Search results for "fertility"
showing 10 items of 629 documents
The effects of HPV infection on semen: first results from a new approach.
2017
Study question: The effect of HPV infection on semen characteristics was investigated using a new method that allow to evaluate virus localization in the different semen components. Summary answer: Our data indicate a correlation between HPV infection of exfoliated epithelial cells (from spermatic ducts and accessory glands) and reduction of sperm cell motility. What is known already: HPVs are agents of the most common sexually transmitted diseases. Both in men and in women, HPVs cause a variety of clinical symptoms ranging from warts to cancer. It has been shown (IARC, 2009) that infection with 12 oncogenic HPVs is the major cause of development of cervical cancer in women and it is also r…
Persistent Employment Instability and Fertility Intentions in Italy
2014
Our paper adds to the growing literature on the measurement of employment instability and on that on its consequences on fertility dynamics. We argue that many of these studies disregard a crucial dimension of employment instability: its persistence (duration). It is the persistence in an unstable condition, more than the status itself, that may have the most severe consequences on subsequent family choices. In this paper, we propose an index of persistence in employment instability that synthesizes all the information inside the individual sequence of employment statuses in a single number accounting simultaneously for the duration, sequencing, intensity, and labour market circumstances. T…
miRNA Signature and Dicer Requirement during Human Endometrial Stromal Decidualization In Vitro
2012
Decidualization is a morphological and biochemical transformation of endometrial stromal fibroblast into differentiated decidual cells, which is critical for embryo implantation and pregnancy establishment. The complex regulatory networks have been elucidated at both the transcriptome and the proteome levels, however very little is known about the post-transcriptional regulation of this process. miRNAs regulate multiple physiological pathways and their de-regulation is associated with human disorders including gynaecological conditions such as endometriosis and preeclampsia. In this study we profile the miRNAs expression throughout human endometrial stromal (hESCs) decidualization and analy…
Personality Traits Increasingly Important for Male Fertility: Evidence from Norway
2014
We study the relationship between personality traits and fertility using a survey of Norwegian men and women born from 1927 to 1968 (N = 7017 individuals). We found that personality relates to men's and women's fertility differently; conscientiousness decreases female fertility, openness decreases male fertility and extraversion raises the fertility of both sexes. Neuroticism depresses fertility for men, but only for those born after 1956. The lower male fertility in younger cohorts high in neuroticism cannot be explained by partnership status, income or education. The proportion of childless men (at age 40 years) has increased rapidly for Norwegian male cohorts from 1940 to 1970 (from abo…
Soil profile dismantlement by land levelling and deep tillage damages soil functioning but not quality
2016
We investigated the effects of land levelling followed by deep tillage, thus inducing a drastic dismantlement of soil profile, on both soil functioning and quality by monitoring various bioindicators (microbial biomass and community structure, basal respiration, enzyme activities) expressed on either whole soil and TOC mass units, respectively. As expected, in disturbed soils all measured properties had much higher coefficients of variation (CVs), regardless of either whole soil or TOC mass basis, due to the induced spatial variability. The amount of total organic C in the first cubic meter of soil profile was of one order of magnitude greater in undisturbed soils compared to disturbed ones…
Effects of agricultural management on surface soil properties and soil–water losses in eastern Spain
2009
Abstract In Spain, agriculture triggers soil degradation and erosion processes. New strategies have to be developed to reduce soil losses and recover or maintain soil functionality in order to achieve a sustainable agriculture. An experiment was designed to evaluate the effect of different agricultural management on soil properties and soil erosion. Five different treatments (ploughing, herbicide, control, straw mulch and chipped pruned branches) were established in “El Teularet experimental station” located in the Sierra de Enguera (Valencia, Spain). Soil sampling was conducted prior to treatment establishment, and again after 16 months, to determine soil organic matter content (OM), aggre…
Soil quality indicators as affected by a long term barley-maize and maize cropping systems
2011
Most soil studies aim a better characterization of the system through indicators. In the present study nematofauna and soil structure were chosen as indicators to be assess soil health as related to agricultural practices. The field research was carried out on the two fodder cropping systems continuous maize (CM, Zea mays L.) and a 3-year rotation of silage-maize – silage-barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) with Italian ryegrass (R3) and grain-maize maintained in these conditions for 18 years. Each crop system was submitted to two management options: 1) the high input level (H), done as a conventional tillage, 2) the low input level (L), where the tillage was replaced by harrowing and the…
Relationships between earthworm communities and burrow numbers under different land use systems
2010
International audience; This study addresses the influence of three different land use systems (continuous maize, pasture/maize rotation, permanent pasture) on the relationships between earthworm populations and the number of earthworm burrows quantified in a soil profile. Quantified burrows were limited to those observable by the naked eye (i.e. >2 mm in diameter) and enumerated earthworms were limited to those which could have created the observable burrows (i.e. >0.3 g). The results were combined with data from the literature coming from different geographical regions. This study showed that earthworm abundance decreased with the increasing land management intensity (maize crop vs. pastu…
Effect of land management on soil properties in flood irrigated citrus orchards in Eastern Spain
2018
Abstract. Agricultural land management greatly affects soil properties. Microbial soil communities are the most sensitive and rapid indicators of perturbations in land use and soil enzyme activities are sensitive biological indicators of the effects of soil management practices. Citrus orchards frequently have degraded soils and this paper evaluates how land management in citrus orchards can improve soil quality. A field experiment was performed in an orchard of orange trees (Citrus Sinensis) in the Alcoleja Experimental Station (Eastern Spain) with clay-loam agricultural soils to assess the long-term effects of herbicides with inorganic fertilizers (H), intensive ploughing and inorganic fe…
Long-term effects of soil management on ecosystem services and soil loss estimation in olive grove top soils
2016
Soil management has important effects on soil properties, runoff, soil losses and soil quality. Traditional olive grove (OG) management is based on reduced tree density, canopy size shaped by pruning and weed control by ploughing. In addition, over the last several decades, herbicide use has been introduced into conventional OG management. These management strategies cause the soil surface to be almost bare and subsequently high erosion rates take place. To avoid these high erosion rates several soil management strategies can be applied. In this study, three strategies were assessed in OG with conventional tillage in three plots of 1. ha each. Soil properties were measured and soil erosion …