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: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine and metabolic disorder affecting women of reproductive age. Oxidative stress may contribute to its pathogenesis. Paraoxonase-1 (PON1) is an antioxidant enzyme associated with high-density lipoprotein, and its genetic polymorphisms may alter enzyme activity. This study aimed to investigate the association between PON1 L55M polymorphism (rs854560) and PCOS in Iraqi women.Methods: This case-control study included 80 women aged 20–35 years who were in good general health and matched for age and body mass index (BMI). Genomic DNA was extracted using a commercial kit. The PON1 L55M polymorphism was amplified by polymerase chain reaction and genotyped by direct sequen
... Show MoreThis study was design to investigate the dimensional stability of heat-activated acrylic resin with different methods of flask cooling (15 minutes rapid cooling, one hour bench cooling, four hours delayed deflasking, and 24 hours delayed deflasking) at different time intervals (immediately, two days, seven days, 30 days) after deflasking. Heat-activated acrylic resin was used to prepare acrylic samples. Then, measurement of the distances where achieved between the centers of selected marks in the acrylic samples. They were measured at different time intervals for different methods of flask cooling. The results showed that the group samples of the four hours and 24 hours of delayed deflasking was insignificantly different from the control an
... Show MoreIn this work, the effect of aluminum (Al) dust particles on the DC discharge plasma properties in argon was investigated. A magnetron is placed behind the cathode at different pressures and with varying amounts of Al. The plasma temperature (Te) and density (ne) were calculated using the Boltzmann equation and Stark broadening phenomena, which are considered the most important plasma variables through which the other plasma parameters were calculated. The measurements showed that the emission intensity decreases with increasing pressure from 0.06 to 0.4 Torr, and it slightly decreases with the addition of the NPs. The calculations showed that the ne increased and Te decreased with pressure. Both Te and ne were reduced by increasing
... Show MoreSemi-empirical methods were applied for calculating the vibration frequencies and IR absorption intensities for normal coordinates of the {mono (C56H28), di (C84H28), tri (C112H28) and tetra (C140H28)} -rings layer for (7,7) armchair single wall carbon nanotube at their equilibrium geometries which were all found to have D7d symmetry point group.
Assignment of the modes of vibration (3N-6) was done depending on the pictures of their modes by applying (Gaussian 03) program. Comparison of the vibration frequencies of (mono, di, tri and tetra) rings layer which are active in IR, and inactive in Ramman spectra. For C-H stretching vibrat
... Show MoreThe fast evolution of cyberattacks in the Internet of Things (IoT) area, presents new security challenges concerning Zero Day (ZD) attacks, due to the growth of both numbers and the diversity of new cyberattacks. Furthermore, Intrusion Detection System (IDSs) relying on a dataset of historical or signature‐based datasets often perform poorly in ZD detection. A new technique for detecting zero‐day (ZD) attacks in IoT‐based Conventional Spiking Neural Networks (CSNN), termed ZD‐CSNN, is proposed. The model comprises three key levels: (1) Data Pre‐processing, in this level a thorough cleaning process is applied to the CIC IoT Dataset 2023, which contains both malicious and t
Abstract
In this research, a study of the behavior and correlation between sunspot number (SSN) and solar flux (F10.7) have been suggested. The annual time of the years (2008-2017) of solar cycle 24 has been adopted to make the investigation in order to get the mutual correlation between (SSN) and (F10.7). The test results of the annual correlation between SSN & F10.7 is simple and can be represented by a linear regression equation. The results of the conducted study showed that there was a good fit between SSN and F10.7 values that have been generated using the suggested mutual correlation equation and the observed data.
A field experiment was conducted during winter season of 2021 at a research station of college of agricultural engineering sciences, university of Baghdad to determine the response of active fertility percentage and seed yield and its components of faba bean (Vicia faba L. cv. Aguadulce) to distance between plants and spraying of nano and traditional boron. A Randomized Complete Block Design according to split-plots arrangement was used at three replicates. The main plots were three distances between plants (25, 35 and 45 cm), while the sub plots including spraying of distilled water only (control treatment), spraying of boron at a 100 mg L-1 and spraying of nano boron at two concentrations (1
... Show MoreBeing the meeting points of the world different languages and out of a scholarly perspective, comparative literature represents a cultural leap as well as an artistic and intellectual development or a global literary movement of both prose and poetry. Such homogenous literary structure requires a systematic and coherent study of the literary output of the people different cultures and civilizations. It also represents the theoretical approach of the present study that debates a systematic comparison between Ghassan Kanafani’s All That's Left to You and William Faulkner’s. The Sound and the Fury. Within the perspective of the descriptive analysis approach, the present paper discusses th
... Show MoreSince the beginning of mankind, the view of the sky was present through observations with the naked eye, then it developed with time, and the sciences and tools of astronomical observations developed, including photometric measurements, which reached a high degree of accuracy in describing various cosmic phenomena, including the study of galaxies, their composition, and the differences between them, and from here the importance of this study emerged, to determine the differences between two distinct types of classification of galaxies, which are normal and barred spiral galaxies, where two galaxies NGC 4662 and NGC 2649 were chosen that represented certain types of galaxies to study the morphological structure of the two galaxies, a
... Show MoreRecording an Electromyogram (EMG) signal is essential for diagnostic procedures like muscle health assessment and motor neurons control. The EMG signals have been used as a source of control for powered prosthetics to support people to accomplish their activities of daily living (ADLs). This work deals with studying different types of hand grips and finding their relationship with EMG activity. Five subjects carried out four functional movements (fine pinch, tripod grip and grip with the middle and thumb finger, as well as the power grip). Hand dynamometer has been used to record the EMG activity from three muscles namely; Flexor Carpi Radialis (FCR), Flexor Digitorum Superficialis (FDS), and Abductor Pollicis Brevis (ABP) with different le
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