Small-extracellular vesicles and their microRNA cargo from porcine follicular fluids:the potential association with oocyte quality

Background: Ovarian follicular fluids(FFs) contain several kinds of regulatory factors that maintain a suitable micro-environment for oocyte development. Extracellular vesicles(EVs) are among the factors that play essential roles in regulating follicle and oocyte development through their cargo molecules that include microRNAs(miRNAs). This study aimed to investigate small-EV(s-EV) miRNAs in porcine FFs and their potential association with oocyte quality.Methods: Individual aspirated oocytes were stained with lissamine green B stain(LB), a vital stain for oocyte quality, and each oocyte was classified as high-quality(unstained;HQ) or low-quality(stained;LQ). FFs corresponding to oocytes were pooled together into HQ and LQ groups. Small-EVs were isolated from FFs, characterized, and their miRNA cargo was identified using the Illumina Nova Seq sequencing platform. Additionally, s-EVs from the HQ and LQ groups were utilized to investigate their effect on oocyte development after co-incubation during in vitro maturation.Results: A total of 19 miRNAs(including miR-125b, miR-193a-5p, and miR-320) were significantly upregulated, while 23(including miR-9, miR-206, and miR-6516) were downregulated in the HQ compared to the LQ group. Apoptosis, p53 signaling, and cAMP signaling were among the top pathways targeted by the elevated miRNAs in the HQ group while oocyte meiosis, gap junction, and TGF-beta signaling were among the top pathways targeted by the elevated miRNAs in the LQ group. The supplementation of small-EVs during maturation does not affect the oocyte developmental rates. However, LQ s-EVs increase the proportion of oocytes with homogeneous mitochondrial distribution and decrease the proportion of heterogeneous distribution.Conclusion: Our findings indicated that FF-EVs contain different miRNA cargos associated with oocyte quality and could affect the mitochondrial distribution patterns during oocyte maturation.

Business Service Centres and Their Current Challenges in Slovak Republic

Globalization of the world economy and the entrance of the information society have a significant impact on the development of business activities of individual firms.Since centralization and outsourcing of business services is a globally growing trend,this industry has enormous potential.Business Service Centres(BSCs)are considered to be a model in the European Union that leads to improved performance and results achieved by the company.Within the framework of EU free trade,up to 70%of European centres state that standardization and process transformation is the first corner in deciding to set up the BSC.The aim of the article is to analyse the market of business service centres in the Slovak Republic and their impact on employment within the EU.The competitive advantage of Slovakia lies above all in economic and political stability,geographic location,skilled workforce and European currency.Thanks to positive business experiences in Slovakia,most investors remain and large numbers of them are expanding their activities,despite the rising cost of work.Based on the use of quantitative methods,we analyse secondary data on business service centres.Higher education graduates are often the main source of workforce for business service centres.

Investigating adverse events in long-term care facilities:a systematized review

Objective:This systematized review aimed to synthesize the results of empirical studies focused on the types and factors of adverse events(AEs)that contribute to them in long-term care(LTC)settings.Methods:The search was conducted in Pro Quest,Scopus,and Pub Med in January 2021 and resulted in 1057 records.The content analysis method was used in the data analysis.Results:In all,35 studies were identified as relevant for the review.The analysis revealed 133 different types of AEs and 60 factors that contributed to them.Conclusions:In LTC,various AEs occur,most of which are preventable,while many factors that influence their occurrence could be significantly modifiable.Through an effective analysis of AEs in LTC,it is possible to minimize their occurrence and,at the same time,minimize their negative impact on all par ties concerned.

GIS-based landslide susceptibility modeling:A comparison between fuzzy multi-criteria and machine learning algorithms

Hazards and disasters have always negative impacts on the way of life.Landslide is an overwhelming natural as well as man-made disaster that causes loss of natural resources and human properties throughout theworld.The present study aimed to assess and compare the prediction efficiency of different models in landslide susceptibility in the Kysuca river basin,Slovakia.In this regard,the fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory combining with the analytic network process(FDEMATEL-ANP),Naïve Bayes(NB)classifier,and random forest(RF)classifier were considered.Initially,a landslide inventory map was produced with 2000 landslide and nonlandslide points by randomly dividedwith a ratio of 70%:30%for training and testing,respectively.The geospatial database for assessing the landslide susceptibility was generated with the help of 16 landslide conditioning factors by allowing for topographical,hydrological,lithological,and land cover factors.The ReliefF methodwas considered for determining the significance of selected conditioning factors and inclusion in the model building.Consequently,the landslide susceptibility maps(LSMs)were generated using the FDEMATEL-ANP,Naïve Bayes(NB)classifier,and random forest(RF)classifier models.Finally,the area under curve(AUC)and different arithmetic evaluation were used for validating and comparing the results and models.The results revealed that random forest(RF)classifier is a promising and optimum model for landslide susceptibility in the study area with a very high value of area under curve(AUC=0.954),lower value of mean absolute error(MAE=0.1238)and root mean square error(RMSE=0.2555),and higher value of Kappa index(K=0.8435)and overall accuracy(OAC=92.2%).

Antioxidant efficiency of lycopene on oxidative stress-induced damage in bovine spermatozoa

Background： Lycopene（LYC） is a natural carotenoid with powerful reactive oxygen species（ROS） scavenging activities. The aim of this study was to investigate if lycopene has the ability to reverse ROS-mediated alterations to the motility, viability and intracellular antioxidant profile of bovine spermatozoa subjected to ferrous ascorbate（Fe AA）. Spermatozoa were washed out of fresh bovine semen, suspended in 2.9 % sodium citrate and subjected to LYC treatment（0.25, 0.5, 1 or 2 mmol/L） in the presence or absence of Fe AA（150 μmol/L Fe SO4 and 750 μmol/L ascorbic acid） during a 6 h in vitro culture. Spermatozoa motion characteristics were assessed using the Sperm Vision？computer-aided sperm analysis（CASA） system. Cell viability was examined with the metabolic activity（MTT） assay,ROS generation was quantified via luminometry and the nitroblue-tetrazolium（NBT） test was applied to quantify the intracellular superoxide formation. Cell lysates were prepared at the end of the in vitro culture to investigate the intracellular activity of superoxide dismutase（SOD）, catalase（CAT）, glutathione peroxidase（GPx） as well as the concentrations of glutathione（GSH） and malondialdehyde（MDA）.Results： FeA A treatment led to a reduced spermatozoa motility（P 〈 0.001）, viability（P 〈 0.001） and a decline of the antioxidant capacity of spermatozoa（P 〈 0.001） but increased the ROS generation（P 〈 0.001）, superoxide production（P 〈 0.001） and lipid peroxidation（P 〈 0.001）. LYC administration resulted in a preservation of the spermatozoa motion parameters（P 〈 0.001）, mitochondrial activity（P 〈 0.001） and antioxidant characteristics（P 〈 0.001 with respect to SOD;P 〈 0.01 in relation to CAT; P 〈 0.05 as for GPx and GSH） with a concentration range of 1 and 2 mmol/L LYC revealed to be the most effective.Conclusions： Our results suggest that LYC exhibits significant ROS-scavenging and antioxidant properties which may prevent spermatozoa alterations caused by oxidative stress, and preserve the functionality of male reproductive cells.

Startups Support in Slovak Republic

In a knowledge-based society,innovation is the driving force of the economy on all levels and in all types of organizations.Due to high risks present when introducing new products and services,innovations are usually commercialized via isolated formal formations such as startup companies(next,just startup).The aim of the article is to empirically analyse the situation of startups in Slovakia and describe how Slovak republic supports startup.We used the questionnaire and we approached 289 small and medium enterprises,in case of which we assumed that they are startups.This assumption confirmed 153 startups based on the returned questionnaires.Slovak Republic has all that is necessary for the startup ecosystem.The survey showed that there is a need to support women in business and activate more investors interested in investments in startups.Founders of startup still use mainly own savings for funding business.Our findings can inspire new investors.Results may increase investors’interest in investing in startup companies due to the fact that the Slovak Republic conditions are created for this type of business.

Local Development Fee in Slovak Republic

With the advent of tax and expenditure limitations, state and local governments have been searching for new sources of revenue to maintain or expand public services. The need for new sources of revenue has been particularly acute in localities that have experienced rapid growth. The new act No. 447 of November 20, 2015 on Local Development Fee was approved in Slovakia. The Act comes into force on November 1, 2016. The paper points out possible problems associated with the introduction of the local development fee abroad and discribes the situation in Slovakia.

From trees to fleas: masting indirectly affects flea abundance on a rodent host

Mast seeding causes strongfluctuations in populations of forest animals.Thus,this phenomenon can be used as a natural experiment to examine how variation in host abundance affects parasite loads.We investigatedfleas infesting yellow-necked mice in beech forest after 2 mast and 2 non-mast years.We tested 2 mutually exclusive scenarios:(1)as predicted by classical models of density-dependent transmission,an increase in host density will cause an increase in ectoparasite abundance(defined as the number of parasites per host),versus(2)an increase in host density will cause a decline inflea abundance(“dilution,”which is thought to occur when parasite population growth is slower than that of the host).In addition,we assessed whether masting alters the relationship between host traits(sex and body mass)andflea abundance.We found a hump-shaped relationship between host andflea abundance.Thus,the most basic predictions are too simple to describe ectoparasite dynamics in this system.In addition,masting modified seasonal dynamics offlea abundance,but did not affect the relationship between host traits andflea abundance(individuals with the highest body mass hosted the mostfleas;after controlling for body mass,parasite abundance did not vary between sexes).Our results demonstrate that pulses of tree reproduction can indirectly,through changes in host densities,drive patterns of ectoparasite infestation.