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 fertili

Dentures that are not cleaning and maintained properly may prone to contamination by different microbial pathogens that result in several oral conditions. This study was design to compare the antimicrobial effect of different denture cleansers oxalic, tartaric, citric acids and alkaline peroxide with microwave irradiation on the growth of Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus respectively. Microwave oven used to disinfect specimens of heat-activated acrylic resin and soft linear. Oxalic, citric, tartaric acids, and alkaline peroxide were also used. Microorganisms that tested were Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus separately. Treatment with microwave or tartaric acid could achieve sterilization of both hot cured acrylic resins

In cooling water systems, cooling towers play a critical role in removing heat from the water. Cooling water systems are commonly used in industry to dispose the waste heat. An upward spray cooling water systems was especially designed and investigated in this work. The effect of two nanofluids (Al₂O₃/ water, black carbon /water) on velocity and temperature distributions along reverse spray cooling tower at various concentrations (0.02, 0.08, 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2 wt.%) were investigated, beside the effect of the inlet water temperature (35 ,40, and 45 ͦ C) and water to air flow ratio (L/G) of 0.5, 0.75, and 1.  The best thermal performance was found when the working solution contained 0.1 wt.% for each of Al₂

The objective of this research was to estimate the dose distribution delivered by radioactive gold nanoparticles (198 AuNPs or 199 AuNPs) to the tumor inside the human prostate as well as to normal tissues surrounding the tumor using the Monte-Carlo N-Particle code (MCNP-6.1. 1 code). Background Radioactive gold nanoparticles are emerging as promising agents for cancer therapy and are being investigated to treat prostate cancer in animals. In order to use them as a new therapeutic modality to treat human prostate cancer, accurate radiation dosimetry simulations are required to estimate the energy deposition in the tumor and surrounding tissue and to establish the course of therapy for the patient. Materials and methods A simple geometrical

A modified chemical method was used to prepare titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs), which were diagnosed by several techniques: X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared, field emission scaning electron microscopy, energy disperse X-ray, and UV-visible spectroscopy, which proved the success of the preparation process at the nanoscale level. Where the titanium oxide particles have an average particle size equal to 6.8 nm, titanium dioxide particles were used in the process of adsorption of Congo red dye from its aqueous solutions using a batch system. The titanium oxide particles gave an adsorption efficiency of Congo red dye up to more than 79 %. The experimental data of the adsorption process were analyzed with kinetic models and

Background: Because of the demands for aesthetic orthodontic appliances have increased, aesthetic archwires have been widely used to meet patient's aesthetic needs. The color stability of aesthetic archwires is clinically important, any staining or discoloration will affect patient’s acceptance and satisfaction. This study was designed to evaluate the color stability of different types of aesthetic archwires after immersion into different types of mouth washes. Materials and methods: Four brands of nickel titanium coated aesthetic arch wires: Epoxy coated (Orthotechnology and G&H) and Teflon coated (Dany and Hubit) were evaluated after 1 week, 3 weeks and 6 weeks of immersion into two types of mouthwashes (Listerine with alcohol and

This paper investigated the fatigue life behavior of two composite materials subjected to different times of shot peening (2, 4 and 6 min).The first material prepared from unsaturated polyester with E-glass reinforcement by 33% volume fraction. While, the second one was prepared from unsaturated polyester with aluminum powder by2.5% volume fraction. The experimental results showed that the improvement in endurance limit was obtained (for the first material) at 2, 4 and 6 min shot peening times where the percentage of maximum improvement was 25% at shot peening time of 6 min. While, the endurance limit of the second material decreased at shot peening times of 2, 4 and 6 min where the percentage of maximum reduction was 29 % at shot peenin

In the present study, activated carbon supported metal oxides was prepared for thiophene removal from model fuel (Thiophene in n-hexane) using adsorptive desulfurization technique. Commercial activated carbon was loaded individually with copper oxide in the form of Cu₂O/AC. A comparison of the kinetic and isotherm models of the sorption of thiophene from model fuel was made at different operating conditions including adsorbent dose, initial thiophene concentration and contact time. Various adsorption rate constants and isotherm parameters were calculated. Results indicated that the desulfurization was enhanced when copper was loaded onto activated carbon surface. The highest desulfurization percent for Cu₂O/AC and o

In recent years, observed focus greatly on gold nanoparticles synthesis due to its unique properties and tremendous applicability. In most of these researches, the citrate reduction method has been adopted. The aim of this study was to prepare and optimize monodisperse ultrafine particles by addition of reducing agent to gold salt, as a result of seed mediated growth mechanism. In this research, gold nanoparticles suspension (G) was prepared by traditional standard Turkevich method and optimized by studying different variables such as reactants concentrations, preparation temperature and stirring rate on controlling size and uniformity of nanoparticles through preparing twenty formulas (G1-G20). Subsequently, the selected formula that pr

The aim of this research is to design and construct a semiconductor laser range finder
operating in the near infrared range for ranging and designation. The main part of the range finder is the
transmitter which is a semiconductor laser type GaAs of 0.904 mm wavelength with a beam expander,
and the receiver with its collecting optics. The characteristics of transmitter pulse width were 200ns and
threshold current 10 Amp. and maximum operating current 38 Amp. The repetition rate was set at 660 Hz
and maximum output power about 1 watt. The divergence of the beam was 0.268o. A special computer
code was used for optimum optical design and laser spot size analysis and for calculation of atmosphere
attenuation.