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
Resumen:
El horóscopo que es una predicción deducida de la posición de los astros del sistema solar y de los signos de Zodiaco, intenta no sólo predecir el futuro, sino también influir en el comportamiento del lector, orientándolo para que actúe adecuadamente y la invitación a actuar ante ese futuro que se aconseja mediante imperativos, perífrasis y otros recursos lingüísticos. Los horóscopos se caracterizan por su gran popularidad que existen en periódico o revista en columnas enteras dedicadas al tema, en donde se detallan la influencia que tendrá el día o el mes de cada uno de los signos correspondientes al zodíaco, siempre teniendo en cuenta la posici
... Show Morethe influence of permeability tensor upon drainage of anisotropic soils under ponded water and steady recharge (rainfall) is theoretically investigated. Tensorial permeability has led to the formulation of mixed type partial differential equations. Since there is no analytical solution to this problem, the formulation is therefore solved numerically by the method of finite elements. The finite element formulation is implemented into a computer model which can be applied to any problem of seepage under steady state
conditions. Two different example problems representing two different flow conditions under full anisotropy have been studied. Results of the model for the isotropic case were checked against exact mathematical solutions de
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The principle of an interview requires revenues to expenditures by linking the efforts and achievements and disclosure sufficient to result activity, in the case generate future benefits of a particular asset, this asset appears in the balance sheet to reflect with the rest of the accounting unit's assets on the strength of financial position In the absence of future benefits from the effort are so loaded effort on the result accounts that reflect the outcome of activity during a specific period if the month or be separated or fiscal year.
The researcher reached the following conclusions:
1- difficult to control the cash inflows and outflows as a result of the multiplicity of sources of funding.
2- wea
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This paper presents an analysis of selected qualitative characteristics of pellets produced from rape straw obtained from cultivations subjected to different fertilization treatments and from mixtures of straw selected for testing with crude glycerol obtained as a by-product from biodiesel production. The assessment focused on the following qualities of the obtained pellets: Moisture content, mechanical durability, heating value and main elements, that is, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, chlorine and oxygen. The obtained results indicated that the different treatment regimens applied in spring rape cultivations had a significant impact on the physicochemical qualities of the straw. In terms of the heating value, traditional fer
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This study is attempt to improve thermal isolation through measuring thermal conductivity composite of on polyester resin with fillers of (TiO2, ZnO, Acrylonitril, wood flour Coconut (Wf). The grain size of the fillers is 200 µm. The number of samples is (16) in addition to the virgin sample; these samples are prepared by cast molding method for polyester with filler volume fractions (5%, 10%, 15% and 20%). Shore hardness tests were used to measure the hardness and Lee disk method for thermal conductivity. The experimental results showed that the (20% ZnO) sample has the maximum value of thermal conductivity where (20% w.f) has minimum thermal conductivity .on the other hand (15% ZnO) sample give the maximum value of hardness where (20% w
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A systematic approach is presented to achieve the stable grasping of objects through a two-finger robotic hand, in which each finger cavity was filled with granular media. The compaction of the latter, controlled by vacuum pressure, was used to adjust the structural and contact stiffness of the finger. The grasping stability was studied under the concurrent effect of an external torque and applied vacuum pressure. Stable grasping was defined as the no slippage condition between the grasped object and the two fingers. Three control schemes were adopted and applied experimentally to ensure the effectiveness of the grasping process. The results showed that stable and unstable grasping regions exist for each combination of applied torqu
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The aim of this study is to investigate the kinetics of copper removal from aqueous solutions using an electromembrane extraction (EME) system. To achieve this, a unique electrochemical cell design was adopted comprising two glass chambers, a supported liquid membrane (SLM), a graphite anode, and a stainless-steel cathode. The SLM consisted of a polypropylene flat membrane infused with 1-octanol as a solvent and bis(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate (DEHP) as a carrier. The impact of various factors on the kinetics constant rate was outlined, including the applied voltage, initial pH of the donor phase solution, and initial copper concentration. The results demonstrated a significant influence of the applied voltage on enhancing the rate of c
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