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
Background: The excessive use and abuse of antibiotics contribute to bacterial resistance, raising the risk of complications and treatment failures. This study investigates adherence to antibiotic prescriptions among Iraqi dental patients, highlighting implications for antimicrobial resistance.Objective: To assess adherence levels and identify factors influencing antibiotic therapy compliance among dental patients.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in which adult dental patients aged 18 and older, who had been prescribed antibiotics within the past year, participated. The modified Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 items was used to evaluate adherence, and data were analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics software V26.Results: Amon
... Show MoreThe stress(Y) – strength(X) model reliability Bayesian estimation which defines life of a component with strength X and stress Y (the component fails if and only if at any time the applied stress is greater than its strength) has been studied, then the reliability; R=P(Y<X), can be considered as a measure of the component performance. In this paper, a Bayesian analysis has been considered for R when the two variables X and Y are independent Weibull random variables with common parameter α in order to study the effect of each of the two different scale parameters β and λ; respectively, using three different [weighted, quadratic and entropy] loss functions under two different prior functions [Gamma and extension of Jeffery
... Show MoreMassive multiple-input multiple-output (massive-MIMO) is a promising technology for next generation wireless communications systems due to its capability to increase the data rate and meet the enormous ongoing data traffic explosion. However, in non-reciprocal channels, such as those encountered in frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, channel state information (CSI) estimation using downlink (DL) training sequence is to date very challenging issue, especially when the channel exhibits a shorter coherence time. In particular, the availability of sufficiently accurate CSI at the base transceiver station (BTS) allows an efficient precoding design in the DL transmission to be achieved, and thus, reliable communication systems can be obtaine
... Show MoreThe electric quadrupole moments for some scandium isotopes (41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47Sc) have been calculated using the shell model in the proton-neutron formalism. Excitations out of major shell model space were taken into account through a microscopic theory which is called core polarization effectives. The set of effective charges adopted in the theoretical calculations emerging about the core polarization effect. NushellX@MSU code was used to calculate one body density matrix (OBDM). The simple harmonic oscillator potential has been used to generate the single particle matrix elements. Our theoretical calculations for the quadrupole moments used the two types of effective interactions to obtain the best interaction compared with the exp
... Show MoreThis experiment was holdup in A-Faris poultry farms from 1st March to 11 of Aprile 2019. (ACTH) hormone infusion was tested in this experiment on acid-base regulation in broiler chickens. For 7 days, osmotic pumps dispensed 8 IU of ACTH in saline/kg of BW/d, or the same volume of saline as in ACTH at 1 l/h. On days 0 and 14, after the beginning of the infusions, blood samples were obtained to establish a baseline. The plasma concentrations of Na+, K+, and Cl- were decreased, whereas the partial pressure of CO2, anion gap, corticosterone, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, and blood concentrations of hemoglobin and HCO - were all elevated due to the ACTH administration. When given ACTH, neither blood pH nor plasma Ca2+ levels changed
... Show MoreBackground:The demand for esthetic orthodontic appliances is increasing so that the esthetic orthodontic archwires were introduced. This in vitro study was designed to evaluate the surface roughness offiber-reinforced polymer composite (FRPC) archwires compared to coated nickel-titanium (NiTi) archwires immersed in artificial saliva. Materials and Methods:Three types of esthetic orthodontic archwires were used: FRPC (Dentaurum), Teflon coated NiTi (Dentaurum) and epoxy coated NiTi (Orthotechnology). They were round (0.018 inch) in cross section and cut into pieces of 15 mm in length.Forty pieces from each type were divided into four groups; one group was left at a dry condition and the other three groups were immersed in artificial saliva (
... Show MoreMethotrexate (MTX), a folic acid antagonist is widely used for the treatment of a variety of tumors. In the present study, the possible protective effect of aqueous green tea extract (AGTE) in methotrexate-induced haematotoxicity was investigated.Four main groups of white Albino rats were used: control group, (MTX) group, following a single dose of MTX (20 mg/kg, i.p.) saline was administered for 5 days. (AGTE) group, was treated with 1.25% concentration of AGTE only for 12 days and the (MTX+AGTE) group, in thism group rats received different concentrations of AGTE (0.625, 1.25 and 2.5%), as their sole source of drinking water, 7days before and 5 days after MTX treatment. MTX induced significant decreases in RBC, Hb, Hct, WBC and pl
... Show MoreOne hundred isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were obtained from patients admitted to Baghdad hospitals, Iraq during the period between May 2018 until July 2018. These isolates were distributed as 15 isolates from blood, 25 isolates from urinary tract infections, 10 isolates from sputum, 12 isolates from wounds, 15 isolates from ear infections, 15 isolates from bronchial wash of patients suffering from respiratory tract infections in addition to 8 isolates from cystic fibrosis patients. The isolates were initially identified by culturing on MacConkey agar, blood agar and P. aeruginosa agar then diagnosed by performing some morphological and biochemical tests. The second diagnosis was done by API 20E system followed by Vitek 2 compact syste
... Show MoreAntibiotics present the greatest threat to soil and aquatic ecosystems among the different therapeutic groups of medicines (which include prescription drugs and treatments for cancer). The strongest drugs, antibiotics, have been utilized to stop the growth of microorganisms or eradicate them. Using high-performance liquid chromatography technology with fluorescence detection, the amounts of levofloxacin and tetracycline in the wastewater from three hospitals (Medical City, AlKindi, and Al-Yarmouk) were determined. Levofloxacin and tetracycline were chosen in this study because they are the most important water pollutants. These antibiotic residues were separated and measured using a gradient elution technique on a reverse-phase C18 co
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