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Objective This study conducted a preliminary examination of the effects of three-area laser-assisted zona thinning (LAZT) during the cleavage stage of embryo development on the hatching process in human in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET) with subjects of advanced female age or frozen-thawed (FT) embryos. Methods Eight-cell stage embryos were treated with LAZT in three areas of the zona pellucida at 120° intervals. The control group was embryos without LAZT. Of the 72 consecutive fresh cycles and the 28 FT embryo transfer cycles, the patients in 55 fresh cycles and 17 FT cycles declined LAZT, and those cycles were defined as the control group. Results In the fresh cycles, the pregnancy rates were similar in the LAZT and control groups. However, in the FT cycles, the pregnancy rate was significantly higher in the LAZT group than in the control group (45.5% in the LAZT group vs. 23.5% in the control group, p Conclusion These results show that multi-area LAZT resulted in significantly improved pregnancy outcomes in human 8-cell embryos compared to controls.

A new strategy to modulate the detection range of a molecular beacon aptamer (MBA)/conjugated polyelectrolyte (CPE)-based adenosine triphosphate (ATP) assay is suggested. The hairpin type probe, MBA contains the ATP-specific aptamer sequence in a loop part and a green fluorophore (6-carboxyfluorescein, 6-FAM) and quencher (4-((4-(dimethylamino)phenyl)azo)benzoic acid) at both termini of stem parts. Three kinds of water-soluble poly(fluorene-phenylene) based CPEs (MP2–MP6) were synthesized by varying the number of cationic groups (2 to 6) per repeat unit. In the absence of ATP, the hairpin MBA is transformed into open-chain conformation by forming a linear electrostatic complex with CPE, enabling facile fluorescence resonance energy transfer from blue-emitting CPEs to 6-FAM in MBA. In the presence of ATP, MBA forms a G-quadruplex with ATP where the close contact between the fluorophore and quencher results in the quenched PL signal of 6-FAM. The binding interaction between the aptamer and ATP in the G-quadruplex shows resistance to the structural opening by CPEs and the ionic density of CPEs was proved to have an important role in the structural transformation of the ATP-MBA G-quadruplex into the linear open-chain MBA/CPE complex. By increasing the ionic density of CPEs, structural transformation toward open-chain MBA/CPE complexes was accelerated due to enhanced electrostatic interaction between the MBA and CPE, resulting in a detection range shift to a higher [ATP]. By simply modifying the number of ionic groups in CPE, the population shift toward open-chain MBA/CPE demonstrates the successful tuning of detection range from nanomolar up to millimolar concentrations of ATP.

Incarceration of gravid uterus is a rare condition, occurring in one in 3,000 to 10,000 pregnancies during second trimester. Incarceration of uterus can cause several complications, such as uterine rupture, labor dystocia, and uncontrollable postpartum hemorrhage. Early diagnosis is important to prevent these complications, but there are no standard treatments of incarceration of gravid uterus. The authors present a case report of incarceration of gravid uterus caused by growing subserosal myoma, which was treated with myomectomy during second trimester.

This study was designed to determine which mechanical artificial shrinkage (AS) method, conducted by puncture, pipetting, or aspiration, was effective in increasing the re-expansion rate of mouse blastocysts.In each group, 30 mouse blastocysts were used. Before vitrification, the blastocoelic cavity was collapsed by puncture with a micro-needle, pipetting with a micro-glass pipette, and direct aspiration with an ICSI pipette. After thawing, the re-expansion rate of blastocysts was examined for each AS method. Re-expansion rate was checked at three, five, and seven hours after thawing.The number of re-expanded mouse blastocysts at five hours after thawing was 12 in the puncture with a micro-needle group, 11 in the pipetting with a micro-glass pipette group, and 24 in the direct aspiration with an ICSI pipette group. The cumulative number of re-expanded mouse blastocysts at seven hours after thawing was 20 in the puncture with a micro-needle group, 20 in the pipetting with a micro-glass pipette group, and 28 in the direct aspiration with an ICSI pipette group. There were statistically significant differences in the cumulative number of re-expanded mouse blastocysts between five and seven hours after thawing (p = 0.001 and 0.021, respectively).Direct aspiration with an ICSI pipette resulted in a higher re-expansion rate than the puncture and pipetting methods. It can be considered that the direct aspiration method is more convenient and simpler than the other two methods.

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) is a rare neurologic disorder. It is also known as pseudotumor cerebri. The incidence of IIH is one to two per 100,000 population annually. The higher incidence is in obese women from 15 to 44 years. The main symptoms are headache and visual loss. It mostly affects women of childbearing age who are overweight or obese. There are many theories of pathogenesis of IIH, but precise pathogenesis is unknown. One of the causes of IIH is intracranial venous sinus thrombosis. It can cause increased cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure by obstruction of venous outflow and blocking of CSF absorption. In polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) patients, thrombogenic tendency is increased due to increased aromatization of testosterone to estradiol which could induce estrogen-mediated thrombophilia. The authors present a 14-year-old girl with PCOS stigma who presented with a severe headache and papilledema. These symptoms were not improved by standard medical therapy of IIH and PCOS, but improved after laparoscopic ovarian drilling. The authors report it with a review of the literature.

A soluble boron-free small modular pressurized water reactor (SMPWR) uses burnable absorbers (BA) instead of soluble boron to reduce excess reactivity. As a consequence, the fuel cycle length can be shortened by the residual penalty of BA. This paper performs cutback sensitivity tests to extend the cycle length. The influence of the height of the cutback, of the 235U enrichment rate, and of the BA material on the power peaking factor (Fq), the axial offset (AO) and the fuel cycle length is analyzed with the reactor core design system, CASMO-4E/SIMULATE-3 code system.