Brain Tumor Growth Modelling .

Prediction methods of Glioblastoma tumors growth constitute a hard task due to the lack of medical data, which is mostly related to the patients’ privacy, the cost of collecting a large medical dataset, and the availability of related notations by experts. In this thesis, we study and propose a Synthetic Medical Image Generator (SMIG) with the purpose of generating synthetic data based on Generative Adversarial Network in order to provide anonymized data. In addition, to predict the Glioblastoma multiform (GBM) tumor growth we developed a Tumor Growth Predictor (TGP) based on End to End Convolution Neural Network architecture that allows training on a public dataset from The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA), combined with the generated synthetic data. We also highlighted the impact of implicating a synthetic data generated using SMIG as a data augmentation tool. Despite small data size provided by TCIA dataset, the obtained results demonstrate valuable tumor growth prediction accurac

EFFICACY OF EXTRACTS OF SOME PLANTS IN AVOIDING FUNGAL DISEASES OF STORED CEREALS

ABSTRACT   Objective: Plant metabolites and plant-based pesticides appear to be one of the better alternatives to the synthetic pesticides. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the antifungal properties of the aqueous, ethanolic, methanolic and chloroform extracts of the leaves and stems of five wild plants (Astrachantha echinus; Seriphidium herba-album; Peganum harmala; Diplotaxis acris and Tamarix aphylla) collected from Tabuk deserts of KSA, against seed-born mycoflora isolated from stored corn, wheat and barley grains.Methods: In vitro antifungal activities of the 5 extracts were tested using the poisoned food technique.  Separation  of    the different    fractions    from selected extracts were carried out using Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC). High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) was used to characterize the separated fractions and estimate the in vivo reduction in mycotoxins levels due to plants extracts.Results: Most of these extracts significantly suppressed radial growth of the tested fungi in vitro with varying levels and/or caused their complete inhibition (100%, P ≤ 0.01). Results of separation of selected extracts using TLC, and then their characterization by HPLC analysis revealed that these promising extracts  were rich in p-Coumaric acid, Catechin, Caffeic acid, Cinnamic acid, Ferulic acid, Vanillic acid and Gallic acid in concentrations ranging from 97.0 µg mL-1 (Vanillic acid) to 471.1 µg mL-1 (Gallic acid).  In addition, methanolic, ethanolic extracts of Astrachantha echinus and Seriphidium herba-album plants showed potent in vivo antimycotoxigenic activity (P ≤ 0.01) against toxigenic isolates of Apergillus flavus and Fusarium verticillioides in comparison with the synthetic fungicide.Conclusion: These novel methanolic, ethanolic extracts of Astrachantha echinus and Seriphidium herba-album plants could be commercially used as worldwide ecofriendly phytofungicides to prevent fungal biodeterioration of cereals; prevent mycotoxins production and/ or decreasing them to an acceptable level; displace the use of synthetic fungicides and high cost refrigeration of cereals during storage

INSECTICIDAL AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES OF AQUEOUS EXTRACTS OF TWO ALGERIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS

In this work, we determined the insecticidal activity and antioxidant activity of aqueous extracts of Nerium oleander (Apocynaceae) leaves and Peganum harmala (Zygophyllaceae) seeds, two well-known Algerian medicinal plants. Four concentrations of each extract were applied in total randomization by spraying directly on the eggs and larvae of Ectomyelois ceratoniae (Zeller, 1879) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) under laboratory conditions. Our findings revealed that eggs hatching after four days were not affected by the aqueous extract, with a rate of 54% of hatching eggs in both control and treated eggs. Additionally, toxicity by contact on larvae was not evident and the mortality percentage did not exceed 8%, regardless of the extract plant and concentration. Phytochemical screening showed a slight presence of terpenes and saponins and an absence of alkaloids. However, polyphenols were present in medium concentrations in the aqueous extracts of both plants. The antioxidant activities of N. oleander and P. harmala extracts were found to be 71.80 and 72.94%, respectively. Total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) of the studied extracts were 50.69 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/100 g dry weight (DW) and 3.55 in terms of quercetin equivalent (QE)/100 g DW, respectively, in N. oleander. In P. harmala, the TPC and TFC were 52.30 mg GAE/100 g DW and 3.49 mg QE/100 g DW, respectively. Our study clearly shows the limited insecticidal effect of the aqueous extracts, although they showed an interesting antioxidant potential, which could help to decrease the incidence of oxidative stress-induced damage

Extraction de relations : Exploiter des techniques complémentaires pour mieux s'adapter au type de texte

Extraire des relations d'hyperonymie à partir des textes est une des étapes clés de la construction automatique d'ontologies et du peuplement de bases de connaissances. Plusieurs types de méthodes (linguistiques, statistiques, combinées) ont été exploités par une variété de propositions dans la littérature. Les apports respectifs et la complémentarité de ces méthodes sont cependant encore mal identifiés pour optimiser leur combinaison. Dans cet article, nous nous intéressons à la complémentarité de deux méthodes de nature différente, l'une basée sur les patrons linguistiques, l'autre sur l'apprentissage supervisé, pour identifier la relation d'hyperonymie à travers différents modes d'expression. Nous avons appliqué ces méthodes à un sous-corpus de Wikipedia en français, composé des pages de désambiguïsation. Ce corpus se prête bien à la mise en oeuvre des deux approches retenues car ces textes sont particulièrement riches en relations d'hyperonymie, et contiennent à la fois des formulations rédigées et d'autres syntaxiquement pauvres. Nous avons comparé les résultats des deux méthodes prises indépendamment afin d'établir leurs performances respectives, et de les comparer avec le résultat des deux méthodes appliquées ensemble. Les meilleurs résultats obtenus correspondent à ce dernier cas de figure avec une F-mesure de 0.68. De plus, l'extracteur Wikipedia issu de ce travail permet d'enrichir la ressource sémantique DBPedia en français : 55% des relations identifiées par notre extracteur ne sont pas déjà présentes dans DBPedia

Cryopreservation Counseling and Its Effect on Knowledge and Attitude of Young Female Cancer Patients

Background: Purpose: This study was conducted with the purpose of assessing the effect of cryopreservation counseling on knowledge and attitude of young female cancer patients. Methods: Research Design: A quasi-experimental design (with pre and post test).  Tools: Three instruments were used throughout the course of this study: (I) interviewing questionnaire, (II) knowledge assessment sheet and (III) attitude scale. Main results: There was a highly statistically significant difference between knowledge and attitude scores at the pre and post test. Conclusion: both study hypotheses were accepted. Young female cancer patients' score of knowledge about cryopreservation was increased after counseling as compared to before. Young female cancer patients' score of attitude about cryopreservation was increased after counseling as compared to before. Recommendations: The present study can be replicated on a large sample to act as a baseline data for pre-treatment program for raising awareness about fertility preservation. Female with cancer should be managed through a multidisciplinary approach and should receive counseling from an obstetrician and gynecologist about possible effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Keywords: cryopreservation, counseling, knowledge, attitude and cancer patients

Sinteza, protuupalno, analgetsko i antikonvulzivno djelovanje 1,8-dihidro-1-aril-8-alkil pirazolo(3,4-b)indola

A series of 1,8-dihydro-1-aryl-8-alkyl pyrazolo(3,4-b)indoles 4a-j, 5a-j and 6a-j has been synthesized and tested for their anti-inflammatory and anticonvulsant activities. Formation of the pyrazoloindole derivatives was achieved by treating arylhydrazones of N-alkyl indole-3-carboxaldehydes 1a-j, 2a-j and 3a-j with ten times their mass of polyphosphoric acid as a condensing agent. The newly synthesized compounds were evaluated for their anti-inflammatory, analgesic and anticonvulsant activities compared to indomethacin, flufenamic acid and diazepam as positive controls. Detailed synthesis, spectroscopic and toxicity data are reported.Serija 1,8-dihidro-1-aril-8-alkil pirazolo(3,4-b)indola 4a-j, 5a-j i 6a-j sintetizirana je i testirana na protuupalno i antikonvulzivno djelovanje. Pirazolindol derivati pripravljeni su reakcijom arilhidrazona N-alkil indol-3-karboksaldehida 1a-j, 2a-j i 3a-j s deset puta većom masom polifosforne kiseline kao sredstva za kondenzaciju. Novosintetizirani spojevi testirani su na protuupalno, analgetsko i antikonvulzivno djelovanje i uspoređeni s djelovanjem indometacina, flufenaminske kiseline i diazepama. U radu su dati detaljni sintetski, spektroskopski i toksikološki podaci

Therapeutic potential of dexamethasone Nano chitosan synthesized from chitosan as a novel treatment of pulmonary fibrosis in C57BL/6 mice

Back ground: Pulmonary fibrosis is an irreversible disease with excessive scarring and fibrosis of lung tissue. Glucocorticoid therapy of dexamethasone attenuates lung inflammation with severe adverse effects. Subsequently, synthesizing Nano chitosan from chitosan macromolecule and loading dexamethasone onto Nano chitosan particles have shown improved pharmacokinetics of dexamethasone. Purpose: The aim of this study was to prepare and characterize dexamethasone Nano chitosan particles chemically and then to evaluate the effectiveness of loading dexamethasone onto Nano chitosan as a treatment of pulmonary injury induced by bleomycin-induced in C57BL/6 mice. Results: This study elucidated significant elevations of serum malondialdehyde and lactate dehydrogenase with an increased lung tissue inflammatory mediators, collagen profile, Caspase-3, and MUC5AC gene expressions. This was accompanied by a significant elevation in total and differential leukocyte counts in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. Besides, there were recognized histological and histopathological alterations in lung tissue sections following both 14 and 28 days of bleomycin instillation. Consequently, treatment of lung injury by dexamethasone alone or dexamethasone loaded onto Nano chitosan particles revealed a significant reduction of MDA and LDH, a decline in lung tissue inflammatory mediators, collagen profile, Caspase-3, and MUC5AC gene expressions. This was accompanied by a significant reduction in total and differential leukocyte counts in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. However, loading dexamethasone onto Nano chitosan provided novel insights in pulmonary injury treatmen

Efficient Flatness Based Energy Management Strategy for Hybrid Supercapacitor/Lithium-ion Battery Power System

This article offers a flatness theory-based energy management strategy (FEMS) for a hybrid power system consisting of a supercapacitor (SC) and lithium-ion battery. The proposed FEMS intends to allocate the power reference for the DC/DC converters of both the battery and SC while attaining higher effciency and stable DC bus voltage. First, the entire system model is analyzed theoretically under the differential flatness approach to reduce the model order as a at system. Second, the proposed FEMS is validated under different load conditions using MATLAB/Simulink. Thus, this FEMS provides high-quality energy to the load and reduces the fluctuations in the bus voltage. Moreover, the performance of the FEMS is compared with the load following (LF) strategy. The obtained results show that the proposed FEMS meet the real load power under fast variations with good power quality compared to the classical LF strategy, where the maximum overshoot of the bus voltage is 5%

Maxi dual axis solar tracker system

In this work, a maxi dual axis solar tracker is proposed. This tracker is used to track the sun path within a day and during a year. The tracking system is composed of two parts: mechanical and electrical parts. The mechanical part is composed of panel carrier, panel carrier rotator according to horizontal/vertical axis, two actuators. The electrical part is composed of light sensor, microcontroller, relays. The light sensor receives an artificial light and sends a potential difference as an analog signal to microcontroller. The microcontroller converts the analog signal into a digital signal using ADC and sends it to relays. The relays activate the two actuators to orient the maxi solar PV into the artificial light with the purpose to produce maximum energy

Anticancer property of hexane extract of Suaeda fruticose plant leaves against different cancer cell lines

Purpose: To evaluate the bioactivity of hexane extract of S. fruticosa leaves against the cancer cell lines HepG2, MCF-7, and HCT-116, and to determine the chemical composition-function relationship. Methods: Using the liquid-liquid extraction method, the nonpolarL constituent compounds were isolated from the leaves. The cytotoxicity of the hexane extract was evaluated using an SRB assay. Mechanism of action was verified by observing the appearance of apoptotic bodies using fluorescence microscopy, while anti-proliferative activity was assayed via flow cytometry. Results: The results revealed that secondary metabolites in the hexane extract demonstrated the highest cytotoxicity, and thus anticancer activity, against HCT-116 cells, with an IC50 of 17.15 ± 0.78 mg/mL. The presence of apoptotic bodies indicate an ability to induce apoptosis. Flow cytometry results suggest that the secondary metabolites stalled the cell cycle at the G0/G1 phase. Conclusion: The results indicate that S. fruticosa hexane extract may be considered a potential new source of the anti-cancer compound, momilactone B. Keywords: Anticancer, Apoptosis, Colon Cancer, Liver cancer, Breast cancer, Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, Suaeda fruticose, Momilactone