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 accumulation of construction and demolition waste is one of the major problems in modern construction. Hence, this research investigates the use of waste brick in concrete. Seven different concrete mixes were investigated in this study: a control concrete mix, three mixes with volumetric replacement (10, 20, and 30)% of natural aggregate with brick aggregate, and two mixes with the addition of nano brick powder at a percentage level of 5– 10% by weight of cementitious materials. And the last one was mixed with 10% nano brick and 10% coarse brick aggregate. The experimental results for the additive of nano brick powder showed an enhancement in mechanical properties (compressive,
The conjunctive ''and'' and its Arabic counterpart ''و'' are discourse markers that express certain meanings and presuppose the presence of other elements in discourse. They are indispensable aids to both the text writers and readers. The present study aims to show that such cohesive ties help the writer to organize his main argument and communicate his ideas vividly and smoothly. They also serve as explicit signals that help readers unfold text and follow its threads as realized in the progression of context. The researcher has utilized the Quirk Model of Semantic Implication for data analysis. A total of 42 (22 for English and 20 for Arabic) political texts selected from different elite newspapers in both Arabic and English for the analy
... Show MoreThis research deals with the effect of gallium oxide and cerium oxide as dopants on the structural and optical characteristics of tin oxide. Gallium and cerium oxide doped tin oxide was prepared with different doping concentrations (0, 0.03, 0.05 and 0.07) wt. pure and doped tin oxide thin films were prepared by the pulsed laser deposition technique. X-ray diffraction and UV-Visible spectrophotometer were employed to investigate both oxides doping effects. Results showed that all prepared samples have poly-crystalline structure with a preferred plane of crystal growth along (110), where the crystal size grew from 40.3 nm to 64.5 nm and to 43.5 nm for Ga2O3 and CeO2 doped tin oxide thin films, res
... Show MoreThe present study aim at preparing frusemide in liquid form suitable for oral use. This is achieved through preparing different liquid forms of frusemide. The frusemide liquid is prepared in the following forms: oral solution, syrup and elixir with intensity of 1, 0.4 and 0.8% weight /volume respectively and in combination with potassium carbonate, polysorbate 80, alcohol and phosphate buffer solution of pH8 to dissolve the frusemide in the above mentioned forms. The different forms of the prepared medicine have been stored in glass bottles that can provide protection against light and at 40, 50, 600C for four months. Besides the pH has been checked to decide the period of validity. The results show that the expiration date of
... Show MoreIn this paper, a cognitive system based on a nonlinear neural controller and intelligent algorithm that will guide an autonomous mobile robot during continuous path-tracking and navigate over solid obstacles with avoidance was proposed. The goal of the proposed structure is to plan and track the reference path equation for the autonomous mobile robot in the mining environment to avoid the obstacles and reach to the target position by using intelligent optimization algorithms. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) Algorithms are used to finding the solutions of the mobile robot navigation problems in the mine by searching the optimal paths and finding the reference path equation of the optimal
... Show MoreThis work deals with the effect of adding aluminum nanoparticles on the mechanical properties, micro-hardness and porosity of memory-shape alloys (Cu-Al-Ni). These alloys have wide applications in various industrial fields such as (high damping compounds and self-lubricating applications). The samples are manufactured using the powder metallurgy method, which involved pressing in only one direction and sintered in a furnace surrounded by an inert gas. Four percentages (0%, 5%, 10%, and 15%) of aluminum nanoparticles were fabricated, which depended on the weight of aluminum powder (13%) in the sample under study. To find out which phase is responsible for the reliability of the formation of this type of alloy and its porosity, X-ray diffr
... Show MoreThis research aims to knowledge the extent of the application of Tuz General Hospital to the concept of tacit knowledge dimensions (mental models, intuition, experience, skill) and methods of acquiring knowledge dimensions (training, job rotation, work teams) and the measurement and analysis of the link and the kind of impact between the methods of acquiring knowledge and tacit knowledge of the Angels nursing in the researched hospital, and was the questionnaire primary means of collecting information adopted by the researcher that, the research sample of (90) individuals, including the Angels nursing, has been using the statistical program spss for the purpose of conducting statistical treatments, and through the diagnosis and m
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It was in the statement of the impact of moderation in preserving the freedom of individuals, including freedom of personal opinions, freedom of belief and freedom of language. It was dedicated to explaining the negative impact on the future of the nation in opposing moderation, including: dispersal of society, weakening the capabilities of society, and ease of control and occupation
The consequences of divorce after separation have several legal and legal provisions among them is that the wife must wait for a certain period specified by the legislator before marrying another, whether her husband left her after the practice of interning or died until the expiration of the period of counting and compensation for arbitrary divorce and the right of the unmarried to live in the marital home and complete her dowry is gold. But it cannot block the object of material and moral damage, especially if it was fired without shortening them and therefore these rights were decided by the provisions of the absolute and remove the effects on its reputation
In this work, varying compositions of SiO2 micro filler were added
with the Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) and samples have been prepared
using film casting technique. The results have been analyzed and
compared for PVC samples with (1 wt%, 3 wt%, 5 wt% and 10 wt%)
SiO2 micro filler. Mechanical characteristics such as tensile strength,
elongation at break and Young`s modulus were measured for all the
samples, where the tensile strength was increased from 8.39 Mpa for
purified PVC to 16 Mpa for 3% SiO2/PVC composite. Also, thermal
conductivity measurement values illustrated that composite materials
have a good thermal insulation at 10 wt. %, thermal conductivity was
decreased from 0.1684 W/m.