Eight-dimensional symplectic non-solvable Lie algebras

In this paper, we classify eight-dimensional non-solvable Lie algebras that support a symplectic structure. As well as a complete classification is given, up to symplectomorphism, of eight-dimensional symplectic non-solvable Lie algebras.Comment: 29 pages. Comments welcom

Characterisation of virulence reactions for Heterodera avenae populations from two localities in Algeria

Heterodera avenae is widely distributed in areas where most cereal crops are produced in Algeria. However, the virulence of the Algerian populations of this nematode on individual cereal species and cultivars has not been well documented. The virulence of H. avenae populations from Tiaret and from Oued Smar were tested under natural outdoor conditions and in an in vitro test to determine reactions of nine barley, oat and wheat cultivars selected from the International differential assortment for identifying pathotypes of H. avenae. All nine cereal differentials expressed the same reactions to both populations. The nematodes reproduced well on the barley cultivar Emir and the wheat cultivar Capa. Resistant entries included the barley cultivars Siri, Ortolan and Morocco, the oat cultivars Nidar II and A. sterilis I.376, and the wheat cultivars Loros and AUS10894. This matrix of reactions indicated that H. avenae populations from both locations were characterized as H. avenae Group 1 pathotypes but did not conclusively distinguish among pathotypes Ha21, Ha31 or Ha81. The Cre1 gene was identified as a potentially valuable source of resistance when developing wheat cultivars intended for release into these localities.This is an author's peer-reviewed final manuscript, as accepted by the publisher. The published article is copyrighted by Springer and can be found at: http://link.springer.com/journal/12600.Keywords: Barley, Wheat, Pathotype, Algeria, Oat, Heterodera avena

Prevalence of Mood Disorders and Associated Factors at the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Potocol for a Community Survey in La Manouba Governorate, Tunisia

Aims: The present survey aims to assess the overall mood disorder prevalence and identify associated socio-demographic and clinical factors in a Tunisian community sample, with special attention to the COVID-19 pandemic. Background: Mood disorders are one of the leading causes of all non-fatal burdens of disease, with depression being at the top of the list. The COVID-19 pandemic may have increased the prevalence of mood disorders, especially in Low and Middle-income countries (LMICs) and in vulnerable populations. Objective: 1/ Assess point and lifetime prevalence of depressive and bipolar disorders as well as subthreshold bipolarity in a representative population sample of La Manouba governorate and assess treatment patterns for these disorders; 2/Study socio-demographic and clinical correlates of mood disorders 3/ Assess the association between mood disorders and quality of life 4/ Study the impact of the COVID-pandemic on the prevalence of mood disorders 5/ Assess coping mechanisms to the COVID-pandemic and whether these mechanisms moderate the appearance of mood disorders or symptoms since the beginning of the pandemic Methods: This is a household cross-sectional observational survey to be conducted in La Manouba Governorate in a sample of 4540 randomly selected individuals aged ≥ 15 years. Data collection will be carried out by trained interviewers with clinical experience, through face-to-face interviews and the use of the computer assisted personal interviewing approach (CAPI). The following assessment tools are administered: Results: Structured clinical Interview for DSM IV-TR (Mood disorder section and Screening questions on Anxiety), Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ), Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ), 12-item Short Form Survey (SF-12), the Brief-COPE, and a questionnaire about a headache. In addition, socio-demographic and clinical data will be collected. Conclusion: This will be one of the very few household surveys in a general population sample to assess mental health problems and COVID-19-related variables since the beginning of the pandemic. Through this research, we aim to obtain an epidemiological profile of mood disorders in Tunisia and an estimation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their prevalence. Results should contribute to improving mental health care in Tunisia

XAI & I: Self-explanatory AI facilitating mutual understanding between AI and human experts

Traditionally, explainable artificial intelligence seeks to provide explanation and interpretability of high-performing black-box models such as deep neural networks. Interpretation of such models remains difficult, because of their high complexity. An alternative method is to instead force a deep-neural network to use human-intelligible features as the basis for its decisions. We tested this approach using the natural category domain of rock types. We compared the performance of a black-box implementation of transfer-learning using Resnet50 to that of a network first trained to predict expert-identified features and then forced to use these features to categorise rock images. The performance of this feature-constrained network was virtually identical to that of the unconstrained network. Further, a partially constrained network forced to condense down to a small number of features that was not trained with expert features did not result in these abstracted features being intelligible; nevertheless, an affine transformation of these features could be found that aligned well with expert-intelligible features. These findings show that making an AI intrinsically intelligible need not be at the cost of performance

Characterization of the inflammatory cell infiltrate and expression of costimulatory molecules in chronic echinococcus granulosus infection of the human liver

Background: The local immune responses to chronic echinococcal infections in various organs are largely unknown. Since the liver is the most frequently involved organ in such infections in human we aimed to characterize the inflammatory as well as immune cell infiltrate around hydatid cysts in the liver and compared to common inflammatory processes of the liver. Method: Surgical samples from the liver of 21 cystic echinococcosis (CE) patients were studied and the distribution of different types of inflammatory and immune cells were determined by immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, expression levels of costimulatory CTLA4, CD28, CD80 and CD86 molecules were measured at RNA level by PCR. Liver biopsy samples from patients with steatohepatitis (SH, n = 11) and chronic hepatitis (CH, n = 11) were used as non-inflammatory and chronic inflammatory controls, respectively. The composition and density of the inflammatory and immune cell infiltrates have been compared by using morphometry. Results: CD3+ T cells predominated the inflammatory infiltrate in all pathological processes, while in CE samples CD20+ B cells, in CH samples CD68+ macrophages were also frequent. Both myeloperoxidase (MPO) + leukocytes and CD68+ macrophages were found to be significantly decreased in CE as compared to either SH or CH samples. Concerning T cell subtypes, only CD8+ T cells were found to be significantly decreased in SH samples. CD1a + dendritic cells were almost completely missing from CE biopsies unlike in any other sample types. There were no differences detected in the mRNA expression of costimulatory molecules except decreased expression of CD28 in CE samples. Conclusion: In the hydatid lesions of the liver of chronic echinococcal infections T cell-mediated immunity seems to be impaired as compared to other types of chronic inflammatory processes, suggesting an immunosuppressive role for Echinococcus granulosus, which deserve further attentions

Phase I study of sorafenib combined with radiation therapy and temozolomide as first-line treatment of high-grade glioma.

BACKGROUND: Sorafenib (Sb) is a multiple kinase inhibitor targeting both tumour cell proliferation and angiogenesis that may further act as a potent radiosensitizer by arresting cells in the most radiosensitive cell cycle phase. This phase I open-label, noncontrolled dose escalation study was performed to determine the safety and maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of Sb in combination with radiation therapy (RT) and temozolomide (TMZ) in 17 patients with newly diagnosed high-grade glioma. METHODS: Patients were treated with RT (60 Gy in 2 Gy fractions) combined with TMZ 75 mg m(-2) daily, and Sb administered at three dose levels (200 mg daily, 200 mg BID, and 400 mg BID) starting on day 8 of RT. Thirty days after the end of RT, patients received monthly TMZ (150-200 mg m(-2) D1-5/28) and Sb (400 mg BID). Pharmacokinetic (PK) analyses were performed on day 8 (TMZ) and on day 21 (TMZ&Sb) (Clinicaltrials ID: NCT00884416). RESULTS: The MTD of Sb was established at 200 mg BID. Dose-limiting toxicities included thrombocytopenia (two patients), diarrhoea (one patient) and hypercholesterolaemia (one patient). Sb administration did not affect the mean area under the curve(0-24) and mean Cmax of TMZ and its metabolite 5-amino-imidazole-4-carboxamide (AIC). Tmax of both TMZ and AIC was delayed from 0.75 (TMZ alone) to 1.5 h (combined TMZ/Sb). The median progression-free survival was 7.9 months (95% confidence interval (CI): 5.4-14.55), and the median overall survival was 17.8 months (95% CI: 14.7-25.6). CONCLUSIONS: Although Sb can be combined with RT and TMZ, significant side effects and moderate outcome results do not support further clinical development in malignant gliomas. The robust PK data of the TMZ/Sb combination could be useful in other cancer settings