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
Pseudomonas putidaPST-1 isolate isolated from soil of plant root was used for high production of indole acetic acid. Indole acetic acid (IAA) production is a major property of rhizosphere bacteria that stimulate and facilitate plant growth. Optimization of indole acetic acid production was carried out at different cultural conditions of pH temperature, incubation period, and the amount of inoculum of bacteria. The best chemical medium for high IAA production (82 Mg/ml) was Luria-Bertani broth medium consisted of 1.2gm tryptophan and 10gm peptone in their components, while the cheese whey medium was the best natural medium for IAA production was (66 Mg/ml). IAA production byPseudomonas putida PST-1 was optimized by studying some factors t
... Show MoreMost of the studies conducted in the past decades focused on the effect of interest rates and exchange rates on domestic investment under the assumption that the independent variables have the same effect on the dependent variable, but there were limited studies that investigated the unequal effects of changes in interest rates and exchange rates, both positive and negative, on domestic investment. This study used a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model to assess the unequal effects of the real interest rate and real exchange rate variables on domestic investment in Egypt for the period 1976 - 2020. The results revealed that positive and negative shocks for both exchange rates have unequal effects on
... Show MoreThe design of components subjected to contact stress as local compressive stress is important in engineering application especially in ball and socket Joining. Two kinds of contact stress are introduced in the ball and socket joint, the first is from normal contact while the other is from sliding contact. Although joining two long links (drive shaft in steering cars) will cause the effect of flexural and tensional buckling stress in hollow columns through the ball and socket ends on the failure condition of the joining mechanism. In this paper the consideration of the combined effect of buckling Load and contact stress on the ball and socket joints have been taken, epically on the stress distribution in the contact area. Different
... Show MoreBackground: Chronic periodontitis is a bacterial infection that result in bone destruction associated with the increasing level of salivary tumor necrosis alpha and interleukin6 that affect Mother-infant bonding status. The aim of the present study was to assess the relationship between the Mother-infant bonding status in mothers with chronic periodontitis in relation to Salivary Tumor necrosis factor alpha and Salivary Interleukin6. Materials and Methods: The selected sample consisted of mothers with chronic periodontitis compared with mothers with healthy periodontium in postpartum period, their age ranged between 30-40 years. Both groups were subjected to postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ). Periodontal health status was assessed f
... Show MoreThis paper analyzes the effect of scaling-up model and acceleration history on seismic response of closed-ended pipe pile using a finite element modeling approach and the findings of 1 g shaking table tests of a pile embedded in dry and saturated soils. A number of scaling laws were used to create the numerical modeling according to the data obtained from 1 g shake table tests performed in the laboratory. The current study found that the behaviors of the scaled models, in general have similar trends. From numerical modeling on both the dry and saturated sands, the normalized lateral displacement, bending moment, and vertical displacement of piles with scale factors of 2 and 35 are less than those of the pile with a scale factor of 1 and the
... Show MoreThe Nahr Umr Formation, one of the most important Cretaceous formations and one of the main generating reservoirs in southern Iraq and neighboring regions, was chosen to study and estimate its petrophysical properties using core plugs, lithofacies, and well logs from five wells in the Noor oilfield. Reservoir properties and facies analyses are used to divide the Nahr Umr formation into two-member (limestone in the upper part and main sandstone in the lower). Limestone members are characterized by low reservoir properties related to low effective porosity and permeability while the main sandstone member is considered as a reservoir. Four lithofacies were recognized in the main sandstone member of the Nahr Umr Formation according to petrog
... Show MoreThe subject of the strategic vision is of great importance to all companies because they live in an environment of rapid change in various areas of life. Supports the performance of its operations in a better way, towards appropriate strategic growth and achieving success. The research aims to determine the level of interest of the researched company in the research variables (strategic vision and growth strategy), and the importance of the research came in being an attempt to provide the theoretical and scientific foundations for the research variables (strategic vision and growth strategy). As for the research method, it was relied on the descriptive analytical method, relying on the questionnaire as a means of obtaining data from the
... Show MoreAbstract: Two different shapes of offset optical fiber was studied based on coreless fiber for refractive index (RI)/concentration (con.) measurement, and compare them. These shapes are U and S-shapes, both shapes structures were formed by one segment of coreless fiber (CF) was joined between two single mode (SMF) lead in /lead out with the same displacement (12.268µm) at both sides, the results shows the high sensitive was achieved in a novel S-shape equal 98.768nm/RIU, to our knowledge, no one has ever mentioned or experienced it, it’s the best shape rather than the U-shape which equal 85.628nm/RIU. In this research, it was proved that the offset form has a significant effect on the sensitivity of the sensor. Addi
... Show MoreAbstract
This study aims to identify the extent to which the criteria of the American Council for Teaching Foreign Languages (ACTFL) are included in the English language books for the fifth and sixth graders. To achieve the objective of the study, a content analysis card was prepared, where the classification of language proficiencies was divided into five main levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced, superior, and distinguished) of the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), The content analysis card consisted of (89) indicators distributed at the four levels of language skills as follows: Listening (17), speaking (33), reading (15), and writing (26). The study sample consisted of Engl
... Show MoreSince decades silver was depended worldwide as a treatment to a lot of diseases
ranging from burn infections, anthrax, and typhoid fever to bacterial conjunctivitis
in stillbirth, but its effectiveness against biofilms is still undetermined. Salmonella is
a major cause of food poisoning outbreaks especially in the third world countries.
Thus, in the present study; the antimicrobial activity of silver nanoparticles (Ag-
NPs) against Salmonella enterica biofilm was examined; their activity was
compared with amino acid; D-Glycin and imipenem antibiotic. The result of the
study revealed that Ag-NPs exhibited considerable antimicrobial property against
Salmonella enterica biofilm where the minimum inhibitory concentrat