Culture and Sexuality: Cognitive–Emotional Determinants of Sexual Dissatisfaction Among Iranian and New Zealand Women

Background

Several studies have demonstrated that culture plays a fundamental role in individuals' beliefs, attitudes, and values toward sexuality, and influences their ability to enjoy sex. It follows that culture may influence sexual satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

Venoarterial versus venovenous ECMO for neonatal respiratory failure

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) continues to be an important rescue therapy for newborns with a variety of causes of cardio-respiratory failure unresponsive to high-frequency ventilation, surfactant replacement, and inhaled nitric oxide. There are approximately 800 neonatal respiratory ECMO cases reported annually to the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization; venoarterial ECMO has been used in approximately 72% with a cumulative survival of 71% and venovenous has been used in 28% with a survival of 84%. Congenital diaphragmatic hernia is now the most common indication for ECMO. This article reviews the development of the two types of extracorporeal support, venoarterial and venovenous ECMO, and discusses the advantages of each method, the current selection criteria, the procedure, and the clinical management of neonates on ECMO.     

Sperm chromatin integrity in a man with macrocephaly syndrome

This study reports chromatin status and ICSI outcomes in a case of sperm macrocephaly syndrome(SMS), showing 100% of spermatozoa with abnormal morphology. Percentages of sperm DNA fragmentation for TUNEL (31.7% versus 6.5%), SCSA (33% versus 25%) assays, chromatin maturity tests, CMA3 (58% versus 29%) and aniline blue (63% versus 35%) staining were higher in case sample compared to the fertile sample. Artificial oocyte activation resulted in a similar fertilisation rate between case and control samples (71% versus 66.7%), but the case showed delayed embryo development on day 3 post-insemination. Unlike fertile case, no embryos reached the blastocyst stage. The result of this case study shows that macrocephaly is associated with reduced chromatin maturity and DNA integrity. Although both cases showed a similar chance for fertilisation through artificial chemical activation for only macrocephalic man, the developmental competency is jeopardised in such cases.     

Pretreatment with melatonin protects against cyclophosphamide‐induced oxidative stress and renal damage in mice

Cyclophosphamide (CP) is widely used in treatment of different cancers. Nephrotoxicity is one of the dose‐limiting side effects of CP. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of melatonin (MEL) on CP‐induced nephrotoxicity in mice. In this study, 50 Swiss albino mice (20–25 g) were randomly divided into five groups. Mice were pretreated with MEL intraperitoneally (i.p) in doses of 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg for five consecutive days, and CP (200 mg/kg, i.p) was administrated on the 5th day 1 h after the last dose of MEL. Then on day 6, blood samples were collected to determine serum creatinine (Cr) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels. The kidneys were used for histological examination, biochemical assays and real‐time PCR studies. Malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione (GSH), protein carbonyl (PC), nitric oxide (NO) level, catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity were assessed in renal tissue. In addition, the expression of SOD2 and PGx1 was measured using real‐time PCR method in renal tissue. Results showed that CP administration significantly increases Cr, BUN, MDA, PC, NO level and MPO activity. It also decreases renal GSH level, SOD, GPx and CAT activity. Pretreatment with MEL (especially 20 mg/kg, i.p.) for 5 days prevented these changes; however, it did not affect the SOD activity. Our results revealed that MEL might be useful for prevention of the nephrotoxicity induced by CP through ameliorative effects on biochemical indices and oxidative stress parameters.     

Green synthesis of Pd nanoparticles supported on reduced graphene oxide,using the extract of Rosa canina fruit,and their use as recyclable and heterogeneous nanocatalysts for the degradation of dye pollutants in water

The current study suggests a convenient synthesis of in situ, ecofriendly and well-dispersed palladium nanoparticles with narrow and small dimension distributions on a graphene oxide (GO) surface using a Rosa canina fruit extract as a stabilizer and reducing agent without the addition of any other stabilizers or surfactants. The as-synthesized nanocatalyst (Pd NPs/RGO) was assessed with XRD, UV-vis, FE-SEM, EDS, TEM, ICP and WDX. The obtained heterogeneous nanocatalyst showed catalytic performance for reducing 4-nitrophenol (4-NP), rhodamine B (RhB) and methylene blue (MB) at ambient temperature in an ecofriendly medium. The catalyst was retained by centrifugation and reused several times with no considerable change in its catalytic performance.

We suggests a convenient synthesis of in situ, ecofriendly and well-dispersed Pd nanoparticles with narrow and small dimension distributions on graphene oxide (GO) using Rosa canina extract as a reducing agent and as the only stabilizer.     

A new triple chimeric protein as a high immunogenic antigen against anthrax toxins: theoretical and experimental analyses

Background: Anthrax is a zoonotic disease caused by Bacillus anthracis and it can be deadly in 6 days. Considerable efforts have been conducted toward developing more effective veterinary and human anthrax vaccines because these common vaccines have several limitations. B. anthracis secretes a tripartite toxin, comprising protective antigen (PA), edema factor (EF), and lethal factor (LF). Several studies have shown important role of PA in protection of anthrax. LF and EF induce production of toxin neutralizing antibodies too. PA in fusion form with LF/EF has synergistic effects as a potential subunit vaccine.

Methods: In this study, for the first time, a triple chimeric protein called ELP was modeled by fusing three different domains of anthrax toxic antigens, the N-terminal domains of EF and LF, and the C-terminal domain of PA as a high immunogenic antigen using Modeller 9.19 software. Immunogenicity of the ELP was assessed in guinea pigs using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test and MTT assay.

Results: Theoretical studies and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation results suggest that the ELP model had acceptable quality and stability. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis of the purified ELP, its domains, and PA were matched with their molecular size and confirmed by western blotting analysis. In the immune guinea pigs, antibody was produced against all of the ELP domains. It was observed that ELP induced strong humoral response and could protect murine macrophage cell line (RAW 264.7 cells) against anthrax lethal toxin (LeTx).

Conclusions: ELP chimeric antigen could be considered as a high immunogenic antigen.