Experimental investigation on the concentration and voltage effects on the characteristics of deposited magnesium–lanthanum powder

International audiencePhone: +33 248 484 065 Highlights x We synthetize Mg-La powders by means of an electrodeposition process. x We characterize Mg-La powders using EDS, SEM, XRD and FTIR techniques

A mutagenic PCR identifies isolates of Borrelia garinii responsible for Lyme borreliosis

Borrelia garinii is one of the three major Borreliae responsible for Lyme borreliosis in Europe. We have characterized a protein of B. garinii (VS102) and a genomic fragment from the gene encoding this protein was cloned. The DNA sequence of the fragment showed high homology with a known gene of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto. The protein encoded by this gene in B. burgdorferi sensu stricto is a phosphocarrier protein (histidine-containing protein). A mutation T to G polymorphism at codon 57 was found to be specific to B. garinii. A PCR-based approach that allows the rapid detection of this mutation made it possible to specifically discriminate B. garinii from other B. burgdorferi genospecies with high sensitivity and specificit

Interferometric microscopy study of the surface roughness of Portland cement under the action of different irrigants

Objectives: Some investigations suggested common Portland cement (PC) as a substitute material for MTA for endodontic use; both MTA and PC have a similar composition. The aim of this study was to determine the surface roughness of common PC before and after the exposition to different endodontic irrigating solutions: 10% and 20% citric acid, 17% ethylenediaminetetraacetic (EDTA) and 5% sodium hypochlorite. Study Design: Fifty PC samples in the form of cubes were prepared. PC was mixed with distilled water (powder/ liquid ratio 3:1 by weight). The samples were immersed for one minute in 10% and 20% citric acid, 17% EDTA and 5% sodium hypochlorite. After gold coating, PC samples were examined using the New View 100 Zygo interferometric microscope. It was used to examine and register the surface roughness and the profile of two different areas of each sample. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out, and as the requirements were not met, use was made of the Kruskal-Wallis test for analysis of the results obtained, followed by contrasts using Tukey's contrast tests. Results: Sodium hypochlorite at a concentration of 5% significantly reduced the surface roughness of PC, while 20% citric acid significantly increased surface roughness. The other evaluated citric acid concentration (10%) slightly increased the surface roughness of PC, though statistical significance was not reached. EDTA at a concentration of 17% failed to modify PC surface roughness. Irrigation with 5% sodium hypochlorite and 20% citric acid lowered and raised the roughness values, respectively. Conclusions: The surface texture of PC is modified as the result of treatment with different irrigating solutions commonly used in endodontics, depending on their chemical composition and concentratio

Potential of white garlic powder (Allium sativum L.) to modify in vitro ruminal fermentation

The current study aimed to evaluate the effect of increasing doses of garlic powder (GaP) on in vitro fermentation characteristics. Two successive 24-hour incubations were run, and gas production was measured at the end of each incubation period. Liquid samplings for each dose were reserved to determine ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) and true organic matter degradability (TOMD). Partitioning factor (PF) was estimated as the ratio between TOMD and the gas produced at 24 hours of incubation. Microbial biomass (MBM) was estimated on the bases of truly degraded substrate and PF. Results showed that gas production increased (P <0.001) with the addition of 32 and 64 mg GaP. An increase (P <0.0001) in NH3-N concentration was recorded with 4 mg and 8 mg GaP compared with control, whereas adding 32 and 64 mg resulted in a NH3-N concentration equivalent to control (averaged 39.25 mg/100 ml). The propionate (C3) increased with doses and the highest proportion was noted with the addition of 8 mg GaP (P <0.001). The TOMD was similar for all the doses except for 64 mg GaP, where a slight but significant (P <0.001) increase was noted (77.7%). GaP did not affect PF and MBM values until the dose of 64 mg. It was concluded that GaP added to a ration composed of 50% roughages and 50% concentrate did not result in drastic modifications of in vitro rumen fermentation parameters, except at the highest dose (64 mg), where an increase of gas production, TODM, PF and MBM were noted.Keywords: Ammonia-nitogen, garlic powder; gas production, microbial biomass, propionate, shee

Cancer pulmonaire: parcours de soins au service de radiothérapie à l’institut national d’oncologie de Rabat

L'objectif de cette étude est d'expliquer la discordance entre le nombre important de patients présentant un cancer du poumon localement avancé demandeurs de consultations en service de radiothérapie et le faible nombre de patients effectivement traité. Il s'agit d'une étude décrivant le circuit de soins des patients admis au service de radiothérapie de l'Institut national d'oncologie de Rabat entre le premier mars 2011 et le 29 février 2012 pour la prise en charge d'un cancer du poumon inopérable et/ou non résécable. On a utilisé pour la collecte des données les dossiers cliniques, le registre des nouveaux patients du bureau des admissions de l'institut ainsi que les registres des rendez-vous de consultation et de traitement du service de radiothérapie. 117 patients ont été collectés. Le stade de la maladie n'a pu être déterminé que chez 102 patients, on a ainsi trouvé 53 cancers non métastatiques et 49 cancers métastatiques. Chez les patients avec un cancer non métastatique une radiothérapie palliative a été réalisée chez 9 patients, chez 2 patients la radiothérapie a été contre indiquée, une chimiothérapie néo-adjuvante a été réalisée chez 7 patients et la radio-chimiothérapie concomitante d'emblée fut proposée à 35 patients, mais 34 patients seulement ont pu avoir leur première séance de radiothérapie à visée curative. Cette étude nous a permis de décrire le circuit de soins de nos patients en repérant les points critiques, auxquels on propose des mesures correctives

Electrical and structural characterisation of plasma-polymerized TEOS thin films as humidity sensors

In this study, we used plasma polymerization of TEOS to deposit thin water molecule sensitive layers on two intredigitated aluminum electrodes evaporated on glass substrate. Electrical and structural analyses of the deposited sensitive layers have been evaluated through current-impedance responses and FTIR spectroscopy. The elaborated humidity resistive sensor exhibited a detectable response to relative humidity (RH) percentages ranging from 20 to 95%. The films showed good sensitivity to water molecule due to the presence of hydroxyl groups OH. These groups provide the adsorption sites for water and play an important role to the humidity sensor properties. The low impedance, good sensitivity as characterized by a linear change in impedance from 106 to 103 Ω over RH interval of 20–80% and low observed hysteresis of about 4%, make the elaborated layer a promising candidate for humidity sensors development.In this study, we used plasma polymerization of TEOS to deposit thin water molecule sensitive layers on two intredigitated aluminum electrodes evaporated on glass substrate. Electrical and structural analyses of the deposited sensitive layers have been evaluated through current-impedance responses and FTIR spectroscopy. The elaborated humidity resistive sensor exhibited a detectable response to relative humidity (RH) percentages ranging from 20 to 95%. The films showed good sensitivity to water molecule due to the presence of hydroxyl groups OH. These groups provide the adsorption sites for water and play an important role to the humidity sensor properties. The low impedance, good sensitivity as characterized by a linear change in impedance from 106 to 103 Ω over RH interval of 20–80% and low observed hysteresis of about 4%, make the elaborated layer a promising candidate for humidity sensors development

Effect of a factor-based coagulation management on blood product use after major burn injury: A retrospective cohort study.

Transfusion of allogenic blood products was shown to be associated with more adverse events and a higher mortality in severely burned patients. This study investigated the impact of a goal-directed and factor-based coagulation algorithm on blood product use and clinical outcomes in severely burned patients. This retrospective cohort study included adult patients admitted to the burn center of the University Hospital Zurich with major burn injuries compromising 20-80% of total body surface area. We compared two 3-year periods, one before the introduction of a goal-directed coagulation and transfusion algorithm (period 1: 2009-2011) and one after (period 2: 2016-2018). We applied linear and logistic regression models adjusted for confounders. We analyzed 36 patients (27.8% female) versus 42 patients (14.3% female) in period 1 and 2, respectively. Comorbidities and burn types were comparable between both collectives. Treatment according to the coagulation algorithm resulted in an overall reduction of 33 units of red blood cells (95% CI -52.8 to -12.9, p = 0.002), 9 units fresh frozen plasma (95% CI -14.7 to -2.6, p = 0.006) and 1.4g fibrinogen (95% CI -2.2 to -0.5, p = 0.001) per patient. We observed less infections (61.8% vs. 41.5%, p = 0.11) and a reduced mortality (38.9% vs. 26.8%, p = 0.33) during the algorithm treated period, although not significant. Treatment of severely burned patients with a goal-directed coagulation algorithm reduced blood product use and resulted in target-oriented administration of coagulation factors to improve outcomes

Model for phishing websites classification using artificial neural network

Internet users might be exposed to various forms of threats that can create economic harm, identity fraud, and lack of faith in e-commerce and online banking by consumers as the internet has become a necessary part of everyday activities. Phishing can be regarded as a type of web extortions described as the skill of imitating an honest company's website aimed at obtaining private information for example usernames, passwords, and bank information. The accuracy of classification is very significant in order to produce high accuracy results and least error rate in classification of phishing websites. The objective of this research is to model a suitable neural network classifier and then use the model to class the phishing website data set and evaluate the performance of the classifier. This research will use a phishing website data set which was retrieved from UCI repository and will be experimented using Encog Workbench tool. The main expected outcome from this study is the preliminary ANN classifier which classifies the target class of the phishing websites data set accurately, either phishy, suspicious or legitimate ones. The results indicate that ANN (9-5-1) model outperforms other models by achieving the highest accuracy and the least MSE value which is 0.04745

Model optimization using artificial intelligence algorithms for biological food waste degradation

Food waste is categorized as the largest degradable component in the waste stream. Degradation of food waste that involved aerobic bacteria is the most suitable approach to dispose of this waste. The main objective of this research is to evaluate the optimum condition of aerobic bacteria growth for food waste degradation by comparing the implementation of response surface method (RSM) and genetic algorithm. Preliminary experiment is conducted to determine the best time for aerobic bacteria growth. Then, evaluation of five factors such as temperature, time, type of nutrient, agitation rate and inoculum size is done by conducting experiments according to the experimental table that is constructed by using design expert software. Growth of aerobic bacteria can be determined by measuring the optical density (OD) of the bacteria. Aerobic bacteria at the best growth condition are mixed with the food waste for degradation process. The ability of aerobic bacteria to degrade food waste is determined by monitoring the pH, moisture content and ratio of volatile solid to total solid (VS/TS) of food waste on the first and twentieth days of degradation. The result analysis using RSM showed that the optimum condition for aerobic bacteria growth is at 37 °C and 200 rpm in commercial nutritional supplement (CNS) medium with 10% (v/v) of inoculum size for 20 h. At this optimum condition, the OD value was 2.264 while optimization using genetic algorithm generated the OD value at 2.643 where this is 14% improvement from the RSM