Female Side Research Articles

Frontiers in male contraception: there are few alternatives now, but several promising avenues of research are under way.

On the female side, when it comes to contraception, there's an arsenal of options. There's the pill, patches, implants, injectable hormones, sponges, spermicides, cervical caps, diaphragms, morning-after pills, and the intrauterine device.

HAK KEWARISAN CUCU (ANALISIS YURISPRUDENSI MAHKAMAH TINGGI SYARIAH DI SELANGOR, MALAYSIA DAN MAHKAMAH AGUNG DI INDONESIA)

The problems in this research are: first, how is grandchildren’s inheritance right in the jurisdiction of Islamic Supreme Court in Selangor, Malaysia and Supreme Court in Indonesia? Second, how is the comparison of grandchildren’s inheritance right in those two jurisdictions; and how is the pattern of the distribution of inheritance to grandchildren? This research used comparative approach. The discussion was presented in descriptive analysis. The data analysis was qualitative and normative-juridical. The findings show that: first, grandshildren’s right mentioned in the old fiqh mujtahid is revised in fiqh of consitutions in Selangor and in Indonesia. Grandchildren’s inheritance right, based on the jurisdiction in Selangor, is called as wajibah, and in Indonesia it is called as heir substitute (ahli waris pengganti). Second, there are both similarities and differences between those two jurisdictions. The one in Selangor is a result of ijtihad tatbiqi which is in line with Islamic law principles. Grandchildren from the male side whose parents pass away first will receive inheritance right. Grandchildren from female side do not receive any right. The portions that grandchildren receive can be governed in inheritance status or last will which maintains justice. The jurisdiction of grandchildren’s inheritance right in Indonesia is resulted from customary law which is adopted from Netherland’s civil law. It is a part of culture which is not based on religious principle (syahadat), is against justice principle, ijbari principles, is not in line with inheritance elements, and is against the priority principle and hijab.

Rodzice, krewni i powinowaci a pamięć rodowa szlachty województwa ruskiego w XVII wieku (w świetle akt sejmikowych deductionis nobilitatis)

Parents, blood and affined relatives and the tribal memory of Rus province’s nobility in the 17th – first half of the 18th centuries (in the light of the dietines’ acts of deductionis nobilitatis)
 The nobles, who were accused for the ignoble origin, had to go through the special procedure of proofing their nobility (deductionis nobilitatis) in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They were required, according to the decision of the Diet in 1601, to submit a number of relatives-witnesses and documentary evidence during the annual deputy dietines and in front of the noble corporations’ representatives of that province from where the accused or his ancestors came from. A number of attestations, that were concluded in the 17th century as a result of successful proofs of nobility during dietines in Wisznia and Halicz, were known from the territories of Rus province. The understanding of family’s past, the former and current members of relatives of some privileged class, whose ancestral’s memory was stimulated by the threat of losing their social status, were reflected in these acts. The accusation of being ignoble had to push nobleman to restore his memory of the family, to reconstruct these ideas in a system of knowledge and to supplement them by the memory of his relatives and by documentary evidences. In the light of dietines’ attestations, the knowledge of ancestors and relatives, which differ in each case, was generally limited to three or four generations, usually no distant then grandfather’s generation (maximum great-grandfather). The memory of their ancestors from the female side was less profound (often no distant then grandfather), while from male side, due to property (hereditary) interest, it was supplemented with information from documentary records. A certain number of blood relatives, usually two or three dozen people and the representatives of older generations as well as coevals (cousins or second cousin and uncles) were known from the lateral branches. The relationship with them, in a mind of nobleman, was lined by the belonging to the descendants of any of the blood and affined relatives of his own ancestors. Preferably, the knowledge concerns men due to the patriarchal nature of noble families and perception of family as male (knight) corporation.

To Study the Etiological Factors Responsible for Infertility

Background: Infertility is a medical problem that affects a vast proportion of the world's young population (10–15%). Infertility is a multifactorial condition. Investigations and treatment of infertility are always time consuming, expensive and in developing countries raise moral problem to the female side. Objectives: Identification of the causative factors contributing to infertility; providing information and education to the ignorant couple regarding basics of conception. Material and Methods: The present prospective study was conducted on 60 couples attending the outpatient Department. Patients included were married women between 18 to 34 of age. Routine and special investigations including endometrial Biopsy, HSG, and diagnostic laparoscopy wherever indicated were done. Semen analysis was done in all the males studied. Results: Out of 60 couples with infertility, 70% women were of primary infertility and 30% with secondary infertility. Majority of primary infertility cases 40.5%belonged to the age group of 21 -25 years and that of secondary infertility 33.3% belonged to the age group of 26–30 years. On USG, Polycystic ovarian syndrome was accounted in 25% of cases, chocolate cyst of ovary in 6.7%, and fibroid in 10% cases. Oligospermia was found in 31.7% and azoospermia in 3.3% of cases. Tubal factors were found in 35% and ovarian factors in 46.8% of cases respectively. Diagnostic laparoscopy was performed in 20 cases, tubal factors 10% contributed to majority of patients followed by peritoneal factors 55%.Unexplained infertility was diagnosed in 10% and combined factors were responsible for 11.7% of cases respectively. Conclusion: Causative factors leading to infertility in the present study are the ovarian factors, followed by peritoneal factors, tubal factors and male factors. Overall combined factors were found in 11% and unexplained infertility accounted for 10% of cases. Furthermore, it has been concluded that diagnostic laparoscopy possibly should be done in all the cases.

Cost‐effective manufacturing process for the development of automotive from energy efficient composite materials and sandwich structures

The advanced composite materials are increasingly being used in the automotives for their ultralight physical properties and super strong mechanical properties. This research examines the cost‐effective single‐step liquid resin infusion manufacturing process for developing all composite car body as the generally used sheet molding compound manufacturing process is highly capital intensive. Three different scaled down models of the Eco car were developed focusing on minimal weight and air drag coupled with aesthetics. Structural design and analysis was carried out using the Pro/E and Ansys tools. The Pro‐E model was scaled up to generate computer‐aided drafting drawings for tool development. Different stations were marked on the model and sliced virtually for development of pattern. Moreover, the mold was manufactured from carbon and glass/polyester composites for prototype manufacturing of the car body. This involved manual placement of desired number of carbon layers as preform on female side of the mold. The vacuum sucked the resin through a number of carefully selected entry ports which ensured effective resin distribution and impregnation. Polycarbonate wind shield was thermoformed in the convection oven according to streamlined geometry of car body and hinged. The car body was integrated with the compatible floor panels and accessories. The crumble zone shock absorber in the bumper was manufactured using successive layers of nomax honeycomb and polyvinyl chloride rigid foam to dampen the accidental shock. The car performed remarkably well in the Eco marathon race held at Malaysia, 35:97–104, 2014. POLYM. COMPOS., 2013. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers

SYNTHESIS OF NEW INTERSPECIFIC TRIPLOID HYBRIDS FROM NATURAL AB GERMPLASM IN BANANA (MUSA SP.)

The release of new sweet-acid banana cultivars resistant to black leaf streak, Sigatoka leaf spot and Fusarium wilt is important for domestic markets in tropical and subtropical countries. Common current breeding strategies consist of selecting tetraploid AAAB hybrids directly from crosses between AAB sweet-acid cultivars pollinated with AA clones carrying disease-resistance genes. However, this crossing pathway is hampered by low gamete fertility and the rare occurrence of desired 2N gametes on the AAB female side (N=3X=33 chromosomes). We propose an alternative pathway which aims to create new triploid hybrids directly from AB landraces. Natural AB clones are sterile but their AABB tetraploid counterparts obtained by colchicine treatment are fertile. This gamete fertility was made profitable in crosses with AA and BB accessions to generate AAB and ABB hybrids. We present here agronomical results of various progenies involving an in vitro synthesized tetraploid 'Kunnan' (AABB) and several AA and BB clones. These first results suggest the very high potential of this new strategy for the release of wellperforming new hybrids combining higher productivity, disease resistance and better fruit quality. Hybrids with a high added-value, produced in this way, could be made available for evaluation within the ProMusa network. (Resume d'auteur)

Americans in Nazi-Occupied Paris

Americans in Nazi-Occupied Paris George Poe (bio) Charles Glass, Americans in Paris: Life and Death under Nazi Occupation. Penguin, 2010. 544 pages. Illustrated. $32.95; Alan Riding, And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris. Knopf, 2010. xiv + 400 pages. Illustrated. $28.95; Alan Furst, Mission to Paris. Random House, 2012. 256 pages. $27. And the Show Went On highlights the cultural program that continued with surprising vitality after a transitional slowdown during the initial months following France’s signing of the armistice in June 1940. This study by Alan Riding, a longtime writer for the New York Times, covers much of the same topical ground as Frederic Spotts’s The Shameful Peace, published a year earlier by Yale University Press and reviewed in the spring 2010 issue of this quarterly. A difference between the two accounts is that, true to his subtitle (How French Artists and Intellectuals Survived the Nazi Occupation), Spotts focuses almost exclusively on French artists and writers; and, true to his title, Spotts concludes that, with but a few impressive exceptions, the group’s collective backbone was overly pliant. My review of Spotts’s study ended by mentioning a less severe analysis that came out at roughly the same time: Collaboration and Resistance: French Literary Life Under the Occupation (Five Ties Publishing, 2009). This volume, a collection of over 650 documents edited by Robert Paxton, Olivier Corpet, and Claire Paulhan (granddaughter of Paul Paulhan, the latter deserving to be remembered as a literary résistant), offers a more nuanced view of the “extreme challenges faced by writers and intellectuals during the dark years of the Nazi Occupation.” Riding’s And the Show Went On does merit mention inasmuch as my critical purpose is to consider studies of late in which the stories of Americans in Paris during World War ii are stressed (in following up my recent review in these pages of David McCullough’s study of Americans in nineteenth-century Paris during periods of war and peace). In fact Riding dedicates two full chapters to two very different Americans: the first being the Harvard-educated journalist Varian Fry, who arrived in Marseilles in August of 1940 with substantial resources from the Emergency Rescue Mission to help Parisian artists and intellectuals—as well as other European artists working in France—obtain overseas visas and seek asylum, principally in the United States. Fry was “like an angel from heaven” and quite the American hero. Florence Gould, on the other hand, was the quintessential rich American living in Paris (born in San Francisco to French parents, her prodigious wealth came from a second marriage to Frank Jay Gould, son of Jay Gould). She was a darker sort of angel, helping and enabling—via [End Page 167] questionable contacts with Nazi, Gestapo, and Milicien friends—many of the intellectuals who frequented her wartime salon and who delighted in the unusually good food and champagne found there, given the times. A report by the prosecutor’s office of the Département de la Seine in 1948 concluded that “this Franco-American appears to have enjoyed singular protections during the occupation, and if it is not certain that she committed the crime of intelligence with the enemy, it is certain that we have no reason to congratulate her for her attitude”—enough to merit Florence Gould’s high ranking on Spotts’s collabo list, in spite of a certain indulgence that she was subsequently accorded, owing, it could be argued, to her generous Franco-American patronage of the arts. Charles Glass’s study, unlike Riding’s and Spotts’s, focuses almost exclusively on Americans in Paris, though the volume’s subtitle does frame Glass’s examination within the very same period of Nazi occupation, 1940–1944. This book offers fascinating and well-documented biographical presentations of Americans—both men and women—who chose to remain in Paris during the occupation (on the female side, some 350 American women would be rounded up in 1942, following the American declaration of war against Nazi Germany). Sylvia Beach’s tale is woven throughout the chronological parts of the study, and her refusal to abandon the Paris that failed to retain...

Heaven, the Mole and the Well: A Study of a Talmudic Theological Concept

This article engages in a literary analysis of the 'Mole and the Well' narrative, a tale that in the far past apparently was part of the Talmudic text, but is absent from the extant Talmud, with only an allusion to the former existence of the story in the Talmud to be found in BT Taanit 8a. The discussion that opens the article uncovers the hidden links between the passage in Taanit, in a discursive unit that hints at this narrative, and the spiritual contents concealed within the narrative itself (as it is preserved in post-Talmudic sources). This is followed by a close reading of the narrative that will aid us in clarifying the concept of the Emunah (faith) of the sages of the Talmud. This reading places especial emphasis on gender. Our reading finds a striking expression of the central place occupied by the female side in the narrative, by virtue of the fact that those who represent the believer who adheres to God are its two female characters. These women seem to serve as spiritual guides for the third character, the man, who learns from them the profound meaning of the spiritual maturity demanded of the believer.

Measurement and simulation of the pull-off strength at the separation of miniaturized 3D connectors consisting of silicon masters with undercuts and PDMS replicas

Applications in various sectors of microtechnology such as MEMS, microfluidics, and lab on chip call for reliable low-cost joining approaches that are detachable and re-closable, providing a tight fit at the micron level. Dovetail-like structures are a promising approach to realize the female side of such connectors and moulding is a suitable technique to produce the counterpart that completes the joint. Force-displacement measurements were performed for 2x2cm^2 master-replica assemblies, prepared from Si and PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) and featuring dovetail-like structures with different undercuts. For measurement a miniaturised force-displacement tester was set up. Maximum retention forces of up to about 60mN per trench of 1cm length were measured for lines with [email protected] wide undercuts. Finite element modelling using a linear elastic model was employed to simulate the local distribution of stress and strain in the PDMS under loading with an applied tensile force. The simulation results approximate the measurements well. The quantitative results obtained can be used for designing miniaturized connectors with undercuts.

Fernando I and Alfonso VI as Patrons of the Arts

The exclusive reference to males in the title is not meant to discount the more than significant role played by the female side of the Leonese royal families. In terms of direct patronage it is indeed easier to verify roles for queens and infantas than for Fernando and Alfonso. This is especially true for the reign of Alfonso. The Master, Don Manuel Gomez-Moreno, noted the dominant role rulers played in peninsular patronage, and commented expressly on the fact that recibieron inspiraciones todos ellos de sus respectivas mujeres y hermanas… 1 What follows is an attempt to broadly compare the patterns of patronage from mid-eleventh to the beginning of the twelfth century, with the names Fernando and Alfonso identifying the successive rules within this period. The names of Sancha and Urraca will figure prominently. Perhaps the virtual loss of Sahagun has obscured another name that might have been included, Constanza, but that remains mere speculation. Royal patronage had been significant in pre-Romanesque Spain, as the splendid treasuries of the Asturian rulers bear witness. If there was an era when one might claim monastic patronage dominated, it was during the tenth century, when the Commentary on the Apocalypse by Beatus became a sine qua non for the libraries of monasteries found along the frontier with al-Andalus. The result was the brilliant art-historical chapter we entitle “Mozarabic Painting”. The first work we can assign to the patronage of Fernando and Sancha continues that tradition, its royal sponsorship breaking what had been an exclusively monastic enterprise. 2 The Commentary they commissioned in 1047 proclaimed its origin in an elegant acrostic (f. 7): FREDENANDUS REX DEI GRA[TIA] M[EMO]R[I]A LIBER/SANCIA M[EMO]R[I]A L[I]BRI]. 3 Its elevated patronage is reflected in the elegance of materials, the liberal use of purple, silver and gold, and a refined technique in writing and illumination. This refine

“Spiders and Webs in American Literature”

From Jonathan Edwards to Jorie Graham, spiders are strikingly present in American literature. The purpose of this article is first to show how that theme may have become something of a national tradition as very different writers, all of them careful observers of aranae, answered one another through the years. It is very likely that the attention paid to spiders by American authors was increased by those Native American myths in which spiders are a central figure. More than occasionally, on the female side of the American counter-culture, especially among its feminist and lesbian exponents, simple activists and creative writers have harnessed the symbolic power invested in the spider by Native Americans.There may be deeper reasons accounting for American authors’ fascination with spiders. The country’s phobia of disunion is one; a nation of settlers’ acute consciousness of the precariousness of its occupation of the territory is another. In demonstrating outstanding skills for adjustment to unknown places, spiders epitomize a form of identity permanence. The predominantly positive character of spider symbols in American literature will occasionally be inverted. Following the national logic of checks and balances, any web covering the whole of the United States will tend to come under suspicion.This study ends with an inventory of cultural productions linked with spiders and webs and whose Americanness is yet to be clearly determined.

Development of Resin Infusion Process for Ultralight Large Composite Structures

Resin Infusion process is an affordable process for developing composite structures but resin impregnate is made difficult by its large size of engineering products. This research demonstrates development of large structures such as body of a high performance automobile in a single step resin infusion process. Three different scaled down models of the car were developed according to user’s technical requirements focusing on minimal weight, air drag and aesthetics. Pro E and ANSYS were used to determine the optimal shape, geometry, size, aesthetics and strength. The digital model of exterior shape of car body was developed through coordinate measuring machine using selected model instead of Pro-E modeling due to time constraints. The digitized data was used for development of Pro-E model. The Pro-E model was scaled up to generate CAD drawings for tool development. Different stations were marked on the model and sliced virtually for development of pattern. After developing pattern, the mold was manufactured from carbon and glass / polyester composites for prototype manufacturing of the car body. The prototype manufacturing involved placement of specific number of carbon layers as perform on female side of the mold. The vacuum sucked the resin through a number of carefully selected entry ports. Multiple resin delivery ports ensured effective resin distribution and impregnation. After curing the cutting, trimming and drilling operations were carried out to finish car body to actual size. Polyacrylic wind shield was thermoformed in convection current oven according to streamlined geometry of car body. The car body was integrated with the compatible floor panels and accessories. The crumble zone shock absorber in the bumper was manufactured using successive layers of Nomex® honeycomb and PVC rigid foam to dampen the accidental shock. The successful test runs were made to qualify the car body according to user’s technical requirements.

Preference for Facial Self-Resemblance and Attractiveness in Human Mate Choice

Empirical studies present considerably consistent data about human mate choice, from which we may infer that it tends to be homogamous for various traits. However, different experiments on facial resemblance led to contradictory results. To obtain additional data about the preference for self-resembling potential mates, male and female composite faces were modified in a manner to resemble subjects. Volunteers were asked to choose a potential partner from three images in different situations: self-resembling faces, non-resembling faces (both with the same degree of other-rated attractiveness), and images which were rated by others as more attractive than the self-resembling faces. Women did not show any preference for similarity; they preferred the most attractive male and female faces. In contrast, men preferred the most attractive images of the opposite sex to self-resembling faces and the self-resembling to non-resembling faces. The self-resemblance of same-sex faces was preferred by neither men nor women. Our results support the hypothesis that both facial similarity (i.e., cues of shared genes) and observer-independent features of attractiveness (i.e., honest signals of genetic quality) play an important role in males' mate choice. The lack of choice for self-resemblance on the female side in this particular study might reflect their more complex decision-making rules that are probably based on other cues beside visual stimuli.

Improvements in identification of the best sperm for ICSI?

Sperm fertility assessment remains a dubiously objective art. In this issue of Reproductive BioMedicine Online, the IVI group once again have exploited their ready access to donor oocytes to attempt to expand our knowledge of what is or is not a ‘good’ sperm for intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and more importantly why. Using the donor oocyte model to reduce possible bias introduced on the female side, Garcia-Herrero et al., 2011Garcia-Herrero S. Garrido N. Martinez-Conjerro J.A. Remohi J. Pellicer A. Differential transcriptomic profile in spermatozoa achieving pregnancy or not via ICSI.Reprod. Biomed. Online. 2011; 22: 25-36Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (66) Google Scholar have applied microarrays to derive differential transcriptome profiles from sperm that either did or did not achieve pregnancy following ICSI. Their preliminary study describes quite clear differences in the profiles obtained using fresh sperm, but not those that had been frozen and thawed. Their earlier work in women undergoing intrauterine insemination (Garcia-Herrero et al., 2010Garcia-Herrero S. Meseguer M. Martinez-Conjerro J.A. Remohi J. Pellicer A. Garrido N. The transcriptome of spermatozoa used in homologous intrauterine insemination varies considerably between samples that achieve pregnancy and those that do not.Fertil. Steril. 2010; 94: 1360-1373Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (56) Google Scholar) formed the basis of this more detailed analysis, which confirms that in clinical practice more attention to detail when selecting sperm for ICSI should be beneficial. Benefits for infertile couples are provided by more thorough assessment of individual sperm morphology prior to ICSI – but regrettably this approach is not widely used, the reluctance being possibly cost-related or the lingering feeling that there is still too much subjectivity when assessing the microstructure of spermatozoa. The use of microarrays may bring an objectivity that is lacking in imaging techniques, and might therefore be more readily accepted in the clinical arena. Furthermore, subsequent analysis of the transcripts in relation to the man’s clinical details, as well as to treatment outcome, promises to introduce added value to the area of male fertility and infertility – hitherto too often neglected or sidelined. This study is not without its weaknesses, which are correctly acknowledged by the authors, but nevertheless the new findings should provide encouragement and impetus to more studies that will in turn lead to more insights into genetically determined aspects of male fertility.

The influence of metritis and mastitis on dairy herd fertility: some case examples

UK Vet Vol 15 No 6 October 2010 38 INTRODUCTION The decline in dairy herd reproductive performance over the last 20-25 years or so has seen a fall in heat detection rates accompanied by a fall in conception rates (Lucy, 2001; Royal et al., 2000). This has led to the development of a variety of systems of heat detection, aimed at increasing the number of cows detected in heat thus increasing submission rates, in the simple belief that, providing egg and sperm are brought together in the right place at the right time, conception success is assured. However, if heat detection were the sole problem relating to the decline in performance then surely conception rates would have remained static? The question then arises that if the methods of heat detection that have been employed over the last 20-25 years are accurate, and the quality of purchased semen has been maintained, there must be other factors on the female side which have contributed to the decline.

Sex on the Fly

Sex on the Fly

The deviance of women: a critique and an enquiry

The deviance of women: a critique and an enquiry

Me, myself and I

Flowering plants have diversified and conquered the land. To do so, they have evolved strategies to avoid incest and promote compatible outcrossing. Philip Hunter explores some of the latest research in this area and its application to agriculture and horticulture.

The ASH1 HOMOLOG 2 (ASHH2) Histone H3 Methyltransferase Is Required for Ovule and Anther Development in Arabidopsis

BackgroundSET-domain proteins are histone lysine (K) methyltransferases (HMTase) implicated in defining transcriptionally permissive or repressive chromatin. The Arabidopsis ASH1 HOMOLOG 2 (ASHH2) protein (also called SDG8, EFS and CCR1) has been suggested to methylate H3K4 and/or H3K36 and is similar to Drosophila ASH1, a positive maintainer of gene expression, and yeast Set2, a H3K36 HMTase. Mutation of the ASHH2 gene has pleiotropic developmental effects. Here we focus on the role of ASHH2 in plant reproduction.Methodology/Principal FindingsA slightly reduced transmission of the ashh2 allele in reciprocal crosses implied involvement in gametogenesis or gamete function. However, the main requirement of ASHH2 is sporophytic. On the female side, close to 80% of mature ovules lack embryo sac. On the male side, anthers frequently develop without pollen sacs or with specific defects in the tapetum layer, resulting in reduction in the number of functional pollen per anther by up to ∼90%. In consistence with the phenotypic findings, an ASHH2 promoter-reporter gene was expressed at the site of megaspore mother cell formation as well as tapetum layers and pollen. ashh2 mutations also result in homeotic changes in floral organ identity. Transcriptional profiling identified more than 300 up-regulated and 600 down-regulated genes in ashh2 mutant inflorescences, whereof the latter included genes involved in determination of floral organ identity, embryo sac and anther/pollen development. This was confirmed by real-time PCR. In the chromatin of such genes (AP1, AtDMC1 and MYB99) we observed a reduction of H3K36 trimethylation (me3), but not H3K4me3 or H3K36me2.Conclusions/SignificanceThe severe distortion of reproductive organ development in ashh2 mutants, argues that ASHH2 is required for the correct expression of genes essential to reproductive development. The reduction in the ashh2 mutant of H3K36me3 on down-regulated genes relevant to the observed defects, implicates ASHH2 in regulation of gene expression via H3K36 trimethylation in chromatin of Arabidopsis inflorescences.

Involvement of Phospholipase C-Related Inactive Protein in the Mouse Reproductive System Through the Regulation of Gonadotropin Levels1

Phospholipase C-related but catalytically inactive protein (comprising PRIP-1 and PRIP-2 [officially designated PLCL1 and PLCL2]) was first identified in our laboratory, but the biological functions have remained elusive. Therefore, we generated Plcl1 and Plcl2 double-knockout mice (Plcl1(tm1Mh); Plcl2(tm1Tta)) to gain insight into the biological function. Double-knockout mice apparently grew normally and became fertile; however, during animal maintenance, we noticed that mutant couples exhibited decreased litter events and litter size, indicating dysfunction of the reproductive system. Cross-mating experiments to discriminate whether males or females were defective indicated that the cause appeared to be on the female side. Mutant female mice had an apparently smaller uterus by gross anatomical observation and had more estrous days during the cycles. Levels of serum luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone were measured for 5-6 consecutive days and were significantly higher in the mutant, which was also confirmed by examining the secretion of LH from the explant culture of anterior pituitary glands of wild-type and double-knockout mice. These results suggest that through gonadotropin secretion, PRIP plays an important role in female reproduction.