Positive solutions for concave-convex elliptic problems involving p(x)p(x)-Laplacian

summary:We study the existence and nonexistence of positive solutions of the nonlinear equation $$-\Delta _{p(x)} u = \lambda k(x) u^{q} \pm h(x) u^r\ \text {in}\ \Omega ,\quad u=0\ \text {on}\ \partial \Omega$$ where $\Omega \subset \mathbb {R}^N$, $N\geq 2$, is a regular bounded open domain in $\mathbb {R}^N$ and the $p(x)$-Laplacian \Delta _{p(x)} u := \mbox {div}( |\nabla u|^{p(x)-2} \nabla u) is introduced for a continuous function $p(x)>1$ defined on $\Omega$. The positive parameter $\lambda$ induces the bifurcation phenomena. The study of the equation (Q) needs generalized Lebesgue and Sobolev spaces. In this paper, under suitable assumptions, we show that some variational methods still work. We use them to prove the existence of positive solutions to the problem (Q) in $W_0^{1,p(x)}(\Omega )$. When we prove the existence of minimal solution, we use the sub-super solutions method

Exploiting Mitochondrial Dysfunction for Effective Elimination of Imatinib-Resistant Leukemic Cells

Challenges today concern chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients resistant to imatinib. There is growing evidence that imatinib-resistant leukemic cells present abnormal glucose metabolism but the impact on mitochondria has been neglected. Our work aimed to better understand and exploit the metabolic alterations of imatinib-resistant leukemic cells. Imatinib-resistant cells presented high glycolysis as compared to sensitive cells. Consistently, expression of key glycolytic enzymes, at least partly mediated by HIF-1α, was modified in imatinib-resistant cells suggesting that imatinib-resistant cells uncouple glycolytic flux from pyruvate oxidation. Interestingly, mitochondria of imatinib-resistant cells exhibited accumulation of TCA cycle intermediates, increased NADH and low oxygen consumption. These mitochondrial alterations due to the partial failure of ETC were further confirmed in leukemic cells isolated from some imatinib-resistant CML patients. As a consequence, mitochondria generated more ROS than those of imatinib-sensitive cells. This, in turn, resulted in increased death of imatinib-resistant leukemic cells following in vitro or in vivo treatment with the pro-oxidants, PEITC and Trisenox, in a syngeneic mouse tumor model. Conversely, inhibition of glycolysis caused derepression of respiration leading to lower cellular ROS. In conclusion, these findings indicate that imatinib-resistant leukemic cells have an unexpected mitochondrial dysfunction that could be exploited for selective therapeutic intervention

Approche hybride pour la reconnaissance automatique de la parole en langue arabe

The development of a speech recognition system requires the availability of a large amount of resources namely, large corpora of text and speech, a dictionary of pronunciation. Nevertheless, these resources are not available directly for Arabic dialects. As a result, the development of a SRAP for Arabic dialects is fraught with many difficulties, namely the lack of large amounts of resources and the absence of a standard spelling as these dialects are spoken and not written. In this perspective, the work of this thesis is part of the development of a SRAP for the Tunisian dialect. A first part of the contributions consists in developing a variant of CODA (Conventional Orthography for Arabic Dialectal) for the Tunisian dialect. In fact, this convention is designed to provide a detailed description of the guidelines applied to the Tunisian dialect. Given the guidelines of CODA, we have created our corpus TARIC: Corpus of the interaction of the railways of the Tunisian Arab in the field of SNCFT. In addition to these resources, the pronunciation dictionary is indispensable for the development of a peech recognition system. In this regard, in the second part of the contributions, we aim at the creation of a system called conversion(Grapheme-Phonème) G2P which allows to automatically generate this phonetic dictionary. All these resources described before are used to adapt a SRAP for the MSA of the LIUM laboratory to the Tunisian dialect in the field of SNCFT. The evaluation of our system gave rise to WER of 22.6% on the test set.Le développement d'un système de reconnaissance de la parole exige la disponibilité d'une grande quantité de ressources à savoir, grands corpus de texte et de parole, un dictionnaire de prononciation. Néanmoins, ces ressources ne sont pas disponibles directement pour des dialectes arabes. De ce fait, le développement d'un SRAP pour les dialectes arabes se heurte à de multiples difficultés à savoir, l’'abence de grandes quantités de ressources et l'absence d’'une orthographe standard vu que ces dialectes sont parlés et non écrit. Dans cette perspective, les travaux de cette thèse s’intègrent dans le cadre du développement d’un SRAP pour le dialecte tunisien. Une première partie des contributions consiste à développer une variante de CODA (Conventional Orthography for Arabic Dialectal) pour le dialecte tunisien. En fait, cette convention est conçue dans le but de fournir une description détaillée des directives appliquées au dialecte tunisien. Compte tenu des lignes directives de CODA, nous avons constitué notre corpus nommé TARIC : Corpus de l’interaction des chemins de fer de l’arabe tunisien dans le domaine de la SNCFT. Outre ces ressources, le dictionnaire de prononciation s’impose d’une manière indispensable pour le développement d’un SRAP. À ce propos, dans la deuxième partie des contributions, nous visons la création d’un système nommé conversion (Graphème-Phonème) G2P qui permet de générer automatiquement ce dictionnaire phonétique. Toutes ces ressources décrites avant sont utilisées pour adapter un SRAP pour le MSA du laboratoire LIUM au dialecte tunisien dans le domaine de la SNCFT. L’évaluation de notre système donné lieu WER de 22,6% sur l’ensemble de test

Hybrid approach for automatic speech recognition for the Arabic language

Le développement d'un système de reconnaissance de la parole exige la disponibilité d'une grande quantité de ressources à savoir, grands corpus de texte et de parole, un dictionnaire de prononciation. Néanmoins, ces ressources ne sont pas disponibles directement pour des dialectes arabes. De ce fait, le développement d'un SRAP pour les dialectes arabes se heurte à de multiples difficultés à savoir, l’'abence de grandes quantités de ressources et l'absence d’'une orthographe standard vu que ces dialectes sont parlés et non écrit. Dans cette perspective, les travaux de cette thèse s’intègrent dans le cadre du développement d’un SRAP pour le dialecte tunisien. Une première partie des contributions consiste à développer une variante de CODA (Conventional Orthography for Arabic Dialectal) pour le dialecte tunisien. En fait, cette convention est conçue dans le but de fournir une description détaillée des directives appliquées au dialecte tunisien. Compte tenu des lignes directives de CODA, nous avons constitué notre corpus nommé TARIC : Corpus de l’interaction des chemins de fer de l’arabe tunisien dans le domaine de la SNCFT. Outre ces ressources, le dictionnaire de prononciation s’impose d’une manière indispensable pour le développement d’un SRAP. À ce propos, dans la deuxième partie des contributions, nous visons la création d’un système nommé conversion (Graphème-Phonème) G2P qui permet de générer automatiquement ce dictionnaire phonétique. Toutes ces ressources décrites avant sont utilisées pour adapter un SRAP pour le MSA du laboratoire LIUM au dialecte tunisien dans le domaine de la SNCFT. L’évaluation de notre système donné lieu WER de 22,6% sur l’ensemble de test.The development of a speech recognition system requires the availability of a large amount of resources namely, large corpora of text and speech, a dictionary of pronunciation. Nevertheless, these resources are not available directly for Arabic dialects. As a result, the development of a SRAP for Arabic dialects is fraught with many difficulties, namely the lack of large amounts of resources and the absence of a standard spelling as these dialects are spoken and not written. In this perspective, the work of this thesis is part of the development of a SRAP for the Tunisian dialect. A first part of the contributions consists in developing a variant of CODA (Conventional Orthography for Arabic Dialectal) for the Tunisian dialect. In fact, this convention is designed to provide a detailed description of the guidelines applied to the Tunisian dialect. Given the guidelines of CODA, we have created our corpus TARIC: Corpus of the interaction of the railways of the Tunisian Arab in the field of SNCFT. In addition to these resources, the pronunciation dictionary is indispensable for the development of a peech recognition system. In this regard, in the second part of the contributions, we aim at the creation of a system called conversion(Grapheme-Phonème) G2P which allows to automatically generate this phonetic dictionary. All these resources described before are used to adapt a SRAP for the MSA of the LIUM laboratory to the Tunisian dialect in the field of SNCFT. The evaluation of our system gave rise to WER of 22.6% on the test set

Influence of cellulose nanocrystals concentration and ionic strength on the elaboration of cellulose nanocrystals-xyloglucan multilayered thin films

International audienceThe effect of the variation of CNC concentration on the growth pattern of CNC-XG films is investigated. We found that a transition in the growth slope occurs at a CNC concentration of roughly 3-4 g L-1. A close effect can be obtained by the increase of the ionic strength of the CNC suspensions, suggesting that electrostatic interactions are involved. Static light scattering investigation of CNC dispersions at increasing concentrations demonstrated that the particle-particle interactions change as the CNC concentration increases. Neutron Reflectivity (NR) was used to probe the internal structure of the films. The increase of the CNC concentration as well as the increase of the ionic strength in the CNC suspension were found to induce a densification of the adsorbed CNC layers, even though the mechanisms are not strictly identical in both cases. Small changes in these parameters provide a straightforward way of controlling the architecture of CNC-based multilayered thin films and, as a result, their functional properties

Structurally colored nanometric thin films composed of plant cell wall polymers for enzymatic activities detection

International audienc

Exploring Architecture of Xyloglucan Cellulose Nanocrystal Complexes through Enzyme Susceptibility at Different Adsorption Regimes

Xyloglucan (XG) is believed to act as a cementing material that contributes to the cross-linking and mechanical properties of the cellulose framework in plant cell walls. XG can adsorb to the cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) surface in vitro in order to simulate this in vivo relationship. The target of our work was to investigate the sorption behavior of tamarind seed XG on CNC extracted from cotton linters at different XG/CNC concentration ratios, that is, different adsorption regimes regarding the XG–CNC complex organization and the enzymatic susceptibility of XG. First, we determined the adsorption isotherm. Second, XG–CNC complexes were enzymatically hydrolyzed using a xyloglucan-specific endoglucanase in order to quantify the different XG fractions involved in binding to CNC and to determine adsorption regimes, that is, presence of loops, tails, and trains. Finally, the architecture of the XG–CNC complex was investigated by transmission electron microscopy imaging of negatively stained XG–CNC suspensions and XG immunolabeled suspensions at different XG/CNC concentration ratios, both before and after xyloglucanase hydrolysis process. This study revealed that an increasing XG/CNC concentration ratio led to a change in the XG binding organization to CNC. At low XG/CNC concentration ratios, almost all XG chains were bound as trains to the CNC surface. In contrast, at increasing XG/CNC concentration ratios, the proportion of loops and tails increases. The organization change induces CNC aggregation to form a cellulose/XG network at low XG/CNC regimes, whereas CNC remains in the form of individual particles at higher XG/CNC regimes. Results are discussed both regarding the biological role of XG in plant cell walls and in the perspective of designing new biobased materials

Comparison of Two Quantitative Real Time PCR Assays for <i>Rickettsia</i> Detection in Patients from Tunisia

<div><p>Background and objectives</p><p>Quantitative real time PCR (qPCR) offers rapid diagnosis of rickettsial infections. Thus, successful treatment could be initiated to avoid unfavorable outcome. Our aim was to compare two qPCR assays for <i>Rickettsia</i> detection and to evaluate their contribution in early diagnosis of rickettsial infection in Tunisian patients.</p><p>Patients and methods</p><p>Included patients were hospitalized in different hospitals in Tunisia from 2007 to 2012. Serology was performed by microimmunofluorescence assay using <i>R. conorii</i> and <i>R. typhi</i> antigens. Two duplex qPCRs, previously reported, were performed on collected skin biopsies and whole blood samples. The first duplex amplified all <i>Rickettsia</i> species (PanRick) and <i>Rickettsia typhi</i> DNA (Rtt). The second duplex detected spotted fever group <i>Rickettsiae</i> (RC00338) and typhus group <i>Rickettsiae</i> DNA (Rp278).</p><p>Results</p><p>Diagnosis of rickettsiosis was confirmed in 82 cases (57.7%). Among 44 skin biopsies obtained from patients with confirmed diagnosis, the first duplex was positive in 24 samples (54.5%), with three patients positive by Rtt qPCR. Using the second duplex, positivity was noted in 21 samples (47.7%), with two patients positive by Rp278 qPCR. Among79 whole blood samples obtained from patients with confirmed diagnosis, panRick qPCR was positive in 5 cases (6.3%) among which two were positive by Rtt qPCR. Using the second set of qPCRs, positivity was noted in four cases (5%) with one sample positive by Rp278 qPCR. Positivity rates of the two duplex qPCRs were significantly higher among patients presenting with negative first serum than those with already detectable antibodies.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Using qPCR offers a rapid diagnosis. The PanRick qPCR showed a higher sensitivity. Our study showed that this qPCR could offer a prompt diagnosis at the early stage of the disease. However, its implementation in routine needs cost/effectiveness evaluation.</p></div