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The present study aimed to investigate the preventive effects of methanol fraction from Cassia angustifolia leaf extract (MECA), associated with its phytochemical content, on CCl4-induced hepatic toxicity in adult rats. In the controls, CCl4 induced an increase of serum biochemical parameters and triggered oxidative stress in the liver. MECA caused significant reductions in CCl4-elevated levels of hepatic markers, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein and increased the level of high-density lipoprotein compared to the CCl4 group. Moreover, pretreatment with the MECA produced significant reductions in lipid peroxidation (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances) and protein carbonyl level in liver tissues as compared with the untreated group. The formation of pathological hepatic lesions was strongly prevented by MECA. Overall, this study suggests that administration of MECA has a high potential to quench free radicals and alleviate CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity in rats.

The present study aimed to evaluate the performance effect of aqueous extract of Rosmarinus officinalis (AERO) against the kidney toxicity induced by CCl4 in mice. The results showed that the renal...

Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) is endemic in central Tunisia and is more prevalent in rural agricultural areas. The aim of this work was to determine ZCL prevalence among farmers and to test their availability to take ownership of the problem and participate actively to fight and address the disease.A sample of farmers from Sidi Bouzid, central Tunisia, was selected randomly. Farmers were interviewed using a standardized questionnaire about ZCL lesion occurrence, its date of onset among family members, and the farmers' availability to contribute to fighting this disease.ZCL occurred in at least one of the family members of 38.5% interviewed farmers. The disease was endemic with recurrent epidemics every 4 or 5 years. ZCL among farmers was associated with irrigation management. With regard to ZCL preventive measures, the majority of farmers agreed and expressed willingness to collaborate (93.1%), to follow health care facilities instructions (73.1%), and to join the nongovernmental organization (NGO) (56.9%). However, they did not agree to reduce irrigation activities mainly at night, to live far from their irrigated fields, or to sleep out of their houses at night.ZCL is more prevalent in farmers engaged in irrigation activities. Farmers are not agreeable to reducing their activity to avoid exposure to the sand fly bites. Thus, population involvement and commitment is required to implement effective control measures to fight and address ZCL.

This paper proposes a Core Ontology of Know-How and Knowing-That (COOK). Know-How and Knowing-That are two types of knowledge according to the epistemological point of view. COOK is founded on work analysis in epistemology, philosophy of capacity/disposition and philosophy of action. This work allows to establish a conceptual analysis of Know-How and Knowing-That. Know-How is defined as the disposition to perform a type of action, whereas Knowing-That is defined as a belief state and concerns a description which can be factual or prescriptive. Taking into account the whole amount of data for an organisation, COOK enhances knowledge identification, decision-making and knowledge sharing among organisation or between different organisations geographically dispersed. Furthermore, COOK is used for the semantic refinement of knowledge evaluation criteria family. These criteria can be related to (i) functional point of view which aims to calculate the contribution degree of Know-How/Knowing-That to the o...

The fig tree (Ficus carica L.) is widely cultivated in the Mediterranean region under warm climates. Fig yield is governed by the previous crop load and is strongly dependent on shoot length. Speci...

A simple and highly efficient regio- and chemio-specific synthesis of polyoxyethylene epoxyoxathiolan-2-thione was realized from a one-pot reaction of polyoxyethylene diglycidyl ether and carbon disulfide using lithium bromide as a catalyst. The unsymmetrical obtained products were fully characterized by 1H, 13C NMR and high-resolution mass spectra data.

Productivity of peach cultivars with different ripening seasons was studied under the growers’ conventional conditions of Tunisia. Experiments were performed in northern Tunisia (36° 41ʹ N, 10° 15ʹ E). Performances of Flordastar, Royal Glory, and Carnival as respectively early, mid-season, and late ripening cultivars were evaluated under the grower’s conventional irrigation programs. Fruit growth, yield, water supply, and water productivity were determined through four years. For the three cultivars, Flordastar, Royal Glory, and Carnival, fruit maturity was achieved at 650, 1100, and 2200 GDD, respectively. Average yields were 17.4, 29.8, and 41.1 t ha–1 and mean values of water productivity were 1.9, 3.1, and 3.6 kg fresh yield m–3 for early, mid-season, and late cultivars, respectively. Results of agronomic performances evaluation at the farm scale provided a reference on the behavior of early, mid-season, and late cultivars of peach in irrigated orchards in semi-arid conditions.

In this study, illitic Tunisian (MOM R) clay was applied for the removal of Cr(III) and Ni(II), from industrial wastewater. The considered adsorbent (MOM R) was collected from Jebel El Hamma, Lower Cretaceous age. To characterize the adsorbent structures, infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques were used. The effects of agitation time, adsorbent quantity, pH, initial metal ion concentration, and temperature on the removal of these metals were studied. In order to study the adsorption isotherm, two equilibrium models, the Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms, were analyzed. The estimated optimum pH of chromium (III) ion retention for the considered adsorbents was 2.13 and 6.43 for nickel (II). The equilibrium data were analyzed using the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The adsorption capacities of Cr(III) were 7.751 mg/g and 62.5 mg/g Ni(II). The effect of temperature on the adsorption phenomenon was also investigated. The results indicated that adsorption is an endothermic process f...

Heavy metal pollution has become one of the most serious environmental problems today. Heavy metals treatment is of the special concern due to their recalcitrance and persistence in the environment. In this study, four metals (Cr, Cu, Ni, and Zn) found in an industrial wastewater treatment plant in Sfax (South-Eastern Tunisia) were monitored for 10months in 2012. Metal influent and effluent concentrations of wastewater flocculation process measured via 24-h composite samples were used to determine removal efficiencies. Average influent concentrations varied between 16±13.03mg/L (Zn) and 167.21±120.06mg/L (Cr). The flocculation process yielded high removal efficiencies of the studied metals (P93%). Treated wastewaters quality was evaluated according to Tunisian standards for emission into the sewerage system. It was determined that effluent quality in terms of biological oxygen demand, suspending solid, chemical oxygen demand, pH, Cu, and Zn levels were in agreement with standards, but Cr and Ni residual loads were still above the values required by quality criteria.

Long-term effects of deficit irrigation on yield and water productivity of peach trees (Prunus persica L., cv. Carnival) grown in a semi-arid climate in northern Tunisia (36°41'N, 10°15'E) were investigated. Continuous deficit irrigation (Di I-II-III) was compared with the grower's irrigation programme (Control). The effects of Di I-II-III on yield and fruit quality were analysed. The benefit of deficit irrigation strategy in terms of water saving and agricultural water productivity (Wp) were estimated. Different relationships were investigated between yield, fruit quality, and Wp, and irrigation and total water supply. In reference to the high water needs of late cultivar Carnival for irrigation, Di I-II-III led to an important water saving (33%) with a yield reduction of 14%. Yield and fruit quality seemed to be related to watering regimes. Fruit dry matter (DM) decreased linearly with irrigation water supply for both Control and Di I-II-III. Unlike yield, Di I-II-III improved the dry weight of fruit. C...

Convective heat and mass transfer through large internal openings play an important role in the aero-thermal behaviour of buildings. These phenomena become even more dominant in the case of naturally ventilated buildings. The three-dimensional zonal model of coupled heat transfer and air flow calculations ZAER (Zonal AERial model) has been extended to enable predictions of variations in temperature distributions and airflows between and within rooms subjected to natural convection. This new model has been validated by comparison with experimental measurements and with results from the zonal model of Wurtz and a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) tool. A sensitivity analysis with respect to physical parameters is also presented. The results indicate that this simulation model is an effective tool for predicting airflow and temperature distribution within a partitioned dwelling in the case of natural convection.

The purpose of this work is to test the efficiency of metaheuristics to solve the optimization problem of the design of Mediterranean buildings. We are interested in the minimisation of the energy load as well as the monetary cost. It is an interesting decision support problem because both energy and monetary costs depend on several parameters and the multiobjective optimal solution cannot be easily predicted. We propose to use genetic algorithms to solve this multiobjective problem. Two algorithm based on this techniques were developed using two different approaches to combine the energy and the economic criteria. These approaches are the Goal Programming and the Pareto Optimality. The results obtained by these two algorithms are quite interesting and very encouraging.