Université Oran 1 Ahmed Ben Bella

Grundy, Scott M. MD, PhD, Chair; Cleeman, James I. MD, Co-Chair; Daniels, Stephen R. MD, PhD; Donato, Karen A. MS, RD; Eckel, Robert H. MD; Franklin, Barry A. PhD; Gordon, David J. MD PhD, MPH; Krauss, Ronald M. MD; Savage, Peter J. MD; Smith, Sidney C. Jr MD; Spertus, John A. MD; Costa, Fernando MD Author Information

Salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses which affects plant cell metabolism and reduces plant productivity. Variations in the antioxidant defence systems under salinity among two bean genotypes were investigated. Our results indicate that the difference between the genotypes in response to salinity is a quantitative trait rather than qualitative since they develop the same strategies with a significant variation in the rate of synthesis and accumulation, with the exemption of the antioxidant defence based on the synthesis of phenolic compounds. For both genotypes, salinity induced a marked reduction in dry matter gain in roots and shoots along with oxidative stress as indicated by the significant increase in malondialdehyde content. In addition, the photosynthetic pigments decreased with the increase of salinity. The only qualitative difference that we found among both genotypes was the decrease of total production of phenolic compounds in leaves that was only detectable in the low-yielding genotype under high salinity. The high-yielding genotype may have a better protection against oxidative damages by increasing the activity of antioxidant enzymes and the amounts of total flavonoids and ascorbic acid under high salinity, which allows maintaining higher yield even upon stress conditions. These results indicate that salt induced oxidative stress in bean is mainly counteracted by enzymatic defence systems, and that the metabolism of phenolic compounds is induced under very extreme conditions. The selection of genotypes for this trait will increase yield under stress conditions.

The deposition of one silicon monolayer on the silver (111) substrate in the temperature range 150-300 °C gives rise to a mix of (4 × 4), (2√3 × 2√3)R30° and (√13 × √13)R13.9° superstructures which strongly depend on the substrate temperature. We deduced from a detailed analysis of the LEED patterns and the STM images that all these superstructures are given by a quasi-identical silicon single layer with a honeycomb structure (i.e. a silicene-like layer) with different rotations relative to the silver substrate. The morphologies of the STM images are explained from the position of the silicon atoms relative to the silver atoms. A complete analysis of all possible rotations of the silicene layer predicts also a (√7 × √7)R19.1° superstructure which has not been observed so far.

Legumes (including alfalfa, clover, lupins, green beans and peas, peanuts, soybeans, dry beans, broad beans, dry peas, chickpeas, and lentils) represent an important component of the human diet in several areas of the world, especially in the developing countries, where they complement the lack of proteins from cereals, roots, and tubers. In some regions of the world, legume seeds are the only protein supply in the diet. The health benefits of legume consumption have received rising interest from researchers, and their consumption and production extends worldwide. Among European countries, higher legume consumption is observed around the Mediterranean, with per capita daily consumption between 8 and 23 g, while in Northern Europe, the daily consumption is less than 5 g per capita. The physiological effects of different legumes vary significantly. These differences may result from the polysaccharides composition, in particular, the quantity and variety of dietary fibers and starch, protein make-up, and variability in phytochemical content. The majority of legumes contain phytochemicals: bioactive compounds, including enzyme inhibitors, phytohemagglutinins (lectins), phytoestrogens, oligosaccharides, saponins, and phenolic compounds, which play metabolic roles in humans who frequently consume these foods. Dietary intake of phytochemicals may provide health benefits, protecting against numerous diseases or disorders, such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and inflammation. The synergistic or antagonistic effects of these phytochemical mixtures from food legumes, their interaction with other components of the diet, and the mechanism of their action have remained a challenge with regard to understanding the role of phytochemicals in health and diseases. Their mitigating effects and the mechanism of their action need to be further addressed if we are to understand the role of phytochemicals in health and diseases. This review provides an overview of the nutritional quality of legumes and their potential contribution in cardiometabolic risk prevention.

Wealthy nations must step up support for Africa and vulnerable countries in addressing past, present, and future impacts of climate change

Organo-click reaction: A new and complementary method to Huisgen's metal-catalyzed triazole synthesis is described using unactivated ketones and arylazides as the substrates and proline as an organocatalyst. Dramatic acceleration was observed for this reaction using microwave activation and high regio- and chemoselectivities were obtained for a wide range of ketones and arylazides (see scheme).

In recent years, e-commerce businesses have seen an increase in the daily volume of packages to be delivered, as well as an increase in the number of particularly demanding customer expectations. In this respect, the delivery mechanism became prohibitively expensive, particularly for the final kilometer. To stay competitive and meet the increased demand, businesses began to look for innovative autonomous delivery options for the last mile, such as autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles/drones, which are a promising alternative for the logistics industry. Following the success of drones in surveillance and remote sensing, drone delivery systems have begun to emerge as a new solution to reduce delivery costs and delivery time. In the coming years, autonomous drone sharing systems will be an unavoidable logistical solution, especially with the new laws/recommendations introduced by the Flight World Organization on how to organize the operations of these special unmanned airline systems. This paper provides a comprehensive literature survey on a set of relevant research issues and highlights the representative solutions and concepts that have been proposed thus far in the design and modeling of the logistics of drone delivery systems, with the purpose of discussing the respective performance levels reached by the various suggested approaches. Furthermore, the paper also investigates the central problems to be addressed and briefly discusses and outlines a series of interesting new research avenues of relevance for drone-based package delivery systems.

The paper presents the most comprehensive and large-scale global study to date on how higher education students perceived the use of ChatGPT in early 2024. With a sample of 23,218 students from 109 countries and territories, the study reveals that students primarily used ChatGPT for brainstorming, summarizing texts, and finding research articles, with a few using it for professional and creative writing. They found it useful for simplifying complex information and summarizing content, but less reliable for providing information and supporting classroom learning, though some considered its information clearer than that from peers and teachers. Moreover, students agreed on the need for AI regulations at all levels due to concerns about ChatGPT promoting cheating, plagiarism, and social isolation. However, they believed ChatGPT could potentially enhance their access to knowledge and improve their learning experience, study efficiency, and chances of achieving good grades. While ChatGPT was perceived as effective in potentially improving AI literacy, digital communication, and content creation skills, it was less useful for interpersonal communication, decision-making, numeracy, native language proficiency, and the development of critical thinking skills. Students also felt that ChatGPT would boost demand for AI-related skills and facilitate remote work without significantly impacting unemployment. Emotionally, students mostly felt positive using ChatGPT, with curiosity and calmness being the most common emotions. Further examinations reveal variations in students' perceptions across different socio-demographic and geographic factors, with key factors influencing students' use of ChatGPT also being identified. Higher education institutions' managers and teachers may benefit from these findings while formulating the curricula and instructions/regulations for ChatGPT use, as well as when designing the teaching methods and assessment tools. Moreover, policymakers may also consider the findings when formulating strategies for secondary and higher education system development, especially in light of changing labor market needs and related digital skills development.

5 pages, 1 figure.-- The MME-T-MEDNet databased was published in the Digital.CSIC repository. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20350/digitalCSIC/8575. \nHANDLE: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/171445

Developments in microscopy have a profound effect on the resurgence of tribological applications at the microscopic level. Using surfaces with controlled microgeometry may prove an effective approach to improving bearing performance. It is consequently of interest to study the lubrication of journal bearing systems taking into consideration the effect of surface geometry design. A numerical approach is used in the analysis of texture effects on bearing characteristics. The results from investigating the performance of bearing surfaces with spherical dimple textures suggest that contact characteristics such asminimumfilm thickness, maximumpressure, axial oil film flow, and friction torque may be improved through an appropriate surface texture geometry and appropriate textures distribution on the contact surface. The main purpose of our work is to model and understand the evolution of journal-bearing characteristics with textures. A rigorous methodology is recommended. The work is divided into two steps. The first one serves to quantify the evolution of the characteristics with the texture parameters and to deduce their optimized values. The second step enhance the performance of the journal bearing by progressively taking into account the optimized values of texture parameters, especially the textures disposition.

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between Islamic religiosity and satisfaction with a diverse range of life and health domains, in a sample of 2909 participants (1446 males, 1463 females) from Algeria. Factor analysis of the Islamic Religiosity Scale (IRS) indicates that it measures Religiosity as a multidimensional construct with two useful factors: Religious Practice and Religious Altruism. Religiosity at some level is ubiquitous through this sample, and it has a strong positive relationship with Subjective Well-Being (SWB). Moreover, this relationship is relatively unaffected by health deficiencies, even though such deficiencies generally have a negative influence on SWB scores. These findings are discussed in terms of the social context of Algeria.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a novel category of crystalline porous hybrid materials that may be precisely adjusted regarding their structure, porosity, and functionality. Their extensive surface area, meticulously engineered pore structures, and diverse synthesis techniques—such as hydrothermal, microwave, electrochemical, and mechanochemical methods—position them prominently for applications in energy storage, gas separation, environmental remediation, and catalysis. Nonetheless, issues like inadequate photocatalytic effectiveness, suboptimal electronic conductivity, and structural instability hinder their large-scale application. Innovative techniques such as heteroatom doping, defect engineering, and the creation of hybrid composites have resulted in significant advancements. For instance, Ti-doped MOFs show a 40% increase in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution, while Ni-MOF composites that conduct electricity show a fivefold increase. This essay looks in depth at MOF synthesis, structure-property relationships, and new ways to make things work better. It also shows possible future research paths, such as making MOFs that can do more than one thing, bioinspired frameworks, and AI-enhanced MOF designs, to get around current problems and find new uses for MOFs in the future.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is known for its extreme climate where temperatures can exceed 50 °C, especially in summer. Improving agricultural production can only be achieved using innovative environmentally suitable solutions and modern agricultural technologies. Using Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in greenhouse farming allows reduction of the immediate impact of external climatic conditions. In this paper, a highly scalable intelligent system controlling, and monitoring greenhouse temperature using IoT technologies is introduced. The first objective of this system is to monitor the greenhouse environment and control the internal temperature to reduce consumed energy while maintaining good conditions that improve productivity. A Petri Nets (PN) model is used to achieve both monitoring of the greenhouse environment and generating the suitable reference temperature which is sent later to a temperature regulation block. The second objective is to provide an Energy-Efficient (EE) scalable system design that handles massive amounts of IoT big data captured from sensors using a dynamic graph data model to be used for future analysis and prediction of production, crop growth rate, energy consumption and other related issues. The design tries to organize various possible unstructured formats of raw data, collected from different kinds of IoT devices, unified and technology-independent fashion using the benefit of model transformations and model-driven architecture to transform data in structured form.

Natural clay being locally abundant and cheap material in Algeria can be easily activated to become a promising adsorbent for phenol removal from aqueous solution. The natural clay before and after activation was characterized using XRD and IR techniques. The effects of various experimental parameters, such as initial phenol concentration, temperature, pH, contact time, and adsorbent dose on the adsorption extent were investigated. Langmuir adsorption model was used for the mathematical description of the adsorption equilibrium and the equilibrium data fixed very well with this model. The activated natural clay had the monolayer adsorption capacity equal to 15 mg/g at pH value of 5.0 and 23°C; adsorption measurements show that the process is very fast and physical in nature. The extent of the phenol removal increased with decrease in the initial concentration of the phenol and contact time of solution. The results showed that as the amount of the adsorbent was increased, the percentage of phenol removal increased accordingly. Thermodynamic parameters showed that the adsorption of phenol on activated natural clay was exothermic.

Organic structure-directing agents (OSDAs) are used to guide the formation of particular types of pores and channels during the synthesis of zeolites. We report that the use of highly versatile OSDAs based on phosphazenes has been successfully introduced for the synthesis of zeolites. This approach has made possible the synthesis of the elusive boggsite zeolite, which is formed by 10- and 12-ring intersecting channels. This topology and these pore dimensions present interesting opportunities for catalysis in reactions of industrial relevance.

igh myopia often appears as a familial disease.It is usually defined as a refraction error equal to or below -6 diopters (D) in each eye. 1 Highly myopic patients represent 27-33% of the myopic population. 2 The prevalence of the disease in the general population varies according to the country, from 2.1% in the USA, 2 to 3.2% in France, 3 and up to 9.6% in Spain.3 High myopia is also termed "pathological" myopia because of its potential complications.The highly myopic eye is usually characterised by an abnormal lengthening and a posterior staphyloma.It is often accompanied by glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, and retinal detachment, leading to blindness when the damage to the retina is extremely severe.Both genetic and environmental factors, such as close work, are known to play a role in the aetiology of high myopia.The inheritance of the disease is equivocal.Several genealogical studies have shown autosomal dominant or autosomal recessive modes of inheritance.4 5 Rare cases of sex linked transmission have been observed.6 In a previous study, 7 we showed that, assuming a single gene model, autosomal dominant transmission with weak penetrance was largely present in the families that we studied.Young et al have recently reported linkage of familial high myopia to chromosome regions 18p 8 and 12q.9 We previously found no evidence for linkage to the former chromosomal region in the families of our study.Several putative candidate loci were excluded as well in these families, such as the locus for Stickler syndrome types 1 and 2, versican and aggregan genes, Marfan 1 syndrome, and a Marfan-like disorder localised to 3p24.2-p25.In order to find new loci implicated in high myopia, we conducted a genome screen in 23 families following an autosomal dominant mode of inheritance with weak penetrance.Here, we provide further evidence for genetic heterogeneity by excluding the chromosome 12q and 18p regions, previously linked to familial high myopia, 8 9 and report suggestive evidence for the presence of a third autosomal locus on chromosome 7q. SUBJECTS, MATERIALS, AND METHODS SubjectsMedical history and ophthalmic assessment were obtained from 140 participants from 21 French families and two Algerian families, after informed consent according to French law.We focused our study on isolated bilateral high myopia.Families with unilateral high myopia, syndromes with high myopia, and myopia of prematurity were excluded.For each patient, subjective refraction and keratometry were performed.Axial lengths were also measured for almost all of the subjects.Objective refraction was measured by automatic refractometry.The refraction defect in spherical equivalent was the criterion chosen to classify subjects into two groups, high myopes and unaffected persons.A subject was considered to be highly myopic if the refraction error in the lesser affected eye was -6 D or below.We considered low myopes (myopia between -6 and -1 D), emmetropes (refraction status between -1 and 1 D), and patients with hyperopia (refraction status greater than 1 D) as unaffected subjects.Details of refractive status are summarised in table 1. DNA analysis/marker typingVenous blood samples were collected in EDTA for DNA extraction according to standard methods.10 The genome screen used 400 highly polymorphic fluorescently labelled microsatellite markers, with an average spacing of 10 cM, from the ABI PRISM Linkage Mapping Set MD-10 (Perkin-Elmer, Warrington, UK).The map positions were generated from the CEPH genotype data used for the Généthon map.For fine mapping, we selected those regions with a two point lod score >1.This is clearly well below the threshold for statistical significance but provided a convenient cut off for identification of regions meriting higher density genotyping.Additional polymorphic markers (heterozygosity >75%) were selected from the Généthon and the CHLC genetic maps and were fluorescently labelled.All labels were either 6FAM, HEX, or NED 5′ end labels.All PCR reactions were carried out using 25 ng of genomic DNA as a template in a mixture of 1 × Perkin-Elmer PCR buffer, 2.5 mmol/l MgCl 2 , 200 nmol/l of each dNTP, 5 pmol of each primer, and 0.1 µl of TaqGold polymerase (Perkin-Elmer, Warrington, UK) in a final volume of 15 µl.The thermocycling conditions were 95°C for 18 minutes, followed by 38 cycles at 94°C for one second, 55°C for 25 seconds, and 72°C for five seconds, followed by a 10 minute final extension step at 72°C.PCR products were pooled with regard to their size range and labelling, mixed with a formamide sample buffer, and electrophoresed through preheated 6% acrylamide/50% (W/V) urea gels on an ABI 373 DNA sequencer XL upgrade (PE Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) according to the manufacturer's recommendations.All amplimers were sized by the GeneScan Analysis 3.1 software (PE Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) and scored by the Genotyper 2.1 software (PE Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) with respect to the CEPH control genotype No 1347-02.If you have a burning desire to respond to a paper published in Journal of Medical Genetics, why not make use of our "rapid response" option?Log on to our website (www.jmedgenet.com),find the paper that interests you, and send your response via email by clicking on the "eLetters" option in the box at the top right hand corner.Providing it isn't libellous or obscene, it will be posted within seven days.You can retrieve it by clicking on "read eLetters" on our homepage.

Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria (PGPBs) are a strong ally for sustainable agriculture. They offer an interesting alternative to chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Many microorganisms have been widely documented for their PGPR traits, but actinobacterial microbes which have been increasingly documented only these two past decades for their ability to promote plant growth. Their action on plant health and yield could be either direct, indirect or both. This review will cover articles that have been published on Actinobacteria PGP traits, highlighting the involved mechanisms to reveal their strong potential as microbial fertilizers. Possible strategies to encourage Actinobacteria use as bioinoculants are also discussed.

Solvent-free microwave extraction (SFME) and conventional hydro-distillation (HD) were used for the extraction of essential oils (EOs) from Egyptian sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) leaves. The two resulting EOs were compared with regards to their chemical composition, antioxidant, and antimicrobial activities. The EO analyzed by GC and GC-MS, presented 65 compounds constituting 99.3% and 99.0% of the total oils obtained by SFME and HD, respectively. The main components of both oils were linalool (43.5% SFME; 48.4% HD), followed by methyl chavicol (13.3% SFME; 14.3% HD) and 1,8-cineole (6.8% SFME; 7.3% HD). Their antioxidant activity were studied with the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH(•)) radical scavenging method. The heating conditions effect was evaluated by the determination of the Total Polar Materials (TPM) content. The antimicrobial activity was investigated against five microorganisms: two Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis, two Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and one yeast, Candida albicans. Both EOs showed high antimicrobial, but weak antioxidant, activities. The results indicated that the SFME method may be a better alternative for the extraction of EO from O. basilicum since it could be considered as providing a richer source of natural antioxidants, as well as strong antimicrobial agents for food preservation.

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.

The aim of the present work is to broaden our knowledge on the variability of trace metals in mussel tissues, focusing on seasonal fluctuations in the three different sampling sites of Algerian west coast (Oran Harbor (S1), Ain Defla (S2) and Hadjaj (S3)). For this purpose, the bioavailability (metal indices) and bioaccumulation (metal concentrations in soft tissues) of heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Pb, and Cd), and the physiological characteristics (e.g. biological indices such as condition index (CI)) of mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis have been assessed and related to seasons and sites. In S1, the highest levels of metal concentrations and indices were obtained in mussels sampled in winter for Zn, Cu and Cd, but in summer for Pb. The biological indices significantly decreased in winter. In S2, the levels of concentrations and indices of all metals varied whatever the seasons, excepting in summer where the values were the lowest. In summer and spring, the biological indices were lower than in autumn and winter. The low growth of organisms in spring and summer might be correlated to the reproductive period and the low trophic level known in S2. S3, considered as a “pristine” area, showed low metal concentrations and indices, and high biological indices, reflecting the favorable physiological conditions for the mussel growth. This approach might be used in the monitoring of the quality of coastal waters and the present work provided a useful data set for Mediterranean monitoring network.