Comparing the Image of Man between the Islamic and Western Sources

أهداف البحث: يهدف البحث إلى الكشف عن أصول مفهوم الإنسان التي ينضبط بها تعريفه في القرآن الكريم والسنة النبوية الشريفة وهي: "الفكر والغرائز والعقائد والأعمال" للكشف عن مختلف مراتبه العليا: كالرجولة والمروءة والفتوة والرجـل الأمة، ومراتبه الدنيا: كالإنسان الذي يحمل طباع الثعلب أو الطاووس أو الكلب..  ويضعه  كمعيار أثناء تتبع السيرة الذاتية له في الحقول المعرفية، بغية تذكير الآدميين بالمفهوم الأصل -إنسان الفطرة-، علها تحافظ على ما تبقى منه وتنقذ الحضارة الآدمية من "الفتنة والنكبة والهلاك". منهج الدراسة: يقوم البحث على المنهج التحليلي الاستنباطي إذا تعلق الأمر بتحليل المفاهيم، والمنهج النقدي المقارن أثناء الموازنة بين الحقول المعرفية والشعب العلمية، والمنهج الاستقرائي كلما استدعى الأمر فحص علاقة المفاهيم بالواقع. النتائج: أبرز البحث مكانة مفهوم الإنسان؛ فالقرآن الكريم موجه للإنسان، ومنه فالنهضة تبدأ بإعادة بنائه، فالنهضة لها أربعة وجوه: نهضة فكرية ونهضة غريزية ونهضة عقدية، ونهضة عملية، وكل هذا يكون بالتربية الدينية، بداية بالتربية الإسلامية وأركان الإسلام ثم التربية الإيمانية وأركان الإيمان ثم التربية الإحسانية وأركان الإحسان، لأنها تنتج أربع صور بمثابة مراتب أخلاقية: صورة الرجولة والمروءة والفتوة وصورة الرجل الأمة، لهذا يوصي البحث بتأسيس منظومة تربوية، تحكمها هذه المراحل. أصالة البحث: تظهر أصالة البحث في كونه أول بحث أكاديمي يربط مفهوم الإنسان بالتجارب الدينية الإسـلامية الثلاثة: التجربة الإسلامية والإيمانية والإحسانية وما ينتج عنها من مدارج تضع الإنسان في مراتب: الرجولة المروءة والفتوة والرجل الأمة.Purpose: The study aims to uncover the principles of the concept of Man, defined in the Holy Quran and the Prophet's Sunnah, namely, his thought, instincts, beliefs and actions to reveal his various higher characteristics: masculinity, virility, chivalry, and being a comprehensive leader. This is in addition to his lower characteristics such as being a man who carries the nature of a fox, a peacock or a dog. It sets them as standards while tracing Man’s biography in the fields of knowledge, in order to remind human beings of the original concept - human instinct – in an attempt to preserve what is left of it and save human civilization from "fitnah (disorder), calamity and destruction." Methodology: The study is based on the deductive analytical method when it comes to analysis of concepts, the comparative critical method when balancing between fields of knowledge and scientific divisions, and the inductive method whenever it is necessary to examine the relationship of concepts to reality. Findings: The study highlights the place of the concept of man. The Holy Quran targets the human being. Renaissance begins by rebuilding Man, and has four aspects: intellectual, instinctive, doctrinal, and a practical renaissance. All are achieved by religious education, starting with Islamic education and the pillars of Islam, then Eman (faith) education and the pillars of Eman, then Ihsan (excellence) education and the pillars of Ihsan. These produce four images that serve as moral ranks: the image of masculinity, virility, chivalry, and the image of the comprehensive leader. The study recommends the establishment of a system of education, governed by these stages. Originality: This appears in the fact that the study is the first academic study linking the concept of man to the three Islamic religious experiences:  the Islamic experience, The Eman experience and the Ihsan experience and the resulting routes that place man in the ranks of masculinity, virility, chivalry and comprehensive leader

Islamic intellectual project: from the scattered diligences to the Islamization of knowledge

التدافع بين الحق والباطل في توجيه المعرفة مسألة قديمة بدأت مع سيدنا آدم عليه السلام وهو في الجنة، حين وسوس إليه الشيطان بغية إخراجه منها حسدا وغرورا، واستمر هذا التدافع طيلة الحقب التاريخية المتعاقبة ففي كل مرة ينجح الشيطان في تحريف المعرفة عن مسارها، يكرس الله سبحانه وتعالى من يرجعها إلى مسارها الصحيح وحيا كان أو بشرا. والمتأمل في الثقافات القديمة يلمس هذا التدافع حتى داخل الحضارة الواحدة، فالثقافة اليونانية بدأت صابئية وثنية ولم تقبل عقيدة الخلق من العدم فأنفق فلاسفتها الأوائل –ما سمي بالفلاسفة الطبيعيين- ردحا من الزمن يثبتون أن أصل الكون هو المادة، استمر الحال هكذا إلى أن جاء فيثاغورس وبين للناس أن هذا الكون الفسيح خلقه الله تعالى من العدم، ثم جاء السفسطائيون وحرفوا المعرفة مرة أخرى عن مسارها الصحيح وأعادوا أصل الكون إلى المادة، وقضوا على كل ما يرتبط بالوحي والسماء، وجعلوا الإنسان مقياس الأشياء جميعا، ثم جاء سقراط وأفلاطون وحاولا إرجاعها إلى نصابها الصحيح. بمجيء الإسلام حصلت ثورة علمية تجاوزت المعرفة القديمة التي كانت تنحصر في مفردات أرسطو وأفلاطون، إلى معرفة علمية جديدة مؤسسة على منهج علمي دقيق، وموجهة توجيها إسلاميا، غير أنها سرعان ما انتقلت إلى الغرب عن طريق المراكز الثقافية الكبرى طليطلة والقستنطينية وتم تصفيتها من كل أبعادها الإسلامية وتوجيهها حسب الديانات التي يعتقدها الغرب، وأوهمنا بأن ما يقوم به من دراسات وأبحاث موضوعية وعلمية والحقيقة غير ذلك، فوصل الإنسان المعاصر بهذه العلوم الموجهة توجيها أيديولوجيا غربيا إلى ما هو عليه من فساد للقيم وحالة من العدمية المطلقة. من هذه المنطلقات جاء مشروع أسلمة المعرفة ليعيد توجيه المعرفة الإنسانية توجيها إسلاميا صحيحا حتى ينقذ البشرية من الفتنة والنكبة والهلاك. ومنه نستشكل: هل المعرفة ذات طبيعة إسلامية؟ إذا كانت كذلك: كيف تم تحويرها وإعادة توجيهها من طرف الغرب حين أمسك بزمام الحضارة؟ كيف نجح الغرب في إيهامنا بأن العلوم موضوعية؟ ما هي الاجتهادات الأولى التي حاولت إعادة توجيه المعرفة توجيها إسلاميا؟ وكيف تبلورت فكرة مشروع إسلامية المعرفة؟ وهل نضجت في جميع أبعادها المعرفية والمنهجية والواقعية؟. تهدف هذه الورقة إذن إلى التعريف بمشروع الفكر الإسلامي في حقبة التوجه إلى جمع الاجتهادات المتناثرة والتأسيس لأسلمة المعرفة أو إسلامية المعرفة.The stampede between the right and wrong in directing knowledge is an oldmatter that started with our master Adam, peace be upon him while he was inheaven, when Satan whispered to him in order to get him out of it envy andarrogance, and this stampede continued throughout the successive historical eras,each time the devil succeeds in distorting knowledge of its path, God Almightyconsecrates The Almighty will return it to its correct path, whether it is human orhuman. And the contemplative of ancient cultures touches this stampede evenwithin one civilization. The Greek culture began a pagan Sabian and did not acceptthe doctrine of creation from nothing, so its early philosophers - so-called naturalphilosophers - spent a period of time proving that the origin of the universe ismatter, the situation continued like this until Pythagoras came between To thepeople that this vast universe was created by God Almighty from scratch, then thesophists came and distorted knowledge once again from its correct path and restoredthe origin of the universe to matter, eliminated everything related to revelation andheaven, and made man the measure of all things, then Socrates and Plato came andtried to return it to its righteousness Ih.With the advent of Islam, a scientific revolution took place that went beyondthe ancient knowledge that was confined to the vocabulary of Aristotle and Plato,to a new scientific knowledge based on an accurate scientific approach, and directedIslamic guidance, but it soon moved to the West through the major cultural centersof Toledo and Constantinople and was filtered from all its Islamic dimensions Anddirecting it according to the religions adopted by the West, and deluded us that whatit does of objective and scientific studies and research and the truth is otherwise, sothe modern man has brought these directed sciences to direct a Western ideology towhat it is of corruption of values and a state of absolute nihilism. From these startingpoints, the project of Islamization of knowledge came to redirect human knowledgea correct Islamic orientation in order to save humanity from discord, calamity anddestruction.From it we form: Is knowledge of an Islamic nature? If so: How was ittransformed and reoriented by the West when it held the reins of civilization? Howdid the West succeed in making us believe that science is objective? What are thefirst jurisprudence that attempted to redirect knowledge Islamic guidance? How didthe idea of an Islamic knowledge project take shape? Have they matured in all their introduce the Islamic thought project in the era of orientation to collect scatteredjurisprudence and establish the Islamization of knowledge or Islamic knowledge

Development of a cultivation process for the enhancement of human interferon alpha 2b production in the oleaginous yeast, Yarrowia lipolytica

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>As an oleaginous yeast, <it>Yarrowia lipolytica </it>is able to assimilate hydrophobic substrates. This led to the isolation of several promoters of key enzymes of this catabolic pathway. Less is known about the behavior of <it>Y. lipolytica </it>in large bioreactors using these substrates. There is therefore a lack of established know-how concerning high cell density culture protocols of this yeast. Consequently, the establishment of suitable induction conditions is required, to maximize recombinant protein production under the control of these promoters.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Human interferon α2b (huIFN α2b) production in <it>Yarrowia lipolytica </it>was used as a model for the enhancement of recombinant protein production under the control of the oleic acid (OA)-inducible promoter POX2. Cell viability and heterologous protein production were enhanced by exponential glucose feeding, to generate biomass before OA induction. The optimal biomass level before induction was determined (73 g L^-1), and glucose was added with oleic acid during the induction phase. Several oleic acid feeding strategies were assessed. Continuous feeding with OA at a ratio of 0.02 g OA per g dry cell weight increased huIFNα2b production by a factor of 1.88 (425 mg L^-1) and decreased the induction time (by a factor of 2.6, 21 h). huIFN α2b degradation by an aspartic protease secreted by <it>Y. lipolytica </it>was prevented by adding pepstatin (10 μM), leading to produce a 19-fold more active huIFN α2b (26.2 × 10⁷IU mg^-1).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>Y. lipolytica</it>, a generally regarded as safe (GRAS) microorganism is one of the most promising non conventional yeasts for the production of biologically active therapeutic proteins under the control of hydrophobic substrate-inducible promoter.</p

Classification of MRI brain tumors based on registration preprocessing and deep belief networks

In recent years, augmented reality has emerged as an emerging technology with huge potential in image-guided surgery, and in particular, its application in brain tumor surgery seems promising. Augmented reality can be divided into two parts: hardware and software. Further, artificial intelligence, and deep learning in particular, have attracted great interest from researchers in the medical field, especially for the diagnosis of brain tumors. In this paper, we focus on the software part of an augmented reality scenario. The main objective of this study was to develop a classification technique based on a deep belief network (DBN) and a softmax classifier to (1) distinguish a benign brain tumor from a malignant one by exploiting the spatial heterogeneity of cancer tumors and homologous anatomical structures, and (2) extract the brain tumor features. In this work, we developed three steps to explain our classification method. In the first step, a global affine transformation is preprocessed for registration to obtain the same or similar results for different locations (voxels, ROI). In the next step, an unsupervised DBN with unlabeled features is used for the learning process. The discriminative subsets of features obtained in the first two steps serve as input to the classifier and are used in the third step for evaluation by a hybrid system combining the DBN and a softmax classifier. For the evaluation, we used data from Harvard Medical School to train the DBN with softmax regression. The model performed well in the classification phase, achieving an improved accuracy of 97.2%

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Purification from Vipera lebetina (desert adder) venom of a protein that depletes human complement

International audienceA rapid and efficient procedure for purification from Vipera lebetina venom of a low molecular weight anticomplement protein is described. The procedure used gel filtration on Superose 12, followed by ion-exchange chromatography on a Mono Q column. The purified protein migrated on SDS-PAGE as a single band of about 25,000 Da under nonreducing conditions and as a band of 16,000 Da under reducing conditions. Its isoelectric point was estimated to be 7.6 +/- 0.1. The isolated Vipera lebetina protein was found to decrease the hemolytic activity in human serum measured by assays for classical pathway and alternative pathway activation. The loss of the complement activity could be ascribed, at least in part, to a proteolytic cleavage of the alpha chains of C3 and C4. This protein was also found to be without action on human blood coagulation and on purified fibrinogen and Factor B

Simulation de l'impact de l'inertie thermique sur la consommation énergétique d'un bâtiment résidentiel dans un climat méditerranéen

A l’heure actuelle, le réchauffement climatique est devenu une problématique planétaire et une urgence incontestable à laquelle ondevrait impérativement y faire face. En effet, ce phénomène s’avère comme un enjeu majeur du développement durable. Car ses impacts ne se limitent pas seulement à des questions environnementales ; mais il pourrait entrainer de graves conséquences socio-économiques. Dès lors, une réflexion s’impose sur les actions à entreprendre afin de réduire la consommation énergétique et ainsi limiter les émissions de Gaz à Effet de Serre responsables du réchauffement climatique. Ceci nous rappelle la nécessaire mutation du secteur du bâtiment, notamment en matière d’habitat, étant donné qu’il est considéré comme premier consommateur d’énergie. Il serait donc temps de changer notre regard vers des habitats préconisant l’efficacité énergétique. De ce fait, l’objectif de cet article est d’évaluer l’impact de l’inertie thermique de l’enveloppe architecturale sur la consommation énergétique du bâtiment ; afin de contribuer au développement de solutions passives permettant de concevoir des bâtiments moins énergivores et plus durables. Pour ce faire, nous adoptons une approche analytique in vitro à travers une simulation numérique du bilan énergétique d’un prototype de bâtiment résidentiel de type collectif dans un climat méditerranéen à la ville de Constantine, et ce, à l’aide du logiciel TRNSYS. Les résultats de cette étude ont montré que le renforcement de l’inertie thermique, en l’occurrence, grâce à l’usage de la brique de terre cuite et du liège, a permis une réduction notable des besoins énergétiques ; permettant ainsi de consommer 84 % d’énergie en moins qu’un logement conventionnel contre un surcoût d’investissement de seulement 2 % compensé par une réduction conséquente des dépenses de fonctionnement

Purification and Characterization of a Growth Factor-like Which Increases Capillary Permeability from Vipera lebetina Venom

International audienceWe have investigated the effect of Vipera lebetina venom on capillary permeability and isolated an increasing capillary permeability protein (ICPP) which is devoid of arginine ester hydrolase and phospholipase A2 activities. This protein was purified with a yield of about 0.2% by fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) using successively Superose 12, Mono Q, and Mono S columns and by high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) on a C8 reverse-phase column. The purified protein migrated on SDS-PAGE as a band of about 27 kDa under nonreducing conditions and as a band of about 16 kDa under reducing conditions. Chromatography on a C8 column of reduced and alkylated protein yielded a single peak suggesting that this protein is homodimeric. This protein was refractory to Edman degradation chemistry. We used successfully a chemical unblocking involving the incubation of the protein with HCl in anhydrous methanol. The N-terminal amino acid sequence clearly shows considerable similarity to that of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)

Further characterization and thrombolytic activity in a rat model of a fibrinogenase from Vipera lebetina venom

International audienceVipera lebetina fibrinogenase (VIF) was shown to render fibrinogen incoagulable and to solubilize fibrin. The fibrinogenolytic activity of this enzyme was found to be 33 mg fibrinogen/min/mg protein. The study of the specificity of this enzyme revealed that it has no effect on purified factor X, prothrombin and protein C and on the specific chromogenic substrates of their active form. Plasminogen was not activated by VlF but slightly degraded. We have also compared the effect of VlF and plasmin on fibrinogen and shown that these two enzymes have a different sites of cleavage. This enzyme inhibited human platelet aggregation on PRP initiated by ADP and collagen but was without effect on the aggregation of washed rabbit platelets using thrombin as agonist. Administration of VlF in rat did not show any necrosis or hemorrhage in treated rats organ's. We therefore, examined the thrombolytic activity of VlF in a rat model of venous thrombosis. Thrombus was produced in the posterior vena cava by injection of human fibrinogen and thrombin. Injection of 5 mg/Kg body weight showed an evident flow restoration after one hour and measurement of the fibrinogen level a decrease of about 30% after 3 hrs. VlF's action is not dependent on plasminogen activators and may act synergistically with them, thereby providing an intriguing potential clinical application for dissolution of blood clots

Amino acid structure and characterization of a heterodimeric disintegrin from Vipera lebetina venom

Referred to by :Ammar Gasmi, Najet Srairi, Sami Guermazi, Hafedh Dekhil, Habib Karoui, Mohamed ElAyebErratum to “Amino acid structure and characterization of a heterodimeric disintegrin from Vipera lebetina venom” [Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1547 (2001) 51–56]Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Proteins and Proteomics, Volume 1764, Issue 9, September 2006, Pages 1525International audienceA heterodimeric disintegrin designed as lebein was isolated from crude Vipera lebetina venom using gel filtration, anion and cation exchange chromatographies on FPLC. The amino acid sequence of each subunit determined by Edman degradation contains 64 residues with ten half-cystines and an RGD site at the C-terminal part of the molecule. The molecular mass of native lebein determined by mass spectrometry was found to be 14 083.4 Da and those of α and β subunits were 6992.05 and 7117.62, respectively. These value are in good agreement with those calculated from the sequences. This protein strongly inhibits ADP induced platelet aggregation on human platelet rich plasma with IC50=160 nM. Sequences of this protein subunits displayed significant sequence similarities with many other monomeric and dimeric disintegrins reported from snake venoms. We identified an amino acid residue (N) in the hairpin loop of both subunits (CRARGDDMNDYC) which is different from all other reported motifs of disintegrins and this subtle difference may contribute to the distinct affinities and selectivities of this class of proteins