Morphologic studies of the Moon and planets

The impact, volcanic, and tectonic history of the Moon and planets were investigated over an eight year period. Research on the following topics is discussed: lunar craters, lunar basins, lunar volcanoes, correlation of Apollo geochemical data, lunar geology, Mars desert landforms, and Mars impact basins

Desert landforms of southwest Egypt: A basis for comparison with Mars

Geologic interpretations of The Gilf Kebir-Uweinat of Apollo-Soyuz photographs were verified. The photographs and LANDSAT images showed features reminiscent of those depicted by Mariner and Viking missions to Mars. These features were to better understand their morphologic analogs on Mars. It is indicated that climate change played a significant role in the formation of the eastern Sahara. It is also revealed that correlations between the eolian features in southwestern Egypt and the wind blown patterns on the surface of Mars result in a better understanding of eolian activity on both planets

Characterization of anomalous Zeeman patterns in complex atomic spectra

The modeling of complex atomic spectra is a difficult task, due to the huge number of levels and lines involved. In the presence of a magnetic field, the computation becomes even more difficult. The anomalous Zeeman pattern is a superposition of many absorption or emission profiles with different Zeeman relative strengths, shifts, widths, asymmetries and sharpnesses. We propose a statistical approach to study the effect of a magnetic field on the broadening of spectral lines and transition arrays in atomic spectra. In this model, the sigma and pi profiles are described using the moments of the Zeeman components, which depend on quantum numbers and Land\'{e} factors. A graphical calculation of these moments, together with a statistical modeling of Zeeman profiles as expansions in terms of Hermite polynomials are presented. It is shown that the procedure is more efficient, in terms of convergence and validity range, than the Taylor-series expansion in powers of the magnetic field which was suggested in the past. Finally, a simple approximate method to estimate the contribution of a magnetic field to the width of transition arrays is proposed. It relies on our recently published recursive technique for the numbering of LS-terms of an arbitrary configuration.Comment: submitted to Physical Review

HEALING POTENCY OF HAEMATOCOCCUS PLUVIALIS EXTRACT FOR TREATING TYPE 2 DIABETES IN RATS

Objective: The present study aims to evaluate the antidiabetic effect of ethanolic extract of Haematococcus pluvialis (H. pluvialis) in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats.Methods: The antidiabetic activity of H. pluvialis was investigated by the determination of glucose and insulin levels, aspartate (AST), alanine transaminases (ALT), lipid profile including total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and high-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C). Histopathological examination of pancreas and liver were also carried out.Results: The results revealed that the levels of glucose, TC, TG, LDL-C as well as AST and ALT enzyme activities were increased significantly in diabetic rats. While, insulin and HDL-C levels decreased significantly in STZ-induced diabetic rats. The remediation of diabetic rats with H. pluvialis attenuated the elevated levels of glucose, TC, TG, LDL-C as well as AST and ALT activities in diabetic rats. Besides, it improved insulin, HDL-C levels, pancreas and hepatic architectures.Conclusion: H. pluvialis extract has a promising antidiabetic potency through attenuation of several metabolic disorders associated diabetes

Neurophysiological markers predicting recovery of standing in humans with chronic motor complete spinal cord injury

The appropriate selection of individual-specific spinal cord epidural stimulation (scES) parameters is crucial to re-enable independent standing with self-assistance for balance in individuals with chronic, motor complete spinal cord injury, which is a key achievement toward the recovery of functional mobility. To date, there are no available algorithms that contribute to the selection of scES parameters for facilitating standing in this population. Here, we introduce a novel framework for EMG data processing that implements spectral analysis by continuous wavelet transform and machine learning methods for characterizing epidural stimulation-promoted EMG activity resulting in independent standing. Analysis of standing data collected from eleven motor complete research participants revealed that independent standing was promoted by EMG activity characterized by lower median frequency, lower variability of median frequency, lower variability of activation pattern, lower variability of instantaneous maximum power, and higher total power. Additionally, the high classification accuracy of assisted and independent standing allowed the development of a prediction algorithm that can provide feedback on the effectiveness of muscle-specific activation for standing promoted by the tested scES parameters. This framework can support researchers and clinicians during the process of selection of epidural stimulation parameters for standing motor rehabilitation

Precise Cerebrovascular Segmentation

© 2020 IEEE. Analyzing cerebrovascular changes using Time-of-Flight Magnetic Resonance Angiography (ToF-MRA) images can detect the presence of serious diseases and track their progress, e.g., hypertension. Such analysis requires accurate segmentation of the vasculature from the surroundings, which motivated us to propose a fully automated cerebral vasculature segmentation approach based on extracting both prior and current appearance features that capture the appearance of macro and micro-vessels. The appearance prior is modeled with a novel translation and rotation invariant Markov-Gibbs Random Field (MGRF) of voxel intensities with pairwise interaction analytically identified from a set of training data sets, while the current appearance is represented with a marginal probability distribution of voxel intensities by using a Linear Combination of Discrete Gaussians (LCDG) whose parameters are estimated by a modified Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm. The proposed approach was validated on 190 data sets using three metrics, which revealed high accuracy compared to existing approaches

NEURORESTORATIVE MULBERRIES POTENTIAL OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE IN ANIMAL MODEL

Objective: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders. The present study aimed to identify the potential neurorestorative of Morus alba and Morus rubra fruits extract on aluminum chloride (AlCl3)-induced AD rats.Methods: Each Morus species extract M. alba and M. rubra at a dose 300 mg/kg body weight (b.wt.) was orally administered, daily for 6 weeks post AlCl3 induction (100 mg/kg b.wt./day/6 weeks, orally). The polyphenols content was determined according to the colorimetric method of Folin–Ciocalteu using gallic acid as a standard. In addition, brain neurotransmitters, total protein content (TPC), and antioxidant biomarkers were determined. Histopathological assessment was performed on the brains of rats.Results: Administration of AlCl3 neurotoxicity induced a significant increment of brain acetylcholinesterase, and nitric oxide, while significant decrease in four monoamines (norepinephrine, epinephrine, 5-hydroxytryptamine serotonin, and dopamin), along with brain tissue ATPase, and TPC were determined. AlCl3-induced changes in peroxidative products, such as protein carbonyl, catalase, and superoxide dismutase activity. AlCl3 induction resulted in significant decrease in antioxidant enzymes, serum level of total antioxidant capacity, and caused histological alteration for brain tissue. Treatment of AD-rats with M. alba and M. rubra (300 mg/kg b.wt./day) causes modulation of most biochemical markers brain function and confirmed by brain histopathological study.Conclusion: Collectively, the present results indicated that M. rubra and M. alba exerts neuroprotection against AlCl3-induced brain pathology. To the best of our knowledge, none of the literature studies have demonstrated the effect of these Morus species against Al-neurotoxicity at biochemical and electron microscopic levels

POTENTIAL ROLE OF HAEMATOCOCCUS PLUVIALIS AGAINST DIABETES INDUCED OXIDATIVE STRESS AND INFLAMMATION IN RATS

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of Haematococcus pluvialis extract against oxidative stress and inflammatory cytokines induced by hyperglycemia in diabetic rats.Methods: Oxidative stress; lipid peroxide (as presented by Malondialdehyde; MDA) and nitric oxide (NO), beside total antioxidant capacity, enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants including reduced glutathione, glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione reductase were evaluated. The inflammatory cytokines; tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-1 beta were also investigated in rats' serum. Several analyses including expression of antioxidant enzyme related genes, reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation and DNA adducts were performed.Results: The results showed that diabetes mellitus induced-rats exhibited increase in oxidative stress biomarkers and inflammatory cytokines, lower expression levels of the antioxidant enzyme genes; superoxide dismutase and glutathione S-transferase than those in control rats. In addition, diabetic rats exhibited significantly higher levels of ROS generation and 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) formation. In contrary, supplementation of diabetic rats with H. pluvialis extract improved the negative effect of the hyperglycemia on antioxidant enzymes, the gene expression of antioxidant enzymes, and ROS generation as well as 8-OHdG formation.Conclusion: H. pluvialis extract decreased the oxidative stress, enhanced antioxidant status and inflammatory cytokines induced by hyperglycemia in diabetic rats. The effect of H. pluvialis extract involved in the increase of expression levels of antioxidant enzyme genes; decreased the levels of ROS generation and 8-OHdG formation which may be attributed to the presence of astaxanthin in H. pluvialis extract.Keywords: Haematococcus pluvialis, Hyperglycemia, Diabetes mellitus, Oxidative stress, Inflammatory cytokines, DNA adducts

Towards responsible conflict minerals supply chain management: A systematic literature review and a supply chain governance framework

Abstract Purpose –Literature on conflict minerals supply chain management issues has witnessed a significant surge during the last decade. The authors review how CM research addressed supply chain issues over the last decades and present a critical assessment of such literature based on supply chain governance theory. Design/methodology/approach – A systematic literature review approach was adopted and a sample of 122 papers was identified in relevant journals. A descriptive, thematic and content analysis of the papers is presented to delineate the structure and the main research clusters of the literature. Findings – The authors provide a comprehensive assessment of CMSC literature and identify four main research clusters. Most research has focused on operational practices and adopted a fragmented approach to CMSC issues. Accordingly, the authors provide research propositions related to under-explored aspects in extant literature. Implications – This study has a number of implications. Practitioners and researchers will gain a greater understanding of specific CMSC issues have been addressed in current literature, and how responsible CMSC actions can be implemented. Originality/value – This study is one of the first literature reviews of publications on CMSC from a supply chain governance perspective. This review presents an overarching map of CMSC literature and a series of propositions to inform future research. Keywords –conflict minerals, literature review, supply chain due diligence, responsible supply chain management, supply chain governance, conflict resources

Citric Acid Optimization by Candida tropicalis under Submerged Fermentation Conditions Using a Plackett-Burman Design

Citric acid production by fermentation is the most widely used way of obtaining it. The effects of some medium components were evaluated for Citric acid fermentation during the 1930s and 1940s.This work aimed to optimize citric acid by Candida tropicalis under submerged fermentation conditions using Plackett-Burman design. Some factors were tested as main variables affecting citric acid production using Plackett-Burman design. The results showed that incubation period of 7 days and pH 7; sodium acetate (10g/L), magnesium sulfate (1.5g/L), potassium phosphate (5g/L), ammonium chloride (3g/L), ferric sulfate(140mg/L), manganese sulfate (50 mg/L), zinc sulfate (80 mg/L), yeast extract (5.0g/L), glucose (150g/L), aeration ratio (75ml medium/ flask 250ml) were the most effective conditions for the highest yield of citric acid. The highest citric acid concentration was 30.0 g/L of the medium under the aforementioned conditions