Declining sperm counts in the United States? A critical review

PURPOSE: Recent reports suggest declining sperm counts in the United States. These reports did not include all available data and did not account for geographic variations noted in prior studies. We examined all available data on U.S. sperm counts and evaluated whether geographic variations account for the decline suggested. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed all 29 U.S. studies from 1938 to 1996 reporting manually counted semen analyses of 9,612 fertile or presumably fertile men. We determined mean sperm concentrations by geographic location with weighted analysis of variance, and assessed any changes with time by linear regression analysis. RESULTS: Mean sperm concentrations from New York were significantly higher than from all other U.S. cities (98.6 versus 71.6 x 10(6) sperm per cc, respectively, p = 0.006). There has been no statistically significant change with time for mean sperm concentrations reported from New York (p = 0.49) or from U.S. cities other than New York (p = 0.62). Analysis without separating by location revealed a decline (p = 0.047). CONCLUSIONS: Sperm concentrations are highest in New York compared to other U.S. cities. When accounting for this geographic difference and examining all available data, there appears to be no significant change in sperm counts in the U.S. during the last 60 years. Further studies addressing the causes of geographic variations are needed.     

Association of human leucocyte antigen phenotype with vaccine efficacy in patients receiving vaginal mucosal immunization for recurrent urinary tract infection

CONTEXT: One or both commercial tuberculin skin test reagents (Aplisol and Tubersol) may have a high rate of false-positive reactions. OBJECTIVE: To compare the reaction size and specificity of skin testing with Aplisol, Tubersol, and the standard purified protein derivative (PPD-S1). DESIGN: Double-blind trial, conducted between May 14, 1997, and October28, 1997, in which each individual received 4 tuberculin skin reagents at sites assigned at random. SETTING: Health departments and universities in 6 US cities. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1555 persons at low risk of latent tuberculosis infection. INTERVENTION: Simultaneous skin tests with Aplisol, Tubersol, PPD-S1, and either a second PPD-S1 or PPD-S2 (a proposed new standard). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Reaction size at each injection site measured by 2 investigators blinded to type of reagent. RESULTS: Aplisol produced slightly larger reactions than Tubersol, but this difference did not significantly change skin test interpretation. The mean +/- SD reaction sizes were 3.4+/-4.2 mm with Aplisol, 2.1+/-3.2 mm with Tubersol, and 2.5+/-3.6 mm with PPD-S1. Assuming that all participants were uninfected and using a 10-mm cutoff, the specificities of the tests were high: Aplisol, 98.2%; Tubersol, 99.2%; and PPD-S1, 98.9%. Significant variability was not detected in interobserver, host, and lot-to-lot reagent comparisons. CONCLUSION: Using a cutoff of at least 10 mm, testing with 3 different PPD reagents resulted in similar numbers of uninfected persons being correctly classified.     

Maternal regulation of embryonic growth: the role of vasoactive intestinal peptide

Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) is an important growth regulator of the embryonic day (E)9-E11 mouse. In comparably aged rat embryos, VIP messenger RNA (mRNA) is not detectable; however, peak concentrations of VIP in maternal rat serum indicate a nonembryonic source. In the current study, mouse maternal and embryonic tissues were examined from E6-E12. Although RT-PCR revealed VIP mRNA in E6-E7 conceptuses, by E8 (when extraembryonic tissues could be separated from the embryo), VIP mRNA was detected only in the decidua/trophoblast. Decidual/trophoblastic VIP mRNA decreased until E10, after which it was not detectable. VIP mRNA was not apparent in the embryo until E11-E12. At E9, VIP immunoreactivity was localized to abundant, diffuse cells in the decidua basalis, which were also immunoreactive for T cell markers. VIP binding sites were dense in the decidua/trophoblast at E6, but gradually decreased until E10, after which they were not apparent. VIP binding sites were detected in embryonic neuroepithelium by E9. The transient presence of VIP binding sites and mRNA in the decidua/trophoblast correlate with the critical period of VIP growth regulation, when VIP mRNA is absent in the embryo. These findings suggest that maternal lymphocytes are the source of VIP's regulating early postimplantation embryonic growth.     

Towards the detection of human papillomavirus infection by a reagentless electrochemical peptide biosensor

In the present work, we report first results about a technology using a conjugated copolymer poly(5-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone-co-5-hydroxy-2-carboxyethyl-1,4-naphthoquinone) acting both as immobilizing and transducing element for reagentless immunosensor, and its application for the detection of HPV infection. It was shown that the reagentless immunosensor was able to detect the interaction between antigenic peptide L1 from HPV-16 major capsid protein, a dominant epitope involved in viral infection as well as in prophylactic vaccine, and the relevant antibody.     

Synthesis and photopolymerization of phosphonic acid monomers for applications in compomer materials

Novel methacrylate monomers bearing phosphonic acid groups 1 and 2 as well as new sulfur methacrylates 9 and 10 have been prepared in good yields from thiophenol. They have been fully characterized by ¹H‐NMR, ¹³C‐NMR, ³¹P‐NMR, and HRMS. Their copolymerization with a bis‐GMA : TEGDMA (1 : 1) blend has been investigated with photodifferential scanning calorimetry at 50°C with camphorquinone as a photoinitiator and ethyl 4‐(dimethylamino)benzoate (EDAB) as a coinitiator. The higher the content of acidic monomer 1 or 2 incorporated in the bis‐GMA : TEGDMA (1 : 1) blend, the lower the mixtures reactivity. The phosphonic acid group has been proved to be responsible for this drop of reactivity. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

New statistical method for detection and quantification ofrespiratory sinus arrhythmia

A statistical method with the advantages of 1) enabling graphical representation of within-respiratory cycle heart rate variations, 2) detecting the presence of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in a moving window, and 3) providing breath-by-breath RSA amplitude and phase obtained from the fitting of a sinusoid to the instantaneous relative heart rate is presented.     

An inspection-maintenance model for systems with multiple competing processes

In some applications, the failure rate of the system depends not only on the time, but also upon the status of the system, such as vibration level, efficiency, number of random shocks on the system, etc., which causes degradation. In this paper, we develop a generalized condition-based maintenance model subject to multiple competing failure processes including two degradation processes, and random shocks. An average long-run maintenance cost rate function is derived based on the expressions for the degradation paths & cumulative shock damage, which are measurable. A geometric sequence is employed to develop the inter-inspection sequence. Upon inspection, one needs to decide whether to perform a maintenance, such as preventive or corrective, or to do nothing. The preventive maintenance thresholds for degradation processes & inspection sequences are the decision variables of the proposed model. We also present an algorithm based on the Nelder-Mead downhill simplex method to calculate the optimum policy that minimizes the average long-run maintenance cost rate. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the results using the optimization algorithm.     

A knowledge-based jig-and-fixture designers' assistant

The state of the art in the technology of jigs and fixtures is reviewed. Heuristic and analytical principles of jig and fixture design are summarised. An interactive knowledge-based program for assisting designers of jigs and fixtures is described. The program incorporates design principles in the form of explicity declared facts and rules as well as numerical procedures. The declarative part of the program is implemented in an expert system shell with a powerful inference engine and comprehensive explanation and trace facilities. Details of these are given, together with a simplified example of a design session using the program.     

Survey of reliability and availability evaluation of complex networks using Monte Carlo techniques

Generally there are four main difficulties in evaluating complex large-scale system reliability, availability and MTBF: the system structure may be very complex; subsystems may follow various failure distributions; subsystems may conform to arbitrary failure and repair distributions for maintained systems; the failure data of subsystems are sometimes not sufficient, reliability test sample sizes tend to be small. It is difficult and often impossible to obtain s-confidence limits of them by classical statistics. Monte Carlo technique combined with Bayes method is a powerful tool to solve this kind of problems. In this survey, the typical existing Monte Carlo reliability, availability and MTBF simulation procedures, variance reduction methods, and random variate generation algorithms are analyzed and summarized. The advantages, drawbacks, accuracy and computer time of Monte Carlo simulation in evaluating reliability, availability and MTBF of a complex network are discussed. Finally, some conclusions are drawn and a general Monte Carlo reliability and MTTF assessment procedure is recommended.