Semen analysis, sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) and hypo-osmotic swelling test (HOST) are usually performed for the evaluation of sperm fertilizing ability. There are some debates over the necessity of SDF and HOST incorporation in male infertility work-up.Semen of 77 men was evaluated by SDF and HOST through three semen analyses. Sperm parameters were arranged into different categories: <5%, 5-1...

in the current study, the information on occurrence, distribution and host aphid-plant associations for the species of praon haliday in iran are presented. eight species of praon were found in the areas under study, which include four previously reported species, viz. praon absinthi bignell, praon barbatum mackauer, praon exsoletum (nees) and praon volucre (haliday), and four new records, praon...

an outbreak of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by leishmania major was identified in ghanavat rural district, qom province, central iran, during 1999-2001. among 1069 inhabitants examined in dec. 1999, 5.14% showed evidence of active lesions and 12.44% had scar indicative of past infection. the most highly infected age group was 5-9 years old for ulcers with a rate of 6.56%. the inciden...

background: parasite proteases have important roles in cleavage of host proteins during the invasion of host tissues and participate in the parasite’s evasion from the host’s immune response. the aim of the present study was to estimate a metalloproteinase properties of taenia solium metacestode (tsmp) during host-parasite interactions, and evaluate its potential as a serodiagnostic antigen for...

We examine the relationship between galaxies, supermassive black holes and AGN using a sample of 23,000 narrow-emission-line ('type 2') active galactic nuclei (AGN) drawn from a sample of 123,000 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We have studied how AGN host properties compare with those of normal galaxies and how they depend on the luminosity of the active nucleus. We find that AGN r...

Cucumber mosaic cucumovirus (CMV) infects a very wide range of plant species (>1000 species). We recently demonstrated that a previously undescribed gene (2b) encoded by RNA 2 of the tripartite RNA genome of CMV is required for systemic virus spread and disease induction in its hosts. Herein we report that when this CMV gene is replaced by its homologue from tomato aspermy cucumovirus (TAV), th...

The potential for disease transmission at the interface of wildlife, domestic animals and humans has become a major concern for public health and conservation biology. Research in this subject is commonly conducted at local scales while the regional context is neglected. We argue that prevalence of infection at local and regional levels is influenced by three mechanisms occurring at the landsca...

The IETF has developed a one-way packet loss metric that measures the loss rate on a Poisson and Periodic probe streams between two hosts. However, the impact of packet loss on applications is, in general, sensitive not just to the average loss rate but also to the way in which packet losses are distributed in loss episodes (i.e., maximal sets of consecutively lost probe packets). This document...

the first damage of sugar beet ladybird was (bulaea lichatschovi hum.) reported in 1972 from south of russia. in iran, the first report of high damage of this insect on the leaves was reported from sugar beet fields of karaj in 1962. adult ladybird is reddish bown with 3.5-4.5 mm length. thorax has 6 black points. on elytres there are 20 blackish brown spots. the ventral body is black. the ante...