Objective: The evaluation of serum osteocalcin (OSN) for Iraqi infertile patients to see the effect of osteocalcin insufficiency, which may lead to a decreased level of testosterone production in males that may cause infertility. Methods: Forty two newly diagnosed infertile males age range (24–47) years and thirty two apparently healthy males as controls age range (25–58) years. Serum levels of testosterone (TEST), stimulating follicle hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH), prolactin (PROL), osteocalcin OSN, and fasting blood sugar (FBS) were performed in both patients and controls. Estimation of serum OSN by Immulite1000 auto-analyzer, TEST, FSH, LH, PROL, and FBS by Immulite2000 auto-analyzer. Results: Infertile patients

Probiotics are live microbes that give many health benefits to human beings and animals, the most studied and commonly used probiotics are Gram-positive bacteria; lactobacilli and bifidobacteria. At nowadays, Lactobacillus spp. constitute more than two-thirds of the total numbers of probiotic species. The present study aimed to characterize Lactobacillus that locally isolated from human mouth and feces as probiotics. A total of three Lactobacillus isolates; Lactobacillus fermentum Lb2, Lactobacillus rhamnosus Lb9, and Lactobacillus paracasei Lb10 were investigated in respect to acid and bile salts tolerance, antibiotics susceptibility, and cell surface hydrophobicity in vitro using bacterial adhesion to hydrocarbons method. In compa

         Certain cyclic amine derivatives of metronidazole via acetate spacer were prepared. Cyclic amines used are piperidine and piperazine to improve the physicochemical properties and reduce some of metronidazole side effects. This is believed to be done by modification of its structural features to get prodrugs with improved properties over that of metronidazole. The present work includes esterification of metronidazole with choroacetic acid, N-alkylation of the cyclic amines by the halogenated ester and characterization of their structures by spectral(UV and IR) and elemental(CHN)analysis.The melting points, degree of solubilities and partition coefficients were also determined. Both metronid

In the present study, a low cost adsorbent is developed from the naturally available sawdust
which is biodegradable. The removal capacity of chromium(VI) from the synthetically prepared
industrial effluent of electroplating and tannery industrial is obtained.
Two modes of operation are used, batch mode and fixed bed mode. In batch experiment the
effect of Sawdust dose (4- 24g/L) with constant initial chromium(VI) concentration of 50 mg/L and
constant particle size less than1.8 mm were studied.
Batch kinetics experiments showed that the adsorption rate of chromium(VI) ion by Sawdust
was rapid and reached equilibrium within 120 min. The three models (Freundlich, Langmuir and
Freundlich-Langmuir) were fitted to exper

One’s character is shaped by the family he/she has and the way he/she is raised up. Bad parents affect their children tragically, and the later consequences, the parents are the ones who pay for being bad ones. Tracy Letts explores the dark side of family life in his domestic play August: Osage County (2007), one of the most well-known contemporary plays of American theatre in the twenty-first century. The playwright presents the Westons as an embodiment of the image of family disconnected relationships due to bad parenting. Violet is a model of a bad mother who plays a prominent role in destroying her family. The impact of bad parenting is revealed in the circle of the formerly abused children who turned to be abusers of their children o

         The world's population growth and the increasing demand for new infrastructure facilities and buildings , present us with the vision of a higher resources consumption, specially in the form of more durable concrete such as High Performance Concrete (HPC) . Moreover , the growth of the world pollution by plastic waste has been tremendous. The aim of this research is to investigate the change in mechanical properties of HPC with added waste plastics in concrete. For this purpose 2.5%, 5% and 7.5% in volume of natural fine aggregate in the HPC mixes were replaced by an equal volume of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) waste , got by shredded PET bottles. The mechanical propert

Abstract: The development of highly sensitive sensors has become an efficient field of research. In this work, an ArF Excimer laser of 193 nm with a maximum pulse energy of 275 mJ, 15 ns pulse duration and a repetition rate of 1 Hz is utilized to form a Laser Induced Periodic Surface Structures (LIPSS) of three different morphologies (nanochains, contours, grooves) on surface of CR39 polymer at a fluence range above the ablation threshold (250 mJ/cm2). The laser ablated polymer surface is then Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) activated by deposition of a gold layer of 30 nm thickness. The capability of the produced substrate for surface enhanced Raman scattering is evaluated through thiophenol as an analyte molecule. It is observ