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
Recommender Systems are tools to understand the huge amount of data available in the internet world. Collaborative filtering (CF) is one of the most knowledge discovery methods used positively in recommendation system. Memory collaborative filtering emphasizes on using facts about present users to predict new things for the target user. Similarity measures are the core operations in collaborative filtering and the prediction accuracy is mostly dependent on similarity calculations. In this study, a combination of weighted parameters and traditional similarity measures are conducted to calculate relationship among users over Movie Lens data set rating matrix. The advantages and disadvantages of each measure are spotted. From the study, a n
... Show MoreClimate change is a global environmental issue and a common concern for humanity, and it is an inevitable result of civilization development, especially after the industrial revolution All areas of life At the level of the Iraqi situation , Iraq faces several challenges posed by Climate change , Such as high temperature, lack of rain, water scarcity , land salinity , and the increase in the proportion of sand and dust storms and the resulting disasters, which impedes development and hinders efforts to reduce poverty , enhance livelihoods , and reduce conflict to obtain natural resources.
... Show MoreManganese is considered as one of heavy metals with high toxicity .This element has been used widely in various industries and it is spread with huge quantities in polluted industries areas. As a result the concentrations of this element in the environment have increased and consequently producing acute toxic effects in different tissues and organs of all organisms. A study has been conducted on (30) female of Swiss albino mice, to find out the effect of manganese chloride in histopathological changes of ovaries. The study includes, giving the manganese chloride with concentrations (150, 200 and 250 mg/kg) for (15, 30 and 45 day) for each concentration. The
... Show MoreThe present study was conducted to determine the effect of Manganese on Histopathological changes in testes. Manganese Chloride was given to white mice with oral containing 150_200 and 250 mg/kg for periods of 15_30 and 45 days. The present study recorded the existence of histopathological symptoms in the testes, such as degeneration and necrosis in the tubules, congestion inside blood vessels and Edema in the interstitial tissue, as well as the appearance of giant cells inside the seminiferous tubules.
Thi s study included the effect of chronic exposure of di fferent concentrations of Nan on the biology of fresh water zroDplonk ton species Moina 41.112' ( Cladcxe'ra The concentrations used for chronic exposure were 03, 0.75. 1 960 to investigate iI effects on the life cycle and la lables of this species after exposure period and the range of this exposure effects on the rate of expectation for further life, also the effect of salinity on reproduotive parameters was studied which included average of total number of eggs and young produced, volume clutch's (6.95. indiclutch for control group , 14.516 indi clutch for 0.596a ,3_65 ind./ clutch for (175 5(.. and 03 Ind} cruel] for 1960) and number of Clutch's (5.5 clutch/ female for control gr
... Show MoreElectrical properties were studied for Pectin/PVA graphene composites films and the effect of aqueous interaction on their properties. The conductivity and the dielectric constant of this composite are important because Polysaccharide like pectin is increasingly being used in biomedical applications and as nanoparticles coating materials. The Dielectric and conductivity of composite films were compared in dry and wet condition the differences in the results were attributed to the water molecules and the hydrogen bond which connect the three composite compounds (Pectin, PVA and Graphene) together. These connections were allowed the hydrogen and hydroxyl group’s migrations in the composite super molecules. On the other hand, graphene was pr
... Show MoreThe structure, optical, and electrical properties of SnSe and its application as photovoltaic device has been reported widely. The reasons for interest in SnSe due to the magnificent optoelectronic properties with other encouraging properties. The most applications that in this area are PV devices and batteries. In this study tin selenide structure, optical properties and surface morphology were investigated and studies. Thin-film of SnSe were deposit on p-Si substrates to establish a junction as solar cells. Different annealing temperatures (as prepared, 125,200, 275) °C effects on SnSe thin films were investigated. The structure properties of SnSe was studied through X-ray diffraction, and the results appears the increasing of the peaks
... Show MoreA huge potential from researchers was presented for enhancing the nonlinear optical response for materials that interacts by light. In this work, we study the nonlinear optical response for chemically prepared nano- fluid of silver nanoparticles in de-ionized water with TSC (Tri-sodium citrate) protecting agent. By the means of self-defocusing technique and under CW 473 nm blue laser, the reflected diffraction pattern were observed and recorded by CCD camera. The results demonstrate that, the Ag nano-fluid shows a good third order nonlinear response and the magnitude of the nonlinear refractive index was in the order of 10−7 cm2/W. We determine the maximum change of the nonlinear refractive index and the related phase shift for the mat
... Show MoreThis study investigates the surgical and thermal effects on oral soft tissues produced by CO2 laser emitting at 10.6 micrometers with three different fluences 490.79, 1226.99 and 1840.4 J/cm2. These effects are specifically; incision depth, incision width and the tissue damage width and depth. The results showed that increasing the fluence and /or the number of beam passes increase the average depths of ablation. Moreover, increasing the fluence and the number of beam passes increase the adjacent tissue damage in width and depth. Surgeons using CO2 laser should avoid multiple pulses of the laser beam over the same area, to avoid unintentional tissue damage.