Tropical summer induces DNA fragmentation in boar spermatozoa: implications for evaluating seasonal infertility

Summer infertility continues to undermine pig productivity, costing the pig industry millions in annual losses. The boar’s inefficient capacity to sweat, non-pendulous scrotum and the extensive use of European breeds in tropical conditions, can make the boar particularly vulnerable to the effects of heat stress; however, the link between summer heat stress and boar sperm DNA damage has not yet been demonstrated. Semen from five Large White boars was collected and evaluated during the early dry, late dry and peak wet seasons to determine the effect of seasonal heat stress on the quality and DNA integrity of boar spermatozoa. DNA damage in spermatozoa during the peak wet was 16-fold greater than during the early dry and nearly 9-fold greater than during the late dry season. Sperm concentration was 1.6-fold lower in the peak wet than early dry whereas no difference was found across several motility parameters as determined by computer-assisted sperm analysis. These results demonstrate that tropical summer (peak wet season) induces DNA damage and reduces concentration without depressing motility in boar spermatozoa, suggesting that traditional methods of evaluating sperm motility may not detect inherently compromised spermatozoa. Boar management strategies (such as antioxidant supplementation) need to be developed to specifically mitigate this problem

The effects of male age on sperm analysis by motile sperm organelle morphology examination (MSOME)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study aimed to investigate the influence of age on sperm quality, as analysed by motile sperm organelle morphology examination (MSOME).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Semen samples were collected from 975 men undergoing evaluation or treatment for infertility. Sperm cells were evaluated at 8400× magnification using an inverted microscope equipped with Nomarski (differential interference contrast) optics. Two forms of spermatozoa were considered: normal spermatozoa and spermatozoa with large nuclear vacuoles (LNV, defined as vacuoles occupying > 50% of the sperm nuclear area). At least 200 spermatozoa per sample were evaluated, and the percentages of normal and LNV spermatozoa were determined. The subjects were divided into three groups according to age: Group I, less than or equal to 35 years; Group II, 36-40 years; and Group III, greater than or equal to 41 years.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There was no difference in the percentages of normal sperm between the two younger (I and II) groups (<it>P ></it>0.05). The percentage of normal sperm in the older group (III) was significantly lower than that in the younger (I and II) groups (<it>P </it>< 0.05). There was no difference in the percentage of LNV spermatozoa between the younger (I and II) groups (<it>P ></it>0.05). The percentage of LNV spermatozoa was significantly higher in the older group (III) than in the younger (I and II) groups (<it>P </it>< 0.05). Regression analysis demonstrated a significant decrease in the incidence of normal sperm with increasing age (<it>P </it>< 0.05; r = -0.10). However, there was a significant positive correlation between the percentage of spermatozoa with LNV and male age (<it>P </it>< 0.05, r = 0.10).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results demonstrated a consistent decline in semen quality, as reflected by morphological evaluation by MSOME, with increased age. Considering the relationship between nuclear vacuoles and DNA damage, these age-related changes predict that increased paternal age should be associated with unsuccessful or abnormal pregnancy as a consequence of fertilisation with damaged spermatozoa. Given that sperm nuclear vacuoles can be evaluated more precisely at high magnification, these results support the routine use of MSOME for ICSI as a criterion for semen analysis.</p

L’aspergillose naso-sinusienne dans sa forme pseudo-tumorale : a propos d’un cas

Les rhinosinusites aspergillaires sont, actuellement, en nette augmentation. La forme invasive de la maladie est essentiellement décrite chez les sujets à immunité compromise. Cette forme peut éroder l’os et / ou mener à des complications cranio-cérébrales. La présentation clinique est peu spécifique et le diagnostic est assez souvent suspecté à l’imagerie. Le traitement médico- chirurgical est dans la majorité des cas curatif. Nous rapportons les aspects cliniques, radiologiques et thérapeutiques d’un patient atteint d’une rhinosinusite aspergillaire.Mots-clés : Rhinosinusites, forme invasive, immunité compromise, complications cranio-cérébrales

A Study of the Consumption of Sewing Threads for Women’s Underwear: Bras and Panties

The article evaluates the amount of the consumed sewing thread for women’s underwear (underwear bras and panties). Based on the obtained fi ndings, it was concluded that sewing thread amount depends enormously on the studied infl uential parameters. The present paper reports a contribution that allows industries and researchers to decrease the consumed amounts of sewing thread in case of women’s underwear and panties The study takes into account the different stitch structures and fabric characteristics that are usually used. The effects of infl uential input parameters, such as fabric thickness, number of assembled layers, stitch density, and tension of the thread, are investigated. Useful models have been found and can be used by industries to accuracy predict the thread consumption for women’s underwear and panties to launch the needed thread commands. The developed models use multiregressive method. In this study, the fabrics that have been considered are knitted fabrics because they are those used in women’s underwear. We found that women’s underwear bras consume more sewing threads than panties. Using linear regression method, good relationships (coeffi cients of correlation close to 1) between consumption behaviors and the investigated parameters such as fabric thickness, number of assembled layers, stitch number per centimeter, sizes and tension of threads, were found. Although, the increase of threads tension to sew female underwear decreases the consumed amount of threads, the increase of other studied parameters widely encourages the consumption values, especially for seams based on chain-stitch types

Adiponectin expression and metabolic markers in obesity and Type 2 diabetes

International audienceBackground: Adiponectin has emerged over the last decade as a key adipokine linking obesity, insulin resistance, and Type 2 diabetes. However, the molecular mechanisms controlling adiponectin expression in adipose tissue are not fully elucidated. Furthermore, increasing evidence indicates that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-gamma) plays an important, and beneficial, role in modulating adiponectin expression. Aim: The aim of the present study was to assess the separate role of obesity and Type 2 diabetes in the relationship between endogenous PPAR-gamma signaling and adiponectin expression in subcutaneous adipose tissue. Subjects and methods: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and real time quantitative PCR analysis were carried out in overweight, obese, and/or diabetic Tunisian patients who underwent an abdominal surgery. Results: These results collectively indicate that circulating levels of adiponectin were decreased in all over-weight, obese, and/or diabetic (p<0.001). However, the subcutaneous mRNA expression of adiponectin was reduced only in diabetics (p<0.01) but presents some discrepancies in obese individuals. Moreover, mRNA levels of adiponectin were positively correlated with levels of mRNA encoding PPAR gamma and its heterodimeric partner retinoid X receptor-alpha (RXR-alpha), in both obese and diabetic patients. Conclusion: Our study on Tunisian patients shows impaired regulation of circulating and mRNA adiponectin levels dependent of metabolic disorders in obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The data suggest that subcutaneous adipose tissue may play an important role in modulating adiponectin expression in diabetes and obesity. Moreover, adiponectin mRNA could be potentially regulated by endogenous PPAR gamma/RXR alpha-dependent pathways. (J. Endocrinol. Invest. 34: e16-e23, 2011) (C) 2011, Editrice Kurti

Prospective Data Model and Distributed Query Processing for Mobile Sensing Data Streams

International audienceWith the rapid advancements of sensor technologies and mobile computing, Mobile Crowd-Sensing (MCS) has emerged as a new paradigm to collect massive-scale rich trajectory data. Nomadic sensors empower people and objects with the capability of reporting and sharing observations on their state, their behavior and/or their surrounding environments. Processing and analyzing this continuously growing data raise several challenges due not only to their volume, their velocity, and their complexity but also to the gap between raw data samples and the desired application view in terms of correlation between observations and in terms of granularity. In this paper, we put forward a proposal that offers an abstract view of any spatio-temporal data series as well as their manipulation. Our approach allows to support this high-level logical view and provides efficient processing by mapping both the representation and the manipulation to an internal physical model. We explore an implementation within a distributed framework and envision the adaptation of data organization methods combining aggressive indexing and partitioning over time and space. The mapping from the logical view and the actual data storage will lead to revisiting the traditional database query rewriting and optimization techniques. This proposal is a first step in the objective of coping with the complexity, the imperfection of large data sizes in the MCS context