New method of features extraction for numeral recognition

This paper proposes a new method of features extraction for handwritten, printed and isolated numeral recognition. It consists of scanning the image row by row, for each row the positions of two first black white transitions in columns were detected, so the first attribute vector is defined from these positions, after, the image was scanned column by column, the positions of two first transitions in row was defined, so the second vector is defined from these positions, so the concatenation of the two vectors determined the attribute vector of the particular numeral. Numeral recognition is carried out in this work through k nearest neighbors and multilayer perceptron. The recognition rate obtained by the proposed system is improved indicating that the numeral features extracted contain more details

The Budding Yeast “Saccharomyces cerevisiae” as a Drug Discovery Tool to Identify Plant-Derived Natural Products with Anti-Proliferative Properties

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a valuable system to study cell-cycle regulation, which is defective in cancer cells. Due to the highly conserved nature of the cell-cycle machinery between yeast and humans, yeast studies are directly relevant to anticancer-drug discovery. The budding yeast is also an excellent model system for identifying and studying antifungal compounds because of the functional conservation of fungal genes. Moreover, yeast studies have also contributed greatly to our understanding of the biological targets and modes of action of bioactive compounds. Understanding the mechanism of action of clinically relevant compounds is essential for the design of improved second-generation molecules. Here we describe our methodology for screening a library of plant-derived natural products in yeast in order to identify and characterize new compounds with anti-proliferative properties

Rapidly mutating Y-STRs in rapidly expanding populations: Discrimination power of the Yfiler Plus multiplex in northern Africa

The male-specific northern African genetic pool is characterised by a high frequency of the E-M81 haplogroup, which expanded in very recent times (2-3 kiloyears ago). As a consequence of their recent coalescence, E-M81 chromosomes often cannot be completely distinguished on the basis of their Y-STR profiles, unless rapidly-mutating Y-STRs (RM Y-STRs) are analysed. In this study, we used the Yfiler® Plus kit, which includes 7 RM Y-STRs and 20 standard Y-STR, to analyse 477 unrelated males coming from 11 northern African populations sampled from Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Egypt. The Y chromosomes were assigned to monophyletic lineages after the analysis of 72 stable biallelic polymorphisms and, as expected, we found a high proportion of E-M81 subjects (about 46%), with frequencies decreasing from west to east. We found low intra-population diversity indexes, in particular in the populations that experienced long-term isolation. The AMOVA analysis showed significant differences between the countries and between most of the 11 populations, with a rough differentiation between northwestern Africa and northeastern Africa, where the Egyptians Berbers from Siwa represented an outlier population. The comparison between the Yfiler® and the Yfiler® Plus network of the E-M81 Y chromosomes confirmed the high power of discrimination of the latter kit, thanks to higher variability of the RM Y-STRs: indeed, the number of chromosomes sharing the same haplotype was drastically reduced from 201 to 81 and limited, in the latter case, to subjects from the same population

Early holocenic and historic mtDNA african signatures in the iberian peninsula: The andalusian region as a paradigm

Determining the timing, identity and direction of migrations in the Mediterranean Basin, the role of "migratory routes" in and among regions of Africa, Europe and Asia, and the effects of sex-specific behaviors of population movements have important implications for our understanding of the present human genetic diversity. A crucial component of the Mediterranean world is its westernmost region. Clear features of transcontinental ancient contacts between North African and Iberian populations surrounding the maritime region of Gibraltar Strait have been identified from archeological data. The attempt to discern origin and dates of migration between close geographically related regions has been a challenge in the field of uniparental-based population genetics. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) studies have been focused on surveying the H1, H3 and V lineages when trying to ascertain north-south migrations, and U6 and L in the opposite direction, assuming that those lineages are good proxies for the ancestry of each side of the Mediterranean. To this end, in the present work we have screened entire mtDNA sequences belonging to U6, M1 and L haplogroups in Andalusians--from Huelva and Granada provinces--and Moroccan Berbers. We present here pioneer data and interpretations on the role of NW Africa and the Iberian Peninsula regarding the time of origin, number of founders and expansion directions of these specific markers. The estimated entrance of the North African U6 lineages into Iberia at 10 ky correlates well with other L African clades, indicating that U6 and some L lineages moved together from Africa to Iberia in the Early Holocene. Still, founder analysis highlights that the high sharing of lineages between North Africa and Iberia results from a complex process continued through time, impairing simplistic interpretations. In particular, our work supports the existence of an ancient, frequently denied, bridge connecting the Maghreb and Andalusia.Financial support was provided by the Spanish Ministry of Competitiveness through Research Project CGL2010-15191/BOS granted to RC and International Mobility Program Acciones Integradas Hispano-Portuguesas (PRI-AIBPT-2011-1004) granted to RC (Spain) and LP (Portugal) (http://www.mineco.gob.es/portal/site/mineco/idi). The E.C. Sixth Framework Programme under Contract n° ERAS-CT-2003-980409 (EUROCORES project of the European Science Foundation) also provided financial support to JMD for North African population research. CLH has a predoctoral fellowship granted by Complutense University. PS is supported by FCT Investigator Programme (IF/01641/2013). IPATIMUP (https://www.ipatimup.pt/) integrates the Instituto the Investigação em Saúde (i3S) Research Unit, which is partially supported by FCT, the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. IPATIMUP is funded by FEDER funds through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors - COMPETE and National Funds through the FCT - under the project PEst-C/SAU/LA0003/2013. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Elements d'ecologie de la truite de lac (Salmo trutta L.) du Leman dans le systeme lac-affluent

SIGLECNRS T 58584 / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueFRFranc

La perception de la peste en pays chrétien byzantin et musulman

The Arabs' first contact with the bubonic plague was when the caliph Omar entered Palestine in 639-640. Known to Arabic sources as the Emma us plague, the epidemic was a resurgence of the pandemia otherwise known under the Byzantine name of Justinian's plague. Thus from the very beginning the plague was a calamity the Moslems shared with the Byzantines. Even though the latter were historically in advance, since they had already been confronted to the plague for a century (its outbreak goes back to 540), each of the two cultural areas had a group of concepts which helped it deal with the plague.REB 59 2001 Fiance p. 95. Marie-Hélène Congourdeau - Mohammed Melhaoui, La perception de la peste en pays chrétien byzantin et musulman. — Le premier contact des Arabes avec la peste bubonique eut lieu lors de l'entrée du calife Omar en Palestine byzantine, en 639-640. Connue par les sources arabes sous le nom de peste d'Emmaüs, cette épidémie était une résurgence de la pandémie autrement connue sous le nom byzantin de peste de Justinien. La peste est donc dès l'abord un malheur que les musulmans partagent avec les Byzantins. Ces demiers ont historiquement de l'avance, puisqu'ils sont affrontés au fléau depuis un siècle (ses premières manifestations remontent à 540). Cependant, chacune de ces deux aires culturelles possède un certain bagage conceptuel avec lequel elle peut aborder la peste.Congourdeau Marie-Hélène, Melhaoui Mohammed. La perception de la peste en pays chrétien byzantin et musulman. In: Revue des études byzantines, tome 59, 2001. pp. 95-124

The effects of temperature, hydric & saline stress on the germination of marram grass seeds (Ammophila arenaria L.) of the SIBE of Moulouya embouchure (Mediterranean -North-eastern Morocco)

ABSTRACT The seeds of Ammophila arenaria germinate in a wide range of temperatures ranging between 15 and 30°C with a low optimal temperature (20°C). The germination rate is maximal in the distilled water recalling the germination behavior of glycophytes. At the germination stage, marram grass seems to be much more sensitive to the saline stress than to the hydric stress. Indeed if this plant can tolerate polyethylene glycol concentrations reaching 150g/l it does not support sodium chloride concentrations higher or equal to 9g/l. Thus in the littoral dunes of the SIBE of the Moulouya embouchure, the germination of seeds would be controlled by the salinity of the substrate rather than by its osmotic forces