People of TM: Video of Nasri Abdallah

The video will be used for an external social media engagement campaign on platforms like linked-in, facebook etc. featruing stories of people in TM. No IP related content

Emergent IoT Wireless Technologies beyond the year 2020 : A Comprehensive Comparative Analysis

International audienceLow-power wide area networks (LPWANs) has recently emerged as a popular long-range and low-speed radio communication technology as a result of the important growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) market. In fact, LoRa, Sigfox and NB-IoT are the three major LPWAN technologies which compete for IoT deployment. In this manuscript, we analyze and compare these technologies. The latter are efficiently applied to intelligent, autonomous and heterogeneous devices. Within this framework, 5G networks have to be used to guarantee full connectivity in the IoTnetworks. To evaluate the IoT collection networks behavior, a set of experiments were conducted on real testbeds using wifi and zigbee technologies in an indoor environment

Chemical characterization of oil from four Avocado varieties cultivated in Morocco

The notable growth in the use of avocado oil in the nutritional and cosmetic field was the main objective to valorize the oil production of important varieties of avocados existing in Morocco by analyzing its chemical composition in fatty acids, sterols, tocopherols and its physico-chemical properties. Oleic acid is the main fatty acid in the oil; they constitute between 50 and 65% of the total fatty acids. The study of the unsaponifiable fraction revealed that avocado oil contains 3259.9–5378.8 mg/kg sterols and 113.13–332.17 mg/kg tocopherols. Chemo-metric tools were employed in manner optimization, such as principal component analysis, agglomerative hierarchical clustering, analysis of variance, and classification trees using Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detector. Chemo-metric tools revealed a difference in the composition of fatty acid, sterols, and tocopherol of avocado oil samples. This difference resulted from a variety of avocado fruits. Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC) method was efficient distinguishing avocado oil samples based on fruit variety using fatty acids, tocopherols, sterol compositions and total sterol. Principal component analysis (PCA) method allowed the distinction the set avocado oil dataset based on fruit varieties, supplied a correct discrimination rate of 95.44% for avocado fruit varieties using the fatty acid. Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detector (CHAID) carried out using the same variables, also provided an acceptable classification rate of 50% for avocado fruit varieties using the total tocopherol content. Besides, a comparative study of the physico-chemical properties in terms of acidity index, saponification index, iodine index, chlorophylls, carotenoids, and methyl and ethyl esters was performed

Preparation and characterization of microfiltration apatite membrane over low cost clay-alumina support for decolorization of dye solution

Apatite material obtained from natural sources of Tunisian mineral has been used for the development of membrane over clay-alumina-based microporous supports. For this purpose, supports of single-channel and 19-channel circular configurations were used. The apatite powder used for membrane preparation had average pore diameter of 4.02m. Coating formulation has been optimized to obtain stable suspension. Powder loading of 4wt.% was found as optimum for obtaining a proper microfiltration membrane with 0.2m pore diameter. Single-channel membrane was used for characterization. The application to color removal from synthetic reactive dye solution was performed using membrane with 19-channel configuration. An average water flux of 200 and 80l/m(2)h was obtained for 19-channel support and membrane, respectively, in laboratory scale setup. Reactive red dye removal from synthetic dyeing solution was achieved up to 99%. Resulting saturated membrane was successfully regenerated using H2O2 at various concentrations and contact time. Color separation efficiency of the membrane (g/m(2)) has been evaluated as an indicator of membrane regeneration. Moreover, apatite membrane-based separation of reactive red dye has been compared with adsorption using the apatite powder followed by membrane separation. Apatite membrane-based separation was found to be more efficient compared to adsorptive separation using apatite powder

Antiviral Effect, Safety, and Pharmacokinetics of Five-Day Oral Administration of Deleobuvir (BI 207127), an Investigational Hepatitis C Virus RNA Polymerase Inhibitor, in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C

International audienceDeleobuvir (BI 207127) is an investigational oral nonnucleoside inhibitor of hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS5B RNA polymerase. Antiviral activity, virology, pharmacokinetics, and safety were assessed in HCV genotype 1-infected patients receiving 5 days' deleobuvir monotherapy. In this double-blind phase 1b study, treatment-naive (TN; n = 15) and treatment-experienced (TE; n = 45) patients without cirrhosis received placebo or deleobuvir at 100, 200, 400, 800, or 1,200 mg every 8 h (q8h) for 5 days. Patients with cirrhosis (n = 13) received deleobuvir at 400 or 600 mg q8h for 5 days. Virologic analyses included NS5B genotyping and phenotyping of individual isolates. At day 5, patients without cirrhosis had dose-dependent median HCV RNA reductions of up to 3.8 log10 (with no placebo response); patients with cirrhosis had median HCV RNA reductions of approximately 3.0 log10. Three patients discontinued due to adverse events (AEs). The most common AEs were gastrointestinal, nervous system, and skin/cutaneous tissue disorders. Plasma exposure of deleobuvir was supraproportional at doses ≥ 400 mg q8h and approximately 2-fold higher in patients with cirrhosis than in patients without cirrhosis. No virologic breakthrough was observed. NS5B substitutions associated with deleobuvir resistance in vitro were detected in 9/59 patients; seven encoded P495 substitutions, including P495L, which conferred 120- to 310-fold-decreased sensitivity to deleobuvir. P495 variants did not persist in follow-up without selective drug pressure. Deleobuvir monotherapy was generally well tolerated and demonstrated dose-dependent antiviral activity against HCV genotype 1 over 5 days

Efficacy and safety of remibrutinib, a selective, potent oral BTK inhibitor, in Sjögren’s syndrome

Objectives To evaluate the safety and efficacy of remibrutinib in patients with moderate to severe SjS in a Phase 2 randomised, double-blind, trial. Methods Eligible patients (moderate to severe SjS [classification according to 2016 ACR/ /European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) criteria]; EULAR Sjögren’s Syndrome Disease Activity Index [ESSDAI] (based on weighted score) ≥ 5, EULAR Sjögren’s Syndrome Patient Reported Index [ESSPRI] ≥ 5; unstimulated salivary flow rate of > 0 mL/min) received remibrutinib (100 mg) either once or twice daily, or placebo for the 24-week study treatment period. The primary endpoint was change from baseline in ESSDAI at Week 24. Key secondary endpoints included change from baseline in ESSDAI over time, change from baseline in ESSPRI over time and safety of remibrutinib in SjS. Key exploratory endpoints included changes to the salivary flow rate, soluble biomarkers, blood transcriptomic and serum proteomic profiles. Results Remibrutinib significantly improved ESSDAI score in SjS patients over 24 weeks compared with placebo (ΔESSDAI −2.86, P=0.003). No treatment effect was observed in ESSPRI score. There was a trend towards improvement of unstimulated salivary flow with remibrutinib compared with placebo over 24 weeks. Post-hoc analysis showed a strong effect on Sjögren’s Tool for Assessing Response (STAR) at 24 weeks in the remibrutinib groups. Remibrutinib induced significant changes in gene expression in blood as well as in serum protein abundance compared with placebo. Conclusions These data show preliminary efficacy and favorable safety of remibrutinib in a Ph2 trial for SjS