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Fertility preservation is an emerging discipline, which is of substantial clinical value in the care of young patients with cancer. Chemotherapy and radiation may induce ovarian damage in prepubertal girls and young women. Although many studies have explored the mechanisms implicated in ovarian toxicity during cancer treatment, its molecular pathophysiology is not fully understood. Chemotherapy may accelerate follicular apoptosis and follicle reservoir utilization and damage the ovarian stroma via multiple molecular reactions. Oxidative stress and the radiosensitivity of oocytes are the main causes of gonadal damage after radiation treatment. Fertility preservation options can be differentiated by patient age, desire for conception, treatment regimen, socioeconomic status, and treatment duration. This review will help highlight the importance of multidisciplinary oncofertility strategies for providing high-quality care to young female cancer patients.

Postmenopause, the secretion of female hormones changes, causing excessive fat accumulation in the body and leading to chronic inflammation, which increases the incidence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Walking is an easily accessible daily exercise and effective non-pharmacological treatment for reducing obesity and the incidence of CVD. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of moderate intensity walking exercises on body composition, vascular inflammatory factors, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in postmenopausal women with obesity. Twenty-six older postmenopausal women with obesity (ages 68–72) were randomly assigned to control ( n  = 12, BMI 26.06 ± 1.37) or exercise ( n  = 14, BMI 26.04 ± 1.94) groups. Following a 12-week moderate intensity walking exercise program, we measured the participants’ body composition with an InBody S10 analyzer and assessed blood sera using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. There was a significant clustering by weight ( p  < 0.01), body mass index ( p  < 0.01), percentage body fat ( p  < 0.001), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein ( p  < 0.05), interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α ( p  < 0.05) being significantly decreased in the exercise group. Although VEGF levels did not change significantly, a tendency to increase was observed in participants that exercised. Our results indicate that walking exercise may help prevent CVD in postmenopausal women with obesity by reducing obesity and vascular inflammatory factors.

Myeloid epithelial reproductive proto-oncogene tyrosine kinase (MERTK) plays an essential role in modulating cancer immune tolerance by regulating macrophage efferocytosis. Studies are underway to develop small-molecule chemicals that inhibit MERTK as cancer immunotherapeutic agents, but these efforts are in their early stages. This study identified BMS794833, whose primary targets are MET and VEGFR2, as a potent MERTK inhibitor and developed a real-time efferocytosis monitoring system. The X-ray cocrystal structure revealed that BMS794833 was in contact with the ATP-binding pocket and the allosteric back pocket, rendering MERTK inactive. Homogeneous time-resolved fluorescence kinetic and Western blotting analyses showed that BMS794833 competitively inhibited MERTK activity in vitro and inhibited the autophosphorylation of MERTK in macrophages. We developed a system to monitor MERTK-dependent efferocytosis in real time, and using this system, we confirmed that BMS794833 significantly inhibited the efferocytosis of differentiated macrophages. Finally, BMS794833 significantly inhibited efferocytosis in vivo in a mouse model. These data show that BMS794833 is a type II MERTK inhibitor that regulates macrophage efferocytosis. In addition, the real-time efferocytosis monitoring technology developed in this study has great potential for future applications.Cancer: drug could block evading the immune systemAn enzyme that is over-expressed in cancers and helps promote immune evasion could be inhibited by a small-molecule anticancer drug currently in phase 1 clinical trials. White blood cells called macrophages rapidly clear dead cells to avoid inappropriate inflammatory responses in a process known as efferocytosis. The MERTK enzyme receptor, expressed by macrophages, plays a key role. However, MERTK is over-expressed in many cancers, leading to aberrant efferocytosis and immune evasion. Using mouse models, Hyonchol Jang and Byung Il Lee at the National Cancer Center, Goyang, South Korea, and co-workers demonstrated that the drug BMS794833 is an effective inhibitor of MERTK-dependent efferocytosis. Using X-ray crystallography, they determined that the drug binds to and inactivates MERTK. To potentially identify other MERTK inhibitors, they also developed a novel assay that monitors efferocytosis in real time.

A compact integrated optic polarization splitter is highly anticipated for polarization multiplexed optical communications, dual polarization optical sensors, single photon quantum signal processing, etc. In this work, we propose and demonstrate a polarization mode extracting device using a highly birefringent crosslinked liquid crystal polymer, reactive mesogen. The device includes the birefringent material inserted into a Y-branch optical waveguide to extract the TE polarized mode. A polarization splitting ratio of 27 dB was obtained, and a crosstalk of less than −25 dB was maintained for a wavelength range of 1500~1600 nm. The device exhibited good thermal stability at 100 °C for 12 hours. The broadband operating characteristic is a unique advantage of the proposed mode extracting polarization splitter.

This work proposes a proof-of-concept ultrasound blood-flow-monitoring circuit system using a single-element transducer. The circuit system consists of a single-element ultrasonic transducer, an analog interface circuit, and a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Since the system uses a single-element transducer, an ultrasound image cannot be reconstructed unless scanning with mechanical movement is used. An ultrasound blood-flow monitor basically needs to acquire a Doppler sample volume by positioning a range gate at a vessel region on a scanline. Most recent single-transducer-based ultrasound pulsed-wave Doppler devices rely on a manual adjustment of the range gate to acquire Doppler sample volumes. However, the manual adjustment of the range gate depends on the user’s experience, and it can be time consuming if a transducer is not properly positioned. Thus, automatic range-gate-positioning is more desirable for image-free pulsed-wave Doppler devices. This work proposes a circuit system which includes a new automatic range-gate-positioning scheme. It blindly tracks the position of a blood vessel on a scanline by using the accumulation of Doppler amplitude deviations and a hysteresis slicing function. The proposed range-gate-positioning scheme has been implemented in an FPGA for real-time operation and is based on addition-only computations, except for filter parts to reduce the complexity of computation in the hardware. The proposed blood-flow-monitoring circuit system has been implemented with discrete commercial chips for proof-of-concept purposes. It uses a center frequency of 2 MHz and a system-clock frequency of 20 MHz. The FPGA only utilizes 5.6% of slice look-up-tables (LUTs) for implementation of the range-gate-positioning scheme. For measurements, the circuit system was utilized to interrogate a customized flow phantom model, which included two vessel-mimicking channels. The circuit system successfully acquired Doppler sample volumes by positioning a range gate on a fluid channel. In addition, the estimated Doppler shift frequency shows a good agreement with the theoretical value.

A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted to evaluate the effect of fermented sarco oysters (FSO) on muscle strength in postmenopausal females with low muscle mass. Fifty-two female participants were randomly divided into the experiment group (EG) or control group (CG). For 12 weeks, the EG was subjected to 1000 mg of FSO extract daily while the CG consumed the placebo extract. The muscle extension and flexion at an angular velocity of 60°/s and with respect to grip strength, body composition, and muscle growth-related blood factors were measured at the baseline and after the trial. The difference in the quadriceps muscle extension at an angular velocity of 60°/s, grip strength on both the left and right side, and insulin-like growth factor-1(IGF-1) between groups were significantly higher in the EG compared with the CG. However, no differences were found in body composition, blood pyruvate, lactate, or high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) concentration between the two groups. In conclusion, FSO supplements may improve muscle strength in postmenopausal females with relatively reduced muscle strength without a change in muscle mass.

Chemotherapy-induced ovarian damage and fertility preservation in young patients with cancer are emerging disciplines. The mechanism of treatment-related gonadal damage provides important information for targeting prevention methods. The genomic aspects of ovarian damage after chemotherapy are not fully understood. Several studies have demonstrated that gene alterations related to follicular apoptosis or accelerated follicle activation are related to ovarian insufficiency and susceptibility to ovarian damage following chemotherapy. This may accelerate follicular apoptosis and follicle reservoir utilization and damage the ovarian stroma via multiple molecular reactions after chemotherapy. This review highlights the importance of genomic considerations in chemotherapy-induced ovarian damage and multidisciplinary oncofertility strategies for providing high-quality care to young female cancer patients.

ObjectivesTo objectively assess light physical activity (PA), moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), step counts and number of 10 min MVPA bouts and their association with physical function among older adults.DesignCross-sectional design.SettingUrban community setting in Taiwan.Participants127 Taiwanese older adults aged over 65 years (mean age=70.8±5.3 years; 72% women).Primary and secondary outcome measuresTriaxial accelerometers were used to measure PA variables for 10 hours/day for seven consecutive days. Then, five physical function components (handgrip strength, single-leg stance, 5-metre walk speed, timed up and go and sit-to-stand test) were measured. Multiple linear regressions were used to perform separate analyses for older men and women.ResultsFor older women, daily MVPA time (β: 0.39, 95% CI: 0.12, 0.64; p=0.004), daily step counts (β: 0.46, 95% CI: 0.12, 0.78; p=0.009) and number of 10 min MVPA bouts (β: 0.27, 95% CI: 0.001, 0.53; p=0.049) were positively associated with handgrip strength after adjusting for accelerometer wear time, sedentary time and other confounders. Furthermore, daily MVPA time was positively associated with a single-leg stance (β: 0.25, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.49; p=0.036) and higher daily step counts were associated with shorter walking speed performance (β: −0.31, 95% CI: −0.57, −0.001; p=0.049). None of the variables of the objectively assessed PA patterns was associated with physical function outcomes among older men due to their small sample size.ConclusionsDaily MVPA, MVPA bouts of at least 10 min and accumulated daily steps are important for improving physical function among older women. Future prospective research should establish causal associations between PA patterns and functional ability among older adults.

This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Unicenta in female subjects with menopausal symptoms by analyzing the changes in the Kupperman index (primary endpoint) and hormonal changes (secondary endpoint). It was a randomized, multi-center, double-blind, parallel, non-inferiority clinical study conducted at two different tertiary medical centers. A Unicenta injection was shown to be non-inferior to Melsmon based on the Kupperman index in both the intent-to-treat and per-protocol populations (p = 0.789 and p = 0.826, respectively). Additionally, there were no statistically significant differences in hormone levels (estradiol, follicular-stimulating hormone) or in the evaluation of facial flushes. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence rate of adverse events between the two groups (p = 0.505). The study demonstrated that Unicenta is not inferior to Melsmon in terms of the change in the Kupperman index after 12 days of injection. The efficacy and safety of Unicenta were shown, resulting in the improvement of menopausal symptoms.

The effects of grain size and strain on the temperature-dependent thermal transport of antimony telluride (Sb2Te3) thin films, controlled using post-annealing temperatures of 200°C to 350°C, were investigated using the 3-omega method. The measured total thermal conductivities of 400-nm-thick thin films annealed at temperatures of 200°C, 250°C, 300°C, 320°C, and 350°C were determined to be 2.0 to 3.7 W/m · K in the 20 to 300 K temperature range. We found that the film grain size, rather than the strain, had the most prominent effect on the reduction of the total thermal conductivity. To confirm the effect of grain size on temperature-dependent thermal transport in the thin films, the experimental results were analyzed using a modified Callaway model approach.