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
In the present study, the growth and total lipid contents of two oleaginous fungal isolates Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus fumigatus were compared in different nitrogen and organic carbon sources. Artificially the fungi were cultured on media consisting of various mono- or di- or polysaccharides and peptone or yeast extract as elementary sources for carbon and nitrogen, respectively. Media containing sucrose /yeast extract or glucose/ yeast extract were the most effective for lipid production from fungal, during two weeks incubation period, the highest biomass of dry weight was (19.6 , 18.8) g / L , (25.8 , 30.5) g /L and lipid yield (1, 0.97 )g/L, (0.65, 0.65) g/ L for two isolates Aspergillus terreus
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Background: Cluster of differentiation 14 (CD14) is a serum/cell surface glycoprotein; and it is a pattern recognition receptor. CD14 expressed on the surface of various cells, or it found soluble in saliva and other body fluids. It has been proposed that soluble CD14 (sCD14) may play a protective role by controlling Gram negative bacterial infections through its capacity to bind lipopolysaccharide. This study was conducted to assess the level of soluble CD14 in saliva of patients with different periodontal diseases and healthy subjects and determine its correlation with clinical periodontal parameters. Materials & Methods: A total of 80 subjects, age ranged (25-50) years old, divided into three main groups, group ? consisted of 45 chronic
... Show Moremixtures of cyclohexane + n-decane and cyclohexane + 1-pentanol have been measured at 298.15, 308.15, 318.15, and 328.15 K over the whole mole fraction range. From these results, excess molar volumes, VE , have been calculated and fitted to the Flory equations. The VE values are negative and positive over the whole mole fraction range and at all temperatures. The excess refractive indices nE and excess viscosities ?E have been calculated from experimental refractive indices and viscosity measurements at different temperature and fitted to the mixing rules equations and Heric – Coursey equation respectively to predict theoretical refractive indices, we found good agreement between them for binary mixtures in this study. The variation of th
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Background: To investigate the effect of different types of storage media on enamel surface microstructure of avulsed teeth by using atomic force microscope.Materials and methods : Twelve teeth blocks from freshly extracted premolars for orthodontic treatment were selected . The study samples were divided into three groups according to type of storage media :A-egg white , B- probiotic yogurt , and C-bovine milk . All the samples were examined for changes in surface roughness and surface granularity distribution using atomic force microscope, at two periods: baseline, and after 8 hours of immersing in the three types of storage media. Results: Milk group had showed a significant increase in the mean of the roughness values at
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This research aims to find how three different types of mouthwashes affect the depth of artificial white spot lesions. Teeth with various depths of white spot lesions were immersed in either splat mouthwash, Biorepair mouthwash, Sensodyne mouthwash, or artificial saliva (control)twice daily for one minute for 4 weeks and 8 weeks at 37°C. After this immersion procedure, lesion depth was measured using a diagnosed pen score. A one-way analysis of variance, Dunnett T3 and Tukey's post hoc α = .05 were used to analyze the testing data. Splat mouthwash enhanced the WSL remineralization and made the lowest ΔF compared with other mouthwashes in shallow and deep enamel after 4 and 8 weeks of treatment. In the repair groups, after 4 weeks
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The absorption spectrum for three types of metal ions in different concentrations has been studying experimentally and theoretically. The examination model is by Gaius model in order to find the best fitting curve and the equation controlled with this behavior. The three metal ions are (Copper chloride Cu+2, Iron chloride Fe+3, and Cobalt chloride Co+2) with different concentrations (10-4, 10-5, 10-6, 10-7) gm/m3. The spectroscopic study included UV-visible and fluorescence spectrum for all different concentrations sample. The results refer to several peaks that appear from the absorption spectrum in the high concentration of all metal ions solution.
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In this paper, Pentacene based-organic field effect transistors (OFETs) by using different layers (monolayer, bilayer and trilayer) for three different gate insulators (ZrO2, PVA and CYEPL) were studied its current–voltage (I-V) characteristics by using the gradual-channel approximation model. The device exhibits a typical output curve of a field-effect transistor (FET). Source-drain voltage (Vds) was also investigated to study the effects of gate dielectric on electrical performance for OFET. The effect of capacitancesemiconductor in performance OFETs was considered. The values of current and transconductance which calculated using MATLAB simulation. It exhibited a value of current increase with increasing source-drain voltage.
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Hydrate dissociation equilibrium conditions for carbon dioxide + methane with water, nitrogen + methane with water and carbon dioxide + nitrogen with water were measured using cryogenic sapphire cell. Measurements were performed in the temperature range of 275.75 K–293.95 K and for pressures ranging from 5 MPa to 25 MPa. The resulting data indicate that as the carbon dioxide concentration is increased in the gas mixture, the gas hydrate equilibrium temperature increases. In contrast, by increasing the nitrogen concentration in the gas mixtures containing methane or carbon dioxide decreased the gas hydrate equilibrium temperatures. Furthermore, the cage occupancies for the carbon dioxide + methane system were evaluated using the Van der Wa
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Light is an important factor that influences the growth and photosynthetic efficiency of microalgae; however, little is known about how light intensity together with the wavelength affect the photosynthetic capacity and growth of marine microalgae. In the present study, the growth of the marine green microalga Dunaliella parva was studied and optimized under different light intensities (25 ~ 70 μmol m-2 s-1) and qualities (blue, green, and red) in comparison with white light at 40 μmol m-2 s-1 as a control. The growth was monitored by counting the cell number, pigment content, Chl a, Chl b, and carotenoids concentrations. The optimal growth and highest photosyntheti
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