In vitro vegetative growth and flowering of olive tree in response to GA3 treatment

The phytohormone gibberellin is involved in the regulation of many physiological process including flower induction and shoot growth. In this study, gibberellic acid (GA3) was used in order to induce thereversion of olive tree vegetative buds towards a floral ones in vitro. For this, six varieties (Marsaline, Chemchali, Picholine, Chemlali, Zalmati and Oueslati ) was tested and explants, consisting of a singlenode segments, were grown in media containing three concentrations of GA3 (1, 2 and 10 mg/l). Results show that Marsaline seems to be the most able variety in regenerating floral structures. For this variety,5 cases of reversion were observed mainly on the medium containing 10 mg/l GA3. This same medium was also favorable for this transformation for the other varieties (3 cases on Picholine, one each on Chemchali , Zalmati and Oueslati). The examination of the histological sections confirmed this transformation. In addition, this experiment showed that GA3 can be at the origin of an interestinggrowth rate of vegetative buds, which elongation depend on variety as well as GA3 concentration

Numerical and experimental characterisation of polylactic acid (PLA) processed by additive manufacturing (AM): bending and tensile tests

In additive manufacturing (AM), one of the most popular procedures is material extrusion (MEX). The materials and manufacturing parameters used in this process have a significant impact on a printed product’s quality. The purpose of this work is to investigate the effects of infill percentage and filament orientation on the mechanical properties of printed structures. For this reason, the characterisation of polylactic acid (PLA) was done numerically using the finite element method and experimentally through mechanical tests. The experiments involved three-point bending and tensile tests. The results showed that mechanical performance is highly dependent on these processing parameters mainly when the infill percentage is less than 100%. The highest elastic modulus was exhibited for structures with filament align at 0◦ and 100% infill, while the lowest one was verified for specimen filament aligned at 0◦ and 30% infill. The results demonstrated that the process parameters have a significant impact on mechanical performance, particularly when the infill percentage is less than 100%. Structures with filament aligned at 0◦ and 100% infill showed the maximum elastic modulus, whereas specimens with filament oriented at 0◦ and 30% infill showed the lowest. The obtained numerical agreement indicated that an inverse method based only on the load–displacement curve can yield an accurate value for this material’s elastic modulus.National Innovation Agency (ANI) for MSc grant of Mariana Salgueiro nº POCI-01-0247- FEDER-039733 and Portuguese Foundations for Science and Technology. This project was co-financed by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through SI&IDT Projects in the framework of co-hosting—Competitiveness and Internationalisation Operational Programme (CIOP)—COMPETE 2020, Portugal 2020, with the National Innovation Agency (ANI) as the Intermediate Partner. Fabio Pereira acknowledges the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project UIDB/04033/2020. Mariana Salgueiro and Andrea Zille acknowledge the European Commission and the National Innovation Agency (ANI) for the financial support through the project “ARCHKNIT: Innovative smart textile interfaces for architectural applications”, Ref.: POCI-01-0247-FEDER-039733. This project was co-financed by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through SI&IDT Projects in the framework of co-hosting—Competitiveness and Internationalisation Operational Programme (CIOP)—COMPETE 2020, Portugal 2020, with the National Innovation Agency (ANI) as the Intermediate Partner. Nuno Dourado acknowledges FCT for the conceded financial support through the reference project UID/EEA/04436/2019 and “Programa bilateral de Portugal com a Tunísia”. Charii Fakher acknowledges the « Fondation pour la Recherche Scientifique” for the conceded financial support through “Programa bilateral de Portugal com a Tunísia”

Sleep Quality and Physical Activity as Predictors of Mental Wellbeing Variance in Older Adults during COVID-19 Lockdown:ECLB COVID-19 International Online Survey

Background. The COVID-19 lockdown could engender disruption to lifestyle behaviors, thus impairing mental wellbeing in the general population. This study investigated whether sociodemographic variables, changes in physical activity, and sleep quality from pre- to during lockdown were predictors of change in mental wellbeing in quarantined older adults. Methods. A 12-week international online survey was launched in 14 languages on 6 April 2020. Forty-one research institutions from Europe, Western-Asia, North-Africa, and the Americas, promoted the survey. The survey was presented in a differential format with questions related to responses "pre" and "during" the lockdown period. Participants responded to the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire, and the short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Results. Replies from older adults (aged &gt;55 years, n = 517), mainly from Europe (50.1%), Western-Asia (6.8%), America (30%), and North-Africa (9.3%) were analyzed. The COVID-19 lockdown led to significantly decreased mental wellbeing, sleep quality, and total physical activity energy expenditure levels (all p &lt; 0.001). Regression analysis showed that the change in total PSQI score and total physical activity energy expenditure (F-(2,F- 514) = 66.41 p &lt; 0.001) were significant predictors of the decrease in mental wellbeing from pre- to during lockdown (p &lt; 0.001, R-2: 0.20). Conclusion. COVID-19 lockdown deleteriously affected physical activity and sleep patterns. Furthermore, change in the total PSQI score and total physical activity energy expenditure were significant predictors for the decrease in mental wellbeing.</p

Nurses' perceptions of aids and obstacles to the provision of optimal end of life care in ICU

Contains fulltext : 172380.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Bayesian sparse regularization for parallel MRI reconstruction using Complex Bernoulli-Laplace mixture priors

International audienceParallel imaging technique using several receiver coils provides a fast acquisition of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images with high temporal and/or spatial resolutions. Against this background, the most difficult task is the full field of view images reconstruction without noise, distortions and artifacts. In this context, SENSitivity Encoding is considered the most often used parallel MRI (pMRI) reconstruction method in the clinical application. On the one side, solving the inherent reconstruction problems has known significant progress during the last decade. On the other side, the sparse Bayesian regularization for signal/image recovery has generated a great research interest especially when large volumes of data are processed. The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel Bayesian regularization technique for sparse pMRI reconstruction. The new technique is based on a hierarchical Bayesian model using a complex Bernoulli–Laplace mixture in order to promote two sparsity levels for the target image. The inference is conducted using a Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling scheme. Simulation results obtained with both synthetic and real datasets are showing the outperformance of the proposed sparse Bayesian technique compared to other existing regularization techniques

Dépistage participatif des risques professionnels dans l’industrie du textile tunisienne

Introduction. Occupational health practitioners must place at the disposal of the companies, in Tunisia as elsewhere, simple but powerful tools, for the recognition, the evaluation and especially the prevention of occupational hazards. That is particularly urgent in the textile sector which, in the area of Monastir, has the highest rate of industrial accidents and occupational diseases. The objective of this work was to figure out whether or not the Deparis guide, first level of the Sobane, strategy, could fullfil this role ill the industrial and cultural Tunisian context and to determine how it could be integrated in the general system of business management. Material and method. The Deparis guide was used in 10 companies of the textile sector in the Monastir area in 2006-2007, while following the prescribed procedure. Results. The 20 Deparis meetings made it possible to formulate 270 preventive actions, 75% of which are concrete and not very expensive. These proposals were mainly related to the work organization, the maintenance of the working rooms and motivation of the workers to use the personal protective equipments. The main risks highlighted were the noise and the dust contamination. The psychosocial aspects (autonomoy, individual responsibilities, employment relationships within the personnel and with the hierarchy, psychosocial environment) were considered to lie normal Or satisfactory, but the participants hesitated to discuss these subjects, fearing that it could jeopardize their professional positions. Conclusion. In spite of the difficulties encountered in using the Deparis meetings, this approach contributed considerably to bring out the occupational risks and was the starting point of several in-depth studies particularly aiming to limit the risks of noise and dust contamination in the textile sector. (C) 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved

Smart Medicine Planner for Visually Impaired People

In this project a novel and efficient Smart Medicine Planner (SMP) has been discussed. SMP will help people, especially blind and elderly people to presort their medication for the day. The system consists of two sub-systems which are dispensing and alerting systems. Dispenser System (DS) is to fill pills automatically into The Smart Medicine Box (SMB) and the alerting is designed to remind the user of dosages time. The technology that is used to interact with the user is based on voice interaction system since it is the easiest way to communicate with elderly and blind people. Once the patient puts her/his medicine into the container, the SMP will take care of saving medicine information, dispensing and reminding the user. Shortly, the project will focus on two major areas which are providing voice interactions and combing the dispensing and alarms systems in one device.ACKNOWLEDGMENT This publication was supported by Qatar University Collaborative High Impact Grant QUHI-CENG-18/19-1. The findings achieved herein are solely the responsibility of the authors. The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Qatar University.Scopu

Carcinome à cellules de Merkel : prise en charge et place de la radiothérapie. [Merkel cell carcinoma: outcome and role of radiotherapy].

International audienceMerkel cell carcinoma (MCC) are rare neuroendocrine malignant tumor of the skin, occurring in elderly patients. It affects primarily the sun-exposed areas of the skin, with approximately 50% of all tumors occurring in the face and neck and 40% in the extremities. Immunohistochemical markers (CK20+, CK7- and TTF1-) are used to distinguish between MCC and other tumors. MCC have a tendency to rapid local progression, frequent spread to regional lymph nodes and distant metastases. Due to the rarity of the disease, the optimal treatment has not been fully defined. Localized stages (stages I and II) are treated by surgical excision of the primary tumor (with 2 to 3 cm margin) and lymphadenectomy in case of node-positive disease, followed by external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) to a total dose of 50 to 60Gy in the tumor bed. Adjuvant EBRT has been shown to decrease markedly locoregional recurrences and to increase survival in recent studies. Treatment of lymph nodes area is more controversial. Chemotherapy is recommended only for metastatic disease