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
The increase in the number of trucks and other heavy vehicles in Iraqi highways lead to cracking and deteriorations in the flexible highway. The use of polymermodified asphalt may solve this problem to match the required performance standards. This study investigates the effects of styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) polymer on the performance behaviour of Iraqi bitumen binder. The characteristics of bitumen binder were analysed to observe the compatibility of bitumen with SBS polymer. The bitumen binder was mixed with three different contents of SBS (4%, 4.5%, and 5%) by weight of asphalt cement. Viscosity tests were conducted on the SBS polymer-modified asphalt at 135 oC and 165 oC in addition to conventional binder tests. The prepar
... Show MoreThe presence of antibiotic residues such as ciprofloxacin (CIPR) in an aqueous environment is dangerous when their concentrations exceed the allowable. Therefore, eliminating these residues from the wastewater becomes an essential issue to prevent their harm. In this work, the potential of efficient adsorption of ciprofloxacin antibiotics was studied using eco-friendly ZSM-5 nanocrystals‑carbon composite (NZC). An inexpensive effective natural binder made of the sucrose-citric acid mixture was used for preparing NZC. The characterization methods revealed the successful preparation of NZC with a favorable surface area of 103.739 m2/g, and unique morphology and functional groups. Investigating the ability of NZC for adsorbing CIPR antibioti
... Show MoreABSTRACT A simple, accurate, sensitive, and low-cost technique was advanced to measure the optical spectrum to the determination of lansoprazole in pure form and dosage forms. The method relies on the oxidation of the reagent 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (2,4-DNPHz) with potassium periodate (KIO4) and coupling with the Lansoprazole (LPZ) in the alkaline medium to form a stable with reddish-brown colored dye with a maximum greatest absorption at 484.5 nm. The reaction is carefully completed when optimizing the variable affecting it. The concentration range from 1-30 μg/mL obegs Beer’s law and the molar absorptivity value of (13260.132) L/mol.cm. Detection limit was (0.1266 μg/mL) and Sandell’s sensitivity value ( 0.0278) μg/cm2. The met
... Show MoreThe pillars of sustainable development are representing the interface between environmental, economic, and social sustainability. Sustainable development is a method of planning and managing construction projects to reduce the effect of the construction process on the environment so that there is a balance between environmental capabilities and the human needs of present and future generations. Usually, Environmental sustainability is most important and effective in construction projects. The environment suffers from significant negative impacts as a result of the implementation of construction projects; therefore, this study aims to identify the effecting factors on environmentally sustainable development. The methodology of this s
... Show MoreHypothesis CO2 geological storage (CGS) involves different mechanisms which can store millions of tonnes of CO2 per year in depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs and deep saline aquifers. But their storage capacity is influenced by the presence of different carboxylic compounds in the reservoir. These molecules strongly affect the water wetness of the rock, which has a dramatic impact on storage capacities and containment security. However, precise understanding of how these carboxylic acids influence the rock’s CO2-wettability is lacking. Experiments We thus systematically analysed these relationships as a function of pressure, temperature, storage depth and organic acid concentrations. A particular focus was on identifying organic acid conce
... Show MoreCurrent design codes and specifications allow for part of the bonded flexure tension reinforcement to be distributed over an effective flange width when the T-beams' flanges are in tension. This study presents an experimental and numerical investigation on the reinforced concrete flanged section's flexural behavior when reinforcement in the tension flange is laterally distributed. To achieve the goals of the study, numerical analysis using the finite element method was conducted on discretized flanged beam models validated via experimentally tested T-beam specimen. Parametric study was performed to investigate the effect of different parameters on the T-beams flexural behavior. The study revealed that a significant reduction in the
... Show MoreThe article examines the definition of the verb in the form of the imperative mood (imperative) _ general information about the verb in Russian .
A verb in Russian is one of the parts of speech that unify all parts of speech, expressing the meaning of action, movement, process in grammatical forms of time, type, mood, face and voice. The imperative mood is a grammatical feature of the verb expressed through several forms of the verb that urges someone to do things. In other words, imperative mood or (imperative) : - one of the single meaning of the form . The form of the imperative expresses a supplicatio
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The aim of this research is to identify the effectiveness of thinking skills in developing the life skills of the students of the first Academic year, particularly the differences in life skills according to the variable of study specialization (human-scientific). To achieve the research objectives, the life skills scale was constructed on the classification of (WHO). The psychometric properties of the scale were examined. The validity of the scale, which is the final form of (60) items, was valid for measuring the life skills. The scale was then applied to the research sample of (112) students of the first year of the University of Bisha. The SPSS program processed
... Show MoreObjectives: The present study aimed to assess the compulsion among health care providers during the pandemic of COVID-19.
Methodology: a descriptive design was used in the present study. This study was conducted from October 10th, 2020 through May 20th, 2021. The study was conducted on a probability (convenient) sample of 248 physicians and nurses who work at Baghdad Teaching hospital in Baghdad city. The instrument was used in this study is the COVID Stress Scale-Arabic version (CSS).
Results: The result of this study showed that 42 % of HCPs had moderate symptoms and 36% of them had mild compulsive symptoms, and
... Show MoreA total of 96 stool samples were collected from children with bloody diarrhea from two hospitals in Baghdad. All samples were surveyed and examined for the presence of the Escherichia coli O157:H7 and differentiate it from other Non -Sorbitol Fermenting Escherichia coli (NSF E. coli). The Bacterial isolates were identifed by using morphological diagnostic methods, Samples were cultured on liquid enrichment medium, incubated at 37C? for 24 hrs, and then cultured on Cefixime Tellurite -Sorbitol MacConkey Agar (CT- SMAC). 32 non-sorbitol fermenting bacterial isolates were obtained of which 11 were identified as Escherichia coli by using traditional biochemical tests and API20E diagnostic system without differentiation between
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