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Amino Acids of Seminal Plasma Associated With Freezability of Bull Sperm
No full textSperm cryopreservation is an important technique for fertility management, but post-thaw viability of sperm differs among breeding bulls. With metabolites being the end products of various metabolic pathways, the contributions of seminal plasma metabolites to sperm cryopreservation are still unknown. These gaps in the knowledge base are concerning because they prevent advances in the fundamental science of cryobiology and improvement of bull fertility. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that seminal plasma amino acids are associated with freezability of bull sperm. To accomplish this objective, amino acid concentrations in seminal plasma from seven bulls of good freezability (GF) and six bulls of poor freezability (PF) were quantified using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Multivariate and univariate analyses were performed to identify potential freezability biomarkers. Pathways and networks analyses of identified amino acids were performed using bioinformatic tools. By analyzing and interpreting the results we demonstrated that glutamic acid was the most abundant amino acid in bull seminal plasma with average concentration of 3,366 ± 547.3 nM, which accounts for about 53% of total amino acids. The other most predominant amino acids were alanine, glycine, and aspartic acid with the mean concentrations of 1,053 ± 187.9, 429.8 ± 57.94, and 427 ± 101.3 nM. Pearson’s correlation analysis suggested that phenylalanine concentration was significantly associated with post-thaw viability (r = 0.57, P-value = 0.043). Significant correlations were also found among other amino acids. In addition, partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) bi-plot indicated a distinct separation between GF and PF groups. Phenylalanine had the highest VIP score and was more abundant in the GF groups than in the PF groups. Moreover, pathway and network analysis indicated that phenylalanine contributes to oxidoreductase and antioxidant reactions. Although univariate analysis did not yield significant differences in amino acid concentration between the two groups, these findings are significant that they indicate the potentially important roles of amino acids in seminal plasma, thereby building a foundation for the fundamental science of cryobiology and reproductive biotechnology
Exploring the Association Between Nutrition and Mental Health in Adolescence: A Systematic Literature Review
Get PDFIntroduction: Throughout life, proper nutrition is important to the brain as it affects cognition and intellectual development. Studies have shown that a lack of certain nutrients can affect the body’s ability to perform mentally and physically. Annually, 14% of children in the United States receive mental health illness diagnoses. However, the link between nutrition and mental health is not clear. The purpose of this systematic literature review on mental health and nutrition in adolescence is to identify any gaps that require future research efforts. Methods: The Elton Bryson Stephens Company ( EBSCO), ProQuest, and Journal Storage (JSTOR) databases were used to search the following terms: nutrition, diet, and mental health. All search results that were published in English between 2014 -2019, conducted in the United States, peer-reviewed, and contained subjects 13 to 18-years old were included. Results: A total of 217 articles were identified. After the removal of duplicates and eligibility screening, only two satisfied the criteria. The reports were published in two separate journals during 2018 (n=1) and 2014 (n=1). These quantitative studies used a cross-sectional design with a survey. Common findings across the two studies are (1) nutrition knowledge and frequent family meals are positively associated with the individual social and emotional wellbeing; and (2) poor nutrition can lead to increased bullying among adolescents. Conclusion: The findings from this study suggest that nutrition and mental health in adolescents is not well research. Future research studies are needed to address mental health and nutrition among adolescents
Performance Analysis of an M/M/1 Queue with N-policy Interrupted Closedown Preventive Maintenance Balking and Feedback
Get PDFThis paper investigates the transient and stationary behavior of a M/M/1 queueing model with N-policy, interrupted closedown, balking, feedback and preventive maintenance. The server stays dormant (off state) until N customers accumulate in the queue and then starts an exhaustive service (on state). After the service, each customer may either leave the system or get immediate feedback. When the system becomes empty, the server resumes closedown. If any arrival occurs before the completion of closedown time, the closedown work of the server is interrupted and starts the busy period in an exhaustive manner. If no arrival occurs during the closedown time, the server commences preventive maintenance work. When this period ends, the server moves to the idle state and waits N accumulate for service. When the Nth one enters the queue, the server starts the service. The customers may either join the queue or balk when the size of the system is less than N and the server is in off state. The transient and stationary system size probabilities of the proposed model are derived by the method of generating function. Some system performance indices are computed and the numerical simulations are also presented
Stability of regular thin shell wormholes supported by VDW quintessence
Get PDFThe dynamical equations of motion for a thin shell wormhole from regular black holes that are supported by Van der Waals (VDW) quintessence equation of state (EoS) are constructed, through cut and -paste technique. The linearized stability of regular wormhole is derived. The presences of unstable and stable static solutions with different value of some parameters are analyzed
New Results for Compatible Mappings of Type A and Subsequential Continuous Mappings
Get PDFIn this paper, we corroborated some common fixed point theorems for two pairs of self mappings by using the impression of compatibility of type A and subsequential continuity (alternatively subcompatiblity and reciprocal continuity) in multiplicative metric spaces (MMS). The proven results are the improved version in a manner that the completeness, closedness and continuity of the mappings are relaxed
Some Operations over Pythagorean Fuzzy Matrices Based on Hamacher Operations
Get PDFPythagorean fuzzy matrix is a powerful tool for describing the vague concepts more precisely. The Pythagorean fuzzy matrix based models provide more flexibility in handling the human judgment information as compared to other fuzzy models. The objective of this paper is to apply the concept of intuitionistic fuzzy matrices to Pythagorean fuzzy matrices. In this paper, we briefly introduce the Pythagorean fuzzy matrices and some theorems and examples are applied to illustrate the performance of the proposed methods. Then we define the Hamacher scalar multiplication (n.hA) and Hamacher exponentiation (A^hn) operations on Pythagorean fuzzy matrices and investigate their algebraic properties. Furthermore, we prove some properties of necessity and possibility operators on Pythagorean fuzzy matrices
The Traveling Wave Solution of the Fuzzy Linear Partial Differential Equation
Get PDFIn this paper we are going to obtain fuzzy traveling wave solutions for fuzzy linear partial differential equations by considering the type of generalized Hukuhara differentiability. In particular, the fuzzy traveling wave solutions for fuzzy Advection equation, fuzzy linear Diffusion equation, fuzzy Convection-Diffusion-Reaction equation, and fuzzy Klein-Gordon equation are obtained
On geometry of spherical image in Minkowski space-time with timelike type-2 parallel transport frame
Get PDFIn this paper, we investigate a different type of the parallel transport frame in 3-dimensional Minkowski space R^3_1 by using the binormal vector field of a timelike regular curve as common vector field to introduce, and we recall this frame as timelike type-2 parallel transport frame . Also, we present new spherical images and call them as timelike type-2 parallel transport spherical images by translating the induced frame vectors to the center of unit Lorentzian sphere in 3-dimensional Minkowski space R^3_1. Additionally, we obtain the Frenet apparatus of these new spherical images in terms of base curves timelike type-2 parallel transport invariants. Finally, interesting relations are expressed and illustrate an example of the results
Soil CO2 emission in response to organic amendments, temperature, and rainfall
No full textVegetated land surfaces play an important role in determining the fate of carbon in the global carbon cycle. However, our understanding of the terrestrial biosphere on a global scale is subject to considerable uncertainty, especially concerning the impacts of climatic variables on the carbon cycle. Soil is a source and also a sink of CO2 exchange and helps in carbon sequestration. Agricultural management practices influence soil water dynamics, as well as carbon cycling by changing soil CO2 emission and uptake rates. The rate of soil CO2 emission varies for different crops and different organic amendments. The major goal of this study was to assess the impacts of the type and rate of organic amendment on soil CO2 emission in a collard greens crop grown in the southeast Texas environment. Thirty-six plots were developed to grow collard greens on Prairie View A&M University’s Research Farm. Three types of organic amendments (Chicken manure, Dairy manure, and Milorganite), at four levels of application (0, 168, 336, and 672 kg N/ha) were used and replicated three times. Each organic amendment type was applied to nine randomly selected plots. Three random plots were used as a control in each row. We measured daily soil CO2 emission for the first two weeks and every other day in a week during the experiment. We evaluated the effects of organic amendments and the application rates on soil CO2 emission for collard greens during two growing seasons. The results showed higher the application rates for each organic amendment, higher the CO2 emissions from the soil. The results also showed higher cumulative CO2 emissions for the soils amended with chicken manure and milorganite, but lowest for the soils amended with dairy manure. This field experiment and analyses help better understand the temporal and spatial variations of soil CO2 emission, and also help to develop best management practices to maximize carbon sequestration and to minimize soil CO2 emissions during the growth periods of collard greens under changing temperatures using different organic amendments, and application rates
Assessment of readiness to transition from antenatal HIV surveillance surveys to PMTCT programme data-based HIV surveillance in South Africa: The 2017 Antenatal Sentinel HIV Survey
No full textObjective: South Africa has used antenatal HIV surveys for HIV surveillance in pregnant women since 1990. We assessed South Africa\u27s readiness to transition to programme data based antenatal HIV surveillance with respect to PMTCT uptake, accuracy of point-of-care rapid testing (RT) and selection bias with using programme data in the context of the 2017 antenatal HIV survey. Methods: Between 1 October and 15 November 2017, the national survey was conducted in 1,595 public antenatal facilities selected using stratified multistage cluster sampling method. Results of point-of-care RT were obtained from medical records. Blood samples were taken from eligible pregnant women and tested for HIV using immunoassays (IA) in the laboratory. Descriptive statistics were used to report on: PMTCT uptake; agreement between HIV point-of-care RT and laboratory-based HIV-1 IA; and selection bias associated with using programme data for surveillance. Results: PMTCT HIV testing uptake was high (99.8%). The positive percent agreement (PPA) between RT and IA was lower than the World Health Organization (WHO) benchmark (97.6%) at 96.3% (95% confidence interval (CI): 95.9%–96.6%). The negative percent agreement was above the WHO benchmark (99.5%), at 99.7% (95% CI: 99.6%–99.7%) nationally. PPA markedly varied by province (92.9%–98.3%). Selection bias due to exclusion of participants with no RT results was within the recommended threshold at 0.3%. Conclusion: For the three components assessed, South Africa was close to meeting the WHO standard for transitioning to routine RT data for antenatal HIV surveillance. The wide variations in PPA across provinces should be addressed