Relationships among frozen-thawed semen fertility, physical parameters, certain routine sperm characteristics and testosterone in breeding Murrah buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) bulls

Aim: The present study was carried out to examine the relationships among frozen-thawed semen fertility, physical parameters, seminal quality, and testosterone concentration in Murrah buffalo bulls. Materials and Methods: A total of 30 breeding Murrah buffalo bulls (either progeny tested or under progeny testing program) were randomly selected from two government bull farms in Punjab. None of the bulls selected for this study had any preceding physical abnormality. A field fertility trial was conducted to determine the first service conception rate (FSCR). The number of females inseminated per bull semen was 10. All the bulls were inspected for structural soundness, measurement of scrotal circumference, testicular biometry, and internal pelvic area (IPA). Frozen-thawed semen was evaluated for total motility, progressive motility, viability, concentration, abnormality, and hypo-osmotic swelling test (HOST). Testosterone was estimated in blood plasma, seminal plasma as well as frozen-thawed semen extracts for establishing relationship. Results: The FSCR was 48% in the bulls having a scrotal circumference of ≥44 cm, although, there was no significant correlation between FSCR and scrotal circumference. Similarly, no consistent relationship existed between sperm concentration and scrotal circumference. A positive correlation was observed between IPA and FSCR (r=0.294). Of the six post-thaw seminal components (total motility, progressive motility, viability, HOST (%), total abnormality and concentration) only total motility had a high significant (p<0.01) correlation with FSCR (r=0.694). Varied correlations existed between other seminal parameters and fertility. Using a simple regression analysis, the post-thaw motility, IPA, prepuce length and testosterone (independent variables) combined to explain approximately 62% of the variation in the FSCR (dependent variable). Conclusion: The present study indicated that despite low to high correlations between seminal characteristics, physical parameters, fertility, and testosterone; the observations support the importance of these components and their function in maintaining semen quality and subsequent fertility

Optimization of furnace residence time and ingots positioning during the heat treatment process of large size forged ingots

High-strength large size forgings which are widely used in the energy and transportation industries (e.g., turbine shaft, landing gears etc.) acquire significant mechanical properties (e.g., hardness) through a sequence of heat treatment processes, called Quench and Temper (Q&T). The heating process (tempering) that takes place inside gas-fired furnaces has a direct impact on the final properties of the product due to several major microstructural changes taking place at this step. Therefore, material properties are usually optimized by controlling the tempering process parameters such as time and temperature. A non-uniform temperature distribution around parts, as a result of thermal interactions inside the furnace or loading pattern, may result in the parts property variations from one end to another, changes in microstructure or even cracking. On the other hand, improvement of large products residence time inside the heat treatment furnace can minimize energy consumption and avoid undesirable microstructural changes. However, at the present time, the industrial production is mainly based on available empirical correlations which are costly and not always reliable. Accurate time-dependent temperature prediction of the large size forgings within gas-fired heat treatment furnaces requires a comprehensive quantitative examination of the heating process and an in-depth understanding of complex conjugate thermal interactions inside the furnace. Limitations in analytical studies and complexity and cost of experimentations have made numerical simulations such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD), effective methods in this field of study. However, among the rarely found studies on gas-fired furnaces, smallscale furnaces or those with shorter operation times were mainly considered (using different simplifications like steady-state calculations) because of complexity of the phenomena and large calculation times. Subsequently, there are very few studies on the improvement of the loading patterns of large-size steel parts inside the gas-fired furnaces and their relevant residence time optimization. Moreover, the limitation and strength of different numerical approaches to calculate thermal interactions in the turbulent reactive flow of the large size gas-fired batch type furnaces were addressed by few researchers in the literature. In this regard, the main objective of the present thesis is to provide a comprehensive quantitative analysis of transient heating and an understanding of thermal interactions inside the furnace so as to optimize the residence time and temperature uniformity of large size products during the heat treatment process. To attain this objective, the following milestones are pursued. The first part of this study provides a comprehensive unsteady analysis of large size forgings heating characteristics in a gas-fired heat treatment furnace employing experimentally measured temperatures and CFD simulations. A three-dimensional CFD model of the gasfired furnace, including heat treating chamber and high momentum natural gas burners, was generated. The interactions between heat and fluid flow consisting of turbulence, combustion and radiation were simultaneously considered using the k -ε , EDM and DO models, respectively. The applicability of S2S radiation model to quantify the effect of participating medium and radiation view factor in the radiation heat transfer was also assessed. Temperature measurements at several locations of an instrumented large size forged block and within the heating chamber of the furnace were performed for experimental analysis of the heating process and validation of the CFD model. Good agreement with a maximum deviation of about 7% was obtained between the numerical predictions and the experimental measurements. The results showed that despite the temperature uniformity of the unloaded furnace, each surface of the product experienced different heating rates after loading (single loading) resulting in temperature differences of up to 200 K. Analysis of the results also revealed the reliability of the S2S model and highlighted the importance of radiation view factor for the optimization purposes in this application. Findings were correlated with the geometry of the furnace, formation of vortical structures and fluid flow circulations around the workpiece. The experimental data and CFD model predictions could directly be employed for optimization of the heat treatment process of large size steel components. The second part of this study aims to determine the effect of loading pattern (in the multiple loading configurations) on the temperature distribution of large size forgings during the heat treatment process within a gas-fired furnace to attain more temperature uniformity and consequently homogenous mechanical properties. This part also focuses on the improvement of residence time of large size forged ingots within a tempering furnace proposing a novel hybrid methodology combining CFD numerical simulations and a series of experimental measurements with high-resolution dilatometer. Transient 3D CFD simulations validated by experimental temperature measurements were employed to assess the impact of loading patterns and skids on the temperature uniformity and residence time of heavy forgings within the furnace. Comprehensive transient analysis of forgings heating characteristics (including heat transfer modes analysis) at four different loading patterns allowed quantifying the impact of skids and their dimensions on the temperature distribution uniformity as well as products residence time. Results showed that temperature non-uniformities of up to 331 K persist for non-optimum conventional loading pattern. The positive influence of skids and spacers applications was approved and quantified using the developed approach. It was possible to reduce the identified non-uniformities of up to 32 % through changing the loading pattern inside the heat treatment furnace. This hybrid approach allowed to determine an optimum residence time of large size slabs improving by almost 15.5 % in comparison with the conventional non-optimized configuration. This approach was validated and it could be directly applied to the optimization of different heat treatment cycles of large size forgings. The third part of the study addresses the details of the numerical simulation of heat treatment process of large size forgings within real scale gas-fired furnaces. Specifically, assessment of chemical equilibrium non-premix combustion model for accurate temperature prediction of heavy forgings, as well as performance of six different RANS based turbulence models for predictions of turbulent phenomenon were discussed in this context. In this regard, thermal interactions at different locations of the forged block as well as critical regions such as burner area, stagnation and wake region were performed using a one-third periodic 3D model of the furnace and validated by experimental measurements. Results showed that the one-third periodic model with chemical equilibrium non-premix combustion is reliable for the thermal analysis of the heat treatment process with a maximum deviation of about 3% with respect to the experimental measurements. It was also revealed that the choice of the turbulence model has a significant effect on the prediction of combustion and heat transfer around the block. Prediction of ɛ/k ratio by different turbulence models showed a significant relation to the turbulent combustion (such as burner flame length) and block temperature predictions, around the stagnation region. Standard and realizable k - ɛ models, due to an unrealistic over prediction of turbulence kinetic energy (under-prediction of ɛ/k ratio), resulted in shorter flame length and under-prediction on the temperature of the forged block around the stagnation region; While, SST k - w model showed reasonable predictions in this region. RSM model was found as the most reliable turbulence model compared to the experimental measurements. Meanwhile, realizable k − ɛ model apart from some under-prediction on the stagnation region and flame length could effectively predict the overall temperature of the heavy forgings with reasonable accuracy with respect to the experimental data and RSM predictions

Effect of chronic supplementation with methylsulfonylmethane on oxidative stress following acute exercise in untrained healthy men

Objective  This study was conducted to assess the effects of chronic daily methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) supplementation on known markers of oxidative stress following acute bouts of exercise in untrained healthy young men. Methods  Eighteen untrained men volunteered for this study. Participants were randomized in a double-blind placebo-controlled fashion into two groups: MSM (n = 9) and placebo (n = 9). The participants took supplementation or placebo daily for 10 days before running. Participants ran 14 km. The MSM supplementation was prepared in water at 50 mg/kg body weight. The placebo group received water. Serum malondialdehyde (MDA), protein carbonyl (PC) and plasma oxidized glutathione (GSSG) were measured as markers of oxidative stress. The plasma-reduced glutathione (GSH) level and the GSH/GSSG ratio were determined as markers of plasma antioxidant capacity. Key Findings  Acute exercise led to elevated levels of serum MDA, PC and plasma GSSG. MSM supplementation maintained PC, MDA and GSSG at lower levels after exercise than the placebo. The plasma level of GSH and the ratio of GSH/GSSG were significantly higher in the MSM supplemented group. Conclusions  These results suggest that chronic daily oral supplementation of MSM has alleviating effects on known markers of oxidative stress following acute bouts of exercise in healthy young men

Local governments' approach towards green bond. An opportunity for Italian municipalities to finance green projects in the public real estate sector

LAUREA MAGISTRALEA mano a mano che le questioni ambientali si sono fatte sempre più presenti all’interno dei dibattiti economici e politici, si è visto emergere un settore della finanza sostenibile in continua crescita, con l'obiettivo di favorire e creare un comportamento sempre più attento alla sfera sociale e ambientale. I mercati finanziari e il settore immobiliare hanno avuto un ruolo importante in questo tentativo, cercando nuove soluzioni che potessero essere in linea con gli obiettivi green che si vanno a prospettare per il prossimo futuro. E’ in questo contesto che le obbligazioni verdi diventano un meccanismo sempre più attraente per le organizzazioni del settore privato e pubblico, al fine di raccogliere capitali per progetti e attività a beneficio dell'economia, dell'ambiente e della società. Il mercato globale dei bond verdi sta crescendo rapidamente: dodici anni fa, le obbligazioni verdi non esistevano neanche, adesso invece, alle porte del 2019, il valore dei green bonds si attesta a oltre 167,3 miliardi di dollari nel mondo (Climate Bonds, 2019). In Italia, dopo il Patto di Stabilità del 2012 (Legge 243/2012), sono state intraprese una serie di azioni per limitare le risorse dei comuni per la realizzazione di investimenti pubblici. Tuttavia, negli ultimi anni, a partire dalla Legge sulla Stabilità del 2016, si sono introdotti nuovi e più flessibili principi che possono essere un incentivo per cambiare la situazione. Questa può quindi essere l’occasione per i Comuni Italiani di usare questo nuovo e attuale strumento finanziario, per favorire una rigenerazione su scala locale, con un risultato positivo in termini di clima e ambiente. Lo scopo di questa tesi di laurea è esaminare il potenziale dei bond verdi e il loro trend futuro a diverse scale, in particolar modo si fa attenzione ai casi esistenti di emissioni da parte di governi locali, come nel caso spettacolare dell'Ile de France: solo negli ultimi 5 anni , la Francia settentrionale ha raggiunto i 2 miliardi di Euro attraverso questo canale di finanziamento, diventando un esempio di best practise. Di conseguenza a questa analisi dei casi di successo, la tesi studierà la possibilità di utilizzare questo strumento in Italia: il Paese si è attivato nel campo ed è stato tra i primi 15 principali emittenti del 2018 tra tutti i paesi del mondo, ma gli emittenti sono sempre stati corporate. L'obiettivo di questo lavoro è studiare la possibilità dei Comuni di utilizzare questo metodo per finanziare i loro progetti a scala locale, con un'attenzione particolare al settore immobiliare pubblico. Per raggiungere tale obiettivo, si è provveduto a fare una raccolta dati sulla base di un questionario, che è stato destinato ai maggiori Comuni Italiani, e delle interviste semi-strutturate, per capire se i governi locali si siano già mossi in questa direzione, se conoscano questa possibilità, come la percepiscano e per quali settori la utilizzerebbero. Dopo le conseguenti riflessioni, la tesi proporrà un'applicazione alla città di Milano e cercherà di offrire possibili linee guida per un futuro utilizzo da parte di altri comuni.After the environmental debates were put into economical literature, an emerging sustainable finance sector tries to control more social and environmental behaviour. The financial markets and the real estate sector have been stated to play important roles in this attempt. The Green Bonds are becoming a more and more attractive instrument for both private and public sector that want to raise capital with the aim of financing projects, assets and activities that can benefit the environment, the economy and the society as a whole. Research within the real estate financing has identified a growing interest of sustainable financing and green bonds in particular. The global green bond market is growing rapidly as twelve years ago green bonds did not exist, but fast forward to 2019 and the value of green bonds stood at over 167.3 billion US dollar outstanding (Climate Bonds, 2019). Since the Stability Pact of 2012 (Law n. 243/2012), a series of actions were made to limit the resources of the municipalities in making public investments. However, in the last years, starting from the Stability law of 2016, that have introduced new and more flexible principles that can be an incentive to switch the situation. Meanwhile, the green bonds are an innovative financial instrument that can be used at the municipal level to find the funds for regeneration at a local scale, with a positive outcome in terms of climate change. The purpose of this master thesis is to examine the potential of green bonds and their future trends along with municipalities reasoning behind issuing green bonds in different countries for financing their projects; such as the case of the Ile de France that shows just in the last 5 years, Northern France has reached 2 billion Euro through this financial channel. Consequently to this best practices analysis, the thesis will study the possibility of using this instrument in Italy: the country has already been active in the field and it was among the top 15 main issuers of 2018 between all the countries around the world, but the issuers have always been in the private sector. The focus of this work is to study the possibility of the Italian municipalities to use this method to finance their local projects, with a special attention to the real estate sector. Moreover, the thesis explores in what ways green bonds in the Italian real estate market could be initiated and structured and subsequently governed to establish investor reliance. To do so, the collection of qualitative data has been performed through a questionnaire that was sent to the major Italian municipalities and semi-structured interviews, to understand if they have already moved in this direction, if they know this possibility, how they perceive it and for which sectors they would use it. In the end, after the consequent reflections, the thesis will propose an application to the city of Milan and will try to offer possible guidelines for a future use by other municipalities

Analysis on a release history database to assist management of the software maintenance

Software maintenance is the most time consuming activity in the life cycle of software. Software maintenance suffers from missed deadlines and from being over budget. Managers usually pay more attention to development than to maintenance: for example, they prefer to assign senior developers to the development phase tasks and neglect maintenance ones. Managers have difficulty identifying problems, and their causes, in maintenance. This thesis presents techniques for analysis on the proposed release history database to provide metrics for improvement of the maintenance phase. The proposed release history database is enriched by valuable data that comes from an issue tracking system, code repository, and time entry system. The proposed release history database and the analysis of the data contained there provides metrics which allow maintainers to find risky and time consuming codes, recommending maintenance team and maintenance location and a suggestions for the future of the maintenance. Automation is also provided as a proof of concept through a prototypical tool

The effect of development of ethical leadership on organizational adaptability capacity, education and training organization- case study: ILKHCHI city of Iran

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of ethical leadership on organizational adaptability capacity, the city therefore is education. For this purpose, the factors affecting organizational adaptability in five dimensions based on the individual's orientation, organizational justice, power sharing, ethical conduct, transparency and organizational integration is defined roles. The population of the study, employees of city is therefore, the number of 1407 people, therefore Cochran sampling formula was used to calculate the sample size, the sample includes an estimated 302 people and to select a sample of the statistical population stratified random sampling method is used. The data collected, the questionnaire whose validity and reliability, the samples were analyzed. To analyze the data collected from descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used. Thus, classifying, summarizing and interpreting the data, descriptive statistics and then determine the normality of the data by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov inferential statistics to test hypotheses, and linear regression was used to determine the effect of the test. The results indicate that the hypothesis was confirmed, indicating that the components of the individual's orientation, organizational justice, power sharing, moral guidance, role clarity and organizational integration of organizational adaptability 98 percent of changes in education is explained and the city ILKHCHI it has an effect. the results show that the attention is given to ethical leadership, organizational adaptability capacity increases in education Ilkhchi city. And findings with the findings of Golparvar, colleagues, Abbas-Zadeh and Bvdaqy is consistent

Response Surface Methodological Approach toward Optimization of a RP-HPLC Method to Determine Paracetamol in Tablets

Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to develop an RP-HPLC method in which paracetamol was analyzed and determined on a C18 column with UV detection. To explain more, RSM was used to statistically model the impact of flow rate (ml.min-1) (A), column temperature (°C) (B) and mobile phase composition (H2O: MeOH) (C)on the retention time (RT) of Paracetamol within tablets. Introduction: The major goal of this investigation was to optimize an RP-HPLC method which is simple, linear, accurate, sensitive and selective in determination of Paracetamol in solid dosage forms. Methods and Results:Three distinctive levels were dedicated to each evaluated factor.Box-Behnken experimental design including seventeen independent runs within a range of 25-50% MeOH ratio (mobile phase), 25-45 ºC and 0.7-1.3 mL. min-1 flow rate were carried out to explore the effectivefactors onRT of Paracetamol using RP-HPLC method. ANOVA results revealed that quadratic model was significant (Model F-value of 225.65) and could best describe the relationship between dependent variable (RT) and independent ones: RT= 3.30 - 1.2A - 0.38B - 0.80C + 0.30AC + 0.43BC + 0.53A2 As can be understood from the model terms, the most significant term was the solvent ratio and all the factor levels were indirectly proportional to the Rt. Moreover, the interaction of column temperature and solvent ration seemed to be more important. It was also predicted that optimum assay condition included 1:2 ratio of methanol to water, column temperature of 35ºC and mobile phase flow rate of 1.3 mL.min−1. Using this optimum condition, baseline separation of the drug was achieved with a good resolution and a run time of 2.1 min. The optimized method was validated in terms of linearity, accuracy, limit of detection and limit of quantification of paracetamol within a few commercially available Paracetamol tablets. Conclusions:The optimized RP-HPLC technique provided a convenient and efficient method toward qualitative/quantitative analysis of Paracetamol in its tablets. The improved method is also rapid and sensitive enough to be used for single tablet analysis

Antioxidant Levels in Cord Blood of Term Neonates and Its Association with Birth Weight

How to Cite This Article: Mirzarahimi M, Ahadi A, Bohlooli SH, Namakikhalajan E, Barak M. Antioxidant Levels in Cord Blood of Term Neonates and Its Association with Birth Weight. Iran J Child Neurol. Winter 2016; 10(1):31-34. AbstractObjectiveDue to excessive production of free radicals and antioxidants evolved mechanisms against oxidative stress, infants are very vulnerable. As there was a significant relation between antioxidant levels and birth weight, we aimed verify this relationship.Materials &amp; MethodsIn this descriptive analytical study we evaluated the antioxidant status of 40 healthy term newborns (gestation age 38-42 wk) with weight &gt;2500 g (AGA) and 40 healthy term newborns (gestation age 38-42 wk) with LBW babies (weight &lt; 2500 g) (SGA) in Ardabil Buali Hospital, Ardabil, northwest Iran in 2014. About 15 Ml of cord blood was collected after the second stage of labor.The levels of vitamin A, E, and C, catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPX), bilirubin and serum uric acid were measured by standard methods. Informed consent was obtained from newborn mothers and study protocol was approved by university Ethics Committee. Data were analyzed using SPSS.19.ResultsThe mean levels of bilirubin, vitamin C, E, catalase and GPX in AGA group were significantly higher than SGA group but the mean of serum uric acid in SGA group was more than AGA. In addition, the mean of vitamin A was similar in two groups.There was a significant relation between antioxidant levels and birth weight in term newborns.ConclusionIn line with other studies the amounts of antioxidant levels except serum uric acid in AGA group was significantly more than SGA group

In vitro FLOWERING AND MICROPROPAGATION OF LISIANTHUS (Eustoma grandiflorum) IN RESPONSE TO PLANT GROWTH REGULATORS (NAA AND BA)

In vitro flowering and micropropagation are useful for plant breeding programs&nbsp;and commercial production of important ornamental plants. In vitro conditions including&nbsp;media components, kind, concentration and ratio of plant growth regulators and culture&nbsp;conditions significantly affect in vitro flowering and micropropagation. There is no any&nbsp;report dealing with the in vitro flowering of Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum). Here,&nbsp;a protocol was developed for flowering and high frequency in vitro micropropagation of&nbsp;E. grandiflorum, an ornamental plant. Micropropagation is an effective tools for propagation&nbsp;of ornamental plants in large scale. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the&nbsp;effect of different concentrations of NAA and BA on micropropagation and flowering of&nbsp;Lisianthus, in vitro. Used culture medium was MS enriched with 0, 0.1, 0.2 and 2 mg L-1&nbsp;of NAA and BA. In establishment process of explants, the most shoot length (2.07 cm perplant) was obtained on medium supplemented with 0.1 mg L-1 BA (without NAA).&nbsp;Maximum shoot number (5.80 per plant) was produced in medium containing 0.1 mg L-1&nbsp;BA along with 0.2 mg L-1 NAA. Bud explants in culture media containing 0.2 mg L-1&nbsp;NAA (without BA) and 0.1 mg L-1 NAA along with 2 mg L-1 BA produced maximum&nbsp;node number (3.20 per plant). The largest number of root (14.53 per plant) and root length&nbsp;(3.87 cm per plant) were produced on 0.2 mg L-1 NAA without BA, also 0.2 mg L-1 BA&nbsp;plus 0.2 mg L-1 NAA and 0.2 mg L-1 BA without NAA. Explants produced flower on medium&nbsp;containing 0.1 mg L-1 BA along with 0.1 mg L-1 NAA without transition of callus&nbsp;formation. Flower was produced from callus in medium containing 0.1 mg L-1 BA along&nbsp;with 2 mg L-1 NAA. Regenerated plants showed 98% survival in greenhouse during acclimatization.&nbsp;Acclimatized plants were morphologically similar to the mother plants

Investigation and prioritizing the key factors of success in small and medium size enterprises, Res

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