Oxidative stress and hepatotoxicity in rats induced by poisonous pufferfish (Lagocephalus lagocephalus) meat

This study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of pufferfish (Lagocephalus lagocephalus) meat poisoning on hepatic functions of Wistar rats. For this purpose, groups of rats (Lcr, Lcu+b and Lcu-b) received diet supplemented with 10% of raw or cooked meat, respectively, with or without cooking water of L. lagocephalus while groups Mcr and Mcu+b received diet supplemented with 10% of raw or cooked meat of Liza aurata, which were used as a negative control. In Lcu+b group, ALT, AST and ALP rates (hepatic enzyme markers) decreased after two months of treatment, indicating liver damage. We also observed an increase of 54 and 65% of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) in their livers respectively 48 hours and two months after treatment compared to controls. The catalase (CAT) activity in group Lcu+b decreased (p < 0.05) after two periods of treatment, whereas metallothionein (MT) level significantly increased and decreased, respectively after 48 hours and two months. In fact, in the histological analysis of the livers from Lcu+b treated group, we observed an increase in vacuolisation, necrosis, hepatocytes ballooning and sinusoids dilation. These results indicate that L. lagocephalus meat cooked with water produces hepatotoxicity and oxidative damage

Quantification vectorielle en réseau de points D5 pour un codeur audio bas délai en sous-bandes

Une nouvelle méthode de codage des signaux audio génériques est présentée, à un débit de 64 kbit/s dans la bande de fréquence 20-15000 Hz, avec un faible délai. Cette méthode se base sur un codage en sous-bandes associé au LD-CELP ainsi qu'à des bancs de filtres cascadés. Des travaux initiaux [1] montrent que, lorsqu'un débit de 16 kbit/s est alloué à chaque sous-bande, la qualité audio n'est pas satisfaisante. Nous proposons un nouvel algorithme basé sur la quantification en réseau de points afin de pallier la complexité de la quantification vectorielle statistique. La souplesse du système permet d'effectuer une allocation binaire dynamique dans chaque sous-bande. Des résultats expérimentaux sont présentés et évaluent la validité de la méthode proposée

Accelerated bone ingrowth by local delivery of Zinc from bioactive glass: oxidative stress status, mechanical property, and microarchitectural characterization in an ovariectomized rat model

Background: Synthetic bone graft substitutes such as bioactive glass (BG) material are developed in order to achieve successful bone regeneration. Zn plays an important role in the proper bone growth, development, and maintenance of healthy bones.Aims: This study aims to evaluate in vivo the performance therapy of zinc-doped bioactive glass (BG-Zn) and its applications in biomedicine.Methods: Female Wistar rats were ovariectomized. BG and BG-Zn were implanted in the femoral condyles of Wistar rats and compared to that of control group. Grafted bone tissues were carefully removed to evaluate the oxidative stress status, histomorphometric profile, mechanical property, and mineral bone distribution by using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry.Results: A significant decrease of thiobarbituric acidreactive substances was observed after BG-Zn implantation. Superoxide dismutase, catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities significantly increased in ovariectomized group implanted with Zinc-doped bioactive glass (OVX-BG-Zn) as compared to ovariectomized group implanted with bioactive glass (OVX-BG). An improved mechanical property was noticed in contact of OVX-BG-Zn (39+6 HV) when compared with that of OVX-BG group (26+9 HV). After 90 days of implantation, the histomorphometric analysis showed that trabecular thickness (Tb.Th) and trabecular number (Tb.N) were significantly increased with 28 and 24%, respectively, in treated rats of OVXBG- Zn group as compared to those of OVX-BG groups. Trabecular separation (Tb.Sp) and trabecular bone pattern factor (TBPf) were significantly decreased in OVX-BG-Zn group with 29.5 and 54% when compared with those of OVX-BG rat groups. On the other hand, a rise in Ca and P ion concentrations in the implanted microenvironment was shown and lead to the formation/deposition of Ca-P phases. The ratio of pyridinoline [Pyr] to dihydroxylysinonorleucine [DHLNL] cross-links was normalized to the control level.Conclusion: Our findings suggested that BG-Zn might have promising  potential applications for osteoporosis therapy.Keywords: zinc metallic ion; bioactive glass; osteoporosis; trabecular bone architecture; mechanical property; oxidative stressResponsible Editor: Amin Bredan, VIB Inflammation Research Center &amp; Ghent University, Belgium

Multiplicity Results for the p

We investigate the singular Neumann problem involving the p(x)-Laplace operator: Pλ{-Δpxu+|u|px-2u  =1/uδx+fx,u, in  Ω;  u>0,  in  Ω;  ∇upx-2∂u/∂ν=λuqx,  on  ∂Ω}, where Ω⊂RNN≥2 is a bounded domain with C2 boundary, λ is a positive parameter, and px,qx,δx, and fx,u are assumed to satisfy assumptions (H0)–(H5) in the Introduction. Using some variational techniques, we show the existence of a number Λ∈0,∞ such that problem Pλ has two solutions for λ∈0,Λ, one solution for λ=Λ, and no solutions for λ>Λ

Extracted tetrodotoxin from puffer fish Lagocephalus lagocephalus induced hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity to Wistar rats

This study aimed to investigate the toxicity of raw and boiled tissue extracts of Lagocephalus lagocephalus flesh or liver. Five groups of six male Wistar rats each were used. Four groups received a daily intraperitoneal injection of raw or boiled tissue extracts of L. lagocephalus flesh and liver at a dose of 1 ml/100 g (v/w). The fifth group served as a sham and received a daily intraperitoneal injection of saline solution (1 ml/100 g of 0.9% NaCl, v/w). During the experiment, there was a slight decrease in body weight in all treated groups. Our results revealed that the activities of various enzymes like transaminase, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (γ-GT) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) decreased in serum and increased in liver and kidney tissues, producing hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity in the treated rats. These observations on the toxicity of this Tunisian puffer fish revealing toxicity especially in the flesh, the edible part of fish, clearly indicate the danger of using this fish as food.Key words: Hepatotoxicity, Lagocephalus lagocephalus, nephrotoxicity

Ordinary and Encased Stone Columns with Two Different Relative Densities

Stone columns technique is most commonly used in increasing bearing capacity, reduces and controls the compressibility and accelerates the rate of consolidation of soft saturated clay. During the last four decades, the technique has been utilized worldwide and proved successful results. Several modifications have been proposed to increase the efficiency of this technique such as addition of additives, use of special patterns of reinforcements, encasing the stone columns with geonet or geogrid to provide extra confinement that enhances the bearing capacity and reduces the settlement drastically without compromising its effect as a drain. The present paper focuses on the behavior of soft saturated clay reinforced with ordinary and geogrid encased stone columns. The investigation was performed both experimentally through small scale models and through numerical techniques. The influence of relative density of the back fill material and the presence of the encasement are the main parameters investigated. Ordinary stone columns revealed an increase of 20% in the carrying capacity when the relative density of the backfill stone aggregates increased from 23% to 71%, furthermore the efficiency of the encasement was more pronounced at lower relative density

TAS Strategies for Incremental Cognitive MIMO Relaying: New Results and Accurate Comparison

In this paper, we thoroughly elaborate on the impact different transmit-antenna selection (TAS) strategies induce in terms of the outage performance of incremental cognitive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relaying systems employing receive maximum-ratio combining (MRC). Our setup consists of three multi-antenna secondary nodes: a transmitter, a receiver and a decode-and-forward (DF) relay node acting in a half-duplex incremental relaying mode whereas the primary transmitter and receiver are equipped with a single antenna. Only a statistical channel-state information (CSI) is acquired by the secondary system transmitting nodes to adapt their transmit power. In this context, our contribution is fourfold. First, we focus on two TAS strategies that are driven by maxim

Tubulin tyrosination is a major factor affecting the recruitment of CAP-Gly proteins at microtubule plus ends

Tubulin-tyrosine ligase (TTL), the enzyme that catalyzes the addition of a C-terminal tyrosine residue to α-tubulin in the tubulin tyrosination cycle, is involved in tumor progression and has a vital role in neuronal organization. We show that in mammalian fibroblasts, cytoplasmic linker protein (CLIP) 170 and other microtubule plus-end tracking proteins comprising a cytoskeleton-associated protein glycine-rich (CAP-Gly) microtubule binding domain such as CLIP-115 and p150 Glued, localize to the ends of tyrosinated microtubules but not to the ends of detyrosinated microtubules. In vitro, the head domains of CLIP-170 and of p150 Glued bind more efficiently to tyrosinated microtubules than to detyrosinated polymers. In TTL-null fibroblasts, tubulin detyrosination and CAP-Gly protein mislocalization correlate with defects in both spindle positioning during mitosis and cell morphology during interphase. These results indicate that tubulin tyrosination regulates microtubule interactions with CAP-Gly microtubule plus-end tracking proteins and provide explanations for the involvement of TTL in tumor progression and in neuronal organization

Water Infiltration Characteristics for Artificial Lake in Bahr Al-Najaf

Al-Najaf is one of the important cities in Iraq due to its high spiritual and religious reputation that attracts Moslems from different parts of the world to visit the holy shrine of Al-Imam Ali (peace be upon him). The city of Al-Najaf and particularly Bahr Al-Najaf area, is expecting a number of large scale construction activities, among these development activities are the planning of a new tourist city called Sayf Thulfiqar city. Sayf Thulfiqar city is planned to be the largest tourist city in Iraq. The area of the proposed tourist city is about 63 hectares, consists of an artificial lake 1000m long surrounded by twelve towers and a number of small dwellings. This lake is considered as a big challenge in planning, construction, and sustainability. The challenging points primarily are the sources of water required to fill the lake, infiltration characteristics of the soil at site, weather conditions, etc.The present paper focuses on investigating the rate of water infiltration through the base and side walls of a pit with dimensions 3m by 3m and 0.5m in depth excavated and filled with water in the location of artificial lake. The process of filling was repeated several times with full observation and continuous field measurements. The results revealed some useful characteristics and correlations regarding the infiltration of water of artificial lake in Bahr Al-Najaf