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
This study examines experimentally the performance of a horizontal triple concentric tube heat exchanger TCTHE made of copper metal using water as cooling fluid and oil-40 as hot fluid. Hot fluid enters the inner annular tube of the TCTHE in a direction at a temperature of 50, 60 and 70 oC and a flow rate of 20 l/hr. On the other hand, the cooling fluid enters the inner tube and the outer annular tube in the reverse direction (counter current flow) at a temperature of 25 oC and flow rates of 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 l/hr. The TCTHE is composed of three copper tubes with outer diameters of 34.925 mm, 22.25 mm, and 9.525 mm, and thicknesses of 1.27 mm, 1.143 mm, and 0.762 mm, respectively. TCTHE tube's length was 670
... Show More
(17)
(7)
The necessary optimality conditions with Lagrange multipliers are studied and derived for a new class that includes the system of Caputo–Katugampola fractional derivatives to the optimal control problems with considering the end time free. The formula for the integral by parts has been proven for the left Caputo–Katugampola fractional derivative that contributes to the finding and deriving the necessary optimality conditions. Also, three special cases are obtained, including the study of the necessary optimality conditions when both the final time and the final state are fixed. According to convexity assumptions prove that necessary optimality conditions are sufficient optimality conditions.
... Show More
(11)
(2)
In this paper, variable gain nonlinear PD and PI fuzzy logic controllers are designed and the effect of the variable gain characteristic of these controllers is analyzed to show its contribution in enhancing the performance of the closed loop system over a conventional linear PID controller. Simulation results and time domain performance characteristics show how these fuzzy controllers outperform the conventional PID controller when used to control a nonlinear plant and a plant that has time delay.
(4)
(3)
(25)
(23)
(15)
(15)
Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are the major globally distributed pathogens, which causes chronic and recalcitrant infections due to their capacity to produce biofilms in large part. Biofilm production represents a survival strategy in these species, allowing them to endure environmental stress by altering their gene expression to match their own survival needs. In this study, we co-cultured different clinical isolates of S. aureus and P. aeruginosa as mono- and mixed-species biofilms in a full-strength Brain Heart Infusion Broth (BHI) and in a 1000-fold diluted Brain Heart Infusion Broth (BHI/1000) using Microtiter plate assay and determination of colony-forming units. Furthermore, the effect of starvation stress on the e
... Show More
(4)
The aim of our current study was to identify the effect of particulate matter of both types (PM2.5 and PM10) resulting from hookah smoking on the hemopoietic system of workers (smokers) in closed cafes. This study included six stations (cafes) on the Rusafa side of Baghdad city and conducted a blood test that included a complete blood count (CBC). A multifunctional air quality detector measured both types of particulate matter in the morning and evening. The study included 30 men (workers and smokers) and 30 men (non-smokers), whose ages ranged from 20 to 40 years. The study found that smokers had an increase in white blood cells and red blood cells, as well as an increase in the percentage of hemoglobin (HGB), hematocrit (HCT), the mean co
... Show More