The interleukin-1 family has multifaceted roles in men^٫s reproductive syste. Out  of these is interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RN) which exists in men gonads, and in case of infection and inflammatory process, its activity is increased.  The current study aims to verify a possible linkage of Variable Number Tandem Repeat (VNTR) polymorphism of the IL-1RN gene with human men infertility. The study groups enrolled included 100 infertile men and 100 fertile and healthy men. Their seminal fluids were subjected to analysis. Also peripheral blood samples were collected for the assessment or detection of polymorphic Variable Number  Tandem Repeats (VNTR) polymorphism of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist gene (IL-1RN). Two a

Background: Many previous studies were concerned with
the relationship between gestational diabetes and the
development of vaginal candidiasis in pregnant women. In
this study, our aim is directed to uncover glucose tolerance
status in non-diabetic pregnant women inflicted with
candida albicans.
Methods: Thirty-four pregnant women with vaginal
condidiasis (as demonstrated by microscopy) were enrolled
in this study. The patients were nearly similar in their
anthropometric and demographic criteria with those of the
healthy pregnant women (control group, forty –two
women). Fasting plasma sugar and glucose tolerance test
were alone for all patients and control group.
Results: fasting plasma sugar was

Background: To elucidate the possible role of human cytomegalovirus in pregnancy loss through induction of certain pro-inflammatory adhesion molecules.
Methods: Paraffin embedded sections of curate samples were obtained from 34 women had spontaneous abortion, and 5 women had elective termination of pregnancy (as control), and then subjected for immunohistochemistry analysis to detect human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) early protein and VCAM-1 molecule.
Results: Nine out of 34 women with spontaneous abortion were positive for HCMV early protein, with a
significantly higher expression of VCAM-1 in HCMV positive cases as compared with HCMV negative and the control groups (p = 0.05, 0.001 respectively).
Conclusion: HCMV infection may p

Plasma generated by a 1064 nm pulsed Nd: YAG laser with pulse duration of 10 ns concentrated onto an Al solid target under vacuum pressure was examined spectroscopically. The temperature and electron density specifying the plasma were measured by time-resolved spectroscopy of neutral atom and ion line emissions in the time period range of 300–2000 ns. An echelle spectrograph is utilized to appear the plasma emission lines. The temperature was obtained using the spectral line comparison method and the electron density was calculated using the Stark Broadening (SB) method. The electron density was characterized as a function of laser pulse energy. The time range where the plasma is optically thin and is also in local thermodynamic equilibri

Learning a foreign language is a highly interactive process, and a belief that communicative activities foster a great amount of linguistic production provides language practice and opportunities for negotiation of meaning during communicative exchanges. Thus, this study examines what benefits learner-centered classroom setting offers compared with that of teacher–centered classroom, and how less proficient learners accomplish their tasks and activities with scaffolded help during interaction with the help of proficient classmates and under the guidance of a skilful person, i.e., the teacher. The subjects participating in this study are 30 Iraqi 4^th year college students in the Department of English, College of Arts , Univer

Primary productivity and chlorophyll-a were used in this study to monitor the restoration process of southern Iraqi marshes (Al-Hewaizeh, central marshes, and Al-Hammar). The phytoplankton primary productivity was based on oxygen light/dark bottle method. Two different depths samples were taken monthly from six studied marshes stations (two stations for each marsh) during November 2005 to October 2006, while chlorophyll-a samples taken from surface water. The phytoplankton primary productivity values ranged 9.38 – 249.79 mg C/m3.hr for all marshes, its values for surface water sample ranged 11.71 – 256.24 mg C/m3.hr, while for 1m depth ranged 9.38 – 142.5 mg C/m3.hr. Chlorophyll-a values ranged between (1.1 – 21.26) µg/l indicating

Abstract: In this work we demonstrate and investigate the optical pulse propagation in a photonic band gap fiber Bragg grating (FBG). The light propagates in opposite direction in FBG is explained and discussed by a Coupled Mode Theory (CMT). The photonic band gap (stop band gap) is created by fabricated, a Bragg grating in optical fiber. The results show the pulse spectrum falls entirely within the stop band gap, the entire pulse is reflected by the grating, while when the pulse spectrum is outside the stop band gap the pulses will transmitted through the grating. The group velocity (VG) becomes zero at the edges of the stop band and group velocity dispersion β2 is anomalous on the shorter side of stop band gap whereas β2 for uniform fi

Nitrogen (N) fertilizer rate is important for high yield and good quality of potato tubers. In this dissertation, I seek to study the response of different potato cultivars under different N fertilizer rates and how that can impact tuber quality, examine the performance of active optical sensors in improving a potato yield prediction algorithm, and evaluate the ability of active optical sensors (GreenSeeker (GS) and Crop Circle (CC)) to optimize a N recommendation algorithm that can be used by potato growers in Maine. This research was conducted at 11 sites over a period of two years (2018–2019) in Aroostook County, Maine; all sites depended on a rainfed system. Three potato cultivars, Russet Burbank, Superior, and Shepody, were planted u