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
Steady conjugate natural convection heat transfers in a two-dimensional enclosure filled with fluid saturated porous medium is studied numerically. The two vertical boundaries of the enclosure are kept isothermally at same temperature, the horizontal upper wall is adiabatic, and the horizontal lower wall is partially heated. The Darcy extended Brinkman Forcheimer model is used as the momentum equation and Ansys Fluent software is utilized to solve the governing equations. Rayleigh number (1.38 ≤ Ra ≤ 2.32), Darcy number (3.9 * 10-8), the ratio of conjugate wall thickness to its height (0.025 ≤ W ≤ 0.1), heater length to the bottom wall ratio (1/4 ≤ ≤ 3/4) and inclination angle (0°, 30° and 60°) are the main consid
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Bacteria strain H8, which produces high amount of exopolysaccharide (EPS), was isolated from soil, and identified as strain of Azotobacter chrococcum by its biochemical /physiological characteristics, EPS was extracted, partially purified and used as bioflocculant. The biochemical analysis of the partially purified EPS revealed that it was an alginate. analysis of EPS by Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) show that the -OH groups present in bioflocculant are clearly seen at 3433.06 cm-1, the peaks attributed to the -CH3 groups present at 2916.17 cm-1 , and some distinct peaks such as carboxyl group showed strong absorption bands at 1604.66 cm-1, 1411.80 cm-1 and 1303.79 cm-1 indicate the chemical structure of alginate. The effe
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Abstract
The current study aims to identify university students' attitudes towards reading and its relationship to some demographic variables in the universities of the Sultanate of Oman. The study sample consisted of (1434) male and female university students from various Omani public and private universities affiliated with the Ministry of Higher Education. The study covered all (11) governorates of Oman. The researcher adopted the descriptive analytical approach. The researcher employed a scale of reading attitudes to collect the needed data. The study results showed that university students' reading attitudes recorded a high degree. The results also showed there are statistically significant differences at th
... Show MoreThe importance of the Arabic language and its deep vocabulary in the live translation of the work of science and interior design can't be hidden from the whole world. The previous studies have dealt with the role of the linguistic vocabulary and Arabic calligraphy in interior spaces in terms of decoration and design. However, this research sheds light on the importance of linguistic vocabulary in the construction of design thought and how it has become the a basic motivation in the process of scientific and practical construction and not just aesthetic formations that took their place in the interior spaces, as linguistic vocabulary emerged recently and echoed within the specialization of interior design and formed a key motive to explor
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This research aims at identifying the nature of addressing the Middle East issues in the talk shows in the foreign channels speaking in Arabic "France 24, a model", and identifying the extent of interest of the channel in addressing middle east issues in the talk shows, the nature of the guests and the hosts, methods of addressing the issues, and the technical features that characterize the presenter of the research sample program. This research is considered an analytical descriptive study. It depends on the analysis of the content of the series of the weekly talk show "a week from the world" on the French channel (France 24) during the period (August 1/July 31 2018).
The most important results indicated that the foreign channels sp
In the 1970s, the world knew the long-tailed nesokia Nesokia bunnii (Khajuria, 1981) (Rodentia, Muridae) from the Mesopotamian marshes of Garden of Eden in Southern Iraq. This distinct rodent was known from only five voucher specimens collected at the confluence of Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in southern Iraq while its occurrence in Southwestern Iran had
never been reported. In the 1990s, a large extent of its natural habitat was catastrophically desiccated and the animal was last seen in the 1970s. Since then, the status of this elusive rodent was shrouded in mystery. In 2007, an extraordinary photograph of a carcass of this species came to the light from Hawizeh Marsh which was interpreted as concrete evidence of the species’ pers