Suchergebnisse

Emergency contraception (EC) has been prescribed for decades, in order to lessen the risk of unplanned and unwanted pregnancy following unprotected intercourse, ordinary contraceptive failure, or rape. EC and the linked aspect of unintended pregnancy undoubtedly constitute highly relevant public health issues, in that they involve women's self-determination, reproductive freedom and family planning. Most European countries regulate EC access quite effectively, with solid information campaigns and supply mechanisms, based on various recommendations from international institutions herein examined. However, there is still disagreement on whether EC drugs should be available without a physician's prescription and on the reimbursement policies that should be implemented. In addition, the rights of health care professionals who object to EC on conscience grounds have been subject to considerable legal and ethical scrutiny, in light of their potential to damage patients who need EC drugs in a timely fashion. Ultimately, reproductive health, freedom and conscience-based refusal on the part of operators are elements that have proven extremely hard to reconcile; hence, it is essential to strike a reasonable balance for the sake of everyone's rights and well-being.

| openaire: EC/H2020/810377/EU//ConnectToBrain Funding Information: This research has received funding from the Academy of Finland (Decisions No. 255347, 265680, 294625, and 306845), the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, Erasmus Mundus SMART2 (No. 552042-EM-1-2014-1-FR-ERA MUNDUSEMA2), the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico (CNPq; grant number 140787/2014-3), the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 810377), and the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center for Neuromathematics (FAPESP; grant number 2013/07699-0). ; Background: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) coils allow only a slow, mechanical adjustment of the stimulating electric field (E-field) orientation in the cerebral tissue. Fast E-field control is needed to synchronize the stimulation with the ongoing brain activity. Also, empirical models that fully describe the relationship between evoked responses and the stimulus orientation and intensity are still missing. Objective: We aimed to (1) develop a TMS transducer for manipulating the E-field orientation electronically with high accuracy at the neuronally meaningful millisecond-level time scale and (2) devise and validate a physiologically based model describing the orientation selectivity of neuronal excitability. Methods: We designed and manufactured a two-coil TMS transducer. The coil windings were computed with a minimum-energy optimization procedure, and the transducer was controlled with our custom-made electronics. The electronic E-field control was verified with a TMS characterizer. The motor evoked potential amplitude and latency of a hand muscle were mapped in 3° steps of the stimulus orientation in 16 healthy subjects for three stimulation intensities. We fitted a logistic model to the motor response amplitude. Results: The two-coil TMS transducer allows one to manipulate the pulse orientation accurately without manual coil movement. The motor response amplitude followed a logistic function of the stimulus orientation; this dependency was strongly affected by the stimulus intensity. Conclusion: The developed electronic control of the E-field orientation allows exploring new stimulation paradigms and probing neuronal mechanisms. The presented model helps to disentangle the neuronal mechanisms of brain function and guide future non-invasive stimulation protocols. ; Peer reviewed

| openaire: EC/H2020/810377/EU//ConnectToBrain Funding Information: Open Access funding provided by Aalto University. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001. VHS received funding from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq; Grant # 140787/2014–3), the Jane & Aatos Erkko Foundation, the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant # 810377), and from the Academy of Finland (Grant # 307963). GPT received a scholarship from CNPq (Grant # 144216/2018–3) and from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP; Grant # 2018/11853–8). OB is funded by FAPESP (Grant # 2013/07699–0) and CNPq (Grant # 304107/2019). RHM is funded by CNPq (Grant # 141056/2018-5). MN and PN were partly supported by RFBR (Grant # 20–315-70048). Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s). ; Most of the motor mapping procedures using navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) follow the conventional somatotopic organization of the primary motor cortex (M1) by assessing the representation of a particular target muscle, disregarding the possible coactivation of synergistic muscles. In turn, multiple reports describe a functional organization of the M1 with an overlapping among motor representations acting together to execute movements. In this context, the overlap degree among cortical representations of synergistic hand and forearm muscles remains an open question. This study aimed to evaluate the muscle coactivation and representation overlapping common to the grasping movement and its dependence on the stimulation parameters. The nTMS motor maps were obtained from one carpal muscle and two intrinsic hand muscles during rest. We quantified the overlapping motor maps in size (area and volume overlap degree) and topography (similarity and centroid Euclidean distance) parameters. We demonstrated that these muscle representations are ...

The objective of this work was to evaluate the supply, morphological and chemical composition of forage, performance and milk composition of crossbred cows managed in Megathyrsus maximus cv. Tanzania in intermittent grazing system with fixed and variable defoliation intervals according to the interception of 95% of photosynthetically active radiation by the canopy. The experimental design was a randomized complete block design with two treatments and two area replications. In each grazing cycle the supply, morphological composition, forage nutritive value, dry matter intake, milk production and composition were determined. The experimental area was 4.0 hectares, divided into two blocks of 2 hectares. Each block was subdivided into 22 pickets (11 for each treatment) totaling 44 pickets with an area of 909 m2 each. Significant differences (P < 0.05) were observed for leaf blade content, in vitro digestibility of dry matter and forage crude protein, dry matter intake, individual and area milk production and lactose content milk, being the highest values found in the pastures managed with variable defoliation interval. Thus, the defoliation interval defined by the 95% interception of the photosynthetically luminosity leads to higher leaf blade proportions in the forage canopy, resulting in higher individual milk yield and per unit area, but with a loss of protein and total solids contents of milk.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the use of microbial inoculant on the chemical composition, in vitro gas production, pH, dry matter losses, aerobic stability and microbial population on silages of corn, sorghum and pearl millet in plastic bags silos (without vacuum). The experiment was carried out in a randomized block design, in a 2 × 3 factorial scheme, with and without (control) inoculant consisting of Lactobacillus plantarum and Propionibacterium acidipropionici and on three crops, corn, sorghum and pearl millet, with four replicates. The use of the inoculant did not affect the chemical composition of the silages, except the crude protein (P = 0.0062) and lignin (P = 0.0567) contents. Gas production was neither affected (P > 0.05) by the inoculant nor by the crop. Regarding aerobic stability, we observed that the inoculant affected the temperature of the sorghum silage (P = 0.0123). The inoculant decreased the N-NH3 (P =0.0095) content and increased (P = 0.0441) the lactic acid bacteria population in the silages. Thus, the microbial inoculant did not improve the fermentation profile or nutritional value of corn, pearl millet and sorghum silages in plastic bag silos (without vacuum).

Context. The existence of hot Jupiters is still not well understood. Two main channels are thought to be responsible for their current location: a smooth planet migration through the protoplanetary disk or the circularization of an initial highly eccentric orbit by tidal dissipation leading to a strong decrease in the semimajor axis. Different formation scenarios result in different observable effects, such as orbital parameters (obliquity and eccentricity) or frequency of planets at different stellar ages. Aims. In the context of the GAPS Young Objects project, we are carrying out a radial velocity survey with the aim of searching and characterizing young hot-Jupiter planets. Our purpose is to put constraints on evolutionary models and establish statistical properties, such as the frequency of these planets from a homogeneous sample. Methods. Since young stars are in general magnetically very active, we performed multi-band (visible and near-infrared) spectroscopy with simultaneous GIANO-B + HARPS-N (GIARPS) observing mode at TNG. This helps in dealing with stellar activity and distinguishing the nature of radial velocity variations: stellar activity will introduce a wavelength-dependent radial velocity amplitude, whereas a Keplerian signal is achromatic. As a pilot study, we present here the cases of two known hot Jupiters orbiting young stars: HD 285507 b and AD Leo b. Results. Our analysis of simultaneous high-precision GIARPS spectroscopic data confirms the Keplerian nature of the variation in the HD 285507 radial velocities and refines the orbital parameters of the hot Jupiter, obtaining an eccentricity consistent with a circular orbit. Instead, our analysis does not confirm the signal previously attributed to a planet orbiting AD Leo. This demonstrates the power of the multi-band spectroscopic technique when observing active stars. ; With funding from the Spanish government through the "María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence" accreditation (MDM-2017-0737)