The effect of chronic khat consumption on sperm count and motility in parent mice and their offspring

Khat is considered a psychoactive drug and has many side effects on different parts of the body organs. In this study the effects of khat on sperm count and motility in parent mice and their offspring were investigated. Animals were divided into two groups, Group 1 (khat group) contained twelve male and twelve female mice, and they were given a daily dose of (50mg/kg) body weight khat extract by gastric gavage for four and eight weeks. Group 2 (control group) also contained twelve male and twelve female mice and received normal access of food and water. After four weeks of treatment, the males and females were allowed to mate and khat treatment continued for up to another four weeks. Twenty four male offspring from group 1 and group 2 were selected randomly and allowed to become mature. Male parent mice were killed at the 4th and 8th weeks of treatment, and their male offspring were killed when they reached maturity age (6-8weeks). Physiological examination of the sperm solution showed that there was a significant increase in sperm count and motility after 4 and 8 weeks of khat treatment, and in their adult offspring. Furthermore, histological changes were found in testicular sections of the adult male mice

Prefrontal tDCS Decreases Pain in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Background: In the last few years, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has emerged as an appealing therapeutic option to improve brain functions. Promising data support the role of prefrontal tDCS in augmenting cognitive performance and ameliorating several neuropsychiatric symptoms, namely pain, fatigue, mood disturbances, and attentional impairment. Such symptoms are commonly encountered in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Objective: The main objective of the current work was to evaluate the tDCS effects over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on pain in MS patients.Our secondary outcomes were to study its influence on attention, fatigue, and mood. Materials and Methods: Sixteen MS patients with chronic neuropathic pain were enrolled in a randomized, sham-controlled, and cross over study Patients randomly received two anodal tDCS blocks (active or sham), each consisting of three consecutive daily tDCS sessions, and held apart by 3 weeks. Evaluations took place before and after each block. To evaluate pain, we used the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and the Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Attention was assessed using neurophysiological parameters and the Attention Network Test (ANT). Changes in mood and fatigue were measured using various scales. Results: Compared to sham, active tDCS yielded significant analgesic effects according to VAS and BPI global scales.There were no effects of any block on mood, fatigue, or attention. Conclusion: Based on our results, anodal tDCS over the left DLPFC appears to act in a selective manner and would ameliorate specific symptoms, particularly neuropathic pain. Analgesia might have occurred through the modulation of the emotional pain network. Attention, mood, and fatigue were not improved in this work. This could be partly attributed to the short protocol duration, the small sample size, and the heterogeneity of our MS cohort. Future large-scale studies can benefit from comparing the tDCS effects over different cortical sites, changing the stimulation montage, prolonging the duration of protocol, and coupling tDCS with neuroimaging techniques for a better understanding of its possible mechanism of action

Android In-Vehicle Infotainment System (AIVI)

Travelling long distances by cars in the modern world has become bearable with the availability of in-vehicle infotainment systems that can entertain and inform both drivers and other occupants. One of the problems faced by application developers for in-vehicle infotainment systems is the lack of an open and standard platform across different car manufacturers. This research investigates the suitability of an Android operating-system to be used as a standard platform for developing an in-vehicle infotainment system. This integrated system will be used as both a source of information and entertainment. Our objective in this thesis is to build an integrated system that provides several infotainment services to the user such as playing music, GPS-based navigation services, road and traffic information and many more services available from third parties. This research thus aims to demonstrate how the Android system can be used as a stepping stone towards establishing an open-standard in the automotive in-vehicle infotainment industry. We believe a system such as ours will help reduce the closed, proprietary and non-extensible systems being released today and bolster the design and development of open, more complete, feature-full systems in vehicles that will not only assist but also entertain drivers and passengers. This research consisted of three main phases. Firstly, the requirements of the system were obtained through a user survey. Secondly, an Android-based system was integrated based on the requirements specification. The integration effort required several software components to be developed and tested. Thirdly, a user opinion survey was conducted based on the features developed in our Android-based In-vehicle Infotainment (AIVI) system

Tilan ristiriitaisuus Israelissa : kirja-arvostelu

Taking space seriously: Law, space and society in contemporary Israel, Issachar Rosen-Zvi, London (2004

Tilan ristiriitaisuus Israelissa : kirja-arvostelu

Taking space seriously: Law, space and society in contemporary Israel, Issachar Rosen-Zvi, London (2004

Simulated Anealing Approach for Training Hidden Markov Models

A simulated annealing method for estimating the parameters of Hidden Markov Models is presented. This method is based on the choice of the optimal trajectory of the discrete state. It is applied to both discrete and continuous observations. The program developped needs no specific initialization of the algorithm by the user, the cooling schedule being general and applicable to any specific model. The method is applied to data generated randomly and compared to the initial model. Numerical experience in using the method is also presented. 1. INTRODUCTION Hidden Markov Models (HMM) have been widely applied in automatic speech recognition. In this field signals are encoded as temporal variation of short time power spectrum [15]. HMM applications are now being extended to many fields such as pattern recognition, signal processing and control. They are well suited for the classification of one or two dimensional signals. An HMM is a double stochastic process with one underlying process tha..

An Integrated Environment for Hidden Markov Models A Scilab Toolbox

A Hidden Markov Model Toolbox is presented within the Scilab environement. In this toolbox popular methods for the resolution of HMM problems are incorporated. These methods cover the training and recognition phases. Models may be used with discrete and continuous observations. This toolbox includes conventional methods as well as extensions. 1. Introduction Hidden Markov models (HMM) have been widely applied in automatic speech recognition. In this field, signals are encoded as temporal variation of short time power spectrum [12]. HMM applications are now being extended to many fields such as pattern recognition, signal processing, modeling and control of dynamic systems. They are well suited for the classification of one or two dimensional signals. A HMM is a double stochastic process with one underlying process that is not observable but may be estimated through a set of processes that produce a sequence of observations. They may be used for the treatment of problems where informat..