Rafidain Journal of Science

The present study includes the investigation of the effect of evaporation with Peganum harmala seeds on hormone FSH, LH, testosterone concentrations and sperm count in male albino rats Rattus norvegicus treated with Chlorpromazine. The rats were aged (3-4) months and weighing (200-300) grams. The first group was a negative control of 10 rats which gavaged with distilled water and the 50 remaining rats gavaged with Chlorpromazine ( 2 mg / kg body weight ) daily for six weeks. The treated animals were divided into 4 groups, each group consists of 10 rats. The positive control was treated with drug only, the second group was evaporated daily for a period of 7 days, the third was evaporated daily for a period of 14 days, the fourth group was evaporated daily for a period of 21 days and the fifth group released for 30 days without treatment .
The results showed a significant decrease in LH, FSH, testosterone hormones concentration and sperm count in a group treated with drug chlorpromazine (control group positive) compared to the negative control group. Also the results demonstrate that evaporation rats with Peganum harmala seeds for 7, 14 and 21 days lead to a significant increase in LH, FSH, testosterone hormones concentration and sperm count as compared with positive groups, while hormones concentration and sperm count did not recover to the normal level in the group which was released for 30 days without treatment.
From this research, it is concluded that evaporation with Peganum harmala seeds causes rearranging the sexual activity in the rats treated with Chlorpromazine.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of the consumption of stressed food with microwaves radiation on some placental hormones in pregnant mice and the role of ginger Zingiber officinale in reducing this effect. 100 Mus musculus pregnant mice at age (10-14) week and (25±2)gm weight, were divided into 10 groups, included control and nine experimental groups, 10 micegroup. Ginger was used as aqueous extract with concentration (1000mgkg) body weight. The period of treatment 18 days starting from the 1st day until the 18th day of pregnancy. Animals anesthetized and drawn (2ml) of blood from the orbital eye to measure the concentration of estrogen and progesterone hormone in blood serum.
The results showed that stressed food with microwaves radiation causes decreasing of estrogen concentration and an increase in progesterone concentration in blood serum in comparison with the control group. While the treatment with aqueous extract of ginger was efficient in limiting the effects of stressed food with radiation as increasing in estrogen concentration and decrease in progesterone concentration comparing with the groups treated with the stressed food with radiation.

The study includes evaluation for the efficiency of two of phthalimide derivatives to clarify their effects on seedling stem explants (containing nodes) of Nigella sativa L. to initiate callus and their effects on callus growth and differentiation.
The results referred that the addition of each of N-(2-hydroxyphenyl) phthalimide (A) and N-(2-carboxyphenyl)phthalimide (B) with concentration of (10-4, 10-6, 10-8) molar alone or with (10-6) molar each of (2,4-D, NAA, and BA) alone resulted in callus growth, remarkly the highest fresh weights of callus recorded are (12.657 and 9.77) g when 10-6 molar of each A or B compound was added alone after 75 days of growth alternatively. Whereas the addition of 10-6 molar of each A or B with 10-6 molar 2,4-D enhanced callus growth to reach (23.33 and 19.03)g alternatively, in comparison with the fresh weight of callus grown on MS with addition of 10-6 molar of BA and 10-6 molar of each A or B reached (13.72 and 20.53)g after 75 days of growth alternatively compared with (16.24) g that on standard medium (MSt).
The results revealed also that the addition of 10-6 molar of compound B with NAA increased the weight to reach 10.8 g with the enhancement of root formation from callus, and the roots formation was continued to grow after more than 75 days of culture. The addition of 10-8 molar of compound B enhanced root formation to reach (4) in number and 2.83 cm in length, whereas, the addition of 10-4 molar of compound A enhanced shoots, which reached to 3 in number and 2.5 cm in length, in addition to the enhancement of the flowerings. The result also showed that the best media to induce the growth of callus are those which contain (10-6) M of compound A.

The present study includes the determination of concentrations of some heavy metals (Lead Pb and Cadmium Cd) in muscles, liver and gills of the three economic fish species: Cyprinus carpia, Condrostoma regiumand Liza abu. These fishes were collected from three sites along sides of Tigris river in Mosul city, during spring 2011 to winter 2012.
The three sites along Tigris river were the entry of Mosul city (Mushirfa site) which is considered as control, Middle city (near the Iron old bridge) and the ending city (Albosaif site).
The aim of the study is to assess the accumulative levels of these metals in fish and their transporting in food chains till arrived to human body.
The results showed that the concentration rank of the metals in fishes followed the describing sequence: Albosaif site > middle city > Mushirfa site. Lead bioaccumulation in fishes tissues and organs followed the descending sequence: liver > gills > muscles.
The results also showed that cadmium bioaccumulation in fish tissues and organs followed the descending sequence: gills> liver > muscles. These highest values were refereed to variety in pollution sources with heavy metals in the river and made the fishes as a good pollution bioindicater.

The field survey of broad bean fields in Nineveh showed the existence of BYMV in (Rashidiah, Guabba, Shrekhan, Shalallat and Danadan) regions in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons .
The viral incidence was 52% in Rashidiah at pre-flowering stage, while the incidence was 30% at Shalallat, whereas in 2007 season, the disease incidence reached 55% in Rashidiah and 36% in Danadan fields.
The results of serological diagnosis, using TBIA, Dot-Blot techniques proved that the main cause of mosaic symptoms on broad bean plants in these fields was BYMV (Bean Yellow Mosaic virus).
TBIA technique showed the existence of BYMV at 4% in broad bean seeds.
Spraying mineral oil (Sunoco) and insecticide (Alpha Methrin) separately and their mixture using corn plants as barrier plants revealed that the contents of potasium, calcium and sodium were decreased, but nitrogen content was increased in diseased plants 0.310, 0.343, 0.232 and 0.067 mg, respectively, but these values in case of using barrier plants were 0.532, 0.543, 0.596 and 0.042 mg, respectively.
Also treatments reduced the content of chlorophyll A and B in diseased plants to reach 17.94, 15.71 and 14.53 mg/g and increased in case of botanical barrier treatment to reach 32.61, 28.52 and 24.43 mg/g.

The Bacterial contamination of some locally prepared salads in some restaurants in Mosul city was studied. These salads were prepared from vegetables and legumes with souse and flavors. Samples were collected from random restaurants in four different places in Mosul city including: Al-Majmoa Al-Thakafia, Al-Zuhoor, Al-Nabi Younis and Al-Dawasa.
Total plate count, gram negative and spore forming bacteria were detected, as well as some pathogenic bacteria such as Yersinia enterocolitica, Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus.
In general, the results showed contamination of these foods with variable numbers and rates of different types of bacteria in these restaurants under study which comprised harmful on environment and general health.
Al-Majmoa Al-Thakafia restaurants were showed lowest rate of contamination with Yersinia enterocolitica, Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus in cucumber and tomato salad (0%) and in spakety with (0,5,15%), and the percentages of contamination were different in miyones and hommus betahena, while salads collected from Al-Nabi Younis restaurants showed high contamination rate with those three pathogenic bacteria as hommus betahena represent the highest rate of contamination (40,30,60%) for each of Yersinia enterocolitica, Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus respectively.

Five self-fertilized generation means ( , , , and ) of two crosses in durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.), the first (Azeghar-1 × Um-Rabie-5), and the second (Leeds × Waha), were genetically analyzed to estimate gene action for the traits: plant height, total chlorophyll percent in flag leaf, heading time, spike length, number of flag leaf venation and flag leaf area. Two models were used for analyzing the components of the generation means, parameters model and five- parameters model. The results showed that the three – parameter model was inadequate for the inheritance of all the studied traits in the two crosses. Additive, dominance and epistatic effects for polygenes revealed significant role to express the studied traits.

The present study was performed to detect the biochemical properties of ten types of honey bees (Black Bean, Forests, Rosemary, Thyme, Citrus, Willow, Acacia, Sidr, Pine and Mountain) which were collected from different pasture areas. The level of glutathione, malondialdehyde, activity of acid phosphatase, calcium, glucose, total protein and albumin were measured.
The results showed a significant increase in the glutathione and calcium level and a significant reduction in the malondialdehyde of dark honey samples (honey of forests, pine and Black Bean) compared with other honey types. Honey with more acidity (Citrus and Willow) showed a significant increase in acidic phosphatase compared with other samples. The results also showed a significance increase in glucose level and a significant reduction in the level of total protein and albumin for honey types (Acacia, Rosemary, Willow, Citrus and Thyme) compared with other types (forests, Black Bean, Mountain, pine and Sidr).
In conclusion, honey varies in its components according to the variation in flowers nectar and this leads to a variation in its biochemical components even in a low ratio. In addition to the superiority of the dark honey type (forests, pine and Black Bean) in antioxidants and food value comparison with other light-color honey samples (Citrus, Willow, Acacia and Rosemary).

The research involves a simple and sensitive spectrophotometric method for the determination of hydroxyurea in aqueous solution by two steps. The first step depends on the reduction of ferric ions by hydroxyurea to ferrous ions, and in the second step the later reacts with potassium ferricyanide to form a stable prussian blue. This dye is soluble in water and gives absorption maxima at 700 nm. Beer's law was obeyed over the range 1-100 µg of hydroxyurea per 20 ml (i.e 0.05 – 5 ppm) with a corresponding molar absorptivity of 2.4×1041.mol-1.cm-1, Sandell's sensitivity index of 0.0032 µg cm-2 and average relative standard deviation of ± 0.33%, depending on the concentration level, and the t-test value comes to be (0.91) which is less than its table value (2.361) at a confidence level of 95% for 8 degrees of freedom which applies credibility to the suggested method.
The method had been applied successfully to determination of hydroxyurea in capsule.

The aim of this research is to provide an explanation for the cosmic acceleration of a derived model (flat model which contains both matter and dark energy (ΩNR + ΩDE = 1). This model depends on two different models, one contains matter only ΩNR=1 while the other contains dark energy ΩDE = 1. The derived model shows a good matching with the observed data of supernovae type Ia. The relationships of the three models that link the illumination distance and distance modulus were drawn against redshift for the given observational data, which show that the flat universe is the closest to the observational data. It turned out that the amount of the relative density of the dark energy ΩDE is larger than the amount of the relative density of matter ΩNR. This result is considered as an explanation of the cosmic acceleration due to the presence of dark energy

In this research, the effect of high pressure on silicon band structure has been studied, the tight binding method has been used to calculate the silicon band structure. Following the method used by Cohen to find the matrix elements. The effect of pressure has been introduced to find the matrix element of silicon under different pressure. The results show widening the energy gap and relegating the band up as the pressure increased.