Background: Suboptimal human semen handling in vitro may induce sperm damage.However, the effects of semen swim-up, pellet swim-up, density gradient, and density gradient followed by SU on sperm motility, morphology, DNA fragmentation, acrosome reaction, intracellular reactive oxygen species, and mitochondrial activity were not fully understood.Objectives: To study the impact of four sperm preparation techniques on sperm functional parameters. Materials and methods:This study was conducted on 60 infertile men with a minimum sperm concentration of 20 × 10 6 /ml and total sperm motility of ≥30%. Each raw semen sample was divided into four aliquots. Each aliquot was prepared by one of the tested techniques. Various sperm characteristics were assessed before and after sperm preparation.Results: Density gradient and density gradient followed by SU resulted in significantly higher DNA fragmentation percentages compared with semen swim-up (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively) and pellet swim-up (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). Significantly higher percentages of spermatozoa with intact acrosome were detected in semen swim-up (p < 0.001) and pellet swim-up (p < 0.001) compared with raw semen. The percentage of reactive oxygen species-positive spermatozoa was significantly higher after pellet swim-up (p < 0.001), density gradient (p < 0.001), and density gradient followed by SU (p < 0.001) than raw semen. In addition, the percentages of 100% stained midpiece (active mitochondria) were significantly higher in semen swim-up (p < 0.001) and pellet swim-up (p < 0.001) compared with raw semen. Discussion and conclusion:To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report comparing the impact of these techniques on various sperm functional parameters.Semen swim-up was more effective than density gradient in selecting better spermatozoa in terms of DNA integrity, reactive oxygen species levels, acrosome status, and

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<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> A firm consensus on the effectiveness of psychological interventions during infertility treatment has not been reached yet in terms of mental health and pregnancy rates. Moreover, the influence of these interventions on embryo cleavage kinetics has not been investigated. <b><i>Objective:</i></b> The aim of this work was to study whether stress management in couples undergoing an intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycle influences stress levels, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) levels in granulosa cells, and cleavage-stage embryos. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Infertile couples were randomized into a treatment as usual (TAU) group (<i>n</i> = 30) and stress management program (SMP) group (<i>n</i> = 29) at the beginning of an ICSI cycle. Couples in the SMP group attended education and relaxation sessions at each visit to the clinic for folliculometry. The perceived stress scale (PSS) was used to assess stress levels at the beginning and end of the cycle. Moreover, mtDNA levels of granulosa cells and embryo morphokinetics were evaluated. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Post-intervention, women in the SMP group had significantly lower PSS scores than their initial PSS (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.001; effect size, ES = 0.5) and than the final PSS of the TAU group (<i>p</i> = 0.02; ES = 0.09). Additionally, mtDNA levels were significantly lower in luteal granulosa cells of the SMP group than the TAU group (<i>p</i> = 0.02). An earlier time of pronuclei appearance (<i>p</i> = 0.03) and time to 2 cells (<i>p</i> = 0.015) and a faster time to full compaction (<i>p</i> = 0.045) were detected in the embryos of the SMP group compared with the TAU group. <b><i>Conclusion(s):</i></b> The implemented program may reduce stress levels, retard first embryo cleavage, and accelerate embryo compaction. Further studies with an active control group are needed to confirm these results.

Teaching programming is fast becoming a fundamental learning practice in schools for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects. Through interactive learning with tangible devices such as Lego Mindstorms, students and teachers can explore ways to collect data, analyse and illustrate core principles in STEM subjects. The majority of such educational programmable devices require the use of a PC to program them. This short paper reports on a development project that demonstrates a STEM situated and wireless method to enable students to learn programming. It allows students and teachers to create STEM experiments though only a Windows phone with TouchDevelop and a programmable device solution. This focuses their Constructionist learning applied to STEM learning when situated with programming capabilities via a Bluetooth based library to operate the UCL Engduino, a customised teaching apparatus based on the Arduino platform. We demonstrate a process for integrating teaching devices with TouchDevelop to expand on pedagogical techniques for both student programmers and educators in programming.

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Summary The follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and its receptor regulate the quantity and quality of spermatozoa production. Several studies have analyzed the effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in exon 10 of the FSH receptor (FSHR) on basic semen parameters without yet reaching a firm consensus. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of p.Thr307Ala and p.Asn680Ser polymorphisms in exon 10 of the FSHR gene, in infertile men, on intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) outcomes. This study was conducted between March 2019 and February 2020 on infertile couples undergoing ICSI at Al Hadi Laboratory and Medical Center, Lebanon. Couples with severe infertility factors that may impair gametogenesis/embryogenesis (e.g. advanced maternal age, premature ovarian failure, underwent gonadotoxic treatments, etc.) were excluded from the study. Semen and blood samples were collected from infertile men on the day of oocyte collection. Infertile men (n = 173) were screened for FSHR variants using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Moreover, fertilization rates, embryo quality, and pregnancy outcomes were evaluated. Higher sperm concentrations were found in the p.Thr307Ala group than the p.Thr307Thr (P < 0.01) and p.Ala307Ala (P < 0.05) groups. Furthermore, fertilization rate was significantly lower in the p.Ala307Ala genotype than in the p.Thr307Thr genotype (P < 0.05). We showed that FSHR variants in infertile men undergoing ICSI could affect sperm concentration, motility, and fertilization rates. Therefore, it will be important to confirm these results in further studies using a larger sample size.