Background: The discriminative power of the classical WHO parameters in relation to male fertility is quite low, because they only address few aspects of sperm quality and function. This has led investigators to focus their attention on the male gamete and in particular its genome.Objective: To explore which of the sperm DNA damage parameters measured by comet assay are more reliable, and their relations with the standard semen parameters.Methods: Study was done on 40 infertile men selected from couples attending the Institute of Embryo Reasearch and Infertility Treatment at Al-Kadhimiya City/ Baghdad in the period between February 2009 and May 2009, with a history of infertility of ≥1 years; and 15 healthy volunteers of proven fertility serving as control. Samples were allowed to liquefy for at least 30 minutes at 37°C and then evaluated according to the guidelines of the World Health Organization, 1999. The single cell gel electrophoresis (comet) assay was studied in the ejaculated spermatozoa. The exclusion criteria were the presence of azoospermia and severe oligospermia. Results were compared with the standard semen characteristics (concentration, motility and morphology).Results: Compared to healthy volunteers, infertile patients had highly significantly higher values of comet parameters (P = 0.00001). In all infertile patients, comet extent did not correlate with any of the classical semen parameters; whereas, tail length (μm), % DNA in tail, tail moment and olive moment had all significant negative correlations with the standard parameters. Significant positive correlations were observed between the studied comet parameters, except for the comet extent which was not significantly correlated with tail length and % DNA in tail (P = 0.06, P = 0.7; respectively).Conclusion: Comet assay is a very useful technique in assessing sperm DNA damage. Comet tail parameters and comet extent, may clarify different aspects of DNA damage, and together give a better insight to the integrity of the male genome.Keywards: sperm, comet extent, % DNA in tail, tail moment and olive moment
The nuclear size radii, density distributions and elastic electron scattering charge form factors for Fluorine isotopes (17,19,20,24,26F) were studied using the radial wave functions (WF) of harmonic-oscillator (HO) potential and free mean field described by spherical Hankel functions (SHF) for the core and the valence parts, respectively for all aforementioned isotopes. The parameters for HO potential (size parameter ) and SHF were chosen to regenerate the available experimental size radii. It was found that using spherical Hankel functions in our work improved the calculated results quantities in comparison with empirical data.
The extraction of pesticides is a critical and urgent issue in the preparation for and determination of pesticide residues. The lack of a quick, easy, and successful extraction process is the most critical and challenging problem, even if diagnostic tools have improved and pesticide residues have been better understood. This study contrasted the QuEChERS method, which uses gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector, with the LLE method, which uses liquid-liquid extraction, in order to extract pyridaben from cucumbers and spiromesifen from tomatoes. The GC-FID device was employed to ascertain the spiromesifen LOD and LOQ, which were 0.002 μg mL-1 and 0.00
In this study, six square reinforced concrete flat plates with dimensions of (1500×1500×100) mm were tested under a concentrated load applied on a column located at the center of the slabs. One of these slabs was the control specimen, whereas, in the others, steel angles (steel collars) were used, fixed at the connection region between the slab and the column to investigate the effect of the presence of these collars on punching shear strength. Five thicknesses were used (4, 5, 6, 8, 10mm) with constant legs of angles (75×75) mm of the steel collars to investigate the effects on the punching shear resistance with respect to the control slab. The results of the experimental study show that the punching shear resistance increased b
... Show MoreCorrosion of steel reinforcement is one of the biggest problems facing all countries in the world like bridges in the beach area and marine constructions which lead to study these problems and apply some economical solutions. According to the high cost of repair for these constructions, were studied the effect of using kind of chemical compounds sodium nitrite(NaNO2) and sodium silicate(Na2SiO3) as corrosion inhibitors admixture for steel bars that immersed partially in electrolyte solution (water + sodium chloride in 3% conc.) (Approximately similar to the concentration of salt in sea water). The two inhibitors above added each one to the electrolyte solution at concentrations (0.5%, 1% and 2%) for both
... Show MoreIn this study four species from Solanaceae family was conducted. These four species belong to four different genera (Solanum L. ? Physalis L. ?Withania Pauq. ? Lycium L.) The study included morphological characters of sex organs and their pollen grains for these Iraqi wild plants.The results showed that the position of epipetalous stamens , the shape of anther, their dimensions ,and the length of filaments are important taxonomical characters .On the others hand the shape of their ovaries and stigmas are also important characters in distinguish between these four species .Pollen grains are similar in their general shapes and polarities, they have three germinal furrows and germinal apertures, so they are minor in distinguish between these f
... Show MoreNon-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become one of the most common chronic liver diseases worldwide, which characterized by steatosis, inflammation, and fibrosis. The aim of this designed study is to evaluate the ability of guggulsterone to prevent high fat diet induced steatohepatitis in mice. Five groups of male mice were selected and treated as the following: group I, mice had free access to standard commercial diet and considered as control group, group II, mice were fed a specially formulated high-fat diet for 12 weeks to induce non-alcoholic liver disease, while groups III, IV and V the mice were administered high fat diet containing guggulsterone at 500, 1000 and 2000 ppm concentration respectively for 12 weeks. Maintaini
... Show MoreBanks face different types of banking risks that limit the performance of its functions and achieve its objectives, including the financial risk that is based on current research into two types including a credit and liquidity risks. And established credit risk due to the possibility of delaying the borrowers to fulfill their obligations to the bank when due or non-payments on according to the terms agreed upon, while liquidity risk arises as a result of the inability of the bank to fund the financial needs, any inability to provide cash to pay its obligations short on credit without achieving tangible loss or the inability to employ the funds properly and show the liquidity risk in the event of inadequate cash inflows to the bank for an
... Show MorePrediction of the formation of pore and fracture pressure before constructing a drilling wells program are a crucial since it helps to prevent several drilling operations issues including lost circulation, kick, pipe sticking, blowout, and other issues. IP (Interactive Petrophysics) software is used to calculate and measure pore and fracture pressure. Eaton method, Matthews and Kelly, Modified Eaton, and Barker and Wood equations are used to calculate fracture pressure, whereas only Eaton method is used to measure pore pressure. These approaches are based on log data obtained from six wells, three from the north dome; BUCN-52, BUCN-51, BUCN-43 and the other from the south dome; BUCS-49, BUCS-48, BUCS-47. Along with the overburden pressur
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