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Background: Surgical extraction of testicular spermatozoa is needed in men with nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA) who wish to become biological fathers. Based on available uncontrolled studies with unspecific patient selection, microdissection testicular sperm extraction (mTESE), having a sperm retrieval rate (SRR) of 50%, is considered the most efficient sperm retrieval procedure. However, no rand

Active research on halide perovskites has given us a deep understanding of this family of materials and their potential for applications in advanced optoelectronic devices. One of the prominent outcomes is the use of perovskite materials for nonlinear optical applications. Two-photon absorption in perovskites, in particular their nanostructures, has been extensively studied and shows huge promise

Picosecond ultrasonics is a powerful tool for nanoscale metrology, giving access to dimensions and mechanical, thermal, and optical properties of nanomaterials. By monitoring the temporal evolution of the interaction of light with coherent acoustic phonons, also known as Brillouin oscillations, phonon lifetime and optical absorption can be measured. However, the extraction of these quantities can

The first European Vasculitis Society (EUVAS) meeting report was published in 2017. Herein, we report on developments in the past 5 years which were greatly influenced by the pandemic. The adaptability to engage virtually, at this critical time in society, embodies the importance of networks and underscores the role of global collaborations. We outline state-of-the-art webinar topics, updates on d

Fluctuations of thermodynamic observables, such as heat and work, contain relevant information on the underlying physical process. These fluctuations are however not taken into account in the traditional laws of thermodynamics. While the second law is extended to fluctuating systems by the celebrated fluctuation theorems, the first law is generally believed to hold even in the presence of fluctuat

Background: The Chronic Kidney Disease in children (CKiD) equation to estimate glomerular filtration rate eGFR = k × Ht / SCr (Ht = height in cm, SCr = serum creatinine in mg/dL), with fixed k = 0.413, has recently been optimized by introducing age/sex dependent k-values valid for young children up to young adults (the CKiD Under 25 years (CKiDU25) equation). Although the CKiD equation was designe

Objective: Ambient particle matter is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, little is known about associations between particles in occupational settings and risk of CVD. We investigated associations between occupational dust exposure and biomarkers of CVD, and potential recovery effects after vacation. Methods: Personal dust exposure measurements (respirable silica, respirable

The risk assessment of pesticide residues in food is a key priority in the area of food safety. Most jurisdictions have implemented pre-marketing authorization processes, which are supported by prospective risk assessments. These prospective assessments estimate the expected residue levels in food combining results from residue trials, resembling the pesticide use patterns, with food con-sumption

Objectives: To investigate the association of exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) during early pregnancy with markers of the maternal thyroid system. Methods: Serum concentrations of seven PFAS as well as thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free and total thyroxine (FT4 and TT4), free and total triiodothyronine (FT3 and TT3) were measured in pregnant women in early pregnancy in t

Background: Only few studies have compared environmental pesticide air concentrations with specific urinary metabolites to evaluate pathways of exposure. Therefore, we compared pyrimethanil and chlorpyrifos concentrations in air with urinary 4-hydroxypyrimethanil (OHP, metabolite of pyrimethanil) and 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCPy, metabolite of chlorpyrifos) among pregnant women from the Infan

Marriage is protective of survival and contributes to healthy ageing, whereas both singlehood and widowhood are related to increased mortality and poor health. The long-term change in the mortality differentials by marital status, and its interaction with gender and social class, has not been systematically addressed in the literature. In this study, we explore the marriage premium for survival an

Globally, the lifespan of populations increases but the healthspan is lagging behind. Previous research showed that survival into extreme ages (longevity) clusters in families as illustrated by the increasing lifespan of study participants with each additional long-lived family member. Here we investigate whether the healthspan in such families follows a similar quantitative pattern using three-ge

A century after the Spanish Flu, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought renewed attention to socioeconomic and occupational differences in mortality in the earlier pandemic. The magnitude of these differences and the pathways between occupation and increased mortality remain unclear, however. In this paper, we explore the relation between occupational characteristics and excess mortality among men duri

OBJECTIVES: This research evaluates whether environmental exposures (pesticides and smoke) influence respiratory and allergic outcomes in women living in a tropical, agricultural environment. METHODS: We used data from 266 mothers from the Infants' Environmental Health cohort study in Costa Rica. We evaluated environmental exposures in women by measuring seven pesticide and two polycyclic aromatic

Early MAXimisation of bronchodilation for improving COPD stability (EMAX) was a large, multicentre, multi-national, randomised, double-blind, 24-week trial. EMAX evaluated the efficacy and safety of dual bronchodilator therapy with umeclidinium bromide (UMEC)/vilanterol (VI) versus monotherapy with either UMEC or salmeterol (SAL) in symptomatic patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (

III-V semiconductor-based planar multi-junction solar cells synthesized to match the solar spectrum, increase absorption, and reduce thermalization loss are today's world-record efficiency solar cells. Realizing similarly performing multi-junction III-V nanowire (NW) solar cells would require significantly less material and is more sustainable at lower cost than planar solar cells. The NW geometry

Spark ablation is an established technique for generating aerosol nanoparticles. Recent demonstrations of compositional tuning of bimetallic aerosols have led to a demand for on-line stoichiometry measurements. In this work, we present a simple, non-intrusive method to determine the composition of a binary AuAg nanoparticle aerosol on-line using the optical emission from the electrical discharges.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to evaluate if ilio-femoral calcium score (CS) combined with Glasgow Aneurysm Score (GAS) can improve the prediction of long-term survival after EVAR.METHODS: All the patients who underwent infrarenal endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) for non-ruptured AAA between January 2004 and December 2012 at a tertiary referral center were retrospectively included if the p

Germline copy number variants (CNVs) are pervasive in the human genome but potential disease associations with rare CNVs have not been comprehensively assessed in large datasets. We analysed rare CNVs in genes and non-coding regions for 86,788 breast cancer cases and 76,122 controls of European ancestry with genome-wide array data. Gene burden tests detected the strongest association for deletions