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Copyright of Die Gynäkologie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

En la presente publicación se resumen los anillamientos y recuperaciones de las aves anilladas por la Estación Ornitológica de San Sebastián entre los años 1997 y 2000. En este lapso de tiempo han sido anilladas 9.423 aves pertenecientes a 125 especies y subespecies diferentes. 1.459 fueron anilladas como pollos y las 7.964 restantes como volanderos. Además se detallan por especie las 152.488 aves anilladas durante los 52 años de existencia de la Estación Ornitológica de San Sebastián pertenecientes a 230 especies.

Study Question: Can an artificial intelligence (AI) model predict human embryo ploidy status using static images captured by optical light microscopy?Summary Answer: Results demonstrated predictive accuracy for embryo euploidy and showed a significant correlation between AI score and euploidy rate, based on assessment of images of blastocysts at Day 5 after IVF.What Is Known Already: Euploid embryos displaying the normal human chromosomal complement of 46 chromosomes are preferentially selected for transfer over aneuploid embryos (abnormal complement), as they are associated with improved clinical outcomes. Currently, evaluation of embryo genetic status is most commonly performed by preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A), which involves embryo biopsy and genetic testing. The potential for embryo damage during biopsy, and the non-uniform nature of aneuploid cells in mosaic embryos, has prompted investigation of additional, non-invasive, whole embryo methods for evaluation of embryo genetic status.Study Design, Size, Duration: A total of 15 192 blastocyst-stage embryo images with associated clinical outcomes were provided by 10 different IVF clinics in the USA, India, Spain and Malaysia. The majority of data were retrospective, with two additional prospectively collected blind datasets provided by IVF clinics using the genetics AI model in clinical practice. Of these images, a total of 5050 images of embryos on Day 5 of in vitro culture were used for the development of the AI model. These Day 5 images were provided for 2438 consecutively treated women who had undergone IVF procedures in the USA between 2011 and 2020. The remaining images were used for evaluation of performance in different settings, or otherwise excluded for not matching the inclusion criteria.Participants/materials, Setting, Methods: The genetics AI model was trained using static 2-dimensional optical light microscope images of Day 5 blastocysts with linked genetic metadata obtained from PGT-A. The endpoint was ploidy status (euploid or aneuploid) based on PGT-A results. Predictive accuracy was determined by evaluating sensitivity (correct prediction of euploid), specificity (correct prediction of aneuploid) and overall accuracy. The Matthew correlation coefficient and receiver-operating characteristic curves and precision-recall curves (including AUC values), were also determined. Performance was also evaluated using correlation analyses and simulated cohort studies to evaluate ranking ability for euploid enrichment.Main Results and the Role Of Chance: Overall accuracy for the prediction of euploidy on a blind test dataset was 65.3%, with a sensitivity of 74.6%. When the blind test dataset was cleansed of poor quality and mislabeled images, overall accuracy increased to 77.4%. This performance may be relevant to clinical situations where confounding factors, such as variability in PGT-A testing, have been accounted for. There was a significant positive correlation between AI score and the proportion of euploid embryos, with very high scoring embryos (9.0-10.0) twice as likely to be euploid than the lowest-scoring embryos (0.0-2.4). When using the genetics AI model to rank embryos in a cohort, the probability of the top-ranked embryo being euploid was 82.4%, which was 26.4% more effective than using random ranking, and ∼13-19% more effective than using the Gardner score. The probability increased to 97.0% when considering the likelihood of one of the top two ranked embryos being euploid, and the probability of both top two ranked embryos being euploid was 66.4%. Additional analyses showed that the AI model generalized well to different patient demographics and could also be used for the evaluation of Day 6 embryos and for images taken using multiple time-lapse systems. Results suggested that the AI model could potentially be used to differentiate mosaic embryos based on the level of mosaicism.Limitations, Reasons For Caution: While the current investigation was performed using both retrospectively and prospectively collected data, it will be important to continue to evaluate real-world use of the genetics AI model. The endpoint described was euploidy based on the clinical outcome of PGT-A results only, so predictive accuracy for genetic status in utero or at birth was not evaluated. Rebiopsy studies of embryos using a range of PGT-A methods indicated a degree of variability in PGT-A results, which must be considered when interpreting the performance of the AI model.Wider Implications Of the Findings: These findings collectively support the use of this genetics AI model for the evaluation of embryo ploidy status in a clinical setting. Results can be used to aid in prioritizing and enriching for embryos that are likely to be euploid for multiple clinical purposes, including selection for transfer in the absence of alternative genetic testing methods, selection for cryopreservation for future use or selection for further confirmatory PGT-A testing, as required.Study Funding/competing Interest(s): Life Whisperer Diagnostics is a wholly owned subsidiary of the parent company, Presagen Holdings Pty Ltd. Funding for the study was provided by Presagen with grant funding received from the South Australian Government: Research, Commercialisation, and Startup Fund (RCSF). 'In kind' support and embryology expertise to guide algorithm development were provided by Ovation Fertility. 'In kind' support in terms of computational resources provided through the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Activate Program. J.M.M.H., D.P. and M.P. are co-owners of Life Whisperer and Presagen. S.M.D., M.A.D. and T.V.N. are employees or former employees of Life Whisperer. S.M.D, J.M.M.H, M.A.D, T.V.N., D.P. and M.P. are listed as inventors of patents relating to this work, and also have stock options in the parent company Presagen. M.V. sits on the advisory board for the global distributor of the technology described in this study and also received support for attending meetings.Trial Registration Number: N/A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate theoretically the influence of a dielectric layer on light emission induced by a scanning tunneling microscope through a combined approach of classical electrodynamics and first-principles calculations. The modification of the junction geometry upon the insertion of a dielectric layer is treated first by using the density functional theory to calculate the effective potential along the surface normal and then by solving a one-dimensional Schrödinger equation to obtain the exact distance between the tip and the substrate for a given current and bias voltage. The modified external field with the inclusion of a dielectric layer is evaluated by using the Fresnel formula. The local-field enhancement factor and radiated power are calculated by the boundary element method for two typical systems, W-tip/C60/Au(111) and W-tip/Al2O3/NiAl(110). The calculated results indicate that the insertion of a dielectric layer tends to reduce the light emission intensity considerably but hardly changes the spectral profile with no substantial peak shifts with respect to the layer-free situation, in agreement with experimental observations. The suppression of the radiated power is mainly due to the increase in the tip-metal separation and the resultant reduction in the electromagnetic coupling between the tip and metal substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gynäkologische Endokrinologie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Study Question: Is it possible to determine the receptivity status of an endometrium by combined quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) expression analysis of genes involved in endometrial proliferation and immunity?Summary Answer: The new ER Map®/ER Grade® test can predict endometrial receptivity status by RT-qPCR using a new panel of genes involved in endometrial proliferation and the maternal immune response associated to embryonic implantation.What Is Known Already: The human endometrium reaches a receptive status adequate for embryonic implantation around Days 19-21 of the menstrual cycle. During this period, known as the window of implantation (WOI), the endometrium shows a specific gene expression profile suitable for endometrial function evaluation. The number of molecular diagnostic tools currently available to characterize this process is very limited. In this study, a new system for human endometrial receptivity evaluation was optimized and presented for the first time.Study Design, Size, Duration: ER Map®/ER Grade® validation was achieved on 312 endometrial samples including fertile women and patients undergoing fertility treatment between July 2014 and March 2016. Expression analyses of 184 genes involved in endometrial receptivity and immune response were performed. Samples were additionally tested with an independent endometrial receptivity test.Participants/materials, Setting, Methods: A total of 96 fertile women and 120 assisted reproduction treatment (ART) patients participated in the study. Endometrial biopsy samples were obtained at LH + 2 and LH + 7 days in fertile subjects in a natural cycle and at the window of implantation (WOI) in patients in a hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) cycle. Total RNA was purified, quality-checked and reverse-transcribed. Gene expression was quantified by high-throughput RT-qPCR and statistically analyzed. Informative genes were selected and used to classify samples into four different groups of endometrial receptivity status.Main Results and the Role Of Chance: Significantly different gene expression levels were found in 85 out of 184 selected genes when comparing LH + 2 and LH + 7 samples (paired t-test, P < 0.05). Gene ontology analyses revealed that cell division and proliferation, cell signaling and response, extracellular organization and communication, immunological activity, vascular proliferation, blood pressure regulation and embryo implantation are the most over-represented biological terms in this group of genes. Principal component analysis and discriminant functional analysis showed that 40 of the differentially expressed genes allowed accurate classification of samples according to endometrial status (proliferative, pre-receptive, receptive and post-receptive) in both fertile and infertile groups.Large Scale Data: N/A.Limitations, Reasons For Caution: To evaluate the efficacy of this new tool to improve ART outcomes, further investigations such as non-selection studies and randomized controlled trials will also be required.Wider Implications Of the Findings: A new comprehensive system for human endometrial receptivity evaluation based on gene expression analysis has been developed. The identification of the optimal time for embryo transfer is essential to maximize the effectiveness of ART. This study is a new step in the field of personalized medicine in human reproduction which may help in the management of endometrial preparation for embryo transfer, increasing the chances of pregnancy for many couples.Study Funding/competing Interest(s): The authors have no potential conflict of interest to declare. No external funding was obtained for this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design strategies that benefit from the reuse of system components can reduce costs while maintaining or increasing dependability-we use the term dependability to tie together reliability and availability. D3H2 (aDaptive Dependable Design for systems with Homogeneous and Heterogeneous redundancies) is a methodology that supports the design of complex systems with a focus on reconfiguration and component reuse. D3H2 systematizes the identification of heterogeneous redundancies and optimizes the design of fault detection and reconfiguration mechanisms, by enabling the analysis of design alternatives with respect to dependability and cost. In this paper, we extend D3H2 for application to repairable systems. The method is extended with analysis capabilities allowing dependability assessment of complex reconfigurable systems. Analysed scenarios include time-dependencies between failure events and the corresponding reconfiguration actions. We demonstrate how D3H2 can support decisions about fault detection and reconfiguration that seek to improve dependability while reducing costs via application to a realistic railway case study. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Question: Is permeable cryoprotectant-free vitrification of native sperm samples a good alternative to conventional slow freezing?Summary Answer: The permeable cryoprotectant-free sperm vitrification protocol tested in this study renders considerably better recovery rates of good quality sperm compared to slow freezing.What Is Known Already: Slow freezing is currently the most commonly used technique for sperm cryopreservation, though this method has been repeatedly shown to have negative effects on both structural and functional sperm features. New alternative methods such as vitrification have been established as a successful alternative in other reproductive cell types, but vitrification of spermatozoa is still a rather unexplored methodology, with limited studies showing its efficacy in male gametes.Study Design Size, Duration: This study included 18 normozoospermic sperm samples from patients seeking ART treatment between 2014 and 2015. The effects of a new vitrification protocol on functional and structural sperm quality parameters in comparison to fresh and slow-frozen samples were assessed.Participants/materials, Setting, Methods: All samples were divided into three aliquots: fresh (F), slow freezing-thawing (S) and vitrification-warming (V). Sperm concentration, motility, morphology, vitality, DNA fragmentation, cytoskeleton integrity and spontaneous acrosome reaction were assessed and compared between the groups.Main Results and the Role Of Chance: Results showed improved preservation of sperm features after vitrification compared to conventional freezing. Permeable cryoprotectant-free vitrification presented a significantly higher percentage of live spermatozoa, than slow freezing, better preservation of acrosomes was achieved in vitrified samples and DNA fragmentation was reduced approximately one-third on average compared to slow freezing. Regarding tubulin assay, three different labelling patterns were observed. The frequency of these labelling patterns was similar in F and V groups but this was not the case of the S group. The multivariate analysis of all sperm quality parameters studied revealed that the V group presented features that are closer to the F group than the S group, indicating that samples are better preserved through vitrification than slow freezing.Limitations Reasons For Caution: This validation has been undertaken only on normozoospermic sperm samples. It would be necessary to compare these results in pathological samples and also to evaluate the influence of the application of this methodology on clinical outcomes.Wider Implications Of the Findings: The sperm vitrification protocol here described warrants better maintenance of sperm quality parameters than traditional freezing methods and may be a good alternative to preserve sperm samples from patients seeking IVF treatment.Study Funding/competing Interest(s): This study was funded by IVF-Spain Foundation. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluorescence imaging of hybrid nanostructures composed of a bacterial light-harvesting complex LH2 and Au nanorods with controlled coupling strength is employed to study the spectral dependence of the plasmon-induced fluorescence enhancement. Perfect matching of the plasmon resonances in the nanorods with the absorption bands of the LH2 complexes facilitates a direct comparison of the enhancement factors for longitudinal and transverse plasmon frequencies of the nanorods. We find that the fluorescence enhancement due to excitation of longitudinal resonance can be up to five-fold stronger than for the transverse one. We attribute this result, which is important for designing plasmonic functional systems, to a very different distribution of the enhancement of the electric field due to the excitation of the two characteristic plasmon modes in nanorods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acoustic surface plasmons are low energy collective excitations occurring at metallic surfaces. These excitations show a linear dispersion which can be described using realistic quantum-mechanical models. The response function of Ag(111) films is calculated and an effective dielectric function of the films is obtained. With use of this dielectric function the scattering of silver nanoparticles in the infrared range is calculated, with focus on the possibility of excitation of localized acoustic surface plasmons. Our calculations show that it is possible to excite optically localized acoustic surface plasmons in silver spheres, although the efficiency is very low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a theoretical study of the optical properties of nanoparticle dimers connected by conductive gap linkers. The geometrical and conductive properties of the linker modify strongly the optical response of the linked metallic cavity. Two plasmonic modes are responsible for the main spectral features of the cavity: a bonding dimer plasmon (BDP) and a charge transfer plasmon (CTP).We first explore how these two modes are modified as a function of the geometry and the conductance through the cavity, identifying the spatial distribution of the linking current densities. Furthermore, we introduce a resonant feature in the conductivity of the linker, where we observe a complex splitting of the plasmon modes. We also study the capabilities of the BDP and CTP modes in localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical and infrared antennas enable a variety of cutting-edge applications ranging from nanoscale photodetectors to highly sensitive biosensors. All these applications critically rely on the optical near-field interaction between the antenna and its ‘load’ (biomolecules or semiconductors). However, it is largely unexplored how antenna loading affects the near-field response. Here, we use scattering-type near-field microscopy to monitor the evolution of the near-field oscillations of infrared gap antennas progressively loaded with metallic bridges of varying size. Our results provide direct experimental evidence that the local near-field amplitude and phase can be controlled by antenna loading, in excellent agreement with numerical calculations. By modelling the antenna loads as nanocapacitors and nanoinductors, we show that the change of near-field patterns induced by the load can be understood within the framework of circuit theory. Targeted antenna loading provides an excellent means of engineering complex antenna configurations in coherent control applications, adaptive nano-optics and metamaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the observation of second-order infrared (IR) plasmon resonances in lithographically prepared gold nanorods investigated by means of far-field microscopic IR spectroscopy. In addition to the fundamental antennalike mode, even and odd higher order resonances are observed under normal incidence of light. The activation of even-order modes under normal incidence is surprising since even orders are dipole-forbidden because of their centrosymmetric charge density oscillation. Performing atomic force microscopy and calculations with the boundary element method, we determine that excitation of even modes is enabled by symmetry breaking by structural deviations of the rods from an ideal, straight shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With infrared spectroscopic microscopy using synchrotron light, the authors studied resonant light scattering from single metal nanowires with diameters in the 100 nm range and with lengths of a few microns. The Au and Cu nanowires were electrochemically grown in polycarbonate etched ion-track membranes and transferred on infrared-transparent substrates. Significant antennalike plasmon resonances were observed in good agreement with exact light-scattering calculations. The resonances depend not only on length and diameter but also on the dielectric surrounding of the nanowire. The observed maximum extinction at resonance corresponds to an electromagnetic far-field enhancement by a factor of about 5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a carbon nanotube as optical near-field probe and apply it to visualize the plasmon fields of metal nanostructures in both amplitude and phase at 30 nm resolution. With 91 nm Au disks designed for fundamental plasmon resonance, we observe the antiphase optical fields near two pole regions that are evidence of dipolar oscillation, in good agreement with theoretical field patterns. This opens the door to phase-sensitively map optical propagation and storage in photonic crystals and nanooptic resonators or circuits, in particular to verify coherent control of plasmon polaritons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]