Physicochemical properties, antioxidant, and antibacterial activity of Argania Spinosa honey produced only in Morocco: Application in the care of surgical wounds

The composition of honey is variable according to the current differences in plant types, climate, environmental conditions, and contribution of the beekeeper. Argania Spinosa is an endemic tree from southwestern Morocco, its famous argan oil is well known for its many healing properties including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. This study aims to characterize for the first time the physicochemical, antioxidant, and antibacterial potential of Argania honey. Eight samples of honey were provided by beekeepers of the Tiznit Province. The pollen content was carried out to make the determination of Argania Honey and the characterization of the physicochemical parameters was carried out based on: HMF, pH, total polyphenol content, sugar composition, and diastase activity. The potentiality of Argania honey as an element antioxidant then bactericide agent. The outcomes data showed that the evaluated parameters are according to the guaranteed criteria quality of honey. Interestingly, the high polyphenols content (1295 mg GAE/Kg), presence of only reducing sugars (glucose and fructose), and the antibacterial action of Argania honey demonstrated by the average zone of inhibition between 7.7 mm and 12.07 mm for S. aureus, K. pneumonia and B. subtilis may be suitable its use for wound healing. The analysis of Argania honey revealed physicochemical, antioxidant, antibacterial, and wound healing properties that were approved according to standard criteria. These characteristics provide an important biological potential that may be reconsidered as a high-value commercial and therapeutic

Rare event sampling with stochastic growth algorithms

We discuss uniform sampling algorithms that are based on stochastic growth methods, using sampling of extreme configurations of polymers in simple lattice models as a motivation. We shall show how a series of clever enhancements to a fifty-odd year old algorithm, the Rosenbluth method, led to a cutting-edge algorithm capable of uniform sampling of equilibrium statistical mechanical systems of polymers in situations where competing algorithms failed to perform well. Examples range from collapsed homo-polymers near sticky surfaces to models of protein folding.Comment: First International Conference on Numerical Physic

Sorption Study of a Basic Dye “Gentian Violet” from Aqueous Solutions Using Activated Bentonite

AbstractVarious industries like textiles, papers, food, plastics, leather, etc are great water and organic colorant users. Hence, the resulting effluents could be an important source of environmental problems, since they may contain stable and non biodegradable contaminants, like organic dyes. The treatment of which is the main scope of the present study. Different ways of dye removal from these effluents do exist, such as flotation, reverse osmosis, chemical flocculation and adsorption etc. Adsorption is used in this work for the removal of a particular basic dye, known as Gentian violet (GV) from an aqueous solution, by means of a natural clay material. The influence of various key parameters like contact time, temperature, ionic strength, etc. on the adsorbed amount of the dye was investigated, for batch conditions. A kinetic study was also carried out, the obtained experimental results were tested against the pseudo first order and the pseudo second order equations. An analysis of the obtained equilibrium data showed that the dye adsorption is best described by the Langmuir model. The obtained results showed that temperature did enhance the Gentian violet dye retention process onto the considered bentonite whereas the obtained thermodynamic parameters indicated that the adsorption process is spontaneous and endothermic. The simultaneous presence of methylene blue, which is another colorant compound, with the Gentian violet was also considered. The clay materials showed a better affinity for the first one i e. methylene blue. In conclusion and according to the obtained results, the clay material may be recommended as an industrial adsorbent for the treatment of effluents containing Gentian violet (GV)

Odonata of Wadi Bouarroug (northeastern Algeria), and environmental determinants of their distribution

The present paper describes odonates recorded over an extended period at wadi Bouarroug, south of  lake Mellah, in  the national reserve of Brabtia (North-east Algeria). In all, 42 weekly visits were made to four stations at wadi Bouarroug between March 2015 and February 2016. A total of 19 species of odonates comprising seven families (Calopterygidae, Lestidae, Plactycnemidae, Coenagrionidae, Gomphidae, Aeshnidae, Libellulidae) was recorded. Among the 19 species,  autochthonous status was confirmed for 12 species. Two Maghrebian endemics species, Platycnemis subdilatata, Gomphus lucasii (“Data Deficient” species in the Mediterranean IUCN Red-List) were recorded. In the latest check-list of the odonates fauna of wadi Bouarroug, 11 species were reported,during 1993 and 1994. Eight species have been recently added (Lestes virens, Erythromma lindinii, Erythromma viridulu, Paragomphus geneii, Onychogomphus uncatus, Crocothemis erythraea, Trithemis arteriosa, Trithemis annulata) of which Paragomphus genei  was recorded for the first time in the reserve of Brabtia in 2014 and its autochthonous status is confirmed at wadi Bouarroug from June 2015. Species richness along the wadi Bouarroug is positively correlated with  density of  riverine vegetation and with  weak to moderate water flow during all the year. By contrast, species richness varies negatively with habitat fragmentation and the destruction  caused by  urbanization and  pollution. As a result of this study, we do not propose any change of  the "Red List of the IUCN" classification of the recorded species recorded at wadi Bouarroug. However, the presence of some taxa like Calopteryx haemorrhoidalis and Paragomphus geneii at wadi Bouarroug, testifies to the persistence of high-quality natural environments which are able to still support an important diversity of aquatic species.

ENVIRONNEMENT ET RECYCLAGE DES DECHETS ENVIRONMENT AND RECYCLING OF WASTE

Durant les dernières décennies  la masse des déchets produite par chaque habitant dans le monde  n'a cessé de croître. Les déchets représentent non seulement un vrai  problème pour les municipalités et les industriels, mais aussi une menace  pour l'environnement. Il existe deux types de déchets, les déchets ordinaires que traitent les municipalités et les déchets industriels traités par des entreprises. Auparavant  la seule solution dont nous disposions, était de détruire ces déchets en les brûlant, ou de s'en débarrasser en les enterrant.Un changement de mentalité de la part de tous les citoyens est nécessaire pour aborder cette question,  au lieu d'éliminer systématiquement la totalité des déchets, on a choisi d'en valoriser une bonne partie, c'est à dire de les recycler et de les transformer pour les réutiliser. Cela conduira d’une part à la préservation des ressources naturelles et d’autre part à la protection de l’environnement.Mots clés : Environnement ; pollution ; déchets ; recyclage ; matière première  ABSTRACTIn recent decades the mass of waste produced by every person in the world has continued to grow. Waste is not only a real problem for municipalities and industry, but also a threat to the environment. There are two types of waste, ordinary waste that treat municipal and industrial waste treated by companies. Previously the only solution available to us was to destroy these wastes by burning them or get rid      of by   burying. A change of mentality on the part of all citizens is necessary to address this issue, instead of systematically eliminating all waste, we chose to promote a good party that is to recycle and transform them for reuse. This leads firstly to the preservation of natural resources and secondly to protect the environment

Slow dynamics of the contact process on complex networks

The Contact Process has been studied on complex networks exhibiting different kinds of quenched disorder. Numerical evidence is found for Griffiths phases and other rare region effects, in Erd˝os Rényi networks, leading rather generically to anomalously slow (algebraic, logarithmic,...) relaxation. More surprisingly, it turns out that Griffiths phases can also emerge in the absence of quenched disorder, as a consequence of sole topological heterogeneity in networks with finite topological dimension. In case of scalefree networks, exhibiting infinite topological dimension, slow dynamics can be observed on tree-like structures and a superimposed weight pattern. In the infinite size limit the correlated subspaces of vertices seem to cause a smeared phase transition. These results have a broad spectrum of implications for propagation phenomena and other dynamical process on networks and are relevant for the analysis of both models and empirical data

The hyperfine properties of a hydrogenated Fe/V superlattice

: We study the effect of hydrogen on the electronic, magnetic and hyperfine structures of an iron-vanadium superlattice consisting of three Fe monolayers and nine V monolayers. The contact charge density ({\rho}), the contact hyperfine field (Bhf) and the electronic field gradient (EFG) at the Fe sites for different H locations and H fillings are calculated using the first principle full-potential linear-augmented-plane-wave (FP-LAPW) method . It is found that sizeable changes in the hyperfine properties are obtained only when H is in the interface region.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables, ICAME 2011 conference (Kobe, Japan

Temporal context and conditional associative learning

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We investigated how temporal context affects the learning of arbitrary visuo-motor associations. Human observers viewed highly distinguishable, fractal objects and learned to choose for each object the one motor response (of four) that was rewarded. Some objects were consistently preceded by specific other objects, while other objects lacked this task-irrelevant but predictive context.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results of five experiments showed that predictive context consistently and significantly accelerated associative learning. A simple model of reinforcement learning, in which three successive objects informed response selection, reproduced our behavioral results.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results imply that not just the representation of a current event, but also the representations of past events, are reinforced during conditional associative learning. In addition, these findings are broadly consistent with the prediction of attractor network models of associative learning and their prophecy of a persistent representation of past objects.</p

Effects of Wind Speed and Direction on Monthly Fluctuations of Cladosporium Conidia Concentration in the Air

This study determined the relationship between airborne concentration of Cladosporium spp. spores and wind speed and direction using real data (local wind measured by weather station) and modelled data (air mass flow computed with the aid of HYbrid Single Particle Lagrangian Trajectory model). Air samples containing fungal conidia were taken at an urban site (Worcester, UK) for a period of five consecutive years using a spore trap of the Hirst design. A threshold of ≥6000 s m−3 (double the clinical value) was applied in order to select high spore concentration days, when airborne transport of conidia at a regional scale was more likely to occur. Collected data were then examined using geospatial and statistical tools, including circular statistics. Obtained results showed that the greatest numbers of spore concentrations were detected in July and August, when C. herbarum, C. cladosporioides and C. macrocarpum sporulate. The circular correlation test was found to be more sensitive than Spearman’s rank test. The dominance of either local wind or the air mass on Cladosporium spore distributions varied between examined months. Source areas of this pathogen had an origin within the UK territory. Very high daily mean concentrations of Cladosporium spores were observed when daily mean local wind speed was vs ≤ 2.5 m s−1 indicating warm days with a light breeze