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
Reconstruction in Iraq requires coherent legitimate frameworks that are able to detail obligations, rights and responsibilities of the parties participating in reconstruction projects, regardless their type or delivery system.
Conditions of Contract can be considered an important component of these frameworks. This paper investigates flexibility and appropriateness of the application of Iraqi conditions of contract in reconstruction projects. These conditions were compared to FIDIC Conditions. The objective wasn't comparing individual clauses, but rather exploring the principles and philosophy laying behind each conditions, and to what extent each conditions care about realizing equity between main contract parties. Validity of applic
The objective of this study was to investigate and compare among five different methods of contraception including combined oral contraceptive pills (COC), Depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), copper Intrauterine contraceptive device (IUCD), vaginal spermicides and male condom used in Hawler City through estimate of their effect, relative failure rate, percentage of use, adherence and compliance and adverse effects of each contraceptive method. In order to reach to these aims, a retrospective study was conducted in Hawler City in Azadi Health Care Center over a period of 6 months from 22th November, 2010 to 15th May, 2011 during which data collection and subjects follow up for 3 months had been achieved. A conv
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The current study included a detail morphological study of all parts of the species Ipomoea carnea Jacq. (Convolvulaceae) cultivated in different gardens, the roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruit were studied in detail, also the pollen grains were studied and there are photographs for all the parts were putted.
In this study, two active galaxies (NGC4725, NGC4639) have been chosen to study their morphological and photometric properties, by using the IRAF ISOPHOTE ELLIPS task with griz-filters. Observations are obtained from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) which reaches now to the DATA Release (DR14). The data reduction of all images (bias and flat field) has been done by SDSS Pipeline. The surface photometric investigation was performed like the magnitude. Together with isophotal contour maps, surface brightness profiles and a bulge/disk decomposition of the images of the galaxies, although the disk position angle, ellipticity, and inclination of the galaxies have been done. Also, the color of galaxies was studied, where chromatic distribution
... Show MoreThe unsteady state laminar mixed convection and radiation through inclined
cylindrical annulus is investigated numerically. The two heat transfer mechanisms of
convection and radiation are treated independently and simultaneously. The outer
cylinder was kept at a constant temperature while the inner cylinder was heated with
constant heat flux. The study involved numerical solution of the governing equations
which are continuity, momentum and energy equations using finite difference method
(FDM), where the body fitted coordinate system (BFC) was used to generate the grid
mesh for computational plane. A computer program (Fortran 90) was built to calculate
the bulk Nusselt number (Nub) after reaching steady state con
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Experimental work has been performed on three capillary tubes of different lengths and diameters using R-12 and R-134a. The test also studies the effect of discharge and speed of evaporator fan. The results clearly showed that refrigerant type and discharge significantly influence the temperature drop across the capillary tube. While the speed of evaporator fan has small effect. Experimental results showed that the temperature gradient for the two refrigerants are the same, but after approximatly one meter the temperature gradient of R-134a is steeper than R-12.
The importance of vibrations in rotating rotors in engineering applications has been examined, as has the best approach to interpreting vibration data. The most extensively used analytical approaches for rotating shaft vibration analysis have been investigated. In this research, a detailed study was made of the Rayleigh and Dunkerley methods due to their importance in the special calculations to find the amplitude of vibrations in the rotation system. The multi-node method was used to calculate both Dunkerley's and Rayleigh's methods. An experimental platform was built to study the vibrations that occur in the rotating shafts, and the results were compared with theoretical calculations and with different distances of the bearings. It pro
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Background: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a well-recognized cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.Objectives: To evaluate the prognostic implications of the restrictive left ventricular filling pattern (RFP) in dilated cardiomyopathy.Methods: Patients with DCM admitted to Ibn AL-Bitar Hospital for Cardiac Surgery, Baghdad-Iraq, from May 2006 to August 2008, underwent a full clinical evaluation and Doppler echocardiography study. Patients were classified into three groups: Group I had persistent restrictive filling pattern; Group II had reversible restrictive filling pattern; and Group III had nonrestrictive filling pattern. Results: The current study was conducted on a total number of 80 patients with DCM, fifty (62.5 %) were
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