Growth hormone secretory in healthy aged women and men of Tunisian population

With aging, men and women experience multiple hormonal changes, and in particular the activity of the growth hormone (GH)/insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) axis. This perturbation may be involved inaggravations of numerous abnormalities. In 64 healthy elderly, we determined the concentrations of GH in both sexes and its correlation with thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), the descriptive data, BMI,electrolytic assessment and some biochemical parameters. Collected data suggest that there was an age-dependent decrease in GH secretion. For TSH, there was a slight increase. The simple regressionanalysis revealed non-significant direct relation between these two hormones. We also found that BMI values were inversely related to the serum concentrations of these hormones. For the lipid metabolism,the positively correlated relation only exists between GH and total-cholesterol, on one hand, and between GH and LDL-cholesterol, on the other. For the other parameters such as glucose and triglycerides as well as HDL-cholesterol, this relation does not exist. For the BMI, this index shows a positively correlated relation with glucose and triglycerides. The electrolytic assessment shows that inmen, phosphorus was positively related to GH. In women, calcium and sodium were positively related to GH. Aging was found to be associated with decreased morning serum GH levels and slightly increased TSH levels in healthy elderly Tunisian population. Reduction of the GH-IGF-I axis in the elderly has important clinical implications. Indeed, this deficiency in GH could contribute to the decline of various functions associated with normal aging

A Spatiotemporal Approach in Detecting and Analyzing Hydro-climatic Change in Northwest Algeria

Understanding climatic behavior, particularly that of semi-arid regions, is essential in order to optimize water resources management and provide protection from climatic risks. Water resources have great socio-economic and environmental importance. This paper focuses on the statistical analysis of the rainfall regime of northwest Algeria and estimates its spatial distribution and temporal variation. To this end, time series and principal component analysis were performed on rainfall series recorded from 1913 to 2009, representing the annual precipitation from thirty meteorological stations to discover patterns and trends in the studied region. Furthermore, the applied spectral analysis of the time series reveals the existence of a period of approximately 97 years at all stations. ArcGIS along with statistical and analytical tools like SPSS and XLSTAT were utilized in this study of the climatic behavior in northwest Algeria

Chloroformic and Methanolic Extracts of Olea europaea L. Leaves Present Anti-Inflammatory and Analgesic Activities

Olea europaea L. is used in traditional medicine in the Mediterranean areas. Its natural products are used in the treatment of different disorders, like fighting fever and some infectious diseases such as malaria, the treatment of arrhythmia, and relief of intestinal spasms. The aim of the current study is to investigate the possible anti-inflammatory and anatinociceptive effects of methanol and chloroformic extracts prepared from leaves of Olea europaea L. The anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of the different extracts of Olea europaea leaves were assessed after intraperitoneal administration into rats and mice, using the carrageenan-induced paw edema model in rats to test the anti-inflammatory effect and the acetic acid-induced writhing in mice to test the analgesic effect. The chloroformic and methanolic leaves extracts, studied at the doses of 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg (Body Weight: BW), exhibited significant dose-dependent anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities. Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that Olea europaea leaves extracts have anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects

Investigation of CuIn1-xGaxSe2 thin films co-evaporated from two metal sources for photovoltaic solar cells

 CuIn1-xGaxSe2 (CIGS) thin films were grown by co-evaporation using two sources for the metal elements (Cu, Ga and In). A Mo coated soda lime glass substrates heated at 500 °C was used for the deposition. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirm that these films are polycrystalline with a chalcopyrite structure and showed homogeneous grain size estimate about 25 nm. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was performed to analyse the binding energy values of Ga3d and O1s onto CIGSe layers. The conductivity measurements in the temperature range of 40-400 K were carried out for 0.05≤ x ≤ 0.23. The effect of grain boundary scattering on the electrical transport played an important role in describing the transport processes in these films. The bowing factor is discussed taking into account the deposition techniques of CIGS films. It has been noticed that the open circuit voltage (Voc) is influenced by Ga content and the energy gap value of the absorber CIGS thin layers and yielded a poor efficiency of solar cells

The European Nitrogen Problem in a Global Perspective

Nature of the problem (science/management/policy): Reactive nitrogen has both positive and negative effects on ecosystem and human health. Reactive nitrogen is formed through the use of fossil fuels releasing large amounts of nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere and through the production of ammonia by the Haber-Bosch process and using it in agriculture to increase our food, feed and fuel production. While the use of nitrogen as a fertilizer has brought enormous benefits, losses of fertilizer nitrogen and combustion nitrogen to the environment lead to many side effects on human health, ecosystem health, biodiversity and climate. Approaches: The European nitrogen problem is placed in a global perspective, showing the European nitrogen fixation, transport and environmental impacts compared to different regions of the globe. Key findings/state of knowledge: An overview is provided of the nitrogen issues and challenges in Europe and places them in a broader global context. Europe is one of the leading producers of reactive nitrogen, but it is also the first region in the world where the issue was recognized and in some parts of Europe the reactive nitrogen losses to the environment started to decrease. There is a clear policy on reducing nitrogen oxide emissions that led to reductions by implementation of end of pipe technology. Fertilizer production and use decreased in Europe in the early 1990s, in particular, due to the economic recession in the Eastern part of Europe. Currently, the fertilizer use in EU25 is about 12 Mton, which is 4 Mton lower than in the 1980s and gradually increasing. The nitrogen use efficiency of nitrogen in the EU, defined as the net output of N in products divided by the net input is about 36%. This is lower than the world average (50%) as fertilization rates are much higher. Major uncertainties/challenges: The effects related to losses of nitrogen in Europe include the exceedance of critical loads and the resulting biodiversity loss, ground water pollution and eutrophication of ecosystems; eutrophication of open waters and coastal areas resulting in algae blooms and fish kills; increased levels of NOx and aerosols in the atmosphere resulting in human health impacts and climate change; and the increased emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide resulting in climate change. Nitrogen also affects the biogeochemical cycles of other components such as carbon. Recommendations (research/policy): The complexity of multi-pollutant ¿ multiple-effect interactions is a major hurdle to improving public awareness.JRC.H.1-Water Resource

Reliability analysis and inspection updating by stochastic response surface of fatigue cracks in mixed mode

The analysis of engineering structures under fatigue crack growth aims at ensuring an appropriate reliability level over the entire operational lifetime. This paper deals with a new approach, namely the Stochastic Response Surface, to couple finite element analysis and reliability methods. The stochastic collocation method provides an explicit expression of the limit state function related to fatigue failure. This expression is used in first and second order reliability methods in order to compute the failure probability at a given structural age. When inspection is carried out, the structural reliability can be easily updated in terms of the observed crack length. Two numerical applications dealing with fatigue crack growth are presented to illustrate the proposed method, showing its performance in terms of numerical efficiency and accuracy