Follicular fluid content and oocyte quality: from single biochemical markers to metabolomics

The assessment of oocyte quality in human in vitro fertilization (IVF) is getting increasing attention from embryologists. Oocyte selection and the identification of the best oocytes, in fact, would help to limit embryo overproduction and to improve the results of oocyte cryostorage programs. Follicular fluid (FF) is easily available during oocyte pick-up and theorically represents an optimal source on non-invasive biochemical predictors of oocyte quality. Unfortunately, however, the studies aiming to find a good molecular predictor of oocyte quality in FF were not able to identify substances that could be used as reliable markers of oocyte competence to fertilization, embryo development and pregnancy. In the last years, a well definite trend toward passing from the research of single molecular markers to more complex techniques that study all metabolites of FF has been observed. The metabolomic approach is a powerful tool to study biochemical predictors of oocyte quality in FF, but its application in this area is still at the beginning. This review provides an overview of the current knowledge about the biochemical predictors of oocyte quality in FF, describing both the results coming from studies on single biochemical markers and those deriving from the most recent studies of metabolomic

A novel trust measurement method based on certified belief in strength for a multi-agent classifier system

A novel trust measurement method, namely, certified belief in strength (CBS), for a multi-agent classifier system (MACS) is proposed in this paper. The CBS method aims to improve the performance of the constituent agents of the MACS, viz., the fuzzy min-max (FMM) neural network classifier. Trust measurement is accomplished using reputation and strength of the constituent agents. Trust is built from strong elements that are associated with the FMM agents, allowing the CBS method to improve the performance of the MACS. An auction procedure based on the sealed bid, namely, the first price method, is adopted for the MACS in determining the winning agent. The effectiveness of the CBS method and the bond (based on trust) is verified by using a number of benchmark data sets. The results demonstrate that the proposed MACS-CBS model is able to produce better accuracy and stability as compared with those from other existing methods. © 2012 Springer-Verlag London