Effect of Swim Up Techniques on Sperm Motility and DNA Integrity Versus Unprepared Semen

Background: The need for assisted reproduction technologies (ART) for the establishment of pregnancies has steadily increased worldwide. Therefore, it is of vital importance that an efficient sperm preparation technique used for retrieval of high-quality spermatozoa contributes to the creations of high-quality embryos, with high implantation potential. Objective: to study the effect of swim up technique on human sperm motility and DNA integrity. Subject and methods: A prospective study carried on 70 samples of human semen; each sample, divided into 2 parts, one part was prepared by swim-up technique and the other not, and then study sperm motility and DNA integrity in both parts. Sperm DNA integrity was determined using a modified alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis (comet) assay and acridine orange test (AOT), and motility was determined by light microscope. Result(s): the results showed that swim up technique give a significant. increasing in motility percentage and a significant. decreasing in DNA damage (P< 0.05) than unprepared human sperm. Conclusion(s): Swim up technique for sperm preparation is increasing motility and decreasing DNA damage

A call for standardised age-disaggregated health data.

The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals agenda calls for health data to be disaggregated by age. However, age groupings used to record and report health data vary greatly, hindering the harmonisation, comparability, and usefulness of these data, within and across countries. This variability has become especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was an urgent need for rapid cross-country analyses of epidemiological patterns by age to direct public health action, but such analyses were limited by the lack of standard age categories. In this Personal View, we propose a recommended set of age groupings to address this issue. These groupings are informed by age-specific patterns of morbidity, mortality, and health risks, and by opportunities for prevention and disease intervention. We recommend age groupings of 5 years for all health data, except for those younger than 5 years, during which time there are rapid biological and physiological changes that justify a finer disaggregation. Although the focus of this Personal View is on the standardisation of the analysis and display of age groups, we also outline the challenges faced in collecting data on exact age, especially for health facilities and surveillance data. The proposed age disaggregation should facilitate targeted, age-specific policies and actions for health care and disease management

Performance Analysis of Cooperative NOMA for Different Power Allocation Strategies

Cooperative None Orthogonal Multiple Access (C-NOMA) is a promising approach for 5G and beyond communication networks. Users will benefit from the full bandwidth of the channel without time constraints. NOMA’s features are incomplete without efficient power allocation that ensures power distribution among users fairly. Integrating power management (allocation) with Cooperative-NOMA (C-NOMA) may improve the system metrics. In addition, a physical layer security (PLS) is added to make the process of sending and receiving safe, and the system works in an integrated manner, preventing any interrupting or eavesdropping inside or outside the network. This paper demonstrates the user and channel performance of C-NOMA with Amplify-and-forward (AF) and Decode-and-forward (DF) approaches. The analysis is performed by varying the power allocation techniques to derive the best system configurations. The simulation results confirmed the analytic findings and showed that the proposed system outperforms orthogonal multiple access (OMA), conventional NOMA, and conventional cooperative NOMA, enhancing the performance metrics in terms of throughput, sum rate, and outage probability. The bit-error-rate (BER) of the far user can be identical to that of the near user if power allocation is properly set. All techniques excelled except for the fixed power allocation, which had the same BER. The Channel capacity and outage probability were also considered. A slight variation in the channel capacity in all the experiments for different numbers of users was found. The generalized power allocation for AF and DF models had the optimum channel capacity close to 14 bps/Hz. Moreover, far users always had a higher outage probability than near users and channels, and generalized power allocation was the highest outage probability technique when the transmit power was close to (4 dB)

Assessment of patients adherence to therapeutic recommendations after percutaneous coronary intervention in Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf governorate

Cardiac catheterization (CC) is a technique in which a symptomatic patient with heart disease undergoes a routine that necessitates hospitalization. This study aims to assess patients’ adherence to therapeutic recommendations after percutaneous coronary intervention. Cross-sectional quantitative descriptive design carried out in Al-Najaf Governorate. Non-probability purposive sampling consisted of 120 patients with coronary artery disease for at least six months after percutaneous coronary intervention. The start date was from October 1st, 2020 and last to May 1th, 2022. The data gathered via interview method by Adhrerence questionnaire which include 54 items. This study finds that from sample 40.8% were within 51-60 years old, 65.8% were male, 20.8% were intermediate school graduated, 59.2% were rural residence, 90% were married, 72.5% experienced CAD for less than 6 years, 98.3% received therapeutic recommendations, 38.3% admitted for the second time, and 70.8% have fair level of adherence. In turn Age, level of education, disease duration significantly associated with adherence variable. Patients’ adherence to therapeutic recommendations is moderate after PCI. As age increases, adherence to therapeutic recommendations decreases. Good level of adherence accelerates among patients with high educational level.Longer disease duration accompanying with poor adherence

The relationship between locus of control orientation and patients’ adherence to therapeutic recommendations after percutaneous coronary intervention

As life expectancy has increased and the global population has aged, the global burden of chronic diseases has risen alarmingly.&nbsp;This study aims to determine if there is any significant correlation between adherence to therapeutic recommendations and locus of control orientation. Cross-sectional quantitative correlational design carried out in Al-Najaf City. Non-randomized purposive sampling consisted of 120 patients with coronary artery disease after percutaneous coronary intervention. The date collected from June 20th, 2021 and last to November 27th, 2021 through interview method by Multi-dimensional health locus of control questionnaire form (C) which include 18 items, and adherence questionnaire which include 54 items in addition to multi-dimensional health locus of control instrument which include 18 items regarding internal, chance, and power full others domains. This study finds that patients adherence to therapeutic recommendations and their locus of control orientation is significantly correlated through statistical indicator of Pearson correlation of 0.539 at probability value of less than 0.05. The study findings also reveals that it is possible to predict patient’s adherence to therapeutic recommendations through their locus of control orientation. Internal LOC. Orientation appear to be associated with disease prevention and control in addition to health promotion.&nbsp

CNS activity of ethyl acetate extract of stem bark of <em>Dodonaea viscosa </em>Linn.

184-189The major extensively recommended treatments for anxiety and insomnia disorders are the benzodiazepines; yet, they have protuberant side effects. Consequently, the progress of new pharmacological agents is well acknowledged and so it is now contemporary to search some safe and effective alternative medicine. The current study is aimed to investigate the CNS effect of the stem bark of Dodonaea viscosa in experimental animal models. Preliminary phyto-chemical screening and Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) of the ethyl acetate extract of stem bark of Dodonaea viscosa (EAEDV) were performed. Acute oral toxicity study was performed as per OECD 423 guidelines. The CNS effects were evaluated using Elevated Plus Maze (EPM) and phenobarbitone induced sleeping time using Diazepam (2 mg/kg) as the standard. Phyto-chemical analysis reflects the presence of flavanoids, alkaloids, terpenoids and tannins. The TLC studies confirmed that the isolated compound was found to be quercetin. Mortality and sign of any toxicity were not observed up to the dose orally with 2000 mg/kg. For all the statistical tests performed, p<0.05 is considered to be significant. In EPM, 200 mg/kg and 400mg/kg of EAEDV produced significant p< 0.0005, p<0.0001 anti-anxiety effect respectively compared to control group and the activity was similar to that of diazepam. In addition, the extract significantly potentiated the phenobarbitone induced sleeping time

The Effect of Speaking Anxiety on EFL Saudi Learners' Performance

Anxiety plays a significant role in students' oral performance and achievement in EFL speaking classes. This study applied a mixed-method approach using a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews in order to investigate tertiary level students' English language anxiety at Najran University. It also examines its main causes. In addition, it explores the effects of anxiety on students' performance in EFL classrooms and the role of gender differences on the level anxiety. The study reveals that the main factors that contribute to EFL speaking anxiety among Saudi EFL students are fear of negative evaluation, fear of interaction, fear of perception of others and lack of confidence, respectively. The study also found that female students were more anxious compared to male students in EFL speaking classrooms. In addition, it showed a negative connection between FLA and students' performance in speaking classes in that high-level anxiety students experience poor speaking performance. The study implicates the role of speaking teachers in reducing the anxiety among students.&nbsp;&nbsp

Antimicrobial prescribing and clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19 infection: Experience of a single center in an upper middle-income country

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to describe antimicrobial prescribing patterns in hospitalized adult patients with confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 infection, and to determine the relationship between antimicrobial agent used and non-survival amongst the studied COVID-19 patients. METHODS: This is an observational, retrospective study. Specialty Clinic Hospital in Jordan is selected as the study setting for this conducted study. The study comprised of all hospitalized adult patients with confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 infection who were admitted to the hospital between October 2020 and December 2020. FINDINGS: A total of 216 hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 were included in the analysis. The majority of patients were prescribed antibiotic agents (n=149, 69.0%). Almost half of the patients have been prescribed antivirals agent (n=111, 51.4%). Survivals were significantly more likely to have been prescribed third generation cephalosporin (19.8% vs 3.4%, p=0.02). Non-survivals were significantly more likely to be older in age (mean age: 70.5 vs 62.7 years, p=0.009), have higher mean Charleston Comorbidity Index Score (3.7 vs 2.7, p=0.01), have at least one comorbidity (93.1% vs 71.1%, p=0.008), had shortness of breath at admission (72.4% vs 50.8%, p=0.023) and were admitted to the ICU during current admission (96.6% vs 18.7%, p<0.001) compared to survivors. Non-survivals were significantly more likely to had increased levels of WBC count (41.4% vs 19.7%; p=0.034), increased neutrophiles count (72.4% vs 39.4%; p=0.004) and higher mean C-reactive protein (167.2 vs 103.6; p=0.001) at admission. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study demonstrated factors are associated with the non-survival, and additionally benchmarked the mortality rate, amongst the studied COVID 19 patients

Influence of Occlusal Thickness and Radicular Extension on the Fracture Resistance of Premolar Endocrowns from Different All-Ceramic Materials

Endocrowns are primarily recommended in a molar region with a standardized preparation design. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of different occlusal preparation depths, pulp chamber-radicular extension, and all-ceramic materials on the fracture resistance of premolar endocrowns. Ninety human premolar teeth were root canal treated, randomly divided into three main groups according to all-ceramic material used for fabrication as Lithium Disilicate (LD) ceramic, Polymer infiltrated ceramic (PIC) and High translucency zirconia (HTZ). They were further subdivided into three subgroups (n = 10) according to preparation design of 2 mm occlusal reduction, 4.5 mm occlusal reduction and 4.5 mm occlusal reduction with 2 mm radicular extension. The endocrowns from respective restorative materials were fabricated, surface conditioned, and cemented with self-adhesive resin cement. All samples were thermocycled for 5000 cycles and subjected to compressive static load at 45&deg; angluation with the cross-head speed of 0.5 mm/minute until the fracture. The mean fracture resistance of LD ceramic at 2 mm, 4.5 mm thickness and radicular extension was 62.55 MPa, 45.80 MPa, 74.27 MPa respectively. The corresponding values for the PIC and HTZ ceramics were 26.30 MPa, 21.65 MPa, 25.66 Mpa and 23.47 MPa, 27.30 MPa, 37.29 MPa respectively. The LD ceramic and greater extension inside the pulp chamber had higher fracture resistance