ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Estrogens has traditionally been known as the female hormone, but this idea has been challenged in early 1990’s and an essential physiological role for estrogen in male fertility was identified. Phytoestrogens are naturally occurring non-steroidal plant chemicals that can act like the female hormone estrogen. The herbs ( anise alfalfa and vervain ) chosen in this study contain phytoestrogens. OBJECTIVE: Previous studies demonstrated controversy of the effects of phytoestrogens on the rat testes .Hence, the present investigation was undertaken to investigate the influence of typical dose of herbs containing phytoestrogen on the rat testis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-four apparently normal mature male rats were divided into four groups of 6 animals each. The first "control" group received only 4ml of distilled water as a placebo. The second group received 40mg/kg of anise seed; the third group received 53.3 mg/kg of dried herb of vervain and the fourth group received 400 mg /kg of alfalfa seeds. All experimental groups received the doses through orogastric tube daily for fourteen days. Testicular histology was evaluated by light and enzyme histochemistry. Plasma FSH and testosterone concentrations were taken to support our results. RESULTS: Histological examination of anise, alfalfa and vervain – treated groups showed an increase in the height of germinal epithelia. There was marked lipoprotein lipase activity in the whole of the interstitial tissue which is more in amount in experimental groups than that in control group. Acid phosphatase granules were infiltered the seminiferous epithelia mildly in control group , moderately in anise and vervain groups and markedly in alfalfa group. The number of interstitial cells showing marked acid phosphatase activity was higher in all experimental groups than that in control group. Alkaline phosphatase exhibited intense activity in the boundary tissue of the seminiferous tubules in testes of control and experimental groups but it appeared thicker in the latter. CONCLUSION: The low dose and short duration of treatment used in our study made these phytoestrogen – containing herbs to have a stimulatory effect on leydig cell steroidogenesis. This study also demonstrated that aniseed being the most potent of the three herbs followed by alfalfa in stimulating testosterone synthesis. This is possibly attributed to the coumarin constituent of aniseed and alfalfa. KEY WORDS: phytoestrogen-containing herbs, testis, acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, lipoprotein lipase
In this study , Iraqi Bentonite clay was used as a filler for polyvinyl chloride polymer. Bentonite clay was prepared as a powder for some certain particle size ,followed by calcinations process at (300,700,900) OC ,then milled and sieved. The selected sizes were D ~75 µm and D ~150. After that polyvinyl Al-Cohool solution prepared and used as a coated layer covered the Bentonite powder before applied as a filler ,followed by drying , milling and sieving for limited recommend sizes. polyvinyl chloride solutions were prepared and adding of modified Bentonite power at certain quantities were followed .Sheet of these variables on the mechanical and thermal properties of the prepared reinforced particular polyvinyl chloride composite
... Show MoreAl-Dalmaj marsh and the near surrounding area is a very promising area for energy resources, tourism, agricultural and industrial activities. Over the past century, the Al-Dalmaje marsh and near surroundings area endrous from a number of changes. The current study highlights the spatial and temporal changes detection in land cover for Al-Dalmaj marsh and near surroundings area using different analyses methods the supervised maximum likelihood classification method, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Geographic Information Systems(GIS), and Remote Sensing (RS). Techniques spectral indices were used in this study to determine the change of wetlands and drylands area and of other land classes, th
... Show MoreModern American elegy reveals a change in the attitude of mourning from the traditional lamenting approach to some antielegiac attitudes towards the mourned figure. Many American poets have lamented the pass away of the stately figure of the father. However, some poets attack their dead father, and ridiculed him in a poem that is intended to be an elegy, instead of showing passion, homage and love to him. In this regard, two poetic attitudes to the father can be traced in modern American poetry. The first one takes the form of tributes and praise, offering great admiration, compassion, and love for the father. For these poets, a father is an inspiration. The second voice develops some anger and contempt against the patriarchal authority emb
... Show MoreThe principal concern of this study is Disjunct and Conjunct adverbials in the
English language. The study sets out to explore and clarify the types, nature and
structure of disjuncts and conjuncts. It also aims at testing student's performance to
evaluate the use and usage of the disjuncts and conjuncts in their written performance.
Two tests, accordingly, were given to some fifty students of at the Dept. of English, at
the college of languages (third and fourth stages) in the University of Sulaimani. The
hypothesis that the study was based on are those students use disjuncts and conjuncts
hardly enough in their writings and when doing so, they generally tend to stick only to
the most commonly used and familiar o
Titanium dioxide TiO2 has been widely utilized in cleaning and sterilizing material for many clinical tools sanitary ware, food tableware and cooking and items for use in hospitals. Titanium dioxide TiO2 non toxicity and long term physical and chemical stability. It has been widely used decomposition of organic compounds and microbial organisms such as cancer cell, viruses and bacteria as well as its potential application in sterilization of medical devices. The aim of the study the effect of titanium dioxide TiO2 on some Gram negative bacteria and study their effects on some virulence factors and chromosomal DNA.In this study, we obtained (E. coli ? Proteus mirabilis, Proteus vulgaris ? Pseudomonas aeruginosa ? Klebsiella pneumonia and Ac
... Show MoreAs performers in a social world, we communicate with other people by sharing information on many different levels. Each utterance includes linguistic information and conveys much information about the speaker’s identity. Variation in voice quality indexes information about the speaker and marks the speaker’s identity as a unique individual. The present study aims to validate the belief that each individual has an inalienable voice print that can’t be imitated. The study verifies that, even the more similar personality between two individuals, or the close position in society the variance is voice quality. The acoustic analysis is performed via analysing the acoustic parameters namely: the fundamental frequency, amplitude, inten
... Show MoreMicrobial Desalination Cell (MDC) is capable of desalinating seawater, producing electrical power and treating wastewater. Previously, chemical cathodes were used, which were application restrictions due to operational expenses are quite high, low levels of long-term viability and high toxicity. A pure oxygen cathode was using, external resistance 50 and 150 k Ω were studied with two concentrations of NaCl in the desalination chamber 15-25 g/L which represents the concentration of brackish water and sea water. The highest energy productivity was obtained, which amounted to 44 and 46 mW/m3, and the maximum limit for desalination of saline water was (31% and 26%) for each of 25 g / L and 15 g / L, respectively, when using an ex
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Mixed convection heat transfer to air inside an enclosure is investigated experimentally. The bottom wall of the enclosure is maintained at higher temperature than that of the top wall which keeps in oscillation motion, whereas the left and right walls are well insulated. The differential temperature of the bottom and top walls changed several times in order to accurately characterize the temperature distribution over a considerable range of Richardson number. Adjustable aspect ratio box was built as a test rig to determine the effects of Richardson number and aspect ratio on the flow behavior of the air inside the enclosure. The flow fields and the average Nusselt number profiles were presented in this wo
... Show MoreBackground: The anterior knee pain is an important chief complaint of the patients with knee osteoarthritis due to patellofemoral pathology. The pain receptors denervation can be achieved by circumferential denervation of the patellar area by a process of electrocautery.
Objectives: The aim of current study is to assess the pain after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) by patelloplastywith and without circumferential denervation via electrocautery at a minimum follow up with 1 year separately for each patient.
Type of the study:Cross- sectional study.
Methods: Thirty five patients,with mean age of about (62.8) years, were enrolled in this pros
... Show MoreThe research dealt with the study of choice between a range of different words between the repetitive texts in the verses of the Koran and explain the reason behind this choice, and how the context has the greatest impact in this choice, and that each word in the Koran was placed in the most appropriate place, which can not be replaced by equivalent words, whatever The degree of similarity between them in the indication of the other because it remains at the end that each of those vocabulary synonyms are indicative, the first of them especially that makes the possibility of replacing them with the equivalent vocabulary impossible, and the second general significance and this connotation makes them share with their peers In one aspect of
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