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
One-third of the total waste generated in the world is construction and demolition waste. Reducing the life cycle of building materials includes increasing their recycling and reuse by using recycled aggregates. By preventing, the need to open new aggregate quarries and reducing the amount of construction waste dumped into landfills, the use of recycled concrete aggregate in drum compacted concrete protects the environment. Four samples of PRCC were prepared for testing (compressive strength, tensile strength, flexural strength, density, water absorption, porosity) as the reference mix and (10, 15, and 20%) of fine recycled concrete aggregate as a partial replacement for fine natural aggregate by volume. The mix is designed according to
... Show MoreSpatial data observed on a group of areal units is common in scientific applications. The usual hierarchical approach for modeling this kind of dataset is to introduce a spatial random effect with an autoregressive prior. However, the usual Markov chain Monte Carlo scheme for this hierarchical framework requires the spatial effects to be sampled from their full conditional posteriors one-by-one resulting in poor mixing. More importantly, it makes the model computationally inefficient for datasets with large number of units. In this article, we propose a Bayesian approach that uses the spectral structure of the adjacency to construct a low-rank expansion for modeling spatial dependence. We propose a pair of computationally efficient estimati
... Show MoreThe aim of this study was to study chemical constituents of aerial parts of Cardaria draba since no phytochemical investigation had been studied before in Iraq. Aerial parts of Cardaria draba were defatted by maceration in hexane for 72 h. The defatted plant materials were extracted using Soxhlet apparatus, the aqueous Methanol 90% as a solvent extraction for 18 h, and fractionated with petroleum ether- chloroform (CHCl3)- ethylacetate- and n-butanol respectivly. The ethyl acetate, n-butanol, and n-butanol after hydrolysis fractions were investigated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) for its phenolic acid and flavonoid contents. Flavono
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Machining residual stresses correlate very closely with the cutting parameters and the tool geometries. This research work aims to investigate the effect of cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut on the surface residual stress of steel AISI 1045 after face milling operation. After each milling test, the residual stress on the surface of the workpiece was measured by using X-ray diffraction technique. Design of Experiment (DOE) software was employed using the response surface methodology (RSM) technique with a central composite rotatable design to build a mathematical model to determine the relationship between the input variables and the response. The results showed that both
... Show MoreThis study relates to synthesis of bentonite-supported iron/copper nanoparticles through the biosynthesis method using eucalyptus plant leaf extract, which were then named E-Fe/Cu@B-NPs. The synthesised E-Fe/Cu@B-NPs were examined by a set of experiments involving a heterogeneous Fenton-like process that removed direct blue 15 (DB15) dye from wastewater. The resultant E-Fe/Cu@B-NPs were characterised by scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer–Emmet–Teller analysis, zeta potential analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. The operating parameters in batch experiments were optimised using Box–Behnken design. These parameters were pH, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2
... Show MoreTime is an essential element of contracts، as there is an independent in many parts of each contract، but the time dimension has a significant impact on the provisions of all contracts and is not limited to a particular range of contracts، and French and Arab jurists alike have called for this dimension to be given special attention، and as a result the French legislator has introduced the term duration of the contract، to try to limit the temporal elements، to clarify their provisions and to distinguish between them in decree131/2 016، but for our Arab country it did not receive the appropriate answer. The problem of duration in contracts relates to the lack of clarity of the idea، and then to confuse the various time terms in the
... Show MoreIn this paper, we introduce an exponential of an operator defined on a Hilbert space H, and we study its properties and find some of properties of T inherited to exponential operator, so we study the spectrum of exponential operator e^T according to the operator T.
This paper discusses the method for determining the permeability values of Tertiary Reservoir in Ajeel field (Jeribe, dhiban, Euphrates) units and this study is very important to determine the permeability values that it is needed to detect the economic value of oil in Tertiary Formation. This study based on core data from nine wells and log data from twelve wells. The wells are AJ-1, AJ-4, AJ-6, AJ-7, AJ-10, AJ-12, AJ-13, AJ-14, AJ-15, AJ-22, AJ-25, and AJ-54, but we have chosen three wells (AJ4, AJ6, and AJ10) to study in this paper. Three methods are used for this work and this study indicates that one of the best way of obtaining permeability is the Neural network method because the values of permeability obtained be
... Show MoreThe health care provided by health institutions and all kinds suffers from many problems, and since the health services provided are related to human life, it is necessary to shed light on this activity and identify the causes of these problems. This research aims to Definition of health institutions (hospitals) Performance audit of these institutions according to the latest indicators, which are the standards of health accreditation for hospitals, specifically the basic standards issued by the Health Care Accreditation Council (HCAC) to reach the level of performance and Knowledge of Constraints that lead to in an acceptable manner consistent with the approved standards. In theoretical and practical study, a number of conclusions were r
... Show MoreThere is no doubt that the project control function is very important for administration, so the project Management depends on to monitor and control the project. The project control integrated to the planning which is the base of the administration functions; planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. Without project control cannot be insure to fulfill the plan of the project by the budget and specified time. The project management apply many methods of control to achieve the goals of project which are cost, time, and required specifications. Earned Value Management one of control methods that used in the project by international companies.
Earned Value Method is used in the project o
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