Ten Zaraibi buck goats were used to study the effect of season on semen quality. Bucks were housed and fed according to standard recognized practices. Semen was collected twice a week for 7 ...consecutive weeks (starting from the 3rd to the 9th week) in the mid of the each season. During these periods scrotal circumference was measured fortnightly. The number of mounts terminating in ejaculation and the time interval between the first mount and ejaculation were also recorded. The physical parameters of semen and semen index (semen volume
×
spermatozoa concentration/ml
×
live spermatozoa%
×
progressive motility%) were measured for the first and the second ejaculates of each semen collection during the week. At the end of each season, testicular biopsies were obtained surgically from three bucks for histological evaluation. Plasma testosterone, FSH and LH concentrations were also determined twice weekly. Bucks demonstrated the highest libido in summer, using the least (
P
<
0.01) number of mounts and a shorter (
P
<
0.01) reaction time. This coincided with a higher (
P
<
0.01) level of plasma testosterone (10
ng/ml) and the best semen quality (semen index: 3354
×
10
6). During autumn, bucks recorded the highest (
P
<
0.01) ejaculate volume (0.98
ml) and the maximum output of sperm (4565
×
10
6), as well as a lower (
P
<
0.01) percentage of sperm abnormalities (8.8%). This was accompanied by high concentrations of plasma LH (average 2.9
mIU/ml). The histological structure of the testis indicated that during autumn (natural breeding season) seminiferous tubules (Sta) occupied the majority of the testicular tissues (76.6%) and the spermatic layers were highest. It can be said that Zaraibi bucks have distinct seasonal activity, with poor semen characteristics during winter and spring—which may be a critical obstacle for implementing intensive systems of three kidding in 2 years when natural mating is applied.
To present the authors' experience with assisted reproductive technology (ART) at King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Retrospective analysis of data collected from the charts ...of 264 women who were undergoing their first cycle of ART between September 2013 and March 2014. All the women were treated with gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist protocol. For all patients, the documented data included age, infertility type, cause, and hormone profile. Number of follicles > 10 mm, endometrial thickness, number of oocytes retrieved, number of fertilized ova, and number of embryos produced, as well as the number transferred, day of transfer, cancellation rate, and treatment administered for luteal phase support (oral and vaginal progesterone) treatment type, and outcome were recorded. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.
The authors included women aged 21 to 39 years (mean ± standard deviation, 32.28 ± 5.51). Patients suffered from primary infertility in 69.7% of the cases; approximately 30% of the women had secondary infertility. Eighty of the 264 patients (30.3%) conceived; however, only 56 women (21.2%) had a live birth. The overall cancellation rate in the patients was 12.1%. The following reasons were documented for cases of failure: no oocytes, 16 (6.1%); no sperm, eight (3.0%); and no embryo, eight (3.0%).
The success rate of ART at the present institution falls within the range reported in the medical literature. However, further studies should be conducted to investigate the course and outcome of ART in patients who undergo treatment in this institution.
Data of 56 normal and 9 abnormal estrous cycles were collected from 9 Egyptian buffaloes (
Bublus bublis) to describe the follicular growth wave pattern. Heat was checked twice daily while, ovaries ...were scanned daily to monitor the patterns of follicular waves. Day of ovulation was determined when the largest follicle was replaced by corpus haemorrhgicum (CH). Number of waves/cycle, day of emergence of the follicular wave, characteristics of the dominant follicle and corpus luteum (CL) growth features were monitored. Buffaloes displayed mainly two types of follicular waves; two (46.4%) and three (53.6%). In cycles of three wave pattern, time of emergence of the 1st wave post-heat was longer (
P
<
0.05) and number of recruited follicles/wave were larger (
P
<
0.05) compared to the corresponding values of the two wave pattern. Number of recruited follicles in early follicular waves (1st or the 2nd) had larger number (
P
<
0.05) compared to the subsequent ones. Follicles that reached ovulation in both types of estrous cycle had shorter life-span (
P
<
0.05) than the previous ones. Life-span of CH, growing and regressed CL were 3.6
±
0.6, 11.2
±
0.8 and 4.4
±
0.5 days, respectively with no difference in both types of follicular wave. Three types of ovarian disorders were observed. Follicular waves and CL growth features showed unique pattern for each individual. These results demonstrate that buffaloes display two main types of follicular waves with dominance of three wave type.
Ten Egyptian Nubian goat bucks were used to evaluate the effect of season on testicular hormonal activity and ultrastructure. Parameters were recorded for 7 consecutive weeks in the middle of the ...four seasons, with blood samples being collected weekly. At the end of each of these seasons, testicular biopsies were obtained surgically for histological and cytological studies. Season had a significant effect on plasma testosterone concentration, being at its lowest level (
P
<
0.01) during winter and spring (1.2 and 2.6
ng/ml, respectively), while at its highest during summer (10
ng/ml). The effect of season on plasma LH concentration was higher (
P
<
0.01) in autumn (2.9
mIU/ml) and less in spring and summer (0.4
mIU/ml). Season of the year influenced the percentage of sectional tissue area occupied by the seminiferous tubules and interstitial tissue. Seminiferous tubules occupied the majority of the testicular tissue during winter (76.6%), with the least being occupied during spring (49.8%). The thickness of the seminiferous tubules was maximal during autumn, followed by summer (53 and 36
μm, respectively). In summer the Leydig cells contained abundant smooth endoplasmic reticulum (sER), while some areas of the cytoplasm were occupied exclusively by tubular sER, arranged in parallel—indicating the highest activity of these cells. A characteristic multivesicular structure with numerous large lipid droplets and vacuoles was recorded in the Leydig cells during spring and winter, denoting low or even arrested activity of the cells. It could be concluded that season influences the activity of the Leydig cells of Egyptian Nubian bucks, and this is reflected by their ultrastructure and secretive activity.
How many times did you miss a conference talk in a parallel track and wish you had a second chance to see it? Or you just wanted to see a few talks from a recent conference you did not attend? Video ...proceedings, which contain videos of all the conference talks, would be of great value in these cases. With recent progress in digital video, streaming technology, large storage, Internet and especially video indexing and retrieval technology, video proceedings finally become a reality. The key challenges are efficient production with minimal labor and easy, intuitive, and rapid user access to talks and thought-for snippet of information. This paper describes an application that allows a nearly automatic, real time creation of video proceedings. All the talks are captured in video, and are automatically indexed by speech recognition and video analysis tools. Free text search in speech and efficient multi-view video browsing are combined with the conference table of contents and speakers biography to make fully searchable and browsable video proceedings. The paper covers the work flow, processing steps, and technical details of the video segmentation, visualization, and user study results. The system was used to produce video proceedings for three local conferences.
How many times did you miss a conference talk on a parallel track and wish you had a second chance to see it? Or you just wanted to see a few talks from a conference you did not attend? Video ...proceedings, which contain videos of all the conference talks, would be of a great value in these cases and in many others. With recent progress in digital video, streaming technology, large storage, Internet and especially video indexing and retrieval technology, video proceedings finally become a reality. The key challenge is to create it in an efficient way and to provide the user with easy, intuitive and rapid access to the talks and the snippets of video that he is looking for. This paper describes an application that allows a nearly automatic real time creation of video proceedings. All the talks are captured in video, and are automatically indexed by speech recognition and video analysis tools. The abstracts and speaker's biography are extracted from the text proceedings and are converted to web pages. Free text search in speech and efficient multi-view video browsing are combined with a table of contents to compose fully searchable and browsable video proceedings. The paper covers different aspects of the problem, an overview of the CueVideo system and examples from two conferences that we have processed using this system.
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