Women of Maghrebi Origins’ Constructions of Well-Being in France: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis

The aim of the study is to explore how women of Maghrebi origins construct well-being in France, by adopting a Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA). In the first chapter, a critical review of the literature is offered, which highlights how ethnic minorities’ well-being is produced. Constructions of Muslim/Maghrebi women as depicted in society and literature and analysed through a poststructuralist perspective. To understand the conditions of possibility out of which these constructions have emerged, the social, cultural and political context is presented. A brief historicity of migration from the Maghreb is outlined. A moderate social constructionist epistemological position was adopted throughout this thesis in order to allow for the exploration of the constructed nature of well-being. In line with FDA, discourses and subject positions taken up and resisted by women of Maghrebi origins are identified and described. Implications for subjectivity and practices are presented. Processes of subjectification and technologies of the self are attended to. The study then presents the analysis which made use of semi-structured interviews to explore how eight women of Maghrebi origins construct well-being. The transcripts were analysed using FDA. This research identified that women of Maghrebi origins construct well-being in three main ways. They produced well-being by positioning themselves within western knowledges. Simultaneously, they made sense of well-being by drawing upon Maghrebi/Islamic traditions. And lastly, well-being was generated by amalgamating both western and Maghrebi/Western discourses. Women of Maghrebi origins equally created coping strategies to enhance well-being. In this sense, multifaceted ways of constructing well-being co-exist. This research recommends that counselling psychology should be exported to France in order to encourage the development of more pluralistic and intercultural approaches

Voltage based spike-timing dependent myelin plasticity

There is an increasing body of evidence from both in vivo studies (Varela et al., 2001; Wang, 2010; Siegel, Donner, & Engel, 2010) and simulated networks (Izhikevich & Edelman, 2008; Noori et al. 2020) that the brain's processing requires synchronization of spike arrival times. One of the most promising mechanisms suggested to meet this requirement is compensating myelination, where adaptive levels of myelin insulation reduce longer conduction delays to synchronize with shorter ones (Salami et al., 2003; Vicente et al., 2008; Seidl, 2014). This compensation is produced through homeostatic regulation of myelin levels, converging onto a particular level of myelin for a given phase-locked pattern of stimulation (Domingues et al. 2016, Noori et al. 2020). We introduce a plausible biological mechanism for the regulation of activity dependent myelin plasticity, and a computational model of this mechanism which ultimately produces stable, homeostatic dynamics analogous to voltage-based STDP models. Our model synchronizes coherently out-of-phase inputs via changes in conduction velocity, and makes predictions about the proteins, neurotransmitters, and ions involved in adaptive CNS myelin plasticity.Published versio

A molecular insight into algal-oomycete warfare : cDNA analysis of Ectocarpus siliculosus infected with the basal oomycete Eurychasma dicksonii

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Novel image–novel location object recognition task sensitive to age-related cognitive decline in nondemented elderly

Traditional tests used in the clinic to identify dementia, such as the mini-mental state examination (MMSE), are useful to identify severe cognitive impairments but might be less sensitive to detect more subtle age-related cognitive changes. Previously, the novel image–novel location (NINL) object recognition test was shown to be sensitive to detect effects of apolipoprotein E4, a risk factor for developing age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease, in nondemented elderly. In the present longitudinal study, performance on the MMSE and the NINL tests were compared over a 4-year period. Individual NINL scores over this period were highly correlated. In addition, while MMSE scores did not change over the 4-year period, NINL scores did. In a final testing session of a subset of the participants, NINL scores correlated with logical memory and word recall lists, cognitive tasks used to detect dementia in the clinic, as well as clinical dementia rating scales. These results support that the NINL might be a valuable tool to assess age-related cognitive decline

Fucose-Containing Sulfated Polysaccharides from Brown Seaweeds Inhibit Proliferation of Melanoma Cells and Induce Apoptosis by Activation of Caspase-3 in Vitro

Fucose-containing sulfated polysaccharides (FCSPs) extracted from seaweeds, especially brown macro-algae, are known to possess essential bioactive properties, notably growth inhibitory effects on tumor cells. In this work, we conducted a series of in vitro studies to examine the influence of FCSPs products from Sargassum henslowianum C. Agardh (FSAR) and Fucus vesiculosus (FVES), respectively, on proliferation of melanoma B16 cells and to investigate the underlying apoptosis promoting mechanisms. Cell viability analysis showed that both FCSPs products, i.e., FSAR and FVES, decreased the proliferation of the melanoma cells in a dose-response fashion, with FSAR being more potent at lower dosages, and FVES being relatively more anti-proliferative than FSAR at higher dosages. Flow cytometric analysis by Annexin V staining of the melanoma cells exposed to the FCSPs products confirmed that both FSAR and FVES induced apoptosis. The FCSPs-induced apoptosis was evidenced by loss of plasma membrane asymmetry and translocation of the cell membrane phospholipids and was accompanied by the activation of caspase-3. The FCSPs bioactivity is proposed to be attributable to distinct structural features of the FCSPs, particularly the presence of sulfated galactofucans (notably in S. henslowianum) and sulfated fucans (notably in F. vesiculosus). This study thus indicates that unfractionated FCSPs may exert bioactive effects on skin cancer cells via induction of apoptosis through cascades of reactions that involve activation of caspase-3

Important Determinants for Fucoidan Bioactivity: A Critical Review of Structure-Function Relations and Extraction Methods for Fucose-Containing Sulfated Polysaccharides from Brown Seaweeds

Seaweeds—or marine macroalgae—notably brown seaweeds in the class Phaeophyceae, contain fucoidan. Fucoidan designates a group of certain fucose-containing sulfated polysaccharides (FCSPs) that have a backbone built of (1→3)-linked α-l-fucopyranosyl or of alternating (1→3)- and (1→4)-linked α-l-fucopyranosyl residues, but also include sulfated galactofucans with backbones built of (1→6)-β-d-galacto- and/or (1→2)-β-d-mannopyranosyl units with fucose or fuco-oligosaccharide branching, and/or glucuronic acid, xylose or glucose substitutions. These FCSPs offer several potentially beneficial bioactive functions for humans. The bioactive properties may vary depending on the source of seaweed, the compositional and structural traits, the content (charge density), distribution, and bonding of the sulfate substitutions, and the purity of the FCSP product. The preservation of the structural integrity of the FCSP molecules essentially depends on the extraction methodology which has a crucial, but partly overlooked, significance for obtaining the relevant structural features required for specific biological activities and for elucidating structure-function relations. The aim of this review is to provide information on the most recent developments in the chemistry of fucoidan/FCSPs emphasizing the significance of different extraction techniques for the structural composition and biological activity with particular focus on sulfate groups

Characterization techniques for studying the properties of nanocarriers for systemic delivery

Nanocarriers have attracted a huge interest in the last decade as efficient drug delivery systems and diagnostic tools. They enable effective, targeted, controlled delivery of therapeutic molecules while lowering the side effects caused during the treatment. The physicochemical properties of nanoparticles determine their in vivo pharmacokinetics, biodistribution and tolerability. The most analyzed among these physicochemical properties are shape, size, surface charge and porosity and several techniques have been used to characterize these specific properties. These different techniques assess the particles under varying conditions, such as physical state, solvents etc. and as such probe, in addition to the particles themselves, artifacts due to sample preparation or environment during measurement. Here, we discuss the different methods to precisely evaluate these properties, including their advantages or disadvantages. In several cases, there are physical properties that can be evaluated by more than one technique. Different strengths and limitations of each technique complicate the choice of the most suitable method, while often a combinatorial characterization approach is needed