Male infertility refers to a male\'s inability to cause pregnancy in a fertile female. In humans it accounts for 40–50% of infertility. It affects approximately 7% of all men. Male infertility is commonly due to deficiencies in the semen, and semen quality is used as a surrogate measure of male fecundity. Some studies have suggested that specific nutritional factors can affect semen quality. The aim of the present study to study the association between indexes reflecting real-life nutritional status and male fertility and indicated semen parameters. This cross-sectional study was carried out on 114 men aged between 25–55 years in the International Islamic Center for Population Studies and Research, ART unit, Cairo, Egypt, from December 2019 to March 2020. Each patient was requested to fill a medical history, food frequency (FFQ), and lifestyle questionnaires. The present data were analyzed using SPSS. Results shows that no statistical significance was reported in the percentages of semen parameters between subjects of various diet types. Our studies also concluded that, all patients fed on normal healthy diets showed normal sexual functions. However, a percentage of abnormal sexual functions in the patients fed on unhealthy diet.

Pre-implantation genetic screening (PGS) aims to help couples lower the risks of transmitting genetic defects to their offspring, this technology has been employed as an embryo selection tool for patients undergoing in vitro fertilization, screening as many chromosomes as possible, in the hope that selecting chromosomally normal embryos will lead to higher implantation and decreased miscarriage rates. Material is collected from the oocyte (polar body), day three old embryo, or increasingly often, from the trophectoderm of a blastocyst. Selection of the diagnostic method depends on the testing center, but methods such as aCGH (Comparative Genomic Hybridization Array) and NGS (Next-Generation Sequencing) are supposed to have the highest reliability and precision. This paper presents a review of the most common abnormalities in human embryos.This study was conducted on 100 infertile women undergoing ICSI cycles with poor prognosis; poor responder women whose age is 27 or more, required 375 I.U. of gonadotropin or more per day to well stimulate their follicles and with history of previous failed ICSI. PGS was performed for 611 embryos for 24 chromosomes. The result showing a significant negative correlation between age and the Euploid embryo with P-value < 0.05. When the age increase there is a notable decrease in the euploid embryo. The highest common abnormalities occurred in chromosomes number 13, 18, 19 and 22. In conclusion, our results suggest that Preimplantation genetic screening highlights molecular anomalies such as chromosomal abnormalities in patients with poor prognosis and should be offered to them as a routine.

Customer churn is an important and challenging problem that faces telecommunication companies worldwide. Recently, companies have been\ninvesting more in developing accurate prediction models which can forecast\nwhich customers are about ending their subscriptions or switching\nto another competitor service provider. These models can help Customer\nRelationship Management (CRM) in designing effective strategies to retain\ncurrent customers. In this paper, a Support Vector Machine (SVM)\nmodel is developed for predicting customer churn in a local telecommunication\ncompany. In general, SVM models are parametric and the initial\nvalues of its parameters have great influence of its accuracy and performance.\nTherefore, a new combined evaluation metric is applied while\ntuning the parameters of SVM in order to maximize its effectiveness for\nchurn management.

Recent studies have defined the role of trace elements- iron, calcium, zinc and copper in the formation of gallstones and deficiencies of serum iron and serum calcium can lead to increased risk of gallstone disease. The present study was planned to analyse the exact role of serum iron and calcium in the pathogenesis of gallstone disease and to assess the relationship of biliary cholesterol supersaturation with levels of serum iron and calcium. Total 100 patients suffering from cholelithiasis were included in the study, and were divided into following groups based on their serum iron and calcium levels: Group A included patients with normal serum iron (the controls), group B included patients with iron deficiency (the cases), group A1 included patients with normal serum calcium (the controls) and group B1 included patients with calcium deficiency (the cases). 5ml of blood sample was drawn intravenously before cholecystectomy, serum was analysed for the parameters like serum iron, calcium, cholesterol and biliary cholesterol (lipid extract from bile). Bile cholesterol levels were raised in group B and group B1 (the cases) as compared to group A and group A1 (the controls). Low serum iron, causes defective hepatic cholesterol metabolism and more stasis of bile because of decreased motility of gallbladder and leads to increased precipitation of cholesterol and hence gallstone formation. Also, deficiency of both iron and calcium is associated with increased chances of super-saturation of bile in gallbladder followed by increase in incidence of gallstone formation.

In this Study, the theoretical calculation of excited-state ionization potentials for 2s22p3 2D°5/2, 2s22p2(3P)3s 2P3/2, 2s22p2(3P)4s 4P3/2, 2s22p2(3P)3d 2D3/2 and 2s22p2(3P)4d 2D3/2 iso-spectrum series of Nitrogen-like elements have been carried out using weakest bound electron potential model theory (WBEPMT) for nuclear charges from Z=7 to Z=14. The Breit-Pauli approximation has been used for relativistic contributions. The obtained values are compared with the experimental results from literature. The overall agreement between data obtained in this work and experimental data from literature can be concluded to be quite good being generally within 0.1 % of experimental values.

O leite materno é o melhor alimento para os bebês, provendo nutrição e proteção imunológica. O trabalho propôs avaliar a capacidade bactericida do leite materno para Escherichia coli. Poucos estudos avaliaram aspectos relativos ao armazenamento do leite em refrigerador e congelador, considerando a possível interferência na capacidade microbicida, por isso este estudo tornou-se relevante. O leite materno foi coletado de doadoras com idade entre 18 e 35, foram coletadas amostras de cerca de 12 mL de lactantes em amamentação exclusiva. As amostras foram centrifugadas por 10 minutos para separação da camada lipídica. Constatou-se que as médias de morte de bactérias foram de 80,3% para leite refrigerado sem gordura, 70% para leite congelado sem gordura e 67,3% tanto para leite refrigerado e congelado com gordura. Os resultados indicaram que, mesmo armazenado na geladeira, o leite é capaz de matar bactérias, reforçando a importância da prática do aleitamento materno como meio de redução de infecções em lactentes.

Field experiments were carried out at three localities in North West and Limpopo provinces to assess the effects of planting density and planting patterns and their interaction effects on residual soil nutrient contents in maize/cowpea (M/C) sole and intercropped systems. The trial consisted of four planting densities (10 000; 20 000; 30 000 and 40 000 plants ha-1) and six planting patterns (1rowM:1rowC; 1rowM:2rowsC; 2rowsM:2rowsC; 2rowM:4rowC; sole maize and sole cowpeas) at three sites. The experiment was a split-plot incorporated in randomized complete block design with four replications where maize plant density was the main factor and subplot factor was the planting pattern. \nMaize N, P, K, Ca and Mg concentration level showed a decreased pattern as the planting density increased at both trial sites. Maize N content in planting density ranged from 1.28% to 1.65% at both locations. Plant density of 10 000 plants ha-1 had higher N yield of maize by 22% and 11% relative to 40 000 plants ha-1 at Potchefstroom and Taung, respectively. However, N concentration in maize was significant at Taung, the 2rowsM:4rowsC pattern had higher N concentration and was 1.75% compared to all other intercropping planting patterns and sole maize. The interaction of all intercropping planting patterns and plant density of 10 000 plants ha-1 gave higher nutrient concentration level than at higher plant density. Sole cowpea had higher residual soil N-NO-3 yield of 1.92, 1.66 and 1.23 mgkg-1, whereas residual soil N-NH+4 was 3.28, 3.44 and 3.34 mgkg-1 at Syferkuil, Potchefstroom and Taung, respectively, compared to all intercropping planting patterns and sole maize. The results show that cowpea has the ability to fix atmospheric N into the soil for subsequent crop use. The study indicates that intercropping system and lower plant density up to 30 000 plants ha-1 of maize had the potential of improving crop productivity and soil fertility status depending on the climate and available N in the soil.