34 research outputs found
Experiencing male infertility: A review of the qualitative research literature
This article examines the qualitative research literature that exists in relation to menâs experiences of male infertility. Since men have often been marginalized in the realm of reproduction, including academic research on infertility, it is important to focus on any qualitative research that gives voices to male perspectives and concerns. Given the distress documented by studies of infertile women, we focus in particular on the emotive responses and lived experiences of men in relation to infertility. In this article then, we present an analysis of the core themes across 19 qualitative articles, which include âinfertility as crisisâ; âemoting infertility- men as âbeing strongââ âinfertility as a source of stigmaâ; and the âdesire for fatherhood.â In light of these insights, we identify key areas for future research and development including menâs emotional responses to infertility, how men seek support for infertility, the intersection between masculinity and infertility, the relationship between the desire to father and infertility, and the outcomes of infertility for men in terms of other aspects of their lives. We suggest that such research would facilitate making the experiences of men more central within our understandings of infertility within a field that has primarily been female focused
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The dynamic nature of Cu sites in Cu-SSZ-13 and the origin of the seagull NOx conversion profile during NH3-SCR
Cu-Zeolites with chabazite structure show a peculiar dual-maxima NO conversion profile, also known as a seagull profile, during the selective catalytic reduction by ammonia. In order to understand the origin of this behavior, systematic catalytic tests and operando spectroscopy were applied to derive structureâperformance relationships for Cu-SSZ-13 catalysts with low and high Cu loading. Operando X-ray absorption, X-ray emission and in situ electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy measurements, including novel photon-in/photon-out techniques, demonstrated the interconversion of isolated Cu sites and dimeric bis(ÎŒ-oxo) Cu species, the former occurring via formation of ammonia Cu2+/Cu+ complexes and the latter in an oxidizing gas mixture. The formation of dimeric Cu+âO2âCu+ species by involving Cu sites in close vicinity was linked to the high activity at low temperatures of the highly loaded Cu-SSZ-13 sample. In contrast, the isolated Cu sites present at very low Cu loadings are strongly poisoned by adsorbed NH3. The activity decrease around 350 °C that gives rise to the seagull shaped NO conversion profile could be attributed to a more localized structure of mono(ÎŒ-oxo)dicopper complexes. Above this temperature, which corresponds to partial NH3 desorption from Cu sites, the isolated Cu sites migrate to form additional dimeric entities thus recovering the SCR activity
The dynamic nature of Cu sites in Cu-SSZ-13 and the origin of the seagull NOx conversion profile during NHâ-SCR
Cu-Zeolites with chabazite structure show a peculiar dual-maxima NO conversion profile, also known as a seagull profile, during the selective catalytic reduction by ammonia. In order to understand the origin of this behavior, systematic catalytic tests and operando spectroscopy were applied to derive structureâperformance relationships for Cu-SSZ-13 catalysts with low and high Cu loading. Operando X-ray absorption, X-ray emission and in situ electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy measurements, including novel photon-in/photon-out techniques, demonstrated the interconversion of isolated Cu sites and dimeric bis(ÎŒ-oxo) Cu species, the former occurring via formation of ammonia Cu2+/Cu+ complexes and the latter in an oxidizing gas mixture. The formation of dimeric Cu+âO2âCu+ species by involving Cu sites in close vicinity was linked to the high activity at low temperatures of the highly loaded Cu-SSZ-13 sample. In contrast, the isolated Cu sites present at very low Cu loadings are strongly poisoned by adsorbed NH3. The activity decrease around 350 °C that gives rise to the seagull shaped NO conversion profile could be attributed to a more localized structure of mono(ÎŒ-oxo)dicopper complexes. Above this temperature, which corresponds to partial NH3 desorption from Cu sites, the isolated Cu sites migrate to form additional dimeric entities thus recovering the SCR activity
Passiflora incarnata attenuation of neuropathic allodynia and vulvodynia apropos GABA-ergic and opioidergic antinociceptive and behavioural mechanisms
Background: Passiflora incarnata is widely used as an anxiolytic and sedative due to its putative GABAergic
properties. Passiflora incarnata L. methanolic extract (PI-ME) was evaluated in an animal model of streptozotocininduced
diabetic neuropathic allodynia and vulvodynia in rats along with antinociceptive, anxiolytic and sedative
activities in mice in order to examine possible underlying mechanisms.
Methods: PI-ME was tested preliminary for qualitative phytochemical analysis and then quantitatively by proximate
and GC-MS analysis. The antinociceptive property was evaluated using the abdominal constriction assay and hot
plate test. The anxiolytic activity was performed in a stair case model and sedative activity in an open field test. The
antagonistic activities were evaluated using naloxone and/or pentylenetetrazole (PTZ). PI-ME was evaluated for
prospective anti-allodynic and anti-vulvodynic properties in a rat model of streptozotocin induced neuropathic pain
using the static and dynamic testing paradigms of mechanical allodynia and vulvodynia.
Results: GC-MS analysis revealed that PI-ME contained predominant quantities of oleamide (9-octadecenamide),
palmitic acid (hexadecanoic acid) and 3-hydroxy-dodecanoic acid, among other active constituents. In the
abdominal constriction assay and hot plate test, PI-ME produced dose dependant, naloxone and pentylenetetrazole
reversible antinociception suggesting an involvement of opioidergic and GABAergic mechanisms. In the stair case
test, PI-ME at 200 mg/kg increased the number of steps climbed while at 600 mg/kg a significant decrease was
observed. The rearing incidence was diminished by PI-ME at all tested doses and in the open field test, PI-ME
decreased locomotor activity to an extent that was analagous to diazepam. The effects of PI-ME were antagonized
by PTZ in both the staircase and open field tests implicating GABAergic mechanisms in its anxiolytic and sedative
activities. In the streptozotocin-induced neuropathic nociceptive model, PI-ME (200 and 300 mg/kg) exhibited static
and dynamic anti-allodynic effects exemplified by an increase in paw withdrawal threshold and paw withdrawal
latency. PI-ME relieved only the dynamic component of vulvodynia by increasing flinching response latency.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that Passiflora incarnata might be useful for treating neuropathic pain. The
antinociceptive and behavioural findings inferring that its activity may stem from underlying opioidergic and
GABAergic mechanisms though a potential oleamide-sourced cannabimimetic involvement is also discussed
Amount of silver residual in the liver, kidney and muscle of broilers chickens after administration of nanosilver
Nanosilver, as nano-particles of silver, is one of the most widely used in the field of nano- technology. The particles cause widespread use of poultry houses due to their antimicrobial properties. Application of excess material in poultry houses lead to the residual of silver in muscle, liver and kidney in broiler chickens after a period of administration that it should be evaluated. In this study, 270 one-day old broiler chickens (Ross strain) were selected. The nanosilver that used in this study (nonacid) was manufactured by Chemical Bahaman Iran Co. The Concentration of nanocid was between 1 to 7 ppm. A week after end of nanosilver administration, chickens were slaughtered and liver, kidney and breast muscles (total of 36 samples for each limb) were obtained. The data was analyzed by SAS statistical program and Duncan test. Total mean residual of silver in different organs were 1.5 (ppm). The residual silver of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group (
Comparison of Sexual Problems in Fertile and Infertile Couples
Introduction: Infertility is known to have a negative effect on
couple's life and in most cases it has a profound impact on sexual relations. Sexual problems
may be the cause of infertility or may arise as a result of infertility. The aim of this study
was to compare the sexual problems in fertile and infertile couples. Methods: This
cross-sectional study was performed on 110 infertile and 110 fertile couples referring to
Montaserieh infertility center and five health centers in Mashhad which were selected as class
clustering method and easy method. Data collection tools included demographic questionnaires
and Golombok-Rust Inventory. The collected information was analyzed by SPSS software and
descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: No significant difference was found between
fertile 26 (17, 37) and infertile 26(18, 37) women in terms of total score of sexual problems
and other aspects of sexual problems (except infrequency). The women in the fertile group had
higher infrequency than infertile women. Total score of sexual problems in fertile men was
18.5 (13, 27) and in infertile men 25 (19, 31) and the difference was statistically
significant. Infertile men reported more problems in no relation, impotency and premature
ejaculation compared to fertile men. Men in both fertile and infertile group reported more
sexual problems than women. Conclusion: In view of the more frequent sexual problems in
infertile men than infertile women, it seems that it is necessary to pay more attention to
sexual aspects of infertility in men and design the training programs for sexual and marital
skills in infertility centers
Hercules: Deep Hierarchical Attentive Multilevel Fusion Model With Uncertainty Quantification for Medical Image Classification
The automatic and accurate analysis of medical images (e.g., segmentation,detection, classification) are prerequisites for modern disease diagnosis and prognosis. Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems empower accurate and effective detection of various diseases and timely treatment decisions. The past decade witnessed a spur in deep learning (DL)-based CADs showing outstanding performance across many health care applications. Medical imaging is hindered by multiple sources of uncertainty ranging fromnteasurement (aleatoric) errors, physiological variability, and limited medical knowledge (epistemic errors). However, uncertainty quantification (UQ) in most existing DL methods is insufficiently investigated, particularly in medical image analysis. Therefore, to address this gap, in this article, we propose a simple yet novel hierarchical attentive multilevel feature fusion model with an uncertainty-aware module for medical image classification coined Hercules. This approach is tested on several real medical image classification challenges. The proposed Hercules model consists of two main feature fusion blocks, where the former concentrates on attention-based fusion with uncertainty quantification module and the latter uses the raw features. Hercules was evaluated across three medical imaging datasets, i.e., retinal OCT, lung CT, and chest X-ray. Hercules produced the best classification accuracy in retinal OCT (94.21%), lung CT (99.59%), and chest X-ray (96.50%) datasets, respectively, against other state-of-the-art medical image classification methods