Université Djilali de Sidi Bel Abbès

The PV module is the interface which converts light into electricity. Modeling this device, necessarily requires taking weather data (irradiance and temperature) as input variables. The output can be current, voltage, power or other. However, trace the characteristics I(V) or P(V) needs of these three variables. Any change in the entries immediately implies changes in outputs. That is why, it is important to use an accurate model for the PV module. This paper presents a detailed modeling of the effect of irradiance and temperature on the parameters of the PV module. The chosen model is the single diode model with both series and parallel resistors for greater accuracy. The detailed modeling is then simulated step by step using MATLAB/Simulink software due to its frequent use and its effectiveness.

BACKGROUND: Deep dermatophytosis is a severe and sometimes life-threatening fungal infection caused by dermatophytes. It is characterized by extensive dermal and subcutaneous tissue invasion and by frequent dissemination to the lymph nodes and, occasionally, the central nervous system. The condition is different from common superficial dermatophyte infection and has been reported in patients with no known immunodeficiency. Patients are mostly from North African, consanguineous, multiplex families, which strongly suggests a mendelian genetic cause. METHODS: We studied the clinical features of deep dermatophytosis in 17 patients with no known immunodeficiency from eight unrelated Tunisian, Algerian, and Moroccan families. Because CARD9 (caspase recruitment domain-containing protein 9) deficiency has been reported in an Iranian family with invasive fungal infections, we also sequenced CARD9 in the patients. RESULTS: Four patients died, at 28, 29, 37, and 39 years of age, with clinically active deep dermatophytosis. No other severe infections, fungal or otherwise, were reported in the surviving patients, who ranged in age from 37 to 75 years. The 15 Algerian and Tunisian patients, from seven unrelated families, had a homozygous Q289X CARD9 allele, due to a founder effect. The 2 Moroccan siblings were homozygous for the R101C CARD9 allele. Both alleles are rare deleterious variants. The familial segregation of these alleles was consistent with autosomal recessive inheritance and complete clinical penetrance. CONCLUSIONS: All the patients with deep dermatophytosis had autosomal recessive CARD9 deficiency. Deep dermatophytosis appears to be an important clinical manifestation of CARD9 deficiency. (Funded by Agence Nationale pour la Recherche and others.).

In this paper, a new quasi-three-dimensional (3D) hyperbolic shear deformation theory for the bending and free vibration analysis of functionally graded plates is developed. By dividing the transverse displacement into bending, shear, and thickness stretching parts, the number of unknowns and governing equations of the present theory is reduced, and hence makes it simple to use. The present plate theory approach accounts for both transverse shear and normal deformations and satisfies the zero traction boundary conditions on the surfaces of the plate without using shear correction factor. Unlike any other theory, the number of unknown functions involved in displacement field is only five, as against six or more in the case of other shear and normal deformation theories. A comparison with the corresponding results is made to check the accuracy and efficiency of the present theory.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the in vitro antimicrobial activities of essential oil of the leaves of Eucalyptus globulus (E. globulus). METHODS: The essential oils of this plant were obtained by the hydrodistillation method. The inhibitory effects of this essential oil were tested against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) by using agar disc diffusion and dilution broth methods. RESULTS: The results obtained showed that essential oil of the leaves of E. globulus has antimicrobial activity against gram negative bacteria (E. coli) as well as gram positive bacteria (S. aureus). CONCLUSION: The encouraging results indicate the essential oil of E. globulus leaves might be exploited as natural antibiotic for the treatment of several infectious diseases caused by these two germs, and could be useful in understanding the relations between traditional cures and current medicines.

In the present work, a simple and refined trigonometric higher-order beam theory is developed for bending and vibration of functionally graded beams. The beauty of this theory is that, in addition to modeling the displacement field with only 3 unknowns as in Timoshenko beam theory, the thickness stretching effect (<i>ε_z</i> ≠ 0) is also included in the present theory. Thus, the present refined beam theory has fewer number of unknowns and equations of motion than the other shear and normal deformations theories, and it considers also the transverse shear deformation effects without requiring shear correction factors. The neutral surface position for such beams in which the material properties vary in the thickness direction is determined. Based on the present refined trigonometric higher-order beam theory and the neutral surface concept, the equations of motion are derived from Hamilton's principle. Numerical results of the present theory are compared with other theories to show the effect of the inclusion of transverse normal strain on the deflections and stresses.

In this article, a new five-variable refined plate theory for the free vibration analysis of functionally graded sandwich plates is developed. By dividing the transverse displacement into bending, shear, and thickness stretching parts, the number of unknowns and governing equations of the present theory is reduced, and hence, makes it simple to use. Indeed, the number of unknown functions involved in the present theory is only five, as opposed to six or more in the case of other shear and normal deformation theories. The theory accounts for hyperbolic distribution of the transverse shear strains, and satisfies the zero traction boundary conditions on the surfaces of the plate without using a shear correction factor. Two common types of functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich plates, namely, the sandwich with FGM facesheet and homogeneous core and the sandwich with homogeneous facesheet and FGM core, are considered. The equations of motion are obtained using Hamilton's principle. Numerical results of the present theory are compared with three-dimensional elasticity solutions and other higher-order theories reported in the literature. It can be concluded that the proposed theory is accurate and efficient in predicting the free-vibration response of functionally graded sandwich plates.

In this paper, the high efficiency Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 (CIGS)-based solar cells solar cells was analyzed and designed by SCAPS-1D software. This paper deals with the influence of a buffer layer on the performance of the CIGS-based solar cells. The photovoltaic parameters have been calculated in different buffer layer materials (CdS, ZnS, ZnSe), we give great alternative for Cadmium sulphide (CdS). Starting with a good structure, we simulated the J-V characteristics and showed how the absorber and buffer layers thickness, defect density influence the short-circuit current density (J sc ), open-circuit voltage (V co ), fill factor (FF), and efficiency (η) of solar cell. The optimized solar cell shows an efficiency of > 22% under the AM1.5G spectrum and one sun.

The current work concentrated on the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) through the use of aqueous Citruslimon zest extract, optimizing the different experimental factors required for the formation and stability of AgNPs. The preparation of nanoparticles was confirmed by the observation of the color change of the mixture of silver nitrate, after the addition of the plant extract, from yellow to a reddish-brown colloidal suspension and was established by detecting the surface plasmon resonance band at 535.5 nm, utilizing UV-Visible analysis. The optimum conditions were found to be 1 mM of silver nitrate concentration, a 1:9 ratio extract of the mixture, and a 4 h incubation period. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectrum indicated that the phytochemicals compounds present in Citrus limon zest extract had a fundamental effect on the production of AgNPs as a bio-reducing agent. The morphology, size, and elemental composition of AgNPs were investigated by zeta potential (ZP), dynamic light scattering (DLS), SEM, EDX, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis, which showed crystalline spherical silver nanoparticles. In addition, the antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of this bioactive silver nanoparticle were also investigated. The AgNPs showed excellent antibacterial activity against one Gram-negative pathogens bacteria, Escherichia coli, and one Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, as well as antifungal activity against Candida albicans. The obtained results indicate that the antioxidant activity of this nanoparticle is significant. This bioactive silver nanoparticle can be used in biomedical and pharmacological fields.

Epidemiology shows that red and processed meat intake is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer. Heme iron, heterocyclic amines, and endogenous N-nitroso compounds (NOC) are proposed to explain this effect, but their relative contribution is unknown. Our study aimed at determining, at nutritional doses, which is the main factor involved and proposing a mechanism of cancer promotion by red meat. The relative part of heme iron (1% in diet), heterocyclic amines (PhIP + MeIQx, 50 + 25 μg/kg in diet), and NOC (induced by NaNO₂+ NaNO₂; 0.17 + 0.23 g/L of drinking water) was determined by a factorial design and preneoplastic endpoints in chemically induced rats and validated on tumors in Min mice. The molecular mechanisms (genotoxicity, cytotoxicity) were analyzed in vitro in normal and Apc-deficient cell lines and confirmed on colon mucosa. Heme iron increased the number of preneoplastic lesions, but dietary heterocyclic amines and NOC had no effect on carcinogenesis in rats. Dietary hemoglobin increased tumor load in Min mice (control diet: 67 ± 39 mm²; 2.5% hemoglobin diet: 114 ± 47 mm², P = 0.004). In vitro, fecal water from rats given hemoglobin was rich in aldehydes and was cytotoxic to normal cells, but not to premalignant cells. The aldehydes 4-hydroxynonenal and 4-hydroxyhexenal were more toxic to normal versus mutated cells and were only genotoxic to normal cells. Genotoxicity was also observed in colon mucosa of mice given hemoglobin. These results highlight the role of heme iron in the promotion of colon cancer by red meat and suggest that heme iron could initiate carcinogenesis through lipid peroxidation. .

In this paper, a new trigonometric higher-order theory including the stretching effect is developed for the static analysis of advanced composite plates such as functionally graded plates. The number of unknown functions involved in the present theory is only five as against six or more in case of other shear and normal deformation theories. The governing equations are derived by employing the principle of virtual work and the physical neutral surface concept. There is no stretching–bending coupling effect in the neutral surface-based formulation, and consequently, the governing equations and boundary conditions of functionally graded plates based on neutral surface have the simple forms as those of isotropic plates. Navier-type analytical solution is obtained for functionally graded plate subjected to transverse load for simply supported boundary conditions. A comparison with the corresponding results is made to check the accuracy and efficiency of the present theory.

In this paper, a new nonlocal hyperbolic refined plate model is presented for free vibration properties of functionally graded (FG) plates. This nonlocal nano-plate model incorporates the length scale parameter which can capture the small scale effect. The displacement field of the present theory is chosen based on a hyperbolic variation in the in-plane displacements through the thickness of the nano-plate. By dividing the transverse displacement into the bending and shear parts, the number of unknowns and equations of motion of the present theory is reduced, significantly facilitating structural analysis. The material properties are assumed to vary only in the thickness direction and the effective properties for the FG nano-plate are computed using Mori-Tanaka homogenization scheme. The governing equations of motion are derived based on the nonlocal differential constitutive relations of Eringen in conjunction with the refined four variable plate theory via Hamilton\'s principle. Analytical solution for the simply supported FG nano-plates is obtained to verify the theory by comparing its results with other available solutions in the open literature. The effects of nonlocal parameter, the plate thickness, the plate aspect ratio, and various material compositions on the dynamic response of the FG nano-plate are discussed.

This paper addresses theoretically the bending and buckling behaviors of size-dependent nanobeams made of functionally graded materials (FGMs) including the thickness stretching effect. The size-dependent FGM nanobeam is investigated on the basis of the nonlocal continuum model. The nonlocal elastic behavior is described by the differential constitutive model of Eringen, which enables the present model to become effective in the analysis and design of nanostructures. The present model incorporates the length scale parameter (nonlocal parameter) which can capture the small scale effect, and furthermore accounts for both shear deformation and thickness stretching effects by virtue of a sinusoidal variation of all displacements through the thickness without using shear correction factor. The material properties of FGM nanobeams are assumed to vary through the thickness according to a power law. The governing equations and the related boundary conditions are derived using the principal of minimum total potential energy. A Navier-type solution is developed for simply-supported boundary conditions, and exact expressions are proposed for the deflections and the buckling load. The effects of nonlocal parameter, aspect ratio and various material compositions on the static and stability responses of the FGM nanobeam are discussed in detail. The study is relevant to nanotechnology deployment in for example aircraft structures.

In this research, a simple but accurate sinusoidal plate theory for the thermomechanical bending analysis of functionally graded sandwich plates is presented. The main advantage of this approach is that, in addition to incorporating the thickness stretching effect, it deals with only 5 unknowns as the first order shear deformation theory (FSDT), instead of 6 as in the well-known conventional sinusoidal plate theory (SPT). The material properties of the sandwich plate faces are assumed to vary according to a power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The core layer is made of an isotropic ceramic material. Comparison studies are performed to check the validity of the present results from which it can be concluded that the proposed theory is accurate and efficient in predicting the thermomechanical behavior of functionally graded sandwich plates. The effect of side-to-thickness ratio, aspect ratio, the volume fraction exponent, and the loading conditions on the thermomechanical response of functionally graded sandwich plates is also investigated and discussed.

In this paper, a new higher-order shear and normal deformation theory for the bending and free vibration analysis of sandwich plates with functionally graded isotropic face sheets is developed. The number of unknown functions involved in the present theory is only five, as against six or more in case of other shear and normal deformation theories. The theory accounts for hyperbolic distribution of the transverse shear strains and satisfies the zero traction boundary conditions on the surfaces of the plate without using shear correction factor. The boundary conditions for the plate are assumed to be simply supported in all edges and in the static analysis, the plate is assumed to be subjected to a sinusoidally distributed load. Both symmetric and non-symmetric sandwich plates are considered. The equations of motion are obtained using Hamilton’s principle. Numerical results of present theory are compared with three-dimensional elasticity solutions and other higher-order theories reported in the literature. It can be concluded that the proposed theory is accurate and efficient in predicting the bending and free vibration responses of sandwich plates with functionally graded isotropic face sheets.

In this article, an efficient shear deformation beam theory based on neutral surface position is developed for bending and frees vibration analysis of functionally graded beams. The theory accounts for hyperbolic distribution of the transverse shear strains and satisfies the zero traction boundary conditions on the surfaces of the beam without using shear correction factors. The neutral surface position for a functionally graded beam in which its material properties vary in the thickness direction is determined. Based on the present higher order shear deformation beam theory and the neutral surface concept, the equations of motion are derived from Hamilton's principle. The accuracy of the present solutions is verified by comparing the obtained results with the existing solutions. It can be concluded that the present theory is not only accurate but also simple in predicting the bending and vibration behavior of functionally graded beams.

This paper is concerned with the use of the nonlocal Timoshenko beam model for free vibration analysis of single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) including the thermal effect. Unlike the Euler beam model, the Timoshenko beam model allows for the effects of transverse shear deformation and rotary inertia. These effects become significant for CNTs with small length-to-diameter ratios that are normally encountered in applications such as nanoprobes. The elastic Timoshenko beam model is reformulated using the nonlocal differential constitutive relations of Eringen (1972 Int. J. Eng. Sci. 10 1–16). The study focuses on the wave dispersion caused not only by the rotary inertia and the shear deformation in the traditional Timoshenko beam model but also by the nonlocal elasticity characterizing the microstructure of CNTs in a wide frequency range up to terahertz. Numerical results are presented using the nonlocal beam theory to bring out the effect of both the nonlocal parameter and the temperature change on the properties of transverse vibrations of CNTs. The exact nonlocal Timoshenko beam solution presented here should be useful to engineers who are designing microelectromechanical and nanoelectromechanical devices.

The novelty of this paper is the use of a new four-variable refined plate theory for thermal buckling analysis of functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich plates. Unlike any other theory, the present new theory is variationally consistent and gives four governing equations. The number of unknown functions involved is only four, as against five in case of other shear deformation theories. In addition, the theory, which has strong similarity with classical plate theory in many aspects, accounts for a quadratic variation of the transverse shear strains across the thickness and satisfies the zero traction boundary conditions on the top and bottom surfaces of the plate without using shear correction factors. Material properties and thermal expansion coefficient of the sandwich plate faces are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction according to a simple power-law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The core layer is still homogeneous and made of an isotropic material. The thermal loads are assumed as uniform, linear, and nonlinear temperature rises across the thickness direction. The effects of aspect and thickness ratios, gradient index, loading type, and sandwich plate type on the critical buckling are all discussed.

The zinc oxide thin films, highly transparent, doped aluminium were prepared on glass substrates by the reactive chemical spray method. The incorporation nature of Al atoms in the ZnO lattice was determined by X-ray diffraction and optical analyses. Indeed, for low doping ⩽2%, the results of X-ray spectra analysis show a simultaneous reduction of lattice parameters (a and c), this variation, which follows VEGARD’s law, tends to indicate a substitution of Zn by Al. By against for doping >2% the increase in the lattice parameters thus the grain sizes, in accordance with the VEGARD’s law can be explained by occupation of the interstitial sites by Al atoms. Beyond 4%, the material tends to get disorderly and the crystallites orientation is random. The studied optical properties show that the variation of the optical gap follows a law of the x3/2 form for x < 3% (x is the aluminium atom fraction incorporated in the ZnO lattice). The granular structure is fairly visible and some local growths are disrupted. The crystallite size at low enlargement is coherent with the XRD results.

BACKGROUND: The first two enzymatic steps of monoterpene indole alkaloid (MIA) biosynthetic pathway are catalysed by strictosidine synthase (STR) that condensates tryptamine and secologanin to form strictosidine and by strictosidine beta-D-glucosidase (SGD) that subsequently hydrolyses the glucose moiety of strictosidine. The resulting unstable aglycon is rapidly converted into a highly reactive dialdehyde, from which more than 2,000 MIAs are derived. Many studies were conducted to elucidate the biosynthesis and regulation of pharmacologically valuable MIAs such as vinblastine and vincristine in Catharanthus roseus or ajmaline in Rauvolfia serpentina. However, very few reports focused on the MIA physiological functions. RESULTS: In this study we showed that a strictosidine pool existed in planta and that the strictosidine deglucosylation product(s) was (were) specifically responsible for in vitro protein cross-linking and precipitation suggesting a potential role for strictosidine activation in plant defence. The spatial feasibility of such an activation process was evaluated in planta. On the one hand, in situ hybridisation studies showed that CrSTR and CrSGD were coexpressed in the epidermal first barrier of C. roseus aerial organs. However, a combination of GFP-imaging, bimolecular fluorescence complementation and electromobility shift-zymogram experiments revealed that STR from both C. roseus and R. serpentina were localised to the vacuole whereas SGD from both species were shown to accumulate as highly stable supramolecular aggregates within the nucleus. Deletion and fusion studies allowed us to identify and to demonstrate the functionality of CrSTR and CrSGD targeting sequences. CONCLUSIONS: A spatial model was drawn to explain the role of the subcellular sequestration of STR and SGD to control the MIA metabolic flux under normal physiological conditions. The model also illustrates the possible mechanism of massive activation of the strictosidine vacuolar pool upon enzyme-substrate reunion occurring during potential herbivore feeding constituting a so-called "nuclear time bomb" in reference to the "mustard oil bomb" commonly used to describe the myrosinase-glucosinolate defence system in Brassicaceae.

With the growing needs for resource materials and the environmental protection requirements associated with sustainable development, it has become necessary to study all the possibilities of reusing and recycling industrial wastes and by-products, especially in the field of civil engineering. In the work presented here, non-biodegradable plastic aggregates made of polyvinylchloride (PVC) waste, obtained from scrapped PVC pipes, were used in partial replacement of conventional aggregates in concrete. For this purpose, a number of laboratory prepared concrete mixes were tested, in which natural sand and coarse aggregates were partially replaced by PVC plastic waste aggregates in the proportions of 30, 50, and 70% by volume (granular classes 0/3 and 3/8). Fresh concrete mixtures were tested for workability and density, and hardened concrete specimens were used to investigate compressive strength, ultrasonic wave velocity, and resistance to chloride ion penetration. The results of the laboratory study showed that concrete made with 50 and 70% of recycled PVC aggregates fell into the category of structural lightweight concrete in terms of unit weight and strength properties. This study gave quite encouraging results and opened up a new way of recycling PVC waste as a lightweight aggregate in concrete.