Effects of sewage sludge on heavy metal accumulation in soil and plants and on crop productivity in Aleppo governorate

Sewage sludgeHeavy metalsCrop productionCropsOrganic matterSoil

Embedding Principal Component Analysis for Data Reductionin Structural Health Monitoring on Low-Cost IoT Gateways

Principal component analysis (PCA) is a powerful data reductionmethod for Structural Health Monitoring. However, its computa-tional cost and data memory footprint pose a significant challengewhen PCA has to run on limited capability embedded platformsin low-cost IoT gateways. This paper presents a memory-efficientparallel implementation of the streaming History PCA algorithm.On our dataset, it achieves 10x compression factor and 59x memoryreduction with less than 0.15 dB degradation in the reconstructedsignal-to-noise ratio (RSNR) compared to standard PCA. More-over, the algorithm benefits from parallelization on multiple cores,achieving a maximum speedup of 4.8x on Samsung ARTIK 710

Diagnostic performance of alpha-fetoprotein, YKL40 and GP73 in hepatocellular carcinoma Egyptian patients

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary malignancy of the liver. It is responsible for a large proportion of cancer deaths worldwide. Diagnosis of HCC often requires more sophisticated modalities and represents a challenge for physician.  Methods: This study aimed to compare the diagnostic performance of AFP, YKL40 and GP73 in patients' serum with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in high-risk population in an attempt to justify the new, sensitive, specific and rapid measure for the diagnosis and detection of HCC. Serum YKL40, GP73 and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) were compared in a total of 60 human subjects in this study, including 20 healthy adults, and 40 patients with HCC, The main outcome measures were the specificity and sensitivity of YKL40 and GP73 in patients at risk for the development of HCC.Results: Using 4.4 relative units as a cut-off value, the sensitivity and specificity of serum GP73 for HCC were 85% and 90% compared with 77% and 60% for YKL40 using 21.06 ng/ml as a cut-off value. On the same context, the sensitivity and specificity of serum AFP at 8.5ng/ml cut-off were 82% and 95%. While that for the AFP and GP73 combined detection was up to 92% and 96%, justifying that the combined detection could prevent the false negative diagnosis by any marker alone and significantly improve the detection rate of HCC.Conclusions: The current evidence indicates that serum GP73 has HCC diagnostic efficacy inferior to that of AFP and YKL40 and the clinical implementation of serum GP73 measurement as a standard test for HCC is recommended alone or in combination with AFP.

Phytochemical Investigation of Egyptian Spinach Leaves, a Potential Source for Antileukemic Metabolites: In Vitro and In Silico Study

Spinacia oleracea L., Amaranthaceae, leaves cultivated in Egypt demonstrated a potential antileukemic activity against the chronic myeloid leukemia, K562 cell line. Thus, the aim of this study is to carry out a phytochemical investigation of S. oleracea leaves as well as the isolation of its antileukemic phytoconstituents. Phytochemical investigation of S. oleracea leaves resulted in the isolation of seventeen known compounds. The biological study revealed that compounds hexaprenol, phytol, and 18-[(1-oxohexadecyl) oxy]-9-octadecenoic acid exhibited a remarkable antiproliferative activity against K562 cells in vitro. A mechanistic in silico study showed that hexaprenol, phytol, and 18-[(1-oxohexadecyl) oxy]-9-octadecenoic acid exhibited a strong binding affinity towards topoisomerase (docking score −12.50, −9.19, and −13.29 kcal/mol, respectively), and showed as well a strong binding affinity towards Abl kinase (docking score −11.91, −9.35, and −12.59 kcal/mol, respectively). Molecular dynamics study revealed that 18-[(1-oxohexadecyl) oxy]-9-octadecenoic acid produced stable complexes with both topoisomerase and Abl kinase with RMSD values of 1.81 and 1.85 Å, respectively. As a result of our findings, we recommend more in vivo and preclinical studies to confirm the potential benefit of spinach leaves for chronic myeloid leukemia patients. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.

New Benzoxazole Derivatives as Antiprotozoal Agents: In Silico Studies, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation

Background. Benzoxazole derivatives have different biological activities. In pursuit of designing novel chemical entities with antiprotozoal and antimicrobial activities, benzoxazolyl aniline was utilized as a privileged scaffold of a series of (3-benzoxazole-2-yl) phenylamine derivatives, 3-benzoxazoloyl acetamide, and butyramide derivatives. Methods. These novel analogs were synthesized in straightforward simple chemistry without any quantitative chromatographic separations in reasonable yields. The biological evaluation of all target compounds as potential antimalarial, antileishmanial, antitrypanosomal, and antimicrobial agents was performed by various well-established cell-based methods. Results. Compounds 6d and 5a showed promising biological screening data. The amidation of 3-benzoxazolyl aniline 1 with the chloroacetyl functional group resulted in a good antimalarial activity and showed moderate inhibitory activities against leishmanial and trypanosomal spp. Moreover, chloroacetyl functionalization of benzoxazolyl aniline serves as a good early goal for constructing and synthesizing new antimicrobial and antiprotozoal agents. The molecular docking study rationalizes the relative inhibitory activity of compound 5a as an antimalarial agent with the deregulation of PfPNP activity which has emerged as a major mechanism of these targets

Physiological and biochemical analyses shed light on the response of <i>Sargassum vulgare</i> to ocean acidification at different time scales

Studies regarding macroalgal responses to ocean acidification (OA) are mostly limited to short-term experiments in controlled conditions, which hamper the possibility to scale up the observations to long-term effects in the natural environment. To gain a broader perspective, we utilized volcanic CO2 vents as a “natural laboratory” to study OA effects on Sargassum vulgare at different time scales. We measured photosynthetic rates, oxidative stress levels, antioxidant contents, antioxidant enzyme activities, and activities of oxidative metabolic enzymes in S. vulgare growing at a natural acidified site (pH 6.7) compared to samples from a site with current pH (pH 8.2), used as a control one. These variables were also tested in plants transplanted from the control to the acidified site and vice-versa. After short-term exposure, photosynthetic rates and energy metabolism were increased in S. vulgare together with oxidative damage. However, in natural populations under long-term conditions photosynthetic rates were similar, the activity of oxidative metabolic enzymes was maintained, and no sign of oxidative damages was observed. The differences in the response of the macroalga indicate that the natural population at the acidified site is adapted to live at the lowered pH. The results suggest that this macroalga can adopt biochemical and physiological strategies to grow in future acidified oceans

Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Novel Pyrimido[4,5-d]pyrimidine CDK2 Inhibitors as Anti-Tumor Agents

A series of 2,5,7-trisubstituted pyrimido[4,5-d]pyrimidine cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK2) inhibitors is designed and synthesized. 6-Amino-2-thiouracil is reacted with an aldehyde and thiourea to prepare the pyrimido[4,5-d]-pyrimidines. Alkylation and amination of the latter ones give different amino derivatives. These compounds show potent and selective CDK inhibitory activities and inhibit in vitro cellular proliferation in cultured human tumor cells

Large scale production of antitumor cucurbitacins from Ecballium Elaterium using bioreactor

Bioreactor plays a vital role in the commercial production of secondary metabolites and pharmaceuticals from plant cells. Many physical factors, like the mixing intensity, shear stress and operation conditions were optimized as a first step in scaling up process. Qualitative and quantitative determination of cucurbitacins E and I in the extract were carried out using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). After two weeks of equipping the reactor with marine impeller, both the growth rate and the concentration of cucurbitacins were increased. However, the increase in the aeration rate from 0.3 to 0.6 vvm induced the production of cucurbitacin E, it reduced the cucurbitacin I production. The highest recorded level of cucurbitacins was 0.3 and 0.1 g/L for cucurbitacin E and cucurbitacin I, respectively. Crude cucurbitacins extract showed potent antitumor activity in a range of 15.6 to 23.5 μg/ml against various carcinoma cell lines. In the current study, the optimizing condition for the production of cucubitacins E and I in Ecballium Elaterium and their biological activities as an antitumor and antimicrobial agent were evaluated.Keywords: Ecballium Elaterium, cucubitacins E, cucubitacins I, bioreactor, antitumo

Physiological and biochemical analyses shed light on the response of sargassum vulgare to ocean acidification at different time scales

Studies regarding macroalgal responses to ocean acidification (OA) are mostly limited to short-term experiments in controlled conditions, which hamper the possibility to scale up the observations to long-term effects in the natural environment. To gain a broader perspective, we utilized volcanic CO2 vents as a “natural laboratory” to study OA effects on Sargassum vulgare at different time scales. We measured photosynthetic rates, oxidative stress levels, antioxidant contents, antioxidant enzyme activities, and activities of oxidative metabolic enzymes in S. vulgare growing at a natural acidified site (pH 6.7) compared to samples from a site with current pH (pH 8.2), used as a control one. These variables were also tested in plants transplanted from the control to the acidified site and vice-versa. After short-term exposure, photosynthetic rates and energy metabolism were increased in S. vulgare together with oxidative damage. However, in natural populations under long-term conditions photosynthetic rates were similar, the activity of oxidative metabolic enzymes was maintained, and no sign of oxidative damages was observed. The differences in the response of the macroalga indicate that the natural population at the acidified site is adapted to live at the lowered pH. The results suggest that this macroalga can adopt biochemical and physiological strategies to grow in future acidified oceans

Stress-induced changes in the aged-rat adrenal cortex. Histological and histomorphometric study

Background: Stress exposure exerts direct effects on the morphology and functionality of the adrenal cortex. In addition, ageing effects growth, differentiation, apoptosis and cellularity of the cortex. The missing data is the combined effect of stress and ageing on the adrenal cortex. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the structural changes in the adrenal cortex following the exposure to stress in the adult and aged albino rats.   Materials and methods: Forty rats were divided into groups I and II (adult and senile). Each group was further subdivided into subgroups a and b (control and stressed). Light and electron microscopic studies were done. Area per cent of collagen fibres (Masson’s trichrome-stained sections), number of proliferating cells (optical density immunoreactivity in the Ki67 stained sections) and thickness of the three adrenal zones were also measured.   Results: Lamellar separation of the capsule with subcapsular spindle cell hyperplasia and areas of ghost cells were observed in zona glomerulosa (ZG) and zona fasciculata (ZF) in group I-b. Separation and indentation of the capsule with its lamellar separation were observed in group II-a with the existence of multiple scattered degenerative foci in ZF and zona reticularis (ZR). Similar and aggressive was the architectural pattern of ZF in group II-b with the presence of areas of homogenous degeneration. The nuclei of ZG had marginated chromatin in group I-b and were pyknotic with deformed irregular outlines in group II-b. Multiple lysosomes and vacuolar degeneration mitochondria were also seen in group I-b. The nuclei of ZF were irregular with condensed marginated heterochromatin in group I-b, irregular with scattered chromatin in group II-a and indented with areas of chromatin destruction in group II-b. Mitochondria with disrupted cristae and cristolysis were also detected in group I-b. Numerous lipofuscin granules and dilated smooth endoplasmic reticulum were revealed in group II-b. The mean collagen fibre area per cent and the mean number of the proliferating cells in group II-b were significantly higher by 39% and 23%. The thickness of ZG decreased significantly by 20% in group I-b. Contrary, the thickness of both ZF and ZR increased significantly by 10% in group I-b.   Conclusions: Histological alterations occurred in the adrenal cortex in response to stress, especially when coupled with the advance of age. This was accompanied by increase in the area per cent of collagen fibres and increase in the mean number of the proliferating cells in the adrenal cortex