Search

In Southern Algeria, the only source of drinking water is underground water; however, it is of high salinity. In this area, the solar irradiance is high throughout the year and the quantity of groundwater is enormous; hence, the solar distillation of this water seems to be the cheaper way to solve the shortage encountered in fresh water. This experimental work presents a coupling between the solar chimney power plant and conventional solar still. The aim is to increase the output on distillate by providing the still by supplement and boost heat. To do that, two single slope glass-sides solar stills and solar chimney prototypes have been installed and tested at Ouargla University. One of the two solar stills is coupled with the solar chimney through a copper tube with serpentine shape containing hot brackish water coming from the chimney and crossing its absorber, while the other still remains as witness. Experimental results reveal that the average rise of brackish water temperature in the still’s absorber roughly reaches approximately 20°C and the daily output of distillate reaches 6.951 kg/m2/d with an improvement of almost 158% compared with the baseline case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar stills are simple devices that use clean energy to produce potable water from brackish or seawater to supply drinkable water to sparsely populated and scattered communities like those in southern Algeria. In this context, the paper aims to improve the efficiency of the conventional solar still by introducing crushed black granite in the form of gravel evenly distributed over the entire surface of the still’s absorber with varying amounts (five masses) as a means of heat storage medium, and then observe the mass effect under local climatic conditions on the daily cumulus of distillate. Thus, after experiments carried out at the University of Ouargla at the end of winter, the daily productivity of the black granite unit is greater in quantity and quality than that of the conventional still under the same conditions as whatever the mass of granite. The best result is obtained by: 1.25 kg, that is, 5.48 kg of granite m–2 of absorber surface which contributed to 4.135 kg m–2 d–1 of distillate with an improvement in profitability of 34.09% compared to the baseline case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macroscopic and structural properties of one-dimensional (1D) dipolar fluids are investigated theoretically. The equation of state is fully explored by means of analytical limiting laws, integral equations and corroborating Monte Carlo simulations. An interesting mapping with the Tonks gas (i.e. hard rods) is established at strong coupling. Crucially, we report a novel solid phase characterized by a universal algebraic decay of the pair distribution function whose range extends with increasing coupling. This discovery provides a clarified view in 1D systems and open new routes to explore theoretically as well as experimentally., (© 2024 IOP Publishing Ltd. All rights, including for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies, are reserved.)

Considering the general view that unconventional immune effectors play a major role in antitumor immunity, we recently postulated that the distinct new innate CD8 T-cell pool (co-expressing the transcription factor Eomesodermin and innate markers such as KIR/NKG2A) may counteract tumor cells, and thereby be potential target for cancer therapy. Here, to test this assumption, we used successfully targeted anti-leukemic therapy discontinuation (TFR) in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Numerical and functional status of innate CD8 T-cells, iNKT cells and γδ T-cells, in comparison with NK cells, was compared longitudinally between non-relapsed patients (i.e., with > 12 months TFR) and relapsed patients (i.e., who experienced molecular recurrence during the first 12 months after TKI cessation) in a prospective pilot cohort (n=32), starting from treatment discontinuation (D0). Perforin, a key cytotoxic immune player, was expressed in a significantly higher proportion of both innate CD8 T-cell and NK-cell subsets in non-relapsed patients, compared with relapsed patients at D0. In parallel, we assessed the expression of PD-1, an exhaustion marker used as target in cancer therapy. For all T-cell subsets, surface-expression level of PD-1 decreased in non-relapsed patients compared with relapsed patients at D0. This was particularly the case when considering iNKT cells for which surface-expression level of PD-1 even decreased relative to healthy control subjects. Lastly, we found a negative correlation between the proportion of innate CD8 T-cells expressing PD-1 and those expressing perforin in non-relapsed patients at D0. The fact that this was not the case in conventional CD8 T-cells is compatible with a reprogrammed effector profile preferentially targeting innate CD8 T-cells in non-relapsed patients. All in all, our results highlight NK cells and innate CD8 T-cells harboring cytotoxic content, as well as global downregulation of PD-1-expression on effector T-cells, as potential predictive functional signatures for successful TFR in CML. Considering innate CD8 T-cells, further investigations are needed to determine whether their possible contributory role in cancer surveillance in CML could be extended to other cancers, and also whether their targeting by immune cheek-point inhibitors could enhance their anti-tumoral functions., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Decroos, Meddour, Demoy, Piccirilli, Rousselot, Nicolini, Ragot, Gombert, Herbelin, Barbarin and Cayssials.)

Ctenodactylus gundi were captured in the southern region of Aures, Algeria from December 2015 through June 2017 to assess their ectoparasite diversity. 63.5% of the gundi had one or more ectoparasites, while 36.5% had none. Eight species of ectoparasites were identified. The most abundant taxa were species of Neotrombicula (61.5%), Trombicula (10.6%), and Caenopsylla mira (4.8%). The mean intensity for arachnids follows: Neotrombicula spp. (14.3), Trombicula spp. (10.6), and Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) annulatus (1.6). Among arachnids, mean intensity of males was greater than females in contrast to that of the flea C. mira, whose mean intensity for females was 4.8 compared to that of males with 2.8. C. mira and Xenopsylla cheopis have previously been reported on the gundi, while the mites Neotrombicula spp., Trombicula spp., Eulaelaps stabularis, O. bacoti, the tick Rh. (Boophilus) annulatus and the louse Polyplax serrata are reported here for the first time. Prevalence was influenced by host sex and was higher in males than females. The highest prevalence was recorded in species of Neotrombicula (39.2%) and Trombicula (20.3%). The abundance of these ectoparasites was directly influenced with climatic conditions specially with temperature (P=0.0002), and air humidity (P=0.0014).

Vγ9Vδ2 T cells are known to be efficient anti-tumor effectors activated through phosphoantigens (PAg) that are naturally expressed by tumor cells or induced by amino bisphosphonates treatment. This PAg-activation which is TCR and butyrophilin BTN3A dependent can be modulated by NKG2D ligands, immune checkpoint ligands, adhesion molecules, and costimulatory molecules. This could explain the immune-resistance observed in certain clinical trials based on Vγ9Vδ2 T cells therapies. In NSCLC, encouraging responses were obtained with zoledronate administrations for 50% of patients. According to the in vivo results, we showed that the in vitro Vγ9Vδ2 T cell reactivity depends on the NSCLC cell line considered. If the PAg-pretreated KRAS mutated A549 is highly recognized and killed by Vγ9Vδ2 T cells, the EGFR mutated PC9 remains resistant to these killers despite a pre-treatment either with zoledronate or with exogenous BrHPP. The immune resistance of PC9 was shown not to be due to immune checkpoint ligands able to counterbalance NKG2D ligands or adhesion molecules such as ICAM-1 highly expressed by PC9. RHOB has been shown to be involved in the Vγ9Vδ2 TCR signaling against these NSCLC cell lines, in this study we therefore focused on its intracellular behavior. In comparison to a uniform distribution of RHOB in endosomes and at the plasma membrane in A549, the presence of large endosomal clusters of RHOB was visualized by a split-GFP system, suggesting that RHOB rerouting in the PC9 tumor cell could impair the reactivity of the immune response., (Copyright © 2020 Laplagne, Meddour, Figarol, Michelas, Calvayrac, Favre, Laurent, Fournié, Cabantous and Poupot.)