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Human mitochondrial DNA polymerase, encoded by POLG, contains a polyglutamine tract encoded by a CAG microsatellite repeat. Analysis of POLG genotypes in different populations identified an association between absence of the common, ten-repeat allele and male infertility typified by a range of sperm quality defects but excluding azoospermia.

Although previous studies have suggested an increased relative risk of BWS and AS after ART, our findings suggest that the absolute risk of imprinting disorders in children conceived by ART is small (<1%). Precise risk estimates of risk are difficult to define because of the rarity of the conditions and incomplete response rates to the questionnaire and clinical examination invitations. Hence further investigations are indicated to (i) refine the absolute and relative risks of imprinting disorders after ART and (ii) ensure that changes in ART protocols are not associated with increased frequencies of epigenetic changes and imprinting disorders in children born after ART.

FT3 shows a circadian rhythm with a periodicity that lags behind TSH, suggesting that the periodic rhythm of FT3 is due to the proportion of T(3) derived from the thyroid. Optimizing thyroid hormone replacement may need to take these rhythms into account.

In this study we tested the use of salivary cortisol and cortisone as alternatives to serum cortisol. Salivary cortisol is often undetectable and contaminated by hydrocortisone. Salivary cortisone strongly reflects serum cortisol.

One hundred and eighty one primigravid women delivering vaginally in July and August 1982 in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, were randomly allocated to one of two groups. Patients in one group were to undergo episiotomy. Those in the other group were not to undergo episiotomy unless it was considered to be essential. The outcome was compared with that of the clinical practice over the previous six months at the hospital.Of the 92 patients allocated not to undergo episiotomy, seven (8%) had one done for medical reasons compared with 507 (89%) in the previous six months. First degree tears occurred in 23 (25%) and second degree tears in 43 (47%). Nineteen (21%), however, retained an intact perineum compared with only 35 (6%) of the women who had delivered in the preceding six months. Assessments of perineal pain, bruising, swelling, and healing and records of ingestion of analgesics were made for the first four days after delivery, and again at a check up six weeks after delivery, in patients who had had spontaneous vertex deliveries. Forty patients who underwent episiotomy and 37 who sustained a second degree tear

Abstract. Machine-learning methods can be used for virtual screening by analysing the structural characteristics of molecules of known (in)activity, and we here discuss the use of kernel discrimination and naive Bayesian classifier methods for this purpose. We report a kernel method that allows the processing of molecules represented by binary, integer and real-valued descriptors, and show that it is little different in screening performance from a previously described kernel that had been developed specifically for the analysis of binary fingerprint representations of molecular structure. We then evaluate the performance of a naive Bayesian classifier when the training-set contains only a very few active molecules. In such cases, a simpler approach based on group fusion would appear to provide superior screening performance, especially when structurally heterogeneous datasets are to be processed.

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