Cerebellar Atrophy and Neurocognitive Disorder as Primary Presentation of Antiphospholipid Syndrome in a Young Male

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is a multisystem autoimmunedisorder characterized by arterial or venous thrombosis and pregnancymorbidity in the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies(aPL).1 It can be primary or secondary. Primary antiphospholipid syndromeoccurs in the absence of any other related disease. Secondaryantiphospholipid syndrome occurs with other autoimmune diseases,such as systemic lupus erythematosus.The presence of aPL can be demonstrated in one of three ways:the presence of anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL), β 2-glycoprotein Iantibodies (GPI), or lupus anticoagulant antibodies (LA).1 To meetclassification criteria for antiphospholipid syndrome, patients shouldhave one clinical criterion, either vascular thrombosis (venous orarterial) or pregnancy morbidity (at least one fetal death or pretermdelivery or three or more unexplained, consecutive, spontaneouspregnancy losses) and one laboratory criterion, the presence of aPLantibodies need to be seen twice and at least 12 weeks apart for confirmation.Neurological manifestations are common in APS and areattributed mainly to vascular thrombosis and aPL-induced neuronaltissue injury. The most common neurological presentation is an ischemiccerebrovascular accident (CVA) or transient ischemic attack(TIA). However, clinical presentations including cognitive dysfunction,headaches, seizures, and psychosis may be atypical in some cases,which makes diagnosis more difficult.2In our case, a male patient initially presented with a neurocognitivedisorder, dementia, cerebral atrophy, and seizure of unknown etiology.A diagnosis of APS was made after a brain biopsy revealed microinfarctsand intimal fibrosis and an aPL antibody test was positive

Geochemical and isotopic study of urban and rural Watersheds: assessment of water resources and soil pollution in Lebanon

Lebanon is situated in a Mediterranean semi-arid region rich in hydraulic resources but strongly under the impact of anthropogenic pressure, mainly after the industrial boost in the last 50 years. In this thesis our research is devoted to the study of water resources and the assessment of soil pollution in two contrasting watersheds that may resemble similar regions in the world. Rivers act as a collective funnel of contaminants derived from rock weathering, industrial, agricultural and urban practices. Thus we focus our study on the two main contrasting watersheds in Lebanon: an industrially dominated watershed located northwest of the country on the Mediterranean coast (Al Jouz basin), and a rural historically agricultural watershed that lies in the continental valley between the two mountainous chains (Litani basin). Geochemical analysis coupled to multi-isotopic applications was used as tools to investigate the collective influence of land-use cover, geomorphological processes, topography, soil type, geology, geography, orography, climate, and hydrological variability on drainage basin evolution. A two-year sampling strategy was followed (2011-2013) to collect not only water samples at various depths in the reservoir and in the piezometers, but also sediments (lacustrine, riverine and coastal) and soils (surficial and cores) to cover seasonal variations (rainy, first flush and dry seasons) in both studied areas. The results highlight the entire mechanism of characterization, origin, and partitioning between the dissolved and particulate phases of pollutants. Furthermore, the environmental implication of the Qaraaoun reservoir was assessed by emphasizing water hydrodynamics and its interaction with the watershed. Characterizing industrial and agricultural pollution allows the understanding of metal behavior and the prediction of its fate, in association with the environmental receiving media in semi-arid and Mediterranean areas. This work was the first to trace pollution sources and to reconstruct the metal fluxes in two of the most environmentally significant watersheds in the country. Stable and radioactive Pb isotopes were used in addition to 137Cs to study the geomorphological influence and the chronology of the environmental stress exerted by the factory and the dam on basin ecology. Moreover, the nature of the Qaraaoun reservoir and the internal hydrological dynamics were explored using stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopes to delineate the reservoir water layers and its fast response to meteorological and hydrodynamic changes in the watersheds, and to demonstrate its strong hydrological connectivity with groundwater. Reservoir water balance was made, indicating groundwater influx into the reservoir which was reported for the first time. The water hydrodynamics was also assessed using a box model, which in its role can be used to evaluate the reservoir water balance and hydro-project functionality and to establish the basis for water sustainability in the long term. This work has yielded a better understanding of biogeochemical processes under different environmental conditions. The treated issues in this thesis will provide a foundation for future hydropower projects and allow one to draw a road-map for national management plans, and to raise the alert for remediation processes and management methods to preserve the environment and resource sustainability, and ultimately the wellbeing of the local population.Doctorat en Sciencesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe

A study of Adsorption of Acetone and 2- Butanone on Iraqi Siliceouns Rocks Powder

Adsorption of Acetone and 2-Butanone on Iraqi siliceouns rocks powder have been investigated. UV technique has been used to determine the adsorption isotherms. The results showed that the adsorption isotherms obeyed Freundlich adsorption equation. The results showed that the adsorption increases with increasing acidity of solutions. The adsorption was exothermic process, increasing temperature leads to decreasing adsorption. H, S, G were calculated. Key words: Acetone , 2-Butanone , Adsorption

Precoded Wake-Up Radio Signals in Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Cellular Networks

International audienceInternet of things (IoT) presupposes a massive number of low-complexity wireless devices, placed in hardly accessible locations and often powered by batteries with limited size and capacity. To extend the lifetime of these devices, wakeup radio (WuR) techniques were proposed. In the literature, WuR solutions have been evaluated with single-antenna base stations (BSs). In this paper, we evaluate the benefits of adding multiple antennas at BSs to transmit precoded WuR signals. The considered precoded schemes provide better spatial selectivity by focusing the power of the transmitted WuR signal on the targeted devices. Monte-Carlo simulations are used to assess the performance of the system in terms of successful wake-up probability of the WuR receiver. Numerical results show that, unlike data transmission scenarios, complex precoders as multicell minimum mean-squared error (M-MMSE), are surpassed by the simpler maximum ratio (MR) precoder for WuR. Index Terms-Wake-up radio (WuR), precoding, multipleinput multiple-output (MIMO), cellular networks

Assessment of bioavailability of iron delivered to marine phytoplankton in different mineralogical forms

Iron (Fe) is an essential element in cellular biochemical processes and its availability in the surface ocean limits phytoplankton-mediated fixation of C, i.e. the biological pump. In vast regions of the open ocean, atmospheric deposition of Fe-bearing continental dust and volcanic ash to the surface ocean acts as an important source of bioavailable Fe to phytoplankton. The capacity of dust and ash to alleviate Fe limitation is usually discussed in terms of Fe solubility, which has been shown to be controlled by speciation/mineralogy. However, little information exists on the relationship between Fe bioavailability and Fe speciation/mineralogy in dust and ash. In this study, Fe-bearing materials of known mineralogy, including three volcanic ash samples from different eruptions (Eyjafjallajökull 2010, Chaitén 2008 and Tungurahua 2012), two continental dust specimens (Douz and Banizoumbou) and three Fe-bearing minerals (illite/smectite, ferrihydrite, and goethite) were added to Fe-stressed cultures of Dunaliella tertiolecta, a marine algae commonly found in high-nutrient, low chlorophyll waters. Photosynthetic activity, chlorophyll content and cell population growth were measured at regular intervals during 168 h after Fe addition. Our results indicate that all the tested Fe-bearing materials induced a similar biological response; and were able to alleviate Fe stress in D. tertiolecta within 2 h from the beginning of the experiment and to induce cell growth up to 168 h. This unexpected finding contrasts with the traditional view that Fe speciation/mineralogy in dust and ash plays a key role in governing Fe bioavailability to phytoplankton. Supplementary measurements on the fractional solubility of Fe in dust and ash will be presented

Fertilization potential of natural and synthetic volcanic ash in marine phytoplankton.

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Volcanic ash and powdered glass display a similar capacity to alleviate Fe stress in marine algae Dunaliella tertiolecta

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Hydrodynamic influence on reservoir sustainability in semi-arid climate: A physicochemical and environmental isotopic study

Water scarcity and increasing water demand require the development of water management plans such as establishing artificial lakes and dams. Plans to meet water needs are faced by uprising challenges to improve water quality and to ensure the sustainability of hydro-projects. Environmental isotopes coupled to water physicochemical characteristics were investigated over a biennial cycle to assess both geomorphological and environmental impacts on the water quality of a reservoir situated in an intensively used agricultural watershed under a Mediterranean semi-arid climate. The particularity of the semi-arid climate and the diverse topography generate a continental and orographic rain effect on the isotopic composition of precipitation and the water recharged sources. The studied reservoir responds quickly to land-use activities and climatic changes as reflected by temporal and spatial variations of water chemistry and isotopic composition. Increasing changes in precipitation rate and dry periods significantly modified the water isotopic composition in the reservoir. During the first year, hydrogen (δD) and oxygen (δ18O) isotopes are depleted by 6 and 2‰ between dry and wet season, respectively. While a shift of −2‰ for δD and −1‰ for δ18O was detected during the second annual cycle. Environmental isotopic compositions demonstrate for the first time the occurrence of groundwater inflow to the central (Cz) and dam (Dz) zones of the Qaraaoun reservoir. The Cz and Dz can be considered as open water bodies subjected to dilution by groundwater inflow, which induces vertical mixing and reverse isotopic stratification of the water column. In the contrary, the river mouth zone acts as a closed system without groundwater intrusion, where heavy water accumulates and may act as a sink for contaminants during dry season. Groundwater influx acts as a dilution factor that renews the hypolimnion, and minimizes the perturbations induced by both internal biogeochemical reactions and external hydrological variations. Attention should be devoted to the hydrogeological location of planned reservoirs, which should take into account the vicinity of shallow water table to insure good water quality and water sustainability.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Reservoir sediments: a sink or source of chemicals at the surface water-groundwater interface

This study delineates the physical, chemical, and biological effects resulting from anthropogenic and endogenic activities in a sensitive dammed reservoir situated in a semi-arid region. The reservoir is characterized by two major flow regimes: a wet fill hydrologic regime and a dry spill one. A seasonal sampling campaign was carried out over a period of 2 years (2011–2013) where water samples were collected across the water column and from piezometers just outside the perimeter of the reservoir. Similarly, sediments were collected from the corresponding areas beneath the water column. The water samples were analyzed for environmental isotopic ratios, elemental composition, and physical, biological and chemical parameters, whereas the sediment and algal samples were subjected to physical, mineralogical, spectroscopic, and microscopic analyses. This investigation indicated that the dam had resulted in the alteration of the biogeochemical cycle of nutrients as well as the degradation of the sediment and water quality. The hydrological and biogeochemical processes were found to induce vertical downward transport of chemicals towards the fine grained calcareous sediments during the fill mode, whereas the sediments acted as a source of a chemical flux upward through the water column and downward towards the groundwater during the spill mode. The geomorphological characteristics of the reservoir enhanced the strong hydrological connectivity between the surface water and the groundwater where the reservoir responded quickly to natural and anthropogenic changes in the upper watershed. The water and sediments in the sensitive spill mode were of poor quality and should receive more attention due to the potential hazard for the associated hydro-project and the sustainability of the agricultural soil in the long term. Thus, a safe water and sediment management plan should be implemented in order to improve the dam functionality and to safeguard the precious water resources.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Self-Reported Adherence to Oral Endocrine Therapy among Breast Cancer Patients in Jordan

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