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
This study aims to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic adaptation among a sample of gifted students in intermediate and high schools in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The study also seeks to examine the differences between group means in emotional intelligence and academic adaptation due to demographic variables (gender and school level). In addition, the study aims to examine the role of emotional intelligence in predicting the level of academic adaptation. The researcher performed the descriptive, correlational, predictive, and comparative approaches to collect the data from a sample comprised of (309) gifted students using the emotional intelligence scale developed by Bar-on (2000), whi
... Show MorePublic spending represents the government’s financial leverage and has a significant impact on real and monetary economic variables, and one of these effects is the effect of public spending on the exchange rate as an important monetary variable for monetary policy, As we know that public spending in Iraq is financed from oil revenues sold in US dollars, and the Ministry of Finance converts the US dollar into Iraqi dinars to finance the government's need to spend within the requirements and obligations of the state's general budget, And converting the US dollar into Iraqi dinars has an impact on the parallel exchange market, even if there is a contractual exchange rate between the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Iraq to
... Show MoreThe present study aims to investigate the long-term histopathological, and physiological effects of different concentrations of a commercially available energy drink (Tiger) on liver and kidney of young mice. Sixteen Balb/c male mice,6 -week old, were divided into 4 groups (n=4). Two groups consumed the energy drink at a concentration of 28µl energy drink/ml water. One group were killed after 10 days (T1), another group were killed after 20 days (T2). Other group of mice consumed the energy drink at a final concentration of 14µl/ml for 20 days (T3). The last group was provided only with water and served as control. Mice of all groups drank around 3 ml per day. The histopathological study on liver of treated groups showed many changes s
... Show MoreLimitations of the conventional diagnostic techniques urged researchers to seek novel methods to predict, diagnose, and monitor periodontal disease. Use of the biomarkers available in oral fluids could be a revolutionary surrogate for the manual probing/diagnostic radiograph. Several salivary biomarkers have the potential to accurately discriminate periodontal health and disease. This study aimed to determine the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of salivary interleukin (IL)‐17, receptor activator of nuclear factor‐κB ligand (RANKL), osteoprotegerin (OPG), RANKL/OPG for differentiating (1) periodontal health from disease and (2) stable a
Buckling analysis of a laminated composite thin plate with different boundary conditions subjected to in-plane uniform load are studied depending on classical laminated plate theory; analytically using (Rayleigh-Ritz method). Equation of motion of the plates was derived using the principle of virtual work and solved using modified Fourier displacement function that satisfies general edge conditions. The eigenvalue problem generated by using Ritz method, the set of linear algebraic equations can be solved using MATLAB for symmetric and anti-symmetric, cross and angle-ply laminated plate considering some design parameters such as aspect ratios, number of layers, lamination type and orthotropic ratio. The results obtained g
... Show MoreThis research aims at calculating the optimum cutting condition for various types of machining methods, assisted by computers, (the computer program in this research is designed to solve linear programs; the program is written in v. basic language). The program obtains the results automatically, this occur through entering the preliminary information about the work piece and the operating condition, the program makes the calculation actually by solving a group of experimental relations, depending on the type of machining method (turning, milling, drilling). The program was transferred to package and group of windows to facilitate the use; it will automatically print the initial input and optimal solution, and thus reduce the effort and t
... Show MoreThe fauna of bees (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) from different regions of Iraq is surveyed in this study; there were 16 species, 13 genera that belong to four families which are collected in this investigation.
Also, all the species that are recorded for Iraq in previous investigations are revised; totally there are 110 species, 32 genera belonging to five families: Apidae, Andernidae, Colletidae, Halictidae and Megachilidae were listed.
Plant regeneration protocols were developed for medicinally important anise (Pimpinella anisum L.) that successfully achieved from seeds. Seeds were sterilized and inoculated on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with and without gibberellins (GA3) until full germination. The highest percentage of germination (100%) was recorded on MS medium treated with 2.0 mg/L GA3 after 7 days. For shoot proliferation, different concentrations of 6- benzyl adenine BA (1, 1.5, 2 mg/L) were used. To enhance shoot induction, 0.1 mg/L of naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and 0.01 mg/L of thidiazuron (TDZ) were tested along with BA. Direct regenerated shoots were obtained on MS medium supplemented with BA alone (2mg/L) which gave (7shoot/explant), while the presence
... Show MoreThe electrical performance of bottom-gate/top source-drain contact for p-channel organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) using poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) as an active semiconductor layer with two different gate dielectric materials, Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and Hafnium oxide (HfO2), is investigated in this work. The output and transfer characteristics were studied for HfO2, PVP and HfO2/PVP as organic gate insulator layer. Both characteristics show a high drain current at the gate dielectric HfO2/PVP equal to -0.0031A and -0.0015A for output and transfer characteristics respectively, this can be attributed to the increasing of the dielectric capacitance. Transcondactance characteristics also studied for the three organic mater
... Show MoreStatistical studies are reported in this article for an active galactic nuclei sample of different type of active galaxies Seyferts 1, Seyferts 2, and Quasars. These sources have been selected from a Catalogue for bright X-ray galaxies. The name of this index is ROSAT Bright Source Catalogue (RBSC) and the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS). In this research, multi-wavelength observational bands Radio at 1.4 GHz, Optical at 4400 A0, and X-ray at energy 0.1-2.4 KeV have been adopted in this study. The behavior of flux density ratios has been studied , with respect to the absolute magnitude . Furthermore, the Seyfert1 and Seyfert 2 objects are combined in one group and the QSOs are collectest in another group. Also, it has been found that t
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