Influence de la litière foliaire de cinq espèces végétales tropicales sur la diversité floristique des herbacées dans la zone du Ferlo (Senegal)

L’objectif de cette étude a été d’évaluer l’effet de la présence de cinq plantes ligneuses: Balanites aegyptiaca (L.) Del., Acacia tortilis subsp. raddiana (Savi) Brenan, Acacia senegal (L.) Willd, Boscia senegalensis (Pers.) Lam. ex Poir. et Sclerocarya birrea (A. Rich.) Hochst. sur la diversité spécifique de la végétation herbacée dans le Ferlo, au Nord-Sénégal. Il a été procédé à un inventaire des espèces herbacées sous couvert et hors couvert des plantes ligneuses. Ensuite, une analyse floristique qualitative (familles, genres et espèces) a été réalisée à partir de la liste floristique des différents inventaires. Cette analyse a été couplée à une approche quantitative en utilisant le coefficient de similitude de Sørensen qui a servi à définir l’indice de diversité beta. Les résultats de l’inventaire floristique ont permis de dénombrer 28 espèces herbacées réparties dans 25 genres et 15 familles. Les plantes ligneuses comme B. senegalensis, B. aegyptiaca et S. birrea possèdent la flore la plus riche avec 18 espèces chacune, alors que A. tortilis et A. senegal ont respectivement 12 et 9 espèces. Le témoin est le moins diversifié avec 6 espèces herbacées. Parmi les herbacées, Aristida mutabilis est la plus fréquente contrairement à Achyranthes aspera, Aristida adsentionis, Chloris barbata, Cleome  viscosa, Cyperus esculentus, Datura metel, Eragrostis pilosa et Indigofera hirsuta qui sont les espèces les moins fréquentes. Les résultats de l’AFC ont montré quatre groupements végétaux. Un premier groupement qui regroupe B. senegalensis, A. raddiana et le témoin, un groupement à B. aegyptiaca, un groupement à A. senegal et enfin un groupement à S. birrea. Cette étude a permis de mettre en évidence la valeur de la présence de l’arbre dans un système de production fortement dégradé.Mots clés: Sénégal, Ferlo, interaction arbre - herbe, AFC, diversité floristique

The influence of intercalating perfluorohexane into lipid shells on nano and microbubble stability

Microbubbles are potential diagnostic and therapeutic agents. In vivo stability is important as the bubbles are required to survive multiple passages through the heart and lungs to allow targeting and delivery. Here we have systematically varied key parameters affecting microbubble lifetime to significantly increase in vivo stability. Whilst shell and core composition are found to have an important role in improving microbubble stability, we show that inclusion of small quantities of C6F14 in the microbubble bolus significantly improves microbubble lifetime. Our results indicate that C6F14 inserts into the lipid shell, decreasing surface tension to 19 mN m-1, and increasing shell resistance, in addition to saturating the surrounding medium. Surface area isotherms suggest that C6F14 incorporates into the acyl chain region of the lipid at a high molar ratio, indicating ∼2 perfluorocarbon molecules per 5 lipid molecules. The resulting microbubble boluses exhibit a higher in vivo image intensity compared to commercial compositions, as well as longer lifetimes

Analogies between optical propagation and heat diffusion: applications to microcavities, gratings and cloaks

International audienceA new analogy between optical propagation and heat diffusion in heterogeneous anisotropic media has beenproposed recently [S. Guenneau, C. Amra, and D. Veynante, Optics Express Vol. 20, 8207-8218 (2012)]. A detailedderivation of this unconventional correspondence is presented and developed. In time harmonic regime, all thermalparameters are related to optical ones in artificial metallic media, thus making possible to use numerical codesdeveloped for optics. Then the optical admittance formalism is extended to heat conduction in multilayeredstructures. The concepts of planar micro-cavities, diffraction gratings, and planar transformation optics for heatconduction are addressed. Results and limitations of the analogy are emphasized

اختلاف دلالة المفردات والتعبيرات السياقية في ترجمة أحاديث الأربعين النووية في اللغة الإنجليزية = THE DIFFERENCE IN THE SIGNIFICANCE OF VOCABULARY AND CONTEXTUAL EXPRESSIONS IN TRANSLATING THE FORTY HADITHS OF AL-NAWAWI IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE[

يهدف هذا البحث إلى بيان مفهوم الدلالة والسياق، وذكر المراد بالترجمة، وتوضيح آثار ترجمة المفردات أو التعبيرات في فهم الأحاديث النبوية واختلافها، وتتجلى أهمية هذا البحث تقديم وجوه التعبير والسياق، ومعرفة اختلاف المفردات المستخدمة أو تعبير السياق بين الكتب المترجمة، وإدراك أمثلة طرائق الترجمة، ويركز هذا البحث على تأثير اختلاف المفردات المستخدمة أو التعبيرات السياقية في الدلالة بين ثلاثة كتب في ترجمة أحاديث الأربعين النووية، واتبعت الدراسة المنهج الوصفي التحليلي، وتوصلت الدراسة إلى نتائج مهمة، ومنها: تعد دراسة المفردات سياقياً مهمة في الترجمة لفهم مفردات الحديث النبوي الشريف، وأن هناك ترجمات مختلفة لمفردة معينة تختلف من كتاب إلى آخر، مع اختلاف وجيز في المعنى، وأن مفهوم المفردة في المصدر واللغة المترجمة؛ من حيث المصطلحات أو التركيب وغير ذلك أهمية في فهم الحديث النبوي ومقصوده. This research aims to clarify the concept of significance and context, mention what is meant by translation, and clarify the effects of translating vocabulary or expressions in understanding the Prophetic hadiths and their differences. This research focuses on the impact of the difference in used vocabulary or contextual expressions on the significance between three books in translating the forty hadiths of al-Nawawi. And that there are different translations of a specific vocabulary that differ from one book to another, with a brief difference in meaning, and that the concept of the word in the source and the translated language in terms of terms or structure and other things is important in understanding the prophetic hadith and its purpose

Nested-Nanobubbles for Ultrasound Triggered Drug Release

Due to their size (1-10 μm) microbubble-based drug delivery agents suffer from confinement to the vasculature, limiting tumour penetration and potentially reducing drug efficacy. Nanobubbles (NBs) have emerged as promising candidates for ultrasound triggered drug delivery, due to their small size allowing drug delivery complexes to take advantage of the enhanced permeability and retention effect. In this study we describe a simple method for production of Nested-NBs, by encapsulation of NBs (~ 100 nm) within drug loaded liposomes. This method combines the efficient and well-established drug loading capabilities of liposomes, whilst utilizing NBs as an acoustic trigger for drug release. Encapsulation was characterized using Transmission Electron Microscopy with an encapsulation efficiency of 22 ± 2 %. Nested-NBs demonstrated echogenicity using diagnostic B-mode imaging and acoustic emissions were monitored during high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) in addition to monitoring of model drug release. Results showed that although the encapsulated NBs were destroyed by pulsed HIFU (peak negative pressure 1.54 – 4.83 MPa), signified by loss of echogenicity and detection of inertial cavitation, no model drug release was observed. Changing modality to continuous wave (CW) HIFU produced release across a range of peak negative pressures (2.01 – 3.90 MPa), likely due to a synergistic effect of mechanical and increased thermal stimuli. Due to this, we predict that our NBs contain a mixed population of both gaseous and liquid core particles, which upon CW HIFU undergo rapid phase conversion, triggering liposomal drug release. This hypothesis was investigated using previously described models to predict the existence of droplets and their phase change potential and the ability of this phase change to induce liposomal drug release

Exploring the Intersection of Depression, Anxiety, and Sexual Health in Perimenopausal Women

Shahenda A Saleh,1 Noura Almadani,2 Rasha Mahfouz,2 Hanaa A Nofal,3 Dina S El-Rafey,3 Dina A Seleem4 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt; 2Community and Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Department, College of Nursing, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, 11671, Saudi Arabia; 3Community, Environmental, and Occupational Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt; 4Psychiatry Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, EgyptCorrespondence: Rasha Mahfouz, Community and Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Department, College of Nursing, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, 11671, Saudi Arabia, Email [email protected]: The perimenopausal period is marked by hormonal fluctuations that trigger a complex interplay between estrogen levels and neurotransmitters’ function, contributing to increased susceptibility to depression and anxiety in women. Concurrently, hormonal changes, coupled with alterations in vaginal tissue, lead to sexual dysfunction during this transitional phase. This study aimed at evaluating the association between menopausal symptoms and sexual dysfunction among perimenopausal women and identifying the mediating effects of depression and anxiety on this association.Patients and Methods: Data for the present cross-sectional study were collected from participants via Arabic versions of three questionnaires; the modified Menopausal Rating Scale (MRS), the Female Sexual Functioning Index (FSFI) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS).Results: Our study was conducted on 149 females with age ranged from 45 to 55 years. On studying the relation between modified MRS and HADS, the menopausal symptoms were significantly high among female with high anxiety scores. Regarding the relationship between MRS and FSFI, women with anxiety and physical and mental exhaustion had significantly lower FSFI scores than women without such symptoms (19.2 [2– 31.4] vs 21.7 [3.8– 30.9], p = 0.04, respectively). Furthermore, there were statistically significant negative correlations between depression scores and sexual desire (r = − 0.32, p < 0.001), arousal (r = − 0.25, p = 0.003), and total FSFI scores (r = − 0.27, p = 0.04).Conclusion: Perimenopausal women experience a confluence of challenges related to depression, anxiety, and sexual dysfunction. Understanding the interconnectedness of hormonal and psychosocial factors is essential for tailored interventions aimed at improving mental health and sexual well-being during this transitional phase.Keywords: anxiety, depression, perimenopausal, sexual dysfunctio

Evaluation of Lipid-Stabilised Tripropionin Nanodroplets as a Delivery Route for Combretastatin A4

Lipid-based nanoemulsions are a cheap and elegant route for improving the delivery of hydrophobic drugs. Easy and quick to prepare, nanoemulsions have promise for the delivery of different therapeutic agents. Although multiple studies have investigated the effects of the oil and preparation conditions on the size of the nanoemulsion nanodroplets for food applications, analogous studies for nanoemulsions for therapeutic applications are limited. Here we present a study on the production of lipid-stabilised oil nanodroplets (LONDs) towards medical applications. A number of biocompatible oils were used to form LONDs with phospholipid coatings, and among these, squalane and tripropionin were chosen as model oils for subsequent studies. LONDs were formed by high pressure homogenisation, and their size was found to decrease with increasing production pressure. When produced at 175 MPa, all LONDs samples exhibited sizes between 100 − 300 nm, with polydispersity index PI between 0.1 − 0.3. The LONDs were stable for over six weeks, at 4 °C, and also under physiological conditions, showing modest changes in size (&lt;10%). The hydrophobic drug combretastatin A4 (CA4) was encapsulated in tripropionin LONDs with an efficiency of approximately 76%, achieving drug concentration of approximately 1.3 mg/ml. SVR mouse endothelial cells treated with CA4 tripropionin LONDs showed the microtubule disruption, characteristic of drug uptake for all tested doses, which suggests successful release of the CA4 from the LONDs

Tadalafil 5 mg Alone or in Combination with Tamsulosin 0.4 mg for the Management of Men with Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms and Erectile Dysfunction: Results of a Prospective Observational Trial.

Tadalafil 5 mg represents the standard for men with Erectile dysfunction (ED) and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS)/benign prostatic enlargement (BPE). We carried out an observational trial aiming to assess the efficacy and safety of Tadalafil compared with Tadalafil plus Tamsulosin. Seventy-five patients complaining of ED and LUTS were treated for 12-weeks with Tadalafil plus placebo (TAD+PLA-group) or with combination therapy tadalafil plus tamsulosin (TAD+TAM-group). Efficacy variables were: International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF), International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), maximum urinary flow rate (Qmax) and safety assessments. Data were evaluated using paired samples T-test (baseline vs. 12-weeks) and analysis of variance (&Delta;group-TAD+PLA vs. &Delta;group-TAD+TAM). At baseline, both groups presented similar characteristics and symptoms scores (all: p &gt; 0.05). From baseline to 12-weeks, all the subjects showed a significant improvement of IIEF, total-IPSS, storage-IPSS, Qmax (all: p &lt; 0.001). Conversely, a significant improvement of voiding-IPSS was observed in TAD+TAM-group (&minus;3.5 points, p &lt; 0.001). Indeed, TAD+PLA-group showed a not significant improvement of voiding-IPSS (&minus;2.0 points, p = 0.074). When we compared between-groups differences at 12-weeks, IIEF (p = 0.255), total-IPSS (p = 0.084) and storage-IPSS (p = 0.08) did not show any statistically significant differences, whereas, voiding-IPSS and Qmax were significantly better in TAD+TAM-group (p = 0.006 and p = 0.027, respectively). No severe treatment adverse events (TAEs) were reported in both groups. Tadalafil achieved the same improvements of IIEF, total-IPSS, storage-IPSS when compared to combination therapy. Instead, Qmax and voiding-IPSS were better managed with combination therapy, without change of TAEs