Comparison of the effectiveness and attractiveness of the trap "Sentrap"and two home-made prototypes to "Multilure" (conventional trap) in male anihilation technique Mbaye Ndiaye1* and Fabrice L. R.

The average catches of Bactrocera invadens obtained from home-made open-bottom dry traps of mineral water translucent plastic bottles of 1.5 L, 5 L, and "Sentrap" Open-top Dry local Trap (plastic prototype improved by SENCHIM, an agrochemicals industry based in Senegal) were compared to the conventional trap "Multilure" (Better World Manufacturing, Inc.., Miami, FL). Results show that no significant difference was found when "Multilure" was compared to the 5 L plastic bottle trap. The study of the relationships between catches and type of trap was significant for all of them. Sentrap, "Multilure" and 1.5 L bottle trap exhibited a very high significant dependency relationships (r = -0.969**, r = -0.903** and r = -0.801**; respectively and p< 0.01). And the 5 L bottle trap was significant with r = -0.801* and p< 0.05. Thus, in case of absence of conventional traps, the plastic bottle of 5 L could, therefore, be used as an alternative and its basal part painted in yellow should increase its efficiency. Also, due to simple design and less time needed for servicing "Sentrap", increasing its volume and openings and fixing firmly the upper part with a lid screw might improve its efficiency.Key words: Traps, catches, Bactrocera

Insights into pneumococcal pneumonia using lung aspirates and nasopharyngeal swabs collected from pneumonia patients in The Gambia.

We investigated the pathogenesis of pneumococcal pneumonia using clinical specimens collected for pneumonia surveillance in The Gambia. Lung aspirates and nasopharyngeal swabs from 31 patients were examined by culture, qPCR, whole genome sequencing, serotyping, and reverse transcription qPCR. Five lung aspirates cultured pneumococci, with a matching strain identified in the nasopharynx. Three virulence genes including ply (pneumolysin) were upregulated >20-fold in the lung compared with the nasopharynx. Nasopharyngeal pneumococcal density was higher in pediatric pneumonia patients compared with controls (p <0.0001). Findings suggest that changes in pneumococcal gene expression occurring in the lung environment may be important in pathogenesis

Osteolipoma: An unusual tumor of the parotid region

SummaryPurpose of studyOncology of the parotid region is rich and varied, like its components. During his career, the ENT surgeon may come across such an exceptional tumor as osteolipoma. The aim of this study was to describe the rarity and the etiopathogeny of osteolipoma with parapharyngeal location.Patients and methodWe had the opportunity to find this uncommon tumor in a 21-year-old female patient. The mass located in the parotid region was hard, barely mobile and at first looked like a parotid tumor. Total parotidectomy with facial nerve preservation was performed. It revealed a stony and dented tumor inside the internal lobe of the parotid located in the parapharyngeal space between the vertical portion of the mandible anteriorly and the styloid apophyse posteriorly. Macroscopic examination of the piece evidenced a lipomatous mass with hard as bone nodes in its middle. Histology revealed an osteolipoma.ConclusionA review of the literature shows the uncommon occurrence of this type of tumor. A few rare cases were reported among which two involving the parapharyngeal space

Three-dimensional arrangement of β-tricalcium phosphate granules evaluated by microcomputed tomography and fractal analysis.

The macrophysical properties of granular biomaterials used to fill bone defects have rarely been considered. Granules of a given biomaterial occupy three-dimensional (3-D) space when packed together and create a macroporosity suitable for the invasion of vascular and bone cells. Granules of β-tricalcium phosphate were prepared using polyurethane foam technology and increasing the amount of material powder in the slurry (10, 11, 15, 18, 21 and 25g). After sintering, granules of 1000-2000μm were prepared by sieving. They were analyzed morphologically by scanning electron microscopy and placed in polyethylene test tubes to produce 3-D scaffolds. Microcomputed tomography (microCT) was used to image the scaffolds and to determine porosity and fractal dimension in three dimensions. Two-dimensional sections of the microCT models were binarized and used to compute classical morphometric parameters describing porosity (interconnectivity index, strut analysis and star volumes) and fractal dimensions. In addition, two newly important fractal parameters (lacunarity and succolarity) were measured. Compression analysis of the stacks of granules was done. Porosity decreased as the amount of material in the slurry increased but non-linear relationships were observed between microarchitectural parameters describing the pores and porosity. Lacunarity increased in the series of granules but succolarity (reflecting the penetration of a fluid) was maximal in the 15-18g groups and decreased noticeably in the 25g group. The 3-D arrangement of biomaterial granules studied by these new fractal techniques allows the optimal formulation to be derived based on the lowest amount of material, suitable mechanical resistance during crushing and the creation of large interconnected pores

Contamination des moules (Mytilus galloprovincialis) des côtes de la région de Dakar par les Hydrocarbures Aromatiques Polycycliques (HAPs)

Dans ce travail, nous avons etudie la contamination par les Hydrocarbures Aromatiques Polycycliques des moules recoltees au niveau des cotes de la region de Dakar. Les sites ont ete choisis en fonction des activites qui y sont developpees. Lfextraction des HAPs a ete faite au moyen dfun extracteur Soxhlet avec un melange hexane/acetone et la purification est realisee avec lfoxyde dfaluminium. Nous avons analyse lfextraitpar un chromatographe de gaz couple a un spectrographe de masse (GC/MS). Les resultats montrent que les teneurs en hydrocarbures evoluent de facon croissante en fonction du temps. Au port de Dakar, lesconcentrations passent de 5308,67 en 2007 a 17973,37 ƒÊg/kg de poids sec, en 2008. Lfevolution des hydrocarbures suit la meme tendance dans les differents sites. Ainsi, le Port concentre la plus forte teneur, ensuite suivent les sites de Mbao et de Hann. Au niveau du port, la contamination proviendrait des depots de stockages des hydrocarbures mais egalement des operations de transbordement du petrole. La zone de Mbao estpolluee par la presence de nombreuses usines dont une raffinerie qui a ces canaux directement ouvert sur la plage. Le site de Hann abrite un canal qui draine les eaux usees domestiques mais aussi les huiles de rejet des stations services. Ainsi, les moules deviennent un bon indicateur de la qualite des eaux mais egalement un danger pour la population, grande consommatrice de cette espece. Ces etudes qui constituent un etat de lieu doivent etre poursuivies afin de fournir des donnees scientifiques de base aux decideurs politiques pour la recherche de solutions durables a la pollution de notre environnement

Assessment of Rice Inbred Lines and Hybrids under Low Fertilizer Levels in Senegal

This research was conducted at the Africa Rice Sahel Regional Station (near Saint Louis, Senegal) during two wet seasons (i.e., July to November) in 2010 and 2011 with the aim of assessing the performances of introduced hybrid cultivars along with an inbred check cultivar under low input fertilizer levels. The five treatments used in this study were (a) the control (without any fertilizer application), (b) 37.5-4.4-8.3 kg N-P-K ha(-1), (c) half of recommend application in Senegal (75-8.75-16.5 kg N-P-K ha(-1)), (d) 112.5-13.3-24.8 kg N-P-K ha(-1), and (e) the recommended application in the country (150-17.5-33 kg N-P-K ha(-1)). There were significant year and cultivar effects for all traits. The fertilizer levels affected significantly most traits except panicle length and 1000-grain weight. The year x fertilizer level and year x cultivar interactions were significant for most traits, but the fertilizer level x cultivar and year x fertilizer level x cultivar interactions were not significant. Days to maturity, plant height, panicle per m2, and grain yield increased with increasing fertilizer levels during the two wet seasons. The grain yield of rice hybrids (bred by the International Rice Research Institute) was not significantly higher than that of the check cultivar widely grown in Senegal. The assessment of other rice hybrid germplasm showing more adaptability to low fertilizer levels will facilitate further hybrid cultivar development in Africa

The endogenous subcellular localisations of the long chain fatty acid-activating enzymes ACSL3 and ACSL4 in sarcoma and breast cancer cells

Fatty acid uptake and metabolism are often dysregulated in cancer cells. Fatty acid activation is a critical step that allows these biomolecules to enter cellular metabolic pathways such as mitochondrial β-oxidation for ATP generation or the lipogenic routes that generate bioactive lipids such as the inositol phospholipids. Fatty acid activation by the addition of coenzyme A is catalysed by a family of enzymes called the acyl CoA synthetase ligases (ACSL). Furthermore, enhanced expression of particular ACSL isoforms, such as ACSL4, is a feature of some more aggressive cancers and may contribute to the oncogenic phenotype. This study focuses on ACSL3 and ACSL4, closely related structural homologues that preferentially activate palmitate and arachidonate fatty acids, respectively. In this study, immunohistochemical screening of multiple soft tissue tumour arrays revealed that ACSL3 and ACSL4 were highly, but differentially, expressed in a subset of leiomyosarcomas, fibrosarcomas and rhabdomyosarcomas, with consistent cytoplasmic and granular stainings of tumour cells. The intracellular localisations of endogenously expressed ACSL3 and ACSL4 were further investigated by detailed subcellular fractionation analyses of HT1080 fibrosarcoma and MCF-7 breast cancer cells. ACSL3 distribution closely overlapped with proteins involved in trafficking from the trans-Golgi network and endosomes. In contrast, the ACSL4 localisation pattern more closely followed that of calnexin which is an endoplasmic reticulum resident chaperone. Confocal immunofluorescence imaging of MCF-7 cells confirmed the intracellular localisations of both enzymes. These observations reveal new information regarding the compartmentation of fatty acid metabolism in cancer cells

Myringoplastie par la technique des boutonnières

Introduction : La réparation des lésions tympaniques et ossiculaires au cours de l’otite chronique fait appel à plusieurs procédés bien codifiés par leurs utilisateurs.Le but de ce travail est de rapporter nos résultatsde myringoplastie par la technique des boutonnières, chez des patients porteurs de séquelles d’otite moyenne chronique non cholestéatomateuse.Patients et méthode : Etude rétrospective concernant 49 patients opérés consécutivement de tympanoplastie pour otite moyenne chronique non cholestéatomateuse, entre janvier 2003 et décembre 2009, sélectionnés parmi 140 autres opérés de tympanoplasties selon d’autres procédés. Le temps de réparation de la membrane tympanique (Myringoplastie) a été effectué par la technique d’amarrage antérieur du greffon, technique dite des boutonnières. Les critères d’évaluationétaient l’état du tympan à la dernière consultation, le rinne moyen post opératoire ou rinne résiduel et le gain moyen auditif. Le gain auditif était représenté par la différence entre le rinne pré-opératoire et le rinne post opératoire et tous les paramètres fonctionnels appréciés sur les fréquences 500, 1000 et 2000 hertz.Résultats : L’âge moyen était de 29 ans avec des extrêmes de 8 et 64 ans. La perforation tympanique était importante, centrale ou subtotale dans 32 cas (65,30%), avec une ancienneté remontant à l’enfance dans 19 cas (38,77%). L’oreille controlatérale était porteuse d’une pathologie dans 23 cas (47%). Le rinne moyen pré-opératoire était de 37,04 dB. Avec un recul moyen de 26 mois, la restauration anatomique du tympan en position normale était notée dans 35 cas (71,42 %). Le taux de reperforation a été estimé à 20,4% (10 cas), tandisque la médialisation a été observée dans 2 cas (4,08%), la latéralisation dans 1 cas (2,04%), le blunting ou comblement de l’angle antérieur tympano-méatal dans 1 cas (2,04%). Nous avons noté un rinne moyen post opératoire de 20,38 dB avec un gain moyen post opératoire de 14dB.Conclusion : Les résultats obtenus dans cette première série de myringoplastiepar la technique des boutonnières ont été modestes, mais améliorés dans le temps avec la maitrise de la technique opératoire et des facteurs de risque d’échec représentés ici par l’ancienneté, l’importance et l’évolutivité des lésions.Mots clés : Otite chronique, Myringoplastie, Technique des boutonnières.Objective : Several methods well codified by their users had been described for the repairing of tympanic and ossicular damage during chronic otitis media. The aim of this study was to report our results of myringoplasties by the technic of buttonholes procedure, in patients with sequelae of non chlesteatoma chronic otitis media.Patients and methods : A retrospective study on 49 patients, with sequalea of non cholesteatoma chronic otitis media, operated consecutively of myringoplasty by the technic of buttonholes, between january 2003 and december 2009, was caried out. The patients had been selected among 140 others operated throught others procedures. The criteria of evaluation were the ear drum’s aspect at the last clinical examination, the average air bone gap and the average hearing gain established as the difference between pre opérative and post operative air bone gap. The parameters for the post operative functional outcome had been assessed on the frequencies 500, 1000 and 2000 kHz.Results: The average age was 29 years and ranged from 8 to 64. The tympanic membrane’s perforation was important, central or subtotal in 32 cases (65,30%), with a long term évolution dating back to childhood in 19 cases (38,77%). Pathological disease was noticed in the controlateral ear in 23 cases (47%). The average pre operative air bone gap was 37.04 dB. After a mean follow up of 26 month, the succeful rate of closure of the tymapanic membrane, in the normal position, was 71,42%. The recidive of perforation (reperforation) was estimated at 20,4% (10 cases), whereverthe medialization was observed in 2 cases (4,08), lateralization and the blunting or filling the anterior tympano-méatal angle in respectively 1 case (2,04%). We noted an average post oprative air bone gap of 20,38 dB with an average hearing gain of 14 dB.Conclusion: The results obtained in this first round of myringoplasty with buttonhole procedure were modest, but improved over time withthe mastery of the surgery technic and risks factors of failure represented here by the age, size and scalabillity of the lesions.Keyswords : Chronic otitis media, Myringoplasty, Technic of buttonhole