testing (PGT) or donor gamete cycles were excluded from this study

Participants/materials, setting, methods

Women recruited in this study underwent ovarian stimulation as per the institutes standard operating protocols (SOP). All embryos subjected to blastocyst culture and freeze all strategy followed. In a frozen embryo replacement cycle two good grade blastocysts were transferred. In hCG flush group, 48-72hrs before anticipated embryos transfer (ET) 500IU of commercially available hCG hormone was instilled into the uterine cavity. No hCG Flush group did not have any intervention

Main results and the role of chance

Clinical Pregnancy rates (CPR), Implantation Rates (IR), Multiple Pregnancy rates (MPR) were compared between the groups.

Means of Reproductive outcomes between hCG Vs no hCG group were as follows

CPR – 71% Vs 76% (p = 0.45) IR – 59% Vs 55%(p=0.59)MPR – 18% Vs 25%(p=0.25) Data from this RCT shows that hCG flush does not seem to enhance embryo implantation. Role of hCG flush to optimize reproductive outcomes is questionable.

Limitations, reasons for caution

This study has not evaluated the miscarriage rates and live birth rates

Wider implications of the findings

Ways to enhance embryo implantation and optimising reproductive outcomes still needs further research. hCG flushing might not be a beneficial intervention to optimise embryo implantation. However, a subgroup analysis to identify efficiency of hCG in a particular group of patients like thin endometrium could be further explored.

Trial registration number

NA
O-046 Reproductive prospects for ICSI children
Authors: Belva F , Hes F , Tournaye H , Bonduelle M , Liebaers I , Verheyen G , Van Steirteghem A
Published: June 2022

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), developed 30 years ago in our Center, allowed men with low to extremely low sperm quality to become the genetic father of their child. Overall, ICSI is now applied in up to 70% of all ART cycles and has resulted in the birth of millions of children worldwide.

ICSI circumvents natural sperm selection mechanisms and concerns related to transgenerational inheritance of male infertility following ICSI could not be fully answered till today, given the young age of the offspring born after ICSI. Since genetic abnormalities account for one third of all cases of male factor infertility, it is essential to identify these genetic abnormalities because of the potential risk of their transmission to the offspring through the use of ART. As ICSI is nowadays performed even in couples with normal semen parameters, the disentanglement of procedure-related and parental background-related factors on the health of the offspring is important.

Due to the safety concerns regarding the health of children born after ART, a longitudinal follow-up program was set up in our Center in the 80’s, resulting in data of more than 50 000 pregnancies. To date, more than 25 000 children are conceived after ICSI in our Center. We have not only the worldwide eldest cohort of ICSI offspring but also a uniform cohort of children and young adults conceived by ICSI because of (severe) male factor infertility.

We present the results of these prospective studies with focus on the reproductive health in ICSI children between 8 and 22 years and compare these with available data from others. First of all, we will show data on the gonadal function assessed both clinically and by means of biomarkers at pre-pubertal and pubertal ages in ICSI boys. Secondly, we will present findings on the reproductive status of young adult men and women conceived after ICSI between 1992 and 1996: results of hormonal work-up, physical examination and semen parameters for ICSI men and results of hormone levels and antral follicle counts for ICSI women.

Finally, we will discuss the findings in these cohorts of children and young adults conceived because of male infertility in view of the available literature regarding reproductive function in offspring conceived following ICSI.
O-056 The duty to do no harm implies that some requests for treatment should be denied
Authors: Mol B W
Published: June 2022

One unique character of reproductive medicine is the involvement of multiple individuals. Apart from individual(s) who want to become parents, also the interests offspring that is created by reproductive medicine treatments should be considered. This unique character brings unique ethical challenges, as the principle ‘Primum non nocere’ should be applied on all involved, including the children born form fertility treatments. I will present a framework that involves three dimensions, the risks for the mother, risks for the offspring and consequences for society and the public system.

First, treatment can be refused as there is uncertainty about the quality of life of the future offspring. I will argue that before the treatment is started, the new individual is not there and cannot claim any rights. The care provider has a responsibility towards the future individual, not only in terms of health, but also from a social perspective. If the future child going to live an abusive family, it might be better of not existing.

Second, treatment can be refused because of an unhealthy lifestyle or a health risk for the future mother. Treatment might be refused because a mother has an underlying disease that could severely exacerbate during pregnancy, or because she smokes or is obese. I will argue that in these situations decisions should be made in the context of absolute health risks for the mother and the offspring, as well as success rates of treatments. I will demonstrate that the bar to refuse treatments based on these grounds is high and that in most cases risks are acceptable while success rates are sufficiently high to justify treatment.

Third, the risks of treatments should be balanced against the expected success rates of treatments. Risks of treatment are more acceptable if the success rates are higher. This obviously does not count for risks that only occur if the treatment is successful, for example pregnancy risks or risks for the offspring.

Finally, treatments without proven effectiveness should preferably be offered in the context of research. Uncertainty about their effectiveness should be shared with the individual(s) who undergo the treatment. While in a private context, where patients pay their own treatment, the issue of cost-effectiveness is less relevant, efficiency is important in a public system, where society pays for treatment. In the latter case, ineffective treatments (for example IVF for older women with success rates of 1 or 2%) can be delayed in favour of less expensive treatments, or even denied.

Koning A, Mol BW, Dondorp W. It is not justified to reject fertility treatment based on obesity. Hum Reprod Open. 2017 Jul 28;2017(2):hox009.

Braakhekke M, Kamphuis EI, Mol F, Norman RJ, Bhattacharya S, van der Veen F, Mol BW. Hum Reprod. Effectiveness and safety as outcome measures in reproductive medicine. 2015 Oct;30(10):2249-51.
O-104 Providing accurate information – impact of ancestry testing
Authors: Kirkman-Brown J , Calhaz-Jorge C , Dancet E , Lundin K , Martins M , Tilleman K , Thorn P , Vermeulen N , Frith L
Published: June 2022

Providing information to patients and, or donors at the ART clinic is essential but challenging, especially in the case of reproductive donation.

Recent developments in direct-to-consumer genetic testing combined with social media have increased the degree of difficulty. Concepts such as donor anonymity, secrecy and disclosure have to be revisited and totally re-thought as the anonymity of donors, their relatives and also of the children born through donation is no longer guaranteed.

This potentially has significant effects on everyone involved: to donors who donated under the assumption that their donation was completely anonymous, to recipients who were under the impression that they could keep donor conception a secret and to donor offspring who were unaware of their donor-assisted conception. It is also effectively retrospective affecting everyone who has, is or might participate.

Providing the correct information to donors, ART couples and donor-conceived offspring is the key, and advise for such information provision will be presented in line with the recently published ESHRE good practice recommendations for information provision for those involved in reproductive donation.

Trial registration number
O-110 Endometrial preparation for FET: HRT vs. Natural cycle
Authors: Polyzos N.P
Published: June 2022

Frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) cycles have increased dramatically over the past decade, mainly due to the introduction of vitrification as a more efficient method of cryopreservation, and the increase of the freeze-all strategy in order to reduce the risk of OHSS.

Planning of FET cycles is a key step for the implantation of the frozen-thawed embryos since it allows the synchronization of the endometrium with the developmental stage of the embryo.

Endometrial preparation can be achieved either through hormonal replacement treatment (HRT) by an artificial cycle using exogenous estrogen administration for the development of the endometrium and subsequent administration of exogenous progesterone for its secretory transformation (AC-FET) or via a natural cycle, following the detection of LH surge (NC-FET), or the trigger of ovulation with human chorionic gonadotrophin (mNC-FET).

The scope of the current presentation is to provide an overview of the different methods of endometrial preparation for FET cycles, their advantages, and disadvantages, and the evidence regarding clinical but also adverse obstetrical and perinatal outcomes, following each different protocol.

Trial registration number
O-171 Quality improvement in endometriosis fertility care
Authors: Van der Houwen L
Published: June 2022

Women with endometriosis often present with abdominal pain, dysmenorrhoea, dyspareunia and infertility. As a definitive cure for endometriosis is lacking, women with endometriosis are usually in need of long-term treatment which may be recurring if periods of non-treatment are employed. Women with endometriosis often report the feeling of not being heard, not taken seriously and having had different advices from different health care providers. Around half of women with endometriosis are dissatisfied with their medical support. Clear and consistent counselling is one of the important aspects of care that women with endometriosis report to be poor. 

Infertile women with endometriosis need to consider different aspects before being able to conceive: i) each natural cycle no pregnancy is achieved, endometriosis complaints might recur or aggravate, ii) hormonal treatment of endometriosis is contraceptive and prevents pregnancy, iii) surgical treatment might increase natural chances or make ART possible but could cause ovarian damage, and iv) ART might shorten time to pregnancy and increase chances, but does not allow for natural conception. Advice on fertility care, including ART and surgery, is often based on moderate to poor quality evidence and experts’ opinions.

It is important to be able to counsel women with endometriosis adequately, especially when multiple treatments are available and there is no one perfect treatment. Therefore, good quality of care and insights in patient preferences are key. It is important to understand current patient-centeredness of endometriosis care. What can be improved? How can we best support women with endometriosis? What do they need? What are their experiences and how should we change our care in the future?
O-180 Body mass index (BMI) is not associated with ovarian response to gonadotropin during IVF/ICSI treatment: An evaluation of 4499 IVF/ICSI cycles
Authors: Petersen C.G , Massaro F.C , Petersen B , Vagnini L , Nicoletti A , Ricci J , Zamara C , Oliani A.H , Oliveira J.B.A , Dieamant F , Franco J.G.
Published: June 2022

Study question

Is there an association between body mass index (BMI) and ovarian response in IVF/ICSI treatment?

Summary answer

BMI does not seem to be associated with the ovarian response to gonadotropin.

What is known already

Obesity is becoming an increasingly widespread health problem. Elevated BMI in patients who undergo assisted reproduction technology has been associated with higher doses of gonadotropins, higher risks of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, increased cancellation rates, and lower oocyte recovery compared to women with normal BMI. In addition, overweight and obese women submitted to IVF may present reduced rates of clinical pregnancy and live births and an increased miscarriage rate. However, population differences should be considered.

Study design, size, duration

This prospective cohort study included 4499 women who underwent IVF/ICSI cycles. Only one cycle per couple was considered. Inclusion criteria included normal karyotype, presence of two ovaries as observed by ultrasound examination, and no history of ovarian surgery, endometriosis, hydrosalpinx, infection, or endocrine disorders. Patients were stratified into four groups by BMI: <18.5 kg/m2 (underweight); 18.5-24.9 kg/m2 (normal weight); 25-29.9 kg/m2 (overweight); and ≥30 kg/m2 (obesity).

Participants/materials, setting, methods

The BMI values were associated with age, anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels, antral follicle counts (AFC), total dose of FSH and LH, number of follicles and number of retrieved oocytes (total and metaphase II) of IVF/ICSI cycles. The statistical analyses for group comparisons were performed using t test, Mann–Whitney test and the Kruskal–Wallis test.

Main results and the role of chance

No statistically significant differences were observed between BMI groups regarding age, AMH levels, AFC, dose of gonadotropin used (FSH and LH), days of stimulation, number of follicles and number of retrieved eggs (total and metaphase II). Table 1 summarizes the results.

Limitations, reasons for caution

A possible limitation is the cross-sectional nature of the data. Differences in sample size between BMI groups may have influenced the results.

Wider implications of the findings

Against common sense in the literature, the results did not reveal a relationship between BMI and the ovarian response to gonadotropins. BMI as an additional tool in the individualization of ovarian stimulation protocols should be reviewed.

Trial registration number

Not applicable.
O-214 New Study of 529 Donor-Conceived Adults
Authors: Kramer W
Published: June 2022

Study question

Does how and when a donor-conceived person (DCP) learns about their conception significantly affect their experiences and choices, including whether they’d consider using a donor or donating their own gametes?

Summary answer

DCP are more likely to have neutral/positive feelings if told at a very young age about their donor origins by a family member.

What is known already

DCP have reported that knowing about the methodology of their conception from an early age is optimal. 

Study design, size, duration

A cross-sectional survey of adult DCP was disseminated to registered users of the Donor Sibling Registry (DSR) in 2021. The survey consisted of 31 items including whether experience as DCP was positive or negative, the willingness to use donor gametes if spontaneous conception was not an option, and included questions regarding donating gametes. 

Participants/materials, setting, methods

529 people (81.7% female) completed the survey.  The median age was 28 years (range 18-77 years) and 94.7% were conceived via donor sperm.

Main results and the role of chance

Most felt “neutral” (31.6%), “positive” (26.3%) or “very positive” (20.8%) about being a DCP regardless of donor type (sperm vs. oocyte vs. embryo).  While most found out about being a DCP after age 18 (63.4%), those with a positive experience were more likely to “have always known” (40.7%). 

Those with a positive experience were not more likely to consider the donor a relative (46.4%) or have an ongoing relationship with one or more half-siblings from the same donor (24.5%). A negative experience being a DCP was associated with having medical complications due to a lack of a complete health history (30.0%).

Willingness to utilize donor gametes if unable to conceive spontaneously was low (31.9%) and few had considered or used donor gametes in the past (12.1%). However, DCP who rated their overall experience as neutral/positive were significantly more likely to be willing to consider using donors themselves if needed (39.8%). 

Only 1.9% (10) DCP had donated sperm, oocytes, or embryos.  DCPs who were donors tended to be less likely to have an ongoing relationship with their own donor (50%) but were no more likely to have an ongoing relationship with a half-sibling(s) from the same donor (85.7%)

Limitations, reasons for caution

Because it is not known how many donor-conceived people exist, we don't know what percentage of them have responded to this survey.

Wider implications of the findings

People conceived by donor-assisted reproduction are more likely to have neutral to positive overall feelings surrounding their conception if they are told at a very young age about their donor-conceived origins by a family member. Early disclosure should therefore be an integral part of any prospective parent counseling.

Trial registration number

Not applicable
O-317 Panel discussion: Refugee Embryos: Abandon or Rescue? what policies should nations with third party reproduction programs consider to repatriate the gametes of foreign couples
Authors: Everingham S
Published: June 2022

Ukraine's large population, low salaries and medical expertise along with being one of just a handful of countries with laws regulating surrogacy for foreigners meant that following South-east Asian governments closure of unregulated surrogacy programs, Ukraine emerged in 2016 as the European hub for affordable surrogacy and Donor IVF programs for heterosexual married couples from around the globe. Thousands of infertile couples utilised Ukraine surrogacy programs over the following six years. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 it is estimated that over 30,000 embryos and gametes belonging to foreigners were in Ukraine storage facilities. Some of these have been temporarily re-located to safer cities or neighbouring countries. This session discusses the difficulties patients face in finding a new home' for these embryos, given the very limited number of countries with capacity and laws which support surrogacy programs. This discussion also considers the differences in individual countries own laws around the ability to accept embryos where anonymous donors were used and what national regulatory bodies could do to ensure these refugee embryos find safe harbour.

Trial registration number
P-016 Effects of the different partial deletions in the AZFc locus of Y-chromosome on the ICSI outcome of severe oligospermia patients
Authors: Guo H , Xia Y
Published: June 2022

Study question

To investigate the effects of different partial deletions in AZFc locus of Y-chromosome on the clinical outcome of severe oligospermia patients by intracytoplasmic single sperm injection (ICSI)

Summary answer

B2/b3 and b2/b4 deletion in the AZFc locus of Y chromosome have no significant effect on pregnancy outcome in patients with severe oligospermia undergoing ICSI.

What is known already

Thanks to the development of high-throughput sequencing for Y chromosome microdeletion, AZFc deletions can be accurately divided into b2/b4, gr/gr, b2/b3 and b1/b3 types. However, there is no relevant research on the effect of different partial deletion types of AZFc on the outcome of assisted reproduction.

Study design, size, duration

According to whether carrying AZFc microdeletions or not, the patients were divided into AZFc-deletion group and control group. And AZFc-deletion group was divided into 3 subgroups by the types of partial deletion.

Participants/materials, setting, methods

A retrospective analysis was conducted on the patients undergoing high-throughput sequencing for Y chromosome microdeletion screening and ICSI treatment in our hospital from December 2017 to February 2019.

Main results and the role of chance

The AZFc b2/b3 deletion group had no significant difference in D3 availability, high-quality embryo rate, blastocyst formation rate, implantation rate, clinical pregnancy rate and live birth rate, and the control group (P > 0.05). The rate of high-quality embryos in patients with the b2/b4 deletion was lower than that of the control group (23.2% vs. 34.3%, P = 0.004), but there was no statistical difference in other indicators.

Limitations, reasons for caution

In this study, we included only patients who underwent ICSI with ejaculate sperm for analysis, but not patients who had successfully obtained sperm through surgery.

Wider implications of the findings

This study helps clinicians provide more detailed and comprehensive infertility risk answers during consultations with such patients to reduce the mental stress of patients.

Trial registration number

not applicable