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 psychological burnout is considered one of dangerous phenomenon’s which appeared in the 70s of the 20th century and suffered by most of the society classes. It is a term which the wide uses and various meaning like emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion and chronic weak exhaustion. The presented research aims t identify the psychological burnout as for the Kindergarten teacher and the differences significance according to the variations (Kindergarten type: private or govern mental). The research sample contains 400 female teachers divided to 170 governmental Kindergarten teachers and 230 private Kindergarten teachers. The researcher prepared a measurement method to measure the psychological burnout for those teachers after
... Show MoreThe fluctuation and expansion ratios have been studied for cylindrical gas-solid fluidized columns by using air as fluidizing medium and Paracetamol as the bed material. The variables were the column diameter (0.0762, 0.15, and 0.18 m), static bed height (0.05, 0.07, and 0.09 m), and air velocity to several times of minimum fluidization velocity. The results showed that both the fluctuation and expansion ratios had a direct relation with air velocity and an inverse one with column diameter and static bed height. A good agreement was between the experimental results and the calculated values by using the correlation equations from the literature.
Cerium oxide (CeO2), or ceria, has gained increasing interest owing to its excellent catalytic applications. Under the framework of density functional theory (DFT), this contribution demonstrates the eect that introducing the element nickel (Ni) into the ceria lattice has on its electronic, structural, and optical characteristics. Electronic density of states (DOSs) analysis shows that Ni integration leads to a shrinkage of Ce 4f states and improvement of Ni 3d states in the bottom of the conduction band. Furthermore, the calculated optical absorption spectra of an Ni-doped CeO2 system shifts towards longer visible light and infrared regions. Results indicate that Ni-doping a CeO2 system would result in a decrease of the band gap. Finally,
... Show More2-benzamide benzothiazole complexes of Pd(II) , Pt(IV) and Au(III) ions were prepared by microwave assisted radiation. The ligand and the complexes were isolated and characterized in solid state by using FT-IR, UV-Vis spectroscopy, flame atomic absorption, elemental analysis CHNS , magnetic susceptibility measurements , melting points and conductivity measurements. The nature of complexes in liquid state was studied by following the molar ratio method which gave results approximately identical to those obtained from isolated solid state; also, stability constant of the prepared complexes were studied and found that they were stable in molar ratio 1:1.The complexes have a sequar planner geometry except Pt(IV) complex has octahedral .
... Show MoreSeeking pharmacist advice about minor ailments is a common practice among Iraqi patients because such advice is free and quick. Unfortunately, the assessment and management of minor ailments by Iraqi pharmacists were inappropriate. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a model for a mobile application that can assist community pharmacists in the diagnosis and management of minor ailments.
The scientific content of the application was based on the information in the symptoms in the pharmacy and British Nati
Theauthor addressed politeness discourse in “Surat Ghafir”. Quran texts include many rhetorical utterances which are considered pragmatic mechanismsconcerned with finding polite discourse. examining these texts allow to determine the effectiveness degree in the discourse, and to find the effect level that leads to interaction between the speaker and the listener. Graduation is considered an effect and a mechanism of discourse escalation.
The author reached a common definition of the graduation effectiveness term, due to its importance in finding polite discourse that is constructed by lingual manifestations some of which are escalation and graduation. Escalation is a mechanism to show the level of discourse graduation, it is a mea
In this study, pebble bed as an absorber and storage material was placed in a south facing, flat plate air-type solar collector at fixed tilt angle of (45°). The effect of this material and differ- ent parameters on collector efficiency has been investigated experimentally and
theoretically. Two operation modes were employed to study the performance of the solar air heater. An inte- grated mode of continuous operation of the system during the period of (11:00 am – 3:00 pm) and non-integrated mode in which the system stored the solar energy through the day then used the stored energy during the period of (3:00 pm – 8:00 pm). The results of parametric study in case of continuous operating showed that the maximum average temperatur