The potential of antiretroviral treatment (ART) to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV has increased the number of serodiscordant couples who are considering natural conception. We aim to describe the results of a protocol for reproductive counseling aimed at HIV serodiscordant couples who desire natural conception, in which the infected partner, the index case, is receiving suppressive anti...

Background: Phytoestrogens are some plant compounds with estrogenic biological effects which are found in many nutritional sources as soybean, flaxseed, and sesame. Vitex agnus-castus, also called Vitex, owns  phytoestrogen properties. Studies have shown that phytoestrogens have different impacts on the gestation process and reproduction indices. Objective: The present study was aimed to inves...

This paper uses panel data of OECD countries during the period 1995–2003 to examine how corruption affects fertility. The Corruption Perceptions Index is used to measure the degree of corruption. Fixed effects IV estimation and the Arellano-Bond dynamic panel estimation are employed to control for endogenous bias and unobservable country-specific effects. Results suggest that the fertility rate...

PURPOSE Our purpose was to explore two methods of expressing the performance of IVF programs. METHODS Using life-table methods, hazard and cure rates and a "monthly fecundability rate" were calculated for an Ontario IVF clinic. The rates were evaluated for their meaningfulness as indicators of the clinic's performance. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS While the hazard rate describes monthly fertilit...

We evaluated the abundance of microbial functional groups involved in compost fertility, and the chemical parameters of maturity and quality most commonly analyzed in compost products. We employed compost produced using the same hydrolytic stage and two maturation processes (with and without earthworms) and with different organic wastes. Our aim was to propose a valid tool for measuring the qua...

This study tested the balancing selection hypothesis, that is, genes predisposing men to homosexuality escape elimination from the population because the decreased fertility of men with the heritable form of homosexuality is offset by an increased fertility among biological relatives who carry the same genetic variants. The index subjects (probands) were 40,197 firstborn heterosexual men and 4,...

The number of wild quail has dramatically reduced in China and reached a state of endangerment with the deterioration of the environment in recent years. In this study, we examined the ecological behaviors of quails in the cage to determine the differentiation level between wild Japanese quail and domestic quail, to detect the relationship between quail behavior and evolutionary differentiation...

Nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) fertility management of maize (Zea mays L.) in the humid subtropical Mississippi Delta may differ from a temperate climate because of its use in rotation with cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), soil temperatures rarely falling to 08C, and heavy winter rains that facilitate nutrient losses. An experiment to determine the [N] (concentration 1⁄4 [ ]), phosphorus [P], [K...