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

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

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 (<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 (Δgroup-TAD+PLA vs. Δgroup-TAD+TAM). At baseline, both groups presented similar characteristics and symptoms scores (all: p > 0.05). From baseline to 12-weeks, all the subjects showed a significant improvement of IIEF, total-IPSS, storage-IPSS, Qmax (all: p < 0.001). Conversely, a significant improvement of voiding-IPSS was observed in TAD+TAM-group (−3.5 points, p < 0.001). Indeed, TAD+PLA-group showed a not significant improvement of voiding-IPSS (−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

Olive Oil effectively mitigates ovariectomy-induced osteoporosis in rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Osteoporosis, a reduction in bone mineral density, represents the most common metabolic bone disease. Postmenopausal women are particularly susceptible to osteoporosis when their production of estrogen declines. For these women, fracture is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. This study was conducted to evaluate the protective effects of olive oil supplementation against osteoporosis in ovariectomized (OVX) rats.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We studied adult female Wistar rats aged 12-14 months, divided into three groups: sham-operated control (SHAM), ovariectomized (OVX), and ovariectomized rats supplemented with extravirgin olive oil (Olive-OVX) orally for 12 weeks; 4 weeks before ovariectomy and 8 weeks after. At the end of the experiment, blood samples were collected. Plasma levels of calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), malondialdehyde (MDA), and nitrates were assayed. Specimens from both the tibia and the liver were processed for light microscopic examination. Histomorphometric analysis of the tibia was also performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The OVX-rats showed a significant decrease in plasma calcium levels, and a significant increase in plasma ALP, MDA, and nitrates levels. These changes were attenuated by olive oil supplementation in the Olive-OVX rats. Light microscopic examination of the tibia of the OVX rats revealed a significant decrease in the cortical bone thickness (CBT) and the trabecular bone thickness (TBT). In addition, there was a significant increase in the osteoclast number denoting bone resorption. In the Olive-OVX rats these parameters were markedly improved as compared to the OVX group. Examination of the liver specimens revealed mononuclear cellular infiltration in the portal areas in the OVX-rats which was not detected in the Olive-OVX rats.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Olive oil effectively mitigated ovariectomy-induced osteoporosis in rats, and is a promising candidate for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis.</p