Sperm retrieval by conventional testicular sperm extraction for assisted reproduction in patients with Zinner syndrome

Cito Gianmartin,Luca Gemma1,Claudia Giachini,Micelli Elisabetta,Cocci Andrea,Fucci Rossella,Picone Rita,Simone Sforza,Gabriella Nesi,Raffaella Santi,Minervini Andrea,Lorenzo Masier,Carini Marco,Coccia 대한생식의학회 2021 Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine Vol.48 No.1

We present data from three Caucasian men with Zinner syndrome who attended our center for the treatment of primary couple’s infertility. Each patient was scheduled for multiple conventional testicular sperm extraction (cTESE) and cryopreservation. The mean duration of infertility was 243 months. Sperm analysis confirmed absolute azoospermia. In patient 1, imaging revealed right and left testis volumes of 24 mL and 23 mL, respectively; dilatation of the right caput epididymis, corpus, and cauda; left seminal vesicle agenesis; severe right seminal vesicle hypotrophy; right renal agenesis; and left nephroptosis. The patient’s levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and total testosterone (TT) were 3.2 IU/L, 5.2 IU/L, and 22.3 nmol/L, respectively. Patient 2 exhibited right and left testis volumes of 18 mL and 16 mL, respectively; a left seminal vesicle cyst of 3228 mm; ipsilateral kidney absence; and right seminal vesicle agenesis. The patient’s levels of FSH, LH, and TT were 2.8 IU/L, 4.2 IU/L, and 14.3 nmol/L, respectively. In patient 3, ultrasound showed a testicular volume of 10 mL bilaterally, a 6546 mm left seminal vesicle cyst, right seminal vesicle enlargement, and left kidney agenesis. The patient’s levels of FSH, LH, and TT were 32.0 IU/L, 16.3 IU/L, and 9.0 nmol/L, respectively. Sperm retrieval via cTESE was successful in all patients. It may be advisable to perform cTESE to obtain fresh sperm on the day of oocyte retrieval. Sperm cryopreservation should be avoided, since thawing could further compromise the sperm quality.

Effects of Fine LWA and SAP as Internal Water Curing Agents

Gemma Rodriguez de Sensale,Arlindo Freitas Goncalves 한국콘크리트학회 2014 International Journal of Concrete Structures and M Vol.8 No.3

Typical high-performance concrete (HPC) mixtures are characterized by lowwater-cementitiousmaterial ratios, high cement contents, and the incorporation of admixtures. In spite of its superior properties in the hardened state, HPC suffers from many practical difficulties such as its sensitivity to early-age cracking (which is associated with self-desiccation and autogenous shrinkage). In this context, conventional curing procedures are not sufficiently effective to address these limitations. In order to overcome this issue, two strategies, which are based on the use of internal reservoirs of water, have been recently developed. One of these strategies is based on the use of lightweight aggregates (LWA), while the other is based on the use of superabsorbent polymers (SAP). This paper studies and compares the efficiency of the LWA and SAP approaches. Moreover, some of the theoretical aspects that should be taken into account to optimize their application for internal curing of HPC are also discussed. Two fine LWA’s and one SAP are studied in terms of autogenous deformation and compressive strength. Increasing the amounts ofLWAor SAPcan lead to a reduction of the autogenous deformation and compressive strength (especially when adding large amounts). By selecting appropriate materials and controlling their amount, size, and porosity, highly efficient internal water curing can be ensured.

Entrepreneurship, Economic Growth and Unemployment: ACorrelation Study Using International Datasets

Gemma U. Reyes 한국무역연구원 2016 아시아무역연구 Vol.3 No.1

The primary purpose of the study is to provide a quantitative support to the widely held belief that entrepreneurship has a positive influence on economic growth and employment. Through correlation and regression analysis using the latest available data from the World Bank for the data on gross domestic product, International Labor Organization for the unemployment rate and the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute for the global entrepreneurship index, the entrepreneurship variable was correlated with and regressed against the gross domestic product and unemployment rate separately. Based on the coefficients computed using Minitab 17, it appears that entrepreneurship has a positive and significant influence on gross domestic product which is what is commonly expected. As regards the entrepreneurshipunemployment link, the data showed a negative albeit almost negligible correlation between entrepreneurship and unemployment. However, with a P-value much greater than the acceptable alpha of 0.05, this correlation should be dismissed as insignificant. Given these findings especially on the relationship between entrepreneurship and unemployment, national and global efforts towards promoting entrepreneurship may have to be reviewed. Some government and private institutions are advocating innovation-led entrepreneurship through the use of technology particularly in high growth companies. While this may increase production, there may be a tendency for technology to replace labor and thus exacerbate unemployment. There is also a need to look into how business start-ups can be sustained and expanded so that these self-employed entrepreneurs will be able to provide jobs not only for themselves but for many other people as well.

Cats Climb Entails Mammals Move: Preserving Hyponymy in Compositional Distributional Semantics

( Gemma De Las Cuevas ),( Andreas Klingler ),( Martha Lewis ),( Tim Netzer ) 서울대학교 인지과학연구소 2021 Journal of Cognitive Science Vol.22 No.3

To give vector-based representations of meaning more structure, an approach proposed in Piedeleu et al. (2015); Sadrzadeh et al. (2018); Bankova et al. (2018) is to use positive semidefinite (psd) matrices. These allow us to model similarity of words as well as the hyponymy or is-a relationship. To compose words to form phrases and sentences, we may represent adjectives, verbs, and other functional words as multilinear, positivity preserving maps, following the compositional distributional approach introduced in Coecke et al. (2010) and extended to the realm of psd matrices in Piedeleu et al. (2015), but it is not clear how to learn representations of functional words when working with psd matrices. In this paper, we introduce a generic way of composing the psd matrices corresponding to words. We propose that psd matrices for verbs, adjectives, and other functional words be lifted to completely positive (CP) maps that match their grammatical type. This lifting is carried out by our composition rule called Compression, Compr. In contrast to previous composition rules like Fuzz and Phaser (Coecke and Meichanetzidis, 2020) (a.k.a. KMult and BMult (Lewis, 2019a)), Compr preserves hyponymy. Mathematically, Compr is itself a CP map, and is therefore linear and generally non-commutative. We give a number of proposals for the structure of Compr, based on spiders, cups, and caps, and generate a range of composition rules. We test these rules on sentence entailment datasets from Kartsaklis and Sadrzadeh (2016), and see some improvements over the performance of Fuzz and Phaser. We go on to estimate the parameters of a simplified form of Compr based on entailment information from the aforementioned datasets, and find that whilst this learnt operator does not consistently outperform previously proposed mechanisms, it is competitive and has the potential to improve with the use of a less simplified version.

Lower Body Motion Analysis to Detect Falls and Near Falls on Stairs

Gemma S. Parra-Dominguez,Jasper Snoek,Babak Taati,Alex Mihailidis 대한의용생체공학회 2015 Biomedical Engineering Letters (BMEL) Vol.5 No.2

Purpose We present a methodology to automatically detect falls on stairs, an application of computer vision and machine learning techniques with major real-world importance. Falls on the stairs, in particular, are a common cause of injury among older adults. Comprehending the conditions under which accidents take place could significantly aid in the prevention of falls, support independent living, and improve quality of life. Methods We extract a set of features, composed of Fourier coefficients and entropy metrics of instantaneous velocities from 3D motion sensor data, to encode lower body motion during stair navigation. A supervised learning algorithm is then trained on manually annotated data simulated in a home laboratory. Results In our empirical analysis, the algorithm obtains high fall detection accuracy (> 92%) and a low false positive rate (5-7%). In contrast with previous research, we identify that motion of the hips, rather than that of the feet, is the best indicator of dangerous activity given the 3D trajectory of various lower body joints. It is also shown that entropy measures alone provide sufficient information to detect abnormal events on stairs. Conclusions The study of falls is difficult due to their exceedingly sparse nature; but an automatic non-contact fall detection system can assist in data collection by sieving through large quantities of data, e.g., from public stairways.

Entrepreneurship, Economic Growth and Unemployment: A Correlation Study Using International Datasets

Gemma U. Reyes 아시아무역학회 2016 Journal of Asia Trade and Business Vol.3 No.1

The primary purpose of the study is to provide a quantitative support to the widely held belief that entrepreneurship has a positive influence on economic growth and employment. Through correlation and regression analysis using the latest available data from the World Bank for the data on gross domestic product, International Labor Organization for the unemployment rate and the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute for the global entrepreneurship index, the entrepreneurship variable was correlated with and regressed against the gross domestic product and unemployment rate separately. Based on the coefficients computed using Minitab 17, it appears that entrepreneurship has a positive and significant influence on gross domestic product which is what is commonly expected. As regards the entrepreneurshipunemployment link, the data showed a negative albeit almost negligible correlation between entrepreneurship and unemployment. However, with a P-value much greater than the acceptable alpha of 0.05, this correlation should be dismissed as insignificant. Given these findings especially on the relationship between entrepreneurship and unemployment, national and global efforts towards promoting entrepreneurship may have to be reviewed. Some government and private institutions are advocating innovation-led entrepreneurship through the use of technology particularly in high growth companies. While this may increase production, there may be a tendency for technology to replace labor and thus exacerbate unemployment. There is also a need to look into how business start-ups can be sustained and expanded so that these self-employed entrepreneurs will be able to provide jobs not only for themselves but for many other people as well.

Immediate Partial Breast and Nipple-Areola Complex Reconstruction Using a Superficial Circumflex Iliac Artery Perforator Flap

Gemma Pons,Lucia Sisternas,Jaume Masia Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surge 2024 Archives of Plastic Surgery Vol.51 No.2

The superficial circumflex iliac artery perforator (SCIP) flap is a versatile flap that has been described for various applications, mostly for lower extremity coverage and head and neck reconstructions. However, there are few publications reporting its use for breast reconstruction, mainly because of its low volume availability. In this article, we present the case of a patient who successfully underwent a partial breast and immediate nipple-areola complex (NAC) reconstruction with an SCIP flap. She had been previously reconstructed with an implant after a nipple-sparing mastectomy, but the NAC turned out to be involved with cancer needing further resection. Our goal with this article, is to introduce a novel concept for addressing partial breast and NAC reconstruction and mostly, to illustrate the importance of an adaptable surgical plan based on every individual case emphasizing the versality of microsurgery for breast cancer reconstruction.

Increasing Housing Production in England

Gemma Burgess 한국주거학회 2015 한국주거학회 국제학술대회논문집 Vol.2015 No.4

Examining the Revealed Comparative Advantage of the ASEAN6 Countries Using the Balassa Index and Lafay Index

Gemma U. Reyes 한국무역연구원 2014 The International Academy of Global Business and T Vol.10 No.1

Using the Balassa Index and the Lafay Index, this paper examined the revealed comparative advantage of the first six ASEAN member nations for the period 2007-2011. Findings show that in the region, Brunei has the greatest comparative advantage in oil while Indonesia and Malaysia have an advantage in animal, vegetable fats and oils, cleavage products and similar products. The Philippines is advantageously placed in electrical and electronic equipment and Singapore has a distinct advantage in organic chemicals. Among all the ASEAN6 countries, only Thailand enjoys an advantage in vehicles other than railway, tramway. The paper also identified areas of cooperation or competition and proposed some general recommendations for each country.

Elucidation of Dormancy on Temperate Fruit Trees with Approaches of Aquaporin Gene Expression and MRI Observation in Relation to Water Movement in the Dormant Bud

Hiroshi Gemma 한국원예학회 2008 한국원예학회 기타간행물 Vol.- No.-