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
Cutting forces are important factors for determining machine serviceability and product quality. Factors such as speed feed, depth of cut and tool noise radius affect on surface roughness and cutting forces in turning operation. The artificial neural network model was used to predict cutting forces with related to inputs including cutting speed (m/min), feed rate (mm/rev), depth of cut (mm) and work piece hardness (Map). The outputs of the ANN model are the machined cutting force parameters, the neural network showed that all (outputs) of all components of the processing force cutting force FT (N), feed force FA (N) and radial force FR (N) perfect accordance with the experimental data. Twenty-five samp
... Show MoreUtilizing the Turbo C programming language, the atmospheric earth model is created from sea level to 86 km. This model has been used to determine atmospheric Earth parameters in this study. Analytical derivations of these parameters are made using the balancing forces theory and the hydrostatic equation. The effects of altitude on density, pressure, temperature, gravitational acceleration, sound speed, scale height, and molecular weight are examined. The mass of the atmosphere is equal to about 50% between sea level and 5.5 km. g is equal to 9.65 m/s2 at 50 km altitude, which is 9% lower than 9.8 m/s2 at sea level. However, at 86 km altitude, g is close to 9.51 m/s2, which is close to 15% smaller than 9.8 m/s2. These resu
... Show MoreA total of 1346 hard ticks (863♂ and 483 ♀) infested 104 camels, 60 alive camels with 93.33% infestation rate and 44 carcasses of camels had 79.54% infestation rate The total infestation rate was 87.5 %. The current study results revealed ten species of hard ticks family Ixodidae Koch, 1844 related to genus Hyalomma as following: H. dromedarii Koch, 1844, H. schulzii Morel, 1969, H. turanicum Pomerantsev, 1946, H. excavatum Koch, 1844, H. truncatum Koch, 1844, H. scupense Schulzii, 1919, H. marginatum Koch, 1844, H. anatolicum Koch, 1844, H. rufipes Koch, 1844, H. impeltatum Schulze & Schlottke, 1930 from camel Camelus dromedarius Linnaeus, 1758 collected from 21 regions belonging to six provinces in middle, w
... Show More2-hydrazinylbenzo[d]thiazole compound [1] is produced from reaction of 2-mercapto-benzothiazole with hydrazine hydride in ethanol. Compound [1] reacted with maleic anhydride in DMF to produce (Z)-4-(2-(benzo[d] thiazol-2yl) hydrazinyl)-4-oxobut-2-enoic acid [compound (2)]. While the treatment of compound [2] with the ammonium persulfate (NH4)2S2O8 (as the initiator) in order to produce compound [3], then compound [3] reacted with thionyl chloride in benzene to produce compound [4], finally compound [4] reaction with various drugs: cephalexin, amoxicillin, sulfamethizole, elecoxib obtained polymers [5–8]. The structure of synthesized compounds identified by spectral data: fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and proton nuclear magneti
... Show MoreThis study presents experimental and numerical investigations on seven one-way, reinforced concrete (RC) slabs with a new technique of slab weight reduction using polystyrene-embedded arched blocks (PEABs). All slabs had the same dimensions, steel reinforcement, and concrete compressive strength. One of these slabs was a solid slab, which was taken as a control slab, while the other six slabs were cast with PEABs. The main variables were the ratio of the length of the PEABs to the length of the slab (lp/L) and the ratio of the height of the PEABs to the total slab depth (hP/H). The minimum decrease in the ultimate load capacity was about 6% with a minimum reduction in the slab weight of 15%. In contrast, the maximum decrease in the
... Show MoreA potential alternative energy resource to meet energy demands is the vast amount of gas stored in hydrate reserves. However, major challenges in terms of exploration and production surround profitable and effective exploitation of these reserves. The measurement of acoustic velocity is a useful method for exploration of gas hydrate reserves and can be an efficient method to characterize the hydrate-bearing sediments. In this study, the compressional wave velocity (P-wave velocity) of consolidated sediments (Bentheimer) with and without tetrahydrofuran hydrate-bearing pore fillings were measured using the pulse transmission method. The study has found that the P-wave velocity of consolidated sediments increase with increasing hydrate format
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Background: The treatment of dental tissues proceeding to adhesive procedures is a crucial step in the bonding protocol and decides the clinical success ofrestorations. This study was conducted in vitro, with the aim of evaluating thenanoleakage on the interface between the adhesive system and the dentine treated by five surface modalities using scanning electron microscopy and energydispersiveX-ray spectrometry. Materials and methods: Twenty five extracted premolars teeth were selected in the study. Standardized class V cavities were prepared on the buccal and lingual surfaces then the teeth divided into five main groups of (5 teeth in each group n=10) according to the type of dentine surface treatment that was used: Group (A): dentine was
... Show MoreThis research is intended to high light the uses of political content in foreign Arabic / speaking websites, such as “ CNN “ and” Euro News“, The research problem stems from the main question: What is the nature of the use of the websites in the political content provided through them? A set of sub-questions that give the research aspects and aims to achieve a set of objectives , including the identification of topics that included , the political content provided through , the sample sites during the time period for analysis and determine that the study uses descriptive research based on the discovery of the researcher, describing it accurately and defining the relations between the components.
The research conducted the des