Background: Human semen contains high concentrations of fructose, zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) in bound and ionic forms for Zn and Cu. The presence of abnormal levels of fructose and those trace elements may affect spermatogenesis with regard to production, maturation, motility and fertilizing capacity of the spermatozoa.Objective: To evaluate the levels of fructose, Zn and Cu in seminal plasma in different groups of male infertility and to correlate their concentrations with various sperm parameters.Methods: The concentrations of fructose, Zn and Cu were measured in 114 semen samples from normozoospermic, oligozoospermic, astheno-zoospermic, and azoospermic men using the electrothermal-atomic absorption spectrometry for Zn and Cu determination. The concentration of fructose in seminal plasma was determined with a spectrophotometric method, using the resorcinol method.Results: Results of the present study showed that there was an inverse relationship between fructose levels and sperm count. The mean value of seminal plasma fructose concentrations was significantly increased (p ≤ 0.001) in the three groups of infertile male subjects (azoospermia, asthenozoospermia and oligozoospermia) than in fertile males. The mean value of seminal plasma Zn concentrations was significantly decreased (p ≤ 0.001) in the three groups of infertile male subjects (azoospermia, asthenozoospermia and oligozoospermia) than in fertile males. A good correlation in a positive direction was noted between the sperm count and seminal plasma Zn concentration. There was significant decrease in seminal plasma Cu concentration between asthenozoospermia and control groups (p ≤ 0.05) and insignificant increase in oligozoospermic patients.Conclusions: On the basis of the observations of the present study, seminal fructose, zinc and copper may contribute to fertility through their effects on various semen parameters.Key words:Male infertility, fructose, zinc, copper.
The analysis of Iraqi light oil (light naphtha) by capillary gas chromatography- mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was performed by the injection of whole naphtha sample without use of solvents. Qualitative analysis and the identification of the hydrocarbon constituents of light naphtha was performed and comparison had been done with American light oil (light naphtha). The obtained results showed a major difference between the two-light naphtha.
Thirty swabes of medical implants were collected from Al-Yarmouk's hospital which were cultured on manitole agar to isolate Staphelococcus aureus . Only four samples gave positive results with this media. It was used ten types of antibiotics to test the sensitivity of this bacterium against them. All isolates of S. aureus were recorded as multidrug resistant and were considered as MRSA. One pledge alternative therapy is the utilize of certain pure bacterocin MIC (32.5 to 62.5 μg/ml) and it was compared with vancomycin (200-400 μg/ml) with average of (8 – 15) mm diameter of inhibition zones recpectively. The first reduction of biofilm formation ability has been proved in catheters when treatedby pure bacterocin. The test shows the highes
... Show MoreThe increasing drinking water demand in many countries leads to an increase in the use of desalination plants, which are considered a great solution for water treatment processes. Reverse osmosis (RO) and electro-dialysis (ED) systems are the most popular membrane processes used to desalinate water at high salinity. Both systems work by separating the ionic contaminates and disposing of them as a brine solution, but ED uses electrical current as a driving force while RO uses osmotic pressure. A direct comparison of reverse osmosis and electro-dialysis systems is needed to highlight process development similarities and variances. This work aims to provide an overview of previous studies on reverse osmosis and electro-dial
... Show MoreFlexible molecular docking is a computational method of structure-based drug design to evaluate binding interactions between receptor and ligand and identify the ligand conformation within the receptor pocket. Currently, various molecular docking programs are extensively applied; therefore, realizing accuracy and performance of the various docking programs could have a significant value. In this comparative study, the performance and accuracy of three widely used non-commercial docking software (AutoDock Vina, 1-Click Docking, and UCSF DOCK) was evaluated through investigations of the predicted binding affinity and binding conformation of the same set of small molecules (HIV-1 protease inhibitors) and a protein target HIV-1 protease enzy
... Show MoreThe spectacular film is a type of feature films which has specific elements that contribute in increasing the aesthetics of the shape in its structure. The researcher started studying this type of films by researching the spectacular film concept, the history of its development, who are its most important stars and then tackling the Indian cinema represented by Bollywood, which is considered a school for this type of film. The researcher addressed the most important influential elements that entre in its production as well as studying these elements that contribute to building the shape including the configuration, movements of cameras, lenses, the lighting, colors, costumes etc. and what influence they have in forming a special aestheti
... Show MoreThe importance of the research comes from dealing with the problem of lack of traffic awareness, which causes accidents and the occurrence of human and material losses, and the research aims to study the role of satellite channels in forming traffic awareness among the public, and a sample was chosen from Baghdad consisting of (280) individuals, male and female, and used the questionnaire tool. To obtain the data, which included several questions, the results were analyzed statistically and several results were reached, the most important of which is that there is an interest among the public in following traffic programs at a rate of one to two hours to receive information through traffic programs and to identify and apply gener
... Show MoreThe present study deals with the application of an a bundant low cost biosorbent sunflower shell for metal ions removal. Lead, Cadmium and Zinc were chosen as model sorbates. The influences of initial pH, sorbent dosage, contact time, temperature and initial metal ions concentration on the removal efficiency were examined. The single ion equilibrium sorption data were fitted to the non-competitive Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The Freundlich model represents the equilibrium data better than the Langmuir model. In single, binary and ternary component systems,Pb+2 ions was the most favorable component rather than Cd+2 and Zn+2 ions. The biosorption kinetics for the three metal ions followed the p
... Show MoreThis paper presents a comparative study between different oil production enhancement scenarios in the Saadi tight oil reservoir located in the Halfaya Iraqi oil field. The reservoir exhibits poor petrophysical characteristics, including medium pore size, low permeability (reaching zero in some areas), and high porosity of up to 25%. Previous stimulation techniques such as acid fracturing and matrix acidizing have yielded low oil production in this reservoir. Therefore, the feasibility of hydraulic fracturing stimulation and/or horizontal well drilling scenarios was assessed to increase the production rate. While horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing can improve well performance, they come with high costs, often accounting for up t
... Show MoreThis study illustrates in vitro effect of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) on the treatment of Leishmania. In addition, the study evaluated the effect of drug treatment (pentostam) and the combination treatment of pentostan and CAP at different doses and incubation time 24 h in order to assess the most effective treatment. The duration of the cold plasma doses was 1 min, 2 min and 3 min, while the pentostam doses were 2.5 µg/ml and 5 µg/ml. The combinations therapies included combining the three cold plasma doses with the pentostam doses to test 6 combinations of treated in vitro. The maximum growth inhibition was given by combination treated 46% and 44% for donovani and tropica leishamnia respectively; these results give an indi
... Show MoreIn this work, the geomagnetic storms that occurred during solar cycles 23 and 24 were classified based on the value of the Disturbance Storm Time index (Dst), which was considered an indicator of the strength of geomagnetic conditions. The special criterion of Dst >-50 nT was adopted in the classification process of the geomagnetic storms based on the minimum daily value of the Dst-index. The number of geomagnetic storms that occurred during the study period was counted according to the adopted criteria, including moderate storms with (Dst >-50 nT), strong storms with (Dst >-100 nT), severe storms with (Dst >-200 nT), and great storms with (Dst >-350 nT). The statistica