The effect of endosulfan, an Organochlorine pesticide, on bluegill testes was studied. Endosulfan is aqua-toxic and has an immediate effect on fish and other aquatic life. In this experiment, we exposed the fish for 24-, 48-, 72-, 96-h, and 1- and 2-week periods. A second group of fish without exposure to endosulfan served as the control. The control testis appeared structurally normal. The seminiferous tubules were of round or oval shape and contained primary spermatogonia, primary spermatocytes, secondary spermatocytes, spermatozoa, spermatids, Sertoli cells, and interstitial cells of Leydig. Within the connective tissue that connected the seminiferous tubules were Leydig cells. After 24 h of exposure, there was evidence of slight signs of connective tissue splintering. The 48-h exposure resulted in breakage of primary spermatocyte walls and separation from the seminiferous tubules. The 72-h testis showed further connective tissue damage and migration of primary spermatogonia into the lumen. After 96 h, there was significant damage to connective tissue and the seminiferous tubules were less pronounced. After 1 and 2 weeks, the seminiferous tubule walls were disrupted and missing in places and the structure of the testis was very disorganized compared to the control testis. Biometric analysis indicated that the diameter of the primary spermatogonia decreased from 24 h to two weeks. There also appeared to be fewer Leydig cells, responsible for testosterone production, over the exposure period and damaged Sertoli cells, which support, protect, and nourish the spermatogenic cells, synthesize ABP, and assist in maintaining the necessary concentration of testosterone in the seminiferous tubules so that spermatogenesis can progress. These kinds of damage could affect the spermatids and spermatozoa and possibly have a negative impact on spermatogenesis and male fertility, affecting bluegill fish population.
Hypertension is considered as one of the most common diseases that affect human beings (both male and female) due to its high prevalence and also extending widely to both industrialize and developing countries. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) has a significant role in the regulation of blood pressure and ACE inhibition with inhibitory peptides is considered as a major target to prevent hypertension. In the current study, a blood pressure regulating honey protein (MRJP1) was examined to identify the ACE inhibitory peptides. The 3D structure of MRJP1 was predicted by utilizing the threading approach and further optimized by performing molecular dynamics simulation for 30 nanoseconds (ns) to improve the quality factor up to 92.43%. Root mean square deviation and root mean square fluctuations were calculated to evaluate the structural features and observed the fluctuations in the timescale of 30 ns. AHTpin server based on scoring vector machine of regression models, proteolysis and structural characterization approaches were implemented to identify the potential inhibitory peptides. The anti-hypertensive peptides were scrutinized based on the QSAR models of anti-hypertensive activity and the molecular docking analyses were performed to explore the binding affinities and potential interacting residues. The peptide "EALPHVPIFDR" showed the strong binding affinity and higher anti-hypertensive activity along with the global energy of-58.29 and docking score of 9590. The aromatic amino acids especially Tyr was observed as the key residue to design the dietary peptides and drugs like ACE inhibitors.
Toxoplasmosis is the major cause of abortion and stillbirths among women of childbearing age. The aim of this study is to determine chronic Toxoplasma gondii infection at various trimesters of pregnancy and to identify various possible routes of transmission and contamination in North-West Pakistan. A total of 733 blood samples were randomly obtained from antenatal/maternity centres. A detail questionnaire was designed to analyse the clinical history of the subjects tested for specific anti-Toxoplasma IgG antibodies by using immunofluorescence assay. Overall toxoplasmosis was detected in 18.41% of the studied population. Anti-Toxoplasma IgG was found 7.17% in first trimester with highest prevalence 31.28% in third trimester. Increase in the prevalence of parasite was seen with rise in age highest found in higher age group (P ˂ 0.05). As compared to district Lower Dir and Swat, Upper Dir had high rate 33.03% of chronic infection. Consumption of undercooked meat was also found 45.22% related with the prevalence of infection. A significant relation was observed with level of education (P ˂ 0.05) and prevalence of toxoplasmosis. An association was observed between prevalence of T. gondii infection and various risk factors, i.e. consumption of raw eggs, vegetables, contact with cats, cattle, soil, water sources and use of unpasteurized milk. This study shows high prevalence of the parasite in the studied area. Pregnant women in contact with cats were found more at risk. Education of childbearing age women, personal hygiene and contact with soil was also found important possible risk factors in the spread of infection.
English to Urdu machine translation is still in its infancy. This study illustrates various types of translation divergences and their implication in English to Urdu machine translation. The divergence in English to Urdu machine translation can be thought as representing the translation divergences between Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) class languages to Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) class languages. This study discusses the different types of divergences in English to Urdu machine translation and presents novel computational algorithms to detect and to resolve these divergences in English to Urdu Machine Translation. These algorithms for detection of divergence have been implemented in English to Urdu Machine Translation system, and results have been presented in this paper. The work introduced here is the only one, to the best of our knowledge, which automatically detects and resolves divergences in English to Urdu machine translation.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.