Conclusion Oocyte recovery rate from follicles >15 mm is unrelated to patients' BMI. Moreover, the oocytes recovered from obese patients are competent yielding comparable zygote and TQE per follicle/oocyte, compared with nonobese patients. Further investigation is required to strengthen this finding.SLC30A8 encodes the zinc transporter ZnT8. SLC30A8 haploinsufficiency protects against type 2 diabetes (T2D), suggesting that ZnT8 inhibitors may prevent T2D. We show here that, while adult chow fed Slc30a8 haploinsufficient and knockout (KO) mice have normal glucose tolerance, they are protected against diet-induced obesity (DIO), resulting in improved glucose tolerance. We hypothesize that this protection against DIO may represent one mechanism whereby SLC30A8 haploinsufficiency protects against T2D in humans and that, while SLC30A8 is predominantly expressed in pancreatic islet beta cells, this may involve a role for ZnT8 in extra-pancreatic tissues. Consistent with this latter concept we show in humans, using electronic health record-derived phenotype analyses, that the 'C' allele of the non-synonymous rs13266634 single nucleotide polymorphism, which confers a gain of ZnT8 function, is associated not only with increased T2D risk and blood glucose but also but also increased risk for hemolytic anemia and decreased mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH). In Slc30a8 KO mice MCH was unchanged but reticulocytes, platelets and lymphocytes were elevated. Both young and adult Slc30a8 KO mice exhibit delayed rise in insulin after glucose injection but only the former exhibit increased basal insulin clearance and impaired glucose tolerance. Young Slc30a8 KO mice also exhibit elevated pancreatic G6pc2 gene expression, potentially mediated by decreased islet zinc levels. These data indicate that the absence of ZnT8 results in a transient impairment in some aspects of metabolism during development. These observations in humans and mice suggest the potential for negative effects associated with T2D prevention using ZnT8 inhibitors.Underwater noise pollution from shipping is globally pervasive and has a range of adverse impacts on species which depend on sound, including marine mammals, sea turtles, fish, and many invertebrates. International bodies including United Nations agencies, the Arctic Council, and the European Union are beginning to address the issue at the policy level, but better evidence is needed to map levels of underwater noise pollution and the potential benefits of management measures such as ship-quieting regulations. Crucially, corroboration of noise maps with field measurements is presently lacking, which undermines confidence in their application to policymaking. We construct a computational model of underwater noise levels in the Northeast Atlantic using Automatic Identification System (AIS) ship-tracking data, wind speed data, and other environmental parameters, and validate this model against field measurements at 4 sites in the North Sea. Overall, model predictions of the median sound level were within ±3 dB for 93% of the field measurements for one-third octave frequency bands in the range 125 Hz-5 kHz. Areas with median noise levels exceeding 120 dB re 1 μPa and 20 dB above modelled natural background sound were predicted to occur in the Dover Strait, the Norwegian trench, near to several major ports, and around offshore infrastructure sites in the North Sea. To our knowledge, this is the first study to quantitatively validate large-scale modelled noise maps with field measurements at multiple sites. Further validation will increase confidence in deeper waters and during winter months. Elexacaftor chemical structure Our results highlight areas where anthropogenic pressure from shipping noise is greatest and will inform the management of shipping noise in the Northeast Atlantic. The good agreement between measurements and model gives confidence that models of shipping noise can be used to inform future policy and management decisions to address shipping noise pollution.Background Guanxin V (GXV), a traditional herbal mixture, has been widely used in clinical practice for the treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD). This retrospective study was designed to assess the safety and effectiveness of GXV for CAD. Methods In our study, December 2006 to January 2009, 101 patients with CAD from Nanjing Hospital of Chinese Medicine Affiliated to Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine were enrolled, of whom 52 patients received GXV plus guideline-recommended medical therapy (GMT) (GXV group), 49 patients received GMT alone (GMT group). The general clinical information, traditional Chinese medicine syndrome score (TSS), the therapeutic effects, 6-minute walk test (6MWT), adverse events, echocardiography, and laboratory information were collected and analyzed pre-and post-treatment. Results We did not find differences in the information between the two groups before treatment. Patients in the GXV group had decreased TSS (P less then 0.0001) and increased therapeutic effects (P = 0.763) and 6MWT (P less then 0.0001) than those in the GMT group and there were no significant differences in safety between the two groups. Moreover, patients in the GXV group improved ejection fraction, cardiac output, and stroke volume (P = 0.2113, 0.0001, 0.0002, respectively), and dropped BNP (P = 0.3856) compared with those in the GMT group. Conclusions Superiority in the GXV group for patients with CAD was demonstrated over the GMT group for both the safety and effectiveness endpoints. This suggests that GXV is a potentially safe and effective treatment for CAD patients.Objective This article introduces SCALPEL3 (Scalable Pipeline for Health Data), a scalable open-source framework for studies involving Large Observational Databases (LODs). It focuses on scalable medical concept extraction, easy interactive analysis, and helpers for data flow analysis to accelerate studies performed on LODs. Materials and methods Inspired from web analytics, SCALPEL3 relies on distributed computing, data denormalization and columnar storage. It was compared to the existing SAS-Oracle SNDS infrastructure by performing several queries on a dataset containing a three years-long history of healthcare claims of 13.7 million patients. Results and discussion SCALPEL3 horizontal scalability allows handling large tasks quicker than the existing infrastructure while it has comparable performance when using only a few executors. SCALPEL3 provides a sharp interactive control of data processing through legible code, which helps to build studies with full reproducibility, leading to improved maintainability and audit of studies performed on LODs.