The role of maternal diet on fetal sex selection: A Review

Introduction: The desire of the human to control the gender of fetus prior to conception has always been important. The aim of this study was to determine the role of maternal diet on fetal gender. Materials and Methods: In this narrative review study, a comprehensive review of databases including Pubmed, Scirus, Cochrane library, ScienceDirect, MD Consult, google scholar, Iranmedex, Magiran, and SID from 1982 to 2013 was performed. Key words to search databases included fetal sex, sex ratio, sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, fructose, eating disorders, sex selection, maternal diet, Ionic diet, fatty acid, calorie, and famine. Results: Results of studies on the effects of nutritional deficiencies and disorders on sex ratio were controversial. Studies showed that a combination of environmental factors such as stress, time of conception and maternal diet had effects on sex ratio. Preconceptional nutritional status of mothers was very important in changing sex ratio. Increasing the intake of K + + Na+/Ca 2 + + Mg2+ in diet and high calorie diet could increase the ratio of male offsprings. Conclusions: Preconceptional diet was important in fetal sex ratio. However, low sample size in most human studies and the complex mechanisms of sex determination make it difficult to conclude definitively on this issue. Further human studies with larger sample size in this field are suggested

Determination of Endosulfan in Water Samples Using Dispersive Liquid-Liquid Micro-Extraction and Experimental Design for Optimization

Water contamination due to the wide variety of pesticides used in agriculture is a global environmental pollution problem. In order to reach at sub-μgL-1 levels of detection, an efficient extraction technique is required. A simple, fast and economical method, dispersive liquid-liquid micro extraction (DLLME), followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was assessed for determining endosulfan in water samples. Experimental parameters which control the performance of DLLME, such as extraction and disperser solvents type and their volumes, temperature, and salt addition were studied by experimental design. The main factors affecting the extraction efficiency, volumes of disperser and extraction solvents, were optimized by response surface method. Under optimum conditions, the method was linear over the range 0.1-50 μg/L. The enrichment factor and extraction recovery were 163.4 and 63.73, respectively. Correlation coefficient and limit of detection (LODs) are 0.9996, 20 ng/L, respectively