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Background: Infertility in men has increased in recent years. Numerous physical, chemical, biological, and social factors are known to play a role in reducing semen quality, in between, there are high-risk behaviors that affect the quality of semen. In this paper, the effects of three factors: smoking, alcohol consumption, and drugs have been investigated. Methods: This case-control study was performed from June to September 2021 on 500 people, 250 people with normal semen quality and 250 people with defective semen quality. The data collection tool was a questionnaire made by researchers and semen test results. Finally, the collected data were analyzed by descriptive method with SPSS software. For quantitative variables, mean and standard deviation (SD) were used, while frequency and percentage reports were used for qualitative variables. Results: Drug use had a significant relationship with the shape and motility of sperm (B = -0.675, P = 0.005). The chance of natural semen decreases by 0.506 times with an increase of one drug use unit; moreover, the older the age of onset of drug use, the more the semen disorders (B = 0.514, P = 0.002).. Conclusion: Smoking and alcohol consumption were not identified as factors affecting semen quality, but there was a significant relationship between drug use and age of onset and semen disorders.

Abstract Background Elevated lipids in umbilical cord blood affect fetal programming, leading to a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease in later life. However, the causes of changes in the lipid profile of umbilical cord blood are not clear yet. This study aimed for the first time to determine the association of asprosin concentration with TAG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C concentrations and TAG/HDL-C, TC/HDL-C, LDL-C/HDL-C and non-HDL-C/HDL-C ratio in umbilical cord blood as well as newborn anthropometric indices. This cross-sectional study was based on 450 mother- newborn pairs of a birth cohort study in Sabzevar, Iran. Multiple linear regression was used to estimate the association of lipid concentration and lipid ratios as well as birth weight (BW), birth length (BL), head circumference (HC) and chest circumference (CC) with asprosin in cord blood samples controlled for the relevant covariates. Result In fully adjusted models, each 1 ng/mL increase in asprosin was associated with 0.19 (95% CI 0.06, 0.31, P

The present study was conducted to clarify the effects of Lactobacillus salivarius (LS) ATCC 11741 and pectin (PE) on growth performance, digestive enzymes activity, gut microbiota composition, immune parameters, antioxidant defense as well as disease resistance against Aeromonas hydrophila in narrow-clawed crayfish, Postantacus leptodactylus. During 18 weeks trial feeding, 525 narrow-clawed crayfish juvenile (8.07±0.1 g) fed with seven experimental diets including control (basal diet), LS1 (1×107 CFU/g), LS2 (1×109 CFU/g), PE1 (5 g/kg), PE2 (10 g/kg), LS1PE1 (1×107 CFU/g +5 g/kg), and LS2PE2 (1×109 CFU/g +10 g/kg). After 18 weeks, growth parameters (final weight, weight gain, and specific growth rate) and feed conversion rate were significantly improved in all treatments (P

This study aims to study the discharging process to verify the influence of geometry modifications and heat transfer flow (HTF) patterns on the performance of a vertical triplex-tube latent heat container. The phase change material (PCM) is included in the middle tube, where the geometry is modified using single or multi-internal frustum tubes instead of straight tubes to enhance the discharging rate. The effects of the HTF flow direction, which is considered by the gravity and opposite-gravity directions, are also examined in four different cases. For the optimal geometry, three scenarios are proposed, i.e., employing a frustum tube for the middle tube, for the inner tube, and at last for both the inner and middle tubes. The effects of various gap widths in the modified geometries are investigated. The results show the advantages of using frustum tubes in increasing the discharging rate and reducing the solidification time compared with that of the straight tube unit due to the higher natural convection effect by proper utilization of frustum tubes. The study of the HTF pattern shows that where the HTF direction in both the inner and outer tubes are in the gravity direction, the maximum discharging rate can be achieved. For the best configuration, the discharge time is reduced negligibly compared with that for the system with straight tubes which depends on the dimensions of the PCM domain.