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 objective of this study is to enable the role of modern and advanced computerized information systems. The model or mechanism should be developed by collecting the necessary information about the taxpayers and the sources of the taxpayers' income, on the basis of which the accuracy of the inventory process will be adopted. In addition to studies related to computerized information systems and showing their importance to the tax institution. To achieve the objectives of the study and to answer its questions, the researcher relied on collecting data and information on the subject on the literature and previous studies The secondary sources, which also formed the theoretical framework of the study, were obtained either as a practical fr
... Show MoreVolterra – Fredholm integral equations (VFIEs) have a massive interest from researchers recently. The current study suggests a collocation method for the mixed Volterra - Fredholm integral equations (MVFIEs)."A point interpolation collocation method is considered by combining the radial and polynomial basis functions using collocation points". The main purpose of the radial and polynomial basis functions is to overcome the singularity that could associate with the collocation methods. The obtained interpolation function passes through all Scattered Point in a domain and therefore, the Delta function property is the shape of the functions. The exact solution of selective solutions was compared with the results obtained
... Show MoreAir pollution from various sources is one of the most serious environmental problems, especially after pollutants are deposited on the surface of the soil and leaves of the plants and then transferred to the rest of the plant and entering food chains. The present study was conducted to determine the effects of air pollution on different biochemical parameters in Eucalyptus sp. and calculation the Air Pollution Tolerance Index. The selected plant leaves were collected from five sites, four of them within the city of Baghdad, namely Al-Jadriya, Al-Andlous, Al-Doura and close to the private generators to represent the urban areas and Abu Ghraib site to represent the rural area. The leaves were taken on a seasonal basis for the period from Octo
... Show MoreIntroduction: With the advent of era of targeted cancer therapy, the serious side effects of chemoradiotherapy have been minimised. Considering the success story of anti-HER2/neu drugs in breast cancer oncology, the present study was conducted. The study evaluates the immunohistochemical expression of HER2/neu in endometrioid cancer among Iraqi patients. Aim: To assess the immunohistochemical expression of HER2/neu in endometrioid carcinoma of uterus and to find the relationship of this expression with FIGO stage and grade and with patient age. Materials and Methods: In this cross sectional study, formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue blocks of 62 hysterectomy specimens that were diagnosed as endometrioid carcinoma in the teaching labora
... Show MoreBackground: COVID-19 has caused a considerable number of hospital admissions in China since December 2019. Many COVID-19 patients experience signs of acute respiratory distress syndrome, and some are even in danger of dying. Objective: to measure the serum levels of D-dimer, Neutrophil-Lymphocyte count ratio (NLR), and neopterin in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 in Baghdad, Iraq. And to determine the cut-off values (critical values) of these markers for the distinction between the severe patients diagnosed with COVID‐19 and the controls. Materials and methods: In this case-control study, we collect blood from 89 subjects, 45 were severe patients hospitalized in many Baghdad medical centers who were diagnosed with COVID
... Show MoreTurbidity is a visual property of water that expresses the amount of suspended substances in the water. Its presence in quantities more significant than the permissible limit makes the water undrinkable and reduces the effectiveness of disinfectants in treating pathogens. On this basis, turbidity is used as a basic indicator for measuring water quality. This study aims to evaluate the removal efficiency of AL- Muthanna WTP. Water turbidity was used as a basic parameter in the evaluation, using performance improvement evaluation and data from previous years (2016 to 2020). The average raw water turbidity was 26.7 NTU, with a minimum of 14 NTU, with a maximum of 48 NTU. Water turbidity value for 95% of settling daily reading data was
... Show MoreTwo novel demountable shear connectors for precast steel-concrete composite bridges are presented. The connectors use high-strength steel bolts, which are fastened to the steel beam with the aid of a special locking configuration that prevents slip of bolts within their holes. Moreover, the connectors promote accelerated construction and overcome typical construction tolerances issues of precast structures. Most importantly, the connectors allow bridge disassembly, and therefore, can address different bridge deterioration scenarios with minimum disturbance to traffic flow, i.e. (1) precast deck panels can be rapidly uplifted and replaced; (2) connectors can be rapidly removed and replaced; and (3) steel beams can be replaced, while precast
... Show Moreيهدف البحث الى تحليل الخيارات الاستراتيجية للاقتراض الخارجي في العراق لاستشراف افضل الخيارات الاستراتيجية المستقبلية في مجال الاقتراض الخارجي في دائرة الدين العام في وزارة المالية ، وقد استخدم الباحث منهج دراسة الحالة وباستعمال اسلوب تحليل خوارزمية ال K-Means لتشخيص كفاءة الاقتراض الخارجي لعينة البحث البالغة (81) قرضا التي اقترضتها وزارة المالية للفترة 2007-2020 . ولقد كان الغرض الرئيسي للبحث المساهمة في تمكين وزا
... Show MoreIn this work, fluid catalytic cracking of vacuum gas oil to produce gasoline over prepared faujasite type Y zeolite was investigated using experimental laboratory plant scale of fluidized bed reactor.
The catalytic activity of prepared faujasite type NaY, NaNH4Y and NaHY zeolites was investigated. The cracking process was carried out in the temperature range 440 to 500 oC, weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) range 10 to 25 h-1 ,and atmospheric pressure . The catalytic activities of the prepared faujasite type NaY , NaNH4Y and NaHY zeolites were determined in terms of vacuum gas oil (VGO) conversion, and gasoline yield . The conversion at 500oC and WHSV10 hr-1 by using faujasite type NaY, NaNH4Y and NaHY zeolite were 50.2%, 64.1% and 6
Infection at the site of vascular anastomosis is a serious complication of vascular surgery and is associated with a high limb loss and mortality rate. The classical method of management is ligation of the injured artery, adequate wound debridement and restoration of circulation. The latter is achieved by either in situ or extra-anatomic bypass. If the distal circulation is not maintained, subsequent amputation is most likely.
Objectives: In this study we tried to assess the efficacy of extra-anatomic synthetic bypass grafts in the treatment of vascular infection in the groin to save the limb and avoid the inevitable amputation.
Methods: Between January 2006 and December 2007, ten male patients aged twenty to thirty five years (mea