By Pierre Bourdieu (London: Routledge, 2010), xxx + 607 pp. £15.99 paper. A combination of social theory, statistical data, illustrations, and interviews, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judg...

Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste

This is a review of Collected Works of John Tate. Parts I, II, edited by Barry Mazur and Jean-Pierre Serre. American Mathematical Society, Providence, Rhode Island, 2016. For several decades it has been clear to the friends and colleagues of John Tate that a “Collected Works” was merited. The award of the Abel Prize to Tate in 2010 added impetus, and finally, in Tate’s ninety-second year we have these two magnificent volumes, edited by Barry Mazur and Jean-Pierre Serre. Beyond Tate’s published articles, they include five unpublished articles and a selection of his letters, most accompanied by Tate’s comments, and a collection of photographs of Tate. For an overview of Tate’s work, the editors refer the reader to [4]. Before discussing the volumes, I describe some of Tate’s work. 1. Hecke L-series and Tate’s thesis Like many budding number theorists, Tate’s favorite theorem when young was Gauss’s law of quadratic reciprocity. When he arrived at Princeton as a graduate student in 1946, he was fortunate to find there the person, Emil Artin, who had discovered the most general reciprocity law, so solving Hilbert’s ninth problem. By 1920, the German school of algebraic number theorists (Hilbert, Weber, . . .) together with its brilliant student Takagi had succeeded in classifying the abelian extensions of a number field K: to each group I of ideal classes in K, there is attached an extension L of K (the class field of I); the group I determines the arithmetic of the extension L/K, and the Galois group of L/K is isomorphic to I. Artin’s contribution was to prove (in 1927) that there is a natural isomorphism from I to the Galois group of L/K. When the base field contains an appropriate root of 1, Artin’s isomorphism gives a reciprocity law, and all possible reciprocity laws arise this way. In the 1930s, Chevalley reworked abelian class field theory. In particular, he replaced “ideals” with his “idèles” which greatly clarified the relation between the local and global aspects of the theory. For his thesis, Artin suggested that Tate do the same for Hecke L-series. When Hecke proved that the abelian L-functions of number fields (generalizations of Dirichlet’s L-functions) have an analytic continuation throughout the plane with a functional equation of the expected type, he saw that his methods applied even to a new kind of L-function, now named after him. Once Tate had developed his harmonic analysis of local fields and of the idèle group, he was able prove analytic continuation and functional equations for all the relevant L-series without Hecke’s complicated theta-formulas. Received by the editors September 5, 2016. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 01A75, 11-06, 14-06. c ©2017 American Mathematical Society

The collected works

Basal follicle-stimulating hormone level is a better predictor of in vitro fertilization performance than age

To allow selection of embryos for transfer after in vitro fertilization, ovarian stimulation is usually carried out with exogenous gonadotropins To compensate for changes induced by stimulation, GnRH analog cotreatment, oral contraceptive pretreatment, late follicular phase human chorionic gonadotropin, and luteal phase progesterone supplementation are usually added These approaches render ovarian stimulation complex and costly The stimulation of multiple follicular development disrupts the physiology of follicular development, with consequences for the oocyte, embryo, and endometrium In recent years, recombinant gonadotropin preparations have become available, and novel stimulation protocols with less detrimental effects have been developed In this article, the scientific background to current approaches to ovarian stimulation for in vitro fertilization is reviewed After a brief discussion of the relevant aspect of ovarian physiology, the development, application, and consequences of ovarian stimulation strategies are reviewed in detail

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The science behind 25 years of ovarian stimulation for in vitro fertilization.

The ESHRE Capri Workshop Group* rates in most circumstances. Embryo reduction involves extremely difficult decisions for infertile couples and should Correspondence should be addressed to Professor P.G. Crosignani, be used only as a last resort. Assisted reproductive treatClinica Ostetrica e Ginecologica I, Facolta de Medicina e Chirurgia, Universita Degli Studi di Milano, Via Commenda, ment centres and registries should express cycle results as 12-20122 Milano, Italy. E-mail: piergiorgio.crosignani@unimi.it the proportion of singleton live births; twin and triplet rates should be reported separately as complications of the Multiple gestation pregnancy rates are high in assisted procedures. Reducing the multiple gestation pregnancy reproductive treatment cycles because of the perceived need rate should be a high priority for assisted reproductive to stimulate excess follicles and transfer excess embryos in treatment programmes, despite the pressure from some order to achieve reasonable pregnancy rates. Perinatal patients to transfer more embryos in order to improve mortality rates are, however, 4-fold higher for twins and success. If nothing is done, public concern may lead 6-fold higher for triplets than for singletons. Since the goal to legislation in many countries, a step that would be of infertility therapy is a healthy child, and multiple unnecessary if assisted reproductive treatment programmes gestation puts that goal at risk, multiple pregnancy must be and registries took suitable steps to reduce multiple pregregarded as a serious complication of assisted reproductive nancy rates. treatment cycles. The 1999 ESHRE Capri Workshop

Multiple gestation pregnancy

An analysis of the influence of women's age on the results of in-vitro fertilization was performed, using 5590 attempts collected during the year 1986. Increasing age was found to be related to decreased success rates from 19.8% per attempt below the age of 25 years, to 9% per attempt at 40 years or more. A cut-off point was found between the ages of 36 and 37 years, using a mathematical model. The decrease was related to a reduction in oocyte production (4.3 +/- 2.8 at 25 years or less and 3.3 +/- 2.1 at 40 years or more, P less than 0.001), and to a reduced implantation rate, whatever the number of transferred embryos. These findings were not due to spouse's age, rank of attempt, infertility diagnosis or oocyte stimulation regimen, since the effect of age remained significant when a logistical model including these confounders was applied. Finally, a woman's age must be considered as a prognostic factor when IVF is proposed to infertile couples.

In-vitro fertilization: influence of women's age on pregnancy rates

Class, gender and culture in the experience of menopause. A comparative survey in Tunisia and France

The aim of the study was to analyze the socio-demographic status and the attitudes of couples demanding in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in France. This tranversal study was conducted in 52 IVF centres during two months. A selfadministered questionnaire was filled in by all women volunteers participating in an IVF programme. In total 2104 women were included. The couples in IVF had a better educational level and socio-economic level than the general population in France. Women reported negative effects of infertility and infertility treatment on their social, affective and sex lives. The relationship between the main socio-demographic variables and attitudes towards desire for a pregnancy, adoption, and freezing embryos was analyzed. Our results show that although the socio-economic level of the population attending IVF centres is higher than that of the general population, patients of lower-economic status nonetheless have access to IVF in France. However a better knowledge of the infertile couples’ characteristics and attitudes towards IVF could help to facilitate the access.

https://www.ined.fr/fichier/s_rubrique/19491/142.fr.pdf

Données de l'enquête caractéristiques des couples demandant une fécondation in vitro en France

The French national register on in vitro fertilization (IVF) FIVNAT, which has collected most of the oocyte pick-ups realised in France since 1986 has allowed us to build a cohort of 35,714 couples, of which the first recovery took place between 1990 and 1994 and followed up to a pregnancy or to the 31st of december, 1996. The per recovery clinical pregnancy rate decreased from 20.2% on the first attempt to 17.4% on the second, and to less than 13% after the sixth. This evolution existed whatever the women's age class or the infertility diagnosis. The women's age remained the most important factor, since the cumulative pregnancy rate decreased from 60% for women aged less than 35 years to 17% for those aged more than 41 years. Among the indications, male infertility using spouse's semen had the poorest prognosis, especially for women aged more than 41 years (9.6%) whereas male infertility using donor's semen among women aged less than 35 years was associated to the best results (68%). It must be noticed than a high percentage of unpregnant women did not come again for a further recovery (40% to 50%). Then, the crude cumulative birth rate (24.4%) was far below the theoretical cumulative one(54.2%).

FIVNAT. Influence of attempt rank in in vitro fertilization.

A national registry for in vitro fertilization (IVF) was established in France in January 1986 and has been in operation since that date. During 1987, data on 14,763 attempts were collected from 72 teams, representing 80 per cent of all French IVF activity. In this registry, a form is completed for every oocyte recovery attempt, containing information about the infertility diagnosis, the attempt itself and its result. This paper presents results for the years 1986 and 1987 and studies the relationship between pregnancy occurrence and some couple or cycle characteristics. Methodological aspects are discussed, concerning the possible sources of bias, and the analysis of results. Results obtained in this registry are compared with those from other similar registries.

A. Bachelot

Papers

In-vitro fertilization: influence of women's age on pregnancy rates

Class, gender and culture in the experience of menopause. A comparative survey in Tunisia and France

Données de l'enquête caractéristiques des couples demandant une fécondation in vitro en France

FIVNAT. Influence of attempt rank in in vitro fertilization.

Establishing a national in vitro fertilization registry: Methodological problems and analysis of success rates†