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
Background: Multidrug-resistant (MDR) enterococci have become a major problem in recent times and have been reported increasingly around the world. Lytic phages infect bacteria leading to rapid host death with limited risk of phage transduction, underlining the increasing interest in potential phage therapy in the future. Objective (s): The aim of this study is to use phage therapy as alternative approach for treatment of Enterococcus faecalis infections that recorded as MDR in Iraq to tackle this problem. Materials and Methods: Thirty E. faecalis isolates were collected from patients with different infectious diseases such as urinary tract infection (UTI), diabetic foot, septicemia, and wound infections. The isolation of specific l
... Show MoreWith the recent growth of global populations, main roads in cities have witnessed an evident increase in the number of vehicles. This has led to unprecedented challenges for authorities in managing the traffic of ambulance vehicles to provide medical services in emergency cases. Despite the high technologies associated with medical tracks and advanced traffic management systems, there is still a current delay in ambulances’ attendance in times of emergency to provide patients with vital aid. Therefore, it is indispensable to introduce a new emergency service system that enables the ambulance to reach the patient in the least congested and shortest paths. However, designing an effici
This paper presents a point multiplication processor over the binary field GF (2233) with internal registers integrated within the point-addition architecture to enhance the Performance Index (PI) of scalar multiplication. The proposed design uses one of two types of finite field multipliers, either the Montgomery multiplier or the interleaved multiplier supported by the additional layer of internal registers. Lopez Dahab coordinates are used for the computation of point multiplication on Koblitz Curve (K-233bit). In contrast, the metric used for comparison of the implementations of the design on different types of FPGA platforms is the Performance Index.
The first approach attains a performance index
... Show MoreThe service system has become a necessity of life in modern cities to be the most basic necessities of modern humans, they constitute a major base, which is based on the sustainability of life in the city and a standard measured through the degree of well-being and progress of civilized peoples and their interaction with the surrounding environment, making the services sector as a need not be an option, whenever the cities widened in population and space whenever provision of services and upgrading the quality and quantity more pressing, which made the subject of the services takes the biggest area of the trends and thinking of urban planners and those who in charge of drawing the cities policies. Consideri
... Show MoreThis research is carried out to investigate the behavior of self-compacting concrete (SCC) two-way slabs with central square opening under uniformly distributed loads. The experimental part of this research is based on casting and testing six SCC simply supported square slabs having the same dimentions and reinforcement. One of these slabs was cast without opening as a control slab. While, the other five slabs having opening ratios (OR) of 2.78%, 6.25%, 11.11%, 17.36% and 25.00%. From the experimental results it is found that the maximum percentage decrease in cracking and ultimate uniform loads were 31.82% and 12.17% compared to control slab for opening ratios (OR
... Show MoreThe efficiency evaluation of the railway lines performance is done through a set of indicators and criteria, the most important are transport density, the productivity of enrollee, passenger vehicle production, the productivity of freight wagon, and the productivity of locomotives. This study includes an attempt to calculate the most important of these indicators which transport density index from productivity during the four indicators, using artificial neural network technology. Two neural networks software are used in this study, (Simulnet) and (Neuframe), the results of second program has been adopted. Training results and test to the neural network data used in the study, which are obtained from the international in
... Show MoreAbstract:
The aim of the research is to verify the role of organizational trust as an “administrative” dimension of objective importance in the relationships adopted by the Iraqi General Insurance Company with customers, as it is one of the basic pillars in building and succeeding companies, which allows the provision of services with high confidence through the customer relationship management system in order to achieve The company's goal is to gain new customers, retain current customers, increase work in insurance companies, and develop the national economy by increasing the company's sales and profitability. The research
... Show MoreThe study aims to identify the impact of competency-based training in its dimensions (skills, cognitive abilities, attitudes, and attitudes) in improving the performance of employees (achievement, strategic thinking and problem solving) in Jordanian university hospitals.
The study based on analytical descriptive method. The study population consisted of the Jordanian University Hospitals, the University Hospital of Jordan and the King Abdullah Hospital, as applied study case. The sample of the study consists of all upper and middle administrative employees of these hospitals; questionnaire distributed all of them and the number of valid questionnaires for analysis were 182 questionnaire.
... Show More