Recombinant LH supplementation to recombinant FSH during induced ovarian stimulation in the GnRH-antagonist protocol: A meta-analysis

This study aims to compare the efficacy of recombinant LH (rLH) supplementation for ovarian stimulation in gonadotrophin-releasing hormone-antagonist protocol for IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles. Search strategies included online surveys of databases. The fixed effects model was used for odds ratio (OR) and effect size (weighted mean difference, WMD). Five trials fulfilled the inclusion criteria. When the meta-analysis was carried out, advantages were observed for the LH supplementation protocol with respect to higher serum oestradiol concentrations on the day of human chorionic gonadotrophin administration (P < 0.0001; WMD: 514, 95% CI 368, 660) and higher number of mature oocytes (P = 0.0098; WMD: 0.88, 95% CI 0.21, 1.54). However, these differences were not observed in the total amount of recombinant FSH (rFSH) administered, days of stimulation, number of oocytes retrieved, the clinical pregnancy rate per oocyte retrieval, the implantation rate and miscarriage rate. This result demonstrates that the association of rLH with rFSH may prevent any decrease in oestradiol after antagonist administration and that a significantly higher number of mature oocytes was available for laboratory work. Nevertheless, it failed to show any statistically significant difference in clinically significant end-points in IVF (implantation and pregnancy rates). Additional randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm these results further. © 2007 Published by Reproductive Healthcare Ltd.

Heuristics and meta-heuristics for lot sizing and scheduling in the soft drinks industry: A comparison study

This chapter studies a two-level production planning problem where, on each level, a lot sizing and scheduling problem with parallel machines, capacity constraints and sequence-dependent setup costs and times must be solved. The problem can be found in soft drink companies where the production process involves two interdependent levels with decisions concerning raw material storage and soft drink bottling. Models and solution approaches proposed so far are surveyed and conceptually compared. Two different approaches have been selected to perform a series of computational comparisons: an evolutionary technique comprising a genetic algorithm and its memetic version, and a decomposition and relaxation approach. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Meta-heuristic approaches for a soft drink industry problem

The present paper evaluates meta-heuristic approaches to solve a soft drink industry problem. This problem is motivated by a real situation found in soft drink companies, where the lot sizing and scheduling of raw materials in tanks and products in lines must be simultaneously determined. Tabu search, threshold accepting and genetic algorithms are used as procedures to solve the problem at hand. The methods are evaluated with a set of instance already available for this problem. This paper also proposes a new set of complex instances. The computational results comparing these approaches are reported. © 2008 IEEE.

Correlação entre a taxa de fertilização e o fuso meiótico em oócitos humanos: Uma meta-análise

Objective: To investigate the relationship between the presence of meiotic spindle in human oocytes and fertilization rates in ICSI cycles. Methods: Search strategies included online surveys of databases from 1990 to 2008. Nine trials fulfilled the inclusion criteria Results: According to the meta-analysis, the results showed statistically significant higher fertilization rate (p<0.0001) when the meiotic spindle was viewed than when it was not. There was heterogeneity in this comparison. Conclusion: The presence of a birefringent meiotic spindle in human oocytes can predict a higher fertilization rate. This observation has clinical relevance mainly in countries where there is a legal limit on the number of oocytes to be fertilized. Copyright - SBRA - Sociedade Brasileira de Reprodução Assistida.

Progresos en la reducción de la pobreza extrema en América Latina: dimensiones y políticas para el análisis de la primera meta del milenio

Incluye Bibliografía

FTMOntology: An ontology to fill the semantic gap between music, mood, personality, and human physiology

This paper presents a domain ontology, the FeelingTheMusic Ontology - FTMOntology. FTMOntology is designed to represent the complex domain of music and how it relates to other domains like mood, personality and physiology. This includes representing the main concepts and relations of music domain with each of the above-mentioned domains. The concepts and relations between music, mood, personality and physiology. The main contribution of this work is to model and relate these different domains in a consistent ontology. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

Practica anticonceptiva requerida para lograr una meta prescrita de natalidad bruta: un macromodelo propuesto (TABRAP) e ilustraciones hipoteticas

Incluye Bibliografía

A meta-analytical study about the relation of blood plasma addition in diets for piglets in the post-weaning and productive performance variables

The meta-analysis was used to evaluate the performance of piglets in post-weaning period, without imposition of sanitary challenge and fed diets containing blood plasma, obtained by spray-dried process (SDBP). Piglets are faced with normal challenges in post-weaning period such as environmental stress and the substitution of the liquid diet to a solid one. References regarding sanitary challenges were disregarded in this study. Only data regarding normal and expected challenges were considered. Data were obtained from indexed journals with information extracted from the material, methods and results sections of pre-selected scientific articles. First, the database was analyzed graphically to observe the distribution of data and presence of outliers. Afterwards correlation analysis and variance-covariance analyses were carried out. The database contained a total of 23 articles. The average initial weight of the piglets was 8.02. kg (4.00-9.28. kg) and the average initial age was 27 days (14-32 days). The average duration of feeding diets containing spray-dried blood plasma (SDBP) was 9 days (6-28 days). SDBP increased the feed conversion by 20.2% (P<0.05) during the initial period. Feed conversion during the total period was 10.2% higher (P<0.05) for animals fed with SDBP. Average daily weight gain and daily feed intake were not affected (P>0.05) during the entire period, but average daily gain was higher (P<0.05) for animals fed with SDBP during the initial period. The initial age of supplementation influenced the average daily weight gain and average daily feed intake of animals fed with SDBP. Better results were obtained than those obtained for animals up to 35 days of age fed diets without added SDBP supplementation. In early post-weaning period for piglets weaned up to 35 days of age, the SDBP supplementation positively influenced the average daily weight gain and feed conversion. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Estudiando pobreza: la meta de un sistema nacional de estadísticas

Includes bibliography

Estudo do crescimento da cana-de-açúcar através da meta-análise

Pós-graduação em Agronomia (Energia na Agricultura) - FCA

Aplicação de meta-heurísticas na resolução do problema de balanceamento e designação de trabalhadores com deficiência em linha de produção

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Mortalidad en la niñez en la Argentina: disparidades regionales y sociales frente a la cuarta meta del Milenio

En este trabajo se analiza la mortalidad en la niñez en la Argentina. Se argumenta que las brechas entre regiones y entre grupos sociales obstaculizan el logro de la meta acordada en la Declaración del Milenio. Para mostrar la magnitud de esas brechas se usan datos administrativos y microdatos de dos fuentes: el Censo Nacional de Población, Hogares y Viviendas para una de las regiones con más elevada mortalidad (el Noroeste) y la Encuesta de Condiciones de Vida (ECV). A partir de las preguntas a las mujeres entre 15 y 49 años de edad sobre hijos nacidos e hijos sobrevivientes, se construyen indicadores de mortalidad y se analizan los determinantes de la mortalidad en los primeros años de vida.

Meta-análisis de las elasticidades ingreso y precio de la demanda de gasolina: implicaciones de política pública para América Latina

El objetivo de este artículo es estimar, mediante un meta-análisis, el valor promedio de las elasticidades ingreso y precio de la demanda de gasolinas y analizar las causas de la variación en las elasticidades reportadas en la literatura. Los resultados muestran que existe un sesgo de publicación, que la volatilidad de las estimaciones de las elasticidades no se debe exclusivamente a errores de muestreo y que existen factores sistemáticos que explican estas diferencias. Las elasticidades ingreso y precio de la demanda de gasolinas son distintas en el corto y largo plazo, por regiones, y son susceptibles de incluirse en la estimación la flota vehicular y el precio de bienes substitutos, los tipos de datos y métodos de estimación utilizados. La presencia de una baja elasticidad precio sugiere que un impuesto a los combustibles, en un entorno de rápido crecimiento económico, será insuficiente para controlar el aumento del consumo.

Resultados da FIV/ICSI após o desenvolvimento do embrião humano em baixa concentração de oxigênio: uma meta-análise

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)