Cytogenetic Abnormalities and Y Chromosome Microdeletions in Azoospermic and Oligospermic Infertile Males from West of Iran

     About 15% of couples have infertility problems, half of which are related to male factors. Cytogenetic and genetic disorders account for about 10% of the male infertility problems. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and types of both cytogenetic abnormalities and AZF microdeletions of Y chromosome in idiopathic azoospermic and oligospermic infertile men in west of Iran. In this case-control study, a total of 108 infertile men including 62 azoospermic and 46 oligospermic men were studied for the cytogenetic and AZF microdeletions. Moreover, 90 fertile men served as a control group. Detailed clinical and laboratory examination was done for all participants. Karyotyping was done on peripheral blood lymphocytes to detect the cytogenetic abnormalities; likewise, multiplex-PCR method was performed to identify the presence of microdeletion in AZFa, AZFb or AZFc regions. Chromosomal abnormalities were detected in 6.5% (7/108) of cases, including two oligospermic men with balanced autosomal rearrangements, one oligospermic and four azoospermic men with Klinefelter syndrome. Y chromosome microdeletions were detected in 4.6% (5/108) of infertile men (AZFc: 3.7%, AZFbc: 0.9%). No AZFa deletion was detected in any of the patients. No chromosomal abnormality and Y chromosome microdeletion was detected in control group. The prevalence of chromosomal abnormalities and Y chromosome microdeletions shows the importance of genetic factors in male infertility. The analysis of karyotype and Y microdeletions in infertile men provide a proper understanding about the causes of infertility, the choice of the appropriate assisted reproduction technique and reducing the risk of transmission of these genetic defects to the future generation.

Petrogenic and Biogenic Inputs of n-alkanes along Shoreline of the Caspian Sea in the Mazandaran Province, North of Iran

The Caspian Sea is the largest lake in the world and is facing an increasing risk of contamination. Sea-based and land-based hydrocarbons inputs are the most critical pollutants of the Caspian Sea. In the present study, n-alkanes and related diagnostic ratios were used to identify the sources of hydrocarbon contaminants in surface sediments along the southern coastal area of the Caspian Sea in Mazandaran province. 27 surface sediment samples were collected from a depth of 5 meters under sea level. Contaminant’s compositions were extracted by Soxhlet apparatus and analyzed by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. According to the results, the total concentration of n- alkanes (ΣHC) ranged from 5.2 µg g-1 to 690.7 µg g-1. The S20 (selected station in Noshahr port) had the highest concentration, and most of the stations have levels in a moderate range. Five diagnostic ratios are used to distinguish petrogenic and biogenic contaminants in shorelines of the Mazandaran province. In all stations, Carbon Preference Index (CPI), LMW/HMW, Pr/n-C17, Phy/n-C18, Pr/Phy, and U/R values indicated the petrogenic inputs. However, in some stations biogenic inputs were additionally detected. The petrogenic pollutants were almost from sea-based inputs such as oil spills from Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. On the other hand, biogenic contaminants were almost from rivers and Hyrcania forests

Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens

Global age-sex-specific fertility, mortality, healthy life expectancy (HALE), and population estimates in 204 countries and territories, 1950-2019 : a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: Accurate and up-to-date assessment of demographic metrics is crucial for understanding a wide range of social, economic, and public health issues that affect populations worldwide. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 produced updated and comprehensive demographic assessments of the key indicators of fertility, mortality, migration, and population for 204 countries and territories and selected subnational locations from 1950 to 2019. Methods: 8078 country-years of vital registration and sample registration data, 938 surveys, 349 censuses, and 238 other sources were identified and used to estimate age-specific fertility. Spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression (ST-GPR) was used to generate age-specific fertility rates for 5-year age groups between ages 15 and 49 years. With extensions to age groups 10–14 and 50–54 years, the total fertility rate (TFR) was then aggregated using the estimated age-specific fertility between ages 10 and 54 years. 7417 sources were used for under-5 mortality estimation and 7355 for adult mortality. ST-GPR was used to synthesise data sources after correction for known biases. Adult mortality was measured as the probability of death between ages 15 and 60 years based on vital registration, sample registration, and sibling histories, and was also estimated using ST-GPR. HIV-free life tables were then estimated using estimates of under-5 and adult mortality rates using a relational model life table system created for GBD, which closely tracks observed age-specific mortality rates from complete vital registration when available. Independent estimates of HIV-specific mortality generated by an epidemiological analysis of HIV prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance and other sources were incorporated into the estimates in countries with large epidemics. Annual and single-year age estimates of net migration and population for each country and territory were generated using a Bayesian hierarchical cohort component model that analysed estimated age-specific fertility and mortality rates along with 1250 censuses and 747 population registry years. We classified location-years into seven categories on the basis of the natural rate of increase in population (calculated by subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate) and the net migration rate. We computed healthy life expectancy (HALE) using years lived with disability (YLDs) per capita, life tables, and standard demographic methods. Uncertainty was propagated throughout the demographic estimation process, including fertility, mortality, and population, with 1000 draw-level estimates produced for each metric. Findings: The global TFR decreased from 2·72 (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 2·66–2·79) in 2000 to 2·31 (2·17–2·46) in 2019. Global annual livebirths increased from 134·5 million (131·5–137·8) in 2000 to a peak of 139·6 million (133·0–146·9) in 2016. Global livebirths then declined to 135·3 million (127·2–144·1) in 2019. Of the 204 countries and territories included in this study, in 2019, 102 had a TFR lower than 2·1, which is considered a good approximation of replacement-level fertility. All countries in sub-Saharan Africa had TFRs above replacement level in 2019 and accounted for 27·1% (95% UI 26·4–27·8) of global livebirths. Global life expectancy at birth increased from 67·2 years (95% UI 66·8–67·6) in 2000 to 73·5 years (72·8–74·3) in 2019. The total number of deaths increased from 50·7 million (49·5–51·9) in 2000 to 56·5 million (53·7–59·2) in 2019. Under-5 deaths declined from 9·6 million (9·1–10·3) in 2000 to 5·0 million (4·3–6·0) in 2019. Global population increased by 25·7%, from 6·2 billion (6·0–6·3) in 2000 to 7·7 billion (7·5–8·0) in 2019. In 2019, 34 countries had negative natural rates of increase; in 17 of these, the population declined because immigration was not sufficient to counteract the negative rate of decline. Globally, HALE increased from 58·6 years (56·1–60·8) in 2000 to 63·5 years (60·8–66·1) in 2019. HALE increased in 202 of 204 countries and territories between 2000 and 2019

Corresponding Author REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF RAMS TO BIOSTIMULATION

ABSTRACT The bio-stimulation technique offers a potentially useful and practical way for reproductive performance in rams. Reports on how bio-stimulation affects sexual potency rams are scarce: Knowledge of how rams respond to bio-stimulation is useful for persons who involved in semen collection; "hand" (controlled) mating, and the administration of sexual performance evaluations. The reduction of the stimulus value of the ewes after several, or even after one mating, appears to be the major factor accounting for the temporary interruption of the sexual activity of the rams. Sexual stimulation provided a definite, clearly recognizable end point for establishing that a ram was sexually stimulated

An observational epidemiological study of febrile convulsion due to urinary tract infection

Introduction: Febrile convulsion (FC) is the most common seizure disorder in childhood. Few studies focused on epidemiologic characteristics of urinary tract infections accompanied by FC. Objectives: To evaluate prevalence and incidence rates of FC among children with urinary tract infection. Patients and Methods: An observational study in epidemiology was performed in nephrology clinic of a tertiary children hospital from June 2002 to 2016. Totally 1242 cases were followed and those aged 6-60 months enrolled in the study. Demographic characteristics were compared between patients with and without FC. Results: 784 cases including 704 girls (89.8%) and 80 boys (10.2%) enrolled. Twenty-five patients (3.18%) presented with FC. FC occurred in 25 of 503 cases (5%) with febrile urinary tract infection. Twenty girls and 5 boys were in FC and 684 girls and 75 boys were in non-FC groups (P= 0.1). The average age in FC and non-FC groups were 15.52±8.4 and 25.16± 16 months respectively (P=0.004). Patients were divided into 2 age sub-groups: 6-24 and 26-60 months. A significantly higher number of cases in FC compared with non-FC group were in age subgroup of 6-24 months (P=0.028). Conclusion: Our study revealed a prevalence rate of 3.18% and an incidence rate of 5% for FC among children with urinary tract infection. Also FC subjects had a significantly younger age at presentation than non-FC cases. We found that FC as presentation of urinary tract infection occurred up to 3 years old, and there is no significant gender difference between FC and non-FC case

Students\' Satisfaction with website updating at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences in 2017

Introduction: University websites provide users with services and necessary information for professors, students, and other users. Considering the significant role of students for research development and progression, study intended to determine the satisfaction of students with the current website of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This was a descriptive study in which 6 websites from medical, dental, pharmacy, midwifery, nursing, health and paramedical colleges were compared in terms of being up to date. The participants were selected randomly and 650 students from Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences were questioned about their satisfaction with university websites. Website evaluations were done through content analysis. Their validity was confirmed by five informatics experts. Using SPSSwin22 software, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.86 which showed a good reliability. To determine the satisfaction of both male and female students regarding websites' updating, T-test and independent variance analysis were applied. Results: On the whole, 28 information items were extracted from the six websites under study and were classified into six groups: in formation on professors, department performance, filed of study, educational contents, and research. Students' satisfaction with information about professors and the departments was moderate but their satisfaction was even less regarding the research information of every department (p <0.05). Conclusion: Using standard indices in websites and updating them, increases the visibility of faculty members, the content of websites and also saves users' time. Therefore, senior executives need to take the necessary steps to improve the quality of such affairs. Keywords: Classification, Internet, Universitie

Ammonium chlorochromate adsorbed on alumina for cleavage of semicarbazones and phenylhydrazones under classical heating and microwave irradiation in solvent-free system

Ammonium chlorochromate supported onto alumina efficiently regenerates carbonyl compounds from their corresponding semicarbazones and phenylhydrazones under classical heating in non-aqueous conditions and microwave irradiation in solvent-free system