Search

Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to provide global and national climate policy makers with smooth patterns of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that better fit prescribed climate targets, in comparison with existing mitigation models. Methods: Based on an accessible mathematical analysis, a linearly-increasing relative rate of reduction is considered for the emissions, and therefore, Gaussian modelling appears as a perfect tool for such an improvement. Results: Among the designed models, a flexible pattern, composed of a half-bell-shaped decline preceded by a parabolic slowdown, is found to be ideal for bringing the emissions to ‘zero’ as soon as possible without direct removal of CO2. It is shown, in particular, that a global mitigation, based on this pattern, consistent with the 1.5 °C target and starting in 2020, will help to achieve a global ‘zero’ emission in 2050, as urged by the United Nations (UN), earlier in the mid 2040s, or later in the mid-late 2050s for more feasibility with an average annual reduction in the range 2.46–3.19 GtCO2 (which includes each of the EU and USA annual records of about 2.8 GtCO2) from a peak projected in the late thirties. Conclusion: Based on a mathematical approach to CO2 emissions modelling, the study reveals a parametrised collection of feasible and flexible pathways, with the advantage of bringing the emissions smoothly to an earlier or similar ‘zero’ timing, with, unlike UN models, no target overshooting nor need for negative-emission technology.

This study aimed to explore the incidence of Fusarium fungi and their mycotoxins in marketed feed in Qatar. Samples of mixed-grain-cereal, maize, wheat, millet, barley, oat and soybean were tested for the presence of zearalenone (ZEN), fumonisins, T2/HT2 and deoxynevalenol (DON)mycotoxins. PCR-based identification of the Fusarium isolates was followed by investigation into genes involved in trichothecenes (tri gene cluster), fumonisins (fum gene cluster)and ZEN (pks gene)biosynthesis. In-vitro mycotoxin production potential of the isolates was compared with their molecular profiles. Mixed-grain cereals showed highest contamination with Fusarium, followed by maize and wheat. The incidence of ZEN was highest in mixed grain samples (87.5%)followed by maize (50%), millet (42.85%)and wheat (40%). In case of DON; 62.5%, 30%, 40%, 14.28%, 50% and 66.67% of the tested mixed cereal grain, maize, wheat, millet, barley and soybean samples were positive. Based on PCR results, F. verticillioides showed highest frequency distribution (34%), followed by F. graminearum (16%), F. oxysporum (15%), F. proliferatum (13%), F. culmorum (8%), F. solani (7%), F. subglutinans (4%)and F. avenaceum (3%)in the feed cereals. All the isolates of F. verticillioides presented both fum1 and fum13 genes, and produced fumonisin mycotoxins in-vitro. All the isolates of F. graminearum and F. culmorum had the tri5 and tri6 genes and resulted in DON accumulation in rice media. In addition to DON, all the F. culmorum isolates produced ZEN in artificially contaminated media, in line with their molecular profile of having tri5, tri6 and pks13 genes. The findings of present study confirmed the occurrence of toxigenic Fusarium and their mycotoxins in animal feed, all below the maximum limit set by EU. Further, the in-vitro mycotoxin production potential of the isolates was in agreement with their tri, fum and pks genetic profiles. - 2019 Elsevier Ltd This publication was made possible by the NPRP Grant '8-392-4-003 ' from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of the Qatar Foundation ). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors. Appendix A Scopus

In this paper, a new Simulation-Based Optimization Model (SBO-Model) is proposed to solve scheduling problem in stochastic multimodal freight transportation systems. The model is applied to find optimal services schedule in a real-world case study. In order to handle demand and travel time inherent variability, the stochastic service network design problem is addressed. Simulation modeling is used to efficiently account for real stochastic behavior with skewed continuous distributions. Such distinctive distribution shapes were commonly reported in transportation research studies that addressed the travel time reliability modeling. Results indicate that the SBO-Model can indeed provide reliable service schedules even under realistic complex stochasticity. The main finding is that, in order to solve efficiently such stochastic optimization problem, we need to go beyond the mean and variance estimates by considering the empirical distributions of uncertain parameters. Specifically, when the data exhibit skewness and/or multimodality, which are commonly found due to the traffic congestion. The originality of this work lies in the integration of stochastic models, commonly used in the transportation research field, for solving logistics planning problem generally addressed by Operations Research community.

Interference rejection in amperometric biosensors can be more effective introducing some modifiers during electro-deposition of permselective film. Addition of β-cyclodextrin (βCD), a cyclic oligosaccharide composed of seven glucose units, to the ortho-phenylendiamine (oPD) monomer were already demonstrated to provide an enhancement in ascorbic acid (AA) rejection. Here we evaluated the improvement in permselectivity of poly-eugenol and poly-magnolol films electro-polymerized in presence of different amounts of βCD or eugenol-βCD inclusion complex for amperometric biosensor application. Starting from Pt-Ir wire as transducer several microsensors were covered with polymeric films doped with βCD-based modifiers through constant potential amperometry. Characterization of modified polymers was achieved by scanning electron microscopy and permselectivity analysis. Poly-magnolol film in combination with βCD showed a worsening in permselectivity compared to poly-magnolol alone. In contrast, the introduction of βCD-based modifier enhanced the interference rejection toward the archetypal interferent AA, while slightly affecting permeability toward H2O2 compared to the poly-eugenol without modifier. The AA rejection seems to be influenced by the availability of βCD cavity as well as film performance due to concentration of βCD-Eugenol inclusion complex. A poly-eugenol film co-polymerized with 2 mM βCD-eugenol inclusion complex showed a permselectivity equal to poly-orthophenylendiamine film (PPD), with a lower permeability to AA, likely to be related with a self-blocking mechanism. Based on these results, a biosensor for glutamate was constructed with a poly-eugenol doped with βCD-eugenol as permselective layer and its permselectivity, stability and lifetime were determined. © 2018 This work was supported by the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation) [NPRP grant # 8-392-4-003 ]. Scopus

Bacillus thuringiensis strain BLB459 supernatant showed a promising activity against Lepidopteran pests with extremely damages in the larvae midgut. Investigations of the genes that encode secreted toxin demonstrated that this strain harbored a vip3-type gene named vip3(459). Based on its original nucleotide and amino acid sequences, this gene was cloned into pET-14b vector and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. The expressed protein was purified and tested against different insects and interestingly the novel toxin demonstrated a remarkable activity against the stored products pest Ephestia kuehniella and the polyphagous insects Spodoptera littoralis and Agrotis segetum. As demonstrated, the acute activity of Vip3(459) protein against A. segetum can be due to its original amino acids sequence and the putative receptors of this toxin in the larvae midgut. These results demonstrated that this Vip3 toxin showed a wide spectrum of activity against Lepidoptera and support its use as a biological control agent. Scopus

We present a new approach called "MinGenCoverage" for conceptual binary relation covering.We start by locating the isolated points and we extract their corresponding mandatory concepts.In case of properties composition, we consider only the minimal generators as candidates for isolated point extraction.We applied our approach for textual data and we considered the concept's labels associated to isolated points as the selected textual features. In recent years, several mathematical concepts have been successfully explored in the computer science domain as a basis for finding original solutions for complex problems related to knowledge engineering, data mining, and information retrieval. Hence, relational algebra (RA) and formal concept analysis (FCA) may be considered as useful mathematical foundations that unify data and knowledge into information retrieval systems. For example, some elements in a fringe relation (related to the (RA) domain) called isolated points have been successfully used in FCA as formal concept labels or composite labels. Once associated with words in a textual document, these labels constitute relevant features of a text. This paper proposes the MinGenCoverage algorithm for covering a Formal Context (as a formal representation of a text) based on isolated labels and using these labels (or text features) for categorization, corpus structuring, and micro-macro browsing as an advanced information retrieval functionality. The main thrust of the approach introduced here relies heavily on the close connection between isolated points and minimal generators (MGs). MGs stand at the antipodes of the closures within their respective equivalence classes. By using the fact that the minimal generators are the smallest elements within an equivalence class, their detection and traversal is greatly eased and the coverage can be swiftly built. Extensive experiments provide empirical evidence for the performance of the proposed approach.

Rapid economic growth, improved living standards, and immense urbanization in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) have affected nutritional habits and physical activity. Recent increases in physical inactivity, sedentary behaviours, consumption of caloric-dense diets, and sugar-sweetened beverages have led to overweight and obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This study's objectives are to 1) determine current prevalence of and risk factors for obesity, and 2) predict the probability of obesity among full-time employees of Sadara, the largest chemical company in KSA. In 2019, a written survey in both Arabic and English was administered to 505 Sadara employees randomly selected from five Sadara locations. A number of factors possibly associated with BMI were examined using Chi-Square test: age, physical activity, screen watching, childhood region, nationality, fat intake, sugar intake, family size, household income, and consumption of meal-replacement bars. Logistic regression was performed to compare the trends and predict conditional probabilities of obesity. The sample was 92% male, 61% Saudi, from the Eastern Province of KSA, with a mean age of 34 years. Employees aged 30–39 years were found to have 1.8 times greater odds for obesity than the youngest employees (below 30 years). More specifically, those aged 30–39, who grew up in the Eastern Province, who had low physical activity and long periods of watching electronic screens had the highest probability of obesity (more than 66%). Workplace wellness programs that focus on lifestyle habits could help reduce the high prevalence of overweight and obesity and associated NCDs in KSA.

A bituminous pavement is composed of several layers. The bonding of the interfaces between these layers is essential to ensure the durability of the pavement structure. Un-bonded interfaces can cause early deterioration of the surface courses due to the poor distribution of mechanical loads induce by the traffic onto the base-layers. The bonding between asphalt layers depends on several parameters such as the laying temperature, the use or not of bitumen emulsions to bond the interfaces. Bonding is usually characterized by shear, tensile or torsion tests. This paper focuses on the effects of loading rate, test temperature, specimens’ size and emulsion content on the shear strength evaluated through the shear and tensile tests. In part 1, the shear bond test (SBT) and tensile adhesive test (TAT) were firstly performed on two-layered specimens bonded or not with emulsion. Their diameters were 100 or 150 mm. The tests were carried out at 50 mm . min - 1 and 20 °C to evaluate the laying conditions (laying temperature, use or not of emulsion). These results were then compared to those of one-layer specimens without interface. The results of part 1 investigations showed that: i) the shear strengths of small samples are 1.3 times higher than that of big specimens, ii) the shear strength resulting from different laying conditions can be classified, from the highest to the lowest, as follows: hot on hot (H/H) bonding, hot on cold (H/C) bonding with emulsion C69B2 and hot on cold (H/C) bonding without emulsion, iii) the failure strengths of TAT are 2.2 times lower than those of SBT. In part 2, the SBT was performed on two-layered specimens of 100 mm in diameter at three loading rates (0.5, 5, 50 mm . min - 1 ) and test temperatures (−10 °C, 5 °C, 20 °C). In this second test series, 250 and 500 g . m - 2 of bitumen emulsion C69B2 and styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) polymer emulsion were used to bond the interfaces. Based on these results the master curves of shear strength were built based on the frequency-temperature superposition principle (FTSP). Furthermore, an explanation of the interfaces bonding mechanism based on the bitumens’ macromolecules chains mobility across the interface is proposed. This interpretation required the introduction of some interface bonding parameters: the degree of intimate D ic contact, the degree of healing D h and the degree of bonding D b . Finally, the master curves of the degree of healing and degree of bonding were also built based on the frequency-temperature superposition principle (FTSP).

Objectif L’objectif de notre etude etait d’evaluer la prevalence de l’insomnie chez des patients ayant eu une chirurgie abdominale et d’etudier sa relation avec la survenue de complications post operatoires (CPO). Methodes Il s’agissait d’une etude transversale incluant 50 patients operes au service de chirurgie digestive. Tous les patients ont eu une evaluation des troubles du sommeil en preoperatoire par le questionnaire index de severite de l’insomnie (ISI). Un score > 7 temoigne de la presence d’une insomnie. La population a ete repartie en deux groupes : un groupe des patients presentant une insomnie (G1, n = 18), et un groupe des patients sans insomnie (G2, n = 32). Resultats L’âge moyen etait de 52,94 ± 12,61 ans avec une predominance masculine (sex-ratio a 0,38). Les CPO predominantes etaient d’origine cardiaque dans 43 % des cas (passage en fibrillation auriculaire rapide dans 3 cas, pic hypertensif dans 5 cas, syndrome coronarien aigu dans un cas et un œdeme aigu du poumon dans un cas) et une deglobulisation dans 8 cas. La prevalence de l’insomnie etait de 36 % avec un score moyen de l’ISI a 2,7 ± 1,04. Les CPO etaient plus retrouvees dans le G1 (83 % contre 25 %, p = 0,02) particulierement chez les patients ayant une insomnie moderee a severe (p = 0,04). Conclusion L’insomnie etait associee a la survenue de CPO. Son depistage en preoperatoire ainsi que celui des facteurs a l’origine de ces troubles pourrait reduire le risque de survenue de CPO.

Bacillus thuringiensis is successfully used in pest management strategies as an eco-friendly bioinsecticide. Isolation and identification of new strains with a wide variety of target pests is an ever growing field. In this paper, new B. thuringiensis isolates were investigated to search for original strains active against diptera and able to produce novel toxins that could be used as an alternative for the commercial H14 strain. Biochemical and molecular characterization revealed a remarkable diversity among the studied strains. Using the PCR method, cry4C/Da1, cry30Ea, cry39A, cry40 and cry54 genes were detected in four isolates. Three strains, BLB355, BLB196 and BUPM109, showed feeble activities against Aedes aegypti larvae. Interestingly, spore-crystal mixtures of BLB361, BLB30 and BLB237 were found to be active against Ceratitis capitata with an LC50 value of about 65.375, 51.735 and 42.972 μg cm(-2), respectively. All the studied strains exhibited important mortality levels using culture supernatants against C. capitata larvae. This suggests that these strains produce a wide range of soluble factors active against C. capitata larvae. Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Objectives This paper focus on studying the prevalence of alexithymia in diabetes type 1 and type 2 and its impact on diabetes's clinical and therapeutic characteristics. We also studied the relationship between alexithymia and emotional disorders in diabetics. Materials and methods The study involved a sample of 125 diabetic patients, among whom 50 had type 1 and 75 had type 2 diabetes mellitus compared with respectively 70 and 52 control subjects matched for age and sex. Alexithymia was assessed using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, while emotional disorders were evaluated using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Results Type 1 diabetics were more alexithymic than controls while type 2 diabetics had higher cognitive component score than control subjects. Alexithymic type 1 diabetics had a higher average of fasting blood sugar than non-alexithymic patients did ( P = 0.021). Moreover, with type 1 diabetes, erectile dysfunction was associated with difficulties in identifying feelings ( P = 0.012). We found that the presence of depression was a predictor of alexithymia in type 1 diabetes (β = 1.78, P = 0.04) and the presence of psychiatric history was indicative of the presence of alexithymia in type 2 diabetes (β = 2.09, P = 0.042). Conclusion Given the impact of alexithymia on diabetes types 1 and 2, the detection and treatment of alexithymic subjects are important for a better prognosis of diabetic disease.

Resume Objectifs Etudier la perception du corps des femmes tunisiennes en activite sexuelle, celle de leurs conjoints et les liens avec la sexualite feminine. Population et methodes Notre etude a ete de type transversal, descriptif et analytique. Elle a concerne 100 femmes tunisiennes mariees depuis au moins une annee et consultant en medecine de premiere ligne au cours du mois de janvier 2013. Chacune a rempli un questionnaire comportant son identification et 34 items portant sur la perception des femmes de leur corps, la perception de ce dernier par les partenaires, l’activite sexuelle, le retentissement de ces perceptions sur l’activite sexuelle. Resultats La moyenne d’âge des participantes etait de 33,2 ans (20–51 ans). Les participantes etaient mariees depuis 8 ans en moyenne (1–25 ans). Les enquetees ont ete satisfaites de leurs corps dans 72 % des cas. Cette satisfaction a ete associee au non port du voile, a une perception du corps comme physiquement attirant, erotique, jeune, source de confiance et affectant positivement l’estime de soi ( p p Conclusion Une satisfaction du corps par les femmes tunisiennes et par leurs conjoints semble etre gage d’une meilleure estime de soi et d’une meilleure qualite de la sexualite feminine dans ses differentes etapes et favoriser l’epanouissement de la femme et du couple.

Cyt1Aa from Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis is known by its synergistical activity with B. thuringiensis and Bacillus sphaericus toxins. It is able to improve dipteran specific toxins activity and can prevent or overcome larval resistance to those proteins. The objective of the current study was to investigate the possible improvement of larvicidal activity of B. thuringiensis kurstaki expressing heterogeneous proteins Cyt1A and P20. cyt1A98 and p20 genes encoding the cytolytic protein (Cyt1A98) and the accessory protein (P20), respectively, were introduced individually and in combination into B. thuringiensis kurstaki strain BNS3. Immunoblot analysis evidenced the expression of these genes in the recombinant strains and hinted that P20 acts as molecular chaperone protecting Cyt1A98 from proteolytic attack in BNS3. The toxicities of recombinant strains were studied and revealed that BNS3pHTp20 exhibited higher activity than that of the negative control (BNS3pHTBlue) toward Ephestia kuehniella, but not toward Spodoptera littoralis. When expressed in combination with P20, Cyt1A98 enhanced BNS3 activity against E. kuehniella and S. littoralis. Thus, Cyt1Aa protein could enhance lepidopteran Cry insecticidal activity and would prevent larval resistance to the most commercialized B. thuringiensis kurstaki toxins. Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.