Evaluation of the antagonistic potential of bacterial strains isolated from Algerian soils for the biological control of phytopathogenic fungi

Antagonistic bacteria contribute to the management of plant diseases by stimulating the natural defenses in the host and/or by ensuring direct biocontrol of the aggressors. The objective of this work was to isolate, identify and evaluate (in vitro) various Bacillus spp. for their potential to control phyopathogenic fungi. Selection of the 40 strains of Bacillus previously isolated from the soil in various areas of western Algeria was carried out by direct confrontation on the mycelial growth of four phytopathogens (Fusariumoxysporumf.splycopersici, Alternaria tenuis , Phytophthorainfestans, Ascochytapisi). This strategy involved using the antagonistic potential of microorganisms found in the plant environment in Algeria. The second part of this work consisted of the characterization and identification of tested strainsThe identification of the selected strains was carried out by biochemical tests. The results obtained showed that at the end of the fifth day, the most promising isolates showed antifungal activity and reached an inhibition rate of the mycelial growth of phytopathogenic fungi, respectively, F. oxysporumf. splycopersici 75%, A. tenuis 80%, P. infestans 83.30%, Ascochytapisi 67%. The potential antagonist of Bacillus tested in vitro by direct confrontation against 04 phytopathogenic fungi showed that all strains of Bacillus decreased fungal mycelial growth. Two strains of Bacillus B30 and B41 were found to have the most efficacy against Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici, Alternaria tenius, Phytophtora infestans et Ascochyta pisi, with an inhibition rate of  65.25 and 72.25% respectively These results demonstrate that Bacillus sp. presenteds a potential for biological control. However, it is important to understand the mechanisms implemented by these bacteria to develop effective protection strategies

Hereditary breast cancer in Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) populations: identification of novel, recurrent and founder BRCA1 mutations in the Tunisian population

Germ-line mutations in BRCA1 breast cancer susceptibility gene account for a large proportion of hereditary breast cancer families and show considerable ethnic and geographical variations. The contribution of BRCA1 mutations to hereditary breast cancer has not yet been thoroughly investigated in Middle Eastern and North African populations. In this study, 16 Tunisian high-risk breast cancer families were screened for germline mutations in the entire BRCA1 coding region and exon–intron boundaries using direct sequencing. Six families were found to carry BRCA1 mutations with a prevalence of 37.5%. Four different deleterious mutations were detected. Three truncating mutations were previously described: c.798_799delTT (916 delTT), c.3331_3334delCAAG (3450 delCAAG), c.5266dupC (5382 insC) and one splice site mutation which seems to be specific to the Tunisian population: c.212 + 2insG (IVS5 + 2insG). We also identified 15 variants of unknown clinical significance. The c.798_799delTT mutation occurred at an 18% frequency and was shared by three apparently unrelated families. Analyzing five microsatellite markers in and flanking the BRCA1 locus showed a common haplotype associated with this mutation. This suggests that the c.798_799delTT mutation is a Tunisian founder mutation. Our findings indicate that the Tunisian population has a spectrum of prevalent BRCA1 mutations, some of which appear as recurrent and founding mutations

AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening: a 318-target study

: High throughput screening (HTS) is routinely used to identify bioactive small molecules. This requires physical compounds, which limits coverage of accessible chemical space. Computational approaches combined with vast on-demand chemical libraries can access far greater chemical space, provided that the predictive accuracy is sufficient to identify useful molecules. Through the largest and most diverse virtual HTS campaign reported to date, comprising 318 individual projects, we demonstrate that our AtomNet® convolutional neural network successfully finds novel hits across every major therapeutic area and protein class. We address historical limitations of computational screening by demonstrating success for target proteins without known binders, high-quality X-ray crystal structures, or manual cherry-picking of compounds. We show that the molecules selected by the AtomNet® model are novel drug-like scaffolds rather than minor modifications to known bioactive compounds. Our empirical results suggest that computational methods can substantially replace HTS as the first step of small-molecule drug discovery

ANTIBIOPROPHYLAXIE EN CHIRURGIE THORACIQUE

CHATENAY M.-PARIS 11-BU Pharma. (920192101) / SudocSudocFranceF

The effects of Nordic hamstring exercise on pain and performance in elite rowers with low back pain

The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of the Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE) on pain threshold, flexibility and 2000m rowing performance in elite rowers with lower back pain (LBP). Ten elite rowers (age 17.6 ± 2.12 years) with LBP participated in this study. Participants completed 6-weeks of NHE in addition to their usual training program. Pre- and post-training tests included measures of pain threshold of the lower back, flexibility (sit and reach test) and 2000 m rowing performance. The results demonstrated that an organized HNE caused a significant decrease in pain threshold from 4.8±2 to 3±1.4 (P = 0.03, ES = 0.9) and a non-significant but moderate improvement in rowing performance from 6.9±0.7 min to 6.3±0.9 min (P = 0.1, ES = 0.8). The sit and reach test revealed a non-significant change from 14.9±8.2 cm to 15.2±6.5 cm (P = 0.9, ES = 0.04). We conclude that the NHE may represent an effective method for reducing pain in elite rowers with moderate improvement in rowing performance

Enhanced adaptive cross-layer scheme for low latency HEVC streaming over Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs)

JIF=4.706International audienceVehicular communication has become a reality guided by various applications. Among those, high video quality delivery with low latency constraints required by real-time applications constitutes a very challenging task. By dint of its never-before-achieved compression level, the new High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is very promising for real-time video streaming through Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANET). However, these networks have variable channel quality and limited bandwidth. Therefore, ensuring satisfactory video quality on such networks is a major challenge. In this work, a low complexity cross-layer mechanism is proposed to improve end-to-end performances of HEVC video streaming in VANET under low delay constraints. The idea is to assign to each packet of the transmitted video the most appropriate Access Category (AC) queue on the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, considering the temporal prediction structure of the video encoding process, the importance of the frame and the state of the network traffic load. Simulation results demonstrate that for different targeted low-delay video communication scenarios, the proposed mechanism offers significant improvements regarding video quality at the reception and end-to-end delay compared to the Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) adopted in the 802.11p. Both Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) evaluations have been also carried out to validate the proposed approach. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved